India's pace-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah said bubble fatigue is a tough reality of the current times as he tried to explain the team's shambolic campaign in the ongoing T20 World Cup in the UAE.
Former India cricketers lined up to slate Virat Kohli's side after Sunday's crushing eight-wicket defeat against New Zealand left them on the brink of elimination from the T20 World Cup.
They are at two ends of the spectrum. England have been one of the stand-out teams of the T20 World Cup so far and a win against Sri Lanka on Monday will all but book them a spot in the semis.
New Zealand coach Gary Stead said his bowlers produced one of their best ever T20 performances in Sunday's eight-wicket victory over India, which put the 'Black Caps' firmly back on track for a place in the T20 World Cup semifinals.
"We need to be brutal here. I don't think we were brave enough with the bat or ball. Didn't have much to defend but we weren't brave when we walked out to the field. New Zealand had more intensity," a curt Virat Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
India's pace-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah on Sunday said that the batters tried to play "an attacking game" in a bid to give extra 20-30 runs to the bowlers on a dew-laden surface as that was the communication from the team management for the match against New Zealand. India were handed an eight-wicket defeat in the end.
India suffered an eight-wicket loss against New Zealand in a 'Super 12' game of the ongoing tournament on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium, which have now seriously hurt the chances of Virat Kohli & Co reaching the semifinals of the T20 World Cup.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson said the Dubai wicket wasn't an easy one to bat but the Kiwi openers made things easy for the side against India in their T20 World Cup game on Sunday. New Zealand went on to register a comprehensive eight-wicket win to revive their campaign.
As New Zealand, without any scoreboard pressure chasing 111, cantered along merrily, with Darryl Mitchell (49 off 35; 4x4, 3x6) at times toying with the much-vaunted attack, India's shoulders drooped, the faces went grim and their pre-tournament billing appeared manufactured.
India's superstar cricketers were pummelled on a second-straight Sunday as a disciplined New Zealand firmly pushed them towards the exit door with an easy eight-wicket victory in the ICC T20 World Cup.
Indian captain Virat Kohli said his team was not brave enough with the bat, ball and in its body language as it copped an 8-wicket thrashing at the hands of New Zealand which has put the side in danger of a group-stage exit from the T20 World Cup. "We didn't have much to defend but we weren't brave when we walked out to field," Kohli said. The defeat will once again raise questions over Kohli's leadership even though he is stepping down from T20 captaincy after the ongoing tournament.
Virat Kohli will be stepping down as the captain of the Indian T20I team after the ongoing T20 World Cup. The match against New Zealand today will be a very crucial one in that context, not just for Team India, but also for Virat the T20I captain.
India and New Zealand will lock horns against in the 'Super 12' stage of the T20 World Cup on Sunday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Both sides will enter the contest after suffering a loss against Pakistan. Bangar said that Ashwin should come into the playing XI in place of Varun Chakravarthy.
Former India batsman VVS Laxman said that Team India requires Shardul Thakur to get the balance in the eleven right for an all-important game against New Zealand in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
Former Australia spinner Shane Warne has predicted that either India-Pakistan or England-Australia will square off in the finals of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
New Zealand opener Martin Guptill, who had suffered a toe injury, has regained fitness and available for selection for the T20 World Cup match against India here.
The format of the ongoing T20 World Cup is such that the Super 12 stage is extremely competitive and very tough. Out of the 12 teams playing in it, as many as 8 teams will be knocked out and only 4 teams will make it through to the next round - the semi-finals.
There's a new finisher in town. Or maybe not. The cricket world is waking up to Asif Ali a little late.
England are still unbeaten in this event while the Aussies have never found the right rhythm for T20 International cricket thanks to a lot of their players opting out of international assignments prior to the World Cup, much to the displeasure of their skipper Aaron Finch.
Furious at the trolling of pacer Mohammed Shami on religious lines following India's defeat to Pakistan last week, Kohli said, "Attacking someone over religion is the most pathetic thing a human being can do… it is the lowest level of human potential one can operate at. We stand by Shami fully. We are backing him 200%. All those who have attacked him can come with more force if they want to (but) our brotherhood, our friendship within the team… nothing can be shaken".
If two shots could ever decide the fate of a match, then this game was a classic example of it. Capitalising on two misfired length balls by Lahiru Kumara, David Miller, that old pro, blasted two massive sixes over the cow corner in the final over, to take South Africa to a nerve-wracking, four-wicket win over Sri Lanka in a T20 World Cup Group I match in Sharjah on Saturday.
Senior Afghanistan batter Asghar Afghan will retire from all formats of the game after his side's T20 World Cup Super 12 match against Namibia here on Sunday.
Manchester United thrashed Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 with goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford in the Premier League on Saturday to ease the pressure on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
England captain Eoin Morgan on Saturday heaped praise on his bowlers for their "relentless" discipline, saying they have come up "trumps" on different wickets to help the side inch closer to a T20 World Cup semifinal spot with three successive wins.
After suffering a defeat against England in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, Australia skipper Aaron Finch admitted that his side now has to win its remaining two matches against Bangladesh and West Indies.
Australia skipper Aaron Finch lavished praise on England team following the defeat of his side on Saturday in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Chris Jordan scalped three before Jos Buttler fired a stylish fifty to help England defeat Australia by eight wickets.
Barcelona's miserable LaLiga campaign continued as they were held to a 1-1 home draw by lowly Alaves on Saturday in their first match since the sacking of coach Ronald Koeman.
Barcelona striker Sergio Aguero has been taken to hospital after he suffered chest pain and complained about feeling dizzy during his side's 1-1 LaLiga draw with Alaves on Saturday.
These are two teams driven to similar states of desperation by defeat to the same opponent, Pakistan. Two teams with no lack of mutual respect, hoping to somehow claw and scratch their way past each other in Sunday's big-billing, winner-takes-all World Cup contest in Dubai.
Jos Buttler hammered a brutal 32-ball 71 not out to complement a superlative performance from the bowlers as England crushed Australia by eight wickets in their Super 12 match to inch closer to a semifinal spot at the T20 World Cup on Saturday.
Former Afghanistan skipper Asghar Afghan will play his last match for his country on Sunday as he has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
Five-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) and debutant Sumit (75kg) sailed into the pre-quarterfinals of the AIBA Men's World Boxing Championships here on Saturday after notching up facile victories in their second-round bouts.
India's double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu failed to reach the women's singles summit clash after going down fighting to Japan's Sayaka Takahashi in three games at the French Open badminton tournament on Saturday.
New Zealand's lead pacer Trent Boult is hoping to exploit India's frailties against left-arm fast bowling, taking up from where Shaheen Shah Afridi left off, in their vital Super 12 T20 World Cup match here on Sunday.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam is in the form of his life. Cricket fanatics are in awe with his stunning show in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup, as he looks unstoppable!
Sharjah's love affair with cricket extends into the Twenty20 World Cup as memories of Javed Miandad's last-ball six and Sachin Tendulkar's "desert storm" linger at the famed venue.
Tajamul Islam,13, is the first Kashmiri girl to have represented India and won the gold medal — in the under-14 age category — in World Kickboxing Championship held at Cairo in Egypt on October 22 . She was born in Tarkpora, a remote village in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district, 56km from Srinagar.
Pakistan batting sensation Asif Ali, who has grabbed headlines with his six-hitting prowess in last two T20 World Cup matches, insisted that he has never paid heed to criticism about his selection in the national squad.
As a buoyant, impressive-looking South Africa take on a patchy, unpredictable Sri Lanka in their Super 12 game at the T20 World Cup in Sharjah on Saturday afternoon, TOI takes a look at key things to look forward to in the clash.
Before the T20 World Cup began, the England team had plans to protest racism and any form of discrimination by wearing T-shirts with messages. However, when they arrived in the UAE, they were told by the International Cricket Council (ICC) that they would not be able to wear those T-shirts.
The Ashes is the holy grail for any England or Australian cricketer. But that’s six weeks away. What’s more, much of the England squad who will face Australia in the T20 World Cup on Saturday in a Super 12 Group 1 clash do not play red-ball cricket. Only five of them (Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood) will be on the plane to Australia. Yet, both teams would like to score some brownie points in the blockbuster clash.
New Zealand will need to adjust quickly to the pace of the Dubai wicket if they want to defeat India when the teams meet in their crucial Twenty20 World Cup clash on Sunday, bowler Tim Southee said.
‘Unconventional’, ‘freak’ and 'ridiculous' are just a few words that are casually used to describe Rishabh Pant’s game. His audacious approach towards his batting has often bordered on recklessness.
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam had no doubt that Asif Ali will deliver when required as the dashing batter went on a six-hitting spree to seal a five-wicket win against Afghanistan in a T20 World Cup game in Dubai.
Afghanistan skipper Mohammad Nabi pleaded for T20 World Cup calm on Friday after thousands of ticketless fans tried to storm the Dubai Stadium for the high-profile clash against neighbours Pakistan.
South African off-spinner Keshav Maharaj described 'take a knee' rebel Quinton de Kock as a man of "calibre" on Friday and claimed the controversy has helped the team "bond and gel even stronger".
Chasing a modest 142/7 posted by West Indies, Bangladesh managed 139 for five, unable to eke out the 12 runs needed for victory in the final over.