McCullum, Mohit guide CSK to third consecutive win

April 26, 2014

Dubai, Apr 26: Brendon McCullum smashed a belligerent unbeaten 71 after Mohit Sharma's heroics with the ball to guide Chennai Super Kings to a comfortable seven wicket win over defending champions Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League match here today.

The win was Chennai's third on the trot while Mumbai is yet to open their account in the tournament after having slumped to their third straight defeat.

McCullumAsked to bowl, Mohit (4/14) produced a fine death bowling display to help Chennai restrict the title holders to a modest 141 for seven.

Coming on to bowl the 19th over, Mohit picked up three wickets - Ambati Raydu, dangerman Kieron Pollard (12) and Harbhajan Singh - to prevent a late burst from Mumbai batsmen.

Apart from Mohit (4/14), Ben Hilfenhaus (2/39) picked up two wickets for the Chennai outfit.

Mumbai's innings mainly revolved around captain Rohit Sharma and Correy Anderson. While Rohit made 50 off 41 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes, big-hitting Anderson scored 39 off 31 balls.

In fact, the 84-run third wicket partnership between the duo was the highlight of Mumbai's innings especially after they lost their openers for just 25 runs inside five overs.

But once the duo departed their innings fell apart as Mumbai could manage just 33 runs off the last five overs for the loss of five wickets.

Chasing the target, Dwayne Smith (29) and McCullum got Chennai off to a flier with a 57-run opening stand off just 38 balls.

After two quiet overs, Smith took Pragyan Ojha to the cleaners and clobbered the left-arm spinner for two sixes straight over his head to get Chennai going.

Smith then slammed Zaheer Khan for another six before Brendon McCullum joined the party and struck consecutive fours to pick up 16 runs off the fourth over.

McCullum matched his partner stroke for stroke and welcomed Anderson with three cracking boundaries as Chennai raced off to 51 in just the sixth over.

Smith, however, departed in the next over in search of one too many. He was holed out by Anderson off Ojha just after smacking the bowler for a six in the previous ball.

Chennai's most-prolific scorer Suresh Raina too got out cheaply, stumped by C M Gautam of off-spinner Harbhajan's Singh's (2/27) bowling as Mumbai clawed back into the match with two quick wickets.

But McCullum and new man Faf du Plesis went about their business in style and stitched 50 runs for the third wicket to take Chennai closer.

While du Plesis played the anchor's role, McCullum continued in the aggressive fashion and dispatched the bad deliveries for fours and sixes.

Du Plesis made 20 off 25 balls before he was stumped by Gautam off Harbhajan but the wicket hardly had any impact on Chennai'S chase as they romped home with an over to spare. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (14) was the other not out batsman at the crease for Chennai.

Earlier electing to bat, Mumbai did not have the best of starts as they lost Mike Hussey (1) and Aditya Tare (23) early.

Hussey's poor form in the tournament continued as he was bowled by fellow Australian Hilfenhaus in the second over.

An over later, Tare perished in search of a big hit, caught by Raina off Mohit.

Anderson, who is yet to fire in the tournament, justified the team's decision to send him ahead of Rohit as he made a fine 39 off 31 balls with the help of three fours and one six.

Together with Rohit, Anderson shared 84 runs off 64 deliveries for the third wicket before a direct hit from Ravichandran Ashwin cut short his stay.

After failing in the first two matches, Rohit finally came to his fore and together with Anderson played sensibly to lay the platform for the score.

Rohit started cautiously before opening up but he departed just after reaching his fifty, caught by Smith off Hilfenhaus in the 18th over.

Thereafter, Mumbai batsmen just failed to open their arms as Chennai got their grip over the proceedings.

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Melbourne, Jul 21: Cricket Australia's chief executive Nick Hockley has said that the Indian players and staff will most likely be asked to face two weeks of quarantine before the four-match Test series.

This scenario will bring the Adelaide Oval and its newly constructed hotel firmly into view as the sort of biosecure bubble, ESPNCricinfo reported.

India and Australia are slated to face each other in a four-match Test series, which is to begin from December 4 at Brisbane.

"The two-week quarantine is pretty well-defined. What we are working on is making sure that even within that quarantine environment, the players have got the absolute best training facilities, so that their preparation for the matches is as optimal as it can possibly be," ESPNCricinfo quoted Hockey as saying.

"Certainly the fact that the Adelaide Oval has a hotel. It does provide a facility not dissimilar to Old Trafford or Ageas Bowl where the hotels are integrated into the venue," he added.

Hockley also said that an exacting standard of biosecurity and testing would be applied before the series against India as the coronavirus cases are spiking in the subcontinent.

"It's widely known and it's unlikely that international travel restrictions would have lifted by the time that India will be due to come into the country. Clearly there will be testing regimes. We will be able to test people before that they get on to the plane and it is the nature of the situation of making sure we have the quarantine arrangements in line with government and health authority protocols," Hockley said.

"The key thing for the players is that there's regular testing and that we appropriately quarantine them when they come in and all of those plans are currently in development," he added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced the postponement of the T20 World Cup 2020 slated to be held in Australia from October 18-November 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the announcement, the BCCI is likely to go ahead with the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the October-November window. However, it is known where the T20 tournament will be played as cases continue to rise in India.
"I think the BCCI has made no secrets that they are considering what that means for the IPL. For us, it's about getting a bit of an understanding and certainty around what that means. Clearly, in a normal course, some of our best players are obviously top picks for those IPL teams," Hockley said.

"It's a bit premature to speculate on that. We need to understand what the plans are if any and once we understand that we will make decisions accordingly," he added.

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Agencies
June 9,2020

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed interim changes to its playing regulations, which include the ban on the use of saliva to shine the ball and allowing home umpires in international series as per a release issued by the international body.

The ICC Chief Executives' Committee (CEC) ratified recommendations from the Anil Kumble-led Cricket Committee, aimed at mitigating the risks posed by the COVID-19 virus and protect the safety of players and match officials when cricket resumes.

COVID-19 Replacements

Teams will be allowed to replace players displaying symptoms of COVID-19 during a Test match. In line with concussion replacements, the Match Referee will approve the nearest like-for-like replacement.

However, the regulation for COVID-19 replacements will not be applicable in ODIs and T20Is.

Ban on Saliva on Ball

Players will not be permitted to use saliva to shine the ball. If a player does apply saliva to the ball, the umpires will manage the situation with some leniency during an initial period of adjustment for the players, but subsequent instances will result in the team receiving a warning.

Whenever saliva is applied to the ball, the umpires will be instructed to clean the ball before play recommences.

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