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SCO vs ZIM | Déjà vu at Grange as Richard Ngarava, Wellington Masakadza defend 136 for Zimbabwe

It was a situation of déjà vu at the Grange Cricket Club ground in Edinburgh, Scotland as Zimbabwe went on to defend a paltry total of 136 against Scotland to win the second T20I and level the three-match series 1-1 having lost the first game in a similar fashion on Wednesday, September 15. 

In the last match, Zimbabwe were cruising at 112-4 in the 17th over 30 required to win the game from 21 balls and Sean Williams and Milton Shumba batting on 28 each before something got to Williams and he played it straight to the fielder. Guess what happened in this game? 

Hero from the last match for Scotland, Richie Berrington and Matthew Cross were cruising the Scottish team to a win with only 45 runs needed from 36 balls. Berrington, however, decided to launch Willaims over the cow corner, eventually getting caught at deep square leg by Wesley Madhevere, providing that little window of opportunity for the Zimbabweans to sneak and snuck they did. 

Post the Berrington wicket, there was still hope as Cross developed a decent partnership with new batter Michael Leask and courtesy of that 19 run stand, Scotland needed 27 from the last three. What happens, just the way Luke Jongwe was caught in the first game at fine leg when the Chevrons needed 17 from 10 balls. 

After Cross’ dismissal, everything depended on Leask and by hitting a six off Jongwe’s fifth delivery and ultimately bringing the equation down to 17 from 12 balls, he harboured confidence of some 400 odd supporters gathered at the ground. Leask was also offered a lease as he was dropped on the very first ball of the nineteenth over bowled by Richard Ngrava. 

Even after the drop catch and two runs off the first ball, the men in blue could only get four runs from one of the best penultimate overs delivered at the Grange. 

With 13 needed from the last over, the ball was handed to Wellington Masakadza and he delivered on the faith getting Shaffian Sharf off the very first ball and putting pressure on Leask. The 30-year-old all-rounder ran mark Watt out on the second ball to get to the crease for the last four balls. However, it was to no avail as Leask himself got out on the third ball trying to hit it out of the park and eventually holing out to Williams at long-on. 

The last wicket was once again a run out on the fourth ball where numbers 10 and eleven tried to run two runs and a rocket throw from Madhevere saw the end of Alasdair Evans. Thus with four wickets and only two runs coming from the last over, Zimbabwe took the game by 10 runs. 

Earlier in the day, having won the toss and decided to bat first, the men in red and gold didn’t have a great start and were reduced to 20-3 in the first three overs before skipper Craig Ervine and Willaims stitched together a 71 run stand which was broken after Ervine was removed by Leask. Shumba, the lone ranger from the last game didn’t last long in this one and Zimbabwe were 94-5 with 26 balls still to go. 

Williams, who was joined by Ryan Burl on the crease, reached only his seventh fifty on T20I cricket in his 49th match as he also crossed the milestone of 1000 T20I runs and became only the second Zimbabwean after Hamilton Masakadza to score more than 1000 runs in all three formats of the game. Together with Burl, he added 42 runs for the sixth wicket to get Zimbabwe to 136 at the end of 20 overs. 

With the ball, Zimbabwe had a great start once again as they reduced Scotland to 16-4 in the first four overs itself before Berrington and Cross got together.

The two teams will now meet for one last tie in the series on Sunday for the third and final T20I, which would also be played at the Grange.

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As you grow old, you realise there are bigger things in life: Tabraiz Shamsi on not getting IPL contracts

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IPL 2021 | Mumbai Indians' Road to UAE: Defending champions defy recent history of lagging starts

Apart from winning the most number of the Indian Premier League trophy, the Mumba Indians have also been known for being slow starters and peaking at right time. They have been a side who keep their fans on the edge in most seasons before ramping up their level and taking their performances to unmatched levels towards the business end of the tournament. However, they have made a reasonably good start to the 14th edition of the IPL as they have won four of their first seven games of the 14th edition before Covid-19 disrupted the tournament and split it into two halves. Rohit Sharma, who has been at their helm of affairs since 2013 was particularly delighted at his team’s decent start in the first part of the competition held in Chennai and Mumbai. Here, we are tracing the journey of the Mumbai Indians so far in the IPL 2021 and will also look ahead to their prospect in the second half as the tournament goes back to the UAE, where they had ruled the show last year. Another mediocre start As they are privileged with a champion side that takes them to the championship almost every year, the Mumbai Indians has played the first game of the season more often than not in the recent past. In the clash of the titans between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the opening encounter of the IPL earlier this year, Kohli’s men trounced the men in blue to give them a feel of their own medicine. Having asked to bat first, the Mumbai’s opening pair of Rohit and Chris Lynn provided them with a decent start before Suryakumar Yadav joined the Australian to take the attack to the opposition. The duo added 70 runs in a matter of seven overs to put them on track for a big score on the board. However, a power-packed middle comprising of Hardik and Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan and Kieron Pollard stumbled in the latter half of the innings and the Indians squandered their momentum to 159 runs in 20 overs. They handed free wickets to Harshal Pate, who went on to pick his best bowling figure in his IPL career. Showing their bowling prowess, Mumbai did all they could to stop the Royals Challengers from chasing the target but fell short in front of the genius of Ab de Villiers, who smashed them to all parts of the ground in 27-ball 48. Trial by spin, attack by pace Having lost the first game of the season against the loopy and slow bowling of Harshal Patel on a gripping surface at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai the Indian think tank realised the importance of making the powerplay and new ball count. In the next game against the Kolkata Knight Riders, the top order comprising of Quinton de Kock, Rohit and Suryakumar tried to tee off from the word go. However, both de Kock and Rohit failed to go big but Surya kept them going at a rapid rate. The middle-order struggled once again as they slipped from 86/1 in 10.2 overs to 127/7 in 17.3 overs but a proactive 36-ball 56 from Surya propelled them to 152. None of the middle order batsmen could make sizeable contributions to the team’s cause. In reply, Knight Riders opening pair of Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill were on a roll and had reached 72 inside nine overs without being separated. Then, the leg spinner Rahul Chahar spun a web and scalped four big wickets in quick succession to derail the Knight Riders’ chase. His brilliance was concluded with Trent Boult picking up the big wicket of Andre Russell to hit the final nail in their coffin and the Indians registered their first win of the season. The Modus Operandi of the Indians were similar in the next game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad as Rohit won the toss and elected to bat first on a sluggish pitch. This time though, the opening pair was up to the challenge and took them beyond the 50-run mark inside the mandatory powerplay to use the new ball well when it was coming on to the bat. The middle-order too supported but a lot of those contributions came from the sole bat of Kieron Pollard who blasted 22-ball 35 that included three gigantic sixes. Just like the Knight Riders, the Sunrisers were off to a superb start as well before Jonny Bairstow gout out hit wicket and David Warner was run out. The middle-order comprising of Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Virat Singh and Abhishek Sharma was flummoxed by the leg spinner Chahar and blown away by the pace and variations of the Boult-Bumrah partnership. Speed breaker and another comeback After two highly spirited performances and wins over the Knight Riders and the Sunrisers, the Indians stumbled in their next encounter against the Punjab Kings. The Kings won the toss and surprised the Indians by asking them to bat first. They had a plan in mind and restricted the star-studded batting lineup of Mumbai, to a mediocre total of 131 runs from 20 over. None of the batsmen except Rohit managed to score substantially and the men in blue were staring at another defeat as the Kings’ top order comprising KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Chris Gayle chased own the score with embarrassing ease. With two wins and two losses from the first four games, the Mumbai Indians showed their peculiar signs of peaking it just when the heat turns on them. In the next two games against the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings, they were back to be the best they have been known for in the recent past. First, they were challenged by the Royals’ batting lineup comprising of Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson along with young talents in Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube. However, the trio of Bumrah, Chahar and Boult stopped them from taking the game away from Mumbai. Chasing a target of 172 runs, Rohit and de Kock was on the song to put Mumbai on the perfect track before hitting a stutter in the middle. This time though the middle order showed signs of resistance as Pollard and Krunal Pandya stitched a partnership of 63 runs to give them their third win of the season. Mumbai’s next game was against the Chennai Super Kings, a side that have been in the face of their many memorable triumphs and defeats in the recent past. Unlike the last season when they met the Super Kings in the first game of the season which they lost in line with their nature as a team, this time they were a peaking side against a resurgent Super Kings side that were looking to come back after a horrible season last year. Rohit backed his team to chase score on a flat surface at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, but the Super Kings were not there to make their work easier. Ruturaj Gaikwad failed to Boult but the rapid partnership of 108 runs from 61 balls between Moeen Ali and Faf du Plessis put the Super Kings in a commanding position for a late flourish, which came from the bat of Ambati Rayudu. The right-hander was in ruthless touch and he put the bowling attack to the sword on his way to a 27-ball 72 and carried the men in yellow to a mammoth 218 runs. It was such a nightmare for the bowlers that Bumrah had to yield 56 runs from his quota of four overs. There were runs on the board but the pitch was flat for the explosive batting lineup of Mumbai as well. Rohit and de Kock provided another solid start but the men in blue suffered a mini-collapse in the middle order. The lower middle order that had shown the signs of coming to their near best in the previous game against the Royals were back to their best against the Super Kings. Pollard overpowered the blitzkrieg of Rayudu with a 34-ball 87 and led the Mumbai Indians to a famous win in a high-scoring affair. Looking ahead to UAE The Mumbai Indians are positioned fourth on the points table with eight points from seven games and they have to win a minimum of three out of their remaining seven games to seal a place in the final four. Looking at the prowess of their side, and the form of their big players such as Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock, and Jasprit Bumrah in recent months, it should be clear that the Mumbai Indians are on their way to another path towards the championship. However, they are not flawless in the season and they would be hoping to get all components of their team working as a well-oiled unit towards the final round of the tournament. Challenges One of their marquee players, Hardik Pandya has been going through a lean patch and has had a year to forget so far. He could not make substantial contributions in the first part of the tournament and also on the tour of Sri Lanka while playing for India and the team management would back him to regain form and confidence that make them a daunting prospect for the oppositions. Pollard has been on and off with the bat in the last few seasons but his remarkable ability to produce match-winning performances just when the team require it the most has been saving the day for both him and the side. Both Pollard and Pandya form the core of the Mumbai lower order that give the top order the leverage to go for glory shots in every juncture of the game. If they will flounder for long, the men in blue will java a tough time defending their title this time around.