The domestic season-ending five-day Irani Cup game between newly crowned Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai and the Rest of India, commencing in Mumbai from Sunday, will provide fringe players a good opportunity to stake claims for the national team. The first class match is the last occasion for hopefuls from both ranks to impress the five-member national selection panel headed by Sandeep Patil before attention shifts totally to the T20 format, commencing with the ICC World T20 Championships. With the country expected to play over 15 Test matches post Indian Premier League till the end of next season, this match is the ideal platform for these players to strengthen their claims for the long Test haul. Mumbai, who clinched the Ranji crown for the 41st time last week by defeating Saurashtra by an innings, have a settled combination led by wicket keeper batsman Aditya Tare. They appear to be better prepared than the motley bunch of Rest of India, being led by Madhya Pradesh stumper Naman Ojha. However, they would take the Rest of India lightly at their own peril as the latter have a good bowling attack at their command even without originally named Barinder Sran and Nathu Singh who have been injured and replaced by Ankit Rajpoot and Anureet Singh, according to their coach Ashish Kapoor.
Left-arm spinner Axar Patel scalped four wickets without conceding a single run as India 'A' clinched the unofficial Test series against South Africa 'A' 1-0 after an imposing innings and 81 runs victory in the second and final match in Wayanad, Kerala, on Friday.
All political parties were asked at the dinner meeting on Monday night to suggest names for the alliance and the same would be discussed and consensus would be arrived at during the deliberations.
The two squads comprise a host of players, who have performed consistently for their state teams and IPL franchises over the past couple of seasons.
Skipper KL Rahul managed to snatch defeat from jaws of victory with a baffling batting approach as defending champions Gujarat Titans beat Lucknow Super Giants by seven runs.
Billings, who is into his second season at Delhi Daredevils, went to the extent of saying that past year has seen him improve like never before.
The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators announced a new category 'A+' with an annual retainership of Rs. 7 crore. The top category includes the likes of captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly said he wouldn't be surprised if India swept Aussies 4-0 in the upcoming Test match series, commencing on February 23 at Pune.
KB Arun Karthick struck a vital unbeaten 115 to help Assam garner three crucial points against defending champions Karnataka after their Group 'A' Ranji Trophy match ended in a tame draw, Guwahati, on Sunday.
Whether he is batting in the middle or fielding at the boundary line, Virat Kohli's every move will be tracked, though some of that attention will now be on skipper K L Rahul.
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
Most leaders agreed for early finalisation of poll plans for 2024 stressing that there was no time left with them and mere meetings would not help.
Rajbhar, however, said he will not initiate any step to break ties with the Samajwadi Party.
Meanwhile, Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS) of the district hospital, Dr Divakar Singh, was removed and sent to Azamgarh, allegedly after he made a careless remark about the cause of deaths.
Reacting to the development, Samajwadi Party leader Sanjay Lathar, who served as the Leader of Opposition in the legislative council before Yadav, said the leader of the second-largest party in the House gets the post.
CSK would be looking to continue the momentum.
India's spinners were thwarted by a splendid display of ultra-defensive batting by England before the hosts took control dismissing rival skipper Alastair Cook on an engrossing fourth day of the second Test in Visakhapatnam.
The likes of Robin UthaManoj Tiwaryppa, Manoj Tiwary and Kedar Jadhav will get another chance to impress the selectors and push their case for a comeback to international cricket when Ranji Trophy champions Karnataka clash against Rest of India lock in a five-day Irani Trophy match, in Bangalore, starting on Tuesday.
Getting the combination right would be topmost on Sunrisers Hyderabad's to-do list when they take on a qualitatively superior Mumbai Indians in an IPL encounter in Chennai on Saturday, trying to arrest an early slide after back-to-back defeats.
Table-toppers Mumbai Indians are on course to make it to the play-offs but the game is crucial for Rajasthan, who are languishing in seventh place. Defeat would mean a step closer to elimination.
Suresh Raina has been named captain of the India Blue team for the Duleep Trophy, which will be held in Kanpur and Lucknow from September 7 to 29, providing him a platform to make a return to the Indian team.
India did to us what we have done to the other teams around the world, New Zealand stand-in skipper Tom Latham said on Monday after the humbling defeat in the second Test in Mumbai.
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians will look to continue their winning streak in IPL 2021.
Their play-off chances hanging by a thread, Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Mumbai Indians with a prayer on their lips in a must-win Indian Premier League game for them on Sunday.
Handed a rude shock in the opening game, the Indian youngsters will have to raise their game in the second Twenty20 International to stay afloat in the three-match series against minnows Zimbabwe, in Harare on Monday.
They stand on the opposite ends of IPL's success spectrum but there is little to separate between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals in the tournament's 13th edition as they head into a blockbuster Qualifier 1 match, in Dubai, on Thursday.
Mumbai Indians had roared back to form after thrashing RCB by five-wickets in the last game, there are problems aplenty for DC.
In her defence, the teacher, Tripti Tyagi, has said that the video has been tampered with in order to stoke tensions.
However, Mumbai will take heart from the fact that they defeated defending champions Chennai Super Kings, their first loss in four games, in the last match.
With Jasprit Bumrah "ready and roaring" after an injury scare, Mumbai Indians will fancy their chances against an erratic Royal Challengers Bangalore when the two star-studded teams square off in the IPL, in Bengaluru, on Thursday. The big sub-plot of the contest will be the world's best ODI batsman -- Virat Kohli -- taking guard against the world's best ODI bowler -- Bumrah -- in a format notorious for its unpredictability.
Abhay Chautala said that Banerjee has told him that she had some preoccupation on that day and she will depute a senior leader of her party for the event while Thackeray told him that if he is unable to attend due to some reasons he will send a senior leader for the event.
India bowled with a lot of perseverance to restrict England to 268 for 8 despite a defiant 89 from Jonny Bairstow on Day 1 of the third cricket Test in Mohali on Saturday.
Should left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav make his Test debut? Or must India retain the winning Bengaluru side?
'I think they're feeling the pressure a little bit to be honest'
Grace and strength will be on one side while poise and killer instinct on the other when a revamped Kolkata Knight Riders take on champions Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, on Wednesday.
Leaders from 26 opposition parties, in power individually or in alliance in Delhi and 10 states, are meeting in Bengaluru to discuss strategy to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
India's formidably consistent match-winners have a date with history in the New Year when they take on an out-of-sorts South Africa in the second Test in Johannesburg from Monday in pursuit of a coveted first-ever series win in the Rainbow Nation.
The SBSP has six MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India's Committee of Administrators (COA) on Tuesday doubled the annual retainership amount to Rs 2 crore for seven Grade A cricketers, including captain Virat Kohli and former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
All-rounder Krunal Pandya and medium pacer Deepak Chahar earned their maiden call up in the Indian squad to replace the injured Washington Sundar and Jasprit Bumrah for the three-match Twenty20 International series against England, starting in Manchester on Tuesday.
