Rahul's maiden ton steadies India

January 8, 2015

K l Rahul Century

Sydney, Jan 8: Young opener Lokesh Rahul struck his maiden ton to help India reach 234 for two at tea on the third day of the fourth and final Test against Australia on Thursday.

At the break, Rahul was batting on 106 (256 balls, 12x4, 1x6) with skipper Virat Kohli (67 batting, 121 balls, 11x4) giving him company as the two batsmen put on 137 unbeaten runs for the third wicket.

India still trail by 338 runs after Australia had declared their innings closed at 572 for 7 in their first innings.

The 22-year-old Rahul, playing in only his second Test match, was dropped by Australian captain Steven Smith when on 46 in the morning session at the SCG.

Post-lunch, Rahul and Kohli looked to bat for long with the ball not doing much and the pitch still an easy one to bat on. And they were quite successful in doing as the runs started flowing after the dry morning session.

India had only scored 51 runs in two hours’ play before lunch, but they made amends as 45 runs came in the first hour and then another 67 runs in the next hour until tea as normalcy was restored.

Much of this could be attributed to Kohli’s batting, as he raced along to yet another half-century in this series, following his- three hundreds already. He got there in the 80th over of the innings, off 108 balls.

Kohli was lucky to be still at the crease though with Steven Smith (0/12) dropping a second catch in the day, this time at second slip off Mitchell Starc (1/50) in the 83rd over, just after the second new ball had been taken.

Kohli was batting on 59 then and happily went to the break given this life. Perhaps his joy was emboldened with the fact that the young opener Rahul overcame his horrific debut Test in Melbourne to achieve a milestone. Rahul got there in 85th over, the last before tea, off 253 balls.

Earlier, India had fought hard on their way to lunch with runs trickling in.

The morning began with Rohit Sharma (53 off 133 balls) and Rahul at the crease as India started off from their overnight score of 71/1. They needed to bat for time as well as keep the runs ticking.

While they were successful at the first part, runs came in a trickle as the Australian bowling attack bowled with patience on an easy pitch. They held a tight line and length and gave very little for the Indian batsmen to play against.

Only 19 runs came off the first hour of play which saw 15 overs bowled. Only three boundaries came in that run of play, two off the bat of Rahul and one from Rohit. However, if the first hour was a little dull, there were many interesting things waiting to happen in the second part of this morning session.

It started with Nathan Lyon’s (1/39) introduction into the attack as he got the ball to bounce and turn, using the rough marks to his advantage. In the 44th over, he had a close shout for a catch against Rahul (on 42 then) turned down, despite the replays showing that the batsman might have had a feather—nick to Joe Burns at short leg. It did not matter much as he got Rohit on the fourth delivery of that over.

It was the first ball Rohit faced off the spinner and he went for an expansive sweep, only to get a bottom—edge onto his stumps. The batsman walked off dejected, having only reached his second Test fifty, off 132 balls in the previous over bowled by Ryan Harris (0/30).

It brought Kohli to the crease and was immediately beaten by Lyon off the first ball. The batsman nearly set off for a run and the non-striker, Rahul (still on 42) came half-way down the crease only to be sent back. It was a great run—out chance for Australia but substitute fielder Pat Cummins threw to the wrong end.

Then Rahul (on 46 then) had a third chance against him go down as he top—edged Shane Watson (0/10) in the 53rd over, only for Steve Smith to run back from first slip but drop the skier as he was distracted by the spidercam hovering over him.

The opener brushed it all off and then struck a boundary in the next over to reach his maiden Test fifty, off 161 balls, in only his second match.

At the other end, Kohli also became the second Indian batsman to go past 500 runs in a Test series against Australia following in the footsteps of Rahul Dravid who accumulated 619 runs on the 2003-04 tour.

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News Network
January 29,2020

Hamilton, Jan 29: India defeated New Zealand in the third T20 International via Super Over to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series here on Wednesday.

India posted a competitive 179 for five at Seddon Park after being sent into bat. Opener Rohit Sharma top scored for India with a 65-run knock while skipper Virat Kohli contributed 38 runs in team's total.

Later, skipper Kane Williamson smashed a 48-ball 95 but New Zealand faltered in the final over to take the match into the Super Over.

Needing nine runs of the last over, New Zealand lost Williamson and Ross Taylor to finish at 179 for six and tie the match.

In the Super Over, New Zealand scored 17, a target which India overwhelmed in the final ball with Rohit smashing Tim Southee for two consecutive sixes.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: Batting great Rahul Dravid has attributed Chennai Super Kings' consistent run in the IPL to skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's instincts, game-smarts and the incredible amount of work that goes behind the scenes.

N Srinivasan, the former BCCI president and head of India Cements, which owns the CSK franchise, agreed that Dhoni is a man of instinct who doesn't believe in attending team meetings and going over data.

Both were speaking at a webinar organised by the Great Lakes Institute of Management.

"If you look at the success CSK has had, they've got really good access to data and they've got really good access to people behind the scenes and they've run cricket teams at the junior level," Dravid said at the webinar according to ESPNcricinfo.

The former India captain added, "They understand talent and they've obviously got a good scouting process in place. But, what they also have is a captain who really understands instincts.

"So, I mean, look, I know Dhoni quite well and I hope he hasn't changed, but I know Dhoni is probably not one to look at reams of data and statistics."

The Super Kings have won the lucrative tournament three times -- one less than Mumbai Indians -- and reached the knockouts in each of the 10 seasons they have been a part of.

Srinivasan also spoke about how Dhoni's instinct and judgement contributed to his team's success at a time when a lot of emphases is placed on data.

"We're awash with data just now. To give you an example, there are bowling coaches and in a T20 game, they play videos of every batsman whom they're going to come against and they see how he got out, what's his strength, what's his weakness etc.

"So, MS Dhoni doesn't attend this, he's a pure instinct man. The bowling coach, (head coach Stephen) Fleming will be there and everybody will be there, everyone is giving opinions, (but) he'll get up and go.

"In the context of instinct, he feels that okay he can assess a batsman or player on the field, that's his judgement. On the other hand, there is so much of data that is available to help a person also analyse. It's a very difficult line to draw (between data and instinct)."

Srinivasan also recalled how Dhoni once refused to take "one outstanding player" suggested by the franchise boss as that could have broken the team's cohesion.

"There was one outstanding player that we suggested to MS, he said: 'no sir, he will spoil the team'. The cohesion within the team is important and see in America, franchise-based sport has been there for such a long time," he said.

"In India, we're just starting and we're new to it. But we at India Cements have had a lot of experience running teams at junior levels."

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News Network
July 14,2020

New Delhi, Jul 14: Indian bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who features in the list of A category players released by BCCI, has revealed his first-ever paycheck.

Bhuvneshwar was participating in a question and answer session on Twitter where he gave his take on fans' queries.

The 30-year-old bowler was asked about his first paycheck by a fan and Bhuvneshwar responded by saying, "It was for Rs 3000. I shopped and still managed to saved some."

During the question and answer session Bhuvneshwar picked Barcelona striker Lionel Messi over Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The right-arm bowler also revealed that football and badminton are his favourite sports other than cricket.

Earlier this year, Bhuvneshwar was named in the list A category of players. BCCI had released the list of centrally contracted players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020. Annually, A category players get Rs 5 crore.

The right-arm bowler would have been in action for Sunrisers Hyderabad if the Indian Premier League (IPL) had commenced from March 29. However, the tournament was postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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