IND vs NZ | 1st Test | Day 5: New Zealand off to cautious start on final day

IND vs NZ | 1st Test | Day 5: Neck stiffness forces Saha to sit out, KS Bharat to keep wickets

India wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha had to sit out on Day 5 of the first Test against New Zealand in Kanpur with stiffness in neck. Saha was replaced by KS Bharat. “Wriddhiman Saha felt stiffness in his neck while keeping in the second innings. It was affecting his movement while wicket-keeping. KS Bharat will keep wickets in his absence on Day 5,” said the BCCI in a statement. In the first innings as well, the right-hander didn’t keep wickets due to the same issue and Bharat performed the duties in place of him. Although, he came out to bat on the penultimate day of the Test match and notched up an important half-century during the course to put the hosts in front. India had early hiccups on the fourth day after losing four wickets in the first session but first Shreyas Iyer along with R Ashwin steadied the ship for the side with a 52-run stand for the sixth wicket before the latter departed for 32. Iyer was then joined by Saha and the two batters chipped in with a partnership of 64 runs for the seventh wicket. Iyer was eventually sent back in the hut for 65 while Saha remained unbeaten at 61 as the hosts handed a target of 284 runs to New Zealand.

T10 League 2021-22: Dominic Drakes picks four as Delhi Bulls etch comfortable win over Bangla Tigers

Delhi Bulls’ Dominic Drakes was in some brilliant form with the ball against Bangla Tigers during the Abu Dhabi T10 League fixture. Drakes scalped a four-wicket haul against Bangla Tigers as they were restricted to 88/9 while chasing 101 in 10 overs. The Tigers didn’t really get into the groove and kept losing wickets regularly to get reduced to 54/5 and eventually suffered a defeat. Drakes’ dismissals included the wickets of Faf du Plessis who top scored for his side with a 16-ball 26, James Faulkner, Luke Wood and Vishnu Sukumaran. Drakes returned with figures of 4/9 in two overs. Earlier, in the day, Delhi Bulls rode on an aggressive knock of 35 off 19 from Morgan to put 100/7 on the board. Amir was the pick of the bowlers for his side after he scalped a couple of wickets at the cost of just 13 runs in 2 overs. Both the sides now have five wins and 10 points under their belt but Bangla Tigers are placed ahead in the points table with a better NRR. The Bangla Tigers side will now take on Deccan Gladiators on Wednesday (December 1, 2021) while Delhi Bulls will lock horns with The Chennai Braves on the same day.

BAN vs PAK | Vernon Philander to leave Pakistan team during first Test due to Covid-19

Pakistan bowling consultant, Vernon Philander would be flying out of Chattogram, the venue for the first Test of the two-match series taking place between Bangladesh and Pakistan. He would be doing in the middle of the Test (Day-4) because of the "shutdown of flight operations" in his home country of South Africa. Many countries including Bangladesh had to shut down their flight operations to South Africa due to the development of a new variant of the Coronavirus named Omicron. The operations would be shit down after Monday and hence Philander, who was anyways scheduled to leave for home at the end of the first Test has decided to leave midway. This is not the first event in the cricketing world that has been marred by the new variant. While the Netherlands abandoned its South Africa tour for the Super League after the first match was washed out, the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualification ongoing in Harare, Zimbabwe had to be called off midway as well. It has now been cancelled with teams like Sri Lanka and Thailand left to ruin it as they were not able to progress to the World Cup and Women’s Cricket League respectively even after putting out solid performances. India A team is also currently on tour in South Africa and has not been called back. The senior Indian team is also slated to tour the rainbow nation in the near future and the status f that tour has remained unchanged. It would be interesting to see if changes do take place or not in the coming days as things develop. As fast as the Test match between Bangladesh and Pakistan is concerned, courtesy of Shaheen Afridi’s amazing spell, Pakistan have inched ahead at the end of the third day’s play. Bangladesh, even after taking a lead of 44 runs in the first innings, have managed to add only 39 runs to it and lost its top four players in the cause. They now lead by 83 runs with Mushfiqur Rahim and Yasir Ali at the crease and last innings’ centurion Liton Das and all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz still to come.

IND vs NZ | Vikram Rathour backs experienced duo of Pujara-Rahane to fight back

Amongst concerns of whether this will be the last we are seeing of the experienced du of Cheteshwar Puajara and Ajinkya Rahane in the Tests after the lean patch that they are going through, Team India‘s batting coach Vikram Rathour has backed the duo to play great knocks in near future. "We want our top order to contribute, but the cricketers [Pujara and Rahane] you mentioned have played 80 and 90 Test matches so they have the experience," Rathour said in a press conference at the end of the fourth day’s play in Kanpur. "To play that many games they must have done well for us. I understand both of them are going through a lean phase but they have played very very important knocks for us in the past, and we are pretty sure they will come back and play more important knocks for our team in the future as well,” added the batting coach. Rahane, currently captaining the side and usually the vice-captain of the Indian Test unit has an average of 24.39 for his last 16 Tests while Pujara, who has been as solid as rick at number three has also found it hard to score continuously and averages only 28.61 in 23 Tests since the 2018-19 tour of Australia. In this match, none of the players looked like making any headway and that has given air to rumours of either of them being dropped in the Mumbai Test. Shreyas Iyer, who is playing in place of Virat Kohli has performed exceedingly well scoring a century and half-century in his debut Test and hence him getting dropped would be the cruellest thing to happen. "We will get to that point when we reach Mumbai. At this point, we are focused on this game. There is still a day to go, and a game to be won. So we are really focused on this game,” Rathour said when asked about whether Shreyas would be dropped to get Kohli in the squad or what the combination would be like As far as the current match is concerned, the Indian team would be needing nine wickets on the last day to win the game while New Zealand would be looking to survive the day as getting 280 on the last day is almost impossible on the turning track.