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Ishant and Mishra took three wickets each and Pant cracked an unbeaten 53 as Royals paid for a meek batting performance

The Report by Peter Della Penna04-May-20198:38

Agarkar: Royals have a good squad but never found balance

Ajinkya Rahane’s decision to bat at the toss backfired as Rajasthan Royals failed to recover from Ishant Sharma’s triple-strike in the Powerplay and were eliminated from IPL 2019. Delhi Capitals had a chance to finish top of the table if they’d chased 116 in 10 overs and though they couldn’t do that, the five-wicket win still gives them a chance to finish in the top two, provided Kolkata Knight Riders beat Mumbai Indians in the final match of the league stage on Sunday.He Shant be kept down for longThe 30-year-old fast bowler had been having a very lean campaign, fetching just three wickets in his last seven outings for the Capitals and had sat out their last match against Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday. But after the 80-run thrashing meted out by MS Dhoni’s men, Ishant was recalled and produced his best figures of the season: 3 for 38.He struck the first blow, dismissing Rahane as the batsman picked out one of only two fielders allowed in the deep during the Powerplay. Later, Ishant flummoxed Liam Livingstone with a fabulous offcutter and bowled him for 14.Sanju Samson was run-out following a big mix-up with Mahipal Lomror and Ishant made sure to send the survivor of that partnership back as well, leaving Royals 30 for 4 at the end of six overs.Mishra’s fourth time unluckyComing into the day, Amit Mishra had three IPL hat-tricks to his name and very easily could have had a fourth. On the second ball of the 12th over, Shreyas Gopal charged the legspinner who responded by dragging the length back and adjusting his line well wide of off stump, leaving the batsman flailing and stumped. Stuart Binny then played well away from his body edging a top-spinner behind for a golden duck. And K Gowtham, facing up to the hat-trick ball, played a bizarre slog tha went straight up.Rishabh Pant goes for the big one•BCCI

No mid-off was in place, forcing Trent Boult to run across from mid-on for the chance. But even though he covered the ground in time, the usually sure-handed New Zealander grassed it, his last-second, full-length dive to the right proving of little useIt didn’t matter much in the end as Mishra claimed Gowtham in his following over and Royals were suddenly 65 for 7. Riyan Parag ground through the rest of the innings, showing maturity beyond his years to become the youngest IPL half-centurion maker at age 17. Still, the total of 115 was severely under-par.Far from So-soPlaying just his second match of the season for Royals, legspinner Ish Sodhi nearly inspired a thrilling fightback. Brought on in the fourth over, he struck on his first two balls as part of a double-wicket maiden.Shikhar was beaten in flight as he charged out of his crease and the miscue was taken quite smartly by Riyan running back from mid-on. The non-striker Prithvi Shaw had crossed with the ball in the air and promptly dragged the next ball onto his stumps to put Sodhi on a hat-trick.Everything’s PantasticAfter seven consecutive dot balls by Sodhi, Shreyas Iyer wrestled the momentum back with two glorious straight drives for six. But it was Rishabh Pant who finished the game off.Perhaps his finest shot came in the 15th over when he stepped inside the line to flick Varun Aaron over fine leg for six. With scores level, he belted Sodhi’s first ball of the 17th over cow corner for his fifth six to bring up a 38-ball fifty, clinch victory and eliminate the opposition.

A wicket from the second ball of the day hints at trouble but Dean Elgar impresses as Surrey reach 244 for 6

Richard Hobson at The Oval07-Jul-2019The walls alongside the staircase inside the Oval pavilion are decorated with framed photographs of Surrey’s capped players. There, side-by-side a few yards from the Prince of Wales room on the second floor, hang pictures of two batsmen honoured in 2014, both with hair flicked back, both moustachioed, both now England players. And soon, perhaps, Test match opening partners.Barring injury, Rory Burns must be a certainty to face Ireland later this month and Australia at the start of August. Jason Roy may well be there with him. Trevor Bayliss has confirmed that the selectors are thinking of rewarding his white-ball brilliance, saying: “Whether it’s at the top of the order or number three, there’s no secret in Test cricket we’ve been looking for a solid combination.”Not long after the story broke, Burns was demonstrating his own value in some of the most challenging conditions for batting. Grey above, green below, the ball seaming and wobbling maliciously. A situation demanding judgement, saintly patience and soft hands. Roy can utilise a Powerplay, but how will he cope if it is like this at Edgbaston come day one of the Ashes, August 1?Bayliss and national selector Ed Smith might reflect on the judgement of Michael di Venuto, the Surrey head coach, who thinks they would be mistaken to use Roy in that role when he bats in the lower middle order for the county. Roy would have liked capitalising on the foundation given by Burns and Dean Elgar here. But he might have struggled to lay it.The scorecard tells only a partial story. Burns and Elgar were superb in the 70 minutes before lunch. When play began at noon the outlook had 150 or so all out written all over. Darren Stevens and Harry Podmore must have licked their lips in anticipation of edged catches and balls nipping back onto pads. Spinner Ollie Rayner might have wondered if he’d get a bowl.Kent did not operate badly at all, but they missed opportunities in the field. By the time they did have Surrey three down conditions had eased greatly. Sam Curran and Ben Foakes profited; they should have stood Burns and Elgar rounds at the bar once bad light brought an absorbing day to a premature end some ten overs ahead of schedule.Nothing quite matched the drama of the first two balls. Burns edged the first, from Podmore, to first slip where Sean Dickson dropped the catch. Cheekily, Surrey took the run. But Mark Stoneman opted not to play the next delivery which swung late into his pads and resulted in a leg-before decision. The idea that only five more wickets would fall in the next six hours seemed preposterous.Both Stevens and Podmore, then Matt Milnes, maintained full lengths to give the ball every chance of deviating. Cuts and pulls were conspicuous by their absence. Podmore overstepped when he thought he had Elgar lbw on 8, and it was not until the 14th over that Surrey hit a first four, Burns forcing Grant Stewart through extra cover.Stewart was to prove relatively expensive, but at least he was encouraging the drive. And although Elgar, in a new position at No. 3, forced clinically through mid-on, boundaries were few and far between across the truncated first session. With the sun emerging during the break it started to feel like a different game, as though Surrey had qualified for round two of a series.Easier, but never actually easy. Stewart was increasingly impressive, quick and powerful with a low arm, and he undid Burns with a brute of a ball that bounced and went across the left-hander to the keeper. An inswinger from Podmore did for Scott Borthwick, but Dickson dropped a second chance when Elgar edged Stevens on 51.Instead, it was Stewart who removed the South African, the ball perhaps keeping a touch low from a length that always leaves unresolved the question of whether to go forward or back. Elgar’s 63 in 206 minutes was worth three figures on another occasion, and for the next hour or so Curran was able to play strokes that would have brought a very quick demise had he tried them earlier.Throwing his hands at the ball, he struck his first and third balls to the cover point boundary and soon forced Rayner straight for six. His battle with the spinner was closely contested, another six following while Rayner also turned one sharply past the bat. Adventure finally got the better of Curran when he top-edged an attempt to pull Milnes.Foakes offered steady support, restraining some of his own strokeplay before completing a half-century from 115 balls. In the previous home game, against Warwickshire, he twice gifted his wicket when he looked a million dollars. By taking more care this time, he was giving his top-order colleagues the respect their endeavours deserved.

The hosts secured their very first ODI series clean sweep over a fellow Full Member in Stormont

The Report by Liam Brickhill07-Jul-2019James McCollum’s second fifty of the series, and a nuggety 49 from captain William Porterfield, took Ireland to an historic six-wicket win over Zimbabwe in Stormont. Following on from his fifty in Ireland’s series-sealing win on Thursday, McCollum set up Ireland’s pursuit of Zimbabwe’s 190 with 54 at the top of the order. Porterfield’s knock pushed Ireland closer to victory, and an unbeaten 35 from Kevin O’Brien secured their very first ODI series clean sweep over a fellow Full Member.With swing on offer with the new ball, McCollum didn’t have it all his own way early in his knock and was given a particularly thorough working over by Kyle Jarvis, playing and missing at three outswingers in a row. But Zimbabwe couldn’t make any inroads, despite several near misses and one clear chance that came their way. In the second over of Ireland’s chase, Tendai Chatara drew a false shot from Paul Stirling, a leading edge presenting Sean Williams with a tough high chance running back from cover, but it was spilled and Ireland cruised through the Powerplay at better than five an over.Having scored six consecutive fifty-plus ODI scores, Stirling was in sight of a seventh when he edged an attempted cut off Chatara to fall for 32. Zimbabwe snaffled a second wicket just before the first drinks break, Andy Balbirnie top edging a sweep off Williams before he could get going, but after the interval McCollum and Porterfield continued to find the boundary whenever one was needed to ease pressure.Porterfield nudged his way past 4,000 ODI runs during a 43-run third wicket stand that steadied Ireland and took the score beyond 100 in the 23rd over. At the other end, McCollum raised his fifty with a handsome drive through cover off Solomon Mire, but then fell against the run of play in Mire’s next over, driving a long half volley uppishly into the covers, where Ryan Burl dived to his right to hold the catch.By then, Ireland needed only 81 more runs from the better part of 25 overs, and Porterfield steadily whittled away at the target alongside Kevin O’Brien. So effective in the last match, today Zimbabwe’s spinners struggled to pin Ireland’s middle order down, with Porterfield putting the sweep to particularly good use against Sikandar Raza’s offspin.It was Ryan Burl’s part-time legspin that finally got the better of Porterfield, however, as he was beaten by sharp turn and bowled for 49 in the 37th over, with Ireland needing just 32. O’Brien administered the last rites, batting a little within himself but still allowing for the odd moment of flair.”We set out to win the series and obviously to win it 3-0 is pretty good,” Porterfield said after the game. “Starting back in May, quite a few cricketers have come in. It’s really pleasing that the lads are coming in and making contributions. There’s depth in that pool of players and the confidence is right up there.”It was one of Ireland’s veterans who set the match up. Once again utilising the conditions expertly, Tim Murtagh picked up 3 for 39 to lead the attack. He found the outside edge of Burl’s bat in the third over of the morning, the left-hander having been promoted to open, and then snapped up the vital wicket of Brendan Taylor for the second time in the series. With Craig Ervine dragging a pull at Mark Adair onto his own stumps, Zimbabwe were three down early and the slide began in earnest.They were tottering at 88 for 6, but Richmond Mutumbami joined a settled Williams at the crease to steady things somewhat with a 43-run stand. Boyd Rankin’s pace and bounce snapped the partnership, Mutumbami wafting flat-footed outside off to be caught behind, but after him Jarvis also showed a little stickability to chaperone Williams to his second fifty of the tour.Williams’ desperately unlucky dismissal for 67 – run out at the non-striker’s end as Adair palmed a firm drive from Jarvis back onto the stumps – completely opened up Zimbabwe’s tail. Jarvis attempted to push things on with a couple of lusty blows, but two overs later Zimbabwe were all out for their lowest total of the tour.”I’m obviously getting on a bit now, but still enjoying my cricket,” Murtagh said after being named Player of the Series for his nine wickets. “And these boys keep me young. I’m enjoying it. They’re good kids. They’re desperate to learn. Mark’s last over in the last game was really special. Shane [Getkate] looks like he’s been playing for years.””We haven’t played our best cricket,” admitted Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza. “Ireland have showed us up and really put us under the pump. We need to make better decisions under pressure. That’s what Ireland have done, every time they’re on top, they haven’t let us come back.”

Test side has “suffered a bit” due to white-ball emphasis, admits Giles, and red-ball stars might be afforded fewer IPL opportunities

George Dobell29-Jul-2019English cricket will “redress the balance” between red and white-ball cricket over the next few years.Ashley Giles, the managing director of England men’s cricket, accepts that white-ball cricket took priority in the previous four-year cycle and he accepts the strategy, put in place by his predecessor, Andrew Strauss, paid off. England went from also-rans at the 2015 World Cup to champions in 2019.But he also accepts England’s Test cricket may have “suffered a little bit.” England are currently No. 4 in the ICC’s Test rankings while they are No. 1 in the ODI and No. 2 in the T20I rankings. So, while he is keen to pay tribute to Strauss’ influence, he feels that winning the World Test Championship – which is launched at the start of the Ashes series which starts on Thursday – should be the new goal of English cricket. And to that end, he feels the red-ball game should now be given greater priority in terms of planning, scheduling and investment.”When Strauss came in he said we have to swing the balance right towards white-ball cricket and that’s what we did,” Giles said. “All the attention and the way we play county cricket was definitely focused on the shorter formats.”It was the focus we needed. It was the strategy that led to us winning the World Cup which we looked miles away from doing in 2015. It was important that the pendulum didn’t swing back to 50-50, it had to swing right back to white-ball cricket. We had never approached things in that way before in this country.”Has Test cricket suffered a little bit? Well, perhaps a little bit. We need to do that in red-ball cricket now. Whether it’s the World Test Championship or not, Test cricket is really important to us in this country. We haven’t neglected Test cricket for white-ball cricket, but focus has definitely been more on that side and we just need to redress that balance now.”In the future we need to work with the counties on producing future Test players. Our focus has certainly been on white-ball cricket and we need to redress that balance now to try and even things out.”Giles’ task is not straightforward. The county schedule will continue to see white-ball cricket take precedence in peak season – there will be no County Championship cricket played in the white-ball window built for The Hundred and 50-over cricket from 2020 – which means domestic first-class cricket will continue to be played in the margins of the season when pitches tend to provide substantial assistance to seam bowlers.But there some tools available to him. For a start, county cricket is already using a brand of Dukes ball with a less prominent seam that provides a little less help for bowlers. The counties have also been encouraged to provide better batting surfaces in the hope that seamers are required to work harder for their wickets and batsmen can gain some form and confidence in a more meritocratic environment. It is also hoped the combination of flatter wickets and less helpful balls will encourage the development of faster bowlers and spinners.That prioritisation will also be demonstrated in the value of the new central contracts. While players in all formats will receive a substantial pay rise when the new contracts begin in October – those contracted for red and white-ball cricket will earn just under £1m a year before appearance fees – the percentage rise will be greater for those involved in Test cricket. Meanwhile young fast bowlers will be taken on to incremental contracts – a scheme that will replace the fast bowling programme – which will allow the England management to rest them, or place them in overseas cricket, as they see fit.There may also be less leeway for Test players to take part in T20 leagues, including the IPL. While appearances in such leagues have helped England’s player develop in the white-ball game – and while there is a World T20 Cup at the end of next year – Giles is keen to ensure candidates for the Test squad have both rested and reacclimatised to English conditions before returning to the Test team. He hopes the value of the new central contracts – which will see some England players earning between £1.2 and £1.5m a year when appearance fees are included – will diminish the allure of such leagues for his top assets.There may be fewer IPL opportunities for Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, Giles suggested•PTI

Most of all, though, he wants the county game – and the ECB pathways – to deliver better results. That means creating an environment where top-order batsmen have a better chance to develop, where counties are rewarded for producing players and where the qualities required to succeed in Test cricket are replicated and cultivated.”It’s fundamentally important that our county cricket is system is producing good players,” Giles continued. “And what we’ve seen this year is sides preparing better pitches to play on. As a result, scores have been better and there seems to be better cricket round the country; really competitive cricket. The stats would say that when we’ve had a deep and successful [Test] batting order, we’ve had a really strong County Championship with high scores, lots of runs and batsmen scoring 1,000 runs a season. We certainly need the network and county system to work with us.”Even just saying ‘we’re going to win the World Cup’ in 2015 placed a lot of emphasis on our focus in terms of how we grew players, grew talent and spotted talent. Now we do need to redress that, so placing more emphasis on how we support and improve our long-form cricketers. And some of that is about working with the counties and collaborating much more on growing a bigger pool of players to prepare to play Test cricket.”But it not going to be an overnight change. We won’t suddenly start producing dozens of top-order players. In the short term, the Test Championship has to be on our to-do list. It doesn’t get much tougher but we have to have that as a goal. Test cricket’s really important to us and we need to be trying to compete for that Championship and if not this one then the next one.”In the shorter term we’ve got two T20 World Cups. Next year in Australia probably represents a really good opportunity for us to win that and wouldn’t it be great if we could hold both white-ball trophies at once?”Having our resources, we should be trying to compete across as many formats as we can. In the really short term you might swing some of your focus towards T20 cricket instead of 50-over cricket as we’re four years away from another 50-over World Cup. But we need to give Test cricket the focus it deserves.”

SLC held a meeting on Monday with the players who were part of the preliminary squad for the tour, to inform them about the security arrangements

Andrew Fidel Fernando09-Sep-2019Pakistan’s hopes for Test cricket to return to the country have suffered a substantial blow, as ten prominent Sri Lanka cricketers have refused to travel to the country for the forthcoming limited-overs tour.By hosting the limited-overs series first, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had intended to prove to Sri Lanka players and officials that the nation was secure enough to host Test cricket, starting with the teams’ World Test Championship matches, presently scheduled for December. But with Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Thisara Perera, Akila Dananjaya, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Suranga Lakmal, Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne all pulling out of the limited-overs tour PCB’s plans have been significantly dented.Even if this tour goes off without a hitch, Sri Lanka’s frontline Test players may remain unconvinced about the December tour. And, if that is the case, Sri Lanka Cricket is almost certain to refuse to play those Tests in Pakistan. While in this case the board is prepared to send a weakened limited-overs side to the country, it is unlikely to do so for Tests that have championship points at stake.SLC had held a meeting on Monday with the players who were part of the preliminary squad for the tour, to inform them about the security arrangements in Pakistan, which the board itself is largely happy with. In fact, a former Sri Lankan Air Force Commander had conveyed his confidence in those arrangements to the players. But the board has ultimately respected the players’ wishes. According to an SLC release, chief selector Ashantha de Mel had told players that refusal to tour Pakistan on this occasion would not affect their selection for future series.Both the present ODI captain, Karunaratne, and the T20 captain, Malinga, have refused to tour.For its part, the PCB has had to accept the decision of the Sri Lankan cricketers, while confirming that the tour will go on as planned. “The PCB understands and respects it is the prerogative of Sri Lanka Cricket to select the best available players for the upcoming tour for white-ball cricket. As far as the PCB is concerned, the tour is on and we look forward to welcoming the Sri Lanka team in Karachi later this month,” a spokesperson said.This is not Sri Lanka’s first trip to Pakistan since the Lahore attack on the Sri Lanka team. In fact, they had played a solitary T20 there in 2017, also with a weakened squad. But Thisara, who captained the Sri Lanka side in that match in Lahore, is this time among the players who have refused to travel. This, however, is understood to largely be because of his commitments at the Caribbean Premier League with the St Lucia Zouks. He did not make the XI for Sri Lanka’s two most recent ODIs, nor their most recent T20 squad, in any case.Of the players currently in the frame for selection, only Suranga Lakmal had been on the team bus that was attacked by gunmen in 2009. Nevertheless, many younger players will have heard of the ordeal from former players, some of whom remain scarred by the experience. Among the arguments this current group of players mounted their refusal on, is that some other team should be the first to resume Tests in Pakistan, rather than another Sri Lanka side.The PCB will be especially disheartened at the development, because they had been the first to send a team to Sri Lanka following this year’s Easter Sunday attacks. There was a time, in the weeks immediately following the bombings, when cricket tours on the island faced an uncertain future. But the PCB had sent its Under-19 team to Sri Lanka for five ODIs only a month after the attacks, which helped demonstrate the improved security situation. Since then, Sri Lanka has hosted Bangladesh and New Zealand at venues around the country.But although SLC had at one stage said it had received “very positive” feedback from the security team it had sent to assess the situation in Pakistan, their players have ultimately made their own decisions. The PCB will hope there is still a chance the limited-overs tour can still be a springboard to hosting Tests at some point in the near future. But the chances of Sri Lanka being that touring Test team have diminished significantly.The limited-overs series, which features three ODIs and three T20Is, is set to run from September 27 to October 9. The ODIs will all be played in Karachi, before Lahore hosts the T20s.

The pair will link up with their respective teams in Bengaluru Tuesday night

Shashank Kishore22-Oct-2019Less than 24 hours after playing key hands in India’s 3-0 series whitewash of South Africa, Mayank Agarwal and R Ashwin will be back on the field, playing for their respective states in the Vijay Hazare Trophy semi-finals in Bengaluru.They won’t be on opposite sides on Wednesday though, with Ashwin’s Tamil Nadu taking on the Parthiv Patel-led Gujarat at the Just Cricket Academy grounds. Agarwal, meanwhile, will link up with Karnataka for the semi-final against Chhattisgarh at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.Rains have lashed the city for the past fortnight, and forecast for Wednesday looks grim. With the drainage facility far from being top notch at the Just Cricket Academy, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, there is a real threat of a truncated contest or a no result, as was the case on Monday, with Tamil Nadu pipping Punjab because of more wins in the group stage.If there is a washout, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka will progress to the final owing to more wins in the group stage. Tamil Nadu were unbeaten in nine games, while Karnataka won seven out of their eight fixtures to top Groups A and B combined, before seeing off Puducherry’s threat in their final-eight fixture on Monday.ALSO READ: Pandey, Jaiswal lead list of top performers in Vijay Hazare TrophyAgarwal’s inclusion could give the Karnataka team management some healthy selection headaches. While he’ll replace Abhishek Reddy in the squad, it remains to be seen if the team management would want to disturb a successful opening combination of KL Rahul and 19-year old Devdutt Padikkal, who has been among the most impressive batsmen in the tournament.Rahul has made 458 runs in nine innings, with a century and three fifties while Padikkal is the sixth-highest run scorer overall, with 506 runs in nine innings, with two centuries and four half-centuries.Meanwhile, Ashwin, whose inclusion could force Tamil Nadu to play two specialist spinners – legspinner M Ashwin being the other – recently became the joint-fastest to 350 test wickets along with Muttiah Muralitharan. He achieved the feat in his 66th Test.Ashwin (357) is India’s 4th highest wicket-taker in tests, with only Harbhajan Singh (417), Kapil Dev (434) and Anil Kumble (619) ahead of him in the list.

Western Australia were three wickets down in their second innings and staring at a heavy defeat at the SCG

The Report by Andrew McGlashan at the SCG13-Nov-2019Pat Cummins produced a display that showed he was in prime shape for the Test season. in the process putting New South Wales on track to make it four Sheffield Shield wins in a row with Western Australia facing a final-day battle to save the game at the SCG with just seven wickets in hand.Cummins, in his first first-class outing since the Ashes, produced an eye-catching spell of reverse swing during the morning session to take out the WA middle order – which was followed by another super spell from Mitchell Starc before stumps – while Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe combined for five wickets as New South Wales showed tremendous skill on a slow surface.”The wicket is just so dry and hard, super abrasive, after about 30 overs the ball looked like it was 100 overs old, so it’s reversing pretty early,” Cummins said. “It’s the first time I’ve bowled with a reversing ball for probably 12 months so was just trying to attack the pegs, get it swinging a bit each way, and fortunately today there were a few nicks and they carried which doesn’t always happen when the ball is reversing.”WA slumped from 1 for 116 to 191 all out in their first innings but Peter Nevill opted to extend the lead rather than bowl again. Moises Henriques was promoted to open and biffed an unbroken opening stand of 98 with Daniel Hughes, who helped himself to a half-century.Armed with the new ball, Cummins then struck early when Josh Philippe was bowled round his legs for the second time in the match – this time by the right-armer from over the wicket, compared to Starc in the first. With three overs left in the day, Starc then pinned Shaun Marsh lbw with a delivery that tailed back, meaning Marsh had been dismissed twice in the day, and then speared one through nightwatchman Matt Kelly as Western Australia stumbled to the close.After the dramatic collapse of Australia A the previous day in Perth, Marsh had the chance to make things more awkward for the selectors with a big score when play resumed against the possible Test attack, but he chipped limply to mid-on for 43. From there, the innings unraveled. D’Arcy Short had played against his natural instincts to register a 154-ball fifty before falling two overs after Marsh when he missed a very full delivery from O’Keefe.Cummins then set to work as he found just enough movement to challenge both edges of the bat. Ashton Turner nicked behind, Cameron Green shouldered arms to one which came back to take off stump, and Josh Inglis edged to slip in the final over before lunch.There was some resistance after the break as Marcus Stoinis and Ashton Agar stayed together for 20 overs, but scoring was mighty difficult. Stoinis appeared to get a rough decision when he was given caught at slip when replays suggested he played over the top of the delivery from Lyon, the offspinner then bowling Kelly for a duck three balls later.

Captain impressed with debutants, who have ‘raised the bar’ for returning regulars

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Nov-2019England’s fringe players have “raised the benchmark” for those rested from the T20I series in New Zealand, according to captain Eoin Morgan.At least five first-choice players were rested from the T20 leg of the tour, with Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer all likely to be in England’s first-choice XI come the T20 World Cup in Australia next year.With Mark Wood, David Willey and Joe Root also missing out, there were opportunities for six debutants in the T20 series, as well as those who have been in and out of the national team over the past four years, like James Vince, Sam Billings and Dawid Malan.And Morgan said that the new faces in the side had created a selection headache ahead of the three-match series in South Africa in February.”It creates a really good headache for us when it comes to selection,” Morgan said.”We are further ahead than we thought and the guys on this tour who will probably miss out on South Africa have raised that benchmark for guys who come back in.”They are now almost expected to score runs and expected to do well because of opportunities given and taken by these guys.”Morgan had the opportunity to see one of those fringe players up close in the fourth T20I, when he shared a 182-run partnership with former Middlesex team-mate Dawid Malan.ALSO READ: Will England dare to leave Malan out again?Malan struck an unbeaten 103 off 51 balls, meaning he has passed fifty in six of his nine T20I innings. That knock took his average in the format to 57.25, but he came in for thinly-veiled criticism in Morgan’s post-match press conference for failing to attempt to steal a bye off the final ball of the innings.Malan had been at the non-striker’s end for the last ball of the 20th over in Napier – a bouncer which Sam Billings missed – but decided against scrambling through for a run with wicketkeeper Tim Seifert stood back.”I think giving guys that common goal and watching them strive towards it is the biggest indicator,” Morgan said. “If we get guys that are not running off the last ball of the game because they want to get a not out, there’s something to address.”The debutant who pressed his case best in the series was Sam Curran, who took six wickets and bowled with control across all three phases of the game, while chipping in with the bat in the rain-reduced game in Auckland.The three new faces with the ball – Pat Brown, Matt Parkinson and Saqib Mahmood – had a mixed time. Brown’s slower balls was punished in Wellington, where he conceded 32 in his two overs, but his economy rate overall (9.84) was only just over the average runs-per-over for the series (9.49).Parkinson took five wickets in his six overs, though conceded 61 runs, and would have hoped for more of an opportunity to prove himself. Mahmood had a chastening time, leaking 115 runs in 10 overs, though was England’s tightest bowler at Eden Park.And with the bat, Tom Banton showed flashes of brilliance in his top-order cameos, while Lewis Gregory faced 19 balls and bowled four overs across his five games.

Haryana no match for Karnataka after collapsing in the last over of their innings

The Report by Shamya Dasgupta29-Nov-2019It was a six fest at Surat’s Lalabhai Contractor Stadium as a sizeable crowd was treated to some outstanding short-format hitting from KL Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal to start with, and then by Mayank Agarwal. But that Karnataka were chasing 195 on a belter of a pitch and not something in the region of 210 was down to a very special performance from Abhimanyu Mithun, who made history by picking up five wickets, including four off the first four deliveries, in the final over of the Haryana innings.When Mithun was handed the ball for the final over, Himanshu Rana was on 61 from 33 balls, Rahul Tewatia was on 32 from 19, and Haryana 192 for 3. Ball one: Rana holes out to Agarwal at cow corner. Second ball: Tewatia slogs one to Karun Nair at long-on. Third ball: Sumit Kumar scoop-pulls a slower one to Rohan Kadam at short fine-leg. Hat-trick! Fourth ball: Amit Mishra hits to K Gowtham in the covers. Double hat-trick! This is followed by a wide and a single, taking Haryana to 194. Then, sixth ball: Jayant Yadav moves outside the off stump and guides it straight to Rahul behind the stumps. Five in an over!Smiles, whoops of joy, high-fives – the momentum was certainly with Karnataka at the break.”I kept wickets, so I knew they were 10-15 runs short,” Rahul told after the game. “That was the chat at the halfway mark. To chase this down in 15 overs tells you everything about the pitch. We knew if we got a good start, we had the batting to chase this down.”That’s what happened. Once they came out to bat, Rahul and Padikkal pressed home the advantage ruthlessly.ALSO READ: Fitness revolution helps Rohan Kadam chart a new courseTo be fair, Harshal Patel started well, conceding just one run in the first over of the chase. But Padikkal hit an inside-out drive over the off side and then a delicate flick for fours in the second over, bowled by Ashish Hooda, and Karnataka were on their way. Patel was taken for 16 runs in the third, Hooda then gave away 23 in the next, and the Haryana fielders were mostly spotted retrieving the ball as the Powerplay yielded 82 runs.With that sort of platform, there was no real threat of Karnataka losing, not with Agarwal, Nair, Manish Pandey and Kadam to follow, and the question really was about how soon they would cross the line. It took them 15 overs.Rahul got to his half-century in the seventh over, reaching the milestone off 21 balls. He was dismissed not long after, though, mistiming a hoick off a Yadav slower delivery to long-on a ball after slamming yet another maximum, but his 31-ball 66 was an outstanding innings, the four fours and six sixes keeping the crowd entertained.Not that Padikkal wasn’t turning it on at the other end. He was on 56 off 26 balls when Rahul fell, and ensured the big hits kept coming even as Agarwal walked in and hit Mishra for back-to-back sixes down the ground in the 11th over. With Padikkal in sight of a century, Agarwal did look like he was putting the big hits away, and the youngster obliged with a flurry of fours and sixes, taking his tally up to 11 fours and four sixes. But, with both his century and the target just 13 runs away, a flick off Patel refused to go high enough or long enough, and landed in Chaitanya Bishnoi’s hands at deep midwicket.KL Rahul combined with Devdutt Padikkal to give Karnataka the perfect start•PTI

Padikkal’s 87 came from 42 balls, and took his tally for the tournament up to 548, comfortably ahead of second-placed Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 419. With this coming close on the heels of the 19-year-old opener’s chart-topping 609 runs from the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy, it’s been quite the season for Padikkal.It’s also been quite the season for Mithun, the seasoned pro, who recorded the second instance of a bowler picking up five wickets in an over in a T20 game. Not to forget, the double hat-trick came just over a month after he picked up a hat-trick in the final of the Hazare trophy, as Karnataka beat Tamil Nadu.Before Mithun’s heroics, however, it did look like Haryana meant business. In the first ten overs, they had 92 for 2 on the board. The start was frenetic, with Bishnoi and Patel putting on 67 for the first wicket by the seventh over before Patel, the medium-pacer who has enjoyed a good time as an opener this season, fell for a 20-ball 34. Shivam Chauhan didn’t last long either, Shreyas Gopal accounting for both of them, but Rana and Bishnoi kept the tempo up with some lusty hitting.After Bishnoi fell, run out for a 35-ball 55, having been sent back by Rana when trying to steal a quick single to Pandey, Tewatia performed his role well and it was all going swimmingly for Haryana till the last over. But Rana first, for a 34-ball 61, and Tewatia next, for 32 off 20 balls, were sent back going for big hits by Mithun in that remarkable final over, and the game slipped away from Haryana rather quickly.

In an 18-overs-a-side contest, the Scorchers looked on track to chase down 199 after a 124-run stand between Liam Livingstone and Josh Inglis, but fell 15 runs short

The Report by Alex Malcolm23-Dec-2019Jake Weatherald’s match-winning 83 and a momentum-changing spell from Rashid Khan has helped the Adelaide Strikers hold off the Perth Scorchers in a high-scoring classic at Adelaide Oval.In a rain-affected game that was reduced to 18 overs a side, the Scorchers looked on track to chase down the Strikers’ monstrous target of 199 after a stunning 124-run stand between Liam Livingstone and Josh Inglis in just 8.4 overs. But Rashid, after being hammered for three sixes by Livingstone in his first nine balls, removed both openers off consecutive deliveries before befuddling Ashton Turner to swing the momentum back the Strikers’ way. The Scorchers failed to wrestle in back, falling 15 runs short.Earlier, Weatherald and Alex Carey made sublime half-centuries to set up the winning total. Weatherald smashed 83 from 47 balls before Carey outdid him with a sensational 55 from 24 balls.Weatherald’s trip to Paris
The Strikers started slowly after the early loss of Phil Salt. The Englishman’s BBL journey started poorly after he miscued trying to loft Jhye Richardson over mid-off in the first over, adding just 2 to his duck against Sydney Thunder. The Strikers were 1 for 16 after three overs before Weatherald lined up Joel Paris’ second over, having faced three dots from him in his first. His first boundary was streaky, a French cut past leg stump. But he launched the next ball over the midwicket fence. Paris then dropped a tough caught-and-bowled chance before Weatherald pounded the next two to the rope to take 20 from the over. Matthew Short followed up, striking three fours in Mitchell Marsh’s first over to push the run rate above 10 an over.Raining boundaries
An untimely rain delay at the end of the fifth over appeared to give the Scorchers a reprieve by both halting the Strikers’ momentum and giving them a big advantage chasing as the game was reduced to an 18-overs-a-side contest. But it had the opposite effect. The rain greased up the surface and the outfield. It nullified the Scorchers’ spin threats in Ashton Agar and Fawad Ahmed and the Strikers took full toll. Alex Carey played a sublime knock after the loss of Short. He started with two incredible inside-out sixes off Agar against the angle over cover. Agar, Australia’s T20 spinning allrounder, only bowled one over in the innings after conceding 16.Carey’s timing was freakish and he was impossible to bowl to. In the 17th over, he paddled Chris Jordan to fine leg before hitting the same line and length over cover. Weatherald ran himself out, bizarrely failing to beat Richardson firing the ball in from the rope due to his injured shoulder. The Strikers were set to score 200 in 18 overs but fell just short, mainly due to a stunning jumping catch from Agar by the rope to remove Carey. Richardson was the only Scorchers bowler to get through unscathed, taking 2 for 29 from his four overs, including two excellent ones at the death.Living large
Livingstone and Inglis started the run chase with a required run rate of 10.78. By the end of the eighth over, the Scorchers were 0 for 111 needing a very manageable 88 from 60 balls with 10 wickets in hand. Inglis set the tone with a pull shot that went like a bullet to the midwicket rope off the first ball of the innings. Inglis matched Carey’s 360-degree play with boundaries all around the park. Livingstone just stood still and swung hard, clubbing seven massive sixes over the leg side. Livingstone matched the fastest fifty in Scorchers’ history taking just 21 balls to raise his bat. He brought it up with a 98-metre six that landed in the first tier of the Members’ stand. No bowler was safe from the staggering assault. He hit the first three balls he faced from Rashid Khan for sixes over the leg side.Rashid’s revenge
The star legspinner was having a dirty night having earlier dropped Livingstone at long-on. He rarely gets hit for four consecutive sixes by one batsman. Chris Gayle once did it in the IPL; Livingstone tried and perished, holing out to deep midwicket. Inglis was bowled sweeping next ball to change the game in a heartbeat. Rashid bamboozled Turner in his next over to have him caught behind. Rashid’s figures went from 0 for 28 after 1.3 overs to 3 for 40 after four and the Scorchers needed 50 runs from 30 balls. They saw off Rashid’s final over and tried to target the Strikers’ inexperienced quicks, but failed. Mitchell Marsh, Cameron Bancroft, and Cameron Green all holed out while Agar fell to his younger brother, Wes, for the second time this season, strangled down the leg side.