Kane Williamson wins fourth Sir Richard Hadlee Medal in six years; Devon Conway wins big as well

Kane Williamson and one of New Zealand's finest talents Devon Conway won big awards in the digitally held New Zealand Cricket Awards for the 2020-21 season. Williamson won the prestigious Sir Richard Hadlee Medal for a tremendous showing season with the bat in home conditions while Devon Conway has been awarded the ODI and T20I player of the year.

With the latest award, Williamson has now won his fourth Sir Richard Hadlee Medal in the last six years for his tremendous performances with the bat in the Test format.

He was at the top of his game in the home series against West Indies and Pakistan and amassed 639 runs at a whopping average of 159 runs per innings.

On the other hand, Conway emerged as a force to reckon with on the back of 473 T20I runs at an average-strike rate combo and 59 and 151 respectively. He scored four half-centuries including the highest score of 99 not out.

As per the New Zealand Cricket statement, Conway emerged victorious beating the credentials of Glenn Phillips, who had scored 366 runs at an average of 40.6 runs per innings, and the bowling duo of Tim Southee who took 21 wickets at 16.7 apiece and Ish Sodhi who scalped 20 wickets at 15.4 apiece.

In the ODI format, Conway was equally dominant and accrued 225 runs from three innings in the series against Bangladesh.

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BCCI likely to have three teams for Women's T20 Challenge

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is likely to have three teams for the Women's T20 Challenge tournament that is generally held during the IPL playoffs. The BCCI had earlier planned on making it a four-team event but it will now stick to three sides looking at the COVID-19 situation. "As of now, the plan is to have three teams. A final decision will be taken shortly. There is a good chance that it will be held in Delhi. Talks are on with the leading Australian and England players," a BCCI official told PTI on Monday. The last edition of the tournament took place in Sharjah while the decision on having it this year might be taken in the BCCI’s Apex Council meeting scheduled on April 16. Apart from this, the appointment of Indian women's team support staff and its Future Tours Programme will also be discussed in this meeting. The women’s team hasn’t been playing much of competitive cricket due to the COVID-19 outburst. The team hosted the South African side earlier but suffered defeated in both ODIs and T20Is. In fact, captain Mithali Raj had said that the team will need a proper camp before any series. India are now slated to tour England for a one-off Test, three ODIs and as many T20Is.

India women's team to play one-off Test against England

Indian women’s team is scheduled to play a one-off Test against England in Bristol which would be then followed by three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) respectively. Earlier, the BCCI Secretary had announced that the women’s team will play a Test against the English team later in the year. Tom Harrison, ECB Chief Executive Officer has said the board is looking forward to his the Indian team and New Zealand. "We're really looking forward to a busy summer in what is a huge year for our England Women's team, and we're very excited about hosting India and New Zealand,” he said. "The two international series will sit either side of The Hundred, and with the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy and the new Regional T20 competition running throughout the summer, it's a fixture list that offers a lot for both our players and our fans,” Harrison further added. Here is India’s schedule for the England series. June 16-19 - Test match - Bristol County Ground June 27 - 1st ODI - Bristol County Ground June 30 - 2nd ODI - The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton July 3 - 3rd ODI - New Road, Worcester July 9 - 1st T20I - The County Ground, Northampton July 11 - 2nd T20I - The 1st Central County Ground, Hove July 15 - 3rd T20I - The Cloudfm County Ground, Chelmsford

I have to do a lot of work just to maintain my lower body, hamstring: Rohit Sharma

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has said that he has to do “a lot of maintenance work” to keep himself fit and injury-free. “Maintaining what I have built up in the last three or four months. Obviously I was injured during the last IPL. So there’s a lot of maintenance work that I have to keep doing just to maintain my lower body, hamstring and stuff like that,” Sharma said in ‘Captain’s Corner’, a video posted by Mumbai Indians on its twitter handle on Tuesday. Sharma further praised his team’s fitness regime and the way the players are doing the drills to stay in shape. “It is great to see some of the fast bowlers who played in yesterday’s game come out and do the fitness drills, which is always nice. That’s what MI always takes pride in. Putting that extra yard in, that’s why we get the results in our favour,” he said. MI will play KKR on Tuesday (April 13). The Rohit Sharma-led side had a disappointing start to the tournament after they lost to Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening match and would be looking to turn fortunes for themselves in the clash against KKR. MI are the most successful team in the IPL having won the title five times. They are the reigning champions after getting their hands on the trophy in 2019 and 2020 editions. Rohit’s troops would now be seeking to complete a hat trick of title wins in this season.

Quinton de Kock available for selection for clash against KKR: Zaheer Khan

South Africa and Mumbai Indians wicket-keeper batsman Quinton de Kock will be available for selection for Mi’s next fixture against Kolkata Knight Riders scheduled to take place on Tuesday, confirmed Director of Cricket Zaheer Khan. "Quinton is out of his quarantine. He did his practice session yesterday with the team, [he’s] looking forward to the season. So yes, he’s available for tomorrow’s game," Zaheer said. De Kock had missed the opening encounter against RCB as he had been serving a mandatory seven-day quarantine. De Kock has been an integral part of MI setup for quite sometime now while has a decent experience of playing in the IPL. He was earlier a part of the RCB franchise before joining Mumbai Indians. The left-handed batsman has played 66 IPL matches scoring 1959 runs at an average of 31.59 and a strike rate of over 133. Mumbai had a forgettable start to the campaign after they lost to RCB in Chennai in the first match of the tournament. Batting first, the Rohit-Sharma led side only managed 159/9 in 20 overs. Chris Lynn who made his debut for MI in this match top-scored with 49 while RCB’s Harshal Patel scalped a fifer during the course. Patel became the first bowler to pick a five-wicket haul against MI in the IPL. RCB had a steady start to chase but the fall of wickets at regular intervals in the middle overs pushed them on the backfoot before AB de Villiers came in for the rescue. The right-handed batsman scored 48 off 27 and helped RCB win the match by 2 wickets eventually.