Author: Atreyo Mukhopadhyay

India versus England as a rivalry in Test cricket goes back 92 years. It has been quite intense over the last decade or so, and England are the only team to have beaten India in India in the last 12 years. They may not be the best equipped side for conditions in the sub-continent, but make up for it with their preparation and homework. This bunch led by Ben Stokes is also expected to test the home team. Although they did not spend a lot of time in India to get acclimatised to these conditions before the Test series, spending…

Sometimes, thrilling matches throw light at reality. The third India-Afghanistan T20I, decided after the second Super Over, was one such occasion. It showed that India’s bowling reserves are not as rich as the first-choice options. The team will have a formidable attack when the top guns are back. But without them, and looking at the future, the signs are not encouraging. It is difficult to overlook the role played by the bowlers in whatever success India have had across formats in the last few years. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav are among the best…

Six matches produced results and 10 ended in draws in the second round of Elite Division Ranji Trophy group league games. Haryana defeating defending champions Saurashtra and Gujarat clinching a thriller against former champions Karnataka were the most exciting results. The following are highlights: Four teams to the fore Vidarbha, Mumbai, Gujarat and Baroda posted their second successive wins to take the lead in Group A, B, C and D, respectively. All Elite groups have eight teams each, so every team plays seven matches. Considering that, two matches are too early to say anything. But these four have made strong…

Football is about goals and the players who get them are the game’s most precious practitioners. Next are the play-makers, the creators of chances and suppliers of that final pass or assist. Even goalkeepers stand out at times. They are the only ones allowed to use their hands and sometimes, they make a spectacle out of their acrobatics and reflexes. Compared to players in these positions, defenders do a dirtier job. It’s not meant to be pleasing on the eye. They block, prevent, spoil and basically try to undo what the opposition is trying to do. It’s an ugly task,…

A Puducherry coup against Delhi, some sensational news surrounding the team/s from Bihar, Riyan Parag’s hurricane hundred in a losing cause for Assam and business as usual for Cheteshwar Pujara were among the highlights of the first round of Ranji Trophy fixtures played from January 5-8. There were other talking points as well, like the topsy-turvy match between Gujarat and Tamil Nadu won by the former, Karnataka’s commanding win over Punjab and Andhra Pradesh securing the first-innings lead against Bengal, last season’s runner-up. Here, we present the highlights. Also Read: Delhi Sack Yash Dhull as Captain after Shock Defeat to…

The pitches were as much a highlight of the India-South Africa Test series as the batting of Dean Elgar and Virat Kohli, or the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah, Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj. They had better be, when two Tests get over in less than five days combined. It was best summed up by Rohit Sharma’s comment that there should be no cribbing on turners in India. There will soon be ‘surface tension’ again, before the India-England Test series gets underway on January 25. This is an inescapable discussion, more so when England and Australia come to India. When India…

Dean Elgar made a monumental 185 in the first Test. KL Rahul battled adversities on the way to a courageous 101 in the same match at Centurion. In Cape Town, Aiden Markram smashed a cavalier 106, which was the only 50-plus score of the two-day Test on a difficult pitch. In a short series cut shorter by the bowlers on sticky wickets, these were standout batting efforts. Looking at those scores, knocks of 38, 76 and 46 appear pedestrian. They are, considering the mere volume of runs made. The centuries were class acts, crafted under trying circumstances. But, those brief…

Conditions may or may not be helpful. There is no substitute for verve, pace and intensity. Even if the pitch is benign, a fast bowler can extract something from it when the ball is new, if he or she hits the right area. A bit of luck is needed to make the effect telling. Edges have to carry and be caught. Borderline cases have to go in favour of the bowler. Above all, the bowler has to get the act right. On a sunny morning in Cape Town, Mohammed Siraj had everything going his way. There was movement and bounce.…

The stage shifts from Centurion to Cape Town, nearly 1,500 kilometres to the south. To haul their performance graph up north in the second and final Test against South Africa, India will have to defy history. They have played eight Test matches here, losing six and drawing two. Simply put, Rohit Sharma & Co. have to bat and bowl better than they did in the first Test, where they made paltry totals of 245 and 131, against South Africa’s 408. They crumbled with the bat collectively and similarly struggled with the ball. There were individual exceptions, which remained consolation prizes…

It’s difficult to summarise in a few words the number of glass ceilings broken by Indian chess players in 2023. Because it’s a quiet pursuit and chess players aren’t always the most vocal, some of these deeds went unnoticed. There were some era-defining landmarks in those. R Praggnanandhaa was obviously the cynosure for his giant-killing run at the World Cup, where he became the first Indian to reach the final in the revised format of the competition. Hailed as a prodigy since he was 10 or so, this Chennai boy has achieved at 18 what many Indian chess players have…