Bangladesh Legends lost their first game in the ongoing Road Safety World Series against India Legends by 10 wickets on Friday at Raipur.

After Australia pulled out from this event due to the Covid-19 situation around the globe, the authority included Bangladesh Legend.

Bangladesh Legends is led by the former left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique.

Bangladesh won the toss in their first game and opted to bat first. Javed Omar and Mohammad Nazimuddin put 59 runs on the board in the first wicket stand. Despite this wonderful start, the Bangladesh Legends failed to continue on a good run as they lost wickets in regular intervals.

Pragyan Ojha earned the first breakthrough removing Javed for 12. After that, Bangladesh lost wickets regularly.

Nazimuddin was the best runs getter for Bangladesh posting 49 off 33 with eight fours and one six. Javed socred 12 and Rajin Saleh also posted 12 runs.

None of the others Bangladeshi batsmen were able to reach double figures. They eventually posted 109 runs before getting dismissed in 19.4 overs.

For India Legends, Pragyan Ojha, Vinay Kumar and Yuvraj Singh bagged two wickets each.

The once golden opening pair of India, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, opened the innings for India and strolled home to the target in almost half their allotted overs to seal the game by 10 wickets.

This event came as a good chance for many spectators to see their favourite retired cricketers live on the cricket field again. The Sehwag and Sachin pairing decimating the bowling was a treat for millions of cricket fans around the world. Except in Bagladesh.

Score: Bangladesh Legends (109 all out in 19.4 overs), lost by 10 wickets to India Legends (114/0 in 10.1 overs).

Bangladesh Legends: Javed Omar, Hannan Sarkar, Nafees Iqbal, Rajin Saleh, Nazimuddin, Mohammad Sharif, Khaled Mashud (wk), Khaled Mahmud, Mohammad Rafique (c), Alamgir Kabir, Abdur Razzak, Mehrab Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahman and Mamun Rashed

India Legends: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar (c), Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Yusuf Pathan, Naman Ojha (wk), Irfan Pathan, Manpreet Gony, Vinay Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel, S Badrinath and Noel David.

Members of the Bangladesh national cricket team are safe and sound in New Zealand, said Jalal Yunus, the chairman of the media and communication committee of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

At 2:27am local time (Thursday) a magnitude 7.3 earthquake was felt near the east of New Zealand’s North Island. This was followed by a Tsunami warning for mainly coastal areas of North Island.

Jalal, who is in New Zealand with the team, said the Bangladesh team are currently staying in Christchurch in South Island and is far from the epicentre of the quake.

The Bangladesh Team management has been in contact with the local authorities who have assured that there was no reason for alarm in this part of the country, the BCB said in a statement.

Also read: Pacific quake sets off tsunami, threat lifts in New Zealand

“All team members are well. The day’s activities have continued as usual with the players joining their respective group training at Lincoln Green,” Jalal was quoted as saying in the statement.

Before starting the practice camp in small groups, the team had undergone an eight-day in-room quarantine in Christchurch. During this period, Tigers had to undergo three Covid-19 tests and all returned negative.

ODI captain Tamim Iqbal, all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz, top-order batsman Mohammad Mithun and all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin have sent video messages to the media.

They said the quarantine period was tough as they could not go out of the hotel rooms and had little to do for eight days.

Also read: Bangladesh's New Zealand tour: Tigers set to take the field

But it was necessary to ensure the health safety of the members of the team, they noted. After the in-room quarantine, the cricketers are now allowed to join practice sessions in small groups.

Bangladesh will play three ODIs and as many T20Is in the New Zealand tour. The first match of the series will take place on March 20.

The ODIs of this series will be a part of the ongoing World Cup Super League. The top seven teams of this event will directly qualify for the World Cup 2023 along with hosts India.

An unofficial one-day has been called off as an Ireland Wolves player tested positive for Covid-19 in Chattogram on Friday, said a source at Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

Also read: Ireland Wolves trail by 127 against Bangladesh Emerging Team

It was the first one-day of the five-match series between Ireland Wolves and Bangladesh A. This is the first cricket match in Bangladesh that has been called off midway due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Ruhan Pretorius, the right-handed allrounder, who bowled four overs in this game, has been tested positive. He gave his sample a day ago, the result came in when the match was underway.

Also read: Emerging Cricket: Bangladesh finish runners-up losing to Pakistan by 77 runs

Right after the result appeared, the authorities sent Ruhan into self-isolation in a hotel in the port city.

During the 30th over of the game, the Covid-19 result came in which showed that Ruhan is infected. The other players, however, tested negative.

In those 30 overs, Bangladesh scored 122 for four with Towhid Hridoy and Shamim Hossain were batting at 44 and 22 respectively.

Also read: Emerging Cricket: Bangladesh reach final eliminating Afghanistan by 7 wickets

Captain Aaron Finch carried his bat for 79 from 55 balls to propel Australia to a 50-run win over New Zealand in the fourth Twenty20 and level the five-match series 2-2 on Friday.

With Finch’s impetus, Australia made 156-6 batting first before New Zealand foundered on a slow pitch, bowled out for 106 in 18.5 overs.

Finch won the toss and decided Australia would bat first on the same pitch where it had beaten New Zealand by 64 runs in the previous match, and which he said “looks hard and at its best for batting.”

Also Read: Agar takes 6-30 as Australia beats New Zealand in 3rd T20

It was anything but. The wicket at the Wellington stadium — empty of spectators for the second match in a row — was sticky and the slow bowlers wreaked havoc in both innings.

After Finch, Marcus Stoinis’s 19 and Glenn Maxwell’s 18 were the next-best scores in an innings which looked inadequate and unlikely to test New Zealand.

Leg spinner Ish Sodhi took 3-32 and left-armer Mitchell Santner 1-16.

Finch reached one of the slowest of his 14 T20 half centuries from 47 balls without hitting a six and Australia struggled to 100 from 15 overs. But he made amends by hitting three sixes and 26 runs from the last over by Kyle Jamieson to lift his side to a competitive total.

On 35, Finch overtook David Warner (2,265) to become Australia’s leading run scorer in Twenty20s.

"I think just hanging in there towards the end helped me out,” Finch said. “I had visions of ending up something like 50 off 60 balls and looking a right fool.

“But I was lucky to get some momentum towards the end of the innings. I think I was trying to hit it a bit too hard before that.

“We lost a couple of wickets along the way and couldn’t load up from the 15th or 16th over, so we just had to take it as deep as we could and it was nice to get a few out of the middle near the end.”

New Zealand couldn’t gain any momentum in its reply, losing wickets at regular intervals and lacking a contribution to match Finch’s.

Jamieson’s 30 from 18 balls, batting at No. 9 in a lost cause, was the best effort. Opener Tim Seifert made 19 and Devon Conway 17.

Seifert and Santner dragged balls onto their stumps, Glenn Phillips (1) was run out in a mix-up with Conway and the remainder of the batsmen were out to catches close to, or in front, of the wicket. That reflected the slow pace of the pitch.

Australia had the confidence to use three spinners and they shared six wickets for 49 runs. Ashton Agar took 2-11, following his 6-30 in the third match, Maxwell claimed 2-14 and Adam Zampa picked up 2-24.

Paceman Kane Richardson took 3-19 from 2.5 overs.

Distance running, traditionally one of the world’s most genteel sports, has been roiled by an ugly mid-pandemic squabble over who should get a shot at a coveted Boston Marathon medal.

Rival camps in the running world began snapping at each other’s heels this week. It began after the Boston Athletic Association, which still hopes to hold a truncated in-person edition of the planet’s most prestigious footrace in October, said it will award medals to up to 70,000 athletes if they go the distance wherever they are.

Also read: Bangladesh's first international marathon begins Sunday

Practically within minutes of the BAA’s announcement greatly expanding its virtual version of the race, a boisterous social media maelstrom ensued.

On one side: Runners who’ve spent years training to qualify to run the real thing, including some who complain that mailing medals to people who run the 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers) in Dallas or Denver will cheapen the iconic Boston experience.

“A dagger through the heart to someone who has worked hard to finally earn the qualifying standard,” one runner, Mark Howard of Salisbury, North Carolina, groused on Twitter.

On the other: Pretty much everyone else, including the plodding masses and runners who raise millions for charities, who counter that anything that helps the 125-year-old marathon survive the COVID-19 crisis is worthwhile.

“A virtual Boston race that invites everyone is a reason to celebrate,” said Maria Arana, a marathoner and coach in Phoenix. “It in no way takes away from my personal Boston Marathon experience or anyone else’s.”

The bickering seems to have caught many off-guard, if only because road racing has long had a reputation as a kind and egalitarian sport.

It’s one of the few disciplines where ordinary amateurs compete in real time on the same course as elite professionals, and where trash-talking is rare. As four-time Boston champion Bill Rodgers famously said: “Running is a sport where everyone gets along.”

Also read: Bangabandhu Dhaka marathon to get flawless security: DMP

A notable exception to that gentility was the 1967 race, when race director Jock Semple ran after Kathrine Switzer — the first woman to run with an official bib number — and tried unsuccessfully to pull her off the course.

It also comes as the Boston Marathon and other big-city races are struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic and looking for creative ways to keep runners engaged online.

The BAA put on a virtual version of the marathon last year, after the coronavirus pandemic forced it to first postpone its usual April running to September, and then cancel in-person racing altogether

But that was limited to athletes who had already qualified to race or had registered as charity runners. This time, the first 70,000 people aged 18 or older who sign up and pay a fee will be able to earn a finisher’s medal simply by covering the classic distance wherever they happen to be. They don’t even need to run — they can walk.

“For the first time in our history, most everyone will have the opportunity to earn a Unicorn finisher’s medal,” BAA president and CEO Tom Grilk said in a statement.

Full Coverage: Boston Marathon

Grilk said the in-person race, if it comes off as scheduled on Oct. 11, will have a reduced field to help keep athletes and spectators safe. Typically the Boston field is capped at around 30,000; the BAA hasn’t said how much smaller it will be this autumn.

Josh Sitzer, a San Francisco runner who’s qualified for the Boston Marathon three times, initially was among those who trashed the idea of giving out 70,000 medals as “a blatant money grab.”

Also read:Bangabandhu Dhaka Marathon '21 on Jan 10

“Respect yourself and the game. Don’t do Boston unless you earn it,” he tweeted. Then he had a change of heart, tweeting: “I was wrong. It’s not the same as the actual Boston Marathon, and it doesn’t devalue” the experience of those who meet strict qualifying standards for a chance to line up in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.

It’s been a bad look, acknowledges Erin Strout, who covers the sport for WomensRunning.com.

“If there ever was a time to put our elitism and cynicism aside, it’s now,” she wrote in an opinion piece. “Let’s welcome each other in, cheer each other on, and seize the opportunity to bring back running bigger, better, and more inclusive than it was before.”