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The star-studded Mohammedan Sporting Club faced their first defeat in Premier League against Victoria Sporting Club in BNS today. Victoria Sporting secured full points by beating their mighty rivals by 21 runs.Minhajul Abedin got the initial luck when he won the toss and sent Victoria to bat first. Despite losing two wickets at quick succession Jahangir Alam and Nuruzzaman started to consolidate the innings. The put on 28 runs in the third wicket before Jahangir (32), the man-in-form, imprudently got himself run-out. Rashed Hanif, the younger brother of Amir Hanif, made a big mark with the bat with the assistance he received from his captain Khaled Masud and Alok Kapali.Rashed baffled all efforts and plans made by the Mohammedan bowlers, who were frantically trying to get rid of him. The Pakistani hammered 8 fours and 3 sparkling sixes all the way through his brilliant knock (114). Khaled Masud (20) and leg spinner Kapali (33) gave him good support from the other end. Victoria threw a good challenge by ending up with 258 for 6 after 50 overs.Mohammedan’s regular Haq openers, Rashedul and Ehsanul, made a quiet but steady start as they carried off an 88-run partnership from 17.3 overs. Rashed Hanif, after a brilliant show with the bat, came up good with ball too as he broke the opening stand removing Rashedul Haq (41).Ehsanul (45) wretchedly became a run-out victim after a while when he attempted to make an easy single into a tight two. Sri Lankan star Hashan Tilkaratne went in with one-down Habibul Bashar and built a 37-run stand between them. Bashar was in the best of his forms and they both looked quite comfortable against the Victoria spinners. The chipped in with singles, twos and occasional boundaries before Saiful Islam was brought on from the pavilion end.This was a judicious decision made by Khaled Masud as Manjurul Islam and Rashed Hanif were slowly becoming ineffective. Right arm medium pacer Saiful troubled both Bashar and Tilkaratne a lot by bowling in a fixed line and length. Offie Masudur Rahman came to bowl at the other end and removed danger man Habibul Bashar for 18. Saiful, who was slowly making Tilkaratne impatient, soon got his precious wicket. The left-hander was clean bowled while attempting to play the bowler across the line only to miss it completely. Tilkaratne (playing in place of Tikolo today) made 23 off 38 balls.Saiful Islam trapped Sanwar Hossain lbw for naught in the very next ball, which seemed to be the turning point of the match. The next batsmen from the front-tail could hardly do anything, as they didn’t have too many overs left to play with a cool head. Mohammedan lost their 7th wicket with the score on 160.Wicket keeper Anwar Hossain set up a blasting knock of 34 off just 34 balls that included 4 boundaries but it was already too late for Mohammedan to do any sort of miracle. At the end of they bunched up 237 for 9. The spinner trio Enamul, Rashed Hanif and Masudur Rahman rolled up wonderfully, claiming 2 wickets each. Rashed Hanif was adjudged the man-of-the-match without a shred of doubt.

Ravi Shastri signed off from his four-and-a-half-year tenure as India’s men’s head coach as an “emotional, but a very proud man”, labelling his side “one of the great cricket teams in the history of the game” and underlining the toll that non-stop touring in biosecure conditions had taken on him and his players.Since his appointment in 2017 and the extension of his contract two years later, Shastri has overseen back-to-back Test series wins in Australia and his side will return to England with a 2-1 lead in July 2022. They have enjoyed sustained success in bilateral white-ball cricket but their stretch without winning an ICC event extended to eight years after exits at the semi-final and Super 12s stages of the 50-over World Cup in 2019 and the T20 World Cup in 2021 respectively.”The quality of cricket this team has played over the last five years across all formats, the performances are there for everyone to see,” Shastri said in his press conference. “When you perform in that fashion, when you go across the globe, across all formats and beat teams, then you know you’re part of one great cricket team.

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“I’m not saying a great cricket team, India – I’m saying one of the great cricket teams in the history of the game, because if you look at those kind of performances, they don’t happen often. You’ve got to have a bunch of players who are fit, hungry, fearless, have the quality, have the belief, and then to stay fit so that you can play those five years together and go across the globe and perform everywhere.”If you want the real highlights, nothing beats Australia, England, we’re up in the series, it’ll be longest time will be up in the series till next year [sic]. I might be commentating on that game, for all you know, but I’ll keep that one. It feels good. But white-ball, everywhere: we beat West Indies in the West Indies, we’ve beaten Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka – good teams. All round, it’s been fabulous.”Ravi Shastri gestures to the crowd as Bharat Arun looks on•ICC via Getty Images

India were eliminated at the Super 12s stage of this World Cup after back-to-back defeats in Dubai in their first two games against Pakistan and New Zealand. While Shastri admitted that they “lacked daring”, he suggested that the result of the toss had been crucial throughout their campaign, and said that he wished players had been afforded a longer break between the end of the IPL and the start of the tournament.”We are disappointed with the result in the first two games here,” he said. “I’m not here to make any sort of excuses. We lacked the daring in the second game against New Zealand. I know the toss was important and as you’ve seen in the last three games how important it is, and I do feel it’ll continue to be important – though not as much now as the weather has cooled down a bit, but still. It’s something for the boys to learn and they’ll get an opportunity again next year. It’s not often you have [two] World Cups in 12 months, so hopefully, they’ll go and kick some butt there.”The cricket itinerary is so packed that you can do only one thing at a time. At least they played some T20 cricket in the IPL – I just wish that the gap was a little more. That’s not my job, it was already done. That’s something I’m sure the administrators, not just from India [or] from BCCI, but from others around the globe who will also be looking at it – before big tournaments, to ensure that there is a little bit of a gap so that the guys are mentally fresh and ready to play.”India’s multi-format players have been in biosecure environments since their arrival in England in June ahead of the World Test Championship final, and Shastri said that while a culture of “trust” meant that players would be free to take breaks from the game when they needed to, it was vital to remember that they are “human”.Related

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“We actively worked towards it: we wanted trust in that dressing room,” he said. “That’s the only way you can get each other’s backs. We needed communication, we needed no finger-pointing at each other, we needed the word ‘I’ to be thrown into the dustbin, and the word ‘we’ coming in. We created a culture that had to be obeyed and followed with Virat [Kohli] leading the way.”One thing I would say – this is not an excuse, this is a fact – when you’re six months in a bubble, there are a lot of players in this team who played all three formats of the game. I don’t care who you are, if your name is Bradman, if you’re in a bubble as well, your average will come down, because you’re human. This is not something where you just put petrol in the backside and then expect the guy to move on in overdrive. It doesn’t happen that way. They’ve shown the drive to hang in there, no complaints, but sooner or later, the bubble will burst so you’ve got to be careful.”It’s one of the great sides to have played cricket at the highest level in the history of the game when you look all round. Let’s not take anything away from that. For me, to be part of that journey with the boys and for the boys to respond and raise the bar in that fashion leaves you going from the dressing room emotional, but a very proud man.”

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, the former Pakistan seamer, has confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that he heard Michael Vaughan making racially insensitive comments to a group of Asian players at Yorkshire.Naved, who was the club’s overseas player at the time, was alongside Azeem Rafiq at Trent Bridge in 2009 when Vaughan is alleged to have said: “There’s too many of you lot, we need to do something about it.”Related

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Naved and Rafiq were among four players of Asian heritage in the Yorkshire team at the time.Vaughan, the former England captain and BBC analyst, admitted on Thursday that his name appeared in Yorkshire’s report into Rafiq’s allegations of racism at the club. But he used his column in the to reject the suggestion he had ever said anything of the sort.”I completely and categorically deny that I ever said those words,” Vaughan said. “This hit me very hard. It was like being struck over the head with a brick. I have been involved in cricket for 30 years and never once been accused of any remotely similar incident or disciplinary offence as a player or commentator.”But Naved confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that he heard Vaughan make the comments and has reiterated his preparedness to provide evidence to any inquiry as required.Vaughan’s implication in the saga came 24 hours after his former team-mate Gary Ballance admitted, via a statement issued by Yorkshire, that he had been the player who had used the racial slur “P**i” in conversations with Rafiq.Yorkshire’s chairman Roger Hutton has subsequently resigned amid the fall-out at the club, which includes Headingley’s suspension from hosting international and major matches, and the loss of a raft of sponsors, including Emerald, Nike, Tetley’s and Yorkshire Tea.

Kolkata Knight Riders simply had to win, and they kept their end of the bargain thanks to a superb bowling performance against Sunrisers Hyderabad that moved them to 12 points with one game to play. Winning with just two balls to spare meant their net run rate didn’t jump by much, but their NRR is the best among all the contenders for fourth place, which means a win in their final game should see them through in all likelihood.Sunrisers off to disastrous start
Wriddhiman Saha was out second ball to a Tim Southee nip-backer but could have survived had he reviewed. Jason Roy, who has come in since David Warner’s ouster, looked to cut loose but was tied down by Shivam Mavi’s tight lines as he kept premeditating and missing. The frustration eventually got to him as he slapped a length ball straight to mid-on as the Sunrisers crawled to 17 for 2 in five overs.Mavi’s figures read 2-0-4-1 when Eoin Morgan decided to gamble with a third over for the fast bowler inside the first six. He erred and got picked off. Kane Williamson took him for 18, including four boundaries: a back-foot cover drive, a slap through point, a front-foot cover drive, and, to top it off, a neat little dab past short third. It gave Sunrisers a hint of momentum.

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Shakib makes an impact
Playing his first game of the second leg, and only his fourth overall this season, Shakib Al Hasan made a mark in his very first over, not with his left-arm spin, but with his athleticism. A quick sprint, a turnaround and throw in one motion at the bowler’s end had Williamson short of the crease as he tried to steal a single in the seventh over. It left the Sunrisers three down, leaving two youngsters – Priyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma – having to resurrect the innings. That wasn’t to be. Shakib had Sharma stumped with a slider in the 11th over, and finished with 4-0-20-1.The slide continues
Sunil Narine, brought into the attack in the eight over, maintained the Knight Riders’ stranglehold. In trying to break the shackles, Garg, who could have been out on 5 had Shakib taken a simple pop-back, was out slog-sweeping to deep square for 21 to give Varun Chakravarthy his first wicket to leave Sunrisers 70 for 5. Two monstrous hits from the threatening Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan’s failed helicopter shot, and Venkatesh Iyer’s towering presence as a boundary catcher highlighted the rest of the innings as Sunrisers limped to 115 for 8. The spin trio of Shakib, Narine and Chakravarthy ended with combined figures of 12-0-58-3.Shubman Gill drives towards mid-on•BCCI

Sunrisers tie down KKR top order
In UAE, the Knight Riders have so far been able to shellack bowling attacks upfront to reduce the pressure on their middle order. But here they were given a proper workout early on. Venkatesh Iyer was beaten for pace three times before he miscued an attempted hoick to Williamson at mid-off in the fifth over. Two overs later, Rahul Tripathi erred in picking length as he swatted a Rashid Khan delivery to midwicket.Enter Umran Malik
Talk about making a mark with raw pace. Umran Malik, the 21-year-old from Srinagar, let it rip as soon as he came on in the fourth over. Originally in the Sunrisers contingent as a net bowler and signed as a short-term Covid-19 replacement for T Natarajan, Malik bowled the fastest delivery by an Indian in IPL 2021 with the third ball of his first over, which clocked 150kph. Having made Iyer hop around, he then troubled Nitish Rana with his zip off the pitch in his second over.This spell coincided with the Knight Riders treading a cautious path, with Rana and Shubman Gill crawling along to add 9 off 25 balls at one stage. The asking rate was creeping up, with the Knight Riders 44 for 2 at the halfway mark. With three more overs to come from Rashid, it was by no means going to be a cakewalk.Gill shreds pressure to secure victory
After the famine came the feast as Gill changed gears. Using his feet to throw Holder off his lengths, he pulled him imperiously for two boundaries in the 12th over to signal a turnaround. He then took on Rashid and Malik, who slightly erred in trying to go full throttle. Gill soon brought up a half-century, his first of the season. When the Knight Riders took the strategic time-out at 84 for 2 in 15 overs, they were well on their way to victory. Gill and the struggling Rana departed soon after, but Dinesh Karthik and Eoin Morgan calmly completed the job; Karthik’s bullet drive first ball and a cracking cut off Bhuvneshwar crushing any little hope Sunrisers may have had.

Allrounder Hardik Pandya has been selected for the three-Test series in Sri Lanka, which begins on July 26 in Galle. KL Rahul, who hasn’t played any competitive cricket since India’s Test series against Australia in March because of injury, was back in the squad. M Vijay, too, regained fitness, after wrist and shoulder injuries, and was named in the squad.Rohit Sharma made his Test comeback, too, after being rested for the limited-overs tour of the West Indies. He last played Tests for India during the New Zealand series in October last year, before injuring himself while playing an ODI. His replacement Karun Nair, who scored a triple century against England in December 2016 but made 54 in four innings after that, was left out.Abhinav Mukund, who got one Test in the home season, edged out Shikhar Dhawan as back-up opener, despite the latter’s success in limited-overs formats after his return in the Champions Trophy. Abhinav, however, is also a part of the India A squad for the four-day matches on the tour of South Africa in July – August and his availability for the A tour could be in doubt. The Test series in Sri Lanka is scheduled to end on August 16, while the four-day games in South Africa begin from August 12. Nair will lead the India A side in the four-day matches against South Africa A.Pandya’s maiden call-up to the Test side came in November last year for the home series against England. However, he hurt his right shoulder while training later that month and was withdrawn from the squad. Pandya found himself in the Test squad again for the first two matches against Australia later this year.The bowling chose itself with the two best bowlers in the world – R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja – being bolstered by the presence of Kuldeep Yadav. The four specialist quicks were Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav.India also announced a two-day warm-up match to be played in Colombo on July 21 and 22.India squad: Virat Kohli (capt.), M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund.

Essex have followed Middlesex in announcing that they will not be supporting the ECB’s proposed change to its constitution. The amendment to the Articles of Association is required to allow the board to bring in a new, eight-team T20 tournament from 2020.Essex’s chairman, John Faragher, described the new competition as likely to “exclude large area of the country from involvement” and therefore going against the ECB’s stated objective of growing the game.”We do not support the changes to the Articles of Association and consequently the proposed new T20 competition,” Faragher said. “It is essential that the County Championship, domestic 50-over and T20 competitions are encouraged to grow, and they must be protected.”We recognise and support the ‘Cricket Unleashed’ strategy and indeed Essex County Cricket Club has an enviable record in producing England players and captains. We are focused on expanding cricket in Essex, East Anglia and Metropolitan London, ensuring there are opportunities for all age and ability groups, male and female to be actively involved in the game.”We believe that as a result of the proposed changes, these opportunities will be reduced, that our income overall will suffer and the first-class game will be diminished, in contradiction to the ECB’s objective, which is to grow the game in this country – an objective that is unlikely to be advanced by a competition which would exclude large areas of the country from any involvement in it.”The statement follows consultation between the Essex board and club members. Essex were among the 16 counties (and MCC) who voted to explore the ECB’s city-based T20 option last September, although they have been vocal in saying that did not constitute unequivocal backing, as well as arguing Chelmsford should be considered to host a team.The ECB needs 31 of its 41 constituent members to vote through the change, which would remove the requirement that all 18 counties must be involved in any new competition. Middlesex were the first to come out in opposition last week but several other counties have already given their assent to the proposals, which would see them awarded payments of £1.3m a year by way of compensation for the use of players and facilities.

A slew of former international and first-class players have been enlisted as consultants to work with USA men’s, women’s and junior players at a specialist preparation camp from April 6-9 in Houston, Texas in an effort to give them a leg up on other teams in preparation for their respective ICC qualification events later this year. Among the new arrivals expected this weekend are former Australian Test spinner Beau Casson, former Sheffield Shield wicketkeeper Peter Anderson and former West Indies fast bowler Mervyn Dillon.Casson, 34, has been an assistant coach with New South Wales and Sydney Thunder since 2015 after being forced into early retirement in 2011 due to a heart condition. Dillon, 42, played 38 Tests for West Indies and ended his first-class career with Trinidad & Tobago in 2008. He has made regular appearances around the USA playing in private T20 tournaments in recent years and began pursuing a Cricket Australia Level Three coaching badge in Florida in 2012.Anderson, 55, has forged a successful career at Associate level after a 56-match first-class career with Queensland and South Australia. He coached Papua New Guinea for two years culminating in a fourth place finish at the 2014 World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand that secured ODI status for PNG. From there, he became the head of Afghanistan’s national cricket academy for two years. Most recently, Anderson took over as Cayman Islands coach and technical director last summer, and helped them defeat Argentina in a regional qualifier this February to gain a place at ICC World Cricket League Division Five, scheduled for September in South Africa.Specialist fielding coach Trevor Penney, who worked with USA’s senior players at a camp in Indianapolis last September ahead of ICC WCL Division Four, has been brought back for another stint with the USA men’s team. Unlike the other three consultant coaches, who are being utilized for this weekend only, Penney is expected to stay with USA as a consultant assistant coach until the end of May as part of their staff for ICC WCL Division Three in Uganda, working alongside head coach Pubudu Dassanayake and assistant Anand Tummala.Former India international Thiru Kumaran, who coached the USA U-19 squad in 2015 at the U-19 Americas Qualifier in Bermuda and U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Malaysia, has been brought back to continue working with junior players. Kumaran, 41, is currently based in Dallas, Texas where he runs a youth academy.Aside from the men’s team, who are targeting a top two finish in Uganda next month to move a step closer to the 2018 World Cup Qualifier, key tournaments for the women’s and U-19 teams are also coming up in 2017. This weekend’s camp is being used as a launching pad for each team’s preparations with six players from each squad coming to the camp to train alongside the entire men’s national squad.The USA Women were given a wildcard spot into the 2017 ICC Europe Qualifier where they will play Scotland and Netherlands this August for a chance to advance into the 2018 Women’s World T20 Qualifier. The USA U-19 team will head to Toronto for the U-19 Americas Qualifier in July as they attempt to qualify for the U-19 World Cup for the first time since 2010.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsHasan Ali bowled back-to-back maidens and picked up two wickets to wreck West Indies•AFP

In a nutshellA no-contest between Pakistan’s bowling attack and the West Indies battling line-up. There were 66 dot balls in the innings – that’s 11 overs out of 20 – and eight of those dots were wickets. Hasan Ali bowled back-to-back maidens and finished with match-winning figures of 4-2-12-2.Chadwick Walton, with 40, and Carlos Brathwaite, who made 37, his new career best, bettering the score he had made at the World T20 final, dragged West Indies to 124 for 8. It was nowhere near enough. Although the pitch at Queens Park Oval was being used for its third straight match, there weren’t enough signs of the ball slowing up. And Pakistan’s top order capitalised. Ahmed Shehzad struck 53 off 45 balls to ensure a seven-wicket victory.Where the game was wonThe middle overs. Yes they exist in T20. For further proof, Hasan did most of his damage through inswingers, which for him, come out best with an old ball. Three out of his four overs came after the first 10 when West Indies fell from a respectable 59 for 2 to a silly 87 for 6. A slide like that might have been justified if there had been a spree of magic deliveries or an invasion of pitch demons. But all Hasan did was bowl full and straight. He understood that was enough by watching the West Indian batsmen set up on leg stump, and wait on the back foot, preferring to have room to free the arms and flat bat sixes.The men who who won itHasan had been hit for a six off the third delivery he bowled. The punishment was dealt to a good length ball – the same kind with which he profited later in the innings. That he still stuck to his strengths against a team known for its big hitting was a sign of the 23-year old’s self-belief. It helped, though, that when he came on for his second spell – 2-2-0-2 – West Indies were stuck in a rut. They were falling behind in the innings and tried to hit their way out of trouble. Not a sensible thing to do against a bowler harnessing a little bit of reverse swing.The instigator of the choke, though, was legspinner Shadab Khan. He also dismissed the opposition’s best batsman on the day – Walton – by teasing him into big shot that only went as far as long-on. The reason for that was the dip the 18-year old generated. In much the same way, he deceived Jason Holder in the 16th over and though he didn’t get Kieron Pollard, he was beating his outside edge repeatedly.Moment of the matchMarlon Samuels had just struck back-to-back sixes. He has turned low totals into match-winning ones before and has had phenomenal success in finals both actual and virtual. There were no such heroics on Sunday because, on the heels of being involved in a bizarre run-out, his middle stump took a beating. Hasan’s wicket-to-wicket line was poorly negotiated by Samuels, who stayed leg side of the ball and attempted a lame glide to third man. His knees buckled and as he sank to the floor, there was almost a look of begrudging approval of a delivery that had been too good for him.Where they standPakistan clinched the four-match T20I series 3-1. The two teams resume their limited-overs battle in the three-match ODI series starting in Guyana on April 7.