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Karnataka eye double at Irani Cup

March 16, 2015

Bengaluru, March 16: Less than a week after retaining the Ranji Trophy, Karnataka will be back in action in the five-day Irani Cup game against Rest of India beginning here on Tuesday, looking to round off the season with a grand double just as they did a year ago.Karnataka Ranji winners

Undoubtedly, Karnataka have been the best of the teams in the country with a fine blend of youth and experience with just about every player chipping in at vital moments.

Boasting of balance in terms of batsmen and bowlers, Karnataka, ably led by Vinay Kumar, one of the heroes of last year's Irani Cup triumph with a 10-wicket haul, will be starting out as hot favourites to win the honours for the fifth time in six outings.

Such has been the strength of Karnataka that they are unlikely to miss their star batsman Lokesh Rahul if he opts out of the match owing to a hamstring injury that he suffered in the Ranji Trophy final against Tamil Nadu last week in Mumbai.

As for Rest of India, led by Bengal batsman Manoj Tiwary, who has not had best of seasons, it will be a tough task to get past Karnataka who are high on confidence and brimming with talent.

Rest of India appear strong in bowling with the likes of experienced left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, pacemen Shardul Thakur, who had an excellent Ranji season for Mumbai while finishing as joint wicket-taker with Vinay Kumar with a haul of 48, and Jharkhand's Varun Aaron, who missed much of the domestic season due to national duty.

The national selectors have not gone strictly by statistics in picking the Rest of India squad, preferring to try out new faces rather than those who were given a chance in the past.

In the event, it is a matter of conjecture as to how the team whose players are getting together will perform against a side that has been together through the season.

The home team's major concern through the season was their inconsistent middle-order that has never clicked as a unit though Karun Nair emulated Rahul by scoring a triple century against Tamil Nadu in the final.

Karnataka's bowling has been the high point with seamers Vinay Kumar (48), Sreenath (42) and Abhimanyu Mithun (39) besides young leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal (28) doing the bulk of damage.

Thus, Rest of India, who were beaten by an innings and 222 runs last year, after being dismissed for 201 and 183 while Karnataka made 606, face an uphill task to stop the Ranji champions who are on a roll.

Squads:

Rest of India: Manoj Tiwary (Bengal, captain), Unmukt Chand (Delhi), Jiwanjot Singh (Punjab), Paras Dogra (Himachal), Kedar Jadhav (Maharashtra), Naman Ojha (Madhya Pradesh), Rishi Dhawan (Himachal), Jayant Yadav (Haryana), Pragyan Ojha (Hyderabad), Shardul Thakur (Mumbai), Varun Aaron (Jharkhand), Rush Kalaria (Gujarat), Aparajith Baba (Tamil Nadu), Jalaj Saxena (Madhya Pradesh), Vijay Shankar (Tamil Nadu).

Karnataka: Vinay Kumar (captain), Robin Uthappa, Samarth R., Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal, Shishir Bhavane, Abhishek Reddy, Udit Patel, Abhimanyu Mithun, Arvind Sreenath, Sharath H.S., Suchith J., Avinash K.C., Mayank Agarwal and Gautam C.M.

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News Network
March 7,2020

Melbourne, Mar 7: Ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup against Australia, India spinner Poonam Yadav said that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has given her a lot of support.

"Harmanpreet has been of immense support. When I got hit for a six in the first over, she came to me and said, 'Poonam, you're one of the most experienced players in the team, and we expect better of you'," Poonam said.

The 28-year-old experienced bowler has played 68 shortest format games for India and taken 94 wickets at an average of 22.66.

She has been in devastating form throughout the tournament and has bagged nine wickets so far.

"So, that kind of stirred something within me. I told myself if my captain has that much faith in me, I should be able to make a comeback," she said.

"I took a wicket in the very next ball, and didn't look back since. Now when I look back at that moment, it means so much in the context of my individual performance and run to the final," she added.

In the opening game against Australia at Sydney Showground, Poonam came within a whisker of the third hat-trick in Women's T20 World Cup history, dismissing Rachael Haynes and Ellyse Perry before Jess Jonassen was dropped.

The final of the tournament will be played at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on March 8 -- International Women's Day.

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Agencies
August 7,2020

Islamabad, Aug 7: Former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, known for his blistering deliveries on the cricket field, recently baffled many with a deadly off-field bouncer by claiming he is willing to eat grass if it enabled an increase in budget for his country's Army!

"If Allah ever gives me the authority, I will eat grass myself but I will increase the budget of the army," said Akhtar in an interview with ARY News.

The 'Rawalpindi Express', considered the fastest bowler in history said he does not understand why the civilian sector cannot work in collaboration with the Armed forces.

"I will ask my army chief to sit with me and make decisions. If the budget is 20 per cent, I will make it 60 per cent. If we insult each other, the loss is ours only," the once feared fast-bowler said.

Akthar had also claimed to ARY News interview that he was willing to take a bullet for his country and had turned down a county stint just because he wanted to fight the 1999 Kargil War.

Ties between India and Pakistan have been strained in the recent months over several issues, the latest being Pakistan's attempt to broach in the UNSC the issue of Kashmir on the first anniversary of the India's move to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to split the erstwhile state into two union territories .

Pakistan also has not been in a good financial position and under prime minister Imran Khan, himself an all rounder cricketer, has added nearly USD 22 billion, that is 35 per cent to the nation's international debt pile in the last two years, according to an Asia Times report in July.

While Pakistan recently received USD 1.39 billion from the IMF to cushion the economic shocks caused due to COVID-19 outbreak, Akthar had a few months ago proposed that a joint cricket match be played between India and Pakistan to raise funds to fight the coronavirus. The suggestion that was put down by cricketers in India.

Meanwhile the 'Pindi boy' whose deadly pace and bounce was once dreaded by batsmen had recently taken to Twitter to deny former India cricketer Virender Sehwag's claim of sledging him.

Sehwag along with other Indian crickerters such as Harbhajan Singh and even Rahul Dravid had been at the receiving end of Akthar's sledging and antics during their playing days.

"Yes, totally self made story by him. Mujhe yeh bol k bach k jana kidhar tha us nay," Akthar tweeted to a report in which Sehwag claimed that he had sledged the 'Rawalpindi Express' by telling him that Sachin Tendulkar was his father.

During an awards ceremony Sehwag had recounted that fed up with Akthar's sledging and retaliated by telling him to say the same things to Tendulkar, who smashed the 'Pindi boy' for a six. Sehwag quipped that he told Akthar then that "Baap baap hota hai".

In the recent ARY interview, asked about the allegation made against him by former India cricketer Virendra Sehwag that he makes pro-India comments for greater following on social media channels, Akhtar said, "I cannot talk on the basis of hate." 

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Agencies
February 12,2020

Mumbai, Feb 12: Former Indian greats Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin have been left disappointed by the behaviour of the Under-19 team after the World Cup final where they were involved in an altercation with their Bangladeshi counterparts.

After Bangladesh won the final beating India by three wickets (via DLS) at the Senwes Park on Sunday, the players of the two teams were seen engaging in an exchange of words and even some pushing and shoving on the field.

"I would like to see the board (BCCI) take some strict action against the players to set an example. Cricket is not about abusing the opponent. I am sure there is enough reason for these youngsters to be dealt with firmly by BCCI," Kapil was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

"I welcome aggression, nothing wrong in it. But it has to be controlled aggression. You can't cross the line of decency in the name of being competitive. I would say it was unacceptable that youngsters put up such an obnoxious display on the cricket field," he added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has sanctioned five players, including three from Bangladesh -- Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain and Rakibul Hasan --and two from India --Akash Singh and Ravi Bishnoi for the scuffle.

Azharuddin also reiterated what Kapil said, insisting that players need to be disciplined.

"I would take action against the errant Under 19 players, but I also want to know what role has the support staff played in educating these youngsters. Act now before it is too late. The players have to be disciplined," Azharuddin said.

Earlier, Bishan Singh Bedi has lashed out at the Priyam Garg-led team, saying their behaviour was disgusting and disgraceful.

"You bat, bowl and field badly�happens, but there's no excuse for behaving badly. The behaviour was disgusting and most disgraceful. The innocence of that age was not visible at all," Bedi told Mid Day.

Bedi, who represented India in 67 Tests and 10 ODIs, said the behaviour of the Bangladesh cricketers is not our problem.

"Look, what Bangladesh do is their problem, what our boys do is our problem. You could see that there was abusive language used," he said.

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