LONDON

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has said that the club has the history and culture to win titles again and again.

Chelsea has not lifted a trophy since their 2019 Europa League success under Maurizio Sarri. The side remains in contention for the Champions League and FA Cup this season. The Blues will look to seal a place in the last four of the Champions League on Tuesday when they face Porto in the second leg of their quarter-final.

“We are in the second leg of the quarter-final of the Champions League, you will not find any team who does not have the goal to reach the semi-final. We are in the semi-final of the FA Cup and have the chance to arrive in the final, if we arrive in the final then we have the chance to win. There is nothing to hide. This is a club that has a culture, a structure, to win titles and win games consecutively. Chelsea is the club that has the culture and the history and mentality to do so,” Goal.com quoted Tuchel as saying.

“I am here to win titles, I am here to win games and as a result, win titles.

This is what I demand of myself so why should we now say anything different? If you want to win in five years or three years, I don’t know what that is,” he added.

Further talking about the upcoming match against Porto, Tuchel said: “Now is the time but honestly we can talk for hours and hours but tomorrow is the game to play and there is no tougher match than the next game, there is no tougher obstacle than the one in front of you and we should not get lost in dreams, hopes, and speeches or whatever.”

“We are here to perform in the second leg of the quarter-final, this is what we do, and then hopefully after tomorrow we can talk about a semi-final,” he added.

Tuchel’s team has a 2-0 advantage from the first leg of their tie against Porto and this makes them favourites to reach the next round. The winner of the tie will go on to face either Real Madrid or Liverpool in the semifinals.

DUBAI

New Zealand men’s captain Kane Williamson on Tuesday was awarded the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal for the fourth time in six years, while Amelia Kerr and Devon Conway claimed double honours at the New Zealand Cricket Awards for the 2020-21 season.

Williamson’s incredible home Test summer helped him claim the supreme award, along with the International Test Player of the Year and the Redpath Cup for first-class batting, after he amassed a whopping 639 runs in just four innings at an average of 159. In bowler-friendly conditions, Williamson, the ICC ranked number one Test batsman recorded his top international score of 251 against the West Indies at Seddon Park in Hamilton, then a Boxing Day Test century on his home ground of Bay Oval in Tauranga, before adding another double-century against Pakistan at Hagley Oval in Christchurch — to help the BlackCaps book their place in the ICC World Test Championship final against India.

“Going into the Test summer — there was that Championship Final carrot and there was a real drive there for the guys. Although it seemed a long way off, winning four tests before you’ve started one is a pretty lofty goal and we knew we just had to try and play as well as we could and commit to what was in front of us,” said Williamson in an official NZC release.

“To do that for a long period of time and to spend some time at the crease personally and make contributions towards that … certainly pretty proud as a leader and a player in this side that we were able to achieve some of those things and we’re looking forward to that final,” he added.

Williamson also made special mention of the International Test Player of the Year award.

How Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) star batsmen AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell deal with SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) spinner Rashid Khan could be decisive in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between the two teams on Wednesday at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.

RCB pacer Harshal Patel’s contest with SRH’s middle and lower order will also be an interesting affair. A buoyant Patel, who took five wickets against Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener, will be raring to go again in the death overs. On Tuesday, he told media how he is relishing the new-found responsibility.

SRH, who lost their last match narrowly to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), will need to start well. A couple of early wickets against KKR had set them back and even though Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey tried their best, they fell short.

SRH have used an interesting tactic this time. Up until last season they found success largely thanks to captain David Warner and Bairstow’s opening partnership. In the previous game, they let Wriddhiman Saha, who had played some brilliant knocks towards the end of the previous season, open along with Warner and Bairstow came in at No.4. SRH will be concerned about their fast bowling. Both Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Sandeep Sharma went for too many runs against KKR.

Devdutt Padikkal will probably return to the top of the order for RCB. Padikkal was rested from the previous game following his recovery from Covid-19 and in his absence, RCB opened with captain Virat Kohli and Washington Sundar, who failed to get going. The return of Padikkal, who was in great form in the Vijay Hazare one-dayers, bodes well for RCB. SRH’s new-ball bowlers will have to get rid of Padikkal and Kohli quickly if they are to give their spinners some backing and freedom to bowl at RCB’s hard-hitting middle order comprising Maxwell and de Villiers.

RCB’s spin bowling has been the weak link, unlike SRH, and Yuzvendra Chahal, who is having a poor run of form, will have to raise the bar. Chahal was wicketless against Mumbai Indians and gave away as many as 41 runs at an economy of 10.25.

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Strengths:

• Top order is the main strength of this team

• Bhuvneshwar, T. Natarajan, Rashid, and Nabi

Weaknesses:

• Lower middle-order is a deep concern

• Openers did no last long on the crease during the last match

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Strengths:

• Top order has batsmen like Virat, de Villiers and Maxwell.

• Devdutt Padikkal is back.

• Mohammed Siraj and Harshal Patel are confident after performing well against MI.

Weaknesses:

• Spin bowling department is underperforming.

TEAM ANALYSISSUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Strengths:

• Top order is the main strength of this team

• Bhuvneshwar, T. Natarajan, Rashid, and Nabi

Weaknesses:

• Lower middle-order is a deep concern

• Openers did no last long on the crease during the last match

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Strengths:

• Top order has batsmen like Virat, de Villiers and Maxwell.

• Devdutt Padikkal is back.

• Mohammed Siraj and Harshal Patel are confident after performing well against MI.

Weaknesses:

• Spin bowling department is underperforming.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday announced the winners of the ICC Player of the Month Awards for March which recognise and celebrates the best performances from both male and female cricketers across all forms of international cricket.

India’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for March for his impressive performances in India’s recently concluded series against England. He was the standout bowler on either side in the white-ball series and was chosen the winner by fans and the ICC voting academy. Reacting to the win Bhuvneshwar Kumar said: “After what seemed like a really long and painful gap, I was delighted to be playing for India again. I used the time away to work on my fitness and skill and I am happy to be back taking wickets for my country. I would like to thank each and every person who helped me in this journey starting with my family and friends and my teammates. Also, a special thank you to the ICC voting academy and all the fans who voted for me and made me the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for March.”

From the South African camp, Lizelle Lee who played four ODIs against India where she scored a century and two half-centuries to move to the top of the ICC Women’s ODI Batting Rankings, was deservingly named the ICC Women’s Player of the Month for March.

Rahul Dravid’s Cred advertisement has made rounds on the social media as the former batsman is seen in the angry avatar. Dravid, in the advert, was seen in a completely different demeanor— Indranagar Ka Goonda— losing his cool and shouting at the top of his voice while being stuck at a traffic signal in Bengaluru.

In the advertisement that has gone viral, the former India batsman was seen breaking rear-view mirrors of a nearby car and even throwing a coffee cup at the windowpane of a car driven by an elderly person.

While Rahul Dravid’s fuming avatar was something that the world hadn’t seen, his former teammate Virender Sehwag has a different story to tell.

Revealing an ODI game in which MS Dhoni was batting with the legendary batsman from Bengaluru, Sehwag said that Dravid lost his cool with the wicketkeeper, who was then still in the budding stages of his career.

“I have seen Rahul Dravid get angry. When we were in Pakistan and MS Dhoni had been a newcomer, he played a shot and got caught at point. Dravid was very angry with MS Dhoni,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.

“’That’s the way you play? You should finish the game.’ I was myself taken aback by the storm of English from Dravid, I didn’t understand half of it.”

Sehwag added that MSD was actually wary of another angry outburst from Rahul Dravid, saying the power-hitting batsman abstained from hitting biggies in the following match. When Sehwag asked Dhoni why, MSD had told him about his cautious approach.

“But when MS Dhoni next came in to bat, I could see he was not hitting shots much. I went and asked him what was wrong. He said he did not want to be scolded by Dravid again. ‘I will finish quietly and go back,’ Dhoni said,” Sehwag added.

Myriad cricketers and fans have reacted to Rahul Dravid’s viral advertisement video. India skipper Virat Kohli took to social media and expressed surprise at Rahul Dravid’s surprising outburst.

Dravid’s former India and Karnataka teammate Dodda Ganesh also had an fascinating memory to share. The former India pacer shared a rare clip from a domestic game in which Dravid was spotted being animated in the dressing room.

Despite losing their first match in the IPL 2021 to Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians face a problem of plenty.

Their regular opener Quinton de Kock, who had to sit out of the tournament opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as he was serving his quarantine on arrival from South Africa, was back at training on Sunday and will feature in the second match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Tuesday.

It means that Chris Lynn, who was MI’s top-scorer in the loss against RCB on April 9, may have to warm the bench as the Proteas wicketkeeper-batsman will likely face the new ball with skipper Rohit Sharma.

“Quinton de Kock is out of his quarantine. He did a practice session yesterday (on Sunday) with the team looking forward to the season. Yes, he will be available for tomorrow’s game,” said MI director of cricketing operations, Zaheer Khan.

“It is a good headache to have. To be lucky and be fortunate to have such a squad where people are waiting for opportunities and pushing each other,” Zaheer added.

MI’s power-packed middle and lower batting failed against some inspired and intelligent bowling from Harshal Patel. But their power-hitting unit comprising the Pandya brothers and Kieron Pollard among others batting are too good to fail as a whole twice in a row.

Containing them will be a big challenge for Kolkata Knight Riders who on Sunday scored a close but impressive win over SunRisers Hyderabad.

With their spin bowlers, who they relied on last season, not proving effective in Sunday’s game, MI’s batting could worry Eoin Morgan’s side.

Pat Cummins, who came in as second change, will again hold key for the KKR bowling unit.

An interesting contest will be between Nitish Rana, who top-scored for KKR with 80 (off 56 balls) against SunRisers’ strong bowling unit, and Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult.

While Boult is accurate, Bumrah’s pace and bounce can be hot to handle.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

Strengths:

• Many power-hitters in the side: Russell, Morgan, DK

• Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathy in good form

Weaknesses:

• Too much dependency on Foreign players

• Fitness issue with many players

MUMBAI INDIANS

Strengths:

• Strong batting order

• Balanced attack of Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah

• Mentally a very strong team

Weaknesses:

• Limited options in the spin bowling department