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The Ashes Usman Khawaja Unveils His Dancing Skills Watch Video

The Ashes | Usman Khawaja unveils his dancing skills; watch video

Australia batsman Usman Khawaja grabbed some limelight not with his batting but with some dance moves during the penultimate day of the Day-Night Test in Adelaide. Cricket Australia posted a video of Khawaja that was captioned, “Usman Khawaja pulling out the shuffle for the Barmy Army!”

Coming back to the game, the home side is once again in the driver's seat after setting England a target of 468 in the second innings. The visiting side’s batting woes continued in the second innings too as they had lost three wickets at the time of writing and were struggling at 74/3.

England had a dismal start to the chase as they lost opener, Haseeb Hameed, for a duck. Rory Burns and Dawid Malan tried to steady the ship but Malan was eventually sent back in the hut by Nesser for 20. Burns was third wicket to go down for 34.

Earlier, in the day, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head and Cameron Green helped Australia to hand the opponents a massive total to chase. The hosts had lost early wickets in the day but fifties from Labuschagne and Head and an unbeaten 33 from Green helped them put 230/9 (D).

Australia have already won the first Test and lead the five-match series by 1-0.

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Watch: Steve Smith’s wife catches him shadow batting at 01:00 AM in the morning

Few people are just way too strange with their profession, they love it to an extent that they just can't get enough of it. There could hardly be anyone in cricket as strangely in love with the game as Australia batter Steve Smith. He has been complained about by his teammates regarding his unusual shadow batting and hitting practice late at night in hotel rooms. But this time around, it was his wife, Dani Willis who caught Smudge checking out his new bat and shadow batting with it at 01:00 am in the night inside his hotel room in Adelaide. She uploaded the video on her Instagram handle and it went viral. Smith, who missed out on a century in the first innings of the Day-Night Test going on at the Adelaide Oval between Australia and England, is also on captaincy duty for this game as regular skipper Pat Cummins was not available due to Covid-19 related regulations. But having scored 93 in the first innings, the 32-year-old was not able to get going in the second innings and got out for only six.

The Ashes | Commentary crew gives birthday surprise to Ricky Ponting ahead of 4th Day

It is hard to say whether he knew he had that coming or not, but former Australia captain and currently part of Channel 7’s commentary panel for the Ashes 2021-22 between Australia and England, Ricky Ponting was given a surprise on his 47th birthday. To celebrate the birthday, the entire commentary crew included Ponting’s long time teammate Matthew Hayden and Damien Fleming as well as English legend Sir Ian Botham. Ponting was presented with a gree pitch cloured towering cake with a bat in it by Hayden and asked to speak a few words on the occasion, to which Punter obliged. Ponting, who made his debut for the Aussies in an ODI in February 1995 against South Africa at Wellington New Zealand, went on to play 375 ODIs, 168 Tests and 17 T20Is for the Kangaroos before hanging his boots on a 17 year-long international career in December 2012. In his career, Tasmania born scored a total of 27,483 runs in all formats combined, hitting a total of 41 centuries on his way to those runs.

Watch: Ignoring storm, Ellyse Perry leads Victoria women players to help groundsmen cover pitch

It was during the Women’s National Cricket League match between Victoria and New South Wales that the weather at the CitiPower Centre also called the Junction Oval in Melbourne suddenly changed. All of a sudden it was rain all over the place and the ground not being a top-rated international venue, did not have proper covers, nor enough staff to cover the pitch as early as possible. It was at this moment that Victoria players, led by their skipper Ellyse Perry and even the members of the New South Wales team came running on the ground with the ground staff and helped them cover the pitch so that it can be used post the weather storm. After their tremendous job and spontaneity to help the ground staff, the players were cheered on by the little crowd that had gathered for the game. Perry received the cheer with a beautiful bow. As far as the match was concerned, even after Perry’s belligerent hundred where she scored 120 off just 94 balls while chasing 256 in 35 overs, the Victorian team fell short by 26 runs. However, Perry was given the Player of the Match award for her efforts.

Watch | Why is the Ashes hundred most special? Travis Head explains George Bailey

Australian middle order dynamite Travis Head teed off in the 2021-22 Ashes with a brilliant hundred at the Gabba. The fiery innings of 152 runs came at a rapid strike rate of over 100 and set the tone for the Australians in the series. He proved that the hundred was not just an one off incident by notching up a half century in the second innings of the pink ball Test, currently being played at the Adelaide Oval. Once again a fast paced innings that relentlessly attacked the English bowlers, Head hit seven boundaries on course his 51 off 54 balls. Speaking to national selector George Bailey on Sunday, 19 December, Head provided an insight of his journey. Head spoke about his experiences as the youngest captain of South Australia, the domestic team that he plays for and how that shaped his career. “It was a pretty quick one for me, going from the young kid in the dressing room who sort of tried to keep the tempo in the room, build relationships and keep the vibe up on bad days and good days, to then try and think about what I had to speak in the morning to the boys and a couple of experienced guys. I think the lessons I learned was how to build relationships with guys and how to communicate with guys.” Asked about how special the Ashes century was, Head stated that it was one of the most special moments in his career. When Bailey pitted the Ashes hundred against Head’s last ball century for the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League, the left hander took a little time and argued that the Ashes hundred holds the edge over the franchise one, but ever so slightly.