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Leeds United have recently been linked with a move for Chelsea centre-back Jake Clarke-Salter, and it looks as if Victor Orta is already planning for life back in the Championship.

The Lowdown: Championship loans

Clarke-Salter has been on the books with Chelsea since 2018 after progressing through and signing a professional deal from the Stamford Bridge academy.

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Since then however, Clarke-Salter’s career in Blue has been a complete flop – he has made just two senior appearances for the club and has had to settle for earning senior experience with loan spells at five separate teams.

His latest move away from the Premier League giants came with Coventry City in what was a third Championship loan spell following stints with Sunderland and Birmingham City.

The Latest: Clarke-Salter contact

The Whites have made contact with Chelsea ahead of a possible summer swoop for Clarke-Salter. According to The Sun, Leeds chiefs, and therefore director of football Orta, have made an enquiry regarding the centre-back.

The 24-year-old, who has also been linked with Sheffield United and PSV, is out of contract at Stamford Bridge a the end of the season, however, the Blues do have an option to extend his deal by a further 12 months.

The Verdict: A second-tier signing

Leeds are in the bottom three and appear to be on the verge of relegation with just two games remaining and a number of senior stars out through injury and suspension.

Therefore, we feel Orta is already making transfer plans for life back in the Championship with a move for Clarke-Salter.

He is on £5,000-a-week, valued at just £1.8m by Transfermarkt and has made more appearances in the Championship than any other division. The Englishman has completely failed to make the grade at Chelsea, so you’d expect that an exit is inevitable at some point.

A defensive overhaul is reportedly being planned under Jesse Marsch ahead of his first full season in charge, and if the Whites go down, they could lose seven-figure signings like Raphinha and Robin Koch and replace them with players like Clarke-Salter, who has just one game of Premier League experience under his belt.

In other news: Phil Hay says £15k-p/w Leeds man will now leave Elland Road over the coming weeks. 

The best of the numbers from the opening day at Trent Bridge as India’s top order collectively repel England for the first time in the series

Bharath Seervi18-Aug-20181 – The 159-run stand between Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane was the first century stand for India in this series and also the first in the two tours this year, which includes the three-match tour of South Africa. India had over 100 partnerships without any of them crossing triple-digits on these two tours. In the first two Tests against England, India had only two fifty-plus stands out of 44 partnerships with a highest of 57. Kohli has been part of the five of the top-seven partnerships for India on these two tours.ESPNcricinfo Ltd82.6 – India’s control percentage with the bat on the first day at Trent Bridge was far higher than what they had managed in the first two Tests. They had control of just 75% in the first Test then in the second Test it fell below 70%. Each of the seven batsmen who batted had a control of over 70% and all faced more than 30 deliveries.2014 – The last time India’s top seven crossed double-figures in a Test innings on tours of Australia, England, New Zealand or South Africa. It happened in the first innings of the Gabba Test in 2013-14. There was no such instance for India in England in the last 10 Tests. The last time the top seven all scored more than 10 runs in England was in the first Test of 2011 tour at Lord’s.72 – Runs accumulated by India’s top three in this innings. The top three had scored only 118 runs from 12 innings in the first two Tests while 10 of those scores were below 20.78.4- Average score of India at the fall of the fourth wicket for India in the five Tests this year in South Africa and England, before this match. India never reached 150 before the fall of fifth wicket in those 10 innings; the highest was 132 at Centurion. At Trent Bridge, India lost their fourth wicket at the score of 241, and therefore India are marching to their highest total on these two tours.2 – Number of times Kohli has been out in the nineties in Tests. Before this dismissal on 97, the last came about five years ago in Johannesburg in December 2013 when he was out on 96. He has made 17 centuries between these two nineties. He is the first visiting captain to be out in the nineties in England since Brian Lara fell for 95 at Edgbaston in 2004. Among India players, Sachin Tendulkar (twice) and Sourav Ganguly have missed their tons after getting into the nineties at Trent Bridge.ESPNcricinfo Ltd100 – Wickets for James Anderson against India. He is only the second bowler to do so against India after Muttiah Muralitharan’s 105 scalps in 22 matches. India is the second country against which Anderson has managed more than 100 wickets. He has 104 versus Australia. He is the seventh bowler to claim 100 wickets against multiple teams. Shane Warne and Muralitharan have done it against three opponents.1 – Rishabh Pant became the first India player whose first scoring shot in Test cricket was a six (where known). He hit a six off just his second delivery, against the bowling of Adil Rashid.

It had been eight years since Mashrafe Mortaza had taken a four-for or scored 40 in an ODI. He did both on Sunday in a Man of the Match performance just when his team needed it

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur09-Oct-2016May 12, 2007 was the last time Mashrafe Mortaza scored 40 runs in an ODI. It had also been exactly eight years to the day since his last ODI four-wicket haul. He chose the right time to bring up both landmarks once again to lift a Bangladesh team to a much-needed win over England.After the shock of the first ODI in which Bangladesh collapsed spectacularly, Mashrafe could see that his teammates were feeling very disappointed. On the night after that game, they were in his room till the early hours, chatting away and trying to make sense of the batting collapse.”We were up till 3am that night, sitting and talking in my room,” Mashrafe said. “We tried to forget about the game and talk about other stuff. But it was tough not to. We talked about how we made a mistake in the end again. The last match was easier to win compared to the India defeat in the World T20. It was nice to see the comeback.”Team comes first for me. Anyone could have been the player of the match today. I am happy that we won today. We were shocked and disappointed with the last game. We were feeling down till the warm-up session today. But we believed that a moment can change everything.”And that moment came when he lifted the team with the bat from a dire position, and then took three wickets in his first spell that detached England from the 239-run chase.On the previous occasion that he took an ODI four-for, his bowling had inspired Bangladesh to their first-ever win over New Zealand. The win had also come just weeks after several Bangladesh players had defected to the rebel Indian Cricket League, which nearly decimated Bangladesh cricket. There was talk at the time that New Zealand were facing a below-standard home side but Mashrafe and later Junaid Siddique and Mohammad Ashraful brought the much-needed victory.The four-for in Mirpur on Sunday came in a much different era. This is the greatest time in Bangladesh cricket ever since they became a Test-playing nation. They have won six home bilateral ODI series in a row. There is experience in the ranks while young guns are firing almost regularly. The only danger this time was breaking that sequence of successive series wins.Struggling at 169 for 7, Bangladesh looked down the barrel, and were certainly just steps away from conceding the series to a rampant England side who quickly grabbed the whole idea of battling the humidity, using the sluggish pitch and using their fast bowlers’ physical strength to conjure bounce to attack the Bangladesh batsmen.Mashrafe’s delightful 44 off 29 balls changed the course of the game. He started off with two sixes against Moeen Ali, before a swat off David Willey landed just beyond the long-on fielder. One of the fours was a hilarious swat that he tried to move away from, but ended up middling to the midwicket fence. He said that after some poor innings against Afghanistan and in the first ODI against England, he decided he would revert back to his old ways of swinging from the hip.”I think this is the right approach for my batting,” Mashrafe said. “It is best to go on the offensive with the bat, not get bogged down by pressure. I thought that I should play shots today.”But it was with the ball that he made more impact. He cut one away from James Vince who scooped the catch to point in the fourth over, before cutting another slightly back into Jason Roy who was trapped leg-before. To Ben Stokes, he bowled a full seam-up delivery that moved back in. It is heard that Mashrafe was shown this delivery, where the seam wobbles only slightly, from the new bowling coach Courtney Walsh.Mashrafe said that getting the new ball again was a challenge but he used all of his experience to eke out the first three wickets, before he finished off the dangerous 45-run last wicket stand with his fourth scalp.”In 2015, I couldn’t bowl with the new ball,” Mashrafe said. “Now that Mustafiz isn’t here, I am having to do it. Mustafiz took most of the wickets so without him it becomes challenging. I am trying to do a good job with the ball.”Fitness obviously makes a difference [to how well I bowl]. Last year, I bowled after 15 overs in most matches. I didn’t get swing with my seam-up bowling with that ball, so I bowled my variation. I bowled more seam-up deliveries but got two wickets with cutters.”Regardless of Mashrafe’s own contributions, the Bangladesh captain said that Taskin Ahmed’s second spell, that also drew three crucial wickets including that of Jos Buttler, was what changed the game for Bangladesh.”I asked Shakib and Mushfiq to think what we can do,” Mashrafe said. “We had options between Mosaddek, Taskin and Sabbir. But then I kept faith in Taskin. He is my main bowler, and has pace. He bowled extraordinarily, and took three wickets. The game came back to us through his performance.”Taskin bowled very fast at his best rhythm. If he didn’t take those wickets, we wouldn’t have won the game. His spell was outstanding. Top fast bowlers bowl match-winning spells, and I see his that way.”

Flashing advertisements on the sightscreen behind the batsman causes bowlers and umpires to be unsighted leading to dropped catches and possibly even injuries

Sidharth Monga in Ahmedabad24-Apr-2015In the 10th over of the Rajasthan Royals innings, Karun Nair offered legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal a return catch. It was not a powerful blow. More of a push that popped back to the bowler at an easy pace. Chahal stuck a hand out, but couldn’t hold on. His impatient captain Virat Kolhi let his disappointment known, but Chahal had other things on his mind. He had hurt the little finger on his spinning hand, and immediately gestured to show he didn’t pick the ball.How could he have? On the sightscreen behind the batsman was an advertisement. Not just a static advertisement, but a glowing, electronic one. Trying to pick a white ball in the white advertising is worse than trying to pick a red ball in a static-but coloured background. On air, two former India bowlers who have played in the IPL, called it immediately. Left-arm quick RP Singh was the first to point out Chahal seemed to have lost the ball in the lit sightscreen. Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik responded, “I don’t know about you, RP, but I often had trouble picking balls hit back at me in the IPL.”Two of the refreshingly sharp young commentators spoke from experience, and made an important observation. A catch had been dropped, and Chahal had to go off the field with only one ball bowled in the over, which meant he would miss out on bowling 21% of his quota even if he was to come back after repairs. If you went by Chahal’s reaction, and by the instinctive comments of two Test cricketers who have played in the IPL, the advertising on the sightscreen played its part.Which should raise the question: if the batsman gets the right to a clear background when facing the ball, why shouldn’t the bowler enjoy similar privileges? Of course not every ball is hit back at the bowler, but the ones that are have a lot riding on them. The reaction time for a bowler when the ball is struck at him is little. And while the other fielders don’t get a sightscreen to catch the ball against, they don’t have to contend with a glowing advertising in white font either.More than the return catch, though, the safety of the bowler and the umpire should be important to the authorities. Neither of them wears a helmet although the day is not far when an umpire might. With modern bats and freed minds, batsmen are hitting balls harder than ever before. An umpire died last year of a ricochet off the stumps at the non-striker’s end. A sudden freakish spate of on-field injuries has made us suddenly realise that ours is a dangerous sport, and safety – apart from the batsman’s – has not been given the attention it deserves.Those who have played cricket consider it a miracle there hasn’t been an accident yet. “Sooner or later a bowler or an umpire is going to getting seriously hurt,” Ian Chappell said at ESPNcricinfo’s recently. “Because the ball is getting back so quickly they have got no time to react. They have got a similar problem in baseball, another game that I follow. It has got to a point where last season they were offering pitchers padded caps. Even if we don’t believe that the balance [between bat and ball] is out of whack because of the depth of the bat – and if they don’t believe that they are out of whack – there is this danger aspect, and they [authorities] have got to seriously look into that.”It will take time and deliberations to regulate the thickness of the bat, but in the mean time do we really want to impede return catches in the already full-of-dropped-catches league and also put the bowlers and umpires at more risk ? And for what? The extra buck after about 240 degrees of the boundary is already sold to the advertiser? Not worth the cost, be it a dropped catch or an injury.

There was a certain tentativeness to New Zealand’s approach on a pitch that has taken both sides by surprise, aiding spin on the second day. Sunil Narine has given his side the chance to drive the advantage

Andrew McGlashan in Hamilton20-Dec-20130:00

McGlashan: West Indies spinners found turn

After more than a year out of the Test side, it took Sunil Narine three deliveries to add to his success against New Zealand. It wasn’t a great ball, and owed much to a fabulous catch at leg slip by Darren Sammy to remove Peter Fulton, but it left the home side 43 for 2. For the first time in the series, West Indies had a foothold early in a match.Then, with half an hour left in the day, he removed Kane Williamson with a tight lbw. When Brendon McCullum’s first two deliveries fizzed past his outside edge from Narine, New Zealand’s captain may just have been having a second thought about his decision to bowl first. The majority of Narine’s Test success came in two Tests against New Zealand last year and the doubts had been rekindled.Peter Fulton was subdued by close catchers during his 11 off 71 balls•Getty ImagesHe is certainly being aided by a pitch which has taken both sides by surprise, offering considerable turn on the second day. “You could say that,” Shivnarine Chanderpaul said with a smile and a laugh that suggested West Indies like what they see.Williamson admitted this surface, the first produced by the new head groundsman Andy Brown, had caught New Zealand out. “Yeah, without a doubt, hence why we bowled first. I’ve never really seen it spin like that [in Hamilton] but they’re the cards we’ve been dealt and we need to turn up with a change of gameplan as a batting unit to face a lot of spin on a wicket that’s very much conducive to spin bowling.”None of the last two wickets have spun very much and we didn’t expect this one to either. The first two balls I bowled, they spun. I set a field for it to slide across and it spun and I thought ‘OK, that’s interesting’. That’s the way it is, you’ve got to roll with those changes and adapt accordingly.”New Zealand have a long batting line-up, Ross Taylor in supreme form (although even he was left floundering on occasion against Narine) and the get-out card of a draw being enough to take the series, but West Indies will be buoyed by what they have seen so far. The period around Fulton’s departure and then the final half an hour of the day was as uneasy as New Zealand have looked in the three Tests – including the careless run-chase in Dunedin.”The challenge is different here having been thrown a curve ball,” Williamson conceded. “It’s a challenge for this team having taken steps to see how we adapt in favourable conditions to the opposition.”It’s too much to say any of the batsmen froze, but you could see the tension building. Fulton had become stuck, tidied down by a tight 10-over opening spell from Sammy and unable to score off Veerasammy Permaul – his one attempt, coming down the pitch, ended with him spooning the ball unconvincingly over cover. He does not have a natural release shot against the spinners so Sammy was able to crowd him with close catchers. The captain himself did the job.Taylor, the man West Indies have bowled to for hours in recent weeks, chipped his first ball, from Narine, dangerously close to short midwicket. Taylor is in fantastic touch (now just the third New Zealand batsman to score 400 runs in a three Test series) but there have been uneasy moments at the start of each innings; a glove over the slips in Dunedin and the dropped catch on nought in Wellington. He is a fine example of making the most of your fortune.At the start of Narine’s next over there was a strong shout for lbw. West Indies reviewed. Hot Spot showed a thin inside edge so it remained not out but there was hesitancy about New Zealand’s batsmen. The following over, Williamson, coming down the pitch to Permaul, was done in by flight but the catching chance fell tantalisingly out of reach of Tino Best sprinting round from mid-off.Taylor and Williamson made it through to tea and after the interval built a 95-run stand, although the spinners continued to cause more difficulties that seam had for vast stages of the previous two Tests. Then Narine slid one past Williamson’s bat and the DRS showed it was clipping leg stump. West Indies will feel they were owed such a line-call after Narsingh Deonarine’s decision on the first day.In the previous matches, West Indies were close to playing two spinners but were swayed by healthy coverings of grass. On this evidence, they would have been better off ignoring the surfaces. Permaul’s first two overs were understandably rusty – this was his first competitive bowl since four expensive overs in the third ODI against India – but he settled to extra enough turn to keep the batsmen uncertain. His economy rate of under three also allowed Sammy to keep control of New Zealand’s scoring and there was a far greater consistency in his line that Best and Shannon Gabriel offered in the previous two Tests.”The wicket is going to spin more,” Chanderpaul said. “It has a lot of grass on top of it and the ball will grip. It will be interesting to see what happens.”West Indies sense they have been given an unexpected lifeline.

A year ago they returned to Test cricket amid much optimism. Things seem to have gone downhill steadily since

Firdose Moonda26-Sep-2012Zimbabwe were not expected to win a match at the World Twenty20; they had accepted as much before the tournament began. At best, they knew that challenging Sri Lanka and South Africa for even a portion of a match, if not the full 40 overs, would be as close as they could come to victory.In the event, they did not get close. The tournament was three days old when Zimbabwe returned home, having failed to give any sort of reasonable account of themselves. As professional cricketers, they had had two of their worst days in the office, scoring and then surpassing their second-lowest T20 totals in the matches they played.The captain, Brendan Taylor, made no attempt to hide his disappointment, repeatedly telling the media that his side was “better” than they seemed to be at the tournament. Taylor’s belief is more than just false bravado, because the squad does include talented individuals who could blossom into achieving cricketers – though that talent goes through so much hot water that by the time it comes out, it can only be the limp, over-boiled vegetable we saw in Sri LankaThe future did not look this colourless just over a year ago, when Zimbabwe made their Test comeback. Their squad included a healthy mix of experience and youth, with players like Hamilton Masakadza and Taylor finally seeing their years in the game begin to count for something, and the emergence of a solid attack, led by Brian Vitori and Kyle Jarvis. The coaching staff was headed by a man passionate about Zimbabwe cricket, Alan Butcher, and included two former players, Heath Streak and Grant Flower, who had returned to the fold after walking away. The game was integrated, healthy, and seemed to be growing. The early results, which included a Test and ODI series win over Bangladesh, hinted at promise. The personnel are still there but the magic is not. Zimbabwe are fading into the sort of obscurity that has beset their African counterparts Kenya, who are now mostly only remembered for the 2003 World Cup, and for many of the same reasons that afflict Zimbabwe at present.Lack of regular international fixtures, the loss of some players and a worsening financial situation at board level have all contributed to the stagnation of cricket in the country. The World Twenty20 performance was a symptom, and a telling one, illustrating how much help Zimbabwe cricket needs and how soon.Before the tournament, Zimbabwe last played an international on February 14. Seven months passed between then and the day they faced Sri Lanka in the opening match of the World Twenty20. Had Zimbabwe not played some practice matches in that time, the margin of defeat could have been worse. An unofficial T20 tri-series between themselves, South Africa and Bangladesh, and a 50-over competition with South Africa A and Sri Lanka A kept them occupied but did not seem to do much more. South Africa sent an experimental side to that series, leaving out their best players, including Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Jacques Kallis. It was those three pacemen Zimbabwe could not stand up to in their second match of the World Twenty20.Streak, Zimbabwe’s bowling coach and former captain, said if the team had more practice against top sides, it may have fared better. “I know from when I was playing that the more we played international cricket against full-strength sides, the better we got,” he said. “It’s tough enough for us as a smaller team to play, and when we don’t get enough matches, it makes it even harder. We don’t need a lot of games but we need to be able to test ourselves.”Opportunities to do that appear slim. Pakistan have asked for their October tour of Zimbabwe to be postponed so they can play ODIs against India. This means Zimbabwe’s next international series will only be next March, in the Caribbean. They could have played Bangladesh in the lead-up to the World Twenty20 but the series was postponed by mutual agreement: Bangladesh wanted their national players available for the BPL, and Zimbabwe hid behind the excuse of needing to upgrade ground surfaces in Bulawayo and Harare, when it was actually financial problems that prevented them hosting the tour.

Lack of regular international fixtures, the loss of some players and a worsening financial situation at board level have all contributed to the stagnation of cricket in Zimbabwe

Monetary concerns have long been an issue for Zimbabwe cricket. The board confessed that it would take time for it to break even after the three incoming tours last year, but it did not give a full indication of how bad the situation was. Only Tatenda Taibu, who has since retired from international cricket, suggested something was wrong when he said that players had not been paid in the lead-up to the Bangladesh Test.ESPNcricinfo understands that even after central contracts were reintroduced for the 2011-2012 season, some players were not paid outstanding match fees. An insider said that the risk of losing players who are looking for more security is high because “there is little confidence among players that they will be treated well”.Already Zimbabwe cricket is feeling the loss of talented batsman Gary Ballance, who plays for Yorkshire and has been included in England’s Performance Squad to tour India. Ballance returns to Zimbabwe every summer to play for the Mid-West Rhinos but has no interest in playing for the country of his birth, especially as he nears the line for England selection.A source close to players in Zimbabwe said Ballance and Sean Ervine, who turned his back on Zimbabwe before the 2011 World Cup, could have been persuaded to play for Zimbabwe if the rules governing non-UK cricketers playing in the UK were different. Both players have committed to England because of the limits imposed on the number of overseas players a county can field. If these players could still play county cricket and have income security but remain available for Zimbabwe, they probably would.Zimbabwean players’ lack of exposure to top-level cricket elsewhere in the world is also minimal and has contributed to their lack of development. Taylor has played in T20 leagues in New Zealand, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but he is unique in that regard. Jarvis is the only other player to have plied his trade elsewhere. He was spotted by New Zealand’s Central Districts during Zimbabwe’s January tour there and represented them for six matches in the Plunket Shield and finished as the fifth-highest wicket-taker overall, with 31 at an average of 21.06.Experiences like Jarvis’ are what former Rhinos coach Jason Gillespie thinks will make better cricketers out of the current Zimbabwe crop. With county cricket not really an option for those who want to continue playing for their country, Gillespie suggested that Zimbabwe actively seek opportunities for players to get experience by playing club cricket in the UK. Ed Rainsford and Glen Querl have made names for themselves in the Birmingham league and with the Unicorns, and Gillespie is trying to facilitate the passage for more players to take that path. “I have been in touch with a few league clubs that are interested in having a Zimbabwean cricketer as an overseas player, so we will see how that pans out,” he said.He also suggested that Zimbabwe try to play in some of South Africa’s domestic competitions, specifically the T20 one. “Two franchises, Harare and Bulawayo, would be obvious choices,” he said. As Rhodesia, Zimbabwe was part of South Africa’s Currie Cup before the country gained independence, and Zimbabwe have played a few seasons in South Africa’s first-class structures. They last played in the 2007-08 season as Zimbabwe Provinces, although they participated in the amateur division, not the franchise tournament.Endeavours like that could, in Gillespie’s view, help Zimbabwean cricket, but only if ZC get more meaningful international fixtures for their players. “Playing Australia A and SA A in 2011 was excellent cricket for Zimbabwe, because after that they performed well against Bangladesh and New Zealand.”Those matches were played at a time when hope was still being invested in Zimbabwean cricket. Reality has now hit. For people like Streak, things must go on, and he has reaffirmed his commitment to the game in the country, coupled with a hope that all involved will do the same.”We were bamboozled by the mystery of [Ajantha] Mendis, and the South African attack had the better of us on a surface that suited them more than us. But we felt we should have been more competitive. Our next assignment is in West Indies next year, but before that we have our own domestic season. We need to be playing a lot of cricket from now on if we want to do well.”Before Streak could say what his expectations for the future were, Zimbabwe’s notoriously fractious phone lines cut him off. Hopefully the cricket will not follow suit.

Look no further than Bengaluru and Chinnaswamy, home to Dravid, Kumble, Viswanath and Chandrasekhar

06-Nov-2010Bengaluru can be a contradiction. The people can come across as laid-back and quiet and yet ambitious. Its cricketers have all have been quiet, cultured men who played the game with great success. The city and the state have produced some of the best Indian players. At one point, in the late ’90s, nearly three quarters of the Indian team came from Karnataka.Bengaluru didn’t enjoy the British patronage of cricket that benefited the port cities of Mumbai, Kolkata or Chennai. It was only in the late ’50s and ’60s that Bengaluru began to emerge as a serious contender in the cricket stakes. Over the next couple of decades cricket won institutional support from banks and public sector units, and private corporate sponsorship came in the ’90s.Cricket history has reflected the realities of society. Karnataka has had a long-standing dispute over river water with neighbouring Tamil Nadu, and the frisson reflects in their cricketing rivalry as well. There have been numerous cases of crowd trouble during encounters between the two teams in the past.The venue
Originally named the Karnataka State Cricket Association Stadium, the ground was renamed after M Chinnaswamy, who was the president of the Indian board in the late ’70s. It also houses the National Cricket Academy. The stadium was given Test status in 1974-75; it hosted West Indies in the opening match of their series that season. The first ODI played on the ground was in 1982.Ground page | Tour fixtures | MapGreat matches
India v Pakistan, fifth Test, 1987
An all-time classic, thanks to a pitch that was a minefield – to put it kindly. The match is remembered for Sunil Gavaskar producing a masterful 96 over five hours and 23 minutes in the final innings, battling the wiles of Pakistan’s spinners, Iqbal Qasim and Tauseef Ahmed, and the spite of the pitch. No one else in the India side made over 26, and they were all out for 204 chasing 221 for a win that would have given them the series.India v Australia, second Test, 2010
An outstanding 72 by Cheteshwar Pujara on debut set up a seven-wicket win for India. Not the result Australia might have expected after they got to 478 on the back of 128 from Marcus North in the first innings. Honours were more or less even after India batted (Sachin Tendulkar made 214 and M Vijay 139), but Australia fell for 223 in their second dig, and India blazed to the target of 207 on day five – Tendulkar unbeaten with a fifty alongside Pujara.Top performers in Tests
Most runs Sachin Tendulkar, 869 at 62.07 | Top score Younis Khan, 267 v India
Most wickets Anil Kumble, 41 wickets at 34.53 | Best bowling Maninder Singh, 7 for 27 v PakistanMajor players
Rahul Dravid | Anil Kumble | Bhagwath Chandrasekhar | Gundappa Vishwanath | Javagal Srinath | Venkatesh Prasad | Roger Binny | Erapalli Prasanna Home team
Karnataka have won the Ranji Trophy eight times and have been runners up four times. The Karnataka-Tamil Nadu rivalry matched the Mumbai-Delhi contests in intensity and in the following for it. Karnataka’s most recent wins were back to back, in 2013-14 and 2014-15 – that last win coming against Tamil Nadu, whom they also beat for the title in 1995-96. In 2009-10, they lost to Mumbai in a thriller.

Australia haven’t lost a Test at Brisbane since November 1988, winning 11 out of their last 16

S Rajesh02-Nov-2005

Brian Lara has had a poor run here, averaging 22 from three Tests © Getty Images
Since West Indies last toured Australia, in 2000-01, they have performed abysmally overseas, losing 19 out of 27 matches. Their most recent overseas losing streak stretches to seven Tests – the last Test of the series in South Africa, then four Tests in England and two in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Australia’s record at home during this period is as imposing as West Indies’ is appalling, with 24 wins in 32 Tests. The Test at the Gabba has traditionally been the first match of a series, and over the last 15 years it has been a particularly lucky venue for the Australians – since 1990-91, they have won 11 Tests and drawn five. The last team to beat them here were West Indies, way back in 1988-89. That team had in their ranks batsmen of the calibre of Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, and a pace attack which comprised Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Pattrick Patterson. Since then, though, Australia have beaten West Indies twice in three matches at this venue. (Click here for a full head-to-head between the two teams at this ground.) Overall, Australia have a 4-3 edge in Tests against the West Indians here. The match by which this venue is best remembered, of course, happened 45 years ago, when Frank Worrell’s side fought an epic battle against Richie Benaud’s Australians in a game which produced the first tie in Test history. Since then, though, the matches between the two sides here have been rather more one-sided – in the last six Tests which have ended decisively, the margins of victory have been greater than 120 runs or eight wickets. And the last time they met was the most one-sided of them all, when Steve Waugh’s team swamped the West Indians by an innings and 126 runs. For the extent of domination in that game, look no further than Glenn McGrath’s bowling figures: 33-21-27-10. (Only Bert Ironmonger, an Australian left-arm spinner who played in the days of uncovered pitches, has taken a cheaper ten-for in Tests.) Two of those ten wickets were of Brian Lara’s, who contributed a total of four runs in the match. Thanks largely to that outstanding performance in 2000-01, McGrath’s stats at the Gabba read an impressive 54 wickets from 11 Tests and an average of 22.53. Meanwhile, Shane Warne’s numbers at this ground are even more impressive – 59 wickets from nine games at a shade over 20. However, he has only played against West Indies once here, in 1996-97, when his four wickets cost him 180. Brisbane hasn’t been a particularly happy hunting ground for Lara – in three matches here, he has only managed one half-century and a measly average of 22. His only innings of note at this venue came in his first Test, when he made 58. Shivnarine Chanderpaul has had more success here, averaging 58 in two Tests. Among the current Australian batsmen, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist have enjoyed the conditions at Brisbane the most: Hayden has three hundreds from eight innings, while Gilchrist has been quite prolific too, averaging nearly 65. Ricky Ponting, though, hasn’t had such a happy time here, scoring just one century in 14 innings. Here’s another stat which indicates just how dominant Australia’s bowlers have been at Brisbane – out of five Tests since 2000, they have dismissed the opposition for less than 100 three times, and those scores are among the five lowest totals at this ground. (Click here for other stats on the venue, like highest totals, centuries, five-fors etc.) Brisbane has traditionally been a good venue for fast bowling, but since 2000, they’ve only managed an average of 35.92, just marginally better than the spinners’ rate of 36.97. However, the pace bowlers have taken three times the number of wickets the spinners have during this period – 101 to 33 – while all five five-fors have gone to them too.

Captain Mitchell Marsh smashed a belligerent century in his first Sheffield Shield match in almost two years to power Western Australia into a commanding position over Tasmania at the WACA.Marsh, playing as a specialist batter, returned to his best with an unbeaten 108 from 111 balls to lift WA to a first innings total of 336 and a lead of 157.Tasmania reached stumps on day two at 1 for 27 with Caleb Jewell on 21 and Jake Doran on 1.Opener Tim Ward, who top-scored with 44 in the first innings, fell lbw to left-arm quick Joel Paris for five to leave Tasmania facing an uphill battle to keep their final’s hopes alive.Having recently returned from a three-month layoff after ankle surgery, Marsh was in commanding form and hit nine fours and four sixes. He combined with Charlie Stobo in a last-wicket partnership of 113 to thwart Tasmania’s attempts at a comeback.After a subpar opening day, where they were bowled out for 179 in their first innings, Tasmania had clawed back into the contest with regular wickets through the opening two sessions.Offspinner Jarrod Freeman, who had claimed in-form Cameron Bancroft late on day one, dismissed opener Sam Whiteman for 64 to leave WA wobbling at 4 for 132 at lunch.Freeman added another after the long break when allrounder Aaron Hardie smashed a long-hop straight to midwicket with WA still 25 runs behind.Marsh, playing his first Shield match since April 2021, came to the crease looking to step up his preparations ahead of the upcoming ODI series in India.He was run out for a duck in his return against Tasmania in the 50-over Marsh Cup, but Marsh showed little rust as he navigated a short-pitched assault from speedster Riley Meredith who is arguably the fastest quick in the country.After a searing Meredith bouncer sailed over his head for byes, Marsh then counterattacked with a beautiful drive to the boundary followed by a six over midwicket.But Marsh was running out of partners with WA slumping to 9 for 223 with a lead of only 44 runs. He was on 38 when Stobo joined him and then hogged the strike by resisting singles.Marsh quickly sped past his half-century as he targeted Freeman straight down the ground while taking on Meredith’s sustained short-ball line.Tasmania had taken the extra 30 minutes before tea in a bid to claim the final wicket but their flagging attack was left frustrated as Marsh closed in on his century.He smashed a six off Freeman to move to 94 before reaching his ton moments later much to the delight of the smattering of fans in the terraces.Marsh received strong support from Stobo, who made a first-class career-best score of 38 off 84 balls to prove his worth having batted in the top-order for his local club in Perth grade cricket.Stobo finally fell as the shadows crept onto the WACA turf as WA moved closer to securing a home Shield final.

Manchester United are pushing Jadon Sancho's camp to accept a move to Roma as the Italian club reportedly plan on moving to alternatives this week.

Roma maintain interest in Jadon SanchoSancho interested but nothing concreteUnited has agreement in place with RomaFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

The Red Devils are seeking an end to the Sancho transfer saga and have asked his camp to agree to the Roma move, as there are no other offers on the table for the winger, according to . Sancho is reportedly interested in the move but has not given a concrete response to the Italian side. Roma coach Gian Piero Gasperini is hopeful to secure his signing, as he reiterated after the Bologna match by stating: "Sancho never said no to Roma," giving the club a glimmer of hope.

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Sancho's delay in providing his final stance has kept Roma's director of football, Frederic Massara, and coach Gasperini in limbo, as they are willing to wait a few more days before switching to alternative targets. It is only because of Gasperini's admiration that a proposal still waits for Sancho. United are well aware of the situation and know that they stand to lose out on €18 million (£15m/$21m) plus bonuses if Sancho's camp declines. 

The winger's high wages have been a constant issue, and the club is building pressure on his camp to accept the move. Roma have said they will wait until Wednesday for an answer.

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The Englishman was previously linked with a move to Juventus. Reportedly, the clubs agreed on personal terms but could not agree on a transfer fee, which is the opposite of what Roma is facing at the moment. Borussia Dortmund's sporting director, Sebastian Kehl, also spoke about the possibility of signing Sancho, as he claimed the club would look into the feasibility of the deal. However, no inquiries have been made yet.

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The clock is ticking for Sancho as Roma are prepared to move on to other targets before the transfer window closes next week. Among the names on the shortlist are Wolverhampton's Fabio Silva and Chelsea's Tyrique George.