THE HIMALAYAN MAIL JAMMU Q MONDAY Q APRIL 26, 2021 11 Kohli, ABD and Maxwell urge Punjab Kings seek to build people to stay home winning momentum against KKR NEW DELHI, APRIL NEW DELHI, APRIL ing at home. Together, 25: Their three-match los- 25: With the second let's survive these tough ing streak finally over, Pun- COVID-19 wave rampant times." jab Kings would seek to across the country, Royal All-rounder Glenn build a winning momentum Challengers Bangalore Maxwell then says that the when they face the strug- (RCB) players stepped for- side is looking to provide gling Kolkata Knight Riders ward to urge everyone to entertainment in these in an IPL match, in Ahmed- stay at home to curb the tough times but he wants spread of the deadly virus. people to stay home and abad, on Monday. RCB's official Twitter stay safe. Punjab made a winning handle posted a video in "Our priority right now start but then slumped to which the likes of Virat is to provide you enter- three straight losses before Kohli, AB de Villiers, and tainment and hopefully producing a clinical show to Glenn Maxwell can be giving you joy. In return, I beat defending champions seen urging people to stay am just asking to follow all Mumbai by nine wickets on at home and follow all precautions to stay safe Friday, and they would look necessary precautions. quest all of you to do the says: " Hi, it's Ab de Vil- and beat COVID," said to notch up another tri- The video starts off with same, sanitise your hands, liers, you cannot wait for a Maxwell. umph against KKR which a message by Virat Kohli, step out only if necessary superhero when the going India recorded 3,49,691 have suffered four defeats who says: "Hi, I am Virat and wear your masks at all gets tough, you need to be new COVID-19 cases, the on the trot. Kohli, as a captain I try to times." the superhero. With the highest single-day spike Captain KL Rahul has lead from the front and The message is backed Covid pandemic, the best since the pandemic broke been one of the few consis- and senior India pacer Mo- to deliver consistently in- faraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, help people around. I re- up by AB de Villiers, who way to stay safe is by stay- out last year. tent performers in the for- midable-looking Punjab hammad Shami (2/21) stead of relying on the lower Murugan Ashwin, Ravi batting unit and he once leading the charge. order. Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar, Mo- again led by example Young Arshdeep Singh Gill and Morgan have hammed Shami, Arshdeep 'Gill will be one of the highest against MI with an un- has been a consistent been in woeful form and Singh, Ishan Porel, Darshan beaten 60, his third fifty in bowler with six wickets they desperately need big Nalkande, Chris Jordan, five games.Mayank Agarwal from five matches. scores to make themselves Dawid Malan, Jhye has been the other main On the other hand, KKR, count. Richardson, Shahrukh run-scorers by end of IPL' performer and the return to led by England's World Cup Sunil Narine has been Khan, Riley Meredith, Moi- winning skipper Eoin Mor- used to boost to KKR in- ses Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, NEW DELHI, APRIL consecutive defeat of the form of 'Universe Boss' Chris Gayle against MI with gan, continued to slide after nings on two occasions but Utkarsh Singh, Fabian 25: Backing the out-of- season on Saturday and losing to Rajasthan Royals the West Indian has not de- Allen, Saurabh Kumar. form Shubman Gill, are languishing at the bot- a 43 not out should be good by six wickets in their last livered till now with scores Kolkata Knight Riders: Kolkata Knight Riders tom of the points table. news for Punjab. match. of 4 and 6. Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh team mentor David Hussey Asked why New Zealand But Deepak Hooda, who Their batting unit need a In the bowling depart- Karthik, Shubman Gill, Ni- said the opener is a 'class speedster Lockie Fergu- has not done much after one act' who will be among the son, who has express pace impressive innings, will complete turnaround in ment, Russell, Varun tish Rana, Tim Seifert, highest-scoring batsmen to offer, has not got a game have to step up if Punjab form if KKR has to snap Chakravarthy and Prasidh Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, by the end of the IPL. yet, Hussey said the team want to perform consis- their losing streak. Krishna have been doing Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Ya- The highly talented 21- management will be going tently. The top-five batsmen reasonably well with 7, 6 dav, Shivam Mavi, Lockie year-old has not been at back to the drawing board The place of Nicholas continued to struggle with and 5 wickets respectively. Ferguson, Pat Cummins, his best this season, man- in terms of strategies. Pooran, who has scored 0, only Nitish Rana -- two half Cummins has been un- Kamlesh Nagarkoti, aging 80 runs from five "Lockie Ferguson is at 0, 9, 0, in the playing XI is centuries -- and Dinesh derwhelming performance Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh matches. the peak of his powers, he expected to be under review Karthik doing anything of so far with four wickets from Krishna, Rahul Tripathi, "He is a star player, he is a class act and he is an though his turn did not worth. five matches. Varun Chakravarthy, took the Test match arena excellent player for New come in the last match. Pacer Pat Cummins The Teams (From): Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon by storm in Australia. He Zealand. He bowled well The Punjab bowlers, who played an incredible innings Punjab Kings: KL Rahul Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, is very specific and he has a "All I can say is that form scoring batsmen by the for KKR last year in UAE. have been pedestrian in ear- -- 66 not out -- for a losing (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Harbhajan Singh, Karun great work ethic," said will come and go, class is end of the tournament. He "He is going to push for lier matches, came good in cause against Chennai Su- Chris Gayle, Mandeep Nair, Ben Cutting, Hussey at the virtual post- always permanent." is an absolute class act," selection for the next their last match with the tal- per Kings but KKR would Singh, Prabsimran Singh, Venkatesh Iyer and Pawan match press conference af- "He is one class individ- Hussey added. games. We will look at all ented Ravi Bishnoi (2/21) like their specialist batsmen Nicholas Pooran (wk), Sar- Negi. ter KKR were handed a ual, both on and off the KKR, who started the strategies going ahead, six-wicket defeat by Ra- field. Mark my words, he tournament with a win, everything is on the table jasthan Royals. will be one of the highest- slumped to their fourth in terms of selection. Indians react to Gilly, want IPL NEW DELHI, APRIL 25: Day after day this week 'Amid COVID surge, it's our responsibility India has registered the most number of coronavirus cases in the world. to give people reason to smile' Cricket legend Adam Gilchrist on Saturday ex- NEW DELHI,APRIL and slower balls." pressed concern about In- 25: Rajasthan Royals all- The Royals had entered dia's alarming coronavirus rounder Chris Morris says the game after a humiliat- situation and asked what the COVID-19 catastrophe ing 10-wicket loss to Royal people thought of IPL 2021 in India has been discussed Challengers Bangalore. continuing amidst the in his team multiple times "It's very easy to go record surge in COVID-19 and the players can feel the down the dark route of cases in the country. pain that the pandemic is thinking you are not good Giving people two choices causing in its deadly second enough when you get to pick from, Gilly enquired if wave in Mumbai. beaten by 10 wickets but IPL was 'inappropriate' or India is reeling under the sometimes you need to tip an 'important distraction' in fight against Covid-19,' 'India is battling a crisis IPL 2021 games are set to second wave of the pan- your hat off to the opposi- these trahic times. Jadeja tweeted. 'Please wear situation today. The medical move from Chennai and demic with cases rising by tion," said Morris. Earlier, Chennai Super a mask, follow social dis- infrastructure is slowly col- Mumbai to Ahmedabad, over 3 lakh everyday, a crisis "As a team we had a Kings players Ravindra tancing and let's adhere to lapsing, resources depleting Delhi, Kolkata and Ben- compounded by shortage of good discussion on what Jadeja and Suresh Raina the government norms. As and more lives at risk than galuru. some crucial medicines and our faces because we have a out there, the frontline was our motivation. The voiced their concerns about citizens, we must be respon- ever before,' Raina tweeted. Reacting to Gilly, Indian oxygen supplies. Morris reason to smile and that we workers all over the first seven overs, we were the COVID-19 Crisis. sible, and I thank the doc- 'There is no pain greater fans described IPL 2021 as said it is 'difficult to com- are healthy and get to play world, to be doing what having an absolute blast, 'Right now more than ever tors, nurses for their selfless than seeing your loved one an important distraction at prehend' what is happen- cricket." they are doing day in and it was very entertaining.