January 24, 2018 issue
Cricket
to clinch ODI series
The hosts, set 303 to win by England after winning the toss and electing to bowl, were always struggling in their chase and eventually managed only 286 for six.
The result gave England an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match ODI series, a remarkable turnaround after Australia had trounced the tourists 4-0 in the Ashes Tests.
Australia's hopes largely rested with Steve Smith (45) and Mitchell Marsh (55), but both were dismissed at a crucial stage of the chase, with Smith falling to a contentious low-down catch by Buttler off the bowling of Mark Wood (2-46).
Marcus Stoinis made a late attempt to lift Australia with a punishing 56, but England managed to hold on despite losing pacemen Liam Plunkett to a leg injury early in the Australian innings.
Buttler, 27, was the only batsman from either team really to get to grips with a slightly slow pitch, and his late surge enabled England to reach a total which had seemed out of their reach until the final few overs.
Several English batsmen failed to capitalise on promising starts, but Buttler notched his fifth one-day international century from the last ball of the innings as England helped themselves to 38 off the final two overs.
Buttler himself took 28 runs from the last 11 balls he faced. He faced 83 balls, hitting six fours and four sixes, in a dashing innings that gathered momentum in the last 10 overs.
Just as England appeared to be struggling against a full-strength Australian attack, Buttler found a willing ally in Chris Woakes late in the innings, the seamer making 53 from 36 balls in a match-winning partnership of 113 in 11.5 overs.
Australia recalled pacemen Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood for the match, the first time in the one-day series that the trio of Cummins, Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, who spearheaded the Ashes win, had been reunited.
The tactic appeared to be working until Buttler and Woakes came together and turned the match on its head. The English were aided by sloppy Australian fielding, with four missed catches and two botched run-out attempts.
The easiest of the catches to go to grass was a howler by Cameron White, who failed to get a hand to a skied chance from Moeen Ali when he was on one.
Marsh was the unlucky bowler, but had his revenge a few minutes later when he bowled Ali for six, continuing the all-rounder's wretched tour.
Smith dropped Eoin Morgan (41) on 18 off spinner Adam Zampa, while Starc got his fingers to a tough caught-and-bowled chance.
Summarized Scores - 3rd ODI
England 302/6 (50.0 ov)
Australia 286/6 (50 ov); England won by 16 runs
as at Jan 20/18
Mon Jan 22 - 9th Place Play-off Quarter-Final - Canada Under-19s v Papua New Guinea Under-19s. Canada U19 won by 80 runs
Mon Jan 22 - 9th Place Play-off Quarter-Final - Namibia Under-19s v Zimbabwe Under-19s.
Zim U19 won by 7 wickets (with 183 balls remaining)
Tue Jan 23 - Quarter-Final - Australia Under-19s v England Under-19s.
Australia U19 won by 31 runs
Tue Jan 23 - 9th Place Play-off Quarter-Final - Ireland Under-19s v West Indies Under-19s.
WI U19 won by 4 wkts (w/10 balls remaining)
Tue Jan 23 - 9th Place Play-off Quarter-Final - Kenya Under-19s v Sri Lanka Under-19s.
Sri Lanka U19 won by 311 runs
Wed Jan 24 - Quarter-Final - Pakistan Under-19s v South Africa Under-19s
Thu Jan 25 - 13th Place Play-off Semi-Final - TBC v TBC
Thu Jan 25 - 13th Place Play-off Semi-Final - TBC v TBC
Thu Jan 25 - 9th Place Play-off Semi-Final - TBC v TBC
Thu Jan 25 - Quarter-Final - New Zealand Under-19s v Afghanistan Under-19s
Fri Jan 26 - 9th Place Play-off Semi-Final - TBC v TBC
Fri Jan 26 - Quarter-Final - Bangladesh Under-19s v India Under-19s
Sat Jan 27 - 13th Place Play-off - TBC v TBC
Sat Jan 27 - 15th Place Play-off - TBC v TBC
Sat Jan 27 - 5th Place Play-off - TBC v TBC
Sun Jan 28 - 11th Place Play-off - TBC v TBC
Sun Jan 28 - 5th Place Play-off - TBC v TBC
Sun Jan 28 - Plate Final - TBC v TBC
Mon Jan 29 - Semi-Final - TBC v TBC
Tues Jan 30 - 7th Place Play-off - TBC v TBC
Tues Jan 30 - Semi-Final - TBC v TBC
Wed Jan 31 - 5th Place Play-off - TBC v TBC
Thurs Feb 1 - 3rd Place Play-off - TBC v TBC
Sat Feb 3 - Final - TBC v TBC (Reserve Day)
sweep on Pakistan
New Zealand inflicted a rare 5-0 One-day International series whitewash over Pakistan with a 15-run win at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on Friday.
A century by Martin Guptill helped the Black Caps set a 272 total that proved too much for Pakistan after Matt Henry tore through their top order. Pakistan were all out for 256 with one over remaining.
It is only the third time Pakistan have been on the wrong end of a 5-0 ODI clean sweep after they succumbed by the same margin to Australia in 2010 and the West Indies in 1988.
New Zealand have won by a 5-0 margin only once before, when they hosted the West Indies in 2000.
The result extends New Zealand’s winning streak in all forms of the game to 12 matches, a record for the team, and means they are undefeated at home since March last year.
Pakistan captain said his side, particularly the batsmen, had failed to take their chances.
“The main thing is the batting has not clicked throughout the whole series, that’s why we lost,” Sarfraz said. “The bowling unit was very good sometimes. We had opportunities but we didn’t grab them.” The target should have been achievable, given the short boundaries at the Basin Reserve, but speedster Matt Henry ensured Pakistan made a disastrous start.
Called up to give Trent Boult a break, Henry made the most of his opportunity to take three wickets in three overs and skittle the tourists’ top order. He ended with figures of four for 53, while spinner Mitchell Santner took three for 40.
Pakistan slumped to 57 for five before Haris Sohail and Shadab Khan combined for a 105-run partnership that steadied the innings.
It ended when Sohail tried to loft the ball over the fence but misread Santner’s slower delivery and instead offered Henry a straightforward catch.
His departure on 63, with Shadab following soon after on 54, seemingly ended Pakistan’s faint hopes of victory.
But the tail wagged as Faheem Ashraf (23), Aamer Yamin (32) and Mohammad Nawaz (23) all made late cameos that left the tourists on nine for 249 and needing 23 off the final two overs.The lack of wickets ultimately proved costly when Rumman Raees was dismissed with six balls remaining.
Earlier, Guptill scored his 13th ODI century, combining with Colin Munro to give the hosts a flying start before Rumman Raees helped spark a mini-collapse, taking three for 67.
Munro racked up 34 from 24 balls before edging Rumman to Mohammad Nawaz.
While Munro’s departure slowed the run rate, Guptill was content to steadily accumulate.
He gained a life on 72 when he slipped over mid-wicket and Faheem Ashraf missed the stumps as the batsman scrambled back to the crease on his hands and knees.
It gave his innings greater urgency and he brought up his century off 125 balls, including 10 fours and a six.
After a frustrating morning, Pakistan’s attack enjoyed some late success when they took four wickets for 12 runs. Guptill was dismissed soon after he reached triple figures and Faheem clean-bowled Ross Taylor to end a threatening knock on 59.
Summarized Scores for 5th ODI:
New Zealand 271 for seven wkts, 50 overs
Pakistan 256 all out, 49.0 overs; New Zealand won by 15 runs
against New Zealand
It kept New Zealand undefeated after 13 matches across all three formats in the past two months including five one-dayers against Pakistan and a series of Tests, ODIs and Twenty20s against the West Indies.
Munro and Tom Bruce (26) set up the New Zealand victory with a 49-run stand for the third wicket after the hosts wobbled at the start of their modest run chase. Martin Guptill only made two and Glenn Phillips was bowled for three as New Zealand crawled to 14 for two after four overs. After a cautious start to their partnership, Munro and Bruce took 11 runs off the ninth over and 12 off the tenth to reduce the target to under six an over and they coasted from there.
Following Bruce's dismissal, Ross Taylor partnered Munro through to the end with a rapid 22 off 13 deliveries. Munro's 43-ball innings included three fours and two sixes and he was left a frustrating one-run short of being only the third player behind Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle to score four consecutive half centuries in Twenty20 cricket.
Pakistan, hoping for a change of fortune with the change of format after being swept in the ODI series, were in immediate trouble after being sent into bat. They were four for 22 in the sixth over as Tim Southee, the stand-in New Zealand skipper in place of the injured Kane Williamson, led a dismantling of the Pakistan top order. He had Fakhar Zaman for three and the promoted Mohammad Nawaz for seven, Seth Rance removed Umar Amin without scoring and Anaru Kitchen dismissed Haris Sohail for nine.
Only Babar Khan (41) and Hasan Ali (23), in a 30-run partnership for the eighth wicket, reached double figures. Southee finished with the best New Zealand figures of three for 13 while Seth Rance took three for 26.
Seamer Ngidi, 21, recorded figures of 6-39, his best in first class cricket, as South Africa bowled out India for 151 just before lunch.
India are the top-ranked side in test cricket according to the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings with South Africa second, though the Proteas will not be able to overhaul the sub-continent side even with a 3-0 series win.
The third test starts at the Wanderers in Johannesburg today, January 24.
“It took a lot of hard work and was one of the harder test matches in terms of what you had to put in,” South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said at the post-match presentation.
“Bowling was tough, batting was tough, but over the five days I thought we were on top most of the time.”
India resumed the final day on 35 for three chasing a victory target of 287, having been dealt a huge blow the evening before when Ngidi bagged the wicket of captain Virat Kohli (5).
Their slender hopes were dealt a further set-back when Cheteshwar Pujara (19) became the first Indian player ever to be run out twice in a test.
Ngidi had a hand in that too as he chased the ball down to the boundary and stopped a four, with his cut-back to AB de Villiers allowing for a bullet throw to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock that saw Pujara short.
Pujara had also been run out first ball in the first innings and has now been involved in six of India’s last eight run-outs in tests.
It would start a procession of wickets as Parthiv Patel (19) picked out Morne Morkel on the fine leg boundary off Kagiso Rabada (3-47), with the big fast bowler pulling off a magnificent catch on the run.
Hardik Pandya (6) was caught by De Kock off Ngidi, before the seamer also induced an edge from Ravichandran Ashwin (3) to the wicketkeeper to leave India reeling at 87 for seven.
Rohit Sharma (47) took the attack to the bowlers before he was magnificently caught at fine leg by De Villiers off Rabada attempting a hook.
The innings wrapped up quickly after that, as Mohammed Shami (28) was caught by Morkel off Ngidi and Jasprit Bumrah spooned a catch to Vernon Philander at mid-off to hand the youngster his sixth wicket and debut match figures of 7-90.
“We thought the wicket was really flat to play on, it was quite surprising,” Kohli said. “We tried our best but South Africa were better than us in every department, especially fielding.”
Summarized Scores:
South Africa 335 and 258 won India 307 and 151 by 135 runs.
That triumph pushed the titleholders to their seventh victory this season to go along with two drawn encounters and a tie with the Windward Islands.
The final day began with Red Force resuming on 282-8, needing an unlikely 123 to make the Jaguars bat again and the Jaguars needing just the two wickets to record an innings win.
Jason Mohammed started the day on 92 and with Brian Charles, who walked out with him after Daniel St Clair fell during the final over of the penultimate day duly completed his seventh first-class century.
After failing to score in the first innings, Mohammed brought up his ton by pushing a delivery from Veerasammy Permaul back over his head for four which followed an elegant push through the cover region to register his landmark.
After a few more boundaries were struck Permaul bowled Charles for 15 to claim his 50th wicket of the season while Keemo Paul uprooted the stumps of Anderson Phillip (11) to end Red Force’s innings on 324.
Mohammed ended unbeaten on 103 from 200 deliveries and the knock included 16 fours.
Permaul, who will be announced as the league’s leading wicket-taker this season (50 wickets), ended with 3 – 73 while Paul, who is in contention for the leading all-rounder prize, bagged 3 – 118.
Sherfane Rutherford, 2-21 and Gudakesh Motie’s 2 – 73 rounded out a collective bowling performance by the four-time champions.
The Huyana Jaguars team saw a number of players putting their hands up during the season which contributed to their fourth successive title.
Accepting broadcaster Star Sports' request, the IPL GC has also allowed a shift in timings of the matches. The 8pm game will now begin at 7pm while the 4pm start has now been pushed to 5.30pm.
"The broadcaster has requested for change in timings. By and large the GC has accepted it. It gets too late in the night if the game starts at 8pm," said IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla.
"As far as the double headers on weekends are concerned. The 4pm game will now be played at 5.30pm. There will be an overlap but the broadcaster says it has enough channels to show the games simultaneously," Shukla said further.
At the meeting, it was also decided that Kings XI Punjab will play four of their home games in Mohali and three in Indore.
The home matches of Rajasthan Royals, who are returning to IPL after serving a two-year ban, will be finalised after the Rajasthan High Court's hearing on January 24.
A total of 578 players including 360 Indians will go under the hammer at the IPL auction in Bangalore on January 27 and 28.