Tag: Cricket

  • Muhammad Rizwan allows Indian female fan to take a ‘doorfie’ instead of selfie

    Muhammad Rizwan allows Indian female fan to take a ‘doorfie’ instead of selfie

    Muhammad Rizwan, a wicketkeeper-batsman for Pakistan, is regarded as one of cricket’s most popular players both domestically and internationally.

    In addition to the fact that he is an excellent golfer, his lovely and humble personality is what has earned him such a large fan base.

    The player has unnecessarily drawn criticism during the current Asia Cup 2022.

    A video of a female Indian cricket fan asking Rizwan to take a photo with her during a practise session has been shared by sports journalist Brashna Kasi. Rizwan reluctantly consented to take a photo with the woman but stood at a visible distance, making it clear it wasn’t a selfie and leading the fan to mockingly refer to it as a “doorfie”.

    The fan claimed in the video that Rizwan had informed her that he never poses for photos by himself with female fans.

    This, however, is nothing new since Rizwan has repeatedly stated that he feels uncomfortable with women. In actuality, the beloved cricketer has never been seen in any of his photos with a female fan.

    We must “respect his boundaries and leave him alone,” as Kasi put it.

    Rizwan explained why he never poses for photos with women in an interview with local media earlier this year.

    When asked why he is so shy around women, he replied: “It is not about being shy but some things are personal and every player has their own personal [reasons].”

    He stated that he greatly respected ladies and did not deem himself “worthy” of taking pictures with “mothers and sisters,” even if they requested one.

  • Video: Virat Kohli gives Haris Rauf a special gift

    Video: Virat Kohli gives Haris Rauf a special gift

    Following Pakistan-India match on August 28, right arm pacer Haris Rauf met former Indian skipper Virat Kohli on field.

    The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared a video in which Virat Kohli autographed and handed over a signed jersey to Haris Rauf.

    “The match may be over but moments like these shine bright.”

    Players from both India and Pakistan have displayed positive energy on field despite their rivalry.

    Earlier, Indian players met Shaheen Afridi who was ruled out of the Asia Cup because of a knee injury.

    Read more: Indian players meet Shaheen Shah Afridi, inquire about his health

    Babar was also spotted chatting with Indian team captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

    India won the match on August 28 by five wickets.

    Pakistan-India head to head match count in Asia Cup is now 15. India won nine while Pakistan won five matches. One match ended in no results.

    Read more: History of Pakistan vs India matches at Asia Cup

    Pakistan will play its second match of the Asia Cup 2022 against Hong Kong on September 2 (Friday) at 7pm.

  • ‘Bhai tera chakka nahi bhulay ga’: Momin Saqib meets Hardik Pandya

    ‘Bhai tera chakka nahi bhulay ga’: Momin Saqib meets Hardik Pandya

    Pakistani cricket fan, Momin Saqib, who rose to fame for his “maaro mujhe maaro” reaction video after Pakistan’s World Cup loss to India in 2019, posted a couple of videos on Twitter where he is meeting Hardik Pandya and Virat Kohli after the India-Pakistan Asia Cup 2022 match in Dubai.

    “Bhai tera chakka nahi bhulay ga!”

    In the video, he can be seen greeting Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya after the match.

    With an unbeaten innings of 33 runs on 17 balls, Hardik Pandya led India to victory with a maximum on the third last ball of the game. In addition, he took 3 wickets and bowled some vicious short deliveries that held Pakistan to 147 runs.

    Saqib praised Pandya for winning and expressed excitement for the India-Pakistan final on September 11.

    He can be seen meeting Virat Kohli in another video. “Good to see him back in form,” he wrote. “What a game tonight! Shall see you in the Final!”

    Kohli responded to Saqib’s “congratulations” on the victory by saying, “Eh ta chalda rehnda aa, tusi vi ta nairray aagaye si” (It is a part of the game. You guys also came very close).

    Pakistan will play its second game at the Asia Cup against Hong Kong on September 2 (Friday) at 7pm.

  • History of Pakistan vs India matches at Asia Cup

    History of Pakistan vs India matches at Asia Cup

    The cricket rivalry between Pakistan and India is known as the greatest rivalry in the world of cricket. Today, the two sides will meet once again at Asia Cup 2022.

    Pakistan and India have played 14 matches in Asia Cup since 1984. India won 8 out of the 14 matches played in total while Pakistan won five. One match ended without a result as it was rained out.

    Here is the list of Pakistan vs India matches in Asia Cup.

    1984:

    India beat Pakistan by 54 runs while Surinder Khanna was the Man of the Match; he scored 56 runs on 72 balls.

    1988:

    India once again beat Pakistan by 4 wickets. Pakistan scored 142 while India chased the target in 40.4 overs with 4 wickets in hand. Arshad Ayub was Man of the Match.

    1995:

    Pakistan broke its losing streak and defeated India by 97 runs. Aqib Javed was Man of the Match with his magical bowling spell with five wickets to his name.

    1997:

    Match was abandoned because of rain.

    2000:

    Pakistan maintained its wining streak and beat India by 44 runs. Mouhammad Yousuf became Man of the Match by scoring a century on 112 balls. Pakistan scored 295 for the loss of 7 while India managed to score 251 in chase.

    2004:

    Pakistan won the match by 59 runs. Shoaib Malik was Man of the Match. He scored 143 on 127 with 2 wickets.

    2008 Group Stage:

    India beat Pakistan by 6 wickets. Suresh Raina became Man of the Match by scoring 84 runs on 69 balls with 2 wickets to his name. Virender Sehwag also played an outstanding innings of 119 on 95 balls.

    2008 Super 4s:

    Pakistan won by 8 wickets with Younis Khan getting Player of the Match award. His outstanding knock of 123 on 117 helped Pakistan achieve a huge target of 308.

    2010:

    India beat Pakistan by 3 wickets with 1 ball remaining. India chased 267 while Gautam Gambhir became Man of the Match by scoring 83 on 97 balls.

    2012:

    India beat Pakistan by 6 wickets. Pakistan scored 329 while India managed to chase in 47.5 overs. Kohli got the Player of the Match award by scoring 183 on 148 balls.

    2014:

    Pakistan won by 1 wicket. This match took a lot of turns. In the final over, Pakistan needed 9 runs in the last over with 2 wickets in hand. Pakistan lost their ninth wicket on Ashwin’s first ball. On the next ball, Junaid khan took a single followed by two maximums by Afridi. Hafeez became Man of the Match with 75 runs and two wickets to his name.

    2016:

    India beat Pakistan by five wickets. This was the first T20I edition of Asia Cup. India defeated Pakistan with Kohli scoring 49 on 51 balls.

    2018 Group Stage:

    India won with eight wickets in hand. Pakistan scored 162 while India achieved that target in 29 overs.

    2018 Super 4s:

    India once again defeated Pakistan with a tremendous knock of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma of 114 and 111 respectively.

  • Pakistan or India: Shane Watson predicts who will win Asia Cup 2022

    Pakistan or India: Shane Watson predicts who will win Asia Cup 2022

    Former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson predicted the winner of the upcoming Asia Cup 2022, which starts on August 27 (Saturday).

    There will be eight teams in two groups competing against one another in the upcoming Asia Cup 2022. The most awaited-match between Pakistan and India will take place on August 28 (Sunday).

    There are many strong contenders – India and Pakistan favoured most among them – but Watson picked India to win the tournament. 

    “My predicted winner is India,” said Watson in the latest episode of The ICC Review. “They’re so strong and depending on what the conditions are, they adapt easily to conditions.”

    “Pakistan,” said Watson when asked about the biggest threat to India’s success. He said the winner of the India-Pakistan clash on Sunday (August 28) would go on to win the Asia Cup.

    “That first game is going to be very special to watch because Pakistan have full belief now that they can beat this Indian team,” said Watson. “I think, really, whoever wins that game is going to go on and win the Asia Cup.”

    Pak-India clash

    “I’m sitting on the fence a little bit!” Watson laughed. “But I think Pakistan have a chance to win that game because of the confidence they’d have got out of winning for the first time in a long time against India.”

    Watson added that Pakistan’s “confidence is going to be flying high”.

    “India is hard to contain, especially their batting. But Pakistan, and as I’ve always known playing against them, when their confidence is high, they’re nearly unstoppable. And their confidence is high now that they know they can beat India in a big tournament.”

  • VIDEO: Babar Azam meets Virat Kohli in Dubai ahead of Pak Vs India clash

    Team India landed in Dubai on August 23 and went straight to the nets to prepare for India’s match against Pakistan on August 28 (Sunday). Ahead of the much-anticipated match, players from both the teams met each other in Dubai.  The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared a video in which Virat Kohli could be seen meeting Pakistan skipper Babar Azam.

    In the video, Hardik Pandya and Yuzvendra Chahal were also chatting with Muhammad Nabi.

    Babar Azam retained his top spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20I rankings. He is at the top of the rankings with 818 points, whereas Kohli has been struggling of late.

    Comparisons between the two had started long back and gathers steam ahead of a match between the two rival sides.

    Read more: ‘This too shall pass’, Pakistani captain Babar Azam backs Virat Kohli to regain form

    Asia Cup is all set to start from August 27 and Pakistan will be playing its first match against India on August 28 in Dubai.

    Babar and Kohli’s video has drawn massive reaction of fans from both countries. Here are some tweets.

  • Fawad Alam reveals which bowler made his legs tremble

    Fawad Alam reveals which bowler made his legs tremble

    Test cricketer Fawad Alam has spoken about facing the most dangerous bowler in his career.

    Aisam ul Haq Qureshi and Fawad Alam appeared on the Geo News programme “Hasna Mana Hai,” where they both faced a flood of questions.

    Vicky Chaudhry, a cricket who played with Babar Azam at the Malton White Club, also took part in the show and posed the question to Fawad, “Which bowler makes your legs shiver?”

    To which he replied, “Shaun Tait is one such bowler who I played for the first time in Australia, so at that time I only played two balls of Tait.”

    “Although my legs do not tremble, there are some bowlers I enjoy playing with. Shaun Tait is one of the fastest bowlers I’ve enjoyed playing with, and I’ve never seen a bowler like that before,” Fawad added.

    Vicky asked whether there was a bowler he thought was easy to handle.

    Fawad said that it is possible to presume that some of a team’s bowlers may be attacked, but you can’t assume that all of the bowlers are “halwa” or easy to play.

  • ‘Rajasthan Royals owner slapped me 3-4 times’: Ross Taylor makes shocking reveal

    ‘Rajasthan Royals owner slapped me 3-4 times’: Ross Taylor makes shocking reveal

    Former New Zealand batter Ross Taylor claims that an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise owner of the Rajasthan Royals team “slapped” him three to four times during the 2011 IPL season.

    The disclosure was made by Taylor in his latest recent book, Ross Taylor: Black & White, and he claimed that the incident happened after a loss to Kings XI Punjab in Mohali.

    In his book, Taylor stated, “The chase was 195, I was lbw for a duck and we didn’t get close.” An excerpt from Taylor’s book was posted on Stuff.co.nz.

    “The squad, support staff, and management were then at the hotel’s bar on the top floor. Warnie [Shane Warne] was present along with Liz Hurley. We didn’t pay you a million dollars to acquire a duck, one of the Royals owners said to me, slapping me three or four times in the face. I’m not certain if it was all play, but he was laughing and they weren’t hard slaps. I wasn’t going to complain about it because of the circumstances, but I couldn’t see it occurring in many professional sporting settings.”

    The Royals have not yet made a remark on this.

    Taylor played one season for Royals in 2011 after being acquired for USD $1 million at the auction after spending three years with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) between 2008 and 2010. Taylor wrote in his memoir that he regretted not staying at RCB.

    Taylor said, “While it was amazing to go for a million dollars, in the end I would’ve been better off RCB had got me for US$950,000.”

    “If they had, I would have been with them for the fourth year. Although the IPL is not very sentimental, there is devotion to long-serving players, and I probably would have had a longer IPL career if I had only played for one franchise. On the other side, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to play with legends like Virender Sehwag, Shane Warne, Mahela Jayawardene, and Yuvraj Singh if I had remained at RCB.”

    “When you fetch that sort of money, you’re desperately keen to prove that you’re worth it. And those who are paying you that sort of money have high expectations – that’s professional sport and human nature. I’d paid my dues at RCB: if I’d had a lean trot, the management would have had faith in me because of what I’d done in the past. When you go to a new team, you don’t get that backing. You never feel comfortable because you know that if you go two or three games without a score, you come under cold-eyed scrutiny,” he went on to write.

    Taylor played 12 matches for the Royals in 2011, hitting 181 runs at a strike rate of 119. He then played three more seasons in India for the Delhi Daredevils and Pune Warriors.

    While playing cricket in and for New Zealand, Taylor also acknowledged in his autobiography that he had encountered racial insensitivity.

  • Hey Pak govt, aren’t we sporty enough for you?

    Hey Pak govt, aren’t we sporty enough for you?

    Sports in any country is a celebrated sector of society. It brings pride and recognition to a country. Sports are symbolic of life. Life demands discipline, resilience, respect, compassion, teamwork, and character. Sports help develop those skills to apply on the playing field and in life. In any country, the state invests in their sports and the individuals playing them. Pakistan does just the opposite of it.

    Pakistan chooses to forget its most talented and has a way of neglecting its sportsmen and sportswomen. Cricket and our men in green are a source of continuous pride for the country but there are other sports and players who too wear green with pride, and give it their all to bring us glory.

    Our teams have gone to the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics but the players participating tell the same stories of negligence and their individual hard work. So what is that the players say? One: They need the state to pay attention to them. Two: Recognise the talent and show confidence in them when they are trying to develop their skills and polish themselves for the better. Three: Give them better training so that they can perform well and bring gold, silver, and bronze medals back home. Four: Treat them as equal and as important as they would treat a person playing cricket. Five: Don’t take credit for our individual wins as you have not invested in us. They ask the state to actually invest in them so that they can stand tall amongst the best.

    What does the state do instead? The state has been in a habit of neglecting the raw and the talented, barring them from the opportunities which could have done wonders for the games, players, and the country. Yes, in recent times we see a prime minister congratulating a gold medalist but is congratulations enough? Don’t they deserve better training, better chances, and a better future? We can only hope that the state realises that mixed fortunes become the fate of many players in Pakistan because they were left out at some point. We can only hope that the state realises that every sport matters, every game matters, and every player is worth fighting for and that he and she deserves to get the best facilities. May our talented players keep making us proud.

  • ‘Consider it their right to slam players,’ Javeria Khan lashes out at critics ‘who do not follow women’s cricket’

    ‘Consider it their right to slam players,’ Javeria Khan lashes out at critics ‘who do not follow women’s cricket’

    Pakistan cricketer Javeria Khan has given a befitting reply to the critics “who do not follow Women’s Cricket in Pakistan, consider it their inalienable right to slam the players if they underperform.”

    “Questioning selection of the team, accuracy of shots, playing techniques or approaches, and strategies applied during the game is welcome”, wrote Javeria in a message shared for critics on her official Twitter account.

    “Constructive criticism is always healthy, whether relative to women’s or men’s crickets. But resorting to vile comments, and attacking players’ private lives is both outrageous and unwarranted.”

    “One should first step and walk in another person’s shoes before coming up with sweeping judgments or labelling someone as a failure. PS: Teams, athletes, and systems do not grow overnight. This is an evolutionary process that takes time. Women’s team needs your support and constructive criticism,” she concluded.

    Javeria Khan’s post came after Pakistan’s women’s cricket team is facing criticism for recent performances. The team suffered back-to-back defeats in the Commonwealth Games 2022. Australia Women defeated Pakistan Women by 44 runs on August 3.

    However, the Pakistani women’s side was particularly trolled after losing to India at the first T20 clash on Sunday (July 31) at Commonwealth Games.