Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares will meet defending champions Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram for a place in the Australian Open men's doubles final.

Fellow Briton Salisbury and American Ram claimed a 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 win over Marcus Daniell and Philipp Oswald.

Salisbury and Ram won their maiden Slam title together in Melbourne last year.

Sixth seeds Murray and Soares, who have reunited for the 2021 season, won the Australian Open title in 2016.

The two won the Adelaide International in the build-up to the first Grand Slam of the season.

Both pairings have dropped just one set in the tournament so far.

Russia's Daniil Medvedev beat compatriot Andrey Rublev to reach the semi-finals at the Australian Open for the first time.

Medvedev has won all 11 of his matches against top 10 players since the US Open in September 2020.

He will play either Rafael Nadal or Stefanos Tsitsipas next.

ATP Finals champion Medvedev goes into the semi-finals on a 19-match unbeaten streak.

"It was one of the best matches I've played lately" Medvedev said.

"This match is really unbelievable."

Medvedev called for the trainer after the match as he struggled with cramp in his left thigh.

Rublev has lost his past four matches against his good friend Medvedev, but the two were closely matched in a competitive first set.

They traded breaks before Medvedev capitalised, taking the opener as Rublev was broken to love.

Rublev in particular struggled with the humidity, at one point sitting down on his box of towels after a gruelling 43-shot rally.

Both players were breathing deeply as the match progressed but it was Medvedev, who has improved his fitness in his rise to the top 10, who dealt with the conditions better.

He sealed victory on his first match point to reach his third career Grand Slam semi-final.

He lost to Nadal in a thrilling five-set US Open final in 2019 but he holds a 5-1 winning record over Greek Tsitsipas.

Medvedev also beat Spanish second seed Nadal in the last four of the ATP Finals in October.

Alice Hoagland never forgot the last time she spoke to her son Mark Bingham. It was 11 September, 2001 - and he was calling from a hijacked plane.

"I asked him who these people were, but he seemed distracted and didn't hear the question, then he came back on and said 'it's true'.

"I told him I loved him, and then it went dead."

United 93 crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, killing all on board.

When the 9/11 Commission Report was published in 2004, it told how phone calls to and from the plane, as well as recorded conversations from inside the cockpit, showed a group of passengers had rushed the door. They were on the verge of taking control back from the hijackers when the plane went down.

Mark Bingham was one of the passengers who led the revolt. He was hailed as a hero.

He was also the inspiration for the Bingham Cup - which has become the world's largest amateur rugby tournament.

The origins of the Bingham Cup

In the days following 9/11, the world learned more about Bingham - and his passion for making rugby a sport where everyone felt welcome.

He was born in Florida, before he and his mother Hoagland moved to California.

They didn't have much. Speaking to World Rugby in 2019, Hoagland described them as "poorer than church mice", and that they survived, in part, thanks to the fish her son caught - but they were remarkably close.

It was at high school in California that Bingham discovered the sport that would change his life.

"I was fairly apprehensive," Hoagland admitted, "because I had a very scary idea of what rugby was all about."

But it didn't matter - her son was hooked.

He ended up captaining his school team, and continued playing at the University of California, Berkeley, which is where he came out to his mother.

After graduating from university, Bingham signed up to play for the San Francisco Fog inclusive team.

He began discussing plans to form an inclusive club in New York - where he had opened a satellite office for his public relations company. He was committed to making the sport welcoming to everyone.

"We have the chance to be role models for other gay folks who want to play, but never felt good or strong enough," he wrote in one email.

"More importantly, we have the chance to show other teams we're as good as they are. Good rugby players. Good partiers. Good sports. Good men."

Bingham never lived to see that team - the Gotham Knights - come into existence.

But in June 2002, a group of inclusive clubs came together in San Francisco to hold a memorial tournament in his honour.

Hoagland was there to present the winners with a trophy - and the Bingham Cup was born.

The 'matriarch' of the gay rugby movement

It's hard to underestimate the importance of Hoagland's role in the growth of the Bingham Cup, or how devastating her death in December 2020 was to the gay rugby community.

She'd been part of every tournament since its inception, watching the biennial event grow from humble beginnings into a competition that attracted thousands of people from around the world.

She'd seen the event go to three different continents, and was held in such high esteem that one of the prizes at the tournament was named in her honour.

Ben Owen, a former president of International Gay Rugby, told the BBC in 2018 why Hoagland was such an integral part of the event.

"She's just blown over by the amount of love and support she feels, and how important that is to keeping Mark's memory alive," he said.

"For her, what's most important is that we bring the LGBTQ+ community into rugby, because she knows how important that was to Mark and how much inclusive clubs meant to him."

For many players, Alice Hoagland wasn't just Mark Bingham's mum.

She had, over successive tournaments, become what one player called "a strong, kind and loving mother to us all - and the matriarch of the gay rugby movement".

The future

The growth of the Bingham Cup hasn't changed the fundamental values that Hoagland and others instilled at its heart - inclusion, equality and sportsmanship.

But the Covid-19 pandemic did force organisers to change course last year, postponing the 2020 tournament in Ottawa and rescheduling it for 2022.

After that - who knows?

Hosting the Bingham Cup can bring significant economic benefits to a city, and prestige to the clubs where games are staged.

And as the event continues to grow, more mainstream governing bodies are throwing their support behind the bidding process.

The event has been held in London (2004), Dublin (2008) and Manchester (2012) and Luke Fenton, chairman of the Caledonian Thebans inclusive rugby club, is hoping to bring it to Scotland.

"Edinburgh is a rugby city - we have Murrayfield here, and we're working with the Scottish RFU, which is one of our biggest advocates," he said.

"We've got the city, the spaces, the pitches, the culture, and we've got the enthusiasm to host something that would be absolutely amazing."

A first safe space in sport

For some players, the Bingham Cup has done the impossible - and provided a space where they, as members of the LGBTQ+ community, felt welcome in sport for the first time.

Tom Crotty, a member of the Sydney Convicts team that won the Bingham Cup in Amsterdam in 2018, said: "We were all in the shed before that final game, and our coach asked us to take a moment to reflect on why we were there playing rugby.

"And one by one, we went round and talked about our personal experience, including some of the boys who were straight about why they'd personally decided to fight side by side with us, and that was really overwhelming and a massive motivating force.

"The values and legacy of the Bingham Cup are interwoven into the fabric of our club - but I don't think it's until you go to your first one that you really understand it.

"It's an amazing feeling to go to an international event and be bound to these people from all across the globe, not only by your love for the sport, but also by who you are."

It's a fitting tribute to Mark Bingham, Alice Hoagland, and the values they held so dear.

Tasmania 7 for 293 (Jewell 131*) vs Queensland

Caleb Jewell produced a coming of age performance to post his maiden Sheffield Shield century and help guide Tasmania through a challenging opening day against Queensland in Hobart.

Jewell, 23, playing his first Shield match in 18 months, made a brilliant 131 not out, when the next highest score was just 27, to help Tasmania edge towards 300 at the close of the opening day after they were sent into bat.

He had previously scored just 139 runs in his first 13 Shield innings, at an average of just 11.58 with one half-century between 2016 and 2019. But he had earned a recall after scoring five centuries for North Hobart in Tasmania Premier Cricket this season and continued his rich vein of form.

Jewell entered in the 14th over with the Tigers struggling at 2 for 39 after Charlie Wakim and Mac Wright had fallen cheaply. The left-hander played with a fluency that none of his teammates could match scoring off both feet through all parts of the ground. He struck 19 fours and one six and never got bogged down against the Queensland attack.

Queensland were missing Michael Neser and Mitchell Swepson through injury but still bowled steadily to put the Tigers under pressure on a surface with plenty of grass on it. Xavier Bartlett and Brendan Doggett picked up two wickets each while Matthew Kuhnemann claimed Australia's Test captain Tim Paine as his first wicket in first-class cricket, forcing a return catch with some nice loop and drop.

Tasmania were 5 for 177 when Paine fell and then 6 for 226 when Beau Webster departed, but Jewell controlled the last 24 overs of the day with the help of Jarrod Freeman and Nathan Ellis to lay a strong foundation for day two.

Victoria 0 for 61 (Maddinson 43*) trail New South Wales 165 (Henriques 67, Perry 3-25) by 104 runs

Victoria youngster Mitch Perry starred with three wickets including the prized scalp of Steven Smith as New South Wales were bundled out for just 165 on the opening day of the Sheffield Shield clash at the SCG.

Moises Henriques showed why he remains in Test calculations playing a lone hand for the Blues with a composed 67 on a day where Victoria dominated proceedings after skipper Peter Handscomb won the toss and elected to bowl.

Openers Nic Maddinson and Marcus Harris put on a rollicking unbeaten half-century stand in the final hour of the day to put the visitors firmly in control.

James Pattinson bowled a brisk opening spell and removed Nick Larkin cheaply before Perry claimed the biggest scalp of his short career. He tested Smith's patience wide of off stump before finding his outside edge with a superb delivery that angled in and shaped away.

Pattinson followed up with an even better delivery to breach the defence of Daniel Hughes from around the wicket to leave the Blues reeling at 4 for 46.

Henriques showed the value of soft hands and playing late on a pitch with plenty of sideways movement. He struck just four boundaries in his 67 and absorbed 170 balls in the process. He watched six team-mates come and go at the other end with only Peter Nevill and Sean Abbott reaching double figures.

Only a delay for a fire alarm halted Victoria's progress. Perry accounted for Nevill and later bagged Nathan Lyon to finish with three wickets while Jon Holland cleaned up the tail to bag three of his own including Henriques, whose patience finally wore thin. He was the last man out, stumped by a mile trying to hit Holland out of the ground.

Maddinson and Harris rode their luck against a Test-quality attack. They were beaten repeatedly by Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc but punished anything fractionally loose. Maddinson sat deep in his crease and played some cracking pull and hook shots, including one high into the stands, before punching the overcorrections through the covers as he raced to 43 not out off just 36 balls.

The Brooklyn Nets are the NBA's latest superteam, an offensive juggernaut featuring two former MVPs in Kevin Durant and James Harden and the owner of one of the biggest shots in NBA Finals history in Kyrie Irving, who also is widely considered to have the best handles the sport has seen.

But LeBron James wasn't ready to declare the trio an unprecedented ensemble when asked about Brooklyn ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers' first game against the new-look Nets on Thursday.

"Um, have we forgot about KD, Steph (Curry) and Klay (Thompson) already?" James said following the Lakers' 112-104 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night. "I mean, there you go. There you go right there."

James knows that Golden State Warriors group well -- it beat his Cleveland Cavaliers for back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018.

But the most points Durant, Curry and Thompson ever averaged in their three seasons together was 75.8 per game in 2018-19.

Durant (29.0), Irving (28.3) and Harden (23.9) entered Tuesday averaging 80.7 points for the Nets this season.

Thursday's showdown will be missing some firepower. L.A. will be without Anthony Davis, who suffered a calf strain and aggravated the Achilles tendinosis in his right leg Sunday. He will see team doctors when the Lakers return home Wednesday.

"We'll see how he responds to treatment and reevaluate in a couple weeks," Lakers coach Frank Vogel said Tuesday.

On the other side, Durant has missed the past two games with a left hamstring strain and Irving sat out Tuesday's comeback win against the Phoenix Suns with tightness in his lower back.

That said, James said he is looking forward to seeing these Nets in person for the first time.

"It's always exciting for me to go against some of the best guys in the game -- and they got three of them," he said. "They got three of the best guys in the game. Definitely would love to be full when you're playing against a team like that and see, like, at that point in the season, how you match up -- how you match up against some of the best teams in the league. And, obviously, we won't be full on Thursday. But, other than that, yeah, I love going out there and just being out on the floor with some of the best to play this game."

James' teammate Montrezl Harrell was less enthusiastic. He was a part of the NBA's shiny new toy with the LA Clippers last season, when the historically underachieving franchise added Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and became instant favorites to win the title.

Perhaps going through all that hype, only to be part of the Clippers' second-round playoff exit to the Denver Nuggets, taught him that the regular season isn't always the best indicator of postseason success.

"Honestly, I don't really care," Harrell said. "We go into every game with a game plan, know offensively, defensively what we want to do in order to win that game, and that's going to be the same thing we're going to have to do when we play on Thursday.

"There's nothing no different. We're not circling that game. We're not putting any extra emphasis on that game. It's just like any other game -- we're taking it one game at a time. We're still learning, we're still growing and we're still building with one another, and we're gonna have to do it to a higher standard with losing one of our big pieces [in Davis]."

Nets head coach Steve Nash said his team is fully aware of the "tremendous challenge" that awaits the Nets in their first meeting with the Lakers.

"We know who they have over there," he said after Brooklyn's 128-124 win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night. "We know how well they're coached and what they've been able to do in the last year or so. So it's a great test for us. You load the guys up and be ready to go and try to keep getting better."

Nets guard James Harden had a different take, saying the team is more concerned about improving as a unit than it is about its opponent, even if it's the Lakers.

"Obviously, offensively we're really, really good. Defensively, we're not so great," he said. "So we have to find ways to be better in that category, which we all know. So we're working on that, and whether it's the Lakers or any other team, that doesn't get us excited because we're still working on ourselves, if that makes sense.

"Obviously, we understand that caliber of team we're playing. But then, the whole situation is, we are working on ourselves. So the Indianas and Sacramentos and Golden States and tonight in Phoenix -- any of those games we could've lost and we can beat the Lakers, and it only counts as one win and one loss."

ESPN's Malika Andrews contributed to this report.

The mood inside the Milwaukee Bucks' locker room was "kind of quiet," according to newcomer Bobby Portis, following a 124-113 loss to the visiting Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night.

But although reigning back-to-back MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo acknowledged some frustration after the Bucks' fourth straight loss, he said there's no reason for the team not to stay focused and calm.

"I kind of have a feeling that everybody is in a panic mode, which should not be the case," said Antetokounmpo, who had 34 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals in defeat. "We should keep improving, we should keep playing good basketball, we should watch the film, and at the end of the day, we've got to go out there and compete. When you come here, nothing can be easy."

Once again, the Bucks' Achilles' heel proved to be the fourth quarter, when they were outscored 12-4 in the final five minutes.

They are now 0-9 when trailing after three quarters this season, and they entered the night with the second-lowest win rate in games that went to clutch time this season at 22%, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Only the Detroit Pistons (20%) are worse.

Clutch time is defined as any time in which the score is within five points in the final five minutes and can be at any point during that span.

"At the end of the day, we lost four in a row; we're not going home," Antetokounmpo said. "We're still here. It's not the playoffs. Obviously, it's frustrating. We want to win, especially a game like this. A big game, guys playing hard.

"You want to come out and win the game, but it doesn't always go your way. But always, you've got to look at the bright side of it. You still have another opportunity on Thursday. So, keep getting better, watch the film, improve, keep everybody in a good place, and it's not the end of the world right now.

Milwaukee was playing without Jrue Holiday for the fifth consecutive game, as he remains out under health and safety protocols. Antetokounmpo said the Bucks are missing Holiday's presence on the court.

"We have to be better. Obviously, one of our best players on the team and playmakers and best defenders on the team is not playing with us," he said. "Obviously, it's not an excuse. I'm not a guy that gives excuses. But it's a big part of who we are, and we need him."

Raptors guard Fred VanVleet torched the Bucks with 33 points, 7 assists and 4 boards in his fifth 30-point game this season. Toronto's Kyle Lowry ended with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in 22 minutes despite exiting during the third quarter with a sore left ankle.

Milwaukee (16-12) has not lost four straight since the 2019 Eastern Conference finals against the Raptors, who were the eventual NBA champions that season.

These teams will meet again on Thursday at Fiserv Forum, where the Bucks will look to make changes.

"Nobody's happy with the result, nobody feels good about it, but your process and how you approach, you've got to go back and look at things and see where you can get better," said Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer.

Earlier in the day, the Bucks also announced during a news conference that they would take a phased-in approach to hosting fans at their next three games, which would be open to player families and invited guests only. They started with 250 fans Tuesday and will increase it to 500 for Thursday's game and 750 on Friday, before opening games up to the general public starting Sunday, when about 1,800 fans will be allowed.

Even with the fans back, they couldn't avoid the latest loss.

Raptors coach Nick Nurse, who has battled against Milwaukee on numerous occasions, including the postseason, said he doesn't see the Bucks' struggles continuing.

"In a normal year, I probably would be a bit surprised. But I think there's all kinds of things going on with several, several teams around the league, and there's so many teams a couple games up above .500 and a couple below, like probably over half the league," Nurse said. "I don't really look at it that closely. So, I think that they've certainly got all the pieces and they've got depth and they've got experience and they've got everything; and I think they're among a group of teams that will continue to play better in the second half and get ready for a long run in the playoffs. They've got all the tools they need."

OKLAHOMA CITY -- With 5 minutes, 28 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Damian Lillard hit two hard dribbles with his left hand, putting his man on his hip and squaring up the help defender, Al Horford.

It was a one-point game, the Oklahoma City Thunder leading, and as Lillard does, he hit the eject button to rise and fire in Horford's face, the kind of shot the "Dame Time" mythology is built on.

The problem was, to that point he was 1-of-9 from 3-point distance. It wasn't a typical Lillard game, with the flurry of logo shots and dazzling rim finishes. He was short, he was off left, he was off right. And this one over Horford -- this one missed badly short and left.

Lillard has buoyed the battered Blazers the past month behind these moments, carrying the burden of clutch time on his shoulders, while trying to bring along young talent such as Anfernee Simons, Gary Trent Jr. and Nassir Little. But the big spots, the crunch-time shots, those belong to Lillard.

But with frigid air in Oklahoma cool to the point the state was dealing with an energy emergency, with basically every light in the arena turned off but the ones to illuminate the floor, Lillard was ice cold. And not in the good way.

The Thunder, as they have done often in this season, scrapped with their young players, hanging in the game long enough for energy and athleticism to wear down an opponent. Hamidou Diallo was springing all over the floor; Lu Dort was snow-plowing his way to the rim. A 20-point Blazer lead turned to a five-point deficit with four minutes to go. It was getting to a now-or-never point for Dame Time.

"There's concern," Lillard admitted. He said he looked at the scoreboard when the Blazers' lead was down to 93-84, hoping his team could hit two quick 3s, calm the Thunder's run down and then he'd take the controls for an easy landing.

"But I was just like, 'Man, this would be a tough loss for us. We played so well.' But once I went back on the court, I was just like ..." he said, pausing for a moment.

"I never think there's a game that I can't take control of," he said. "When I'm out there, I feel how hard the defense is trying to stop me. When I see how alert and how active they are trying to stop me, it just lets me know they're concerned. They're concerned regardless of how well or how badly I'm shooting the ball. And for me, it's even more of a mental thing for me that even though they know I'm not hot, they're still worried and I want to show them why they should be worried. And why they should still be on edge."

His first late-game 3 came at the 4:11 mark, with Dort flying by him on a pump fake. Lillard took a dribble and calmly drained it. The Thunder's lead went back down to two and it ended a 23-4 run that OKC had opened the fourth quarter with. With the Thunder now on high alert, he set Trent up for a corner 3 on the next trip and the Blazers had the lead back.

The next possession, Lillard worked to shake Dort off him and force a switch. He tilted back into a quick release over Isaiah Roby and hit the bottom of the net. A few possessions later, Lillard had Dort in isolation. A dogged defender who had worked tirelessly to hound Lillard, Dort stayed with every jab, every deke, every fake. With the shot clock winding down, Lillard went behind his back and took a big step back to rock into a 3 with a little extra lean and a little extra arc because of the stellar defense. Didn't matter -- it was Dame Time. Two trips later, Lillard hit one more for the official dagger to give the Blazers a fifth straight win, 115-104 over OKC.

Lillard started the game 1-of-10 from 3-point distance. He finished 4-of-4. Just a standard 31-point game with seven rebounds and 10 assists -- and a win.

"He's like a cheat code -- I've never seen anything like this before," Enes Kanter said. "And I've played with some great, great players. But I've never seen anything like it. It's wild."

The Dame Time mentality is one that has been well chronicled, with Lillard answering questions about it since his first famous clutch shot dropped -- in 2014 to eliminate the Houston Rockets. But he revealed Tuesday part of unlocking the mindset to embrace big moments is in his own personal mind game with himself.

"I don't know why," he said, "I just do it."

The attentiveness of defenders, the fear he hears in assistant coaches' voices pleading with players to stay up on him, they can serve as an injection of confidence for Lillard even when the shot isn't falling.

"It's encouraging in those moments," Lillard said. "Sometimes I come up short. Sometimes they do well enough or the shots don't go in, but in those moments, I'm telling myself that when they walk off the court, maybe they'll go back and say, 'This is why we wanted you to do it, so it wouldn't happen to us.' I want to do that to the opposing team."

Lillard said he doesn't remember exactly when he started playing those mind games with himself -- maybe his second season, he guessed -- and didn't really have an explanation for how he takes himself to that place mentally to turn it on.

"It's internal," he said. "You just demand it. You just demand that something extra of yourself. There's nothing that comes from [Blazers head] coach [Terry] Stotts, there's nothing that comes from [NBA development coach] Phil Beckner, none of that. It's just on the inside, I'm like, 'I have to find a way.' This is an opportunity to rise and to come up big."

Late in the third quarter, Lillard bumped knees with Dort and took an extended amount of time trying to walk it off. The Blazers took a foul so he could get it checked on the bench, and even after getting the all-clear to return, Lillard watched while intermittently rubbing and flexing the knee. It was a brief moment of terror for the Blazers, who have already dealt with a wave of attrition. That attrition has given some of their young players opportunities to develop, which may benefit the team in the long run, but as last postseason showed, with no Lillard, there is no Dame Time, which means there are no Blazers.

It's why he accepts and understands the responsibility he holds, especially without injured backcourt closer CJ McCollum. And even on a night when it wasn't happening, Lillard's inner voice kept talking to him, telling him there was an opportunity for a moment.

"I've told myself that and come up short plenty of times. But it's a real thing," he said. "I'm always talking to myself like that. You've got to find a way. You've got to get going. You've been shooting bad the whole game, but this is a new start. I'm always talking to myself like that."

Ice cold. In the good way.

Karolina Muchova fought back to stun world number one Ashleigh Barty at the Australian Open and reach her maiden Grand Slam semi-final.

Barty led by a set and a break but was unable to stop Muchova's comeback.

Muchova will play American Jennifer Brady, who beat compatriot Jessica Pegula, for a place in the final.

"It was very tough and I was a bit lost on the court and my head was spinning so I took a break," the Muchova said.

"It helped me. I tried to get back, played a bit faster rallies so we don't play the long ones as in the first set and it worked well."

US Open semi-finalist Brady beat Pegula 4-6 6-2 6-1.

Muchova beats heat & Barty

Barty, playing in her first Grand Slam for over a year after choosing not to travel, had not dropped a set on her way to the quarter-finals.

She took advantage of the 24-year-old's wayward hitting to take the first set in 25 minutes, and broke her opponent at the first opportunity in the second.

A visibly struggling Muchova then called for the doctor, who took her off court to take her blood pressure and receive a full time-out.

On returning to the court, Muchova broke back and won five of the final six games to force a deciding set.

Barty had her opportunities in the third set, garnering two break points after losing her own serve, and a further three as Muchova served for the match.

But the world number 27 held firm to reach her first Slam semi-final.

Barty refused to blame Muchova's medical time-out as the reason for her defeat, stating: "It's not my place to comment whether she had an injury or not.

"If she wasn't within the rules, the physios and the doctors would have said so. That's the laws of our game, is that we have those medical timeouts for cases that are needed."

Brady wins all-American battle

Brady was one of the 72 players who was unable to leave her hotel room for 14 days on arriving in Australia.

She served for the first set against her good friend Pegula but a double fault belied her nerves.

However Brady hit back, with the 22th seed winning nine of the final 10 games to reach her second career Slam semi-final.

A strong server, Brady hit seven aces and 22 winners, upping her level as Pegula faded to finish the match with 39 unforced errors.

"We're such good friends. I know we will have many more tough battles," Brady said of Pegula.

"I felt the pressure from her. She's such an aggressive player."

Faf du Plessis, the former South Africa captain, has retired from Test cricket after 69 appearances in the format, saying that he had wanted to finish up after the series at home against Australia that was scheduled to start later this month, which Australia have postponed indefinitely.

"It has been a year of refinement in the fire for us all. Uncertain were the times, but they brought clarity for me in many respects. My heart is clear and the time is right to walk into a new chapter. It has been an honour to play for my country in all the formats of the game, but the time has come for me to retire from Test cricket," du Plessis said in a statement on his Instagram account. "If someone had told me 15 years ago, that I would play 69 Test matches for South Africa and captain the side, I wouldn't have believed them.

"I stand in a place of utmost gratitude for a test career full of blessings bestowed on me. Every high and low has shaped me into the man I am proud to stand up as today. In all things, those instances worked towards the good of who I believe I am today."

du Plessis, now 36, made his Test debut in Adelaide on South Africa's 2012-13 tour, and was named the Player of the Match for his 78 and 110 not out in a memorable draw - du Plessis' stonewalling helped South Africa bat out four-and-a-half sessions on a wearing pitch. He went on to hit ten centuries and 21 half-centuries in Tests, ending with 4163 runs at an average of 40.02.

He became the Test captain, succeeding AB de Villiers, in 2016, and led South Africa in 36 Tests, before stepping down in February 2020 after the home series against England, which South Africa lost 3-1. Du Plessis finished with a decent Test captaincy record, though, with 18 wins and 15 losses, the defeats piling up more towards the latter bit of his stint after South Africa had won 17 of the first 27 Tests he had led in. Between the start of 2019 and the end of his tenure, South Africa lost eight Tests, a run that began with the 2-0 home defeat to Sri Lanka in February 2019.

du Plessis, a veteran of 143 ODIs and 50 T20Is, will continue to be available for selection in both the limited-overs formats, and has said that he is keen to be a part of the action at the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held later this year in India.

More to follow…