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Dickwella’s century the only bright spot for visitors in three-day loss

ESPNcricinfo staff27-May-2019India A completed a three-day rout of Sri Lanka A in their first four-day match in Belgavi, courtesy compelling batting performances from captain Priyank Panchal, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Anmolpreet Singh, and Rahul Chahar’s wizardry with the ball.Panchal and Abhimanyu set the tone with a 352-run opening stand on the first day that paved the way for India A’s declaration after scoring a mammoth 622 for 5. Panchal, who made 160 of those runs, carried on his good form from the series against England Lions in February, where he registered scores of 206 and 50 in the two four-day games.Abhimanyu, meanwhile, recorded a career-best 321-ball 233 – his second double-century – to leave his mark and give the selectors another option for the top of the batting order in Test cricket, outside of the current top three – KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw.Anmolpreet registered a fourth first-class century in just his 15th game. His unbeaten 116 took his career average to an impressive 54.95. It’s these batting performances that gave India A the cushion of enforcing the follow-on, which was made possible courtesy legspinner Chahar’s four-wicket haul in the first innings.Despite boasting of a number of international cricketers in their ranks, all Sri Lanka A managed was 232 in 62.4 overs, with Niroshan Dickwella, the Test wicketkeeper, top-scoring with a typically aggressive 113-ball 103. The next best was the 49 made by Ashan Priyanjan, the captain. Chahar’s efforts were backed up by Sandeep Warrier and allrounder Shivam Dube, who picked up two wickets apiece.In the second innings, Sri Lanka A fared worse. Facing a 390-run deficit, they slumped to 4 for 3 courtesy Ankit Rajpoot and Warrier. Priyanjan and Sadeera Samarawickrama led a brief revival, before they fell to Chahar again. The 20-year-old, who enjoyed a breakout IPL season with Mumbai Indians, picked up four more wickets to take his match tally to an impressive 8 for 123. Rajpoot, Warrier and offspinner Jayant Yadav got two wickets each too.The second four-dayer will be played in Hubli from May 31.

With the tournament scheduled to run from August 18 to September 10, SLC is also attempting to lure second-string India players to participate

Andrew Fidel Fernando07-Apr-2018Russel Arnold, the former Sri Lanka batsman, and commentator, has been appointed tournament director for the Lankan Premier League, to be played in August and September. Having officially signed on several days ago, Arnold’s work begins in earnest in May.”We consider bringing in a person in the caliber of Russel as the Tournament Director of the LPL will help the process of making it a successful tournament, especially considering his experience as a player and also his knowledge in promoting the game,” said Thilanga Sumathipala, the SLC president.Although planning remains in the early stages, Sri Lanka Cricket is also attempting to lure second-string India players to the tournament, with Sumathipala having repeatedly stated that he plans to appeal to the BCCI about the issue. The presence of Indian players – even those of lesser renown – would be a substantial boon, particularly as LPL match times will be ideally suited for Indian viewers. The BCCI has never allowed its players to participate in foreign leagues, although SLC hopes to change that given the recent co-operation between both boards.SLC CEO Ashley de Silva also said that the board would insist that all its players take part in the LPL instead of the Caribbean Premier League, which is set to take place at the same time.SLC has not had a high profile T20 tournament since the SLPL, which had a lukewarm reception on the island in 2012, and was never played again. The LPL is scheduled to run from August 18 to September 10.

Appointed in August 2012, Cook has led the team through more Test matches than any other England captain

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-20172:04

The highs and lows of Cook’s captaincy

Alastair Cook has stepped down from his role after 59 Tests as England captain. His appetite to continue had been questioned during England’s 4-0 defeat to India before Christmas and Cook has now confirmed he will pass on the captaincy, with Joe Root his likely successor.Appointed in August 2012, Cook led the team in more Test matches than any other England captain. His record includes Ashes victories at home in 2013 and 2015, as well as series wins in India and South Africa. With 24 Test wins, he is joint-second as England’s most successful captain but five losses in seven Tests over the winter meant he also eclipsed Michael Atherton’s record for defeats.Cook discussed his decision with Colin Graves, the chairman of the ECB, on Sunday evening and has confirmed his continuing commitment to playing Test cricket to Andrew Strauss, England’s team director, and the selectors. Strauss suggested Cook’s replacement would be named before the ODI tour to the West Indies later this month, with Root favourite to be be named as England’s new captain – the 80th in their Test history – in the coming days.Cook, 32, is England’s most-capped Test player, their most prolific batsman with 11,057 runs in 140 Tests to date, and has scored more Test centuries than any of his countrymen. He also led the one-day side on 69 occasions between 2010 and 2014, another England record.During his five seasons at the helm he was named Cricketer of the Year (2012) and ICC World Test Captain (2013) and his services to the game were recognised with a CBE – collected at Buckingham Palace on Friday – to follow the MBE he was awarded in 2011.”It’s been a huge honour to be England captain and to lead the Test team over the past five years,” Cook said. “Stepping down has been an incredibly hard decision but I know this is the correct decision for me and at the right time for the team. I’ve had time to reflect after the India series and this weekend I spoke to Colin Graves to explain and offer my resignation.”It’s a sad day personally in many ways but I want to thank everyone I’ve captained, all the coaches and support staff and, of course, the England supporters and the Barmy Army who follow us home and away and have given us unwavering support.”Playing for England really is a privilege and I hope to carry on as a Test player, making a full contribution and helping the next England captain and the team however I can.”Alastair Cook was awarded a CBE last week•Getty Images

Strauss, the man from whom Cook inherited the Test captaincy in 2012, paid tribute to his former opening partner and explained the next steps in appointing a successor.”I want to thank Alastair, on behalf of the ECB and from a personal perspective, for the fantastic contribution that he’s made to the England Test team since taking over as captain in 2012,” Strauss said.”His country owes him a great debt of gratitude; he’s led the team with determination, conviction and a huge amount of pride over the last five years and his record stands for itself. With more matches leading the team than anyone, including two Ashes wins, he deserves to be seen as one of our country’s great captains.”Off the field as well as on, he has shown his strengths, developing the team and its culture, managing a fundamental transition and helping us to build for the future. As with all leaders, there have been times where circumstances have tested him but his resilience and temperament have helped him to prevail and to prosper.”He has always served with the best interests of the team in the front of his mind and stays true to that as he steps down from the role. Alastair will be missed in his capacity as captain but I hope that he has a number of years left to add to his record-breaking feats as an opening batsman and look forward to his continued success.”We now move on with the process of appointing the right successor. There are a number of established players who are playing formal or informal leadership roles and whilst we’ve rightly not spoken to anyone in relation to the Test captaincy so far, we can now talk fully and openly within the team. We expect to be able to make an announcement before the team head to the West Indies on February 22.”Cook first captained England in Bangladesh in 2010, deputising for the rested Strauss. After taking over permanently in 2012, Cook led from the front with three centuries as England came from behind to win their first Test series in India in 28 years. England retained the Ashes with a 3-0 win the following summer but cracks were beginning to show and Australia took swift revenge a few months later.The 5-0 whitewash left England needing to rebuild, and the decision to do so without the involvement of Kevin Pietersen was one of the most controversial of Cook’s reign. Beaten at home by Sri Lanka at the start of the 2014 summer, England then lost the second Test to India at Lord’s, prompting Cook to consider resigning. He chose to continue but his hopes of leading England at the 2015 World Cup were dashed when the ECB sacked him less than two months before the tournament.He subsequently oversaw the regeneration of the Test side, as players such as Root, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow helped England to regain the Ashes in 2015 and then secure a memorable win in South Africa the following winter.Although England’s progress was recently checked by two difficult tours of the subcontinent – drawing 1-1 with Bangladesh before being outclassed by India – Cook had retained the support of his players and the coaching staff. His decision to step down comes during a seven-month gap between Test commitments and gives his successor time to prepare for home series against South Africa and West Indies, before the challenge of another Ashes tour to Australia.

The Big Bash League enjoyed a landmark day in both Melbourne and Perth on Saturday, as a crowd of 80,883 – a competition record by nigh on 30,000 – packed into the MCG for the Melbourne derby

Will Macpherson in Melbourne02-Jan-2016The Big Bash League enjoyed a landmark day in both Melbourne and Perth on Saturday, as a crowd of 80,883 – a competition record by nigh on 30,000 – packed into the MCG for the Melbourne derby, and the WACA Ground sold out once more for Perth Scorchers’ fixture with Sydney Sixers.Furthermore, 12,901 were at the MCG by the conclusion of the Women’s Big Bash League Melbourne derby fixture, a record for a women’s domestic game, and a larger crowd than any Women’s World T20 final.In Melbourne, however, the BBL’s routine notching of milestones did not come without difficulty. Ahead of the WBBL fixture, as many as 2,000 fans were left outside the MCG as only one general admission gate was opened at the beginning of the match. The crowd more than doubled during the second innings.For the men’s fixture, many thousands were caught out by the stadium’s stringent security measures. To illustrate, the crowd at the start of the game stood at about 55,000, and the 80,833 figure was only reached at the innings break as frustrated fans were finally able to enter the stadium. For the Renegades’ innings, a queue had snaked all around Yarra Park.A Cricket Australia statement read: “The Melbourne Cricket Ground has been highly proactive in their security measures for major cricket events this summer. The match tonight experienced an unprecedented record crowd for domestic cricket.”We thank fans for their patience and apologise for the delays experienced entering the ground tonight. The safety and security of our fans, players and officials is always our number one priority and rest assured we’ll continue to work with the MCG to ensure everyone has a fantastic experience at any cricket event this summer.”Despite the difficulties – which reportedly also saw many of the venue’s food vendors run dry shortly after the innings break – there was a sense of triumphalism around a fine day for the competition.”It’s been a great day for cricket,” said CA’s Mike McKenna. “We were absolutely delighted to see crowds across the country come out in force, with record attendances at our men’s and women’s Big Bash League matches.”To have more than 80,000 people at the MCG for the local Melbourne derby, then to witness a sell out in Perth for a re-match of last year’s final, all on the same day, was a genuine milestone in the short history of the league.”Englishman Luke Wright, who upstaged more celebrated overseas players Kevin Pietersen, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo to score a match-winning century for the Stars, said the crowd sent a message about the competition’s pulling power.”It was one of those moments where until it finishes you can’t really enjoy it,” Wright said. “I’ve been lucky enough to play internationally and in the IPL so I know about big crowds. Tonight rather than people abusing you and spitting at you, it was great to have the crowd behind. It just sends a message about how big this competition is.”You look around and you pinch yourself, we had a feeling it would be big tonight, but obviously not that good. How special was that? To get a win, it’s up there with the best cricketing moments of my life.”

South Africa’s one-day success has often been built on the back of allrounders and Ryan McLaren is the latest to show the strength of his spine

Firdose Moonda04-Jun-2013South Africa’s one-day success has often been built on the back of allrounders and Ryan McLaren is the latest to show the strength of his spine. He top scored with 55, his highest 50-over score for South Africa albeit unrecorded because the match was unofficial, in the warm-up fixture against Pakistan at The Oval on Monday and as the new first-choice allrounder has been careful to ward off comparisons with the country’s best two-in-one player.”As far as Jacques Kallis is concerned, I don’t think I should be associated in the same sentence with him right now,” McLaren said. “He is one of the best cricketers, if not the best cricketer South Africa has ever produced, and one of the best the world has produced. To replace a guy like that is difficult.”Specifically speaking, McLaren has not actually taken Kallis’ place in the starting XI. He bats lower down the order than Kallis, has a different role with the ball which includes death bowling and may well have been in the squad even if Kallis did not opt out for personal reasons. But his absence means McLaren will have to do a similar job by making an impact in more than one way and he is ready to take on that responsibility.”That’s the advantage you have as an allrounder: you can always contribute in two ways to the team,” he said. “If one discipline fails then you’ve got an opportunity to contribute in the next discipline. When you do have the odd day that both disciplines go well, then you take that.”Much like Robin Peterson, McLaren has shown progress since he was given a sustained run in the ODI team. He has been a regular member of the side since their series against England in August last year and featured in the eight home matches against New Zealand and Pakistan. Since January, he has notched up his highest score with the bat (33) and his best bowling figures (4/46).Those numbers are hardly Kallis-esque but they indicate potential and improvement. Combined with McLaren’s maturity – despite playing only 22 ODIs, he is 30-years-old, has played high-level cricket for a decade with experience on the county circuit, which could be a good sign for what McLaren can deliver at this tournament.McLaren was a Kolpak player for Kent for two years between 2007 and 2009, before he returned to South Africa and also played for Middelsex, so he knows his way around the English circuit. “Playing in England means I have an idea of what to expect in different conditions,” he said. “I will try and bank on a bit of experience I have got from playing county cricket here in the past and take that going forward.”That know-how could be most beneficial in pressure situations, which have been South Africa’s undoing in previous tournaments. At the most recent one, the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka last year, bowling towards the end of an innings was considered one of the major problems (the middle order, as ever, was the other).South Africa could not defend either of the totals they set in the second round against Pakistan and Australia and gave away 43 runs in the last five overs against India.Since Rusty Theron’s injury, they have lacked a container at the end and have now tasked McLaren with stepping into that role. He has been working with Allan Donald on perfecting the yorker and has worked on a strategy for limiting runs at the tail end of an innings.”With the new format of having four players out makes it tough as a death bowler,” McLaren said. “You want to try and adopt as much of an attacking mindset as possible. If you are just going to try and defend especially on the slower wickets here, you are going to be found out as a death bowler. There’s no point being predictable, we’ve seen in the IPL how guys hit the ball at the end of an innings.”That too, is McLaren’s job. South Africa’s lack of a lower-order finisher is another cause for concern in big events and if he can get that right, McLaren will set himself apart from some of the other allrounders that have come through.As for Kallis, the only thing McLaren wants to take from him is inspiration because he knows taking his place is not an option. “As far as Jacques is concerned, I would maybe focus on taking a lot of advice and asking a lot of questions about the game to find out what may work in these conditions and in the different disciplines of being an allrounder.”

Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, has been released from jail after completing half of his one-year sentence for spot-fixing

ESPNcricinfo staff03-May-2012Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, has been released from jail after completing half of his one-year sentence for spot-fixing, his lawyers said. He was freed from Canterbury Prison in southeast England on Thursday morning.Asif, 29, was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court in November 2011 of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments over deliberate no-balls bowled during the Lord’s Test between Pakistan and England in August 2010. He is still under a seven-year ban (the last two years of which are suspended) imposed by an ICC tribunal in February last year.His team-mates Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir were also found guilty. While Asif and Butt denied the charges against them in court Amir, who was released in February after serving half of a six-month sentence, pleaded guilty. Butt, who is currently serving a 30-month jail sentence, was banned for ten years (with five suspended), while Amir got five years.Mazhar Majeed, the agent who was accused of setting up the deal that was uncovered by a newspaper sting operation, was imprisoned for 32 months.

South Africa A levelled their five-match one-day series against Bangladesh A with an easy victory in the second game in Paarl

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Apr-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSouth Africa A levelled their five-match one-day series against Bangladesh A with an easy victory in the second game in Paarl. The result was set up by big-hitting from the hosts’ lower-middle order, which plundered 68 runs off the last 25 balls of the innings. That took South Africa A to a score of 285, which proved too much for Bangladesh A.Having chased successfully in the first one-dayer, Bangladesh chose to field, and they got a couple of early wickets. Jacques Rudolph, the South Africa A captain, had not had a big innings in the four-day matches or the first 50-over game, and was keen to get some runs. His 89, along with Farhaan Behardien’s 66, gave the hosts a platform from which to launch.The score when Behardien fell in the 46th over was 217 for 5 and at that stage Bangladesh were still in the game. Vaughn van Jaarsveld started the onslaught, smashing two sixes and a four in the 47th over, before holing out in the deep for 37 off 25 balls. The next two overs went for 18, and in the 50th, 19-year-old legspinner Noor Hossain was taken apart. Allrounder Vernon Philander hit him for two straight sixes before wicketkeeper Heino Kuhn struck two more, again straight. The over cost 27 and South Africa went into the break with all the momentum.Bangladesh needed to start their chase aggressively and they did, but lost wickets too. Philander, who had scored 23 off 9 balls, did the early damage, picking up three wickets to leave Bangladesh 87 for 4. Bangladesh A captain Mohammad Ashraful, who had scored an unbeaten century in the previous game, raced to a run-a-ball 39, but wickets continued falling at the other end. Once Ashraful was caught at third man off Craig Alexander, the match was as good as over. Philander came back to take a fourth and Bangladesh folded for 229 in 48 overs.

Alex Wakely’s half-century helped Northamptonshire to a thrilling three-wicket victory over Championship leaders Sussex on day three at Wantage Road

20-May-2010
Scorecard
Alex Wakely’s half-century helped Northamptonshire to a thrilling three-wicket victory over Championship leaders Sussex on day three at Wantage Road.Wakely’s 51 from 127 balls, aided by former captain Nicky Boje’s explosive 42 from 56 balls, steered the hosts towards their win after they had been left struggling on 88 for 5. Three wickets apiece for Jack Brooks and Lee Daggett helped Northamptonshire, who have announced the signature of former Sri Lanka bowler Chaminda Vaas, to bowl out Sussex for 274, leaving the hosts with a target of 171, which they reached inside 49 overs.At the start of the third day Sussex had resumed on 137 for 2, 38 runs ahead of Northants, with Michael Thornley and captain Murray Goodwin on 45 and 21 respectively. Thornley completed a patient half-century from 138 balls, but he added just one more run before he edged Daggett to Ireland wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien.England keeper Matt Prior came to the crease, but he went without troubling the scorers when he was trapped lbw in Brooks’ first over of the day. Goodwin made it to 39 before he was superbly caught at second slip by David Sales off the bowling of Daggett.The collapse continued when Andrew Hodd (5) gave Wakely the easiest of catches at mid-wicket before James Middlebrook was brought into the attack and he trapped Ollie Rayner (27) lbw.David Willey grabbed the wicket of Rana Naved (7) in the second over after lunch when a loose shot from the Pakistan international went to Sales at second slip. James Anyon made just a single before Brooks sent his off stump spinning and Robin Martin-Jenkins was left unbeaten on 55 off 71 balls after Corey Collymore (5) was pinned leg before by Willey.Early in the Northamptonshire chase, Stephen Peters went past 10,000 first-class career runs before he went for just four when Naved trapped him lbw. Fellow opener O’Brien made 24 before his drive off Collymore went towards Anyon at wide mid-on and he took a fantastic catch low down to his left.Anyon then forced Sales (12) to play on to his off stump to leave Northants on 57 for three, before Rob White (9) was caught and bowled by Rayner in the first over after tea. Home captain Andrew Hall, who faced four balls without scoring, then became the next batsman out lbw, dismissed by Rayner.Chris Nash claimed the wickets of Boje and Wakely, caught by Collymore and Prior respectively after valuable scores, before Middlebrook and Willey ensured Northamptonshire claimed their third win of the season.

India’s captain says he hasn’t made a plan for his future in the format yet

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Mar-20252:23

Kumble: You expect Rohit to make it count in the final

Rohit Sharma is not retiring from ODI cricket, he said after leading India to their third Champions Trophy title.”I’m not going to retire from this format, just to make sure that no rumours are spread going forward,” he said at the press conference after India beat New Zealand by four wickets in the final.Rohit said there was “no future plan” and that “what is happening will keep happening” in ODI cricket, when asked about where he stood in his career after winning back-to-back ICC titles. He had led India to victory in the 2024 T20 World Cup in June last year and retired from that format after the final.Related

• Rohit time is right on time for India – and it's not over yet

• Stats – Four drops, a spin strangle, and 15 tosses lost in a row

• KL Rahul: 'I was s****ing myself at the end'

• Kohli: India ready to take on the world for the next eight years

“Let’s see. It is a great team achievement for the team to win two ICC trophies and to go undefeated is the icing on the cake. I have seen very few teams that have won two tournaments undefeated. For us, the most important thing was that we come here and prepared and played the opposition. We used the conditions well and won. Future plan… there’s no future plan, whatever is happening will keep happening.”At the post-match presentation, Rohit had high praise for KL Rahul’s calmness in a tense chase. Rahul was unbeaten on 34 off 33 balls in difficult batting conditions and said he was “s****ing himself” towards the end of India’s chase of 252.”Again, a very solid mind,” Rohit said of Rahul. “He never gets overawed by pressure around him. That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to have him in the middle phase, to try and finish off games for us. With his experience and class, there’s a bit of calmness when he bats.”He picks the right shots to play under pressure situations, which obviously allows the other guys batting around him to come and play freely. For example, Hardik [Pandya] came out and played some really good shots in both games that gave us some freedom. Overall, the batsmanship shown by all our batters throughout the tournament was superb.”Rohit himself got India’s chase off to a powerful start, scoring 49 off 40 balls in the powerplay and going on to add 105 with Shubman Gill for the first wicket. Rohit finished with 76 off 83 balls.”It makes it a lot easier; it gives you freedom as well,” Rohit said of India’s batting depth giving him the freedom to attack at the start. “Which is why I said earlier as well, that we wanted to have batting depth as deep as possible. [Ravindra] Jadeja coming at No. 8 gives you the confidence to go slightly hard up front with the new ball. If it comes off, it comes off. If it doesn’t, then so be it. As long as I’m clear in my mind, it’s the most important thing.”5:26

Santner: ‘Rohit puts fear in bowlers’

Rohit also praised his spinners for living up to expectations. India stuck to their four-pronged spin strategy for the last three games, starting with the last group fixture against New Zealand when they first unleashed Varun Chakravarthy, who incidentally wasn’t in the preliminary squad of 15.”Not just this game but right from the beginning, our spinners in particular, there’s too many expectations when you are playing on a pitch like that, but they never disappointed,” Rohit said. “We do understand their strengths; playing on pitches like these helped and we used it to our advantage. Throughout the tournament, in terms of bowling, we were very consistent.”Varun finished the tournament as the second-highest wicket-taker. He took nine wickets in three innings at 15.11 apiece and with an economy rate of 4.53. He didn’t play India’s first group games against Bangladesh and Pakistan, but took 5 for 42 in his first opportunity, the third group match against New Zealand.”He has got something different about him,” Rohit said. “When we are playing on such pitches, we want the batters to do something different and that’s when he becomes a lot more dangerous. He didn’t start off in the tournament for us, but when he played against New Zealand and picked up a five-for, we saw the kind of ability he possesses. We wanted to maximise that, and he didn’t disappoint. He’s got great quality in his bowling, luckily it came to use a various times.”

Given their high net run rate, they are almost certain of a top-two finish in the league stage

Vishal Dikshit11-May-20244:19

‘Even Narine’s runs and wickets won’t tell you the whole story of his impact’

On an evening that started with the ball swinging around like a boomerang following plenty of rain in Kolkata, Kolkata Knight Riders’ spin twins – Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine – stifled Mumbai Indians’ chase to seal a playoffs berth for their side, with an almost-certain finish in the top two as well.After MI were set 158 runs in 16 overs, Varun and Narine started the strangle that saw MI score just 22 runs in the five overs after the powerplay for two wickets that mounted the pressure on the visitors.Suryakumar Yadav and Tim David had no choice but to go after the quicks and fell to Andre Russell’s variations that saw MI stumble to 92 for 5 and there was no coming back from there, barring a late cameo from Tilak Varma. He reduced the equation to 22 required from the six balls, but his wicket early in the last over eventually handed MI their ninth loss in 13 matches.

Ramandeep fined for code of conduct breach

KKR batter Ramandeep Singh has been fined 20% of his match fees for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct during the match against MI. Ramandeep committed a Level 1 offence under Article 2.20, which covers all types of conduct that’s contrary to the spirit of the game. He admitted to the offence and accepted the match referee’s sanction.

After rain had delayed the start of the game by an hour and 45 minutes, the match was reduced to 16 overs a side. Even though KKR lost their openers early, Venkatesh Iyer and some lower-order hitting powered them to 157, which may have seemed short early on but proved to be enough.

The strangle from Narine and Varun

Rohit Sharma was struggling for runs and scored at under run a ball in the first six overs. So the onus of hitting was on Ishan Kishan who flat-batted his way to 37 off 17 in the powerplay (which was five overs for this game). He largely peppered the square boundaries, the highlight being a four with a reverse hit followed by a six with a pull at the end of the powerplay to take MI to 59.Varun Chakravarthy celebrates after getting Rohit Sharma out•AFP/Getty Images

But Narine was ready with his riposte in his next over and had Kishan hole out for 40. With the spin on from both ends that featured a lot of stump-to-stump bowling and 17 consecutive boundary-less balls, Rohit’s struggle ended on 19. Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak also hardly attacked the spinners and the equation soon became 77 required from 36.Russell then got the ball. His scrambled seam snared Suryakumar and the slower ball removed David. In between, Varun had Hardik Pandya caught for 2 to add to MI’s woes.The equations like 57 needed from 18 have become all the more achievable in this IPL, and Tilak kept MI’s flame burning when he took on Harshit Rana in the 14th over for 16 runs by dispatching his slower ones to the ropes. No. 8 Naman Dhir took inspiration from Tilak to smash Russell for a couple of sixes and a four for a 19-run over that brought MI back in the game. With 22 needed from six, Dhir and Tilak fell in the first three deliveries of the last over, which sealed MI’s fate.

There’s always some Bumrah magic

You didn’t have to guess that the KKR openers would come out all guns blazing in this shortened game. Phil Salt kicked off the innings with a first-ball six against Nuwan Thushara but fell in the same over. From the other end, Bumrah showed some magic Narine had no answer for.Bumrah’s first ball was a yorker that tailed in just a bit at the end from outside off. Narine, who had shouldered arms to it, was flabbergasted by the late movement that took the base of the off stump. It was Narine’s first duck of this IPL.