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De Kock’s second successive ton props up South Africa
A second successive World Cup ton for Quinton de Kock helped South Africa to put up a par score despite a strong fightback from Australia in the death overs. The left-handed opener’s knock was well supported by a fluent fifty from Aiden Markram on a pitch that wasn’t straightforward to score off, particularly when pace was taken off. South Africa looked on course for a score of 325-plus at one stage but Australia hit their straps in the final overs to curb the run flow. The score could have been much lesser had the Aussies taken their catches, seven of which were dropped.
The afternoon began on a surprising note as Pat Cummins opted to bowl. Given Lucknow’s sluggish decks in the Indian Premier League, that wasn’t expected but what was also a factor is that the tracks had been relaid for the World Cup with many red soil pitches being prepared, this being one. So, there was a lot of uncertainty on how it would play and that’s probably what dictated Cummins’ call at the toss. It was soon evident that the track was on the slower side but at the same time, a much better deck than has been seen in recent times.
De Kock and captain Temba Bavuma put on a century stand to set the base, although the latter was lucky to survive a couple of dropped chances. He finally perished to Glenn Maxwell who was easily the best of the Australian bowlers, making full use of the surface and ground dimensions on offer. De Kock kept motoring along at the other end, although even he couldn’t consistently force the pace as the ball got softer. This is where Markram’s knock comes in for special mention. He barely looked flustered in his timing and played some classy strokes to ensure that the tempo wasn’t lost in the middle overs.
Australia picked up both batters before they could hit top gear but their fielding was a big letdown. Josh Inglis, replacing Alex Carey in the XI, had a horror day behind the stumps and it seemed to spread in the outfield as several chances went down. The platform set by De Kock and Markram looked ominous but as soon as Australia got their lines, lengths and pace variations right, scoring became difficult. Mitchell Starc bowled exceptionally at the death and had a good day overall, although his figures don’t do justice to his efforts. He bowled a top final over, giving away just a single run to give some momentum to Australia
South Africa only managed 79 off the last 60 balls and it goes with the common trend in this World Cup of teams being unable to really unleash at the death. However, given Australia’s bowling lapses in the first half and their dropped catches, the Proteas have definitely got a par score on this track, unless dew makes an appearance.
Brief scores:
South Africa 311/7 in 50 overs (Quinton de Kock 109, Aiden Markram 56; Glenn Maxwell 2-34, Mitchell Starc 2-53) vs Australia
Three buses have exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, in what Israeli police say is a suspected terror attack.
Devices in two other buses failed to explode, they said, adding that “large police forces are at the scenes, searching for suspects”.
Transport Minister Miri Regev paused all buses, trains and light rail trains in the country so that checks for explosive devices could be carried out, Israeli media reports said.
Footage on social media shows at least one bus on fire in a parking lot, with a large plume of smoke rising above.
There have been no reports of casualties at this stage, police said.
The Sri Lanka Navy seized three Indian fishing boats and apprehended 10 Indian fishermen while they were poaching in Sri Lankan waters, during a special operation conducted in the sea area north of Mannar and off the Delft Island in the dark hours of 19 Feb 25.
The Indian fishing boat, together with 04 fishermen aboard, held by the North Central Naval Command was brought to the Talaimannar Pier and they will be handed over to the Fisheries Inspector of Mannar for legal action. Meanwhile the 02 Indian fishing boats and 06 fishermen held by the Northern Naval Command were brought to the Kankesanthurai Harbour and they will be handed over to the Mailadi Fisheries Inspector for legal proceedings.
Including the recent operation, the Navy has held 13 Indian fishing boats and apprehended 99 Indian fishermen for poaching in Sri Lankan waters, thus far in 2025.
Shubman Gill dug deep for his slowest ODI hundred and India’s slowest in the last six years to see India through a tricky chase of 229 that must have brought back memories of their 3-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka last on similarly slow tracks. Despite a quick 69-run opening stand, India were tested by a target that was kept by Mohammed Shami, who took his sixth ODI five-for and became the quickest man to 200 ODI wickets in terms of balls bowled to get there.
Both sides will rue missed opportunities in their Champions Trophy opener. Bangladesh won a crucial toss on a tired pitch with no dew expected to make chasing easier, but they got off to such a poor start that they needed three dropped catches and a superlative fighting hundred from Towhid Hridoy to stay in the contest. India had Bangladesh down at 35 for 5, Axar Patel was on a hat-trick, and Rohit Sharma dropped a sitter followed by two lives for the record-breaking sixth-wicket stand. It allowed Bangladesh to get to a target that denied India a net-run-rate boost, which can prove crucial if they happen to lose one of their three matches.
India will still consider this a banana peel survived having misread the conditions and decided to field first should they have won the toss. On a slow pitch with no assistance for the quicks, they were gifted early wickets through some indiscriminate hitting. Bangladesh possibly felt the new ball was the best time to bat: they didn’t wait for a bad ball on offer and kept losing wickets. The first three fell to ambitious shots to plain good-length bowling with little seam.
Bangladesh were 35 for 3 when Axar was introduced in the ninth over. Tanzid Hasan, the only batter who had looked comfortable, played him for the turn and paid the ultimate price with an outside edge. Mushfiqur Rahim, arguably batting too late at No. 6 especially in the absence of the injured Mahmudullah, played the original line, and was done in by the rare one that turned. Axar slowed down the hat-trick ball even more, Jaker Ali obliged with an edge, which Rohit spilled.
Soon Hardik Pandya dropped Hridoy on 23 in Kuldeep Yadav’s first over. Scoring runs was still a task on the sluggish surface, more than 10 overs went without a boundary, but also India went the middle overs without a single wicket for the first time since the 2023 World Cup final. Jaker did provide an opportunity on 24 but this time KL Rahul missed the stumping off Ravindra Jadeja.
The duo found their touch deeper into the innings, but Hridoy was hampered by cramps all over his body. Shami returned to the challenging task of bowling with a short leg-side boundary but used the slower ball wide outside off to not just deny them boundaries but also collect three more wickets. A cameo from Rishad Hossain and Hridoy’s fight despite crippling cramps took Bangladesh to a fighting total.
Rohit continued his high-intent starts of recent times, and Gill matched him shot for shot as India raced away from the three Bangladesh quicks. Just before the field was about to spread, Rohit fell for 41 off 36 in a bid to make one last use of the field restrictions. Immediately, scoring became laborious. Even the master accumulator Virat Kohli struggled to manipulate the ball into gaps before falling to a legspinner again, this one with the letters of Rashid scrambled to Rishad.
Shreyas Iyer played the conditions for a while, but once he got a couple and a boundary off Mustafizur Rahman, he overreached and lobbed a slower ball to mid-off to be dismissed for 15 off 17. Promoted for the dual tasking of breaking the sequence of right-hand batters and also have an eye on the net run rate, Axar skied a slog-sweep, failing to read the Rishad topspinner.
The last three wickets had fallen for 75 runs and had taken 20.2 overs. You would have thought the sight of KL Rahul would have brought calm to the proceedings, but he tried an uncharacteristic hoick early on only to be dropped by Jaker, whom he had himself reprieved earlier in the day. That proved to be the last opportunity for Bangladesh even as India overcame the ghosts of the failed chases in Sri Lanka last year.
The man to thank was Gill, who anchored the chase and made sure he was there at the end. He was 26 off 23 when Rohit got out, but as the conditions changed he tightened his game and took only selective risks. His next boundary came only when the skiddy fast bowler Tanzim Hasan came back. In the 32nd over. By that time had brought up his slowest half-century.
Gill was content with singles off the spinners and even Mustafizur, who bowls a wicked slower ball to make use of these conditions. He scored just 30 off the 52 balls following Rohit’s dismissal, then went into middle gears before finishing it off in glory. He needed 12 out of the 19 runs to bring up a hundred, and hit a six and a four off Tanzim to get to the mark off 125 balls and take his customary bow. Rahul took India home with a six off Tanzim with 21 balls to spare.
Brief scores:
India 231 for 4 in 46.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 41, Shubnam Gill 101*, Virat Kohli 22, KL Rahul 41*; Taskin Ahmed 1-36, Mustafizur Rahman 1-42, Rishad Hossain 2-38) beat Bangladesh 228 in 49.4 overs (Towhid Hridoy 100, Tanzid Hasan 25, Jaker Ali 68; Mohammed Shami 5-53, Harshit Rana 3-31, Axar Patel 2-43) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
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