Martyn and Sehwag were the two guys I grew up watching: Ireland’s Paul Stirling

Ireland opener Paul Stirling said that his childhood and batting technique growing up was influenced by Indian batter Virender Sehwag and Australian Damien Martyn, two very different players in terms of technique.

"I probably had two batsmen that I loved watching, one was Damien Martyn, he was nice to look up (to), pleasant on the eye, aesthetically pleasing, someone I can never emulate,” Stirling said in a video chat with ICC ahead of the T20 World Cup first round where Ireland will be playing alongside Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Namibia to qualify to the second round.

Talking about another batsman that he watched growing up and was able to emulate as well in terms of his playing style, the 31-year-old said, “Virender Sehwag, the other one I watched. (I) loved his play through the off-side (and) tried to copy a lot of his stuff, not very well be it, but (I) loved watching that two bat.”

Stirling, who has now represented Ireland in more than 300 games, (213 international) said that his cricketing journey started with falling in love with the game at an early age and then he went on to watch red-ball cricket as much as he could.

“Cricket was mainly the one that I probably fell in love with the most from the earliest age from about five (years old). I used to watch Test cricket at home, which was not really the normal thing to do in Belfast as a 10-year-old," he said.

Stirling, who has been playing in various tournaments around the world, is one of the top performers in limited-overs and has so far scored more than 7000 runs in 216 innings in the white-ball formats.

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AUS W vs IND W | Day-Night Test, Day-1: Smriti Mandhana the silver lining in rain-marred day

It was not an ideal start for the historic maiden day-night Test for India as the rain played spoilsport in what was a great start by the Indian batters. Smriti Mandhana was literally silver lining as the clouds kept hovering over the Carrara Oval, known as Metricon Stadium for Sponsorship reasons. She has so far been amazing in her knock of unbeaten 80 off 144 balls. Due to the rain, only 44.1 overs could be bowled in the entire day which was supposed to have 90 overs of play. The Indian team got off to a superb start courtesy of a brilliant opening partnership between Mandhana and Shafali Verma. The duo added 93 for the first wicket before Verma got out trying to hit left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux across the line and eventually getting caught at mid-on for 31 off 64 balls. Mandhan then partnered Punam Raut as the two made sure that no other wicket fell even as they added only 39 runs in 114 balls. Mandhana, who started in a very quick fashion, reaching his second Test fifty in just 51 balls, slowed down after that as the Aussie bowlers got hold of their line and length. The 25-year-old Indan batter has thus scored her last 29 runs in 93 balls. The two teams will come out to take the field on the second day, which is also considered as the moving day in the Women’s Test which lasts only four days as compared to Men’s five day Tests. The forecast for Friday, 01st October is not really uplifting either as 7.2mm of rainfall is expected in the afternoon with thunderstorms and heavy showers.

Babar Azam hits blistering hundred in National T20 Cup

Pakistan national skipper Babar Azam hit a blistering century in the ongoing National T20 Cup 2021. Playing for Central Punjab, Babar, who opened the innings alongside Ahmed Shehzad, went on to record his fifty in 35 balls the 12th over itself but slowed down considerably after new man Shoaib Malik came to the crease after the fall of Mohammad Akhlaq. The skipper then picked up the pace once again and hit his last 35 runs in just 16 balls, which included reaching his sixth T20 century with three consecutive fours off Haris Rauf in the 19th over. In his knock of unbeaten 105 off 63 balls, which came at a strike rate of 166, the 26-year-old hit 11 fours and three sixes at the Pindi Stadium in Rawalpindi. Courtesy of his innings and useful contributions from Malik, Shehzad and Akhlaq, the Central Punjab unit reached 200 of their allotted 20 pavers and posted a daunting total for Northern to chase. If Babar’s team goes on to win this game, they will strengthen their position at the second spot in the points table which is currently occupied by Northern, although the two teams have the same number of points in the same number of games. As far as Babar himself is concerned, he is currently the top scorer of the tournament with 215 runs from four innings. To his credit, he has a fifty and a hundred now.

Mohammad Hafeez ruled out of National T20, doubtful for World Cup after contracting dengue

Former Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez had contracted dengue and was ruled out of the on-going National T20 domestic tournament. The right-hander is also doubtful for the upcoming World T20 slated to take place in October-November in UAE and Oman. “It depends on the severity of the dengue virus that one has contracted but yes it is an illness that leaves one pretty weak and it takes around a month to regenerate platelets and make a full recovery,” a local doctor said. Hafeez had initially complained of food poisoning while he was in Rawalpindi during the first leg of the National T20 tournament but the all-rounder then went to Lahore after his condition didn’t improve where he was diagnosed to have contracted dengue. He is one of the senior players in the Pakistan squad for the World T20 at present. The teams can make the changes in the World Cup squad till October 10, 2021. The Pakistan team is expected to take the flight to UAE on October 14 while they will begin the World T20 campaign against India on October 24 in Dubai. In 113 T20Is that Hafeez has played, he has notched up over 2400 runs at a strike-rate of 120.96 and also has picked up a total of 60 wickets at a healthy economy of 6.54.

England to tour Netherland for three CWC Super League games in June 2022

Netherlands Cricket Association announced that the England Men’s team will be travelling to their country for a three-match ODI series as part of the ICC Men’s CWC Super League. The games will be played on 17, 19 and 22 June in 2022 and all of the matches will be held at cricket club VRA in Amstelveen. The tour was originally supposed to take place in 2020 but was postponed due to Covid-19. To facilitate more fans to watch this historic event, the KNCB has decided to erect extra stands especially for these games, thus increasing the total capacity of visitors to 8000. Speaking on this occasion, CEO KNCB, Milena van Not said, “It is great to be able to be host country for these games. In June we have shown in Utrecht at the CWC Super League series against Ireland, that we are able to organize such an event besides achieving excellent sports performances.” “It is a magnificent opportunity to be able to organize such an event again next year, the difference being thousands of cricket fans from both home and abroad having the opportunity to be present this time. I can’t think of a more beautiful cricket event,” she further added. So far, The Netherlands have played three matches in the Super League and have won two of them against Ireland. They would have a go at seven more Test-playing nations as part of them having qualified in December 2017 for this Super League, which is also the qualifying tournament for ODI World Cup 2023 to be held in India. Apart from England, the Dutch will also host Pakistan and the West Indies in 2022.