Sports

Rourkela (Odisha), May 19 (IANS) Delhi Hockey and Hockey Chandigarh registered wins in their respective games on Day 2 of the 13th Hockey India Sub-Junior Men's National Hockey Championship 2023 at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium here on Friday.

In the first match of the day, Delhi Hockey defeated Assam Hockey 5-2 courtesy of Afridi (8', 11', 26', 34'), who scored four goals. Also, Aryan (58') netted a goal to contribute to Delhi Hockey's win. For Assam Hockey, Ritik Patir (23') and Rohit Yadav (40') scored a goal each.

The second game of the day witnessed Hockey Chandigarh register a comprehensive 19-0 win against Hockey Rajasthan. Gurpreet Singh (3', 8', 23', 24', 29', 48', 51', 55', 56') scored nine goals, while Prabhjot Singh Saini (22', 44', 45') netted a hat-trick. Also, Pankaj Sharma (26', 36') and Gurjeet Singh (52', 60') scored a brace each, while Sukhpreet Singh (5'), Sukhmanpreet Singh (13'), and Suraj Kumar Sah (56') were also on the scoresheet.

Earlier on Thursday evening, the Hockey Association of Odisha defeated Hockey Maharashtra 18-0 in the fourth and last match of the Day 1 of the tournament.

Deonath Nanwar (16', 35', 36, 40', 49') ended the game as the top scorer with five goals to his name, while Deepak Pradhan (14', 19', 25', 44') scored four goals.

Moreover, Yojin Minz (11', 26', 33') netted a hat-trick, while Irengbam Rohit Singh (3', 28') scored a brace. Bilkan Oram (18'), Sudarsan Goud (13'), and Yumkham Bidyananda Singh (43') also scored a goal each for the Hockey Association of Odisha.

--IANS

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By Niharika Raina
New Delhi, May 19 (IANS) Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting stated that with the proliferation of T20 franchise cricket leagues around the world, he is unhappy over the landscape of the cricketing world veering more towards tournaments in the shortest format.



2023 has been a year in which T20 leagues in UAE, South Africa and soon-to-be in the USA have cramped cricketing calendars, apart from a plethora of T10 leagues mushrooming around. It has meant that various stakeholders in the cricketing world are worried about the future of international cricket, mainly Test matches.

"It is getting a harder story to tell, I must admit, with the amount of white-ball cricket the younger generations are actually seeing. The landscape of cricket is definitely changing to become a more domestic-based T20 team which I am not happy about."

"As a young boy growing up in Tasmania, all I wanted to do was be good enough to play a game for my club team, my state team and hopefully play for Australia in the Test format."

"Test cricket is still a benchmark for a cricketer, and to have a long-established Test career is how we judge players. Test cricket is the pinnacle, and I was lucky enough to play 168 Test matches which suggests I like it very much," said Ponting on the sidelines of the official curtain-raiser event of the WTC Final between India and Australia, to be held from June 7-11.

Ponting also feels the International Cricket Council (ICC) should play a role in ensuring that players from not-so-big Test-playing nations are paid well to play the longest format of the game.

"That question has a different answer in different countries. It has become increasingly difficult to groom the youngsters in the Caribbean (West Indies) for instance who want to chase the dream of playing Test cricket."

"The payment system in the Caribbean compared to some of the franchise leagues, it doesn't match up and Sri Lanka will be the same and Bangladesh will be the same. It is not the case in India, England and Australia though."

"You are paid well to play Test cricket for your country and most aspire to play the Test match game. There is a role to play for the ICC here and make the payments a bit more even across international Test cricket to attract players from these different countries who want to play for their country."

"It is something that has been spoken about at a very high level at the ICC to help that. But in India, the feeling I get is that most of these youngsters aspire to wear the baggy blue cap and the same is in Australia too," he added.

Quizzed on what needs to be done to increase the number of women's Test matches, Ponting remarked, "I think it is very simple as far as women's cricket is concerned -- they have to play more. The Australian women maybe play only one Test match a year, and they are probably one of the best sporting teams in the last 10-12 years."

"To promote the game, they need to be playing more and by more, I mean not One-Day cricket but Test matches. We would love to see Australia's women's team play a Test against India a lot more, and that is where as a young woman growing up, you will learn, and before you know it, we have attracted a lot of women to play," he concluded.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 19 (IANS) Having suffered many setbacks in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Delhi Capitals will be hoping to end their season on a positive note with one final win.

They defeated Punjab Kings in an away match at Mohali in the penultimate round and are all set to take on Chennai Super Kings in their last match of IPL 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, here on Saturday.

Speaking ahead of that game, Delhi Capitals' Assistant Coach Shane Watson said, "We certainly have a lot to play for as a franchise and individually. Hopefully, we can perform really well and take confidence from our win against Punjab Kings."

Watson also said that the IPL 2023 season has played a big part in the development of young players in the DC camp.

"There has been a lot of progress and development for the younger Indian batters during this season. We've been working with individual players to help them grow as fast as they can. This year has played a big part in the younger players' development; hopefully, we've set them up for the upcoming seasons." Watson was quoted as saying by the franchise in a release on Friday.

After a disastrous start to the season in which they lost five successive matches, David Warner's Delhi Capitals recovered to win four matches in the next five games to recover a bit. But two successive losses against Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings, at home, meant they slumped out of contention.

Now their only hope for the season is to win their final league match and restore some more pride.

--IANS

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Lucknow, May 17 (IANS) Marcus Stoinis' unbeaten 89 off 47 balls and Mohsin Khan's brilliant bowling display in the final over helped Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) register a thrilling 5-run win over Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at the Ekana Stadium, here on Tuesday.

With this win, Lucknow jumped to the third spot in the points table with 15 points and edged closer to sealing their plat-offs berth with one league match to go.

Riding on Marcus Stoinis' unbeaten 89 off 47 along with skipper Krunal Pandya's 49 off 42 LSG put up a good total of 177 runs on the board.

In response, MI were off to a flying start. Skipper Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan were scoring runs at a brisk pace on a slow track and set a solid platform with their 92-run opening stand. Then, LSG turned the tables in the middle overs and MI struggled in the second half of their chase.

Tim David tried his best to get them over the line, but could not get the job done as Mohsin successfully defended 10 runs in the final over to hand his side two crucial points.

Chasing 178, Ishan and Rohit provided a strong start to MI, hitting four maximums and three boundaries as MI scored 58/0 in the Power-play.

When Ishan was continuing with his strokeplay, Ravi Bishnoi and Krunal Pandya brilliantly kept MI's run rate in check and LSG came back in the match in 10-15 overs.

In the 10th over, Rohit picked up Bishnoi's quicker googly and paddle-scooped it over a short fine with supreme ease for four. The spinner quickly bounced back and removed the MI skipper to break the 90-run opening stand and also completed his 50 IPL wickets.

Soon Ishan brought up his fifty with a boundary and followed that up with another four. But Bishnoi didn't let him stay longer at the crease and trapped him with a googly. Ishan went for the pull shot. It flew off the edge and went to deep square leg where Naveen-ul-Haq settled under it and took a sharp catch.

After a few silent overs, Yash Thakur cleaned up the in-form Suryakumar Yadav cheaply for seven. Then, David and Nehal Wadhera collected two boundaries and MI were reeling at 125/3 in 15 overs and 53 needed in 30 balls to win.

A couple of overs later, Mohsin piled up further miseries with the wicket of Wadhera on the first ball of the 17th over and the equation read 39 off 18 balls. The next over, Yash overstepped and Tim David got a free hit. After one run coming off the free hit. Thakur removed Vishnu Vinod on a short ball.

David almost turned the tables in the penultimate over, hitting Naveen-ul-haq for two sixes and a four as the equation came down to 11 runs from the final over.

Then, Mohsin held his nerves and defended 11 runs with his well-executed Yorkers, giving just 5 runs off the over as LSG wrapped the win by 5 runs.

Earlier, batting first, LSH had a torrid start as Jason Behrendorff's double strike in the second over sent the opener Deepak Hooda and Prerak Mankad on two successive deliveries to reduce LSH to 12/2. With Quinton de Kock's couple of sixes and Krunal Pandya's boundary, LSG were 35/2 at the end of the Power-play.

Piyush came into the attack on the next over and picked up a wicket on the first ball of his spell. While the MI bowlers dominated the proceedings, Stoinis and Krunal steadied the innings with their 82-run stand.

Krunal was experiencing cramps while running and retired himself in the 16th over, falling one short of his half-century. Then, Stoinis took MI Bowlers to cleaner, taking 54 runs off the last 3 overs to take LSG to 177/3 in 20 overs.

Brief scores:

Lucknow Super Giants 177/3 in 20 overs (Marcus Stoinis 89, Krunal Pandya 49; Jason Behrendorff 2-30) beat Mumbai Indians 156/5 in 20 overs(Ishan Kishan 59, Rohit Sharma 37, Tim David 32 not out; Ravi Bishnoi 2-26, Yash Thakur 2-40) by 5 runs

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) The chief coach of the Indian men's hockey team, Craig Fulton is all geared up for his first assignment with the team as they will travel to Europe for the FIH Pro League 2022-2023 with the matches starting May 26.

In the FIH Men's Hockey Pro League 2022/23 matches played so far during the home leg played in Rourkela last year, the Indian team put up a solid performance and remained unbeaten against reigning World Champions Germany and Australia, which helped them climb up to top of the points table.

Now, under the guidance of Fulton, who joined the team at the India national coaching camp at Centre, Bengaluru on April 29, the Indian men's team will aim to continue their winning momentum as they take on reigning Olympic champions Belgium (May 26 and June 2) and hosts Great Britain (May 27 and June 3) in London.

The Indian team will then travel to Eindhoven, the Nehterlands to take on hosts and world No.1 Netherlands (June 7 and 10) and conclude their campaign in the prestigious nine-team competition with ties against world No.7 Argentina (June 8 and 11).

Speaking on the team's preparation during a virtual press conference on Tuesday, Craig Fulton, who has nearly 25 years of coaching experience, said, "We had intensive running and conditioning sessions in the build-up for our upcoming competitions. Moreover, we are focusing on the group of players who have been selected to play in the FIH Pro League in Europe and they are being trained in a certain way."

"Players are riding high on confidence courtesy of their brilliant display in Rourkela, where they defeated Australia and Germany. They also understand what I want from them and are performing well in training, which is definitely a good sign for us as a group ahead of our upcoming Pro League matches," he added.

Fulton further said that the FIH men's hockey Pro League 2022/23 in Europe will be a great opportunity for the team to compete against top-ranked teams and further improve their overall game ahead of the 19th Asian Games in China, which is a crucial tournament apropos the qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

"Our priority is to win the Asian Games as it will ensure our direct qualification for the Paris Olympics. So, in that sense, FIH Pro League, as well as other lined-up tournaments including Asian Champions Trophy is of vital importance for us as they will not only enhance our preparations but also help us emerge as the title contender in the Asian Games in China later this year."

Ace drag-flicker and defender Harmanpreet Singh will lead the Indian team during their upcoming matches in Europe, while prolific midfielder Hardik Singh will serve as the Vice-Captain.

Meanwhile, Skipper Harmanpreet said there will not be many changes from the structure and tactics that the team implemented during their Pro League matches in Rourkela.

"Our performance against Australia and Germany was a big confidence booster for us, hence we will aim to follow the similar structure that we followed in Rourkela. However, the Chief Coach has instructed us to focus on solidifying our defence, so, we are preparing accordingly," Harmanpreet said.


The schedule (all times IST):

May 26: India Vs Belgium at 1900 hrs

May 27: India vs Great Britain at 2130 hrs

June 2: India vs Belgium at 1900 hrs

June 3: India vs Great Britain at 1700 hrs

June 7: India vs Netherlands at 2300 hrs

June 8: India vs Argentina at 2030 hrs

June 10: India vs Netherlands at 2100 hrs

June 11: India vs Argentina at 2100 hrs

--IANS

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By Chetan Sharma
New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) Feints are one of the minute details in boxing that separate world-class fighters from others. The technique helped India's young sensation Deepak Bhoria (51kg) achieve a historic feat at the World Boxing Championships in Tashkent.



Deepak went down fighting to two-time World Championships bronze medallist France's Bilal Bennama 3-4 split verdict in a close contest, but the Haryana lad believes that he has learned his lesson well.

Speaking to IANS on Tuesday, the World Championship bronze medallist shared his struggle-filled journey.

"I was out because of my right shoulder injury (January 2022). I worked really hard and learned how important it is to be patient. I made a comeback in January this year, and now a bronze medal in the Worlds. It feels really great but yes still a long way to go. My last bout was good but there might be a reason that I lost…will work on it and change the colour of my medal next time," Deepak said.

"There is always room for improvement and I believe I learned a lot during my injury period. It was tough but I kept myself calm and focused."

Asked about the areas he worked on, the 26-year-old pugilist said, "I was focusing more on strength...Yes, speed and endurance are equally important."

Before the World Championships, the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) appointed Dmitry Dmitruk as the Indian boxing team's foreign coach. And last year, former Irish professional boxer Bernard Dunne was named the high-performance director (HPD) for Indian boxing. Dunne, who had a five-year (2017-2022) stint with the Irish Athletic Boxing Association, replaced Santiago Nieva of Spain.

The appointments seem impressive as Indians won a good number of medals in both men's and women's World championships.

Enquiring about the tips he got before the championship, Deepak said, "We were working on the feint (faking a move) method. Feinting helps you keep opponents guessing, which inevitably opens them up for attacks. It's when you show your opponent an intention to do something, but then you do something else."

"We are learning new methods and thanks to the Boxing Federation of India for providing us with all the facilities," he said.

Deepak's achievement has left in doubt Amit Phangal's place in the squad for Asian Games. It will be interesting to see how things unfold in the coming days. But so far, Deepak is in!
From 'newspaper vendor' to becoming 'news' himself!

In 2008, when Deepak was just an 11-year-old he started boxing at the insistence of his uncle. His father was a constable and his mother, a homemaker, who also worked on the farm. Life was never easy.

In 2009, due to dire financial constraints, young Deepak was forced to quit boxing as he couldn't afford the expenses of diet and training which were a must to ensure he had a good physique and mental training.

His dream of becoming a boxer was almost over, but his coach, Rajesh Sheoran helped him back into the ring. He helped him by paying his diet and training expenses. In 2011, when everything seemed to move smoothly, Deepak was struck by a mighty blow where he suffered a career-threatening fracture to his right hand. The fracture continued to trouble him for almost two years before he underwent surgery.

While everything looked uncertain about his professional career and he had started doubting himself, that injury gave Deepak new perspectives. While he was unable to move his right hand, he slowly strengthened his left, which he says helped him a lot now as he is equally deft at fighting with both hands.

Despite the downhill that boxing faced with a dearth of competitive tournaments, Deepak never gave up. He continued with training but in 2015, life threw in a fresh set of challenges for the pugilist. The financial crisis was something that continued to haunt him, so much so that the boxer had to work as a newspaper vendor to sustain himself.

Finally, in 2016, there was some silver lining in the dark clouds. He joined Madras Engineering Group (MEG), Bangalore, and later that year, he also was selected by the Army Sports Institute, Pune. Since then, he has never looked back. His financial crisis was taken care of and his career saw an upswing. Deepak won a gold medal at the 2018 Senior National Championship and in 2019 he won a gold medal at the Makran Cup on his international debut.

Deepak carried that confidence into the 2019 Asian Boxing Championships and stormed into the final, where he had to settle for the silver in a tight match that went in favour of Nodirjon Mirzakhmedov of Uzbekistan 3-2.

He announced himself on the global stage in 2021 when he defeated the 2016 Rio Olympic gold medallist and 2019 World Champion Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan at the Strandja Memorial tournament.

2022 was a tough year for Deepak as he sustained an injury in his right shoulder in January and almost spent the whole year on the sidelines because of that.

Deepak has been one of the most improved and developed boxers in recent times. And his recent achievement in the 51kg Flyweight category at World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, has raised India's hope in the next major tournaments.

--IANS

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Ahmedabad, May 16 (IANS) Gujarat Titans became the first team to enter the playoffs of the IPL 2023 with a comprehensive 34-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Monday night and former India wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel is impressed with the batting technique of Shubman Gill, who played a match winning century knock.

Gill's sparkling knock of 101 (58b, 13x4, 1x6) and his 147-run partnership with Sai Sudharsan (47 runs, 36b, 6x4, 1x6) for the second wicket helped Titans put up a stiff 188/9. In reply, SRH were never in contention and were reduced to 59/7 in 9 overs before they pulled things back slightly and finished at 154/9 in their allotted 20 overs.

Paceman Mohammed Shami ran through the SRH top order, taking 4/21 while medium pacer Mohit Sharma finished with 4/28 in a brilliant bowling display.

The win took the Titans to 18 points in 13 games and they are now assured of a top-two finish while SRH were stranded at 8 points from 12 games and joined Delhi Capitals in bowing out of the tournament.

"What I enjoyed most was seeing him use his technique. All the shots that we saw, had him let the ball come to him. He didn't try and whack it and it allowed him to successfully find the gaps. When you play on a bouncy pitch, you have to let the ball come to you. That's how you control the ball and hit where it needs to go. When he was set, he was able to get a century. He has hit centuries in T20, ODI, and Test cricket at this ground," said JioCinema IPL expert Parthiv Patel about Gill.

Meanwhile, Bhuvneshwar Kumar became only the second bowler this season after Mark Wood to take a five-wicket haul, proving to be a small bright spot in an otherwise disappointing evening for SRH.

Former India pacer RP Singh praised Bhuvi's experience and skill, while highlighting the importance of pitching length of the ball.

"We talk about the importance of length and how it can enable a five-wicket haul. If you can bowl a gutter-length ball, you should take a wicket there… Taking five wickets is very special for any bowler at this stage in the competition. This has only happened twice this season. The skill of bowling and what makes you special is your experience. You can read a batter with your experience, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar has done so in this match," Singh said.

On the other hand, Australian pacer Brett Lee praised the Titans' commitment, saying: "I think they have been really well led by Hardik Pandya. Didn't get the chance to bowl, I am hearing the workload reason as the reason why he's not bowling, which is disappointing. But the fact they keep winning without one of their strike bowlers, it's good for them. Every player is stepping up and doing their own thing and contributing to the team's success, which is great for them."

--IANS

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London, May 12 (IANS) It promises to be another dramatic weekend in the Premier League with virtually everything still to play for; from the title down to the battle to avoid relegation.

League leaders Manchester City don't play until Sunday afternoon, which is surprising given they have the second leg of their Champions League semifinal at home to Real Madrid on Wednesday night, and Pep Guardiola's side needs as much recovery time as possible.

Guardiola didn't make any substitutions during Tuesday night's Champions League first leg and the players who were on the bench in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, such as Phil Foden, Aymeric Laporte, Riyad Mahrez and Julian Alvarez can all be expected to start on Sunday, a Xinhua report said.

Everton produced their performance of the season on Monday to win 5-1 away to Brighton and climb out of the bottom three, and looking at the rivals sides such as Leeds United and Leicester City still have to face this season, one more win might be enough to keep them up.

Brighton is Arsenal's next rivals in another Sunday game, and coach Roberto De Zerbi will have to tighten up in defense after the horror-show against Everton that has derailed their European hopes.

Depending on Man City's result at Everton, Arsenal could have a chance of going back to the top of the table, or need a win to stay just a point behind. It promises to be thrilling between two sides that play similar styles of attacking football.

Leeds United dropped into the bottom three last weekend after losing to Man City and desperately needs to take something from third-place Newcastle United.

It will be an emotional game for Leeds coach Sam Allardyce, whose sacking by Newcastle in early 2008 was arguably the most painful moment in his career, even ahead of losing the England job.

Defeats to Brighton and West Ham and Liverpool's return to form mean Manchester United have to beat Wolverhampton to avoid danger of dropping out of the top-four.

Wolves travels to Old Trafford with nothing to play for after securing their top-flight survival, while United is still without players such as Raphael Varane, Scott Mac Tominay and Lisandro Martinez.

Liverpool visits third from bottom Leicester City on Monday night, with the home side struggling in defense and with just one win in their last 12 games, after shipping five goals to Fulham in their last outing.

Chelsea hosts Nottingham Forest, who are only three points above the bottom three. Chelsea claimed their first win since Frank Lampard's return last weekend, but the mood among fans isn't good and Forest may have a chance of vital points in a bad-tempered Stamford Bridge.

Bournemouth's 39 points will probably be enough to keep them up for another year in the top-flight, but a win away to Crystal Palace would be enough to ensure survival, while Southampton looks doomed to relegation even if they can claim a win at home to Fulham.

Aston Villa and Tottenham both play their last card to keep their slim hopes of qualifying for Europe alive, although even if Villa does fail to ensure European competition, their form since the arrival of Unai Emery in November means the Midlands club can look forward to next season with optimism.

Finally, Brentford entertains West Ham in a London derby, with the visitors probably clear of relegation, but needing another win to assure their survival after a difficult campaign.

--IANS

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By Niharika Raina
New Delhi, May 12 (IANS) With 576 runs in 11 innings at a strike rate of 157.8, there is no doubt that Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis has been the stand-out batter of IPL 2023.



In a batting line-up where Bangalore's batting has been hugely dependent on him, Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell, du Plessis being the upfront enforcer in power-play has been refreshing to witness, according to former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith.

"He's played so well and been great to watch. He's really upped his aggression at the top of the order. He's 38 right now and is looking very fit and has managed to adapt and keep up with youngsters in terms of the way there is need to play. We spoke about not having anchor batters, and he's turned himself into an attacking, dynamic batter at the top of the order," said Smith, an IPL expert for JioCinema, in a select virtual media interaction.

The statistics also back up du Plessis' transformation into an attacking batter in IPL 2023, especially in power-play. In IPL 2022, his power-play strike-rate was only 104.68, but in the ongoing season, it has jumped to 169.93.

His middle-overs strike-rate in IPL 2023 is at 138.91, before it shoots up to 247.05 in death overs. But what stands out as well in du Plessis' scintillating run of form is his improved strike-rate against spin, which is at 130.53 in IPL 2023, compared to 126.66 last year.

"Plus, he also has added consistency as well, which is terrific. He's been great for RCB; plus his leadership has been good and brings a lot of calmness to the team. So, it's been terrific to watch him," added Smith.

Despite Du Plessis' playing the aggressor role against spinners, Kohli's slowdown post power-play hasn't been brushed under the carpet. It is an area which has been well-documented, seen from Kohli striking at 108.08 against spinners in IPL 2023, bringing his role of being the anchor in the innings under scanner.

Smith feels if Bangalore find more support with the bat, then Kohli can look to up the ante, especially against spinners.

"There's a couple of things that standout for me. The sort of Indian batters around Virat, you just have to look at stats of those who have 1000 runs for RCB, and it's way short. They have struggled to find a number three batter despite trying few combinations and number five-six has been an area of weakness for them," he said.

"A lot of pressure is then put on Kohli, du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell to be the main consistent performers. All three of them have had really good seasons so far and if RCB find some areas of support, maybe that can free up Virat more.

Against spin, we know Virat doesn't really sweep much, he plays generally down the ground. You can probably set some fields and control his boundary count after the six overs and that's maybe an area that he can assess," he added.

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting recently called anchor batters a dying breed in the shortest format. As IPL 2023 records a plethora of 200+ totals, Smith believes the game is slowly starting to move on from anchoring the innings approach in T20 batting.

"Look, I agree with Ricky in terms of his sentiment. The only thing I would add is conditions always need to be taken into account. Certainly in India, there is no place for the anchor batter, as seen from the scores in this year's IPL being high with impact players there and sometimes 215-220 has been needed on certain grounds," the former South African captain said.

"The way these games have changed is, powerplay is slightly more manageable because there are more fielders in the ring. It's where the fielders go out and spinners come in, batters like Sky (Suryakumar Yadav) have really changed the game and are so dynamic that they score all around the ground.

They are able to sweep, hit over extra cover – makes it extremely difficult to bowl to them and are mentally looking to take on the game all the time. In India and pretty much around the world, certainly agree, especially with England internationally leading the way," he concluded.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 12 (IANS) Time and again, it's been the batting, which has let Delhi Capitals (DC) down in the ongoing IPL 2023 and the David Warner led side will look to sort it out when they face a desperate Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Match No 59 of the season at Arun Jaitley Stadium, here on Friday.

Both teams are coming off crushing defeats in their last matches respectively. Delhi lost to Chennai on a spin-friendly Chepauk track while Punjab Kings suffered a last-ball defeat against KKR at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

The Capitals are placed at the bottom of the table with eight points from 11 matches and even if they win their next three matches, it will only take them to 14 points, which might not be enough to earn them a place in the top four.

The Australian duo of captain Warner and coach Ricky Ponting would certainly want more contributions from Indian batters in Manish Pandey, Ripal Patel and Aman Hakim Khan, who have done occasionally well but lacked consistency. Most of the time, it seemed that they lacked game awareness and couldn't play according to the situation.

On the other hand, their foreign recruits -- skipper Warner, keeper-batter Phil Salt or all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, have produced match-winning performances in few games but they are not consistent enough and were ordinary against CSK.

The 36-year old Warner did well in the first half of the season but he also has struggled in the last five innings with him having single digit scores in three of them. If the seasoned Australian opener wants his side to do well, he will have to lead from front.

All-rounder Mitchell Marsh has been their main contributor with both bat and ball and the team would expect him to forget his horrible run-out in the last game and produce the magical performance once again.

However, the biggest question is where does Axar Patel bat in that Delhi Capitals in that batting line-up ?? Despite having a star-studded coaching set-up consisting Ponting, Sourav Ganguly, Shane Watson, Ajit Agarkar, Pravin Amre and others, Capitals have not been able to make the best use of Patel's batting.

Despite middle order not doing well, Delhi Capitals (DC) team management has held Axar back in their batting order consistently in IPL 2023, which has baffled many experts and pundits of the game. The southpaw has mustered 267 runs from 11 outings at an average of 33.38 in IPL 2023 and should definitely bat higher in the order.

The Delhi coaching staff have also come under criticism for not backing their youngsters enough. There is no doubt that the likes of Yash Dhull, Sarfaraz Khan, Ishan Porels and Priyam Garg have failed to capitalise on their chances but the constant changing and chopping in batting order and playing XI have also not helped their cause. In a high-pressure tournament like IPL, youngsters certainly need constant run in order to succeed.

As far bowling is concerned, the likes of Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav have done a decent job despite missing the services of speedster Anrich Nortje in the last two games.

On the other hand, it will be also a crucial game for Punjab Kings, who have 10 points from 11 games and they will look to bounce back after back-to-back defeats against Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively.

PBKS batting line-up have been putting up runs on the board but their bowling hasn't upto the mark in the last two games. Nathan Ellis has used his variations and slower ones well to contain batters but their star pacers Arshdeep Singh and Sam Curran have leaked runs off late.

In spin department, leg-spinner Rahul Chahar has had an average season while Liam Livingstone too just has two wickets to show in five games. Another spinner Harpreet Brar hasn't been used wisely by skipper Shikhar Dhawan and it will be interesting to see his performance against Delhi.

In the batting order, Dhawan has been good with his consistent runs but opening partner Prabhsimran Singh has disappointed at most of the occasions.

Bhanuka Rajapaksa made a return from injury but couldn't do much in the last game and Punjab might give a chance to Sikandar Zara in this game, since Shikhar also mentioned about not having an off-spin option in the game against KKR.

The likes of Jitesh Sharma and Livingstone have produced some brilliant performances and the team would want them to continue the good work.

Squads:

Delhi Capitals: David Warner (capt), Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh, Sarfaraz Khan, Aman Hakim Khan, Abhishek Porel (wk), Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav, Rovman Powell, Rilee Rossouw, Anrich Nortje, Mustafizur Rahaman, Chetan Sakariya, Mukesh Kumar, Phil Salt, Lungi Ngidi, Praveen Dubey, Lalit Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vicky Ostwal, Ishant Sharma, Manish Pandey, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Yash Dhull.

Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Shahrukh Khan, Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Nathan Ellis, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Mohit Rathee, Shivam Singh.

--IANS

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