My relationship with coach Ravi Shastri has been built on mutual respect & trust: Kohli

IRE vs ZIM | Paul Stirling’s hundred down Zimbabwe to give Ireland 2-1 lead in series

Paul Stirling became only the second Irishman to score a century in T20I cricket after he blasted unbeaten 115 off 75 balls to lead the team to a 40 run win over Zimbabwe and thereby take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Playing at his home ground of Bready, the 30-year-old started slow and managed to reach his fifty in 47 balls. But having crossed the fifty once, the right-hander didn’t look back and gathered the next fifty runs in only 23 balls. Riding on Stirling’s hundred, Ireland reached 178, which didn’t seem like a possibility in their innings. After the end of 16 overs, the Men in Green had scored only 112 runs and thus to get 66 in the last four was a tremendous achievement. Other than Stirling, skipper Andrew Balbirnie scored 31 off 24 balls while Shane Getkate remained unbeaten on 19 off 11 balls. The two Irish wickets to fall in the form of Kevin O’Brien and Balbirnie were picked by Luke Jongwe and Ryan Burls respectively. Chasing a huge target, Zimbabwe never looked like getting to it as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals to eventually getting bowled out for 138 in the 19th over. Skipper Craig Ervine scored 33 off 18 balls while all-rounder Burl made 26 off 23. For Ireland, Mark Adair was the pick of the bowlers as he finished with figures of 3-11 in his three-over spell. Joshua Little, Ben White and Getkate got two wickets each. The two teams will now collide with each other in the fourth match at the same venue on September 02. It would be a do or die situation for Zimbabwe as a loss in this game would also mean leaving behind the aspirations of winning the series.

BAN vs NZ | 1st T20I: We bowled in right areas, says Shakib Al Hasan

Bangladesh once again produced a clinical performance with the ball against New Zealand in the first T20I of the five-match series after they bundled out the Kiwis for 60 in Dhaka. All-rounder Shakib al Hasan has now said that the track during the first clash against the Blackcaps was a more difficult one in comparison to what they got during the series against Australia. "I think the wicket is more difficult than what we got in the series against Australia," Shakib pointed out. "Yet I think that we have bowled very well, bowled in the right areas. And as the New Zealand were not very experienced in such conditions, they struggled a lot,” he added. Shakib further said that rotating the strike was the key to score runs. "It is very important to pick as many singles as you can, one should focus on running between the wickets because hitting boundaries are very difficult here," he said. The home side went 1-0 up in the series after chasing a meagre target of 61 runs by 7 wickets and 5 overs to spare. Bangladesh did suffer a couple of early blows during the chase but Shakib and Mushfiqur Rahim steadied the ship for the side as the left-right batting duo put up a partnership of 30 runs for the third wicket which was enough to provide the resistance. Later, Rahim and Mahmudullah who came in at number five made sure that there were no further fall of wickets and took the team over the line.

CPL 2021 | Sherfane Rutherford, Fabian Allen combine to give Patriots fourth consecutive victory

Sherfane Rutheford doesn’t seem like stopping any soon as the left-hander looks in form of his life. He hit yet another fifty, third in four matches and once again remained unbeaten to guide his team to its fourth consecutive win in four matches of the Caribbean Premier League 2021. Along with Rutherford, Fabian Allen’s unbeaten 30 off just 12 balls was also instrumental in St Kitts and Nevis’ six-wicket win with 14 balls remaining. Chasing a target of 167, The openers gave yet another ideal start to the Patriots as they crossed the team crossed the 40 run mark in only four overs. However, two wickets fell in quick succession to worry the Patriots just a bit. But, Ravi Bopara, playing his first game of the season struck a 25 run stand with Evin Lewis, before the former was removed by Rovman Powell. Bopara though continued his ‘nudge and run’ tactics at one end as Rutherford teed off right from the start at the other. The duo went on to add 42 for the fourth wicket as Patriots inched closer to the win. Allen, who came after Bopara’s fall to Fidel Edwards was in all sorts of a hurry to finish the game as he struck two fours and three sixes and raced away to 30 off just 12 balls. Prior to this Allen show, Rutherford had already wrecked to his fifty after hammering Migael Pretorious for two sixes of the last two balls of the 17th over. Earlier in the evening, courtesy skipper Dwayne Bravo’s 3-25 and two wickets each by Paul van Meekeren and Dominic Drakes, Patriots were able to restrict Tallawahs for 166 in their 20 overs. None of the Jamaica batters were able to convert their starts. With this win, the Patriots remain at the top of the CPL points table with four wins from four matches. They next play Barbados Royals who are looking to find form. On the other hand, Tallawahs would lock hands with Trinbago Knight Riders on September 06.

CPL 2021 | Romario Shepherd wins super over thriller for Guyana against arch-rivals Trinbago

Picking three wickets including that of Keiron Pollard while bowling in the first innings, then scoring a belligerent 9 balls 18 runs to keep his team in the game and then defending six runs off the Super Over. These were the things achieved by just one person, Romario Shepherd of the Guyana Amazon Warriors who literally won the match between arch-rivals Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders at Basseterre, St Kitts. When the match was tied after 40 overs, Amazon Warriors who chased in the full match, batted first in the super over and could only make six runs off five balls, losing two wickets to Sunil Narine, unable to utilise the full six deliveries. It looked like the game was done and suited, but for a certain Romario who made it a point that the two points were going to go the Warriors way no matter what. Kieron Pollard and Colin Munro came in to bat and get the six runs as quickly as possible to wrap up another win for the Trinbago Knight Riders. However, Shepherd had other plans as a full-length delivery drilled down the ground by Pollard was caught at long-off by Shoaib Malik and on the very first ball, the Knight Riders had lost their trump card. Still, only seven runs from five balls looked way too easy to be not achieved by the likes of Munro and Tim Seifert, who had come in after Pollard’s dismissal. Shepherd gave only one run in the next two balls to make it 6 off three balls. On the fourth ball, once again fuller length outside off, Shimron Hetmyer committed a fumble at extra cover to give away a double and make the equation four from two balls. The fifth ball was once again a wide yorker, a little bit too wide, but the umpire chose to call it a legal delivery as Seifert had shuffled too much to the off. With a four required to win the game, another wide yorker from Shepherd meant that Seifert could only get it to wide long-off and with only a single taken, Guyana won yet another super over against Trinbago and the Knight Riders registered their third super over loss in the CPL history. The match needn’t have gone the super over in the first place itself as either of the two sides at various stages in the game looked like winning it hands down. Having gotten Knight Riders restricted to only 138 in the 20 overs, the Warriors fancied themselves to clear the lines and get back on to the winnings ways. However, at 7-2 in the second over, indications were clear that the chase wasn’t going to be easy. Ravi Rampaul was getting the ball to do a lot of things and having picked up two wickets already, he was raring to cause more damage. However, that threat was averted for the time being as Mohammad Hafeez and Hetmyer tried steadying the ship. But that partnership didn’t last long and Hafeez was dismissed with the team score reaching only 40. Soon Hetmyer and Malik were out as well and it looked a long road for the Warriors to travel with skipper Nicholas Pooran and Brandon King at the crease. However, the due added quick 37 off 21 balls and just as it looked like going Warriors’ way once again, the wily old fox Rampaul struck twice in two balls to bring the game in Trinbago’s favour once again. With seven down and 33 runs needed yet for a victory with two tailenders at the crease, the Warriors were looking down the drain under Shepherd and Naveen-ul-Haq smashed Rampaul and Udana all over the park to bring the equation down to eight runs from six balls. But once again the match turned as Akeal Hosein bowled out shepherd, giving way just a single off the first three deliveries. Just as it seemed the game was over for the Warriors, Naveen reverse swept Hosein for four over the third man and with two singles of the next two balls, the game was tied. Earlier in the day, courtesy of Hafezz’s 3-18 and Shepherd’s 3-24, Warriors were able to blunt the Knight Riders batting attack as they stopped them at 138 only.