Test of character for India against South Africa

June 6, 2013

South_AfricaCardiff, Jun 6: The last fortnight has been nothing but a harrowing turmoil for the Indian cricket team and particularly for skipper MS Dhoni.

As if the weight of expectations wasn’t enough, the team has been getting attention for all the wrong reasons. From the spot-fixing scandal in the just-concluded Indian Premier League VI?to an avoidable controversy that Dhoni’s ‘silence’ during the pre-departure press conference created, it was hardly the ideal build-up the team would have hoped for ahead of the Champions Trophy.

India’s performances in the two warm-up matches, however, have shown little sign of team getting bogged down by the events unfolding off the field. Their two convincing wins, and more crucially from precarious positions, over Sri Lanka and Australia have proved that the team is in the right frame of mind going into their Group ‘B’ match against South Africa here at the Cardiff Wales Stadium on Thursday.

“I think these are all the stuff that we're not even thinking about or don’t even cross

our minds,” Dhoni said when asked if there have been any distraction going forward. “What we are really looking forward to is the challenge,” he added.

Watching the performance of his team no one can dispute his claims. In the first practice game against Sri Lanka on Saturday, Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik bailed India out of trouble with fluent centuries while chasing a big total. On Tuesday, their bowlers came to the party, none more effectively than Umesh Yadav, as they demolished Australia by 243 runs.

While bowlers made a telling statement after a poor show against Sri Lanka, batting made a fine recovery once again with Karthik leading the way with his second century (146 n.o., 140b, 17x4, 1x46) in a row. Dhoni too sparkled with a 77-ball 91 as India pulverised Australian attack from being 55/5 at one stage.

Karthik has been in the form of his life. He has followed up his domestic form with two impressive knocks that makes him an automatic choice in the 11 against South Africa.

With Dhoni making it clear that he would want batsmen to play in their normal positions and not tinker with the order, Rohit Sharma finding a place seems improbable though the opening combination of M Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan has looked a bit shaky in the two warm-up matches. While Karthik does open for Tamil Nadu and South Zone, Dhoni insisted he would prefer the right-hander to bat between three and five.

The bowling appears more or settled with Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma being the first choice pacemen. R Ashwin and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja will complete the five bowlers that Dhoni wants to play under new ODI rules that came into effect last year. India has played under new playing conditions against England at home but are yet to come to grips with them.

South Africa, on the other hand, are struggling with injury worries to their key players. They have already lost Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis for entirely different reasons before the tournament and their strike bowler Dale Steyn looks highly unlikely for the India match after a side strain that he sustained against Pakistan in a warm-up game.

“It’s obviously not looking good,” said skipper AB de Villiers about Steyn’s injury. “We’ll just reassess tonight and tomorrow morning and make a final call on that. There are a few more games coming up. It’s not the one and only game, so we wouldn’t like to get him out of the rest of the tournament,” he pointed out.

Champions Trophy Schedule

June 6 India vs South Africa Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

June 7 Pakistan vs West Indies Kennington Oval, London

June 8 England vs Australia Edgbaston, Birmingham

June 9 New Zealand vs Sri Lanka Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

June 10 (D/N) Pakistan vs South?Africa Edgbaston, Birmingham

June 11 India vs West Indies Kennington Oval, London

June 12 Australia vs New Zealand Edgbaston, Birmingham

June 13 (D/N) England vs Sri?Lanka Kennington Oval, London

June 14 South Africa vs West Indies Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

June 15 India vs Pakistan Edgbaston, Birmingham

June 16 England vs New Zealand Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

June 17 (D/N) Australia vs Sri Lanka Kennington?Oval, London

June 19 First semifinal Kennington Oval, London

June 20 Second semifinal Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

June 23 Final Edgbaston, Birmingham

Matches start at 3.00 pm IST. D/N matches start at 5.30 pm IST.

Group A

England

Australia

New Zealand

Sri Lanka

Group B

India

South Africa

Pakistan

West Indies

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Agencies
February 12,2020

Mumbai, Feb 12: Former Indian greats Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin have been left disappointed by the behaviour of the Under-19 team after the World Cup final where they were involved in an altercation with their Bangladeshi counterparts.

After Bangladesh won the final beating India by three wickets (via DLS) at the Senwes Park on Sunday, the players of the two teams were seen engaging in an exchange of words and even some pushing and shoving on the field.

"I would like to see the board (BCCI) take some strict action against the players to set an example. Cricket is not about abusing the opponent. I am sure there is enough reason for these youngsters to be dealt with firmly by BCCI," Kapil was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

"I welcome aggression, nothing wrong in it. But it has to be controlled aggression. You can't cross the line of decency in the name of being competitive. I would say it was unacceptable that youngsters put up such an obnoxious display on the cricket field," he added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has sanctioned five players, including three from Bangladesh -- Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain and Rakibul Hasan --and two from India --Akash Singh and Ravi Bishnoi for the scuffle.

Azharuddin also reiterated what Kapil said, insisting that players need to be disciplined.

"I would take action against the errant Under 19 players, but I also want to know what role has the support staff played in educating these youngsters. Act now before it is too late. The players have to be disciplined," Azharuddin said.

Earlier, Bishan Singh Bedi has lashed out at the Priyam Garg-led team, saying their behaviour was disgusting and disgraceful.

"You bat, bowl and field badly�happens, but there's no excuse for behaving badly. The behaviour was disgusting and most disgraceful. The innocence of that age was not visible at all," Bedi told Mid Day.

Bedi, who represented India in 67 Tests and 10 ODIs, said the behaviour of the Bangladesh cricketers is not our problem.

"Look, what Bangladesh do is their problem, what our boys do is our problem. You could see that there was abusive language used," he said.

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News Network
July 3,2020

Karachi, Jul 3: There was a sense of insecurity among Pakistan players during the 2019 World Cup, claims former chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, who also reckons that the PCB should have given Sarfaraz Ahmed more time as captain instead of removing him abruptly.

Inzamam said captains need to be backed since they get better with time.

"Even in the last World Cup I felt the captain and players were under pressure because they were thinking if we don't do well in the tournament we will be out. That environment was created and this is not good for cricket," Inzamam said.

"Sarfaraz achieved some notable victories for Pakistan and was learning to be a good captain but unfortunately when he had learnt from experience and mistakes he was removed as captain," the former captain told a TV channel.

Inzamam remained chief selector from 2016 till the 2019 World Cup. During his tenure, most of the time Sarfaraz remained captain.

Soon after Inzamam was replaced by head coach Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan Cricket Board removed Sarfaraz as a player and captain from all three formats.

"Sarfaraz won us the Champions Trophy and also made the team number one in T20 cricket. He got us some good wins. He should have been given more time as captain by the board but it acted in haste and didn't give him confidence or patience."

The PCB has now given the Test captaincy to senior batsman, Azhar Ali while young batsman Babar Azam leads the side in the white ball formats.

Inzamam, the most capped player for Pakistan, also said that the captain's own performance can dip as he had to focus a lot on other players.

"But a captain learns all this with time. There is no shortcut to it."

He pointed out that people praise Imran Khan’s leadership qualities and captaincy but he also won the World Cup on his third attempt as captain.

"He won the 1992 World Cup because by that time he had become a seasoned captain and learnt to motivate his players and get them to fight in every match."

Inzamam said giving confidence to new players and youngsters is very important for the selectors. He gave the example of Babar Azam.

"Babar struggled initially in Test cricket but we never had any doubt about his ability so we persisted with him and see today where he is standing in all formats."

He also described Babar and pacer, Shaheen Shah Afridi as and future stars.

"Babar is always compared to Virat Kohli but the latter has played a lot more cricket and if you look at their stats and performances at the stage Babar is now, he has not done badly at all."

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Agencies
January 6,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 6: 'The Irishman,' and 'Two Popes' were shut out from the winners list despite getting multiple nominations, the movies didn't win a single award at the Golden Globes Award held on Sunday (local time). Other movies in the list include 'Bombshell,' 'Dolemite Is My Name,' 'Harriet,' 'Jojo Rabbit,' 'Knives Out' and 'Little Women.'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'The Irishman' may have gone into the 2020 Golden Globes with the second-highest number of film nominations, tied with 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' with five nods, but Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated mob epic for Netflix was completely shut out at the award ceremony.

Netflix landed the most film nominations of any company with 17 mentions, but it won only one award which is the best-supporting actress for 'Marriage Story's' Laura Dern. Netflix's nominated films 'Dolemite Is My Name' and 'The Two Popes' was tied with 'Joker' with four mentions each and failed to grab any awards.

'Dolemite Is My Name' star Eddie Murphy was expected by a number of pundits to win for best actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy.

'Bombshell', 'Harriet',' Frozen 2', 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Knives Out', 'The Lion King', 'Little Women' and 'Pain and Glory' are among the other films that received multiple nominations but didn't win a single award.

On the TV side, Netflix's 'Unbelievable' tied in the race to most small-screen nominations with 'Chernobyl' and 'The Crown' with four nominations, and 'The Crown' won only one award, for star Olivia Colman.

The three-time nominees 'Barry', 'Big Little Lies', 'The Kominsky Method' and 'The Morning Show' also didn't grab any award. 'Catch-22', 'Killing Eve', 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' and 'The Politician' who were two-time nominees that were also iced out.

'Hustlers' star Jennifer Lopez failed to take home the best-supporting actress award as she was predicted to win the award by a number of pundits. Billy porter also failed to make history with the best drama actor win for his role on 'Pose,' if he would've won the award, he reportedly would have been the first openly gay African-American to win that award.

'Chernobyl' won two of its four nominations. Despite that, star Jared Harris didn't win the best actor in a limited series Globe which was predicted by many prognosticators. The award was bagged by Russell Crowe for his portrayal of Roger Ailes in 'The Loudest Voice.' But the star was absent from the ceremony.

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