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West Indies seamers shine as Australia bowled out for 225 after a 7 for 68 collapse
Australia suffered a dramatic collapse of 7 for 68 under the new Sabina Park floodlights as West Indies’ quicks enjoyed the conditions with Jayden Seales, Shamar Joseph and Justin Greaves sharing all ten before Mitchell Starc struck back with an early inroad in his 100th Test.
Starc, who had earlier collected a duck, went close on numerous occasions before removing debutant Kevlon Anderson, who inside-edged onto the stumps attempting a drive. West Indies had been forced into a makeshift opening pair of Anderson and Brandon King after Mikyle Louis, who had been recalled in place of the struggling Kraigg Brathwaite the match after he reached 100 Tests, and John Campbell picked up injuries in the field.
Losing just one wicket in 45 minutes against this Australia attack with a pink ball under lights could be considered a success with King and Roston Chase doing well to see out the day. As has been the case in the first two Tests, the value of Australia’s total will only really be clear once West Indies’ innings develops.
Australia were handily placed on 129 for 2 shortly before the dinner break with Cameron Green and Steven Smith well set, but Green fell to a wonderful delivery from Seales shortly before the break and then things started to happen quickly in the final session. Shamar Joseph removed Smith and Beau Webster while Travis Head fell to a stunning catch by substitute Anderson Phillip.
Seales, Shamar Joseph and Greaves carried West Indies’ bowling after Alzarri Joseph was forced to leave the field due to back problems and was sent for scans. Meanwhile, Louis injured his knee when it was jarred in the outfield and Campbell took a blow in the chest at short leg.
The day had significant intrigue before a ball was bowled when it was confirmed that Australia had omitted Nathan Lyon for the first time where he was available for a Test since 2013 as they went with an all-pace attack. West Indies, meanwhile, thought conditions warranted recalling their specialist spinner Jomel Warrican. There was purchase for both West Indies’ spinners but considerable assistance for quicks throughout on a well-grassed surface, with life very difficult as day turned to night.
The tempo of the early exchanges belied what would come later. Sam Konstas, who was dropped on 1, and Usman Khawaja battled through the first hour for 21 runs and went on to compile the longest opening stand of the series. By lunch, Australia were 50 for 1, having struck just four boundaries, although a sluggish outfield was partly to blame for that.
Konstas was given a life when debutant Anderson spilled a chance at third slip in the fifth over and was skittish in his running early on, twice being at risk of being dismissed had there been direct hits. Having done some hard work against the new ball, he was trapped lbw by Greaves to leave him one innings in the series to make a mark.
West Indies thought they had Green before the interval when Seales won an appeal lbw, but Green reviewed with a second to spare and the ball was sliding past leg stump. Aside from that moment, Green built on the positive work of the second innings in Grenada and, after tea, unfurled a couple of crisp drives.
Khawaja had absorbed a lot of pressure and good deliveries before falling to a stunning catch by Shai Hope as he edged Shamar Joseph from around the wicket.
Smith was quickly out of the blocks, pulling his first boundary powerfully through midwicket, and took three more in a row off Greaves before being given a life on 24 when Warrican couldn’t cling on to a stinging return catch. With Alzarri Joseph off the field, Chase had to juggle his pace bowlers and resorted to twin spin of himself and Warrican for a period in the middle session.
Shortly before dinner, Seales, who has been outstanding through the series, produced a wonderful delivery which straightened to Green to clip the top of the bails – replays showed that if the ball hadn’t deviated, it would have hit the middle of the bat.
When Smith and Head resumed under the glare of the floodlights, it was clear that batting would be tough and that the batters weren’t going to hang around. Smith was beaten by the first ball of the session and then edged wide of the slips before being distracted by the clock at the Courtney Walsh End, which needed covering with a black cloth.
Smith slashed an edge over the cordon against Shamar Joseph before a repeat was well caught by King at first slip. There was no repair act from Webster this time as he edged behind.
Head hadn’t hit top gear as he initially tried to repel the bowling, but then attempted to launch Greaves over the off side and was spectacularly held by Phillips, running to his right of mid-off and flying horizontally to hold the catch.
Bat-throwing time had clearly been declared. Alex Carey had already lofted a six over mid-off against Greaves and then edged behind. Pat Cummins launched three sixes as he flung the bat at nearly everything before picking out long-on. Shamar Joseph took his series tally to 17 wickets when he removed Josh Hazlewood.
Brief scores: [Day 1 stumps]
West Indies 16 for 1in 9 overs (Brandon King 08*; Mitchell Starc 1-3) trail Australia 225 in 70.3 overs (Usman Khawaja 23, Steven Smith 48, Cameron Green 46, Travis Head 20, Alex Carey 21, Pat Cummins 24; Jayden Seales 3-59, Shamar Joseph 4-33, Justin Greaves 3-56) by 209 runs
[Cricinfo]
Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a face-to-face meeting between himself and Vladimir Putin in a renewed bid to end the war.
In an open letter to the Russian president, the Ukrainian leader said it would be “wrong to simply wait” until the war in Europe becomes the focus of the US’s attention once more, adding peace could only come “through direct engagement between” Ukraine and Russia.
He also called for a full ceasefire for the duration of proposed negotiations – something Putin ruled out earlier on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he thought “it would be great” if the two leaders met.
The Kremlin confirmed it had received the letter.
The tone of the letter was defiant, even mocking, drawing attention to Ukraine’s recent strikes on Russian territory.
Zelensky stated that “after 26 years in power, age is beginning to take its toll” on Putin.
The letter also provided an invitation.
“Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us – and you. I am proposing a meeting,” Zelensky wrote.
It’s not a new offer from Ukraine’s leader.
As it has before, the Kremlin responded, saying Zelensky was welcome to meet Putin in Moscow.
What was notable was Kyiv’s public acknowledgement that the US “is fully focused on the issue of Iran”.
“It would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the centre of its attention,” Zelensky wrote.
Speaking to foreign journalists in St Petersburg, without apparently having seen the contents of the letter, Putin said he was “certainly prepared and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine”, but said compromises needed to be made.
Putin suggested that as Trump was busy with Iran, the EU could talk Zelensky into surrendering territory.
Putin’s longstanding position has been that Ukraine should withdraw from four regions largely occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – and give up its efforts to join Nato.
Ukraine has ruled out ceding territory, saying it would embolden Russia to invade again, as it had in 2022 when it launched its full-scale war eight years after illegally annexing Crimea.
Ceasefire negotiations have stalled in recent months, and previous peace talks in Geneva, Abu Dhabi and Istanbul have failed.
In the letter, which is more than 1,800 words long, Zelensky said: “It is not as if we in Ukraine are concerned about the fate of Russian soldiers after everything your war has brought to our country.
“But I do care about Ukrainians. We are losing our people, and every loss is painful to us.”
Zelensky said Russians had become tired of Ukrainian drone and missile attacks, petrol shortages and rising prices, as well as war.
“Do not be afraid to take the path out of this war. That is the main thing that is required of you now,” he implored.
He said Ukraine was proposing to end the war “through direct engagement between us”.
Zelensky said face-to-face negotiations could take place in a country such as Switzerland or Turkey.
The Ukrainian president’s letter came on the same day Putin was in St Petersburg, where a major economic forum is taking place.
The previous day Kyiv had launched a drone attack on the city’s outskirts, a strike mentioned in Zelensky’s message as “paying a visit”.
Separately Russian-backed authorities in occupied Crimea blamed Ukraine for the death of four people in attacks on the regional capital, Simferopol. Ukraine said it had hit a fuel depot.
On Friday, Ukrainian authorities said at least four people had been killed in a Russian strike on the offices of a food company outside Kyiv.
During his press conference on Thursday, Putin appeared to immediately cast doubt on whether a meeting or deal could ever take place.
Whether Mr Zelensky is a legitimate representative of Ukraine, this is a question for the lawyers, for a legal analysis,” he said – a repetition of a Russian line that there has been no presidential election since Zelensky’s term expired in May 2024.
However, elections have been suspended in Ukraine since martial law was declared after Russia’s invasion.
Trump said he thought the US had been instrumental in bringing the two countries closer to peace.
“I think it would be great if they met. They should. Get it done,” he said.
Asked about the compromises the two sides would have to make, he said he would “rather not say”.
“I want them each to make certain compromises, and I think they’re going to do it.”
(BBC)
Pakistan edged home in a low-scoring tussle to secure their third straight ODI series win against Australia. They batted with grit and patience to scale the target of 158 with four wickets and 49 balls remaining on a square-turner in Lahore.
Pakistan – in a surprising move – produced spin-heavy surfaces for this series, which was supposed to test their player pool ahead of the next year’s ODI World Cup in southern Africa and the pitch for the last match offered extra bite to the spinners as the ball turned and bounced sharply, making run-scoring a difficult proposition, especially during the chase.
Maaz Sadaqat seemed aware of how tough batting would get as the innings progressed and he provided Pakistan a rapid start with a 26-ball 27, hitting five fours. He must have taken notes watching Josh Inglis bat in the first innings, as the Australia captain picked up boundaries in the first powerplay to make the most of the run-scoring opportunities with the balls – one from each end – hard and new.
However, Sadaqat was trapped in front by Matt Short as he looked to paddle-sweep his off-break. The left hander did not curb his attacking instincts despite the wicket of Sahibzada Farhan in the third over as he fell prey to Nathan Ellis’ vicious off-cutter.
The chase was anchored by Babar Azam who made a gutsy 40. He hit only three boundaries – two off Matt Kuhnemann and the other off Ellis – in his 84-ball vigil at the crease. Ellis, who had removed him in the previous two matches, tested his defences with his variations, but Babar had done his homework and seemed to be picking his cutters and slower-ones from the hand rather than the pitch.
The highlight of his stay was his battle with Kuhnemann, who beat his outside edge on myriad occasions. The left-arm finger spinner dragged him forward with his tossed up deliveries on a length and spun the ball away from him sharply. Babar, on each occasion, covered his off stump intelligently, bringing his bat and front foot in unison. But he was undone when Kuhnemann dragged his length back a fraction and produced a magnificent delivery which ripped past the outside edge as Babar went on the back foot.
Kuhnemann had previously removed Ghazi Ghori and Salman Ali Agha to keep Australia in the contest and he finished with 3 for 38. When Matt Renshaw also struck for his first ODI wicket, having Arafat Minhas held at slip by Cameron Green after a bobble, Pakistan were wobbling on 112 for 6
They were dragged over the line by Shadab Khan, who Pakistan feel is their next batting allrounder, as he made an unbeaten 29 off 42 in an unbeaten partnership of 49 with Abdul Samad.
Australia had been skittled for 157 in 42 overs, losing 7 for 38 from 119 for 3, as Shaheen Shah Afridi took three wickets alongside two apiece for Abrar Ahmed and Shadab after Inglis decided to bat having comfortably defended 232 in the previous match.
The decider began 15 minutes late because of a brief downpour. The only innings of note in the first half of the match was posted by Inglis who made 65 off 71 balls having been moved up to open, with the next best score was 19.
After Short had picked out mid-on second ball of the match (following Alex Carey’s first-ball dismissal two days ago) Inglis batted with fluency. He took on Afridi and welcomed Minhas with a crunching drive for four then a monstrous inside-out six over cover. In an innings in which he scored heavily on the off side, Inglis unfurled reverse sweeps against the spin. He made only 13 out of 65 runs on the leg side.
Marnus Labuschagne’s struggles in ODIs and on this tour continued as a mix up in the 12th over curtailed his stay. He was supporting Inglis by milking the spinners and seemed to have settled when Inglis did not return his call for a second. He had to scramble back from the middle of the wicket only to fall short of a Minhas’ direct hit from the non-striker’s end.
Carey provided a supporting hand to Inglis in a 52-run partnership before a scorching delivery from Haris Rauf nipped into him and struck the top of middle stump. It sparked a collapse and soon Afridi had Inglis and Cameron Green caught across three balls at the start of his second spell.
Salman then took a sharp catch at slip as Abrar lured Renshaw – Australia’s best batter on the tour – into a drive. Abrar also bowled Cooper Connolly in his next over as Australia slipped from 119 for 3 to 131 for 7. Connolly, who replaced Tanveer Sangha, was playing as a batter only as he continues to recover from a back injury which prevented him bowling during the IPL.
Shadab’s wicketless patch finally ended after five ODIs (and more than 300 deliveries) when Ghori took a spectacular catch as the ball looped off Oli Peake’s foot after taking an inside edge. It was after the second ODI that Mike Hesson, the Pakistan head coach, had relegated Shadab to the fifth bowler in this line-up, but the legspinner bowled with good rhythm, bringing the stumps into play more often by tossing the ball on length regularly.
He had Adam Zampa bowled off a ball that stayed low in the 42nd over before the run out of Ellis brought an end to the innings.
Whether producing rank-turners for these three games was the best preparation for the 2027 World Cup which will be played in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia is debatable. That Pakistan have something to celebrate after their poor ODI and Test tour of Bangladesh and a hapless outing in the T20 World Cup will motivate this side.
Scores:
Pakistan 161 for 6 in 41.5 overs (Babar Azam 40, Shadab Khan 29*; Matthew Kuhnemann 3-38) beat Australia 157 in 42 overs (Josh Inglis 65; Shaheen Shah Afridi 3-30, Abear Ahmed 2-19, Shadab Khan 2-28 ) by four wickets
[Cricinfo]
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