SA’s Test bowling coach also cautioned the team to “pay attention” to the no-balls

Firdose Moonda05-Jan-2025South Africa have no choice but to “keep attacking” Pakistan as they go in search of the eight wickets required (as Saim Ayub will play no further part in the Test) to win the series and sweep the home summer. With a 208-run advantage, Pakistan following-on and two days left to play, South Africa will throw everything at the batters, even if it means conceding heavily, as they did on the third evening.Shan Masood and Babar Azam put on the highest first-wicket partnership by a Pakistani duo against South Africa and scored at a rate of 4.42 to the over and there were times when it looked like they were too many boundary balls on offer. Masood hit 14 fours and Babar 10, with South Africa bowling both sides of the wicket and often erring on the fuller side but that is all part of how they hoped to induce a false shot on flat track albeit that they only managed one wicket in Pakistan’s second innings.With 15 minutes left to go in the day, Babar was tempted by a full, wide ball from Marco Jansen and edged to gully. South Africa are hoping for more of the same on day four. “You have to be attacking. We can’t defend because of the position we are in,” Piet Botha, South Africa’s Test bowling coach, said after the third day’s play. “We have to keep slips and a gully in and have to use our bounce, even though it (the pitch) is not quick. Once the batters are set, it seems to be quite easy to rotate. So you can go defensive, but we’re not in that situation. We have to attack.”Related

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But Botha cautioned that they also have to be more careful with their disciplines, which went awry on Sunday afternoon, and were magnified by the number of no-balls. In total, South Africa have bowled 23 in this match and ten of those in the second innings. Only one, a Kagiso Rabada ball that hit Masood on the knee roll looked like a wicket-taking ball but South Africa do not want to take the chance that there may be more, and the bowler has overstepped.”It’s disappointing,” Botha said. “It’s something that creeps into the game every now and then. We probably started a little bit with that problem in Bangladesh and sorted it out. Now it’s crept back in.”But Botha is only partially correct. Across two Tests in Bangladesh, South Africa bowled 25 no-balls but they then delivered 28 against Sri Lanka and ten at SuperSport Park. Including this Test, that equates to 86 no-balls in six matches. Of those Rabada had bowled 44, and Wiaan Mulder 11. Botha had an explanation for at least one of those. “With Wiaan, what we’re really trying to do is to get him to run in a little bit harder because he wants to be a bowler that has a fourth seamer in attack and be a little bit quicker,” he said. “One of the aspects we worked on is for him to run in a little bit harder and that brought its own issues. We worked on it this morning a bit, and it seemed to work for a while. For others it may be different on different days.”A variety of other reasons were spitballed to explain the rest. “Sometimes it’s the ground, sometimes it’s the wind, sometimes it’s fatigue, sometimes it’s the slope,” Botha said. “But it’s obviously something we have to pay attention to again and make sure we fix it.”And that will be his second message to the attack in the morning: stay patient. “We have a very good couple of Tests where we’ve knocked teams over but these things we always talk about: discipline and patience,” Botha said. “Once you get frustrated or start searching a bit too much like we might have done in the second innings, you’re going at fours and fives (runs an over). That’s what you don’t want to do. Let’s go back to try and see if we can go at threes and a false shot will come,”South Africa have bowled out teams on all but four occasions in this World Test Championship cycle which includes a rain-affected draw and the two matches they sent a second-string side to New Zealand in. So with a frontline attack, they back their ability to dismiss oppositions no matter what the situation.In this case, they understand that by enforcing the follow-on, they gave Pakistan some of the best batting conditions of the match but after bowling them out for 194 and with a 421-run lead, felt there was enough cushioning to put them again. The surface has yet to show any real signs of deterioration but it is taking a turn and historically tends to become more difficult from the fourth day. “There were a couple of slow motion videos with the dust and you expect day four and five to be the days where the spinner comes into play. Already a couple have turned and also bounced,” Botha said. “The signs are there that after lunch tomorrow, Kesh[av] Maharaj will come more and more into the game.”Maharaj has already found the turn that Pakistan’s part-time spinner Salman Agha did not but even if he doesn’t, South Africa are willing to bide their time. “We talk about it all the time because you expect these days. That’s Test cricket,” Botha said.

The allrounder was unable to bat in her usual No.3 spot after landing awkwardly in the field on day one

Alex Malcolm30-Jan-2025Australia are hopeful Ellyse Perry will be fit to bat on day two of the women’s Ashes Test at the MCG after she suffered a corked hip while fielding on the opening day.Perry landed heavily on her left hip after diving to flick a ball back on the rope during the afternoon session. She left the field shortly after and did not return for the last two hours of England’s first innings.Australia batted for 22 overs under lights after bowling England out for 170 and lost debutant opener Georgia Voll but Perry did not walk out at No.3 despite being eligible to bat because her injury was external.Annabel Sutherland instead joined Phoebe Litchfield with the Australian team confirming that Perry would not bat on the first night and would instead be assessed ahead of day two with hopes she will be fine to bat when required.Meanwhile, Nat Sciver-Brunt said the mood was “positive” in the England camp after yet another capitulation with the bat. Sciver-Brunt played a lone hand, top-scoring with 51 as England were bowled out for 170 having been sent into bat. It could have been a lot worse had Australia not missed six chances in the field.Sciver-Brunt’s body language gave hints of exasperation, but she was measured with her words after Australia had cruised to 56 for 1 at stumps.”Positive,” Sciver-Brunt said. “Obviously, we would have liked a few more runs but I think with the ball, we did what we wanted to do. We didn’t go chasing anything. We had great energy throughout and tried to build consistent areas and let the ball and the wicket do the talking. So, yeah, I thought we did that. We did that really well.”Alana King however continues to torment England. Australia’s legspinner claimed 4 for 45 on the opening day, including Sciver-Brunt, although she could have had her twice and picked up at least two more as four chances went begging off King’s bowling alone.King now has 18 wickets for the entire multiformat series at 11.33, including Sciver-Brunt three times.Sciver-Brunt was the only England batter to pass 30•AFP/Getty Images

“She’s bowled pretty consistent areas, and obviously got quite a bit of turn actually throughout the series,” Sciver-Brunt said. “And I think the fact that when it does turn, it’s not always the same amount every time. Some might skid, some might turn and bounce. So yeah, that makes it quite tricky when the stumps are always kept in play.”Despite being bowled by King playing back to her for the second time in the series, Sciver-Brunt said England’s plans hadn’t changed too much throughout the series.”I think playing her off the back foot as much as possible, and just, I guess reacting to the ball,” Sciver-Brunt said. “She does toss the odd one up as well, so being confident to use our feet as well. But yeah, she bowled pretty well today.”King was thrilled to take four wickets after bowling 23 overs unchanged from the Shane Warne stand end at the MCG. She hoped her hero was watching from on high.”Bowling from the Shane Warne stand end is something that is the first time I’ve ever done playing, obviously, here since the stand has been named after him,” King said. “So pretty nostalgic. He’s obviously taking plenty of poles at the MCG for fun, so yeah, all I can say is hopefully he’s smiling down and having a couple of beers and enjoying a few ripping past the outside edge.”It’s pretty cool. Loved playing at the MCG. I’ve played a few games here. It’s home for me. Loved playing Test cricket here and to bowl a whole session was pretty cool. Can’t get much better than that.”

Despite a quick 69-run opening stand, India were tested by the 229 target

Sidharth Monga20-Feb-20254:30

Manjrekar: There’s an air of dominance around Gill

Shubman Gill dug deep for his slowest ODI hundred and India’s slowest in the last six years to see India through a tricky chase of 229 that must have brought back memories of their 2-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka last August on similarly slow tracks. Despite a quick 69-run opening stand, India were tested by a target that was kept to 229 in the main by Mohammed Shami, who took his sixth ODI five-for and became the quickest man to 200 ODI wickets in terms of balls bowled to get there.Both sides will rue missed opportunities in their Champions Trophy opener. Bangladesh won a crucial toss on a tired pitch with no dew expected to make chasing easier, but they got off to such a poor start that they needed three dropped catches and a superlative fighting hundred from Towhid Hridoy to stay in the contest. India had Bangladesh down at 35 for 5, Axar Patel was on a hat-trick, and Rohit Sharma dropped a sitter, and that was followed by two more lives for the record-breaking sixth-wicket pair. It allowed Bangladesh to get to a total that denied India a net-run-rate boost, which can prove crucial if they happen to lose one of their three matches.Related

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India will still consider this a banana peel survived, having misread the conditions and wanted to field first should they have won the toss. On a slow pitch with no assistance for the quicks, they were gifted early wickets through some indiscriminate hitting. Bangladesh possibly felt the new ball was the best time to bat: they didn’t wait for a bad ball on offer and kept losing wickets. The first three fell to ambitious shots to plain good-length bowling with little seam.Bangladesh were 35 for 3 when Axar was introduced in the ninth over. Tanzid Hasan, the only batter who had looked comfortable, played him for the turn and paid the ultimate price with an outside edge. Mushfiqur Rahim, arguably batting too late at No. 6 especially in the absence of the injured Mahmudullah, played the original line, and was done in by the rare one that turned. Axar slowed down the hat-trick ball, Jaker Ali obliged with an edge, which Rohit spilled.Soon Hardik Pandya dropped Hridoy on 23 in Kuldeep Yadav’s first over. Scoring runs was still a task on the sluggish surface, more than ten overs went without a boundary, but also India went through the middle overs without a single wicket for the first time since the 2023 World Cup final. Jaker did provide an opportunity on 24 but this time KL Rahul missed the stumping off Ravindra Jadeja.

The duo found their touch deeper into the innings, but Hridoy was hampered by cramps. Shami returned to the challenging task of bowling with a short leg-side boundary but used the slower ball wide outside off to not just deny them boundaries but also collect three more wickets. A cameo from Rishad Hossain and Hridoy’s fight despite crippling cramps took Bangladesh to a total that proved competitive.Rohit continued his high-intent starts of recent times, and Gill matched him shot for shot as India raced away from the three Bangladesh quicks. Just before the field was about to spread, Rohit fell for 41 off 36 in a bid to make one last use of the field restrictions. Immediately, scoring became laborious. Even the master accumulator Virat Kohli struggled to manipulate the ball into gaps before falling to a legspinner again, this one with the letters scrambled from Rashid to Rishad.Shreyas Iyer played the conditions for a while, but once he got a couple and a boundary off Mustafizur Rahman, he over-reached and lobbed a slower ball to mid-off to be dismissed for 15 off 17. Promoted for the dual task of breaking the sequence of right-hand batters and also have an eye on the net run-rate, Axar skied a slog-sweep, failing to read the Rishad topspinner.Shubman Gill scored his slowest ODI hundred•AFP / Getty Images

The last three wickets had fallen for 75 runs and had taken 20.2 overs. You would have thought the sight of KL Rahul would have brought calm to the proceedings, but he tried an uncharacteristic hoick early on only to be dropped by Jaker, whom he had himself reprieved earlier in the day. That proved to be the last opportunity for Bangladesh even as India overcame the ghosts of the failed chases in Sri Lanka last year.The man to thank was Gill, who anchored the chase and made sure he was there at the end. He was 26 off 23 when Rohit got out, but as the conditions changed, he tightened his game and took only selective risks. His next boundary came only when the skiddy fast bowler Tanzim Hasan came back in the 32nd over. By that time had brought up his slowest half-century.Gill was content with singles off the spinners and even Mustafizur, who bowls a wicked slower ball to make use of these conditions. He scored just 30 off the 52 balls following Rohit’s dismissal, then went into middle gears before finishing it off in glory. He needed 12 out of the 19 runs to bring up a hundred, and hit a six and a four off Tanzim to get to the mark off 125 balls and take his customary bow. Rahul took India home with a six off Tanzim with 21 balls to spare.

South Africa enforced the follow-on on Zimbabwe who collapsed in 43 overs

Shashank Kishore07-Jul-2025

Wiaan Mulder brought up the second fastest triple century in Test cricket•Zimbabwe Cricket

July 7, 2025 may not invoke the same grand feeling of that unforgettable summer afternoon at Lord’s last month, but it’ll still have a reverence of its own for Wiaan Mulder, who, only weeks earlier, stood on the winner’s podium as a newly crowned World Test Champion.One of cricket’s most iconic and celebrated records – Brian Lara’s majestic 400 not out, which he held like a crown jewel after reclaiming it from Matthew Hayden – was in real danger of being knocked off its perch after 21 long years. When Mulder, South Africa’s stand-in captain, went into the lunch interval unbeaten on 367, it seemed a matter of time before history books would be rewritten. Then came a quiet message from the change room, like a bolt from the blue. South Africa had declared. Mulder had declared.”Why did he do that?” is a question that lingered on for much of the day as Zimbabwe collapsed in just 43 overs, and were asked to follow-on. With so much time left in the match, the decision will be rightly debated for a while. Sure, barring Blessing Muzarabani, the quality of Zimbabwe’s attack was hardly Test class, but the opportunity to etch yourself into Test history doesn’t come knocking everyday.Related

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South Africa declared on 626 for 5. Mulder’s feat became all the more special as it came in front of his father, who had made the trip to soak in the occasion after he had been informed of Mulder’s promotion to captaincy in the lead-up to the game after Keshav Maharaj had been ruled out due to an injury. Along the way, Mulder may have cemented himself as South Africa’s new No. 3, a spot once occupied by legends he may have grown up watching, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla among them.In the morning session, every run or over carried the weight of a milestone either impending or ticked off. Records came; records went. Mulder went past some heavyweights in South Africa: Gary Kirsten, Daryl Cullinan, Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers. And soon after his triple-ton, he went past 311 to eclipse Amla, and achieve the highest Test score by a South African.Mulder could’ve chosen a calmer, more serene path if he had wished. South Africa’s run-scoring on the opening day, where they surged to 465 for 4, meant time was never going to be a consideration. Mulder, though, had other ideas. Except for his first boundary very early in the day off Muzarabani, off a streaky edge that flew through vacant third slip, there was control and authority in every stoke he played and every run he ran.Mulder’s authority stemmed from his own confidence, and Zimbabwe’s hit-me lengths. Without any swing on offer, even with the second new ball that they took late on the opening day, the pacers erred on the shorter side and kept getting punished square of the wicket on both sides. When spin came on, Mulder channeled the golfer in him to club them downtown. He hit 49 fours and four sixes in all – one of them landed out of the ground – forcing them to bring out a different ball.Wiaan Mulder and Dewald Brevis added 88 off just 94 balls for the fifth wicket•Zimbabwe Cricket

Amid Mulder’s run-fest, that South Africa lost Dewald Brewis was lost on everyone. He survived on 24 when Craig Ervine put down a regulation chance in the fifth over off Muzarabani at slip, but couldn’t capitalise. On 35, Brevis attempted to flay a cut, only to get a thick outside edge to the wicketkeeper. Kyle Verreynne then came and enjoyed a good hit out to remain unbeaten on 42.The day’s big moment – Mulder’s triple – arrived in the 101st over when he clipped a low full toss off Tanaka Chivanga to fine leg to wild applause and cheer from his team-mates on the balcony. It had come off 297 balls, the second-fastest in Test history, behind Virender Sehwag’s that had come off 278 balls against South Africa in Chennai 17 years ago.After Mulder got past the 300, there was carnage aplenty as Muzarabani was dispatched for three boundaries in an over, the third of those helping him surpass Amla. There was more punishment in the next as Mulder cleared his front leg to wallop him out of the ground to enter the 360s. This is when everyone seemed to be readying for the moment, when the declaration came.Mulder wasn’t done yet. With the ball, he took out Wesley Madhevere and Ervine in quick succession. Madhevere was out to a nip-backer that flattened the stumps; Ervine was felled by an effort ball that lifted off the deck to have him fend one into the hand of backward point. Mulder’s fiery spell wasn’t the highlight, though. Debutant Prenelan Subrayen and Senuran Muthusamy’s flight and loop were equally noteworthy. Subrayen ended with 4 for 42.Sean Williams, who spent much of the first evening and the opening session on the sidelines due to an illness, came out swinging and raised his half-century off just 32 balls, the fastest by a Zimbabwean. But he ran out of partners, and remained stuck on 83 as last man Chivanga’s wicket meant Zimbabwe were bundled out for 170.Made to follow-on, Zimbabwe lost Dion Myers early, but Takudzwanashe Kaitano and Nick Welch batted a tricky last 30 minutes to take them to stumps on 51 for 1, with Zimbabwe still needing 146 to surpass Mulder.

Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips gave it their best shot, but the Washington Freedom batting didn’t have enough firepower to overhaul MI New York’s 180

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jul-2025It went down to the last over: 12 to get from six balls for either MI New York or Washington Freedom to win their second MLC title. Rushil Ugarkar, a 22-year-old USA medium pacer who has never played international cricket, had the ball. Across him, Glenn Maxwell, to start with, and Glenn Phillips. Two white-ball superstars. But all Ugarkar conceded was six. And he sent back Maxwell with a slower offcutter, allowed Phillips strike for just one ball, and won MINY the title when everything was stacked against him.Till that over started, the momentum was very much with Freedom and it was chiefly down to Phillips. At the end of the 17th over, in which Trent Boult had conceded just seven runs to Phillips and Maxwell, and Phillips was 25 from 27, the asking rate was upwards of 13 an over. But Phillips targeted Tristan Luus and Boult in back-to-back overs. He took Luus for two sixes in the 17-run 18th over, and Boult for one more in the next, which went for 12, making it a potentially gripping last over. But he got to face just one ball from Ugarkar, who bowled a set of six cutters to spark the celebrations in the MINY camp.The result completed a remarkable turnaround for MINY, who qualified for the playoffs as the fourth-placed team on the league table, with three wins from ten games, and have since beaten San Francisco Unicorns (Eliminator), Texas Super Kings (Qualifier 2) and now Freedom in the final.The chase started with Boult picking up two wickets in the first over of the innings to dent Freedom. However, to be fair, despite opener Rachin Ravindra scoring 70 from 41 balls after early jitters and Jack Edwards chipping in with 33 from 22, the Freedom innings didn’t seem to find the next gear they needed till Phillips got going. Maxwell, not for the first time this tournament – he largely struggled apart from when he scored 106* in a win over Texas Super Kings back on June 17 – couldn’t get the scoreboard moving at the rate required. And three MINY bowlers, including Ugarkar, went at eight an over or fewer, with Tajinder Singh’s three overs costing just 18 runs.