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Match facts

Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians
Delhi, May 6, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)4:11

‘Mumbai empowering young batsmen’

Head-to-head

This season: After a strong bowling performance that restricted Mumbai to 142, Daredevils crumbled to 24 for 6 in the chase and lost by 14 short despite late resistance by Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris.Overall: Mumbai lead marginally overall, with a 10-9 record. However, they haven’t beaten Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla since 2011 – that is four wins in a row for the home team.

Form guide

Delhi Daredevils (sixth): beat Lions by seven wickets, beat Sunrisers by six wickets, lost to Kings XI by ten wickets
Mumbai Indians (first): beat RCB by five wickets, beat Lions in Super Over, lost to Rising Pune by three runs

In the news

In a mid-game interview during Daredevils’ match on Thursday, Zaheer Khan hinted that he is closing in on a comeback. He said he had had a “good running session” but “bowling is the biggest hurdle” and that he would give bowling a go over the next day or two. Daredevils continue to monitor Zaheer’s fitness and Karun Nair is set to continue as captain. Allrounder Morris was benched on Thursday but could get a look-in against Mumbai. This could be the last match he is available for this season. It is understood that he and Rabada were originally set to leave on May 7 for national duty, but the outcome of the Mumbai game is likely to determine their plans.Harbhajan Singh missed the last game through injury but is expected to be back. The extent of Krunal Pandya’s injury landing on the ball in the previous match is unclear.

Qualification scenario

Daredevils need to win at least three of their next four games to stay in contention for a playoffs spot. They play three of those games at home, including this, which will be their third consecutive one at home.Mumbai Indians are at the top of the table and two points clear of Kolkata Knight Riders with a game in hand. Their focus will be to hold on to that spot and ensure they make it to the first qualifier, which is scheduled to be held at Wankhede Stadium.

The likely XIs

Delhi Daredevils 1 Sanju Samson, 2 Karun Nair (capt), 3 Rishabh Pant (wk), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Marlon Samuels, 6 Corey Anderson, 7 Chris Morris/Pat Cummins, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Shahbaz Nadeem
Mumbai Indians 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Jos Buttler, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Rohit Sharma (capt), 5 Krunal Pandya/Karn Sharma, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Harbhajan Singh/K Gowtham, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Strategy punt

Bumrah has dismissed Pant twice in the six balls he has bowled to him, and conceded only three runs. Mitchell McClenaghan has dismissed Sanju Samson thrice in nine balls while conceding 14. Rohit Sharma might bowl them in tandem if the pair are batting together.

Stats that matter

• Morris has struck at 206.9 in the slog overs this season, the highest for any batsman with a minimum of 100 runs. He has also taken seven wickets at 7.76 in the death overs – by far the most successful of the Daredevils bowlers. They will have a big void to fill when he leaves.
• Carlos Brathwaite hits a boundary every 2.4 balls in the slog overs in the IPL. However, his strike rate against spinners in all T20 cricket is only 103.01. Given the spin weakness, Daredevils might settle for Corey Anderson as the finisher with Marlon Samuels expected to play an anchor role.
• Jasprit Bumrah has become progressively better as the playoffs approach – he took four wickets at an economy of 8.80 in the first five matches. In the next five, he has taken eight wickets at economy of 7.25
• Amit Mishra has conceded 75 off 81 balls against Rohit Sharma, and has dismissed him on five occasions

A week after the BCCI announced new annual contracts, it has emerged that some players are unhappy with the revised pay structure. Despite the annual retainer having been doubled, it is understood that the players’ response has stemmed from the revised contracts not meeting their demands. ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the issue had been a concern for a while and that the players have made a concerted effort to address it in the last few months.”Things have gathered momentum over the last three months or so, through the New Zealand and England series,” an insider aware of the developments said. “Almost every player has been involved in the discussions.” The coach, Anil Kumble, who was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the central contracts system in 2003, is learnt to have pushed for a complete overhaul of the existing structure to ensure contracted players get a bigger slice of the whole revenue pie, and not just a percentage of a whittled-down portion.Earlier this month, Kumble had made a presentation on a revamped compensation structure on behalf of the players and support staff to the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) in Bengaluru. Although one source said the players are likely to meet the CoA in the forthcoming days to revisit the new contracts, a CoA official said no such meeting was on the cards.The CoA, though, believes Kumble’s proposals require an entirely new framework, which will require time to formulate. “Kumble is also aware that it cannot happen overnight,” the CoA official said. “That will be thought through and we will see what we can do on that. That is not something that can be done in 24 hours or 48 hours. It will take a lot of deliberation because it is a complete re-think of how the compensation model is thought through.”Last week, a few days after Kumble’s presentation, 32 players were handed new retainers, in which seven Grade A-contract holders – including Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane and R Ashwin – will be paid INR 2 crore (USD 300,000 approx) each per year. According to the new arrangement, those in Grade B and C will now earn INR 1 crore (USD 150,000 approx) and INR 50 lakh (USD 75,000) respectively. The match fees were also increased from INR 7 lakh to 15 lakh in Tests, 4 lakh to 6 lakh in ODIs and 2 lakh to 3 lakh in T20Is. This revision in the pay structure was the first since 2010.The assistant coaches – Sanjay Bangar (batting) and R Sridhar (fielding) – were also given a 50% hike in retainership fees; they will now earn 15 lakh each per month, barring the two-month IPL window, for which they are not paid.There were other financial rewards, too, with the BCCI announcing payments – INR 50 lakh per player, 25 lakh for Kumble and 15 lakh for each member of the support staff – for India becoming the No. 1-ranked Test side. The ICC also awarded the team USD 1 million for finishing the year as the top-ranked Test nation.Despite the windfall, some players believe the pay rise isn’t commensurate with the growth in BCCI profits. The BCCI’s total income in 2015-16 stood at INR 1365.35 crore. Out of this, the board paid a total of 56.35 crore to players. An amount of 46.31 crore was paid as “additional payment to players”, as per the board’s annual statement last year.The sticking point, though, is the income from the television rights, which is the board’s biggest revenue stream. The norm has been distribution of about 70% of the income – generated from rights – to the state associations. For perspective, when the contracts were introduced in 2003 by the BCCI, the board paid players – both international and domestic, including the junior categories – 26% of the overall revenues. Of this, half (13%) was assigned to the men’s international players, while 10.3% was distributed among the domestic players. The remaining 2.7% was allotted to a bracket featuring the junior players, although women were added to this category subsequently.What has further irked the players is that their annual retainer is comparatively lower than that of their English and Australian counterparts. Different sources have estimated Joe Root and Steven Smith’s annual retainers at between INR 8 crore and 12 crore. “When the ECB and CA compensate their players handsomely, why does the BCCI, the world’s richest board, not do enough?” the source asked. “In addition, the BCCI’s coffers have seen a huge increase since the introduction of the IPL, but the players don’t get a fair share of such revenues. It is ultimately the state associations that walk away with the lion’s share of the money.”Another source said the BCCI could not use the players’ IPL earnings as a pretext for not substantially increasing the annual retainers. “One player might get a contract worth 12 crore, another may be bought for 30 lakh, and there are players who don’t get any IPL contracts,” the source said. “Why should the board be concerned with the amount of money players make from the IPL? The values of both these properties are different, so why do they connect the two? The BCCI is the richest board and the money is meant to be spent on cricket and cricketers, not stadia.”The other cause of consternation has been the gulf in the pay structures between domestic and international cricketers. A veteran domestic player said there was very little financial incentive for someone to play only first-class cricket. “A player in the Test squad makes 7.5 lakh per game, even if he is not included in the playing XI,” he said. “If I play a whole season of first-class cricket – I get paid 40,000 per four-day game, along with a percentage of the board’s gross revenue – I will probably make a little more in a season than what a player on the bench makes per Test match.”He said that a contract system had to be put in place for domestic cricketers as well. “The absence of any concrete financial benefit is why people in first-class cricket are constantly looking to play only the IPL,” he said. “After all, not everyone can play for India. But, with a system like this, you are not producing people who would want to play Test cricket. The disparity is huge.”

England Lions 353 (Livingstone 105, Westley 68, Pushpakumara 8-127) and 32 for 2 trail Sri Lanka A 548 (Karunaratne 212, Samarawickrama 185) by 163 runs
ScorecardOllie Rayner’s marathon stint brought four wickets [file picture]•Getty Images

England Lions face a battle to avoid defeat in their second four-day match in Dambulla against a Sri Lanka A side battling to square the series.Sri Lanka A took a commanding lead of 195 then took two wickets early in the Lions’ second innings. When bad light stopped play with 23 overs of the day’s allocation remaining, the Lions had been reduced to 32 for two, with Haseeb Hameed and Tom Alsop both undone by the early introduction of spin.Malinda Pushpakumara, the left-arm spinner who took eight wickets in the first innings and four in each innings of the Lions victory in Kandy, opened the bowling and had Hameed caught behind for 16 in his fourth over, leaving the Lancashire and England opener with only 35 runs from his four innings in the series.Alsop, the Hampshire left-hander who came in for Nick Gubbins in this match, fell lbw pushing forward to the off-spinner Dhananjaya De Silva in the next over, just before the umpires decided that the light was no longer playable.So Tom Westley will resume with captain Keaton Jennings on the last day with the Lions still 163 runs behind – and facing the sort of test that is part of the purpose of development tours such as this.The Lions had spent a total of more than 135 overs in the field in Dambulla’s combination of heat and humidity, with Ollie Rayner bowling almost 50 of them.Rayner is the sole survivor in this Lions team who played in a high-scoring draw at Dambulla three years ago, when he bowled a total of 44 overs without a wicket.So figures of 48.2-8-164-4 represented a significant improvement for the 31-year-old Middlesex off-spinner, whose county team-mate Toby Roland-Jones also earned highly respectable figures of three for 67 from 20 overs.”We’ve done 150 overs in the dirt there – that’s tough,” said Rayner. “And they played very well. I’m feeling like one of the older guys on the trip at the moment. But I think the boys stuck at it. We maybe struggled later on Saturday, let things drift a bit. But we came back today, especially after lunch.”You have a lot of chances to take wickets when you bowl 48 overs. You can’t just have one plan when you bowl in the sub-continent, because it doesn’t go to plan, as we’ve seen today – 30 for 3 to 333 for 3. I feel like I’ve got a few more options than when I last came out here with the Lions three years ago.”Unfortunately for us it was starting to turn a bit more at the end there. But hopefully with a bit of a dust and a roll overnight that should tidy it up.”There was a second wicket for Tom Curran, who had made the first breakthrough on Saturday morning as the Sri Lankans were reduced to 30 for three, and one for Somerset spinner Jack Leach – with Surrey wicketkeeper Ben Foakes taking five catches, including a spectacular one-handed effort to give Curran the wicket of Pushpakumara.Sadeera Samarawickrama and Dimuth Karunaratne, who had made the Lions toil for more than two sessions without a wicket on Saturday, extended their fourth-wicket partnership to 315 before Roland-Jones denied Samarawickrama a maiden double century with the second new-ball, trapping him lbw for 185 as he worked to leg.But De Silva then joined Karunaratne to add further punishment in a fifth-wicket stand of 131 in 28 overs.To take the last six wickets for 72 represented a decent fightback by the Lions, with Rayner claiming three of them. First he had De Silva caught behind down the legside for 74 from 95 balls, and four overs later the left-handed Karunaratne outside-edged a drive to Tom Curran at backward point.The opener, who is expected to return to Sri Lanka’s Test team for the forthcoming home series against Bangladesh, had posted a new first-class career best of 212 from 319 balls – and Rayner in particular must be sick of the sight of him, as he made 156 here against the Lions three years ago.Roshen Silva then pushed a return catch to Roland-Jones, before Foakes leapt to his right to dismiss Pushpakumara, and then claimed his fifth victim when Jeffrey Vandersay edged a cut at the persevering Leach.Rayner claimed the last wicket courtesy of an excellent one-handed catch by Alsop diving forward from short leg, but the Lions already knew they were in for a battle.

Virat Kohli has said India are looking at being 1-0 down against Australia not as a setback but as an opportunity to improve ahead of the second Test in Bengaluru. India’s 333-run defeat in Pune snapped a winning streak that lasted 19 Tests, and Kohli said it was inevitable for teams to lose focus on their weaknesses during extended runs of good results.”I think it’s an opportunity to understand what other things we still need to work on,” Kohli said, on the eve of the second Test. “We are all professional cricketers. But sometimes when you are winning a lot of games, you don’t tend to focus on points that need to be improved as such. Because someone or the other is stepping up.”When the whole team does not execute the things that you want to, you understand the things that you need to work on as a team. That’s always a good sign. We got to know a lot more things that we need to still keep working on to be the top side in the world. As I said last time, you can’t take anything for granted at any stage of a Test match. It’s something that you look [at] as an opportunity to learn rather than a setback. I think these things are also important for your cricket journey.”Kohli said India had not deviated from their usual training routines before the Bengaluru Test, and stressed on the importance of playing without inhibitions or fear of things going wrong.”We don’t necessarily push people to practice in different ways because every individual has his own way of preparing for the game,” he said. “But in terms of mindset we have made a conscious push to go out there and express ourselves without thinking about ‘what if’. Individuals want to play their natural game and they should; they want to bowl a certain way and they should, not thinking about the outcome necessarily.”There won’t be any hesitation from here on till the end of the series from our side. That’s something we’ve addressed. Practice has always been similar, win or lose. That’s how you become consistent as a team, when you repeat the same things day in and day out. We have a set pattern of practise we always execute before every Test match and this time is no different. When you lose because of lack of intent, those things need to be addressed and we’ve done that.”Kohli didn’t divulge the combination India would play in Bengaluru, but hinted that there might be surprises, while answering a question about whether they were thinking of leaving out Jayant Yadav, who was the least penetrative of India’s three spinners on a square turner in Pune.”We have our ideas; we will go in with the best combination possible,” Kohli said. “Jayant has been outstanding. You can’t put too much pressure on a guy who’s played just one series. He’s been brilliant so far; the way he’s grabbed his spot has been outstanding. He’s a very intelligent cricketer.”All of us go through the grind. We have good games, bad games, off days as well. Pune wasn’t his best game. I won’t sit here and judge him because he’s played only a few games but he knows how to turn things around and get back into that mindset he started his first series with. I’m sure he’ll get back into that zone. As far as the combinations are concerned, we are studying a lot of options. Eventually we’ll come to a conclusion this evening, on what is the XI we want to go with. But yes, all kinds of possibilities tomorrow. Might be a few surprises.”

Azhar Ali is likely to be removed as Pakistan’s ODI captain after his side lost the series in Australia 4-1. Pakistan were beaten in the final ODI in Adelaide, slumping to the same score line they had suffered in England last year, and the PCB is keen to use it as an opportunity to replace Azhar with the T20 captain, Sarfraz Ahmed.The move, ESPNcricinfo understands, could be the precursor to eventually appointing a single captain for all formats, though any such decision will have to wait until the Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq takes a call on his future.Leadership issues were discussed in a meeting in Lahore during the fourth ODI of this series by PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan, chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, and Mushtaq Ahmed, the head coach at the National Cricket Academy. They are thought to be united in their belief that Sarfraz should take over the ODI captaincy but will wait until Misbah retires to name a new Test captain.They differ as to whether Pakistan should move ahead with a single captain, but if they do go down that route it could mean that Azhar is overlooked as the Test successor to Misbah; Azhar is the Test vice-captain and, in Misbah’s absence, led Pakistan recently in a Test against New Zealand in Hamilton. It could also mean the end of an experiment begun after the 2015 World Cup, when, for the first time, Pakistan had three different captains – Shahid Afridi was then the T20 captain.If Azhar is axed, it will end a difficult tenure that began right after the 2015 World Cup. He was not in the squad for that tournament and had, in fact, not featured in an ODI since January 2013. What he did have going for him was a secure position in the Test side, and good form in List A cricket: in the domestic Pentangular Cup that season he was the leading scorer with 302 runs at an average of 60.40 and strike rate of 86.28. In the President’s Gold Cup, he scored 234 runs at a strike rate of 86.98.Under Azhar’s leadership, Pakistan’s slipped to a record-low ninth in the ODI rankings. They have since risen one place to at least be in the running for direct qualification to the 2019 World Cup, but they only scraped into this year’s Champions Trophy. Much of their decline in the limited-overs formats has been building for some time, but it has become much starker under Azhar.Pakistan have won only five out of ten bilateral series under Azhar, two of them against Zimbabwe, and one each against Ireland, Sri Lanka and West Indies. In all, Pakistan won 12 and lost 18 games.The PCB has been thinking of removing Azhar for some time. In September last year, following a 4-1 thumping in England, Shaharyar had asked Azhar to consider stepping down. Azhar decided to stay on, however, and led Pakistan to a 3-0 whitewash of West Indies in the UAE. That win left the PCB no choice but to retain him for the Australia tour. A day before the first Test in Brisbane, however, Shaharyar again raised concerns, telling ESPNcricinfo that Azhar’s place in the ODI side was on shaky ground and that they were considering replacing him.Azhar’s individual performances have not been poor in that time – he has scored 1152 runs at 37.19. He has expanded his limited-overs game, evident in the improvement of his strike rate. In his first 14 ODIs between 2011 and 2013, his strike rate was 64.84 – during his captaincy that jumped to 79.90. However, that improvement might not be enough to save his place as captain, or even in the side. Last year, Pakistan Super League franchise Lahore Qalanders also removed Azhar from the captaincy.What the PCB will be weighing up is the potential impact such a move could have on his position in the Test side. He was Pakistan’s most prolific batsman last year, scoring a hundred in England, a triple hundred in Dubai and then crowning it off with a double at the MCG in the Boxing Day Test; he scored more runs in a three-Test series in Australia than any Pakistan batsman before him.

Match facts

January 2-6, 2017
Start time 1030 local (0830 GMT)3:16

Moonda: ‘Another chance for Amla to get into form’

Big Picture

Table Mountain looms over the Newlands ground, grand and forbidding, with sheer crags in its higher reaches, and rugged pine forests on its lower spines. It imposes itself upon the city. It leaves you daunted. You wonder how on earth it was ever climbed.Sri Lanka will know the feeling as they prepare to play in Cape Town, just two days after the 206-run loss at Port Elizabeth. They only have one day to practice, New Year’s Eve having been a travel day. And now they’ve arrived at the ground for the first time to find rivulets of grass running the length of the pitch. Cape Town may be one of the most stunning places on the cricket circuit, but it will not be an easy venue to play in.It is South Africa’s seam attack that will be most encouraged by the colour of the Newlands surface. Over the past year, Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott and Vernon Philander have all averaged less than 24. They moved the ball for longer than the Sri Lanka quicks in Port Elizabeth, and were far more consistent in their lines and lengths. If the venom ever leaves this pitch, they are capable of creating immense pressure regardless. Sri Lanka reflected in Port Elizabeth that they played poor shots, but South Africa’s attack had also forced them into taking risks.The hosts’ top order also outguns Sri Lanka’s. Hashim Amla may not have made a Test half-century in his eight most recent innings, but was positive and fluent for much of his second-innings 48 in Port Elizabeth, and has three 40-plus scores in his last five innings, in any case. The others have been in such form in recent Tests that it seems a pity someone will have to be dropped when AB de Villiers returns.Many people do climb Table Mountain, of course. Every day tourists make the ascent by foot, as well as on cable car. Sri Lanka will hope that even if the challenge is daunting, it may not be completely impossible.Dimuth Karunaratne will want to show the application he displayed in the second innings in Port Elizabeth while avoiding silly run-outs•AFP

Form guide

South Africa: WLWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka: LWWWW

In the spotlight

The tracks are green so that Rangana Herath is neutralised, but this also means that Keshav Maharaj has limited opportunity to impress in his first home series. He was doughty in Port Elizabeth rather than dominant – capable of bowling to a plan and keeping things tight until such time as the pitch begins to favour him, and he put together a wonderful spell to take the wicket of Dinesh Chanidmal in the second innings. With Tabraiz Shamsi and Dane Piedt also in contention for Test places, Maharaj will want his good run to continue.Just as Dimuth Karunaratne made himself comfortable in the second innings at Port Elizabeth, he ran himself out and squandered his start. He is expecting a tougher inspection of his temperament at Newlands. There have been glimpses of a very good opener in the making on tours of New Zealand and he will hope he can channel his best innings – the 152 on a lurid green Hagley Oval track – on what may be a similar pitch here.

Teams news

South Africa have already announced they will retain the same eleven, despite a strain to one of Quinton de Kock’s fingers.South Africa (possible): 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Stephen Cook, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 JP Duminy, 5 Faf du Plessis (capt), 6 Temba Bavuma, 7 Quinton de Kock (wk), 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Kyle Abbott, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Kagiso RabadaSri Lanka may think about changes in the No. 3 position, with Upul Tharanga and Dhananjaya de Silva thought to be capable of batting there. Dushmantha Chameera may also be rested for this match in favour of Lahiru Kumara.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Kaushal Silva, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Dhananjaya de Silva, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt.), 6 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 7 Kusal Perera, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Lahiru Kumara, 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Nuwan PradeepVernon Philander has 31 wickets in Cape Town at an average of 19.93•Getty Images

Pitch and conditions

The pitch looks likely to provide seam and bounce for most of the first two days, and the spinners will not hold out much hope for deterioration. The weather is forecast to be dry for the duration of the Test.

Stats and trivia

• No Asian side has ever won at Newlands in 10 attempts. India have managed to draw, doing so twice.
• Quinton de Kock needs 41 runs to complete 1000 in Test cricket. If he gets there in the first innings, he will be the joint fifth-fastest South Africa batsmen to the milestone, level with Faf du Plessis.
• Vernon Philander has 31 wickets at Newlands at an average of 19.93.

Quotes

“We want to win the Test series but more important is the brand of cricket we want to keep playing. We want to play it positive and aggressive, and when the opportunities are there to rather err on the expansive side than the conservative side. That’s the type of cricket we’re trying to play.”

The second match of India’s upcoming ODI series against New Zealand is likely to be pushed back by a day. According to the original schedule released by the BCCI, the day-night match was to be played on October 19 at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. But it is now set to be played on October 20, with the BCCI having approved a request from the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) to not have it clash with the North Indian festival of .”It is a big festival in Delhi,” a senior BCCI official said. “We realised having a day-night match during the festival might be disruptive.”The selectors, meanwhile, will meet in Delhi on September 12 to choose India’s squad for the three-match Test series against New Zealand, which begins on September 22 at Green Park in Kanpur. The first Test is set to be India’s 500th Test match.New Zealand’s tour will begin with a three-day warm-up match against Mumbai from September 16 to 18. They will then play three Tests in Kanpur, Kolkata and Indore, and five ODIs in Dharamsala, Delhi, Mohali, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam.

The BCCI has filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, seeking review of its July 18 verdict in which it had accepted most recommendations of the Lodha panel. The BCCI said the bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur had “a prejudiced approach” against the board and he should recuse from hearing the matter.The BCCI also contended that the judgement was “unreasoned” and “seeks to frame legislative measures for a private autonomous society in a field already occupied by legislations, both parliamentary and state”.The board further said the judgment authored by Thakur and Justice FMI Kalifullah, since retired, has “neither noted the contentions and facts correctly, nor dealt with the same”.”The judgment is unconstitutional and contrary to many binding precedents of this Court and adversely affects and nullifies the fundamental rights granted to citizens under Article 19(1)(c) of the Constitution,” the plea said, adding “the judgment outsources judicial power to a committee of retired judges, which is impermissible in law.”The judgment is a nullity as the judges were functus officio after passing of the main judgment of January 22, 2015 and the matter could not have been revived suo motu as no provision of law empowers the same and is contrary to the doctrine of separation of powers and contrary to settled law that the judiciary cannot make laws.”However, the most important aspect of the review petition, which also demanded an open court hearing, is the plea for recusal of the Chief Justice of India.”Chief Justice T S Thakur seems to have a prejudiced approach to BCCI which is evident by statements such as ‘BCCI treatment’ is to be meted out to another entity i.e. the All India Football Federation in another case, ex-facie shows that the Chief Justice has a closed mind and will summarily dismiss the review petition without listing the same before another bench of five judges for hearing in the open Court,” the plea said.The Supreme Court, on July 18, had accepted major recommendations of the Lodha Committee on reforms in BCCI, including a bar on ministers and civil servants and those above 70 years of age from becoming its members, but left it to the parliament to decide whether it should come under RTI and whether betting on the game should be legalised.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsEd Joyce hammered a career-best 148-ball 160* in an innings that featured 19 fours and three sixes to propel Ireland to a series-levelling win against Afghanistan in Belfast. Joyce’s knock, the second-best score by an Ireland batsman in ODIs and third-highest by a player from an Associate team, helped the side post 265 for 5, a total they defended by 12 runs. The five-match series was tied 2-2.Ireland, who were batting first for the first time in the series, lost captain William Porterfield in the fifth over when he edged to second slip for 8. Sean Terry, playing his third ODI, was dismissed in the 10th over when Yamin Ahmadzai completed a stunning one-handed grab off his own bowling, diving low to his right.Gary Wilson, promoted to No. 4, and Joyce then got stuck into rebuilding the innings. Joyce got to his fifty in the 24th over, off 70 balls. The pair combined for a 134-run stand to set up a strong platform for Ireland in the end overs. In between, Wilson survived a nasty collision with Mohammad Shahzad in the 32nd over, when he tried to return to his crease.Wilson holed out to square leg off the first ball of the 41st over, for 58 off 92 balls. At that stage, Joyce was on 93. After Kevin O’Brien fell in the following over, Joyce took charge and smashed 67 of the 87 that Ireland scored in the last 10 overs. He finished with 60.37% of Ireland’s runs, the highest percentage in a completed ODI innings for an Associate side.After the game, Joyce, who was named Man of the Series, said he was spurred on by his controversial dismissal in the previous match. “I probably was extra motivated; I was actually pretty tired this morning going into the game, had a niggle, but what happened in the last game obviously gave a bit of extra motivation.”Afghanistan’s chase was dented early by the Ireland seamers as they were quickly reduced to 27 for 3. Rahmat Shah (30), captain Asghar Stanikzai (32) and Mohammad Nabi (25) got starts in the middle order but failed to convert as Ireland chipped away.Afghanistan were tottering at 119 for 6 in the 33rd over. Najibullah Zadran and legspinner Rashid Khan, however, put on a 93-run seventh-wicket stand but the soaring asking rate proved insurmountable. Three wickets in three balls – one at the end of the 46th over and two at the start of the next – effectively killed the chase.Dawlat Zadran smashed five boundaries in his unbeaten 15-ball 31 but it wasn’t enough. O’Brien finished with 3 for 57, while medium-pacers Peter Chase and Barry McCarthy picked up two wickets each.

The BCCI has decided to do scrap its domestic Twenty20 tournament, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, from the 2016-17 season and replace it with a new inter-zonal league. The new tournament will occupy the same slot in the domestic calendar as the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, which was played in January this year.

Ranji Trophy 2016-17 at neutral venues

The BCCI working committee has ratified the decision proposed by the board’s technical committee to play the Ranji Trophy at neutral venues. The idea was originally mooted by the technical committee, led by Sourav Ganguly, which had recommended the need for a radical idea to make the premier first-class tournament more competitive and discourage the growing trend of states offering underprepared pitches for home matches.
The idea received a favourable response from captains and coaches of domestic teams during a meeting on Thursday. A majority of them felt such a decision was inevitable considering the quality of pitches during a few games in the previous seasons, and the failure of match officials to impose a penalty for this.

“We have proposed that the T20 matches will be played on a zonal-league basis,” BCCI president Anurag Thakur said at the end of the board’s working committee meeting in Dharamsala on Friday. “The states can play these matches at any time of the year among themselves. Then a league will be started where the stakeholders would be the state units in the zone.”The new tournament will be divided into two stages – an inter-state one, followed by the main inter-zonal one. In the first stage, states within a zone will play T20 matches among themselves. Once that level is complete, every zone will have a board comprising one representative from each of the respective state associations. Members of the zonal board will appoint a CEO and selectors to pick a team for the main stage. For example, once state teams within the West Zone have finished their respective matches, their representatives can appoint a selection committee that will pick a team to compete with the other four zones. There could be an additional sixth team representing the affiliate states under the BCCI banner, but that has not yet been confirmed.The schedule for the main inter-zonal stage of the tournament is likely to be drawn up by the BCCI, but Thakur said the inter-state matches can be held anytime prior to the tournament. Incidentally, the new structure was not discussed at the captains and coaches meeting on Thursday.The format for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy comprised teams spread across four groups with the top two from each qualifying for the knockouts. When asked why the board decided to revamp the format, Thakur said the new tournament would provide an opportunity to youngsters and domestic players who were unable to participate in the IPL. He also said that the franchise-based leagues run by states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu would remain unaffected by this new tournament.”They can participate in that competitive tournament now,” Thakur said. “Rather than Syed Mushtaq Ali, the way it has been played, this new format will give more number of matches to the players and more glory and more money to the upcoming cricketers.”A BCCI official said that the idea to start the new zonal-league tournament came from Thakur, who presented a proposal to monetize the new tournament before the working committee.”He wants to find a sponsor for the tournament and market that,” the official said. “But that is not easy considering fans are interested in watching international stars and not domestic players,”The official also revealed that Thakur wants to resuscitate university cricket in a similar fashion by selling rights for the T20 University Cricket Championship. In 2013 the BCCI, along with the Indian government, had conducted the University Cricket Championship, an extension of the annual all-India inter-zone university Rohinton Baria Tournament, by selling the rights to NDTV and co-sponsor Toyota. However that venture was scrapped after one year.”The previous deal ended because there was no attraction for the sponsor. They were expecting that the BCCI would allow an international player in each team to create hype but that was not possible,” the official said.