Author: Kashish Chadha

South African cricketer Sean Whitehead managed to achieve the rarely accomplished feat of taking all ten wickets in a first-class innings on November 20. The 24-year-old left-arm spinner recorded figures of 10 for 36 in the second-innings of a first-class match in the rainbow nation. Playing for South Western Districts against the Easterns, Whitehead helped his team defend the target of only 186 by dismissing the opposition for just 65. The bowler took only 12.1 overs at his end to be edged in the record books. Only over 50 first-class cricketers in the long history of the game can boast of having scalped all ten breakthroughs in an…

Amid the controversy related to Tim Paine’s resignation as Test captain following the revelation of explicit backdated messages to an ex-colleague, Cricket Australia boss Richard Freudenstein has said their stance on Paine’s elevation to leadership duties would be a lot different to what it was if the relevant information had not come so late. Paine took the decision to relinquish his post on November 19 when he was made aware that his code of conduct case dated 2017 and the inappropriate exchange with a female co-worker would be made public. While the wicketkeeper-batter apologised to the Australian public and his family, besides…

Tamil Nadu and Karnataka secured victories in the semi-final round of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and set up a riveting clash for the finale on Monday November 22 in Delhi. The two South Indian giants will play a repeat clash of 2019-20 final when Karnataka came out on top by just 1 run. For Tamil Nadu, the route to make the finals became easy by the end of the first half as their bowlers dominated the show and bundled out Hyderabad for just 90 inside 19 overs. Saravana Kumar ended with a five-fer (5/21) off his 3.3 overs, while Murugan Ashwin (2/13) and M Mohammed (2/12) took…

Pakistan clinched an easy victory over Bangladesh in the second game of the three-match T20I series in Dhaka on November 20, securing an unassailable 2-0 lead against the hosts. Bowlers led the way on another dry, spin-friendly track for Pakistan as they restricted Bangladesh to just 108/7 in the first half and then chased down the paltry 109-run target with eight wickets intact and nearly two overs remaining in the innings.  https://twitter.com/makhdoomab/status/1461986900433063942 Spinners Shadab Khan (2/22) and Mohammad Nawaz (1/25) enjoyed their time out in the middle against a Bangladesh batting unit woefully short of depth and T20 skills. Shaheen Afridi (2/15) was also amongst the wickets.  Credit: Pakistan Cricket Board…

Eyeing a farewell game for Chennai Super Kings, MS Dhoni has indicated he is likely to continue playing for the franchise at the next year’s edition of the Indian Premier League. Speculations have been rife around this matter for a while. Dhoni has chosen to keep his cards close to his chest. During the UAE leg of IPL 2021, he talked of how CSK’s retentions would depend heavily on the team’s needs over the next decade, and a preference would be given to only those individuals who can serve the franchise in the long run. However, he never denied that…

R Ashwin was in his element once again as he combined superbly with fellow spinner Axar Patel and pace debutant Harshal Patel to put the breaks on New Zealand in another comprehensive win for India in the T20I series on Friday. Showing off his class, Ashwin bagged figures of just 1/19 despite bowling the tough overs amid excessive dew. Axar gave away 1/26 off his 4 overs. But from a futuristic sense, Harshal’s impressive debut outing was the biggest positive for India. The pacer, who earned his cap on the back of a fantastic IPL season, took 2 for 25…

Pakistan’s lower-order batting came to their rescue against Bangladesh in the first of three T20Is in Dhaka on November 19. The tourists won a low-scoring thriller by four wickets, chasing down hosts’ 127/7 with four balls to spare despite being 24/4 at one stage. Once again, it was evident how much Pakistan depends on the solidity that their skipper Babar Azam and wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan provides them at the top. Once the duo departed for scores of just 7 and 11, respectively, the Pakistan batting line-up felt the heat. On another excessively dry, spin-friendly track at the Shere Bangla, chasing anything near 6.5 an over…

Karnataka sneaked through to the semi-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 on November 18 after winning a thrilling quarterfinal encounter with Bengal. The South Indian giants clinched a Super Over victory against their Eastern rivals, holding their nerves in an exciting knock-out fixture. A direct hit from skipper Manish Pandey found No.9 Akash Deep short of his crease as the batter went across to complete the run which Bengal needed off the last ball to secure a win. Pandey’s exhilarating throw took the game to the Super Over, where Karnataka dismissed two of the Bengal batters while conceding just 5 runs. It took…

Ex-Australia captain and batting great said he really can’t commit to a 300-day stint with a side as he has a young family back home and also his other commitments, including an IPL coaching stint with Delhi Capitals and commentary assignments, broadcasting work with Channel 7. “Time is the only thing that’s stopping me [from taking the job], to be honest. I’d love to coach the Australian team, but what I have done with my playing career was being away from family as much.””I have a young family now, a seven-year-old boy, and to give up 300 days a year…

In a shocking turn of events, Tim Paine stood down as Australia’s Test captain on November 19 as it emerged that he was involved in a series of explicit messages with a female co-worker back in the day. Cricket Australia did an investigation and found Paine to be involved in a scandal over inappropriate private texts with a woman back in 2017.  Credit: AAP The incident dates back to the time when Paine had been recalled to the Test side just prior to the previous home Ashes. Interestingly, he was jointly cleared of the case at the time by CA and even Cricket Tasmania. …