The Fourth Innings

The first post in my new series, Cricket Debates. Check out me and @vkasliwal debating it out over " Pant or DK: Who should be India's wicketkeeper in T20Is? " @vkasliwal speaks for Dinesh Karthik, who is in the form of his life, while I back the exciting Rishabh Pant. Who are you rooting for? Let us know in the comments. Presenting you, The Pant vs DK Debate . A big thanks to Viraat Kasliwal for agreeing to be a part of this. Feel free to comment and do share my post. Also,  follow The Fourth Innings on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/the4thinnings .

Cricket | T20 | T20I | India | South Africa | South Africa Tour of India, 2022 | 2022 T20 World Cup Crowds' chants and cheering will be volume high as India prepare to take on the Proteas on 9th June in Delhi as part of the five-match T20I series. With BCCI allowing 100% attendance across all the five venues, things seem to be returning to normal. This series if necessary will throw some light on the youngsters as they desperately prepare for claiming a flight to Australia for the T20 World Cup later this year. Earlier, the selectors decided to rest some stalwarts including Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah for this series. This meant that the reigns of captaincy be handed to the multi-dimensional KL Rahul. RCB's wicketkeeper batsmen Dinesh Karthik & GT's captain Hardik Pandya are returning to the Indian side.  What is DK's role? There have been a lot of speculations on DK's role. While I think, he certainly gets a spot in the setup, how is the team g...

"In every cricketer’s career, some days when you come out... it’s just your day, manufactured by god and given to you. Whatever you do, nothing can go wrong. Perhaps, that innings was like that for me." ~Kapil Dev, via Scroll The rest of us dream of stuff like this. Kapil Dev lived it. It is ironic how it will forever be etched on our memories. A perfect cricket innings, and an even perfect script. India needed a win against Zimbabwe to remain in good stead for Semifinals qualification in the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Two deliveries into the 20th match of the tournament, India lost Sunil Gavaskar, caught behind off Peter Rawson - 0/1. Kris Srikkanth followed, losing his wicket to Kevin Curran - 6/2. Rawson then got Mohinder Amarnath out on 5 - 5/3. Sandeep Patil too could not do much glancing a leg-side delivery to wicket-keeper Dave Houghton - 9/4. Kapil Dev was the next batsman in but the collapse wasn't over as Yashpal Sharma gave Rawson his third wicket of the match -...

Cricket | T20 | IPL | IPL 2022 | IPL 2022 Review | RR | GT | RCB | LSG | DC | PBKS | KKR | SRH | CSK | MI It's only been a few moments since Gujarat Titans won the coveted IPL trophy. The 15th edition of the T20 cricket league saw two new teams being added to the competition - Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Supergiants. In an interesting (but not shocking) turn of events, the two most successful franchises in IPL history, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, finished at the bottom of the points table. After nine weeks of enthralling cricket action, Gujarat Titans have emerged as winners. But this IPL season, like the ones before, has given us a lot of talking points, ranging from auction strategy to plan execution. Mumbai Indians (10th) Mumbai Indians basically had no one to support Jasprit Bumrah. Unlike previous seasons where the Mumbai team would be filled with T20 superstars, IPL 2022 saw them play Daniel Sams, Tymal Mills, Murugan Ashwin and Basil Thampi in their first XI. Thei...

Cricket | T20I | T20 | IPL | IPL 2022 | RCB | Virat Kohli Every cricket, IPL and RCB fan wants Virat Kohli to score runs. A trademark Kohli innings is a lesson in batting with all of defence, taking singles and hitting boundaries executed to perfection. It is paced brilliantly and there is minimal risk involved with orthodox cricketing shots. I have not come across a more complete batsman in all my cricket following. Oh, the elegance of that cover drive, him holding his pose as the ball races to the boundary, and then fist-punching his partner as the bowler stands in despair. I miss that. I miss the old Virat Kohli. I am not going to argue over whether it is his misfortune or just poor form. The truth is he is not scoring runs in this IPL season. Him taking out his frustration while looking up into the sky after his dismissal v PBKS summed up the emotions of most of us. It is just not happening for him and however much you want to hold on to him, he is giving lesser and lesser reasons ...

Cricket | T20 | IPL | IPL 2022 | Gujarat Titans At the end of IPL Auction 2022, I too like other cricket pundits started writing down the best XIs for every IPL team. When I came to the Gujarat Titans squad, I asked myself, "Is Gujarat Titans a good team?" That is when a few thoughts crept up in my mind. Who was going to bat at 3? Will Hardik Pandya be forced to bat out of position? Are Rahul Tewatia and David Miller good enough to take them over the finish line every time? They have got Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson and Rashid Khan, but what after them? Like many, I too discounted the team from 2022 IPL Playoffs contention and focused on stronger looking teams. But today, I stand corrected. Hemant Brar  summed up Gujarat Titans' campaign quite nicely for me:" If Tewatia won't, David Miller will. If Miller won't, Rashid Khan will. If Rashid won't, someone else surely will. " That's been the story for the Gujarat Titans this season. They have fo...