Sports
Elgar stars in South Africa’s first win against India at Wanderers
Two sessions were washed out due to persistent rain and it took nearly six hours for the fourth day’s play to begin in Johannesburg on Thursday (January 6). But it was worth the wait for South Africa who rode on skipper Dean Elgar’s excellent knock to win the second Test against India by seven wickets. Elgar’s unbeaten 96 not only forced a decider in Cape Town next week, but it also helped South Africa register their first win against India at the Wanderers in six attempts. This was also South Africa’s highest successful chase at this venue since readmission, surpassing the 220 they scored to win the Test against New Zealand in 2006.
After a lengthy wait, the game finally got underway at 19:15 local time and Jasprit Bumrah produced a beauty first up, getting one to seam away sharply from Rassie van der Dussen’s outside edge. He later got one to jump off a length that clipped his glove but went over gully. Van der Dussen was also not too comfortable facing Ashwin who opened the attack with Bumrah. Elgar, meanwhile, was looking solid at the other end as he brought up his fifty with a drill past mid-on for a four off Ashwin. There were also bonus runs from Bumrah who bowled an ineffective bouncer that evaded van der Dussen and the ‘keeper and resulted in five wides, with 21 runs coming in the first five overs of the day.
The target came down to double digits when Bumrah bowled one too full to van der Dussen, who managed to squeeze it away through cover for a couple having previously been struck on the midriff by a delivery that took off. Van der Dussen continued to be troubled by Bumrah’s deliveries that were hitting the crack on a good length but he hung in there and capitalised on anything full, even creaming a cover drive. Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were also a bit too straight to Elgar coming from round the wicket, not challenging the outside edge as much as they would have liked and also allowing him to rotate the strike. Meanwhile, the ball was changed a couple of times due to the wetness of the outfield. But the inconsistent bowling continued as Shami was struck for two successive fours by van der Dussen, who flicked and pulled with authority, while the bowler was also guilty of conceding five wides with a desperate bouncer.
Shardul Thakur was eventually introduced into the attack and he found the outside edge of van der Dussen’s bat but a fielder wasn’t stationed at gully and the result was a four, while the next boundary in the same over was a powerful drive off the back foot. More than 50 runs were scored in the much-delayed first hour of play before Shami struck to end the partnership worth 82 by having van der Dussen edge to Pujara at first slip. Shami had Elgar flashing at one outside off and the ball went over the slip cordon for a boundary while Thakur put down a catch off his own bowling to give Temba Bavuma a reprieve. The required runs came down to fifty when Elgar struck two back to back fours off Shami, driving through mid on and steering the ball past gully.
India’s hopes of putting South Africa under pressure with quick wickets did not materialise as Bavuma settled into a partnership with Elgar and even struck a couple of attractive cover drives to the boundary off Bumrah. Mohammed Siraj, who bowled the 65th over, was taken to the cleaners by Elgar who pulled and steered two successive fours, and also carved a boundary over point in the same over. Those weren’t the only runs in the over as Siraj also gave away five wides and his helplessness reflected that of his team as South Africa marched to victory with Elgar poetically scoring the winning runs with a boundary off Ashwin.
The seeds of South Africa’s victory were sown on the opening day when Marco Jansen bagged four wickets while Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Olivier picked up three wickets to restrict India to 202 in their first innings. KL Rahul, standing in as skipper for an injured Virat Kohli, scored 50 while Ashwin struck 46. But India lacked other notable contributions and folded inside 64 overs. Keegan Petersen and Temba Bavuma then scored half-centuries and helped South Africa edge ahead by 27 runs despite Thakur’s career-best 7 for 61. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane hit brisk half-centuries to set South Africa a target of 240, which wasn’t quite enough thanks to a captain’s knock from Elgar who endured multiple body blows and stood towering over the rest in the end.
Brief scores:
India 202 (KL Rahul 50, R Ashwin 46; Marco Jansen 4-31, Kagiso Rabada 3-64, Duanne Olivier 3-64) & 266 (Ajinkya Rahane 58, Cheteshwar Pujara 53; Lungi Ngidi 3-43, Marco Jansen 3-67, Kagiso Rabada 3-77) lost to South Africa 229 (Keegan Petersen 62, Temba Bavuma 51; Shardul Thakur 7-61) & 243/3 (Dean Elgar 96*, Rassie van der Dussen 40; R Ashwin 1-26, Shardul Thakur 1-47) by 7 wickets.
(Cricbuzz)
The break in the IPL witnessed the departure of two huge pillars of Indian Test cricket. It resumed with a 23-year-old and a 14-year-old taking T20 batting to new heights.Yashaswi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi put on a 76-run opening partnership where 74 runs had come in boundaries. But even with that head start, it was heartbreak for Rajasthan Royals (RR) as they lost by 10 runs. Punjab Kings (PBKS) are now up to 17 points. They aren’t assured of a playoffs spot just yet but it looks like a matter of time.
PBKS equalled an IPL record for most 200-plus totals in a season (6). They made 219 for 5. That it happened after they lost three wickets in the first 19 balls just added even more sheen to their achievement. The top-scorer Nehal Wadhera (70 off 37) attended a mid-innings interview where he said his captain Shreyas Iyer had told him to keep hitting despite wickets falling and that mentality was the reason why they made the most of beautiful batting conditions in Jaipur.
Most of PBKS’ firepower has come from their openers. But on Sunday, both Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya couldn’t get going. That though allowed Wadhera all the time he needed to come into his own. He is a lovely spin-hitter (strike-rate 156, average 84 this IPL). Two of his best shots came off Wanindu Hasaranga on either side of Iyer’s wicket – one where he picked the googly and hit down the ground for six and the next where he picked the leg break and slog swept it for six.
Wadhera could’ve been out on 48 had Hasaranga been able to hold onto a tough caught and bowled chance.
Tushar Deshpande went into death overs mode in the 15th itself, using yorkers and bouncers of varying pace to save himself. Akash Madhwal, who was having a rough evening, might have thought he’d bought his team some relief when he dismissed Wadhera with four overs still left. Shahshnak Singh, at the time, was looking scratchy. He could’ve been dismissed for 11 off 10 if Dhruv Jurel had not misjudged where the boundary line was at long-off while trying to take a catch.
Shashank made the most of the life he got and became a menace for an RR attack that had plans to deal with him. The wide yorker was a big part of that, but the finisher one-upped them by moving around in his crease, twice scooping off the wide line to find the fine leg boundary and once taking guard almost two feet outside his crease in order to meet the yorkers on the full. Shashank made 59 off 30 balls.
Nobody was ready for how the RR innings began. Jaiswal went 4, dot, 4, 4, 6, 4 in the very first over bowled by Arshdeep Singh. Suryavanshi wasn’t lagging behind. From his place deep in his crease, and with the kind of power that doesn’t really tally with his age, he found leverage to hit bowlers looking for his nose and his toes out of the park. RR were 51 for 0 in three overs. Fifty of those runs in fours and sixes. One run off a wide. The first scoring shot that wasn’t a boundary took 26 balls to arrive. On the back of this unreal partnership, RR put up their highest powerplay total (89 for 1) in IPL history.
With the ball flying to all parts – and regular captain Shreyas Iyer subbed out to manage a finger injury – PBKS turned to Harpreet Brar (4-0-22-3) to see if pace off the ball would work. It did. Brar bowled one in the powerplay, got the benefit of a spread-out field after that, he still had to deal with a left-handed batter for most of his spell, nothing fazed him. Because he was clear with what he wanted to do. If he went full, he was not going to give RR the chance to get under the ball. He offered no room either. If he went short, he bowled it quick and kept the stumps in play to deny the batter time to swing. Riyan Parag found that out when the speed of his hands was no match for the skid of Brar’s arm ball. RR hit 19 boundaries in the powerplay. Brar came on to control the middle overs and they hit only four boundaries between overs 7 and 14.
RR’s finishers have been under the scanner all season. Shimron Hetmyer has the fifth-lowest strike rate of all batters who have at least 50 runs in the death overs. Jurel has been found out by spin. Here too, he made only 15 off 13 against Brar and Yuzvendra Chahal, but he was able to get on top of the PBKS quicks. He had a season strike rate of 179 against pace coming into this game. He upped it to 211 on Sunday.
A tense finish was on the cards, but Arshdeep came back for the 19th over, and nailed his lengths, whether he went yorker, or knuckle-ball into the pitch, and gave away only nine runs. That left RR with 22 runs to get off the last six balls. They managed to do that once in this game. Twice was asking for too much.
Brief scores:
Punjab Kings 219 for 5 in 20 overs (Nehal Wadhera 70, Prabhsimran Singh 21, Shreyas Iyer 30, Shashank Singh 59*, Azmatullah Omarzai 21*; Tushar Deshpande 2-37, Kwena Maphaka 1-32, Riyan Parag 1-26, Akash Madhwal 1-48) beat Rajasthan Royals 209 for 7 in 20 overs (Dhruv Jurel 53, Yashaswi Jaiswal 50, Vaibhav Suryawanshi 40, Sanju Samson 20, Riyan Parag 13, Shimron Hetmyer 11; Marco Jansen 2-41, Harpreet Brar 3-22, Azmatullah Omarzai 2-44) by 10 runs
[Cricinfo]
Italy’s Massimo Stano broke the short-lived world 35km race walk record at the European Race Walking Team Championships – a World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold meeting – in Podebrady on Sunday (18) by a massive 57 seconds.
The 2:20:43 recorded by the 2021 Olympic champion comfortably eclipsed the 2:21:40 set by Canadian Evan Dunfee in March, which in itself was seven seconds quicker than the 2:21:47 recorded by Japan’s Masatora Kawano last October.
Stano took over the lead at 23km, and went through the gears to record laps under 4:00m in the closing stages.
[World Athletics]
Relay team dropped from Asian Athletics Championship
IPL2025 : Nehal Wadhera and Harpreet Brar take Punjab Kings closer to playoffs
Massimo Stano smashes world 35km race walk record in Podebrady
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