Jacques Kallis, Manvinder Bisla star in Kolkata's win over Punjab

Potchefstroom, Feb 4: Yashasvi Jaiswal and Divyaansh Saxena guided India to a comfortable ten wickets win over Pakistan in the ICC U19 World Cup semifinal at Senwes Park on Tuesday and progressed to the final of the tournament.

Chasing 173, Indian openers Jaiswal and Saxena played cautiously and stitched an unbeaten partnership of 176 runs.

The duo built the highest opening partnership of the tournament's history. Jaiswal, the left-handed batsman, scored his maiden century of the tournament as he amassed unbeaten 105 runs studded with eight fours and four sixes.

Saxena scored 59* off 99 balls including six fours. India chased down the total in 35.2 overs. This is the first time in the history of the U19 World Cup that a team won a knockout match by ten wickets.

Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.

Opener Haider Ali and skipper Rohail Nazir's half-centuries guided the side to a respectable total of 172. Ali played a knock of 56 runs while Nazir accumulated 62 runs including six boundaries.

Pakistan did not have a good start as they lost Mohammad Hurair (4) in the second over. Fahad Munir, came to bat at number three, failed to score a single run and was departed by Ravi Bishnoi on a duck in ninth over.

Apart from Ali and Nazir, Mohammad Haris was the only batsman to score runs in double digits. He played an innings of 21 runs off 15 balls. Indian bowlers showed a spirited performance as they bowled out arch-rival in 43.1 overs.

Pacers Karthik Tyagi and Sushant Mishra bagged two and three wickets respectively. Spinner Ravi Bishnoi clinched two scalps and conceded 46 runs in his ten overs.

London, May 31: "Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli," replied umpire Ian Gould when he was asked to name the three best batsmen he loved watching when he was officiating as an umpire.

The former ICC elite umpire said that he was unlucky to not watch Ponting bat as much as he would have liked to.

"Jacques Kallis. I loved watching Jacques. He was a very, very fine player. Sachin. And probably Virat. I was unlucky in some respects. I didn't see the best of Ricky Ponting. He was an outstanding character, outstanding captain, such a proud Australian," ESPNCricinfo quoted Gould as saying.

"But his career was just starting to wane as I came on the scene. But he was incredibly helpful, so I'm disappointed I have to leave him out. Jacques Kallis, I could sit and watch all day, Virat, the same. And Sachin, if you want someone to bat for your life, he was the man," he added.

Gould had retired from the ICC's panel of elite umpires in 2019, after standing in more than 250 international matches over a 13-year career.

Over the years, comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have been 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 has 70 centuries across all formats.

While, Kallis played 166 Tests, 328 ODIs and 25 T20Is for South Africa and he is often viewed as the greatest all-rounder the game has seen.

Many pundits of the game find it hard to pick between him and Sir Garfield Sobers.

Across his career, Kallis scored 25,534 runs in his career and he also managed to take 577 wickets.

New Delhi, Jun 11: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has indicated that this year's IPL could be conducted in empty stadiums, insisting that all possible options are being explored to ensure that the suspended event does take place despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter to all the affiliated units sent late on Wednesday after the ICC Board meeting, Ganguly seemed confident of an IPL this year despite its current status of being indefinitely suspended because of the raging pandemic, which has claimed more than 8,000 lives in India.

"The BCCI is working on all possible options to ensure that we are able to stage IPL this year, even if it means playing the tournament in empty stadiums," Ganguly wrote.

"The fans, franchises, players, broadcasters, sponsors and all other stakeholders are keenly looking forward to the possibility of IPL being hosted this year.

"Recently, a lot of players both from India and other countries, participating in the IPL have shown keenness on being part of this year's IPL. We are optimistic and the BCCI will shortly decide on the future course of action on this," the former India captain said.

It is widely speculated that the IPL is eyeing the October event if the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in Australia at that time is postponed. The ICC has deferred a decision on the World Cup's fate until next month.

Ganguly also said that the BCCI is working on the domestic schedule while exploring various formats which would make tournaments like Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Vijay Hazare "competitive and feasible".

"Moving ahead, the BCCI is in process of planning the domestic competitions for the next cricketing season. We are working on various options and formats in our endeavour to ensure that various domestic tournaments are held, they stay competitive and participation feasible," said the former India captain.

"The BCCI will come up with more details in next couple of weeks," he added.

He also informed that BCCI is preparing a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for resumption of cricket in all state units to ensure medical safety of those involved.

The president also informed that the BCCI has made "all efforts to release funds/grants to its various members."

"Associations which have made proper submission of their accounts and funds utilization certificates have already received their grants," he said.

The other units will also receive their grants once they submit relevant documents, the president assured while informing that vendors have also been paid.