Virat Kohli's message to Indian batsmen, T20 league called off and more - Cricket News Today, 16 November 2018

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The Indian team has left for their tour to Australia while Bangladesh came back from behind to square the series 1-1 against Zimbabwe. Root’s century helped England to extend their lead and now, is in a good position in the second Test at Pallekele. The Pakistan-New Zealand Test series also kicked off today and the Kiwis find themselves in some early trouble. India ‘A’ also began their three-match unofficial Test series and are well placed at 340/5 (with Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari and Parthiv Patel hitting half-centuries).

Here are a few other things that created headlines in the cricketing world today.

#1 Virat Kohli wants batsmen to step up in Australia

On the eve of India’s departure to Australia, most of the questions were on India’s batting. Even skipper Virat Kohli stressed that it’s time for batsmen to take responsibility. India have been vulnerable with the bat in the recent past and that showed when the toured South Africa in January and England in August-September this year. The batsmen have time and again failed to deliver and the team has been found wanting more often than not.

“Our focus will be more on how batsmen will bat together on this tour. The bowlers are in a great space. After a long time, we have a bowling attack where we feel that we can pick up twenty wickets every time,” Kohli said in the pre-departure press conference.

The Indian skipper called for better decision making in pressure situations and also wants the team to be a lot more consistent. “When you win Test matches, you see that kind of performances but it is about remembering them. What we did right, why we won a Test match? It's not about celebrating a victory and forgetting it but it's about learning from victories as well so that it can be repeated. And that's consistency. And we need to be more consistent as a team,” Kohli said.

#2 Indian women qualify for World T20 semis for the first time since 2010

The Indian women’s team has been in sublime form as they made it three out of three in the ongoing ICC Women’s World T20 in the Caribbean. After beating New Zealand in the opening encounter, they went onto to defeat arch-rivals Pakistan.

Last night, they beat Ireland women comprehensively and became the second team (after Australia) from Group B to qualify for the semi-final. After being put into bat, contributions from the openers (51 from Mithali Raj and 33 from Smriti Mandhana) helped India post 145. Ireland never got going in their chase as they were restricted to 93/8 in their 20 overs. Radha Yadav took 3/25 while Deepti Sharma finished with 2/15 and Harmanpreet Kaur and Poonam Yadav shared one wicket apiece.

Despite this comprehensive win, India are still second on the points table and will have a direct top-spot shootout in their encounter against Australia.

However, this is the first time since 2010 that the ‘Women in Blue’have made it to the semi-final of a World T20. They were knocked out in the group stages in 2012, 2014 and 2016.

#3 Inaugural UAE T20x called off

The first edition of the UAE T20x has been cancelled due to the lack of buyers. The tournament attracted buyers only for two out of the planned five franchises. The inaugural edition which was supposed to be held in December had already announced its star players. In fact, five icon players (Eoin Morgan, David Miller, Andre Russell, Shahid Afridi and Kumar Sangakkara) were revealed. The first season was supposed to hold 22 matches over the course of three and a half weeks in December.

The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) released a statement which revealed the tournament has been called off. “Whilst negotiations had been completed on two franchise teams and a further three were well advanced, it was felt that there was no longer sufficient time to close the sales process and to successfully deliver and promote a December event,” the statement read.

This UAE T20x is the second T20 league hosted by an Associate Nation to be cancelled. Earlier this year, Hong Kong T20 Blitz was also called off and it was rescheduled to 2019.

#4 Joe Root handed one demerit point

England Test skipper Joe Root was reprimanded and was slapped with one demerit point for showing dissent at an umpire in the ongoing second Test between Sri Lanka and England in Kandy.

During the second day’s play (in 76th over of Sri Lanka’s innings), England appealed for a bat-pad dismissal against Dilruwan Perera. However, umpire Marais Erasmus turned it down. Root was not happy with the decision and was seen shaking his head in disappointment and kicking the turf. Root’s actions after the appeal was turned down led to the umpires laying the charge.

However, the England Test skipper pleaded not guilty but match referee Andy Pycroft supported the umpires and slapped Root with a demerit point. It was found that Root had breached Level 1 according to ICC's Code of Conduct.

“Root was found to have violated Article 2.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which related to 'showing dissent at an umpire's decision during an international match',” a statement released by the ICC read.