Tim Paine hinted that Australia wouldn’t hold back on the bouncer with his view that it was underused against India, but with their top six shuffled again, Sri Lanka may be in with a chance

Andrew McGlashan23-Jan-2019No one has been able to breach the Gabba fortress since West Indies in 1988, and Sri Lanka’s winless record in Australia does not suggest they can be the team. The visiting captain Dinesh Chandimal, however, hopes for a “miracle” as he chases his dream of securing a Test victory in the country.Sri Lanka have lost 11 of their 13 Tests in Australia but the vibe around the team is that they will never have a better chance of breaking their duck against a vulnerable home side who have again shuffled their top six.”It will definitely be a challenge for us,” Chandimal said. “If we can take this challenge as a batter or bowler, if you can give your best shot…we can do some miracle here. That’s what we want to do as a team.”If Sri Lanka are to make history, they will have combat a pitch which has proved too much for most touring sides over the last 30 years. There was a good tinge of green the day before the match, and allied with the day-night factor, there could be some testing periods for batsmen, although the previous floodlit Test at the Gabba, against Pakistan in 2016, included totals of over 400 for each side.”I hope it’s nice and fast, the usual sort of Gabba wicket,” Tim Paine said. “Hopefully there’s plenty of bounce and it’s good to watch.”There was also a strong hint from Paine that Australia wouldn’t hold back on the short stuff, with his view that it was underused in the series against India. Australia’s bowling tactics often came under scrutiny, especially in the Melbourne and Sydney Tests, with them unable to gain a single lbw for the quicks in the four matches but Paine believed that smart use of the bouncer could also bring the stumps into play.”Clearly we need to be hitting the stumps a little bit more than we were and it’s been spoken about, but I also didn’t think we used our bouncer as much as we would like,” he said. “When you are using your bouncer a couple of times an over and then when you pitch up it’s a bit more effective. We know the majority of the time we want to be hitting the top of the stumps a bit more, but there’s also a way to set that up.While Chandimal expected his batsmen to have their techniques challenged by the Australia quick bowlers, he was confident he had the firepower to respond in kind. “When you look at the pitch you can see a lot of grass on the wicket, but we have got really good fast bowlers who can bowl over 140.”He also wanted his batsman to take a leaf out of Cheteshwar Pujara’s book and force Australia’s pacemen back for multiple spells. Whatever balance of side Australia select, they won’t have more than three pace-bowling options, although Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins were rested from the India ODIs with this series in mind.”Pujara made a difference, especially these days the weather is really hot here. They brought the Australian bowlers back for more spells. That’s what I think Pujara did, and after that it helped the other batters enjoy their batting in the middle. That’s one area I think we learned in the India-Australia series.”Chandimal drew on the memories of his Test debut against South Africa in 2011, when Sri Lanka secured their first victory in the country, in Durban. He scored two half-centuries in the match to play a key part in a 208-run win.”That was a really good memory. I made my Test debut against SA and we won that game and that was the first time we won a game in SA in their soil,” he said. “One of my dreams as a captain and player is to win a Test match here. But that’s not an easy thing coming here. You have to do a lot of hard work…that has to come from all 11 players for all five days. That’s what we are looking at as a team. It is a really good opportunity to make history and we just want to do that as a team.”

The preparations in the lead-up to the Durban Test and their consequent performance there has given his side a lift, says Sri Lanak’s captain

Andrew Fidel Fernando20-Feb-2019Bounce. It made rubble out of Sri Lanka’s top order in Australia. It was expected to make rubble out of them again, in South Africa.But somehow, after having mustered only scores of 144, 139, 215 and 149 in Brisbane and Canberra, Sri Lanka got themselves to a score of over 300 for the first time in six Tests in Durban. It took a miraculous Kusal Perera innings to get them anywhere near that total, of course, but it has made the batting order a little more comfortable against the steepling ball. That’s according to captain Dimuth Karunaratne.Of the men in this top order, Karunaratne would know better than most the dangers the bouncer presents, both he and Kusal Perera having had to leave the field after being struck in the helmet in Canberra. But he thinks Sri Lanka’s experiences in Australia have helped them refine their batting strategies against the short ball. Or at least he hopes they have.”Some of us can hit the bouncers really well; some of us can’t. So if you can’t, don’t think twice – just leave it. It’s that’s simple,” Karunaratne said. “The boys are practicing really hard in the nets. The coaching staff knew what kind of bowling attack we will face here, so the preparation was really good in those seven days before the Durban Test. That’s the main reason the boys did really well there.”If we see the Australian tour, they bowled a lot of bouncers, and when they saw we were uncomfortable, they kept doing it. Here, we played the bouncer more comfortably, so they don’t want to bowl the bouncer so much. They want to bowl good areas to get wickets.”The tracks Sri Lanka are playing on South Africa are also not quite as quick as those in Australia, Karunaratne said. The Gabba, where they played their first Test under lights in Australia, has a global reputation for being one of the quickest and bounciest around. Kingsmead and St. George’s Park, meanwhile, are perhaps the two slowest of the South African venues.”We had a tough two games in Australia on fast and bouncy wickets. We consistently got pitches where bowlers were bowling 150kph. But I told my teammates that here it’s much easier than in Australia.”You have to get better, from that experience. You have to keep your head clear and play positively. I think we saw that in the last game. This Port Elizabeth pitch is a pretty good wicket compared to the others, like Johannesburg, which is a fast and bouncy. We have a good batting wicket here.”Karunaratne also expressed support for coach Chandika Hathurusingha on the eve of the secod match. Following the victory at Kingsmead, a viral video had emerged of Kusal Perera and Suranga Lakmal giving dressing room speeches that ostensibly endorsed the coaching of Hathurusingha.With there being strong rumours that the board was moving to sack Hathurusingha from his position before that Kingsmead Test, the coach seems to have at least some support from some players.”We have to support each other. The coach also did a really good job,” Karunaratne said. “All the time, he’s trying to give something to the players. That’s why the players also want to give something back as well.”As a captain I like to see everyone in the dressing room helping each other to get better and better. We have to support the coach as well, and the coach has to realise what our gameplan is. That communication will be really good for Sri Lankan cricket.”

Australian helps bowl Middlesex out for 200 as Lancashire secure seven-wicket victory

Paul Edwards at Lord's14-Apr-2019
It would, of course, have been the height of metropolitan arrogance on Thursday morning to have dubbed this game a top-of-the-table contest; it would also have been plain wrong.Four days ago only six of the ten counties in Division Two had played a minute of competitive cricket. But it would have been perfectly fair to see it as a match between sides whose seasons will be viewed as failures if they do not win promotion. That consideration gave the contest heft and it helped one understand the satisfaction of Lancashire’s players as they sat on the Lord’s balcony on Sunday afternoon after completing their comfortable seven-wicket victory.Lancastrian happiness was both general and particular. It extended most noticeably to Haseeb Hameed and Rob Jones, whose centuries did much to make the win possible and who were batting when it was completed. Yet the greatest elation this chilly, golden evening was probably felt by Glenn Maxwell, whose career-best 5 for 40 had helped bowl Middlesex out for 200 on a wearing but by no means impossible pitch. And while Maxwell’s figures made him the first Australian since Ted McDonald in 1924 to take five wickets on his Lancashire debut, they also had a vastly more immediate significance. This is both a World Cup year and an Ashes summer.Now Maxwell insists he is not playing county cricket merely to acclimatize for the World Cup or give himself a chance of appearing in the Ashes. His 50-over cricket is in good order already and he may well not play any more first-class matches until September. No, Maxwell is here partly because he enjoys the county game, and should his commitments with Australia end in July, he wants to play for Lancashire in the Blast and then maybe fit in some more red-ball cricket. To judge by the subtlety of his off-spin and the skill with which he used the Lord’s slope against Middlesex’s left-handers, supporters at Old Trafford should hope he gets his wish.Glenn Maxwell of Lancashire claimed a career-best 5-40 against Middlesex at Lord’s•Getty Images

Indeed, so dominant was Maxwell after lunch – he took his five wickets in twelve overs from the Nursery End – that it was important to recall the patience Lancashire’s attack had shown before enjoying any success at all on the final morning. For more than 22 overs Sam Robson and nightwatchman James Harris batted without risk against seamers who rarely looked threatening.The first hour of play was as eventful as a hermit’s housewarming. Robson reached his fifty, there was an lbw appeal and Jimmy Anderson made one lift from just short of a length to Harris. Foreign tourists taking the Lord’s tour – just £25 to you, sir – might have thought they were observing some convoluted religious ceremony. In a way, they were.Then just before 12.30 Josh Bohannon was brought on at the Pavilion End and appeared to make an immediate breakthrough when Harris was caught down the leg side. Billy Taylor’s call of no ball stifled that triumph but four overs later the same batsman’s back-foot slash edged another catch to Brooke Guest and Lancashire had their first success. Three balls later they had another when Anderson, having bowled a couple of inswingers to Robson, moved one away late and the opener nicked another catch to the ‘keeper.”Bang, bang,” fielders shout encouragingly to each other when batsmen seem in the ascendancy. These are not quite empty words. The cricket before lunch had shown how quickly a match can change and we were given another example five overs after the resumption. Bowling from the Nursery End, as he did throughout his 16.5 over spell, Maxwell inveigled Max Holden into a wild drive, which only edged a catch to Keaton Jennings at slip and then immediately persuaded Eoin Morgan to come half-forward to one which did not turn and trapped him leg before. (The Twirlers’ Co-operative Alliance will label it an arm-ball)Middlesex were now six down and safety was slipping away from them. Dawid Malan and John Simpson defended for over an hour and took their side into the lead but without ever suggesting permanence. So it proved. Straight after reaching his fifty with a cut to backward point Malan came forward and the ball kissed his bat on the way to Guest. Three overs later Toby Roland-Jones lost his off stump to Anderson and the coup de grâce was left to Maxwell, who bowled Simpson and had Tim Murtagh lbw in the space of three balls.Lancashire’s batsmen took 15 overs to knock off the required 39 runs and their innings was out of keeping with the ruthlessness they had displayed over the previous four days. Jennings was caught at long leg when hooking Murtagh before Guest and Maxwell rather surrendered their wickets to Robson, allowing this most occasional of spinners to double his first-class tally. No matter, perhaps. Hameed was 13 not out at the close and has now scored only 35 fewer championship runs by mid-April this year than he managed in the whole of last season. The next few months must suddenly seem so inviting to him. But he is not by himself in that.

Super Kings and Royal Challengers missed their talisman players in their last game and their returns could make their rematch in Bengaluru all the more spicy

The Preview by Sruthi Ravindranath20-Apr-20198:24

Dasgupta: It’s too late for RCB, they should look at next season

Big picture

Had Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers met before their respective previous matches this season, this contest would have had just one familiar favourite. Take these stats into consideration: The last time Royal Challengers won against Super Kings was in 2014, and right now, they are a full 10 points behind the table toppers. CSK fans have enough to put any debate to rest against the supporters of the team in red.Yet they were left bruised by Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday and Royal Challengers overcame an Andre Russell-special on Friday. All that sets this clash up beautifully.

Form guide

Royal Challengers: Beat Knight Riders by 10 runs, lost to Mumbai by five wickets, beat Kings XI by eight wickets
Super Kings: Lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets, beat Knight Riders by five wickets, beat Royals by four wickets

Super Kings’ batting has been largely dependent on MS Dhoni this year, and his absence from the side on Tuesday showed that. He’s bailed them out of danger in at least three instances this season and is also the side’s highest run-getter so far. And without him, the middle order (No. 4 to 7) could add only 37 runs to the total against Sunrisers.Royal Challengers were also missing a key player in their last game – AB de Villiers – but their captain ensured his absence was never really felt. Kohli’s century made sure RCB posted a par-plus total at Eden Gardens while Super Kings – without their talisman – fell below this year’s average first-innings score at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium. Should the weather at home co-operate, RCB might just have a good chance to break their losing streak against CSK.MS Dhoni flexes his muscles•BCCI

Team news

Super Kings’ coach Stephen Fleming said on the eve of the match that Dhoni (back spasm) and Bravo’s (hamstring) availability will depend on “how they scrub up” at the end of the training on Saturday. The CSK captain was, however, seen practising his big hits for nearly an hour.De Villiers is understood to still be recovering from taking a bouncer to the head from Jasprit Bumrah and his availability will be subject to a return to full fitness.

Previous meeting

The highly-anticipated season opener where these two teams met ended up being one-sided with Super Kings routing the Royal Challengers for 70 on a slow surface at the MA Chidambaram. The hosts had chased it down with 14 balls to spare.

Likely XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 AB de Villiers/Heinrich Klaasen, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Akshdeep Nath/Shivam Dube, 7 Pawan Negi, 8 Yuzvendra Chahal, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Navdeep Saini, 11 Mohammed SirajChennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Scott Kuggeleijn/Mitchell Santner, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Shardul Thakur, 11 Imran TahirVirat Kohli paced his fifth IPL century to perfection•BCCI

Strategy Punt

• De Villiers scored a cracking 30-ball 68 last year against Super Kings in Bengaluru. He had also scored a crucial 14-ball 28 in Royal Challengers’ last win against Super Kings, in 2014. There’s no doubt he’ll slot right back in if he’s fit. So, how can Super Kings stop him? Since IPL 2015, he’s lost his wicket 12 times in 31 games to legspinners. He’s also been having trouble picking the wrong’un, as he was exposed by Rajasthan Royals’ Shreyas Gopal earlier this month. Super Kings could use Tahir, who’s been their highest wicket-taker this season, against him. De Villiers has lost his wicket twice in three IPL games to his South African team-mate, and averages just 19.5 against him.
• Dhoni boasts an average of 75.8 in IPLs at the M Chinnaswamy. His unbeaten 34-ball 70 had helped Super Kings chase 205 here last year. Royal Challengers could use Dale Steyn to weaken the Dhoni threat, considering the fast bowler has dismissed him twice in seven IPL innings.

Stats that matter

• Super Kings need one more win to claim the joint-highest consecutive wins against a team. They have seven against Royal Challengers.
• Kohli has the most runs (738) by any player against Super Kings, but he has not made a 30-plus score against them since their return last year and has averaged just 10.66.
• In the last three games, Deepak Chahar has leaked 78 runs during Powerplay, bowling a total of eight overs. In the first six matches, he had conceded at an economy rate of just 5.6 in this phase.

Having slipped to 3 for 3 in pursuit of South Africa’s 138 for 3, Pakistan were revitalised by a 77-run stand between the duo

Liam Brickhill19-May-2019On Saturday, South Africa completed a tight chase with only a ball to spare to draw level in the series, but Pakistan have now pulled off their own last-over finish in the third T20I to make it 2-1.Having slipped to 3 for 3 in pursuit of South Africa’s 138 for 3, Pakistan were revitalised by a 77-run stand between Nida Dar and Iram Javed, who struck her maiden T20I fifty.Pakistan needed seven from the last over, and South Africa’s decision to leave that over to Nadine de Klerk seemed to have been justified when Javed carved the first delivery out to wide long-on, where Tazmin Brits held a stunning diving catch at the boundary’s edge. But that was as good as it got for South Africa, Sana Mir slamming the first ball she faced to the square-leg boundary and then swiping two more runs in the same area to secure victory with two balls to spare.Pakistan’s turnaround was all the more remarkable considering the trouble they were in at the start of their innings. Shabnim Ismail struck twice in consecutive overs, while left-arm pacer Moseline Daniels also made an early incision to help send Pakistan’s top three back to the pavilion inside the first three overs.Dar and Javed took a little time to get going, and it wasn’t until the final over of the Powerplay that Pakistan finally found the boundary, but they picked the pace up thereafter. Javed took a particular liking to Tumi Sekhukhune’s medium pace, while the pair also combined to plunder 19 runs from Sune Luus’ second over.Their efforts brought the required rate down to a manageable level, and after Dar was bowled by Daniels for 32 in the 12th over, Aliya Riaz helped Javed to keep the momentum going. Back-to-back boundaries off de Klerk took Javed to a 39-ball fifty, and although she and Riaz both fell before the job was done, Mir ensured there would be no further slip-ups.While she was unable to defend South Africa’s total in the final over, de Klerk had played a hand in the most significant stand of her team’s innings, adding 80 for the second wicket with Brits. After a mix-up led to the early dismissal of Lizelle Lee, run out for 2, Brits and de Klerk combined to take South Africa to a steady 31 for 1 at the end of the Powerplay.Brits brought up her maiden T20I fifty off 47 balls in the 14th over before the dismissals of de Klerk and Chloe Tryon in quick succession dented South Africa’s progress and their run rate dipped below a run a ball. Luus’ adventurous innings helped to up the tempo as she dominated a 44-run stand with Brits, who ended the innings with a massive six over midwicket, but thanks to Javed’s personal best with the bat, South Africa were unable to defend their total.The series now moves to Benoni for the final two matches, with the next one taking place at Willowmoore Park on Wednesday.

Tom Helm claims two wickets to put Worcestershire on the back foot

ECB Reporters Network27-May-2019Middlesex struck back with the ball after being dismissed for 221 on the opening day of their County Championship match against Worcestershire at Blackfinch New Road.The visitors were bowled out in 66.2 overs after being put into bat with Charlie Morris and Josh Tongue continuing their impressive start to the season. Morris, the leading wicket-taker in Division Two, picked up three more scalps to take his tally to 23 and Tongue also added a further trio of wickets to lift his total to 15.Only Middlesex skipper Dawid Malan, who had recovered from a groin injury suffered on England duty earlier in the month, and keeper John Simpson batted with much authority, scoring 45 and 35 respectively.Tom Helm bowled a fine new-ball spell for Middlesex, which brought him two wickets, and then Callum Ferguson fell just before the close for an aggressive 37, meaning Worcestershire will restart tomorrow on 64 three 3.Batting was a challenge for the bulk of the day in the first meeting between the two counties since 2015 with the ball nibbling around sufficiently to keep the bowlers interested and occasionally keeping low.It is the start of successive home games for Worcestershire against three of the pre-season favourites for promotion along with themselves in Middlesex, Lancashire and Sussex.They were without all-rounder Wayne Parnell (hamstring) but welcomed back Tongue after a one-game injury absence while fit again Malan and Tim Murtagh – available after international commitments with Ireland – returned for Middlesex.Morris broke through in his first over of the day as Max Holden played half forward and nicked through to Ben Cox for no score.Sam Robson was lbw to a Tongue delivery which kept low and Nick Gubbins was bowled by Ross Whiteley.Malan, who suffered his injury blow in the ODI against Ireland, and Steve Eskinazi, looked to be repairing the pre-lunch damage during a partnership of 62. But Whiteley enjoyed a second success when Eskinazi was leg before for 27 and then Malan departed in the same fashion to Morris after striking six fours in his 91-ball knock.James Harris became another lbw victim in the next over from Ed Barnard. Simpson and Toby Roland-Jones added 31 before the latter went for a cut against Joe Leach and fell to a sharp first slip catch by Riki Wessels.Tongue accounted for Helm (1) and Nathan Sowter – the fifth player of the innings to fall lbw.Simpson was largely responsible for taking Middlesex past the 200 mark until he ballooned a simple catch to Whiteley on the off side against Morris, who finished with figures of 15.2-2-53-3. Tongue took 3 for 49, with Whiteley, Leach and Barnard the other wicket-takers.When Worcestershire batted, Daryl Mitchell and George Rhodes were both caught behind off Helm during a fine opening spell.Ferguson reeled off a succession of boundaries, including three in an over from Harris. He dominated a partnership of 53 with Tom Fell but after making 37 was lbw to Roland-Jones to leave the game evenly poised. Fell remained defiant and was unbeaten on 18 from 86 balls by the close.

Australia captain says 2015 World Cup “quite aggressive on the field, mainly from us” but this time around it’s “great spirit” on display from the teams

Andrew Miller at Lord's28-Jun-2019Aaron Finch, Australia’s captain, believes that his team’s reformed attitude in the field has been a factor in a World Cup that has been notable for the spirit between the teams.In beating England last week on the same strip that will be used for tomorrow’s showdown against New Zealand, Finch’s Australians became the first team to book a place in next month’s semi-finals.And looking back on the 2015 event in Australia, when they beat the same opponents to secure the World Cup for a record fifth time, Finch admitted that the tone of that tournament on that occasion had been significantly more aggressive, “mainly from us”.But, in the wake of the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal – and the bans for three of their players including the then captain and vice-captain Steven Smith and David Warner – Australia have gone out of their way to present a new, more friendly, attitude. So far at this World Cup, a softer approach has not impacted on their hard attitude in the big moments, and Finch is happy to revel in the wider benefits.”I think it has been a great spirit out on the field, regardless of results,” Finch said. “You see a lot of smiles on people’s faces, which is a good sign that the game’s in really good hands at the moment, and that it is being played in the right spirit.”I’m not sure if it’s been a conscious effort from individual countries, but it certainly felt like a really, really good tournament.”Australia and New Zealand have been involved in two of the stand-out moments of sporting behaviour in the tournament so far – firstly when Virat Kohli appealed to India’s fans at The Oval to stop booing Smith and Warner – an intervention that led to a mid-pitch handshake with Smith shortly afterwards – and then at Old Trafford last week, when New Zealand’s players queued up to console Carlos Brathwaite, after his stunning century had come so close to sealing victory for West Indies.”It’s tough to compare different times [but] I know the last one was quite an aggressive World Cup on the field, mainly from us,” Finch said. “We were quite aggressive in our approach and how we went about things.”But it’s been great. This one has been absolutely brilliant, and I think what’s been really pleasing as well, [comes when] you look around the stands, regardless of who is playing.”In the past, if the home team is not playing, there could be some really empty stands, but this has been unbelievable. They have been packed-out venues and really quality cricket, so people are definitely getting their value for money, too.”Kane Williamson, New Zealand’s captain, echoed the sentiments about the crowd, and looked forward to sampling a different vibe at Lord’s from the one that he has been used to on his previous visits.”The atmospheres have varied a lot,” he said. “Pakistan was very loud. Bangladesh, very loud. India, we didn’t even play and they were very loud [chuckles].”Usually you come to Lord’s, there’s sort of a quiet murmur when you play England, but I guess playing Australia it might be a little bit different when you have Kiwis and Australians filling out the seats. It will be a really good atmosphere, whatever it is, but I know for a fact that both teams are just looking forward to getting into the cricket.”Australia, for once, might not have anticipated going into tomorrow’s contest as favourites, having struggled throughout 2018, including a 5-0 series defeat against England. But order has been restored with their comprehensive displays in the crunch moments of this event, and Finch said his side was ready once again to embrace the role of tournament front-runners.”Oh, I think that any time you have pressure on you, it’s because the expectations high, because of what you have done in the recent history,” he said.”So you can never shy away from that, and you can look at it either way. You can look at it as a burden, and only you can stuff it up, but I think at the end of the day, when you’re talking about [being favourites] and things like that, you also have to appreciate the amount of work that goes in behind the scenes from the coaches and everyone to get to that position.”Whether it’s us, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, I think the expectation for everyone is all the same; that you turn up and that you can win the World Cup. So if it did happen, it would be a huge achievement for the country.”Despite their damaging defeat against Australia, England remain in the running to win their first World Cup, in spite of Jonny Bairstow’s belief that his team’s critics are “waiting for them to fail”. And while Finch said that he hadn’t seen anything quite that explicit in the media, his own team’s recent brushes with the opinion columns had persuaded them to ban newspapers in the team environment.”I haven’t seen anything written [about England],” he said. “I’ve watched a TV, a bit of Sky News and things like that that, but in terms of papers, we don’t have them around our team room.”We have made a conscious effort of that over the tournament, and that was basically on the back of coming over here. We knew that there would be some stuff written and there would be some opinions had when we first landed in the country.”So we just wanted to take as much white noise as we could away from our focus. It is quite hard to comment on it because I honestly haven’t seen much of it.”But it’s about getting away from the game and make sure you’re refreshing as much as you can,” he added, joking that he had been spending a lot of time on the golf course until his wife arrived in the country, and now shopping is his primary pastime.”Overall, it’s about making sure that if there’s half a day, that you take that for yourself and do everything that you can to clear your mind.”For me, that’s cafes and golf. For Usman [Khawaja], that’s shopping. A few of us play golf. Steve Smith is still walking around his room with a cricket bat in his hand. It’s just totally different for everyone, but just mentally refreshing every chance you get is so important.”

Imran Tahir six in the final over helps Surrey scramble to level the scores off the last ball

ECB Reporters Network26-Jul-2019Twelve days after his heroics in the World Cup final, Jofra Archer made a highly impressive return to action with two wickets as Sussex Sharks tied with Surrey in a Vitality Blast thriller at Hove.The 24-year-old showed no ill effects from the side injury which troubled him throughout the World Cup during four hostile overs, bowled in three spells at a cost of 21 runs, during which he picked up the wickets of Aaron Finch and Surrey’s top scorer Ollie Pope, who was dropped on 16, for 43.Fifteen days after removing him for a golden duck in the World Cup semi-final, Archer had Finch well caught on the square-leg boundary by Delray Rawlins. He returned in the 14th over with a superbly disguised slower ball to dismiss Pope, who had just hit four boundaries in an over off Danny Briggs and appeared to be guiding Surrey to victory.Archer had bowled in the nets under the supervision of England’s medical staff earlier in the day and could now be in the Ashes squad when it is named on Saturday.A 6000 sell-out crowd had given Archer a standing ovation when he went out to bat earlier in the evening and they were treated to a thrilling finale. Surrey looked favourites with 29 needed off the last five overs with five wickets in hand but Tymal Mills dragged Sussex back into contention when two searing yorkers accounted for Tom Curran and Ryan Patel in the 18th over.Then off the final ball of the 19th Rikki Clarke holed out to long-on leaving ninth-wicket pair Gareth Batty and Imran Tahir with the task of scoring 12 from the last over from David Wiese, who was bowling his only over of the night.Wiese conceded singles off the first two balls then Tahir stylishly uppercut a full toss for six. One run came off the next two deliveries, leaving Batty to score three to win off the final ball. He drove to long-on and the pair scrambled back for a second after Sussex missed with two throws at the stumps, either of which would have run him out had they been on target.Earlier, Sussex had finished on 144 for 8 which was something of a disappointment after skipper Luke Wright and Phil Salt had smashed 50 in the first four overs.Salt, dropped by Curran off his second ball when on nought, hit 27 off ten balls including successive sixes off Jade Dernbach. But the Sharks were never the same when he holed out later in the same over and it needed an unbeaten 76 from skipper Wright to get them to a competitive total.Sussex only managed six boundaries after the sixth over with Wright unable to go onto the offensive because wickets were falling too regularly at the other end. Veteran offspinner Batty had figures of 3 for 8 at one stage while only Ben Brown got into double figures. Wright hit 14 off Jordan Clarke in the 18th over and finished with 76 off 59 balls including a six and nine fours.

Australia’s T20 captain and coach have begun planning for the home T20 World Cup in October next year with the Ashes series still ongoing

Alex Malcolm13-Sep-20192:39

Chat around 2020 T20 World Cup squad on with management – Finch

In the midst of a gruelling Ashes series and the wake of a World Cup semi-final exit, Australia have already begun preliminary planning for next year’s T20 World Cup in Australia.Aaron Finch, Australia’s T20 and ODI captain who is back in Australia preparing for the start of Victoria’s domestic season, revealed he has had recent discussions with coach Justin Langer and the team hierarchy, about which group of players will likely be needed in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup next October.Australia have never won the men’s T20 World Cup, or even hosted it. They finished runners-up to England in 2010. They are scheduled to played six T20 internationals at home in October and November against Sri Lanka and Pakistan followed by three more on a tour of South Africa in February and three in New Zealand in late March.There will be no domestic T20 between now and the matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan although a number of players not involved in the Ashes have been playing in the T20 Blast in England, and Australia’s revamped 50-over domestic competition starts on September 21. Finch said that the team hierarchy, now coordinated under Australia’s new general manager of national teams Ben Oliver, has a rough idea of which players will be set for the T20 World Cup, based on informal chats he’s had with the selectors recently. But form in the Marsh One-Day Cup, he added, could play a part.”[I’ve had] some pretty brief chats over the last couple of weeks, pretty much just trying to nut out a squad that we think can take us through to the World T20 in October and November,” Finch said.”Whether there are 24 or 25 players that we think can play a role in different scenarios, it’s just about making sure that we’re on the same page in our thinking in terms of selection and stuff like that. Of course, there’s always curve balls, guys who turn up and play well and start the season will really push.”There’s a lot of T20s coming up over the next 8-10 months, so the fact that guys have got more, and I suppose, longer exposure to limited-overs cricket, whether it be one-day or T20 I think it’s a really good thing. No doubt there’ll some guys who jump out of box and really put their hand up for those sides.”ESPNcricinfo understands some players have already been told they are in calculations for the T20 internationals in October and the T20 World Cup next year.Australia began long-term plans for the 2020 T20 World Cup in early 2017 when Ricky Ponting took over as assistant coach to Darren Lehmann in a bid to build towards the tournament. Ponting helped the squad, captained by David Warner, to a T20 tri-series win over New Zealand and England in March 2018, just prior to the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.Aaron Finch, Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting chat at training•Getty Images

Ponting then stepped back from the T20 role in the wake of the scandal citing that new coach Langer should take charge of the team in all three formats for continuity, as Australia tried to rebuild its culture within the men’s team. Ponting returned to the coaching group for the 2019 World Cup.Finch took over as captain and had a tough initiation losing four straight series before leading the side to a share of the series against India at home and an impressive 2-0 success in India in January. Intriguingly though, that side did not feature Australia’s vice-captain Alex Carey, who subsequently had an outstanding 50-over World Cup, as Peter Handscomb kept wicket and Glenn Maxwell starred with the bat.The revamped domestic 50-over competition is another key plank of Australia’s planning. The tournament is no longer played in a single month-long block on suburban club grounds in September-October prior to the Sheffield Shield season starting. It will now run deep into November with some games played in between Shield fixtures.”I think it is a really good thing,” Finch said. “In the past having it as a full block, for a lot of players, with there not being any one-day cricket from the end of the one-day comp through to mid-January, it can be tough to really select guys and guys to put their name forward who did have a good one-day comp because it’s so far apart. So this year I think the balance is as good as it’s been for a long time now.Cricket Australia also made a concerted effort to schedule domestic 50-over games back on international venues to give players more exposure to those venues. Finch said this was crucial to prepare players for international cricket.”I think it’s huge,” he said. “To turn up for Australia and having guys not having played a game at international venues it’s surprising at times but it’s also part of the scheduling. So I think that is a great addition, that there will be more one-day games.”Guys will have more access to playing one-day cricket on the main venues, which at the end of the day when you’re pushing for selection for Australia and you finally get the call up to come to a ground where you’ve played before and you feel comfortable is really important. There’s a lot of nerves that go around when you’re lining up for Australia for the first time so as comfortable as you can make it around the environment is really important.”

Ryan Burl’s counterattacking fifty and a screamer in the deep went in vain as his team couldn’t close the game out even after having Bangladesh at 60 for 6

The Report by Liam Brickhill13-Sep-2019On a dramatic evening in Dhaka, Bangladesh overpowered a spirited Zimbabwe to win a see-sawing opening match of the tri-series by three wickets. With little to separate the two teams, it was an 82-run seventh-wicket stand between Afif Hossain and Mosaddek Hossain that made the difference, setting up Bangladesh’s chase.Afternoon rain meant the start of the game was delayed by around two hours and reduced to 18 overs a side, but once play began the action was relentless. Taijul Islam became the very first Bangladesh bowler to strike with his first ball on T20I debut and Zimbabwe’s middle order crumpled before Ryan Burl and Tinotenda Mutombodzi patched up the innings, Burl launching a blistering attack on Shakib Al Hasan to register his maiden T20I fifty.Zimbabwe had been 63 for 5 before their stand, and Bangladesh slipped to an even more perilous 60 for 6 before Afif and Mosaddek launched their game-changing counter attack. Afif charged to a maiden fifty of his own, and Bangladesh got over the line with two balls to spare.Taijul’s perfect startTaijul clearly enjoys playing against Zimbabwe at this ground. In just the third Test of his career, he took what remains a career-best 8 for 39 against them in October 2014. Two months later, he made his ODI debut at this ground, against the same opponents, and became the first bowler ever to take a hat-trick on debut. So there was always going to be a good chance that he would make an impact once again when Shakib tossed him the ball to bowl the second over of the innings.Taijul didn’t disappoint, drawing an injudicious heave from Brendan Taylor with his very first delivery. The ball skewed off the top edge and looped up to be easily pouched by Mahmudullah at short third man.Some trademark biffing from Hamilton Masakadza helped Zimbabwe to overcome the early loss of Taylor, with sweeps orthodox, reverse, paddled and slogged to reap boundaries on both sides of the wicket. The fifty came up in the seventh over, but then came a mini-collapse
as four wickets fell in the space of four overs. Mustafizur Rahman struck in his first over, Mohammad Saifuddin his second, and Mosaddek nipped Sean Williams out with his first ball. When Timycen Maruma was needlessly run out, Zimbabwe were in serious strife at 63 for 5.The Ryan and Tino showBefore today, Burl and Mutombodzi had played a combined 13 T20Is between them, and neither will have registered as threats on Bangladesh’s radar. Neither looked like turning the innings around as they groped and poked their way through probing overs from spin and seam alike in the middle of the innings. With four overs to go and time swiftly running out, Burl finally found his range, crunching Mustafizur over wide long-on and then paddling him to fine leg.Then came an onslaught the likes of which Shakib had never before experienced as Burl took on the world’s leading limited-overs allrounder – and won. Favouring the leg side, Burl unfurled an array of attacking strokes as 30 runs flowed from the over, the most Shakib has ever conceded in this format. Burl raised his maiden T20I fifty and Mutombodzi joined the party in the next over, crunching a meaty blow over cow corner. Together they had successfully repaired Zimbabwe’s innings with an 81-run stand: a Zimbabwean record in this format.Bangladesh’s top order collapseAfter Williams’ left-arm spin opened the chase, Masakadza brought on the quicks, put himself at slip, and kept himself there even as both Kyle Jarvis and Tendai Chatara over-stepped and gave away Free Hits in their first overs. Masakadza, nevertheless, kept his faith in his quicks, even as Bangladesh cruised to 26 for 0. Then came a collapse that put Zimbabwe’s wobble earlier in the evening in the shade, as four wickets fell in the space of 10 deliveries, with Jarvis and Chatara picking up two apiece.The Afif and Mosaddek showWhen Burl put himself back into the action by taking a blinder of a catch in the deep to get rid of Sabbir Rahman, Bangladesh were six down in the 10th over and increasingly rudderless. Enter Afif, just 19 years old, barely over five feet tall and possessed of a rake thin frame that belied wrists of steel and an unflinching temperament.Afif slapped the very first ball he faced from Madziva, who had his tail up after an early strike, straight back over the bowler’s head and continued in much the same vein. Williams was immediately dispatched for 15 runs off his second over, and Mosaddek followed Afif’s lead by swiping a brace of sixes off Burl’s legspin. A run rate that had been creeping up towards 10 was brought back close to a run a ball by two extraordinarily deft boundaries – ramped over short third man, and then scooped over short fine leg – off Jarvis.As the match slipped out of Zimbabwe’s grasp, sloppiness crept into their fielding effort, and Afif brought up a 24-ball fifty thanks to a fluffed run-out chance by Chatara. With three needed from the last five deliveries, Masakadza held onto a stinger in the covers to finally see the back of Afif, but Saifuddin walked in and tonked the second ball he faced cleanly to midwicket to bring a breathless match to an end, much to the enjoyment of the fans who had packed the stands despite the early rain.