Author: Bharath Ramaraj

It was mid-August, 2017. The County season was in full swing, and a 24-year-old from Lancashire was hogging the limelight for his sheer bat-speed. While watching the highlights package on Youtube, one could not help but notice the audacious whips and drives, as he cracked a superlative double-ton against the likes of Olly Stone, Keith Barker and Chris Wright. Now 29, Liam Stephen Livingstone has since transformed himself into one of the most feared hitters in T20 cricket. But the image of Livingstone playing with such swagger in that County game has endured. We saw further evidence of his confidence…

In what turned out to be a topsy-turvy game, Delhi Capitals pipped Punjab Kings by the narrow margin of 15 runs in scenic Dharamsala. The loss was a hammer blow for Punjab’s hopes of qualifying for the playoffs. They stay in eighth place with 12 points, and their net run rate of -0.308 also doesn’t make for good reading. Here are the major takeaways from the game. Livingstone’s 94 in vain Liam Livingstone, the powerful Lancashire batter, landed nine sixes and four fours in his splendid 48-ball 94, but still ended up on the losing side. With the required run-rate…

Overview As on 16th May 2023, Punjab Kings are placed a lowly eighth in the IPL 2023 points table with 12 points, while Delhi Capitals, their next opponents, are the bottom-placed side with a mere 8 points. But the competition for playoffs spots is so tight that if Punjab win their next game, they would leapfrog a few sides in the table. It has been another of those up-and-down seasons for Punjab. Just when it seems as if they are on a downward slide, they keep themselves in the hunt with a win. In Punjab’s last game against Delhi,…

A few days ago, a video surfaced on the internet, which showed the 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal feeling some pain and slowly walking back during one of his practice sessions at Rafa Nadal’s Academy. It is still unclear when the video was shot. Although, as per reports, it was shot this week. That viral video has led to more speculations about whether Nadal would recover from his persistent hip injury in time to play the upcoming French Open. It would be an unprecedented event if Nadal decides to withdraw from the event. The first time the tennis legend participated in…

Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran provided the pyrotechnics in the slog overs, alongside Prerak Mankad’s unbeaten 45-ball 64, as Lucknow Super Giants got back to winning ways with an ultimately comfortable seven-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad. Here are the takeaways from the game. Pooran’s blitz It was a box-office display of bravado from Pooran as he cracked a jaw-dropping 13-ball 44 to take Lucknow to a memorable win. Although Stoinis had propped up Lucknow’s innings with a slew of shots, Lucknow still needed someone to hit top gear in the end overs. With 56 needed off 28 balls, Pooran…

At one stage during the Indian Premier League game between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans at the Wankhede Stadium, Suryakumar Yadav was on 35 off 22 deliveries. There were six overs left to be bowled at the time. In that passage of play, Suryakumar supercharged his batting engine and ended up with a 49-ball unbeaten 103 – his first IPL hundred. For a moment, it felt as if he was driving through the Mumbai traffic at 60 km/h, before switching gears and racing past all obstacles at a breakneck speed of 140 km/h. It was another of Suryakumar’s quintessential T20 knocks, where…

In the cauldron of Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Varun Chakravarthy lit up the stadium with a game-breaking final over against Sunrisers Hyderabad. If we delve deeper into the last ball of that over, it gives us some insight into what has worked for Chakravarthy in IPL 2023: The speed of the delivery was 107 km/h, dovetailed with enough revs. The line and length were also near-perfect, as Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s attempted slog could only connect with thin air. After a rather disappointing IPL last season, where he picked up just six wickets in 11 matches, Chakravarthy has stuck to the maxim of working on…

Overview Just when everything seemed to be falling in place, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered a rather ignominious seven-wicket loss at the hands of Delhi Capitals. Interestingly, their next opponent, Mumbai Indians, too suffered a crushing loss at the hands of Chennai Super Kings after a bit of a resurgence. The two teams are also neck-to-neck in the points table with five wins each. Despite the loss to Delhi, RCB had a few positives to take from the game. One of them was Mahipal Lomror, who ended up with his maiden IPL fifty. Previously, many had talked about the potential he…

Back in 2010, in an ODI at North Sound Ground in Antigua, Dwayne Bravo, the West Indies all-rounder, seemed to be playing a game of cat and mouse against David Miller, the new entrant in the South African side. For a while, Bravo succeeded too, as he mixed up his lines and lengths to keep Miller, a left-hand batter, guessing about his variations. Unfortunately for Bravo, the final ball of the over was in the slot and Miller tonked it down the ground. At that time, very few would have imagined that this particular lofted shot would turn out to…

On a track that offered even bounce for long periods of the game, Wriddhiman Saha, Shubman Gill and Mohit Sharma helped the top-placed Gujarat Titans to thump Lucknow Super Giants by 56 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Here are our takeaways from the match. The Saha blitz Saha continued the good form that he had shown against Rajasthan Royals with a quick-fire 43-ball 81 against Lucknow. In the second over itself, he pulled Avesh Khan for a four and a six. He then took on Mohsin Khan by smacking him for two fours and two sixes. The…