Aided by the return of starcast, Melbourne look to shake off humiliating defeat against Sixers

Shahid Afridi traded to Quetta Gladiators for his final PSL season

Pakistan legend Shahid Afridi is set to play for Quetta Gladiators for his final Pakistan Super League (PSL) season. Ahead of the PSL 2022 retentions, former Pakistan all-rounder has been traded from Multan Sultans on his wish that he would like to finish his career at Quetta, made public back in June this year. The Gladiators have also acquired the services of top-order batsman James Vince, who is known around the world cricket for his classy approach to T20 batting. The movement of the players comes during the trade window provided by the PSL right ahead of the retention season, where teams will be allowed to keep eight players out of 16 for the next season. The teams will be allowed to pick the other eight in the PSL draft ahead of the season. The next season of the PSL has been brought forward from its usual window and is scheduled to begin on January 27, 2022. The month-long tournament has been shifted forward due to Pakistan’s tour of Australia in the months of March-April.

Ashwin is a champion bowler & has a lot of hunger to perform across all formats: Rohit Sharma

After being appointed as the T20I captain, Rohit Sharma will now also lead the side in the ODIs. Sharma lavished praise on R Ashwin and said that the spinner has a lot of hunger to perform across all formats. “He is a champion bowler and I have seen his quality for the last decade. I have seen what sort of person he is and how much hunger he has in him not to just play Test but other formats. You see his IPL record for the last 2-3 years. His economy will be 6-7 if I am not wrong. He bowls everywhere – power play, middle overs, end overs. He bowls to right handers, left handers,” Rohit said while talking to Boria Majumdar on ‘Backstage with Boria’ on the Youtube channel Xtra Time. The new captain further added that Ashwin is a sort of a bowler who can bowl at any given situation. “ I thought he would be a great addition with what he does with the ball. He gives you that flexibility. When you have a an allrounder bowler like that – he can bowl anywhere whatever the situation, you don’t want one-dimensional bowler. Someone who can only bowl outside power play, can’t bowl at the death, can’t bowl to left-handers. More options you have with the bowler, the better,” Rohit added. Sharma had a brilliant start to his T20I career after taking up the full-time captaincy as the side completed a 3-0 whitewash win against New Zealand and his first assignment as the ODI skipper will be the series against South Africa away from home.

Women Challenger Trophy 2021: India A women beat India D women in final

India A women’s team clinched the Women Challenger trophy after beating India D in the final on Thursday in Vijayawada. Chasing 220 in 50 overs, the INDWA team went over the line by 3 wickets and with more than four overs to spare. They lost a couple of early wickets and were reduced to 30/2 before Challa Jhansi Lakshmi and Yastika Bhatia joined hands and put up a stand of 95 runs for the third wicket before Lakshmi was out for 64. Bhatia though continued with her good batting. She did lose partners at the other end before getting out herself eventually for 86 leaving her side in a spot of bother at 201/7. But Sushree Dibyadarshini’s unbeaten 17 off 25 helped the side to win the match. Rajeshwari Gayakwad picked up four wickets for her side. Earlier, batting first, the INDWD side too began the proceedings well but lost momentum in the middle overs to get reduced to 140/6 and eventually get restricted to 219/8 in 50 overs. Amanjot Kaur was the pick of the batters after she scored an unbeaten fifty for the side. Disha Kasat returned with three wickets for 39 runs in 8 overs for INDWA.

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021-22: Venkatesh Iyer's all-round show gets Madhya Pradesh back on track

The second of the Vijay Hazare Trophy witnessed some exciting performances on the day. While Venkatesh Iyer’s all-round show handed Madhya Pradesh a convincing win, Ruturaj Gaikwad continued his form and notched up yet another ton. Venkatesh Iyer’s all-round show Madhya Pradesh rode on a brilliant all-round show for Venkatesh Iyer to get back on track as they defeated Kerala by 40 runs on Thursday in Rajkot. Batting first, Madhya Pradesh posted 329/9 after Iyer notched up 112 in 84 deliveries while Shubham Sharma struck a 67-ball 82 during the course. Later, Puneet Datey and Iyer shared seven out of the ten wickets that went down to bowl the opponents out for 289. Rohan Kunnummal and Sachin Baby scored individual fifties but their efforts weren’t really enough to get the team over the line. Ruturaj Gaikwad notches up another hundred Maharashtra captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has been in different form and he unleashed another batting masterclass against Chhattisgarh in Rajkot. Chasing 276, Gaikwad played a match-winning knock and remained unbeaten at 154 off 143 including five maximums during the course. Apart from him, Yash Nahar also struck a fifty as Maharashtra went over the line in 47 overs and by 8 wickets. Earlier, Mukesh Choudhary picked up four wickets but Chhattisgarh put 275/7 in 50 overs, courtesy fifties from Amandeep Khare and Shashank Singh. Tamil Nadu thump Karnataka Siddharth and Sai Kishore ripped through Karnataka’s batting line up to bundle them out for 122. The two bowlers shared seven wickets among themselves. For Karnataka, it was only Rohan Kadam and Manish Pandey who got into the double-figure. Pandey top-scored with 40 off 54 balls. Later, Tamil Nadu lost a couple of wickets but Baba Indrajith and Washington Sundar made sure that there were no further loss of wickets as the side chased down the target by 8 wickets and in 28 overs. Indrajith struck a fifty during the chase. Close encounter between Bihar and Meghalaya Bihar and Meghalaya were involved in a close encounter where the latter stole a win by just 1 run in Jaipur. Batting first Meghalaya scored 273/6 in 50 overs after opener Khuaran notched up a century while captain Puneet Bisht scored 75. Later, Bihar had a good start as they were 74/2 in 18th over but the fall of the second wicket saw wickets going down at regular intervals and they were eventually bowled out for 272 despite Sakibul Gani’s 70-ball 94 and lost the match by 1 run. Other results Rajasthan beat Goa by 84 runs Punjab beat Railways by 3 wickets Services beat Assam by 4 wickets Uttarakhand beat Chandigarh by 3 wickets Nagaland beat Arunachal Pradesh by 5 wickets Sikkim beat Mizoram by 4 wickets Tripura beat Manipur by 86 runs Saurashtra beat Haryana by 5 wickets Odisha beat Gujarat by 3 wickets Vidarbha beat Andhra by 8 wickets Himachal Pradesh beat J&K by 63 runs Mumbai beat Baroda by 13 runs (VJD Method) Puducherry beat Bengal by 8 wickets (VJD Method) Haryana beat Delhi by 79 runs Jharkhand beat Uttar Pradesh by 8 wickets