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.

Irrespective of whether it is WPL or the IPL, Royal Challengers Bangalore has become the cursed team. Despite the overload of talent within the franchise, they find it really hard to win matches. Virat Kohli has become the eternal panauti in the men's franchise, and I am afraid that Smriti Mandhana may become his female version in RCB women's team. Anyway, they played well yesterday (Smriti went out for zero though), and both Kanika Ahuja and Ellyse Perry performed exceptionally well against the UP Warriorz Women.

This has become a pattern for Nepal. After their top order batsmen getting out, the lower order and tail have put valuable runs on board for the last few matches. This time it was Gulsan Jha and Dipendra Singh Airee, while in the previous matches it was Sandeep Lamichhane and Karan KC. And one important factor that went in their favor was the return of Sandeep Lamichhane. He is still under bail for the criminal charge against him, but in the meantime he contributed significantly for his team and helped them to progress to the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier. 
 

If Canadian players are absent from UEFA teams, that doesn't necessarily mean that Canada is a weak team. The local league (Canadian Football League) is quite popular in Canada and a lot of the local players prefer to play in that league instead of moving to Europe. The case with Morocco is different. The local league (Botola Pro) is not very competitive and the salaries and benefits are not that attractive, and therefore most of the national players end up playing for the European clubs (although Wydad AC featured in the club world cup recently).

Unreal scenes at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. Nepal was at 269/6 after 44 overs, chasing 311 for win. The match was stopped due to bad light and Nepal won by 9 runs (Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method). United Arab Emirates players were furious and they refused to shake hands with the Nepal players. They were arguing with the umpires and the match referee. But UAE should blame themselves. The second innings started at 1:45pm, and the match was stopped by 5:42 pm. UAE took almost 4 hours to bowl 44 overs (as per the ICC regulations 50 overs should be completed by 3.5 hours). They were intentionally slowing down the proceedings hoping to win by DLS, but then the partnership between Jha and Airee took Nepal above DLS par score.

Bangladesh do have quality spinners like Shakib Al Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Tanvir Islam and that is the reason why they prepare spin-friendly tracks. On the other hand, after the retirement of Shoaib Malik, Pakistan is without the service of a world class spinner. There are a few youngsters such as Abrar Ahmed coming through the ranks, but they haven't established themselves in international cricket. So it is understandable in case the PCB wants to create pitches that are more batting friendly. After all, they have exceptionally good batsmen like Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.

LOL.. absolute mayhem at Kirtipur. United Arab Emirates collected 89 runs from the last 5 overs, to finish at 310/6. Asif Khan (former first class player from Pakistan who has represented Lahore Lions in the Champions League) smashed 101 runs from just 42 balls. The inexperienced Nepal bowlers were smashed all around the park by Asif and Vriitya Aravind. And the innings ended in anti-climax, with Sompal Kami picking up the wicket of Vriitya Aravind in the last ball. He missed the century by just 6 runs. Nepal may lose this match and end up in the 4th place within the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup League 2. 

United Arab Emirates is scoring at around 6 runs per over, and they may step up the scoring rate in the last few overs. At this point, they are 191/5 after 41 overs. Another 70-80 runs will take them to 270, which is a very defendable total. And they managed to score this despite the fact that two of the Nepali spinners (Lalit Rajbanshi and Dipendra Singh Airee) conceded less than 3 runs per over in their spells. Nepal needs some quick wickets now, else the match will rapidly slip out of their control. And they definitely don't want to lose this match, after performing so well during the last few weeks.