Lance Klusener will not extend his Afghanistan’s head coach position

BAN vs PAK | Abid Ali misses out on consecutive centuries but guides Pakistan to easy win

Chasing more than 200 in a Test match is a dangerous proposition and in the subcontinent, it becomes even more precarious given the amount of turn that the pitches offer. However, for Pakistan openers, it turned out to be a walk in the park as they chased down the target of 203 set up by the Bangladeshi team in the fourth innings with much ease. Abid Ali and Abdullah Shafique, the two openers played a great role in the victory as they did not give even a window of opportunity for the Bangladeshi bowlers to make inroads. Taking a leaf out of their first innings partnership of 146, the duo stitched together 151 this time around. They remained unbeaten on the fourth day, making the fifth day just a formality as only 93 runs were required for the win. Bangladesh, on the other end, might have harboured hopes of getting back into the game on the last day with their spin duo of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam. However, it took too late for them to come to action and even as Mehidy broke the opening partnership by removing Shafique for 73. Tailjul also removed Abid for 91, but by that time Pakistan required only 31 runs to win. Skipper Babar Azam and senior Azhar Ali made sure that the target was reached without any further breaches. Earlier Bangladesh, even after claiming 44 runs lead in the first innings courtesy of Islam’s brilliant 7-116 spell, wasn’t able to capitalise on it and could only make 157 in their second innings. Even getting to that would have been difficult if it wasn’t for the half-century from Liton Das as the rest of the batters literally threw their wickets away. Courtesy of this win, the Pakistani team moved to second position in the Points Table of the World Test Championship 2021-23. They have 66.66 Percentage of Points courtesy of two wins from three completed games. Sri Lanka lead the table with one win from one match.

SL vs WI | 2nd Test: Spin duo Permaul and Warrican dismantle Sri Lanka for 204

Sri Lanka started the second day’s proceedings of the second Test at Galle at the overnight score of 113-1 and were looking to capitalise on the momentum from Pathum Nissanka’s half-century who was unbeaten at 61. However, Veerasammy Permaul, playing his first Test in seven years had other ideas as he pulled out the career-best performance with the ball to dismantle the Lankan middle order and trigger a collapse. Sri Lanka lost its last nine wickets in a span of just 65 runs and 19.3 overs with Permaul accounting for five of the nine dismissals. He was helped equally by Jomel Warrican who picked up the remaining four wickets. The start to the wicket-taking spree of the Wets Indies team was initiated by Warrican who removed Oshada Fernando early in the morning to break the overnight stand. Permaul then got the wicket of Nissanka as his first scalp of the game. Angelo Mathews was retired hurt in the meanwhile due to hamstring injury, but the sequence of falling wickets unfolded as if planed by some divine intervention. One after the other it just kept falling apart. None among Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva and Ramesh Mendis could get to double figures. Charith Asalanka, who was making his Test debut was also dumbfounded and became Permaul’s third scalp, getting out for 10. Had it not been for some lusty blows at the end from Mathews who came back after the fall of the eights wicket, it would have been difficult for Sri Lanka to even get past the 200 run mark. Eventually with no help from lower-order either, the team folded for 204. In reply, West Indies haven’t lost even a single wicket having scored 12 at the time of writing this.

We did it together bro: Rachin Ravindra and Ajaz Patel shed light on the Kanpur heist

Rachin Ravindra and Ajaz Patel, the two Indian origin players of the New Zealand team were responsible for what would be known in years to come as Kanpur heist. They literally took the game away from India under fading lights and hence there was no loss of happy smiles on their faces when Ajaz was asked to speak to Ravindra about the drawn Test match, which was also Ravindra’s debut Test. Asked about his experience of the first Test, Ravindra said, “ Being able to play in India in front of their crazy fans, bit nail-biting at the end, glad we could get the draw. And if you could ask me when will be a perfect Test match, maybe that was it.” Talking about the butterflies in the stomach while getting to play his debut Test, Ravindra said, “Definitely a little bit nervous bowling wise and when we were four down and I was next to bat in the first innings, I definitely felt the butterflies. But after a while, I did what I do and backed all the efforts that I have done and luckily it ended up okay on the last day.” Ajaz then mentioned how important has Ravindra’s dad’s role been in making him a cricketer. Speaking about that the 22-year-old said, “My mom and dad have been such big influences on me and my career thus far. It’s pretty special to be able to play in their home town (Kanpur). I am sure they are very proud. Obviously, I can’t thank them enough for what they have done.” However, the icing on the cake in that interview was when Ajaz said, “What an exciting way to start off your Test career mate” and Ravindra replied, “Yeah it was. It was really nice, but we did it together bro.” The duo survived 52 balls as the last standing pair of the New Zealand team and earned the hard-fought draw.

Watch: Ashwin thanks Harbhajan for his 2001 spell against Australia, calls it life-changing

Ravichandran Ashwin surpassed Harbhajan Singh to become the third leading Test wicket-taker of India. The feat was achieved in the fourth innings of the Kanpur Test when he removed a well-settled Tom Latham to give the Indian unit a chance to force its way back into the game. Reacting to that in a post-match interview with fellow teammate Shreyas Iyer, Ashwin said that Harbhajan is a pure legend of the game and surpassing him is a big achievement. “I think these are numbers that are happening as a result of my efforts and my willingness to enjoy the game. At this point in time, honestly speaking, I am not worried about what number I am surpassing or anything. It’s a wonderful milestone, Harbhajan Singh, when he was bowling that wonderful spell against Australia in 2001, I never thought I would even be an off-spinner on that particular day. But inspired by him I decided to ball off-spin and here I am,” said the Chennai born who now has to his kitty 419 wickets, two more than Harbahajan and only 15 less than the great Kapil Dev.