SRH’s Shreevats Goswami surprised at only Wriddhiman Saha testing positive for Covid-19

Mahi Bhai’s wicket favourite, Fizz a good reader of wicket: Chetan Sakariya opens up on maiden IPL experience

Rajasthan Royals’ Chetan Sakariya was one of the finds of the 2021 Indian Premier League. The left-arm pacer from Saurashtra lit up the ground right from his first game. But to him, the wicket of Mahendra Singh Dhoni which he took in his third game of IPL. “Mahi [Dhoni] bhai’s wicket was my favourite. I was happily shocked. It felt unreal. If you see the video, you will know how shocked I was,” Sakariya told Sportstar. Talking about how he overcame the pressure of playing at such a big stage with the biggest names the game has to offer, the 22-year-old said, “Initially, I felt the pressure but later on, I handled that. I bowled a few good spells to some great batsmen.” Apart from Dhoni’s, the Bhavnagar born took the wickets of the likes of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Suresh Raina as well. Sakariya believes that he had more than a good IPL and did certainly better than he expected of himself. “I never thought I would bowl to them someday. That gave me a lot of confidence. I think I bowled better than I thought I would. I have to improve but I am happy with my performance,” he said. Taking seven wickets in this season, the son of an auto-rickshaw driver became the lynchpin of attack alongside Chris Morris and Mustafizur Rahman. Thanking the Bangladesh overseas bowler and England star Jos Buttler for their support, Sakariya said, “Mustafizur is a good reader of the wicket. He will tell you when to bowl your slower delivery. He knows how to unsettle the rhythm of a batsman.” “Buttler, though a batsman, told me a lot about bowling in the Powerplay. He would stand beside me when I bowled during the practice games. He told me to stick to the length and not worry about conceding a boundary. It’s just that there should not be a single loose delivery,” Sakariya added and went on to even thank his Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Unadkat for the support. The Covid-19 scare halted the IPL and ed to its eventual suspension was real and Skaraiya too felt it. Talking about it, he said, “We had just played a game against Sunrisers and after every match, the players usually catch up at the ground. We were hoping not to return positive since we had met a few players from their team.” Sunsrisers’ Wriddhiman Saha tested positive for the virus.

He is just unlucky: Khaled Mahmud defends Bangladesh coach Russel Domingo

Former Bangladesh skipper Khaled Mahmud has backed coach Russell Domingo to do well in future as he thinks that there is no lack in the sincerity of his efforts towards making the team better. Mahmud, who was given the responsibility of Team leader for the Tigers on their tour to Sri Lanka has submitted s report to the board regarding the workings of the coach with the team. Prior to this duty of his, 49-year-old Mahmud was Game Development chairman of the Bangladesh Cricket Board. "We should not make Russell a 'scapegoat'. We should not make the coach fully responsible for any good and bad,” Mahmud was quoted as saying to Cricbuzz. “He was also a coach of a big team (South Africa). There was no blunder in his effort, perhaps he was unlucky. It happens many times. It is too early to say anything now. I just worked with him in a series and all I can say is that he is trying," said Mahmud about Domingo, who never played cricket professionally but has coached various clubs, provincial teams and the National team in South Africa. Differentiating between the working styles of top teams and Bangladesh, Mahmud, who represented the Tigers in 12 Tests and 77 ODIs said, "We need to explain to the boys about our planning and later we have to tell them constantly what needs to be done and Domingo needs to understand it.' “'He (Domingo) is not working in South Africa. In Bangladesh, things work differently and our boys need to be reminded about their responsibility from the dressing room time and again and our cricket culture,” added the former fast-bowling all-rounder who took 70 international wickets and scored 1257 runs in his career. Domingo, 46, was appointed Bangladesh coach in August 2019 and since then the team has played five T20I series, six Test series and four ODI series, and have been able to win just one T20I series and one Test series against Zimbabwe and two ODI series, clean sweeping Zimbabwe and a second-string West Indies side. More importantly, they have won just one Test out of 10 that they have played under his coaching, losing seven of them, including a 0-2 clean sweep by a second-string Windies team at home. All these results have built pressure on Domingo as a coach, but Mahmud believes that the BCB is in no mood to cut short the South African’s two-year contract. "I don't think there is any such discussion (sacking Domingo). We have to understand that you can't hire a coach just by wishing it as there are a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration," said Mahmud. Domingo, who led South Africa to the 2014 T20 World Cup and 2015 ODI World cup semi-finals, himself feels that he has more to give to Bangladesh National team, especially now that he is building a connection with the players after all. "I'm enjoying working with the players. I'm enjoying the set-up. There's of course work to be done. Of course, there have been tough results. But I have started to connect with the team well and I am confident going forward,” Domingo told reporters on return from Sri Lanka where the team lost the two-match Test series 1-0.

We are most likely to go ahead with same XI for second Test: Babar Azam

Pakistan lead the two-match Test series against Zimbabwe 1-0 after beating the hosts convincingly by an innings and 116 runs in Harare. Captain Babar Azam hailed his team’s efforts in the last clash and isn’t looking to tweak the winning combination in the second game. "We won the first Test convincingly in three days, so we are most likely to go ahead with the winning combination (for the second Test),'' said Babar Azam addressing the media. Talking about the all-round performance, Babar further said that the openers did their job with precision while the middle-order and the bowling attack dominated well. "Our openers set the tone (in the first Test) and the middle order took forward the momentum, especially Fawad Alam whose experience was very important for us in Tests," said Azam. "Hasan Ali was outstanding and Shaheen Afridi bowled well, in fact, our bowlers dominated the first Test." Riding on Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali’s brilliant bowling performance in the first innings, the visitors bundled out Zimbabwe for 176 and then posted 426, courtesy another hundred from Fawad Alam and some magnificent efforts from Imran Butt with the bat. Zimbabwe were then bowled out for 134 in the second innings. Hasan rattled the Zimbabwean batting line up and returned with a five-wicket haul during the course. The two teams will now begin the second Test on Friday in Harare. Pakistan earlier won the three-match T20I series 2-1.

CSA's director of Cricket Graeme Smith empathises with BCCI after IPL 2021 controversy

Former South Africa captain and now the Cricket South Africa Director, Graeme Smith has empathised with the BCCI after episodes of covid-19 outbreaks in biosecure bubbles of teams leading to an abrupt end of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League. He, however, stressed that South African players he had words with confirmed that the biosecure environment they were in were quite safe, but that the nature of Covid-19 does not leave them to as full proof as it appears from the outside. "In no way would we judge. Having spoken to the players, they felt safe. They felt the BSE [Bio-Secure Environment] was a really good experience in India. They never felt at risk. But that's the nature of what Covid brings,” Smith said in an online press conference. “Sometimes you can do whatever you want but the BSE - as we've said to everyone - is never foolproof. When Covid is raging in your country there's always a risk. Unfortunately, once it gets inside it's very difficult to predict what's going to happen." Notably, CSA too had to deal with the issues of biosecure bubble breach when England were touring South Africa last year which led to the abandonment of the tour and then Cricket Australia cancelling a complete tour to South Africa altogether.