Sports
Arshdeep, Rajapaksa lead Punjab Kings to victory in rain-hit game
For most of the contest, Kolkata Knight Riders were behind the run of play against Punjab Kings.Chasing 192, they were 80 for 5, with victory looking like a bleak possibility. That’s when Andre Russell and Venkatesh Iyer stitched together a partnership that appeared to take them ahead in the match for the first time. Russell’s six and four off Sam Curran brought the equation down to 62 needed from 32 with the balance of power shifting. It also brought Knight Riders closer to the DLS target with rain hovering around Mohali.
But Russell fell next ball to Curran. Venkatesh perished in the next over. And the DLS ballooned beyond reach. Despite Shardul Thakur and Sunil Narine scoring 15 off five balls between them, Kings held on to stay ahead, and when rain finally stopped play, the DLS table showed the hosts were seven ahead, just enough to pocket two points in their season opener.
Knight Riders were behind the DLS target because of their loss of wickets up top. Arshdeep Singh was the wrecker-in-chief with the new ball, helping reduce Knight Riders to 29 for 3. He also dismissed Venkatesh later to finish with 3 for 19 in three overs.
Kings were excellent with the bat as well, especially Bhanuka Rajapaksa who made a 32-ball 50. His knock lifted Kings to 100 for 1 in ten overs, but they failed to get a boost at the death, finishing only on 191 for 5. At the time, it looked like a score that was just about par on a batting-friendly surface. In the end, it was enough.
Impact Player’s impact
Rajapaksa was replaced by Rishi Dhawan, the bowling allrounder, for the second innings but the Sri Lankan had done the damage by then. He picked up from where opener Prabhsimran Singh left off in the afternoon. Rajapaksa was especially brutal against spin. He used his feet to attack both pacers and spinners, and overshadowed his captain Shikhar Dhawan who struggled to find much strike.
When Rajapaksa was out in the 11th over, he held up his end of the bargain for the Kings to post a big total. His replacement, Rishi, conceded 15 in the only over he bowled.
For Knight Riders, it was Varun Chakravarthy who was swapped out after the first innings. Varun bowled smartly to finish with 1 for 26 in four overs, but it was a given that Venkatesh or N Jagadeesan would replace him. When the Knight Riders were 17 for 2 in two overs, they opted for Venkatesh. He made 34 in 28 balls.
Inexperienced Knight Riders crumble
Knight Riders’ batting always gave the impression that they would either impress magnificently or crash and burn. More so with their regular captain Shreyas Iyer also missing. They went with one of their most inexperienced top-six units, and both Mandeep Singh and Anukul Roy struggled against Arshdeep’s accurate short-pitch bowling that was aimed at their necks.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz sparkled with three fours and a six to race to 22 off 16, but when he fell as the third wicket, the rest of the chase was an uphill battle. Nitish Rana made 24 in 17 and Rinku Singh was out cheaply too, leaving old hands Venkatesh and Russell to do the repair job.Eventually, it was Curran who brought the breakthrough with a short ball that had Russell pulling to midwicket. Narine and Shardul gave Knight Riders a brief glimmer of hope, but that was about it.
A solid Punjab Kings performance
Kings were inserted in at the toss, and Prabhsimran’s 12-ball 23 was the perfect start for them. Even though Shikhar was starved for strike, it didn’t impact Kings’ scoring rate because of Rajapaksa’s assault, especially on Narine. In all, Rajapaksa muscled five fours and two sixes to reach his half-century in 30 balls.
After his dismissal, Jitesh Sharma took over, smacking 21 in 11. Even when Varun bowled Shikhar for 40 to make it 143 for 3 in 14.3 overs, Kings aimed for 200-plus. But a couple of quiet overs from Varun restricted their progress. Raza, Curran and Shahrukh Khan put together small cameos to score 53 in 37 balls between them at the death, and even if that left Kings a little disappointed, Arshdeep’s new-ball spell in the second innings ensured their victory. (cricinfo)
Scores:
Punjab Kings 191 for 5 wkts in 20 Overs (Bhanuka Rajapaksa 50, Shikhar Dhawan 40; Tim Southee 2/54)
Kolkata Knight Riders
146 for 7 wkts in 16 Overs (Venkatesh Iyer 34, Andre Russell 35; Arshdeep Singh 3/19)
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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