India dismantles South Africa in Second Test

India is finally out of the 2019 World Cup semi-final defeat and is looking for a fresh and happy start in the longest format of the game after winning second test match in South Africa’s tour of India and confirming a series win of 2-0 with one test to go in the three match test series.

Unlike the first test match, this time South African batsmen failed to create a huge partnership in the middle and failed to reach any near to India’s first inning total of 601 runs but South Africa did had a good spell of batting in both innings because of their middle and lower order batsmen who were fantastic in second test match and in that group of batsmen, Captain Faf Du Plessis and two bowler’s Vernon Philander and Keshav Maharaj performances were amazing.

How did South Africa miss a good opportunity of having a possible draw?

The reason behind South Africa’s poor performance was because India destroyed South Africa’s top order line-up where India got 5 wickets from first innings through fast bowlers (Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma) and in it Umesh Yadav’s speed was too much for South Africa to handle as they lost both their openers within 4 overs and in it both Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram scored 6 and a duck during South Africa’s first innings.
During South Africa’s second innings India got another wicket taker in the pace department as Ishant stepped up for the challenge, who missed out for wickets in the first innings and his first wicket of the match was of Markram and unfortunately for South Africa it was his second duck of the match and that too an LBW, both time Markram didn’t questioned the umpires for a DRS review and went straight to the pavilion in both occasions.

So, now with Ishant in for wickets it was much easier for India to get out five top order batsmen including South African Skipper Du Plessis for 5 runs and from the top only Elgar and Bavuma were a problem, for a while but thanks to both the spinners as Ravichandran Ashwin got out Elgar at 48 and Ravindra Jadeja got out Bavuma at 38 and even though all that trouble, South Africa still didn’t give up because tail ender’s Vernon Philander and Keshav Maharaj added 56 runs to the scoreboard and pushed South Africa’s total from 129-7 to 185-8 and India had to wait for another 132 balls until, 66^th over came when Yadav’s persistence was finally paid off and in the very first ball of 66^th he got out Philander at 37 runs and later, the two new batsmen Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje were not as stubborn as the pair of Maharaj and Philander due to this in the last ball of 66^th over Rabada got out and in the very next over (67^th over) Maharaj got out and Jadeja took the honours of taking his wicket, South Africa were all out at 189 and India scripted its 11 consecutive test series win at home from 2012/13 to present and have broken 19 year old record of Australia who had 10 successive series victories at home from 1994/95 - 2000/01.

October 14, 2019 - By Dhruv Trivedi

India leads T20i Series 1-0

Virat Kohli and boys eased to a 1-0 victory in India Vs South Africa T20i series.

After the first match was whitewashed, second match was much anticipated one and in it South Africa posed an average target of 150 with the help of Captain Quinton de Kock and new first down wicket keeper batsmen Temba Bavuma. 


Pic Credit - battingworld.com

When Proteas lost their first opener Reeza Hendricks on 6 through young Deepak Char then India had an edge over South Africa but India lost its control soon after a slow and steady partnership between Skipper and Bavuma which brought Proteas back to the game with their 57 run partnership, de Kock scored 52 and Bavuma 49.


Pic Credit - AFP.

Again, medium pacer Chahar broke the partnership on 88 team runs after getting captain out on 52 runs and in the next over Haryana born Navdeep Saini got out fresh batsmen Van der Dussen and South Africa lost two wickets in two overs and in just two runs from 88-2 to 90-3.
Last two wickets felled for South Africa were Bavuma and David Miller on 49 and 18 respectively and South Africa finished the innings with 149 runs.
So, even though South Africa handled themselves from an early blow of Hendricks but this affected their pace of scoring runs as they managed an average total of 149.

India fell in to the same situation like South Africa as India lost opener Rohit Sharma quickly on 12 runs and here also opener (Shikhar Dhawan) and captain (Virat Kohli) helped India to build a strong partnership of 61 which lasted 51 balls and Dhawan got out on 94 team runs and just like South Africa, India too lost their third wicket quickly and two overs later on 13.4 overs India lost third wicket new batsmen Rishabh Pant after that India still needed 56 runs with captain Kohli on crease. India chased the remaining amount of runs in just 35 balls and India won the second T20i and Shreyas Iyer got the golden opportunity scoring the winning runs after he hit a four on long on while, India needed 3 runs from 7 balls and Iyer hitting in the last ball of second last over of the match (18.6) and India won with one over to spare.


Pic Credit - Eyewitness News.
 
Virat Kohli’s recipe for success was of trying young and inexperienced players in shortest format of the game was successful this time and, in the process, he gave chance to four bowlers and one batsman-

1. Navdeep Saini.
2. Deepk Chahar.
3. Krunal Pandya.
4. Washington Sundar.
5. Shreyas Iyer.


Pic Credit - My Khel.

And from this five Navdeep Saini is the latest addition to the Indian team while his debut in T20i came recently on 2019 West Indies tour.

Final Score:
South Africa – 149/5,
India – 151/3.
Man of the Match – Virat Kohli.
India won by 7 wickets.


Pic Credit - Reuters.

Third and final T20i will be played on 22^nd September at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.

September 19, 2019

Virat led Indian XI washed out Windies

Team India and Skipper Virat Kohli did it yesterday night as India completed a series white wash after West Indies lost three series mentioned below-

(I.) 3 Match T20 Series (3^rd August – 6^th August).
(II.) 3 Match ODI Series (8^th August – 14^th August).
(III.) 2 Match Test Series (22^nd August – 4^th September).


Picture Credit: Fox Sports.

Now, Second Test match was another game where India showed their all-rounder performance in which India got high score total’s above 400 and taking 20 wickets in a match.
West Indies were quite lucky to win two tosses in the test series and they stayed to their decision of bowling first both the times and for the first test West Indies managed to get all out within 300 runs but in second one, India were much stronger and composed team where they reached 414 runs in 140 overs and added 119 runs compared to last match’s first inning score of 297.
India were able to reach 400 due to a strong performance from middle order batsmen which contributed more than fifty percent while the total was 416 and these four scored 238 runs which consisted Skipper Kohli’s 70 runs and Hanuman Vihari’s maiden test century.
West Indies were ready to give a fight to India but India’s bowlers broke the Caribbean player’s confidence because after West Indies lost their first wicket on 9 runs and India just completely brooked them 4 runs later, when Jasprit Bumrah got his first hattrick in his career after upholding umpire decision in the hattrick ball through DRS and India just got their first test hattrick in 13 years and West Indies went from 9-1 to 13-4 in no time and were they got all out at 117 runs and like last match, West Indies faced follow-on and this time it was even bigger as 299 first innings lead was more than enough for visitors so, India scored just 168 runs and declared the innings.


Image Credit-Reuters.

Now, the target for West Indies was 467, this time West Indies middle order performed well as four players scored runs in double figures and one even scored second half century of the series for West Indies (Shamarh Brooks) which helped West Indies to reach 177 comfortably and also lower-order batsmen Jermaine Blackwood played a stable innings of 38 but when he got out on 177 team runs then West Indies still needed 290 runs and all the responsibilities were on shoulders of skippers Jason Holder and three tail-ender for a possible draw and the worst thing happened for West Indies as all three tail-enders Rahkeem Cornwall, Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel got out at just 29 runs from the time when they came to the crease (177-206 runs) and Holder scored the second best individual score (39) for West Indies in the entire match but it was of no use after a terrible performance from lower order batsmen.
And West Indies lost the match and the series by 257 runs and the decision to bowl first proved to be difficult one following a strong Indian batting line-up and West Indies lost the series in their home.


Image Credit: Reuters.

Indian captain Virat Kohli is the most successful Indian captain ever with more wins than Indian captain and the list is given below: