Australia regain Border-Gavaskar Trophy after drawn Test

December 30, 2014

Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Melbourne, Dec 30: Australia today regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after the third cricket Test ended in an exciting draw with a jittery India just about managing to avoid an embarrassing defeat here.

Set an improbable target of 384 in 70 overs courtesy Shaun Marsh's 99, India's batting frailty was again exposed and they survived some anxious moments before salvaging a draw. It ensured that India won't suffer a 'whitewash' this time around.

India finished at a nervous 174 for six before both the captains decided call off play with four overs remaining, bringing an end to a gripping Test match.

Australia needed a draw to regain the coveted trophy and batted out the first session to shut the door on India's chances of a possible victory. With this draw, Australia maintained their unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

The fifth day's play expectedly turned out to be an intriguing contest between bat and ball and had Australians given themselves some more time, they could have even pulled off a victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

When play was called off after 66 overs, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (24 no) and Ravichandran Ashwin (8 no) survived 11 tense overs to bring closure.

The highlight of the Indian innings was an 85-run fourth wicket stand between Virat Kohli (54) and Ajinkya Rahane (48) after three quick wickets saw them reeling at 19 for three at one stage.

Shikhar Dhawan (0) had another failure while Murali Vijay (11) didn't fire this time round. KL Rahul's baptism by fire cost his wicket as his atrocious shot selection for the second time raised doubts about his temperament at the highest level.

It was first innings centurions Kohli and Rahane, who brought about the stability. Kohli hit seven boundaries in his 99-ball innings while Rahane also showed composure during his three hour and 16 minute stay at the wicket hitting six fours.

Cheteshwar Pujara (21) was done in by a beautiful slower from Mitchell Johnson but Dhoni and Ashwin saw to it that India were safe at the end of the day.

The final Test will be held at Sydney from January 6.

The final session of the Test match turned out to be a tricky one for India as Kohli, who got his second 50-plus score, was gone first ball after the break, flicking Harris straight to square leg.

Pujara consumed 70 balls and although didn't score many runs did eat up precious 16.5 overs help out in forcing the draw for his team. His strategy did work to an extent, putting on 37 runs for the fifth wicket with Rahane.

But it was Johnson, who dismissed the Saurashtra batsman with a beautifully thought out plan. Pujara was hit on the helmet by Johnson in the 51st over and two deliveries later, the shaken batsman was bowled by one that he delivered from wide. It pitched on the middle and then moved enough to clip the off-bail.

Four overs later, Rahane mistimed a pullshot off Hazlewood delivery straight to Shaun Marsh at midwicket and India were looking at trouble. There were still 15 overs remaining and the final hour saw Dhoni and Ashwin tested a lot. The latter was lucky as he was dropped by Watson at first slip in the 57th over, when on 1.

The duo tightened up and persevered till the end to salvage a draw for their team thereafter.

Earlier, Dhawan and Vijay (11) opened the innings with both the Adelaide-chase and Brisbane-collapse fresh in mind.

And a top-order collapse was the story of this day, as Dhawan was out leg before in the second over to Ryan Harris. In his second Test innings then, debutant Rahul (1) was promoted to number three.

Much like in the first innings, Rahul played a poor shot to get out, this time pulling a wide delivery from Johnson as Watson ran back from first slip to complete the catch.

India were struggling at 5/2 and things could have been worse in the 5th over when Kohli, (on 4), could have been run-out as Vijay wasn't backing up and looking at the ball instead.

His partner meanwhile had almost reached the non-striking end and only a poor throw from David Warner helped keep Kohli at the crease.

But Vijay left soon after in the 9th over, adjudged LBW by umpire Kumar Dharamsena off Hazlewood. It brought Rahane to the crease, pairing him up with Kohli once again.

Kohli and Rahane were aiming to repeat the magic from the first innings as they took on Johnson and attacked his short deliveries. The runs started coming along nicely and

the session was running down, with the Indian 50-mark coming up in the 18th over.

Just 15 overs later, the 100-mark came up and in between Kohli had celebrated his 50 off 87 balls. There were a couple hiccups before tea though.

Rahane, then on 22, was dropped by Chris Rogers at point off Johnson in the 27th over. Then in the 34th, Kohli escaped being run-out once again whilst going for a second run, as Lyon failed to collect the throw.

In the morning, play started early by 30 minutes to make up for the time lost on day four. But only three balls into the day, rain came down to stop the proceedings. There was a 40-minute delay before resumption of play.

Shaun Marsh and Ryan Harris (21) continued to take their time and it looked like scoring runs was not on their agenda. Only 57 runs came in this morning session and the run-rate was nothing to write home about. It could be seen from the fact that the first boundary came in only the 83rd over, the 8th over of the morning.

India looked like they were waiting for the declaration to come about. Meanwhile Australia were looking to play for time as the pitch didn't show enough variable bounce like in Brisbane or deterioration like in Adelaide.

It resulted in a slow morning as the 50-run partnership for the 8th wicket came up off 112 balls. The 300-mark for Australia came up in the 92nd over.

At the hour mark in the morning session, there was another 10-minute delay in play because of rain. But no overs have been deducted with play extended in the evening until 6:06 pm local time and another half hour possible afterwards.

When play resumed, Harris was the first to depart of the two batsmen, caught behind off Mohammad Shami (2-92). There were only 20-odd minutes left in the session as Nathan Lyon (1) came out to bat, but probably with the message that the team management intended to declare at the break.

That brought about urgency in Marsh's play as he struck a six and a four in the 95th over bowled by Ashwin (2-75).

He had also been dropped that over, on 86*, by the bowler as the return catch hit him high on the wrist. Then, two overs later, in a rush of blood Marsh went for a quick single and was run-out by a direct throw from Virat Kohli from mid-off.

However by then Australia had set a target which certainly was out of reach for India.

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Agencies
February 4,2020

Potchefstroom, Feb 4: Yashasvi Jaiswal and Divyaansh Saxena guided India to a comfortable ten wickets win over Pakistan in the ICC U19 World Cup semifinal at Senwes Park on Tuesday and progressed to the final of the tournament.

Chasing 173, Indian openers Jaiswal and Saxena played cautiously and stitched an unbeaten partnership of 176 runs.

The duo built the highest opening partnership of the tournament's history. Jaiswal, the left-handed batsman, scored his maiden century of the tournament as he amassed unbeaten 105 runs studded with eight fours and four sixes.

Saxena scored 59* off 99 balls including six fours. India chased down the total in 35.2 overs. This is the first time in the history of the U19 World Cup that a team won a knockout match by ten wickets.

Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.

Opener Haider Ali and skipper Rohail Nazir's half-centuries guided the side to a respectable total of 172. Ali played a knock of 56 runs while Nazir accumulated 62 runs including six boundaries.

Pakistan did not have a good start as they lost Mohammad Hurair (4) in the second over. Fahad Munir, came to bat at number three, failed to score a single run and was departed by Ravi Bishnoi on a duck in ninth over.

Apart from Ali and Nazir, Mohammad Haris was the only batsman to score runs in double digits. He played an innings of 21 runs off 15 balls. Indian bowlers showed a spirited performance as they bowled out arch-rival in 43.1 overs.

Pacers Karthik Tyagi and Sushant Mishra bagged two and three wickets respectively. Spinner Ravi Bishnoi clinched two scalps and conceded 46 runs in his ten overs.

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News Network
May 29,2020

Kolkata, May 29: Former skipper Kumar Sangakkara believes missing Angelo Mathews due to an injury hurt Sri Lanka badly in the summit clash of the 2011 World Cup, which hosts India won after a gap of 28 years.

Having played a key role in their thrilling semifinal win against New Zealand, Mathews was forced out of the final against India at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium by a quadriceps muscle injury.

Reflecting on the six-wicket loss to India, the former Sri Lankan captain said Mathews' injury forced him to opt for a 6-5 combination and was also the reason behind his decision to bat first after winning the toss.

"In that WC final, that's the biggest thing I look back and think...You can talk about drop catches and all of that happens. But the composition of the side and the fact that we were forced to make the change was to me the turning point," Sangakkara said in the latest episode of Instagram series 'Reminisce with Ash' hosted by India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Mahela Jayawardene's unbeaten 103 went in vain as India hunted down 275 with Gautam Gambhir setting up the chase with a 97-run knock before skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni finished off in style, smashing Nuwan Kulasekara for the winning six in his unbeaten 91.

"But for 100 per cent, if Angelo (Mathews) had been fit, I know for sure we would have gone for chase... I'm not sure whether the result would have changed. That balance of team that Mathews would give at seven really was a bonus," the former wicketkeeper batsman said

"If you take our entire campaign, whatever we did Mathews' overs and his ability to bat with the tail and read situations was an incredible bonus to us. He was a young chap who came into the side and from day one he could read situations. It's just instinct, how to up the rate, how to control the bowler, when to accelerate."

During the conversation, Ashwin also asked him about the controversial toss when the coin was flipped twice amid the cacophony of the Wankhede and eventually Sangakkara elected to bat.

"The was crowd was huge. It never happens in Sri Lanka. Once I had this at Eden Gardens when I could not talk to the first slip and then of course at the Wankhede. I remember calling on the toss then Mahi wasn't sure and said did you call tail and I said no I called head.

"The match referee actually said I won the toss, Mahi said he did not. There was a little bit of confusion there and Mahi said let's have another toss of the coin and heads went up again," he said.

"I am not sure whether it was luck that I won. I believe probably India might have batted if I had lost."

The loss prolonged Sri Lanka's wait for another world title as yet again the 1996 champions failed in the final hurdle.

"Whether we win or lose, we have this equilibrium on how to take a win or loss. The smile hides a huge amount of sadness, of disappointment, of thinking of 20 million people back in Sri Lanka who had been waiting for this for so long, since 1996.

"We had an opportunity in 2011, opportunity in 2007, then T20 opportunities in 2009 and 2012," Sangakkara said.

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News Network
January 19,2020

Rome, Jan 19: India's star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya kicked off the Olympic year in style, winning a gold medal each in their respective weight categories at the Rome Ranking Series here.

The 25-year-old Bajrang staged a remarkable comeback to secure a 4-3 win against USA's Jordan Michael Oliver in the summit showdown of the 65kg freestyle category.

Ravi, who competed in the 61kg category instead of his regular 57kg, also bagged gold after getting the better of Kazakhstan's Nurbolat Abdualiyev 12-2 in his final bout late on Saturday night.

The 23-year-old from Sonepat had made the final round after securing impressive wins over Moldova's Alexaandru Chirtoaca and Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev.

Up against one of India's biggest medal prospects in the Tokyo Olympics, Oliver conceded that it was not his night against Bajrang.

The American lauded the competitive spirit of Bajrang.

"Wasn't my night… but I got a lot of work to do to be where I want to be! Hats off to @BajrangPunia dude is heck of a competitor! Until next time my friend," the American tweeted.

Bajrang had to sweat it out in the first round against Zain Allen Retherford of the USA before prevailing 5-4.

In the quarterfinal, the ace Indian wrestler went past another American Joseph Christopher Mc Kenna 4-2, before getting the better of Vasyl Shuptar of Ukraine 6-4 in the semi-finals.

However, it was curtains for Jitender in the 74kg and world championship silver medallist Deepak Punia in the 86kg category.

Jitender won his first bout against Denys Pavlov of Ukraine 10-1 before going down in the quarterfinals against Turkey's Soner Demirtas 4-0.

Jitender got a chance to fight in the repechage after Demirtas entered the final, but the Indian wasted the opportunity, losing 2-9 to Daniyar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan.

In the 86kg category, Deepak crashed out in the opening round, losing 1-11 to Ethan Adrian Ramos of Puerto Rico.

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