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The dominating run of winning ten games on the trot has meant that two-time champions India have stormed into the title clash, where they face a mighty Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday. Here is a look at India's unbeaten journey into the 2023 Men's World Cup final, where they have travelled extensively and given tons of happiness to their loyal fans with sterling performances. Match 1, October 8: India beat Australia by six wickets in Chennai Indian spinners, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav took six wickets collectively to bowl out Australia for just 199 in 49.3 overs. In response, Australia caused early jitters in the Indian camp by reducing them to 2-3 in two overs. But a stunning 165-run partnership off 215 balls between KL Rahul (97 not out) and Virat Kohli (85) carried India to a memorable six-wicket win over Australia to start their campaign on a high. The Rohit Sharma-led Indian team has been on a roll since October, thanks to their unbeaten run in the 2023 Men's ODI World Cup. Match 2, October 11: India beat Afghanistan by eight wickets in New Delhi Jasprit Bumrah bowled a fiery spell of 4-39 to keep Afghanistan to 272/8. What seemed to be a tricky chase of 273 was made a cakewalk by captain Rohit Sharma smashing 131 and local lad Virat Kohli entertaining the home crowd with 55 not out to maintain India's good start in the competition. Match 3, October 14: India beat Pakistan by seven wickets in Ahmedabad In a high-octane clash, India's bowlers, led by Bumrah, took two wickets each to trigger a stunning middle-overs collapse, as Pakistan lost eight wickets for 36 runs, to end on a paltry 191. Rohit again dazzled with the bat to make 83 while Shreyas Iyer scored 53 not out to make it a hat-trick of wins for India. Match 4, October 19: India beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in Pune After losing Hardik Pandya to a left ankle injury, India were kept briefly on the backfoot, before Ravindra Jadeja took 2-38 and was superb on the field to keep Bangladesh to 256/8. Rohit and Shubman Gill had an 88-run opening stand before Kohli took over to score an unbeaten 103, his 48th ODI hundred, to chase down the total with 51 balls remaining. Match 5, October 22: India beat New Zealand by four wickets in Dharamsala Playing in his first World Cup match, Mohammed Shami spearheaded an Indian fightback in the last ten overs to pick a superb 5-54 and bowl out New Zealand for 273. In reply, Kohli slammed a brilliant 95 off 104 balls while Jadeja played a valuable cameo of 39 not out to help India go on top of the points table with a four-wicket win over New Zealand Match 6, October 29: India beat England by 100 runs in Lucknow Rohit top-scored for India with 87 while Suryakumar Yadav made a crucial 49 in the back-end as India made 229/9 on a tricky two-paced pitch. Shami took 4-22, Bumrah was superb in his spell of 3-32 as they left England four down in the first ten overs. Kuldeep was great with 2-24 while Jadeja took 1-16 as India gave a fantastic display of accuracy to bowl out England for 129 in 34.5 overs, coming back on top of the table. Match 7, November 2: India beat Sri Lanka by 302 runs in Mumbai India made 357/8, with Gill, Kohli and Iyer smashing knocks of 92, 88 and 82, giving Sri Lanka a huge mountain to climb. Bumrah, Shami and Siraj made the new ball talk in such a great manner that Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 55 in 19.4 overs. Bumrah had figures of 1-8 in five overs, while Siraj made up for an indifferent time in the tournament by bamboozling the batters with swing and seam to take 3-16 in seven overs. Shami shined the brightest by taking 5-18 in five overs, continuing his excellent run. Match 8, November 5: India beat South Africa by 243 runs in Kolkata On his 35th birthday, Kohli equalled Sachin Tendulkar's record of 49 ODI centuries with a brilliant 101 not out against South Africa, and was backed by a fine 77 from Iyer for India to post 326/5. Jadeja took career-best figures of 5-33 while Kuldeep took two wickets as South Africa were bowled out for 83 in 27.1 overs. Match 9, November 12: India beat The Netherlands by 160 runs in Bengaluru India made 410/4, as KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer made centuries, with captain Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli making fifties each. In reply, the Netherlands were bowled out for 250 in 47.5 overs, with Siraj, Bumrah, Kuldeep and Jadeja taking two wickets each, with Virat and Rohit having a scalp too. Semi-final, November 15: India beat New Zealand by 70 runs in Mumbai Kohli made a stunning 117, also his 50th century in ODIs, and went past the legendary Sachin Tendulkar's long-standing tally of 49 ODI centuries, which ironically happened in front of the legend at his home ground. Shubman Gill made 80 not out off 66 balls, while Shreyas Iyer made a fine 105 in front of his home crowd as India made 397/4. Mohammed Shami took 7-57 to bowl out New Zealand for 327, thus sealing India's place in the title clash.

Ten wins in a row: Looking back at Team India's dream run

Indian pacer <keyword id="1627109" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jasprit-Bumrah">Jasprit Bumrah</keyword> has made an entry into the top-10 of the ICC Test rankings for bowlers after his nine-wicket haul in the first Test against England, the <keyword id="46227" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="International-cricket-council">International Cricket Council</keyword> (ICC) said on Wednesday. Bumrah, who held a career-high third position in September 2019, jumped 10 spots to sit at ninth place with 760 rating points. He gained 77 points after the first Test against England at Trent Bridge. It is the first time Bumrah has been in the top 10 after late March. He is now sandwiched between <keyword id="52757" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Stuart-Broad">Stuart Broad</keyword> (eighth place) and Mitchell Starc (10th place). Bumrah picked 4/46 in the first innings. In the second innings, the pacer took 5/64, bagging his sixth five-wicket haul in Test cricket. The 27-year-old played a crucial hand with the bat too, making 28 off 34 balls with three fours and a six, increasing India's lead in the first innings to 95 runs. England pacer James Anderson climbed one spot to seventh on the rankings at the expense of his bowling partner Broad. Ollie Robinson (up 22 places to 46th) of England and Shardul Thakur (up 19 places to 55th) of India have also moved up in the latest men's weekly rankings update carried out every Wednesday. England captain Joe Root has overtaken his Indian counterpart <keyword id="6354486" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="virat-kohli">Virat Kohli</keyword> to be placed at fourth position in the batters' list after his Player-of-the-Match performance of 64 and 109 earned him 49 rating points. Ravindra Jadeja also moved to outright second on the all-rounder rankings with 377 rating points, seven more than Ben Stokes. England opener Dom Sibley is up four places to 52nd while KL Rahul has re-entered the rankings at 56th position with scores of 84 and 26 in the first Test. In the T20I <keyword id="2484933" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="player-rankings">Player Rankings</keyword>, Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan has regained the top spot among all-rounders. Al Hasan last reached that position in October 2017. He has also gained three slots to reach 53rd among batters and moved up six slots to reach 12th position among bowlers. Bangladesh captain <keyword id="91867" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mahmudullah">Mahmudullah</keyword> has gained two slots and is now in 33rd position. Fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman is back in the top 10, gaining 20 slots after taking five wickets in four matches while Mohammad Saifuddin (up 26 places to 43rd) and Nasum Ahmed (up 103 places to 66th) are among the others to make headway. Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has gained four slots to reach 21st position among batters after aggregating 111 runs in the last four matches of the five-match series in Bangladesh played last week. Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar has gained one slot to reach seventh place among bowlers while fast bowler Josh Hazlewood is up 43 places to 34th position. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/lenskart-aims-to-hire-over-2000-employees-to-ramp-up-its-operations/articleshow/85235059.cms">Lenskart aims to hire over 2000 employees to ramp up its operations</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/xiaomis-cyberdog-is-a-robotic-version-of-mans-best-friend/articleshow/85233725.cms">Xiaomi’s CyberDog is a robotic version of man’s best friend</a>

India's Jasprit Bumrah enters top ten in ICC test rankings for bowlers

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

The third week of IPL 7 in India was probably more exciting than the previous two weeks in the UAE thanks to some great individual performances and a big run-in between <keyword id="61632" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Kieron-Pollard">Kieron Pollard</keyword> and Mitchell Starc. Here, gocricket.com chronicles the eye-catching events that unfolded over the course of last week. 
 
Tambe spins magic with first hat-trick this season 
 At the age of 42, <keyword id="13802" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Rajasthan-Royals">Rajasthan Royals</keyword> legspinner Tambe is having the time of his life. Look at his performances in the tournament from day one, he has been nothing short of brilliant. However, this week Tambe took his game to another level and helped RR register a win from an unlikely position against Kolkata Knight Riders in Ahmedabad on May 5. Chasing 171 to win, the Gautam Gambhir-led KKR were cruising at one time at 121 for 0 in 14 overs before RR captain <keyword id="6378477" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Shane-Watson">Shane Watson</keyword> took three wickets in an over to provide a big opening for his team. However, it was Tambe's hat-trick in the next over that actually put the nail in KKR's coffin. The wickets of Manish Pandey, <keyword id="18938" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Yusuf-Pathan">Yusuf Pathan</keyword> and Ryan ten Doeschate broke KKR's back badly and they ended up losing the match by 10 runs. Tambe's performance this season has proved that age has little significance nowadays in cricket and that it's fitness and willingness to do well that shapes a player's career. 
 
de Villiers breaks run-drought in style 
 It was long coming. AB de Villiers had an ordinary season prior to <keyword id="6354506" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Royal-Challengers-Bangalore">Royal Challengers Bangalore</keyword>'s game against <keyword id="1494441" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Sunrisers-Hyderabad">Sunrisers Hyderabad</keyword> on May 4 and when Virat Kohli's men were reduced to 59 for 4 in 10.1 overs chasing 159 to win, it appeared the match was as good as gone for RCB. Against all odds, de Villiers launched a rearguard action and smashed 89* off 41 balls with the help of six fours and eight sixes to see his side home in the last over. While de Villiers punished all SRH bowlers, his face-off with fellow South African and arguably the greatest bowler in the world at present, <keyword id="12829" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Dale-Steyn">Dale Steyn</keyword>, will be remembered for many years to come. In the penultimate over of the innings, de Viliers took 24 runs off Steyn, hitting three sixes and a four to turn the match on its head. 
 
Pollard-Starc altercation 
 The game between <keyword id="13880" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Mumbai-Indians">Mumbai Indians</keyword> and <keyword id="12643" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Royal-Challengers">Royal Challengers</keyword> Bangalore on May 6 will long be remembered for an ugly altercation between Kieron Pollard and Mitchell Starc. The run-in - towards the end of MI's innings - that saw the West Indian and the Australian almost come to blows, influenced the outcome of the match a great deal as MI took 54 runs off last 20 balls, thanks largely to captain <keyword id="13937" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Rohit-Sharma">Rohit Sharma</keyword>'s 59 off 35 balls, to post a mammoth 187 for 5. 
 
The drama began in the 17th over when Starc used some pretty choice language against Pollard after beating him with a bouncer. The West Indian disdainfully signed to Starc to go away, and off the next ball backed away from the crease at the last minute. Starc, instead of stopping himself, followed the West Indian on the legside and almost hit him, leaving a seething Pollard to throw his bat towards the bowler in a menacing way. 
 
However, the West Indian had the last laugh when he took a simple catch at extra cover to send Starc (5) back to the pavilion off the bowling of Lasith Malinga. Not just that, earlier in the match he had also accounted for the dangerous Yuvraj Singh's run out (6) using his footballing skills to great effect. 
 
The IPL Governing Council later on Wednesday fined both Pollard and Starc for breaching its code of conduct. 
 
Maxwell at it once again 
 Orange Cap holder Glenn Maxwell (435 runs in seven matches) fuelled his legend further smashing 90 off 38 balls in Kings XI Punjab's 44-run win over <keyword id="13886" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Chennai-Super-Kings">Chennai Super Kings</keyword> on May 7. The Australian put on view the switch-hit several times hitting eight sixes and six fours and it surely was his innings that made the difference. His approach against R Ashwin was particularly impressive. The India offspinner is normally very effective bowling around the wicket, but not against Maxwell on Wednesday evening. The Big Show smashed back-to-back sixes in the 11th over against the India offspinner who looked befuddled not knowing where he should land the ball, bowling two wides to boot. Things changed drastically after Ashwin's over, with KXIP scoring 162 in the last 10 overs to finish on 231 for 4. With the win against MS Dhoni's men, KXIP made it back to the top of the table with six wins in seven matches, while CSK go down to second after their second defeat in eight matches. 
 
Delhi Daredevils' sorry state 
 Delhi Daredevils took the wooden spoon last season and looking at their performance so far it seems another is on their way. The team under Kevin Pietersen looks absolutely spineless, especially in the bowling department. DD's defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders on May 7 was their sixth in eight matches and the way Pietersen ran himself out tells a great deal about his current state of mind. The former England batsman tapped a Shakib-al-Hasan delivery to offside and ran away for a single straight away, head down and without looking at non-striker batsman <keyword id="57265" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Murali-Vijay">Murali Vijay</keyword>. Wicketkeeper <keyword id="2231057" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Robin-Uthapa">Robin Uthapa</keyword> charged towards the ball, picked it up and ran Pietersen out in a flash with Vijay shaking his head in disbelief at the other end. 
 Pietersen's captaincy is also under the scanner for repeatedly not bringing the in-form duo of <keyword id="69475" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="JP-Duminy">JP Duminy</keyword> and Kedar Jadhav up the batting order. Fast bowler Mohammad Shami is another big concern for DD. He is one of the promising bowlers in the country but his performance so far in the tournament is worrying. Four wickets in eight matches at an economy rate of 8.34 don't justify his talent. At present, it's hard to imagine how DD are going to turn their fortunes around.

IPL Week 3 Review: Tambe, De Villiers, Maxwell Steal The Show

Almost all the captains in the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League have had some moments of joy, but one <keyword id="16561" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="skipper">skipper</keyword> who has seldom been found without any jest is Mumbai Indians' Rohit Sharma. Not many expected MI to be one of the first teams to be written off after such a successful campaign last season, when they clinched their maiden title as well as the Champions League T20. More than Rohit's smile gone missing, the look on his face is more gloomy than reassuring, more burdensome than inspirational. After all, he had to bear the burden of MI being defending champions despite the fact that their icon player <keyword id="6354267" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Sachin-Tendulkar">Sachin Tendulkar</keyword> was gone and a couple key components not around. After seven losses in ten games, Mumbai's chances of making the play-offs are next to impossible barring some earth-shattering mathematical calculations. The manner in which they were found wanting in a six-wicket loss to <keyword id="6354467" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Kolkata-Knight-Riders">Kolkata Knight Riders</keyword> on Wednesday night just went on to show that their near-perfect win over Sunrisers Hyderabad was just one hit game amid many listless performances. 

	There are many factors that did not work for MI during a so far painful campaign for them. Here we pinpoint the major ones.
 

	It all started at the auction table
 One of the biggest setbacks for the defending champions was to see the players they let go off from their 2013 squad do exceedingly well this year for other franchises. The biggest examples being Dwayne Smith, <keyword id="470051" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Glenn-Maxwell">Glenn Maxwell</keyword> and Mitchell Johnson, who contributed strongly whenever being called upon to do so last year. Especially Smith, who had made it a habit of forging solid opening stands with Tendulkar, invariably creating momentum for strokeplayers like Rohit, Dinesh Karthik and Kieron Pollard to tee off at any given point of time. That opening slot turned out to be a massive weak link for the team this year as new recruit and veteran <keyword id="6377175" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Michael-Hussey">Michael Hussey</keyword> (30 runs from four games) and Ben Dunk (40 runs from three games) failed miserably with the bat. They alternated the one opening slot with Aditya Tare (106 runs from 10 games) and CM Gautam (121 runs from nine games) but neither could live up to the billing. Plus, playing at least three uncapped Indian players in all matches turned out be a big problem for MI as the options did not enthuse confidence. The reason being the retention of five players for the 2014 auction and the heavy spending on Hussey, Corey Anderson left MI with less purse to buy quality domestic players. 

	Non-performing overseas players
 After being touted as the next big thing in world cricket, fastest ODI centurion Anderson was the cynosure of all eyes when <keyword id="6354312" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="IPL">IPL</keyword> 7 began. However, 150 runs and four wickets in 10 isn't what you'd want to get from a player who was paid Rs 4.5 crore. Perhaps the big occasion, near alien conditions and huge crowds overawed Anderson but what about Hussey? The former Chennai Super Kings veteran was a real force in the two-time champion side and was expected to do much the same for his new franchise, but his poor returns put MI under tremendous pressure and invariably exposed the frailties of a susceptible middle order. 

	Big runs go missing
 

	After the loss to KKR, Rohit said: "We need to keep scoring 170-plus if we need to win consistently, we aren't doing that." His reasoning is valid. MI have crossed 170 twice so far and ended up winning those games. Their highest run-getter in the tournament, Ambati Rayudu (310 runs in 10 games) is languishing at ninth in the top run-getters. Rohit, Pollard, Rayudu and Lendl Simmons (a late recruit) have combined for seven fifties that includes one score above 70 and two over 60.
 

	After Malinga, who?
 

	The champion bowler that he is in this format, Malinga didn't disappoint with 16 wickets in 10 games. However, he lacked support from the other end. The only instance in the tournament so far when a MI bowler took three or more wickets is Malinga's 4/23 in the season opener. Harbhajan Singh's drought of wickets has not helped apply pressure in the middle overs. In comparison to 24 wickets last season, Harbhajan's eight this year leaves a big vacuum.
 Harbhajan, Johnson, Malinga and Pragyan Ojha took 84 wickets last season. In 2014, injury to <keyword id="12644" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Zaheer-Khan">Zaheer Khan</keyword> has forced MI to try Jasprit Bumrah (two wickets), <keyword id="6366707" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Praveen-Kumar">Praveen Kumar</keyword> (two wickets) and Pawan Suyal (one wicket) as his replacement. Ojha (economy 8.29) and Pollard (10.73) have been the biggest disappointments with one wicket apiece. 

	A combination of the above factors has left Rohit with more than just a creased forehead. Last year, the responsibility brought the best out of him but now the burden of leading an under-performing group is looking too heavy a yoke to bear.

IPL: Numbers Spoiled MI's Title Defense

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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Ten wins in a row: Looking back at Team India's dream run

IANS

India's Jasprit Bumrah enters top ten in ICC test rankings for bowlers

IANS

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

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