Chris Morris retires from all forms of cricket

Watch | Haris Rauf’s unique celebration to raise Covid awareness across the world

Pakistan superstar Haris Rauf celebrated his wicket against the Perth Scorchers in the most unique style on Monday, January 11. The fast bowler gave a tremendous start to the Melbourne Stars nicking off Kurtis Patterson in the third over. He ran to celebrate and did it in a superb style that lauded lots of cheers from the crowd that had the back of the bowler. Rauf brought out his mask and gestured using a hand sanitizer in the troubled Covid-19 times in Australia. The gesture comes as a welcome sign of awareness at a time when Australia has been awfully affected by Covid waves being facilitated by the Omicron variant. Serbian Tennis star and one of the most recognised athletes across the world Novak Djokovic landed himself in a lot of trouble over flouting Covid-19 regulations and was put in a detention centre after attending events despite returning positive result for Covid. Rauf’s sanitizer celebration had positive feedback over social media where netizens lauded him over doing the right thing.

If you judge yourselves on numbers, you’ll never be happy: Virat Kohli

Indian Test captain Virat Kohli has once again come out and defended batting amidst questions about his form ahead of India’s Test match against South Africa. Kohli, who has not scored a Test century since 2019 has faced similar line of questioning repeatedly and the captain this time has argued that form and the yardstick of the judgement of that form depends upon perspective. The Indian captain, who averages 26 since his last century, has argued that he has been a part of critical partnerships for the team and for him that matters more at this stage of his career. "You have to understand, in sport sometimes, things do not go the way you want them to go, but at the end of the day I realise, as a player, as a batsman, that I've been involved in very important moments for the team over the last calendar year or so, and for me that is a matter of a lot of pride, that I have been part of very important partnerships when the team needed me, and eventually those moments have been crucial for us in many Test matches.” The prolific right hander, who is looking for his first series win in the African soil further argued that he is being judged by the standards that he has set for himself and he takes a lot of pride in following what he thinks is the right process. “I don't look at myself from the lens that the outside world looks at me with, and eventually the standards that we're talking about today, that I'm being compared with, have been set by myself, and more than anyone else.” “I take a lot of pride and happiness in the process that I'm following, and I'm at peace with how I'm playing and what I'm being able to do for the team when there is a tricky scenario, and as long as I'm doing that, and taking a lot of pride and motivation to be in those moments, I have nothing else to worry about, because the reality of the situation is that you eventually want to make impact performances for the team, and my best effort is always to do that, and I truly believe that I don't need to prove anything to anyone.” Kohli concluded.

Watch | Ross Taylor’s final words as he signs off from the long format

New Zealand legend Ross Taylor played out an emotional final Test match to sign off his impactful career with the Kiwis on Monday, 11 January. Speaking after the game, an emotional Taylor reflected on the Test match stating that it was a great way to finish his career. Taylor, has been an integral part of the New Zealand team that has put on domination performances since 2015, having featured in multiple finals of ICC tournaments. “It’s a great way to finish to honestly stay in the series, but nah, we played fantastically well. Bangladesh put us under pressure a lot of times, and it’s probably a fair reflection of where the series was heading. I wanted to finish with a win and the guys gave it to me.” Asked about taking the final wicket of the Bangladesh batting order, Taylor chuckled and said that he would have had a few more if he would have bowled under these circumstances. Bangladesh, in a grand gesture gave Taylor a guard of honour and the cameras earlier caught the right handed middle order in an emotional state during the Kiwi national anthem. “It was an emotional game for me and my family and friends and the teammates as well, but ya it was good to get the win.” Taylor has been the bedrock of the NZ dominance across the world and hit the winning runs of the World Test Championship campaign, that ended NZ’s title drought at the ICC events.

Ross Taylor picks final wicket as New Zealand steamroll Bangladesh to level series

New Zealand stalwart Ross Taylor capped off his long format career with one final wicket as the home side rolled over Bangladesh in the final Test match of the series at Hagley Oval. Taylor bowling his first over of the match on Monday, 11 January, removed the visitor’s #11 Ebadot Hossain in the 80th over of the game to post a huge victory of an innings and 117 runs. Forced to follow on after a Trent Boult masterclass in the first innings, Bangladesh fared better on the day, but not enough to make a difference in the course of the Test match. Liton Das, who has seen a significant rise in form since his T20 World Cup fiasco, was once again the star of the show, scoring 102 runs off 114 deliveries. Barring Liton, no one in the Bangladesh line-up stood up to the NZ pace attack and were dismissed despite getting starts. With the win, NZ were able to maintain their undefeated streak at home and now have entered their 5th year of defence, not having lost since 2017/18. The match was also New Zealand’s first win in the World Test Championship 2023 calendar, having lost two out of their earlier three matches against India and Bangladesh. At the moment, the title defenders stand 8th in the league table with 16 points to their name. Out of their four matches played, they have won 1, lost 2, and drawn 1 Test match.