Pathan brothers turn down Congress ticket; Rahul's impersonal ways; Modi on DD; RaGa's loss, NaMo's gain. All this and more from the election battlefield.
'Bhuvneshwar can swing the ball, Bumrah has a difficult action to pick, Shami's seam position is outstanding, one of the best probably in world cricket and his rhythm is outstanding.' 'Umesh is fantastic as well and so is Ishant.' 'So we have all the tools.' 'It is just about them hitting the right length as quick as possible.'
After making impressive debuts in their respective openers, Rising Pune Supergiants and GujaratLions will test each others' strengths when the two new entrants clash in the Indian Premier League (IPL), in Rajkot on Thursday. The two teams feature a lot of faces from the suspended Chennai Super Kings and at least six players, who played in the same side till last year, will now be in opposite camps. Close friends and CSK teammates Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina will now be devising strategies as rival captains. Both have admitted that playing in a jersey other than 'yellow' has been very "emotional" but have promised to give their all for their new teams. The Dhoni-led Pune Supergiants were very convincing and dominant when they handed defending champions Mumbai Indians a nine-wicket drubbing. They did not even require their middle order, packed with Dhoni himself and players such as Steven Smith, to come out with the top-order delivering it for them comfortably.
'I look forward to meeting David Warner and talking to him about batting.' 'Our mindset is the same. We both look to dominate the bowlers,' says Abdul Samad, the exciting 18-year-old batsman from the Kashmiri valley.
Images from Day 2 of the second Test between West Indies and India, in Jamaica, on Saturday.
"I have had a very good Ranji season this year. If you talk about T20 then I have had a very good IPL season for KKR. I am bowling well, letting down 9-10 overs in every match (Vijay Hazare), so things are moving in the right direction. Wickets are coming my way and I am also getting runs, when I am batting.
What happened at the Gabba on January 19, 2021 now sits at the pinnacle of India's most significant Test wins, declares Faisal Shariff.
Led by aggressive Australian opener David Warner, Sunrisers would be relying mostly on foreigners to deliver the goods, given the scarcity of local stars in their ranks.
A hard-hitting half century from fit-again Hardik Pandya went in vain as Mumbai grabbed a narrow 29-run first innings lead after tea on day three of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match.
A determined Delhi Daredevils will make another push to stay in the hunt to make the playoffs when they take on bottom-placed Rising Pune Supergiants in the Indian Premier League in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.
It will be a battle for survival for struggling Rising Pune Supergiants when they lock horns with formidable title-contenders Sunrisers Hyderabad in Tuesday's Indian Premier League match in Visakhapatnam.
Rising Pune Supergiants now face an uphill task of taming the rampaging Gujarat Lions in an Indian Premier League clash, in Pune, on Friday.
The clean sweep in the T20 series against Australia has lessened their dilemmas but selectors will debate.
Baroda and Uttar Pradesh will square off in the final of the Mushtaq Ali T20 cricket championships after notching up contrasting wins over their respective opponents in the final Super League encounters.
Having hurt his left landing leg, Ishan made a comeback in 12 days from an injury that usually takes three weeks to heal and his 6-2-17-4 skittled Pakistan out for 69 in the semi-final.
Following Rohit Sharma's fighting half-century, India finished the day on 227-8, taking a massive 339-run lead on Day 3 of the 2nd Test in Kolkata on Sunday. Here are the statistical highlights from the day's play.
'I thank Sachinpaaji for taking me to Coach Gary Kirsten and telling him that 'Sreesanth should play' (in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka) and thanks to Dhonibhai for giving me that opportunity.'
Jacques Kallis feels that conditions in the sub-continent is "not conducive" for producing seam bowling all-rounders, something that the Indian cricket team has lacked for some years now.
'Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan and Irfan Pathan. The bunch that formed the formidable force of Dada's team. Have we seen the last of them?' wonders Abhijit Masih.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be eager to break the sequence of reverses and get Rising Pune Supergiants' campaign back on track when they lock horns with in-form Kolkata Knight Riders.
His approach to the game was a complete dichotomy to his background, a rich kid, who had a fleet of chauffeur-driven cars waiting for him to be taken to practice.
Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara continued his good form with the bat as he and Robin Uthappa helped Saurashtra crush Punjab by eight wickets.
Munaf Patel joins Kandy Tuskers in LPL; Sarfaraz pulls out, Malinga unsure
A summary of the first day's play in the Ranji Trophy league matches at various venues across the country.
A summary of Friday's Super League matches in the Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.
Rajneesh Gupta presents the interesting numbers from the second day of Kingston Test between West Indies and India
Iconic Sachin Tendulkar and limited overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni have led the bandwagon of former and current cricketers praising Zaheer Khan, who ended his international career on Thursday.
Cricketing superpowers clash in an ODI series Sunday onwards. Rajeesh Gupta gives us all the numbers on India-Australia one day encounters.
There will be a strong focus on buying uncapped Indian players with eight franchises gearing up to pick a maximum of 76 out of the 350 plus, who will go under the hammer at the auction for the 10th Indian Premier League.
A supremely confident Delhi Daredevils return to their den and have a struggling and injury-ravaged Rising Pune Supergiants in their firing line up next in the Indian Premier League, in New Delhi, on Thursday.
From Michael Clarke to Rohit Sharma, the global cricket fraternity on Thursday woke up singing paeans to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, hours after India's most successful skipper sprang a surprise by stepping down from limited overs captaincy. Former England skipper Michel Vaughan described Dhoni as one of the greatest captains to have ever led a cricket team. "Even one of the greatest captains of all time decides enough is enough ... Well done @msdhoni on an incredible leadership term," Vaughan wrote on his Twitter page.
'He believes in his destiny and says "naseeb accha hai, chalne do".'
Indian rookie Karun Nair has joined the legendary opener Virender Sehwag to become only the second Indian batsman to score a triple century in Tests. Nair reached the milestone in 381 balls having moved from 200 to 300 in just 75 deliveries. Sehwag has two triple hundreds to his name, first scoring 309 against Pakistan in 2004 in Multan, while the second one was a brilliant 319 against the mighty South Africa in 2008 in Chennai.
This year's auctions will wrap up in one day.
Kolkata Knight Riders spinners dominated to reduce Rising Pune Supergiants to 103/6 in 17.4 overs before rain stopped play in the Indian Premier League game at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday. Both teams had to share a point each and as result of which KKR rises to third spot in the points table. Piyush Chawla claimed 2/21 and bowled 13 dot balls while Sunil Narine, who returned after two matches, gave away a miserly 10 runs from 3.4 overs as Pune Supergiants struggled to break free. Skipper MS Dhoni was in the midst of Pune's terrible struggle as he crawled to eight runs from 22 balls. Pune were however looking good at 70/3 and when Dhoni walked in they were 74/4 in 10.3 overs but by the time the rain interrupted the proceedings their run-rate had slipped to less than six.
The Pune outfit is presently languishing at the sixth spot in the eight-team standings with just four points.
Defending champions Mumbai Indians kept their hopes of making the last four stage alive with a clinical seven-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad, in Hyderabad, on Monday. Chasing Hyderabad's modest total of 157 for 3, made possible by a late assault from David Warner (55 not out) and solid batting by opener Aaron Finch (68), Mumbai cruised home with eight balls to spare.
Expect a battle of wits when Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings lock horns in Wednesday's Indian Premier League match in Bangalore.
Jasprit Bumrah produced one of the finest death overs in the history of the Indian Premier League as Mumbai Indians nearly self-destructed before edging out Gujarat Lions via the Super Over, in the Indian Premier League, in Rajkot, on Saturday.
The most consistent team across all seasons of the IPL, Chennai Super Kings would look to put behind the off-field distractions and do what they are best at when they take on previous edition's bottom-placed Delhi Daredevils in their opening match of the Twenty20 league.
