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Australia deny playing 'silly buggers' over Cummins non-return

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Speculation about surprise comeback had been rife, but ultimately Australia opted for discretion

Andrew McGlashan04-Dec-2025Pat Cummins became a genuine option for a recall in Brisbane over the past week as he surprised everyone with the speed of his recovery. However, Australia’s selectors ultimately decided there was too much risk attached in playing a bowler whose overs would still need to be managed, but are very confident in him being ready for Adelaide.Chair of selectors George Bailey said his panel had not been “playing silly buggers” in leaving Cummins out of the squad but refusing to officially rule him out of contention in the lead-up to the second Test. However, he did admit a hug between Cummins and Andrew McDonald during a pitch inspection on Wednesday had been “for laughs”.Bailey said that there had been no expectation of Cummins being available when the group was selected but it became a realistic prospect as he ramped up his training in Brisbane, which included two spells on Monday and his first bowls on back-to-back days.”We weren’t playing silly buggers with him not being in the squad and in the mix. But I think once we got up here, saw his training, got as much of the background medical information as well, it became a live possibility,” he said. “Then it was just working through the permutations of what would that look like in terms of the amount of overs, what would it look like going forward from that as well.Related

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“I don’t think we thought he was going to be as close, it really changed through the week. Then risk tolerance became the conversation around what could he take on. Yes, he could have played. There would have been some restrictions around the overs and then obviously just the permutations [around that].”There was also consideration into what bringing Cummins back for this Test could mean going forward, and the added pressure it could leave on the rest of the attack. “Being in a really controlled environment [in] the nets where you can be really structured around the breaks and how you want it, then it’s just that risk of maybe going into a game,” Bailey said. “There’s some things you can control and probably some things that do get taken out of your control.”Meanwhile, Bailey said that the selectors had not got to the stage of debating whether Usman Khawaja would retain his place for the Gabba because he had never been passed fit to play. Khawaja batted on Tuesday before being ruled out of the Test the following day, having not recovered from the back spasms he suffered in Perth. He returned to the nets on Thursday. Travis Head, who made 123 in Australia’s chase in the opening match, will continue in the opening role during the second Test.”He hadn’t got his back back to baseline,” Bailey said. “And if you’re not back to the starting point then it’s obviously a heightened risk. There’s obviously your own performance, but when you’re injured and you feel like you’ve let the team down, I think that was something he was just conscious of; if it happened again, it would be an awful feeling. So sitting this one out buys time.”For now, Head is not being locked in at the top beyond this Test, and there has even been discussion of having in-match flexibility to batting orders.”We’ve gone into this series so far very much with a Test-by-Test focus,” Bailey said. “I imagine we’ll get another look at it here and see what that looks like and see that combination. We can cross that bridge [and] make that decision as and when we need to make that decision, but it’s an interesting one. What’s the threshold now for it to be a specialist opener, what’s that look like?”

Heather Knight challenges England's batters to adapt aggression to 50-over format

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Sciver-Brunt won’t bowl in Derby, so team balance in spotlight for opening ODI

Andrew Miller22-May-2024Heather Knight says that England will not deviate from the positive batting approach that helped to deliver a 3-0 clean sweep in the T20I series against Pakistan, but has challenged her players to adapt to the more varied rhythms of the 50-over format when they take the field for Friday’s first ODI against the same opponents in Derby.Knight’s 49 from 44 balls at Edgbaston last week was instrumental in rescuing her team from an ignominious 11 for 4 in the first T20I, but she said she took huge confidence from the varied manner in which England posted competitive totals in each match. A series of cameos delivered a 65-run victory at Northampton before Danni Wyatt’s 48-ball 87 set up a series-best total of 176 at Headingley.”They were three quite different innings, weren’t they?” Knight said on the eve of the ODIs. “The fact that we posted pretty good totals each time was a really pleasing thing. Knowing different ways to punch out a score is really important. That’s a good sign, and I think it’s a real strength of ours, that depth we have in our batting.”In particular, she credited the manner in which the team came to terms with the slower pace of Pakistan’s bowlers, whose nagging accuracy allied to some slow surfaces made it hard for England’s batters to line them up. With the T20 World Cup coming up in Bangladesh, Knight said it was all valuable experience for the team to have been able to bank.”The response from the top-order from that first game was really good, they worked out a little bit more about how they were going to be aggressive,” she said. “I feel like it’s a really good learning for us about how we’re going to approach those bowlers on potentially slower wickets, because you have to work out the method that you’re going to do it, and that’ll be slightly different for every player.”As a team, we always want to be positive,” she added. “Our aim as batters is to be aggressive when we can, but in ODI cricket, you have a little bit more time to read situations and cope with the ebbs and flows of the games. There’s obviously a lot of space to be aggressive, and that’s really important, but you’ve got to do it for longer and be a bit more calculated in terms of the times you pick to be aggressive and the times that you might have to soak up a little bit of pressure. But I’m really excited to see how we go.”One player who is well attuned to the ODI tempo is Tammy Beaumont, back in the squad after watching the T20Is from the Sky Sports commentary pod, and likely to open alongside Maia Bouchier with Wyatt slipping into the middle order. Kate Cross is also included in the 50-over squad, and can expect a key role as a senior seamer, especially with Nat Sciver-Brunt unavailable as a bowler for the first match and likely to have a limited workload thereafter, as she recovers from a long-term knee issue.Related

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“I feel like Maia’s earned that place in the T20 side and deserves a little bit of a run after the way she performed in New Zealand,” Knight said. “But in terms of ODIs, Tammy’s one of the best openers we’ve ever had, so we’re really pleased to have her back, and I know she’s eager to still keep improving and still keep getting better, which is a really good sign for a player of her stature.”With Sophia Dunkley on the sidelines at present, but making a strong case for a recall with her form for South East Stars, Knight acknowledged there was “a huge amount of competition” at the top of England’s batting, which is “only going to keep pushing those individuals to keep getting better”.She recognised, however, that the switch to the ODI format could come with challenges, particularly for the younger players in England’s line-up who – given the global focus on T20 cricket – are becomingly increasingly unfamiliar with the flow of 50-over cricket. In particular, she cited Alice Capsey who, at the age of 19, has played 129 T20 matches for club and country but just 31 List A games, of which 12 have been for England.Capsey has endured a tricky run of form of late, with just one score above 25 since March – and even that innings, 31 in the second T20I, was a streaky affair containing five boundaries in one over and little else for the rest of her 33-ball innings. Nevertheless, she claimed the Player of the Match award after picking up two important wickets with her offspin, and Knight said that her ambitions to become a genuine allrounder could only heighten her value to the team.”It just shows the contrast of the amount of T20 cricket that young players are playing, as opposed to one-day cricket now,” Knight said. “Alice is still working out the tempo that she wants to go at. She’s had success in dominating the powerplay and she plays that role well in franchise leagues around the world, but it’s about expanding her game, and learning to adapt to different situations. She’s still only 19, so that’ll come with time and volume of cricket played.”Alice does want to become a genuine allrounder. She’s working really hard on her offspin, so that gives her another option – not just in the top six batters, she could potentially play as an allrounder at seven and look to be in a place where she can perform consistently in that one-day team.”One further dilemma for Knight could be the balance of her spin attack. All three of Sophie Ecclestone, Charlie Dean and Sarah Glenn are now fixtures in the T20I side, and each currently occupies a top five slot in the ICC rankings. But with the potential need to play another seamer, while still maintaining the depth of England’s batting, one of the trio could be required to sit out.”There’s obviously a slightly different balance with Nat not bowling,” Knight said. “Our three spinners have been a huge strength of ours, and it can be really hard to fit them in the one-day team. It’s something that we haven’t really done, but it’s so hard to leave one of them out there.”They all add different things: Sarah’s consistency, Charlie’s got the best strike-rate of all time at the moment in one-day cricket, and Soph’s the best in the world. We’re looking at how we squeeze them in, but also get the balance right in terms of having enough batting.”Although England’s primary focus is the T20 World Cup in October, Knight was mindful of the fact that the ODI version is looming in 2025 as well. That, however, is a challenge for another day.”The international schedule is such that there’s always a big tournament on the horizon not too far away,” she said. “For me, it’s about improving as a team, be it in the T20 format or the one-day format, and each player should be pretty clear on what exactly it is that they need to be better at.”I want us to focus on what we’re doing now. What we’re facing is Pakistan. We’re trying to do the best that we can against them, and ultimately win the series and win it ruthlessly.”

Bangladesh fight back after Pujara, Iyer prop up India

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Both batters hit fifties in a 149-run stand to put India in a strong position before a couple of late strikes kept the hosts in the contest

Hemant Brar14-Dec-20222:35

Jaffer: A typical Pujara innings where he soaks up all the pressure

India 278 for 6 (Pujara 90, Iyer 82*, Taijul 3-84, Mehidy 2-71) vs BangladeshHalf-centuries from Cheteshwar Pujara and Shreyas Iyer gave India the advantage on the opening day of the first Test in Chattogram, but two late wickets meant the door is still open for Bangladesh to script a comeback.At one point, India were struggling at 48 for 3 but first Pujara and Rishabh Pant, and then Pujara and Iyer stitched together crucial partnerships to help them reach 278 for 6 at stumps. Pujara fell ten short of what would have been his first Test hundred since January 2019, while Iyer finished the day unbeaten on 82.Related

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Both Pujara and Iyer benefitted from the dropped catches as well. Pujara was on 12 when Nurul Hasan put him down off the bowling of Ebadot Hossain. That was on the second ball after lunch, when Pujara drove a full delivery only to edge it low to the right of the wicketkeeper. Nurul, though, couldn’t hold on to the chance.Iyer got two reprieves. On 30, Nurul grassed a chance off Shakib Al Hasan. Then on 67, Ebadot put down a straightforward catch at deep midwicket, Mehidy Hasan Miraz being the unlucky bowler this time.Iyer had another stroke of luck on 77. Ebadot’s inducker beat his inside edge and brushed the off stump but the bails didn’t dislodge.In the morning, when India opted to bat, Bangladesh captain Shakib hoped the grass cover would help his seamers pick up early wickets. But the pitch offered little assistance to the fast bowlers, forcing Shakib to bring himself on as early as the sixth over.The Bangladesh seamers, Ebadot and Khaled Ahmed, didn’t help their cause either by hardly bowling anything full. Some of the balls did keep low but they were all well outside off. Shakib tried playing around with the field, deploying a leg slip, a catching short midwicket, and a catching cover at various times but to no avail.It was Taijul Islam who eventually broke through. At the stroke of the first hour, Shubman Gill tried to lap-sweep him but the ball just dropped on him, inducing a top edge. Yasir Ali, anticipating the shot, ran around to his left from first slip and gobbled it up.KL Rahul fell soon after, chopping Khaled onto his stumps. In the next over, Virat Kohli played back to a length ball from Taijul that spun past his outside edge and trapped him lbw as he looked to work the ball into the leg side. That meant India, who had looked in full control at 41 for no loss, were all of sudden in a spot of bother.Pujara and Pant, batting in their contrasting styles, bailed them out. They added 64 off just 72 balls for the fourth wicket before Mehidy broke their stand. Having hit the previous ball for a six, his 50th in Test cricket, Pant went back in an attempt to steer Mehidy behind point. The ball, though, kept coming in with the arm to cramp him. The result was a bottom edge that bounced off the pitch to dislodge the off bail, and Pant walked back for a 45-ball 46.Shreyas Iyer was a positive presence at the crease•AFP/Getty Images

Iyer started tentatively, edging his first ball, against Mehidy, just past the slip fielder. Then Ebadot beat both his edges in the same over. But as the innings progressed, he started looking more and more comfortable and wasn’t afraid to take the aerial route against spinners.Pujara, meanwhile, used his feet against the spinners to skip down the track regularly, even if he didn’t look in complete control all the time. He brought up his half-century with a four off Taijul and celebrated the occasion with another boundary off the next ball. Iyer followed him to the landmark, also with a boundary.With both batters looking set for their hundreds, Bangladesh took the new ball as soon as it became available. And with that came the breakthrough. Taijul, who had beaten the outside edge of both Pujara and Iyer multiple times, finally got his reward when he got yet another one to spin past Pujara’s outside edge. This time the ball pinged the off stump to end the 149-run stand.Axar Patel survived a bat-pad appeal when Bangladesh didn’t opt for the review but the replay showed a clear inside edge. That didn’t hurt Bangladesh though, with Mehidy trapping him lbw on the last ball of the day to keep his side in the contest.

Qais Ahmad cracks Superchargers after Harry Brook gives Welsh Fire a fright

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Bairstow, Duckett post imposing 173 but it’s only just enough in epic at Headingley

Valkerie Baynes24-Jul-2021Welsh Fire 173 for 4 (Bairstow 56, Duckett 41) beat Northern Superchargers 168 for 7 (Brook 62, Ahmad 4-13) by 5 runsA blistering half-century to Jonny Bairstow capped by a devastating bowling performance from Afghanistan legspinner Qais Ahmad delivered Welsh Fire a nail-biting five-run victory over Northern Superchargers in their Hundred clash at Emerald Headingley.Harry Brook launched a valiant rescue mission after the hosts had stumbled to 50 for 4 inside the first half of their sizeable run chase. He nearly pulled it off with a knock of 62 from just 31 balls which was every bit as impressive as Bairstow’s.Having seen Jemimah Rodrigues rack up a jaw-dropping 92 not out off 43 on the same excellent batting track in the afternoon match – the highest score across the men’s and women’s competitions so far – Bairstow would doubtless have wanted to press on. But, even though they only have him for the first two matches before he reports for England Test duty, Welsh Fire won’t have any complaints.The crowd swelled from the 5026 for the afternoon match between the women’s sides, won by Superchargers on the back of Rodrigues’ innings, to 10,324 for the men. The relative lack of students in fancy dress suggested the throngs in the pubs lining the route to the ground at lunchtime had decided to stay put. But the largely civilian-clad fans in attendance were in strong voice, quietened briefly when Ben Stokes fell cheaply, but whipped into song by Brook’s charge.Bairstow blitz
If you could only write one player’s name on the Hundred, Bairstow would have to be right up there in lights and, in his first outing of the tournament, he lived up to that billing with an explosive innings that included five fours and three sixes.He launched David Willey over wide mid-off for six on the 11th ball of the match and then hit Willey’s next two deliveries for four. He drove Mujeeb Ur Rahman past a diving Stokes at mid-off for another four and then pummelled Brydon Carse into the fifth row over deep midwicket. Bairstow brought up his fifty off 28 balls with a mammoth six off Mujeeb that sailed into the stands 20 rows back over deep midwicket.Jonny Bairstow came out of the blocks firing for Fire•Getty Images

Stokes, captaining in place of the absent Faf du Plessis, brought himself on and made the breakthrough with his third legitimate delivery, a back-of-a-length ball which Bairstow pulled straight to Willey at deep midwicket. Ben Duckett got in on the act with 41 off 27 balls, including six fours. Combined with Jimmy Neesham’s unbeaten 30 off 11 balls and Glenn Phillips’ 23 off 14 – including two sixes, the first of which he powered off Adil Rashid high into the stand cleared by Liam Livingstone in the T20I last weekend – they helped push Fire to what was comfortably the highest total of the competition to date.Brook no challengers
Brook had been in fine touch for Yorkshire this season with a Championship century and seven scores above 40 in his last eight T20 matches at Headingley. On this occasion, he clattered five sixes and three fours to keeper the Superchargers in the hunt.Brook shared a 68-run stand with Tom Kohler-Cadmore, in the side after recovering from a broken finger which kept him out of much of Yorkshire’s Blast campaign. When Kohler-Cadmore was run out on the 74th ball, Superchargers still needed 55 runs to win and Brook didn’t stop. In the next set of five, he picked off another four and a six off Liam Plunkett, who had bowled with good pace in his first pro game for nine months but was expensive.Brook’s impressive effort ended however, when he was trapped lbw by Ahmad, two balls after the same bowler had John Simpson holing out to Ian Cockbain at long-on during a frenetic passage of play in which Carse also survived a drop and failed run-out attempt by Matt Critchley.Superchargers needed 11 off the last set of five but Jake Ball held his nerve, despite copping a hefty blow to the heel of his hand as Matty Potts struck the penultimate ball back at him with force. Carse managed just one off the last ball instead of the six needed to tie and Fire prevailed.

Qais on song

Welsh Fire accounted for both Superchargers openers in the space of five balls, Adam Lyth spooning Critchley straight to Tom Banton at cover after a short and sweet 25 off 14 and Chris Lynn caught by Ian Cockbain off Ahmad for a run-a-ball 11.Ball then had Stokes caught by Phillips at deep cover for just 5 and when Willey’s attempted drive off Ahmad resulted in a low edge to Critchley at backward point, he was forced to walk off to a blast of “Where’s Your Head At” by Basement Jaxx and Superchargers were in terrible trouble.Just 20 years old, Ahmad ended with 4 for 13 off 20 balls – Stokes was the only other bowler to concede less than a run a ball – his early dismissal of opener Lynn and his role in ending Brook’s innings proving pivotal.

Women's international cricket returns with Austria v Germany T20I series

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There has been no international cricket for women since the T20 World Cup final in March

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Aug-2020When Austria and Germany hit the field for the first of their five women’s T20Is at Seebarn Cricket Ground earlier today, it marked the return of international women’s cricket after a gap of more than five months. The T20 World Cup final, where Australia beat India at MCG, was the last international fixture for women before the Covid-19 pandemic brought the game to a standstill.Germany, who are ranked No. 27 in the format, last played a T20I series against Oman in February when they won 4-0, while Austria, ranked 50th, haven’t played since taking part in a quadrangular series in France in July-August last year, with Jersey and Norway the other teams. Austria finished third, only above Norway.”We are excited to take the field again after a seemingly long break,” Anuradha Doddaballapur, the Germany captain, said in a statement released by ICC. “The girls have worked hard in the last few months to stay fit and to up their skills, so I am confident we will put on a good show. We look forward to some exciting games against Austria whom we haven’t faced in T20 cricket in a long time.”Andrea Mae Zepeda, the Austria captain, said: “The team is really excited, and we are looking forward to some competitive cricket in Europe after months of lockdown due to Covid-19.”Some teams could not take part in this tournament due to travel restrictions, but we are happy those restrictions have been eased between Austria and Germany and we are able to get some international cricket this year.”All the five T20Is will be played in Seebarn, and after the opener, two games will be played on August 13, and one each on August 14 and 15.

Western Australia in final race with big lead against Tasmania

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Captain Mitchell Marsh gave his team an advantage with three crucial wickets

Daniel Brettig13-Mar-2019Western Australia maintained their bid to keep pace with Victoria and New South Wales in the race to the Sheffield Shield final by establishing a big first-innings advantage over Tasmania after two days at Bellerive Oval in Hobart.After the Warriors lower order pushed the visitors’ first innings up to 367, the Tigers made smooth early progress as Alex Doolan and Jordan Silk added 84 for the opening stand. However, the WA captain Mitchell Marsh, at the end of a difficult season, was able to conjure the key wickets to put his side in command of the contest, dismissing Silk, Doolan and critically the Tigers’ leading run-maker Matthew Wade, who was bowled between bat and pad by a ball swerving into him from around the wicket.Test captain Tim Paine managed to reach 26, but no member of the Tigers XI passed 50 against the WA attack, leaving Marsh’s men back at the batting cease before the close with an overall lead of 172 and the chance to set a daunting chase for the hosts.

Sussex pull off Rashid Khan coup

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Rashid Khan, one of T20’s hottest properties, will team up again with Jason Gillespie when he joins Sussex in the first half of the T20 Blast

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-2018Rashid Khan’s whirlwind career will blow him into Hove for the T20 Blast. Rashid, the Afghan legspinner who has become one of the hottest properties in T20 cricket and lifted the stature of Afghanistan cricket in the process, will play for Sussex for the first half of the tournament.Rashid will join Sussex with confidence because he teams up again with Jason Gillespie, the county’s new head coach, who was in charge of Adelaide Strikers when they won this season’s Big Bash.Rashid was one of the Strikers’ chief assets, finishing joint top of the wicket-taking charts with 18 wickets in 11 innings at a startling economy rate of 5.65 runs per over – the most meagre in the tournament. He missed the final because of international duties, but Adelaide survived without him, comfortably beating Hobart Hurricanes.A stint in the IPL will dominate his thinking before he arrives on the south coast of England. At the recent IPL auction, Sunrisers Hyderabad paid US$1.4m for his services, leading him to be dubbed by some as “the million dollar baby”.At 19, his brief career has also taken him to the Caribbean Premier League and Bangladesh Premier League as the advance of T20 – not the discussions of international administrators in sparking-water filled committee rooms – promises to become the main driver for global opportunity.Gillespie needed a lift after losing both Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan to the IPL, so deflating Sussex’s promotion challenge from Division Two of the Specsavers Championship before it has begun. But the prospect of Rashid and Archer, a key performer in Hobart’s BBL campaign, teaming up in T20 will give Sussex one of the most talked-about bowling attacks in the competition.Sussex have become the sixth domestic T20 side to snap up Rashid Khan•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“We are delighted that Rash has agreed to join us at Sussex,” Gillespie said. “His form for Afghanistan and the T20 teams he has played for over the last couple of years has been phenomenal. I have worked closely with Rash at the Adelaide Strikers in the BBL and have been incredibly impressed with his attitude, work ethic and team-first mentality.”We look forward to welcoming him to the Sharks where I’m sure he will quickly become a fan favourite.”Amongst bowlers who have bowled at least 500 deliveries, Rashid has the lowest average (13.82) in the history of international T20 cricket. His economy rate of 5.86 runs per over is the second lowest of all time.Sussex’s relatively small boundaries will offer up a new challenge, especially the tight boundaries square of the wicketSussex’s director of cricket, Keith Greenfield, expressed his delight at the signing. “Rashid is the most sought-after spin talent in the world,” he said. “He has made a significant impact in all the teams he has played for to date, so to make this move happen is fantastic.”

Kauthankar's double-century scripts Goa's fightback

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A round-up of the second day of Group C matches in the seventh round of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Nov-2016Snehal Kauthankar’s second first-class century – and maiden double ton – helped Goa recover from 190 for 6 to 413 against Haryana at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Ghaziabad. Goa had started the day on 197 for 6 with Kauthankar on 80 and Shadab Jakati on 4. The two stretched their seventh-wicket stand to 64 with Jakati contributing 28. After Jakati’s dismissal with Goa on 254 for 7, Reagan Pinto, who had retired hurt on 25 on the opening day, returned and helped add 73 for the eighth wicket with Kauthankar. Pinto struck 58 before he became left-arm spinner Ashok Sandhu’s fourth first-class victim. Amulaya Pandrekar, Goa’s No. 11, spent over an hour at the crease and batted out 40 balls to help add 67 more for the last wicket with Kauthankar. Pandrekar contributed just 5. Kauthankar was the last man dismissed, for 225 off 374 balls, which contained 30 fours and four sixes. Harshal Patel and Amit Mishra did the bulk of the damage, taking four wickets each.Haryana made a strong start to their reply, with Nitin Saini, not out on 76, taking them to 110 for no loss in the company of Shubham Rohilla, who was unbeaten on 32. Haryana ended the day trailing by 303.Kerala‘s bowlers fought back after their team was bowled out for 219 by Andhra in Guwahati. Left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla and offspinner Rohan Prem, along with Basil Thampi, the right-arm medium pacer, took two wickets each to leave Andhra 173 for 6 at stumps.The day had begun with Kerala 188 for 8 in their first innings. KS Monish (14) – resuming on 4 – and Thampi (15) used up 76 balls between them and took them to 219. Left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt dismissed both batsmen. DP Vijaykumar, who had taken a six-for on the opening day, ended with 6 for 47, his best innings returns.Andhra began solidly with Srikar Bharat and Prasanth Kumar both hitting half-centuries and putting on 81 for the first wicket. Abdulla broke through, having Bharat caught behind for 54. He followed it up with the scalp of Andhra captain Hanuma Vihari for 3. Prasanth stuck on to add 63 more with Ricky Bhui for the third wicket before being stumped off Prem. That dismissal began a procession with Andhra sliding from 152 for 2 to 170 for 6. Bhui stayed not out on 47. Andhra trail by 46 runs.In Surat, Rishi Dhawan’s five-wicket haul triggered a collapse as Services, resuming on 276 for 3, were bowled out for 401 by Himachal Pradesh. Services lost Nakul Verma, the overnight centurion, for 117 when he was bowled by Dhawan in the third over of the day. From there, Services lost two more quick wickets to slip to 288 for 6. That they got to 401 was courtesy Vikas Hathwala, who struck 69 and added 42 for the seventh wicket with Muzzaffaruddin Khalid (18) and 56 for the final wicket with Raj Bahadur (11 not out). Dhawan finished with 5 for 82.In response, Himachal ended the day 182 for 4. Paras Dogra top-scored with 70, while Prashant Chopra (47) and Ankit Kalsi (23) got off to starts, but none of them could convert into a big score. Robin Bist was unbeaten on 34 at stumps and had Mayank Dagar (3 not out) for company.At the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium in Valsad, Hyderabad lost six wickets for 84 runs to get bowled out for 351 by Chhattisgarh. Hyderabad began the day on 267 for 4 with BP Sandeep not out on 73 and Mehdi Hassan giving him company on 10. Hassan was caught and bowled by right-arm medium pacer Pankaj Rao, while Sandeep missed his century by four runs, becoming the eighth man dismissed, to the right-arm medium pace of Abhishek Tamrakar. Rao, playing his sixth first-class match, took his second five-wicket haul, ending with 5 for 89.Chhattisgarh responded strongly, with their openers Sahil Gupta and Abhimanyu Chauhan notching up identical scores of 55. Gupta was trapped lbw by right-arm pacer Mohammed Siraj, before Chauhan took Chhattisgarh to 124 for 1 along with Sumit Ruikar. Chhattisgarh are behind by 227 runs.At the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, Jammu & Kashmir‘s bowlers reduced Tripura to 193 for 6 after they were bowled out for 315. J&K resumed on 270 for 6 with Aditya Singh on 65 and Samiullah Beigh on 35. Aditya added just nine to his overnight tally before being caught behind off Rajib Dutta, while Beigh raised a half-century and was the eighth man out, for 54. Tripura’s new-ball pair of Manisankar Murasingh (4 for 75) and Dutta (3 for 74) took seven wickets between them. Ajoy Sarkar took two wickets and Gurinder Singh had one wicket.Like Tripura, J&K’s bowlers hunted in a pack with each of the five bowlers they used making an entry into the wickets column. Opener Bishal Ghosh struck an unbeaten 86, but Tripura were hurt by the inability of several of their batsmen to convert their starts.

Spinners win India another three-day home Test

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It was like Test cricket had gone asleep for one hour on the third morning before India lost eight wickets for 39 runs, and yet spun South Africa out to take a 1-0 lead

The Report by Sidharth Monga07-Nov-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
4:31

Manjrekar: ‘Lightning’ Jadeja a big plus

It is often said that Test cricket in India crawls for three days with seemingly nothing happening before suddenly exploding to life. What happens when Tests do not last three days? Time frames get compressed. It was like Test cricket had gone asleep for one hour on the third morning. India lost eight wickets for 39 runs, and yet spun South Africa out to take a 1-0 lead. This was the fourth straight three-day finish in Tests in India. R Ashwin continued his impressive bowling, Ravindra Jadeja completed a successful comeback to the Tests with a five-for, and Amit Mishra contributed with the big wicket of AB de Villiers again.At effectively 178 for 2 on a pitch that had been turning big from day one, India looked home and dry. It took a big collapse for South Africa to be set a target they could think about chasing. Imran Tahir and Simon Harmer took four wickets each, but the task for South Africa was still enormous: only twice had visiting teams chased 200 successfully in India, most recently in 1987-88. South Africa needed to bat extremely well to add to that tally. They did not.South Africa’s mistrust of the pitch showed in their approach. The demons in their heads were bigger than the ones under their feet. Three of them got out even before the pitch could do a thing. Vernon Philander was promoted to open the innings. He survived two balls. Hashim Amla took guard outside leg, and left alone a straight delivery that hit middle and off. Both of them fell to Jadeja, who confirmed his reputation of being a dangerous bowler on a turning track, by bowling straight and quick. He showed the value of being able to hit the off stump on square turners.Faf du Plessis overestimated an Ashwin offbreak with the new ball from round the wicket, and edged him to slip. It looked a set plan. He had bowled over the wicket to Philander before this dismissal, and over the wicket to Amla after it. Du Plessis read that it was on offbreak, but the ball didn’t turn as much as he expected.It was mayhem at 10 for 3, which de Villiers calmed down for a bit with his excellent use of feet and ability to punish anything loose. It is a mark of the threat he carries that India did not feel entirely comfortable until they had got rid of de Villiers. For the second time in the match Mishra did the job. This was a rare case of de Villiers’ failing to pick the length as he went back to a length ball. A possible explanation could be the flat trajectory of the delivery, but Mishra does bowl that fuller flatter one, which turns only a little. What is more, it stayed low, and took the inside edge onto the stumps.Only formalities were left after that. Spinners completed them duly with South Africa managing to bat out only 39.5 overs to go with 68 in the first innings, but Varun Aaron too contributed by drawing a big leading edge with a short ball to Dean Elgar. This was the first wicket taken by an Indian seamer, but South Africa, who do not have the luxury of the quality of Indian spinners, did have to rely on seam in the morning. India consolidated their position with 36 runs without loss in the first hour of the day, but South Africa conjured a breakthrough through part-time medium-pace of Stiaan van Zyl.A major chunk of the collapse in a five-batsmen Indian team was the losing of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane for three runs. When you have three-day Tests, you often have batsmen falling for no mistake of their own, but all three made errors here. Except that they took longer to make these errors than the South Africa batsman. Kohli went driving outside off at a ball not full enough, and van Zyl and Amla looked like geniuses. South Africa now went to their spinners once Kohli had provided them with the opening.Tahir began with a regulation legbreak first ball, Pujara went to defend, but was nowhere close to the pitch of the ball, allowing it to turn and take the edge. He had added 14 to his overnight 63. Rahane jabbed at a Harmer offbreak well in front of his body, and offered the acrobatic substitute Temba Bavuma a catch at short leg. Three wickets gone in four overs, India now looked to the lower order for some stability, but Tahir and Harmer got the better of them, which was expected on a pitch like this.

'England not as good as they think' – Steve Waugh

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Steve Waugh believes England may fall victim to hubris in the forthcoming Ashes series, suggesting that Australia’s bowling strength means Michael Clarke’s team needs to only find a handful of decent batting performances to regain the urn

Daniel Brettig29-Mar-2013Steve Waugh believes England may fall victim to hubris in the forthcoming Ashes series, suggesting that Australia’s bowling strength means Michael Clarke’s team needs to only find a handful of decent batting performances to regain the urn.Australia’s nightmarish tour of India has lifted English confidence to stratospheric levels, leaving Ian Botham to speak for many when he remarked that “this is the worst Australian team I can remember”. However, Waugh took a brighter view of Australia’s prospects provided the selectors showed faith with the players they had identified to succeed.”I think England aren’t as good as they think they are,” Waugh said at the New South Wales end of season awards night in Sydney. “I honestly think we can win the Ashes. We’ve got the bowlers to take 20 wickets. If that’s the case you can win any Test match. It just needs a couple of batsmen to find a bit of form.”Shane Watson, I think, has the potential to be a really great Test batsman, if he can step up to the mark along with Michael Clarke and some of the younger guys. I like the look of Phil Hughes, he’s got something deep within him that makes him a long-term Test player; we’ve got Dave Warner.”There’s enough talent there, we just need some confidence in that line-up and if we follow on from the damage the bowlers are going to do, I think we can win the Ashes.”The results in India have brought a rush of pessimistic predictions and a vast array of prospective Ashes squads, but Waugh counselled those in charge to persist with the players they had chosen. Waugh is not directly involved with Australian cricket presently, but did sit on the Argus review panel that introduced a raft of changes to the national team’s structure in 2011.”I think we’re just going to have to have patience with the current team,” he said. “It reminds me a lot of 1985-86 when I first came into the Australian side. It took us a couple of years to know how to win … 13 Test matches before I played in a winning Test side; 26 Tests before I scored a century. So, we’ve got to have patience in the side, believe in who we’ve got. We have to pick and stick for a while.”While presenting the medal that bears his name to the young Blues paceman Gurinder Sandhu, Waugh also posited the view that women’s cricket had advanced to the point that Cricket Australia should consider instructing Big Bash League sides to include one female player in each squad. Alex Blackwell was named the NSW women’s cricketer of the year for 2012-13, while the retiring Lisa Sthalekar was also honoured.”I think it’s about time where we could have one female player per Big Bash side,” Waugh said. “Going forward, I can’t see why the girls can’t have representation in the Big Bash. It’s a bit out there, that thought, but I think it might be time.”