AUSW vs INDW | 3rd ODI: India seek consolation win, Australia eye clean sweep

AUS W vs IND W | 2nd ODI: Beth Mooney and mayhem in 50th over keeps Aussie winning streak alive

It was one heck of a last over bowled by Jhulan Goswami. Although the match might go into the history books as Australia Women chasing down the third-highest total in Women’s ODI history to take an unassailable lead in the three-match ODI series played at Mackay, but it was much more than just that. It was self-destruction by Team India. However, with this five-wicket win, that came on the very last ball of the game, the Aussie Women have managed to keep their unbeaten in ODIs steak going which has now reached a mammoth 26 games. India seemed in total control of the game and with 13 required off the last over for an Aussie victory, the balance had already been titled towards the women from the subcontinent. With Jhulan Goswami, the highest wicket-taker in Women ODI history and one of the finest fast bowlers going around in the world being given the last over, it tilted some more. But what transpired in the last over was nothing less than self-destruction by India. On the very first ball, what could have just been a tight double, ended up being three runs as Richa Ghosh the wicket-keeper threw the ball at the stumps and the batters ran overthrow. This was not happening for the first time in the day that Australia were taking extra runs off overthrows, but India surely hoped it was the last time. However, if it wasn’t the overthrow, misfield was the next demon and it haunted India Women as a single was converted into two thanks to Yastika Bhatia’s fumbling effort at short mid-wicket. With five runs having come at the first two balls, there was still a chance for India to get the win, but what happens next? Goswami balls a beamer that hit Nicole Carey on her helmet. Not only there was a free hit and an extra run was given but it also amounted to an extra ball being bowled. With seven needed from four balls, the 38-year-old Indian bowled a cracking yorker on the free hit ball, the Aussie batters ran and Ghosh missed the runout opportunity as they skippered for a bye. A leg bye on the next ball meant that five were needed off the last two balls and as a fumble by Jemimah at deep midwicket resulted in a brace for the Aussie players, now Goswami had three runs to defend on the last ball. She could have gone for wide yorker with third man and sweeper cover out or for a yorker with midwicket out or could have outfoxed the batter with a short ball. But what did she bowl? A waist-high full toss which Carey hit straight to short square leg. The Indians thought that they had won the match, Crey in disbelief didn’t even complete the run. But then came the final twist, the ball was declared a no-ball for height by the third umpire and India now needed to defend two from the last ball. The field placement was weird as India went to save two and put all fielders on the boundary line. Carey hit it to deep midwicket and by the time Rodrigues returned and Jhulan failed to collect, the Aussies had completed the double and taken the unassailable 2-0 lead in the series having won the first ODI by nine wickets. While the end of the chase was incredibly dramatic and went Australia’s way, the start was equally opposite as Indian bowlers reduced the women in gold and green to 52 for four, defending 275. However, some callous approach by Indian fielders, a missed stumping opportunity by Ghosh behind the stumps and brilliant batting by Tahlia McGrath and Beth Mooney kept Aussies in the hunt. The duo added 124 for the fifth wicket before McGrath was caught by Bhatia off the bowling of Deepti Sharma to give Indians a window to seal the game. But that obviously did not happen as new arrival Carey and Mooney hit it off and developed a match-winning and unbeaten 97 runs stand for the sixth wicket. Mooney was adjudged player of the match for her brilliant 125 off 133 balls and for holding the inning together. Earlier in the afternoon, after India was sent in to bat by Meg Lanning, the Aussie captain, it made a cracking start as Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana added 74 for the first wicket in only 11.2 overs before Shafali was dismissed in a cruel manner, getting played on. However, Mandhana continued her onslaught and it was with the help of her 94 balls 86, Ghosh’s 44 runs and late order contributions by Goswami and Pooja Vastrakar that India reached 274 in its 50 overs. The two teams will now meet for the final clash in the ODI series on Sunday, September 26.

IPL 2021 | RCB vs CSK: Hits and Flops as Virat Kohli’s men sent back to the drawing board by Super Kings

The Royal Challengers Bangalore seem to be getting back to their old self as they have started to lose games as the business end of the tournament is approaching. This is now their third consecutive loss and fourth in the last five games. Their UAE leg of the tournament started with a loss against the Kolkata Knight Riders and after this six-wicket loss, now they have lost two in two. On the contrary, Chennai super Kings seem to be moving in the upward direction having beaten Mumbai Indians in the first game, they are now two in two in the UAE leg of the tournament. In fact, with this victory at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, the Men in Yellow climbed to the top spot in the points table as they have garnered 14 points from their nine games and have a better run rate than the Delhi Capitals, who too have 14 points from the same number of games. Much like every game, this game had its Hits and Flops and this is that section of the post-match piece which analyses such players who turned out to be either Hit or Flop in the entire game. Hits Dwayne Bravo When the RCB inning was rocking and there seemed no way to find a wicket, one man turned it around for the Super Kings and it was their West Indian champion Dwayne Bravo. The 37-year-old didn’t only get Virat Kohli out but also broke a huge 111 run stand for the opening wicket. It was courtesy of this breakthrough only that the MS Dhini team made a comeback into the match. Bravo however didn’t just stop there and alongside controlling the flow of runs, also got the wickets of Glenn Maxwell and Harshal Patel in the last over and gave away only two runs to curtain the RCB innings to only 156. In total, Bravo picked three wickets in this game going for just 24 runs in his four overs. Rightfully, the devoted Super Kings was awarded Man of the Match. Devdutt Padikkal RCB got off to a flying start and a huge part of the reason was Devdutt Padikkal’s batting. After getting out cheaply in the first game, the Karnatak man tried to make up for it in this game and did brilliantly to hit 70 off just 50 balls. He was part of the 111 runs opening stand with skipper Kohli. While in the powerplay he was just flawless, as the wicket slowed down, his elegant strokeplay didn’t sail him through and he became Shardul Thakur’s first scalp, but not before hitting five fours and three sixes. Shardul Thakur Not a great death bowler alright, might not be a great swing bowler either and not the best all-rounder for sure. But Shardil Thakur is someone who has time and again bailed Super Kings out in tough situations in the recent past. In this game too, just after Bravo opened the gates, Thakur made sure that it became wide open and Chennai enter right through it. The right-arm pacer two crucial wickets of Padikkal and de Villiers and that it too in the same overs to deal a heavy blow to the chances of the RCB getting past 180. Also, he gave away just 29 runs from his quota of four overs. Flops AB de Villiers When de Villers was most needed by his team, he failed at that very time. After getting a start of 111 runs in just 13.2 overs, the old BD would have butchered the CSK bowling lineup, but this ABD wasn’t really sure of how things were moving. Arriving at just the right time, the former Proteas player made just 12 runs off 11 balls when his misery was finally ended by Thakur. ABD is one player that RCB trust to take them out of any mess, but in the last two matches he hasn’t been able to do it and with yet another failure in this game, it has surely made de Villers look out of form, and inside a lot of problems in coming days. Wanindu Hasaranga When the Sri Lankan all-rounder and leg spinner was bought by the RCB as a replacement for Adam Zampa, it was expected that he would do great things with the ball. However, in the two matches that he has played, it hadn’t looked like he is the world number two T20I bowler. After going wicketless in his first IPL outing against the KKR, Hasaranga remained wicketless on a spin-friendly pitch in this game. In this very game, many spinners took a lot of wickets from both the side, but the Sri Lankan import was not good at all. He went for 40 runs in his four overs quota. The two teams will now move on to their second assignment, which is on September 26 on the double header’s day. While RCB would take on Mumbai Indians at Dubai International Stadium, CSK would play KKR on the same day and prior to the RCB- Mumbai game, but it will be played at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

IPL 2021 | RCB vs CSK: What Experts Said as well-oiled Super Kings punish lifeless RCB

After an impressive start to the IPL 2021 campaign where they achieved four consecutive wins, the normal service seems to be resuming for the Royal Challengers Bangalore as they lost their second consecutive game against the Chennai Super Kings in the second phase of the IPL. The Royal Challengers would have been ecstatic to see their skipper Virat Kohli coming to his own with signature shots and putting up a rapid partnership with Devdutt Padikkal. However, his wicket started a downturn for the men in red and gold and the men in yellow came back in the game to never let it go off their grasp by picking crucial wickets at regular intervals. What appeared to be a chase of more than 200 runs when Kohli and Padikkal were going all guns blazing was reduced to a mere 156 runs and the Super Kings batsmen are too oiled a batting unit to let the game go away from their grasp. Here we’ll analyse the takeaways for both the captains and the close watchers of the game. Captains’ views The losing captain Virat Kohli lamented the loss of momentum in batting in the end phase of the batting as they could not get to a “winning total” of 175 runs. Kohli was dismissed in the 14th over after having stitched a dominating 112 run partnership but the next 36 balls yielded only 35 runs and they lost all of their star-studded batting lineup. "We could've got 175, that could've been a winning total,” Kohli pointed out straight away. However, he did not pin all the blame on the batters and reminded the bowlers of their failures of not making good use of the assistance from the surface and giving the Super Kings batters plenty of free-scoring opportunities. “The pitch had a lot to offer but our bowlers could not make use. They got away with too many boundary opportunities. They bowled well in their back end and executed the yorkers when needed,” Kohli asserted. He took a reference to his own batting innings in the middle and said that hitting big shots were not easy if not for the “bad balls”. He said that the bowlers failed to bring their “X Factor” at the start of the innings while at the same time failing to execute specific game plans towards the end when the pressure was really high. “It was difficult for us to get elevation, and only bad balls could be put away. We then gave too many boundary balls. We spoke of areas we didn't want them to hit, but we couldn't do that. The X-Factor was missing in the first five overs with the ball. But it's very important to execute balls during the crunch moments. Those few moments... that's what we failed to capitalise on,” Kohli addressed the concern that left a gap between the RCB and the CSK. The Royals have lost two consecutive games in the second phase of the IPL 2021. At first instance, they were blown away by the Kolkata Knight Riders but Kohli called the loss at the hands of the CSK “more disappointing” as they were in the game for some time before letting it slip out of their hands due to inefficient bowling and inconsistent batting. He urged his teammates to show “more courage” and reminded them of the level of competition in the IPL and hence the need to hit the ground running once again very quickly. “Got to get on that winning run again. This one is a bit more disappointing. The first one we just weren't in the game. Have to show more courage in crunch moments. This tournament goes by quickly,” Kohli concluded. On the other hand, the victorious captain MS Dhoni was all praise for his all-around brilliant side that showed their depth and did not lose calm even after a ballistic start by Kohli and Padikkal. Dhoni agreed with his counterpart on the point of pitch slowing down from the first half of the first session, but at the same time justified his decision to bat second based on the amount of due he has seen in his experience of the venue. He credited Ravindra Jadeja for bowling tight lines and not allowing Padikkal to take charge of the situation. He also hailed “brilliant” bowling performances by all the bowlers to restrict the Royal Challengers 15-20 runs short of where they wanted to reach. "We were worried about the dew, so whenever there's a chance of dew we want to bat second. They got off to a good start but after the ninth over wicket slowed down. You still had to bowl tight, and Jadeja's spell was important with Padikkal batting from one end. After that Bravo, Josh, Shardul, Deepak were brilliant,” Dhoni said in the post-match presentation. Dhoni said that he always had the idea of who would be better at the Sharjah pitch, which he rated the slowest in UAE. He also commended his players for adaptability and said that their willingness to understand their role better and take responsibility whenever asked to by the situation has been brilliant this season. “It’s always on the back of your mind on which bowler can be effective over here. Our players have worked hard, they have understood their roles and responsibilities. Over here, the three grounds are different. This is the slowest (so far) of all. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are different. So the players have been adapting,” Dhoni praised his teammates. Since the start of the season, Suresh Raina has been pushed down to the number four position in the batting order with Moeen Ali replacing him at number three. However, against the RCB, he was pushed further down to number five with Rayudu coming at number four, and Dhoni reasoned that the move was taken to adopt a left hand-right hand combination at the crease to ensure smooth batting against the leg spinners and the slow nature of the pitch. “Looking at the wicket, I felt left-right combo was important. We bat deep, we have a lot of left-handers, so in the back of the head its there. And I feel all of them are good enough to play in any position. That's why we went with the left-right combination, which may have pushed Raina and Rayudu down,” Dhoni argued. MS Dhoni has been known for not leading his troops in a systemic way and rather following an instinctive mode of captaincy and he gave another example of that quality in the game. In general, Dhoni relies on Dwayne Bravo for bowling in the end overs and the course of the game was going in that direction only before He walked back on his instruction to Moeen Ali that he were to bowl after the strategic time out and instead called upon his “brother” Bravo to bowl in the middle overs. Dhoni shared his banter with Bravo and said that he has suggested the all-rounder try six different balls on each delivery of an over in the end overs as the batters around the world have become familiar with his slower balls. “I had told Moeen before drinks that he would be bowling soon, but then I decided Bravo should bowl. The more you delay Bravo, the more difficult it is since he will end up bowling four straight overs in these difficult conditions,” Dhoni said. “Bravo has turned up fit - that's a very good thing. And he is executing well. I call him my brother. We always have fights over whether he should bowl the slower ball. But I told him that now everyone knows he bowls slower balls, so I told him to bowl six different balls in one over. Whenever he can, he takes up responsibilities.” The night ended perfectly well for the Super Kings who have all but knocked the door for qualification into the final four after missing out for the first time last year. Experts’ views One of the sanest voices in the world of Cricket, Harsha Bhogle had feared RCB’s prospect after they lost their way during the middle phase of the game. He had stuck his neck out and said that the Virat Kohli-led side were 20 runs short of where they should have been after a brilliant start with the bat. However, he also dissected the flow of Kohli’s batting and highlighted his fluency against the new balls and struggle when the ball got older and the pitch got slower. When both Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis were dismissed in quick succession to spinners, Bhogle had put his money on the spinners if the RCB were to win the game. He took cognisance of an underrated wheel in the CSK’ cog in the form of Ambati Rayudu, who along with Moeen Ali smashed RCB spinner, especially Wanindu Hassaranga, to put the CSK firmly ahead in the game. Meanwhile, former Indian opener and now an emerging voice in the Indian cricket circle, Aakash Chopra was too confident in Bravo’s ability in the end overs and predicted a strong performance from him. He did not disappoint him and picked up three wickets including the big ones of Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli to derail RCB’s batting effort and earn the Man of the Match award. The Super Kings have announced their comeback in the IPL in a grand manner and are in touching distance from a playoff spot. They are at the top of the points table with the help of a fantastic run rate compared to the Delhi Capitals who have won an equal number of games as they have. They suffered their worst season in the history of the IPL last year and MS Dhoni would be delighted to lead his troops to the door of the final stages of the competition for one more time.

All-round Warwickshire trounce Somerset to win County Championship 2021-22

A collective effort from the bowlers led by Chris Woakes and Craig Miles has made Warwickshire the new champions of County Championship 2021-22. They topped Division one and thereby booked the bragging rights. Somerset required 273 runs on the final day of their last league game in Division 1, while Warwickshire needed all the 10 wickets to lift the championship title. In the end, it was the team from Birmingham who got the better of their opponent and won the game by 118 runs to lift the trophy for the first time since 2012. Woakes was the pick of the bowlers with six wickets across two innings of the game while it was Danny Briggs’ all-around performances in both innings that kept the Warcs in the game. To put them further in control, Tom Yate’s century in the second innings set the game up beautifully on the final day. Winning the toss and eclectic to bowl first, Somerset were thwarted by an impressive Warcs batting line-up with the likes of Dom Sibley, Will Rhodes and Saim scoring half-centuries. Warwickshire posted a decent first innings total of 367 runs but Somerset were not out of woods in the first innings itself as their batsmen led an impressive riposte and posted 389 runs on the board. Having conceded a lead of 22 runs, Warwickshire needed batsmen to put their hands up one more time and aggressive innings from Yates along with another set of fifties from Sibley and Rhodes provided Warcs with a perfect platform to press on for a win on the final day. On the final day, Somerset openers Ben Green and Tom Lammonboy tried their best to provide solidity to their batting effort but once Lammonboy was snaffled up by Briggs, the floodgates opened for Warcs and the men in marron slipped to 35/3 in no time from 31/0 with the loss of both the openers and Azhar Ali. The championship triumph marks a remarkable turnaround for Warwickshire who failed to win even a single game in the last season. They had finished seventh in the championship in the 2019 edition and their last triumph had come way back in 2012.