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Ghosh struck a quick 86 as India declared their first innings on 603 for 6

Srinidhi Ramanujam29-Jun-2024South Africa showed great fight to reach 236 for 4 on the second day of the one-off Test in Chennai after India declared their first innings at a record 603 for 6. At stumps, the visitors were still 367 runs behind. But on a pitch where Indians bowlers were able to extract sharp turn and bounce from the second session of the day, Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp, with their half-centuries and a 93-run stand for the third wicket, displayed commendable resilience and technique.After a 3-0 defeat in the ODI series and conceding 525 on the first day of the Test, South Africa did not let India dent their confidence on Saturday.Related

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After India declared their innings in the morning, Laura Wolvaardt and Anneke Bosch looked composed in the six overs before lunch, with the captain punishing a half-tracker from Sneh Rana and an overpitched delivery from Pooja Vastrakar for four. This was before Wolvaardt struck a confident drive through mid-off in the first over of the innings by Renuka Singh.However, Rana – who got the ball to spin more than any other spinner – got the first breakthrough in the eighth over when she bowled one rare short ball. But it kept low and Wolvaardt completely missed her pull to be trapped lbw. Bosch and Luus stayed on for the next 23 overs, stitching 63 runs. However, Bosch, who hit four fours and a six, fell a few overs before tea. Rana was at it once again. After the previous ball spun sharply, Rana bowled one full outside off. Anticipating the turn, Bosch leaned forward and nicked it to Deepti Sharma at slip.Richa Ghosh took just 54 balls to bring up her half-century•BCCI

At 96 for 2, South Africa found stability via Kapp and Luus who blended caution with aggression. Luus respected the good deliveries, scoring almost equally on the off and leg side. In all, she scored 65 off 164 balls that included six fours and one six over long-on against Rana.The duo put on 93 before Deepti broke the stand when she beat Luus’ inside edge and trapped her lbw. Luus reviewed the on-field decision but it was in vain. Delmi Tucker became Rana’s third victim when Richa Ghosh took a sharp catch to dismiss her for an eight-ball duck.Kapp, like Luus, played more off the back foot and scored predominantly on the off side, with seven of her eight fours coming in that area. She reached 50 off 87 balls and remained unbeaten on 69 off 125 at stumps. She fought cramps and a stiff back towards the end of the final session, but didn’t throw her wicket away.Once Tucker departed, Nadine de Klerk joined Kapp with the pair stitching an unbroken 38-run stand off 56 balls. De Klerk showed good intent in the final hour and hit five fours in her unbeaten 27 off 28 balls.Earlier, Ghosh and Harmanpreet Kaur started sedately but soon converted their starts into half-centuries. The pair stretched their stand to 143 runs. Harmanpreet made 69 off 115 balls before being dismissed in the 15th over of the day when fast bowler Tumi Sekhukhune trapped her in front to leave India at 593 for 5.Ghosh hit seven more boundaries on Saturday, 16 in all, her 90-ball innings, using her strong wrists to good use to play powerful cut shots. She fell for her career-best 86 when she missed a sweep off left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba and was lbw.

Allrounder earns reappraisal from Anderson after crucial match-turning innings

Osman Samiuddin02-Jul-2022You’d think an allrounder who averages over 35 with the bat and under 25 with the ball (and takes four wickets per Test) across 60 Tests might not need the validation of a century to boost his confidence. You’d think Ravindra Jadeja might not need that boost of confidence. You’d be wrong.Jadeja’s first Test hundred outside India, and especially because it was in England, is one that he will draw from. “I’m feeling really good, to do it outside India, especially in England to hit a hundred as a player is a really big thing,” he said. “I can really take some confidence in myself as a player from this, to score a hundred in England, in swinging conditions, so yeah it feels really good.”The innings was overshadowed by Rishabh Pant’s 111-ball 146 but was marked by a discipline and sense of game-management that spoke of the work of a proper batter. Which is precisely what James Anderson identified as a shift from previous encounters with Jadeja – and the pair have, of course, history.”In the past he was coming at 8, bat with the tail so he had to chance his arm a little bit,” Anderson said, “whereas now at 7 he can bat like a proper batter. He leaves really well and made it difficult for us.””In England you have play close to the body,” Jadeja added. “The ball swings here so if you look to play the cover- or square-drive there is a chance you can edge to the cordon. My focus was to initially not play at too many balls outside off-stump.”When the cover or point is vacant there is a temptation to hit the ball through that area for a boundary, but then you can get out in the slips. My thought was only to hit the ball that was really close to me and to hit it straight. Luckily, all the balls that I picked were in my areas and converted them into boundaries. If you know where your off-stump is, then you can leave the balls outside that line.”And Anderson’s assessment?”See, when you score runs, everyone says they think of themselves as a proper batter. But I’ve always tried to give myself time at the crease, to set a partnership with whoever is at the crease, to play with him. It’s nice Jimmy Anderson has realised that after 2014… so I’m happy.”Facing opposition bowlers is one thing but long partnerships with a batter like Pant brings its own questions and decisions. The pair put on a record 222 and Jadeja said that, while batting with Pant, he understood Rahul Dravid’s line about the difficulties of batting with Virender Sehwag: such was Sehwag’s attacking game that it was difficult for the partner to not get swept alongside in a similar vein.”Yes totally,” he said. “A little pressure goes off because he’s hitting every bowler in the same way. He wasn’t leaving anyone alone. At the non-striker’s end it feels good because they then don’t focus too much on me.Related

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“But as a batsman you still have to come to [a place like] England and concentrate and focus because it is never easy here. You’re playing on 50 or 70 and you can get a good ball anytime. Me and Rishabh were talking about this, that we just try and put on a long partnership. When I came to bat we had to take the team to a good position and really had to put some effort in. Hopefully we’ve put a good total on the board.”With England 84 for 5 at the close of a rain-hit second day, that total of 416 was looking even more imposing. Three fast bowlers have done all the bowling and the wicket-taking thus far, but with England’s engine room this summer of Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes at the crease, it may be that Jadeja’s second suit is called upon as well.”It might be that I have no role to play at all which will be a good thing,” he said. “The way our four fast bowlers are bowling, Bumrah, Shami, Siraj and Shardul, I want that I don’t have a role. That’ll be best for the team.”My job is to do whatever the team needs me to do. As an allrounder, sometimes the situation is that you need to make runs and save the team and help them win. In bowling you sometimes have to provide the breakthroughs and break partnerships or chip in with one or two wickets. I consider myself only a team player who does whatever the team needs.”

Afghanistan counterattacked in the chase but eventually fell to a 42-run loss

Madushka Balasuriya09-Feb-2024Pathum Nissanka’s historic double ton ensured Sri Lanka withstood a spirited Afghanistan counterattack to record a 42-run victory in the first ODI at Pallekele and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.That Afghanistan even got that close was down to a record 242-run stand between Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammad Nabi, the second-highest sixth-wicket stand in ODI history. Omarazai ended on a 115-ball 149, while Nabi scored 136 off 130, as Afghanistan fell short but with their heads held high.It would leave them wondering perhaps what might have been had there been more substantial contributions from their top order, but in a chase of the mammoth 382-run target set by Sri Lanka, many fell wanting in searching for a fast start.Related

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Pramod Madushan did the most damage sending three of Afghanistan’s top four packing inside the first powerplay. The right-handed Rahmanullah Gurbaz and the left-handed Hashmatullah Shahidi were both done in by in-duckers, Madushan adept at moving the ball both ways – either through the air or off the surface.In between the two he had Ibrahim Zadran caught at slip, and returned later in the game to break the stand between Nabi and Omarzai. He finished with figures of 4 for 75.With Dushmantha Chameera accounting for the scalps of Rahmat Shah and Gulbadin Naib at the other end, Afghanistan found themselves staring down the barrel of an ignominious defeat, having stumbled to 55 for 5 midway through the ninth over.But that was when the fightback began, as the pair of Omarzai and Nabi resolved early on to take the game as deep as possible.With not much batting to follow, it was clear the pair could not take undue risks, nevertheless they found boundaries to ensure the run rate never got too out of hand. That said, it wasn’t until the 36th over that their scoring rate went beyond six an over, by which point the required rate was touching 12 an over.By the 40th over the requirement was 137 needed off 60 deliveries, a tall ask but put into context by the fact that Sri Lanka had struck 120 in the same period.In the end the asking rate proved too much, especially with Sri Lanka having multiple overs available from each of their frontline bowlers.Mohammad Nabi is the oldest player to score an ODI hundred•AFP/Getty Images

It also put into perspective the batting effort put in by the Lankans, particularly the outstanding Nissanka, whose 210 had come off just 139 deliveries.Avishka Fernando, with a run-a-ball 88, was the next highest scorer, as he and Nissanka put on a 182-run opening stand – Sri Lanka’s first century opening stand in nine innings, and just the third to hit double digits in that period. But that was just the start of Afghanistan’s misery.The visitors, who had opted to go with a four-strong seam attack, were left to rue their decision to bowl first having won the toss, with conditions proving ideal for batting. After a subdued start in the opening five in which just 22 runs were scored, Nissanka began to let loose.There was a subdued period through the middle overs when Nabi was rifling through his overs, but at the start and the death the Afghan bowlers were at Nissanka’s mercy.Omarzai was the first to feel the heat, taken for back-to-back boundaries through midwicket and then cover. Two overs later Fareed Ahmad was taken for 19, inclusive of two fours and a six – the latter off a free hit. Ahmad went for a further 17 in his next over, Avishka doing the brunt of the damage on that occasion, as Sri Lanka raced to 90 by the end of the 10th over.The scoring tapered from there on, the occasional flurry of boundaries serving to keep the scoring rate hovering around the seven an over mark. It took a scorching grab from Hashmatullah Shahidi at backward point to bring an end to the opening stand, as Avishka flayed a wide one hard to his right.Kusal Mendis’ entry saw more of the same, as he scrounged around for a 31-ball 16 before skying a miscued shot after coming down the track. The entry of Sadeera Samarawickrama, midway through the 36th over, though was the catalyst for Sri Lanka to shift gears, as his ability to rotate strike and find boundaries dovetailed perfectly with Nissanka, who was beginning to see the ball bigger with every stroke.Their stand of 121 came off just 71 deliveries and scaled up in the final 10 overs. Of the 120 runs ransacked in this period Nissanka alone accounted for 76 of them.Having earlier brought up his century with a single eased to deep cover, he brought up his 150 with a double past backward point. But those milestones were surrounded by belligerence.Noor Ahmad was slog-swept twice in an over, with the wind, over deep midwicket. Fazalhaq Farooqi was clobbered down the ground, flicked over square leg, heaved over deep midwicket and paddled behind square. And when all else failed Afghanistan turned back to Fareed, but Nissanka would not err.Having failed to get away a string of wide Fareed yorkers two overs prior, Nissanka squeezed the first such attempt in the final over past backward point to bring up his double ton. Two balls later he swung one high over square leg and then he crashed a drive to deep extra cover to finish the innings.It was a knock worthy of winning any game, and so it proved in the end.

Edrich played 77 Tests between 1963 and 1976, most often as a fearless left-handed opener

Andrew Miller25-Dec-2020John Edrich, the former England batsman who was renowned as one of the world’s doughtiest players of fast bowling, has died at the age of 83. He died of natural causes on December 23, at his house in north Scotland.Edrich played 77 Tests between 1963 and 1976, most often as a fearless left-handed opener, scoring 5138 runs at 43.54, and just shy of 40,000 in a first-class career for Surrey that spanned 23 seasons.His finest hour arguably came during Ray Illingworth’s triumphant Ashes tour of 1970-71, when his haul of 648 runs at 72.00, including two hundreds, were instrumental in England’s 2-0 series win. All told, he made 12 Test hundreds and 24 fifties, including a career-best 310 not out against New Zealand at Headingley in 1965.Related

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“With John’s passing, we’ve lost a prolific and fearless batsman – one of the select few who have scored more than 5,000 runs for England,” ECB CEO Tom Harrison said in a statement. “His duels with some of the world’s best fast bowlers were legendary, and it’s a testament to his ability that his 310 not out against New Zealand in 1965 remains the fifth highest Test score by an English batsman. He will be sadly missed, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”At Sydney in 1974-75, Edrich captained England in a one-off capacity, standing in for Mike Denness, who dropped himself in the midst of a torrid run of form.Edrich also played a starring role in the first-ever one-day international, at Melbourne in 1970-71, scoring the first boundary in the format, as well as the first half-century, and even claimed the first Player-of-the-Match award for his innings of 82 from 119 balls. However, he could not prevent Australia from taking the first victory, by five wickets.Edrich’s Test career ended where it began, against West Indies at Old Trafford in 1976, when at the age of 39, he and Brian Close stood firm on the third evening as Michael Holding delivered one of the most ferocious spells of fast bowling of all time.Thirteen years earlier, it had been Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith testing Edrich’s mettle at the same venue, while in between whiles he came up against a litany of greats, including South Africa’s Peter Pollock, who knocked him cold with a bouncer at Lord’s in 1965, and Dennis Lillee, who left him with two broken ribs after pinning him with a bouncer on the 1974-75 tour.Edrich hailed from a famous Norfolk cricketing family – his cousin Bill played 39 Tests between 1938 and 1955, while three other cousins also played at county level. In 1958, he made his county debut at the age of 21 in a champion Surrey side that was heading for its seventh consecutive title. It was an inauspicious first match – Surrey were bowled out for 57 in the fourth innings as Edrich arrived at the crease at 7 for 3, but he proved his stomach for the fight with an unbeaten 24.In retirement, Edrich moved to Aberdeenshire but remained a grandee of the game, serving as president of Surrey in 2006. In 2000, at the age of 63, he was diagnosed with leukaemia and given seven years to live but overcame the disease to endure for another two decades.

Nottinghamshire collapse after flying start as Somerset hit back with the ball

David Hopps13-Apr-2023Somerset 28 for 2 trail Nottinghamshire (Duckett 75, Hameed 65, Gregory 7-84) by 228 runsBack injury healed; fracture recurring. Such has been the story of Lewis Gregory’s bowling career. It has become such a dispiriting routine that it was no wonder he often chooses to describe himself as a batting allrounder. But everything came right on a bowlers’ day at Trent Bridge as he returned career-best figures of seven for 84 that were a reward for years of perseverance.That bowlers’ day took time to reveal itself. When Gregory struck for the first time, Nottinghamshire were 164 for 1 with Ben Duckett and Haseeb Hameed, with varying degrees of fortune, helping themselves to surprisingly easy early-season runs on a cheerless April day.As Gregory struggled through the first part of the day, returning eight fairly pedestrian overs for 33, it was tempting to bemoan his back issues that have helped to limit him to 12 England appearances in limited-overs formats. But after a short rain stoppage soon after lunch, batting never felt as secure again. He began to release the shackles a little, manipulate the ball both ways and Nottinghamshire finally paid for their indiscretions, five wickets falling for 33 in nine overs.Gregory is familiar with this ground as the captain of The Hundred franchise Trent Rockets, although don’t make too much of that in the West Country where they just regard that as an inconsequential temporary absence best not mentioned. He will hope his performance sets up Somerset for a repeat of their 2019 innings victory here, when he took six for 68. Well, maybe, but he might be best advised not to bet on it.The first chunk of the day had belonged to Ben Duckett and Haseeb Hameed, whose opening stand was worth 125 in 32.1 overs when Duckett was lbw to a gentle inswinger from Craig Overton. Overton had bowled only three overs with the new ball before hobbling off with a sore left foot, but he soon returned and fulfilled his stint, periodically offering an aggrieved kick or two of the footholds. An Overton brother kicking the footholds is truly a harbinger of Spring.Duckett is approaching an Ashes summer with the same buoyant inventiveness that brought him 1,102 Championship runs last summer at 72.28 – nearly double his average the previous season. There is no more watchable batter among county cricket regulars and the longer the circuit is blessed by his presence the better.Ben Duckett was in a forceful mood for Notts•Getty Images

At his best, Duckett can feel ludicrously dismissive. There is no sense of disdain, because he is far too easy-going for that, just a sense over the past year that if he feels like doing much as he pleases there is no reason why he shouldn’t. This nonchalance probably makes bowlers bowl badly at him – and if they bowled too short at times, he is a little guy, and pugnacious with it, so leaves little margin for error.In 91 balls, he managed 75 jaunty runs. Against his England teammate, Jack Leach, a left-arm spinner whose stock he has seen rise, he was almost playful, reverse sweeping his second ball over square leg for six, and later throwing in an over-the-shoulder scoop for good measure, like the court jester, Will Somers, might have dared to attempt to amuse King Henry VIII on a day when his leg ulcers were giving him gip.”I assessed the pitch and decided it was going to do a bit and tried to put the pressure back on the bowlers,” Duckett said.Alongside him, Haseeb Hameed trusted to his defensive technique, but not always. He could not fail to be aware that enterprise is now officially sanctioned at England level. But like Alex Lees, who lost his England place, all-out aggression sits uneasily on him and he would be better gradually broadening his game, finding his own tempo.Hameed’s 65 was a strange affair: it took 151 balls, and a mistimed pull against Peter Siddle got him off the mark after 29 balls, so it hardly sounds hazardous, but such statistics belie an innings characterised by a desire to dominate. There were a string of big play-and-misses outside off stump as he seemed too anxious to play the big shot and when he reached his half-century by slicing Gregory high over slips it felt in keeping with an impatient innings. He became Gregory’s first victim, James Rew, a former England U-19 wicketkeeper getting his chance this season stooping behind the stumps to hold a low catch.Gregory’s day had taken an upturn. He felt himself a bowler again, skilful, not fast, but just fast enough. Ben Slater mis-pulled a shortish ball, but Lyndon James fell first ball to the best of the seven – a shortish delivery one that shaded away and dislodged his off stump. Siddle also took advantage of more responsive conditions. Firstly, Joe Clarke pushed hard at one and Cameron Bancroft fumbled the ball into the ball into his midriff as he tumbled backwards, then Steven Mullaney was lbw to one that seamed back sharply.It was Gregory, though, who continued to prosper. Liam Patterson-White and Tom Moores (a little unfortunate) fell lbw to balls snaking in from around the wicket. Stuart Broad’s first innings of the season brought a second-ball duck as he touched one that seamed away. Dane Paterson, one of life’s no 11s, was perhaps not the most illustrious name to complete a CB, but his step away to carve to deep backward point added his own special signature to the cake.”This place is a bit like my second home with being my base with the Trent Rockets,” Gregory said. “I’m not quite back to my best but there are signs. There are still things that I’m not quite there with but what was exciting is that there are signs: I feel pretty good physically.”Somerset lost two in reply by the close. The second day could be cursed by bad weather, but what play there is could leave Notts in charge. Cameron Bancroft, an Australian with outside Ashes ambitions, vs Stuart Broad (wicketless so far in five overs so far) is a decent top of the bill.