AUS W vs IND W series delayed due to Covid-19, relocated to Carrara Oval, Ken Mackay in Queensland

County Championship 2021 | Surrey vs Durham calsh to be called off

Covid-19 has forced England and Wales Cricket Board to call off the County Championship Division-2 game between Surrey and Durham at Emirates Riverside in Chester-Lee Street. The decision was taken after an unnamed member of the Surrey playing squad tested positive for Covid-19. The ECB in a press release said, “The player has begun to self-isolate along with a significant number of the Surrey squad who have been identified as close contacts.” “Due to the required isolation protocols and the extensive impact on Surrey’s available playing squad, reluctantly the decision has been made that the match will not go ahead on Monday 30 August,” it added. The board further informed that the confirmation on the awarding of points for the match will be announced in due course. After the end of the Group stage of the County Championship in June, the T20 Blast and Royal London One Day cup carried on in the English Summer. The Royal London Cup has been finished with Glamorgan being crowned as champions and T20 Blast awaits a Finals Day conclusion where Kent, Somerset, Hampshire and Sussex have made it to the Semi-Finals. And thus the County Championship once again begins with the first of the four rounds in all three divisions on Monday, August 30. It is important to note that only teams in Division-1 will be contesting for the Championship. The teams in Division Two and Three play among themselves to decide the four best teams if the County Championship goes back to its 2019 pattern of having two divisions with 10 teams in Division 1 and eight in Division 2 with Division 1 contesting for the Championship and Division two teams battling for promotion to Division 1.

Joe Root proud on captaincy achievement, rejoices 'perfect storm' to come back in Leeds

England were rattled and shaken on the final day of the Lord’s Test against a hostile Indian team led by Virat Kohli and four pacers. From the first session, England lost their way and India were rescued from a precarious situation by Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, with whom the hosts attempted to settle ego battles. Later, they could not manage to hold the Indian bowling attack off for a little more than 50 overs and conceded a 1-0 lead from a position of relative strength. Skipper Joe Root was gutted to see his team falling off the clip after reaching a point from where they should have had the game in their pocket. They had to dig deep as Kohli had promised to get bogged down irrespective of the situations and needed to start the third Test on a perfect note. On cue, the bowling attack led by James Anderson ran riots on the Indian batting lineup and routed them for 78 inside the first two sessions. Later on the same day, England also thwarted the same quartet of pacers and ended the day at 120/0 that more or less put India on the brink right on the first day. India were always playing a catchup game and in the end, fell short by an innings and 76 runs. Having won the third Test at his home ground Headingley, Root hailed the performances on the first day of the third Test as a “perfect storm” that allowed them to blow India away. He commended bowlers for exploiting the excellent conditions for bowling but called the hundred run partnership a near “turning point” for their series-levelling win. He said that the openers Haseeb Hameed and Rory Burns fulfilled a long-standing demand of big first innings score and laid down a perfect platform for the middle order to take the game away from India’s grasp. "It was almost the perfect storm, everything seemed to fall our way. Perfect little nicks to the keeper got us off to a great start, it was a brilliant bowling performance. We found our lengths, exploited the wicket really well. And that opening partnership to set things up was almost a turning point in the game for me,” Root said in the post-match press conference. “A substantial first-wicket partnership was exceptional and credit to those two lads. Under the pump off the back of last week, to come out and perform like that and get us 135-0 was brilliant. Really set the game up and gave the rest of us the opportunity to go and make that big first innings score that me and Silvers harp on to you guys about all the time." While James Anderson was his tormentor-in-chief in the first innings as he eliminated the first three big wickets of India such as the man in form KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli, it was Ollie Robinson, who kept the hosts in the game bowling in the channel around off stump throughout the third day. India were brilliant with the bat but could not get away as Robinson was on the money albeit Anderson was offline for the most part of the day. The pacer earned rewards for his accuracy and consistency on the fourth morning as he wiped out the Indian middle order to hand India a humiliating defeat. Root spoke very highly of the tall seamers and said that he does not remember a lot of names who got settled so quickly at the international level the way he has so far now. He has played four Tests so far and already has two five-wicket hauls to name. Root said that the England team management was never unsure of his credentials with the ball and it was just a matter of whether he would be able to extract as much off the pitch with the older ball as he gets with the newer one. "Not off the top of my head. It's been phenomenal to watch him perform as he has. The Test matches he's played, he's had big influences on all of them. He's been around the squad for a little while and we've known how skilful he is. It was almost a question of whether he'd be able to back it up in his third spell with the ball a little older. And he's shown huge skill in being able to do that time and time again with big workloads under his belt. He's shown what he is capable of doing and long may that continue,” Root spoke of Robinson, who was adjudged Man of the Match at Headingley. Root has been in red-hot form in the series with three centuries from as many games and with the win in Leeds, he has gone on to become the most successful England captain in terms of wins. He was ecstatic to beat Michael Vaughan as the captain of England with the most number of wins and said that all these successes are the stuff of his “boyhood dreams”. He also extended gratitude to all the players who have put their hands up with performances and coaching staffs for finding perfect ways of preparation behind the scenes to enable him in the journey to the top. "I'm living my boyhood dream, captaining England. Something I dreamed of doing from being really small. Great group of players, who are very talented and dedicated to becoming better all the time. Couldn't be more proud, proud to have gone past Michael. But you don't do that on your own as a captain, it's down to the group of players and the coaching staff as well. It's all one big thing. You're the one making the decisions but they are the ones going out and time and time again putting in performances. And really proud of the way they have done that this week,” a proud England skipper added. Although it was the bowling that won England the third Test, Root would be more delighted that other batsmen stepped up with valuable contributions to bat India out of the game. The opening pair of Burns and Hameed, and followed by the returning Dawid Malan at number three provided England a bullish start to boss the flows of the game while India kept on chasing the curve with indifferent bowling performances.

IPL 2021 | Dushmantha Chameera, Wanindu Hasaranga get SLC's NOC to play for RCB

In what would come as a welcome development for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Sri Lankan duo Dushmantha Chameera and Wanindu Hasaranga have got the no-objection certificate from Sri Lanka Cricket to play in the second part of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League. SLC issued a statement on August 29 to confirm permission to the players who were signed up by the franchises as replacements for the tournament scheduled to be played in the UAE. The permission has been granted in consultation with the Technical Advisory Committee and they will depart the country to join their IPL franchise after the conclusion of the home series against South Africa. They will rejoin the Sri Lanka squad on October 10 to play two warm-up games before ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers tournament, the SLC said. The RCB have signed up Hasaranga and Chameera as like for like replacements for the Australian duo Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson respectively. They had opted out of the event citing the bubble fatigue. The Virat Kohli-led franchises also signed dup Singapore-born Tim David for the remaining portion of the 14th edition of the marquee event. The Royal Challengers have had an excellent start to the IPL 2021 winning five out of the first seven matches, and the franchise would hope for a similar performance in the UAE Leg of the tournament.

CPL 2021 | SNP vs GAW: Vengeance seeking Warriors face table-toppers Patriots in round two

In what was dubbed as a matchup between the experience and youth of the West Indian cricket, the experience made it count comprehensively even as Chris Gayle was not part of the playing XI for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. Dwayne Bravo’s men made a light work of the Amazon Warriors from Guyana and won the match comfortably by nine wickets. However, it goes without saying that the Warriors made quite a few mistakes, the first of which was changing a winning combination and bringing in Nail Smith in place of Romario Shepherd. Then they promoted Odean Smith to number three which was bunder as neither Smith nor Shimron Hetmyer, whose place Smith took, could make anything out of that move as both of them failed. Skipper Nicholas Poorana and Mohammad Hafeez batting at six and seven respectively make no sense at all. Thus, if the Warriors want to make amends and win this match, they must learn from their mistakes. On the other hand, the Patriots were almost perfect with their bowlers, especially Dominic Drakes bowling beautifully during the powerplay as well as in death. The batting by both openers Devon Smith and Evin Lewis was great and Gaye wasn’t missed much. So they could go in without any change in the XI whatsoever. St Kitts and Nevis Patriots vs Guyana Amazon Warriors Match Number: 08 Date and Time: August 30, 2021, 12:00 am IST, 02:30 pm Local, 06:30 pm GMT Venue: Warner Park, Basseterre Broadcast: Star Sports Live Stream: Fancode Pitch Report The pitch hasn’t really had one face so far as it has been slow at times and at other times the ball has just come on to bat nicely. Thus to say that it would be a belter of a wicket would be a bit too hasty for an assumption. But no doubt, it wouldn’t be dead bat and totals around 160 will be competitive. Weather Forecast The weather at Warner Park will remain hot and humid with humidity being as high as 72%. The temperatures would remain in the lower thirties with the moderate wind blowing from the northeast and thus helping the bowlers early on in the morning. A captain winning the toss would look to bowl first without any doubt. Probable XI St Kitts and Nevis Patriots Evin Lewis, Devon Thomas, Joshua Da Silva (wk), Asif Ali, Sherfane Rutherford, Dwayne Bravo (c), Fabian Allen, Dominic Drakes, Sheldon Cottrell, Paul van Meekeren, Fawad Ahmed Guyana Amazon Warriors Brandon King, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Odean Smith, Shimron Hetmyer, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, Nicholas Pooran (c & wk), Nial Smith, Ashmead Nedd, Naveen-ul-Haq, Imran Tahir Dream XI Team Fantasy Suggestions Batters Evin Lewis, Sherfane Rutherford, Brandon King Bowlers Imran Tahir, Romario Shepherd, Dominic Drakes All-rounders Mohammad Hafeez, Fabian Allen, Odeon Smith Wicketkeepers Devon Thomas, Nicholas Pooran Vice-Captain Mohammad Hafeez Captain Evin Lewis