I am glad that the deserving team reached the final of this season's Pakistan Super League. There was a wobble towards the end, but then Shaheen Shah Afridi and David Wiese managed to steady the ship. Now the big match will be played tomorrow at 7:30 pm Indian time, between Lahore Qalandars and Multan Sultans. It is going to be Fakhar Zaman/Rashid Khan vs Mohammad Rizwan/Ihsanullah/Abbas Afridi. BTW, I know that a lot of fans will be heartbroken because Babar Azam will not be playing in the finals.

Overall record is not bad (although I would not call it as "exceptional"). But his recent form has been very poor. And Indian selectors have this habit of retaining senior players even if they are out of form for 2-3 years on the trot. Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya are perfect examples. But in India, there is an overflow of talent and some of the most promising youngsters are suffering because of that. Sarfaraz Khan is yet to get a test cap, despite performing really well in domestic cricket for many years now. Abhimanyu Easwaran is another one of those unlucky guys.

Well.. it would be wrong to say that no one expected Argentina to win the 2022 World Cup. I still remember that they were the team with one of the best odds, after Brazil and France. And when the tournament started, they were second in the FIFA Rankings. And Argentina was fresh from the Copa America win, which was a major achievement for Lionel Messi as the captain. But then, the loss against Saudi Arabia during the first match changed everything. People started predicting that Argentina would not even qualify to the round of 16.

Just one innings of 75 runs, and suddenly everyone is singing praises for him? Today's innings doesn't take away the fact that his batting average was a paltry 27.88 in 2022. He was given so many opportunities and finally he managed to score a good knock. Now he is safe for the next 20 matches I guess. I don't understand the logic behind Indian team selection. Some of the players are having guaranteed slots, irrespective of how they perform. KL Rahul happens to be one of those lucky guys. And I feel bad about all those youngsters who are being ignored.

Russia is a major exporter of crude oil, natural gas, sunflower oil, wheat, potash fertilizer and thermal coal. The prices of all these commodities (with the exception of crude oil) have risen by 2x to 3x since the war began. Here in India, a 5 liter can of sunflower oil used to cost ₹600. Now it costs anywhere from ₹1,000 to ₹1,200. Wheat prices have almost doubled since the last 12 months. Price of natural gas increased by 6 times since 2020. Coal prices are up by almost 100%. The same can be said about Potash fertilizer as well.

India just need 52 more runs to win, and from now onwards it should be very comfortable for them. The partnership between Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul is now worth 55 runs and the Australian bowlers seems to have lost steam. Steven Smith as the captain did a good job, but once again he failed to get the Indian lower order out despite trying different bowlers. Nothing is certain though. There is a lot of support for bowlers in this pitch. If the Aussies can get two quick wickets, then India will be down to the tail.

I think the defeat to Saudi Arabia actually boosted Argentina. They woke up from their slumber and learnt to focus on the game rather than being complacent. The same can't be said about Brazil though. The loss to Cameroon didn't did them any good (Vincent Aboubakar scored in the 92nd minute to give Cameroon a 1-0 victory over Brazil). Brazil destroyed South Korea in the next match, but then they went down against Croatia in the quarter-finals (to be fair, the match was decided based on penalty though).

In around 40 minutes, the match between Lahore Qalandars and Peshawar Zalmi will start. LQ is more star-studded when compared to PZ, as they have players like Fakhar Zaman, Rashid Khan, Haris Rauf, David Wiese and Shaheen Shah Afridi. PZ has Babar Azam though and they are heavily dependent on him. The match will take place at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, and we can expect the side batting first to make at least 200+. In the group stage, there were two encounters between these two sides and both of them won one match each.

How can you say that Sri Lankan spinners have the advantage, when they failed to pick up the wickets? So far the Lankan bowlers got just two wickets after 48 overs, and one of that was taken by Kasun Rajitha. The wicket of Devon Conway fell to Dhananjaya de Silva. In all probability the match will end up as a draw, unless the Kiwis bowl out Sri Lankans cheaply and force them to follow on. But given the state of play so far, I don't think that there is a chance that Sri Lanka will be able to win this match. Either it is a draw, or win for New Zealand.

India seems to be in some sort of trouble. They have lost 4 wickets and they still need another 126 runs. Required run rate is not an issue, as it is below 4 runs per over. The problem is with wickets. Top order is back in pavilion and now once again the lower order (Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur) needs to take up the responsibility. Starc still has 4 overs remaining, and he has picked up 3 wickets till now. India have three genuine tailenders, and therefore they need to be careful about the fall of wickets. 

Rohit is out due to "family commitments". So Hardik got the chance to lead India this time. India won the toss and asked Australia to bat. Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh are at the crease now. The real battle will be between Australian batsmen and Indian spinners (Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav). The pitch at Wankhede Stadium should offer a lot of support for the spinners. And the Indian team selection baffles me. They have included three pacers this time - Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur.

Sri Lanka performed credibly during the last match. And this time also, they have put up a decent performance. After the good knock from Devon Conway, Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls are now trying to steady the ship. IMO, New Zealand should get to somewhere around 400, to be in a comfortable position. And their bowling remains very weak.  During the first test, two of the bowlers failed completely (Blair Tickner and Neil Wagner) and therefore a lot of the burden fell on the shoulders of Tim Southee and Matt Henry. This time also, Blair Tickner is included in the squad.

Oil prices are volatile at this point. Yesterday, at one point Brent crude dropped to $72 per barrel, although it recovered slightly to $75 later. When the Russo-Ukrainian war started in 24th February 2022, Brent crude was trading at $90 per barrel, which means that it has lost 20% of its value since then. And all this has happened despite increased demand from China. And there is no "trade disruption". Simply there is a transformation in trade routes. India and China have replaced the EU as preferred trading partners for Russia.

Yeah.. we need to say bye-bye to Islamabad United. As usual, bowling proved to be their weak point this season as well. I don't have anything against players like Fazalhaq Farooqi, Faheem Ashraf and Shadab Khan. But they are not exactly world class like Rashid Khan or Shaheen Shah Afridi. Maybe for the next season they can get at least one more experienced pacer/spinner, in addition to Hasan Ali. By the way, Hasan Ali himself performed quite poorly this season. Picked up 13 wickets, but that cost him (and his team) 9.3 runs per over.

LOL.. playing against the Indian spinners such as Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, that too on pitches that offer a lot of support for spin bowling is the ultimate challenge. If Brook manages to perform under these conditions, then we can be sure that he is the future superstar for England. Out of the 6 matches he played so far, 3 have been in sub-continent (during the tour of Pakistan). He played one match each in Rawalpindi, Multan and Karachi and made a total of 468 runs at an average of 93.60. But then we need to remember that Pakistan lack a world class spinner nowadays. Playing against India will be entirely different.

Mumbai Indians have solidified their position on top of the points table, after Gujarat Giants Women won the match against Delhi Capitals Women yesterday. DC Women doesn't have much of a chance to overtake MI now. DC dropped one of their best performing players (Tara Norris) and that was one of the reasons why they lost out yesterday. Meg Lanning as the captain was also disappointing. The only thing that I didn't liked about GG yesterday was the slow paced batting from Harleen Deol. She crawled her way to 31 from 34 balls, wasting a lot of deliveries. 

If you are talking about the series against Ireland, it consists of 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is and one test match. I guess Ireland is playing a test match after many years, as usually the full members refuse to play against them. But it is going to be tough for them to play under the hostile, spin-friendly conditions in Bangladesh. They don't have a lot of players with sub-continental experience. On top of that only a few players within the current Ireland squad has regular 4-day experience. However in T20I and ODI formats, they should be competitive.

Even the South American teams that rarely qualify for the world cup (such as Bolivia and Venezuela) are exceptionally good. They can easily defeat the top sides from Asia, such as Iran, South Korea and Japan. So I agree with you. Argentina and Brazil are not the only good teams from CONMEBOL. Since limited number of slots are on offer, the CONMEBOL qualifiers are always fiercely fought. And 2030 is going to be even more funny in case the combined bid from the 4 South American countries wins the hosting rights.

Harry Brook can become the next Joe Root, given that he is properly groomed by the ECB. He has played just 6 test matches till now, but has an average of above 80. And here we are talking about someone who has a strike rate of close to 100 in test format!!!!! His 186 against New Zealand was exceptional (England still went on to lose that match by one run, as James Anderson got out to Neil Wagner in the 75th over). Coming to Jonny Bairstow, I missed him in my post because he was not in the squad against New Zealand. But he had a terrific run recently.

We still don't have a clear idea about the teams who will be participating in the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier. Out of the 10 teams, only 5 have been confirmed so far - two from the ODI Super League (Netherlands & Zimbabwe), and three from the 2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 (Nepal, Scotland and Oman). There will be two more teams from the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off, and more importantly, three full members from the ODI Super League. Last part is still very much unclear. My guess is that it is going to be West Indies, Sri Lanka and Ireland.