Efforts are on, will bowl soon: Hardik Pandya

IPL 2021 | MI vs DC: Hits & Flops as daunting Delhi push defending champions to the brink

The Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals were the best two sides in the last edition of the Indian Premier League played in the UAE last year, but every time the Capitals faced the Rohit Sharma’s men, they were routed and that kind of showed the gap between the sides albeit they were just one position apart from each other. When Ravichandran Ashwin smashed Krunal Pandya on the very first ball of their second game against Mumbai, they had won both their games against Mumbai this year and Capitals’ coach Ricky Ponting was ecstatic and pumping his feast. His animated celebration spoke volumes of how much the wins over the Mumbai side mattered to the Capitals, who had a sort of stain on their reputation. We’ll analyse the best and the worst performances of the night between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians Hits Avesh Khan When the Capitals preferred Avesh Khan over Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma at the start of the ongoing edition of the IPL, there were murmurs on the reasons the Capitals were betting on a young Indian pacer at the expense of an experienced duo. 12 games deep into the season, with 21 wickets at 15 apiece, the pacer has repaid the faith and has gone on to become the “most improved player” in the Capitals squad in the eyes of the coach Ponting. His numbers this season would make any legend of the format feel proud and he has become an indispensable part of an all-strength bowling attack. On the day against the Mumbai Indians, he was tasked to stop the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock and the Mumbai skipper looked in ominous touch on the first few balls. Rohit has been a ferocious puller of the short ball and Avesh too was not unaware of his strength, which also has been his weakness this year. He lured Rohit with the back of length deliveries outside off before testing the half mark of the pitch and the batsman could not resist the bet. To be fair to Rohit, the shot was on, but it was just that Avesh had caught him cramped and beaten for pace. His next over was equally impressive against Suryakumar Yadav and de Kock to end the first spell with a bowling figure of 2-0-7-1. The reading of the bowling looked impressive even by that point but there was more on offer from the strong Indian quick. He returned with the second spell in the 16th over and once again he was all over the Pandya brothers (Krunal and Pandya) at the crease in that over. He conceded just one run in his third over. His best was yet to come and came with his best delivery of the day on the very first ball of his final over. Hardik was setting up to play him over the leg side by trying to pick the line. Avesh was hustling and getting a good pace to work with and he produced a searing yorker that also swung late in the air to pass through the gap between his two legs and hit the stumps. If he could only limit Mumbai’s ambitions in his first over, he killed Mumbai’s ambitions in his final over by picking up two big wickets giving just seven runs. He finished the game 4-0-15-3 and the words of Ponting who described Avesh in high praise during the interview midway through the game was vindicated by the end of the first innings itself. Axar Patel Since his inception in International cricket and the IPL, Axar Patel has always been looked at through the prism of Ravindra Jadeja, whom he was always competing with if he had to dream big. However, the left-hander started to turn the corner in the last few years and the year 2021 looks like to be the year he would unlock all his potential. Hence, when India picked him for the upcoming T20 World Cup despite the presence of Jadeja, there was no surprise in the views of people who follow cricket religiously. The Capitals were aware of de Kock’s frailties against spin and Pant disobeyed the match up game to throw the ball to Axar against the South African left-hander. After a sluggish start, he was eager to attack spinners, but Axar did not offer him the opportunity to score on the leg side. A wide delivery that dragged de Kock into playing an uppish drive that found Anrich Nortje at the short third man was the proof of Axar’s willingness to purchase wicket by flummoxing batsmen. From the other side, Suryakumar was going all guns blazing against Ravichandran Ashwin. However, he could not get along comfortably against Axar and frustratingly got out on a low full toss that dipped on him. He was on the money in all his third over and in the final over removed the only solid bloc of Mumbai batting in Saurabh Tiwary in his final over of the day to asphyxiate Mumbai in the company of Avesh Khan. Shreyas Iyer Shreyas Iyer has been criticised a lot in the recent past for his fear of throwing the wicket away and batting decisively to attack only when it’s needed. However, on the day against Mumbai, the Capitals desperately needed him to fulfil the job of an “anchor” perfectly while they were not chasing a lot of runs and that preservation of wickets was a bigger and tougher challenge. He walked out to bat in the fifth over Steve Smith was castled by Nathan Coulter-Nile and there was a task on his and Rishabh Pant’s hand if the Capitals were to win the game. He batted with immense passion and did not play ambitious shots while Pant was going for all money from the other end. Maybe, the Capitals were trying to play both attacking and sensible games simultaneously and had assigned suitable tasks to both Iyer and Pant. Pant perished in the process and left the ground when the Capitals were far away from the target. However, Iyer was calm as a cucumber and backed his methods all the way through with the belief that if he will be there till the end, the target would be achieved. Iyer has gone through a lot in the last few months and playing innings of such substance establishes his mental strength as a player which makes a serious difference in crunch moments and big tournaments such as the IPL. He was the captain of the Capitals last year when they were repetitively annihilated by Mumbai in the last season and hence playing a calm and assuring innings to take the Capitals over the line against Mumbai would have tasted much sweeter to him. Flops Rohit Sharma Rohit Sharma was in form of his life in the Test series against England his mastery with the bat would have given huge confidence to the Mumbai Indians ahead of the second phase of the IPL in UAE. The result however has been disappointing, to say the least, both for Rohit, the captain and also the batsman. He has laboured to get his timing right on slow pitches of Sharjah and UAE. On the day against the Capitals though, he was looking in magnificent touch with the bat as he despatched Nortje on the very first ball of the game with signature timing off his bat. He was looking to attack the pacers and turned out, he was attempting to throw pacers off their mark once too often and ultimately, in a big surprise, was beaten by in pace by Avesh Khan. Rohit has not scored 400 runs in the last couple of seasons but his lack of runs was masked by the brilliant run of form shown by the Mumbai side. He was also on and off the field with frequent injuries but now as the Mumbai Indians are walking on thin ice and could well be knocked out of the tournament when all his teammates are out of form, his failures with the bat are becoming more and more glaring and unceremonious. Krunal Pandya Krunal Pandya came out to bat when Kieron Pollard was dismissed by Anrich Nortje on the first ball of the 15th over and the left-hander was all at sea against the Proteas pacer on the next five balls of the day. He struggled to get off the mark and could open his account only on the 8th ball he faced. It was his and his brother’s struggle against Nortje and Avesh in the 15th and 17th over that choked the Mumbai batting when it should have been on the path of a flier. However, Hardik opened up his shoulder quickly enough in the next over but Krunal’s limitations as a batsman were ripped all open in the last phase of the game. He could neither get out nor hit out against immaculate Delhi pacers and only a miscalculation of allotment by Pant and over-ambitious flighted delivery by Ashwin, that he smashed out of the park on the final ball of the innings, made his score looks better than it actually was. The Capitals were desperate to win big in order to strengthen their position on the points table and narrow the run rate gap with the Super Kings. They could not manage to do that but achieved a win that has all but sealed a top-two spot on the points table. On the other hand, the defending champions, Mumbai Indians have compounded their issues in a big way and will need to win both their games along with reliance on other teams to lose their games to qualify to the next stage of the competition.

Ellyse Perry: First woman to complete the double of 5000 runs & 300 wickets in international cricket

Australia’s Ellyse Perry achieved a unique feat in world cricket as she took the wicket of India Women batter Pooja Vastrakar during the third day of the only Test between the two teams taking place at the Metricon Stadium in Gold Coast. With that wicket, the 30-year-old completed three hundred wickets in international cricket and became the first woman in the history of cricket to claim a double of 300 international wickets and 5000 international runs. In total, she took two wickets in the first innings of India as apart from Pooja, she also dismissed debutant Yastika Bhatia. In batting, the right-handed batter is currently unbeaten on 27 from 97 balls and is key to the 25 run stand between herself and Ashleigh Gardner, the last recognised batting pair. Australia are 143-4 in reply to India’s 377-8 declared, at the end of day three. The Test has been hugely marred by rain in the first two days. Apart from Perry, West Indies women skipper Stafanie Taylor has crossed more than 7966 runs with the bat and has 238 wickets to her credit. She is only 30 years old and has played in 11 matches less and bowled in 45 innings less than Perry. The Jamaica-born looks like the only player that can catch up to Perry on the list. Among other all-rounders, South Africa’s Dane van Niekerk has scored more than 4000 runs and taken more than 200 international wickets.

MS Dhoni features in his 200th IPL match as captain

The Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni featured in his 200th IPL match as a skipper during the match against Rajasthan Royals in Abu Dhabi. Dhoni has captained the Super Kings since the beginning of the IPL and has led the side to the title win thrice. They were first crowned champions in 2010 and then defended the title in 2011 and later lifted the trophy in 2018 season of the IPL. Apart from IPL, CSK have also won Champions League twice in 2010-11 and then in 2014-15 editions of the competition. Dhoni led Rising Pune Supergiants in 2016 after CSK along with Rajasthan Royals was slapped with a two-year ban in a spot-fixing scandal. He was then sacked from the captaincy in 2017 despite leading RPS to the final in the previous edition. The 2020 IPL season was the first instance when Chennai Super Kings failed to make a place for themselves in the playoffs. In 215 IPL matches that MS has played, he has scored over 4600 runs at a strike-rate of 136.3.

IPL 2021 | MI vs DC: What Experts said after Shreyas Iyer's 'mature' knock takes Delhi over the line

Delhi Capitals continued their form against Mumbai Indians after chasing down a target of 130 runs by 4 wickets in Sharjah on Saturday. The Capitals had a struggling start to the chase after they lost openers Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvis Shaw at a team score of 15. The Delhi side kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were reduced to 93/6 before R Ashwin and Shreyas Iyer joined hands and provided the much-needed resistance. The two batsmen stitched a partnership of 39 runs for the seventh wicket and took the team over the line. Nathan Coulter-Nile was the pick of the bowlers for MI after he returned with figures of 1/19 in 4 overs. Earlier, in the day, MI once again struggled with the bat and had a dismal start to the proceedings after losing skipper Rohit Sharma for 7. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were reduced to 111/7 to eventually get restricted to 129/8 in 20 overs. Suryakumar Yadav top-scored for Mumbai with 26-ball 33. DC pacer Avesh Khan rattled the MI batting unit and scalped a three-wicket haul for his side at the cost of 15 runs in 4 overs. Apart from Avesh, spinner Axar Patel was also among wickets as the left-hander returned with figures of 3/21 in 4 overs. Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma put the onus on batting for a disappointing show against DC. “We didn't bat well, we didn't create those partnerships, we always knew that it wasn't a 170-180 wicket, we knew 140 is a par score here. We just couldn't get the partnerships going. If your batters are not going to put runs on the board, it's going to be difficult to win games consistently,” he said during the post-match presentation. Experts’ Opinion Former India player Yuvraj Singh lavished praise on Shreyas Iyer for his “mature” knock. “Sometimes you have to play the situation than the expectation! Well played Shreyas Iyer mature knock,” Yuvraj tweeted. Journalist Ayaz Memon lauded Iyer and R Ashwin for a responsible and unbeaten stand that helped the side to win the match. “Sensible, clever, excellent partnership between Iyer and Ashwin takes DC home in a tense match. Rohit tried every gambit to defend modest score and almost succeeded till these two played with control and cunning to take DC home. Big setback for MI in quest for place in play off,” he wrote on Twitter. Commentator Harsha Bhogle hailed DC after the win. “Whatever the conditions, Delhi Capitals seem to have the right players. That auction three years ago was one of their finest hours,” he said. DC will now play CSK on Monday in Dubai while MI will be up against RR on Tuesday in Sharjah.