Champions Trophy 2017: India Take on Bangladesh in Second Warm-up Tie

May 30, 2017

London, May 30: Rohit Sharma will be back in his familiar opening position with an aim to get some quality batting practice when India take on Bangladesh in their final warm-up game before the Champions Trophy opener against Pakistan.

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After a convincing 45-run victory against New Zealand in a rain-curtailed opening warm-up match, Virat Kohli will pray that his batsmen get some more game time than the 26 overs they got the other day.

For Rohit, it will be back to the opening slot, having batted down the order during the better part of the Indian Premier League. He missed out on the first game as personal commitments led to him joining the squad on Saturday evening.

It will be like a completion of cycle for Rohit, whose limited overs career was transformed by Mahendra Singh Dhoni's inspired decision to promote him up the order during India's successful Champions Trophy campaign in 2013.

One of the biggest reasons for India's success was the Rohit-Shikhar Dhawan duo, which is again back to face the new ball in conditions, which will be pretty familiar to the one they encountered four years back.

With Ajinkya Rahane failing as an opener in the first warm-up game, even the remotest thoughts of a change at the top, if there was one at all, will not be entertained by the team management.

Kohli, after a well-compiled half-century in the first game, would prefer another good hit out there in the middle along with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who looked impressive during his brief stint.

It is still not clear if Yuvraj Singh, recovering from a bout of viral fever will be available tomorrow or not. The veteran also needs some batting practice ahead of the Pakistan game.

The skipper would also like to give Kedar Jadhav a chance to get a decent hit out there in the middle.

Bangladesh has been a very decent side in 50-overs cricket. A testimony to that was their quarter-final finish during the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The pace quartet of Mustafizur Rahaman, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed and skipper Mashrafe Mortaza can prove to be more than a handful for any opposition on a given day.

In fact, India lost an ODI away series against Bangladesh back in 2015 when Mustafizur was relatively new to international cricket.

Facing them in real match time will mean good preparation ahead of the marquee clash against Pakistan, next Sunday.

India's bowling attack however looked good against the Kiwis, bowling them out for 189.

There are some 'happy problems' for skipper Kohli, who has three potent new ball options in Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami to choose from.

The bulk of the death overs will be taken care by yorker specialist Jasprit Bumrah.

The other issue that Kohli needs to address is his lead spinner in the attack.

Ravindra Jadeja's all-round abilities in the shorter format are more recognised than Ravichandran Ashwin, who has been a powerhouse performer for India in Test cricket.

The second match will give a fair idea of what exactly will be India's playing XI going into the opening fixture.

Squads:

India: Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Dinesh Karthik, Ajinkya Rahane

Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahaman, Mahmudullah Riyadh, Shakib al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza, Rubel Hossain, Mustafzur Rahaman, Taskin Ahmed, Mehedi Hassan, Mosaddek Hossain, Sunzamul Islam, Shafiul Islam

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Agencies
April 25,2020

London, Apr 25: Former Australian cricketer Graeme Watson who was fighting cancer, has died at the age of 75.

Primarily a middle-order batsman and a medium-pace bowler, he featured in five Tests from 1967 to 1972 and two ODIs in 1972, ESPNcricinfo reported.

The all-rounder earned the national call during the 1966-67 tour of Rhodesia and South Africa. Watson slammed a half-century in the first innings of the second Test of the series.

However, the medium-pace bowler was ruled of the next test after suffering an ankle injury. He returned for the fourth Test in Johannesburg where scalped his career-best 2 for 67 but failed to leave a mark with the bat as Kangaroos lost the series.

In 1971-72 he moved to Western Australia and played a major role in their Sheffield-Shield win in 1971-72, 1972-73, and 1974-75 seasons.

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News Network
July 18,2020

Johannesburg, Jul 18: Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Saturday mourned the demise of former spinner Ismail 'Baboo' Ebrahim who died in Durban at the age of 73.

"Baboo was one of the outstanding South African spin bowlers of the 1960s and 1970s who would undoubtedly have played as many Test matches for his country as the 48 first-class games to which he was limited," CSA said in a statement.

In those matches, he took 179 wickets at an average of 21.33 with an economy rate of 2.12 including 8 five-wicket hauls and 2 ten-wicket hauls.

The left-arm spinner only had one opportunity on the international stage when he played for a SA Invitation XI against the International Wanderers at Kingsmead in 1976.

"At the age of 29, he was in his prime and took a match-winning 6/66 in the second innings, his victims including international captains, Greg Chappell of Australia and Mike Denness of England. It was a clear indication of what he could have achieved on grounds around the world at the highest level had he been given the opportunity. He was a master of flight and spin and had a good arm ball to back it up," the statement read.

His ability to perform at this level had become apparent much earlier when he went to watch the Australians at practice before their Test match against South Africa in 1970.

He persuaded the Australians to let him bowl to them and made an immediate impression, bowling experienced Test batsman Ian Redpath and impressing the likes of Ian Chappell and Ashley Mallett, the latter being Australia's leading spinner of the 1970s.

He had one season for Radcliffe in the Lancashire Central League when he took 62 wickets at 14.62 apiece.

Baboo finally got his chance to represent his country in Masters events in one of which he dismissed both Sir Vivian Richards and Gordon Greenidge.

"Baboo Ebrahim was one of the countless number of outstanding cricketers who was denied the opportunity to display his talents to the world and live his cricketing dreams," said CSA Acting Chief Executive, Dr Jacques Faul.

"On behalf of the CSA Family I extend our deepest sympathy to his family, friends and cricketing colleagues," he added. 

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Agencies
February 7,2020

New Delhi, Feb 7: It was on February 7, 1999, that Anil Kumble became just the second bowler in the history of cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, now known as Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in Delhi during the second Test of the two-match series.

India had set Pakistan a target of 420 runs in the match and the visitors got off to a steady start as openers Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar put on 101 runs for the first wicket.

It was then Kumble who came into the attack and wreaked havoc on the Pakistani batting line-up.

The spinner, also known as 'Jumbo' first dismissed Afridi (41) in the 25th over. After the right-handed batter's dismissal, India kept on taking wickets through Kumble and Pakistan was reduced to 128/6 in no time.

Kumble then kept on taking wickets at regular intervals and he got his tenth scalp in the 61st over after dismissing Wasim Akram.

This effort enabled India to register a win by 212 runs, and Kumble became the second bowler after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in a single Test inning.

Kumble finished with the bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs.

Kumble announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 and finished with 619 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He has the third-highest number of wickets in Tests, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australia's Shane Warne (708).

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