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Suthar’s debut six-for powers India to their biggest Test win
In the end, the Afghanistan batters did not die wondering. Their lower order swung away, time and again. Their patience was worn down in the sweltering New Chandigarh heat and India sealed a win by an innings and 300 runs, their biggest in Test cricket.
Afghanistan were up against it right away on the morning of day three of this one-off Test, only their second against India in the format. Debutant Manay Suthar resumed overnight on a three-for, and bowled with turn and guile on a pitch that had flattened out for everyone else. He ended with figures of 6 for 33 – the third best figures for an Indian bowler on a Test debut – and bundled out Afghanistan for 152.
India enforced the follow on. In their second effort, trailing by 412 runs, Afghanistan pushed Suthar back from his attacking lines by stepping down the pitch to him. Sediqullah Atal, who scored 42, led the charge by smashing him for a six and a four right before tea. In many ways, however, Suthar had already won the match for India by then.
Consistently bowling around the 90 kph mark, Suthar plucked out Sharafuddin Ashraf in Afghanistan’s first innings, spinning one past him. Then, he accounted for Rahmat Shah’s crucial wicket – the middle-order batter had brought up a stoic fifty off 100 balls, resisting India through the first hour and a half. Suthar bowled him around the legs, an expansive sweep was his undoing.
Rahmat was the eighth wicket to fall and it sealed Suthar’s five-for. A while later, he pinned Mohammad Saleem on the pads for his sixth. This last dismissal was the latest in a line of bad reviews (or lack thereof) from either side throughout the day. Suthar had pitched the delivery outside leg. For some reason, Saleem did not review and he was animated at the dugout as he walked back.
The tall Prasidh Krishna had begun the day from the other end, along with Suthar. Prasidh stuck to back-of-a-length deliveries, utilising the angles off the pitch to create jeopardy for the batters. He also struck the first blow for India, when he got the ball to jag back in, catch the inside edge onto the stumps, and send back Azmatullah Omarzai.
Mohammed Siraj came on for a spell of three overs, for five runs, the highlight of which was when he comically reviewed a clear inside-edge into the pads for an lbw. Soon, Washington Sundar came on from his end, and Kuldeep from the other, bowling in tandem. Kuldeep hesitated to put revs on the ball and for a period, both bowlers looked innocuous in comparison to Suthar.
However, Ashraf visibly struggled to bat with a groin injury. Kuldeep began lobbing up balls that Ashraf needed to step out to deadbat. Suthar returned to take advantage of his limited reach, and had him edging behind.
Washington also picked up the final wicket of Afghanistan’s first innings, when he had Ziaur Rahman going for a huge swipe across the line. Pant ran in to complete a catch. This would be his sole wicket in the first innings, but Suthar’s prodigious spin – and six-for – ensured that Sundar, the wily offspinner, would get his own turn in the spotlight next.
After lunch, Atal continued walking down the pitch, once in a while, to negate Suthar’s more threatening options. But India’s other two spinners, Washington and Kuldeep – who just could not get it to spin as much on a flat track – showed their versatility instead.
Washington was the star spinner in the second innings, using his drift through the air instead of big turn off the pitch. He picked up 4 for 36, bowling with smarts against an Afghanistan line-up that tried to follow Atal’s lead by attacking the spinners. Kuldeep struggled to hit consistent lines, but kept lobbing the balls up and waited for the Afghanistan batters to hit him across the line.
After lunch, Atal receded into a shell. On the other hand, his partners chose rash shots to force the issue for Afghanistan. Siraj had already prised out Atal’s opening partner, Abdul Malik, after a patient 40-ball eight by getting a delivery to jag into his pads. Then, Rahmanullah Gurbaz swiped Kuldeep across the line in a rush of blood, mistiming the ball straight to long-on. The wicket came against the run of play, with him already on 24 off 23, bossing a tiring India spin attack in the blistering heat of New Chandigarh.
Next, Rahmat – Afghanistan’s best batter from their first innings – danced down the pitch to Washington and holed out at wide mid-off. Fifteen minutes before tea, captain Hashmatullah Shahidi edged a tentative prod to Shubman Gill at first slip and Washington got his second wicket of the innings. Both these wickets were a result of a consistent line, attacking batters in the outside-off channel.
Afghanistan’s resistance broke down completely on the last ball before tea. Atal, who had batted patiently thus far, leaned into an ill-judged lofted drive, off Washington, hitting it straight to point.
When they returned to bat after tea, Afghanistan’s lower-order batters were in no mood to stick around. Suthar plucked out one last wicket, pinning Afsar Zazai on the pads off a front-foot defense. On the other hand, Azmatullah Omarzai, Nangeyalia Kharote, and Mohammad Saleem all fell while miscuing lofted shots. Saleem’s edge to B Sai Sudharsan at covers sealed an innings-win for India.
Scores:
India 564 for 8 dec in 127 overs (KL Rahul 100, Sai Sudarshan 81, Shubman Gill 126, Rishbah Pant 81, Washington Sundar 52*; Mohammed Saleem 6-140) beat Afghanistan 152 in 58.4 overs (Rahmat Shah 60; Prasidh Krishna 3-37, Manav Suthar 6-33 ) and 112 in 35.5 overs (Sediqullah Atal 42; Manav Suthar 1-29, Washington Sundar 4-36, Kuldeep Yadav 3-30) by an innings and 300 runs
[Cricinfo]
The head of Turkiye’s football refereeing body and four other officials have been placed in pretrial detention by a court as part of a corruption investigation, the state news agency Anadolu reports.
Ferhat Gundogdu, head of the Central Referees Committee, and six others appeared before a judge over allegations of manipulation of the referee administration process, Anadolu said on Saturday.
They appeared on Friday before a judge at Istanbul’s Caglayan courthouse on several charges, including forgery of official documents, breach of trust and illegal acquisition of personal data, the report said.
The judge remanded five people in custody and granted the other two conditional release, Anadolu said.
It was the latest scandal to shake football in Turkiye, coming exactly a year after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended 149 referees on charges of illegal betting.
On Thursday night, police from the illegal betting and sports crime unit also detained Yasin Kol, a referee from Turkiye’s top-flight Super Lig, as well as an assistant referee, media reports said.
Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said prosecutors are examining claims about “interference in the processes of referee classification, assignments, scoring and appointments as well as the exams on rules”.
During raids on Tuesday, police searched the VAR room at TFF’s headquarters in Istanbul. Observers said the investigation was likely linked to last year’s betting scandal and would have implications for the federation.
“It does seem to be a continuation of 2025, and it looks like it will continue further,” sports journalist Ayhan Sensoy told the AFP news agency.
Sensoy, who wrote a 2024 book on the issue called The Gambling Pit, said it was unlikely that federation bosses “have any chance of staying in office”.
So far, the TFF has not directly addressed the arrests as its top officials are due to fly home on Saturday after attending Friday night’s Belgium-Turkiye UEFA Nations League clash in Liege, which Turkiye lost 3-0.
[Aljazeera]
A car has crashed into a crowd of rugby league supporters in the eastern Australian city of Newcastle, injuring 10 people, including three children.
New South Wales police said on Saturday that two of the injured – a five-year-old girl and a 67-year-old man – were in a critical condition and the other eight were in stable condition in hospital.
Police said they had arrested the 18-year-old man driving the vehicle and were investigating what happened. They said the crash was not believed to be related to “terrorism”.
The crowd had gathered to farewell the local rugby league side, the Newcastle Knights, ahead of their grand final against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Gavin Morris said the driver, a rugby league fan, had lost control of his vehicle and had been taken into custody.
“He was revving the car, he was excited, he was a supporter, he was there for the joy of the moment,” Morris told the national broadcaster ABC.
“Somehow he lost control of the car … and he’s gone into the crowd,” he added.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “My thoughts are with everyone injured or involved in the horrible incident this morning in Newcastle.”
“Rugby league brings people together, and this should have been a weekend of excitement and pride for Newcastle fans,” he wrote in a social media post.
[Aljazeera]
Polls have opened in Latvia for an election taking place against the backdrop of perceived security threats from Russia and a nationwide cost-of-living squeeze.
Saturday’s vote is the first electoral test for Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs after coming to power in May this year when his predecessor resigned due to a backlash from stray drone incursions from Ukraine.
Kulbergs, whose right-wing United List party is currently polling at about 20 percent, is expected to hold onto his position, but the decline of two allies in his current coalition means he is set for a complicated negotiation over the makeup of any future government.
Polls opened at 05:00 GMT and will close at 17:00 GMT. The results are not expected to change Latvia’s pro-European and pro-Ukrainian course.
About 1.5 million people are eligible to vote in the country’s 11th parliamentary election since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Latvian politics are highly fragmented, with parties rarely seeing above 20 percent vote share and coalitions being the norm.
This year, 14 electoral lists are contesting the election, but polls indicate only seven are likely to enter parliament, with the rest expected to fail to meet the minimum 5 percent vote threshold.
Rising living costs, low wages, strains on the healthcare system and long-term population decline have all featured prominently in campaign debates.
Most parties in Latvia are pro-Ukraine; however, the populist Sovereign Power party – which says it wants Ukraine to win but argues money spent supporting Kyiv would be better spent at home – looks likely to become the country’s second-biggest party, with more than 9 percent of the vote. Most other parties have ruled out forming a coalition with Sovereign Power.
Latvia First, a pro-Ukraine and populist nationalist party currently polling at about 9 percent, could be a potential coalition partner for PM Kulbergs.
The Progressives, a pro-European social democratic party, are polling at 6 percent.
Ethnic Russians make up roughly one in four Latvian citizens, but their vote, which has traditionally been cast along identity-based lines, looks set to be made according to economic and social issues.
Latvia is the poorest of the Baltic states, and it has sharply increased its defence spending since Russia invaded Ukraine, now allocating nearly 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to defence.
[Aljazeera]
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