MS Dhoni becomes first player to complete 100 catches for single IPL team

Etiquette doesn’t equal laws: Jimmy Neesham supports Morgan-Southee in Ashwin incident

New Zealand all-rounder, Jimmy Neesha, who is also part of the Mumbai Indians squad for the Indian Premier League 2021, has said that he would support Eoin Morgan and Tim Southee in the recent incident involving Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Stating that ‘etiquette doesn’t equal laws’, the Kiwi supported his compatriot Southee and his teammate Morgan, both of whom were playing for Kolkata Knight Riders in a match against Delhi Capitals of which Ashwin is an integral part. In a series of Twitter posts, Neesham clarified why he has taken the stand, even as Ashwin was not wrong in the laws of the game. A Twitter user asked as to why there was no uproar when Ben Stokes got four runs when the ball ricocheted off his bat in the World Cup final 2019, but only one run taken by Ashwin is being seen as a ‘disgrace’. Answering him, Neesham said, “Because they’re runs if the ball crosses the boundary. But the etiquette of the game is that you don’t run if you’ve caused the deflection. It’s just one of those unspoken spirit of the game things.” Earlier, the 35-year-old Indian spinner in a long thread clarified as to why he was not wrong in taking the extra run when the ball had hit Rishabh Pant and that he would always take the stand without putting anybody on a higher moral ground pedestal. The incident took place in the 41st match of the IPL which was eventually won by KKR by three wickets to deny Capitals an entry into the Playoffs on that day.

BCCI Secretary Jay Shah overjoyed with IPL viewership figures

The Indian Premier League has finally brought smiles to the faces of the people associated with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It was evident when BCCI Secretary Jay Shah announced on Twitter that IPL 2021 was about to cross the 400 million viewership mark and had 12 million more viewers at the same stage (match 35) when compared to the 2020 edition of the tournament. The Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC), a TV audience measurement service revealed that IPL 14 so far has garnered 380 million viewers until match 35. When compared with TV aggregates, it is the highest number since the last three editions of the tournament. The consumption for VIVO IPL 2021 including Star Sports’ pre-match programming stands at 242 billion minutes. Talking about the latest development, a Star Sports spokesperson said, “We look forward to a very competitive and immersive second half of the season before we head into the pinnacle of T20 Cricket, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, later next month,” as reported by Moneycontrol.

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.

IPL 2021 | KKR vs PBKS: It's form vs inconsistency as Kolkata take on Punjab

An in-form Kolkata Knight Riders will take on an inconsistent Punjab Kings in Dubai on Friday. While KKR is now looking towards cementing a place in the playoffs, PBKS would want to go all guns blazing for that diminished chance that they have now. The Knight Riders certainly scripted a redemption during the UAE leg in this season of IPL after winning three out of the four games that they played. The Eoin Morgan-led side will now be coming into this match on the back of a win against Delhi Capitals. The KKR side did suffer some hiccups during the course of the match but eventually clinched a win by 3 wickets while chasing 128 in 20 overs, courtesy a responsible innings from Nitish Rana and a quick-fire cameo from Sunil Narine. On the other hand, PBKS struggled against Mumbai Indians. The Mumbai side was handed a target of 136 runs and were reduced to 16/2 but Punjab were not able to capitalise on the early breakthroughs that they got and eventually lost the match. This has been a major issue with PBKS and a similar instance was witnessed during their encounter against RR. Punjab needed 4 off the last over and Kartik Tyagi was able to defend it. Talking about the previous clash in the tournament between the two sides, KKR etched a win by 5 wickets after chasing down 124 runs in less than 17 overs. Morgan’s troops would have a slight edge against the Punjab side considering the way they fared in the last match. Match details Match: KKR vs PBKS, 45th Match, Indian Premier League 2021 Date: Friday, October 01, 2021 Time: 7:30 PM Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium , Dubai Telecast: Star Sports Network, Disney Hotstar Pitch Report The pitch in Dubai had something on offer for the batsmen during the clash between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Both the teams were off to a flying start during the course but it was a complacent performance and lack of application from the Royals batters that they were restricted to a lesser total. On the other hand, RCB, despite losing a couple of wickets in quick succession went on to chase the target pretty comfortably. The track is expected to provide some assistance to the batsmen when KKR lock horns with PBKS and with the kind of batting fire power that the two sides have, a high-voltage drama can be expected. Introduction of Venkatesh Iyer Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen had tweeted, “Do not forget this name - Venkatesh Iyer!”. Well, the flamboyant cricketer’s views on Iyer weren’t different from others. The introduction of Venkatesh Iyer in the top-order has done wonders for KKR. The Knight Riders have been able to get steady starts, courtesy him and Shubman Gill and that too at a brisk pace. Apart from giving some good starts, Iyer can also chip in with a few overs. Well, this lad has covered all the bases up till now and the Kolkata team management would be wanting him to stick to what he has been doing. PBKS’ woes Where to start? The batting collapse? Disappointing bowling at crucial junctions? If the PBKS fans and supporters have to choose one out of these then it would be the middle-order batting failure. Despite having some big names in the line up, the Punjab side has failed to leave an impression. In the last game as well, it was only Aiden Markram who was holding fort from one end while losing partners at the other. In comparison to batting, the bowlers have still produced some good performances. Ravi Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar and Arshdeep Singh are some of the names who have brought positivity in the Punjab Kings while Nathan Ellis was clinical in the match against MI. Team News KKR: The Kolkata Knight Riders are in good touch at the moment and are looking stable as well. They just need to stick to the basics and continue with what they have been doing. PBKS: PBKS are looking at the exit gates from the tournament because of themselves. They have failed to capitalise the starts that they got in crunch games while have failed to take pressure as well. If they want positive results, they need to hold their nerves in critical situations. Probable XI KKR: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna PBKS: Lokesh Rahul (c) (wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh. Fantasy XI KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Aiden Makram, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik, Sunil Narine (C), Harpreet Brar, Varun Chakravarthy, Lockie Ferguson (VC), Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh