LSG win by 18 IPL204

Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai Indians fans witnessed a classic Rohit Sharma half-century but also saw their side slump to their tenth defeat of the season. The victors, Lucknow Super Giants, too were left with a ‘what-if’ feeling, as their seventh win of the season took them to the important landmark of 14 points, but a straggling net run-rate of -0.667 left them just outside the top four.

Needing a mathematically impossible margin of victory to fix their net run rate, it was Nicholas Pooran who rescued LSG from a familiar situation. With their top order struggling again, his 29-ball 75 brought life to a sluggish LSG innings to post 214 against an inexperienced MI attack that played without Jasprit Bumrah.

MI then began the chase in dazzling fashion on the back of Rohit’s barrage of boundaries on either side of a short rain delay, but they slid from 88 for no loss to to 120 for 5 in the middle overs, effectively ending their chances of putting up a realistic fight.

The result meant MI, under new captain Hardik Pandya, finished last for the second time in three seasons. LSG will end up missing the top four for the first time in their three-season history.

MI 196/6 in 20 overs..

Mumbai needs 34 runs to win off 6 balls. Naveen with the ball. SIX! Short and pulled away over deep midwicket for a maximum. That’s a 25-ball fifty for Naman Dhir and his first in the IPL. Full outside off and Dhir drills this over long-off, or almost, because Krunal pulls the ball back in on the edge of the rope. Just a single. OUT! Kishan chops on as he swings for the hills and his sluggish innings finally comes to an end. In comes Romario Shepherd. Naveen goes short and angles it down leg-side, called wide. 

Just a single for Shepherd at deep point next ball. Dhir misses this one, which is in the blockhole, and that’s a dot ball. SIX! Final flourish for Dhir as he sends this full delivery outside off over extra-cover for a maximum. 

That’s it then! From the match and from MI and LSG this season. MI confirms its last spot, finishing with just four wins from 14 games, while LSG is left to rue a season of what ifs. 

Lucknow Super Giants  (20 ovs)

TOTAL

20 Ov (RR: 10.70)

214/6

Pooran powers Lucknow to IPL win over hapless Mumbai..

Nicholas Pooran starred in Lucknow Super Giants' 18-run victory over pre-tournament favourites Mumbai Indians in the last game of a disappointing Indian Premier League season for both teams Friday.

The maverick West Indies' wicketkeeper-batsman hit eight sixes in his 29-ball 75 to take Lucknow to 214-6 after Mumbai skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and chose to field first.

Mumbai crashed to 196-6 despite an impressive start by openers Rohit Sharma and Dewald Brevis in their rain-interrupted chase.

Pandya said that it was "quite difficult" for five-time champions Mumbai, who finished the 10-team league in last spot.

"This season we didn't play good quality cricket and it cost us the whole season," Pandya said.

Lucknow too failed to qualify for the playoffs and ended the tournament in sixth spot.

Captain KL Rahul said that it was "very disappointing".

He blamed mid-season injuries to key players and said that they "didn't play well enough collectively and couldn't come together" as a team.

Earlier, Nuwan Thushara got Mumbai off to a great start and removed opener Devdutt Padikkal for a first ball duck.

Padikkal's partner Rahul stitched together a 48-run partnership with Australia's Marcus Stoinis, who fell to Piyush Chawla's leg-spin for a 22-ball 28 in the sixth over.

Chawla also removed Deepak Hooda (11) to reduce Lucknow to 69-3 by the 10th over.

Thushara finally removed Pooran in the 17th over to end his match-defining, 109-run partnership with Rahul.

He also removed rookie Arshad Khan (0) in the same over and finished with 3-28 in his four-over spell.

Chawla removed Rahul, who took 41 balls for his 55 runs, in the 18th over and finished with 3-29.

Key unbeaten cameos by Ayush Badoni (22) and Krunal Pandya (12) took Lucknow to 214-6.

Mumbai's openers took their team to 88 before Brevis fell for 23 in the ninth over.

India skipper Sharma top-scored with a 38-ball 68 with 10 fours and three sixes before he fell in the 11th over.

In between, Mumbai also lost their best T20 batsman, Suryakumar Yadav, for 0 and were reduced to 97-3 while out-of-form skipper Pandya fell for 16.

Indian rookie Naman Dhir hit five sixes and four fours in his unbeaten 28-ball 62.

Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who removed Sharma, and Afghanistan's Naveen-ul-Haq, who removed Brevis, took four key Mumbai wickets between them.

India Vs Autralia Forth Test Match

India Won By 8 Wikets



This has been an ongoing story from the first innings of the Ranchi Test. Irrespective of the situation, Rahane wants to go after it. In Ranchi, he got out trying to ramp one such delivery. In the first innings here, India were in a spot of bother when Rahane came in hooking and pulling, not fully convincingly. The second innings has been no different. He tries to pull one but it ricochets off his body and very close to the leg stump. Soon after he creams a hook to the boundary.

In the next over, Cummins goes round the wicket for a bouncer barrage. Rahane responds with a pulled six and then back-away-cut for six again. He also manages to keep the hook down on the ground later. Cummins started by winning with the short ball but Rahane is winning this round comfortably. India need just 22 more now

 Cummins is not backing down and it seems like the Indian batsmen are not going to either. Rahane starts with a sumptuous straight drive and follows it up with a pull to the midwicket boundary. Rahul is roughed up by two steeply rising deliveries in the same over. This last few runs are going to see the teams have a go at each other once again. Just like the rest of the series.

WICKET
Pujara falls for a duck! A lot of indecision between Rahul and Pujara. Both are left stranded in the middle of the crease. Maxwell swoops down from cover and throws down the stumps in a single motion
Cummins is good enough to get Vijay once again. Has him poking out at a delivery rearing up outside off, thin outside edge through to the 'keeper. It ends a 46-run opening stand

Pat Cummins could have had a wicket with his first ball of the day. Vijay gets a bit of glove on a short, rising delivery down the legside but there is no appeal. Wade took it after a fumble and raises his hand up but is not supported by his mates. Vijay survives and Smith is left frustrated on seeing the replays





Drop


Umesh could have had his fourth wicket but Ashwin drops a sitter and looks quite bemused after the drop. He's standing at slip in the absence of Rahul. Wade is looking to score boundaries at every given opportunity. He slashes and the edge goes straight to Ashwin who does not react at all. Wade proceeds to take six more runs from the over to take the lead over 100

Final Score Board
Australia -
1st Innings - 300/10 (88.3)
2nd Innings-137/10(53.5)

India-
1st Innings - 332/10 (118.1)
2nd Innings-106/02(23.5)

Rohit Sharma 264 runs

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Australia vs South Africa 1st Test

JP Duminy completes a half century now and South Africa have scored 36 from the opening burst from Starc and Hazlewood. Runs are flowing here and Smith realises he's in trouble. Peter Siddle and Mitchell Marsh are in to the attack now. Straight away Marsh beats Duminy up. They'll need to build pressure. Drying up the runs will help a bit


A good little start for South Africa. The runs are flowing at a healthy rate and more importantly both Elgar and Duminy are still around and batting confidently. A lot of this positive start on Day 3 has been down to bowling indiscipline. Mitchell Starc is finding a bit of reverse but is bowling far too full, almost overpitching, to cause any damage here.

Duminy set the tone with an on-drive and a cover drive off Starc. While Hazlewood has generally hit his lengths, Starc has sprayed a bit around - there's even been a short ball that's gone for four over the keeper's head. Elgar has completed his fifty and Duminy nears his own as the lead is past 130 now.

While Vernon Philaneder with his four-fer spearheaded the bowling admirably in Steyn's absence, debutant Keshav Maharaj impressed with his control and clever changes of pace. And of course, there's Kagiso Rabada and in these two there's hope of a bright future for South Africa.

David Warner, who got out in the nineties for the first time in his Test career yesterday, was understandably concerned about the middle-order collapse. He's asked his players to step it up in the second innings. You can read the details of that press conference here

Dean Elgar and JP Duminy looked untroubled during their half-century stand last evening. But it's the morning session which has produced all the drama so far in this game. The lead is 102. Important for South Africa to get as many as possible considering they are a bowler short for the second innings.

It's the third day of the Perth Test or as it is more popularly known - moving day. Nothing to worry on that front as the game has moved significantly. We're nicely into the middle of the third innings of this Test and after a topsy-turvy ride it's South Africa who find themselves on top after a dramatic turnaround on Day 2. Australia will wonder how they find themselves 102 behind at the start of Day 3 after bowling out the visitors for 242 in the first innings and being 158/0 in their own essay at one stage.

But such is the way of Test cricket. All an opponent needs is a small opening and a position of strength can quickly wither away. South Africa are pumped up, they want to extend their unbeaten run at WACA and they would like to do it for Dale Steyn, whose body is now showing signs of giving up on him. The pacer of this generation faces another lengthy period on the sidelines after sustaining a stress fracture to his right shoulder.
Here's wishing the champion the very best as we build up to what should be another tantalising first session in Perth

At the start of the day's play, South Africa's chances of a comeback on what is still a good batting surface hinged on a dramatic turnaround in fortunes. David Warner and Shaun Marsh had eaten into a good chunk of their first innings total and when they'd taken Australia's score to 158 just after Drinks in the first session, the visitors' chances looked bleak. Then a dramatic collapse ensued. Philander and Maharaj picked up seven wickets among themselves, restricting Australia to a paltry two-run lead. And now this partnership between Duminy and Elgar has pushed their lead to 104.

Perhaps the only thing that'll sully their mood is the fact that Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the series with a fractured shoulder bone.



Match Summery  

AUS 244

RSA 242, 161/2 (56.3 Ovs)

First ODI India Vs New Zealand

After being put through their paces in a demanding net session, New Zealand's players, stationed just beyond the boundary fences, soaked in the surroundings. Mobile phones were whipped out in attempts to compress the scenic landscape of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium into mere megabytes of information.


Perhaps it was the setting - closest to that back in New Zealand - or the beautiful promise of not having to contend with Ravichandran Ashwin and his spin subtleties anymore on the tour, Kane Williamson and Co. seemed at ease with themselves ahead of the five-match One-Day International series. Right there in that moment, it would have been easy to overlook the fact that New Zealand were just coming out of a 3-0 drubbing in the Test series. Or that the two key senior members of the side, Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor, had averaged 27 and 15 respectively in an insipid show of technique and temperament against spin.

However, with the liberty of selective memory, New Zealand would appear to start on an even footing in an ODI series against India, despite their unsightly bilateral record against their hosts in these shores - 0-4. Their ODI stocks have been on a rise since Brendon McCullum impressed upon his teammates his own brand of devil-may-care attitude to the format so much so that Guptill, who broke into cold sweat at the sight of spin in the Tests, walks into this ODI series with four scores of 50 or more in his last six ODI innings.


Having achieved their best result in a World Cup last year where they lost to co-hosts Australia in the final, New Zealand have won four of their last six bilateral competitions, including a series win over Australia at the Chappell-Hadlee series in their most recent assignment. By their own admission, they are a 'very good ODI side.'

By contrast, their hosts have won only 10 of their last 19 ODIs - a statistic that lends more inference material after accounting for the fact that six of those wins have come against Zimbabwe. Despite the individual brilliance of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, post-2015, India is yet to crack the middle-order code for ODI success that was once the crowning jewel in MS Dhoni's strategy CV. The absence of an assured fifth bowler, capable of doubling up as a finisher, has also reduced the Indian skipper's efficacy with the bat.


And so, amidst a season that merited an unwavering focus on Test cricket, India's ODI team has thrown open the doors to new talent in the the hope of revitalising its fortunes ahead of bigger Tests just around the corner. It is not to say that they're playing a second-string side like some of the teams they sent out to Zimbabwe. In Axar Patel and Amit Mishra, they still have bowlers capable of reminding New Zealand that their spin trial is far from over. India begin the first of their eight ODIs before the Champions Trophy with a silent prayer and a hope that somewhere along the way, this invesment leads to the discovery of the missing pieces to their ODI jigsaw.
      India vs New Zealand, 1st ODI, October 16, 13.30 IST; 08:00 GMT

       Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala

A pleasant October's day with a high of 22 degree Celsius, dipping into the low sub-twenties in the late evening. On the eve of the match, the grass cover on the pitch looked like a shave gone bad. Expect the unevenness to be scrubbed off.


Ajinkya Rahane, in all likelihood, will be pushed up to the top of the order in Shikhar Dhawan's absence. This series could be the making of Rahane, the ODI cricketer. With Dhoni expressing reservations about Rahane's utility in the middle order, the series provides the mild-mannered batsman an opportunity to cash in from a position he is likely to be more at home. With Suresh Raina missing the series opener with a viral fever, India will look to bolster their middle order. Kedar Jadhav, who enjoyed a lengthy stint in the nets could play as a pure batsman. There's also the theory of playing three all-rounders in their top eight, thus handing both Hardik Pandya and Jayant Yadav their ODI debuts. With the MS Dhoni indicating his preferrence for control over pace, Dhawal Kulkarni, with his good domestic form, could find himself ahead of Umesh Yadav in the pecking order.

The visitors are likely to persist with their opening combination from the Tests, with the in-form Tom Latham partnering the limited-overs specialist Guptill. Despite Corey Anderson playing as a specialist batsman, the presence of all-rounders James Neesham and Mitchell Santner gives New Zealand a strong top eight. The returning Tim Southee adds a potent seam bowling option alongside the No.1 ODI bowler Trent Boult in conditions that could assist swing bowling. The team management is likely to toss up between Ish Sodhi, who did exceeding well in the World T20 in similar conditions, and Matt Henry for a place in the playing eleven. 

Pakistan Vs Westindies Test

In January, 1958, Pakistan found themselves in a hole in Bridgetown. Following on against West Indies, what ensued was one of the most significant, and perhaps most revered, innings in the country's cricket history. Hanif Muhammad's 337 remains the highest score for Pakistan; but its greatness lies in everything around it - the context in which it was scored, and the legends that have surrounded it since.

Nearly seven decades on, another Pakistani joined Hanif, in far different circumstances. From the pitch to the match situation to the bowling attack to even the time of the day - in every regard Azhar Ali's triple century was in complete contrast to what Hanif did. The only commonality might be that here again was a Pakistani top order batsman famed for his defense who willed the opposition bowlers into submission just by the longevity of his innings. Beyond that, you might be able to find more similarities between the two candidates for the 2016 US Presidential Elections than these two innings.

The listlessness of West Indies' performance deserves some recognition though. Over the last two years they've won just one Test, but there have been regular glimpses of them having a plan and putting up a fight. Neither of those things were apparent over the first two days in Dubai though. When the conversation around a match regularly turns to having a two-tier system for Test cricket, or to the solutions behind the malaise that one of the teams finds itself in, then you know that the match isn't exactly a contest. Of course the players will get the pelters but their preparation for this tour - or rather everything that has happened since the World Twenty20 - shows that the majority of the blame lies with the suits at West Indies Cricket Board.

There will also be questions raised about a pitch where such a scorecard became a reality. Dubai, maybe even more so than the other two grounds in the Emirates, has always helped bowlers, particularly the spinners. Until today there had only been one double hundred (by Graeme Smith) in nine Tests here, and even that happened after South Africa - then the undisputed best team in the world - had skittled Pakistan out in double figures. The key to Dubai has been how quickly it begins to break, almost like what the pitches in India were for the South Africa series last year - but with this Test being a day-night affair it'd seem that this pitch will take longer to break than usual. And Pakistan took full advantage of that.

Having said all that, having applied all the caveats, one still has to remember that there have been worse bowling attacks, on less helpful pitches, which haven't conceded a triple hundred. And that truly is the story of this Test. Azhar became only the 25th player in the game's history to achieve that landmark. Considering it came within twenty fours hours of him suffering from cramps as his body began to give way towards the end of day 1, shows both the mental and physical fortitude that he has developed. The fact that he would then return for Pakistan's bowling effort and stand at his customary short leg position only magnified how willing to sacrifice some players in this dressing room are for the larger cause.

This, of course, was never supposed to happen. A leg spinner turned obdurate batsman the early years of Azhar's career were defined by his inability to convert. At one stage of his career he had a single Test century from the fourteen occasions that he had crossed fifty. But much like the man he would describe as his "role model", Azhar's learnt the art of going big. Younis Khan, perhaps the foremost exponent of that art in Pakistan's history, was missing for this match. Thus, as per Azhar, he took over Younis's corner in the dressing room, and kept it as Younis does - a tribute that Younis is bound to appreciate. And he admitted that maybe that helped him play like Younis - unsatisfied by a mere hundred overnight - as the thirst for runs remained unquenched, even with every milestone he passed.

Azhar also pointed out how he has expanded his game due to his presence in the One-Day International team. The results of that are obvious - his strike-rate since the 2015 World Cup is ten runs higher than it was prior to it. Much like this Test team Azhar isn't obviously talented, but his continuous desire to improve incrementally has brought him where even he didn't think he would be. Three of his partners fell short of their hundreds; each falling victim to a loss of concentration. Their efforts only highlighted how extraordinary Azhar's achievements were. Only three men before him have achieved this feat for Pakistan - each of them have come to define Pakistan's batting in their respective eras. To even be in the same conversation Azhar has overachieved beyond what his biggest fans would have thought possible in 2010.

But even in his greatest moment he admitted to being bittersweet: if only this was in front of a packed stadium in Pakistan. If only.

Of course in years to come the number of witnesses for his efforts will far outweigh the couple of thousands that actually turned up. History has a habit of doing such things.

Halfway through his innings Azhar crossed the total runs tally that Hanif Mohammad had achieved in his career. Much like that innings in Bridgetown the tomes for Hanif will forever outweigh Azhar's emulations. But when all is said and done, when all that remains are hazy memories and mere numbers, Azhar's name will be in the record books.