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Kohli's ton helps India draw Wellington Test; NZ win series 1-0

February 18, 2014

Kohlis_tonNew Delhi, Feb 18: Virat Kohli hit his sixth Test ton while Brendon McCullum became the first Kiwi to score a triple on Day 5 of the second Test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington as the match finished in draw. With this, the hosts win the two match series 1-0.

Kohli (105*) has been in supreme touch since he strode out. He has been favouring the elegant cover drive and playing it to perfection. While he has continued to hook and pull, sometimes a bit too much, they have been far more controlled. He brought up his sixth Test century with a copy book straight drive for four.

However, the morning session belonged to the hosts with the skipper putting up the highest score by any batsman for the country: 302. Giving him company was overnight batsman Jimmy Neesham who made his Test debut with a sparkling century, finishing with 137 not out when his captain declared. The two put up 179 runs between them for the seventh wicket.

Thanks to that partnership, and another one posted on Day 4 between McCullum and BJ Watling got New Zealand to a mammoth total of 680 runs. They led by 434 runs and were firmly in control of a match that they had almost lost by an innings.

Zaheer Khan did get a five wicket haul, getting McCullum to edge to Dhoni in the process, but that came a bit too late to do the touring team much good.

Indian batsmen took to the feild just before tea and were in trouble two overs after the break, losing both openers in consecutive overs.

The first over after lunch, Trent Boult removed Shikhar Dhawan (2), trapping him in front of the wicket. He got a few balls to move away from the left hander and then bowled a length delivery that did not. Dhawan failed to pick it, decided to shoulder arms to it but got hit on the pads for an LBW.

In the next over, Tim Southee came to the party to get rid of Murali Vijay (7). Another good length delivery on the off stump shaped slightly away from the right handed Vijay and got an edge from his defensive bat to go to the slip cordon.

India would have ben in deeper trouble but for an umpiring howler. He got quite a pronounced edge to the 'keeper off Trent Boult's bowling. The entire New Zealan team had started to celebrate but the umpire's finger never went up. Kohli had not walked and survived a sure dismissal.

But Kohli took charge at that point and tried to get the team to safety. Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara (17) stitched together a 44 run partnership, trying to make sure the team does not suffer a total batting collapse.

But Southee put paid to those plans, getting Pujara to glove one to BJ Watling behind the stumps. He peppered Pujara with the short ball, repeatedly around the off stump. Then finally, he brought one to the leg and the Indian batsman could not get his bat out of the way in time.

With the team in deep trouble, Rohit Sharma (31*) came out to bat. He showed uncharacteristic determination and stayed with Kohli till the end. The two put up a 112-run partnership to make sure the team suffered no more setbacks till the umpires declared the match draw. India had reached 166/3.

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News Network
July 22,2020

Derbyshire, Jul 22: Ahead of the upcoming Test series against England, Pakistan pacer Sohail Khan has credited bowling coach Waqar Younis for teaching him how to swing the ball late.

On the third day of the practice match between Azhar Ali's Team Green and Babar Azam's Team White, the 36-year-old Khan returned figures of five for 50 in 20.1 overs which saw the former fold for 181 in the first innings before they staged a comeback on the final day to win the match by six wickets.

Prior to the practice match, Sohail had a conversation with bowling coach Waqar Younis on the art of late swing. The pacer shared how the presence of the bowling legend in the support staff helped him gear up for the four-day match.

"The conditions in England are swing conducive so every fast bowler gets the ball to move. I asked Waqar bhai to teach me how to swing the ball late. It took him only two minutes to explain it to me. It is because of his tips that I took five wickets in the first innings," Khan said in a release issued by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

"I am eager to learn from Waqar Bhai. I follow him wherever he goes and speak to him about the art of bowling as he has an abundance of knowledge to share. A few days back I was struggling with something while bowling, I thought of reaching out to him and even before I spoke to him about it, he said he knew what I wanted to talk to him about and he explained it to me in a minute," he added.

During Pakistan's tour of England in 2016, Sohail played a crucial role in helping Pakistan secure a 2-2 Test series draw by returning two five-wicket hauls in as many matches.

In total, he picked up 13 wickets at 25 apiece and finished as the third-best wicket-taker.

"Definitely, it is an honour for me to return to the side. I had taken two fifers here against England in 2016 and now in the practice match, I have started off with five wickets so I am feeling very good. We had been at our homes for the past four months due to coronavirus so starting off on a high feels nice," Khan said.

Prior to Sohail's five wickets, 17-year-old Naseem Shah made a big impact when he took five wickets for Team Green. The strength of Pakistan's pace attack was further established as Mohammad Abbas and Shaheen Shah Afridi picked up three wickets each providing valuable support to Naseem and Sohail respectively.
Naseem and Shaheen finished the match with six and four wickets respectively.

Shedding light on the youngsters' performances, Sohail said: "It gives me immense pleasure to see Naseem Shah. He bowls consistently at 150kph. Just like him, Shaheen Shah Afridi is another good bowler. I like both of them."

"It gave me great happiness to see Naseem pick five wickets in the first innings. He is in rhythm and is looking great. What is astonishing is that he is playing in these conditions for the first time but still he is doing so well. Shaheen has also been phenomenal," he added.

Pakistan and England are slated to play three Tests and as many T20Is against each other. The first Test will be played at Manchester from August 5.

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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: On the first day of the New Year 2020, Hardik Pandya announced his engagement with Serbian actor Natasa Stankovic.

The cricketer took to Instagram to share a photo with the actor and captioned the post: "Mai tera, Tu meri jaane, saara Hindustan. 01.01.2020 #engaged".

The 26-year-old shared three pictures and a short clip on the social media platform. In one photo, Stankovic can be seen flaunting her ring.

The couple got engaged in Dubai and were seen taking a ferry ride along with close friends.

On work front, Stankovic was last seen in a song from Bollywood movie The Body starring Emraan Hashmi and Rishi Kapoor. She had also made it to the finals of the TV show Nach Baliye with her ex-boyfriend Aly Goni.

Stankovic first became a household name after appearing as a contestant on famous reality show 'Bigg Boss 8'.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: 'Your character stood out for me than the number of runs you scored," said India skipper Virat Kohli while explaining his decision to give opening Mayank Agarwal a Test debut in the 2018-19 Australia series.

Mayank Agarwal had made his Test debut against Australia in the third Test of the four-match series.

Playing the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Agarwal managed to register a half-century in his very first innings in the longest format.

"I had seen you play for RCB, even then you played international bowlers with conviction and you would take them on. You were performing in first-class matches in a dominating way. That is something always stood out with you, I would say your character stood out for me than the number of runs. I knew you would be fearless without having any baggage," Kohli told Mayank Agarwal in a video posted on the official website of BCCI.

In the longest format of the game, Agarwal has managed to score 974 runs from 11 matches at an average of 57.29 with three centuries as an opening batsman.

The Indian skipper also explained as to what makes him notice in a player and added that it is important that guys in the team look to face new challenges and emerge triumphantly.

"For me, the biggest marker is how a person approaches the game, so for example when you opened and we made Vihari open with you. The first opportunity we presented Vihari to open the batting, he said yes to it and that matters me to the most," Kohli said.

"I opened in my first series for India, I said yes to this opportunity and things worked out fine for me. So, a guy who wants to get into tough situations will come out either holding his head high or learning from his mistakes," he added.

Kohli and Mayank would soon be seen in action for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab respectively in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting from September 19 in the UAE.

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

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

At present, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings. Kohli has so far played 86 Tests, scoring 7,240 runs with 27 centuries at an average of 53.62.

His knock of 254 against South Africa at Pune in 2019 remains his highest Test score to date. When it comes to ODIs, the current Indian skipper has played 248 matches and has 43 centuries.

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