Category: India Cricket

Rohit Sharma’s side are all-time greats but Indian dominance has created imbalance and over-dependence

They can tear you apart with a thousand incisive cuts or systematically grind you down to a fine powder. They have a bottomless well of talent with multiple world class options in every position. Winning is not only expected but demanded, both from within the camp and throughout their legions of loyal supporters that have turned them into a commercial behemoth.

No, not India, who eased past New Zealand to claim the Champions Trophy this weekend. We’re talking about Ricky Ponting’s Australia. Actually, it’s Clive Lloyd’s West Indians. Or should that be Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, Richie McCaw’s All Blacks, or the Americans under Christie Rampone, Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe?

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• Final: India, 254-6, bt N Zealand, 251-7, by four wickets
• Captain smashes 76 after Kiwis unable to set big target

India won another global trophy with a four-wicket victory over New Zealand in the Champions Trophy final on Sunday.

Their captain, Rohit Sharma, led the chase with 76 off 83 balls and KL Rahul’s unbeaten 34 helped India cross the finish line on 254 for six in 49 overs.

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• Australia 264 all out; India 267-6 in Dubai
• Veteran’s 84 takes his team to four-wicket victory

Many changes of personnel, one simple change of sequence. The World Cup final in 2023 began with Pat Cummins choosing to give Australia’s bowlers the chance to choke India’s batting. A year and a half later, in the Champions Trophy, Steve Smith as injury substitute decided that a very different Australian team should bat first.

Late-career struggles or no, Virat Kohli is one-day cricket’s greatest chaser. And while a miniature tournament semi-final in Dubai is not an equal trade for a World Cup decider in a packed house at home, there will be partial catharsis for this India side beating Australia in a global tournament knockout.

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• Captain believes key is how batters take on ‘middle overs’
• Australia still to decide how many spinners to include

White-ball cricket is often about the powerplay at the start of an innings and the death overs at the end, but the Australia captain Steve Smith believes it is the overs in the middle that will decide the Champions Trophy semi-final against India on Tuesday.

Australia go into the Dubai lair that dry pitches and expat fans have turned into a home from home for India with Rohit Sharma’s team seeking to snare them in a web of spin. India used four spinners in their last match against New Zealand, the quartet taking nine wickets, five going to the recalled Varun Chakravarthy.

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• Group A: India, 244-4, bt Pakistan, 241, by 6wkts
• Kohli’s 51st ODI century seals victory in Dubai

Virat Kohli’s record-extending 51st one-day century secured a six-wicket win over Pakistan in Dubai that puts India on the verge of qualifying for the Champions Trophy semi-finals.

After Pakistan were bowled out for a disappointing 241 in 49.4 overs, Kohli took centre stage, ticking off 14,000 ODI runs en route to 100 not out off 111 balls – with a final cover drive sealing his century and India’s victory, which leaves their rivals on the brink of early elimination.

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• Bangladesh 228, India 231-4; India win by six wickets
• Gill hits unbeaten century, Shami shines with ball

Shubman Gill struck an unbeaten century after Mohammed Shami took five wickets as India cruised to a six-wicket win over Bangladesh in their Champions Trophy opener in Dubai.

Having slipped to 35 for five after choosing to bat, Bangladesh fought back to make 228 with Towhid Hridoy making 100 and Jaker Ali contributing 68, the pair sharing a sixth-wicket stand of 154.

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Favourites India come into tournament on sour note after refusal to play in Pakistan gives superpower tactical edge

As the ICC Champions Trophy resurfaces in Pakistan this week, nearly eight years since the last one, folks will be forgiven for a few double takes, for feeling a bit like Ian Wright reuniting with his old teacher in that lovely viral clip, jaw dropped to the floor and gasping: “You’re alive! Someone said you were dead!”

Although did anyone seriously think the Champions Trophy was toast? They say cockroaches and microbes would survive a nuclear apocalypse but there is every chance international cricket’s 50‑over tournoi would also spring up in the wasteland, glowing with radiation but still ready to stick its presumably mutated winners in those Miami Vice-style white blazers and deliver that sweet, sweet broadcast money.

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• Over-by-over updates on the action in Chennai
• Any comments? You can email Tim

Hardik Pandya shares the new ball again and soon hits Duckett on the side of the helmet – jaw rather than temple. There’s a dot of blood on his cheek as the physio conducts the noe-standard tests, but happily Duckett looks fine.

1st over: England 8-1 (Duckett 2, Buttler 1) Salt had started so well, needing only one ball to improve on his duck in the first game. It was a gentle inswinger from Arshdeep and Salt clipped it over midwicket for a promising four. That’s the trouble with promise: ou can’t always believe it.

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• Bowler is of Pakistani heritage and faced long visa delay
• Eight-match white-ball series begins next Wednesday

England will begin their intended white-ball reboot under Brendon McCullum with a full complement of fast bowlers after Saqib Mahmood was belatedly granted a visa to join the squad that departs on Friday evening for the tour of India.

Mahmood was forced to miss a training camp for the quicks in Abu Dhabi this past week after a delay in receiving the necessary paperwork for the eight-match white-ball series in India that starts on Wednesday. As well as the start of McCullum’s expanded role as head coach, it serves as a precursor to the Champions Trophy.

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• Opener stands down after scoring 31 runs in three Tests
• Tourists need win at SCG to level series against Australia

A defiant Rohit Sharma says he made the call to drop himself for the fifth Test in Sydney, insisting he was not axed by selectors. Speaking for the first time since falling out of India’s side for the decisive Test against Australia at the SCG, India’s captain also rejected any suggestion his career was over.

India had refused to say whether Rohit would play the fifth Test against Australia in the lead up, after a series where he has scored 3, 6, 10, 3 and 9. His replacement as captain, Jasprit Bumrah, stated at the toss Rohit had “opted out” of the match and decided to “rest” from the series decider.

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Following on from reviews of 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, here are a few more moments to savour

By Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket Blog

Such is the volume of Test cricket played by England that perspective is hard to discern – great wins soon displaced by great defeats, social media heroes elbowed out by social media villains (often the same player) and generational talents suddenly condemned as also-rans. Cricket, with its statistical tables, sortable databases and multiple formats, lends itself to trite hierarchies – take your pick of rankings, averages or aggregates as the basis for a row.

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• Kohli had shouldered Australian teenage debutant
• India batsman accepts match referee’s sanction

India’s Virat Kohli has been fined 20% of his match fees following a clash of shoulders with the debutant Australia opener Sam Konstas in the Boxing Day Test between the sides in Melbourne on Thursday.

Kohli was booed by the crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground after bumping into Konstas as the the 19-year-old batter walked down the pitch for a chat with his opening partner Usman Khawaja at the end of the 10th over on the opening day of the fourth Test.

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• India declined to send team to host nation Pakistan
• Final to move from Lahore to Dubai if India qualify

India’s matches at the 2025 Champions Trophy will be held in Dubai, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed on Tuesday.

Pakistan, the tournament hosts, selected the United Arab Emirates as a neutral venue for India’s fixtures with the team not able to play matches in Pakistan due to political tensions.

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As a Test debut looms on cricket’s biggest stage, Australia’s 19-year-old opener says he is excited to test his skills against India’s fast bowling maestro

Sam Konstas won’t overload on watching videos of Jasprit Bumrah ahead of his likely Boxing Day Test debut, as he prepares to face India’s pace maestro for the first time.

Konstas blasted 107 from 97 balls against India three weeks ago, helping open the door for his call-up to Australia’s Test squad in place of Nathan McSweeney.

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• 19-year-old expected to be named for fourth India Test
• Top order has largely mis-fired in opening three matches

Sam Konstas is in the frame for a whirlwind Test debut after being called into Australia’s squad for the fourth match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

AAP understands the 19-year-old batting prodigy was notified on Friday that he would be named in Australia’s squad that afternoon.

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