Ranchi, Nov 29: South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said it will be exciting to be part of a different kind of energy on the field when India stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are present for the ODI series opener, to be held at the JSCA International Stadium on Sunday.

With Rohit and Kohli back in action after playing in the ODI series against Australia in October, the chatter has been huge over whether the veteran duo can sustain their form and fitness to feature in the 50-over World Cup two years from now.

For now, everyone’s focus will be on how the duo fare against the Bavuma-led Proteas in Ranchi, Raipur and Visakhapatnam. “I think it’s exciting, right? It’s exciting for the locals, having the two living legends come back and play on Indian soil for a while.”

“So it’s exciting for us to be a part of a different type of energy when those two big guys are around. So it’s something that we’ll be looking forward to,” said Bavuma in a video posted by Star Sports on their Instagram account on Saturday.

Asked about the plans South Africa will have for getting the better of the veteran batting duo, Bavuma said, “I think like any other players, we will do our preparation around them, come up with whatever tactics that we come up with. But we know that the energy is going to be a little bit different, but it’s an exciting one.”

“From a captaincy point of view, I don’t think much really changes for my side. I think you obviously want to lead with the bat, and then you want to lead the guys out there tactically on the field. So, nothing really, I don’t think much really changes,” he added.

New Delhi, Nov 27: Navi Mumbai and Vadodara are the venues for the 2026 Women’s Premier League, to be held from January 9 to February 5. The tournament will open at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, while the final is scheduled to be held at Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara.

The announcement was made by WPL Committee Chairman Jayesh George before the competition’s first-ever mega auction began in New Delhi on Thursday. IANS understands that the WPL Committee had a meeting at the auction venue around noon to finalise the dates and venues, with the full schedule expected to come out soon.

As per the dates announced by George, the fourth WPL final will be held two days before the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup begins in India and Sri Lanka. IANS understands that the rationale behind keeping the second half of WPL 2026 in Vadodara is also due to the Kotambi stadium being set to host the men’s ODI series opener between India and New Zealand on January 11.

Vadodara was one of the four hosts for WPL in 2025 and now sees getting the entire second half as well as the knockout stages, including the all-important title clash. The tournament will also mark the return of women’s cricket in the WPL for the first time after India won the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup on November 2.

For now, the focus of all five teams – two-time champions Mumbai Indians, 2024 winners Royal Challengers Bengaluru, three-time runners-up Delhi Capitals, UP Warriorz and Gujarat Giants – will be to make a trophy-winning squad for the 2026 season.

At the mega auction, India’s ODI World Cup-winning captain Harmanpreet Kaur is present at the MI table, alongside Jhulan Goswami, new coach Lisa Keightley, and team owners. DC have a star-studded line-up in head coach Jonathan Batty and director of cricket Sourav Ganguly.

New UPW head coach Abhishek Nayar and mentor Lisa Sthalekar are present, while Pravin Tambe and Michael Klinger are representing GG and RCB has newly appointed assistant coach Anya Shrubsole on the table alongside head coach Malolan Rangarajan.

Jaipur, Nov 27: The second encounter of the Kota Cup, yet again, ended in a stylish victory for the Jaipur Polo team as they came out victorious by a scoreline of 10-6 against Chunda Polo to qualify for the final of the tournament.

The game saw impressive contributions from players across both teams, but Jaipur’s consistent scoring helped them secure the win. For the home team, it was again the attacking duo of Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh of Jaipur and Lance Watson who bagged all the goals.

Padmanabh Singh did the bulk of the scoring with six goals to his name and Watson scored the rest to complete a stellar performance.

The match began with both teams showing their intensity, and it was none other than Padmanabh Singh of Jaipur who scored the opening goal to secure an early lead. Jaipur continued the momentum as they added two more goals quickly led by Lance Watson to end the chukker at 3-1.

The second chukker saw Chunda Polo trying to make a comeback as they scored two but the team Jaipur was relentless as they kept piling up the score with two more goals from Padmanabh Singh to end the second chukker with a lead of 5-3.

The third chukker was all about Jaipur as Padmanabh Singh added three more goals to his name and Lance Watson added one. Chunda Polo could get back one goal but it was too late already as the score stood at 9-4 in Jaipur’s favour at the end of the chukker.

The last chukker was more about being prudent rather than going for attacks. While Chunda Polo scored two goals, Jaipur scored the final and the 10th goal via Lance Watson to cap off a commanding win.

The final of the tournament will now be played on November 30 at the Rajasthan Polo Club, wherein Jaipur still awaits the challenger.