- MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings) – he may have retired from all other formats and tournaments, but Dhoni continues to a vital cog in the CSK juggernaut.
- Ishan Kishan (Mumbai Indians) – MI broke the bank for Ishan. As expected, he was the highest valued player in this year’s auctions. And now has to live up to this price tag as well.
- Varun Aaron (Gujarat Titans) – Should get a few games during the tournament
- Anukul Roy (Kolkata Knight Riders) – moved from Mumbai Indians where he was playing more as a specialist substitute fielder. Lets see what opportunities he gets with KKR
- Shahbaz Nadeem (Lucknow Super Giants) – A new franchisee for Nadeem. Should get a few games here.
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
IPL 2022: Jharkhand & Bihar Representation
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Ranji Trophy 2021-22: Pre-Quarter Final - Jharkhand vs Nagaland
- 880 – 4th highest Ranji Trophy score ever and the highest in this millennium
- 1297 – Jharkhand’s combined tally – 3rd highest match tally. I guess the team minght not have been aware of this record when they called in the second innings.
- Kumar Kushagra – 254 & 89 – Maiden first-class century. Scoring big runs in the true tradition of a Jharkhand wicket-keeper (Dhoni, Ishan Kishan, Indrani Roy)
- Virat Singh – 5th First-class century
- Anukul Roy – 2nd first-class century & personal best of 153
- Shahbaz Nadeem – 2nd first-class century & personal best of 177
- Rahul Shukla – 85* coming in at No. 11. He certainly missed out on century
- Kumar Kushagra 437 @ 72.83, 1x200, 1x50
- Anukul Roy 283 @ 35.38, 1x100, 1x50
- Virat Singh 278 @ 39.71, 2x100
- Shahbaz Nadeem 18 @ 21.67, 2x5, 1x10
- Sushant Mishra 13 @ 23.62, 1x5
- Anukul Roy 10 @ 23.50
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Ranji Trophy 2021-22: Bihar Review
- Sakibul Gani 341 – 1st player to score a triple century on first-class debut – world record for highest score on debut
- Babul Kumar 229* - Highest score, 3rd First-class century
- 538 – partnership between Sakibul & Babul
- Bipin Saurabh – 50 on first-class debut
- First-class debut – Bipin Saurabh, Malay Raj, Sachin Kumar, Sakibul Gani, Vikash Kumar
- Sakibul Gani – 98 & 101*, the fantastic start continued, 2nd First-class century
- Yashasvi Rishav – 112* in 2nd innings, 2nd first-class century
- First-class debut – Abhinav Kumar
- Ashutosh Aman – 4/51 & 5/56 and 75 in 2nd innings; 15th 5-wicket haul in 20 matches!
- Vikrant Singh – 50 on debut
- Rishav Raj – 50 on debut
- Sakibul Gani – 4 wickets & 61 runs in the match
- First-class debut – Amit Sotiya, Banshidhar Kumar, Govind Chaudhary, Rishav Raj, Saurav Kumar, Shivam Singh, Vikrant Singh
- Sakibul Gani 601 @ 150.25, 1x300, 1x100, 1x50 – Highest scorer in this year’s Ranji Trophy
- Babul Kumar 372 @ 93.00, 1x200, 1x50
- Bipin Saurabh 126 @ 126.00, 2x50
- Ashutosh Aman 14 @ 20.50, 1x5
- Abhijeet Saket 8 @ 29.75
- Sachin Kumar 6 @ 37.50
Monday, March 7, 2022
Ranji Trophy 2021-22: Jharkhand Group Stage Review
- Sushant Mishra 5/27 in 1st innings on debut
- Saurabh Tiwary completed 7000 runs in first-class cricket in his 101st game
- Virat Singh -103* in 1st innings, First-class Century #4
- Shahbaz Nadeem – 5/58 & 5/83, First-class 5-wicket haul #20 & #21 and 10-wicket haul #6
- Nazim Siddiqui – 52 & 110, First-class century #4
- Kumar Suraj – 131* in 2nd innings, First-class century #3
- First-class debut – Kumar Kushagra & Vikash Vishal
- Saurabh Tiwary – 58 & 93
- Rahul Shukla – 3/57 & 5/29, 6th 5-wicket haul in first-class cricket
- Kumar Kushagra – 1st First-class 50
- Nazim Siddiqui 199 @ 33.17, 1x100, 1x50
- Saurabh Tiwary 182 @ 45.50, 2x50
- Virat Singh 171 @ 28.50, 1x100
- Shahbaz Nadeem 15 @ 21.33, 2x5, 1x10
- Sushant Mishra 11 @ 20.73, 1x5
- Rahul Shukla 8 @ 10.75, 1x5
Saturday, March 5, 2022
RIP Shane Warne
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021-22: Bihar Review
- Sakibul Gani 231 @ 77.00, 1x100, 1x50
- Mangal Mahrour 188 @ 62.67, 1x50
- Bipin Saurabh 182 @ 60.67, 2x50
- Ashutosh Aman 7 @ 19.14
- Malay Raj 6 @ 13.00
- Shashi Shekhar 6 @ 15.83
Monday, January 24, 2022
Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021-22: Jharkhand Review
- Nazim Siddiqui 271 @ 54.20, 1x100, 1x50
- Virat Singh 196 @ 49.00, 2x50
- Utkarsh Singh 191 @ 47.75, 3x50
- Varun Aaron 8 @ 20.13
- Shahbaz Nadeem 6 @ 37.17
- Rahul Shukla 4 @ 48.75
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Gabba - a year ago
"It ain't about hard you hit. It's about hard you can get hit and keep moving forward" - Rocky Balboa
Thursday, January 6, 2022
The World Cup XV - the Women in Blue
There is an ODI World Cup happening soon. The Women's ODI World Cup, in to be held in New Zealand next month. The last one in England, 2017 was special. For quite a big number of fans, that was the tournament in which Women's cricket became just cricket. Who can forget that Harmanpreet Kaur special in the semi-finals!
However, the road since then hasn't been the smoothest, with Covid, specially creating all sorts of troubles. The Qualifying cycle and the final Qualifiers were disrupted by Covid. Even the tournament itself was pushed back by a year. And, just to add to the uncertainty, there is another Covid ongoing at different parts of the world.
We still hope that the tournament proceeds as per schedule with no interruptions due to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, India have named their squad for the tournament.
Mithali Raj (C), Harmanpreet Kaur (VC), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Varma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Taniya Bhatia, Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh, Poonam Yadav & Rajeshwari Gayakwad.
S Meghna, Ekta Bisht & Simran Bahadur will be the stand-bys.
Team seems to be good mixture of experience and youth. There are some questions on certain non-selections e.g. Jemimah, Shikha Pandey. But the selectors know best. The World Cup would be the last hurrah for two legends of the game - mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, both of whom are at end of two decades plus international careers (Interestingly both have biopics coming up).
Wishing the very best to the squad. They also play New Zealand prior to the World Cup. That should be a good familiarization with the playing conditions.
Also, hoping for a safe tournament for all players and support staff,
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
The Twenty21 Lineup
- Women’s ODI: Zimbabwe (personally I was surprised to learn that Zimbabwe women have never played an ODI)
- Men’s T20I: Bahamas, Cameroon, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Hungary, Lesotho, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra leone, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania
- Women’s T20I: Belgium, Cameroon, Eswatini, Italy, Sweden
- Pakistan finally after 3 decades of trying beat India in a Men’s World Cup game with a thumping 10-wicket margin in the T20 World Cup. That record had to go some day. Well, we are still unbeaten in the Men’s ODI World Cup.
- Then there was the greatest breach of all. Australia losing at Gabba for the first time in 32 years. As if this wasn’t a big event in itself, India achieved this with a depleted lineup and a bowling unit with a combined experience of 12 Test wickets!