Ponting praises Rahane for exemplary leadership after Adelaide debacle

Wasim Jaffer bashes English Media for graceless comments on Rahane century

Former India Test opener Wasim Jaffer has once again won hearts on Twitter as he bashed teh English Daily Telegraph’s Sports section for its graceless commentary on Indian skipper Ajinkya Rahane’s century in the Melbourne Test against the Aussies. The Mumbaikar posted a ‘corrected’ screengrab of a Twitter post of the Telegraph in which it had called Rahane’s century as being a mere chance shot aided by dropped catches. “Ajinkya Rahane benefitted from dropped catches to claim his 12th Test century as India withstand Australian assault and take control,” Telegraph Sport had written in its original caption. Jaffer, 42, corrected the caption as “Ajinkya Rahane claims 12th Test century as India withstand Australian assault and take control.” He then captioned teh tweet as, “Fixed it for you @TelegraphSport #AUSvsIND #Rahane.” The former Vidarbha and Mumbai player was lauded by the netizens for the befitting reply that he gave to the English media through this gesture of his. Although, even till the time of writing this news, the Telegraph hadn’t corrected its mistake out of moral obligations. Earlier today, Rahane fought the fierce Aussie fast bowling to reach to a brilliant ton after a dismal showing in Adelaide. He is currently not out on 104.

South Africa fight back strongly after Sri Lanka put up impressive first-innings total

Sri Lanka's hopes of dominating the first Test against South Africa were severely dented by a strong reply from the home side. The resistance was led by their dogged opener Dean Elgar who just missed out on another Test hundred. Still, the Proteas ended day 2 on 317/4, trailing Sri Lanka by 79 runs. Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka mangaed to take their score to 396 after starting at 340/6. The seventh-wicket partnership between Dasun Shanaka and Kasun Rajitha added a valuable 67 runs to the team's score. Shanaka managed to reach his fifty and remained unbeaten at the end of the innings on the personal score of 66. After the fall of the seventh wicket, of Kasun Rajitha, who scored 12, South Africa ended the lower order's resistance quickly. Debutant Lutho Sipamla, who struggled early on during the first day but managed to look more effective with the second new ball, picked up the last three wickets and ended with figures of 4/76. Wiaan Mulder also had good figures - 3/69. South Africa started on a very strong note. Despite the pitch offering some assistance to the seamers, openers Elgar and Aiden Markram put up a partnership of 141. Markram was out on 68 to Vishwa Fernando. Rassie van der Dussen, occupying the pivotal no. 3 position, which had been made his own by Hashim Amla, managed only 15 before a beautiful delivery by Lahiru Kumara moved just a little to take the edge of his bat, and the catch was taken by the wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella. At this stage, Sri Lankan seamers started to get the ball to move around and presented challenges to the batsmen. Elgar, nearing his hundred, fell prey to a delivery that swung back in from Shanaka and the left-hander's strong bottom hand made the ball travel back towards the bowler, aerially, to be taken gleefully by him. Elgar scored 95. Quinton de Kock came out at no. 5 and straightaway got into his strokeplaying mode. Unfortunately for him, debutant Wanindu Hasaranga got a delivery to go on with the angle, instead of turning like a regular leg-break, into the batsman. The ball took the edge of de Kock's closed-face bat and carried to slip. At 220/4, with the conditions still offering assistance to the seamers, South African team would have been a bit worried. However, du Plessis and Bavuma took charge and negotiated the bowling without creating any chances. Sri Lankan pacers were not able to bowl consistent lines and lengths to trouble the batsmen while Hasaranga's success didn't lead to more spin-related troubles for the batting pair. By the time the end of the day came around, Faf had managed to reach an important half-century in his career. Bavuma also moved on to 41. The partnership is worth 97 runs and looking ominous for the Lankans. The visiting teams bowlers just didn't create enough opportunities. They were also hamstrung with an injury to Kasun Rajitha which forced him to leave the field after bowling just 2.1 overs. The match has proceded in an unexpected way. Despite the pitch having sufficient bounce and movement, neither team has been able to do justice to them. The match has, hence, turned into one with high scores in first innings.

Bizarre! Bihar Cricket Association selects two teams for Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Another round of controversies erupted in one of the most controversial state cricket associations the Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) as two warring factions led by the Association President Rakesh Tiwary and Secretary of BCA Sanjay Kumar selected two different teams for the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament to represent Bihar. The Tiwary faction released a 20 member squad led by the Ranji Team captain Ashutosh Aman, while secretary Sanjay Kumar’s squad has Keshav Kumar, the opening batsman who was among the runs in this Ranji season as the leader of the squad. The surprising factor is, there are no common players in both squads. Reacting to media queries on this bizarre incident Prez Tiwary said, “This is a non-issue. The BCCI provided us with an ODMS software password which is used for the registration of players. 30 rooms are booked by BCCI in Chennai bio bubble as per the list sent by us. The secretary’s team is a fake one.” Alleging that the Secretary has been removed by the Association after eight members signed a petition, Tiwary also leveled charges of favoritism and biasedness on Kumar. “He has put his own son Shivam Sanjay Kumar in the team along with Verma’s son Lakhan Raja,” Tiwary said. Kumar has his own version of the truth to speak, He alleged former India wicketkeeper and one of the top members of the BCCI, Saba Karim of miscommunication and cheating. “Saba Karim misused his position as GM (Cricket Operations) and illegally changed the credentials of the ODMS for player registration of BCA and providing it to a person he favours,” Kumar wrote in a letter addressed to the media. Now it is up to BCCI to sort out the matter as only five days remain before all the teams assemble at their respective bio-secure hubs. Bihar team, (whichever of the two is confirmed) have to reach Chennai for their group matches where they will face Arunachal Pradesh in their first game on 11th January. The tournament begins on 10th January.

Gill draws discipline lessons from Rahane's masterclass; Starc rues dropped chances

After earning the Test debut, Indian opener Shubman Gill was given the baptism of fire at the fag end of the first day at the MCG, but he showed composure and for both his and India’s good, he had luck going for him, to combat the ever so challenging bowling line up of Australia. He was beaten on numerous occasion by Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, but he did not let it affect his mindset and played with just the right attitude the team management would have expected of him while they were taking the call on his inclusion in the side at the expense of Prithvi Shaw. He showed he has shots in his repertoire from both front foot and back foot, and on the day he was against a stern examination by the Australian pacers, the young man from Fazilka in Punjab did not hold back in pulling out punches on the Boxing Day. He also said that the fact that he has been around the team set up for some time now gave him enough room for preparation to not to have the feeling of finding himself in an all-new place facing the likes of Pat Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood. "When I came in to bat, there was something in the pitch and the pitch was lively. The only thing which I told myself was that no matter what's happening on the pitch or what's happening around me, I should be able to play my game and I should be able to express myself, play with intent. That was my thought process throughout my innings,” Gill said in the virtual press conference after the end of second day’s play in Melbourne. "I've been travelling with the team for the last four-five Test series. Being with the team, it helped me a lot. To be able to settle in the team. I've been doing all my net sessions and practice sessions, to be able to play someone like Boom (Bumrah), Shami bhai, Umesh bhai or Ishant bhai in the nets, it's a huge confidence booster for a youngster to be playing against a top bowling attack in the nets. When I went out to bat today, I didn't really feel like I was in a whole new place." Gill batted well for his brisk 45 and was looking set for a big one after successfully negotiating the new ball spells from the pacers on the first day and in the early phase of the first session of the day two where he was tested a bit more by Cummins who were bringing the balls into him sharply off the seam. Ultimately, Gill was defeated in the game of patience, as he was lured into driving at a delivery that was not full enough to be driven off the front foot, and anyway, Gill was rooted to the crease and attempted to drive it through the line without moving his feet at all. No wonder, a batsman of his calibre would be disappointed by that dismissal and Gill’s case was no different. "I'm not really happy with the way I got out. It was the last ball of Cummins's spell and I should have seen it off. It was a loose shot to play at that moment. But overall my goal was to play with intent and build partnerships, and I managed it to an extent," Gill added. His skipper in this game and for the next two matches-- Ajinkya Rahane did all things correctly what he faltered at as he showed impeccable patience to deal the pace attack while showing enough intent to take the full toll on anything that could have been called loose by the Australians. Gill has been a phenomenal batsman in the domestic circuit and for India A and for him, Ainkya Rahane provided just the perfect template of setting a Test innings without flirting with too many dangers, to emulate in his coming innings with the bat. "This knock was all about patience. He was patient, and more importantly when you are playing such a high-quality bowling attack, sometimes you go in that shell and you are not able to score runs. The way Ajinkya bhai played, it was such a magnificent knock to watch from outside. How to see off those tough periods, the loose balls that he was getting he was making sure he was putting all of them away," Gill said at the end of the second day's play,” Gill said in awe of Rahane’s unbeaten hundred. The appreciation for Rahane’s splendid innnings innings was not limited in the Indian camp as the hosts underlined the importance of his long resistance at the crease as well, although the further presence of Rahane at the crease might take the game completely from their grasp as well. Mitchell Starc was called upon by Tim Paine with the second new ball to see the back of Rahane just like the first Test, and the Indian skipper gave as many as two chances against the second new ball, but Steve Smith and Travis Head turned out to be the culprits and dropped him to make the frustrating day into an agonising one for the hosts. The left armer also rued the number of missed opportunities but acknowledged that they were outsmarted by Rahane by his chanceless batting and also a bit of luck. "He's batted really well there, he took his chances. We could have got him out maybe three, four or five times before he got to his hundred. He's run his luck there and scored a good hundred. So well done to him,” Starc said. India have secured a lead of 82 runs with the skipper Rahane and Jadeja remaining unbeaten at the end of day two and the pitch holds the key for both teams as India would look to press on especially with two spinners in the playing XI, but Starc ruled out outrageous help from the pitch and reckoned that the pitch is fattening out for the batsmen to enjoy batting on the third day. "I think we found that once the ball got softer, the wicket's pretty flaccid. I think by the end of today, there were no demons in it anymore. I think it's a typical Melbourne, it flattens out. Even with that extra bit of grass than we're normally used to here, it's become a pretty flat wicket. So it's important for us when we get a chance again to bat really big and bat us into the game again,” Starc said of the MCG pitch where the curators had left 11 mm long grass to aid pacers. But the Indian camp is banking on the pitch to aid more turn and in that case, the sipping duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin would be lethal forces for the Australian batting line up which looks jaded and unsure of their tactics. Shubman Gill took a reference to the help Ashwin-Jadeja were getting on the first day, along with the kind of purchase that Lyon could extract on day two, to suggest that the pitch will not be any easier to bat on against spinners. "As you saw on the first day as well, there was a bit of turn for Ash [Ashwin] bhai and Jaddu [Jadeja] bhai. Today also, you could see there was a bit of turn for Nathan (Lyon). Obviously, there's going to be more cracks and the wicket is going to get more challenging for the batsmen. So it's really important for us to capitalise on this lead that we have and then to get them all-out as quickly as possible,” Gill added. The visitor’s camp would be hoping for the unbeaten pair of Rahane and Jadeja to stay at the crease for at least one session and score another 80 odd runs to put the hosts under big pressure before unleashing their spin twins against them. If the pitch will offer assistance to the spinners, both Jadeja and Ashwin can spin a aweb around the Australian batting line up to justify the brave call his captain took by fielding both of them at the iconic MCG.