David Warner drops another hint of leaving Sunrisers Hyderabad camp

Ishan Kishan dismantles SRH; hits fastest 50 for Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians wicket-keeper batsman Ishan Kishan was on a roll in the last league match against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Abu Dhabi. The left-handed batsman unleashed a brutal assault against the SRH bowlers and hammered the fastest fifty for MI and in this editions IPL. Mumbai who won the toss opted to bat first and Ishan and captain Rohit Sharma opened the innings for the franchise and the two batsmen struck 80 runs for the first wicket before Sharma departed for 18 off 13 while trying to accelerate. Spinner Rashid Khan scalped his wicket. Punjab Kings captain KL Rahul holds the record for the fastest half-century who achieved the feat in just 14 deliveries against Delhi team in 2018. Yusuf Pathan and Sunil Narine follow Rahul at number two and three respectively. While Pathan hit a fifty against SRH while playing for KKR in just 15 deliveries back in 2014, Narine notched up a half-century against RCB in same number of balls in the year 2017.

IPL 2021 | Manish Pandey captains Sunrisers for the first time as Williamson, Bhuvneshwar suffer injury

In what was a shocking revelation, Manish Pandey, who hasn’t been in the Playing XI for quite some time now, walked into the ground at the toss against Mumbai Indians in their last league game of the Indian PremierLeague. It is the first time that Manis is leading any side in the IPL, having been part of the league since 2009. At the toss, Pandya, who has also captained Karnataka at the domestic level, explained that he is into the squad as captain Kane Williamson and vice-captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar were out with injury. With West Indian Jason Holder still on the side with his wealth of experience as a captain, it was quite surprising that Pandey was given the opportunity to lead ahead of him. Mohammad Nabi, the Afghan all-rounder was drafted in the side as a replacement for Bhuvenshwar Kumar. Mumbai on the other hand did the first thing right by winning the toss as to keep their hopes of qualification alive, they needed to bat first. The side also sported changes in the form of Kruna Panday walking back into the XI in place of Saurabh Tiwary and veteran Piyush Chawala getting a place in the XI as a replacement for Jayant Yadav. This would be the debut match for Piyush Chawla as an MI player.

World T20 | Sarfaraz Ahmed, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali included in Pakistan's final squad

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the final squad for the upcoming World T20 2021 in UAE and Oman. The selectors have made a few changes and three players, Haider Ali, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Fakhar Zaman have been included in the final 15. Former captain Sarafaraz has come in place of Azam Khan while Haider has replaced Mohammad Hasnain. The opening batsman Zaman who was earlier picked up as the reserve player has swapped places with Khushdil Shah, the PCB said in a statement. “Sarfaraz Ahmed and Haider Ali have replaced Azam Khan and Mohammad Hasnain respectively, while Fakhar Zaman, who was originally named as a travel reserve, has swapped places with Khushdil Shah,” the statement read. The chief selector Muhammad Wasim said that the three players have been included in the squad on the basis of their performance in the National T20 tournament. "After reviewing player performances in the highly competitive National T20 and in consultation with the team management, we have decided to include Haider Ali, Fakhar Zaman and Sarfaraz Ahmed in the squad for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021," chief selector Muhammad Wasim said. Other than this, the decision on the inclusion of Sohaib Maqsood will be made on the basis of medical advice. “The decision on Sohaib Maqsood’s inclusion in the squad will be made following medical advice. The top-order batter underwent MRI scans for the lower back after the 6 October National T20 match against Northern and missed Thursday’s Punjab derby against Central Punjab,” the statement added. The side would be led by Babar Azam and Shadab Khan has been named his deputy. Apart from Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir will travel with the team as reserve players. Pakistan will begin the campaign against arch-rivals India in Dubai on October 24. SQUAD: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan (vc), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sohaib Maqsood. Traveling reserves - Khushdil Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir

UAE Summer T20 Bash: A perfect warm-up for Ireland, Namibia, Scotland and PNG before World T20 2021

With the T20 World Cup 2021 first round around the corner, Emirates Cricket Board in partnership with Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland, Cricket Namibia, and Cricket Papua New Guinea decided to host the Summer T20 Bash, a tournament that would allow the aforementioned teams some much-needed game time before they head into the all-important World Cup. The tournament, with no final or finalist, is basically like warm-up fixtures with the only difference being that they would be treated as international T20 games. It will be hosted at the single venue of ICC Academy, Dubai Sports City (Dubai) from Tuesday, October 5th through to Sunday, October 10th. In the series, the host nation the United Arab Emirates, who have actually not qualified for the T20 World Cup 2021, will play four games, three against Ireland, and one against Namibia. In the other three games in this seven-match series, Scotland will play two games, one each against Papua New Guinea and Namibia, while Papua New Guinea & Namibia will play among themselves once as well. Thus every team in this tournament will get a hands-on experience of at least two games. Mubashshir Usmani, General Secretary Emirates Cricket Board was happy to announce this much-needed tournament in the light of the fact that the teams competing in the first round would hardly have warm-up games leading up to the tournament. “Emirates Cricket Board is very pleased to welcome Ireland, Scotland, Namibia and Papua New Guinea to the UAE and we are delighted to host the ‘DafaNews Summer T20 Bash’. This is a great opportunity for these participating teams to fine-tune their T20 skills as they approach their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup matches, and for our (UAE) team to gain experience from once again facing an ICC test-nation who will be highly motivated in putting their skills and experience on display. We look forward to a highly competitive series on home soil,” said Usmani in a press release by ECB. Tournament so far The tournament which started on October five has turned out to be an exciting affair with Sony Ten even broadcasting games involving UAE. 1st Match; UAE vs Namibia, October 05th In the first match, Namibia, who would be competing in Group A in the first round alongside Netherlands, Ireland and Sri Lanka, turned out to be too good for the hosts UAE. They won the match by 17 runs courtesy of a stellar bowling performance by Jan Nicolaas Frylinck, who picked up six wickets with his left-arm medium-fast to restrict the hosts to 142-9, thereby handing them a 17 run defeat. Check full scorecard here 2nd Match: UAE vs Ireland, October 07th In the second game of the tournament, hosts UAE were once again on the receiving end, but this time at the hands of Ireland. Once again it was some brilliant bowling performance from Ireland which restricted the home side to only 123-7 in the allotted 20 overs. Curtis Campher picked three wickets while experienced Mark Adair and young leggie Benjamin White picked two wickets each. The chase then turned out to be a cakewalk for the Irish as Pual Stirling and Kevin O’Brien put up 90 for the first wicket in just 13 overs. Even as they fell and so did skipper Andrew Balbarnie in a space of 25 runs, which took 36 balls to complete and got people thinking that the match might stretch to the last over, but it wasn’t to be as Campher hit two fours in a row to finish the game in the 19th over itself. Check full scorecard here 3rd Match: UAE vs Ireland, October 08th It took matches, but UAE did come back eventually in the third game and beat much higher-ranked Ireland to salvage some pride of playing at home. The victory was even sweeter because it was UAE’s biggest margin of victory against a test playing nation. The Irish were bowled out for 109 in 18.4 overs chasing a total of 163. For UAE, right-arm leg break bowler, born in Chennai, India, Kartik Meiyappan was the hero of the game, picking four crucial wickets including those of well set Campher and George Delany. In batting, Chirag Suri and Basil Hameed scored important runs for the hosts. In fact, Suri scored his fourth T20I fifty, making 51 off 44. Check full scorecard here 4th Match: Scotland vs PNG, October 08th Playing their first game of the tournament, the Scottish team showed no mercy whatsoever in bashing Papua New Guinea by eight wickets with 14 balls remaining. It was a proper show of inter from the Scottish team which meant business even in its warm-up game against neighbours Ireland earlier this week, defeating them by five wickets. In this game, PNG scored 154 in their 20 overs courtesy of a fifty by skipper Assad Vala and some late charge by Sese Bau who scored 38 off 26 balls. Scotland, on the other hand, didn’t skip a beat. With fifty from George Munsey and an unbeaten 41 from Richie Berrington, they reached the target in the 18th over itself. Check full scorecard here In the remaining two days, three matches will be played including Scotland vs Namibia on October 9th, UAE vs Ireland and PNG vs Namibia on October 11.