It turned out to be a memorable evening for the players, many of whom experienced such a rapturous welcome for the first time in their lives.
Inspector Masroor Ahmad Wani was playing cricket with local boys at the Eidgah ground when he was shot by terrorists, the officials said.
At the end of the first day of play, it is the home side that is firmly in control, and India that is now reduced to chasing the game.
A top Pakistani commander of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who was active in the Valley for several years was killed and four security personnel were injured in an encounter in the Khanyar area of Srinagar on Saturday, officials said.
'It was a difficult one because I knew that this would be my last World Cup, so it would have been good to be on the winning side.'
'The Spartan Race is a great way to get people out of their couch.'
'He never had a negative thought in his mind, he was supremely confident.' 'He always stuck to his natural game, he never moved away from that.'
Pant looks up at the heavens after reaching his hundred, as if to tell his father Rajendra Pant, who passed away in his sleep in April 2017 before his son made it big, that this one is for you Papa.
'When it comes to strategy or planning for a match, there is nobody better than Dhoni.' 'Whether he is uncapped or capped, every franchise would want to pick Dhoni, no matter what price he is available for.'
'All of us tend to believe that they are so well paid, why should we bother about their payments.' 'But who all are well paid? Only a handful, maybe 3-4 of them, who go in for endorsements and things.' 'The others are struggling, playing Ranji Trophy and other matches, so that compensation we made it market-oriented.'
The 36-year-old is signed as a replacement for South African Wiaan Mulder, who is expected to travel to the West Indies with the Proteas in August.
'Hopefully, he will be back from his injuries soon. The priority will be the Champions Trophy, so we are going to make sure he is ready for that.'
Rohit has overtaken former skipper Dhoni as the most successful T20I captain with 49 wins in 62 matches.
Virat Kohli's masterclass against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup in 2022 has been voted the T20 World Cup FanCraze Greatest Moment.
'That's one we need to tick off, definitely, in particular at home... we should pretty much win every series here at home.'
'No one makes someone a cricketer. As a coach, you can only guide them.'
'The incident has underlined that you can't leave anything to chance or take anything for granted.' 'You have to ensure that your family is taken care of 24x7.'
'Even if we had won the New Zealand series 3-0, it would have meant little because the conditions in Australia are very different, and the team there is very different.' 'In Australia, you just go with a clean slate and start fresh. It doesn't matter what has happened on the previous page.'
'Zakir bhai always said, 'koi chala nahi jata hai', he believed even after death, you left something of yourself behind and he has left so much of himself behind.'
Driven by a boom in domestic tourism, a record number of weddings in November and December, and a surge in extended weekend vacations.
England players returned home even before the completion of the IPL's league stage on Sunday.
More than 50 per cent of SIP accounts come from semi-urban and rural areas.
As the much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy approaches and both teams stacked with talent, fans can expect a fiercely competitive series Down Under.
'I have a feeling that after a certain transition happens, you could see Rishabh Pant opening the batting for India in T20 cricket.'
Cricket has taken many steps forward towards excellence and fairness. Electoral politics has a lot of catching up to do, points out Rajeev Bhargava in his fascinating new book Between Hope and Despair.
Glimpses of Sachin Tendulkar's shikara ride with his wife and daughter on the Dal Lake in Srinagar.
Legendary Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist believes Nepal and the Netherlands could surprise teams like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
'The league will begin as a city-based franchise setup, starting with six cities.'
In cricket, we have something that we can share with our families, neighbours and indeed, the whole country. It is colour-blind, language-neutral, truly secular and transcends all regions, from Kashmir to Kerala and Mizoram to Maharashtra, explains Shreekant Sambrani.
Hanuma Vihari, part of India's back to back series wins in Australia, reckons the services of veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara will be be dearly missed when the team aims for a hat-trick Down Under later this year.
Interestingly, former Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma, who led India to winning the T20 World Cup on June 29, was away at Wimbledon on Friday, missing the event.
'There is no cringe shot in the film which could give me a sleepless night.'
'We used to get Rs 250 for a Test match, and if the match was over in 4 days, 50 rupees were cut.'
Cameron Green will change Australia's bowling dynamics for the upcoming five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy and may increase spinner Nathan Lyon's workload
As Ravichandran Ashwin achieved the milestone 100th Test in Mohali, everyone had their lists of his best bowling feats. But Ashwin's finest cricketing moment was probably when he and Hanuma Vihari battled inhuman injury to draw the Sydney Test against Australia after India were bowled out for 36 in the first Test at Adelaide.
Rohit Sharma did practically everything right in the T20 WC: He batted brilliantly, he captained even more capably, but he failed to top the most valuable player table. Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present Rediff.com's Most Valuable Player Index of T20 World Cup 2024.
The 33-year-old last played for New Zealand in 2018 and debuted for his adopted country in the home T20 series against Canada last month.
'India's strength is batting and it is under attack right now. It is time to stand up and be counted.'
The series is likely to start in late November this year.
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