Cricket News

New Zealand eye historic whitewash against India at Wankhede

Published

2 months ago

October 31, 2024

A first ever series loss at home to New Zealand notwithstanding, India still have the “wood on us” while playing on turning wickets, said Kiwis spinner Ajaz Patel in Mumbai on Wednesday.

New Zealand have outplayed India on all fronts in their backyard so far in the three-Test series, particularly in the spin department as they head into the third and final match starting here on Friday with an unassailable lead of 2-0.

While New Zealand hammered India in a rain-truncated opening Test at Bengaluru by eight wickets, exposing their shortcomings on a challenging pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the world No 2 side was given a taste of its own medicine on a spin-friendly track in Pune in the second Test, which the hosts lost by 113 runs.

Ahead of the final Test at the Wankhede Stadium, another spin-friendly track is in making despite the struggles of the Indian batters.

Patel hoped that New Zealand, who have an opportunity to inflict a 3-0 whitewash on India, would need to continue to make all the right moves despite the hosts being more adept in playing on such tracks.

“India still have the wood on us when it comes to playing on turning wickets, and traditionally, the Indian batters have done well in turning surfaces,” Patel told the media after New Zealand’s training session.

“Obviously, they haven’t had maybe as much success as they would have liked in this series so far but they’re certainly an opposition that are very, very skilled and not the easiest to come up against.”

“Their skill set is very vast and for us as a spin group, especially it’s about being able to control what we can control and making sure that we can apply pressure for long periods of time and making sure that we’re delivering the best balls on a given surface,” he added.

New Zealand’s accuracy and recentness in attack, both with the bat and the ball, has been the feature of their first-ever series win in India and Patel acknowledged that the visitors will need to stick to the basics.

“It is really about continuing to challenge them. As a batter it’s not easy out there when you’re facing a ball that’s turning as much, and so it’s about us making sure we put the balls in good areas for long periods of time,” he said.

“On the flip side, India have got phenomenal spinners so our batters are trying to do the opposite and they’re trying to create opportunities to score runs,” he added.

Patel, who created history here three years ago by claiming 10/119 to become only the third spinner in Test cricket to take all 10 wickets in an innings, said the pitch for the upcoming contest looked different from the one before.

“Being back in Mumbai is always quite special and it’s a place I call home as well. Having the opportunity to play out here again is quite special. To be honest, after my 10-wicket haul, I wasn’t sure whether I’d get another opportunity to play out here again throughout my career,” he said.

“To be honest with you my memory is very poor so I don’t exactly remember the surface that well but one thing I do remember was it looked a lot drier to start with,” he added.

Patel, who had to play second fiddle to fellow left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner in the Pune Test, said he was happy to keep exerting pressure on India from the other end.

“It’s (about) looking at what roles you’re playing for the team when it comes to a bowling perspective,” he said.

“Mitch (Santner) was bowling exceptionally well from the other end so for me it was really important that from my end while I’m still trying to take wickets, I’m also performing the holding role and trying to restrict as many runs as possible so that pressure doesn’t come back on us.

“The way Mitch was bowling, there was no real need for me to try too many things. It was about trying to keep it as simple as possible. Once again, going into a new surface and a new game that may completely flip again,” he said.

BGT 2024

Melbourne Test: Injury scare for KL Rahul

Published

4 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Agencies

India opener KL Rahul got hit on his hand while batting at the nets in Melbourne on Saturday and was promptly attended to by the visiting team’s physio ahead of the fourth Test against Australia.

Rahul was hit on his right hand and was seen in some discomfort at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which will host the Boxing Day Test from December 26 with the five-match series levelled at 1-1.

There is no clarity on the extent of injury and the team management has also not issued any statement on why he had sought medical attention.

In a video that surfaced on social media, Rahul was seen holding the right hand while receiving treatment.

The opener was also hit on the arm during match simulation on November 17, but was fit to play the opening Test in Perth, five days later.

Rahul has been the team’s in-form batter in the ongoing tour, scoring 235 runs from six innings at an impressive average of 47.

The elegant right-hander has so far struck two half-centuries and is set to open the batting alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal in the fourth Test.

Overall, he is the second highest scorer in the marquee series behind Australia’s swashbuckling middle-order batter Travis Head, who has already smashed two hundreds.

Battling through multiple rain interruptions, Rahul held firm with a vital knock of 84 in India’s first innings of the third Test in Adelaide, the innings going a long way in helping India to save the match.

Cricket News

IPL 2025: Punjab Kings Star Shreyas can’t wait to work again with Ponting

Published

17 hours ago

December 21, 2024

Staff Reporter

Punjab Kings’ costliest acquisition Shreyas Iyer is “super excited” about being a part of the franchise and is hopeful of delivering results from the very first match.

It has been a remarkable year for Punjab Kings’ latest acquisition. At the start of the year, Shreyas Iyer was part of the Mumbai team that won the Ranji Trophy for the 42nd time. He then led Kolkata Knight Riders to their third Indian Premier League title. He was also a member of the Irani Cup-winning Mumbai team.

Under his leadership, Mumbai won the 2024-25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), their second SMAT title, last week.

“Surreal feeling after winning Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. A lot of hard work took place behind the scenes. The boys were tremendous with their performance. Now we are done with this part,” Iyer said in a video uploaded on Punjab Kings’ official social media handles.

Now, the Mumbai cricketer is laser-focused on a significant task: winning a maiden IPL trophy for the Punjab Kings. Iyer, who was signed on by the Kings at the Auctions last month for Rs 26.75 crore, expressed his excitement about joining the franchise.

“Super excited to be part of Punjab Kings. I cannot wait to join the Punjab Kings family. It’s been a great year for me to win four trophies. My main goal is to win the IPL trophy for Punjab,” Iyer said.

The 30-year-old, who has previously played under the guidance of former Australia World Cup-winning Captain Ricky Ponting in the IPL, said he is looking forward to brainstorming alongside one of the cricketing legends once again. Earlier this year, the Kings announced Ponting as the new Head Coach for the franchise.

“I can understand what the feelings must be among the fans. With Ricky coming in, we have shared a great camaraderie from the past. We would be putting our thinking caps on and brainstorming on many aspects. Hopefully, we will deliver from the match one,” Iyer signed off.

Shreyas worked alongside Ponting for three seasons when he was the captain of Delhi Capitals while the former Aussie captain was the Head Coach.

BGT 2024

Australian Media Creates Fake Narrative against Ravindra Jadeja

Published

22 hours ago

December 21, 2024

Agencies

The Border Gavaskar 2024-25 Series recently witnessed an off-field controversy involving Ravindra Jadeja.

The left-arm spinner addressed a press conference on Saturday ahead of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and the proceedings of it have not impressed some media outlets it seems.

Channel 7 carried out a report claiming Jadeja “refused” to answer questions from their reporters in English and the TV reporters, who had travelled all the way after being “invited” and were left “bemused by the “strange and frosty media conference at the MCG.”

Notably, Jadeja addressed the media after India’s first practice session at the MCG. The press conference proceeded smoothly until Jadeja concluded the session and decided to return to practice. At this point, an Australian journalist expressed frustration, displaying anger over Jadeja not answering any questions in English.

A couple of Australian journalists were rude towards the Indian media manager, asking their camerapersons to keep recording their conversation with the Indian media manager. Their behaviour bordered on the aggressive.

Australian media: One question in English?

Team manager: sorry, we don’t have time now. You can see the team bus is waiting.

Aussie media: Can’t we take one question in English?

Manager: This was organised mainly for the travelling Indian media.

Aussie media: The organisation is hopeless.

This incident comes a couple of days after Channel 7 invaded India legend Virat Kohli’s privacy by filing him with his children without his consent at the Melbourne airport. Although there is no written rule that stops the media from filming a superstar like Kohli in the public domain, his family, especially his young children, could have been spared. Moreover, the aggressive reporting, claiming Kohli lost his cool and had a heated exchange with a female reporter on the same channel, was also questionable.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy stands at 1-1, and before the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, it appears that tension is not limited to the cricketers on the field.