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Thursday 2 March 2017

IPL 2017 Does Ben Stokes Deserve Windfall? Yes Says Ian Botham

#IPL2017 #IPL10
#IndianPremierLeague

#England all-rounder #BenStokes was picked up by #RisingPuneSupergiants (#RPS) for IPL 2017.

England legend, #IanBotham says "box-office" Ben Stokes deserves every penny of the more than £1.7 million ($2.1 mn) that the England all-rounder will rake in playing in the Indian Premier League. 

Stokes set a record for an overseas player in the cash-rich #Twenty20 competition when RPS shelled out for him at last week's auction. The 25-year-old Stokes has come up through the ranks at #Durham, where Botham is the newly appointed chairman having finished his illustrious playing career with the English county. 

Botham, one of the outstanding all-rounders of his generation, said he was glad that #Stokes - set to have fresh responsibilities with England as vice-captain to new Test skipper #JoeRoot - was being well-rewarded.

"He is getting for the #IPL what most guys going to China to play football are getting for a fortnight's wages," Botham told a news conference at Durham's #Chester-le-Street headquarters.

"Cricket needs to move and I think players deserve the rewards. It's a precarious living. You can have an injury and never play again and I think people realize that now."

Stokes's aggressive style has been compared to that of Botham in his pomp and the former England captain said: "I am very pleased for Ben. He is box office -- that's why he went for what he went for (in the IPL).

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Wednesday 1 March 2017

ICC CT17 - 5 Interesting Aspects To Look Out For As Countdown Begins

#ICC #Cricket #ChampionsTrophy 2017 #CT17

Starting June 1, 2017, the top eight One-Day International sides in the world will come and clash for the #ICC #Champions #Trophy 2017 in #England and #Wales. The opening match will pit #England, the host, against #Bangladesh at The #Oval in #London, which is one of three venues that will be used for the tournament.

The Final of this tournament is scheduled on June 18 (with a reserve day in place), when the finalists face off at The #Oval. #Edgbaston and #Cardiff will be the other two venues to share the responsibility of staging the 15-match tournament.

1- Every Match Becomes Crucial: The eight teams will be divided into two groups of four; each will play the three other sides in their respective group once in a bid to make it to the semi-finals. The short and intense nature of the tournament makes it such that there will be high stakes on the outcome of every match with every match absolutely crucial.

2 -Truckload of runs: Going by the trend in the recent #bilateral series between #India and #England, the modern #ODI game continues to be conducive to heavy run-scoring and fans can expect much of the same at the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. 

3 - Next Gen: Several exciting #Young #Players can be expected to make their global 50-over tournament debuts. In the bowling department, Bangladesh's #MustafizurRahman, South Africa's #KagisoRabada, India's #JaspritBumrah and Australia's #AdamZampa are some of the names to keep an eye out for. 

Among batsmen, India's #KedarJadhav, Pakistan's #BabarAzam, England's #SamBillings and #JasonRoy fit the bill, while #MitchellSantner from New Zealand and #MarcusStoinis from Australia are among the more promising all-rounders yet to feature in a marquee 50-over tournament.

4 - Open nature of tournament: This looks like it could be the most competitive ICC Champions Trophy of all time with little to choose between all eight sides. Pakistan — ranked No. 8 — recently won an ODI against No. 1 ranked Australia on their home-soil in a further indication that no game can be taken for granted. 

Across the board, teams have adopted a more aggressive, fearless approach towards the 50-over game, which has helped bring down the chasm between the teams. On account of the sharp and uncompromising format of the tournament coupled with the qualitative similarity of teams, the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 can be expected to deliver intense competition.

5 - Bangladesh Returns to Champions Trophy: The Bangladesh #Tigers haven't qualified for the ICC Champions Trophy since the 2006 edition. Much has changed for the team in the last two years. Its defeat of England to make it to the knockouts of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 deserves special mention. It then went on a winning spree in the format defeating Pakistan, India and South Africa in successive ODI series at home. It is ranked No. 7 — one above Pakistan — and kept #WestIndies out of the competition. It is yet to prove its credentials overseas, and this tournament presents it with the ideal opportunity.
Whatever happens, it's going to be a memorable tournament, roll on June 1st 2017.

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Friday 24 February 2017

IPL 2017 Auction: Check Out the Complete List Of Sold And Unsold Players

#IPL2017 #IPL10 #Auction was successfully held on February 20, 2017 in Bengaluru. 

The #IndianPremiereLeague is all set to start on April 5, 2017. 

Here is a list of all players #Sold and #Unsold (some real surprises here....) from the auction:

As expected, England All-rounder #BenStokes won it real big at the auction. He was owned by #RisingPuneSupergiants for a whopping INR. 14.5 crores (over USD. 2 Million)

IPL 2017 Auction Check Out the Complete List Of Sold And Unsold Players

#SunrisersHyderabad missed out a chance to have him at Rs. 13 crores. 

Lesser known #Tymal Mills, was the ultimate surprise jackpot winner though. He was sold out for Rs. 13 crores to #RoyalChallengersBangalore. 

#KagisoRabada, the young paceman from South Africa and #Kiwi superstar #TrentBoult were signed for Rs. 5 crores each. 

#MohammadNabi and #RashidKhan became the first players from #Afghanistan to bag IPL deals. Truly sensational news this for budding Afghan players and their cricket future.

#KarnSharma was the one who was sold for a handsome amount of Rs. 3.2 crores from Indian players and the next one is #TNatarajan who signed for Rs. 3 crores. 

#EoinMorgan inked in Rs. 2 crores to the #KingsXIPunjab (#KXIP). 

Delhi Daredevils: Kagiso Rabada (Rs 5 crore), Navdeep Saini (Rs 10 lakh), Pat Cummins Rs 4.5 crore), Aditya Tare (Rs 25 lakh), Angelo Mathews (Rs 2 crore), Corey Anderson (Rs 1 crore), M Ashwin (Rs 1 crore), Ankeet Bawane (Rs 10 lakh), Shashank Singh (Rs 10 lakh).

Gujarat Lions: Jason Roy (Rs 1 crore), Shubam Agrawal (Rs 10 lakh), Basil Thampy (Rs 85 lakh), Shelley Shaurya (Rs 10 lakh), Manpreet Gony (Rs 60 lakh), Nathu Singh (Rs 50 lakh), Munaf Patel (Rs 30 lakh), Tejas Singh Baroka (Rs 10 lakh), Chirag Suri (Rs 10 lakh), Pratham Singh (Rs 10 lakh), Aksh Deep Nath (Rs 10 lakh)

Kings XI Punjab: T Natarajan (Rs 3 crore), Varun Aaron (Rs 2.8 crore), Rahul Tewatia (Rs 25 lakh), Eoin Morgan (Rs 2 crore), Darren Sammy (Rs 30 lakh), Matt Henry (Rs 50 lakh), Martin Guptill (Rs 50 lakh), Rinku Singh (Rs 10 lakh).
KKR: Trent Boult (Rs 5 crore), Chris Woakes (Rs 4.2 crore), Darren Bravo (Rs 50 lakh), Nathan Coulter-Nile (Rs 3.5 crore), Rishi Dhawan (Rs 55 lakh), Sayan Ghosh (Rs 10 lakh), Rovman Powell (Rs 30 lakh), R Sanjay Yadav (Rs 10 lakh), Ishank Jaggi (Rs 10 lakh).

Mumbai Indians: Karn Sharma (Rs 3.2 crore), Asela Gunarathna (Rs 30 lakh), Nicolas Pooran (Rs 30 lakh), K Gowtham (Rs 2 crore), Mitchell Johnson (Rs 2 crore), Saurabh Tiwary (Rs 30 lakh), Kulwant Khejroliya (Rs 10 lakh).
RPS: Ben Stokes (Rs 14.5 crore), Dan Christian (Rs 1 crore), Manoj Tiwary (Rs 50 lakh), Lockie Ferguson (Rs 50 lakh), Jaydev Unadkat (Rs 30 lakh), Rahul Chahar (Rs 10 lakh), Suarabh Kumar (Rs 10 lakh), Milind Tandon (Rs 10 lakh), Rahul Tripathi (Rs 10 lakh).

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Tymal Mills (Rs 12 crore), Aniket Choudhary Rs 2 crore), Pawan Negi (Rs 1 crore), Billy Stanlake (Rs 30 lakh), Praveen Dubey (Rs 10 lakh).

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Rashid Khan (Rs 4 crore), Mohammed Siraj (Rs 2.6 crore), Pravin Tambe (Rs 10 lakh), Eklavya Dwivedi Rs 75 lakh), Chris Jordan (Rs 50 lakh), Mohammad Nabi (Rs 30 lakh), Ben Laughlin (Rs 30 lakh), Tanmay Agarwal (Rs 10 lakh).

Unsold players (many surprises in this one marked in RED)
Ishant Sharma, Jason Holder, Brad Haddin, Nathan Lyon, Jonny Bairstow, Kyle Abbott, Marlon Samuels, Alex Hales, Andile Phehlukwayo, Nic Maddinson, Michael Klinger, Cheteshwar Pujara, Thisara Perera, Mohammad Shahzad, Kusal Janith Perera, Ross Taylor, Irfan Pathan, Colin Munro, Dinesh Chandimal, James Neesham, Wayne Parnell, Mitchell Santner, Akila Dananjaya, Colin De Grandhomme, Brad Hogg, Imran Tahir, Evin Lewis, Unmukt Chand, Abhinav Mukund, Rishi Arothe, Umang Sharma, Prithvi Shaw, Glenn Phillips.

Pankaj Singh, Joe Burns, RP Singh, Fawad Ahmed, Michael Beer, Faiz Fazal, Rahul Sharma, Sean Abbott, Mehedi Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Dwaine Pretorius, Mahmudullah, Johnson Charles, and others....

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Wednesday 22 February 2017

100 Days to go for ICC Champions Trophy 2017 - International Cricket Council

#CT2017
#ChampionsTrophy #Cricket #England

With 100 days to go, here's a look at the centurions from the previous editions of the tournament: 
Since 1998, 40 centuries have been scored in the ICC Champions Trophy, previously known as the ICC Knock Out Trophy. The 2002 edition of tournament in Sri Lanka, which was jointly won by the host and India, had the most number of centuries, 10, with Herschelle Gibbs scored two of them. The ICC Champions Trophy 2013 in England and Wales saw the least number of 100s – 3.

While 29 players from ten countries have scored a total of 4,641 runs, Indians have scored the maximum number of 100s – 8. With 100 days to go until the first ball is bowled in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, we take a look at some of the top 100s scored in previous editions of the tournament.

Sourav Ganguly, Gibbs and Chris Gayle have all scored three centuries – the most by any player. Zimbabwe's Andy Flower and New Zealand's Nathan Astle hold the joint record for the highest score in the tournament. Flower scored 145 off 164 deliveries against India in the 2002 edition in Colombo, while Astle made an unbeaten 145 against United States of America in 2004 at The Oval.

Virender Sehwag scored the quickest 100, off just 77 balls, during the 2002 edition in Colombo. Sehwag also holds the record for hitting the most fours in a 100 in the tournament. He hit 21 boundaries in 126 against England in Colombo in 2002.

Shahriar Nafees, the Bangladesh batsman, holds the record for the slowest century, off 143 balls, in 2006 in Jaipur.

The most number of sixes (7) were hit by Shane Watson during his 136 not out against England in Pretoria in 2009.

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Sunday 19 February 2017

IPL 2017 Mitchell Starc Moves On From RCB

#IPL2017
#IPL #Season 10 #T20 #Cricket

Royal Challengers Bangalore #RCB, suffered a huge blow ahead of the 2017 Indian Premier League (#IPL) auction as Australia pacer #MitchellStarc will not be a part of this year's tournament.

A tweet from the IPL announced that Mitch and Bangalore had decided to "discontinue their association ahead of 2017 season", confirming reports in certain sections of the international media.

A statement from the Board of Control for Cricket in India explained that the player and RCB have mutually decided to discontinue their association ahead of the upcoming season of #VIVO #IPL Indian Premier League 2017 in accordance with Regulations of the IPL Player Regulations.

This will be a huge blow to the franchise and Bangalore will now go into Monday's auction with an additional purse of INR 5 crore along with an additional slot for an overseas player.

The 27-year old fast bowler, who missed the previous edition of the IPL due to injury, joined the Bangalore franchise in 2014 and has taken 34 wickets for his side till date















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Saturday 28 January 2017

Aus Open Tennis 2017 - Return Of Old The Guard Pleasantly Surprises Everyone

#AustralianOpen #Tennis #GrandSlam 2017
#Melbourne #Park

This year's Australian Open Tennis championship has been nothing short of awe inspiring display of tennis for the old guard. The legends of "yesterday" as they were labeled, just rose to the occasion and showed why they are legends in the first place!

In the Men's Singles draw, arguably the greatest rivalry after Borg and McEnroe, #RogerFederer and #RafaelNadal stormed into the finals with classic 5 set victories over their higher ranked and younger aged opponents showing their class and stamina alike to play at this level. What a dream final this would be! #Rafa has a big edge over #Roger in Head-to-Head comparison and also Grand Slam meetings so he will feel the upperhand going into the contest. But those wins were way back in 2009-2011. Their latest meeting in 2015 saw Roger turn the tide on Nadal and pull one back (although not in a grand slam event).

We as tennis fans can only hope to see a classic on Sunday (remember some of those epic battles ; the 2007 and 2008 Wimbledon Finals, 2011 Australian Open final to name just a few...) Who are you supporting to win? Federer his 18th or Nadal his 15th? Only time will tell.

In the Women's Singles draw, the #Williams #Sisters have brought back memories of their rivalry down the years yet again. #Serena has always been on top of her game over the last few years but #Venus has been the surprise package this year. And she promises to challenge Serena's supremacy in Women's Tennis. Also, Serena's Grand Slam finals record over the last few tournaments has been surprisingly poor. She has lost 3 finals (surprisingly to low ranked newbies) so she needs to put that behind her. Venus can go all out with nothing to lose. The pressure will be on Serena as she stands on threshold of surpassing #SteffiGraf (22 Grand Slam crowns).

Whatever the outcome, we are going to see two classic matches from the legends of the game.  Lets just savor the moments.

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Monday 23 January 2017

Australian Open 2017: Fan Cam Is The Latest Buzz At The Grand Slam

#FanCam - The latest sensation unveiled at the #AustralianOpen #Tennis #GrandSlam. 

A STATE-of-the-art "Fan Cam'' to be unveiled at this month's Australian Open will allow spectators to take control of a camera inside the #Stadium #Roof and snap a #Selfie'' in their seats.

Fans will be able to visit a mobile site via smartphone, enter their seat number and pose for a picture in the latest grand slam first at #RodLaver #Arena.

Photos will then be sent to their phone and fans would be encouraged to share them on digital walls inside the stadium and social media with prizes awarded after matches for best images of the night.



The Fan Cam is just one example of cutting-edge technology being used at this year's Australian Open.

More than 200 moving lights will be installed around the arena catwalk and at the top of stadium aisles, and music composed by acclaimed Australian producer Ned Beckley will play from stadium speakers. A light beam display will fill the arena each evening.

And more than 200 different videos tailored to player match-ups every night will be played on 3m high digital screens around the venue.

Giant LED screens in Garden Square will feature life-size player vision during matches. 

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Friday 20 January 2017

Ind v Eng-ODI Series-Yuvraj's Sublime 150, Dhoni's Masterly 134 And Morgan's Superb 102

#INDvENG #ODI Series 2017
2nd ODI, #Cuttack

It was a day of centuries at the #Barabati #Stadium in #Cuttack, the venue for 2nd ODI between #India and #England. Trailing 0-1, English captain #EoinMorgan chose to chase on this super flat deck and also assuming that dew in evening would support their batsmen when chasing the total.

Early breakthroughs for #ChrisWoakes, including the prized scalp of talisman #VirakKohli put India on the backfoot early. Woakes snared Rahul, Virat and Dhavan in quick succession to send India reeling at 25 for 3.

In walked #MSDhoni to join #YuvrajSingh. It needed a partnership to not just bail India out of trouble but set a score where they could challenge the English batters. As it turned out, a dream partnership of sublime timing (Yuvraj - 150) and masterly timed innings (Dhoni - 134*) to guide India. They put on a stunning 256 run partnership (5th highest for any wicket in #ODIs). Both scoring majestic centuries in the bargain. By the time Yuvraj left, they had set up a great platform for the young bashers in Jadhav and Pandya to take centrestage.

With the insurance of Dhoni at the other end both didnt disappoint. Jadhav and Pandya slogged their way to get India to a massive 381 for 8 in 50 overs. MS remained unbeaten on 134.

The chase needed a similar response from English batsmen. However, #AlexHales nicked one Dhoni to get England to a worst possible start. Mr. Dependable #JoeRoot then joined #JasonRoy and both decided to take the attack to the Indians. Together they strung a century partnership.

Just when things began to look brighter , a change of bowling worked for Kohli.
#RAshwin,  after a poor game in Pune, bounced back to get Root. His flight and the wicket did him in. He lofted one straight to midwicket where skipper Kohli completed his catch.

#Morgan then stepped in and started accumulating runs. #JasonRoy kept smashing at the other end and propelled the innings with a wonderful 83 before he was castled by #Jaddu, #Moeen made a quickfire 50 and at 203 for 4 in 30 overs, the target seemed achievable. It was 20-20 scenario.

A couple of quick blows though set England back. Ashwin foxed dangerous #BenStokes and then tricked #JosButtler in quick succession to put pressure on England. #Morgan continued his fine strokeplay though and kept the asking rate within grasp. At 349 for 7, needing 33 in 18 balls, the game looked even and slightly tilted towards England since Morgan was in superb touch. 

Then tragedy struck. Bumrah's yorker was somehow dug by Plunkett but straight back to him. By that time, Morgan had followed up too long and way out of his crease. Bumrah ran him out comfortably to release a lot of tension in the India camp. The final couple of overs saw England fizzle out and ended 15 runs short of the target. What a pity! They were in it for most of the game and it would have been an all time classic run-chase if they had pulled this off!

India win the series 2-0 and the third one dayer will be played in #Kolkata on 22nd Jan 2017.

Man of the Match: Yuvraj Singh

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