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Match Preview – RCB vs SRH 30th Match, IPL

14Apr

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Match Preview – RCB vs SRH 30th Match, IPL

Match detailsRoyal Challengers Bengaluru (10th; P6 W1 L5) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (5th; P5 W3 L2)Bengaluru, 7.30pm IST (2pm GMT)Big picture - Can RCB withstand SRH's power at the Chinnaswamy?After making the playoffs for two seasons in a row and then narrowly missing out last year, RCB are having a horror campaign, having slumped to five defeats in their first six games. Their bowling has been a major area of concern, with captain Faf du Plessis admitting they "don't have as many weapons" with the ball. In RCB's last game, they saw Mumbai Indians chase 199 inside 16 overs. And on Monday, they will be up against another batting juggernaut in Sunrisers Hyderabad.With Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma at the top, Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen in the middle and the power of Abdul Samad and...

Match Preview – MI vs CSK 29th Match, IPL

13Apr

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Match Preview – MI vs CSK 29th Match, IPL

Match detailsMumbai Indians (P5 W2 L3 7th) vs Chennai Super Kings (P5 W3 L2 3rd)Mumbai, 7.30pm IST (2pm GMT)Big pictureIt's the IPL's biggest rivalry. At the Wankhede Stadium. On a double-header Sunday. But has the rivalry mellowed down this time? Possibly because it's the first time in over a decade the CSK-Mumbai game will not witness Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni as captains, as Hardik Pandya and Ruturaj Gaikwad have taken over at the helm. So, what's in store in this new era?Two away games and two losses. It's a small sample size, but CSK are yet to post a win away from home in this IPL. After winning three out of five games, they now go on the road - the first stop is Mumbai and then Lucknow - before going back to Chepauk after 15 days. Can they be at home, away from home, when they meet...

Match Preview – LSG vs DC 26th Match, IPL

12Apr

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Match Preview – LSG vs DC 26th Match, IPL

Big picture - Spin to win again?Lucknow Super Giants started the season with a defeat, but have won three on the bounce since. Their most recent victory came against Gujarat Titans on a spin-friendly pitch at home. LSG's spinners were central to that result - Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi and M Siddharth combined for figures of 10-0-48-4 to help defend 163 - and they could consider laying out a similar surface on Friday, especially against the visiting Delhi Capitals.Batting has been a struggle for the Capitals this season. Their collective average of 23.35 is the lowest among all teams, and they have had to deal with the absence of key players like Kuldeep Yadav and Mitchell Marsh due to injuries. So that doubles Capitals' worries: a misfiring batting line-up on a potentially spin-friendly...

Match Preview – Australia vs Pakistan, Pakistan in Australia 2023/24, 3rd Test

2Jan

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Match Preview – Australia vs Pakistan, Pakistan in Australia 2023/24, 3rd Test

Big picture: Series gone, but Pakistan have WTC points to play forIt's David Warner week at the SCG, but there might be a competitive Test match in store in Sydney if the pitch and the weather play ball.Pakistan gave Australia a true scare in Melbourne and save for a handful of unforced errors in the field, and if you side with Mohammad Hafeez, some "inconsistent umpiring" and DRS calls, they could have pulled off a Christmas miracle and beaten the home side.As it were, though, the match and the series were lost. But that does not mean that Sydney be a dull dead rubber. Vital World Test Championship [WTC] points aside, the two sides have history here. Pakistan should have won in 2010. Not unlike Melbourne last week, they somehow shot themselves in the foot to lose the unlosable Test match...

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 – West Indies vs England, England tour of West Indies 2023/24, 1st T20I

12Dec

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Match Preview – West Indies vs England, England tour of West Indies 2023/24, 1st T20I

Big picture - T20 World Cup countdown beginsAnd now for something completely different. Or at least a slight change of pace after three months solid of ODI cricket. England have had their fill for 2023 and even if West Indies' appetite for the 50-over format has been sharpened by a 2-1 series win, having kicked their heels during the World Cup, it is time to switch gears and dig out the T20 duds for five short-form thrashes starting under the Bridgetown lights on Tuesday.You are never far from an ICC event these days, with the series beginning an informal countdown to next year's T20 World Cup, to be played in the Caribbean and USA. England are the defending champions (where have we heard that one before?) and alongside West Indies are the only team to have won the competition twice. Both...

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 – West Indies vs England, England tour of West Indies 2023/24, 2nd ODI

5Dec

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Match Preview – West Indies vs England, England tour of West Indies 2023/24, 2nd ODI

Big picture - England in a rum spot (again)Talk about another bloody day in paradise. England arrived in Antigua looking to launch a new chapter for their one-day cricket, after the disappointment of the World Cup, but were instead given a reboot up the backside by a feisty West Indies batting display, led by Shai Hope's scintillating, MS Dhoni-inspired hundred and ably supported with unfettered contributions from the likes of Alick Athanaze and Romario Shepherd.Not for the first time, things haven't gone to script for England in the Caribbean - and instantly it feels like there is more of an edge to this ODI series, with two matches still to play. West Indies, who lost to Zimbabwe, Netherlands and Scotland during their abject World Cup Qualifier earlier in the year, have plenty of ground...