Kevin Pietersen says Rashid Khan is worried about his family with Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

WI vs PAK | Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales hold nerves to see Windies to thrilling one-wicket win

It’s a rare occasion in Test cricket that aside wins a match by one wicket. But whatever little amount of people that were available in the limited seating capacity of the Sabina Park at Kingston, Jamaica, they will surely remember the one-wicket win of the West Indies over Pakistan for the rest of their lives. Fast bowler Kemar Roach was the most unlikely hero with the bat for the home team, scoring an unbeaten 30 off 52 balls to guide them home in a chase of 168 in the fourth innings. He stitched together an unbeaten 17 run partnership with number 10 Jayden Seales to reach the total and maintain West Indies’ record of successful chases of targets below 200. Chasing 168, after getting Pakistan bundled out for 203 in their second essay thanks to Seales’ historic five-wicket haul, where he became the youngest West Indian t achieve the feat at 19 years of age, Windies didn’t really have a good start. Shaheen Afridi was spitting fire on that Jamiac wicket and removed the top three batters for just 16 runs on the board. Jermaine Blackwood and Roston chase then steadied the ship and got a partnership going to fuel the hopes of Men in Maroon of chasing the total down. The duo added 68 for the fourth wicket before Chase was removed by Faheem Ashraf. Kyle Mayers couldn’t do much either and was forced to register a pair after being caught at the slips for nought of another Ashraf delivery. Just as things started to look bright again with a 19 run stand between Blackwood and Jason Holder with the former picking up his 15th Test fifty, Hasan Ali struck and removed him. Soon, Holder was removed as well and Windies were staring at defeat with 54 runs still to get and new batters in Joshua Da Silva and Roch at the crease. The pair added 28 for the eighth wicket and gave hope to the Windies team. However, Da Silva was removed by Shaheen Afridi and then Mohammad Rizwan took an outstanding catch to send Jomel Warrican back to the pavilion with Windies still requiring 17 and that’s when Seales joined Roach and in legendary commentator, Ian Bishop’s words, “The teacher and his student led the Windies to a famous win”. This is the third occasion in 84 Tests in the last 12 years where a team has won a Test by one wicket and although it can’t be compared with the heroics of Ben Stokes to win the Headingley Test of the Ashes of 2019, this one is surely up there somewhere when it comes to thrilling test wins. Seales was awarded Man of the Match for his eight wickets and crucial stand with Roach at the end. The two teams will now once again be up against each other from August 20 for the second and final Test of the series at the same venue.

The Hundred | Southern Brave vs Oval Invincibles: When & where to watch Live, Probable XI, Fantasy XI

The third last league game of the season and two of the best teams of the league in Southern Brave and Oval Invincibles would be up against each other to try and secure a birth for themselves in the final three in the points table to be able to make it to the Playoffs of the inaugural edition of The Hundred. The equation is very simple for Oval Invincibles who would be playing their last game of the season and have nine points in their kitty. For them to secure a berth in the finals, they just need a plain and simple win. If they fail to get that, chances are they would not be able to make the final as Birmingham Phoenix are already on 10 and points and their loss against Brave would also take Brave to 10 points and if Rockets win their game against Manchester Originals, they would be on 10 pints as well. So if Oval doesn’t want to remain dependent on someone else’s results, it must win. Similar is the case with the Brave who have won their previous four out of the five games with one of them getting washed out. If James Vince’ men secure a win in this game, they would ensure that Oval are almost out of the race of the Playoffs and they are in. How things unfold, only time will tell. Southern Brave vs Oval Invincibles: Match Details Match Number- 30 Date and Time: August 16, 2021, 11:00 pm IST, 06:30 pm Local, 05:30pm GMT Venue: The Rose Bowl Southampton Live Stream: FanCode Pitch Report The pitch at Southampton has been a decent one. Not as high scoring as Birmingham, but not dead either. It has something for the bowlers in terms of bounce and a slight bit of turn as well. But that does not mean that batters can’t score runs if they apply themselves well. Weather Forecast According to BCC Weather, there are only 5-6% chances of precipitation, hence a good full game, which would also be the best possible scenario for both the teams as no one would like to get through with a washout. But the teams would be looking to secure their place in the final three with an outright victory. Southern Brave Probable XI Quinton de Kock (wk), Paul Stirling, James Vince (c), Alex Davies, Colin de Grandhomme, Ross Whiteley, Chris Jordan, George Garton, Danny Briggs, Tymal Mills, Jake Lintott Oval Invincibles Probable XI Jason Roy, Will Jacks, Sunil Narine, Colin Ingram, Sam Billings (c & wk), Alex Blake, Laurie Evans, Tom Curran, Tabraiz Shamsi, Reece Topley, Saqib Mahmood Fantasy XI Quinton de Kock (wk), Jason Roy, James Vince, Sam Billings, Laurie Evans, Chris Jordan, Sunil Narine, Tom Curran, Danny Briggs, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tymal Mills, Captain Quinton de Kock Vice-Captain Tabraiz Shamsi

Sai Kishore keeps calm to nullify valiant effort from Sravana Kumar; hands Chepauk it's record third TNPL title

It was a match that moved like a seesaw in the second innings with Rybu Trichy Warriors gaining control at one point and Chepauk Super Gillies being in control at the other. However, Chepauk’s experienced hand Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore kept his cool to deliver a phenomenal final over to deny P Sarvana Kumar and Ruby Trichy Warriors a shot at their maiden Tamil Nadu Premier League title. Courtesy of Kishore’s tight over, the Warriors couldn’t chase down 13 runs in the last over and fell short by 8 runs in the end to lose the match. Sarvana Kumar, who played a blinder of an innings to take his team from 108-6 in the 14th over while chasing an imposing target of 184, to a striking distance of 171 in the 19th over, wasn’t able to finish the task. His 25 ball 45 unbeaten in which he hit three fours and three sixes and scored at a strike rate of more than 180, went in vain eventually. Trichy Warriors, who had eaten Super Gullies twice before this game in the TNPL 2021, once during the league stage and once in the Qualifier started off well adding 40 for the first wicket in the first three overs itself. They were going well even till the 9th over having crossed the 80 run mark while losing only two wickets. However, the downfall started with Antony Dhas’ wicket in the 10th over and in a span of just 20 runs and four overs, Trichy lost its four wickets. That is when Sarvana Kumar’s rescue act began in partnership with M Mathivanan. The two added 50 runs in just 26 balls before Mathivanan was dismissed and M Poiyamozhi took his place. Along with Sai Kishore, R Sonu Yadav was the pick of the bowlers for the Gillies, finishing with figures of 2/32 in his four overs. Earlier in the day, after winning the toss Trichy Warriors invited Super Gillies to bat. The opportunity was utilised well by the likes of Narayan Jagadeesan and Kaushik Gandhi who put on 58 for the first wicket. While Gandhi got out, Jagadeesan continued to plunder and eventually ended up with 90 from 58 balls to guide his team to a mammoth total of 183. With this win, the Chepauk Super Gilles have now won three out of the five TNPL titles so far.

ENG vs IND | 2nd Test, Day 4: Moeen, Wood overpower Rahane - Pujara to set up cracking final day

The infuriated gestures from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma from the Indian balcony to ask Rishabh Pant and Ishant Sharma to have a word with on-filed umpires over the issue of light all but slumped up the tourists’ position in the game. Having started the game on such dominating note that experts and fans started arguing if the Indian team finally arrived on England tour, they are the side facing the strongest chance of defeat leading into the final day of the series. They needed to put on another strong batting performance on the line of what the opposition captain Joe Root had done on the previous day. However, they were down and out and on the brink barely after reaching the fifty run mark. As soon as Rohit Sharma departed pulling Mark Wood to Moeen Ali at deep square leg, the onus fell on the middle order to finally come to the party and bail the team out of trouble. They kind of did all the hard work but could not quite steer the visitors out of trouble by the end of the day’s play. It was a perfect day of cricket for England as they kept the control of the game in their favour throughout the course of the day and found breakthroughs at regular intervals to keep India at bay. The early wickets of Rohit, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli gave them a real sense of opportunity, while Moeen Ali’s twin strikes late in the day tilted the momentum significantly in their favour. Wood uproots India’s base In absence of Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson was preferred over Mark Wood with the new ball and the latter was brought into the attack only after the 20th over in the first innings. However, the nature of the pitch had changed considerably from the first day to the fourth day and after having batted for a magnificent 180, Root was aware of its slowness. Robinson was again preferred with the new ball, but he amended his course by not delaying Wood this time around. Root would have felt the urge to use the extra pace of Wood to extract more help from the surface and the move paid off almost immediately as Rahul could not quite hold himself from playing at a short of good length ball he should have left. Rohit, a compulsive hooker of the short ball, was asked to hit some lusty shots. Remaining true to his nature and style, he obliged with a crisp shot that went flat over the square leg boundary. Having seen Rohit taking on the short ball, Root sent positioned deep square leg at a finer position and the right-hander perished falling into the trap. Wood was asked to attack Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane with a short ball from round the wicket angle. However, they did not lose their patience and Wood had to go back after finishing that spell. He came back later towards the end of the day’s play when Rahane and Pujara were closing in on a 100-run partnership. The latter was confident to pull the pacer for four to bring up the partnership landmark but the jubilation was short-lived. Wood produced a snotter that rarer off from the good length area, leaving Pujara with no answer other than to edging to third slip. Wood was rapid and on the money whenever Root needed him and his role as an enforcer of this England was well-ratified. Rahane-Pujara’s hear the calls Both Rahane and Pujara were under tremendous pressure coming into bat in the second innings after their failures in the first innings squandered the dominating start by the openers. Both of them were guilty of searching the ball outside their off stump against Anderson and India could not reach the level they should have reached after Rahul’s century and Rohit’s 83. Rahane joined Pujara after the fall of the gigantic wicket of Kohli when they were just 28 runs ahead of England with more than five sessions remaining in the game. They had to make a call on whether they wanted to take the game on or they wanted to soak up the pressure and bat with solidity and concentration on the surface that was not playing dangerous tricks. In an unsurprising move, they decided to take time and needless to say they took a lot of time as Pujara took as many as 35 balls to get off the mark. Rahane too ate a fair share of balls to bring solidity to the Indian batting. They batted out the remaining part of the morning session and carried on their merry way to bat the entire afternoon session at a run rate of fewer than two runs per over. The slowness of their partnership would have ignited debates about ‘intent’ and being too defensive, but lack of batting depth and a lot of time left in the game meant they had to dig in. Moeen Ali’s love affair with India in England Moeen Ali was the chief beneficiary of Pujara-Rahane’s defensive batting as he allowed Root with the control of the game from the other end. His first 10 overs yielded runs at two runs per over and lack of timing from both batsmen meant even his loose deliveries went unpunished. The rewards of building pressure and bowling in a tight channel outside off stump paid dividends when Rahane, who was getting beaten repeatedly on the backfoot, edged one through to Jos Buttler. Moeen has had Rahane’s numbers in the past and the journey continued at lord’s today. Moeen bettered his day by finding a perfect off-spinner’s delivery against Jadeja. He was getting good drift throughout the day and another such delivery found Jadeja playing for a ball that shaped to come into him in the air, before turning off the pitch, and opening him up and hitting the stumps. The twin strikes just before the second new ball was due put England significantly ahead in the game and India would need remarkable batting from Pant and bowlers to get back in the game. Looking ahead to the final day India are ahead by 154 runs but have only Pant who can score runs and put England under pressure. They need the bowlers to shine bright with the bat and especially Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah need to defend well to give Pant some opportunity to attack England early on on the final day. If they fail to perform that task, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami should be ready to swing their bats to maximise the number of runs they can add. A lot of India’s fortunes will depend on the longevity of Pant’s stay at the crease and for England, it would be a battle for cat and mouse as they would be willing to hide the ball away from the right-hander and wipe off the tail. The first four days have been topsy-turvy with no team clearly ahead in the game. However, by the end of the fourth day, England are favourites to take the game and 1-0 lead in their kitty. Whatever it has in store for the fans of the game, it’s Rishabh Pant standing in between England and India on the final day of the Lord’s Test.