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India’s premier first-class competition returns – in two phases, split by the IPL – after a year’s gap, and features Pujara and Rahane on the first day itself

Himanshu Agrawal15-Feb-2022When does the tournament begin? And why is it in two phases?
The 2021-22 Ranji Trophy will be held in two phases, with the IPL in between. The first phase, which consists of league matches and one pre-quarter-final, starts on February 17 and ends on March 15. The IPL is expected to start on March 27. Before the Ranji pre-quarter-final, there will be three rounds of matches held: the first from February 17 to 20, then February 24 to 27, and finally, from March 3 to 6. The second phase, of the knockouts, is likely to begin on May 30 – after the IPL has concluded – and run up to June 26.Related

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Who are the big-ticket players in the mix? And who are missing?
Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane will turn out for Saurashtra and Mumbai, respectively. In fact, they will be up against each other on the very first day of the tournament, in Ahmedabad.Also available for their respective sides will be Hanuma Vihari (Hyderabad), Navdeep Saini and Nitish Rana (Delhi), Mayank Agarwal and Prasidh Krishna (Karnataka), Sreesanth (Kerala), Prithvi Shaw (Mumbai), Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra), Krunal Pandya (Baroda), Umesh Yadav (Vidarbha) and Vijay Shankar (Tamil Nadu).Among players who are expected to be free and available in that window, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha have all opted out. Hardik will be continuing his rehabilitation for a long-standing back injury and focus on his comeback in white-ball cricket, Saha and Ishant have made themselves unavailable.Kerala’s Robin Uthappa and Sanju Samson will also be absent. Uthappa is recovering from a hamstring injury, while Samson is undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.Are any of India’s Under-19 World Cup winners in the Ranji squads?
Yes. Batter Yash Dhull, who led India to their fifth Under-19 world title, is a part of Delhi’s squad. Quick bowler Ravi Kumar has been named in the Bengal side. Batter Harnoor Singh and allrounder Raj Angad Bawa are in the Chandigarh squad. Wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Bana and allrounder Nishant Sindhu have been picked by Haryana. And offspinners Vicky Ostwal and Kaushal Tambe will play for Maharashtra.What happened in the last Ranji Trophy?
The last time the tournament was conducted was during the 2019-20 season, when Saurashtra won the final against Bengal. But the Ranji Trophy had to be shelved during the following season because of pandemic. It was the first time the tournament, India’s premier first-class competition, had not featured in the calendar since its inception in the 1934-35 season.Saurashtra are the defending Ranji Trophy champions•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

How many teams are participating? And what’s the format for the league phase?
A total of 38 teams will be participating this season, and they have been divided into nine groups: eight Elite and one Plate. While the Elite groups have four teams each, the Plate Group has six sides in it.A total of 57 matches will be played in the league phase, as each team plays three matches. While the Elite teams face all other sides in their group once, the Plate teams will play only against three sides in their group. That will be followed by the pre-quarter-final and the knockouts: the quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the final. That’s a total of 65 matches.What is the points structure?
The ranking order of the teams will be decided by points. Should teams be level on points, then the number of outright wins becomes the deciding factor. If it’s still not conclusive, the quotient rule comes into play. This will be determined by dividing the team’s batting average by their bowling average.How will the pre-quarter-final and quarter-finals play out?
Of the eight Elite-Group toppers, the seven with the best numbers qualify directly for the quarter-finals. For the final quarter-finalist, the Elite-group topper with the fewest points gets into a pre-quarter-final with the Plate-group topper. The pre-quarter-final will be played just after the league phase, and will end before the start of the IPL.Where will the Ranji matches be played?
The Elite matches will all be held across eight states, all neutral to the teams in action. Rajkot, Cuttack, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Thumba, Delhi, Rohtak, Gurugram, Sultanpur and Guwahati will be the cities where matches will be played. All the Plate matches will be conducted in Kolkata. The venue for the pre-quarter-final and the knockouts will be decided later.What happens if a player tests positive for Covid-19?
In case a player tests positive for Covid-19 or shows symptoms which prevents his participation in a match as per public health guidance norms, the match referee can allow his team to field a Covid-19 replacement after getting the necessary confirmations. However, the player coming in should only be a like-for-like replacement so as to prevent the side from getting any undue advantage.

The BCCI has also nominated Ishant Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Deepti Sharma for the Arjuna Award

ESPNcricinfo staff30-May-2020The BCCI has nominated Rohit Sharma for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour. The board has also nominated India fast bowler Ishant Sharma, opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan and India woman allrounder Deepti Sharma for the Arjuna Award.Rohit’s Khel Ratna nomination comes on the back of an outstanding 2019 with the bat: 556 runs at an average of 92.66 in five Test matches, all while opening the batting for the first time; and 1657 ODI runs at 57.30, including the unprecedented feat of five centuries at a single World Cup.If Rohit wins the award, he will become only the fourth cricketer, after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, to do so.”We went through a lot of data and considered various parameters before shortlisting the nominees,” Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI president, said via a media release. “Rohit Sharma has set new benchmarks as a batsman and achieved scores people thought were not possible in the shorter formats of the game. We feel he is worthy of getting the prestigious Khel Ratna Award for his commitment, conduct, consistency and his leadership skills.”Ishant Sharma is the most senior member of the Test squad and his contribution has been vital in Indian team’s long run as the No. 1 Test side. Fast bowlers are prone to injuries and Ishant has had a fair share of them but he has fought hard to be back on the park every time. Shikhar has been consistently scoring at the top and his performances in the ICC events have been significant. Deepti is a genuine allrounder and her contribution to the team has been vital.”

Pair put on 177-run stand with Threlkeld unbeaten on 107 to end Thunder’s season on a high

ECB Reporters Network16-Sep-2023Thunder ended their Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy campaign with a five-wicket victory against Western Storm in an entertaining and spirited game at Emirates Old Trafford.Half-centuries from Emma Corney, Sophia Smale and skipper Sophie Luff led Storm to 250 for 7 with Thunder spin duo Olivia Bell and Liberty Heap taking three wickets apiece.In reply, Thunder captain Ellie Threlkeld and Naomi Dattani posted the highest-ever partnership of 177 for Thunder, with both players making career-best List-A scores of 107 not out and 82 respectively to chase down their target with 20 balls to spare.Corney and Smale made the perfect start for the Storm after Luff won the toss, compiling a 98-run partnership across the opening 20 overs.Corney, who played a confident range of shots on both sides of the wicket including a six over midwicket off Bell, reached an excellent 57-ball fifty but perished for 53 after hitting Bell to Tara Norris at long-on.The introduction of Bell in the 14th over had started to apply the brakes to the Storm run-scoring and the off-spinner next bowled Fran Wilson for 24 to give Thunder some further relief.Sophia Smale responded in fine fashion reaching her fifty off 77 balls before slicing a drive back to Bell who took a good diving catch to claim her third wicket. It was a sensational effort by Bell who bowled her ten overs in one spell that produced a return of 3 for 30, and the 19-year-old has now taken 25 wickets from her last eight Thunder outings.Heap backed that up with a further three wickets to bring Thunder back into the game, bowling Niamh Holland for a duck and Nat Wraith for 8 with two sharply turning deliveries to have Storm 160 for 5 in the 35th over.Heap (3 for 39) then broke a good 39-run partnership between Luff and Katie Jones when the latter top-edged a pull to Dani Collins at backward square leg for 16.Luff, who had arrived at the crease at the fall of the second wicket, played a gem of an innings using all her experience to rotate the strike and keep the score moving steadily, and she next joined forces with Chloe Skelton in an enterprising partnership of 50 off 51 balls over the closing overs.Visiting skipper Luff went to a 63-ball half-century in the penultimate over of the innings before falling in the last, caught for 54 off Norris with Skelton unbeaten on 21.Chasing 251, the Thunder made a disastrous start to their reply losing three wickets for 17 runs inside eight overs.Heap was run out without scoring, Seren Smale fell lbw to namesake Sophia for 3 who then held onto a good caught-and-bowled offering at the second attempt when Fi Morris drove back up the wicket having made 11.Dattani and Threlkeld stopped the rot with a steadying partnership that initially added fifty inside 11 overs and the pair kept the momentum going, reaching the halfway point of the innings on 115 for 3 with 136 required.Once established, the Thunder duo played their shots and ran cleverly putting the visitors under increasing pressure with both reaching fifties, Threlkeld from 54 balls and Dattani off 83.It took a spectacular one-handed diving catch by Holland off her own bowling to break the partnership and dismiss Dattani, leaving Thunder on 194 for 4 and needing 57 off 67 balls.Threlkeld expertly finished the job, reaching a fabulous century from 107 balls and getting good support from Laura Delaney (22) and Dani Collins (12 not out) before hitting her 14th boundary to win the game in the 47th over.

He departs as Australia’s leading men’s run-scorer in the format and led them to the 2021 T20 World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-2023Aaron Finch has announced his retirement from T20Is, bringing an end to his Australia career, meaning there will be a new captain when the team next take the field later this year.The move had been expected following Finch’s decision to quit ODIs late last year and a significant gap until Australia’s next T20Is following the home World Cup where they failed to make the semi-finals.After that tournament, where Finch missed the final game against Afghanistan due to injury, he said he would take to assess his future during the BBL. He enjoyed a successful tournament for Melbourne Renegades, where he made 428 runs at 38.90, but has decided he won’t push through to August when Australia next play T20Is in South Africa.Finch captained the team to their first T20 World Cup title when they defeated New Zealand in Dubai during 2021.Related

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“Realising that I won’t be playing on until the next T20 World Cup in 2024, now is the right moment step down and give the team time to plan and build towards that event,” Finch said.”I’d like to thank my family, especially my wife Amy, my team-mates, Cricket Victoria, Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association for their support to allow me to play the game I love at the highest level. I also want to say a huge thank you to all the fans who have supported me throughout my international career.”Team success is what you play the game for and the maiden T20 World Cup win in 2021 and lifting the ODI World Cup on home soil in 2015 will be the two memories I cherish the most.”To be able to represent Australia for 12 years and play with and against some of the greatest players of all time has been an incredible honour.”Finch leaves as Australia’s leading men’s run-scorer in the format with 3120 at 34.28 and a strike-rate of 142.53. His high score of 172, made against Zimbabwe in 2018, is the highest T20I innings of all-time – a record he also held with his 156 against England in 2013.Aaron Finch led Australia to the 2021 T20 World Cup•AFP/Getty Images

Although Finch was not the force of old by last year’s World Cup his T20I form did not slide away in the same way as his ODI returns although there was a notable reduction in his strike-rate over the final two years of his career.He will continue to play with Renegades and said he would take up other domestic T20 opportunities if they were offered.”As one of only four men’s players to captain Australia to a World Cup victory, Aaron will always have a special place in Australian Cricket’s history,” Cricket Australia chair, Dr Lachlan Henderson, said. “Playing at the highest level for over a decade requires incredible determination and dedication, so we thank Aaron for his enormous contribution and wish him all the best in the next phase of his career.”There is no rush for Australia to appoint a new T20I captain with the men’s team next in action on a tour to South Africa in late August. There is no obvious standout candidate with Pat Cummins unlikely to be considered for all three roles. Matthew Wade led the side in the final World Cup game against Afghanistan when Finch was injured but his career may also have finished if Australia opt to look to the future.Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa, two of the leading white-ball bowlers in the world, offer intriguing options while Steven Smith, whose recent BBL form showed he should still command a place in the team, could be in the frame.A further left-field candidate could be Ashton Turner, the hugely successful Perth Scorchers captain, who had an outstanding BBL with bat and as a leader this season albeit his stop-start international career is underwhelming.

Essex must win their game against Kent, but even that might not be enough to qualify

Matt Roller at The Oval29-Aug-2019An unbroken stand of 117 in 10.4 overs between Ravi Bopara and Ryan ten Doeschate was enough to keep Essex’s hopes of qualification alive at The Oval and dumped Surrey out at the group stage for the fourth time in five years.On a two-paced pitch, Essex had started sluggishly, and at 87 for 4 after 12 overs dominated by Surrey’s spinners, were set for little more than a par score. But ten Doeschate’s expert rotation of the strike, followed by a late blitz from Bopara after a characteristically slow start took them to an imposing 186, which proved too many for Surrey’s faltering batting line-up.For Essex, the qualification picture is not as simple as they might hope. Their game against Kent tomorrow night is a must-win, but even that might not be enough; their net run-rate is comfortably the worst of the sides still in contention, and they could well find themselves needing winless Glamorgan to pull off an upset against Hampshire to seal a quarter-final spot.Essex lost three early wickets as their top order struggled to time the ball early on, and Surrey’s veteran spin duo of Gareth Batty and Imran Tahir looked set to keep them tied down. Batty’s figures – 1 for 15 in four overs – were by no means flattering, with his subtle variations and guile resulting in a boundary-free spell.When ten Doeschate reached his fifty with a boundary and a single at the start of the 17th over, Bopara was on 21; they ended unbeaten on 55 and 70 respectively, as Bopara took advantage of some profligate death bowling from Jade Dernbach and Sam Curran for three fours and four sixes in the final three overs to take him from 21 off 18 to 70 from 35.From the England perspective, it must have smarted to see Curran with the white ball in his hand, not least given the Australians’ game at Derby had seen the two touring seamers yet to play a game – Mitchell Starc and Michael Neser – share six wickets earlier in the day.Curran’s final over – the 19th – included three full tosses, two towering sixes, and went for 22 runs all told, and while regular Blast games represent the only real cricket on offer to him, they can hardly be considered ideal preparation for a young man on an England Test contract ahead of a possible Ashes bow later in the series.Since playing in the Test against Ireland, Curran has been limited to seven Blast games and the first two days of a Championship match, meaning that both Neser and Starc have bowled more red-ball overs than him in that time. We are more than used to hearing complaints from touring teams about a lack of quality match practice during long tours; it should rankle that England’s domestic set-up means the same is true for them when they play at home.With the bat, things were little better for Curran. He has been a useful, free-scoring No. 3 for them this season, with 222 runs and a strike-rate of 144.16 before this evening, but chewed up four dot balls against Mohammad Amir, before chipping a couple of boundaries over long-off and then holing out for a run-a-ball eight, as Bopara took an excellent catch running back at square leg.His time will come back around – failure is a much more regular a feature in T20 than success – but this night did not belong to him.Surrey have struggled throughout the season to score runs regularly, with only Aaron Finch ending the tournament with more than 350 runs, and so it proved again here.Jamie Porter – who was only playing due to a last-minute injury to Aaron Beard during Essex’s warm-up – took three Powerplay wickets in his first appearance of the season to remove Finch – well held by the diving Simon Harmer at mid-off – then Curran and Mark Stoneman with successive balls to seemingly end the game as a contest in the fourth over.Will Jacks and Ollie Pope threatened to salvage the chase, both smiting sixes into a sell-out crowd, but wickets fell all too regularly for Surrey to seriously threaten to pull off a win.Jordan Clark did his best to keep things alive with a 32-ball 60, but found himself needing to hit 31 off Porter’s final over. He hit four then six from the first two balls, but Porter held his nerve to close out the win, firing in two yorkers before clinging onto a steepling caught-and-bowled chance.

Gayle led Tallawahs to their two titles in 2013 and 2016, before leaving for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots

ESPNcricinfo staff04-May-2019Chris Gayle will return to Jamaica Tallawahs in the CPL after a gap of two seasons. Tallawahs announced Gayle as their marquee player on Saturday for the upcoming season in September-October, with the draft scheduled to take place on May 22.”We are delighted to have Chris playing for his home team for the 2019 season,” Tallawahs COO Jeff Miller said in a release. “There is no bigger name in Twenty20 cricket, and we can’t wait for him to arrive and make the Jamaican fans proud. We are looking forward to Chris being a big part of our push for a third CPL title.”Gayle previously led Tallawahs to their two titles in 2013 and 2016, and also top-scored in both those finals against Guyana Amazon Warriors. He left them after the 2016 season to join St Kitts and Nevis Patriots and led them to the final in 2017 and the playoffs in 2018. Returning to his home team now, he will be one of the captaincy options for Tallawahs.Gayle is the leading run-scorer in CPL with a tally of 2111 and has three centuries in the league, all for Tallawahs. They will be playing five home games at Sabina Park this time, once the tournament starts on September 4, compared to last season when three of the five Tallawahs designated home matches were played in Florida to satisfy an agreement signed by the Tallawahs Florida-based ownership group.Pete Russell, COO of the CPL, stated at a press conference in Guyana last month that the CPL would not be playing any games in Florida for the 2019 season due to poor attendance. The Tallawahs 2018 matches against Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders drew strong support for the visitors in Florida but not the Tallawahs, which sparked critical comments from captain Andre Russell. The third match played by Tallawahs in Florida against Barbados Tridents only drew 700 people compared to sellout crowds at Sabina Park.Gayle will be playing the World Cup – after which he is expected to retire from ODIs – having ended the IPL in good form this year. He scored 462 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 158.76 and average of 42, with four half-centuries, for Kings XI Punjab.

New Zealand put on an opening stand of 63 after dismissing the last five Australia batsmen for 44 runs

The Report by Daniel Brettig04-Jan-2020Better than Sir Donald Bradman, better than Steven Smith, better than Neil Harvey. Marnus Labuschagne’s astonishing home summer was crowned by a double-century at the SCG that vaulted him to 837 runs for the home Test summer, the highest tally for five matches by any Australian, bettering Harvey’s 834 more than 60 years ago.Australia, however, did not have day two of the New Year’s Test all their own way, as New Zealand conjured the capture of Australia’s last five wickets for 44 runs and then watched Tom Blundell and their stand-in captain, Tom Latham, put together a determined unbeaten opening stand of 63 in the day’s closing 29 overs.Labuschagne’s first Test double-century had helped him form the backbone of Australia’s first innings against a New Zealand side that was reduced to dressing up assistant coach Peter Fulton as a substitute fielder as illness stretched further across the squad.Matthew Wade and Travis Head were tempted into errors in the morning session, but Labuschagne was content to take his time as only 71 runs were compiled by the hosts before lunch. He then waited patiently in the 190s opposite the captain, Tim Paine, who made 35 in a sixth-wicket stand worth 79 runs.But from the moment of Paine’s dismissal, bowled between bat and pad by Colin de Grandhomme, New Zealand fought well to restrict the Australians to 454, with the wristspin of Todd Astle looking particularly dangerous on a pitch that is starting to take some turn for the slow bowlers.Latham and Blundell then weathered the new-ball bursts of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson, before Nathan Lyon gained some disconcerting spin out of a wearing pitch. The tourists’ stocks had been thinned even further by the news that Jeet Raval was now struggling with flu-like symptoms, forcing Fulton into the whites to augment the touring team’s options for fielding and running drinks out to the middle.Their diligence in the field and with the ball was laudable in not allowing the Australians to get away, even as Labuschagne found the occasional boundary. There was one DRS referral by the tourists against Paine in the morning session, but Astle’s suspicion of some pad before bat was proven a long way from reality by replays.Wade had suggested on the first evening he might be the one to push the game forward, but the day was not yet an over old when he knelt down to sweep Will Somerville, misjudged the flight and was bowled. Once he heard the sound of the off stump knocked back, he angrily swatting his bat into the ground.Head was a little more patient, corralled steadily by New Zealand from around the wicket, but he had made only 10 from 42 balls by the time he tried to cut a Matt Henry cross-seam delivery that was too close to his body and offered a thin edge behind to BJ Watling.Labuschagne, though, was not deterred, cruising through to his third 150-plus score of the Test season, and looking good for plenty more. He had one nervous moment near lunch when he inside-edged Astle just past the off stump, but otherwise radiated an air of security that has been rare for Australian cricket in recent years.The scoring rate was lifted by Labuschagne and Paine in early afternoon, as the SCG avoided the worst of hot temperatures of more than 45-degree C in western Sydney. But with Astle gaining extra turn and Wagner and de Grandhomme offering tight spells, Labuschagne was forced to slow right down in the 190s, with Paine even facing boos from the SCG crowd when he was unable to rotate the strike.Eventually, Labuschagne was able to squirt an edge past Watling’s gloves for the first double-century of his Test career. The innings brought a standing ovation from those in attendance and underlined just how much he had grown as a batsman and a cricketer since he first batted at No. 3 for Australia in the corresponding Test at the SCG against India last year.Whatever hopes Paine may have had for extending the partnership were ended when he failed to cover a de Grandhomme offcutter, and Astle soon followed up a sharply bouncing googly by flighting a legbreak nicely enough to coax Labuschagne into offering a leaping return catch.Pattinson was bounced out by Wagner, and Cummins flicked another Astle googly to Glenn Philips at short leg, before some brief Starc entertainment was ended by Wagner. This meant Australia’s last five wickets had gone down for 44, a reminder that Labuschagne’s feats were not achieved in a vacuum.Australia’s fielders were given plenty of reasons to be interested when Cummins’ first ball kept low and beat Blundell, before his second jumped up to hit the opener on the arm from a good length. There was remarkably calm progress form there until closer to stumps when Blundell looked to drive a fuller ball from Cummins and a noise saw Paine use the DRS after Aleem Dar denied the caught-behind appeal. A mark on the HotSpot looked visible but escaped the attention of Nigel Llong, and New Zealand reached stumps unscathed.

“If you could bottle that performance and take it with you, you are going to be very consistent around the world,” he says

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Jun-2023Sri Lanka have been a modest ODI team for years now, but in Sunday’s win over Afghanistan, coach Chris Silverwood saw a workable blueprint. This was on the batting and fielding fronts at least.Having chosen to bat first, Sri Lanka made 323 for 6, with Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis making half-centuries, while the likes of Dhananjaya de Silva, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dasun Shanaka and Wanindu Hasaranga also made valuable contributions.The hosts then dismissed Afghanistan for 191, rounding off a clinical performance. Sri Lanka had lost the first match comfortably, on Friday, raising concerns that they might struggle in the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe.”I’m very pleased with how we have bounced back,” Silverwood said. “If you could bottle that performance and take it with you, you are going to be very consistent around the world. The key is to be consistent. They know they are capable of it now.”We batted well and created partnerships. But equally, I thought, we were excellent in the field today. I saw lots of energy and lots of people supporting each other. We kept them below the [required] run rate and built pressure, and eventually it gave. We took wickets in the middle overs, which is something we needed today.”In addition to making 29 not out off 24 balls, de Silva also claimed the key wicket of Ibrahim Zadran, on his way to the game’s best figures of 3 for 39. Although Afghanistan were behind the asking rate, de Silva’s three wickets – which came in his three successive overs – helped send the opposition into a nosedive from which they would not recover. He had also hit 51 in the first ODI.”I think in the first match he played a super innings,” Silverwood said of de Silva. “Today we saw him go in and capitalise on what was a very good start. There was a great platform when he went in. He kept the momentum going and scored quickly. That’s what we needed to get above that 300.”When it comes to his bowling, he has been threatening to do this for a while. He’s a very good one-day bowler. We saw that in Kandy last time we played Afghanistan there. Today, he bowled beautifully and got the rewards he deserves.”Sri Lanka’s innings had been set up by the 82-run stand for the first wicket between Karunaratne and Pathum Nissanka, who made 43. Later, Samarawickrama and Mendis put on 88 together.”I think Dimuth played superbly,” Silverwood said. “He had played well in the Test series against Ireland as well. I think his tempo is very good, and I think between him and Pathum they built a great platform for us to build on. When you have an 80-plus opening stand, it always helps. They gave us that platform for the rest of the guys to spring from.”The partnership between Sadeera and Kusal was a fraction over a run-a-ball and the partnerships after that were at more than a run-a-ball. It shows what we can do when we have wickets in hand and a platform. Pushing fielders into corners and making the boundary sweepers work very hard – it worked today.”

He says the team is not unduly worried about losing the first ODI in a three-match series

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Feb-20202:28

Really happy with the way I planned my innings – Iyer

Ever since his comeback into the Indian team after the 2019 World Cup, Shreyas Iyer has been among the most consistent batsmen in the side, flying under the radar perhaps given the exploits of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.In nine ODIs since August 2019, when Iyer returned to the team, he has averaged 53, with a strike rate of 104.95 (the best among Indians who have faced at least 100 balls since then). In 16 T20Is in the same period, Iyer has an average of 33.40 at a strike rate of 138.01. He is placed third and fourth on the highest run-scorers’ lists for ODIs and T20Is respectively since August, and quietly, Iyer has become an important member of a batting line-up he couldn’t break into just a year ago.Iyer has always had confidence in himself, so when his first ODI century didn’t result in a win for India, he was unperturbed.”I am very happy but if it had ended on a winning note I would have been even happier. But it’s the first of many, so I’ll take it in my stride and see to it that in the next matches, I finish on the winning side,” Iyer said at the press conference after India’s four-wicket defeat to New Zealand in the first ODI on Wednesday.That India lost despite putting on a mighty 347 for 4 didn’t cause any undue angst within the side.”We just sat and everybody was in their own zone. It didn’t matter to be honest. It’s just a loss and we have faced that before as well in our life,” Iyer said. “It’s not that we are facing it for the first time. So everybody is in their normal zone and it’s not something that hasn’t happened before. We’ve got that confidence in our team and in ourselves that we are going to bounce back strong. We have done in the past, so we’ve just got to take the positives from this game and move forward.”Iyer gave credit to New Zealand’s batsmen for hunting down a tall target, while also explaining how the surface at Seddon Park in Hamilton had changed as the game went on. Iyer’s own innings started slowly; he took 10 balls to get off the mark and he was on 11 off 28 at one point, having joined Kohli with India 54 for 2 in the ninth over. He eventually ended with 103 off 107, and shared stands of 102 for the third wicket and 136 for the fourth wicket in under 17 overs, with Rahul.”The pitch had become very good in the second innings. It was coming onto the bat and the dew factor also played an important role in this game,” Iyer said. “They batted really well, so credit has to definitely go to them for the chase.”It (the ball) was stopping and coming,” he said about batting in the first innings. “There was a variable bounce on the wicket, so we (Kohli and he) just decided that we need to take this phase and build a partnership. I’m really glad we took that situation completely out and had a partnership of 100, me and Virat. That set up momentum for the next batsman who came in and we ended up scoring 348 (347) which is a really good total. I’m really happy the way I planned my innings. I was keeping patient and I had that self-belief that once I cross a certain mark, I’ll be able to cover all the balls I played as dots.”Talking about KL Rahul, he’s been batting magnificently well. The way he’s seeing the ball… the time he came in and hit his first six, I literally asked him on the field, ‘Are you seeing the ball like a football?’ He just nodded and laughed. He’s been in tremendous touch and there’s lots to learn from him as well, as a batsman, the way he really plans his innings and then takes on the bowler.”Iyer also defended India’s fielding, which has seen several lapses and dropped chances on the tour of New Zealand, both in T20Is and the lone ODI so far.”Everybody goes through a bad day,” he said. “I personally feel we are a very good fielding side, and we have to try and hit the target (stumps) so that we create that momentum on the field. We need to cheer up the bowlers and all the fielders have be there in the game. So all these overthrows and all, it’s part of the game because the bowlers keep thinking of what they’ll bowl the next ball, and at the same time, it’s the fielders’ responsibility to back up obviously.”There are one or two instances that happened in the previous game, there’s a lot to learn from that. Obviously we are working hard on our fielding, it’s not that we are just giving up on the field. Even if you see that there are some places we need to improve, we have been doing really well. We have taken some amazing catches and run-outs in this game.”

Sidra Ameen’s maiden ODI century in vain as Pakistan’s losing streak at World Cups extends to 18

S Sudarshanan13-Mar-2022Bangladesh posted their highest total in ODIs. Pakistan got their best opening partnership in over two years, and Sidra Ameen scored her first ODI century. The match between the Asian neighbours was full of drama, not just records, and ended with Pakistan extending their losing streak in World Cups to 18, and debutants Bangladesh notched up their first win.Chasing 234, Pakistan needed 94 off the last 15 overs with the set Ameen and Bismah Maroof in the middle. The pair had added 50 by that point in under 12 overs. They had assistance from the Bangladesh fielders, who were sloppy and dropped catches, which helped Ameen get the highest score by a Pakistan batter in Women’s World Cups when she got to 80.But an over later, Maroof miscued a heave off Jahanara Alam to midwicket to end the 64-run second-wicket stand. That set the cat among the pigeons, as Pakistan lost eight wickets for just 70 runs, including a phase where five wickets fell for just five runs. It was all thanks to the legspinning duo of Rumana Ahmed and Fahima Khatun who ran through the Pakistan middle- and lower-middle order. The experienced duo of Nida Dar and Aliya Riaz, in fact, were among three batters to fall for first-ball ducks.As long as Sidra Ameen was around, Pakistan had a chance; once she fell, it was all over•ICC via Getty

Pakistan’s hopes rested on Ameen, who went on to score her century, her first in ODIs. But her run-out for 104 with Pakistan on 215 signalled the end.Even though Pakistan’s batting has been their undoing for some time now – they have crossed 200 in ODIs only on seven out of 17 occasions from the start of 2021 – openers Ameen and Nahida Khan helped set a strong platform for the chase with a 91-run partnership, Pakistan’s best for the first wicket and second-best overall in Women’s World Cups.Nahida and Ameen were helped by some wayward new-ball bowling from Alam and Fariha Trisna, and stayed strong as the spinners came on. However, Rumana broke through when she had Nahida playing on. Ameen and Maroof then kept Pakistan on course, rotating the strike when boundaries were hard to come by, before the frenetic action towards the end.Earlier, Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana added 96 for the third wicket with Fargana Hoque, which provided the base to post 234 for 7.The openers Shamima Sultana and Sharmin Akhter got off to a positive start against seamers Diana Baig and Fatima Sana. But it took just five balls from Dar to dismiss Shamima and apply the brakes on Bangladesh, who had raced to 51 for 1 in the powerplay.The stand between Nigar Sultana and Fargana Hoque put Bangladesh on course for their highest ODI total•ICC via Getty Images

On cue, Pakistan captain Maroof, who had opted to bowl after winning the toss, brought on spinners from both ends and Nashra Sandhu and Ghulam Fatima strung together the dots. Omaima Sohail reaped the rewards of sustained pressure as she picked up a wicket off her first ball in the game, having Akhter sweeping one on to the stumps for 44.It was then, at 79 for 2 in the 20th over, that Hoque and Nigar got together. With spinners in operation, they struggled to rotate the strike. But Fargana, having been in the middle for over ten overs at that stage, opened up. She first pulled Sana to the midwicket fence before sweeping Sohail. Sana was then hit for back-to-back fours as Hoque and Nigar brought up their fifty-run stand.Nigar was more reliant on singles, and she hit her only four off legspinner Ghulam. But Sana then returned to break the partnership, the best for Bangladesh in Women’s World Cup, trapping Nigar lbw on 46.Sandhu then struck twice in two balls, including Hoque for 71, slowing down the Bangladesh scoring at the death overs. They still managed to have enough on the board to set off the celebrations by the end of the day.