‘Chucking’ back in the news!

Mohammed Hafeez of Lahore Lions and Prenelan Subrayen of Dolphins, both off-spinners, were reported for suspected illegal action by on-field umpires during the match and by the third umpire after the game.

Mohammad Hafeez, the captain of Lahore Lions (Pakistan), and Prenelan Subrayen of Dolphins (South Africa) have been reported for a suspected illegal bowling action during the Champions League Twenty20 match on September 27.

Hafeez and Subrayen, both off-spinners, were reported by on-field umpires during the match and by the third umpire after the game.

As per the CLT20 guidelines, both the bowlers will have to request an official assessment of their bowling from the BCCI’s suspect bowling action committee. Hafeez and Subrayen would be on warning list. However, they would continue playing in the future matches unless they receive another report.

According to the BCCI guidelines, if a report is received while the player is on the warning list the player shall be suspended from bowling in any matches organised by the BCCI until he is cleared.

A player suspended from bowling shall play in future matches. However, he would not be entitled to bowl.

Manan misses Viru’s bat

Kings XI Punjab’s Virender Sehwag was all praise for his young opening partner Manan Vohra, whose 32-ball-65 set the tone for an emphatic victory against Northern Districts. In fact, Sehwag said that he wanted to present Manan with one of his bats if he scored a century.

“I offered to give Manan my bat if he could score a hundred. Unfortunately he couldn’t,” said a smiling Sehwag, who did not have too many charitable things to say about the Mohali pitch.

“It wasn’t a pretty good wicket for T20. It (the ball) was stopping and gripping and turning, and as a batsman you will stop and think whether you want to go for your shots. But credit to our batting. They (Northern Districts) were chasing 216, they had to go after the bowling, but we had two good spinners,” said Sehwag.

Vohra said, “It was a good day for me, I was hitting the ball well and I thought I could carry on.”

When asked what his reaction was when Sehwag told him that he would present him with one of his bats, Vohra said: “I told him I was waiting for it, but I miscued a short ball. More patience, more consolidation, more singles, which I’m not doing right now.”

‘A great platform’

Perth Scorchers’ Jason Behrendorff said the Champions League Twenty20 is a great platform to earn a place in the Australia national cricket team.

“That’s always a possibility to get a better contract after doing well here,” he said ahead of his team’s match against Chennai Super Kings at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

“There is no reason why the players wouldn’t be selected for the country or getting better contracts after performing well in the Champions League. If you have been continuously performing well, there are plenty of opportunities out there — T20 and playing for the country,” he added.

Stating that the players are looking forward to performing well here at every stage, Behrendorff said, “That’s something which everyone in the team is pointing out, making sure to give their best performance at every stage of the game.”

‘KKR is like a family’

After making his presence felt with a three-wicket haul in Kolkata Knight Riders’ victory against Perth Scorchers, the young left-arm chinaman bowler, Kuldeep Yadav, is not only enjoying being part of a star-studded unit but said that the Gautam Gambhir-led side is like family.

“It’s great to be part of the KKR squad. Nobody has ‘airs’ about themselves and are very down to earth. They never make me feel like a junior player. Everybody respects and supports each other and we all gel like a family. It’s never like I am with the ‘stars’ or anything,” Kuldeep said.

The former Mumbai Indians player said that getting into the KKR XI was difficult but the effort was worth it.

“I always felt like a junior player in the Mumbai Indians camp. I was just 17 and things were very different then. In KKR everybody treats you the same. Of course, I got my break in the XI a little late and that was understandable as KKR has got a lot of world-class spin options like Sunil Narine, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib al Hasan. But I have learnt a lot just being part of the purple brigade,” said Kuldeep.

The 19-year-old player is also a great fan of his captain. “Gauti bhai always motivates me during the nets. Even during a match he supports me. He is a very attacking captain and backs all the youngsters in the team and it feels nice when a senior player lends support,” said Kuldeep.

Bowling with variations is the key

Though he admitted that T20 is a game where bowlers often find themselves at the receiving end, the Sri Lankan all-rounder, Thisara Perera, is of the view that it is good to have a few variations in order to surprise the batsmen.

Perera, 25, who has been the pick of the bowlers for Kings XI Punjab in the ongoing Champions League, said that having change-ups helped him leave the batsmen guessing.

“I am using a lot of variations in my bowling technique. When someone hits a six, I like to bowl yorkers. I have a lot of variations — may be a slow ball and a leg cutter, I think I am quite successful with my variations,” he said.

Perera impressed with his bowling, returning figures of 3-0-17-2 against the Hurricanes and 3-0-15-2 against the Tridents.

Perera said that T20 is a batsman-dominated game and a bowler has to put in the extra effort if he has to come out on top.

“I think as a bowler it is very difficult to bowl in T20s because everyone is looking for runs.

T20, I think, is a batsman’s game because as a batsman I know I can hit 20 runs, I can hit everywhere...that’s why as a bowler it is hard to bowl in T20s,” he said.