Taliban ban telecast of IPL 2021 matches in Afghanistan

Mithali Raj laments lack of batting partnership, admits 'lot of work' to do in bowling

India Women were defeated in all departments of the game in the first game of the series against the Australian Women and the skipper Mithali Raj admitted that her side have to do a “lot of work”, especially in the bowling department. She conceded that their bowling attack is built around spinners, who have not found any rhythm and are not executing the plans on the field. “Well, see, you don’t have plans, but again it is about executing it in the ground, sometimes the bowlers don’t get the rhythm, but there are times when you know they get the rhythm but the plan isn’t working. Yes, we have a lot to work in terms of our bowling department because, predominantly, we are spin attack and spinners are getting hit everywhere, so that is something we need to tweak in,” Mithali said at the post-match press conference. India Women could manage only 225 runs in their quota of 50 overs while the batsmen failed to find any momentum in the innings. In contrast to their batting, the Australian Women plummeted the Indian bowlers to all parts of the grounds and won the game comprehensively in the 41st over. Raj addressed the batting failure as well and said that India Women were looking at setting a target in excess of 250 runs but the big wickets of Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana didn’t help their cause. She emphasized that the lack of partnership in the lower middle order also derailed their batting momentum which could have lifted them to a defendable total. “See, when you know the (kind of) batting line up the Australians have, anything closer to 250, is what we were looking at, but losing two wickets, especially batters like Shafali (Verma) and Smriti (Mandhana) in the power-play itself. So, it was important that the middle-order starts to compensate for that and build a partnership, that is what we did with Yastika (Bhatia), but again we didn’t get enough partnerships in the lower-middle as well,” Mithali added. India Women have been scrutinised for their conservative approach while batting and watches of the game have said that they don’t play “fearless cricket” to put pressure on the opposition. Mithali disagreed with that idea and said that the girls should be focussing on building partnerships instead of chasing the “fearless” brand of the game, which she said would eventually come after they gain confidence at this level. “We need to now have partnerships, rather than thinking about playing fearless cricket, the girls need to get down to developing some partnerships in the middle and that definitely will give them confidence at some point to play fearless,” she argued. India Women are on the tour of Australia for a full-fledged series comprising of three-match long ODI series, a one-off Test match and a three-match long T20I series. The next game of the ODI series will be played on September 24 in Mackay.

AUS-W vs IND-W | 1st ODI: Courtesy all-round show, Australia clinch thumping win against India

Australia women’s team was off to a flying start in the three-match ODI series against India after winning the first clash comprehensively by 9 wickets in Mackay. Chasing 226 in 50 overs, the Australian team went over the line in 41 overs after Rachael Haynes top-scored with an unbeaten 93 while Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning also struck individual fifties. Haynes and Healy gave the home side a perfect start after stitching a partnership of 126 runs for the first wicket. Healy was eventually out for a run-a-ball 77 after getting caught by Pooja Vastrakar off Poonam Yadav. Captain Lanning who joined Haynes in the middle at number three scored 53* off 69 and put up a partnership of 101 runs for the second wicket and took Australia home. Earlier, in the day, India who were put into bat lost a couple of early wickets before Yastika Bhatia and skipper Mithali Raj joined hands to provide the much needed resistance. The two batters put up a partnership of 77 runs before Bhatia departed for 35 off 51 at the start of the 27th over. The visiting team then began to lose wickets at regular succession and were reduced to 178/7 including the dismissal of Mithali who was eventually out for a 107-ball 63 after getting stumped out by Healy off Molineux. Wicket-keeper batter Richa Ghosh and Jhulan Goswami then chipped in with some runs and took the total to 225/8 in 50 overs. Ghosh scored 32* of 29. For Australia, it was Darcie Brown who scalped a four-wicket haul while Molineux and Darlington picked up a couple of wickets apiece. India captain Mithali Raj expressed disappointment on the bowling performance and admitted that the bowling unit, especially the spinners need to perform on these kinds of wickets. “I think when you are put in to bat first, you need to put a good partnership. A lot more is expected of the bowling department, especially the spinners. They need to perform on these wickets,” she said. Australia skipper Lanning lauded Brown for her bowling performance. “Been a long time since we played cricket, so we were pretty excited. Brown was excellent. It was certainly some good stuff,” she said. The two sides will now meet on Friday for the second ODI at the same venue.

IPL 2021 | KKR vs RCB: Venkatesh Iyer gets batting tips from Virat Kohli

Kolkata Knight Riders’ new recruit Venkatesh Iyer had a dream start to his IPL career for the franchise after he struck an unbeaten 41 off 27 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Abu Dhabi during the second leg of the tournament. The Kolkata bowlers ripped apart the RCB batting line up and bundled them out for 92 in 19 overs. Later, openers Shubman Gill and Iyer thoroughly dominated the RCB bowling attack and stitched a first-wicket stand of 82 runs before Gill was undone for 48 off 34 by Chahal. The Knight Riders eventually went over the line by 9 wickets. Iyer was then spotted taking some batting tips from RCB and India captain Virat Kohli after the match. This has certainly become a routine where senior lads like Kohli, MS Dhoni are seen spending time with youngsters after the game is concluded. Earlier, in the day, Kohli who won the toss elected to bat first but the things didn’t really go in his way. The right-hander was first one to go back into the hut after he was trapped in front of the stumps by Prasidh Krishna for 5. Opener Devdutt Padikkal and KS Bharat then tried to steady the ship for the side as the two batsmen put 31 runs for the second wicket on the board. But Padikkal’s dismissal on the last ball of the Powerplay broke the shackles and the Bangalore side began to lose wickets at regular intervals to soon get reduced to 66/7 and get bowled out eventually. Varun Chakravarthy and Andre Russell were the pick of the bowlers. While Chakravarthy scalped a three-for at the cost of just 13 runs in 4 overs, Russell returned with figures of 3/9 in 3 overs. This was KKR’s third win in 8 matches in the competition while RCB suffered their third loss in the competition.

Kohli's decision to step down didn't play a role in heavy defeat against KKR: Mike Hesson

Director of Cricket at Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mike Hesson refused to accept that RCB’s below-par performance against the Kolkata Knight Riders was down to the decision taken by Virat Kohli just before the start of the tournament. Kohli announced that he will be stepping down from the captain’s role but will continue to play for RCB till the last day of his IPL career. Royal Challengers Bangalore got a reality check as they were annihilated by KKR by 9 wickets. After batting first, RCB managed to post just 92 runs with Varun Chakravarthy and Andre Russell bagging three apiece. Hesson stated that everyone was aware of Kohli’s decision beforehand and that had no role to play in their defeat. He added that the batting performance was nowhere close to where they would have wanted but is confident if making a turnaround in the remaining matches. "I think it was actually to get any form of distraction out early. We talked about making that announcement as soon as possible really, all the players were aware of it. It has not impacted performance against KKR, we were not sharp with the bat, we lost wickets. But I am confident that this group will turn around pretty quickly," Hesson was quoted as saying during a virtual post-match press conference. "The team combination was not the problem today. To be fair, we probably got the toss wrong. It was not a 93-run wicket, we should have been able to get to 150. Whether that would have been enough or not, it is debatable because the ball started to slide down, but we were not sharp enough with the bat," Hesson further added. RCB were skittled out for 92 in 19 overs after winning the toss and batting first. None of the batsmen could get going and despite a good stand between Devdutt Padikkal and KS Bharath, none of the other batters could get going. It was the 6th lowest total for RCB in IPL history. Meanwhile, Hesson said that it was hard for Rajat Patidar to get dropped. However, he added that given KS Bharat’s exceptional showing in the nets, he deserved to break into the XI. De Villiers scored a duck as he was dismissed by a searing yorker from Andre Russell. Hesson said that it is very important to look after him given the importance of Mr 360 for the franchise. "AB de Villiers did not have the gloves, we have to look after him. He is an important player for us, he is not one we can risk behind the stumps so that was unfortunate for Rajat as we needed a keeper-bat to do the role for us at number three. To be fair, KS Bharat has been outstanding in the camp and he deserves his inclusion," Hesson said. "We were pretty clear in terms of Virat batting at the top, it is a lot harder to start against spin. We are very happy with Devdutt Padikkal and Virat opening the batting for us, high-quality players, left-right combination and KS Bharat can bat anywhere. We were forced for that change with AB de Villiers not keeping," Hesson concluded.