Month: December 2020

Bowled out for 36. Missing three, arguably four, first-choice players. Losing another mid-Test. Spending months on the road and in mentally challenging bubbles. Losing the toss. Becoming only the third team to come back from a 0-1 deficit in the last 50 years in Australia. You might have accused India coach Ravi Shastri of hyperbole in the past, but you probably wouldn’t argue against his assessment that India’s win in…

2.50pm: India win by eight wickets Shubman Gill drives down the ground © Getty Images Bowled out for 36. Virat Kohli goes home. Mohammed Shami out of the tour. Umesh Yadav limps from the attack. India had to overcome so much that their victory at the MCG, achieved midway through the fourth day by eight wickets, will forever have a part in their cricket folklore. Whether it is part of…

You’re not going to lose it in three weeks. That is the attitude Sam Billings is carrying into his first BBL match for the Sydney Thunder after 14 days quarantine in an Australian hotel room. Billings could be forgiven for showing some frustration at the Covid cricket world where isolation and bio-secure bubbles are the new norm. He is in the best form of his career having established himself in…

Tom Blundell reacts after leaving one © Getty Images Lunch New Zealand 431 and 98 for 0 (Blundell 59*, Latham 36*) lead Pakistan 239 by 290 runs Tom Blundell and Tom Latham stretched New Zealand’s lead to 290 during a wicketless first session on day four, leaving New Zealand with the question of when to declare and with what sort of lead. While they will be pleased with their openers’…

News Sri Lanka head coach on his side’s injury crisis and the difficulty of conditioning players for Test cricket Despite having made their highest ever total in South Africa, Sri Lanka have had an abysmal three days in Centurion, with Dhananjaya de Silva and Kasun Rajitha ruled out of the Test, and Lahiru Kumara also unlikely to bowl again after sustaining what seemed to be a groin injury. Batsman Dinesh…