Month: August 2020

England vs Pakistan First Test Day 2 Match Report-2020

Shan Masood’s brilliant century, followed by some top class Pakistan bowling left England reeling and put the tourist in a commanding position at the end of Day 2 of the opening test at Manchester on Thursday. Continue reading “England vs Pakistan First Test Day 2 Match Report-2020”

Resilient Masood, Brilliant Babar & Buttler’s error and more-Talking points from England vs Pakistan Day 1 Manchester

Shan Masood (46)* along with Babar Azam (69)* led Pakistan to a solid position at 139/2 at the end of Day 1, when bad light forced an early close at Old Trafford.

Here are our talking points from Day 1.

Resilient Shan Masood

England is generally regarded as one of the toughest places for an opening batsman. Masood became the first overseas opener in nearly four years to face more than 100 balls in the first innings of a test in the country. He was an able foil to Babar Azam, and their partnership helped Pakistan recover from the early loses of the two Ali’s- Abid & Azhar.

Buttler’s errors behind the stumps

Masood was dogged but also had a little bit of help from Jos Butler who gave him a couple of reprieves. One was a drop catch behind the wicket and the other was a missed stumping of the bowling off Dom Bess. Many have been clamouring for the inclusion of Ben Foakes into the starting line up but Buttler’s ex factor with the bat appears him to be keeping him in the side.

Pakistan choose to bat first

Unlike the West Indies who opted to field after winning the toss in the previous series, Pakistan opted to take first guard here. Its perhaps too early to predict whether the decision will prove right or wrong, but the visitors will be fairly happy with the state of affairs at the end of Day 1.

Brilliant Babar

Much of the talk about the Pakistan batting in the lead up to the series has resolved around one individual- Babar Azam, and he did not disappoint, with a dazzling array of strokes for a well compiled half century. Babar is one of those aesthetically pleasing batsman and Pakistan would be hoping that he can kick on tomorrow.

Pakistan after the end of Day 1- 139/2

Shan Masood (46)*, Babar Azam (69)*

List of Squads for IPL 2020

The thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League has been finally confirmed, and it will be played from September 19 to November 10 in UAE.

The tournament which was supposed to take in March, got indefinitely postponed due to Covid 19. With the ICC T-20 World Cup getting postponed, BCCI got the required window to host IPL 2020.

The matches will be played at Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah respectively. The afternoon game will commence at 330 pm IST, while the evening once will start at 730 pm.

Here are the complete squads for IPL 2020:

Mumbai Indians

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Quinton de Kock, Sherfane Rutherford, Suryakumar Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Chris Lynn, Saurabh Tiwary, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell McClenaghan, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Mohsin Khan, Fabian Allen, Prince Balwant Rai Singh, Digvijay Deshmukh, Hardik Pandya, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ishan Kishan & Aditya Tare.

Chennai Super KingsRoyal Challengers Bangalore

Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Gurkeerat Mann, Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa (as replacement of Kane Richardson), Dale Steyn, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Chris Morris, Pavan Deshpande, Parthiv Patel, Joshua Philippe & Shahbaz Ahamad

Sunrisers Hyderabad

David Warner(C), Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Billy Stanlake, T Natarajan, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jason Holder, Fabian Allen, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sanjay Yadav, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Bavanaka Sandeep & Basil Thampi.

Australian all rounder Mitchell Marsh has been ruled out of the remainder of the IPL with an ankle injury he suffered against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening fixture. West Indies captain Jason Holder has been named as replacement.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Tim Seifert , Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Siddhesh Lad, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Varun Chakravarti, Tom Banton, Rahul Tripathi, Chris Green, Nikhil Naik, Pravin Tambe, M Siddharth

Kolkata Knight Riders have roped in USA fast bowler Ali Khan as replacement for Harry Gurney, thereby becoming the first American to play in the Indian Premier League.

Kings XI Punjab

KL Rahul (C), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Sheldon Cottrell, Ishan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Arshdeep Singh, Hardus Viljoen, M Ashwin, J Suchith, Harpreet Brar, Darshan Nalkande, Glenn Maxwell, James Neesham, Chris Jordan, Krishnappa Gowtham, Deepak Hooda, Tajinder Singh Dhillon, Nicholas Pooran & Prabhsimran Singh

Delhi Capitals

Shreyas Iyer (c) Ajinkya Rahane, Pravin Dubey, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Keemo Paul, Prithvi Shaw, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rishabh Pant, Sandeep Lamichhane, Shikhar Dhawan, Alex Carey, Lalit Yadav, Daniel Sams, Marcus Stoinis, Mohit Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer & Tushar Deshpande

Rajasthan Royals

David Miller, Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, Robin Uthappa, Shashank Singh, Steven Smith, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ben Stokes, Mahipal Lomror, Shreyas Gopal, Tom Curran, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Akash Singh, Andrew Tye, Aniruddha Joshi, Ankit Rajpoot, Jaydev Unadkat, Jofra Archer, Kartik Tyagi, Mayank Markande, Oshane Thomas, Rahul Tewatia & Varun Aaron