Firstpost Spodcast Episode 116: India's historic win Asian Cup 2019, South Africa's victory against Pakistan as they clinch Test series and more

India stunned Thailand 4-1 at the Asian Cup football tournament on Sunday, veteran striker Sunil Chhetri scoring twice in their Group A opener. Chhetri opened the scoring when he smashed home from the penalty spot after 27 minutes. The Blue Tigers were in front for just seven minutes, Thai captain Teerasil Dangda restoring parity by bravely heading home a Theerathon Bunmathan free kick. But Chhetri drilled his second of the game moments into the second half following a lung-bursting run down the right from Udanta Singh. Things got worse for Thailand when Anirudh Thapa chipped in a third in the 68th minute before substitute Jeje Lalpekhlua completed the rout to leave India as unlikely group leaders. Hosts United Arab Emirates were held 1-1 by Bahrain in Saturday’s curtain-raiser. In news from the I-League, Real Kashmir defeated Mohun Bagan 2-1 to notch up their sixth victory in their debut season. Mohun Bagan were less than impressive on Sunday, and Kashmir made them pay as they continued their giant-killing run. Scottish player Mason Robertson, who is the centre-back for Kashmir, scored twice - in the 33rd and 73rd minutes. Mohun Bagan’s star winger Sony Norde, who sat out four matches due to a leg injury, scored the solitary goal for the hosts in the 42nd minute. The win sees Real Kashmir jump to second place in the points table behind Chennai City. Former champions Mohun Bagan, with 15 points from 11 matches, fell back to sixth place and their title hopes have pretty much perished. Sandeep Chattoo, co-owner of Real Kashmir Football Club, said, “Today’s win is because of dedication and hard work of everyone at RKFC. The boys were exceptional and I am sure that the spirit continues as we begin our final uphill task.” Cricket news now. South Africa defeated Pakistan by nine wickets to win the second Test in Cape Town on Sunday. Opener Dean Elgar scored an unbeaten 24 as the home side added to their victory in Pretoria last month and will be looking to sweep the series in the third match at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, starting on Friday. Pakistan will take positives from a test in which they avoided an innings defeat with a stout batting performance on Saturday to force the contest into a fourth day. Shan Masood, Asad Shafiq and Babar Azam all scored half-centuries as Pakistan produced their best day of batting on tour and scored more than 200 runs in an innings for the first time in the series. They were eventually dismissed for 294, setting their hosts a modest target, which South Africa had hoped to knock off on Saturday but ran out of time and were forced to come back on Sunday. Pakistan scored 177 in their first innings and were critical of the uneven bounce and cracks on the wicket at the iconic Cape Town venue but South Africa, with Du Plessis scoring 103, replied with 431. With this victory, South Africa have won the three-Test series, making it the seventh successive series win at home. The third and final Test of this series starts in Johannesburg on Friday. Meanwhile, Faf du Plessis was suspended for one Test because of South Africa’s slow over rate in the Cape Town Test, which could see him miss the third Test. The ICC announced the suspension in a statement after South Africa won the second Test by nine wickets to take a 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Du Plessis and his team were also fined a percentage of their match fees. The hosts used an all-pace attack for the Test. Their four fast bowlers sent down just under 122 overs as they bowled Pakistan out twice. However, half an hour was added to play the first three days because of the slow over rate. After the three umpires in the match charged the home team, match referee David Boon ruled that South Africa were one over short of the minimum target and imposed the prescribed measures - as per ICC rules, players are fined 10% of match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double. Former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has slammed the current Australian team’s attitude during the fourth Test against India in Sydney. He was speaking, in particular, about Nathan Lyon’s dismissal on the fourth day of the match. The Australian spinner was adjudged LBW after being hit on the pad by a Kuldeep Yadav delivery. Lyon checked with non-striker Mitchell Starc about reviewing, but the two decided against it - despite Australia having two reviews in hand, with only two wickets left. Ponting said, “That dismissal actually says a lot to me about the mindset of this Australian team at the moment. There’s no desperation there whatsoever. Why wouldn’t they have had a look at that? They’ve still got the two reviews up their sleeve. There had to be some sort of doubt in that. Given out straight away and Mitchell Starc just puts his hand out and says ‘oh well, it’s not me, it’s up to you to make (a call).” He added, “…unfortunately, when you’re out there together it’s a partnership. You’ve got to do whatever you can to try and save your mate. And there was absolutely none of that there.” The former captain was miffed because replays suggested the ball would have probably struck Lyon outside the line of off stump, meaning he could have been adjudged not out if DRS was taken. Ponting said, “…as it’s shown already that would have been given not out. Slack and not desperate enough. You can see where Mitchell Starc is standing at the non-striker’s end. One, look how wide he’s standing. There’s no need to be that wide in the first place. Nathan Lyon looks up, ‘Oh what do you reckon?’ ‘Oh I don’t know mate. Yeah I don’t know. But let’s not bother looking. We’ve only got two (reviews) up our sleeve.” Australia were all out for 300 in the first innings, after which Virat Kohli enforced the follow-on. The hosts then came out to bat in the second innings 322 runs behind India’s first innings score of 622.