Rishabh Pant opens up on his aggressive partnership with Venkatesh Iyer

PSL 2022 | Lahore Qalandars vs Islamabad United | Match 27 Preview, Predictions, Fantasy XI

Host Qalandars are at the second spot in the points table after having stitched 5 wins in eight fixtures. However, after losing the last game to bottom-placed Karachi Kings, they can't afford another blip.

PSL 2022 | Karachi Kings win…Finally!

It has taken eight matches to break the jinx, but they finally have. Karachi Kings have won their first game in the 2022 edition of the Pakistan Super League on Friday, 18 February. Playing against the second-placed team on the table, Kings were assured of the victory three balls before the finish with Lahore needing 25 off the final three. Karachi have been off colour all season and looked off till the halfway point of the game, setting up a below par total against the mastery of Rashid Khan who took four wickets in the game, giving away just 16 runs. His spell of bowling included the wickets of Babar Azam, Qasim Akram, Imad Wasim and Chris Jordan, four dangerous men in the Karachi line-up. His brilliance of 4-1-16-4 meant that Karachi scored just 149 runs and once again failed to survive the 20 overs. However, that wasn’t the only four-wicket haul in the game as Karachi’s Mir Hamza dealt blows to Lahore throughout the innings, making sure that they did not control the game at any point of the second innings. The first one was the biggest fish of the day, Fakhar Zaman, who has been - by far - the best batter in the tournament. That snowballed into the removal of his opening partner Abdullah Shafiq in the fourth over - once again by Hamza and Lahore were pushed back despite the small total. The entire team struggled for timing and failed to score runs and the scoreboard pressure did the rest in the last two overs. Consistently losing wickets throughout the innings, Lahore had their last hopes out in the middle in the final three. Both David Wiese and Harry Brook were batting at 21 off 17 each. Needing 43 off the last three, they started off well getting 12 runs from the 18th over. But just when there seemed hope, both of them got out trying to hit Hamza out of the park. While Brook was caught in the deep, Weise was dismissed by a tight LBW call. And who else but Mir Hamza could have done it. The final over bore two wickets for Karachi and they were able to restrict Lahore to 127 winning the game by a margin of 22 runs. Mir Hamza was declared the man of the match for his 4-0-27-4. The loss would not be doing any harm to Lahore since Multan’s win in the day over Quetta made sure that Shaheen Afridi’s team already qualified to the top four. However, as they say in cricket that one loss in the run up to the final stages is always a good sign so that teams can figure out their problems. It was similar kind of day for Lahore’s batters and they would hope that they can fix their problems before the playoffs stages of the tournament.

2nd T20I: India hold nerves against West Indies, take unassailable lead

India were in a spot of bother when West Indies batter Rovman Powell smacked a couple of maximums on the third and the fourth delivery of the final over in the second T20I in Kolkata bringing down the equation to 11 off 2 with Harshal Patel having the ball in his hands. The right-arm bowler showed nerves of steel and only gave two more runs on the last two deliveries to hand the home side a win and an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. West Indies were eventually restricted to 178/3 while chasing 187 in 20 overs to lose the match by 8 runs. The visitors had started the chase well but lost a couple of wickets for 59 runs in the ninth over when Nicholas Pooran and Powell joined hands to get the side back on track. The two batters took on the Indian bowling attack and hammered them all around the park to stitch a 100-run stand for the third wicket and also notched up individual fifties during the course. Pooran was eventually undone for 62 off 41 by Bhuvneshwar Kumar after Ravi Bishnoi held on to a brilliant catch on the on side in the penultimate over while Powell remained unbeaten at 68 off 36. Their efforts though went in vain as the side failed to go over the line. On a day, when most of the bowlers had found it difficult to keep the batters silent, Bhuvi, Chahal and Bishnoi unveiled some economical spells that helped India clinch a win. While Bhuvneshwar returned with figures of 1/29 in 4 overs, Chahal picked up one wicket for 31 runs in his four overs and Bishnoi scalped one for 30 in his 4. Bhuvneshwar delivers when it mattered West Indies needed 29 runs in two overs and the skipper handed the ball to experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar who was up against the well-settled duo of Powell and Pooran. But the right-hander didn't panic at all and rather prevented the two batters from scoring runs. Kumar deceived the batsmen with his pace, line, and length and only gave four runs during the course of the penultimate over of the innings and also returned with the priced wicket of Pooran. Virat Kohli shows form Virat Kohli had to walk put early to bat in the second T20I after Ishan Kishan was sent back in the hut for just 2 off 10 deliveries. Kohli along with Rohit steadied the ship as the two scored a partnership of 49 runs for the second wicket before the captain departed. But Kohli held the fort at the other end. The right-handed batter played a cautious knock but also went for his strokes whenever the ball was pitched in his radar. Kohli eventually scored 52 in 41 deliveries. Apart from him, Rishabh Pant and Venkatesh Iyer also made valuable contributions as the two left-handed batsmen stitched a stand of 76 runs for the fifth wicket. While Iyer scored 33 in 18 balls, Pant remained not out for 52 off 28. " I don't mind playing the situation and not only at the death. The more you practice, the better you get. The only thing we (during partnership with Venkatesh Iyer) were talking was we will play according to every ball. It is never easy to play every game but this is what I have always wanted to do. I always enjoy what I do," Pant said after the match.

BPL Final | Disciplined Comilla Victorians force errors out of Barishal to win tournament

Comilla Victorians are the new Bangladesh Premier League Champions after playing a nerve-wracking encounter against Fortune Barishal on Friday, 18 February. (Access the full scorecard here) Not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination from either of the teams, it was a kind of encounter where both the sides were very poor for at least 15/40 overs of the game. Themes were similar on the day as both teams got off to a blazing start and then let it fizzle out for the larger part of the innings, and in the bowling department, both teams came back very strongly to establish themselves in the innings. It could well be said that at the end, it was more about who would make more errors on the day, and there were plenty made, trust me. But more on that later. 2 performances that stood out There were two standout performances in the day, one from Comilla Victorians’ Sunil Narine who got the team off to a tremendous start scoring yet another half century and then returning to bowl tight overs in the death that played a huge part in Comilla’s win. The other was from Shykat Ali, the only change made in the Barishal line-up on the day. Chasing 152 runs in 20 overs, Ali got Barishal off to a start that teams dream of in the finals. While others were found stuck under pressure, Ali smashed his way to a 34-ball 58 to take Comilla out of the game in the first 6 overs. At his time of dismissal, Barishal were at 79/2 in 9.4 overs, needing just 72 runs from more than 10 overs remaining. How not to approach a T20 game With 8 wickets in hand, Barishal completely messed the situation up by taking the conservative approach till the 16th over of the game. Barring one big over from Chris Gayle, who desperately needed to get his strike-rate back up to 100 managed 17 runs from two overs before getting out to Sunil Narine. At the time of getting out, Barishal still needed 45 off 42 with 7 wickets in hand - a cakewalk for any professional T20 team in the world. But you know that the air had changed by then. Tanvir Islam, Mustafizur Rahman and Narine bowled in tandem to choke out the flow of boundaries, and only 2 of them came in the next SIX overs of the game. And suddenly the equation had changed. Runs had not been scored, wickets had fallen and by then Comilla believed that they can, they can secure this game. Mistake that could have cost Comilla the game Fortune Barishal needed 10 off the final over with Shohidul Islam bowling. The same Shohidul Islam who went for 13 runs in his first over. With Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Towhid Hridoy on strike, Barishal might have had a slim chance of winning, but T20 is a game of maximising the chances on mistakes. Two runs came from the first three balls, with Shahidul hitting yorkers and low full tosses around the off stump line. Things were fine and processes were followed. And then came the mistake, one that fast bowlers dread, and in that kind of pressure who could blame them? Shohidul ran in at full steam, went through his action and bowled a short one - down the leg side - at half speed. An absolute gift for any batters. But as luck would have it, Hridoy failed to connect and the umpire called it a wide. The last three balls had a single, a catch dropped and a run out when 3 was required off the final ball, and Comilla held on to win one of the most fascinating games in the Bangladesh Premier League this season. Shakib al Hasan in the post-match presentation admitted that they had made several mistakes that took the game away from them and they would try to do better next season. But should Barishal have lost the game? Maybe, maybe not. Down and out in the first 5 overs of the game, owing to Sunil Narine’s elite batting, Barishal came back. Aided by a collective bowling effort, Barishal dragged the game back just 80 more runs in the last 16 overs of the game, picking up six wickets. Three quick wickets of Faf du Plessis, Imrul Kayes and Mahmudul Hasan Joy meant that Comilla lost their entire middle order for a very bare minimum number of runs. The only time Comilla looked dangerous after Narine’s departure was when Moeen Ali and Abu Hider started connecting their shots late in the death overs. But as usual, Barishal put a nip on it inside the next six balls, making sure that the game did not go away from them. However, that was not enough as Sunil Narine would once again comeback to haunt them - this time in the death overs of the chase to pick up one important wicket of Dwayne Bravo in the 18th over and giving away just 2 runs. This led to a big shift in terms of momentum and started the belief that they could actually go on to win the game. And that’s why he was awarded as man of the match of the final game.