Asia XI 2016 || Cricket Notebook edition

Surely cricket is one of the biggest and most followed game in Asia specially in the sub - continental nations like India, Pakistan, Sri lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal. Over the years Asia has produced many quality cricketers and if joint together in a single team it can become one of the strongest combination ever made in cricket's history.

Taking note of player's performances in the recently played three major T20 tournaments (Asia Cup, T20I World Cup and IPL) we selected our best Asia XI for the T20 format.

1. Rohit Sharma (India)
2. Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh)
3. Virat Kohli (India)
4. Mohmmad Hafeez (Pakistan)
5. M.S Dhoni [W.K] Captain (India)
6. Mahmudullah Riad (Bangladesh)
7. Thisara Perera (Sri Lanka)
8. Ravi Chandran Ashwin (India)
9. Mohmmad Amir (Pakistan)
10. Jasprit Bumrah (India)
11. Mustafizur Rahman (Bangladesh)

The Squad is dominated by the Asian champions India followed by the runner up Bangladesh obviously due to their player's splendid performances in all three of the tournament.

The batting unit is highly reliable with the likes of Rohit, Tamim, Virat and Hafeez. The middle order is very experienced and dependable and might not let any team in the world to get passed them.

A heavy pace bowling unit with 4 inform pacers Perera, Amir, Bumrah and the Fizz in the squad. There are some quality spin options too, Mahmudullan and Ashwin in the team.

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The mystery behind unplayable Fizz

Mustafizur Rahman (The Fizz) is probably the most discussed cricketer in world right now. The young Bangladeshi left arm pacer has been terrorizing batsmen all over the world with his mystery bowling since his international debut last year against Pakistan. The Fizz has already taken 53 wickets playing just 39 T20 matches with economy of 6.28 but he is most effective when it comes to 50 over games where he has taken 26 wickets in just 9 ODI matches with economy of 4.26.

The stats clearly shows that batsmen are struggling to bat against Mustafiz. The only way to survive Fiz is to play defensively and let the over pass but in limited over games it is much like pressing the self - destruction button. It might take a long time for batsmen to finally figure out the right way to play him but now all they can do is play defensive and capitalize in someone else's over or gamble and attack.
Initially what made Fuzzy unplayable is that he can bowl multiple variation deliveries with minimum change in his action. One of his most deadly bowl is the medium pace off cutter which pitches just outside leg stump for right-handed batsman and turns quickly in towards the middle and off stump. This delivery is really hard to bat against, imagine left-arm off spinner turning the ball at the speed of 128 kmps! The reason Mustafiz can get so much purchase from the pitch is his flexible wrist which allows him to revolve the ball while releasing the delivery. But what makes him lethal is his bulls eye, toe crushing yorker delivery which pitches immediately under the bat, the batsman facing the delivery has no other option than defend it. Mustafizur had used his yorkers a lot in the death overs of his IPL matches restricting opponent teams to make most of the slog overs.

What actually makes it hard to face the Fizz is not his trademark off - cutters or toe crushing yorkers, it's his cricketing mind. Mustafizur knows his strengths and uses them so wisely that he is able to toy with the batsman. He knows how to mix up his variations with his stock balls and most importantly he is a calm head, he can hold his nerves even in the most nerve wrecking moments of the game. This is what made him so successful today.

The Fizz has become an headache for batsmen all around the world and is surely a gift for cricket world and messiah of Bangladesh cricket. A lot is expected from this youngster, it will be interesting to see how he will live up to the expectations all around him but for now all we can do as audience is just sit back and watch the Fizz doing his magic!

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KXIP looses another Aussi as Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis leaves IPL early

Marcus Stoinis and Murli Vijay

It couldn't get any worse for KXIP, after a forgettable season performance in the IPL 2016 just when the team was starting to gel up together they loose couple of more Aussies from the team.

After a very close defeat against SRH, it was reported that batting all - rounder Glenn Maxwell would not be able to continue to play in the current IPL season due to his side strain injury. It was not long after this news there was another development from the Kings XI Punjab squad that another Australian all - rounder Marcus Stoinis had to return to his home due to "personal unavoidable circumstances". Earlier, Shaun Marsh was ruled out from IPL due to back injury he picked up in the game against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 19.

Kings XI Punjab are sure to miss the two players heavily in the squad specially Stoinis who had been performing impressively both with his bat and ball despite a bad season.

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Virat Kohli injury problem for RCB?

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Virat Kohli injury problem for RCB?

Virat Kohli injured his left hand while making an attempt to catch out Andre Russell || Credit: BCCI

Captain Kohli despite being injured batted 75 runs along with Gayle (49) and de Villiers (59) powered RCB to another important victory in the Eden Garden on Monday. After the skipper's terrific batting in the run chase, Kohli with his 752 runs is now the record holder of highest runs scored in a single season.

RCB has now 2 more must win games remaining against KXIP (18th May) and DD (22nd May). Virat Kohli is unlikely to play in the game with Punjab due to the injury he picked up on monday while making an attempt to catch out Andre Russell. Kohli has played very important role in RCB's current season run both as a captain as well as batsman and due to his injury the Bangalore side will surely feel the extra bit of pressure.

Kohli can be easily replaced in his captain's role with AB de Villiers who is the vice - captain of the team. But it is really hard to find a match for Kohli when it comes to batting. Chris Gayle can surely take off the pressure if he performs in the similar way he did against KKR yesterday but given his recent form Gayle is not as dependable as Kohli. Either de Villiers or Shane Watson will need to take the responsible guy's role while Sachin baby or Sarfaraz Khan can finish the innings if required.

In the big picture with Kohli's absence RCB shouldn't suddenly fall into runs crisis given the quality of batting lineup they have but will surely feel slightly uncomfortable. But Virat Kohli has reputation of taking challenges by their neck and might surprise everyone on Wednesday by deciding to play for his team to ensure the victory.

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Top 7 cricketers whose bright future was ruined by match fixing

Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir warming up before delivering his over

Cricket is known to be a gentleman's game but it has been suffering from a very dangerous disease known as "match fixing". Throughout the history of cricket, there have been numerous occasions where match fixing was reported in every format of the game. Most of the times these sickening acts were conducted by the players themselves. Sadly cricket had to lose many of its bright stars due to this corruption in the game, among them the 7 most promising cricketers who ruined their career by match fixing are:

1. Mohammad Amir - Pakistan
2. Mohammad Ashraful - Bangladesh
3. Mohammad Asif - Pakistan
4. Marlon Samuels - West Indies
5. Sreesanth - India
6. Salman Butt - Pakistan
7. Mohammed Azharuddin

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Nepal Women Cricket: Lost in time

Nepal celebrating wicket vs Malaysia

It has almost been 2 years since Nepal women's cricket team had played any game internationally. Neither has there been any kind of domestic cricket game for the ladies. Nepal is losing one of its valuable assets and if there is no action taken to save women's cricket in Nepal soon they will go extinct and a so much of the potential will be lost in time.

Nepalese women cricket was once considered as one of the most flourishing team in women's cricketing world. On their international debut year, back in 2007, they surprised everyone by reaching the finals of ACC Women's Tournament coming out of the blue and a year later the U19 side won the ACC Under-19 Women's Championship title in and defended it in 2010. Since then they attracted lots of eyeballs in the women's cricket world mainly due to the kind of promise they had shown in their first 5 years. On 2014, they were eliminated from the quarterfinals of Asian Games Women's Cricket Competition by much stronger Bangladeshi side. That was the last game they had played in any international competition.

After the tournament, they sort of disappeared from the cricketing universe. Nobody heard from them or even cared to find out about them. Even though the team had shown a great potentiality early there was no concrete action to search and nurture the hidden talent in Nepalese girls. The attention Nepalese women's cricket team gets is very less in comparison to the men's team. No tournament of any kind is hosted for the ladies and almost all of the cricket academy are designed to promote men's cricket. Most of the international funds for women's cricket team is stolen in the corruption. 

Women are already an endangered species in the sports world especially in South Asian countries and cricket is doing a great job to promote female involvement in sports. Nepal's women cricket has shown time and again the potentiality they have hidden within. There has to be a concrete action to explore these talents and take them to their potential, else we might lose the opportunity to show the gift that we have for cricket. With proper care and attention, the women's team can achieve big names and make huge impacts. The bold step to save the Nepalese women's cricket has to be taken.

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Heartland College beat Sudur Paschim Academy (SPA) by 3 wickets in the final of College Premier League 2016

Heartland College || Expert College Premier League

"Heartland College beat Sudur Paschim Academy (SPA) by 3 wickets in the finals of Expert College Premier League at the TU Ground, Kirtipur"

It is said that cricket is an unpredictable game, the final game of CPL proved it right. One moment the momentum is with SPA and then Heartland would snatch it away from SPA but then again the Far Westerners would pick themselves up and command the game until they lose in a nail biting final over.

This tug of war had started right from the first over and lasted till the final one. Heartland had won the toss and opted to bat first. They faced an early loss when SPA bowler Lalit Bhandari took the wicket of Mahesh Chettri at the second bowl of the inning. Despite early fall of wicket, Heartland responded positively and were soon able to take the game in their hand but again Subendu Pandey had to depart on the 7 over.

SPA soon shifted the momentum towards their side as Heartland had lost 5 wickets at the 12^th over scoring only 82 runs. Buban Karki and Shakti Bhandari were building the innings  but it was not too long when Shakti's wicket fell at the 15^th over. Buban then played a quick cameo scoring 4 sixes in the final 4 overs which helped  Heartland to put a score of 143 on the board after completing 20 overs.

With 144 runs to chase the Far Westerners had a shaky opening to the second inning when the had lost 2 wickets for just four runs in 2 overs. Ashwini Mandhari looked in a good touch, his 2 sixes helped SPA to score 30 runs at the end of 6^th over. Heartland had another early breakthrough when they took the big wicket of Subash Khakurel in the first bowl of 7^th over.

Although the wicket on the other side was falling quick, Ashwini was batting sensational. He made a half century and helped his team to take charge of the game. But soon he had to depart after scoring 57 runs. SPA suddenly panicked, lost wickets in clusters and found themselves 125 for 7 wickets at the 18^th over.

The game wasn't over yet, SPA pushed the game to the final over with two boundaries and made the game very much in their favor. SPA needed 8 runs off six balls but lost wicket in the very first ball of 19^th over. With new batsman on the crease there was very low hopes of SPA. They needed 6 runs of the final ball, it was very much achievable but unfortunately for the Far Westerners the could take only two runs from that ball.

It was a tough game for both of the sides as they were neck on neck with each other but Heartland had the better side of it and became the champions of the Expert College Premier League.

Heartland XI:
Mahesh Chhetri, Bhupendra Thapa, Pradeep Airee, Bipin Chandra, Bhuwan karki, Subhendu Pandey, Sonu Tamang, Shakti Bhandari, Akash Saud, Kamal Airee, Chanda Saud

Sudur Paschim Academy (SPA) XI:
Sandep Sunar, Subash Khakurel, Raju Rijal, Aswani Mandani, Santosh Bhatta, Rahul Singh, Binod Lama, Aman Panthi, Rajbir Singh, Bikram Thagunna, Lalit Singh Bhandari

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