LPL 2021: Seekkuge Prasanna's heroics hand Colombo Stars 5-wicket win over Kandy Warriors

Ford Trophy 2021-22 | Know all about the premier List A tournament of New Zealand

The premier List-A tournament of New Zealand, the Ford Trophy is back for its 50th or Golden Jubilee edition. The tournament which started in 1971-72, has travelled a long way from forty overs per side where one over consisted of eight balls to standardised 50 over aside. How has the tournament evolved? In its 50th year now, the tournament has been named and renamed many times due to sponsorship reasons. The tournament started out as New Zealand Motor Corporation Knock-Out in 971-72 and remained so till 1976-77. Though the name was changed to Gillette Cup for the two seasons between 1977-78 and 1978-79, it remained knockout and continued to be so till the National Knock-Out in 1979–80, in terms of playing rules. However, from 1980-81 to 1984-85 the competition was played in a league format with all six teams playing each other once and the top two teams playing off in a final for the trophy. The rule changed once again as from 1985-86 to 1988-89, the side on top of the league after a single round-robin were declared champion. All this while the name of the tournament remained Shell Cup due to sponsorship reasons. From 1989-90 onwards, the semi-final and final were introduced with the top four teams making it to the semis and then the winners from those semi-finals competing in a final. It went on till 1992-93. In 1993-94, the format changed and now teams played each other on a home and away basis, thereby playing 10 matches in the league format before qualifying for semi-finals and then finals. This format kept on till the 2008-09 season. However, in between the name of the competition was changed as Shell’s sponsorship contract ended in 2001. From 2001-02 onwards, it was known as State Shield up until 2008-09. In 2009/10, the rules were changed once again and from that season onward, now teams play each other once (five games) followed by three randomly selected teams a second time, forming an eight-game round-robin and then play the semi-finals and final to decide the winner. For 2009-10 and 2010-11, the league was without a sponsor and hence named New Zealand One-Day Cricket Competition. It was with the 2011-12 season that Ford has come on board as the prime sponsor of the tournament. The winners Into its 50th season now, the trophy has been won most by Canterbury, who were also the inaugural winners in 1971-72. Canterbury have so far won 15 titles with the latest coming in the last season 2020-21. Auckland who last won the trophy in 2019-20, have also won 12 trophies so far with the first one coming in just the second season i.e. 1972-73. Apart from these two giants in terms of the number of trophies won, the other teams haven’t found so much success as of yet. While Wellington, Northern Districts and Central Districts have won eight, seven and six titles each, Otago, the team from the Southern Island only has two titles to its kitty with the last one coming way back in 2007-08 and the first one in 1987-88. The current season As far as the current season is concerned, it started on November 30, 2021, at Seddon Park, Hamilton where Canterbury beat home team Northern Districts by seven wickets. Post that only two games have been completed as the third match was washed out. In the second game, Wellington beat Otago by 13 runs while in the fourth match, Otago had their first win in the tournament as they beat Canterbury by five wickets. The tournament is scheduled to have its semi-finals on February 27 at the John Davies Oval in Queenstown. The date and venue for the final would be decided post that.

Vijay Hazare Trophy | Gaikwad continues purple patch, Baroda bowlers unleash masterclass

The Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021-22 has now moved into the knockout stages with the conclusion of group fixtures. While Vidarbha, Tripura, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh will be battling it out in the pre quarter final matches, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Saurashtra, Kerala and Services have already registered a berth in the quarter final round. But before that let’s take a look at the results of the games held in the last round of group fixtures. Gaikwad continues brilliant run Maharashtra captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has been leading his side from the front as he notched up yet another century against Chandigarh. This is his fourth 100+ score in five matches. Chasing a stiff target of 310 runs in Rajkot, Maharashtra rode on a ton from Gaikwad and a responsible and unbeaten fifty from Azim Kazi to go over the line by 5 wickets in the 49th over. The Chennai Super Kings is miles ahead in the scoring charts clear of second best Manan Vohra by 224 runs. Gaikwad current has scored 603 runs from 5 matches. Earlier, Manan Vohra struck a century to help his side post 309/7 in 50 overs. Goa vs Punjab The clash between Goa and Punjab ended as a tie in Ranchi. Batting, first Punjab scored 288/8 in 50 overs, courtesy tons from Anmolpreet Singh and Gurkeerat Singh. In reply, riding on captain Snehal Suhas Kauthankar’s unbeaten 148 off 141, Goa managed to steal a draw despite losing wickets in the crucial middle overs. Goa scored 288/7 in 50 overs eventually. Close encounter between MP & Chhattisgarh Madhya Pradesh were bowled out for 191 against Chhattisgarh in Rajkot. Rajat Patidar and Shubham Sharma were the two batters who got in the groove and chipped in with some runs. While Patidar scored 47, Sharma went on to notch up 56. Chhattisgarh then had a decent start to the chase as the openers Sanjeet Desai and Ashutosh Singh put 68 runs on the board. But Desai’s dismissal gave MP an important breakthrough and wickets started to tumble at regular intervals and Chhattisgarh were reduced to 151/5 before getting bundled out for 188 to lose the match by 3 runs in the final over. Baroda bowlers unleash masterclass The Baroda team rode on a brilliant performance from their bowling unit to clinch a win against a formidable Tamil Nadu batting line up. Batting first, Baroda were all out for 114. But Baroda the bowlers scalped wickets at regular intervals to leave Tamil Nadu tottering at 65/8 and eventually bundled them out for 73 to win the match by 41 runs. Bhargav Bhatt picked up three wickets for 27 runs in 9 overs while Krunal Pandya and Gurjindersingh Maan bagged a couple each. Other Results Assam beat Railways by 62 runs Services beat Rajasthan by 16 runs Tripura beat Meghalaya by 9 wickets Manipur beat Sikkim by 2 wickets Bihar beat Arunachal Pradesh by 6 wickets Nagaland beat Mizoram by 80 runs Kerala beat Uttarakhand by 5 wickets Jharkhand beat Hyderabad by 36 runs Vidarbha beat J&K by 5 wickets Himachal Pradesh beat Odisha by 63 runs Andhra beat Gujarat by 81 runs Bengal beat Karnataka by 4 wickets Puducherry beat Mumbai by 18 runs UP beat Haryana by 78 runs Saurashtra beat Delhi by 4 wickets

BBL 11 | Marsh-powered Scorchers demolish Hurricanes, gather third victory in a row

Perth Scorchers registered its third consecutive win in the Big Bash League 2021 as it defeated Hobart Hurricanes by a huge margin of 53 runs at the Blundstone Arena in Hobart to take the pole position in the points table. Mitchell Marsh was the hero for the Scorchers as he brought upon his first-ever BBL century in the league’s 11-year-old history. It was mainly due to his hundred that Perth was able to get such a huge total in the end. As far as the bowling is concerned, Tymal Mills was at the top of his game for the Hurricanes as he took three wickets including those of Caleb Jewell, Ben McDermott and Nathan Ellis to bling the chase of the Hobart team. The chase of 183, difficult in its own way, become more difficult as it actually never got going with Hurricanes skipper Matthew Wade getting out in the very first over. Jewell followed suit in the very next over, declining any sort of platform for the latter batters to cash upon. However, a 69 run partnership developed between D’Arcy Short and McDermott to give Hurricanes some sort of hope. However, Mills came back and removed McDermott and in the very next over the Hurricanes’ English import Harry Brook got out for one run. From there on, it was all formalities as the wickets kept falling at regular intervals for the Hurricanes and they were eventually bowled out for 129 in the 19th over. Earlier in the evening, after winning the toss and deciding to bat first, Scorchers didn’t really have a good start as they lost Colin Munro, the centurion from the previous game for nought and by the beginning of the sixth over, they were 40-3. Mitchell Marsh tried to build a partnership with skipper Ashton Turner, but it was also broken at the end of the 10th over and Scorchers were 74-4. However, what unfolded after that was pure magic from Marsh as he struck 33 runs off his last 10 balls and along with Laurie Evans, took the team to 182. The Scorchers scored 57 runs in the last four overs.

Vijay Hazare Trophy | Gaikwad continues to knock selectors' doors, hits fourth ton in 5 matches

Maharashtra captain Ruturaj Gaikwad is in incredible form in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy. The right-hander, on Tuesday, 14 December, struck yet another hundred, making it his fourth in the competition. Chasing 310 in 50 overs against Chandigarh in Rajkot, Maharashtra had a good start to the chase as Gaikwad and Yash Nahar put 109 runs on the board for the first wicket before Nahar departed for 38 off 49 balls. His wicket broke the shackles and Maharashtra were soon reduced to 131/4. But Gaikwad was then joined by Azim Kazi and the two stitched a stand of 139 for the fifth wicket. While the skipper went on to score a 132-ball 168 which included six maximums and 12 fours. Kazi remained unbeaten at 73 off 19 and anchored the side to a win by 5 wickets in the 49th over. Earlier, Chandigarh rode on Manan Vohra’s 141 and fifties from Arslan Khan and Ankit Kaushik to post 309/7 in 50 overs. Dadhe scalped four wickets for 49 runs in 10 overs for his side.