Sanjay Manjrekar tips Prithvi Shaw to emulate Virender Sehwag's batting

BCCI inks deal with MPL as the new apparel sponsor of Indian cricket team

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has handed out the sponsorship of the apparel of the Indian cricket team to fantasy gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL). The sponsorship will be in place for a period of three years and MPL will replace the existing apparel sponsor, Nike, as per a PTI report. The report further suggests that MPL and the BCCI have agreed for match fees of Rs 65 lakh which is significantly lower than what Nike was offering. “Yes, Apex Council has passed the sponsorship deal for the apparel of Indian team. However the rate per match will be ₹65 lakh per game instead of ₹88 lakh that Nike was giving,” PTI quoted an unnamed BCCI official. Nike had a five-year contract with the BCCI in which the clothing and accessories behemoth paid Rs 370 crore for the period between 2016-2020 along with royalty of Rs 30 crore. The ongoing global economic downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc in the business community and the BCCI was aware of the challenges at its hands given that no major apparel company agreed to pay as much as Nike had agreed to pay while signing the sponsorship contract in 2016.

IPL 2020 | KKR vs RR: Hits and Flops as Big guns finally deliver for the Knight Riders

It was as clinical as it can get for the Knight Riders as they defeated Rajasthan Royals by a huge margin of 60 runs to give themselves a good enough chance to qualify for the Playoffs in the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League. Eoin Morgan, the skipper led with an example as even after losing the toss, the Knight Riders put on more than just a competitive total of 191 runs on the board. If the batting was better than expected, then the bowling just raised itself above the level of any expectations, as another big-game player, Pat Cummins decided to turn this game on its head as he picked up four wickets in the powerplay to dismantle the RR innings altogether. While all this was taking place, Dinesh Karthik, the former captain probably played the most crucial of the roles as he took a blinder to remove the danger man Ben Stokes after he got a flashy edge off a Cummins delivery. There were certain flop performances as well, but they were mostly in the ranks of the Royals. On this note, let’s have a look at the Hits and Flops of the game. Hits #1 Pat Cummins After being hit for 19 in the first five balls of the first over, Pat Cummins made a strong comeback as he picked up the wicket of Robin Uthappa off the final delivery of his first over, and then on the first delivery of his next over, he removed the most precious of the Royals’ wickets, Ben Strokes. The credit for this wicket was however stolen of Dinesh Karthik and he rightly deserved it as well. Cummins didn’t stop there as he went on to claim three more in his first spell, breaking the backbone of the Rajasthan innings. Finishing with the figures of 4/34 after conceding 19 in the first over is a phenomenal feat achieved by Cummins. #2 Eoin Morgan After shuffling across the batting order, the skipper finally found his place at number five. Having persisted with that number in the last few games, he eked out a mind-blowing performance in this game scoring 68 off just 35 balls at the strike rate of almost 195. More important than the number of runs was the situation in which he scored those runs. He put together two handy partnerships with Andre Russell and Cummins of 45 and 40 each to push the score from 99-3 in the 13th over to 191 by the end of the 20th. His innings included five fours and six sixes. Captaincy wise too, the Englishman was spot on with his changes and field placements. #3 Shivam Mavi The captain Eoin Morgan, in his post-match interaction at the presentation ceremony praised Shivam Mavi saying that although it was Cummins who picked up most of the wickets, the diligence of Mavi must not be sidelined because he stuck to bowling the hard line of the good length which was discussed in the team meeting. The Uttar Pradesh born indeed bowled the hard-line and got the crucial wicket of in-form Sanju Samson. Later on, the bowler was back to pick one more wicket of Kartik Tyagi in his last over. Mavi finished with impressive figures of 2/15 in his four overs, going at even less than four an over. Flops #1 Steve Smith The Rajasthan captain has remained a flop throughout the tournament barring a few games. As told by Ashish Nehra during the live commentary of the match, Smith has looked to hit the bowl hard instead of timing it and that has led to his downfall this season. In the last 10 games that he has played in the IPL, Smith could only manage to get one fifty and score just 184 runs at an average of 20.44 In this game too, he got played down of a straighter delivery from Pat Cummins, the reason being he wanted to hit the ball hard. #2 Sanju Samson Having played amazing knocks in the Royals’ victories, it was needed that Samson stayed at the crease and build a partnership with others, especially after the fall of two big wickets in Ben Stokes and Steve Smith. But he could barely open his account as he was caught by Dinesh Karthik off a ripper from Shivam Mavi. Having won this game, KKR and their fans would now pray that either Sunrisers Hyderabad simply lose their game or the game between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore gets one-sided.

KXIP vs CSK: What Experts said as Super Kings sink Kings XI in IPL 2020

The Chennai Super Kings knocked the Kings XI Punjab after a comprehensive victory in Abu Dhabi. The match marked the end of the road for both the teams and now the race to the playoffs is now stabilising with teams getting knocked out based on every game. Here we have compiled the views of both captains and experts who were having an eye on the game and how it panned out in the middle. Captains’ take The losing captain MS Dhoni of the Super Kings accepted the problems his side dealt with and as well as their inability to cope up with them. Dhoi said that the team committed far too many errors, but also lauded the team for not getting subversive due to the losing tide and he walked away from the campaign feeling proud of his boys. “It was a difficult campaign. We committed a lot of errors. The last four games were a template of where we would like to be. Proud of the guys because if you're lagging behind for 7-8 games, it becomes really difficult. It's not easy, you won't want to be in a dressing room that's not enjoying cricket. Proud of them,” Dhoni said to the host broadcaster Star in the post-match presentation. Discussing the possible easy forward or the franchise, Dhoni put the onus on the BCCI for the next auction and he suggested that the franchise will zero in with strategic moves and players acquisition hat will serve them well for the next 10 seasons, like it did when the franchise got in before the first IPL auction in 2008. “A lot depends on what BCCI decides about the auction. We need to slightly change our core group and look for the next ten years. At the start of the IPL we made a team that served us well for ten years,” Dhoni added. Addressing his and the CSK’s fans, Dhoni assured a stronger comeback and said that although the team did not fare well in the tournament, they finished with 14 points which could have been good enough for them to qualify. He said that only one team (hinting at Mumbai Indians) have played dominating cricket throughout this season. “We'll come back strong. That's what we're known for. We are eighth in the table but 14 points and we could have qualified. This is a season where only one team played well or most teams played well,” Dhoni said in his message to fans. He discussed at length about Ruturaj Gaikwad’s performances in the last three games and the class he brings to the table for the team. He alsos reasoned why he was not picked ahead of Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis to open the innings and said: “Whenever we have seen Rutu bat, he's somebody who has done well in net sessions. But we were not able to see him in games. Then he got Covid, and even after 20 days he was not fit. He didn't get time for us to gauge. That was one of the main reasons we kept going with Faf and Watson. It didn't work. But that's the point where you go with the experienced players.” On the other hand, a dejected KL Rahul accepted without any fuss that his side could not handle the pressure the game brought and he batting failed as a sunit when he was expecting a score in excess of 180 runs for the CSK to chase. “ It is as simple as that. We didn't bat really well. Big pressure game, we expected 180-190. We couldn't soak in the pressure,” Rahul said in the post-match interaction. Discussing the two halves of the seasons when the team performed contrastingly differently and almost turned their season by winning almost everything that came their way in the second away after the first half when the team was failing to win even from the most comfortable situations. “We didn't have the results going our way in the first half. The team still felt like we were playing good cricket. We were patchy. The bowling and batting wasn't coming together in the first half, proud that we did it in the second half. Lots to be proud of as a team. a lot of "could have been,” Rahul analysed the Kings XI’s season. KL Rahul was not to miss pointing out the game when the umpire had given a wrong decision of short run and the KXIp ended up losing the game in a super over and said that it was disappointing for him to digest losses in games that could have been won easily. He also said that the KXIP players have only themselves to blame for not making it into the playoffs. “It is disappointing. We had a lot of games in our pockets and we couldn't get over the line and we only have ourselves to blame. That short run game too, looks like it has come back to bite us,” Rahul concluded his disappointment. Experts’s take Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle was overjoyed with what Depak Hooda had to offer to the Kings XI Punjab in the end overs. He was equally impressed with Ruturaj Gaikwad and rated him as a matured player. He commended the team management to giving him the second chance which he has grabbed with both his hands. Deepak Hooda won many accolades with hsi power hitting against the CSK and one of them also came from Sanjay Manjrekar, who as always, had his eyes open for details and numbers and outlined the brilliance Honda showed on the field with the bat. He also expressed his happiness on IPL 2020 returning back to its normal days when CSK used to win many games. Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra saw two different stories with the Kings XI Punjab and the Chennai Super Kings although the sides got knocked out with the equal number of points on the points table. He drew inference that the CSK started winning when all their hopes were gone while the KXIP were rejuvenated seeing their hopes alive midway into the tournament.

IPL 2020 | KKR vs RR: What Experts said as a clinical performance opens the Playoffs door for Knight Riders

Riding on the back of a brilliant performance with the bat by captain Eoin Morgan, the Kolkata bowlers, especially Pat Cummins made tremendous inroads into the Rajasthan batting line-up to finally deplete it and win the game for their team by a huge and much-required margin of 60 runs. Although this win did not guarantee the Morgan led team a place in the Playoffs, it at least gave them a more than good enough chance to reach there eventually, as their run rate is now improved. This loss in Dubai, however, put an end to Rajasthan Royals’ start-stop campaign, which had got some momentum in the last two games. Captains’ Viewpoints Reacting to the victory, KKR captain Eoin Morgan said that the score of 192 seemed only par to him, as the wicket seemed nice to bat on. “I thought it was around a par score. Every batsman who came back in said that it was a beautiful wicket with the dew in,” he said. Even after losing quick wickets in between 10th and 15th overs, Morgan acknowledged that the way they finished was only because they had planned for taking risks. “We were out there to play a free-flowing style of cricket. That was the only way we were going to win,” said Morgan. The Englishman further said that playing Andre Russell in place of Lockie Ferguson was mainly an idea to negate conditions and bring in a player who could take the risks in the middle. “Bringing out Dre Russ meant that it took the conditions out of the equation. We backed the guys to take a bit of risk even if it wasn't there,” he said. Talking about the length that his bowlers were supposed to bowl, Morgan said that they felt a hard length or a good length was the best spot to bowl. “We tried to execute that in the first six overs and I thought Mavi [Shivam] was outstanding. Obviously, Pat set the tone early on,” the 33-year-old added. Morgan further revealed that he and his team were clear in the head that they had to take quick wickets to give themselves any chance. “Winning the game was about taking wickets, especially early. RR are a side that are top-heavy and you need to get them early. Having that aggressive mindset was important for us,” he said. Acknowledging that he was aware of the Net Run Rate and the fact that he needed to win big, the KKR skipper said, “But you need to first get yourself into a winning position. I don't think we could have done anything more today. So whatever happens from here is up to the Gods.” Speaking from the past record, Rajasthan Royals were in with a chance to chase this down. However, being unable to execute the chase, captain Steve Smith blamed it on the batters saying that losing four wickets in the powerplay was a jolt the team could never recover from. “We thought 180 was par. But losing four in the first four didn't help,” he said. Crediting fellow Aussie Pat Cummins for bowling brilliantly as he picked four wickets, Smith said, “He bowled nice lengths and made us play big shots. Unfortunately, we are at the wrong end of the result.” Reflecting back on the season, the 31-year-old former Australian captain was of the view that his team’s middle phase in the tournament wasn’t really up to the mark and they lost one game too many. The New South Wales born also cited positives for the RR side from this season. “We started well with two wins, we won two before this one but we were inconsistent in the middle. We didn't take enough responsibility. A couple of positives for us, Jofra [Archer] have played exceptionally well for us. [Rahul] Tewatia pulled a few out of the hat for us, bowled exceptionally well through the tournament as well,” he said. Smith concluded by saying that they should have won a few more and also hoped that his team were able to bring out a few smiles in such times as the pandemic. “You need to win those you should win. The BCCI and everyone involved to get this tournament up and running have done a fantastic job. Hope we were able to put few smiles on people's faces, especially in India where it's been tough,” he said. Expert Opinion The experts praised Kolkata and their captain Morgan for taking that leap of faith after two very ordinary performances. They were also seen calculating the scenarios in which the last three teams for the Playoffs could be decided as even after 54 games, only Mumbai Indians have qualified so far. Veteran Journalist Ayaz Memon praised the Kolkata team for giving it their all and called Eoin Morgan the real hero for inspiring his troops by setting the example himself. Senior cricket analyst Boria Majumdar was seen calculating the scenarios in which Kolkata Knight Riders could make it to the Playoffs, after he wished Shahrukh Khan, the Bollywood actor and KKR owner on his birthday, saying that KKR have given him a huge gift in the form of this win. Harsha Bhogle, the world-renowned commentator and a wily old analyst of the game praised the leg spinners for their showing in the entire tournament. In particular, he talked about the brilliance of the unnoticed or the under noticed- Rahul Chahar and Murugan Ashwin. Former cricketer turned cricket Pundit, Aakash Chopra lauded big game players Eoin Morgan and Pat Cummins for putting their hands up and performing the way they did. Gaurav Kalra, a cricket journalist in general and humorist in particular was fazed by the fact that all the games in the last weekend of the IPL have been one-sided, despite the points table showing such close competition. As Morgan said that there is nothing KKR could have done better than what they did, and now would hope that either the game between Delhi Capitals and RCB gets one-sided or Mumbai Indians beat Sunrisers Hyderabad.