NZ start well as big run chase looms
CHRISTCHURCH: Tom Latham and Jeet Raval edged New Zealand to 42 without loss at the start of a formidable run chase when bad light brought an early end to the penultimate day of the second Test on Monday.
Latham was not out 25 with Raval on 17 and New Zealand requiring a further 340 to reach their 382-run target.
If successful, it would be the seventh-highest winning run chase in Test history
New Zealand’s highest successful fourth innings is 325 for five to beat Pakistan in Christchurch 24 years ago.
After England declared at 352 for nine, Latham and Raval had some difficult moments in a hostile first-up spell by Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Anderson did everything but claim Latham’s wicket as the New Zealand opener flirted outside the off stump in similar fashion to the way he was removed by Broad in the first innings.
After some near misses, Latham on 23 eventually found an edge but James Vince dropped the chance at third slip.
Broad, meanwhile, consistently beat Raval in his early overs and struck the left-hander with a painful blow in the ribs before he had scored.
While England’s new ball bowlers were miserly, with Anderson conceding only nine runs from nine overs and Broad going for 16 off eight, the New Zea- land pair did find runs easier to get off Mark Wood who went for 13 off two overs.
When the New Zealand innings began with a minimum of 137 overs to reach the target, the required run rate was 2.78 per over. When the light ended play 24 overs early, the run rate was 2.98.
England flourished at the start of the day when they resumed at 202 for three, with Joe Root and Dawid Malan moving the score briskly to 262 before Colin de Grandhomme rallied New Zealand.
He had Malan caught at midwicket by Henry Nicholls for 53 to start a tumble that saw six wickets fall for 90 runs before England declared.
Root, having shared in a 97-run stand with Malan, was out three balls later with an edge to wicketkeeper BJ Watling off Neil Wagner.
De Grandhomme, back at the scene of his best career figures -six for 41 on debut against Pakistan two years ago -- produced his second best figures of four for 94 as he followed up with the wickets of Ben Stokes (12), Broad (12) and Wood (nine).
If New Zealand draw or win the Test it will see them triumph in a series against England for only the fourth time in 36 attempts. England need to a victory to snap a 12-match away streak without a win.
Brief scores: England 307 and 352-9 decl vs New Zealand 278 and 42-0 in 23 overs (T Latham 25*, J Raval 17*)
With the BCCI managing to get a record-breaking deal of ~16,347.5 crore ($2.55 billion) for IPL media rights, expectations of another windfall are high as the broadcast and digital rights for India’s international and domestic matches go up for sale on Tuesday. The rights to be sold via e-auction will be for a five-year period till March 31, 2023.
The main battle is expected to be again between Star India and Sony Pictures Network, though there are strong contenders like Jio Infocomm, Facebook and Google who could steal the show with their bidding for the digital rights. Yupp TV is also in the fray.
Sony have lost IPL rights to Star, but their strategy of bagging rights of all other top boards (total seven so far) means they already have India’s away matches in their bag. India’s recent Test series in South Africa was a huge hit. But both the big players are under pressure. Having lost IPL rights, Sony are playing catch-up with Star. Star, on the other hand, are looking for better products for the rest of the year, a period during which Sony will be broadcasting the FIFA World Cup.
However, Sony and Star could face stiff competition if Reliance’s Jio decides to pitch in for a consolidated bid. Apart from its digital platform, Reliance has started showing sports on MTV, where the League Cup final between Manchester City and Arsenal was aired recently.
DIGITAL BATTLE
Rights are provided in three packages — global television rights plus rest of the world digital rights; digital rights for the Indian subcontinent; and a global consolidated rights bid. The base price for global television rights plus digital rights package is ~33 crore while the Indian subcontinent digital rights package is ~7 crore and it’s ~40 crore for the global consolidated rights.
Equal interest is on how the digital rights bidding will play out with some experts saying it may
overshadow the battle for TV rights. In the IPL media rights auction, Facebook, Reliance Jio and Airtel had bid over ~3,000 crore each for the digital rights alone. Reliance Jio and Facebook will be serious players for the digital rights but with Star equally focused on Hotstar, it will be an engrossing bidding war.
It’s BCCI’S first e-auction of media rights. Detractors feel BCCI should not have departed from its traditional sealed tender documentation process. Hence, there will be pressure on BCCI to land a bigger deal than last time when Star TV paid ~3851 crore in 2012 for 96 matches.