Not at all worried about World Cup or IPL, focussed on winning series: Jasprit Bumrah

UAE wicket-keeper Ghulam Shabber banned by ICC for four years

The links to match-fixing and corrupt practices with the players from Emirates Cricket Board just doesn’t seem to break a yet another cricketer has been banned for five years by International Cricket Council for failing to report match-fixing approaches. UAE’s wicket keeper batsman Ghulam Shabber has been found guilty of breaching six counts of the ICC anti-corruption code. Shabbir has accepted the sanctions and has thus been banned for five years starting August 20. According to ICC’s integrity unit, Shabber failed "to disclose to the ACU full details of attempted approaches to engage in corrupt conduct". The approaches were made to him during his team’s series against Nepal in January-February 2019 and then once again in the series against Zimbabwe in April of the same year. The 35-year-old also failed to report "full details of an approach received by a teammate to engage in corrupt conduct in relation to the series against Zimbabwe in April 2019." The anti-corruption unit of the international body also found the Pakistan born player guilty of derailing the investigation by concealing certain facts. The ACU said, that Ghulam failed, “to disclose to the ACU full details of facts and/or incidents that he was aware of which may have evidenced corrupt conduct by other Participants." "Shabber played 40 matches for the UAE and was expected to understand his responsibilities as an international cricketer. He also attended at least three anti-corruption education sessions in which players were reminded of their obligations to report any approaches by corrupters," said Alex Marshall, ICC General Manager - Integrity Unit. In his career spanning from 2016 to 2019, Shabber played 23 ODIs and 17 T20Is for UAE, scoring a total of 708 international runs with four fifties in his kitty and 90 being his highest score.

Best thing about Oval and Lord’s win is character of the team: Virat Kohli

The Indian skipper Virat Kohli praised the effort of the Indian bowling unit to dismiss England once again on day five and register the second victory in the five-match series against the hosts. But more than that, the captain was proud of the character shown by the team which in every difficult situation came out trumps to take the match home. Talking about how the team made comeback from conceding 99 runs lead in the first innings, Kohli said, “To come back from there and the way we batted in the second innings showed that we are not down and out. And we are not looking to survive in this game. If there's an opportunity to put the opposition under pressure, we'll go for it. And we put up a total on the board which was always going to be difficult to chase, especially heading into the latter half of Day 4 and 5.” There were many similarities between the victories at Lord’s in the second Test and this one at Oval in the fourth Test. To Kohli though, there was one similarity that trumped all and it was the character shown by the team in both the games. “The best thing about both wins is the character that the side has shown. I'm really proud of the character the team has shown, especially this morning the way the team has bowled. It is definitely among the top three bowling performances that I have witnessed as an Indian captain,” said the 32-year-old. With England 100 for none chasing 367, it seemed that the wickets were really hard to come by, was Kohli ever worried about that? Answering this question, the right-handed batter said, “The last two days, conditions were really hot so the field wasn't that wet like the first three days. And we knew we were in with an opportunity with [Ravindra] Jadeja bowling from one end into the rough - the ball got scuffed up quite nicely and we managed to make one side heavier.” “Our guys, when the ball is reversing enough, they become much more lethal, and we exploited reverse swing perfectly today,” he added. With the 157 runs win the fourth Test, the Indian team seems the favourite to win the series with only one Test remaining which begins on September 10 at Old Trafford.

We’ve got to be more ruthless: Joe Root on another frustrating last day loss

The similarities to the Lord’s defeat and the one at Oval are glaringly similar with the English team going on to lose on the final day from a winning position. The middle order of the England team laying down its guns almost saying that they are unable to keep up the fight was also eerily similar. The English team lost four of its middle-order wickets in just six runs and skipper Joe Root feels it’s frustrating to lose this way. But what’s more frustrating for Root is how his team has given away opportunities one after another, failing to make the most of them. “I think, actually, where the game is lost - where we could really stamp out authority on things was earlier in the game. I think we should have gotten a bigger lead the first time around. It would have been nice to have another 100 runs, actually. And then we're looking at a very different game,” Root said in the post-match press conference after a 157 run defeat in the fourth Test at Oval. England were once 100 without loss with more than 80 overs to be bowled and only 267 runs needed. Some people even thought that they might go on to chase the target down considering the flatness of the wicket. However, from 100 for none, they slumped to 147-6 and win was suddenly out of the question and it was more about survival. Speaking about the attitude of the team, the 30-year-old skipper said, "We've got to be a little bit more ruthless with those first innings runs and with our catches, although some of them were extremely difficult.” Root then went on to give a certain hypothesis of how the team would have approached the match if they were not to lose as many wickets as they did. "Unfortunately we couldn't quite take it deep enough and that was a wonderful spell of bowling that really turned the game. They got the ball reversing nicely and they took advantage of it, and we just didn't have the right answers which are slightly frustrating,’ he said. “Turning up today with the opportunity to go and win a Test match and then to be bowled out is hard to take for the lads in the changing room,” the skipper added, but not before warning that a comeback was around the corner when they reach Manchester. “We'll look at how we responded from Lord's and the performance we put in at Headingley. We're going to look to do exactly the same at Old Trafford," he said. The two teams will now take on each other in the last match of the series at Old Trafford starting September 10. With this win at Oval, India lead the five-match series 2-1.

ENG vs IND | 4th Test: Listless hosts capitulate to give fiery India 2-1 lead at the Oval

For all the expectations England built over the 30 odd overs of their openers batting late on the fourth day, nothing came to rescue them when the heat was on from a fiery Indian pace attack and always accurate Ravindra Jadeja. England slipped to a massive defeat after starting the day as one of the favourites to win the game considering the lack of support for the bowlers from the surface at Lord’s. But, their mediocrity with the bat had to be found out as the Indian bowlers lifted their game just at the right moment in the afternoon session. The final day that began with all four results possible and remained a little bit the same till the first session was reduced to a mere battle of survival for England and dominance for India in a matter of a few overs by Bumrah and Jadeja. Bumrah’s spell for the ages Sky Sports commentators such as Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain were repetitively emphasizing that the pitch at the Oval doesn’t resemble a fifth-day pitch and hence England, especially, after a solid start by the openers could dare to go for the win. Their analyses of the surface were not wrong one bit and it was evident that the bowlers would have to bring their X-factor to get those 10 England wickets. After Shardul Thakur and Dawid Malan gave India an opening in the first session, Jasprit Bumrah took it upon himself to bring India well and truly into the game and how did he do that? He did it by taking the “pitch out of the equation”. Once again, Atherton could see what Bumrah was up to when he was setting up Ollie Pope with attempted away going deliveries one after the other. He was warning on the air about Bumrah also having a nip-backer that comes sharply into right-handers but sadly telepathy doesn’t work for the batsmen and England’s number five could not see what was coming his way. A hooping delivery castled Pope’s stumps and provided India with the lift to go for the kill. He was not done only there and bettered himself with a searing inswinging yorker that left Jonny Bairstow pale and helpless with the bat. With two wickets in quick succession, India had one big rock in Joe Root ahead of them and Bumrah has had him on a couple of occasions in the series. He bowled two as good a yorker to Root as he had castled Bairstow with but the form and confidence helped the England captain dig those toe crushers out. His bowling spell in the afternoon session read 6-3-6-2 wickets and although it did not take more than two wickets, the sudden sense of the momentum shift was quite visible on England batsmen and also his teammates. No wonder, Hussain had to liken his spell to some of the generation bowling spells of Waqar Younis on dry and flat pitches after he clearly rattled the England batting group. Jadeja’s suffocating control Ravindra Jadeja’s selection over Ravichandran Ashwin has created quite a bit of buzz in the series and somewhere it is established that he has been preferred for his batting than his bowling. Before the Oval Test, he was not required in a great deal and neither his performance exceeded expectations. However, with a pitch as flat as the one at the Oval and India setting a huge target for England, it was his momentum of reckoning to come good with the ball. However, he was not at his best at the start of the spell. His uncharacteristic short balls and full tosses allowed both Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed to get some breather on the fourth day. He had conceded 24 runs off his first six overs and was struggling for rhythm. The fifth day was a different challenge though and by all accounts, he was up and ready for every bit of it. The accuracy and precision of finding the perfect spot to land the ball and consistency to hit balls one after another was reloaded in his armoury. He was all over Dawid Malan for his short stay at the crease and nearly had him twice in a space of 12 balls. His drying act asphyxiated Hameed so much that a release shot came in a rash manner but only for Mohammed Siraj to spill an easy catch at mid-on. Jadeja was not to be dissuaded with that though and kept on drying the runs for England batsmen. He was monotonous from over the wicket, bowling in the rough patch. The batsmen Hameed had an option of padding those deliveries for not having the fear of getting LBW but he was not confident on the amount of turn and bounce the balls would have taken from those rough patches and hence relied on the bat to defend Jadeja. The indecisiveness was catastrophic and one ball turned too much to beat him on the outside and edge and shattered his stump and with that England’s most stubborn resistance in the second innings as well. He was on the money from the other end when Bumrah was breathing fire at the other end and when Joe Root took a quick single to gift him an opportunity to bowl to another left-hander from the rough, he obliged gleefully to dismiss Moeen Ali and shake England middle order. What started as a 24 run-yielding spell of six overs, ended as a mere 50 runs-conceding spells of 30 overs and his control from one end enabled Kohli to continue attacking with the pacers from the other end. ‘Lord’ Shardul’s magic wand India were very tight with their line and length to start the day and did not allow England openers to get on a roll after a near-perfect start on the previous day. However, the wicket did not come their way and it was becoming a cause of concern for the Kohli’s troops. The concerns were there though only till Shardul Thakur, who could not do anything wrong in this game was called on to bowl. He started the spell with odd deliveries on the leg side to offer Burns easy runs but soon after produced possibly the ball of the game till that moment. The ball he dismissed Burns on pitched in short of good length area and nipped away off the pitch to take the edge of the left-hander’s bat. Kohli was over the moon as his selection call regarding Shardul was getting vindicated with each and every success of his bowler but it was not the biggest moment for them in the game. After the dismissal of the top three, England’s hopes were lying purely on the shoulders of skipper Root. He looked the best England batsmen and was remarkable in his defence against an on-fire Bumrah but his mastery and good form could not provide him with a lifeline against the wrath of ‘Lord’ Shardul who got him with an innocuous delivery outside off stump. He had dismissed Ollie Pope, England’s leading-run scorer in the first innings in a similar manner and with Root’s wicket, it was evident that his stars were stringer than all of England at the Oval from the first day to the last. India have taken a comprehensive lead of 2-1 with a game to go in the five-match series and England have been handed a harsh reality check once again after the highs of Headingley. They might as well go back to playing on a seaming pitch to protect themselves from losing a big Test series at home as defeating this Indian team on a flat surface is not an easy task. However, they will have to be wary of India’s pace attack as well in case they lose the toss at Old Trafford. The win at the Oval vindicated many calls Kohli took as the captain and those calls will continue to be taken if the pitch in Manchester asks him to do so. On the other hand, Root will have to search for inspiration once again to lift his side from another demoralising loss at the Oval.