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IPL 2022: It has been very enjoyable being back at the top, says Jonny Bairstow

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Friday’s match between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore at Brabourne Stadium will be remembered for how Jonny Bairstow smashed everything coming in his way during the powerplay.

Bairstow’s takedown of Bangalore’s bowlers in powerplay, especially in taking 22 runs off Australia speedster Josh Hazlewood’s first over, was a sight to behold as the wicketkeeper-batter cruised his way to making 66 off just 29 balls, laced with four boundaries and seven sixes, to set up a crucial 54-run win for Punjab.

Before Friday’s match, Bairstow had an indifferent time, amassing just 136 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 117.24. But everything changed on Friday evening as Bangalore ran out of ideas to stop Bairstow’s onslaught. At the end of powerplay, Bairstow had made 59 runs at a strike rate of 268.18, the most runs made by a batter in this phase during the tournament.

“It depends on what you class as a tough tournament really. Because obviously I have been caught at fine leg twice, third man once, and run out on 19.5 overs so there is a difference in being unselfish and it being a difficult competition. Now I am happy with the way I have transitioned to opening the batting. It has been very enjoyable being back at the top,” said Bairstow in the post-match virtual press conference.

Bairstow was pleased with him being able to make the most out of powerplay and finding his A-game as an opener in the shortest format of the game. “Just think that sometimes there is balls in your area, and you have to try to take advantage of that. Sometimes it is fine lines where you might get caught on the boundary, just inside the rope, or you might get a thin edge on another one. Today was a good day. Was happy to take advantage of the powerplay.”

Friday’s match was also a reminder of what Punjab’s ultra-aggressive batting approach can do when Bairstow and Liam Livingstone unleashed carnage on Bangalore’s bowlers. “That has generally been the ethos of how we have tried to go about all of the tournament. That has been the way in which the guys want to go about the process of the game.

“You may have noticed sometimes we have lost wickets in clusters in the middle, which has stifled our progress on from there. But I think on the whole that was the way we wanted to try and go about it for a majority of the tournament. It doesn’t happen all the time but if we can do it more often than not, then hopefully when a couple of people stand up we can get that job done,” explained Bairstow.

Now, with 12 points in as many matches, Punjab have given themselves a good chance to get into the playoffs with their remaining matches coming against Delhi Capitals on Monday, followed by meeting Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 22.

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‘The Doctors Warned Me’: Neymar Gives Update About Injury After Limping Off Just 30 Minutes Into His Second Al-Hilal Appearance

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Brazilian superstar Neymar recently made his comeback to the football pitch in Al Hilal’s match against Esteghlal. However the joy was shortlived as Neymar was substituted after 30 minutes into the match. The 32 year-old forward had to come off with three minutes remaining, having seemed to pull up after stretching his leg out for the ball in the penalty area.

After the match Neymar updated about his injury on social media, he said: “I felt like a CRAMP but very strong! I will do exams and hope it’s nothing more It’s normal for this to happen after 1 year, the doctors had already warned me, this is why I need to be careful and have more minutes to play.”

Neymar’s struggle with injury

Al Hilal had planned a slow return for Brazil’s all-time leading scorer, who suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury during Brazil’s qualifier against Uruguay shortly after joining the Saudi side and underwent surgery last November.

Neymar undewent knee operation, only making his return two weeks ago when he came off the bench late in the AFC Champions League win against Al-Ain. It is not yet known how severe Neymar’s latest issue, but the ex-Barcelona star will be out of action for the next three weeks regardless.

Neymar was also left off Brazil’s latest squad for a pair of November World Cup qualifiers, with coach Dorival saying the team and federation didn’t want to rush his return to the national team.

Despite Neymar getting injured, Al-Hilal managed a 3-0 win against their Iranian opponents thanks to a hat-trick from Aleksandar Mitrovic. Al-Hilal remains top of the 12-team group, where the top eight will advance to the Round of 16. It is above Saudi Arabian rival Al-Ahli on goal difference after the team from Jeddah thrashed Al-Shorta of Iraq 5-1

Whats next for Al Hilal?

Al-Hilal’s next match is scheduled on Nov 25, where they will be facing Al-Sadd. Currently Al Hilal have topped the chart by winning 4 out of 4 matches.

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‘No Place For Criminals In Society’: Vinicius Junior Supports Lamine Yamal Following Racist Chants Against Him During Real Madrid vs Barcelona Match

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Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior has come out in support of Lamine Yamal who was subjected to racial abuse during El Clasico match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Vinicius have been outspoken against racism in football, addressing the abuse he has personally endured.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter) Vincius wrote, “It’s regrettable what happened yesterday at the Bernabéu with racist insults. There is no place for these criminals in our society. All my support to Lamine, Ansu and Raphinha. I know that Madrid and the police will do things to identify and punish the guilty!!

Yamal who scored in Barcelona’s stunning win, became a target of racist chanting from a section of fans at the Santiago Bernabéu. The incident has led LaLiga to open an investigation. The club released a statement which said, “Real Madrid strongly condemns any behavior involving racism, xenophobia, or violence in football and sports,” 

“Real Madrid has launched an investigation to locate and identify the perpetrators of these regrettable and despicable insults, in order to take the appropriate disciplinary and legal actions.”

Barcelona beats Real Madrid

Barcelona ha the first bragging right of the season in the El Clasico with 4-0 win over Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu. Besides Yamal, Lewandowski and Rapinha were the other goal scorers. The loss meant Real Madrid lost the opportunity to equal FC Barcelona’s record of 43 unbeaten matches in La Liga history occurring between 2017 and 2018.

However, Yamal managed to break Alfonso Navarro’s 77-year-old record when he scored a goal in El Classico. Navarro was 17 years and 356 days old when he accomplished the feat, but Yamal did it in 17 years and 106 days. Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe had two goals ruled out for offside on a frustrating first Clasico appearance for Los Blancos, who now trail league leaders Barcelona by six points.

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‘No Concerns About KL’: Ryan Ten Doeschate Defends Struggling Team India Batter Ahead Of 2nd Test vs New Zealand

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India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said on Tuesday that middle-order batters KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan are locked in a selection battle for the second Test against New Zealand here even though head coach Gautam Gambhir is keen to give the former, a long rope.

With India looking to bounce back from the eight-wicket thrashing at Bengaluru in the opening Test, focus will be on the team combination with Washington Sundar being added to the squad. Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant are both aiming to shake off injury concerns for the match starting Thursday.

“Yeah, there’s no point in sugarcoating it, there’s a fight for a spot,” ten Doeschate told the media when asked if Rahul and Sarfaraz were battling for a place in the team, here at the MCA Stadium ahead of India’s training session.

“Sarfaraz was obviously brilliant in the last Test. I went to KL after the last Test (and) said how many balls do you play at (and) miss at? He didn’t play at (and) miss at one ball and that’s what tends to happen when you’re not getting runs.

“There’s certainly no concerns about KL, he’s batting nicely, he’s in a good mental space. But we are certainly going to have to fit seven pieces into six spots for this Test and look at the pitch now and decide what’s going to be best for the team,” he said.

Sarfaraz scored a second-innings 150 in the Bengaluru game, while Rahul remained off-colour in both essays.

While admitting that it is difficult to keep Rahul out of the equation in the Test format, ten Doeschate said head coach Gautam Gambhir is “keen to” give him a long rope.

“It’s not like we’re worried about his form. If you go on just the past three months since Gauti has been in here, he’s keen to give him (Rahul) as much rope as we can. We have a lot of faith in him,” he said.

“But at the same time, it’s a very competitive environment, with Sarfaraz getting 150 plus runs (222 not out) in the Irani Trophy final. The decision will be what’s best for the team, but we’ll certainly back all the guys in,” he added.

“He’ll be good to keep in the Test as well” – Ryan Ten Doeschate on Rishabh Pant

Pant, who did not keep wickets for a significant part of the opening Test, and Shubman Gill, who missed the match due to stiffness in his neck, are close to attaining their full fitness.

“Rishabh is pretty good. I think Rohit (Sharmna) touched on it the other day. He was having a little bit of discomfort at the end range of his movement with the knee. But fingers crossed, he’ll be good to keep in the Test as well,” he said.

“He (Gill) looks so (available for this Test). He has batted last week in Bangalore, he had a few nets, he’s got a little bit of discomfort, but I think he’ll be good to go for the Test,” he added.

Ten Doeschate said the addition of Washington Sundar is “no desperate measure” but to add a bowling option who would take the ball away from the Kiwis left-handers.

“Definitely not. They (New Zealand) are filled with four left-handers in the XI. We’ve had Washy around the white-ball squad for a while and we like the way he operates. It’s also nice to see that guys are getting rewarded for Ranji Trophy performance as well.”

“We just want to make sure we’re absolutely prepared for conditions here and if that does mean taking the ball away from the left-hander, we want that option,” he added.

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