Asia Cup: Bowlers do star turn as India thump Pakistan by 8 wickets

Agencies
September 20, 2018

Dubai, Sept 20: India ticked all boxes as they clinically decimated Pakistan by eight wickets in a lopsided Asia Cup group league encounter Wednesday.

It was a superlative effort from the bowling unit that saw them shot out Pakistan for a paltry 162 in 43.1 overs before Rohit Sharma (52 off 39 balls) and Shikhat Dhawan (46 off 54 balls) added 86 for the opening wicket to ensure a smooth chase for the 'Men In Blue' in only 29 overs.

This was India's most comprehensive victory in terms of balls remaining (126).

After a wake-up call against Hong Kong, the Pakistan match was a near perfect performance for India as Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/15 in 7 overs) and Kedar Jadhav (3/23 in 9 overs) were perfectly complemented by Jasprit Bumrah (2/23 in 7.1 overs) and Kuldeep Yadav (1/37 in 8 overs).

If Kuldeep's googly to snuff out Babar Azam was the turning point, Kedar Jadhav's unconventional side-arm off-breaks broke the lower middle-order as Pakistan never recovered from the batting collapse.

With the pressure of scoreboard virtually non-existent, Rohit and Dhawan showed why they are one of the most formidable opening pair in white ball cricket.

The eighth over from Usman Khan enabled India cut loose as Rohit first hooked him for a six using the pace of the delivery and followed it with a 'Nataraja' pull shot for boundary and then short arm pull in-front of the square for another six. With 19 runs coming off that over, there was no looking back for India.

Rohit's third six was a another hook shot off Hasan Ali followed by a drive through mid-off to complete his 35th half century in ODIs. He was fooled by a googly from Shadab Khan but by then India  were on course for a comprehensive victory. Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik both contributed 31 to take India past finish line with consummate ease.

The two teams will now meet in Super Four on September 23.

Earlier Jadhav produced a laudable performance as he did the job of a frontline spinner after Hardik Pandya (0/24 in 4.5 overs) was stretchered off the field due to an acute lower back injury.

This was after young Babar Azam (47) and veteran Shoaib Malik (43) added 82 runs for the third wicket and looked like taking control of the proceedings.

However, Pakistan suffered a batting collapse losing five wickets for 36 runs before Faheem Ashraf (21) and Mohammed Aamir (16) added an invaluable 37 runs for the eighth wicket to take the total past 150-run mark.

Put into bat, Pakistan were in trouble straight away as Bhuvneshwar dealt a twin blow removing the in-form duo of Imam ul Haq (2) and Fakhar Zaman (0) to reduce them to 2 for 3.

Imam charged to a short of length delivery that climbed on him and the thickish outside edge was taken by Dhoni. Zaman, India's tormentor in the Champions Trophy, mistimed a pull-shot and Yuzvendra Chahal took a well-judged catch.

Babar and Malik then resurrected the innings with a fine partnership. The half-volleys on both sides of the wicket were driven with ferocity.

Malik, who is a good player of spin bowling, gave Kuldeep Yadav the charge to hit him for a six and rotated the strike well.

In fact, Malik was dropped off Pandya's bowling, whose agonies increased when he had to leave the field.

Babar failed to read Kuldeep's googly as it clipped his off-bail. From 85 for 2, it soon became 100 for five as Pakistan lost wickets in a heap.

Sarfraz Ahmed (6) was dismissed by Jadhav as substitute fielder Manish Pandey took a blinder at long-on.

The Pakistani batsmen found it extremely difficult to read Jadhav's round arm action as he bowled straight and wide. Asif Ali was caught behind and then Malik was run-out by a direct throw from Ambati Rayudu.

Shadab Khan (8) was stumped by Dhoni as he bacame Yadav's third victim of the match.

Faheem and Aamir did try their bit as Pakistan crossed the 150-run mark before Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah wrapped up the tail in the 44th over.

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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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Agencies
March 3,2020

Mumbai, Mar 3: India on Tuesday retained their number one spot and captain Virat Kohli remained static at second in the ICC rankings despite a dismal Test series against New Zealand.

India have 116 rating points, six more than New Zealand with third-placed Australia accumulating 108 points. The 0-2 result against New Zealand was India's first series loss in the World Test Championship.

Kohli remains in second position in the batting rankings despite a forgettable Test series in which he made 38 runs in four innings, the ICC said in a statement.

New Zealand opener Tom Blundell and his Indian counterpart Prithvi Shaw and debutant paceman Kyle Jamieson were among the biggest movers in the rankings, released on Tuesday.

Blundell had a successful series against India, scoring 117 runs in four innings, with one half-century, which put him among the top two run-scorers in the series.

The performance meant he was rewarded with a jump of 27 places to No. 46. Shaw, who returned for his first series since his Test debut against West Indies in 2018, and made a punchy 54 in the first innings of the Christchurch Test, rose 17 places to No.76.

Australia's Steve Smith retained his top spot, holding a 25-point advantage over Kohli. Smith's apprentice Marnus Labuschagne jumped one spot to round off the top three, taking the place of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes and India opener Mayank Agarwal moved a spot each and swapped places to break into and fall out of the top 10 respectively.

Among bowlers, Tim Southee's Player of the Series winning performance against India took him into the top five, with a jump of two places to No.4, while Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult returned to the top 10, gaining four places each to occupy the seventh and ninth positions respectively.

But the biggest gainer was Jamieson, who rose from No. 80 to 43.

There was only one change in the top ten among all-rounders, with Southee dropping a spot to No.10 and team-mate Neil Wagner falling out of the top 10 with a drop of four spots.

As with the bowling rankings, Jamieson, who frustrated India with handy lower order runs, gained big on the all-rounders' table, rising 26 places to No. 22.

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News Network
January 12,2020

New Delhi, Jan 12: Flamboyant India all-rounder Hardik Pandya was on Saturday pulled out of the India A team's tour of New Zealand after he failed mandatory fitness tests in Mumbai.

The selectors had picked him in the squad without testing him in the Ranji games.

Tamil Nadu captain Vijay Shankar has been drafted into the India A team and he has already boarded the flight to New Zealand where they will play two 50-over warm-up games, three List A games and two four-day 'Tests' against the home A team.

It has been learnt that Pandya failed a couple of mandatory fitness tests and his scores were well below the permissible range suggesting that he is far from being fit for international cricket. In this situation, pulling him out of the India A squad was expected.

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