BAN vs PAK | 3rd T20I: Shahnawaz Dahani makes debut for Pakistan

Jeremy Solozano to play no further part in Test; Shai Hope named as concussion substitute

Injured West Indian debutant, Jeremy Solozano has been ruled out of the first Test match against Sri Lanka. Solozano’s debut day was cut short by a horrific injury on Day 1 after he copped a vicious blow from Dimuth Karunaratne at short leg. He was taken for scans after looking dazed from the blow and West Indies has updated late on Sunday night that Solozano had not suffered any structural damage but would be kept overnight for further observation. After the 26-year-old got stretched off by the medical staff at Galle International Stadium in Colombo, Shai Hope fielded for the rest of the day and now, he has been named as the concussion substitute for the rest of the match as well. The rule states that teams would have to play like-for-like replacements for the injured player and the 28-year-old right hand batter has been approved as the same. Meanwhile, West Indies found early inroads into the Test match on Day 2 after being made to toil hard on the first day of the game. At the time of writing Sri Lanka were batting at 345-6 having batted 121.4 overs. Dinesh Chandimal (37 off 71) and Suranga Lakmal (6 off 32) were at the crease.

Karnataka top order topple early in the finals of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Sent to bat first after losing the toss, Karnataka were pushed to the backfoot by Tamil Nadu spinners in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final. Playing at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Karnataka lost their top order inside the powerplay overs inside the powerplay. R Sai Kishore was the prime factor behind Karnataka’s woes as he broke the back of the batting unit dismissing two of their most experienced batters. Sai Kishore removed Rohan Kadam with a traditional off spinner that drew the batsman forward and turned big on him and then returned to pick up Manish Pandey with a straighter one. Vijay Shankar’s persistence with the spinners paid off as Karnataka were reduced to 34/3 inside the powerplay with Pandey, Kadam and Karun Nair all back in the hut. At the time of writing Karnataka were rebuilding with BS Sharath and Abhinav Manohar on strike.

SMAT 2021 Final | T Natarajan returns back for title clash against Karnataka

Tamil Nadu’s left-arm fast bowler T. Natarajan was included in the playing XI for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final against Karnataka on Monday in Delhi. The pacer had played four games in this edition of the SMAT and scalped a total of five wickets during the course before he was rested. Natarajan had undergone a knee injury in April after which he hasn’t really been playing consistently. He was a part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad’s playing XI for a couple of matches in the second leg while wasn’t picked for the T20 World Cup that happened in UAE recently. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu bowlers and especially R Sai Kishore thoroughly dominated the Karnataka batting line up in the power play overs after picking up three wickets. Kishore had bowled three overs and picked up two wickets for 9 nine runs in the first six overs while Sanjay Yadav was the second bowler who was among the wickets. The three wickets included the dismissals of Manish Pandey and Karun Nair. Tamil Nadu defeated Hyderabad in the semi-final to make a place in the final while Karnataka beat Vidarbha to march ahead.

Match Report | The Dravid-Rohit era begins with a ruthless whitewash of New Zealand

India whitewashed New Zealand in the T20I series in the most ruthless of manners winning the third and the final match of the series by a huge margin of 73 runs. This marked the opening of the Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid partnership which in all likelihood, will be going into the next year’s T20 World Cup in Australia. There were a lot of positives for India, especially the two debutants in Venkatesh Iyer and Harshal Patel who did well on the night. Playing in Kolkata, Venkatesh Iyer got his first bowling experience at the Eden Gardens and held his own against the likes of Tim Seifert, Martin Guptill and Jimmy Neesham. He finished with the figures of 3-0-12-1. Harshal Patel has been the pick among the bowlers in this series and finished the match with two wickets to his name conceding 26 runs from his 3 overs. However, the star of the night was Axar Patel who built the foundations for India’s win early in the game. His power play spell of 2-0-2-3 trashed Kiwis hopes of chasing the total of 185 runs and they could not build any significant partnerships from there. Barring Martin Guptill who scored 51 off 36 balls, the visitors were found hapless against the all round bowling of the Indian team. Earlier in the innings, captain Rohit Sharma led from the front and took charge of the scoring. He smashed a 31-ball 56 and put India in a good position by the end of the powerplay. While India could not do much with that and lost momentum in the middle phase of play, a late surge from Deepak Chahar and Harshal Patel put India back in the hunt. The duo put on a partnership of 22 runs from just 9 balls and helped India reach a good total. Axar Patel was adjudged the man of the match for his exceptional spell of 3-0-9-3 and stated that he owes this to the Indian Premier League having earned his confidence from the cash-rich league. Rohit Sharma was announced the man of series having scored 159 runs in three matches.