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Saturday, May 1, 2021

Nicholas Pooran's yet another duck made me unhappy !!

Sad to see people still loitering on roads – some off them not wearing a mask, some around their necks ! – why do not these people understand, don’t they read, don’t they see around – Covid 19 is deeeeply impacting humanity.

Tamil Nadu recorded 18,692 positive cases this day, bringing the state tally to 11,66,756. Among these, Chennai reported 5473 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 333804.  Karnataka has reported a record high of 48296 new  cases on April 29, out of which 26756 cases are from Bengaluru alone.  Please – please be at home, stay home, stay safe !!

                    At Ahmedabad - Harpreet Brar smacked Harshal Patel over midwicket for a 6 off the final ball – KL Rahul’s 4-6-4 – totalled 22 runs in that over – a good one after what Chris Gayle smacked Jamieson for 5 fours in the 6th over off the match. Kyle Jamieson is tall – at 6'8", he is one of the tallest fast bowlers in the circuit.  He was born in Auckland, played for Canterbury and rose high.  He made his international debut in Feb 2020 against India.  Today Universal Boss Gayle tore into him, nonchalantly pulling and hitting him all over for 5 fours.

Today Nicholas Pooran was out for a duck and now  has a duck this season off 0, 1, 2 and 3 balls.   It was a Test match-like ball Jamieson served him a short one, that rose uncomfortably took the bat and went to backward point – and this duck made me sad.  Shahrukh Khan too made a duck – KL Rahul’s unbeaten 91 ensured a fighting total of 179/5.



Remember in Nov 11,2018 at Chepauk – T20I   – India Vs once mighty West Indies –  I could not recognize most players in the line-up that read : Hope, Hetmeyer, Darren Bravo, Dinesh Ramdin,  Pooran (who !); KA Pollard, CR Brathwaite (c), FA Allen, KMA Paul, K Pierre, O Thomas .. ..  on that day, was impressed to see Nicholas Pooran play   some audacious shots – he scored 50 off 25 balls – later  read that he is a wicket-keeper from Trinidad & Tobago. 

In Jan 2014,   Pooran was involved in a road accident, a very nasty one at that. That accident left him with a torn patella tendon, fractured tibia and fractured ankle.  He underwent  two surgeries; the  first was less than 24 hours after the accident, to repair the left patellar tendon. The second, on his right leg to repair the ankle fracture, had to wait another week, till after the swelling from the injury subsided. The surgeries, though, were a minor detail in the process to figure out the answer to the question Pooran had put to his doctors. It took Pooran until July, six months after the accident, before he could walk without assistance. 

Great resilience – he was back, up and running and scoring runs but this season had found runs too difficult to come by.  On 12.4 against Royals at Mumbai he was out for a duck; on 16.4 another duck against CSK and on 18.4 against Delhi Capitals scored 9 !  .. .. on 21.4 against Sunrisers he was run out for a duck without even facing a ball.  On 23.4 against Mumbai Indians he was not required to bat and on 26.4 against KKR he scored 19 with a four and a six ! – and another duck today !! 

.. .. let us read something good that Cricketers are doing too. 

India and Delhi Capitals batsman Shikhar Dhawan will donate Rs 20 lakh and "money from all post-match individual performance awards" that he receives during Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 towards "Mission Oxygen."   Dhawan follows former India captain Sachin Tendulkar, who had donated Rs 1 crore to the group on Thursday.

India cricketer Jaydev Unadkat said in a tweet  that he will be contributing 10 per cent of his salary from the Indian Premier League (IPL) towards "providing essential medical resources for those in need" at a time India battles a deady second wave of Covid-19 infections. Unadkat, who plays for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, was bought by Rajasthan for Rs 3 crore at the IPL 2020 auction. West Indies batsman Nicholas Pooran, also took to social media to announce that he will be donating a portion of his IPL salary to support India's fight against the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Pooran, who has played in all the  matches for PBKS so far in IPL 2021, posted a video message on his social media accounts in which he made the announcement of his donation and also urged everyone to help in whatever way they can to help the country fight against the coronavirus crisis. "To all my fans and supporters around the world and back home, I realise I am in a safe and privileged position here in India at the IPL. "But it's also heartbreaking to be so close to such tragedy that's unfolding around us. For a country that has shown us so much love and support over the years, all I can do is join hands with my fellow players to help bring some awareness to this situation in India. "If you can get vaccinated please do, I will also do my part which is continue to pray for India but not only that, I would also like to donate a portion of my IPL salary towards this crisis," Pooran said in the video.

While Cummins pledged $50,000 to PM Cares Fund, Unadkat and Pooran donated part of their IPL salaries through other channels. Former Australia cricketer Brett Lee, IPL teams Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals among others have also made donations.

With Covid peaking .. .. please do not loiter, stay at home, stay safe ! 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
30.4.2021 

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