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Scott Kuggeleijn re-signed by the St.Lucia Kings in the CPL draft
New Zealand all-rounder Scott Kuggeleijn has been re-signed by the St.Lucia Kings for the upcoming CPL edition after being released by the same franchise the previous year.
Super Smash 2021-22 | Match Review: Northern Knights cement top spot after a rampant victory over Central Stags
Northern Knights came on top as they beat Central Stags by six wickets. With this win, the Knights stay firm at the top with 18 points from six matches.
5th T20I: New Zealand fight hard to salvage pride after Bangladesh took home series
New Zealand defeated hosts Bangladesh by 27 runs in the fifth and final T20I match of the series to limit the series to a 3-2 result. The hots already had an unassailable lead in the series after winning the fourth game of the series and the win by Blackcaps could only salvage their pride leading up to an important series against Pakistan and ICC World T20 due in a month’s time. Chasing a target of 162 runs which appeared a steep one considering the nature of pitches used in the series, the hosts got off to a sluggish start and lost Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar just when they were looking to get a move on. The duo was eliminated by the spin twins of Blackcaps—Ajaz Patel and Cole McConchie, who have been ripping their spinning deliveries in the series. Even before the hosts could gather some momentum after the loss of Sarkar and Das, they lost the big wicket of Mushfiqur Rahim, who has had a disappointing series with the bat. Bangladesh lost four big wickets in the space of 27 balls while they could muster only 20 runs in the same period. The momentum was never with them, but Afif Hossain swung his bat around valiantly to lead the counterattack. He and the skipper Mahmudullah forged a rapid partnership of 53 runs from just seven overs to put the hosts back on track. However, as soon as Mahmudullah fell to Scott Kuggeleijn, the lower-order could not stand up to rescue the hosts and Afif was left stranded at one end just one run shy of his half-century. Earlier, New Zealand skipper Tom Latham won the toss and elected to bat first on what promised to be a decent batting track. The openers Fin Allen and Rachin Ravindra provided them with a fantastic start and took the team past the 50-run mark inside the mandatory powerplay. However, their innings too suffered a stutter as wickets kept on falling at regular intervals. After the fall of Ravindra and Allen, Will Young and Collin de Grandhomme failed as well to leave the skipper Latham scrambling in the middle. He got support from the experienced Henry Nicholls and the duo carried the Blackcaps past the 100-run mark. Skipper Latham brought up a well-compiled half-century of 32 balls with the help of two fours and as many sixes but he could not provide a rollicking finish to the Blackcaps and that job was well done by Cole McConchie, who smashed a 10-ball 17 to take the Blackcaps past the 160-run mark and put enormous pressure on the hosts. New Zealand were found out in the conditions stacked heavily in the favour of spin bowlers but they did not fail to adapt as their Trans-Tasman rivals Australia did earlier. They were made to work hard for the runs and wins but the two wins and strong fight they have put on in the series would have given welcome signs of depth and talent in the squad going forward to the two T20 World Cups.
RCB rope in Scott Kuggeleijn in place of Kane Richardson
The Royal Challengers Bangalore have roped in New Zealand all-rounder Scott Kuggeleijn in place of Kane Richardson who earlier withdrew his name from the IPL 2021 citing personal reasons. Kuggeleijn was a part of the IPL bubble with Mumbai Indians and has now moved to RCB. The right-arm cricketer has played two IPL matches and has picked up a couple wickets so far. He has represented New Zealand in 16 T20Is and 2 ODIs respectively. Kuggeleijn has picked 13 wickets in the shorter format of the game while has 5 scalped to his name in ODI cricket. RCB’s Adam Zampa and Richardson had opted out of the IPL earlier. While the two players withdrew from the tournament, they are still stuck in Mumbai according to the Cricbuzz report. Australia had suspended all the flights from India provisionally till May 15. But a CA spokesperson has said that the board is having talks with the government to make an exception for Zampa and Richardson. "We are trying to see if the government does give us the go ahead to bring the players back. If we get the nod, it's all pretty straightforward. But if not, we'll be working with the ACA and BCCI to make sure they're in a secure environment," the spokesperson said. RCB are presently sitting at the third spot in the points table after they suffered their first defeat against Chennai Super Kings in the last outing.
NZ vs PAK 2nd T20: Williamson, Seifert lead Blackcaps to series win after Hafeez's heroics
A valiant effort with the bat from Mhammed Hafiz was enough for the touring Pakistan side as an unbeaten partnership for the second wicket between Kane Williamson and Tim Seifert guided Blackcaps to an unassailable 2-0 lead in Hamilton. Chasing a modest target of 164 at the Seddon Park, the Blackcaps were off to a rapid start as Martin Guptill looked like turning back the clock to the time when he was batting and big shots were coming off sweetly off his bat over long-off. He started to time the ball brilliantly from the second over and took 12 runs off Haris Rauf through a big six and a boundary. He hit another big one off Faheem Ashraf in his first over but the all-rounder was smart enough to change the pace of the ball and flummoxed Guptill in to play pull shot too early. The next man in was the returning skipper Kane Williamson who had come back after becoming a father and he brought his biggest skill-calmness on the field for the home side. On the other hand, Tim Seifert was going all guns blazing as the Kiwis reached a middling total of 45/1 at the end of the powerplay. The tourists would have hoped for a controlled phase of play after the field restriction was lifted but Seifert had other plans in his mind. He took Wahab Riaz for three sixes and whatever the control Shadab Khan-led side had till that moment was gone in a jiffy. With 19 runs off the seventh over, Kiwis were up and running and the run rate came back under control. They needed both Williamson and Siefert to not throw their wickets away and they were not in any mood to do so. Williamson was batting in his usual touch and all the balls he could afford to guide towards the third man boundary were guided for four from the position just under his eyes in his signatory ways. Williamson reached his fifty in 37 balls, although he was slowed down after a brief period of time after reaching 49 runs with the bat. While Seifert had no mercy on the Pakistani bowlers and kept on plundering them on loose balls as he reached his second consecutive fifty in just 32 balls. His onslaught only got better as he kept on finding boundaries and in the end, the hosts were proven too good for the touring Pakistan team and the target was achieved in the last over with unbelievable ease. Earlier, Pakistan captain Shadab Khan won the toss and elected to bat first and utilise the good pitch at the Seddon Park. Pakistan openers Mohammed Rizwan and Haider Ali started with a bang and the much famous pair of Tim Southee and Trent Boult were attacked in the first two overs. But soon enough, they were given a reality check by the Kiwi new ball pair and they found movement in the air to check the touring batsmen. Haider Ali was the first man to go after he tried to take on Southee and the pacer held on to his nerve and backed his skills to hit the length that troubled Ali while attempting to go over the top. The next man in, Abdullah Shafique, could not match the skills to ride on the bounce Southee was generating and ended up getting out in a much embarrassing fashion. Southee was top through the top of his rhythm and he started to swing the ball and took a Test match like field placings with slips and gully. Williamson persisted with Southee with the amount of swing he was able to extract and the move paid dividend when Rizwan edged one through to the keeper Seifert while attempting to drive an away going delivery of Southee that was reminiscent of Kiwis’ bowling in Test cricket. Mohammed Hafiz, who has been growing like an old wine (in T20s), came to bat at the number four position and got off to a decent start with two back to back boundaries of Kyle Jamieson. He continued his boundary hitting streak against Scott Kuggeleijn and was keeping Pakistan in the game albeit wickets had fallen at the other end. The old nemesis of Pakistan’s batsmen on the tour so far was evident today as well as James Neesham got the better of Shadab Khan with a ball that bounced more than Pakistan’s skipper may have expected. Wickets kept tumbling at the other end, but an unfazed Hafeez was on the money and was keeping Pakistan in pursuit of a big score in Hamilton. Khushdil Shah who came to bat at the number six position found it extremely tough to get going and it was putting a lot of pressure on Hafeez to go for big shots as well keeping his wickets intact with no better batsmen remaining in the pavilion to rescue the side. In the process of a masterful T20 inning, Hafeez surpassed Shoaib Malik to become the best Pakistan batsman in the shortest format. He stamped his authority by depositing Kuggleijn for two back-to-back sixes to reach a much-deserved fifty that Pakistan badly needed to stay in the contest. There was no stopping Hafeez as every form of bowling, from the leg-spin of Ish Sodhi to left-arm pace of Trent Boult were taken to the cleaners. He needed 18 runs in the last over of the innings to be bowled by Jamieson, and he got stuck into the young man, but could not quite complete a century he richly deserved for single-handedly taking Pakistan to a total which the bowlers could have hoped of defending from a situation of doom and gloom for the tourists. Pakistan were without Babar Azam for the T20 series and the effect was telling on the level of performance of the Pakistan team as New Zealand took full toll of their problems and shortcoming and handed out a massive drubbing in the format Pakistan were expected to put up a great fight.