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We Didnt Put Our Foot On The X Pollard Expects His Team To Be Relentless Against Aussies

We didn’t put our foot on the X: Pollard expects his team to be relentless against Aussies

West Indian skipper Kieron Pollard believes that even after the series-levelling win in the second ODI at Kensington Oval in Georgetown, his team really wasn’t where it should have been in terms of having a relentless approach towards the game. The Men in Maroon although went on to win the game by four wickets, but looked a shadow of themselves giving away chances after chances to Australia in the field.

"Australia were [45 for 6] and getting to 190, we didn't put our foot on the X like we should have done and gave them opportunities to come into the game. Then our batters didn't make it easy, it seems like we don't like to do things the easy way. Thought 120 should have been the total,” complained Pollard during the post-match presentation ceremony.

Even after being 45-6 and with all top-order batsmen out, Matthew Wade, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa and Wes Agar scored good enough runs to take Australia through to 187. While they let the last five Australian batters put on 142, the batting from the top order Windies batsmen themselves was disappointing, to say the least. At 72-5, they looked in all sorts of trouble until Nicholas Pooran and Jason Holder put together 92 runs to take their team home and level the series.

"Pleasing to win, obviously, but to say I'm overall pleased with our performance throughout the entire game. We haven't been able to combat it how we want to, but having said that, this time around what was good was the fight. Nicholas Pooran with that half-century and Jason Holder. It was a bit scratchy tonight, but that's what you need in a game like this, someone to scrap, and they both scrapped well for us,” added the 34-year-old skipper.

With a series two win, the two teams will now take on each other in the finale on Monday, July 26.

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Covid-19 forces West Indies to cancel one T20I vs Pakistan

Cricket West Indies has cancelled the first T20I between West Indies and Pakistan on the account of a packed schedule. The rest of the tour goes as planned previously. The first T20I was scheduled to start on July 27, but because of the change in the Australia series due to a covid-19 case among the non-playing member of the West Indies squad, the third ODI between the two teams had to be pushed to July 26 instead of ending on July 25 as planned. "Yes, we have cancelled the first T20I and play the rest of the tour as originally planned. We have to prioritize the ODI Super League and the World Test Championship really," an official of the CWI said. "It was the most logical choice,” he added. The reason for such change was the fear of rubbing off the experience that happened with Australia when the second ODI had to be postponed and only once all the members of both teams tested negative did the second ODI began, which was won by West Indies to level the series. "Following the disruption of the series against Australia, meetings between Cricket West Indies (CWI) and Cricket Australia (CA) on Friday evening, after earlier discussions with the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and the Government of Barbados medical officials, CWI is pleased to announce that the CG Insurance One-Day International (ODI) Series will resume on Saturday and conclude on Monday,” CWI had said in a release ahead of the second ODI on Saturday in Barbados. The Pakistan series which will now begin on July 28 will have only the first T20I at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados. The rest three T20Is will be played at Providence Stadium, Georgetown, Guyana and then the Test series consisting of Two matches will be played at Sabina Park, Kingston in Jamaica.

India make light work of Sri Lanka to begin the T20I series on a winning note

The Indian team did not have to sweat out much as even a modest total of 165 on a huge R Premadasa Stadium’s ground turned out to be more than enough to beat the hosts, Sri Lanka, by 38 runs and register a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendar Chahal turned out to be India’s heroes with the ball as debutant Varun Chakravarthy also had a decent outing in the middle. For the home team, Charith Asalank, making his T20I debut was the only bright spot in batting as others surrendered meekly without even giving a fight. Chasing a total of 165, the Lankans didn’t really have the kind of started that was required to chase down such a total against a good enough Indian bowling attack. After losing Minod Bhanuka at the team score of 23 in the third over, they also their biggest hope Dhananjaya de Silva in the seventh over as he was bamboozled by a beauty of a googly by Chahal which clicked the top of the middle stump. Avishka Fernando followed suit becoming the first of the four scalps of vice-captain Bhuvneshwar. Just as it was thought that India would run away with a win here, Asalanka showed character building a 40 run partnership with Ashen Bandara, who was more of a hurdle than help to Asalanka and the team, as he ate up 19 balls to score just nine runs. Bandara’s miserable stay at the crease was ended by Hardik Pandya. Asalanka then got together with the skipper Dasun Shanaka to add 21 in 15 balls. And just when it seemed like the match was headed for a close finish Asalanka got out trying to hit a slower length ball for a six over the long-leg, instead, he picked out Prithvi Shaw on the boundary lines. The left-handed batter made 44 of 26 at a strike rate of 169.23. However, his wicket spelt the end of the chase as from 11-4 the team was all out for 126, losing its last six wickets for just 15 runs. Bhuvneshwar ended his spell with 4-122 in just 3.3 overs and was adjudged Man of the Match for this effort of his. Earlier in the day, after winning the toss, it was a surprise decision by Sri Lanka to bat first. It was made mainly due to the forecast of rain, as otherwise, a spinning track would always be beneficial for the team with two leggies and an off-spinner to bat first. However, invited to bat, India had the worst possible start losing its debutant Shaw on the very first ball of the match. Post that, corrections were made as skipperShiukgharaDhawan had two fifty runs partnerships, first with Sanju Samson and second with Suryakumar Yadav. While the skipper himself got out for 46, Surya went on to make a half-century, his second in T20I cricket. A quickfire 20 from 14 balls from Ishan Kishan then helped India post 164-5 at the end of 20 overs. Dushamnatha Chameera and Wanindu Hasaranga picked two wickets each for Sri Lanka. The two teams now meet on July 27 at the same venue when India would look to seal the series while Sri Lanka trying to stretch it to the finale.

Saha, Bharat Arun and Easwaran join the Indian squad after mandatory isolation

The Indian bowling coach Baharat Arun, reserve batter Abhimanyu Easwaran and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha joined the Indian Test squad in Durham after finishing their mandatory isolation in London. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) informed this by posting a picture of the trio on its Twitter handle as they were practising with the remaining squad. The trio was forced to undergo mandatory 10-day isolation after they came in contact with training assistant/net bowler Dayanand Garani, who had tested positive for Covid-19 on July 14. It is not yet clear whether Garani joined the squad or not. The talks of sending reinforcements for injured players by the BCCI to England is also in the air as Washington Sundar Avesh Khan and Shubman Guill among the members of the Squad and reserve players have been ruled out. Earlier Rishabh Pant, who had also tested positive for Covid-19 and missed India’s only practice game against Select County XI also joined the Indian squad on July 22. The Indian team plays England in five Tests starting with the first one at Trent Bridge, Nottingham from August 4.

SL vs IND | Prithvi Shaw, Varun Chakravarthy make T20I debuts for India

Prithvi Shaw, who made an impressive debut in the recently concluded ODI series against hosts Sri Lanka was also presented with his T20I cap for the first time. Along with Shaw Kolkata Knight Rider and Tamil Nadu player, Varun Chakravarthy also made his India debut after first being named in the squad way back in October 2020 to tour Australia. While 21-year-old Shaw became the 87th player to represent India in the shortest format, 29-year-old Chakravarthy got the India cap number 88. Chakravarthy, who came into the limelight with a brilliant outing for KKR in the 2020 season of the IPL which was hosted in UAE, has so far played 21 IPL games and picked up 25 wickets in them. Shaw, in his 46 IPL appearances has hit 1134 runs at an average of 24.65 and at a striker rate of more than 146. Shaw didn’t have a great debut though, rather an unforgettable one as he was out the very first ball that he faced in T20I. He edged the first ball of the match by Dushmantha Chameera to wicketkeeper Minod Bhanuka. The first match of the three-match series is taking place at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. For Sri Lanka, two players also made their debut including the all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne and left haded batter Charith Asalanka, both of whom impressed in the ODI series. Identically they too were the 87th and 88th players to represent their country in the shortest international format of the game.