Grateful to play cricket again: Shikhar Dhawan thanks DC members

Windies stripped off training rights after breaking covid-19 isolation norms

The Windies team in New Zealand have been stripped of their rights to train further during their managed isolation period. This decision has been taken by the New Zealand Health Ministry as it found certain players indulging in breach of the managed isolation’s code of conduct as set by the ministry for all visiting teams. The Ministry, on the evidence of CCTV footage from the Windies isolation facility in a Christchurch hotel, said that the team cannot train further till their managed isolation period ends on Thursday. The Caribbean team has had to go through 14 days of managed isolation on arrival in New Zealand, 12 days of which have passed. Speaking on the issue Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, Director-General of Health, New Zealand said, “As with other sports teams that have come to New Zealand, the West Indies cricket team were given certain exemptions from the managed isolation rules which apply to everyone else,”. “It is a privilege to come here but in return, they have to stick to the rules. Keeping covid-19 out of our communities and keeping our staff safe depends on it. They didn’t do that, despite agreeing to abide by the parameters of the exemption,” he added. Players were due to be tested on Wednesday for the second time since their arrival in New Zealand. If things go as per plan, they would be released by Friday and move to Queenstown where they play New Zealand A in two practice games. The tour however begins with three Twenty20 internationals, starting with the first one in Auckland on November 27, and later on, two tests beginning on Dec. 3, would be played in Hamilton and Wellington respectively. Both New Zealand Cricket and Cricket West Indies have said that they are aware of the breaches and are in full support of the steps taken by the New Zealand Health Ministry. “NZ Cricket will continue working with the West Indies team and management and relevant government agencies to ensure there is no repeat of these violations,” a spokesperson of NZC told. While CWI in a press release reiterated that it is ‘in full support of the New Zealand Ministry of Health’s position.’

Your commitment makes Indian cricket what it is: Ganguly thanks IPL players

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president and former India captain Sourav Ganguly thanked all the players involved in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for showing immense courage and commitment to go through the tough bio bubble. Through a tweet, the Board President said that it is the commitment of players that makes Indian cricket what it is. Ganguly wrote, "@bcci..along with the office bearers I personally thank all the players of each IPL team, for going thru the tuff bio bubble to make this tournament possible..it was tuff mentally, and ur commitment makes Indian cricket what it is @JayShah @ThakurArunS.” He also tagged BCCI secretary Jay Shah and Treasurer Arun Kumar Dhumal in the post. The BCCI has received accolades from all corners of the world for putting on a flawless and phenomenal show while conducting the biggest cricket league in the world amidst the pandemic. The final which was conducted yesterday was won by the Mumbai Indians by five wickets against the Delhi Capitals. Rohit Sharma, the captain of the Blue and Gold stood out in batting while Trent Boult was adjudged man of the match for inflicting early damages in the Delhi innings. Delhi could make only 156 runs and the Mumbai team chased it with eight balls to spare.

BCCI to conduct full auction for IPL 2021, league may have a ninth team

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is looking to have a full-fledged auction for the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Along with this, a new development has been planned which might pave the way for a ninth franchise in the IPL, likely to be based out Ahmedabad, the home of the biggest cricket stadium in the country- Motera. If the report from The Hindu is to be believed then, “the BCCI has plans to add a ninth team” mostly to balance its expenses and revenue generation patterns amidst the pandemic. The BCCI is also looking to get the tournament back to India next year. It is learned that the BCCI has already intimated the franchises about having a full auction. The idea of including the ninth franchise is a fresh one and since the stadium in Ahmedabad has been refurbished by Gujarat Cricket Association with a record capacity of 1,10,000, a corporate giant from the state has shown interest in getting a franchise from the city. This year’s IPL, which was won by the Mumbai Indians beating Delhi Capitals in the finals was hosted in the UAE due to rising covid-19 cases in India.

Hits & Flops as dominant Mumbai register their first ever title defense

]In an utterly one-sided match, the Mumbai Indians defeated Delhi Capitals by five wickets with eight balls to spare in Dubai. Delhi could only win the toss in this game and even after winning the toss, made the wrong choice of batting first on a pitch and place which was about to get a lot of dew. Batting first, Delhi recovered from 22/3 to 118/4 in 15 overs thanks to a brilliant 96 run stand between two young guns Rishabh Pant and skipper Shreyas Iyer. However, after the 17th over, Delhi could only score 22 runs from 18 balls, and logically speaking, no one wins matches after doing that bad in the death overs. Mumbai, when they came to bat were also given a jolt as Stoinis picked up the wicket of Quinton de Kock for naught. But Mumbai being Mumbai recovered well, and with the help of skipper Rohit Sharma’s 68 (51) won the game quite comfortably. On this note, let’s look at Hits and Flops from the game. Hits #1 Trent Boult Boult as always was right on the money from the first ball as he removed the all-important Marcus Stoinis to give Delhi Capitals not only a shock but also a jolt to their morale, as a young team playing their first-ever final lost their main man without any score on the board. But that was not it as the Kiwi came back in the second over to remove experienced Ajinkya Rahane as well. With two wickets in the powerplay, Boult was the pick of the bowlers. However, bowling the 18th over, he brought the momentum down once again picking up the dangerous-looking Shimron Hetmyer and giving just six runs off the over to finish his spell at 3/30 from overs. The 31-year-old had been so impressive with the ball in the powerplay in the entire tournament that he was awarded the CRED Powerplayer of the Season award. Boult also got the honors of being Man of the Match in a winning cause in a league’s finale. #2 Rohit Sharma Big games require big players to step up and what a moment did Rohit Sharma choose to finally find his form in the tournament. In the finals, the Hitman scored a brilliant 68 off 51 balls with the help of five fours and four sixes before one Anrich Nortje bouncer climbed too quickly on to him and he could not give the pull shot a direction and a brilliant catch by substitute fielder Lalit Yadav ended his innings. But Rohit had by then done his work. Although he had gotten Surykumar Yadav run out, still he made sure that the team has reached a safe place from where anybody can take the game home. #3 Jayant Yadav Playing only his second IPL game this season, Jayant Yadav repaid the faith put in him by the team management by playing him ahead of a proven bowler like Rahul Chahar. Yadav did exactly what he was brought in for; pick the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan. After achieving his target, he kept on bowling the right line and length and gave away only 25 runs in his spell of four overs and that too in a final, making his entry into the team even more special. Flops #1 Shikhar Dhawan With brilliant innings in the last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Gabbbar was expected to lead the team here as well. If one gets out on the first delivery that he or she faces, it is understandable as was the case with Stoinis. But even after playing 13 balls if a person is getting bowled in a clueless manner to an off-spinner and leaving his team in deep travel, he deserved to be in the list of Flops. Dhawan could add only 15 to his total 603 runs brought in from previous games and finished as the second-highest run-scorer in the IPL 2020, behind Kings XI Punjab’s KL Rahul. #2 Kagiso Rabada Another one of the Delhi stars from the previous matches, the South African speedster too failed in fulfilling his roles as a strike bowler as he was not able to pick even a single wicket in the Powerplay. Having been a purple cap holder, at least this much was expected from him, but he failed to deliver on the biggest stage. True that the total to defend was not big and rather modest, still the approach from Rabada didn’t look positive either. Rabada did pick one wicket at the very fag end of the Mumbai innings and took his tally of wickets in this season to end up winning the Purple Cap, given to the highest wicket-taker of the league. Special Mention: Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan Rishabh Pant for the first time in the entire tournament looked promising and free-flowing scoring a brilliant 56 off 38 balls with four fours and two sixes. However, he couldn’t just take his innings ahead and got on a crucial juncture in the fifteenth over, where he was needed the most to accelerate and get the team to a fighting total, but he failed to do so. On the other hand, the rise of Ishan Kishan as a prominent face of wicket-keeper- batsmen in the Indian domestic cricket continued with his yet another brilliant innings. Ishan came with the fall of Surya’s wicket when the team’s total was 90 and 67 runs were required for the victory. He built a 47 run stand with Rohit Sharma. When Rohit Sharma got out with the team’ score at 137, 20 runs were still required and even as Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya got out trying to play the glory shot, Kishan hung in to see the team through. The Jharkhand born also remained the hi8ghest run-getter for Mumbai this season with 516 runs from 14 games.