SPORTS

With a sandstorm in Sharjah delaying the toss for their Indian Premier League match, CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni shared a few light moments with his RCB counterpart Virat Kohli at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Firday.

Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal gave Royal Challengers Bangalore a flying start with a first-wicket partnership of 111 runs in 13 overs, setting the stage for a big finish. 

Dwayne Bravo, though, got the wicket of RCB skipper Virat Kohli for 53 runs. Bravo's contribution proved to be decisive for Chennai Super Kings, as he ended the night with three wickets, while conceding just 24 runs off his four overs.

Shardul Thakur then got the wickets of AB de Villiers and Devdutt Padikkal off successive deliveries to arrest RCB's momentum. 

Scintillating half-centuries from Rahul Tripathi and Venkatesh Iyer gave Kolkata Knight Riders a thumping seven-wicket win against Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi. As a result, Knight Riders have jumped to the fourth spot on the points table, with eight points from nine games.

Chasing 155, Knight Riders attacked right from the start. Shubman Gill fell early but Iyer and Tripathi added 88 in 52 balls for the second wicket. Iyer struck 53 off 30 balls and Tripathi an unbeaten 74 off 42 balls as Knight Riders chased down the target in 15.1 overs.

Earlier, a returning Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock put together 78 in 9.2 overs for the first wicket. At that stage, Mumbai looked on track for a total in the vicinity of 180. However, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and, towards the end, Lockie Ferguson pulled things back to restrict them to a sub-par total.

South African bowlers Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada helped set up an eight-wicket win for Delhi Capitals on Wednesday in an Indian Premier League match that went ahead despite a SunRisers Hyderabad player testing positive for coronavirus. Hyderabad left-arm quick Thangarasu Natarajan and six of his close contacts were isolated hours before the latest match in the Twenty20 tournament in Dubai. An IPL release said Natarajan is "currently asymptomatic" while the contacts and other Hyderabad players all returned negative tests.

On the field, Nortje returned figures of 2-12 and fellow Proteas quick Rabada took three wickets to further hurt Hyderabad who managed just 134-9 after electing to bat.

There's a possibility that Virat Kohli could be removed as the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) mid-way through the ongoing UAE leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a former India cricketer has said.

And the reason seems to be quite evident after witnessing RCB's, more so Virat's, meek surrender against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

RCB had a humiliating return to IPL when they were bundled out for just 92 by KKR in their first match of the Phase-2. It was RCB's sixth-lowest total in IPL, as they lost to the Eoin Morgan-led KKR by nine wickets.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah announced on Monday a busy 2021/22 home season for the Indian men’s team, starting from November 17, just three days after the final of the men’s T20 World Cup in Dubai. India is set to host four Tests, three ODIs and 14 T20Is after the BCCI’s apex council gave green signal to the schedule during its meeting on Monday.

New Zealand and Sri Lanka will visit India for two Tests and three T20Is each in November 2021 and March 2022 respectively. West Indies will tour India for three ODIs and as many T20Is in February 2022. In between the home season, India is scheduled to tour South Africa in December-January for an all-formats series.