Ben Stokes undergoes second surgery; after World T20, set to miss Ashes as well

IPL unearths another 'special talent' as Jammu Kashmir's Umran Malik bowls fastest ball of IPL 2021

India have found a new pace sensation in Umran Mallik, who has bowled the fastest bowl of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League at 153 KMPH. he reached the feat in the last game between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Sunrisers Hyderabad. He was also the fastest Indian bowler in the tournament and just behind New Zealander Lockie Ferguson who had bowled his fasted ball at 152.75 KMPH. Umran was on the top of his game on his IPL debut against the Kolkata Knight Riders as well and had unleashed a 151.03 KMPH delivery. Umran was drafted into the SRH side as a replacement for T Natarajan who contracted Covid-19 before the start of the UAE leg of the tournament. Before that, he was with the SRH camp as a net bowler. Umran plays for Jammu Kashmir in India’s domestic circuit and has played one T20 and one List A game taking a total of four wickets. Sunrisers skipper Kane Williamson was all praise for Umran before the game against the RCB and rated him “exciting fast bowling talent” at the toss. Umran Malik has become the latest addition to the long list of young Indian pacers who have risen to prominence through the big stage of the Indian Premier League.

IPL 2021 | RCB vs SRH: Hits & Flops as Sunrisers dent Virat Kohli’s ambition of top-two finish

For whatever the game meant for the Sunrisers Hyderabad towards the end of the horrific season where they could not get one bit of their tactics executions right, the win over the Royal Challengers must have inflicted frustration in the Virat Kohli-led camp while delighting the faces in the Chennai Super Kings camp. The RCB needed these two points against the Sunrisers to stake claim to a spot among the top two sides of the tournament while the Sunrisers were playing with eyes on players they might be looking to retain for the next few seasons. The objective of individual players was fulfilled in a big way as some big names of the Sunrisers stood up tall to their promises and defied the RCB a much-needed win that would have enhanced their rankings on the points table. In the end, it all came down to AB de Villiers’ genius against the reliability of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and in a sign that the day did not belong to the men in red and gold, the star batsman failed to score 12 runs off the last three balls. Here we’ll analyse the best and the worst performance of the night. Hits Harshal Patel Harshal Patel has been there in the Indian Premier League since the time his current RCB captain Virat Kohli was establishing himself as an Indian Test batsman and the ongoing edition is his most fruitful season. His bowling was always rich with subtle variations but the inconsistency with too many variations and absence of X-factor or a surprise weapon always marred his journey. He has been expensive with the ball in this season as well but plenty of wickets which was lacking in previous seasons masked his promise and rise. He has come with his bag full of tricks this season and announced his arrival in a grand manner in the opening clash of the season against the Mumbai Indians and has not looked back since this game against the Sunrisers. First, he got the better of Kane Williamson with a beauty of off-cutter that dipped in the short of length area and the SRH captain could not reach the pitch of the ball. He tried to carve the ball over offside in hope rather than with conviction to only find his stumps shattered. Williamson’s wicket perfectly highlighted his perfection with the length while bowling cutters that has paved the way for his enormous success. He came back in the end phase of the game to dismiss Wriddhiman Saha and Jason Holder to keep on churning wickets for fun while batsmen are looking for runs at a rapid rate. He has gone on to become the go-to man for Virat Kohli in the tournament with 29 wickets in the season and stands just three wickets away from an all-time high record of 32 set by Dwayne Bravo. For a team that have over the years attracted the best headlines for its star-studded batsman and worst set of headlines due to ineffective and inaccurate bowlers, the rise and rise of RCB this season can also be attributed to Harshal’s commanding success with the ball. Jason Holder Who would you place your money on when 18 runs are required of the last 12 balls of the game with one of the two batsmen at the crease is Ab de Villiers? You are likely to favour the batting side and when you will find that the other batsman is a proper hitter of the ball, too, most certainly you will bet on the batting side. It was that much stacked against Jason Holder when he was coming into the bowl the 19th over of the game. Also, that Kane Williamson preferred him over Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has been a know death bowler, also speaks of where the former West Indies skipper stands among the Sunrisers players. On the very first ball, he foxed Shahbaz Ahmed with a perfect off-cutter that he could not place in the gap while hitting in the air but Bhuvneshwar spilt the chance. He launched a relentless attack of slower balls and did not allow the left-hander any pace to work with and ultimately got the better of him with the version of a short slower ball. He denied Shahbaz the opportunity to even rotate the strike freely and de Villiers could face just one ball of his over and he beat him there comprehensively. Holder’s figure will read 4-0-27-1 but his control in the penultimate over stretched the game to the last over and the last ball and allowed Bhuvneshwar Kumar breathing space even by conceding a big six to the South African. Glenn Maxwell Generally, a lot of players who fail to excel in the IPL with the RCB flourish on the other side but Glenn Maxwell is a case in reverse. In the last two editions he played in 2018 and 2020 he could not muster even 200 runs in the season before he was released by the then Kings XI Punjab. The RCB needed another explosive batsman in the middle order to take some of the burdens off de Villiers’ shoulders and the Australian has fit in the role nicely with swashbuckling innings. On the night against the Sunrisers, the RCB were struggling in the middle phase of the game after the early fall of Virat Kohli, KS Bharat and Daniel Christian. He was eager and fearless to up the ante against Rashid Khan in a clear sign of having been allotted a particular role in the middle order. His exploits against the champion spinner came off and the RCB were up and running away from the Sunrisers in the chase of 142 runs. On a pitch where all struggled to time the ball and could barely manage boundaries, Maxwell was hitting boundaries at will before getting dismissed by run out and derailing RCB’s chasing efforts. Flops Rashid Khan Rashid has been one of the best bowlers to have played in the 14-year long history of the IPL and not often does he leaks runs at an economy rate in excess of nine runs per over like in the game against the RCB. Batsmen have struggled in both reading his variations off his hand and trying to get to the pitch of his deliveries due to his lengths and pace of bowling. However, on the night against the RCB, he offered deliveries in the arc of Maxwell, who doesn’t bat keeping the reputation of the bowler in his mind and instead reacts to the ball. He took him on on the very first ball he faced and deposited him over the fence. That boundary would have come across as an anomaly of the leg spinner would have corrected his length. Instead, he offered him two full-pitched deliveries in the next over and Maxwell was up to the task to punish him. Having hit mercilessly over the top by Maxwell, Rashid overcorrected his length and offered long hops to Devdutt Padikkal but was lucky to get away with those as the left-hander was not at his fluent best. In the game where the Sunrisers had only 141 runs to defend, Williamson would have hoped to get better returns out of Rashid’s fingers. Instead, he had to take him off the attack in the middle phase of the game and only a run out of Maxwell and immaculate bowling by Jason Holder, in the end, saved the night and some pride for the Sunrisers. Devdutt Padikkal Things could not have been any wrong for Devdutt Padikkal as he has produced regular dominating performances with the bat. However, his returns have started to flounder, his flamboyance has started to be contained and his stroke playing abilities have started to be limited in the ongoing edition of the IPL. On the night against the Sunrisers and in many games before as well, Padikkal has batted without any momentum and has created enormous pressure for the batsman at the other end. His patience at the crease has not helped him in scoring big runs either and the young left-hander needs to ask himself what sort of batsman he wants to become going forward. If the idea of taking your time early on and accelerating, in the end, would be a better one, his skipper Virat Kohli would not have walked away from it and started throwing the kitchen sink at deliveries. He was so off the mark that even a completely off-colour Rashid Khan was bamboozling him for fun while also offering him scoring opportunities, which he could not capitalise on to put pressure on the bowler. He was defeated in the battle of the worst of the day against Rashid Khan and he would like to forget the innings against the Sunrisers quickly. The Royal Challengers missed a golden opportunity to get into the top side on the points table with a win over the Sunrisers. They however have to win their next game and hope that the Chennai Super Kings lose their next one as well to make it three losses in a row to get to the second point on the table. The Sunrisers, on the other hand, would be happy to see the likes of Abhishek Sharma, Umar Mallik coming with their best on the big stage. Their journey in the IPL 2021 was over a long time back and all their good memories now will only set up a good near future for the franchise that had gone on to win the title in the 2016 edition.

IPL 2021 | RCB vs SRH: What Experts Said as Holder-Bhuvi combo drown Kohli's men

The Sunrisers Hyderabad pulled off yet another upset in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League defeating the third-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore by 4 runs in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, 6 October. Needing 142 runs from 20 overs, RCB were cruising at a point with 92-3 in 14 overs. Having lost Virat Kohli, Dan Christian and KS Bharat early in the game, it was Glenn Maxwell who took the onus on himself and disturbed the rhythm of the SRH bowlers. He took them on and just when he looked to be utterly dominant beside a struggling Devdutt Padikkal, he ended up being a victim of a huge mix up in the middle. Looking to get off to the other end against Rashid Khan, Padikkal put Maxwell in danger against Kane Williamson at cover. The SRH captain picked up the ball and threw it in bullet speed to uproot the stumps and sent Maxwell packing at 40 off 25 balls. From there, the chase looked a little tricky, but an equation of 18 from the last two overs with Shabaz Ahmed batting at 10 off 5 and AB de Villiers at 12 off 8 balls looked rather easy. However, in an incredible turn of events, Jason Holder bowled a breathtaking penultimate over scalping the wicket of Shabaz Ahmed and not giving a single boundary away against George Garton and AB de Villiers. With 13 to defend in the final one, Sunrisers’ ace bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, almost lost the plot but somehow managed to contain de Villiers from hitting the big shots. This loss would mean that RCB will not be able to make it to the top two positions of the table anymore and would be forced to play the Eliminator the second time in two seasons. Last year, in the Eliminator, they were beaten by none other than the Sunrisers Hyderabad who stole the show and won the fixture by 6 wickets to advance to the next stage. Earlier in the first innings, forced to put into bat, Sunrisers Hyderabad tried to shake things up pairing Abhishek Sharma and Jason Roy. The move brought intent in the opening partnership with Sharma trying to tee off early in the innings. However, the List A record holder for the second fastest century by an Indian player departed in the penultimate ball of the second over having hit a six and a four in his 10 ball stay. The entry of Kane Williamson in number three made sure that SRH don’t lose further wickets and the Kiwi captain along with Roy added 70 runs in the next 9 overs. However, SRH failed to build on momentum and Williamson’s wicket opened the floodgates in the second half of the innings. From 100-2, SRH were squeezed to 141-7 at the end of the 20 overs. Harshal Patel was once again the pick of the bowlers, bowling exceptionally well at the death, picking up three wickets, including the one of Kane Williamson for just 33 runs. Barring Patel, Australian Dan Christian played a crucial part in restricting SRH from putting more on board, removing Jason Roy with a fantastic caught and bowled effort, just when he was looking to accelerate. None of that would work out at the end as a collective failure of the batting unit would end RCB’s hopes of winning this game by 4 runs. Captains comments Speaking at the post match presentation, RCB captain Virat Kohli said that the Maxwell dismissal was a key moment in the match. He praised the Hyderabad based franchise for holding their nerves and taking the game deep. Kohli also spoke highly of the SRH's latest bowling sensation Umran Malik and stated that we (India) need to take care of our (India's) fast bowling stocks. "Whenever you see talent like this, you need to nurture them." He said that he is gutted to lose but this game is only a hiccup in RCB's journey and they would like to carry on with the momentum they had earlier. Winning captain Kane Williamson spoke very highly about the unit at the post match presentation. When asked by presenter Alan Wilkins that where did they manage to ignite the fire, Williamson said that the heart was always there. "The heart was there. It was always there. The surfaces here are tough to play. The conditions are challenging and to see the fight and the heart in the second half was great to see." He spoke about Umran Malik as well and stated that the Jammu & Kashmir lad was a special find for the team, "Umran certainly is special. He is certainly special. We have seen him in the nets for a couple of seasons. Been a really valuable addition to the side." He concluded by saying that it was nice to win the fixtures despite getting out of contention and that these sorts of situations bring the best out of the youngsters in any camp. "It's been a challenging season and it's been some great opportunities for some youngsters. We've had a lot of last-over finishes and being on the right side of those is clearly helpful. But one thing tonight is it was satisfying for the group." Experts Take The experts had a lot to note down in this busy game and were of the shared point of view that it was Devdutt Padikkal’s stuttering innings that killed the mojo of the RCB chase. He wasn’t the only one at fault though, as AB de Villiers’ lack of returns this season is becoming a worrying point for the RCB. De Villiers, needing 6 from the last two balls, failed to hit out a rank full toss from Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 5th delivery after dispatching the slot ball for a huge six in the delivery before. While RCB did bowl well at the back end of the innings, their exploits in the middle overs should alarm the think tank. UK based analytics company Cricviz pointed out that Mohammad Siraj’s diminishing returns in the T20 format is worrying and RCB have to find a way for their strike bowler to be among wickets. Thankfully it was the joint venture of Dan Christian and Harshal Patel that brought RCB back in the game, after the former took a stupendous catch of Jason Roy off his own bowling. Harshal Patel once again came in handy with his cutters and picked up two late wickets to shut the lid on the SRH firepower. Patel is currently the purple cap holder in the current season and has a 7-wicket difference between him and second-placed Avesh Khan. While he has been a touch expensive with an economy of 8.4, he has a tremendous strike rate of just 10 in this season. Some have even argued that, if the pitches do remain the same for the T20 World Cup, Patel could be added into the squad to maximise India’s bowling potential. Kane Williamson once again played a captain's knock to help stabilise the SRH batting order, but could not bat through the 20 overs as he would have liked. However, commentator Harsha Bhogle was in aw of this man's prowess and it only built further after Williamson effected the Maxwell run out in the second innings of the game. To wrap it up, the experts once again took notice of Umran Malik's ability on the night as the pacer broke the 150kmph barrier once again to deliver a 153ks corker. This ball, now has become the fastest delivery bowled in this season IPL ahead of the likes of the South African duo Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada

AUS W vs IND W | 1st T20I Preview: Spirited India pumped to challenge Australia in strongest format

Right, having competed hard in both the Test and ODI format against an all-strenth Australia Women side, India Women are all set to challenge them in their strongest suit—the T20I format. They also have ambitions and purpose to come back with a fresh bundle of energy as the last time these sides met in the shortest format, the Meg Lanning-led women had thrashed the Indian women in the finals of the World T20 last year. And Their skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who has been on the sidelines for the entire length of the tour so far, is all in readiness to inflict some of those pain back to the Aussies. Ahead of the series, she has expressed a desire to win the series 3-0 “at any cost” and it sets up a cracking contest across the three-match series. "We need to win all three to win the series, and we want to go all out. We will go with our best talent because we want to win this series at any cost,” Harmanpreet Kaur said. However, their task will daunting as Australia Women are a side full of in-form batters such as the skipper Meg Lanning, Beth Mooney, and Alyssa Healy, who imploded on the night of the World T20 final last year to pulverise Indian Women. If they cross the hurdle of prolific batters, they will have to score runs at a rapid rate against the likes of Darcie Brown and Ellyse Perry, who have been in the top-notch form in the recent past with the ball. On the other hand, India Women will rely on the flamboyance of Shafali Verma and a rich vein of form of Smriti Mandhana. The return of T20 specialists such as Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues will boost the aggressive quotient of the side. Match Details Australia Women vs India Women Match no.: 1 Date and Time: October 7, 18:40 local time, 14:10 IST Venue: Carrara Oval, Carrara, Queensland Pitch Report The pitch at the Carrara Oval is expected to be a belter for the batsman and the evidence from the just-concluded Test match suggests that bowlers will have a tough time trying to stop the stroke makers on either side. Team News Australia Women Fresh from a half-century in the Test match, all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner is gearing up to bat higher up the order in the absence of Rachael Haynes. "I know that top four have been pretty flexible over the past 12-18 months. We obviously really like to utilise the left and right combos and now with Rach missing obviously there are a few more right-handers in that top six now which I don't think is a bad thing with obviously me being right-handed, it hopefully pushes me up the order, but I'll bat wherever the team needs me. I'm pretty clear on what my role is in T20 cricket,” she said. Australia Women are also set to welcome Tayla Vlaeminck, who was made to sit out of the ODI and Test series due to fitness issues. Probable XI Alyssa Healy (WK), Beth Mooney, Meg Lanning (C), Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham, Hannah Darlington, Darcie Brown, Tayla Vlaeminck India India Women will be delighted to see the return of their skipper Harmanpreet Kaur after missing the entire length of the tour so far and her return will boost the middle-order that clearly lacked firepower in the ODI series. Yastika Bhatia showed impeccable timing with the bat in the Test match and looked fluent while playing strokes and the team management could well prefer her over Jemimah Rodrigues. However, the latter’s T20 credentials can’t be overlooked and they will have tasks on their hands to choose one over the other. Probable XI Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (w), Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Shikha Pandey, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad Australia Women vs India Women: Fantasy XI Richa Ghosh, Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning, Tahlia McGrath, Deepti Sharma, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham, Poonam Yadav Captain: Alyssa Healy Vice-captain: Smriti Mandhana