Author: Anuraag Peesara

Very much uncharacteristically, a Test match at the Green Park, Kanpur, was taken to the final over of the fifth day and eventually ended in a draw. The venue has a good recent record of suiting the spinners a bit too much, thus reflecting poorly on its sporting nature as the games would finish inside 3 or 4 days. However, there was decent purchase for spinners on the track this time, but not so much that the batters would find it unplayable. Both the home and away sides got rewards with the bat when they showed their perseverance, and it…

The Women’s Big Bash League final was played out on November 27 when Adelaide Strikers took on the Perth Scorchers, and the Scorchers emerged victorious by the barest of margins. The game saw South African couple Marizanne Kapp and Dane van Niekerk face each in a competitive final for the first time, one which was trumped by the former. Ahead of the final, Kapp spoke to the press and explained how nervous she was about the fixture, on the prospect of facing her wife. Interestingly, Kapp dismissed Niekerk twice during the group stages, and she said the nervousness stems from…

New Zealand clinched a draw from the jaws of defeat in Kanpur, scripting a famous survival tale in India once again. They had done something similar in Kanpur many years ago, back in 1978, and they did it again today, with Rachin Ravindra staring at the business end of the game. With India needing nine wickets and New Zealand 280 runs short of their target at the start of the day, it was evident that the visiting team would not get close to the 284-mark as the ball was doing things batters weren’t predicting. Despite all that, for the batters to have gone an entire…

The Portuguese Primeira Liga witnessed a bizarre incident on Saturday night when Belenenses took on Benfica. The hosts had a massive COVID-19 outbreak in the side, which left 14 people positive, and they had just 9 players who could take the field, out of which 2 were goalkeepers. Since the minimum number of players required to take the field during a game is 7, the authorities decided to go ahead with the scheduled game, and it proved to be a disaster for Belenenses. SL Benfica scored seven times inside the first 45, with the opening goal coming in the very first minute. Haris Seferovic scored twice,…

Ajinkya Rahane’s average in Test cricket has hovered around the 30 mark in his last 50 Tests, a sample size large enough to drop most players regardless of their status. However, India will back him for another game, feels VVS Laxman, and he could play at the expense of Shreyas Iyer, which he deems will be unfortunate. Iyer made a stellar debut, becoming the first male Indian cricketer to score a hundred and half-century in his first Test. He scored those runs under tremendous pressure, counter-attacked the Kiwis and impressed everyone with his approach. He conjured up a total of 170 runs…

Arturo Vidal’s house in Italy was mobbed by a few thieves, who entered and stole plenty of valuable possessions of the Inter Milan midfielder. The incident reportedly took place on November 7, where the Nerrazzuri and AC Milan played out a 1-1 draw in the Serie A clash. Vidal lives in Villaggio del Sole on the residential hill of San Fermo, in the Como area, which is situated around 25 km away from the San Siro in the southern part of Milan. La Provincia de Como reported that the robbery took place on the day of the game. The trespassers managed to…

The tug of war between both India and New Zealand seems to be tilting slightly in favour of the Indians after a spirited batting performance on Sunday. The Kiwi bowlers romped through the top order, but the middle order came to India’s rescue, and it puts them in a commanding position heading into the final day. Kyle Jamieson was off to a poor start, conceding two boundaries in the first over of the day, but it didn’t take long for him to find his rhythm. He dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara with a well-directed short delivery, which Pujara tried to leave at the very final second and…

There wasn’t anything incredibly dramatic happening on Saturday in Spain, but there were a few good games, which kept the side moving. Whilst Athletic Club and Granada played out a thrilling draw, Celta Vigo clinched a superb 2-1 with a 70th-minute goal coming from Iago Aspas. Alaves were desperate to steer themselves away from the relegation zone, and in such a tricky situation, they travelled to the Mendizorroza. Santi Mina responded according to need of the hour, and scored just 11 minutes into the game. Credit: Football Espana It took Celta less than 10 minutes to find an equalizer, as Luis Rioja set Joselu up nicely to…

The defending champions of the Indian Super League had a bit of a shocker on Saturday as they bowed to Hyderabad FC in a rather strange way. Despite producing a stellar performance in their opening fixture against Goa (3-0), they had no answer to the blistering counter-attacking brilliance of the young guns in Hyderabad FC, which eventually proved to be decisive. Hyderabad started on a positive note, winning a corner with the very first play after kick-off, and kept the pressure in the opening few minutes. But once Mumbai City got the ball, they moved it beautifully and with a…

Steven Gerrard seems to be loving life back in the Premier League, whilst Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal continued to gather crucial on an action-packed Saturday in the world of Premier League football. Once again, Liverpool came up trumps in their fixture against Southampton quite ruthlessly to keep themselves within Chelsea’s touching distance. A struggling Southampton unit who are climbing mountains and trees for each point in the league found themselves in the red hot Anfield crucible, which was too much to handle eventually. It took less than two minutes for Diogo Jota to open the scoring. Andrew Robertson, whose attacking output has been under scrutiny these…