Seven Bangladesh players to miss part of LPL

Seven Bangladesh players who are in the draft of the Lanka Premier league won’t be available for the initial phase of the competition due to national duties. 

The tournament is slated to be played between July 30 to August 22 while Bangladesh are scheduled to host Australia for a five-match series between August 2 to August 8 which will be followed by series against New Zealand and England at home. 

The likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar are the players in the LPL draft. 

''They (Bangladeshi cricketers) will not be available from the beginning of LPL as we have series against Australia,'' BCB cricket operation chairman Akram Khan confirmed Cricbuzz on Saturday. 

''We also have other series lined up but in between, we have some time and they can go at that point and play in the LPL,'' he said.

Akram further added that the above mentioned players have said that they are available for selection across all formats. 

''All the cricketers are ready to take part across format and they have informed national duty is their first preference,'' said Akram. ''They have said that if they are picked and if they can manage to have time to play in LPL they will play there but not at the expense of skipping any national duty,'' he said.

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WI vs SA | 5th T20I: All-round South Africa clinch series after Windies' firepower fall short

South Africa ended their tour of West Indies in a perfect manner after clinching a win by 25 runs in the fifth and final T20I on Saturday in Grenada. Chasing 169, the home side was restricted to 143/9 in the allotted 20 overs after the Proteas bowling attack once again dominated the Caribbean batting line up during the course. West Indies didn’t really start off the proceedings well after losing opener Lendl Simmons early in the chase but Chris Gayle and Eoin Lewis tried to steady the ship for the side and stitched a 45-run stand for the second wicket before Gayle departed for 11 off 9. The hosts then lost wickets at regular intervals and were left struggling at 140/8 in the penultimate over only to suffer a defeat eventually. Lewis though notched up a half-century while Shimron Hetmyer scored 33 but their efforts went in vain. For South Africa, it was Lungi Ngidi who returned with a three-for while Kagiso Rabada and Wiaan Mulder bagged a couple of wickets. Apart from them Tabraiz Shamsi produced yet another brilliant and economical spell of bowling to end the game with figures of 1/11 in 4 overs. Earlier, after batting first the visitors put 168/4 in 20 overs, courtesy a super stand of 128 runs between Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram. South Africa lost captain Temba Bavuma on the third delivery of the match for a duck but the wicket-keeper batsman De Kock who has been in fine form in this series struck a 42-ball 60. Markram who came in at number three top-scored with 70 off 48. For West Indies, it was Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Bravo and Obed mcCoy who were among the wickets. Edwards picked up two wickets while Bravo and McCoy got one each. West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard expressed his disappointment about the series loss. “The total seemed like a winning total for us. We had three opportunities in this series to chase 160 but we couldn't. But the disappointing thing for us is that we keep making the same mistakes over and over and over. We set up the game well for the guys in the shed. Well played to Quinton and South Africa. He was fantastic for them, he changed the momentum of the series. The young bowlers for us, McCoy, Sinclair and Bravo coming good were fantastic. The batting was disappointing,” he said after the match. South Africa captain Bavuma was ‘delighted’ by the ‘incredible’ performance from the boys. “Delighted. Incredible from the boys. We were under pressure and we need to commend our ability to bounce back. Come the World Cup, it should be an incredible one to watch. This series can only boost our confidence. We haven't won much away from home. Looking forward to the World Cup, this win gives us confidence and belief as well. I believe things are gelling well for us. It was a hard fought series from a skill point of view,” he said. South Africa clinched the five-match series 3-2.

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ENG W vs IND W | 3rd ODI: Magnificent Mithali takes India home in last-over thriller

Mithali Raj, after having become the leading run-scorer in women’s international cricket, made sure that India remained alive as far as the points system arrangement of the tour is concerned, as she took India home in a last-over thriller to earn a consolatory win in the already lost ODI series. However, the win at New Road meant two points for the India Women in the tour points system and now they are just trailing by two points only going into the T20I series which will have six points on offer. Raj’s unbeaten 75 off 86 balls was one of the most prolific, thought through innings that any batter has played on this tour so far. With six to win in the last over and her partner, Sneh Rana having gotten out on the last ball of the previous over, it was all dependent on the Indian skipper. She had Jhulan Goswami for company on the other end, who was required to provide a single on the second ball and bring Mithali back on strike. On strike with four to win and a clever Katherine Brunt markin5g her run-up, the Andhra Queen decided to use her best weapon, her writs and the ability to find gaps as she caressed a slightly overpitched ball, bisecting point and cover-point for a boundary. The chase wasn’t easy at all for India even after the team got off to a required start with Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana adding 46 for the first wicket in the first nine overs. However, once Shafali got out in her usual style of throwing away the wicket, Mandhana did try to keep the run rate going. But her partner at the other end, Jemimah Rodriguez wasn’t up to the work. Soon both Jemimah and Mandhana were gone and India were struggling at 81-3. Mandhana was just one shy from her fifty when she got out. Two experienced players in vice-captain Harmanpreet and captain Raj go together and tried to build the chase. But like it has been on the entire tour, Harmanpreet failed once again, even as the pair added 50 runs for the fourth wicket. Deepti Sharma too took time getting in as the run rate kept mounting and then got out just when she was required the most. At 164-5, with India needing 56 from 46 balls, in walked Rana. It feels she is made for tough moments as the girl from Railways stuck with her captain, adding important 50 runs off just 40 balls to get India near to the win. But blood rushed to her head it seemed as instead of playing a single and taking the game to the end, after she had already hit 24 off 21 balls, Rana tried to paddle sweep and was tangled in her shot as a Sophie Ecclestone delivery hit her stumps. Earlier in the day, after the match being reduced to 47 overs each, India finally win the toss and sent England to bat first. The Indian team struck early removing the first match English hero Tammy Beaumont. Skipper Heather Knight and Lauren Winfield Hill tried to build the innings., However, India kept striking at regular intervals. Courtesy that, none of the English batters were able to breach the 50 run mark. In fact, England Women had a mini-collapse of their own, as they were down to 197-9 in 44.5 overs after being 151-3 in the 33rd over. Deepti was the highest wicket-taker for India with 3-44 in her 10 overs. Had it not been for a 13 ball 21 run partnership for the last wicket between Sarah Gleen and Kate Cross, the target could have been a lot less and the match a little easier for India. The 38-year-old Indian skipper, Raj was adjudged Player of the Match for 75 while England’s Ecclestone was named Player of the Series for her eight wickets across three games. The two teams will now meet in the first of the three T20Is at the county ground in Northampton on Friday, July 9.

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Officials surprised with BCCI's announcement of as many as 2127 matches in upcoming domestic season

After the announcement of the Indian domestic season which includes the Ranji Trophy after a break on the tournament for a year, some of the state body officials are not overly excited about the development. As per their words, holding as many as 2127 matches including the matches at the junior level seems unlikely especially after the BCCI took the T20 World Cup out of India. Taking a dig at BCCI, one of the officials said that it is funny to see BCCI announcing the domestic schedule after taking the showpiece event which was earlier scheduled to be played in India to the middle east. "It is funny. Seems like the COVID-19 situation has improved within three days (the announcement of T20 World Cup moving to UAE due to Covid-19 came on June 29 i.e. Tuesday) and the danger of third wave or fourth wave has been averted! Either that, or the cricket board thinks that safety and health of domestic cricketers is not as important as that of international cricketers," a senior state body official was quoted by TOI on the condition of anonymity. BCCI in a statement on Saturday said that they are confident of hosting all the domestic matches with proper safety protocols and keeping in mind the health of all the players. The 2021-22 domestic season is slated to run from 21st September 2021 to 26th March 2022. "The BCCI is confident of hosting the domestic season with health and safety of players and all people involved being paramount," the Board said in its statement. One of the state officials expressed his concern over BCCI President Sourav Ganguly’s comments earlier this week that the T20 World Cup was shifted out of India in order to ensure utmost safety for the players. The official questioned BCCI that when they are not confident of keeping players from 16 countries safe then how is it practically feasible to keep players from 38 states in men’s and 37 in women’s safe. "It is impractical. We are still not sure if the tournament will get underway. The BCCI has announced 2,127 games. They are too many. If some of the matches get affected by Covid-19, you will have to cancel them, maybe split points and it will make a mockery of the event," added the official. Another state official stated that the association is considering it only as a tentative schedule as anything can happen in the coming months. "I will consider it as a tentative schedule only. At best I think we can be sure that they will be able to host limited-overs tournaments only. It is very difficult to host multi-day games. This will require huge effort, especially when we are not sure about the status of COVID-19 in the country," the official said. "There is the issue of vaccination," said one more official. In India, vaccination is open to people above 18 years of age. "They have also scheduled under-16 tournament -- the Vijay Merchant Trophy. How will you get the under-16 players vaccinated. Some of the under-19 players (in the Cooch Behar Trophy) too will be below than 18 years," added the official.