Play 01:09 Root refuses to blame illness for defeat in South Africa Spare a thought for holiday-makers catching a flight to Cape Town from Johannesburg on New Year’s Eve. For there is a fair chance some of them will be sharing a plane with an England squad so sickly that they should probably be led
Cricket
2:10 AM GMT Nathan Lyon has dismissed Shane Warne’s suggestion that he be rested against New Zealand at the SCG to make room for a Mitchell Swepson debut, indicating that he would prefer to bowl in tandem with the Queensland legspinner in Australia’s last Test until a tour of Bangladesh in June. Warne, whose opinions
7:11 PM GMT Maybe the timing was simply unfortunate, but supporters of England’s Test team could have been forgiven for scratching their heads in bewilderment earlier this week. For just around the time that England were being bowled out for 181 in their first innings in Centurion – the fifth time in 12 first innings
8:00 AM GMT South Africa 284 and 272 (van der Dussen 51, Archer 5-102) beat England 181 and 268 (Burns 84, Rabada 4-103) by 107 runs There were, as you might expect, a few twists and turns along the way, but in the end, the result was thoroughly comprehensive. South Africa have won the first
4:34 AM GMT Had it been solely up to him, Peter Siddle would have quite happily retired at the end of this year’s Ashes series in England. It epitomises why he was so highly regarded in Australian cricket that he did not. After several years on the fringes of the Australian Test team, Siddle had
Rory Burns and Dom Sibley started solidly in the fourth innings © Getty Images Just when you’re about to change that stupid lock and ask them for that key, England turn up at your door with a bottle of wine and bunch of roses. That’s how it felt by the close of day three in
2:36 PM GMT The BCB’s anti-corruption unit has completed its investigation on Krishmar Santokie, the Sylhet Thunder fast bowler who bowled a big no-ball on the opening day of the BPL, earlier this month. Jalal Yunus, the board’s media committee chairman, said the next course of action would be based on the usual procedure followed
8:00 AM GMT Lunch New Zealand 6 for 102 (Latham 42*, Santner 1*) trail Australia 467 by 365 runs New Zealand’s middle order was picked apart by world-class bowling from Australia’s trio of quicks as they lurched to lunch on the third day on 6 for 102. Pat Cummins was on a hat-trick in the
7:23 PM GMT As England’s bowlers hit back in the final session, as the Barmy Army found their voice and South African batsmen were forced to jerk their heads out of the way of some hostile bouncers – and the odd non-bouncer – it was tempting to believe that England were right back in this
8:56 AM GMT Between getting publicly roasted by Ricky Ponting for his first-innings dismissal in Perth after being set, widely discussed as a possible omission from the Boxing Day Test should Australia play a fifth bowler, and then corralled by New Zealand over the course of a grinding stand with Steven Smith that looked like