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Pat Cummins Jofra Archer Others To Take Part In Charity Stream For Indias Covid 19 Relief

Pat Cummins, Jofra Archer & others to take part in charity stream for India's Covid-19 relief

International cricket stars would collaborate on a 12-hour gaming live-stream hosted by Australia paceman Josh Lalor on his Twitch account to raise $100,000 for UNICEF Australia's India COVID-19 crisis appeal. The stream will see the likes of Aussie bowlers Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood on a live stream as they talk cricket and show their wares as gamers.

The stream would begin from 5 pm AEST on Thursday, June 3 and go on until 5 am AEST on Friday, June 4. Englishman Jofra Archer, Aussie all-rounder Moises Henriques, Southern Stars’ Alyssa Healy and South African Rilee Rossouw will also be part of the steam at some point or the other.

Lalor, the brain behind the concept will also host an informal discussion with Cricket Australia's new CEO, Nick Hockley and Todd Greenberg, the CEO of the Australian Cricketers' Association.

"The enjoyable thing about it is it'll be a couple of guys doing what they do in their spare time, which the public don’t get to see a lot of," Lalor told cricket.com.au.

"We see Pat Cummins doing what he does on the cricket field, but he's one of the worst (video game) players you can play with! Which is fair enough because he's busy doing other things in cricket,” said the predominantly T20 bowler who has represented Melbourne Renegades and Brisbane Heat in the BBL.

Popular games like Warzone and Rocket League will also feature in the stream, while Lalor and Healy will indulge in a light-hearted, interactive game of 'Siblings or Dating?'. Henriques on the other hand has challenged his New South Wales mate for a game of Chess which will also be part of the live stream.

The 33-year-old, who was inspired by Pat Cummins’ $50,000 donation says that any help to the Indians in this time of crisis is worth a try.

"Being a cricketer from Australia, we have a unique relationship with Indian people. It's a beautiful part of the world, they're absolutely cricket-mad and they bend over backwards to make every cricketer feel welcomed and accommodated,” he said. "If we're able to raise any money at all to help what's going on in India, that'll go a long way," Lalor further added.

So far, the Australian Cricket has raised $280,000 as part of UNICEF Australia's India Covid-19 crisis appeal.

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ENG vs NZ | 1st Test Day 1: Ton-up Devon Conway, disciplined Henry Nicholls put Blackcaps in front

A magnificent debut ton from opening batsman Devon Conway and an unbeaten partnership between him and Henry Nicholls has put New Zealand in the driving seat of the first Test match at Lord’s. Devon Conway batted with superb discipline around his off stump and did not get rattled even as England asked the fiery Mark Wood to test his height and backfoot game. The opener got hurt on few occasions but was equally to task on most of the challenges thrown by the England bowling attack that struggled for penetration on a pitch offering not much assistance. He became the 12the Blackcaps batsman to score a debut century in Test cricket. England would have hoped for a comeback after the fall of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor in a short period of play but Henry Nicholls led riposte from another end and played a perfect second fiddle role to combat England bowling line up that had both James Anderson and Stuart Broad in it after a long long time. Anderson provided England with probably the most prized wicket of Kane Williamson when the Blackcaps skipper played far too late at an incoming delivery and the ball trickled on to his stumps. Both England and New Zealand fielded debutants in the first Test and the first sequence of action began from their arsenal only. Conway got New Zealand going with some crisp shots while England’s bowling debutant Ollie Robinson started off his career and opened England’s account with the wicket of Tom Latham after the Blackcaps duo had put on a 58-run partnership. He came back in the afternoon session to trap an uncomfortable-looking Ross Taylor in front of the wicket. The next man in, Nicholls batted with exemplary patience to not allow England any more breach as Conway continued on his merry way punishing boundary balls and pushing his nose towards the three-figure. The moment came with a six that came in perfect presentation of Conway’s flair throughout the day as he deposited Robinson over square leg boundary with a wristy whip off his legs. The pitch appeared to be flat overall except for a phase in the afternoon session when all England bowlers particularly Broad found some help. He changed his angle of attack to round the wicket to sow seeds of doubt in the batsmen’s minds but the surface was not that helpful for him to have a full go with all his tricks. England did not pick any spinner and Joe Root trusted his off-spin to produce respite to the pace quartet however the move did not pay dividends as England started to look ragged in the field in the face of a resilient and solid partnership between Nicholls and Conway. Joe Root would be hoping for an early breakthrough tomorrow with the second new ball or else they will be in for a long day in the field and a challenging few days ahead with the bat in hand against a bowling attack comprising of Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Kyle Jamieson and also a spinner in the form of Mitchell Santner who can come in handy in the last innings if the sun continues to shine in London over the next four days.

ENG vs NZ | Devon Conway scores ton, earns place on Lord's Honours Boards on Test debut

The love story of left-handed batsmen and Lord's continues. After a fantastic white-ball year with New Zealand, Devon Conway has repaid the faith shown in him by the team management and scored a well-compiled century on Test debut at Lord’s against England. He brought up his three-figure with a flick of the wrist for six off Ollie Robinson and became the 12th New Zealand batsman to score a century on Test debut. He was picked ahead of Tom Blundell to open the batting alongside Tom Latham and he looked confident and measured from the word go. He held his composure although wickets fell at regular intervals at the other end as an-all pace England bowling attack kept chipping away with big wickets of Tom Latham, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor At the start, New Zealand skipper Williamson won the toss and elected to bat first on a sunny day in London. In, what a Test of discipline for the host nation, the pace quartet of the English team had to work hard to eke out three big scalps from the Kiwi side. Conway too was tested in the initial overs by James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who kept their lengths very full to make use of whatever movement they could find in the air. Once Conway negotiated the same, managing to survive a couple of inside edges, he was thrown into a duel again Mark Wood and his express pace. Consistently bowling at a pace of 150 kilometres per hour, Wood copped Conway only a couple of occasions but managed to survive. The left-hander grew increasingly confident in his stride in the lunch session and played as the primary aggressor in the batting line-up, hovering around a strike rate of 50 runs per 100 balls. He looked in a hurry after reaching his 90 and hit two boundaries to get to his hundred.

Playing with two squads in different locations is a possibility in long run: Ravi Shastri

The Virat Kohl-led Indian team will be flying to the UK where they will play the final of the inaugural World Test Championship against New Zealand which will be followed by a five-match Test series against England. While the side will be in England battling out in the Tests, another Indian team is slated to travel to Sri Lanka for limited overs fixtures. Head coach Ravi Shastri during the press conference has said that playing with two different squads in two different locations would become a regular norm in the coming years. “Playing with two squads in different locations regularly is a possibility in the long run,” Shastri said in the pre-departure press conference. "Well you never know. At the moment it''s happening because of the current situation and restrictions on travel and things of that sort. But you never know. In the future if you want to expand the game, especially in the shorter of formats, then it could be the way to go,” said Shastri. "You know, why not, when you have that much volume of cricketers and if you want to spread the T20 game, across the globe, then that could be the way ahead because if you''re talking of Olympics in four years or eight years'' time, you need more countries to play the game. So that could be a way forward," he added. Captain Virat Kohli has said that it’s difficult for the players to stay motivated and find the right kind of mental space in the current situation so having different teams on different tours can be an option. "With the current structure and the kind of structure that you''re competing inside for a long period of time, it''s very difficult for the players to stay motivated and find the right kind of mental space," said Kohli. India will lock horns with New Zealand in the WTC final in Southampton from June 18.

WTC final | Virat Kohli rules out any pressure, banks on rich experience of playing in England

India skipper Virat Kohli ruled out any sort of pressure on him ahead of the tour of England where India stand a chance to win the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship. Addressing a virtual press conference from Mumbai along with the head coach Ravi Shastri, Kohli said that his main focus and goal is to take Team India in a forward direction. He said that helping each other in a team helps in building a team environment and he is under no pressure till he is giving his best and helping his teammates in their journey. "There's no pressure on me. I don't have any pressure on me. I have no ulterior motive, my only aim is to take Indian cricket ahead. What matters for us that we help each other," Kohli said. India will not have a lot of practice and time to acclimatise to the England conditions due to Covid-19 related restrictions ahead of the WTC final which the coach Shastri rated as the biggest, if not the biggest tournament ever. But, Kohli downplayed the lack of preparation and chose to bank on the rich experience of playing in England over the years. He said that even the younger members of the side such as Mohammed Siraj has played some amount of cricket in England and hence India would not falter even with just four practice sessions. "We don't mind 4 practice sessions. We have played in England before. Even the youngsters like Siraj have played in England for India A,” Kohli said. India will be confident of their chances in the WTC final against New Zealand on the back of strong performances in Australia that too without the presence of skipper Kohli and all of the frontline pace bowlers such as Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah missing parts of the series due to injury.