The Ashes | Day-Night Test, Day 1: David Warner misses out on century two games in a row

David Warner missed out on yet another deserving century on the first day of the second Ashes Test in Adelaide. He hit a short and wide ball from Ben Stokes straight to Stuart Broad at the cover and walked back dejected after scoring 95 runs filled with a fair mix of caution and aggression.

Notably, Warner had missed out on a century in the first Test of the series at the Gabba as well when Stokes had taken a catch off his bat of the bowling of Ollie Robinson.

Warner was batting with impeccable patience and took more than 100 balls to reach his fifty to signify how much time he was willing to wait to score runs. Warner struggled initially with tight line and length bowling from Stuart Broad, who returned with his dangerous round the wicket angle of bowling but fought hard to see off that phase of play.

England employed short ball tactic with three men back on the boundary on the leg side but Warner kept on finding ways to score runs. Just the ball before he got out, Warner hit an unconvincing pull shot of Stokes that went in the gaps and square leg boundary for four.

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SRH to rope in Dale Steyn as bowling coach: Reports

Former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn has been approached by the Sunrisers Hyderabad to be the franchise’s bowling coach as per a report in Cricbuzz. Steyn who announced retirement from all forms of cricket earlier in August has played for SRH, Gujarat Lions, Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. In 95 IPL matches, the right-arm pacer has picked up 97 wickets at an impressive economy rate of 6.91. Talking about Steyn’s T20 career, the former Proteas player has featured in 228 games where he has bagged 263 wickets at an economy of 6.85. Apart from this, Steyn has been capped 93 times in Tests and has 439 scalps to his name while has played 125 ODIs where he has picked 196 wickets during the course. The right-handed cricketer will be working with Tom Moody who is going to take over as the head coach of the franchise. As per the reports, Hemang Badani will also be joining the coaching staff of the Hyderabad side. The Hyderabad-based franchise has retained Kane Williamson, Umran Malik and Abdul Samad while Rashid Khan and David Warne were the two big names who were released by the franchise ahead of the mega auctions.

Jos Buttler takes stunner on Day 1; sparks ‘Spiderman’ memes

England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler took a stunner behind the stumps early on Day 1 of the Pink ball Test in Adelaide. Sent to field first after losing the toss, England tasted early breakthrough inside the first 10 overs of the Test match. Back in the playing XI after sitting out the first match of the series, Stuart Broad set Marcus Harris up with a string of full length deliveries and then slipped in a short one from around the wicket. Harris, looking to tee off at that point, miscued a pull shot that seemed to be slipping through the gap between short fine leg and the wicketkeeper. However, Jos Buttler, known for his acrobatic abilities, flung himself to his right and caught the ball out of thin air to affect the first wicket of the Australian batting order. This sparked a memefest among the Twitterattis who compared him to the likes of Superman and Spiderman. It wasn’t all great though. After taking that one handed stunner, Buttler dropped a relatively simpler chance of Marnus Labuschange off Ben Stokes. The chance was once again created by a bouncer barrage where once again the ball seemed to be slipping through the leg side of the batsman. This was much closer to Buttler and despite getting his hands to it, he seemed to have been taken aback by the lack of pace on the deviation and ended up dropping the ball. At the time of writing, England were on an incredible toil and after bowling 53 overs in the first two session had conceded 129 runs for the loss of 1 wicket. David Warner and Marnus Labuschange were batting at 65 and 53 respectively.

Just focusing on my process & trying to replicate the things again & again: Ruturaj Gaikwad

Maharashtra skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad has been in some terrific form in the past few months and stamped his authority with the bat after scoring four centuries in five matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Talking about the same, Gaikwad while talking to The Times of India said that he is just trying to focus on the process. “No secret. I’m just focusing on my process and not thinking much, just trying to replicate the things again and again,” he said. "(On scoring four centuries in a season) it feels amazing. But it would have been nice if we as a team, we would’ve gone through. Personally, it’s a good achievement and I’m proud of myself and my team,” he added. Maharashtra failed to qualify for the knockouts despite winning four out of the five matches due to less NRR. The right-handed batsman said that it was a bit harsh on the side especially after winning four games. "I think it (not qualifying) was harsh on us. We won four out of five games. In some other groups, teams who have lost two games out of five (Himachal, Vidarbha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka) have also made it to the next stage,” he said.

The Ashes | Pat Cummins tests Covid-19 negative, stays in isolation

In a big relief to the Australia Test side, their skipper Pat Cummins has tested negative for Covid-19 infection and can come back into the side after isolation of seven days. Cummins got ruled out of the ongoing Day-Night Test being played at the Adelaide Oval to allow Steve Smith to come back as Australia’s Test captain after a gap of four years. Cummins should walk back into Australia’s biosecure bubble after completing his term in isolation and before the Boxing Day scheduled to start on December 26 at the MCG. Cummins’s absence left a big void in the Australian bowling track with Josh Hazlewood already out to side strain. Australia are playing with Jhye Richardson, who is returning after three years, debutant Michael Neser and Mitchell Starc. Despite being known for his prowess with the pink ball, Starc's recent issues with consistency and accuracy can put Smith under bother with his error in line and length.