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^^^ Papua New Guinea managed to play two T20Is in the same day. They won against Hong Kong, but lost to Nepal. I am a bit confused about the schedule of the matches. It is too hectic. It is a bit unfair to PNG that they were asked to play two matches on the same day. Kushal Bhurtel returned figures of 4-0-12-4 for Nepal. Nepali spinners have performed well recently. But at the same time, their pacers have been disappointing. Karan KC, Sompal Kami and Gulsan Jha are not being consistent and they are not getting the wickets.
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Afghanistan won the first match after batting first. And it looks like they may win this time as well. Rahmanullah Gurbaz is still there with 47, although Irish bowlers have taken two quick wickets. Ireland is missing Craig Young for today's match. That means that pace bowling responsibilities need to be shared between Mark Adair, Graham Hume and Barry McCarthy. Also they have the part-time medium pace from Curtis Campher. But the absence of Young seems to have impacted their bowling effectiveness.
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I think you are also underestimating Joe Biden. Donald Trump has a lot of skeletons in his cupboard and he has failed to address them. He promised to free the Capitol attackers if he is reelection which means he is still promoting anarchy. Trump has failed to attract new supporters from some Democratic States which means the election might turn out the way it ended four years ago. For me the the sportsbooks are correct in giving the current president higher odds because he is the favorite. He has had some issues including his health and failure to tackle illegal immigrants but he is still better than emperor Trump. Biden will still get support from the minorities because they are getting better treatment from him than the racist Trump. My bet is wholely on Biden. I am not underestimating Joe Biden. But he is on the defensive, with burning issues such as border conundrum and Hunter Biden scandal having an impact on his support levels. In most of the opinion polls, Biden is trailing by somewhere between 3% to 5% as far as popular vote is concerned. And let's not forget the fact that Trump won the 2016 elections despite losing the battle for popular vote. In case he has a 5% advantage here, then we can expect a landslide. Even states such as Colorado and Virginia may swing to GOP this time. |
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Peshawar Zalmi won by 2 runs against Karachi Kings. Team Peshawar Zalmi won the toss and choose for Bat first. I didn't like their performance but i must say, Opener Babar Azam handle the situation perfect with his half century. When Karachi Kings batsman were suppose to be good enough by their performance. Tim Seifert(41), Irfan Khan(39) Played good. Anwar Ali highlighted himself more in this match where he made 14 runs from 6 bowls. As a bowler, he did great during last over pressure. They were close enough to the victory but last bolw have changed the destiny.
Very close match. But in the end, Zalmi managed to win and get to the top of the points table. And the last match for group phase will be played today between Multan Sultans and Quetta Gladiators today. If Quetta wins the match today, then there is a chance that they may get the second place in points table. On the other hand, if Multan wins the match, then they can top the points table with 14 points. If Multan wins, Islamabad may move towards the knockout phase, and if not they will get kicked out of the tournament. |
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There was a match of Gujarat Giants vs UP Warriorz. Both team done well in batting and bowling. I like the way how Beth Mooney and Laura Wolvaardt, both opener from Gujarat Giants managed the whole match. Beth Mooney did 74 runs which was a lot. And 152 was total score. Besides UP Warriorz keep losing their wickets and Deepti Sharma came in 4th position and hold her team tightly. She alone made 88 runs. But i feel sad as she failed to done century, even they also lost the match for 8 runs
Gujarat Giants are a bit overdependent on the overseas players. Their top and middle order is 80% comprised of foreign players - Laura Wolvaardt, Beth Mooney, Phoebe Litchfield and Ashleigh Gardner. And then they have Kathryn Bryce lower down the order. These players have performed exceptionally well so far in this season. Mooney is among the top-3 run scorers for this season. But they are still at the rock bottom of the points table. They have only two wins to their name, in 7 matches. UP Warriorz Women have 3 from 6 matches. |
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Looking at the odds, I would say that at 1.70, the sportsbooks are still underestimating Donald Trump. IMO, his odds should be somewhere around 1.30. He has almost won the Republican primaries, and if he stands for the POTUS elections later this year there is a 90% chance that he will win (Biden is trailing far behind in almost all of the polls). Now the only possibility that Trump may not win the election comes from any potential court decision that may disqualify him from running. Any such judgment is extremely unlikely.
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I have a soft-corner for the Gujarat Giants Women, because they are the only team with an associate player in the squad (Kathryn Bryce from Scotland). Previously we had Tara Norris from the United States playing for the Delhi Capitals, but she was released this year. Not very surprising, given the aversion towards associate players from the IPL franchises. Yesterday Giants were able to defend a sub-par total, thanks to some fine bowling from Shabnam MD. She returned spectacular figures of 4-0-11-3. Tanuja Kanwar also provided good support.
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The 3rd ODI between Afghanistan and Ireland will be played today at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Afghanistan will be the favored team here, after their spectacular win during the first match. Irish batsmen are doing OK, but their bowlers are leaking too many runs. And the absence of quality spinners, especially while playing in Asia is hurting them. Anyway, the fightback from Irish batsmen during the first match was impressive. Once again, the duo of Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker proved their worth.
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In the 2nd match of Papua New Guinea vs Nepal team, Nepal came to bat and scored 198 runs after losing 6 wickets in 20 overs. I think the runs that Nepal team scored in today's match were the right runs to win. Papua New Guinea team did not perform well in the bowling line. .Nepal team batsman Kushal Bhurtel got out with 59 runs in 39 balls.Sundeep Jora got out with 56 runs in 26 balls.Papua New Guinea team will come to bat in a short time.Papua New Guinea team has very little chance to win this match.
Papua New Guinea are 67/3 now, and they need another 132 runs from 12 overs. If they perform like this, PNG will be soon thrown out of the first tier of associate cricket. And this is a pattern that has been continuing for quite some time now. Teams with native players, such as Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu are finding it hard to compete against teams that are comprised fully of foreigners (such as the United Arab Emirates, Canada and Oman). Nepal is the only country with native players, who have improved their position in recent times. |
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England's Test series against India was like a bad dream. Test series between India and England are usually very competitive but this Test series we noticed something different. England won the first match of this Test series but it was entirely due to the mistakes of the Indian batsmen. In the second innings of the first test match, India performed much worse than the first innings whereas England batted much better in the second innings than in the first innings, due to which India lost the first match to England. However, in the last four matches, India did not give any chance to England. In the last four matches, India has won easily against England. Especially in the fifth Test match, England was defeated by India by a series margin.
LOL.. all this after winning the first match in spectacular fashion. They won the first test match against all odds, but then went on to lose the series 1-4. And remember that India was without some of their regular players. For me, the reasons for the failure from England resulted from the following factors: 1. James Anderson was under-utilized 2. Too much dependence on Shoaib Bashir, who failed to live up to the expectations 3. Usage of bazball even in situations where it was not suitable 4. Using spinners against tailend batsmen, rather than pacers 5. Continued poor performance of England's batsmen against Indian spinners. |
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New Zealand deserved a win, but what to say? Matt Henry's brilliant performance went in vain. They had Australia at 43/4, then 80/5 and again at 220/7. When Mitchell Starc got out, they still needed another 61 runs to win, with just 3 wickets in hand. But all of their bowlers, who had performed extremely well till then, ran out of gas. Ben Sears was impressive and took 4 wickets in the second innings. But everyone else failed, in front of the lower order (Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey and Pat Cummins). But even now, Australia are well behind India, as far as the points table in WTC is concerned.
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New Zealand is still having the upper hand in the test match against Australia. The Aussies still need another 202 runs, with 6 wickets at hand. Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh are at the crease and if they lose two more wickets, then the tail will start with Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. Ben Sears seems to be in exceptional form. But the biggest threat for Australia comes from Matt Henry. So far he has taken 9 wicket so far and I am sure that the tally will go further up by tomorrow.
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With the win yesterday, Islamabad United got themselves to the second position in points table for the Pakistan Super League (PSL). However, there is still a large gap with Multan Sultans, who have 12 points from 8 matches. Three teams (Islamabad United, Quetta Gladiators and Peshawar Zalmi) have 9 points each, while Qalandars are at the bottom with just 3 points from 8 matches. 6 more matches remain in the group phase, and after that the knockout phase will start. Karachi needs to work really hard if they want to qualify.
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Poms are unable to take any wickets at all. The second wicket partnership between Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill has added 122 runs till now. Pacers have been disappointing so far, both James Anderson and Mark Wood. The second one has gone for more than 6 runs per over till now. But still I am quite surprised to see the England captain under-utilizing Anderson. Shoaib Bashir has bowled 18 overs till now, while Anderson has got only 7 so far. BTW, New Zealand have taken two quick wickets at Christchurch, and both of them went to Matt Henry.
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I am not surprised that Papua New Guinea won this match. However, Papua New Guinea won the match by 8 wickets. Such results were unbelievable to me.
There are no foreign players in Papua New Guinea's squad. However, teams like Nepal, Oman and USA have many foreign players in their squads. I don't think there are any indigenous players in Oman's squad. Almost all the players are from India or Pakistan.
Oman set a good enough target of 146 runs against Papua New Guinea. But Papua New Guinea's Open Sese Bau played very well. He collected 54 runs. Captain Assad Vala also scored 51 runs. Papua New Guinea defeated Oman very easily.
LOL.. who is the foreign player in Nepal team? As far as I know, all the 11 players are Nepali citizens. That said, Nepal is a multi-cultural team, and the players do speak a variety of languages other than Nepali. Aasif Sheikh, Gulsan Jha, Aarif Sheikh.etc are Madheshis, and they speak languages such as Maithili and Oudhi instead of Nepali. But majority of the team members are Nepali speakers. USA had 1-2 promising native players, such as Ian Holland. But recent squads have not featured any natives. |
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Australian batsmen looking quite comfortable out there, and they have reached 66/2 without much effort. Cameron Green and Marnus Labuschagne are at the crease. The former is in exceptional form recently, while the latter is at the risk of getting kicked out from the test team. When Usman Khawaja got out to Matt Henry, they were at 32/2. And from there the Australians have made a good recovery, thanks to Labuschagne and Green. First task for New Zealand would be to avoid an innings defeat. For that they need to restrict Australia to <300.
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As expected, the lunatics at the Republican National Convention all dropped out one by one, with most endorsing Trump. Sometimes I don't understand what runs through these people's minds. I'd still advise betting against Trump winning the election. In case you do want him to win, well, think of it like this - if he wins, you get what you want, and if he loses, you earn some money from it  Trump is going to win anyway and his odds should be around 1.3-1.4 ideally. But from what I can see, most of the sportsbooks have his odds at 1.7 to 1.9. So that means the sportsbooks are underestimating his chances of win. Under these circumstances, it will be pure stupidity to bet against him. It is almost certain that he would be the POTUS candidate from the GOP. Only a legal challenge which would disqualify him from running for the presidential post can change that. And that is a remote possibility. I would rather advice everyone to bet in favor of Trump. And for you NotATether, why don't you bet in favor of Trump? Since you love Biden so much, if he wins, you get what you want, and if Trump wins, you will get a good monetary reward. |
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Mumbai Indians Women are still trailing DCW in the points table. MIW have 8 points (same as that of DCW), but then DCW have payed one less match when compared to MI. Once again the overseas players were the stars yesterday. Nat Sciver-Brunt and Amelia Kerr top-scored for the Mumbai Indians Women, with Chamari Athapaththu taking two wickets for the UP Warriorz Women. And in return, UPWW got bundled out for just 118. Saika Ishaque and Nat Sciver-Brunt were the stars for Mumbai while bowling.
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It's true that Ireland might not win the match because they didn't bowl well at the end. But we should recognize the team's fighting spirit for coming back after a tough start. The partnership between Tector and Tucker gives hope to Ireland. As long as players like Harry Tector are playing Ireland still has a chance. That was the first match of the series we have two more matches so let's see what will Ireland do in these matches. The performance from Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker bodes well for the future of the Irish cricket. Tector got himself to 138, but Tucker got out before he could reach triple digits. Both the players are in their 20s, and since they are from the Republic of Ireland (and not from the Northern Ireland), there is a lower chance that the England selectors would poach on them. But bowling still needs a lot of improvement. Mark Adair performed so well in the test series, but he leaked plenty of runs yesterday. |
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New Zealand got steamrolled by the Australian pacers. They could make just 162 in their first innings, and it could have been far worse. At one point, they were 107/8. Then the 9th wicket partnership between Matt Henry and Tim Southee added some valuable runs to take them to a somewhat respectable total. Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc shared 8 wickets between them, as they utilized the pace-friendly conditions at the Hagley Oval. In return, Australia are also struggling as they have lost both the openers.
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