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What is the draft order and how was it decided? Can overseas players be retained?

Alex Malcolm17-Jul-2023The second installment of the BBL overseas draft is set to place on September 3 alongside the inaugural WBBL overseas draft. Both drafts will follow very similar rules to last year. Here is everything you need to know.What is the overseas draft and where will it be held?
BBL and WBBL teams no longer recruit their three overseas players privately. The BBL held an overseas draft for the first time last year and the WBBL will hold a draft for the first time this year. They will select a minimum of two or a maximum of three overseas players from the drafts that will be held back-to-back in Melbourne on September 3. The draft will only be for overseas players. Domestic players will be contracted in the same way they always are although there has been a new marquee rule in the BBL introduced for CA contracted players.Will the overseas draft be televised?
Both drafts will be televised on Foxtel and streamed on Kayo. The draft will take place at NEP studios in South Melbourne where it was held last year. The WBBL draft is likely to take place in the afternoon followed by the BBL draft in the evening.Related

• Perth Scorchers WBBL retention decision over Kapp and Devine likely to shape the draft

• Knight and Ecclestone among England stars in WBBL draft

• Pooran could return to BBL after nominating for overseas draft

• Harmanpreet, Devine among the first nominations for the WBBL overseas draft

• Thunder and Stars win WBBL and BBL draft lotteries

How do overseas players nominate?
Players get to nominate their price category and their availability in terms of the number of games they can play. The BBL is now a 10-game season plus finals and not all overseas players will be available for the whole competition due to both international commitments and other leagues, as has been the case previously. The WBBL is a full 14-game season plus finals but the women are more likely to be available for the entire season. There is a nomination process that is currently open and ends on August 20. Players will be put into four categories: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The players themselves can choose to enter the Gold, Silver, or Bronze band. Platinum players will be decided by Cricket Australia based on the nominations.Liam Livingstone, Rashid Khan and Andre Russell were Platinum players last year•Getty Images

What is the money involved?There has been an increase in the men’s BBL overseas salary bands after the salary cap was increased from AUD 1.9 million to AUD$3 million. Platinum players are now set to earn AUD$420,000, up from $340,000 last year although there are caveats for the Platinum players this year. They will only earn the full amount if they are available for the entire season including finals, which runs from December 7 to January 24.If they are only available for 10 matches, they will earn AUD$400,000. If they can only play nine matches the price will be AUD$380,000. Anyone only available for eight matches or less in the Platinum category will earn AUD$360,000 regardless of whether they play one game or eight. Gold players will earn AUD$300,000, Silver AUD$200,000, and Bronze AUD$100,000 with no minimum matches required for those players. There are no match payments in the BBL, as players are contracted with set retainers. All overseas salaries are to be paid by the clubs from within the salary cap.The categories only relate to price, not to availability. So players can nominate to be available for the whole tournament in the Bronze category, or for half the tournament in the Gold category. Their availability is their currency and teams will have to decide whether a Platinum player with limited availability is worth selecting.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

In the WBBL, Platinum players will earn AUD$110,000 to be paid by the clubs from the AUD$732,000 salary cap. Gold players will earn AUD$90,000, Silver AUD$65,000 and Bronze will earn AUD$40,000.What is the draft order and how was it decided?
CA held a private weighted lottery to decide the order in both the BBL and WBBL, as they did last year. This year’s BBL draft order is as follows: pick 1 – Melbourne Stars, pick 2 – Adelaide Strikers, pick 3 – Hobart Hurricanes, pick 4 – Melbourne Renegades, pick 5 – Sydney Thunder, pick 6 – Sydney Sixers, pick 7 – Brisbane Heat, pick 8 – Perth Scorchers.The three teams who missed the BBL finals last season – Stars, Strikers and Hurricanes – entered a lottery for the first three draft picks. Stars, who finished last, got three chances to get the first draft pick, Strikers two and Hurricanes one. Here’s another way to think of it: there are six balls in the first lottery and three of them are Stars’ giving them a 50% chance of first pick, whereas Hurricanes, with one ball, only have 16.66% chance.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The order of the next five picks were selected from a second pot featuring the finalists from last season. Again, the lottery was weighted. Fifth-placed Thunder got five chances to get the fourth pick, Renegades four, Sixers three, Heat two, and two-time defending champions Scorchers got one.The WBBL draft order was decided via the same method except there were two pots of four due to a different finals system. This year’s WBBL draft order is as follows: pick 1 – Sydney Thunder, pick 2 – Melbourne Renegades, pick 3 – Perth Scorchers, pick 4 – Melbourne Stars, pick 5 – Hobart Hurricanes, pick 6 – Brisbane Heat, pick 7 – Sydney Sixers, pick 8 – Adelaide Strikers.In both drafts, the first two rounds of the draft will run in order from one to eight. Round three will run in reverse order, so team eight will get two selections in a row (pick 16 and 17). Round four will run in normal order again. So team one will get two selections in a row (picks 24 and 25).How does the draft work?
There will be four rounds of the draft with each team getting one pick per round. Clubs can pass if they don’t want to pick in certain rounds but must pick a minimum of two or a maximum of three players by the completion of round four. Round one is for Platinum players only. In round two, teams can pick Platinum or Gold players. In round three, teams can select Gold or Silver players. In round four, teams can pick Silver or Bronze players. Teams do not have to select a Platinum player but they must then select a Gold player. Teams can select two Platinum players, but only one in each round. If they choose two Platinum players, they cannot select a Gold player, they can only select a Silver or Bronze. The same rule applies if a team chooses two Gold players in rounds two and three. They can only then select a Bronze player in round four.Can overseas players who are currently connected with BBL clubs be retained?
Yes, they can. But only one. This could be coined the “Rashid Khan rule”. Rashid was the first player retained under this rule last year. Stars selected him as a Platinum player ahead of Strikers’ first pick. Strikers took the option to use their retention pick to keep him. Strikers had to pay the same amount of money and use their pick in the first round to retain him. Stars then got the opportunity to pick again and took Trent Boult. Scorchers had the option of retaining Colin Munro last year when Heat selected him first but opted not to use the retention pick. There is also an addition to the retention pick rule this year. Players that were previously drafted or contracted to the club but weren’t available to play can be retained.This specifically applies to Liam Livingstone, who was the No.1 pick in the inaugural BBL overseas draft last year by Renegades but was unavailable for the whole season after he was unexpectedly called up to England’s Test squad for the tour of Pakistan. Under the new rule, Renegades can use their retention pick Livingstone, even though he hasn’t played for the club and has only previously played for Scorchers in the BBL. Scorchers could have a challenge in the WBBL with their retention pick, potentially having to make a choice between star allrounders Sophie Devine and Marizanne Kapp if another team selects both of them first.Will Sophie Devine be retained by Scorchers?•Getty Images

Are there swapping of picks?
There is pick trading this season for the first time. There was no swapping of picks in last year’s draft but CA have added pick trading to the two drafts this year but it comes in a limited capacity. Teams can only trade picks within each round. So a team with pick 8 who doesn’t want a Platinum player cannot trade pick 8 for pick 9 to ensure both clubs got two picks in the same round. Trades of picks will need to be completed by August 20, the same day the nominations close, and all trades need to be approved by CA’s technical committee.What about replacement players?
Each team can contract up to four replacement overseas players (or five if they have only taken two players at the draft) if their picks in the draft become unavailable due to injury or international duty. Clubs can have no more than seven overseas players in total on any list including primary and replacement players. Teams can’t tell overseas players privately not to nominate for the draft and then contract them as replacements. They must have been available to all teams initially in the draft before being available as a replacement. Platinum players can be replacement players as was the case last year. Faf du Plessis and Andre Russell were both not selected as Platinum players at the inaugural draft but du Plessis ended up playing seven games for Scorchers as a replacement player for Phil Salt while Russell played four games for Renegades as a replacement for Livingstone.

South Africa over-powered in final match of multi-format series as Capsey, Kemp impress

Valkerie Baynes25-Jul-2022A half-century to Tazmin Brits was no match for a stellar effort with bat and ball from Sophie Ecclestone and another successful youth policy roll-out as England won the final T20I of South Africa’s tour by 38 runs in Derby.England handed an international debut to 17-year-old left-arm seamer Freya Kemp, and she took her maiden wicket when she had South Africa opener Anneke Bosch stumped by Amy Jones for 17. She followed that with the wicket of Brits, caught by Ecclestone for 59 as South Africa fell short in their attempt to overhaul a lofty target of 177.Ecclestone, an old hand for England at the age of just 23, then took two wickets, that of the dangerous Laura Wolvaardt, and then Chloe Tryon with the last ball of the match. But it was her 12-ball 33 not out that pushed England to 176 for 6 after an exciting 25 off just 17, including four fours in a row by Alice Capsey, another 17-year-old playing just her second international match. The victory allowed England to finish off the multi-format series 14-2, South Africa’s only points coming from the drawn Test in June.Cap that!Allrounder Capsey didn’t have a chance to bat on her international debut as England cruised to a six-wicket victory in the second T20I in Worcester, although she did take a wicket with her second ball when she had Lara Goodall caught by Nat Sciver to break a century opening stand.That changed on this occasion, however, following the early loss of Sophia Dunkley, who cut left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba straight to Wolvaardt at point on the first ball of the match. That brought Capsey to the crease in the No. 3 spot vacated by Bryony Smith when Kemp and right-arm quick Issy Wong came into the side, with Freya Davies also making way.Capsey struck the fifth ball she faced – from Masabata Klaas – through long-on for four and she unfurled three more in succession, clearing backward point, piercing the covers and lifting one over backward square. Capsey then turned Ayabonga Khaka to the rope through fine leg to move to 21 off 10 balls and after three overs England were 34 for 1. Mlaba returned to the attack with immediate effect, however, removing Capsey with her seventh delivery, caught by Tryon at mid-off.Alice Capsey produced a sparky maiden innings at No.3•Getty Images

Mlaba makes things happenMlaba, in the side after frontline quick Shabnim Ismail succumbed to a back problem, could have had another but Sciver, on four at the time, overturned her lbw dismissal with replays showing the ball sliding narrowly down the leg side. At the end of the powerplay, England were 53 for 2 and Danni Wyatt bumped that up with a six down the ground off Delmi Tucker, which Anneke Bosch did well to almost reach running round from long-on but failed to get a hand on as it dropped over the rope.But when Mlaba returned in the 11th over, there was no mistaking her dismissal of Sciver, bowled by one that deceived her through the air and clattered into the base of the stumps. When Tryon bowled Wyatt for 30 with another full delivery next ball, England were 86 for 4 and South Africa were regaining a measure of control.Ecclestone cuts looseEngland steadied through Amy Jones’ 28 off 18 balls but after she holed out to Brits at deep square leg off Klaas in the 18th over, Ecclestone picked a four off Khaka through wide long-on in the next as a precursor to what was to come.Ecclestone proceeded to smash 26 off the final over of the innings, bowled by Klaas, beginning with back-to-back fours before sending the fourth ball over the rope at deep midwicket. She then punched the next ball through the covers for four before sending the last ball a long way over the fence beyond the rope at deep backward square.Nonkululenko Mlaba struck twice in her first seven balls•Getty Images

Commonwealth Games ahoyWith women’s cricket set to make a Commonwealth Games debut later this week, both sides will have been looking for takeaways to Birmingham. For England in this series it’s no doubt been getting an encouraging look at their newcomers. Then there was Katherine Brunt, taking a career-best 4 for 15 at the age of 37 in the opening match at Chelmsford to prove she’s well and truly up for the tournament and Ecclestone showing off her ever-present class.England’s experimentation in the batting order has paid off, particularly in the absence of captain Heather Knight, missing with a hip injury for the last two games. Their depth was impressive too on Monday night, not least from Ecclestone at the death.For South Africa it has been a different story after struggling to get going since the Test, then losing Lizelle Lee to a shock retirement, then Kapp and most recently Ismail, who went wicketless in the first two games. Tryon, standing in for unwell captain Sune Luus, successfully mixed up her bowling to have England in trouble early.Brits – who only joined the squad with Kapp’s departure and earned a call-up to the team when Luus fell ill – was excellent in scoring at better than a run-a-ball. But South Africa still look to be a long way short of where their semi-final appearance at the ODI World Cup suggested they might be by now.

Lancashire batsman Haseeb Hameed will become the youngest debutant to open for England in Test cricket, in the first match against India in Rajkot

George Dobell in Rajkot08-Nov-20160:45

Quick Facts – Haseeb Hameed

Lancashire batsman Haseeb Hameed will become the youngest debutant to open for England in Test cricket, in the first match against India in Rajkot.Hameed, aged 19 and 297 days by the time the game starts, will become England’s fifth-youngest Test debutant, and Alastair Cook’s tenth opening partner since the 2012.Ben Duckett, who opened the batting in Bangladesh and made a sparky half-century in his final innings of the series, will move down to No. 4 to accommodate Hameed. Gary Ballance, who scored just 24 runs in four innings in Bangladesh, was dropped from the XI for Rajkot.Hameed enjoyed a breakthrough season in the 2016 Championship campaign. Opening the batting for Lancashire, he scored almost 1200 runs at an average of 49.91. The four centuries he scored included two in a match against a strong Yorkshire attack. As a right-hander, he will also correct a slight imbalance in an England top order that, in Bangladesh, saw five left-handers in their top six.While he was born in Bolton, Hameed has a strong affiliation with India and Gujarat in particular. His parents – who will be at the game – were born here and his brother was married here in recent days. He names Sachin Tendulkar, who he met as a seven-year-old, and Virat Kohli among his heroes and, in 2010, he travelled to Mumbai to learn to bat on the city’s maidans that have been the breeding ground of many fine cricketers.”Haseeb has impressed everyone so far on this trip,” Cook said. “You wonder if a 19-year-old, coming on tour, will be overawed but he hasn’t been at all. He has looked really good in the nets and the way he has gone about his business. It’s obviously a very special day to pick someone so young.”He is incredibly unflappable. He looks a very good player of spin. He picks length well and uses the crease well. Stuart Broad bowled at him last summer and was almost straight on the phone to me saying how impressed he was with this guy.”He is one of those natural run-scorers. All through his age group, whatever team and whatever standard, he has scored runs. It’s probably a year earlier than he would have thought. But to average 50-odd as an opener in Division One as a 19-year-old is an incredible feat. I was nowhere near the player he is at 19.”Of course there will be some tough moments for him over the next few of playing Test cricket, but I think this guy can play.”While Cook admitted it was “not ideal” to move Duckett down the order after two Tests, he did not foresee any negative impact. “He’s a pretty unflappable character,” Cook said. “Historically he has played all his cricket in the middle order until the last year. He’s comfortable batting anywhere.”Hameed’s selection means no place for Jos Buttler, who has only played one first-class match since he was dropped a year ago, or Ballance, who has averaged only 19.90 in the six Tests since he was recalled in July and failed to reach 30 in his last seven innings.”It was a tough decision,” Cook said. “Jos has played some really good one-day cricket on this tour and his batting looks in really good shape in the nets. But he hasn’t played that much first-class cricket. Gary hasn’t scored the runs he would have liked.”Cook also played down talk about his imminent retirement as captain, after being quoted by the magazine as saying: “I don’t know how much longer I am going to carry on. It could be two months, it could be a year.”But talking ahead of the Test, Cook reiterated his oft-stated view that he will take the role “series by series”.”It’s a mountain out of a mole hill,” he said. “It’s been blown out of proportion. Since the World Cup, I have been very open and we have taken it series by series. It could be two months, six months or two years.”The Rajkot game will represent the 55th time Cook has captained England at Test level, surpassing the previous record of 54 times by Michael Atherton.

Chris Woakes and Keith Barker made centuries as Warwickshire recovered from 17 for 4 to post 372 for 9 after choosing to bat

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge15-May-2016
ScorecardChris Woakes once again proved his worth with the bat (file photo)•Getty Images

The hamstring injury to Ian Bell meant that, for the first time, captaining Warwickshire rested on the shoulders on Chris Woakes, who may have felt it was weighing pretty heavily as he made his way out to the middle at 60 for 5. His decision not to bowl first on a mottled pitch came as a surprise to some, possibly including the Nottinghamshire captain.The word from the home camp was that Chris Read would “probably” have chosen to bowl had the coin fallen in his favour but Woakes had his wish. If he might have been wondering where to look as wickets tumbled during the morning session, the first four with only 17 runs scored, he was happy to engage with anyone in the shadows of the evening as Warwickshire recovered to claim four batting points.”It’s a tricky one on the first day when the pitch is a little bit green but the sun’s out,” Woakes said. “After an hour maybe it looked like a bad decision but sitting here at 370 for 9 we would have taken that.”I did feel a bit of responsibility to make some runs myself, although probably no more so than usual. And though it’s my decision to bat, it is a collective thing, with Belly having an input as well, and the management of course.”His own contribution was 121, which must certainly have reinforced his perception that bat first was the appropriate tactic. It was his first century in a first-class match since March 2014 when, as it happens, he was captaining England Lions against Sri Lanka A in Colombo. Here is a man, it seems, who thrives on responsibility.His stand for the eighth wicket with the perpetually underrated Keith Barker turned the day around. Barker, who bowled superbly against Somerset at Edgbaston last week, albeit on a pitch subsequently deemed suspect, batted with style and aplomb on this occasion, recording his sixth first-class hundred after a partnership with Woakes that added 167.Yet Nottinghamshire will argue quite reasonably that it should never have happened and chastise themselves for allowing it to, having dropped Woakes twice when they were well on top.The first was a difficult chance, to Michael Lumb at third slip when he was on 19, the second much more straightforward to Steven Mullaney at second slip when he had reached 29. At 117 for 7 or 129 for 7, would Warwickshire have found a way back? Perhaps, but after Rikki Clarke’s dismissal, paying the price with a catch at long-off for a disdainful swing in the day’s first over of spin, Barker would have had to make most of it with only Jeetan Patel and Chris Wright to come.Brett Hutton was the bowler left cursing on both occasions, his frustration all the more keenly felt for the fact he had just taken an absolute blinder himself to inflict what had looked like a critical wound, diving to his right at third slip as Jonathan Trott edged a ball from Jackson Bird, throwing out one hand to pluck it out of the air when it seemed to have gone past the cordon and was heading for the boundary.Trott, serenely authoritative, had made 68 as others feebly succumbed. He had just survived an appeal for leg-before by Bird, the ball striking him a painful blow on the inside of his right thigh, but otherwise had been untroubled. It seemed like a decisive moment.Indeed, at that moment it appeared the story of the day would be about a triumphant return to Trent Bridge for Luke Fletcher, the crowd favourite, affectionately nicknamed the “Bulwell Bomber”, the local lad, big of build and even bigger of heart but slipping down the pecking order among the young tyros emerging from the Nottinghamshire academy.He had been shipped off to Derbyshire, in Division Two, on loan, but brought back after Jake Ball’s call to Test duty left Nottinghamshire a little short. His figures down the road had been modest, to say the least, amounting to four wickets in four matches at 69 runs each. Yet here he was, back and relishing every moment, bowling straight and full, swinging it late. He bowled 11 overs off the reel, six of them maidens, and had 3 for 6 when he took his sweater and his appreciative fan club warmly applauded.Fletcher would not have played, as it happens, but for Luke Wood, one of the aforementioned tyros, having a bad back, which made the story even more appealing.By the close, though, he was 3 for 70, which was not so much fun. Even with the second new ball he was unable to summon his earlier powers as Barker, his eye well in, making good use of the short boundary on the Bridgford Road side (the Smith Cooper Stand, to acknowledge the sponsors), began to take liberties, hitting him for four boundaries in the same over.”It was good to be back,” Fletcher said “I enjoyed having the Radcliffe Road getting behind me. It was like old times. There is a lot of competition here now, which is good for the club, but I feel I’ve kind of taken my chance today and hopefully I can play the rest of my cricket here this season.”Woakes reached his hundred off 156 balls with 15 fours, Barker his off 113, completing it with a nonchalant pick up for six off Hutton to go with 14 boundaries. Bird, the best on a day in the end of not particularly distinguished Nottinghamshire bowling, eventually found a thin edge to dismiss Woakes before Barker helped one round the corner to give his wicket to Harry Gurney.

Australia’s batsmen will be tested by New Zealand’s bowlers and will have to successfully negotiate any swing on offer if they are to spoil Brendon McCullum’s farewell party

The Preview by Daniel Brettig11-Feb-2016

Match facts

February 12-16, 2016
Start time 10.30 local (21.30 GMT)6:37

Coverdale: Moving ball Australia’s problem for years

Big Picture

More than five years after their last cricket contact outside of ICC events, Australia and New Zealand resumed Test combat late last year. If a slow start by the tourists is discounted due to their ordinary preparation – including the Blacktown abandonment – then it was a keenly fought contest, curtailed somewhat by a dead pitch in Perth but enlivened under the lights of Adelaide Oval. That match arguably turned on one contentious umpiring decision in favour of Nathan Lyon, meaning Australia’s 2-0 margin was nowhere near as comfortable as it appeared.Now the tables are somewhat turned. New Zealand are at home, with the benefit of local knowledge. Australia are out of their comfort zone, and with a weakened bowling attack. There is also the considerable sub plot of Brendon McCullum’s final series and his 100th Test (in Wellington, he is set to become the first player to play 100 Tests in a row), and all of New Zealand will be baying for the most fitting possible farewell – a first series victory over Australia since 1986. By way of assistance to the hosts, the Basin Reserve pitch has plenty of grassy coverage, and in Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Doug Bracewell, New Zealand have a bowling attack capable of exploiting it. They will hope that some of the recent ODI form lines – notably the free-spirited batting of Martin Guptill – flow into the Tests.For Steven Smith’s side there is the lure of picking up the No. 1 Test ranking with a series victory, not at any sort of World Championship but before the “annual cut-off” currently deemed prestigious enough for the game. But more broadly Smith, the coach Darren Lehmann, the selectors and the players will all have atonement for last year’s Ashes misadventures on their minds. Unable to choose Mitchell Starc, they have opted for a seam-bowling attack that would not have looked out of place at Trent Bridge, but it is the batting order that needs to stand up. Oodles of runs on the roads of Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Melbourne will have little relevance here, but the improved display at The Oval after the Ashes were gone just might. Helpful memories, of course, are all the Australians have – zero practice matches have left them unsure of where they stand.

Form guide

New Zealand: WWLDL (last five completed matches, most recent first)


Australia: DWWWD

In the spotlight

Not quite at his best during the Australia tour, Trent Boult has regained much of his rhythm and swing in the intervening weeks, and was a consistent threat during the ODIs. Alongside Southee, Bracwell and Corey Anderson he should expect more sustained movement through the air and off the pitch, more akin to Adelaide’s pink-ball environment than those of Brisbane or Perth. The New Zealand bowling attack has been widely lauded as the nation’s most capable since the days of Sir Richard Hadlee, and it will take a strong performance from Boult to help deliver the sort of series wins of which Hadlee was a major part.There were few superlatives left for Usman Khawaja by the end of the home summer. A stack of centuries and other scores nearly as significant left most to conclude he was batting better than anyone else in the world right now, and his uncertain limited-overs place was a source of some disquiet. But there was one thing missing from Khawaja’s summer, and also his international career. With the exception of an outlier display at the Wanderers in 2011, Khawaja is yet to show himself an adept player on seaming pitches. Since that time he has moved to Queensland, and some of his Gabba experiences will help. Proving himself in New Zealand climes will go a long way towards securing the series for Australia.

Team news

Henry Nicholls debuts at No. 4 in place of the unfit Ross Taylor, while Corey Anderson and Mark Craig are in for Mitchell Santner (foot injury) and Neil Wagner (left out).New Zealand 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Henry Nicholls, 5 Brendon McCullum (capt), 6 Corey Anderson, 7 BJ Watling (wk), 8 Doug Bracewell, 9 Mark Craig, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Trent BoultJackson Bird was chosen ahead of James Pattinson as the third seamer, while Peter Siddle resumes, having missed the Sydney Test against West Indies.Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Joe Burns, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Adam Voges, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Peter Nevill (wk), 8 Peter Siddle, 9 Josh Hazlewood, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Jackson Bird

Pitch and conditions

The Basin Reserve pitch was verdant green two days out from the match, and even if its colour may not denote as much seam movement as it appears, the ball will be kept in good condition by the surface and should swing.

Stats and trivia

• Australia’s last Test series in New Zealand in 2010 resulted in a 2-0 series win for the visitors, including the first Test at Basin Reserve
• Steven Smith, then uncapped, is the only member of that touring squad to be in the team this time around
• Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum and Tim Southee are the remaining New Zealand players
• Australia will attain the world No. 1 Test ranking with a series win

Quotes

“I’m looking forward to finishing these next two Test matches. It’s going to be a great series, two very evenly matched teams I think, and what better way to go out?”
“We haven’t been good enough with the bat on wickets that have been doing a bit in the last year or so. The wicket here looks like it might do a bit so we’ve got a bit to prove and we’ve got to adapt accordingly, a lot better than we have in recent times.”

Despite Corbin Bosch’s best efforts, South Africa fell short of the 350-run target by 17 runs

Sidharth Monga30-Nov-20254:46

Takeaways – Kohli in comfort zone; Jansen, Kuldeep and Rana sparkle

Virat Kohli added to his world record of most ODI hundreds, Rohit Sharma brought up the world record for most ODI sixes, and a Sunday full house on a pleasant evening in Ranchi enjoyed watching India beat South Africa in a close first ODI of the three-match series. Kohli and Rohit turned back the clock in a 136-run partnership, Kohli went on long enough to hit seven sixes, and the fast bowlers inflicted just enough damage before the pitch eased out in the dew under the lights.The toss disadvantage that India had to overcome – having lost a 19th consecutive one in ODIs – was huge. During the afternoon, the old ball proved to be difficult to hit, resulting in a slowdown after the start Kohli and Rohit gave India. In the night, the pitch became dramatically easier to bat on.Related

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• Kohli: 'If I'm arriving somewhere I'll arrive at 120%'

In the end, India needed every last bit of that start of 161 in 21.2 overs and the two wickets in the first over that Harshit Rana bowled with the new ball. Even after being 11 for 3, this is how South Africa’s next three partnerships went: 66 in 10.2 overs, 60 in 6.4 and 97 in 11.1. Marco Jansen and Matthew Breetzke scored 70s, Dewald Brevis and Tony de Zorzi 30s, and the target came down to 123 from 17 overs when Kuldeep Yadav got the wickets of Jansen and Bretzkee in the same over to ease India’s breath.South Africa still refused to go away with Corbin Bosch’s 67 bringing them to needing 19 off 10, but with only the last man for company, Borch found himself handcuffed against Arshdeep Singh’s yorkers. It was especially heartbreaking for Bosch after he had bowled overs 46, 48 and 50 for just 21 runs to keep India down to 349.This ODI followed the grammar of ODI cricket in recent years in India. The new ball does nothing in the afternoon, but you can cleverly offset it with the pitch’s slowness when the balls go soft. Under lights there is a small window of movement with the new ball, which you need to maximise, because once the dew sets in, batting gets easier on every count.Kuldeep Yadav celebrates after getting rid of Tony de Zorzi•BCCI

Kohli and Rohit respected the need to maximise the new ball themselves when the early wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal brought them together. For the first time when batting first in his career, Kohli hit two sixes in the first 10 overs, both off-drives that not long ago he might have kept down. Rohit, who is generally used to quicker starts, hit successive slog-swept sixes off offspinner Pernemal Subrayen to catch up with Kohli in no time.Rohit’s third six, a pull off Jansen moments after bringing up his fifty, took him past Shahid Afridi’s world-record tally of 351. It was also India’s eighth, the most they have hit in the first 20 overs of an innings. The next short ball from Jansen stayed low, trapping Rohit in front.Kohli, now 72 off 61, five sixes to his name, was deprived of strike as the next two batters struggled to come to terms with the slowness of the pitch. Ruturaj Gaikwad scored 8 off 14, Washington Sundar 13 off 19, and they also dominated the strike. Kohli had to grit his teeth and get through this period. He kept picking up singles with ease, but the period from Rohit’s dismissal to Kohli’s hundred brought India just 72 runs in 16.3 overs.When he brought up the hundred, Kohli broke into an emotional celebration. This was his first hundred since February; while he plays only one format, there is scrutiny around his and Rohit’s future. And now, Kohli went into a renewed assault, hitting two more sixes and scoring 35 off the next 17 balls. KL Rahul, who fought through the initial period, took India’s six tally to 16 and the score to 349.Rana immediately showed why the selectors and the team management show so much faith in him. In the second over of the innings, he swung the ball both ways and also found seam both ways to take the wickets of Ryan Rickelton and Quinton de Kock for ducks. Rickelton lost the top of middle with the ball swinging away and nipping back. Away swing and away seam were enough to take de Kock’s outside edge. Aiden Markram, captaining in the absence of the resting Temba Bavuma, looked to manufacture a cut off Arshdeep at the start of the fifth over but edged through to Rahul.Marco Jansen struck several meaty blows•Associated Press

By now the ball had stopped moving, the pitch had begun to skid, and the outfield had become moist only to become damp pretty soon. Everything played into the batters’ hands, leaving you wondering what a massacre it would have been but for those three early wickets.Kuldeep got de Zorzi lbw for 39 off 35, clever bowling from Rana contained a marauding Brevis for 39 off 28, and still Jansen and Breetzke proceeded to give India a right scare. After de Zorzi’s dismissal, Breetzke took upon the role of taking singles and watching the damage other batters did. What damage Jansen did in his 39-ball 70, the fastest fifty by a South Africa batter in India and the second-fastest against India.The dew got so heavy India had to forget about spinners for a while. Washington bowled only three overs. It was after having run through the fast bowlers that Rahul went back to Kuldeep, who, as wristspinners can sometimes do, drew the toe end from Jansen on a long hop. In the same over, Breetzke holed out to long-on, perhaps having got too close to the pitch of the ball.Incredibly, South Africa still refused to go away. Bosch kept South Africa interested with his maiden fifty, but never had the support left to pull off this heist. Arshdeep’s wicket-maiden in the 47th over seemed to have sealed the game, but Bosch still kept gasping. In the end, it probably came down to the two full tosses he missed from Prasidh Krishna in the 46th over.

Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer made sure the job was done, in quick time, with the bat

Deivarayan Muthu21-May-20241:34

Aaron: ‘KKR bowled in great partnerships throughout the innings’

Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma are used to going bang, bang and pretty much killing off games in the first six overs at IPL 2024. But in the first qualifier in Ahmedabad, it was Mitchell Starc who went bang, bang, bang in the powerplay to secure Kolkata Knight Riders’ spot in the IPL final on Sunday in Chennai.After Starc scythed through SRH’s top order in an opening spell of 3-0-22-3, Varun Chakravarthy took over in the middle overs to help dismiss SRH for 159 in 19.3 overs.Related

• Starc bowls Head to win bragging rights

In reply, Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer made unbeaten half-centuries as KKR ran down the target with more than six overs to spare.Sunrisers Hyderabad will face the winner of the Eliminator between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, for a shot at a rematch with KKR in the final.

Swingin’ Starc

Starc’s first ball to Head was an outswinger that was squeezed to extra cover. His second threatened to angle in, but swung and seamed away late to breach the defences of Head and leave his stumps splayed.Travis Head had his stumps cleaned up second ball, bagging his second duck in a row•Associated Press

Head was gone for a duck. This was the fifth time that Starc had taken out Head across formats – four of those wickets ducks.In the second over, pacer Vaibhav Arora, who was picked ahead of spinner Anukul Roy on a surface that was a mix of red and black soil and had some early moisture, had Abhishek Sharma scooping a catch to Andre Russell at short cover for 3.SRH plunged into further trouble when Starc snagged Nitish Kumar Reddy (9) and Shahbaz Ahmed (0) off successive balls in his third over. Starc could have also dismissed Rahul Tripathi in his second over when he speared in a yorker that struck him flush on his boot and would have cannoned into leg stump. But KKR decided against a review and SRH went on to finish the powerplay on 45 for 4. Only twice in 14 innings have SRH scored fewer runs in the powerplay in IPL 2024.

Tripathi counters KKR

Tripathi, who kept his place at No. 3, repaired SRH’s innings with a half-century. He combined power with invention to manufacture scoring opportunities. He whacked Arora over midwicket and ramped a bouncer from Harshit Rana for six. He reached his fifty off 29 balls when he reverse-swept Varun for four.Rahul Tripathi hit a fifty off 29 balls•Associated Press

Tripathi, however, could not press on as Russell capitalised on a mix-up to run him out for 55 off 35 balls. Tripathi was so distraught that he sat on the stairs in Ahmedabad, with his head buried in his knee, for a long time. That image of Tripathi summed up SRH’s night.

Varun’s variations

Heinrich Klaasen had taken Sunil Narine for 16 off eight balls, but KKR’s other mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarthy, struck in his first over to cut Klaasen’s innings short on 32 off 21 balls. Varun darted one into the pitch and didn’t allow Klaasen underneath the length as he dragged a catch to deep midwicket. He then pinned Bhuvneshwar Kumar lbw with a wrong ‘un in the 16th over that cost KKR just one run. It was Varun’s 40th wicket in 27 IPL innings since the 2023 season started. No other spinner has more wickets than Varun during this period.At 126 for 9 in 16 overs, SRH were in danger of being bundled out for a sub-140 total, but Cummins’ 30 off 24 balls hauled them to a more respectable 159.Varun Chakravarthy finished with 2 for 26 off his four overs•Associated Press

KKR ace the chase

After doing a good job behind the stumps, Rahmanullah Gurbaz eased himself in with the bat in what was his first outing this season.Phil Salt had left the IPL to link up with the England side, and Gurbaz slotted into his role and picked off 23 off 14 balls. He hit four boundaries and when he aimed for a fifth, T Natarajan had him holing out in his first over.Three overs later, Cummins bounced out Narine for 21 off 16 balls, but KKR’s openers had already done enough damage in the powerplay by slashing 63 runs off their target.The Iyers – captain Shreyas and Venkatesh – then struck up an unbroken 97 partnership for the third wicket off only 44 balls to turn their chase into a cruise. Along the way, both batters posted half-centuries and it was Shreyas who finished it off in grand style in the 14th over, with a sequence of 6, 4, 6, 6 off Head.

Six Pakistan players were in action for their counties this week. Here’s how they got on

Osman Samiuddin18-Apr-2022The second round of the 2022 County Championship concluded on Sunday, with another strong showing from the Pakistan representatives. Here we take a look at how they got on.

Division One

Mohammad Abbas

As good as Hampshire looked in the first round against Somerset, so they looked ordinary in the second; an innings win followed by an innings defeat. Mohammad Abbas took six cheap wickets in that win; he took zero in this defeat. He was still very Abbas though, tidy as ever (economy rate of 2.16) and forever probing around those areas batters feel least comfortable with. There were chances, one edge falling short of slip – an Abbas leitmotif – and another that went through second slip’s hand, but no tangible reward.Hasan Ali

If anyone of Pakistan’s vast contingent in county cricket needs a bit of a reset and a refresh, it is Hasan Ali. For most of 2021, he was second only to Shaheen Afridi as Pakistan’s best bowler. But since the T20 World Cup – and admittedly mostly in white-ball cricket – he has seemed out of sorts. An injury picked up in the PSL, allied to a range of flat pitches, meant he was quiet in the Tests against Australia and immediately questions began to surface about his position in the side. Hasan has always been a bowler of streaks: irresistible when he’s on a good one, ordinary when he’s on a bad one. Match figures of 5 for 94 in a 10-wicket thumping of Kent is a good sign for the county, and a better sign for his country. Most pleasing will be reports that his in-dipper was in good working order: he is a different bowler when he’s getting the ball to move about. The bonus is that he may come out of it having learnt something from the maestro himself, Jimmy Anderson. He’s keen to, not least the wobble-seam (a nice full circle that one, given Anderson picked it up watching Mohammad Asif in 2010).Haris Rauf

Of all Pakistani hook-ups with county cricket, none is more intriguing than Haris Rauf at Yorkshire, and that’s not even considering the off-field significance of a Pakistani Muslim player at Headingley. Rauf is due to play six first-class games, which means that if he plays them all, he will have played more first-class games this season for Yorkshire than in his entire career before arriving here. And though he was part of Pakistan’s Test squad against Australia, this is really the first time he’s going to be seen as a long-form bowler. First impressions? It’s going to be a ride. He was quick through the game on a slow surface in Bristol – the quickest in the game, hitting James Bracey twice with bouncers. He was expensive too, going at over five an over in the first innings and 3.55 in the second. Three wickets in each innings played a part in a six-wicket win, but he was also box-office viewing. On the first day, as Rauf’s radar struggled against Gloucestershire’s left-handers, he also bowled one over in which there were two dropped catches off successive balls and two wickets off successive balls. A sign of his freshness in this format: he bowled 27 overs in the second innings, the most he has ever bowled in a first-class innings and only the second time he’s bowled more than 20.Zafar Gohar

Zafar Gohar’s game began by getting stumped for a duck in the first innings, jumping out to Dom Bess, and ended by going at over six an over as Yorkshire chased 211 to win. In the middle, though, the least high-profile of Pakistan’s contingent did what he so often does: contribute. He was the most economical of Gloucestershire’s attack in the first innings, before partnering with Bracey in the second and putting on 104 for the sixth wicket. That helped Gloucestershire set Yorkshire a decent – but not, alas, impregnable – target.

Division Two

Shan Masood
Shan Masood is the leading first-class run-getter in England after two rounds of the County Championship: now there’s a thing. Masood added to an encouraging start at Derbyshire with the first double-hundred of his career against Sussex. It was against a weakened attack – Steven Finn apart, the rest of the frontline bowlers (two pacers and a left-arm spinner) had played 23 first-class games between them before this one, with a combined age of 57. But first-class runs are first-class runs and tellingly, for what it says about Masood’s recent form, they came at a good clip: at lunch, he was 74 off 88 and at close he was unbeaten on 201, still striking at over 74. He remains in Pakistan’s Test plans but the more runs he scores here, the more likely that he will, before the year is out, be back in Pakistan’s Test XI.Mohammad Rizwan

Serious question: is there a better cricketer in the world right now than Mohammad Rizwan? Probably, but not that many and not by much. Which is why Sussex will be one of the better-followed teams (outside of England) this season. In acquiring both Rizwan and Cheteshwar Pujara, they’ve pulled off somewhat of a coup. There’ll be plenty of focus on an Indian and Pakistani in the same side county side, a bit of a throwback to the 70s county circuit when Bishen Bedi and Mushtaq Mohammad turned out for Northants together. Rizwan was unspectacular on debut, 22 and four catches – Pujara, meanwhile, ground out a match-saving double-hundred – but it’s inconceivable that he won’t have greater impact as the season continues.

And the non-combatants …

Naseem Shah sat out this round of games, with Gloucestershire saying they were managing a “minor shoulder injury”. Azhar Ali will next be in action at home to Sussex on Thursday, with Worcestershire not in action this week. And Shaheen Shah Afridi is likely to make his Middlesex debut in the same round of games, when they take on Glamorgan in Cardiff.

Coach backs legspinner Hasaranga to give Bangladesh tough time in fourth innings

Andrew Fidel Fernando24-Apr-2021Sri Lanka are still 29 runs behind Bangladesh’s first-innings total, but they think – or rather they hope – that they can still win the first Test, with one day left to play.The Pallekele surface continued to be abominably flat through large parts of day four, which Dimuth Karunaratne and Dhananjaya de Silva batted out without losing a wicket. The hosts have seven wickets in hand, though, so will likely aim to quickly establish a lead on the fifth morning before trying to skittle the opposition out.”We’re certainly thinking about winning,” said head coach Mickey Arthur after stumps on day four. “That’s how we want to play our cricket. That’s such an important culture to inculcate in a dressing room. We’re not here to make up the numbers.”I said to the guys in the West Indies [during their previous Test series] that, first of all, we want to be a team that’s hard to beat before we become a winning team, because that’s kind of the cycle. I think we are a team that’s hard to beat. We played some hard-nosed cricket in the West Indies on some very flat surfaces. We’ll show some intent tomorrow and who knows where the day goes? It is very flat, but pressure’s a funny thing. If we get ourselves enough in front and leave ourselves enough overs, who knows what could happen?”Related

• 'If our batters average 40, with our attack, we'll have enough to bowl sides out'

• Double-centurion Karunaratne and de Silva bat through wicketless day

• Lahiru Kumara ruled out of Bangladesh Tests due to hamstring injury

Sri Lanka’s attack is short-staffed for their second-innings victory push, though. Seamer Lahiru Kumara has picked up a hamstring strain and is out of the series. And they have played only one specialist spinner in legspinner Wanindu Hasaranga. Playing only his fifth Test, Hasaranga has so far seemed much more suited to limited-overs bowling, than a serious wicket-taker in red-ball cricket.”There will be a burst from the fast bowlers with the new ball, but if we’re going to get close tomorrow, it’s going to be Wanindu Hasaranga that’s going to get us close,” Arthur said. “I don’t want to put too much pressure, I just think he’s such a fantastic player.”Arthur did concede, though, that Sri Lanka’s plan to defeat Bangladesh on a green, seaming surface had perhaps been ill-conceived, as those kinds of surfaces are rarely seen on the island. Sri Lanka had expected much more help for the quicks on the first two days than has been evident from this pitch.”Maybe it was a little bit naive of me in terms of strategy – this is my first Test in Pallekele – in understanding the surface. We wanted to beat Bangladesh with a bit of pace and bounce, but it’s just been extremely flat. We’re going to have to reassess that. We’re going to have to look at how we go for that second Test. We’ll have a discussion about that Test tomorrow, we’ll let this Test happen first.”

Financial pressures may persuade clubs to resume action taken at start of season

George Dobell27-Sep-2020Staff at several first-class counties are expected to be put back on furlough at the end of this week.ESPNcricinfo understands that several of those counties not involved in the knock-out stages of the T20 Blast will put a proportion of their staff – including players – back on furlough in October. This could include the Essex and Somerset teams which have been contesting the Bob Willis Trophy final at Lord’s in recent days.The government’s furlough scheme was set up to counter the financial challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. It has seen the government take responsibility for paying employees, allowing businesses to survive without laying off staff. The scheme ends at the end of October.All but Lancashire and Surrey put their players on furlough at the start of the summer when it became apparent that the season would be delayed. While some counties topped up the government’s furlough amount – which was originally capped at around £2500 a month – others did not. Current legislation means the government will be expected to pay 70 percent of employees’ monthly salary up to a maximum of £2,187, with the employer required to top up another 10 percent.Other county employees, including groundstaff and administration teams, are also expected to be put back on furlough at several clubs.Teams involved in the knock-out stages of the T20 Blast will have to wait to make a claim. The quarter-finals are due to be played on October 1 with Finals Day on October 3.It is understood the players at counties due to be furloughed have not yet been notified of the intention.