Harshal Patel picks 2 wickets on debut; India restrict NZ to 153 runs

NZ dominate power play as India desperately search for options

New Zealand dominated the opening overs of the game putting up 64 runs in the powerplay overs. The opening pair of Martin Guptill and Daryl Mitchell thoroughly dominated the pace duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar playing their shots all around the park. With the Kookaburra ball skidding through due to a lot of dew in the Ranchi stadium, NZ openers found it easy to hit it through the line of the ball. India picked up just one wicket in the powerplay, one that of Martin Guptill, (31 off 15) who was looking in ominous form. After getting hit for a six in the previous delivery, Chahar dug one short immediately affecting the top edge of the batsman. Rest was done by Rishabh Pant behind the stumps. At the time of writing NZ were at 71/1 in 7.3 overs with Mark Chapman and Mitchell batting at the crease.

IND vs NZ | Harshal Patel debuts for India in 2nd T20I

Royal Challengers Bangalore speedster Harshal Patel has been rewarded with the Indian cap after a splendid season in the Indian Premier League in 2021. The 30-year-old took a record-breaking 32 wickets from 15 games in this year’s tournament and skyrocketed his career to come on the radar of the Indian team. This is the second debutant for Indian under the tutelage of Rohit Sharma who offered another IPL 2021 star Venkatesh Iyer a debut cap in the last game against New Zealand. More to follow...

WBBL 2021 | Ruth Johnston powers Hurricanes Women to big win over Renegades

An all-round brilliant performance from Ruth Johnston in combination with clinical performances in both batting and bowling departments helped the Hobart Hurricanes Women gain a big win over the Melbourne Renegades Women in Mackay. Johnston first blasted her way to a 46-ball 63 and followed it up with an equally potent bowling performance where he took two wickets and gave away only 17 runs in her four overs. Defending a big total of 162 runs, the Hurricanes Women were always in the game and they rose to the path of ascendency right after the fall of Eve Jones. Jemimah Rodrigues was solid in her approach but she too could not bail the Renegades Women out of trouble and they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals to reach only 109 runs in reply to 162 runs. No batter except the number nine—Ellie Falconer could bat with freedom and the Renegades Women started to fall off the clip with regular wickets. Earlier, the Renegades Women won the toss and invited the Hurricanes Women to bat first. Their move was vindicated straightaway as Sophie Molineux eliminated the Hurricanes Women skipper for a duck. However, the next partnership between Ruth Johnston and Mignon du Preez put 120 runs on the board for the second wicket and the Hurricanes Women were firmly ahead in the game. A strong finish from Naomi Stalenberg who played an aggressive hand of 21 runs of 12 balls helped the Hurricanes Women go beyond the par score and in the end, was too much for the Renegades Women.

Pakistan go 1-0 up as Shadab, Nawaz punish poor Bangladesh bowlers at death

Visitors Pakistan went 1-0 up in the T20I series against Bangladesh owing to a tremendous partnership from all-rounders Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz on Friday, 19 November in Dhaka. Pakistan were walking on thin ice despite restricting Bangladesh for a meagre 127 runs in the first innings after their entire top order went back to the hut for just 24 runs. After the powerplay debacle, Fakhar Zaman and Khushdil Shah held the reins trying to build up a partnership and taking the game as deep as possible. The Bangladesh bowlers did not offer much to both the batsmen, keeping them quiet till the 15th over of the game. Pakistan were 82/5 at that moment having freshly lost Fakhar Zaman (34 off 36) who desperately tried to increase the scoring rate from one end. With the asking rate bulking up to over 10 runs an over, Khushdil Shah (34 off 35) tried to cut lose but in trying that gave away his wicket to Shoriful Islam who bowled brilliant till that point of the game. Two quick wickets meant that Bangladesh were comfortably at the top of the game and they would have hoped to seal things off, considering Pakistan found it difficult to judge the pace of the pitch. However, that was not meant to be as the two fresh batsmen at the crease hammered their way around the poor death bowling from the home team and sealed the game with four wickets and four balls remaining. Mohammad Nawaz (18 off 8) and Shadab Khan (18 off 7) dismantled the length ball ploy from Fizz and Shoriful in the 18th and 19th over and turned the tides into their favour from the near-impossible odds of 32 from the last 18 balls with just four wickets in hand. Earlier in the innings, Hasan Ali and Mohammad Wasim Jr bowled in tandem to push Bangladesh back on the backfoot from word go. The home team got reduced to 40/4 inside the first 10 overs and from there they just had to play catch up. If it was not for their lower order batsmen, Bangladesh would not have crossed the 100-run threshold. Speaking after the game, Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah rued the lack of runs and spoke about the brilliance of Shadab and Nawaz. He hoped that Bangladesh will come up with a better plan to seal off the games tomorrow and praised the team for their bowling effort early on in the innings. Bangladesh play their next game against Pakistan tomorrow, 20 November in the same venue.