As the shadows lengthened over the Oval on Sunday evening, it became increasingly inevitable that this summer’s final Ashes Test would be decided not by a golden delivery or glorious batting stroke, but another piece of ill-thought out bureaucracy.
After a light-meter was hastily brought onto the increasingly gloomy field, umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Aleem Dar ended the game for bad light, with just four overs remaining and England just 21 away from victory.
The former South African batsman, Jonty Rhodes, has said that Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni will be the key players for India in the upcoming test series against Proteas.
India will visit South Africa towards the end of this year for a 3-match test series.
In one of his recent interviews, when Jonty was asked about that test series, he said, “It will be a close one. South Africa is definitely the more settled side at the moment, but, you can’t write India off. They have got some really good youngsters.”
If ever a team needed an injection of batting excellence it is Australia right now. Two down in the Ashes already and seemingly out of it, the Baggy Green are struggling to make the runs in England and ahead of the third Test at Old Trafford next week look set to lose by a heavy margin.
What Michael Clarke needs is a strong top-order batsman who can get out there and dig in, which is why David Warner may well earn a place in the side following an impressive 193 for his country’s A side this week.
If you’re already looking forward to the new cricket season then you’re probably staring at the worsening weather and wishing it was all over. There are plenty of other sports being played at this time of year, and there are plenty of little gambling opportunities but it is, as they say, just not the same. Betting on the horse racing or football requires that you have at least outside knowledge of the game and the players. If you’re into cricket, you might not be that much of a fanatic about any other sport.
The captain of the Bangladesh cricket team, Mushfiqur Rahim, has admitted that he should not have resigned from the captaincy after his team’s defeat in the ODI series against Zimbabwe a couple of months back.
Bangladesh’s performance was poor in both the test and ODI series on that Zimbabwe tour.
After Bangladesh’s defeat in the 3rd ODI played at Bulawayo, Rahim told the reporters in the post match press conference that he was not going to continue captaining the Bangladesh side after the completion of this tour.
Lancashire’s first match in the ongoing County Championship against Worcestershire has ended in a draw.
This match also got interrupted by the snow fall but not as much as some of the other matches.
The toss was won by the Lancashire skipper Glen Chapple on the first day and he elected to field first without any hesitation.
Chapple himself shared the new ball with Kyle Hogg, but, neither of them got the breakthroughs. Both of them were moving the ball, but, the edge was not being found.
The former Indian opening batsman, Sunil Gavaskar, has said that he is very impressed with the way MS Dhoni has captained the Indian team in the first two test matches against Australia.
After the test series against England, Gavaskar had criticized Dhoni and had said that Dhoni should be replaced as India’s captain by Virat Kohli.
But, now, Gavaskar’s opinion has changed. According to him, Dhoni has led the side pretty differently in the first two test matches against the Kangaroos.
The former England captain, Michael Vaughan, has hailed Monty Panesar for his brilliant bowling performance in the recently played test series in India and has said that Panesar should be given playing opportunities outside the subcontinent as well.
The England team generally plays with only one spinner in the test matches which are played outside the subcontinent. Since, Graeme Swann is the first choice spinner, so, Panesar doesn’t get playing opportunities in those test matches.
The captain of the Indian Cricket Team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has said that the failure of the middle order was the main reason of India’s defeat against Pakistan in the first T20 match which was played at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. India lost that match by 5 wickets.
Graeme Swann has said that he is delighted with the way Cook and Prior batted on the fourth day and if they would continue to bat in the same way on the final day as well, England would surely be able to save the first test match. Swann was talking to the reporters at the end of the fourth day’s play.