• Home
  • Cricket News
  • The Decision Has Broken Our Hearts Pakistanis React To Unilateral Series Cancellation By New Zealand

The decision has broken our hearts: Pakistanis react to unilateral series cancellation by New Zealand

When New Zealand decided to cancel their tour of Pakistan unilateral due to security concerns, 22 Million Pakistanis and a lot more Pakistan cricket supporters around the world felt that they were being betrayed by the Kiwis. 

Some fans and former cricketers went on to call it a step that would take Pakistan back to the dark days when their home team was forced to play their home games in UAE and it was only recently that the Pakistan Super League and the home games of Pakistan National team was being staged at their home turf. 

The fact that New Zealand cancelled the tour even as the Prime Minister of Pakistan and a former cricketer himself, Imran Khan promised full proof security to the team in all circumstances. 

Some people even quoted New Zealand’s Martin Guptill where he had said that the New Zealand team was always companied by armed security forces and he felt very secured playing in Pakistan. Others went on to recount the terror attack that happened in Christchurch, New Zealand and how even after that Pakistan went on to tour New Zealand. 

New Zealand, who were touring Pakistan for the first time in 18 years were supposed to play three ODIs and five T20Is in Rawalpindi and Lahore.

Discover more
Top Stories
news

IPL 2021 | Mumbai Indians' Road to UAE: Defending champions defy recent history of lagging starts

Apart from winning the most number of the Indian Premier League trophy, the Mumba Indians have also been known for being slow starters and peaking at right time. They have been a side who keep their fans on the edge in most seasons before ramping up their level and taking their performances to unmatched levels towards the business end of the tournament. However, they have made a reasonably good start to the 14th edition of the IPL as they have won four of their first seven games of the 14th edition before Covid-19 disrupted the tournament and split it into two halves. Rohit Sharma, who has been at their helm of affairs since 2013 was particularly delighted at his team’s decent start in the first part of the competition held in Chennai and Mumbai. Here, we are tracing the journey of the Mumbai Indians so far in the IPL 2021 and will also look ahead to their prospect in the second half as the tournament goes back to the UAE, where they had ruled the show last year. Another mediocre start As they are privileged with a champion side that takes them to the championship almost every year, the Mumbai Indians has played the first game of the season more often than not in the recent past. In the clash of the titans between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the opening encounter of the IPL earlier this year, Kohli’s men trounced the men in blue to give them a feel of their own medicine. Having asked to bat first, the Mumbai’s opening pair of Rohit and Chris Lynn provided them with a decent start before Suryakumar Yadav joined the Australian to take the attack to the opposition. The duo added 70 runs in a matter of seven overs to put them on track for a big score on the board. However, a power-packed middle comprising of Hardik and Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan and Kieron Pollard stumbled in the latter half of the innings and the Indians squandered their momentum to 159 runs in 20 overs. They handed free wickets to Harshal Pate, who went on to pick his best bowling figure in his IPL career. Showing their bowling prowess, Mumbai did all they could to stop the Royals Challengers from chasing the target but fell short in front of the genius of Ab de Villiers, who smashed them to all parts of the ground in 27-ball 48. Trial by spin, attack by pace Having lost the first game of the season against the loopy and slow bowling of Harshal Patel on a gripping surface at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai the Indian think tank realised the importance of making the powerplay and new ball count. In the next game against the Kolkata Knight Riders, the top order comprising of Quinton de Kock, Rohit and Suryakumar tried to tee off from the word go. However, both de Kock and Rohit failed to go big but Surya kept them going at a rapid rate. The middle-order struggled once again as they slipped from 86/1 in 10.2 overs to 127/7 in 17.3 overs but a proactive 36-ball 56 from Surya propelled them to 152. None of the middle order batsmen could make sizeable contributions to the team’s cause. In reply, Knight Riders opening pair of Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill were on a roll and had reached 72 inside nine overs without being separated. Then, the leg spinner Rahul Chahar spun a web and scalped four big wickets in quick succession to derail the Knight Riders’ chase. His brilliance was concluded with Trent Boult picking up the big wicket of Andre Russell to hit the final nail in their coffin and the Indians registered their first win of the season. The Modus Operandi of the Indians were similar in the next game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad as Rohit won the toss and elected to bat first on a sluggish pitch. This time though, the opening pair was up to the challenge and took them beyond the 50-run mark inside the mandatory powerplay to use the new ball well when it was coming on to the bat. The middle-order too supported but a lot of those contributions came from the sole bat of Kieron Pollard who blasted 22-ball 35 that included three gigantic sixes. Just like the Knight Riders, the Sunrisers were off to a superb start as well before Jonny Bairstow gout out hit wicket and David Warner was run out. The middle-order comprising of Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Virat Singh and Abhishek Sharma was flummoxed by the leg spinner Chahar and blown away by the pace and variations of the Boult-Bumrah partnership. Speed breaker and another comeback After two highly spirited performances and wins over the Knight Riders and the Sunrisers, the Indians stumbled in their next encounter against the Punjab Kings. The Kings won the toss and surprised the Indians by asking them to bat first. They had a plan in mind and restricted the star-studded batting lineup of Mumbai, to a mediocre total of 131 runs from 20 over. None of the batsmen except Rohit managed to score substantially and the men in blue were staring at another defeat as the Kings’ top order comprising KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Chris Gayle chased own the score with embarrassing ease. With two wins and two losses from the first four games, the Mumbai Indians showed their peculiar signs of peaking it just when the heat turns on them. In the next two games against the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings, they were back to be the best they have been known for in the recent past. First, they were challenged by the Royals’ batting lineup comprising of Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson along with young talents in Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube. However, the trio of Bumrah, Chahar and Boult stopped them from taking the game away from Mumbai. Chasing a target of 172 runs, Rohit and de Kock was on the song to put Mumbai on the perfect track before hitting a stutter in the middle. This time though the middle order showed signs of resistance as Pollard and Krunal Pandya stitched a partnership of 63 runs to give them their third win of the season. Mumbai’s next game was against the Chennai Super Kings, a side that have been in the face of their many memorable triumphs and defeats in the recent past. Unlike the last season when they met the Super Kings in the first game of the season which they lost in line with their nature as a team, this time they were a peaking side against a resurgent Super Kings side that were looking to come back after a horrible season last year. Rohit backed his team to chase score on a flat surface at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, but the Super Kings were not there to make their work easier. Ruturaj Gaikwad failed to Boult but the rapid partnership of 108 runs from 61 balls between Moeen Ali and Faf du Plessis put the Super Kings in a commanding position for a late flourish, which came from the bat of Ambati Rayudu. The right-hander was in ruthless touch and he put the bowling attack to the sword on his way to a 27-ball 72 and carried the men in yellow to a mammoth 218 runs. It was such a nightmare for the bowlers that Bumrah had to yield 56 runs from his quota of four overs. There were runs on the board but the pitch was flat for the explosive batting lineup of Mumbai as well. Rohit and de Kock provided another solid start but the men in blue suffered a mini-collapse in the middle order. The lower middle order that had shown the signs of coming to their near best in the previous game against the Royals were back to their best against the Super Kings. Pollard overpowered the blitzkrieg of Rayudu with a 34-ball 87 and led the Mumbai Indians to a famous win in a high-scoring affair. Looking ahead to UAE The Mumbai Indians are positioned fourth on the points table with eight points from seven games and they have to win a minimum of three out of their remaining seven games to seal a place in the final four. Looking at the prowess of their side, and the form of their big players such as Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock, and Jasprit Bumrah in recent months, it should be clear that the Mumbai Indians are on their way to another path towards the championship. However, they are not flawless in the season and they would be hoping to get all components of their team working as a well-oiled unit towards the final round of the tournament. Challenges One of their marquee players, Hardik Pandya has been going through a lean patch and has had a year to forget so far. He could not make substantial contributions in the first part of the tournament and also on the tour of Sri Lanka while playing for India and the team management would back him to regain form and confidence that make them a daunting prospect for the oppositions. Pollard has been on and off with the bat in the last few seasons but his remarkable ability to produce match-winning performances just when the team require it the most has been saving the day for both him and the side. Both Pollard and Pandya form the core of the Mumbai lower order that give the top order the leverage to go for glory shots in every juncture of the game. If they will flounder for long, the men in blue will java a tough time defending their title this time around.

news

IPL 2021 | Chennai Super Kings' Road to UAE: MS Dhoni's men make grand comeback after abysmal 2020

After hitting a stumbling block in the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League last year where they had their worst season, the Chennai Super Kings came back with a bang in the 14th edition earlier his year. They could manage to win only six games out of the 14 they played and a lot of those wins came after they were knocked out of the contention for a spot in the play-off of the tournament. They have already managed to win five games so far this season with half of the games remaining to be played in the UAE. They had won five games out of the seven players in the first part of the IPL 2021 and came back to the top positions in the points table of the league. They will resume their and IPL’s campaign once again in the first game of the second part against the Mumbai Indians. Here, we are going to trace their journey from the first half of the IPL 2021 to the second half to be played in the UAE from September 19. Horrible start The Super Kings started their IPL 2021 campaign on a torrid note as the opening duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw took their bowlers to the cleaners. The bowling attack comprising of Deepak Chahar, Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja and Moeen Ali was tonked to all parts of the ground. Only Dwayne Bravo could stop the juggernaut but the Capitals were bullish enough to chase a stiff target with eight balls to spare. The opening game of the season threatened to bring the same story of the 2020 edition this year as well, but there were some encouraging signs as well. The Super Kings had struggled in all departments of the game but the batting order put on a strong fight against a stronger Capital bowling attack. The return of Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu, who missed a lot of games last season and the entry of Moeen Ali energised the middle order of the Super Kings. They put on a competitive 188 although they fell short at a placid pitch at the Wankhede Stadium. Dream comeback with four big wins The big loss at the hands of the Capitals could not compel MS Dhoni to change his age-old strategy of sticking with players and not bringing a lot of reactionary changes in face of losses. Those moves look stupid and inflexible on the face of it when does not work but more often than not the idea of keeping the core of the team intact has worked well for him and the Super Kings in the IPL. Even in the last season when all were going downhill for them, their two of the best performances came against the Kings XI Punjab and the script remained the same although the latter came out with a different name this time. What went awfully wrong in the opening encounter of the season worked magically well for the Super Kings as Chahar swung Punjab’s top order out of the way even before they could realise it. He picked four big wickets of Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Deepak Hooda and Nicholas Pooran while Ravindra Jadeja ran KL Rahul out to left the Kings on the brink. They could not recover from the early jolt and the Super Kings chased down a middling total of 107 runs comprehensively with another batting contribution from Moeen Ali. After such a huge win over the Kings, the Super Kings were up and running and next in their way were the Rajasthan Royals. Coming into the game, the Royals were in good form with their skipper Sanju Samson leading from the front. However, they could not chase a big target of 189 runs against a highly disciplined and clinical bowling attack of the Super Kings. There were no stand out performances from the Super Kings in the game but there were valuable team performances in each department to give them their second win of the season. If the big-bang performance against the Kings and the Royals were not enough, the Super Kings batsmen were to establish that they are back in the game in the next game against the Kolkata Knight Riders. The Super Kings were getting to big scores on the board but their openers were yet to fire all their cylinders and all those deficiencies were to be eradicated against the Knight Riders. The opening duo of Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad put the Knight Riders bowling attack to the sword and piled on 220 runs with the loss of just three wickets. Faf missed a deserving century but his partnership of 115 runs with Gaikwad and late flourishes from Moeen and Dhoni propelled them to an invincible total. A herculean batting effort was followed by another stern examination of swing bowling as Chahar came back with another four-wicket haul that swept the Knight Riders’ top order. Andre Russell and Pat Cummins launched a late battle and threatened to take the game away from them but Sam Curran held his nerves in the pressure situation to earn the Super Kings their third win of the season. After the bowling spells of Chahar and batting might of Moeen Ali, Faf and Gaikwad helped the Super Kings come back strongly in the IPL, it was then the turn of Ravindra Jadeja to come into the scheme of things. He blasted a 28-ball 62 including a 37-run over of Harshal Patel against the Royal Challengers Bangalore and then followed it up with three big wickets of Washington Sundar, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers to defeat the Royal Challengers Bangalore almost single-handedly. The Super Kings juggernaut was on its way and the Sunrisers Hyderabad could not stop it. Their spinners squeezed the batting pair of David Warner and Manish Pandey and the Sunrisers could manage only 171 runs although they lost only three wickets. The batting order was in superb form leading up to the game and the opportunity of earning two important points was not lost with another opening partnership of more than 100 runs between Faf and Gaikwad making a light work of the chase. With five wins out of the six games in the season, the Super Kings were more than ready to their arch-rivals the Mumbai Indians. The men in blue have been their long-term nemesis and had handed them many humiliating defeats in the past. The in-form batting order did not disappoint once again even against the best bowling attack of the tournament on a flat pitch at Arun Jaitley Stadium. Faf carried on his merry way while Moeen provided a support role to keep the Super Kings in hunt of a big score. Ambati Rayudu, who did not have a significant contribution with the bat up until that point unleashed his swashbuckling display of strokes in an innings of 27-ball 72. The bowling attack bounced back after a big start by the Mumbai Indians but the champion side that they are found a match-winner in Kieron Pollard, who overwhelmed Rayudr’s fiery innings and took the men in blue over the finishing line. Looking ahead in UAE After finishing seventh in the last edition, the Super Kings would be satisfied with the third position on the points table with 10 points in the pockets. They have seven more games to play against all the sides and MS Dhoni would be doing all his best to keep his troops aware of the challenge of getting into a habit of losing like the last year. In general, seven wins secure a place in the play-off of the tournament and the Super Kings would be disappointed if they don’t win two out of their next seven games and miss out on a place in the final four. Challenges The Super Kings are full of players such as MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu, who will be coming off from little to no cricket in recent time and it will ve challenging for them to get into the groove from the word go. They are facing the Mumbai Indians in the resumption game of the tournament and it won’t be an easy proposition for them to stop the men in blue who are full of players coming on the back of strong performances in the recent past.