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Punam Rauts Ton In Vain As Du Preez Goodall Lead Proteas Women To Series Win Over India

Punam Raut’s ton in vain as du Preez, Goodall lead Proteas women to series win over India

South African women didn’t have to sweat it out much as they chased down a considerably tough total of 266 with much ease against the Indian women to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series. Mignon du Preez and Lara Goodall were the heroes for the Proteas women with their timely knocks of 61 and 55*.

The pair of Goodall and du Preez was formed in the middle as skipper Laura Wolvaardt was dismissed for 53. The two women then added the runs that mattered the most. Du Preez as usual scored at a brisk pace, this time around at more than run a ball. Goodall and du Preez added 103 runs in just 94 balls, breaking the Indian women’s plan of choking the rainbow nation in the middle overs of spin.

Even after the partnership was broken by Rajeshwari Gayakwad, the South Africans didn’t panic as the remaining 31 runs, required from 34 balls, were achieved in just 26 balls. Marizanne Kapp’s 18 ball 22 played an important role in achieving that result as well. At one point in time, India might have sneaked their way back when Sushma Verma was too late to remove the bails behind the wicket as Goodall made it back after stepping out off a Deepti Sharma delivery. South Africa had then needed 16 off 18 balls.

Earlier in the day, Indian women with the help of Punam Raut’s third century in 72 games (104 off 123 balls) which included 10 fours, reached a competitive total of 266. Skipper Mithali Raj and vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur too played vital innings of 45 and 54 respectively. Mithali also became the first and till now the only woman in international cricket to reach 7000 ODI runs.

This Proteas victory at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Lucknow means that India would now have to wait for the three-match T20I series to exact the revenge. The T20I series would begin on 21st March after the last ODI finishes on 17th March.

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Twin centuries & one blistering Prithvi Shaw knock light up Vijay Hazare finals

Mumbai were crowned champions of the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Sunday after they defeated Uttar Pradesh in the title clash in Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium. Chasing a massive total of 313 runs, Mumbai rode on Aditya Tare’s maiden List A hundred and captain Shaw’s brisk 73 off 39 to get over the line in the 43rd over. Tare took 107 deliveries to score his unbeaten 118 runs. All-rounder Shivam Dube played a vital role in Mumbai’s win after he stitched a stand of 88 runs for the fourth wicket. Mumbai began the proceedings well after openers Shaw and Yashasvi Jaiswal put 89 runs on the board for the first wicket. But they lost a couple of wickets in quick succession to see Shams Mulani coming in at number 4. Tare and Mulani then steadied the ship for Mumbai and scored 88 runs for the third wicket. But Mulan’s departure in the 31st over had the side in a fair bit of bother before Dube and Tare joined hands and anchored the chase. Yash Dayal, Shivam Mavi, Shibam Sharma and Sameer Choudhary picked up a wicket each for Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, UP after winning the toss elected to bat first and posted 312/4 in 50 overs, courtesy an exceptional batting display from opener Madhav Kaushik. Kaushik remained not out on 158 off 156. Kaushik’s opening partner Samarth Sharma notched up a half-century as the two provided a good start to the team. Both the batsmen began the innings in a cautious manner but started to accelerate as soon as they got their eye in. UP did lose a couple of wickets in the middle overs but Akshdeep Nath and Kaushik’s partnership of 128 runs for the fourth wicket helped them posting a big total on the board. Tanush Kotian scalped a couple of wickets for Mumbai while Prashant Solanki had one to his name. Kaushik’s 158* is now the highest score in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Final while Shaw ended the tournament as the highest run-getter. The right-handed Mumbai batsman scored 827 runs in 8 matches at an average of 165.40 and four centuries. This is the fourth instance when Mumbai have lifted the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Winning captain Shaw hailed the team’s performance and credits everyone for success. “Everyone contributed in this tournament, it wasn't an individual. From the support staff, the players, this trophy goes to everyone. Tare batted so well today. It could have gone anyway in that situation and everyone was happy for him because finishing isn't easy. I have been captaining from a very young age. I have captained under-14s, under-16s, under-19s, India A and I enjoy this process. It was difficult in Australia, and the only thing I wanted to do was go back and work hard, fill the gaps and come back strongly,” he said.

ICC rates Motera pitch for third India vs England Test 'Average'; clears threat of sanctions

The pitch used for the third Test of the recently-concluded series between India and England has been awarded the ‘Average’ rating by the International Cricket Council. This average rating will save the Narendra Modi Stadium and its parent board the Gujarat Cricket Association from any sort of sanctions from the global governing body of the game. The third Test of the series was finished within two days with the teams batting only 48.4 overs, 53.2 overs, and 30.2 overs in the first three innings with spinners such as Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Joe Root along with Jack Leach running riots among the opposition batsmen. The pitch received a lot of criticism for providing a lot of assistance to spinners very early in the Test match, and hence this average rating by the ICC will serve it well going forward. Interestingly, the pitch used in the final Test of the series which was played at the same venue has been rated as Good’ by the ICC. Before the third Test of the series, the pitches in the first two Tests had also attracted different sets of criticisms. The pitch in the second game assisted spinners from the word go, while the pitch used in the first game did not offer any sort of help to any kind of bowlers and was degraded by the hosts calling it ‘as flat as a road.’ However, the MA Chidambaram Stadium has got away with those surfaces with the ICC rating the surfaces as ‘Very Good’ for the first Test and ‘Average’ for the second game of the series. India lost the first game of the series by a big margin, but went on to bounce back and won the next three games to defeat England by 3-1 and booked a place for themselves in the finals of the World Test Championship.

Williams, Tiripano record highest 9th wicket partnership of 21st century, Rashid Khan bowls most overs in a match

The Zimbabwean pair of Sean Willimas and Donald Tiripano achieved a rare feat in the ongoing second Test match against Afghanistan. They both stitched a partnership of 187 runs for the ninth wicket, making it the highest ninth-wicket partnership of the 21st century and the third highest ninth-wicket partnership in the history of Test cricket. Following on after getting dismissed for 287 in the first innings in reply to Afghanistan’s mammoth 545, Zimbabwe were struggling at 142-7. Tiripano, 32 then joined skipper Williams in the middle and the two steadily pulled the gold and red out of the clutches of an innings defeat. Not only the two played out the entire fourth day, but also pushed the game past lunch. While Willimas remained unbeaten on 151, Tiripano, after scoring his first fifty, missed out on a maiden hundred after getting out antagonisingly, leg before wicket off the bowling of Rashid Khan on 95. Their stand of 187 is just 11 less than the highest partnership achieved by South Africa’s Mark Boucher and PL Symcox against Pakistan in 1998. Another feat achieved in the game was by Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan who bowled 99.2 overs in this match, the most by any bowler in the 21st century. The record for most overs bowled by a bowler in a Test match stands with West Indian spinner Sonny Ramadhin. As far as the match is concerned, Afghanistan needing 108 to win the match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, and level the series, were 89-2 at the time of writing this news.

Yuvraj Singh turns the clock back with four sixes in one over

Former Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh who holds the record of hitting six sixes in an over almost turned the clock back in time after his retirement when he. In the ongoing Road Safety World Series, Yuvraj smashes four back to back sixes in an over off Zander de Bruyn after walking out to bat in the 16th over of India Legends batting effort. Yuvraj’s blitzkrieg added on with Sachin Tendulkar’s explosive innings and valuable contributions from S Badrinath and Yusuf Pathan helped India mount a big total on the board. Yuvraj’s aggressive batting earned praise from Sanjay Manjrekar and former England skipper and batting legend Kevin Pietersen who is also featuring in the Road Safety Series from England.