EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HYDERABAD THE HINDU 16 SPORT WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Pant, Kohli help India sweep series Duleep Trophy to revert to red ball Saha on song Press Trust of India Domestic season-opener in Bengaluru from Aug. 17 to Sept. 8 TRINIDAD The duo hit half-centuries after Deepak Chahar rocks the West Indies top-order Wriddhiman Saha’s coun­ Amol Karhadkar tournament. The national ter­attacking 62 (65b, 9x4, MUMBAI selection panel, headed by INDIA IN WI 1x6) took India­A to 180 for Pink­ball cricket was the on­ M.S.K. Prasad, announced five in 58 overs on the Agence France-Presse ly saving grace for the Du­ the squads on Tuesday. opening day of the third Providence (Guyana) leep Trophy, a tournament Interestingly, the tourna­ ‘Test’ against West Indies­A that’s been struggling for re­ Rishabh Pant finally came ment will not feature a single here on Tuesday. levance in the recent past. good under the guidance of Tamil Nadu player despite Hanuma Vihari (51) and Come next week and the skipper Virat Kohli as India 44 top performers in domes­ Shivam Dube (19) were at season­opening fixture that comfortably beat West Indies tic cricket being divided in the crease. was once virtually consi­ by seven wickets in the third three teams. Asked to bat, India­A lost dered to be a selection trial T20 International, to com­ The squads: opener Abhimanyu Easwa­ for India’s Test squad will plete a 3­0 sweep, here on India Blue: Shubman Gill ran for a duck before revert to red­ball cricket. Tuesday. (capt.), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajat Mayank Agarwal (33) and Chasing a target of 147 on a The tournament, to be Patidar, Ricky Bhui, Anmol­ Shubman Gill departed off played in Bengaluru from preet Singh, Ankeet Bawane, slowish deck, Kohli anchored Shubman Gill. * FILE PHOTO successive balls in the 20th the innings with his 21st half­ August 17 to September 8, Snell Patel (wk), Shreyas Go­ over. pal, Saurabh Kumar, Jalaj Saxe­ century in T20 Internation­ will revert to the traditional primary reason than India’s However, Vihari and Sa­ format after experimenting na, Tushar Deshpande, Basil als (59, 45b, 6x4) while Pant reluctance to play a floodlit Thampi, Aniket Choudhary, Di­ ha rescued the side. with pink­ball cricket under The scores: India­A 180 for was brilliant during his un­ Test. wesh Pathania, Ashutosh floodlights for the last three five (Mayank Agarwal 33, Ha­ beaten 65 (42b, 4x4, 4x6) as “We were finding it very Aman. the visitor made it in 19.1 ov­ editions. difficult to get a venue. Only numa Vihari 51 batting, India Green: Faiz Fazal (capt.), Wriddhiman Saha 62) vs West ers. Considering the Indian a couple of days back were Akshath Reddy, Dhruv Shorey, Indies­A. Pant and Kohli, who came team’s opposition to playing we able to finalise it. That is Siddhesh Lad, Priyam Garg, together at 27 for two, put on a pink­ball Test — even over­ why only the final will now Akshdeep Nath, Rahul Chahar, 106 runs in 12.5 overs. Ho­ seas, let alone at home — it is be telecast. It does not make Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Jayant wever till their 50­run stand, understandable that the sense to play the tourna­ Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot, Ishan Po­ the duo didn’t go hammer BCCI has halted the experi­ ment with the pink ball,” Ka­ rel, Tanveer­Ul­Haq, Akshay and tongs at the Windies at­ ment for the Duleep Trophy. rim said. Wadkar (wk), Rajesh Mohanty, tack. Milind Kumar. It was in the 13th over Logistical challenges The captains India Red: Priyank Panchal when Pant finally gave the However, Saba Karim, the Promising batsman Shub­ (capt.), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Ishan charge, getting his first six — BCCI general manager ­ man Gill, Vidarbha’s succes­ Kishan (wk), Harpreet Singh a flat hit over extra cover off cricket operations, pre­ sive Ranji Trophy­winning Bhatia, Mahipal Lomror, Aditya Keemo Paul’s bowling. He ferred to focus on the logisti­ captain Faiz Fazal and Guja­ Sarwate, Akshay Wakhare, Va­ was to repeat the same shot cal challenges, including rat captain Priyank Panchal run Aaron, Ronit More, Jaydev off the same bowler for the The dazzler: Deepak Chahar is over the moon after sending back Shimron Hetmyer.* AFP lack of broadcast of matches will lead India Blue, India Unadkat, Sandeep Warrier, An­ Wriddhiman Saha. same result! except for the final as the Green and India Red in the kit Kalsi. * FILE PHOTO: BISWARANJAN ROUT DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Once he had reached his DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD (17), who played the second spell to first dismiss left­han­ second T20I half­century, fiddle, Pollard added 66 for der Pooran and then pegged B The ODI series begins at Pant got on one knee and hit the same venue on Aug. 8 the fourth wicket as the host back Pollard’s middle stump. Oshane Thomas for his third (7 p.m. IST) looked to have recovered With the host reduced to An artist who lent grace to a brutal craft six, while his fourth and final DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD from the initial slump. 105 for five, Powell smashed maximum got India the win­ three wickets in his first two However, Navdeep Saini his way to an unbeaten 32 off Steyn bowled the Proteas to famous Test wins ning runs. overs to leaving West Indies came back for his second 20 balls to prop up the total. tottering at 14 for three. He TRIBUTE bowl effective cross seam as Pollard attacks got the ball to swing both well. There was little respite Earlier, Deepak Chahar’s in­ ways while removing Sunil S. Dinakar for the batsmen. He could cisive swing bowling was Narine (2), Evin Lewis (10) Chennai hurt them with his fast, skid­ and Shimron Hetmyer (1). countered by Kieron Pol­ Fast bowling is explosive in dy bouncers delivered from a This effort was to fetch him lard’s attacking half­century nature. When a genuine deceptive quick­arm action. the man­of­the­match award. and Rovman Powell’s cameo quick lands in the process of Steyn’s bowling was not as the West Indies totalled Pollard counter­attacked delivering a ball, he with­ just about ability and beauty. 146 for six after being put in­ with with as many as half­a­ stands ground forces several It was much about heart and to bat. dozen sixes in his 45­ball­58 times his body weight. spirit. He would keep his be­ The Rajasthan seamer — his first half­century for the Yet, Dale Steyn glided to lief and bowl with the same made full use of his only op­ West Indies in seven years. the crease in his run­up, light intensity and speed during portunity in this tour taking Along with Nicholas Pooran on his feet much like a ballet wicketless spells, find a way, dancer, and released the and then come up with a SCOREBOARD WEST INDIES V INDIA, THIRD T2OI sphere with an action that bunch of scalps. WEST INDIES Washington 3­0­23­0, Krunal was astonishingly smooth. Evin Lewis lbw b Deepak Chahar 4­0­35­0. Staggering numbers 10 (11b, 1x4), Sunil Narine c INDIA Work of art His numbers are staggering. Saini b Deepak Chahar 2 (6b), K.L. Rahul c Pooran b Allen 20 Every delivery of his, from No bowler with 200 or more Shimron Hetmyer lbw b Deepak (18b, 2x4, 1x6), Shikhar Dhawan run­up to load­up to release wickets has a better strike Chahar 1 (3b), Kieron Pollard b c Cottrell b Thomas 3 (5b), Virat was a work of art. The South rate than Steyn’s 42.30 in Saini 58 (45b, 1x4, 6x6), Nich­ Kohli c Lewis b Thomas 59 (45b, Torch­bearer: Steyn inspired a new generation of pacers. * AFP African brought grace to an Test history. olas Pooran c Pant b Saini 17 6x4), Rishabh Pant (not out) 65 was being stymied by fitness teams in different conditions. (23b, 1x4, 1x6), Rovman Powell (42b, 4x4, 4x6), Manish Pandey otherwise brutal craft. And while picking up 439 (not out) 32 (20b, 1x4, 2x6), (not out) 2 (5b); Extras (w­1): 1; But then, the ease with concerns. It’s sad that Steyn Nobody sent down those wickets in 93 Tests, Steyn av­ Carlos Brathwaite c Washington Total (for three wkts. in 19.1 which he sent down his thun­ will not be figuring in Test speedy outswingers of con­ eraged under 25, both home b Rahul Chahar 10 (7b, 1x6), Fa­ overs): 150. derbolts masked the enor­ cricket any more. But at 36, trol and viciousness better and away. A captain’s dream, bian Allen (not out) 8 (5b, 1x6); FALL OF WICKETS mous effort he put in for ev­ his body scarred by injuries than he did in this era. Steyn bowled the Proteas to Extras (lb­4, w­4): 8; Total (for 1­10 (Dhawan, 1.6 overs), 2­27 ery ball of his. and several failed comebacks And he mixed them with famous Test victories in Aus­ six wkts. in 20 overs): 146. (Rahul, 4.4), 3­133 (Kohli, 17.3). When asked who the best to the longest format, he had potent inswingers, high on tralia, New Zealand, England FALL OF WICKETS WEST INDIES BOWLING contemporary fast bowler given it his all for Tests. accuracy. When the ball got and the sub­continent. At 1­4 (Narine, 1.5 overs), 2­13 Cottrell 4­0­26­0, Thomas 4­ was in South Africa last year, He leaves behind immortal older, Steyn could unleash home, he was a force of na­ (Lewis, 3.1), 3­14 (Hetmyer, 0­29­2, Allen 3­0­18­1, Narine Michael Holding, who earned deadly reverse­swing; all at a ture.