Category: India Cricket

• 5th T20i: India, 52-0 (4.5), wash out. India win series 2-1

• Storm scuppers final match to ruin Australia hopes

India have won the T20 international series against Australia 2-1 after the fifth and final match was washed out at the Gabba. The sold-out crowd will receive a full refund as the fixture did not reach the stipulated cut-off of six overs.

Lightning in the vicinity of the ground initially forced the players off after India made the most of shocking fielding by Australia to race to 0-52 in the opening 4.5 overs. A storm then rolled in, accompanied by steady rain, to ensure there was no further play.

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• Hosts fail to capitalise on good start chasing 168

• Last nine wickets go for 52 in Gold Coast

India’s spinners trapped Australia in a web of despair to secure a 48-run win in the T20 international on the Gold Coast to take a 2-1 series lead.

India made 8-167 after being asked to bat on Thursday and Australia were tracking nicely at 1-67, but spinners Axar Patel (2-20) and Varun Chakravarthy (1-26) sent the required run rate skyrocketing as the pressure built on the hosts.

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• 3rd T20I: India 188-5, bt Australia, 186-6, by five wkts

• Hosts miss frontline bowlers as Sundar steers tourists to win

India have levelled the Twenty20 series against Australia, sharing the blows with the bat for a five-wicket win with nine balls to spare in Hobart.

The hosts posted 186-6 on Sunday night on the back of an explosive 74 from 38 balls from Tim David batting at No 4 and a Marcus Stoinis half-century.

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• All-rounder helps hosts into 1-0 series lead in Melbourne

• MCG holds minute’s silence for teenager Ben Austin

A lethal spell from Josh Hazlewood has propelled Australia to an emphatic four-wicket Twenty20 win over India in front of 82,438 fans at the MCG.

After the opening game of the five-match series in Canberra was washed out on Wednesday night, Australia went 1-0 up with a commanding performance.

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• Vice-captain fell awkwardly while taking a catch against Australia

• Iyer to remain in Sydney hospital ‘to evaluate his day-to-day progress’

India batter Shreyas Iyer suffered a lacerated spleen and was admitted to hospital in Sydney after falling awkwardly while taking catch in the third one-day international against Australia, the country’s cricket board (BCCI) says.

Iyer was injured on Saturday while taking a catch to dismiss Alex Carey, the 30-year-old clutching his side and grimacing in pain after tumbling to the SCG turf.

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• 3rd ODI: India, 237-1, beat Australia, 236, by 9 wkts

• Kohli (74*): ‘We’ve played some of our best cricket here’

Rohit Sharma hit a century and Virat Kohli 74 to drive India to a nine-wicket win in the third one-day international in what will almost certainly be the pair’s final appearances in Australia in their country’s colours.

Australia secured series honours with victories in the first two matches in Perth and Adelaide but India’s bowlers skittled the home side for 236 and the two former captains got the tourists over the line with a partnership of 168 runs.

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• Victory hands hosts unassailable 2-0 series lead

• Connolly’s unbeaten 61 steers Australia to target of 265

Novice batsmen Cooper Connolly, Matt Short and Mitch Owen have produced career-best ODI knocks to steer Australia to a tense two-wicket win against India.

Australia claimed a series victory after the win at Adelaide Oval on Thursday gave them a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

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• Perth: Australia (3-131) beat India (9-136) by 7 wickets

• Marsh hits unbeaten 46 as Virat Kohli is out for a duck

Mitchell Marsh hit an unbeaten 46 off 52 balls while Virat Kohli was out for an eight-ball duck as Australia crushed India by seven wickets to spare in a rain-affected ODI series opener in Perth.

Four rain delays totalling three hours and 40 minutes caused havoc as India stuttered to nine for 136 off a reduced 26 overs at Optus Stadium. Under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, Australia required just 131 for victory from their 26 overs, with Marsh and Josh Philippe (37 runs off 29 balls) ensuring the hosts made light work of it.

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If the two captains fail to shake hands at the Women’s Cricket World Cup it will deliver another blow to ping-pong diplomacy

It is mere years that women in the subcontinent have been taken seriously as cricketers. For generations, they faced scorn, disapproval, ostracism – even the threat of violence – to pursue their passion. Now India is hosting a World Cup in which the prize fund is $13.8m (£10.3m) and the home nation’s players will become national treasures if they secure their first tournament victory.

It would, then, be a travesty if this weekend’s talk focused on their male counterparts. And yet, when India face Pakistan on Sunday, comparison is unavoidable. And not because the home side are highly favoured to triumph, but because they are not expected to shake hands with their opposition. Handshakegate, if we must call it that, will have a fourth instalment.

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• India skipper snubs Salman Ali Agha in preliminaries

• India beat Pakistan by six wickets in Dubai

India’s captain, Suryakumar Yadav, once again chose not to shake hands with Pakistan’s Salman Ali Agha at the toss for their Asia Cup match on Sunday, as animosity between the bitter rivals rumbled on at the eight-team tournament.

The Asia Cup has been dominated by headlines about India and Pakistan’s first meetings on the pitch since the military conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours in May this year. India have won both matches, winning the second by six wickets on Sunday.

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England’s batting lineup looks settled for the trip to Australia, but their fast-bowling stocks were stretched against India and the captain can help ease the burden

The England-India epic that ended up like two weary prizefighters trading blows will live long in the memory – a 2‑2 classic for which the players on both sides deserve immense credit. Not that Mohammed Siraj, still hitting 90mph on the speed gun on the 25th day, showed weariness. If anything, he could well hold the key to solving the world’s energy problems.

Plaudits in particular go to three men who stepped up bravely when other sports would have simply subbed them off: Shoaib Bashir bowled with a broken left hand at Lord’s; Rishabh Pant batted with a broken foot at Old Trafford; and then Chris Woakes, Horatio Nelson armed with a Gray-Nicolls, followed him in folklore at the Oval. Don’t be fooled by the white flannels and the stoppages for tea – Test cricket is a brutal sport.

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Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj were the stars in an exceptional series

By the 99.94 Cricket Blog

Ben Stokes: 304 runs at 43.4; 17 wickets at 25.2
It is no exaggeration to say that a magnificent series like this is the product of how Baz McCullum and Ben Stokes have reinvented English Test cricket, a change comparable to Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque’s revolution of European art a century ago.

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Chris Woakes was sent out in a sling as England lost to India by six runs at the Oval in a wild finale to the series

• England and injured Woakes denied as India win thriller

Siraj is signing autographs. Intensely.

“Bought my son a day five ticket several weeks back,” you clever man David Adam, “and he’s been watching the whole match hoping for wickets to stop and rain to start. As much as yesterday’s crowd were rightly gutted not to see the conclusion, I’m selfishly delighted that my son will get his first taste of Test cricket this morning, even if it’s only half an hour. Surely the series deserves to end with a third ever tied test? Siraj sending an spectactularly unsporting bouncer down at Woakes?”

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With England looking to win the series and India still able to share the spoils, the loss of three headliners at the Oval is suboptimal

Much like the Dude in the Big Lebowski during his various moments of confusion, it was impossible not to repeatedly blink upon seeing England’s XI for the fifth and final Test against India that starts on Thursday. Four changes, including the loss of Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope’s return to the captaincy, took a few moments to process.

“I don’t want to eat my words but the likelihood I won’t play is very unlikely,” said Stokes after the stalemate at Old Trafford. While that quote needed scanning a few times, so did the gnarly right shoulder he was seen prodding and poking during what was a chastening failure to claim an unassailable 3-1 series lead. A grade-three tear to “a muscle I can’t pronounce” was the upshot, Stokes confirmed on Wednesday, and his summer is now frustratingly over.

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