Amid threats of cancellation of the Ranji Trophy for the second successive year, BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal said the board is exploring the option of hosting the country’s premier domestic first-class competition as a two-phase event. Dhumal said the Indian board is planning to conduct the Ranji Trophy in two phases after the existing regime was forced to postpone the tournament due to the third wave of the pandemic in the country. The Ranji Trophy was set for a much-anticipated start on January 13 across venues in India. But the BCCI had to call that off and announce a 15-day delay because of the…
Author: Kashish Chadha
Kashish Chadha
Kashish Chadha is a cricket analyst and writer by heart and profession. You can find his works featured on such websites as CricXtasy, Circle of Cricket, and Cricfit.
Imran Tahir proved to be the hero for Multan Sultans with the ball as they clinched a comfortable win over Karachi Kings in the opening game of the Pakistan Super League 2022 on January 27. Tahir, the old warhorse, showed there is still cricket left in him, delivering a fantastic spell of three for 16 off his four overs. The experienced South African wrist-spinner not only maintained a tight leash on run-scoring but also built inroads into the Kings batting unit. Among the rest of the Sultans’ bowlers, Shahnawaz Dahani (1/14) was Tahir’s biggest support on the night. At no stage of their innings did the Kings find…
The Afghans showcased their bowling prowess when the team desperately needed it, as they beat their Sri Lankan counterparts by four runs in a low-scoring thriller at the ICC U19 World Cup Super League Quarterfinals on January 27. The Asian battle for supremacy saw Afghanistan emerge victorious despite posting only 134 runs on the board. On a day dominated by the bowlers, both sides failed to bat their 50 overs or put a respectable total on the board at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua. But what separated the teams, perhaps, was a more rounded batting effort by the Afghans. One of…
While the United Arabic Emirates defeated Uganda by just one wicket in a close-fought low-scoring thriller, the Irish dominated Canada in the first set of Plate League Quarterfinals of the ICC U-19 World Cup 2022 on January 25. In the first Plate League quarterfinal played at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda were dismissed for just 123 and yet didn’t allow the UAE to win by more than a wicket. It was a game for bowlers, where Adhitya Shetty (4/29), Nilansh Keswani (2/26) and Afzal Khan (2/7) were the stand-out performers for the UAE, while Joseph Baguma (3/29), Matthew Musinguzi (3/21) and Edwin Nuwagaba (2/14) bowled superbly in the second half to make…
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri says there is no need to panic after a difficult month for Indian cricket where the national men’s team suffered bitterly painful Test and ODI series losses in South Africa. After making a winning start to the trip with a Boxing Day Test victory in Centurion, it all went downhill at the turn of the year for the tourists. They faced heavy defeats in the following two Tests in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The team then continued on the losing vein through the ODI leg and ended with a gut-wrenching 3-0 series whitewash to a pretty beatable South…
The India stand-in captain during the painful 3-0 ODI series whitewash in South Africa believes the time is ripe for India to “transform” their white-ball game. The team faced successive losses in Paarl and Cape Town to concede the series to what still happens to be an inexperienced and in-transition South African side. The bitter four-run loss in the final one-dayer in Cape Town on January 23 was India’s eighth defeat in their previous nine ODIs played outside Asia from the start of 2020. Since the 2019 World Cup, India’s bowling average (43.52) and economy rate (6.19) have been the…
The Former Zimbabwe captain is due to face a “multi-year” ban from all cricket by the International Cricket Council after failing to report a corrupt approach on time, the cricketer himself revealed. Brendan Taylor shocked the cricketing world on January 24 with a statement carrying his detailed narrative of an incident dating back October 2019. The Zimbabwean batting great opened up on being caught in a trap by corrupters, including an “Indian businessman”, who initially met him to discuss the potential launch of a T20 league in Zimbabwe. While he was hesitant at the start, Taylor took the flight to meet these men, who offered…
Australia’s T20 World Cup 2021 heroes David Warner and Mitchell Marsh will be giving the upcoming five-match home T20I series against Sri Lanka amiss ahead of the all-format tour of Pakistan, confirmed Cricket Australia in their squad announcement on January 25. Warner and Marsh, Australia’s top two run-getters in their maiden men’s T20 World Cup success, will be resting the matches against Sri Lanka in order to be fresh for the historic Test, ODI and T20I tour of Pakistan in March-April. There were speculations that Australia may rest a few other of their Test match stars apart from Warner after a…
It’s a deja vu for Indian Premier League fans used to seeing Rising Pune Supergiants go about their business in the 2016 and 2017 editions of the league as Sanjiv Goenka, the owner of the RPSG group, has announced that the name of his latest franchise in the league will be Lucknow Super Giants. The Lucknow franchise, one of the two new sides about to enter the league along with the one based in Ahmedabad, will be playing the IPL 2022 as Lucknow Super Giants. Goenka officially confirmed the news on January 24, stating that they have selected the name after taking…
Pakistan’s left-arm speedster Shaheen Afridi, their all-format skipper and batting star Babar Azam and England’s Test captain and modern-day great Joe Root have received the biggest titles among the ICC annual awards for the year 2021. While Shaheen has been named the ICC men’s cricketer of the year 2021, Babar and Root have been adjudged ICC men’s ODI cricketer of the year and ICC men’s Test cricketer of the year, respectively. Afridi was awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for his excellent run last year, as he now joins an esteemed list of players to have received the prestigious trophy and award in the years before. “I…