Taskin Ahmed likely to replace injured Mark Wood in Lucknow Super Giants: Reports

It was annoying how good he was: Root lavishes praise on Kraigg Brathwaite

England captain Joe Root lavished praise on Kraigg Brathwaite after the West Indies batter frustrated the opponents with his resistance especially in the second innings of the second Test in Barbados. Brathwaite scored an unbeaten 56 in 184 balls in the second innings while notched up 160 in 489 deliveries in the first. "It was annoying how good he was," Root said. "He played brilliantly in both innings and didn't give us many opportunities. He ground us down. He's an ideal player for a pitch like that. He takes it deep time and time again,” he added. Root further appreciated West Indies for the way they fought back in the second innings despite suffering some early blows. "It did feel like a new-ball wicket, you needed to really make an impact while the ball was harder, but after three brilliant breakthroughs, we, unfortunately, couldn't quite kick on. Credit to West Indies, they fought very hard in two brilliant Test matches, and it should be a brilliant final one of the series." Chasing 282 in the second Test, the hosts concluded the final day at 135/5 as the encounter ended in a draw. The third and final Test is slated to take place in Grenada which will be a deciding clash of the series.

ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 | Pakistan win their first game; help India’s cause in points table

Pakistan won their first match in 13 long years in the history of the ICC Women’s World Cup defeating West Indies by 8 wickets on Monday, 21 March. A rain-marred affair in Seddon Park Hamilton, Pakistan opened their account in the 2022 edition of the premier competition owing to a fantastic bowling display of their spinners. Five hours of non stop rainfall turned the competition into a T20 match, and Pakistan reaped rewards of winning the toss. This match was West Indies’ chance to push further forward their chances of semi-final, and they started in an attacking manner as well, taking on medium pacer Diana Beg and putting her to the sword for three boundaries. Anam Amin on the other end, bowled very well with her left arm off spin, and put a lot of pressure on the West Indies batter. Final over of the four over powerplay turned out to be a maiden and Windies batters, particularly Matthews looked frustrated, waiting to cut loose. Captain Bismah Maroof brought on Fatima Sana in place of Diana Beg and the move paid off immediately. Sana dismissed Hayley Matthews in the second ball of her first over and that started an agonising phase of play for the Windies batters. No boundaries came till the 10th over before the scoreboard pressure made Deandra Dottin cave into the softest of dismissals. Veteran Nida Dar, bowling a harmless off spinner found herself at the business end of a easy catch lobbed up on her first delivery of the day, dismissing the most dangerous batter in the Windies line-up. At that point, the women from the Caribbean shores were struggling to put bat to ball with spin being bowled from both ends. The spinners took over from there on, outfoxing Windies batters with their grip and turn. At one point Pakistan completed a team hattrick as well, shared between the 16th and the 17th over, with Dar picking two wickets in her last two balls and Nashra Sandhu dismissing captain Stafanie Taylor (18 off 31). Things looked ominous for Windies throughout as they struggled to rotate strike, something that would turn out to be the difference between the two teams. Windies salvaged the score a little making 23 runs in the last two overs, way below par of what they should actually have been able to make. The downfall was their approach, conceding lots of dot balls in the middle, not really looking for big shots or for that matter, quick singles. Nida Dar was the pick among the bowlers, taking her career-best 4/10 in her four overs and also registering the best figures for Pakistan in the World Cup. Once Pakistan came out to bat, they knew that this was not a kind of game where they needed huge shots. They knew and were wary of Hayley Matthews exploits against Bangladesh and started with a maiden over in their chase of 90 runs. Openers Muneeba Ali and Sidra Ameen looked for quick singles in their slow but steady start and Muneeba scored boundaries, only when she was absolutely certain that she could get her shots through the gap. West Indies were awarded with their first breakthrough in the 6th over of the game with leg spinner Afy Fletcher rattling her stumps against an ill attempted slog. At 23/1 West Indies hoped for a return in the game, but wickets did not come till the 13th over, when a set Muneeba got a leading edge trying to slog the ball over mid wicket. Shakera Selman’s ball sliced off her bat and she left the crease after a steady innings of 37 off 43 balls, paving the way for Pakistan’s victory in the game. One should not make a mistake of thinking that West Indies did not put enough pressure on the batters despite having a small score. They did, but Pakistan knew that if they can manage quick singles they could take Windies out of the game with relatively lesser risk. The Caribbean side was to blame for their poor effort in the field, with overthrows and missed chances of run outs plenty in the second innings. One could say that it was an off day overall for Deandra Dottin and co and they should not be judged over this performance. Nevertheless, wickets did not come in the subsequent overs and Pakistan chased their target down with 7 balls remaining. Captain Bismah Maroof and Omaima Sohail put together a partnership of 33* off 40 balls sealing the game off with relatively less drama. Pakistan’s win puts West Indies in a position that they had avoided for so long. With 6 points from 6 games, West Indies now are in a position where they can be taken over by both India and England owing to their superior run-rate. If India and England win their next games, all three teams will be tied in points having played the same number of games, but Windies will slip down to the 5th position, out of contention for the semi finals berth. This result massively helps India’s cause in the World Cup and they would now hope to cleansweep their final two games to enter the semis stages.

IPL 2022 | KL Rahul opens up on parting ways with Punjab Kings

Rahul, who was a run-scoring juggernaut for the Punjab-based franchise ever since he made his debut for them in 2018, will be leading the new IPL franchise- Lucknow Supergiants (LSG) this season. He has piled up 2,548 runs in 55 matches for PBKS with an outstanding average of 54.9.

ICC Women's World Cup 2022 | Pretty confident on the intel we have: Australia using WBBL to learn about SA

Australia and South Africa - two undefeated teams in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 will lock horns on Tuesday, 22 March. Wellington will play host to the top two teams in the World Cup at the moment bringing the end to a fantastic streak for one of the teams. That being said, these two teams have not played against each other in the ODI format since the World Cup in 2017, and that has brought a prospect of uncertainty for Australia keeper-batter Beth Mooney. "South Africa have been on a bit of a run and played a lot of consistent cricket across those five years against some world-class opponents as well,” Mooney said ahead of their clash. As things stand, if South Africa win the game, they will qualify for the semi-finals alongside Australia who already have 10 points from 5 games played. Both teams have looked good, with Australia seeming like the team to beat in this tournament, but SA’s pace bowling combination of Shabnam Ismail and Marizanne Kapp, make Proteas a scary opposition. "Unfortunately, we haven't had too much of an opportunity to come up against them … they've shown they've got a world-class bowling attack as well as batters that can win the game for them,” Mooney said on the matter. However, she further added that Australia will have intel on the SA team via the Women’s Big Bash League. "But we're pretty confident with the intel we have both playing with them in the WBBL and playing against some of the girls in that team that have been around for a long period of time,” the left hander explained. "We'll be sharing that information amongst ourselves between the batting and the bowling unit and understanding that whilst we know what we're coming up against, it's always going to be a challenge against a team that's playing well and playing on confidence." WBBL has emerged as one of the most sought after competitions in Women’s cricket, with a plethora of star players treating that competition how men treat the Indian Premier League. However, Australia are not the only team that will take intel away from the WBBL. Proteas opener Laura Wolvaart echoed the same sentiments and stated that it goes both ways and SA will be prepared well for Australia. "I think (the WBBL) helps a lot. (Australia are) one of the sides that we should be the most prepared for, because a lot of our girls have spent quite a lot of time playing against and in the same team as a lot of their players,” the opener said. "But I guess it goes both ways, we might know their games a bit better but they might know ours a bit better as well," Wolvaart further added. As things stand, Australia and South Africa are at the top of the table, in a league of their own. Australia however have a much bulkier NRR, but it would look very different if SA are able to make easy work out of them on Tuesday.