Sports Unplugged

  India defeated South Africa in the final of the T20I World Cup 2024 in a nail-biting contest and lift an ICC trophy after eleven long years. Toss: India won the toss and elected to bat first on a flat track in Bridgetown, Barbados. India's Batting: India came out to bat and struggled big time as they lost three wickets in the power play, including the skipper and star batter, Rohit Sharma. But Virat Kohli, who had a tournament to forget, was still out there and helped India get past that struggling phase alongside Axar Patel. The pair built a partnership of 72 runs, where Axar played the aggressor and Virat played the anchor. Later in the innings, Shivam Dube also played a handy cameo, which helped India reach a total of 176 in 20 overs. Looking at the pitch, it looked like India were still 15 to 20 runs short, but it was never going to be a cakewalk in front of a quality Indian bowling attack. South Africa's batting: South Africa also started their innings off a bit shaky an...

  USA cricket team shock the cricketing world as they pull off one of the biggest upsets in world cup history. Pakistan seemed clueless in all three departments of the game as the USA dominated most of the game and earned a well deserved victory in the super over. Toss: USA won the toss and asked Pakistan to bat first on a good batting surface in Dallas.  Pakistan's Batting: Pakistani batters looked clueless in the middle, whereas USA came prepared and ready for a battle. The runners-up of the 2022 T20I world cup lost three wickets in the power play and got off to a slow start. The wickets didn't have many demons, it was just a timid outing and poor approach with the bat from the men in green. The Shadab-Babar partnership gave some hope to Pakistan as they finished the innings with a respectable yet below par total of 159. USA's fielding was equally good as their bowling. USA's Batting: When USA came out to bat, they looked more calm and composed, they didn't play a...

  The Champions League returned with the first two games of the quarterfinals, where Manchester City took on Real Madrid and Arsenal clashed with Bayern Munich.  Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich  Arsenal hosted Bayern Munich at Emirates Stadium in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals between the two sides. Bayern started as favourites because of the history between the two teams. Before this game, in the last ten encounters between the two sides, Bayern won five, Arsenal were victorious three times, and two ended in a draw. But this Arsenal team under the coaching of Mikel Arteta was never going to be easy, as they hold the top seed in the English Premier League currently, whereas Bayern Munich are fifteen points behind Bayern Leverkusen in the Bundesliga and hold the second seed. This game was entertaining as two teams fought hard till the end. Bukayo Saka started the scoring for Arsenal as he scored the first goal of the game at the twelve-minute mark, assisted ...

  Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) continues to entertain the fans as they have reappointed Babar Azam as their white ball captain, just three months after he stepped down from that role. Babar was offered T20I captaincy just before the Australia tour back in late 2019 which he accepted and then in 2020 he was made Pakistan's all format captain. His four-year captaincy tenure had a few ups and more downs. The positives included, beating India for the first time in a World Cup back in 2021, reaching the semi-final of 2021 T20I World Cup, the final of Asia Cup 2022 and T20I World Cup 2022. Negatives were that we reached the knockout stages multiple times under Babar's leadership, but never got over the line. Babar was unable to win any championship in his captaincy reign. Few more negatives were that Pakistan's test side lost two back to back home series in 2022 against Australia and England, in short we lost four test matches in a row under his leadership.  After the ODI World C...

Another weekend in Pakistan cricket full of entertainment - what's new in that though? This one took fans by surprise, as both Imad Wasim and Mohammad Amir have decided to take their retirements back. These announcements come off the back of certain mysterious meetings between Pakistan Cricket Board officials and the two players. Both have made themselves available for selection for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024. These decisions by Imad and Amir have sparked interesting debates on social media as fans have divided opinions.  Imad's decision of taking his retirement back was relatively well received by fans, as Pakistan desperately needs a quality spin bowling all-rounder in the lower order. Shadab Khan is there, but his bowling isn't as effective anymore. Imad was also in sublime form in the later half of the Pakistan Super League season 9 as he collected three man of the match awards in the playoffs. Also, Mohammad Nawaz's poor form has made it easier for Imad to wal...

  Islamabad United lift the Pakistan Super League title for the third time, with Imad Wasim claiming his third man of the match in a row. It was another thriller of a game, and we saw quite a few in this tournament. Multan Sultans fought till the very last ball, but the 'Boys in red' held their nerves and secured the win. Karachi's crowd didn't disappoint, either, as it was a full house for a Monday night final. Sultans batted first in the big game and put up a below par total on a good batting surface. Muhammad Rizwan's underwhelming tournament continued as he only managed to score 26 runs off 26 balls. Usman Khan on the other hand continued his sublime form and scored yet another fifty. Iftikhar Ahmed also known as Iftimania came to the rescue and powered Sultans to a fighting total of 159 runs. Sultans' batters had no answer to Imad Wasim's spin as he became the only player in PSL history to take five wickets in a final. In the chase, United started off w...

  "ICE RUNNING THROUGH HIS VEINS", Ian Bishop said this on commentary when Imad Wasim won Islamabad United the game against Multan Sultans. Well, almost a week later Imad has repeated something similar against Peshawar Zalmi but this time the knock was really special as it took Islamabad United into the finals after 6 years. This time around, Imad wasn't alone, as he was supported by a reincarnated Haider Ali. United won the toss and bowled first on a flat Karachi surface. This decision of bowling first was questioned by the commentators earlier in the game because just a day before, United defended comfortably against the Gladiators.  Zalmi openers came out all guns blazing, specially young superstar Saim Ayub; he was unstoppable in the power play and was well-supported by the Zalmi skipper. The partnership was broken in the eighth over by Naseem as he removed Babar courtesy an exceptional catch by Shadab. Saim then slowed down after his fifty, but Mohammad Haris on the ...