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Asian Voice | 14th October 2017
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AUSTRALIA BEAT INDIA BY 8 WICKETS IN 2ND T20I
Travis Head and Moises Henriques put up an unbeaten 109-run stand as Australia beat India by 8 wickets in the second Twenty20 International to level series 1-1 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Tuesday. Chasing a 119-run target, the Australian run chase got off to a woeful start as they lost both their openers inside three overs. Indian captain Virat Kohli first held a skier to dismiss his counterpart David Warner off Jasprit Bumrah in the second over and in the next over took a simple catch off a Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery to send Aaron Finch back to the pavilion. But Head (48*) and Henriques (62*) put up a quickfire unbeaten partnership to steady the run chase and took their team to victory without any more hiccups with 27 balls to spare. Henriques reached his second T20I 50 off 42 balls with a six over mid-wicket off Kuldeep Yadav. Earlier, rookie Australia pacer Jason Behrendorff ran through India's star-studded top-order before the hosts were bundled out for 118 runs. Behrendorff, playing only his second international match, ended with dream figures of four for 21 in four
Sri Lanka will play a three-day warm-up match in Kolkata ahead of their series against India starting November 16, the Indian cricket board said. The island nation will play three Tests, three oneday internationals and three Twenty20 matches between November and December. This will be Sri Lanka's return tour following their 9-0 rout by the Virat Kohli-led team earlier this year.
Schedule
November 11-13 three-day warm-up tie, Kolkata November 16-20 1st Test, Kolkata November 24-28 2nd Test, Nagpur December 2-6 3rd Test, Delhi December 10 1st ODI, Dharamsala December 13 2nd ODI, Mohali December 22 2nd T20I, Indore December 24 3rd T20I, Mumbai
Malinga left out of Sri Lanka squad for Pakistan ODIs overs. The 27-year-old from Western Australia swung the ball both ways on a helping pitch with Rohit Sharma (8), Shikhar Dhawan (2) and Virat Kohli (0) among his high-profile scalps. It was the first international game played at the venue and the packed crowd was in for a shock after Rohit hit two crisp fours in the opening over bowled by Behrendorff. Behrendorff showed remarkable maturity to bounce back from those two boundaries to trap Rohit plumb in front with an inswinger. Kohli departed two balls later after getting a faint inside edge while attempting a flick and the looping ball was caught by none
other than the left-arm pacer. Behrendorff then had Manish Pandey caught behind with one that swung away just enough before Dhawan fell to a spectacular running catch by opposition captain David Warner. His spell of four overs was enough to break the backbone of Indian batting which was hardly tested in the ODI series. The figures were also Behrendorff's best in the T20 format. With India in deep trouble at 27 for four, Kedar Jadhav (27) and MS Dhoni (13) tried to get going in the middle and ended up with a 33-run stand. However, Australia were able to tighten their noose around India in the middle overs through
Adam Zampa (2/19 in four overs). He had a charging Dhoni stumped with a perfect leg-spinner before finding Jadhav's stumps to leave India in more trouble at 67 for six. Hardik Pandya (25) hit a cracking six over midwicket, much to the entertainment of the home crowd but it was not enough to take India to a competitive total. India win 1st T20 In the first T20I, India won the rain truncated match via D|L rule. Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli scored the revised six-over target of 48 with 3 balls to spare after a Steve Smithless Australian side succumbed to batting frailties.
Qatar under pressure to give up World Cup A top Emirati official has claimed that the blockade of Qatar by its neighbours will cease if it is stripped of or surrenders the 2022 World Cup. A link between the staging of the tournament by the Gulf state and the boycott of it by four Arab nations has been drawn for the first time by Dubai’s head of security, lieutenant general Dhahi Khalfan. “If the World Cup goes out of Qatar, the crisis in Qatar will end because the crisis was made to break it,” Khalfan wrote on Twitter. This came soon after a row broke out over whether the country’s hosting of the World Cup was under threat after a report warning of “an increasing political risk” to the tournament was leaked. The tournament has not come up in the demands previously made by the boycotting countries, though losing the World Cup would represent a bitter defeat for the tiny peninsular nation that’s pushed itself onto the
India-Sri Lanka series starts on Nov 16
world stage with its bid and its Al-Jazeera satellite news network. Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all cut diplomatic ties and began a boycott of Qatar on June 5, in part over allegations that Doha supports extremists and has overly warm ties to Iran. Qatar has long denied funding extremists and restored full diplomatic ties to Iran amid the dispute. Doha shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Iran that makes its citizens incredibly wealthy. Khalfan targeted the
FIFA tournament in his tweets. “If the World Cup leaves Qatar, Qatar’s crisis will be over … because the crisis is created to get away from it,” he wrote. He added: “The cost is bigger than what the Hamadein have planned,” likely referring to Qatar’s former ruling emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and former Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani. Some believe both still wield influence within Qatar’s current government now ruled by the former emir’s son, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. As the crisis has dragged
on despite mediation by Kuwait, the United States and European nations, Qatar’s opponents have begun targeting its hosting of the FIFA cup. They’ve pointed to allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar’s winning bid, as well as the conditions that labourers working in Qatar face in building infrastructure for the games. While FIFA ethics investigators found that the Qataris used a full range of lavishly funded state and sports agencies to win the 2010 vote to host the tournament, authorities concluded there was no “evidence of any improper activity by the bid team.” When Qatar’s sole land border with Saudi Arabia was closed and sea traffic cut off by the boycott, World Cup organizers were forced to instigate a “Plan B,” including bringing in supplies from Turkey. Asked about Khalfan’s comments, FIFA said: “We do not comment on speculation.”
Sri Lanka has dropped Lasith Malinga from the one-day international squad to face Pakistan in a fivematch series starting this week, raising doubts if the fast bowler will feature in the team's plans for the 2019 World Cup. Malinga, feared for his awkward action and toe-crushing yorkers, returned to international cricket during June's Champions Trophy following a knee injury that kept him out of the World Twenty20 last year. But the 34-year-old has not been as effective since his return and has managed 10 wickets from 13 ODIs since his return. He has taken 301 wickets from 204 matches in his career. Sri Lanka, who lost 5-0 to India at home recently, will also be without former captain and all-rounder Angelo Mathews, who is struggling with a calf injury. The first ODI will be played on Oct. 13 in Dubai with the teams also slated to play a three-match Twenty20 series.
Squad: Upul Tharanga (captain), Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Milinda Siriwardana, Chamara Kapugedara, Thisara Perera, Seekuge Prasanna, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera, Vishwa Fernando, Akila Dananjaya, Jeffrey Vandersay.
ICC set to approve Test championship, says report According to reports, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is set to approve plans for its longawaited World Test Championship at a meeting in New Zealand. The sport’s governing body has argued for years that a Test championship is needed to boost the five-day format’s popularity as crowds and television viewers flock to the big-hitting Twenty20 version of cricket. But squabbling over formats and fears that some nations will be disadvantaged have twice stymied efforts to launch a league structure since 2010. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that plans for a nine-nation Test championship were now well advanced and the ICC was set to give the concept a green light at a meeting in Auckland. Two-year cycle It said the first edition of the competition would run over a two-year cycle beginning in 2019, culminating in a final between the top two teams at Lord’s. Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said the league competition would give Test series a broader international “context,” making them more than stand-alone bilateral contests. Purists view Test cricket as the pinnacle of the sport but it has struggled, particularly in Asia, as lucrative T20 competitions such as the Indian Premier League have caught the public’s imagination.