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Zimbabwe's Mary-Anne Musonda creates history, becomes first African woman to hit century on ODI debut

Zimbabwe Women’s captain Mary-Anne Musonda has registered her name in the history books of cricket by becoming the first African woman to hit an ODI century on debut. She also became only the sixth woman ever and second in the 21st century to hit a century on debut. 

Musonda remained unbeaten on 103 in what was also a great chase by the Zimbabwe Women in their first-ever official ODI. Apart from Musonda, two English Women in Derryth Thomas and Enid Bakewell  (1973), two Indian Women in Reshma Gandhi and Mithali Raj (1999) and Australian Nicole Bolton (2014) have achieved the feat of scoring a century on their debut. 

Musonda is now also in the elite list of women who scored their maiden ODI century in their debut match, which was also the debut match of their team. Derryth Thomas and Enid Bakewell are the other two to have achieved this feat. 

Zimbabwe, which became the 18th team in women’s cricket history to be awarded official ODI status in April 2021, are playing their maiden ODI series against a touring Ireland Women’s team, who have been an ODI member since 2021 and have played 149 matches till now. 

In the very first match, played at the iconic Harare Sports Club in Harare, the Zimbabwe women decided to field first after winning the toss and after having restricted Ireland Women to only 172-4 in the first forty overs, lost the plot a bit in the last 10 overs of the first innings and let the Irish women score 81 runs in the last 10 overs to get to 253-8. 

Chasing that total, Zimbabwe weren’t really off to a great start and lost two wickets for 25 runs only. But it was only after this that the 30-year-old skipper came to the crease and took matters into her own hands. She built partnerships continuously and remained unbeaten till the end to see her team through with a four-wicket win. 

The two teams will clash against each other in three more games in this series, which is also working as a preparatory tournament for the ICC 2022 Women’s ODI World Cup Qualifiers, which would be played in November in Zimbabwe. 

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IPL 2021 | RCB vs SRH: With new & reliable assets in the ranks, Bangalore look to stretch dominance

The 2016 IPL finalists, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad will be up against each other in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. The two sides have had a contrasting tournament. The Virat Kohli-led RCB have been in some brilliant touch and have played the tournament with a lo of confidence, SRH on the other side was all over the place. From changing captain to tweaking the playing XI combination, the Sunrisers tried it all but failed miserably in this edition. They are not just bottom-placed in the points table but have just won a couple of matches in the 12 fixtures that they have featured so far. On the other side, RCB also made some changes in their line up. They in fact included a T20 maestro in the squad when the team roped in Glenn Maxwell during the auctions earlier this year. The right-hander has been a great pick for the Bangalore-based franchise in the season so far. He has provided the resistance in the middle-order that RCB had been striving for a very long time. Bangalore are coming into this game with some momentum after they defeated Punjab Kings in the last encounter in Sharjah. While Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal provided them with a steady start, Maxwell struck another fifty during the course to help his side put 164/7 in 20 overs on the board. Later, Punjab too started off in a brilliant manner as KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal put 91 runs on the board for first wicket but the RCB bowlers pulled things back in their favour and eventually won the match. Sunrisers on the other hand, suffered a defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders in Dubai. The Hyderabad side witnessed another batting failure and were restricted to 115/8 in 20 overs. The bowlers did manage to pick a couple of early wickets but weren’t able to capitalise on that lost the match. KKR chased down the target by 6 wickets in the final over. Talking about the last clash between the two teams, RCB rode on Maxwell’s fifty and managed to score 149/8 in 20 overs in Chennai. Despite restricting the opposition for a lesser total, SRH witnessed a middle-order collapse during the course and lost the match by 6 runs. Shahbaz Ahmed took perfect advantage of the conditions and returned with figures of 3/7 in two overs. While RCB will look to continue momentum, SRH have the opportunity to test the bench strength just like they did in the previous game after handing the maiden cap to Umran Malik who made headlines for generating express pace while bowling. Match Details Match: RCB vs SRH, 52nd Match, Indian Premier League 2021 Date: Wednesday, October 06, 2021 Time: 7:30 PM Venue: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi Telecast: Star Sports Network, Disney Hotstar Pitch Report The encounter between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings saw heaps of runs being scored from both the sides. The track is likely to be similar when RCB and SRH take the centre stage on Wednesday. Moreover, with the kind of batting fire power that both the teams have, a high-voltage drama can be expected. So, if you win the toss, elect to field first. RCB’s new asset The Royal Challengers Bangalore have always known to be a side with some aggressive batsmen in their ranks but one major change or probably the important addition that the franchise has made is strengthening the bowling. Harshal Patel is in some fine form and is the highest wicket-taker for the side at present while Mohammed Siraj is also chipping in with some decent performances. Apart from the two pacers, spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has put the question mark on the Indian selectors after his omission from the World T20 squad. He ha snot just been among wickets especially in the second leg of the IPL but has also been economical. Team News RCB: The Royal Challengers Bangalore have already qualified for the playoffs and have a chance to make a couple of changes in the XI to test the bench strength. SRH: The Sunrisers Hyderabad have been knocked out of the tournament but they can take up the opportunity to test the young talent keeping the big auction coming up in a few months. Probable XI RCB: Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Kona Srikar Bharat (wk), Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Dan Christian, Shahbaz Ahmed, George Garton, Harshal Patel, Mohammad Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal SRH: Jason Roy, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Kane Williamson (c), Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Umran Malik Fantasy XI Kona Srikar Bharat, Kane Williamson (vc), Jason Roy, Devdutt Padikkal (c), Glenn Maxwell, Jason Holder, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Siddarth Kaul, Rashid Khad

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Pakistan T20 World Cup squad to travel with families, leave Lahore on October 15

The Pakistan Senior Men’s team would be leaving Lahore on October 15th to travel to the United Arab Emirates for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021. The entire squad has been allowed to take their families alongside them on the chartered flight. The newly appointed Pakistan coaches, Vernon Philander and Matthew Hayden would be joining the side on October 7th and 16th respectively. They took the place of bowling coach Waqar Younis and head coach Misbah-ul-Haq respectively. Senior cricket journalist from Pakistan, Saj Sadiq informed about the latest developments on his official Twitter handle. Earlier on October 5th, Imad Wasim and Shaheen Afridi were allowed to leave the bio-bubble made for National T20 2021 to spend some time with tier loved ones in Lahore as the tournament has moved to Lahore from Rawalpindi for its second leg. The Pakistan team were robbed of an ideal preparation ahead of the all-important tournament as New Zealand abandoned its tour just hours ahead of the start of the first ODI between the two teams. The effect that abandonment citing security reasons rubbed on to England Men’s and Women’s teams who were scheduled to tour Pakistan in mid-October and that tour was also postponed. Thus to prepare the squad, the National T20 Cup, which is a domestic T20 tournament, different from Pakistan Super League, was staged at a huge level in Rawalpindi and Lahore. The National T20 final will be played on October 13th.

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Covid-19 lockdown causes greater problems for Australian cricketers ahead of Ashes 2021-22

With lockdown norms not easing up in the states of Queensland, South Australi and Tasmania for visitors from New South Wales and Victoria states, players from these two states, who are hopeful of making it to the Australian Ashes squad, but aren’t part of the Aussie T20 World Cup squad are worried about reaching Brisbane for the first Ashes Test. Talking about such problems, Cricket NSW head of the male team, Michael Klinger said, "I suppose the next challenge for us is getting someone like Nathan up into Queensland where the first Test is going to be.” "We'll obviously work with Cricket Australia on that to find out how we're going to do that to make sure he's up there by late November, early December, whenever the guys come back from the World Cup as well,” Klinger added, saying that the problem is mainly due to the 14-day quarantine (if it is not exempted) and how to plan the quarantine to coincide with the rest of the Australian team members who would be returning from the T20 World Cup. "I suppose the biggest challenge with the guys coming back from the World Cup is we just don't know what date that will be because we just don't know if they're going to make the semi-final or the final, so we'll just have to be quite flexible with that situation and make sure we get Nath back to marry up with that. And potentially, we're hopeful guys like Moises Henriques and Sean Abbott might be in contention for selection as well,” said the former Australia player, who represented the national team in three T20Is. The lockdown issue has forced Cricket Australia to allow the NSW and Victorian teams to play each other in the Sheffield Sheild and Marsh Cup games as the other three states have closed their borders to them. Even after this Klinger is hopeful of getting an exemption from 14-day quarantine or individual players which might be easier, compared to getting it for teams. "I don't think it will be an issue for someone like Nathan. When Cricket Victoria and Cricket NSW are trying to get exemptions to get into other states when you're talking about players and staff, you're talking up to 40 to 50 people, and umpires included in that as well. I think it's a different story when you're trying to get exemptions for one, two, or three people than 40 or 50,” he said. "We certainly don't feel as though that will be an issue getting Nathan there or whoever else is needed. Similar situation with the Victorian guys as well with James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, maybe Marcus Harris, these sort of guys will be in the same boat,” added Klinger. The lockdown ash not only affected the Ashes aspiring players but has also been troublesome for Aussie T20 squad members such as Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Adam Zampa. While Zampa has been stuck in Byron Bay and is practising alone due to lockdown norms both in Sydney and Brisbane, where he was planning to go, Cummins and Daniel Sams have been able to practice together, but haven’t got even a single centre wicket practice game under their belt. Starc, on the other hand, has been travelling with the Australian women’s team to be with his wife Alyssa Healy and has been practising using their facilities.

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BCCI to earn around $12 million profit from T20 World Cup

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to earn USD 12 million profit from the upcoming World T20. The BCCI which is the designated host of the tournament had informed its Apex Council members about the estimate recently. Apart from this, the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) will receive USD 7 million as it will host a total of 39 matches while Oman Cricket (OC) will get USD 400,000 for holding six fixtures of the first round of the competition. The BCCI also informed its Apex Council members in a detailed email that out of the USD 7 million that would be given to ECB, USD 1.5 million is for hosting, USD 5.5 million is the cost for operation. The USD 400,000 will be the operational cost for the matches that would be held in Muscat. The ticketing rights of the tournament in UAE and Oman has been given away by the board to ECB and OC. According to Cricbuzz, “The BCCI is hosting a major part of this event in UAE, i.e in Dubai, Abu Dhabi & Sharjah. The BCCI is working with the ECB on similar lines. Some of the key pointer's w.r.t BCCI's arrangement with ECB is as follows: 1. BCCI is paying ECB a fixed fee of USD 1.5 million (from our host fee of USD 13.5 Million) and operational costs of USD 5.5 million which will be covered by ICC. Total fee payable is USD 7 millon. 2. All operational deliverables w.r.t ICC's requirements will be provided by the ECB 3. BCCI has transferred its ticketing rights to the ECB and all revenues generated out of sale of match tickets will be retained by the ECB 4. A Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for delivery of this event has been constituted which mainly include staff from BCCI and a few staff from ECB." The email further notes: "The BCCI is hosting 6 matches in Muscat. Some of the key pointer's w.r.t BCCI's arrangement with ECB is as follows: 1. BCCI is paying OC a fixed fee of USD 400,000. 2. All operational deliverables w.r.t ICC's requirements will be provided by the OC 3. BCCI has transferred its ticketing rights to the OC and all revenues generated out of sale of match tickets will be retained by the OC. 4. The BCCI has deployed a team from its LOC in Muscat to oversee the preparation for the event." The BCCI secretary Jay Shah in an email wrote that the BCCI had talks with the ICC regarding the shift of venues and it was decided that the safety of players and other stakeholders is important. "The BCCI discussed the hosting issues with the ICC and had several rounds of deliberations internally. After much thought, it was decided that the safety of players and other stakeholders is of paramount importance and keeping that in mind, it was best to shift the event to the United Arab Emirates and Oman," Shah wrote.