Cricket

Middle-order batter Brooke Halliday struck a 96-ball 86 and lifted New Zealand from a precarious 88/5 to 232 all out against India in the series-deciding third women’s ODI on Tuesday. To start with, the Indian bowlers fired in unison and had the visitors in all sorts to trouble with their disciplined line and length. Looking to win the series and regain some lost ground after their early exit in the recent T20 World Cup, India began the match in earnest and struck twice to leave the Kiwis at 25 for two in 7.1 overs. Jemimah Rodrigues and wicket-keeper Yastika Bhatia combined to run out Suzie Bates while Lauren Down was jettisoned by Saima Thakor at the start of eighth over. Introduced in the 11th over, young leg-spinner Priya Mishra (2/41 in 10 overs) gave India a major breakthrough when she bowled New Zealand captain Sophie Devine (9 off 11 balls), leaving the visitors in a spot of bother 36 for three. Caught with a perfect ???? Catch all the action in the 3rd #INDvNZ ODI, LIVE NOW on #JioCinema & #Sports18!#IDFCFirstBankODITrophy #JioCinemaSports pic.twitter.com/yQTtkcyWIi — JioCinema (@JioCinema) October 29, 2024 New Zealand’s hopes of putting up a competitive score rested on the shoulders of Georgia Plimmer, who dropped anchor considering the situation her team found itself in. However, having ambled to 39, Plimmer was dismissed by Mishra, and her innings lasted 67 balls. Maddy Green was run out for a 15-ball 19 as New Zealand slipped to 88 for five in the 24th over. In search for a partnership, the Kiwis finally found it as the duo of Halliday and wicketkeeper batter Isabella Gaze (25 off 49 balls) added 64 runs for the sixth wicket to steady the innings. 

Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 Retentions, former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh said that Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will face difficulties to leave or retain players. KKR lifted their third title under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer after thumping Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Star Sports, Harbhajan praised the Kolkata-based franchise and said that they dominated the previous season. The former cricketer also named the players who should be retained for the upcoming season of the T20 tournament. Harbhajan added that Ramandeep Singh should be retained as an uncapped player as he has performed well in IPL 2024 and also in the domestic cricket. “KKR dominated the entire season, so it will be difficult for them to leave or retain anyone. But it’s a matter of retention, so you only have limited numbers that you can retain. If I want to see or if I have to choose my 6 players, which 6 players will be there for KKR? I think Shreyas Iyer will be there, Phil Salt will be there, Narine will be there, Andre Russell will be there, Rinku Singh will be there. I will definitely want to see Rinku Singh. He should be the 5th player to be retained. And if we talk about one more player, who is the last player to be retained? It could be Ramandeep Singh.He is an uncapped player. I think he should be retained. He played very well last year and I have seen his performance in domestic cricket this year as well. So I think this 6th player, Knight Rider, will be retained,” Harbhajan was quoted in a release from Star Sports as saying. Earlier in September, the Kolkata-based franchise announced former West Indies all-rounder Bravo as the franchise’s new mentor, succeeding Gautam Gambhir. Bravo retired from international cricket in 2021 and decided to end his time in the Indian Premier League last year. In the past year, Dwayne Bravo shifted his focus to coaching roles, featuring for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Afghanistan. Bravo’s stint with KKR will be his second coaching role in the cash-rich league. He joined the Chennai Super Kings in 2011, retired from the franchise in 2022, and in 2023 joined the five-time champions as the bowling coach.

The deadline for the franchises to name their retentions ahead of the IPL 2025 auction ends on Thursday. Several media reports have already predicted some of the major names that will be retained and both fans as well as experts are trying to find out the name of star cricketers who may end up in the auction. While no franchise has confirmed anything, a meeting between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) owner Shah Rukh Khan and Afghanistan cricketer Rahmanullah Gurbaz has sent the internet into frenzy. Both SRK and Gurbaz were spotted together in an event in Dubai and the duo shared a hug. Soon after the video went viral, many users speculated that it can meant that Gurbaz is one of the options that KKR may consider when it comes to their retentions. With the IPL 2025 mega auction retention deadline coming on October 31, it’s the time where all ten teams will be firming up their retention plans. Kolkata Knight Riders, the IPL 2024 winners, are also in the process of finalizing their retention list. Shah Rukh Khan with Rahmanullah Gurbaz in Dubai.pic.twitter.com/blF6jYJxrK — Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) October 28, 2024 But sources have told IANS that the retention status of their title-winning captain Shreyas Iyer is lining on unsure currently, as other players like West Indies duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, along with middle-order batter Rinku Singh, wrist-spinner Varun Chakaravarthy and uncapped fast-bowling all-rounder Harshit Rana, who recently got a call-up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, are ahead in contention of being retained by the franchise. While Narine and Russell were at their all-round best as the franchise’s stalwarts, Chakravarthy was a key figure in the spin-bowling department, picking up 21 wickets at an economy rate of 8.04. Those performances paved his way for being back into the Indian team for the T20Is against Bangladesh this month and is selected for next month’s South Africa series. Rinku, despite making only 168 runs in 14 games this year, has been with the team since 2018 and has been credited as a find of the franchise ever since he found his groove as a finisher. Rana, who has been with the franchise since 2022, had a breakthrough 2024 season by picking 19 wickets. On the other hand, Shreyas scored 351 runs in 14 innings at a strike-rate of 146.86 while leading KKR to their third IPL title in May this year. The right-handed Mumbai batter has been with the team since 2022, though he missed the 2023 season due to a lower-back injury. (With IANS inputs)

Till this day, the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy remains one of the most famous wins of the Indian cricket team in its Test history. Despite several front-line players like Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah missing important matches due to various reasons, the Indian cricket team conjured one of the bravest comeback in the history of cricket. This was the same series where India had lost the first game in Adelaide after being 36 all out. The series also saw sledging reach a different level with then Australia captain Tim Paine taking it to another level.  Tim Paine doesn’t regret sledging Ravichandran Ashwin during the third Test of the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, saying he did it to unsettle the India off-spinner, who was “annoying” him by getting his wicket frequently. After losing the series opener at Adelaide, India defied all odds to clinch the series 2-1.  Ashwin played a vital role in drawing the third Test in Sydney, batting for 42.4 overs with an aching back alongside Hanuma Vihari. After failing to break Ashwin’s resolve with the bat, Paine started poking the Indian from behind the stumps. “I can’t wait to get you to the Gabba, Ash, I’ll tell you what, woohoo,” Paine said ahead of an over from off-spinner Nathan Lyon. But Paine does not regret it. “No, I don’t because to this day Ashwin didn’t play in that (Brisbane) Test match. I wasn’t talking to the Indians, I was talking to him. I said we cannot wait to get you to the Gabba. “…because he was annoying us, fair to say. He is a fantastic cricketer. He was getting me out all the time and that was annoying me as well,” Paine said in a podcast of ‘thegradecricketer’. Ashwin too replied in kind to Paine, saying: “Just like we wanna get you to India. That will be your last series.”  Paine said the sledge was aimed at the Indian spinner. “But no, that was purely directed straight at him and he pulled out of that Test match because of back spasm. Did I have a great game in that match? No, but I fronted up. Actually day one of the Test match he (Ashwin) was jogging laps. Those back spasms couldn’t have been that bad,” he added. 

Rajat Patidar led Madhya Pradesh’s fightback against Harayana on Day 4 of their Ranji Trophy 2024-25 match in Indore. Patidar slammed an unbeaten century to help MP recover after Harayana had taken a 132-run lead in the first innings. With the Indian Premier League (IPL) retention deadline on October 31, Patidar reached triple figures in just 68 balls to send a loud and clear message to his franchise, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who are yet to finalise their list of retained players. With all 10 teams allowed to retain a maximum of six players, RCB have only finalised the retention of star batter and former captain Virat Kohli. In fact, even RCB captain Faf du Plessis‘ future remains a mystery.  Teams have until October 31 to finalise their player retentions ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. According to the rules announced by the governing council on Saturday, franchises can retain a maximum of six players using a combination of direct retentions and the right-to-match (RTM) option.  This includes up to five capped players (both Indian and overseas) and no more than two uncapped Indian players, as reported by ESPNcricinfo. For retention purposes, any player who makes their international debut before October 31 will be classified as capped.  However, if such a player is retained as an uncapped player and then debuts internationally before the auction, they will still be considered uncapped, with only INR 4 crore deducted from the team’s auction purse. The purse for the mega auction has been increased by INR 20 crore, giving each franchise a budget of INR 120 crore (approximately USD 14.3 million). As with the mega auction before IPL 2022, the price for retaining uncapped players remains set at INR 4 crore. Additionally, the IPL has reinstated a rule discarded in 2021, allowing Indian players who retired from international cricket at least five years prior to the relevant season to enter the auction as uncapped players. (With ANI Inputs)

Fast-bowling all-rounders are rare in cricket. India haven’t had many quality batters who can also bowl pace of late, with Hardik Pandya arguably being the finest option at present. But, Hardik’s India career is limited to only white-ball cricket at present. Hence, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) picked Nitish Kumar Reddy for the forthcoming Australia tour. Nitish has already impressed many with his batting in the T20I series against Bangladesh. As his stocks rise in international cricket, Reddy revealed a big tip from coach Gautam Gambhir that helped him excel. In a chat with the Hindustan Times, Reddy revealed the sort of conversations he had with Gambhir and others in the team management in the Bangladesh series. “At the start, it was nothing. They were telling me to play in an aggressive way. The kind of approach I showed in IPL, they were telling me to go with the same approach, same mindset, everything. Just play according to the situation. I still remember during the drinks break when Gautam Sir came in and I played reverse sweep it needed a DRS. When it was given not out as it was the umpire’s call, he came in the centre and he told me, Nitish, you have good power. You can clear the boundary line easily. You have no need to play reverse sweep on these kind of wickets because the ball is keeping low,” Reddy said. Reddy hit a 74-run knock against Bangladesh in the second T20I, making waves in the Indian cricketing spectrum. Reddy is thankful for the instructions given to him by Gambhir during this phase of his career. “He told me to back my power. So I just backed my power and rest of the things went very well. The over bowled by the spinner turned out very well for me at that time,” Reddy said. Gambhir also gave some valuable tips to Reddy over bowling. The pacer bowls between 130-135 kmph on an average, though he has the ability to bowl over 140 kmph too. But, it’s consistency over pace in the priority list for Reddy. “To be honest, I am trying to be more consistent in red ball. I feel like bowling 130-135 is good pace. Rather than going 140-145, trying to bowl more pace, I just don’t want to lose my consistency. So I am trying to have more consistency at this pace. In that process, if my pace got increased, that’s well and good. But my first priority will be bowling the consistency areas, hitting the top of the off stump. That’s what Gautam sir also kept on mentioning to me, so I wanted to focus on that,” he asserted.

Former Australian captain Tim Paine revealed that former opener David Warner was not serious and barely joking as he offered to come out of retirement from international cricket to help Australia end their hunt for an opener ahead of the highly-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India. Days back, Warner had offered to come back to the international cricket if Australia could not find the right opening partner for Usman Khawaja due to Steve Smith sliding down to number four after mixed performances as an opener and all-rounder Cameron Green being out of the Test summer due to a back injury. But Paine, now speaking to SEN, suggested that Warner was just joking around and even had remarked “I got them good” in a conversation with the former Aussie wicketkeeper. “He was not dead serious, that is Davey. How do I know? Because I spoke to him, that is how. Is that good enough for the people?,” said Paine to SEN. “He said, ‘I got them good, haha’. Of course, that’s Davey’s thing. People say, ‘You’re not serious’, I am dead serious, but he is not (about returning to cricket),” he concluded. Warner retired from international cricket after Australia’s Super Eight exit in the ICC T20 World Cup tournament this year in West Indies and USA. In 112 Tests for Australia, Warner scored 8,786 runs at an average of 44.59, with 26 centuries and 37 fifties in 205 innings. His best score is 335*. He is the fifth-highest run-getter for Australia in Tests. Playing 161 ODIs, Warner scored 6,932 runs at an average of 45.30 and a strike rate of above 97, making 22 centuries and 33 fifties in 159 innings. His best score is 179. He is the sixth-highest run-getter in ODIs for Australia. Warner is Australia’s highest run-getter in T20Is, scoring 3,277 runs in 110 matches at an average of 33.43 and a strike rate of 142.47. He scored a century and 28 fifties, with the best score of 100*. With 18,995 runs in 383 games, 49 centuries, 98 fifties, two ICC Cricket World Cup titles, one ICC T20 World Cup and ICC World Test Championship title each, Warner retired this year as Australia’s second-highest run-getter and one of the greatest all-format openers of all time. Warner is a part of the teams which won the 2015 and 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup and the ICC World Test Championship 2023, making him a multi-time world champion. Coming to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the first Test will take place at Perth from November 22 onwards (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The echoes of India’s series defeat against New Zealand is unlikely to lose its buzz in the coming weeks. It was for the first time in 12 years that the Indian team lost a Test series at home, losing the first two matches of the 3-Test series against the Kiwis. While India produced a commendable fightback in the first Test, the second match saw them decimated by the touring side. Dinesh Karthik, former India wicket-keeper, refused to spare skipper Rohit Sharma‘s blushes after the conclusion of the Pune Test. Karthik doesn’t feel Rohit was a proactive captain in Pune, with his struggles to match New Zealand’s intensity and clarity costing India the game. “Not at his best. I thought he had a very tough Test match, he did all he could. I could see there was a lot of pressure on him, add to the fact, that he did not get many runs as well. So overall, it was not a great Test match. He will reflect and think, ‘what could I have done better? Was I a reactive captain or a pro-active captain?’” Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz. Rohit couldn’t contribute much with the bat in either of the two Tests. In fact, he was among the worst performers for India with the bat in the first two matches. “There is a fine line, this Test match was one where he was chasing the ball a little bit. He tried his best with whatever he could, but you have to say it wasn’t the best game for either him or Team India,” he added. As the two losses confirmed the fate of the series, Rohit took a rather lighter stance in the press conference after the Pune Test, saying the team is allowed such a performance after being on top for the last 12 years. “We are allowed one such performance in 12 years. If we were collapsing like this on a regular basis then we would not have been winning at home. We have a lot of expectations. We are expected to win every game at our home, and it is because of our performances,” he had said in the presser.

Indian cricketer Ajinkya Rahane has consistently embraced challenges on the cricket field, particularly when his team has been under pressure. Reflecting on his career, he shared, “Wherever there are challenges, I love it. I have scored runs in those situations when the team was at 30/3, 20/3, or 50/3. From there, the team needs to reach a respectable score, and throughout my life, I’ve delivered my best knocks in these tough situations.” Rahane’s appreciation for challenging conditions began early in his career. “I always loved challenges where the ball moves, seams, or bounces,” he said in a Star Sports promo. His formative years playing at the Wankhede Stadium, particularly on the older version of the pitch with its lively bounce, honed his resilience against challenging bowling conditions. “Since my days in U14, I played cricket at the old Wankhede, where the wickets were good and had a solid bounce,” he reminisced. These testing conditions shaped Rahane into a player who thrives under pressure, often stepping up when his team needs him most. Since his international debut in 2011, Rahane has represented India across all three formats, amassing 8,414 runs in 195 matches and 251 innings at an average of 35.95, with 15 centuries and 51 fifties. His highest score stands at 188. The 36-year-old is best known for his ability to build long innings in Tests, with 5,077 runs in 85 Tests at an average of 38.46, including 12 centuries and 26 fifties. In 90 ODIs, he scored 2,962 runs in 87 innings at an average of 35.26, with three centuries and 24 fifties, his best score being 111. In 20 T20Is, he scored 375 runs at an average of 20.83, with one fifty. Rahane last played for India in a Test match against the West Indies in July last year.

Trailing New Zealand 0-2, the Indian cricket team is gearing up for the third Test against the Kiwis at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, with nothing but a win in sight. Though the series has been lost, India are eyeing nothing less than a victory in Mumbai to boost their World Test Championship final hopes. However, a big change is expected to take place as far as the nature of the pitch is concerned as the two teams square off in the final encounter of the series. Spinners have dominated proceedings in the first two matches of the series, generating turn from the first day itself. However, the Wankhede pitch is expected to be much different, offering a lot more to the batters on Day 1. According to a report in the Times of India, a ‘sporting track’ has been laid in Mumbai which will also have some grass on it. Spinners aren’t expected to generate turn before the second day’s play. “It will be a sporting track. Right now, there’s a bit of grass on the pitch. It’s expected to be good for batting on Day 1 but should offer turn to spinners from Day 2,” the paper quoted a source as saying. What happened when India last played a Test against New Zealand at Wankhede? India last featured in a Test match against New Zealand at Wankhede in Dec 2021. The match saw the hosts beat the Kiwis comprehensively by 372 runs, bowling them out for 62 and 167 on a pitch that offered quality assistance to spinners. India, on the other hand, registered scores of 325 and 276/7 declared in the two innings. Ravichandran Ashwin claimed a whopping 8 wickets in the match across two innings for 42 runs. New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel re-wrote history books as he produced figures of 10/ 119 in the first innings before adding 4 more wickets to his tally for 104 runs in the second innings.