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Akash Deep ten-for seals statement win for India

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Akash Deep and Mohammad Siraj took 17 of the 20 England wickets [Cricinfo]

After leaving out Jasprit Bumrah, losing the toss and waiting out a storm on the morning of day five, India beat England by 336 runs in this second Test, squaring the series 1-1 and winning their first Test at Edgbaston.

Fittingly, it was Akash Deep, Bumrah’s “replacement”, who capped off India’s dominance. A maiden five-wicket haul of 6 for 99, dismissed England for 271 in their second innings. He took 10 in the match, becoming only the second Indian bowler since Chethan Sharma in 1986, to use English conditions to such devastating effect.

The glory of a record-breaking Test for Shubman Gill has been enhanced ten-fold. His remarkable batting exploits – centuries in both innings, the first a double, 430 runs all in – have come in his first win as Test captain. Fittingly, Gill would take the catch for the final wicket, off Akash, both celebrating wildly themselves before meeting for a hug before both were engulfed by gleeful team-mates.

The scale of defeat made a mockery of the notion England might have fancied chasing a target of 608. At no point were they in with a shout.

Akash’s 21.1 overs were an exhibition of unerring accuracy, use of the crease and some devastating seam movement, stating his case for a starting berth of his own come Lord’s. Arriving into Sunday with Ben Duckett and Joe Root already in his back pocket, both bowled from the Pavilion End, he skittled a third from the City End when Ollie Pope defended onto his stumps 19 balls into a delayed morning session.

A handful of storms pushed the start time to 12:40pm, losing 10 of Sunday’s allotted 90 overs. By 1:04pm, India had the second of the seven wickets they arrived needing, when Harry Brook was pinned on the inside left knee, plumb in front.

The nip off an amenable final-day surface was vicious enough to have the England No. 5 limping out of his crease having been given out lbw by umpire Chris Gaffaney. Encouraged by Ben Stokes, Brook reviewed, which only served to offer a few slow-motion close-ups on the big screen of just how far Akash had decked the ball in. Five days of cricket had created enough wear and tear on a pitch that had produced 1692 runs and Akash kept hitting the cracks ruthlessly to gain the kind of movement that left the batter looking terribly unprepared. Brook was case in point.

It was then that Jamie Smith arrived, with the score 83 for 5, one run shy of the score when he walked in on day three on his way to a staggering 184 not out. Yet again, he put his team-mates in the shade, top-scoring with an 88 that was controlled, even with its pockets of assault, right until an attempt to strike Akash for three consecutive sixes on the leg side fell into the hands of Washington Sundar at deep backward square leg.

That was Washington’s second involvement on the fourth innings scorecard. His first came at the back end of a settling partnership between Smith and Stokes. A sixth-wicket stand had made it to 70, and almost to a very late lunch, before the tall offspinner struck. Around the wicket to the England captain, on 33, gorgeous drift was followed by enough turn to clip the edge of the left-hander’s pad as he pressed forward to defend. Stokes’ review of umpire Sharfuddoula’s on-field decision was more out of hope than expectation.

England did at least successfully overturn one decision, with Smith given out to Prasidh Krishna on 71, only for the projected path to show the ball was expected to clear the top of the stumps by a distance. Krishna, nevertheless, had a first wicket of the innings when Chris Woakes failed to keep a pull shot down.

Smith would fall three overs later, having already pulled the chord on some retaliatory boundaries. With 272 in the match, he now has the record for the most runs in a Test by an English wicketkeeper.

The real glory, however, was with those donned in Indian creams, and the majority of the 18,000 strong crowd, who by now were partying in the stands knowing the end was nigh.
It might have come sooner had KL Rahul hung onto a chance at slip off Brydon Carse, or Mohammed Siraj hung on to a skier from the same batter, even if Siraj had taken a spectacular catch at midwicket to see off Josh Tongue six balls earlier. Shoaib Bashir then successfully reviewed a catch to slip off Jadeja, who, like Akash earlier in the day, was making use of the uncertain bounce from the City End. But that only allowed the ideal finale of ‘caught Gill, bowled Akash’ as Carse holed out to cover.
India were smarting after they had done the running for the first four days in Leeds, only to lose on the day that mattered most. Here in Birmingham, they nailed every single one.
Brief scores:  
India 587 in 151 overs (Shubman Gill 269, Ravindra Jadeja 89, Yashasvi Jaiswal 87; Shoaib Bashir 3-167, Chris Woakes 2-81, Josh Tongue 2-119) and 427 for 6 dec in 83 overs  (Shubman Gill 161, Ravindra Jadeja 69, Rishabh Pant 65, KL Rahul 55;  Josh Tongue 2-93, Shoaib Bashir 2-119) beat England 407 in 89.3 overs (Jamie Smith 184, Harry Brook 158;  Akash Deep 4-88, Mohammed Siraj 6-70) and  271 in 68.1 overs  (Jamie Smith 88, Brydon Carse 38; Akash Deep 6-99, Mohammed Siraj 1-57) by 336 runs
[Cricinfo]


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The RAPP sheet: Steve Smith, Daryl Mitchell, Umesh Yadav among over 1300 players

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Smith headlines a star-studded overseas list available to come in as replacements if needed [Cricbuzz]
RAPP may not exactly be a popular term in the Indian Premier League (IPL) lexicon, but it is a seminal one in the post-auction activity for the franchises. The Registered Available Player Pool or RAPP is a list from which franchises can pick replacement players.

The BCCI recently shared a long list of 1,307 players with the franchises. The list includes players who had enrolled for the auction and did not withdraw from the process – in short, this is the list of players who remained unsold at the December 16 auction in Abu Dhabi.

Steve Smith, Reece Topley, Jamie Smith and Jonny Bairstow are among the names who could be available as replacements for franchises. Even Daryl Mitchell, a perennial tormentor of the Indian team in the internationals, features on the list – No 98 on the sheet, with a base price of Rs 2 crore. He was the Player of the Series in the recent ODI series between India and New Zealand.

The capped Indians include Mayank Agarwal, KS Bharat, Deepak Hooda, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya, Sandeep Warrier and Umesh Yadav – all with a base price of Rs 75 lakh each.

As per BCCI instructions, a franchise cannot sign a player from the RAPP for less than his auction reserve price. Normally, franchises call upon players from the RAPP as net bowlers, and the BCCI has made it clear that a franchise will have no rights over a player should another franchise wish to recruit him.

ALL ABOUT THE RAPP

The RAPP list contains the names of Players who were registered for the Player Auction for the relevant Season subject to the player
(a) not having been taken in the Player Auction and
(b) not having withdrawn from the Player Auction process.

To act as a Replacement Player the player’s name must have been included on the RAPP list for the relevant Season and his League Fee for the full Season – assuming 100% availability – must not be less than the reserve price set by the Player as documented on the RAPP list.

Franchisees who separately contract with players on the RAPP list to act as net bowlers during the Season shall have no prior call on that player if another Franchisee wishes to take that player as a replacement pursuant to this paragraph 6 and must immediately release him if he agrees terms to be a Replacement Player for another Franchisee.

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U19 World Cup: Pakistan overcome New Zealand by 8 wickets

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Abdul Subhan wrecked New Zealand [Cricinfo]
New Zealand continued to remain winless in the Super Six after getting swatted aside by Pakistan in Harare. In a contest that lasted less than 50 overs combined, New Zealand ended up losing by 8 wickets that kept Pakistan’s semifinal hopes alive ahead of their next clash against arch-rivals India.

New Zealand began in a poor manner losing Marco Alpe for just 2. However, the second wicket partnership carried them to 59/1 inside 8 overs to give New Zealand an excellent platform. From thereon, New Zealand lost their last 9 wickets for just 51 runs in quite an extraordinary manner. The well-set Hugo Bogue’s dismissal triggered the collapse as Abdul Subhan and Ali Raza tormented New Zealand. The duo combined to pick seven wickets as the New Zealand innings came to an end as early as in the 29th over.

Chasing just 111, Pakistan were always in command despite losing their opener Hamza Zahoor for just 8. Sameer Minhas starred once again by doing the bulk of the scoring. He hammered a couple of sixes and 10 fours in his unbeaten 76 as the Asian champions took just 17.1 overs to wipe out the target.

Brief scores:
New Zealand Under 19s  110 in 28.3 overs (Hugo Bogue 39; Abdul Subhan 4/11, Ali Raza 3/36) lost to Pakistan Under 19s  112/2 in 17.1 overs (Sameer Minhas 76*; Mason Clarke 1/34) by 8 wickets

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U19 World Cup: Vihaan Malhotra ton headlines India’s massive win

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Vihaan Malhotra celebrates his hundred against Zimbabwe U19 [Cricbuzz]
A brilliant century from Vihaan Malhotra headlined India’s massive 204-run win over hosts Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in their Super Six fixture of the U19 World Cup. India’s openers, Aaron George and Vaibhav Suryavanshi, raced to 44/0 in the first four overs before the partnership was broken. But Suryavanshi continued to make merry to bring up a quickfire half-century. Zimbabwe then picked up three quick wickets, including that of Sooryavanshi, to reduce India to 130/4 but couldn’t capitalise from that point.
Malhotra joined forces with Abhigyan Kundu to resurrect India with a century stand. While Kundu hit a half-century, Malhotra batted deep into the innings alongside the lower order. Eventually, he finished unbeaten on 109 but it was Khilan Patel’s 12-ball 30 that actually helped India breach 350 to set a daunting target for the Zimbabweans.
While Zimbabwe were never really expected to mount a challenge, losing an opener off just the second ball only compounded matters. Three out of the top four failed to cross double digits as RS Ambrish and Henil Patel made early inroads. Leeroy Chiwaula stood tall with a fighting half-century but apart from him, only two more batters managed to touch double digits. Even skipper Ayush Mhatre had a great time with the ball as he picked three wickets before Udhav Mohan’s double strike put Zimbabwe out of their misery in the 38th over.
Brief scores:
India Under 19s  352/8 in 50 overs (Vihaan Malhotra 109*, Vaibhav Sooriyawanshi 52, Abhigyan Kundu 61; Panashe Mazai 2-86, Tatenda Chimugoro 3/49, Simbarashe Mudzengerere 2-51) beat Zimbabwe Under 19s 148 in 37.4 overs (Leeroy Chiwaula 62; RS Ambrish 2-19. Ayush Mhatre 3-14, Udhav Mohan 3-20) by 204 runs[Cricbuzz]
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