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T20 World Cup | IND vs PAK: Mohammad Rizwan produces shots he visualised before game

Team India were taken aback by the flawless batting of the Pakistan opening pair of Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam in Dubai on 24 October, Sunday. Rizwan was more aggressive of the duo and scored 79 off just 55 balls at a strike-rate of 144. In a recent video, the International Cricket Council revealed that Rizwan had visualised every bit of it before the big game.

He started off Pakistan’s chase of 152 runs with a crisp shot through mid-on and mid-wicket and followed it up with a half pull off front foot for six. He took 10 runs off Bhuvneshwar Kumar and he had visualised playing all the shots he played in the first over before the game.

Rizwan remained unbeaten on a 55-ball 79 and led an embarrassing defeat for India in the company of Babar Azam, who remained undefeated at a 52-ball 68.

Before their brilliance with the bat, India were handed a harsh reality check by the impressive Pakistan bowling attack led by Shaheen Shah Afridi who uprooted both Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in his first two overs. It was always an uphill task for the men in blue and only Virat Kohli managed to score a fifty as India could manage only 151 runs on the board.

Rizwan has been a revelation for Pakistan in the format after earning a promotion to bat at the top with the skipper and his numbers with the bat has been staggering.

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Explained | Everything about the Indian Premier League franchise's bidding process

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all in readiness to start the bidding process of two new franchises that will set the stage for a 10-team Indian Premier League tournament. Here, we are going to divulge all the details related to the princess of the addition of two teams. What is the base price of each new franchise? The BCCI has fixed the base price of each franchise at Rs 2,000 crore. No bidding party can value new franchises at price below Rs 2,000 crore. What is BCCI’s expectation of the final bidding price? The BCCI has got the idea that there is huge interest among business groups in owning IPL franchises and hence they are executing franchises to be bought at prices between Rs 7,000-Rs 10,000 crores each. Who can bid for the franchises? As per the BCCI’s bidding document, a consortium of a maximum of three companies that has an annual turnover of at least Rs 2,500 crore can bid for the teams. For individual companies, an annual turnover of Rs 3,000 core is the minimum financial criteria to bid for the teams. Can overseas companies bid for the teams? Yes, they can. Provided they have running operations in the country. How many companies or individuals have bought the tender document? As per a PTI report, there have been as many as 22 buyers of the tender document worth Rs 10 lakh. What is the price of the bidding document? The price of the bidding document has been fixed at Rs 10 crore. What are the prominent names looking to buy new IPL teams? There are India business heavyweights such as the Adani Group, the RP Sanjiv Goenka, Kotak group, Torrent Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, Jindal Group vying for IPL franchise ownership. Are the owners of Manchester United seriously interested in buying an IPL franchise? Yes, the Glazer family that owns the venerable football club, has picked the bidding document through a private equity firm—Lancer Capital. What are the probable cities to get an IPL team from next year? The list of cities that are in the fray to have an IPL side includes Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Indore, Guwahati, Pune, Dharamsala, Cuttack with the capital of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh are firm favourites among them.

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T20 World Cup | IND vs PAK: Kohli rubbishes 'brave' question of Ishan Kishan over Rohit Sharma

Indian skipper Virat Kohli had a hard but also amusing time during the post-match press conference after the loss against Pakistan as he was confronted with questions that he rated “brave” and could only offer laughter at. One of the Pakistani journalists sitting in the room where the press conference was ongoing asked Kohli if the team realise they would have had more success with Ishan Kishan in the team over Rohit Sharma in the first question. Kohli was lost for words initially but asked a counter-question after giving public support to Rohit, who got a duck in the game. Kohli said that he played the playing XI which he found the best suited for the game, and dropping Rohit was not even in his mind by any stretch of the imagination. He also termed the question as one asked to rake “controversy”. “That’s a very brave question. What do you think, sir? I played the team that I thought was the best. What is your opinion? Will you drop Rohit Sharma from T20 international? Will you drop Rohit Sharma? Do you know what he did in the last game we played? Unbelievable. Sir, if you want controversy, please tell me before so I can answer accordingly,” he added. Another Pakistani journalist asked if Team India were overconfident coming into the game against Pakistan due to their unassailable record against them in the World Cup. By that time, Kohli was irked and he replied that people are downplaying what it takes to play high-octane contests such as the one against Pakistan and that they don’t realise what does it mean to the cricketers before asking such questions. India were humbled by Pakistan by a huge margin of 10 wickets as the Pakistani opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan trounced the Indian bowling attack after Shaheen Shah Afridi rocked the batting lineup with three big wickets of Kohli, Rohit and KL Rahul.

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T20 World Cup | Burdened with chaos in their backyard, Afghanistan aim to keep focus on 22-yards

In a short span of time, Afghanistan have displayed the calibre that the side has and they were marching ahead with a zeal when a political turn around in the country changed a lot of things. From witnessing a total chaos in the nation to the future of Afghanistan cricket in a dilemma, a lot was happening. But here they are up for the challenge, probably the biggest till date. The Afghan team will now be up against the big guys in the business in the T20 World Cup. Afghanistan made an automatic qualification to the Super 12s round and now have their work cut out with Pakistan, New Zealand and India in their group. Apart from these formidable sides, Afghanistan will also have Scotland and Namibia in the group. The team comprises some world-class and prominent names in the unit which include the likes of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb ur Rahman and Asghar Afghan who have been playing a lot of franchise cricket around the globe. Spin maestro Rashid Khan The Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan has become one of lethal bowlers in world cricket. The right-arm bowler has the ability to deceive the batters with his spin and wrong-uns. Moreover, Rashid will be coming into the tournament with some recent experience of playing in the UAE as he was a part of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The cash-rich league’s second half of this year’s edition was played in UAE. He had picked up wickets consistently for his IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) during the course of the tournament and also had a good time at the office in the warm-up match against West Indies. Rashid didn’s pick any wickets in this match but returned with an economical spell of 0/14 in three overs as Afghanistan clinched a 56-run victory. Moreover, he is pretty handy with the bat too and can chip in with some runs at a brisk pace at the end of the innings. Can the batters continue form? Afghanistan consist of some of the finest and aggressive batsmen in their ranks. Hazratullah Zazai who played a few games in the Pakistan Super League earlier this year but stamped authority with the bat for Peshawar Zalmi and struck three fifties in five matches that he featured in. The opener then played the two practice matches against South Africa and West Indies before the start of the World Cup. While he failed to open his account against the Proteas, Zazai hammered a 35-ball 56 against the Caribbean side which proved to be instrumental in their dominating win. The wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Shahzad also has a bit of a similar story where he was among runs during the T20 matches that he featured in before coming into the tournament. Just like Zazai, Shahzad also failed to trouble the scorers against South Africa but scored a fine half-century against West Indies. Asghar Afghan who is probably one of the most experienced lads in the side hasn’t really had a great time in the recent past in T20s. In the last five matches that he has played in the shorter format, he has only crossed the 20-run mark twice while has a couple of single-digit scores as well which he scored during the two warm-up matches. But with the kind of experience that he has, the Afghanistan side can still bank upon the right-hander to get back in form. The only question here that arises is whether these batters will be able to carry their form against the big guns. Well, the team management and the think tank would surely be dependent on these batsmen to put up a fight with the bat along with the likes of Nabi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Najibullah Zadran. Banking on the experience Afghanistan would have a lot of dependence on players like Rashid Khan, Nabi and Asghar Afghan. The amount of cricket that these players have played. While they have the ability to unveil some significant performance on the field, they have a lot to offer when the think tank sits to make strategies and plans against the opponents. While Nabi is leading the side in this tournament, both Rashid and Asghar Afghan have the experience of captaincy which would be helpful in making plans on the field. SQUAD: Mohammad Nabi (c), Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Karim Janat, Hazratullah Zazai, Gulbadin Naib, Usman Ghani, Naveen ul Haq, Asghar Afghan, Hamid Hassan, Najibullah Zadran, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Fareed Ahmad Malik. Probable XI: Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Najibullah Zadran, Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi (c), Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Naveen ul Haq, Hamid Hassan Afghanistan will begin the campaign on October 25 against Scotland in Sharjah and will travel to Dubai to lock horns with Pakistan on October 29. The Afghan side will then take on Namibia in Abu Dhabi on October 31 and India and New Zealand on November 3 and 7 respectively at the same venue.