Dream debut for Shami, India start 'farewell' series in style

November 6, 2013

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Kolkata, Nov 6: Pacer Mohammed Shami announced his arrival on the Test arena by scalping four wickets in a dream spell against the West Indies as a dominant India started Sachin Tendulkar's farewell series by taking early control of the first Test on Wednesday.

Shami returned impressive figures of 4-71 in 18 overs as India bowled out the visitors for a paltry 234 after they opted to bat at the Eden Gardens on the opening day.

At stumps, India were comfortably placed at 37 for no loss with the two openers, Shikhar Dhawan (21) and Murali Vijay (16), at the crease. At the end of first day's play, India trailed the West Indies by 197 runs with all their wickets intact.

West Indies skipper Darren Sammy's decision to bat may have prevented the crowd from watching Tendulkar bat on the first day itself, but the 40-year-old retiring legend did his bit with the bowl picking up a wicket in his first over itself, taking his Test wicket tally to 46.

While Tendulkar was undoubtedly the cynosure of all eyes, Shami grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he rocked the West Indies middle-order with a hostile spell that included quite a few reverse-swinging deliveries.

The 23-year-old Shami's wickets included Kieran Powell, top-scorer Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin and Sheldon Cottrell.

Earlier, West Windies were placed were placed comfortably at 107 for two at lunch, but Shami wreaked havoc in the second session, extracting excellent reverse swings from the Eden pitch to trigger a collapse. The touring side lost eight wickets for 96 runs to be skittled out in 78 overs.

Samuels scored 65 off 98 balls with the help of 11 fours and two sixes.

About 40,000 turned up on the first day, expecting Tendulkar to bat. While that did not happen, with the ball he turned the clock back as he trapped Shane Shillingford in front of the wicket with a straighter one after bowling three turning deliveries.

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha (1-62) too impressed with his tidy bowling but he was unlucky twice with skipper Dhoni dropping Samuels and Shane Shillingford on two occasions. Ravichandran Ashwin claimed 2-52.

Born in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, Shami moved to Bengal eight years ago on coach Badruddin SIddique's insistence as there were not many opportunities for the young pacer in his home state.

Son of a farmer, Shami, who hails from a remote village called Sahaspur about 22kms from Moradabad, found his calling in Kolkata where club cricket was very much active as he went on to ply his trade for clubs like Dalhousie AC and Town before being called for Bengal under-22.

He was also a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders squad in IPL 2011 and the tips from bowling consultant Wasim Akram proved invaluable.

It was a good move by Dhoni as he preferred Shami over the out-of-sorts Ishant Sharma, who, incidentally, gave the Test cap to the debutant pacer. The other debutant of the day was Rohit Sharma and he got the cap from Tendulkar.

Shami showed fine fitness as he bowled in four spells with the third being the longest and most fruitful (7-0-30-2). He was at his best in the last spell that read 3-1-2-1.

Shami was also instrumental in Darren Bravo's run-out as West Windies committed a harakiri in the middle, losing three wickets in as many overs to tilt the match in favour of India.

Shami got his maiden Test scalp in the form of Powell (28) after Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave the initial breakthrough, taking the prized wicket of Chris Gayle (18).

India exploited the slow Eden pitch to good effect as Bhuvneshwar dismissed Gayle with a low delivery. Both the WI openers looked impatient and got out in the space of four overs.

Playing his first Test at his home ground, Shami was impressive from the first over as he troubled both the openers.

With his second ball, Shami nipped one back against Powell, but the height saved the left-hander who appeared a little tentative to start with.

Gayle, on the other hand, went about in his usual brisk manner and even had an inside edge off Shami but was lucky as the ball missed the stumps.

Dhoni made a smart change, bringing in Shami from the High Court end that resulted in the wicket of Powell.

Samuels slowly repaired the damage as he completed his 19th half century in his happy hunting ground, where he had scored his maiden Test hundred in 2002, as the Caribbeans went to lunch smiling.

Shami castled Samuels with a sharp in-cutter to grab his second wicket, which broke a fine 91-run partnership with Bravo.

Dhoni gave the last over before tea to Tendulkar, bringing the crowd on its feet. It turned out be a masterstroke by the 'Captain Cool'.

After bowling three deliveries, the maestro unleashed a flipper and Shillingford had no answer.

Teams:

India: MS Dhoni (Capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Pragyan Ojha.

West Indies: Darren Sammy (Capt.), Chris Gayle, Kieran Powell, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Denesh Ramdin, Shane Shillingford, Veerasammy Permaul, Sheldon Cotterrell, Tino Best.

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News Network
June 5,2020

Jun 5: The Asian Football Confederation has awarded the hosting rights of the 2022 Women's Asian Cup to India for the first time since 1979.

The decision was taken at the AFC Women's Football Committee meeting. In February, the AFC Women's Football Committee had recommended India to be hosts.

In a letter to the All India Football Federation, Dato Windsor John, General Secretary, AFC wrote: "The Committee awarded the hosting rights of the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2022 Finals to the All India Football Federation."

The tournament will likely be held in the second half of the year. In the 1979 edition, India had finished as runners-up.

"I need to thank the Asian Football Confederation for finding us suitable to host the AFC Women's Asian Cup in 2022," AIFF President, Praful Patel said.

"The tournament will galvanise the aspiring women players and bring in a holistic social revolution as far as women's football in the country is concerned," he added.

The tournament will feature 12 teams, expanded from the previous slot of eight teams.

India qualifies directly as hosts. The event will also serve as the final qualification tournament for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

The tournament comes as the latest boost to AIFF as India is slated to host the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup next year.

India had also hosted the AFC U-16 Championships in 2016 and the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017.

"The tournament will play a huge role in further popularising women's football in India. The Women’s Asian Cup 2022 comes on the back of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup India 2020, and will help us sustain, and build on the momentum gained," AIFF General Secretary, Kushal Das said.

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News Network
February 24,2020

Wellington, Feb 24: Indian batsmen's inadequacies in adverse conditions were laid bare as they crashed to an embarrassing 10-wicket defeat against a ruthless New Zealand side that wrapped up the opening Test in just over three days here on Monday.

Starting the day on 144 for four, India were all out for 191 in their second innings. This was only a shade better than their dismal 165 in the first innings, which eventually proved to be decisive.

Trent Boult (4/39 in 22 overs) and Tim Southee (5/61 in 21 overs), the most under-rated new ball pairs in world cricket, showed that when it boils down to playing incisive seam and swing bowling, this batting line-up is still a work in progress.

The required target of nine runs was knocked off by New Zealand without much ado for their 100th Test win.

India's last defeat was against Australia at Perth during the 2018-19 series but the loss at the Basin Reserve would hurt them more because the visitors have not surrendered in such a fashion of late.

There was no resistance from a star-studded line-up and more than intent, the failure was due to poor technique on a track that had something on the third and fourth day as well.

This is a team that plays fast bowling much better than their predecessors, the reason for their success on the bouncy Australian tracks.

But when it comes to facing conventional seam and swing bowling in testing conditions, they are yet to learn the art of saving a Test match.

India had lost the mental battle on the first day itself when they saw the moisture on the wicket.

The toss became a factor and not for one session did they look comfortable. Mayank Agarwal was the only batsman, who felt at home in patches, as New Zealand showed what a Test match strategy is all about.

If the first innings was about mixing back of length deliveries with fuller length balls, the second innings saw the pacers coming from round the wicket and targeting the rib-cage. The line was disconcerting and it stifled them for good.

It affected their mindset and once Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari stepped out on the fourth morning, defeat was written all over as both looked ill-equipped to handle such high quality seam bowling.

Rahane (29 off 75 balls) and Vihari (15 off 79 balls) are players who only play long-form cricket at the international level and both are known for their patience.

But little would have the Indian vice-captain apprehended that he would get a delivery from Boult, which he thought would move away after pitching but it held its line and he had no option but to jab at it, and all he got was an edge.

Southee, who bowls a lovely classical outswinger, then bowled an off-cutter from the other end and before Vihari could comprehend, it came back sharply to peg the stumps back.

Within first 20 minutes, the two seasoned practitioners of swing had knocked the stuffing out of India's resistance.

Rishabh Pant (25 off 41 balls) batted only in the manner he can and played one breathtaking shot off Southee, a slog sweep off a 130 kmph-plus delivery to the deep mid-wicket boundary.

But there was too much left to do with too little support from the other end. Bending on one knee, he tried another audacious slog scoop but couldn't clear.

Southee, who had a terrific match, deservingly completed his 10th five-wicket haul and all it took was 16 overs to end the innings and the match.

New Zealand now have 120 points in the World Test championship and India stayed on top with 36 points.

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News Network
January 23,2020

Dhaka, Jan 23: Left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who is part of the Bangladesh squad traveling to Pakistan, posted a cryptic tweet before team's departure which raised a few eyebrows.

On Wednesday evening, Rahman took to Twitter to post a selfie along with his teammates before the team's departure and asked his followers to pray for them, writing: "Heading to Pakistan. Remember us in your prayers."

Bangladesh were earlier reluctant to travel to Pakistan. However, the officials of both the teams met in Dubai and it was after many deliberations, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) agreed to send their team for a cricket series.

Bangladesh will be playing three T20Is, two Tests and an ODI in Pakistan between January and April. The T20I series will be played from January 24-27 in Lahore, followed by the first Test from February 7 to 11.

Bangladesh will then return to Pakistan in April for the one-off ODI which will be played on April 3 and the second Test from April 5-9.

Senior players like Mushfiqur Rahim decided against traveling to Pakistan citing personal reasons. After that, five members of the Bangladesh coaching staff also pulled out of the tour.

Pakistan have also recalled the experienced duo of Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik, along with pacer Shaheen Afridi for the T20I series.

Squads:

Bangladesh: Mahmudullah (Captain), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Naim Sheikh, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Liton Kumer Das, MD Mithun, Afif Hossain Dhrubo, Mahedi Hasan, Aminul Islam Biplob, Mustafizur Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Al-Amin Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Hasan Mahmud.

Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Ahsan Ali, Amad Butt, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Musa Khan, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Usman Qadir.

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