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Royal Challengers come into the game on the back of two defeats, while Royals stopped a losing streak in their last match

Himanshu Agrawal13-May-20235:16

‘RCB bowlers should fancy themselves in Jaipur’s afternoon conditions’

Big picture: Competition heats up

Only two points separate Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, and with the round-robin stage at its business end, they will be wary of not tightening things further. Royal Challengers are among two teams locked on 10 points.While being placed seventh and having the better NRR can still give them hope of a top-four finish, Royal Challengers travel to Jaipur following back-to-back defeats in Delhi and Mumbai, where the opposition chased down 182 and 200 respectively, with ease.Their bowlers have conceded 180-plus four times in their last five games, twice each on either side of a remarkable defense of 126. That win over Lucknow Super Giants remains their only victory in their last four matches, and they will be wary of a Royals side which thumped Kolkata Knight Riders to reignite their own campaign.Three defeats in a row seemed to have taken the juice out of what had started as a near-perfect season for Royals. Two of those losses came in an unsuccessful defense of 212 and 214 in the final over – sandwiched between a batting collapse of 118 – before Yashasvi Jaiswal and Yuzvendra Chahal brought Royals back on track.But despite that inconsistency, it is not too late for both Royals and Royal Challengers to remain in contention for the playoffs. Maybe Royal Challengers can take heart from having beaten Royals by seven runs earlier this season; and if that happens at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium too, then it could soon turn out to be a Royal battle for the playoffs.

Recent results

Rajasthan Royals WLLLW
Royal Challengers Bangalore LLWLW

Team news

The big question

Kedar Jadhav was RCB’s impact sub in their last game•RCB

Impact Player strategy

Royals dropped Obed McCoy for their last game after using him as Impact Sub against Sunrisers Hyderabad. If he is left out again, Royals might swap either of Jaiswal or Dhruv Jurel with KM Asif depending on whether they are batting or bowling first.RR probable XII: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Jos Buttler, 3 Sanju Samson (capt, wk), 4 Joe Root, 5 Devdutt Padikkal, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 , 8 R Ashwin, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal, 12 Kedar Jadhav had replaced Mahipal Lomror as Impact Sub for Royal Challengers against Mumbai Indians, though it didn’t work out as intended. So if they bat first against Royals, they might start with Jadhav, and bring in either Mohammed Siraj or Harshal Patel when they bowl. And it could go the other way round if they happen to chase.RCB probable XII: 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Glenn Maxwell, 4 Mahipal Lomror, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Anuj Rawat/Shahbaz Ahmed, 7 , 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Vyshak Vijaykumar, 11 Josh Hazlewood, 12

Stats that matter

• It could be interesting to see which opening pair trumps the other in Jaipur. Among those with a minimum of eight first-wicket stands and a total of 200 runs added this season, Royals’ Jaiswal and Jos Buttler have the best run rate of 10.03, while Royal Challengers’ Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis have the most runs with 650.
• However, there could a twist in the tale. Royal Challengers have the most wickets in the powerplay this season (25), and the best average. Nine of those wickets have gone to Mohammed Siraj, who is third on the wicket-takers’ list during that phase only on account of a barely worse average of 18.22 than Royals’ Trent Boult, who is second with 18.11. Also, Boult has the second-most wickets in the first over of a game in IPL history.
• Chahal, with the second-most wickets (21) so far this season, holds a clear advantage over du Plessis, the highest run-getter (576). Royal Challengers’ captain has managed only 34 runs from 40 balls against Royals’ legspinner, while being dismissed twice. But both Chahal and R Ashwin might be wary of Glenn Maxwell, who strikes at 173 and 200 respectively, against them.
• The last time Royal Challengers beat Royals in Jaipur was in 2012, when Kohli and Harshal Patel were part of the winning side.

Pitch and conditions

Jaipur has hosted four matches this season, and the scores batting first in the last three of those have swung from 202 to 118 to 214. All four games started at 7.30pm local time, with the side batting first as well as chasing winning twice each. However, the Royal Challengers match will be the first this season to begin at 3.30pm. And among all Indian grounds to have hosted at least 15 IPL matches starting at either 3.30 or 4pm, Jaipur has the lowest run rate of 7.92.Meanwhile, the temperature in Jaipur is expected to hover around 40 degrees Celsius in the afternoon, though it might fall as evening draws closer.

Zimbabwe likely to miss T20 World Cup Qualifer after becoming the first Full Member to be hit with suspension

Liam Brickhill18-Jul-2019Zimbabwe have been suspended from the ICC with immediate effect. ICC funding to Zimbabwe Cricket has been frozen, and representative teams from Zimbabwe will not be allowed to participate in any ICC events while under suspension, making Zimbabwe’s participation in the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in August and Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in October highly unlikely.After several rounds of meetings in London this week, the ICC Board unanimously decided that Zimbabwe Cricket was in breach of Article 2.4 (c) and (d) of the ICC Constitution, and that the actions of the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) in suspending the board in June constituted government interference in Zimbabwe Cricket’s affairs.”We do not take the decision to suspend a Member lightly, but we must keep our sport free from political interference,” ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar said. “What has happened in Zimbabwe is a serious breach of the ICC Constitution and we cannot allow it to continue unchecked.”ESPNcricinfo understands that a major part of the ICC’s reasoning in blocking funds to ZC was that it was concerned the money might be diverted to the Zimbabwe government instead of being utilised for the development of cricket and the players.Zimbabwe is in the midst of an economic crisis, with inflation figures increasing exponentially and price increases at a 10-year high as government coffers empty. According to an official who attended the meetings this week, since the ICC disburses funds in US dollars to member boards, it feared that the Zimbabwean government would seize the funds and hence the extreme step of barring ZC its funding had to be taken.Zimbabwe’s sanctioning marks the very first time a Full Member has been suspended by the ICC – although Sri Lanka were warned in 2015 by the then ICC chief executive David Richardson that they were at risk of immediate sanction for government interference in their administration. Various Associate Members are currently under suspension, including Nepal. However, Nepal’s national teams have been allowed to continue participating in ICC events during suspension, as had USA during their recent suspension and expulsion period from June 2015 through January 2019.The ICC has directed that the ZC board originally elected in mid-June be reinstated to office within three months, and progress in this respect will be considered again at the next board meeting in October. “The ICC wants cricket to continue in Zimbabwe in accordance with the ICC Constitution,” Manohar added.At least one member of that board will not be taking up a position, however, as Ed Rainsford, the former Zimbabwe fast bowler, released a statement on Thursday through his lawyers indicating that he would decline to accept his nomination.Representatives from both the SRC and Zimbabwe Cricket were heard by the ICC Board this week. Dave Ellman-Brown, the chairman of the SRC-appointed interim committee and a former Zimbabwe Cricket Union chief executive, was in attendance in London, and Tavengwa Mukuhlani took part in the board meeting, seemingly in his official capacity.Mukuhlani, who has played various administrative roles in Zimbabwean cricket at provincial and national level since 2004, had been re-elected as board chairman in those June elections. But that the elections took place at all marked the start of ZC’s conflict with the SRC – officially, at least.Since then, Zimbabwean cricket has been in lockdown – and meltdown. Mukuhlani, acting managing director Givemore Makoni, and the entire board were suspended by the SRC and ZC’s offices were literally locked, with a police detail dispatched to guard the property, “to ensure that no assets or other documents, especially of a financial nature, left the premises,” according to SRC chairman Gerald Mlotshwa.The ICC immediately froze Zimbabwe’s funding upon the suspension of the board in June, and as a result Zimbabwe’s women were unable to take part in a scheduled tour of Ireland. The men’s team, already in the middle of their tour of Netherlands and Ireland, completed their trip and have since returned to Zimbabwe.A member of the touring squad confirmed that players had not been paid match fees or salaries for the tour, and that “everything” has been frozen. ESPNcricinfo understands that the ICC will leave the question of player welfare to ZC while they are under suspension.

Cites disagreement with SportScotland over attempts to move on from last year’s damning racism report

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Mar-2023Cricket Scotland chair Anjan Luthra has announced his immediate resignation after just six months in the role, amid the ongoing fallout from last year’s damning report into racism in the Scottish game.Luthra tweeted a statement on Friday morning in which he expressed his disagreement with the way SportScotland – the body that oversaw his appointment as chair – was looking to run cricket, claiming it was bowing to “the demands of a lobby group and a handful of individuals associated with them – even if that means the wider sport and community will be negatively impacted”.Cricket Scotland was placed into special measures last year after the Changing the Boundaries report found 448 examples of institutional racism in the game.Luthra said in a six-month update earlier in March that progress had been made on diversity, only for his comments to be criticised by anti-racism organisation Running out Racism. According to the BBC, four members of Cricket Scotland’s equality and anti-racism working group subsequently resigned in protest.”Cricket Scotland can announce that Anjan Luthra has resigned as chair with immediate effect,” the board said in a statement. “The organisation thanks Anjan for his hard work and input during his time as chair.”The Changing the Boundaries report, carried out by Plan4Sport, was commissioned after revelations by former players Majid Haq and Qasim Sheikh, both of whom have been critical of the board’s recent efforts.As well as lacking a chair, Cricket Scotland is also currently without a chief executive, after it was announced that interim CEO Gordon Arthur would be stepping down for personal reasons at the end of April.

Pakistan’s openers added a double-century stand before the visitors fought back with late wickets

The Report by Danyal Rasool07-Oct-2018
Getty Images

The scorecard suggested nearly total domination from Pakistan. After all, they finished the day at 255 for 3, thanks to a 205-run opening stand from Mohammad Hafeez and Imam-ul-Haq. They made Australia wait for the opening wicket in the first innings of a Test longer than they’ve ever done – 63 overs, to be precise.And yet, anyone who tuned into the final session would have wondered how Pakistan had amassed those runs, so complete was the Australian bowlers’ command. Pakistan scored 56 runs in 29 overs for the loss of three wickets in that session on an attrition first day in Dubai.Test cricket in the UAE is a game of phases. In other parts of the world it might be harder for teams to get back into the game once they’ve fallen behind, but surfaces here give teams an opportunity to bounce back. And so, even as Hafeez, who scored a century in his first Test in two years, and Imam accumulated the fifth-highest opening stand batting first against Australia, the visitors’ bowlers came roaring back into the contest, with a chance of bowling Pakistan out under 350.It began with Nathan Lyon, expected to grow in importance as the game and the pitch wears on, tempting Imam to cut a ball that was a bit too full, drawing a faint edge through to Tim Paine. At the the other end, Peter Siddle bowled a scintillating spell, justifying his inclusion in the side. Vicious reverse swing combined with relentless accuracy slowed down Pakistan’s merry progress. Siddle finally got one to beat Hafeez’s defences, with a beauty that just kept coming in, hitting the opener halfway up his shin, right in front of middle.With both openers gone, Pakistan’s scoring rate almost ground to a halt altogether – at one stage, they managed 16 runs in 16 overs as Haris Sohail and Azhar Ali dug in, desperate to see it through to stumps. All that work, however, was undone by a moment of madness from Azhar. Having gutsed his way to 18 off 79, he lofted a drive off Jon Holland, nowhere near middling it as Mitchell Starc dived forward to complete the catch. Nightwatchman Mohammad Abbas and Haris took their side to stumps without any further damage.Pakistan had settled into a formidable position by the first evening on a flat Dubai surface, with both openers still around when tea was called. Hafeez, who scored his tenth Test century was instrumental in pushing the run rate up right from the outset, and ensuring the Australians were always on the back foot. He regularly forced the bowlers to adjust their lines and coaxed Tim Paine into introducing spin as early as the ninth over in the day. He wasn’t afraid to come down the track against spin, either, without losing control of his shots.The run rate picked up after lunch as the openers shook off any nerves or fears they might have had about the pitch or the Australian attack. Hafeez also went after Nathan Lyon, who was the most economical bowler for Australia in the first session. There was a period, midway through, when he lost his focus, playing a series of false shots, displaying the concentration lapses that have prevented him taking the next step in his career and becoming the batsman he could have become. While the sun beat down, lady luck, too, was smiling at him, as a lofted cover drive off Holland was put down at long-off.Imam’s innings, meanwhile, was almost chanceless. He appeared to be mentally ready for the grind of Test cricket in this inhospitable weather. His footwork against the spin, in particular, was excellent, moving back and forward to the rhythm of the pitch of the ball with the deft expertise of a tap dancer. However, It wasn’t just in service of defensive strokes, with a couple of charges down the pitch against Holland earning him two sixes.Australia bowled well despite the unhelpful conditions, with Starc the most menacing for much of the day, getting swing early on while regularly coming close to finding Hafeez’s outside edge. The odd yorker kept the batsmen on their toes, and on another day in another country he might have finished with a five-wicket haul. Here, he ended the day wicketless.But the day would end on a very different note. Life seemed to have crept back into this pitch, and, by extension, this Test match.

Sam Curran is among nine capped players to list themselves at the maximum base price of INR 2 crore, while Lasith Malinga hopes to return as a player

Nagraj Gollapudi and Gaurav Sundararaman05-Dec-2018Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch have chosen not to enter the IPL auction, keeping in mind Australia’s packed schedule over the first half of 2019 – a home summer followed by a World Cup in England, and then the Ashes series.England’s Sam Curran, one of the finds of 2018 as an allrounder, has put himself in a group of nine capped players who have listed themselves at the maximum base price of INR 2 crore (USD 278,000 approx). Also among this group is Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga, who last season was on the Mumbai Indians coaching staff, playing the role of mentor.Maxwell and Finch were among a host of players released by their franchises in November, having just spent one season with their new teams. Maxwell was released by Delhi Daredevils (now renamed Delhi Capitals), who signed him in January for INR 9 crore (USD 1.4 million approx then). Finch was picked by Kings XI Punjab for INR 6.2 crore (USD 948,000).ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Among some of the big names listed in the auction pool are Dale Steyn (base price INR 1.5 crore/USD 208,000 approx), Brendon McCullum, D’Arcy Short, Corey Anderson (all INR 2 crore). Jaydev Unadkat has listed the maximum base price by an Indian player at INR 1.5 crore. Unadkat, the left-arm fast bowler, was the the highest-paid Indian player at the January 2018 auction, with Rajasthan Royals signing him for INR 11.5 crore (USD 1.796 million approx).Other big-name Indian players that have put themselves back on the auction pool are Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Shami and Axar Patel, all at a base price of INR 1 crore (USD 138,000 approx).Availability was always going to be the key factor ahead of this auction, scheduled for December 18 in Jaipur. Although the BCCI has not finalised the dates the IPL is likely to run between March 23 and mid-May. The venue, too, has not been finalised because the BCCI is waiting for the dates of India’s general elections. In 2009 and 2014 – the last two seasons that clashed with general elections – the IPL moved to South Africa and the UAE (first half of the season) respectively.ESPNcricinfo understands the BCCI has decided to wait until mid-January before finalising the venue. The BCCI wants the IPL to take place in India as far as possible but has worked out a back-up plan where the tournament will be displaced overseas with South Africa as a favourite alternative venue.But the biggest challenge for the franchises next season is that the IPL will end a couple of weeks before the World Cup begins on May 30 in England. The availability of overseas players, as a result, has been the biggest concern for the franchises.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

In an email sent to the franchises on Monday, which ESPNcricinfo has accessed, the IPL listed out the cut-off dates for overseas players for all countries. Barring New Zealand and West Indies, all other boards have restricted the availability of their players.The Australian players will spend the least time in the IPL considering the Sheffield Shield final ends on April 1. Moreover, most of the first-choice Australian players, including Maxwell and Finch, are likely to be in the UAE playing a five-match ODI series against Pakistan. Although the dates have not been announced yet, that series is expected to begin in late March and end in the first half of April. Cricket Australia has set May 2 as the cut-off date for players in their World Cup squad to return for a preparatory camp.The players in England’s World Cup squad will return home on April 25 for their camp while the rest of the English players can continue in the IPL until May 19. The South African players will need to report for their World Cup camp by May 10, the Sri Lankans by May 6, Bangladesh’s players by April 15 and Ireland’s by April 30. The Afghanistan Cricket Board is yet to finalise a cut-off date.On Monday, the IPL sent a longlist of 946 players to the eight franchises including 200 capped players, of whom 25 are Indians and three are Associate players. The franchises will need to send the IPL the list of players they want added to the longlist by December 7. By December 10, the franchises will need to send the IPL the list of players they want in the auction pool following which a pruned and final list will be prepared.

Former England Test captain makes rare foray on to global T20 circuit

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Dec-2022Joe Root has been signed to play in the International League T20 for Dubai Capitals in January and February. Root, who was left out of the England ODI squad for South Africa announced earlier on Thursday, will be making only his second appearance in an overseas T20 league.England’s leading Test batter, Root has not been involved with the T20I side since 2019 but has made no secret of his desire to continue developing his game in the shortest format. He is on the list for Friday’s IPL auction and the link with Capitals – part of the franchise run by Delhi Capitals joint-owners, GMR Group – will not hurt his chances of being picked up.Root remains a key part of England’s ODI set-up but has been granted some time off the international treadmill ahead of the Test team’s tour of New Zealand in February.