Mithali Raj may retire from T20Is after home series against England

Agencies
February 6, 2019

Feb 6: Indian women cricket team's seniormost player Mithali Raj in all likelihood will bring down curtains on her T20 International career after the home series against England while continuing in the 50-over format where she is still the captain of the side.

Raj was not picked for the opening T20I of the three-match series against New Zealand at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Wednesday. And it has been learnt that the 36-year-old will not continue beyond the three-match T20 series against England, starting March 4 in Assam's Barsapara.

"Mithali understands that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur will like to concentrate on building a team for the 2020 World T20 and that she is unlikely to feature in that tournament," a senior official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told PTI on condition of anonymity.

"But a player of her stature should get a warm send-off and that is likely to be against England," the official added.

There were indications that Mithali may not be selected in all the matches against the 'White Ferns' and she had been made aware by a senior member of the team management.

It is understood that Mithali can read the writing on the wall and the cricket board will give her chance to retire on her own terms from the shortest format.

"It is still not sure whether she would like to play the full series against England or like former men's team pacer Ashish Nehra, play the first game of the series and retire," the official further said.

Mithali's place in the T20I side has been under scanner due to her slow strike-rate and waning fielding abilities which led to her being dropped for the all-important Women's World T20 semi-final against England.

The ouster from playing XI led to a public spat with Committee of Administrators (CoA) member Diana Edulji, whom she accused of trying to "finish her career" along with interim chief coach Ramesh Powar.

Powar didn't get an extension in his role and WV Raman was appointed coach before the New Zealand series.

Mithali has so far scored 2283 runs from 85 T20 Internationals with the highest score of 97 and 17 half-centuries to her credit.

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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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Agencies
March 14,2020

Sydney, Mar 14: New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson has been placed under 24-hour isolation amid the fears of coronavirus after he reported a sore throat following the first ODI of the ongoing three-match series against Australia in Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) which the hosts won by 71 runs.

"In accordance with recommended health protocols, Lockie Ferguson has been placed in isolation at the team hotel for the next 24 hours after reporting a sore throat at the end of the first ODI," said New Zealand Cricket in a statement.

"Once the test results are received and diagnosed, his return to the team can be determined," it added.

The first ODI of the Chappell-Hadlee series was played in front of empty stands as the spectators were not allowed to be at SCG as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier, Australian fast bowler, Kane Richardson was also tested for the coronavirus, after suffering from a sore throat on Thursday. That saw him left out of the squad for Friday's game but the test was negative.

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News Network
May 30,2020

New Delhi, May 30: Former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand will be finally reaching India late on Saturday after being stuck in Germany for over three months due to the travel restrictions imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Yes.. Anand will be returning today," the chess maestro's wife Aruna told PTI on Saturday morning. Anand, who boarded an Air India flight (AI-120) from Frankfurt on Friday night will reach Bengaluru via Delhi.

He is expected to reach Bengaluru at 1.15 pm. The five-time world champion will undergo 14 days quarantine as per rules laid down by the Karnataka government.

"He will complete quarantine procedures and come to Chennai as per protocol," Aruna Anand said. The flights from Germany are only scheduled to land only in Delhi and Bengaluru.

The chess ace was in Germany to play in the Bundesliga chess league and was to return to India, but was forced to stay put after the COVID-19 outbreak disrupted sporting schedules across the globe, apart from restricting movement.

He was staying near Frankfurt and was doing online commentary for the Candidates tournament which was called off mid-way due to the pandemic and led the Indian team in the Online Nations Cup early this month.

Anand had been in touch with his family in Chennai on a regular basis via video calls and kept himself busy with chess-related work.

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