Sports

Tilak ton, Arshdeep three-for put India 2-1 up

Published

1 year ago

2024/11/14

Priyan

Tilak Varma leaps in celebration after bringing up his first international century [Cricinfo]

Tilak Varma became India’s second centurion in the space of six days and ensured they cannot lose the four-match T20I series. They lead 2-1 with the final match to be played on Friday, and the hosts left with only the option of a draw. South Africa have not won a bilateral T20I series since beating Ireland 2-nil in August 2022 and have lost five and drawn two series in that time.

At a time when the next major tournament is 15 months away, and with the knowledge they reached this year’s T20 World Cup final, that may not worry South Africa too much. But there will be questions over their depth and some of their strategies after they conceded heavily and stumbled in the chase for the second time in the series.

South Africa’s seam strength without Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje, is, as expected, inexperienced. It showed in a messy display at Supersport Park which included 10 wides and three no-balls. Those numbers pale in comparison to that of Tilak, who, at 22 years and five days old, became India’s second youngest centurion after Yashasvi Jaiswal, and took just 51 balls to get to his hundred. He shared in a 107-run second-wicket stand with Abhishek Sharma, and a 58-run fifth-wicket partnership with Rinku Singh, in which Tilak contributed 45. Though India were set for a total above 240, after bringing up 100 in the ninth over, Tilak still made sure they had enough.

With an asking rate of 11 needed, South Africa fell behind early on. They needed close to 12 runs an over by the end of the powerplay and as much as 17 runs an over in the last five. At that stage, they had their two biggest hitters, Heinrich Klassen and David Miller at the crease and their partnership had reached 58 off 35 balls. In an eerie reminder of Suryakumar Yadav’s catch on the long-off boundary in the T20 World Cup final in June, Axar Patel timed his jump at deep mid-wicket boundary to perfection and Miller had to depart.

Marco Jansesn kept South Africa in it until the last over and ensured the result flattered them. He scored his first T20I half-century and blitzed four four and five sixes, three down the ground, to threaten a coup. But South Africa had left themselves with too much to do. Jansen was dismissed lbw to Arshdeep Singh with three balls left in the innings and 18 to get. South Africa lost by 11 runs.

South Africa strike early; India strike back

Jansen got South Africa off to a perfect start when his second ball scythed through Sanju Samson. Samson’s all-or-bust time continued, with his last four T20I scores reading 111, 107, 0, 0 but India did not spend too much time dwelling on that. They promoted Tilak Varma to No. 3 with astonishing results. He hit the second ball he faced through backward point for four and then smashed Jansen over third for six. Abhishek Sharma, who was dismissed for single-figure scores at both coastal venues, quickly rectified that when he took 14 runs off Gerald Coetzee’s opening over, and he showed the full range of his repertoire.

Abhishek went through midwicket, over point and then through the covers. Coetzee was swiftly replaced by Lutho Sipamla, who Tilak pulled behind square, and Jansen by Andile Simelane, who bore the brunt of Abhishek’s aggression. He struck back-to-back sixes to opposite corners of the ground and India were running away with the powerplay. They were 70 for 1 after six overs, and South Africa were yet to bring on the spinners.

Maharaj and Simelane apply the brakes

India brought up 100 inside nine overs when Abhishek launched Keshav Maharaj over long-on but South Africa’s experienced left-arm spinner had the last laugh. Three balls later, he dragged a delivery wide of Abhishek, who reached out to try and send it through the leg side but missed and was stumped. In the next over, Andile Simelane gave Suryakumar Yadav width and tempted him to cut but the Indian captain could only slice it to Jansen at deep point. Simelane now has two international wickets and both are Suryakumar’s. Maharaj’s second over cost 10 runs but he was kept on for a third, with success. Hardik Pandya missed a sweep, was hit on the pack pad and given out lbw. India lost 3 for 25 in 26 balls and South Africa pulled them back.

But there’s no stopping Tilak

Maharaj is known for his ability to slow things down but by his last over, Tilak had had enough. He used his crease well to go 4-6-4 over extra cover, deep square leg and deep mid-wicket and Maharaj finished with 36 off his four overs. That was the warning shot. Coetzee took an absolute pasting in his next over, which also included three wides, with Tilak finding the long and short boundaries. Marco Jansen bowled a boundary-less 17th over and Rinku Singh was bowled by a Simelane yorker in the 18th. But by then Tilak was unstoppable. He brought up his hundred when he smoked Sipamla past mid-off for his seventh four. Tilak went on to hit one more four to add to his seven sixes and ended unbeaten on 107.

Flying ants stop play

We’ve had bees at the Wanderers but this is, to this amateur historian’s mind, the first time flying ants have stopped play, What, you may ask? Maybe you call them Patingas or Parwana or Eeyal or Eesal but you probably know the ones. They come before the rain, are attracted to light and shed their wings upon landing, and there were so many of them at SuperSport Park, the umpires were concerned they would fly into the players’ eyes. The players were taken off after an over of South Africa’s chase and a light pylon at SuperSport Park was turned off in the hope the flying ants would find somewhere else to congregate. After 28 minutes, they did and play could resume with no overs lost. It’s wild out in Africa, they say, and so it was.

Varun the victor

Forget everything history says about spinners struggling on the Highveld and just look at Varun Chakravarthy. He came into this match as the leading wicket-taker in the series (with double the number of wickets as his nearest rival) and added another to his name with his most unplayable delivery. South Africa have had no idea about his googly and Reeza Hendricks was done for a second time. He advanced on Varun, slogged wildly, missed and was stumped. South Africa finished the powerplay on 55 for 2.

South Africa may have thought they had the better of Varun when Aiden Markram hit him for two sixes over long-on in his third over but it was a case of the opposite. Markram should have put the last ball away over mid-wicket but hit it straight to Ramandeep Singh and extended a miserable run for the South African captain. He has gone 27 innings without a T20I half-century and has not gone past 30 in his last 12 innings. Heinrich Klaasen was the only player who could take some bragging rights after he hit Varun for three successive sixes, including the biggest of the match at 109 meters, in an over that cost 23. Varun finished with his most expensive T20I analysis but made two crucial breakthroughs and in the end, that’s all that matters. South Africa needed 86 off the last five overs and though Jansen flexed his batting muscles, it was a bridge too far.

Brief scores:
India 219 for 6 in 20 overs (Tilak Verma 107, Abhishek Sharma 50; Andile Simelane 2-34, Keshav Maharaj 2-36, Marco Jansen 1-28) beat South Africa 208 for 7 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 20, Reeza Hendricks 21, Aiden Markram 29, Heinrich Klassen 41, Marco Jansen 54; Arshdeep Singh 3-37, Hardik Pandya 1-50, Axar Patel 1-29, Varun Chakravarthy 2-54) by 11 runs

[Cricinfo]

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Breakdown of the teams and groups of the FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the US after the final playoffs

Published

9 hours ago

2026/04/4

Priyan

Bosnia and Herzegovina's Ermedin Demirovic and Dzenis Burnic celebrate qualifying for the FIFA World Cup after beating Italy in a penalty shootout at the Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 31, 2026 [

Iraq’s qualification for the FIFA World Cup 2026 has completed the lineup of 48 nations for the tournament hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The Lions of Mesopotamia edged Bolivia 2-1 on Tuesday to win the second final of the FIFA Playoff tournament in Mexico. In the first final earlier, Democratic Republic of the Congo beat Jamaica 1-0.

In the other games, Turkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden and Czechia were the final four teams to complete the European quota of World Cup qualification.

Widely considered the most famous sporting event in the world, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be its biggest ever. Forty-eight nations will play instead of the usual 32, with 104 matches in 16 venues across the three host nations.

Argentina will look to defend the trophy lifted by iconic captain, Lionel Messi at Qatar 2022. Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan will make their debut.

The World Cup’s first game will be a throwback to 2010 when Mexico take on South Africa on June 11 in Mexico City in a replay of the tournament opener then. Football fans will hope the opening goal this year matches the screamer scored by Lawrence Tshabalala from the South African hosts then.

Mexico in group A – which includes South Korea and Czechia – will be one of the toughest of the 12 groups.

Team USA are alongside Australia, Paraguay and Turkiye.

Canada, too, face the challenging task of making it out of a group comprising Switzerland, Qatar and Bosnia.

Here’s a breakdown of the 48 teams in the 12 groups:

Group A:

Mexico
South Korea
South Africa
Czechia

Group B:

Canada
Switzerland
Qatar
Bosnia and Herzegovina

Group C:

Brazil
Morocco
Scotland
Haiti

Group D:

USA
Australia
Paraguay
Turkiye

Group E:

Germany
Ecuador
Ivory Coast
Curacao

Group F:

Netherlands
Japan
Tunisia
Sweden

Group G:

Belgium
Iran
Egypt
New Zealand

Group H:

Spain
Uruguay
Saudi Arabia
Cape Verde

Group I:

France
Senegal
Norway
Iraq

Group J:

Argentina
Austria
Algeria
Jordan

Group K:

Portugal
Colombia
Uzbekistan
DRC

Group L:

England
Croatia
Panama
Ghana

[Aljazeera]

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World Cup 2026: Italy’s football chief resigns after qualifying failure

Published

14 hours ago

2026/04/4

Priyan

Gabriele Gravina, left, and UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin in the stands at the Bosnia and Herzegovina football match against Italy [Aljazeera]

The head of Italy’s football federation (FIGC) has resigned, falling on his sword after the men’s national team failed to qualify for a World Cup for a third consecutive time.

Gabriele Gravina revealed he would step down as the country’s top football official following a meeting held at the FIGC’s headquarters in Rome on Thursday.

His announcement came a day after Sport Minister Andrea Abodi called on him to resign.

Four-time World Cup winners Italy fell at the playoffs again on Tuesday, this time after a penalty shootout against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and will miss this year’s finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The shock waves of the latest humiliation for one of the world’s most successful football nations forced Gravina, 72, to go back on his initial plans to wait until a FIGC board meeting next week to announce a decision on his future.

The FIGC said in a statement that a vote for a new president would be held on June 22.

Giovanni Malago, the former longtime head of the Italian National Olympic Committee who was president of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics organisation committee, is reportedly one of the names in the hat.

Before then, head coach Gennaro Gattuso is expected to also step down, while general manager Gianluigi Buffon, the former Italy goalkeeper, announced his resignation on Thursday.

Italy’s failure to reach the first-ever 48-team World Cup – which will feature the likes of Cape Verde and Curacao – led Abodi to release a statement saying: “It’s clear that Italian football needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and that starts with changes at the top of the FIGC.”

[Aljazeera]

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Arya and Shreyas star as Punjab Kings breach Chennai Super King’s fortress again

Published

15 hours ago

2026/04/4

Priyan

Shreyas Iyer and Nehal Wadhera took Punjab Kings close to home [Cricinfo]

Punjab are the Kings of 200 plus chases in the IPL. They’d done it eight times before Friday night, and they did it again as Priyansh Arya and Shreyas Iyer laid waste to the Chennai Super Kings bowling attack. Arya had 33 off 9 when the PBKS fifty came up in the fourth over of their innings. Shreyas was 4 off 5 before accelerating to a 26-ball fifty.

CSK are now winless after two games and what will worry them is that they were outplayed in conditions that enhance their strength. They have a strong top five. Pitches like this one, which allow them to hit through the line, makes them stronger. But the 209 for 5 they put up didn’t cover for the weakness in their bowling.

PBKS’ win was their fourth in a row against CSK at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

An 18-year-old who came into a struggling team mid-season last year and emerged as one of their best players might have had reason to believe he had established himself. But with the arrival of Sanju Samson, Ayush Mhatre was bumped down from opener to No. 3. Samson hasn’t been able to get going, falling for two single-digit scores, but the knock-on effect that had on Friday was that Mhatre was out there in the powerplay. And with the field up, he had the liberty to play his shots, and some of them were just so good, including a forehand smash across the line against Vyshak Vijaykumar.

Mhatre was dismissed on the pull shot in the first game of CSK’s season. In the lead-up to this one, Mike Hussey with the whanger kept feeding him short balls and he kept working on the swivel-pull. That work paid off. The third boundary he hit – of three back-to-back – was a confident swivel-pull – and Mhatre deserves more credit for it because the first two were full balls that he had put away over mid-on to engineer that change in length from Xavier Bartlett.

Later, when the field spread and the PBKS bowlers were having success keeping others quiet with wide yorkers – Shivam Dube was 14 off 14 at one point – Mhatre dug one out for a single. That was 10.2. By 10.5, he’d found a solution for a ball the bowler thought was a banker – bringing the bat down as he had done before but this time opening the face to beat short third and backward point to their right and deep point to the left. It was a shot that combined quick thinking with perfect timing.

Mhatre was dropped on 59 and 67 and eventually fell for 73 off 43. At the time, the other end had contributed 38 off 32. The extras chipped in with 12.

Mhatre fell during a period where PBKS picked up three wickets for 20 runs in three overs. In that time, CSK’s projected score slipped from 200 to 185.

CSK’s middle order is a problem with Dewald Brevis recovering from a side injury. But it didn’t feel like a problem while Sarfaraz Khan was at the crease. As a domestic stalwart, he has seen it all and done it all. As one of the IPL’s first teenage stars, when he was sharing a dressing room with Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle, he has always got T20 cricket. Some of his shots were so cool. There was one where it seemed like he’d left a bouncer, the ball going past him before he pushed his bat up at it and sent it for six over the keeper. There were several that he nonchalantly deflected to the deep third boundary and these were off deliveries that the bowler thought he had done well, either going yorker or going into the wicket without giving any room. Sarfaraz’s 32 off 12 balls carried CSK to 209 for 5. It was the first 200-plus score at Chepauk in the IPL since April 2024.

This was a day for breathtaking cameos. Arya topped Sarfaraz’s efforts with 39 off 11 balls. PBKS assistant coach Brad Haddin recalled how Arya had wowed the whole coaching staff when he started batting in the camp ahead of IPL 2025. The bat speed in particular was unbelievable. But what really impressed Haddin was that when Arya joined the team ahead of this season, he had improved on his strengths. He had downed CSK with a century last year. He needed just 11 balls to down them this year. The shots were pure too. There was an on-the-up cover drive for four with zero follow-through that told CSK what they were giving him just wasn’t good enough. PBKS brought up their fifty in the fourth over. They downed more than 30% of the target inside the powerplay.

CSK’s bowlers created a little bit of pressure between the ninth and 12th overs when they were gifted Prabhsimran Singh’s wicket through a run-out and Cooper Connolly’s off a full-toss. At the start of the 13th over, PBKS’ chances of victory, according to the ESPNcricinfo forecaster, was 45%. CSK brought on Rahul Chahar to see if they could push their advantage. Shreyas whacked him for two sixes, moved from 4 off 5 to 19 off 10. PBKS’ chances of winning after those six balls was up at 65%. It didn’t take long for that figure to hit 100. Shreyas helped himself to a 26-ball fifty.

Brief scores:
Punjab Kings 210 for 5 in 18.4 overs (Priyansh Arya 39, Prabhsimran Singh 43, Cooper Connolly 36, Shreyas Iyer 50, Nehal Wadhera 10, Shashnak Singh 14*; Anshul Kamboj 2-43, Matt Henry 2-54) beat Chennai Super Kings 209 for 5 in 20 overs (Rutraj Gaikwad 28, Ayush Mhatre 73, Shivam Dube 45, Sarfaraz Khan 32; Xavier Bartlett 1-48, Marco Jansen 1-43, Vijayakumar Vyshak 2-38, Yuzvendfa Chahal 1-21) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]