Feature
Confident team India will continue to dominate Australia in 1st Twenty 20 game
Visakhapatnam: With their eyes firmly on getting the World Cup combination right, a spirited India will look to continue their dominance over Australia, this time at home, when they play the first Twenty20 International (T20I) game here on Sunday.
The seven-match tour comprising two T20Is and five ODIs will be India’s last international assignment before the ICC World Cup which starts on May 30 in England and Wales.
India won a historic Test and ODI series Down Under last month and Virat Kohli – back after a break to lead the side – and coach Ravi Shastri will look to get a few places sealed before the mega event.
The likes of Rishabh Pant and all-rounder Vijay Shankar are aiming to make the final cut to the World Cup.
While Pant edged out Dinesh Karthik in the ODI side, Shankar proved his mettle in New Zealand with some good displays with the bat.
With Hardik Pandya out injured, it will be a great opportunity for Shankar to strenghthen his case while Pant will also look to make the most of the chances he gets.
For Karthik, who is still in the mix, the two T20s will be his last chance to make a statement.
Dropped from the 50-over team, the veteran stumper batsman drew a lot of flak after he refused a single when Krunal Pandya was on a rampage at the other end in the series deciding T20 game against New Zealand which India lost by four runs.
Coming to India’s bowling department, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is back after a break.
Bumrah is two shy of his personal tally of 50 wickets in T20I cricket, an achievement only in possession of the discarded Ravichandran Ashwin.
High sprite India will look to continue their dominance over Australia in first Twenty20:
All eyes will be on rookie leg-break bowler Mayank Markande who could make his debut in international cricket.
But India could go in with the tested pair of Yuzvendra Chahal and Krunal Pandya, who have done reasonably well for the home team in recent times.
Kohli will look to straightway get back among runs after a sterling 2018 where he ended the year with an astounding 2,735 runs from 38 matches across formats.
He averages 61 from 13 T20I innings against Australia with five half-centuries in those games.
The tourists led by Aaron Finch may not have played T20Is since their last series against India three months back, but they are fresh from their extended Big Bash League with six players, including the skipper, featuring in the all-Melbourne final on February 17.
D’Arcy Short, who became the player of the tournament, played 15 BBL games this season for Hobart Hurricanes scoring 637 runs at 53.08 average (140.61 strike rate).
He was followed by competition leading wicket-taker Kane Richardson who topped the bowling aggregate with 24 at 17.70 (economy rate 7.75).
The teams of both countries:
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, M.S. Dhoni, Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Vijay Shankar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Sidharth Kaul, Mayank Markande.
Australia: Aaron Finch (captain), D’Arcy Short, Pat Cummins, Alex Carey, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Adam Zampa.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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