Dileep Premachandran

Chennai Super Kings Acing the Act of Balancing Experience and Youth

Given how long some of Chennai’s players have been around, you’d have been forgiven if you half-expected them to take the field with Samurai topknots and Bushido blades. After the auction last January, when Chennai bought ten players over the age of 30, even their own fans dubbed them the Senior Kings....
Dileep Premachandran-April 10, 2018,1:34 pm IST Cricketnext
Familiar Names Return as IPL Turns Back the Clock For Season 11

Now, as the IPL prepares for season XI, with a multi-billion-dollar broadcast deal in the bank, Australia is again at the heart of all cricket discussion. The ball-tampering controversy in Cape Town last month didn’t just cost the men in baggy green a captain and vice-captain. It left Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad having to search for new leaders, with Steve Smith and David Warner banned from taking any part in the competition....
Dileep Premachandran-April 7, 2018,12:00 pm IST Cricketnext
Lehmann, The Wannabe Black Caps and Other Australian Jokes

And so, the bans have been handed down, and the culprits sent home. A line drawn under one of cricket’s more controversial incidents. Or has it? Despite the announcements from Cricket Australia, so many questions remain to be answered...
Dileep Premachandran-March 29, 2018,11:34 am IST Cricketnext
Ball Tampering Controversy: When Smith Decided Cheating Was Okay

A year ago, an Australian tabloid compared Virat Kohli to Donald Trump ‘for his continual perpetuation of fake news’ and for being ‘the man who last week launched a scandalous attack on [Steve] Smith and the Australians where he accused of them being systematic cheats’...
Dileep Premachandran-March 26, 2018,4:00 pm IST Cricketnext
Lionel Messi: The Beautiful Game's Favourite Child

Lionel Messi is utterly unique in that he is both creator and finisher. He’s a composer and soloist, director and actor. Everything that is wonderful, and has been, about Barcelona in the last decade flows from him....
Dileep Premachandran-March 16, 2018,12:29 pm IST Sports
BCCI Contracts: The Women Deserve a Better Deal, at Every Level

We’ll slap ourselves on the back over having given the women such a generous hike, and completely ignore just how hard it is to stay invested in the game even at the state level. The proposed structure is a pyramid alright, but by focussing so much on the apex, it ignores every structural issue that still holds back Indian cricket....
Dileep Premachandran-March 9, 2018,2:30 pm IST Cricketnext
Time the Aussies Realised They Don't Have a Birthright Over Sledging

The gentleman’s game. What a laugh. If cricket really was that, David Warner wouldn’t be anywhere near the field at St. George’s Park in Port Elizabeth when the second Test against South Africa begins on Friday (March 9). By not throwing the book at him and banning him for at least a game, cricket’s authorities have failed miserably to clamp down on atrocious behaviour. ...
Dileep Premachandran-March 8, 2018,1:00 pm IST Cricketnext
English Football's Formula One-esque Approach Lights Up Champions League

But Liverpool weren’t the most impressive English performers of the week. Manchester City deserve plaudits for their 4-0 evisceration of Basel away from home – with the tie put to bed inside 23 minutes – but even their thunder was stolen by Mauricio Pochettino and Tottenham Hotspur. ...
Dileep Premachandran-February 16, 2018,1:55 pm IST Sports
Rahul Dravid Has Never Had to Put On an Act, He Was & Still Remains Indian Cricket's 'Nice Guy'

Dravid never had to put on an act. He really was a nice guy, the sort of bloke even the opposition seldom had a harsh word for. is embarrassment at being awarded more money than the Under-19 players and support staff doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. This is the man who wouldn’t sign on a currency note, who knew the value of things....
Dileep Premachandran-February 8, 2018,4:52 pm IST Cricketnext
Virat Kohli Knows Best How to Lead Team India, Let's Leave It to Him

Kohli is no fool. He knows as well as anyone that a poor run of results in England and Australia might cost him his job. But till now, in the three years that he has led the Test side, he has accumulated more than enough credit to be allowed to trust his own instincts....
Dileep Premachandran-January 30, 2018,5:33 pm IST Cricketnext
'Pitching it Right' - Johannesburg Surface a Result of a Bigger Systemic Failure

The pitch should only ever be part of the backdrop. Once it takes centre stage, then you’re one small step away from absurdity. That’s been apparent from day one of this engrossing but ultimately flawed game....
Dileep Premachandran-January 27, 2018,1:30 pm IST Cricketnext
Of Rabada and Ngidi's Rise and 'Transformation' of Cricket in South Africa

“Oh, he’s a fantastic batsman,” said Dr. Ali Bacher, as Virat Kohli brought up his half-century on an enthralling opening day at The Wanderers in Johannesburg. Bacher captained Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards, and watched Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Greg Chappell and many others. He knows a thing or two about batsmanship, especially in these conditions...
Dileep Premachandran-January 25, 2018,2:47 pm IST Cricketnext
Is It Time for Team India to Look at a New Pool of Players to Change Abysmal Away Record?

Is Shreyas Iyer ready for Test cricket on speed? Can Prithvi Shaw take his stunning first-class form to the highest level? If we’re to find out the answers, it will only be once they’re thrown into the deep end. With the conveyer belt of home Tests now over, they would have to be blooded in England or Australia....
Dileep Premachandran-January 18, 2018,2:25 pm IST Cricketnext
Arsene Wenger in Danger of Ruining His Golden Legacy With Gunners

The most galling for Arsenal fans was Liverpool’s first, crashed in from distance by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. For six years, he was on Arsenal’s books, one of Wenger’s starlets who never really graduated to the main stage. When he moved north at the start of the season, it seemed a sideways step. But after years of treading water with Wenger, he has been central to Liverpool’s surge up the table....
Dileep Premachandran-January 16, 2018,3:29 pm IST Sports
Kohli's Decision to Drop Bhuvneshwar and Persist With Rohit is Baffling

A whole host of former Test stalwarts, Indian and otherwise, are aghast about the selection. One of India’s greatest openers wants the captain to drop himself if he doesn’t score at Centurion. Twitter trolls are out in force, as are the meme-makers. Even by the standards of Indian over-reaction to events on the cricket field, this seems extraordinary...
Dileep Premachandran-January 15, 2018,8:52 am IST Cricketnext

Photogallery

Live TV

24 Apr, 2018 | Indian Premier League

SRH vs MI

118/10
18.4 overs
87/10
18.5 overs

Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Mumbai Indians by 31 runs

Full Scorecard
23 Apr, 2018 | Indian Premier League

KXIP vs DD

143/8
20.0 overs
139/8
20.0 overs

Kings XI Punjab beat Delhi Daredevils by 4 runs

Full Scorecard
22 Apr, 2018 | Indian Premier League

MI vs RR

167/7
20.0 overs
168/7
19.4 overs

Rajasthan Royals beat Mumbai Indians by 3 wickets

Full Scorecard
22 Apr, 2018 | Indian Premier League

CSK vs SRH

182/3
20.0 overs
178/6
20.0 overs

Chennai Super Kings beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 4 runs

Full Scorecard
21 Apr, 2018 | Indian Premier League

DD vs RCB

174/5
20.0 overs
176/4
18.0 overs

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Delhi Daredevils by 6 wickets

Full Scorecard