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Australia hold the momentum going into Bengaluru, a venue where they won more Tests than they have lost against India

The Preview by Brydon Coverdale03-Mar-2017

Match facts

March 4-8, 2017
Start time 0930 local (0400 GMT)4:26

Chappell: Matter of how long Australia can maintain confidence

Big Picture

It was no surprise that a spinner took 12 wickets and was Man of the Match in the first Test in Pune. Nor was it a surprise that the winning captain scored the only hundred of the match. It was not even particularly surprising that the Test was over in two and a half days. What was surprising – flabbergasting, even – was that the spinner was not R Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja but Steve O’Keefe, the captain was not Virat Kohli but Steven Smith, and the team with a 1-0 lead after less than three days of play in this series was not India but Australia.”The pressure was off us, wasn’t it? Everyone wrote us off and expected India to win 4-0. That can’t happen anymore.” Never a truer word was spoken than those from Smith after the Pune Test. But if it was true that the pressure was off Australia in that match, it is no longer the case in Bengaluru, where the expectations on Australia will be high. Not only did they beat India in Pune, they dominated in all aspects of the game. They more than doubled India’s total in each innings, the spinners were more effective, their catching was sharper, even their use of the DRS was more assured.Pressure was on Kohli’s mind after the match, too. “How badly we batted in the first innings is the main reason why we couldn’t get back into the game,” he said. “We put ourselves under a lot of pressure.” The intensity will only increase in Bengaluru, where Australia are in the unexpected position of being able to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by the halfway point of the series. Kohli’s men must find a way to turn around their fortunes quickly, or else an ignominious fate awaits them.So, was Pune an aberration? What surprises will Bengaluru have in store? It is the only venue in this series that has hosted Test cricket before, and it is a ground at which past Australia teams have enjoyed success. Much speculation has surrounded the nature of the pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in the lead-up to the match, especially given Australia’s triumph on the dry, spinning surface in the first Test. What will be in it? Sharp spin? Reverse swing? Piles of runs? It should be fun finding out.

Form guide

India: LWWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia: WWWWW
1:16

Will India bounce back?

In the spotlight

Last time India hosted Australia in a Bengaluru Test, back in 2010, Cheteshwar Pujara made his debut. On Australia’s next Test tour of India, Pujara destroyed the visitors in Hyderabad with 204 and a monstrous triple-century partnership with M Vijay. And he began this home season well, with three straight half-centuries against New Zealand and then hundreds in the next three Tests against New Zealand and England. But since then, Pujara’s season has quietened down a little, and India would desperately love for their No. 3 to return to his best in this match, at the venue where his Test career began against this same opposition.Steve O’Keefe was Man of the Match in Pune for his twin 6 for 35s, but on a very difficult batting pitch Steven Smith stood head and shoulders above any other batsman with his 109. Only two Australians had previously made second-innings hundreds in Tests in India: Mark Taylor and Damien Martyn. Not only that but Smith’s effort lifted him into truly elite company on the ICC’s all-time batting rankings; only five batsmen have ever achieved ratings points higher than Smith’s current level: Don Bradman, Len Hutton, Jack Hobbs, Ricky Ponting and Peter May. He will enter the Bengaluru Test with a batting average of 60.34 – not bad for a bloke who started as a legspinner batting at No.8.

Team news

Hardik Pandya has a shoulder niggle and is not in contention, but the remainder of India’s squad is available for this Test. It remains to be seen whether the selectors give the same XI another chance after their disappointing performance in Pune.India (possible) 1 KL Rahul, 2 M Vijay, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Wriddiman Saha (wk), 7 R Ashwin, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Jayant Yadav, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Umesh Yadav.Australia announced an unchanged XI on the eve of the second Test, retaining Mitchell Marsh, whose bowling services were not exploited in Pune.Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Matt Renshaw, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Shaun Marsh, 5 Peter Handscomb, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Steve O’Keefe, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood.

Pitch and conditions

There has been so much discussion and speculation about the pitch that India’s coach, Anil Kumble, got fed up during his press conference in the lead-up to the Test. “Can we move on? It’s only 22 yards, it won’t be different here,” he said. Both teams expect a better batting surface than in Pune, but it will still be dry and should take plenty of turn.

Stats and trivia

• Smith needs 112 more runs to reach 5000 in Tests. Should he do it in his first innings in Bengaluru, he will be the equal third-fastest to the milestone alongside Garry Sobers, Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards and Matthew Hayden, and behind only Don Bradman and Jack Hobbs.
• India have beaten Australia only once at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, while Australia have won there twice and the teams have played out two draws. India’s win, though, did come in the most recent of those five Tests, in 2010.

Quotes

“The way we played last week was such a positive sign. It was a difficult wicket and we showed them we can compete in those conditions. And more importantly, we probably showed ourselves as well.”

A retelling of the bee-delay that took all of 65 minutes out of the third ODI at Johannesburg

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Feb-20171:11

‘It was an annoying break’ – de Villiers

There are lions, leopards, elephants, cheetah and buffalo all within a few hours’ drive from the Wanderers stadium, but it was a more mundane intrusion from the natural world that brought the third ODI to a standstill.Bees swarmed the pitch in the middle of the 26th over, forcing players to momentarily hit the ground, then returned the next over, this time parking themselves very close to the pitch. One faction was even drawn by the Protea crest on Quinton de Kock’s wicketkeeping helmet. Eventually, when it became clear the bees were not moving off, the players left the field and the ground staff set about trialling several bee-removal strategies.At first they deployed a man with a stick. The groundsman approached one buzzing batch, decided his mode of attack would not work, and returned defeated. Fast bowler Chris Morris then seemed to come up with the idea of besieging the bees with a fire extinguisher. Two groundsmen carried this tactic out, but although it temporarily displaced the bees, they quickly amassed again and returned to their work near the pitch. A bucket filled with cola proved ineffective at capturing the insects as well.Eventually a professional was summoned. One man lived out what must be the dreams of many aspiring beekeepers in South Africa, when he walked to the middle of a packed Wanderers stadium in his trademark baggy whites, nervelessly placed down his plastic box full of honeycomb, and masterfully opened up the lid. Before long he had ensnared his quarry, probably to wild cheers and fans offering to give him their numbers.All up, the bees had spent about 65 minutes in the middle, which many noted, was more time than some Sri Lanka batsmen had managed.

At one stage in this match, it looked as if Sussex were disappearing off into the distance over the South Downs. Building on a second significant score from opener Chris Nash, the lead at tea was 210 with seven wickets standing

Alan Gardner at Hove19-Apr-2016
ScorecardRyan ten Doeschate was brilliantly caught by Danny Briggs•Getty Images

At one stage in this match, it looked as if Sussex were disappearing off into the distance over the South Downs. Building on a second significant score from opener Chris Nash, the lead at tea was 210 with seven wickets standing. That they were left relying on the last-wicket pair of Ajmal Shahzad and Steve Magoffin to chivvy and poke their way to the close, during an unbroken stand worth 40, tells you much about how competitive this game has been.Essex will still have to chase more than the 320 they made in their first innings but they would have been left huffing and puffing in the face of a much steeper incline were it not for their two new-ball bowlers, Jamie Porter and Graham Napier, who claimed nine wickets between them while delivering more than two-thirds of the 68 overs that Sussex’s second innings has so far lasted.Porter and Napier are at opposite ends of their careers but, with Matt Dixon struggling to adjust to the slope and Essex’s plethora of medium-pacers offering up a glut of bad balls, they shouldered the burden uncomplainingly.Porter, in particular, looks a slip of a fast bowler but he showed a work ethic that would have made Alexey Stakhanov beam with pride, sending down an 18-over spell either side of tea. Napier, 36 and in his final season before retirement, managed 13 in a row and it looked as if Essex’s pair of dray horses might be yoked together for the entire session until the niggling resistance put on by Shahzad and Magoffin forced Ryan ten Doeschate to give them a rest.Sussex had been 165 for 2 and scoring at more than five runs an over before Ross Taylor became Porter’s first victim, steering to second slip. On a pitch that still looked good for batting, Sussex then slipped to 242 for 9, the next six dismissals all bowled or lbw as Porter and Napier utilised a hint of reverse swing and targeted the stumps.Porter, who once bowled a 22-over spell in club cricket for Fives & Heronians, kept charging in up the hill from the Sea End, still searching for a maiden five-wicket haul despite having taken 79 first-class wickets since making his Essex debut at the end of 2014. Ten Doeschate did not have to do much persuading. “It was me saying to him, ‘I dare you to try and get the ball out of my hand’,” Porter said, blinking slightly deliriously afterwards.The final day is neatly poised but if Sussex are able to secure a first win of the season, then some credit will have to go to the south-coast sunshine. Not the south coast of England – although Hove has basked under clear skies for most of this match – but rather the southern cape of Africa, where Nash spent five weeks earlier this year soaking up the rays, along with a few batting tips from former South Africa opener Gary Kirsten.Nash, still wearing Matthew Hobden’s No. 19 short, fell eight runs short of matching his efforts on day one but he kept his side in what has been a fiercely contested match. It was another chanceless innings, a bang on the head from a Porter bouncer the closest Essex came to upsetting him until Napier pinned him in front after nearly four hours at the crease.Nash’s entry in says that if he wasn’t playing cricket he would be sunbathing and he surely had the opportunity to work on his tan as well as his game while at Kirsten’s academy in Cape Town. Having tallied 211 runs in his first appearance of the season, he already has a pretty decent excuse to return there next winter.Talk about helmets and player protection has swirled in recent days but there was a reminder of the important job they do when Nash was felled by Porter. Nash was hit on the peak of a new-style helmet but was able to continue after some treatment and he credited the fixed grille for saving him from greater injury.Essex had resumed in the morning still trailing by more than 100 runs and only a gritty stand of 89 between ten Doeschate and Napier for the eighth wicket prevented Sussex from taking a much stronger grip on proceedings. It took a brilliant catch from Danny Briggs at first slip – a new addition to the cordon – to remove ten Doeschate but the captain’s half-century helped Essex to recover from 219 for 7 on the second evening and get to within 40 runs of Sussex’s first-innings 360.Napier may be a little more crinkly around the eyes and a little more stocky in stature but he still ably fills the “local legend” brief in county cricket. His batting was more watchful foil than wrecking ball – though a top-edged hook at Magoffin did sail for six – as he hung around for an hour and 40 minutes before becoming Essex’s ninth man out. But his work for the day was far from over.

Starc’s father passed away from cancer on Tuesday

Alex Malcolm24-Feb-2021Mitchell Starc and Steven Smith have withdrawn from the New South Wales squad to face Victoria in the Sheffield Shield at Bankstown Oval starting on Thursday.Starc will miss the game following the passing of his father Paul on Tuesday after a battle with cancer. Starc’s wife Alyssa Healy also withdrew from New South Wales’ next two WNCL fixtures.Earlier in the season Starc left Australia’s hub during the limited-overs matches against India to spend time with his family but returned to feature in all four Tests.”All our thoughts and prayers are going out to Mitch and his family,” said team-mate Nathn Lyon said. “It’s a tough time for Mitch but he knows he has all our love and support from, just not me, but from everyone here at New South Wales Cricket and the cricket community as well.”Smith will miss the clash, which was relocated from Melbourne to Sydney, due to an elbow issue that has flared up.Related

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“I have had some pain in my elbow that’s gradually worsened since the Test against India at the SCG and it requires some rest and rehab,” Smith said. “I am hoping I will be right to travel with the Blues to Adelaide for our games down there next week but we will have to see how it responds to treatment.”Lyon said Smith had been struggling to hold the bat at training. “He tried to have a hit yesterday. He was just in discomfort, pain. All I know is it mustn’t be great if he’s missing a game of cricket, especially for New South Wales.”David Warner is still unavailable due to his groin injury but he stated on Tuesday that he was aiming to return for the Blues Marsh Cup clash with South Australia on March 4 in Adelaide.Pat Cummins will make his first Shield appearance of the season after missing the game against Victoria last week. Josh Hazlewood is being rested. Liam Hatcher and Jason Sangha have been included in the 13-man squad as replacements for Smith and Starc.New South Wales Shield squad: Peter Nevill (capt), Sean Abbott, Harry Conway, Trent Copeland, Pat Cummins, Moises Henriques, Daniel Hughes, Nick Larkin, Nathan Lyon, Kurtis Patterson, Jason Sangha, Daniel Solway, Liam Hatcher

They will also play West Indies for a bilateral series in December before the global event

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Nov-2021Warriors batter George van Heerden will lead the South Africa Under-19 side in the World Cup early next year in the Caribbean. They will also take part in a pre-World Cup bilateral tour against West Indies in December to prepare for the global event.The squad of 15 also features Titans batter Dewald Brevis, who had impressed recently in the CSA Provincial T20 Knockout competition, and Western Province’s Asakhe Tsaka, who finished with an economy rate of 6.42 in the tournament.van Heerden recently led the Under-19 squad in the CSA Provincial T20 Cup when they took on Easterns, North West and Dolphins.”The process of putting this group of players together is only the pinnacle of the work that started as far back as three years ago when some of these players were exposed to the CSA Talent Acceleration Programme (TAP) for the first time,” South Africa Under-19s convenor of selectors, Patrick Moroney said.”All these players played in the CSA Cubs week hosted in January earlier this year. Covid has played a big part in things being different, especially taking into account the schools cricket programme where schools play each other on a week-to-week basis that could not take place because of Covid. But taking all into account I believe that we have managed to select a team that will be competitive at the World Cup in the West Indies.”Head coach Shukri Conrad said: “We have a lot of exciting players in our group, and I am certain they will be well-led by George van Heerden.”I want us to have the courage of our convictions. Have the courage to play the way we have practised, to follow the philosophy that we have set out and, hopefully, we can adapt, depending on what conditions are prevalent in the West Indies, both on the tour and the World Cup.”The World Cup is the priority, but we also have a series to the West Indies that we’d like to win. It is also great preparation for the boys. I would like to see our boys continue the work; we still have a little bit of work to do before we get there and once there, to go out and have the courage to play the way we want to play.”Ultimately, I believe if we do that enough, then we will be victorious. We are certainly not going there as a side who wants to just compete, or a side just thrilled to be there, we want to not only give a good account of ourselves but also get into the play-off stages and win tournaments.”That’s a long way away, but if we follow the building blocks, we will be alright.”Squad for World Cup: George van Heerden (capt), Liam Alder, Matthew Boast, Dewald Brevis, Michael Copeland, Ethan Cunningham, Valentine Kitime, Kwena Maphaka, Gerhard Maree, Aphiwe Mnyanda, Andile Simelane, Jade Smith, Kaden Solomons, Joshua Stephenson, Asakhe Tshaka. Travelling reserves:
Hardus Coetzer, Ronan Hermann, Caleb Seleka.Squad for West Indies bilateral tour: George van Heerden (capt), Liam Alder, Matthew Boast, Dewald Brevis, Michael Copeland, Ethan Cunningham, Valentine Kitime, Kwena Maphaka, Gerhard Maree, Aphiwe Mnyanda, Andile Simelane, Jade Smith, Kaden Solomons, Joshua Stephenson, Asakhe Tshaka.

USA’s chances for winning the Auty Cup took another hit with the withdrawal of allrounder Timroy Allen

Peter Della Penna13-Oct-2016USA’s chances for winning the Auty Cup took another hit with the withdrawal of allrounder Timroy Allen. An ICC Americas official confirmed on Wednesday that the Jamaica Tallawahs-contracted player would be unavailable for the three-match series against Canada, which starts from October 13, due to a “pre-advised commitment”.Allen’s spot in the squad has been taken by batsman Ravi Timbawala, who lives and plays his club cricket at Woodley Park in Los Angeles, the venue for the Auty Cup. Timbawala was second on the list of run-getters at USA’s 30-man squad camp at the start of August in Florida but was a surprise omission from the final 14-man USA squad for ICC WCL Division Four, beginning October 29.Allen is the second CPL-contracted player to withdraw from USA’s original Auty Cup squad and his absence leaves USA without both new-ball pace bowlers for the series. Guyana Amazon Warriors fast bowler Ali Khan was ruled out after he failed to recover in time from a left hamstring injury suffered at the five-day national camp at Indianapolis on September 20.Khan’s spot was taken by medium-pacer Hammad Shahid, who will also provide standby cover for WCL Division Four in case Khan cannot recover in time for the start of the tournament.

Slingy speedster Munis Ansari produced a yorker barrage that Jersey’s batsmen could not answer on his way to claiming 5 for 27 and Man of the Match honours in Oman’s 58-run win

Peter Della Penna in Jersey23-May-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSlingy speedster Munis Ansari produced a yorker barrage that Jersey’s batsmen could not answer on his way to claiming 5 for 27 and Man-of-the-Match honours in Oman’s 58-run win at St Saviour. Ansari took two wickets in his first spell, including the key scalp of Jersey captain Peter Gough for 17, before returning to spark a hasty conclusion with three more as Jersey fell from 143 for 5 to 147 all out in pursuit of Oman’s 205 for 9.Jersey’s middle order produced a resilient fightback after the team had slipped to 43 for 4 during Ansari’s first spell, in which he also claimed Cornelis Bodenstein caught behind for a duck. Jonty Jenner and Anthony Hawkins-Kay added 39 for the fifth wicket to give Jersey a bit of hope before Jenner slammed a full and wide ball straight back at left-arm spinner Aamir Kaleem, who took a stunning return catch for his second wicket to make it 82 for 5 one ball into the 24th over.Hawkins-Kay grinded his way through the next 10 overs with an able ally in Luke Gallichan, who made 30 as part of a 61-run sixth-wicket stand. After bowling five overs earlier, Ansari came back for a second spell to start the 33rd over and the pair was able to negotiate him safely for his first two overs of the spell, but a key moment occurred on the first ball of Ansari’s eighth over, the 37th, that contributed to the breakdown of the partnership.Hawkins-Kay was on strike and clipped a single off Ansari through the leg side. Gallichan wanted to push for two but when he was turned down, he tweaked his left calf muscle while trying to get back to his crease. Gallichan took a single off the next ball, after playing to third man, but hobbled all the way down the pitch and needed treatment from the physio, resulting in a seven-minute break before he decided to continue batting. After one more single by Hawkins-Kay, Gallichan came back on strike and, with his footwork now limited, he was promptly bowled by an Ansari yorker.Charles Perchard arrived and fell to another Ansari toe-crusher but Jake Dunford was able to keep out Ansari’s hat-trick ball. Three balls into the 38th over, Hawkins-Kay’s dogged stay ended for 45 when he was adjudged to have edged one down the leg side off Rajeshkumar Ranpura that was spectacularly caught by Swapnil Khadye. Ansari started his final over by yorking Ben Kynman for his fifth wicket before Ranpura ended the match nine balls later, getting the injured Rhys Palmer to edge to Kaleem at second slip.Palmer’s health was a point of contention before the start of play when he suffered a knee injury while warming up after Jersey had won the toss and opted to field. The Jersey team management requested to have Palmer changed out of the XI after he had initially been included but Oman captain Ajay Lalcheta declined, as is his right under ICC playing conditions. Palmer took 3 for 29 in the rain-affected first encounter between the two sides on Saturday which ended with no result, and his absence deprived Jersey of a specialist spinner on a track offering plenty of turn.Zeeshan Maqsood’s 69 paced Oman’s innings though the rest of the top order struggled for the third match in a row. Maqsood made his half-century off 73 balls, though he was dropped in back-to-back overs on 35 and 36 by the wicketkeeper Dunford, first standing up to Perchard’s medium pace and then to left-arm spinner Ben Stevens.Maqsood combined with Jatinder Singh for a 78-run third wicket partnership after Jatinder came in at 48 for 2 in the 17th over to give Oman a necessary platform for a defendable total. Perchard eventually nabbed Maqsood to end the 39th over, this time inducing an edge held on to by Dunford after Maqsood was cramped trying to cut. It was the third wicket in a patch that saw Oman lose four wickets for 17 runs, to shift momentum Jersey’s way. After Hawkins-Kay took one wicket in his opening spell, he came back late to claim Sunday’s high-scorer, Kaleem, for just 12 to make it 163 for 7.But Jersey’s focus lapsed over the final two overs as tailenders Khadye and Ranpura added 27 runs – including a six by each batsmen off consecutive balls to end the 49th and start the 50th over. Hawkins-Kay finished with Jersey’s best figures of 2 for 18, while spinners Stevens and Nat Watkins also took two each in the loss.

Join us for updates, analysis and colour from the first day of the Brisbane Test

Varun Shetty15-Jan-2021*Most recent entry will appear at the top, please refresh your page for the latest updates. All times are local.

5.30pm local/1pm IST: Stumps

Australia will be pleased with the day. It didn’t begin particularly well, with two wickets, but India gave them a sniff by dropping Labuschagne early and he’s anchored a positive innings on the day one. India were hamstrung with their best two bowlers going out, and the new faces might have felt like they were doing a decent job until Australia flipped the pressure on them through flowing knocks from Smith, Wade, Green and Paine right at the end. By the end of the day, India looked like a fading team, and the hosts have capitalised on that. India have also ended the day a bowler short. It could be a long day tomorrow.

4.30pm local/12pm IST: The pitch

Getty Images

It’s been a difficult pitch to assess from afar. Natarajan’s two wickets were deliveries that kicked off the surface and got big on two pull shots. The only real instance of that any time previously was the delivery off which Labuschagne was dropped earlier in the day. And these all came off different bowlers, and form differing lines. So what do you put it down to? The range of pace? The likelihood of a bowler getting it to grip? Cracks in the pitch? And in that case, the cracks would have to be on both the left- and right-handers’ sides. Which sounds far fetched so early in a Test. Perhaps the only characteristic that an be gauged confidently is its slow nature.

3.56pm local/11.26am IST