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Upon a weekend in which a Chelsea win could, Manchester City excepted, re-congest the Premier League’s top five with just six points separating second and fifth, Liverpool face the daunting task of instigating the top fight action at Selhurst Park in Saturday’s 12.30pm kickoff.

The Reds are 13 places and 33 points better off than Crystal Palace in the table, but they know more than anybody the grave dangers of underestimating a visit to the antiquated South London ground.

Of course, what came to be dubbed ‘Crystambul’ is the obvious example; as Brendan Rodgers’ side looked to improve their title chances by further increasing their goal tally despite already going three goals up at Selhurst Park, the Eagles suddenly produced an incredible three-goal comeback – essentially closing the book on the 2013/14 Premier League title race with three strikes from the 79th minute onwards.

The campaign after, the Selhurst curse struck again; this time Palace going one step better to record a shock 3-1 win, the decisive goals scored in the final twelve minutes.

The prevailing narrative was one of those results typifying Liverpool’s intrinsic flaws under Rodgers; an almost dogmatic passing philosophy that created the kind of soft underbelly Palace had the perfect equilibrium of aggression, directness and sheer speed to regularly rip through on the counter-attack.

Yet, Liverpool are hardly the first major club to struggle in the hostile atmosphere at Selhurst Park, or fall victim to a traditional style of football that has become increasingly idiosyncratic in the modern game.

Just two weeks ago, Gary Neville revealed how he often feared going to Selhurst Park during his playing days – fittingly just before Manchester United went two goals down in an abysmal first half performance – and the uniqueness of Palace’s home has only become more evident then.

It remains one of the few historic grounds in the Premier League, where the fans can reach out and touch the pitch’s most peripheral blades of grass, and where a large section of uniformed, flag-waving, militant supporters acts as the terrace jukebox with bass amp included; leading the chants and bouncing with such relentlessness that the whole stadium is never quite inanimate.

In fact, since Palace returned to the Premier League in summer 2013, not a single member of the Premier League’s big six have produced a perfect record at Selhurst Park. That is to say, neither Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United or Tottenham have won on all of their visits there. And perhaps even more tellingly, five of those six have all lost there within the last four seasons – the only exception being the Red Devils.

That still constitutes just 21 points gained – six victories and three draws – from 29 games. But Palace have been defiant in defeat as well; a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea in 2014/15 is the only occasion since their top flight return that they’ve lost a home game to a member of the big six by more than two goals, while just six of their 20 losses have been by more than one goal.

Amid an era in which the gap between the top teams and the rest of the Premier League appears to be only growing wider, that’s an incredibly solid record – even this season, which will probably be remembered most for top six dominance, Roy Hodgson’s relegation-threatened side have beaten reigning champions Chelsea and held the impending champions, Pep Guardiola’s free-scoring, sensationally dominant Manchester City side, to a scoreless draw.

And thus, there are positives and negatives for Liverpool to take into Saturday’s game. The positive is that an obstacle initially prescribed as a Liverpool-specific problem is by no means exclusive to them; the negative though, is how widespread the Selhurst curse appears to be and how no top Premier League side has found a consistent solution to winning there.

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In some ways then, as the argument for Liverpool being the biggest threat to City’s title threat next season continues to grow its army of endorsers, this Saturday is arguably a bigger test than their Champions League meeting with the Citizens next week.

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There’s so much to admire about the emotional, candid and entertaining Tim Sherwood, who embarks now on the tremendously difficult task of saving Aston Villa from relegation.

Sherwood is not a man of convention. He doesn’t adhere to the usual tactical practices that his managerial contemporaries place faith in. Tales of him playing as many attacking players as possible in the same formation are frequent. Damning interviews slating the quality of his own players have surfaced in the past, something you’d rarely see from one of England’s top managers, who never openly criticise their players individually. He’s also shown the audacity of few before him in his willingness to experiment and nurture youth – a commendable trait for a manager in the foetal stages of his career.

From a neutral’s perspective, it’s crisply refreshing to see a ‘hotshot’ of sorts waltz into the mainstream and throw the managerial rulebook out the window. Tottenham were wonderfully entertaining to watch in parts last season with their gung-ho mentality beset on them by Sherwood’s dogmatic ideology. And each game was usually followed by interviews often littered with controversial jabs at a range of different people, giving the media oceans of bait to feed upon and the twitter-user plenty to rabble about.

For all of that though, if you invert that neutral perspective and look at Sherwood’s value through an Aston Villa lens, perhaps there’s less to be chirpy about. Sherwood was always going to be a risk given his only aforementioned six month tenure in all of football management, but was he necessarily a risk worth taking?

You can see, superficially, why Randy Lerner will have moved swiftly to secure Sherwood’s services. For a club in dire financial straits Sherwood’s lack of experience probably made him a fairly cheap option, and the fact that he was previously unemployed meant Villa avoided paying compensation to another club.

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That, combined with his attacking ideals, make him an ideal candidate to tackle their appalling attacking impotency, which has outwardly made them a remarkably boring team to watch this season. And for the way in which he brought on Nabil Bentaleb and Harry Kane with an assured confidence this time last year, Lerner will have smiled upon the prospects of Villa’s (cheaper) youth players getting the attention they need.

For all of that though, there was a reason Sherwood was sacked by Daniel Levy last year, despite him (almost infamously given the satire surrounding it on social media) boasting the best win percentage (50%) of any manager in Tottenham’s history.

But there’s a reason why you never heard Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson publicly assassinate one of their players in the media. There are also a plethora of further reasons why selecting as many attacking players in your starting eleven is no guaranteed formula for success. Sherwood’s methods may be entertaining to the neutral, but they are also risky.

Truth be told, the best managers for saving you from relegation are your Tony Pulis’ and Sam Allardyce’s. They, individually, couldn’t be more different from Sherwood in a footballing sense. Their playing styles are based around defensive, resilient, and physical football, designed in the most pragmatic sense to yield results. Results are ultimately key, and unfortunately for all of Sherwood’s gloss and shine, the underlying roots that will become prevalent in the Midlands will not necessarily gift the results they desire. West Brom will be fine with Pulis at the helm. West Ham owe Sam Allardyce an awful amount as he’s plotted their transition to the Premier League.

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Sherwood offers no such assurances, and one can’t help but think Lerner was lured into the Sherwood package by offering something that his team were lacking, at the expense of a viable, effective strategy. Villa are in all sorts of trouble for now, and Tim Sherwood probably wasn’t worth the risk of rescuing them from their seemingly interminable descent into the abyss of English football.

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If Kyle Naughton’s Tottenham Hotspur future felt somewhat uncertain at the start of the season, the progress that the full-back’s made within the side this season would certainly suggest such worried may have been a little premature.

Before Andre Villas-Boas had arrived at the club, despite a number of impressive loan spells away from the club he joined from Sheffield United in 2009, Naughton had racked up a mere three first-team appearances for the Lilywhites. This season, the full back has racked up 19 in all competitions.

Although despite racking up the appearances for Tottenham this season, it still feels somewhat difficult to describe this term as a ‘breakthrough’ one for the 24-year-old.

When he arrived at the club alongside Kyle Walker in a joint £9million deal from Bramall Lane four years ago this July, Naughton was generally perceived to be the more advanced talent in comparison to his close friend and teammate.

But where as his progress on loan at both Middlesbrough and Leicester City was steady, Walker’s momentum was seemingly unstoppably and following his success out on loan at both QPR and Aston Villa, a barnstorming PFA Young Player of the Year winning season at Spurs, shortly followed. Naughton on the other hand, enjoyed a modestly successful spell on loan to Norwich City last term.

Yet while that gap in class between both Naughton and Walker seemed perhaps unbridgeable last season, that’s no longer felt quite the case and when Naughton has found himself in the Spurs starting XI this season, supporters have hardly been greeted by a player grossly inferior to their 22-year-old right-back. In fact at times, it’s been quite the opposite.

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Yet with all the injury, inconsistency and most poignantly lack of depth that Tottenham have suffered in the full-back department, Kyle Naughton still doesn’t seem to have really made either berth his own. And for as steady as he’s been whenever he’s started in a white shirt, it’s never particularly been much more than that. Steady.

And if Naughton has designs on anything approaching a long-term future at White Hart Lane, then the chances are we’re going to have to see a little bit more from him. Getting the role of part-time cover down to a tee is all very well, but it’s not gong to see him start too many Premier League games.

Naughton has made just the 10 starts in the league this season, which when you consider in Walker’s dreadful loss of form earlier on in the term and Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s lengthy spell on the sidelines, that’s hardly the sign of a player really seizing the moment. Should Naughton still be feeling his way into the game, playing an important, but subdued part in a team gunning for a top four finish, wouldn’t be too bad at all.

But at 24-years-old, Naughton can no longer be classified as a fledgling youngster and from a personal perspective, he should be starting football matches.

During his time on loan at Carrow Road last season, Naughton showed enough to suggest that he’s got what it takes to cut it at the highest level, week in, week out. Neat and tidy in possession, he’s both positonally aware and a sensible decision maker – the latter of those traits something that Spurs have most definitely been lacking at times in the full-back positions this season.

Although with the greatest of respect to Norwich City, while a safe and steady foundation to your game is likely to bode well for a team looking to avoid relegation, at the level Tottenham are trying to compete for under Villas-Boas, it’s not necessarily going to be enough.

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At times this season, while Naughton’s been capable of picking out a couple of clever passes, he’s tended to offer a mixed bag for Spurs going forward. For all the brilliance of Gareth Bale and the intricacies of their powerful midfield engine, the Lilywhites remain at their very best when their fullbacks are bombing along up and down the flanks. Naughton gives you guile from an attacking perspective, but hardly the sort of ferocious drive and positivity that Kyle Walker possesses.

Naughton’s versatility perhaps hasn’t particularly helped proceedings and as well as he’s done in playing nearly 20 games in all competitions for Spurs, having his time chopped up between both right and left-back probably hasn’t helped him find much in the way of any rhythm. Although his chopping and changing between both berths has been the staple sign of a solid squad player. And unfortunately for Naughton, that’s exactly what his role in N17 appears to have transcended into.

In terms of filling in the gaps for Villas-Boas and offering a reliable and often fruitful stop-gap, Kyle Naughton has ticked all the boxes for the Portuguese. But his problem seems to be not so much failing to deliver when starting matches, but more not delivering enough. And you can’t help but wonder how much longer he might have to change that.

On one hand, this season has been the one in which Kyle Naughton has finally got his Spurs career off the ground, yet on the other, it’s also been a term that’s seen him solidify himself as more of a useful cog than fledgling first teamer. Whether he has what it takes to change that perception, only time will tell.

Lancashire were dismissed for 284 in their first innings, a deficit of nine

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay09-Sep-2025Kent lead Lancashire by 105 after reaching 96 without loss at stumps in their second innings of the Rothesay County Championship match at Canterbury.Lancashire were dismissed for 284 in their first innings, a deficit of nine, Matt Quinn taking 4 for 43 and Matt Parkinson 4 for 93.Luke Wells hit 80 and although the visitors slumped to 195 for 8, Tom Hartley bailed them out with a 64, after he’d been dropped twice.Kent’s openers Jaydn Denly and Ben Dawkins responded with an aggressive and unbroken partnership and the hosts will be the happier of the two sides at the end of the second day.Lancashire were 19 without loss overnight and after yesterday’s collision with Ben Compton, Tawanda Muyeye developed delayed concussion symptoms. He was replaced by Joe Denly, in line with ECB protocols, although as a like-for-like replacement he wasn’t allowed to bowl. Compton himself hurt his wrist and was unable to field, or open.Kent were buoyed by two early wickets. Quinn struck in the fifth over of the morning, getting Keaton Jennings caught at first slip by Ben Dawkins for 17 and Josh Bohannon went for a fifth-ball duck, edging Joey Evison to Dawkins, who caught him at the second attempt.Although the ball regularly beat the bat, Wells and Marcus Harris put on 82 for the third wicket, Parkinson breaking the partnership when the latter charged at him and was stumped by Harry Finch for 32, leaving Lancs on 118 for 3 at lunch.The visitors regained the momentum until Matty Hurst played on to Quinn and was bowled for 24. Parkinson then had Wells caught behind.Quinn caught and bowled Michael Jones for 4, then got George Balderson lbw for 11.When Parkinson had Tom Bailey caught by Jaydn Denly at first slip for 3, Lancs were eight down and still 98 behind, but Hartley was dropped twice off Parkinson, by Finch and Mo Rizvi, and alongside Will Williams he steered Lancashire to 254 for 8 at tea.The deficit was down to 33 when Williams was lbw to Jaydn Denly, for 26, but Hartley responded by smearing Parkinson for six over midwicket to bring up his 50 and the visitors were almost level when he hit Parkinson down Ekansh Singh’s throat.With Compton absent, Jaydn Denly and Dawkins immediately went on the attack. The former pulled Hartley for six over midwicket and passed fifty with an elegant reverse-sweep off Wells, shortly before stumps.Dawkins survived a loud appeal in the final over, as Bailey bowled a tricky over of off-spin.

With 202 runs to get and six wickets in hand, the offspinner says there is confidence in the rest of the batting group

Alex Malcolm10-Mar-2024Nathan Lyon’s words said one thing but his body language and tone said quite another as Australia still have a chance to pull off a great escape in the second Test against New Zealand at Hagley Oval.Australia slumped to 34 for 4 in pursuit of the target of 279. Lyon had been padded up as the nightwatcher yet again but was not required after Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh steered Australia to stumps without any further loss. But they still need 202 runs to win with just six wickets in hand and two days of the Test remaining.Lyon said Australia believe they can win from any position.”It would be a great Test match win if we’re able to pick this off,” Lyon said after play. “There’s a lot of belief in that change room and I think that’s credit to Pat [Cummins] and Ron [Andrew McDonald], the way they go about their leadership, instilling a lot of belief that we can win from any position.”And we’ve now found ourselves in this position that our backs are up against the wall. New Zealand were on a roll tonight but I’m sitting here understanding and believing that we can win, that’s for sure.”Related

• India extend lead at No. 1 in the World Test Championship, Australia move up to second

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• The long-awaited New Zealand uprising against Australia

Australia did chase down 282 at Edgbaston in the first Ashes Test in June last year, with Cummins and Lyon finishing as the heroes, sharing an unbeaten 55-run stand for the ninth wicket. But Australia have only run down 279 or more in the fourth innings on 13 occasions and only twice since 2006.Before Edgbaston, Australia’s last successful chase of that size was in South Africa in 2011, when Cummins was again the hero on Test debut as an 18-year-old while Lyon was nervously padded up as the next and last man in.”We’ve been able to tick off a couple of totals in the past,” Lyon said. “So there’s a lot of the confidence within our batting group and us bowlers with the bat in hand. We pride ourselves on our batting, so we’ll give it our best chance if it comes down to that.”But while Lyon was bullish with his words, his body language and tone told a different story. Just eight days earlier, he had sat bolt upright in the press conference room on the third night of the Wellington Test and declared confidently with a smile that Australia would easily create the seven chances required with the ball to win the game despite New Zealand being 111 for 3 chasing 369.In Christchurch, he was leaning forward and speaking in a quieter tone. He had only just taken the pads off, having admitted he had nervously sat there as the nightwatcher, a job he has had to do twice already in this series, having not done it for two years despite being Australia’s designated man.”Too often I seem to be batting in the top six,” Lyon said. “Happy to do the role but it’s nice that I didn’t have to walk out there tonight.”He stopped short of criticising his batting group, but his tone spoke volumes as to how the team is feeling about their latest batting collapse.”It’s not a frustration. I think it’s a learning curve for us,” Lyon said. “We’re on a path, and on a journey, on a dream to become one of Australia’s great cricket teams.”And I’m not saying that we are that at the moment. It’s a learning experience for us. And if we can try and get better at that, then it’s going to put us in really good stead on our dream to become a great Australian team.”I know that we’ve got a lot of work to do, but that’s our dream and that’s our goal.”They were interesting words from a largely unchanged World Test Championship-winning team. A team with nine of the 11 members over the age of 30 and one other aged 29.Australia could still win at Hagley Oval. But, right now, their actions and words are not in sync.

Services, meanwhile, beat Mumbai by eight wickets in the biggest upset of the tournament so far

Shashank Kishore13-Nov-2022Saurashtra’s Samarth Vyas became only the fifth batter to hit a double-century in the Vijay Hazare Trophy when he smashed a 131-ball 200 against Manipur in Delhi on Sunday.He joined Karn Veer Kaushal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson and Prithvi Shaw in the double-centurions club. Overall, this was Vyas’s third List-A century.Vyas put on a 282-run opening stand with Harvik Desai, who made 100 off 107 balls, as Saurashtra posted 397 for 4. In reply, Manipur were bowled out for 115. This was Saurashtra’s second straight win in the competition.On Saturday, they opened their campaign with a seven-wicket win over Chandigarh, with Vyas contributing a 64-ball 61 in a chase of 216.Vyas has been in excellent form lately. He topped the run charts for Saurashtra at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20s earlier in the month, where they made the semi-finals. Vyas smashed 314 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 177.40 and a best of 97 not out against Nagaland. He made one other 97, against Baroda. Overall, he was the fifth-highest run-getter in the tournament, finishing just 49 runs behind Yash Dhull, who topped the charts.Vyas made his List A debut in 2015 but has only recently become a regular member of the team. He started as a middle-order batter but has moved up the order of late, with the team management pushing him up to bat in the top three.Records-wise, Ajinkya Rahane’s 187 for Mumbai against Maharashtra in 2007-08 was the highest individual List A score in the tournament for nearly a decade until Uttarakhand’s Kaushal scaled the 200 barrier in the 2018-19 season against Sikkim.Since then, the tournament has seen four other double-centuries, including the one by Vyas on Sunday. Shaw’s 227 not out for Mumbai against Puducherry in the previous season remains the highest score, though.Meanwhile in Ranchi, in the biggest upset of the tournament so far, Services beat Mumbai by eight wickets by chasing down 265 with 27 balls remaining.Shubham Rohilla and Ravi Chauhan, the Services openers, hit centuries. Their opening stand of 231 broke the back of the chase. That meant Jaiswal’s 104 went in vain and Mumbai, who started their campaign with an eight-wicket win after skittling out Bengal for 121, have one win and one loss in the competition.

Acting CEO Geoff Allardice said the ICC took on board feedback that the points system needed to be “simplified”

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jul-2021The ICC has confirmed the schedule and points structure of the 2021-23 World Test Championship, which is set to kick off in August with India’s five-Test series in England. As reported by ESPNcricinfo over two weeks ago, points will be awarded on a match-by-match basis as opposed to the series-by-series basis of the 2019-21 cycle, with the teams’ rankings determined by percentage of points won.”We received feedback that the previous points system needed to be simplified,” the ICC’s acting chief executive Geoff Allardice said in a statement. “The Cricket Committee took this into consideration when proposing a new, standardized points system for each match. It maintained the principle of ensuring that all matches in a WTC series count towards a team’s standing, while accommodating series varying in length between two Tests and five Tests.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“During the pandemic we had to change to ranking teams on the points table using the percentage of available points won by each team, since all series could not be completed. This helped us determine the finalists and we were able to complete the championship within the scheduled time frame. This method also allowed us to compare the relative performance of teams at any time, regardless of how many matches they had played.”The nine teams in the WTC will play an equal number of series – six (three home and three away) – but an unequal number of Tests, ranging from 22 Tests for England to 12 for Bangladesh. Each Test will carry a total of 12 points, with a win fetching all 12 points, a tie six points and a draw four points.Three international captains shared their thoughts on the WTC with the ICC.”It was obviously pretty special to win the inaugural ICC World Test Championship in Southampton last month and it’s exciting to now look ahead to the second edition,” said New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who lifted the WTC mace after his team beat India in the inaugural final last month. “The WTC has certainly added more context and brought new meaning to Test cricket and it was awesome to see the interest that was generated around the Final against India.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“We know trying to defend the title will be a huge challenge, but our focus will be on making sure we prepare as well as we can for the tours ahead and trying to maintain our level of performance.”India captain Virat Kohli was enthused by the fans’ receptiveness to the first edition of the WTC.”It was great to have played the final of the ICC World Test Championship against New Zealand in what was a memorable contest,” he said. “Not just the final, we saw the determination of players throughout the first edition of the championship. The following of cricket lovers too was great to see, and I am sure they will all be waiting eagerly for the second edition.”We will regroup with new energy for the next cycle starting with our series against England, hoping to give our fans a lot to cheer about.”Joe Root, the England captain, looked forward to getting his team’s campaign off on a strong note.”We start our campaign in the second edition of the ICC World Test Championship against the finalists of last time, which is an interesting challenge straight away,” he said. “India are a fine all-round side and it would be good to test them in our home conditions. We narrowly missed out on qualifying for the final last time and are looking to do better this time.”Test cricket is a format we all want to excel in and with points at stake for each match, everyone has to be at their best all the time.”

The Pakistani board intends to bid for five to six major events in the 2023-31 cycle, aiming to win at least two of those

Umar Farooq15-Apr-2020The PCB is planning to team up with the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) to bid for ICC events in the cycle that runs from 2023 to 2031. According to Ehsan Mani, the PCB chairman, the Pakistan board intends to bid for five to six major events, aiming to win at least two of those.The ICC had invited expressions of interest from its Member nations until March 15 for 20 global events that will be held in the 2023-2031 cycle but due to the coronavirus pandemic the meetings have been deferred indefinitely. Mani, meanwhile, has opted to initiate discussions with the ECB about the possibility of making joint bids and co-hosting events with a view to increasing the chances of winning the bids.Since becoming an affiliated member of the ICC in 1952, Pakistan have hosted two global cricket events: the 1987 and 1996 World Cups. They were supposed to host the 2008 Champions Trophy (which was later postponed and staged in South Africa) and the 2011 ODI World Cup but lost the hosting rights as several nations refused to tour Pakistan over security concerns in the wake of rising terrorist attacks in the country.ALSO READ – Playing India is like pie in the sky – Ehsan Mani“It is very important for Pakistan cricket and its development that some of the ICC events are played in Pakistan,” Mani said in a PCB podcast. “We intend to make a very serious expression of our interest on this matter and we will be getting full government support as well. The ICC delegation did met with Dr Fahmida Mirza, the Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination who also handles sports in the country, and they [the ICC] got a very positive impression [of our intent and ability to host global events].PCB chairman Ehsan Mani speaks at the PSL 2019 draft•Getty Images/AFP

“We had expressed an interest to host five to six events and, frankly, it is likely we won’t be getting more than one or two. But we also thought out of the box to bid jointly with another country. I have already begun speaking with the Emirates Cricket Board for a team-up to increase the chances of hosting some of it together but, again, it needs cooperation. There are a few events with 16 games and then there are events with 30-40 games, so depending on the scale, the workload can be divided between us.”For the best part of the decade following the terrorist attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in March 2009, international cricket on Pakistani soil remained an impossibility, with the PCB also stripped of hosting rights to ICC events. But in May 2015, the PCB convinced Zimbabwe to visit for a short limited-overs series after guaranteeing them a USD 500,000 pay package. Two years later, the final of the 2017 Pakistan Super League (PSL) was held in Lahore, with an eight-member overseas contingent taking part in the high-octane clash. Since then, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and a World XI side have toured Pakistan for international matches across formats and the PSL, too, has made a gradual comeback in its entirety.”We have demonstrated through the PSL that Pakistan has what it takes to hold international games at a large scale,” Mani said. “Those 30 games were free of any untoward incidents; they were well run despite some logistical challenges, which we were able to overcome to send the message loud and clear that we have the ability to stage big matches. It’s premature to tell which events we would be bidding for but we have indicated to the ICC about our interest across the board: from youth cricket to the senior World Cups. We have full confidence in our logistic capability and infrastructure to hold them.”But there are other countries, too, who are likely to present a strong case for their bids. But unfortunately when the “Big Three” (India, Australia, and England) emerged as a combined force and Pakistan and a few other boards couldn’t stop that from happening, the ICC had distributed all major events between them. But this won’t happen this time around. All the major broadcast markets in the world for the ICC to earn its revenue from is in the South-Asian region and Pakistan is well placed time-zone-wise as well. So, our case is really quite strong.”

Having arrived with a strong bowling attack, this could be Pakistan’s best-ever chance to finally win a Test series in South Africa

The Preview by Liam Brickhill25-Dec-2018

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South Africa’s first Test of the home summer is one of three starting on Boxing Day around the world, and there are a couple of reasons why this match is definitely worth following amid a packed schedule. For starters, it will be Centurion’s first time hosting the fixture, but that’s not the only historic element to the occasion: having drawn level with Shaun Pollock six months ago in Galle, Dale Steyn needs one more scalp to make the South African Test bowling record his own.Steyn won’t have his bunny Mohammad Hafeez to bank on for the record after the Pakistan opener’s Test retirement, but he’ll be no less motivated to perform in his absence. Steyn will also have the added responsibility of leading the attack without Vernon Philander or Lungi Ngidi as back-up, with both players injured, though the presence of the world’s top-ranked Test bowler, Kagiso Rabada, will help. While Steyn is no less fearsome a prospect at 35 than he was the last time Pakistan toured in 2013, it is likely Rabada who will challenge them most.ALSO READ: Bogeyman Steyn returns to claim his recordWith or without Hafeez, Pakistan are one of the most watchable teams going, whether they’re winning or losing, and they will be chasing a little history of their own. Pakistan have never won a Test series in South Africa and indeed, haven’t won a Test here in more than ten years.This series could present Pakistan their best ever chance to get past South Africa in their backyard. The hosts no longer have the genius of AB de Villiers to call upon, a couple of their preferred bowlers are injured, and Hashim Amla is in the midst of a long dry spell. Pakistan have arrived with a bowling attack capable of exposing any frailties in South Africa’s middle order.The visitors will also still be carrying the pain of their defeat to New Zealand a month ago, when inconsistent batting allowed the visitors to break a 49-year run of away bad luck against them. Victory would provide a salve for those wounds, but South African conditions will not make things any easier for the visiting batsmen, and they will also know that if Steyn does not get them, Rabada will. There is a mountain to climb if Pakistan are to overcome the hosts.

Form guide

South Africa LLWWW (completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan LWLWD

In the spotlight

It’s been a long haul for Dale Steyn to reach the milestone at the brink of which he now stands. He has played only six Tests in the last three years due to injury, but he has found both form and fitness in the lead-up to this series. He held nothing back during the Mzansi Super League, but Steyn has made no secret of the desire for Test success that has kept him motivated. Expect crazy eyes, fire and brimstone with the ball, and a chainsaw celebration to top them all when the moment comes.Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur reckons his team has the bowling power take 20 wickets “comfortably” in any conditions, and he has made similarly bellicose comments about his batsmen. With Fakhar Zaman back to fitness, the opportunity has come for him to build on his debut effort against Australia, when he fell six runs short of a century in his first Test innings. His efforts at the top of the order will be vital to Pakistan’s success. If he can overcome the challenges presented by Steyn and Rabada, the job of the middle order becomes much easier.Fakhar Zaman stretches forward to defend•AFP

Team news

South Africa’s pace cupboard has been stripped by injury, and there have been a couple of niggles in the batting camp too. Theunis de Bruyn has recovered from the back injury he picked up during the Mzansi Super League, but there are still lingering doubts around Temba Bavuma’s hamstring. If Bavuma isn’t passed fit to play, Zubayr Hamza will slot into the XI – becoming the 100th South African to play Test cricket since readmission.South Africa (probable): 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Dean Elgar, 3 Theunis de Bruyn, 4 Hashim Amla, 5 Faf du Plessis (capt), 6 Temba Bavuma/Zubayr Hamza, 7 Quinton de Kock (wk), 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Duanne OlivierPakistan have announced that Shadab Khan and Mohammad Abbas are not fit for the first Test. Fakhar Zaman is going to play, however, and will open the batting with Imam-ul-Haq.Pakistan: 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Haris Sohail, 5 Asad Shafiq, 6 Babar Azam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 8 Mohammad Amir, 9 Yasir Shah, 10 Hasan Ali, 11 Shaheen Afridi

Pitch and conditions

The Centurion pitch is gaining a reputation for being somewhat unpredictable. It’s traditionally pace-friendly, but during the Mzansi Super League the tracks here encouraged spinners, with Tabraiz Shamsi clean-bowling AB de Villiers with one that dipped, gripped and turned through the gate, and the likes of Jeevan Mendis, Shaun von Berg and Sean Williams enjoyed themselves too. The South Africans have apparently not been in touch to ask for a tailor-made track for the first Test, and while the groundsman is aiming for pace and bounce, don’t be too surprised if there’s something in it for the spinners. The first two days of the Test should be hot and sunny, but summer thunderstorms are common on the Highveld this time of year and there could be rain around towards the back end of the game.

Stats and trivia

• A 3-0 win could carry South Africa to second in the Test rankings, and to within one point of India, should India lose the remaining two matches to Australia.
• Shaun Pollock’s Test bowling record of most wickets by a South Africa bowler has stood for ten years.
• Steyn has played 88 Tests to Pollock’s 108
• The last time these two teams played a Test at Centurion, in 2013, South Africa won by an innings and 18 runs

Quotes

“No, I’ve got him out enough times. He’s a fantastic player and we had a great rivalry. I hope he enjoys his time off.”

Arindam Ghosh’s half-century helped Railways set a target of 94, following which Anureet Singh and Avinash Yadav ran through the Uttar Pradesh batting order

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Oct-2017Railways defended a target of 94, skittling Uttar Pradesh out for 72 on the third day in a come-from-behind win in their first-round match in Lucknow. It was the second-lowest fourth-innings defence in Ranji Trophy history.Anureet Singh and slow left-arm spinner Avinash Yadav reduced UP to 28 for 6 inside 11 overs, and left-arm pacer Deepak Bansal joined in to pick up two wickets – including that of UP captain Suresh Raina – as Railways wrapped up a sensational 21-run win.Railways began the third day 27 for 3 in their second innings, still trailing UP by 46 runs. Overnight batsmen Arindam Ghosh (57) and Vidhyadhar Kamath (30) added a further 69 runs in the morning, before Kartik Tyagi dismissed Kamath to end an 86-run fourth-wicket partnership. Abhishek Yadav (20) scored crucial runs after that, but the recovery was ended by Ankit Rajpoot and legspinner Zeeshan Ansari. Railways eventually folded for 161.UP’s top order faltered in their chase, with Avinash and Anureet removing both openers inside three overs. Himanshu Asnora fell in the fifth over, before Anureet trapped the next two batsmen lbw. By then UP were 28 for 6, staring at defeat. Raina top-scored with 29, and was seventh out with 45 still to get. Rinku Singh remained unbeaten on 23, but received no support from the tail, and UP were all out in the 26th over. Avinash finished with a match tally of seven wickets, while Anureet ended the game with six. Barring Rinku and Raina, the other nine UP batsmen scored 15 between them, including four ducks.Delhi increased their advantage over Assam at Feroz Shah Kotla after fifties from Anuj Rawat (71) and Manan Sharma (69) helped the home side finish their first innings on 435 from an overnight score of 269 for 4. Delhi bowlers, led by Navdeep Saini’s brace, then took three top-order wickets before stumps as Assam were struggling at 60 for 3 at the end of day’s play. They trail by 117 runs.Gautam Gambhir could add only one run to his overnight score of 136 before he was bowled by Abu Nechim in the day’s second over. Pulkit Narang was the next man to go, but Rawat and Manan then put together 122 runs for the seventh wicket to take Delhi past the 400-run mark. Nechim returned once again to break the partnership, and then cleaned up the tail to finish with figures of 7 for 68, but by then Delhi had already taken a 177-run lead.Assam looked to wipe out that deficit in their second innings, but both openers fell cheaply to Saini. Kulwant Khejrolia then dismissed Assam captain Gokul Sharma – with the visitors at 26 for 3 – but Sibsankar Roy (28*) and Tarjinder Singh (8*) saw the day off with no further casualties.Meanwhile, for the third day in a row, there was no play possible in the match between Hyderabad and Maharashtra in Hyderabad.