Samuels recovers West Indies from early damage

November 6, 2013

Marlon_SamuelsKolkata, Nov 6: West Indies rode on Marlon Samuels’ attacking knock to recover from early damage and post 107 for the loss of two wickets at lunch on the opening day of the first cricket Test against India at the historic Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Making his debut, Mohammad Shami got his maiden Test scalp in the form of Kieran Powell (28) after Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave India the initial breakthrough by picking up the prized wicket of Chris Gayle (18).

Asked to bowl, the Indian bowlers exploited the early conditions to great effect and removed both the West Indies’ openers in side the 50-run mark.

But Samuels showed resilience before attacking Indian spinners and together with steady-looking Darren Bravo rebuilt the West Indies innings with an unbroken 60-run partnership.

Samuels was unbeaten on 45 from 55 balls during which he hit seven fours and two sixes, while Bravo was batting on 16 at the lunch break.

The ongoing match, which is Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar’s penultimate and 199th Test and last one at the Eden, saw half-empty stands as many chose to stay way after West Indies won the toss and elected to bat.

With some visible and wide cracks on the wicket, Sammy did not hesitate to bat up front as the visitors went with two frontline pacers and two spinners, giving a maiden Test cap to left-arm seamer Sheldon Cotterrell.

The slow and dead Eden turner behaved nothing differently and was uninspiring for the bowlers. The ball stayed low while the odd one rose as India began with Bhuvneshwar and Shami.

Playing his first Test at his home ground, Shami was impressive as he troubled both Powell and Gayle.

Gayle went about his business in his usual brisk way and even had an inside edge off Shami but was lucky as the ball missed the stumps to race to the boundary.

With both the West Indies openers looking rusty, Dhoni introduced Ashwin in the 10th over but the result was no different as Powell slammed the off-spinner over his head before hitting a four two balls later.

But there was some respite in store for the Indian camp as Bhuvneshwar gave the first breakthrough in the first ball of the next over, removing a dangerous-looking Gayle.

Going for an expensive drive sans footwork, Gayle edged a Bhuveneshwar’s seaming delivery straight to Murali Vijay at second slip.

Dhoni made a smart change bringing in Shami from the High Court end four overs later that resulted in the second wicket in the form of Powell, the Bengal pacer’s maiden Test scalp.

Powell was caught by a running Bhuvneshwar at mid-off when he mistimed a pull off the first bouncer of the day from Shami.

But after an encouraging first session, the Indian bowlers lost the plot as Samuels and Bravo mixed caution with aggression to take West Indies forward without any further damage.

For India, in-form Rohit Sharma is the other debutant in the match. The talented Mumbai batsman got his maiden Test cap, six years after making his ODI debut on June 23, 2007.

Day 1: Scoreboard at lunch

West Indies 1st innings

Chris Gayle c Vijay b Kumar 18

Kieran Powell c Kumar b Mohammed Shami 28

Darren Bravo not out 16

Marlon Samuels not out 45

Extras: 0

Total: (for 2 wickets in 33 overs) 107

Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-47

Bowling: Kumar 9-3-27-1, Shami 7-1-39-1, Ashwin 10-7-22-0, Ojha 7-3-19-0.

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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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News Network
January 24,2020

Auckland, Jan 24: K L Rahul and Shreyas Iyer smashed quick-fire half-centuries, while skipper Virat Kohli made 45 as India defeated New Zealand by six wickets in the first T20 International to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series here on Friday.

Chasing a challenging 204-run target, Rahul smashed 56 off 27 balls and together with Kohli shared 99 runs for the second wicket to lay the foundation for the chase.

Later, Iyer (58 not out off 29 balls) and Manish Pandey (14 not out) remained unbeaten as India chased down the target with an over to spare.

Earlier, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor smashed scintillating half-centuries to power New Zealand to a challenging 203 for five.

Opener Munro blasted six fours and two sixes in his 42-ball 59, while skipper Williamson treated the Indian bowlers with equal disdain, hitting them out of the park four times in his 26-ball 51.

Taylor then clobbered an unbeaten 54 off 27 balls. His innings was laced with three sixes and as many fours.

Opener Martin Guptill also chipped in with a 19-ball 30.

Earlier, India skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to field.

For India, Jasprit Bumrah (1/), Shardul Thakur (1/44), Yuzvendra Chahal (1/32), Shivam Dube (1/24) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/18) snapped one wicket each.

Brief Score:

New Zealand: 203 for 5 in 20 overs (Colin Munro 59, Kane Williamson 51, Ross Taylor 54; Jasprit Bumrah 1/31).

India: 204 for 4 in 19 overs (Shreyas Iyer 58 not out, K L Rahul 56, Virat Kohli 45; Ish Sodhi 2/36).

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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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