IND – The News Desk

Match Preview – South Africa vs India, ICC World Test Championship 2023-2025, 1st Test

25Dec

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Match Preview – South Africa vs India, ICC World Test Championship 2023-2025, 1st Test

Big picture: India chase historyThe final frontier. That's what South Africa has proven to be for India. Since South Africa's readmission to international cricket, India have made eight Test tours to the country. The closest they came to winning was in 2010-11 when the three-match series ended 1-1.Two years ago, players and experts alike felt that it was India's "best opportunity" to win a Test series in South Africa. They won the first match but lost the next two to squander the chance.This time it's a shorter series, just two Tests - in Centurion and Cape Town. Whichever team wins the first will have an unassailable lead. With the disappointment of the ODI World Cup still lingering and the planning for the T20 World Cup in mind, can India squeeze a piece of history in between?But as the...

Match Preview – South Africa vs India, India in South Africa 2023/24, 3rd ODI

20Dec

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Match Preview – South Africa vs India, India in South Africa 2023/24, 3rd ODI

Big picture: We have an ODI series deciderIf this series felt like an afterthought before, the ODI on Tuesday night confirmed it, when the broadcast in India kept talking about the IPL auction instead of the cricket that was happening. A South Africa victory though has given this upcoming game proper stakes. It's a decider and that's the kind of pressure both of these teams will want to put their next gen under as they continue on their path of transition.Tony de Zorzi, scoring a century in just his fourth ODI, and B Sai Sudharsan, getting off the mark in international cricket with the sweetest cover-driven boundary and topping that up by scoring a fifty in difficult batting conditions, both exemplified the talent that will forever keep coming through, which is useful because it seems li...

Match Preview – South Africa vs India, India in South Africa 2023/24, 2nd ODI

18Dec

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Match Preview – South Africa vs India, India in South Africa 2023/24, 2nd ODI

Big picture: SA look to avoid another home series defeat You can fight conditions only to a certain extent in cricket. Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar and Avesh Khan went into the first ODI of the series with just seven wickets between them but bowled South Africa out for 116 in conditions that had swing, seam and uneven bounce.As action moves to Gqeberha, and to a day-night match, you'd hope for more even conditions that don't change dramatically during the match. Gqeberha has not hosted an ODI in more than four years, but it has not been a high-scoring venue. It has gone 12 years and eight ODIs without a score of 300. As it is generally the slowest and lowest of the surfaces among mainstream South African venues, India will hope to close out the series there. For South Africa, the next t...

Match Preview – South Africa vs India, India in South Africa 2023/24, 1st T20I

9Dec

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Match Preview – South Africa vs India, India in South Africa 2023/24, 1st T20I

Big picture: With India comes the moneySummer is loading in the southern hemisphere. Dezember (with a Z because that's how we like to say it to convey holiday vibez) is in full swing. The end-of-year parties have started, and cricket will get in on the action with India's all-format visit, the only men's international cricket that will take place in South Africa this summer.In many ways, that is as much a statement on the changing cricketing landscape as it is of the continued power of the game's major player - India. There's only space for so much international cricket, so it was about getting the most profitable and popular opposition. The first T20I in Durban has been sold out since the end of last month, the other white-ball games are expected to be well attended too, and the financia...

Match Preview – India vs Australia, Australia in India 2023/24, 2nd T20I

25Nov

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Match Preview – India vs Australia, Australia in India 2023/24, 2nd T20I

Big picture: Expect swingi in ThiruvananthapuramWhat did the ODI World Cup not give you? Enough last-ball thrillers? Runs from Suryakumar Yadav and Josh Inglis? Wristspinners being carted around? Well, that's why we have bilaterals…A mere four days after Australia's World Cup triumph, a bunch of their players stayed back - and others joined them - for a five-match T20I series, which started with a nail-biting game that ended with a last-ball six that didn't even find a place in the scoreboard. Line-ups and fortunes changed so much that Steven Smith opened the batting, Ishan Kishan walked out at No. 3, and Inglis hammered Australia's joint-fastest men's T20I century. But some other things remained the same. Suryakumar's domination was back as the format changed, India's line-up still had j...

Match Preview – India vs Australia, Australia in India 2023/24, 1st T20I

22Nov

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Match Preview – India vs Australia, Australia in India 2023/24, 1st T20I

Big picture: More India vs Australia coming your wayNothing exemplifies the problem with the international cricket schedule quite like this T20I series between India and Australia. To start a five-match series four days after an ODI World Cup final is absurd in itself, although there is precedent as recently as 12 months ago with England forced to front up for a three-match ODI series against Australia four days after their T20 World Cup triumph.On top of that, haven't these two sides played against each other enough this year? They played a four-Test series in India in February and March, followed by a three-match ODI series. They played in the World Test Championship final in June straight after the IPL. They then played a second three-match ODI series in India in September just two wee...

Match Preview – India vs New Zealand, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023/24, 1st Semi-Final

14Nov

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Match Preview – India vs New Zealand, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023/24, 1st Semi-Final

Big picture: Big stakesFirst, the unstoppable force. India are having the World Cup of their wildest dreams and it has nothing to do with the fact they are undefeated in it. That is merely a byproduct of their planning leading into the tournament. They left 2019 needing… more. So they went out searching, trying as many as 50 different players across four years and 66 matches. Six months out from the showpiece, they had identified who they wanted and were focused on sharpening their skills. In the 15 ODIs between March and October 2023, they were picking all of their XIs from a set of 24.The chosen ones were given all the support they needed to live up to their full potential, which is why Suryakumar Yadav finally looks like he belongs in ODI cricket. Off the field, India were doing even b...

Match Preview – India vs Sri Lanka, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023/24, 33rd Match

2Nov

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Match Preview – India vs Sri Lanka, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023/24, 33rd Match

Big picture: Two teams with contrasting fortunesIndia. Sri Lanka. The Wankhede. The last time these two teams played an ODI at this venue, the occasion was the 2011 World Cup final. Twelve years later, though, things are a little different.India have lived up to the billing of being the pre-tournament favourites. They have won all of their six matches so far despite missing Shubman Gill for their first two and Hardik Pandya for the last two. If they beat Sri Lanka on Thursday, they will become the first team to qualify for the semi-finals.Sri Lanka, who made it to this World Cup via the Qualifier route, are struggling to stay alive. They have just four points from six games and are coming off the back of a loss to Afghanistan. Another defeat will push them to the brink of elimination.Sri ...

Match Preview – India vs New Zealand, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023/24, 21st Match

21Oct

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Match Preview – India vs New Zealand, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023/24, 21st Match

Big picture: Here comes India's bogey team Ask any ardent Indian fan which is their second-favourite cricket team, and New Zealand will remain a common answer. Ask the same set of fans which team spooks them the most when it comes to ICC events: New Zealand will once again be the unanimous reply. Why you ask.It's probably the memories of the last one here that has most Indian fans flinch. And as much as India would like to deny it, New Zealand have been their bogey team over the years. There are numbers to back this up. In all ICC events since 1992 (considering only the final from the WTC 2019-21 and 2021-23 cycles), India have beaten New Zealand just once in nine attempts.Which is why when these two teams meet in Dharamsala on Sunday, it won't be just another group stage game: there will...

Match Preview – India vs Bangladesh, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023/24, 17th Match

19Oct

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Match Preview – India vs Bangladesh, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023/24, 17th Match

Big Picture: Can Bangladesh spring a surprise?The defending champions have been upset by Afghanistan. Australia haven't looked like Australia of World Cups past. Pakistan seem lacking too. And the South African juggernaut fell apart against Netherlands. Of all the pre-tournament favourites, only India and New Zealand have played like favourites. The latter have made it four wins in four, and now India are looking to do the same, against Bangladesh in Pune.Bangladesh may have a favourable 3-1 ODI record against India in the last 12 months - most recently winning their Super Four encounter in the Asia Cup last month - but beating India in India is easier said than done.The hosts have played with plenty of main-character energy in their first three fixtures, scoring convincing victories agai...