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Last season’s sensation Rishabh Pant has endured a lean run this year, but said he was not under pressure as “this is cricket – you have good days, you have bad days”

Sidharth Monga in Delhi17-Nov-2017Just as the smog has relented and the air quality in Delhi has come down to being just “very poor” from “severe” levels, flights landing and taking off from the domestic terminal of the Delhi airport had a new threat. In the adjoining Airforce Sports Complex in Palam, Rishabh Pant was announcing return to form with big sixes. Aircrafts fly so low here that it seemed he could have hit them had he gone a little bigger.Pant joined Nitish Rana – whose big-hitting capabilities were seen with Mumbai Indians – at 55 for 3 but his 110-ball 99 and Rana’s unbeaten hundred took Delhi to 260 for 4 on a weather-hit day. Only 62 overs were possible, but the two left-hand batsmen deflated a buoyant Maharashtra side that had taken out Gautam Gambhir in the fifth over and the other opener Anuj Rawat in the 10th. Unmukt Chand, himself struggling to recreate the form that made him a star at the Under-19 level, was dropped.There could be a lesson for Chand in the way Pant has taken in stride the lean period. Not long ago Pant was seen as the man putting incredible pressure on MS Dhoni to retain his place in India’s T20 internationals side. He had rattled off a 326-ball 308 in the last Ranji Trophy, then two hundreds at better than a run a ball in the same first-class match, followed by a 43-ball 97 in the IPL for a faltering Delhi Daredevils, but that was all in the last season.Pant got the reward through selection in two T20 internationals for India. In the first one, he didn’t get a chance to do much, and in the second he managed to go barely a run a ball in a high-scoring defeat for India. He still would have got a longer run for India had he done well in the A tour of South Africa, according to the selectors. He didn’t grab that chance either, is out of the India squads now, and has spent more than a year without a century in any senior representative cricket.The 99 in a tough situation will bring Pant back into the conversation. He was asked if he felt relief that he was back among the runs. “There was no pressure, so why will I feel relieved?” Pant shot back. “This is cricket. You have good days, you have bad days. You can’t afford to put yourself under too much pressure and risk ruining your future games too. There will be days when you will score runs, there will be days when you won’t. This is a part of a cricketer’s life.”It is remarkable to have managed to attain that kind of equanimity this early in a career, but Pant said the seniors have helped him in this regard. “You get to learn from seniors,” he said. “Whatever time I spent in the Indian team, I learnt. Here, too, there is Gauti [Gambhir, who has first-hand experience of insecurities as a young cricketer] and Ishant [Ishant Sharma, who is now the Delhi captain]. There is no minimum age to learn these things. The sooner you learn, the sooner you will grow as a cricketer.”A good example of similar effort reaping “good” and “bad” days is how Pant was dropped in the 30s. It is luck he might have earned. In this lean period, he has been out backing up when a straight drive kissed the bowler’s hand and strangled down the leg side on more than one occasion. That is why, Pant said, he has not looked to change his game. “The game that has got you runs, if you stick to it, you give yourself the best chance to keep scoring runs,” he said. “Rather than running after changes, stay positive and back your game. I used to feel bad that I was not actually putting the runs on the board, but there was no special pattern to my dismissals, which might make me change my game.”

Legspinner ready to unleash tweaks made after opting out of ODI World Cup

Valkerie Baynes22-Jul-2022As hard as it was “fan-girling” from home as England reached the World Cup final, legspinner Sarah Glenn believes she is set to reap the rewards of her difficult decision to opt out of the tournament.Evidence was there already as she played her first match for England since the Ashes in January, bowling South Africa opener Anneke Bosch as the hosts sealed a six-wicket victory with five overs to spare in their first of three T20Is at Chelmsford on Monday.Glenn finished with figures of 1 for 18 from three overs, while left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone took two behind veteran seamer Katherine Brunt’s T20I career-best 4 for 15 which contained South Africa to a paltry 111 for 9.”I was very nervous actually,” Glenn said of the moments before captain Heather Knight threw her the ball in the seventh over. She struck with her seventh ball. “When I saw Heather, she was like, ‘okay, next over’ and it was like okay, deep breath. Once I got through my first over I was fine and I just really soaked up the atmosphere.”Related

• Glenn surprises herself with rapid rise

• Glenn: 'I want to be a genuine allrounder'

• Marizanne Kapp leaves England tour for family reasons, in doubt for Commonwealth Games

• Dunkley turns on the power after Brunt four-for

• Brunt: 'If I break after the Commonwealth Games, so be it'

Glenn went wicketless and conceded 39 runs from three overs in the only T20I completed during the rain-affected Ashes which Australia won by nine wickets. She opted out of going to New Zealand for the ODI World Cup, where she would have been a travelling reserve rather than part of the squad proper, as the toll of bubble life and other Covid-prevention rules the squad were forced to follow amid a surge in cases in the UK around Christmas time mounted.”I think it was what I needed,” Glenn said. “It was a really tough decision and it was quite hard seeing the girls but I was just fan-girling from home. It just made me really clear and I did a lot of training sessions by myself, just figuring out things with a clear head and that just helped so much. It has made me have so much more clarity coming into this summer.”There were a few things I wanted to make changes with in my bowling. I did a few drills and I found with a shorter run-up, I felt a bit more stable and more rhythmic so that has allowed me to work on my variations like googly, yorker, pace-off, things like that. With all of that, I practised it in pre-season so I knew I had it in the locker and I could just keep it simple for the summer.”Sarah Glenn in her delivery stride•Getty Images

Glenn took six wickets in four matches at the T20 World Cup in early 2020 at 11.33 with an economy rate of 4.25 and including a career-best 3 for 15 in England’s group-stage victory over Pakistan.She impressed against West Indies in September of that year and toured New Zealand in early 2021 before home series against India and New Zealand last year, and is still the No. 2 bowler in the ICC’s T20I rankings behind Ecclestone.”I forget that sometimes,” Glenn said. “Soph is much more experienced, so I always follow her steps. I am always asking her questions, being a little bit of a coaches’ pet, but she has helped me a lot and guided me in my international career so hopefully she can keep teaching me over the years.”Obviously the dream is to be number one but when I got to number two I wasn’t even thinking about it and that is when the danger is, when you keep thinking about it. So we just try to keep it simple, try to perform our best every game and if we’re number one or two, it is a bonus.”The pair could form a formidable combination at the Commonwealth Games, starting in Birmingham next week, where England will open their campaign against Sri Lanka on July 30.The England T20 squad are hugely enthusiastic about being part of a multi-sport showcase for the first time, and on home soil. The event appeal massively to Glenn as a former junior hockey international who grew up watching her hockey idols at events like the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.”It is honestly amazing,” she said. “When we went to the kit-out day, how everything was brought back all the memories and made me a bit emotional, actually, because it is so good to feel you are just one team from multiple teams. It brought back really good memories for me so I am excited to have that kind of experience again.”

Sikandar Raza threatened with a cameo at the death, but it wasn’t enough for the hosts in Harare

Deivarayan Muthu12-Jun-2022
Afghanistan overcame a late dash from Sikandar Raza to successfully defend 170 and sew up the T20I series 2-0, with one game to go, in Harare. Rashid Khan, who had an off day until the final exchanges, dismissed the big-hitting Raza for 41 off 21 balls and Ryan Burl for a duck in a decisive 18th over that cost just seven runs.Zimbabwe were left needing 35 off the last 12 balls, which proved well beyond their reach. Left-arm seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi and Nijat Masood, who had impressed on debut on Saturday, coolly closed out the game for the visitors.Zimbabwe opener Innocent Kaia scored his first T20 fifty, but needed 52 balls for the landmark as he struggled to find a higher tempo through his innings.When Raza joined Kaia, Zimbabwe were 66 for 3 in the 11th over, with the asking rate ballooning towards 11. Raza briefly pricked it by launching four sixes – all in the arc between deep midwicket and wide long-on. The sequence even included a swiped maximum off Rashid.After managing a run-a-ball 2, Rashid dropped a fairly straightforward catch at deep midwicket to reprieve Tadiwanashe Marumani on 3. Marunami added 27 to his tally before Mohammad Nabi had him skying a return catch. Rashid then ended up leaking 17 runs in an action-packed 15th over that also contained two reprieves by Azmatullah Omarzai for Kaia.Returning to the attack in the 18th over, Rashid saw Kaia hoick him over midwicket for four. Three balls later, Rashid unleashed a fizzing wrong’un that castled an advancing Raza. When Burl holed out, the game was all but up for Zimbabwe.It was Farooqi who shut down the chase after Raza forged a 70-run partnership with Kaia. With a delightful cocktail of wide yorkers, stump yorkers and slower bouncers, Farooqi hiked the asking rate, forcing Raza and Kaia to take undue risks against Rashid. Farooqi came away with figures of 1 for 19 in his four overs. It could have been 2 for 19 had Najibullah Zadran held onto a catch offered by Regis Chakabva in the 19th over.Earlier, Farooqi had made the first breakthrough by pinning Wessley Madhevere in front with a slower cutter. Captain Nabi singled out Farooqi for special praise at the post-match presentation, calling him the “game-changer”. Farooqi’s Player-of-the-Match award enhances his T20 reputation: he has played only 11 T20s so far, but already has gigs in the IPL, BPL and the T10 league under his belt.Nabi himself had made a significant contribution to Afghanistan’s victory, following up his unbeaten 22-ball 43 with 1 for 18 in two overs.When Nabi had walked out to bat, Afghanistan were wobbling at 88 for 4 in the 13th over, with Darwish Rasooli also having retired hurt on 12. Nabi had a slow start – he was on 7 off 8 balls at one point – but cranked up the tempo to hit three sixes and a four off his next six balls to give Afghanistan’s innings the final push it needed.Nabi clubbed another six in the last over, bowled by Tendai Chatara, to drag Afghanistan up to 170 for 5. He struck up a 70-run stand with Najibullah off a mere 40 balls. Najibullah raised his second successive half-century and seventh overall in T20Is. Thirty-eight of his 57 came against spin.Despite the early loss of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Afghanistan were aggressive at the top, shellacking 51 runs in the powerplay. Hazratullah Zazai was responsible for 28 off those, which came a strike rate of 215.38.Chatara and Luke Jongwe made inroads into the line-up before Nabi and Najibullah took center stage. Legspin-bowling allrounder Burl was Zimbabwe’s most economical bowler, returning 1 for 15 from his three overs a day after he had claimed 3 for 14 in the last match. Zimbabwe, however, ultimately slid to their fourth consecutive defeat, which has put their prep for next month’s T20 qualifier in some disarray.

Sri Lanka’s new Test captain Dinesh Chandimal’s objective is to take a languishing Sri Lanka side to the top of the rankings, but insisted on patience in their climb

Andrew Fidel Fernando13-Jul-2017Sri Lanka’s new Test captain Dinesh Chandimal has hopes of taking the team to the top of the rankings, but expects the climb to be hard-fought, beginning with Friday’s Test against Zimbabwe.Having been as high as No. 2 in 2010, Sri Lanka have now slipped to No. 7 on the table, and have lost four of their five most-recent games. They have sprung most surprises in Tests, however, having unexpectedly won a series against Australia a year ago.”My final goal is to take the team to No. 1 in the world,” Chandimal said ahead of his first Test as captain. “But we can’t do that in one day or one year. We have to work hard with our cricket to get there. We have young players, and we have to give them experience along the way. We have to take it step by step – go to No. 6 first, then No. 5 and so on. We have a long way to go.”The first step on that journey is to ensure a Zimbabwe tour that has already caused strife for Sri Lanka does not get any worse. Zimbabwe’s top order shone in their ODI series victory but Chandimal believes the experience Sri Lanka carries in their Test attack will pose sterner questions of the opposition.”The Zimbabwe batsmen, in particular, played very well during the five ODIs, and we can’t underestimate them,” Chandimal said. “But we do have Rangana Herath in our Test team, who is an extremely experienced player. We also have Dilruwan Perera. I don’t think we will let Zimbabwe get into rhythm too easily. We have plans against them, and we have good spinners. So I’m hoping we can bowl well and restrict them.”With Herath leading the attack, the bowling is in good hands, and the batting appears somewhat settled, but Sri Lanka’s catching has been woeful over the past year. Their Test loss to Bangladesh in March may well have been avoided had Sri Lanka taken all their chances. As a result, fielding will be a priority in the early days of his captaincy, Chandimal said.”I’ve thought about how we became so weak in fielding, and tried to work out how we can fix it. I talked with the coaches as well. Even in training, if we catch 100 flat catches, 100 high catches, and 100 ground fielding balls, the pressure that we have in the game is missing. I talked to the coaches and told them that what I want is to do those drills under something similar to match pressure. Then we have a target and feed off each other’s energy. In the last few days that’s what we did. I think we’ll be able to improve a lot in our fielding with those measures.”Though he played as a specialist batsman in the most-recent Test series, against Bangladesh, Chandimal has kept wicket in 24 of his 36 Tests. He was unwilling to commit to giving up the gloves in light of his captaincy, but suggested he may play as a specialist batsman in the short term. Limited-overs wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella is in the squad.”Dickwella is in form in ODIs and is a young player, and we also have to push him forward as someone who will improve our cricket,” Chandimal said. “He will probably do the job most times. But I will also consider the team’s balance, and am prepared to keep. For this match he will probably keep.”

Graeme Cremer stuck himself into Sri Lanka’s flesh on the fourth day, first making a stubborn 48 from No. 9, then claiming two wickets, as Zimbabwe dismissed three Sri Lankan batsmen in their defense of 388

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando17-Jul-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSikandar Raza’s maiden century left Sri Lanka needing to pull off the highest successful chase in the country•NurPhoto/Getty Images

Graeme Cremer stuck himself into Sri Lanka’s flesh on the fourth day, first making a stubborn 48 from No. 9, then claiming two wickets in the third session, as Zimbabwe dismissed three Sri Lankan batsmen in their defense of 388. Thanks to Cremer, Zimbabwe’s dreams of a historic win against Sri Lanka are alive, but even if they are chasing a target that has never successfully been pursued on the island, the hosts are not quite out of the game yet.At the crease is a sparkling Kusal Mendis, who has hit 60 off 85 balls so far, and has refused to let the spinners settle to him, on what has now become a slightly treacherous pitch. Alongside him stands Angelo Mathews, one of Sri Lanka’s best-ever fourth-innings batsmen. With an inexperienced Niroshan Dickwella, and an injured Asela Gunaratne to come, this, you suspect, is the partnership that will have to bloom if Sri Lanka are to score the further 218 required for victory. They have so far managed 170 for 3. The game stands tantalisingly poised.Worryingly for the hosts, all three of their dismissals so far were brought about by significant turn. Cremer broke the opening stand that had yielded 58, tossing one up outside Upul Tharanga’s off stump, and spinning it in more sharply than Tharanga expected. The ball would take the inside edge, and pop up for a simple bat-pad catch. Later, Cremer also had Dinesh Chandimal caught at slip, luring the batsman into a forward prod, and having it take the outside edge.The most extraordinary dismissal of the day, however, belonged to Sean Williams, who turned the ball as far anyone has managed in the game. Pitching it well wide of Dimuth Karunaratne, Williams had the ball surge back off the rough. So wide had it pitched, that Karunaratne – who had batted fluently until then – did not even bother offering a shot, and could only watch as the ball hit his off stump.Karunaratne had set the early tone for the innings, searching intently for scoring options, which he found most easily on the legside. His 49 off 84 balls had only one boundary – a pulled four off Sikandar Raza in the fifth over. Tharanga, who had been so quick to set off in the first innings, began watchfully here, making only one run from his first 15 balls. Eventually, he began to find the boundary, and steered Sri Lanka to 56 for no loss in the company of Karunaratne, before losing his wicket in the second over after the break.Mendis came to the crease, picked up two singles, then made his first statement of the innings, sweeping his ninth ball – from Cremer – flat and hard to the square leg boundary. It is a stroke Mendis plays exceedingly well, and one that has defined this tour. Perhaps the shot of the day was another Mendis sweep, off Cremer again, in the 33rd over, when the legside sweeper had fewer than 10 metres to run in order to cut the shot off, but was beaten by the power behind the stroke. In between six legside boundaries, Mendis found singles and twos square of the wicket, and sent his innings skimming along at such a lively pace, it was easy, at times, to forget the match situation.Mathews, often a slow starter, perhaps took Mendis’ lead and sought out the run-scoring opportunities. His 17 not out off 33 balls featured a straight six off Cremer.Sri Lanka had been set as many as 388 – which, if pursued, would be the fifth-highest successful chase in Test cricket – partly because of their bowlers’ continuing lack of menace on the fourth day, though perhaps an unhelpful surface can take some of the blame. Through large parts of Monday, Rangana Herath again appeared to be the sole Sri Lankan threat, picking up two further wickets to take his tally to 11 for the Test. Dilruwan Perera provided better support for Herath on Monday, but only occasionally bowled a threatening ball. Suranga Lakmal finished wicketless after 28 overs in this match. Lahiru Kumara was a little better, gleaning some reverse swing with the old ball, but still did not create more than one chance on the day – an edge off Cremer’s bat that flew through vacant third slip.Though there will be a little trepidation about what the final day holds, the fourth had begun joyfully for Zimbabwe, as Raza required only two deliveries to move to a maiden Test ton. He then immediately set about building on Zimbabwe’s lead as if what was probably the personal milestone of his career was merely a distraction from the real job at hand. The sweep and reverse sweep were popular against the spinners again, but Raza’s most eye-catching boundary of the morning was an assertive straight punch, off Lakmal, in the 76th over.His overnight partner, Waller, meanwhile, had a quiet morning, and holed out attempting his first boundary of the day, closing out the seventh wicket stand at 144 runs. Raza was visibly livid with his teammate for hitting a long hop straight to deep midwicket, but was out himself, 17 runs later, attempting a reverse sweep against Herath only to miss the delivery and have it clatter his stumps.Cremer and No. 10 Donald Tiripano continued Zimbabwe’s onward march, however, taking risk-free runs and hitting out only at the truly poor deliveries, just as the batsmen had done. Sri Lanka, who had held their catches until the third day, contributed to their own frustration on Monday by grassing two. Just before lunch, Karunaratne failed to hold a tough chance low to his right at slip, reprieving Cremer on 32. Perera, the bowler on that occasion, would see another chance go down off his bowling after lunch, when Lahiru Kumara fumbled a straightforward catch off Tiripano at mid-off. The Cremer-Tiripano ninth-wicket stand was Zimbabwe’s best of the day, yielding 55 runs.Perera would eventually get Tiripano lbw for 19, before Herath drew a top-edge from a sweeping Cremer to end the innings. But that was not before Chris Mpofu had biffed a six, and the last-wicket pair had added another 16 together.

Durham make inroads on shortened day but experienced South African stands firm

ECB Reporters Network07-Apr-2022Just 47 overs were possible on a day curtailed by weather in the LV=Insurance County Championship match between Glamorgan and Durham in Cardiff. The home side reached 164 for 4 at the close on a day that saw repeated weather delays after lunch.It was the visitors who won the toss and put Glamorgan into bat. Useful contributions of 28 from David Lloyd and 24 from Sam Northeast gave Glamorgan a decent start but two wickets in eight balls just before lunch brought Durham back into the game. Colin Ingram was the star for Glamorgan, finishing on 71 not out before a huge hailstorm took the players off the field for the final time just after tea.Glamorgan experimented with Andrew Salter as an opener, the third time in three different matches that he has been given the job. This one was no more successful than the other attempts with Salter now having made 7 runs from three innings at the top of the order. While there has been some batting success for the offspinner – he has nine fifties in first-class cricket – it will be interesting how long-lasting and how successful this experiment will be. When Eddie Bryrom is back from injury the expectation is that he will be given the job.Lloyd, himself a relative newcomer to opening in first class cricket, looked much more assured with real positive intent from the outset. He played an enterprising innings before edging to David Bedingham off the bowling of Ben Raine.New Glamorgan signing Northeast looked in good touch before he was trapped lbw by Chris Rushworth. When Raine had Kiran Carlson bowled for 1 in the next over Glamorgan found themselves 108 for 4 despite having looked in control for much of the morning session.Ingram, who has played just one other first-class match since 2017, looked in fantastic touch, passing his fifty from 76 balls with one half chance in the gully being his only slip up. Lloyd joked afterwards that Marnus Labuschagne, who has only just arrived in the country, might have a fight to get his place back.”We will have to send Marnus back home I think, and Colin can take his place,” he said. “Obviously, it is a good place to be having that competition and Colin has come in and done a really good job. He has a lot of experience and knows he’s game pretty well so I think it is a bit easier than someone a bit younger coming in to do it. He has fitted in very well and has looked good all pre-season so he has finally showed his form.”Just 17 overs were possible after the lunch break, with short but heavy rain and hail showers taking the players off the field at regular intervals before one almighty downpour forced them off for good.Despite these regular interruptions Ingram and Chris Cooke put on an undefeated partnership of 56 for the fifth wicket. With the ball getting older things looked a little easier for batting although there was still the odd delivery that seamed or swung.Raine was the pick of the Durham bowlers as he got the ball to move often enough to trouble the batters throughout his 11 overs, and he will be disappointed that the weather prevented him from having further opportunities for wickets.

Leicestershire are the only county without a Championship win but they are giving promotion-hopefuls Kent a fight at Canterbury

ECB Reporters Network29-Aug-2017Sam Northeast kept Kent in contention•Getty Images

Leicestershire all-rounder Neil Dexter returned to his former home ground to bag 5 for 76 and help restrict Kent to 313 for 9 on a fascinating second day of cut and thrust cricket in Canterbury.The hosts, who still trail Leicestershire – the only side in the county championship still without a win in 2017 – by 37 runs struggled to cope with Dexter’s underrated military-medium seamers.Only Kent skipper, Sam Northeast, who batted almost four-and-a-half hours for his 97, went past 50 for the home side, but he too fell to the wiles of Dexter.Responding to Leicestershire’s dogged first innings of 350, Kent’s opening batsmen Daniel Bell-Drummond and Sean Dickson were both back in the hutch inside 13 overs.Dickson, who looked solid in scoring 19, drove with firm-hands and leaden feet at a full away-swinger from Ben Raine only to edge to second slip. Then, with his score on 17, Bell-Drummond pushed at a gentle Dexter away-swinger and nudged a second catch to Ned Eckersley in the cordon.Northeast and Joe Denly appeared comfortable in adding 39 either side of lunch until Denly, 58 runs short of reaching his 1,000 for the season, tossed away his wicket by wafting off the back-foot against Raine to be caught behind.Sam Billings marched in for only his fourth championship innings of
the summer to get off the mark with an effortless straight-driven
boundary off Raine. But, having breezed to 16, Billings played loosely
across the line of a shooting off-cutter and appeared disappointed
when umpire Martin Saggers upheld Dexter’s lbw appeal.Dexter was soon celebrating again when he nipped one down the
Canterbury slope to hit the back pad of Old Tonbridgian and Kent
championship debutant, Zak Crawley, who went lbw for only a single on his championship debut.Northeast and Darren Stevens combined to steady the Kentish ship with a sensible sixth-wicket stand worth 80 either side of tea. Content to wait for the bad ball, Northeast went to a 97-ball 50 with six fours and Stevens was only four runs short of joining him when he played around his front pad to go lbw to a Matt Pillans in-ducker.Left-hander Matt Coles sidled in to launch a one-man boundary spree, hitting seven of them in his 37 before an attempted lap against spinner Callum Parkinson looped up to the keeper seemingly via the gloves. Coles, however, marched off rubbing his forearm.Home skipper Northeast was only three short of his third century of the summer when his 170-ball stay came to an end. Caught on the crease and playing across a Dexter off-cutter, he went lbw after 260 minutes at the crease.Dexter picked up his fifth when Mitch Claydon, with his side 13 shy of a third batting bonus point, drove on the up straight into the hands of short-extra cover.Much to the delight of home supporters, Kent’s last man Imran Qayyum came in to hit his first runs in first-class cricket, including a brace of boundaries, to help Adam Milne steer Kent beyond 300.The second day started as Monday’s play had finished with Leicestershire’s last pairing of Parkinson and Hill making hay.Resuming on their side’s overnight score of 326 for 9, the duo continued to use the long handle and added 24 for a fourth batting bonus point before their invaluable 122-run stand ended when Parkinson (75) edged a Stevens away-swinger to slip to give Stevens a career-best return of eight for 75. Hill was left unbeaten on a season’s best 85.

New Zealand took the lead after bowling the visitors out for their lowest total batting first since 1932

Firdose Moonda16-Feb-2022Matt Henry recorded the joint-third-best figures by a New Zealand bowler with a career-best 7 for 23, including three wickets in the same over, to dismiss South Africa for their lowest total against New Zealand and lowest in 23 Tests. On a seamer-friendly Christchurch surface, Henry made use of the movement and bounce and almost single-handedly bowled South Africa out for 95, their lowest total batting first since 1932. In so doing, Henry registered the best bowling figures against South Africa since 1915. And if the historical data is not enough to underline New Zealand’s dominance of the opening day, their top four wiped out the deficit inside 34 overs, and took the lead by the close of play.The Test match got underway at midnight South African time and anyone who stayed up might have wondered if it was the team, and not them, who were sleep deprived. Not only did no-one score more than Zubayr Hamza’s 25 but they also dropped four chances in the field in an underwhelming showing, especially coming off their series win against India. South Africa are notorious slow starters and were made to look even slower by a clinical and energetic New Zealand side.Henry, who did not play in New Zealand’s last five Tests and was a replacement for paternity leave absentee Trent Boult, set the tone when he nipped out three of the top four in the morning session. He returned after lunch to claim four more and leave South Africa shell-shocked.His first incision was a big one, when he got rid of Dean Elgar in the 10th over of the morning. The South African captain reached away from his body to drive an outswinger and got a thick edge to third slip. Tim Southee, who had opened the bowling at the other end, took a diving catch to his left to dismiss Elgar for 1.That left debutant Sarel Erwee, who was in because Keegan Petersen could not make the trip after contracting Covid-19, with Aiden Markram, the out-of-form opener now moved to No. 3. Erwee left well to start but grew more tentative and was eventually sent back when Kyle Jamieson, bowling first change, forced him to play at a short of a length delivery that he edged to Daryl Mitchell at first slip.South Africa were 22 for 2 after 10 overs and New Zealand continued to pile on the pressure. Only five runs were scored in the next six overs and Markram seemed particularly vulnerable. He survived a tight lbw shout but soon enough, in trying to punch Henry off the back foot, he underestimated the movement on offer and was caught behind. Markram has not scored more than 16 runs in his last nine Test innings, dating back to June 2021.Rassie van der Dussen was dismissed in the same over, squared up by a good length delivery that straightened on him and edged to third slip where Southee took another good catch. At 37 for 4, South Africa would have been pleased that they included an extra specialist batter in their XI. Hamza made a comeback after last playing Test cricket two years ago and even looked convincing for a while, pulling and driving Southee, but then Henry had him prodding at a back of a length ball without moving his feet and was caught behind.That was Henry’s second session warm-up wicket. His main act came two overs later when he struck Kyle Verreynne on the knee roll with a full ball and New Zealand reviewed. Hawkeye showed the ball would go on to hit leg stump and Henry had his first Test five-for. Four balls later, Henry had Kagiso Rabada caught behind. Debutant Glenton Stuurman went the same way. South Africa were 88 for 8 and then 88 for 9 with Henry on a hat-trick. He didn’t get there and it was Wagner who ended the innings, with Duanne Olivier caught at second slip.New Zealand began their reply positively but South Africa had an early opportunity to dent them when Stuurman, sharing the new ball in his first Test, induced a leading edge from Tom Latham but Marco Jansen, at gully, could not hold on.Jansen made up for his mistake by dismissing Will Young in his first over and South Africa wrested back some control when Olivier bowled Latham with a scrambled seam delivery that hit the top of off stump. But then they let another chance go begging when Hamza dropped Henry Nicholls at third slip. The day kept drifting away from South Africa, a feeling amplified by Temba Bavuma shelling another chance when Nicholls cut Rabada to him at point.Nicholls and Devon Conway put on a stand of 75 and take New Zealand into the lead but Olivier separated them when he bowled Conway off the inside-edge. That could have given South Africa some cheer at the end of a long day but van der Dussen dropped a late chance when nightwatchman Neil Wagner turned an Oliver delivery to him at short leg. Van der Dussen was not anticipating the chance and had to react quickly, but the ball hit him on the body and fell to the floor. A metaphor for South Africa’s day.

ESPNcricinfo’s wrap of the fifth day of the Sheffield Shield final between Victoria and South Australia in Alice Springs

Brydon Coverdale30-Mar-2017
ScorecardVictoria celebrate their third successive Sheffield Shield title•Getty Images

Victoria have completed a hat-trick of Sheffield Shield titles for the first time in the state’s history, wrapping up a third consecutive triumph by playing out a draw with South Australia in Alice Springs. The Bushrangers were in control for virtually the whole match and on the final day set the Redbacks an unrealistic 524 for victory; play was called off late in the afternoon with South Australia on 6 for 236.It was the second straight year that South Australia had reached the final and hoped to break a two-decade Sheffield Shield drought, only to be thwarted by Victoria in the decider both times. Last year, South Australia had enjoyed the significant advantage of hosting and thus required only a draw to secure the title, but Victoria had managed to pull off a victory in the final at Glenelg.Victoria’s three-peat was all the more remarkable for having come under three different coaches: Greg Shipperd steered them to the 2014-15 title, David Saker had the reins in 2015-16, and Andrew McDonald was in charge this year. They also had to overcome the challenge of playing all three finals outside the state – in 2014-15 they had “hosted” Western Australia in the final at Bellerive Oval in Hobart.