AUS vs IND: SCG may host full-house crowd for final T20

Players to Take a Knee During New Zealand-West Indies Series

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has decided to continue New Zealand's overt support to the Black Lives Matter movement by confirming that his team will take a knee at the start of the Test series between his side and West Indies. The first Test begins at Hamilton on December 3. Both teams had taken a knee during the T20I series between the two teams which concluded recently. Williamson expressed his reasoning behind the decision to continue the symbolic protest during the Test series. "Jason and I caught up. (We are) looking to continue what was done during the T20s and try to continue that awareness around the BLM movement and also the 'Give Nothing To Racism' campaign that New Zealand Cricket are right behind as well... So that will be continued on the first day of each Test match," the Kiwi captain said on the eve of the first Test. The Windies captain Jason Holder was delighted with Williamson for his gesture and profusely praised the cricketers of the New Zealand team. "It just shows the kind of individuals that New Zealand cricket has. Kane came openly to me and we sat down and had a really good chat around it. It was just mainly him hearing our side of it. Really happy with his support…and New Zealand Cricket have started a campaign too, which is really good." The kneeling gesture had its origin in United States of America where some African-American sportspersons decided to express their opposition to racial inequality, especially the alleged excesses by police against members of the Black community, by kneeling during the national anthem of the country. After the infamous killing of George Floyd earlier this year, the Black Lives Matter movement gained worldwide support. The act of kneeling made its appearance in the cricket world at the start of the first Test between England and West Indies some months ago. Players of both West Indies and England had taken the knee on that occassion. Later in the season, when Australian team toured England and avoided taking a knee, their decision was criticised by former West Indies cricketer and leading commentator Michael Holding.

Virat Gets to Mt. 12000 Earlier Than Sachin by 58 Innings, Is He Better?

Virat Kohli has been smashing records for more than a decade now. Though he didn't get to his first 2000 runs in ODI cricket as quickly as his current status as the unmatched master of ODI batting would suggest, by the time he reached 3000 runs, it was clear that Kohli was destined for greatness. When he reached 5000 ODI runs, he only had Vivian Richards ahead of him for least innings taken for getting to that milestone. When he reached the summit of 6000, he had gone past King Viv also. From 8000 onwards, he has reached the multiples of 1000 runs in ODIs ahead of everyone else. Now, he has completed his climb to the top of Mt. 12000. It took Kohli 242 innings. Sachin Tendulkar had held the record for being quickest to 12000. He took 300 innings. Needless to say, Kohli is way ahead of the man he and millions of other kids in the 1990s grew up admiring. This brings to the fore a question that is, possibly, the most divisive in Indian cricket universe today - Is Kohli better than Tendulkar? The arguments in this debate are also familiar. Those in support of Kohli will mention his eye-popping stats while those in the Tendulkar camp will make the case that Kohli has played in a much more batting-friendly era. But there is another very important fact that needs to be remembered while weighing up both players. That is the very limited start that Sachin had to his ODI career. While he did play some good innings, Sachin's ODI journey really took off when he opened the innings for the first time in this format - against New Zealand on March 27, 1994, at Auckland. His 82 off 49 in that game was the announcement of his arrival on the big stage of 50-over cricket. Later that year, after a wait of 78 games, he scored his first ODI hundred. Kohli, on the other hand, was batting in the top order right from the begining of his career. You can argue that Sachin's ODI career begins in right earnest only after around his first 70-odd matches. So, the difference of 58 matches between Kohli and Sachin, when they reached 12000 runs, is superficial. But it is rendered such even more so by the massive changes in the game of ODI cricket. In 1990s, a score of 260 was regarded as very likely to be successfully defended. Now, even 350 isn't safe. On top of that, while Sachin was way ahead of his peers in ODI cricket during his era, Kohli's exploits, if not matched fully, are partially being replicated by a host of top class batsmen. Kane Williamson, Joe Root, Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma, and some others have been racing through multiples of 1000 runs in record time also. So, before declaring Kohli as the greatest of all time, one has to weigh in several factors that put his predecessors like Tendulkar and RIchards at a disadvantage vis-a-vis him. What can be said without any doubt is that, Kohli belongs to the most elite batsmen that ODI format has seen. But calling him the greatest of all time is not possible.

AUS vs IND | 3rd ODI: Pandya-Jadeja, bowlers help India to confidence-building win

Finally, after frustrating bowling performances and not so perfect batting performances in the last two games, the Indian team pulled off a team performance to salvage some pride and won the game by 13 runs to avoid facing the prospect of a whitewash at the start of a long and gruelling Australian summer. Indian had set a target of 303 for the hosts to chase which did not look improbable looking at the past records at the Manuka Oval in Canberra but the Australian batting line up the tourists were bowling against were different and the absence of David Warner really made the difference at the start. Indian bowling lineup which was refreshed with changes such as the inclusion of Shardul Thakur and the debutant T Natarajan in the place of Navdeep Saini na dn Mohammed Shami also looked better and sharp with the new ball. Jasprit Bumrah found some of the best rhythm and produced wicket taking deliveries in the power play. After dismal performance in the last two ODIs, the Indian bowlers were up to the task in Canberra and struck twice in the power play which sounded a complete departure from the last wto games as Natarajan got Marnus Labuschgane pulling off the front foot to a ball that was not short enough and Shardul Thakur got Steve Smith, that in some way hinted that it was India’s night in the capital city of Australia. Shardul got Smith stagled down the leg side off a ball that deserved to be hit for four towards the fine leg boundary but Smith could only edge it to Rahul behind the wicket. The situation could have been much worse for the hosts but for the fielding by the Indians who did not not quite learn the lessons from the last two defeats. The men in blue blew off three chances in the three consecutive overs in the power play. First, Dhawan was caught slow while Bumrah caught the outside edge of Aaron Finch’s bat and then Jadeja missed another chance to get the Australian skipper out with a direct hit in the sixth and the sveneth over of the innings respectively. Finch completed his third fifty of the series and was settled to take the game away from India but when Jadeja lured him to a big shot over long on with a flighted delivery, Dhawan was up to the task at the boundary, albeit not before the ball popped out of his hands to be gathered in the second attempt by him. Marnus Labuschnage was shifted to open in the absence of Warner and that allowed all-rounders Moises Henriques and the much-talked-about debutant Cameron Green at the number five and sixth position. Both of them showed promise but could not quite nail it with a valuable contribution and wasted their starts, Henriques played some good shots but found Dhawan at short-mid wicket just when he was settling in for a big score. Green walked out to bat after the fall of Henriques and he showed potential in his strokes as he was not ready to be dictated by Jadeja and deposited him deep over the midwicket boundary in the same over in which Finch was shown the door by the left-armer. However, Green’s ambitions were cut short by Jadeja himself as he dived valiantly to pluck the catch at the deep square leg when the right-handed tried to take on Kuldeep Yadav. The hosts’ innings was in tatters but the dangerous duo of Glenn Maxwell and wicketkeeper Alex Carrey was still at the crease and they had the experience of winning the game for Australia in the past as they did in September earlier this year against England while the team was down and out chasing a big score. The pair put on a fifty run partnership and it was looking threatening for India but misjudging a single from the areas under patrol by an electric Virat Kohli cost Carey hsi wicket and the chase was again derailed. Maxwell got it back on track with lusty hits and with the help of Asthon Agar put on another fifty runs stand as the duo started to set their foot on the accelerator from the 43rd over of the innings. Maxwell took 12 runs off Kuldeep and 18 runs off Natarajan in the 43rd and 44th over of the chase and the situation demanded Kohli to bring back his ace paceman and Bumrah justified his leadership position in the team by dismissing Maxwell just when the team needed him to come good. The hosts could never come back to an advancing position in the game after Maxwell’s wicket as the tourists held on to their nerves even with a manageable required rate for the hosts in the last over. It all came down to wickets in hand and Indian pacers made sure that Australia did not have too many batsmen left in the end to snathc the game away from them. In a fitting end, Bumrah got the final wicket of the Australian innings by trapping Zampa in front of the stumps in the last over as the tourists finally opened their account on a long tour that would definitely test all of their resolve and temperament with each passing day. India didn’t only bowl well in the powerplay but also broke another chain of frustrating losses at the toss when Virat Kohli won the first toss of the tour and decided to bat first on a pitch that looked as flat as the two pitches were in Sydney. However, the strip used at the Manuka Oval offered a lot more pace and bounce that kept Aussies pacers in the hunt. In a surprise for majority of fans, but not for Virat Kohli’s style of captaincy, Mayank Agarwal was dropped from the playing XI for an equally deserving and promising Subhman Gill. Dhawan and Gill started solidly but the pressure of playing on a flat pitch was clearly visible on Dhawan who looked forcing the issue and at the end perished doing so against Sean Abott who outsmarted him by sliding his fingers across the ball when the left hander came down the track to put pressure on him from the start of his first spell. When Virat Kohli joined Gill in the middle, the duo started to put on a show of aggressive as well as stylish shotmaking as Gill matched his skipper shot by shot, from pull shot to on drive. Gill looked solid and was looking untroubled by the Australian bowlers but the introduction of spinners made him greedy of latching onto some boundaries and Asthon Agar found him in front of the stumps when he tried taking him over square leg by a sweep shot.It was more a case of Gill dismissing himself than Agar getting him out and the right hander must have been disappointed for throwing hsiwicket away after doing the hard work against the new balls. Shreyas Iyer was looking confident before this match and he looked composed at the start and was also helped by the Australian attack that didn make him face the ‘chin music’ he was so looking forward to. However, Iyer yet again failed to seize the opportunity by failing to put on a sizable contribution for the team. Iyer committed an age-old mistake by batsmen who faced troubles scoring quickly against pacers and tried to go all guns blazing against the leg spin of Zampa and the leg spinner could beat him with the knowledge of an inevitable attack from him by varying his pace of the ball and Iyer was caught at point playing a premeditated inside out drive over cover. Fall of Iyer derailed the Indian innings as bth KL Rahul and Virat Kohli fell not after long intervals to each other’s dismissal. Agar was once again smart enough to be too full for KL Rahul who turned out to be the second batsman to get out playing sweep shot against the left-arm spinner. Wickets at regular intervals did not help Kohli bat with the freedom and it showed up in his strike rate. Virat, too, was trying hard to march towards a total that would give comfort to bowlers while defending and in that process was caught short of the pitch of the ball when Josh Hazlewood beat him comprehensively with a leg-cutter that bounced sharly from the good length around off stump line. Hazlewood has dismissed Kohli in all the three ODIs of the series and when he dismissed Kohli in the 32nd over of the Indian innings, an alarm bell must have rang in the dressing room of the tourist with inly Jadeja and Pandya remained the last recognised batting pair to get them to a total they could dare to defend in the game where all of the team’s pride was at stake. Just when the Aussies would have felt to have gone ahead in the game, Pandya and Jadeja unleashed the best of their batting prowess as the duo took time to settle won and steady the destabilised ship of the Indian batting. When Jdeja came to bat, Pandya was batting with a strike rate of nearly 50 runjs per 100 balls but he reversed the role of anchor straightway with Jadeja as the left-hander toom time to settle and the duo kept on milking Aussies for singles and errorless boundaries (only handful) before cutting loose in the last five overs of the innings. The pair started their onslaught from the 46th over as Pandya unleashed all his strokes and deposited Sean Abbott for 17 runs in that over and the men in blue were back in the reckoning to post a fighting total which looked very much away from their grasp after the fall of Kohli. Jadeja was not to miss out and he took a liking to Josh Hazlewood and hit him for two massive sixes in two completely different directions to showcase his repertoire of shots when the situation demanded and his development as a batsman and finisher in the Indian batting line up. The pai was up and running and so was the Indian scorecard which looked set for a total that would challenge a David Warner-less Australian batting line up. What followed in the next over was an absolute carnage as Jadeja started toying with Abbott’s bowling and with his Australian tactics. He was smart enough to predict the line of his attack with the field setting in which no men were stationed deep behind square on the leg side and walked across to the off stump to virtually sweep him over square leg for a boundary behind square. Abbott’s inexperience awas telling as he could not bowl to his field and kept on bowling short balls when the field placements demanded him to bowl full and straight. Three big shots followed on three short balls and Jadeja completed a masterful half-century in the process of annihilating Sean Abbott. Hazlewood resurrected a bit in the next over but still conceded 10 runs and Abbott followed with another over that yielded 13 runs to give Indian a massive opportunity which they took with hands and beat them albeit not before Aaron Finch and Glenn maxwell threatened to make an embarrassing clean sweep for them. India validated the argument that toss makes a big impact on the outcome of the game by putting up a total that the bowlers could defend in the end but Virat Kohli and his men would be honest to themselves if they can assess their frailties that have been exposed in the series that they lost 1-2.

AUS vs IND 3rd ODI: What Experts said as India wins a thriller to salvage some pride

The third and final game of the series was nothing short of a litmus test for the Indian team as it had to prove to the world that it’s not something to be pushed over every time. Jasprit Bumrah had to tell the world that when it comes to death overs, he is still the number one bowler in the world when he bowled the danger looking Glenn Maxwell to set up a 13 run win for the Men in Blue at Manuka Oval. Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja had to prove that they are in the team for their batting as well. And the debutant T. Natarajan along with Shardul Thakur, the guys who got the first shot at the cherry in the series also proved that they are worth the chance. While Shardul finished with a tally of 3/51 in his 10 overs, Natarajan’s debut ended with 2/70 in his 10. Captains' Viewpoints Finally ending up on the right side of the results, Virat Kohli was all smiles post the match and during the post-match presentation as he lauded his team for the effort that is put on in the last game. "It's particularly pleasing that we were under the pump for the first half of our innings, and the second half of Australia's, and we fought back both times. One guy making his debut, Shubman coming back, that brought us some freshness,” Kohli said on the victory and the comeback of the team. The captain also lauded his fast bowlers and at the same time also said that the bounce in the pitch mattered a lot. “I think the pitch was much better in terms of helping the bowlers, so obviously, the confidence levels go up. We were able to put Australia under pressure because of that fact as well. Talking about the partnership that Jadeja and Pandya made, Kohli said that he wasn’t really shocked considering that both these guys have been playing cricket for a long time now. “Playing international cricket for 13-14 years, you should be able to come back like we did. I would have liked to go on for a bit longer, but we had a great partnership between Hardik and Jadeja,” said the 32-year-old. Acknowledging that the victory was required for the team going into the T20I series, Kohli said, “It was exactly what the team needed to get that boost, even though we've lost the series. We played with heart and desire, and that's what you need to do in Australia." The Australian skipper Aaron Finch, who was the lone warrior in the first half of the Aussie innings with his 75 off 83 balls felt that his team really fought well and rued the fact that they were unable to break the partnership between Jadeja and Pandya. "We fought really well today, just fell a little short. Obviously great partnership between Hardik and Jadeja, we might have been in a good position if we'd nabbed one of them early,” Finch said. Lauding the new players in the team, Finch said, “I thought Cameron Green came in and made an impact with ball and bat, and showed he belongs at the international level. Ashton Agar played well too, so it was good to get them in and get some information on them.” Saying that playing two spinners makes the 50 overs go a little quicker, the skipper couldn’t agree more with the fact that both Ashton agar and David Zampa were impactful today. In total, the spinners bowled 20 overs and gave away just 89 runs after picking three wickets. Alex Carey played a good inning and was threatening India with his partnership alongside Maxwell. Finch went on to appreciate the least talked bout Aussie members as well as wished that Starc would be back for the T20s. “It's nice when guys in the top order have really good contributions, and then Maxy can come in and do his thing in the back end. I thought Alex Carey, Moises, these guys did well too,” said Finch. “Hopefully [Starc] is back for the T20s. Just a niggly thing with the back," he added. Expert Opinion The experts in this game were impressed by how both Jadeja and Pandya impressed and were the main reason for getting India to a total (302) that could be defended well into the game, albeit not without the Maxwell scare. The bowlers in Bumrah, Natarajan, and Shardul Thakur were also praised for their brilliant work. Renowned cricket writer and show host Boria Majumdar, instead of calling it a dead rubber said that the game held as much importance as any other game because of the Super League. He also praised Natarajand and Shardul Thakur for their resolve. Ayaz Memon, the well-known cricket journalist called it a momentum-changing game saying that this victory would push the momentum towards the Indian team going into the T20 series. Gaurav Kalra, a broadcast journalist, too lauded Jadeja, for the kind of bowling that he did as the all-rounder ended with figures of 1-62 and that one wicket was of the most dangerous Aaron Finch. All this came on the back of his 50 balls 66 with the bat. Sambit Bal another journalist was pointed out that this series has proved how India could go in with Hardik Pandya as a pure batsman and when he bowls, how the team balance would be affected in a great way. Bharat Seervi, the statistician pointed out how crucial the partnership for the sixth wicket between Pandya and Jadeja was as this, even while being the 3rd highest in all-time highest 6th wicket partnerships for India, but was also against a strong unit like Australia, while the rest, preceding it were against a weaker opponent like Zimbabwe. And in an expert piece how can we forget to get in a cheeky one from Gaurav Kalra. Well, this time a rather straightforward shot though, yes India managed to get past 300 in all innings, Aussies couldn’t. The action now shifts to the shortest format of the game and a bit different teams would be playing. Australia will obviously rue Warner’s absence, but can those, who would get a chance to make case for themselves on 4th, will be able to prove their worth? That can only be answered on 4th December at the same venue.