Max O’Dowd showed the patience required to get the job done in the chase, even as Nepal’s bowlers applied significant pressure of their own

Ashish Pant04-Jun-20245:43

Moody: The depth of Netherlands’ seam-bowling challenged Nepal

Tim Pringle and Logan van Beek’s three-wicket hauls backed up by Max O’Dowd’s patient half-century got Netherlands over the line in a nervy chase in their opening game of the T20 World Cup 2024, against a spirited Nepal in Dallas.It was a rude welcome for Nepal in their first T20 World Cup in a decade, with the Netherlands bowlers putting up a fine show and bowling them out for a mere 106 in 19.2 overs. But Nepal weren’t done yet. They squeezed the Netherlands batters in the middle overs and took the chase into the 19th over. O’Dowd, however, held his own with an unbeaten 54. He rode his luck and made sure to take his side over the line by six wickets and eight balls to spare.Early-morning rain and overcast conditions delayed the toss by 30 minutes and Netherlands captain Scott Edwards had no hesitations in bowling after winning the toss. The bowlers backed up their captain’s decision with Pringle, van Beek, Paul van Meekeren and Bas de Leede all getting among the wickets.In reply, Nepal put up a fight but dropped a couple of crucial chances at key intervals.

Dallas turns blue and red, but Orange holds sway

The Grand Prairie Stadium can seat 7000 but the vocal Nepal fans made it feel a lot bigger, flocking in nice and early getting behind their team. But the overcast conditions assisted the Netherlands seamers and they got their first wicket through left-arm spinner Pringle, whose decision to keep giving the ball flight paid off as Aasif Sheikh’s thick outside edge found short third in the second over. Pacer van Beek then struck with his first ball, angling a length ball sharply back into Kushal Bhurtel and catching him plumb in front.Nepal’s players appreciated the lively support they got in Dallas•ICC/Getty Images

Fast bowler Vivian Kingma also found big movement as the Nepal batters found putting bat to ball an arduous task. In the first six overs, Nepal played and missed 17 of the 36 balls (47.22%), which is the highest for any team in a men’s T20I (for which ESPNcricinfo has ball-by-ball data available). They hit five fours but could only manage three singles and a two in the first six overs, as Nepal managed only 29 runs in the powerplay for the loss of two wickets.

A stranglehold in the middle and at the death

Rohit Paudel, the youngest captain at a T20 World Cup at 21, kept his composure but lost partners at a steady rate. He pumped Kingma for a four over covers in the seventh over, but Pringle came back in his second over to remove Anil Sah, his attempted sweep only going as far as deep backward square leg. Kushal Malla hammered van Meekeren for a four over mid-off but fell three balls later trying a repeat of that shot, deceived by the slower offcutter and spooning the ball straight up.Bas de Leede then got rid of Dipendra Singh Airee caught at slip as Nepal slipped to 53 for 5 after 11 overs. Paudel was busy during his 35 off 37 but ultimately perished giving Pringle his third wicket. Karan KC and Gulsan Jha added 22 off 17 balls for the eighth wicket – the second-highest stand of the innings – to push the score past 100. Van Beek ended the innings with a two-in-two.Rohit Paudel was resilient but fell right before the death overs started•AFP/Getty Images

Nepal apply the choke

Early wickets was the need of the hour, and Nepal managed that with Sompal Kami getting rid of Michael Levitt with his second ball, caught by the cover fielder. Both Kami and Karan kept the bowling tight conceding only four runs in the first 15 balls. Vikramjit Singh broke the shackles with two back-to-back fours but run-scoring remained slow. Nepal bowled 19 dot balls in the powerplay as Netherlands reached 36 for 1 after the first six.It was going to get tougher for Netherlands in the middle overs, with the spinners coming into the equation. Airee conceded just a single in his first over after the powerplay, before taking out Vikramjit with a length ball that beat the batter’s attempted slog sweep and caught him in front. An over earlier Vikramjit was dropped at deep backward square leg by Kami, but he couldn’t cash in.O’Dowd and Sybrand Engelbrecht tried to steady to ship in a 28-run stand before a run out brought about the latter’s end. O’Dowd struck a straight drive back at Kami, who expertly deflected the ball back onto the non-striker’s stumps and caught Engelbrecht short. Nepal conceded just 48 runs in the middle overs (6 to 15) making Netherlands fight for every run.Max O’Dowd took Netherlands home with an unbeaten 54•AFP/Getty Images

Composed O’Dowd steers Netherlands home

When Edwards fell cheaply, it felt Netherlands’ chase could go astray, but O’Dowd brought all his experience into play. He curbed his natural aggressive instincts and made sure he kept his end secure even when Netherlands went 40 balls without a boundary between the 12th and 18th overs. O’Dowd had a huge slice of luck when Paudel spilled a straightforward chance in the 18th over at long-off. He was on 40 at the time and Netherlands still needed 18 off 17, but the dropped chance seemed to ease his nerves. In the penultimate over, with Netherlands requiring 13 off 12, he smashed Abinash Bohara for a four and six to reach his 13th T20I fifty. De Leede then finished the chase with a four through covers, triggering a sigh of relief in the Netherlands camp and securing two crucial points.

USA, who began the tournament on fire, haven’t won since their upset over Pakistan in the group stages

Danyal Rasool21-Jun-20243:08

Anatomy of West Indies’ dot-ball problems

Big picture: WI must avoid defeat

This isn’t a match the tournament expected, but one it deserves all the same. The co-hosts of this T20 World Cup found ways of getting through the group stages, in different fashion and to varying degrees of surprise. West Indies’ unblemished record in the group punctuated by a 104-run hammering of Afghanistan cemented their status as legitimate title contenders. The USA’s progress, meanwhile, depended on a dream of a performance against Pakistan that culminated in Super Over heroics, as well as inclement Florida weather that guaranteed Pakistan would not be offered the opportunity to get back up off the canvas.But the group stages are a distant memory all of a sudden, and both sides have experienced the cold, unforgiving reality of the Super Eight. West Indies’ hopes of a third title and first on home soil suddenly looks much shakier than it did one game ago, after a reprieved England rediscovered their best form in St Lucia to put them to the sword. Another defeat would put them on the brink of elimination.Related

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West Indies also have to assess how to replace top order batter Brandon King after he suffered a side strain and was forced to retire hurt against England. While runs have been scarce for him this tournament – just 63 in four games in the group stages – he looked at his most dangerous against England. He was unbeaten for 23 off just 13 as West Indies flew off the blocks, with his side briefly losing momentum when he was replaced by Nicolas Pooran.Above all, this is the first time West Indies find themselves under the pressure of their margin for error diminishing. The USA may not have won since that upset against Pakistan, but have shown no signs of fading away tamely, and briefly looked like running South Africa extremely close in their first Super Eight game before ultimately succumbing to an 18-run defeat.Aaron Jones’ side, too, need a win to retain realistic hopes of qualification, but they will be aware the weight of expectations remains on their opponents. The game against South Africa was the USA’s weakest bowling performance on a belting track, and still gave South Africa a few jitters. Against a West Indies side who weren’t really close to their best with either bat or ball against England, the USA will know an improved bowling performance on their part gives them a realistic shot at keeping their fairytale campaign alive and kicking.

Form guide

West Indies: LWWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
USA: LLWWL

In the spotlight – Russell and Taylor

He has been one of T20 cricket’s most valuable players for the best part of the last decade, but Andre Russell has been kept uncharacteristically quiet for the best part of this World Cup. A pair of unbeaten cameos against PNG and Uganda are about as good as it’s good for him with the bat, and though he continues to chip in with wickets, it is that explosiveness at the death West Indies really need him for. Part of it simply has to do with the batters higher up making sure he wasn’t required, but on the two occasions he was – against New Zealand and England – he fell cheaply. As a veteran of both of West Indies’ triumphant World Cup campaigns, he will know he’s expected to be a lot more influential for his side in the second half of this tournament if they are to go the distance again.Steven Taylor’s rise appeared to be proof that cricket in America was capable of attracting US-born athletes to this sport. A precocious rising star through his teenage years, he has been involved with American cricket for well over a decade. This World Cup should have been his crowning glory, but while Aaron Jones, Andries Gous and Saurabh Netravalkar have shone, Taylor has struggled to convert starts into substance at the top of the order. Born to Jamaican parents, he has history with the West Indies, and was once stripped of the US captaincy after he chose to play the CPL over a USA World Cup qualifier. He now comes up against the side he once declared an intention to play for, and the stakes could hardly be higher.It’s been a memorable tournament for USA and Saurabh Netravalkar thus far•ICC/Getty Images

Team news

King’s unavailability means West Indies need a replacement at the top of the order. Shimron Hetmyer is likely to get the call-up.West Indies: 1 Shimron Hetmyer 2 Johnson Charles 3 Nicolas Pooran (wk) 4 Rovman Powell (capt) 5 Roston Chase 6 Andre Russell 7 Sherfane Rutherford 8 Romaria Shepherd 9 Akeal Hosein 10 Alzarri Joseph 11 Gudakesh MotieUSA captain Monank Patel has not played since the game against Pakistan due to a shoulder injury, and remains a doubt for this contest. Jasdeep Singh, meanwhile, endured a horror game that saw him concede 28 off his first five balls, which could bring Shadley van Schalkwyk back into the frameUSA: 1 Steven Taylor 2 Andries Gous (wk) 3 Nitish Kumar 4 Aaron Jones (capt) 5 Corey Anderson 6 Shayan Jahangir 7 Harmeet Singh 8 Nosthush Kenjinge 9 Shadley van Schalkwyk 10 Ali Khan 11 Saurabh NetravalkarBrandon King retired hurt in the fifth over of West Indies’ innings during the game against England•AFP/Getty Images

Pitch and conditions

Bridgetown has seen relatively high scores in comparison to the rest of the tournament, though it did play host to the low-scoring tie between Namibia and Oman at the start of the tournament. It will be a humid evening, with chances of rain low.

Stats and trivia

Allrounder recalls ‘prison’-like circumstances of Covid tour in 2020

Andrew Miller08-Jul-2024Jason Holder says that his experience of looking on from afar as West Indies sealed their thrilling eight-run victory over Australia at the Gabba in January has given him “renewed energy” to pick up where he left off, as he prepares to face England at Lord’s in his first Test for almost a year.Holder, 32, was one of the notable omissions when West Indies chose to send a weakened squad to Australia earlier this year, having turned down a central contract in order to fulfil his lucrative deal with Dubai Capitals in the ILT20. In his absence, Kraigg Brathwaite’s team bounced back from a ten-wicket defeat in Adelaide to square the series in extraordinary style in Brisbane, a venue where Australia had lost just one Test since 1988.”It gave me a renewed energy to come back to the group, and try to be a part of something special again,” Holder said. “I missed Test cricket. This is my first Test match in a long time, so I’m looking forward to it. I’m just happy that I’ve been able to still get the body up and going and being up for the challenge here.”On the lure of franchise cricket, Holder insisted “it’s not my job to find a solution”, but pointed out that South African and New Zealand players have similarly opted out of central contracts in recent months to maximise their earning potential in T20 tournaments.”It is what it is,” he added. “This is where the game is moving, each and every person has their own personal decision to make. I was just so happy for the boys when they when they did what it did in Australia.”West Indies have arrived in London, where they will go into the Lord’s Test as underdogs given that 1988 was also the last time they won a Test series in England. But, as holders of the Richards-Botham Trophy after a hard-fought 1-0 win in the Caribbean in 2021-22, and with memorable victories at Headingley and Southampton in each of their last two away series in 2017 and 2020, Holder is confident that his team has the wherewithal to go one better this time out.”The guys took a lot from that Test victory in Australia,” he said after West Indies’ training on Monday. “We’ve been doing some really positive things over the last couple of months. And I think as a young side, the main thing is just to keep learning. What we have in the dressing room is some special talent, no doubt about it. It’s just a matter for us just to play some solid cricket and they’ll have just to believe. It’s time for someone to break the shackles, and there’s no better time for us to come here and beat England.”The circumstances of West Indies’ current visit could not be much further removed from their last tour in 2020, which took place at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, behind closed doors and in bio-secure environments at Southampton and Old Trafford. Holder himself was captain back then, and though his team earned huge respect for helping to keep international cricket alive in uncertain times, it was not an experience he looked back on with any great fondness.Jason Holder runs in to bowl at West Indies’ training session ahead of the first Test against England•Getty Images

“Firstly, it’s just good to be out in the open again,” he said. “I remember being locked in Manchester for three weeks before the Test series, which was tough because you stayed at the ground. And then we went down to Southampton for a week, which felt like a week out of prison. And then we went right back into prison after Southampton.”Related

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The fact that the show went on, however, offered a degree of normality to a world that was otherwise in lockdown, and Holder hoped that something of the same could apply to the people of the Caribbean, a region that was last week hit hard by the devastation of Hurricane Beryl.”It was tough man, but reflecting on it, you just count your blessings right now,” he said. “Obviously, there were a lot of lives lost during Covid. And again, it’s a similar situation with the hurricane that just passed. The only impetus that people had was cricket. They finally got a chance to see some cricket which put a smile on people’s faces in the Caribbean.”So coming back here in England four years later, we’re just looking to take it one step further. We won one Test match last time out of three. Yeah, two will be a lot better on this trip.”Holder’s preparations for his Test return included two first-class matches for Barbados in March, followed by a five-match stint for Worcestershire in the County Championship, for whom he made an unbeaten century against Kent in his final appearance.”It was one hell of an experience,” he said of his time with the club. “It gave me new energy because the love that the boys showed me was second to none.”Although much of the buzz around the first Test will centre on James Anderson and his impending retirement, Holder was reluctant to be drawn into the conversation at this stage. However, he acknowledged the hole that Anderson will leave in England’s dressing room could be similar to that left in West Indies’ after the departure of Shivnarine Chanderpaul after his own 21-year career.”It was a bittersweet feeling in a sense,” he said, “where someone who’s done so much for West Indies cricket Is being pinched to wake up that he’s actually finishing.”You’re losing such a powerful figure in the dressing-room, I guess it’ll be the same thing for England. But, as with everything else, we’ve got to move on many times. You unfortunately can’t play professional sport forever. At some point, we’ve got to close the curtains.”Some people get to do it on their own terms, some people don’t . But the experience of me playing with Shiv, it was great to be in the dressing room with him and just learn so much from him.”

Meanwhile, Chris Silverwood has declared an interest in becoming the county’s new head coach

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Aug-2024Jonny Bairstow will play his first match of the season for Yorkshire this week when the County Championship returns following a six-week break.Bairstow has only played two first-class games for his home county since the end of the 2020 season due to his England and IPL commitments. He is yet to feature for Yorkshire in any format this season, having taken a short break from the game between the T20 World Cup and the start of the Hundred, where he represented Welsh Fire.But he will return for Thursday’s fixture against Sussex at Scarborough, with Yorkshire sitting just outside of the two promotion places in Division Two. They are four points behind second-placed Middlesex heading into the final five games of the season, and can close the 27-point gap on leaders Sussex this week.Bairstow made 123 runs in seven innings for Welsh Fire this season•Getty Images

Bairstow lost his place in England’s Test team after failing to reach 40 on their tour to India this year, and appears unlikely to feature in their T20I and ODI series against Australia in September. He declared at the start of the Hundred that “all I want to do is play for England”, but was short of runs for Welsh Fire, with 123 runs and a single half-century across seven innings.”I spoke to Jonny, and he still has ambitions of getting back into the England team,” Ottis Gibson, Yorkshire’s head coach, said last week. “When he was coming back from his injury last year, our medical team and coaches – everybody associated with the club – helped him get back into the England fold.”If it’s that we need to do that again with him, give him some love and get him into a position where he puts good performances in, everybody benefits from that. Jonny Bairstow is a serious cricketer anyway, but when he has a point to prove, he’s even more dangerous. Hopefully, we can take advantage of that.”Related

• Pyrah returns to Yorkshire as women's coach after 2021 sacking

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• Yorkshire begin search for Gibson successor as head coach

• Bairstow admits long winter 'took its toll' but hasn't given up on England

Yorkshire confirmed on Monday that Bairstow is available to play at Scarborough after a shoulder niggle, but his availability for the final four games of the season has not yet been confirmed. They will be without their captain Shan Masood this week, who is with Pakistan’s Test squad ahead of their series against Bangladesh.The club announced earlier this month that Gibson will leave his job at the end of the season, and are also in the process of recruiting a new director of cricket, having advertised for the role earlier in the summer.Chris Silverwood, who recently left his job as Sri Lanka coach, has declared his interest in the head coach vacancy: “I haven’t spoken to anybody as yet,” he told talkSPORT. “Would it interest me? Absolutely, it’s my old county and I have a great love for Yorkshire.”

Brook came in for criticism during a relatively lean Test series against Sri Lanka but he has gas left in the tank after a long season

Matt Roller18-Sep-2024It tells you just how serenely Harry Brook’s international career has progressed that he came under scrutiny after averaging 30 in a series win. But by his own admission, Brook finds himself trying to avoid paralysis by overanalysis as he prepares to captain England for the first time at Trent Bridge on Thursday after his approach was questioned during Sri Lanka’s recent victory at The Oval.Brook made 19 and 3 in the final Test of the English season, having made between 32 and 56 in his first four innings of the series against Sri Lanka. If the scores were underwhelming, it was his manner at the crease that drew most attention: he grew visibly frustrated when Sri Lanka bowled wide outside his off stump, to the extent Michael Vaughan accused him of “taking the mick out of the game”.Related

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This has been a long season for Brook, who was England’s only ever-present across both June’s T20 World Cup and their six home Tests. He spent the three weeks between the West Indies and Sri Lanka series captaining Northern Superchargers in the Hundred, and will fly to Pakistan for October’s Test tour only three days after the fifth and final ODI of the Australia series.Brook seemed characteristically relaxed on the eve of his England captaincy debut at Trent Bridge, grinning through his pre-match press conference and laughing off the idea that he had ever craved leadership. He conceded that his Test summer had not quite gone to plan, but played down the suggestion that he was mentally drained after an intense season.”Because I wasn’t scoring the runs I wanted to, I probably was [feeling] a little bit [tired],” Brook said. “But if I’d have gone out and got two hundreds against Sri Lanka then I’d have been like, ‘I’ll just carry on’. But no, not really. I love playing cricket: I want to play as much as I possibly can. I do think breaks are important at certain times, but I was pretty chilled.”Obviously I didn’t do as well as I’d wanted. I want to get a hundred every innings, but it’s not going to happen, is it? Professional sport is not easy… I felt like I batted really well against West Indies and then didn’t play as well as I wanted to against Sri Lanka, but those things happen. You go away and think about it for a little bit, and hopefully come back stronger in Pakistan.”Harry Brook was in good spirits despite a long, busy season•Getty Images

Until the Hundred this year – where he oversaw five wins in six completed games – the majority of Brook’s captaincy experience came with England Under-19s, whom he led in 11 Youth ODIs, including five at the 2018 World Cup. Since then, he has played 50-over cricket only sporadically. Half of his 30 List A games have been full ODIs, and his record in them is underwhelming: 407 runs at 29.07, with three half-centuries.He will aim to keep things simple against Australia, batting at No. 4. “I’m just going to go out there and watch the ball as closely as possible,” he said. “If you have a few low scores here and there, you start thinking about different things and your technique and whatever. I’m just going to go out there, watch the ball as closely as I can and play on instinct.”Brook is only standing in as captain for Jos Buttler, who was with the squad on Wednesday as he continues his rehabilitation from a calf injury and will return for November’s Caribbean tour. “I might pick his brains here and there,” Brook said, “but he’s said I’ve got full rein to do whatever I want.”Buttler has challenged Brook to “identify those moments” in the field where he can change the game – something that Buttler himself has struggled with in ODIs. Brook showed signs of that instinct during the Hundred, and said that he would liberate his bowlers to make decisions: “Whatever you feel like doing, just do it. The only bad outcome is you could get hit for a boundary and the next ball could be a dot ball.”This ODI series is one of only three for England before February’s Champions Trophy, and the first since Rob Key announced that Brendon McCullum will take over as limited-overs coach as part of a “strategic restructure” of the senior set-up. The implication is that there will be greater convergence between formats, as evidenced by Ben Duckett’s promotion to open the batting on Thursday.Brook said that he has hardly spoken to McCullum, who has instead delegated responsibility to his Test assistant coach Marcus Trescothick. “It’s all going to merge into one at some point,” Brook predicted. “We want to go out there and entertain the crowd, take the game on, try to take wickets and put the pressure on their bowlers.”And after ending the Test summer on autopilot at The Oval, Brook hopes that this new challenge will prove reinvigorating. “I’ve only been here for two days, but the way the lads have gone about their business in training just seems so chilled at the minute. We’re all looking forward to going out there and having some fun.”

Patterson completed a very successful return to the Sheffield Shield side with twin half-centuries

AAP04-Nov-2024Former Test batsman Kurtis Patterson underlined his successful return to the Sheffield Shield, helping New South Wales bat out a draw against Queensland.After NSW were asked to start their second innings with a 167-run deficit on Monday morning, Patterson’s 66 helped the Blues to 256 for 4 when both sides agreed to end play.Ollie Davies also thrived for NSW, caught in the deep hooking in the final session for 88 after being measured early and taking the game on more late.The result left both teams without wins from the opening three rounds, with two draws each.But this fixture was an undoubted personal victory for Patterson.NSW’s captain as recently as two seasons ago, the left-hander was only picked for three Shield matches last summer and again started 2024-25 out of the side. But with a raft of players unavailable through Australia and Australia A commitments, selectors were forced to bring him back in, at No.3.And the two-time Test representative delivered, after admitting he once feared his first-class career was over. The 31-year-old played a lone hand with 91 for the Blues in the first innings, before again shining bright on Monday.Patterson played one of the shots of the day with a flourishing square-drive off Mitchell Swepson, as one of six boundaries in his innings.And he barely looked troubled until rain briefly interrupted play in the second session, and Swepson ripped one back between bat and pad to bowl him on his first ball back.But by then, the game had been saved for NSW, with Patterson and Davies’ 117-run third-wicket stand counteracting Queensland’s rain-interrupted first-innings total of 406 for 5.Davies’ runs also marked his best outing so far this summer, before he enters Australia A’s camp later this week to face India A in Melbourne.

Australia sweat over captain Healy’s fitness ahead of the knockouts

Sruthi Ravindranath16-Oct-20242:46

Aus vs SA match-ups: Can Schutt trip up Brits?

Australia vs South Africa

Dubai, 6pm local timeAustralia squad: Alyssa Healy (capt & wk), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham, Heather Graham, Tayla Vlaeminck (ruled out)South Africa squad: Laura Wolvaardt (capt), Anneke Bosch, Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk, Annerie Dercksen, Mieke de Ridder, Ayanda Hlubi, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Marizanne Kapp, Ayabonga Khaka, Sune Luus, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Seshnie Naidu, Tumi Sekhukhune, Chloe TryonTournament form guide: Australia are unbeaten in this T20 World Cup, winning all four of their games so far. In their last group match, they beat India in a high-octane clash by nine runs. South Africa have a 3-1 record having lost their second match of the tournament to England.News brief: Australia were without captain Alyssa Healy for their match against India. She arrived at the game in Sharjah on crutches having sustained a foot injury while batting on 37 against Pakistan on Friday. Tahlia McGrath led the side in her absence, with Ellyse Perry deputising and Beth Mooney keeping wicket.”As it stands, it’s the same thing for Midgie [Healy],” Perry said on the eve of the semi-final. “The medical staff and the team are going to give her every opportunity and possibility of playing tomorrow night but I don’t think anything’s changed in that respect. We’ll just have to see in the next 24 hours.”Alyssa Healy watched Australia’s win against India from the sidelines•ICC/Getty Images

Fast bowler Tayla Vlaeminck, who hurt her shoulder on her T20 World Cup return against Pakistan, was ruled out of the tournament with Heather Graham named her replacement. Grace Harris and Darcie Brown came into the playing XI as replacements for the India game.South Africa do not have injury concerns and are unlikely to make changes to their winning combination. Their record against Australia is not great, having won just one out of the 10 T20Is they’ve played each other. Their first-ever win came in Canberra in January this year in a bilateral series. South Africa have not won a single World Cup game against Australia in either format. Thursday will be a rematch of the 2023 T20 World Cup final, in which South Africa suffered a heartbreaking loss in front of their home crowd in Cape Town.South Africa have played three matches in Dubai this tournament while Australia have played just one match – against Pakistan – at the venue. The average first-innings score is 126, with India posting the highest total of 172 against Sri Lanka last Wednesday.Player to watch: Experienced pacer Megan Schutt’s miserly spells have been crucial to all four of Australia’s wins. She started the tournament with 3 for 12 against Sri Lanka on a spin-friendly track, finished with stunning figures of 3 for 3 against New Zealand and followed it up with 1 for 7 in her three overs against Pakistan in Dubai. Against India, she gave away 24 runs in her first three overs but returned to turn the game on its head in the 17th over by conceding just one run, leaving India with 40 to get off 18 balls.Tazmin Brits’ solid starts have been among the biggest positives for South Africa. After a 57 not out to start the competition, she crossed the 40-run mark in each of her last two matches. Against Bangladesh, on a slow track, she played a patient innings of 42 off 41 balls to help South Africa to a comfortable win. She also played an important hand in South Africa’s first and only T20I win against Australia earlier this year, scoring a fiery 41 off 28 with eight fours in a chase of 143.

It is yet to be decided whether such provisions are for the next three years or until the end of the current rights cycle in 2031

Nagraj Gollapudi and Osman Samiuddin03-Dec-2024In a development that could potentially break the current deadlock over the upcoming Champions Trophy , the PCB has offered to consider a hybrid model but only if there is a concrete written agreement allowing Pakistan the same option when a global tournament is held in India.Although discussions are ongoing and the situation remains fluid, ESPNcricinfo understands the PCB put forward its proposal over the weekend in meetings with the ICC and BCCI in Dubai. In it, they called for an equitable and long-term agreement, stretching beyond the 2025 Champions Trophy, with reciprocal provisions for Pakistan to play outside of India during global events held there. It is yet to be decided whether such provisions are for the next three years or until the end of the current rights cycle in 2031.In this time, India are scheduled to host three global men’s tournaments – the 2026 T20 World Cup along with Sri Lanka (February), the 2029 Champions Trophy (October) and the 2031 World Cup along with Bangladesh (October-November) – as well as the women’s ODI World Cup in 2025. The co-hosted events provide a solution, though any India-Pakistan games will pose the same problem. And although it doesn’t come under ICC jurisdiction, the next Asia Cup – in October 2025 – is also scheduled to be played in India.Related

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• Final call on CT25: Fresh venue one of three options, as ICC Board meets on Friday

• Fate of Champions Trophy still unclear as no decision taken at ICC meeting

“We will do whatever’s best for cricket,” Mohsin Naqvi, the PCB chair, told reporters in Dubai on Sunday. “If we adopt any other formula [except hosting the tournament in Pakistan], it will be done on the basis of equality. The most important thing for Pakistan is its respect; everything else is secondary.”A one-sided arrangement is no longer acceptable. It cannot be the case that we continue to go to India, but they do not visit Pakistan. Whatever happens must be on the basis of equality.”While the BCCI remains tight-lipped, indications are it might not be willing to accept adopting a hybrid model for their tournaments. In either case, the ICC Board will reconvene and examine the PCB proposal before making a final decision on the Champions Trophy. And both PCB and BCCI will need to have that decision ratified by their individual governments. The ICC has tentatively penciled in December 5 as a date for that meeting.Options on the table for the tournament remain the same as they were when the board met briefly last week, otherwise – that the tournament will either be based on a hybrid model with India playing its games outside Pakistan; that the entire tournament is hosted in another country; or that the tournament goes ahead without India.In that meeting last week, it was decided to give the PCB time to hold separate negotiations with BCCI to find a resolution after the latter told ICC that the Indian government had denied permission for the Indian team to travel to Pakistan. Last Friday, a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that “security concerns” meant India were unwilling to travel. “The BCCI has issued a statement so I would refer you to it,” said the spokesperson during a press briefing. “They have said there are security concerns there and therefore it is unlikely the team will be going there. Please do refer to the statement issued by the BCCI.”Where will the next India-Pakistan match be played?•CREIMAS

No such statement has been publicly issued by the BCCI. The PCB says it has still not received an official explanation citing the reasons for India’s inability to travel, though it has sought one from the moment the BCCI informed the ICC.

Jay Shah to chair ICC meet on December 5

Since the first ICC meeting, a significant change has taken place at the ICC. Jay Shah, who has been the BCCI secretary since 2019, took charge as ICC chair on December 1. Imran Khwaja, the ICC’s deputy chair, has been dealing with the Champions Trophy issue as an interim chair. But it could not be confirmed who the BCCI representative at the next ICC Board meeting will be.The meeting is widely thought to be on the Champions Trophy, although there was also a suggestion that it might be a courtesy call for Shah to ring in his tenure.With time running out – there are only 77 days to the start date of the event – the ICC finds itself in a spot of bother. It has not yet released the tournament schedule (normally put out 100 days from the event) nor announced the ticketing process which would facilitate fans to make travel arrangements for the eight-team event.

Fast bowler will travel with the squad on Friday having been forced to miss a UAE training camp

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jan-2025Saqib Mahmood has finally received his visa for England’s upcoming limited-overs series in India, meaning he will be able to travel with the team to Kolkata on Friday ahead of Wednesday’s first T20I.Mahmood, who is of Pakistani heritage, had encountered a delay in obtaining the travel document, forcing him to miss an England training camp in the UAE. Two other members of the T20I squad of similar background – Adil Rashid and Rehan Ahmed – had received their visas earlier.The Lancashire seamer had encountered similar issues in the past when, in 2019, he was replaced for an England Lions tour of India following a drawn-out visa process. In 2024, he sat out Lancashire’s pre-season tour having anticipated the same problem, months after England offspinner Shoaib Bashir missed the first Test against India in Hyderabad due to the slow processing of his visa.Mahmood was supposed to attend a pace-bowling camp in Abu Dhabi ahead of the India tour, led by fast bowling consultant James Anderson, which featured the likes of Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse and Mark Wood. Those plans were scuppered by the fact the Indian Embassy still had his possession of his passport, with Mahmood having originally intended to travel to the UAE with the group last Thursday.The 27-year-old has been on something of a comeback trail, overcoming consecutive lower-back stress fractures to return to the international fold last year, and was named player of the series during England’s T20I series in the Caribbean in November, taking nine wickets at 10.55. With 29 appearances in all formats, including two Test caps against West Indies in 2022, Mahmood will be keen to impress head coach Brendon McCullum who is now in charge of England’s red- and white-ball sides.

The seam-bowling allrounder is the only change from the squad that faced New Zealand

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Feb-2025Sri Lanka have named a squad largely unchanged from the one that toured New Zealand in January this year for the two ODIs against Australia at home later this week. The one change is that seam-bowling allrounder Chamindu Wickramasinghe is out as the squad has been trimmed from 17 for that New Zealand series to 16.From Sri Lanka’s point of view, there is no real context to the series, since they failed to make the cut for the upcoming Champions Trophy. But the two games are important for Australia, who will go straight to Pakistan for the eight-team tournament after these games.Sri Lanka wear a solid look, keeping in mind the venue for the games, R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Sri Lanka ODI squad

Feb 12 – 1st ODI in Colombo</b
Feb 14 – 2nd ODI in Colombo