Pandya brothers, Chahar shine as Mumbai thrash Delhi

Agencies
April 19, 2019

Apr 19: The big-hitting Pandya brothers -- Hardik and Krunal -- and young leg-spinner Rahul Chahar set up a comprehensive 40-run win for Mumbai Indians over Delhi Daredevils in a return leg of the IPL at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi on April 18.

Hardik (32 off 15) and Krunal (37 not out off 26) propelled Mumbai to 168 for five after the team lost its way in the middle overs.

Chasing 169 was going to be tough on a slow and low Feroz Shah Kotla wicket and it turned out to be exactly that as Delhi squandered a solid platform of 48 for no loss in six overs to eventually lose the game by a big margin.

The hosts ended with 128 for nine in 20 overs.

The victory took Mumbai Indians to the second spot on the points table, while Delhi remained in the third spot.

Nineteen-year-old Chahar made the difference for Mumbai in the bowling department by removing the dangerous opening duo of Shikhar Dhawan (35 off 22) and Prithvi Shaw (20 off 24).

His outstanding figures read three for 19 in four overs and he continues his upward graph this season.

The home team could never recover from that double blow and suffered its first loss in the last four games. It was also Delhi's third loss at home out of four matches played here this season.

Mumbai, on the other hand, took another step towards the play-offs with their sixth win in nine games, taking them to 12 points, while Delhi remained on 10 points from nine matches.

Earlier, Hardik and Krunal provided a much needed late onslaught by hammering 51 runs off the last 18 balls to put Mumbai in a strong position.

This was after Delhi spinners Amit Mishra (1/18) and Axar Patel (1/17) tightened the screws on Mumbai with a tidy effort.

With teams batting second winning all three previous games at the Kotla, Rohit Sharma's decision to bat first surprised even opposition skipper Shreyas Iyer.

Mumbai made a measured start with Rohit's classy cover drive being the only boundary in the first three overs which yielded just 16 runs.

In the following over, a mishit for four off Chris Morris ensured 8000 T20 runs for Rohit (30 off 22), who became the third Indian to do so.

Runs started flowing after that streaky boundary as Quinton de Kock (35 off 27) collected a four and six over deep square leg and by the first powerplay, Mumbai reached a promising 57 for no loss.

It was time to introduce spin and that provided an immediate breakthrough for Delhi as Mishra bowled Rohit with a beauty on his very first ball of the night for his 150th IPL scalp.

Patel was brought in from the other end and he too made instant impact by removing Ben Cutting, leaving Mumbai at 63 for two.

Runs were hard to come by with the two spinners in operation, creating scoreboard pressure which led to the run out of a well-set de Kock following a terrible mix up with Suryakumar Yadav (26).

With Mumbai struggling to 117 for four in 17 overs, a late assault was very much needed to put up a fighting total. And that was provided by the Pandya brothers, with both going after Keemo Paul in the 18th over that leaked 17 runs.

Hardik, who is looking more dangerous with each passing game, whipped Morris for a six before pulling off a helicopter shot off Rabada in the final over.

 

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News Network
July 1,2020

New Delhi, Jul 1: After being named as India's 'Most Valuable Player' in Test cricket in the 21st century, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Wednesday said that he will always aim to give his best for the country.

His remark came as Jadeja achieved an MVP rating of 97.3 and as a result, he was also rated as the second most valuable player Test player worldwide, only second to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

"Thank you Wisden India for naming me the 'Most Valuable Player'. I would like to thank all my teammates, coaches, fans, and well-wishers for your support as I aim to give my best for our country. Jai Hind," Jadeja tweeted.

Based on CricViz's market-leading analytics, each player in world cricket was awarded an 'MVP rating' by Wisden using a statistical model to rank their 'match impact' compared to their peers.

Jadeja has played in 49 Tests from 2012, managing to score 1,869 runs and has also picked up 213 wickets.

"It might come as a surprise to see Ravindra Jadeja, India's spin-bowling all-rounder, feature as India's number one. After all, he's not even always an automatic pick in their Test team. However, when he does play he is picked as a frontline bowler and has batted as high as No.6 - contributing to a very high match involvement," the official website of Wisden quoted CricViz's Freddie Wilde as saying.

"But Jadeja's position is based on more than simply volume: it's what he does when he's involved that really counts. The 31-year-old's bowling average of 24.62 is better than Shane Warne's and his batting average of 35.26 is better than Shane Watson's. His batting and bowling average differential of 10.62 runs is the second-best of any player this century to have scored more than 1,000 runs and taken 150 wickets. He is an all-rounder of the very highest quality," he added.

With the bat in hand, Jadeja has managed to score one century and 14 fifties in the longest format of the game.

He was last seen in action during India's two-Test series against New Zealand earlier this year.

He would have been in action for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL had the tournament commenced from March 29.

However, the IPL has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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News Network
April 2,2020

New Delhi, Apr 2: It was on April 2, 2011, when the Men in Blue went on to win their second 50-over World Cup title.

India won its first World Cup in 1983 and then had to wait for 28 years to again lift the title.
Going into the 2011 tournament, India went in as the clear favourites as the competition was to be played in the sub-continent.

Under MS Dhoni's leadership, India lost just one match in the competition against South Africa.
India had defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the semi-final to set up a summit clash with Sri Lanka.

In the finals, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. Mahela Jayawardene top-scored for Sri Lanka as he struck a century to take the team's score to 274/6.

India in their chase got off to a bad start as the side lost Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag with just 31 runs on the board.

But Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni stepped up and stitched a match-winning 109-run partnership.

Gambhir perished after playing a knock of 97 runs, but in the end, Dhoni and Yuvraj took the team over the line by six wickets.

The winning six struck by Dhoni is still viewed as one of the most exciting moments in India's sporting history. 

As the winning six was hit, Ravi Shastri was doing commentary then, and he famously remarked, "Dhoni, finishes it off in style, India lifts the World Cup after 28 years".
As soon as the match-winning shot was hit, Tendulkar erupted with joy and had tears to see his dream finally being fulfilled.

Earlier this year, former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the 2011 World Cup win, titled 'Carried On the Shoulders Of A Nation', was voted the greatest Laureus Sporting Moment of the last twenty years.

The lap after the World Cup is still edged into everyone's hearts.

Playing in his last mega 50-over tournament, it was the last chance for Tendulkar to lift the coveted trophy.

Before the 2011 World Cup, Tendulkar had played five tournaments (1992,1996,1999,2003 and 2007), and he fell short every time.

The closest he came to winning the trophy was in 2003 as India made the finals under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.

But the Men in Blue fell short in the finals against Australia.

Then in 2007, the biggest setback was in store for the legend has India bowed out of the tournament in the group stages.

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News Network
February 22,2020

Sydney, Feb 22: India's demolition of a formidable Australia in the Women's T20 World Cup opener will give them a huge boost going forward, said star batswoman Mithali Raj, who also lauded leggie Poonam Yadav for her magical performance.

Poonam took four for 19 to help India complete a 17-run victory against defending champions Australia on Friday.

"Everyone has been talking about how much batting depth Australia have, yet they couldn't chase 132," Raj, a former India Test and ODI captain, said in an ICC release.

"India will take so much confidence from that victory, but this World Cup is still very open. The match between Australia and India proved how competitive the tournament will be. It proves it does not matter where you stand in the ICC rankings.

"We will be seeing more of the same drama yet. This victory proves every team has a chance," said Raj, who has retired from T20 cricket.

The 37-year-old veteran batswoman said "the opening match definitely lived up to the hype of the tournament".

"It was a whirlwind. There were so many ups and downs. It was a great start to the tournament not only because India beat the defending champions on home soil, but also because of how the game progressed altogether.

"At no point could you say it was going in one side's favour. First we saw our early wickets fall, then we recovered and Australia had to chase 132 before their middle-order collapsed. India and Australia both took the game their own way at different points which made it fascinating for spectators to watch."

Raj said Poonam's spell was the turning point.

"She's been one of the main spinners for India for quite some time now, and her style worked again. Getting their (Australia's) middle-order out really titled the match towards India, she was brilliant.

"Although we recovered our innings through Deepti Sharma and her partnership with Jemimah Rodrigues, it was Poonam's flurry of wickets against Australia's megastars, which completely changed the game," Raj said.

Raj also praised 16-year-old Shafali Verma for scoring 29 off 15 on her World Cup debut.

"Shafali Verma impressed me too on her debut. She gave India's middle order the cushioning they needed to regain momentum. Verma has stuck with stroke play that she demonstrated in the tri-series," she said.

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