'On-field spat with Morgan not a personal battle' says Ravichandran Ashwin

Shikhar Dhawan crosses 500-run mark in IPL, his third in a row

In the 50th match of the Indian Premier League 2021, Delhi Capitals’ opener Shikhar Dhawan crossed the tally of 500 runs. He achieved the feat en-route his 39-run innings, which proved crucial in chasing down 137 runs against the Chennai Super Kings. The feat meant that the talismanic white-ball opener now has three back to back 500-run seasons in the IPL while the Indian selectors juggle the opening combination of the national team. The innings also helped Delhi Capitals to move to the top of the points table having won 10 matches from 13 games. In the previous IPL edition, Dhawan scored 618 runs in 17 innings while averaging 44.14 striking at a magnificent rate of 144.73. It was in this season that Dhawan became the first batter in the history of the IPL to have scored two consecutive centuries. Prior to that, in the World Cup year, Dhawan was on song as well, scoring 521 in the 16 games that he played. His highest was 97 and he averaged around 35 (34.73). In total, Dhawan has crossed this landmark five times. He scored 569 and 501 in IPL 2012 and 2016 respectively. He played for Deccan Chargers (2012) and Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2016. In the current edition, Shikhar Dhawan is only behind KL Rahul and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who have 528 and 521 runs respectively.

Rohit Sharma feels India has won the series in England by 2-1

India’s opener Rohit Sharma said that he is clear that his team won the India - England series by 2-1. He said that he doesn’t have any clue of the status of the fifth test which was abandoned last month. The fifth test which was scheduled to start on the 10th of September was abandoned by both the boards as India’s junior physio Yogesh Parmar tested COVID positive. Some senior members of the team were also tested positive. The white-ball vice-captain was attending an event organised by sportswear giant Adidas. He said, "I don't know what's happening with the last Test match. Whether we are playing a one-off Test (next year) but in my mind, we have won the series 2-1." India were leading the five-match series against England by 2-1 when the last match was cancelled. Both the cricket boards have agreed to play this match in July 2022. When asked whether this was his best performance so far as he scored more than 400 runs he said, “it's not my best series. I feel my best is yet to come. I utilised the time before the World Test Championship final in Southampton (to figure) what sort of technique and mindset is required. I was pretty happy and would like to take it further."

Fleming comes out in Dhoni’s defense, cites conditions for batting slowdown

Chennai Super Kings have now lost two matches in a row and that has brought the performances of key players under speculation. When both the openers lost their wickets early, responsibility of scoring a winning total fell on middle order batters. Except Ambati Rayadu, who played an inning of 55 runs, nobody in the middle order could play upto the expectations. Uthappa, Moeen Ali, and captain MS Dhoni failed to accelerate on time, as CSK scored 136 in 20 overs and lost the match by 3 wickets. However, coach Fleming feels that the slowdown in CSK’s batting was not due to lack of intent, rather it was the conditions that restricted the batters. "Well, he [Dhoni] wasn't the only one who struggled, it was a difficult day for stroke play. When 137 [136] is almost enough, I think it was a tough wicket to score big on in terms of the big shots. So both teams struggled with that towards the end of the innings. Sometimes you set your sights too high, [want] too many, and probably we were only 10-15 runs short of having a match-winning score”, Fleming said. Although, as CSK has already qualified for the playoffs, these performances may not hurt them here, but they will remain a matter of concern for the CSK management as defeats in the playoff round will be irreparable.

IPL 2021 | DC vs CSK: Hits & Flops as thrilling last over victory see Delhi take pole position

It didn’t look like going to the wire, but the Indian Premier League games during this UAE leg have been anything but predictable. Low scoring thrillers have been the theme of the second half of the season and this one went the same road. Courtesy of this hard-fought three-wicket win, the Delhi Capitals have now reclaimed the pole position from the Chennai Super Kings and looks like they might stay there till the group stage ends. It was a battle of perseverance basically which Capitals had to fight and Krishnappa Gowtham, a substitute fielder dropping a sitter at long-on of Shimron Hetmyer, who eventually became the main hero for the Capitals, did help them win that battle. While Shimron Hetmyer was one hero, there were others too who showcased their brilliance to make this seemingly boring game way more interesting than even a high scoring run chase. At the same time, there were dull performances too. All these would be clubbed and discussed under the below section called Hits and Flops. Hits Shimron Hetmyer Shimron Hetmyer, a specialist batter in the team was sent after newcomer Ripal Patel and bowling all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin. He was perceived to be a bad player against spin by the Delhi Capitals management. But it was only fitting, and also a tight slap of realisation to Capitals management that he was the one who finished the game for them. When he walked into bat, the team from the national capital were in tatters struggling at 98-5 and soon became 99-6 when Shikhar Dhawan, the established batter was gone as well. With 38 runs to get from 30 balls and the ball doing all sorts of dances on the wicket that had become a burial ground for DC batters, Hemyer decided to give a solid fight. And he fought indeed, dodging two important overs of Thakur and Moeen Ali without losing the wicket and taking the equation to 28 from the last three overs with Axar Patel alongside him. After hitting him for a four and making him bowl two wides, Hetmer had narrowed down fellow Caribbean Dwayne Bravo who was bowling his first over of the night. However, Bravo nearly had him in the third ball but for a sitter being dropped by Gowtham at long-on to give a second lease of life to the left-hander. That was all he needed as he made sure not to give another chance to the Super Kings and managed to finish the game by hitting 28 off just 18 balls, which included getting 22 runs from the 18th and 19th overs combined. Ambati Rayudu In a game where it was hard to even get odd boundaries, Ambati Rayudu stood tall with his 55 unbeaten from 43 balls which was the guiding principle behind CSK managing to get to 136 in their 20 overs. The 36-year-old came to bat after the fall of three wickets. With none among the top four between Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis and Moeen Ali firing, the onus was on him, being the next most in-form man to take his team to a good score. The experienced Andhra batter partnered with his skipper, MS Dhoni, to build a solid base after being 62-4 in the 9th over. When the base was built, Rayudu started firing all cylinders and after having scored only 27 from his first 30 balls, he went on to add, 28 in his next 13 balls to provide the much-needed acceleration to the innings. In his knock of 55, Rayudu hit five fours and two sixes. And if it weren’t for a great last over by Avesh Khan, he would have even taken CSK to their desired total of 150. Shardul Thakur Shardul Thakur has been dubbed as the man with the golden arm during this IPL and he lived up to that name as he bowled a brilliant spell to get his team back into the mix after they looked down and out in the first 10 overs of the second innings. Shardul was first introduced into the attack in the 10th over when the Capitals had just lost their skipper Rishabh Pant. He bowled miserly, which is very different from his trait. After bowling two economical overs, he was taken off and his end was changed. Just after the change in his end, the Palghar Express took off and got two wickets in that very over. The 29-year-old removed Ravichandran Ashwin with toe crushing yorkers on which Ashwin wasn’t even to get his bat down in time. On the third ball, he once again removed Shikhar Dhawan caught behind, but which was later overruled by the third umpire with the help of the DRS. But that wasn’t a relief that lasted long as on the sixth ball of that very same over, he got the wicket he wanted as Dhawan was caught at shirt covers by Moeen Ali. Shardul was given another over on trot to try and break the last resistance in the form of Shimon Hetmyer, but he couldn’t do it and finished his four-over spell with figures of 2-13. Flops MS Dhoni MS Dhoni must realise that he is not even a shadow of the batter that he used to be and given the fact that he still is the best wicket-keeper and captain that CSK could have, he must relinquish his batting dreams and let the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo come ahead of him. In this game, he made the mistake of coming ahead of Jadeja and Bravo in the batting order. And although he managed to stop the flow of wicket losses by sticking together with Raydu and creating a 70 runs partnership off 64 balls, it was almost made redundant with the number of dot balls he played. The 40-year-old scored 18 off 27 balls and could not hit even a single boundary during his stay at the crease and in the 20th over while trying to hit a boundary he got out on the very first ball, which laid down the foundation of a very bad 20th over from the perspective if the batting team, as only four runs came from it. In the field too, he made a great mistake by holding Bravo for far too long. And then in the 19th over, the decision to come up to the stumps and yet asking the bowler to bowl wide outside off at pace was also a huge mistake which gave away two important runs where the team was defending only five runs. Deepak Chahar There were many candidates for the last Flop in the list, but Deepak Chahar surpassed, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Robin Uthappa to take the wooden spoon because of his utterly bad figures for a low scoring thriller. The swing bowler, even after managing to get rid of Shaw, gave away 21 runs in a single over, hit by Dhawan to end up with figures of 1-34 from only three overs. In the context that his team was defending only 136, it was a huge crime to give away 21 runs in only one over and that too while bowling in the powerplay, which is considered his biggest strength. For Chennai to now finish in the top two, they must beat Punjab Kings, and even if they are unable to beat Punjab Kings, they must hope that RCB loses it’s both games, otherwise there would be trouble for Dhoni’smen and they might end up playing Eliminator instead of Qualifier-1. For Capitals, a top-two finish looks like a certainty until and unless they lose very big against RCB and both Chennai and Bangalore mane to win their remaining games handsomely.