TNPL 2021: When and where to watch the tournament live

Unfair and untrue: Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews hit back at Muttiah Muralitharan

Two of the biggest players among the current crop of Sri Lankan cricketers, Angelo Mathews and Dimuth Karunaratne have hit back against former Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan for his comment over the contract dispute between players and Sri Lanka Cricket. The duo has written a letter to the great off-spinner and tried to convince him that the dispute over the contract was not only about money and his comment on national television did not reflect true situations. The duo also blamed Muralitharan for what they called “dissatisfaction and hatred” against the team. However, they maintained that they “treasure” their relationship with the off-spinner. The duo reminded Muralitharan that they demanded accountability and transparency from the board over the issue of “player evaluations”. The duo also reminded Muralitharan of the 15-months period in 2011 when Sri Lankan players did play without any payment. The duo also reminded Muralitharan of his association with the Australian side in 2017 when he was signed up as a consultant to assist Aussies on spinning pitches. The letter said that the team respected his decision as “professional” and did not make it a “monetary” issue like the off-spinner has alleged against the players fighting for the contract despite. They urged all the players of the past and the current crop to stand together and extend a helping hand in the hour of tough times for Sri Lankan players. Notably, the SLC and players were at loggerheads for a contract dispute and the board had threatened to field a different side against India if they would not have agreed to sign up the new terms.

TNPL 2021: A look at full squads & teams

The Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) is set to begin on Monday (July 19, 2021) with the first match to be played between Lyca Kovai Kings and Salem Spartans. All the matches will take place at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai without any spectators. The tournament was cancelled in 2020 after there was a Covid-19 outburst in the country. Here we take a look at full squads and teams in the tournament. Dindigul Dragons – K Vishal Vaidhya, S Arun, Advaith Sharma, R Suthesh, S Swaminathan, L Vignesh, R Srinivasan, RS Mokit Hariharan, S Lokeshwar, C Hari Nishaanth, C Ashwin, MS Sanjay, V Lakshman, K Mani Bharathy, AR Siva Murugan, Gurjapneet Singh, R Vimal Khumar, Kishan Kumar S, Vigneshwaran S, Ravichandran Ashwin, R Vivek and M Silambarasan. iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans – S Dinesh, S Manigandan, RI Raajkumar, S Mohan Prasath, S Siddharth, S Aravind, Maan K Bafna, P Francis Rokins, K Gowtham Thamarai Kannan, Aswin Crist A, Tushar Raheja, A Karuppusamy, C Shriram, M Mohammed, Mohammed Ashik N, Affan Khader M, Adithya Giridhar, Saathiyaannaryan L, M Rooban Raj, Mohan Prasath S, Maan K Bafna, R Rajkumar, Natarajan ST, Ashwin Balaji S, and Dinesh Karthik. Chepauk Super Gillies –B Arun, S Vijayakumar, Rajagopal Sathish, R Ram, Arvind, RS Jaganath Srinivas, V Santhana Sekar, Manimaran Siddharth, S Sujay, S Harish Kumar, V Arun Kumar, H Prasidh Akash, *R Sai Kishore, Narayan Jagadeesan, V Sai Prakash, M Kaushik Gandhi, R Alexander, U Sasidev, Sonu Yadav, Rahul D, Sandeep Warrier, Radhakrishnan S Siechem Madurai Panthers –R Mithun, V Gowtham, PS Nirmal Kumar, NS Chaturvedi, P Praveen Kumar, B Anirudh Sita Ram, KB Arun Karthik, R Rohit, R Aushik Srinivas, J Kousik, DT Chandrasekar, V Aaditya, R Silambarasan, M Shahjahan, K Deeban Lingesh, Varun Chakravarthy, J Subramanyam, Rajkumar K, Sughendiran P, Saravanan PK, Aaditya V, Sunil Sam and L Kiran Akash. Ruby Trichy Warriors –B Rahul, Akash Sumra, ME Yazh Arun Mozhi, M Poiyamozhi, Rahil S Shah, S Santosh Shiv, W Antony Dhas, Aditya Ganesh, Nidhish S Rajagopal, R Ganesh, Sumant Jain, Muhammed Adnan Khan, P Saravana Kumar, VP Amith Sathvik, G Hemanth Kumar, K Mukunth, G Karthick Shanmugam, Mathivanan, Karthik R, S Kesav Krishna and Varun Totadri. Salem Spartans –B Praanesh, S Abishiek, Akshay V Srinivasan, Murugan Ashwin, S Boopalan, Daryl S Ferrario, M Ganesh Moorthi, Gopinath KH, TD Lokesh Raj, G Periyasamy, S Shubham Mehta, U Sushil, M Vijay Kumar, Vijay Shankar, Kishoor G, Aarif A, Suganesh M, Abhinav Vishnu, Rathnam AVR, R Karthikeyan and Washington Sundar. Nellai Royal Kings –H Trilok Nag, CH Jitendra Kumar, Sanjay Yadav R, V Athisayaraj Davidson, T Ajith Kumar, M Abhinav, NS Harish, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, S Sharun Kumar, Baba Indrajith, Baba Aparajith, Ashwath Mukunthan, L Suryap Prakash, S Senthil Nathan, Jitendra Kumar CH, Rohit Ram R, Sathraj A, Veeramani T, Sri Neranjan R, Vivek R, Suresh C and Arjun P Murthy. Lyca Kovai Kings- P Shijit Chandran, J Suresh Kumar, J Gowjith Subash, K Vignesh, GR Manish, R Kavin, G Aravindh, V Ganga Sridhar Raju, U Mukilesh, Abhishek Tanwar, MA Atheeq Ur Rahman, N Selva Kumaran, Ashwin Venkataraman, B Sai Sudharsan, Nishanth Kumar Alwar, Shahrukh Khan, Srinivasan E, Thangarasu Natarajan, Kiran Kasshyap, Yudheeswaran V, Anandakumar S and S Ajith Ram

Argument over face mask exposes betting racket

Delhi Police Special Cell has said that the two people who were involved in an argument with the Delhi Police personnel during an IPL game at the Arun Jaitley for not wearing a mask are a part of a betting racket. The Special cell has further added that the two persons arrested had been working for two different modules according to a report in The Indian Express. “They were present inside the stadium during three IPL matches and around 12 persons, including one from Dubai, were connected through conference calls at one time and they all were making money through online betting,” Delhi Police Special stated in the chargesheet before a Delhi Court. A peon at the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) Balam Singh, a liaison officer/ assistant at DDCA for accreditation-related work for IPL games Virender Singh, Krishan Garg, Manish Kansal, Himanshu Kumar, and Sandeep Kumar have been arrested by the Police. “One of the suspects, Navdeep Kabli Singh (31) told police that he was working for a man famous by the name of Google in betting world, for the last four years. He claimed his employer runs a book of satta (gambling) and also owns an “online betting website”. Navdeep disclosed that he gave rates during betting and he, along with two other employees, were running “satta” from their office in Gurugram,” police states. Krishan Garg and Manish Kansal were involved in the argument with Delhi Police sub-inspector Pradeep Kumar after the two were standing near a gallery of the Kotla’s VIP lounge without wearing face masks on May 2. “Garg showed his accreditation card, mentioning as junior assistant (SDMC health) and Kansal’s accreditation card shows he was duty supervisor of IBS facility management. Police found that their accreditation cards were made by Balam and Shah. Balam took Rs 10,000 and Shah took Rs 40,000 for making their cards,” police said.

SL vs IND | 2nd ODI Preview: Sri Lanka seek inspiration to halt India's mighty and smooth ride

If ever there was even a bit of doubt over the credentials and flamboyance of the Indian team on the tour of Sri Lanka, all of them were dashed out of the ground by the batting order led by Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Kishan. It was inevitable that the batsmen who are champions in the Indian Premier League would come hard against Sri Lanka’s bowlers, but their intensity and magnitude of aggression left all surprised. At the start of the chase, the hosts bowling attack looked so out of depth that they tried every kind of ball up their sleeves to see if Shaw would falter at one. Then, after a short ball finally found the Mumbai lad off guard leading to his wicket, the hosts would have hoped of some respite. Another bit of surprise was thrown at them by the team management in the form of Ishan Kishan. He danced down the track on the first ball to make a bold statement about the brand of cricket India are there to play in the ODI and T20 series. The relentless attack by Shaw, Kishan and then Suryakumar Yadav hinted at a possible change in the approach of the team management towards ODI cricket. The last time they played the format, England took on them with a completely different approach and it can be said that India are finally embracing the all-aggressive idea of ODI cricket. Sri Lanka, on their part, did exceed the expectations by putting up a score in excess of 250 runs and it should be considered as a massive positive in the wake of their recent struggles. Batsmen got themselves in and played some delightful strokes to keep Indian bowlers in check. However, the firepower in the Indian side was too much to be defeated on a placid track in terms of movement for pacers. Could Sri Lanka have done anything differently? Surely yes. They would not have bowled too wide of Shaw’s off-stump or would not have bowled spinners against Ishan Kishan. They would have bowled to bring the ball back towards Shaw’s stumps and tested if he now has the answers to the questions the likes of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc had asked in Australia. But, if they would have had in them to challenge India at so many levels, they would not be losing so many games in the recent past. Sri Lanka vs India: Match Details Date – Friday, July 20, 2021 Time – 03:00 PM IST Venue – R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Broadcast: Sony LIV, Sony Sports Network Pitch report The surface at the R Premadasa Stadium was slower and lower in nature and it should be no different in the second ODI. The new Kookaburra balls swung very little in the first half of the game but bowlers made good use of slower balls and cutters as the deliveries were getting stuck in the pitch. However, there was little to less hindrance to batsmen while playing strokes and it only improved under lights as Shaw made perfect use of the ball coming nicely onto his bat. Team News Sri Lanka Sri Lanka would not be too unhappy about their batting performance although they would be ruing throwing their starts. But, there would be the temptation of playing Lahiru Kumara, who can bowl well with the new ball in place of Isuru Udana who received hammering from Shaw. Sri Lanka may well look to attack India with a short ball and Kumara can be a better exponent of that skill set than Udana. The hosts would bank on their captain Dasun Shanaka and vice-captain Dhananjaya de Silva to bat more responsibly in the second ODI as they would have realised there were runs on offer in the first ODI only if they had survived. India Sanju Samson suffered a ligament injury in his knee to get out of contention of the first ODI and Ishan Kishan capitalised on the opportunity with a sparkling fifty on debut. He did not do anything wrong and even if Samson regain fitness, it’s unlikely that he would be able to replace Kishan from the playing XI. India played two swing bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar in the first ODI and they can consider Navdeep Saini for his pace and bounce. Dushmantha Chameera extracted good pace and bounce in the first ODI and India would be tempted to unleash Saini to add one more dimesion to their bowling attack. Strongest XI Sri Lanka Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka (wk), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Dushmantha Chameera, Lakshan Sandakan, Lahiru Kumara India Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prithvi Shaw, Ishan Kishan (wk), Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini Sri Lanka vs India 2nd ODI: Dream XI/fantasy XI Ishan Kishan, Dasu Shanaka, Hardik Pandya, Wanindu Hasranga, Avishka Fernando, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Lahiru Kumara Captain: Prithvi Shaw, Vice-captain: Shikhar Dhawan