Month: October 2020

9:11 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff It’s Virat Kohli vs Steven Smith time at IPL 2020. A contest that is bound to dominate sports pages, web pages and social media over the next three months when India tour Australia. Part of this season’s first double-header, Saturday’s afternoon clash in Abu Dhabi between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals, however, promises to be a relatively milder prelude. At stake, though,…

8:57 AM GMT Deivarayan Muthu Welcome to ESPNcricinfo’s Rolling Report of the 15th IPL 2020 match, between the Rajasthan Royals and the Royal Challengers Bangalore, in Abu Dhabi. To get the tournament’s double-headers rolling, it’s the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Yuzvendra Chahal facing off against the likes of Steven Smith, Jofra Archer and Sanju Samson. You can also follow ball-by-ball commentary of the game here. If…

7:17 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff England allrounder Ben Stokes is finally headed to the IPL from New Zealand, where he has spent the past month-and-a-half with his family. ESPNcricinfo understands Stokes will land in Dubai, where the Royals are based, early on Sunday. As per the IPL’s Covid-19 protocol Stokes will undergo the mandatory six-day quarantine, including clearing three tests, before he can link up with the Royals and be…

11:44 AM IST Australia 3 for 181 (Lanning 62*) beat New Zealand 180 by seven wickets Australia resumed their dominance over New Zealand by cantering to a seven-wicket victory in the first ODI at Allan Border Field to extend their unbeaten run to 19 matches. Their spinners combined to great effect before Meg Lanning guided a comfortable chase with an unbeaten 62 as Australia barely broke a sweat in reaching…

8:10 PM GMT Saurabh Somani Close Saurabh Somani is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo The last time Chennai Super Kings lost three games in a row in an IPL season was back in 2014. They still made the playoffs that year, but with the defeats piling up and Super Kings at the bottom of the table in IPL 2020, captain MS Dhoni called for greater professionalism from his side. Super…

6:59 PM GMT Danyal Rasool After a couple of days of high-scoring matches at the National T20 Cup, Friday was something of a regression to the mean, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa beating Balochistan and Sindh coming out on top over Central Punjab. The two sides batting first put up middling totals, with the side chasing hunting the targets down with reasonable ease. It means each of these four sides have now…

6:02 PM GMT Rohit Balaji Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Rajasthan Royals, Abu Dhabi Pro Tip: Have enough bowling options in your XI as the match will be played on a used pitch. Expect the players who are good at manoeuvring the ball to succeed. Our XI: Jos Buttler, AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Steven Smith, Aaron Finch, Washington Sundar, Tom Curran, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini Substitutes:…

6:04 PM GMT Rohit Balaji Delhi Capitals vs Kolkata Knight Riders, Sharjah Pro Tip:Small ground, good batting pitch, so pack your team with batsmen from both teams but also include the experienced bowlers. Our XI: Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Eoin Morgan, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Shimron Hetmyer, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje Substitutes: Dinesh Karthik, Prithvi Shaw, Nitish Rana, R Ashwin NOTE: We might not…