Coach Hafeez and captain Masood believe the batters needed to have been more aggressive in the first innings

Danyal Rasool17-Dec-20234:28

‘Pakistan don’t have the belief to beat Australia here’

Pakistan coach and team director Mohammad Hafeez found himself in a critical mood at the press conference immediately following the first Test against Australia. Freshly smarting from a 360-run defeat sealed with a 30-over batting display that saw his side skittled out for 89 with a day and change to go, it was perhaps just as well, because there was plenty to be critical of.But the squarest aim he took was at Pakistan’s batting approach, particularly in the first innings, saying the batters failed to apply themselves and stick to their pre-match plans.”Well, we couldn’t execute our skills well,” Hafeez said. “We made plans for the team, but unfortunately we couldn’t execute them well. That’s not an excuse. The guys wanted to, but they never applied themselves, to be very honest. As a team there were a couple of tactical errors we made during this Test match. There were certain situations where we could have dominated, and as a team, the plans were there and we prepared ourselves for that. But the execution wasn’t great.”A cynic might wonder if Hafeez, only recently appointed to his roles, ahead of a tour to a country he has never played a Test match in, was looking to establish a buffer between the playing group and the management group. Pakistan do, after all, still have on their books Mickey Arthur, a man who coached the West Australian state side for nearly two years, in addition to overseeing a Test win in Perth and a series win in Australia as coach of South Africa. And while that might have made little difference – when Arthur was coach of Pakistan, they still lost an away series in Australia 3-0 – the PCB’s decision not to send him on this tour has thrown the rawness of the new-look coaching staff into sharper focus.Related

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Last week, when Pakistan were training at the WACA, Hafeez had gone after the surface laid out for Pakistan in Canberra for the first-class game they played against the Prime Minister’s XI, calling it the “slowest pitch a visiting team could have faced in Australia”. He also promised a brand of cricket that would see Pakistan take the attack to Australia, particularly Nathan Lyon. As it turned out, though, no Australian bowler took more wickets than Lyon’s five, which came in 32 overs at an economy rate of 2.50.Hafeez defended Pakistan’s plans and preparations, and once more rued their inability to execute them.”The Canberra pitch was totally different. But this pitch, obviously, as you expect in Perth, there was bounce and a little lateral movement. And that was obviously what we’ve seen during the last four days. But the amount of deterioration we witnessed, I wasn’t expecting that much because on the fourth day the deterioration in the pitch was really high. But still, we believe it was a good toss to the win for Australia. They managed to put runs on the board and then obviously batting in the fourth innings and on the fourth and fifth day is going to be a real challenge and we couldn’t do that, to be honest.Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi ponder Pakistan’s tough position•Getty Images”You can say that [the plans we made weren’t followed], but not really that much. I believe that the message is very clear. And as I said to you earlier, we prepared accordingly. In the last 20 days of my role, the message was very, very clear to everyone.”It appears to be something Pakistan’s leadership group agrees upon. Captain Shan Masood at the post-match press conference also pointed to the side’s sluggish scoring rate, while mentioning they’d batted nearly as many overs as Australia in the first innings – 101.5 compared to the hosts 113.2.”When you come to these shores you look for progress,” Masood said, setting the bar somewhat lower than the bullish Hafeez had. “If you had told me that Australia would have batted 110 overs and we would play 100 overs, I would have taken that as a batting unit.”While Pakistan’s scoring rate isn’t particularly notable in its own right – no side will ever find taking the game to the Australian attack easy on their own shores – the variance between what Pakistan promised before the game and what they delivered is. With Hafeez and Masood both committing to an exciting brand of cricket, Pakistan instead found themselves bogged down right from the get-go, barely managing above two an over for the opening partnership.Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq did hold out for 36 overs in the first innings without giving away a wicket, though Masood felt more urgency might have put a different spin on the game. “We could have batted a bit quicker, even though we were facing one of the best bowling attacks in the world. We probably missed out on 60-70 runs, which could have made the lead a bit less sizeable.”Masood, for his part, did stick to that method, coming down the wicket to wallop Lyon for a boundary off his second ball. The scoring rate did tick up – thanks largely to him – during a brief partnership with Imam, though expansive drives led to his downfall in each innings. And a score of 32 across two innings of the Test – the lowest for any specialist Pakistan batter in Perth – suggests taking on this Australian attack may require more than wanton belligerence.Hafeez had struck a particularly optimistic tone ahead of the Test and continued in the same vein, the defeat seemingly doing little to subdue it. “I said to you earlier that the vibe I got from the preparation and the amount of talent these guys have, there’s no doubt the guys can beat Australia in Australia. But obviously execution-wise we couldn’t do that. The plan was there, we prepared things accordingly and I still believe as a team that Pakistan can beat Australia here in Australia. Obviously as a team we need to execute our skills whenever it requires.”There are a lot of positives in this game. The two debutants [Aamer Jamal and Khurram Shahzad], the way they bowled, the way they showed the passion to represent Pakistan, that is very special and heartening to me. I really enjoyed personally the way they did and they were presenting themselves for every challenge and they are the most positive side we had during this test match. Unfortunately, our premier fast bowlers couldn’t do well in this game, but this can happen to anyone. But I’m sure these guys will come harder in the next game.”It might take some time. But gradually we will get up there where I feel like we know, ‘this is the way to play international cricket at the moment.'”It is time Pakistan may not have, at least not in this series. In a little over a week’s time, Pakistan play a Boxing Day Test at the MCG, their losing streak in Australia now stretching to 15 Tests. It will require little short of a miracle or a freak weather event not to see that stretch to 17 in about three weeks’ time.

After two ducks in two games, Rohit made his highest T20I score. But that was only half the story

Ashish Pant18-Jan-20243:53

Takeaways: Relief for Rohit, spin-allrounder conundrum for India

Sometimes all it takes is one shot to get a struggling batter’s innings back on track. It could be a cover drive, a cut, or even an outside edge for four. In Rohit Sharma’s case on Wednesday in Bengaluru, it was his favourite pull that came to his rescue. A 74-metre hit over deep-backward square leg off Mohammad Saleem, one that would serve as a kick-starter to the carnage.Looking at the final score, and the Super Overs mayhem that followed, it is perhaps easy to forget that India were at 22 for 4 in 4.3 overs at one point. Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson got golden ducks. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube could manage only five runs between them. The historically run-laden M Chinnaswamy Stadium surface was proving a tough nut to crack for the India batters.Rohit saw the collapse from the other end while fighting his own battles. Playing his first T20I series since November 2022, he came into this match on the back of two ducks in as many innings. He did not hide his desperation to get off the mark, as evidenced by a hilarious exchange where he almost reprimanded umpire Virender Sharma for signalling four leg byes when he had hit the ball. It eventually took him seven balls to open his account.Related

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The last two months have posed various challenges to Rohit. He has admitted to having struggled to move on after India’s loss in the 2023 ODI World Cup final, he has lost his IPL captaincy, and questions have been raised over his T20 World Cup selection. In what is the last T20I series for India before the World Cup in June, it was imperative that Rohit, who has made his ambitions to make it to the marquee event clear, got runs. That didn’t happen in the first two games, making Wednesday’s outing even more crucial.On the eve of the game, Rohit was the first one to pad up at the nets. He had a long session but struggled with his timing big time. And that seemed to be the case early on in his innings on Wednesday, too. He was pre-meditating, trying to be innovative too early, and just seemed a bit rushed. The first ball he faced from legspinner Qais Ahmad had turned big, so he went reverse twice in two balls later in the over. It is not a shot that comes naturally to Rohit, and neither attempt brought him a run.There was no celebration, only acknowledgement, after Rohit brought up his hundred•BCCIDespite the positive intent, Rohit was on 17 off 24 balls after seven overs. That would soon change, though. While Rohit had hit three fours, it was that six off Saleem that seemed to calm the nerves. He got more assured with his footwork. The ball started meeting the middle of his bat a little more regularly and while it still took him ten more balls to breach the 100 strike rate, Rohit was set and about to take Afghanistan to the cleaners.He made his intentions clear by walloping left-arm spinner Sharafuddin Ashraf over long-on before switch-hitting the next ball over the deep-point fence. He followed it up with a conventional sweep and another switch hit against Qais to reach his fifty off 41 balls.Rohit went into overdrive after he reached the landmark. The length balls were swatted into oblivion, the short balls were dispatched with disdain. The subtle flicks of the wrist were back in play, and the Afghan fielders could only watch helplessly. His second fifty took just 23.There were muted celebrations as Rohit reached his fifth T20I century – the most for any batter in the format. Rinku Singh, with whom he added an unbeaten 190 off 95 balls for the fifth wicket, celebrated it more animatedly than Rohit.”Creating the partnership was important but we kept talking to each other about not losing that intent because you might find yourself in big games where you are 20-odd or 30-odd for 4,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation. “It was a good game for us to be in where there is pressure. For us, it was important to bat deep but to not compromise on the intent.”Head coach Rahul Dravid was also effusive in Rohit’s praise, particularly about the range of his hitting.”He was brilliant today,” Dravid said of Rohit while speaking to the host broadcaster. “He has just shown what a class player he can be. The kind of range that he has, it’s hard to bowl at him when he’s set at the back end. You can’t bowl short because he’s really good with the pull, [can’t] bowl up and he’s got a great range as well. It’s really good to have him back, just his presence in the dressing room has been very helpful.”Once he reached the three-figure mark, Rohit hacked two more sixes to finish with his highest T20I score – an unbeaten 121 off 69 balls. He would then come out to bat twice in the Super Overs, scoring 13 off 4 and 11 off 3. At the end of it all, there was probably more relief than elation on Rohit’s face. The relief of scoring runs in a format he has not played of late. The relief of knowing (rather hoping) that maybe now the questions surrounding his inclusion in the T20 World Cup side will finally be put to bed.

Our correspondent writes up a report card for England’s not so merry fellows in India, ranking how true they were to the B-word philosophy

Alan Gardner15-Mar-2024Firstly, the Light Roller would like to make a statement to our loyal reader.It has come to our attention that we may have, at various unspecified points in the past, referred to the so-called “Bazball” as the greatest thing ever to happen to cricket, a feat of genius with no parallel in the history of the game, the latest English sporting innovation set to sweep the world, and the only thing worth getting out of bed for in the morning.Regretfully, we must now inform you that these views were, at best, misguided, at worst, deviant. The so-called “Bazball” is in fact an overhyped chimera, a flawed piece of one-dimensional thinking that was destined to fail, the latest blight on England’s much-tarnished sporting reputation, and a very annoying word to boot.This much has become painfully clear in the wake of England’s 4-1 humiliation in India, which differed so vastly from their previous visits to the country – such as in 2021, when they valiantly lost 3-1 despite not having a single batter who had ever faced spin bowling, and in 2016, when they stodgily plodded to a respectable 4-0 defeat (which included twice scoring 400 only to lose by an innings).With the so-called “Bazballers” returning home in order to be publicly flogged/made to practise their forward defence, the Light Roller hopes to help make amends with this special England report card.Related

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Ben Stokes
Scored his runs at a strike rate of 54.22. Only took one wicket. Failed to produce any miraculous single-handed match-winning heroics. Has this guy even heard of the so-called “Bazball”?So-called Bazball rating: -1James Anderson
About as funky as you would expect of a man who has seemingly been bowling fast-medium swing since the dawn of Test cricket.So-called Bazball rating: 3Jonny Bairstow
The batter who blew India away with twin hundreds at Edgbaston in 2022 barely blew more than a few raspberries this time around – though he did admirably try to hit the cover off every ball in his 100th Test.So-called Bazball rating: 6Shoaib Bashir
Trust in youth, let players express themselves. Ideally make sure they get issued their visa in time. These are the tenets of the so-called “Bazball”. Loses a mark for being an offspinner, which is quite boring.So-called Bazball rating: 7Zak Crawley
Turns out that when Crawley is consistent, England don’t win Test matches. Chalk that one up to Brendon McCullum’s galaxy brain.So-called Bazball rating: 6Tom Hartley: understood the “Bazball” assignment•BCCIBen Duckett
Scored an 88-ball hundred and not much else besides, but – crucially – wound up the opposition at a key juncture with a textbook bit of needless preachy grandstanding in a press conference.So-called Bazball rating: 7Ben Foakes
So endearingly old school that he rarely hits the ball off the square, never mind in the air. Often seems to be working at deliberate cross-purposes to the so-called “Bazball” agenda.So-called Bazball rating: 0Tom Hartley
Got hit for six from his first ball on debut. Hit the first England six of the tour. Often got out trying to hit the ball for six. Oh yes, and he took quite a few wickets.So-called Bazball rating: 9Jack Leach
As he did in the very first Test under Stokes and McCullum, Leach injured himself in the line of duty and was not seen much from that point on.So-called Bazball rating: 5Ollie Pope
Played the “greatest innings by an Englishman in the subcontinent” in Hyderabad, according to his captain. The rest of his series reminded us more of infinite monkey theorem.So-called Bazball rating: 8Next in the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka rivalry: Sri Lanka fielders welcoming Bangladesh batters on to the field with a rendition of Britney Spears’ “(Hit Me) Baby One More Time”•BCBRehan Ahmed
Made an appearance as the Nighthawk, batting at No. 3 in Vizag and bowled nicely on several occasions without changing anything much. Loses several marks for not liking golf.So-called Bazball rating: 4Ollie Robinson
Can you do the so-called “Bazball” if you are injured/busy recording a podcast? No, it would seem.So-called Bazball rating: 1Joe Root
A series of two halves. Was having an absolute shocker, epitomised by his reverse-scoop dismissal in Rajkot, before remembering he is the team’s best batter and losing all the slap-happy credit he had built up.So-called Bazball rating: 9, 1Mark Wood
Scored 48 runs from 53 balls faced for a strike rate of 90.56, thereby topping the standings for the series in the only metric that counts.So-called Bazball rating: 4

****

Is the rivalry that accompanies contests between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh petty, small-minded and unbecoming? Yes. Is said rivalry the main reason we take an interest in contests between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh? Also yes. After the -dance years, we are now officially in the timed-out era, after Sri Lanka’s players celebrated their T20I series victory by posing with the trophy while pointing to their wrists – a classic bit of banter referencing Angelo Mathews’ dismissal at last year’s World Cup. We can only hope the BCB stands ready to respond and is already in discussions with international watchmakers about sponsoring this timeless beef for years to come.

Their progress after a poor World Cup showing will have to withstand the test offered by a true Chattogram pitch

Mohammad Isam17-Mar-2024Bangladesh’s fast-bowling unit has the opportunity to stamp their authority in an important match on Monday. The ODI series against Sri Lanka is level at one-all in Chattogram, where the conditions have been stacked heavily against bowlers under lights. The dew has been omnipresent in both games, leading to the chasing side winning convincingly despite losing three wickets in the first powerplay.That will not be the case in the final ODI – a day game at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium – scheduled for a 10am start. While the pitch there is generally regarded as one of the better batting wickets in the country, the fast bowlers will still be relieved that dew won’t be a factor.The game is particularly crucial for the Bangladesh fast bowlers after an ordinary ODI World Cup campaign in India last year. The fact that it came after an impressive run-up to the major tournament made it all the more disappointing. They bounced back a bit in New Zealand in December, and now they have the chance to carry their progress at home against Sri Lanka.Related

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However, both pace units have been dealt one blow each ahead of the game. A couple of hours after Sri Lanka lost Dilshan Madushanka to a hamstring injury on Sunday morning, Bangladesh’s Tanzim Hasan Sakib, too, was ruled out by the same issue, and Hasan Mahmud flew in to Chattogram as a replacement for the third ODI, on Sunday afternoon.It is likely that Bangladesh will bring back Mustafizur Rahman in the three-man attack that already has Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam. Sri Lanka may have to bring in allrounder Chamika Karunaratne to aid Lahiru Kumara and Pramod Madushan in the pace attack.Both pace attacks stack up interestingly on paper. While Sri Lanka’s attack has variety and depth – more so than all other departments – Madushanka’s absence leaves them without a unique mix of skills – left-arm pace with swing.Kumara is a hit-the-deck bowler while Madushan lacks consistent control despite getting good swing. Karunaratne will have to come in, and he is useful with the ball. But the loss of Madushanka, who struck in his first over in both the games, makes Sri Lanka’s attack less penetrative.Injuries are the main factor hampering their depth. Matheesha Pathirana, whose hamstring injury came at Sylhet, is probably not yet ready for ODIs in the short term. Dushmantha Chameera is another big miss. Nuwan Thushara, who got a hat-trick in the third T20I against Bangladesh in Sylhet, is very good with the new ball but probably needs to work on his death bowling.Shoriful Islam has been a key cog in Bangladesh’s attack•AFP/Getty ImagesBangladesh’s fast bowling is also coming up on similar depth but still have a long way to go, particularly in tough conditions. Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium is one such place where influencing a deciding match would go a long way in establishing the fast bowlers’ overall confidence.Allrounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz said that the fast-bowling group was impressive in both ODIs in different ways. Although they couldn’t close the deal in the second game, they were still effective in the dew-y outfield.”Our fast bowlers are bowling very well. The way Sakib made a comeback in the first game, it was very important for us. We hadn’t made a good start. He got us three wickets, which was wonderful. The fast bowlers gave us three wickets in the powerplay in the second game. But we didn’t get breakthroughs because of dew. I think overall our bowling unit is doing well.”We are aware of the conditions. The day game will give us extra help. Night matches depend a lot on the toss here. Winning the toss becomes an advantage. It is not good for spinners obviously. Maybe one more wicket in the second match would have helped us, so we are working on these things,” said Mehidy.Bangladesh are increasingly playing a lot of white-ball cricket in Sylhet and Chattogram where conditions are visibly better for batters. They now have a firm belief that to do well in major tournaments where they often encounter true, batting pitches, they have to keep playing in these two venues at home to get used to such conditions.”I think playing on these wickets is a huge advantage. We usually look for results. We don’t win here always. But when we go to big tournaments, we have to play on true wickets, so it is a good habit to play on these wickets. We have to practice how to chase 300-plus runs or defend a 300-plus score. It will give us an advantage in big tournaments like the Asia Cup and World Cup. I think this is an ideal wicket,” said Mehidy.It is on these true wickets that the fast bowlers are slowly finding their feet in white-ball cricket. The Bangladesh team management will still look for a spin-dominating pitch in Tests but fast bowling is becoming their go-to mode of attack in ODIs and T20Is. Taskin and Shoriful will have their work cut out to stop a rampant Sri Lankan top-order. Their growth as a unit has brought along expectations too, can they withstand it in Chattogram?

It’s the least Indian of all Indian grounds at least at a conditions level, as the pitch is fast and bouncy

Karthik Krishnaswamy05-Mar-20247:09

Ashwin picks the best batters he’s bowled to

Just over three weeks ago, the HPCA Stadium hosted a Ranji Trophy match between Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, where seamers took all 36 wickets that fell over its four days.This was far from unusual. In four Ranji games at the venue this season, fast bowlers have bowled a combined 814 overs and taken 122 wickets at an average of 23.17. Spinners have sent down 122.2 overs, and taken seven wickets at 58.42.The fast bowlers, in short, have taken as many wickets as spinners have bowled overs.Welcome to Dharamsala. It’s cold here, it’s high up in the Himalayas, and it has what may well be the most spectacular backdrop of any sporting venue in the world. It’s only natural to come here to watch cricket and go back having spent more time gazing upon the snow-veined Dhauladhars and pondering your own insignificance in the grand scheme of geological space and time.Related

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It’s also the least Indian of Indian grounds at a conditions level: the pitch here is fast and bouncy, and during the winter months when cricket is played in India, it doesn’t bake under the sun and deteriorate in the way Indian pitches tend to. Fast bowlers like it here.Spinners? Well, it’s complicated.It’s clearly not a ground for spinners during India’s domestic season. Over the 49 first-class games that have been played here, they have averaged 41.02 to the fast bowlers’ 27.90.But there’s only so much extrapolation you can do when a Test match rolls into town.Dharamshala has hosted one previous Test, back in March 2017, and while it’s fondly remembered by India fans for Umesh Yadav’s third-innings spell of new-ball venom, it was also a match where spinners took 18 of the 30 wickets that fell to bowlers. Kuldeep Yadav made his debut and took a first-innings four-for; Nathan Lyon picked up five in India’s first innings; R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja shared six in Australia’s second.Before that Test match, the pitch had worn a tinge of green, and the curator had said it would offer something to all four disciplines: pace, spin and batting, of course, but fielding too, with good carry to the slips cordon.Axar Patel, Shubman Gill, R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Sarfaraz Khan and Rajat Patidar in training•AFP/Getty ImagesThe pitch delivered on that promise, and it helped that the match was played in the end of March, by which time warmer weather had arrived in Dharamsala. The sun helped turn the surface into something like day four in Australian conditions- fast and bouncy but with plenty of cracks for the spinners to work with.It’s a little different now, as Dharamsala gears up for its second Test match. It’s still the first week of March, and there has been rain in the weeks leading up to the game. Rain is forecast for Thursday, day one of the Test match, and maximum temperatures on all five days are likely to hover in the early to mid-teens (Celsius). It’s not the kind of weather for cracks to open up.Against that, though, is the look of the pitch itself, two days out from the match. It seemed to be a pale brown rather than green – the pitch that hosted the third Test in Rajkot had looked significantly greener in the lead-up – and Jonny Bairstow called it a “used pitch” in his press conference on Tuesday. He was not wrong, since it’s the same pitch that was used in that HP-Delhi game, but that was three weeks ago – how much time must elapse between matches for a used pitch to cease being one?James Anderson bowls with the Himalayas in the background•Getty ImagesEven so, it seemed fairly evident that the powers that be have made an effort to get this pitch to play in as Indian a way as possible, and minimise the advantages it bestows upon fast bowlers through its soil and location.It could still be fast and bouncy, then, and there could be swing if it’s overcast – as is likely to be a case for at least parts of the Test match – but it’s not a green seamer. The fast bowlers could still have a big influence, but the spinners could enjoy the bounce too. The lack of grass on the surface could help it wear a little quicker, though how quickly, in these conditions, remains to be seen.The outfield – a distinctly different and darker green to the square – is lush. Reverse-swing, if it happens, may take some time to happen.From England’s perspective, any help for the fast bowlers is welcome, potentially even-ing the battle between the two attacks. There is every chance they will play three quicks.It’s a little trickier for India to play an extra seamer, though. Any Indian pitch that’s not an outright greentop – and this one isn’t – is one where Ashwin. Jadeja and Kuldeep can find a way to take wickets. They’ll certainly enjoy the bounce, particularly if England keep sweeping and bring the top edge into play. And cooler weather allows fast bowlers to extend their spells; Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, used judiciously, could still deliver enough overs to ensure India don’t waste windows of fast-bowling opportunity.The question for India is whether a third seamer – likely Akash Deep – could get them more wickets, and get them quicker and cheaper, than a third spinner. It’s a question they’re likely to spend a lot of time mulling over, over the next day-and-a-half. It’s the kind of question they rarely have to ask themselves when they’re playing at home, but this is Dharamsala. Everything is different here.

His fifty was central to tourists’ best day of a series that has already passed them by

Vithushan Ehantharajah26-Jul-2024Before the , there was .Diary of a CEO reels. Mark Wahlberg’s daily routine. Dubai-based influencers flexing (rented) wealth. All of which are still going, of course. Don’t you see – hustle culture never dies.But amid the glorification of unreasonable work hours and unsustainable sleeping patterns under the banner of “rise and grind” was a central pillar that, ultimately, spoke of a broken society. One that needed to be gamed as much as played. Where all you could really do was gamble and barter for incremental moments of success. Success that was fleeting, merely leading to another stage of the cycle with no guarantee of happiness the more you went around.Earlier this week, Cricket West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave told BBC Stumped that hosting the T20 World Cup last month and with England to come at the end of 2024 makes it “three good financial years” in a row after Covid decimated the business. The visits of England and India in 2022 and 2023 were crucial money spinners.Time to put the word out there that Caribbean cricket is back? Not quite. The success of those years will only really be felt in the upcoming fallow ones of 2025 and 2026, when CWI can at least continue their investment in infrastructure across the men’s and women’s game, and reinforce their grassroots systems, while feeling the pinch. India are due to return in 2027 to replenish the pockets and on the grind goes.Related

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Kevin Sinclair the latest casualty as Mark Wood steps up pursuit of 100mph

Atkinson four-for highlights 13-wicket opening day

It’s galling to think of the governing body of a Test nation operating on such gig-economy terms. But as most with the power to fix a broken system shrug their shoulders, West Indies crack on. After the ECB agreed to three extra T20Is on 2023’s limited overs tour, they asked if they could assist with anything this Test tour. CWI, sensing the need to future-proof what Test stocks they have, asked for help in facilitating an Under-19 tour to the UK.For the first time, maybe ever, CWI as a body feel more in step with its players, who are among the most accomplished traversers of increasingly absurd terrain. And it was one of them in Jason Holder who was central to West Indies’ best day of a series that has already passed them by.Two outstanding catches at the end of Friday at Edgbaston supplemented a 59 from Holder that did more than just delay an impending collapse. An opening stand of 76 became 115 for 5, and thoughts immediately turned to Sunday’s botch job in Nottingham. Holder, with the familiar help of Joshua Da Silva in a stand of 109, were able to stave it off. With England 38 for 3 at stumps, West Indies’ 282 does not look as light as it initially seemed.This was Holder’s first half-century in 16 months. But much like West Indies cricket as a whole, the truth lies a little deeper. An unbeaten 81 against South Africa came just eight innings ago before two Tests against India were followed by a brief sabbatical from the format at the start of this year. After rejecting a CWI contract, Holder opted out of the tour of Australia to ply his trade in the ILT20, citing practice for the upcoming T20 World Cup.Jason Holder raised a battling half-century•Getty ImagesAs the world lamented another nail in the coffin of Test cricket, Holder made it clear his Test career was not over. Those words were backed up with a stint in County Cricket for Worcestershire. Not that they needed to be, of course. The 32-year-old, weighing up financial gain and personal preference, happened upon a happy medium for him.It felt oddly in sync in a fractured world that at 5:17pm – the time Holder was yorked by a late-swinging delivery from Gus Atkinson – Nicholas Pooran, arguably the most talented batter of his generation and yet without a single Test cap, rocked up at Headingley.Just 36 hours earlier, his MI New York had been knocked out of the MLC 2024. Now, he was donning the purple of Northern Superchargers for the start of a £125,000 stint. Cold work for some, necessary for a player who continues to gamble on himself – and win.Holder came up short of his own gamble out in the middle here. Alzarri Joseph’s brief, breezy cameo meant three more partnerships at most. The former West Indies Test captain had grand ambitions of being “more expressive”, flicking through his options and setting a path for the future… one which was destroyed in an instant by Atkinson’s yorker.Jason Holder was bowled by a beauty from Gus Atkinson•Getty Images”At the stage when I got out, I was trying to get past the two spells, of Woakes and Atkinson,” Holder explained of his thinking at the time. “The ball was starting to do a little bit more; it was quiet for a bit but then it started to swing a bit more.”I knew Woody was deep into his workload in terms of the amount of overs he was asked to bowl. Obviously coming with a short ball plan on a very slow wicket, it takes a lot of effort. I wasn’t really expecting him to come back too soon after, so maybe Bashir would have come back and I’d try to push the game on a little bit more.”The calculations were sound. Holder had looked settled when Wood tried to go at him earlier, and largely dominated the 27 deliveries he had previously faced from Bashir, which included stepping to the off spinner and planting him into the sightscreen for six. Their return would have signalled a mini-win that could in turn have lifted West Indies to 350.Though Kraigg Brathwaite had notched a tidy 61 and Da Silva had looked steady for his 49, Holder was far better equipped than two red-ball specialists for the situation after the top-order collapse, and the circumstances that lay ahead.Holder only added five runs to his score after Da Silva’s dismissal. All the grinding and computing he had done for the late charge had come to nothing. And it was ultimately not enough to cover for the Kirk McKenzie’s shortcomings and Alick Athanaze’s frustrating decision to try and pull a ball not quite there that was always going to be the last ball before lunch.Just as it is in the system, this match will require constant ducking and diving. That West Indies ground and ground some more to finish day one in a good position in this Test puts them no closer to being surer as a Test nation. But as the game continues to shrug, they continue to hustle.

After England became the first team to reach the T20 World Cup semi-finals, the Switch Hit team meet to discuss their hopes of back-to-back titles

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jun-2024After their group-stage struggles, England became the first team to seal a berth in the T20 World Cup semi-finals, with a clinical demolition of the USA in Barbados. In this week’s Switch Hit, Alan Gardner, Matt Roller and Andrew Miller review their circuitous route to another tournament knock-out phase, and the prospects of Jos Buttler’s men making it back-to-back titles, after their victory in Australia in 2022.

Forceful lower-order batting undoes visitors’ excellent work in the first half of opening day

Matt Roller29-Aug-2024This was a missed opportunity for Sri Lanka. England’s batters played charitable hosts at Lord’s, laying it on thick with a series of self-inflicted dismissals on a slow, blameless first-day pitch. Yet after tea, the champagne hardly flowed: England added 142 for 1 in the final 29 overs, leaving Sri Lanka to rue their profligacy.Their day was personified by Lahiru Kumara, the bustling fast bowler who replaced Vishwa Fernando. He struck with his fifth ball, having Dan Lawrence caught behind, and had Chris Woakes caught on the hook in the afternoon. But his final spell of the day was a tired one: Gus Atkinson crunched his short ball over midwicket, and he looked exhausted.When Atkinson and Matthew Potts added an unbroken 50 for the eighth wicket in 10.3 overs, Sri Lankan heads dropped. Their fatigue in the final session was encapsulated by Kumara’s loosening-up for his final spell: after bowling a practice delivery to Prabath Jayasuriya at mid-off, Kumara took his eye off the underarm return and dropped the brand-new ball on the turf.It was a particularly frustrating day for Dhananjaya de Silva, Sri Lanka’s captain, whose surprise decision to bowl first when he won the toss looked for a while as though it had paid off. England lost wickets regularly in slipping to 216 for 6, and with Ben Stokes’ absence prompting a longer tail than usual, the game was wide open. Instead, Atkinson crashed 74 not out from No. 8.”We’ve done well in the first session, and what we were expecting was to get them out for 320, something like that,” Aaqib Javed, their bowling coach, said. “The partnership between [Joe] Root and Gus actually took them along, and when you’re expecting a wicket to fall after six wickets, it’s getting sometimes frustrating. The energy level from 65 overs to 80 was a little bit down.”Related

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After a superb record-equalling hundred, Root gifted his wicket to Milan Rathnayake on 143, fluffing a reverse-scoop to be caught in the gully. And yet, most frustratingly for Dhananjaya, his team failed to capitalise in the final 45 minutes of the day, spraying the new ball around. “There is tiredness, there is fatigue, and it’s showing,” Kumar Sangakkara, Sri Lanka’s former captain, said on commentary.The man who capitalised was Atkinson, whose approach was simple and clinical during his maiden Test half-century. He put particular pressure on Sri Lanka’s spinners, launching Jayasuriya for two straight sixes over mid-off and combining with Root to take Kamindu Mendis’ three overs for 27, rendering him unbowlable and bringing the seamers back for third and fourth spells.”How well did Gussy strike the ball?” Root said on Sky Sports. “I’ve seen him play enough to know that it’s in there, but… I’m dying to be able to play shots like that. There was a pull shot he played to deep square: we got one, but we had to sprint a single. He hits it that cleanly. We need to get him into golf, because that swing is pure.”With Potts unbeaten on 20 overnight – the top score of his own fledgling Test career – England are eyeing a total of 400 or more on the second morning. “Those guys in particular set things up nicely going into day two,” Root said. “They stepped up and really made life difficult for Sri Lanka at the back end of the day, where you can cash in and you can score quite quickly on such a fast outfield.”Sri Lanka have fought hard across the first five days of this series, with England facing moments of real jeopardy. But their attack’s inexperience – their four main bowlers in this Test have won 57 previous caps between them – has shown twice when bowling to the tail: on the third morning in Manchester, and now on the first evening at Lord’s.

Three of the four semi-finalists have overcome personal and structural hardships to beat the best in the world at this T20 World Cup

Firdose Moonda19-Oct-20242:54

Carson leads the way, West Indies’ injuries costly

The Sharjah outfield received a hard smack from Zaida James’ bat as she walked off, with West Indies 11 runs away from the T20 World Cup final. James, 11 days away from turning 20, contributed 14 runs off eight balls batting at No. 9 and had believed she could “bring it home”. Ashmini Munisar, just a year older than James, came in next and gave James a reassuring pat on the helmet as they swapped places. Munisar would do her job and get off strike but had to watch from the other end as the match was lost.That West Indies’ last hopes lay with two of the youngest players in their squad spoke volumes about what they lacked in this tournament, and also about what they may have to look forward to. There is talent, but it must be nurtured and more of it must be found in a region where resources remain scarce. All of this makes West Indies’ final-four finish that much more remarkable.”Honestly speaking, we probably just don’t have it like a lot of the rest of the teams,” Hayley Matthews, the captain, had said after West Indies knocked England out of the tournament on Tuesday. “Back home in the Caribbean, sometimes we don’t have facilities and a lot of our girls come from very humble beginnings. To be given this opportunity to come out, represent your nation, and make a living out of it, for every single person it changes their lives.”Related

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While West Indies have central contracts for the women’s team, the regional system is only on the cusp of professionalising. Creating a year-round high-performance system remains a challenge. Ahead of international assignments, players get taken to centralised camps, which Matthews says are “really difficult on the girls because they are not able to stay in their homes with their friends and their families”. She would like to see them “be able to just get proper cricket training whilst they’re home”, because “we’ve got enough good coaches around the Caribbean that something can be done or put in place for everyone to be able to stay in their own territories and be put in a proper system where they can continue to improve there”.Legspinner Afy Fletcher, who is currently the joint-second-highest wicket-taker at the T20 World Cup, is one example. She is the only player in the West Indies team from Grenada, an island whose players compete alongside four others as Windward Islands. When she is not on regional or national duty, she practices with her partner, a former club cricketer, because it is her only option.”Fletch just goes to the nets with someone she knows, maybe her partner, and he throws balls at her a lot of the time. So it’s amazing for her to be able to come out here and perform the way she does,” Matthews said. “For all of our players to come out and perform the way they do – that’s why I feel as though you can never really be too hard on them because I think a lot of the time with what we’re given and what they’re given we’re still exceeding expectations every single time.”While Matthews has experience in the WBBL, the Hundred and the WPL, where she plays alongside other internationals, most players in her West Indies team have to “learn on the international scene and that can be so difficult”. She would love a system as advanced and professional as Australia’s, for example, which is designed “to create players who are ready to step onto the big stage”.Hayley Matthews tries to hide her emotions after the loss•ICC/Getty Images”I’m watching the T20 Spring Challenge right now in Australia and I’m seeing 13- and 15-year-old girls doing some insane things,” Matthews said. “I would absolutely love it if we had a system like that in place where our girls could come out from the regional system and be at a certain level.”The challenges for West Indies lies in creating this from the geographic spread of the islands to their economies but they will receive a big boost from this T20 World Cup. As losing semi-finalists, West Indies will take home US$ 675,000, some of which may be invested back into the women’s game. That thought won’t dry Matthews’ tears on a night when she thought her team had a World Cup final in the bag, but as someone who, in the words of the team coach Shane Deitz, is “really driving” the legacy-building aspect of the women’s game, it may provide some comfort in the days and weeks to come.Then, perhaps, Matthews and West Indies will be able to look back and appreciate the significance of what they achieved by getting to the semi-finals at a World Cup where better-resourced teams like England and India did not. New Zealand, who advanced to their first final in 14 years, already know that especially after they identified a lack of depth as their primary concern despite a developed domestic system.

“For all of our players to come out and perform the way they do, that’s why I feel as though you can never really be too hard on them because I think a lot of the time with what we’re given and what they’re given we’re still exceeding expectations every single time.”Hayley Matthews

In March, their captain Sophie Devine told ESPNcricinfo’s Powerplay podcast that “there’s not much depth coming through” in a country with a small population. After getting to the semi-final by beating Pakistan in the UAE, she repeated and expanded on that: “We’re not India, we don’t have a billion people to sort of pick from.”But they do have some, and Devine recognised that as a start. “Look at who’s on the bench. Molly Penfold’s been outstanding the last 12 months, she’s come on in leaps and bounds and you’ve still got players like Jess Kerr, Hannah Rowe and Leigh Kasperek – it’s those small, wee things where it’s going to take time to build depth, especially in a country as small as New Zealand. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to be a continual work on for us.”New Zealand do not suffer from poor finances like West Indies and were the first country to introduce equal match fees, but have to deal with several other competing sports that attract some of their best athletes. Netball is their most popular women’s sport, followed by rugby union. But cricket is gaining ground.That is reasonably similar to the situation that their opponents in the final, South Africa face. Netball is also the most popular female sport in participation numbers in South Africa but cricket is growing. South Africa are the third country out of the four that advanced out of the group stage, whose players have battled personal and structural hardships to beat the best in the world.Ayabonga Khaka is an integral part of the SA women’s team•Getty ImagesAlmost every one of them has a story but Ayabonga Khaka, who was born in the small town of Middledrift in the Eastern Cape two years before democracy came to the country in 1994, is a standout example. Khaka was born into “impoverished circumstances”, as Eddie Khoza, CSA’s pathways manager, told ESPNcricinfo. She went on to become one of the first women at a boys’ academy when she joined the University of Fort Hare’s facility under the tutorship of former international Mfuneko Ngam. She has a degree in human movement science, she invests in farming in her community, and Khoza calls her “a living example and an icon who has achieved things on and off the field and could inspire the next generation of cricketers”.In Khaka, South Africa have a player whose quiet consistency and confidence has proved how much is possible. She has played in two ODI World Cups – both times reaching the semi-final – and four T20 World Cups and has lived and breathed the gains and misses of each of them. Her message to “people from the parts that I come from” is: “anything you want, you can do it”.That sums up what this World Cup has said for the progression of women’s cricket. Two of the Big Three – England and India – did not reach the semi-final, and Australia’s grip on the trophy was released. Three of the four semi-finalists come from places where their players put their passion ahead of the struggle, even when it seems that the odds are stacked against them. They know that desire alone doesn’t win a World Cup. It’s a combination of planning, luck and the muscle memory of dealing with pressure and if nothing else, they now know a bit about that. As James said, “I take this as a learning experience”, which may mean next time will be better.