Dramatic New Zealand, who lose four wickets in five balls, stifle Pakistan to emerge comfortable winners

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Nov-2017
ScorecardSophie Devine clobbers a sweep over the midwicket boundary•Getty Images

New Zealand went 2-0 up in the four-match T20I series after Pakistan fell 39 short of their 151-run target in Sharjah. This after New Zealand endured a sensational collapse, losing five wickets in six deliveries to slide from 138 for 3 to 139 for 8.Electing to bat first, openers Sophie Devine (70 off 44 balls) and captain Suzie Bates (52 off 43 balls) raised the 100 in just the 13th over, before Javeria Khan struck to break the stand and then dismiss Katie Perkins in her next over.It was in the subsequent over that the dramatic collapse unfolded, starting with Amy Satterthwaite’s wicket, followed by the run outs of Katey Martin, Maddy Green and Sam Curtis. In the next over, Sadia Yousuf removed Thamsyn Newton for a duck. Anna Paterson and Leigh Kasperek then batted through the last two overs to help cross 150.Pakistan started slowly in their chase with openers Nahida Khan and Sidra Ameen adding just 29 runs in the first five overs. It was Bates who halted their progress, dismissing Ameen for 18 and running Nahida out within the next two overs.Javeria and captain Bismah Mahroof couldn’t bring out the big hits and their wickets left Pakistan reeling at 77 for 4. Aliya Riyaz (23 off 22 balls) and Sidra Nawaz took Pakistan across 100, but offspinner Satterthwaite dismissed both of them in the penultimate over. But by then the game was well and truly out of grasp.

After an impressive performance behind the stumps and his resistance against NSW’s pace attack, the 24-year-old could possibly be a contender for Australia’s Ashes wicketkeeping berth

Daniel Brettig05-Nov-2017
Cameron Bancroft walks up to play a shot•Getty Images

Cameron Bancroft emerged as a left-field contender for Australia’s Ashes wicketkeeping berth after he followed a pair of catches behind the stumps with a determined rearguard against Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins in the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Western Australia at Hurstville Oval.Intriguingly, given the wide-open race for the Nos. 6 and 7 spots in Steven Smith’s team for the first Test against England in Brisbane, the Warriors’ regular wicketkeeper Josh Inglis was dropped for the game, leaving Bancroft to take the gloves and open the batting. It is only the second time in his career he has kept wicket for WA in the Shield, though he has kept multiple times for the state and also the Perth Scorchers in limited overs and Twenty20 tournaments.Bancroft was also selected for Australia as a wicketkeeper in a single T20 international in 2016 against India at the SCG, and is believed to have been encouraged to work on his keeping in recent times. He was first considered for the Australian Test team as an opening batsman in 2015, when he was selected in the squad for that year’s tour of Bangladesh, which was subsequently postponed due to security concerns.After another wicketkeeping option Peter Nevill failed to add to his overnight tally of 32, Bancroft stood firm against Hazlewood in particular, after the tall right-armer bowled with impressive rhythm in his first match since a side strain. In doing so he damaged the Test prospects of Shaun Marsh and Hilton Cartwright, having the former caught behind waving at an angled ball, before the latter was pinned lbw by a ball cutting back.Hazlewood followed up by perforating the defence of the WA captain Mitchell Marsh, who is not expected to be considered for international selection until he is able to bowl again after shoulder surgery earlier in the year. Those wickets left much resting on the shoulders of Bancroft, who with Ashton Turner set about giving the visitors a foothold.Selectors are often said to consider domestic runs in the context of who they are scored against, and in Hazlewood, Starc, Cummins and Nathan Lyon, Bancroft occupied the crease against the very same bowlers who will line up against England in Brisbane. By stumps he had made it as far as 41 not out, already the highest score tallied by any wicketkeeper in this Shield round, topping the innings of Nevill and also the South Australian Alex Carey (36).The selection of Bancroft as the Test wicketkeeper would cause plenty of consternation given his relative lack of experience behind the stumps, but it is patently clear that Smith, Australia’s selectors and coaches are desperate for more runs from the middle order.

Ashton Turner broke Sydney Sixers’ spirit with five sixes in his 27-ball 52 as Perth Scorchers cruised to a six-wicket win

The Report by Alex Malcolm23-Dec-2017
Getty Images

There is a reason the Perth Scorchers have won three BBL titles, out of six.Even without Australia’s previous T20I new-ball pairing in Nathan Coulter-Nile and Jason Behrendorff, the Scorchers still fronted up at the SCG with an attack featuring five international players and blew away the Sydney Sixers’ top order, including a hat-trick from Andrew Tye, to set up a comfortable six-wicket win.The chase wobbled early without the experienced Michael Klinger. But the composure of Ashton Turner and Adam Voges turned potential disaster into a doddle with an unbeaten 70-run stand from just 38 balls to see the Scorchers home with 11 balls to spare.Sixers slump earlyFor as well as the Scorchers bowled, some of the Sixers batsmen contributed to their own demise after having been sent in to bat on a good surface.Daniel Hughes wiped across a straight half volley and lost his off stump. Jason Roy looked in sublime touch until he bunted a slower ball that he hit straight to midwicket. Both batsmen fell to Jhye Richardson.Henriques was unfortunate to glove one down the leg side off David Willey. Billings made a strange decision to walk down the wicket off the first ball he faced from Tye only to meekly pop a leading edge to square leg.Willey bowled Botha with a slower ball that gripped past his outside edge and clipped the top of off leaving the Sixers in trouble.Tye’s hat-trick of hat-tricksNic Maddinson and Peter Nevill were forced to consolidate to avert further disaster. Their 37-run stand never really exploded. Voges brought back Mitchell Johnson to bowl his fourth over in the 14th over. He removed both set batsmen in three balls.Sean Abbott and Steve O’Keefe threatened to push the total towards 150. But Tye dashed those hopes with his third T20 hat-trick this calendar year, ending the innings at 132 with eight balls remaining.Top-order wobble for inexperienced ScorchersThe Scorchers chase took a while to get going. Debutants Will Bosisto and Josh Philippe put together a 31-run partnership at just above a run-a-ball. The run-rate dropped well below six when both were dismissed to Abbott in the fifth over. Willey and Hilton Cartwright also struggled to score freely. In total, the Scorchers’ top four faced 29 dot balls from the first 71 deliveries. When Cartwright fell to Doug Bollinger, the Scorchers still need 67 from 49 balls.Cool and calm in the endTurner and Voges never panicked. They calculated that boundaries were difficult to find early so they elected to place balls into gaps and run twos to get the run-rate moving. They pinched three twos in an over from O’Keefe with just nudges to the 30-yard circle at a vacant midwicket to take nine from his fourth over after he had conceded just 14 from his first three.Turner then used his long reach to target Daniel Sams and Abbott. He struck five sixes to break the back of the chase. His boundary to win the game also took him to 52 not out from just 27 balls.

The England opener said it had been “a long few months” following the incident in Bristol last September but was now focused on cementing his one-day spot

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jan-2018Alex Hales has said he has learnt lessons from his involvement in the incident outside a Bristol nightclub in September which led to Ben Stokes’ arrest, and subsequent charging with affray, and saw Hales stood down for the final two ODIs against West Indies.Hales helped police with their enquiries following the incident in the early hours of September 25 but in December was told he was not under investigation. That meant he was able to take his place in the one-day squad for the series against Australia, having initially returned to action in the T10 tournament in Sharjah.”It hurt massively at the time, to miss two games for something that happened off the field,” Hales said before the third ODI in Sydney. “It is disappointing and it will make me enjoy my time in an England shirt a hell of a lot more moving forward and cherish every moment I get on the field.”In terms of going out in the middle of a series, that is the lesson I have learned from that incident. It is about being responsible when you are on England duty.”You have eyes all over you and that brings responsibility on and off the field, responsibility on and off the field is something that will be coming into my game going forward. It has been a long few months but it is great to be back out here.”Stokes was made available for England selection last week following the charge of affray being laid and the initial talk was that he would return for the T20s in New Zealand, but his first court appearance has been set for February 13 – the day of England’s T20 in Wellington – so now it appears the one-day series is the earliest he could come back, and it may even be pushed as late as the two Tests at the end of March.Hales will still face a Cricket Disciplinary Commission investigation once the Stokes’ trial is concluded but for now he is able to focus on re-establishing his position at the top where there is a log-jam for batting slots.Hales’ suspension at the end of the home season gave Jason Roy the chance of a comeback after he was dropped for the Champions Trophy semi-final. Roy responded with scores of 84 and 96 against West Indies and followed that with an England-record 180 in the opening match against Australia at the MCG.Alongside Jonny Bairstow’s successful transition to one-day opener – where he has averaged 76.33 since taking the role late in the Champions Trophy – it meant Hales returned to the side at No. 3. He scored a half-century in Brisbane to help a successful run chase, but when Stokes is eventually able to return to the set-up it is likely to be one of the top three that has to make way.”I missed the last two ODIs and that allowed other guys to come in and do very well,” Hales said. “Hopefully I can put that stuff in the past and now I’m looking forward to hopefully contributing to a series win. Some runs on a personal level would be great but being out there makes you realise you should cherish playing for England and the last couple of games have been really enjoyable.”

Warner has been charged with a Level 2 offence, while de Kock has been booked under the Level 1 category

Firdose Moonda and Daniel Brettig06-Mar-2018Australia’s David Warner and South Africa’s Quinton de Kock have been charged by the ICC for their stairwell confrontation in Durban, with both players having until Wednesday to respond to the charge.Both players were charged under the catch-all ICC code of conduct clause on bringing “the game into disrepute” following the episode that marred the Kingsmead Test, but Warner faces a more serious level 2 charge while de Kock a less serious level 1 offence. The difference in levels means Warner could be banned for one Test, but the heaviest penalty de Kock faces is a fine.The matter was debated in a meeting at the hotel being shared by the two teams in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday night, with the Australian and South African team managers Gavin Dovey and Mohammed Moosajee speaking with the match referee Jeff Crowe.The incident took place as the players left the field for tea on the fourth day. CCTV footage from cameras trained on the staircase leading to the dressing rooms showed Warner being physically restrained by several team-mates as he launched a verbal attack at de Kock. South African captain Faf du Plessis emerged from the hosts’ dressing room to try and diffuse the situation. He was accompanied by Kagiso Rabada, who did not get involved. The players went into their own changerooms after a few minutes. The video was first made public by South African media outlet .South Africa’s management will meet with de Kock to discuss his options before deciding how to respond to the charge. They strongly maintain that the verbal fracas started while de Kock was batting and was led by Warner making personal affronts to de Kock. South Africa are understood to be disappointed that Warner did not receive a more serious charge; a Level 3 charge would have required an independent arbiter to hear the case.The on-field umpires – Kumar Dharmasena and S Ravi – are understood to be claiming not to have heard anything that could be considered a breach of the code. South Africa’s reaction to this is one of incredulity, and some sources told ESPNcricinfo that the view in the home camp is that the umpires are “intimidated” by Australia. After the Durban Test, du Plessis said he felt the umpires should have stepped in earlier to avoid the situation spilling over onto the stairwell, but he also admitted the chatter had got personal from both sides.The charges against Warner and de Kock were brought by the on-field umpires. “Australia vice-captain David Warner and South Africa’s Quinton de Kock have been reported for breaching the ICC code of conduct following their altercation on the fourth day of the Durban Test which was captured on CCTV,” an ICC spokesman said. “The umpires officiating in the Durban Test have reported Warner for a level 2 offence and de Kock for level 1 offence for ‘conduct that brings the game into disrepute’ following the incident in the stairwell near their dressing rooms. The teams have been given until tomorrow to respond to the charges.”The former Australia batsman Simon Katich, currently commentating in South Africa, said the ICC had the opportunity to draw a line under the sort of aggressive exchanges captured on the CCTV footage by imposing a ban. “The one thing the match referee has got the control to do is if they set a precedent, players will stop behaving like that,” Katich said on SEN radio.”At the moment it might take a one-Test ban for players to realise they can’t behave like that, and then it would put it to bed.”In the end, the team that gets affected by a player missing out on a Test match is going to be very disappointed with their fellow team-mate, and what will happen is the team-mates will start to police these issues, rather than let them happen over and over again. Let’s see what happens with the match referee and whether they’re going to be stern enough to stamp this behaviour out.”

The captain returns to action, having been cleared fit after a bout of appendicitis that kept him out of the World Cup Qualifier till now

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Mar-2018Asghar Stanikzai, Afghanistan’s captain, will return to action, having been cleared fit after a bout of appendicitis that kept him out of his side’s World Cup Qualifier campaign till now. He comes into the squad in place of Afsar Zazai, who has been ruled out due to a hamstring injury picked up during training over the weekend.Stanikzai was forced to undergo surgery for appendicitis in late February, and was expected to be sidelined for about ten days, missing the start of the qualifiers. However, his recovery has taken longer, meaning 19-year-old vice-captain Rashid Khan has had to lead Afghanistan through the majority of the tournament.Afghanistan now have two games left in the Super Sixes, but their chances of securing a spot in the 2019 World Cup are very slim. They need to win both their remaining games by big margins to boost a poor net run-rate, and then hope Scotland and Zimbabwe both lose their final games to West Indies and UAE respectively.Afghanistan’s next game is on Tuesday, against UAE, before a clash with Ireland on March 23.

Both teams begin the new season with rejuvenation on their minds, and both have been hurt by injuries to key fast bowlers

The Preview by Akshay Gopalakrishnan07-Apr-20184:35

KKR have enough opening options – Agarkar

Big picture

When Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore walk out on Sunday, both sides will be conspicuously lacking a familiar left-handed opener. Royal Challengers let go of Chris Gayle, perhaps their biggest match-winner ever, ahead of the January auction, and Knight Riders did the same with Gautam Gambhir, their captain for seven seasons in which they won two titles.If these events show us anything, it’s how unpredictable this league, and by extension the format, can be. Just in 2016, Virat Kohli, the Royal Challengers captain, called out Sarfaraz Khan for his fielding and fitness. And yet, he was one of three players retained, alongside AB de Villiers and Kohli himself. This is a slightly different RCB line-up. After falling flat in 2017, when they finished last, they seem to have made amends with smart buys aimed at remedying their over-reliance on the top order. They will also be served well by domestic talents who have successfully transitioned to international cricket, such as Yuzvendra Chahal.Knight Riders have endured three seasons without a trophy, and have sought to address that by appointing a new captain in Dinesh Karthik, who is in the middle of a late career renaissance of sorts. Karthik, who has a wealth of leadership experience in domestic cricket, recently earned a recall to the Indian side and responded by playing probably the defining innings of his career: all signs of a man high on confidence and at peace with his game. Not a bad way to start.

In the news

Mitchell Starc has been ruled out of the tournament with a tibial bone stress fracture in his right leg, and the Knight Riders coach Jacques Kallis has pinned his faith on Tom Curran, the bowling allrounder from England, to fill in ably. There were also doubts surrounding Chris Lynn and Andre Russell, who pulled out of the PSL due to injuries, and Sunil Narine, who was reported for a suspect action in the same tournament. But the Knight Riders management has assured fans that all three will be available for the opener.Nathan Coulter-Nile, who was Knight Riders’ second-highest wicket-taker last season, will miss the opportunity of taking on his former franchise. As he has continues to recover from a back stress fracture, Coulter-Nile has been withdrawn from the Royal Challengers squad and replaced by Corey Anderson.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The likely XIs

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Dinesh Karthik (capt, wk), 5 Nitish Rana, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Piyush Chawla, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Tom Curran, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Shivam Mavi/Kamlesh NagarkotiRoyal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Brendon McCullum/Quinton de Kock, 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Sarfaraz Khan, 6 Colin de Grandhomme, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Navdeep Saini

Strategy punt

Dinesh Karthik would do well to unleash Piyush Chawla at the Royal Challengers line-up. De Villiers has an appalling record against the legspinner in IPL: 43 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 97.7, while being dismissed four times. McCullum fares even worse, averaging 8.00 and striking at 80 while also being dismissed four times in eight innings. That’s two of the opposition’s most dangerous batsmen.

Stats that matter

• Sixteen out of 26 matches at the Eden Gardens in T20Is and IPL since 2015 have been won by the chasing team: a strong case for bowling first.
• Sunil Narine has increasingly proven his utility as a batsman in recent years. His effectiveness shoots up significantly when he’s facing spin. Since IPL 2015, Narine has averaged 17.2 against pace and struck at 145.8. Against spin, the corresponding numbers are 29.5 and 226.9.
• Both teams are relatively evenly matched at the Eden Gardens. In their five most recent meetings at this venue, Knight Riders hold a marginal 3-2 edge. However, Knight Riders have won all their three matches batting first, while RCB have chased down totals for both their victories.
• While Dinesh Karthik is solid in the middle overs and a blazing finisher, he has trouble getting going in the Powerplay. Since the 2015 IPL, Karthik has batted 16 times in the first six overs and faced 63 deliveries for a strike rate of 92.1.
• If Knight Riders win on Sunday, they will tie Chennai Super Kings for 41 home victories – the second-highest among all IPL teams.

1:19

RCB: The perennial bridesmaids

Fantasy picks

• First, the obvious choices: Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. You’d have to be brave and perhaps foolish to leave either out.
• Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal are coming off a bumper limited-overs tour of South Africa. They took 33 wickets between them in six matches and averaged 13.88 and 16.37 respectively. Royal Challengers struggled at the death in the last IPL, losing an average of three wickets per innings in the last five overs, and scoring at just 8.64 per over. Kuldeep was the most successful spinner at the death last year, taking seven wickets and conceding a boundary once every 6.67 deliveries.

Quotes

“Unfortunately Starc got injured but we have got a replacement in [Tom] Curran. We look forward to some exciting stuff from Tom who should stand up and play a big role in the absence of Mitchell.”

The Pakistan allrounder further said that the 2019 World Cup in England would be his last major 50-over event

ESPNcricinfo staff09-May-2018Shoaib Malik wants to keep playing international cricket at least until 2020. The 36-year old allrounder is three matches away from tying Shahid Afridi’s record as the most capped Pakistan player in T20Is and has his eyes set on the World T20 in Australia. Malik also said that the 2019 World Cup in England would be his last major 50-over tournament.”The 2019 World Cup is my last World Cup, but I want to play in the World T20 in 2020; that is my goal for Twenty20 cricket,” he said. “These are the two big goals which I’m looking at; let’s see how it goes. If I’m consistently performing, then I want to play these two World Cups.”Malik was captain of Multan Sultans franchise in the recently concluded PSL. He made 224 runs for them in eight innings and also picked up three wickets. His next assignment is with the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League, which runs from August to September.Malik also made a point to remember his previous franchise, the Barbados Tridents. He played for them for five years and helped them to the title in 2014 with a match-winning half-century in the final.”Being alone in Barbados, still you don’t feel as if you’re alone in Barbados. You have people around you, and I think the whole five years is something which I’m going to miss,” Malik said. “But I’m sure we’ll have a game in Barbados and that will cover some of my missing parts.”Malik also relished the opportunity to play in Guyana, where the pitches tend to be slow. “Guyana is more like you’re playing in the subcontinent, I think,” he said. “If you’re playing for a new team the expectations are a lot from you. When they have seen someone that did well for a longer run the expectations are obviously high.”

Rumana Ahmed and Fargana Hoque add 72 to keep Bangladesh in the hunt before Shabnim Ismail knocks them over to close out the game

ESPNcricinfo staff17-May-2018
Scorecard
Shabnim Ismail is congratulated on the wicket of Hayley Matthews•Getty Images

Seamer Shabnim Ismail’s three-for and opener Lizelle Lee’s 38-ball 46 helped South Africa beat Bangladesh by 17 runs and go 1-0 up in the three-match T20I series.Having elected to bat at the Diamond Oval in Kimberley, South Africa openers Lee and Laura Wolvaardt put together 77 by the 10th over. Wolvaardt’s wicket, however, sent them sliding as spinners Rumana Ahmed and Khadija Tul Kubra ran through the top order to pick up four wickets in the space of 20 deliveries.Sune Luus steered them to safety, making an unbeaten 28 off just 23 balls from No. 7 to lift them from 86 for 5 in the 13th over to 127 for 6 at the end of 20 overs.Bangladesh slipped to 14 for 2 in the fifth over, and from there on, South Africa didn’t look back. Ahmed and Fargana Hoque put together 72 off just 68 balls for the third wicket to keep Bangladesh in the hunt, before Ismail returned to rattle the middle order. She had Rumana caught by Mignon du Preez for 36 and then sent Nigar Sultana back for a first-ball duck to stifle them.Bangladesh needed 32 off two overs, but tight overs from Kapp and Ismail closed out the game.

England’s former World Cup goalkeeper turned out for Shrewsbury in his first league cricket match since 2007

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jul-2018Club cricket up and down the country took a back seat to World Cup football at the weekend, with England’s 3pm quarter-final against Sweden on Saturday causing postponements galore as captains struggled to rally their teams.One man who had more reason than most to take his eyes off the events in Russia, however, was England’s former World Cup goalkeeper Joe Hart, who chose instead to turn out for Shrewsbury in what would prove to be his first league match since 2007.Hart, 31, won the last of his 75 England caps against Brazil in November and had been his country’s first-choice keeper at both the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016.However, he was overlooked for the 23-man squad for the on-going World Cup, with Jordan Pickford, Gareth Southgate’s preferred pick, going on to make a string of world-class saves in a man-of-the-match-winning display in Samara.Hart’s contribution to his day of sport on Saturday was rather less telling. He came in to bat at No.9 for Shrewsbury, who started the day in third place in the Birmingham & District Premier League, and made 6 from 11 balls in a total of 250 for 8 from 55 overs.And despite a best haul of 5 for 13 in his previous appearances for the club, Hart was not called upon to bowl as Knowle & Dorridge made 203 for 9 in reply. Mike Barnard (6 for 48) and Henry Blofield (2 for 52) shared the bulk of the honours as Shrewsbury fell just short of forcing the win.”Joe was a credit to himself, his cricket club and his community yesterday,” tweeted Knowle bowler Chris Cheslin. “Great to see him back on the cricket field enjoying the game surrounded by his friends and family.”As a teenager, Hart had been in the same Worcestershire youth team as Steven Davies, the former England wicketkeeper, but put his cricket ambitions on hold as his football career developed.