After Tendulkar and Yusuf Pathan, Badrinath tests positive for Covid-19

Pakistan announce schedule of Zimbabwe tour; to play 3 T20Is, 2 Tests in Harare

Pakistan have announced the schedule of their upcoming tour of Zimbabwe where they will play a T20I and Test series against the hosts. The tour will begin with a three-match long T20I series scheduled on April 21, 23, 25 at the Harare Sports Club in Harare. Following the T20 series, Pakistan will play Test matches in the African nations after a long gap of eight years. There are two Test matches scheduled to be played at the same venue from April 29 and May 07. Notably, all five matches of the series will be played behind closed doors. Pakistan side under the leadership of captain Babar Azam and head coach Misbah ul Haq are on the tour of South Africa. They will lock horns with the hosts South Africa over a three-match ODI and a four-match T20I series spanning between April 02 to April 16. The side will then embark on the tour of Zimbabwe for the T20I and Test series against Zimbabwe.

AB de Villiers to play in Nepal’s Everest Premier League 2021

The Cricket Association of Nepal and the governing council of Everest Premier League (EPL), the premier T20 tournament of the country were delighted to announce the onboarding of one of the Mega Stars of T20 cricket, South Africa’s AB de Villiers. Mr. 360 would be playing in the EPL this September October as confirmed by Aamir Akhtar, the Managing Director of EPL. “We are trying our best to bring top international cricketers for EPL to put Nepal in the frame of global cricket. We had tried to bring AB de Villiers the previous season as well but he couldn’t be available. In this edition, he has agreed to be here. If nothing comes in between, he will be playing at the TU grounds for sure,” Akhtar was quoted as saying to Cricketing Nepal. Prior to the upcoming edition, there has been only one edition of the league so far in 2018-19. It was graced by the presence of International stars like Kevin O’Brien, Paul Stirling, Rohan Mustafa, Roelof van der Merwe and Richard Levi. West Indian superstar Chris Gayle was supposed to play in the 2019-20 edition of the league, but that got postponed due to Covid-19. De Villiers, 37, would be part of either of the six franchises including Pokhra Rhinos, Lalitpur Patriots, Bhairahawa Gladiators, Chitwan Tigers, Biratnagar Warriors and Kathmandu Kings XI. Lalitpur Patriots are the defending champions. Known as Mr. 360 degrees, de Villiers, who has scored 9111 runs in his long T20 career with an average of 37.49 and a strike rate of 150.19 would soon be seen playing in the Indian Premier League for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

IPL 2021: Delhi Capitals appoint Ajay Ratra as assistant coach

The Delhi Capitals have appointed former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Ajay Ratra as their assistant coach for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League. The stint will be the first for Ratra in the league, but he has the experience of coaching sides at different levels. He was with the Assam team in the last edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy concluded earlier this year. He will work in tandem with Ricky Ponting, Mohammad Kaif, Pravin Amre and James Hopes to help Capitals in pursuit of their maiden title triumph in IPL. Ratra, an Indian veteran, has played 6 Tests and 12 ODIs in his career. He made a record for being the youngest batsman to hit a Test century and only the second batsman who kept wickets to have a three-figure mark on an overseas tour with an innings of 115 against West Indies in 2002. He shared his excitement about joining the highly-talented side of the Capitals in the announcement statement released by the franchise on Sunday. “I am honoured to join Delhi Capitals as Assistant Coach. This is a very exciting team to work with, abundant with talent. I can't wait to meet the team and contribute to its success. I am grateful to the Delhi Capitals management for giving me this wonderful opportunity,” Ratra said. The 14th edition of the IPL will begin on April 09 in Chennai while the Capitals will start their campaign against the Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai the next day.

NZ vs BAN | 1st T20I: Devon Conway, Ish Sodhi power Blackcaps' decimation of Bangla Tigers

New Zealand overhauled Bangladesh by 66 runs in the first game of the T20I series at the Seddon Park in Hamilton. The comprehensive victory was achieved by clinical performances in both batting and bowling departments. Devon Conway led a power-packed batting performance to set a humungous target of 211 runs to the touring Bangladesh side and then they were trounced by equally destructive bowling performances. Bangladesh openers Litton Das and Mohammad Naim were all on their way to give their side a near-perfect start in a big chasing effort before Blackcaps stand-in captain Tim Southee found extra bounce off the surface. The ball got big on him in an attempt of a flick and the catch was plucked by Ish Sodhi in the inner circle to give Bangladesh their first setback. Soumya Sarkar’s promotion to the number three continued and both he and Naim pulled out superb drives through the off side to get a move on. Naim was looking more dangerous than Sarkar and Southee called his trump card with pace—Lockie Ferguson. He was hit over the top as well but recovered on the very next ball to trap the left-hander in front of the stumps. The wicket of Naim proved to be the turning point as Bangladesh started to lose wickets in clusters and the slide for the tourists could not be prevented. Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi continued his golden run on New Zealand pitches as he picked up two huge wickets in his very first over. At the start of his over, Sarkar was deceived by a wrong’un while Mohammad Mithun could resist the temptation of getting to the top of the leg spinner. However, he played across the line only to find his stumps rattled and Bangladesh’s chasing efforts were facing turbulence even before the take-off. With the first four wickets down for nothing, the onus was on Mahmudullah and Afif Hossain to resurrect Bangladesh along with the task of keeping the required run rate in control. They failed to fulfil the first task as Mahmudullah became the third victim of the day for Sodhi. He attempted to cut a ball that was too fuller in length for a cut shot, and also was too close to him. The wicket of Mahmudullah was all but over for Bangladesh spirit and it was further dampened by the lack of clarity in Mahedi Hasan’s head. Unsure of the variations of the leg spinner, Mahedi played him from the crease and the ball ricocheted off his bat and pad to hit the stumps. The match would have been done and dusted the next over if Guptill would have clung on to an easy chance presented by Afif off the bowling of Ferguson. The left-hander made the most of the dropped chance and provided a solitary bit of counterattack from the tourists batting order. Mohammad Saifuddin played a subdued innings from the other end to bring Bangladesh towards some sort of respectability. The target, however, went too far ahead of their reach and when Ferguson came back to hit Afif’s stumps, it was a definite death rattle for the tourists in the first game of the series. Earlier in the day, Tim Southee won the toss and banked on his batsmen to put pressure on the tourists. Martin Guptill was partnered by another young sensation in Fin Allen while Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah also banked on a debutant Nasum Ahmed to come good against the Blackcaps right-handed openers. He started with a tight line to Guptill and castled Allen with a straighter one on the last ball of his very first over in his T20I career to win the first round of the battle of debutants. But his jubilation did not last long as Guptill was ready having studied his line of attack. The experienced right-hander was standing around his leg stump to give himself room against incoming deliveries and lifted him over the top to start off New Zealand’s attempt of posting a big total. After Guptill’s attempt to set the tone, it was now Devon Conway’s chance to open up his shoulders and Shoriful Islam became his first victim of the day. Three boundaries in the first over and Blackcaps were up and running at the Seddon Park. Both Guptill and Conway were finding it easier against pacers and Mahmudullah went back to his left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed. The debutant repaid the faith once again as Guptill was foxed by a slower and wider delivery that he could hit only as far as to long-off. Bangladesh would have expected some respite after Guptill’s wicket but the New Zealand side have now become an ultra-aggressive one and every batsman go at the bowler’s irrespective of situations. The next man in Will Young was equally explosive to Guptill if not more. Three overs after Guptill’s fall yielded 34 runs as the Young- Conway started putting Bangladesh bowlers to the sword. Off-spinner Mahedi Hasan provided some control to Mahmudullah but the pair was more dynamic than the bowling attack as runs started flowing from all bowlers through the latter phase of the innings. Will Young reached an impressive half-century from 28 balls on the back of pure hitting skills. He could not stretch his innings for longer and perished straight after the milestone. For New Zealand though, there was no dearth of explosive batsmen the next man in Glenn Phillips started tonking the ball from the word go. At the other end, Conway carried on his merry way and kept on finding boundaries on regular intervals. Sadly for him, the balls were too less in number to complete a century, but he smashed Mustafizur Rahman for four fours in the last over to take the game completely out of Bangladesh’s grasp. Bangladesh have lost the ODI series 0-3 and the start to the T20I series was far away from their expectations. They missed the services of senior trios of Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib al Hasan, and Tamim Iqbal but they would be honest to admit that youngsters have failed to capitalise on opportunities.