Tag: world cup 2023

  • Bangladesh coach calls for timed-out rule change as Shakib row rumbles on

    Bangladesh coach calls for timed-out rule change as Shakib row rumbles on

    Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha called for a change to cricket’s timed-out law, saying it should be a matter for the umpires only, as debate rumbled on about Shakib Al Hasan’s role in a controversial dismissal of Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews.

    Bangladesh defeated Sri Lanka by three wickets in a World Cup group-stage game in Delhi on Monday.

    However, the result was overshadowed by Mathews becoming the first player in the 146-year history of major international cricket to be timed out following an appeal by Shakib, which the Tigers captain refused to withdraw.

    Mathews was given out after he exceeded the two minutes allowed for an incoming batsman to take strike as he attempted to secure a broken strap on his helmet.

    Bangladesh bowling coach Allan Donald, who is to quit his post when his contract expires after the World Cup, was unhappy with the dismissal, telling the CricBlog website: “I think it really overshadowed a clinical performance by Bangladesh. I’m sort of a bit still shocked about it to be honest. 

    “It’s just my values that I have as a person and as a cricketer,” the 57-year-old former South Africa fast bowler added.

    But Hathurusingha said Friday: “I don’t think it (the row) is going to stop here, whatever I say. The only thing I can say is that it’s one of the modes of dismissal.

    “My suggestion is to leave it to the umpires to decide, I don’t think you should leave it to the players to appeal and all that.”

    Victory over Sri Lanka came too late to salvage Bangladesh’s hopes of a semi-final place, with the team having lost six of their eight group games ahead of Saturday’s clash in Pune against Australia, already into the last four.

    ‘Spoilt‘

    And they will have to face the five-time champions without Shakib, appearing in his fifth World Cup, after he broke his finger batting against Sri Lanka.

    The spin-bowling all-rounder may now have played the last World Cup match of his career given he will be 40 by the time of the 2027 edition in southern Africa.

    “We have been spoilt,” Hathurusungha said. “We have had him for a long time, when you have someone of Shakib’s calibre as your number one all-rounder, it’s two players in one…It’s hard (to replace him in the side).”

    Saturday’s match could also mark a World Cup exit for fellow veterans Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, with Hathurusingha saying of the trio: “They have been the best of Bangladesh cricket in the short journey of Bangladesh cricket. 

    “If they decided to quit, it’s a change (passing) of the baton kind of thing.”

    Bangladesh are currently eighth in the table, the last qualifying place for the 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

    But Hathurusingha said his sole focus was on trying to beat Australia.

    The former champions won their sixth game in a row at the tournament in Mumbai on Tuesday after Glenn Maxwell’s spectacular unbeaten double century saw them to a dramatic three-wicket win over Afghanistan after they had collapsed to 91-7.

    “They’re the most successful team in World Cup history,” said Hathurusingha. 

    “They started slowly but they have already qualified. Playing against them is a big challenge.”

  • Pakistan’s World Cup woe — what’s gone wrong?

    Pakistan’s World Cup woe — what’s gone wrong?

    Pakistan’s chances of making the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup are on a knife-edge after their eight-wicket defeat to Afghanistan.

    AFP Sport looks at three problem areas for Babar Azam’s falterinordinary

    World class bowling looks ordinary

    Pakistan’s bowling was touted as world class before the Asia Cup and when they restricted a strong India side to 266 all out in a washed out game at Pallekele, commentators saw it as a major warning to World Cup rivals.

    But two weeks before the showpiece event, key fast bowler Naseem Shah was ruled out with a shoulder injury.

    Spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi has 10 wickets in five games in India but has failed to make an early impact — his 2-36 against India and 5-54 facing Australia came in losing causes. In the opening wins over Netherlands and Sri Lanka, he managed two wickets at a combined cost of 103 runs.

    Haris Rauf has leaked runs, conceding 286 in five games for eight wickets while the spinners have lacked bite on the slow and turning pitches of India. Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz and Iftikhar Ahmed have just six wickets in five matches between them, conceding 502 runs.

    Captaincy in question

    Babar Azam is one of the top batsmen in white ball cricket — he has two fifties at the World Cup — but his captaincy has been questioned and he has faced accusations of lacking aggression in field settings.

    Pakistan media have consistently accused him of favouring his friends in selection.

    “As far as captaincy is concerned, I don’t have much pressure on me or on my batting. I try to give my best in batting,” Babar said after Monday’s loss to Afghanistan.

    “During fielding, I think about captaincy and during batting I just think about the batting.”

    Babar has won some sympathy in India for his team having to play in front of crowds where Pakistan fans have been effectively banned.

    Tight security has also meant that the squad is virtually confined to their hotels once their playing and training commitments are completed.

    Lack of planning

    There have been frequent, unsettling changes in the the Pakistan Cricket Board set-up — three chairmen in the past year — which hurt planning for the World Cup.

    Former chairman Najam Sethi brought in Mickey Arthur as team director but he also kept his Derbyshire county job in England.

    Directing the team from the UK, he was criticised in some media as a “Zoom coach.”

    Pakistan officials have also been accused of failing to manage the workload of their fast bowlers with Naseem and Shaheen playing all three formats.

    Naseem’s most obvious replacements, Ihsanullah and Mohammad Hasnain were also unfit, forcing Pakistan to recall Hasan Ali.

    “You were not able to find a coach and since you liked foreign ones you hired an online coach. We change our system frequently and that is showing in our performance in the World Cup,” said former Pakistan great Wasim Akram.

  • Iphones lost, bags stolen at Narendra Modi Stadium during Pakistan-India match

    The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad witnessed a high-octane World Cup clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan on Saturday. The world’s biggest cricket stadium was filled to capacity as more than one lakh spectators came to watch the most anticipated match of the year.

    But while the majority of the fans got what they wished for and went back home with smiles on their faces after India’s resounding victory, a section of the crowd was left wondering who stole their mobile phones.

    Bollywood actress Urvashi Rutela couldn’t see Naseem Shah bowl due to his recent injury and unfortunately lost her phone during the match too.

    “Lost my 24 carat real gold i phone at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad! If anyone comes across it, please help. Contact me ASAP! Tag someone who can help,” Urvashi tweeted on Sunday.

    A video by Indian sports journalist Vikrant Gupta is currently going viral on social media, wherein he disclosed incidents of mobile phone and purse thefts during the Pakistan-India match in Ahmedabad.

    Gupta stated, “While entering the ground, my friend’s mobile phone was stolen from his pocket, and several other spectators also reported incidents of mobile and purse theft.” Criticizing security officials, he highlighted the possibility of mismanagement and security issues in handling such a massive crowd. He emphasized that thefts taking place in the ground surpass the concerns of mismanagement and security glitches.

    Many other people lost their phones that day.

    Meanwhile, there was one fan who even got his iPhone back as a security guard managed to catch the thief.

    Another X user, @tricatrio also lost her phone. She wrote, “Lost my iphone 15 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad!”

    User @shizmaite wrote, “Chaos at the gates & no one to handle the crowd. A good day ended on a bad note! #indvpak”

  • ‘Hitman’ Rohit raises India’s World Cup hopes

    ‘Hitman’ Rohit raises India’s World Cup hopes

    Rohit Sharma has led India from the front in their three unbeaten matches of the World Cup to boost his cricket-mad nation’s hopes of winning the title at home.

    The Indian captain has already amassed 217 runs including a record century against Afghanistan, showing no signs of the pressure on his shoulders.

    Rohit succeeded superstar Virat Kohli as white-ball captain in 2021 with the aim of securing the national team a third World Cup and first international title since the 2013 Champions Trophy.

    Australia great Ricky Ponting lavished praise on Rohit for handling the pressure of the job with ease.

    “Someone like Virat, who is a bit more heart-on-the-sleeve, and probably listens to the fans and plays up with the fans a little bit more, someone with his personality would probably find it a bit harder,” Ponting wrote in an International Cricket Council column on Tuesday.

    “But I think Rohit will be fine with it. He’s a terrific bloke and has been a great player for a long time, and he’s done a great job as leader of India.”

    Rohit, 36, has enjoyed franchise success as a skipper with five IPL titles with the Mumbai Indians and then led India to the Asia Cup title last month in a key test of form ahead of the World Cup.

    That success would have helped ease a little of the pain suffered when, under his captaincy, India were defeated in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in Australia last year.

    Rohit has never let expectations get to him and Ponting, once his captain at Mumbai and then coach, said the veteran batsman takes pressure in his stride.

    “He’s very laid back,” said Ponting. “You can even see that by the way that he plays. He’s a pretty laconic sort of batsman as well, and that’s the way he is both on and off the field.”

    – ‘Nothing is impossible’ –

    Rohit, an opening batsman nicknamed “Hitman” for his ability to get big scores quickly, was out for a duck in the team’s opening win against Australia, but was lauded for his captaincy moves.

    He soon regained form with 131 against Afghanistan as he surpassed compatriot Sachin Tendulkar with a record seventh World Cup century.

    His ton in 63 balls was the fastest by an Indian in a World Cup to better Kapil Dev’s hundred in 72 balls against Zimbabwe in 1983.

    Rohit took his form to the hotly-anticipated clash with arch-rivals Pakistan and smashed a match-winning 86 to thrash the opposition as India climbed to the top of the 10-team World Cup table.

    In his career, he has accumulated 10,329 ODI runs including 31 centuries in 254 matches since his debut in 2007.

    Rohit, who was not selected for India’s last World Cup triumph at home in 2011, said he relishes the role of being leader.

    “Nothing in life is impossible, you can make it possible if you have the belief,” Rohit said.

    “If you trust in it, if you have the will to go forward, it’s everyone’s dream firstly to be part of the team and then to captain the team is definitely the icing on the cake. I never thought I would be captain one day.”

    “I also believe that good things happen to good people. I kept my head straight, kept working hard on my game. I am sitting here today with a wonderful opportunity to bring glory to this beautiful country.”

    Rohit’s deputy in the World Cup, Hardik Pandya praised the leader for his ability to bring the best out of players through his faith in them.

    “Since he has come, he has backed a lot of boys and we see the result now as well with how the boys are going and expressing themselves,” all-rounder Pandya said.

    “So that’s why Rohit has been special in giving them enough opportunity and at the same time telling them that ‘you know what, I got your back’.”

  • World Cup 2023: Australia defeats Sri Lanka by five wicket to register first win

    Australia beat Sri Lanka by five wickets in the 14th match of the ICC ODI World Cup, the Kangaroos’ first win in the event after two continues defeats.

    The Sri Lankan team won the toss and decided to bat first, which did not turn out well and the Sri Lankan team was dismissed for 209 runs in 43.3 overs.

    The opening pair of Nissanka and Kaushal Perera gave Sri Lanka a brilliant start of 125 runs, Nissanka scoring 61 runs with eight fours and Kaushal Perera scoring 78 runs with twelve fours.

    As soon as both of them got out, the Sri Lankan batting line fell apart. Charith Asalanka tried to stay at the wicket for a while by scoring 25 runs, but he too got out and the entire team was bowled out for 209 runs in the 44th over.

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    Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa took four wickets for 47 runs, with Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc getting two wickets each.

    In the counter-innings, Australia also struggled initially with the first wicket falling at just 24 with Warner 11 and Steve Smith not out. Both were dismissed by Madhu Shanka. Mitchell Marsh and Lebouchen added 57 runs for the third wicket to improve the team’s score. Marsh got out for 52 runs, followed by another good partnership between Lebouchen and Josh Ingles in which both By adding 77 runs, he put the team on the winning track.

    Lebouchen was dismissed with an innings of 40, Maxwell with 31, and Stoins with 20 to get the remaining runs and give Australia their first win in the event after two successive defeats.

    Australia achieved the target in the 36th over with a loss of five wickets. Adam Zampa was declared the player of the match.

  • World Cup 2023: India defeat Pakistan by seven wickets

    World Cup 2023: India defeat Pakistan by seven wickets

    India has defeated Pakistan by seven wickets in Ahmedabad on Saturday in a World Cup 2023 match.

    Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first. Pakistan suffered its first loss in the form of Abdullah Shafiq, who fell to Muhammad Siraj after scoring 20 runs, and after this Imam ul Haq was dismissed by Hardik Pandya for 36 runs.

    Babar Azam was bowled by Siraj for 50 runs with the total score at 155 in the 30th over. After Babar’s dismissal, Pakistan’s wickets fell one after one and the rest of the batsmen could only add 36 runs to the total score.

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    In reply, India achieved the target of 192 runs for the loss of three wickets in 30.3 overs. Rohit Shrama scored 86 runs while Shreyas Iyer scored unbeaten 53 runs.
    Shaheen Afridi took two wickets for Pakistan’s bowling side.

  • World Cup 2023: South Africa defeat Australia by 134 runs

    World Cup 2023: South Africa defeat Australia by 134 runs

    Australia’s poor run continues at the World Cup with a massive defeat at the hands of South Africa on Thursday night.

    Before the match, played at Lucknow’s Ratanshree Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Australian captain Pat Cummins won the toss and invited South Africa to bat first.

    Opening batsman Quinton de Kock and captain Temba Bavuma started the innings for South Africa, with a solid partnership of 108 runs, but then Bavuma was caught out after scoring 35 runs off Glenn Maxwell in the 20th over.

    De Kock was dismissed for 109 runs while Markram played an innings of 56 runs. Klaasen scored 29 runs, David Miller scored 17 runs and Marco Jensen scored 26 runs, thus South Africa scored 311 runs for the loss of seven wickets in the given 50 overs.

    For Australia, Mitchell Starc, and Glenn Maxwell took 2, 2 while Hazlewood, Cummins, and Zampa took one wicket each.

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    The Australian top-order proved to be a wall of sand in the chase, with none of the batsmen being able to hold their own against the brilliant bowling of the African bowlers. Chasing a target of 312 runs, six Australian batsmen returned to the pavilion in short order.

    Marence Labushin put up a little resistance in front of the South African bowlers, but he too was out on 46 runs. Mitchell Starc put up 27, captain Pete Cummins 22, and Zampa scored 11 runs, so the entire Australian team was bowled out for 177 runs in the 41st over.

    On behalf of South Africa, Rabada dismissed three players by giving 33 runs in eight overs, while Marco Jensen, Keshav Maharaj and Tabriz Shamsi took two wickets each.

  • Are cricket lovers staying in hospitals in Ahmedabad instead of hotels?

    Are cricket lovers staying in hospitals in Ahmedabad instead of hotels?

    Reuters: Cricket fever has gripped Ahmedabad ahead of Saturday’s World Cup group stage clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan and a visit to hospitals near the venue of the match in the western Indian city clearly shows the degree of excitement.

    Quite a few of the hospitals have seen a sudden influx of patients booked in for check-ups involving a night’s stay to coincide with the most anticipated match of the World Cup.

    Several doctors told local media the rush for check-up ‘packages’ was an ingenious way to find affordable accommodation as hotel costs have soared up to 20-fold ahead of the match.

    “We have come across some cases of people coming to watch the India-Pakistan match also taking an appointment for health check-ups and staying in hospitals,” Tushar Patel, President of the Ahmedabad Medical Association, told Reuters.

    The Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association has discouraged its members from accommodating such fans.
    “We have asked our members not to entertain such requests. Hospitals are not meant for non-patients,” its president Bharat Gadhavi told Reuters.

    THREE WARS

    The Asian neighbors have fought three wars since becoming separate countries in 1947 and the relationship further soured after gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in 2008, which India blamed on a Pakistani militant group.

    While bilateral cricket became a casualty of geopolitical realities, it also whetted the appetite for a clash between neighbours who play each other only in multi-team events.

    India and Pakistan head into the showdown having both won their opening two matches at the tournament.

    The first batch of tickets for Saturday’s game were sold out within an hour of going on sale in August, prompting the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to release another 14,000 earlier this month.

    Ahmedabad resident Hemish Patel and his friends, after several days of failed attempts, grabbed four tickets, each costing 6,000 Indian rupees ($72.15).

    “We logged into the site with multiple devices,” he said.

    “We constantly kept on refreshing the site and were able to book within 10 minutes after the sale of tickets began.”
    Patel was one of the lucky few.

    Tickets are fetching up to 25 times face value on resale and city police arrested four youths on Tuesday for selling fakes.

    Airfare has surged up to four times and Indian railways will run a pair of super fast trains linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

    PERFECT VENUE

    The 134,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium, which hosted former US President Donald Trump in 2020 and Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier this year, looks a perfect arena for cricket’s fiercest rivalry.

    The city has been declared a ‘no-drone zone’ on Saturday, and 11,000 security personnel will be deployed for the high-profile match, Ahmedabad police commissioner GS Malik said.

    On their first tour of India since the 2016 T20 World Cup, Pakistan were accorded a warm welcome in Hyderabad, where they played their first two matches.

    India have a perfect 7-0 record against Pakistan at ODI World Cups and while the rivalry assumes the Orwellian concept of serious sport — “war minus the shooting” — players from both sides share good relations.

    During the Sri Lanka leg of the Asia Cup last month, Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Afridi gave Jasprit Bumrah a gift for the Indian’s newborn baby and the video went viral.

    It will be a special occasion for Indian Liyakat Khan, whose daughter Samiya is married to Pakistan fast bowler Hasan Ali.
    “My wife went to Pakistan in 2021 when my daughter was expecting her first child. We will meet again … I can’t wait to hold my grandchild,” Khan told the Indian Express newspaper.

  • Pakistan creates history; chases down highest total in World Cup

    Pakistan creates history; chases down highest total in World Cup

    Records were left stranded in the dust as Pakistan created history on Tuesday night, chasing down the highest total in World Cup history against Sri Lanka.

    Magnificent centuries by Abdullah Shafiq and Mohammad Rizwan paved the way towards victory as mercurial Pakistan stomped home comfortably.

    Batting first, Sri Lanka scored 344 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the given 50 overs, with Kaushal Mendes scoring 122 runs and Samara Wickrama scored 108 runs.

    Pakistan achieved the target of 345 runs with just four wickets down in the 49th over, with Abdullah Shafiq scorinh 113 runs and Mohammad Rizwan remaining not out with 131 runs.

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    The target of 345 runs is the highest achieved by any team in World Cup history. In the 2011 World Cup, Ireland successfully achieved a target of 329 runs against England.

  • Indian journalists slam govt for not giving visas to Pakistani correspondents

    Indian journalists slam govt for not giving visas to Pakistani correspondents

    Senior Indian journalist Rajdeep Sardesai expressed disappointment on his government’s continuous delay in issuing visas for Pakistani journalists, stating that if Pakistan is playing the World Cup in India, visas cannot be denied to journalists.

    Rajdeep Sardesai asked why should journalists be politically demotivated. “We should adopt the attitude of good hosts,” he remarked, saying that he will expect the same from Islamabad in the future.

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    It should be noted that the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Zaka Ashraf, contacted Foreign Secretary Cyrus Sajjad Qazi in regards to the issuance of Indian visas to Pakistanis for the cricket World Cup.

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