Rohit Sharma completed a century for India on day two of the first Test against Australia – but that was just the start of the suffering for the tourists in Nagpur.
It proved to be a grim day for Australia, despite Todd Murphy, a 22-year-old Victoria off-spinner, taking five wickets on debut.
India racked up 321-7 by the close, leading by 144 after Australia were dismissed for 177 on day one at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.
Ravindra Jadeja followed up his five-wicket haul by leading a lower-order assault on Friday, sharing in an ongoing eighth-wicket stand of 81 with Axar Patel, both men making fifties. Jadeja reached 66 not out, with Axar 52no.
Rohit had lost opening partner KL Rahul just before the close on Thursday, so he returned in the morning looking for others to provide support, and it proved to be in limited supply.
Ravichandran Ashwin fell for 23, given out lbw after a review from Australia, and Cheteshwar Pujara (7), Virat Kohli (12) and Suryakumar Yadav (8) all went cheaply as India struggled to cope with the Australian spinners. Nathan Lyon coaxed out Suryakumar with a teasing delivery the batter went after but missed, the ball clattering into off stump.
Stability at the other end finally arrived in the shape of Jadeja, who helped to put on 61 for the sixth wicket before Rohit fell for 120, perishing to the new ball, Australia captain Pat Cummins uprooting his off stump moments after Steve Smith dropped the century-maker at slip.
That left India on 229-6 and Jadeja went on to reach a gritty half-century, while Murphy completed his five-wicket haul by having Srikar Bharat (8) pinned lbw, again getting the decision on review.
Axar's arrival helped India take the game away from Australia though, and when slip fielder Smith dropped Jadeja from the penultimate delivery of the day, frustration was etched across the face of every tourist.
Rohit's Australia breakthrough
In his eighth Test against Australia, Rohit made it to three figures for the first time. He previously had five 40-plus scores, but his highest score was the 63no he managed at Melbourne in the 2018 Boxing Day Test. This was his ninth Test century in all, and his first since making 127 against England at The Oval in September 2021.
It made Rohit, at the age of 35 years and 286 days, just the second India opener to score a Test century against Australia after turning 35, with Sunil Gavaskar the first to manage the feat.
Jadeja doubles up
This marks the sixth Test where Jadeja has taken five wickets in an innings and hit a half-century. Back in action after recovering from knee surgery, he is continuing where he left off with the bat against England last July, having hit a century at Edgbaston, albeit in a losing cause on that occasion.
New champions Guyana Amazon Warriors have five named in CPL Team of the Tournament
The Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Team of the Tournament has been announced. The team has been selected by the TV commentary panel; Ian Bishop, Daren Ganga, Samuel Badree, Carlos Brathwaite, Danny Morrison and Nikhil Uttamchandani.
The team includes five members of the Guyana Amazon Warriors who won their first title on Sunday with a nine-wicket win over the Trinbago Knight Riders at Providence.
The five Amazon Warriors are Captain Imran Tahir, batsmen Shai Hope and Saim Ayub and all rounders Dwayne Pretorius and Romario Shepherd.
Tahir was instrumental in leading the Amazon Warriors to their maiden CPL title with 18 wickets in 13 matches, only finishing behind teammate Pretorius’ 20 wickets on the leading wicket-taker chart.
Hope and Ayub finished first and second in the leading run-scorer list with 481 and 478 runs, respectively.
The full team is as follows:
Saim Ayub (Guyana Amazon Warriors)
Brandon King (Jamaica Tallawahs)
Shai Hope (Guyana Amazon Warriors)
Nicholas Pooran (Trinbago Knight Riders)
Kieron Pollard (Trinbago Knight Riders)
Imad Wasim (Jamaica Tallawahs)
Romario Shepherd (Guyana Amazon Warriors)
Jason Holder (Barbados Royals)
Alzarri Joseph (Saint Lucia Kings)
Dwaine Pretorius (Guyana Amazon Warriors)
Imran Tahir (Guyana Amazon Warriors)
Pete Russell, Republic Bank CPL’s CEO, said: “It has been another fantastic year of CPL cricket, and we would like to thank the players, franchise staff, fans in the ground and viewers around the world for supporting our tournament again this year. We would like to offer our congratulations to the players who have been selected for the Team of the Tournament who have made this another memorable year.”
CWI vice-president Azim Bassarath and player-turned-commentator Samuel Badree awarded T&T's prestigious Hummingbird medals
For their many years of exemplary service to the sport of cricket in Trinidad and Tobago, cricket administrator Azim Bassarath and former player Samuel Badree received the Hummingbird Medal Gold at the twin-island republic’s National Awards Ceremony held on Sunday at President’s House.
The Hummingbird Medal may be awarded to any person (citizen as well as non-citizen) who has rendered loyal and devoted service beneficial to Trinidad and Tobago in any field of human endeavour or for gallantry or other humane action.
It may be awarded in Gold, Silver or Bronze in accordance with the assessed level of the service rendered.
Bassarath, the President of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board and Vice President of Cricket West Indies was recognized for his work as a cricket administrator. When he became CWI Vice President in March this year, Bassarath became the first administrator from the country to serve in that role.
Under his watch, Trinidad and Tobago has produced some of that country’s finest cricketers including Kieron Pollard and Badree, who was honoured for his work in sport and education.
Badree, who is also now a commentator, was a member of West Indies' T20 World Cup winning teams in 2012 and 2016. The 42-year-old former leg spinner has also been an educator for over two decades and is the chairman of Badree’s Academy of Sport Education.
Badree has also served as an administrator and is a former secretary of the south zone cricket council of the TTCB.
CWI CEO Grave outlines next steps after host countries announced for next year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
In June next year, the West Indies, along with the USA, will host their third senior men’s ICC tournament when the cricket world descends upon our region for the ninth edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
The West Indies previously hosted the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in 2007 as well as the second edition of the T20 World Cup two years later.
Last week, Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad & Tobago were announced as the seven Caribbean countries that will host matches along with New York, Texas and Florida in the USA.
CEO of Cricket West Indies, Johnny Grave, described the confirmation of the region as hosts as a “big landmark” in a CWI interview last week and is looking forward to inviting the rest of the world to the Caribbean.
“It’s a big landmark for us at Cricket West Indies (CWI) and the ICC because, having this confirmation now that seven of our host countries have made successful bids to host matches means that a lot of the work and detailed planning that we need to do in order to make the most of this huge opportunity to host out third men’s ICC tournament in the West Indies, and this time in partnership with our friends at USA cricket, can start,” he said.
He also went into what are the next steps in preparing for next year’s festivities.
“The next big step is to get the match schedule agreed with the ICC. We’ve got the ten hist venues. The next stage is to work through the detailed match schedule. This is the first World Cup ever to have 20 teams so it’s a big tournament to organize and there’s a small window from early June to the 30th of June when the final will take place to get all the matches in. We’ve got group stages after the warm-up games. We’ve then got the super eights stage then semi-finals and final so, once that schedule is agreed, then it’s all systems go in terms of tickets being on sale around December to coincide with us welcoming England to the region,” Grave said.
“It’s really important that we get the match schedules announced so that we can invite the world to come to the Caribbean next year,” he added.
Grave also expressed gratitude to the various Governments who put forward successful bids to host matches.
“We’re enormously grateful for the continued support we get from the Governments of the West Indies,” he said.
“All of them that put forward bids have been successful in securing matches which is great news. We’re really looking forward to some of the improvements that those Governments have put forward in their proposals to us and the ICC in terms of ensuring that they are ready for what is the pinnacle of the men’s game currently. It’s a huge opportunity for the region to use the platform of hundreds of millions of fans watching our beautiful countries and our iconic venues and we want everyone in the world to come to the Caribbean and experience what we have to offer,” he added.
While encouraging people from all over the world to make the trip, Grave also urged local fans to come out and support the regional side in their bid for a third World T20 title.
“Absolutely. We’ve seen that unique kind of atmosphere when we hosted the 2018 Women’s World T20 with big crowds in St. Lucia and Antigua when the West Indies played and I’m sure when the West Indies play next June there’ll be big crowds at all the venues,” he said.
“We want every host country to show what a welcoming and exciting place this is to watch and play cricket and it’s really important that the fans come out in their masses. The school children will be invited as part of our community engagement program so that we can show what kind of an atmosphere it is to the world,” Grave added.
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