Sports

Gill, pacers inflict first defeat on Rajasthan Royals

Published

6 years ago

2020/10/2

Kolkata Knight Riders handed Rajasthan Royals their first loss in IPL 2020 as Steve Smith’s men fell short by 37 in a chase of 174. Shubman Gill and Eoin Morgan helped the Knight Riders build a strong total before Pat Cummins and Shivam Mavi landed blows after blows to leave Royals in a hole.

Pace like fire …

Even before KKR got going, Jofra Archer bowled absolute bullets at Gill and Sunil Narine in the first over. In the opening over, he bowled three deliveries over 150 kph and the lowest speed he hit was 147 kph. In his first three overs, he had figures of 3-0-4-2 but Morgan and Cummins hit a six and a four in Archer’s last over to spoil his figures a bit. Despite leaking 14 in his final over, he ended with 4-0-18-2 to keep KKR to a par score.

So how did KKR get 174?

Gill continued to impress and even with Narine struggling from the other end, there were no unnecessary risks from the right-hander. Narine made 15 off 14 as the opening partnership fetched the team 36. KKR were well placed after ten overs with 82 on the board with two wickets down. Gill had moved to 47 off 34 but fell to Archer.

Andre Russell had more than ten overs to face and showed plenty of promise. He hit three mighty sixes to race to 24 off 13 but fell trying to go for more. KKR were in a tricky situation but Morgan steadied things a bit and took it deep. KKR were 127 for 5 after 16 overs and then hit 47 in the last four overs. Morgan went from 6 off 10 to end with 34 off 23 to give the bowlers a fighting chance.

What went wrong for RR then?

Sharjah hangover?The RR top-order seemed in a hurry. Steven Smith looked ungainly and played ugly swipes on five of the seven deliveries he faced. Sanju Samson looked sublime during his nine-ball stay but three his wicket away trying to pull Mavi. Buttler decided against taking the conservative approach and fell trying to chase a wide one from Mavi. At 39 for 3 in 6.1 overs, RR middle-order was under too much pressure.

Robin Uthappa and Riyan Parag crumbled under pressure while Rahul Tewatia failed to repeat his Sharjah heroics. RR were 67 for 6 after 11 overs and out of the contest by then.

Was there a standout performer?

Two actually. Cummins and Mavi. If Archer was on fire, Cummins was absolutely sublime. Smith tried to put the Australia pacer under pressure and tried to hit him off his length. Cummins, however, stuck to his Test match lengths, continued to ask questions and created three opportunities. On the third, Smith eventually inside-edged the delivery and was caught behind.

Mavi was put under pressure by Buttler but continued to impress with his skills. He was a touch lucky with the dismissal of Buttler was took out Samson to leave RR gasping.

Should RR have batted first?

Probably. All six games in Dubai so far have been won by the side batting first. RR probably were guilty of taking the conservative approach and hoping for dew to settle in in the second innings. The RR top-order was dismantled way too quickly during the chase for the dew to give any scares to KKR on the night.

Where next then?

RR will play Royal Challengers Bangalore in Abu Dhabi on October 3 in the first afternoon encounter of the tournament. KKR will play the second game that day – against Delhi Capitals – in Sharjah.

Brief scores:

Kolkata Knight Riders 174/6 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 47, Eoin Morgan 34*; Jofra Archer 2-18) beat Rajasthan Royals 137/9 in 20 overs (Kamlesh Nagarkoti 2-13, Shivam Mavi 2-20) by 37 runs.

(Cricbuzz)

All News Advertisement

Latest News

ICC introduces pink-ball daytime Test trial, new time-wasting penalties

Published

23 mins ago

2026/10/1

Priyan

The changes to playing conditions will come into effect on October 1 [Cricbuzz]

The ICC has introduced a trial allowing pink balls to be used in daytime Test matches, among a series of changes to the Playing Conditions that come into effect for international series beginning on October 1.

The pink-ball provision is aimed at reducing the loss of playing time due to bad light. Its use will require mutual agreement between the two teams before the start of the Test and, once agreed, the ball colour cannot be changed during the match.

Continuing the push to make full use of playing time, the ICC will also clamp down on excessive time-wasting by batters in men’s cricket. A batter who is not ready to face the next delivery within the prescribed time, in the umpires’ view, will receive a warning for the first offence, followed by a final warning for the second. A third and each subsequent offence will result in five penalty runs being awarded to the fielding side, with Code of Conduct provisions potentially invoked for repeated offences.

Time-wasting came into focus during the Lord’s Test in 2025 when India captain Shubman Gill alleged that his confrontation with Zak Crawley stemmed from the England opener and his batting partner Ben Duckett seemingly arriving at the crease 90 seconds late when tasked with seeing out one final over before close of play on Day 3.

In another Test-specific change, following an MCC recommendation, the fall of a wicket in the final over of the day’s play will no longer automatically bring the day’s play to an end. If conditions remain suitable and the over has not been completed, the remaining deliveries will be bowled rather than carried over to the following day.

The ICC has also tightened the specifications for balls used in women’s international cricket, with separate size and weight requirements now in place for men’s, women’s and junior cricket. A new men’s ball must weigh between 5.5 and 5.75 ounces (156-163 grams) and measure 22.4-22.9 centimetres in circumference. For women’s cricket, the ball must weigh 5-5.25 ounces (142-149 grams) and measure 21.5-22 centimetres in circumference.

Among other changes following MCC recommendations, the ICC has also clarified the requirements around control of the ball, an area that has frequently come under scrutiny in run-out and stumping decisions. The revised laws make it explicit that mere contact with the ball is insufficient for a dismissal. For a wicket to be valid, the ball must be held with complete control at the moment the stumps are broken. Simply brushing the ball with a hand or glove while dislodging the bails will no longer meet the requirement.

The umpire will also have greater leeway in determining whether a ball is finally settled. The ball no longer necessarily has to be in the bowler’s or wicketkeeper’s hands to be considered finally settled.

Meanwhile, in ODIs and T20Is, the 15-minute interval in T20Is is now fixed, although it can be reduced to a minimum of 10 minutes when time has been lost. The ODI and T20I Playing Conditions are now aligned to allow the ‘Head Coach or their designate’ to enter the field of play at drinks intervals.

Also in white-ball cricket, the wide-ball rule initially trialled in ODIs and T20Is has now been made permanent. The provision offers leniency to bowlers when a batter moves before or during a delivery. The batter’s leg position at the point of delivery will be used as the reference point for judging a wide, even if the batter subsequently moves across to the off side.

The revised Playing Conditions apply to international series beginning on October 1 or later, with ongoing series continuing under the previous regulations.

[Cricbuzz]

Latest News

Sri Lanka bowl first in semi final clash against India

Published

7 hours ago

2026/10/1

Priyan

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bowl first in the Asian games semifinal clash against India.

Sri Lanka XI: Lasith Croospulle, Sineth Jayawardene, Sohan de Livera (wk), Ashen Bandara, Sahan Arachchige (c), Nuwanidu Fernando, Chamika Karunaratne, Wanuja Sahan, Tharindu Rathnayake, Binura Fernando, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth

India XI: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah

Sports

New constitution puts SLC under greater public scrutiny

Published

12 hours ago

2026/10/1

Sahan Weerasooriya

President’s Counsel Dinal Philips emphasized that the new SLC constitution will modernize the sport.

by Rex Clementine

President’s Counsel Dinal Phillips has defended a key provision in the proposed new constitution for Sri Lanka Cricket that allows one of the appointed members, rather than an elected representative, to serve as Chairman of the Board. There have been concerns that a former cricketer will not be able to be appointed as Chairman of SLC if the new constitution comes to effect, but Philips said that the country needed to move on with times.

Successive governments have promised sweeping reforms at the cricket board but delivered precious little. The NPP government, however, has taken concrete steps towards overhauling the administration, with a new constitution now in the public domain.

The proposed constitution has been gazetted and will be debated in Parliament, while the Supreme Court will determine whether its provisions are consistent with the laws of the country. Stakeholders will also have an opportunity to challenge provisions they consider contentious.

Once the legal and parliamentary process is completed, the new constitution will come into force, making SLC answerable to Parliament and by extension, to the public.

“The Chairman of the Board will be from among the appointed individuals because there needs to be a great deal of independence on the Board. You are talking about a Rs. 16 billion organisation,” Phillips told reporters at SLC headquarters yesterday.

Phillips has been a prominent figure in cricketing circles in recent years. He represented his Royal College schoolmate Kusal Janith Perera during the legal battle that eventually cleared the batsman following a doping suspension. He is also a former President of Tamil Union, one of SLC’s controlling clubs.

“You have to have people with sound accounting backgrounds, legal expertise, marketing and IT knowledge involved in running your cricket board. All those areas are covered in this structure,” Phillips said.

“The powers will also be vested in the CEO of SLC and he will run the business of the organisation. The Board of Directors will execute policy.”

Phillips, together with fellow legal expert Upul Kumaraperuma, played a key role in drafting the proposed constitution.

“Look at other parts of the world. We don’t want to be left behind; we want to move with the rest of the world. These are serious, long-term steps. We are trustees for 20 million people. We have been asked questions about what is happening to our cricket. We want to raise the bar,” Phillips added.

SLC chief Eran Wickramaratne was also present at the briefing and faced questions over the national team’s disappointing tour of England, where Sri Lanka were whitewashed 3-0 in the T20I series before enduring an inconsistent ODI campaign.

“We want to see the team winning, no doubt about that. But we don’t have concerns about individuals, say, for example, Gary Kirsten. It requires time to build,” Wickramaratne said.

“In 2011, we were ranked number four in Tests, number three in ODIs and number three in T20s. If you look at where we are now, we are towards the lower end; seven, eight or nine.

“That decline has happened over a period of ten to 15 years. You have to be realistic. Any coach who comes in cannot change things overnight. But we are on the right road.”