New Zealand 137 for 5 (Seifert 45, Allen 38, Rauf 2-20) beat Pakistan 135 for 9 (Agha 46, Sodhi 2-17, Duffy 2-20, Sears 2-23) by five wickets 15 overs a side New Zealand’s powerful powerplay performances with both ball and bat comfortably dispatched Pakistan in the second T20I in Dunedin to give the hosts a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. Jacob Duffy, Ben Sears and Ish Sodhi pinned Pakistan early to cripple their batting effort, forcing the visitors to make only 135 in the 15-overs-a-side contest, after which openers Tim Seifert (45 off 22 balls) and Finn Allen (38 from 16) killed the chase off early, adding 66 in just 28 deliveries. Salman Agha’s 46, and economical spells from Khushdil Shah and Haris Rauf, were the positives from the
Category Archives: CRICKET
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Mar
Mar
From being left out of the BCCI central contracts to becoming the country’s top scorer in the title-winning ICC Champions Trophy campaign, Shreyas Iyer‘s redemption on the international stage is one to seek inspiration from. The batter silenced critics, doubters, and even some bosses in the board by letting his bat do the talking. While […]
13
Mar
Mar
Smriti Mandhana had a poor WPL 2025, both as captain of a team that didn’t make the knockouts and as a batter with mediocre returns. WPL winners in 2024, RCB finished second-last this time, just above UP Warriorz, and that too on net run-rate. Mandhana’s demeanour at her final press conference of this season after an 11-run win against against Mumbai Indians, however, gave us a wise and pragmatic captain who had ended on a high, and not a sullen leader after a disappointing season. She became slightly philosophical, too, almost summoning the cricketing gods as she rued her team’s failure to clinched some of the crucial moments. “Yeah, we were just having a joke post the match that we started the season on a high, ended it on a
12
Mar
Mar
Another back injury for Jasprit Bumrah in the same spot where he had surgery “could be a career-ender” according to former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond, whose career ended prematurely due to chronic back problems. Bumrah has not played since he walked off for scans on the second afternoon of the New Year’s Test in Sydney this year. What was reported as back spasms then turned to be a stress-related injury, which forced him to miss the Champions Trophy. Bumrah is currently at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru doing rehab and there is no clarity yet on when he will be fully fit or whether he will start for Mumbai Indians (MI) at IPL 2025. This is the first time Bumrah has suffered a back injury since
11
Mar
Mar
News Part of the reasoning was that it will help maximise crowd attendance to the match in Australia and boost global TV ratings The two teams first played a Test in 1877 • Getty Images Cricket Australia have announced that the one-off Test to be played between Australia and England at the MCG in March 2027 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of men’s Test cricket with a pink-ball day-night match. Two years out from the match, which is scheduled for March 11-15 to mark the 150th anniversary of the first Test match ever played at the venue between Australia and England in 1877, it was announced that the match would be a day-night fixture. It will mirror the recent women’s Ashes Test that was a day-night pink-ball match at the MCG in
07
Mar
Mar
(18.3/20 ov, T:151) 153/4 MI Women won by 6 wickets (with 9 balls remaining) Player Of The Match 68 (46) & 2/25 Report Mumbai Indians took a step closer to making the playoffs for a third year in succession, having triggered a UPW slide Amelia Kerr ran through Warriorz for figures of 5 for 38 • BCCI Mumbai Indians 153 for 4 (Matthews 68, Sciver-Brunt 37, Harris 2-11) beat UP Warriorz 150 for 9 (Voll 55, Harris 28, Deepti 27, Kerr 5-38, Matthews 2-25) by six wickets Mumbai Indians (MI) mounted a fine comeback with the ball to set up a win that put them a step closer to making the playoffs for a third year in succession and pushed UP Warriorz (UPW) to the brink of exiting WPL 2025. Led by
05
Mar
Mar
News Virat Kohli, meanwhile, moves up one spot to fourth on the batting charts, while Matt Henry enters the top three on the bowling list Azmatullah Omarzai had a stellar Champions Trophy campaign • AFP/Getty Images Azmatullah Omarzai has dethroned fellow Aghhanistan team-mate Mohammad Nabi to be ranked the top allrounder in ODIs following a stellar Champions Trophy 2025 campaign. While Afghanistan could not make it to the semi-final of the tournament, Omarzai had an excellent time of it. He picked up seven wickets in three games, which included a match-winning 5 for 58 against England. He also scored 126 runs at an average of 42.00 and a strike rate of 104.13, often shepherding the Afghanistan lower-middle order through tricky times. Omarzai rose two spots on the rankings charts and is now
05
Mar
Mar
Virat Kohli was grit personified in the India vs Australia Champions Trophy semi-final in Dubai on Tuesday. With India chasing 265 on a tricky wicket, Virat Kohli curbed his attacking instinct as he scored 84 off 98 balls. HIs innings included only five fours and no sixes. Virat Kohli’s strike-rate of 85.71 may not tell […]
03
Mar
Mar
Big picture: Australia have denied India before “[T]here’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent.” Pat Cummins won’t be in Dubai on Tuesday, but the words he spoke on November 18, 2023, will be. The players may not themselves be thinking about them, but viewers around the world quite likely will – if not about the words themselves, certainly about the broader theme they represent. Since winning their quarter-final game at the 2011 World Cup, India have met Australia four times in ICC ODI tournaments, winning twice and losing twice. The two wins came in round-robin matches at the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, and the defeats in the 2015 semi-finals and the 2023 final. Many months have passed since November 19, 2023, and Tuesday’s Champions Trophy
02
Mar
Mar
News “To have him back and to have him fit and excited about playing is a real win for English cricket,” Brendon McCullum says There are few positives from what has been, even by England’s recent ODI standards, a disastrous Champions Trophy campaign. But according to Brendon McCullum, there were glimmers amidst the darkness. The one that shone brightest was the performance, as well as the fitness, of fast bowler Jofra Archer. He bowled his allotted quota in each of the first two games, as well as nine of the 29.1 England needed to send down in Karachi. He did so with decent pace, picking up wickets in each game, and was the pick of the English bowlers by a distance despite South Africa’s romp to victory. “He’s been out
28
Feb
Feb
The tenth season of the six-team Pakistan Super League (PSL) will begin on April 11 with a fixture between defending champions Islamabad United and two-time champions Lahore Qalandars in Rawalpindi. The matches – 34 in total – will be played across Rawalpindi, Karachi, Multan and Lahore, with the playoffs slotted for Rawalpindi (May 13) and Lahore (May 14 and 16) and the final also in Lahore on May 18. The refurbished Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore will host the most matches, 13, including two of the playoff fixtures and the final, while Rawalpindi will host 11, including the opener and the first qualifier, and Karachi and Multan will host five matches each. There will be a total of three double-headers: Peshawar Zalmi vs Quetta Gladiators in Rawalpindi and Karachi Kings vs
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Feb
Feb
Report UP Warriorz couldn’t capitalise on the blazing start from Grace Harris and couldn’t defend their below-par total Nat Sciver-Brunt scored a smashing half-century • BCCI Mumbai Indians143 for 2 (Sciver-Brunt 75*, Matthews 59) beat UP Warriorz 142 for 9 (Harris 45, Vrinda 33, Sciver-Brunt 3-18, Sanskriti 2-11, Ismail 2-33) by eight wickets Nat Sciver-Brunt put on an exceptional all-round show to propel Mumbai Indians to the top of the table with an eight-wicket win over UP Warriorz in Bengaluru. She took three wickets and followed it up with an impressive unbeaten 75 off 44 balls to chase down the target of 143 with 18 balls remaining. Warriorz initially rode on Grace Harris’ quickfire 45 and Vrinda Dinesh’s solid 33 but lost eight wickets for 54 runs to eventually end with a
25
Feb
Feb
Javed Akhtar became a target of trolls for praising Virat Kohli© AFP | X (Twitter) Virat Kohli’s sensational performance against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy sent the entire Indian cricketing spectrum into euphoria. Celebrations rang all across the country as India thumped Pakistan to seal their fate in the ICC Champions Trophy semi-finals. Even celebrities took to social media to laud Kohli and the Indian team’s performance on the big occasion. Lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar, however, became a target of trolls on social media as he shared a post celebrating Kohli’s performance in Dubai. Coming into the match on the back of a topsy-turvy run that saw his place in the team being questioned, Kohli slammed his 51st ODI hundred as he decimated Pakistan in the Group A
23
Feb
Feb
By the time Australia’s fourth wicket fell, Josh Inglis had switched into declutter mode. There remained more than 200 runs still to get, the asking rate nearing eight, and there wasn’t too much batting to come. There was little time to regroup and consolidate, and at the same time little room for error. None of this, Inglis understood, would be helpful to worry about. “We were in and around the run rate to start off with, so that was a big help,” Inglis said after the game. “The partnership between Shorty [Matt Short] and Marnus [Labuschagne] was really important. They sort of set the platform there, got us off to a good start. And then me and [Alex] Carey, we didn’t really say too much out there. Carey is pretty
22
Feb
Feb
MI beat RCB by 4 wickets in WPL 2025.© BCCI Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Amanjot Kaur steered Mumbai Indians to a thrilling four-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a Women’s Premier League match in Bengaluru on Friday. Ellyse Perry struck a fine half-century to guide RCB to a competitive 167 for seven after being sent in to bat. Perry made 81 off just 43 balls with the help of 11 fours and two sixes to lift RCB after they were stuttering at 57 for 4 at one time. Richa Ghosh (28 off 25) and skipper Smriti Mandhana (26 off 13 balls) also chipped in for RCB. Medium pacer Amanjot was the most successful bowler for MI with figures of 3/22. Chasing a competitive total, MI’s Harmanpreet (50 off 38
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