Former West Indies pacer Ezra Moseley dies aged 63

Mohammed Shami resumes bowling, may comeback in D/N Test against England

In a good sign for the depleted Indian side, pacer Mohammed Shami has resumed his bowling and may well be fit and ready to take the field in the third Test against England. However, he looked bowling only with ‘low intensity’ and will need some overs under his belt before he can stake a claim in the Indian team. "Shami's forearm is fine right now. He will have some low-intensity net sessions for the next few days. He has been advised to bowl around 18 deliveries a day at 50 to 60 percent effort. Since has been out for more than month and a half, that is how the workload will be built,” PTI quoted an unnamed source from the National Cricket Academy as saying. Shami was injured in the first Test against Australia in Adelaide when he was hit by a short delivery from Pat Cummins and fractured his right wrist. He had walked out of the pitch and never returned to bat in the match. Later, he was ruled out for six weeks’ time as scans revealed a hairline fracture on his wrist. India are already missing the services of Ravindra Jadeja and while he is yet to recover from the thumb dislocation, Shami’s possible return will bolster the bowling resources. India are likely to field an extra pacer in the day-night Test scheduled to be played in Ahmedabad and Shami will make the options richer for the Indian team management.

Don’t think half the English batsmen can play spin as well as Root: Ben Stokes

England vice-captain, Ben Stokes was all praise for his skipper Joe Root, who scored a brilliant double hundred on the second day of the first Test going on between India and England at the MA Chidambaram in Chennai. Speaking in the virtual press conference, Stokes said that among the English batsmen, there is no one better than Root when it comes to playing spin. “He dominates spin and in such a good form. The way he plays spin, I don’t think half the English batsmen play spin the way he does,” said the 29-year-old. Root became the first cricketer in the world to score a double century in his 100th Test and he did in style by hitting Ravichandran Ashwin for a six. Speaking about that, Stokes said, “I was quite surprised to see him run down the wicket and hit a six to bring up his double hundred.” “The way he bats, he makes us all look rubbish. He simply makes batting look easy,” he added praising the skipper who is the second youngest cricketer after Sir Alastair Cook to play 100 Tests. Saying that it was nice for him to get some runs in the middle (82 of 118 balls), Stokes made it clear that England were in no mood to declare today and would like to bat some more tomorrow morning to add as much as possible to their overnight score of 555-8. “Winning the toss and batting first and scoring above 500 with two wickets left, going into the third day, we are in a good position I guess. There were no thoughts of declaration in the evening. Rather if we can bat another hour tomorrow morning, we would be very happy,” said the Durham player.

19 so far: Shahbaz Nadeem explains Team India’s problems with 'No-Ball'

The Indian team has so far conceded 19 no-balls in the first Test going on at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. It is the highest number of no-balls conceded in an innings in the last 11 years in international cricket. Six out of those 19 no balls were conceded by the left-arm orthodox Shahbaz Nadeem. Nadeem said that the main reason behind him conceding so many no balls was the fault in his jump. “I think I am jumping a bit late. I should be jumping much before the crease,” said the 31-year-old during the virtual press conference. Explaining as to why India bowled a defensive line, Nadeem said, “The plan was to bowl in the right areas. Going for a wicket meant that we risked going for runs. So the plan was to bowl in the right areas and let the batsmen make the mistake while going for big shots.” Reassuring that Indian batsmen would score big in the first inning, the Jharkhand born confirmed that the pitch is still very good to bat on. “The wicket is still the same, there hasn’t been much change in it. There is a rough patch on the left side of the batsman which could be dangerous. But the middle is still the same, quite good for batting,” said Nadeem. Nadeem got both the danger men, Joe Root and Ben Stokes out on the second of the game.

BBL10 Final: In-Vinceble Sixers beat Scorchers to lift their third BBL title

Powered by James Vince’s incredible 95 and a combined effort from the bowling lineup, Sydney Sixers defeated the Perth Scorchers by 27 runs at the Sydney Cricket Ground to win the 10th edition of the Big Bash League. With this win, they also equalled Scorchers’ record of winning three BBL trophies. Taking place under a circumspect threat of rain, the final turned out to be an incredible affair for the most part of it, even as the Scorchers lagged behind after the 15th over in their chase. Chasing a tough total of 189 on a wicket which was getting slower by every ball, the Scorchers got off to a good start with Cameron Bancroft going after the Sixers bowlers. Liam Livingstone, Bancroft’s partner though couldn’t get going initially as was expected from him after the last match heroics. As a result, Bancroft, 28, in an attempt to accelerate got out off a Jackson Bird delivery. Soon, another big man in the game, Colin Munro walked off without troubling the scorers much. Just when Livingstone was getting back to his usual self, the mounting run-rate pressure got the better of him, as he got out trying to hit Bird out of the park. A partnership was needed to solidify the chase but that didn’t come as even after playing more than 10 balls, the likes of Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh and Ashton Turner got out one after the another. Slower balls were the go-to delivery for the Sixers bowlers as they cracked the code that the pitch was supporting the slowness, after getting hit all over the park in the first five overs. By the time the target came down to 69 from the last time, most o the big hitters of the Scorchers side were back in the hut. Aaron Hardie tried his best to give the chase a chance as he hit 16 off a Carlos Brathwaite over. But that was the end of it as in the next three overs, Scorchers could only hit 19 runs. For Sixers, Ben Dwarshuis took three wickets while Bird, Sean Abbot and Dan Christian took two wickets each. Earlier in the day, Sixers lost the toss and were forced to bat first. They couldn’t get a great start as the player of the tournament Josh Philippe got run out for nine. It was then that James Vince decided to take control as he continued from he had left in the Qualifiers. Even as wickets kept falling at the other end, Vince didn’t slow down and it eventually caused his demise, being caught for 95 off Fawad Alam. After Vince, Christian and Jordan Silk hit a few lusty blows and with Brathwaite’s 10 runs from the last over, Sixers reached to 188 in their 20 overs. 188 after being 140-3 in 15 overs, was below expectations at that point of time, but in hindsight, the Sixers would take it happily and as would they take the losing the toss. James Vince was awarded the Man of the Match for his brilliant performance.