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HARARE : Seamer Shardul Thakur took 3-38 as India completed a five-wicket win over Zimbabwe to claim victory in their three-match One-Day International series with a game to spare at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday.
LONDON : South African speedster Anrich Nortje said he relished bowling at speeds rarely seen in English conditions, after he was timed at 148 kph in his team’s crushing innings defeat of England in their first test at Lord’s on Friday.
The Proteas needed fewer than three days' play to complete an innings and 12-run win, with England bowled out for just 149 before tea on Friday after a meagre 165 in their first innings. This was England's first defeat under a new leadership duo of Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum following a run of just one win in 17 Tests that signalled the end of Joe Root's captaincy. England had won all four of their previous Tests since Stokes and former New Zealand captain McCullum took up their positions.
Nortje ripped through the heart of the home batting, taking three wickets in 10 balls at one point, as England slumped to 149 all out in their second innings to lose the Test inside three days. Nortje’s average speed in the over where he dismissed the dangerous Jonny Bairstow was 148 kph, making it the quickest over England have had to face at home in the last decade of test cricket, according to the analytics website CricViz. "It's exciting, something I've wanted to do since I was a kid," Nortje told a news conference.
Nortje finished with match figures of 6-110 as South Africa completed a crushing victory inside three days in London to go 1-0 up in a three-match series. The 28-year-old express quick was especially effective after lunch on Friday, taking three wickets for no runs in 10 balls to have Jonny Bairstow, Alex Lees and Ben Foakes all caught behind as he repeatedly topped speeds of 90 mph (145 kph) and even surpassed 95 mph at one stage.
If there was always a slight feel of “live by the sword, die by the sword” to England’s much-vaunted “Bazball” approach to Test cricket, then you could say that South Africa came along with a full armoury of rapiers, cutlasses and katanas to cut it to shreds.
Tim Southee and Trent Boult combined to demolish the West Indies top-order batting as New Zealand scored a series-levelling victory in the second one-day international of a three-match series at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Friday. After Finn Allen's 96 anchored the Black Caps to 212 off 48.2 overs batting first on another challenging pitch, Southee and Bolt claimed three wickets apiece as the home side limped to 63 for seven off 22.4 overs when a second heavy shower resulted in a prolonged delay to the day/night fixture. Set a revised target of 212 off 41 overs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern scoring method, Yannic Cariah's 52 in his debut ODI innings and a swashbuckling 49 off 31 balls by Alzarri Joseph gave the tourists a fright in a frenetic 85-run ninth-wicket partnership. However, Southee was summoned by stand-in captain Tom Latham and he responded immediately by bowling Joseph while Allen completed an excellent boundary catch to end Cariah's effort as the West Indies were eventually dismissed for 161 off 35.3 overs to lose by 50 runs and set the stage for the series decider on Sunday. Southee's final figures were four for 19 while Boult's six-over spell at the start of the innings earned him three for 18.
South Africa were utterly dominant, triumphing inside three days against an England team who had won all four of their previous Tests under a new leadership duo of captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. The match was. in fact. effectively over in six sessions after rain washed out most of Wednesday's first day. "As a playing group it's a special bunch and we play bloody good cricket when we're playing well," said Elgar. South Africa, already top of the World Test Championship table, were in command from the start.