Rizwan Archives - The Khel Times

India all-rounder Axar Patel among three nominees for ICC Men’s Player of the Month

Oct 5, 2022 Ronak Jain

(IANS) India’s left-arm spin all-rounder Axar Patel on Wednesday was named as one of the three nominees for ICC Men’s Player of the Month award, following a series of impressive…

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ICC T20I Player Rankings: Suryakumar attains career-best 2nd spot

Sep 28, 2022 Ronak Jain

Stylish Indian batter Suryakumar Yadav moved one position ahead to attain a career-best-equaling second position, closing the gap on No 1 Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan in the latest ICC Men’s T20I…

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WTC 2021-23: Road to the Finals

Mar 13, 2023 MVK Chaitanya

With the thrilling win for NZ over SL, the 2nd and final seat for the WTC finals of the 2021-23 leg has been confirmed. So it would be Australia taking on India at The Oval come 7th-11th June, 2023. India making it to their 2nd consecutive WTC finals in as many editions of the tournament. Australia make it to their first after fractionally missing out to NZ in the 2019-21 leg due to the 4 penalty points they picked for slow over rate in the BGT 2020-21.

India have set a date with Australia at The Oval for the #WTC23 Final 🔥

More ➡️ https://t.co/en4JKEz34d pic.twitter.com/WezeBkKluj
— ICC (@ICC) March 13, 2023

Below are the championship standings at the conclusion of today’s matches. With only 1 match between NZ Vs SL left, the top 2 seats have been booked.

Source: ICC. WTC 2021-23 Standings as on 13th Mar ’23

AUSTRALIA

Home Leg

4-0 Vs ENG in 5 Match series (Dec ’21/ Jan ’22)

Started their WTC 2021-23 campaign by presenting ENG with one of their lowest points in cricket. A 4-0 thrashing in the Ashes of 2021-22. Under the new skipper and new coach, there was a sweep of changes around the Aussie team off the field, but they backed it with their best performance on the field.

Points – 52/60.

2-0 Vs WI in 2 Match series (Nov / Dec ’22)

This one was in Nov ’22. The WI were of no match to the Aussie pace and batting prowess. A comprehensive 2-0 victory for the hosts.

Points – 24/24.

2-0 Vs SA in 3 Match series (Dec ’22/ Jan ’23)

The first test in this series ended under 2 days at the Gabba when the surface was quite spicy for both the teams’ liking. AUS picked a 6 wkt win chasing just 34 in the final inns. AUS were back to their best in the boxing day test with the final new year’s test in Sydney ending in a draw accompanied by inclement weather.

Points – 28/36.

Away Leg

Australia’s 3 away series were all in the sub-continent this time around with tours to PAK, SL & IND, which are traditionally hardest places to tour for them.

1-0 Vs PAK in 3 Match series (Mar ’22)

AUS toured to PAK after almost a quarter century. With quite highway kind of surfaces, the first 2 matches ended in pale draws in Rawalpindi and Karachi. The visitors took the 3rd one at Lahore to score a historic test series win in the sub-continent in almost 2 decades.

Points – 20/36.

1-1 Vs SL in 2 Match series (Jul ’22)

The last time they toured SL in 2016, the Aussies were clean swept 3-0. Amidst of the SL economic crisis & the dethroning of their president, the series went on in Jul ’22. AUS took the first match by 10 wkt margin but humbled by the home team in the 2nd one.

Points – 12/24.

1-2 Vs IND in 4 Match series (Feb / Mar ’23)

The ultimate test for any team from the SENA countries is a Test series win in IND. AUS looked in terrific form ahead of the series. The pitch and the spin favoring pitches robbed their minds in the first 2 tests which went in IND’s favor. Used the gap in between the 2nd & 3rd test to fight back with a win and a draw in the next 2.

Points – 16/48.

Overall

WTC 2021-23: Australia‘s Road to the Finals

INDIA

Home Leg

1-0 Vs NZ in 2 Match series (Nov / Dec ’21)

India came close to winning the first test in Kanpur but could not complete the job as they could not pick the last Kiwi wkt over 50 balls. Came back to win emphatically in Mumbai to take the series 1-0. Lost out on 8 crucial points that haunted the team till the final test.

Points – 16/24.

2-0 Vs SL in 2 Match series (Mar ’22)

Outperformed SL in all the 3 depts. picking up huge wins that got their WTC journey back on track.

Points – 24/24.

2-1 Vs AUS in 4 Match series (Feb / Mar ’23)

Came into the series with the pressure of scoring min. 2 wins out of the 4 matches to outscore SA’s chances. The home team delivered the goods by winning the first 2 matches, esp. the 2nd test in Delhi. IND were 139/7 in response to AUS’s 263 in the first inns. IND came back from there to take a 6 wkt win. The 2-0 score line then got IND above SA’s max possible and were almost confirmed of a WTC finals spot. Lost in 3rd and looked good in 4th that ended in a draw.

Points – 28/48.

Away Leg

With 2 of the away tours involving England and SA, it was important for IND to have limited the damage. And that was what the team did picking 3 wins and a draw in the 8 matches.

2-2 Vs ENG in 5 Match series (Aug / Sep ’21 & Jul ’22)

IND started their 2021-23 WTC leg with the tour to ENG. The series was played in 2 parts due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In the first part played in 2021, IND took a 2-1 lead after 4 matches. The last one in Jul ’22, IND faced a reinvented ENG team doing the “BazBall”. Though the target was 378 in the final inns, ENG went about in their new way of attack to win it by 7 wkts. What could have been a 3-1 to IND ended as 2-2. Also crucially, IND picked up 4 penalty points in this series for slow over rate.

Points – 24/60.

1-2 Vs SA in 3 Match series (Dec ’21 / Jan ’22)

The most competitive series that IND had in SA. On another day could have taken that series 2-1 at the min. A brilliant win in the opening match in Centurion, before Van der Dussen and SA took on the IND bowlers in both the remaining matches at Jo’burg and Cape Town to score 7 wkt wins. Another penalty point for slow over rate added on to the pain.

Points – 11/36.

2-0 Vs BAN in 2 Match series (Dec ’22)

IND needed nothing less than a 2-0 score line in this series with SA & SL knocking at the doors of the WTC finals. The first test was quite convincing win while the second one was a kind breaking out of jail. Ashwin & Iyer adding unbeaten 71 runs for the 8th wkt to score the win. The result ensured IND put one foot into the WTC finals door.

Points – 24/24.

Overall

WTC 2021-23: India‘s Road to the Finals

Performance of all Teams in WTC 2021-23

The key to securing a WTC finals berth is the combination of having a really good home performance while limiting the damage in away tours. As evident by IND in both the WTC legs till date. NZ scrapped their way to the finals in WTC 2019-21 thanks to the 4 penalty points to AUS and their cancelled tour to BAN.

In the current leg, SA have dominated at home conditions winning 6 out if their 7 matches just losing on one to IND and winning all 4 Vs BAN & WI.

On away basis, PAK made the most of their tours to WI, BAN & SL. But both SA & PAK couldn’t manage the combination. PAK had their best chance for a place in the finals, but they just needed to perform better at home which went win less.

In fact, IND are the only team to have sufficiently managed on both. Home win% would have been to 75% had they managed to pick that final NZ wkt. AUS’s home domination earning them the overall top spot.

WTC 2021-23: Home Leg Performances

WTC 2021-23: Away Leg Performances

WTC 2021-23: Overall Performances

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Motorsports

Formula E MOTORSPORTS SPORTS

Formula E Season 9 – A Wrap on the First 5 races

Mar 15, 2023 MVK Chaitanya

Done with 5 races in this Formula E season 9 for 2022-23. Covered 4 different countries across 3 continents over the 5 races – Mexico, Saudi Arabia, India and South Africa. 2 of those opening 5 races were first timers on a Formula E calendar – Hyderabad EPrix in India and Cape Town EPrix in South Africa.

Opening 3 Rounds – Mexico and the double header in Saudi Arabia

It was a Porsche power train dominance that took us through the opening 3 rounds. Jake Dennis in the Porsche powered Andretti took the season opener in Mexico while Pascal Wehrlein took both the races in the double header at Diriyah in Saudi. The 2 drivers stood 1& 2nd in all the opening 3 rounds while others ran into troubles. So after 3 rounds, they looked the run away favorites for the title with Wehrlein leading on 68 pts to Jake Dennis’ 52 pts.

The works Porsche team led the Teams’ standings with 74 pts followed by their customer team Andretti with 66 pts. At this point, it was looking like a season to be dominated by Porsche cars as Wehrlein and Dennis looked flying in race mode ploughing their way to the lead of the race though starting outside the top 5.

Who needs to start on the front row? 😏@afelixdacosta made up 10 places to win the #CapeTownEPrix! ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/0iTw5u1UUW
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) March 1, 2023

Among others, Lucas Di Grassi took the pole at the season opener in Mexico. Buemi took the pole in Race at Diriyah just marginally over the rapid Neom McLaren driver Jake Hughes. The young rookie came back in Race 2 to score his maiden Formula E pole.

India – Hyderabad EPrix

Formula E lands for the first time in India in the city of Hyderabad, home for the Mahindra Racing Team and TATA owned Jaguar tcs Racing team. The track was green and dusty to start with, which required a dummy practice session ahead of the official FP 1. Few first time event issues then delaying the FP1, but went on eventually. The weekend from then produced an absolute thriller in terms of the unpredictable nature. Mitch Evans of the home backed Jaguar tcs Racing took the pole. The tight hairpin for turn 3 at the end of a straight provided all the drama as expected. Unfortunately, both Jaguar cars collided when Sam Bird just misread the situation when he was trying to take the attack mode on the outside of turn 3.

Jean Eric Vergne took the opening and used his experience in managing the battery life along with his gritty race craft. He came through to take the win though with only 0.8% charge left at the start of the last lap. Fended off a charging Nick Cassidy in the Envision racing car who was having 3% more charge in his battery relative to Vergne.

South Africa – Cape Town Eprix

Set in the picturesque background of the table mountains, the circuit layout for the Cape Town EPrix was the Formula E’s version of Monza in Italy. The 2.921 km length track was covered in 67.848 seconds by Nissan’s Sacha Fenetraz in the FINALS of the duels to take the pole position @ average speed of about 155 km/hr.

Some of the speeds clocked at the #CapeTownEPrix… 🥵 pic.twitter.com/VFQCuYiAo8
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) March 3, 2023

The track stood to its hype of being the real test to the new blood of Formula E cars in the form of Gen 3. The track was characterized by high speed straights / turns that caught out a few during the race weekend.

Source: Formula E. Track Layout for the Cape Town EPrix.

The race as well produced another close encounter. Jean Eric Vergne once again at the helm battling for the race win, this time with his former team mate, Porsche’s Antonio Felix Da Costa. The race was decided on the final lap with Da Costa putting a brilliant move over Vergne by throwing a dummy down the inside before going past him on the outside.

Formula E Season 9 – Championship Standings after 5 rounds.

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, though with a DNF in Cape Town, is still in the lead of the driver’s lead by 18 pts. over Andretti’s Jake Dennis. In Formula E terms, should say the German driver holds a comfortable gap after 5 races, thanks to his consistency in the opening 4 races of the season with 2 wins, a 2nd and a 4th.

🥇 Top of the Drivers' Championship
🥇 Top of the Teams' Championship
🥇 Most laps led after five races

A seriously strong start to Season 9 for @PWehrlein 💪 pic.twitter.com/3UwK9T62aP
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) March 10, 2023

Formula E Season 9 – Laps lead chart

Former 2 times Formula E champion, Jean Eric Vergne, got his title challenge underway with a win in Hyderabad and P2 in Cape Town. But it has been a tough start for his team mate and the reigning Formula E world champion, Stoffel Vandoorne, with just 11 points to his name across 3 points scoring finishes. He would be hoping to have utilized the month’s gap between Rds. 5 &6 to turn the tide in terms of getting his usual qualifying pace back with his new team.

Source: Formula E. Driver’s Standings after Race 5 – Formula E Season 9

In the teams, Porsche are leading the way with 3 wins out of the 5 races. Envision Racing have been the 2nd most consistent team with 3 podium finishes (could have been 4 if not for the post race penalty to Buemi for Technical infringement).

Source: Formula E. Teams Standings after Race 5

Next for Formula E Season 9

Rd. 6 takes the Formula E season 9 to yet another new location in Sao Paulo in Brazil. The race comes after a month’s break that would have given enough time for the teams to churn through the lots of data collected over the opening rounds. Maybe that we see a change in the pecking order ?, to be seen.