Tag Futebol

Should Rohit miss the Test, Jasprit Bumrah will captain the team for the first time

Nagraj Gollapudi29-Jun-20224:04

Rohit has not yet been ruled out – Dravid

India captain Rohit Sharma is battling against the deadline to be available for the Edgbaston Test against England after testing positive for Covid-19 once again on Wednesday morning. ESPNcricinfo has learned that Rohit will undergo two further tests – one this evening and another on Thursday – before the Indian team management takes a final decision on his availability for the Test, which starts on Friday. Should Rohit miss the Test, Jasprit Bumrah will captain the side.Rohit, who tested positive on the second day of the warm-up match in Leicester last week, has been serving the five-day isolation as recommended by the UK government. Today was the fifth day, but Rohit was absent from India’s training session.”Rohit is being monitored by our medical team, he is not yet been ruled out,” head coach Rahul Dravid said. “Obviously, he needs to get the negative test to be available. So we will keep monitoring that, we’ve still got close to 36 hours to go. He will have a test later tonight and maybe one tomorrow morning as well. And then we’ll see.”Obviously, he’ll have to come out of that, and it’s really up to the medical team and sports science team to decide on that. We haven’t had a chance to see him, since he is in isolation. But we will keep monitoring the situation.”While there has been no official update from the BCCI on who will lead India in case Rohit doesn’t play in the Test, it is understood that Bumrah will take up the role. India didn’t nominate a vice-captain after KL Rahul, who was named Rohit’s deputy when the squad was picked in May, was ruled out having picked up a groin injury earlier this month.Bumrah was the vice-captain during India’s previous Test series, against Sri Lanka at home. He incidentally has never led in any form of cricket, so this will be his maiden captaincy stint. He will also become the first fast bowler to captain India since Kapil Dev.Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Sri Lanka series, Bumrah had said he would never “shy away” if he was given the opportunity to lead India. “If given an opportunity at any scenario, it would be an honour and I would never ever shy away from that, but it is something that I don’t go looking for,” Bumrah had said. Despite the lack of captaincy experience, Bumrah had said he remained confident of performing the leadership duties as he had grown in his role as a strike bowler both for India and at Mumbai Indians in the IPL.”Whatever role is asked of me, I would do it with the best ability. You are always a leader when you are a senior member of the team, so it’s just a post that comes with you. Basically, you try to help all the people in whatever capacity you can. Even in Mumbai Indians, you have got a lot of senior players but now I am one of the senior players as well, so you help the captain, you help everyone, you play the leadership role even when you are not asked to.”That’s how I look at it. I never want to [be the captain] just for personal satisfaction. It’s just a post, it’s just a name, you have to do your job and you have to help people in the best way you can.”‘We have got contingency plans’ – Dravid on captaincy scenario
If Bumrah walks out for the toss on Friday, he will be the eighth man to lead India since 2021. While Dravid agreed that is not the desired scenario, he felt that the coaching staff and players were well-equipped to handle that challenge.”It is what it is,” Dravid said. “When I took the job even I wouldn’t have predicted that there would have so many captains in the last six-seven months. That happens, right? In the times that we are living in, with Covid, there have been some unfortunate injuries to people. Even here, it is quite unfortunate what has happened to Rahul and Rohit in the last three weeks for us. And sometimes we’ve had to balance out the workloads of people. So it happens.”Of course, it is not something you envisage when you first start off, but if a situation arises then you react to that, you deal with that. And in spite of the number of captains we have had, we have played very good cricket over the last six to eight months. Yes, obviously the South Africa Test series was probably the one I would have liked to have won after going one-up. But even there I thought we were not outplayed, we were very close in a lot of those games. We had a few unfortunate injuries and some of our main players were probably not available for that Test series.”We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that we don’t have to deal with these situations, but they seem to come up and we have to react. We are not fazed by it. We are clear about our communication with people. We know what is going to happen over the next few days. If something happens, we have got contingency plans and, within our group, within our team, we know what’s happening. That’s really important for us.”

Lead fast bowler also opens up on England’s rotation policy

Matt Roller21-Feb-202110:31

Mute Me: Are England being too rigid about their rotation policy?

Reverse-swing was a key factor in England’s victory in the first Test of their series in India, but James Anderson does not expect it to play much of a role under the Ahmedabad floodlights in Wednesday’s third Test.Anderson missed England’s 317-run defeat in the second Test, with the team’s management opting to rotate him to keep him fresh for the day-night match at the new Motera stadium, and as such has had plenty of time to examine the pink SG ball in the nets over the past two weeks.He suggested on Sunday that there was little discernible difference between the pink SG and the Dukes and Kookaburra equivalents that he has used previously in Tests, and that the extra lacquer on the ball means it is likely to stay hard for a longer period of time.”It doesn’t feel a lot different [to other brands of pink ball],” Anderson said. “What we have found with all the pink balls, it seems like they have an extra bit of lacquer on them so it feels a bit more plastic, the coating, rather than on the red ball where you can feel the leather. It feels very similar to the Dukes in the hand.Related

• Anatomy of Motera: How the Sardar Patel Stadium became cricket's largest ever

• Pink ball in hand, India and England prepare for series-defining battle

• India's pink-ball conundrum: Kuldeep, Hardik, Siraj or Sundar?

• Stats – How Anderson has become better with age

• Anderson's magic spell conjures memories of Flintoff in 2005

“I think we will be unlikely to see reverse. It depends on the pitch – if the pitch is really abrasive you might see a bit of reverse, but from how we’ve bowled it in the nets I would be very surprised if it does reverse. It may well stay a bit harder for longer. We’ll have to wait and see how it reacts after 40-50 overs.”England have been using various pink balls in training – including some that are “really old” – to tune up for their first day-night Test in nearly three years, but Anderson suggested that their initial plans will be similar to their standard new-ball approach with the red ball.”I don’t think we’ll bowl any differently to how we normally bowl with the red ball,” he said. “We’ll be assessing conditions as we do and bowl accordingly. If it’s swinging around we’ll be more attacking, bowl a fuller length, have extra catchers in. If not, we’ll go a little bit more defensive.”It’s all about assessing the conditions. We’ve got a couple of balls that are really old we’ve been practising with that are doing absolutely nothing and I think it’s important we do that because you still need the option of taking wickets when it’s not swinging around.”We’re trying to cover all bases and know what we’re going to do if it doesn’t swing. If it does swing, yes, potentially we’ll bowl those slightly more attacking lines and lengths.”James Anderson tunes up for the pink-ball Test in Ahmedabad•ECB

England’s decision to keep Anderson fresh for the third Test was doubtless informed by his impressive record in his three day-night appearances to date, in which he has taken 14 wickets at 17.85. As per the global trend, he has enjoyed bowling in twilight, when batsmen have to re-adjust their eyes, and said that he was relishing the chance to play a game under floodlights, given how little one-day cricket he now plays.”For us old guys who don’t have the chance to play white-ball cricket any more it’s a chance to play under lights again. I just feel it’s something a little bit different – it’s quite special playing cricket under lights.”There is not a difference in how it [the ball] behaves as such. The difficulty will be adjusting the eyes to different lights. Twilight, the guys have said has been a bit tricky. We’ve found that in all the [day-night] Tests we have played, whether in England, Australia or New Zealand. It does take that bit of time to get used to as the light fades and the floodlights take over from the natural light.”I saw the pitch over the last couple of days and it’s got a lot of grass on it but I can see a lot of red soil underneath which says to me it could well spin if they take a bit of grass off. All the seam bowlers want really is a bit of carry, which we haven’t really had throughout the series. We’re keeping our fingers crossed there’s a bit more in it for the seamers.”Anderson also admitted that he did find it “frustrating” to have been rested for the second Test after his impressive performance in the first, but said that he could “see the bigger picture” given England’s packed schedule in 2021.”The idea was if I missed that one, that would give me the best chance of being fit and firing for the pink-ball Test,” he said. “So that’s where I am at, at the minute: I am feeling good and fresh and ready to go again if called upon. It’s hopefully going to keep me going for longer, and Stuart [Broad] has said the same too.”I’ve seen the last couple of years – 2019, when I missed the Ashes, and the start of 2020, when I got an injury in South Africa – [that] when the workload goes up – and it’s the same for all bowlers not just me – those injuries do happen.”We’ve got 17 Test matches this year and the best way of getting your best players firing for as many of those as possible is to take little rests every now and then it’s just a case of trying to make sure you’re not wearing someone out until they completely break in half.”

Making 180 in his last Test and a century for Australia A wasn’t enough to face England

Alex Malcolm08-Oct-2019Not much fazes Joe Burns.He’s not worried about Test selection. Nor is he concerned about his health after battling post-viral fatigue last season.So what is Joe Burns concerned about on the eve of the new Sheffield Shield season? Missing a great NBA game on television.”It’s a great season to be an NBA fan,” Burns told ESPNcricinfo. “I was getting pumped for the pre-season games yesterday. I’m a little bit worried if there’s a blockbuster game on at 10am and we’ve got a Shield game on.”Burns’ uncluttered mind may well be his biggest asset coming into a season where he will once again be in the spotlight as far as Test selection is concerned.It’s hard to believe given the current state of Australian batting, that a man with four Test centuries in 16 Tests and an average of 40.10, who has also scored more Sheffield Shield runs than any other player since 2010, is not only outside the Test team, but will likely need more runs over the first four Shield rounds to prove his worth once more.But that is the case for Burns, and an all too familiar one given he’s been dropped from the Test team five times including after scoring 180 in his last Test match.However, there is not a hint of frustration or resentment from the 30-year-old about his plight.”I think you learn over your professional career that there are things that you can’t control and the sooner you focus on the things you can control and give them 100% effort then the better you’re going to be,” Burns said.”You see a lot of young guys coming out and saying as soon as they started worrying about selection the game became tougher. Darren Lehmann said to me in my first year, ‘it’s a bloody hard game already so don’t make it harder than it needs to be’. It’s kind of rung true for me for how I view the game week to week.”I’m not one to go into a season looking at trying to score a certain amount of runs. For me, it’s all about my preparation. I just know if I’m the most prepared as possible, that will give me the best chance to equate it to runs. There are no guarantees in this game. But if I’m prepared from week to week, I feel like the most important part of the week is the days leading into games, trying to fine-tune the skills I want to use going into the games.”Everyone talks about trying to play with freedom. I think you get that freedom from knowing you’ve done the work and that you’re ready to go and you can almost go into autopilot.”While Burns is philosophical, others are frustrated for him, including his Queensland coach Wade Seccombe.”Joe’s incredibly resilient,” Seccombe told ESPNcricinfo. “For a guy with four Test hundreds out of 16 Tests, and he’s been dropped five times, he’s been incredibly resilient particularly when you see some of the selections that are happening before him. His effort around the group to help everyone else is an area that’s really grown, so he’s come back in really good spirit, really resilient and we know he’s going to score runs at Shield level and we know he’s in the top couple of batters in Australia.”There was some confusion during the winter surrounding Burns’ health, not least of which was initially for Burns himself. He suffered a virus in 2018, which turned out to be glandular fever, but struggled with ongoing fatigue in the aftermath throughout last summer although a formal diagnosis of post-viral fatigue didn’t come until May.Post-viral or chronic fatigue is widely misunderstood. The feeling of severe fatigue or exhaustion is common for elite athletes and routinely ignored for the sake of pushing through. But when glandular fever has been the root cause, such an attitude can have serious ramifications, as former Western Australia cricketer Rob Baker can attest.Burns knew he had a problem when arrived in Lancashire for his county stint.”I remember going onto the field the morning of day two of the first game [for Lancashire] and I was absolutely cooked,” Burns said. “It felt like I’d already played an entire season. I actually didn’t do my medical until after that first game. I did my medical and realised that physically I wasn’t going too well with a few of my vital organs. Once I saw a specialist it all made sense.”Joe Burns square drives•Getty Images

The official diagnosis and some enforced rest at home in Australia was a mental relief as much as a physical one. Simply having a clear understanding of why his body had failed provided confidence.”More than anything you just have better education about why my body was feeling like that as opposed to just ignoring it and trying to push through,” Burns said. “Now I can manage myself really well and I’m really confident now in saying I’m 100%. It’s been a bit of a process but I’m glad we got there. At the time the situation was that my body needed a few months to get my immune system back on track.”The immune system was basically operating like it was sick and after a few months of operating at such a high level, your vital organs start to struggle. I was really thankful to Cricket Australia during that time and by the time I got back on the Australia A tour in July I was feeling a massive difference in the way I felt.”He was grateful to the selectors for giving him the opportunity to return to England with Australia A, after not originally being selected in that squad, and repaid them with a century straight off the plane against Sussex.”I felt as good as good as I felt in over a year by the time I got around to playing on that A tour,” Burns said. “It was a nice feeling to get out there and also to wake up the day after playing and not feel terrible and feel ready to go again and being able to back up. I think that’s the main thing. You can will yourself through a day or two but it’s the ability to back up. Once your body starts struggling it becomes really tough. By the time the A series rolled around, I felt really good.”In that context Burns’ non-selection for the Ashes squad seems even more puzzling from the outside. National selector Trevor Hohns did say publicly at the time of the squad announcement that Burns’ illness had been a factor in his omission. However, Burns said he is comfortable with his private conversations with Hohns and Justin Langer and he had no confusion as to where he stood.”My preparation was as good, if not better than most of the other guys that were selected,” Burns said. “I don’t think having that break in May would have had any impact on selection. When it came to selection that didn’t come up. There were conversations with the selectors about how to show I was available and we came to the decision that the A tour was going to be suitable from there. I’ve played enough cricket in England. I was ready to go for the Ashes if they needed me. I think they know that. I know that. It was just a decision based on what they wanted I guess.”His attention now turns to Queensland. He started beautifully in the Marsh Cup with back-to-back unbeaten half-centuries as Queensland won their first three games. They open their Shield campaign against New South Wales on Thursday at the Gabba, with Steve Smith, David Warner and Mitchell Starc all set to be in the opposition.Queensland were stung by last season’s lacklustre performance after winning the Sheffield Shield in 2017-18 and there is a burning desire to atone.”As a collective group and probably as an organisation as well, we’re disappointed with how we went last year,” Burns said. “We probably just didn’t give a great account of ourselves for the talent we’ve got in the team.”Obviously this week against New South Wales is going to be a challenge. If we play to our potential we’re probably going to be right in every game we play. It probably comes down to guys just taking responsibility. If you have the chance to go and win the game, go and do it. We [only had one century] in the Shield last year which was disappointing. A focus of ours is actually showing a little bit more toughness when the game is on the line and coming through and getting some wins as an individual as well.”It’s a pretty open comp. Kind of like the NBA.”

De Silva’s term is for two years, and he officially begins on August 15

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Aug-2018Harsha de Silva has been appointed Sri Lanka women’s head coach, reprising the role he had performed between 2010 and 2013. De Silva’s term is for two years, and he officially begins on August 15, several weeks before India women’s forthcoming tour of the island. The other major assignment on the horizon is the World T20 in the West Indies, scheduled for November this year.A domestic right-arm seamer in his playing days, de Silva holds a Level 3 coaching qualification, and had been the women’s head coach at the Valley District Cricket Club in Brisbane. De Silva replaced Hemantha Devapriya in the position, after Devapriya resigned five months before the end of his stipulated contract, in June.Among de Silva’s long-term concerns will be to shake Sri Lanka out of an ODI rut that has now stretched for several years. Sri Lanka have lost 12 of the last 13 matches they have played – a sequence that stretches back to last year’s World Cup. Their T20 form is marginally better, but not by much. They had defeated Bangladesh in the recent Asia Cup – a tournament which Bangladesh went on to win – but have won only three of their last 11 T20 internationals.SLC has, however, recently begun to invest in women’s domestic cricket, and will hope that de Silva can help translate those investments into results at the top level.

Cricket’s world body is considering scrapping the event in favour of two expanded World T20 tournaments in a four-year cycle

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jun-2017The ICC is once again mulling over the prospect of scrapping the Champions Trophy, in favour of two expanded World T20 tournaments in a four-year cycle. Talk of the impending demise of the tournament has become almost a ritual. And with the next edition tentatively inked in for 2021, in India, David Richardson, the ICC CEO, said the body is considering scrapping the event to capitalize on the popularity of the T20 format to open the tournament up to more teams.”It’s always been quite difficult to distinguish or differentiate between the two 50-over global events,” Richardson said. “With the World Cup becoming a ten-team event, it’s almost like the World Cup is becoming more like the Champions Trophy, which I think is a good thing.”I think it (World Cup) will still be a longer event. The World Cup format will allow the best chance for the best four teams to get into the semifinals. So it takes away the risk of maybe a rain-affected game or one poor game having a huge impact on the tournament like it can be in this tournament (Champions Trophy). But still, highly competitive matches hopefully.”And then, whether the Champions Trophy in 2021 stays a Champions Trophy, or we move to two World T20s – that still needs to be discussed and settled. It’s a possibility, yes. I wouldn’t say it is categorically going to happen because, as we’ve seen, the Champions Trophy on its own is a very good event and very well-supported, particularly in the UK, where you get support for all teams. So let’s not be too hasty in writing it off, but to be honest and frank, there is consideration for moving towards two World T20s in a four-year cycle.”Two World T20s in a four-year cycle, Richardson said, gave the ICC a chance to open the tournament to more Associate teams, a balm to the decision to curtail the number of teams at the 2019 World Cup to ten. That decision drew flak from Associate players, with Ireland and Scotland cricketers quite vocal.”Having two World T20s in a four-year cycle gives us an opportunity to globalise the game to a great extent, open the tournament to more teams – 16 or maybe even in a longer term to 20 teams,” Richardson said. “It’s easier to be competitive in that format, and thus easier to accommodate more teams.”Richardson’s thoughts will hardly come as a surprise. In 2012, it was decided that the last edition of the tournament would be held in 2013, as the ICC sought to introduce a World Test Championship from 2017, and there was talk of scrapping it even as long ago as the time of the 2009 event. However, the significant commercial success of the tournament in England in 2013 – a short, sharp competition that featured eight teams – led to its retention at the expense of a World Test Championship.The ICC, however, is discussing the idea of a two-year Test league, with a 9-3 format – the top nine Test countries compete among themselves and against the three lower-ranked teams comprising Zimbabwe, and most likely Ireland and Afghanistan (depending on whether they earn Test status), which could also put some strain on the international calendar.The 2017 edition, Richardson said, highlighted the importance of context, and the ICC CEO was happy with the success of the tournament.”Overall, very satisfied with the Champions Trophy (2017). Across all aspects of the event, really, from the enthusiasm of the volunteers – cricketeers, as they were called – to the broadcaster viewership, the digital content that we put out, umpiring, player behaviour, pitches … everything went well. The cricket has been great. It shows that if you’ve got context and competitive teams, you will have a great event.”

Jack Burnham scored his maiden first-class hundred at the age of 19 to guide Durham’s fortunes at the Kia Oval

Andrew Miller at Kia Oval03-May-2016
ScorecardAt the age of 19 years and 106 days, it’s a bit early in his career to say that Jack Burnham has seen it all, but the confidence that he has gleaned from his eight first-class matches to date is more than enough for him to know when he’s onto a good thing.Burnham’s maiden first-class century, a resolute and barely ruffled innings of 135, with 18 fours and two sixes spread across 215 balls and nearly four-and-a-half hours of precocious application, served to neutralise Surrey’s ambitions in a contest that, barring a shocking turn of events, is now destined to be a draw.But it was the confidence with which he assessed the conditions, on his very first visit to England’s oldest Test ground, that augurs so formidably well for his future. With a dominant range of strokes that rarely over-reached themselves but always ensured that the bowlers were playing to his tune, his innings provided the bedrock for Durham’s close-of-play total of 543 for 7.With a lead of 86, and with Paul Collingwood unbeaten overnight on 75, there’s the outside prospect of a fighting finish if Surrey – who could be lacking the services of Zafar Ansari after he was sent to hospital for a scan on another worrying hand injury – run into Chris Rushworth and Graham Onions in one of their new-ball moods.Realistically, however, the story of this match has already been written by a teenage batsman with an impressive recent past and a very big future. Burnham arrived back in England in March after an outstanding performance at the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, where he racked up three centuries and 418 runs – and in so doing broke a tournament record previously held by a certain Alastair Cook.He’s since been trusted to take that form straight into Championship cricket, and with 234 runs in four innings to date, including 61 against Middlesex at Chester-le-Street last week, he’s paying back that faith with interest already.”I’m very confident at the minute,” said Burnham at the close. “The lads have so much faith in me so I go out to bat relaxed and I believe in myself, and it works. I’m taking it all step by step, I’m just hoping to do as well as I can for Durham, but my main ambition is to play for the main England side in years to come.”To judge by his career trajectory so far, it’s hard to imagine how Burnham could possibly miss that particular mark. A quick glance at his player page on ESPNcricinfo tells you all you need to know about his heritage. Listed among his major teams are Durham, Durham 2nd XI, Durham Academy, Durham Under-13s, Durham Under-14s, Durham Under-15s, Durham Under-17s, England Under-19s and Northumberland – the latter a digression into Minor Counties cricket last summer, in which he produced a century in the semi-final of the Knockout Trophy against Lincolnshire that confirmed his readiness for the big time.Two weeks later, in August, he was making a trip to Scarborough to take on the champions-elect Yorkshire and their battery of England seamers – surely one of the toughest assignments any young cricketer could be offered for his county debut. And yet, despite attracting arguably the ball of the match from Liam Plunkett to be bowled for a duck in his maiden innings, Burnham responded with pluck second-time around, digging in for a maiden fifty before being last man out in a 183-run defeat.”That was a big challenge,” he said. “I was out of my comfort zone, with fast bowlers and nothing I’d ever done before. But I think I’ve got the right mentality, and I think whatever gets thrown in front of us, I’ll give it a good go, and it worked for us in that second innings.”It gave us a lot of belief in my own ability and how I go about things,” he added. “I used to complicate it a lot with my batting but, since that day, I’ve realised I can do it and I just need to back myself.”This outing in South London, by contrast, was a gentle zephyr. As on the second day, Burnham was challenged from the outset as Tom Curran and Ansari resumed the attack with a probing pace and spin combination. It was Curran who produced Burnham’s solitary moment of genuine alarm in the morning session, when a sharp bouncer ballooned off the splice into no-man’s land in the covers.But with Scott Borthwick alongside Burnham in a third-wicket stand of 145, any prospect of Surrey bringing their scoreboard pressure to bear was soon forgotten. The introduction of Gareth Batty prompted a step-up in tempo from Burnham, who came down the track in a mature bid to unsettle a bowler whose own first-class debut, for Yorkshire against Lancashire at Headingley in April 1997, had come when Burnham himself was three months old.”It was a pretty flat wicket, and Batty’s been around and seen a lot of cricket,” he explained. “I thought if I let him bowl, he’ll bowl the same ball over and over again and I won’t score a run, so I just thought give it a go and it paid off.”Surrey kept plugging away nonetheless, and were eventually rewarded with a pair of breakthroughs either side of lunch as, first, Borthwick propped forward to Batty to be pinned lbw for 77 before Ben Stokes, who never quite got going in his brief stay of 12, misread the flight of another guileful delivery from Ansari and popped a return catch back to the bowler.However, Michael Richardson kept Burnham company through some, if not nervous, then mildly twitchy nineties as the pair added 91 to scotch any notion of a collapse. And then, in the 87th over and from his 166th delivery, a nudged single into the covers and a gleeful leap at the non-striker’s end confirmed the fulfilment of an ambition that Burnham had been harbouring ever since his first appearance in Durham colours, more than half his lifetime ago.”This is a moment that I have dreamed about for a long time – every since I first played for Durham Under 9s as a seven-year-old,” he said. “I scored 22 against Cumbria that day, but I could hardly hit the ball off the square. It’s a very proud moment for all my family.”Burnham’s first instinct after his innings was to call his mother back in their family home in Esh Winning.”My mam made a lot of sacrifices for me when I was growing up,” he said. “It was always her who had to get off work, or change jobs, so she could run me around to my cricket. Dad was always away working, so it had to be her. It was great to hear how pleased and proud she was that I had scored my first hundred.””Playing at The Oval for the first time is just great, so to score a hundred here is a big moment in my career. Hopefully I can continue to score runs and I’m very confident in my game at the minute. I’m relaxed in the dressing room and I’m just concentrating on playing every ball on its merit.”

Mohammad Hafeez is quite likely to be axed from Pakistan’s Test squad given his poor showing in the format this year but, Hafeez said, he couldn’t complain if that happened

Umar Farooq25-Sep-2013Mohammad Hafeez is quite likely to be axed from Pakistan’s Test squad given his poor showing in the format this year but, Hafeez said, he couldn’t complain if that happened and it would be part and parcel of the game. A lack of first-class game time, he said, has contributed to his woes, but he still believes he is “one big innings” away from establishing himself in Test cricket.”It’s not a bad patch, it’s not form too,” Hafeez said in Lahore. “It happens in cricket, you try your best but sometimes you can’t perform in a particular format. It’s not a matter of technique even, the ball is coming on to my bat but I am not able to play a big innings. It happens with any big cricketer.”Hafeez has aggregated 102 runs in 10 Test innings this year, and his biggest struggle was the three-match Test series against South Africa in February. That signaled the start of his current slump, as he was doing reasonably well since being recalled in 2010 after a three-year gap. In South Africa, he was exposed against moving ball and became Dale Steyn’s bunny. On the recent trip to Zimbabwe, he remained off-color in the Tests, scoring 59 in four innings despite being the Man of the Series in the ODIs.He cited Pakistan’s lack of Test matches as a major hurdle for him to turn his form around: “If you look at Test series we played against South Africa six months ago, we didn’t play first-class cricket [until the Zimbabwe series this month], so it’s a lengthy gap and it’s not easy to adapt yourself in the format after such lengthy gap. But yes it’s not an excuse, I admit that in the previous five Test matches my performance has not been good and I am concerned about it.”Given his current form, Hafeez says he will accept his fate – whatever it be – when the squad is announced. “I am playing well in the other formats and it’s not like that I am not doing the handwork, but maybe I need to be doing more handwork. I am just one big inning away from being settled in the format. But the selectors’ job is to pick the best team for Pakistan, if they think my place is there in the team, they will pick me, otherwise I will accept their decision.”Hafeez, 32, is currently the captain of Pakistan’s Twenty20 team. He scored 665 runs at 23.75 as a T20 opener but his batting average started to rise after dropping to No. 3 – this year, in four matches at the position he has averaged 52.00. When asked if he would bat down the order to find his rhythm in Tests, Hafeez said: “It’s not my decision, to decide whether to bat lower down the order. I am always ready to play at whatever the number they want me to play at, but it’s the decision of team management.”

England continued their impressive preparations for the World Twenty20 with a 28-run victory against West Indies at Old Trafford

Andrew McGlashan at Old Trafford10-Sep-2012
ScorecardSarah Taylor scored an entertaining 53•Getty Images

England continued their impressive preparations for the World Twenty20 with a 28-run victory against West Indies at Old Trafford – their 19th unbeaten game in a row – having been lifted to a demanding total by a high class innings from Sarah Taylor who made 53 off 37 balls.It was a fantastic innings by Taylor, who struck seven boundaries, and she judged when to increase the tempo perfectly after West Indies’ spinners had made scoring hard work following a brisk opening stand between Charlotte Edwards and Laura Marsh.””We got off to a great start today,” Taylor said. “I was really pleased to find the boundary early and then ran hard with Arran later on. It was another good team performance with everyone contributing and two outstanding catches from Anya and Susie; we pride ourselves on our fielding. We aim to put a marker out in every single game and we’ll be looking to do that in the remaining three matches of this series.”Taylor’s first boundary was an inside-out drive through cover when she used her feet to the slow left-arm of Shanel Daley who had removed England’s openers. She then later broke a sequence of 27 deliveries without a boundary with back-to-back fours off Shemaine Campbelle. The placement of the shots was what stood out, threading the ball past fielders with precision and Taylor was soon expanding her repertoire further with a scoop over short fine-leg. The men playing afterwards would have to go quite some to match the innings.The main stand of the innings came between Taylor and Arran Brindle as the pair added 78 in 10 overs for the third wicket. Brindle was the quieter partner as Taylor dominated the scoring but used her pace between the wickets to keep the scoreboard ticking and pressurise some poor West Indies fielding.However, after Taylor’s departure West Indies did well to deny England any boundaries in the final four overs of the innings although a total of 150 was always going to be a tough ask for a side held to 71 for 8 in the previous match. While one Taylor shines, it is the absence of another – Stafanie – that is making life tough for the visitors.At least the openers, who had both been dismissed for opening-over ducks at Chester-le-Street, gave the innings some foundation with a stand of 35 and were not far from matching England’s pace. The home side were given plenty of chances to make the first breakthrough, spurning three run-out opportunities, one of which cost five runs, before Taylor again showed her prowess comes with gloves as well as bat with a swift stumping to remove Juliana Nero. That gave Danni Wyatt a wicket with her fourth ball and Wyatt struck again in her next over when Tremayne Smartt picked out long-on.West Indies never threatened to get close to the target, although it was far better performance than the first T20, as England’s bowlers chipped away and the highlights of the remainder of the match were a couple of stunning catches. The first was at mid-off by Anya Shrubsole, diving horizontally at mid-off, to remove the dangerous Deandra Dottin as Brindle began with a maiden in the 12th over. Then, in the closing stages of the innings, Susie Rowe avoided a collision as she ran backwards from midwicket. On this evidence, England remain a class above.

Kent won their second successive County Championship match in Canterbury and dented the promotion push of second-placed Middlesex by claiming a battling 69-run victory on the final afternoon at St Lawrence

20-Aug-2011
Scorecard
Kent won their second successive County Championship match in Canterbury and dented the promotion push of second-placed Middlesex by claiming a battling 69-run victory on the final afternoon at St Lawrence.The hosts wrapped up their fourth win of the Division Two campaign three overs into the final hour of the game to bank 20 points, while Middlesex went home with six after suffering only their second defeat of the summer.Having taken Kent’s four remaining second-innings wickets at the start of the day to dismiss the hosts for 332 – their second highest championship total at Canterbury this season – Middlesex were left with 80 overs to chase a victory target of 272 at an asking rate of 3.38 an over. Yet survival quickly became a more realistic ambition for the visitors after they slumped to 30 for four shortly after lunch.Matt Coles, taking the new ball for the first time in a year, started the rout with one that cut back off the seam to graze Scott Newman’s inside edge before plucking out off stump. Then, four scheduled deliveries before the lunch break, Stevens swung one away from Sam Robson to have the right-hander caught at second slip for 12.With his first delivery after the interval Stevens feathered the outside edge of Dawid Malan’s bat to give wicket-keeper Geraint Jones a regulation catch. Then, two balls later, Neil Dexter’s dire run of form continued with a third successive championship duck when he edged to second slip.Only 21 runs on, Chris Rogers – in aiming to work to leg – played all around a Stevens’ in-swinger to go for 26, and with 100 on the board, John Simpson (19) fenced at the second delivery of the innings from Wahab Riaz to be caught behind.Jamie Dalrymple and Tom Smith (seven) dug in to add 48 in 20 overs for the seventh wicket, but soon after tea, and with 124 runs required, Adam Ball broke through and emulated Stevens by taking two wickets in as many balls.Smith followed one outside off to edge low to third slip, then Tim Murtagh had his off stump pegged back by a first-ball yorker. Dalrymple farmed the strike intelligently to reach a 150-ball century – the first of the match – with 10 fours and two sixes.Steven Finn departed two overs later after allowing one from James Tredwell to squeeze through bat and pad and roll onto the stumps, then the off-spinner rushed one through Corey Colleymore’s back-foot defensive push to wrap up the win shortly after 5.30pm.The fourth day began with a high-class exhibition of new ball bowling by Finn who, after being released from the England squad on duty at the Oval, joined the game on day two to claim an eventual haul of five for 113. The willowy paceman accounted for James Tredwell with his fourth ball of the day, and with the first delivery of his next over sent Ball packing to another catch at the wicket.Murtagh then extracted extra bounce to graze the edge of Matthew Coles’ bat and give keeper Simpson his third catch of the session and sixth of the game. Eight runs short of a deserved hundred, Azhar Mahmood lost his 10th wicket partner and countryman, Wahab Riaz, pinned leg before by a shooting off-cutter by Murtagh to leave Mahmood unbeaten on 92 from 140 balls. He hit eight fours and two sixes.

Yorkshire put themselves right back into the race for the County Championship title with a deserved five-wicket victory over leaders Nottinghamshire

09-Sep-2010
ScorecardJonathan Bairstow cracked an aggressive, unbeaten 63, hitting the winning runs as Yorkshire got home by five wickets•Getty Images

Yorkshire put themselves right back into the race for the County Championship title with a deserved five-wicket victory over leaders Nottinghamshire. After bowling the hosts out for 413 in their second innings, with Ajmal Shahzad picking up four wickets to take his match haul to eight for 121, Yorkshire raced to their victory target of 209 inside 43 overs thanks to a sparkling unbeaten 63 from Jonathan Bairstow.There was a brief scare when they lost their top four in the space of six overs, but Bairstow put on 97 in 15 overs for the fifth wicket with Gerard Brophy (41), before taking a single to square leg to complete the win. The victory meant Yorkshire climbed to within seven points of Notts going into the final round of matches.Notts began the day 152 ahead on 357 for 6, realistically needing another 100 runs to stand a chance of an unlikely win after being bowled out for just 59 in their first innings. Nightwatchman Darren Pattinson advanced the score to 373 before misjudging the line of a delivery from Steven Patterson to be plumb lbw shouldering arms for 27, and Notts then saw the last three wickets fall in 12 balls.Steven Mullaney was bowled by Patterson with one that kept low, skipper Chris Read castled for 47 by an offcutter from Shahzad and last man Luke Fletcher deceived by a slower ball from the England seamer to also be bowled. Notts desperately needed early wickets to put any pressure on the visitors but instead openers Adam Lyth and Jacques Rudolph put on 65 in the 12 overs before lunch to deflate the hopes of the home fans.Pattinson briefly provided some inspiration either side of a half-hour rain break, Rudolph edging to gully and Anthony McGrath gloving a vicious throat ball to Read behind the stumps. The Australian quick then had Lyth caught at first slip for three wickets in three consecutive overs and when Andre Adams bowled Andrew Gale through the gate, Notts again had a sniff.But Bairstow and Brophy took advantage of the attacking field to charge towards the finish, Brophy falling with 17 needed to an edge to slip off Adams, before Bairstow finished things off in the company of Adil Rashid. Notts now travel to Old Trafford knowing a 22-point victory will guarantee them the title, having gained more wins over the season than either of their rivals, while Yorkshire must take maximum points from their home tie with Kent and rely on both Notts and Somerset dropping points.