Melbourne – Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq hinted Sunday that Sohail Khan may come in to break up Pakistan’s three-man left-arm pace attack in the second Boxing Day Test against Australia in Melbourne. Pakistan’s captain Misbah-ul-Haq (L) chats with head coach Mickey Arthur during a practice session in Melbourne on December 25, 2016, on the eve of their Boxing Day Test match against Australia © AFP/File William West 2nd Test: Pakistan vs Australia…
Bowlers, Tare help Mumbai nudge ahead
Mumbai 294 and 102 for 3 (Tare 39*, Waghela 27*) lead Hyderabad 280 (Agarwal 82, Badrinath 56, Nayar 4-60) by 116 runsScorecard Abhishek Nayar rattled Hyderabad’s top order © PTI For large parts of the day, there wasn’t much to choose between Mumbai and Hyderabad, although the defending champions enjoyed the first-innings honours on a topsy-turvy day in Raipur. Towards the end, though, they steered clear of choppy waters courtesy…
Du Plessis wants SA to set the pace
‘We want to become a team that dominates and puts the opposition under pressure first.’ © Getty Images The offices are closed, the beaches are full and the trees are draped with lights. It’s so festive that Faf du Plessis even wore a Santa hat to his pre-match press conference, on Saturday. South Africa will take Christmas Day off, as they’ve done for the last three years, with only optional…
Young seam attack impresses Abhinav
Abhinav Mukund was pleased with the way Tamil Nadu’s young seam attack stepped up after the retirement of L Balaji © PTI Tamil Nadu captain Abhinav Mukund, who was ill, slept through most parts of Saturday, and then woke up to watch his team trample Karnataka in two days. Last December, it was Tamil Nadu who were at the wrong end of a two-day finish and crashed out of the…
Hosts hold edge, but young side gives Sri Lanka hope
Match facts December 26-30, 2016Start time 1000 local (0800 GMT) Hashim Amla’s average against Sri Lanka is 36.81, his lowest against any opposition save for Zimbabwe © Getty Images Big Picture Sri Lanka’s tour record in South Africa does not make for pretty reading. Out of 10 Tests in the country, eight have been lost. Of those, half have been innings losses and one a ten-wicket defeat. Only three Sri…
Australia look to quell the fuss after Gabba
The win in Brisbane may have been their fifth straight one across formats, but in the week following it, Australia faced questions normally reserved for the losing side © AFP There’s always that one. That present, brightly wrapped, perched under the Christmas tree looking so inviting. Surely, after all your niceness, Santa has delivered the latest, greatest doovalacky thingamajig you’ve been dying to get your hands on all year. You’re…
Bruised New Zealand eye return to winning ways
Match facts December 26, 2016Start time 1100am (2200 GMT) Given their general tendency to play spin well, Bangladesh’s focus will be on dealing with New Zealand’s pace attack © Getty Images Big Picture New Zealand have a chance to break their recent dip in ODI form when they take on Bangladesh in the first of three home matches, at the Hagley Park in Christchurch. They have obstacles in front of…
Pakistan need more than a moral victory
Match facts December 26-30, 2016Start time 1030 local (2330 GMT) Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood face another heavy workload in a four-man bowling attack at the MCG © Getty Images Big Picture For those who had gotten used to the shock of the new provided by consecutive day-night Tests, the arrival of Boxing Day would hark back to something far more traditional: a morning start, a red ball, a heaving…
Maharaj hopes for spin lessons from Herath
Play 01:52 ‘As a left-arm spinner, you want to model yourself on Herath and Vettori’ While most of the South African squad will try to exploit Sri Lanka’s weaknesses in the upcoming three-Test series, at least one of them will be concentrating on the opposition’s biggest strength. Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj is keen to learn as much as he can from his counterpart, Rangana Herath, a man he lists among…
Vignesh, Natarajan fire Tamil Nadu into semi-final
Tamil Nadu 152 (Vijay Shankar 34, Aravind 3-16, Gopal 2-1, Vinay 2-52) and 87 (Karthik 41*) beat Karnataka 88 (Pandey 28, Crist 6-31, Natarajan 3-18) and 150 (Rahul 77, Vignesh 4-53, Natarajan 3-40)Scorecard File photo – T Natarajan (in pic) took three wickets to leave Tamil Nadu with 87 to win, which they chased down with seven wickets in hand © T Natarajan On a manic day in which 20…