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Kohli wanted to continue captaining India in the longest format: Ricky Ponting

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has revealed that he was shocked after Indian captain Virat Kohli announced he's stepping down from India’s red-ball captaincy late in January 2022. According to Ponting, the has had a chat with Kohli during the first leg of the 2021 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was held between April 9 and May 2 and during that discussion, the then all-format skipper of India had revealed that he was thinking of stepping down from limited-overs captaincy but never said any such plans about Tests. “Yes, it did actually (surprise me)," Ponting said about Kohli’s decision of stepping down. "Probably the main reason why is because I had a chat and good catch-up with Virat during the first part of the IPL (2021) before it got postponed,” added the Delhi Capitals skipper in his interview with the ICC website. Talking about Kohli’s love for the longest format, the 47-year-old said, "He was talking then about stepping away (from captaincy) from white-ball cricket and how passionate he was to continue on to be Test match captain. He just loved and cherished that job and that post so much. Obviously, the Indian Test team had achieved a lot under his leadership. When I heard it, I was really, really surprised. You only have to watch him on the field for an hour of the day's play to realise how passionate he is about that job and the role, how much he wants the team to win and how much he wants the best for Indian cricket." Saying that India is one of the toughest countries to captain and that everything has a shelf life, Ponting said that if we look in hindsight, it was probably a smart decision by Kohli. "I think there is potentially a shelf-life for international cricket captains and even coaches. Virat's been there for close to seven years now. If there's a country in the world that's the most difficult to captain, it’s probably India because of just how popular the game is and how much every single Indian love to see the fortunes of the Indian cricket team, whether they are good or bad. You weigh all those things up,” he said.

PSL 2022 | Quetta Gladiators vs Multan Sultans| Match 7 Preview, Predictions, Fantasy XI

Gladiators had a tough night with the ball against Zalmi as they failed to defend 190 but it was the same bowling attack that set up their eight-wicket win over Karachi.

PSL 2022: Lahore chase down 171 with Fakhar Zaman’s exceptional hundred

Fakhar Zaman single-handedly took Lahore Qalandars over the line on Sunday evening, 30 January, scoring 106 out of the 171 runs required in the 6th match of the Pakistan Super League. Zaman’s innings, decorated with 12 fours and 4 sixes came under pressure, when Lahore had lost their way early into the game. While Zaman was attacking from one end, no one was able to stand on their other side and got out cheaply failing to score at a fast rate. Even in the 12th over of the game, Lahore required at the excess of 10 runs per and a sluggish innings from Mohammad Hafeez at the crease meant that Lahore were doing less than required to chase the score down. Hafeez’s wicket in the penultimate ball of the 12th over came as a blessing in disguise for the Lahore based team and the injection of Samit Patel provided the support that Zaman wanted. With run rate soaring over the head, Zaman had only one thing to do, either collect a couple of boundaries per over or perish trying and he ended up taking the first option in style. He chose to attack the balls that was either bowled too short or in the range of low full tosses and kept putting up the pressure, till the point that the equation was brought down to 9 off 12. The 18th over of the game bore 22 runs from the bat of Zaman, where he put Mohammad Ilyas to all parts of the ground to complete his hundred off just 55 balls. While he got out for 106 off 60, Zaman by then had done enough to keep Lahore safe against Babar’s men. Samit Patel cleaned up the rest with two boundaries in the final over. Earlier in the day, Karachi failed to capitalise on the start given by Sharjeel Khan (60 off 39) and kept on losing wickets in the second half of their innings. The first wicket fell on the first ball after the break (11th over) at 84 runs, when Sharjeel was dismissed by Mohammad Hafeez, who found some turn in the pitch. From there it was an absolute disaster as some quick bowling from the Lahore pacers skittled Karachi out for just 170 runs. This loss makes it Babar’s third loss in a row, as they have been drubbed by three big losses against Multan Sultans, Quetta Gladiators and now Lahore Qalandars. Babar has himself looked off colour, being unable to score runs at a fast rate. Speaking at the post match presentation, Babar accepted that the main difference tonight was Fakhar Zaman, whose three figure score took the game away from Karachi. He stated that the team does need to improve in both departments and hopefully they will get back to the winning ways soon.

U19 World Cup 2022: India enter semi-finals with strong team effort against Bangladesh

India stormed into another semi-final of the U19 World Cup after another dominating display. A powerhouse in the age group cricket, India made easy work of Afghanistan by skittling them for just 111 runs in 37.1 overs and then later chasing it down with 5 wickets in hand and with 29 overs remaining. Ravi Kumar was the star of the show on the day for India, bowling lethal lines and lengths that bamboozled the Bangladesh batsmen and picked up the first three wickets inside the first hour of the game. From there it was just about survival for Bangladesh, and then just about managed to hang on till the 38th over of the game. It was much needed for Bangladesh to take early wickets, but they could manage just one of Harnoor Singh. Angkrish Raghuvanshi combined with captain Yash Dhull and Shaikh Rasheed saw the team through before the team could collapse and get into panic. India will go into the semi final clash, scheduled on February 2 against Australia with two men in dominating form. India have been enjoying the prowess of Raghuvanshi and Vicky Ostwal who have been pivotal to the team’s success.