Australia book WTC final date with South Africa at Lord’s
South Africa and Australia will contest the third World Test Championship final after the latter defeated India in Sydney to claim a 3-1 series win in the Border Gavaskar Trophy. The match will be played at Lord’s from June 11 to 15. Australia still have two games left in the current cycle – against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka later this month. But even a 0-2 loss there would not be enough for either of India or Sri Lanka to displace them in the top two on the WTC table. For the record, even if Sri Lanka win the two-Test series 2-0, they will finish on 53.85 percentage points while Australia, currently on 63.73%, will finish on 57.02%. India, who needed a win in Sydney to stay in contention, have ended the current cycle on 50%. The only way Australia can lose out mathematically is if they concede eight penalty points in the two matches in Sri Lanka, which is next to impossible. South Africa became the first team to reach the final when they beat Pakistan in the Boxing Day Test in Centurion.
BCB director Fahim threatens to quit over fallout with board president Faruque
Nazmul Abedeen Fahim has threatened to quit from his position as a BCB director after a fallout with board president Faruque Ahmed. Fahim has said he hasn’t been given the opportunity to work independently, and accused Faruque of taking unilateral decisions. The pair were elected to the BCB’s board of directors in August, shortly after the interim government took charge of the country. ESPNcricinfo understands that an incident between Faruque and Fahim took place on December 30, the opening day of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). ESPNcricinfo has learned that communication between Faruque and Fahim has been limited since November, although it was only these two who have called the shots in most aspects of the BCB since entering the board. Many of the BCB’s directors including former president Nazmul Hassan have been missing since the fall of the Awami League government on August 5. Faruque and Fahim were both elected as the National Sports Council’s directors in the board on August 21, with Faruque elected unanimously as the new president.
Rishi Dhawan retires from Indian limited-overs cricket
India and Himachal Pradesh fast-bowling allrounder Rishi Dhawan has announced his retirement from Indian limited-overs cricket. The 34-year-old ends his international career with four caps, three in ODIs and one in T20Is, all earned in 2016. The announcement has come after the conclusion of the group stage of the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy. Dhawan’s retirement announcement specified limited-overs cricket, which suggests he will carry on playing first-class cricket at least for the remainder of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season. Himachal are currently second in Group B of the competition, and are in the running for a quarter-finals spot. Dhawan has played all five of Himachal’s matches so far this season, and is their second-highest run-getter with 397 at 79.40, and has picked up 11 wickets at 28.45. “It’s with a heavy heart, even though I have no regrets, that I’d like to announce my retirement from Indian cricket (Limited over). It’s a sport that has defined my life for the past 20 years.
Ismat and Rashid put Afghanistan in sight of victory
Ismat Alam’s century on debut and Rashid Khan’s six-for bookended a day of dominance for Afghanistan, who will come back on the fifth and final day needing just two wickets to seal the match and the series against Zimbabwe. Ismat, who had come into the Test with a first-class average of 92 and had converted all four of his fifties at the level into centuries, also converted his maiden Test fifty into a century to help Afghanistan finish on 363, setting Zimbabwe 278 to win. After that, it was all Rashid magic as he ran through Zimbabwe, who fought back with a gritty fifth-wicket stand between captain Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza, but in the end Afghanistan were in a winning position at stumps. Zimbabwe had a bright start in their chase of 278. Ben Curran hit two late cuts as Zimbabwe took 12 runs off Fareed Ahmad’s first over. Seven runs came off the next over before the Afghanistan bowlers found more discipline and started to dry out the runs. While there was some movement on offer with the new ball, the fast bowlers could not really threaten the Zimbabwe openers.
Agarawal’s hot streak continues; Haryana, Punjab, Bengal and TN in knockouts
Mayank Agarawal slammed his fourth List A hundred in five innings as Karnataka entered the knockouts of the 2024-25 Vijay Hazare Trophy along with defending champions Haryana, Punjab, Bengal and Tamil Nadu among others. Mumbai, the winners of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, haven’t made the knockouts after finishing third in Group C with five wins in seven games. Both their losses, to Karnataka and Punjab, deflated their campaign which they ended on a winning note on Sunday with teenaged opener Aayush Mhatre hitting an unbeaten 148 to seal victory over Saurashtra in a 290-run chase. Mhatre, who made his List A debut for Mumbai during the competition, finished as the side’s leading run-getter with 458 runs in seven innings, including two centuries and a half-century. The only other centurion for Mumbai was Shreyas Iyer, the captain, who also hit two centuries: an unbeaten 55-ball 114 in a losing cause against Karnataka and a match-winning 133-ball 137 not out against Puducherry.
BCB director threatens to quit over differences with board president
Bangladesh Cricket Board’s high-profile director Najmul Abedin has announced that he is not ready to continue in his role if things don’t change soon. Najmul pointed fingers at BCB president Faruque Ahmed in an interview with a local TV channel that suggested they had a severe fall-out. Both of them joined the board following the fall of Nazmul Hasan after the National Sports Council (NSC) appointed Faruque and Nazmul, a prominent local coach as its new directors. When contacted, Najmul echoed the same sentiment to Cricbuzz adding that he wished things would have been different. “What I wanted to say is that I didn’t see so many things going according to my expectations. It’s not about my personal wish. But as a whole, the way it should go, I think, it’s not going that way at the minute and things could have been better. If it continues to be like that, I may not like it and maybe I can think of going off (from BCB),” Najmul told. “I am with cricket for the last 40 to 45 years.
Pakistan openers solid in follow-on innings
Going into the Tea break, Pakistan were solid with the bat in their second innings as Babar Azam (34*) and Shan Masood (37*) took the visitors to 80 for 0. However, they still trail South Africa by 341 runs. The hosts quickly bundled out the Pakistan tail soon after Lunch in the first innings to enforce the follow-on, with what was a 421-run lead at that stage. Immediately after the break, Aamer Jamal punished a loosener off the first ball of Kagiso Rabada while Khurram Shahzad thumped a boundary over mid-on. However, Rabada had the last laugh as he came back to bounce out Jamal. But his next over was an eventful one, as Shahzad and new batter Mir Hamza smashed him for 15 runs. But Keshav Maharaj ended Hamza’s short stay when he clipped one to short-leg, before Maphaka ended the innings with the wicket of Shahzad. Smelling blood, South Africa opted to put the tourists back in to bat and enforced the follow-on, but the new-ball threat of Rabada and Marco Jansen didn’t pose the same questions as in the first innings.
Mayank slams another ton as Karnataka seal QF spot
Gujarat vs Odisha: Ravi Bishnoi’s 4-17 and Chintan Gaja’s 3-28 helped Gujarat top the group table with an unbeaten record as Odisha went down by a 100 runs in their last game. Without so much as a single half-century, Gujarat saw batting contributions from throughout the order to post a competitive 252 before they were bowled out on the penultimate ball of the 48th over. In reply, Odisha only held hopes until the 85-run partnership between skipper Sandeep Patnaik and Abhishek Raut wasn’t broken. They lost their last-eight wickets for just 53 runs to concede a massive win for the table-toppers. Puducherry vs Punjab: Punjab sealed their knockouts spot with a massive 167-run victory over Puducherry, orchestrated by a rounded batting effort and four-fers from Arshdeep Singh (4 for 19) and Raghu Sharma (4 for 37). Five of Punjab’s top-six scored half-centuries, powering the team’s 338/9 after being put in to bat.
India crack without lone warrior Bumrah leading them on his shoulders
Jasprit Bumrah just sat there in his whites. His head was bowed, his shoulders were slouched. There was nothing he could do now. There was nothing India could do now. All Australia required to regain the Border Gavaskar Trophy was 15 runs. And India’s nemesis, Travis Head, was leading Australia’s charge as always to thwart their faint hopes of levelling the series. Bumrah would have loved nothing more than to be out there. India would have loved nothing more than for Bumrah to have been out there. But after five gruelling Tests, where he’d carried the visitors on his back, his back had given up. It’s of course an assumption that it’s his back. Maybe it was a side strain. Maybe it was something else. But we’ll never know. The fact was that after weeks of depending largely on Bumrah to keep them afloat in their quest to retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy, India were left with having to forge their way one final time without their lone warrior. For nearly seven weeks, India’s hopes had rested on Bumrah’s shoulders. No longer now. To their credit, the Indian new-ball bowlers in the absence of their talisman, had created an opening. A bit more than an opening.
Tim David delivers fourth win on the bounce for Hobart Hurricanes
A blistering half-century by Tim David powered Hobart Hurricanes to a five-wicket win against Adelaide Strikers in Hobart on Sunday (January 5) as they registered their fourth victory in five matches. Chasing 187 for a win, Hurricanes started well before being derailed by quick wickets. But David led a fine counterattack in the middle overs and finished with an unbeaten 62 off 28, including 6 sixes and 3 fours, as Hurricanes won with 8 deliveries to spare. Mitchell Owen and Matthew Wade provided a blitzy start to the chase, putting on a 61-run opening stand in only 28 balls. Four fours and as many sixes came during their stand, with three of those sixes being struck by Owen off successive balls from Jamie Overton in the fourth over. Lloyd Pope eventually ended Owen’s stay (37 off 16) by having him stumped. Shai Hope was put down by James Bazley off Lloyd Pope but Strikers hit back with quick dismissals. Wade (27 off 18) got out attempting a sweep off Cameron Boyce who had Hope stumped soon after. Lloyd Pope then picked up his second wicket by having Ben McDermott bowled to leave Hurricanes at 101/4 in the 11th over.
