Magnificent Rohit leads India to another series win

Agencies
November 7, 2018

Lucknow, Nov 7: Skipper Rohit Sharma's record-breaking fourth T20 International hundred powered India to a comprehensive 71-run win over West Indies in what turned out to be another one-sided series victory for the hosts.

India, thus, took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match T20 series. The last T20 will be played in Chennai on November 11.

The legend of Rohit in white ball format continued to grow exponentially as his unbeaten 111 off 61 balls helped India score 195 for 2 after being put into bat.

Rohit, who also surpassed regular skipper Virat Kohli to become top run-getter among Indians in shortest format, was at his brutal best, hitting eight boundaries and seven towering sixes.

In reply, West Indies batting caved in once again as they managed only 124 for 9 at the end of the stipulated overs.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/12), Jasprit Bumrah (2/20), Khaleel Ahmed (2/30) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/32) equally shared the spoils.

West Indies' misery in the two-month long tour was compounded as they suffered yet another series defeated after losing the Test series 0-2 and subsequently the one dayers by 1-3 margin.

Earlier, Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan (43 off 41) made up for their rare failure in the first T20 in Kolkata on Sunday, stitching 123 runs off 84 balls for the opening wicket to lay the foundation for the big score.

Young pace sensation Oshane Thomas got West Indies off to a fine start with a maiden over. But the Indian openers finally broke the shackles in the fifth over when Rohit and Dhawan took Thomas to the cleaners hitting a six and two boundaries, picking up 17 runs.

Dhawan, however, was lucky as Keemo Paul dropped a straight forward catch at deep mid-wicket in the ninth over off captain Carlos Braithwaite.

It eventually opened the flood gates for India as Rohit thereafter dealt mostly in boundaries and sixes to notch up his fifty in 38 balls. The elegant right-hander mostly preferred the straight boundaries and cleared them on both sides with consummate ease.

Dhawan's luck finally ran out in the 14th over when he was caught by Nicholas Pooran at the long leg boundary off Fabian Allen as the batsman went for a slog sweep.

Rishabh Pant failed for the second consecutive time, holing out to Shimron Hetmyer at midwicket boundary off left-arm spiner Khary Pierre.

Rohit and KL Rahul then shared quickfire 62 runs for the third wicket off just 28 balls to take India close to the 200-run mark.

Needing a win to stay alive in the three-match series after the five-wicket loss at Kolkata, West Indies got off to the worst possible start, losing two wickets – Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer early on with young left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed accounting for both the batsmen.

While Hope was cleaned up by Ahmed in the second over, Hetmyer was holed out at long-on to Dhawan in the pacer's third over.

Introduced into the attack in the eight over, chinaman Kuldeep Yadav continued with his magic and struck twice in a span of one delivery to derail West Indies’ chase.

Kuldeep first induced an edge of Darren Bravo with Rohit taking a sharp catch in the lone slip and then Nicholas Pooran failed to read a wrong-un a ball later to be bowled as West Indies slumped to 52 for four in eight overs.

It became bad to worse for the visitors when Kieran Pollard was caught off his own bowling by Jasprit Bumrah.

From there on, it was just a matter of time before India wrapped up the game and they did it in style.

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News Network
May 27,2020

Bengaluru, May 27: Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has revealed that he was never able to dismiss Inzamam-ul-Haq in the nets.

The Rawalpindi Express praised the former Pakistan skipper and said Inzamam could see the ball one second earlier than the rest of the batsmen could.

"Honestly, I don't think I could ever get him (Inzamam) out, he had the time and I always felt he saw the ball a second earlier than the rest of the batsmen because I had a complicated action unlike Brett Lee, I felt I could never dismiss Inzamam-ul-Haq," Akhtar told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I couldn't get him out in the nets, I think he could see the ball a second before anyone else," he added.

Inzamam played 120 Tests and 378 ODIs for Pakistan.

He finished his career with 20,569 runs across all formats.

The right-handed batsman called time on his career in 2007 and he played his last Test against South Africa in Lahore.

On the other hand, Akhtar played 224 matches for Pakistan in international cricket and took 444 wickets across all formats.

The Rawalpindi Express last played an ODI in 2011 as he played against New Zealand in the 50-over World Cup.

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Agencies
February 7,2020

New Delhi, Feb 7: It was on February 7, 1999, that Anil Kumble became just the second bowler in the history of cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, now known as Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in Delhi during the second Test of the two-match series.

India had set Pakistan a target of 420 runs in the match and the visitors got off to a steady start as openers Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar put on 101 runs for the first wicket.

It was then Kumble who came into the attack and wreaked havoc on the Pakistani batting line-up.

The spinner, also known as 'Jumbo' first dismissed Afridi (41) in the 25th over. After the right-handed batter's dismissal, India kept on taking wickets through Kumble and Pakistan was reduced to 128/6 in no time.

Kumble then kept on taking wickets at regular intervals and he got his tenth scalp in the 61st over after dismissing Wasim Akram.

This effort enabled India to register a win by 212 runs, and Kumble became the second bowler after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in a single Test inning.

Kumble finished with the bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs.

Kumble announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 and finished with 619 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He has the third-highest number of wickets in Tests, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australia's Shane Warne (708).

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News Network
February 14,2020

London, Feb 14: Former Sri Lanka skipper and current Marylebone Cricket Club's president Kumar Sangakkara has said that the 2009 Lahore terror attack taught him about his own character and values.

His remarks came as MCC arrived in Pakistan to play T20I matches against Lahore Qalandars. This will mark his first return to the Gaddafi Stadium, where a shocking atrocity took place when the Sri Lankan bus was attacked by terrorists.

The Sri Lankan team was on their way to Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium for a Test match with Pakistan in 2009 when terrorists from the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) fired indiscriminately at their bus. The attack left eight people dead and injured seven Sri Lankan players and staff.

Ever since the incident, no cricket team toured Pakistan to play a cricket series, however, the landscape changed last year as Sri Lanka paid a visit to the country to play a series across formats. After that, even Bangladesh toured Pakistan and now there are talks of South Africa going to the country to play a series.

"I don't think I need any flashbacks, because I remember that day and those moments so very clearly. It's not something I relive or wallow in. But it's an experience you should never forget, because it gives you perspective in terms of life and sport, and you learn a lot about your own values and characters, and those of others," ESPN Cricinfo quoted Sangakkara as saying.

"I have no reservations about talking about it, it's not something that upsets me, but these sorts of experiences can only strengthen you. Today I consider myself very fortunate to be able to come back here to Lahore, and at the same time remember the sacrifice of all those who lost their lives that day," he added.

Sangakkara said that every human has his own way of dealing with such adversity.

"I think everyone deals with it in their own personal way. But at the same time, what really unites us is that you face adversity and you face challenges, and you have to get past it, and you've got to do that successfully. It's about moving forwards and upwards and being part of cricket. Being Sri Lankan you learn those lessons quite well, because, throughout our civil war, cricket was a unique vibe," Sangakkara said.

"We speak about the attack at various times. We even have a laugh about it, in terms of what we went through because it helps sometimes to look at it with a bit of humour, even though there was a tragic loss of life, and other serious injuries within that incident," he added.

MCC in the weeklong tour will take on Lahore Qalandars in a T20 match at the Gaddafi Stadium later today.

Kumar Sangakkara will lead the MCC's twelve-man squad for the tour, which includes Ravi Bopara, Roelof van der Merwe, Ross Whiteley among others.

Fixtures for the upcoming tour are as follows:

MCC vs Lahore Qalandars, T20I, Gaddafi Stadium, February 14

MCC vs Pakistan Shaheens, ODI, Aitchison College, February 16

MCC vs Northern, Aitchison College, T20I, February 17

MCC vs Multan Sultans, Aitchison College, T20I, February 19.

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