Matt Henry claimed a career-best 7-23 as New Zealand bundled out South Africa for 95 in two sessions to take charge of the opening test in Christchurch on Thursday.
Playing his first Test in eight months Henry wreaked havoc on a greentop at the Hagley Oval, consigning South Africa to their lowest score against New Zealand. Henry’s bounce and movement saw South Africa bowled out for 95 before tea. While, Tea was taken early when tail Duanne Oliver was out for one to end the innings with Henry taking seven for 23 as New Zealand cashed in winning the coin toss and calling on South Africa to hitting under conditions favorable to bowlers.
Henry’s previous best was four for 93 against South Africa four years ago, he has struggled to be a regular member of the New Zealand attack where Tim Southee and Trent Boult have long been the new ball bowlers. However, with Boult on paternity leave, the Christchurch-born Henry relished the chance to perform in front of his home crowd.
https://youtu.be/L5DxmTtB9D8
Meanwhile, New Zeland reached Stumps on Day 1 at 116/3 as 13 wickets fell on a day where bowlers dominated in Christchurch. Henry Nicholls (37) and nightwatchman Neil Wagner (2) were unbeaten as New Zealand sealed a 21-run lead at Stumps.
South Africa managed to win a thrilling final ODI to whitewash India in ODI series. However, the Men in Blue fell short by four runs, as the Proteas registered a 3-0 clean sweep, while the netizens were delightfully entertained.
Ater being put in to bat first, Quinton de Kock starred for South Africa scoring his sixth century in ODIs against India. The southpaw was in amazing touch on the day and didn’t let the Men in Blue dominate the proceedings especially in the middle overs. Rassie van der Dussen yet again looked solid in his approach. He played a perfect second fiddle to De Kock keeping the run-rate abreast. Yet, India came back well in the last 10 overs of the innings to restrict the hosts to 287.
In reply, Shikhar Dhawan (61 off 73) and Virat Kohli (65 off 84) played important knocks but India were in deep trouble at one point after losing quick wickets during middle overs. However, Deepak Chahar’s knock under pressure ignited hopes and kept India in the game till the time he was at the crease. Twitter has gone into a frenzy after India suffered a whitewash against the Proteas who were incredible under pressure.
Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur are the kind of players India need to be looking for. People who genuinely contribute two ways.
No excuses that India is missing some top players for this series. SA did too. Clean sweep loss is rare for Indian team. A lot of soul searching required now for ODI. #SAvIND#Cricket
After a heartbreaking loss against South Africa in red-ball cricket both teams face-off in the three-match One-Day International series. KL Rahul will lead the Indian team in absence of injured Rohit Sharma. Besides, Jasprit Bumrah has been named vice captain.
India and South Africa will play a three-match ODI series starting from 19th January. The first match will be played at Boland Park, Paarl. However, Team India have already suffered two huge blows from the squad standpoint. Washington Sundar couldn’t board the flight as he was tested position ahead of the tour. Whereas Mohammed Siraj suffered an injury in the second Test, and he is unlikely to recover. Jayant Yadav and Navdeep Saini have been announced as their replacements.
It will be interesting to see what sort of combination team India plays against South Africa after the return of opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan. There is a chance that India might hand all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer ODI debut as well. As far as opening combination is concerned, Rahul and Dhawan will open with Virat Kohli at number three. Shreyas Iyer and Surya Kumar Yadav will bat at four and five respectively followed by wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant.
India has five bowling options in the form of Thakur, Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar/Siraj, Chahal and Bumrah. However, India will have to decide between Iyer and Ravi Ashwin while Yuzvendra Chahal is set to feature as prime spinner. Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead the bowling attack. It could be a toss up between Deepak Chahar and Shardul for the third seamer option.
On day 2 of the last and deciding test match between India and South Africa in Cape Town, South Africa started out on the pitch with bat in hand as they tried to chase down the target set by India at 223 runs.
The Indian bowling line-up did pick up wickets regularly between the start and the second innings as they took out Makram, Keshav Maharaj and Dussen. However, the biggest wicket came when India managed to get Buvuma as Petersen was left on the pitch without any good partners to back him up. This followed a batting crumble as India took the upper hand by stopping South Africa from getting to the target. South Africa lost their wickets with 14 runs still to get as India were called back to bat.
The bowling performance by India was incredible. With the likes of Yadav and Shami getting a couple of wickets each and Lord Thakur getting one of his own, Bumrah led the pack with his insane five-for which included the wickets of Elgar, Makram, Jansen, Petersen and Ngidi.
The Indian batting line up started as usual with Agarwal and Rahul at the top. This time around however the opening bowlers knew what to do and quickly got the two opening wickets. However, captain Kohli and the modern wall Pujara held down the fort for India as they ended the day at 57 runs for the loss of 2 wickets. India now have a lead of 70 runs as they begin Day 3.
India’s test captain Virat Kohli is back at full fitness and has been medically cleared to play at the Cape Town test match between South Africa and India.
After sitting out of the second test match between the two sides in Johannesburg, Kohli is now resuming his test campaign as India stand with a chance to create history in South Africa this week.
India have never beaten South Africa in their house when it comes to test series. However, with a team like the current team, India have never had a better chance. With Pujara and Rahane seemingly pulling out their forms out of their bags again, it looks like India just might take home the big win and finally add South Africa to the list alongside Australia and England (countries they recently beat in away series).
“I obviously cannot pinpoint when we will have a talk about transition,” Kohli said, when asked whether the team management had had any conversations about a longer-term transition in the middle order. “I think the game itself pans out in a way where transitions happen naturally, so it cannot be forced by individuals, I feel.”
“And if you look at the last Test, both Jinks and Pujara, the way they batted in the second innings, that experience is obviously priceless for us, and especially in series like these where you know these guys have done the job in the past and when you are playing overseas, in tough conditions, these guys will always step up with impact performances.”
“We saw that in Australia as well, the last time we were there (2020-21), we’re seeing that now as well in the last Test. Crucial knocks. Crucial knocks in crucial situations, in crucial scenarios, and that has a lot of value.”
“So I feel transitions do happen, but they happen naturally, and a conversation cannot be forced around a transition is what I’ve experienced and what I feel. When the transition has to happen, everyone knows in which direction the team is moving, and that is a very natural progression, so I think we should leave the transition to unfold itself, and not necessarily force individuals in difficult situations or tricky situations and I truly believe in that.”
“MS Dhoni said to me very early on that there should be a gap of at least 7-8 months between two mistakes, only then will your career grow in international cricket. I internalised that within my system, that I won’t keep repeating the same mistake. And that happens when you reflect on your mistakes, which I know Rishabh does…”
