NEW DELHI: 

Virat Kohli was on fire for Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday (May 6) during Match No. 50 of the IPL 2023, which was played at the Arun Jaitely Stadium in Delhi. The Delhi lad, who has represented RCB in the IPL since the start of the league way back in 2008, top-scored for his side by making 55 runs against local team Delhi Capitals. But his effort went in vain, as he couldn’t help the three-time losing finalists secure the full two points.

Thanks to Phil Salt’s 45-ball 87, the hosts chased down the target of 182 runs for the loss of three wickets in just 16.2 overs. With the help of the win over RCB, Delhi kept itself alive in the race to qualify for the IPL 2023 playoffs, and with a total of eight points from 10 matches played so far, they are now in ninth place in the IPL 2023 points table.

But even though his team wasn’t able to win Saturday’s match, it was a memorable outing for Virat, and he created multiple batting records. The right-handed batter became the first cricketer in the history of the competition to score 7,000 or more runs, and in addition to that, he also became the first batter to score 1000 runs in the IPL against the Delhi Capitals.

He has scored a total of 7,043 runs in 233 IPL matches played till date, and out of those 7,043 runs, 1030 have come against Delhi Capitals, which was formerly known as Delhi Daredevils.

Against Delhi, Virat faced a total of 46 deliveries and, with the help of five fours, scored 55 runs. By scoring a fifty against the Delhi Capitals, Virat created history by becoming the first Indian batter to complete a half-century of fifties in the IPL. Before Virat, only David Warner had scored more than fifty 50s in the IPL, and now Virat is part of that unique list.

In his overall IPL career, apart from scoring 50 half-centuries, Virat has also hammered five centuries, which is also the most by any Indian batter.

The post Virat Kohli sets unique record in IPL appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

The remaining Indian Premier League matches will be held in the UAE in September and October, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said on May 29.

This is owing to the precarious spike of COVID-19 in India. IPL tournament was suspended in early May after many players tested positive.

The tournament dates are yet to be finalised. It is expected to be played in a three-week window.

The BCCI said that it was moving the remaining matches to the UAE because of the monsoon season in September-October although the monsoon generally runs from June to mid-September.

The UAE had been the stage for all of last year’s IPL matches.

The World Cup is also due to be held in India from October but it is also at risk owing to the pandemic. The BCCI has asked for more time to decide on the hosting of ICC T20 World Cup 2021. The tournament is likely to be discussed by the ICC next week.

The post IPL 2021 to move to the UAE appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Mithali Raj has been named as the captain of the ODI team while Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the T20I team against South Africa at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana International Stadium in Lucknow.’

The ODI and T20I squads have some notable absentees as India women will be without the likes of Shikha Pandey, Veda Krishnamurthy, Ekta Bisht and Taniya Bhatia.

Indian women were not involved in any competitive international action since the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup in Melbourne on March 8. India players featured in the 4-match Women’s T20 Challenge which was held alongside the Indian Premier League 2020 play-offs in the UAE.

Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur lead 3 teams as they played their matches in Sharjah.

The resumption of India women’s international cricket in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic comes at a crucial time as the team will be looking to have as much match practice before next year’s 50-over Women’s World Cup in February.

Thiruvananthapuram was initially chosen as the venue for the series but the Kerala Cricket Association had expressed its inability to host the matches. Players from both teams will be in quarantine and a bio-bubble environment will be in place during the limited-overs series.

India Women’s squad for ODI series: Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), D. Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Sushma Verma (wicket-keeper), Swetha Verma (wicket-keeper), Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Mansi Joshi, Poonam Yadav, C. Prathyusha, Monica Patel.

India Women’s T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, Sushma Verma (wicket-keeper), Nuzhat Parveen (wicket-keeper), Ayushi Soni, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Mansi Joshi, Monica Patel, C. Prathyusha, Simran Dil Bahadur.

India women vs South Africa women full schedule
ODI series

1st ODI on March 7
2nd ODI on March 9
3rd ODI on March 12
4th ODI on March 14
5th ODI on March 17

T20I series
1st T20I on March 20
2nd T20I on March 21
3rd T20I on March 23

The post India women cricket team returns to action. BCCI announces squads for ODI, T20 appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Kohli won the toss and elected to field. Opener Matthew Wade scored 80 runs from 53 balls, to help his side post a target of 187 runs. Australia finished at 186 for five after 20 overs, with Glenn Maxwell (54) also scoring a half-century.

Sundar was the top bowler for India, notching two wickets. Meanwhile, T Natarajan and Shardul Thakur also registered a dismissal each.

India had a shaky start to their chase, losing KL Rahul early. Virat Kohli attempted to anchor India’s chase, scoring 85 runs from 61 balls, but didn’t receive much support from the other Indian batsmen.

In the end, the visitors could only muster 174 for seven in 20 overs. Mitchell Swepson took three wickets for Australia, while Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa registered a dismissal each, respectively.

The win also puts an end to India’s winning streak in the shortest format of the game. Virat Kohli and his side have won the T20I series, 2-1. This series will be followed by a four-match Test series, which begins on December 17.

The post Australia beat India by 12 runs in the third T20 appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Defending champions Mumbai Indians registered a 57-run win against Delhi Capitals in the first qualifier to storm into the final of Indian Premier League 2020 at Dubai International Stadium on November 5.

Earlier, after being sent into bat, Mumbai posted 200/5 helped by an unbeaten 60-run partnership by Ishan Kishan (55 off 30 balls) and Hardik Pandya (37 off 14).

In reply, Delhi could make only 143 for 8 with Jasprit Bumrah (4/14) registering his best bowling in T20 cricket. Bumrah was adjudged man of the match. He also has the Purple Cap for the maximum wickets (27 wickets).

Trent Boult (2/9), Krunal Pandya (1/22) and Kieron Pollard (1/36) were the other wicket takers.

Delhi had a disastrous start losing three wickets for nought by the second over – of openers Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane. A valiant partnership between Marcus Stoinis (65) and Axar Patel (42) eventually helped Delhi reach a respectable 143 /8.

Delhi will now clash on November 8 with the winners of the Eliminator round between Bangalore and Hyderabad. The winner of that match will go into the final.

The post Mumbai storms into the final appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Delhi Capitals had an impressive 13-run win over Rajasthan Royals at the Indian Premier League match in Dubai on October 14, which has now taken the former to the top of the points table with 12 points from eight matches.

Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bat first. Jofra Archer’s brilliant bowling (3/19) ensured Delhi could manage only 161 for 7. Shikhar Dhawan (57 off 33 balls) and Shreyas Iyer (53 off 43) had an 85-run stand that helped build the DC innings.

The Delhi total seemed within Rajasthan’s reach as Jos Buttler (22 runs off 9 balls) and Ben Stokes (41 off 35) shared a 37-run first wicket partnership. Stokes was later assisted by Sanju Samson (25 off 18), but after their wickets fell, RR had a tougher task ahead.

Delhi bowlers showed their class in defending the modest total. Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Norje, and Tushar Deshpande held their nerves and played brilliantly giving away only 25 runs in the last five overs. In fact, RR lost a match from a winning position.

South African fast bowler Anrich Nortje, who won the Man of the Match award, has been a valuable addition for DC. He has picked 10 wickets from six matches so far. In match 30, Nortje created an IPL record when he bowled the fastest ball ever, at 156.2 km/hr, in the tournament’s history. He broke his own record off 155.21 km/hr. Nortje’s record fastest delivery sent back Royals opener Jos Buttler for 22.

But on being asked about his record-breaking delivery, Nortje was surprised and said that he was “hearing it for the first time”.

The post Delhi snatch victory from Rajasthan appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

At the inaugural match in the Abu Dhabi Cricket Stadium on September 19, Chennai Super Kings beat defending champion Mumbai Indians by five wickets with four balls to spare.

At 6 pm, Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister for Tolerance and chairman of ECB, declared the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League, IPL 2020, open.

There were no crowds, cheerleaders or flamethrowers but the aura of a regular exciting match was recreated with the spectator noise and blaring trumpets.

MS Dhoni’s team avenged last year’s loss in the IPL final with a thumping 166/5 victory. After winning toss, CSK sent MI to bat and restricted it to 162/9 in 20 overs.

Ambati Rayudu was adjudged man of the match for his brilliant 71 off 48 balls. His partnership with Faf du Plessis, who remained unbeaten on 58 off 44 balls, saved CSK after the early loss of two wickets.

Left-hander Saurabh Tiwary top scored for the Mumbai Indians with 42 from 31 deliveries, before du Plessis caught him. Quinton de Kock scored a brilliant 33 off 20 balls. Lungi Ngidi was CSK’s most successful bowler with 3/38.

The post Chennai Super Kings beat Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Holder came into this series with an injury cloud over his head, having bowled only five overs across West Indies’ two intra-squad warm-up games while nursing an ankle complaint. He admitted that he felt “a little sore, a little stiff” after play on the second day, but that pain will be lessened thanks to the knowledge that he has put his team into the driving seat in this series.

Shannon Gabriel was given license to attack, snaring another three wickets to add to that of Dom Sibley on the first day, and while Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Dom Bess offered some resistance with the bat, England’s total of 204 looked a little light after a dogged start from West Indies.

While it would prove to be Holder’s day, it was Gabriel who made the early breakthroughs after Rory Burns and Joe Denly had come through the first half hour. Denly was the first to go, his stumps splattered as a vicious nip-backer burst through a hefty gap between bat and pad and crashed into the top of off. Then, after hanging the ball outside Burns’ off stump from round the wicket, Gabriel fired one in full at his pads, striking him in front of leg stump. Richard Kettleborough concluded it was missing leg stump, but Holder disagreed and was vindicated by a successful review.

In his second spell of the day, Holder started by teasing Zak Crawley with a series of outswingers, nibbling away and probing on a length in the channel outside his off stump. After Crawley’s streaky boundary through the slips ruined a maiden from his eighth over, Holder decided the time was right to bring one in at the start of his ninth, finding a hint of seam movement from wide on the crease which Crawley played around. Again, Kettleborough said no; again, Holder was convinced, and was proved right. Ollie Pope started with a pair of boundaries off him, but was soon back in the hutch after fencing at an away-nibbler, which Shane Dowrich gobbled up behind the stumps.

Buttler and Stokes led a counter-attack, putting on the only stand of 50 or more in the innings, but Stokes rode his luck. Before lunch he had miscued a hook shot to long leg, where Roach shelled a difficult chance after making his ground, and after looking to impose himself in the afternoon, Stokes chipped a low catch to Shamarh Brooks, who put down a sitter at short cover. Buttler looked a million dollars from the moment he arrived at the crease, with a back-foot punch through the covers the pick of his shots, but both fell in the space of two Holder overs.

First, having sensed Stokes using his feet, Holder pushed the ball fuller, first beating the bat and then drawing a faint edge through to Dowrich. The pair’s battle had been built up before this Test, with Holder suggesting he might not have been given the credit he deserved; there can be little doubt that he will be today. Buttler feathered his own edge behind which Dowrich took sharply, before Jofra Archer was trapped on the pad for a third overturned lbw. Mark Wood provided Holder with his sixth, driving loosely and edging to gully, before James Anderson’s stumps were rattled by Gabriel after some late resistance from Bess for the 10th wicket.

In reply, England bowled with good pace but failed to make as many breakthroughs as they would have hoped. Anderson was the most threatening bowler. Three times he wrapped John Campbell on the pad and had him given lbw; on the first two occasions, Richard Illingworth’s decision was overturned as the ball had pitched outside the leg stump, but on the third, the on-field call was upheld.

Wood and Archer, playing alongside one another for the first time in Test cricket, both bowled with real pace. Wood regularly broke the 90mph/145kph barrier and even hit 95mph/153kph but drew few false shots, as Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope – batting at No. 3, having come in below Shamarh Brooks in the warm-up fixtures – managed to dig in until the close.

It was easy to wonder whether Stuart Broad, tweeting his thoughts on the game from his hotel room balcony, might have made an impact in conditions that seemed perfectly suited to him.

There was widespread frustration at another couple of stoppages for bad light, as the clouds rolled in and brought play to an early close for the second night in a row, but thankfully the forecast is set fair for the rest of the Test.

The post Holder’s haul puts Windies into driving seat appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) was in control of the cricket body for 33 months before the new office-bearers, led by Ganguly, took charge last month.

Ganguly’s current nine-month stint will get an extension if the BCCI dilutes the specific reform on tenure-cap as mandated by the SC-appointed Lodha Committee.

In the agenda released for the AGM, the BCCI has proposed significant changes to the existing constitution.

As per the current constitution, which is approved by the Supreme Court, an office-bearer who has served two three-year terms, either at the BCCI or at the state association, goes into a compulsory three-year cooling-off period.

The current dispensation wants that period to kick in only after the individual has finished two terms (six years), at the board and state association separately. If passed with a three-fourth majority, it will effectively extend the tenure of Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah respectively.

BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal told PTI that all the proposed amendments are aimed at strengthening the board’s structure and will only be incorporated once approved by the Supreme Court.

“We are not touching the 70-year age cap clause. With regards to the cooling off, our point of view is if somebody has gained experience by running the state association, why give him a cooling-off. That experience should be utilised in the best interest of the game. If he can contribute in the BCCI, why not?” said Dhumal.

“We will take it (all passed amendments at the AGM) to the Supreme Court. We will put across our point of view. What are the practical difficulties we are facing with regards to a few things. In case the court agrees with our idea, then we will have those amendments,” he added.

However, going forward, it has been proposed that a three-fourth majority at the AGM should be able to ratify any amendment in the constitution as it is not “practical” to take the Supreme Court’s approval, which is required in the existing constitution.

With the BCCI’s clout significantly reduced at the ICC due to the administrative crisis over the past three years, the board has proposed that experienced hands must represent India in the world body and the 70-year age cap clause should not apply to them.

This could pave the way for former President N Srinivasan to attend the ICC meetings on behalf of the BCCI. Srinivasan was forced to step aside after the game was shaken by the 2013 spot-fixing scandal.

“In order to protect the interests of BCCI, which are being steadily eroded at ICC, people with experience of negotiation and personal interaction with other member nations should be made the representatives,” the BCCI said.

Under the existing constitution, the CEO is the point man for the nine-member apex council but the current set of office-bearers want that role for the secretary, making him more powerful. The top brass also wants the CEO to report to the secretary.

The account of the last three financial years will also be passed at the AGM.

In terms of cricketing decisions, various committees, including the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), will be appointed at the AGM.

After Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Ganguly stepped down from their roles, Kapil Dev, Shantha Rangaswamy and Anshuman Gaekwad appointed the men’s team head coach. Ravi Shastri got an extension for the top job.

Both Rangaswamy and Gaekwad are now part of the apex council as representatives of the Indian Cricketers’ Association. It is the prerogative of the CAC to appoint the selection committee. So, it would be interesting to see, which former cricketers of repute form the high-profile body.

A new Ombudsman and Ethics Officer will also be appointed. The two roles are being performed by (retired) Justice D K Jain, whose term ends in February.

The contentious issue of conflict of interest is also expected to be discussed at the AGM. Ganguly has already said it is one of the most serious issues facing Indian cricket.

Several past players have expressed unhappiness over the Conflict of Interest clause, which the CoA, in last status report, wanted altered.

Meanwhile, it is understood MCA vice president Amol Kale would represent the cricket association in the AGM, while the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association could be represented by either its secretary R S Ramaswamy or president Rupa Gurunath, daughter of Srinivasan.

The Cricket Association of Bengal will be represented by its secretary Avishek Dalmiya.

The post Dilution of Lodha Reforms & CAC Appointment to Dominate Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI AGM appeared first on The Gulf Indians.