Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner are banned

Smith, Warner and Bancroft are banned

Cricket Australia (CA) smashed 12 months ban on Steve Smith and David Warner while Cameron Bancroft is banned for 9 months due to planned ball-tampering. Bancroft was caught on the camera for rubbing the ball with a yellow colour object while 3rd Test match against South Africa. The object is known to be adhesive tape. Smith and Warner are excluded from IPL 2018 season as per Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Cameron Bancroft taking out adhesive tape from his pocket.
Image Sourceimages.news18.com

        

                                                                

Australian team is on South African Tour and on Day 3 of the 3rd Test Match, Bancroft was caught taking out an object(known adhesive tape) from his pockets and pants and rubbing it on the ball. When asked by the umpires he said that he his having his Sunglasses cover in the pocket. This incident is known to be a planned strategy by some of the Australian players. Steve Smith, the Captain of Australia confirmed in the press conference on same day that 'Leadership group' was involved in the sad incident excluding the coach- Darren Lehmann. It tells that Warner, the vice-captain of Australia too had a hand in it. Smith left captaincy for the 4th day of Test match and Tim Paine was selected as the interim Captain.

Smith and Warner were barred by ICC to play the last test match and Smith was penalised 100% match fees while Bancroft was penalised with 75% fees. But James Sutherland, the Chief Executive of CA smashed the trios with a ban from all forms of cricket excluding the grade cricket. Smith and Warner are banned for 12 months while Bancroft for 9 months. Middle order batsman Glenn Maxwell and openers Joe Burns and Matt Renshaw are replacements of the trio for the last match.

On left- Steve Smith, Middle- Cameron Bancroft and Right- David Warner
Image Source- deccanchronicle.com

                                                      

Smith cannot captain the side for 2 years. CA left the decision on BCCI to decide whether they want Smith and Warner to include in IPL 2018 or not. BCCI excluded them from IPL 2018.  Both of them will return in next summer and will play World Cup and Ashes. The trio will face difficulty in practicing for those tournaments. It will also be interesting whether cricket Australia selects them as soon as ban ends. But there can be a appeal from these players to cricket Australia to lift ban on them. Till then they are out from all formats of competitive cricket.

Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, 2k18

New Season to bring Joys for Ferrari 

The opening race at Melbourne in Australia held on 25th March 2018 where both the Ferrari drivers dominated. With a new season drivers tried to gear up and take the most advantage from the opening race. Rivalry began from the Practice sessions when Lewis Hamilton won 2 out of 3 practices. Qualification for the race was scheduled on a day before of the main race.

Qualifying

Qualifier was divided in 3 rounds- Q1, Q2 and Q3. 15 racers out of 20 qualify for Q2 and 10 out of 15 go to the final Q3. Mercedes rider Lewis Hamilton secured 1st place in the qualifyings as he was quickest from all. He registered his 73rd Pole position in his career and 7th in Australia. While Raikkonen stood 2nd and Vettel on 3rd. Valtteri Bottas, other Mercedes rider was penalised 5 positions back and started the race on 15th spot. Daniel Ricciardo was too penalised for 3 positions and he started the race from 8th spot   

Standings for the Race

Pos.- Position, No.- Number

Main Race

The 1st race of the season started senastionaly well. Hamilton managed to maintain his lead while Magnussen jumped to 4th spot leaving both Red bull drivers back. Sirotkin got out in his first Formula One race, not a good start for Williams. Vettel lead the race when Raikkonen and Hamilton went for the pit stop.

Racers were constantly attacking on each other to gain position. Haas riders were looking good but a pit stop costed end of the race for them. Haas team principal said that the wheels were cross-nutted when each of them departed the pit. The car's stopped when they went to the track and they were out. The incident resulted in Yellow flag and Virtual safety car which means the racers have to lower their speed below a limit and cannot overtake anyone on track. Sebastian took the most advantage of the situation. When the racers were slow he went to the pit to get fresh tyres and defended his 1st position from Hamilton when he came out. Alonso jumped to 5th spot, ahead of Red Bull rider Verstappen. Alonso was constantly attacked by him.

While the race was coming to an end, Vettel managed to maintain a gap of  more than a second from Hamilton. But a software malfunction with Lewis assured German rider Sebastian to a spectacular win. Vettel was all cheered up! He got the perfect start for the season he would have wanted. While British rider Hamilton secured 2nd and Finland rider Raikkonen stood on 3rd. Ferrari performed really well as their racers secured podium.

Main Race Results  

NC- Not classified, DNF- Did not Finish

Statistics:-

• Vettel ensured 3rd victory in Australia
• Back to Back victories in Australia for Vettel
• This is his 48th career win and 100th podium position
• Ferrari ensured 8th win in Australia
• No Australian has ever managed a podium position on Australian Grand Prix 

Delhi Dynamos VS Pune FC,2nd March 2018

Delhi Dynamos end up with a Tie

Delhi Dynamos and Pune FC played their last match against each other. Delhi won their 1st match of the season but failed to carry on the winning momentum and end up the season on the 8th spot. While Pune had qualified.

Delhi Dynamos Vs Pune FC

The last Match of both the teams was scheduled on 2nd March at 8PM in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi. The date was remarkable as the country celebrated Holi!

Pune Vs Delhi squad for the Match.Above is Pune and Beneath is Delhi

Pune Subs-S.Golui, R.Kumar, Jonatan, J.Raja, Ajay.Singh, K.Singh, G.Singh.

Delhi Subs- X Irureta, P.Kotal, J.Lumu, E.Moya, D.Ngaihte, R.Rodrigues, S.Singh

Squad Design is self-designed and not copied from anywhere.

Here is a video of the entry of players:

First Half!

The Game was full of adventure and thrill. The teams kept on attacking and then came a heavenly penalty for the hosts. It was a Goal!Delhi got the start they were looking for as Kalu Uche scored a goal in the 10th min. Delhi thought that they hit them hard. But a team who is on the 2nd position on Points table knows how to deal the situation. Pune leveled the scores immediately in the 12th minute by a penalty. It was 1-1.Both teams tried gaining the lead. The next few minutes were defended more by Delhi. 27th minute gave Delhi a real chance to lead when ball went inside the goal, but just called Offside! Further, mistake from goalkeeper V.Kaith and a defender gave the ball to Kalu Uche of Delhi and he hits this time too. Delhi was 2-1 up in the contest! Hosts were roaring at the end of the 1st half and hitted the pole of the goal in 42nd minute.Half Time Up!

What a half time it was.Both teams tried their best but Delhi led the way by 2-1.

Second Half!

This half initiated with Visitors attacking hard but defended. A change in the 51st minute felt clumsy to the audience. Two Goal scorer Kalu Uche of Delhi was replaced in the 51st minute.Crowd shouted 'Kalu Uche' and cheered him. Pune tried equaling the match. Delhi fans chanted 'Jai Mata Di'. Hosts were inching towards the last match win of the season for them. But a 86th minute foul resulted in a penalty to Pune and E.Alfaro scored the second goal and equalled the scores.It was 2-2. Further the teams wanting to lead managed to make it a tie. Full Time Up!

The result of the match was a tie by 2-2.

Pune would be happy with the tie as they have not lost the last match before the playoffs. They might be having immense confidence to get good results further in the tournament. But Delhi would be little unhappy for the tie. However I witnessed a great close match by the teams and respect the sportsmanship showed. Delhi could reverse their mood as they lost only 1 match out of 7 in the later tournament.

Stats:

Team Stats                                         Delhi Dynamos                                          Pune FC

Shots                                                             13                                                            12

Shots on target                                              04                                                            05

Possession                                                     59%                                                        41%

Fouls                                                             15                                                            11

Yellow cards                                                 03                                                            01

Red cards                                                       -                                                               -

Offsides                                                        03                                                             02

Corners                                                         07                                                            06

Delhi Goals- Kalu Uche 10'(P), 34'

Pune Goals- Emiliano Alfaro 13'(P), 86'(P)

Yellow cards -S. Panwar (Pune), P. Dias, S. Singh, M. S. Dhot(All Delhi)

Awards of the Match

• Club award worth 50k given to Kalu Uche and A.Khan.
• Limitless Player award worth 25k given to E.Alfaro.
• DHL Winning Pass of the Match worth 25k awarded to Nand Kumar.
• Amul Fittest Player of the match worth 25k awarded to Arana.
• ISL Emerging Player worth 25k presented to I.Vanmalsawma.
• Hero of the Match worth 50k presented to Kalu Uche.