krbuzz

By K.R. Nayar Colonel Arvinder Singh, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Abu Dhabi T10 ensures that the operation of staging the event is of the highest standard. He revealed how through meticulous planning and working closely with Abu Dhabi Cricket, the league has produced contests which go till the wire. Colonel Arvinder Singh, COO Abu Dhabi T10 Top cricketers from around the world are lauding the Abu Dhabi T10. Liam Livingstone is someone who believes that T10 will boost other formats. Faf Du Plessis, Eoin Morgan, Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell have all expressed their joy of playing in this format. Organisers of the event make sure that the event keeps up its high standards and expectations through their minutely planned operations. Arvinder Singh, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Abu Dhabi T10, makes it a point to confirm that everything is in place much before the start of the event and also during the course of the daily matches. Singh, who was a Colonel in the India...

By K.R. Nayar  UAE will once again stamp its mark as not only the hub of cricket but also as a centre where innovative tournaments are held. The Sharjah Cricket Stadium, from where cricket blossomed in the UAE, will become the only ground in the world where all formats of the game will have been played at the international level. This includes Test cricket, 50-overs, T20, T10 and now the Ninety90 that is to be held during May-June 2022 The signing ceremony attended by   ECB Chairman, HH Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, ECB Vice-Chairman Khalid Al Zarooni, and HE Aref Al Awani, from Abu Dhabi  Sports Council, and league owners Salman Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Bukhatir, When three entrepreneurs who are passionate about cricket and have the reputation of successfully boosting the game over the years join hands to organise an event, it is bound to be a colossal one. The three entrepreneurs are Abdul Rahman Bukhatir, who brought international cricket to UAE in...

By K.R. Nayar Chennai Braves had lost eight consecutive matches earlier, but they bravely pulled off an emphatic 10-wicket win over Northern Warriors in the second match of Abu Dhabi T10 at the Zayed Cricket Stadium on Monday. Mohammad Shahzad goes for one of his mighty hits  It was a clash between fifth-placed Warriors and sixth-placed Braves in this six-team tournament. Warriors, despite the defeat, did not finish last as they have recorded two wins while Chennai walked away with a consolation win. Unfortunately, Chennai had a squad that did not click. Their opener Mohammad Shahzad is one of the most explosive batsmen in the world today. He had once forced Team India bowlers to bow to him through an aggressive 124 in the 2018 Asia Cup at the Dubai International Stadium. Shahzad defies the theory of fitness that is needed for the shortest format of this game. Despite having a pouch, he is an agile wicketkeeper and destructive as a batsman. He often does a 'belly celebration...

 By K.R. Nayar  The first match of the day on Monday was a battle between table-toppers Deccan Gladiators and second-placed Team Abu Dhabi. Through a well-fought contest, Abu Dhabi returned back to the top of the table beating Gladiators by eight runs. Liam Livingstone  The luck of the coin went the Gladiators’s way and they elected to field but they could not pull off a victory against the determined Abu Dhabi team. Abu Dhabi opener Phil Salt, fresh from his knock of 63 against Bangla Tigers on Sunday, hit the first three deliveries of the first over from Gladiator’s skipper Wahab Riaz for boundaries. Riaz struck with the last ball of that over to have opener Paul Stirling caught by Russell at mid-off for a duck. Salt continued his boundary hits in the second over too, scoring two successive boundaries off Sultan Ahmed. Odean Smith stopped Salt by clean bowling him for 22. Chris Gayle joined Liam Livingstone on the crease. Livingstone hit Smith for a six. The co...

By K.R. Nayar Northern Warriors blow hot, blow cold ways has resulted in their team failing to exploit the momentum gained from the last two victories. They crashed to a 10-wicket defeat to Deccan Gladiators in the second match of the Abu Dhabi T10 on Sunday. The third match, in contrast, was a display of Delhi Bulls verve to bounce back and stop Bangla Tigers. Dominic Drakes - deadly spell  Given that the luck of the toss went the Warrior’s way, all they needed to have done was to play with a plan to commit less mistakes. Warriors did get the two Toms out without them posing a big score.  Both the Gladiators openers, Tom Banton and Tom Kohler-Cadmore, fell on the  unlucky 13. However, they let Tom Moores keep swelling the total with support from Andre Russell’s quick 22 off 11 balls.  Warriors removed Moores and Russell by 7.4 overs. At this stage, Gladiators had made only 92 runs.   Odean Smith Gladiators’s Odean Smith made it tough for the Warriors ...

By K.R. Nayar It seems that there is no way that Chennai Braves are able to win a match. In the first match of the day on Sunday in the Abu Dhabi T10 at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, Chennai crashed to their eighth defeat when Team Abu Dhabi registered a seven-wicket win over them. Phil Salt  Chennai may have hoped for Abu Dhabi’s spirit to be low after their two defeats. They would have also hoped their batting would finally click especially after their aggressive opener Mohammad Shahzad had started to strike well. In fact, after their opener Bhanuka Rajapaska fell for 14, they were at 75 for 1 at one stage. Then began their usual collapse. After a 49 runs partnership for the second wicket between Shahzad and Dasun Shanaka, none of the rest could force the run flow. Wicketkeeper Phil Salt took the first of his two catches to remove Rajapaksa off Liam Livingstone. Then Livingstone had Shanaka caught and bowled for 11 and Samiullah Shinwari out for a duck. While the rest of the bats...

By K.R. Nayar The final day of the six-nation ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier was exhilarating. The UAE women’s team created history recording a clean sweep over all their five opponents. My final day’s report for the ICC website on UAE’s journey and Hong Kong finishing as runners up along with some of the special moments captured UAE women's team with the winners' trophy.  All photos by K.R. Nayar  UAE women recorded a clean sweep winning against all five opponents in the six-nation ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier to qualify for the Women’s T20 World Cup global qualifier in 2022 for a place in the ICC Women’s World Cup T20 World Cup 2023 to be held in South Africa. The UAE fans that cheered their players with placards  UAE remained unconquered winning five matches in a row. They began with a 30 runs win over Malaysia and followed it up with an 11 runs win over Hong Kong. Then they went on to beat Bhutan by 47 runs and Kuwait by seven wickets. In t...

By K.R. Nayar  Deccan Gladiators have glided to the top of the table displacing Team Abu Dhabi, while Bangla Tigers moved to the second position as the battle for the top slots in the table intensified in the Abu Dhabi T10 at the Zayed Cricket Stadium. Bangla Tigers's openers Hazratullah Zazai and Johnson Charles On Saturday, after Northern Warriors trounced table-toppers Team Abu Dhabi in the first match, the next two matches of the day turned out to be a race to occupy the top of the table position. Gladiators beat Delhi Bulls by eight wickets and succeeded in clinching the top slot in the points table. Tigers, with their second match win over Chennai Braves, are in the second slot. A look at the points table is a clear indication of the fierce battle that is on in this edition with three teams at 10 points each after seven games, and they are being closely chased by Delhi Bulls with eight points. Teams that have won five out of their seven matches will go for the kill in t...

By K.R. Nayar Did Northern Warriors read the famous quote by Charles McGonegal who lost both his arms in World War I? The defending champions stunned table toppers Team Abu Dhabi through a powerful batting display from openers Moeen Ali and Kennar Lewis. They recorded the highest partnership in T10 history Moeen Ali and Kennar Lewis Northern Warriors were a wounded lot following five defeats in the Abu Dhabi T10 despite being the defending champions. They seemed to have read the famous quote from National Vice Commander of American Legion Charles McGonegal who lost both arms in World War 1. He once said: “It’s not what you’ve lost that counts, it’s what you do with what’s left.”  The defending champions, playing like the champions that they were twice before in this tournament, stunned table-toppers Team Abu Dhabi through a ten-wicket win. This was the first of the three matches at the Abu Dhabi Zayed Cricket Stadium on Saturday. None expected them to race to Abu Dhabi’s impress...

By K.R. Nayar Women cricketers from six countries are chasing a dream to play in the Women’s World Cup. Contesting in the ICC Women’s World Cup T20 Qualifiers at the ICC Academy ground, they are all also vying for recognition in the world of cricket. Everyone is giving their best and backing their efforts are many supporters waving flags and cheering them from outside the boundary. Fans cheer for the UAE women's cricket team  Women’s cricket is not about displaying their skills but the expressions of joy with which they play the game too. They do not have a huge fan following like men’s cricket but whatever support and cheer they get, everyone acknowledges it from the bottom of their hearts. A large number of fans had turned up to cheer for the Nepal women’s team. Soon after Nepal beat Malaysia on the fourth day of the event, their players lined up near the boundary to bow to everyone and receive their cheers. Fans had turned up with the Nepalese flag which they kept waving t...

By K.R. Nayar Abu Dhabi T10 is all about unexpected happenings during a match. Sometimes the expected also happens. On Friday, both, the unexpected and the unexpected happened on the same day in the two matches. Chris Gayle's half century in vain In the first match of the day, Abu Dhabi, who was on a winning streak by recording five consecutive victories, was expected to defeat Bangla Tigers. The Tigers had earlier lost two matches too. But they shocked Abu Dhabi by registering a ten-run win. In the second match, Chennai Braves who had crashed to five successive defeats was not expected to beat Deccan Gladiators. As expected, Gladiators recorded an easy five-wicket win. The bottom-placed Chennai produced one of their poorest batting display getting bowled out for 57. The snapping of Abu Dhabi’s winning run was orchestrated by Tigers’ consistent opener Hazratullah Zazai and Will Jack. Zazai’s 41 came off 20 balls with three boundaries and three sixes while Jack’s 43 came off j...

 By K.R. Nayar It was Afghanistan batsmen's day at the Abu Dhabi T10 on Thursday. Two Afghanistan batsmen emerged match winners steering Bengal Tigers and Delhi Bulls to emphatic victories over their opponents through their sheer aggressive batting. Rahmanullah Gurbaz  In the first match of the day, it was the show of Hazaratullah Zazai who cracked 59 off 26 balls studded with five sixes and three boundaries that ensured Bengal Tigers a nine-wicket win over Deccan Gladiators. In the second match, Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored a breezy 70 off just 32 balls with five sixes and six boundaries that gave Delhi Bulls an eight-wicket win over Northern Warriors. Zazai is 23 years old and Gurbaz is just 19, but the power they back behind their shots was enormous. All that the fielders could do was to helplessly watch the ball racing to the boundary, sometimes all along the grass like a bullet and sometimes fly over the boundary. Hazaratullah Zazai  Deccan Gladiators had batted ...

By K.R. Nayar It was near and yet so far for Karnataka in the  Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy . A last-ball six from Chennai’s Shahrukh Khan thwarted their dream of lifting this trophy despite a splendid show throughout the event. This story was published in News Trail, Bangalore  Khan, who was named after Bollywood film star Shahrukh Khan following a suggestion from his cousins, emerged the hero in the match. Karnataka had posted a challenging 151 for 7 and looked set for a victory with Tamil Nadu reduced to 116 for 5 in 17.1 overs. But a spirited batting display from Khan won the match for Tamil Nadu. Despite the heart-breaking end for Karnataka, they had played excellent cricket throughout the event to reach the final. They began their campaign through a nine run win over Mumbai with skipper Manish Pandey top scoring with 84 runs backed by Karun Nair (72) to post 166 for 4 in the 20 overs. They then managed to defend their total through some fine bowling from Konganda Cari...