Sehwag makes way for Pujara in ODI squad against England

January 7, 2013

shewag

New Delhi, Jan 7: The Sandeep Patil-led National Selection committee bit the bullet and axed senior batsman Virender Sehwag from India’s squad for the first three ODIs against England.

Sehwag’s exclusion from the playing eleven in the final one-dayer against Pakistan on Sunday was an ominous sign of things to come in Sehwag’s way. Young Ajinkya Rahane, who had been waiting in the wings for quite some time now, was selected in his place.

It’s a different matter that the Mumbai batsman managed just four runs at Feroze Shah Kotla here on Sunday in the third one-dayer.

Sehwag has been going through a prolonged slump in form in all formats of the game and speculation was rife that the axe may fall on him. Sehwag has averaged just 22.54 in the last 11 one-dayers he has played in the last 12 months.

This is the second time the Delhi batsman has been dropped from the Indian squad, the first time being in 2007 before he made a comeback the next year in Australia.

Saurashtra batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, who has been in fine form in Tests and in the ongoing domestic season, has been drafted in his place to bolster the middle-order.

The top order has been consistently crumbling of late and the lack of runs from Sehwag and his partner Gautam Gambhir has not helped India’s cause. Sehwag has scored just one half century in 12 innings.

Pujara has been impressive in the Test series against England, scoring two hundreds at Ahmedabad and Mumbai in the first and second Tests respectively. He had been scoring consistently at the domestic level as well and also made a double century in Ranji Trophy against Madhya Pradesh last week, where he reached 200 from 150 in just 17 balls.

The sword was also hanging on Gambhir but for the moment he has been retained in the 15-member squad. While Gambhir has done little of note in Tests and T20s in the last one year or so, his record in one-dayer has been encouraging. Surprisingly, the selectors continued to show faith in Rohit Sharma despite his long struggle with the bat.

As expected, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami Ahmed have been retained.

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News Network
July 16,2020

Kolkata, Jul 16: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday went into home quarantine after his elder brother and Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) joint secretary Snehasish Ganguly tested positive for Covid-19.

Snehasish, a former Bengal first-class player, has been admitted to the Belle Vue hospital in Kolkata after his COVID report came positive.

"He was suffering from fever for the last few days and his test report came positive today. He's been admitted to Belle Vue Hospital," a CAB official said.

"The reports arrived late in the evening. As per health protocols, even Sourav will have to be in home quarantine for a stipulated period," a source close to the BCCI President added.

Snehasish had shifted to their ancestral house, where Sourav is based, in Behala after his wife and in-laws at his Mominpur residence tested positive for the dreaded virus.

The former India captain was, however, unavailable for a comment on the development.

Recently, during an interview to India Today, Sourav had spoken about how life around him has changed, making people more vulnerable.

"My brother visits our factories everyday and he is more at risk," the former batting star had said

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Jeddah, Jan 9: Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde criticised the new Supercopa format and said that "football has become a business and as a business it looks for income".

"The bottom line is football has become a business and as a business it looks for income. That's the reason we are all here," Goal.com quoted Valverde as saying ahead of Barca's semi-final against Atletico.

"It's a completely different format to what we're used to. It was always the first title and the opener of the season and to me, that seemed fine," he added.

The Supercopa was traditionally a two-legged affair played between the winners of La Liga and the Copa del Rey at the beginning of the season, but following last term's one-off meeting between Barca and Sevilla in Tangier, Morocco, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) went ahead with a full revamp.

Instead of just two teams being involved, the Supercopa has been expanded to also include the runners-up from La Liga and the Copa - meaning Barca and Valencia are joined by Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. It is also set to be hosted in Saudi Arabia for the next three editions.

"It's been changed and let's see, it will be judged once it has happened. It's interesting, with four good teams, but from a sporting point of view, I'm not sure," Valverde said.

"We must bear in mind that the football we are involved in is an industry, sources of income are sought and in the same way that there are special connotations in this country, there are also in Morocco, where we played last year," he added.

Barcelona will face Atletico Madrid in the semifinal of the Supercopa at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah on January 10.

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Agencies
July 31,2020

Hampshire, Jul 31: David Willey's maiden five-wicket haul guided England to a six-wicket victory over Ireland in the first ODI here on Friday.

With this win, the hosts have taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.

Chasing a small target of 173 runs, England got off to a bad start as opener Jonny Bairstow was given LBW in the third over, bowled by Andy McBrine. Jason Roy was then joined by James Vince and the duo added 22 runs on the board before the former was dismissed.

Craig Young then got hold of Vince, who was caught behind after scoring 25 runs. Sam Billings and Tom Banton then took the charge of the chase but the latter too was caught behind which ended his 11-run innings.

Banton's dismissal brought skipper Eoin Morgan on the field. Billings and Morgan played stunning innings and kept scoring boundaries. Morgan struck a scintillating six on the last bowl of the 28th over to take England over the line. Morgan scored 36 runs while Billings played a knock of 67 runs.

Earlier, after being asked to bat first, Ireland witnessed a poor start as Paul Stirling was dismissed in the very first over of the innings, bowled by Willey. Andy Balbirnie then joined Gareth Delany but Willey struck again in his next over, removing Balbirnie.

Delany then played furiously and smashed three consecutive boundaries to Saqib Mahmood in the fourth over. However, the fall of wickets did not stop as England took three wickets in quick succession. Mahmood bowled Harry Tector while Delany and Lorcan Tucker were sent back to the pavilion by Willey.

Kevin O'Brien and Curtis Campher then took the charge and played cautiously, taking their struggling side over the 50-run mark. Adil Rashid got hold of O'Brien (22) in the 22nd over before Simranjit Singh was run out in the same over.

Andy McBrine was the next batsman and he played brilliantly along with Campher, who went on to complete his half-century. Both formed a 66-run partnership before McBrine (40) was dismissed by Tom Curran.

Campher remained unbeaten on 59 but failed to find a partner as England bundled out Ireland on 172 runs.

The second ODI between both teams will be played on Saturday.

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