Cricket news roundup – 6th March 2019: Kohli stars, but Shankar takes the cake

Virat Kohli’s irrepressible form continued as he scored his 40th ODI century on a difficult surface to keep India afloat against Australia, but it was Vijay Shankar’s performance with both bat and ball that gave the selectors a happy headache ahead of the World Cup.

Elsewhere, England and Ireland secured victories over West Indies and Afghanistan respectively, and Quetta Gladiators sealed a top-two spot in PSL 4.

Kohli, Shankar star as India go 2-0

Virat Kohli scored his 40th ODI century as India held their nerve to see off Australia by eight runs. On a deteriorating pitch in Jamtha, Nagpur, Kohli scored a fine 120-ball 116, to help India to 250 – most of the rest of the batsmen struggled.

It gave India’s excellent bowlers – Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav were among the wickets, but Mohammed Shami was a tad expensive – a sizeable total to defend. And they did that well, with Bumrah returning 2/29 in his ten overs, and Kuldeep picking 3/54. 

However, the star of the show, was Vijay Shankar. He scored a fine 41-ball 46 before he was dismissed rather unfortunately, but more importantly, he picked up two wickets in the final over of the match, including that of the well-set Marcus Stoinis, to seal the deal for India.

Shankar did his World Cup hopes a whole lot of good.

Bairstow powers England to victory in first T20I

Jonny Bairstow scored a 27-ball half-century to help England to a four-wicket win after their bowlers had restricted West Indies to 160/8.

Bairstow ended with a 40-ball 68, including nine fours and two sixes, as England completed their chase with seven balls to spare.

For West Indies, Nicholas Pooran’s 37-ball 58 formed a large chunk of their total. None of their other batsmen really got going, and apart from Darren Bravo (28), no one got into their 20s. Tom Curran had a lot to do with that as he ended with fine figures of 4/36.

England’s batsmen didn’t entirely convince either. Apart from Bairstow, Joe Denly scored a 29-ball 30, but none of the others managed to go past 18.

England will take the 1-0 lead into the two remaining ODIs in St Kitts.

Ireland off the mark thanks to Balbirnie, bowlers

Andy Balbirnie’s 136-ball 145 helped Ireland finally get the better of Afghanistan in what has been a long series for the tourists.

Balbirnie’s knock helped Ireland seal a four-wicket victory in the third ODI to level the series 1-1 – the second ODI was washed out – and Ireland now have a chance to come away from the series with something after all.

The Ireland bowlers had troubled the usually explosive Afghanistan batsmen earlier. Wickets came regularly till Asghar Afghan, the captain, and Najibullah Zadran got together to steady things. Afghan fell for a 109-ball 75, but Zadran carried on to score an unbeaten 98-ball 104 – his maiden ODI ton – to help Afghanistan post 256/8.

But with Balbirnie in unbelievable form, and George Dockrell chipping in with a 77-ball 54, Ireland eased past Afghanistan in 49 overs.

The victory could yet prove a turning point for Ireland in the series.

Quetta Gladiators seal top-two slot

In the business end of the fourth edition of the Pakistan Super League, Quetta Gladiators ensured they will finish no lower than No.2 in the table.

The Gladiators beat Islamabad United by 43 runs to go two clear at the top over second-placed Peshawar Zalmi, who have 12 points in nine matches.

With one more match to be played in the group stages, and the rest of the teams possessing no higher than eight points, the Gladiators can be assured of a top billing in the knockouts.

The top four teams qualify for the knockouts, with the third and fourth-placed teams have to go through an eliminator to face the losing side of the clash between the top-two.