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Liam Dawson's allround dominance leaves Lancashire in a spin

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Four wickets in wake of century sets up prospect of big first-innings lead

ECB Reporters Network30-Aug-2024A superb display by all-rounder Liam Dawson has left Hampshire in a dominant position after two days of their Vitality County Championship match against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford.After making an unbeaten 104, his second century of the season, and putting on 71 for the last wicket with Mohammad Abbas, Dawson bowled 28 overs unchanged from the James Anderson End, taking four for 46 as the home side replied to Hampshire’s 389 with 193 for eightThe opening 75 minutes of the day were filled with frustration for Lancashire’s cricketers as they watched Dawson and Abbas add a further 59 runs in 18 overs, thereby extending their last-wicket stand and changing the balance of the contest.Dawson reached his fifty in the second over of the morning and went on to reach his century off 125 balls, having hit eight fours and five sixes, four of the maximums being struck during a session in which he had farmed the bowling shrewdly and tormented Lancashire in the process.Having made one run off 32 balls in 89 minutes, Abbas was eventually caught at backward point by George Balderson off Luke Wells, leaving Dawson undefeated on an outstanding 104.Lancashire then lost Wells, bowled off the inside edge by Kyle Abbott for six, in the half hour’s play that was possible prior to lunch but Keaton Jennings and Josh Bohannon survived until the break and prospered in the afternoon session, putting on 90 for the second wicket before Jennings was leg before wicket to Dawson for 56.Four overs later, the slow left-armer struck again when Rocky Flintoff tried to mow the spinner across the line but only skied a catch to substitute fielder Felix Organ at midwicket and departed for a ten-ball nought.Lancashire came into tea on 108 for three and their decline accelerated on the resumption. In the second over of the evening session, Matt Hurst became Dawson’s third wicket when he was caught off inside edge and pad by Fletcha Middleton for four.In the next over, Bohannon, having made 43 in 167 minutes chipped John Turner straight to Tom Prest, who had been precisely placed at short midwicket. And Turner had more success in his next over when George Balderson groped at a swinging delivery and nicked a catch to second slip where Toby Albert completed a fine diving catch.Bell and Iyer prevented complete collapse with a stand of 48 but James Fuller’s diving catch to his right at cover off Abbott’s bowling removed Iyer for 27. Tom Hartley then became Dawson’s fourth victim when he holed out to James Vince at mid-off for two but George Bell ended the day unbeaten on 33 after two hours in which his judgement and shot-selection had perhaps been an example to some of his colleagues.

Rishabh Pant hits form to help rescue Delhi

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

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.”

Can shell-shocked India even the odds vs Bazball?

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India have been in this kind of position many times before and gotten themselves out of trouble, but England will be no pushovers

Karthik Krishnaswamy01-Feb-20242:39

Manjrekar: ‘Selecting Sarfaraz over Patidar would be an over-reaction’

Big picture

It’s happened before, you know? It’s even happened against England; the last time they were here, in fact.It’s happened before. India have gone 1-0 down at home, and India have bounced back. This is what India will be telling themselves: ‘We’ve been here before. We trust ourselves to find our way out of this. We trust our methods.’It’s what they should tell themselves too. Change is a fact of life, a constant that India aren’t blind to – note their efforts to embrace the sweep and all its variants in the lead-up to Visakhapatnam – but there’s a reason why they’ve been so successful in their own conditions for such a long time: their methods work, and work exceedingly well, most of the time.Hyderabad was one of those exceptions, rare and freakish. India have experienced something very much like it too – Dinesh Chandimal, an almost stroke-for-stroke precursor to Ollie Pope – and they came back to win that series as well.Related

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  • Patidar vs Sarfaraz takes centre stage at India nets

India have been there, and India have done it. They will trust that they can do it again. And for all of the shockwaves they set off in Hyderabad, England will know coming to Visakhapatam that they will most likely need to keep doing freakish things to repeat that result. Having won the first Test with a frontline spin attack with the collective experience of 36 Tests, they now go into the second with one that’s played a combined three Tests. Three. It’s quite likely that Joe Root will once again bowl more overs than at least one of their theoretically main spinners.For all that, though, have England had a better chance in India than this one since their triumphant 2012-13 tour? India were a team in transition in those late-Tendulkar days, and if they aren’t already in another full-blown transition now, the number of absences they’re dealing with has left them in a not-too-dissimilar situation.Who among Sarfaraz Khan and Rajat Patidar will feature in Visakhapatnam?•Getty Images

They’ve already felt the effects of losing experienced batters. Bowlers win Test matches, it’s true, but batters can lose them, in ways that aren’t immediately apparent. India came away from Hyderabad with the impression that they lost that Test match on day two, when their batters, one after another, fell while attempting boundary hits. Eight of their top nine got past 20, and three of them got into the 80s, but none of them got to three figures. The aggression that cost them their wickets also brought them their runs, yes, but you could easily imagine Virat Kohli, in the same conditions and against the same attack, going at a not-dissimilar clip while hitting nothing in the air, and piling up what may have seemed to him a double-hundred for the taking.In Visakhapatnam, India will miss not just Kohli but also KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja, two of their three most experienced batters from the first Test.And the loss of Jadeja, needless to say, will leave them without half of one of the greatest spin-bowling duos in history. It’s a massive blow, particularly since India are already without Mohammed Shami, whose absence in Hyderabad left them without a supreme wicket-taker in Indian conditions while also – given their seeming lack of faith in Mohammed Siraj – piling extra overs onto their spinners’ shoulders.It’s a reflection of how good India are that Jadeja’s likely replacement is Kuldeep Yadav, a bowler who’d probably be part of England’s first-choice attack in every Test match, home and away, if they could magically change his nationality. Even so, as good as they are, India are not as good as they could be, and in this lies England’s greatest chance.

Form guide

India LWLDW (last five Tests, most recent first)
England WWDWL

In the spotlight

He averages 21.55, has taken three five-fors in just 14 innings, and was Player of the Match in his most recent Test match, but he’s an Indian spinner in the time of R Ashwin and Jadeja. Kuldeep Yadav has missed 56 of India’s 64 Tests since his debut in 2017, and he’s waited patiently for opportunities like this one. Along the way he’s made himself a more resilient bowler, quicker and harder to sit on the back foot against, while remaining just as deceptive in the air and off the pitch. In some ways he might be just the bowler India need against an England line-up prepared to sweep and reverse sweep everything in its path: a bit more dip, a bit more bounce, and the threat of the ball going in unexpected directions.He sent down 48 overs in Hyderabad, the most he’s ever bowled in a Test match, and there’s every chance he’ll have to go through a similar workload again. Can Joe Root cope with it? And what effect will it have on his batting?

Team news

India have decisions to make with Rahul and Jadeja out. Kuldeep’s wicket-taking ability or Washington Sundar’s all-round utility? Rajat Patidar’s standing in the hierarchy or Sarfaraz Khan’s unorthodox methods? Is there, perhaps, even a case for Sundar Kuldeep, with either a batter or a fast bowler – Siraj – missing out?India (possible): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Shubman Gill, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Rajat Patidar, 6 Axar Patel, 7 KS Bharat (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mohammed Siraj.1:32

Miller: Bashir debut another ‘no fear’ pick from England

England are going 3-1 again, with James Anderson and Shoaib Bashir coming in for Mark Wood and the injured Jack Leach.England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Ben Foakes (wk), 8 Rehan Ahmed, 9 Tom Hartley, 10 Shoaib Bashir, 11 James Anderson.

Pitch and conditions

On the eve of the match, Ben Stokes suggested the Visakhapatnam pitch might offer a little less turn initially than the one in Hyderabad did, before “footholes and stuff like that […] come into play the further the Test goes”. The sun will bake down, though, so it may not take too much time for the pitch to begin showing wear.Spinners will bowl the bulk of the overs, but don’t be surprised if the quicks make an impact. Reverse swing came into the picture the last time England played here – Anderson, Stuart Broad and Stokes took 10 of the 20 Indian wickets that fell – and three years later Shami was India’s fourth-innings destroyer against South Africa, taking 5 for 35 on a wearing pitch where the ball frequently kept low.Shoaib Bashir was named in England’s XI for the second Test•Getty Images

Stats and trivia

  • Ashwin is four wickets away from becoming the second India bowler to reach the 500 mark in Test cricket.
  • Ashwin (95) is just one wicket behind Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, India’s leading Test wicket-taker against England. Anderson (139) is a distant first on the England-India Test wicket-takers’ list.
  • Jasprit Bumrah, meanwhile, needs four wickets to get to 150 in Tests.
  • Rohit Sharma made centuries in both innings the last time India played a Test in Visakhapatnam. A similar Test this time will help him go past 4000 Test runs. He currently has 3800.
  • Root (11,477) has more Test runs than India’s entire squad in Visakhapatnam (10,702).
  • Anderson is set to play his 14th Test match in India, joining Keith Fletcher, Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd and Ricky Ponting in joint third place in the overseas players’ list, with only Viv Richards (15) and Derek Underwood (16) ahead of them.
  • Anderson is also 10 wickets away from joining Muthiah Muralidaran and Shane Warne in the 700 club.
  • Stokes is unlikely to bowl, but if he does, he’ll know he’s three wickets away from the 200 mark in Tests.

Rohit Sharma plots India’s comeback•Getty Images

Quotes

“Playing in India, we play a lot of cricket on these tracks. It’s not that we don’t know how to reverse sweep or sweep or paddle. On that particular day, depending upon the situation of the team, we as batters take our calls. And it’s very clear to us to bat with freedom. We’ve also practised some reverse in the first game as well, but then, yes, playing out in the centre is a batter’s individual plan, and if the team demands us to play in a certain way we are definitely up for it.”
“The way in which they set the tone for everybody else but also the way they put the bowlers under a serious amount of pressure with a new ball. A new ball is always the most difficult period, but you know, consistently not only are they able to negate that but they’re also able to get the scoreboard rolling at a very, very good rate, which is a huge thing for our dressing room and our batting line-up as well. And I think it’s pretty obvious [there’s] a difference in height between the both of them and I think they complement each other very, very well. Balls that Zak plays on the front foot, Ducky plays on the back foot. So it’s very tough, I think, for bowlers to settle into a rhythm and settle into a line and length against those two. One’s left-handed, one’s right. So the way in which they complement each other is brilliant. And yes, they get us get us off to a great start and just sort of set the tone for us in a Test.”

Balbirnie leads Ireland to historic first Test win

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The seamers had set it up for them by taking 19 of the 20 wickets

Sreshth Shah01-Mar-2024Ireland 263 (Stirling 52, Ur-Rahman 5-64) and 111 for 4 (Balbirnie 58*, Tucker 27*, Naveed 2-31) beat Afghanistan 155 (Ibrahim 53, Adair 5-39) and 218 (Shahidi 55, Young 3-24, McCarthy 3-48, Adair 3-56) by six wicketsSix years and seven Test defeats later, Ireland earned their first victory in cricket’s longest format on Friday, beating Afghanistan by six wickets on the third day of the one-off Test in Abu Dhabi.Set a small target of 111 for victory, Ireland found themselves in a slippery position at 13 for 3 in their fourth innings, but their captain Andy Balbirnie staved off the Afghan challenge with Lorcan Tucker for company to seal the historic win in front of a spattering of travelling Ireland fans. There were tears in the crowd among family members of the Irish contingent when Tucker scurried across for a single to complete the historic winning run in the 32nd over.While Balbirnie’s unbeaten 58 on a turning surface got Ireland back on track for the win, it was their pace bowlers who set the game up. The trio of Barry McCarthy, Mark Adair and Craig Young shared three Afghanistan wickets apiece in the third innings to make Afghanistan fold for only 218, having started the day at a comfortable 134 for 3. In all, Ireland’s pace bowlers shared 19 of the 20 wickets in the match, only the second time in eight Tests that the team took all 20. They bent their back in warm conditions at the Tolerance Oval to ensure Afghanistan could finish with a lead of only 110, a score that was, in the end, too low.

It was Adair who got the first breakthrough of day three by dismissing overnight batter Hashmatullah Shahidi on 55, trapping him lbw from around the wicket. McCarthy then got a length ball to shape in and rattle Nasir Jamal’s off stump. Young then pegged Afghanistan further back by getting Karim Janat caught at midwicket on 13 and then shattering the stumps of the dangerous-looking Rahmanullah Gurbaz for 46 in back-to-back overs.At the time, it appeared Afghanistan’s lead would not even cross three digits, but a stubborn lower-order effort from No. 8 Zia-Ur-Rahman and No. 9 Naveed Zadran dragged the team along. Their handy 32-run partnership for the eighth wicket was finally broken when left-arm spinner Theo van Woerkom got a ball to grip and turn, forcing Ur-Rahman to edge one to first slip.McCarthy then returned intending to close the Afghan innings out. He rattled No. 10 Nijat Masood’s stumps for a duck pair for the match, and the man replacing him, Young, ended Zadran’s stay by flattening his poles, all out for 218 and setting Ireland 111.The curse of Nelson appeared to be real when Zadran rattled the stumps of Ireland opener Peter Moor and Curtis Campher without either batter opening their account. Nijat then accounted for Harry Tector for 2 when he got a feather touch to the keeper, and Ireland appeared to be losing the plot. But Balbirnie steadied Ireland’s ship, first with Paul Stirling for company after tea, and after Stirling’s dismissal, with Tucker.Even though Tucker and Balbirnie offered a few nervous moments with their running between the wickets, their confidence grew as the target got closer. Eventually Afghanistan looked to have no answer as Balbirnie reached his fourth Test fifty with Ireland needing less than 20 to win. He remained unbeaten at the other end when the winning run was scored.Earlier in the match, Afghanistan had missed the chance of setting the tone in the Test after winning the toss and choosing to bat. They had folded for only 155, with Adair taking 5 for 39 in the first innings. Ireland then posted 263 on the back of some middle-order partnerships to take a healthy 108-run lead despite Ur-Rahman’s five-wicket haul. However, when Afghanistan finished day two on 134 for 3, it appeared the game’s balance had shifted, but they could not build on that, losing their sixth Test in nine outings in the process.

James Neesham: '2019 was the first thing I thought of when coming off'

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When he dived and fell short of his ground, it was hard for the mind to go anywhere else. But then, the Neesham of 2023 is not focusing on the result “as much anymore”

Sidharth Monga28-Oct-20231:27

Pujara: No major concerns for New Zealand despite loss to Australia

Even when he was walking back, James Neesham knew it was going to look a lot like 2019. Neesham had built on the century of Rachin Ravindra and half-century of Daryl Mitchell to bring New Zealand to within a shot of tying a chase of 389 against Australia.On 57 off 38, punishing any error in length until then and now needing seven off two, this time Neesham couldn’t send a thigh-high full toss into the stands. It just got too close to him; he was probably setting himself up to punish an error on the shorter side. He ended up hitting straight to deep midwicket, and went back for a desperate second because he had a No. 10 for company.The throw came in a little slow, making Josh Inglis move off his mark to collect. Still Neesham needed a dive and a prayer. He ended up diving in pure desperation, even as Inglis dived simultaneously towards the stumps and caught him short. Neesham had to go through the agony of watching the replay on the big screen as the third umpire decided on it.Josh Inglis ran out James Neesham to leave New Zealand needing six runs off the last ball•ICC/Getty Images

It was enough to remind Neesham of the 2019 World Cup final when Martin Guptill went for a similar second to try to win it but ended up run-out, tying the game but losing the final on boundary countback. Does the game really have to be that cruel?”Actually, that [2019 final] was the first thing I thought of when I was coming off, that it’s going to look very, very similar,” Neesham said. “I mean that’s the nature isn’t it? You want to be desperate, I suppose, in those situations and you’d much rather get run out on your stomach than on your feet.”For Neesham this would have meant all the more in a game where the sides remained neck and neck for a long time. After overs 40, 42 and 44, both sides had scored the same number of runs. Then it was in the 48th over, bowled by Neesham, that Australia pulled away.Related

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Neesham came on to bowl for the first time only in the 45th over, covering for the injured Lockie Ferguson. He looked to bowl into the pitch and take the pace off, taking out Glenn Maxwell immediately.In the next over, Neesham nearly had Josh Inglis caught but Rachin Ravindra dropped him in the deep. Instead of a new batter, Neesham now had Pat Cummins on strike, and he hit him for three sixes. The over went for 27. All the while, as New Zealand stayed abreast with Australia, the question was: who would make up for the Neesham over?It is tempting to look at it as Ravindra nearly making up for that catch drop with a century and Neesham nearly making up for it with the chase with tail for company. Four years ago, Neesham had been on the other side of such a close finish, in Manchester against West Indies, when he bowled a superb 49th over to a marauding Carlos Brathwaite to help New Zealand win by, well, five runs.James Neesham reflects on another run-out New Zealand fans will remember for a long time•AFP/Getty Images

Not long before that World Cup, Neesham had nearly given up on the sport partly because of the vagaries of it. In his recovery, Neesham worked at a start-up that made cow collars. In that job, he could see tangible results for the work he put in, something you don’t often do in cricket. He used to struggle to come to terms with putting in all the hard work but not always getting the results. Living outside the bubble of high-performance teams, and working with a mental skills coach, helped.Reminded now of that night when he denied Brathwaite, and asked whether this night was difficult to reconcile with, Neesham could now joke: “Well, I’m not 6’6” and bowling 145, so it’s probably more impressive when I get out of it.”Now, Neesham can be philosophical about it. “You worked for six and a half hours during the day, and it comes down to potentially two deliveries,” Neesham said. “And four years ago, we worked for two months, and it came down to one delivery. It’s just the nature of the game.”I can think of one reason that I don’t focus on the result as much anymore, but look, I think that’s one of the things you learn as you get a little bit older. Obviously I’m probably closer towards the back-end of my career than I am to the front. So yeah, it doesn’t pay to stress too much on the results. I think everyone wants to win and everyone’s desperate to win, especially in world tournaments, but that can’t dictate how you want to play the game.”It’s just about trying to stick to your process and stick to what you’re good at, which for me is standing still and looking to hit straight. On another day, one ball is different, the result’s different, but we’ll move on to Pune in a couple of days’ time and hopefully get a different result there.”Parts of this match were so unlike New Zealand: Matt Henry bowling successive no-balls, Neesham bowling that over, catches going down, but then again the way they came back was typical New Zealand. In hanging in there and giving themselves a chance, in refusing to go away, they have at least made sure their net run rate hasn’t plummeted. This could eventually be the difference between facing India and not facing India in a home semi-final. That’s the best they can do really: keep sticking to their processes, keep hanging in there, and hope some day that the cricketing gods smile on them.For now, though, Neesham is not asking kids to not take up cricket.

Mehidy and Taijul put New Zealand under pressure after Bangladesh fold for 172

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Phillips, Santner and Patel had earlier shared eight wickets between them as New Zealand bowled Bangladesh out cheaply

Mohammad Isam06-Dec-2023Spin took 13 out of the 15 wickets that fell on the first day of the Dhaka Test. New Zealand sunk to 46 for five in response to Bangladesh’s 172 all out, and finished the day on 55 for five as Mehidy Hasan Miraz took three wickets and Taijul Islam two. The Bangladesh spinners gave back what their batters suffered at the hand of the New Zealand spinners.Play was called off at 4:16pm, at least 14 minutes before the scheduled end, as bad light took effect on a murky day in Dhaka. Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Philips remained unbeaten on 12 and 5 respectively after the visitors ended up losing half their side in 49 minutes.Mehidy removed Devon Conway when the left-hander left an arm ball from the offspinner. Taijul removed Tom Latham in the next over, caught behind to a delivery that kept low, caught well by wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan. Taijul struck in his next over too, when Henry Nicholls was caught at mid-on by Shoriful Islam.Related

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Mehidy then had two in three balls in the 12th over when Shahadat Hossain took a good catch at short-leg, to remove Kane Williamson. One ball later, Tom Blundell was trapped dead in front of the stumps.New Zealand’s spin trio had earlier led the way as Bangladesh folded for 172. Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel took eight wickets between them while Tim Southee took the other one that went to the bowlers. Mushfiqur Rahim, meanwhile, was given out obstructing the field, a dismissal that came at a critical moment for the visitors.Mushfiqur and Shahadat Hossain had only started to resurrect Bangladesh with a 57-run stand after they had fallen to 47 for four, before the 88-Test veteran had a brain-fade moment. Otherwise though, Bangladesh’s batters got out to soft shots as the visitors pounced on the mistakes.Mushfiqur Rahim had steadied Bangladesh before he was out obstructing the field•BCB

Bangladesh lost four wickets each in the day’s first two sessions. The root of the rot was in the sixth over when Bangladesh opener Mahmudul Hasan Joy tried too many things in the day’s first over of spin. Patel started off with deliveries that spun and kept low, to which Joy tried everything including a wild slog.The wicket followed soon after, when Santner had Zakir Hasan top-edging an attempted hoick towards long-on. It took a top-edge, and Williamson took the easy catch at mid-on for eight. Within four balls, Patel had Mahmudul caught at short leg, catching the inside edge with a poke. Mahmadul made 14.Mominul Haque fell caught behind attempting a near-impossible cut shot against Patel. The ball had spun back at him, stayed a tad low, as Mominul, for the second time in this Test series, was caught behind off the inside edge. Glenn Philips had got him in Sylhet, while Patel had him in the first innings in Dhaka.It was clear that batting wasn’t going to be easy on this pitch, so Najmul Hossain Shanto attempted to hit his way out of trouble. It lasted just 14 balls when his third attempt to reverse-sweep ended up in him being pinned lbw by Santner.Mushfiqur and Shahadat batted out the 13 overs before lunch with a little more ease, as Bangladesh went to lunch at 80 for four. Both batters used a bit more commonsense in their approach, which they were also expected to do after lunch.Forty-seven minutes after the break, Mushfiqur did the unthinkable. After he defended a Kyle Jamieson delivery in the 41st over, for reasons best known to him, Mushfiqur tried to pat away the ball that was already a fair distance from his stumps. New Zealand appealed immediately, and the TV umpire obliged with the obstructing the field decision.Mushfiqur made 35 off 83 balls with three fours and a slog-swept six. Shahadat followed him back to the pavilion in another 20 minutes, Phillips having him caught down the leg-side for 31. He struck two fours in his 102-ball stay.Phillips then removed Nurul for seven runs, with the bat turning in his hand as he attempted to hit out at the offspinner. Santner had Mehidy caught at slip for 20, in the over before tea. Phillips added his third when he had Taijul lbw for six, with the batter not attempting a shot.Southee, who didn’t concede a run in his first five overs, took the final wicket in his sixth over, when he had Shoriful Islam caught behind for 10. TV umpire Ahsan Raza decided that Tom Blundell took the catch cleanly after the on-field umpires couldn’t ascertain the legality of the catch.The 15 wickets that fell on Wednesday is the most on the first day of a Test in Bangladesh, while the 13 taken by spinners is the joint-highest along with the India-Australia Indore Test earlier this year.

'Goal is No. 1, but can't do that in a year' – Chandimal

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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.”

Hilton Cartwright makes hospital run for baby's birth before helping WA win

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There were some tension that boiled over during the fourth innings between Cartwright and Tasmania opener Jake Weatherald

Tristan Lavalette23-Oct-2024By the time Hilton Cartwright fronted the media post match, he looked understandably exhausted after a whirlwind few days capped by guiding Western Australia to victory over Tasmania in a tempestuous Sheffield Shield clash.Cartwright had expected to get through the match with his wife Tameka only 37 weeks pregnant. But just as he arrived at the WACA ground before day two, Tameka called him and said she would need to be induced due to complications.They worked out a plan and agreed that she would be induced at around 3.30pm, so that Cartwright could dash from the ground at the tea break. He gave the heads up to WA coach Adam Voges, who was “extremely supportive”.Related

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“I was going to be leaving at tea, regardless of whether I was in, out or we were still bowling,” Cartwright told reporters after the match.As it turned out, No. 3 Cartwright was at the crease and in sublime touch having helped lift WA out of trouble in their first innings before retiring on 52 not out at tea.”My mind was probably a bit elsewhere,” he said. “The only thing I was really thinking about was getting through to tea to give myself an opportunity and the team an opportunity for me to bat later, or for someone to bat later after me.”After Tameka gave birth to their second child early on Tuesday, Cartwright managed just one hour of sleep before fronting up for day three of the match. He was able to resume his innings at the fall of a wicket after Tasmania had agreed as per the rules.Cartwright gave the thumbs up to Tasmania skipper Jordan Silk on his way to the crease, but was understandably scratchy and managed only a further 13 runs before holing out.Having mostly survived the day through adrenaline and caffeine, Cartwright finally crashed later at the hospital and had some desperately needed sleep.There appeared to be some tense scenes between Hilton Cartwright and Tasmania•Getty Images

With a little bit more energy, Cartwright played a starring role on the final day and scored a vital 39 not out from 50 balls to combine with Josh Inglis as WA overcame a top-order collapse to run down the 83-run target with six wickets in hand.But tensions boiled over on-field with Cartwright and Tasmania opener Jake Weatherald engaged in a war of words. They had a long exchange while shaking hands just after the match.”It was just clearing some air that I think might have got a bit misjudged while we were out there and we were able to clear what happened over the last couple of days,” Cartwright said.Tasmania quick Kieran Elliott said “that’s the game, we made our call”.”Without being entirely across what was discussed, if he was out, great result for us. He is obviously a class player,” he said. “For him to come back and get a few more away before we eventually got him in that first innings was important for them.”WA skipper Sam Whiteman believed the laws over retiring batters should be re-evaluated.”It’s a pretty unique situation and I think probably the laws of the game need to change a little bit to take the decision off the captains,” he said.”That will be discussed in the post-match, but at the end of the day the right decision was made and credit to Tassie for letting Hilts come back out and bat. That’s the right decision for the game of cricket.”

Elbow injury cuts short Faf du Plessis' CPL season

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Sikandar Raza takes over as St Lucia Kings captain, with Colin Munro roped in to replace du Plessis

Deivarayan Muthu28-Aug-2023St Lucia Kings captain Faf du Plessis has been sidelined from the rest of CPL 2023 with a long-standing tennis-elbow injury, for which he will now undergo surgery. Zimbabwe allrounder Sikandar Raza, who made his debut for Kings only earlier this month, will take over as the captain of the side. Kings have also roped in Colin Munro, the highest run-getter among overseas players in CPL history, as du Plessis’ replacement.After powering Kings past Trinbago Knight Riders in Basseterre on Saturday, du Plessis said he would undergo surgery after reaching South Africa. And on Kings’ Instagram channel, he suggested that he could be out of action for about three months.”Happy with the result, but obviously sad [that] I’m leaving at a crucial stage in the tournament when you feel like the team can start doing some really good things in the tournament,” du Plessis told Ian Bishop at the post-match presentation. “For me, the challenge with the elbow is I’ve played with it (tennis elbow) for almost two years; I’ve had eight cortisone injections into my elbow.Related

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“So I’m at a stage where the cortisone is not good for my body anymore; so that’s why the operation is always the last resort. I didn’t want to do it, but [have] time off now. I’ve got to basically go from here to get off the plane into the hospital to get the surgery done.”Du Plessis admitted that the tennis elbow had limited his power-hitting in his most recent game against Knight Riders, but he still found a way to pump the ball over the top in the powerplay. He was responsible for 40 of the 48 runs Kings had made in the first six overs. Du Plessis extended his tally to 57 off 36 balls before Andre Russell had him holing out.”[During] the last while I did feel a little bit of loss of power – all because of the pain, which sometimes pulls the power back,” du Plessis said. “So you just have to play a game where you feel like maybe hitting at 80% power, and [on] fields like this [which are] a little bit smaller, you can just time the ball. But yeah, really happy with the innings today.”I think we needed that in the powerplay, especially in my experience playing here and against these guys [TKR] – they’re a very strong powerplay attack. Akeal Hosein always does well; he gets one or two wickets upfront, and then they bowled really well. The fact that we could counterpunch that and get 50 after six [overs] was a great way to play off the front foot.”Sikandar Raza has led in T20 franchise cricket only once•Zim Afro T10

Du Plessis’ injury-enforced absence is a significant blow to Kings. He was their second-highest run-getter last season – behind Johnson Charles – and fourth-highest overall, with 332 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 169. Overall, his leadership has been central to Kings’ progress over the past two years.Raza has only had one stint as captain in recognised franchise T20 cricket – with Dambulla Aura in the LPL last year, when Dasun Shanaka was injured, but du Plessis backed Raza and the rest of Kings’ leadership group to build on their early success this season. They’re currently on top of the table, with six points in five games.”Always for me, it’s about pulling people in for the journey, and try and ask questions. And I feel that’s the best way, according to me, to run things,” du Plessis said. “You use the resources that you have. Roston Chase has been great. For me on the field, [it’s] just speaking to him about local players and asking questions. Johnson Charles is a great cricket brain. He’s not a guy who says a lot, but [is] a great thinker.Tom Curran comes in for TKR as a temporary replacement for Noor Ahmad•Getty Images

“Raza is someone who has played a lot of T20 and T10 cricket. So very much an experienced brain there; so it’s great to have those guys on the field and ask questions. Obviously, it’s a change, and probably you could say a big change because it’s someone stepping into the shoes for the first time with the St Lucia Kings. But luckily, we’ve got someone like Sammy there who will make sure for the first one or two games there will be some direction from his side. And then trust the guy on the field with the resources that he has at his disposal.”Du Plessis will turn 40 next July, but he could be in the fray to return to the South Africa side with the 2024 T20 World Cup in mind.

Tom Curran and Tim David to join TKR

England allrounder Tom Curran, who carried Oval Invincibles to the Men’s Hundred title on Sunday, will link up with Trinbago Knight Riders as a temporary replacement for left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmad, who has been picked in Afghanistan’s ODI side for the Asia Cup, which clashes with the CPL.Australia’s Tim David will also join TKR as a replacement for Rilee Rossouw, who is no longer available for the CPL. However, David himself will not be around for Knight Riders’ first six league matches, so Ireland wicketkeeper-batter Lorcan Tucker has been brought in as a temporary replacement. David will reunite with Knight Riders captain Kieron Pollard, who was his batting coach at Mumbai Indians in IPL 2023.

Will Rhodes steers Warwickshire to safety as rain denies Worcestershire

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Hosts effectively secure top-flight status after latest spirited display

ECB Reporters Network12-Sep-2024Will Rhodes struck his third century of the season to steer Warwickshire to safety in their hard-fought Vitality County Championship draw with local rivals Worcestershire at Visit Worcestershire New Road.The result leaves Worcestershire and Warwickshire 40 and 36 points respectively ahead of second-from-bottom Lancashire and both are strongly placed to ensure another campaign of top-flight cricket.Former Warwickshire captain Rhodes is ending a seven-season association with the Bears at the end of the campaign to join Durham on a three-year contract.He showed his quality in defying the home side’s push for victory after Warwickshire had followed on and were still eight runs in arrears with three second wickets down at the start of the final day.Rhodes cover drove Logan van Beek for his 15th four to reach three figures off 198 balls.When a heavy downpour post lunch ended play, the 29-year-old was unbeaten on 121 and needing just 46 more runs to complete 1,000 in a first-class season for the first time.Rhodes was given excellent support by 18-year-old Hamza Shaikh (33 not out) in only his second Championship match.Shaikh clearly enjoys batting at New Road as last month he scored 91 for England Lions against Sri Lanka in the tourists’ only warm-up match before the Test series against England.He helped Rhodes add an unbroken 83 as Warwickshire went through the play possible on the fourth day without losing a wicket.But Worcestershire can reflect on plenty of positives after defying their lengthiest injury list in living memory in virtually guaranteeing another season of Division One cricket after last summer’s promotion.Away triumphs over Durham and Essex, after being firmly behind the eight-ball in both games, were evidence of their fighting spirit and belief.Warwickshire resumed on 171 for 3 after being asked to follow on, still eight runs in arrears, with Will Rhodes unbeaten on 72.Tom Taylor, who yesterday had achieved career best figures of 6 for 28, and Matthew Waite settled into a steady rhythm and beat the bat on several occasions.Rhodes leg glanced Taylor for four to steer Warwickshire into the lead and then on drove Waite to the boundary.There was no nervous 90s for Rhodes who straight drove and cut Waite to the ropes and brought up three figures off 198 balls with a cover drive for his 15th four off Logan van Beek.The fourth-wicket pair were relatively untroubled although the second new ball brought a moral victory for Taylor when Rhodes on 119 edged just short of Brookes at second slip.But Rhodes and Shaikh safely negotiated the morning session without being parted and added 75 runs in 31.4 overs.There was only time for six more runs to be added at the start of the afternoon session before the heavens opened and play was abandoned at 2.20pm.

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