IPL 2021 | MI vs DC: What Experts said after Shreyas Iyer's 'mature' knock takes Delhi over the line

IPL 2021 | RCB vs PBKS: It's Virat Kohli vs KL Rahul show with playoff place at stake

After suffering from some of the glimpses of their unceremonious past at the start of the second phase of the tournament this season, the Royal Challengers Bangalore arrested their slide and quickly went back on the winning way to consolidate their impressive start to the season. They are third on the table with seven wins out of the 11 games played this season and are all but through to the playoffs however they would love to win this contest against the Kings to seal their place in the final four. On the other hand, the Punjab Kings have not been able to shed the reputation of being inconsistent and underachiever after another on and off-season. They have shown enough firepower both with bat and ball but all those good moments have been very far and few in between some mediocrity in general. Their batsmen have been found confused on whether they should play an attacking brand of the game or playing solid and substantive innings to see them through and in the end, more often than not, have done neither with perfection. Their plight is reflecting in their precarious position on the points table and only a good win that they could have easily spoilt one more time against the Kolkata Knight Riders have kept them alive in the competition. The Kings will also take inspiration from their phenomenal performance against the RCB in the first round of battle between them this season. The RCB were rolled over by a 57-ball 91 from KL Rahul in mid of their journey of non-stop wins. They would hope that the skipper will use his good form to ballistic effect against the RCB and show the middle order which showed remarkable composure against the KKR a way to get on the top of the Virat Kohli’s bowlers. Match Details Match No: 48 Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Punjab Kings Date and Time: October 3, 15:30 IST (10:00 GMT), 14:00 LOCAL Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah Pitch and weather The pitches at Sharjah have been conducive to spin bowling and with no due factor in play due to this being a day game, the sides will be relying on their wrist spinners to do the job. Spinners from both sides—Ravi Bishnoi, Yuzvendra Chahal and Shehbaz Ahmad have been in rollicking form in the last few games and the pitch is expected to offer them a lot of assistance to throw a low or mid-level score game. There will be high humidity in Sharjah and pace bowlers too can use it to their advantage and try to swing the new ball. Team News Royal Challengers Bangalore The RCB handed a debut to George Garton in the last game against the Rajasthan Royals and albeit he received some mauling at the hands of Evin Lewis, the left-armer is likely to have one go with the new ball along with Mohammed Siraj. Harshal Patel has been in the thick of things this season and Kohli will once again bank on him for the death bowling duty. The RCB have given the opportunity to KS Bharat at the top of the order after Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal’s opening partnership and he has not done his chances any harm so far and is likely to continue at number three with the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Ab de Villiers to follow. Probable XI Virat Kohli (C), Devdutt Padikkal, Srikar Bharat (WK), Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Daniel Christian, George Garton, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal Punjab Kings The pull out by Chris Gayle could have come as a massive setback to the Punjab Kings chances but they used the crisis as an opportunity for the pair of Fabian Allen and Sharukh Khan, who batted sensibly to take them home in the last game. The emergence and progression of Bishnoi, the leg spinner has been one of the shining lights for the Kings this season and a lot of their chances for the playoff spot rests on his young shoulders. The middle-order will continue to be occupied by Nicholas Pooran and Aiden Markram, who has risen as a dependable player with the bat for the Kings after coming as a replacement for Dawid Malan. The pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh and Nathan Ellis is likely to be separated with the entry of Englishman Chris Jordan in place of the Australian quick who has not lit the fire with his pace and accuracy. Probable XI KL Rahul (C &WK), Mayank Agarwal, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Shahrukh Khan, Deepak Hooda, Fabian Allen, Chris Jordan, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh RCB vs PBKS: Fantasy XI KL Rahul(WK), Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Glenn Maxwell, KS Bharat, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami Captain: Virat Kohli Vice-captain: Mayank Agarwal

AUS W vs IND W | India ride on Smriti Mandhana's ton, but bat sluggishly to post big score

India Women continued batting commandingly and propelled past the 350-run mark before declaring on the third day of the only Test against Australia Women. The big score has been achieved on the back of the disciplined batting unit as all batters reached double-digit scores to contribute to the team’s cause in their maiden Day-Night Test. However, no other batter made their starts count except Smriti Mandhana, who became only the second Indian batter after Virat Kohli to score a century in Pink Ball Test and lead India’s batting with a fluent 127. She set up a big platform with a 95-run first-wicket partnership with Shafali Varma. and followed another with Poona Raut to consolidate India’s position in the game. After Mandhana, Deepti Sharma was outstanding with the bat on the second day of the game and scored a half-century. However, a failure to add impetus to the innings in terms of moving the game forward with a proactive approach took some of the sheens off his composed 66. For Australia Women, Ellyse Perry and Sophie Molineux were the picks of the bowlers as they picked up two wickets each to stop India Women from getting away with the game. India Women and Australia Women are playing their first and only Test match of the full tour comprising of all format games. Australia Women clinched the ODI series 2-1 before the ongoing Test at the Gold Coast while a three-match long T20I series is scheduled to follow.

IPL 2021| Brendon McCullum backs Morgan to turn things around quickly, laments absence of Russell

Kolkata Knight Riders Eoin Morgan has had a harrowing Indian Premier League so far with the bat as he has been able to manage only 109 runs from 11 innings at an abysmal average and strike rate of 10.98 and 100.92, but for the KKR think tank it is not a matter of grave concern. The KKR coach Brendon McCullum has thrown all his weight behind Morgan and said that the skipper will come good sooner rather than later albeit expressing the desire of having more contributions from experienced players. However, he said that the lack of runs with the bat has not affected his captaincy one bit as the KKR are still alive in the race to playoffs. "He's one of our senior players. He's one of our international batters and in his own head, he would have loved to contribute more runs. think he's captained the side really well. But look, you want some more runs from him there's no doubt in there. You need runs from your overseas players and you particularly need in those key spots as well. I am confident he will come alright. Some guys are really going well,” McCullum said in the post-match press conference after the defeat against the Punjab Kings. KKR’s issues don’t end with Morgan’s form as the injury to their biggest match-winner Andre Russell has come as a massive setback for them in the critical phase of the tournament. McCullum lamented that finding a perfect balance between the batting and bowling department become seriously difficult in absence of big players like Russell. He said that the KKR had to choose between going in with strengthened batting or strengthened bowling and in the end, they went for the former. They brought in Tim Seifert for the game against the Punjab Kings and McCullums said that the move was in line with the team’s thinking of strengthening the middle order while using the bowling credentials of Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer to cover for the absence of Russell. "We've got several options. You make certain calls when you are a coach which you got to go on a gut feel as well. (Tim) Seifert has been doing really well when he played for TKR in CPL, he did really well in the middle order. We certainly felt we needed to strengthen the middle order a little bit. We got a good start and that meant we shuffled him behind Morgan and DK. "When you take out Russell, it's always difficult to balance your side. We got home in Sharjah but we felt a batter short. We felt if we are able to play the extra batter, we can utilise the bowling of Venkatesh Iyer and Rana, who is a very cagey bowler. When you take one of your big players out, who happens to be an allrounder, you always have that delicate balance to try and balance your side. You have to either go with your batting strong or bowling strong. In hindsight, when we got 160-odd, it would have been nice to have another bowler." The KKR are not out of the race to the playoffs but the last defeat against the Punjab Kings affected their standings on the points table and while being eager to win their remaining three games, they might as well have to rely on other’s good or bad performances as well to advance to the next level.

IPL 2021 | KKR vs PBKS: Hits & Flops as Kolkata’s poor strategy, sloppy fielding cost them two crucial points

The last shot by Shahrukh Khan, which eventually went for a six, after being dropped by Rahul Tripathi near the boundary ropes was actually the great summing up of KKR’s fielding efforts in the entire game. In total KKR dropped four chances, while one catch, which clearly looked out, was given not out, probably as punishment for dropping sitters early on (It was a very bad decision by the third umpire actually). However, at the end of the day, all that matters is that Punjab won the match by five wickets and collected the crucial two points. Courtesy of these two points, the Kings not only opened a way for themselves but also made sure that Delhi Capitals qualified for the Playoffs. But with this loss, KKR have now subjected themselves to a rigid qualification process where they can’t afford to lose even a single game between the two they play next. Like every game, this game had its Hits and Flops too which would be discussed in detail in the sections below. Hits KL Rahul Punjab Kings skipper almost became a villain from hero but was only denied the opportunity by the third umpire, who called a clean looking catch not out and gave the Indian batter an extra chance. Although he didn’t really capitalise on it and got out eventually in the next over, not before hitting a four of the last ball of the 19th over and bringing the equation down to five from six instead of something above six. But before all that drama, Rahul was brilliant with the bat playing the anchor superbly and hitting a much needed fifty to boost the morale of his troops. In his knock of 67 off 55 balls, the 29-year-old hit four fours and two sixes. His partnership of 70 runs for the first wicket alongside Mayank Agarwal was equally important in the context of the chase. In the captaincy department too, Rahul was on his toes and made calculative bowling changes to bowl the last three overs with his two best bowlers in Mohammad Shami and Arshdeep Singh. Arshdeep Singh In what has been two amazing seasons for the left-arm pacer, Arshdeep Singh has developed into one brilliant death over specialist. He is nailing the yorkers and doesn’t allow freewheeling by any batter. In today’s game too, the 22 year old was immaculate with his approach and precise with his accuracy as he took three KKR wickets at important junctures of the game. Arshdeep removed his Punjab buddy Shubman with a pitch of an inswinger that cut the batter in half. Then the left-hander struck at a crucial time once again and removed in-form Nitish Rana with a well-disguised slower one, getting him caught at deep square leg. The importance of the Nitishrana wicket can be gauged from the fact that he fell in the 18th over with the team score at 149 and in the next 14 balls, all his team could score was just 16 runs. In his and the KKR innings last over, Arshdep was simply at his best as he gave away just seven runs, one of which was bye and also removed Dinesh Karthik on the very last ball of the over. Shahrukh Khan Kept outside the XI for the last four games with no visible explanation, when Shahrukh Khan did get his chance, he made sure that it was well taken. The Tamil Nadu man walked in to bat in the 17th over with his team needing 32 off 21 balls. What does a batsman of that sort do, well he plays his natural game and that’s exactly what Shahrukh did. He hit two runs off the first ball he faced and then pulled Shivam Mavi for six, which could have also been his demise had Venkatesh Iyer held on to the magnificent catch. But as they say, you live by the sword and you die by it and Punjab needed someone of that sort in their lineup which had to become too modest in its approach. Then again when he got a strike in the next over, the beastly built cracked a length ball by Southee for four to extra cover. The last six that he hit, which also turned out to be the winning six, was once again on the fringes, but eventually sailed over the ropes because it was Shahrukh’s day and not KKR’s. In total, he scored unbeaten 22 of just nine balls to see his team home. In the next two games, Punjab would have higher expectations from him. Flops Eoin Morgan The strangest decision ever made among many strang decisions by Kolkata Knight Riders would be the decision to play an extra batsman in place of Lockie Ferguson and to go with only four legitimate bowlers and a VenkateshIyer to bowl four overs. The man who was able to bowl four good overs on the Sharjah track was chosen to bowl four overs in Dubai! Well, that’s KKR’s management for you, of which Eoin Morgan is a big part. Morgan not only failed with the bat, where he went to play a scoop off Mohammad Shami when no risk was required at all. On just the second ball that he faced, he tried a scoop, what could that possibly be termed other than brain fade. He then dropped a sitter of Agarwal in the very first over. And if that was not all, decided to bowl Shivam Mavi and Venkatesh Iyer in the last two overs. There was a flurry of decisions by Morgan that didn’t make sense, however, the biggest one was playing Tim Seifert when Shakib Al Hasan could have easily fit against a right-handed dominated Punjab batting line-up and in that way, Venkatesh wouldn’t have had to bowl in the death overs. Dinesh Karthik KKR’s performance in the field was such that it could have very well been Shivam Mavi who would have been named in the list of Flops, but the guy bowled only one bad ball, which was a full toss on the very last ball of the 19th over, game changer as it could be, but eight runs and five runs to defend with Venkatesh Iyer bowling the last over wouldn’t really have made the difference. On the other hand, Karthik was not only very bad with the bat, hitting only 11 runs off 11 balls, getting out on a pre-meditated scoop, even after calling himself a finisher, but was equally pathetic behind the stumps. He let a catch of Rahul go past him in the 18th over as he forgot to dive and also distracted the fine leg fielder. That could have been a real game-changer as, after Rahul, two new batters would have been at the crease. In the very next over he gave away a bye in a very tight situation too. In total, it was a messy affair by the Tamil Nadu player. Special Mention Ravi Bishnoi Apart from Arshdeep, Ravi Bishnoi has been another great find for Punjab. He carried on his knack of picking wickets at crucial junctures. Just when the 72 run partnership between Iyer and Tripathi seemed like getting KKR past 180, Bishnoi struck and removed Tripathi. Soon enough, he also removed Iyer and played a major role in restricting KKR below 180.