WBBL 2021 | Kim Garth’s three wickets, three maidens highlight Melbourne Stars win, Mandhana fails again

T20 World Cup | Windies will continue being aggressive with better shot selection against South Africa

West Indies coach Phil Simmons blamed the shot selection of his batters for being bundled out for a meagre 55, the third-lowest T20 World Cup total ever and lowest ever for the team from the Caribbean. The aggressive approach adopted by the team was according to the style of play and the coach wasn’t worried about that. He would rather have the team playing aggressively, but with better shot selection. Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Simmons said, "Well, the style in which we play our cricket has always been in the style in which we play our cricket. But we also got to assess the situation at the time and play according to the situation. We will continue to be in our aggressive state, but our shot-selection and assessment of the situation must be a lot better." "For me, Saturday was just about bad shot selection. The bowling wasn't, as we would say, extraordinary. All the guys have played against these guys [England] before, so I just put it down to bad shot selection. We need to improve that tenfold by the time we get to Tuesday,” the coach added. The biggest threat that the West Indies team would have to face in their next game against South Africa would of playing chinaman spinner Tabriaz Shamsi, who also troubled a lot of West Indian batters in Proteas’ tour of the Caribbean in June this year. Simmons was aware of the threat and said that the team is working on it and better results are expected in the next game. 'Yeah, we've been looking back at that [T20I series in the West Indies] and seeing how in the games so far here [in the UAE] how people have played and won but also about how batsmen are going to find a way to score off him and without him being much of a threat,” said the 58-year-old. After losing a close low scoring encounter in Abu Dhabi, the Temba Bavuma led said have moved to Dubai where Windies were drubbed by England.

Terming Pakistan favourites for T20 World Cup, Williamson hopeful of game to be played in good spirit

When Pakistan beat India for the first time in World Cup history on Sunday night, their entire nation was thrilled. Their next target, which they have been claiming ever since the tour was abandoned midway by the New Zealand team in September, are the Kiwis in this T20 World Cup 2021. Now they finally face Blacckacaps in the encounter on Tuesday evening in Sharjah. On New Zealand and their skipper Kane Williamson’s mind there is no such thing as Pakistan seeking revenge for something. He is hopeful that the game will be played in the right spirit. "There are a lot of good relations within the two teams. Over the years they've played a lot against each other, and a number of players have played with each other, as well. I am sure the game will be played in the right spirit," said Willaimson in the pre-match press conference. "I suppose the focus now is here at the T20 World Cup, and no doubt after the performance last night, Pakistan have some momentum and are feeling pretty good about their cricket," the Kiwi captain added. New Zealand, who lost both their World Cup warm-up games coming into the Super 12 would be under immense pressure in the spinning conditions of Sharjah where in the last game Afghan spinners bundled out Scotland for only 60 runs. The 31-year-old Kiwi skipper agreed to the pressure saying that Pakistan are favourites to win the World Cup, especially after their last game and given their experience of playing in UAE over the years. "It was a fantastic performance. I think Pakistan have come to the T20 World Cup full of confidence, having played in these conditions more than most. They certainly put on a show last night and showed why they're one of the favourites in the competition,” he said.

Valuation of IPL franchises through the years

It was a fascinating day for Indian cricket after two more teams were added to the Indian Premier League and the 2022 edition will now have ten sides battling it out for the trophy. The two teams are based out of Lucknow and Ahmedabad respectively. While Sanjeev Goenka owned RPSG Group got the rights of the Lucknow team for a sum of Rs 7,090 crores, the bid for the Ahmedabad franchise was made by CVC Capitals Partners for Rs 5,625 crores. The valuation of the IPL teams have not been at these skyrocketing figures since the inception. Here we now take a look at the teams and the cost (USD) that they went for in the first auction. Most teams were sold for the 2008 edition around the price of 100 crore rupees. The now four-time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings went for Rs 91 million while Delhi Capitals, Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab went for 107 million, 84 million and 76 million rupees respectively. The Kolkata Knight Riders which had a huge hype in that period owing to the ownership of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, went for 75 million rupees. Mumbai Indians, hailing from the business capital of India attracted the highest bid of 124 million rupees. The Royal Challengers Bangalore went for 111 million in that auction. IPL had one more round of tender in the last decade and the now-defunct Pune Warriors India went for a huge sum of 301 million. That showed the rise of the stature of the Indian Premier League in the business market and despite the match-fixing allegations, IPL did not fizzle out. If the Pune bid was any indication, this 2021 auction was always going to attract big money from business houses and the BCCI did expect a combined business of Rs 7000 crores from this round. However, they outdid themselves and received a total bid of over Rs 12000 crores a day after India lost to Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. The bid for the Ahmedabad franchise went to 692 million while the Lucknow team went for 932 million. What will be the impact on the value of other franchises? The higher amount of the new franchises means that there will be rise in the stocks for the older franchises as well. If the owners consider selling the franchise, they might attract much more money than they bought the franchise for. For instance, in 2018, Jindal South West (JSW) bought the 50% ownership of Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils) from GMR group. At that time the valuation of the franchise was somewhere around Rs 1100 crore and JSW made the payment of half of that amount. With 10 teams announced, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) later announced that the 2022 edition will be a 74-match affair where the teams will play seven away and seven home matches during the course.

T20 World Cup | AFG vs SCO: GAME! SET! MATCH! Afghanistan destroy Scotland in all departments

Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi had said that a win in the match against Scotland will bring smiles on the faces of the fans back home. Well, Nabi’s men and especially Mujeeb ur Rahman and Rashid Khan did what the doctor ordered and ripped through the Scotland batting unit in Sharjah on Monday. Chasing 191 in 20 overs, Scotland could only manage to score 60 runs in 10.2 overs with Mujeeb picking up a fifer while Rashid returning with a four-wicket haul during the course to win the match by 130 runs. Scotland started off the proceedings in a decent manner as openers George Munsey and captain Kyle Coetzer stitched a stand of 28 runs for the first wicket before the latter was cleaned up by Mujeeb which certainly broke the shackles and Scotland were soon reduced to 28/3 at the end of the fourth over. The misery continued for Coetzer’s side as they lost a couple of more wickets in the power play overs with Munsey being sent back in the hut by Mujeeb for 25 off 18, a knock that included a couple of maximums and as many fours. The wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals and Scotland were left tottering at 53/8 to eventually get bowled out. Mujeeb’s five-for came at the cost of just 20 runs in 4 overs while Rashid returned with figures of 4/9 in 2.2 overs. Earlier, in the day, Hazratullah Zazai and Mohammad Shahzad gave Afghanistan a brisk start as the two batters put 54 for the first wicket in less than 6 overs. While Shahzad departed for a 15-ball22, Zazai continued with his onslaught and struck 44 off 30 including three sixes and three fours. Afghanistan were 82/2 in the 10th over when Gurbaz was joined by Najibullah and what unleashed next was a nightmare for the Scotland bowling unit. The two batsmen put on a partnership of 87 runs for the third wicket. Gurbaz fell short of a half-century by just four runs while Najibullah went on to score 59 in 34 deliveries. Captain Nabi also chipped in with a quick-fire 11* off 4 to help the side post 190/4 in 20 overs. Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi acknowledged the importance of winning in the start of the tournament and also hailed the openers for their knock. The right-hander further lavished praise on the spin department and the way they fared. “It's important to win at the start of the tournament. Both the openers started well, we finished the powerplay on a good note. The running between the wickets was good and Najib played well to help as post that total,” he said in the post-match presentation. “We have some good spinners in the form of Rashid and Mujeeb, they played everywhere in the world. We have a very good team combination,” he added. Scotland will now play Namibia on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi while Afghanistan will be up against Pakistan in Dubai on Friday.