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Kohli misses first ODI against England with injury

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India batter suffered a knee injury on the eve of the match

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-2025Virat Kohli has been ruled out of the first ODI against England in Nagpur due to a knee injury he suffered on the eve of the game. He was replaced in India’s XI by Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was making his ODI debut along with bowling-allrounder Harshit Rana.India captain Rohit Sharma said at the toss that Kohli had injured his right knee on Wednesday night.Jaiswal was slotted to open with Rohit on the BCCI’s team sheet with vice-captain Shubman Gill, who would have opened if Kohli was fit, listed at No. 4, though it remains to be seen if that order remains. India lost the toss and were bowling first in Nagpur.The three matches against England are India’s last ODIs before the Champions Trophy begins on February 19. They haven’t played ODI cricket since August last year, when they lost a three-match bilateral series 2-0 in Sri Lanka, with one match tied.Kohli’s form has been under scrutiny in recent months, and after a poor tour of Australia where all of his dismissals were edges to the wicketkeeper or slip cordon, he spent a week working with former India and RCB batting coach Sanjay Bangar. He then played one Ranji Trophy match for Delhi – his first appearance in the competition since 2012 – where he was bowled for 6 against Railways.ODI cricket, however, is Kohli’s strongest format, and he is 94 runs away from becoming only the third batter to reach 14,000 runs in the format. Only Sachin Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara have got there before, but Kohli is certain to become the fastest to the milestone.

Moeen: 'If we're going out, we're going out with a bang'

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England vice-captain says the team has been “overthinking” during this World Cup, instead of playing the “entertaining” brand of cricket they’re known for

Matt Roller25-Oct-20231:40

What’s gone wrong for England?

England have lost their spark and sense of enjoyment at the World Cup, and would rather go out of the tournament “with a bang” than with a whimper. That is the view of their vice-captain, Moeen Ali, who looks set to make his second appearance of the tournament against Sri Lanka in Bangalore on Thursday.Moeen played in England’s nine-wicket defeat to New Zealand in Ahmedabad on the opening night of the tournament but has not featured since. Being dropped has given him perspective on where his team-mates have fallen short, particularly in defeats to Afghanistan and South Africa which mean they probably need to win all five of their remaining group games in order to reach the semi-finals.”Our intent hasn’t been there,” Moeen said. “When you see it from the outside, it’s just like that spark is missing; that thing is missing where they’re enjoying taking bowlers down and enjoying going out to bat. The situations haven’t always been easy but still: I feel like it’s a game of cricket, at the end of the day, and I think we’re probably taking it too seriously in certain ways.Related

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“It’s almost having that carefree kind of attitude: who cares? It’s a game of cricket. If you’re going to make mistakes, you might as well make them doing what you’re good at doing. And we’re making mistakes anyway, so do it with a smile on your face… I think we as a group have been overthinking too much.”In both the 2019 World Cup and the 2022 T20 World Cup, early group-stage defeats left England with no margin for error in their last four games. On both occasions, they rediscovered their attacking batting style after being confronted with the prospect of elimination. “We’ve been in this position before – probably not to this degree – but we know everything is a must-win,” Moeen said.”There’s no point playing the way we’re playing and then [we will] go out and go home and have regrets. I’ve always believed – and I believe still – that if we play how we play and we know we can play, most teams, we’ll beat… let’s at least go out with a bang, if we’re going to go out. And be entertaining. That’s really important, because that’s something we haven’t been at all.”2:33

Moeen: ”Batting deep makes a big difference at the Chinnaswamy’

England made three changes for their most recent game, a 229-run drubbing at the hands of South Africa on Saturday. Seemingly based on data from the IPL, Jos Buttler opted to bowl first on the third-hottest October day Mumbai had seen in a decade and England’s bowlers fried in the heat; South Africa’s 399 for 7 was the highest-ever score England had conceded in an ODI.In selection, at the toss, and in their general approach, Moeen suggested that England have been guilty of overthinking. “For us, it’s just about playing how we play and not worrying too much about what the trend is at the moment,” he said. “A lot of the time, I feel England have set the trend for the last few years, and we’ve probably moved away from that.”Moeen echoed the views of Rob Key, England’s managing director. “This is a unique place to come and play: it’s bloody tricky to work out what the best thing to do is,” Key said. “But what you can do is focus on what you actually do best – and regardless of any decisions that get made, you need your players to be playing at their very best in this competition. And we haven’t had that.”Buttler is yet to fire at the World Cup, with 87 runs in four innings, and has a heavy workload as a keeper-captain. In Mumbai, he found himself running from behind the stumps to pass on advice to his bowlers and then back again while England were hammered at the death. “It’s not always that easy for a keeper to communicate,” Moeen said, adding that players have told him they “miss having me at mid-off”.Among Moeen’s biggest challenges as vice-captain has been giving his inputs on selection and weighing up whether or not he believes he should play. “When Jos asks me what I think for the side and I don’t put myself in, or if I put myself in, that’s the hardest bit,” he said. “You try and do what’s best for the team as much as you can.”That same mantra will underpin Moeen’s approach on Thursday: “I’m going to use all the intent that I have and take it on. That doesn’t mean slogging… it just means being brave and taking a risk if I need to – just being me, really. I’m going to take the situation out [of it] a lot of the time and just enjoy it as much as I can.”

Babar, Rizwan and Afridi get top deals in PCB's 2022-23 central contracts

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Faheem Ashraf and Mohammad Hasnain left out, while Shan Masood, Haider Ali and Naseem Shah make comebacks

Umar Farooq30-Jun-2022Faheem Ashraf and Mohammad Hasnain, who is back after serving a suspension for a faulty bowling action, have been left out of the list of Pakistan’s centrally contracted players, while Shan Masood, Naseem Shah and Haider Ali are all back in the mix after missing out last year.Related

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In the list announced on Thursday, the trio of Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi have been placed in the highest category for both white- and red-ball cricket.In other major updates, Hasan Ali, who has had a poor year in the shorter formats, has been demoted to Category C in white-ball cricket but has earned a Category B deal for Test cricket. Imam-ul-Haq had an overall [white and red ball] Category C contract last year, but has moved to Category B in white-ball cricket while remaining in Category C for the red-ball format.Azhar Ali was in Category B last year, but has moved into Category A for red-ball cricket alone. Shadab Khan and Fakhar Zaman have also earned Category A contracts for white-ball cricket.The PCB restructured its player contracts this year, splitting the players into two pools – for white- and red-ball cricket. Along with the overhaul, PCB has also increased the number of contacts from 20 to 33, including placing seven players in the emerging category: Salman Ali Agha, Haseebullah, Mohammad Huraira, Ali Usman, Kamran Ghulam, Qasim Akram and Mohammad Haris.In another update, the PCB has also hiked the match fee across all formats by 10% for playing members. Non-playing members’ fees have also been increased; they used to earlier get 50% of what the playing members earned as match fees, but will now get 70%.Babar, Pakistan’s all-format captain, will also get a special allowance as a part of a renewed agreement to “compensate the team captain for additional responsibility”.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“I want to congratulate all those who have earned central contracts for the 2022-23 season, especially our younger players… for the first time as part of our vision and strategy to identify, groom, and develop specialists for the traditional and purest format of the game,” chief selector Mohammad Wasim said in a press interaction in Rawalpindi. “I understand there will be a few disappointed players who have missed out on contracts, but I want to reiterate that we are not limiting and restricting ourselves to these 33 players. As and when required, players from outside the list will be included.”We have also expanded our category of emerging cricketers from three to seven as it is very important for us to groom those cricketers who have the potential to make it to the top level and give an incentive to those players who have excelled in our domestic tournaments.”Ashraf had a Category B contact in the last cycle, but struggled to make it into the playing XI in ODIs and T20Is. He has, however, been on the fringes of the Test team since he offers balance in the XI with his multiple skills. But in the past 12 months, he played five Tests, getting eight wickets and scoring 141 runs, not enough to be a top pick in the side. In the same period, he played just three ODIs, with no wickets and just 16 runs, and was not considered for T20Is at all.In Hasnain’s case, though he has been in and around Pakistan’s white-ball teams, the suspension for the illegal action might have worked against him even though he can now bowl internationally again.

Dane Vilas bends the contest to his will as Sussex are made to wilt

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Lancashire captain remains unbeaten on 158 after rescuing side from top-order wobble

Paul Edwards09-Apr-2021
Counties nowadays do plenty of research before they invest in overseas players. There is little doubt Lancashire had a good idea what they were getting when they signed Dane Vilas in advance of the 2017 season. Yet even the most painstaking official could scarcely fail to have been surprised by Vilas’s impact on life at Emirates Old Trafford. Time and then time again he has changed games. His influence as captain on the dressing room is deep and abiding. And today, as spring’s impertinent ambition transformed the so recently skeletal trees around this most urban of grounds, Lancashire’s captain performed his familiar trick once more.There are occasions when too much importance is attached to sportsmen’s body language. But as Vilas marched off the ground with an unbeaten 158 to his name and Sussex’s players dragged themselves back to their dressing room after they had suffered the sort of mauling handed out by an irritable lion, it was plain where the balance of this game lay. Although only 64 of his runs had come in boundaries, Vilas had harried Ben Brown’s bowlers at every opportunity, constantly exhorting his partners, Alex Davies, Rob Jones and Luke Wood to sprint harder and increase the pressure on a young attack.But admirable avarice has been one of Vilas’s trademarks at Lancashire and it has only been satisfied because the captain takes pride in his fitness. During the course of his century against Sussex he passed 3000 runs in his 50th first-class match at an average exceeded by only three Lancashire batsmen at similar stages of their careers. Then there is the multi-faceted leadership; Vilas is not simply Lancashire’s skipper; he sets the standard and provides the example for others to follow. Rob Jones, with whom Vilas put on 125 for the fifth wicket against Sussex, is a far better player for having been encouraged to assess situations by his captain and then bat according to his findings.This has been a match of dropped catches. Yet as Vilas took Lancashire into a 38-run first-innings lead late in the evening session, it became clear that the most significant spill will not be those that allowed Tom Haines to make 155 on the first day but the diving chance at slip that George Garton put down off Jack Carson’s off spin when Vilas was a mere 47. It would certainly have improved Carson’s day, albeit the young off-spinner at least claimed the final wicket to fall when Jones reverse-swept a full toss straight to Tom Clark at backward point and departed for 58.Related

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By then, however, Vilas was in full flow. His unbroken stand of 82 with Luke Wood has set Lancashire up for further riches tomorrow and Sussex may well have a tricky task saving this game even though the pitch remains true and blameless. Yet none of these riches had appeared likely to come the home team’s way as they slipped to 41 for 3 just before lunch on what now seems so distant a session that it could have taken place on another day altogether.To forget the morning’s play, though, would do little credit to Ollie Robinson, whose pace and accuracy with the new ball induced Keaton Jennings to edge to Aaron Thomason at fourth slip and Josh Bohannon to nick the ball to Ben Brown. When Steven Croft’s attempted pull off George Garton merely gloved another catch to Brown, Lancashire were 41 for 3 and the home coaches may have been reflecting sombrely on the fact that for something like an hour, 24 hours previously, their side was within two wickets of having their boots on Sussex’s neck.Instead they watched a trifle nervously today as Davies pulled and punched his way to 61 and put on 91 with Vilas before the debutant left-arm seamer Sean Hunt brought one back off the seam to have him leg before wicket. Hunt bowled well on his first appearance and deserved his wicket but Sussex’s other bowlers faded in the face of Vilas’s calibrated attack. Brown’s attack is young and in time his players will learn much from days like today. Yet as the spring sun took command and the day deepened into afternoon, our attention shifted from callow bowlers trying to further their careers and focused instead on the iron will of a Lancashire batsmen intent on preventing them doing so.”Nothing is so beautiful as Spring,” wrote Gerard Manley Hopkins and on afternoons like this it was easy to agree. Even photographers who had talked darkly of their chances of ending this game with a full complement of toes observed that the temperature had gone up a notch or two. So we took details of the snappers’ next of kin, loaded them up with Kendal Mint Cake and sent them out to sunbathe. Then Vilas punched another four through the covers and suddenly we again noticed the lack of a crowd and their warm salutes for one of Lancashire’s finest.

Rohit, Umesh and South Africa's dress rehearsal

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What the players will be looking for from the tour game in Vizianagaram

Karthik Krishnaswamy25-Sep-2019Rohit Sharma, the openerContrary to widespread belief, Rohit Sharma has done a pretty good job when he’s got the opportunity to play Test cricket. Since the start of 2016, he averages 53.00 in 11 Test matches. It’s a sign of the depth of India’s batting resources that he can’t command a consistent spot in the middle order.

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Thanks to KL Rahul’s long run of poor form and Prithvi Shaw’s doping ban, however, he now has an opportunity to try and turn himself into a long-format opener. Moving to the top of the order transformed Rohit’s ODI career. Can he make a similar move up the order work in Test cricket too?Rohit doesn’t have much previous as a red-ball opener. In 137 innings in first-class cricket, he has opened just three times, the last of those occasions – when Mumbai attempted to chase an improbable target of 155 in 11 overs – coming in December 2012.Apart from the Test-match combination of Rohit and Mayank Agarwal, the Board President’s XI squad also includes two other openers, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal. Those two will probably have to accept a move down the order for now.Can South Africa’s batsmen crack the Asia code?Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis. Only one member of that world-class middle order remains standing now.This isn’t to say South Africa have an inexperienced batting line-up, per se. Dean Elgar (56 Tests) has only played two fewer Tests than du Plessis, while Temba Bavuma (36) and Quinton de Kock (40) have been around Test cricket for a while, and Aiden Markram (17) is well settled at the top of the order.But all of them have poor records in Asia.

This is South Africa’s first tour of Asia without both de Villiers (who averaged 54.56 in the continent) and Amla (47.66). In the absence of those two legends, their senior batsmen will have to step up and show the way for less experienced players like Theunis de Bruyn, Zubayr Hamza and Heinrich Klaasen.Umesh Yadav’s window of opportunityHe took ten wickets in his last Test match at home. During India’s epic 2016-17 home season, he bowled more overs than Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma put together.But until Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out with a stress fracture, Umesh Yadav wasn’t even in India’s squad for the Tests against South Africa. It is a reflection of just how vast India’s pace pool is, and also of Umesh’s own limitations.If fit, Ishant and Shami should remain India’s first-choice new-ball pair for the Tests, and Umesh may not get a look-in unless – and it’s a big unless – they play three quicks. Still, if he can knock over a few top-order wickets in Vizianagaram, he will keep himself in the conversation.Can South Africa’s spinners surprise?The last time South Africa toured India, they came up against some of the squarest turners seen in this country in a long time. If their batsmen didn’t like it, their spinners should have enjoyed it, but Imran Tahir, Simon Harmer and Dane Piedt fell a long way short of matching the threat of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra.Four years on, their squad includes Keshav Maharaj, who may well be their best red-ball spinner since readmission, Piedt – who has forced his way back into Test cricket after topping the 2018-19 4-Day Franchise Series wicket charts with 54 at 27.74 – and the allrounder Senuran Muthusamy.Piedt and Muthusamy have been in India for a while now, having been part of the South Africa A touring side, and Maharaj has taken been in terrific form for Yorkshire in the County Championship, taking 38 wickets in five matches at 18.92.With Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje in the pace mix, South Africa will use the Board President’s XI match to figure out what kind of bowling combination they will take into the first Test – two quicks and two spinners, three and one, or even three and two, given the batting ability of Muthusamy and Philander.

Sri Lanka Cricket to launch inquiry into Gunathilaka incident

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Sri Lanka Police have confirmed that the batsman is not under investigation, but his suspension is linked with an alleged sexual assault incident at the team hotel

Andrew Fidel Fernando23-Jul-2018While stating that opening batsman Danushka Gunathilaka is not himself under police investigation, Sri Lanka Police has confirmed that his suspension from all forms of cricket relates to an alleged sexual assault that is said to have occurred at the team hotel on the night of July 21.Sri Lanka Cricket will carry out its own disciplinary inquiry into Gunathilaka’s conduct, and had issued a release on Sunday stating that he would be suspended at the conclusion of the second Test against South Africa. Gunathilaka is understood to have breached his curfew on that night, and was anyway on thin ice with the board, having been suspended for six matches for other disciplinary issues in October last year.He is not suspected of criminal wrongdoing.The alleged incident of sexual assault – which police said Gunathilaka’s suspension is related to – was reported to the police by a Norwegian woman. A British citizen has been arrested as a suspect. It is believed the British man is an acquaintance of Gunathilaka.

Player-board relationship 'steadily improving' – Gayle

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Chris Gayle said the players and Cricket West Indies need to build on a steadily improving relationship “to get the best players out on the field”

Shashank Kishore in Bengaluru13-Jul-2017West Indies could feature a full-strength squad across formats as early as August this year, according to Chris Gayle. Gayle said “things have been steadily improving” with regard to the dispute between the players and Cricket West Indies.”The fans were happy to see me back on the field representing West Indies. Hopefully, things can get better. Hopefully I can play a few more games. I definitely want to play the 2019 World Cup,” Gayle said. “Things are beginning to open up a little more now between players and the board. It’s looking good, and we’ve to try and build from this to get the best players out on the field.”Currently, Cricket West Indies follows a stringent policy of considering only those players who have featured in the domestic 50-over competition, under the regime of Julian Hunte and Ernest Hilaire. In recent times, however, the CWI have been more open to negotiation, which Courtney Browne, the chairman of selectors, too spoke of in May.Gayle said discussions regarding the possibility of featuring in a full-strength squad for West Indies’ tour of England in August were positive. “That’s what is actually in discussion. It’s for them to make the announcement, and make it formal so that we know what is what,” Gayle said. “We’ll wait and see what happens.”I can’t get into specific details, just from the little I’ve experienced since coming back, it’s been good. There’s still more discussion to be done. It’s positive. That’s the good thing about it. We’ve to just look to carry on from here. Once we are guided with the rules, if it is going to change fully, we’ll know how to take things further.”Gayle was also optimistic that investment in a young squad, particularly Evin Lewis, would pay off eventually, even though results in recent times – a loss to Afghanistan and an ODI series defeat to India apart from their failure to qualify for the Champions Trophy – haven’t gone their way.”Two centuries in two T20s against India, it’s fantastic,” Gayle said of Lewis. “He’s a small player but a powerful player. He’s very young and very hungry, he’s one for the future. Once more consistency comes into his play, he will be more dangerous. It was a brilliant innings just the other day to put us into that winning position by batting right through the end was fantastic. That’s what I love to see, especially an opener batting right through to take it till the end and win games.”With our experience, we all try and share as much as we can before we go; 2019 is just around the corner. We don’t want to miss out like what happened at the Champions Trophy. We will try and push hard for that and everyone can work collectively to make sure we’re part of the World Cup.”Gayle also said he was “excited” at seeing young fast bowlers challenge him at the nets, and impressed upon the need to maintain his fitness to take every step possible to put himself in fray for selection. “I’m still being active in the gym, putting in the work. These youngsters are very sharp, they try to take your head off saying ‘he’s old now, take him down,'” he said. “You’ve got to be mindful, got to be ready at all times. I’m trying and looking after the body. There’s a lot of travelling, so I try and monitor [my schedules and training] as much as possible.”

Surrey flop before big Oval crowd continues nightmarish season

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Glamorgan ran through Surrey for 93 at the Kia Oval to set up an eight-wicket victory in the NatWest Blast

David Hopps26-May-2016
ScorecardTimm van der Gugten celebrates one of his four wickets on the night at the Oval•Getty Images

Surrey are the gold standard for English professional cricket as far as Twenty20 is concerned: crowds that fill the Kia Oval are the norm, they are the richest county in the country, the embodiment of off-field success. But the story on the field is not so pretty. They will point to two Finals Days in three years but as they crashed to defeat in their first NatWest Blast home match of the 2016 season, they were abysmal.Championship cricket has dominated the past six weeks and this match pitted Surrey, bottom of Division One, against Glamorgan, similarly bereft in Division Two – six matches each and not a victory between them. The Blast was an opportunity for release and it was Glamorgan, unfashionable Glamorgan, who gained it by dismissing Surrey for 93 before they waltzed to a predictable eight-wicket victory with 7.4 overs to spare.The Oval crowd took its punishment quietly. Perhaps we will know that T20 cricket in England matters when they boo on nights like this. Glamorgan, meanwhile, have travelled to south London in T20 four times and won every one, including a county record 240 for 3 a year ago.Gareth Batty, Surrey’s captain, told : “We have not covered ourselves in glory. In T20, a bad day can be really bad. So scratch it off and move forward. I don’t think it is a time for getting too carried away.”Fortune also turned against Surrey. Ben Foakes was injured in the pre-match warm-up – struck on the elbow by a stray ball from Stuart Meaker. Then Azhar Mahmood’s involvement ended prematurely when the Blast’s elder statesman, at 41, propped forward to his second delivery and damaged a calf badly enough to play no further part, unable even to bat with a runner which is still allowed in English domestic cricket. A long lay-off looks likely.Glamorgan achieved their win by just doing the basics. The surface was a little grabby, and their decision to throttle Surrey with old-fashioned virtues of back-of-a-length consistency worked a treat. Timm van der Gugten, a Netherlands pace bowler via a birthplace in Sydney, emerged with 4 for 14, his dismissal of Steven Davies and Kumar Sangakkara in the space of three balls setting the tone. He found it a bit of inswing, but when he said: “I thought we bowled well as a collective,” he summed it up.Stardom? Not on a night like this. Jason Roy was back at the Kia Oval in T20 colours for the first time since England reached the final of World Twenty20. No longer was he an exciting south London upstart beginning to forge an international career. Now he had recognised quality and debates were taking hold about whether he could even develop into a Test cricketer – and if so why on earth is he batting so low in the order for Surrey in Championship cricket?But Roy 2016 vintage looked unsettled. Shots were mistimed, the pitch not suiting him, and his early forays were unconvincing. He was only 15 when he tried to manufacture a big shot over the off side against Michael Hogan, skewed it off the bottom of the bat to extra cover and Colin Ingram, back in Glamorgan’s side after injury for the first time this season, held a difficult catch pedalling backwards.Consolidation is not in Roy’s nature. Neither is it the T20 way espoused by England which is further encouragement for him to keep playing his shots. But, in the World T20, England had Liam Plunkett or Adil Rashid at No. 11; Surrey, once Foakes had withdrawn, had Mahmood at seven. Perpetual attack needs sound surfaces or batting depth, or preferably both, and Roy did not have the advantage of neither. He will undoubtedly take out his frustration on somebody soon.Roy’s dismissal was all the more damaging because it was the third Surrey wicket to fall in eight balls. Van der Gugten, had taken two wickets in the previous over, having Davies caught off an attempted leg-side flip by a craftily-positioned deep square leg, and then defeating Kumar Sangakkara’s advance to drive courtesy of a fast catch above his head by wicketkeeper Chris Cooke.It was not the sort of night, as delightful as it was to see it, for Zafar Ansari to make a return from a second thumb injury that has disrupted his career: he made a second-ball nought, edging Craig Meschede’s overpitched ball to the wicketkeeper. Many in the 15,500 crowd were just coming in; Surrey statisticians must have been toying with walking out, 37 for 4 after the six-over Powerplay already leaving their victory chances strikingly low.And it got worse. Sam Curran showed pizazz for a while, but on 21 pulled Meschede to midwicket where David Lloyd took a skilful low catch and, although Curran delayed – politely enough – in the hope of a TV umpire adjudication which would have improved his chances of survival, the umpires chose to believe the evidence of their own eyes. Van der Gugten later found a little inswing to complete his foursome, bowling Gary Wilson as he shuffled across his stumps and having James Burke, Foakes’ replacement, lbw third ball.Glamorgan’s chase was a non-event. Surrey did not go for broke with attacking fields, and an opening stand of 58 settled the game as Jacques Rudolph stroked it around with quality and Lloyd struck powerfully over the leg side. Ingram announced his return from injury by battering Mathew Pillans’ first ball over long-on for six. It was very much Glamorgan’s night.

Buoyant Royal Challengers aim to build momentum

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Royal Challengers Bangalore will target their second successive win at home when they meet Kings XI Punjab, who remain entrenched to the bottom of the table

The Preview by Arun Venugopal05-May-2015

Match facts

Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)2:19

O’Brien: Kings XI will be spectacular if they fire

Big Picture

Kings XI Punjab might wonder how their campaign has so rapidly spun out of control, after their heartwarming march to the final last year. With only five games to go, they are nailed to the bottom even as once fellow stragglers have moved up to form a cramped mid-section of the points table. It’s a no-brainer that they will have to win all their games from now on, and hope for other results to be favourable.If Kings XI were to examine the whys of their barren run, the simple answer would be their inadequate batting. They have failed to cross 150 in each of the four games they have lost on the trot.Only David Miller has managed decent contributions in the last two matches, with captain George Bailey not making his starts count. Manan Vohra being indisposed meant they had to play Virender Sehwag, who has managed 2,1,1,1 in his last four innings.Royal Challengers Bangalore don’t have such pressing issues, but will desperately seek two points with their second consecutive win at home. They rested Chris Gayle in Chennai, but they might decide against it for this clash. With their last two home games affected by rain, they will hope the weather remains kinder despite thunderstorms being forecast.

Form guide

Royal Challengers Bangalore LWWWL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Kings XI Punjab LLLLW

Watch out for…

Dinesh Karthik has done very little of significance with the bat, managing only 93 runs from six innings thus far. Despite producing the odd flashy dismissal behind the stumps, Karthik has underachieved in the middle order. He was batting well in the company of his captain, Virat Kohli, against Chennai Super Kings, but once again couldn’t kick on for a more substantive score. Attracting Rs 10.5 crore in the auction, there will be pressure on him to provide more bang for buck.M Vijay has encountered problems of a similar variety. While he has never particularly looked out of touch, 197 runs from eight innings is underwhelming for an opener by any standards. The batting-friendly surface and short boundaries at Chinnaswamy are ideal for him to create a strong base for his team.

Stats and trivia

  • Royal Challengers have lost four of their six games against Kings XI at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
  • Chris Gayle has scored the most runs – 427 from eight innings, including a hundred – for Royal Challengers against Kings XI.

Quotes

“It’s just that batsmen are really trying very hard, but it’s not coming off. Because of that we are not able to chase down the scores which we generally have the capacity to chase down.”

Mahmood blasts Auckland through, Hampshire out

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Azhar Mahmood produced a remarkable all-round performance to send Auckland through to the main draw of the Champions League

The Report by Alex Winter10-Oct-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAuckland won both their qualifying matches to claim a place in the main draw of the Champions League•Getty Images

Azhar Mahmood produced a remarkable all-round performance to send Auckland through to the main draw of the Champions League. His unbeaten 55 blazed Auckland’s trail to a target his 5 for 24 had ensured was paltry. Their second victory wrapped up Pool 1, with Hampshire and Sialkot now unable to qualify.Despite their schedule in the qualifying tournament lasting two days, Auckland had spent two weeks in South Africa and their preparations proved worthwhile as they became the first New Zealand team to make the main draw of the Champions League.Mahmood benefitted from bowling and batting at the right time. With the ball in the first innings, he was able to use a pitch that began a touch sticky to induce five loose shots, but the surface was more conducive to clean hitting in the second innings. Mahmood slammed four sixes in his 31-ball knock and became the fifth player to score fifty and take five wickets in a Twenty20.His performance handed Auckland a second victory at a canter. The target was largely conquered before Mahmood’s innings in a Powerplay where Auckland scored 50 for 1. Hampshire by contrast had limped to 29 for 3 in their first six overs. The difference was that Hampshire bowled too full. Martin Guptill and Lou Vincent filled their boots; Vincent disappointed to slap the final ball of the sixth over to extra cover, and Guptill hung his head after swinging Shahid Afridi to long on, both following entertaining innings.But Azhar Mahmood ensured Auckland did not just meander to the target. He lifted Chris Wood over the leg side for his first six in the eighth over, and added further maximums with a slog sweep off Afridi and a heave over long-on and slap over extra cover against Liam Dawson – the second of which found the swimming pool.The match was a major anti-climax for Hampshire. In 2010, they announced a grand deal with Rajasthan to form a global franchise with clubs from other countries, setting up a travelling circus of money-spinning tournaments. But all that materialised of that deal was Hampshire becoming the “Royals,” in line with the Indian franchise.On the back of that deal, Hampshire would have expected to be performing on a world stage sooner than the 2012 Champions League. This was their first appearance in the competition but their active participation lasted just 34.3 overs.Auckland’s comfortable victory against Sialkot presented them with a chance to confirm their passage into the main draw of the tournament and they did so with a second chase that was set up by another miserly display with the ball.The seamers again enjoyed the surface after Gareth Hopkins had won another toss. It was slower that Wanderers and at first offered tennis-ball style bounce. As such, timing was difficult for the batsman. Clean hitting in the first innings was at a premium and the method of dismissals demonstrated their struggles.James Vince managed to time one six into the stands but his second attempt found mid-on from high on the bat; Jimmy Adams drove loosely outside off and edged behind; and Shahid Afridi – at No. 4 despite his very poor recent form – Sean Ervine and Glenn Maxwell all perished to catches in the deep. The damage was 77 for 5 in the 14th over.Hampshire’s debut rather flashed them by and it took Michael Carberry to prevent total disaster. Carberry’s timing was horrendous for the majority of his 65-ball innings but he stuck it out and made a half-century that put something on the board for Hampshire. He took nine runs off Kyle Mills’ opening over – three more than Mills conceded in four overs against Sialkot – with a gloved hook that went for six encapsulating the batsmen’s struggles on a slightly underprepared wicket.Carberry tried to lay a platform but batting didn’t get easier. He was alone though in hanging around and working the bowling to accumulate a score. Slogging as the entire middle order did was a waste of time. Carberry managed some acceleration with two boundaries in Andre Adams’ final over and two more as Michael Bates closed the innings.He fell trying to swing Mahmood over long-on and it was he that profited most from the errant strokes of much of the Hampshire order, returning 5 for 24 – his best figures in a Twenty20. The wickets of Vince and Adams came in his first over; four balls of his second were enough to lure Afridi into a slog. His final over saw Liam Dawson backing away and slapping to extra cover and Dimitri Mascarenhas carving a full ball to deep cover point. He could have have had a six-for but spilled a catch running back from his final delivery.Mahmood copped a fine at the end of the match. He was reprimanded, and fined US$1000, for breaching the tournament’s code of behaviour after dismissing Dawson. Mahmood pleaded guilty to a code relating to, “pointing or gesturing towards the pavilion in an aggressive manner by a bowler or other member of the fielding side upon the dismissal of a batsman.”

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