India went in for an optional practice on Saturday and Dhoni was seen doing what normally a skipper does -- inspecting the Eden Gardens pitch, taking local feedbacks and giving his team mates a pep talk.
India will go for the kill against a determined England in the Garden City, setting the stage for a tantalising series-deciding third and final Twenty20 International in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
'You can have any sort of combination possible for us starting tomorrow' 'The trend I have seen is every team is trying to get in first and then explode in the middle and the end'
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.
'I have always loved being in front of the camera but I was probably not aggressive enough. I should have been since my first film Chak De! India gave me a lot of recognition.' The gorgeous Sagarika Ghatge returns to the movies.
Delhi Daredevils skipper Jean-Paul Duminy blamed poor batting and fielding as well as lack of intensity for his team's 14-run loss to Rajasthan Royals In an IPL match at the Brabourne Stadium.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's late assault and some fine bowling by the spinners saw India crush West Indies by 93 runs in the third One-Day International at North Sound in Antigua, on Friday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody has said his team has no special plans for restricting opposition captain and star player Virat Kohli when the two teams meet in the Indian Premier League.
Kohli started his English summer on a bright note hitting an unbeaten 52 off 55 balls while Mahendra Singh Dhoni also played some delightful strokes square off the wicket.
India scored a 3-0 victory over Poland to notch their second consecutive victory in the Hockey World League semi-finals, in Antwerp, on Tuesday.
Nursing a toe injury, India opener Rohit Sharma on Monday skipped the team's training session and is likely to miss Tuesday's Asia Cup T20 match against Sri Lanka in Mipur. His opening partner Shikhar Dhawan did train, so did skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who had a knock during the two-and-a-half-hour net session at the BCB Academy in Sher-e-Bangla Stadium. Rohit, who took a blow on the left toe off a yorker by Mohammed Amir, did not accompany the team for practice as he stayed back in his hotel room. While he is lucky to have escaped fracture, it is highly unlikely that he will play against Sri Lanka, which might increase the soreness of his left toe. With the World T20 starting in a week's time, the team management will not risk Rohit, who is one of the key players in the top order. Dhawan hit the nets but did not have the usual sprightly strides that one normally associates with the Delhi left-hander. He took a few catches, did a bit of shadow batting and was the last one to come out to bat in fading light.
Ashish Nehra snapped up three wickets to lead a disciplined bowling attack as two-time champions Chennai Super Kings defeated Delhi Daredevils by one run in a last-over thriller of the Indian Premier League.
Hosts Punjab frittered away the advantage of solid opening stand as they were all out for 270 as Karnataka captain R Vinay Kumar ran through the middle-order with a five-wicket haul in the Ranji Trophy semi-final in Mohali.
India came up with a clinical all-round display to beat Pakistan by seven wickets in a one-sided opening Super-10 league match of the ICC World Twenty20 in Mirpur on Friday.
In a ceremony attended by close relatives and friends the couple exchanged marriage vows through Sikh rituals at a Gurdwara in Jalandhar . The wedding was attended by no member of the film industry.
Ashish Nehra produced a sensational spell of pace bowling after Shikhar Dhawan shone with the bat with a scintillating unbeaten 82 as Sunrisers Hyderabad spanked Mumbai Indians by 85 runs in a lopsided IPL match in Visakhapatnam.
In a big setback for North Zone ahead of the Duleep Trophy semi-final against Central Zone, captain Harbhajan Singh has been forced to sit out due to viral fever as Gautam Gambhir will step in to lead the team, in Mohali, on Wednesday.
Having already secured their place in the final with three back-to-back wins, India are set to field their benched players against minnows United Arab Emirates (UAE) in their final league encounter of the Asia Cup T20 tournament, in Mirpur, on Thursday.
Opener Kedar Devdhar hit a stroke-filled 145 as Baroda took a sizeable lead of 303 runs, despite narrowly falling short of Mumbai's first innings total, on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match.
The South Eastern Railway served a very special passenger on Tuesday night when its former employee Mahendra Singh Dhoni preferred to travel by train with his Jharkhand One-day cricket team.
- 'Yuvraj's ommission from the sqaud was shocking' - 'Over the years we just neither showed enough vision nor bothered to nurture talented players' - 'Australia and South Africa have good chance to win'
Was any cricketer missing at the skipper's wedding reception in Mumbai?
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.
New players from India and abroad have caught the attention of brand managers.
'One good thing that has come out of all this is that it shown people that online ordering is the way forward.'
Injury-hit RCB and Delhi look to outshine each other.
Injuries to key players such as skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma is giving them the jitters but India would still be firm favourites when they take on a depleted and struggling Sri Lanka in their penultimate league encounter of the Asia Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament, in Mirpur, on Tuesday.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's form will remain in focus when the struggling Rising Pune Supergiant square off against defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in an Indian Premier League encounter, in Pune, on Saturday.
It's also among the top five most valuable Internet companies in India, reports Yuvraj Malik.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
'We will have to try and give batting to players, who have not batted so far but people who are batting close to 6, 7 or 8, they will have to play big shots because that is going to be certainly be very important for us' 'It's something that will always trouble us till we are certain that these are the set of bowlers who will bowl in death for us'
'Dhoni may be hoping that luck stays with him for a couple of months more.' 'He may want to step down on a triumphant note, holding aloft the World T20 trophy on April 3.'
Google is going ahead with a policy revision mandating 30% charge on in-app purchases across all apps on Play Store. This has left developers' community worried about tighter squeeze on their earnings, says Yuvraj Malik.
'Young people are digital natives.' 'Hence, their ability to learn coding and to become a full stack engineer is far more.' 'The demand for such people is more as we feel that if we hire people from campuses, we can train them to become what we want.'
Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed career-best figures of five for 19 to help Sunrisers Hyderabad register a narrow five-run victory against Kings XI Punjab in Hyderabad, on Monday.
The pitch was slow and shot-making difficult but India batting coach Sanjay Bangar said these factors cannot cover up for the fact that batsmen 'let the team down' in the lost fourth One-Day International against West Indies, on Sunday.
Ricky Ponting + Sourav Ganguly + Shreyas Iyer + Kagiso Rabada + Rishabh Pant + Shikhar Dhawan + consistent team selection. Dhruv Munjal on how Delhi Capitals achieved a remarkable turnaround in IPL 2019.
'He is one of the premier off-spinners in the world, but at the end of the day he is another bowler.'
Rediff.com takes a look at how the players, who were bought at the Players' Auction earlier this year, fared in IPL 8.
A round-up of Ranji matches played on Tuesday
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances