Gilchrist compares Rishabh Pant to de Kock, James Anderson fined, and more - Cricket News Today, 9 September 2018

The fifth and final encounter of the England-India Test series is going on, and India closed their first innings at 292 in reply for the hosts' 332, giving them a 40-run bonus ahead of the second chance. It was Ravindra Jadeja's (86*) and Hanuma Vihari's (56) that saved India from what would have been an even lower total.

Credit should also be given to Bumrah for coming in as No.11 and adding 32 for the final wicket with Jadeja, while having scored nothing himself - him not losing his wicket paved way for the former to add as many runs as he could, to the limping Indian total, and at least reduce the damage faced.

England have just started their second innings now. And meanwhile, read on to know more about the top cricketing stories from the world, for today:

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#5. India A in comfortable position against Australia A

The second unofficial Test of the Australia-A tour of India is going on at the KSCA Cricket Ground at Alur, Bengaluru, and at stumps on Day 2, India-A are looking poised at 223/3, in reply to Australia A's 346 all out.

Earlier, Australia resumed play at 290/6 on Day 1, and lost a wicket almost immediately, with Michael Neser falling after a century stand with Mitchell Marsh. The remaining three wickets fell within 54 runs, as Marsh raced off to a memorable hundred as well. Kuldeep Yadav completed a memorable five-wicket haul, as Shahbaz Nadeem picked up another three.

India started batting well, with Ravikumar Samarth and Abhimanyu Easwaran registering a 174-run-stand for the first wicket itself. But then, both of them fell within a space of two runs, and Ankit Bawne followed suit, with just three overs remaining for the day's play to end. Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill are the currently unbeaten batsmen at the crease.

Brief Scores: India-A first innings: 223/3 (Easwaran 86, Ravikumar 83, Shreyas 30) trial Australia-A first innings: 346/10 (Marsh 113*, Travis Head 68, Kuldeep 5/91, Nadeem 3/90) by 123 runs.

#4. India-Hong Kong Asia Cup ties to attain ODI status

Hong Kong Cricket

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that the upcoming Hong Kong games in the Asia Cup - against India and Pakistan - will be granted One-Day International status.

Hong Kong is currently just an associate member of the ICC and is hence yet to attain ODI status. In the Asia Cup qualifiers, they beat teams including Nepal who recently earned the ODI status. The win has also helped the former to qualify for the Asia Cup, opening up game opportunities against India and Pakistan.

''The ICC board has agreed to our request of according ODI status to both India vs Hong Kong and Pakistan vs Hong Kong games. If you remember during women's Asia Cup T20, India vs Thailand match wasn't counted as an official T20. But this time, there's been an exception,'' a senior BCCI official told PTI today.

Hong Kong is scheduled to play Pakistan on September 16 followed by their match against India on September 18.

#3. Jasprit Bumrah talks on India's lack of success against the England tail

Jasprit Bumrah appealing against Moeen Ali

The fifth England–India Test at the Oval saw India repeating the same deed that they have been doing over and over again in the previous games. After reducing England's top-order with cheap scores, the visiting bowlers yet again failed to capitalize on the opportunity thus created, not being able to bowl out the tail-end before England recuperated from the initial tumble-down.

At the end of the second day's play, Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah and spoke up openly on his team's lack of proper execution, when it came to planning and bowling against the England lower-order.

Jasprit Bumrah lamented the lack of a fifth bowler, as he felt that an extra bowler would have helped the remainder of Kohli's bowling options an ample "resting-time before they could come back and attack harder".

Bumrah was then quizzed on whether there were any specific plans for the lower-order batsmen as such, to which he said, “There has been no specific planning for lower order batsmen. You plan for each batsman, even if they are lower-order, we respect them. We tried to execute plans today but it didn’t work.”

#2. Anderson fined for dissent following unsuccessful Kohli review

Anderson attempting a run-out in the game

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has fined England speedster James Anderson with 15 per cent of his match fee following an unacceptable reaction to a failed decision review.

On day 2 of the fifth and final Specsavers' Test against India at the Oval, England's all-time leading wicket-taker thought he had the visiting captain Virat Kohli trapped in front, but on-field official Kumar Dharmasena ruled in Kohli's favour. It is an important chance, the decision was reviewed and subsequently upheld based on the umpire's call. Television replays showed the ball struck the batsman marginally outside the line of off stump.

Anderson was obviously displeased with how the event turned out. Interestingly, he is the only bowler in the series to have not dismissed Kohli so far in the current series. According to an ICC release on Sunday, "Anderson snatched his cap and jumper from umpire Kumar Dharmasena and then spoke to him in an aggressive manner".

Anderson, who admitted the charge and accepted the sanction, has also been handed one demerit point.

#1. Adam Gilchrist lauds Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant

Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant

Aussie legend Adam Gilchrist has praised Indian skipper Virat Kohli and called him an absolute champion after his recent heroics with the bat in the ongoing Test series against England. In the nine innings so far, Kohli has scored 593 runs in nine innings at an average of nearly 69 with the help of two centuries and made up for the failure in his previous encounters in England.

Talking to the media in an exclusive chat, Gilchrist said, "Kohli is an absolute champion. I think the last England tour was the only time he was questioned of his abilities in a foreign land. He’s put that out of the equation now. He’s been really impressive even as India lost the series."

He also regarded India's wicketkeeper, Rishabh Pant, highly and compared him with someone like Quinton de Kock.

"He looks a very exciting cricketer. He’s a Quinton de Kock type player in the way he bats and keeps. We see a number of exciting cricketers come through the IPL. He’s another one who’s produced the goods and he’s been selected for India. So, it’s an exciting time for him," he said, before adding: "The challenge will be to perform at that level. Hopefully, he gets a nice run in Tests."