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Super Smash 2021 22 Match Review Canterbury Hunt Down Auckland By Five Wickets

Super Smash 2021-22 | Match Review | Canterbury hunt down Auckland by five wickets

Canterbury continued their chasing skills against Auckland too as they beat them by five wickets with 13 balls to spare at Eden Park on January 7, 2022. Auckland's three-match winning streak has been snapped as Canterbury continues to impress by their master chasing. With this win, Canterbury pulled Northern Knights below and encroached on the top position in the table. They are with twenty points from seven matches played. Following this heavy defeat, the Aces remained in fifth place with twelve points from six games played.

Chasing 168 to win, Canterbury didn't start well as their opener Ken McClure fell cheaply. Chad Bowes and Leo Carter tried to steady the ship but couldn't stay for long as the former was trapped in front of Lister's bowling after he scored a quick cameo of 26 runs from just 13 balls. Leo Carter hit three sixes in his score of 35 runs from 22 balls. At one stage they were 96/5 and the target was looking like a mountain for them. However, an unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 76 runs between Cam Fletcher 57(39) and Henry Shipley 37(22), ensured that they chased this down comfortably. Despite taking two wickets, Lockie Ferguson was expensive. Other bowlers didn't do much to help him either.

Earlier, Canterbury won the toss and asked Auckland to bat first. George Worker and Glenn Phillips gave them a flying start as they put up 62 runs in the first six overs before the latter got out to Todd Astle. Phillips was going all guns blazing as he scored a quickfire 53 runs from just 27 balls, which included five sixes and three fours. Worker, Robert O'Donnell, and Graeme Beghin chipped in with quick twenties, but their lower-order didn’t respond well as they ended up putting a below-par score of 167/8 in 20 overs. Ed Nuttall, Todd Astle, and Henry Shipley took a couple of wickets each.

Now, the Canterbury will face Auckland again on January 18, 2022, while the Auckland will play the Otago on January 15, 2022.

Brief Scores

Canterbury Kings– 172/5 (17.5)

Cam Fletcher- 57(39)*, Lockie Ferguson- 2/39(3.5)

Auckland Aces – 167/8 (20)

Glenn Phillips- 53(27), Henry Shipley- 2/26(3)

Canterbury Kings won by 5 wickets.

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SA vs IND | Expecting Kohli to return for series decider, Dravid urges Iyer- Vihari to bide their time

After facing a stunning defeat in the second Test of the series against South Africa, India are expecting their skipper Virat Kohli to return for the third and final Test of the series scheduled to start on January 11. India head coach Rahul Dravid hinted that Kohli has been recovering well from the back spasm that ruled him out of the second Test and said that a few net sessions will give him enough time and preparation to walk out to lead the side in Cape Town. "From all accounts, he should be fine. He's had the opportunity to run around a little bit, he's had the opportunity to test it a little bit, I'll be down only now at the moment in the nets with a few throwdowns and stuff, so hopefully, with a few net sessions in Cape Town, he should be good to go," Dravid said. "I haven't had a detailed discussion with the physio as yet, but from everything I'm hearing and from just having a chat with him, he's really improving and should be good to go in four days' time." Once Kohli will be set to play the final Test, India will be back to contemplating the team combination and composition of their middle order. Kohli’s injury had made way for Hanuma Vihari’s entry into the playing XI for the first time since the third Test of the series against Australia at the start of 2021. One of him or Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara will have to make way for Kohli and as India made a choice of backing the experienced duo, it could mean another axing of Vihari, despite strong performance with the bat. Add to that, they also have to consider the candidature of Shreyas Iyer, who hit a magnificent century on his Test debut but could not find a place in this series. Dravid said that both Vihari and Iyer are at the start of their career and it is obvious to go through the phase of stop-start while also acknowledging that their role with the bat has been immense in India’s good performance in the recent past. Dravid highlighted those young players will have to bide their time as the senior players who are getting the nod ahead of them also had to go through the same process and hence they will have to wait for their opportunities. “Firstly I think Vihari played really well in this Test match, in both innings in fact," Dravid said. "I think in the first innings he got a nasty one, unfortunately for him it popped up and the fielder got his fingertips to it and took a really good catch, and he batted beautifully in the second innings, so that gives us a lot of confidence. "Shreyas has also done that two or three Test matches ago, he's got runs as well, and I think they've just got to take heart from the fact that whenever they're getting the opportunities they are doing well, and hopefully their time will come. You look back on some of our guys who are now considered senior players, they also had to wait their time. "They also had to score a lot of runs, they've had, at the start of their careers, it's probably been a bit stop-start as well. So it happens. It's just the nature of the sport, it's the nature of the game, and it will happen, so I think they can take heart and we can take a lot of confidence from the way Vihari batted in this game, he really played well, that should give him a lot of confidence, and it certainly gives us a lot of confidence." India squandered their early advantage in the second Test as South Africa came roaring back in the series and Dravid would hope that the batsmen will put their hands up once again as they did in Centurion in the series decider in Cape Town.

The Ashes | 4th Test, Day 2: Scott Boland, Cameron Green push England to the brink, once again

Scott Boland continued his dream run with the ball in Test cricket and once ripped through the England batting lineup once again to give Australia a massive upper hand in the first session of the third day of the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney. He produced two wickets including the massive wicket of Joe Root in a spell that produced a bowling figure of 7-5-4-2. Zak Crawley was the other batter whose fate was decided by Boland. There was no let-up for England, Cameron Green continued with his dream run of form as well and picked another big wicket of Dawid Malan before the lunch on the third day. Root and Malan have been the two most successful England batsmen so far in the series and hence their wickets in quick succession put Australia right on top of them and the game. Australia posted a huge total of 413 runs on the board and England must score at least 213 runs to avoid the follow on and Australia are all over them to ensure another humiliation for the Joe Root-led side.

SA vs IND | 2nd Test, Day 4: Elgar defies pitch, quality pacers to lead Proteas' roaring comeback

South Africa stunned India and chased down the target of 240 runs with seven wickets in hand to draw level the three-match long Test series. Skipper Dean Elgar led from the front and hit the winning runs, reaching 96 to lift Proteas to their first win over India at the Wanderers. No one would have given them any chance after India set them the target of 240 runs albeit by stumbling and hence, Dean Elgar made it almost look like that he said the Indian bowlers that they could achieve victory only by passing over his body. Jasprit Bumrah threatened him with the bouncer, Ravichandran Ashwin threatened him with his guile and drift while Mohammad Shami and Shardul Thakur kept on challenging him outside off stump, but Elgar was both resilient in absorbing the relentless attack and also confident in his defence to not get fed up by a barrage of unplayable deliveries. He was also not lured into playing expansive shots and resisted adopting the philosophy of batting that suggests pitches such as the one at Wanderers present an unpayable delivery that has a batsman’s name on it. He treated the ball on its merit and never offered straight bat at deliveries outside except when things started to fall apart for India on the fourth and final day. Coming into the fourth day, the goal was simple and clear for both sides. India needed to strike and strike regularly to make the remaining 122 look like a lot more while the Proteas wanted to chip away the required run. The Test had shown a trend of fluent scoring in the first hour on each playing day and it continued on the fourth day despite delayed start and loss of play till the tea interval. India continued to search for wickets and tried too many things on the surface where they needed to bang in on the good length and left everything on the fortunes. They offered a plethora of short balls and played with the ego of both Elgar and Rassie van der Dussen and the natural variation off the pitch that could have been their weapon on the day, turned against them as they offered wides that sailed over the wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant’s head. India opened the tap and South Africa cashed in with 52 runs in the first 11 overs of the day and the target was trimmed to a point where Elgar and Rassie could see the pressure on Indian bowlers. The right-hander, in particular, attacked short balls and by the time India switched back to doing the basics right, the Proteas were out of the woods and the hosts were in with a real chance of achieving what no one could hope they would be pulling off. Shami finally found a delivery that shaped away off the pitch and took Rassie’s bat but Temba Bavuma was the best man to come out for the Proteas and he batted with supreme confidence and control to not allow too many opportunities. Shardul Thakur could have been that man for India once again but his act of being human by missing a catch of Bavuma’s bat emphasized it was not to be India’s day and Elgar thumped Ashwin to samp his authority on the game and announced a roaring come back of the Proteas in the series.

SA vs IND | 2nd Test, Day 4: Dean Elgar leads Proteas' chase from the front with fighting fifty

Skipper Dean Elgar scored a fighting half-century to lead a strong fightback from South Africa on the fourth day of the second Test against India. He copped multiple blows on his body en route to his 19th half-century in the longest format which came in as many as 131 balls. He was the unshakable force with the bat and kept on fighting the Indian pace battery on the third day of the Test despite being subjected to various unplayable deliveries. He was also hit on the helmet by Jasprit Bumrah while the duo of Mohammad Shami and Shardul Thakur beat him outside off stump on multiple occasions. India had set South Africa a target of 240 runs which was termed quite a stiff target on what has been a tough pitch to bat on at the Wanderers and Elgar has laid the platform for what could be a heroic win in the second Test.