Features by Om Kulpe

KKR: Another Lucky Year?

For the second consecutive time this IPL season, KKR have managed to defend a score quite comfortably ( v SRH and v MI ). They say defending a total is the most difficult aspect of T20 cricket which is why most captains have opted to bowl first in previous editions of the IPL. Yesterday KKR captain Shreyas Iyer opted to bat first and that I think set the tone for rest of the match. KKR looked very strong after the completion of the IPL Auction 2022. They turned that into performances winning three of their first four matches before suffering a five-match losing streak, before winning v RR . Cricket, or rather sport in general, is all about momentum and Kolkata had clearly lost it midway through the tournament. Their top order was failing, Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana were inconsistent and most of their bowlers leaked runs. While people like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Umesh Yadav had been excellent, other international cricketers like Pat Cummins and Aaron Finch produced ordinary ...

A Hundred and Seventy-Five

"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 -...

South Africa Tour of India: India Preview

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...

The Fourth Innings

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