Author: Bharath Ramaraj

At 104 for 4, Mumbai were in a spot of bother against Karnataka in a 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy match played in October 2019. Soon it became 169 for 6, and the South Zone side looked all set to wrap it up. But it didn’t exactly pan out that way. It is true that Karnataka eventually pipped Mumbai but only by a margin of nine runs. The reason for that narrow margin of victory was Shivam Dube. He proceeded to smack 10 sixes and seven fours in his breezy 67-ball 118. The bowler who was at the receiving end of…

Mumbai Indians versus Chennai Super Kings has always been one of the marquee clashes of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Just to put that rivalry into context, the two sides have met on 36 occasions, with CSK winning 16 and MI triumphing 20 times. Of course, they have played in summit clashes, with the highlight being the IPL 2019 final. Although CSK are placed third while MI slot in at the 7th position in the points table, there is only a difference of one win between the two teams. So, when these two sides lock horns in the cauldron of…

“RCB has 24.2 million fans worldwide on various social media sites and is growing rapidly. The franchise has 3.52 million YouTube subscribers, 7.1 million Twitter followers and 13.6 million followers on their Instagram handle.” The answer given by Google Search Engine for a query related to Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s ever-increasing fanbase. That point extends to the kind of crowds that throng the Chinnaswamy Stadium for RCB’s matches. So much so that police personnel have a hard time in ensuring a touch of calmness amid the frenzied atmosphere near the stadium. But RCB’s growing fanbase is in contrast to the results…

Is Virat Kohli’s strike rate good enough to get him into the Indian side for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup? Right through the ongoing IPL 2024, this has been an often-repeated theme in the Indian cricketing landscape. After Kohli cracked his eighth ton in the IPL, against Rajasthan Royals, social media was once more abuzz with question marks over his strike rate. Is it valid to put Kohli’s strike rate under scrutiny? Is it right to blame him for the loss in Jaipur? Is there a chink in Kohli’s method for the shortest format? Will it affect India’s chances…

Roughly a year before Jos Buttler earned his maiden England cap, he was diligently plying his trade for Somerset. The year was 2010, and Somerset were taking on Surrey in a 40-over game. On that day, the glow of Buttler’s six-hitting matched the radiant sunshine at the Taunton Cricket Ground. Three shots still reverberate from that innings: A couple of chips over the cover-region off Matt Spriegel and a scoop while facing Chris Tremlett. This was the very season when Tremlett seemed to have touched a higher peak in his career, extracting awkward bounce. In some months’ time, alongside James…

So, who is Shashank Singh? The cricketer who was allegedly at the receiving end of a mistaken identity at last year’s auction, followed by memes and jokes made on him? Perhaps, it is the journeyman who played for Puducherry, Mumbai and Chhattisgarh? The one who was unsold in the IPL Auction in Kochi, which in turn made him contemplate about quitting the game? Or the latest version of Shashank, who became a household name after cracking a game-breaking unbeaten fifty plus for Punjab Kings against Gujarat Titans in IPL 2024? The above-mentioned different versions serve as a microcosm about…

When the South African national team partook in the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022, Nandre Burger was plying his trade for Western Province in the CSA T20 Challenge. In one of those games, Burger began the proceedings for his side against Titans’ Dewald Brevis. The first ball was defended, but the next one swung nicely to rattle the timber. On replays, it was quite evident that swing was supplemented by a burst of pace and the left-arm angle. Immediately, three words came to the mind in a flash — fast, furious and irresistible. No wonder, roughly around…

A 21-year-old fast bowler from Delhi isn’t just bowling rockets, but also extracting disconcerting bounce by slamming the ball into the pitch. That is an apt description for Mayank Yadav, the young pace sensation. If the pace hurries up the batter, then the bounce acts like an arrowhead, with the ball hitting higher up on the splice. So, when a batter eyes the pull or hook, he has less chance of landing the stroke. And that is exactly what happened during the Royal Challengers Bengaluru-Lucknow Super Giants game played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. To verify this point further, zoom into…

What is your first memory of KL Rahul’s batting? For some, it could be his first Test hundred in Australia at the SCG in January 2015. For a few others, it might be his twin centuries in a Duleep Trophy game from 2014. If you try to excavate more information on Rahul’s formative years, it could be his breezy 73 off just 96 deliveries in a Ranji Trophy game against Delhi in 2012. More than the runs he accumulated in those two domestic games, the point to observe was how Rahul dominated the proceedings with an array of shots. It…

At the completion of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s innings against Kolkata Knight Riders, Virat Kohli was largely praised for playing with pluck on a track that seemed to be on the slower side. All it took was 90 minutes for his critics to question whether his strike rate of 140 was good enough in the world of slam-bang T20 cricket. On that night, Sunil Narine, Phil Salt, Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer made short work of the chase. As RCB brace themselves for the game versus Lucknow Super Giants, question marks remain over Kohli’s strike rate. If you delve deeper into…