Heena Sharma Blog

After a brief two-match stint, Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer Dale Steyn was on Thursday ruled out of the Indian Premier League owing to an inflammation in his shoulder. The veteran South African fast bowler, who had recently joined RCB as an replacement for injured Nathan Coulter-Nile, was forced to sit out of the match against Kings XI Punjab here on Wednesday after he picked up a niggle. "Dale Steyn has been prescribed with ample rest due to inflammation in his shoulder. On account of state of his health, Dale will not be available to take part further in the ongoing season of IPL," Sanjeev Churiwala, Chairman of RCB, said in a statement. The injury-prone pacer had returned to the IPL after a gap of two years and straight away contributed to team's winning cause by picking up four wickets in two games -- against Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

In Match 42 of VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL 2019), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will host Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Belatedly getting into the groove with back-to-back victories, Royal Challengers would look to continue their winning momentum when they take on Kings XI. RCB must be all fired up after posting a one-run win over a the formidable Chennai Super Kings and would be desperate to keep the juggernaut rolling. Having survived a brutal assault at the hands of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in their previous game, they should have gained some confidence. On the other hand, KXIP have slumped to the fifth spot in the IPL points table 2019 after Delhi Capitals defeated them by 5 wickets in Match 37 of IPL 2019. KXIP will again look to make some changes in their playing 11 as they have been changing and chopping their team according to conditions. Although AB de Villiers and Kohli did not click with the bat, the failure would prom...

Parthiv Patel, the man whose direct hit gave Royal Challengers Bangalore an improbable one-run win over Chennai Super Kings, said he was left quite surprised when Mahendra Singh Dhoni missed hitting the last ball of the cliffhanger. Patel wasn't expecting a marauding Dhoni to miss Umesh Yadav's slower delivery before his direct throw sealed it for the home team on Sunday night. Dhoni scored 24 off the first five balls of the final over before missing the last ball. A scramble for one run ended in Parthiv's direct throw leaving Shardul Thakur short of his crease. "We honestly wanted him (Dhoni) to hit through the off-side on the shorter side of the ground. If he had hit it on the leg-side, there were two runs because I don't think the way he runs, there was any chance of stopping those two," an elated Patel said at the post-match press conference. "So we wanted (Umesh) to bowl slower and outside the off-stump and surprisingly he missed it. I ...

In match 32 of the VIVO Indian Premier League 2019 (IPL 2019), Mumbai Indians (MI) will host Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday. Virat Kohli's RCB registered their first victory in IPL 2019 by defeating Kings XI Punjab on Saturday and they'd be high on confidence with first points on the IPL 2019 points table. On the other hand, Mumbai Indians lost their last match against Rajasthan Royals despite scoring 187 runs as Jos Buttler's quickfire 89 overshadowed their efforts. As usual, It will rain runs in Wankhede so both the teams will have to pick bowlers in their playing 11 very carefully because wickets are the only key. RCB is tight on bowlers as they usually keep just enough bowlers to complete the 20-over per side quota, hence, they'd have to bring in some variation to tackle the formidable batting line-up of Mumbai Indians in which a tail-ender can also hit a six or two. Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma is back...

More than any other format in cricket, Twenty20 is premised on the superiority of the batsman over the bowler. Even the most-skilled practitioner with the ball gets merely 24 deliveries to have a say on the match. But if a destructive batsman is present for 120 balls, you would bet that his team will go on to win the game. Royal Challengers Bangalore is a team built on this imbalance. It's not that skipper Virat Kohli and the team management are not aware of the various ways in which a successful T20 team could be composed. Rather, it is their insuperable belief that might with the willow will deliver the loudest blow. It is an approach that has worked for RCB in the past, most notably in 2016 when the franchise reached the Indian Premier League final. Since then, however, the Virat Kohli-led side has won only nine of its 34 matches. This season, RCB has already emulated the worst ever start to an IPL campaign by losing its first six matches. Any hopes of making the playo...

In Match 17 of VIVO Indian Premier League 2019 (IPL 2019), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday. Virat Kohli faces a herculean task of taking his team to first win of this edition of IPL as the team has suffered back-to-back defeats in first four matches and are now seated at the eighth and the last spot at 2019 IPL points table. On the other hand, Dinesh Karthik-led Kolkata Knight Riders won their first two matches comfortably but Delhi denied them a hat-trick of wins as they snatched victory in the super over. Andre Russell has been in supreme form RCB bowlers would be busy preparing for a way to get rid of him before he starts demolishing. Royal Challengers Bangalore have all faced everything opposite to their expectations, they are now 0-4 down and considering the form and the opponent, it would be a huge task for Virat Kohli to bring his team out of this position. In their third mat...

Umpire Sundaram Ravi , whose no ball howler cost Royal Challengers Bangalore heavily in an IPL match and led to an angry outburst by RCB skipper Virat Kohli, is unlikely to be sanctioned due to lack of officials with international experience on the BCCI roster. Currently there are only 11 Indian Umpires allotted for on-field and TV duty for 56 IPL games, which means Ravi might get negative marking from the match referee but BCCI can hardly take any corrective measures beyond that. "Currently we have only 17 umpires assigned on-field and for third umpires' duty. Out of them 11 are Indian and six foreigners from the Elite Panel. Apart from them, we have six more Indians as fourth umpires," a member of the now defunct Umpiring sub-committee, who is privy to allocation of assignments, told PTI on Friday. Ravi, the only Indian in the ICC's Elite Panel, failed to spot an obvious no ball from Mumbai Indians' Lasith Malinga as RCB lost by six runs under controv...

In the Match 7 of VIVO Indian Premier League 2019 (IPL 2019), Mumbai Indians (MI) would fancy their chances against an erratic Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) when the two star-studded teams square off at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday. Virat Kohli's RCB, who are yet to win IPL title and regularly draw a lot of flak for that, were bundled out for 70, the sixth-lowest score in IPL history, in their first game of IPL 2019 against Chennai Super Kings. The injury of Jasprit Bumrah has given the sleepless night to India and Mumbai Indians a sleepless night after he injured his shoulder during the last ball of the Delhi Capitals innings. However, according to various media reports, he is fit as it was just a case of shoulder spasm. But it would be interesting to see whether Mumbai Indians team management will pick him in their playing 11 or give him more time to become match fit. Lasith Malinga is likely to be available for the next two Mumbai Indians IPL matc...

In the first match of VIVO Indian Premier League 2019 (IPL 2019), defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will start their quest for a fourth IPL title when they meet perennial underachievers Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday. For Virat Kohli, it couldn't be a bigger statement if his young side could start off with a bang at Mahendra Singh Dhoni's "spritual home", a task which will be easier said than done. CSK's core members are the oldest in IPL 2019: Dhoni and Shane Watson are 37, Dwayne Bravo is 35, Faf du Plessis is 34, Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav are 33, and Suresh Raina will turn 32 soon. Chennai Super Kings have two spinners with truckloads of experience: both Tahir, 39, and Harbhajan Singh, 38, have ability to change the complexion of a game with one-off over. Even the two out-of-favour India players, leg-spinner Karn Sharma, 31, and seamer Mohit Sharma, 30, are on the wrong side of th...