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Lucknow, Oct 6 (IANS) David Miller and Heinrich Klassen slammed unbeaten fifties to power South Africa to 249/4 against India in a rain-hit first ODI which has been reduced to 40-over per side at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Thursday.

Pushed into batting first, South Africa were troubled by the movement for the Indian pacers caused by moisture of the pitch due to rain causing delay in proceedings for nearly two hours.

At 110/4 in 22.2 overs, South Africa were staring at a low total when Miller (75 not out off 63 balls) and Klassen (74 not out off 65 balls) shared a rollicking stand of 139 runs off 106 balls and took the attack to the Indian bowlers to bring the Proteas back in the match.

South Africa had a steady start with Janneman Malan being steady in power-play, punching through cover and pulling with great authority though India got some movement to beat him and Quinton de Kock couple of times.

Malan had luck on his side when Shubman Gill dropped his catch at second slip off Shardul Thakur. De Kock, on the other hand, got going with a brace of fours off debutant leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi. Thakur then gave India an important breakthrough in the 13th over when Malan's flick flew off the toe-end of the bat to mid-wicket.

Thakur came back to castle Temba Bavuma through the gate while Kuldeep Yadav got Aiden Markram out for a five-ball duck. The left-arm wrist-spinner got the ball to drift across Markram and then spun back in sharply, sneaking through the gap between bat and pad to rattle top of off-stump. De Kock's resistance ended when he was trapped lbw off Bishnoi while going for a reverse sweep.

When Miller came at the crease, Klassen had got going with three fours. Miller, who's improved game against spin has been an impressive story this year, took two fours in his first six balls before fabulously lofting Bishnoi over mid-off for six. The duo dealt in ones and twos before Klassen took boundaries off Bishnoi and Kuldeep while Miller hit Thakur for two fours.

After reaching their respective fifties in the 36th over, Klassen brought out the shot of the innings with a creamy loft over cover off Avesh Khan for six, followed by a cracking cut through backward point off Mohammed Siraj.

The duo were also helped by India's sloppiness in the field, with Siraj, Ruturaj Gaikwad dropping catches and Ishan Kishan mis-fielding at backward point to give away a four. Miller hit two sixes and a four in the last three overs while Klassen hit a four to give South Africa a respectable total.

Brief Scores: South Africa 249/4 in 40 overs (David Miller 75 not out, Heinrich Klaasen 74 not out, Shardul Thakur 2/35, Kuldeep Yadav 1/39) against India

--IANS
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Lucknow, Oct 6 (IANS) David Miller and Heinrich Klassen slammed unbeaten fifties to power South Africa to 249/4 against India in a rain-hit first ODI which has been reduced to 40-over per side at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Thursday.

Pushed into batting first, South Africa were troubled by the movement for the Indian pacers caused by moisture of the pitch due to rain causing delay in proceedings for nearly two hours.

At 110/4 in 22.2 overs, South Africa were staring at a low total when Miller (75 not out off 63 balls) and Klassen (74 not out off 65 balls) shared a rollicking stand of 139 runs off 106 balls and took the attack to the Indian bowlers to bring the Proteas back in the match.


Brief Scores: South Africa 249/4 in 40 overs (David Miller 75 not out, Heinrich Klaasen 74 not out, Shardul Thakur 2/35, Kuldeep Yadav 1/39) against India

--IANS
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Lucknow, Oct 6 (IANS) South Africa all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius on Thursday has been ruled out of the ODI series against India and the upcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Australia due to a fracture on his left thumb.

As per an official statement from Cricket South Africa (CSA), Pretorius sustained the injury during the third T20I against India at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore, where South Africa won by 49 runs.

"The nature of the injury requires surgical intervention and Dwaine will consult the Cricket South Africa designated hand surgeon on arrival in South Africa. Normal rehabilitation procedures will follow to ensure he speedily returns to playing cricket," explained Dr Shuaib Manjra, Chief Medical Officer.

Pretorius is the second major player from South Africa to miss the T20 World Cup starting later in the month in Australia, after middle-order batter Rassie van der Dussen was ruled out with a left index finger injury which needed surgery last month.

In place of Pretorius, left-arm pace all-rounder Marco Jansen has been added to the ODI squad and a further announcement on Pretorius' replacement for the T20 World Cup will be made in the coming days.

Jansen and fellow pace all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo along with left-arm spin all-rounder Bjorn Fortuin are the travelling reserves with South Africa for the T20 World Cup. The trio are in contention now to be promoted to the main squad as Pretorius' replacement.

In 2022, Pretorius has featured in eight T20Is for South Africa, taking 12 wickets at an average of 20.66 and importantly scoring quick runs with the bat from down the order, including a blazing cameo of 29 off just 13 balls as a number three batter against India in New Delhi in June.

After the tour to India ends, South Africa will travel to Australia for participating in T20 World Cup. They are in Group 2 of the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup, alongside Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and two yet to be known teams from round one.

--IANS
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Lucknow, Oct 6 (IANS) Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ravi Bishnoi have been handed debuts in ODI cricket as India won the toss and elected to bowl first against South Africa in the series opener at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Thursday.

The match has been reduced to 40 overs per side, with each bowler to bowl a maximum of eight overs. The first power-play will be of first eight overs, followed by 24 overs of second power-play and last eight overs of third power-play.

India skipper Shikhar Dhawan said his decision of electing to bowl first came from seeing the moisture on the pitch due to a lengthy rain delay. "We would like to field first as there is a bit of moisture on the wicket and we want to exploit that. We got six batters and bowlers bowlers playing. In the bowlers, we have two spinners and three pacers."

South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma said he wanted to bowl first too, observing that the pitch might be difficult to bat early on. "We have a job to do with the bat and we need to adapt accordingly after the first few overs. You gotta be able to adapt to different formats quickly and we still want to keep those T20 skills in check."

With ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Super League points for grabs in the series, all three games hold huge importance for South Africa, who are at 11th place in the standings. "Every game for us is a big opportunity. (Janneman) Malan is back at the top, (Heinrich) Klaasen is back in the middle and also (Tabraiz) Shamsi is back."

Playing XIs:

India: Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Siraj and Avesh Khan

South Africa: Janneman Malan, Quinton de Kock (wicket-keeper), Temba Bavuma (captain), Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Tabraiz Shamsi

--IANS

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Wellington, Oct 6 (IANS) New Zealand on Thursday brought in pacer Blair Tickner into the squad for the T20 Tri-Series in Christchurch, also involving Pakistan and Bangladesh, as a cover for spinner Mitchell Santner, who is on parental leave.

Santner will not arrive at the camp until the weekend following the birth of his first child last week.

The T20 Tri-series starts on Friday with Pakistan meeting Bangladesh in the opener in Christchurch.

With the Black Caps taking on Pakistan on Saturday night, the squad needed a cover for Santner and thus Tickner joined the group.

On Thursday, the New Zealand squad had their crucial practice ahead of their opening match against Pakistan in their opening match.

New Zealand are preparing for the T20 World Cup and are expected to use the 15 players in the Black Caps squad for the tournament, with selector Gavin Larsen saying on Monday that rotation would be applied and they will try different combinations over the next four or five games, depending on results.

"Certainly the goal is to rotate the squad across the playing opportunities through that tri-series and to basically fine-tune what has been our existing game plan over the recent time," Larsen was quoted as saying by the local media.

"There's certainly nothing majorly different that we're going to be focusing on - they're very important preparation games for us."

--IANS

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Jaipur, Oct 5 (IANS) India Capitals were crowned the champions of the Legends League Cricket (LLC), which was being held in India for the first time.

In an entertaining final, played at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here on Wednesday, the Capitals beat Bhilwara Kings by 104 runs to lift the trophy.

The Capitals, captained by Gautam Gambhir, made an excellent recovery after stumbling early to post 211/7 in 20 overs. The Kings crumbled under pressure of the tall target and were all out for just 107 in 18.2 overs.

While Ross Taylor (82 off 41 balls) and Mitchell Johnson (62 off 35 balls) were the architects of the Capitals' innings, sharing a 126-run stand for the fifth wicket, the Kings did not manage to get any meaningful partnership from their batters.

The Kings' openers, Morne van Wyk (5) and William Porterfield (12), were out inside the first four overs. A lot depended on the broad shoulders of Yusuf Pathan (6), but he did not last long. Shane Watson (27) was unfortunate to be run out, while Jesal Karia (22) showed promise but could not carry on for long.

When Irfan Pathan (2), the Kings' captain, was out in the 12th over, the chase was as good as over for them.

For the Capitals, three bowlers - Pawan Suyal (2/27), Pankaj Singh (2/14) and Pravin Tambe (2/19) - took two wickets each. It was a complete team effort which brought victory to the Capitals. Good batting was complemented by tight bowling and sharp fielding.

The Kings, however, had actually got a dream start to the final after winning the toss and electing to field. Irfan's ploy to start with spin from both ends paid dividends as the Capitals found themselves four wickets down by the fifth over.

Monty Panesar and Rahul Sharma cast their spin web to reduce the Capitals to 21/4. But then began the counterattack. Taylor and Johnson caught the Kings' bowlers by the scruff of their necks and thrashed them to all parts of the ground.

The ninth over of the match was the turning point of the Capitals' innings. Former New Zealand captain Taylor crushed Yusuf's spin to take 30 runs from the over. He hit four sixes and a four in that over.

Former England pacer Tim Bresnan finally broke the partnership, dismissing Johnson in the 15th over. But by then, Johnson had hit seven fours and three sixes.

Taylor was out in the 17th over, after hitting eight monstrous sixes and four boundaries as well. Ashley Nurse (42 off 19 balls) then played a nice cameo in the death overs to take the Capitals past the 200-mark. That proved enough for them to emerge winners handsomely.

--IANS
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Panchkula, Oct 5 (IANS) Bangladesh golfer Jamal Hossain continued his dominance to maintain the lead after the second round at the PGTI Players Championship here on Wednesday.

Jamal carded a total of 4-under 68 to consolidate his position at the top with an overall score of 11-under 133 at the end of day's play.

The standout performer of the day was Sri Lankan golfer N Thangaraja whose day's best round of 8-under 64 catapulted him to the second spot trailing the leader by just one stroke at 10-under 134. Badal Hossain of Bangladesh was placed third with an overall score of 9-under 135 at the halfway stage.

Chandigarh's Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (68-68) along with Gurugram's Manu Gandas (69-67) were placed at T4 with identical scores of 8-under 136 after Round 2. The other golfers to make up the top 10 spots included Om Prakash Chouhan (68-69) and Ankur Chadha (69-68), who made a hole-in-one on the 13th, at T6 with scores of 7-under 137; PGTI Order of Merit leader Ajeetesh Sandhu (70-68) at the 8th place with a score of 6-under 138; M Dharma (70-69), Brashwarpal Singh (69-70) and Sudhir Sharma (71-68) at T9 with scores of 5-under 139.

The cut was declared at 1-under 143. Fifty-two professionals and two amateurs made the cut.

Jamal Hossain's round today consisted of five birdies and a lone bogey. Continuing with his form from Round 1, Jamal, currently ranked fifth on the PGTI's merit list, showcased his control over his second shots coupled with his impressive tee shots as he missed just one fairway today. Jamal who carded a 4-under 68 today was tied for the first place with N Thangaraja till the very last moment, but a birdie on the 7th hole helped him take the one-stroke lead over the Sri Lankan Golfer.

Jamal, a two-time runner-up on the PGTI this season, said, "My driving and my second shots bailed me out today as I missed a lot of birdie putts in the second round. I am happy to maintain my lead moving into the third round, and my focus will be on playing my best game tomorrow and day after."

Trailing Jamal by a shot but carding the day's best round of 8-under 64 was N Thangaraja from Sri Lanka who jumped 21 spots to be placed second with an overall score of 10-under 134.

Thangaraja who teed off from the 10th hole started on a positive note with birdies on the 11th, 13th and 17th holes, but his turnaround happened on his front nine, where barring a bogey on the 8th and two pars on the 2nd and 4th, he birdied every other hole.

Among the other top names, Olympian Udayan Mane, three-time PGTI Order of Merit Winner Rashid Khan and defending champion Chikkarangappa S are tied at 40th with an overall score of 1-under 143.

Two of the three Panchkula-based amateurs in the field who made the cut were Brijesh Kumar who was tied 28th at 2-under 142 and Arjun Singh Bhatia who occupied tied 40th at 1-under 143.

--IANS
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Tokyo, Oct 5 (IANS) American tennis player Taylor Fritz advanced to the second round of Japan Open Tennis Championships with a 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-1 victory over Australia's James Duckworth, here on Wednesday.

The third seed Fritz was forced to pull out ahead of the Seoul event last week due to Covid-19. After a week in full quarantine, he was cleared to make the two-hour flight to Tokyo in the nick of time, the morning of his opening-round match against Duckworth.

"(I'm feeling) better than I thought I would be."I don't feel amazing, but I'm really happy that I was able to go through all that and still show up and win my match,'' Fritz said in his post-match press conference.

The American was too sick to even exercise in his room for much of his quarantine period, but began to work out over the past three days. Still, he maintained a positive mindset entering Japan, where he had an opportunity to improve on his 10th place position in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

"I felt, for whatever reason, confident that I was going to be able to come out of lockdown and strike the ball well," said Fritz, who is seeking his debut at the ATP Finals.

"I was more concerned about the cardio and my conditioning after being really sick and not having been able to do anything. Luckily the court was very fast, and so we were not playing long points, so physically I was okay," he added.

Fritz dominated the opening set and had two break points early in the second, but had to recover from a break down to force a tie-break, in which he struggled with his control. Duckworth began the deciding set full of confidence and created an early 15/40 opening on return, but the American erased the opportunity, using the escape to launch a run of five games to seal the match.

"A little bit scary in the third, a couple of break points. But aside from that I played well," said Fritz, who fired 24 aces in winning 88 per cent (50/57) of his first-serve points.

"My mindset was never that he was beating me, or up. I let some chances slip in the second set that I shouldn't have. I played a really bad game on my serve. He definitely was playing better, playing some good points, but I just told myself in the third to just keep doing what I was doing. I felt like all the chances were there in the second set; I felt like I was better. I just didn't convert, then let him convert on my serve and didn't play the best tie-break," he added.

Noting his standing in the Race To Turin, the American said he would have been devastated to miss both Seoul and Tokyo with Covid-19. After the win, he was thankful to still be playing in what he called one of his favourite tournaments.

Fritz will meet Japanese lucky loser Hiroki Moriya in the second round, with their matchup scheduled for Thursday night in the Ariake Colosseum.

"It'll be fun," he said of the matchup against the home favourite, one of two Japanese men in the second round, alongside Rio Noguchi.

"I'm going to have to play well. I'm obviously still feeling the effects of everything I've been through, so I just have to take it one match at a time, just go out there and compete. I'm excited to play at night in front of the home crowd," he concluded.

--IANS
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Gandhinagar, Oct 5 (IANS) Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Jaismine Lamboria and Mohammed Hussamuddin registered convincing victories to advance to the next round of their respective weight categories as boxing competitions at the 36th National Games kicked off at the Mahatma Mandir here on Wednesday.

Flanked by former world championship medallist Shiva Thapa, Lovlina walked into the ring amidst cheers from the sizeable crowd, more so from the Assam contingent, and took firm control of the bout against Nishi Bharadwaj in the 75kg category. The difference in class was pretty evident between the opponents from either corner, with Nishi's short frame making it even more difficult for her to connect the punches and judge had to stop fight.

Returning from a nose injury, Lovlina warmed up for the tougher bouts ahead with a flurry of punches that connected right on the Bihar pugilist's face, to eventually clinch the contest in style.

Earlier, in the women's light weight 60kg category bout, Haryana's Jaismine dominated Telangana's Manasa Matterparthi in an unanimous 5-0 verdict.

Similarly, Telangana's Hussamuddin, representing Services, made light work of Uttar Pradesh opponent Satish Kumar to record a 5-0 unanimous verdict. Later after the contest, Hussamuddin said, "There was little time to specially prepare for the National Games, as we had the trials for the Asian Championship on September 15 and 16, which meant we had very little time after the Commonwealth Games."

"It was a relatively easier opening bout today, but we have two big names in Rohit Mor (Delhi) and Sachin Siwach (Haryana) in the same category. The competition level will heat up from here on," he added.

Rohit, who was also in action in the Feather weight (57kg) category, came back from a sluggish start in the first round to register a split decision 4-1 victory over Maharastra Rushikesh Goud. In the other contest of the category, Mizoram's Lallawmawma, Himachal Pradesh's Ashish Kumar also registered victories.

In men's light weight 60kg category, Delhi boy Ritik opened his campaign with a stunning knock out win in the first round over local lad Ankit Mayaram Nishad, while Himachal's Jitender Thakur also made it a sweet outing for himself with a 5-0 unanimous verdict.

In men's light heavyweight 80kg division, Madhya Pradesh's Abhinav Bhargav and Rajasthan's Sumit Poonia advanced to the next round in contrasting style. While Bhargav recorded a split decision 3-2 win, Poonia registered a stunning 5-0 win over Mizoram's C Lalduhawma.

In men's heavyweight 92kg category, Haryana's Naveen Kumar recorded a split decision 4-1 victory in the opening round. Former national champion Narender representing the Services, walked away with a 5-0 victory over Uttar Pradesh's Vishal Yadav in a one-sided affair of the super heavy weight +92kg category. In the same division, Uttarakhand's Sagar Singh also made it to the next round.

--IANS
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Cape Town, Oct 5 (IANS) South Africa women's top-order batter Lara Goodall eagerly excited for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of representing her country in the 2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup that will be hosted on home soil from February 10-26 next year.

Lara is especially excited about the possibility of featuring in the opening match against Sri Lanka on Friday, 10 February taking place at the Newlands Cricket Ground, a place the left-hander calls home.

"I don't think it has actually sunk in yet. It's something that we've been preparing for, for quite a while. We have just been preparing like it is a normal World Cup, but it is one on home soil and luckily for me, it is my home ground."

"The opening game is at Newlands, and I have grown up in Cape Town, I lived here all my life and to be able to say I have played a World Cup game on home soil will mean a lot to me and my family, it's such a big occasion," said Lara during the fixture and ticket sales launch of the tournament.

Lara has enjoyed a fruitful year in T20Is for South Africa, recording her maiden half-century during a three-match series against Ireland earlier in the year before going onto notch up 144 runs in six innings at a positive strike rate of 127.43. She was also a part of the historic Commonwealth Games campaign in Birmingham for Team South Africa.

"To be part of any World Cup opening day is special and to be the home nation makes it even better. I am sure all the girls will try and get their families down as much as they can and just to be able to say you played in the first game of a World Cup is something that every cricketer dreams of."

"To be able to do it at such a ground like Newlands Cricket Ground is unreal and it is really an experience that the girls will take in and remember for the rest of their lives," added Lara.

Lara would be hoping to take that momentum into the global showpiece, with South Africa drawn in Group A alongside the defending champions, Australia as well as New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as they hope to secure another semi-final spot in a major competition.

"You know Australia are defending champions and they are probably the best team in the world, they have been for quite a long time, but you know playing at home, having home advantage on our side, we always feel like we have a chance. We had a good go at them in the semi-finals at the last T20 World Cup."

"It is a tough group; we have seen New Zealand on their day can beat any team. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are also teams that have played a lot of T20 World Cups and they are experienced in the format; they can do anything on the day. It can be pressure as well, but we just have to take it as an advantage and extra motivation to make South Africa proud."

"We cannot play the opposition; we can just play the way we want to play and play to the best of our abilities. We know if we play to our strengths, we know we can beat any cricket side and having home fans and being able to play in front of everyone from South Africa will definitely be an advantage for us," elaborated Lara.

Lara signed off by encouraging the South African public to show their support to the women's team and welcome the world to their country, highlighting the double headers as an attractive element to the event.

"It's simple, come and enjoy some cricket. I feel like there will be a lot of buzz around the game and there will be a lot to do at the game, so it is going to be fun, for kids especially. I would love to see thousands of kids at the game."

"You don't only get one game, you get two games for the price of one so that's an added bonus and it's a family outing, you can just come and enjoy; sit on the grass banks at Newlands and Paarl and enjoy the atmosphere, and experience something not everyone can say that they have," she concluded.


--IANS
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