Cook heaps praise on Moeen Ali, Anderson

August 10, 2014

Moeen-AliManchester, Aug 10: Jubilant with his teams’ thumping win at Old Trafford on Saturday, England skipper Alastair Cook expressed surprise at India’s abject surrender in the fourth Test, which allowed the hosts to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.

Getting behind a 215-run lead, the visitors were shot out for just 161 runs in the post-tea session on day 3 as they went on to lose by an innings and 54 runs.

“You don’t often get nine wickets in one session,” said Cook smiling.

“At tea, we planned to get them six down at stumps. It was a question of sticking it out as a team because we were one bowler short when we came out. And then we got on a roll straight after and picked up those wickets.”

“We were looking at bowling with three bowlers only. It was a great effort from Jimmy (Anderson). It was a matter of building the pressure and we thought it would be a good job if we didn’t have to see Stuart Broad again tonight,” he added.

It has been a major turnaround for England, who hadn’t won a single Test in 10 matches until the 266-run win at Southampton in the third Test. They have not only put those losses, especially the 95-run defeat in the second Test at Lord’s, behind them but are now looking a completely different side.

“When you go 1-0 down in a five match series, you still have a chance of winning the series and turning it around,” said the English skipper.

“Throughout the summer we have played well in patches and then we had a bad moment or a poor session and we lost momentum. We were at rock bottom at Lord’s but there was a glimmer because of runs from the younger guys. It was just a matter of the senior guys stepping up to the plate. A younger side has made it easier for us and it was a matter of believing and to keep doing the same stuff. It will eventually turn around. The challenge was to match the intensity and set the tone like we did on that first morning,” he added.

If the fast bowlers had done the job for England in better first-innings conditions – man of the match Broad bagged 6 wickets, India surprisingly again fell to Moeen Ali who snapped up four wickets with the batsmen looking to attack him.

“It must have been part of their game to attack Moeen,” said Cook, praising his lone spinner.

“Moeen has improved rapidly so much that I haven’t seen an improvement like that in such a short time. He is an uncanny operator. When there has been spin in the wicket he has bowled well. I had thought he was going to do a part-time role but he’s improved at a huge rate and he had worked hard in the nets with Ian Bell.”

This winning streak has now obviously lifted pressure from Cook’s shoulders who has hit form and more importantly helped his team win Test matches again.

“That was a tough moment not only for me but as a team. We spoke about it. When it goes on for a long time, you run out of chances in my position. But I had a lot of confidence and support. It was about hanging in there,” said Cook, who had been under-fire for his leadership skills and his own loss of form.

The final question obviously pertained to Broad’s injury and his availability for the Oval Test starting August 15.

“I have no idea on that. I think he has a broken nose but we have to wait on more scan results. It’s a shock when you see that happen with the helmets these days. It was a nasty blow and we wish him well,” Cook signed off.

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News Network
June 2,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 2: Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal has said that he was ashamed on seeing the training regime of Indian skipper Virat Kohli.

Iqbal said that the incident happened two-three years back as he thought to himself that why he cannot do the same even when he is the same age as Kohli.

"I must say this, it is not because I am talking to an Indian commentator, India is our neighbour so whatever things they do, it affects Bangladesh as well. We follow what is happening in India, when India changed its approach towards fitness, it impacted Bangladesh the most," Iqbal told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I have no shame in admitting this, when I saw Virat Kohli running around two-three years ago, I was ashamed of myself, I thought this is a guy who is probably my age, but he is training so much and I have not doing even half of it. We have a great example in our team as well, Mushfiqur Rahim manages himself well regarding fitness," he added.

During his initial days of international cricket, Kohli was fond of chicken which he has admitted several times during media interaction.

But in 2013, the 31-year-old batsman intentionally shifted his focus to fitness, diet, and training.

Now he has become punctual about his diet which has given him a different character on and off the field.

The comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have also kept on growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar managed to call time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats.

Currently, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings.

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News Network
February 11,2020

Mt. Maunganui (New Zealand), Feb 11: KL Rahul struck a combative 112 but New Zealand completed a 3-0 whitewash of India by winning the third ODI by five wickets, here on Tuesday.

Rahul helped India recover from a shaky start to post a challenging 296 for 7 but the Kiwis overhauled the target with 17 balls to spare.

This is the first whitewash that India has suffered in an ODI series in more than a decade.

Sent in to bat, India were down 62 for 3 in the 13th over after the dismissals of Mayank Agarwal (1), captain Virat Kohli (9) and Prithvi Shaw (40) but Rahul got a useful ally in in-form Shreyas Iyer (62) to take India to a competitive total.

Rahul, who hit nine fours and two sixes during his 113-ball innings, and Iyer stitched exactly 100 runs from 18.2 overs for the fourth wicket to revive the Indian innings.

After the end of the promising innings of Iyer, Rahul shared another 107 runs for the fifth wicket with Manish Pandey (42).

The Kiwis were off to a confident start in their chase with Martin Guptill (66) and Henry Nicholls (80) and putting on a 106-run stand. However, wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took three wickets to bring India back in the game.

Colin de Grandhomme (58) and Tom Latham (32), though, took their side past the finish line with an unbeaten 80-run partnership.

Brief Scores:

India: 296 for 7 in 50 overs (KL Rahul 112, Shreyas Iyer 62; Hamish Bennett 4/64).

New Zealand: 300 for 5 in 47.1 overs. (H Nicholls 80, M Guptill 66; Y Chahal 3/47).

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News Network
July 3,2020

Karachi, Jul 3: Pakistan limited overs captain Babar Azam is tired of his constant comparisons with India skipper Virat Kohli and says he would rather be compared to the greats at home.

Babar, six years younger to Kohli, has a long way to go in getting close to Kohli's staggering numbers across formats. The India skipper has 70 hundreds to his name and averages more than 50 in all three formats.

"I would be more happy if you compare to me say a Javed Miandad, Muhammad Yousuf or Younis Khan. Why compare me to Kohli or any Indian player?" asked the 25-year-old, who is in England with the national team, said in an online media interaction on Thursday.

Babar has scored 16 international hundreds and averages more than 50 in ODIs and T20s. In 26 Tests, he has scored 1850 runs at 45.12.

He also said that he is not targeting any English bowler for the series next month.

"I don’t see who the bowler is or his reputation. I just try to play each ball on merit. England no doubt has a top bowling attack and they have advantage of playing at home but this is a challenge I want to score runs in," he said.

Before the squad’s departure for England, Pakistan batting coach Younis Khan said that pacer Joffra Archer will be a handful for the Pakistani batsmen.

Babar said that he would try to play every English bowler on merit but conceded that after getting runs in Australia last year, he was keen to leave his footprint in the coming Test and T20 series in England.

Reminded that some former Test players had already written off Pakistan for the England series, Babar said they were entitled to their opinion.

"But we don’t have a bad team and already we have been enjoying our training. It is good to be back on the field after such a long lay-off. I think we have the bowlers to trouble them like Abbas, Naseem, Shaheen and others while we have some experience in our batting line-up."

Babar said he would love to get a triple century in a Test match.

"When you score a century, you naturally want to go on and convert that into a double or a triple century. This is something I would like to do during the Test series.

"I like to play my natural game but my selection of shots depends on the conditions and bowlers."

Babar also ruled out any problems in the Pakistan dressing room due to the presence of former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was sacked last year.

But he said that since Muhammad Rizwan had been playing in all formats for Pakistan in recent times, he would be the starting keeper in the Test series ahead of Sarfaraz.

"I think we first have to give Rizwan a proper chance and Sarfaraz is there as back up."

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