WI vs SA | 2nd Test | Day 1: Dean Elgar, de Kock resurrect Proteas after early jolts by Windies pacers

PSL 2021: Watch skipper Mohammad Rizwan cheer up Blessing Muzarabani after a rough over

Sometimes on a cricket field and almost always in life, it’s the belief of the leader (captain, guide, mentor) that does wonders for players and individuals. We have seen many leaders who have shown immense faith in their players and made them extraordinary. Be it Sourav Ganguly- Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni-Ravindra Jadeja etc. If that belief is supported with a bit of cheer up when the chips are down, it boosts the confidence of the player instantly. Something of this sort happened in the 28th match of the Pakistan Super League. Multan Sultans skipper Mohammad Rizwan ran from his position as a wicketkeeper to put a hand on the shoulders of one of his bowlers, Zimbabwe’ Blessing Muzarabani when he was hit for three consecutive boundaries which included two sixes from an experienced James Faulkner. Although Rizwan with his height (5’ 11’’) couldn’t reach the shoulders of 6 foot 6-inch tall Muzarabani, so he rather wrapped his hands around the latter’s waist, the moment was funny, but at the same time heart touching as well. Earlier in that very over, the 24-year-old had taken the wicket of Agha Salman to add to his dismissal of Mohammad Hafeez. Sultans won the game defeating Qalandars by a huge margin of 80 runs. While this was Sultan's fourth consecutive win of the season, it was Lahore's fourth consecutive defeat.

PSL 2021 | MS vs LHQ: Dhani dazzles with 4/5 as Qalandars are thrashed to fourth consecutive defeat

Once again Lahore Qalandars boarded the same bus in Abu Dhabi named ‘batting collapse’ as they were all out for 89 one of the lowest totals in the league’s history, trying to chase 170 in a must-win game of the Pakistan Super League 2021. Shahnawaz Dhani was the star of the match with the ball for Multan Sultans, picking four wickets for just five runs. Dhani was helped by some very average batting by the Qalandars which has been continuing since the last four games. With this fourth consecutive defeat, Qalandars ended their 10 match group stage run with five wins and five losses. Just 10 points from 10 games and a run rate that is worst among all the teams in the race for the Playoffs won’t do any good for Lahore as they would now pray for a Quetta Gladiators victory over Karachi Kings on June 19 to help them go through as the fourth-placed team. None of the Lahore batters were up to ask in this game as James Faulkner a bowling all-rounder who batted at number seven was the highest scorer with 22 from 11 balls. The 23-year-old Dhani was adjudged Man of the Match for his brilliant bowling performance. His figures of 4/5 are now the second-best bowling figures of this season and with 18 wickets in just eight innings, he sits at the top of the highest wicket-takers list for this season. Sohail Akhtar, the Qalandars skipper who has failed alongside his team has nothing to say apart from the fact that it’s tough to pinpoint one person or issue when the entire unite fails so miserably. “When our batting flops this horribly it's tough to point fingers at the bowling performance,” he said. Earlier in the evening, it was Sohaib Maqsood and Rilee Rossouw who got Multan Sultans rolling with the bat after both openers in skipper Mohammad Rizwan and last match hero Shan Masood failed. But Qlanadars came back and removed both Rossouw and Maqsood in a short span of time. From 123-3 in the 15th over and eying a total in excess of 180, Sultans suddenly found themselves reeling at 141-8 in the 19th over. Then came the much-needed boost by Sohail Tanvir, who, with his one haded hook, a pull, a straight drive and a Chinese cut, hit two sixes and three fours in the last over of the innings bowled by the quickest man with the ball in hand, Haris Rauf. This totally shifted the momentum back to Sultans which they utilised in their defence of the total. Reacting to the win, Rizwan said, “When the team performs according to the situation your job becomes very easy.” Asked about his plans for the Playoffs, the wicket-keeper batsman diverted the question saying, “You go match by match and ball by ball and not get too ahead of yourself. Just play according to the situation and the rest will take care of itself.” This was Sultans fourth win in a row and with this, they reached 10 points and because of a superior run rate, climbed to the second spot on the points table with a match in hand. Until and unless they lose it by an unimaginably huge margin against Islamabad United in their last league game on Saturday, June 19, Sultans have almost confined their place in the Playoffs.

ENG W vs IND W | One-off Test, Day-3: Shafali Verma leads India’s fightback following-on on a rain-marred day

Rain was in the air all over England on June 18 and County Ground Bristol wasn’t secured from it either. But in the time that play did happen, England Women were mostly on top of it. They rolled India Women over quickly to enforce a follow on. For India, Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma started the proceedings right from their overnight score of 187-5. But on the very first ball of the day, Kaur was removed by Sophie Ecclestone. From there on, it became very difficult to arrest the innings as wicketkeeper batter Tania Bhatia and allrounder Sneh Rana followed suit. Pace bowler Pooja Vastrakar did show some character and some abilities with the bat, stitching together a partnership of 33 runs with Deepti to take India close to avoiding the follow on. However new ball did the trick as experienced campaigners Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole removed Vatsrakar and Jhulan Goswami within successive overs to get India all out for 231, which was 15 behind the 246 that they needed to score to avoid follow on. Forced to follow on, India didn’t have a great start as Smriti Mandhana was removed for eight by Brunt. In a spot of bother, Deepti was promoted to number three. Backing that promotion she stood along with Shafali Verma as she kept scoring at a brisk pace. Verma completed her second fifty in the game and became the only Indian Women player to hit two fifties on her Test debut. The last session of play was not possible as India ended their day at 83-1 with Verma batting at 55 and Deepti at 18.

WTC Final | IND vs NZ: Team India flock to game of darts as rain washed first day's play

After all the build-up to the World Test Championship Final between India and New Zealand in Southampton, England, fans were left disappointed as even toss could not take place due to the rain that poured on incessantly. However, the Indian team was not short of entertainment on an otherwise lull day as the players passed the time playing darts in the dressing room. The Board of Control for Cricket in India put out a video on its official Twitter handle of Ravichandran Ashwin and some of the support staff members and assistant coaches engaging in a game of dart. There is a prediction of rainfall even for the second day of the match, but it would not be as continuous and incessant as today, thereby giving a probability of some game time. A reserve day has already announced by the ICC, so even if after rain washing away the first day, there is still some chance of five days of play in the ultimate Test match that the game has seen in terms of stakes.