BBL 10 | Callum Ferguson bids adieu to Sydney Thunder

Very kind of Virat Kohli to help me out: Joe Root

England skipper Joe Root has praised his counterpart Virat Kohli for helping him out while he was in some pain because of cramps. Root hailed Kohli’s “sportsmanship”. “Yeah, I am ready for more tomorrow…hopefully get back, a bit frustrating, very kind of Virat (Kohli) to help me out (with cramps), good sportsmanship from him…It’s just like a long day and then after a few overs I get some fluids and cooled down.” England have already scored 263/3 on Day 1 of the the first Test in Chennai. The captain is of the opinion that the visitors would look to post somewhere between 600-700. “We have got to look and try and get as many as we can 600-700 if we can, really trying to make most of the first innings make it good and those four overs trying to work quickly.” “So if we can bat into whole of tomorrow or maybe day three then things could speed up quite quickly for us and you never know what can happen for that point onwards…” The English captain has been in prime form. He scored back to back tons in Sri Lanka and followed it with a hundred against India in the first Test. Talking about his own form Root said, “Different challenges, I think in Sri Lanka, there was obviously a little bit more lateral moment, more spin, while here it was more trying to counter the bounce initially against the spinners and obviously challenging reverse swing from the seamers,” he said. “So it was very different and it’s always difficult to try put two against each other,” he added. Root is playing his 100th Test. The right-handed batsman said that it is a special feeling. “Playing the 100th Test was special and I mean coming in with some good form and I need to make sure I cash in on…Over the course of my career I’ve not always gone to make really big scores, so for me to be going and doing that currently is really pleasing…” “And I keep getting myself in positions to make big hundreds and I have got to keep taking them and we’re going to win more games if I’m doing that and so hopefully I can kick on tomorrow personally but most importantly we can have a bat tomorrow and we can be in a strong position in this game.”

BBL: Australia’s young player of the year fined A$5000 for bio-bubble breach

Will Sutherland of the Melbourne Renegades has been fined A$5000 for breaching the bio-bubble regulation so the ongoing Big bash League. Sutherland, who was recognised as the Australian Young Player of the Year by Cricket Australia awards just a day before, was charged with sanctions of playing golf and eating with people not part of the bio-bubble during the competition. Though Sutherland, 21 accepted the charges, he challenged the original sanction of a $10,000 fine with $4000 suspended in a court of commissioner Adrian Anderson and asked for a downgrade. His fine was subsequently downgraded to a $5000. This year’s BBL has done well to evade all challenges of the covid-19 and give the fans a safe and secure viewing as all the matches had crowd presence. Sutherland’ is the second fault by a bbl player after Heat skipper Chris Lynn and batsman Dan Lawrence were charged for clicking photo and shaking hands with a member of the audience early in the tournament. "The bio-security protocols have not only kept players, staff, officials and cricket fans safe but have also ensured it has been possible to travel across borders and take the BBL to seven different states and territories by reducing instances of close contact with COVID in the community," Alistair Dobson, the head of the Big Bash, said on the incident. The final of the BBL is to be played between Sydney Sixers and Perth Scorchers at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground on 06th February.

Ban on saliva use made it difficult to maintain the ball: Jasprit Bumrah

The Indian bowlers had a tough day at the office in Chennai after England compiled a total of 263/3 on Day 1 of the first Test of the series. England skipper Joe Root scored his third ton on the trot while opener Dominic Sibley frustrated the Indian bowlers while scoring 87 off 286 deliveries. India caper Jasprit Bumrah who is playing his first Test on home soil suggested that the ban on saliva use has created some problems. “The ball did become soft after a while and the wicket is on flatter side with the bounce being less. You are left with limited options (to shine ball). We are trying to figure out what we can do with the limited things on hand, at that time,” Bumrah said at the virtual media conference. “Yes, it becomes difficult when the ball becomes soft and doesn’t shine really well because of new COVID-19 rules, we can’t use saliva, very difficult during that time to maintain the ball,” Bumrah added. India though did manage to remove Sibley after Bumrah trapped him in front of the stumps. Earlier, England after winning the toss opted to bat first at Chepauk. Openers Rory Burns and Sibley had a decent start before Burns miscued a reverse sweep off R Ashwin when the team score read 63. Burns was dismissed for 33. Daniel Lawrence went back in the hut for a duck but captain Root and Sibley had a stand of 200 runs for the third wicket.

Sachin’s son Arjun Tendulkar registers for IPL Mini -Auction

Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun Tendulkar has registered himself for the upcoming IPL 2021 Mini-Auction, which is scheduled to be held on 18th February. Along with Arjun veteran Harbhajan Singh has also enlisted his name in this year's IPL auction even as he was released by his team Chennai Super Kings, earlier this month. He was supposed to have retired after he was released by the CSK. Arjun made his List A debut in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021 in which he played two games and took two wickets by giving away runs at an economy rate of 9.57. It was then itself speculated that the 21 year old might be considered for an IPL debut this season and with him registering in the player's auction, most likely he would be picked by some team or the other. Among the other big names listed for the auctions as per reports are Kedar Jadhav, Hanuma Vihari and Bangladeshi all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.