England reward West Indies for touring during pandemic with extended T20I, Test series

PCB asked to be prepared for India-Pakistan bilateral series: Report

The Pakistan Cricket Board has been reportedly indicated that a bilateral series with India is on the cards this year according to a report by Daily Jang. A member of the PCB initially denied being directly approached but later admitted that there have been hints of a bilateral ties between the two countries. "We've been told to be prepared," the official is quoted as saying by the Urdu daily. But Chairman Ehsan Mani said that the PCB is not in any talks with their Indian board. The reports further suggest that if the series goes ahead then the Indian team will visit Pakistan as Pakistan had visited India the last time two teams played against each other in a bilateral tie. The two teams last faced each other in a bilateral series back in 2012-13 when Pakistan visited India for a three-match ODI series. The home side lost the series 2-1. While there have been no bilateral series being held between the two countries, India and Pakistan have been facing each other in the ICC tournaments. India lost the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 to Pakistan, while The Men in Blue thumped Sarfaraz Ahmed’s team in the league stage of the World Cup 2019.

ICC to persist with controversial "Umpire's call" Rule in DRS

The Cricket Committee of the International Cricket Council (ICC) has recommended that the controversial concept of “Umpire’s call” in the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) should remain as it is as they are of the opinion that the ball-tracking technology can never be 100 percent correct. As per reports in the ESPN Cricinfo, the recommendation will be made in the governing body’s chief executive committee meeting. The report in ESPN Cricinfo further stated that the committee which is headed by former India skipper Anil Kumble and several former cricketers including Andrew Strauss, Rahul Dravid, Shaun Pollock and Mahela Jayawardene took suggestion from other match official, broadcasters and ball-tracking technology supplier and upon their discussion, they have come to a conclusion that the “Umpire’s call” rule should stay. Ever since the introduction of the umpire’s call in the Decision Review System, there has been hues and cries from every quarter to do away with the concept. However not long ago, umpire Nitin Menon had given his views and also highlighted the reason why Umpire’s call rule should stay. "See, first of all, Umpire's Call is regarding decisions which are very close, the decisions which are 50-50, which can go either way, goes with the call of the on-field umpire. It is not a completely perfect decision that has been overturned, so it is a 50-50 decision which can go either way, to the batting side or the fielding side. When we know that technology is not itself 100 per cent correct, so that is when you need the Umpire's Call," Menon was quoted as saying by ANI earlier this month. "When we know technology is not 100 per cent correct, so whatever the on-field decision is given, since it is a very marginal call, so we will stick with the decision the on-field umpire has given. This concept needs to be understood by the general public because they are not aware of why Umpire's Call concept is there in DRS. It is basically because it was a marginal call and 100 per cent technology cannot say whether it was hitting the stumps or not," he had further added.

Tweaking the length helped me pick up wickets: Prasidh Krishna

India fast bowler Prasidh Krishna made his ODI debut for India on Tuesday against England in Pune and returned with figures of 4/54 in 8.1 overs in a winning cause. The home side etched a 1-0 lead in the three-match series after beating England by 66 runs in the first ODI. The right-arm pacer did accept that the bowling in the initial part of the England innings wasn’t up to the mark and this was the reason that the English openers got a brisk start. "It didn't start off well, and they came hard at us because we bowled poorly, but we had belief. We picked wickets in a cluster and that helped us a lot," Krishna said after the match. "I understood after my third over, I can't bowl full, and then I hit good length areas, and let the ball do the rest," he added. Prasidh who plays for KKR in the IPL admitted that the cash-rich league has helped him improve. "IPL has helped me, but in a 20-over format, it's more important to come back. I'd like to be known as a hit-the-deck bowler, and I'm trying to get the length more consistently," he said. “...I'm going to go back to the drawing board and improve upon it. I hope I can be the partnership breaker for long, because the team needed it at the time, so I was happy to do it," said the six-footer,” he added. India went 1-0 up in the three-match series beating England by 66 runs in Pune on Tuesday. India first posted 317/5 in 20 overs, courtesy some fine performance from the batting line up and then bundled out the Eoin Morgan-led side at 251. The two sides will be up against each other in the second ODI on Friday at the same venue.

Virat Kohli becomes second Indian batsmen to cross 10,000 international runs at home

Indian Captain Virat Kohli on Tuesday became the second Indian player after “Little Master” Sachin Tendulkar to reach 10,000 international runs at home. He achieved the feat when he tapped Tom Curran for a single during the opening ODI against England in Pune. Kohli looked in complete command of proceedings during his brilliant half-century and just when he was trying to break the shackles and score freely, he was holed out in the deep. Kohli who hasn’t been in the best of forms off late made a roaring comeback in the T20I series where he scored three consecutive half-centuries and played an instrumental role in India winning two of them. He carried on from where he left in the T20I series and notched up yet another half-century. Following the loss of Rohit Sharma, Kohli joined Shikhar Dhawan in the middle and the duo took India to a comfortable position. Kohli mentioned in the post-match presentation that he went up to Dhawan and said that he will look to take on the bowlers from overs 31-40 so that they can take the score beyond 340-350. However, that wasn’t to be as Kohli was dismissed against the run of play and three quick wickets in the form of Shreyas Iyer, Dhawan and Hardik Pandya meant that Krunal Pandya and KL Rahu had to rebuild in the last few overs. Both came out all guns blazing and took India’s score to 317. Despite a sensational opening partnership of 135 runs between Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow, England middle order was blown away by the Indian bowlers as the home team registered a 66 runs victory.