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England Cricket Team
An "overwhelmed" Sam Curran on Friday said he endured a sleepless and nervous night ahead of the IPL mini-auction, where he became the most expensive player in the history of the T20 league's auction after fetching a whopping Rs 18.5 crore bid from Punjab Kings here. Curran witnessed an intense bidding with Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings, Lucknow Super Giants and Punjab Kings raising their paddles frenetically to secure the services of T20 World Cup player-of-the tournament. In the end, it was Punjab Kings that broke the bank to get Curran, who drew the highest-ever bid that bettered the previous best buy of Rs 16.25 crore that Rajasthan Royals had shelled out to grab South African all-rounder Chris Morris in 2021. "I didn't sleep much last night, was a bit excited, also nervous about how the auction was going to go. But yeah, absolutely overwhelmed and incredibly humbled that I managed to get what I did. I never had any ...
England's cricket team arrived in Islamabad early Sunday to play its first test series in Pakistan since 2005. Led by Ben Stokes, England will kick off the tour in Rawalpindi -- an adjacent city to Islamabad -- which hosts the first test from next Thursday. The second test will be played at Multan from Dec. 9-13 before England round off the tour with the final test at Karachi from Dec. 17-21. England had played a seven-match T20 series in Pakistan prior to the T20 World Cup in Australia where it went on to beat Pakistan in the final. England was due to tour Pakistan last year before the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates but abandoned the tour due to security concerns after New Zealand had aborted its tour to Pakistan just minutes before the toss in the first ODI at Rawalpindi. There were some concerns over England's test tour to Pakistan after former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was wounded in Wazirabad, a district in eastern Punjab province, during his protest again
Pakistan could have seen a different result if pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi had not got injured during the T20 World Cup final, skipper Babar Azam said on Sunday after his team lost the title clash to England. Afridi had injured his knee while catching Harry Brooks. He was brought into the attack in the 16th over but he could bowl only one ball and Iftikhar Ahmed had to complete that over. It badly affected the bowling balance. Ahmed's friendly off-breaks were belted for 13 runs by England batters by Ben Stokes, who hit him for a six and a four, as pressure created by Pakistan eased after that. "May be if Shaheen could have bowled that over, things would have been different. And since there were two left-handers (Stokes and Moeen Ali) and I thought of bowling an off-spinner," Babar reasoned. "Since we did not build a partnership, we went on the backfoot. England bowlers were brilliant but that's not an excuse. We played according to the situation but pressure was on us till 20th over.
Following are some England-Pakistan head-to-head stats in white-ball cricket ahead of their T20 World Cup final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. * England and Pakistan will meet in a World Cup final again after 30 years. * At the same venue of MCG, Pakistan had won their only ODI World Cup, defeating England by 22 runs in 1992. * There are more striking similarities with the 1992 World Cup. Thirty years ago too, Pakistan had beaten New Zealand en route to the final. * In the T20 World Cup, England and Pakistan have met twice so far with the former winning on both occasions, by six wickets in 2010 and by 48 runs in 2009. * In the ODI World Cup, Pakistan have a better head-to-head record of 5-4 from 10 matches. One match was a no result. * Both Pakistan and England suffered setbacks in the Super 12 stage. Pakistan lost to Zimbabwe, England to Ireland. * On head-to-head, England lead 18-9 versus Pakistan, while one match ended in no result. * In the two T20 World Cup meetings, Eng
England and Pakistan could share the T20 World Cup trophy as rain threatens to play spoilsport in the summit clash on Sunday as well as the reserve day at the MCG here. Currently there is a 95 per cent chance of rain in Melbourne on Sunday, with up to 25mm predicted to fall. "Very high (near 100%) chance of showers. The chance of a thunderstorm, possibly severe, with heavy falls possible," a report in 'ESPNCricinfo' quote?d the Bureau of Meteorology as saying. Unfortunately, the forecast for Monday -- the designated reserve day -- is similar with 95 per cent chance of rain and falls between 5 and 10mm. Tournament rules for the final state that at least 10 overs a side are needed to constitute a knockout stage match. If rain prevents play on both days then England and Pakistan will be forced to share the trophy. "The first priority will be to complete a shortened match on Sunday if required, meaning the overs will be reduced before the reserve day is activated," the report said.