T20 World Cup | Virat Kohli loses another toss, India bring Ishan Kishan, Shardul Thakur

T20 World Cup | Emotional Asghar Afghan receives guard of honour from teammates, Namibia

Former Afghanistan skipper Asghar Afghan, who announced his retirement from the game yesterday was given a guard of honour by both Namibia and Afghanistan on Sunday, 31 October. Both the spectators present at the ground and his teammates left nothing to chance in giving him earnest respect. He was given a guard of honour on two occasions—at the time of entering the ground for batting and while leaving the playing field for the one last time on Sunday afternoon. First, the Namibian side gave him the honour while he came out to bat in the middle and his teammates were the ones to give him an emotional farewell on his way back to the pavilion. Watch video here Asghar could not hold himself back and get emotional on the sense of the occasion. He was asked to explain his decision to retire from the game midway through the T20 World Cup and he got in tears while struggling to explain his mind. Asghar has been one of the chief reasons for the rise of Afghanistan cricket on the world stage. He made his international debut in the year 2004 and has seen their rapid rise from Division 5 in 2008 to qualifying for the 50-over World Cup in 2015 and attaining Full Member status in 2018. He has captained Afghanistan in 115 matches across formats and was the leader of the side in their maiden Test match against India. He has won 42 T20 internationals as the skipper out of 52 matches. As a batsman, he is one of the few batsmen to have scored a century in both ODIs and Tests from the Afghanistan side.

WBBL 2021 | Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma shine for Renegades and Thunder with their all-round show

The Indian players are finally coming to the party in the Women’s Big Bash League after the tournament moving to Western Australia from Tasmania. In today’s four games, Indians Deepti Sharma, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodriguez and Radha Yadav, all showed their brilliance while Shafali Verma, Poonam Yadav and Richa Ghosh failed to contribute very match with their skills. After a brilliant show from Harmanpreet yesterday with both bat and ball where she scored 43, she went on to do better and reached her first-ever fifty in this season’s WBBL. This broke her 10-match drought of scoring a 50. Scoring 73 off just 46 balls, she made a chase of 161 against Adelaide Strikers Women look like a cakewalk on a difficult Lilac Hill Park wicket in Perth. The Indian T20 skipper was also aided by a quick start from her compatriot Jemiah Rodriguez who scored a quickfire 27 off just 16 balls. These two innings were key in Renegades Women now moving to the top of the league table with a fourth consecutive win. Even with the ball, the off-spinner Harmanpreet picked two wickets and gave away only 31 runs in her four overs. In another game at Aurora Stadium in Launceston, Tasmania, Deepti Sharma showcased her skills with the ball and picked up three wickets to lead the defence of 146 for Sydney Thunder Women against Hobart Hurricanes Women. Her effort of 3-13 in four overs was the biggest boost for the Thunder to bowl out Hurricanes for just 109 and win two back to back games having lost four in a row earlier. With the bat too Sharma’s 20 off 15 balls played a vital role alongside Smriti Mandhana’s run a ball fifty to get to 146. Radha Yadav, the left-arm spinner was also in good touch as she helped her team Sydney Sixers Women beat home side Parth Scorchers Women. Her spell of 2-22 in four overs in which she got the wickets of Beth Mooney and Heather Graham, was a key one alongside those of Nicol Bolton’s and Lauren Chaetle’s in restricting the Scorchers for 117-9, defending a huge total of 161. Alyssa Healy’s 94 unbeaten off 57 balls helped Sixers get to 161 in the first place. With this win, the Sixers also ended their three-match losing streak.

Former Australian cricketer Peter Philpott dies of prolonged illness

Former Australian Test player and New South Wales skipper Peter Philpott has died of a prolonged illness, aged 86. Philpott played eight Tests and took 28 wickets at an average of 38.46. He had a far longer career in first-class cricket and played 76 games taking 245 wickets at 30.31 and making 2889 runs at 31.36 runs per innings. Cricket Australia mourned Philpot’s loss and said that he was a “teacher” who could offer a lot of his understanding and perspective of the game to other cricketers. The board rated him as a cricket of “rate enthusiasm” with his craft and spirit. “Peter Philpott was more than just a wonderful cricketer, he was a man who had a rare enthusiasm for his craft, and for the game of cricket itself. As teacher and coach, Peter had the generosity and wisdom to share his knowledge across the globe and helped shape the careers of countless cricketers. We extend our deepest sympathies to Peter’s family and friends, and to all those whose lives he touched,” Richard Freudenstein, Cricket Australia Chair, said. They called the past few days an “extraordinarily sad” period following the loss of three former cricketers such as Alan Davidson, Ashley Mallett apart from Philpot. “With the deaths of Peter Philpott, Alan Davidson and Ashley Mallett, this has been an extraordinarily sad few days for Australian cricket. We share our thoughts with all those across the world who are both mourning the loss and celebrating the lives of three men who had such an uplifting influence on the game of cricket.”

Our batting cost us more than anything: Bangladesh selector Habibul Bashar on failed T20 World Cup campaign

Bangladesh have lost three games in the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup and its chief selector, Habibul Bashar who is travelling with the side in the UAE, said that batting has let the team down and has been the main reason for the team’s failure. “Our batting hasn't lived up to our expectations. We have to improve in the powerplay, especially, if we want to do well in the T20s. We need power-hitters in the late order. Other teams score at ten an-over in the end overs, but we also lack in that area,” Bashar was quoted as saying in interaction with Bangladesh media. Like every World Cup in recent years, Bangladesh came to this World Cup with high hopes, especially having beaten Australia and New Zealand comprehensively in Dhaka. But in the very first game of the World Cup, they lost their composure while chasing just 140 against Scotland and lost the match by 6 runs. They however went in to qualify for the Super 12, but over here too, they have been disappointing. "Everyone is quite upset. We created an opportunity against West Indies. It would have been a mental boost had we defeated them. Now we know that we missed the opportunity,” said the former Bangladesh captain on the team’s three-run loss against defending champions in a game that they dominated for the most part before eventually losing it. On being asked as to what could be done to prepare better for the next edition of the World Cup in 2022 in Australia, Bashar said, "I think in our next domestic T20 tournaments, we should have better batting wickets, where the scores can be around 180 to 200 consistently. We play in the same wickets repeatedly in tournaments like the BPL. This prevents better batting in powerplays, and building power-hitters down the order,” "I am disappointed (with the outcome) as a selector. We are a settled ODI side. We have had ups and downs in Test cricket, but we haven't found consistency in T20 cricket,” he added before going on to promise to fight even harder in the remaining two games of this World Cup and end it on a high. "We have two more World Cup matches remaining and although we know that we are virtually out of the running for the semi-finals, we still want to finish the tournament on a positive note," he said. Bangladesh will play against two very tough oppositions in Australia and South Africa in its last two Super 12 matches.