IPL 2021 | Nitish Rana rerturns Covid negative; to resume training soon

NZ vs BAN | 3rd T20I: Finn Allen punishes Bangladesh bowlers with maiden 18-ball fifty

Young New Zealand opener Finn Allen blasted his way to an 18-ball fifty in the third and final T20I of the series against Bangladesh in Auckland. In a rain-curtailed 10-over game, Allen got to face bowling only from the third over and he went berserk from the second ball of his innings after Bangladesh decided to filed first winning the toss. He got going with three back to back fours and a six off spinner Nasum Ahmed. Another back to back boundaries off Shoriful Islam propelled him to 30 runs from a mere 11 ball-long innings. The onslaught kept on getting severe with each passing over even when he lost his opening partner Martin Guptill in the process. He finally perished in the process of decimating Bangladesh bowling attack to all parts of the ground having scored 71 runs from 29 balls to set up a big score for New Zealand. After his dismissal, broadcaster Spark Sport caught up with him and he said, “ We wanted to start as if we were having a 20-over match, give us a couple of balls to get in but once we hit a few, we decided every ball has to go. They may have missed a trick by bowling too full, we'll take that on board.” New Zealand set Bangladesh a steep target of 142 in a rain-affected game.

WI vs SL | 2nd Test Day 3: Holder, Alzarri Joseph put Windies at front on rain-curtailed day

West Indies bowlers struck at regular intervals and did not allow Sri Lanka to get away on a rain-curtailed third day of the second Test between the sides. Starting the third day, the onus was on the partnership between Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva to take the tourists to a position of strength. However, Chandimal fell only in the fifth over the day. Shannon Gabriel continued testing the backfoot technique and mindset of both batsmen with short balls, and ultimately Chandimal fell to a well-laid trap, hitting a ball straight to the square leg fielder. De Silva was on course to score big runs and found an able partner in Pathum Nissanka, the centurion from the last game. The duo was kept quiet from the early spells of Gabriel and Kemar Roach. After them, skipper Kraigg Brathwaite switched to Alazarri Joseph and the military-medium of Kyle Mayers, before replacing Joseph with Rakheem Cornwall. Both Nissanka and de Silva enjoyed boundary scoring opportunities from the bowling pairs of Mayers and Cornwall and Sri Lanka appeared to be moving on from the fall of Chandimal. Brathwaite was preserving his quicks for the rust with the new ball and hence Mayers’ spell was prolonged and for the last over before the second new ball, he offered the chance to Jermaine Blackwood to have a go at the batsmen. Turned out, he created a magic moment for the hosts as de Silva fell to an innocuous off paining delivery. The batsman was in so much guilt that he gave himself out and opted out of the review, only for the replay to show that the ball was paining too much and would have ended up missing the stumps. De Silva would be kicking himself for not reviewing as his wicket brought some bad weather with it and the play was halted for a brief period. When the play resumed after a brief spell of rain, Brathwaite bafflingly opted to continue with Blackwood before finally going for the second new ball. The new ball did the trick as Holder brought one back to the left-handed Niroshan Dickwella and found him edging to the keeper on a review call. Joseph got rid of Suranga Lakmal in one of the softest dismissals in cricket before the rain arrived again to play the spoilsport. After another halting, Holder picked up yet another wicket of Dushmantha Chameera to put Lanka on the brink. At the other end of the crease though, Nissanka was batting with the control and confidence he garnered after scoring his debut century in the last game. He was watchful against the new ball spells of Joseph and Holder to remain unbeaten at the stumps on the third day that could have gone Windies’ way had it not for the rain to rescue Sri Lanka.

Won’t be surprised if Rishabh Pant leads India in near future: Azharuddin

India and Delhi Capitals wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant was named the captain of Delhi franchise for the IPL 2021 season. Pant was handed over the captaincy after Shreyas Iyer had injured himself during the England series at home and would be unavailable for the majority of the season. Former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin has now said that he won’t be surprised if the selectors will see him as the front-runner to lead the Indian team in near future. “Rishabh Pant has had such fabulous few months, establishing himself in all formats. It won’t come as a surprise if the selectors see him as a front-runner fr Indian captaincy in near future. His attacking cricket will stand India in good stead in times to come,” Azharuddin tweeted. Despite having experienced players like Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, R Ashwin and Steve Smith in the ranks, DC decided to hand over the captaincy duties to Pant. Head coach Ricky Ponting had earlier said that the way the left-handed aggressive batsman has been playing in the past few months will give him the confidence to take up the new role. “This is a tremendous opportunity for young Rishabh, who is coming off successful stints against Australia and England which will no doubt give him the confidence needed to take on a new role,” Capitals head coach Ricky Pointing said in a press release. The Delhi-based franchise had the most successful last season under Iyer’s leadership after they made it to the final of the tournament but lost to Mumbai Indians in the title clash. They will now begin the campaign on April 10 against Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai.

IPL 2021: KKR skipper Eoin Morgan shaping up nicely in recovery from finger injury

The Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Eoin Morgan had injured his fingers in the first ODI against India on March 23 and sat out of the remaining two ODIs of the series. Morgan’s injury brought a sense of worry among KKR fans but he has joined the KKR camp for the upcoming season of IPL. Addressing a virtual conference on Wednesday, Morgan said that his injury has healed over the last week and he is looking to remove those stitches on the webbing of fingers. He looked confident of preparing well for the tournament give there is a lot of time left for him to recover completely from the injury. "Yeah, I feel a lot better than I did a week ago. The plan moving forward is to remove the stitches tomorrow and progress with my batting in the coming days and fielding on the back of that. Given the time frame I have available, it's looking very good," Morgan said on Wednesday. Morgan took charge of the team midway through the last season after the franchise was not enjoying much success in the leadership of Dinesh Karthik. Morgan brought his experience of captaining an international, world-cup winning team to the KKR set up and the team will be looking forward to winning the title for the third time after last winning it in the 2014 edition. Knight Riders will begin their journey in the 14the edition of the IPL on April 11 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.