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Pakistan grab unexpected lifeline to make the semi-finals

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Shaheen Afridi took four wickets to restrict Bangladesh to 127 in a knockout clash in Adelaide

Alagappan Muthu06-Nov-2022
A team under pressure. A captain refusing to give up. The odds piling up against them. And then one fine day, the stars align.Pakistan cranked up the deja vu in Adelaide on Sunday as they sailed into the T20 World Cup semi-finals. If anyone is still working on time travel, please follow this cricket team. They’ve made it 1992 again.This game wouldn’t even have played out this way if not for Netherlands shocking South Africa. Some people might call that destiny.At the receiving end of this unreal series of events were Bangladesh and Shakib Al Hasan. His wicket turned this game, adjudged lbw on field, and upheld on DRS even though he was absolutely certain he’d nicked the ball.Bangladesh were 70 for 1 after 10 overs. Then they lost their captain and could manage only 127 for 8. Advantage Pakistan.Wasim Akram lite
Shaheen Shah Afridi admitted he’s not 100% at this tournament. Someone should splice that press conference video with the ball he bowled to Mosaddek Hossain. Left-arm. High pace. Around the wicket. Reverse swing. Bowled ‘iiiiimmmmmmm!Growing up, he would have shoved Wasim Akram videos straight into his veins. Now, he’s recreated his idol’s most famous dismissal on the grandest stage with everything on the line. How many people get to do that? How many people are good enough to do that?The good, the bad and the collapse
Najmul Hossain Shanto (54 off 48) was smiling. His leading edge had pretty much bunny-hopped for four over point. That was the first over. Back when Bangladesh had gained a sizeable advantage batting first on a used pitch where shot-making got harder as time went on.Even halfway through, they were sitting pretty. Then it happened.Shadab Khan looped one up over the batter’s eyeline. Shakib accepted the invitation and came charging out of his crease. The legspinner’s dip deceived him. A big hit turned into a scramble to put bat on ball.Shakib thought he did. Umpire Adrian Holdstock on field didn’t. DRS came into play, and everything turned murky. UltraEdge showed a spike, but the third umpire Langton Rusere thought that was bat hitting ground. Only there seemed a fraction of daylight between those two things.The on-field decision was upheld. And Shakib was distraught. He kept standing there, swinging his arms around, wondering what was going on. The Bangladesh captain had to literally be pushed out of the field.That wicket was part of a procession: 6 for 36.Mohammad Haris played a crucial innings of 31 off 18 balls•Associated Press

Another expensive no-ball
The Adelaide pitch wasn’t great for strokeplay. Batters kept trying to hit out but it just wasn’t happening. On the broadcast, a telling stat came up: the strike rate when pace was on was 122, but it was only 28 when pace was off.That kept Bangladesh in it. That’s the reason this game was even alive. Remember, earlier in the day, on this very surface, South Africa came undone against Netherlands’ slower balls to turn this into a quarter-final.Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan put on their first fifty partnership of this T20 World Cup. But Bangladesh fought back.They were an angry team. A team raging against the way the world was working. At one point, when an lbw didn’t go Bangladesh’s way, Shakib grabbed his cap and flung it into the turf. They could easily have been distracted by these things but they kept at it.They pushed this game into the death – and then unravelled.Taskin Ahmed, who could have had a wicket in his first over if not for a bad fumble from the wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan, who has carried his team on his back in these Super 12s, overstepped.The equation was 30 off 28. They had taken a wicket five balls ago. The pressure was piling on Pakistan.Then – much like in that game against India – a team that desperately needed a free-hit got one. And 21-year old Mohammad Haris whacked it for six.Pakistan are into the knockouts now. They even returned the favour to Netherlands, giving them a great chance of finishing fourth in Group 2 which ensures they will play the next T20 World Cup.Now, if India beat Zimbabwe in the last group game on Sunday, Pakistan will travel to Sydney, where once again conditions have been very helpful to slow bowling. Conditions that could favour Babar and his men if they go up against New Zealand in the first semi-final.

Burger and de Zorzi get CSA contracts; Nortje and de Kock omitted from list

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Andile Phehlukwayo has also returned to the national fold, as Cricket South Africa announced their squad for the 2024-25 season

Firdose Moonda26-Mar-2024Nandre Burger and Tony de Zorzi have earned their first national contracts while Andile Phehlukwayo has returned to the national fold, as Cricket South Africa announced their squad for the 2024-25 season.Dean Elgar (retired), Quinton de Kock, Sisanda Magala, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell and Keegan Petersen have all dropped off the list which has reduced from 20 players to 18 for the upcoming season. Gerald Coetzee, who was upgraded to a full contract midway through the last period, has been retained.The most notable of those omissions is Nortje, who has not played an international since suffering a stress fracture in September 2023. He missed out on the ODI World Cup and the entire home summer but came back earlier this month for two domestic T20 matches and is expected to play at the IPL. Nortje is late to this year’s tournament following the birth of his first child last week, and may still come into consideration for the T20 World Cup.”He requested he wants to focus on T20 cricket for the next few months. He is not retiring from any internationals. He will avail himself for T20 internationals. Towards the end of the year, he will look to play ODIs again,” Enoch Nkwe, CSA’s director of cricket told ESPNcricinfo. “We will be monitoring him and around to help him with whatever he needs.”Another big name absentee is de Kock, who walked away from 50-over cricket after last year’s World Cup but at the time said he would remain available to play in T20 tournaments this year. De Kock did not play in South Africa’s three match series against India and opted for a deal at the Big Bash League instead, where he fared poorly. He scored 104 runs in six innings with a top score of 30, and returned home to a slightly better SA20 where he hit 213 runs in 12 innings, including one fifty.De Kock, who is currently at the IPL with Lucknow Super Giants, was allowed time off for personal reasons during the first few rounds of the CSA domestic T20 challenge – all other nationally contracted players apart from David Miller, who was getting married, were obliged to participate.”He will be available for the T20 World Cup but he understands he needs to perform. He wants to earn his place,” Nkwe said.Anrich Nortje has not played an international match since September 2023•Getty Images

Magala has not played any cricket since last October and was ruled out of the ODI World Cup squad with a knee injury, Parnell continues to play for Western Province but spent parts of the season out of action with a shoulder injury and Petersen’s Test career seems to be hanging by a thread after he was dropped twice in two seasons. His biggest competitor in the Test squad, David Bedingham, has not been contracted. Kyle Verreynne, the current Test wicket-keeper, has also not been contracted.Instead, CSA handed out new deals to Burger, who debuted across all formats last year, and de Zorzi, who made his Test and ODI bow and recalled Phehlukwayo after dropping him from last year’s list. Phehlukwayo was part of the ODI World Cup squad, and played his first matches in the format in almost a year in 2023.The core of the contract list is unchanged, with Test and ODI captain Temba Bavuma and T20I captain Aiden Markram headlining the list and Miller and Heinrich Klaasen both contracted as white-ball only players.The national women’s contracted squad has increased from 15 players to 16 which has created space for both Eliz-Mari Marx and Ayanda Hlubi to earn deals. The only omission from last year is Shabnim Ismail, who retired last May. There was speculation that former captain Dane van Niekerk, who retired in March last year, may look to return ahead of this year’s T20 World Cup and though that could still be a possibility, she is not on the national contract list.

England spinners apply the squeeze as Pakistan slump to series-ending 65-run loss

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Dominant display with ball ensures that first-innings 144 for 6 is ample for 2-0 series lead

Danyal Rasool17-May-2024A disciplined, clinical performance with the ball and in the field saw England ease to a 65-run win in Northampton, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead over Pakistan. As in the first T20I, Sarah Glenn spearheaded her side with two wickets to follow up her four-wicket haul last Saturday, chopping through Pakistan’s middle order to cut the visitors, who fell apart with the bat once more, adrift.Several bowlers chipped in, with Lauren Bell, Charlie Dean, Alice Capsey and Sophie Ecclestone – who became the leading WT20I wicket-taker for England with her three, all among the wickets. It came during another tame batting performance from Pakistan, whose flashes of talent were unable to plug the holes their lack of consistency left exposed. The pursuit of 145 never really got off the ground, and before long, Nida Dar’s side folded feebly for 79.Pakistan had much to be hopeful about after the first innings. They dragged England back after a bright powerplay from the hosts, taking wickets at regular overs to stymie English momentum at every turn. It wasn’t quite as helpful a wicket to bat on as the one at Edgbaston, and England ensured most batters made contributions; five of the top seven scored between 15 and 31. A late cameo from Dani Gibson took England to 144, and while it seemed a vulnerable target at the time, England’s excellence in the second innings demonstrated it was anything but.Bouchier, Capsey begin brightlyIn an ultimately low-scoring game, England’s bellicose approach right from the outset provided them a buffer that would ultimately come in handy. Waheeda Akhtar was too straight with the first ball, and Maia Bouchier punished her with a flick for four, setting the powerplay tempo early. Another slap past point in the same over went for four, and Sadia Malik’s width was punished with a drive through the covers.Maia Bouchier got England’s innings off to a confident start•Getty Images

Capsey, meanwhile began stodgily, managing just two off the first nine. However, she cut loose in an onslaught against Waheeda in the fifth over, plundering five boundaries to make up for lost time. By the end of the fifth over, England had raced along to 43 for one; it would take Pakistan until the eighth over and the loss of three extra wickets before they breached that number. By that time, the game was all but secure for the hosts.The squeezeIf Pakistan could have strung together their powerplay bowling performance in Birmingham with their middle-overs showing today, the series may well have been level. Pakistan enjoyed relative control during the eight overs that followed the powerplay in the first innings, keeping England on a leash with their parsimony with the ball and in the field. Nida, Nashra Sandhu and Diana Baig whizzed through their overs, tying Bouchier down before a stunning bit of fielding caught her out of her crease and ran her out. Dar’s variety in the air was instrumental in deceiving an onrushing Capsey as the brakes were applied across a 48-ball spell that saw just 42 scored and set Pakistan up nicely for the deathThe implosionThere’s little point in breaking Pakistan’s innings down into phases. Much of it was a phantasmagoria of an absence of intent, frenetic shot selection and self-imploding running between the wickets, all of which England were much too impressive not to punish. Bell received the payoff for a tight couple of overs with two wickets in the third, Gull Feroza and Sadaf Shamas smacking a couple straight to fielders as the pressure told. A handful of boundaries from Muneeba Ali in the second half of the powerplay was as good as it got for the Pakistan batters, but that 30-run partnership was followed by another clump of wickets that killed Pakistan off.All of England’s bowlers understood Pakistan’s dilemma perfectly. They lack power hitters, and that means racking up dot deliveries can amp up the pressure in no time. That plan was executed to perfection, with a series of dot deliveries almost invariably followed up by high-risk shots that did not pay off. The last six wickets fell for just 19 on a scorecard that did not truly reflect Pakistan’s competitiveness in the first innings, though the gulf in quality between the two sides means the 2-0 scoreline is well deserved.

'My last day' – Ashwin announces retirement from international cricket

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Ashwin played only one of the first three Tests of the ongoing series in Australia, taking 1 for 53 in the day-night fixture in Adelaide

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Dec-20241:59

‘Truly an emotional moment’ – Ashwin retires from international cricket

R Ashwin has retired from international cricket with immediate effect, announcing his decision at the end of the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Brisbane. He will be leaving for India on Thursday.”This will be my last day as an Indian cricketer in all formats at the international level,” Ashwin said after the Brisbane Test at a press conference. “I do feel there’s a bit of punch left in me as a cricketer, but I would like to express that and probably showcase that in club-level cricket, but this will be the last day [for India].”I’ve had a lot of fun. I must say I have created a lot of memories alongside Rohit [Sharma] and several of my other team-mates, even though I have lost some of them [from the India team] over the last few years. We’re the last bunch of OGs, if we can say that, left out in the dressing room, and I will be marking this as my date of having played at this level.”Obviously there are a lot of people to thank, but I would be failing in my duties if I didn’t thank the BCCI and the fellow team-mates. Several of them. I want to name a few of them. All the coaches who have been part of the journey. Most importantly, Rohit, Virat [Kohli], Ajinkya [Rahane], [Cheteshwar] Pujara, who have taken those splendid catches around the bat to give me the number of wickets I’ve managed to get over the years.

“Also a big thank you to the Australian cricket team, who have been very fierce competitors. I have enjoyed my time playing against them.”Saying that he wouldn’t be taking any questions from the media and was there just to make the news public, Ashwin said, “Truly a very emotional moment. I don’t think I am in a position where I would be answering the questions in the right way. Please pardon me for that. Thanks for being the journalists you’ve been, writing good things and of course writing nasty things on occasions. That’s a relationship I think we would maintain forever, and I hope the cricketers to come in the future will also get the same amount of love.”And finally, he confirmed that he would be staying connected to the game, and possibly not just as a cricketer in the IPL (he is part of Chennai Super Kings now) or in the TNPL (Dindigul Dragons). “See you soon. As a cricketer, I have just stopped it. Might go on to be involved with the game, because this is a game that has given me everything.”He was bought by CSK, his first IPL team, for INR 9.75 crore at the mega auction last month, and will be playing for them in IPL 2025.Rohit, sitting alongside Ashwin as the latter made his announcement for the press, said, “Some decisions are very personal and I don’t think too many questions should be asked or raised. If a player has [made] a choice, he has to be given that choice, and somebody like Ashwin who has been there for us for so many years is allowed to make those kind of decisions on his own and we as team-mates have to respect it. He was very sure about what he wanted to do and the team has complete backing of his thought process.

“Obviously, there’s a bit of gap [between Tests] now so for us, as a team, to regroup and collect our thoughts on this is very, very crucial right now. We’ve got some time to think about how we need to proceed further. But speaking about Ash, he was very very sure about his decision.”I heard [about the plan to retire] when I came to Perth. Obviously I was not there for the first three or four days of the first Test match, but this was in his mind since then and there are obviously a lot of things that went behind it. I’m pretty sure Ash will be in a position to answer that but he understands what the team is thinking, he understands what kind of combinations we are thinking, and when we came here as well, we were not sure about which spinner is going to play. We just wanted to assess and see what kind of conditions we get in front of us.”But when I arrived in Perth, this was a chat we had and I somehow convinced him to stay for the pink-ball Test match and then, it just happened so that if he felt that if I’m not needed right now in the series, I’m better off saying goodbye to the game.”But obviously we’ve not been to Melbourne yet so we don’t know what sort of conditions we expect there and what sort of combination. But just keeping Ash particularly in mind, giving him that respect that if this is what he thinks, we should allow him to think that way. And we should all stand by what he is thinking at this point in time.”That is what I’m thinking right now and that is the kind of chat we’ve had as well – me and Gautam Gambhir as well. It’s important when a player like him who has had so many moments with the Indian team and he’s been a truly a big match-winner for us is allowed to make those decisions on his own and if it was now, so be it.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Ashwin ends his Test career as India’s second-highest wicket-taker in the format, with 537 wickets at an average of 24 in 106 Tests, only behind Anil Kumble, who finished with 619 wickets from 132 Tests.He played only one of the first three Tests of the ongoing series in Australia, taking 1 for 53 in the day-night fixture in Adelaide. In the previous series, the 3-0 defeat at home to New Zealand, Ashwin had picked up only nine wickets at an average of 41.22.With him not being a regular in the XI in India’s overseas fixtures, and their next Test series an away tour of England, Ashwin will be 39 by the time India’s next home season comes around.In addition to his wickets, Ashwin also scored 3503 Test runs with six hundreds and 14 fifties, making him one of 11 allrounders with more than 3000 runs and 300 wickets. He also won a record 11 Player-of-the-Series awards, level with Muthiah Muralidaran.In an international career that started in 2010, and included the 50-over World Cup win in 2011, Ashwin also played 116 ODIs and 65 T20Is, picking up 156 (average of 33.20) and 72 (economy rate of 6.90) wickets in the two formats respectively. He hasn’t had a go in white-ball cricket for India since October 2023, though, when he turned out in an ODI World Cup match against Australia in Chennai.

Bree Illing and Bella James earn maiden New Zealand contracts

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

In all, 17 contracts were handed out, including to players like Suzie Bates, Amelia Kerr and Lea Tahuhu

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jun-2025Auckland left-arm seamer Bree Illing and Otago batter Bella James have been handed their first central contracts by New Zealand Cricket (NZC).The pair, who are currently touring England with New Zealand A, filled up the contract vacancies left by Hayley Jensen and Sophie Devine. While Jensen is recently retired, Devine has opted for a casual playing agreement, having announced her ODI retirement after the upcoming World Cup.Related

  • Devine to retire from ODIs after the World Cup

Illing, the 21-year-old swing bowler, made her ODI and T20I debut this summer against Sri Lanka and was also Auckland’s highest wicket-taker in domestic cricket last season with an average of 21. James’ contract comes after her batting contributions powered Otago to another Hallyburton Johnstone (HBJ) Shield title. She made her ODI and T20I debuts against Australia in December 2024 and March 2025 respectively.”Bree had an outstanding series against Sri Lanka. To show up the way she did against a world-class batter like Chamari Athapaththu shows she’s ready for international cricket,” New Zealand women’s head coach Ben Sawyer said. “Bella’s been a consistent performer at the domestic level and had a great debut series against Australia last year. She’s got the competencies that we believe will succeed at the international level.”The full list of central contracts, 17 in all, include batters Suzie Bates, Lauren Down, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Georgia Plimmer, Izzy Gaze and Polly Inglis, allrounders Amelia Kerr and Hannah Rowe, and bowlers Eden Carson, Fran Jonas, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Molly Penfold and Lea Tahuhu.

Amid persistent rain, one-off Test between Afghanistan and NZ called off without a ball bowled

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It was only the eighth such instance in the Test history and the first since 1998

Ekanth13-Sep-2024The first ever Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand ended on a sad but predictable note as the game was called off without a ball being bowled. It was only the eighth such instance in the Test history and the first since 1998.There was an air of inevitability around the call after there was no play in the first four days and heavy rains ended the last two as early as 9.15am. The rain returned on the fifth morning, prompting the umpires to pull the plug at 8.45am.The clouds hung low and the covers were drenched yet again at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground. A pool of water had formed near one of the boundaries and a few puddles were scattered across the uncovered grass in the outfield.Related

  • New Zealand 'frustrated' to have lost game-time ahead of Sri Lanka and India Tests

  • Afghanistan coach Trott: Sometimes we take things like drainage 'for granted'

  • Tests abandoned without a ball bowled – how many times has it happened before?

The match was subject to weather concerns even before the opening day. When there was no play on the first two days despite the weather being sunny during playing hours, the outfield and the preparedness of the venue came under the scanner.Apart from the New Zealand players getting a couple of hours of net practice next to the pitch on the second afternoon, there was no cricketing action in any form across five days. The ACB blamed the unseasonal rain for it.Afghanistan’s next assignment is the three-match ODI series against South Africa in Sharjah. New Zealand will now travel to Sri Lanka for two Tests, which are part of the World Test Championship. After that, they will face India in India in a three-Test series. The Greater Noida Test, which was not part of the WTC, was supposed to help them acclimatise to the subcontinent conditions but it was not to be.

ODI World Cup digest: Formidable India surge into semi-finals; huge day looms in Lucknow

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Sri Lanka were blown away for just 55 while Afghanistan and Netherlands are set for a critical meeting

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Nov-20232:20

What sets this Indian pace unit apart from the rest?

—Fixtures | Squads | Points table | Tournament Index

Top Story: Shami leads rout of Sri Lanka as India advance unbeaten into semi-finals

Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah razed Sri Lanka for 55 at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, sealing India’s seventh successive win of the World Cup and their spot in the semi-finals.India’s fast-bowling trio was so sensational with the new ball that the scores of Sri Lanka’s top five read like a line of binary code: 0, 0, 1, 0, 1. When Shami also had Nos. 7 and 8 for ducks with the score on 29, Sri Lanka were in serious danger of folding for the lowest total in ODI cricket. They were eventually bundled out in 19.4 overs as India completed the fourth-biggest win in the format, and Shami’s 5 for 18 made him India’s highest wicket-taker in World Cups. It was the third time that India had dismissed Sri Lanka for less than 100 in ODIs in 2023, and their second 300-plus-run victory against them this year.Click here to read the full report

Match analysis: Magic in Mumbai – a night of stunning spells

Mohammed Shami fantastic form continued with a five-wicket haul•Getty Images

Sri Lanka are not facing a normal attack. At the first possible instance, Jasprit Bumrah summons magic from an even higher realm. He comes from wide of the crease, angles it towards leg, has it dance off the seam, hits Pathum Nissanka in front of the stumps. How do you play this? How do you prepare for it?Mohammed Siraj, with his first delivery, also flirting with the supernatural, bowling from tight into the stumps, angling it seemingly across the left-handed Dimuth Karunaratne. It keeps going that way for most its trajectory before curving back, suddenly and emphatically. Karunaratne is in such a tangle, he times the pants out of his own boot instead of the ball, gets off balance, is hit in front of middle stump.Read the full analysis from Andrew Fidel Fernando in Mumbai

Must Watch: Matthew Hayden on Virat Kohli

2:05

Hayden: We shouldn’t take this period of Kohli’s career for granted

News headlines

  • Australia’s World Cup campaign has hit another hurdle with star allrounder Mitchell Marsh ruled out of the England clash after flying home for personal reasons.
  • Joe Root says he is hurt by the fact that England are propping up the group-stage table of the World Cup, but he still believes that they are capable of beating Australia on Saturday in Ahmedabad, and said on Thursday: “Man for man I’d have this team every day over the Australians.”
  • Eoin Morgan has described the idea he should replace Matthew Mott as England’s white-ball coach ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup as “a bit far-fetched”.

Match preview

Afghanistan vs Netherlands, Lucknow (2pm IST; 8.30am GMT; 7.30pm AEDT)5:10

Hayden: ‘Would like to see Rashid Khan bowl early against Netherlands’

England – check, Pakistan – check, Sri Lanka – check, Netherlands – next?Coming into this tournament, Afghanistan had just one win – in 2015 – to show for their previous two World Cup campaigns. Now, they have beaten three previous World Cup winners in this edition alone, and are gunning for two crucial points against Netherlands to turn up the heat in the race for the semi-finals.Lucknow was Afghanistan’s adopted home turf back in 2019, when they faced West Indies in one Test, three T20Is and three ODIs. While they did not have much success in the ODIs back then, the familiarity with the venue could give them an edge in this contest.Team newsAfghanistan (possible) 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), 5 Azmatullah Omarzai, 6 Ikram Alikhil (wk), 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq/Noor Ahmad, 11 Fazalhaq FarooqiNetherlands (possible) 1 Max O’Dowd, 2 Vikramjit Singh, 3 Wesley Barresi, 4 Colin Ackermann, 5 Scott Edwards (capt & wk), 6 Bas de Leede, 7 Sybrand Engelbrecht, 8 Logan van Beek, 9 Shariz Ahmad, 10 Aryan Dutt, 11 Paul van Meekeren

Comment: Time for ICC to overhaul 15-man squad limit amid spate of injuries

Stretched to breaking point: New Zealand have been hit by an injury crisis•ICC/Getty Images

Cricket is not football, and the existence of substitutions clearly demands a bigger squad in one than the other. But with several teams in India experiencing an availability crisis – Australia are picking from a squad of 13 against England on Saturday – it is time for the ICC to discuss the 15-man limit on squads at world events.The issue was not raised internally at the ICC in the build-up to the World Cup but teams can propose a change via the men’s cricket committee – which incidentally, Gary Stead, New Zealand’s coach, sits on – or the chief executives’ committee. It is time they do so, because the current level is needlessly strict.Read the full piece from Matt Roller

Batty criticises trial of Kookaburra balls in Championship as 'silly' and 'illogical'

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Surrey head coach likens move to asking Premier League football team to play with 10 men

Matt Roller13-Jul-2023Gareth Batty, Surrey’s coach, has compared the County Championship’s two-week trial of the Kookaburra ball to telling teams to play with ten men or changing the shape of a football midway through the Premier League season.The experiment, which saw the Kookaburra ball used instead of the standard Dukes over the last two rounds of county fixtures, was recommended by Andrew Strauss’ High Performance Review, commissioned in the aftermath of England’s 4-0 Ashes defeat to Australia in 2021-22.The review said that the trial would give the ECB “a firmer understanding” of the difference between the two balls, suggesting that using the Kookaburra instead of the Dukes could force “the development of a wider range of skills” among English seamers and enhance the role of spinners.Related

  • Counties confirm decision to bin Kookaburra ball trial

  • English cricket's Kookaburra experiment: 'Fantastic' or 'worst decision ever'?

  • Batty warns against 'celebrity cricket' as county restructuring looms over Surrey's title triumph

  • Jacks guides cautious Surrey towards draw on tame final day

But Batty described the trial as “very silly” and “a kneejerk reaction” to England’s defeat in Australia. “It’s like saying next week, we’ve got to play with 10 men,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “That seems silly to me. We don’t change the shape of the ball in football halfway through; we don’t mess up what is going on.”Speaking after his Surrey side drew with Nottinghamshire at The Oval, Batty said that the timing of the trial was “illogical”, citing the possibility of players being called up for England and using a different ball to the one they had been using in domestic cricket.”If anybody were to be called up from county cricket, bowling with a Kookaburra ball, it makes no sense that they’re having to change to a Dukes ball,” he said. “There are different characteristics to the two balls. I like them both equally. I’m certainly not criticising the fact that we’re using it but the timing of it is questionable.”Peter Moores, Notts’ coach, suggested that the competitive integrity of the Championship was undermined by the trial. “I don’t like the thought of mixing up balls in a season, because it doesn’t feel right,” he said. “If you start with one ball, I’d like to use it [throughout].”Moores added: “I can see exactly why the ECB want to test it out and have a look at it and how it’s reacted… generally, the Dukes ball is a good ball but over the last couple of seasons, it’s tended to have to be changed a bit too much for me and that’s something we want to try and get away from because as a ball gets older and deteriorates, that’s when spinners come into the game.”I think the [Kookaburra] ball has played pretty well on the pitches we’ve played on. We played at Taunton and we played here. Both pitches had a reasonable covering of grass which I think helped movement and kept carry in the ball. The ball didn’t go out of shape, which I think is a good thing because it brings spinners into the game.”But Batty insisted that he was unclear why the trial had been introduced, and that if the intention was to bring spinners into the game, it hadn’t worked. “I wasn’t privy to those meetings,” he said. “Nobody has asked – from what I understand – anybody that is in a position at counties to evolve and create England players [about it]. That seems strange.”Does it bring spinners into it? I don’t think that it looks like it has done across the counties. There’s a few counties who have made pitches very dry to try and bring spin into it because they feel like the ball won’t move laterally, which is absolutely fine and I totally get that. That’s a positive, both for batters and spinners.”Batty cited the decrease in the number of points available for a draw – from eight to five, compared to 16 for a win – as evidence that English cricket wants a “quick fix” when it comes to creating spinners, rather than clear long-term thinking. “The points system has negated spinners this year,” he said.”Let’s say it as it is: everybody is playing for wins and losses now. A draw means less than it did last year. We have changed as current champions how we think about the game because of the points system. Everybody needs a quick fix because you want to win; unfortunately, you don’t get a quick fix with spin.”

Essex charged by Cricket Regulator following historic racist abuse claims

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Club found to be in breach of ECB Directive 3.3 during period from 2001 to 2010

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jun-2024Essex County Cricket Club has been charged by the Cricket Regulator – the sport’s new independent disciplinary body – after a series of historical allegations of racist abuse were last year upheld by an independent report.In December, a 38-page report compiled by Katherine Newton KC found that, in a period from the mid-1990s to 2013, Essex’s club culture had been one in which ethnic, racial and religious comments were regarded as “banter”.The report centred on the testimony of three former players – not named in its pages but known to be Jahid Ahmed, Maurice Chambers and Zoheb Sharif, one of whom was nicknamed “Bomber” due to his South Asian heritage, and another taunted with bananas for being Black.In a separate incident that prompted the commissioning of the report, the former club chair, John Faragher, was alleged to have used the racist phrase “n****r in the woodpile” during a board meeting in 2017, with Essex accepting a fine of £50,000 from the ECB in May 2022 after admitting two charges relating to that meeting.The club has now been charged with a breach of ECB Directive 3.3 during the years 2001 to 2010, for “conduct, acts or omissions which may be prejudicial to the interests of cricket or which may bring the game of cricket or any cricketer or group of cricketers into disrepute”.In a statement, the Cricket Regulator said Essex had failed to address the “systemic use of racist and/or discriminatory language and/or conduct at Essex” in that period, adding that an independent panel of the Cricket Discipline Commission would hear the case in due course.In response, Essex CCC acknowledged the scope of the breach and the club’s willingness to accept the CDC’s findings.”The club has fully cooperated with the Cricket Regulator and will continue to do so throughout the process, and intends to participate willingly with the Cricket Discipline Commission,” a statement read. “There will be no further comment from the club at this time.The Cricket Regulator came into being in December 2023, after that summer’s damning report published by Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC), which detailed structural inequalities across race, gender and class in cricket in England and Wales.In a key recommendation, the ECB’s previous dual roles as promoter and regulator of the game were found to be “irreconcilable”, in light of the board’s handling of Azeem Rafiq’s revelations of institutional racism at Yorkshire.

Joe Weatherley's 116* makes light work of Essex

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Weatherley was accompanied by India batter Tilak Varma as Hampshire chased down 286

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay 07-Aug-2025Hampshire 288 for 5 (Weatherley 116*, Varma 54) beat Essex 285 (Allison 80, Neal 2-44) by 5 wicketsJoe Weatherley classily struck his third Metro Bank One-Day Cup men’s competition hundred as Hampshire beat Essex at Utilita Bowl.Weatherley provided the backbone to a well-managed chase of 286 – after Charlie Allison, Tom Westley and Robin Das all posted half-centuries for Essex.Tilak Varma also reached the landmark, but it was Weatherley’s personal best unbeaten 116 – his first century in two years – that made sure Hampshire made it two wins from two, while Essex remain winless.Hampshire stuck Essex into bat and almost immediately struck as Kyle Abbott drew an outside edge out of Matt Critchley.Robin Das and Tom Westley set the innings into place with a 99-run stand in double-quick time, the pair peppering the boundary in their better-than-a-run-a-ball half-centuries.But a middle-over squeeze slowed the run-rate and brought a succession of regular wickets.Left-arm spinner Andrew Neal broke the Das/Westley alliance when Das clipped off-balance to midwicket, before Westley followed when Tilak Varma brilliantly caught him at short fine leg.Luc Benkenstein slashed to short cover, Noah Thain powered to midwicket, and Nick Browne drove to first slip to hand Abbott his second.At 189 for 6 in the 35th over, the visitors were in danger of a seriously under-par score but Allison and Simon Fernandes revved things back into life with a no thrills partnership.Allison has had a stand-out 2025 having scored three centuries in the Rothesay County Championship, and continued that form with an unhurried 80.Fernandes had begun his One-Day Cup campaign with an unbeaten 46, and followed that with 41. But as the pair looked to accelerate Essex suffered their second slump to get bowled out for 285.Both fell in back-to-back deliveries, both caught trying to go big, while Shane Snater was bowled and Jamie Porter was caught behind.The hosts needed to go at under a run-a-ball and they stuck to that mission like a limpet.Ali Orr and Nick Gubbins eased through the new ball until the former fell to the final ball of the powerplay when Charlie Bennett bowled a snorter to get a tickle behind.Gubbins followed his century against Glamorgan with 40 but top-edged a sweep to short fine but Hampshire gained control through Tilak Varma and Weatherley.The pair put on 98 to take a huge bite into the target. Indian Varma was mostly circumspect apart from crisp shots down the ground and an incredible reverse six.He was bowled trying to charge Westley having reached a fifty before Tom Prest gifted Westley his third wicket – he returned three for 39.Weatherley had a strong Vitality Blast before a successful return to the Championship side, and oozed class throughout his innings.He dominated a 47-run partnership with Ben Mayes and then joined with Felix Organ to rush to the winning line.Weatherley reached three figures with a luscious strike through long on as part of three boundaries in a row which took the runs required to single figures. A six in the following over secured the points.

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