India vs England 2014: Bhuvneshwar, Shami batting heroics take India to a strong position

July 11, 2014

Shami batting

Nottingham, Jul 11: Last wicket pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami produced a stunning rearguard century partnership as India recovered from a dramatic middle-order collapse to post a commendable 457 in their first innings on the second day of the opening cricket Test against England, here on Thursday.

Bhuvneshwar (58) and Shami (51 not out) turned out to the unlikely batting heroes for India as they pulled the team out of trouble with a defined 111-run partnership to frustrate the hosts, who had the visitors reeling at 346 for nine at one stage with fours wickets falling for just two runs in a span of 20 balls.

At stumps, England were 43 for one with Shami (1/15) removing an out-of-form rival skipper Alastair Cook for five. The hosts still trail India by 414 runs with three full days play left in the match.

Sam Robson (20 not out off 48 balls, 2 fours) and Gary Ballance (15 not out off 46 balls, 1 four) were at the crease when stumps were drawn. The duo added 34 unbeaten runs for the second wicket.

But the day belonged to India`s tailenders -- Bhuvneshwar and Shami -- who struck their maiden Test fifties respectively en route to their century partnership, which incidentally is India`s second highest stand for the last wicket.

Earlier, opener Murali Vijay struck a fine 146-run knock while skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni made 82 to take India forward.

India captain Dhoni deployed all his five primary bowlers - Bhuvneshwar (0/12), Shami, Ishant Sharma (0/12), Ravindra Jadeja (0/3) and Stuart Binny (0/1) -? in short bursts in the 17 overs they managed in the day.

Earlier, Bhuvneshwar reached his maiden Test fifty immediately after tea in 133 balls, in the 157th over of the innings.

Shami was not to be left behind as he smashed James Anderson for a six over the long-off boundary in the last ball of the same over to bring up his own maiden Test fifty off 73 balls.

With his pacers tiring out and devoid of any ideas, Cook brought back Moeen into the attack in the 161st over and the move worked as Bhuvneshwar was holed out to Joe Root as mid-on while going for a big shot to drew curtains to the stunning last-wicket partnership.

Bhuvneshwar scored his runs off 149 balls with the help of five fours, while Shami remained unbeaten on 51 off 81 balls during which he hit six boundaries and one six.

England`s bowling figures didn`t make for a happy reading. Anderson (3/123) was their best bowler, while Stuart Broad (2/53) and Ben Stokes (2/81) bowled their hearts out. Liam Plunkett (1/88) and Ali (1/97) were the other wicket-takers while Joe Root (0/6) bowled just the one over in the innings.

The only time England enjoyed some dominance in the day was in the post-lunch session when they rocked the Indian middle-order by picking four quick wickets.

The session began with Dhoni batting on 81 and Ravindra Jadeja on 24 with India eyeing to cross the 400-run mark.

But India suffered a jolt immediately after lunch as Jadeja was caught behind, trying to cut Stokes away. He scored 25 runs off 24 balls with the help of two fours and as many sixes.

Two overs later, England struck twice as Dhoni set off for a suicidal run and threw away his wicket and a possible century. The Indian captain could only add one more run to his score and was found short of his crease by Anderson`s direct throw from mid-off. He scored 82 runs after facing 152 balls, which included seven fours.

Three balls later, debutant Stuart Binny (1) was dismissed by Stokes as India lost three wickets in just 14 balls for the addition of one run.

If that was not enough, Broad then cleaned up Ishant Sharma (1) as India slumped to slumping 346 for nine from from 344 for six in the blink of an eye.

But then came in Bhuvneshwar and Shami and showed great resilience to keep India in the hunt for 400-plus score.

They frustrated the English bowlers for an hour until tea, bringing up their 50-run partnership in the 140th over of the innings.

In the morning session, thanks to Vijay's 146 and Dhoni, India were placed comfortably at 342 for five in 118 overs) at lunch.

Along with Dhoni, Vijay survived a testing morning spell from Broad and Anderson. They were aided by English wicket-keeper Matt Prior who dropping a simple catch off Dhoni in only the third over of the day.

The duo persisted and brought up their 100-run partnership in the 11th over of the day and the 101st of the innings. Vijay then slowly progressed towards his 150-run mark but when he was just one scoring shot away, he was trapped LBW by Anderson in his second spell of the morning.

TV replays, however, suggested that the ball might have travelled over the stumps, but the umpire thought otherwise. He faced 361 balls during his superb innings and batted for nearly eight hours, hitting 25 fours and one six.

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Agencies
May 23,2020

New Delhi, May 23: Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said India will not host any international event in immediate future and fans will have to learn to live with the new normal of sporting activities happening behind closed doors in the post-COVID-19 world.

Rijiju's statement gain greater significance in the context of the suspended IPL, which the BCCI wants to host in October-November in case of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia is postponed.

"We have been working for quite some time now to resume sporting activities but before that, we have to think about practice and training. We are not going to have a tournament kind of situation immediately," Rijiju was quoted as saying by India Today.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

"We have to learn to live with the situation where sporting events will have to be carried forward without spectators in stadiums and sports venues," he added.

Talking specifically about the 13th edition of IPL, which has been put on hold for an indefinite period due to the pandemic, Rijiju said it is the government's prerogative to take a call on conducting any tournament in the country.

"In India, the government has to take a call and it will take a call depending on the situation. We cannot put health at risk just because we want to have a sporting event.

"Our focus is fighting Covid-19 and at the same time, we will have to work a mechanism to get back to normalcy. It is difficult to confirm dates but I am sure we will have some kind of sporting events this year," he said.

Rijiju's statement came close on the heels of Sports Authority of India (SAI) laying out a detailed Standard Operating Procedure for the resumption of sporting activities across the country in a phased manner.

"In the background, their (athletes) fitness and everything has been tracked. They are in touch with the coaches, the fitness experts, the high-performance directors. We are monitoring each and every athlete who are of the higher stature, who played for India and higher clubs," he said.

"Now it has been laid out. SAI has prepared a detailed SOP. These are prepared by experts from different fields. This SOP has already been issued to all sports federations and other sports bodies including govt stakeholders. So, based on this SOP training will start."

Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on May 23

The Sports Minister, however, reiterated that resumption of sporting activities will entirely depend on guidelines of respective states and local administrations.

"We have been clearly advising that health and safety are top priorities. Besides that we have to keep in mind two other things, one is the guidelines issued by the Home Ministry, second, is the guidelines issued by the administrations of the respective localities or states. So, these are to be taken into account," he said.

"But we have clearly stated that sports complexes and stadiums are open, other than that there should not be any activities till the lockdown is there or we come up with a renewed kind of advice."

Asked about the prospect of the Tokyo Games that were scheduled for this year but were postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic, the Sports Minister said he is hopeful of the quadrennial event taking place on the revised dates.

"Olympics is still far away and we have full confidence in the Japanese government and IOC and every country will support that the conduct of Tokyo 2021 will not be postponed. There are too many stakes in Olympics, so it is difficult to even foresee that the Olympics can be postponed," he said.

"As far as India's preparation goes, we are at the best stage of our preparation of any Olympics so far in history. This is going to be India's biggest contingent so far and have medal-winning prospects. But I am not saying we are so prepared to finish in the top 10 or 5 but our long term target is that India will be in the top 10 in 2028.

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Agencies
June 2,2020

New Delhi, Jun 2: Expressing solidarity with the 'Black Lives Matter' campaign, star West Indies batsman Chris Gayle has alleged that he faced racist remarks during his career and cricket is not free of the menace.

Gayle did not elaborate when he faced racial remarks but hinted it might have been during his stints at global T20 leagues.

"I have travelled the globe and experienced racial remarks towards me because I am black, believe me, the list goes on," he posted on instagram on Monday night.

"Racism is not only in football, it's in cricket too. Even within teams as a black man, I get the end of the stick. Black and powerful. Black and proud," he said.

The big-hitting batsman's comments came in the backdrop of African-American George Floyd's death in the USA after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on the handcuffed man's neck as he gasped for breath.

The incident has sparked violent protests across the USA.

"Black lives matter just like any other life. Black people matter, p***k all racist people, stop taking black people for fools, even our own black people wise the p***k up and stop bringing down your own!," Gayle wrote.

Racism in cricket was drew attention most recently last year when England pacer Jofra Archer was abused by a spectator in New Zealand.

New Zealand's top players and the cricket board had offered apologies for the incident to the Englishman.

Also on Monday night, the England cricket team's official twitter handle posted a message denouncing racism.

"We stand for diversity, We stand against racism," the message read.

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coastaldigest.com web desk
August 3,2020

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will not end its partnership with Chinese companies. Vivo, the Chinese smartphone maker, is the main sponsor of the new IPL season as well. Apart from Vivo, PayTM and Dream 11 will also be at the helm of the 13th edition of the IPL. The IPL governing council meeting on Sunday decided to retain the old sponsors.

As soon as the IPL GC announced the decision of retaining the sponsors, a huge number of fans took to Twitter to slam the board for the same. #BoycottIPL started trending as the users urged others to boycott the tournament for the Chinese connection.

Earlier, the demand for exclusion of Chinese companies from the IPL was strong in the wake of the India-China border dispute. But the BCCI cannot abruptly end its collaboration with them. Because of the signed contract itself. And in this age of declining economy, it is difficult to find new sponsors quickly.

The current BCCI contract with Vivo is for five years. Vivo has invested Rs 2,199 crore to become the main sponsor of the IPL. The contract was signed in 2017. However, the BCCI’s move is paving the way for new discussions as calls are mounting across the country to boycott Chinese companies.

The BCCI announced other important decisions besides retaining sponsors. The IPL will be held from September 19 to November 10. The Indian government has given permission to the BCCI to hold the IPL in the UAE. With this, all obstacles in the way of organizing the tournament were removed.

The IPL matches will be played at 7.30 pm Indian time (6 pm UAE time). Most matches are about one match a day. There are a total of ten ‘double headers’ (two matches a day) in the tournament. Franchisees are allowed to appoint as many replacements as they want in the new season in view of the new health situation. At the same time, the maximum number of players a franchise can accommodate is 24. The BCCI is also planning to host a women’s IPL tournament.

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