HCA’s 2nd level fitness test
Hyderabad, March 4: The Hyderabad Cricket Association is conducting the second phase of the Fitness Test for those who cleared the first, on Saturday at 7.30 am at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Uppal.
Players should bring along a copy of the birth certificate as well as carry a digital version. The list of players who cleared the first test held on February 28 and March 1 will be displayed at the notice boards of RGICS as well as Gymkhana Grounds, a release read.
Ahmedabad, March 4: England’s batsmen lost the battle of both mind and skills in yet another shoddy performance to surrender the momentum to India with Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin calling the shots on the opening day of the fourth and final Test here on Thursday.
After five innings, England crossed the 200run mark but a total of
205 in 75.5 overs was certainly not what Joe Root had expected when he called it right at the toss on a day which would have ideally been best for batting.
There was turn and bounce but the pitch was far from being a minefield that some of the England batsmen save Ben Stokes (55, 121 balls) made it out to be.
For India, spinners Axar Patel (26-7-68-4), Ravichandran Ashwin
(19.5-4-47-3) and Washington Sundar (7-114-1) toyed with the already messed up minds, clueless on how to deal with the conditions.
Mohammed Siraj (14-245-2) also played his part to perfection with the semi-new and old ball, hurrying the batsmen with sheer pace as he did with Jonny Bairstow.
India ended the day at 24 for 1 with wily old James Anderson (5-5-0-1) accounting for an out-ofform Shubman Gill (0). Rohit Sharma (8 batting) and Cheteshwar Pujara
(15 batting) were holding fort for the home side.
A cursory look at the England line-up, loaded
with an extra batsman, will reveal that four — Stokes, Bairstow (28, 67 balls), Dan Lawrence (46 off 74 balls) and Ollie Pope (29 off 87 balls) got starts but failed miserably on the conversion part. The others came in and went without breaking a bead of sweat. It was as if already in their minds, they were playing on a track they thought would turn square.
Stokes was a cut above the rest both in defence and offence before a moment’s indecision cost him his wicket.