Seamer takes 3 for 4 before Pant and Virat Kohli hit half-centuries to steer the chase in third T20I

The Report by Saurabh Somani06-Aug-20195:16

Dasgupta: The unbeaten 65 could change Pant’s career

West Indies put up an improved performance in the final T20I, with their batsmen having their best day collectively, but it wasn’t enough to deny India a 3-0 sweep, with terrific bowling upfront by Deepak Chahar complemented by a match-winning partnership. Kieron Pollard’s first T20I half-century in more than seven years took West Indies to a competitive 146 for 6, but half-centuries by Virat Kohli (59) and Rishabh Pant (65*) and their century stand for the third wicket meant India hunted down the target in 19.1 overs.The Chahar effect
Deepak Chahar reduced West Indies to 14 for 3 inside four overs, taking out the top three and getting the ball to hoop around corners and jag both ways. It was a magnificent exhibition of swing bowling, yanking batsmen out of position, hands following the ball, feet not in sync. Chahar bowled three overs on the trot, and had figures of 3 for 4 at the end. He wouldn’t complete his quota, but his strangulation at the top meant India could come out of the Powerplay with hardly much against them. On a pitch that offered turn to the spinners and held up a bit, and with short boundaries, that was crucial.Rahul Chahar – Deepak’s double first cousin – was making his international debut and fulfilling a childhood dream of the two playing for India together, but the leggie had to cede the limelight to the seamer.In his first over, with Sunil Narine facing up with the specific mandate of going after the bowling, Deepak kept his lines tight at the start. Then he threw one a bit wider, but it was still nibbling in the air. With leaden feet, Narine could only toe-end a flat-bat hit to Navdeep Saini at mid-on. Both Evin Lewis and Shimron Hetmyer fell in Chahar’s next over, done in by balls that most left-hand batsmen would have fallen to. Both times, Chahar slanted the ball across them, and got it to swerve back into the batsman like a Formula 1 car taking a hard left. Pads were rapped, appeals were belted out, and fingers were raised. Lewis even burned a review for his team, though to be fair to him, he might have thought the ball was missing leg – it wasn’t, because the initial angle had dragged him far enough across.Deepak Chahar removed West Indies’ openers•Associated Press

The Pollard-led revival
The start was rocky, but the depth and power in West Indies’ batting meant they could kick on nonetheless and still end up with an adequate total. Pollard, at No. 4, showed off his power with several clean hits down the ground. He hit six sixes, which meant that even though there were periods of dot balls building up, getting the run rate back into healthy territory was only a hit or two away. Pollard fell to a Saini slower ball, but Rovman Powell – fresh off a power-packed half-century in the second T20I – showed he wasn’t a one-hit wonder with a rollicking finish that took West Indies past 140, and might have also taken him into the wishlists of several IPL franchise owners.The Kohli-Pant stand
With Kohli taking control of the chase and Pant showing his full repertoire, India’s innings never fell in choppy waters. Two shots each by both batsmen stood out. Pant twice drove Keemo Paul inside-out over extra-cover, the ball pinging off the bat and flying over the boundary. The execution of the shot was stunning enough both times, but the fact that Pant could conceive of the shot was extraordinary in itself. Pant would hit his trademark unorthodox shots too, including a reverse-sweep and an audacious flick, but those drives were shots associated more with pitches where the ball comes on nicely and 200 is par.Kohli too had his wow moments. A ball after he had seen a leading edge off Carlos Brathwaite fall in no-man’s land but hang in the air long enough to steal two, he unleashed a cover drive that landed millimetres inside the cover boundary. Two balls later, facing Paul now, Kohli sent the ball whirring to the deep-midwicket fence, whipping through the line with wrists of steel and timing of silk.The two had come together at 27 for 2 in the fifth over, both under a bit of a cloud. Pant had fallen cheaply in the first two T20Is, and while Kohli had managed to stick around longer than Pant, he hadn’t looked fluent. In this game too, they played within themselves at the start, getting used to the pace of the pitch, and then began opening up. They ended up adding 106 in just 12.5 overs, with the last five overs of the stand yielding 55 runs. It was a partnership that finished the match off as a contest, but Pant ensured there was a flourish at the end, driving Brathwaite straight back over his head and into the sightscreen for the winning hit.

Willey claims four wickets, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Adam Lyth post fifties in Yorkshire victory

ECB Reporters Network29-Aug-2019Yorkshire lifted themselves off bottom spot in the North Group with a landslide 80-run victory over Northamptonshire in a Vitality Blast dead rubber at Headingley, with ex-Steelback David Willey starring with four new-ball wickets.Both sides went into their penultimate fixture of 2019 with no chance of qualifying for next week’s quarter-finals. The Vikings were bottom of the table with two wins from 12 games and the Steelbacks two places higher with three wins from the same number of fixtureBut Yorkshire amassed 187 for 7 thanks to fifties for openers Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Adam Lyth, who made 51 and 50 respectively, and then a breezy 38 off 16 balls from Harry Brook, who later took four catches – a joint Yorkshire record in a T20 fixture.In reply, former Northants Blast winner Willey struck four times in his first three overs, at a cost of only 11 runs, leaving the Steelbacks 43 for 5 after six. That was game over as they later slipped to 107 all out in 18 overs and Willey finished with 4 for 18.Having won the toss, Yorkshire’s innings could be split into three parts.They flew out of the blocks as captain Kohler-Cadmore and Lyth shared 88 of 91 for one in the first 10 overs. They then both fell the ball after reaching their fifties.Northants dragged things back as the hosts reached the 15-over mark at 122 for 3.Experienced left-arm spinner Graeme White was excellent in removing Lyth and former team-mate Willey, who both offered leg-side catches.Then, the Vikings regained their momentum as Brook, back in the side having made way following a run of low scores, found his range to help pick up 65 off the last five overs. He mixed power with invention, pulling South African Dwaine Pretorius for six and ramping him for four next ball in the 16th over. He also smashed Rob Keogh’s off-spin for a huge straight six into the upper reaches of the new Emerald Stand.Northants captain Josh Cobb used eight bowlers, with Keogh and Pakistani seamer Faheem Ashraf also claiming two wickets apiece.The visitors then got off to a flying start in their chase, with Richard Levi hitting the first three balls of the innings from Lyth for four before planting the fifth ball over mid-wicket for six into the Western Terrace, the same stand Ben Stokes peppered in Sunday’s Ashes heist. But he slapped Willey straight to mid-wicket with the first ball of the second over.Tim Bresnan bowled Adam Rossington with the first ball of the third and Willey struck again with the first ball of the fourth when he had Cobb caught at deep backward square-leg before getting Pretorius brilliantly caught by Will Fraine running back from point later in the over.Alex Wakely then holed out to deep square-leg off Willey, ending a miserable Powerplay at 43 for 5, before Bresnan struck again in the sixth to get Ashraf caught at mid-on with only two runs added to the total.South African left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj bowled Keogh early in the eleventh over as the score slipped to 68 for 7 before off-spinner Jack Shutt had White and Nathan Buck caught at long-off by Brook.Tom Sole played a lone hand for 41 not out before Lyth had Blessing Muzarabani caught behind to wrap things up.

The Sri Lankan smashed a 22-ball fifty, but it wasn’t enough to take defending champions Knight Riders home in a chase of 161

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu11-Oct-2019
The last time Barbados Tridents made the CPL final, in 2015, Kieron Pollard was their captain. Four years later, Tridents, led by Jason Holder, toppled Pollard’s Trinbago Knight Riders in front of a raucous Trinidad crowd to set up a final clash with Guyana Amazon Warriors, who have won 11 of their 11 games in CPL 2019 so far.A torrential downpour had delayed the arrival of Tridents’ team bus, a floodlight tower experienced power failure, JP Duminy was forced to retire hurt in the first innings, but Tridents overcame the odds to end Knight Riders’ hopes of a three-peat.ALSO READ – Pollard: A mercenary and a legendAfter helping Tridents loot 43 off their last two overs to finish with 160 for 6, Ashley Nurse took 2 for 14 with the ball to send Knight Riders’ chase spiraling out of control. When Pollard was run out for 23 off 16 balls, the crowd fell silent and Tridents’ owners were celebrating. Knight Riders’ Sri Lankan recruit Seekkuge Prasanna, however, threatened a jailbreak with 22-ball half-century and dragged the chase to the last over.Knight Riders needed 14 off the final over and Prasanna was on a boundary-hitting spree, having launched slower-ball specialist Harry Gurney out of the ground. Left-arm seam-bowling allrounder Raymon Reifer, who had earlier hit an unbeaten 24 off 18 balls, pinned Prasanna in front with a dipping yorker to seal Knight Riders’ fate.Third-time unlucky
Javon Searles drew an outside edge from Johnson Charles with the second ball of the match, but wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin dropped it. Searles then had the opener skying a loft in his second over, but neither Lendl Simmons nor Chris Jordan attempted the catch in the infield and reprieved him again. Charles then managed a mere eight runs off 15 balls from Sunil Narine and Khary Pierre before searching for a release against Ali Khan. Charles ventured another lofted hit, but the USA seamer hit a hard length and had him splicing a catch to mid-off.ALSO READ: Pierre: Trinbago Knight Riders’ master of thriftOh hello, Ashley Nurse!
Before this game, Nurse had last bowled on September 22 in Tridents’ first home match of the season. He hadn’t quite fired with the bat either until Thursday. While other higher-profile names like Alex Hales and Shakib Al Hasan fell cheaply, Nurse punched 24 off nine balls at a strike-rate of 266.66.When Nurse entered to bat, Tridents were 112 for 6 in the 18th over and their coach Phil Simmons confirmed that Duminy would not return to bat because of a “hamstring twinge”.Nurse was up against the Barbados-born Jordan, who had conjured a double-wicket over earlier in the evening. But the onset of dew meant Jordan couldn’t grip the ball and dished out a beamer that was smoked for a six over the bowler’s head. Jordan then attempted a slower ball later in the over, but Nurse manufactured pace for himself and slugged it over midwicket for another six.He cracked another six in the last over of the innings, bowled by Ali Khan, to push Tridents to a competitive total along with Reifer.Seekkuge’s salvo
Narine kickstarted Knight Riders’ chase with four fours off the first over, bowled by Shakib, but was tricked by Gurney’s slower cutter in the third. Lendl Simmons, the second-highest run-getter this season, had a rare failure, chipping a similar slower ball from Jason Holder to mid-on. USA’s legspin-bowling sensation Hayden Walsh Jr. and Nurse then carved up the middle order, leaving Knight Riders at 81 for 5 in the 12th over. Pollard briefly gave his side hope by muscling Walsh Jr. for a brace of sixes down the ground, but a mix-up with Prasanna four overs later resulted in his dismissal. At this point, Knight Riders still needed 41 off 25 balls. Prasanna then went cray-cray, as did the Knight Riders fans. Guney was dumped onto the roof, and the ball bounced out of the Brian Lara Stadium. Walsh Jr. wasn’t spared either as Prasanna took him for back-to-back sixes. However, Reifer had the final say, ensuring we will have a new champion this season.

His unbeaten 80 enabled Australia to overcome the loss of David Warner and Aaron Finch to win by seven wickets

The Report by Danyal Rasool05-Nov-2019It didn’t take long for Steven Smith to clamp down on any whispers he might be surplus to the requirements of the Australian T20I side. A commanding half-century that combined pugnacity and poise in exactly the right doses steered Australia to what ended up being a stroll of a chase against Pakistan with victory by seven wickets. It needn’t have been as easy as that, though, and didn’t look nearly as comfortable when they lost David Warner and Aaron Finch inside the powerplay, more than a hundred runs still to get without the comfort blanket of an explosive Glenn Maxwell in the middle order.It was an innings every bit as modern as T20 cricket requires of its players, but the 51-ball 80 Smith struck contained shots that wouldn’t have been out of place at this year’s Ashes. Eleven fours and a six, exactly a half-century of them, came in boundaries, and by the final two overs, Smith was properly peaking. You almost wished Pakistan, who had done quite well at the end of the first innings to post 150, had put up something more challenging than that, if only to watch a little bit more of the game’s hottest player operating at his best.Steven Smith goes after a short ball•Getty Images

He was helped by the belligerence of Australia’s openers, making their intentions plain as early as the second over. Warner took apart Imad Wasim, normally so reliably economical in the powerplay, finding four fours in what seemed like all four corners of the ground to get Australia off to a flyer, before his run of unbeaten scores was ended by Mohammad Amir. Their dismissals within three overs of each other was, in truth, the only time in the whole contest where it felt Pakistan were within a punter’s chance of making a game of it in Canberra’s first T20I, but having added 48 in the powerplay, Smith knew he could take his time to settle in without the asking rate spiralling out of control.Pakistan’s bowling in the phase right after left something to be desired, though, and Smith was given regular opportunities to relieve the pressure, finding four boundaries in the next three overs. That was in stark contrast to the exceptionally frugal efforts of their Australian counterparts, who executed what looked like well thought out plans to each of Pakistan’s batsman.Babar Azam was denied the fuller lengths that allow him to step into those gorgeous cover drives, some of which he unfurled in the early stages before Australia pushed their lengths back, to immaculate success. Haris Sohail was cramped for room with length deliveries that ended with him skying one in the air in a near-replica to the way he was dismissed in Sydney, while an improved Adam Zampa meant Pakistan didn’t have the release in the middle overs so vital to pushing their score up to 170, close to which appeared par on a cracker of a batting surface.Iftikhar Ahmed gave Pakistan a strong finish•Getty Images

The top order, once more, left Azam on his own to fend off the Australia attack. Fakhar Zaman’s tortured existence at the crease lasted seven balls before driving a catch straight to mid-off, while Mohammad Rizwan struggled with the exact problem his predecessor was criticised so heavily for. The dot balls mounted at his end, only increasing the pressure on Azam to keep the runs flowing. It wasn’t until Iftikhar Ahmed came in at No. 6 that Pakistan took Australia’s bowlers to task; until then, the run rate was barely over a run a ball.Exceptional work in the field saw Azam dismissed for exactly 50, underestimating the strength and accuracy of Warner’s throwing arm as he turned for a second, with the throw from deep midwicket smashing into the stumps with the Pakistan captain well short of his ground. It appeared the end for any sort of competitive score, but Ahmed put on a display of brilliant hitting the top order looked utterly incapable of to make his first half-century. Kane Richardson came in for especially heavy punishment in his final over, which leaked 22, as, against all odds, Pakistan posted 150 thanks to Ahmed’s 34-ball 62.Australia had done enough in the first ten to ensure they never required much explosive hitting to get to the target. The odd boundary was all they needed in the second half of their innings, with a player of Smith’s class comfortably capable of providing that. When he wasn’t playing unseemly, albeit mightily effective, ramp shots and tennis forehands, he was piercing gaps in the offside that barely seemed to exist.A tight 16th over from a much improved Shadab Khan – Pakistan’s best bowler by some distance – was the last time things got slightly hairy for the hosts, with 30 needed off four at that point. Half of those would come in the next over, though, with Smith taking Amir apart while displaying the full array of his capability for good measure. From thereon, Australia would ease home without really getting out of third gear. In truth, that could be said about the entire evening in a somewhat forgettable game, lit up only by the shimmering brilliance of a man fit to play international cricket no matter what the format.

Maharashtra, Delhi and Jharkhand also make it to the Super League on the last day of the group phase

Hemant Brar18-Nov-2019Despite losing their final Group C match against Maharashtra and finishing with the same number of points as four other teams in the group, Punjab made it to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019-20 Super League on the basis of their superior net run rate.Apart from Maharashtra, who topped the group, and Punjab, Delhi and Jharkhand from Group E also advanced to the next round on the final day of the group-stage action. Karnataka and Baroda from Group A, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan from Group B, and Mumbai and Haryana from Group D were already through to the Super League, which will be followed by the semi-finals and the final.Punjab win five-way race despite defeatAzim Kazi and captain Rahul Tripathi’s unbeaten half-centuries helped Maharashtra beat Punjab and took them to the pole position with 20 points. Railways also had a chance to join them but they faltered against Himachal Pradesh, leaving five teams – Punjab, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Hyderabad and Railways – tied on the second spot with 16 points each.Had there been only two teams tied on points, the winner of the head-to-head contest would have qualified for the next stage. But that particular playing condition didn’t apply here and Punjab made the cut, thanks to their healthy net run rate.After opting to field, Punjab had Maharashtra on 90 for 4 in the 12th over but Kazi (71* off 36) and Tripathi (63* off 27) added 111 in just 48 balls in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand to propel them to 201 for 4. Punjab captain Mandeep Singh led the chase with 67 off 49 balls but there wasn’t much support from the other batsmen. In the end, Punjab could manage only 156 for 7 and fell short by 45 runs.In the Railways v Himachal game, Nitin Sharma (76 off 51) and Prashant Chopra (47 off 30) helped Himachal to 193 for 4. Mrunal Devdhar (26 off 15) started well for Railways but once he was dismissed, the chase fell apart. Railways eventually stuttered to 139 for 9, losing the game – and the qualification spot – by 54 runs.Delhi prevail, Jammu & Kashmir failThe equation was relatively simple in Group E. Jharkhand with 22 points were at the top, with Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir tied on 18 points with a match in hand.Delhi beat Odisha by 20 runs on the back of Lalit Yadav’s three-wicket haul. After opting to bat, Delhi made 149 for 6, with Shikhar Dhawan top-scoring with a 33-ball 35. In response, Odisha were all out for 129 in 18.1 overs. Apart from Lalit, Nitish Rana and Pawan Negi also chipped in with two wickets each.Had Jammu & Kashmir won their game against Gujarat, they would also have been on 22 points, making it a three-way tie at the top. But they crumbled against Chintan Gaja and Hardik Patel and were dismissed for 101. Gujarat then knocked down the target in just 13.3 overs. Jammu & Kashmir’s defeat meant Jharkhand also made it to the next round.Elsewhere, Haryana trounced Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh eked out a narrow win against Puducherry, and Bengal defeated Assam but none of those results had any bearing on the qualification scenarios.

Mitchell Starc returns for Australia who look to build on after retaining the Ashes in a drawn series

The Preview by Andrew McGlashan20-Nov-20192:38

From Lower Dir to top tier, the Naseem Shah story

Big Picture

After two one-sided T20I series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the opening Test of Australia’s home season promises much. Fingers crossed it delivers. Australia are looking to build on after retaining the Ashes in a drawn series while for Pakistan, it is their first assignment of the World Test Championship – in a country where they have never won a series and have not won a Test since 1995.With that record, it’s tempting to suggest it should be a walkover for the home side – and it may yet turn out that way – but it’s the more competitive possibilities that are mouthwatering. Pakistan have brought three teenage quicks, with 16-year-old Naseem Shah set to debut on Thursday, and there has been no shortage of talking them up. The batting also looks strong with new captain Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq having good personal memories of the last tour here in 2016-17 and Babar Azam appearing primed to kick on his Test career.From Australia’s point of view, it’s a summer with most things back to normal compared to the fraught atmosphere of 12 months ago. Steven Smith and David Warner are back, one looking to continue Bradman-esque form and the other hoping to re-establish his Test credentials having been dominated by Stuart Broad in England.However, it has not been a seamless build-up for Australia. The bat-off in Perth turned into more of a collapse-off, the end result is Cameron Bancroft – with a first-class average of 11 this season – is back in the Test squad. Then there was James Pattinson and his obscene language meaning he is out of this match. But quick bowlers is one thing Australia are not short of. In home conditions, the trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc could be the deciding factor.It is an important match for the ground itself, too, with the Gabba coming under increasing pressure for its status as one of the premier Test venues in the country. It has been guaranteed the opening Test of the 2021-22 Ashes but didn’t host India last year and it is yet to be confirmed if it will host a Test next year. There is an investment on the way, but there will be interest in the crowd figures over the next few days.

Form guide

Australia LWLDW (last five completed matches, most recent first)Pakistan LLLLW

In the spotlight

David Warner had an Ashes series to forget – 95 runs in ten innings – but there was never really any doubt that he would retain his place in the side. However, that rope cannot last forever (although the last thing the Australia selectors need at the moment is to find another opening batsman). Warner started the series with a Sheffield Shield century at the Gabba which bodes well and his T20I form was prolific. He enjoys batting in Brisbane and, 21 months after his last Test on home soil, it will be fascinating to see whether he can throw off the shackles.Babar Azam struggled on the 2016-17 tour with 68 runs in six innings but two years on, he returns to Australia carrying the expectation of a batsman on the cusp of greatness. The limited-overs game has gone supremely well, and he showed his class in the T20Is, and now it is time he takes his game up a level in Test cricket and lifts his current average of 35.28. The hundred against Australia A was full of his best shots and promises much for the next couple of weeks.Pakistan haven’t won a Test in Australia since 1995•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Team news

It was pretty simple for Australia after the loss of Pattinson. Michael Neser will hope his chance comes with the pink ball.Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Joe Burns, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Matthew Wade, 7 Tim Paine (capt & wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh HazlewoodIftikhar Ahmed could slot in at No. 6 with the final decision in the pace attack likely to come down to Mohammad Abbas or Imran Khan, the latter took a five-wicket haul against Australia A.Pakistan (probable) 1 Shan Masood, 2 Azhar Ali (capt), 3 Haris Sohail, 4 Babar Azam, 5 Asad Shafiq, 6 Iftikhar Ahmed, 7 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 8 Yasir Shah, 9 Shaheen Afridi, 10 Mohammad Abbas, 11 Naseem Shah

Pitch and conditions

The Gabba is back in its traditional slot of hosting the opening Test of the season – after being pushed down the pecking order last season – and it should be a typical surface which is one of the better ones for Test cricket in the world: pace and carry for quicks, trueness the batsmen can trust and maybe some spin if the game goes deep. There was a tinge of green on match-eve, but that was enhanced by rolling in grass clippings. “I had never heard it described like this before from the curator,” Justin Langer said. “He said that ‘today we’ve got the makeup on’ and I think he meant grass clippings, and tomorrow it will probably look a bit greener than it does today. So a fascinating art and science to producing these great wickets.” The weather is set fair with temperatures in the high 20s throughout.

Stats and Trivia

• Australia have not lost at the Gabba since 1988.
• On the 2016-17 tour, Pakistan came within 40 runs of chasing down 490 as Shafiq scored a fourth-innings 137.
• Smith needs 27 runs for 7000 in Test cricket – he has six innings in hand to break Wally Hammond’s record for the fastest to the mark.

Quotes

“We are very respectful of the Pakistan team. I watched them bat at Optus Stadium last week and they have some very technically correct batsman. I’m not going to single out one; they are a very good batting side.”
“We have come here with a lot of confidence. We have the talent and potential to do well here. We have done well in patches in previous series but we come with a few fresh faces and we are very confident we have huge potential to beat Australia. To do that we have to keep believing, and play with no fear.”

Five members of Bangladesh’s coaching staff will not be going to the first leg of Bangladesh’s tour of Pakistan later this month

Mohammad Isam17-Jan-2020Five members of Bangladesh’s coaching staff will not be going to the first leg of Bangladesh’s tour of Pakistan later this month. According to BCB’s cricket operations chairman Akram Khan, Neil McKenzie, the white-ball batting coach, is among those who have withdrawn alongside fielding coach Ryan Cook.The BCB preferred not to use Daniel Vettori, who is contracted to them as spin consultant, for such a short series. They didn’t consider team analyst Shrinivaas Chandrasekaran either on account of his being an Indian citizen. The BCB didn’t apply for visas for the two women’s team coaches during their tour last year because they were Indian citizens as well, although, during the recently concluded series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, several Indian nationals were part of the TV production that brought live pictures from the games in Lahore and Karachi.”[Strength and conditioning coach] Mario [Villavarayan] broke his hand recently while team analyst [Chandrasekaran] will be working with the team over Skype. McKenzie and fielding coach [Cook] will also not be going, while we haven’t yet confirmed on our new bowling coach,” Akram said.Russell Domingo will therefore only have physio Julian Calefato among the regular staff while Sohel Islam (fielding coach) and Tushar Kanti Howlader (strength and conditioning coach) will act as support.The BCB is in the middle of discussions with Ottis Gibson but if they cannot get him on board as bowling coach ahead of the Pakistan tour, they are likely to send Champaka Ramanayake who is already working for the BCB’s development programmes.

South Africa coach admits the management are still searching for their best XI in T20

Firdose Moonda21-Feb-2020South Africa players who want to be considered for the T20 World Cup have the chance to stake a claim in the next week, with several spots in need of filling, according to coach Mark Boucher. Despite the disappointment of his team’s biggest T20 defeat in the opening match against Australia, Boucher sought to “take the emotion out of the whole scenario” and look at the bigger picture, with seven months to go before a major tournament.”There are certain places up for grabs and with guys getting opportunities, it’s important that they take them now,” Boucher said. “A month or so before the World Cup we want to have our minds on who we want to take as a 15-man squad but it’s difficult for players to make a name for themselves a month before the tournament. Now is the time that players need to put their hands up and stake a claim for positions and there are still position up for grabs. We don’t quite know what our combinations are going to be and we are waiting for guys to step up.”After their performance on Friday night, which included their lowest T20I score, and Boucher’s criticism of the bowling as “poor”, it would appear that South Africa have plenty of positions to fill but the man in charge did not want to be overly dramatic. “It’s not the end of the world – losing one game of T20 cricket,” Boucher said. “Yes, we are going to have to shape up quite a bit in the next week but there is also a plan going through to the next World Cup.”ALSO READ: Jadeja-inspired Agar felt ‘horrible’ in trainingPart of that plan was trialing Temba Bavuma in the opening role, which was a success against England before he got injured, using Heinrich Klaasen – who was also forced out with a niggle – in the middle order and experimenting with Rassie van der Dussen and Jon-Jon Smuts. All those options paid off during the England series and are likely to do so again.A bigger concern is the inconsistency of the attack, who had the experience of Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada but still conceded heavily. Steyn, Lungi Ngidi, Rabada and Andile Phehlulwayo, who have 107 T20 caps between them, gave away 70 runs in the first six overs and failed to pitch the ball up, something bowling coach Charl Langeveldt discussed in the lead-up to the match. Both Boucher and Langeveldt have spoken about the importance of specialised skills training, but stressed that during a series, South Africa don’t have the time to do that.Boucher made the same point after the Wanderers defeat. “It’s not something we can change overnight. We’ve tried to work on things like yorkers but our lines and length were really bad,” Boucher said. “It’s not like they were running down the wicket and taking us on. We were giving them boundary options.”Rabada, South Africa’s “poster boy”, as acting director of cricket Graeme Smith called him, was the most guilty and had six fours and two sixes scored off him to finish as the most expensive bowler on the night. Boucher put Rabada’s showing down to a lack of game time, presenting an interesting conundrum between getting the balance between overbowling and keeping him fresh. “KG has come back from a long rest so it’s no use making an emotional decision and saying we are going to leave him out for the next game,” Boucher said. “We need guys like him and Anrich [Nortje] to come back but we also needed to rest them and that was the right decision because we want them fresh.”But how long does it take players to find their groove again? The answer might come on Sunday, when South Africa face a must-win situation to stay in the series or face further scrutiny over their progress in what has been a lean summer. As he done since he took over in December, Boucher pleaded for patience, even as he admitted that progress needs to come.”We are working really hard off the field. We understand the areas we need to work on. We’ve got to get back on the horse,” he said. “If we rock up and play 40% cricket we are going to get beaten and beaten badly, like we were today.”

The tournament’s chief operating officer on his plans for expansion, including a women’s league

Matt Roller20-Apr-2020A new franchise in the USA, a fully-fledged women’s league and maintaining distinctive local flavour are among the keys to ensuring the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is the second-best T20 league in the world, after the IPL, according to chief operations officer Pete Russell.Seven seasons in, the 2020 CPL is shaping up to be the most difficult yet, with the Covid-19 pandemic and its knock-on effects meaning there is every chance the league will have to be played without overseas players, behind closed doors, or across only a handful of venues as organisers draw up contingency plans.But in an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Russell said he was confident that the CPL was well-placed to meet that challenge, having learnt from the mistakes it has made to date.”Private enterprise is interesting when you bring it into sport. It definitely has value to it, but you do have a lot of hurdles and obstacles you’ve got to overcome,” Russell said. “I think the tournament has now overcome a lot of those hurdles. It’s very well established in the Caribbean – even including carnival, it’s without doubt the number one entertainment product there.

CPL ‘shut down corruption quickly’

Russell says that the CPL dealt with things quickly last year when officials from the St Kitts and Nevis franchise were pulled up by anti-corruption officers, as reported by ESPNcricinfo. “I think there was naivety involved on the part of the owners – we responded incredibly quickly to that situation and shut it down quickly, and actually it did very little damage to us both in terms of making sure that the team could continue to play in the league but also in terms of its integrity,” he said. “We’d beefed up our anti-corruption that year and took on a lot more responsibility ourselves, and actually got to the root of it very quickly.”

“The challenge it has from a commercial perspective is its home audience is only seven million [people]. If you compare that to India and other parts of the world, you’ll see that the economics of getting a large home media deal aren’t there, so you have to be a lot more creative in how you build your revenue profile.”We’ve been able to do that. It broke even – or a little bit better than that – last year. This year will be a challenge, but we’ve put it in a place where we can see how to make money going forward. It’s on a stable footing – we’ve got owners now who are good, we think. It’s always difficult when you’re selling franchises when you don’t know what you’re going to get, but I think now we know our owners very well and vice versa – that relationship is very strong.”St Lucia Zouks finished fifth in the 2019 CPL•Ashley Allen – CPL T20 / Getty

Things have not always been straightforward regarding the franchise owners. Vijay Mallya was removed as Barbados Tridents owner after failing to pay his players and fighting extradition, officials from St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were pulled up by anti-corruption officers last season, and the St Lucia franchise has changed hands three times in as many years – it was most recently purchased by Kings XI Punjab’s parent company, KPH Dream Cricket Private Limited in February.As things stand, two of the teams are owned by the parent companies of IPL franchises – Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel were re-branded as Trinbago Knight Riders after they were bought by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment in 2015. And though Russell admits it would “make sense” for St Lucia’s new owners to change the team’s name from Zouks to Kings XI, he doesn’t think the CPL would lose its local flavour and turn into a mini-IPL. Indeed, in the immediate term, the fact that IPL owners have a stake in the league may help avoid a clash between the two tournaments this year.”I talk to Venky Mysore [Red Chillies CEO] a reasonable amount because he has a huge amount of knowledge: what he’s learned in the IPL is only going to help us, not just in terms of the audience that they bring in terms of the Indian market, but also the learnings and professionalism. It’s no coincidence that they’ve won the number of titles that they have. All ships rise in that scenario: other owners know that the tide mark has gone up.”Similarly with Kings XI, I’m excited to be working with some great people. If you’ve got owners like that, it’s not as if there’s any threat – at the end of the day, CPL still runs and manages the league. We’re very open-minded about the way we operate. We’ve probably got a lot more wrong than we’ve got right over the years, but we learn from our mistakes and the league is in a very strong position.”Expansion is a balancing act, and Russell thinks it unlikely that a new Caribbean-based franchise will be created any time soon. Instead, the target is breaking into the US. That is easier said than done – players were frustrated by small crowds and the loss of home advantage when games were played there in 2018, and having an American CPL franchise would present a clash with USA’s own plans for franchise cricket in the next two years – but setting up an American franchise within the next five years remains an ambition.The Barbados Tridents players celebrate with the CPL trophy•Getty Images

“Would we set up another franchise in the Caribbean? I doubt it. Would I set one up in America or Canada? Probably, because that would make sense in terms of breaking into new markets and making the commercials a little more palatable.”We’ve got the largest professional [cricket] league on that side of the world, and it makes sense to collaborate and to build a powerful base there. Who knows: I could quite easily see how you would have a North and South conference in the future, once the infrastructure is in place.”The downside with any expansion is that the league risks becoming bloated: the last two Big Bash seasons, in which average attendances were down and interest waned due to an increase in the number of group games from 40 to 56 serves as a warning sign.Similarly, the CPL is determined to maintain its distinctiveness as a league. Last year, the number of overseas players per team was reduced from five to four, and there has been more of a collaborative effort with Cricket West Indies to enhance the opportunities afforded to young, local talent. Better pitches have helped the league’s entertainment value, too – scoring rates have climbed from 6.98 runs per over in 2013 to 8.30 last season.”I always look at these leagues and think less is more. I’m not one for playing 56 games, just because of the fatigue element. In my personal view, the Big Bash lost their momentum a little bit when they did that. The IPL is a different beast, but again – that’s a lot of games that they are playing.Chris Gayle celebrates his hundred•CPL T20 via Getty Images

“I think we are second [to the IPL] – I don’t think we necessarily get the credit we deserve sometimes. Everyone goes back to the Big Bash, or the Blast – and the PSL is doing a great job, the tournament they ran there was first-class – but if you just look at the engagement levels we get, we’re up there for sure. When people switch on a CPL game, they know where they are: sometimes with other leagues you switch on and go: where is this? Is this the Blast? Is it Big Bash? It’s not always the case, but they can sometimes be a bit samey.”As for a women’s league, the CPL has lagged behind most other competitions: last season, two T10 games were staged immediately before the second qualifier and the final, but only as exhibition matches.”It could be sooner than you’d think” Russell says, with regards the possibility of a fully-fledged competition. “In those T10 games, we played them in Trinidad, we didn’t move the boundaries in, and they were still clearing the ropes quite comfortably – there’s some really good players there.”If we can be the catalyst and give them the opportunity, not only does it motivate them, but it motivates a whole new generation of potential women’s cricketers to come through. Like all of these things, the economics have to play a part, but I think we can do it. If we can have the same attention to detail, then it can be very successful.”

She could require surgery on her hamstring next week

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Mar-2020Australia allrounder Ellyse Perry will be out of action for six months while recovering from the high-grade right hamstring injury she suffered during the T20 World Cup that ruled her out of the tournament before the semi-finals.The injury that she picked up during Australia’s must-win match against New Zealand could require a surgery sometime next week. It has now ruled her out of the tour of South Africa later this month, which includes three ODIs, which are part of the ICC Women’s Championship, and three T20Is starting March 22.Perry, who wasn’t replaced after her injury, called the setback a personal “challenge.” But she was glad the team management wanted her to stay with the squad as the team looked to defend their 2018 T20 World Cup title, in the final against India on Sunday.”Closer to six months,” Perry said when asked when she might be returning to play. “That’s something (surgery) that has been discussed and probably in the next week or so.””It’s something you go through over the course of time but from my perspective, I’ve had the most incredible run, been very, very fortunate with injury over a long period of time. First and foremost tomorrow (the final) is the most important thing, what it represents for the group and the sport, but on a personal note, it’s a challenge and looking forward to it in a roundabout way [even if] I wish it wasn’t the case.”Perry also said it will be difficult not being nervous watching the final at the MCG from the sidelines. She wants her team-mates to stay relaxed on the big day.”[At the final, I’ll] probably be trying to keep my nerves at bay,” she said. “Aside from that, I feel incredibly fortunate and really chuffed that Motty (Matthew Mott) and the group wanted to keep me around. So it is really nice to be here and take it all in.”I’m sure everyone is nervous, but in a roundabout way the way our tournament has gone, the challenges we’ve had along the way with really tough matches, early loss, a few injuries, it hasn’t been smooth sailing so tomorrow is a chance to just relax and make the most of it. You certainly want to be successful but in a lot of ways, the girls just deserve to enjoy it and take it all in. We are probably going to play the best cricket doing that.”Stepping foot into the ground today, having the chats has made it really real and it’s one of those opportunities for the squad to absolutely enjoy the occasion and make the most of it. It’s a very special time.”