The Ashes | 4th Test, Day 4: England fight back with Mark Wood & Jack Leach; Australia 4 down at 86

Big Bash League hosts inaugural First Nations Rounds to pay tribute to traditional custodians

The Big Bash League season 11 is set to honour the traditional custodians with their first-ever ‘First Nation Round’ starting 8 January, Saturday. The 11-game long round will be hosted between 8-14 January with a campaign aimed at connecting better to the roots of the country. Cricket Australia have taken a few steps at becoming more inclusive to the indigenous community and over the last year have released special jerseys to honour the aboriginal classes. For the current edition of the BBL, franchises are expected to wear specially designed jerseys and strike community partnerships to better the lives of the less privileged. Brisbane Heat are among the teams that have already announced projects that will come out of the nations round. The Brisbane based franchise will be partnering with ‘Deadly Choices’ to promote health check-ups in the indigenous community and will be auctioning off their jerseys to raise money for Queensland Cricket Foundation.

The Ashes | 4th Test, Day 4: Australia wrap up England for 294

The fourth day morning of the Ashes Test did not bear similar resistance for England in the Sydney Cricket Ground. Starting from 258/7 overnight, the tourists were wrapped up for 294 in the first innings within the first hour of play with Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon cleaning up the lower order. England added just 36 runs to their total in the morning and were victims of some ordinary shot selection after their tremendous comeback on Day 3 of the fourth Test match. Jonny Bairstow top scored for the visitors scoring 113 runs off 158 balls. The prime architect of England's comeback edged one back to the keeper while trying to run one down to third man. Short by 122 runs in the first innings, England took the ball and were able to quickly remove David Warner in the sixth over of the Australian 2nd innings. At the time of writing, Australia were 52/1 in 18 overs.

Pakistan’s Haris Rauf gets his new year’s wish fulfilled, receives Dhoni’s signed CSK jersey as gift

It has started as a good year for Pakistan pacer Haris Rauf as he got one of his long-cherished wishes fulfilled after he received a personally signed Chennai Super Kings jersey from former India and current CSK captain MS Dhoni. Rauf, who has on a number of previous occasions openly claimed to be a Dhoni fan, was delighted with the gift. Taking to his official Twitter account, the 28-year-old wrote, “The legend & capt cool @msdhoni has honored me with this beautiful gift his shirt. The "7" still winning hearts through his kind & goodwill gestures. @russcsk specially Thank you so much for kind support.” It was during the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2021 encounter between India and Pakistan that Haris met dhoni personally after the game and expressed his desire to get memorabilia from his childhood hero. Dhoni was at the tournament as the mentor of the Indian team. In that match, Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets, but after the match, all the Pakistan players were seen queuing up to have that with Dhoni and the Lahore born Haris was one of them.

NZ vs BAN | Ross Taylor wants to finish his Test career with win in front of family and friends

New Zealand batter Ross Taylor would be playing his last Test for the Blackcaps as they turn up for the second and last game of the two-match series against Bangladesh where they are surprisingly 0-1 down playing at home. While the Test at Hagley Oval in Christchurch will hold importance in the sense that the Kiwis must win to draw the series, it becomes even more important as it is going to be the last match for one of the greats of New Zealand cricket, Ross Taylor. Talking about finishing on a great note, Taylor said, “They've [Family and Friends] been a big part of my career today.” “We've got a lot of the young kids that are in the side and I've been fortunate now that my kids are a bit older, that they've been able to see me play, watch Dad go through the ups and downs,” he added before explaining how cricket has played a massive part in all of this. “They've experienced a lot of things that I'm sure if it wasn't for cricket they wouldn't have been able to see. So yeah, it's cool to have them here and hopefully we can turn up and play cool,” said the 37-year-old. Taylor, who has scored more than 7500 Test runs further said that though most of his children are aware of the game, his young daughter is still to come to terms with Test cricket. "My daughter still hasn't grasped the concept of five-day cricket yet. When I got out the other day she said, 'Come on, Dad, let's go home.’," he said. Asked about whether he would be able to surpass Brendon McCullum in terms of finishing on a high in Test cricket as he had scored the fastest Test hundred for a Kiwi batter while playing at Hagley Oval in his last Test, Taylor was mesmerised but denied wanting anything other than win to sign off with. "Aw, jeepers - he's set the bar very high,” exclaimed the Wellington born. “Jeepers! As I said, it'd just be good to have a win, I think. Get our first win of the summer under our belt. But in terms of being Bazesque, yeah, I don't think there's going to be many people who are going to be able to do what he did in his last match,” he added further. Asked on whether he would miss the grind of Test cricket or not, Taylor said, "Oh, 100%. But there's aspects that I won't miss as well. But, you know, all good things have to come to an end. I'm just looking forward to this Test match, then hopefully a few more one-dayers, and then on to the next chapter.” Although the Hagley Oval Test is going to be the last in the whites for Ross, he would play his last for New Zealand in his favourite format, the ODIs, when the Kiwis go to Australia for a limited tour in February-March this year and then play against the Netherlands at home.