India Go 2-0 Up Against Australia, Reclaim No.1 Spot In ODI Rankings

Agencies
September 22, 2017

Sept 22: A brilliant opening spell from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and a terrific hat-trick from Kuldeep Yadav towards the end of the innings helped India beat Australia by 50 runs in the second ODI at Eden Gardens on Thursday. Opting to bat, Kohli-Rahane century-run stand had put the hosts in a commanding position but the Indian middle-order failed to capitalise on the good start as the hosts were bowled out for 252.

But a brilliant bowling performance by the Men in Blue had never let the Aussies get off the hook. Steve Smith's fifty and later an unbeaten 62 from Marcus Stoinis kept the Aussies in the hunt right till the end before Bhuvneshwar removed Kane Richardson to bowl Australia out for 202. With this victory, India also reclaimed No.1 spot in ODI rankings.

Chasing 253 on a tricky surface, Australia once again had no answer to the guile of wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal (2/34) and chinaman Yadav (3/54), who struck at crucial junctures to bundle out the opposition for 202 in 43.1 overs. With this memorable feat, Yadav joined Kapil Dev (1991) and Chetan Sharma (1987) in a select club of Indians who have picked up a hat-trick. The victory was also India's eighth in a row in ODIs.

Australia, who surrendered to the Indian spinners in Chennai, seemed equally helpless here with seven batsmen recording single digit scores.

Everytime Australia tried to make their way back into the game, Indian spinners responded with a breakthrough, carrying on from the good work done by pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/9) in the early overs.

Kumar made the ball talk in his opening spell, removing the dangerous David Warner and Hilton Cartwright to leave the Australians at nine for two.

Steven Smith (59) and Travis Head (39) got together to resurrect the innings, ending up with a 76-run stand. However, the left-hander flicked a full toss straight to mid-wicket to become Chahal's first scalp and Australia found themselves under pressure again.

Glenn Maxwell (14) came out to support his captain and looked ominous straightaway, sweeping Yadav for two sixes in an over. But he too did not last long when his team needed another solid partnership.

All Australian hopes disappeared with the fall of Smith, who was holed out by deep square leg fielder off a Pandya bouncer.

Then Yadav joined the party by sending back Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar and Pat Cummins in as many balls to send the Eden crowd into a frenzy.

His best ball without a doubt was the hat-trick ball. The young spinners showed remarkable calm to bowl the wrong one that took a thick edge of Cummins' bat before landing into the hands of MS Dhoni.

Yadav got through Wade's stumps before trapping Agar infront of the stumps to be on a hat-trick.

Marcus Stoinis waged a lone battle for Australia towards the end with an unbeaten 62 of 65 balls.

Earlier, Kohli and Rahane struck sublime knocks before Australia made a strong fightback to bowl India out for 252.

Coming on to bat after the early dismissal of Rohit Sharma, Kohli looked in great touch and along with Rahane shared 102 runs off just 111 deliveries for the second wicket to set the base for the total.

Kohli laced his 107-ball knock with eight boundaries, while Rahane hit seven fours during his 64-ball innings.

The visitors forged a brilliant fightback with medium pacers Nathan Coulter-Nile (3/51) and Kane Richardson (3/55) sharing the spoils on a slow Eden Gardens wicket.

Pacer Cummins (1/34) and left-arm spinner Agar (1/54) also picked up a wicket each for Australia.

Brought in place of James Faulkner, Richardson picked up the key wickets of last match heroes Mahendra Singh Dhoni (5) and Hardik Pandya (20) as India were bowled out in the last ball of the innings after they comfortably placed at 186 for three in 35 overs.

Despite Rahane's run out, Kohli looked in full flow and along with Kedar Jadhav, who made a run-a-ball 24, added 55 runs for the fourth wicket.

However, Coulter-Nile's twin strikes (Jadhav and Kohli) in successive overs titled the balance in favour of Australia as thereafter India just seemed to have lost the plot.

Kohli played on to be denied his 31st ODI century, while Jadhav, while attempting a cut, was holed up by Glenn Maxwell.

With 15 balls remaining in the innings, a passing shower held up the game for 18 minutes with India placed at 236 for 7.

There was also an injury scare for Pandya, who was hit hard on the grill of his helmet by a shot from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Such was the impact that Pandya lay on the ground as the Aussies also rushed on to him.

India did not have the best of starts as Rohit, whose career-best scores in the all the three formats came here, had a rare blip here, falling for seven.

But the breakthrough in the sixth over hardly had any impact on India's scheme of things with Rahane and Kohli going about their business in style.

The duo played fluently as India reached the 100-run mark in 19.5 overs.

Smith tried out different things but nothing was going Australia's way, when suddenly a runout came to their rescue as going for a second run, Rahane was caught short of the crease by Hilton Cartwright.

Manish Pandey (3) continued his lean patch and was out in a space of 21 balls, becoming Coulter-Nile's second victim.

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News Network
February 26,2020

Melbourne, Feb 26: On a high after two easy victories on the trot, including one against defending champion Australia, the Indian women's cricket team will aim to inch closer to a semifinal berth when it takes on New Zealand in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup here on Thursday.

The Indians have hardly broke a sweat in their 17-run and 18-run wins over hosts Australia and Bangladesh in their previous two matches, and they are perched at the top of five-team Group A standings with four points from two matches.

A win against New Zealand on Thursday will take the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side on the threshold of a knock-out stage spot, to be competed among top two teams from Group A and B.

In the two matches so far, the Indian team has been impressive both in batting and bowling.

The 16-year-old sensation Shafali Verma has been the standout batter with a whirlwind 17-ball 39 against Bangladesh, following her 29 against Australia.

One-down Jemimah Rodrigues has also been among the runs with 26 and 34 in the two matches so far.

Only captain Harmanpreet, among the top order batters, has not scored big and she is due big innings.

India is also likely to be bolstered by the return of star opener Smriti Mandhana who missed the match against Bangladesh due to fever.

The middle-order has also done its bit with Deepti Sharma playing a major role against Australia with an unbeaten 49 while Veda Krishnamurthy hit a match-defining 11-ball 20 not out for a late flourish against Bangladesh.

The bowling department has been led admirably by seasoned leg-spinner Poonam Yadav -- seven wickets in the first two matches -- with pacer Shikha Pandey ably supporting her with five scalps so far.

New Zealand, though, have a better head-to-head record against India in recent years, having won the last three matches between the two sides.

Exactly a year back, they had beaten the Indian team 3-0 in a three-match T20 International home series.

India will, however, remember their massive 34-run win against New Zealand in the previous edition of the T20 World Cup in 2018 in the West Indies. Harmanpreet had struck a memorable 103 to lead her side to victory.

New Zealand have some top-class players in their ranks in the form of captain and all-rounder Sophie Devine and top-order batswoman Suzie Bates while pacer Lea Tahuhu and leg-spinner Amelia Kerr will lead the bowling department.

They will go into this match on a high after an easy seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka on Saturday.

Devine had led her side from the front with an unbeaten 75 off 55 balls at the top of the order in that win.

The Teams:

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Richa Ghosh, Veda Krishnamurthy, Shikha Pandey, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar.

New Zealand: Sophie Devine (capt), Rosemary Mair, Amelia Kerr, Suzie Bates, Lauren Down, Maddy Green, Holly Huddleston, Hayley Jensen, Leigh Kasperek, Jess Kerr, Katey Martin (wk), Katie Perkins, Anna Peterson, Rachel Priest, Lea Tahuhu.

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Agencies
August 1,2020

Colombo, Aug 1: Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has expressed his interest in playing the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL), scheduled to start from August 28.

Pathan is among 70 foreign players to have shown interest in playing the LPL, ESPNcricinfo reported.

It is believed that Pathan has taken permission from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to take part in the competition. 

BCCI doesn't allow active players to participate in other T20 leagues but Pathan announced his retirement in January this year.

Former swashbuckling all-rounder Yuvraj Singh also played in a foreign league last year. He played for Maratha Arabians in the T10 League in Abu Dhabi.

According to ESPNcricinfo, Pathan will now be put in a player draft unless one of the five franchises choose him to be a marquee player. The details of the draft, and the franchise owners, are yet to be finalised and announced. 

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is also waiting on some government clearances even as it decides on franchise owners. The five franchises will represent Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna.

On Monday, SLC Executive Committee granted approval for the tournament.

"The 23 match League will be played on the four international venues of R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, Rangiri Dambulu International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and Suriyawewa Mahinda Rajapakse International Cricket Stadium. Five teams named after the cities of Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna will participate in the League," SLC said in a statement on Monday.

Sri Lanka has controlled the spread of COVID-19 better than many other cricket-playing nations.

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Agencies
February 13,2020

New Delhi, Feb 13: Sanjiv Chawla, a key accused in the match-fixing scandal involving former South African cricket team captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, was extradited from the UK on Thursday, Delhi Police said.

The 50-year-old British national, accompanied by a crime branch team from London, reached IGI Airport this morning, a senior officer said.

He is likely to be taken to the crime branch office for questioning, he added.

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