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Williamson set to join New Zealand squad ahead of Test series in England

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson is all set to link up with the Blackcaps squad ahead of the reigning World Test champions' three-match Test series in England next month.


Williamson made his comeback to competitive cricket after a gap of 5-6 months in the recent season of the Indian Premier League, where he led the Sunrisers Hyderabad.


Williamson recently left the Sunrisers bubble and missed the last game of the season for the former champions to attend the birth of his second child with his wife, Sarah Kareem.


The 31-year-old revealed the birth of his second child via an Instagram post.


Williamson endured a forgettable season with the bat as he could only manage 236 runs in 13 innings at an average of 19.64 and a strike rate of 93.51 with the help of just 1 50+ score.


The New Zealand skipper will be making his comeback to the Test team after missing the entire home summer due to a tennis elbow injury.


He missed the second Test during the tour of India back in December before pulling out of the home assignments against Bangladesh and South Africa.


His addition will give the New Zealand side a huge sense of relief, considering their recent struggles with the bat.


The Kiwis failed to win a single series during the home summer as Bangladesh and South Africa found a way to draw the two-match rubbers, exposing the fragility of their batting unit in the absence of recently retired Ross Taylor and Williamson.


The upcoming Test series will be a great opportunity for Williamson to claim back-to-back series wins in the UK.


Last summer, under the leadership of opener Tom Latham, the tourists beat the Joe Root-led unit 1-0 in a two-match rubber.


The tourists recently locked horns with Sussex in a warm-up game, which ended in a draw. They will play the second warm-up fixture against a County Select XI before the Test series gets underway at Lord's from June 02.


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#OTD in 2015 | Mumbai Indians won their second Indian Premier League title

On this day, Mumbai Indians (MI) won their second Indian Premier League (IPL) title by securing victory by 41 runs against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2015 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Mumbai had two wins out of three encounters ahead of the meeting, including the win in Qualifier 1. CSK won the toss and opted to field first and Faf du Plessis effected a brilliant diving run-out to dismiss Parthiv Patel for a duck. However, this wicket brought together MI's top run-scorers, Lendl Simmons and skipper Rohit Sharma. Rohit started to attack every CSK bowler with his drives and pull shots, and Simmons hit two sixes and four off Ravindra Jadeja's over to take the score to 63 in the powerplay. The duo were terrific to secure at least one boundary each over, and the 'Hitman' continued his love affair with Eden Gardens. After reaching 50 off 25 balls with a stylish shot at the point region, the MI captain was caught at the long-on in an attempt to hit a maximum, with Dwayne Bravo being intelligent with his slower ball. However, Simmons (68) holed out to Dhoni off Dwayne Smith's delivery in the next over. After that, it was a perfect flourish from Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard, hitting a quick 36 each, and the six in the final over from Harbhajan Singh helped the team post 202 on the board. CSK lost Michael Hussey (4) in the fifth over and was stuttering at 22/1 by the fifth over. Then, it was a flurry of delightful shots by Smith to accelerate the team's run-rate, getting support from Suresh Raina at the other end. After hammering Hardik Pandya in the 11th over of the game, Smith was adjudged LBW, with Harbhajan providing the breakthrough in the following over. With over 100 runs needed in the last eight overs, it was too much for the middle-order as Raina was also stumped off Harbhajan. The likes of Dhoni and DJ Bravo could not do much as CSK managed to score only 161 and lost by 41 runs. Sharma was named 'Player of the Match' and secured the second title for MI under his leadership.