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Babar, Masood fight for Pakistan after South Africa enforce follow-on
Pakistan posted their highest opening stand against South Africa as Shan Masood and Babar Azam put up solid resistance against the hosts on a flat track. Masood went past 30 for the first time in nine innings and went on to score his sixth Test hundred, and the first by a Pakistan captain in South Africa, while Babar, opening in place of the injured Saim Ayub, made 81 The pair took a significant chunk out of their first-innings deficit of 421. Pakistan are now 208 behind with nine wickets standing.
South Africa’s five frontline bowlers were made to toil on a surface that remains good for batting despite showing signs of turn. They also bowled 23 no-balls across the two innings so far – 10 in the ongoing second innings alone – and will be disappointed with their ill-discipline. Their only second innings success came late in the day when Babar chased a full, wide ball from Marco Jansen and edged to slip. Nightwatcher Khurram Shahzad accompanied Masood to the end of the day.
After dismissing Pakistan for 194 midway through the afternoon session, South Africa enforced the follow-on with an eye on wrapping things up early. But Kagiso Rabada and Jansen both erred on the side of too full and only created one chance between them. Rabada found Masood’s edge, with the Pakistan captain on 18 but the ball flew through the vacant third slip region, leaving Rabada on his haunches.
The change bowlers, Wiaan Mulder and Kwena Maphaka, barely threatened and Pakistan went to tea on 80 without loss. Rabada and Keshav Maharaj resumed for the evening session and while Rabada tried a short-ball tactic, Maharaj found turn but Pakistan played them both well. Masood’s fifty came when he pulled Rabada through mid-wicket and Babar’s came up with a drive off Jansen. It was the second time in the day that Babar raised his bat to a half-century after also getting to the milestone in the first innings, and his third successive fifty on this tour.
As both settled in, South Africa’s frustration boiled over and Mulder flung the ball back at Babar as he stepped out of his crease to defend. He hit Babar on the shin and words were exchanged before Umpire Dharmasena stepped in to cool things down. The only other bit of drama came when Rabada was convinced he had Masood lbw when he hit him on the knee roll and South Africa were considering a review but Rabada had overstepped.
Masood got to his century with a flick off Jansen and celebrated with a glance skywards. Babar seemed set to follow him but slashed at a slower Jansen ball and edged to Bedingham at slip, to give him his fifth catch of the day. Though Babar fell short of a century, he scored 108 runs in the day – 27 overnight and 81 in the second innings.
Pakistan resumed 64 for 3 under some cloud and found the early exchanges challenged. Rabada beat the beat, Jansen found extra bounce and though both made things difficult for Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, they were unable to remove them. Jansen hit Rizwan on the collar bone in the first 45 minutes as Rizwan attempted a one-armed pull but he recovered to hit Jansen for four and six in the same over.
Babar brought up the Pakistan hundred with an edge through the slips and his fifty off the next ball when he chopped Rabada over point. But when debutant Kwena Maphaka angled one down leg, Babar followed it in an attempt to flick it off his hips and edged to Kyle Verreynne. A joyous Maphaka took off Imran Tahir-style to deep third with his team-mates following in celebration. This was the third time since 2022 that Babar has been strangled down leg, the joint-most by a Pakistan batter in that time.
The Babar-Rizwan partnership was broken on 98, with responsibility falling to Rizwan to keep chipping away. Against the run of play, Rizwan advanced on Mulder and tried to smash him down the ground to reach his fifty, but under-edged onto his stumps. And then Salman Agha, who had lamented the lack of turn when he was bowling, was drawn forward by a Maharaj delivery that turned past the outside edge and was stumped.
Pakistan lost 6 for 76 either side of lunch, most of them to loose shots. Aamer Jamal was bounced out by Rabada when he could not resist a swivel pull and Khurram Shahzad could not keep a square drive down. It may not be up to those two to have done the work but, after the way Pakistan batted in the second innings, they may look back at their shot selection in the first with some regret, especially on this surface.
Though it is expected to start breaking up from the fourth day and there is turn on offer, it remains good for run-scoring. At 208 behind, Pakistan may not yet be thinking of making South Africa bat again, especially as the hosts only have to take eight more wickets. Ayub, who has an ankle fracture,was leave to London for treatment today [06].
Brief scores:
Pakistan 194 in 54.2 overs (Babar Azam 58, Mohammad Rizwan 46; Kagiso Rabada 3-55, Keshav Maharaj 2-14, Kwena Maphaka 2-43) and (f/o) 213 for 1 in 49 overs (Shan Masood 102*, Babar Azam 81) trail South Africa 615 by 208 runs
[Cricinfo]
Rajat Patidar led defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) into the final with the quickest innings of 90 or more in the IPL, scoring a delightful unbeaten 93 off 33 to take his team to 254 for 5, the highest total in an IPL playoff, against the best attack of the tournament, Gujarat Titans (GT). Having finished in the top two, GT still have a chance to make the final at their home ground in Ahmedabad in Qualifier 2 as they await the winner of the Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals. The last eight IPLs have been won by the side winning this fixture: Qualifier 1.
Asked to bat first in chase-friendly Dharamsala, RCB came out full of intent and skill despite missing the injured Phil Salt, but GT nearly snuck back in with a period of 22 balls, 18 runs and two wickets of set batters in a single Jason Holder over. In the time that Patidar scored 93 off 33, the other end, including extras, produced 68 off 37 legal deliveries.
Having never scored more than 233, GT needed something special, and only Jos Buttler came close to that with 29 off 11. The RCB fast bowlers ran riot and took out half the side within the powerplay.
RCB would have dearly loved to have Salt back, but his absence allowed them to play Jacob Duffy as the fourth overseas player. Venkatesh Iyer started the innings with two fours off the first two balls, moving around in the crease to try to mess with the lengths of the GT fast bowlers. It took Virat Kohli four balls to lay bat on Kagiso Rabada’s hard lengths, but Venkatesh ramped him for a six first ball even though he got into a tangle.
Even though Rabada came back immediately with the wicket of Venkatesh, the makeshift opener had done his job with 19 off seven. Immediately after the wicket, Kohli charged at Siraj and drove him over mid-off. Some classic batting – a flick off the hip, a late cut and a square cut – from Devdutt Padikkal consigned Rabada to 18 in his second over and brought up the team fifty in just four overs.
Rattled, GT had to move away from bowling Siraj and Rabada through the powerplay for the first time in eight matches.
Holder and Rashid Khan combined to bring GT back into the contest. Holder kept hitting the hard lengths, and Rashid bowled his first two overs for no boundary. In between, Holder managed to remove Kohli and Padikkal for 43 off 25 and 30 off 19. Not big innings but ones that understood the assignment.
Having gone funky with their selection – no Romario Shepherd in the batting-first XI so they could play an extra bowler if Shepherd was not needed – RCB promoted Krunal Pandya to likely maintain ideal points of entry for Tim David and Jitesh Sharma. While Krunal did his job with 43 off 28, it was the other batter that led to dropping jaws.
Patidar broke the spell off 22 quiet balls with a pulled six off a Holder ball that wasn’t quite short enough. After a boundary-free first over from Kulwant Khejroliya, playing his first game of T20 cricket since last April, Prasidh Krishna created two opportunities in the 14th over. The first one, a leading edge, fell between the converging wicketkeeper and deep third. The second one went straight to Rabada at deep square leg, but was dropped with Patidar on 26 off 20. At the end of the 14th over, RCB were an even 140 for 3, the last time you could say the match was even.
Starting with no-balls from Khejroliya in the 15th over, the flood gates opened for 114 runs in the last six overs. Two of his nine sixes were bona fide highlights reels for the year. The first an extra-cover drive off Rashid from the crease, and then a back-foot drive over cover off Rabada, who by now had the purple cap. That shot off Rabada left even Kohli awestruck.
The GT bowlers didn’t quite try a quick bouncer at him, but Patidar nicely steered a slow bouncer over short fine with a delayed hook. At one point, even a century seemed likely, but he didn’t quite get enough strike.
For the first time ever, both innings of an IPL match started with two fours as B Sai Sudharsan hit Duffy for fours, but the GT openers were not as successful as the RCB top order at upsetting the bowlers’ lengths. Both Shubman Gill and Sudharsan tried charging at Bhuvneshwar, but got only two runs from his first over.
The pressure was mounting, but the first wicket came in an unconventional manner, with Sudharsan losing his bat as he cut Duffy away for four. The bat ricocheted onto the leg stump before the ball could reach the fence. Bhuvneshwar then extended his dominance over Gill with a wobble-seam delivery that got his leg stump. Now Bhuvneshwar leads the head-to-head with six wickets in 79 balls for just 80 runs.
No option left, Buttler came out swinging, looked dangerous, but Josh Hazlewood got the better of him with a knuckle-ball legcutter. The rest was always going to be a formality but RCB carried it out in style. Rasikh Salam bowled a double-wicket maiden to get Nishant Sindhu and Jason Holder to leave GT five down within the powerplay. Duffy ended up with three wickets, Bhuvneshwar reclaimed the purple cap, and only some late damage control from Rahul Tewatiya prevented this from becoming the biggest defeat in an IPL playoff match.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 254 for 5 in 20 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 19, Virat Kohli 43, Devdutt Padikkal 30, Rajat Patidar 93*, Krunal Pandya 43, Jitesh Sharma 15*; Kagiso Rabada 2-54, Jason Holder 2-39, Prasidh Krishna 1-53) beat Gujarat Titans 162 in 19.3 overs (Sai Sudarshan 14, Jos Buttler 29, RahulTewatia 68; Jacob Duffy 3-39, Bhuvenshwar Kumar 2-28, Josh Hazelwood 1-39, Rasik Salam 2-24, Krunal Pandya 2-16) by 92 runs
[Cricinfo]
Defending champions SC Jaffna Kings have made three signings, headlined by Shakib, while Galle Gallants and Colombo Kaps have signed two players each.
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
Patidar leads the way as Royal Challengers Bengaluru storm into second straight final
Kandy Royals sign Vijay Shankar for LPL 2026
Cabinet approves sale of Paddy stocks held by the Paddy Marketing Board
Amendment to the Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 to be gazatted
Ms. M.K.D.N. Madampe, appointed as Director General of the Department of Management Services
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