Mumbai will take on Tamil Nadu in the second semifinal this season at the same venue while in the first semifinal game, Vidarbha will host Madhya Pradesh. Tailenders Tanush Kotian and Tushar Deshpande entered the record books with a century each but it was their team’s slender first-innings lead against Andhra that propelled Mumbai into the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy on Tuesday. With the contest ending in a draw on the fifth day at the BKC Ground, Mumbai made it to the final four on the virtue of first-innings lead. Mumbai will take on Tamil Nadu in the second semifinal this season at the same venue while in the first semifinal game, Vidarbha will host Madhya Pradesh. Mumbai had taken a lead of 36 runs in the first innings after Baroda were bowled out for 348 in reply to the hosts’ 384. The match was called off at tea with Baroda reaching 121 for three in an improbable chase of 606 on the final day, with Musheer Khan being adjudged the player of the match for his unbeaten 203 in the first innings. A thrilling final day was on cards when Mumbai resumed play at 379 for nine with Kotian unbeaten on 32 and Deshpande batting on 23. Having come together in the middle with Mumbai leading by 373 overall, the pair went about its job with ease to pile up further misery on the Baroda side. Mumbai’s Nos 10 and 11 Kotian and Deshpande recorded their maiden first-class hundreds while adding 232 runs for the 10th wicket, which came off only 240 balls. But Kotian and Deshpande fell just one run short of equalling the record for highest partnership for the 10th wicket, which is held by the pair of Ajay Sharma and Maninder Singh. Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com Kotian remained unbeaten on 120 from 129 balls with 10 fours and four sixes and the pair was separated only when Deshpande was dismissed by Ninad Rathva for 123 from 129 balls, hitting 10 fours and eight sixes. Brief scores: Mumbai 384 & 569 in 132 overs (Hardik Tamore 114, Prithvi Shaw 87, Shams Mulani 54, Tanush Kotian 120*, Tushar Deshpande 123; Bhargav Bhatt 7/200) drew with Baroda 348 & 121/3 in 30 overs (Priyanshu Moliya 54; Tanush Kotian 2/16).

IND vs ENG 4th Test Live Score Updates: Joe Root and Ollie Robinson have taken England to 302/7 at stumps on Day 1 at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi. Right when it felt like India was going to bowl out England mid-way through the evening session but Robinson chipped in with a handy cameo. Root made a gritty ton to hold the English batting effort together. Earlier, Akash Deep had a sensational debut in MS Dhoni’s hometown in Ranchi he picked three wickets. Akash Deep knocked over Zak Crawley but he had cut short his celebration as he was overstepped. However, the 27-year-old made a terrific comeback by removing England’s top three. He first got rid of Ben Duckett with a beautiful outswinger. The nip backer and a bold DRS review from captain Rohit Sharma got the better of England No 3 Ollie Pope. Crawley, who survived the earlier no-ball got cleaned up again. England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bat against India.

The first picture that Google throws up of Ollie Robinson, who replaces Mark Wood for Ranchi Test, captures his personality on the field too. He is turning back, has his index finger firmly on his lips, gesturing at a batsman, probably the one he has just dismissed, to shut up, his eyes cold and piercing, the end of his hair standing up. His expressive, and often sweary farewells are famous. His expletive-laden send off after dismissing Usman Khawaja instigated Matthew Hayden to ridicule him as “124 kph nothing.” Australian broadcaster Fox Sports, referred to Robinson as the “No 1 Villain”. Robinson, typically, would defend himself, saying: “If you can’t handle that, what can you handle?” He would shoot on: “I think we’ve all seen Ricky Ponting and other Aussies do the same to us, and just because the boot’s on the other foot it’s not received well.” Before that, in the series against India, he made Virat Kohli channel the old West Delhi motormouth streak of his. He, though, would confess in his column for Wisden: “I think in those big moments I sometimes forget where I am. And there’s a thousand cameras on me! I’m not normally an explicit sort of person when I get a wicket, it’s normally just a big roar, or my eyes go a bit crazy.” Even in the nets, he reproduces the same bark and bite. He would unleash a barrage of bouncers on Ollie Pope on Wednesday; he targeted the ribs of Jonny Bairstow. Batsmen would keep coming and going, but he would keep on bowling, with undiminished energy. In one instance, an England support staff had to plead him to get the ball from his hands so that one of his spinners could catch some practice. Immediately, he would pad up and barge into another nets for some batting practice. In short, he might just be the injection of intensity and vigour that the tiring England might require. Even more so he had to wait for almost a month for his break to come. He also had great success on flat pitches in Pakistan during England’s successful tour of 2022, removing Babar Azam twice in the Multan Test. The selection call isn’t just a reward for his patience. His height (6 feet 5) and release point could make a difference. Stokes could have weighed in India’s torment against tall bowlers like Kyle Jamieson and Marco Jansen. The tools he brings are different to Mark Wood, the seamer he would displace. He is not as wickedly quick, but is far more disciplined and could produce seam movement, both into and away from the right-hander. His dismissals of Cheteshwar Pujara, who would become a friend of his in Sussex, Virat Kohli at Headingley, and Babar at Multan offers a gist into craft. He nailed Pujara with a clever change of length. Until then he had bowled in the shorter side of good length, but here he pushed the length by a foot but not too full either. Most batsmen have a tendency to leave a tall bowler on his length, assuming that the natural height and hence the bounce would take the ball over the stumps. He slipped in a slightly fuller ball and Pujara shouldered arms, only to watch the ball jag back wickedly and blast the stumps off his pads. Babar too had shouldered arms to a nipbacker that jagged back in from well outside off to take out the off stump. In the next innings, he went for a drive to a fuller ball that nipped back in through the bat and pad gap. Away movement foxed Kohli. Kohli struck him for two gorgeous boundaries, a flick and an on-drive. But he produced one that jagged away off the seam after pitching. It bounced a trifle more than Kohli had judged. It’s another dimension of his, to make the ball leap off good length with his effort ball. Robinson doesn’t use bounce as his primary weapon, as most tall fast bowlers are tempted to, but an ancillary device. If the surface tends to abet variable bounce, he could turn into a lethal proposition.But subtlety of lengths is his calling card, and one that could revitalise England. His Sussex colleagues call him badger, because he spends countless hours researching about the batsmen he would face. Jason Gillespie, his coach at Yorkshire and Sussex, would reveal to The Guardian: “I would say he is comfortably the most researched and well-prepared fast bowler I have come across in professional cricket. He does his homework and comes to team meetings just full of ideas. He watches footage, gets information and formulates plans for each batsman with either the new or old ball.” The setbacks in different phases of his career–sacked from Yorkshire for multiple disciplinary breaches, banned from the national side for racist tweets–has, by his own admission, made him a mature and aware cricketer. England would want Robinson to channel all of these traits—the energy, aggression and relentlessness. A bit of verbal aggro and bloodshot stares would make for some theatre too, the lone missing ingredient of this series.

Yashasvi Jaiswal’s dream season just got better as he singlehandedly seized the initiative from England with a sizzling century, putting India in complete control at the end of third day’s play in the third Test. Jaiswal’s (104 retired hurt off 133 balls) second ton of the series was beautifully complemented by Shubman Gill (65 batting, 120 balls), who curbed his natural aggression as India ended the day at 196 for 2 in 51 available overs. The left-handed opener, who will be torch-bearer of Indian batting for the next decade, scored his third Test hundred in only seventh Test appearance before the blazing blade was brought to a halt by back spasms that forced him to retire. The Jaiswal-Gill pair added 155 runs in quick time with the former giving the English team a test of its own medicine with nine fours and five sixes, the best being the imperious pull off Jimmy Anderson. The overall lead swelled to 322 by stumps, after Indian bowlers made a splendid comeback, getting last five England wickets for only 29 runs with visitors being bowled out for 319. Mohammed Siraj (4/84 in 21.1 overs) was brilliant with his yorkers to tail-enders while Kuldeep Yadav (2/77 in 18 overs) compensated brilliantly for Ravichandran Ashwin’s unfortunate withdrawal with two quick wickets in the morning session. However it was Joe Root’s indiscreet reverse ramp off Jasprit Bumrah which Jaiswal pouched with less than a second’s reaction time that turned the tables. “That shot was not on and it became a turning point,” Siraj said at post-match press conference. Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was spot-on and the manner in which he tweaked Jasprit Bumrah’s field position at long-on to get Ben Stokes dismissed off Ravindra Jadeja (2/51) spoke volumes about his acumen. On Sunday, India would be looking to take a lead of at least 425 if not 450 and have at least 125 overs to bowl out England. With no Ashwin available, India would need a cushion of more overs on a deck that is still good for batting. Jaiswal Jazz Jaiswal’s onslaught continued despite England frenetically changing their bowling and fielding plans but none worked enough to stop the Indian opener. Having spotted a vacant off-side field, Jaiswal brought out two reverse sweeps off Rehan Ahmed for fours. However, his charge was halted only after England brought back Mark Wood for a short-ball ploy yet again in the game with a packed leg side field. Unfazed with England’s deployments, Jaiswal dealt in singles once into his 90s and brought up his third century of fledgling career with a four off Wood. However, the left-handed opener had to retired hurt close to the end of the play for being unable to deal with back spasms. Jaiswal not only took the wind out of England’s aspirations but also consolidated India’s grip on the contest, having lost Rohit Sharma (19) cheaply in the second session. At the other end, Gill put behind the disappointment of the first-innings duck with a fifth half-century, countering England’s ploy of a packed on-side field with up to six fielders placed and Wood bowling into his body. India’s task was to preserve wickets and build their lead, given the amount of time left in the game and surface in Rajkot being benign so far. Additionally, Rohit’s early dismissal with their overall lead not being big enough would have provided some concerns but all that was banished by the pair of Jaiswal and Gill with their unbeaten 155-run stand for the second wicket. Kuldeep’s ripper Kuldeep, who was hit for plenty by Ben Duckett on second day, found his mojo, bowling splendidly through the first session of the day which kept a leash on England, while also accounting for Jonny Bairstow with an unplayable delivery. Bairstow moved deep into the crease but was pinned in front of the wickets with one that turned sharply into him from outside the off. Bumrah then accounted for Root (18) for the ninth time in 21 innings, as former skipper’s shocking dismissal – a reverse ramp to second slip – once again exposed the bizarreness of the ultra aggressive approach. Having struggled to score freely in the first session, England resorted to go all-out post lunch but the ploy backfired horrendously. Jadeja had Stokes (41) caught by Bumrah who was placed a bit straighter at long-on, forcing the batter to adjust his stroke. Jadeja also had Tom Hartley stumped for his second wicket. For Ben Foakes, a delivery from Siraj slowed a little bit off the surface for an easy grab for Rohit at mid-on. Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com The India pacer wasted no time in cleaning up tail-enders Ahmed and Ande

England seamer Mark Wood made a return to the playing XI, replacing off-spinner Shoaib Bashir on the eve of the third Test against India at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot on Wednesday. Wood played the first Test in Hyderabad as the lone specialist seamer and was rested for veteran James Anderson during the second Test in Visakhapatnam. The 34-year-old Wood had gone wicketless in the opening game. Meanwhile, rookie Bashir who made his Test debut in Vizag, returned four wickets including the prized scalps of India skipper Rohit Sharma and second-innings centurion Shubman Gill. Speaking on the inclusion of Wood, England skipper Ben Stokes said: “(Rajkot pitch) is a true flat wicket. Looks a good wicket. The extra seamer gives us the best chance to win. “Bashir did incredibly well in his first game. I have no doubt there will be more opportunities, even in this series. Having an extra seamer allows us to use Wood differently than we did in the first Test. Jimmy (Anderson) has shown his class,” Stokes ahead of his milestone 100th Test. England Playing XI for third Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, James Anderson

One of India’s batting mainstays KL Rahul has been ruled out for the third Test match against England in Rajkot. The senior selection committee, while naming the Karnataka batsman for the last three Test matches, had added a rider. On Saturday, while announcing the team, the BCCI statement had said that “the participation of Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul is subject to fitness clearance from the BCCI medical team”. Rahul is still at NCA and he hasn’t traveled to Rajkot. The BCCI and the Indian team management is hoping that Rahul will be fit by fourth Test. Rahul was earlier ruled out for the second Test at Vizag after he had complained of right quadriceps pain during the first Test match in Hyderabad. Injuries and withdrawals have impacted the Indian team in the ongoing series. The biggest blow for the Rohit Sharma team was the absence of team’s superstar, Virat Kohli, who has informed the Indian board that he was sitting out of the series because of personal reasons. This was followed by India’s big batting hope, Shreyas Iyer, losing his place in the side because of lack of runs. Replacing Rahul in the Test squad will be another Karnataka batsman Devdutt Padikkal. In his latest Ranji Trophy match, Paddikal had scored 151 with the chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar watching the Karnataka vs Tamil Nadu game from the stands. The left-hander has been in sparkling form this season. After his 193 against Punjab in the opening Ranji game, he scored 103 against Goa. Padikkal also scored 105, 65 & 21 in his three innings for India A in the two unofficial Tests against England Lions. Speaking after his innings against TN, the opener spoke about bouncing back from health issues to now scoring runs consistently and that he was flexible when it came to batting order. “I don’t mind batting at No.3 and I don’t mind opening either. So that doesn’t really make a huge difference. As you play more and more cricket and as you gain experience, at this level you will naturally be able to play more shots because you will be more confident about your areas,” he had said.