Watch: Pakistan skipper Babar Azam surprises orphanage kids with his new year visit

BBL 11 | Xavier Bartlett’s scintillating showing with the ball takes Heat past Hurricanes

On New Year’s day, Brisbane Heat registered their third victory in the Big Bash League 2021-22 as they defeated Hobart Hurricanes by 14 runs and to gain four crucial points and narrow the gap between themselves and fifth-placed Sydney Thunder who have 16 points. Xavier Bartlett was the hero with the ball for the Heat as he picked four wickets in the game and most importantly dismissed the two openers Matthew Wade and last game’s centurion Ben McDermott in his first over itself. From then on, it was a difficult task for the Hurricanes to chase down the target of 151 set up by the Heat. The fact that D’Arcy Short played slowly that even as he was the sixth man to get out, he could only manage to score 27 runs off 36 balls. The rest of the batters apart from Harry Brook didn’t do much either and had it not been for the unbeaten 33 from 20 balls by Tom Rogers, the Hurricanes might not have come even close to the total. Apart from Bartlett, Afghan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman also picked three wickets and gave away only 20 runs to choke the Hurricanes’ run flow. Eventually, the hosts could get up to only 136-8 in their 20 overs. Earlier in the evening, after winning the toss and inviting Heat to bat first, Hurricanes had a great start as they sent all three top-order batters of the opposition back in the hut inside the powerplay itself. However, first Sam Heazlett (26) and later Jack Wildermuth (28) and James Bazley with his unbeaten 44 off 27 balls managed to get the blue brigade to a respectable total of 150-8. For Hurricanes, Nathan Ellis picked three wickets while Rogers picked two. Another game in the league between Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Sixers at the International Sports Stadium in Coffs Harbour was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to rain.

Kevin Pietersen calls for franchise red-ball competition to solve England's Test cricket problems

Kevin Pietersen has called for the franchise red-ball competition modelled on 'The Hundred'. Pietersen opined that the franchise competition for red-ball cricket will bring back the interests of the players into the format.

India docked one WTC points, players fined 20% match fees for slow over rate in Centurion Test

India have been reprimanded for failing to meet the required over rate stipulated by the International Cricket Council in their last Test against South Africa in Centurion. All the players have been fined 20 per cent of their match fees while the team have been docked two points from their overall World Test Championship points. The Virat Kohli-led side failed to reach the mark by one over and hence as per the regulations of the WTC, they were docked one point. Notably, the failure to reach the required level despite the allowance for “unavoidable delays”. The charge of slow over-rate was levied by the match officials including the match referee Andy Pycroft, umpires Marais Erasmus, Adrian Holdstock, and Allahudien Paleker. Kohli accepted both the charge and sanction and hence there was no need of a hearing. Earlier, they also had to lose two WTC points for failing to meet the required over-rate in the first Test of the series against England in Nottingham. India have the most points on the points table of the World Test Championship points table with 54 points. India defeated South Africa in the first Test of the series in Centurion and lead the series 1-0 with two games remaining.

NZ vs BAN | 1st Test, Day 1: Devon Conway's Test juggernaut leads Blackcaps to commanding position

There’s little that a gap of 47 days from international cricket did to the Test match form of Devon Conway and he brought up yet another century to make it New Zealand’s day on the first day of the first Test against Bangladesh in Mount Maunganui. He missed the tour of India after breaking his thumb while punching his bat after a soft dismissal against England in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup and Conway batted like a man on a mission and hit another century in the format. He now has one double century, one century and two double centuries in his four-game long Test career. On the day when the Blackcaps were without their regular skipper and potent number three in Kane Williamson and found themselves in trouble after the departure of Tom Latham, he went on to establish his supremacy and command at the top of the order. Left-arm seamer Shoriful Islam heard the big call from his skipper Mominul Haque, who won the toss and elected to bowl first in seaming condition and produced a big wicket in the form of Latham. Latham was drawn into driving a fullish delivery and the inside edge was snaffled up one-handed by Liton Das diving to his left. Following his departure, the next in line after Conway on the list of emerging New Zealand players, Will Young made the best use of the opportunity. He was extremely patient against the new ball but flourished once Bangladesh lost their patience and accuracy. Conway carried on his merry way and brought his century in partnerships with Young and Ross Taylor, who has already announced retirement after the series against Bangladesh. Conway stitched a 138-run partnership with Young and followed it up with another 50-run partnership with Taylor to take New Zealand into a dominant position. However, Bangladesh were never out of the reckoning and their bowlers kept chipping at wickets. Shoriful returned with a big wicket of Taylor to keep things in control for the tourists. Ebadot Hossain got the important wicket of Tom Blundell towards the end of the day to make it an impressive outing for the tourists. New Zealand have gone ahead through the century of Conway and half-century from Young but Bangladesh would not be disappointed having taken five wickets by the end of the first day.