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Captain Meg Lanning said “we all support Ash and her feelings around the day”

AAP23-Jan-2023Meg Lanning has declared the Australian women’s team are united in support of indigenous star Ashleigh Gardner and her criticism of the side playing on January 26.Gardner made her views clear on the subject on Sunday, when she said the day was a “day of hurt and a day of mourning” for indigenous Australians.The reigning Belinda Clark Award holder will line up in the T20 against Pakistan but has said playing on that date did not sit well with her.The second T20 against Pakistan was initially scheduled for January 27 in Canberra but was moved to the 26th in Hobart when South Africa abandoned their men’s ODI series, which had included a scheduled game in the southern city.In a move driven by players, Australia will wear an indigenous jersey, wristbands and socks with indigenous colours for the match in Hobart.The issue is understood to have been first raised months ago by players, who were keen to lead an education space on the issue once being told they would be scheduled to play on January 26.”It’s something that we can’t control in terms of the scheduling and playing on that day,” Lanning said. “But something we would like to do is acknowledge the sadness and grief that day brings for First Nations people.”We’re going to try to use the opportunity we have to educate ourselves and try to create a better understanding of what it means and their culture. It’s a really united front in the group and we all support Ash and her feelings around the day.”Lanning said Gardner was doing “pretty well” after receiving online abuse following her statement, and labelled the allrounder’s action as brave. Gardner was with the Australian team at training on Monday, amid a throng of media focusing on the issue.The subject of January 26 has been a constant challenge for Cricket Australia in recent years, and a subject about which the governing body takes regular input from its indigenous advisory committee.The organisation dropped the term “Australia Day” from all marketing two years ago, which was met with criticism by then Prime Minister Scott Morrison.Indigenous elements will also become part of all Big Bash League uniforms from next season, with the women’s team to wear a First Nations jersey throughout next month’s T20 World Cup.”It’s something that we’ve been working on as a group for a number years,” Lanning said. “We’ve been trying to use every opportunity that we get to educate ourselves and try to celebrate the culture of First Nations people as well and try to make a point of that.”We’re doing a cultural tour the day before [January 26)] to learn a little bit more. It’s something as a group that we’ve spoken about for the past few years, it hasn’t just come up now. We’ll continue to do that because we think it’s important.”The advisory committee’s co-chairman and former CEO of Reconciliation Australia Justin Mohamed told AAP he understood a busy schedule meant games would be played on January 26, and stressed his personal view was that the tone of the event was crucial.”I can only reflect on Anzac Day and the [AFL] fixture with Collingwood and Essendon. The respect they show to Anzac Day only enhances and educates,” Mohamed said.”People who go to that game know this is a significant time, and there have been losses. [January 26] is a day of mourning, but also there is a day of survival. Where Aboriginal culture and language and history have survived all this.”The 26th will always be the 26th. Even if we change the date to celebrate Australia Day on, the 26th is a date all Australians should know and shouldn’t be lost.”Mohamed said the team had been proactive in their response to the scheduling.”Straight away they said, ‘This day has a strong significance for First Nations people, we need to learn more about this’,” he said.

It is a “matter of time” until an “outstanding” Liverpool player signs a contract extension at Anfield, according to a big update from journalist Fabrizio Romano.

Liverpool contract latest

The Reds may be flying in the Premier League under Arne Slot, topping the table and making a great start to the season with their new head coach, but the contract situations surrounding key trio Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah are threatening to act as a distraction.

All three have been among the most influential players of this era at Anfield, winning the Champions League, Premier League and many other trophies along the way, not to mention standing out as arguably the best players in their world in their respective positions.

Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk and Salah are all out of contract at Liverpool at the end of this season, and as things stand, none have agreed extensions yet, leading to concern regarding their futures.

For that reason, it is only natural that replacements have reportedly been lined up for them, with Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo seen as a potential successor to Salah on the right wing, for example. Now, a new contract update has emerged – one relating to a different Reds hero.

Liverpool star Ibrahima Konate likely to sign new contract

Taking to X, Romano claimed that it is now a “matter of time” until Ibrahima Konate extends his stay at Liverpool.

The £70,000-a-week Frenchman has been such a strong signing for the Reds since arriving from RB Leipzig for £36m in the summer of 2021, proving to be a brilliant partner for Van Dijk. In fact, the Dutchman recently heaped praise on his colleague after the 2-1 victory away to Wolves in the league.

“He is a fantastic player who still can be better. As you saw, he is important with the goal, he is defensively solid, a bit unlucky with the goal we conceded, but obviously the qualities he has are outstanding in my opinion. He is learning, growing, getting better and looking after himself much better in order to be ready every three days as that’s what asked.”

Injuries have been the one thing holding Konate back, with a string of absences over the past three-and-a-bit years proving to be frustrating, but when he is fit and firing, he is among the leading centre-backs in the country.

This season, the 25-year-old has averaged 3.6 clearances and 2.6 aerial duel wins per game in the league, and his pace and physicality are going to be vital to Liverpool’s chances of winning the title.

Liverpool already have their own Mbeumo in "unstoppable" star

Liverpool might not need to go after Bryan Mbeumo after all.

By
Kelan Sarson

Nov 4, 2024

A new deal for Konate makes complete sense, especially given his age, and the Reds should see him as the future leader of their defence, assuming he can avoid further injury problems.

Derbyshire 306v (du Plooy 82, Came 78, Dal 56, Rushworth 3-60) and 214 for 9 dec (Madsen 58, Raine 5-43, Trevaskis 3-81) drew with Durham 223 (Jones 87, Conners 4-55) and 176 for 5 (Trevaskis 42*)Durham’s Liam Trevaskis and Paul Coughlin denied promotion hopefuls Derbyshire victory in a dramatic end to the LV=Insurance County Championship match at the Incora County Ground.The sixth-wicket pair batted through the final 17 overs to steer Durham to a fighting draw after they had been set 298 in 87 overs. Trevaskis faced 57 balls for an unbeaten 42 and Coughlin was 19 not out off 53 as Durham closed on 176 for 5 from 53 overs.Mark Watt took 2 for 37 in 13 overs but Derbyshire could not force the win that would have taken them to second in Division Two.Durham paceman Ben Raine claimed two more wickets to finish with 5 for 43 in 22 overs before Derbyshire declared on 214 for 9. Derbyshire had batted on for seven overs, adding 29 runs for the loss of Anuj Dal and Nick Potts before the declaration came.With showers forecast in the afternoon, they needed to make early inroads but Michael Jones again started positively, taking three fours from the second over from Nick Potts. Jones had scored 24 out of 26 when he tried to leave a ball from Ben Aitchison and got a bottom edge into his stumps.Aitchison should have had a second when Sean Dickson on 11 edged him low to first slip where Watt spilled the chance at the second attempt. But Derbyshire had a second breakthrough in the next over when Scott Borthwick played across a low dipping full toss from Conners and lost his middle stump.At lunch, Durham required a further 237 in 67 overs but their hopes took another blow when Dal removed Dickson. The allrounder thought he had the opener caught behind earlier and when Dickson missed a big swing and lost his off stump, he gave him a loud and visible send-off.Durham’s chances now rested with Nic Maddinson who drove Watt for consecutive fours before rain stopped play for 20 minutes with the loss of five overs.When play resumed under threatening clouds, Watt broke through in the first over when Maddinson pushed forward at a ball that went on with the arm and was caught behind. Watt struck again in his next over, tempting Jonathan Bushnell into a drive which he edged low to Wayne Madsen at slip.It was now a question of whether the rain would stay away but as the players were leaving the field for bad light, a storm broke over the ground, holding up play for two hours.The umpires decided the match could resume at 4.50pm, which gave Derbyshire 17.1 overs or 103 balls to take five wickets. And there was drama immediately with Coughlin put down at second slip on 1 as he pushed forward at Watt.Trevaskis and Coughlin showed application and good judgement to frustrate Derbyshire who, with seven overs left and the light deteriorating, were unable to use their pace bowlers. With spinners on at both ends, Derbyshire had every fielder in a catching position but the pair stood firm and the home side called off the hunt with one over remaining.There was a touching finale as the players and coaching staff applauded umpire Nick Cook off the field in his last appearance at Derby before he retires at the end of the season.

Allrounder Pooja Vastrakar has become the latest India women’s player to commit to the WBBL, signing with Brisbane Heat.Vastrakar caught the attention of WBBL clubs with her outstanding performances on India’s tour of Australia late last year and followed that up with some excellent performances with both bat and ball in the women’s 50-over World Cup in New Zealand earlier this year.Poonam Yadav played for Heat last season and Smriti Mandhana has also previously played in Brisbane but played for Sydney Thunder last season. India’s women have had a lot of success in the WBBL with Harmanpreet Kaur named player of the tournament last season.Heat coach Ashley Noffke was delighted to have signed Vastrakar.”Pooja is an outstanding athlete,” Noffke said. “She bowls with sharp pace, can find the boundary with the bat down the order and is an absolute jet in the field.”We’re very pleased to welcome her to the WBBL and are excited about the experience we can offer her. She’s certainly a player of the future for India and one that we expect can make a difference for the Heat this summer.”Vastrakar is in India’s Commonwealth Games squad but will miss their opening clash with Australia on Friday after contracting Covid-19 before leaving India.Vastrakar joins New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr as Heat’s second overseas player for the coming season.Brisbane Heat WBBL squad: Jess Jonassen (capt), Amelia Kerr (NZ), Pooja Vastrakar (Ind), Nicola Hancock, Grace Harris, Laura Harris, Mikayla Hinkley, Ellie Johnston, Charli Knott, Georgia Redmayne, Courtney Sippel, Georgia Voll

Plays of the Day from the Qualifier match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians

Arun Venugopal19-May-2015The failed chargeLendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel were shackled by some disciplined bowling from R Ashwin and Ashish Nehra. Simmons, wanting to assert himself, charged Nehra in the fourth over. The bowler spotted it early and sent down a quick, steepling bouncer. Having come down nearly half way, Simmons had to get his head out of the way in a jerky motion.Nehra continued on his follow-through, and, fiddling with his nose, stared long and hard at Simmons. Three balls later, Simmons sprang out of his crease again, and edged a high-full toss. MS Dhoni, putting in a rare dive, couldn’t hold on to the catch. It was anyway called a no-ball for height.Many a slipEveryone loves a good Nehra blooper on the field, and there was duly one on the night. Allowing Dwayne Bravo’s delivery to pass him, Simmons dabbed it to short third man where Nehra was stationed and set off for a single.As Nehra neared the ball, it bounced a tad awkwardly and he tried to clutch it around his waist. The ball, though, popped out, and while he looked around to see where it had gone, he ended up booting it away inadvertently. The single was completed without much sweat and Nehra was seen animatedly explaining to his team-mates what had happened.Dhoni’s rewind modeWhen both these teams met in the final five years ago, Kieron Pollard was threatening to take the game away from Chennai Super Kings with some late hitting. Dhoni, spotting his tendency to hit straight, posted an ultra-straight mid-off, where Pollard eventually hit a catch to.Pollard was blazing away again, and Dhoni pulled the 2010 field out of his memory file. Only that he assigned Michael Hussey to a straightish mid-on instead of mid-off. But Pollard didn’t fall for the ploy this time.Mixed bag for MalingaLasith Malinga got an lbw decision in his favour in the first over of Super Kings’ innings when a swiftly descending full toss struck Dwayne Smith well outside leg stump. It was a real gift and Malinga probably was in no mood for guilty pleasures. Three overs later he found himself in prime position at third man for a regulation catch offered by Faf du Plessis. But the ball went through his hands and thudded on to this thigh. You win some, you lose some.Rhodes’ chest-thumping momentJonty Rhodes, the Mumbai Indians fielding coach, said during a dug-out interview with Matthew Hayden that he had to keep a straight face while watching the game from the sidelines. Even before he could complete his statement, Vinay Kumar sprinted forward from long-on to snaffle du Plessis’ catch. Rhodes couldn’t stop hollering in excitement. “I am the fielding coach. Yeah, it’s me,” he screamed in delight. He jested for good measure: “If they drop them it’s not my fault, if they take them, it’s all me, all me.”

MatériaMais Notícias

da poker： Após um período conturbado com a falta de resultados, o Grêmio conseguiu emplacar vitórias e chegou ao G4 da Série B.

– VEJA A TABELA DA SÉRIE B

Agora, o time de Roger Machado aparece na quarta colocação e tem a possibilidade de abrir uma vantagem na zona de acesso.

Com 22 pontos, o Tricolor tem um a mais que o Sport, primeiro time fora do G4 e que não venceu nas últimas rodadas.

Caso o cenário permaneça o mesmo e o Tricolor vença o Londrina nesta terça-feira, em Porto Alegre,, o time de Roger Machado pode ficar com quatro pontos de vantagem para o quinto colocado. Para isso acontecer, precisa secar os rivais mais próximos: Sport, Tombense e Criciúma. Os três atuarão fora de casa na rodada.

Jogos que interessam ao Grêmio

Grêmio x Londrina

Cruzeiro x Sport

Náutico x Criciúma

CBR x Tombense

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Left-armers, spinners run through SA after Livingstone, Curran cameos

Firdose Moonda22-Jul-2022

Rain shortened match? Sure. 72 for 5 in the 12th over? No problem. Series on the line? That’s okay.After middling white-ball form at home this summer, England stormed back with a big win over a stunned South Africa, who were left on 6 for 4 in chase of 202. On a surface that promised runs but proved tricky to bat on in damp conditions, and even took some turn, South Africa were bowled out for their joint-lowest total against England and joint-second-lowest score overall, just three days after recording their highest score against England in the series-opener.In a match that was reduced to 29 overs-a-side after a two-hour and 45 minute delay, neither side’s batters found fluency but their bowlers could make use of variations and the spinners shone. They took eight wickets between them, with Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali’s five for 51 in 10.4 overs trumping Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi’s 3 for 68 in 12 overs. But it was England’s all left-arm pace attack that did the damage from which South Africa could not recover.Janneman Malan, whose strike rate of under 90 has put him under some scrutiny, tried to get off the mark off the sixth ball he faced – a full, straight delivery from Reece Topley that he tried to flick off his pads. He mistimed it to Sam Curran at mid-on instead. Four balls later, Rassie van der Dussen attempted a similar shot, off a ball that was angling down leg and feathered it through to Jos Buttler.David Willey beat Quinton de Kock’s edge in his first over, with a ball that just passed over off-stump and with pressure building, returned to remove de Kock with the first delivery of his second. Buttler deserves the credit for England’s field placement as he put Liam Livingstone at short cover and de Kock got a leading edge to him, as he tried to work Willey into the leg side.It was also their groundwork that removed the next batter – Aiden Markram – without facing a ball. Heinrich Klaasen hit Willey towards short fine leg and set off a single but Buttler gave chase and flicked the ball at the stumps to catch Markram short of his ground. At 6 for 4 after four overs, South Africa were all but spent but may have hoped David Miller could maximise his time at the crease to keep them in it. He hit back-to-back boundaries off Topley but that was as good as it got. Miller was bowled by a Curran cutter that crashed into his off-stump to leave South Africa 27 for 5.Klaasen and Dwaine Pretorius put on 39 for the sixth wicket but when Klaasen was stumped off Moeen, England were into the lower order and in sight of victory. They bowled South Africa out in the 21st over.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

England’s effort in the field more than made up for what-seemed a haphazard performance with the bat. They were bowled out with five balls remaining against a crafty South African attack after their top-order went too hard too early in an innings that was not ODI-length but not quite T20. In the end, they relied on cameos by Livingstone and Curran, who hit all but one of their team’s seven sixes, to set them up to top 200.Jason Roy was determined to swing his way through his innings and got three fours away before Anrich Nortje cramped him for room and he sent the ball to Pretorius at mid-wicket. Roy has gone five innings without fifty, since his century against Netherlands exactly a month ago.Roy dismissal brought Phil Salt to the crease, in his seventh ODI and in the absence of the now-retired Ben Strokes and he rubbed it in Lungi Ngidi’s wounds when he whipped Ngidi through fine leg, then edged him short of de Kock and then over a vacant slip area for four. Ngidi’s first spell cost 28 runs and revealed nothing about the questions he asked the England line-up with his slower ball. Instead, it’s Pretorius who got the answers.In his first over, Pretorius had Salt caught at mid-wicket by a diving Miller, a wicket which was confirmed on umpire’s review, and then struck twice in his second to leave England reeling. Joe Root skipped down the track and swiped at a Pretorius delivery, which he top-edged in front of and to the left of de Kock and, two balls later, Bairstow was bowled by a ball that pitched on off and wobbled back in to beat his flick and hit middle stump.Pretorius had three wickets for nine runs in his first two overs and almost claimed a fourth when Moeen edged him wide of a diving de Kock. With no slip in place, Moeen survived but not for too much longer. In the next over, he picked out Nortje on the deep square boundary off Maharaj to leave England on 72 for 5 before the final specialist, Shamsi, had got in on the action.For the second match in succession, Buttler tried to take Shamsi on and for the second time, he failed. Buttler advanced down the track and tried to hit Shamsi down the ground for six but got an outside edge to Pretorius at short third. And then England found their oomph. Curran first sent Maharaj and then Shamsi over their heads for six and Livingstone plundered 22 runs off the first four balls of Nortje’s third over. Livingstone sent 90mph deliveries off Nortje over square leg, mid-wicket and fine leg and then nicked him through third for four.When Livingstone hit Nortje to mid-wicket, England still had Curran, who had one more burst against Shamsi. In a display of power-hitting, Curran sent Shamsi down the ground for successive fours and a six before holing out to long-off to end an 18-ball 35.Pretorius finally picked up his fourth when Willey swung him to deep mid-wicket, the ball after hitting him over long-off for six. At the innings break, many may have thought that would be the best performance on the day. How wrong they were.

The Bangladesh captain is certain about “bouncing back” from the collapse in Durban

Mohammad Isam05-Apr-2022Surrendering to spin in overseas conditions didn’t sit well with Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque, who has taken the responsibility of the team to bounce back in the Port Elizabeth Test which begins on Friday. Chasing 274 on the last day in Durban, the visitors were bowled out for just 53, their second-lowest Test score, with Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer sharing all ten wickets.Bangladesh lost three wickets late on the fourth evening but there was hope that Mushfiqur Rahim could lead some sort of recovery on the last day. But that was not to be. Mushfiqur was the first to go on the fifth morning, when he was trapped lbw by Maharaj, and the collapse followed.”I think it was a big crime on our part to give wickets to spinners on foreign soil,” Mominul said. “You simply cannot give wickets to spinners when you are on tour. You have to score runs against spinners. I think it is my fault. I couldn’t score in either innings. It is nothing but a total batting failure. I think we just couldn’t handle the pressure.”Related

Test failures a worry, but Tamim expects 'very, very good' Bangladesh ODI team if things go to plan

Allan Donald says Bangladesh's seamers have the skills to exploit Gqeberha conditions

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Stats – A rare triumph for spin in South Africa

At one stage, Bangladesh were threatening to break their record of lowest Test score of 43, but for a couple of big hits from Najmul Hossain Shanto and Taskin Ahmed. South Africa’s spin duo bowled accurately, preying on the defensive mindset of the Bangladesh batters. It was a surprise to see a batting unit bred on spinning tracks to succumb to spin so easily on a good pitch.Mominul himself had an inauspicious 50th Test match, making only 0 and 2. He has scored just one fifty in the last ten innings, a rare downturn in his Test career. He wasn’t worried, though, and was already looking to turn the corner.”I don’t think the captaincy is weighing down my batting form. I am not worried about it. I don’t think I am in bad form. I will be back on track after a good innings. I am not too worried,” he said.Mominul was more concerned about convincing his team that they had only one bad day in Durban, and that shouldn’t bother them for the second Test.”We can certainly bounce back from this defeat,” he said. “We played well in four out of the five days. We batted poorly in the last few overs yesterday and on the fifth day. There are enough positives to take from this Test match, to suggest to me that we can bounce back easily in the next game.”[Mahmudul Hasan] Joy’s 137 was a really good innings. Litton [Das], Rabbi (Yasir Ali) and [Mehidy Hasan] Miraz also batted well. The fast bowlers did really well. Miraz was outstanding. We didn’t play badly for all five days. We just had a bad fifth day, but as everyone knows, it is difficult to get back from a Test after you slip once. I think we can come back into the series by being mentally strong.”

كشف مصطفى شلة، أمين صندوق نادي الإسماعيلي، تفاصيل بيان الدراويش للمطالبة بإعادة مباراة سموحة، التي أقيمت أمس الجمعة ضمن منافسات مسابقة الدوري المصري، كما تحدث عن أزمة وقف القيد.

وكانت مباراة الإسماعيلي وسموحة، انتهت بالتعادل الإيجابي بهدف لكل فريق، في الدوري المصري، وشهد اللقاء حالة طرد لأحد لاعبي الدراويش، يراه مسؤولو النادي غير صحيح وخطأ تحكيمي واضح.

وقال مصطفى شلة في تصريحات عبر قناة “دي إم سي”: “تولينا المسؤولية وكنا نعرف أن لدينا مشاكل مع فيفا حوالي 13 قضية، وتقريبًا انتهينا من 9 قضايا، وتتبقى 4 قضايا، نحاول دفع الغرامات بالأقساط لرفع إيقاف القيد”.

طالع أيضاً.. رسميًا | الإسماعيلي يُطالب اتحاد الكرة بإعادة مباراة سموحة في الدوري

وتابع: “هناك قضايا بـ7.5 ملايين دولار، بسبب لاعبين أجانب تعاقد معهم المجلس السابق، نحن نبذل مجهودًا كبيرًا من أجل رفع إيقاف القيد”.

وأكد: “لم يعطينا أحد دعمًا، نحن نعمل خلال سنتين ونُسدد كل الالتزامات، وليس علينا مستحقات لأي لاعب، ونُسدد غرامات فيفا، دفعنا 35 مليون جنيه فقط لفيفا كرسوم قضايا”.

وبسؤاله ماذا عن طلب إعادة مباراة سموحة؟ أجاب: “خلال 22 دقيقة تعرضنا لأربع إنذارات، في المقابل هناك مواقف على الخصم لم يشهر فيها الحكم بطاقات صفراء، وهناك الواقعة الكبرى، كان اعتداء لاعب سموحة على لاعب الإسماعيلي، والحكم كان قريبًا من الكرة، ومع ذلك الحكم احتسب بطاقة صفراء ضد لاعب الإسماعيلي، ثم استدعاه حكم الفار واللعبة ليس بها أي خطورة ليتدخل الفار، من أجل طرد اللاعب”.

وأفاد: “أرسلنا خطابًا نطلب فيه إعادة المباراة، ورابطة الأندية تواصلت معنا وأكدت أنها حولت الشكوى لاتحاد الكرة للبت فيها”.

وأتم: “خلال الموسم الحالي حدثت أخطاء تحكيمية كارثية في مجموعة من المباريات، في مباراة الأهلي ركلتي جزاء من وحي الخيال، وفي مباراة الزمالك طرد أحد اللاعبين، وفي مباراة الجونة طرد، وفي مباراة الاتحاد السكندري هدف مُلغى، وفي مباراة بيراميدز لاعب الأخير كان يستحق طرد ولم يتم استدعاء الحكم، أنا لم اقل أن الإسماعيلي مستهدف، ولكن نُعاني من الأخطاء ونريد أن نأخذ حقنا بما يُرضي الله”.

A look at the intensity of competition in the IPL across seasons

Shiva Jayaraman30-Apr-2013Halfway into IPL 2013, we have had a fair share of close matches, but how does this season compare, in terms of the quality of contests between teams (closeness of games), and in terms of competition for top spots, to the earlier ones? The following analysis attempts to answer these questions. All the seasons are evaluated at the halfway stage of the league matches.Stats indicate this season has had the highest number of close finishes (wins with less than 6 balls to spare or margin less than 9). As many as 14 of the 36 matches have been nail-biting affairs. Two of these matches ended in a tie and were settled in the Super Over. Before this, there have only been two ties in the previous five seasons of the IPL. The number of matches that finished close this year has doubled from the inaugural IPL season. Notwithstanding the fact that the number of games played in the inaugural season was less, there is a significant jump in percentage of close finishes – from 25 to 39.

In 2013, there have been ten low-scoring matches (target of 130 or less) – most for any season – and seven high-scoring ones (target of 180 or more) – the least for any season, barring the one played in South Africa in 2009 (which had four). Of the low-scoring matches in the current season, three ended in a tight finish. And these do not include the tie between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore, which just evaded a ‘low-score’ classification: the target set in that match was 131. Compare this to the previous five seasons – there were only two such low-scoring thrillers, in all, in the first half of the league stages. High-scoring thrillers, though, have happened more frequently in the previous years – 13 in the past five seasons put together. In this season, however, there have been only two high-scoring close finishes in 36 matches.

The high number of close encounters though does not translate to a similar competitiveness on the points table. The top-four teams have won as many as 22 of the 36 league matches (61%). Teams in the top four have won 5.5 matches on an average, compared to only 2.8 matches by the bottom-placed teams. This season ranks second-last in terms of the percentage wins by the bottom-placed teams, which suggests that they have a lot of catching up to do to qualify at the end of the league stage. The year that was most fiercely contested on the points table at the halfway stage was 2011. The top-four teams had only 17 wins (49%). Four of the ten teams that played in that season were jostling with each other with four wins at the halfway stage.

The inaugural season, as indicated by its last place in the table above, was not the worst (68% wins by the top-four teams) once we take in to account the close matches played between the top four and the rest. Of the 19 wins by the top four in 2008, five were close affairs against the bottom-placed teams. The 2010 season fares the worst in this regard; not only did the top four win 64% of the matches, but also won these comfortably. Only two of the 18 wins were close affairs between the top four and rest of the teams.The current season, as is evident from its position in the above table, has not been the best in terms of the competition for the top-four spot. However, out of the 22 wins by the top four, six were close affairs against the bottom-placed teams – results that could have gone either way – which suggests that this season has been a lot closer than the points table reflects.