Ranji Trophy Quarter-finals: Uthappa, Thakur lead star performers

February 22, 2015

Feb 22: Maharashtra and Mumbai progressed to the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy semifinals with wins over Andhra and Delhi respectively, taking the season's tally of outright results to 54 in 112 games, while Karnataka and Tamil Nadu joined them because of their first-innings leads over Assam and Vidarbha respectively. R Samarth and Akhil Herwadkar, both youngsters, made headlines with the bat, and Shardul Thakur registered yet another five-wicket haul for the season.

UthappaWe look back at some of the highlights from the quarterfinals, which concluded on Friday (February 20).

Siva stands out in Andhra's loss

D Siva Kumar's match figures of 12 for 120, which made him only the second bowler this season after Assam's Swarupam Purkayastha to pick up ten or more wickets in a game twice and took him to the top of the wicket-taking charts, was not enough for Andhra to avoid a 75-run loss to Maharashtra in Lahli.

Another high five for Thakur

The game was the season's 19th finish in three days or less, with the match between Gujarat and Haryana in the league stages having gotten over in two days.

Mumbai's Shardul Thakur picked up five wickets in an innings for the fifth time this season in Delhi's first dig at DRIEMS College Ground in Tangi. Thakur's first for the season was against Railways, followed by similar returns against Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Baroda. Nilesh Kulkarni, the lanky left-arm spinner, was the last Mumbai bowler to have achieved so many five-wicket hauls in a season, and that was way back in 1996-97.

Thakur docked

Thakur picked up three wickets in the Delhi second innings to become the third bowler after Rishi Dhawan and Siva to touch the 40-wicket barrier this season, with Gautam Gambhir one of his scalps.

After dismissing Gambhir, though, he got into a verbal duel, which led to Gambhir approaching him with a semi-raised bat before the scene was diffused by the umpires and Suryakumar Yadav. While Gambhir was spared, Thakur was charged under Level 2.4 of the players' Code of Conduct and docked 50% of his match fee.

Herwadkar returns from cold

Akhil Herwadkar, part of the 2012 and 2014 Under-19 World Cup teams, returned from the cold after four seasons to record his maiden first-class century. He also stitched together Mumbai's first century stand of the season with Shreyas Iyer for either the first or second wickets and laid the foundation for the 204-run win over Delhi.

Mumbai 2 Delhi 0

Mumbai met Delhi at a neutral venue for the first time in the 1996-97 final in a day and night encounter at Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior when they prevailed on the basis of the first-innings lead in a high-scoring game. The latest win made it 2-0 for them at neutral venues.

Unmemorable landmark for Manhas

Mithun Manhas became the third player after Amol Muzumdar (136) and Rashmi Ranjan Parida (125) to play 125 Ranji Trophy matches, but he marked the occasion with a king pair. In Delhi's first innings against Mumbai, Manhas under edged Thakur to be caught behind, and in the second dig he feather-edged the same bowler to give Aditya Tare another simple catch behind the stumps.

More ducks

Swapnil Gugale, Maharashtra's opener, recorded a king pair as well, while Anupam Sanklecha and Samad Fallah, his team-mates, joined Punjab's Sandeep Sharma as the three other batsmen with five ducks against their name this season.

Another statement from Uthappa

Robin Uthappa's 153 and 77 against Assam made him the third batsman this season after Sheldon Jackson and Paras Dogra to go past the 800-run mark. With 840 runs, he is now at the top of the perch, and his feat comes after he had topped the charts at the 2013-14 Vijay Hazare Trophy and the 2014 Indian Premier League.

Samarth has arrived

R Samarth made a splash when he hit six centuries in Karnataka State Cricket Association's 2013-14 pre-season Safi Darashah tournament, but a settled top order meant that it took him time to break into the senior Karnataka team. Finally, when he got a long run, he proved his worth with consecutive daddy centuries. His 180 against Mumbai in the last league game was followed by a knock of 178 against Assam in Indore.

Lots of positives for Assam

If winning five matches and qualifying for the knockouts was not positive enough, Assam would have been pleased with their first double-century partnership of the season in their second innings against Karnataka after having been dismissed for 185 the first time around. Gokul Sharma made an unbeaten 127 and Arun Karthik chipped in with 94, the pair adding 203 runs for the fourth wicket in 46.1 overs.

South Zone v Tamil Nadu

S Badrinath and Ganesh Satish, two regular members of South Zone's Duleep Trophy team for a while, did not quite manage to get Vidarbha, who they now represent as professionals, past Tamil Nadu.

Badrinath, who represented Tamil Nadu in 85 games before deciding to captain Vidarbha this season, managed 40 and 0, while Ganesh, part of Karnataka's Ranji Trophy-winning team last season, registered a golden duck before remaining unbeaten on 59 when the game was called off.

Nervous nineties

M Vijay has been dismissed in the nineties on three occasions in Test matches, and nerves got the better of him against Vidarbha as well. Vijay made 96 before falling to Ravikumar Thakur. A little later, Ravi Jangid bowled B Indrajith three runs short of what would have been his second century.

There were no such nerves for Vijay Shankar, though, as he made 111 in Tamil Nadu's first-innings total of 403.

Srikar at the top

Srikar Bharat, the Andhra wicketkeeper who had become the second after KL Rahul to score a triple-century in the previous round, effected seven dismissals against Maharashtra to take his tally for the season to 46. He surpassed Baroda's Pinal Shah, who was the first gloveman this season to record 40 victims.

Debutants dry up

It was the first round this season that did not record a single debutant. The number of newcomers to the first-class circuit remains 92, 93 if we include Kuldeep Yadav, whose maiden appearance came for Central Zone against North Zone in the Duleep Trophy.

At the end of the quarterfinals

Highest run-getter: Robin Uthappa (Karnataka) - 840 from 9 matches

Highest wicket-taker: D Siva Kumar (Andhra) - 44 from 9 matches

Highest individual score: 337 - KL Rahul (Karnataka) v Uttar Pradesh

Best bowling figures in an innings: 8/29 - Swarupam Purkayastha (Assam) v Hyderabad

Best bowling figures in a match: 13/88 - Swarupam Purkayastha (Assam) v Hyderabad

Most dismissals for a wicketkeeper: Srikar Bharat (Andhra) - 46 from 9 matches

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News Network
May 7,2020

Melbourne, May 7: Australia opener Joe Burns is eyeing the Tests against India should they take place later this year, to stabilise his stop-start international career, saying "you want to play in and do well in" in this kind of series.

India is scheduled to play four Tests in Australia in December-January, a series which is currently in doubt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 2.5 lakh lives across the world.

"They are obviously world class team. I think the two teams going at each other will be very exciting to watch and players playing against each other as well," Burns told reporters in a video conference on Thursday.

"You look at the world ranking, they were number one and now we have got to number one, so I know that series will be anticipated by everyone and as a player this is a sort of series you want to play in and do well in."

With the coronavirus also threatening the T20 World Cup, Cricket Australia is under financial stress and has gone on a cost-cutting drive, which included standing down 80 per cent of its staff at 20 per cent salary.

There are also speculations that the Sheffield Shield for 2020-21 would be curtailed to cut costs.

Burns, however, hoped it won't be tinkered with.

"I love the fact we have a really strong first-class system. The 10 games, where you play everyone twice," Burns, who was struck down by a fatigue illness after an indifferent season, said.

"It leads to world-class players coming into Test teams. You don't want to see that get changed.

"Obviously it is unique circumstances at the moment and There's a lot of things to work through ... the players' association is consulted on those things."

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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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News Network
March 25,2020

New Delhi, Mar 25: Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen appealed to Indian citizens to stay home during the 21-day lockdown, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to contain coronavirus.

"Namaste India! I have heard that your situation is like ours, PM Modi has announced a nation-wide lockdown for 21 days. I request you to follow this instruction. We will fight coronavirus together and come out to this situation. Please stay at your home and stay safe, " he tweeted in Hindi.
At the end of the message, Pietersen gave credit to his "Hindi teacher" Shreevats Goswami, who is an Indian domestic cricketer.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the nationwide total lockdown will be in place for three weeks to combat the coronavirus menace.

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