Author: WebDesk

If they ever script a Cinderella story like Sri Lanka and win a World Cup, it could well be a quiz question to stump the biggest nerds. Where did Afghanistan play their first (50-over) World Cup game, and who was it against? It was in Australia, but not at one of those historic venues whose names just roll off the tongue. Afghanistan’s first taste of cricket’s showpiece tournament came at Canberra’s Manuka Oval, and Bangladesh were the opposition. Though the venue was a cricketing outpost, there was no lack of atmosphere, with thousands of fans having driven up from Melbourne…

Overview Twice already this season, Royal Challengers Bangalore have scored well in excess of 200, and still lost the game. While that tells you a lot about the pitches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, it also speaks volumes of the team’s struggle with the ball. It really doesn’t matter how many runs Faf du Plessis or Virat Kohli make, if the bowlers are incapable of putting any sort of pressure on the opposition. Mohammed Siraj has been quite magnificent, taking eight wickets and conceding just seven runs an over in his five outings. But there isn’t a single other bowler who…

Top-level sport is a ruthless business. No matter what you’ve achieved in your career, you can find yourself cut adrift. Sir Alex Ferguson is rightly remembered as one of the greatest football managers of all time, the one who restored Manchester United to their former glory and then some. Yet, those who watched his teams could tell you that there would have been no dynasty without Roy Keane, the snarling, combative Irishman who patrolled Ferguson’s midfield, and laid down the law in the dressing room. Keane’s influence was never more apparent than when United went to Turin in April 1999,…

Overview The winds of change that have swept across the Indian Premier League (IPL) over the past two seasons have completely transformed the competition’s landscape. Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, both expansion teams, reached the playoffs in 2022, with Gujarat winning the title. The other finalists were Rajasthan Royals, a franchise that had reached the playoffs just thrice in 11 seasons since winning the inaugural title in 2008. The ongoing season has merely seen this new wave progress further. Traditional powerhouse teams like Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings sit in the lower reaches of the table, while…

Overview At the risk of sounding cruel, these two teams are pretty much where they were last season. Lucknow, who finished fourth in the debut campaign, look like strong contenders for a play-off berth, with a powerful batting line-up and a bowling attack that has both searing pace and artful spin. Punjab, who couldn’t string two consistent performances together last season, have now lost two on the bounce after a promising 2-0 start. There was much hullaballoo over Liam Livingstone, the English all-rounder, joining the squad before Punjab’s previous game – a defeat to the Gujarat Titans –…

Overview These were the last two unbeaten sides in the competition, but they come into this match on the back of contrasting defeats. Punjab Kings suffered a batting meltdown against Sunrisers Hyderabad, and only Shikhar Dhawan’s memorable 99 not out allowed them to make a contest of it. There was no way, however, that Gujarat Titans could attribute their loss to a bad day. Having controlled their encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders, even without Hardik Pandya, their captain who was unwell, they suffered the mortification of seeing Rinku Singh smash five straight sixes off Yash Dayal to script the unlikeliest…

Overview At the start of the season, you would not have imagined that these two teams would be propping up the table nearly two weeks in to the season. Delhi Capitals can call on the vast experience of David Warner, the first overseas batter to cross 6,000 IPL runs, in the middle, and the considerable nous of Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly in the dugout. Yet, they are winless in three games. Mumbai Indians, who have struggled since winning the last of their record five titles in 2020, have the leadership of Rohit Sharma, but two straight defeats have…

— Boria Majumdar Extracted from Mission Domination by Boria Majumdar and Kushan Sarkar. There is a saying that if you are talented, Mumbai doesn’t let you return empty-handed. Shardul’s story started in 2006. Dinesh Lad, the cricket coach of Swami Vivekananda International School, had been frantically calling one Narendra Thakur for at least six months, but each time his proposal was met with stiff resistance. Narendra Thakur was a vegetable farmer from Palghar, a district on the western lines around 90 kms from proper Mumbai. Lad had watched Thakur’s teenage son Shardul perform at an inter-school event and wanted the…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay Revsportz looks at five takeaways from Rajasthan Royals’ crushing 57-run victory over the Delhi Capitals. Contrasting first overs How often does one see two such weirdly contrasting first overs in a T20 match? It was 20-0 when Delhi Capitals bowled, and 0-2 when Rajasthan Royals did. Mirror image, anyone? It’s probably not fair to say that this is where the game was decided, but the opening overs certainly set the trend for the day. Impetus is crucial when it comes to T20 games, and it was like chalk and cheese when it came to the…

After the bowlers had kept Delhi’s power-packed line-up to a score of 162, Gujarat Titans, the defending champions, aced the chase, with Sai Sudharsan’s splendid unbeaten 62 anchoring the innings. Vijay Shankar helped him rebuild the innings after Anrich Nortje’s pace had caused a scare early on, and David Miller applied the finishing touches with a punishing 31 not out. Here are our takeaways from a match that took Gujarat to the top of the table with two wins from two. Rashid the Rockstar Just how good is Rashid Khan? It’s probably no exaggeration to say that…