India were reduced to 33/3 in the first 45 minutes of day one, before Rohit made 131 off 196 balls, hitting 14 fours and three sixes, in his 11th Test century. He added 204 runs for the fourth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja, who made 112, to get India’s innings back on track.

Coming out to bat at number six, Sarfaraz played a sparkling knock of 62 off 66 balls, laced with nine fours and a six in his first Test innings, while sharing a stand of 77 with Jadeja for the fifth wicket.

Ashwin (37) and Jurel (46) added 77 runs for the eighth-wicket stand, followed by Bumrah making 26 at the end to take India to a strong total. With turn in the pitch, India will fancy their chances with the ball, though they will be concerned over how much bowling overs they will get out of Mohammed Siraj, who injured his right knee while batting.

For England, speedster Mark Wood took four wickets while other bowlers were amongst the scalps. The visitors’, though, would rue their dropped catches and not using the DRS diligently. They will begin their innings from 5/0, via the penalty runs India were fined due to Ashwin and Jadeja running on the danger area of the pitch.

Resuming from 331/7, India added only 62 runs in the morning session. James Anderson struck in the fourth over of the session after getting a faint edge of night watchman Kuldeep Yadav’s bat to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes. In the next over, Jadeja chipped a tame drive straight back to part-time off-spinner Joe Root, falling for 112.

With two new fresh batters, England went to Mark Wood’s thunderbolts, and Ashwin got off the mark with a beautiful punch through cover for four. He tried to bounce out Jurel, who arched back and ramped over slips for six.

Ashwin continued to hit lovely drives and cuts for boundaries, while Jurel looked solid and cleverly glanced and drove in the gap to get his runs, as making 400+ now looks a realistic target for India.

The only blip for India though was Ashwin running into the danger area while facing Rehan Ahmed in the 102nd over, which led to on-field umpire Joel Wilson fining India with a five-run penalty.

Post lunch, Ashwin continued to get boundaries via on-drive and glance, even as Jurel was dropped twice on 32 by Ollie Pope at mid-wicket and by Ben Stokes at leg-slip. England finally held on to a chance when Ashwin miscued a loft off Rehan Ahmed and was caught by a forward-diving mid-on.

Jurel delighted with his sixes over mid-wicket and mid-off, but his attempt to go for a late-cut against a flatter and wide delivery from Ahmed resulted in Foakes taking a brilliant low catch. Bumrah sparkled with his slogs over mid-on yielding a four and six, followed by beautiful lofted drive over cover for a boundary.

Siraj was hit on the top of his knee while going for a reverse-sweep off Tom Hartley, and changed the out decision to not-out via DRS. In the next over, he again got treatment from the physio due to the pain from the blow on the knee. Wood then trapped Bumrah lbw with a slower delivery to end India’s innings.

Brief Scores: India 445 in 130.5 overs (Rohit Sharma 131, Ravindra Jadeja 112; Mark Wood 4-114, Rehan Ahmed 2-85) against England

Bumrah, whose 9-wicket match haul forced adjudicators to give him the Man-of-the-Match award ahead of double-centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal two days ago, thus became the first Indian pacer to be ranked No. 1.

He moved up from fourth to the top in the latest rankings list, replacing teammate and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Bumrah’s previous best ranking was No. 3.

At the peak of his powers, Bumrah’s last four Test matches have fetched him 27 wickets – 15 in the opening two matches of the ongoing home series against England and 12 in two preceding Tests in South Africa.

Bumrah will feel especially proud as he has gone one better than the legendary Kapil Dev.

India’s first World Cup-winning captain was No. 2, on the retrospective Test bowlers’ table, from December 1979 to February 1980.

Like Bumrah’s previous best, left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan had once occupied the No. 3 spot (October-November 2010).

Bumrah became the fastest India pacer to capture 150 Test wickets during his sensational spell of 6/45 in the first innings of the Vizag Test, which India won convincingly to level the series.

Having set the visiting team a target of 240, Odisha reduced Pondicherry to 175/8 before time ran out on the fourth and final day.

The draw gave Odisha 3 points, by virtue of first-innings lead, for a total of 12 points after five games. Odisha, currently in fifth place, will require full points from their last two games to have an outside chance of making the knockout stage.

After being all out for 201 in their second innings, Odisha pacers Rajesh Mohanty and Sunil Roul reduced Pondicherry to 0 for 2, sending back both openers without scoring.

A 55-run partnership followed, before Sunil Roul struck.

Odisha then faced strong resistance from Paras Ratnaparkhe (72) and Arun Karthik (58 not out).

Once their 89-run stand was broken by Harshit Rathod, Odisha made further inroads to push for victory.

But skipper Karthik stood firm till the end to deny Odisha victory.

Biplab Samantaray and Rajesh Mohanty bagged 2 wickets each, while Pradhan, Roul, Rathod and Govinda Poddar claimed one apiece.

Brief Scores

Odisha 322 & 201 (Govinda Poddar 46; Sagar Udeshi 4/45, Gaurav Yadav 3/48).

Pondicherry 284 & 175/8 (Paras Ratnaparkhe 72, Arun Karthik 58 not out; Biplab Samantaray 2/28, Rajesh Mohanty 2/41).

Result: Match drawn.

Points: Odisha 3, Pondicherry 1.

Standings: 12 points in 5 matches (5th), Pondicherry 13 pts in 5 matches (3rd).

Odisha’s next match: Vs Uttarakhand (from Feb 9 at Cuttack).

Gill’s place in the Indian team had come under threat, owing to a string of poor performances. However, the youngster performed at the right moment to reach the triple-digit score. He survived two close DRS calls in successive overs soon after his arrival into the middle to post his first fifty-plus score in 13 innings.

As per reports in some section of media, after Shubman Gill’s two-ball duck in the second innings of the Hyderabad Test, the team management had given him an ultimatum that Visakhapatnam would be his last chance to retain the No.3 spot in India’s Test team.

The report further stated that there was a conversation around Gill that he could have been sent to domestic cricket to work on his flaws with a week’s gap between the second and Third Test tin Rajkot.

Had Gill not fought his critics back with a valuable hundred in the second innings in Visakhapatnam, he could have flown to Mohali. Punjab are hosting Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy in Mohali starting from February 9.

Gill had amassed only 153 runs in his last nine innings with the highest score of 36 and his place was under immense scrutiny. His vulnerability against both spin and seam movement was fully exposed. However, the century will give him the world of confidence and time to correct those technical frailties.

“It is with immense gratitude and humility that I officially announce my retirement from International Hockey. The journey from 2011 to 2023 has been the highlight of my life, and I am deeply honoured to have represented India at the pinnacle of the sport. I extend my sincere thanks to Hockey India, Hockey Association of Odisha, and the Odisha Government for the invaluable opportunities they provided me. I would also like to thank the Government of India and Sports Authority of India for their unwavering support for the sport,” said Ekka in a social media post on Saturday.

The highly acclaimed player, who represented Indian women’s hockey team in 268 matches between 2011 and 2023, thanked her teammates, coaches, mentors and the support staff for their support.

Born in Sundargarh district, Ekka started playing state-level hockey matches at the age of 13. She played in the National Games at Ranchi in 2011 and got selected for the Junior Asia Cup team in the same year. Ekka was honoured with Arjun award in 2022.

It was evens stevens at the halfway mark of the third-place playoff clash, with Telugu Yoddhas enjoying a wafer-thin advantage of 14-13.

However, Odisha Juggernauts came back strongly and defended well to run out 32-24 winners.

Odisha Juggernauts’ Nikhil B and Dilip Khandavi were presented the Best Attacker and Best Kho awards, respectively.

Having won the inaugural edition of Ultimate Kho Kho league, Odisha Juggernauts lost to Gujarat Giants in the semifinal this time. So it was a happy ending for the Juggernauts who gave their fans something to cheer about.

Baroda, having grabbed a lead of 173 runs, scored a at a rapid rate in their second innings to declare at 258/4.

Set a victory target of 432 runs, Odisha openers Shantanu Mishra and Anurag Sarangi got off to a cautious and solid start at Vadodara’s Motibag Stadium.

Sarangi fell for a well-compiled 56 in the closing minutes of play as Odisha went to stumps on Day 3 at 103/1.

Skipper Shantanu is unbeaten on a gritty 41, having already faced 117 deliveries. All other specialist batsmen will have to show similar application if Odisha are to knock off 329 more runs required for victory, or bat out the entire day to force a draw.

Baroda’s second innings was powered by Shashwat Rawat (102) and skipper Vishnu Solanki (79), who added 139 runs for the third wicket at more than 4.5 runs an over.

Medium-pacer Debabrata Pradhan was Odisha’s standout bowler, registering figures of 2/20 in 13 overs.

Brief scores

Baroda 351 & 258/4 declared (Shashwat Rawat 102, Vishnu Solanki 79; Debabrata Pradhan 2/20).

Odisha 178 & 103/1 (Anurag Sarangi 56, Shantanu Mishra 41*).

Match to continue on final day.

Gladly for billions of cricket fans in this country, it was Team India who emerged on top of the second Test against South Africa at Newlands ground in Cape Town.

Midway through the second session of Day 2, Shreyas Iyer lofted Marco Jansen to the long-on boundary to hit the winning runs as India reached 80 for 3 to win by 7 wickets.

A Test series victory on South African soil remained elusive for the Indians, but at least they had the satisfaction of sharing honours in the 2-match series.

It was the shortest ever match played in the 147-year history of Test cricket. The match lasted 642 balls, or 107 overs!

The previous record was a 656-ball Test between Australia and South Africa, played in 1932 at Melbourne.

“I didn’t imagine this Test would end so fast.. I’ve never played such a short Test in my career,” said joint Man-of-the-Series Jasprit Bumrah.

Bumrah was India’s hero on Thursday, as he matched fellow-pacer Mohammed Siraj’s Day 1 effort of 6/15 with a haul of 6/61 in the second innings.

The Proteas, having conceded a 98-run lead after collapsing to 55 all out, managed to put up 176 on the board in second innings thanks to Aiden Markram’s brilliant century (106 off 103 balls, 17×4, 2×6).

India went all guns blazing and knocked up the target in just 12 overs.

Brief scores

South Africa 55 all out in 23.2 overs & 176 all out in 36.5 overs (Aiden Markram 106; Jasprit Bumrah 6/61, Mukesh Kumar 2/56).

India 153 all out in 34.5 overs & 80/3 in 12 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 28).

Result: India won by 7 wickets.

Series result: 1-1

Man of the Match: Md Siraj

Men of the Series: J Bumrah & Dean Elgar.

Rahul’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. The quality of the knock, as he hit his 8th test century, was outstanding.

After scoring the century, he achieved a rare feat which many Indian batsmen haven’t’ got. He became the only visiting batsman to score multiple centuries in Centurion.

Lets look at his best innings in oversee conditions:

123 Vs South Africa (Centurion) In 2021:

The Indian opener scored his first hundred in South Africa in Centurion (Boxing Day). His heroic efforts in testing conditions helped India win the match.

84 Vs England (Trent Bridge, Nottingham) 2021

In the first match of the series, the dashing opener rose to the occasion by scoring a composed 84 against the likes of Anderson and Broad on tough wicket in Nottingham. One note worthy thing during that knock was how he left the deliveries.

129 In Lords Vs England

Considered as one of the top knocks by India in English conditions, K L Rahul achieved this milestone by scoring a glorious knock of 129 in 2021. His technique and defence was praised by experts as his century helped India register an historic win against the English side during the 5 test match series.

Recently, the ‘GOAT’ of cricket made a young fan’s day by giving an autograph. Virat, who is currently in South Africa for the ongoing Test series, happily obliged to the autograph and signed a Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) jersey of the young fan.

The sweet gesture by the Indian batting superstar unfolded before the first session of Day 2 of the First Test between India and South Africa in Centurion. After signing the jersey, the dashing cricketer went one step ahead and accepted the little boy’s request for a picture.

With one hand on the boy’s shoulders, Kohli smiled happily as he posed for the camera, leaving his little fan with the memories of a lifetime. Earlier, a video of Virat Kohli posing for a camera with an elderly person and a disabled wheelchair-bound boy had gone viral.

Now, Virat Kohli’s this kind gesture has been going viral on social media with fans hailing him as the real king.

“No Virat Kohli fan can pass without liking this post,” a fan commented. Another fan wrote, “This is the reason, he is the King of cricket.”

Talking about the game, Virat Kohli scored 38 in the first Test before being dismissed by Rabada at Centurion, South Africa. India are hoping to end their wait for a first-ever Test series win on South African soil.