30th March 2018 DIAMOND www.crictoday.com How did Rohit Sharma managed to DELHI get rid of DAREDEVILS poor form? THE BIG GUNS Australia KARTHIK AND Taste Bitter PANDEY: FINAL Dose of PIECES OF THE Cheaters Tag JIGSAW PUZZLE CAPTAIN KOHLI HIT FOR INDIA, FLOP FOR RCB FROM THE For day-to-day updates join us on Facebook and Twitter EDITOR’S DESK website: www.crictoday.com he Indian Premier failures of any of these players heavi- EDITORIAL BOARD League (IPL) will ly jeopardizes the team’s chances to Editor be in its eleventh win the trophy. Great players can Manish Verma edition this year. win you matches but for winning [email protected] While teams like tournaments teamwork is required – Asistant Editor Chennai Super a lesson that RCB would have Mohd. Asim TKings (CSK), Mumbai Indians (MI) learned the hard way in the 2016 Sub Editor and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) edition. In an already adrenaline- Ajay Tiwari have won the title multiple times, fuelled, increasingly ugly contest, the Contributing Editors Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Australian cricketers took their Sreelata S. Yellamrazu – despite being led by the Indian actions a step too far. What made Bhavesh Bhimani captain Virat Kohli – have failed to this particular incident of ball tam- win the tournament even once. pering even worse was the fact that Art Director What’s worse is the fact that they this was done with the full blessing Sudhir Peter of the captain who hap- have been unable to Art Department reach the knockout pens to be one of the Mandavi Yadav stages in half of the sea- world’s most esteemed sons. The below par batsmen. The pictures Production Co-ordinator performances of Kohli’s raised eyebrows from Sunil Chaudhary men begs the question - the previous evening, why has the skipper suggestive enough that Photos who has been leading everything was not AP, Fotocorp, Raj Kumar the Men in Blue so suc- quite in order on the cessfully for over three playing field. Well BUSINESS OFFICE years now, has not been before the play got DIAMOND MAGAZINES PVT. LTD. able to mirror the same underway on the fourth X-30, Okhla Ind. Area, Ph-2, New Delhi-20, for his franchise. We day of the third Test in Tel 011-40712100 Fax (011) 41611866 should also remember Players can win matches Cape Town, the world Director (Mktg.) Manish Verma, that when it comes to but for tournaments woke up to the news of E-mail : [email protected] the IPL, the players are teamwork is required. Steve Smith, the bought by the franchis- Australian captain, ADVERTISING OFFICES es with an eye on their purse. But for admitting that Bancroft had indeed Delhi- M. P. Singh, Vivek Chahal, Adesh Solanki choosing the national team the selec- tampered the ball and furthermore, Mumbai- Praveen Chandra, C. Garima 9820129206, Kolkata- Shashi tors are not bound by financial pru- that this was done as part of a delib- Nayyar 9830374259, Bangalore- Pratap Kumar 9845234036, Justine dence and therefore go for the best erate, premeditated plan that ema- Kumar, 9845013231, Nagpur- Mrs. Khisti 9822202082, Chennai- talent out there. While Kohli can nated from the senior leadership Sathish C. Anand 9841023010, Hyderabad- V. Sunil Kumar advise his franchise regarding play- within the Australian dressing room. 9160834356, Ahmedabad- Madan Menon 9898002522, Punjab- ers he would like them to buy he Although the disgraced Australian Puneet Arya 9316969911, Pune- Prasad Datar 9822112674, Dehradun- Sharad Sharma 08755147616, Ranchi- Zahid Anwar can’t dictate terms the way he is captain made it a point to mention 8084655893, Patna- DPN Shahi 9431495493, Bhopal-Sweety doing at the national level. Therefore that no coach was involved, footage Bichpuria 9425006237, Jaipur- Himanshu Patni 9828198296, he has to usually be satisfied with the from the match seemed to suggest Kanpur- Praveen Srivastava 9935526000 pool of players at his disposal and try that the twelfth man was following to get the best out of them. What has instructions from the think tank to been noticeable with RCB is that point out to Bancroft that his actions they have more often than not were being panned around the depended on the trio of Gayle-Kohli- world. There is more to read from AB to put up runs on the board. The cricket in this issue… Total Pages 40 with Cover Copyright 2005 "Cricket Today" is a registered trademark of The Diamond Group. All rights reserved. No Part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded or otherwise, without prior permission. Printed & Published by Manish Verma and Edited by Manish Verma on behalf of Diamond Magazines Pvt. Ltd. Printed at Best Photo Offset Printers, A-81, D.D.A. Shed, Okhla Industrial area, Phase-II, New Delhi-110020 and Published at X-30, Okhla Ind. Area, Ph-2, New Delhi-20, Tel 011-40712100 Editor Manish Verma, E-mail : [email protected] 02 CRICKET TODAY MARCH 30, 2018 WHAT’S HOT QUOTES WHAT’S NOT LUKE KAMRAN RONCHI AKMAL It’s very difficult sit- He not only won man Although he had a ting at a distance and of the match in the remarkable tourna- commenting on what finale of the Pakistan ment but failure to get might have happened Super League but was going in the final of the in the dressing room declared Man of the PSL blotted his overall Series as well for his proceedings. He was R ASHWIN ON BALL exceptional batting dis- even lambasted for his TAMPERING play in the tournament. wicket keeping. AJINKYA NATHAN RAHANE COULTER NILE After an unfor- He was impressive in tunate sacking of the last edition of the Steve Smith, Ajinkya IPL and that’s why RCB With so much cricket Rahane’s elevation as had invested in him. going on I have to skipper of Rajasthan However, he has been be very careful with Royals has added ruled out of the IPL my body. I have lost another feather in the after failing to recover enough in my life illustrious career of from an injury. the Indian player. AMIR ON HIS CAREER DAVID SHAHID AFRIDI Former Pakistani WARNER He was one of the skipper has once again key men in the ball advocated the need of tampering saga which calling Indian players has shocked every- in the Pakistan Super one. Warner has been League. He feels cricket sacked as vice-captain I can understand it’s can melt ice between of the Aussie Team by a really tough time for India and Pakistan. Cricket Australia. him to be in now FAF ON SMITH CHRIS STEVE SMITH GAYLE His latest con- Despite troversy is set losing the to derail Smith’s finale of career. He has been the quali- fired from captaincy fiers, he and there is more to showed his come from Cricket I don’t know him dancing moves Australia in couple personally and I have on the request of days. Steve is even never met him of Afghanistani serving one match suspension after his yet. There is no players who truth in it were jubilant involvement in ball after defeating tampering. RASHI KHANNA ON BUMRAH West Indies. MARCH 30, 2018 CRICKET TODAY 03 THE XFACTOR Partners in Crime Australia’s cricketing culture under the supervision of coach Darren Lehmann is facing renewed scrutiny as the fallout from the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town continues. He is likely to step down while Steve Smith’s captaincy hangs in the balance after he was handed a one-Test ban and fined 100 per cent of his match fee for authorizing premeditated cheating on day three of the third Test. 04 CRICKET TODAY MARCH 30, 2018 MARCH 30, 2018 CRICKET TODAY 05 THE XFACTOR Playing The Waiting Game Amid doubts over David Warner’s participation in the Indian Premier League, Sunrisers Hyderabad have said the franchise would wait for Cricket Australia’s decision on the player, who finds himself embroiled in a ball tamper- ing controversy. Warner had stood down as vice- captain for rest of Australia’s third Test match against South Africa for his involvement in ball tampering. 06 CRICKET TODAY MARCH 30, 2018 MARCH 30, 2018 CRICKET TODAY 07 IN THE LAST 3 YEARS, DREAMING ABOUT ITALIAN CARS MAY HAVE GROWN 12.4 %, BUT READING MAGAZINE ARTICLES ABOUT THEM HAS REVVED UP IRS 2017 is here. And it reveals that in the last 3 years, the Total Readership of Magazines has grown by an incredible 95%*. Proof that magazines reach and engage with more Indian consumers , and brands that build customer loyalty with them gain even more. Itʼs an unprecedented truth that will recalibrate every new media plan. Remember, magazines are now 95% stronger as an advertising platform. Period. Every other statistic is just fluff. *ACCORDING TO IRS 2017, TOTAL READERSHIP OF WHICH IS A WHOPPING 95% INCREASE. %. middle the in OF MAGAZINES HAS GROWN TO 78 MILLION FROM 40 MILLION IN IRS 2014, bang LIFESTYLE DANCING SHOES The eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is just around the corner. There has been a lot of buzz about the tournament as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) are back in the league after completing a two- year suspension following the spot-fixing saga. With franchis- es leaving no stone unturned to promote their teams, few mem- bers of CSK were spotted dancing on the road while shooting a video. Harbhajan, who was seen wearing the yellow jersey for the first time, could be seen shaking a leg along with Dwayne Bravo, Jadeja, Murali Vijay and Shardul Thakur.