U19 Asia Cup | India play Bangladesh in semis after group-deciding game called off over Covid-19

SA vs IND | 1st Test, Day 3: India ahead after 18-wicket day as Shami, Rabada, Ngidi rattle batsmen

It’s often said that the third day of a Test match is a “moving day” that dictates the flow of a game and kind of establishes which team is ahead of the game or if the game is in balance. The first Test of the series between India and South Africa needed its third day to be a moving day after losing the entire second day’s play and it turned out to be one heck of a day that opened up the possibility of more than two outcomes in the game. India started the day with as many as seven wickets in their hand and finished the day with nine wickets remaining in their second innings. Their opener KL Rahul walked out to bat with Ajinkya Rahane at the start and walked off the field with Shardul Thakur, who was the night watchman for the day. What transpired between his two innings ratified the narrative about the third day as 18 wickets fell on the day and provided both sides with the hope of achieving a win. India slipped from 272 for 3 to 327 all out in the span of the first hour and a half to bring Proteas back in the game. However, their bowlers, who were threatened with the pace and bounce of South African pacers, were ready with the message that they too were there to exploit those conditions and they did not commit the mistake of their counterparts with the new ball. They did not get away by the pace and bounce of the pitch and executed the plan of bowling full length perfectly. Kagiso Rabada started their slide by finally getting the better of Rahul after troubling him in the last two sessions of the first day. He was cramped for room and could not execute a pull shot. Rahane was undone by his unusual indiscipline outside off stump as an error in judgement of the line of a delivery from Lungi Ngidi saw him edging to the keeper. There were hopes from Rishabh Pant and Shardul Thakur but the former was guilty of playing Ngidi tentatively from the crease while the ‘lord’ paid the price of becoming too ambitious and adventurous. What was laid as a perfect platform to dictate the flow and terms of the game to the hosts ended in a rapid capitulation and India were left to be secured by their bowling attack once again. However, on cue, they were up to the job immediately and Jasprit Bumrah got one to jag back sharply to find Proteas skipper Dean Elgar shell shocked and edging to the keeper. Mohammad Siraj was trusted with the new ball but he could not get the batsmen playing at him and Virat Kohli was eager to have South Africans playing at the deliveries. Mohammad Shami was called in for the job and he delivered the first ball, right on the line of the off-stump and on a length that asked the other Proteas opener Aiden Markram to come forward. The first ball was the perfect template for any pacer on that SuperSport Park pitch and it suggested that the pacer was in for a successful spell. He kept on asking questions and got the better of both Keegan Petersen and Aiden Markram in a six-over-long spell that yielded just 10 runs. India were rampant with the new ball and it was Siraj’s chance to join the party. He got Rassie van der Dussen reaching out to a very full and wide delivery from him and Rahane was ecstatic to safely pouch a low catch. He delivered the next ball perfectly angling away from Quinton de Kock and the wicketkeeper-batsman obliged with a full-blooded drive. The edge was found but Rahul could not take the catch with a one-handed attempt and the men in blue missed the golden opportunity to crush Proteas. The onus of rescuing Proteas fell on Temba Bavuma and de Kock and they did the job perfectly to start with. Both stitched a partnership of 72 runs but just when the duo was stabilising the Proteas, the ‘lord’ showered his blessings on India and sent de Kock back to the pavilion. Bavuma played a resilient and flawless innings to reach his fifty but the day was to be of Shami and he came back for the next spell of the day to send both him and Wian Mulder back to the pavilion and push the Proteas on the brink. The lower order comprising of Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj played some remarkable shots for lower-order batsmen but their appetite and defence was not to be miraculous enough to keep India at bay. In the end, India secured a lead of 130 runs and although they lost Mayank Agarwal in the final over of the day when the opener committed the cardinal sin of poking at outside off delivery of Jansen. India would be hoping to bat with full of “intent” for the first two sessions of the fourth day and then they would once again call upon their bowling attack to lead them to a magical win such as the one against England at Lord’s earlier this year.

SA vs IND | 1st Test, Day 3: Mohammad Shami picks up fifer, reaches 200 Test wickets landmark

Pacer Mohammad Shami bowled magnificently well on the third day of the first Test against South Africa in Centurion to pick a five-wicket haul and reach a special milestone of 200 wickets in Test cricket. He dismissed Kagiso Rabada edging to the wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant to reach the landmark in his 55th Test. With the feat, Shami went on to become the fifth most successful Indian pacer to have ever played the format after Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Javagal Srinath. He was in terrific rhythm on the third day and hit immaculate line and length from the first ball of his spell in the first session of the day. He bowled Keegan Petersen and Aiden Markram in his six-over long spell in the morning session. He came back to dismiss the well-set batsman Temba Bavuma and Wian Mulder to keep South Africa in check despite the absence of Jasprit Bumrah. He finished the innings with five wickets for 44 runs and helped India restrict South Africa below the 200-run mark and take a vital lead of 130 runs. Shami has taken his 200 wickets at an outstanding average of 27.10 runs per wicket and a strike rate of 49.48 deliveries per ball.

SA vs IND | 1st Test, Day 3: Pant surpasses Dhoni, becomes quickest keeper to affect 100 dismissals

Rishabh Pant has surpassed former skipper, MS Dhoni, to become the quickest wicketkeeper to affect 100 dismissals in the longest format of the game. He reached the landmark in his 26th Test in the first Test of the series against South Africa in Centurion while Dhoni had taken 36 games to achieve the feat. He caught Temba Bavuma off the bowling of Mohammed Shami to get to 100 dismissals in Tests. Notably, Pant made his Test debut against England in the year 2018 and has gone strength to strength both with the bat and wicketkeeping gloves to establish himself as one of the critical elements of the Indian Test side over the years.

The Ashes | Root seeks 'reset' of English Test setup, downplays 'selfish' decision over captaincy

All seems to be doomed and gloomy for the English cricket after a disastrous and “embarrassing” defeat in the Boxing Day Test and a lot of voices of the game are writing obituaries of Joe Root, the captain and Chris Silverwood, the all-powerful coach and also selector. For Root though, the question of captaincy comes only after the end of the Ashes series and he is all in with all his mind and heart to try and win the next two Tests of the series. He downplayed the talks around captaincy a “selfish” act for him and refuted that he is contemplating any such move in mid of an away Ashes series. “The series isn’t over yet. We’ve got two very big games and, more than anything, it’d be wrong to look past that. As a player and as a team, [we must] talk about the next hour, the next session or the next ball. That’s all we have to focus on and that applies to me as well, as captain. We’ve got to make sure we come away from the tour with better performances and a win or two under our belt. “My energy has to be all about trying to win the next game. I can’t be selfish and start thinking about myself.” Critics of the England Test side and many former players have also launched a scathing attack on the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for compromising with the quality of County Cricket in the country and pushing it to extreme conditions in order to organise cash-rich white-ball tournaments in mid of English summer. Root chose to downplay that aspect of criticism as well albeit conceding that England will have to go through a “reset” such as the one they went through a disastrous ODI World Cup campaign in 2015. However, he added that those “long conversations” over the health of first-class cricket in the country should be deferred for a later time. He did not pin the blame on the “system” and instead said that he had all the “best 18 players from the county game” to choose from on this tour of Australia. “That [the domestic structure] is a long conversation that should probably be had at another time. I would say that the best 18 players from the county game are definitely on this tour. There are some very talented players within this squad and we have to just keep looking to find ways of up-skilling ourselves and managing pressure better. “With where the game is in our country right now, the only place you can really learn is in the hardest environment for what is a young batting group. They are having to learn here in the harshest environments. Maybe you look back at 2015 and the reset that happened in white-ball cricket and maybe that’s something that needs to be happening in our red-ball game.” Joe Root looked deserted and tired after losing the third Test of the series which was his seventh Test loss in Australia as a captain and it’s highly unlikely he will be able to hold on to his leadership role after this Ashes loss.