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There was no murmur on Snicko, but third umpire Sharfuddoula saw a big deflection on normal replays and made up his mind

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Dec-2024India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was dismissed in unusual circumstances during the final session on day five of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG after an on-field not-out decision for caught-behind was overturned by the third umpire despite Real-time Snicko not confirming the edge.Jaiswal, batting on 84, attempted to hook a bouncer from Pat Cummins, the ball was caught by wicketkeeper Alex Carey, the Australians appealed, on-field umpire Joel Wilson said not-out, and Australia reviewed the decision.While Snicko showed a flat line as the ball passed the bat, regular replays showed a big deflection. Third umpire Sharfuddoula went by what he saw – the deflection – and overturned the decision in Australia’s favour. Jaiswal was seen chatting with the umpires before walking off. His dismissal meant India’s last hope of saving the Test was gone. They were left tottering at 140 for 7 in a chase of 340 and eventually went down by 184 runs.Related

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“I don’t know what to make of that because the technology didn’t show anything, but with the naked eye it seemed like he did touch something,” Rohit Sharma told the press after the game. “I don’t know how the umpires want to use the technology, but in all fairness, I think he did touch the ball…”It’s about the technology, which we know is not 100% – more often than not we are the ones falling on the wrong side of it… that’s where we are unfortunate.”Cummins, meanwhile, was clear that Jaiswal had hit the ball and knew he had hit the ball.”Think it was clear that he hit it, heard a noise, saw a deviation, so was absolutely certain that he hit it,” he said. “As soon as we referred, you saw him drop his head and basically acknowledge that he hit. On screen, you can see he hit it. Ultra Edge, don’t think anyone has complete confidence and didn’t really show much, but fortunately there was enough other evidence to show it was clearly out.”Like Rohit, who saw the deflection too, Simon Taufel was in agreement with the third umpire, saying the deflection was “conclusive evidence” and said Sharfuddoula was well within his rights to do what he felt was correct.”In my view, the decision was out,” Taufel said on . “The third umpire did make the correct decision in the end. With the technology protocols, we do have a hierarchy of redundancy and when the umpire sees a clear deflection off the bat there is no need to go any further and use any other form of technology to prove the case. The clear deflection is conclusive evidence.”In this particular case, what we have seen from the third umpire is they have used a secondary form of technology, which for whatever reason hasn’t shown the same conclusive evidence of audio to back up the clear deflection. In the end, the third umpire did the right thing and went back to the clear deflection and overturned the umpire field. So, in my view correct decision made.”Sunil Gavaskar, speaking on Star Sports, however, wasn’t happy with the evidence, or lack of it, on Snicko being ignored.”We have seen so many times that the ball swings late after going very close to the edge of the bat. We have seen it so many times, haven’t we, that the ball does not take the edge, but goes very close and swings later after hitting the seam,” he said. “From afar it seems that the ball has taken the edge. I am talking about a forward defence, not talking about this hook shot.3:00

The Jaiswal dismissal – Manjrekar’s verdict

“The optical illusion suggests there is an edge. It was this optical illusion here as well. If the technology evidence suggests it is not out, then you cannot give it out.”On the live broadcast on Star Sports, Mark Nicholas and Sanjay Manjrekar called it a “brave” call by the third umpire.”On Jaiswal’s dismissal, I think it’s very brave of the third umpire to over-ride Snicko,” Nicholas said. “I think that’s pretty rare too.”Manjrekar said, “These are not the best angles, there was one angle given which was front-on, and that’s where you see the deflection when you see it visually, then you see the Snicko that reconfirms everything. Any other umpire would have gone, well, if the Snicko was not showing it – and I love Snicko as a technology – I’m not going to give that out. That also would be accepted by us.””I don’t know if any other umpire, I mean my guess is that it runs off both bat and glove, that’s a total guess,” Nicholas added. “I think that’s the problem watching that replay. Or any other replays.”

UP Warriorz couldn’t capitalise on the blazing start from Grace Harris and couldn’t defend their below-par total

Srinidhi Ramanujam26-Feb-2025Nat Sciver-Brunt put on an exceptional all-round show to propel Mumbai Indians to the top of the table with an eight-wicket win over UP Warriorz in Bengaluru. She took three wickets and followed it up with an impressive unbeaten 75 off 44 balls to chase down the target of 143 with 18 balls remaining.Warriorz initially rode on Grace Harris’ quickfire 45 and Vrinda Dinesh’s solid 33 but lost eight wickets for 54 runs to eventually end with a below-par total.Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews stitched together a solid 133-run stand for the second wicket and made the chase look easy. Though Matthews struggled her way to a 50-ball 59 after getting a life early on, Sciver-Brunt’s boundary-laden knock made sure MI raced to their third win in four games. Warriorz are fourth on the points table now with two wins after five games.With 254 runs from four matches, Sciver-Brunt is now the leading run-scorer of this WPL, overtaking Ellyse Perry’s 235.

Another Sciver-Brunt show

Sciver-Brunt came in early when MI were 6 for 1 in the fourth over, with Matthews struggling to get her timing and rhythm right. Chinelle Henry was swinging the ball both ways, making it difficult to score off her. But Sciver-Brunt took only five balls to change things around.She welcomed Saima Thakor with a hat-trick of fours in the sixth over – hitting to long-on, deep square-leg and deep cover – staying deep in the crease, and putting her bottom hand to good use and effortlessly manoeuvring the ball to both sides of the pitch.When there was width on offer, she cut fiercely, and when the length was short, she pulled behind and in front of square and toyed with the Warriorz bowlers. She brought up her fifty off 29 balls with nine fours, bringing the equation down to 54 off 47 balls. This included a hat-trick of fours off Henry as well, in the 11th over.From there, it was a cakewalk for MI as Matthews also found her range and started hitting boundaries. Overall, Sciver-Brunt struck 13 fours in her 44-ball stay.Grace Harris gave UP Warriorz a blazing start•BCCI

Harris moves up, Vrinda moves down

After four matches, Warriorz took a cue from the WBBL and the Hundred and promoted Harris to open for the first time in WPL after her struggles in the middle order. The move felt just right as she looked in her element from the start.With Kiran Navgire falling in the first over, it was up to Harris and Vrinda to steady the innings on a pitch that was holding up a bit, and the two shared 79 runs off 52 balls to give Warriorz solidity.Harris began with a scoop against Sciver-Brunt and punished Shabnim Ismail for three fours on the bounce in the second over. She kept attacking and smashed 6, 4, 4, 6 off Matthews in the fourth. She swept and pulled towards square leg, muscled the ball to long-on, and rolled her wrists to bisect the gap between mid-on and midwicket.On the other hand, Vrinda – who had scored only 40 in the previous four matches – looked in much better touch and played second fiddle to Harris well. She played a lofted cover drive elegantly to start the third over and followed it with a hook in the same over. Unlike Harris, Vrinda found boundaries on the off side with classy cover drives in her 30-ball 33.The first two partnerships gave Warriorz 81, the most for them in this WPL so far.

Middle overs remain a problem for Warriorz

It was something the Warriorz captain Deepti Sharma had admitted recently, that they needed to do better in the middle overs. But they couldn’t, squandering a strong start by losing wickets in clumps, again, to lose the plot. From 81 for 1, they collapsed to 123 for 7, losing five of those wickets in the middle overs for 30 runs.It began when Amelia Kerr removed Harris in the tenth over after the batter was dropped on 44 by Ismail off Jintimani Kalita. Offspinner Sanskriti Gupta then bowled a momentum-changing 11th over when she dismissed both Vrinda and Tahlia McGrath in the space of four balls. Warriorz slowed down and did not quite recover after that.Overall, they have lost the most wickets (24) in the middle overs (7 to 16) in this WPL so far and have been the slowest (6.72) in that phase too.

Dhananjay de Silva says they made a few mistakes in the last WTC cycle and want to fix that this time around

Andrew Fidel Fernando28-Jun-2025Sri Lanka’s Test programme is about to dry up for 11 months, but their captain Dhananjaya de Silva is still grateful for the World Test Championship. Upon recording their first win of this cycle – the innings-and-78-run victory over Bangladesh at the SSC – he also made the point that for teams such as Sri Lanka, who play fewer matches in a WTC cycle, there is more on the line in every game.Sri Lanka play only two-match series through the course of this cycle, as the schedule currently stands. The key number in a WTC points table is “percentage of points won”, which means that teams that play far fewer games than others can still finish in the top two.”The WTC is like other World Cups – a lot of matches are like knockouts for us,” Dhananjaya said. “We’ve talked about how we win when we make the fewest mistakes, and we need those wins to get those extra points. In the last cycle, we made a few mistakes, and that’s what cost us. Hopefully, we can correct that this cycle.”Related

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For Sri Lanka’s Test cricketers, the WTC has long been a serious motivator, with previous captain Dimuth Karunaratne also having spoken glowingly about the league. Dhananjaya said the WTC had changed the way his team plays.”It’s become a competitive trophy. Even we’ve started thinking about our run rates in light of what’s happening. The Championship is a great thing for Test cricket.”We saw last time how well South Africa did and how they performed well recently and they deserved to win it. They hadn’t won an ICC trophy and the Test Championship meant a lot to them. As a country, they can value that highly.”With the team not scheduled to play Tests until May next year, however, Sri Lanka’s Test specialists face the challenge of keeping their games finely-tuned over many sparse months.”We only have domestic matches,” Dhananjaya said. “Right now there’s a one-day tournament, and after that there will be a three-day tournament. There’s also the National Super League. That’s how we’ll have to keep our form. Unfortunately, there are no Tests.”We’ve made requests to SLC, to play more Tests. I think they are talking about it with other teams. Even if we can play three or four extra Tests, we’ll be able to continue the good things we’re doing.”Dhananjaya also revealed that in addition to emphasising scoring quickly, his team had also sought to bowl more maiden overs through the course of this series. In the Colombo Test, they bowled 18 maidens out of a total 123.5 overs – roughly 15%.”Whenever we come into a Test series, we have some key performance indicators,” Dhananjaya said. “One of the things we analysed this time was that our maiden percentage needed to be higher. So that’s what we planned to do. We have to keep some pressure on the opposition in Tests, in order to get some wickets at the other end. I think our bowlers did that very well.”

Ten teams will be competing for four spots in the World Cup proper

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Jul-2025Nepal is set to host the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 Qualifier, which will be held from January 12 to February 2 next year. The matches will be held at the Lower Mulpani Cricket Stadium and the Upper Mulpani Cricket Stadium in Mulpani, Kathmandu. The full schedule for the tournament will be announced later.Ten teams will be competing in the tournament for four places in the World Cup proper, which will be held in England and Wales in June-July. Only five teams have been confirmed as participants for the Qualifier so far.While Bangladesh and Ireland have already confirmed their places in the Qualifier, having participated in the 2024 T20 World Cup, Thailand and hosts Nepal have made it through the Asia qualifiers, and USA from the Americas one.The remaining five teams will be confirmed through the other regional qualifiers, with two teams each from Africa and Europe, and one from the East Asia-Pacific regions filling the slots.The T20 World Cup Qualifier will see the ten teams divided into two groups of five each. The best six teams then make it to the Super Six stage, before the final.The T20 World Cup in 2026 will have 12 teams participating for the first time in the history of the tournament, up from ten teams who had played in it in 2024. New Zealand are the defending champions, having beaten South Africa in the final last year.

He will give up his other commitments and focus on both the national team and the women’s players of interest programme

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Sep-2025Craig McMillan has been appointed full-time New Zealand women’s assistant coach after serving in a part-time capacity in the position for just over a year. He will work alongside head coach Ben Sawyer and batting coach Dean Brownlie, “with his appointment officially beginning this week”.A New Zealand Cricket (NZC) statement said that McMillan, the former New Zealand allrounder, will now focus on both the national team and the women’s players of interest programme “as he steps back from his successful commentary career and other coaching commitments”.”I’m over the moon to be in this role,” McMillan, who was part of the support staff when New Zealand won the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year, said in a statement.Related

• New Zealand begin World Cup prep with Chennai camp

“The women’s game is going from strength to strength, and I’m excited to continue to work with our talented players and help them reach their goals. The last year has gone so quickly and I’ve loved every minute of being part of a team that continues to improve, challenge one another, and does special things on the world stage.”Next up is the women’s ODI World Cup in India and Sri Lanka starting later this month.”It’s been a busy period leading into the 50-over World Cup,” McMillan said. “We’ve had a number of camps including one in Chennai which exposed the players to Indian conditions like what they’ll face in October-November.”The team is pumped to get back to India and take on another World Cup.”The World Cup squad is expected to be announced on September 10.

Big names are missing due to the Asia Cup and India A’s multi-day series against Australia A

Ashish Pant10-Sep-2025

Big picture: Big names missing in final

With a host of big names either playing the Asia Cup or getting ready for India A’s red-ball series against Australia A, the Duleep Trophy 2025-26 final at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru is expected to be a low-key affair. Both South Zone and Central Zone have brought in reinforcements after their respective semi-finals.Central Zone have made four changes, with Vidarbha seamer Nachiket Bhute, Madhya Pradesh’s Kumar Kartikeya and Kuldeep Sen, and Rajasthan’s left-arm spinner Kukna Ajay Singh getting into the mix. They come in for Yash Thakur, Harsh Dubey, Khaleel Ahmed and Manav Suthar, who have departed for the four-day series against Australia A in Lucknow.South Zone, meanwhile, have brought in Karnataka’s R Smaran and Tamil Nadu’s C Andre Siddarth in place of Devdutt Padikkal and N Jagadeesan.Related

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• Danish Malewar's bright start and big ambitions

Central Zone’s batting looks formidable. Three of the four highest run-scorers in the tournament belong to them: Danish Malewar (294), Rajat Patidar (268) and Shubham Sharma (252). The bowling, however, is severely depleted, with four of their frontliners out of the final.The onus will be on offspinner Saransh Jain, who got a match haul of 8 for 205, and, with that, the Player-of-the-Match award in the semi-final against West Zone, to continue his form. Central Zone will also hope for Deepak Chahar to get back among the wickets. The seamer has had a lukewarm Duleep Trophy so far – two wickets in three innings at 58 – and hasn’t found much movement with the new ball.South Zone have an inexperienced batting unit, and will bank on Tanmay Agarwal, Ricky Bhui and captain Mohammed Azharuddeen to get some runs. The bowlers, led by quick Gurjapneet Singh, were impressive in the semi-final against North Zone, and will hope to continue their wicket-taking form.Central Zone have only played at Ground B, which has a black-soil pitch, while South Zone have previous experience of playing at Ground A, which will host the final, and has a red-soil pitch. Both teams dominated their respective semi-finals, qualifying by virtue of a first-innings lead.The Duleep Trophy final will be live streamed on the JioHotstar app.Rajat Patidar has a strike rate of 106.34 in the Duleep Trophy this season•PTI

In the spotlight: Rajat Patidar and Mohammed Azharuddeen

With scores of 125, 66 and 77, Rajat Patidar has been in impressive form in the Duleep Trophy. He is third on the run charts, while his strike rate of 106.34 is the highest for any batter to have played more than six balls in the tournament. Patidar’s captaincy has also stood out in both games, but with many of his frontline bowlers missing, it will be tested in the final.South Zone captain Mohammed Azharuddeen missed out on an excellent batting pitch in the semi-final. He will want to make amends. Azharuddeen, who will also keep wicket with Jagadeesan away, had a terrific Ranji Trophy 2024-25, scoring 635 runs at 70.55 in Kerala’s run to the final. He also entered the Duleep Trophy on the back of a decent Kerala Cricket League, where he recorded 253 runs in eight innings.

Team news: Central’s new bowlers

South Zone could send Shaik Rasheed to open alongside Tanmay, while Smaran could come into the middle order. Salman Nizar was struck on the knee during the semi-final, and had to be carried to the dugout. If he fails to recover in time, they could bring Siddarth into the XI.South Zone (probable): 1 Shaik Rasheed, 2 Tanmay Agarwal, 3 Mohit Kale, 4 R Smaran, 5 Ricky Bhui (vice-capt), 6 C Andre Siddarth/Salman Nizar, 7 Mohammed Azharuddeen (capt, wk), 8 Tanay Thyagarajan, 9 Gurjapneet Singh, 10 Vasuki Koushik, 11 MD NidheeshDeepak Chahar has two wickets at an average of 58 in this season’s Duleep Trophy•PTI

Central Zone are unlikely to tinker with their batting order, but will have to field almost a fresh bowling unit. While Chahar is likely to hold on to his place, Kartikeya, Kuldeep and Aditya Thakare could all come into the side.Central Zone (probable): 1 Aayush Pandey, 2 Danish Malewar, 3 Shubham Sharma, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Yash Rathod, 6 Upendra Yadav (wk), 7 Aditya Thakare, 8 Saransh Jain, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Kumar Kartikeya, 11 Kuldeep Sen

Pitch and conditions: Runs galore

The surface at Ground A has been excellent for batting. Neither of the two Duleep Trophy games played there had a fourth innings, with only 45 wickets falling across the quarter-final and the semi-final. According to the weather forecast, there could be a mix of cloudy skies and rain showers throughout the five days of the final.

Quotes

“There was something for the fast bowlers, especially when they were hitting the seam – it was moving in and out. But we need to be really patient for that one ball. We know that it is a flat wicket, but we also know that there will be something in between.

Threlkeld, Lister star with bat in tense five-run victory over The Blaze

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay16-Sep-2025Lancashire 241 for 6 (Lister 96, Threlkeld 92) beat The Blaze (K Bryce 124, Elwiss 55) by five runs Lancashire Women maintained their hold over The Blaze in this season’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup to book a place in the final despite Kathryn Bryce’s magnificent 124 in a tense semi-final at Trent Bridge.Ellie Threlkeld’s side await the winners of Wednesday’s second semi-final between Hampshire and Surrey at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton. The final is on the same ground on Sunday.Lancashire Women beat The Blaze home and away in the league phase and pulled off a five-run victory in this match despite being without the competition’s top runscorer, Emma Lamb, who is with England ahead of the Women’s World Cup, and another of their key batters in Eve Jones, who is injured.With the bat they recovered from 52 for four to post 241 for six after Scotland international Ailsa Lister hit a career-best 96 from 91 balls and captain Threlkeld a season’s best 92 from 128.Seamers Grace Potts, who limped through most of her spell after suffering an injury in her first over, took three for 32 and Kate Cross ( three for 47) then led an excellent bowling display, restricting the home side to 236 for nine.Bryce and Georgia Elwiss (55) combined to add 150 for the fourth wicket in The Blaze’s reply but a superbly disciplined Lancashire attack ensured that The Blaze were never on top of the required scoring rate and that pressure paid off for them as the home side, 179 for three with 10 overs remaining, ultimately fell short.Lister and Threlkeld shared a 166-run partnership for the fifth Lancashire wicket, 21-year-old Lister underlining her potential by hitting 11 boundaries before she was stumped in search of the one more needed for a maiden hundred, the home side rueing a dropped catch when she was on 66.Seamers Cassidy McCarthy (two for 27) and Orla Prendergast, who conceded only 26 runs in 10 overs, impressed among The Blaze bowlers.Asked to bat first on the pitch that would have been used for England’s washed-out T20 international against South Africa last Sunday, Lancashire Women found themselves in trouble at 33 for three after 10 overs.McCarthy uprooted Gaby Lewis’s middle stump and had Seren Smale caught at short backward square, the left-armer Grace Ballinger finding the edge to have Fi MorrisAlice Clarke – tasked with filling the shoes of Lamb at the top of the order – fell to a good catch on the legside boundary as she pulled Prendergast and with their opponents 52 for four in the 18th, The Blaze were well on top.But Threlkeld brought her experience to bear in guiding her younger partner through a testing period before the pair kicked on from the 35-over mark, upping the scoring rate to seven per over for the next 12 before Lister, spared by the normally safe hands of Kathryn Bryce at deep midwicket on 66, went down the pitch to Kirstie Gordon’s left-arm spin and paid the price.Threlkeld departed in the next over, run out going for a second by McCarthy’s arrow throw from the point boundary.The Blaze, missing their three England players but accustomed to managing without them, would have seen chasing 242 as well within their compass, although less so after matching their opponents in losing three wickets in their opening powerplay.Mahika Gaur bowled Sarah Bryce with a full delivery before Kate Cross removed Georgie Boyce, caught and bowled off a leading edge, and Prendergast, who stepped across to be leg before for a second-ball duck, leaving The Blaze in peril at 37 for three.But just as Threlkeld and Lister rescued Lancashire, Elwiss joined Kathryn Bryce to turn their side’s innings around. Yet though Bryce passed fifty for the seventh time this season from 64 balls, none of Threlkeld’s six bowlers conceded runs easily.Bryce brought up her hundred, the fifth of her career in List A cricket and a first in Blaze colours, from 121 balls as the partnership ticked over to 150, but the big breakthrough for Lancashire came shortly afterwards as Elwiss, who had clocked up her fifth half-century of the season, was caught at backward point on the reverse sweep off Fi Morris, with 55 still needed off 52 balls.The wicket opened up one end for the visitors and after Marie Kelly, Michaela Kirk and and Lucy Higham all went cheaply, The Blaze needed 33 from 18 balls, which came down to nine off the last over, but when Bryce holed out to mid-off to give Potts her third wicket, their chance had gone.

Crystal Palace supporters have been in high spirits in recent times after seeing their side get back to winning ways in the Premier League on Saturday.

Roy Hodgson’s men went into their encounter with struggling Fulham at Selhurst Park having drawn one and lost two of their last three league games, a run which saw them fall towards the division’s bottom three. But the Eagles now sit 14th in the table after a routine 2-0 success over Claudio Ranieri’s Cottagers, with goals from Luka Milivojevic and Jeffrey Schlupp inspiring the hosts to a seventh Premier League win of the season, which in turn moved them four points clear of the relegation zone.

As such, there have been many delighted Palace fans up and down the country in recent times, with supporters likely lauding a fine team effort from their side on Saturday to finally get back to winning ways in the league for the first time since January 2.

And while it was Milivojevic and Schlupp that came up with the vital contributions, it was the performance of Mamadou Sakho in the heart of the Eagles backline that epitomised everything brilliant about Palace at the weekend.

Ultimately, the 28-year-old has proven to be an inspired addition to the Palace backline following his arrival from Liverpool on a permanent deal back in the summer of 2017, what with the centre back excelling in a loan spell earlier that year to underline his importance to this Eagles side.

And the defender, but for the odd lapse in concentration, continues to prove his worth to Hodgson, and that was none-more-so evident than on Saturday as the France international produced another authoritative display to help Palace to a ninth clean sheet of the season.

The centre back may have only touched the ball on 58 occasions over the course of the 90 minutes, what with Fulham dominating possession for much of the encounter, but Sakho finished the contest with a staggering 98% pass success rate, misplacing only one of the 41 passes he attempted – for what it’s worth, no other Palace starter hit 90% on Saturday (as per WhoScored).

And having someone like that on the ball who is comfortable in possession but invariably picks a pass can only be good news in bringing calmness and a measure of control to the backline – Sakho certainly helped do that at the weekend.

Yet the former Liverpool centre back also did his bit off the ball as well to stop Fulham in their tracks, winning three of the five aerial duels he contested over the course of the 90 minutes, as well as making a joint team-high eight clearances and two interceptions to relieve pressure on the Palace defence.

Clearly then, Sakho helped deliver a performance of note both on and off the ball to help Hodgson’s side to a crucial three points on Saturday, with the £13.5 million-rated ace (as per Transfermarkt) the star in a great team display to underline just how much he epitomised everything brilliant about the Eagles at the weekend.

Palace and Fulham fans… what do you think? Let us know!

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Loads of Rangers fans have been giving their verdict on Wednesday night’s momentous win over Aberdeen, and they’re absolutely delighted with the impact of Jermain Defoe.

Rangers kept the pressure on Celtic on Wednesday with a 4-2 win at the Pittodrie Stadium.

The Gers were the better side throughout most of the match, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for Steven Gerrard’s side.

Pl>ymaker FC Exclusive: Jermaine Jenas reveals he would have snubbed Tottenham for Arsenal if they’d come knocking in 2005…

Alfredo Morelos put the visitors in front when he pounced on a rebound from a Ryan Kent strike, and the Colombian international grabbed another courtesy of Kent to make it 2-1 after Sam Cosgrove had levelled for the hosts.

James Tavernier and Cosgrove then traded a penalty each, making the score 3-2, before both Morelos and Aberdeen’s Scott McKenna were sent off after kicking out at each other.

The ten-on-ten battle made life difficult for the Gers, but Defoe came on to seal the deal, finishing with aplomb when released late on by Tavernier.

Gerrard was clearly desperate to bring the 36 year-old to Ibrox in January and it’s not hard to see why, as he has already racked up three goals and four assists in a blue shirt.

You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below, where fans are already in love with their new number nine.