IPL 2016

Match Facts March 7-11, 2017Start time: 10am local (0430GMT) The Galle strip had some live grass two days before the start of the series opener © AFP Big Picture The last time Bangladesh came to Galle, they played on perhaps the flattest pitch seen in Sri Lanka this decade – one which saw the visitors amass 638, while Mushfiqur Rahim hit his nation’s first ever international double-hundred. Four years later,…

Shardul Thakur has played a solitary IPL match for Kings XI Punjab © BCCI Mumbai and Kings XI Punjab seamer Shardul Thakur has been acquired by the Rising Pune Supergiant for the tenth season of the IPL, which starts on April 5. This is Supergiant’s second trade of the season, having signed opener Mayank Agarwal from Delhi Daredevils ahead of the auction in January. Thakur’s addition bolsters Supergiant’s Indian seam…

South Africa can expect plenty of short deliveries from Neil Wagner © Getty Images In an increasingly globalised sporting world, the story of the migrant player who has to face his former countrymen has been told too many times. But this one is a little different. New Zealand’s Neil Wagner, originally from Pretoria, not only has history with the likes of Faf du Plessis, who he went to school with,…

‘What I can say is that being here felt like playing in St Lucia, playing in India or anywhere else in the world’ – Darren Sammy © AFP Darren Sammy, the Peshawar Zalmi captain, was one of nine overseas players who travelled to Lahore for the PSL final despite the security threat and his reason for doing so was to “bring back the smiles” on the faces of the fans….

Duanne Olivier may move down the pecking order with Morne Morkel fit again © Gallo Images It is dangerous to judge a Test pitch two days before the match starts, but the Dunedin surface had certainly caught the attention of the South Africans on Monday. The pitch looked “juicy” in the words of Dean Elgar, so much so that the self-confessed pie-chucker joked it “looks like I might have to…