VISAKHAPATNAM: England were 194 for six at lunch in their second innings in pursuit of a record chase of 399 on the fourth day of the second Test against India here on Monday.

Ben Stokes (0) was at the crease during the break with England still needing 205 to win.

R Ashwin dismissed Ollie Pope (23) and Joe Root (16) in the morning session to take his Test wicket tally to 499. He had removed Ben Duckett (28) in the final session on day 3.

At the stroke of lunch, Kuldeep Yadav trapped Zak Crawley (73), while Jasprit Bumrah had Jonny Bairstow plumb in the 43rd over.

England were 67 for one at stumps on day 3.

India had scored 396 and 255 in their two innings, while England were dismissed for 253 in their first essay.

Brief scores: India 1st innings: 396 England 1st innings: 253 India 2nd innings: 255. England 2nd innings: 194 for six in 42.4 overs (Zak Crawley 73; R Ashwin 3/42).

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Man of the match Sean Abbott grabbed three wickets and slammed an entertaining 69 as Australia cruised to an 83-run victory over the West Indies in the second one-day international to seal the three-match series on Sunday.

Chasing 258-9, the visitors were dismissed for 175 in the 44th over at a humid Sydney Cricket Ground.

Abbott starred with 3-40 while Josh Hazlewood took 3-43.

“It was a challenging start to the game, the West Indies bowled quite well early on. It was a tricky surface, but our late middle order did a terrific job,” said Australia skipper Steve Smith.

“I thought 250 was around par and we came out and did the job really nicely with the ball.”

It was Australia’s 11th consecutive ODI win to wrap up the series with a match to play in Canberra on Tuesday.

Australia won the first game in Melbourne by eight wickets and while it was a more disciplined bowling performance by the West Indies, their batters struggled against the hosts’ relentless attack.

“I thought we stuck to our guns really well in the bowling department,” said West Indies captain Shai Hope. “But the Aussies bowled very well and we need to find a way to bat a bit more freely.”

The West Indies run chase started with a flourish as Alick Athanaze slammed successive boundaries off Aaron Hardie.

But he was out the following ball for 11 and fellow opener Justin Greaves (eight) went the next over with Hazlewood — back in the side for rested Melbourne bowling hero Xavier Bartlett — doing the damage.

When Kjorn Ottley was out for eight, caught behind off Abbott, they were struggling at 34-3.

Hope and Keacy Carty ground out a 53-run stand, but it took them 14 overs.

Hazlewood returned to bowl Hope for 29 and when Abbott accounted for Carty (40), the West Indies were 108-5 with the match slipping away.

Hazlewood struck again to remove Matthew Forde lbw and the night was capped by a sensational one-handed diving catch by Cameron Green to dismiss Roston Chase.

Earlier, Abbott hit 69 off 63 balls to help Australia post a respectable score after slumping to 167-7.

Explosive 21-year-old Jake Fraser-McGurk was handed a debut in place of Travis Head, but failed to fire after the West Indies won the toss and sent Australia in, out for 10 to Alzarri Joseph.

Joseph struck again seven balls later to remove Josh Inglis for nine, caught at backward point.

Green and Smith had steered Australia to their resounding win in Melbourne with an unbeaten 149-run stand.

But they were unable to repeat the feat with Forde bagging the key wicket of Smith, who chopped on to leave Australia tottering at 50-3.

Green added 39 with Marnus Labuschagne before he lofted Oshane Thomas to mid-on and was gone for 33.

Labuschagne (26) again failed to convert a start to a big score, with spinner Gudakesh Motie picking up his wicket before removing dangermen Aaron Hardie (26) and Matt Short (41).

Abbott then put on 57 with Will Sutherland — another debutant — before a late flurry took him to only his second one-day half-century.

NEW DELHI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been Rishabh Pant’s sounding board for a while now but there was a time when comparisons with the legendary former India skipper left the young keeper-batter so stressed that he struggled “to breathe”.

Pant is still recovering from a life-threatening car crash in 2022 and acknowledged that at this stage, Dhoni is the only person with whom he is comfortable sharing just about everything in his life.

But he also admitted that comparisons with the iconic Ranchi man were hard to take in the early days of his career.

“I used to really feel very bad. I used to go back to my room and cry at 20-21 years of age. Under stress, I couldn’t breathe. So much pressure, and I didn’t know what to do. I missed a stumping in Mohali, and the crowd started to chant ‘Dhoni Dhoni’,” Pant said in a ‘Star Sports’ series that documents his recovery from the accident.

Pant said at this point he feels emotionally overwhelmed while talking about his dynamics with the 2011 World Cup winner.

“I always find it difficult to explain my relationship with MS. Dhoni. There are some with whom you can talk freely. I discuss everything with MSD. I have learned so much from him.

“I discuss things with him that I wouldn’t discuss with anybody else. That’s the kind of relationship (I have) with him,” Pant said.

Pant, who was inarguably India’s biggest game-changer in Test cricket before being thrown off track by the horrific crash, said before it became hurtful, he was genuinely confused by the comparisons with a bonafide legend like Dhoni.

“First of all, I didn’t understand why questions were raised. I had just made it to the team, and people were talking about being a replacement,” Pant said.

“Why were people raising such questions at a youngster? Why are you comparing? There shouldn’t be any comparison at all. Some have played five matches and the others have played 500. It’s been such a long journey, so many ups and downs, so the comparison is not fair.”

Pant said he would forever be indebted to seniors like Yuvraj Singh for making him comfortable when he first came in.

“At the start, I was very young, and there were a lot of senior players, a lot of them actually. Yuvraj Singh, MS were there, all seniors. It does take some time, but I didn’t get the feeling of them being super seniors.

“They were very welcoming and made me very comfortable. They make every new player very comfortable. This is the culture of the Indian team,” he said.

NEW DELHI: Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah was on Wednesday appointed as the president of the Asian Cricket Council for a third consecutive term.

Shah’s extension was proposed by the Sri Lanka Cricket president Shammi Silva for the second time and the nomination was unanimously backed by all the members of the ACC at its annual general meeting in Bali.

Shah initially assumed the role in January 2021, succeeding Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan.

Under Shah’s leadership, the ACC successfully organised the Asia Cup in T20 format in 2022 and in ODI format in 2023.

“I am grateful to the ACC Board for their continued trust.

We must remain committed to ensuring the all-round development of the sport with a special focus on regions where it is still in its infancy.

The ACC is committed to nurturing cricket across Asia,” Shah said in a release.

“Under Shah’s guidance, the ACC has been instrumental in unearthing and promoting new talent in cricketing powerhouses like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka,” Silva said.

Pankaj Khimji, chairman of Oman Cricket and vice-president of the ACC, also extended congratulations on Shah’s term.

“Today, stakeholders see value in investing in tournaments that the ACC conducts, and I credit him for this major transformation, which will further fuel the growth of the game in the region,” Khimji stated.

Welcoming the reappointment, Hassan said cricket in Asia will continue to prosper under Shah’s leadership, emphasising collaboration with the ACC in furthering this endeavor.

HYDERABAD: Indian spinners were at their effective best in exploiting the turn on offer to jolt England’s ‘Bazball’ ambitions in the first session of the first Test itself, reducing them to 108 for three at lunch here on Thursday.

Joe Root (18 batting) and Jonny Bairstow (32 batting) are holding the fort for England, who batted by choice, after Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja put them through the wringer.

Ashwin and Jadeja started their symphony in the ninth over of the morning after England openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley plundered 41 runs in the initial eight overs.

Ashwin fetched the first breakthrough, trapping Duckett ((35, 39b, 7×4) in front of the wicket, underlining for the zillionth time his mastery over left-handed batters.

The 37-year-old managed to skid one on and Duckett played for non-existent spin and the ball beat his bat to hit the pads.

Umpire Chris Gaffaney did not have to think long before raising his finger, and even a review could not save Duckett as England’s opening stand ended at 55.

It was Ashwin’s 11th ball of the innings and Jadeja followed his partner’s suit soon with a regulation left-arm spinner dismissal.

Jadeja found enough turn and bounce outside the off-stump and Ollie Pope’s edge was pouched at first slip by skipper Rohit Sharma in the 14th over.

Ashwin added a 492nd Test wicket to his kitty in the very next over as Crawley wanted to assert himself over the off-spinner.

The right-hander drilled a fuller delivery to mid-off where Mohammed Siraj completed a fine tumbling catch, and the replays also confirmed the legality of his effort.

England were 60 for three then before Root and Bairstow steered them with luck and pluck for the rest of the passage with more hefty work coming their way in the second session.

However, the start England made to this Test belied their travails later on.

Duckett and Crawley carried the visitors past 50 in the 11th over after cracking 25 in the first four overs bowled by pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.

The Indian quicks managed to beat the outside edge of England batters a few times but they were also not consistent with their line and length.

Duckett’s off-drive off Bumrah that raced to the fence, perhaps, was the shot of the morning.

But the nature of the contest transformed drastically once India turned to their spinners.

HYDERABAD: A genteel late winter, early afternoon sun was beating down at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Tuesday. The strip to be used for the Test wasn’t covered (an indication of the strength of the sun). India were being put through their paces on the field, with both Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid overlooking proceedings. Even if it was an optional training session two days out from the beginning of the series, Jasprit Bumrah was the lone absentee.

Looking on from the outside, one big potential surprise was easy to miss. The hosts’ slip catching practice. Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul and Shubman Gill were the designated catchers but the man with the gloves was Dhruv Jurel. Jurel, called up for the first-time, was at ease and pulled off several acrobatic saves. The 23-year-old UP lad, who did feature for India A against England Lions (he had made a 50) less than two weeks ago, is a late bolter and is now well in with a chance of making a debut at the first time of asking. Saying that, KS Bharat, the current incumbent in home conditions, did have an extended net session with the bat in the practice facility near the stadium’s entrance. Skipper Sharma, who was batting in the next net, also had a few words of advice for Bharat at one time.

That, in essence, was the big news to emerge from the Indian camp. Coach Dravid confirmed that one of Jurel or Bharat will keep as the management have decided to play KL Rahul as a specialist batter in this series. “Rahul will not be playing as a wicketkeeper in this series,” the coach said in a press conference. “Obviously Rahul did a fantastic job for us in South Africa and really played a big part in us drawing that series. But considering it’s five Test matches and playing in these conditions, we felt we would go with another keeping option, considering the weather, considering the conditions. So obviously it’s a selection toss-up between the two other keepers that we have.”

While Rahul kept wickets in South Africa, Bharat was the man behind the stumps against Australia last year. If Jurel does get the nod, he will do so on a what is likely to be a surface that will aid spin. With the caveat that a lot can change over two days, the surface had some dry spots, especially in a good length area for spinners on both sides. Interestingly, there were also some dark spots in the middle of the strip. “It looks a good one from what I’ve seen,” Dravid said. “May spin a little bit. How quickly and how fast, I’m not sure. But might spin a little bit certainly as the game goes on.” An insider this daily spoke to said there are chances of the match going into a fifth day but he didn’t sound too confident.

At one point during Joe Root’s net session in the morning, he turned around and hit the stumps with his bat. Visibly annoyed, he f-bombed himself. One of the Hyderabad U-19 bowlers had induced a false stroke and the visiting batter was not pleased with himself. He was in the middle of a torrid phase where his trademark sweep shots didn’t come off. One ball fizzed off the surface, beat his edge before uprooting the stumps. Another one found the edge. After the net bowlers made way, James Anderson went full tilt and Root finally managed to get some momentum. Elsewhere, Ben Stokes seemed to be moving freely enough while Mark Wood bowled from a shortened run-up.

After the session, Wood said they will continue to play the brand of cricket that has won them lots of followers . “We will adapt, we have got a captain that always wants to take the game forward so it should make for an entertaining series.”

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu kabaddi teams put up a spirited display on Friday to stay in hunt for semifinal berths at the 6th Khelo India Youth Games 2023 being held at Chennai. Tamil Nadu women dominated their Group A clash to register an emphatic 78-13 victory over Telangana, while the men defeated Chandigarh 46-31 at the matches played in the Jawaharlal Nehru indoor stadium.

Both the home teams had lost their opening round-robin matches against defending champions Haryana on Thursday evening and needed a win to get their campaign back on track. And backed with a sizeable crowd the women thoroughly dominated the proceedings against Telangana. They scored a total of 45 points in the first half with eight all out and five bonus points.

In response, Telangana only managed to score four points. Though the hosts slowed down the tempo a bit in the second half, Telangana never really had a chance to fight back as they were all-out six times and never really looked in the contest.

“It was creditable show by our girls. They combined well as a unit and put up a spirited display,” said Kavitha Selvaraj, coach of the Tamil Nadu women’s team. “On Thursday our team could not perform to potential as a player was injured and we had a poor start. Today we picked the right players for each and every role and the team combination too worked very smoothly as per plans and thus we could win by a good margin,” added Kavitha.

Haryana have already secured a semifinal spot after beating Maharashtra 45-40 in their second group match.

In the men’s category, Tamil Nadu made a strong start to grab the initiative and opened up a 20-11 lead at half-time. Chandigarh boys fought back well in the second-half and stayed neck-and-neck with their opponents but could not overturn the deficit. Tamil Nadu will now face Delhi in their last group clash on Saturday.

Pooja, Tavneet top seeds

Tamil Nadu’s R Pooja Arthi and Madhya Pradesh’s Tavneet Singh Mundra have been given top billing in the women’s and men’s sections of the squash competition at the KIYG. The squash event will be conducted at the Indian Squash & Triathlon Academy in Chennai between January 20 and 24 and comprises men’s and women’s individual and team events. The individual draw is based on the players’ SRFI national rankings, while eight states will feature in the team event in each category.

Pooja Arthi, runner-up at the 2023 National Games, was given pride of place as she is currently No 4 among senior and No 2 among U-19 category in India. N Ramachandran, Patron, the Squash Rackets Federation of India expressed delight at the sport’s inclusion in the KIYG which will help further popularize the sport. “I would like to thank the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu for their steadfast support that has helped in the growth and development of squash in Tamil Nadu and India and we look forward to hosting a successful event,” said Ramachandran.

Results: Kabaddi

Men: Group A: Rajashthan bt Maharashtra 34-28; Madhya Pradesh bt Bihar 36-26;

Haryana bt Delhi 40-37; Tamil Nadu bt Chandigarh 46-31

Women: Group A: Haryana bt Maharashtra 45-40; Tamil Nadu bt Telangana 78-13.; Group B: Bihar bt Chandigarh 35-22.

BENGALURU: Skipper Rohit Sharma donned the glittering cap of saviour thrice in the night, first with a situation-defying hundred in regulation time and then with two mini assaults to help India fight past a feisty Afghanistan in a dramatic double Super Over finish in the third and final T20 here on Wednesday.

The result meant that India won their final series before the T20 World Cup with a satisfying 3-0 margin.

Before Super Overs kicked in, Rohit (121 not out, 69b, 11×4, 8×6) and his perfect sidekick Rinku Singh (69 n.

o, 39b, 2×4, 6×6) shared 190 runs for a stellar unbeaten fifth-wicket stand as India came back from a flaky 22 for four to post a massive 212 for four after opting to bat first.

The Afghans started gamely through openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (50, 32b) and Ibrahim Zadran (50, 41 balls) as they added 93 runs in 11 overs, building a solid foundation for the chase.

Their departure saw spinners Washington Sundar (3/18) and Kuldeep Yadav (1/31) tightening things a bit but the experienced Gulbadin Naib (55 not out off 23 balls) played some twinkling shots to keep his side in the hunt.

Naib knocked off 18 runs of the required 19 off the final over bowled by pacer Mukesh Kumar, dragging the match into a Super Over.

The visitors made 16 for 1 in the first Super Over bowled by Mukesh and India equalled the score with Rohit making 13, and it stretched the game to the second Super Over.

In this phase, India made 11 and Rohit made all those runs before getting run out.

Afghanistan lost both Mohammad Nabi and Gurbaz to leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi as they failed to score any runs in the second Super Over, signalling the end of a winding match.

Rohit remained the star of the night among all that commotion, also silencing those who doubted his suitability to be in India’s T20 scheme of things.

A strike-rate of 175 often will give the picture of manic hitting but his innings was anything but that.

His top-order colleagues’ callousness while playing the pull shot meant that Rohit had to restrain himself in the initial part of his stay.

Even Rinku displayed his destructive instincts judiciously and that gradually-building crescendo was the trademark of their alliance.

The Afghanistan spinners found a hint of grip from the surface, and Rohit had to bring out a rather rare shot from his arsenal, reverse sweep to unsettle opposition spinners.

In fact, a reverse sweep off leg-spinner Qais Ahmad fetched him a T20 fifty off 41 balls, a first since October 2022.

But even a restraint Rohit can be a sight for sore eyes.

There were those inevitable and archetypal pulls that make a Rohit innings such a compelling watch.

Perhaps, a message for other top-order batters on the safe execution of that shot.

The Mumbaikar’s on-one-leg pull off pacer Mohammed Saleem that sailed into second tier was an astounding shot.

But once he felt that India had reached a safer shore, Rohit unleashed himself on the Afghans as 71 runs flowed from the next 28 balls he faced.

The fifty soon blossomed into a hundred off 63 balls, Rohit’s first in T20 since his 111 against the West Indies at Lucknow in 2018.

This was also Rohit’s highest score in T20s, surpassing his 118 against Sri Lanka at Indore in 2017.

At the other end, Rinku had the simple job of keeping his end up and the left-hander did that job with maturity.

Rinku, though, vented his belligerence when the opportunity presented itself, such as a flicked six off Saleem over square leg and carried on to register his second T20 fifty as the Afghans wilted under continuous onslaught.

However, it was not entirely a smooth ride for the Indians as their top-order caved in against a sprightly Afghan new-ball bowlers.

Yashasvi Jaiswal was the first to depart as left-arm pacer Fareed Ahmad cramped him for room, and the opener’s top-edged pull was snaffled by Mohammed Nabi in the deep.

Virat Kohli lasted just one ball.

Entering the field to a rapturous welcome from a packed stadium, Kohli could not negate a climbing delivery from Ahmad, slicing the pull to Zadran just inside the circle.

Sanju Samson too lasted just a ball, a mistimed pull off Azmatullah Omarzai ending in the hands of Nabi.

Amidst the pulling frenzy of his top-order colleagues, in-form Shivam Dube wanted to push one down to the vacant third man space, but all he could do was to nurdle the ball to Gurbaz behind the stumps.

Ahmad ended his first spell with impressive figures of 3-0-10-3 as India ended the power play at a vastly underwhelming 30 for four.