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The first round of the 2018 NCL had an unprecedented 13 centuries, but the Khulna batsman’s twin centuries against Rajshahi stood out

Mohammad Isam04-Oct-2018Best batsmenTushar Imran stood out among the 12 centurions in the opening round of the 2018 National Cricket League, with his twin centuries against Rajshahi Division in difficult circumstances, while Rony Talukdar and Ariful Haque racked up double-hundreds.Tushar nearly accounted for half of Khulna Division’s 210 all out with his first-innings 104. It wasn’t until the arrival of the No. 9 Nahidul Islam, with whom he added 88, that he found support. Tushar followed it up with 159, with the help of 21 fours and a six, as Khulna fought hard to earn a draw. He added 250 runs for the third wicket with Anamul Haque, who also started the season with a century.In Fatullah, Rony’s third double-hundred came in Dhaka Division’s second innings, in which he and Abdul Mazid shared a Bangladesh first-class record opening stand of 350 runs. They beat the previous best of 341 runs between Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Mizanur Rahman from the 2017-18 NCL. Rony made 228 off 252 balls with 18 fours and seven sixes.Ariful’s 231 was his maiden double-century, which arrived with the help of 21 fours and four sixes in a near-eight-hour stay at the crease in Bogra. In the same match, Barisal’s No. 3 Fazle Mahmud missed out on a double ton, perishing on 195, having spent more than eight hours, and 424 balls while hitting 18 fours and three sixes.Best bowlersThe best news to come out of the bowlers’ camp was legspinner Jubair Hossain’s five-wicket haul against Dhaka Division, his first five-for in four years. Jubair had been a neglected figure in Bangladesh cricket ever since he burst on to the scene in 2014.He played only a single first-class game last season, and largely spent the Dhaka Premier League List-A competition on the bench. In a bid to revive his career, Jubair has been working with a legspin bowling coach in the last six months.Among the fast bowlers, Shahadat Hossain took his best match figures in ten years, finishing with 8 for 106 against Chittagong, and Shafiul Islam took a five-wicket haul in the first innings against a strong Khulna batting side.Meanwhile, Afif Hossain doubled his first-class wickets tally with a seven-wicket haul against Rajshahi. Having dismissed Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Junaid Siddique in the top-order, he removed the last five wickets, although Rajshahi had a healthy 352-run lead.Best matchRajshahi Division knocked down Khulna Division, the defending champions, for 210 in their first innings in Rajshahi, a body blow for the side that has won the last three NCL tournaments.Rajshahi’s reply with the bat was even better, as they took a 342-run lead having posted 552 in the first innings. Mizanur Rahman and Jahurul Islam struck centuries, and with several substantial partnerships throughout the innings, Khulna had little respite.But their powerful batting line-up responded to the deficit superbly, with Anamul Haque and Tushar Imran putting together 250 runs for the third wicket and taking the fight into the fourth day with eight wickets intact. Even after they fell in the space of four overs, Soumya Sarkar struck a quickfire century, only his second in first-class cricket and one that came after more than two years.Khulna fought back hard and finished the game with 2.5 points. Rajshahi took 4.8 points, but they would treat this game as an opportunity lost.Points to noteTwelve batsmen scored 13 centuries in the NCL’s first round, an unprecedented start to a cricket season in Bangladesh. Almost the entire front-row of the country’s first-class batsmen made good starts.The bowling, however, wasn’t as impressive, with only two fast bowlers, Shahadat and Shafiul, standing out with wickets. The usual cast of left-arm spinners took five-wicket hauls, although Jubair’s first five-for in four years was a point of interest.Players to watchAmong the Bangladesh players who were part of the Asia Cup squad, Soumya Sarkar and Nazmul Islam stood out with a century and five-wicket haul respectively.The national selectors would also look at Anamul Haque (who was dropped from the Asia Cup squad), Mizanur Rahman, Abdul Mazid and Shadman Islam for Bangladesh’s opening slot, as all four struck centuries.Naeem Islam and Jahurul Islam also reminded the selectors about their form with centuries, while Sohag Gazi started the season with a century and four wickets in the match.

The right-arm medium pacer had suffered what has now been confirmed as a right abductor tendon injury on Test debut

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Oct-2018Medium-pacer Shardul Thakur, whose Test debut was hampered by injury, has been ruled out of the ODI series against West Indies and will be replaced by Umesh Yadav. Thakur suffered a right abductor tendon injury and had bowled only 10 deliveries on the opening morning of the second Test against West Indies in Hyderabad.As soon as he delivered that 10th ball, it had seemed like his front foot had buckled upon landing and the pain was evident. At that point, it was said to be a pain in the groin area. Thakur was subsequently taken away for scans, putting his participation in the rest of the Test in doubt. He did not return to bowl in the rest of the match but came out to bat at No. 11 and faced 12 deliveries.Though only five ODIs and seven T20Is old, apart from his only Test, Thakur has had an injury-riddled start to his international career. He had been ruled out of the Asia Cup too with right hip and groin soreness after playing only one match, against Hong Kong. Before that, he had played only the final ODI on the tour of England, spending the entire Test series that followed on the bench.Umesh hasn’t been a consistent part of the ODI side recently. He played two ODIs in England but was left out of the Asia Cup squad. He played three one-day games for Vidarbha in the meantime but could not manage more than a wicket in each of the games, finishing with figures of 1 for 72, 1 for 70 and 0 for 39.Left to shoulder the burden as India’s only fast bowler in the absence of Thakur in Hyderabad, Umesh impressed with a match haul of 10 for 133, his career-best. It was a performance that earned him the Man-of-the-Match award, and a vote of confidence from the captain Virat Kohli for the Australia tour at the end of the year.

While England find themselves within touching distance of their second world title in 15 months, Australia are in their fifth straight World T20 final

The Preview by Annesha Ghosh24-Nov-2018

Big Picture

Football didn’t bring it home for England, but cricket well might. And that may happen before their football manager Gareth Southgate’s waistcoat-inspired Christmas jumper becomes a nationwide rage.England’s entry into the first-ever standalone Women’s World T20 final came about in a manner similar to that of the other finalist – and arguably their most-fancied rivals – Australia. Both sides thumped their opponents convincingly in their completed group-stage fixtures, save for one game each. England fluffed their lines in the frantic last leg of their botched defence against hosts West Indies while Australia got a pasting from India.The semi-finals were rematches of the last two women’s global-tournament finals, but Australia managed to reverse their result with Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry pinning West Indies onto the mat in the presence of an 8,000-strong crowd in Antigua. England caused India to implode in a crunch game.Since taking over the captaincy reins from Charlotte Edwards, after England’s semi-final loss to Australia in the 2016 World T20, Heather Knight has executed Mark Robinson’s template of how to win “scrappy” games (as Knight put it) to near perfection. After a humdinger of an end to their title-winning campaign at a full-house at Lord’s, they now find themselves within touching distance of their second world title in 15 months. But their unpredictability as a fielding unit – sloppy one night, sublime the other – could undermine Anya Shrubsole’s ever-looming, big, booming inswingers, or the form Natalie Sciver and Amy Jones finally found in the semi-final amid an overall lacklustre performance with the bat from the line-up through the tournament.Australia hold the clear edge. In 2018, they’ve blanked India in India 3-0 in an ODI series, blown England away in the final of the T20I tri-series that followed, and after a six-month hiatus from international cricket they assigned New Zealand and Pakistan to a similar fate to stroll into the World T20 as overwhelming favourites. On the eve of their fifth straight World T20 final, there’s little to suggest that they’ve shed that tag.After things “turned to custard” in the World Cup semi-final last year, this Australian team, under coach Matthew Mott, has been spot-on. Alyssa Healy has hit the form of her life at the top of the order, Meg Lanning and vice-captain Rachael Haynes have cushioned the middle order, and Ellyse Perry has adapted to her No. 7 position with reasonable success. Their bowling attack, led by Perry, has been as commanding, with consistent contributions from pacers Delissa Kimmince and Megan Schutt and the young spin contingent.With a first ever standalone WBBL final slated for Australia Day 2019, and the Women’s T20 World Cup at home in 2020, a win in Antigua promises to be the cherry on top in what is an exciting for time for women’s cricket in the country.

Form guide

Australia WLWWW (completed matches, most recent first)
England WLWWW

In the spotlight

Alyssa Healy wasn’t just talking herself up when she declared in March she was “always probably going to play more aggressively than others”. A year that kicked off with a maiden Women’s Big Bash League ton in January, led to a first international century two months later, and now a stellar World T20 showing. She goes into the final as the tournament’s leading run-getter, with 203 runs from four innings at an average of 67.66 and a strike rate of 149.26. She also has the second-most wicketkeeping dismissals in the tournament, and four Player-of-the-Match awards in five matches. She was concussed in the final group match, but that didn’t stop her from putting in another award-winning show in the semis. England need to get her out early.Four days after she left the field having bowled her allocation inside 15 overs, Kirstie Gordon overcame back pain and became India’s pain in the neck. She took out the dangerous Harmanpreet Kaur in a double-strike in the 16th over of the semi-final. But that is only one of the highlights of Gordon’s stellar run in the tournament. The 21-year-old kick-started her England career with 3 for 16 and a Player-of-the Match award on debut last week. This, after forgoing an opportunity to represent Scotland in the World T20 qualifier in July. Her England call-up had come on the back of an impressive showing on the county circuit and a charts-topping 17 wickets from 11 innings for Loughborough Lightning in the Kia Super League. She goes into the final topping England’s wickets charts, trailing only West Indies’ Deandra Dottin on the overall list.Heather Knight and her deputy Anya Shrubsole look on•Getty Images

Team news

Both finalists went with unchanged sides into the semi-final. Chances of tinkering with their combinations for the title clash appear slim.England (probable): 1 Danielle Wyatt, 2 Tammy Beaumont, 3 Amy Jones (wk), 4 Natalie Sciver, 5 Heather Knight (capt), 6 Lauren Winfield, 7 Sophia Dunkley, 8 Anya Shrubsole, 9 Danielle Hazell, 10 Sophie Ecclestone, 11 Kirstie GordonAustralia (probable): 1 Beth Mooney 2 Alyssa Healy (wk) 3 Meg Lanning (capt) 4 Ashleigh Gardner 5 Elyse Villani 6 Rachael Haynes 7 Ellyse Perry 8 Sophie Molineux 9 Delissa Kimmince 10 Georgia Wareham 11 Megan Schutt

Pitch and conditions

With the North Sound track offering both turn and grip, runs will be at a premium. Given the 8pm start, dew could be a factor, but anything close to 140 should be a competitive target to set.

Stats and trivia

• Ellyse Perry is one away from 100 wickets in T20Is, and 49 away from 1,000 runs
• Alyssa Healy is 55 runs away from surpassing Meg Lanning’s tally of 257 in 2014, which is the highest aggregate at a single edition of the Women’s World T20
• England left-arm spinner Kirstie Gordon and Australia quicks Megan Schutt and Perry are joint-second on the tournament’s wickets charts, with eight scalps each
• Healy is three dismissals away from equalling India’s Taniya Bhatia’s tally of 11 and England’s Sarah Taylor’s 73 – the most dismissals by a wicketkeeper in the World T20 this year and in T20Is overall, respectively
• Healy has won four Player-of-the-Match awards from five games so far. That’s already the most ever in a World T20, in men’s or women’s cricket, and one short of Debbie Hockley’s all-time World Cup record: five awards in the 1997 ODI World Cup”

Quotes

“It’s probably not been the smoothest ride to get to the final, but the main thing is we’re here and we’ve got another opportunity to have a shot at winning a global trophy again. And what an achievement it would be, how special it would be, if we could be double white-ball champions.”
“Coming up against England, they’re great rivals of ours. We play them a lot and really respect them as a team. Hopefully it’s a great game but we can come out on top.”

This paves the way for a transition back to autonomous governance following more than three years of oversight from an ICC Americas caretaker administration

Peter Della Penna08-Jan-2019USA Cricket’s application to join the ICC as the 105th member and 93rd Associate has been formally approved by the ICC, paving the way for a transition back to autonomous governance following more than three years of oversight from an ICC Americas caretaker administration.”This is the culmination of a great deal of hard work and I would like to congratulate the Chair of USA Cricket, Paraag Marathe, and the Board, on this important milestone and wish them all the very best for the future,” ICC chief executive David Richardson said.Along with Fiji, USA was one of the first two Associate members of the ICC after joining under the auspices of the USA Cricket Association. But USACA was suspended for the third and final time in 2015 for a litany of governance issues before finally being expelled once and for all in June 2017.A new governing body, USA Cricket, was formed later in 2017 and their inaugural elections took place in the summer of 2018. Their board of directors was fully installed last September following the appointment of three independent directors. The ICC stated in a press release that a transition plan has been approved for the USA Cricket board to take back full control of administrative affairs from the ICC Americas caretaker administration within the next month under the leadership of board chairman Paraag Marathe.”USA Cricket was established to bring together the cricket community in the United States, develop the game and unlock the sport’s undoubted potential for growth,” Marathe said. “Today’s confirmation that it is the ICC’s newest Member is a significant staging post on that journey.”As David mentioned, this recognition is not just the work of our Board but is a result of thousands of volunteer hours over the last 18 months and USA Cricket appreciates the time, effort and sacrifice of all those involved.”USA Cricket is now eligible to receive funding in accordance with the ICC development funding policy like other Associates. However, they had received exceptional funding support – approximately $1.5 million per year according to sources – over the last several years via the ICC Americas caretaker administration.Separately, USA Cricket now has the authority to sanction domestic and international cricket in the United States, which is expected to be a reliable revenue source. Cricket West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave said in August that as part of a commitment to play at least two T20Is per year in North America through 2023, they had paid a sanctioning fee of approximately $100,000 per match to use Florida as a neutral venue.USA Cricket will also receive revenue for continued sanctioning of Caribbean Premier League matches should the CPL continue to stage games in Florida in 2018 as they have for the past three summers. ICC had overtaken authority to sanction events in the USA – such as the Cricket All-Stars tour, CPL matches and India’s T20I series in Florida against West Indies in 2016 – in the time-frame that USACA was suspended and expelled, though all sanctioning fee funds acquired were channeled back to America to fund initiatives such as the USA Cricket combines.USA Cricket recently announced job openings for Under-19 and Women’s head coach positions and a search is also underway for a chief executive as part of efforts to expand administrative staff. It follows a commercial tender put out in December to solicit proposals for the creation of a domestic T20 franchise competition with a target launch date by the summer of 2021.

The fast bowler, who has made a comeback from major back problems this season, picked up the injury against Melbourne Renegades

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jan-2019Fast bowler James Pattinson has suffered another injury setback after a side strain ruled him out of the remainder of the Big Bash.Pattinson, who plays for Brisbane Heat, picked up the injury against Melbourne Renegades on Thursday. He had bowled with eye-catching pace during the tournament, collecting four wickets in five matches with an economy rate of 6.76.The Heat are currently second-bottom of the table with two wins from six matches as the tournament reaches the halfway mark.This season has marked Pattinson’s return from major back surgery in late 2017 and his workload was carefully managed during the first part of the Sheffield Shield season with Victoria where he claimed nine wickets in four matches.He has been talked about as a potential for the Ashes tour later this year if his body holds up to the demands of first-class cricket so he will hope he can recover for the end-of-season Sheffield Shield stint when it resumes after the Big Bash in late February.Early in the Big Bash, Pattinson was involved on a controversial incident when he was given run out by the third umpire against Adelaide Strikers even though his bat was clearly across the line. The Strikers withdrew their appeal to allow Pattinson to continue his innings.

Head coach suggests Archer could be picked for England’s ODI series against Pakistan in early May

Andrew Miller02-Mar-2019Trevor Bayliss, England’s head coach, has dropped the strongest hint yet that Jofra Archer is in line to make their World Cup squad this summer, after suggesting he could be picked for the ODI series against Pakistan in early May.Speaking to Sky Sports at the end of a chastening day for England’s ODI team in St Lucia, Bayliss indicated that, while Archer is unlikely to feature in the provisional World Cup squad that needs to be named by April 23, there will be time to amend their final 15 before their campaign begins, against South Africa at The Oval, on May 30.Archer, who was born in Barbados but has a British passport, recently benefited from a change to the ECB’s residency qualification period – from seven years to three – which means that he will be available for selection come the start of the English season, having spent the required 210 days on English soil in the past 12 months.And while his experience in 50-over cricket remains limited – just 14 List A games in his career to date – his star quality on the T20 circuit makes him a hugely attractive proposition for an England set-up that has had its vulnerabilities exposed in the course of a run-laden ODI series in the Caribbean.With his combination of genuine pace and subtle variations, allied to outstanding athleticism in the field and a hard-hitting ability with the bat that would slot seamlessly into England’s allrounder-laden lower-middle order, Archer’s stock has risen in the past few weeks, not least while Chris Gayle – with a series tally of 424 runs in 316 balls – has been climbing into the current incumbents in England’s bowling attack.”We’ve got to have the squad in by April 23, but there’s a month after that to change it,” Bayliss said. “There’s the Pakistan series before then, so we’ll have discussions about whether he plays, because the absolute final date [for the squad] is May 22.”While England’s defeat in the final ODI may mean they relinquish their No. 1 ranking ahead of the World Cup – depending on how India fare in their own series against Australia – there is no expectation of wholesale change to the squad.With the batting set in stone, the only realistic changes are in the bowling department. However, Mark Wood’s impressive pace and sustained fitness in the Caribbean has all but confirmed that he will make the cut.”It’s great that he’s free of injury,” said Bayliss. “We are seeing some of the best of him and what’s he’s capable of when he’s free of injury. It’s exciting for Mark and English cricket, but we’ve got to make sure we look after him.”That potentially leaves a choice to be made between Archer and the likes of Liam Plunkett – whose experience remains invaluable but whose fitness is an issue – and Tom Curran, whose chance to press his own case was rather undermined by the speed of England’s defeat in St Lucia.Bayliss admitted that the Pakistan series, which comprises a one-off T20 and five ODIs between May 5 and 20, would be used as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup, but that there could be some room for late decision-making.”We’d like it to be as close as it can be [to the final 15],” he said, “but we could try someone like Jofra in those matches and make a decision one way or another.”Reflecting on the lessons learnt in the Caribbean, Bayliss admitted that the naivety of England’s batting in St Lucia was a concern, but took comfort from the fact that there are very few wickets back home that offer the sort of steepling bounce that derailed his batsmen both here and in the Test series.”It was a poor performance,” he said. “There were some woeful shots, and obviously after that we were never in the game.”We still haven’t adapted,” he added. “We didn’t adapt at all. We found during the Test series that the bouncier wickets were our Achilles’ heel, we don’t often get to play on too many bouncy wickets in England, and it’s certainly not a strength of ours.”With 200 on the board, we’ve have been right in the game. We needed a couple of guys to get their heads down, whether that meant letting balls go for 10-15 overs and building a partnership. We could have got there, but we kept on making the same mistakes.”It’s the good and the bad. And the gulf between our good times and our bad matches was huge. But in a couple of games [in this series] we’ve come out on top and played well under pressure, so a bit more of that is what we need.”

India’s stand-in T20I captain also said running between the wickets was a ‘major difference’ between her team and others

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Mar-20193:02

Our domestic players need to be more fearless – Mandhana

India women’s stand-in captain for the T20I series, Smriti Mandhana, has urged domestic players, particularly the batsmen, to step up and play more “fearlessly” to bridge the gap between domestic and international levels.Mandhana’s comments came after India scored a modest 111 for 8 against England in the second T20I, which they lost by five wickets to go 2-0 down in the three-match series. In the first T20I, India had been restricted to 119 for 6 in reply to England’s 160 for 4.”I think if you look at it, the batters we get in domestic [circuit], they face very different bowling and fielding attack to international cricket,” Mandhana said. “There is a huge gap between international and domestic cricket. That gap needs to be lessened. Our domestic circuit needs to step up. There should be a bit of fearlessness in domestic circuit because if you start playing fearless cricket in domestic, that is the only way you are going to play the same way in international cricket.”If you look at our domestic scores in T20s, it is generally around 110-120. I think we all need to go back, step up our domestic circuit, take those scores to 140-150. If that is happening then all the batters will come with the same mindset of playing a fearless brand of cricket. Fearless doesn’t mean careless. There is a thin line between fearless and careless. I think we need to play fearless.”Smriti Mandhana smashes one in the nets•PTI

India’s woeful form in the shortest format continued after they were whitewashed 3-0 in New Zealand recently. In that series too, weaknesses in India’s batting were exposed, such as over-reliance on Mandhana, who scored two half-centuries, Jemimah Rodrigues and an out-of-form Harmanpreet Kaur. Only two India batsmen – Mandhana and Rodrigues – scored over 50 runs in the entire T20I series.When asked how the domestic players could express themselves more, Mandhana said, “We have spoken to all the batters, [Coach WV] Raman sir has spoken to them. Even me, Mithu (Mithali Raj) and Harry (Harmanpreet) have spoken to all the domestic batters regarding how the approach should be. We are definitely working on it. It is going to take some time because still our batters have the fear of getting out.”I think we need to leave that fear, including me. We need to just get off those fear and select the areas [to hit]. Our batters are not going out there and selecting the areas in terms of which balls to hit. I think another major difference between other teams and our team is running between the wickets. We either play a dot ball or boundary. We don’t take lot a of singles. Definitely we will be looking to work on reducing the dot-ball percentage, taking more singles and rotating the strike.”The third and final T20I of the series will be played on Saturday in Guwahati.

Jasprit Bumrah’s discipline and wickets shared among the rest meant that the Australians lost 6 for 54 in 77 balls in the final overs

The Report by Daniel Brettig13-Mar-20195:01

India’s middle order still a concern?

A decade ago Australia won an ODI series in India despite a surfeit of injuries. Numerous stronger sides have left empty handed since then, so it was with a great deal of satisfaction that Aaron Finch’s team sealed this victory from 0-2 down, the first time an Australian side had ever done so in 50-over matches, with a disciplined, determined and tactically astute defence of 272 in Delhi.Being 0-2 down is something the Australians have become used to in more than one sense over the past year, missing the names of David Warner and Steven Smith from their team sheet as a result of the Newlands scandal.But there was much to be savoured in winning a series over one of the World Cup fancies in the final assignment before the Smith and Warner bans expire at the end of this month. Their reintegration meeting in the UAE later this week will take place in the afterglow of a first series victory in seven attempts dating back to January 2017, at the same time inflicting India’s first home ODI defeat since 2015.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Tellingly, two of the men to stand up in the former leaders’ absence were those who were directly replacing them: Usman Khawaja gliding to a second century of the series to further press his case for World Cup inclusion, and Peter Handscomb providing more than useful support having been promoted to No. 3 after Shaun Marsh was dropped. Finch and the national team coach Justin Langer have spent some months feeling like they were short of viable options; now they find themselves spoiled for batting choice.Equally the Australian effort with the ball and in the field showed an expanding tactical and technical repertoire, as Adam Zampa and Nathan Lyon combined artfully as spin bowlers on a slow, low Feroz Shah Kotla pitch, only a matter of weeks after it appeared that Langer and company had belatedly acknowledged the need to find wicket-taking spinners for the middle overs. Masterful too was Pat Cummins, giving barely anything away, while Marcus Stoinis returned from injury to enjoy his He-Man moment when coaxing an edge from Virat Kohli.India had not lost any ODI series at home since going down 3-2 to South Africa in October 2015. That result arrived only a matter of months after Australia won the previous World Cup so was not considered a major reverse. However this defeat, on the cusp of the IPL, has left India with precious little time to iron out an increasing number of wrinkles. By contrast the Australians can now look forward to a further five matches against Pakistan.Marcus Stoinis is fairly pleased with his work, don’t you think?•Getty Images

India’s chase, and defeat from 2-0 up for the first time in history, opened more than a few questions for Kohli and the coach Ravi Shastri, not least team balance after only three specialist batsmen were selected. With Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli dismissed cheaply, Rohit Sharma seemed weighed down by the task before him, twice offering chances spurned off Zampa’s bowling before charging wildly to be well stumped by Alex Carey. MS Dhoni’s resting for the final two matches provided opportunities for others in India’s middle order, but they were far from taken.All this was after Khawaja’s dismissal in the 33rd over of Australia’s own innings had seen the game change markedly. Jasprit Bumrah’s discipline and wickets shared among the rest meant that the team lost 6 for 54 in 77 balls just as they were looking to accelerate. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja were the chief wicket-takers for India, while Ashton Turner and Stoinis were irritated to have failed to go on from their starts. Jhye Richardson and Cummins put on a pesky 34 runs in 2.4 overs and ultimately ensured the Australians would be happy with their total.Despite Australia’s record-breaking chase in Mohali, led by Turner, Finch chose to bat first and attempt to put scoreboard pressure on India, who also made a couple of changes, calling in Jadeja and Mohammed Shami while dropping Yuzvendra Chahal and KL Rahul.Shami and Bhuvneshwar floated the ball full in the early overs in search of swing, but slipped obligingly into the driving zones of Khawaja and Finch as the tourists made a fluent start. Khawaja in particular was punishing on balls either too straight or too short, while Finch was for the most part content to bat in his partner’s slipstream. Neither batsman was overly troubled as they rattled to 76, and it took an excellent delivery from Jadeja, spinning past the outside edge of Finch’s bat and clattering off stump, to separate them.Adam Zampa is starting to bamboozle more and more batsmen in international cricket•Getty Images

Handscomb was quickly into stride however, maintaining the momentum from his Mohali innings by finding the boundary while rotating strike expertly with Khawaja, who was soon saluting his second century of the series. It was his third in international cricket since he returned from knee surgery with a hundred against Sri Lanka in Canberra last month.At 175 for 1 with 17.1 overs left, a major score seemed likely, but when Khawaja picked out Kohli at cover, causing the Indian captain to hurl the ball into the turf as he released his frustration, the game began to shift in momentum.The ball was ageing, the pitch slowing, and new entrants to the crease found the going harder. Glenn Maxwell shaped to hit Jadeja inside out but could not clear cover, Handscomb’s innings ended when he was surprised by extra lift from a Shami delivery he wanted to run down to third man, and Turner’s follow-up innings to Mohali ended when he miscued Kuldeep Yadav to long-on after he had lifted the left-arm wristspinner for six.At the other end Stoinis soaked up 16 dot balls out of 27 faced before dragging Bhuvneshwar onto the stumps, but Richardson and Cummins were able to pull together a priceless stand in the closing overs to push Australia’s total past 270. From a point where Kohli’s men had looked likely to need to beat the previous record chase at the ground – 281 in 1982 – they were ultimately left with a target of more modest dimensions.Kedar Jadhav punches through covers•Getty Images

Much depended on how the hosts could start, and though there was a sprinkling of boundaries against the new ball, Cummins’ dismissal of Dhawan opened up the opportunity to hunt Kohli’s wicket while the ball was still new. Cummins and Richardson were unable to find a way through, but Stoinis, bowling across the seam and finding extra bounce, did the trick by finding a thin edge through to an exultant Carey.Rishabh Pant threatened for a while, but was becalmed and then dismissed by Lyon’s offbreaks, prodding at a delivery that turned and bounced, offering a catch to Turner at slip. Vijay Shankar also made a start, only to sky Zampa to Khawaja at deep midwicket, and when Rohit was dropped off consecutive Zampa deliveries – first a thin edge through to Carey and then a catch by Maxwell at cover – Indian frustration was clear.Zampa did not have to wait long to celebrate, for in his next over Rohit ran down the wicket, was beaten between bat and pad and clearly stumped by Carey after he had stayed admirably low with the ball. Ravindra Jadeja had not scored when he stretched forward and was beaten by a Zampa wrong’un with Carey again in position for a stumping, this time achieved by the barest of margins as the left-hander’s foot was deemed to be stuck on the line and not behind it.That left India 132 for 6 and seemingly in quicksand. Bhuvneshwar and Kedar Jadhav got the equation down to 50 off 25 balls with a nifty union of 91 that brought the crowd to life and had Finch nervously drying the ball as late evening dew began to settle.But Cummins returned to have Bhuvneshwar miscuing to mid-off, and the very next ball Jadhav was well pouched by a running Maxwell off Richardson, leaving Stoinis to complete formalities by knocking out Kuldeep’s middle stump. At the boundary’s edge Langer, so frazzled for much of the past 10 months, raised two arms in triumph.

David Wiese’s unbeaten 92 steered Sussex over the line as England’s Liam Plunkett endured more ill treatment

David Hopps19-Apr-2019Jofra Archer’s instant selection for England has put every bowler in their preliminary World Cup squad on red alert. One false move and they could lose their place in the biggest tournament in England for a generation.Liam Plunkett has already made two false moves, beginning with seven overs for 67 against Gloucestershire in Bristol as Surrey lost their opening Royal London Cup match by 147 runs. Not the greatest limited-overs debut after his move from Yorkshire on a three-year deal.Against Sussex on a sunny Good Friday (there’s a misnomer for Plunkett if ever there was one), he had another match to forget; on Archer’s home ground, this time six overs bled 57 runs. Even that represented something of a recovery as Luke Wright thrashed 18 from his first four balls. Another over later went for 17 – Chris Jordan this time his nemesis. Archer might be at the IPL but absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.You felt that Sussex were targeting Plunkett, not respecting him, as they chased a demanding 275 to win. Not a good look in a World Cup year. When things go well, he has possessed the firepower so valued by England. When things go awry, he responds with a little facial shrug that might have been designed by a cricketing psychologist. Keep yourself together, it says, it’s just one of those things. That survival expression is in high demand at the moment.For Surrey, there was more gloom, too, as they fell by two wickets with 11 balls to spare, David Wiese playing the outstanding innings of the day with an unbeaten 92 from 81 balls. His shot selection was crisp and nervelessly executed, the one batsman to look totally at home on a slow surface. Twice, he crashed his fellow South African Morne Morkel through point. Later, a drive against the spin (and there was a little) in the penultimate ball of Gareth Batty’s challenging spell, was another key moment.Plunkett has been the leading wicket-taker among England’s ODI pace bowlers since the last World Cup but life is not always fair when you are 34. His pace has declined and his back-of-a-length stock ball is not quite the force it was. Even allowing for Eoin Morgan’s loyalty towards the players who have made England the No. 1 one-day side in the world, Plunkett may suspect the World Cup has come a year too late.Or perhaps Tom Curran will have to make way. Not because he is the oldest, but because he is the youngest. But he is as spiky as his haircut, a fine death bowler with a rich array of slower balls as was emphasised by his 3 for 37. “Tom Curran bowled beautifully tonight,” Wiese said. “He was the pick of the bowlers. You just had to give him the respect he deserved.”Curran reverse-swung the ball markedly, too, late in the innings, even though it is still mid-April and the outfields are green and moist. It was a wonderful V-sign to administrators who have introduced two white balls in an innings and killed one of cricket’s great attractions. Fielders told to keep the ball up, and not to fling it into old pitches to encourage reverse swing, should keep doing it anyway. Let’s see them suspend an entire team.Wiese, batting with a long Sussex tail, appeared to be running out of partners when his side, chasing 275, slumped to 232 for 7 and then 255 for 8 after Luke Wright’s 69. But he stood firm to make his highest score for Sussex in 50-over cricket.Counties will surely reflect that they should play Surrey on the slowest pitch they can muster. Jason Gillespie, Sussex’s coach, likes pace and carry, but it’s a fair bet he doesn’t like it as much when Surrey possess an armoury of batsmen who can clear Hove’s tight boundaries with a mishit.Mark Stoneman and Will Jacks then gave a solid base to the Surrey innings, with a second wicket stand worth 84 in 16 overs, before Stoneman fell lbw to Garton for a 58-ball 38. Jacks is a stately hitter. He reached his fifty from 52 balls when he lifted Danny Briggs for a straight six, repeating an earlier blow against Will Beer. On a pitch with pace one could almost imagine he might even threaten the drinkers in the Sussex Cricketer beer garden. But he was out before real havoc ensued, caught at long-off attacking Briggs once more.Rory Burns, attempting to reverse sweep, was bowled by Beer before Ben Foakes (64) and Ollie Pope put on 63 for the fifth wicket. But Mir Hamza, with four wickets, benefited from a collection of leg-side lofts from a Surrey batting line-up which once again has begun the 50-over season in disappointing fashion.

India captain makes intervention from the middle after “Cheater!” chants directed at Steven Smith

Melinda Farrell at The Oval09-Jun-2019Virat Kohli expressed his sympathy for Steven Smith and apologised on behalf of the crowd after the former Australia captain was heckled by the India dominated crowd at the Oval.Kohli was batting when Smith was sent to field on the boundary at one stage of India’s innings. Spectators near Smith started chanting, “Cheater!” repeatedly but Kohli, in the middle, gestured to the India insignia on his helmet, pointed at Smith and clapped in an effort to quiet the crowd.”Just because there’s so many Indian fans here, I just didn’t want them to set a bad example, to be honest, because he didn’t do anything to be booed in my opinion,” Kohli said. “He’s just playing cricket. He was just standing there, and I felt bad because if I was in a position where something had happened with me and I had apologised, I accepted it and I came back and still I would get booed, I wouldn’t like it, either.”So I just felt for him, and I told him, I’m sorry on behalf of the crowd because I’ve seen that happen in a few earlier games, as well, and in my opinion that’s not acceptable.”Smith and David Warner have been booed and heckled repeatedly on the field since their return to the Australian team following their one-year bans over the ball-tampering incident at Newlands. But while Kohli has had various run-ins with Smith – most memorably when he suggested Smith had deliberately sought guidance from the dressing room while deciding whether to review a decision during Australia’s Test tour of India in 2017 – he said he felt for Smith in his current circumstance.”Look, I think what’s happened has happened like long back, the guy is back, he’s trying to play well for his side,” Kohli said. “Even in the IPL I saw him, it’s not good to see someone down like that, to be honest. We’ve had issues in the past. We’ve had a few arguments on the field. But you don’t want to see a guy feeling that heat every time he goes out to play.”What’s happened has happened. Everyone has known that. He’s come back. He’s worked hard. He’s playing well for his side now.”Glenn Maxwell became aware of Kohli’s gesture after the match and said he was not surprised with the aggressive Kohli on the field being different to the person they know away from the heat of the battle.”It’s nice to hear that, I’m not surprised by it because we do get along as individuals really well with him off the field,” Maxwell said. “What happens on the field, that’s for everyone else to write about but all we want to do is play our cricket hard. That’s what he does, gets in the opposition’s face which is great, but off the field I’m not surprised by that all.”