All posts tagged: Finn Allen

‘…Those conditions might not suit them’

‘…Those conditions might not suit them’

Published by Webster

2 min readMay 9, 2026 02:10 PM IST Kolkata Knight Riders are surging mid-season after starting the campaign poorly. They have won four in a row and have an advantage of an extra point because rain affected the match against the Punjab Kings earlier in the tournament. If they win all their remaining games, they will reach 17 points, giving them a clear advantage. Ajinkya Rahane’s side will next face Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who are in shaky territory after losing two in a row. Intriguingly, the game is in Raipur. “Their match against RCB is in Raipur. Raipur is an away ground even for RCB. I think RCB are the most balanced side in the tournament, but they have lost two consecutive games. So their form has wavered a little. I think, among the remaining games, that will be the most difficult to win, because those conditions might not suit them,” Aakash Chopra observed on his YouTube channel. M. Chinnaswamy has hosted RCB since the IPL’s inception in 2008, but this season, five games are …

Allen’s ton sees DC sink to another loss

Allen’s ton sees DC sink to another loss

Published by Parlour News

New Delhi: It’s rare to see a century in a low-scoring match but Finn Allen struck an unbeaten 101 off 47 deliveries, helping the Kolkata Knight Riders register their fourth win on the trot. Delhi Capitals, on the other hand, suffered their third consecutive loss. Finn Allen of Kolkata Knight Riders. (Sanchit Khanna/HT) The Feroz Shah Kotla wicket has sprung many surprises throughout the season: one day it was a belter where over 520 runs were scored, another day it was a sluggish surface that gripped, or it resembled the first session of a Test match with significant movement. On Friday, DC set KKR a mere 148-run target and it could be argued that they once again failed to come to terms with the pitch. Spin. Slow. Stump to stump — the Kolkata spinners had received the memo early. It wasn’t a minefield but the Delhi batters struggled to apply themselves. This is exactly what Allen did en route to his century as he led Kolkata Knight Riders to an eight-wicket win. Allen’s innings, a …

Finn Allen blazes maiden IPL century to power KKR to 4th consecutive win | Cricket News

Finn Allen blazes maiden IPL century to power KKR to 4th consecutive win | Cricket News

Published by Webster

2 min readUpdated: May 8, 2026 10:56 PM IST Finn Allen smashed his way to his first Indian Premier League century as he powered Kolkata Knight Riders to their fourth consecutive victory. KKR beat Delhi Capitals by eight wickets as Allen’s unbeaten 100 in 47 balls helped them chase down a target of 143 with 34 balls to spare. Allen had found the going difficult for much of the early part of his innings, dragging himself to 18 in 20 balls. However, the Kiwi batsman then smashed as many as 10 sixes and five fours to get to the mark. Earlier, KKR’s spinners choked the life out of the DC batters as the hosts dragged themselves to a score of 142/8 in 20 overs. KKR had as many as five different wicket-takers. Anukul Roy and Kartik Tyagi took two each while Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine and Cameron Green got solitary wickets. Narine was the star of the show despite having only one wicket, conceding just 17 runs in his four overs. AS IT HAPPENED | …

Ajinkya Rahane lashes out at critics over strike-rate talk amid KKR’s loss to SRH ‘They don’t like to watch me play’

Ajinkya Rahane lashes out at critics over strike-rate talk amid KKR’s loss to SRH ‘They don’t like to watch me play’

Published by Webster

3 min readKolkataUpdated: Apr 3, 2026 08:09 AM IST Smarting from their second loss of IPL 2026 in as many matches against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens, Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Ajinkya Rahane lashed out at the critics of his batting style and the ‘outside noise’ regarding his strike-rate. “I think I have one of the best strike-rates so far from 2023, and people who are talking about me are probably not watching the game, and they have a certain agenda against me. They don’t like me playing; they don’t like to watch me play. The amount of success I got, I guess, they are jealous. I am not too worried. You guys know what I am doing. Just one bad inning, not a bad innings, but my intent was there. Sometimes, as a batter, you don’t get that rhythm, you don’t get that flow,” he said at the post-match press conference. The 37-year-old started the season by making 67 off 40 balls against the Mumbai Indians on Sunday while opening with New Zealand’s …

IPL 2026: ‘Lord’ Shardul Thakur – innocuous-looking medium pacer who gets wickets not by chance, but through a combination of variations and brains | Cricket News

IPL 2026: ‘Lord’ Shardul Thakur – innocuous-looking medium pacer who gets wickets not by chance, but through a combination of variations and brains | Cricket News

Published by Webster

A match that produces 444 runs in 39.1 overs, punctuated by 24 sixes, by definition, belongs to the batters. Yet, the most decisive intervention in Mumbai Indians’ IPL 2026 opener against Kolkata Knight Riders was made by an innocuous-looking medium pacer. Shardul Thakur had already played for six IPL teams, and debuting for his seventh franchise on Sunday, he claimed 3/39 on a Wankhede Stadium surface where almost every other bowler struggled. For years, he has lived with the ‘Lord’ tag – a combination of affection and irony for someone who seems to take wickets at unexpected moments. However, a closer introspection reveals a method to his success. On Sunday, after Trent Boult, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah had failed to make early inroads, Thakur was introduced for the final over of Powerplay, with KKR flying at 68/0. Against Finn Allen, the all-rounder went against convention and bowled a slower, floaty delivery outside the off-stump. The New Zealander was drawn early into a powerful shovel, expecting pace on the ball. But there was none. The …

The ‘Finn Allen’ gamble: Juhi Chawla’s daughter Jhanvi Mehta tracked the Kiwi opener for years before his record-breaking T20 World Cup ton | Bollywood News

The ‘Finn Allen’ gamble: Juhi Chawla’s daughter Jhanvi Mehta tracked the Kiwi opener for years before his record-breaking T20 World Cup ton | Bollywood News

Published by Webster

3 min readMumbaiMar 8, 2026 03:00 PM IST Juhi Chawla’s daughter Jhanhvi Mehta is an avid cricket buff to an extent that she’s now an active co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the Indian Premier League co-owned by her parents — businessman Jay Mehta and Juhi — and Shah Rukh Khan. She was quite involved in the IPL Auctions 2026 in December last year, where she was all praise for rising New Zealand cricketer Finn Allen. “So, Finn Allen, I watched him in MLC (Major League Cricket) in Oakland (California, US) actually, where he was playing for the San Francisco Unicorns, when he smacked us around the field that day. I still remember that,” said Jhanvi, right after the 2026 IPL Auction. She added that she’s been observing Allen’s cricketing journey for years before pursuing him to join KKR in the upcoming edition of IPL. “I’ve seen him for years now, when he’s been coming, playing for New Zealand, also playing for RCB (Royal Challengers Bengaluru). Never really had a long run in the IPL, …

‘Bumrah is just a freak’: Michael Clarke backs India pacer to be decisive in T20 World Cup final | Cricket News

‘Bumrah is just a freak’: Michael Clarke backs India pacer to be decisive in T20 World Cup final | Cricket News

Published by Webster

3 min readMar 7, 2026 03:55 PM IST With India about to play the New Zealand in the T20 World Cup final this Sunday in Ahmedabad, former Australian captain Michael Clarke said fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah could very well be what wins the title for the hosts on the biggest occasion. Speaking on the Beyond 23 podcast – Clarke called Bumrah the most important player in cricket, in all forms of the game, by a long way. “Bumrah… he’s just a freak. Across all three forms of the game. By a distance the most important player in the world right now,” Clarke stated, and went on to say that the Indian bowler’s capability to perform with both the new ball, and when the innings is coming to an end, makes him particularly useful in T20 cricket. Clarke also said that captains often find it a problem to work out when to use Bumrah in the shortest form of the game. “He gets wickets with the new ball, and bowls the hardest overs at the death. …

Brad Haddin on New Zealand posing a threat against India

Brad Haddin on New Zealand posing a threat against India

Published by Webster

4 min readUpdated: Mar 7, 2026 01:27 PM IST With their record being 3-0 against India in T20 World Cup history, New Zealand have been one team which has given India a run for their money in T20 World Cups. While India won the bilateral series prior to the T20 World Cup this year by 4-1, the Black Caps have never lost a T20 World Cup match against India starting the 2007 T20 World Cup. Both the teams have met three times in the T20 World Cup with New Zealand scoring wins over India in the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and 2021 T20 World Cup. With the two teams facing each other in the T20 World Cup final at Ahmedabad on Sunday evening, Former Australian wicket-keeper batsman Brad Haddin believes that New Zealand is one team which India wouldn’t have wanted to play in the final and the Kiwis don’t fear India in home conditions. Haadin put his money on Finn Allen, who scored a century against South Africa in the …

How Finn Allen thrived after decluttering his mind and getting coach’s complete confidence

How Finn Allen thrived after decluttering his mind and getting coach’s complete confidence

Published by Webster

The sun had barely risen over the Tasman Sea, nearly 12,000 kilometres away from Kolkata, when Finn Allen cracked the fastest hundred in T20 World Cup. As he scythed and muscled his way to the three-figure mark in 33 balls, his Wellington Firebirds coach Glenn Pocknail’s mind slipped back to the March of 2020. A time when the pandemic was about to rage and stop the world. “He hadn’t been playing or been selected for any domestic cricket team at the time. Then I saw him bat in a four-day match in March 2020 and immediately thought, “Wow, this guy can really play”,” he recollects to this paper. Next winter, when life lurched back to normalcy, he had little hesitation to ring him up. “That winter I spoke with Finn and asked him to come and play for the Wellington Firebirds, the domestic team I was coaching. I knew we had an opening spot at the top of the order in T20 cricket and felt he would be perfect to fill that void. He was …

Most sixes in T20 World Cup 2026: Sanju Samson shatters India record with 16 maximums | Cricket News

Most sixes in T20 World Cup 2026: Sanju Samson shatters India record with 16 maximums | Cricket News

Published by Webster

2 min readUpdated: Mar 6, 2026 01:17 PM IST T20 World Cup 2026 Most Sixes: A whopping seven sixes in the high-pressure stage of a T20 World Cup semi-final has propelled Sanju Samson to the top of the big-hitting charts for India in the ongoing edition, despite starting the tournament on the bench. Samson lit up the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday, pulverising England pace ace Jofra Archer and Co. with a delectable set of stroke-making that powered India to a whopping 253-run total on a belter of a pitch. Samson flipped his negative match-up against Archer and smashed four sixes off the right-arm quick, becoming only the second batter to achieve the feat against him in all T20Is. The Kerala batter shattered Rohit Sharma’s record of 15 sixes from the 2024 World Cup with his seventh maximum, raising his tally to 16 in four innings, the highest-ever by an Indian in a single edition of the tournament. Samson, who became the fourth Indian opener to record at least 200 runs in the T20 World …