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ICC World Cup 2019: The top five batsmen and bowlers going into the tournament

<keyword id="6354467" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Kolkata-Knight-Riders">Kolkata Knight Riders</keyword> extended their winning streak in T20s to 12 matches, defeating Perth Scorchers by three wickets at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium, Hyderabad. KKR chased down Scorchers’ total of 151 with two balls remaining, courtesy Suryakumar Yadav's late blitz of 43 runs off just 19 balls. 
 
The win also confirmed KKR’s spot in the semi-finals of the tournament as Scorchers succumbed to their first defeat in the tournament despite skipper Adam Voges' valiant 71 not out off 52 balls. The Scorchers bowlers did really well to take the game to the last over with pace duo of Joel Paris and Jason Behrendorff bowling well early on and then Yasir Arafat keeping it tight in the death overs. 
 
But with 24 required off 12 balls, Yadav plonked Coulter-Nile for two sixes over the cow corner in the last two balls to seal the game in KKR’s favour. Piyush Chawla scored the winning runs in the last over. 
 Earlier in the innings, Paris and Behrendorff had bowled with pace and swing to trouble KKR’s top-order. Skipper Gautam Gambhir (2) departed in the first ball of the second over driving an out-swinger away from his body straight to point off Paris. <keyword id="61954" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Jacques-Kallis">Jacques Kallis</keyword> (6) followed soon after falling to Behrendorff. 
 <keyword id="6405247" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Robin-Uthappa">Robin Uthappa</keyword> though remained unperturbed and played positively. During his stay of 23 runs in the middle the Karnataka batsman was timing the ball well earning as many as four boundaries but his innings was cut short by a bouncer in the sixth over by Coulter-Nile. <keyword id="66306" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Manish-Pandey">Manish Pandey</keyword>, returning for this game, started off were Uthappa had left and counter-attacked the short stuff dished out by the Perth Scorchers bowlers. He pulled Behrendorff for two boundaries in an over but when it seemed he had settled in, Coulter-Nile castled Pandey for 24. 
 Veteran spinner Brad Hogg then stifled the KKR innings bowling four tight overs, giving away just 19 runs and kept asking questions all the time. <keyword id="18938" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Yusuf-Pathan">Yusuf Pathan</keyword> in particular had a tough time against the chinaman bowler. By the time Ryan Ten Doeschate departed for 15 to Arafat, KKR needed 65 off 35 balls. Yadav then shifted gears hitting two sixes off one Arafat over to bring down the run-rate. Pathan though failed to get going and was holed out at deep midwicket for 21. But, Yadav held his nerves well to hit Coulter-Nile for two sixes and remained unbeaten on 43 in the winning cause. 
 Earlier, 18-year-old chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav (4-0-24-3) proved his mettle bamboozling the Perth Scorchers batsmen along with fellow spinner <keyword id="793467" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Sunil-Narine">Sunil Narine</keyword> (4-0-31-4) to restrict the reigning Big Bash League champions to 151 for seven with skipper Voges playing a good hand. 
 Opting to bat first, Scorchers were off to a cautious start with <keyword id="242763" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="KKR-skipper">KKR skipper</keyword> Gambhir employing spinner right from the first over itself. Pathan, Kuldeep, Narine and Chawla all bowled in the powerplay overs with Voges and Craig Simmons finding it tough in the middle to get going. 
 
The opening duo though managed to score 65 runs between them, the highest partnership of Scorchers’ innings, before Simmons (39) departed before man in form Mitchell Marsh (4) disappointed walking to the pavilion for just runs, Both wickets were taken by Kuldeep. 
 Voges though kept the scoreboard ticking reaching his fifty of 38 balls and despite Sunil Narine finishing strong taking two wickets and conceding just 14 runs in his last two overs, the Scorchers captain ensured that his team posted a decent total against the <keyword id="6354312" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="IPL">IPL</keyword> champions. 
 
Brief scores: Perth Scorchers 151 for 7 (Adam Voges 71*; Narine 4/31) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 153/7 (Suryakumar Yadav 43*; Yasir Arafat 2/39) by three wickets.

T20 Cricket: KKR Extend Winning Streak To 12 Matches, Book Semis Spot

For the umpteenth time, when asked about <keyword id="6354884" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Delhi-Daredevils">Delhi Daredevils</keyword>' wretched season, Kevin Pietersen replied with his most sobering assessment of the worst team in the league. "We've tried a lot of things, nothing has gone according to plan. It's about executing your skills, which we haven't done well enough. No one's here to blame anyone. If you're good enough, you'll turn it around." 

	Had he replied in Gaelic, or spoken about the merits of the Bernoulli Equation, it would have had a similarly hollow tone. Those were the words of a beaten man, left to crinkle his nose at the stench of a rotting corpse of a side.
 

	Everything about Daredevils is in shambles. Their campaign began with Pietersen - acquired for Rs 9 crore - miss the initial few games due to injury. The player to get a look-in, Ross Taylor, struggled to dominate with the bat. In the midst of a poor start, Daredevils lost fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile to injury early in the season. Then went Saurabh Tiwary with a shoulder injury. Around this time, Daredevils released three uncapped players, one of which was batsman Milind Kumar, the distant but only local connect the franchise had. Whatever changes were made, results were not forthcoming. They have been poor with the bat, ball, in the field and in their thinking.
 Much has been written about the management holding back <keyword id="69475" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="JP-Duminy">JP Duminy</keyword> and Kedar Jadhav, the two batsmen with the highest averages and strike-rates this season, and how denying them more deliveries to face has resulted in sub-standard totals. Daredevils' problems are deeper than that. They just aren't ticking. Thursday's match in Ahmedabad against Rajasthan Royals cannot be termed a contest. It was an embarrassment. Pietersen's decision to field came a cropper as RR piled up their highest total this season, 201 for 6, to which Daredevils replied with 139 for 9, losing half their wickets inside ten overs. With qualification for the <keyword id="6354312" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="IPL">IPL</keyword> 7 play-offs out of the question, you could have expected DD to make a statement, play with some freedom and express themselves. It didn't happen. What panned out was a yawn-inducing mismatch. <keyword id="172496" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Rahul-Shukla">Rahul Shukla</keyword>, after going for 41 in the previous match, conceded 44 from his four. Siddarth Kaul went for 34 in three. Manoj Tiwary, who rarely bowls, conceded 28 in his two overs, one of which was the 19th of RR's innings that cost 17. On the same track on which Ajinkya Rahane cruised, Kevon Cooper teased, Sanju Samson belted 40 off 25 and James Faulkner finished with 23 off eight balls, Daredevils made 139 for 9. Only one batsman crossed 17; six made single-digit scores. Daredevils' entire season has been a colossal waste of batting talent, with <keyword id="6355316" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Dinesh-Karthik">Dinesh Karthik</keyword> (the second most expensive purchase of the IPL auction at Rs 12.5 crores) repeatedly falling to leg-side heaves regardless of the match situation, an IPL pro in <keyword id="57265" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Murali-Vijay">Murali Vijay</keyword> failing to make an impact, Pietersen not playing a single convincing innings and the domestic pool not stepping up, barring Jadhav. 

	Compare this to RR's success. Rahane has 316 runs this season, which is more than Pietersen, Taylor and Mayank Agarwal have managed. When you consider that Karun Nair, a rookie domestic batsman playing his first IPL, has scored significantly more than Pietersen, you get a sense of why Daredevils are languishing at the bottom of the table.
 

	This is not to take away from how well Royals bowled. Dhawal Kulkarni was accurate and probing, Faulkner struck in the only over he bowled early on, Pravin Tambe dismissed the dangerous Duminy and Rajat Bhatia prised out two important wickets with his canny dibbly-dobblers. The sucker ball to get Taylor caught and bowled was a wicket Bhatia will cherish.
 With seven wins from 11 matches, Rajasthan remain at third on the points table and look poised to make it to the play-offs, which leaves <keyword id="6354467" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Kolkata-Knight-Riders">Kolkata Knight Riders</keyword>, Sunrisers Hyderabad and <keyword id="6354506" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Royal-Challengers-Bangalore">Royal Challengers Bangalore</keyword> in a three-way fight to take the last spot in the top four. Daredevils, like Mumbai Indians, have only pride to play for. But if they keep playing like they did against Royals, even that might be too much to expect.

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ICC World Cup 2019: The top five batsmen and bowlers going into the tournament

Ashok Ganguly

T20 Cricket: KKR Extend Winning Streak To 12 Matches, Book Semis Spot

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IPL: Delhi Daredevils' Wretched Downward Spiral Continues

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