CHENNAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is understood to have shortlisted two windows to host a franchise-model T20 league for women from 2023. It is understood that on the sidelines of the IPL play-offs, the BCCI had discussions with the stakeholders with March 2023 being looked at as an ideal window to host the tournament. If not, September is likely to be considered as another option.
Despite calls to start one over the last few years, based on the inputs received from former players and other stakeholders, the BCCI has been looking to start the new tournament in 2023.

Recently, the BCCI conducted the Women’s T20 Challenge in Pune, where the matches received considerable stadium attendance. Despite the city hosting IPL matches, that nearly 8,621 turned up for the final between Supernovas and Velocity was a clear indication of how far the game has grown.

Ever since the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah mentioned that a full-fledged tournament would begin next year, things have started to move. And over the past week, the BCCI is understood to have had discussions with Cricket Australia and England and Wales Cricket Board counterparts and are likely to ask the International Cricket Council (ICC) to create a separate window for its new league in the month of March.

With the Caribbean Premier League, The Hundred and The Women’s Big Bash running between July-November, the BCCI is looking at March as a window because the likes of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa players will have international commitments between December-February. It is understood that the BCCI has received positive response from other boards about their respective players’ participation.

The BCCI is believed to be looking at six teams to start the tournament and is also encouraged by the interest shown by some of the IPL franchises. Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals are believed to be showing active interest in owning a team. Chennai Super Kings also seem interested in the league, having started an academy for girls recently.

Mumbai: Legendary cricketers Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers have become the first two players to be inducted into the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Hall of Fame.

Former RCB skipper Virat Kohli made the announcement about the inductions of his two dear mates.

“AB has truly changed the game of cricket with his innovation, brilliance, and sportsmanship which truly defines the RCB Play Bold philosophy,” Kohli said in a statement posted on the franchise’s website.

“It’s truly special for me to be doing this for both of you. We saw videos of how you have changed the way the IPL has been played over the years. Two people who have had a huge impact in IPL being where it is today; and RCB being where it is today,” he added.

While South African great de Villiers had been an integral part of RCB from 2011 to 2021, dashing left-handed batter Gayle from West Indies was with the franchise for six years.

De Villiers, who had joined the induction virtually, gave an emotional message to everyone in the team camp.

“To the RCB boys sitting there, what an amazing privilege. Quite emotional to be honest,” he said.

“Virat, thanks for the kind words. Mike (Hesson), Nikhil, everyone from the franchise who set this up, it’s a really special touch. We had some amazing times together as a team, and the sun has moved on for Chris and I now, but we’re still very much part of the family and will always be.

“So yes, thank you very much for the very special touch. Faf and the guys sitting there, Virat and the guys that know me really well for many years know how special stuff like this is to me. You guys know how much of an amazing journey I had during the IPL, especially with my RCB family, and how it changed my life. So, huge privilege to be part of this. I don’t have enough words to thank you for this touch.”

West Indies batting stalwart Gayle, who has played for RCB from 2011 to 2017, said: “I want to thank the RCB family for the opportunity, for everything. It’s been really special to me as well. And to be inducted is something fantastic, and I will always keep RCB close to my heart.

“I share a lot of memories with some special players, some special coaches as well. It’s been really, really fantastic. And to Virat, thank you for the kind words as well, fantastic sharing the dressing room with you guys as well.

Senior India and Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja

New Delhi: Senior India and Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was on Wednesday ruled out of the remainder of the IPL due to a rib injury, days after quitting the leadership role.

“Ravindra Jadeja won’t be playing CSK’s next two games as he has suffered a rib cage injury. He has already gone home,” CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan said

Jadeja apparently didn’t play the match against Delhi Capitals due to an upper body injury, sustained during an earlier match against the RCB.

Jadeja, who captained CSK in the first eight games, had a forgettable season as all he could manage was just 116 runs at an average of 20 in 10 games and only five wickets at an economy rate of 7.51.

While the official reason being given for Jadeja’s unavailability is injury, sources tracking developments in the CSK camp claimed that the all-rounder has been dropped.

“It seems there is more to it. Jadeja has also unfollowed CSK on instagram,” an IPL source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

The CSK CEO when asked about Jadeja’s decision to unfollow the franchise on social media, didn’t want to read too much into it.

“I have no clue about all this stuff like instagram and twitter and so I won’t be able to tell you much about these things,” the CEO said.

While Jadeja led CSK in eight games losing six and winning two, the ‘Yellow brigade’ has won three out of four games since Dhoni is back as the leader.

Dhoni, after taking the leadership mantle back from Jadeja, had in a roundabout manner claimed that the all-rounder was told during the last season that he would be handed captaincy for 2022 edition.

It was typical Dhoni-style subtle message about the Saurashtra player not doing his homework.

At 33, Jadeja is a senior India star and decorated performer in his own right. It appeared that he wasn’t given full charge during the time he was at the helm, an indication of that was when he was seen fielding in the deep..

Those who have keenly followed CSK franchise over the years have observed that if a CSK player is injured, he normally doesn’t come to the ground. Only those who are dropped sit in the dug-out. And for the record, Jadeja was in the dug-out.

Navi Mumbai: Seasoned Suryakumar Yadav and young Tilak Varma gave the best 35th birthday present to their skipper Rohit Sharma as Mumbai Indians finally opened their account, beating Rajasthan Royals by five wickets in an IPL match here on Saturday.

Chasing a victory target of 159, MI reached home in 19.2 overs, courtesy Surya (51 off 39 balls) and Tilak (35 off 30 balls) adding 81 for the third wicket.

It was MI’s first win after eight successive defeats and even though the result bears little consequence but it is certainly going to keep the five-time champions in a good mind space.

Losing is also a kind of habit like winning, albeit a bad one, as with it self belief also goes out of the window. Rohit didn’t look one bit of his cheery self when he was cutting his birthday cake and by the end of the day, a win must have felt like a healing balm.

Teams then manage to snatch defeat from jaws of victory and something of that order was happening on Saturday night before Surya and Tilak sang the redemption song with Tim David (20 not out off 9 balls) providing the finishing touch.

It was Daniel Sams who hit the winning six to send the spectators into a frenzy.

Rohit’s run of poor scores continued as he tried a slog sweep off Ravichandran Ashwin (4-0-21-1) and offered an easy catch to Daryl Mitchell at square leg.

The price tag of Rs 15.25 crore is increasingly seeming like a noose around Ishan Kishan’s (26 of 18 balls) neck as he started well but in desperation to over-compensate mis-timed a pull-shot.

Surya was once again smooth in his strokeplay and so was MI’s most consistent player of the season Tilak, whose lofted six was a delightful watch.

The duo took its own time to first settle down, taking the team’s score to 75 in first 10 overs and set an ideal platform to knock off the remaining 82 off back-10.

Since there wasn’t scoreboard pressure, Surya and Tilak were able to keep the momentum going with singles and doubles while waiting for the occasional loose ball.

Surya brought up his fifty with a muscular six over wide long-on off Ashwin’s last delivery off his spell.

Tilak followed suit with his second six but soon after both the batters fell going for unnecessary big shots when it wasn’t the need of the hour.

From 122 for two, MI slumped to 122 for 4 with Pollard and David at the crease.

Earlier, Buttler threatened to hit six sixes in an over but managed four on the bounce in his 52-ball-67 as Rajasthan Royals were restricted to 158 for six by Mumbai Indians in a what was a below par batting show.

Buttler wasn’t in his element for the better part of the innings before launching into rookie off-spinner Hrithik Shokeen, hitting him for four consecutive sixes between the long-on to long-off arc.

He holed out in the deep in the final ball of the 16th over as MI prevented the England marauder to cause more damage at the death.

Shokeen, who had bowled flat and tight in the previous games, looked like a lamb for slaughter conceding 47 in 3 overs which included half a dozen of sixes, forcing him to come round the wicket but that was of little benefit.

In nine games so far, Buttler has already amassed 566 runs at an average which is northwards of 70 and a strike-rate of 155 plus.

But on the day, MI attack performed way better than they have in the initial games with new inductee left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya being extremely impressive in his first outing on the big stage.

The best bowler on the day for MI was Aussie pacer Riley Meredith, who had best figures of 2 for 24 in stipulated quota of four overs, cleverly mixing variety of slower deliveries during couple of spells. He gave only three runs in the 20th over.

Debutant Kartikeya (4-0-19-1) had nine dot balls, the prize wicket of rival skipper Sanju Samson, who had by then hit a couple of sixes off Shokeen and more importantly in 24 deliveries conceded just a single boundary which spoke volumes about his temperament.

CHENNAI: Ahead of the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings could get a maximum of 16 points by winning all their remaining matches and thereby, had a mathematical chance of making it to the playoffs depending on other outcomes.

So the tie against SRH was a must-win game and they were also looking to ensure a handsome win, keeping the net run rate in mind (something that could come into play).

With Ravindra Jadeja handing over the captaincy back to MS Dhoni, CSK were hopeful for a turnaround.

The crucial game against Hyderabad was billed by many as Kane Williamson’s pace battery comprising of the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Marco Jansen, Umran Malik versus CSK batting.

In the last edition of the IPL, both Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad had kept scoring in turns in crucial games and had helped CSK bag the title. With Faf in the RCB camp and Ruturaj yet to discover the form of the last season, CSK have found it difficult to get off to good starts and register big partnerships.

Robin Uthappa, Shivam Dube and Ambati Rayudu have also been inconsistent. Moeen Ali and Ravindra Jadeja, the two spin-bowling all-rounders, are yet to play to potential.

Ahead of Sunday’s vital tie, CSK coach Stephen Fleming had said that he was hopeful that the CSK batting can click as a unit and also wanted one player to take the game deep till the end.

Keeping in mind the situation, CSK dropped Shivam Dube and Dwayne Bravo and brought in Devon Conway and Simarjeet Singh. Those changes worked as half-centuries by Ruturaj (99) and Conway (85 not out) enabled CSK to post 202 for 2 in 20 overs.

The duo added 182 runs for the first wicket in 17.5 overs and put their team in a solid position.

Put into bat, Ruturaj and Conway began the proceedings on a positive note and runs started to flow from the meat of the blade. To counter genuine fast bowling, one needs to bring the cut, pull and hook into their range of play. That is exactly what Conway and Ruturaj did. Conway pulled Bhuvneshwar to the square leg fence for a four and Ruturaj did the same against Jansen over long leg for a six to show their intent as CSK reached 40/0 at the end of powerplay.

A wide slash off Umran marked Ruturaj’s 50. Confidence was visible in Ruturaj’s play as he continued to find the gaps. Conway played the perfect foil at the other end to lend solid support as the CSK openers made merry and posted 151 runs in less than 15 overs. It was not all about hitting as the opening duo did show excellent understanding while running between the wickets too.

The only miss was perhaps Ruturaj missing a century after getting so close. Eager to reach the magical figure, he mistimed the ball and scooped it to Bhuvneshwar at backward point off the bowling of T Natarajan.

Chasing 203, Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson began the chase in an aggressive manner. Newcomer Simarjeet erred in line and length and was thus hit all over the park. His first spell of two overs cost 24 runs.

Thereafter, Mukesh Chaudhary, who had dropped Abhishek on 20, made up for his lapse to get rid of the Hyderabad opener and also sent Rahul Tripathi back in the very next ball.
SRH skipper Kane Williamson (47) and Nicholas Pooran (64 not out) played well but that was not enough. In the end, CSK were the victors by 13 runs.

Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 202/2 in 20 overs (Gaikwad 99, Conway 85 n.o) bt Sunrisers Hyderabad 189/6 in 20 overs (Williamson 47, Pooran 64; Choudhary 4/46)

Bengaluru: The unprecedented slump in form and disappointing returns with the bat of Virat Kohli during the IPL 2022 has lately been the talk of the cricket town with several experts, fans, and pundits sharing their views on the form of the star cricketer.

In the eight innings that the former Indian skipper has stepped on the crease to bat in the IPL this year, he has only returned with 119 runs at a miniature average of 17 and a strike rate of 122.68.

Although Kohli’s fans across social media platforms have backed him and are hoping for him to return to his best once again, several users have also criticized Kohli who has 70 international centuries to his name.

Former Head Coach of Indian Cricket Team Ravi Shastri on Tuesday suggested that Kohli should pull out of the ongoing IPL and take a break from cricket before coming back to play international cricket.

Kohli’s franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday reacted to the challenge Kohli is facing and backed the ace Indian cricketer to come back stronger. In a tweet on Wednesday after the team’s defeat against the Rajasthan Royals, RCB wrote “The only way @imVkohli knows to take on a challenge, is to stare at it without any fear!”

Kohli has been the star performer for the RCB and has been with them ever since the inception of IPL in 2008 becoming the highest run-getter in the history of the IPL.

Both RCB and fans will be hoping that Kohli gets his touch back in the second half of the IPL as they lay in a critical territory (fifth position after their match against RR on Tuesday) on the points table at the moment.

Mumbai: Opener Abhishek Sharma and Aiden Markram struck sparkling half-centuries as Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 195 for six against Gujarat Titans in their Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday.

Abhishek blazed away to 65 off 42 deliveries, while Markram made a 40-ball 56 during a third-wicket stand of 96 runs.

Then, Shashank Singh (25 off 6 balls) smashed Lockie Ferguson (0/52 in 4 overs) for three successive sixes to score 25 runs in the innings’ final over.

To start with, SRH were helped by Mohammed Shami’s (3/39 in 4 overs) 11-run opening over in which a first-ball beauty was followed by five leg-side wides, not once but twice.

Yash Dayal too conceded 11 runs, thanks to two boundaries by Abhishek Sharma on the off side, as SRH raced to 22 for no loss in two overs.

Kane Williamson clipped Shami over square leg for his first boundary but that’s all the SRH skipper could do with the bat as, three balls later, the seasoned India pacer went through the gate with a lovely seaming delivery to dismiss the Kiwi and give his team the match’s first breakthrough.

Having got a life at point even before he could open his account, Rahul Tripathi smashed Shami for 6, 4, 4 before a review found that the batter was trapped in front of the wicket in an eventful fifth over, which went for 14 runs.

Unperturbed by the fall of two wickets, Abhishek collected two successive fours off Alzarri Joseph — first he lofted over the infield and then found the gap through a packed off-side — to help SRH score 53 runs in the six power play overs at the Wankhede Stadium.

SRH needed a partnership at that stage and the duo of Abhishek and Markram not just provided them that but also kept the scoreboard moving at a very good rate by regularly finding the boundaries.

While Markram dealt with the likes of pacers such as Alzarri, Abhishek went after Rashid Khan, hitting the Afghanistan spin ace for his third six to reach his half-century in style.

Against Rashid, Abhishek was particularly strong on the on-side, getting his three sixes over long-on and deep mid-wicket.

However, the 21-year-old’s fine innings came to an end when he inside-edged a slower delivery from Alzarri in the first ball of the 16th over.

Shami came back to dismiss the big-hitting Nicholas Pooran (3) cheaply before Markram got to his fifty by pulling the bowler for a six over deep mid-wicket. Stationed in the deep, Rashid’s day in the field got worse as he misjudged it.

Navi Mumbai: Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Gujarat Titans by eight wickets in their IPL game here on Monday.

The Sunrisers chased down the target of 163 with five balls to spare with captain Kane Williamson top-scoring with a 57 while Nicholas Pooran remained not out on 34.

Young Abhishek Sharma made 42 at the top of the order before retiring hurt.

For the Titans, Hardik Pandya and Rashid Khan took a wicket each.

Earlier, captain Pandya top-scored for the Titans with a 42-ball 50 not out while Abhinav Manohar chipped in with 35.

For SRH, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan took two wickets apiece while Marco Jansen and Umran Malik got one each.

Brief Scores:

Gujarat Titans: 162 for 7 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 50 not out, Abhinav Manohar 35; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/37, T Natarajan 2/34).

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 168 for 2 in 19.1 overs (Kane Williamson 57, Abhishek Sharma 42, Nicholas Pooran 34 not out; Hardik Pandya 1/27).