Shikhar Dhawan piles up 248, highest score by an Indian in 'List A' match

August 12, 2013
Shikhar_Dhawan
Pretoria, Aug 12: India's new batting sensation Shikhar Dhawan on Monday gave yet another exhibition of stunning strokeplay by smashing a blistering 248 off 150 balls against South Africa 'A', missing out on a world record feat by just 20 runs.

27-year-old Dhawan, who clobbered 30 boundaries and seven sixes in his superlative knock, became the second highest individual scorer in the history of List A games (limited overs matches) behind former England and Surrey batsman Alistair Brown.

Brown had scored 268 for Surrey against Glamorgan at Oval back on July 19, 2002.

If Dhawan's first 100 came off only 86 balls, the second hundred came off only 46 balls as he raced to his first List A double hundred in only 132 balls with a push off left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks' bowling at the LC de Villiers Oval.

During his rampaging knock, the stylish left-hander surpassed two of his illustrious senior teammates Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, who had scored double centuries in one-day internationals which also qualify as List A games.

On personal best of 220, Dhawan created a national record by surpassing Sehwag's best of 219 in an one-dayer against West Indies at Indore back in 2011.

Just when it looked that he would eclipse the world record, he was caught by wicketkeeper Dane Vilas of Rusty Theron's bowling trying another slog shot. Dhawan added 285 runs in only 33.5 overs with his skipper Cheteshwar Pujara, who also scored a century.

Such was his domination that out of his 162 out of his 248 runs came in only 37 scoring strokes.

Dhawan made a memorable Test debut against Australia earlier this year with a brilliant 187 and has not looked back since then as he became the best batsman in India's victorious Champions Trophy campaign recently.

Dhawan started smashing bowlers from the word 'go' as the first ball of the match bowled by seamer Hardus Viljoen was driven towards long-on for a boundary.

In Viljoen's second and the third over of the innings, Dhawan hit the bowler for three consecutive boundaries, something he repeated when left-arm spinner Rolief van der Merwe also came into bowl.

The moment a bowler pitched short, Dhawan rocked back to pull the deliveries in the region between deep mid-wicket and deep square leg. If he got fuller deliveries, he launched into it to ferociously drive it in the arc between cover and mid-off. If there was width outside the off-stump, then the square cut came into play.

He reached his 100 off 86 balls with a four of Van der Merwe's bowling.

As if to celebrate his milestone, he lofted pacer Theron over cover for successive sixes.

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Agencies
January 16,2020

New Delhi, Jan 16: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday condoled the demise of India's super cricket fan, 87-year-old Charulata Patel.

"#TeamIndia's Superfan Charulata Patel Ji will always remain in our hearts and her passion for the game will keep motivating us. May her soul rest in peace," BCCI tweeted.

Patel had made herself a household name after turning up for India's matches during the 2019 World Cup.

She went on to storm social media after she was seen cheering for the Men in Blue during their World Cup clash against Bangladesh.

After the match, the entire Indian side went to meet Patel and both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were seen meeting the octogenarian fan.

"I am a very religious person and have so much trust in God. So, when I pray, it comes true and I am saying that India is going to get the World Cup, definitely," Patel had told ANI during the World Cup.

The 87-year old had caught everyone's eyes when she was ardently cheering for the Indian team when they were batting.

Patel had also stated that she was there in the stadium when India lifted their first World Cup, back in 1983, under the leadership of former cricket Kapil Dev.

"I have been there. When they won the World Cup, I was so proud, I started dancing. And today also, I told my granddaughter that when India is going to defeat Bangladesh, I am going to dance," she had said.

"I have been watching cricket for decades. When I was in Africa, I used to watch it, then I came to this country in 1975. Here I had work because of which I did not get time to watch but I used to watch it on TV. But nowadays as I am not working, so I have the interest and I am very lucky that I get a chance to watch cricket," she added. 

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News Network
June 18,2020

Jun 18: Sri Lanka "sold" the 2011 World Cup final to India, the country's former sports minister said on Thursday, reviving one of cricket's most explosive match-fixing controversies. Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who was sports minister at the time, is the second senior figure to allege the final was fixed, after 1996 World Cup-winning skipper Arjuna Ranatunga. "I tell you today that we sold the 2011 World Cup finals," Aluthgamage told Sirasa TV. "Even when I was sports minister I believed this."

Aluthgamage, sports minister from 2010 to 2015 and now state minister for renewable energy and power, said he "did not want to disclose" the plot at the time.

"In 2011, we were to win, but we sold the match. I feel I can talk about it now. I am not connecting players, but some sections were involved," he said.

Sri Lanka lost the match at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium by six wickets. Indian players have strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Ranatunga, who was at the stadium as a commentator, has previously called for an investigation into the defeat.

"When we lost, I was distressed and I had a doubt," he said in July 2017. "We must investigate what happened to Sri Lanka at the 2011 World Cup final."

"I cannot reveal everything now, but one day I will. There must be an inquiry," added Ranatunga, who said players could not hide the "dirt".

Sri Lanka batted first and scored 274-6 off 50 overs. They appeared in a commanding position when Indian superstar Sachin Tendulkar was out for 18.

But India turned the game dramatically, thanks partly to poor fielding and bowling by Sri Lanka, who were led by Kumar Sangakkara.

Sri Lankan cricket has regularly been involved in corruption controversies, including claims of match-fixing ahead of a 2018 Test against England.

Earlier this month, the Sri Lankan cricket board said the International Cricket Council was investigating three unnamed former players over alleged corruption.

Sri Lanka introduced tough penalties for match-fixing and tightened sports betting restrictions in November in a bid to stamp out graft.

Another former sports minister, Harin Fernando, has said Sri Lankan cricket was riddled with graft "from top to bottom", and that the ICC considered Sri Lanka one of the world's most corrupt nations.

Former Sri Lankan fast bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige was suspended in 2018 for corruption relating to a limited-overs league.

He was the third Sri Lankan charged under the ICC anti-corruption code, following former captain and ex-chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya, and former paceman Nuwan Zoysa.

Jayasuriya was found guilty of failing to cooperate with a match-fixing probe and banned for two years. Zoysa was suspended for match-fixing.

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News Network
January 30,2020

Hamilton, Jan 30: Caught unaware about the Super Over scenario, Rohit Sharma took five minutes to “find” his abdomen guard after the third T20 International against New Zealand had ended in a tie on Wednesday.

The India vice-captain said the team had almost given up with New Zealand going great guns at one point.

“Everything was packed. All my stuff was inside my bag. I had to get it out. It literally took me five minutes to find my abdomen guard because I didn’t know where it was,” Rohit said.

“I mean we never thought it would go to the Super Over, the way they were batting at one point. It looked like they could easily win the game,” he added.

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