Tag: Sourav Ganguly

India vs South Africa: Fewer To See The Last Test Match In Ranchi Ground.

Source – sportzwiki.com

The interest to watch Test matches has gone down after the introduction of the shorter format of cricket. The grounds are seen empty during the longer format cricket. Same is the view of the Ranchi ground where India will fight for the third and last Test match against South Africa from Saturday (19th October).

Sanjay Sahay, the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) secretary, said that less than 1500 tickets are sold in swank stadium which has the capacity of 39,000 people. Ranchi will have their second Test match in the Indian cricket history but the natives are not interested to see the match.

“If there is any demand, it is for daily tickets in the hospitality area priced at ~2000,” said Sahay. The daily tickets prices range from ~200 to ~2000 and the cheapest season ticket costs ~1000, he said.

Sahay said that 5000 tickets are distributed among the para-military forces, the army, local police and National Cadet Corps. Ranchi is the home ground of MS Dhoni but the player is not playing the series so it can be the reason for less no. of people to watch the Test match. Sahay said that if Dhoni would play then also maximum 20,000 tickets would have been sold.

This Test will help to understand the condition of Ranchi ground

Sahay also opined that this Test match will help to check the conditions of the light, pitch and fire arrangement of the ground.

“The advantage of staging this match is that we could check whether everything, from the pitch, the lights, the fire arrangements are working. It is because of this Test we have also got the (50-over knockout) Deodhar Trophy (October 31-November 4),” said Sahay.

Sourav Ganguly who will take the new role of BCCI president has opined that he will look forward to introducing day-night Test match. Sahay said that the ground team will have to make the arrangement according to that format.

“We will have to do something to keep this format relevant,” said Khan.

Ranchi Test: Virat Kohli breaks Mohammad Azharuddin record as India bully South Africa.

Source – indiatoday.in

Virat Kohli on Monday went past Mohammad Azharuddin as the Indian captain who has enforced the follow-on most times in Test cricket after the hosts asked the South Africans to bat again on Day 3 of the Ranchi Test.

Kohli enforced the follow-on for the 8th time as captain of India, Azharuddin had done it 7 times while MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly enforced it 5 and 4 times, respectively.

India, who had declared on 497 for 9 on Sunday, took a first-innings lead of 335 after bowling South Africa out for 162 by the second session on day 3. This is the second biggest first innings lead for India against South Africa after the 347-run lead they took in the Kolkata Test in 2009-10.

Umesh Yadav was the pick of the Indian bowlers as he finished with 3 for 40 while Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami and debutant Shahbaz Nadeem bagged a couple of wickets each.

Umesh’s performance saw him become only the second fast bowler to pick 3-plus wickets in five successive innings on home soil after West Indies legend Courtney Walsh.

The struggle for the Proteas continued on Monday with captain Faf du Plessis getting out in the first over of the day, thanks to an unplayable delivery from Umesh.

The wickets kept on tumbling from there on as the visitors lost 4 in the first session to reach lunch at 129 for 6.

Zubayr Hamza (62), Temba Bavuma (32) and George Linde (37) offered some resistance but it was still not enough as the Indian bowlers hunted in packs and kept putting pressure on the batsmen in overcast conditions.

Earlier on Sunday, India had declared their innings on 497/9 and had picked the wickets of both the South African openers before play was stopped because of bad light.