Sports
Cricket heavyweights joined by trio of sides out to impress
Group B preview:
Australia and England will be favourites to progress out of Group B at the T20 World Cup, but Namibia, Oman and Scotland have shown previously they are more than capable of causing an upset or two.
The two most recent champions along with three spirited associates make up Group B of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
England, the defending champions of the Men’s T20 World Cup, and Australia, the winners of the 2021 edition, are in Group B along with Namibia, Oman and Scotland. Only the top two teams will progress to the Super 8s phase of the event.
While all eyes will be on the big names from Australia and England, there’s enough potential in Namibia, Oman, and Scotland to make the group results interesting.
Despite not reaching the final four stage of their home T20 World Cup in 2022, Australia are among the favourites in this edition. The talented side have a history of doing well in ICC events, and the current unit features several players in rich form with recent ICC success.
Squad
Mitchell Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa
Fixtures
vs Oman – Wednesday, 5 June 2024 Barbados, 08:30 PM Local
vs England – Saturday, 8 June 2024 Barbados, 01:00 PM Local
vs Namibia – Tuesday, 11 June 2024 Antigua, 08:30 PM Local
vs Scotland – Saturday, 15 June 2024 St. Lucia, 08:30 PM Local
Key player – Travis Head
Travis Head has been Australia’s star performer in ICC tournaments of late, as shown through his stellar performances during the ICC World Test Championship final and the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup semi-final and final.
Having won two ICC titles for Australia since June 2023, Head would like to make it a hat-trick for the men’s side with his dynamic display on the field.
Adding to his repertoire is his explosive form in the IPL, where he has scored more than 500 runs at a strike rate just below 200.
England
The defending champions, England, will yet again look to bank on the attacking style of play that has served them so well in the limited-overs format.
The return of pace spearhead Jofra Archer to the line-up is a big plus in a squad that seems to have all the key bases covered.
Squad
Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonathan Bairstow, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Tom Hartley, Will Jacks, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, Mark Wood
Fixtures
vs Scotland – Tuesday, 4 June 2024 , Barbados, 10:30 AM Local
vs Australia – Saturday, 8 June 2024 Barbados, 01:00 PM Local
vs Oman – Thursday, 13 June 2024 Antigua, 03:00 PM Local
vs Namibia – Saturday, 15 June 2024 , Antigua, 01:00 PM Local
Key player – Mark Wood
Despite not featuring in the business end of England’s successful 2022 campaign, Mark Wood left his mark on the tournament with his propensity to rattle up opposition batters.
Raw pace serves a dual purpose in Wood’s armour, helping extract that extra zip out of the wicket while also clouding the batter’s shot-making ability by reducing the time available for shot selection.
Namibia
Namibia qualified for the T20 World Cup on the back of a stellar run at the Africa Regional Qualifier stage. They were undefeated in the tournament, securing wins over six teams including co-qualifiers Uganda and Test-playing Zimbabwe. Success over Test nations isn’t a new phenomenon for the Eagles, who stunned Sri Lanka in the last edition of the T20 World Cup, and they’d like to repeat the feat in the upcoming event.
Squad
Gerhard Erasmus (c), Zane Green, Michael Van Lingen, Dylan Leicher, Ruben Trumpelmann, Jack Brassell, Ben Shikongo, Tangeni Lungameni, Niko Davin, JJ Smit, Jan Frylinck, JP Kotze, David Wiese, Bernard Scholtz, Malan Kruger, PD Blignaut
Fixtures
vs Oman – Sunday, 2 June 2024 Barbados, 08:30 PM Local
vs Scotland – Thursday, 6 June 2024 , Barbados, 03:00 PM Local
vs Australia – Tue, 11 June 2024 Antigua, 08:30 PM Local
vs England – Saturday, 15 June 2024 Antigua, 01:00 PM Local
Key player – David Wiese
Since making his international comeback with Namibia, David Wiese has been living the dream. The 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup will be his third consecutive tournament this decade, and the all-rounder will be raring to go in all departments on the field.
His hammer-and-tongs approach with the willow and clever assortment of cutters and slower balls have served the Eagles well and the burly all-rounder will look to light up Group B with his performances.
Oman
The sole Asian side in the group, Oman, carry a fair mix of tournament experience in their ranks. This will be their third appearance in the T20 World Cup, and the side would love to leave their mark with a good showing. Their opening encounter on 2 June against Namibia, a side they’ve defeated twice in the past, could set the tone for their tournament.
Squad
Aqib Ilyas (c), Zeeshan Maqsood, Kashyap Prajapati, Pratik Athavale, Ayaan Khan, Shoaib Khan, Mohammad Nadeem, Naseem Khushi, Mehran Khan, Bilal Khan, Rafiullah, Kaleemullah, Fayyaz Butt, Shakeel Ahmad, Khalid Kail. Reserves: Jatinder Singh, Samay Shrivastava, Sufyan Mehmood, Jay Odedra
Fixtures
vs Namibia – Sunday, 2 June 2024 , Barbados, 08:30 PM Local
vs Australia – Wednesday, 5 June 2024 Barbados, 08:30 PM Local
vs Scotland – Sun, 9 June 2024 Antigua, 01:00 PM Local
vs England – Thursday, 13 June 2024 Antigua, 03:00 PM Local
Key player – Aqib Ilyas
Skipper Aqib Ilyas, a solid top-order batter and a top-draw spinner, will be key to Oman’s hopes in the T20 World Cup. He might be a newly appointed leader, but the presence of former captain, Zeeshan Maqsood, in the squad means that the all-rounder will have plenty of support on the field.
Aqib’s captaincy tenure has seen his numbers improve, with the batter averaging 42.5 at a strike-rate of 158.38, from his seven games.
Scotland
Richie Berrington’s Scotland have a number of players with a fair amount of global T20 cricket experience and will seek to bring that knowledge to best use in their group encounters in the West Indies.
The Scots have a proud cricketing history, which includes defeating neighbouring rivals England in ODI cricket in 2018. Their meeting on 4 June in Barbados will be the first-ever in T20I format, and Berrington’s side would be more than chuffed if they pull off a similar result to give their campaign a perfect start.
Squad
Richie Berrington (c), Matthew Cross, Brad Currie, Chris Greaves, Oli Hairs, Jack Jarvis, Michael Jones, Michael Leask, Brandon McMullen, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Chris Sole, Charlie Tear, Mark Watt, Brad Wheal
Fixtures
vs England – Tuesday, 4 June 2024 Barbados, 10:30 AM Local
vs Namibia – Thursday, 6 June 2024 Barbados, 03:00 PM Local
vs Oman – Sunday 9 June 2024 Antigua, 01:00 PM Local
vs Australia – Saturday, 15 June 2024 St. Lucia, 08:30 PM Local
Key player – Mark Watt
Left-arm spinner Mark Watt has been Scotland’s go-to bowler for some time now. The tweaker makes good use of the crease, varying his delivery point depending on the batter and match situation, and fluctuates his speeds to keep the opponent guessing.
His spinning darters have stood up well against famed opponents, as showed against Sri Lanka and West Indies in last year’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe.
(ICC)
Latest News
IPL 2025: Chennai Super Kings suffer fifth loss on the trot as Kolkata Knight Riders register monster win
So that’s what happens when Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) get the kind of pitch their spinners like. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Moeen Ali (12-1-55-6) went into Chepauk and burgled wickets away from the five-time IPL champions until they were a pale, weak shadow of themselves. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) crumbled to 103 for 9, their lowest IPL total at home, suffered a fifth successive defeat, which had never happened before in their entire history, and are marooned in ninth place on the points table. Welcome back to captaincy, MS Dhoni.
The major characteristic of a black-soil pitch is that it is slow and it grips. It felt like home, which is ironic because home hasn’t felt like home for them this season. KKR would prefer to play most of their matches in conditions like this but their efforts to procure them at the Eden Gardens hasn’t gone well. Ajinkya Rahane doesn’t even want to talk about it now. He did, however, spearhead a phenomenal bowling performance. He brought Moeen into the XI and set him loose on CSK’s two left-hand openers. Devon Conway couldn’t overcome the handicap. The KKR offspinner pocketed a wicket maiden. In the next over, Rachin Ravindra was gone. CSK were bleeding by the end of the powerplay, their 31 for 2 only slightly better than the season low of 30 for 3 that they themselves had set, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Exposing this CSK team’s middle order is the only thing their oppositions need to do to win against them. Rahul Tripathi was brought in as Ruturaj Gaikwad’s replacement but he couldn’t figure out whether he wanted to hit out or play through and that indecision was reflected in his final score – 16 off 22. Vijay Shankar could have been dismissed for a duck, or for 20, had KKR held onto their catches. Even with those two lives he couldn’t push on to make a big score. Shivam Dube walked out with CSK at 59 for 3. He had faced only 13 balls and that was still enough time for the score to slip to 75 for 8, at which point his team was in danger of recording their lowest total in IPL history.
For the 16th time in his IPL career, Narine bowled his four overs without conceding a boundary. No one, having got through their full quota, has done it more times. He also knocked off Tripathi, who didn’t know which way the ball would turn, and Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni, who didn’t know which way the ball would spin. There was some doubt over the Dhonii lbw, though. UltraEdge showed what looked like faint murmurs as the ball passed the bat.
CSK were being smothered. They had to wait 63 balls between boundaries – only two teams have ever been that emphatically silenced in this tournament – and hit just three after the eighth over (one of them off a top edge). They had to bring in Deepak Hooda as Impact Player, accepting the risk of going in with a bowler short when they would have to defend this total. But even that gamble backfired. Hooda fell for a duck and one of their key players, Matheesha Pathirana, could not take part in the game.
Defending 103 is a thankless job because bowlers tend to go hard searching for wickets and in that process they leak runs. After under-performing in their batting powerplay, CSK underwhelmed with their bowling powerplay. KKR ransacked 71 runs in the first six overs. This game was no contest.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 107 for 2 in 10.1 overs (Sunil Narine 44, Quinton de Kock 23, Ajinkaya Rahane 20*, Rinku Singh 15*; Anshul Kamboj 1-19, Noor Ahmad 1-08) beat Chennai Super Kings 103 for 9 in 20 overs (Devon Conway 12, Rahul Tripathi 16, Vijay Shankar 29, Shivam Dube 31; Sunil Narine 3-13, Varun Chakravarthy 2-22, Harshit Rana 2-16, Moeen Ali 1-20, Vaibhav Arora 1-31) by eight wickets
[Cricinfo]
Egypt forward Mohamed Salah has signed a new two-year contract with Liverpool.
The 32-year-old’s previous deal was scheduled to run out in the summer and there had been doubts he would stay with the Reds following comments from him during the season and speculation linking him with a move to Saudi Arabia.
However, he is staying and will have the chance to add to his 243 goals and 109 assists for the club in 393 appearances.
“Of course I’m very excited – we have a great team now,” said Salah.
“Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.
“I have played eight years here, hopefully it’s going to be 10. I’m enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I have had the best years of my career here.”
Salah has scored 32 goals in all competitions this season, including 27 in the Premier League as the Reds chase a 20th top-flight title. Liverpool are 11 points clear of second-placed Arsenal with seven games remaining.
Salah, who joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017, has won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Fifa Club World Cup with the Reds.
He was one of three key Liverpool players who will be out of contract this summer, along with right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and centre-back Virgil van Dijk.
Netherlands defender Van Dijk has said there has been progress on talks over a new deal but Alexander-Arnold has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.
[BBC]
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