SA vs IND | Bavuma leads from front, scores scintillating hundred as Rassie vd Dussen follows suit

BBL 11 | Records galore as Maxwell hits 154, guides Stars to highest Big Bash total in history

Though Melbourne Stars are out of the Finals race of the Big Bash League 2021-22, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis made sure that there was no lack of entertainment as fours and sixes rained at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, much to the relief of the battered Stars’ fans. Thanks to a belligerent 154 off just 64 balls by Glenn Maxwell, the Stars were able to reach 273-2, the highest team total by a huge margin in the BBL history so far. The previous highest team total was 232 by Sydney Thunder which was achieved against Sydney Sixers in Adelaide last season. This is also the highest total in franchise or domestic T20 cricket ever as it beat Trinabago Knight Riders' 267-2 which was achieved against Jamaica Tallawahs in Caribbean Premier League 2019. Overall, the 273 by Stars is the third-highest T20 total after Afghanistan’s 278-3 against Ireland in 2019 and Czech Republic’s 278-4 against Turkey also in 2019. The unbeaten 154 by Maxwell is also the highest individual score by a batter in BBL history. He overtook his own teammate Marcus Stoinis on the list. Stonis, who also scored a brilliant 75* off just 31 balls in tonight’s game, had scored 147* against Sydney Sixers in 2020. In terms of the overall highest individual score in all T20s, this knock by Maxwell, in which he hit a record 22 fours and fours sixes, ranks at the ninth spot. However, 22 fours is the highest number of fours hit by any batter in any T20 game ever in history. Also, the total 29 fours hit by the Stars in this innings is the highest for a BBL game in history as well. Hurricanes had won the toss and decided to bowl first in this game, a decision that they would now be thinking very hard about. In reply to the Stars, the Hurricanes were 67-3 in the eighth over at the time of publishing this copy.

U19 World Cup | England, Afghanistan, South Africa register easy wins

On the fifth day of the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2022 being held in the West Indies, there was no surprise as firm favourites in all three encounters registered comfortable victories to move ahead in their respective groups. England goes past Canada In the first match of the day, England colts, who defeated defending champions Bangladesh in their first encounter of this World Cup, got the better of minnows Canada by a whopping margin of 106 runs. Batting first after being asked to by Toss winner Canada, England scored 320 courtesy of their skipper Tom Prest’s run a ball 93 and cities from George Bell and Gorge Thomas. Chasing that was never going to be easy for Canada, but they did compete and went past the 200 mark before being eventually bowled out for 214 in the 49th over. Gurnek Singh Johal top-scored for the team with 44 off 40 balls. For England, Josh Boyden once again picked up a four-wicket haul to back up his four wickets against Bangladesh. South African batting struggles again Though South Africa managed to win its match against fellow Africans in Uganda, their batting, which Neil Mackenzie, their batting consultant was talking about improving after the team failed to chase a modest total against India in the first game, didn’t seem to improve. The junior Proteas could only get up to 231-9 even against Uganda. This also came after a century from Dewald Brevis who scored 104 out of the 231 runs. Thus, batting still remains a core component that the South African U-19 unit would have to work on. The bowling however was once again on the mark as they bowled out the Ugandan team for 110 in the 34th over itself. Only three Uganda batters were able to get into the double digits and Isaac Ategeka top-scored with 29 off 72 balls. Afghanistan roll over PNG for 65 In the last match of the day played at the Diego Martin Sporting Complex in Diego Martin, Trinidad, Afghanistan defeated Papua New Guinea by a huge margin of 135 runs even after themselves having scored only 200 runs. It wasn’t just one bowler, rather all bowlers contributed to Afghanistan’s domination. In the first innings though, no Afghani batter was able to settle down as they were dismissed for 200 in the 39th over. Suliman Safi was the only Afghan batter to get past fifty as he scored 62 off 76 balls. Katenalaki Singi picked up four wickets for PNG.

SA vs IND | 1st ODI: India dominate, reduce Proteas to 70-3 in first 18 overs

The Indian team started the ODI series on a very promising note as it removed the first three batters of the home side, South Africa, on the low and slow wicket of Boland Park in Paarl. In fact, the Indian bowling has been so tight that by the end of the 18th over, South Africa were 70-3 having lost three of their best ODI batters in Janneman Malan, Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram. While Markram was the last man to go, getting bogged down by the dot ball pressure, trying to get a single and in effect getting run out from a direct hit by debutant Venkatesh Iyer, who was stationed at mid-off and hit the stumps like a bullseye and Markram was found well short of his crease. Markram, who was out for 4 off 11 balls, had come to the crease after the fall of well-settled de Kock who was bowled by an arm ball from Ashwin which he completely missed. At the time when he got out, the former Proteas skipper was batting on 27 off 41 balls. The other wicket to fall, Malan went early as he nicked an outswinger from Jasprit Bumrah in the fifth over of the innings. He made 7 off 10 balls. At the time of publishing this copy, Temba Bavuma, who came to bat number three was still hanging in at 27 off 49 while Rassie van der Dussen, the new man was at 6 off 10 balls with South Africa at 80-3 at the end of 20 overs.

BBL 2021-22: Boyce's efforts go in vain as Sydney Thunder steal a win vs Renegades in nail-bitter

The encounter between Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder in Melbourne turned out to be an eventful one. While Thunder stole away a win by just 1 run, Renegades’ Boyce created history after he bagged four wickets on the trot to eventually end with a fifer. The Sydney Thunder team had a brilliant start to the proceedings, courtesy an aggressive partnership between Alex Hales and Usman Khawaja. The two batters put on 80 runs on the board before Hales was undone on the final delivery of the seventh over for 44 off 22. Unmukt Chand who made his BBL debut in the previous game took a good catch around the ling off region off Boyce. The spinner then came back for his second over and bagged wickets on the first three deliveries which included the dismissals of Jason Sangha, Ross and Daniel Sams. The right-arm bowler just didn’t stop here and bagged his fifth wicket in the form of Matthew Gikes to eventually return with figures of 5/21 in 4 overs. But Khawaja held the fort for his side at the other end and chipped in with a valuable 77 off 51 that helped Thunder side to put 170/8 in 20 overs. Later, the Melbourne Renegades suffered an early blow but Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh once again steadied the ship for the side with a 59-run stand before the latter departed for 19 off 16. Finch was then joined by Unmukt and the two compiled a total of 68 runs for the third wicket. Chand was eventually dismissed for 29 off 22 by Sangha. While Renegades lost wickets at regular intervals, Finch tried to stick around and notched up 82 off 64 but he was eventually out on the third delivery of the final over. The Renegades needed 2 off one delivery with Boyce on strike but he failed to take his side over the line as they were restricted to 169/7 in 20 overs. While Sams returned with impressive figures of 1/22 in 4 overs, Sandhu had three scalps to his name for 33 runs in his four overs and Sangha picked up a couple of wickets at the cost of 32 runs in his allotted 4 overs.