IND vs SL | Jasprit Bumrah all praises for Rishabh Pant’s approach

Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah has been on a roll since his debut in Test cricket. He picked his maiden five-wicket haul in India in the 1st innings of 2nd Test against Sri Lanka. It was a memorable moment for Bumrah and was evidently happy with his feat. 

"It feels good. I play three formats and it is not easy to play all games and sometimes I have missed out on home Tests. But to be able to contribute towards the team is a great thing for all," Bumrah commented after the day's play. The pacer has often been rested for the games in India as he is a significant asset for overseas games. 

The vice-captain of Team India was also questioned about the attacking approach of India's wicketkeeper-batsman. Pant had been on fire in the 2nd Test and scored the fastest half-century for an India in Tests.  

"Not each and everyone (can) play in the same manner. Every individual has a different game plan, so he has backed his strengths. It's great to see that the team is backing Pant and is letting him do what he is best at," the pace spearhead replied.

"Not every player in the team will play with the same tempo, we understand that. He is still getting more and more experienced and learning about this game. That is his plan (attacking) going forward so that's a positive sign for us," he added. 

The pitch became a huge talking point as both teams struggled to score runs. India still managed to put up a good score, but the Sri Lanka players could not put up a good total. The conditions were spin-friendly from Day 1 itself, which surprised many. 

"Nobody is complaining about the wicket. Yes everybody is finding a way and looking forward to contributing because they know if they score good runs on a tough wicket, then that will give them a lot of confidence and when they play on a relatively flat wicket that will give them strength. So that is the mood in our camp," the fast-bowler mentioned. 

India did well in their 2nd innings with the bat as they put up a score of 303 runs to give Sri Lanka a target of 447 runs. However, the Lankan side lost one wicket scoring 28 runs in the seven overs. While it seems like India will manage to win this game, it would be interesting to see if Sri Lanka can somehow pull off a miracle.

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ICC Women's CWC 2022 | Bangladesh script history; defeat Pakistan to win maiden ODI WC game

In another proud moment for Bangladesh cricket, their Women's team won their first match in ODI World Cup in the game against Pakistan on Monday. It was a hard-fought win for them as they won from a challenging position. Sent in to bat first, Bangladesh scored 234 runs at the end of their 50 overs. Fargana Hoque was the pick of the batters as she scored 71 runs in 115 balls. A higher strike rate would have been better, but she played a crucial knock. Sharmin Akhter and Nigar Sultana scored important 40s to help the team reach a defendable score. Nashra Sandhu starred with the ball for Pakistan as she picked three wickets, conceding only 41 runs in her ten overs. Pakistan women got off to a brilliant start with the bat. They lost their first wicket after scoring 91 runs and seemed comfortable chasing down the target. Sidra Ameen was well settled and was holding the innings from one end. She scored a brilliant hundred but was, unfortunately, run-out on a score of 104 runs. Pakistan faced a massive collapse from 183-2 to 215-9. However, they fell short of the target by nine runs to hand Bangladesh their maiden World Cup win. Fahima Khatun and Rumana Ahmed provided crucial breakthroughs to open the floodgates for Bangladesh's comeback. They picked up five wickets between themselves to set up the win for the Bangladesh team. Pakistan has lost all four of their games, while Bangladesh has one win in three games. Thus, it would be interesting to see if this win can boost their morale and help them pull off something great in this edition of the World Cup.

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IND vs SL | 2nd Test | Pant & Iyer throw Sri Lanka out of contention on Day 2

India are firm favourites to win the second Test match against Sri Lanka after they piled on a massive 447 run target on Sri Lanka on Sunday, 13 March. While pink ball Test matches do not usually see big totals, India scored 303 runs for the loss of nine wickets on a difficult track to take the game completely out of Sri Lanka’s reach on Day 2 in Bangalore. India had three things working in their favour. The first two of those being Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, two men who were class apart in the first innings of the game, and then returned in the second innings to put on incredibly dominating performances. Pant broke Kapil Dev’s 40-year-old record of the fastest Test fifty scored by an Indian and pulled India away on what could have been a competitive day, if Sri Lanka played their cards right. The young left hander showed mastery over his foot movement and negotiated whatever was dealt to him, hitting 7 fours and 2 sixes and reaching his 50 in just 28 balls. The second factor was Shreyas Iyer, India’s best batter on this pitch. He scored an excellent knock of 92 off 98 balls in the first innings to rescue India from a difficult spot and today, added another crucial 67 off 87 balls alongside Pant to give India celar lead in the Test match. Iyer’s ability to attack spin in any shape or form makes him one of the most sought after commodities in Indian cricket, and these innings will go on to make his case much stronger in the coming times. The third factor, and this is where Sri Lanka were thrown out of the game, was of their own making. Sri Lanka had a horrid outing vis a vis the DRS situation today. They misused their reviews, some of which was clear as day, and they did not choose to review on three occasions that could have gotten them the wicket. This mixed with flowing batting of the two youngsters, and their horrible catching made life hell for the Lankan players in Bangalore and took the game away from them inside two sessions. To be fair to India, it was not like they would have crumpled if those reviews would have been taken. Most of the batsmen out there looked fairly decent. One might go as far to say that Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant made the pitch look like it did not have any demons for a certain amount of time. Virat Kohli was probably the only underwhelming performance today, getting out on 13 off 16 balls, despite looking good. This marked the first time that Kohli’s average had come below 50 in a long long while in Test cricket, something that will probably start bothering the fans and experts of the game. India batted till their 9 wicket, and gave Sri Lanka the last half an hour play under the lights, where the visiting team did fairly well to score 28/1 in seven overs. At the end of the day, Sri Lanka had captain Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis in the crease having lost Lahiru Thirimanne in the very first over against Jasprit Bumrah. The Islanders have 419 runs more to score in three days time but it is highly unlikely that they will manage to chase it down against the Indian bowling line-up.