Rassie van der Dussen likely to join Rajasthan Royals: Reports

Axar Patel joins Delhi Capitals after recovering from COVID-19

Delhi Capitals and India all-rounder Axar Patel has rejoined the franchise after recovering from COVID-19. The left-handed spinner had been tested positive earlier. He had checked into the team hotel on March 28 with a negative report but returned with a positive test on April 3. The DC franchise posted a video on social media and gave the confirmation. “Smiles and hugs all around as Bapu returned to the DC camp,” the Delhi Capitals posted with a video of Axar meeting his teammates. “Aadmi dekh ke hi toh mujhe maza aa raha hai (I’m getting sheer joy just by seeing people),” Patel said in the video. Apart from Patel, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Nitish Rana and Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Devdutt Padikkal had also tested positive earlier. But the two batsmen later recovered and joined the team. Capitals had roped in Mumbai’s Shams Mulani in place of Axar as IPL’s first short term COVID-19 replacement. DC defeated Mumbai Indians in their last outing. Chasing 138 in 20 overs, Delhi rode on Shikhar Dhawan and Steve Smith’s steady batting performance to go over the line by 6 wickets sparing five balls during the course. Earlier, Amit Mishra rattled MI with a four-wicket haul restricting them to 137/9 in 20 overs. The Rishabh Pant-led side will now take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in Chennai on Sunday.

My main aim is to continue to try to set AB up for the final overs says Glenn Maxwell

The Big Show Glenn Maxwell is finally making his presence felt in the IPL. Having been released by the Punjab Kings after a string of mediocre performances over the last few years, Maxwell was snapped up by RCB for a whopping Rs 14.25 crores and he has not let down so far. He began with a stroke-filled 37 against the Mumbai Indians and followed it up with two back to back half-centuries making sure that Bangalore keep a tight grasp at the top of the points table. Meanwhile, the pitches at the MA Chidambaram Stadium has never quite helped RCB in the past. However, they have turned things around this year winning all the games there so far. Maxwell revealed that how it went through in the training process and how it was a challenge to face experienced campaigners like Harbhajan Singh and Shakib Al Hasan. “I have trained so specifically since I have been here. I am almost going into the game knowing exactly what I am going to face. Playing against Harbhajan and Shakib back to back was challenging, but I have faced them earlier as well. So I had to put them away early on." "We saw how the Chennai wicket played. If y0u don’t score runs at the front end, it’s not going to be easy to score at the backend,” Maxwell said. The orange cap and the purple catch has transferred from heads to heads. While Harshal Patel has created a significant gap with the second-ranked bowler in the Purple Cap race, Shikhar Dhawan has also gone 70 runs clear of Glenn Maxwell in the orange cap race. “Every team has a brand new orange and a purple cap before every game. Harshal Patel has got the purple cap and he wears it everywhere, be it the team room, training ground, during the game. Everywhere he is, he just carries the purple cap. I have already taken one and put it in the bag. With Shikhar Dhawan on fire, it’s hard to get it now,” Maxwell said. “There was actually a game we played a few years ago when KL Rahul had won the cap in the first innings and just in the first over of the second innings, the other guy took over," Maxwell added. "In the last game, there was actually a time that I was batting and I took over Nitish Rana for the orange cap. One of the 12th members of the team was about to come and chuck Nitish’s cap and put it on me, that would have been some sort of scene, but then he went running back,” Maxwell said. The presence of bigwigs like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers has helped Maxwell gel into the RCB outfit. In whichever teams he had played earlier, Maxwell was the only Big show in the XI and several things were expected out of him. However, in RCB, Kohli and AB de Villiers are the two big names that have taken the pressure out of Maxwell and he has been able to play his game freely. He says that his main aim throughout the tournament will be set up a perfect platform for AB de Villiers. "My main aim is to continue to try to set AB up for the rest of the tournament in every game,” Maxwell said.

Cameron Green handed CA central contract, Travis Head, Matthew Wade miss out

Cricket Australia has announced the annual contract list and all-rounder Cameron Green is the new addition to it. Green made his Test debut against India and had a decent run during the course after he scored 236 runs in four matches including a half-century. National selector Trevor Hohns lavished praise on Green and said that the all-rounder would play an important role for Australian cricket in future. "Cameron is a player we believe will play an important role for Australian cricket after his impressive breakout summer," Hohns said. On the other hand, Travis head and wicket-keeper batsman Matthew Wade have been omitted from the list. Head was dropped after two Tests against India while carried on with Wade. Apart from Head and Wade, Joe Burns, Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis are also not included in the list. Hohns further explained the criteria behind the size of the contract list announced. "Firstly, we have seen format specialisation become increasingly prevalent in recent seasons which, accordingly, has resulted in a broader group of players representing Australia, often beyond the initial list of contracted players at the start of each year.” "Secondly, we want to create an environment where players strive for national selection through consistent domestic performances and earn national contracts through consistent international performances,” he added. CA contract list: Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, James Pattinson, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner, Adam Zampa.

IPL 2021 | RCB vs RR: Hits and Flops as Devdutt Padikkal special seals it for Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore continued their dream run in the Indian Premier League 2021 as they gathered their fourth win in a row. The Red and Gold hardly broke sweat as they flattened Rajasthan Royals on a batting-friendly Wankhede wicket, chasing down 177 in just 16.3 overs with 10 wickets to spare. This was the highest run chased by RCB without losing a wicket. The victory had many heroes for RCB and a lot more villains for Rajasthan Royals as well. Let’s have look at them all in detail through Hits and Flops. Hits Devdutt Padikkal The Karnataka opener was the biggest hit of the game, cracking up his first-ever IPL hundred. Devdutt’s 101 unbeaten came off just 52 balls. His approach to the innings set the tempo for the RCB chase and they managed to reach the mark without batting any sweat. At a time when Kohli was struggling to mind timing, Padikkal looked seamless in his approach. This allowed Kohli to get back into touch and play the big shots himself. With the pair in tremendous form, at one point in time, he had to be given strike by skipper Kohli so that he could complete his hundred. But that was way after Padikkal, with his stroke play had dashed any hopes what so ever that Rajasthan might have had of making a comeback in the game. With 11 fours and four sixes, the 20-year-old left-hander bulldozed his way past the hundred and into history books by becoming the second youngest centurion for the RCB, only behind Manish Pandey. Virat Kohli Before coming into this game, the form was not with the RCB skipper. In the past three games, he had scored two 33s and a five. In this one too, he struggled at the beginning, till he was 26 from 24 balls. But once he started timing the ball, there was no stopping the master. When he was at 26, Padikkal was at 80, but by the end of the innings, the Indian run-machine had reached 72, while also making sure that Padiakkal had enough deliveries being fed to him to get to his maiden IPL ton. On his way to his first IPL fifty this season, Kohli also became the first player in the history of the league to reach the milestone of 6000 runs, leaping ahead of Suresh Raina, who is second on the list with 5448 runs. The stroke play of the chase master was phenomenal with six fours and three sixes and if this is the sign of things to come, then his opponents need to be scared. Mohammed Siraj The Hyderabad bowler finally had the chance to shine in a bowling lineup that was overtly dominated by Harshal Patel and Kyle Jamieson. Firstly by keeping the line tight and forcing batsmen to make mistakes, Siraj got into the groove and then by getting out Jos Buttler and David Miller in back to back overs, he broke the back of the Rajasthan innings. Before getting thrashed for 12 runs in the last over, Siraj had the figure of 2-15 from his three overs, and ended up with 3-27, his best in the tournament this year. Flops Sanju Samson If he doesn’t get a start it is understandable. If he loses out of partners then id forced to play a rash shot to keep the scoreboard moving, that is still believable. But even after getting good support from Shivam Dube at the other end, how Samson, the skipper of the Royals, threw his wicket away was flabbergasting, to say the least. After having done the initial hard work and reached 21 off 18 balls, he couldn’t manage to hold on to his aggression and channelise it better, getting caught by Glenn Maxwell off a Washington Sundar delivery that hardly deserved a wicket. Speaking in the broadcast, Brian Lara sharply criticised the approach and stated that when someone is a captain of the side, that person needs to make sure that the moulds his game according to the needs of the team and not keep getting out trying to manufacture shots in every single game. Also behind the wickets and as a skipper, he was slow and unable to execute the changes that a skipper needed to do in the face of the emergency that RR faced with the Padikkal onslaught. When scores and scores of edges were flying through the third man region, Samson for some odd reason decided against putting a cover there for his pacers. Chris Morris Frustrated, dejected and surprised. These have been the three constant looks of Chris Morris this IPL. After having bagged the costliest contract this season, it seems that Morris has not been able to reach a consensus with his mind that he deserved this much money, and is always short of something or the other. In today’s game too, when he was supposed to play the whole last over by himself to try and get the Royals past the 180 mark, he got out of the very first ball, scoring just 10 runs off seven deliveries. While bowling too, he was wayward with his line and length, expecting fielders to be Supermen on the ground. True that Kohli got away with one of his yorkers, but that doesn’t mean that had the right to bowl, short and wide and if not that, then full on the legs. With this win, the RCB has for the first time in the history of IPL have gone on to win their first four games in a season. The Red and Gold next face their toughest challenge so far, Chennai Super Kings in a day game at the Wankhede on April 25. Royals would be back to square one as they would face fellow strugglers in Kolkata Knight Riders on April 24 at the same venue.