Test Match
India 557/5d
New Zealand 28/0 (9.0 ov)
New Zealand trail by 529 runs with 10 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
Virat Kohli scored his second Test double-hundred and Ajinkya Rahane made 188 before India declared their first innings at 557 for 5 and left New Zealand a tricky nine overs to bat at the end of day two. They managed to survive this period unscathed, as Tom Latham and an aggressive Martin Guptill took them to 28 for 0 at stumps.
Kohli and Rahane added 365, India's highest partnership for the fourth wicket, and subjected New Zealand to three wicketless sessions before Jeetan Patel finally broke through in the first over after tea. Going on the back foot to a quickish length ball, Kohli was lbw trying to work the ball into the leg side.
Rahane played his shots as India looked to score quick runs before declaring, hitting Patel and Mitchell Santner for three fours in five overs, before falling to another aggressive shot when he was within sight of a maiden double-ton, nicking to the wicketkeeper while trying to drive Trent Boult away from his body.
Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja - promoted ahead of R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha - then hustled 53 in 9.5 overs before Kohli called them in. In what turned out to be the penultimate over of their innings, umpire Bruce Oxenford penalised Jadeja for running on the danger area of the pitch, awarding New Zealand five penalty runs. Jadeja had already received a caution and a warning.
The pitch, fairly benign on day one, continued to belie its appearance, the multitude of cracks on its surface causing the batsmen only the occasional bit of discomfort, usually when the ball kept low. Kohli nearly played on when he went back to defend one such ball from Patel, early in the day: it hit the toe-end of his bat, then the ground, and then bounced over the stumps. Later in the morning session, Rahane jammed his bat down hurriedly to keep out another ankle-high Patel shooter. Otherwise, there was little in either the bowling or the pitch to worry Kohli and Rahane.
Kohli, who scored 200 against West Indies in July, in Antigua, became the first Indian to make two double-hundreds as captain. He also became the first Indian since Sachin Tendulkar in 2010 to score two double-tons in a year. He carried on batting with the same understated authority he had displayed on day one, flowing smoothly along and giving New Zealand no glimpse of a way past him. He hit ten of his 20 fours on day two, including a couple of gorgeous drives down the ground - one, shortly after lunch, off James Neesham, bisected the tiniest of gaps between short midwicket and mid-on - and even a delicate reverse-dab off Santner that sped to the boundary to the left of backward point.
There was a sense of inevitability about Kohli's runs. Three times this series, he has been out to ambitious shots, and in this innings stayed well within self-imposed limits of strokeplay. He only hit one boundary across the line of a full ball, when he was already past 150 and took the liberty of muscling Santner into the gap between deep square leg and long-on. He almost never lofted the ball.
That option was left to Rahane, who used his feet superbly to the spinners, either to loft Santner inside-out or to give himself a bit of swinging room and flat-bat Patel back over his head. He played the chip over the covers even against the seamers, bringing up his 150 with that shot, off Neesham.
Virat Kohli scored his second double-hundred © BCCI
These were the shots of a batsman enjoying himself after a hard struggle to his century. In the morning session, New Zealand's fast bowlers, as they had done through day one, peppered Rahane with the short ball, looking to exploit the uncertain pace and bounce of the Holkar Stadium pitch to plant indecision in the batsman's head.
Rahane ducked under the first one he faced in the morning, against Henry, and pulled the next one, at the start of his next over, to the square-leg boundary, closing his eyes momentarily but rolling his wrists nicely over the head-high ball to keep it down. Then, two balls later, Henry went around the wicket. Rahane swayed away to account for the angle across him, but it jagged back in off the pitch, followed him, and hit the side of his helmet, just over his ear.
The bowler and New Zealand's fielders came to Rahane to check on his health, but that didn't mean the bouncer barrage would end. Henry bowled another the very next ball, and Rahane top-edged a hook towards fine leg.
Given the discomfort this tactic was causing Rahane, Williamson delayed the reintroduction of the left-arm spinner Santner, who had been ready to come on at the start of the 100th over. Henry bowled another instead - the fifth of his morning spell - and then gave way to Boult.
By then, though, Rahane had moved to 99, and got to his hundred off Boult's first ball, a short one down the leg side that he paddled down to fine leg. This was perhaps the least fluent of his eight Test hundreds, but perhaps also one of the most satisfying, given how much discomfort he had overcome.
4th ODI SA V AUS
Australia 167 (36.4 ov)
South Africa 168/4 (35.3 ov)
South Africa won by 6 wickets (with 87 balls remaining)
Australian hand-wringing about taking an under-strength bowling attack to South Africa was placed in sharp perspective on a breezy morning in Port Elizabeth. Facing a South African side resting three first-choice bowlers in a dead rubber, Steven Smith's side were shot out for a mere 167 to set-up a six-wicket win.
Kyle Abbott and Tabraiz Shamsi were the chief tormentors of the tourists, the former finding exactly the right length to best use the early movement on offer, the latter re-opening the sorts of wounds inflicted by Sri Lanka's spin bowlers on Australia's previous tour with a clever spell of left arm wrist-spin. Neither had been needed in the live matches.
Save for a 50 by Mitchell Marsh and a punchy contribution from Matthew Wade, the most notable moment for Australia was Wade's running battle with Shamsi. This culminated in something very near to a physical clash as Wade hung his elbow out while running past Shamsi, causing the umpires to intervene.
There were further exchanges as the Australians sought to defend their meagre total. Clearly the visitors had intended to fight this one out, but despite an improved bowling effort they never really had a chance to bowl South Africa out. A pair of missed chances did not help either, most notably a sitter dropped by Adam Zampa off Faf du Plessis, who went on to top-score with 69.
Overall this was another performance South Africa could be proud of, demonstrating that their ODI squad presently has plenty of depth to it. South Africa had withdrawn the injured David Miller plus Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir. In their places were Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Aaron Phangiso and Shamsi.
The visitors made only one change to the team that lost from such a strong position in Durban, recalling Scott Boland for Daniel Worrall. Australia's batsmen had regained some of their former strut at Kingsmead, and after Smith won the toss the expectation would have been to capitalise on a seemingly weakened home attack.
However, Abbott took full advantage of both his first start in the series and a modicum of early seam movement with the new ball. First he bowled Aaron Finch through the gate with a lovely delivery that shaped to swing away before cutting back, then followed up with an appreciably quicker ball that surprised Warner with pace and movement back between bat and pad.
At the other end, Dwaine Pretorius provided a neat contrast with his greater height and high action, angling one back to George Bailey for an lbw verdict from the umpire Nigel Llong. All of a sudden Australia were 12 for 3, the innings in grim shape and the allrounder Marsh already at the crease.
He and Smith tried to steady things for a time, but the introduction of Shamsi's left-arm wristspin brought another period of South African jubilation. Smith propped forward to a ball straightening down the line of the stumps, and a review found he was struck in line for the lbw. In the same over, Travis Head played inside a delivery that straightened past his groping blade, and a scoreline of 50 for 5 was the deflating result.
Not for the first time in his career, Wade came out spoiling for a fight, and a series of verbal confrontations with Shamsi escalated to the point that he hung out an elbow while running more or less straight at the bowler. That moment caused Llong to speak to both players and call for calm.
Marsh played sensibly meanwhile, forging to 50 and offering Australia the faintest hope of a reasonable tally. However he had not made another run when Abbott returned to coax an outside edge, and re-commence the procession of wickets. Wade and Chris Tremain were able to add a pesky 46, but even that still left Australia with comfortably their lowest ODI total at St George's Park.
Tremain delivered a decent opening spell at the start of South Africa's pursuit, which began before the scheduled innings break because Australia's innings had ended so quickly. Hashim Amla was lbw to a break-back before Quinton de Kock picked out deep square leg with a sweetly-struck pull shot.
However du Plessis and JP Duminy were able to carry the hosts past halfway to the target, notably getting on top of the experienced John Hastings once again: his high economy has been one of many problems for Smith's team. Zampa's drop of du Plessis did not help either, causing plenty of befuddled looks on the team balcony.
When du Plessis did finally fall, the tourists upped their intensity in the middle, "chirping" frequently at the new batsman Farhaan Behardien. But it was sound and fury signifying nothing, as the total was reeled in with 87 balls to spare. A whitewash looms in Cape Town.
2nd ODI BAN V ENG
England slumped to a 34-run defeat in the second one-day international against Bangladesh in Dhaka.
Tigers captain Mashrafe Mortaza took 4-28 to back up his performance with the bat as England were dismissed for 204.
England's bowlers performed well on a slow pitch to restrict Bangladesh, before 44 from Mortaza and a fine 75 from Mahmudullah pushed them to 238-8.
Jos Buttler was the stand-out for England but his 57 was not enough to help them overcome a poor start.
The three-match series is tied at 1-1, with the final match to be played in Chittagong on Wednesday.
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