The Pakistan playing XI for the third T20 against New Zealand has been announced with three changes in the team.
Pakistan announced the playing XI on Tuesday with Usama Mir, Aamir Jamal, and Abbas Afridi dropped from the squad.
In place of these three, Wasim Jr, Mohammad Nawaz and Zaman Khan have been included in the national team.
It should be noted that Abbas Afridi has been ruled out of the match due to a strain in stomach muscles.
Zimbabwe cricket team’s all-rounder Sikandar Raza has set a historic record with five consecutive half-centuries in T20 Internationals.
The 37-year-old all-rounder scored his fifth consecutive half-century in the T20 match against Sri Lanka in Colombo, after which he became the first cricketer in the world to score five consecutive half-centuries in the shortest format.
Sikandar Raza completed his fifth half-century in 37 balls and played an innings of 62 runs in 42 balls in the match.
Raza’s extraordinary form began in November during the Africa Region qualifiers for the T20 World Cup where he scored 58, 65, 82, and 65 runs in Zimbabwe’s last four matches.
He now stands as the only record holder by surpassing stalwarts including Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Craig Williams, Ryan Pathan, Gustav McKeown, and Reza Hendricks who scored four consecutive half-centuries.
Argentina’s star footballer Lionel Messi has won the 2023 FIFA Player of the Year award for a record third time.
The FIFA Awards ceremony was held in London on Monday, in which the best players of the year were honored with awards.
In the Men’s Footballer of the Year category, tough competition between France’s Mbappe, Norway’s Erling Holland and Lionel Messi ended with the Argentinian beating his rivals.
Messi previously won the Men’s FIFA Player of the Year award in 2019 and 2022.
Portugal’s Ronaldo has also won the FIFA Men’s Player of the Year award twice.
However, Messi has now won the award for the third time, surpassing Ronaldo to become the player who has won the award the most times.
Senior players of Pakistan cricket are upset and unhappy with the strict behavior of team director, Muhammad Hafeez.
Tension has erupted between team management and the players in New Zealand over the issue of the No Objections Certificate (NOC), Geo sources have said.
After losing three Tests in Australia, the Pakistan team has also been defeated in both T20 Internationals in New Zealand.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has given unlimited powers to Hafeez after he replaced Mickey Arthur as director, putting him at the forefront of many decisions in domestic cricket.
Sources say that some players including Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, and Azam Khan had asked for and were issued NOCs for the expensive league ILT Twenty20 in Dubai. Still, some of the big cricketers asked for the NOC for the Bangladesh Premier League but Mohammad Hafeez is hesitant, which threatens his contracts.
Senior players are also not happy with long team meetings. Players say that they are interfering and interrupting unnecessarily which is spoiling the atmosphere of the team.
When Geo News tried to get a response from the Pakistan team management and PCB, they indicated that everything was fine.
Team sources say that although right now tension is in the initial stage, but going forward, things may become more bitter.
The final of the ILT Twenty will be played on February 17, the same day as the opening match of the Pakistan Super League. Retired player Mohammad Amir has been issued NOC for ILT Twenty20.
New Zealand has defeated Pakistan by 46 runs in the first T20 match of the five-match T20 series.
Pakistan cricket team captain Shaheen Shah Afridi won the toss and decided to field first. Kiwis Finn Allen and David Conway started the innings, but Afridi caught the latter out on the second ball. However, in the third over of the innings, the ace bowler was smashed for 24 runs.
Alan fell to Abbas Afridi after scoring 34 runs in 15 balls with the help of 3 sixes and 3 fours.
Several easy catches were dropped amid multiple instances of misfielding by Pakistan. Kiwi batsmen took full advantage cruising to 128 when the third wicket fell with Kane Williamson’s dismissal on 57.
New Zealand’s fourth wicket fell when Glenn Phillips was caught out by Babar Azam for just 19 on an Abbas Afridi’s ball, after which Daryl Mitchell scored 61 runs before being sent back to the pavilion by Shaheen Afridi.
New Zealand’s Mark Chapman made 26, Adam Milne made 10, Ortam Sothi was dismissed for just six runs while Ish Sodhi and Matt Henry returned to the pavilion for zero.
Shaheen Afridi and Abbas Afridi took three wickets each while Haris Rauf took two wickets.
Saim Ayub and Muhammad Rizwan started the innings on behalf of Pakistan. The former was run out after scoring 27 runs in 8 balls with the help of 3 sixes and 2 fours for a total of 33.
Muhammad Rizwan also scored 25 runs and was caught out by Tim Southee while Fakhar Zaman scored 15 runs. Iftikhar Ahmed was dismissed for 24 runs while Azam Khan played an innings of 10 runs. Babar Azam completed his half-century with the help of 2 sixes and 3 fours before being dismissed at 57 runs off 35 balls.
The captain was out on a duck while Osama Mir and Abbas Afridi could score one run each, Amir Jamal remained not out after putting up 14 runs.
Tim Southee took 4 wickets while Adam Milne and Ben Sears dismissed two players each, and one scalp went to Ish Sodhi.
The next match of the series will be played on January 14 on Sunday.
Before the T20 series against Pakistan, New Zealand cricket team’s all-rounder Mitchell Santner fell victim to Covid.
According to the Kiwi’s management, Mitchell Santner will not play the first T20 match against Pakistan due to Corona, as he will now be kept in isolation.
It has been further reported that Mitchell Santner will continue to be examined in the coming days and will fly home alone to Hamilton.
The first T20 match between Pakistan and New Zealand will be played today. Pakistan has won the toss and decided to field against New Zealand.
The former Brazilian legendary footballer Ronaldo is unknown to the Indian cricket team’s star batsman Virat Kohli.
Social media star Darren Jason (YouTube-IshowSpeed) asked former footballer Ronaldo some questions during a meeting, one of them was do you know Virat Kohli?
Responding to Darren’s question, Ronaldo said, “No, I don’t know him.”
However, Darren then told him that he is a cricketer, to which Ronaldo replied that he might not be that famous here in Brazil.
Darren Jason then told Ronaldo that Kohli is as famous as Babar Azam, while he showed the former footballer a picture of Kohli, and Ronaldo said yes.
Nepali cricketer Sandeep Lamichane was sentenced to eight years in prison in a rape case, while a fine of Rs300,000 (three lacs) was also imposed on him.
A single bench of the Kathmandu District Court sentenced the leg sniper to eight years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs3 lacs on his conviction in a rape case. The court also ordered Lamichhane to pay another two lac rupees to the victim.
Lamichhane’s lawyer Saroj Ghimer while talking to the media said that they would appeal against this decision in the High Court.
In September last year, the Nepal Cricket Association suspended Sandeep Lamichhane from the team after he was accused of raping an 18-year-old girl.
The trophy for the five T20 match series between Pakistan and New Zealand has been unveiled.
Pakistan captain Shaheen Shah Afridi and Kiwi captain Kane Williamson participated in unveiling of the T20 series trophy.
In the first T20, the Pakistani team will enter the field under the leadership of Shaheen Afridi with four fast bowlers. Apart from Shaheen Afridi, the other fast bowlers will be Amir Jamal along with Haris Rauf and Zaman Khan, according to Geo News.
Sources say that Muhammad Nawaz will be preferred over leg-break googly bowler Usama Mir in the first T20I, while Saim Ayub will open the innings with wicketkeeper-batsman Muhammad Rizwan.
Former captain Babar Azam will play at number three while the aggressive Fakhar Zaman has agreed to play at number four.
Azam Khan will play as a wicketkeeper if he joins the eleven-member team.
The first match of the five-match T20 series between Pakistan and New Zealand will be held in Auckland on Friday, January 12. Shaheen Afridi will lead the national team for the first time.
A-Sports has bought the TV rights of Pakistan Super League (PSL) season 9 for six billion and 30 crore rupees, Samaa has reported.
According to the details, A-Sports bid six billion and 30 crore rupees, Ten Sports made a bid of 5 billion and 28 crore rupees, while PTV tried to get PSL rights for 5 billion and 25 crore rupees.
A-Sports will now own TV rights for two years.
The bid for TV rights of PSL started at four billion rupees. Blitz has acquired digital PSL rights with a bid worth 1 billion and 90 crores.