Revised venues for home fixtures against West Indies announced

SA vs IND | 3rd ODI: India make four changes, inlcude Suryakumar Yadav in playing XI

India skipper KL Rahul once again won the toss and this time around decided to bowl first in the third ODI against South Africa on a bouncy wicket at Newlands, Cape Town. The Indian team has made four changes in the XI that played in the second ODI at Paarl while the hosts have also brought in one change. Suryakuamr Yadav has come in place of Venkatesh Iyer while Prasidh Krishna gets the first chance after his debut against England at the start of 2021. He has been drafted in place of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar while Deepak Chahar and Jayant Yadav have been named as like for like replacements for Shardul Thakur and Ravichandran Ashwin. As far as the Proteas are concerned, they have chosen to play the tall fast bowler Dwaine Pretorious in place of chinaman Tabraiz Shasmi conjuring the bouncy conditions of the wicket. This game is inconsequential in the sense that South Africa have already won the series with a 2-0 unassailable lead.

U19 World Cup | India record biggest win by runs in U19 history, defeat Uganda by 326 runs

The Indian Under19 even after playing without its original captain and vice-captain in Yash Dhull and Shaik Rashid respectively, recorded its biggest victory by runs in history as it defeated minnows Uganda by whopping 326 runs in the last group stage clash of the Under19 World Cup in Tarouba, Trinidad, West Indies. The only thing that went in Uganda’s favour in the entire game was the toss, but after deciding to bowl first, they wouldn’t have thought about the beating that their bowlers would receive. Raj Angad Bawa and Angkrish Raghuvanshi lodged daddy hundred with the former scoring unbeaten 162, the second-highest individual score by an Indian batter, only 15 behind Ambati Rayudu’s 177 against England U19 in 2022. Raghuvanshi scored 144 off 120 balls. Courtesy of these big hundreds, India reached 405 in its 50 overs and thereby managed to score its second-highest total in U19 World Cup history, remaining 20 short of 425-3 it achieved against Scotland U19 at Dhaka in 2004. With the ball in hand, the Indian colts were on the mark as well and dismissed the African nation on a paltry score of 79 in only the 20th over, thereby registering a win by 326 runs, the biggest ever margin of victory in India’s U19 history. It is also the second-biggest victory margin in the entire world after Australia U19’s 430 runs win over Kenya U19 in 2002. For India, stand-in skipper Nishant Sindhu picked four wickets with his right arm medium-fast. In the other three games of the day, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan registered comprehensive victories against United Arab Emirates, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe respectively to march to the quarterfinals. With the last day of the league stage over, the quarterfinal lineup has also been decided. In the quarterfinal, it would be a repeat of the 2020 World Cup final when India would face Bangladesh in the last quarterfinal of the Super League. In the other three Super League quarterfinals, South Africa would take on England while Pakistan would face Australia. In another, all Asia affair, Sri Lanka which haven’t dropped a point till now will take on Afghanistan.

Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan named ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Year 2021

The International Cricket Council announced Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan as the ICC T20I Cricketer of the Year for 2021. The announcement was made across all social media handles of the world body. Rizwan, who was on a different plane altogether this year in the shortest format, defeated some serious contenders in form of England’s Jos Buttler, Australia’s Micthell Marsh and Sri Lanka's Wanindu Hasaranga in the race. In total, the 29-year-old aggregated a staggering 1326 runs in only 29 matches at an average of 73.66 and a strike rate of 134.89. He was solid behind the stumps as well, picking up 24 dismissals in 29 games. Speaking on the occasion, Rizwans said, "I am selling double happy today because along with me Pakistan is being represented at one of the highest platforms in the cricketing world." He further went on to thank the Pakistan team management and all the other people involved in him being able to put out his best. The ICC has started announcing its annual awards today and has so far announced Men's and Women's Associate Cricketer of the Year 2021 which has been bagged by Oman's Zeeshan Maqsood and Austria's Andrea-Mae Zepeda.

WI vs ENG | 1st T20I: Windies decimate the English as Holder, King shine

It was an ideal start for the hosts West Indies in their four-match T20I series against England as they mauled the visitors by nine wickets to take a 1-0 lead. More importantly, the manner of victory was important for the home team to restore its confidence after an unprecedented series loss to Ireland a week ago. Sent in to bat first after losing the toss, England wouldn’t have thought that they would face so much problem adjusting to the bounce of the Bridgetown wicket in Barbados. Jason Roy started well by hitting a six off the very first shot that he played, but got out in the first over as his timber were uprooted by an inswinger from Sheldon Cottrell. Tom Banton and Moeen Ali departed soon as well and though James Vince and skipper Eoin Morgan tried their best to put up a fight, it became a case of some bad luck as well when Vince played one straight to Darren Bravo at short cover after having hit 14 runs in that very over. At 49-7, when Morgan was removed by Romario Shepherd, it looked like a total goner for the visitors. However, Chris Jordan and Adil Rashid put up a 36 run stand for the eighth wicket and tried to get some semblance into the innings. But Fabian Allen had other ideas as he removed Jordan to give a jolt to already decaying English hopes. Soon Rashid departed too as the last wicket after the fall of Saqib Mahmood with the team score at 103. Jason Holder was the pick of the bowlers for the home team, getting four wickets for only seven runs in his spell of 3.4 overs. Chasing the total, West Indies remained cautious throughout as after an opening stand of 52 by Brandon King and Shai Hope, Nicholas Pooran, known for his explosive boom-boom style of play also halted himself and played a patient knock to get over the line with only one wicket lost. King reached his third T20I fifty on the way to the target. The two teams will now collide in the second T20I on January 24 at the same venue.