Sports Bulletin on December 29: From Bumrah’s 200 Test Wickets to Koneru Humpy’s World Rapid Chess Championship Win

Sports Bulletin on December 29: The world of sports saw some development on Sunday (December 29) when India and Australia competed in a see-saw battle at the MCG, where Jasprit Bumrah achieved a remarkable feat before another chess star won the Rapid Chess World title.

During the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, Bumrah crossed a landmark with the best average and also became the joint-second quickest Indian in terms of number of Tests and fastest in terms of deliveries bowled by country's bowlers to achieve the feat.

Also, an Indian pacer, who played a pivotal role in the country's T20 World Cup triumph earned nomination for T20I cricketer of the year. Plus, a grand master clinched a world championship title in chess. Here are some of the biggest developments in the World of Sports today.

Jasprit Bumrah completes 200 Test wickets with best average

Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah became the second fastest Indian along with Ravindra Jadeja to complete 200 Test wickets and the first bowler ever to reach that milestone with a sub-20 average during the fourth day's play of the fourth Test against Australia at MCG.

Bumrah dismissed Travis Head (1) for his 200th victim in the post-lunch session, joining Jadeja in the list of bowlers who are fastest to 200 wickets in Tests. Both Bumrah and Jadeja achieved the feat in their 44th Test, and overall he is 12th Indian bowler in the format to complete the lanrmark.

The recently retired Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the quickest among Indians to have taken 200 wickets, a feat that he achieved in his 37th Test.

Among all bowlers who have crossed the 200-wickets mark in Test cricket, Bumrah is the only bowler with an average of under 20 which includes some of the fearsome fast bowlers from the West Indies such as Malcolm Marshall (376 wickets at 20.94), Joel Garner (259 wickets at 20), Curtly Ambrose (405 wickets at 20.99).

Lyon and Boland frustrate India ahead of day 5

Having been left reeling by a middle-order collapse, Australia had their lower-order batsmen to thank for dragging them to a respectable target of 228/9 from 91 for 6 as Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj stepped up big time for India at the MCG.

Marnus Labuschagne dug in for 70 while captain Pat Cummins scored 41, with both men fortunate to be dropped by Yashasvi Jaiswal midway through their knocks. Nathan Lyon (41*) also benefitted from being dropped on five to put on a brave last-wicket partnership with Scott Boland (10*).

Arshdeep Singh among nominees for Men's T20I cricketer of the year award

Indian pacer Arshdeep Singh who starred in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup triumph earlier this year joins Zimbabwe's Sikandar Raza, Pakistan's Babar Azam and Australia's Travis Head as nominees for the ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Year.

Women's T20 World Cup MVP among nominees for women's T20I cricketer of the year

ICC Women's T20 World Cup MVP Amelia Kerr of New Zealand as well as Sri Lanka's sensational skipper Chamari Athapaththu along with another World Cup finalist, South Africa's Laura Wolvaardt, and an exceptional Ireland talent Orla Prendergast are in the race to become the ICC Women's T20I Cricketer of the Year for 2024.

India need to pull off record chase to win Boxing Day Test

Rohit Sharma's Team India will need to pull the highest successful chase at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on the final day of the Boxing Day Test to go 2-1 up in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

Abbas six-wicket haul gave Pakistan hope of historic win, but Rabada-Jansen play spoilsport

Mohammad Abbas claimed six wickets as Pakistan closed in on an historic Test win over South Africa in the first of the two-match series, which is being played at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. Needing just 148 for win, South Africa were reduced to 116/8 at lunch on day four.

However, Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen put on a fight for the ninth wicket to take South Africa past the target with 2 wickets in hand just after lunch as the Proteas punched their tickets to Lord's for next year's World Test Championship (WTC) Final.

Rahmat Shah and Shahidi share 364-run stand in Bulawayo

Afghanistan's Hashmatullah Shahidi (179*) and Rahmat Shah (234) shared a mammoth 364-run partnership for the third wicket against Zimbabwe in the ongoing one-off Test at the Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo.

The duo broke the record for highest third-wicket partnership in Tests against Zimbabwe, going past India's Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, who had shared a 249-run stand in Nagpur in 2000. In response to Zimbabwe's 586, Afghanistan reached 515/3 before bad-light stopped play on day four.

Australia suffer injury blow before Sydney Test

Australia suffered a blow as back-up keeper-batter Josh Inglis was ruled out of the fifth and final Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India due to injury, according to ICC.

Inglis injured his calf while sub-fielding on the second day of the fourth Test at the MCG, with a Cricket Australia spokesperson confirming the 29-year-old will be sidelined for the final clash of the India series in Sydney.

Australia will name a replacement for Inglis prior to the fifth Test which will start on January 3, while the hosts are confident he will be available for next month's tour of Sri Lanka that includes two Tests as part of the ICC World Test Championship series.

Koneru Humpy wins FIDE Women's World Rapid Championship

India's Koneru Humpy bagged an epochal second World Rapid Chess Championship title, beating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia in New York on Sunday. Humpy had won the event back in 2019 at Georgia and the Indian No 1 is only the second player after China's Ju Wenjun to clinch the title more than once. The 37-year-old Humpy finished the tournament with 8.5 out of 11 points.