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Keegan Petersen, Temba Bavuma helped South Africa take a slender lead before India moved ahead again

Hemant Brar04-Jan-2022Stumps Shardul Thakur’s seven-wicket haul couldn’t stop South Africa from taking a 27-run first-innings lead but India started their second innings positively and were 85 for 2 – ahead by 58 – at stumps on day two of the second Test in Johannesburg.With Mohammed Siraj not looking 100% fit, Thakur stepped up with the ball and finished with 7 for 61, the best bowling figures for India against South Africa. However, a 38-run stand for the eighth wicket between Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj took South Africa past India’s total.Both Jansen and Maharaj took the attacking route, hitting three boundaries each in their respective 21s. Jasprit Bumrah, for a change, failed to nail his yorkers and even ended up bowling a beamer to Jansen but eventually pegged Maharaj’s off stump back to end the partnership.Two balls later, Bumrah hit Duanne Olivier on his left arm as the batter took his eyes off against a raring delivery. Jansen then tried to keep the strike to himself and even struck two fours in Bumrah’s next over, but Thakur dismissed him and Lungi Ngidi in the space of four balls to wrap the innings up.In response, India lost KL Rahul early, with the opener edging Jansen to second slip where Aiden Markram took a low catch. The on-field umpires referred it upstairs with the soft signal out; the third umpire didn’t find any conclusive evidence to overrule that decision.Mayank Agarwal was looking fluent, having hit five fours in his 23, but an error in judgement resulted in his wicket. He didn’t offer a shot to an Olivier delivery that nipped back off the surface to trap him lbw.Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, though, ensured India didn’t lose another wicket. Pujara finished the day on 35 off 42 balls with the help of seven fours, two of which came in the final over of the day, while Rahane was batting on 11.Earlier in the day, Keegan Petersen and Dean Elgar kept India at bay despite a probing first hour of bowling. Bumrah and Mohammed Shami tested the duo – Bumrah with a bit of wobble in the air and Shami with the movement off the seam – but neither was successful in providing a breakthrough.Bumrah got one to come back in to Petersen after a string of awayswingers. The batter shouldered arms and, luckily for him, the ball went over the stumps.Keegan Petersen hit his maiden fifty, but India came back strongly•AFP/Getty Images

A few overs later, Elgar edged one off Bumrah and Pant took it low, which the on-field umpires referred upstairs with the soft signal as out. The third umpire concluded that it was a bump ball. In the next over, Shami cut Petersen in half but on this occasion, too, the ball sailed over the wicket.Rahul then turned to Siraj. The seamer had left the field after hurting his hamstring in the penultimate over of the first day but on Tuesday, he was on the field right from the start. He started with a shorter run-up and was down in pace as well. Petersen took advantage of that, hitting two boundaries in his first over of the day.Elgar, meanwhile, was stuck on his overnight score of 11. It took him 32 balls to score his first runs of the morning – at one point, he had faced 47 dots in a row. He broke that sequence with a flicked boundary off R Ashwin.It was Thakur who brought India back in the game, by picking up three quick wickets. Elgar and Petersen had added 74 in 35 overs when he had Elgar caught behind for 28. Petersen reached his maiden half-century with a boundary off Shami and celebrated it with two more fours in the over, but a rare loose shot outside off against Thakur cost him his wicket.And then, in the last over before lunch, Thakur found Rassie van der Dussen’s inside edge, which hit his thigh and lobbed behind the stumps. The batter walked back, but replays showed that the ball had perhaps bounced just in front of the diving Rishabh Pant. That meant South Africa slipped from 88 for 1 to 102 for 4.Temba Bavuma and Kyle Verreynne revived the innings after lunch. They added 60 for the fifth wicket in what was South Africa’s third 50-plus stand of the series. But just like the last two times, it was Thakur who broke it, trapping Verreynne lbw with the one that came back in sharply.In his next over, Thakur had Bavuma caught down the leg side for 51 to complete his maiden five-for in Test cricket. Bavuma, who reached his half-century off just 59 balls, hit six fours and a six during his knock, the most eye-catching being an on-drive against Bumrah.From the other end, Shami got Kagiso Rabada mistiming a drive to mid-on. At 179 for 7, it looked like India could even take a lead but South Africa’s lower order didn’t let that happen.

Cameron Green, Tim David’s fifties in vain as India hunt down 187-run target

Deivarayan Muthu25-Sep-20221:54

Hodge: ‘It looks like Kohli has his mojo back’

Half-centuries from Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli trumped fifties from Cameron Green and Tim David as India chased down 187 and clinched the series 2-1 in front of a sell-out crowd in Hyderabad.Suryakumar got together with Kohli after Daniel Sams and Pat Cummins had bounced out KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma respectively. Whenever the bowlers hit the Hyderabad pitch hard, the ball either kicked up or stopped on the batters. Case in point: the first ball to Suryakumar, from Cummins, reared up from a back of a length and zipped away past his outside edge.Suryakumar, however, rose above the conditions and Australia’s attack, proving a potent point of difference in India’s line-up. He struck up a 104-run partnership off 62 balls with Kohli and disrupted the bowlers by manufacturing swinging room or jumping out of the crease.After Suryakumar ultimately fell for 69 off 36 balls, with India 53 away from victory, Australia staged a mini-fightback and dragged the game down to the last over in which the hosts needed 11.Kohli shovelled the first ball from Sams over long-on and holed out next ball for 63 off 48 balls. Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya, though, got the job done for India with one ball to spare.8:05

Rohit: ‘We still need to be more aggressive and clinical’

Green’s opening salvo
With the new ball sliding onto the bat, Green immediately teed off in the powerplay, muscling his way to a 19-ball fifty in the fifth over. Much like Suryakumar, Green often backed away outside leg and lustily swung at the ball. Only David Warner and Glenn Maxwell have hit faster fifties for Australia in T20Is.Green was responsible for 52 off the 66 runs Australia had scored in the powerplay. He once again unfurled his range against spin when he cracked Axar Patel for three successive fours in the fourth over, with the pick of those being a hard, flat sweep to the midwicket boundary.Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had conceded 12 runs in his first over, however, returned to the attack in the next over and hid one away from his reach to have Green caught at backward point for 52 off 21 balls. Axar steps up once again
After being picked apart by Green, Axar got his arm ball fizzing against Maxwell and varied his pace well to make it even more effective. He had already dismissed Aaron Finch for 7 and claimed 1 for 31 in his three overs in the powerplay.Axar then returned to the attack with a double-wicket 14th over. He had Josh Inglis lobbing a catch to backward point and drew a return catch from Matthew Wade. Axar went over the wicket to the left-handed Wade, got a shortish ball into the pitch and had him spooning a punch back to him. Axar ended the series with figures of 8 for 63 in ten overs at an economy rate of 6.30. No other bowler got more than three wickets in the series.2:36

Has Tim David cemented his place in the Australia XI?

David’s end-overs bash

That Australia reached 186 for 7 from 117 for 6 was largely down to David’s big-hitting. In his first international series for Australia, David showed why he is in demand in franchise T20 leagues. Despite India posting fielders at both long-on and long-off for the most part, David took 27 of his 54 runs down the ground with Kieron Pollard-esque blows. When Bhuvneshwar marginally missed his yorker, David took him for 6, 6, 4 in the 18th over. Jasprit Bumrah, too, couldn’t control the damage, finishing with 0 for 50 – the most he has conceded in a T20I.The Suryakumar-Kohli show
India lost both their openers within four overs, but Suryakumar and Kohli quickly changed the mood and tempo of the chase. Both batters were proactive against legspinner Adam Zampa, using their feet and hitting him against the intended turn for sixes.Zampa could’ve cut Kohli’s innings short at 23 had he hung onto a tough return catch. Suryakumar soon overtook Kohli and surged to a 29-ball fifty. He then hit two sixes and a four off his next five balls and threatened to rush India home. Hazlewood and co. though applied the brakes and made India work hard for victory.India managed only one four and a six between overs 16 and 19, but Suryakumar’s early assault ensured the chase was always within their grasp.

New South Wales seamer set to play first four rounds of Division Two campaign

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Dec-2023Northamptonshire have re-signed Chris Tremain, the Australia fast bowler, for the first four rounds of next season’s County Championship.Tremain, currently the leading wicket-taker in the Sheffield Shield with 34 at 15.20 for New South Wales, featured three times for Northants last season. He claimed 13 wickets, including six in the match against Middlesex – one of the club’s two wins as they were relegated from Division One.”I’m very excited to be returning to Northamptonshire in 2024,” Tremain said. “I enjoyed every moment I spent with the group last season, I hope I can make an impact for the time I’m there and help set the tone for the remainder of the County Championship.”Northants said that UK visa restrictions had prevented Tremain from joining for longer, but head coach John Sadler was nevertheless enthusiastic about the 32-year-old’s return.”I’m delighted to get Trem back on board with us for 2024.” Sadler said. “His style of bowling is very well suited to English conditions so to have him locked in for those first four games is fantastic.”He was only with us for a short stint last season but made a huge impact at the club on and off the field He’s in a rich vein of form in Australia at the moment and hopefully that continues when he rejoins us in April.”

“There’s a lot of good that can come from it if guys have the right attitude,” says former England captain

Vithushan Ehantharajah09-May-2024Joe Root has backed the use of the Kookaburra ball in the County Championship, believing it can help upskill domestic cricketers and bridge the gap to Test cricket.The Australian-made ball was used for the first two rounds of the Championship season, in which there were 17 draws across 18 matches. Though a large part of that was down to rain – Durham vs Hampshire and Derbyshire vs Gloucestershire were abandoned without a ball bowled – players complained the flatter seam was ineffective on damp, soft pitches and that the ball lost its shape quickly, compared to the regular Dukes.Those first two sets of fixtures saw a wicket fall every 73.7 balls, compared to 54.9 balls in the first two rounds of 2023. Among a large volume of runs was more playing time for spinners, with Surrey legspinner Cameron Steel topping the wicket-taker charts. The Kookaburra will return for another two rounds in August and September, when better weather should help produce firmer surfaces and lend itself to a fairer assessment.Related

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The Kookaburra trial, one of the recommendations from Andrew Strauss’ high-performance review to encourage fast bowlers and spinners, began in 2023. While panned in some quarters – Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart regards the experiment as “the worst decision ever” – England men’s managing director Rob Key has suggested the Kookaburra could replace the Dukes as the domestic ball of choice.Root, who recently completed a five-game stint with Yorkshire – his first County Championship appearances since 2022 – has plenty of experience with the Kookaburra overseas, particularly in Australia, and sees the benefit of its use in England, not just for the Test side.”I don’t think it’s all about being able to use the Kookaburra ball when you go to Australia or South Africa,” Root said. “I think it’s about finding ways of taking wickets when nothing’s in your favour – and that’s a great skill.””I guess you could look at it and think: ‘there’s been a load of draws’ but also you could think: ‘well, this is an opportunity to upskill’ as well. ‘How am I going to take wickets with this ball in this format on these kinds of pitches? How can I become better?'”I think there’s a lot of good that can come from it if guys have the right attitude.”Root cited England’s progression in limited-overs cricket since 2015 as something that could be replicated by regular use of the Kookaburra. The evolution under Eoin Morgan, which saw ODI and T20I World Cup success in 2019 and 2022 respectively, trickled down and has resulted in a pool of high-calibre white-ball cricketers, many of whom missed out on selection for next month’s T20 World Cup.”Look at the progression and the development in white-ball cricket in this country over a five-year period. Look at the amount of players that we’ve got that can do special things. Look how quickly that transition has been made through the mindset shift in white-ball cricket in our country. I think the same thing can happen in red-ball cricket.”You’ve got to be open minded enough and understand that you might have to go through a little bit of pain to get there.”If we want to keep upskilling and getting the standard as close to Test cricket as we can, it’s not going to happen overnight. But in five, six, seven years’ time, if we can bridge that gap then that transition for guys coming into Test cricket will be a lot smaller.”

MP captain Patidar’s unbeaten 40-ball 81 wasn’t enough as Mumbai chased down 175 with 13 balls to spare

Himanshu Agrawal15-Dec-2024Mumbai have yet another star in the making, and yet another trophy in a cabinet which is fast running out of space. Even before the ball landed beyond the straight boundary to confirm victory in the 2024 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final against Madhya Pradesh, Suryansh Shedge was leaping and punching the air. He now has three crucial contributions in his last four innings, the latest of which helped Mumbai seal a 175-run chase with 13 balls to spare.Shedge hit an unbeaten 36 off 15 balls while adding an unbroken stand of 51 from 19 deliveries with Atharva Ankolekar, who hit the winning six. Shedge smashed three fours and three sixes during his knock, none more impressive than a six which would have made Suryakumar Yadav proud. The 21-year-old got across to a length ball from Venkatesh Iyer in the 17th over, and nonchalantly swiped him over long leg to all but confirm Mumbai’s second Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title. He now has knocks of 30* (eight balls), 36* (12) and 36* (15) in three of his last four T20 games.Related

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The chase was set up by Suryakumar and Ajinkya Rahane, who finished as the tournament’s highest run-getter. They took some time to add 52 for the third wicket, but that helped steady Mumbai after they were 47 for 2 in the fifth over. Rahane even got lucky when, off the last ball of the powerplay, he got a leading edge which flew to mid-off, where Rajat Patidar dived to his left only for the ball to escape his grasp.Rahane and Suryakumar built steadily, but with another 110 runs required from 69 balls, Suryakumar accelerated. He scooped and lofted Rahul Batham for four and six. Rahane started the next over by reverse sweeping and pulling Kumar Kartikeya for four. Venkatesh got Rahane for 37 in the 12th over, but Suryakumar bashed Batham for two sixes in the 13th.Rajat Patidar smashed an unbeaten 81 off 40 balls•PTI

Shivam Shukla then had Suryakumar caught at short fine leg for 48. When Shedge and Ankolekar came together Mumbai needed 46 from 32 balls, and the match could have gone either way. But the two ensured the trophy came their way.Earlier, MP needed Patidar, their captain, to make a match out of it. He was only behind Rahane on the runs charts and continued to rake in the runs, cracking an unbeaten 81 off 40 balls with six fours and six sixes. MP were 86 for 5 at the start of the 13th over, but Patidar looked immovable, helping MP score 80 runs in the last seven overs.There was the pull, the loft, the upper cut, the slice, and the swipe to savour for a sizeable Chinnaswamy crowd, as Patidar picked up the pace after managing just nine from as many deliveries at the start. His shots had plenty of power, the ball crashed into the stands, and it made for a fearless display of T20 hitting. But, at the end of the day, Patidar’s heroics were not quite enough.

Allrounder gets through 16.5 overs on second day in absence of Kasun Rajitha and Dhananjaya de Silva

Andrew Fidel Fernando27-Dec-2020Dasun Shanaka batted well with the tail to complete his first Test fifty on the second morning of the Centurion Test, and yet, his more significant contribution so far may have been with the ball. Shanaka is a batting allrounder but was required to deliver almost 17 overs after two Sri Lanka bowlers – a third of their serious bowling resources – were unavailable through injury.Sri Lanka are unwilling to elaborate on the extent of Kasun Rajitha’s groin injury, believing that hiding that information confers a competitive advantage – however miniscule. But the early signs are that Rajitha, one of Sri Lanka’s three frontline seamers, will bowl no more than the 13 deliveries he bowled in this Test. With Dhananjaya de Silva’s offspin also officially unavailable due to a grade two tear in his thigh, Shanaka may have a heavy bowling workload through the course of this game.”Kasun Rajitha’s injury is really going to affect us – we all know how well he bowled on the last tour here,” Shanaka said at the end of day two at Centurion. Rajitha, it is worth remembering, took nine wickets at 23.22 on Sri Lanka’s last tour in South Africa. “Dhananjaya de Silva also comes in and bowls when they are batting well, and he dries up the runs for us. He does that job. I think we will feel their absence,” Shanaka said.Related

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Both Rajitha and de Silva are understood to have been tasked with performing the holding role in this Test. Without them in the attack, South Africa scored at 4.4 runs an over through day two, getting within 80 runs of Sri Lanka’s 395, after 72 overs of batting. Sri Lanka’s remaining bowlers were somewhat indisciplined through parts of the day, but where captain Dimuth Karunaratne might normally replace a bowler after a bad over, he was forced to persist with them, due to the lack of resources.”There’s a big effect with the loss of those two,” Shanaka said. “We’ve only got four bowlers, but we’ll have to manage. We have to think of it as an opportunity. More than the number of overs we bowled today, we didn’t bowl in such a a way that we created a lot of chances today. I think that’s why they were able to score quickly.”It’s a big ask for the other bowlers. But we’ll have to come up with a different plan in the morning and get the job done. Tomorrow morning there will be a bit of freshness in the pitch, so I think the 70-odd run [lead] that we’ve got could be enough to get back in the game.”On a personal note, however, Shanaka has already impressed in his first Test in three years. He might not have played this match had Angelo Mathews been fit, but he added vital runs with the tail, hitting a six-laden 66 not out off 87. And in a similar circumstance, it is unlikely that Mathews would ever have been able to bowl 16.5 overs in a day, susceptible to injury as he is.Shanaka may, in fact, have been his team’s most consistent operator on day two. He claimed the wicket of Dean Elgar, and went at 3.32 runs per over – a better economy rate than any other Sri Lanka bowler.”I was really happy to be able to play a Test after three years,” he said. “I think I’ve got a lot more experience now, and I get a lot of support from the team as well. I was nervous but I was able to turn that around.”

The West Indies allrounder sees a lot of promise in his team-mates in the Test arena

Firdose Moonda09-Mar-2023Jason Holder believes the West Indies Test side will improve if they can stick together and get more game time.West Indies are currently playing their sixth Test this season and Holder’s unbeaten 81 has put them in a position to challenge for a second victory. With batting collapses becoming a familiar feature of their scorecards, there is a growing sense that they will continue to lag behind teams in the top half of the World Test Championship (WTC) table, something that Holder thinks can only change with more game time and more backing.”We have been a little bit slow, we’ve been a little bit inconsistent but I think we just need to support people,” Holder said. “You see the talent that we have in the dressing room. We’ve got Test hundreds from No. 1 down to down to No. 8, with the exception of Raymon [Reifer], who has just come in.”We’ve got to have that patience and build a strong core group of players. The more we chop and change in cricket, the worse results we will probably get because we need to give people opportunity. The urge for me and everybody else within the group is just to keep getting the opportunities and taking them with both hands.”Last week, after Holder became the second West Indies player to take 150 Test wickets and score 2500 runs, he lamented the dearth of fixtures for West Indies in the Future Tours Programme, a topic which the MCC has also expressed concerns over. From July-August this year, they will play 26 Test matches until 2027, fewer than South Africa, Pakistan, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Australia, India and England, which will not give them as much opportunity to gel a unit as Holder would like.Despite that, he hopes this group of players can continue taking the field and growing together. “I love playing cricket with this group and I think we’ve got the talent in the dressing room to produce [results]. We will have some slow days but we are only day two of this Test match and I have no doubt our players can come in and show their worth and class in the second innings.”Related

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On a pitch that both teams expect will start to take more turn as the match wears on, Holder believes that batting last “you can easily get 300-plus” but acknowledged “it won’t be easy”. As things stand he admitted South Africa have the advantage but “more often than not, we tend to play well coming from behind”. That much was evident at SuperSport Park, where West Indies dismissed South Africa for 116 in the second innings to set themselves a gettable target of 247.Kagiso Rabada’s six-for played a big role in them not being able to get there but two of the other three South Africa bowlers who were part of that defence are not in this Test. Anrich Nortje was ruled out through injury and Marco Jansen was rested in favour of allrounder Wiaan Mulder, who was tasked with sharing the new ball and put in a solid but not outstanding effort to take 1 for 40. Asked about the advice he could give to Mulder, who is his team-mate at Durban’s Super Giants, Holder reiterated his rhetoric about giving players time to settle into the international arena and a decent run in a team.”Test cricket is a massive step up from first-class cricket. I think any individual needs time. We tend to critique people very quickly, which is fair, but people need an opportunity and people need time and support,” he said. “Once you have the support and good people around you then you will get the results. Sometimes we just get too critical, too fast, of people and we don’t give them enough time to actually show what they’re made of. It’s hard in losing sides and sides that haven’t had success. But more often than not, I think you need to stick behind your players, keep a strong pool of players together and back them.”South Africa’s new red-ball coach Shukri Conrad intends to do exactly that. He has used all 15 squad members in this two-match series and said he hopes to use a lean winter for South Africa to work with a core group of players who will all be part of the next WTC cycle. After this match, South Africa will not play Tests until December but they are aiming to find what Conrad called “content” in terms of A-team cricket in order to put together their strongest squad to host India at the end of the year.While South Africa’s lack of Tests is a cause for concern for their players, they also see the unplanned hiatus as a way to do what Holder suggested and develop players in the same way they have one with someone like Gerald Coetzee. The 22-year-old quick travelled as a reserve bowler to Australia, where he observed the intensity of international training sessions and readied himself to make a debut, as he did last week.He was South Africa’s second-change bowler in a four-strong seam attack there and is now the third-prong in an inexperienced pace pack, and he has enjoyed the challenge. “What you learn is you still want to bowl the best ball possible. If you bowl one that isn’t your best but still get a wicket, it’s always a bonus. It does happen and it can happen at any moment because there is pressure over a long time. Suddenly there’s a release shot, which might go to the boundary but might also lead to a wicket because he hasn’t received a bad ball for a while,” Coetzee said. “However, at this level, the more you ‘miss’, the better you are. If you look at the best bowlers in the world, they can do the same thing over and over. That’s what we all strive for.”

West Indies captain urges team to “play to their strengths” and go for the boundaries instead of “occupying the crease too much”

Deivarayan Muthu03-Jun-2023Since the end of the 2019 World Cup, Shai Hope has been the top run-getter in ODI cricket with 1931 runs at an average of 52.18. But he has had a strike rate of only 74.90 during this period – the lowest among batters from Full Member nations with at least 1000 runs.However, in the lead-up to the 2023 ODI World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe, Hope has slotted into a new role: an enforcer at No.4. The sample size is fairly small – Hope has batted only 11 times at No.4 in his ODI career and only twice this year – but in March he hit an unbeaten 128 off 115 balls, with seven sixes and five fours, to take down South Africa’s spinners Tabraiz Shamsi and Bjorn Fortuin. On the eve of West Indies’ first bilateral series against UAE, captain Hope suggested that he will continue to perform a similar role for West Indies at No.4.”It’s a ticklish one, but I’m happy to bat wherever the team needs [me to],” Hope said. “Going forward, I think No.4 would give us a bit more stability. In the past, we’ve had some tough time in the middle overs, especially against spin. But in this series, you may see a bit of a change; the batting line-up may be a bit different to what we’re accustomed to. Yeah, I think No.4 is the position that I’ll stay at for a period of time and hopefully that continues to work for West Indies.”Related

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Hope attributed his boundary-laden knock in East London to both situational awareness and improvement in his power game. He had also displayed signs of his power during his BPL stint with Khulna Tigers and PSL stint with Lahore Qalandars. He batted at No.3 or No.4 in those tournaments as well. Hope urges the rest of West Indies’ batting line-up to play with similar freedom rather than just trying to protect their wickets.”I think the way how cricket is being played now, you got to pretty much keep up with the times and find ways to adapt and improve our game,” Hope said. “I’m trying to be a bit more aggressive in strokeplay and it’s something I want to stem down to the team as well and want to focus on trying to find ways to score. I think in the past, we just tried to occupy the crease too much rather than executing our strengths because we’re known for scoring and especially scoring boundaries.”Most of West Indies’ senior players, including Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder, Rovman Powell and Kyle Mayers, are on a break after the IPL, but Hope backed the youngsters and fringe players to step up and work up some momentum ahead of the World Cup qualifier, which is set to begin on June 18.”[Want to] continue development and try to get some progression from here in the UAE,” Hope said. “Just trying to see the fellas improve in whatever way we can. I know it’s going to be a long and hard journey, but I just want to see some progression and that 1% improvement every single day.”Hope is enthused by the growth of Brandon King who has batted at the top as well as in the middle for West Indies in the recent past. King has been promoted to vice-captaincy for the UAE tour and could be among the contenders to become defending champions Jamaica Tallawahs’ captain in CPL 2023.”Firstly, I just love to see him bat – whether it’s in the nets or whether it’s in the middle,” Hope said of King. “He’s one of those guys who I can relate to as well as a batter and as a person. So, I’m just hoping he can continue in this stead. He’s been improving a lot, especially in his mindset towards the game, towards batting, and towards scoring runs. I must commend him for that.”His role is a lot more important now because he’s now opening the batting for us, so he has his work cut out for him. I’m very sure he’s capable of doing the job for us and hope he can continue in this way.”

Bowling his first over of the game, the allrounder appeared to twist his left ankle during his follow through

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Oct-20231:48

Pujara: Hardik’s injury will hurt India’s balance

India had a significant injury scare when Hardik Pandya limped off the field with an injured left ankle during their fourth league match of the World Cup, against Bangladesh in Pune. Bowling his first over – the ninth of the innings – Hardik appeared to twist his ankle in his follow-through, and it was announced later on the broadcast that he would not return to the field for the remainder of the innings.”He pulled up a bit sore. There’s no major damage. That is good for us,” Rohit Sharma said after the game in the presentation ceremony. “But honestly, with an injury like that, you’ve got to assess every day. So we just hope that he pulls up well tomorrow morning. And then we will assess, whatever is required for us to do as a team, we’ll do that.”The physio ran out immediately to attend to Hardik and worked on his ankle for several minutes. Hardik then tried to continue his over but was in too much pain to do so. At 2.59pm, an hour into the game, he walked off to get further treatment and Virat Kohli bowled the three remaining deliveries in the over. The BCCI later said that Pandya would be taken for scans.Hardik Pandya injured his left ankle during his first over of the game•ICC via Getty Images

Apart from Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav, Pandya is arguably the most irreplaceable player in the India squad because of the all-round role he performs. He is good enough to play as a specialist batter but his bowling provides India the sixth bowler they badly need. Pandya had bowled 16 overs in India’s first three World Cup matches and taken five wickets.Shardul Thakur, more of a specialist fast bowler who can bat, has bowled only eight overs in two matches, and Rohit Sharma has preferred to go to Pandya before Thakur in this World Cup so far.India have been careful with how much they bowl Pandya leading into the World Cup precisely because of the balance he brings to the team. If he were to miss a match, India do not have a like-for-like replacement. Either Shardul Thakur bats at No. 7 and they replace Pandya’s bowling or they bring in an extra batter and rely on five bowlers to bowl 10 overs each.With three wins in three games, India are one of two teams still unbeaten in this World Cup. After Bangladesh, their next fixture is in Dharamsala on Sunday against New Zealand, who are the only other unbeaten team in the tournament with four wins in four games.

“We must make sure we win the game rather than [allowing] the other team back into it”

Danyal Rasool29-Dec-2024Shan Masood lamented “the same mistakes” Pakistan keep making after they slipped to an eighth Test defeat on the trot in South Africa and their seventh in their last nine games. In a topsy-turvy game, the final twist belonged to South Africa as they recovered from an epic collapse that saw them lose four wickets for three runs to record an unbeaten 50-ball 51-run partnership that clinched victory by two wickets, and alongside it a berth in the World Test Championship final.”We had the game in our hand, whether with the bat or the ball,” Masood said. “I don’t have to add anything and sound like a broken record. [I’m] extremely proud of the efforts, but going forward as a team we need to be ruthless. We’ve been competing well in these conditions and I’ve said that before when we played in Australia in similar conditions. We had the game by the scruff of the neck and even here twice, we had them eight down and we thought we were in a reasonable position and even with the bat, when we could have extended our score in both innings.”Related

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While Pakistan have not won in South Africa since 2007, they have never come as close as they did in this Test. But collapses with the bat in both innings – they lost 4 for 22 in the first innings and 7 for 84 in the second – were compounded by toothlessness in the field against the tail: South Africa’s ninth and tenth-wicket partnerships added a combined 139 across two innings for the loss of just two wickets.”All four innings [cost us]” Masood said. “We can only look at ourselves. You’re going to make mistakes over several days, but you need to have a cushion. I thought when it came to a time when we could get that cushion with the bat, first and third innings, or whether that was with the ball when we had them eight down on two occasions. We didn’t have that cushion, and then you get partnerships like Bosch’s innings and Rabada and Jansen, and you don’t have enough of a cushion to retain a winning position.”A failure to kill games off has been a familiar theme for Masood, one he has highlighted so often he was conscious of sounding “like a broken record”. In Australia, Pakistan found themselves in positions of dominance – or at least parity – in two of the three Tests, as well as in both games against Bangladesh. Pakistan have chopped and changed the personnel; the bowlers, coaches and selection panel have all been rejigged over this period. Masood maintained, though, that his team had the ability to get over the line.Shan Masood: I don’t have to add anything and sound like a broken record. [I’m] extremely proud of the efforts, but going forward as a team we need to be ruthless•AFP/Getty Images

“I don’t think it’s a quality issue. The quality is there, and we’ve seen it at various points. To be a top team, to be in South Africa’s place, to play a WTC final, these are the things where you have to be ruthless.”Sometimes you learn the hard way. You can’t use it as an excuse but the more we play Test cricket, the more people get into sync. A lot of the players were playing for the first time in these conditions. It can be a really hard lesson where you feel like you’ve got the other team under pressure, but you still need to finish the job.”It can also feel like we’ve got a really good partnership with Saud [Shakeel] and Babar [Azam], or Kamran [Ghulam] and [Mohammad] Rizwan, or me and Saim [Ayub] in both innings and you feel that you can take them on and have a great score. You’re never set in these conditions whether with the bat or the ball. We’re learning the hard way through a defeat, but the challenge is that we have to respond to this and make sure once we get into winning positions, we must make sure we win the game rather than bring the other team back into it.”There was still enough encouragement from the Pakistan captain to highlight the contributions he felt merited more. Mohammad Abbas, playing, at 34, his first Test in over three years, bowled 19.3 unbroken overs across the second innings as he scrapped to pull a victory out of the hat for Pakistan, registering career-best figures of 6 for 54 in the second innings. He is now three wickets away from 100, and has the best Test bowling average for a Pakistani in history (minimum 15 wickets).”The message is clear, age is just a number,” Masood said. “The disappointing thing is a performance like that should be on the winning side. I also thought Saud Shakeel’s innings [was excellent] – if we had batted a bit better with him – he would have got a hundred. Those two performances deserved to be on the winning side, and unfortunately they’re not.”