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• Pollard puts TKR’s up and down season down to injuries; happy with where team is heading into playoffs

  Trinbago Knight Riders captain Kieron Pollard is happy with where his team is ahead of the 2024 Caribbean Premier League playoffs set to begin on October 1 in Guyana.

  With two games left for them in the preliminary phase of the tournament, the four-time champions have a record of five wins and three losses in their eight games.

  “From a performance perspective, we’ve played eight games. Won five, lost three. We’ll take that. The first step in any tournament is to qualify. If we were in fifth place or sixth place it’d be a different conversation. You expect this to happen. It’s T20 cricket,” Pollard said in a press conference on Thursday ahead of their game against the Barbados Royals at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy on Friday.

  “Given all the obstacles that we’ve had transpire throughout this season, we’ll take where we are at this particular time. We have an opportunity to finish in the top two. We still have to play good, consistent cricket,” he added.

  The major obstacle that Pollard referred to in his comments on Thursday was the number of injuries that have hampered his team’s ability to field their best eleven consistently throughout their eight outings.

  “Throughout the entire tournament we’ve been hampered by injuries. We have not mentioned what sort of injuries we’ve had throughout and we’ve had to sort of chop and change. That might’ve caused a lot of discussion amongst fans as to why this one and that one is not playing but we had to battle that,” he said.

  Nevertheless, Pollard commended his team for their performance despite the circumstances.

  “The way how the guys have battled forward through injuries, coming in at the late stages, we have to commend them for their efforts,” he said.

  The Knight Riders and the Royals have met 24 times in the past with the Knight Riders holding a 15-9 edge.

  Their last meeting came on September 13 when the Knight Riders won a thriller by two wickets with one ball remaining at the Kensington Oval.

  The Knight Riders, currently fourth in the standings with 10 points, could secure a top two spot with wins in their final two games over the Royals and the Guyana Amazon Warriors.

  “It’s known in the dressing room what needs to be done and hopefully, all the experience that we have and the exuberance of the youth as well will come forth and we’ll be able to finish the tournament a lot more consistently,” Pollard said.

   

   

   

• India dismiss three before weather stops play in Bangladesh Test

  Heavy rain and poor light saw play halted on day one of the second Test between India and Bangladesh in Kanpur, with the tourists standing at 107-3 after 35 overs of play.

  Overnight rain caused the toss to be delayed by an hour ahead of Rohit Sharma opting to bowl, with darkness and a heavy downpour later causing the umpires to call off play at 3pm local time.

  During the play that was possible, India – having chosen to bowl in a home Test for the first time since 2015 – went on the attack, with a quickfire double from Akash Deep dropping Bangladesh to 29-2.

  Introduced in the ninth over, Deep saw his third delivery edged through to Yashasvi Jaiswal by Zakir Hasan for a duck, then an India review saw Shadman Islam (24) removed lbw at the start of the 13th over.

  Najmul Hossain Shanto steadied the ship for Bangladesh either side of a drizzly lunch, striking six boundaries as he racked up 31 runs off 57 balls faced.

  Ravichandran Ashwin trapped him lbw in front of off and middle stump in the 29th over, but Mominul Haque (40 not out) and Mushfiqur Rahim (6 not out) survived until the weather had its say and will resume at the crease on Saturday.

  Data Debrief: Ashwin's strike decisive?

  Shanto's resilient knock appeared to get Bangladesh through the worst of a difficult first day in Kanpur, only for Ashwin to strike six overs before stumps.

  Since the start of 2023, Ashwin has taken 30.2% (75 of 248) of India's wickets in men's Tests, with only England's Gus Atkinson (31.2%) taking a higher proportion of a team's wickets in that time (minimum 10 innings played).

• The Rugby Championship: Springboks targeting revenge with glory on the line

  South Africa had the chance to clinch their first Rugby Championship title since 2019 last Saturday, only to be edged out by Argentina, setting up a grandstand finish.

  Rassie Erasmus' side had a perfect record to that point, but that narrow 29-28 defeat now means the Pumas have a slim chance of getting their hands on the trophy for the first time.

  Argentina will be backing themselves for another upset after impressing in the tournament, and they will look to overturn the odds with one more big win.  

  Meanwhile, Australia will be aiming to finish their underwhelming tournament on a high, though they face another stern test against the All Blacks.

  Ahead of the final round of fixtures, we look at the best Opta facts and figures to preview both games.

  NEW ZEALAND V AUSTRALIA

  After succumbing to the record-breaking 67-27 defeat against Argentina in the fourth round, Australia failed to turn their luck around despite a spirited fightback against New Zealand last time out.

  Joe Schmidt will endeavour to finish the tournament on a high after seeing his side struggle for much of it, though they face an uphill task having won only one of their last 13 Tests against the All Blacks (D1 L11).

  The Wallabies have also won only one of their last five Test matches (L4), and have lost their last two, though they have scored more points in those defeats (55) than they managed in the three Tests prior (39 – W1 D2).

  New Zealand will still feel fairly confident though, having won their last eight matches against Australia, although their last two victories in that run have come by a three-point margin.

  In Wellington, the All Blacks are undefeated in five Tests against their hosts (W4 D1), conceding only 10.8 points per game in that streak.

   

  However, overall, they have won just one of their last seven trips to the city (D2 L4), beating France 26-13 in June 2018, going winless in their last five Tests since in Wellington (D2 L3).

  It is likely that Australia will need to take advantage of any opportunity they get, with their success of stealing opposition line-outs an obvious strength.

  They have won the joint-most of any team in the tournament so far (nine, level with New Zealand), though they will need to improve on the one they managed against Scott Robertson's side in the last match.

  PLAYERS TO WATCH

  New Zealand – Rieko Ioane

  Rieko Ioane has made dominant contact on 64% of his 35 carries (18/35) in the Rugby Championship – the best rate of any player in the tournament (min. 10 carries).

  He has made three line breaks across his last three Test matches, more than he logged in his seven games prior for the All Blacks (two).

  Australia – Hunter Paisami

  Hunter Paisami has scored three tries in his last four Test matches, including one against New Zealand last time out.

  He had not crossed the try line in his 26 career appearances for the Wallabies prior to that run.

  SOUTH AFRICA V ARGENTINA

  South Africa had one hand on the trophy last weekend, and though they have opened the door for Argentina, they still have a great chance of winning the trophy.

  The Springboks will be confident they can bounce back from that loss, having won 17 of their 18 Test matches against Argentina on home soil (L1), with their only such defeat coming back in August 2015 in Durban.

  Their record in Nelspruit is even stronger, winning all four of their Tests in the city, overcoming half-time deficits in three of those victories. South Africa defeated New Zealand 26-10 in their last match there, which is their largest margin of victory at Mbombela Stadium.

  However, Argentina's confidence will be sky-high after snapping an eight-match losing streak against South Africa – they have never won back-to-back games against them before.

  The Pumas have also won their last two Tests against Tier One opposition, as many as they managed in their seven such fixtures before that (W2 L5). If they can beat South Africa again, they will register their longest such winning streak since the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

  And Felipe Contepomi will be urging his side to maintain their high discipline level as they aim to overturn the odds.

  Argentina are the only team yet to receive a red or yellow card in the tournament and have conceded the fewest penalties (50) of any team in the campaign. In fact, they have not received a red or yellow card across their last 12 Test matches.

  Only a win by a bonus point, without South Africa picking up one of their own, will be enough to hand Argentina their first title, but they have scored 96 points in their last two outings, so they cannot be overlooked.

   

  PLAYERS TO WATCH

  South Africa – Ruan Nortje

  Ruan Nortje has won 31 lineouts (including two steals) in the Rugby Championship – seven more than any other in the tournament.

  In addition, he has been the first to arrive at 63 of the Springboks' rucks, the second most of any player for a team in the campaign (Carlo Tizzano – 64 for Australia).

  Argentina – Mateo Carreras

  Mateo Carreras has been directly involved in six tries in his last six Test matches (five tries, one try assist), including two tries and a try assist in his last two Tests.

  He has scored a try in each of his two career appearances against South Africa, as well as a try assist in his most recent meeting against the Springboks.