Category: Games

Dubai, November 02, 2021 (PPI-OT):It has been shown time and again at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 that there is no replacement for speed and South Africa have bags of it.

Kagiso Rabada was the standout performer in the six-wicket win over Bangladesh, taking three wickets in the powerplay and decimating the Bangladeshi top order.

His combination of pace and swing was too much for Bangladesh, but just as crucial from a South African perspective was the way the rest of the attack backed him up, with Anrich Nortje actually ending up with even better figures as he finished with three for eight compared to Rabada’s three for 20.

Rabada said: “Whenever I can contribute to the team success, I will take it, even if I’m not taking wickets. But on a personal note, it feels good to take wickets, especially up front in the powerplay, making inroads. That’s what I’ve always strived to do.

“We knew we had got off to a good start but it was crucial that we didn’t take the foot off the pedal. Every bowler who came on made sure they stuck to the game plan. That got us to an even more powerful position.”

Such was South Africa’s dominance early on that Bangladesh’s innings was already in disarray by the time that Tabraiz Shamsi, officially the world’s best bowler, was called into action.

Like Rabada and Nortje, he underlined his threat, and if South Africa are to beat England in their final Super 12 match to give themselves the best shot of making the semi-final, then it will likely come down to the bowlers.

How the likes of Rabada and Nortje can get on against Jos Buttler and Jason Roy will be crucial. If they can find a way to slow down England’s power hitters, then it would give the Proteas a real chance.

With a net run-rate that is currently vastly superior to Australia, a win in that one may well be enough to make the semi-final.

Of course, that depends on what the Aussies do against Bangladesh and the West Indies in their remaining matches, with the Windies also still technically in contention, albeit with an even bigger run-rate mountain to climb.

But for a team who started very slowly against Australia in the opening game of the Super 12, South Africa have been able to turn it around.

As with most teams in this tournament, they have done it by bowling first and making early inroads and that will be the template for any future success.

The relatively small total meant the chase was never really an issue, and finishing the job inside 14 overs boosted the net run-rate.

Another useful knock from Bavuma will help the skipper’s confidence, although none of the South Africa batters have quite fired as yet.

If the bowlers can continue to deliver as they have so far though, they might not have to.

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Phone: +97-143828800
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Dubai, November 02, 2021 (PPI-OT):South Africa have virtually been playing knockout cricket since their opening defeat to Australia but after seeing off Bangladesh by six wickets, skipper Temba Bavuma is excited about a potential do-or-die clash with England.

The Proteas are second in Group 1 of the Super 12 at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, and with a net run-rate advantage over Australia, know that a win over England might be enough to secure a spot in the last four.

For Bavuma, who scored an unbeaten 31 in the win in Abu Dhabi, the performance of fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, who took three wickets apiece, was a promising sign for the future.

He said: “It was a good day for us. There was quite a lot in the wicket early on, and KG (Rabada) and Nortje were able to exploit it. It was a good effort with the ball and then clinical with the bat as well.

“It excites us (seeing the ball fly through). The conditions reminded us of playing at home. We’re blessed to have both those guys running in with the new ball. It’s never easy when you have one guy bowling 150 and another guy in KG who’s got all the skill in the world.

“We wanted to get the score in a good time, but the conditions were a bit tricky. The ball was still nipping around but I guess you have to try to pounce on the loose ones and take away whatever pressure there was.

“It’s a big game [against England], every game has been for us. Looking at the competition the way it is, it’s one that we want to play our best cricket. England have had the better of us recently, and we would like to make amends.”

While South Africa are dreaming of a potential semi-final, it was a tough afternoon for Bangladesh, who were skittled for just 84 batting first.

Without the injured Shakib Al Hasan, missing his first-ever ICC Men’s T20 World Cup match, Bangladesh were never able to build a platform and skipper Mahmudullah admitted that the batting display was under-par after being put in, although he was pleased with the performance of Taskin Ahmed who took two for 18.

He said: “I think the wicket was pretty good to bowl on in the first half. We weren’t good enough in the middle. That was a poor batting display, but having said that there was enough assistance for the bowlers.

“Taskin has been bowling well in this tournament. We had the choice between Taskin and Fizzy (Mustafizur Rahman), but we wanted to give a chance to Taskin because he has been bowling well.

“It’s frustrating, but we could have won two games. If we had won those games, it would have been a different story.”

For more information, contact:
Headquarters,
International Cricket Council (ICC)
Street 69, Dubai Sports City,
Sh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, Dubai, UAE
Phone: +97-143828800
Fax: +97-143828600
E-mail: enquiry@icc-cricket.com
Website: www.icc-cricket.com

Dubai, November 02, 2021 (PPI-OT):Afghanistan bowler Hamid Hassan revealed the key to beating India is getting runs on the board to give his side’s world class spinners the chance to shine.

Hassan, 34, made a successful comeback to international T20 cricket after five years out against Namibia, taking incredible figures of three for nine in a convincing 62-run win.

Afghanistan are second in Group 2 of the Super 12s and will look to push their claim for a semi-final spot with victory over India, who are desperately searching for their first victory of the ICC Men’s World Cup 2021, having lost to Pakistan and New Zealand.

Hassan said: “We are a very good side. You can see our batting, bowling and fielding is much improved.

“We have some of the best spinners in the world, Mujeeb [Ur Rahman], Rashid [Khan], and now it’s a proper complete squad.

“If you see the top of the order, sometimes they click, sometimes they’re stuck. But the good sign is that the middle order is getting runs, especially the skipper [Mohammad Nabi] and everybody in the middle.

“But the good news is we haven’t been all out in games so far, just five or six batters have got out, but we have a long batting side until No.9.

“Even Rashid hasn’t batted yet. So, we have a good opportunity against India, if we score good runs on the board, insha’Allah, we [will] defeat them by bowling and fielding.”

Hassan admits his side will need to stay composed and trust their plans in the high-pressure must-win encounter with India at Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

He added: “Just believe in ourselves, in Allah, that’s what we do all the time. And we have to be calm because if you get pressure in the game then you know what will happen.

“So, if you lose your concentration, you can’t focus, and that will impact the team and the players, and you can’t win the game.

“So, it’s better to be calm and cool and focus on whatever you get given from the coaches, they give the plan. So, you have to be focused on that.”

Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour thinks his side can beat Afghanistan if they bat to their potential after struggling so far in the conditions in the UAE.

India made 151 against Pakistan before mustering just 110 against New Zealand and will need to perform better to take the win Afghanistan.

Rathour said: “One of the factors, is definitely the pitch. I think when you bat first on these surfaces, even though it doesn’t look very uneven or anything, there is variation in pace and bounce.

“So, strike rotation is an issue. It’s not only with our team, I think every team has had this issue.

“Unfortunately, we were not able to execute the big shots well. So that will happen once in a while in a game. And I think unfortunately that happened with us in the last game, that nobody really was able to execute the big innings that they were trying to play. But as such, I think it’s more to do with the surface that we’ve been playing on.

“If you want to be a champion team, if you want to be a team which wins the World Cup, you should be able to be [effective] in these situations. You should be able to play in these conditions as well.

“That’s what I think our focus is from now onwards. We still need to find ways to score runs and strike against the spinner, and every batter will have a different way of doing that. So, they need to find their own strengths and back those strengths.”

After two defeats from two, India need wins against Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia as well as a favourable net run rate to secure a semi-final spot, but Rathour insists the side are solely focusing on winning games.

He added: “We need to win first before we get into the run rate part of the equation.

“I think this calculation has come into the picture, come into focus when we get to the last game and when the other results are out.

“So, at this moment, no, there’s no focus on calculating any of the run rate or anything. We’re just looking to play well, sort out the issues and get into the game and win the game.”

For more information, contact:
Headquarters,
International Cricket Council (ICC)
Street 69, Dubai Sports City,
Sh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, Dubai, UAE
Phone: +97-143828800
Fax: +97-143828600
E-mail: enquiry@icc-cricket.com
Website: www.icc-cricket.com

Dubai, November 02, 2021 (PPI-OT):Namibia coach Pierre de Bruyn insisted his side put in an excellent performance against Pakistan despite slipping to a 45-run defeat in their Super 12s Group 2 encounter in Abu Dhabi.

The Eagles mustered 144 for five in reply to Pakistan’s 189 for two as despite an unbeaten 43 off 31 balls from David Wiese and 40 from No.3 Craig Williams, Namibia fell to a second consecutive defeat after losing to Afghanistan last time out.

The African minnows had restricted Pakistan to 59 from the first ten overs but Babar Azam, 70, and Mohammad Rizwan, 79 not out off 50, shared a second century stand of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup which, along with some late hitting from Mohammad Hafeez (32 off 16 balls), helped the Men in Green to a fourth straight win to almost certainly seal their place in the semi-finals.

De Bruyn said: “I read in the news that Pakistan has almost 3,000 [cricket] clubs, Namibia has five. For us it’s just such a nice story, I felt that the guys and every Namibian supporter can be proud of how they performed tonight against an absolutely world class team.

“The lessons we’ve learned we will take with us; we’ve played 40 overs of cricket and there were stages where we tested them. After ten overs they had 59 runs on the board.

“We will take everything with us, it’s gold dust experience and information that we need to grow us a team, so we are very pleased with that performance.

“I think it has been an amazing performance [at the World Cup], that’s just my opinion. We want to win cricket games and sometimes you’ve got to be realistic; I thought against Afghanistan we were a little bit soft in certain areas, the way in which we lost our wickets.

“But we beat Scotland and we had to beat Ireland and Netherlands to get to this stage, so this tour has been excellent for us.”

Namibia are fourth in Group 2 and go into two huge challenges against New Zealand and India needing wins if they are to make history and progress, with De Bruyn insisting his side will not be there for the taking against the cricketing giants who may need to improve their net run rate to qualify.

He added: “We are going in to win cricket games first of all, but we also know that it’s two great cricket teams that we are facing.

“They’ve got their own agenda in how they need to win cricket games and not lose cricket games, especially not against Namibia.

“We are focusing on ourselves; we are learning so much with this experience – we’ve learnt so much tonight. I thought it was an excellent performance by the Namibian team with bat and ball.

“We know what’s coming with India and New Zealand and they need to win properly to make the final stages.”

Pakistan captain Babar Azam admitted he was not completely satisfied with his side’s performance despite recording yet another win in the UAE to pretty much guarantee they will compete in the last four.

He said: “It was a different plan today; we wanted that opening partnership to go deep and it worked for us.

“Two good players in [Mohammad] Hafeez and Hasan Ali, they’ll be important in the next stage, and it was important we ticked those boxes.

“There was some dew that didn’t help with the fielding, but that’s not an excuse, we need to be better. Everything has gone according to plan; we’re looking forward to the semi-finals and playing our cricket with the same intensity.”

For more information, contact:
Headquarters,
International Cricket Council (ICC)
Street 69, Dubai Sports City,
Sh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, Dubai, UAE
Phone: +97-143828800
Fax: +97-143828600
E-mail: enquiry@icc-cricket.com
Website: www.icc-cricket.com

Dubai, November 02, 2021 (PPI-OT):Few could have predicted quite how successful Mohammad Rizwan would become at the top of the order for Pakistan.

The 29-year-old wicket-keeper only regained the gloves from Sarfaraz Ahmed in 2019 but has certainly not wasted the chance to establish himself as his country’s No.1 behind the stumps.

Having made his international debut in the shortest form back in 2015, Rizwan was overlooked for the ICC Men’s World Cup in 2016 in favour of Sarfaraz, a decision that put his international T20 career firmly on the backburner.

It took him the best part of three years to work his way back into the fray but by the end of 2020, Rizwan was showing signs of some world class form.

With a top score of just 33 not out from his first 25 T20 internationals, a swashbuckling 86 against New Zealand in Napier in December 2020 signalled a change in the Pakistani batter’s short-form career.

Since then, he has only gone from strength to strength and has had a frankly peerless 2021.

The latest in a long line of imperious innings came against Namibia as an unbeaten 79 from 50 balls earned him the Player of the Match award in a 45-run triumph that all but secured Pakistan’s place in the World Cup semi-finals.

Rizwan’s form in this calendar year is scarcely believable, obliterating the previous record of 748 T20 international runs held by Paul Stirling.

Rizwan has made 951 runs in 18 innings this year, registering nine half-centuries and one ton and has an eye-watering average of 95.1 and a strike rate of nigh on 140, and he’s not done yet.

And it is not solely the international arena where he has excelled, Rizwan has notched 1,651 runs in all T20 games this year and is now just four runs short of Chris Gayle’s record for most T20 runs scored in a calendar year set in 2015.

Today’s innings, where he shared a 113 partnership with captain Babar Azam, took him past both Babar and India skipper Virat Kohli’s best 12-month efforts in the shortest form of the game.

The records do not stop there, Rizwan’s career average of 52.66 is now higher than all the other 73 batters who have scored more than 1,000 T20I runs, superseding Kohli’s 52.01 average.

Having just listed all those impressive statistics, it seems odd to highlight how Rizwan’s knock against Namibia was far from fluent to begin with.

Having faced out a maiden from Ruben Trumpelmann’s opening over, Rizwan stuttered to 14 off 23 balls before finding any real rhythm.

However, as Jos Buttler showed so brilliantly with the first hundred of this year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup against Bangladesh, patience is a virtue at the top of a T20 innings, especially when you have the power to accelerate like both aforementioned wicket-keepers do.

And sure enough, Rizwan found his touch adding 65 in 27 balls to put Namibia to the sword at the back end of the innings and leave Pakistan out of sight and within touching distance of official confirmation of their place in the last four with a 45-run victory.

Speaking after the game, Rizwan revealed his plan was to take it deep – which certainly paid off – and that he thinks Pakistan have a fighting chance of doing the same in the tournament.

You feel the latter may be something of an understatement given the Men in Green, with Rizwan firing first up, have looked virtually unstoppable so far in the UAE with many quick to declare them favourites to lift the trophy on November 14.

For more information, contact:
Headquarters,
International Cricket Council (ICC)
Street 69, Dubai Sports City,
Sh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, Dubai, UAE
Phone: +97-143828800
Fax: +97-143828600
E-mail: enquiry@icc-cricket.com
Website: www.icc-cricket.com