Former cricketer Michael Slater arrested, refused bail over alleged breached violence

The Ashes | Adelaide Test: Joe Root concedes too much expectations from 'superhero' Ben Stokes

England skipper Joe Root is asking his teammates to not get afraid after a big loss at the Gabba and instead is urging them to take some heart out of it as things can’t get much worse than what they faced on the first day of the first Ashes Test. He said that there can’t be any excuse for the England side starting the second Test at the Adelaide Oval and they must pick themselves up to lift their game and England’s chances in the series. “It’s not going to get any harder than that first day in Brisbane,” said Root. “Especially for guys who have not experienced what an Ashes series is like in Australia. We know it’s not going to get more difficult than that, so in that respect, there’s no excuses.” England were also buoyant by the return of their “superman” in Ben Stokes, who could do no wrong in an Ashes series and Root conceded that he erred in putting too much pressure on his shoulders by unrealistic expectations. He said that the all-rounder has had a track record of producing magical performances every now and then and hence he got complacent in expecting super results off him despite his prolonged absence from the game leading up to the Ashes series. “It was a huge ask and I’m probably guilty as much as anyone – I expected too much of him – because I see him almost as a bit of a superhero. Look at what he’s done in the last couple of years when he’s played: at least once a series, maybe twice a series, he’s done something extraordinary which has won you a game on its own. “You do get a little complacent about expecting that. It’s easy to forget that on a big occasion like this, whether that be because he’s not played a huge amount and also what he’s gone through recently, I think there was a little bit too much on him. “But you know the character he is, it’ll have motivated him even more now to put in one of those magical performances, whether that comes this week or further down the line.”

The Ashes | Adelaide Test: Jhye Richardson replaces Hazlewood, Warner fit to play in Day Night Test

Jhye Richardson has beaten Michael Nesser in the race to replace Josh Hazlewood from Australia playing XI for the day-night Test starting December 16. Skipper Pat Cummins announced the playing XI for the second Test of the series and announced that the pacer will return to the Australia Test side after a big gap of three years. Also, in a welcome relief for the hosts, Cummins announced that David Warner, who hurt his ribs while batting in the first innings of the Gabba Test, has been selected to play the second Test of the series. However, he conceded that the opener is not 100 per cent fit to get going but nevertheless backed him to bank on adrenaline after walking out to the field and play through some discomfort. "He’ll be right. He had a bat yesterday, batted with a bit of discomfort but knowing Davey, he’s not going to miss this one. Once adrenaline and everything kicks in, (he’ll be) a little bit sore but he’ll be fine,” Cummins said of Warner’s fitness to reporters in Adelaide. "It’s one thing batting in the nets but another thing when you walk out and it’s a packed crowd. I don’t think he had any kind of painkillers or anything yesterday. He’s played close to 90 Tests, I’m sure a lot of them have been played in discomfort or with (niggles) going into the game. He’ll be fine tomorrow." Australia were dealing with two serious injury concerns of Hazlewood and Warner and would be satisfied with Warner holding his fitness just good enough to feature in the game. Hazlewood suffered a side strain in the first Test and while he is expected to return in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, the nature of the injury could also rule him out of the game for an extended period of time and hence Australia will be eager to not let the winning momentum go at the Adelaide Oval.

PAK vs WI | 2nd T20I: Romario Shepherd's late hitting not enough as Pakistan take unassailable lead

Romario Shepherd, the lower order batter from West Indies hit some lusty blows at the end of the innings. And at one point in time when he hit the second ball of the last over for a six and brought down the equation to 15 from four balls and then subsequently to 11 from two balls after hitting a four on the fourth ball. It seemed as if there would occur some miracle, but it wasn't to be. Even though the fifth ball was hit like a tracer bullet, Asif Ali put his body on the line at extra cover and prevented certain boundaries to give West Indies any chance of hitting a six on the last ball and get the game in the super over. Rather on the last ball, Haris Rauf, the bowler removed Oshane Thomas as Shepherd had changed strike and Pakistan were able to get West Indies all out twice in two games. With this nine-run win, the Babar Azam led team has now taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series having won the first T20I by a huge margin of 63 runs on Monday, December 13th. Although the chase got pretty tight in the end, it wasn’t like that all the way for the West Indies. Their start to the 173 run chase was not ideal as they lost opener Shai Hope at the team score of only 17 in the third over. Hope had scored one run off six balls. Shamarh Brooks who came to replace him also went out cheaply even as Brandon King was scoring smoothly from the other end. The 26-year-old King found an able partner in Windies skipper Nicholas Pooran as the two added 54 for the third wicket. Pooran got too ambitious and even after hitting one six in the over, he tried clearing the field twice and was caught brilliantly by Rauf off the bowling of Mohammad Nawaz. The right-handed King who reached his maiden fifty meanwhile tried to steer the ship alongside Rovman Powell but failed and both Powell and King departed in quick succession to leave the men in maroon reeling at 118-5, still requiring 55 off 28 balls. After that, players came and they went, but Shepherd, who had joined the crease after the fall of King’s wicket kept on hitting them far and wide. But in the end, it wasn’t enough as Pakistan bowlers held their nerves and did not allow him to run away with the game even as the tall Caribbean remained unbeaten on 35 off just 19 balls. Earlier in the evening, after winning the toss and deciding to bat first, the men in green once again had a false start as their captain Babar failed twice in two games, only this time he was run out as Mohammad Rizwan, his partner at the other end ran by tapping the ball and Hayden Walsh Junior was quick enough to get the bails removed before Babar could even come in the frame. Fakhar Zaman too followed Babar back to the pavilion. But the two batters after that, Iftikhar Ahmed and Haider Ali tried building partnerships. First Haider built a 48 run stand with Rizwan and then a 23 run stand with Iftikhar to get Pakistan to 109-3 in the 14th over before getting out on the last ball of the same over. Mohammad Nawaz and Asif Ali didn’t get going either and if it wasn’t for Shadab Khan’s unbeaten 28 runs off 12 balls, it would have been hard for Pakistan to get past 170. While Rizwan made 38 off 30 balls, Haider and Iftikhar scored 31 and 32 respectively.

Virat Kohli to clarify his stand on playing SA ODIs in press conference on Wednesday: Reports

After being removed as the ODI skipper of the Indian cricket team, Test captain Virat Kohli will address the media for the first time tomorrow i.e. on December 15 and it is expected that he will be speaking on matters related to his removal as India captain. With rumours buzzing about a rift between him and Rohit Sharma, Kohli is also expected to put an end to the same and clarify his position on playing the ODI leg of the South Africa series. BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal along with Hyderabad Cricket Association's president Mohammad Azharuddin made things extremely murky in the last couple of days stating that Kohli had asked for leave during the ODI leg of the tour. Since then several unnamed BCCI officials have come forward refuting the same to add to the ongoing confusion. Time of India journalist K Srinivas Rao tweeted about the development Kohli will be addressing a press briefing on Wednesday and potentially could speak about the ongoing issues to put a stop to the rumour mongering. It is worth noting that ever since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the removal of the 33-year-old Kohli as skipper of the One-Day side and appointed 34-year-old Rohit as his successor in the 50-over format on December 08, Kohli had not said a word either on his social media or in the press. Therefore this media briefing becomes extremely important given that the reason for his removal as given by BCCI head Sourav Ganguly was that the board wanted uniformity in red and white ball leadership. Ganguly had also said that the board never wanted Kohli to quit T20I captaincy but since he did that, the board had no other choice but to make Rohit the full white-ball captain and appointed him as blithe T20I and ODI captain. Virat Kohli had announced before the start of the second leg of the Indian Premier League in the UAE that the T20 World Cup 2021, which was held in UAE and Oman would be his last as captain of the Indian team in the shortest format. He had also announced the IPL 2021 to be his last IPL as leader of the RCB franchise.