New Zealand men’s cricket team on Tuesday added Shane Bond as a fourth coach for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE and the following three-game T20I series against India.

The former fast bowler is no stranger to the team following a three-year tenure as bowling coach (2012-15) and helped out as recently as 2019 in a T20 series against England, along with stints leading New Zealand A. Since stepping back as Sydney Thunder coach earlier this year, Bond has been assisting the men’s winter training squads at Lincoln and also helped the White Ferns prepare for their tour of England.

The 46-year-old will next month resume his role as bowling coach with the Mumbai Indians as IPL 2021 restarts in the UAE, before linking up with the BLACKCAPS T20 World Cup squad.

Head coach Gary Stead said it was great to add someone of Bond’s experience to the group.

“Shane’s been in our environment before and understands what we’re about. Being in the UAE (with the IPL) immediately prior to the world cup … he’ll hopefully bring some tactical insight into what’s been happening in the competition,” said Stead in an official release.

“He’ll be an extra set of hands especially around the bowlers, working with the spin and the pace bowlers and developing their plans in a tournament that moves pretty quick – so we need to be one step ahead of other teams,” he added.

India and Pakistan will be locking horns on October 24 in a group-stage encounter of the upcoming T20 World Cup, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed on Tuesday.

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 in UAE and Oman will get underway from October 17, with the final to be played in Dubai on November 14. The tournament will begin with the Round 1 Group B encounter between hosts Oman and Papua New Guinea on October 17, with Scotland and Bangladesh, the other teams in Group B, clashing in the evening match.

Ireland, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, and Namibia – making up Group A – will be in action in Abu Dhabi the next day, with Round 1 matches running till October 22. The top two teams in each group will proceed to the Super 12 stage of the tournament, beginning on October 23.

The second round of the tournament – the Super12 stage – will get underway in Abu Dhabi on October 23, with the Group 1 contest between Australia and South Africa. This will be followed up with an evening clash between England and West Indies in Dubai.

Old rivals England and Australia will lock horns in Dubai on October 30. The group will conclude on November 6 with matches between Australia and West Indies in Abu Dhabi, and England and South Africa in Sharjah.

Group 2 will commence with a heavyweight clash between India and Pakistan in Dubai on October 24. Pakistan then takes on New Zealand in Sharjah on October 26, in a tough start for the 2009 champions. Afghanistan begin their campaign on October 25 at Sharjah, taking on the winners of Group B from the first round.

The group will conclude on November 8, with India taking on the second-placed Round 1 qualifier from Group A.

Badminton is a game that is played in a court measuring 44 feet in length and 17 feet in width, and has players who need to coordinate with speed, hand, and eyes. For becoming champions in this game a player has to get training in a disciplined and focused manner. There is a gap of one word between a successful person and an unsuccessful person, that word is “determination”. Quoting this, today, we are talking about two of our very own Indian Badminton players who have surpassed all struggles and remained focused. Belonging from a small district Dhar of Madhya Pradesh, the duo of Sourabh, and Samir Verma has ranked in World’s Top 35 Badminton players.

It was in the year 1998 when the duo started their journey from Dhar’s only Badminton Court, which was accessible to influential players only. It was through repeated requests that they got permission to enter the court. As the family suffered through a financial crisis and could not afford basic necessities, Sourabh played with a broken shuttlecock and racquet thrown by other players in court and practiced badminton only when the court was empty. Watching Sourabh play, Samir from a young age too followed his brother`s footsteps and became a player.

Their father recalls that people taunted him as to this game is not hockey nor football, the shuttlecock itself will cost you a meal. Having a simple job with basic amenities to survive, playing an expensive sport like badminton was difficult but not unattainable. “I made them practice with the used racquets and if the knot was broken I fixed them myself. Every year in December, Dhar witnesses a Fair, from where I bought cheap clothes like t-shirts and trousers for my kids,” said their father.

“And this is how we fought with our financial crunch and supported my children to reach this position. I always used to say that there may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do,” he added.

Both Sourabh and Samir have played numerous international tournaments. Samir was a participant in tournaments like 2011 Junior Asian Badminton Championship (Lucknow), and Youth Commonwealth Games (England). In Junior World Badminton Championship at China’s Taipei, Samir clinched a Silver.

Samir also bagged Gold Medal in Sayyed Modi Hyderabad Open in 2018 and the Swiss Open.

England skipper Joe Root has denied using the short-ball tactic a bit too much in the second innings, but admitted that India jumped on to something that emotionally gave them an edge.

England was in the box seat in the second innings after reducing India to 209/8, but the hosts lost the plot when Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami came to the crease. England used the short ball a bit too much, and the Indian duo played sensibly to form an 89-run stand for the ninth wicket. “Fair play to Virat Kohli and his team. They jumped on to something that emotionally gave them an edge. I think a lot falls on my shoulders as captain,” he said. “Tactically I could have done things slightly differently,” cricket.com.au quoted Root as saying.

“The Shami and Bumrah partnership was the pivotal moment of the game, without question, and I don’t think I dealt with that well enough tactically. It put us in a difficult position. Looking back, I’d look at some of the field placings and the way that we bowled. We could have looked at maybe attacking the stumps a little bit more frequently and using the short ball as more of a surprise,” he added.

India and England provided an intense spectacle on the fifth day as players from both sides engaged in verbal duels and in the end, it was Kohli’s team who emerged triumphant in an engaging match. In the second innings, India was struggling at 209/8 and it was then that Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami got together to stitch an unbeaten 89-run stand for the ninth wicket. Shami and Bumrah remained unbeaten on 56 and 34.

“We have to give them some credit. They scored in unusual areas and made it hard to set conventional fields and (we) were trying to manage taking wickets but not letting the game get away from us. But I would have taken a little bit more time and probably brought more modes of dismissal into the game sooner,” said Root.

“When the ball got softer, it didn’t seem to move as much laterally as with the newer ball but we probably underestimated how useful challenging a lower-order player’s defence can be. Credit to India but I don’t think there is any hiding from the fact we need to get better,” he added.

At the start of the day, England looked like the favourites to win the match. But Bumrah and Shami showed class with the bat, and then an epic bowling performance sealed the deal for the visitors. England battled hard, but their top-order failures led to their downfall with the team being steamrolled for just 120 in the second innings, handing visitors a win by 151 runs.

“We need to score heavier. The guys will know that. They are working extremely hard. We need to be better at building big partnerships. We did it well for periods in this game in the first innings but we need to do it for longer and make it count, make it last. We also need to be better at starting our innings, finding a way into the match,” said Root.

Former England skipper Kevin Pietersen has revealed that spinner Rashid Khan is worried about the situation in Afghanistan and he is not able to get his family out of the country.

Flight operations from around the world are affected at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International (HKI) airport due to the ongoing turmoil in Afghanistan. Rashid is currently in the UK playing for Trent Rockets in the inaugural edition of the Hundred.

“There’s a lot of things that are happening at home. We had a long chat here on the boundary talking about it and he’s worried: he can’t get his family out of Afghanistan and there’s a lot of things happening for him,” Pietersen said on Sky Sports.

“For him to turn up and put on a performance like this under the pressure that he is currently under… for him to be able to forget that stuff and navigate his story and continue the momentum that he has – I think that’s probably one of the most heart-warming stories of this Hundred so far,” he added. Taliban terrorists are assuming control of the Afghan capital of Kabul and have taken control of the presidential palace after the country’s president Ashraf Ghani left for Tajikistan.

Kemar Roach’s resilience and grit helped West Indies walk away with a one-wicket victory over Pakistan in the first Test of the two-match series here at Sabina Park on Sunday.

With this win, Windies have gone 1-0 up in the series and have added crucial points in the World Test Championship (WTC) standings. Chasing 168 for the win on Day 4, Windies lost its first three wickets with just 16 runs on the board as Kraigg Brathwaite (2), Kieran Powell (4), and Nkrumah Bonner (5) departed cheaply. Roston Chase and Jermaine Blackwood then provided resistance as the duo put on 68 runs for the fourth wicket.

Faheem Ashraf then one again triggered the collapse for West Indies and the hosts were reduced to 142/8, still needing 26 runs for the win.However, in the end, Roach held his own and he helped Windies register an one-wicket victory.

Earlier on Day 4, Pakistan was bundled out for 203 as Jayden Seales took his maiden fifer in Test cricket. Babar Azam top-scored for Pakistan as he played a knock of 55 runs.

Brief Scores: Pakistan 217 and 203; West Indies 253 and 168/9 (Jermaine Blackwood 55, Kemar Roach 30*, Shaheen Afridi 4-50).