He builds pressure: Ponting reckons Lyon can be decisive in second innings

NZ vs PAK 1st T20: Duffy on debut takes Kiwis past the Pakistan challenge

New Zealand started the three-match T20 series against Pakistan in style as they defeated the Men in Green by five wickets with seven balls to spare in the 1st T20I that took place at Eden Park, Auckland on 18th December. Skipper Mitchell Santner hit the winning six off Wahab Riaz. However, before that, it was the efforts of wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Siefert (57 off 43) and middle-order batsman Mark Chapman (34 off 20) who took the game away from the green brigade even after some inspired bowling by Haris Rauf (3-29 in four overs). Pakistan had a chance to sneak in when Tim Siefert was dismissed and there was a chance to catch Mark Chapman too, but Ashraf dropped a dolly at fine leg to give the hosts an easy pass. At 119/4 the match could have swung to Pak’s favour had that catch been taken. After that, it was all formalities which were done away with ease by James Neesham and the skipper Santner. Debutant fast bowler Jacob Duffy was the star of the match as he picked up four wickets for 33 runs in his four overs, thereby becoming the New Zealander with the best ever figures in a T20I match. Prior to him, the record belonged to all-rounder Nathan Astel who held for 15 long years with figures of 3/20 that he had achieved against South Africa in 2005. His figures would have been way better had he not been hit for 20 runs in his last over. Duffy was declared Man of the Match for his record-breaking effort. Earlier in the day, Pakistan had a shocking start to their campaign as they were reduced to 39-5 in 8.2 overs with all of the top order except skipper Shadab Khan back in the hut. Shadab then paired up first with fellow spinning all-rounder Imad Wasim and then with Faheem Ashraf to take Pakistan to 114 in 17 overs. After that, some lusty blows from Faheem (31 off 18 balls) and Shaheen Afridi took the total to respectable amounts i.e. 153-9. The next game would be played at Seddon Park in Auckland itself on 20th December with Pakistan needing to win the game to stay alive in the series.

Ravindra and Abbas impress in 'unofficial' Test against New Zealand A

Upcoming all-rounder Rachin Ravindra made another good impression by scoring 70 for New Zealand A against Pakistan Shaheens (Pakistan A) in the ongoing one-off unofficial Test at Whangerei. At the end of play on day 2 of the match, Shaheens were 15/1 in their second innings after the home side scored 226 in response to the visitors' 194, leading by 47 with two days to go. Opening the innings for his team, Ravindra, who is coming off a fantastic all-round showing against West Indies in the recently-concluded series agianst that team, ended up as the top scorer for his side. The day began with the hosts at 23/1 in response to Shaheens' 194. Ravindra didn't receive much support from the rest of the batting line-up with only one other batsman reaching half-century. That was wicketkeeper Cam Fletcher with 57. The only other score of consequence was Nathan Smith's 40. For Pakistan, seamer Mohammad Abbas picked up four wickets for 40 runs in 21.5 overs. Three wickets each were taken by Yasir Shah and Amad Butt. In Shaheen's second innings, with only seven overs bowled till the close of the play, the batting side lost one wicket in the form of Abid Ali who was dismissed by Ed Nuttall, the bowler who picked up five wickets in the first innings. Shan Masood was batting on 10 while Azhar Ali was not out on 2.

Inside out | R Ashwin defeats pink-ball history, avenges Steve Smith's dominance on him

There was a chorus of discussion on what was to be the composition of the Indian bowling attack for the ongoing day-night test in Adelaide and a school of thought was that the tourists might field an all-pace attack and leave out Ravichandran Ashwin, their premier spinner in terms of numbers, more so in the absence of Ravindra Jadeja. The argument in favour of exclusion of Ashwin was not far stretched as Kohli has a fascination of playing with pace and matching fire to fire with the opposition (remember Johannesburg 2018) and the amount of help the pacers were expected to extract out of the pitch under lights. The stats too were stacked against Ashwin’s chance of playing in Adelaide as no spinners other than Nathan Lyon has been able to crack the pink-ball code as of yet. In the last day-night test in Australia, between the home team and Pakistan, arguably the best spinner in the world, Yasir Shah got a massive hammering at the hands of Australian batsmen in Brisbane. In the end, Kohli and team management stuck with the process of selection they have been following in the last few test series after attaining an all-dimensional bowling attack that can bring the team into the game at any type of pitch and under any circumstances. The kind of help Lyon was getting off the day1 pitch and the amount of trouble he caused to the Indian right-handers had very well vindicated the call Kohli took on playing Ashwin and resting the fascinating temptation of unleashing four quicks with the pink ball against the hosts. The pitch has something for the spinner, not a lot but Lyon was wise to extract enough help to keep the Indian middle order that included the likes of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane checked through his spells and it set a template for Ashwin. The battle between Lyon and Ashwin on who is the best off sp[inner in the world gets contentious with every series that India and Australia play against each other and the fact that the Australian finger spinner has been the only one to taste success with the pink ball would have also made Ashwin hungrier to stamp his authority with the pink Kookaburra ball. After a period of half an hour, Indian pacers got back their lengths to trouble the top order and brought Steve Smith to the middle. When Kohli first introduced Ashwin after the dinner break, the challenge was ominous for the tourists and more so for Ashwin who has had to see and swallow Steve Smith flourishing with the bat on numerous occasions and a lot of times at his expense. Ashwin had seen Smith dominating him and his teammates on a minefield in Pune in 2017 while the 2013-14 series must have been unforgettable for him as a bowler who struggled to go past Smith’s brilliance. Ashwin was brought in to the attack in the 27th over and by that time Steve Smith had played 26 balls without any trouble whatsoever. He was taking his time and it seemed as if he was meditating for yet another big one against his favourite opponent. Ashwin could bowl to Smith only from the fourth ball of his first over and he started with a couple of flighted off-spinners that did not turn that much but there was a definite sense of effort to flight the ball from Ashwin and to no one’s surprise Smith looked up for the challenge. He was not though as Ashwin played his next card very intelligently and to everyone’s surprise Smith could not quite make out the intention of Ashwin when he lowered the trajectory of his third ball to the right-hander. Smith played back for a hint of spin that he faced on the last two balls, but Ashwin’s attempt to bowl the one delivery that went straight on landed perfectly on the off stump line to take Smith’s outside edge. An ecstatic Ashwin ran like in a similar manner Lasith Malina had run after dismissing Sachin Tendulkar in the final of a world cup and by it symbolised the value he had put on Smith’s wicket and the fact that he could win the first round of a long-expected battle in the very first over before Smith could harm India made the success, even more, sweeter for the wily off-spinner. The next man in, Travis Head provided him yet another opportunity of getting things completely under control. Head was worried about getting his pads caught in the line of the stumps and hence Ashwin could not afford to bowl outside the line of off stump as it could not have induced any stroke from the left-hander. The battle between him and Head could not last more than 10 balls as Ashwin was smart enough to use all the drifts he was getting bowling round the wicket and pitched one on the middle stump. Head sensed an opportunity of scoring through the vacant leg side and the drift on the ball made that shot a tempting one but actually, it ended up straightening up on him and Ashwin was waiting for that mistake to plug a safe catch in his follow-through to peg back the Australian middle order as the match came back right in the balance. Cameron Green who was making his debut in this test was tested by Ashwin as another duel did not last too long. Green was beaten in flight when he wanted to come down the track to have a go while he was also caught on the wrong foot when he tried to combat the short of length balls coming into him. The right-hander looked fidgety at the crease and in the process tried to manufacture an aggressive shot and perished against a ball that was not short enough to be pulled over midwicket. Ashwin also showed his longevity on the day when all mattered for the Indian side and bowled unchanged from the one end in the period from the diner break to the tea time. His spell at the end of the second session read 11-3-27-3 and at least for the outcome of the game till the end of the day’s play, Ashwin proved to be a match-winner who didn’t only chip in with the control by checking the flow of runs--a role hat all spinners coming from India and subcontinent is imposed with, but also provided his captain with another wicket-taking option and a championed the role by breaking the backbone of the Australian batting line up in a span of a couple of hours.

Ashwin picks four as Australia lag behind

Ravichandran Ashwin was the star of the show as India bundled out Australia for 191 on the second day of the pink-ball Test.