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Talha strikes put Pakistan ahead

March 2, 2014

Talha_strikesMirpur, Mar 2: Pakistan seamer Mohammad Talha struck the most telling blows in the marquee Asia Cup clash, leaving India in strife at 113 for 4 in 25 overs, despite a sparkling half-century from Rohit Sharma. Talha generated good bounce off an upright, uncomplicated action to dismiss Rohit and Ajinkya Rahane in his first ODI spell, after India's form batsman Virat Kohli had earlier been snapped up by Umar Gul.

Dhawan had been the initial aggressor, but Rohit soon caught the spark, flitting forward to a Mohammad Hafeez ball, to lift him over extra cover in the third over. On a benign surface that provided no lateral movement to the seamers, Rohit was particularly severe on errant lengths. A short-of-a-length Junaid Khan delivery was whipped over the deep midwicket boundary in the seventh over, before the next ball was clipped to the fine leg fence. When Misbah-ul-Haq kept Junaid on for another over, Rohit welcomed him with a lofted off-drive, before coming down the track to repeat the dose four balls later.

Rohit was uncowed by dismissals at the other end. Dhawan was trapped in front by Hafeez for 10, when he tried to play him off the back foot, and Virat Kohli made a subdued start before practically gifting his wicket away. He ran an innocuous short ball off the face of the bat, straight into the keeper's gloves.

Saeed Ajmal's introduction crimped the flow of runs and Talha delivered an accurate spell at sprightly medium-pace. Together the pair conceded only eight runs between the 16th and 19th overs, and their parsimony forced Rohit's error. Spotting a Talha delivery not short enough to pull, Rohit spliced it high into the air on the leg side, where Hafeez took a fine running catch, over his shoulder. Though two other converging men had ceased their pursuit early enough to avoid a full-on collision, they could not prevent mishap altogether. Hafeez clipped Sharjeel Khan's left leg on his sprint through, and Sharjeel was forced to leave the field assisted.

Rahane had played with flair for his 23, but he grew a little too ambitious, attempting to flick an offside ball to the leg side. Failing to control that shot in the 24th over, he chipped it to Hafeez at midwicket.

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News Network
April 27,2020

Lahore, Apr 27: Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal has been banned from all forms of cricket for three years for failing to report spot-fixing offers, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced Monday.

Umar, who turns 30 next month, pleaded guilty to not reporting the fixing offers which led to his provisional suspension on February 20 this year.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: Batting great Rahul Dravid has attributed Chennai Super Kings' consistent run in the IPL to skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's instincts, game-smarts and the incredible amount of work that goes behind the scenes.

N Srinivasan, the former BCCI president and head of India Cements, which owns the CSK franchise, agreed that Dhoni is a man of instinct who doesn't believe in attending team meetings and going over data.

Both were speaking at a webinar organised by the Great Lakes Institute of Management.

"If you look at the success CSK has had, they've got really good access to data and they've got really good access to people behind the scenes and they've run cricket teams at the junior level," Dravid said at the webinar according to ESPNcricinfo.

The former India captain added, "They understand talent and they've obviously got a good scouting process in place. But, what they also have is a captain who really understands instincts.

"So, I mean, look, I know Dhoni quite well and I hope he hasn't changed, but I know Dhoni is probably not one to look at reams of data and statistics."

The Super Kings have won the lucrative tournament three times -- one less than Mumbai Indians -- and reached the knockouts in each of the 10 seasons they have been a part of.

Srinivasan also spoke about how Dhoni's instinct and judgement contributed to his team's success at a time when a lot of emphases is placed on data.

"We're awash with data just now. To give you an example, there are bowling coaches and in a T20 game, they play videos of every batsman whom they're going to come against and they see how he got out, what's his strength, what's his weakness etc.

"So, MS Dhoni doesn't attend this, he's a pure instinct man. The bowling coach, (head coach Stephen) Fleming will be there and everybody will be there, everyone is giving opinions, (but) he'll get up and go.

"In the context of instinct, he feels that okay he can assess a batsman or player on the field, that's his judgement. On the other hand, there is so much of data that is available to help a person also analyse. It's a very difficult line to draw (between data and instinct)."

Srinivasan also recalled how Dhoni once refused to take "one outstanding player" suggested by the franchise boss as that could have broken the team's cohesion.

"There was one outstanding player that we suggested to MS, he said: 'no sir, he will spoil the team'. The cohesion within the team is important and see in America, franchise-based sport has been there for such a long time," he said.

"In India, we're just starting and we're new to it. But we at India Cements have had a lot of experience running teams at junior levels."

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Agencies
January 25,2020

Headingley, Jan 25: England have become the first team in the world to score 500,000 runs in Test cricket. They achieved the feat during the ongoing fourth and final Test against South Africa being played at The Wanderers.

On Friday - the opening day of the Test match -- England captain Joe Root's single through the covers took the Three Lions to a landmark 500,000 run-mark in the longest format of the game. They achieved the feat in their 1022nd Test match.

Australia comes second in the list, with 432,706 runs in 830 Tests. India, meanwhile, are third, with 273,518 runs in 540 Tests, followed by West Indies (270,441 runs in 545 Tests).

In the third Test played at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth, England had become the first team to play 500 Test matches on foreign soil. Australia are the second team to play the most away Test with 404 matches they have played so far.

India have played 268 Tests on foreign soil in which they have won 51, lost 113 and 104 have ended in a draw.

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