T20 Tri-series: Megan Schutt hattrick lands India knock out punch

Agencies
March 26, 2018

Mumbai, Mar 26: India were knocked out of reckoning from the Twenty20 tri-series final after Australia handed the hosts their third successive defeat, the highlight of which was medium pacer Megan Schutt becoming the first bowler from Down Under to claim a hat-trick in the format.

Australia outplayed Harmanpreet Kaur's team by 36 runs. Having failed to secure a single win in the series so far, India are without any points right now and would be aiming for a consolation win over England in their last league match on Thursday.

Australia set India a challenging target of 186 for five with the help of twin half-centuries by Beth Mooney and Elyse Villani. They then restricted the hosts to 150 for 5 in 20 overs. Schutt (3-31) wreaked havoc at the Brabourne Stadium by claiming a hat-trick. Her scalps included the in-form Smriti Mandhana (3), veteran Mithali Raj, who was dismissed for a duck, and Deepti Sharma (2).

While Schutt cleaned up Mandhana and Raj off the fifth and the sixth ball of the second over. She completed her hat-trick in the first ball of the fifth over by removing Sharma, who gave a sitter to Amanda Jade Wellington at mid-off, leaving the hosts in deep trouble at 26/3.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (33 off 30 balls) and Mumbai-batter Jemmimah Rodrigues (50 off 41 balls) stitched a 54-run stand for the fourth wicket, but that was not enough to take the home side to victory.

Rodrigues, who scored her maiden international fifty, and Harmanpreet dealt in ones and twos but the big shots just did not come through for the two. Rodrigues was guilty of giving her wicket away by chipping straight down to the fielder.

Harmanpreet tried to up the ante by hitting a four and a six off consecutive balls, in the 14th over, but was dismissed off the very next ball, caught by Delissa Kimmince off Ashleigh Gardner. Australian bowlers never allowed the Indian batswomen to settle and took wickets at regular intervals on a placid track.

A quick-fire 38 off 26 balls from Anuja Patil did chip in but the asking rate had risen considerably by then. Earlier, put into bat, opener Mooney scored a half-century and looked unstoppable, hitting eight boundaries. It was medium-pacer Pooja Vastrakar, who removed two Australian batswomen opener Alyssa Healy (9) and one-down Ashleigh Gardener (17) -- cheaply. While Healy was caught by Rodrigues, Vastrakar cleaned up Gardner.

The visitors were tottering at 29/2 but staged a fine recovery from that point to post 46/2 in the power-play. India gave away the early advantage by letting Villani and Mooney conjure a 114- run stand for the third wicket to steer the team out of trouble. In the eighth over, Mooney took on off-spinner Deepti Sharma, hitting her for three boundaries.

Villani and Mooney kept the scoreboard ticking stealing ones and twos. Australia looked good for a big total before India made a strong comeback by removing Villani, Mooney and Ellyse Perry (1) in quick succession to ensure that Australia were able to add only 45 runs in the last five overs on a placid track.

For the hosts, Vastrakar was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2-28.

Brief Scores: Australia Women (186/5 in 20 overs; Beth Mooney 71, Elyse Villani 61, Pooja Vastrakar 2-28) won against India Women (150/5 in 20 overs; Jemimah Rodrigues 50, Anuja Patil 38 not out, Megan Schutt 3-31) by 36 runs.

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News Network
March 27,2020

New Delhi, Mar 27: India skipper Virat Kohli on Friday made a heartfelt appeal to the citizens of the country, asking them to follow social distancing as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus pandemic.
He also went on to say that over the past few days, he has seen some people still taking to the streets, and added that if people still continue to venture out, then they are not being honest with the country.
Kohli released a small video clip on Twitter, making the public appeal and captioned the post as: "Please wake up to the reality and seriousness of the situation and take responsibility. The nation needs our support and honesty"
"Today, I am talking to you as a citizen of the country. Whatever I have seen over the past few days, I have seen people not following the lockdown, it has made me feel that some people are taking the battle against COVID-19 very lightly. I request you all to please follow social distancing, whatever the government is asking you to do, please follow it," Kohli said in the video released on Twitter.
"Think about what can happen to your family members because of your negligence. Our medical experts are fighting this battle day in and day out. If you are still going out to the streets, then I don't think you are being honest to your country," he added.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to impose a 21-day lockdown in the country as a precautionary measure against coronavirus.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases have risen to 724 in India (including 640 active cases, 66 cured or discharged people) and 17 deaths.
The World Health Organisation had termed the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic on March 11. 

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News Network
July 3,2020

Karachi, Jul 3: There was a sense of insecurity among Pakistan players during the 2019 World Cup, claims former chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, who also reckons that the PCB should have given Sarfaraz Ahmed more time as captain instead of removing him abruptly.

Inzamam said captains need to be backed since they get better with time.

"Even in the last World Cup I felt the captain and players were under pressure because they were thinking if we don't do well in the tournament we will be out. That environment was created and this is not good for cricket," Inzamam said.

"Sarfaraz achieved some notable victories for Pakistan and was learning to be a good captain but unfortunately when he had learnt from experience and mistakes he was removed as captain," the former captain told a TV channel.

Inzamam remained chief selector from 2016 till the 2019 World Cup. During his tenure, most of the time Sarfaraz remained captain.

Soon after Inzamam was replaced by head coach Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan Cricket Board removed Sarfaraz as a player and captain from all three formats.

"Sarfaraz won us the Champions Trophy and also made the team number one in T20 cricket. He got us some good wins. He should have been given more time as captain by the board but it acted in haste and didn't give him confidence or patience."

The PCB has now given the Test captaincy to senior batsman, Azhar Ali while young batsman Babar Azam leads the side in the white ball formats.

Inzamam, the most capped player for Pakistan, also said that the captain's own performance can dip as he had to focus a lot on other players.

"But a captain learns all this with time. There is no shortcut to it."

He pointed out that people praise Imran Khan’s leadership qualities and captaincy but he also won the World Cup on his third attempt as captain.

"He won the 1992 World Cup because by that time he had become a seasoned captain and learnt to motivate his players and get them to fight in every match."

Inzamam said giving confidence to new players and youngsters is very important for the selectors. He gave the example of Babar Azam.

"Babar struggled initially in Test cricket but we never had any doubt about his ability so we persisted with him and see today where he is standing in all formats."

He also described Babar and pacer, Shaheen Shah Afridi as and future stars.

"Babar is always compared to Virat Kohli but the latter has played a lot more cricket and if you look at their stats and performances at the stage Babar is now, he has not done badly at all."

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Atlanta, Jan 9: Top tennis stars like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams will be playing an exhibition match to raise funds for Australia's bushfire relief.

Apart from these three, Naomi Osaka, Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas have also confirmed their availability for the match, CNN reported.

The match will be played on January 15 at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena. The Australian Open Rally for Relief will be donating the proceedings from the ticket sales to the bushfire relief efforts.

Tennis star Maria Sharapova had also announced on Wednesday that she had left 10 signed pairs of her tennis shoes in her Brisbane hotel that members of the public could buy with a donation to the Australian Red Cross.

"Brisbane, I have signed ten pairs of my tennis shoes, left them at the @BrisbaneTennis
desk at the Westin Hotel, alongside a donation envelope for fire rescue efforts.They're yours to keep,we just ask you to donate AUD 300 a pair. All money going directly to Red Cross," Sharapova tweeted.

Earlier, former Australian spinner Shane Warne on Monday had announced to auction his Baggy Green cap to raise funds for victims of devastating bushfires in Australia.

Taking to Twitter, Warne made the announcement and posted a statement.

"The horrific bushfires in Australia have left us all in disbelief. The impact these devastating fires are having on so many people is unthinkable and has touched us all. Lives have been lost, homes have been destroyed and over 500 million animals have died too," Warne wrote.

"Everyone is in this together and we continue to find ways to contribute and help on a daily basis. This has led me to auction my beloved baggy green cap (350) that I wore throughout my Test career," he added.

Warne joined a growing list of cricketers to raise money for the bushfire victims. Australian players Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell and D'Arcy Short have already announced that they will donate AUD 250 each for every six they hit in the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL) to support bushfire victims.

Athletes from other sports too joined the movement as tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic decided to donate 25,000 dollars each for Australia's bushfire relief fund.

Wildfires have been raging across Australia for months, killing 23 people, burning about 6 million hectares (23,000 square miles) of bushland and killing a billion animals.

Naval and air rescue operations were launched on Friday as mass evacuations of towns at risk of being engulfed by flames got underway.b

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