Sydney Test: India inch closer to maiden series win before rain stops third day's play

Agencies
January 5, 2019

Jan 5: India closed in on their maiden Test series triumph in Australia before bad light and rain combined to delay the inevitable, adding more hours to a wait of 71 years.

Bad light stopped play in the final session of day three of the fourth Test as the hosts, responding to India's mammoth first-innings total of 622 for seven declared, were reduced to 236 for six in 83.3 overs on Saturday.

With two full days play left in the game and Australia still 386 runs adrift of India's score, the visitors will fancy their chances of winning the four-match rubber 3-1.

India first went Down Under back in 1947-48 under Lala Amarnath's captaincy, and are yet to achieve series triumph there despite eleven attempts.

At the Sydney Cricket Ground, the players went off with an hour's play pending in the day as bad light hampered proceedings, before rain intervened and brought out an early stumps.

This was after Kuldeep Yadav (3-71) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-62) shared five wickets to put India in a commanding position. At stumps then, Australia were trailing by 386 runs, with Peter Handscomb (28 not out) and Pat Cummins (25 not out) at the crease.

Post tea, Yadav struck on the sixth ball as Tim Paine (5) was completely foxed by the turn he was getting. The spinner pitched the ball up and the batsman, going for a drive, failed to counter it and was bowled.

Cummins and Handscomb then put on 38 runs for the seventh wicket. India requested for the second new ball after 81 overs but were denied owing to bad light.

They kept the batsmen in the middle for only a couple more overs before the umpires stopped play altogether owing to a thunderstorm in the vicinity.

Earlier, India struck four times in the middle session as Australia were reduced to 198 for five at tea.

Post lunch, Australia made the worst start possible with Marcus Harris (79) getting out before he could settle in again. In the third over after the restart, he played on off Jadeja.

In the 49th over, the left-arm spinner made it a double blow six overs later as Shaun Marsh (8) was caught at slip.

Australia barely managed to cross 150 in the 52nd over as India piled on the pressure. Unlike in the first session, only 35 runs came in the first hour of play. The pace of scoring did improve in the second hour with 41 runs taken, but India again struck twice to peg them back.

Ajinkya Rahane held a brilliant catch at short midwicket to send back Marnus Labuschagnge (38) off Mohammed Shami (1-54) soon after.

Travis Head (20) added 40 runs for the fifth wicket with Handscomb for the fifth wicket and brought some respite to the desperate Australian middle order.

But once again, as things looked settled down, they manufactured a wicket with Head hitting a full toss straight back at Yadav and was out caught.

Earlier Harris' half-century had helped Australia reach 122 for one at lunch.

Starting from overnight 24 for no loss, Australia quickly got off the blocks in the morning session. There wasn't much help from the pitch for the two pacers Shami and Jasprit Bumrah (0-43) who started proceedings.

It could be seen from Jadeja being brought on to bowl in the fifth over of the morning, while left-arm wrist spinner Yadav came on to bowl three overs later.

Australia sped to 50 within seven overs of play on this third morning, adding 27 runs in 29 minutes of play in the morning. Later, they crossed 100 in the 30th over.

India's lone success came from Yadav as Usman Khawaja (27) played a loose stroke against the spin and hit straight to Cheteshwar Pujara at mid-wicket.

Jadeja though struggled to find his control and was even hit for three fours in one by Harris, who brought up his second Test half-century off only 67 balls.

Australia had added 56 runs in the first hour of play, and then added another 38 post drinks in the morning session, as they comprehensively dominated the Indian bowling attack for only the second time in this series (after Perth).

India waited for reverse swing and brought back both pacers for another spell in the second half of this session, but both batsmen were set until then even if there was more control from the bowlers.

They brought up their 50-partnership off 103 balls on a warm day.

On day one, Cheteshwar Pujara scored his 18th Test hundred, while Rishabh Pant scored his second Test century on day two as India had piled up a massive score.

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News Network
April 12,2020

Mumbai, Apr 12: Always eager to share his vast knowledge and experience, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar has interacted with 12,000 doctors on sports injuries.

In his over two decade long illustrious career, Tendulkar suffered many health issues, the most prominent being the tennis elbow injury.

The veteran of 200 Tests and 463 ODIs, got to know through one Dr Sudhir Warrier, an orthopaedic surgeon, that several young doctors across the country were utilising the lockdown time to effectively gain knowledge on sports injuries through live webinars.

A session on sports injuries was held on Saturday and Tendulkar, knowing that his experiences will help these doctors, volunteered to be a part of it.

Tendulkar, accordingly, interacted with around 12,000 doctors, who attended the session.

It is reliably leanrt that the 46-year-old legend said he was grateful to the medical fraternity for their service.

During the session, the young orthopaedic doctors got to know how the requirements and treatment outcomes of athletes are different from regular patients, sources said.

Dr Warrier moderated the session with Dr Nitin Patel, physiotherapist, who has worked with Indian cricket team and IPL franchise Mumbai Indians.

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News Network
March 7,2020

Melbourne, Mar 7: Ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup against Australia, India spinner Poonam Yadav said that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has given her a lot of support.

"Harmanpreet has been of immense support. When I got hit for a six in the first over, she came to me and said, 'Poonam, you're one of the most experienced players in the team, and we expect better of you'," Poonam said.

The 28-year-old experienced bowler has played 68 shortest format games for India and taken 94 wickets at an average of 22.66.

She has been in devastating form throughout the tournament and has bagged nine wickets so far.

"So, that kind of stirred something within me. I told myself if my captain has that much faith in me, I should be able to make a comeback," she said.

"I took a wicket in the very next ball, and didn't look back since. Now when I look back at that moment, it means so much in the context of my individual performance and run to the final," she added.

In the opening game against Australia at Sydney Showground, Poonam came within a whisker of the third hat-trick in Women's T20 World Cup history, dismissing Rachael Haynes and Ellyse Perry before Jess Jonassen was dropped.

The final of the tournament will be played at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on March 8 -- International Women's Day.

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News Network
June 22,2020

New Delhi, Jun 22: Claiming to be saddled with faulty equipment from China, the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) on Monday called for a boycott of sports apparatus made in that country after the violent face-off in eastern Ladakh killed 20 Army personnel last week.

The IWLF ordered four weightlifting sets, comprising barbells and weight plates, from Chinese company 'ZKC' last year. The body said that the equipment turned out to be faulty and the weightlifters are no longer using them.

"We should boycott all Chinese equipment. The Indian Weightlifting Federation has taken the decision that it will not use any equipment made in China," IWLF secretary general Sahdev Yadav said.

The IWLF, in a letter, has informed the Sports Authority of India (SAI) about its decision to stop using any equipment made in China.

"In a letter to SAI we have written that IWLF won't be using the Chinese equipment," he said.

"In future also we will not use made in china sets. We will use sets made by Indian origin companies or any other company but not from China," Yadav added.

National coach Vijay Sharma revealed that the plates were found to be sub-standard when the lifters started training again earlier this month following the easing of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

"The sets were spoilt. We can't use them now," Sharma said.

"All the weightlifters in the camp are against China. They have stopped using Chinese apps like Tik Tok. Even while ordering things online, they check where the product has been manufactured," he added.

Asked why the sets were even ordered, Sharma said they had no option as the equipment from China is to be used in the Tokyo Olympics and lifters needed to be familiar with it.

"We had ordered four sets from China for Olympic training a year ago. Now, since we have resumed training post the lockdown we haven't used them. All the lifters are against the use of Chinese equipment," he said.

He said equipment was ordered from China for the first time.

"We don't order equipment from China as the quality is very bad. This was the first time we got it."

The weightlifters are currently training with equipment made in Sweden.

"Post the lockdown we started training on sets from Swedish company 'ELICKO'. SAI has issued 10 sets for us. The main training takes place with those. Maximum international competitions have sets from ELICKO," Sharma said.

Yadav also said that there are ready alternatives to Chinese equipment.

"We have a lot of alternatives. We already have good Indian sets and we also have equipment from Sweden. We will use that, why should we use Chinese?" Yadav said.

Calls to boycott China-made goods erupted across India after the Galwan valley clash last Monday. It was the most violent face-off between the troops from the two countries in more than four decades.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has said it is open to boycotting Chinese products in the wake of the incident.

The BCCI will also review IPL's sponsorship deals, including the title deal with Chinese mobile manufacturing company Vivo later this week.

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