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India know that all the hard work of the last two to three years could come to nought if they lose comprehensively in South Africa

Sidharth Monga in Centurion14-Dec-2010Andreas isn’t happy that our car doesn’t stop at his security check-point, instead driving right into the compound of the stunningly beautiful SuperSport Park in Centurion, the venue of the first Test. He looks like a security guard who has seen it all, one who’s kept various kinds of people from entering his ground. It has been overcast all day, and a slight drizzle has made it cold for a summer day. Not as cold as Andreas, though.”You didn’t ask for my permission before entering, now you are not allowed to go into the stadium” he says, pointing towards where the accreditation pass would have been – had there been one. “Okay,” we say, “let’s step out of the compound again, and then ask for your permission.” However, he can’t keep the act up for long, and starts laughing. And then he says, “We are going to beat you, boss,” pointing to a board featuring Dale Steyn and Ashwell Prince, saying. “Pure Protea. 100% South African.””Pure Protea,” repeats Andreas, and in the friendliest of manners, leads us on a tour of the ground. The ground itself is a pretty sight, with its grass banks, old-fashioned bars with wooden benches, the barbeques, the red benches in the press box, the old dressing room in the corner that is not used anymore, and the feel of the breeze going right across the open turf. South Africa cannot be inhospitable, else it wouldn’t be hosting so many top sporting events. Even Andreas has become a friend now, and he will be bought beers if – as he says – South Africa are going to beat India, boss. Warm hosts as they might be, the South Africans will bring a cold edge when they host the No. 1 side in the world.And India are not expecting anything less. The advertisements say the South Africans are waiting; the same can be said of the Indians. India know this tour will define how the team is seen. They know that as long as they are not swept 3-0 they will hang on to their No. 1 ranking. They also know how seriously their No. 1 ranking will be taken if they perform abysmally here. They know it has never been less about rankings.In an interview with ESPNcricinfo recently, Gary Kirsten, India’s coach, said his side didn’t need to justify its No. 1 position, but also that the “Test series [against South Africa] will be a defining moment” for the team. He said this team, if it won the series, could well become the greatest Test side to come out of the country. Without doubt, given Australia’s current form, beating South Africa in South Africa remains the biggest challenge for this Indian team.A measure of how big a challenge this Test series is can be made from how this is a personal challenge for almost every individual in the side, at least the batting unit. Gautam Gambhir has returned to form through the series against New Zealand, but this will be the truest test of his technique since his remarkable comeback to the Indian side. There will be seam movement, and there will be constant bouncers, the kind Morne Morkel bowled to him in Nagpur to get him out twice in one day.Rahul Dravid knows that every failure for him is as good as three for a younger batsman. Is he still the man for the situations that call for the most determined of efforts, mentally and technically? There won’t be a better time than an overcast morning and a bouncy pitch come Thursday morning to prove this.VVS Laxman has saved and won matches he had no business winning and saving, but he knows he hasn’t scored a century in South Africa and it’s a record that could do with some setting straight.The last time Suresh Raina came here for a full tour – albeit a long time ago, and he has succeeded in the IPL here – he was sent back mid-tour, ruthlessly exposed during ODIs played on testing tracks. That drop and a subsequent injury have been the lowest points of his career. He has come back a mentally stronger cricketer and, with a few months to go for the World Cup, he will badly want to conquer the country that effectively cost him a place in the previous World Cup.The bowling unit, though, will be looking forward to this series. For close to two years they have been toiling in subcontinent conditions. The trio of Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth in fact are the reason why just producing green-tops is not enough to assure South Africa of victory. Over the last five years, the Indian fast bowlers, along with their Pakistani counterparts have best exploited the helpful conditions here.The other troika, the coaching staff, will probably draw much more attention – not least because they are South Africans. Every player in the side swears by Kirsten’s methods – and it has shown in the results – but the same cannot be said of the bowling coach, Eric Simons. While Paddy Upton’s mental conditioning work is much more intangible, India’s bowling hasn’t quite gone from strength to strength under Simons. It is often said that he doesn’t quite know the subcontinent conditions well enough, and that spans the sample of his work with the bowlers. In South Africa, in conditions he should know better than most, the room for benefit of doubt will be minimal.That said, this is the most confident Indian side to have travelled to this side of the Indian Ocean. They know a lot can go wrong, but they also know a lot can go right. They are obviously feeling good as a team, and also as a unit that can do well in crisis situations. They have become better tourists over the years. South Africa is not that foreign either: they have played a World Twenty20 here since their last tour, and most of their players have played the IPL and the Champions League. And despite the individual challenges to the batsmen, they are perhaps the best Test batting unit going around right now. The bowlers cherish helpful conditions, which if delivered as promised, should be as lethal in their hands as in the South Africans’.Given the constraints of Indian cricket, with its commercial commitments, the team has also prepared the best that it could. It will help that they have stayed unbeaten through a home season for the second time in the last three years. This is not quite the Final Frontier as the admen would have it – they still have Australia to beat in Australia – but there is a sense that all the hard work of the last two to three years could come to nought if they lose comprehensively. The Indian team, however, evident at least from what Kirsten said, is not thinking about how to not lose, but how to win. While all of that pans out – we’re waiting.

A graceful Sachin Tendulkar fifty was the highlight of Mumbai Indians’ convincing seven-wicket win, which was set up by the bowlers who stuck to a strategy to restrict Kolkata Knight Riders to an underwhelming score at the Brabourne Stadium

The Bulletin by Kanishkaa Balachandran22-Mar-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outSachin Tendulkar continued to have a prolific IPL, scoring an attacking, unbeaten 71•Indian Premier League

A graceful Sachin Tendulkar fifty was the highlight of Mumbai Indians’ convincing seven-wicket win, which was set up by the bowlers who stuck to a strategy and restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to an underwhelming score at the Brabourne Stadium. Chris Gayle boosted Kolkata with a steady fifty, but the visitors will look back at the night and feel they pushed the pedal too late, despite keeping so many wickets in hand.This IPL has revealed effective strategies used by teams to keep the batsmen in check. The tactic of bowling short at the body has worked well for Royal Challengers Bangalore, and today, Mumbai persisted with firing yorkers on the leg stump, cramping the batsmen for room. It was best highlighted in a passage of play in the Kolkata innings where they batted 37 balls without a boundary. Sixty-two off the last six overs was an improvement, but about 15-20 runs short.The Mumbai openers began the chase in fifth gear by racing to 24 off two overs, all off boundaries. Shikhar Dhawan dented Shane Bond’s confidence by smashing three boundaries off the first over, while Tendulkar gave Ishant Sharma a similar nightmare by fetching three more fours off the second, all crisply driven down the ground off the front foot.It was as if Tendulkar was on a mission to hit Ishant out of the attack and further expose his poor form in limited-overs cricket. He was punished for bowling length to Tendulkar, punched through extra cover and pulled twice to bring up three consecutive boundaries. A flick for four past midwicket off Chris Gayle brought up Mumbai’s fifty in just 26 balls, the fastest in IPL 3. The Kolkata seamers, especially Ishant, would have done well to learn from their Mumbai counterparts who varied their pace a lot more.Spin was the only way to put the batsmen under pressure and when Ganguly introduced Murali Kartik, it immediately yielded a wicket. It dented the run rate as well as Mumbai scored only 19 off the next four overs. It was an opportunity for Kolkata to attack more and push for wickets but the bowlers couldn’t sustain the pressure long enough. Saurabh Tiwary ensured Mumbai didn’t lose their grip on the game by muscling Angelo Mathews over long-on and then smacking Gayle for two powerful fours down the ground.Mumbai had the safety net of Tendulkar and even the dismissal of Tiwary against the run of play – caught brilliantly by Ganguly falling backwards – didn’t shift the momentum. Tendulkar launched another assault on Ishant, bringing up his fifty with a flick over midwicket, and a cameo by R Sathish helped close out the match out in the penultimate over.Mumbai’s victory also highlighted the gulf in the quality of the bowling attacks. Suffocating Gayle is one of the toughest jobs in world cricket today but the experienced Mumbai bowlers found a way out – cramp him for width and fire it on the blockhole. It was also unusual seeing him being outscored by Sourav Ganguly, who’s yet to find his feet in the game’s most abridged format.Mumbai kept firing in the fuller deliveries, varying their pace effectively to force Gayle and Ganguly to check their shots and drill the ball down the ground for singles. Kolkata were also guilty of not dispatching full tosses, hitting them straight to the fielders. They managed only ten fours within the first 15 overs. Mumbai in contrast, scored 16 in the same period.Even the spinners stuck to the same plan. Harbhajan bowled over the wicket to the left-handers and adopted a flatter trajectory, firing it in before they could get under the bounce to scoop it away. A frustrated Ganguly tried to slog when he flighted one up, and lost his middle stump.The promotion of Owais Shah, a lesson learnt from the previous game, infused some life and Gayle also started gaining in confidence. Shah’s first boundary was a thick outside edge which flew to third man and his flick off Lasith Malinga to midwicket was the shot of the innings. Gayle then brought up his subdued fifty with consecutive boundaries. It was the only period which Kolkata had some semblance of command, as they added some respectability to the total. The bowling, though, let them down.

England’s sixth defeat in seven games was Australia’s fifth win in five

Andrew Miller04-Nov-2023It’s over. And that’s not simply the worst World Cup defence in the history of international sport.Everything that, for eight heady years, had been taken for granted about England’s white-ball batting has vanished without trace, as if some Hollywood baddy had pinched a sports almanac(k) from the future and set the dials on the team’s Delorean for the 2015 World Cup. We’ve re-entered an epoch of endless, desperate failure – the miracle of 2019 lost forever to some branch-line of the space-time continuum.England’s sixth defeat – by 33 runs in Ahmedabad – in seven games was in turn Australia’s fifth win in five, with which they have marched clear of a hard-chasing pack to tighten their grip on a semi-final berth. It was marginally less supine than some of England’s losses – thanks to another spirited bowling display led by Adil Rashid and Chris Woakes, who also rallied gamely at the death with the bat, and another compelling but all-too-brief sighting of Ben Stokes in #HeroMode.But with Adam Zampa surging to the top of the tournament wicket-charts with an outstanding haul of 3 for 21 in ten overs, Australia’s apparently middling target of 287 was never realistically challenged – especially after another abject powerplay in which Joe Root, one of England’s indisputable greats across formats, produced an innings of such awfulness it truly deserves to be his last in coloured clothing.England versus Australia always tends to exist outside of context, but not on this occasion. Australia’s victory has brought closure to everything – England’s barely-less-than-non-existent hopes of a top-four finish; their claim on the so-called #MoralAshes, especially after Marnus Labuschagne’s Test-tempo 71 proved to be the decisive score of the match; and maybe even their hopes of playing in the 2025 Champions Trophy, if other results go against them in the coming days.The only thing that must limp on, ironically, is England’s World Cup campaign itself. Netherlands are up next for an unlikely shot at European Championship glory, before Pakistan – fuelled by after their astonishing win in Bengaluru – rock up in Kolkata with a chance to make their 1992 comeback seem like a standard day in the life.Just as had been the case in their 100-run loss to India in their previous outing, England played a pretty canny game for the first 50 overs of the match, as they bowled Australia out for 286 after winning the toss, hoping – then as now – that the onset of evening dew might even out a two-paced wicket and allow the ball to skid onto the bat more freely.But, even if that did eventually prove to be the case, England’s desperate lack of batting form had long since sunk any hopes of making the depth of their line-up count. The nadir arguably came when Jos Buttler, their captain and white-ball GOAT, skimmed the first ball of Zampa’s fifth over to Cameron Green at long-off to trudge off for 1 from six balls – leaving England in the soup at 106 for 4 at the half-way mark of their chase – but the omens had been grim from the very start of an angsty chase.The England of old could take mishaps in their stride – take Jason Roy’s mighty white-ball record, for instance; that had been pockmarked by countless first-over dismissals, including to the very first ball of his career, but this trait was factored into his willingness to have a go in the first place, safe in the knowledge that his team-mates would close ranks around him.By contrast, when Jonny Bairstow flicked at an innocuous leg-side loosener from Mitchell Starc to leave England 0 for 1 after one ball of their innings, the groan of recognition was palpable from dug-out to press-box to the armchair of every England fan. Starc’s reaction was sheepish in the extreme. Nevertheless, after going wicketless for the first time in his World Cup career against New Zealand last week, Starc was back on the board at the earliest opportunity, and Australia were surging back onto the front foot in their favourite rivalry.What followed, from an England perspective, was gory and uncomfortable viewing. Though Dawid Malan hunkered down for the long haul with his familiar sang froid, Root’s equilibrium endured another thorough rinsing. His second-ball drive for four was as good as his night would get. In the space of his next 15 balls, he survived an lbw appeal from Starc by the skin of his leg bail, a bad drop by Marcus Stoinis at point, and an edged drive off Josh Hazlewood that eluded second slip.Mitchell Starc struck first ball to get rid of Jonny Bairstow•Getty Images

Root’s luck was in, you might presume? His form, unfortunately, is not, and there were only so many gifts that could elude Australia’s clutches. He might have got away with another life when Starc lured him once more in the channel, but Labuschagne charged in from cover to insist he’d heard a noise. UltraEdge duly confirmed a thin snick to leave England 19 for 2 in the fifth over, and Root had succumbed to his 11th powerplay dismissal in 18 innings since the 2019 World Cup, in which time he has averaged a ghastly 5.63.In Stokes and Malan, England still had a pair of batters whose apparently contrasting methods are united in the belief that good things come to those who lay a platform. And while they were grinding out an 84-run stand for the third wicket, at a similar tempo to that with which Labuschagne and Steve Smith had revived Australia’s own innings, a flicker of muscle memory rippled back into England’s equation.But then Malan, on 50, gave his innings away with an over-eager pull off Cummins, to expose the out-of-sorts Buttler to a match situation that his game-brain cannot currently compute, and though Moeen Ali rose to the awkward occasion with a diligent run-a-ball 42, the entire psyche of England’s innings screamed “Stokes or bust”, and Australia knew it too.Despite his horror-duck against India, Stokes’ stage presence was undimmed, as he allowed himself to reach 15 from 37 balls before his first true shot in anger, a fierce straight drive for four off Starc. Thereafter, he became increasingly mighty and muscular, his innings replete with obligatory limps as that troublesome left knee repeatedly buckled beneath the force of his launches to leg.But for all his Superman bravado, his innings had far too much in common with his lost-cause Ashes onslaughts at Headingley and Lord’s – and his loud groan of “oh no!” as he scuffed a sweep off the incorrigible Zampa confirmed that more than just his innings of 64 from 90 was ending as Stoinis clung on at short fine leg. Liam Livingstone, bizarrely preferred to Harry Brook despite his own grim lack of form, duly lasted less than an over before skimming a pull to midwicket, and when Moeen became Zampa’s third of a superlative spell, the rest was mere formality.It’s a measure of England’s desperate funk that Australia arguably won against the head, in the wake of their own piecemeal batting display that never really got going, and would surely have been more closely challenged by almost any other chasing side at this tournament.Without the power of Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell in their middle order, Australia had a huge amount riding on their equally proactive opening partnership, but Woakes bagged both Travis Head and David Warner inside his first three overs, meaning that, at 38 for 2, Labuschagne and Smith had little choice but to fall back on their Ashes best, grinding out a third-wicket stand of 75 across 16 overs, to guard against a repeat of their 2019 semi-final meltdown.The delayed entry of England’s main man, Rashid, would destabilise Australia’s innings once more. With 20 overs gone, Smith’s timing was still eluding him when Rashid served up a slower and wider googly in his second over, which dipped on an attempted cut to loop to Moeen at backward point for 44.Dawid Malan and Ben Stokes got together after the fall of the first two wickets•Associated Press

That soon became 117 for 4 when Josh Inglis fell to the same combination in Rashid’s second over – this time to an ill-judged reverse-sweep off his sixth delivery – and though Labuschagne brought up his half-century from 63 balls, Rashid’s canny variations, and willingness to take off his pace against his entrenched opponents, kept Australia waiting for their chance to cut loose.It took Wood’s return to the attack for a visible step-up in Australia’s tempo. Green, Maxwell’s stand-in, looked deeply uncomfortable against Wood’s express pace – at one stage, four fielders converged on a top-edged pull as his bat soared out of his hands towards the square-leg umpire – but he somehow found enough leverage on the wider line to keep snaffling his runs through backward point, including a startling deflected four off a near pinpoint 153kph yorker.And though Wood bust a gut once again to make a difference – extracting an lbw that left Labuschagne non-plussed as his review showed three reds, before later bombing out Cummins with the short ball – his final figures of 2 for 70 would confirm that was another night on which his raw speed proved too profligate whenever he missed his mark.Fittingly, it was Zampa who proved this point in decisive fashion. At 247 for 8, he alone found the gumption to kick on into the death overs – albeit he needed a large slice of luck when a 149kph throat-ball from Wood fizzed off his gloves and over the keeper’s head for four. Unfazed, Zampa smashed his very next delivery back down the ground for another boundary, and he’d rattled along to 29 from 19 before Woakes ended Australia’s late charge with two wickets in three balls, two more cutters to prove the virtues of pace-off on a capricious deck.It should not have been nearly enough, given England’s once-vaunted reputation for chasing, and their belief at the toss that the dew factor would be decisive. It would prove to be plenty, on a night when normal service in the white-ball leg of this ancient rivalry was resumed in emphatic fashion.

Wood has already picked eight wickets and Mayers has displayed two stunning shows of power-hitting

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Apr-2023Lucknow Super Giants may have lost to Chennai Super Kings on Monday night after leaking 217 runs, but their bowling coach Morne Morkel sees the rise of their two international players as “a bonus” in the IPL. Mark Wood has already picked up eight wickets after hauls of 5 for 14 and 3 for 49, and Kyle Mayers is only behind Ruturaj Gaikwad on the run-scorers’ list following scores of 73 off 38 and 53 off 22 balls.”There’s a lot to like about Mark Wood. He’s running in, he’s bowling at 150, that aggressive length,” Morkel said after the match. “He’s a strike bowler for us. It’s only his third game in the IPL. He’s still finding his feet in the subcontinent, especially in the IPL, where the margins are quite tough and it’s a lot of quality players. So, for me, it’s just talking through different periods where he’s possibly going to bowl and ensure he’s clear with his plans.”But one thing about Woody is that he’s won a World Cup, he’s got a lot of experience, he’s played for years in the England team that knows the recipe for success. So, yeah, my advice for him is not to over-think it now that he’s playing in the IPL. He’s been picked for a reason – he’s bowling pace; make use of that as best as possible and, yeah, target certain batters to really go and express himself.”Related

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Wood has certainly done that in the two matches this season. Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh, Sarfaraz Khan and Axar Patel were among his five against Delhi Capitals, and against Super Kings, he had Devon Conway, Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni.It’s not been a bad start for Mayers either. He is currently top on ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats for Total Impact, with 235.52 impact points, with Gaikwad (212.51) at No. 2 and Wood (156.75) at No. 3. (Click here to read about ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats)”Very happy to see Kyle [perform]. I have played with him a little bit at St Lucia Zouks back in the day [in the CPL]. It’s amazing to see him sort of move on, he’s progressed into a quality white-ball player,” Morkel said. “Saw him in Durban [in the SA20 league] and he played these sorts of innings where upfront he really puts the bowlers under a lot of pressure. And to see him now in top form is also great.”It’s no secret that Mayers’ form has caused a happy headache in the Super Giants camp. After all, he was only the back-up for Quinton de Kock, who should be arriving soon for them after finishing the Netherlands ODIs at home. What happens then?2:50

Did Super Giants get their batting order wrong?

“How we’re going to work that out, luckily that’s not for me to think about,” Morkel said. ” But yeah, it’s fantastic to see him (Mayers) upfront, firing, and playing well and in form.”However, Super Giants fell short in their massive chase despite powering to 79 for 0 in 5.2 overs before Mayers got out. Even though they got close in the end, their Nos. 3 and 4 – Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya – fell for just 2 and 9 in the next two overs. On ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time:Out show, Tom Moody, said the fall of the first wicket was the ideal time to send out Nicholas Pooran. Super Giants instead batted Pooran at No. 6, when they were 105 for 4 and needed 113 off the last 10.”They had a good start with Mayers and KL Rahul… got them off to a flier, really more courtesy of Mayers’ beautiful striking. At that point, when the left-hander got dismissed [in the sixth over], Nicholas Pooran had to come in at that point,” Moody said. “Because that was the last over of the powerplay and at that point, MS Dhoni had no choice really but to play a left-arm spinner at some point, whether a Santner or Jadeja. And Pooran has got a phenomenal record against left-arm spin.”I know that he’s selected to be that middle-order finisher but this is a different situation, this is where you’re chasing a huge total, you need your trump card.”

Both teams come into the clash with two wins in two games

S Sudarshanan08-Mar-20235:27

Matthews punches well above her base price

A Lanning vs Harmanpreet clash in March

After the epic final of the Women’s T20 World Cup in March 2020, Meg Lanning and Harmanpreet Kaur yet again lead opposite teams in a top-of-the-table clash in the WPL.Lanning-led Delhi Capitals are quite on a roll, with the Australian captain herself hitting back-to-back half-centuries at the top of the order. Capitals’ batting line-up is one of envy – power-hitters aplenty – and they have bowlers in Jess Jonassen, Marizanne Kapp and Shikha Pandey who have delivered in one spell or the other.Mumbai Indians have strung together a side filled with allrounders and they are firing in unison. If Harmanpreet’s heroics following Hayley Matthews’ explosive start at the top helped them in the chase in the opener, their bowlers stymied Royal Challengers Bangalore and cruised in the second game, with Matthews starring in an all-round effort.The Mumbai versus Capitals game could well be one of the contenders of the ‘final before the final’ though the WPL has a fair distance to go.

Players to watch

Shortish boundaries combined with flat surfaces could mean that it could be a perfect time for Marizanne Kapp to show her experience mainly with the ball. In the opening contest, she was a tad expensive after her cameo with the bat and if she does play her third successive game, she could be one of the key players to Capitals’ success.Amelia Kerr contributed with bat and ball in the opening contest and was taken for runs against Royal Challengers, though she picked up a couple of wickets to hasten the end. Having had the better of Lanning for some time now in international cricket, that is a player battle to relish.Marizanne Kapp will have to bring all her experience to the fore•BCCI

Playing XIs

Delhi Capitals (possible): 1 Meg Lanning (capt), 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Marizanne Kapp, 4 Jemimah Rodrigues, 5 Alice Capsey/Laura Harris, 6 Jess Jonassen, 7 Taniya Bhatia (wk), 8 Arundhati Reddy/Titas Sadhu, 9 Shikha Pandey, 10 Radha Yadav, 11 Tara NorrisMumbai Indians (possible): 1 Hayley Matthews, 2 Yastika Bhatia (wk), 3 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Amelia Kerr/Chloe Tryon, 6 Pooja Vastrakar, 7 Issy Wong, 8 Humaira Kazi, 9, Amanjot Kaur, 10 Jintimani Kalita, 11 Saika Ishaque

Stats and trivia

• Both Capitals and Mumbai have two players each among the top five scorers in the WPL so far
• Mumbai have played three uncapped players while Capitals are yet to play one

Quotes

“Seeing the enjoyment and smile on her face out [from] her playing cricket again, that’s something I am pleased with, as her team-mate in a number of teams. It’s hard to believe Meg Lanning could get better. She was already incredible before her break, but has come [back] with a new lease of life.”
“Being a bit more responsible at the crease is something I had to pull on with the West Indies and that has helped me in my T20 game as a whole. Probably, [I] wasn’t getting the number of runs I would have wanted in the past due to giving away my hand quite a bit. Now that I am being forced with responsibility at the international level, it’s helped me realise how to plan my T20 innings.”

Fortune Barishal batter Munim Shahriar earns maiden call-up; Najmul Hossain Shanto, Nurul Hasan left out

Mohammad Isam21-Feb-2022Shakib Al Hasan is back in Bangladesh’s T20I squad after having skipped the three-match series at home against Pakistan in November last year. Mushfiqur Rahim and Litton Das, who were both dropped for the Pakistan T20Is, also returned to the squad for the upcoming two-match series against Afghanistan.Munim Shahriar, who was among the breakout stars of BPL 2022, was also included in the squad.The comebacks of Mushfiqur and Litton were always on the cards, given their experience. Mumnim’s presence, meanwhile, brings freshness to the group. The 23-year-old showed the willingness to take risks in the powerplay and gave Fortune Barishal good starts in at least four of his six appearances this BPL.Saif Hassan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Nurul Hasan, Shamim Hossain, Aminul Islam and  Akbar Ali were left out of the squad.Minhajul Abedin, the chief selector, said that Shamim and Nurul could still be part of Bangladesh’s plans.”We need a bit of stability in our T20 side,” Minhajul Abedin said. “Shamim and (Nurul Hasan) Sohan aren’t out of the system. We will keep an eye on them. We have picked Munim Shahriar after following him for a year since he was included in the High Performance squad.”Legspinner Aminul was also dropped, which isn’t a big surprise given the Bangladesh selectors and management’s reluctance towards that variety of spin. Akbar too lost his place, mainly because of the return of Mushfiqur and Litton.The selectors, however, retained Mohammad Naim, hoping he finds form despite a poor BPL campaign.The T20I series will begin on March 3 in Dhaka, three days after the end of the ODI series in Chattogram. Dhaka will also host the second – and final – T20I on March 5.Bangladesh T20I squad: Mahmudullah (capt.), Litton Das, Munim Shahriar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Yasir Ali, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Shohidul Islam, Mohammad NaimIn: Litton Das, Munim Shahriar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur RahimOut: Saif Hassan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Nurul Hasan, Shamim Hossain, Aminul Islam, Akbar Ali

The development will allow players from England and Bangladesh to play in the IPL when it resumes in September

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Aug-2021The ECB and BCB have confirmed that England’s white-ball tour of Bangladesh has been rescheduled to March 2023. The tour, comprising both ODIs and T20Is, was originally slated to take place in September-October this year, ahead of the T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman.Both the ECB and BCB put out statements to the effect on Tuesday morning, saying it was “mutually decided” to reschedule the series. “The tour is planned to take place in the first two weeks of March 2023, with three ODIs and three T20Is due to take place in Dhaka and Chattogram,” the statements said.Related

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• BCB wants Prince to stay on as batting consultant until T20 WC

While the BCB has said that the proposal to reschedule the games had come from the ECB, sources within the England board told ESPNcricinfo on Monday that it was being postponed on the BCB’s request, with Covid-19 protocols possibly playing a part in the decision. It may be relevant, however, that the decision will allow many of those involved to return to the IPL when it resumes in the UAE on September 19 . The IPL was postponed after 29 matches earlier this year following a spike in Covid-19 cases within many teams’ bio-bubbles.The ECB is set to allow their players to take part in the remainder of the tournament, having said that it will provide ideal preparation for the T20 World Cup, which will be staged in the same part of the world a few weeks later.The players not involved in the IPL, meanwhile, will get a chance to rest before England embark on a packed winter touring schedule that includes the T20 World Cup, which begins on October 17, and the Ashes in Australia. England are also scheduled to tour Pakistan for two T20Is on October 14 and 15 as part of their preparations for the T20 World Cup. The PCB and ECB are currently confident this tour will go ahead.Ashley Giles had earlier said that England were not planning on making changes to their plans to accommodate the IPL•PA Images/Getty

The ECB has also indicated that it will complete England’s aborted limited-overs tour of South Africa at some stage.In May this year, Ashley Giles, the managing director of England men’s cricket, had stressed that England were not planning on making any changes to their plans to accommodate the IPL.The discussion then had been around rejigging the schedule of the upcoming home Test series against India, which is set to begin on Wednesday. The question was whether the dates for the Test series could change to enable a larger window for the IPL. The fifth day of the final Test of the series is September 14, with England originally having been scheduled to leave for Bangladesh less than a week after that. The IPL, meanwhile, will resume on September 19 and run until October 15.The England cricketers expected to link up with their IPL squads are Moeen Ali and Sam Curran (Chennai Super Kings), Sam Billings, Tom Curran, and Chris Woakes (Delhi Capitals), Eoin Morgan (Kolkata Knight Riders), Chris Jordan and Dawid Malan (Punjab Kings), Jos Buttler (Rajasthan Royals), and Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy (Sunrisers Hyderabad). The Royals also had Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, and Liam Livingstone in their ranks to start with, but all of them were withdrawn for one reason or another during the first leg in April-May. Shakib Al Hasan (Knight Riders) and Mustafizur Rahman (Royals) are the only Bangladeshis in the IPL.As for Bangladesh, they will begin a five-match T20I series at home against Australia – the first bilateral T20I series between the two sides – today and are also expected to host New Zealand before the T20 World Cup.

Tim Paine not 100 percent sold on new rule governing player withdrawals

Daniel Brettig in Southampton21-Jul-2019Australia are coached by a former batsman in Justin Langer who had to have a doorway physically blocked by his captain Ricky Ponting in order to prevent him re-entering the field after a serious blow to the head.In a famous episode, Langer was barred from coming out to bat at the end of a thrilling fourth innings chase against South Africa at the Wanderers in 2006, ultimately achieved by Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz with eight wickets down. Langer, despite serious concussion, doggedly put the pads on with 10 runs still to win.”To tell the truth I don’t know what I would have done,” Ponting said at the time. “If we needed two to win and he had to go out and be on strike I was probably going to have to declare or do something like that, which would have been pretty hard. He said to me then he wouldn’t have spoken to me ever again as long as he was alive. If it comes to that again, I am just going to have to knock him out.”He was probably only ever going to go out there if he could stand at the non-striker’s end. We couldn’t risk or afford him having to face any deliveries. Medically over the last couple of days his situation hasn’t changed. It was going to take me and probably a few other blokes to keep him in the dressing room if it had got down to that.”That being the case, it is not so surprising that the captain Tim Paine is less than 100 percent sold on the concept of players being withdrawn and substituted from Test matches due to concussion. Even if Cricket Australia and its sports science division have led the way on pushing for concussion substitutes, ever since the death of Phillip Hughes highlighted the vulnerability of the head in 2014.”I know the rule has come in. I think you’ll be hard-pressed to make guys pull out of a Test match,” Paine said in Southampton. “It’s going to be interesting to see how it works.”We’re all for player safety and improving that space. But it’s new to me as anyone and it’ll be interesting to see how it’s worked and policed. I find it quite fascinating that you can replace a guy halfway through a game. Again, we’ll wait and see how that works.”Approval of concussion substitutes for the Ashes as part of the inaugural world Test Championship was a keynote decision at the ICC annual conference in London following the World Cup.However, it left a few questions open that remain to be answered: will each Test venue have a demonstrably independent doctor on hand to determine concussions at arm’s length from either team? Will decisions be enforceable irrespective of variable symptoms? Will teams either home or touring stock themselves with additional squad members just in case?Whatever the answers, the area will be a source of interest throughout the Ashes, given the batteries of pace assembled on either side. Certainly Jofra Archer and Mark Wood will be eager to match the pace of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins by series end, the better for Australia to prepare by way of a bareknuckle internal trial in Southampton this week.”I think it will be a proper game, Paine said. “Both sides will be looking to win and both sides will have individual players wanting to do really well to press the final case for Ashes selection. We certainly don’t expect it peter out on the second innings or play around with a run chase or anything like that. At the moment it’s a fair dinkum game of cricket and that’s been made really clear.”Over the years the opposition in tour games has, I wouldn’t say it’s got worse but I don’t think opposition cricket boards have helped each other prepare as much as they used to. You’ve had to find different ways in your preparation to make sure everyone is ready to go for Test match intensity. And obviously a series of Ashes magnitude we thought it was a great idea and as close to a Test match as we think we can get it’s a perfect preparation.”Usman Khawaja will be the one name missing from the game, as he recovers from a hamstring strain, although Paine left open the possibility that the Test No. 3 may get a bat towards the end of a self-regulated fixture. There is no question as yet regarding his availability for the first Test in Birmingham.”I don’t think he’s in serious doubt. He’s in a rehab stage so the decision has been made that he won’t at this stage,” Paine said. “There is a possibility, maybe, if something were to happen to someone else he might be right for the back end of the game. But we expect him to be fully fit and available for selection for the first Test.”

The middle-order batsmen have fluffed their lines a few times but lack of opportunities is to blame for it to a large extent, says Bairstow

Varun Shetty in Hyderabad20-Apr-2019Sunrisers Hyderabad’s under-performing middle-order batsmen have found support in head coach Tom Moody and opening batsman Jonny Bairstow, who both feel that the unflattering numbers must not be taken at face value given how little exposure the batsmen have got this season as a result of the rollicking opening stands.The opening pair of David Warner and Bairstow have put up six 50-plus stands this season in eight innings, and on four of those occasions, they have batted either close to the halfway mark or well beyond it. Of the 907 balls Sunrisers have faced this season, 60.41% have been faced by Warner (310) and Bairstow (238). Vijay Shankar, who began the tournament at No. 3 and has gone at No. 4 whenever Kane Williamson has played, is the nearest to either of the openers in terms of time in the middle: 113 balls, less than half Bairstow’s tally.And while Sunrisers have traditionally been top-heavy, these numbers have meant that 72.87% of the deliveries have been faced by just three of their batsmen. And while the upside is that these batsmen have done well, making nearly 80% of their runs, those next in line, like Manish Pandey and Deepak Hooda at 58 balls each, have had below-average returns.”The middle-order question does confuse me,” Moody said on Saturday. “Because, on one hand, there’s enormous compliments being passed about the Warner-Bairstow combination. And quite rightly so. They’ve been terrific up front. [But] when you have that dominance up front, your middle order gets left in the dark. They get very little opportunities.”When you’re 2 for 30, 3 for 40, your middle order are getting exposed and they’re getting plenty of balls to have an influence on the game. Our middle order hasn’t had as much exposure purely because of the number of balls our top order has consumed. So, yes there’s been a couple of moments in the games we’ve played to date, where the middle order had their chance to shine and they failed. But it’s not a consistent thing. I think you need to look what influence our top order is having and the number of balls they’re facing, compared to a lot of other teams. It’s slightly different, the way we’ve gone about it, purely because of the dominance of Warner and Bairstow.”Jonny Bairstow and David Warner get together•BCCI

Bairstow, who batted with much of that middle order in their win against Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday, sympathised on similar lines.”I think a lot of people have been a bit harsh on the middle order. We’ve got some fantastic players in that middle order. Davey and I have done a fairly good job, so when they’ve been coming in, they’ve been coming in [practically] down the order, so they don’t have too much time in the middle to gain any momentum with it,” he said. “You look at that middle order and you’ve got some fantastic players in it. You’ve got one of the guys that’s been selected in the Indian World Cup team [Vijay Shankar], you’ve got Kane Williamson, who is one of the best players in the world, Yusuf Pathan whose record speaks for itself. So there’s not too many more people you’d want in that middle order to be honest. There’s a reason why they’ve done so well over the last couple of years and (the team has) got to finals and playoffs.”Regardless of this context, Sunrisers will be wary as they begin the second half of the season trying to punch their way up on the table. Bairstow leaves the side for World Cup duties on April 24, which could likely mean Williamson jumps back up as first-choice opener. Williamson himself has not had an exciting season so far, and while he’s had most of his success for the franchise as an opener, they’ll be far from putting all their bets on his taking over exactly where Bairstow leaves off in an outlandishly perfect opening partnership.Martin Guptill also waits on the sidelines, but a move up for Williamson will likely open up spots for experienced middle-order players in Mohammad Nabi and Shakib Al Hasan.”Obviously we’ve been aware for a long time that certain players are going to be leaving at certain points,” Moody said. “But we’ve got confidence in the depth of our squad, that we can fill those vacancies. The balance of our side might look slightly different but we’re comfortable with that as well. At the moment, we’re batting with three world-class batters at the top of the order. When Jonny goes, we may have a slightly different look to our side, which doesn’t mean that we are a weaker side, it just means that we’re a slightly differently balanced side and that we’re approaching the game differently.”