Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle list IPL 2021's 50 Most Valuable Players up to Game 29.
'My father's dreams for me were connected to cricket.'
'I knew if I did well in cricket, his soul would rest in peace.'
Unstoppable so far with clinical performances, a formidable India will square off against a passionate and sprightly Bangladesh in their quest for continental supremacy in the final of the Asia Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament, in Mirpur, on Sunday.
Rohit Sharma-led India's main aim would be to settle their middle-order combination and also find a perfect batting position for Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Facing early elimination, two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders need to record a win to stay afloat when they take on table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Aruneel Sadadekar/Rediff.com picks his IPL Dream Team of Season 9. Check it out!
Even as the dust settles down on IPL 9, Bikash Mohapatra/Rediff.com presents his Dream XI.
Brilliant bowling by the pace duo of Umesh Yadav and Morne Morkel, followed by skipper Gautam Gambhir's superb half-century, powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a comprehensive eight-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Saturday.
Images from Thursday's IPL match between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals, in Mumbai.
Ashish Nehra has contributed significantly to the Indian team's recent success in Twenty 20s, and the old warhorse says he is enjoying his role of a mentor in the fast bowling department.
Kohli and Sharma were sitting pretty with 857 and 825 points respectively in the batting list
Buoyant Kolkata Knight Riders will look to continue their winning momentum when they face defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League, in Kolkata, on Saturday.
IMAGES from the IPL season XI opener played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at Wankhede Stadium on Saturday
As far as the Indian team is concerned, even a 3-0 result against the hosts will not be enough for the second-placed side to claim the number one spot in the ICC rankings, while a favourable outcome for the home team will boost its qualifying chances for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.
IMAGES from the match played between Bangladesh and West Indies in their ICC World Cup match in Taunton on Monday
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji analyse Week 1 in Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings.
Bangladesh lost four wickets in the final session to slump to 214 for five on day two of their second and final Test against Sri Lanka on Thursday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad won their maiden Indian Premier League trophy. Even as the team from Hyderabad celebrates their triumph, let's analyse the four major turning points of the match.
Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders would look to assert their supremacy, while Sunrisers Hyderabad will have revenge on mind when the two teams clash in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Eliminator in New Delhi on Wednesday. Both Sunrisers and KKR finished their league engagements on 16 points each but the Gautam Gambhir-led side ended fourth behind Sunrisers due to inferior net run rate. But going into the do-or-die game, KKR have psychological advantage over the Sunrisers having beaten them on both the occasions during the league stage. KKR thrashed Sunrisres by eight wickets in their first meeting this season and came out victorious by 22 runs in a must-win match last Sunday to qualify for the play-offs.
David Warner slammed a whirlwind 50-ball 92 to set up a comfortable 15-run win for Sunrisers Hyderabad over Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League match, in Hyderabad, on Saturday.
Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 45 runs in their opening match of the Indian Premier League.
Kolkata Knight Riders will have to break the agonising sequence of debacles when they clash with defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL eliminator, in Bengaluru, on Wednesday.
Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 17 runs in their Indian Premier League match, in Kolkata, on Saturday.
Bangladesh shocked New Zealand by five wickets to keep their hopes alive of making it to the semi-finals at the ICC Champions Trophy in Cardiff, on Friday.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji identify the Most Valuable Players at World Cup 2019.
Karun Nair kept Delhi Daredevils' slender hopes of qualifying for the play-offs alive with a 59-ball unbeaten 83 that guided them to a six-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in Friday's Indian Premier League match, at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh stadium in Raipur, that went down to the wire.
Dinesh Karthik is always ready to deliver whatever the situation may be and his experience and repertoire of strokes make him a suitable candidate to provide the final flourish for India at the death overs, skipper Rohit Sharma said.
Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza admitted they were in a state of sorrow in the aftermath of their inexplicable one-run loss to India but hoped they would return home with their heads held high by winning against New Zealand in their concluding league fixture of ICC World Twenty20 in Kolkata on Saturday. "The whole team is in a state of sorrow, everyone is broken. Nobody is blaming anyone but we've somehow accepted the defeat. Everyone was very upset. They just could not talk to each other. It was so disappointing," Mortaza said summing up the team's mood after their loss in Bengaluru. "We have never lost this way. We have to play our best again. If we get the opportunity, we have to make sure we don't repeat the same mistakes. The conditions are similar but the wicket is different. New Zealand are on top clearly, whereas we lost all three. We will try our best." Mortaza further said saying 'sorry' to their fans would not be enough and they would try to play hard to put the disappointment behind and try to get over the line against the unstoppable Black Caps.
Demoralised Bangladesh will look to end their campaign on a high when they face a rampaging New Zealand.
Images from Monday's IPL match between Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals, in Mumbai.
Defending champions Mumbai Indians will be aiming to sort their 'opening woes' in both departments of the game when they take on a rejuvenated Kings XI Punjab in a must-win Indian Premier League encounter, in Indore, on, Friday.
Claiming that the team has identified the reason for the loss in the first One-Day International against Bangladesh, India opener Rohit Sharma said that the bowlers should take wickets up-front to put pressure on the opposition in the must-win second match in Mirpur, Dhaka, on Sunday.
Rising Pune Supergiants will stand in the way of Kolkata Knight Riders's revival when they clash in an Indian Premier League T20 match?
David Warner played a captain's knock, smashing an unbeaten 90 runs off 59 balls to power the Sunrisers Hyderabad to a 7-wicket convincing victory against defending champions Mumbai Indians on Monday. Chasing a modest 143-run target, the Sunrisers chased the target with 15 balls to spare in Hyderabad. The Sunrisers have recorded their first points in the points table of IPL 9, while MI have now lost three out of their last four games.
As we write this we still await the crucial India-Australia knock-out in Mohali. But India's individual performances in the T20 World Cup so far haven't been truly impressive. A look at the most valuable player index (MVPI) table reveals that there's no Indian player in the top 20. MVPI merges a player's batting + bowling + fielding performance into a single 'run equivalent'. The formula to compute the MVP is devised to reward batsmen who score runs at a high strike rate, bowlers who take wickets at low economy rate and fielders who field the best (take a lot of catches and participate in run-outs). Since this is a relatively low scoring tournament we have assumed a team's par score to be 150, and each wicket to be worth 15 'runs'. It isn't a surprise that players from New Zealand dominate the rankings so far, although Joe Root tops the table after his 83 in 44 balls against South Africa.
Notwithstanding Rising Pune Supergiants' poor run in IPL-9, Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman considers the debutante side as a formidable unit and said his team will have to put its best foot forward when they clash with them in their IPL match on Tuesday. "It goes without saying that (RPS Captain M S Dhoni) Dhoni will be looking forward to use Ashwin against Warner and Shikhar. I believe that Pune has got a very formidable batting line up," Laxman said in a pre-match press conference at Hyderabad. "Lot of people talk about Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Faf Duplessis being similar. They are all extrordinary T20 players. We cannot at all be complecent or we cannot at all underestimate the batting strength of Pune. We are very mindful," he added. The former Test batsman, however, exuded confidence that SRH can take on any opposition if it sticks to its plans and executes them well. "But, I believe that if we concentrate on our plans and try to execute our plans, then we can do well against any opposition. It's more about concentrating and playing to our strength, while strategizing for each and every opposition batsman or bowler," he said. Noting that the MS Dhoni-led Pune team would look to bounce back strongly, Laxman said no team can be ruled out as it is still the early part of the long IPL tournament.
Rajneesh Gupta presents the finest bowling heroics in the 20th over in recent T20Is.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji analyse IPL performances in Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings.
India restored some pride with a consolation 77-run win over Bangladesh in third and final ODI to prevent the spirited hosts from securing a 3-0 series whitewash.
The battle for the final two available places in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 will hot up when Bangladesh squares off against South Africa in the opening match of the three-One-Day International series in Mirpur on Friday and Sri Lanka hosts Pakistan in the first of five matches in Dambulla on Saturday.
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