Thursday 31 May 2018

Wriddhiman Saha most likely to miss Afghanistan Test

Wriddhiman Saha who has played 32 Test matches for India scoring 1164 runs up to date is going to be monitored ahead of the Afghanistan Test after he sustained injury during the IPL qualifier against Kolkata Knight Riders on May 25.

Saha is India's main wicket-keeper for Test matches and he was even namedin the 15-man squad for the Afghanistan Test. If he's ruled out, India have the option of looking for a back-up or hand the gloves to KL Rahul, who was recently behind the for Kings XI Punjab in the recently concluded IPL.

Dinesh Karthik or Parthiv Patel would be called to replace Saha in the squad.

Rohit Sharma has been left out of India's squad for Afghanistan's inaugural Test while Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been rested.

Virat Kohli will also miss this Test as he wanted to gear up for the upcoming England Test by playing for Surrey but he also sustained an injury which kept him out of Surrey's squad. Now, he is trying to regain fitness before the upcoming England tour which starts on June 26.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan pacer Dawlat Zadran too has been ruled out of the Test due to a knee injury.

Afghanistan Test Squad: Asghar Stanikzai (captain), Javed Ahmadi, Ihsanullah, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Nasir Jamal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afsar Zazai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan (vice-captain), Amir Hamza, Sayed Shirzad, Yamin Ahmadzai, Wafadar, Zahir Khan.

India Test Squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur.

First Afghanistan will play 3 T20 matches against Bangladesh in Dehradun. Then, they will travel to Bengaluru for the test match against India which will commence on June 14 and will end on June 18.

Tuesday 29 May 2018

Afghanistan squad for T20's against Bangladesh

Asghar Stanikzai (capt), Najeeb Tarakai, Usman Ghani, Mohammad Shahzad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shenwari, Shafiqullah, Darwish Rasooli, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Shapoor Zadran, Aftab Alam

Afghanistan pick 4 spinners in maiden test

Rashid Khan, Mujeed Ur Rahman, Zahir Khan Pakteen and Amir Hamza are the 4 spinners who are named to play against India.

Squad: Asghar Stanikzai (capt), Javed Ahmadi, Ihsanullah, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Nasir Jamal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afsar Zazai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Amir Hamza, Sayed Shirzad, Yamin Ahmadzai, Wafadar, Zahir Khan

Sunday 20 May 2018

Bangladesh T20 squad for the three-match series against Afghanistan

Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mahmudullah, Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Ariful Haque, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Nazmul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Abu Hider, Rubel Hossain, Abu Jayed

Friday 11 May 2018

IPL 2018, Match 43: RR vs CSK - Preview

This is Match 43 of VIVO IPL 2018 between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.

Rajasthan Royals will don on thier new Jersey for this match.

Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings - Match 43, Details

Match Date: 11 May 2018, Friday

Match Timing: 8:00 PM. The toss will take place 30 minutes before the match starts.

Match Venue: Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, India

Expected Crowd Turnout: 20,000

Weather

There is no forecast of rain though there was a light shower on Tuesday. The current temparture in Jaipur is 42 degree Celcius. It's bright and sunny in Jaipur.

Pitch report

Jaipur is not famous for bad weather and there is no sign of rain.However, the humidity is high and hence dew might play an important factor in the fixture.

The seamers have done well in the opening overs, but then it turns into a batting paradise at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. So, the team who wins the toss should opt the field first.

Head-to-head

The two teams have locked horns on 18 occasions.The Chennai Super Kings have dominated this fixture with 12 wins while Rajasthan Royals have won only 6 times.

Previous Meeting

The two teams met each other on April 20 at Pune.

Toss: Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to field first.

CSK - 204/5 (S.Watson 106, Suresh Raina 46, Shreyas Gopal 3-20, Ben Laughlin 2-38) beat

RR - 140/10 (Ben Stokes 45, Deepak Chahar 2-30, S.Thakur 2-18, DJ Bravo 2-16, Karn Sharam 2-13)

Player of the Match: Shane Watson (106 & 1-13)

Injured & Unavaliable Players

Deepak Chahar who suffered from hamstring injury against Mumbai Indians has almost recovered but he won't play the match due to fitness issues.

England pacer Mark Wood has left (the) CSK midway through IPL 2018 and has returned home to prepare for the upcoming season. He played only one match for franchise against Mumbai Indians on April 7. His gave away 49 runs and went wicket-less. CSK won't miss this 29-year-old pacer as they have the likes of David Willey & Lungi Ngidi.

RR's Dushmanta Chameera is also not likely to play the match against Chennai Super Kings. He is suffering from a back injury. Most probably he is ruled out of this year's IPL.

Likely XI's

Rajasthan Royals: 1 Jos Buttler (wk), 2 Ajinkya Rahane (captain), 3 Sanju Samson, 4 Ben Stokes, 5 Stuart Binny / Rahul Tripathi, 6 Mahipal Lomror / Shreyas Gopal, 7 K Gowtham, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Jaydev Unadkat, 10 Ish Sodi, 11 Anureet Singh / Dhawal Kulkarni.

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Ambati Rayudu, 2 Shane Watson, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 MS Dhoni, 5 Ravindra Jadeja, 6 DJ Bravo, 7 Dhruv Shorey / Murli Vijay, 8 David Willey, 9 Harbajan Singh, 10 Shardul Thakur, 11 Lungi Ngidi.

Player Battles

1) Ajinkya Rahane vs Ravindra Jadeja - Rahane has struggled against left-arm spinners. So, MSD can open the bowling with Jadeja.

2) Ambati Rayudu vs K Gowtham - Gowtham has been the most sucessful bowler for Rajasthan in the powerplay with 5 wickets this season in the powerplay. So, Rahane will make sure that Rayudu gets dismissed early.

Fanatasy Picks

Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler would be the best pick because he has been very aggressive from the last 2 matches.

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni should fit into your fantasy teams because he has been dismissed only twice & Ambati Rayudu could also be a good option because of his form this season in the IPL.

Tuesday 8 May 2018

Australia squads for England tour

ODIs: Tim Paine (capt & wk), Aaron Finch (vice-capt), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye
T20Is (also for Zimbabwe tri-series): Aaron Finch (capt), Alex Carey (vice-capt & wk), Ashton Agar, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jack Wildermuth

Saturday 5 May 2018

Langer named Australia coach


Kohli signs for Surrey

Virat Kohli has officially signed with English county side Surrey which starts on July.

The Indian Skipper will miss the one-off test against Afghanistan which is scheduled to begin on June 14 in Bengaluru.

Kohli will become the fourth Indian player in county cricket this year. Cheteshwar Pujara playing for Yorkshire and seamers Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron are representing Sussex and Leicestershire respectively.


Thursday 3 May 2018

Match Preview: CSK vs KKR

This is the match 33 of VIVO IPL 2018 between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders which will be held at the Eden Gardens.

Head 2 Head

Matches: 17
KKR won: 6
CSK won:11

Form Guide

Kolkata Knight Riders have won TWO out of their last FOUR matches while Chennai Super Kings have won THREE out of their last FOUR matches.

Previous Meeting

It is the match which will be always remembered for the Chennai Fans because of the final over by Vinay Kumar and this was the first and the last game at Chennai for this season due to the Cauvery Dispute.

Pitch Report

The Eden Gardens pitch has helped more fast bolwers than spinners. So 160-170 would be a good score for the team batting first.

Player Battles

1) At the start of the seaon, MS Dhoni was struggling against spinners but later on he has been in a good form against spinners. So, it will be a key player battle between MS Dhoni & Spinners (Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla & Sunil Narine).

2) DJ Bravo has bolwed 102 balls to Andre Russell in T20's and he has scored 216 runs. It will be intresting to see when we see the two West Indians clash against ecah other tonight.

3) Chris Lynn has been struggling to left-arm spinners and the only left-arm spinner who will be playing the gamne will be Ravindra Jadeja. This record can see MS Dhoni going with Jadeja to open the bowling.

News

Nitish Rana is nursing from a minor injury. In case he is not fit, Kolkata will have to choose between Ishank Jaggi and Rinku Singh.

Likely's XI

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, 4 Ishank Jaggi / Nitish Rana / Rinku Singh, 5 Dinesh Karthik (Captain & Keeper), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Shubman Gill, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Mitchell Johnson / Tom Curran, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Shivam Mavi

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 DJ Bravo / David Willey, 8 Harbajan Singh, 9 Karn Sharma, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 KM Asif / Shardul Thakur

Some STATS that matter

1) Piyush Chawla needs only TWO wickets to register 50 IPL wikcets for KKR. So, who will be his 50th IPL vuctim for KKR.

2) Robin Uthappa just needs more 23 runs to register 4000 IPL runs and he even needs only 9 runs to register 1000 runs at the Eden Gardens in the IPL.

3) MS Dhoni needs eight more runs to complete 3000 IPL runs for a single IPL Team. (Suresh Raina is the first player)

Fantasy Picks

Chennai Super Kings: The form of MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu and Shane Watson will keep them the most high picks for this match.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine would be the best option because he has been good with the bat and the ball.

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