Axar Patel's all-round heroics in County debut, KL Rahul does a Dele Alli, and more - Cricket News of Today, 21st August 2018

For the first time in the ongoing Specsavers Test series between England and India at the former's home, the visiting side has managed to grab a stranglehold over the English, who have been dominant so far. It took the Indian side three test matches to finally exhibit their might, but they have finally done so, and quite extraordinarily too.

As play stretches on to Day four in the third Test match at Trent Bridge, England are in a tough pursuit of a mammoth 521-run target, after India declared at 352/7 in the third innings, adding so much to their 168-run first innings lead. England is now at a make-or-break position, at 173/4, needing 348 runs with six wickets in hand, and more than one day's play remaining.

While we allow the contest to move forward, here we bring you the latest and most trending news from the world of cricket, for today. Have a look:

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#5. Axar Patel shines on his County debut

To those who have witnessed all the trouble faced by the Indian batsmen to make runs in the ongoing in the England series, Axar Patel's performance yesterday may even make you wonder as to why he wasn't a part of the Test squad, seeing how well he negotiated the conditions in his County debut yesterday.

Axar scored an unbeaten 95 while batting at No. 7 on his county debut for Durham, just when his side was sniffing trouble at 144/5. It was just because he ran out of partners, that remained deprived of a century. Cardiff was always regarded as a hard surface to bat, and it was there that he batted with a strike rate of close to a hundred.

Patel smashed 12 fours and 2 sixes during his stay in the middle and his 61-run partnership with wicket-keeper Stuart Poynter (29) for the seventh wicket was key in putting Durham at an advantage, as the team concluded at a respectable 295.

Patel had exhibited good nick while bowling as well, prising out 2 wickets for only 10 runs in the first innings to restrict Glamorgan to 154 runs. In the second innings, he scalped a wicket in Glamorgan 111, earning his side an innings win.

#4. Afghanistan's all-round efforts engulf Ireland in opening contest

Afghanistan has been producing some noteworthy performances in the last few months

The minnow Asian nation of Afghanistan continues to bring out extremely young match-winners into the game of cricket, as evident from the performances of 20-year olds Hazratullah Zazai and Rashid Khan, in the series opener against Ireland, earlier today. The duo's combined efforts resulted in Ireland's 16-run loss in their own backyard.

After the start was delayed by an hour because of persistent drizzle, a couple of overs were cut short from either team's innings, after which Ireland's Gary Wilson won the toss and put Afghanistan into bat, seeing the overcast conditions in play. Zazai was one of the openers and he attacked right from the outset, carting a six of his third ball and never looking back since. He ended his stint at 74 off 33 balls, after which Shahzad scored a fast 31, but no one else was able to make much of an impact as Afghanistan concluded at 160/7 in 18 overs. Joshua Little (2/20) was the pick of the Irish bowlers.

But even 161 became a daunting task for Ireland, with Mujeeb ur Rahman striking twice in his first two overs. As Paul Stirling and Kevin O Brien followed suit to the openers, the match was already touted to be in the Afghan bag, and that was even before Rashid Khan came into bowl.

Rashid, in turn, ran through the Irish tail, picking up three wickets overall and sealing the game as Ireland crumpled at 144/9 in 18 overs. Zazai was the man-of-the-match.

#3. Tendulkar, Ganguly, and Laxman to continue in Cricket Advisory Panel

The Terrific Trio

The Chief of Committee of Administrators (COA), Vinod Rai, has confirmed that Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman will continue to be a part of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) that was formed in the year 2015, with an aim of holding a panel of experts to hold discussions with the COA as and when needed in the case of Cricket administration in India.

It was just a week ago that reports had surfaced, suggesting that the BCCI were in line to appoint a new CAC due to the "conflict of interest" issue - Sachin’s son Arjun is a part of the India U-19 team and until Arjun makes it to any of the BCCI teams, Sachin cannot ideally be a part of the CAC. Meanwhile, Laxman and Ganguly do commentary for television broadcasters and has media contracts as well, the latter also being the President of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).

Because of the above reasons, the three former players were likely to be removed from the post but Rai has clarified that for now, the trio is here to stay, "As of now, the existing CAC will continue. Our council had sought clarification from the court and when they came to know the existing composition of the CAC, they gave us permission to continue with Sachin, Sourav, and VVS till elections are held," he was quoted as saying by the PTI.

#2. Dale Steyn injured (again), may be sidelined for future contests

Dale Steyn in the India series

South African pace legend Dale Steyn has been having a horrible run of injuries over the past couple of years, which has also hampered his path to becoming South Africa’s record Test wicket-taker. In late 2015, he had overtaken the 400-wicket mark in Tests, but it took him nearly three years to take 21 more wickets and equal Shaun Pollock's record - which he finally made in the recent Sri Lanka series.

After just coming back into the Sri Lankan series, it looks like Steyn will have to return to the bench as a new groin injury has inflicted itself upon the bowler.

The pacer picked up his latest groin injury in a county cricket match on Monday, August 20th, as his side Hampshire competed against Nottinghamshire. He was unable to complete his 11th bowling over and was forced to leave the field immediately for a check-up.

The 35-year-old will be made to undergo an examination of the problem today (Tuesday, August 21) after which the extent of the injury and the time for which he may be unavailable will be known.

South Africa's upcoming tour is against Zimbabwe, which is a three-match ODI series followed by three T20Is. In November, the Proteas will feature in a short series against Australia.

#1. KL Rahul completes the #DeleAlliChallenge and sets Twitter ablaze

The latest in trending

As of these days, the latest in trending is probably the #DeleAlliChallenge, which has got the entire world sitting up, twisting their palms and fingers over their foreheads to obtain a satisfactory result - which would be comparable to that of what England footballer Dele Alli achieved, in the celebration following his deciding goal against Newcastle United FC, on August 11th - as shown above.

While thousands have tried it themselves, an overwhelming majority has failed, with people often making a mockery of themselves. Well, all jokes aside, we have now found a man who has finally succeeded in completing the challenge by himself (apart from Dele Alli himself and the writer, that is, me, of course). And the man does not belong to football at all - he is Indian cricket's maverick opener, KL Rahul.

Rahul is a part of India's slip cordon while fielding second at Trent Bridge, where England is fighting against India's mammoth total of 521 runs in the fourth innings. They are currently at 173/4, and while at 62/2, England captain Joe Root tugged at a Bumrah delivery pitched a tad wide of off-stump, and the ball, in turn, caught his bat's protruding edge and flew straight to Rahul.

It did not take much effort for the player to latch on to it, and as the teammates came in to offer a big embrace, Rahul did the unthinkable, as he aligned his fingers and palm resting on his forehead (again shown above), producing an exact xerox of Dele Alli.

Read the twitter reactions on the incident, here.