David Warner and Shane Watson help Australia maul India by 9 wickets

September 28, 2012

watson

Colombo, September 28: David Warner and Shane Watson blasted their way to propel Australia to an emphatic nine-wicket victory over India in the Super Eight match of the ICC World Twenty20 at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Warner remained unbeaten on 63 off 41 to take Australia to victory target of 141/1 in 14.5 overs. Warner and Watson stitched 133-run stand in just 13.3 overs to pile misery on Indian bowlers and ensured Australia's victory over listless India.

Yuvraj Singh was the lone Indian bowler who got rid of dangerous Watson. Watson notched up 28-ball fifty, smashing six huge sixes and a four as he took the full advantage of clueless Indian bowling. Warner, on the other hand, also complimented his partner with a 37-ball fifty, smacking six fours and two sixes.

Chasing 141-run target, the Warner and Watson duo gave Australia steady start as they took team's fifty in 6.4 overs.

Earlier, Indian batsmen struggled to tackle the top class Australian bowling as they were restricted to modest 140/7. Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh were remained unbeaten on 12 and 1 respectively.

Australian fast bowlers on a roll as they sent half of the Indian batsmen back to the pavilion inside 12 overs. Shane Watson was pick of the Aussie bowler, capturing three wickets including the prize scalp of Yuvraj Singh.

Shane Watson struck twice in one over to dismiss Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan and left India struggling at 74/4 in 11 overs. Mitchell Starc also joined the party in the next over by removing Rohit Sharma to put India in deep trouble.

Pat Cummins struck in his first over of the second spell to give Australia huge breakthrough, dismissing Virat Kohli. Kohli and Irfan Pathan tried to build on the Indian innings, adding 35 runs for the second wicket in 26 balls. It was rare failure for Kohli, who contributed 15 runs with the help of two boundaries.

India suffered early blow when Gautam Gambhir got run-out by Australian pacer Cummins. The southpaw started off well as he smashed three fours in his 17 runs knock off 12 balls after Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat against Australia.

India made the good use of the mandatory powerplay after losing the vice-captain as Irfan Pathan and Virat Kohli took the team past fifty-run mark in six overs.

India made two changes, bringing in Ravichandran Ashwin and Zaheer Khan in place of Ashok Dinda and L Balaji. Dhoni stuck with his plans of playing five specialist bowlers as he decided not to get Virender Sehwag back in the squad.

Teams:

India: Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni (captain & wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla and Zaheer Khan.

Australia: David Warner, Shane Watson, Michael Hussey, Cameron White, George Bailey(captain), Glenn Maxwell, Matthew (wk), Dan Christian, Brad Hogg, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc.

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News Network
July 3,2020

Karachi, Jul 3: Pakistan limited overs captain Babar Azam is tired of his constant comparisons with India skipper Virat Kohli and says he would rather be compared to the greats at home.

Babar, six years younger to Kohli, has a long way to go in getting close to Kohli's staggering numbers across formats. The India skipper has 70 hundreds to his name and averages more than 50 in all three formats.

"I would be more happy if you compare to me say a Javed Miandad, Muhammad Yousuf or Younis Khan. Why compare me to Kohli or any Indian player?" asked the 25-year-old, who is in England with the national team, said in an online media interaction on Thursday.

Babar has scored 16 international hundreds and averages more than 50 in ODIs and T20s. In 26 Tests, he has scored 1850 runs at 45.12.

He also said that he is not targeting any English bowler for the series next month.

"I don’t see who the bowler is or his reputation. I just try to play each ball on merit. England no doubt has a top bowling attack and they have advantage of playing at home but this is a challenge I want to score runs in," he said.

Before the squad’s departure for England, Pakistan batting coach Younis Khan said that pacer Joffra Archer will be a handful for the Pakistani batsmen.

Babar said that he would try to play every English bowler on merit but conceded that after getting runs in Australia last year, he was keen to leave his footprint in the coming Test and T20 series in England.

Reminded that some former Test players had already written off Pakistan for the England series, Babar said they were entitled to their opinion.

"But we don’t have a bad team and already we have been enjoying our training. It is good to be back on the field after such a long lay-off. I think we have the bowlers to trouble them like Abbas, Naseem, Shaheen and others while we have some experience in our batting line-up."

Babar said he would love to get a triple century in a Test match.

"When you score a century, you naturally want to go on and convert that into a double or a triple century. This is something I would like to do during the Test series.

"I like to play my natural game but my selection of shots depends on the conditions and bowlers."

Babar also ruled out any problems in the Pakistan dressing room due to the presence of former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was sacked last year.

But he said that since Muhammad Rizwan had been playing in all formats for Pakistan in recent times, he would be the starting keeper in the Test series ahead of Sarfaraz.

"I think we first have to give Rizwan a proper chance and Sarfaraz is there as back up."

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Agencies
May 31,2020

London, May 31: "Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli," replied umpire Ian Gould when he was asked to name the three best batsmen he loved watching when he was officiating as an umpire.

The former ICC elite umpire said that he was unlucky to not watch Ponting bat as much as he would have liked to.

"Jacques Kallis. I loved watching Jacques. He was a very, very fine player. Sachin. And probably Virat. I was unlucky in some respects. I didn't see the best of Ricky Ponting. He was an outstanding character, outstanding captain, such a proud Australian," ESPNCricinfo quoted Gould as saying.

"But his career was just starting to wane as I came on the scene. But he was incredibly helpful, so I'm disappointed I have to leave him out. Jacques Kallis, I could sit and watch all day, Virat, the same. And Sachin, if you want someone to bat for your life, he was the man," he added.

Gould had retired from the ICC's panel of elite umpires in 2019, after standing in more than 250 international matches over a 13-year career.

Over the years, comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have been growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli has 70 centuries across all formats.

While, Kallis played 166 Tests, 328 ODIs and 25 T20Is for South Africa and he is often viewed as the greatest all-rounder the game has seen.

Many pundits of the game find it hard to pick between him and Sir Garfield Sobers.

Across his career, Kallis scored 25,534 runs in his career and he also managed to take 577 wickets.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: 'Your character stood out for me than the number of runs you scored," said India skipper Virat Kohli while explaining his decision to give opening Mayank Agarwal a Test debut in the 2018-19 Australia series.

Mayank Agarwal had made his Test debut against Australia in the third Test of the four-match series.

Playing the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Agarwal managed to register a half-century in his very first innings in the longest format.

"I had seen you play for RCB, even then you played international bowlers with conviction and you would take them on. You were performing in first-class matches in a dominating way. That is something always stood out with you, I would say your character stood out for me than the number of runs. I knew you would be fearless without having any baggage," Kohli told Mayank Agarwal in a video posted on the official website of BCCI.

In the longest format of the game, Agarwal has managed to score 974 runs from 11 matches at an average of 57.29 with three centuries as an opening batsman.

The Indian skipper also explained as to what makes him notice in a player and added that it is important that guys in the team look to face new challenges and emerge triumphantly.

"For me, the biggest marker is how a person approaches the game, so for example when you opened and we made Vihari open with you. The first opportunity we presented Vihari to open the batting, he said yes to it and that matters me to the most," Kohli said.

"I opened in my first series for India, I said yes to this opportunity and things worked out fine for me. So, a guy who wants to get into tough situations will come out either holding his head high or learning from his mistakes," he added.

Kohli and Mayank would soon be seen in action for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab respectively in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting from September 19 in the UAE.

The comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar keep on growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats.

At present, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings. Kohli has so far played 86 Tests, scoring 7,240 runs with 27 centuries at an average of 53.62.

His knock of 254 against South Africa at Pune in 2019 remains his highest Test score to date. When it comes to ODIs, the current Indian skipper has played 248 matches and has 43 centuries.

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