Bravo unleashes stunning assault to bring CSK screaming back

Chennai Super Kings 169 for 9 (Bravo 68, Jadhav 24*, Markande 3-23, Hardik 3-24) beat Mumbai Indians 165 for 4 (Suryakumar 43, Krunal 41*, Watson 2-29) by one wicket. Mumbai Indians didn’t account for the possibility that Chennai Super Kings, who were coming back from a two-year ban, could also come back from the dead. After managing to overcome a poor start with the bat, putting up an above-par score, throwing their superstar at Super Kings’ top order and unleashing a starlet to dismantle the middle order, Mumbai should have won this. Having then had Super Kings needing 48 off 21 balls with one wicket remaining, they should have won big. With Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Mitchell McClenaghan and Mustafizur Rahman all available to bowl during that period, they’d have had to try hard not to.

But they didn’t account for the might of Dwayne Bravo who, after conceding only 11 off his last three overs, returned to blitz seven sixes in a 30-ball 68 that put Super Kings within seven runs of a victory that Kedar Jadhav sealed on one leg. Every captain who won the toss in a night match at the Wankhede had elected to bowl last year, and MS Dhoni said he didn’t see a reason why Super Kings shouldn’t do the same on a grassy pitch. Only two of those captains had ended up on the winning side in six games.

Mumbai chose to open with Evin Lewis and Rohit Sharma, a move that would have either brought them big runs up front exposed an untested middle order to the new ball. As it turned out, the new-ball duo of Deepak Chahar and Shane Watson brought about the latter. Two half-century stands lifted Mumbai to 165 after a poor start, but they could have had a lot more. The Pandya brothers, led by Krunal, managed to extract 45 runs from Mark Wood’s last three overs. The fast bowler had gone for three off his first over had a sour ending to his IPL debut. But Super Kings found padding at the other end through Bravo, who laid the work for a big chase much before he knew it.

While Wood had trouble switching abruptly from a predominantly short length to a yorker length – bowling either too short or too full in his endeavour – Bravo executed his yorkers expertly, while sneaking in the occasional dipper. He bowled 16th, 18th and 20th overs that were worth 11 runs in total even as a combined 36 came off the 17th and 19th overs; a particularly good return against Hardik and Krunal, who boast Smart Strike Rates of 155.63 and 204.78 respectively since IPL 2015. Super Kings had left out their specialist openers M Vijay and Sam Billings, who were expected to fortify a batting line-up that was considered a glaring weakness following the auction in January.

Those fears were first put under examination by Hardik, who got Watson to flick a knuckle ball to deep square leg before cramping Suresh Raina on the pull in his next over. What seemed like a decent start – seven runs per over with the loss of one wicket in 5.5 overs – quickly became a slippery slope. Extracting every bit of that reality was debutant legspinner Mayank Markande, who slipped a googly through Ambati Rayudu to trap him in front next over. He could have had Jadhav two balls later, but could convince neither umpire Chris Gaffaney nor his captain that this ball – also a googly – was hitting leg stump. A significant moment in hindsight.

Mumbai did, however, take the review when Dhoni was trapped on the back foot and had the not-out decision overturned to leave Super Kings tottering at 51 for 4. When Jadhav retired hurt with a strained hamstring, a swift end was in sight. But once again, Bravo took charge of the final phase of the innings to lift Super Kings. Between the start of the 18th over – with Imran Tahir for company – and the end of the 19th, Bravo anticipated the blockhole lengths McClenaghan and Bumrah were looking for and got deep in his crease to pick up five sixes – three over midwcket and two over long-off.

He seemed to have thrown it away, when he sliced Bumrah’s last ball to extra cover. What he did manage, however, was to cross over to the other end. This meant that Jadhav, returning to the crease, had the strike in the last over. Jadhav’s mobility seemed severely impeded as he tried initially to dab Mustafizur’s offcutters fine on either side of the wicket; but a surge of adrenaline made up for his injured hamstring, allowing him to get down one one knee and ramp one over fine leg to bring the equation down to one off three balls. All the fielders moved into single-saving positions, but that couldn’t prevent Jadhav from sealing this astonishing comeback, with a ball to spare, with an insouciant drive to the cover boundary.

India vs South Africa 3rd Test Day 2 Highlights – Jan 25, 2018

India vs South Africa 3rd Test Day 2 Highlights – Jan 25, 2018

SA v IND highlights today – Third freedom test day two from The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg (South Africa) Thursday 25th January 2018.





India won the toss and elected to bat.
India team/playing XI
1 M Vijay, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Ishant Sharma.

South Africa team/playing XI
1 Dean Elgar, 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Faf du Plessis (capt), 6 Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Lungi Ngidi.

Highlights

Match Timings: 10.00 start, Lunch 12.00-12.40, Tea 14.40-15.00, Close 17.00





Virat Kohli attacked, Cheteshwar Pujara defended and defended solidly and Bhuvneshwar Kumar applied himself in the end to score 134 runs between them. But the rest – extras included – added only 53 more as India went from 144 for 4 to 187 all out on the first day of the Wanderers Test. India were not out of it yet on the evidence of the tumultuous six overs South Africa faced before stumps, losing Aiden Markram to Bhuvneshwar. When India made the bold move of batting first on a green pitch with a lot of seam movement, despite all the pressure their batting has been under, they would have hoped for a lot of grit and a bit of luck to ride out these tough conditions. On what was not the prettiest day of Test cricket, Pujara and Kohli showed plenty of grit, some luck followed through dropped catches and a missed review, but India handed back the advantage with some ordinary batting from the lower middle order, which was missing R Ashwin as they decided to play an all-seam attack.

If India were still in the contest, it was down to fielding lapses from South Africa. Kohli was dropped on 11 and 32, Pujara was on nought when the hosts appealed half-heartedly for an lbw and chose not to review a not-out call that would have been overturned. There was more general sloppiness in the field, and comeback man Ajinkya Rahane was on 3 when he was caught behind off a Vernon Philander no-ball. Philander was in the thick of the action all day. He began the Test with a spell of 8-7-1-1, the most economical first eight overs for a South Africa bowler in all Tests since readmission. His victim was KL Rahul, with a ball that seamed back in and took the inside edge to become one of Quinton de Kock’s five catches, but there was a moment when he could have supported his fellow fast bowler a bit better. Kagiso Rabada drew a Kohli top edge with a surprise bouncer, which would have been a sitter had Philander from mid-off or Markram from cover decided early enough to go for it. Neither of them did, and eventually, it was too late for Philander to make up with a dive.

While Philander could be accused of being a little too short through the day, his first spell, with the ball seaming both ways, was still a testing one. Pujara took 31 of those 48 balls, which means 31 of the 41 balls Philander bowled while he was at the wicket. There was nothing loose on offer even though South Africa didn’t do enough to make India play and edge balls. With so much seam movement available, you had to either wait for a rank delivery or take the risk of going after decent ones. Pujara took the first route. He just kept playing the line, making sure he didn’t follow the ball when it seamed away and hoping he got an inside edge or that the ball did too much when it seamed back in. There were ironic cheers when Pujara set off for a run off the 45th ball he faced only for the umpire to call it a leg-bye. There was another big cheer when he faced his 50th ball, still on zero. When the run finally came, 81 minutes into his innings, having refused to play a loose shot, Pujara had made the bowlers bowl on his pads.

India’s captain took the other route. He showed more urgency, nailing drives every time a ball presented itself for the shot. There was nothing half-hearted – as with M Vijay’s drive to get out – about Kohli’s innings. This 84-run third-wicket partnership couldn’t have done without him at the other end. You couldn’t just stand there and not score. Kohli backed his eye to pick errors in length early and punish them. There were two cracking cover drives, one moment after he had been dropped by Philander. Rabada tried the one-two trick by threatening his outside edge repeatedly and then going for the lbw ball, but he never really got it right, and Kohli kept clipping him away. The shots didn’t stop; he had to keep playing them on this pitch even though they meant a slightly higher risk than usual. Post lunch, Kohli went to cut Morne Morkel, the ball was too wide, took the toe end, but this time AB de Villiers put him down at third slip as the ball dipped on him rather late. Just as the partnership was getting into the realm of the dangerous, Ngidi finally drew the edge from Kohli, a solid one on the drive. The catch nearly blew de Villiers off his feet, but he hung on, injuring his finger in the process.

Rahane couldn’t make the most of his break as Morkel soon trapped him lbw with a full straight ball. Apart from the fielding, South Africa could look back at the wide lines and lengths that kept beating the bat but were not full enough to take the edge. However, the run-rate always hovered around two, which meant they could get India out cheaply if they got their act together. It needed a change in plans for that to happen. There was debate if South Africa would have been better served by a proper batsman and not an allrounder in Andile Phehlukwayo. What can the fifth bowler do on such a pitch that the main four can’t? Take an edge from Pujara, maybe. All day long, Pujara had been playing inside the line of balls that seamed away, but this one was perhaps slower, perhaps it seamed less, and took the edge through. The lower-middle order then capitulated. Parthiv Patel nicked off, Hardik Pandya top-edged a ball that was not there for the pull, Mohammed Shami hit straight to mid-off, and South Africa were right back. The only application and resistance from the tail came from Bhuvneshwar, whose 30 helped give India something to bowl at.

India tour of South Africa 3rd Test Highlights

Umpires – Ian Gould, Aleem Dar
TV Umpires – Michael Gough
Match Referee – Andy Pycroft
Reserve Umpire – Adrian Holdstock

Match number – Test no. 2294

India vs South Africa 3rd Test Day 1 Highlights – Jan 24, 2018

India vs South Africa 3rd Test Day 1 Highlights – Jan 24, 2018

SA v IND highlights today – Third freedom test day one from The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg (South Africa) Wednesday 24th January 2018. As we know India Already lost three test matches series by losing first two of them, now it’s the must-win game to prove that they are world’s no 1 team. The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg cricket stadium highest total is 652/7d scored by Australia in 2002 against the home team. South Africa highest total of the venue is 620 against Australia in 1996. South Africa highest total on the ground against India is 450/7, scored in 2013, in reply India scored 421 runs. AB de Villiers going on top of the list in most runs scorer of this series so far with 200 runs in four innings, V Kohli 191 and F du Plessis 173. VD Philander took ten wickets, Mohammed Shami took nine and K Rabada took also nine wickets so far.




India won the toss and elected to bat.
India team/playing XI
1 M Vijay, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Ishant Sharma.

South Africa team/playing XI
1 Dean Elgar, 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Faf du Plessis (capt), 6 Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Lungi Ngidi.

Match Timings: 10.00 start, Lunch 12.00-12.40, Tea 14.40-15.00, Close 17.00




The pitch at Wanderers is unmistakably green. The head groundsman Bethuel Buthulezi might be tempted to not shave any of the 6mm grass because there is rain expected on every day of the Test. The sun has beaten down in the lead-up to the Test to create some cracks, but it has also helped the groundstaff roll the pitch nice and hard. Faf du Plessis said his side didn’t ask for anything over the top but a track with pace and bounce. Kohli expected the pitch to do more than the one at Newlands for the first Test. There are some cracks on offer, but it is possible overhead conditions will play an equally important role in this Test. Indications are that Ajinkya Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar seem set to make their way back into the side, but at whose expense? The men under threat are Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin (because of the pitch) and one out of Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah. Don’t count against an all-seam attack. Parthiv Patel, ordinary with the big gloves in Centurion, could lose out to Dinesh Karthik, who doesn’t have too much long-format match practice behind him: he only played four first-class matches in the 2017-18 domestic season, and only kept wicket in two of them. There has been talk, that South Africa might go without a spinner – as they have done in their two previous Tests at the Wanderers – and beef up their batting, but the injury to Temba Bavuma might have changed the equation a little bit. If Keshav Maharaj is indeed left out, it could open the door for batsman Theunis de Bruyn or allrounder Andile Phehlukwayo. Chris Morris is away on paternity leave. Aiden Markram, who was off the field for parts of the Centurion Test with a left quad strain, is fit and will open.

India tour of South Africa 3rd Test Highlights

Umpires – Ian Gould, Aleem Dar
TV Umpires – Michael Gough
Match Referee – ?
Reserve Umpire – Adrian Holdstock
Match number – Test no. 2294

India vs South Africa 2nd Test Day 3 Highlights – Jan 15, 2018

India vs South Africa 2nd Test Day 3 Highlights – Jan 15, 2018

SA v IND highlights today – Second freedom test day three from SuperSport Park, Centurion (South Africa) Sunday 14th January 2018. Till yesterday’s play, South Africa scored 335 runs all out in their first innings with 113.5 overs and India 183 with 5 down in 61 overs, At stumps day 2 India trail by 152 runs with 5 wickets remaining in the 1st innings. M Vijay the opener of the Indian team batted as long as he could and scored 46 runs by facing 126 balls, he smashed six 4s in his innings. KL Rahul dismissed at 10, CA Pujara has gone with duck, RG Sharma scored just ten runs and out, PA Patel † contributed 19 runs. The captain of the team V Kohli 85 not out and HH Pandya 11 not out.

South Africa won the toss and elected to bat.
India team/playing XI
KL Rahul, M Vijay, CA Pujara, V Kohli (c), RG Sharma, HH Pandya, PA Patel †, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, JJ Bumrah, I Sharma.

South Africa team/playing XI
D Elgar, AK Markram, HM Amla, AB de Villiers, F du Plessis (c), Q de Kock †, VD Philander, L Ngidi, KA Maharaj, K Rabada, M Morkel.

India tour of South Africa 2nd Test Highlights

Umpires – Michael Gough, Paul Reiffel
TV Umpires – Richard Kettleborough
Match Referee – Chris Broad
Reserve Umpire – Allahudien Paleker
Match number – Test no. 2293

An aggressive unbeaten 85 from Virat Kohli led India’s response to South Africa’s 335, but South Africa kept chipping away at the other end to end the second day firmly in front. Fighting against a five-man attack that hardly ever let up the pressure, India went to stumps trailing by 152, with only five wickets in hand. Kohli was still at the crease, and with him was the combative Hardik Pandya, their sixth-wicket partnership worth 19. On a pitch that didn’t offer a great deal of bounce or seam movement, Kohli put South Africa under pressure by trusting in his subcontinental method of taking a big stride forward and trying to score quickly off good-length balls. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, he scored 47 runs off 51 “good-length” balls from the fast bowlers. His cover drives, as always stood out, but there were a couple of gorgeous straight-bat punches past the bowler too.

For all that, he did not succeed in shifting South Africa away from their length. To Kohli, the four quicks bowled 41 balls just short of a good length, conceding 14 runs off them, and only eight balls that were either “full” or “short”. Those numbers summed up how well they bowled. Yet, the conditions were the most subcontinental India could have hoped for on this tour, and a couple of sizeable top-order partnerships could have put South Africa under serious pressure. Instead, India gifted them a couple of soft early wickets, back-to-back, and a third after their only major partnership, 79 between Kohli and M Vijay for the third wicket. In a series notable for the volume of the stump mics in the TV broadcast, two Kohli comments and their aftermath summed up India’s day.

First, as tea approached, he yelled out to Vijay, in chaste and not-entirely-repeatable Hindi, that South Africa would be extremely worried if their partnership were to extend deep into the evening. This was true. Vijay was batting with a certain degree of comfort against the fast bowlers, and, having overcome a slightly iffy start, was defending and leaving vigilantly. Then, after tea, he grew a little loose against the left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj. It’s a feature of Vijay’s game, a tendency to drop his guard against spin after focusing hard against pace. Time and again, he kept trying to cut balls from Maharaj that were neither short enough nor wide enough. On 46, the inevitable happened, and a top-edged cut settled inside Quinton de Kock’s gloves.

Given India were only playing five specialist batsmen, the difference between 107 for 2 and 107 for 3 was significant. Especially when South Africa’s attempts to find reverse-swing was beginning to bear fruit. Kagiso Rabada came back into the attack immediately after Vijay’s dismissal, and his first ball was a sign of what was to come – a back-of-a-length ball in the corridor that reared up and seamed away to beat Kohli’s outside edge. Over after over, Rabada kept hanging the ball outside off stump, getting it to move away from the right-hander, testing their patience, and making them wonder when the inswinger would come. Towards the end of the fourth over of his spell, Kohli yelled out to Rohit Sharma, “Aur nahin dalega, chautha over hai! [he won’t bowl anymore, it’s his fourth over!]”

Rabada kept going, eventually sending down two more overs. The inswinger arrived twice either side of Kohli’s yell, both delivered at the perfect moment, with perfect control, after dragging his prey across the crease. Both produced big lbw shouts. Kohli was adjudged not out, and South Africa lost a review on height; Rohit was given out, and India retained a review but lost a wicket, with ball-tracking returning an umpire’s call verdict on height. There was no real pressure release when Rabada’s spell ended. Lungi Ngidi, the debutant, replaced him with no major loss in pace or wicket threat. An inside-edge saved Kohli when a full ball pinged him on the front pad, mid-shuffle, but Parthiv Patel, who scored 19 in a fifth-wicket stand of 32, had no such luck when he nicked a lifter in the corridor – an excellent way for Ngidi to pick up his first Test wicket.

It wasn’t Ngidi’s first major intervention of the day. In the tenth over of India’s innings, he had moved swiftly to his right from mid-on, picked up, turned around, and fired a direct hit at the bowler’s end to find a diving Cheteshwar Pujara short of his crease while going for a suicidal single off the first ball he faced. This ball came right after Morne Morkel had dismissed KL Rahul, whose leaden-footed push at a full ball only succeeded in spooning a return catch. India had gifted South Africa two early wickets. In the morning session, a half-century from Faf du Plessis had helped South Africa add 66 to their overnight total for the loss of their four remaining wickets. A rash of missed chances – including two dropped catches off R Ashwin off successive balls to let off Rabada – frustrated India somewhat during a 42-run eighth-wicket stand between du Plessis and Rabada, but they created enough chances in an improved bowling performance for the let-offs to not cost them too much. Ishant Sharma ended up with three wickets, and Ashwin – who wrapped up the innings with the wicket of Morkel for the sixth time in six Tests – with four.


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India vs South Africa 2nd Test Day 1 Highlights – Jan 13, 2018

India vs South Africa 2nd Test Day 1 Highlights – Jan 13, 2018

SA v IND highlights today – Second freedom test from SuperSport Park, Centurion (South Africa) Saturday 13th January 2018. In their first match, VD Philander from South Africa took nine wickets, B Kumar took six wickets and K Rabada took five. AB de Villiers is the most runs scorer so far with 100 runs, HH Pandya scored 94 and F du Plessis 62. It was a low scoring pitch. SuperSport Park Centurion pitch highest total is 620/4d scored by South Africa against India in 2010. Top ten most runs an innings are scored by home team which means they are very strong at this venue. India highest total of the venue is 459.

South Africa won the toss and elected to bat.

India team/playing XI

KL Rahul, M Vijay, CA Pujara, V Kohli (c), RG Sharma, HH Pandya, PA Patel †, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, JJ Bumrah, I Sharma.

South Africa team/playing XI

D Elgar, AK Markram, HM Amla, AB de Villiers, F du Plessis (c), Q de Kock †, VD Philander, L Ngidi, KA Maharaj, K Rabada, M Morkel.

ndia tour of South Africa 2nd Test Highlights

Umpires – Michael Gough, Paul Reiffel

TV Umpires – Richard Kettleborough

Match Referee – Chris Broad

Reserve Umpire – Allahudien Paleker

Match number – Test no. 2293

Traditionally, SuperSport Park is as South African as it gets. The surface offers pace and bounce and there is often swing; on the eve of the match, it looked brown with no green grass on it. Things should be no different even though this Test pitch will be groundsman Bryan Bloy’s first since he was hired two years ago. Bloy journeyed to Cape Town last week, along with other members of the SuperSport Park logistics team to observe how Evan Flint and his team went about things and it will be interesting to see if they have picked up any tips on leaving live grass on the strip. Weather in the lead-up to the match has been hot and dry and seem to have burnt the grass on the pitch brown. Temperatures are set to soar during the match, likely to be in the early 30s with no rain forecast, although afternoon thundershowers on the Highveld can never be discounted.

Virat Kohli said there was no need to panic, and didn’t suggest changes in the bowling combination or the composition of the side. The bowlers, including Hardik Pandya, look primed to get another go. India don’t seem to be in a hurry to drop Rohit Sharma based on one Test, which leaves the opening combination up for debate. Kohli said they were going to decide on that after the nets on Friday. Shikhar Dhawan’s alternative – if they so desire – is KL Rahul. A left-field choice could be Parthiv Patel. If used, Parthiv allows India to retain the right-left combination at the top and also opens up a slot in the middle order for Ajinkya Rahane to claim. On Friday, R Ashwin left the nets with an ice pack around his right shoulder after he was hit while taking throwdowns. The team management doesn’t expect it to be serious.

Ottis Gibson’s wish for four seamers means that South Africa may only make one change with one of Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo and Duanne Olivier to replace Steyn. The choice would appear to be between Morris and Ngidi, as both play their domestic cricket at SuperSport Park. While Morris offers pace, he has not played a first-class game since picking up a back injury in England in August. Ngidi also had back issues but took nine wickets on his return to red-ball cricket and has been in impressive form all summer. The six batsmen strategy will mean no space for either Temba Bavuma or Theunis de Bruyn.

India vs South Africa 1st Test Day 2 Highlights – Jan 6, 2018

India vs South Africa 1st Test Day 2 Highlights – Jan 6, 2018

SA v Ind highlights today – First freedom test day two from Newlands, Cape Town (South Africa) Saturday 6th January 2018. After winning the toss South African captain F du Plessis decided to bat first. Many people said that it was a bad call to bat first because according to the conditions pitch should help the fast bowlers as it does yesterday. So South Africa batted first and all out in 73.1 overs with 286 runs on the board. The opener of the team D Elgar who is in very good form, gone with duck, when his wicket dismissed then it was 0.3 and India strike in the first over! A perfect comeback from Bhuvneshwar. After two leg-side deliveries, he finds the one that seams away. Pitches on middle and leg, and because of that line, Elgar is caught into playing. Elgar pokes at the ball. The length is good too, not seaming away too much to beat the outside edge or seaming too less to find the outside half. A thin outside edge is easily taken by Saha. The ideal start for India. 0/1.

South Africa won the toss and chose to bat first.
India team/playing XI
Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah.

South Africa team/playing XI
Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Kagiso Rabada.

AK Markram scored just five runs and gone, HM Amla had not survived for so long this time he scored just three runs and out when it was 4.5 135 kph, Amla edges off and South Africa are tottering! Good length outside off, it moves away late, but Amla rather inexplicably jabs at it. With that away seam movement, that shot is always fraught with risk, a thick outside edge is taken by the keeper. It’s a loose shot, and SA are 12 for 3 within the first 22 minutes of the first Test. 12/3. After three wickets down AB de Villiers and the captain himself comes to the crease and smashed Indian bowlers all around the park. AB de Villiers scored 65 runs off 84 deliveries and out when it was 32.6 goes through him! 140 kph, massive wicket. Bumrah’s maiden Test wicket is de Villiers. Full delivery outside off, de Villiers drives but that seam movement again, takes the inside edge and hits off stump. Throws his head back as he heard the stumps disturbed. 126/4. He smashed eleven 4s in his innings.

HighlightsPart 2Part 3

Match Timings: 10.30 start, Lunch 12.30-13.10, Tea 15.10-15.30, Close 17.30




India tour of South Africa 1st Test Highlights

Umpires – Michael Gough, Richard Kettleborough
TV Umpires – Paul Reiffel
Match Referee – Chris Broad
Reserve Umpire – Bongani Jele
Match number – Test no. 2292

F du Plessis scored 62 runs off 104 balls and out, he completed his innings with the help of twelve boundaries. When his wicket dismissed then it was 35.5 out this time, no doubt. Du Plessis has nicked off two balls later and SA are in big trouble! Good length outside off keeps a tad low too. Du Plessis cuts, but is a tad late on the shot. Toe-end to the keeper. Kohli sends off du Plessis with some ecstatic celebrations 142/5. Q de Kock † scored 43 runs, VD Philander 23, KA Maharaj contributed 35 runs, K Rabada 26 and DW Steyn 16. B Kumar took four wickets in 19 overs with 87 runs, R Ashwin took two wickets in 7.1 overs with 21 runs and rest of the Indian bowlers took one wicket each of them. India faced eleven overs and scored 28 runs with three wickets down, M Vijay 1, S Dhawan 16 and V Kohli (c) 5. CA Pujara and RG Sharma will start their innings from today.

Drama, thy name is Test cricket. At Newlands. On a pitch with a bit of spice. With a build-up that did not lack for shots across the bow. Faf du Plessis confessed he had a score to settle, and so he armed himself with four fast bowlers the envy of the world. Virat Kohli saw Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander during warm-ups. His only comment with regard to that was “we knew they were going a batsman short and we want to get at them with the new ball”. But really, how could anyone avoid the temptation of unleashing that attack, in any condition let alone a surface with both pace and lateral movement. Given 11 overs to turn the game, Philander dismissed M Vijay, Steyn claimed Dhawan to move into the top-10 wicket-takers in Test history and Morkel lured Kohli into a familiar trap behind the wicket. India bowled South Africa out for 286 but then they limped to stumps at 28 for 3.

Cape Town dealt almost exclusively in hair-raising action. Bhuvneshwar Kumar began proceedings by spiriting three wickets in his first three overs. To ensure there wasn’t one-way traffic, AB de Villiers produced a half-century that was downright delectable. He had total control of the game and the opposition at his mercy when the debutant Jasprit Bumrah – who played his last first-class game almost a year ago – knocked back the off stump. India’s hold-one-end-up bowler Hardik Pandya got rid of du Plessis for 62 mere moments after a remarkably tight lbw call went against the visitors. Kohli probably had that running in his head – and the South African captain’s pre-series comments about revenge – when he indulged in a send-off and was soon cautioned by the umpires. Worried that things had calmed too far down, Quinton de Kock played like he was the action hero who always gets shot at but never gets hit.

Now, it is more than fair for a home team to play to its strengths but that didn’t mean batting was a treacherous exercise. The outfield was lightning. The ball came on even better than expected. Fields were up. And fun was had. The run-rate through the first two sessions was 4.3. Dean Elgar might not be too happy with how his day went though. Having finished 2017 as South Africa’s highest Test scorer, his first innings in the new year lasted only three deliveries. It wasn’t entirely his fault though. India had probably done their homework and realised that of his 44 dismissals to pace, 30 of them have been caught behind or in the cordon. So Bhuvneshwar forced him to deal with a back-of-a-length ball pitching on off stump and seaming away. He had to play. Then he had to go.

Aiden Markram was lbw not playing a shot. Okay, that’s not quite true. He was trying desperately to bring his bat in line with a good length delivery pitching outside off and jagging back in but he just wasn’t quick enough. The young opener basically strung himself up with his habit of shuffling across and playing around his front pad. The third wicket of this phenomenal spell was probably the most important of them all. But it was the least sexy. Hashim Amla poked well away from his body and Wriddhiman Saha picked up his second catch of the first half hour, much to the cacophonous delight of the slip fielders beside him. Oddly, Ajinkya Rahane was not among that number with India choosing to go in with Rohit Sharma, a man in better recent form, and Hardik Pandya.

With the new ball and the outside and inside edges hogging the limelight, the middle of the bat was off sulking somewhere. De Villiers found it and made sure it was front and center for the entire time he was at the crease. He sent his first delivery through midwicket for a crisp boundary. He struck India’s best bowler of the day for four fours in an over. He played late. He met the ball close to his body. He used soft hands. And he punished anything even remotely short. In essence, de Villiers’ innings was an exhibition of how to bat on a difficult pitch. Playing only his third day of Test cricket over the last two years, he made 65 off 84 balls. Du Plessis was, as ever, scoring runs by simply making sure he was at the wicket. He waited for the wide ones to hit through cover and point. He feasted on the straight ones, that strong bottom hand coupling very nicely with a fast outfield. But the cut shot to get to a half-century in his comeback Test – he missed Boxing Day with a viral infection – was basically a dare. Try stopping that.


India might have done even better if Mohammed Shami had found his rhythm sooner but he probably did not enjoy bowling into the wind; his run-up noticeably affected. It took 10 overs and three spells for his first wicket of the tour. It was one his team was hunting for though. Philander, in his pre-match comments, had indicated that he did not believe India were better travelers now. And while he did play some of the best cover drives in the match, helping string a vital 60-run stand for the sixth wicket at more than run-a-ball with de Kock, he left the field with his defences and his stumps shattered. Bhuvneshwar had the opportunity to take the fifth wicket just before tea was taken, but India’s old problem of having a porous slip cordon put paid to those plans when Dhawan dropped Keshav Maharaj on 0. The batsman had made 35 in enterprising fashion before he was dismissed, run-out by a direct hit from R Ashwin at mid-on. Later, the offspinner picked up his first wicket in South Africa, Rabada caught behind. The innings ended in the 74th over when Morkel was lbw to the same bowler for 2. The hosts’ last five wickets added 144 runs – that’s two more than the first five.

India vs South Africa 1st Test Day 1 Highlights – Jan 5, 2018

India vs South Africa 1st Test Day 1 Highlights – Jan 5, 2018

SA v Ind highlights today – First test day one from Newlands, Cape Town (South Africa) Friday 5th January 2018. From a very long time, Indian team played many series at home which means their first test can be much difficult in South Africa because of the weather and pitch conditions. India had not lost any series during this time at home. India had not won any series against South Africa in South Africa from past twenty-five years and now they have a chance because their team performance and players form is on top position.

Toss: South Africa
India team/playing XI
1 M Vijay, 2 Shikhar Dhawan/KL Rahul, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Rohit Sharma/Hardik Pandya, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Mohammed Shami.

South Africa team/playing XI
1 Dean Elgar, 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Faf du Plessis (capt), 5 AB de Villiers/Temba Bavuma 6 Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Andile Phehlukwayo/Chris Morris, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Dale Steyn/Morne Morkel, 11 Keshav Maharaj.

One of the indicators of a good pitch is when you don’t know what you want to do if you win the toss. This Newlands pitch has that quality. Normally you want to bat first, as teams have done in 44 of the 54 Tests here, but with a decent amount of grass left on it, and if the tablecloth covers the mountain between the toss and the start of the match, you could end up getting bundled out. Sides losing the toss have won more Newlands Tests than the ones winning: 22 to 21. To go with the grass, there are vertical cracks on the pitch, reminding one journalist of the 47 all out the game here, but Philander said that pitch actually looked flatter than this and that at Newlands it was more about the overheads. If there is a north-westerly blowing, the ball moves around a lot more. If there is a cloud cover, things get difficult for the batsmen. Only the first and the fourth days of the Test are forecast to be cloudy and breezy.

Highlights
Highlights will be available after end of the play.
Match Timings: 10.30 start, Lunch 12.30-13.10, Tea 15.10-15.30, Close 17.30

India tour of South Africa 1st Test Highlights

Umpires – Michael Gough, Richard Kettleborough
TV Umpires – Paul Reiffel
Match Referee – Chris Broad
Reserve Umpire – Bongani Jele
Match number – Test no. 2292

Viral illness to Ravindra Jadeja has made one decision for India on the spin front. However, Shikhar Dhawan has been declared fit, and India will have to choose between his aggression and left-handedness, and KL Rahul’s more solid but less explosive game. Umesh Yadav is likely to be the one to miss out among the fast bowlers. The other selection choice to be made is between Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya. Again that depends on the conditions. The more bowling-friendly the pitch, the likelier Rohit is to play.South Africa are less sure than India. Du Plessis has called this the most difficult selection: he might have to choose between AB de Villiers and Temba Bavuma, Andile Phehlukwayo and Chris Morris, and Steyn and Morne Morkel. And then there could be a whole new combination wherein they don’t play an all-rounder at all.

Right now they are likely to play a seam-bowling allrounder – in large part due to the question marks over the fitness of their returning quicks. They do not want to be in a situation where one of them breaks down, and then they are left with just two quicks and a spinner. Bavuma or de Villiers may have to sit out if either Phehlukwayo or Morris plays. Du Plessis is back and will captain the side. Keeping transformation targets in consideration, if Morris plays, de Villiers might sit out, and Bavuma might miss out if Phehlukwayo plays. Steyn is five wickets short of becoming South Africa’s most prolific bowler, but he might just have to wait for his opportunity as South Africa will have to choose between him and Morne Morkel, who displayed fine form in the match against Zimbabwe.