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Australia are unlikely to rush into a change but a good match in Hobart would aid Carey, with Josh Inglis and Jimmy Peirson waiting in the wings

Andrew McGlashan13-Jan-2022In an alternate universe, Hobart could have been the scene of Tim Paine’s final Test. However, having lost the captaincy before the Ashes and then having stepped back from the game, he is on holiday interstate and will not attend the historic occasion. Instead, Alex Carey, his replacement, enters the match as the Australian player most in need of a strong performance after a debut series that has perhaps still not cemented his place behind the stumps.However, it is the work with the gloves which has brought the most scrutiny, with Sydney being a challenging match for him with two missed chances – both of similar fashion as he dived to his right, which followed a tough one he grassed in Melbourne and the edge off Jos Buttler in Adelaide that went between him and first slip. But his captain Pat Cummins, who has been the bowler for two of Carey’s missed chances, did not see cause for concern.”Firstly on his batting, I probably haven’t helped him out declaring on him last game,” Cummins said. “The thing that is really consistent with Kez [Carey] is that he’s willing to do anything it takes to help out the team. He put himself out there at the Gabba batting in the second innings.Related

• Cameron Green hits the right note playing second fiddle

• Harris dropped, Khawaja to open in Hobart after his twin hundreds

“Keeping, it’s his first year – it’s tough – he’s working really hard and we are super confident in him. Eight catches in the first game would be an incredible standard to keep that up. I’ve been happy. He’s been confident enough going for the balls that he missed early on in the series. [We’re] not worried – he’s class, has played plenty of games for Australia. We are really confident in what he can bring and think there’s been a lot of big positives, so the message to him is keep doing what you are doing.”While Carey has not piled up the runs, his average of 15.71 is a little deceptive, having sacrificed himself for a first-ball duck in the second innings in Sydney – when Cummins then immediately declared – after Carey also volunteered to open in the Gabba chase and nicked behind. He played nicely for a maiden half-century in Adelaide which wrestled back the initiative, but three other first-innings scores of 12, 19 and 13 will be a frustration given he had managed to get himself in.And commentating on during the SCG Test, former Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin pinpointed where he believed the issue about Carey’s came from.”Technically, he had a bit of an Achilles heel this series, just low to his right,” Haddin said. “As the replay’s showing there now, he’s very flat footed when he goes… you’re meant to be pushing hard off that left foot. All he’s doing, he’s dropping his right leg to make way. He’s not getting any power to go and get power out of that left foot to go for that catch.””First and foremost, I think he needs to square himself up. He’s opening that front foot up too much. When the ball does go outside his eye line on the right, he’s turning his left shoulder and going side on, where you need to say work in a straight line across.”The call before the Ashes had been between Carey and Western Australia’s Josh Inglis, who has since been added to the squad as Covid cover. Both are likely to be included for the upcoming tour of Pakistan, while Queensland’s Jimmy Peirson is another who has impressed in domestic cricket.Meanwhile, Cummins was also delighted with so many of the squad having made contributions towards retaining the Ashes. Usman Khawaja made a remarkable return to the side with twin hundreds, Cameron Green has excelled with the ball and made runs in Sydney, Scott Boland and Jhye Richardson have taken five-wicket hauls, and Marcus Harris, who has been dropped for Hobart, made a crucial 76 two games back in Melbourne.”When you look back at previous Ashes, it’s been Warner, Smith, Marnus, Joshy Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, so it’s been great to have these other guys who have come in and felt comfortable enough that they can dominate straightaway,” he said. “Think that’s a real nod to the amount of talent we have around Australia in Shield cricket. It’s been really pleasing and shows we don’t have to be reliant on the same three, four players. Feel like anyone in the XI or the squad can be a match winner.”

Craig Overton finishes with 5 for 26 as Somerset go top of Central Group

ECB Reporters Network25-Aug-2020Craig Overton finished with figures of 5 for 26 as Somerset wrapped up a thumping 314-run Bob Willis Trophy win over Gloucestershire at Taunton.After a delayed start, the hosts needed just 15 minutes to claim their opponents’ last two wickets and move to the top of the Central Group.
Overton took one of them and the last fell to Jack Brooks to complete a game dominated by Somerset’s potent seam attack.The hosts took 20 points to boost increasing hopes of reaching the Lord’s final, while Gloucestershire had to settle for three, having been comprehensively outplayed.Play began at 1.45pm after more heavy overnight rain had saturated the outfield. Brooks had five balls of an over to complete from the previous evening.Somerset skipper Tom Abell then threw the ball to Overton, who struck with his third ball of the day from the River End.Josh Shaw failed to keep down a rising leg-side delivery and George Bartlett dived forward to take a good low catch at midwicket. Shaw departed for a duck and, with the sun shining after all the rain of the previous two days, Somerset closed in on a quick finish.It came in the next over, bowled by Brooks, Tom Lammonby clinging onto a sharp catch above his head at backward point to dismiss Matt Taylor for three.Somerset have now won three out of four Bob Willis Trophy games, and it would almost certainly have been four had bad weather not robbed them over victory over Warwickshire in their previous fixture.Their seam attack looks as good as any in the competition and they will go into their final match against Worcestershire at New Road favourites to win the group.”It’s a big relief to have got over the line after all the rain, particularly as we felt we were denied the result we deserved by the weather in our previous game,” Abell said. “At certain times yesterday that feeling of frustration was there again. With the group being so tight and only two clubs out of three group winners making the final wins are so important.”The cricket we are playing at the moment is fantastic and now we go to Worcestershire for our final group match determined to maintain those standards. It has looked for a while as if that game would decide the group and we can go into it with confidence.””We were comprehensively outplayed by the better side and all credit to Somerset,” said Richard Dawson, Gloucestershire’s head coach. “They are a top team, who have performed well over a number of years in red-ball cricket.”We failed to perform to the standards we set ourselves, particularly with the bat. The lads are very disappointed and there are no excuses coming from the dressing room or from me.”We have learned a lot being here for four days and competing against top players. But it is easy to say that and we have to make sure we put what we have learned into practice.”

Against Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi might field Chris Morris, while Sandeep Lamichhane could well join Amit Mishra to make it a two-pronged legspin attack

The Preview by Sidharth Monga in Delhi29-Mar-20193:22

Dasgupta: Chawla, Narine, Kuldeep key to KKR’s chances

Big Picture

This is a match between a side that is looking to establish roles for its players – and thus achieve success and establish itself in a city that has been cold to the home team for 11 years – and a team that doesn’t want established roles. Kolkata Knight Riders come to Delhi with the most fluid and flexible batting line-up among IPL sides, and an unbeaten record this year. The hosts, Delhi Capitals, soared magnificently in the first match against Mumbai Indians, but were laid low partly by their own home conditions and partly by their failure to adjust to the dry pitch that offered natural variations to bowlers.Knight Riders will provide Delhi as big a challenge as Chennai Super Kings did. They have three spinners of varying quality and mode of operation, and they are not short of quicks who can hit the deck. As Ricky Ponting said after the defeat to Super Kings, Delhi will have to find a way to bat smarter.Chris Morris is back for Delhi, and will give them a hit-the-deck bowler and a big-hitting allrounder possibly at the expense of Keemo Paul. Morris pointed out that the square doesn’t look like it did last year where they averaged around 190 batting first. In fact they scored 219 when they last faced Knight Riders at home. If they continue with their strategy of batting first – there hasn’t been much dew to speak of – they might set their sights on around 170 and then try to get to Andre Russell early and then past him.Amit Mishra celebrates a wicket with Rishabh Pant•BCCI

Likely XIs

Delhi Capitals 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Colin Ingram, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Chris Morris, 7 Axar Patel/Sandeep Lamichhane, 8 Rahul Tewatia, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Ishant SharmaKolkata Knight Riders 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Shubman Gill, 6 Dinesh Karthik (capt & wk), 7 Andre Russell, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Prasidh Krishna

Strategy punt

If they open with spin, Knight Riders prefer to do it with Piyush Chawla, but his record against Shikhar Dhawan is not great. Will either Sunil Narine or Kuldeep Yadav be used with the new ball then? In all likelihood, they will not use a spinner to open the bowling, and will wait for the ball to get slightly older.There has been a clamour for Sandeep Lamichhane to play, but Amit Mishra holds a good record against Russell. In fact, that probably makes a case for more legspin at Russell. They will play at least two anyway.

Stats that matter

• Knight Riders lead the head-to-head record 13-8.
• Last season, spinners averaged 31.5 and conceded 7.8 per over in Delhi, while the quicks managed corresponding figures of 34.6 and 9.4.
• Among players who have faced at least 100 balls at the death in the IPL, Rishabh Pant has the best strike rate at 233.33 and Russell the fourth-best at 198.83.

The batsman said that while he would enjoy captaining an IPL team again, the focus was on performing the role of a senior professional in the set-up

Gaurav Kalra25-Jan-20182:00

Agarkar: A team like Delhi Daredevils will bid for Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir feels at home in Kolkata. So much so that he once went around the city in search of a house he could buy. No surprise really. Kolkata has embraced him with open arms since the city’s IPL franchise, the Kolkata Knight Riders, paid an astronomical sum of USD 2.4 million to bring him on board in 2011 after three middling seasons. Over the last seven years, Gambhir has led the team to a couple of titles, in 2012 and 2014, been its leading scorer, and helped forge one of the league’s most formidable outfits.Gambhir is in Kolkata these days, playing for the city of his birth, Delhi, in India’s domestic T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. He isn’t sure, though, if he will return to the KKR set-up. In a move that not many IPL observers saw coming, the franchise decided against retaining him in January, forcing Gambhir back into the auction.There was speculation that Gambhir and the owners couldn’t agree on his price point. There is also talk that KKR envisage keeping Gambhir in house by using one of their three Right to Match cards (RTM) at a lower price point than retention would have cost them. Gambhir, at least publicly, isn’t interested in the nitty gritty, insisting he understood the decision made by the franchise.”I get where they are coming from,” Gambhir told ESPNcricinfo. “Above all, the communication between the KKR management and myself has been superb. We spoke in a very cordial atmosphere and I respect their call.”The speculation will end this weekend of course and Gambhir will find out whether he will stay in Kolkata or head to another city. On reputation alone, he makes a compelling case to attract a substantial bid. Only three players – Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have made more runs in IPL history than Gambhir. While his strike- rate hovers around a none too collar grabbing 125, Gambhir catches the eye on several other indices. His 35 half-centuries are second most in IPL history after David Warner and he sits on top of the list of the most fours in the tournament with 484, comfortably ahead of Raina’s 402.Recent experience would suggest reputation alone no longer counts towards frenetic bidding at IPL auctions. Gambhir’s T20 form of late has been patchy with scores of 1,1,7 and 21 in his last four games in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. However, he was the second-highest scorer in last season’s IPL, with 498 runs at an average of nearly 42 with four 50+ scores, playing a key role in another appearance in the knockout stages for KKR.His form in last season’s Ranji Trophy, where Delhi made the final, was also quite impressive. He scored 683 runs, including three centuries, and finished as the sixth-highest run-getter. At 36, Gambhir remains convinced he can continue to contribute to teams he is part of, and isn’t fazed at the prospect of having to compete with much younger players.”I won’t have been playing the format if I was not convinced about my abilities,” he said. “I am feeling strong physically. Fitness and motivation have never been a challenge. When I turned 30 I promised myself that I needed to up the ante fitness wise as the game was changing, I was moving on and there is that thing called self-pride which you never want to dent. So, I do extensive gym training with my personal trainers, cross country in the ridge area behind my house in Delhi, yoga, kickboxing and also play badminton to stay in shape.”Besides his pedigree as a batsman, Gambhir is sure to be on the radar of franchises for his leadership abilities. Only M S Dhoni has more wins as captain in IPL history with 83 wins from 143 games while Gambhir has won 70 of his 123. In his time at the helm at KKR, players such as Manish Pandey, Kuldeep Yadav and Umesh Yadav have pressed their claims for India call-ups while the likes of Sunil Narine and Andre Russel have grown in stature. Now, as this next phase of his IPL career beckons, Gambhir said that while he would enjoy captaining a team again, the focus was on performing the role of a senior professional in the set-up.”I’d prefer both but the dynamics of the sport are such that each phase of a professional sportsperson’s career comes with responsibility,” he said. “The way I played in 2011 or 2012 is different to how I play now. Bowlers don’t bowl in my areas, as a senior member it is my duty to curb my game as per the situation. At the end of the day it is about a balanced approach because a team sport has to be played with a team’s interests in mind and not an individual’s.”

Eoin Morgan has said he remains ‘comfortable’ with his decision not to take part in England’s tour of Bangladesh due to his concerns over the security situation

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Dec-2016Eoin Morgan has said he remains “comfortable” with his decision not to take part in England’s tour of Bangladesh due to his concerns over the security situation.Morgan and Alex Hales made themselves unavailable for the tour following the terror attacks in the country earlier this year despite the unprecedented levels of security the team were granted for the visit.Andrew Strauss, the managing director of England cricket, who gave the players the right to choose, said an individual’s decision would not be held against them in future selection. Morgan, who is currently in Australia for a spell at the Big Bash for Sydney Thunder, has been recalled to captain the limited-overs squads in India next month. Hales has also been included with Ben Duckett, who made two half-centuries in the one-day series win over Bangladesh, losing his place.”I wasn’t comfortable travelling because of security concerns and I weighed up the question ‘would I be able to perform as a captain and as a player given the security concerns in Bangladesh?'” Morgan said. “I’m still comfortable with it. It is something I considered before confirming my decision to the ECB. I tried to imagine all the different circumstances and didn’t feel comfortable enough in my mind to go and be able to perform.”I have had a great deal of support, everyone who I trust in a tight-knit circle has supported me, everyone within the game that I trust has supported me, players ex and current who I lean on for big decisions. It’s been really good, it was a difficult decision to make and I don’t think a lot of people would have made it but I am certainly happy with the decision that I have made.”Shortly before Morgan confirmed his decision not to tour he cited being involved in previous security scares in both Bangladesh, when he played domestic cricket 2013-14, and India, during the 2010 IPL, as a factor that was weighing heavily on his mind. He has since returned to India on both international and IPL duty but explained that his concerns over Bangladesh also stemmed from the fact that England were the first western team to tour there since the attacks in Dhaka on July 1.”I think one thing that had changed from 2010 in India was that other teams had travelled there and security had increased, also since then there had been no terrorist attacks or sightings or threats in regard to either a tournament or a national team,” he said. “I think going to Bangladesh and being the first western team to travel there since the terrorist attack and the fact that Australia had pulled out even before the terrorist attack happened, was another reason.”England’s three-match one-day series begins in Pune on January 15 and is followed by a three-match T20 series. The first half of 2017 is entirely one-day focused for England with a short tour to West Indies followed by series against Ireland and South Africa in May ahead of the Champions Trophy.

The perjury trial against Chris Cairns has been held together by “rumour upon rumour, sustained by a biased investigation” a Southwark Crown Court jury has been told as Orlando Pownall QC continued his summing up for the defence

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Nov-2015The perjury trial against Chris Cairns has been held together by “rumour upon rumour, sustained by a biased investigation” a Southwark Crown Court jury has been told.Orlando Pownall QC was summing up for the defence for a second day in the trial in which Cairns denies two counts of perjury and perverting the course of justice, relating to his successful libel action in 2012 against Lalit Modi who had accused him of match-fixing.Pownall sought to undermine a Crown case which has involved nine witnesses, including the evidence of Lou Vincent, who has confessed to match fixing, and the New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum.”We invite you to be careful to make no assumptions,” Pownall said. “Beyond rumour, beyond self-motivated lies, you cannot be sure Mr Cairns is guilty. For that reason, we invite you to acquit him.”Vincent was described as the “foundation stone” of the case against Cairns. “He is someone who is dishonest, who has lied, who has lied to you,” Pownall told the jury. If the jury concluded he was lying they should acquit Cairns as a consequence and the evidence of McCullum “doesn’t matter”.Pownall also examined McCullum’s recollections of a meeting with Cairns over dinner in 2008 in a Kolkata hotel room. McCullum’s evidence, to the ICC and later the Metropolitan Police, had changed three times – in 2011, 2013 and 2014 – and was “shifting sands” he said.Pownall said match-fixing was never mentioned in the first statement McCullum made in 2011, although the word “betting” was used time and again.”There was a meeting and Mr Cairns has never denied it, in that hotel in Kolkata, but what was discussed in that meeting was very different from the description given,” Pownall said. “What he’s talking about here is betting. Not match-fixing, betting.”McCullum also did not remember that Cairns had “definitely” told him that Vincent and Daryl Tuffey were allegedly involved in match-fixing at Chandigarh Lions until after Vincent had been interviewed by the ICC in September 2013.Pownall also invited the jury to consider why would Cairns would try to recruit McCullum to cheat, as he was a young player yet to reach the “zenith of his career” paid large sums of money in the Indian Premier League, not a “flaky individual” like Vincent who would risk his career for the sake of a “few extra dollars”.When McCullum said in a second statement that he told Kyle Mills and Shane Bond that Cairns had approached him, it referred to a meeting in Worcester the same year. He had not mentioned Kolkata.”Does it make you wonder why didn’t Mr McCullum mention the hotel meeting? Was it because himself he wasn’t sure about what it was about?”Pownall then referred to McCullum’s final statement, three years later. Only then had the names of Vincent and Tuffey – who also played at Chandigarh – also been mentioned.Pownall theorised that McCullum and Daniel Vettori, who also gave evidence for the prosecution, did not want Modi to lose his libel case because he ran IPL and his defeat might put their income at risk. “‘I don’t want him to lose, because that might imperil my contract. I don’t want my reputation to be tarnished, was what they were thinking,” Pownall said. That, he said, led them to give an account to the ICC in 2011.Pownall said that the evidence produced by the prosecution had not shown Cairns to be a liar. “He was vulnerable, but he wasn’t shown to be a liar.” Pownall said. “That’s not because he’s some clever dick who is able to evade, he’s a combative individual.”Cairns is accused of lying under oath in court when he said in that libel hearing: “I have never, ever cheated at cricket. Nor would I ever contemplate such a thing”.His co-defendant and former legal advisor, Andrew Fitch-Holland, denies one count of perverting the course of justice.