ICC Women's CWC 2022 | Bangladesh script history; defeat Pakistan to win maiden ODI WC game

IND vs SL | 2nd Test | Pant & Iyer throw Sri Lanka out of contention on Day 2

India are firm favourites to win the second Test match against Sri Lanka after they piled on a massive 447 run target on Sri Lanka on Sunday, 13 March. While pink ball Test matches do not usually see big totals, India scored 303 runs for the loss of nine wickets on a difficult track to take the game completely out of Sri Lanka’s reach on Day 2 in Bangalore. India had three things working in their favour. The first two of those being Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, two men who were class apart in the first innings of the game, and then returned in the second innings to put on incredibly dominating performances. Pant broke Kapil Dev’s 40-year-old record of the fastest Test fifty scored by an Indian and pulled India away on what could have been a competitive day, if Sri Lanka played their cards right. The young left hander showed mastery over his foot movement and negotiated whatever was dealt to him, hitting 7 fours and 2 sixes and reaching his 50 in just 28 balls. The second factor was Shreyas Iyer, India’s best batter on this pitch. He scored an excellent knock of 92 off 98 balls in the first innings to rescue India from a difficult spot and today, added another crucial 67 off 87 balls alongside Pant to give India celar lead in the Test match. Iyer’s ability to attack spin in any shape or form makes him one of the most sought after commodities in Indian cricket, and these innings will go on to make his case much stronger in the coming times. The third factor, and this is where Sri Lanka were thrown out of the game, was of their own making. Sri Lanka had a horrid outing vis a vis the DRS situation today. They misused their reviews, some of which was clear as day, and they did not choose to review on three occasions that could have gotten them the wicket. This mixed with flowing batting of the two youngsters, and their horrible catching made life hell for the Lankan players in Bangalore and took the game away from them inside two sessions. To be fair to India, it was not like they would have crumpled if those reviews would have been taken. Most of the batsmen out there looked fairly decent. One might go as far to say that Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant made the pitch look like it did not have any demons for a certain amount of time. Virat Kohli was probably the only underwhelming performance today, getting out on 13 off 16 balls, despite looking good. This marked the first time that Kohli’s average had come below 50 in a long long while in Test cricket, something that will probably start bothering the fans and experts of the game. India batted till their 9 wicket, and gave Sri Lanka the last half an hour play under the lights, where the visiting team did fairly well to score 28/1 in seven overs. At the end of the day, Sri Lanka had captain Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis in the crease having lost Lahiru Thirimanne in the very first over against Jasprit Bumrah. The Islanders have 419 runs more to score in three days time but it is highly unlikely that they will manage to chase it down against the Indian bowling line-up.

IND vs SL | Virat Kohli’s average drops below 50 for first time since 2017

After Virat Kohli was dismissed by Praveen Jayawickrama in the second innings of the Bengaluru Test, his average in the longest format of the game has become 49.95 and thus has gone below 50 for the very first time since 2017.

IPL 2022 | Gujarat Titans unveil their jersey at Ahmedabad

After much anticipation, the new Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Gujarat Titans (GT) have unveiled their jersey on Sunday (March 13) at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The Titans conducted a launch event to make the announcement. Also, the event took place in the presence of GT captain Hardik Pandya who flaunted their new jersey. Other notable names who graced the event were Head Coach Ashish Nehra and BCCI Secretary Jay Shah. “I don’t expect him to come on whiteboard with a lot of ideas. One thing is very clear with him that he lets the players decide what they want to do. He gives the freedom to enjoy the game. You make mistakes but eventually you learn from them. I’m very excited to get associated with him and spend quality time with him because everybody knows he is the funniest guy you can meet,” Pandya commented during the event. “Our goal will be to make sure that our players are comfortable and whatever capacity we can help them out. Clarity and honesty have to be there. We know, when a player goes through a good time, he doesn’t need any of us. But there will be difficult days in the season. So, we’ll make sure that when the difficult days are going on, we’ll be there for them no matter what,” he added further. Here’s a look at Titan’s jersey: More to follow….

PAK vs AUS | 2nd Test - Alex Carey masterclass agonises Pakistan on Day 2

It was another agonising day for the fans and well wishers of Pakistan as the home team were made to toil on second day in a row at National Stadium, Karachi. Sunday did not bring any changes in the home team’s fortune as Usman Khawaja started from where he left off on Day 1 and kept accumulating runs. He was ably supported by nightwatchman Nathan Lyon, who played very well for his 38 off 62 before getting bowled by pacer Faheem Ashraf. Post Lyon’s wicket, Australia built small partnerships with both Travis Head (23 off 48) and Cameron Green (28 off 73) getting starts but neither were able to capitalise to convert that into a really big score. Green looked much more comfortable than Head, using his feet well against the spinners. Head on the other hand tried to reach every ball with a long stride and employ the sweep shot. His ability to play very strong shots in the square region was visible against the pacers from very early in his innings, but against spin, Head’s long stride became a problem and he eventually perished against Sajid Khan, plumb in front of the wickets. After their dismissal, Alex Carey came into the picture. Carey’s position in the Test team has been a point of debate with many believing that the talent is there, but the execution not quite. Carey has only one fifty in from his previous six Test matches, a record that is starkly different from his outings in the Big Bash League and other white ball formats. Carey however, turned the debate on its head handling the innings with real maturity after the departure of Usman Khawaja in the 131st over when the scoreboard read 360. Before we go into what Carey did, Usman Khawaja’s innings needs a special mention as he absolutely drained the Pakistan attack, playing 369 balls of the 130 overs played at that point and helping Australia post such a massive total. He was looking set to go bigger but it was once again Sajid Khan who found that one particular spot in the pitch which turned the ball just enough to sneak through the defence of the left hander, crashing into his off stump. Sajid Khan was the best bowler for Pakistan on the day and picked two wickets. Now coming to Carey. Playing with Mitchell Starc, which essentially is where Australia’s tail starts, Carey built his innings slowly before going into all out attack with his partner in the crease. Starc’s exceptional outing (28 off 95) on the other end really helped Carey open up and he did not for once look bothered or under pressure. It became a sweep fest at a point when Carey kept employing the shot on both sides of the outfield, frustrating the Pakistan bowlers. He hit seven boundaries and two sixes in his innings to mark his place in the Australian squad. Just before the day’s end he was denied a well deserved century by - wait for it - Babar Azam, who doubled his wicket’s tally by sneaking through Carey’s defence with a ball that kept low. That marked the end of events for the day and meant that Australia were going to see this innings through with all of their batters getting a shy at Pakistan. At the end of day’s play the visiting team were batting at 505-8, with captain Pat Cummins (0 off 10) accompanying Starc. Questions were once again raised against both team’s tactics on the day. Pundits especially wondered what Australia were thinking using up so many overs on what clearly felt like a batting wicket. At a time it was presumed that the Pat Cummins team will declare at 450, but it is possible that plans changed with Alex Carey nearing century. Speaking after the game, Carey stated that he was gutted for not making the century but was very happy with what he did today. He stated that the pitch had started to break and the Australian pacers would further deteriorate it tomorrow owing to their footmarks. Day 3 would be an interesting proposition for Australia in terms of when exactly does the declaration come and how they approach their bowling attack. They have two specialist spinners in their ranks this time around with leggie Mitchell Swepson debuting. At 505/8 Australia would hope that they can skittle Pakistan out early with the help from the pitch and then put up rapid runs on Day 4, before giving Pakistan a crack at the chase on the final day of the Test match.