Mohammad Nabi’s 15-ball 40 (2×4, 4×6) set up Afghanistan’s 45-run win against Zimbabwe in the second T20I on Friday. The victory helped Ashgar Afghan’s men take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Opener Usman Ghani (49, 34b, 5×4, 2×6) and No. 3 batsman Karim Janat (53, 38b, 3×4, 4×6), too, chipped in for Afghanistan which amassed 193 for five.
The scores: Afghanistan 193/5 in 20 overs (Usman Ghani 49, Karim Janat 53, Mohammad Nabi 40) bt Zimbabwe 148 in 17.1 overs (Ryan Burl 40, Rashid Khan 3/30).
DUNEDIN, New Zealand: New Zealand captain Tom Latham won the toss and chose to bat against Bangladesh on Saturday in the first one-day international at the University Oval.
Latham will lead a new-look New Zealand in his 100th ODI.
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Lineups:
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Devon Conway, Tom Latham (captain), Will Young, Jimmy Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Trent Boult.
Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal (captain), Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mahedi Hasan, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed.
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The future of slap fighting in the United States — UFC President Dana White is an advocate of the sport — just might be in the palm of the Da Crazy Hawaiians hand.
Slap fighting, yes the art of striking another fighter with an open hand for sport, is the latest head-turning spectacular.
Some people just need to be slapped, Da Crazy Hawaiian said.
Trying to poke fun at the slap-until-you’re-knocked out-sport would be, yes, a slap in the face to the Da Crazy Hawaiian.
He might take offense, but Layne Kailiilauokekoa Viernes his actual name can handle the pain.
He has has dished out the fiercest open-hand smacks in the United States in his bid to be the most punishing slapper in slap fighting.
The soundtrack from his highlight reel of slaps sounds like the constant cracking of a bullwhip and hes used his heavy hand of justice to defeat every cherry-cheeked challenger in his path.
Im putting my head on the line, Viernes said. I want to be a pioneer in the sport.
Viernes has joined the SlapStrike roster and will appear as a guest Saturday on the promotions The War from Warsaw pay-per-view event in Poland. The $14.99 event streams across all FITE platforms and pro wrestlers Matt Striker and Vampiro are on the broadcast team.
The rules for fights on Saturdays card are simple:
__ The match will consist of three alternate slaps or strikes.
__ There is a 60-second time limit between strikes.
__ The offensive players feet must be no further apart than shoulder distance.
__ A legal strike is one that is delivered only to the cheek of the opponent with an open palm.
Please, make sure the ice buckets are full.
The 6-foot-3, 370-pound Viernes, who turns 31 next month, was raised on the Hawaiian island of Oahu and since settled in Springfield, Missouri. He played football, wrestled, even boxed growing up on the island. But the goal of slapping another man silly wasnt set until around 2018 when he saw videos of Vasily Dumpling Kamotsky, the big Russian universally recognized as the greatest slap fighting champion.
I saw, whoa, man, this is what I want to do, Viernes said. Once I figured out it was a thing, I just really wanted to do it. It was just in me. Everyone around me thought it was a joke. Thought I was just talking just to talk.
The reality was, he was slapping just to get slapped.
Viernes works in construction and it was during a break he saw an ad for a slap fighting competition in Branson, the entertainment tourist spot and home of the comic Yakov Smirnoff. Viernes called his fiancee and told her this is my chance.
The slap fights were only 40 miles down the road! What a country.
I called the promoter and said, Hey, you got room for me? Im willing to do it yesterday, Viernes said.
What happened next went down in slap fight lore — and with some 1.4 million YouTube views.
Da Crazy Hawaiian and Hillbilly Hippie got to lay the slap down round after round that led to a few punch-drunk stumbles but no decision. Neither fighter turned the other cheek.
Finally, the moment of truth: the rattled Hippie stood with his hands clasped behind his back. Viernes measured his right hand against the Hippies face and brought it back while the crowd chanted One! Two! Three! and with that, came the slap shot that rocked 350 pounds of beef into his spotter and they crashed to the floor. The dazed Hippie needed three people to help him to his feet while the Branson crowd went wild.
On that night, a slapperstar was born.
It took me a week to stop looking like the Goonies monster, Viernes said.
His secret to success?
I like to channel my chi, channel my energy, he said. Its all fun and games until you figure out, man, this guy is hitting me with something else other than just his hand. Its an inner-energy you bring out. I basically bring my power from the ground.
The Dumpling fights Maciej Kwiatkowski in the first round of the tournament and Viernes will appear on the broadcast to challenge the champion.
Im hoping its Dumpling, Viernes said. I just need to let them know, you guys might have started it, but America is here to reign over it for years to come.
Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra are one win away from securing a mixed doubles berth for the Tokyo Games following a 12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-8, 13-11 win over Singapore’s Koen Pang Yew En and Ye Lin in the semifinals of the Asian qualifiers on Friday.
The Indians will take on top-seeded Korean pair of Lee Sang-su and Jeon Ji-hee in the final on Saturday.
The unbeaten run of star Indian boxer Vijender Singh in the professional circuit ended on Friday night after he was defeated by his Russian opponent Artysh Lopsan in the ‘Battle on Ship’ here.
Vijender, a bronze medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and who had turned professional in 2015, entered the bout with a 12-0 record but lost.
In the opening round, Vijender was cautious in his approach as the Russian outplayed the Haryana boxer and used his height to perfection.
The Russian, who was fighting his seventh bout, out-punched Vijender on the rooftop of the ‘Majestic Pride Casino’ ship on the waters of the Mandovi River, which resulted in a heart-break for the partisan crowd.
The referee, after one minute and nine seconds in the fifth round, declared the Russian as the winner as the eight-round game ended in a knockout.
In the second round, the 26-year-old Lopsan gave an exhibition of his class during and matched Vijender’s oodles of experience. He had better exchanges and made optimum use of his punches — hooks and straight punches — and tired the Haryana boxer.
The Indian continued to face stiff competition as the 6 feet four inches tall Russian managed to squeeze every ounce of his opponent’s energy.
Vijender was visibly troubled and also looked tired in the next two rounds as he was continuously punched by the Russian, who was a tad better on the given day.
In the co-main event, seasoned campaigner and pugilist Neeraj Goyat defeated his rival Sandeep Kumar in the welterweight division by a knockout.
In the other fights of the evening, Chennai’s Sabari J out-punched Amey Kalambe 60-54 in the lightweight category.
Then Haryana’s Kuldeep Dhanda suffered at the hands of Digari Mahesh from Uttarakhand in the super lightweight category.
Karthik Satish Kumar won against Jayapal Jaganadhan in the lightweight category.
Dharmendra Grewal was declared as the unanimous winner against Ashish Ahalawat in the cruiserweight category.
When Suryakumar Yadav strode onto bat for the first time in an international game, gently winding his arms and hawkishly surveying the field, Jofra Archer glared menacingly from the top of his run-up, his fingers firmly wrapped over the seam of the ball and his body arching like a prize-horse about to be unbolted. He thundered into his stride, gathering steam before, with a sudden whirl of limbs and frightening arm-speed and thrust of the shoulders, unleashed a thunderbolt down to the centre of the pitch.
Yadav, facing his very first ball of international cricket, ending what seemed like an eternity of longing, seemed utterly frozen. Only that, as the ball leapt off from the centre of the pitch, he made a firm sideways stride to cover the line of the ball, then threw his front pad in mid-air like a gymnast and swatted it over the fine-leg ropes. A more brutally brilliant stroke he could not have executed off the very first ball of his international career. There was both brilliance and beauty.
The beauty of the stroke was that he made it look all too natural. There was no hint of premeditation or a release of suppressed nervous energy or a sense of over-keenness. There was calm, a sense of belonging and just plain, spontaneous joy. His eyes kept tracing the ball until it settled into an empty seat in the stands. At that precise moment, he would have just whistled in the air and whispered: “Maza aatha hain, yeh shot khelne mein (I really enjoy playing this shot).”
This is Yadav’s stock reply to why he loves certain strokes. Like the pull that he just pulled out, or the sweep that swept out Adil Rashid. Of the six boundaries and three sixes that he stroked in the evening, each was a spectacle worthy of standalone value and description. Forget not the inside-out six over cover off Adil Rashid’s wrong’un, against the turn and the ball drifting in a bit, or the slap-sweep off Sam Curran, the ball before he perished. He wears audacity on his sleeve, but without arrogance.
Archer should not say he was not forewarned. A few months ago, in an IPL encounter, he had reverse-scooped the quick a ball after he was struck on the helmet. The way he described that exchange in a recent interview to The Indian Express, throws light on his batsmanship as well as psyche: “When I got hit on the helmet, I said one boundary or six toh marna he padega. Meine khaya hai toh tumko bhi khana padega. (I said to myself that I have to hit a four or a six. I was hit, now I will hit you). I went to Hardik and said yeh wala stroke banta hai kya? (will this stroke work?). He said, it is completely your call, and whatever you think just back it. I told myself that if this ball is pitched here, I will go behind. I wanted to do something different.” And he did unfurl one of the shots of the tournament.
Again, he stressed at the end of the answer: “Maza aaya tha. (I enjoyed it)” As much as maza, it betrayed a streak of combativeness that lurks beneath his usually calm exterior. If not for this virtue, he could have burned his India dreams long ago. He probed, persisted and improved, thus realising the dream that he had nursed all his life.
Suryakumar Yadav hit a fifty on debut. (BCCI)
There are other things cricketing that fills him with joy too. Like facing genuine quicks in the nets. “When I was in KKR, we had Umesh (Yadav) and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Then, at Mumbai Indians, we have Jasprit Bumrah, the world’s best fast bowler, then Lasith Malinga and Trent Boult. I don’t miss an opportunity to face them in the nets and I really look forward to this challenge every year. I used to relish playing them in the nets,” he explained. He could be a classic case study of IPL developing the all-round game of a player.
Or sweeping the daylights out of spinners. “Where I played cricket, there were a lot of spinning tracks and good spinners, so I had to learn playing the sweep. Then the stroke became a habit,” he said.
When he says how much he enjoys playing a particular shot, you could feel his joy and enthusiasm, like he’s still a wet-behind-the-ears teenager and not a vastly experienced 30-year-old veteran. “It’s this love for the game that had kept me going all through my life, in both my good days and bad ones,” he said.
He would have derived a lot of joy in how he maintained a healthy strike rate even after the power-play overs, an aspect of the game Mumbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene had counselled him to improve. In fact, he was better post-powerplay. In the period of field-restrictions, he scored 16 off 11; in the non-powerplay overs, he blazed 41 off 20 balls. “He said only one thing, whenever you’re batting after the powerplay, just try and hit a lot of gaps, take twos, do run hard between wickets and there won’t be any pressure and the strike rate also will be amazing,” he recollected the conversation.
As frequently as boundaries were pouring from his blade, he didn’t forget the sneaky singles and breezy twos. So much so that he played out just a couple of dot balls after the powerplay overs. His improved fitness — he knocked off 12 kgs in an intense three months of diet and training during lockdown — ensured that he didn’t tire towards the end. There is both style and steel to his game.
In a short time, he also showed dexterity in dealing with situational demands, like eschewing risks after the successive departure of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. He held the innings together with the assertiveness of a seen-it-all expert hand, and not at any point did he betray that he was someone batting for the first time in international cricket. It’s too preposterous to suggest he is the key to unlocking the middle-over riddle, but evident was a sense of belonging, and a sense of ease and calm that portends a longer international sojourn. And that he gets a lot of maza in every little thing that he does on a cricketing field.
RAIPUR: Sri Lanka Legends set up a final with India Legends in the Road Safety World Series T20 after Tillakratne Dilshan’s outfit defeated Jonty Rhodes-led South Africa Legends by eight wickets here on Friday. Sri Lankans romped home to a comfortable win chasing down a 126-run target with 16 balls to spare. Riding No.4 batsman Chinthaka Jayasinghe’s 47 not out (25b, 8×4, 1×6) and southpaw Upul Tharanga‘s unbeaten 39 (44b, 5×4), Sri Lanka finished at 129/2 in 17.2 overs. Captain Dilshan scored 18 and Sanath Jayasuriya, too, got as many runs. Earlier, Dilshan won the toss and elected to field and the Lankans bowled out South Africans for a paltry 125. Seamer Nuwan Kulasekara was the wrecker-in-chief for the Sri Lankans as he returned figures of 5/25. For South Africa, opener Morne van Wyk starred with a half century from 57 balls, including eight boundaries. Brief scores: South Africa 125 all out (Morne van Wyk 23, Alviro Petersen 27; Nuwan Kulasekara 5/25) lost to Sri Lanka129/2 (Upul Tharanga 39, Chinthaka Jayasinghe 47) by 8 wickets.
Sri Lanka Legends set up a final with India Legends in the Road Safety World Series T20 after Tillakaratne Dilshan’s outfit defeated Jonty Rhodes-led South Africa Legends by eight wickets here on Friday.
Sri Lankans romped home to a comfortable win chasing down a 126-run target with 16 balls to spare.
Riding No.4 batsman Chinthaka Jayasinghe’s 47 not out (25b, 8×4, 1×6) and southpaw Upul Tharanga’s unbeaten 39 (44b, 5×4), Sri Lanka finished at 129/2 in 17.2 overs. Captain Dilshan scored 18 and Sanath Jayasuriya, too, got as many runs.
Earlier, Dilshan won the toss and elected to field and the Lankans bowled out South Africans for a paltry 125.
Seamer Nuwan Kulasekara was the wrecker-in-chief for the Sri Lankans as he returned figures of 5/25.
For South Africa, opener Morne van Wyk starred with a half century from 57 balls, including eight boundaries.
Brief Scores: South Africa 125 all out (Morne van Wyk 23, Alviro Petersen 27; Nuwan Kulasekara 5/25) lost to Sri Lanka129/2 (Upul Tharanga 39, Chinthaka Jayasinghe 47) by 8 wickets.
Home side has trialled several options with an eye on T20 WC, but needs its strongest XI in decider; England happy with chance to experience high-stakes situations
In its exercise to get the team composition right ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup later this year, India has been in the mood to experiment in this series against England.
New players such as Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Rahul Chahar have got their chances, while experienced men, including Rohit Sharma, have enjoyed some rest.
Top-order concerns
But come Saturday, with the fate of the series on the line in the fifth T20I, India will look to come out all guns blazing with its strongest eleven.
It is only at the top of the order that the home side has some concerns. K.L. Rahul made 14 on Thursday, to go with scores of 1, 0 and 0 in the first three outings. His partner Rohit Sharma, with scores of 15 and 12, has only managed marginally better returns.
New-find Suryakumar lends a confident feel to the middle-order. In his maiden international batting outing on Thursday, the Mumbai cricketer set the stage on fire with a fine 31-ball 57.
Suryakumar’s first-ball six off Jofra Archer, made easy by his early anticipation of a short ball, was the result of his fearless and cerebral approach.
“My plan was clear. I’ve seen him (Archer) in the last two-three seasons in the IPL; I’ve watched all of his international games as well. I know the plans he has when a new batter comes in. I knew he would bowl short to me,” Suryakumar, the Man-of-the-Match, said after India’s victory.
This international spotlight has been a long time coming for Suryakumar, who missed out on the Australia tour despite an outstanding run in IPL 2020. The extended wait to wear the India cap only made the big occasion sweeter. “The passion for this game has always kept me going. I kept working hard — that’s the only option I had. I kept working on my skills, fitness and ticked all the boxes. I knew that when the time is right, the opportunity will come, and I’ll grab it with both hands. “There were some butterflies in the stomach, but I was also happy to know that I would bat at number three. I bat in the same spot for Mumbai Indians, so I knew the situation very well,” the 30-year-old said. Suryakumar got his chance because another talented rookie, Ishan, was forced out due to a groin strain. If Ishan is deemed fit, it remains to be seen whether the team management can accommodate both players in the eleven.
England, on the back of Ben Stokes’ 23-ball 46, came close to wrapping up the series 3-1 on Thursday.
At a media interaction, Stokes acknowledged the disappointment of losing a tight game, but added that there was a lot to look forward to.
“We go into the fifth T20I with a huge amount of pressure on us. That’s great for us, especially with the T20 World Cup coming up. The more pressure situations we are put in, the better for us,” Stokes said.
England: Eoin Morgan (Capt.), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley and Mark Wood.
Suryakumar Yadav hit a fifty on debut. (BCCI)