Cricket Life

  Cricket Highlights & Scorecard India's chances of making the semi-finals of the 2021 T20 World Cup is in  it's complicated  territory after their comprehensive defeat at the hands of New Zealand on Sunday. Ish Sodhi  and  Mitchell Santner  take responsibility for this stunning  turn  of events - geddit? - their eight overs costing a mere 32 runs while also securing the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. With Pakistan all but assured of one semi-final spot and New Zealand joining Afghanistan for the other one, India's campaign is now at risk of coming to an earlier close than expected. The plan that backfired India used to play T20s like ODIs, focusing on singles and twos and believing that boundaries are just bonuses. A consequence of time spent in the middle. Then they were beaten by a six-happy West Indies in the 2016 World Cup and had to wake up. This format demands an experiment or three. A change or five. So they invested in a dif...

  Cricket Highlights & Scorecard At The Oval, June 18. West Indies won by five wickets. From the moment Clive Lloyd won the toss and, true to his custom in one-day cricket, ordered the opposition to bat, New Zealand found themselves in a tense struggle against a hostile attack that gave nothing away. Julien moved the ball either way and varied his pace and Roberts, Holder and Boyce, with a regular supply of bouncers, commanded stern attention. Glenn Turner with two centuries to his name already in this tournament, never broke free, but his defence was extremely sound and he hooked the short ball in his own competent manner. Geoff Howarth, batting on his own county ground, alone of the New Zealand batsmen showed positive aggression and he played some splendid strokes so that at lunch New Zealand were 92 for one off 29 overs but knowing that they had to push the score faster to set West Indies a reasonable target. As it was, Turner left in the first over after lunch when Kanhai m...

  Cricket Highlights & Scorecard Toss: India. Test debuts: R. K. Chauhan, V. G. Kambli; J. P. Taylor England were beaten in the first Test, physically, mentally, technically and tactically as Azharuddin led his side to victory, only the second in their past 26 Tests. India were in control even before Gooch, who was clearly unwell throughout his 100th Test, lost the toss. The England selectors, deprived of Atherton by illness, added insanity to injury by choosing a four-man pace attack. All the signs, particularly the Indians' choice of three spinners, Kumble, Raju and Chauhan, indicated that long hours of toil lay that way. England's bowling resources comprised Malcolm, Jarvis, Lewis and the debutant from Northamptonshire, Taylor, plus one spinner, Salisbury, who started the tour as a net bowler, and another, Hick, whose first-class haul in 1992 was eight wickets at 51.87 each. In the event Hick's return of five for 28 in the match merely underlined the folly of excludi...

  Cricket Highlights & Scorecard At Kingston, February 26. West Indies won by three wickets, their target having been revised to 238 from 47 overs. Toss: West Indies. Played throughout amid a near-deafening din from a capacity crowd, this was a competitive game in which the weather may have been decisive. A shower, when England were marginally on top, reduced West Indies' target from 96 in 14 overs to 80 in 11. Marshalled by local hero Adams, West Indies won with seven balls in hand, having taken 16 from the 43rd over, bowled by Igglesden, whose previous six overs cost only 13. England's top-order batsmen had done their work well, following up another century opening stand with substantial innings from Smith and Hick. They did not make the most of the last overs, however, and, though Walsh sprained his ankle, West Indies could even get through 11 overs from Simmons and Arthurton without undue punishment. Haynes, back near to his best, set up the run-chase and England's ...

Cricket Highlights & Scorecard Chasing down 191 was never going to be easy for Scotland but no one would have expected them to collapse in the manner they did. Mujeeb Ur Rahman rocked their chase with a three-wicket over, and went on to complete his maiden five-for in T20Is, finishing with figures of 4-0-20-5. The lower order then stood no chance against   Rashid Khan, who picked up 4 for 9 in 2.2 overs as Scotland were bundled out for 60 in 10.2 overs. The margin of victory, 130 runs, was the biggest for Afghanistan in this format. Earlier, after Mohammad Nabi had opted to bat, Hazratullah Zazai and Mohammad Shahzad  provided Afghanistan with a blazing start, with the fifty coming up in just 5.1 overs. Najibullah Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz then added 87 in 8.4 overs for the third wicket to lift the side to a total that proved well out of Scotland's reach. A power-packed powerplay Coming into this match, Shahzad had scored 309 run...

  Cricket Highlights & Scorecard At Lahore, April 5, 6, 7, 8, 2004. Pakistan won by nine wickets. Toss: India. A Test lit up brilliantly by youth on the opening day ran a brisk but predictable course, with Pakistan emerging the deserved winners early on the fourth afternoon. It not only levelled the series, but allowed them to get back at their voluble critics, particularly ex-players; Inzamam-ul-Haq dedicated much of his post-match press conference to making the point. Pakistan made four changes, which worked a charm. The all-rounder Abdul Razzaq (back niggle) was replaced with Asim Kamal, a left-handed batsman who compiled an innings of character. Wicket-keeper Moin Khan (groin injury) was swapped with Kamran Akmal, who claimed six dismissals. Saqlain Mushtaq (who conceded 204 runs and played a daft shot at Multan) made way for the leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, who was effective against the lower order. And Shabbir Ahmed (shin pain) sat out for Umar Gul, whose first-day bowling...

  Cricket Highlights & Scorecard In their 13th attempt in World Cups, Pakistan finally managed to beat India, and did so comfortably on a night when almost everything went to plan for them. With the sensational uprooting of the openers with the new ball,  Shaheen Shah Afridi  was the brightest star of the night, but everyone in the support cast played their role well, including a nerveless chase by the openers  Babar Azam  and  Mohammad Rizwan . The first half of the match was as if Pakistan were playing on the white board.  Afridi, you get me early wickets. Imad Wasim, you bowl cheap powerplay overs against their right-hand top order. Hasan Ali, we need one impactful over in the first 10 from you. Mohammad Hafeez, you can finish Imad's overs if we get left-hand batter Rishabh Pant in. Shadab Khan, you control the middle overs. Haris Rauf, at the end of the innings, pace is pace yaar. And change of pace is change of pace yaar. Afridi announces hims...

  Cricket Highlights & Scorecard There was no thriller in the repeat of the 2016 T20 World Cup final, as West Indies played low-percentage cricket on a difficult pitch to be bowled out for 55, a target England had to work reasonably hard to overhaul, losing four wickets and taking 8.2 overs. Between them, England spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid bowled 6.2 overs for 19 runs and took six wickets. That it wasn't extremely easy for England while chasing will make West Indies question their approach - they lost nine of their 10 wickets looking to hit a four or a six, 59 of the 86 balls they faced were dots, and they made no attempt to rebuild after losing early wickets. On flat pitches, there is nothing wrong with this approach, but will these pitches make West Indies play differently? Whether West Indies aimed too high and fell too short, or they didn't trust themselves to bat at a run a ball for five or six overs without taking risks is something we will get to know if they...

  Cricket Highlights & Scorecard VVS Laxman could do no wrong today. Zimbabwe needed seven runs in four balls when Andy Blignaut hit a ball in the air towards midwicket, and Laxman, running in from deep midwicket, seemed just that shade too far way. But the improbable became possible in the space of a second, and Laxman took a magnificent tumbling catch to take the wicket - decisively, as it turned out for India. Laxman had taken another superb diving catch earlier, to dismiss Travis Friend, and there was also the small matter of the 131 runs he made while batting to rescue India from 4 for 3, and take them to 280 for 7 in their 50 overs. India won by three runs at the end, in a thrilling encounter in which Zimbabwe redeemed themselves for all their failures earlier in the series. For much of the last quarter of the match, though, Zimbabwe seemed the side most likely to win. It hadn't seemed that way at the start of their innings, when they slid to 46 for 3, but Stuart Carlisle...

  Cricket Highlights & Scorecard Sri Lanka kept their cool under the lights to secure a thrilling two-run victory off the last ball of the Twenty20 international at The Rose Bowl, as Dilhara Fernando prevented England's new cap, Tim Bresnan, from becoming an instant hero. With a boundary needed to secure a share of the match, Bresnan could only sky the last ball to fine leg for two. It was the end of an epic day's sport-watching for the Rose Bowl crowd, who had packed the stands two hours ahead of the game to watch England's footballers take on Trinidad & Tobago in the World Cup. The festive spirit was marred after just two overs of the match, when Ed Joyce landed awkwardly while attempting a catch and had to be taken to hospital for X-rays on his damaged ankle, but fortunately he suffered only soft-tissue bruising and a sprain. Sri Lanka won the toss, which was held at half-time of the football, and chose to bat first before the floodlights had had a chance to kick...

Cricket Highlights & Scorecard New Zealand's least-favourite claim to fame is their status as cricket's most reliable semi-finalists. In five of the nine World Cups they have reached that stage of the tournament and gone no further, and that pattern was repeated in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20. Chasing 144 for a place in the final, a late wobble from Pakistan's middle-order wasn't enough to turn the match back in New Zealand's favour. Imran Nazir led the assault with a 41-ball 59, adding 60 in seven overs with Mohammad Hafeez, before the captain, Shoaib Malik, sealed the match with a six with seven balls remaining. New Zealand's participation in this match was unexpected to say the least - South Africa's astonishing capitulation against India at Durban on Thursday gave them a lifeline, and for much of the match it looked like they were still clinging to it. Pakistan's bowling was accurate and committed throughout, with Umar Gul outstanding with 3...