Worry for India as Umesh Yadav walks off the field with injury


The Indian team suffered yet another blow as pacer Umesh Yadav hobbled off the field due to what appeared an injury of the calf muscle. He looked in discomfort after bowling the third ball of the fourth over in his first spell and went off the field straightway. Umesh was looking in a good rhythm and had already produced a peach of a delivery to take the outside edge of Joe Burns’ bat after going wicketless in the first innings.

There is no update on Umesh’s injury from the BCCI, but India will be worried about his injury as they are already without Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, and if Umesh gets ruled out of the series, they will be left without three of their four first-choice quicks.

India took a lead of 131 runs over Australia and posted 326 runs in the first innings on the back of a superlative century from skipper Ajinkya Rahane and a patient half-century from Ravindra Jadeja.

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Ponting praises Rahane for exemplary leadership after Adelaide debacle

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting praised stand-in India captain Ajinky Rahane for picking up the pieces from the Adelaide bashing and leading with example at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. "I think he's done a great job to pick up the pieces from Adelaide with this team, lead really well in the field yesterday and you can see he's playing like a captain now as well," Ponting was quoted as saying to cricket.com.au. Saying that Rahane wants to put out a statement and also inspire his troops to make a comeback in regular skipper Virat Kohli’s absence, Ponting said, "He wants to play that captain's knock; he wants to get a hundred in Virat's absence and do the best thing he can to try and drag his country and his team back into this series." Comparing the calmness and the patience that he showed on the crease instead of getting rattled, the Punter termed his knock as being ‘Pujara’ like. "He's almost played a (Cheteshwar) Pujara-like innings. No thrills, he's hit very few boundaries but he's just continually backing his defense and trying to wear the Australian bowlers down,” said the 46-year-old. Rahane,32, completed his 12th Test century, but Australian fielders and his fortune were with him as well as he was dropped twice while one catch went directly to first slip, but there was no first slip. However, Punter believes that the Australian bowlers needed to make him drive more by keeping the covers out. "I think the Australians haven't made him cover drive enough. I think they've been a little bit short and they've plugged that cover region,” he said. "That nick that we saw that went between Paine and Smith, I think that could have been covered with another slip in place and leave the cover area open," Ponting added.

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South Africa fight back strongly after Sri Lanka put up impressive first-innings total

Sri Lanka's hopes of dominating the first Test against South Africa were severely dented by a strong reply from the home side. The resistance was led by their dogged opener Dean Elgar who just missed out on another Test hundred. Still, the Proteas ended day 2 on 317/4, trailing Sri Lanka by 79 runs. Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka mangaed to take their score to 396 after starting at 340/6. The seventh-wicket partnership between Dasun Shanaka and Kasun Rajitha added a valuable 67 runs to the team's score. Shanaka managed to reach his fifty and remained unbeaten at the end of the innings on the personal score of 66. After the fall of the seventh wicket, of Kasun Rajitha, who scored 12, South Africa ended the lower order's resistance quickly. Debutant Lutho Sipamla, who struggled early on during the first day but managed to look more effective with the second new ball, picked up the last three wickets and ended with figures of 4/76. Wiaan Mulder also had good figures - 3/69. South Africa started on a very strong note. Despite the pitch offering some assistance to the seamers, openers Elgar and Aiden Markram put up a partnership of 141. Markram was out on 68 to Vishwa Fernando. Rassie van der Dussen, occupying the pivotal no. 3 position, which had been made his own by Hashim Amla, managed only 15 before a beautiful delivery by Lahiru Kumara moved just a little to take the edge of his bat, and the catch was taken by the wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella. At this stage, Sri Lankan seamers started to get the ball to move around and presented challenges to the batsmen. Elgar, nearing his hundred, fell prey to a delivery that swung back in from Shanaka and the left-hander's strong bottom hand made the ball travel back towards the bowler, aerially, to be taken gleefully by him. Elgar scored 95. Quinton de Kock came out at no. 5 and straightaway got into his strokeplaying mode. Unfortunately for him, debutant Wanindu Hasaranga got a delivery to go on with the angle, instead of turning like a regular leg-break, into the batsman. The ball took the edge of de Kock's closed-face bat and carried to slip. At 220/4, with the conditions still offering assistance to the seamers, South African team would have been a bit worried. However, du Plessis and Bavuma took charge and negotiated the bowling without creating any chances. Sri Lankan pacers were not able to bowl consistent lines and lengths to trouble the batsmen while Hasaranga's success didn't lead to more spin-related troubles for the batting pair. By the time the end of the day came around, Faf had managed to reach an important half-century in his career. Bavuma also moved on to 41. The partnership is worth 97 runs and looking ominous for the Lankans. The visiting teams bowlers just didn't create enough opportunities. They were also hamstrung with an injury to Kasun Rajitha which forced him to leave the field after bowling just 2.1 overs. The match has proceded in an unexpected way. Despite the pitch having sufficient bounce and movement, neither team has been able to do justice to them. The match has, hence, turned into one with high scores in first innings.

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Bizarre! Bihar Cricket Association selects two teams for Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Another round of controversies erupted in one of the most controversial state cricket associations the Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) as two warring factions led by the Association President Rakesh Tiwary and Secretary of BCA Sanjay Kumar selected two different teams for the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament to represent Bihar. The Tiwary faction released a 20 member squad led by the Ranji Team captain Ashutosh Aman, while secretary Sanjay Kumar’s squad has Keshav Kumar, the opening batsman who was among the runs in this Ranji season as the leader of the squad. The surprising factor is, there are no common players in both squads. Reacting to media queries on this bizarre incident Prez Tiwary said, “This is a non-issue. The BCCI provided us with an ODMS software password which is used for the registration of players. 30 rooms are booked by BCCI in Chennai bio bubble as per the list sent by us. The secretary’s team is a fake one.” Alleging that the Secretary has been removed by the Association after eight members signed a petition, Tiwary also leveled charges of favoritism and biasedness on Kumar. “He has put his own son Shivam Sanjay Kumar in the team along with Verma’s son Lakhan Raja,” Tiwary said. Kumar has his own version of the truth to speak, He alleged former India wicketkeeper and one of the top members of the BCCI, Saba Karim of miscommunication and cheating. “Saba Karim misused his position as GM (Cricket Operations) and illegally changed the credentials of the ODMS for player registration of BCA and providing it to a person he favours,” Kumar wrote in a letter addressed to the media. Now it is up to BCCI to sort out the matter as only five days remain before all the teams assemble at their respective bio-secure hubs. Bihar team, (whichever of the two is confirmed) have to reach Chennai for their group matches where they will face Arunachal Pradesh in their first game on 11th January. The tournament begins on 10th January.