January 10, 2018 issue
Cricket
Having confirmed his status as the world's best batsman with a match-winning double century, Steve Smith added victorious Ashes captain to his ever-expanding resume as England were dismissed for 218 in their second innings in the last Ashes Test to take place at the WACA Ground.
That gave the home side an innings-and-41-run win and an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series, having won the opening two Tests in Brisbane and Adelaide.
Pat Cummins secured the famous urn for the home side when he had Chris Woakes caught behind for 22, prompting Australian celebrations.
But while it was a comfortable win, there was high drama on the final day courtesy of yet another WACA pitch controversy.
Victory seemed assured for Australia when they had England 132 for four at the conclusion of the fourth day, still 127 runs behind with Australia yet to bat again, but a rain-damaged pitch threatened to end the match without a ball being bowled on the final day.
Showers had caused play to be abandoned early on the fourth day and they continued through to Monday morning, forcing a scheduled early resumption to be cancelled, with Australia needing just six more wickets to win the match and regain the Ashes.
Complicating matters further was a damp spot on the pitch, just outside the popping crease at the southern end of the ground.
WACA staff worked furiously with leaf blowers to try to dry the patch out as more showers passed through and the covers came on and off at regular intervals throughout the morning.
How the water got onto the wicket was unclear, although there was speculation it might have been linked to strong winds lifting the covers.
But umpires Chris Gaffaney and Marais Erasmus would not allow play to resume until they believed the pitch had been returned to the same condition as at the end of day four.
Play did not get under way until after lunch, and even then to the chagrin of an English camp who felt the conditions were dangerous.
England's batsmen also had to contend with balls jagging violently off cracks on the pitch in a contentious end to 47 years of Ashes cricket at the WACA Ground.
Wickets tumbled quickly for England upon the delayed resumption, with overnight batsman and first-innings centurion Jonny Bairstow bowled for 14 by the first delivery he faced for the day from Josh Hazlewood, which kept low.
Hazlewood removed England's last hope Dawid Malan — who backed up his first innings century with a fighting 54 before being caught behind — to finish with figures of 5-48.
Malan's first day heroics, when England appeared to be in a dominant position at 368-4 from which an innings defeat would be almost impossible, seemed a distant memory as he trudged from the field.
Summarized scores
England 403 (Malan 140) & 218 (Vince 55, Hazlewood 5-48)
Australia 662-9 dec (Smith 239, M Marsh 181)
Australia won by an innings and 41 runs
hide truth - Boycott
The home side ruthlessly finished off England in Sydney on Monday to record their fourth comprehensive win of a one-sided series – including two innings victories and a 10-wicket win.
Several England players and coaches have repeatedly stressed in recent weeks that the main difference between the sides is that Australia have seized the crucial moments across the series.
But Boycott told BBC Radio 5 Live that the series result was a fair reflection of the gap between the two teams, with most of the standout performances coming from the home side.
“I think it’s a little false by a number of the England players to say at times they were quite close and that there were moments here and there. Quite honestly they were far better than us in nearly every department.”
Boycott compared Test cricket to chess and believes England, and in particular the batsmen, were at times guilty of possessing a Twenty20 mindset.
He added: “I think a lot of people over the last 10 years, since the IPL (started) in India, are saturated and have got it in their head about scoring rates. Test cricket is not that, it’s like 11 people in whites playing chess.”
The Daily Mail’s cricket correspondent Paul Newman said the tour had been blighted from the start.
“From the moment Ben Stokes cast a giant cloud over the series by becoming embroiled in an incident outside a Bristol bar to off-field drinking controversies, a ‘head-butt’, allegations of unacceptable sledging and even suggestions of match-fixing and ball-tampering, this Ashes had just about every ‘scandal’ going.
“What it did not have was much hard-fought nor memorable cricket as Australia’s superiority in their own conditions proved every bit as decisive as those of us who feared the worst from the start imagined.”
Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan, who lifted the urn in 2005, agreed that England had been second best throughout but took solace from their fighting spirit, which he believes was lacking when the side were whitewashed 5-0 in 2013/14.
“The England side four years ago, you felt as though the white towel came out very early on the tour. You didn’t feel that this time around,” he told BBC’s Test Match Special.
“I’ve never felt that England have given up. They’ve just not been good enough.”
Former England captain Michael Atherton, writing in the Times newspaper, described the series as “one-sided” but said the mood did not feel as desperate as in 2013/14.
“England have been battered, bruised, badly beaten but not, in my estimation, completely broken,” he wrote.
“There was no sense at the end that England had hoisted the white flag as they had four years earlier, when a three-day defeat and subsequent recriminations brought a swift end to a bright era of English cricket.
“It was hard to recall a more stomach-churning capitulation than that, but here England hung in for a while, grimly, trying their hardest until the end but just beaten by a better side in the conditions.”
BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said Australia set the tone for the series in the first Test in Brisbane, bemoaning England’s lack of preparation.
He tweeted: “I hope this series ends the practice of providing too little, poor quality preparation. England as guilty as anyone. No chance for out of form players, so series become one-sided and predictable. Not in interests of Test cricket.
“Too many teams are strong at home, but lose away partly because they can’t restore form and confidence with such little time between Tests.”
South Africa
South Africa's fast bowlers, led by Vernon Philander, blasted through India's batting as the host nation gained a 72-run win on the fourth day of the first Test at Newlands on Monday.
Set 208 to win the first of three matches between the world's two leading Test teams, number one-ranked India were bowled out for 135 by their nearest challengers.
Philander took six for 42 with Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada claiming two wickets each as India were subjected to a pace barrage in bowler-friendly conditions.
South Africa were reduced to three fast bowlers because of a heel injury suffered by Dale Steyn while bowling on Saturday.
Earlier, it had been the Indian bowlers who held sway when South Africa were bowled out for 130 in their second innings, losing their last eight wickets for 65 runs.
India's run chase started promisingly with Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan putting on 30 for the first wicket, although Vijay was reprieved on review twice after being given out against Philander, for leg before wicket and a catch behind the wicket.
But then Dhawan was caught at gully off his bat handle when he got into a tangle against a lifting ball from Morkel. Six balls later it was third time lucky for Philander as Vijay edged a catch to AB de Villiers at third slip.
Philander claimed the key wicket of Indian captain Virat Kohli, who had looked confident in scoring 28 before he was trapped leg before wicket with the score at 71-4.
Philander struck again when Rohit Sharma was bowled off an inside edge and Rabada dismissed first innings top scorer Hardik Pandya for one, caught by a diving De Villiers at third slip.
Rabada trapped Wriddhiman Saha leg before with the last ball before tea to leave India in a desperate situation in a match which hastened to a conclusion despite the loss of the third day because of rain.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar Kumar put on 49 for the eighth wicket before Philander took the last three wickets in the space of four balls.
Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah were the main destroyers of the South African batting, taking three wickets each.
Shami started the collapse, dismissing Hashim Amla with the ninth ball of the morning and taking three wickets for 28 runs.
Bumrah took three for 39, including the wicket of South African captain Faf du Plessis, who fell to an unplayable delivery which lifted sharply off a good length and flicked a glove.
Despite being ruled out of the rest of the series, Steyn, who arrived at the ground on crutches, limped to the wicket as the last batsman in an effort to keep company with De Villiers, who top-scored with 35.
He managed to defend four balls from Kumar but De Villiers was caught off Bumrah in the next over by Kumar, one of eight fielders stationed on the boundary.
Wicketkeeper Saha set an Indian record by taking ten catches in the match, five in each innings.
The second Test in Centurion starts on 13 January.
Faf du Plessis' South Africa will be without paceman Dale Steyn, who did not bowl in the fourth innings and has been ruled out of the remainder of the series with a heel injury picked up on day two.
Duanne Olivier, who has played five Tests, and uncapped 21-year-old Lungi Ngidi have been called up.
By Eddie Norfolk
Canada Under-19's participated in the opening ceremonies at the Hagley Oval, Christchurch New Zealand on Sunday (January 7) for the 2018 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup prior to playing two warm-up games this week before the competition proper begins on January 13.
Canada qualified for the tournament by winning the ICC Americas Qualifier in July 2017; a double round-robin event involved Bermuda U19s, Canada U19s and USA U19s. Canada came from behind after an opening game loss against the USA to top the standings on net run rate after beating the USA in the closing game at Toronto Cricket Club.
This week Canada U19s has warm-up matches against Kenya U19s (January 9) and Ireland U19s (January 11) before the tournament officially opens on January 13.
Canada is drawn in Group C together with England, Bangladesh and Namibia. England and Bangladesh qualify as full members of the ICC. Namibia qualified as the highest placed ICC Associate country in the 2016 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup C hosted by Bangladesh and won by the West Indies. Canada placed 15th in the 2016 tournament.
Canada U19s faces Bangladesh on January 15, Namibia on January 18 and England on January 20.
The three other groups in the 2018 ICC U19 CWC are:
Group A: West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa and Kenya;
Group B: Australia, India, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe; and
Group D: Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Ireland.
The top two teams in each group advance to the Super Eight quarter finals. The lower two teams in the group compete in the Plate competition to decide the lower placings. The final is scheduled for February 3, 2018 at Tauranga.
The Canadian squad gathered at Yashi Sports, Toronto just after Christmas for three days of indoor fitness and net sessions before flying to Sydney, Australia for outdoor preparations. Canada’s stay in Sydney included three practice games. Canada U19s lost to a New South Wales U19 XI on January 4 and to Kenya U19s on January 6.
Indoor net and fitness sessions had been taking place in Toronto since the outdoor season ended.
Canada’s success in the ICC Americas Under-19 Championship resulted in the Canadian players participating as ICC Americas Under-19s in the West Indies Regional Under-19 One Day Championships in St. Kitts, a tournament that took place in August 2017.
ICC Americas U19s beat the Leeward Islands U19s (by 15 runs) and Barbados U19s (by 48 runs) but lost to Guyana U19s (by 148 runs) Jamaica U19s (by 4 wickets), Trinidad & Tobago U19s (by 9 wickets) and Windward Islands U19s (by 50 runs).
Numbers game
11056 - Number of runs by Chris Gayle in Twenty20s. He is the first batsman to go past 11000 in this format
18 - Most number of sixes hit by Gayle in an innings, breakings his own record of 17 hit in his knock of 175 in IPL 2013
20 - Number of centuries hit by Gayle in T20s, the first batsman to achieve this feat
47 - Number of sixes hit by Gayle in 2017 Bangladesh Premier League, the most
5 - Number of centuries for Gayle in the Bangladesh Premier League
819 - Number of sixes hit by Gayle in Twenty20s, the most ever by a batsman in this format.
Jaguars completed a nail-biting, two-wicket victory over Jamaica Scorpions inside three days in their eighth-round match on Saturday at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica, taking them to an unassailable 135 points – with two rounds of games remaining.
It is the fourth straight Headley/Weekes Trophy, symbol of WINDIES first-class supremacy, for the Jaguars, following in the footsteps of previous incarnations of the Pride and Scorpions.
“As you can imagine, it’s a very good feeling for us to win the title for a fourth straight year,” said Jaguars captain Leon Johnson. “I am someone that delves into the history of the game – Barbados would have achieved this in the late 1970s, and Jamaica did it between 2008 and 2012.
“We are only the third team to have achieved something like this in WINDIES first-class history. It is very pleasing to be part of it and to be at the helm for the fourth consecutive year of us winning this title. It is testament to our hard work. We have won it with two matches remaining, which is a feat in itself.”
Johnson added: “It is also testament to the way we have played this season. As a team, we have played well. I think everyone who has played has made a contribution, some more significantly than others, but I do not think there is a game that we played where someone did not put up their hand up and played well for the team with bat or ball.”