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Hapless Australia crash into South African juggernaut
A clinical all-round performance from South Africa has seen them register a whopping 134-run win over Australia in Lucknow on Thursday (October 12). Having posted a competitive total of 311, on the back of Quinton de Kock’s second ton in a row, the Proteas virtually sealed the game in the first Powerplay itself with the wickets of Mitchell Marsh, David Warner and Steve Smith. Without a doubt, Australia were on the mat at 70/6 and if not for a 69-run partnership between Marnus Labuschagne and Mitchell Starc, the margin of defeat would have been worse. It was a performance of utmost dominance from South Africa as they outplayed Australia in all facets of the game.
Having opted to bowl, Australia would have hoped for the pitch to ease out under lights with dew expected to come later on. Unfortunately for them, the new ball nibbled around a lot more than during the afternoon and South Africa’s quicks took full toll of it. Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi started off brilliantly, getting the ball to talk appreciably, thereby choking the run flow in the first Powerplay. The pressure told on Marsh as he miscued one against Jansen and Warner fell soon, slapping a cut straight to backward point off Ngidi. The onus was squarely on Smith who started off in ominous fashion with four delectable boundaries.
However, then came the most debatable moment of the Australian innings. Coming in as the first change bowler, Kagiso Rabada had Smith LBW after the Australian had missed a rare flick stroke after the trademark shuffle across the sticks. It looked not out in real time but ball tracking had it hitting leg stump, putting Smith in shock. Even the South African players couldn’t believe their luck and with that breakthrough, Australia seemed rattled completely. Rabada was breathing fire in his first spell and bowled a peach to nip out Josh Inglis who capped a forgettable day in the middle both with bat and gloves.
As if the extravagant movement wasn’t hard enough, there was also a lot of spin on offer and it made Australia’s task near impossible. Glenn Maxwell offered a simple return catch to Keshav Maharaj while Marcus Stoinis became another of Rabada’s victims, albeit in controversial fashion. It was a short ball down leg-side that went off the glove. A clear spike was shown on UltraEdge but whether Stoinis’ top and bottom hand were both connected to the bat was up for debate. The visuals weren’t conclusive enough but third umpire Richard Kettleborough felt he had seen enough to give the marching orders. Not for the first time, Australia were displeased. At 70/6, it was about damage control now.
Labuschagne and Starc hung around, as the surface eased out and soon, dew set in as well to make batting easier. Australia, though, had no batting left to make a match of the game despite the drastic improvement in conditions. South Africa’s bowlers all had a field day, making use of the conditions and scoreboard pressure to dent the Aussies. The total of 311 looked par at the halfway mark and in hindsight, it was probably slightly above par. South Africa’s innings was set up by Quinton de Kock’s second successive World Cup ton and a fluent fifty from Aiden Markram.
Both batters didn’t produce the same carnage that the did in Delhi against Sri Lanka but that was largely due to the conditions on offer here in Lucknow. A relaid surface with red soil meant that the track played much better than in the IPL games but it was still on the slower side. There was variable bounce and the slower balls were tougher to score, particularly once the ball got older. Australia were slow to read the memo and got their radar all wrong for a major part of the innings. They also failed to utilize the movement that was on offer with the new ball.
De Kock capitalized on all these follies and his century stand with Temba Bavuma set the platform for South Africa to get to a competitive score. The former did lose steam through the innings but Markram’s brilliance ensured that the tempo wasn’t lost during the middle overs. Towards the back end, Australia got their lines, lengths and pace variations spot on, thereby staging a decent fightback at the death. However, a flurry of dropped catches through the innings meant that they ended up conceding at least 30 runs more than they should have. In the end, the target proved far too many for the five-time champions.
Brief scores:
South Africa 311/7 in 50 overs (Quinton de Kock 109, Aiden Markram 56; Glenn Maxwell 2-34, Mitchell Starc 2-53) beat Australia 177 in 40.5 overs (Marnus Labuschagne 46; Kagiso Rabada 3-33, Keshav Maharaj 2-30, Tabraiz Shamsi 2-38) by 134 runs
The United States military has said that it will pull 5,000 troops out of Germany amid ongoing tensions with the key European ally concerning the US war against Iran, according to media reports.
Reuters reported that the Pentagon made the decision on Friday, several days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Iran was humiliating the US during negotiations over the end of the war.
“The president is rightly reacting to these counterproductive remarks,” the report cites an anonymous official as saying.
The news service reported that the withdrawal is expected to take place over the next six to 12 months. The decision was also reported by CBS News, citing senior defence officials.
President Donald Trump has lashed out at European allies for not doing more to assist the US-Israel war on Iran, and had stated on Wednesday that he was thinking of pulling troops out of European countries deemed insufficiently supportive.
The US outlet Politico reported earlier this week that Trump’s threats to pull troops out of European countries caught the military by surprise, citing several anonymous defence officials and a congressional aide.
Trump attacked his German counterpart in another social media post on Thursday, stating that Merz should spend more time trying to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and less time “interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat, thereby making the World, including Germany, a safer place”.
While European countries have been hesitant to commit their own forces to the US war on Iran, leaders such as Merz were initially hesitant to offer criticism of the US attacks, widely considered illegal under international law.
[Aljazeera]
In their last match in Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals [RR] were asked to bat first, scored around 230, and never looked like they could defend it. On Friday, against Delhi Capitals [DC], their second match in Jaipur this year, RR won the toss, chose to bat first, scored around 230, and never looked like they could defend it. Between these two matches, RR themselves chased down around 230 with ease.
The decision at the toss remains in sharp focus because it took extraordinary hitting for RR to recover from 36 for 2 in five overs when the ball seamed. During the chase, though, the pitch didn’t offer much to RR, who have arguably had the best attacking new-ball bowlers in Jofra Archer and Nandre Burger. The result was DC’s highest sucessful chase without seemingly having to come out of third gear.
Riyan Parag had to endure the early misbehaviour before he could turn his innings around into 90 off 50 balls. Donovan Fereira (47* in 14 balls) drilled out proverbial yorkers for sixes to give RR their second-best finish in the Impact Player era.
However, led by the returning Mitchell Starc’s three-for, the DC bowlers did just enough to let their batters make full use of the improved conditions. Pathum Nissanka started the charge with 52 from 26 deliveries in the powerplay, KL Rahul went at better than two a ball in the middle overs, and Nitish Rana put any possible nerves to rest with his 33 off 17 balls.
The moment Parag won the toss and surprised just about everybody, including his opponents, that shock quickly gave way to anticipation of watching Vaibhav Sooryavanshi go against Starc after his first-ball sixes off Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins, a second-baller off Sunil Narine, and four boundaries in first four balls against Josh Hazlewood.
However, things happened at the wrong ends. Yashasvi Jaiswal hit Starc for a first-ball six, and two balls later, offered a return chance off a high full toss. Sooryavanshi never got to the Starc end as he played on a Kyle Jamieson yorker, which might point to a pre-decided plan.
Parag had the dubious company of Dhruv Jurel, but he kept RR going at a rate that was exciting but did not promise a win. However, outside the three wickets that fell, you hardly see or hear of any IPL coaches asking those in the between to initiate something.
Now RR were happy with a strike rate of little over one as long as Ravindra Jadeja could offer Ferreira shield from Kuldeep Yadav, with the right-hand batter having fallen to the left-arm wristspinner twice in nine balls. Jadeja was strictly a pinch anchor, asked to face Kuldeep out for Ferreira to have the biggest impact.
But what impact did Ferreira have, including hitting three sixes off Kuldeep. The balls he hit were no more than two inches off the mark, if at all. By bending his back knee and staying deep inside the crease, Ferreira took RR to what looked like a competitive score.
For someone introduced into this IPL as a second thought and only for his par-time offspin against SRH, Rana has shown he belongs at this level if not for India. While the two DC openers holed out, they had already done such good work that DC needed just 49 off 28 balls. Tristan Stubbs and Ashutosh Sharma were never going to allow a hiccup.
Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals 226 for 3 (Pathum Nissanka 62, KL Rahul 75, Nitish Rana 33, Tristan Stubbs 18*, Ashutosh Sharma 25*; Jofra Archer 1-46, Thushar Deshpande 1-38, Ravindra Jadeja 1-33) beat Rajasthan Royals 225 for 6 in 20 overs (Dhruv Jurel 42, Riyan Parag 90, Ravindra Jadeja 20, Donovan Ferreira 47*; Mitchell Starc 3-40, Kyle Jamieson 1-48, Axar Patel 1-39, T Natarajan 1-54) by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
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