Captain Vinay sees more Karnataka players in Team India

March 14, 2015

Bengaluru, Mar 14: A special occasion brought Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, who rarely attends any of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) functions, to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Friday (March 13).

Himself a two-time Ranji Trophy champion, Chandrasekhar was there along with G Kasturirangan, Gundappa Viswanath, B Vijayakrishna, Sadanand Vishwanath, Raghuram Bhatt and other Karnataka stalwarts to greet and congratulate R Vinay Kumar's team, which successfully defended the Ranji Trophy title on Thursday with an innings win over Tamil Nadu in the final in Mumbai.

Captain Vinay

The bus carrying the team from the airport entered the stadium premises at 1:25 p.m. amidst drumbeats, bursting of firecrackers and a lot of waving of the state flag. Robin Uthappa, the season's highest run-getter, was the first to get out of the bus, followed by the rest as they were hugged by those around them, eager to be a part of history, or requested for a photograph or an autograph on their way to the pavilion hall for the official reception party.

The trophy glittered on the side stage as players, support staffers and selectors were presented with a turban (the Mysore peta) and a shawl. There was good humour too when Viswanath placed the headgear wrongly on CM Gautam's head. Someone pointed out that he had to turn it around and, always up for a quip, Viswanath replied that he was trying to practice the reverse sweep.

The loudest cheer from the team, seated on the opposite side to the rest of the gathering, was reserved for J Arunkumar and Mansoor Ali Khan, the batting and bowling coaches respectively, B Siddaramu and Ramesh Rao, the two managers, physio Shravan, trainer Prashant Pujara, video analyst Srinivas, and Atanu, the masseur. It told a bit about the bonhomie in the camp that has brought Karnataka five trophies in the last two seasons.

Vinay, who became the first captain to score a century and take five wickets in an innings in a Ranji Trophy final and also ended as the season's joint-highest wicket taker with 48 scalps, thanked everyone he could for the support, and said how, at one point during the season, he was fed up with the amount of advice he was getting from fans on social media. Though he ignored most of them, he said he was happy that the team was being followed so religiously in a World Cup year.

Vinay also recollected the video message he had recorded for the Sports Writers Association of Bangalore awards ceremony last year, when he had pointed out that if his side could even play at 80 percent of its potential, Karnataka would be able to retain the trophy.

Among the players, Uthappa, KL Rahul, Karun Nair and Abhimanyu Mithun were most sought after as journalists, club members and the cricketers mingled after a group photograph of the winning team ended the event.

However, amid the celebrations, no one had lost sight of the upcoming challenges.

Karnataka would now have to defend their Irani Cup title against Rest of India in Bangalore from March 17, before the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament, the one that got away from them last season, starts on March 24.

Brijesh Patel, the KSCA secretary, while complimenting the team, pushed the bar a bit higher for the boys: "The press guys are calling me to find out what award KSCA is going to give to the boys. I said, 'we will definitely give them, but they still have two more trophies to win'."

Vinay, on his part, used the platform to connect history with the future. "In 1995-96, we had so many players from Karnataka playing for India," he said. "We are soon going to repeat that."

Talk about the pressures a champion side has to deal with.

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News Network
January 15,2020

Jan 15: Australia openers David Warner and Aaron Finch both struck superb centuries to complement their bowlers’ inspired display as the touring side handed out a 10-wicket thrashing to India in the opening one-day international in Mumbai.

India, world-ranked No 2 in ODIs, suffered a middle-order collapse on their way to being bundled out for 255 in the final over of their innings after Australia captain Finch won the toss and opted to field in the first of the three-match series.

Warner and Finch then smashed the Indian bowlers to all corners of the ground, picking up boundaries seemingly at will to chase down the target with 74 balls to spare at the Wankhede Stadium.

Left-handed Warner successfully used the decision review system twice to overturn the umpire’s decision on his way to his 18th ODI century, hitting three sixes and 17 fours in his unbeaten knock of 128, from 112 balls. Finch completed his 16th century in the format, his unbeaten innings 110 from 114 features two sixes and 13 fours.

Earlier, Australia’s left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who made his ODI debut in India 10 years ago, picked up three wickets to set up Australia’s victory. He struck the first blow with the new ball when he sent back Rohit Sharma for 10.

India managed to recover from that early loss through a second-wicket stand of 121 between opener Shikhar Dhawan, who top-scored for the hosts with 74, and KL Rahul. However left-arm spinner Ashton Agar broke the stand by dismissing Rahul for 47 before Agar caught Dhawan off Pat Cummins in the next over.

The hosts were hoping for a solid innings from captain Virat Kohli, who batted a position lower than his usual No 3 spot to accommodate Rahul, to get them out of trouble. However, he lasted only 14 balls, hitting leg-spinner Adam Zampa for a six before offering a return catch to the bowler on the very next delivery to be out for 16.

Starc then returned to the attack, removing Shreyas Iyer cheaply as India lost four wickets for 30 runs to be reduced to 164 for five. Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja then fell just short of a half-century partnership, before the remaining four wickets falling for 42 runs, with Cummins and fast bowler Kane Richardson picking up two wickets apiece for Australia.

To compound India’s woes, wicketkeeper Pant suffered a concussion after being hit on his helmet by a short-pitched delivery from Cummins. The Indian cricket board said Pant, who did not come out to keep wicket and was replaced behind the stumps by Rahul, was under observation. The two sides will meet in Rajkot for the second ODI on Friday.

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News Network
March 29,2020

Sydney, Mar 29: Steve Smith's two-year leadership ban ended quietly Sunday, leaving him eligible again to captain Australia at a time of uncertainty over when international cricket will resume.

Smith was stripped of the captaincy and banned from leading Australia for two years over his involvement in the 2018 ball tampering scandal in South Africa. His sentence ended Sunday and he can again captain Australia if called upon.

Australian players were due this week to conclude a series of matches in New Zealand and, for some, to join the Indian Premier League. But it wasn't clear Sunday if the IPL will take place this year and when international matches will resume. Australia's scheduled mid-year tours to England and Bangladesh are in doubt.

Smith told Channel Nine television's Sports Sunday he is doing his best to stay mentally and physically fit, training in his home gym, going on 10 kilometer (6 mile) runs and practising the guitar.

"It's obviously not looking likely (the IPL will go ahead) at the moment," Smith said. "I think there might be some meetings over the next few days to discuss what the go is with it all.

"I'm just trying to stay physically and mentally fit and fresh and, if it goes ahead at some point, then great. And if not, there's plenty going on in the world at the moment. So just play it day by day."

It seems unlikely Smith will return to the captaincy when cricket resumes. Tim Paine is firmly established as Australia's test captain and at 35 is not immediately considering retirement. Aaron Finch has captained Australia successfully in white ball cricket.

The conclusion of Smith's ban ends the period of upheaval in Australian cricket that followed the ball tampering incident in the second test at Cape Town in 2018 when Cameron Bancroft, with the knowledge of Smith and his vice-captain David Warner, used sandpaper to change the condition of the ball.

Smith and Warner received one-year bans from international and most domestic cricket and Bancroft was banned for nine months. The scandal also resulted in the resignation of coach Darren Lehmann and the departure of Cricket Australia's chief executive, James Sutherland.

Warner remains under a career-long leadership ban.

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News Network
July 14,2020

New Delhi, Jul 14: Indian bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who features in the list of A category players released by BCCI, has revealed his first-ever paycheck.

Bhuvneshwar was participating in a question and answer session on Twitter where he gave his take on fans' queries.

The 30-year-old bowler was asked about his first paycheck by a fan and Bhuvneshwar responded by saying, "It was for Rs 3000. I shopped and still managed to saved some."

During the question and answer session Bhuvneshwar picked Barcelona striker Lionel Messi over Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The right-arm bowler also revealed that football and badminton are his favourite sports other than cricket.

Earlier this year, Bhuvneshwar was named in the list A category of players. BCCI had released the list of centrally contracted players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020. Annually, A category players get Rs 5 crore.

The right-arm bowler would have been in action for Sunrisers Hyderabad if the Indian Premier League (IPL) had commenced from March 29. However, the tournament was postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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