Dale Steyn bowled South Africa to a thrilling two-run win over New Zealand

March 25, 2014

steynChittagong: Chasing 171, New Zealand needed seven off the final over but Steyn took two wickets and ran out Ross Taylor (62) off the last ball to seal victory.

Fast bowler Steyn finished with 4-17 in New Zealand's 168-8 but team-mate JP Duminy took the man of the match award.

Duminy hit an unbeaten 86 from 43 balls as South Africa put on 70 off the last five overs to reach 170-6.

The win was South Africa's first of the tournament and leaves England bottom of Group One with the Netherlands.

Taylor, who hit three sixes in a row and brought up his fifty from 26 balls, looked like steering New Zealand to victory but, crucially, was not on strike at the start of the final over.

Steyn dismissed Luke Ronchi with the first ball and Nathan McCullum with the penultimate one and Taylor was left needing three off the final delivery.

The former skipper clipped the ball back to Steyn and the fast bowler, who finished with figures of 4-17, ran out the Kiwi for 62 to wrap up victory.

"I was thinking all the time, Dale is my trump card and I need to bring him back in the game because he was bowling beautifully," said South Africa captain Faf du Plessis.

"But with the way they were hitting the ball, it was a fantastic effort from Dale."

New Zealand were in control on 57-0 after seven overs but South Africa struck back with Albie Morkel dismissing Martin Guptill (22) with his first delivery and leg-spinner Imran Tahir having captain Brendon McCullum stumped off a wide in the next over for four.

The enterprising Taylor struck Morne Morkel for three successive sixes and a fifty partnership with Kane Williamson came up in 27 balls.

Steyn, with the help of a superb diving catch from AB de Villiers, saw off Williamson for 51 and Corey Anderson for seven, while Tahir struck again as the Proteas hit back.

Du Plessis kept his premier bowler back for the final over and that proved to be the difference.

"We probably should have won it pretty easily," said McCullum. "But you can't take it to the last over against such a quality bowler like Dale Steyn.

"With a little bit of luck we would have got across the line, but credit to South Africa."

The fact that South Africa had such a big total was down to Duminy, who came to the crease in the seventh over with his side on 42-3, after De Villiers lost his balance attempting an extravagant hit and was bowled for five.

The 29-year-old left-hander, who hit his side's first six in the 12th over, put on a stand of 55 with Hashim Amla before Amla was out for 41 in an unusual manner.

Amla smashed an Anderson delivery straight at Duminy, who deflected the ball high into the air off the handle of his bat, and the bowler took the simplest of catches.

With his side on 100-4 after 15 overs, Duminy accelerated with some inventive shots, including one overhead flick for four and a straight drive that had umpire Aleem Dar ducking for safety.

He hit 22 in boundaries in the final two overs to give South Africa a highly competitive score that just proved enough, and won him the man-of-the-match award.

"We were in huge trouble at the start," added Du Plessis. "JP took his time and then hit it sweetly at the end. It was a fantastic effort and one of the best innings I have seen him play."

South Africa return to action on Thursday when they face the Netherlands while England, who lost to New Zealand on Saturday, take on group leaders Sri Lanka on the same day.

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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News Network
January 27,2020

Hamilton, Jan 27: In awe of Jasprit Bumrah, New Zealand wicketkeeper Tim Seifert says the Indian speedster's subtle variations have been difficult to pick in the ongoing T20 series and his side needs to a learn a thing or two about adapting from the visitors.

India beat New Zealand by seven wickets in the second T20 International in Auckland on Sunday to grab a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.

Bumrah returned with figures of 1-21 from his four overs as Indian skipper Virat Kohli changed his bowling plans from the first game.

"Even in the first game, Bumrah bowled slower balls that were going wider. Normally, death bowlers get into straighter lines, plus yorkers and mix it with chest height. He kind of changes things a lot and is tougher to play," Seifert said.

"...the ball was holding a lot more which made it tougher. So sometimes as a batsman you have to move away from the stumps and see if they bowl straight. I was backing myself to do something different instead of just standing there at the wicket," said the stumper, who remained unbeaten on 33 off 26 balls.

"It was tricky and the ball was holding a little bit. When Kane (Williamson) got out in the over against Yuzvendra Chahal, we knew it was the over to push because they had Bumrah coming back," he added.

He said New Zealand batsmen need to take a cue from their Indian counterparts on how to adapt to different conditions quickly.

"...Indian batsmen showed how to get under the ball and time it. They showed it a couple of times that and on the slower wickets you just have to keep it like that. Once you lose your shape, you are not in position," he said.

"Try to get them (bowlers) off line or off balance, try to get into that position to hit good balls. That's T20 cricket as well. Sometimes it's going 100 per cent but some times you have to take a breath and re-assess. Indian batters did that well."

Seifert believes New Zealand bowlers did reasonably well in the two games but they have been outplayed by the Indian batsmen.

"To be honest, in the first game they were 110-1 and they had wickets in hand. We didn't bowl too badly in that first game. In the second game, we only got 130 and it is tough to bowl at Eden Park (with that total)," he said.

"170 was the target in mind but once you get 130 on the board, that was going to be very hard at Eden Park against a team that is very strong and playing really well. But our spinners were outstanding. Good balls have gone to boundary.

He said coming into the T20 series on the back of a lost Test rubber in Australia also didn't help New Zealand's cause in the first two games.

"Boys are coming off a Test series (in Australia) and a lot of them haven't played T20 cricket for a while," he said.

"But for some like me, I have had the Super Smash for the last two months, so I have played a lot of T20 cricket. They have two games under their belt now so hopefully they will have a better understanding."

Asked if New Zealand would want to play on India's strength of chasing, Seifert replied, "Even in ODI cricket, India have chased down big totals but I think on that wicket it was going to get slower and slower.

"But with that small target on Eden Park, something special has to happen with top six (for a collapse). One batsman got fifty and the other was batting very well. We needed top five-six in the first 10 overs," he said.

The Black Caps are still confident of bouncing back in the series.

The third T20 will be played here on Wednesday before back-to-back matches in Wellington and Mt Maunganui. Seifert said they would like to replicate the 2019 tour of India, where New Zealand came out 2-1 victorious in the three-match series.

"We have lost the first two games but we haven't played badly. We definitely haven't played our best though while India has played very well. If we lose the series on Wednesday, it is not the end of the world. But if we can turn things around, and win, we will take things from there," he said.

"We won the series 2-1 last time, so we have to treat it like a three match series again. But we have to treat it like the first two are must-win games."

"We are not playing our best at the moment. There are 20-odd games before the World Cup, and that tournament is the pinnacle, so we will get there (in preparation),” he signed off.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 9: BWF World Championships defending champion PV Sindhu on Thursday cruised to the quarterfinals of the ongoing Malaysia Masters after winning a second-round match.

The 24-year-old had the upper hand in the clash and thrashed Japan's Aya Ohori in straight games 21-10, 21-15 that lasted for 34-minute. The world number six will now play in her quarterfinal match on January 10.

Earlier in the day, Saina Nehwal defeated South Korea's An Se Young 25-23, 21-12 in 38 minutes. The first game saw back and forth action between both shuttlers. In the end, Nehwal kept her cool to win the match.

On Wednesday, the 29-year-old had outclassed Belgium's Lianne Tan 21-15, 21-17 to progress to the pre-quarterfinals.

Shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the tournament after losing their matches to Japan's Kento Momota and Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei respectively. 

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