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England skipper moved up to No. 3 for the recent drawn Ashes series but wants to drop back one place for good

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Nov-20190:36

Butcher: Back Root to find batting form

Joe Root plans to drop back to his favoured No. 4 spot in the England batting order for the Test series against New Zealand – and stay there.Root moved up one place to No. 3 most recently during the drawn Ashes series over the English summer, scoring 325 runs at an average of 32.50. It was expected before the tour of New Zealand that Root would return to No. 4 and he batted there in the first warm-up match in Whangarei.ALSO READ: ‘Bloody Warner’ inspired Stokes at Headingley“I’d like to be consistent with it now, moving forward,” he told the BBC. “It doesn’t always work exactly how you want it to but it would be nice for that to be the case.”I just think it suits my game a little bit more. It definitely fits in with captaincy a little bit better for me.”I know previous captains have preferred to get out there early and just get amongst it but I quite like to split the two and to really focus on my batting. I’ve found over time that, generally, I’ve consistently played better in that position.”Root had batted at No. 3 previously, spending much of 2016 there before he was captain, although he reverted to No. 4 as soon as he took on the leadership. He returned to No. 3 during the English summer of 2018 but struggled for runs and dropped back down again. Overall, he averages 38.12 batting at first drop and 48.39 while batting at No. 4.The side selected for the second warm-up match, also in Whangarei, starting on Friday, is expected to mirror the first Test line-up.Root’s move back down the order would mean Joe Denly also moves down a spot to No. 3 after recovering from an ankle injury that ruled him out of the T20 series in New Zealand. Denly would likely replace Zak Crawley, who scored a century in his first innings as an England player during the tour match earlier this week, with Rory Burns set to open alongside debutant Dom Sibley.”We haven’t officially picked a team yet,” Root said of the side to face a New Zealand XI in the final warm-up fixture. “As you’d expect, the majority of that will go and play the first Test match.”Root suggested he felt in much improved form with the bat going into the Test series against New Zealand.”I’ve done quite a lot of work on my batting over the last month and feel there’s been quite a significant shift in certain areas of it,” Root said. “And when you’re not concerned about areas of your game that unlocks a lot of things as well. You have the clarity and clear mind to just go and play. So hopefully that’ll play a big part starting from this series and then I can go and get some big runs.”Meanwhile, Root also reiterated his determination to reclaim a place in England’s T20I team but he accepted that, if he cannot win selection, it probably reflects well on the strength of the side.Joe Root attempts to improvise•AFP

With Dawid Malan, rated No. 3 in the T20I rankings, and Tom Banton among those now vying for selection, Root’s place in the side is no longer guaranteed. And while his teammates benefit from playing in various T20 leagues, Root is not in the same demand and has a busy schedule that presents few such opportunities.But Root has no thoughts of shelving his T20 ambitions and remains committed to the T20 World Cup in a year’s time.”I know what I can offer the team,” Root said. “And if I’m not part of that best team I’ll drive myself to improve and get in it. So my goal is to try to make sure I’m in the best XI.”But I want to see England win. Ultimately it’s about us winning World Cups. And if there are guys coming in and performing, then that’s great for England cricket. You want competition for places going into a World Cup. One of the great things about the 50-over team is that there have, for a while, been a number of guys who could come into the team and there would be a seamless fit. You want that across the board.”

Amazon Warriors were restricted to just 130, and Tahir and Joseph fought back, but Hosein’s boundaries took TKR home

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Sep-2025

The Trinbago Knight Riders players start the celebrations•Randy Brooks/CPL T20/Getty Images

Akeal Hosein took two big wickets to help restrict Guyana Amazon Warriors to 130 and then scored a quick and unbeaten 16 off seven balls in the dying moments of a tense chase to lift Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) to their fifth CPL title. Hosein went out to bat when TKR were 116 for 7, needing 15 from 22 balls, and he finished things off in dramatic fashion with a six and four in consecutive balls off Gudakesh Motie to spark off their celebrations.The home fans in Providence were left stunned after their 46-year-old captain Imran Tahir had given them hopes of lifting the trophy with his 3 for 34, which included the wickets of Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell on consecutive deliveries.That it wasn’t a great outing for the batters was evident in Alex Hales scratching his way to 26 off 34 balls in the chase, as he saw six wickets fall while dropping anchor. The highest score by any batter across both innings was Iftikhar Ahmed’s 30 for Amazon Warriors, who required contributions from their middle and lower orders after being 65 for 5 in 12 overs.Once Amazon Warriors opted to bat, Russell struck in the first over by having Quentin Sampson caught for a duck, but Ben McDermott countered soon after. He went for 4, 6, 4 off Hosein to end the fourth over even as Shai Hope took his time at the other end. Saurabh Netravalkar ended the 38-run stand in the last over of the powerplay when McDermott found the fielder at deep midwicket to depart for 28 off 17 balls, which began a collapse of 4 for 24.Hosein bowled Hope for 12 off 19, Usman Tariq cleaned Moeen Ali up for 10, and Hosein got his second by having Shimron Hetmyer find long-on for 4. But Iftikhar, Dwaine Pretorius (25 off 18) and Romario Shepherd (13 off 9) doubled Amazon Warriors’ score in the last eight overs. Netravalkar dismissed both Pretorius and Iftikhar to finish with 3 for 25.Halfway into the third over of TKR’s chase, it looked like the target was too little to challenge Colin Munro, who hammered three fours in a 22-run second over that saw five wides from Shepherd. Pretorius, however, dismissed Munro next over to check TKR’s progress.TKR captain Nicholas Pooran huffed and puffed to 1 off eight balls before finding mid-off, and TKR were 55 for 3 after eight overs, with Darren Bravo being trapped lbw by Tahir. Just 12 runs came off the next three overs without a single boundary as Moeen and Tahir didn’t allow the TKR batters to break free. But Sunil Narine brought TKR back by heaving Motie for two sixes in the 12th over to bring the equation under run a ball.The twists and turns continued when Shamar Joseph had Narine caught at mid-off for 22, and Pollard hit back by launching Tahir for three sixes in the 14th over, to make the equation a lot more comfortable at 22 required off 36.But Tahir gave TKR another scare. He bowled Pollard with a googly and had Russell caught at slip first ball. When Joseph took a return catch off Hales in the 17th over, Amazon Warriors believed a miracle was coming, but Hosein washed away all their hopes with a match-winning cameo.

Five members of England’s top seven dismissed for in-between scores after winning toss and choosing to bat

The Report by Matt Roller03-Jan-2020There is no precise antonym for the word “ruthless”: like “nonplussed”, “disgruntled” and “underwhelmed”, it is considered by linguistics scholars to be an unpaired adjective due to the lack of a word with a perfectly opposite meaning.But if academics can find a way to condense England’s batting performance on the first day of the Newlands Test into an adjective, they will finally have found a solution to their problem. If one batsman in the top seven failing to convert a start into a telling contribution might be considered careless, seeing five of them do it suggests a much deeper issue.England’s players have taken to calling this their “cursed” tour, with injury and illness ruining their preparation for both the first and second Tests, but their failure to reach an imposing first-innings total here was largely self-inflicted: having won the toss and chosen to bat first on a fairly placid surface, Joe Root was one of several senior batsmen to get in and get out as South Africa had much the better of the first day. Only Ollie Pope, who made a calm, unbeaten half-century, managed to produce something approaching a match-altering score.For as much as the home side impressed with a disciplined bowling performance – and their change bowlers, Anrich Nortje and Dwaine Pretorius, were both particularly unerring – there were few magic balls, and instead a series of shots that hinted at a lack of concentration or a failure to take advantage of an ideal situation.Rory Burns’ ankle injury on the eve of the game saw Zak Crawley come into the side for his second Test to open alongside Dom Sibley – not since since 1963 have England had a less-experienced opening pair (excluding nightwatchmen) – as part of perhaps their most adverbial top three ever, with Joe Denly in at No. 3. Crawley was given a brutal working-over in his brief stay at the crease: Vernon Philander hammered the off-stump channel on a length before nudging a fraction fuller, like a precision engineer, and finding the outside edge.Philander, in his final Test at the ground that has been so good to him, continued to probe just outside the off stump, testing Sibley’s open stance and leg-side-dominant game as he regularly beat his prodded defensive shots.And despite looking more confident and settled at the crease on his way to his highest Test score to date – even unfurling his cover drive within the first hour – Sibley fell in disappointing fashion for the second consecutive innings. Pretorius put the brakes on with three maidens in his first four overs, and Kagiso Rabada reaped the rewards at the other end, drawing an outside edge which Quinton de Kock snaffled.Nortje made the next breakthrough in a hostile spell. Denly had battled doggedly, but found himself tied down against Keshav Maharaj in particular, taking 49 balls to get past 21, and was hit on the helmet by a sharp bouncer off the fifth ball of Nortje’s second over after lunch. With Nortje’s speeds nudging past the 90mph/145kph mark, he also had Root camped deep in his crease on the back foot.Root pushed hard at a back-of-a-length ball in the channel, but lived to tell the tale as Rassie van der Dussen put down his third chance of the series – just like the last two occasions, he was unsighted by de Kock’s dive in front of him. But it was hardly a costly drop: two balls later, Nortje aimed a bullet at Root’s left shoulder, and as the batsman flinched to get underneath it, he gloved it through to the gleeful wicketkeeper.Denly’s turgid innings was ended seven overs later, as Maharaj pushed through an arm ball which burst between bat and pad to take the top of his off stump. England’s No. 3 has reached double figures 19 times in his 22 Test innings, but his 94 against Australia at The Oval remains his most-significant contribution.Four years on – to the day – from his 258 not out on the ground, Ben Stokes looked in fine touch throughout his innings, hitting Maharaj for a towering six over wide mid-on, but was became the latest England batsman to give his wicket away cheaply when he tamely chipped a low catch to Dean Elgar at extra cover to hand Nortje his second wicket and South Africa their fifth with the score still 15 runs short of 200.Jos Buttler had signalled his intent to play with more positivity in the build-up to this Test and was true to his word, hitting a flurry of boundaries as he looked to counterattack, getting across to the off side in an attempt to throw the unerring Pretorius off his line. But Pretorius plugged away, shifting his line wider, and produced a gem of a delivery with the old ball to see the back of Buttler, with a hint of movement away off the seam to find an edge.He struck again with the old ball to affirm South Africa’s advantage, angling one in from round the wicket as Sam Curran shouldered arms, only to find his off stump cartwheeling towards fine leg.When Philander struck with the new ball, drawing Dom Bess into a tame push first ball to one that moved sharply away off the seam, and Rabada accounted for Stuart Broad with a searing yorker, it was down to Pope to free his arms with only James Anderson for company. An uppercut and a club down the ground – worth four each – were the pick of the shots, and he brought up his second Test fifty with a pull in front of square when shepherding the tail.He was given a reprieve late in the piece, holing out to Philander at long leg only to discover Rabada had overstepped, and Faf du Plessis was visibly frustrated by a seven-over partnership that ensured England will resume on the second morning.

He is the first member of the overseas contingent to test positive in the 2021 IPL

Nagraj Gollapudi05-May-2021Chennai Super Kings’ batting coach Mike Hussey has become the latest member in the IPL 2021 bubble to test positive for Covid-19. ESPNcricinfo understands that Hussey reported “borderline” symptoms, and will now stay in isolation for ten days at the team hotel in Delhi.Hussey is the first member of the overseas contingent to test positive in the 2021 IPL – his test came out positive on Tuesday, but the franchise conducted another test to confirm the results.With Hussey having to serve his isolation period, he won’t be able to join the rest of the Australians, at least to begin with, when they relocate to either the Maldives or Sri Lanka in the coming days under a plan being put together between Cricket Australia and the BCCI. Australia’s borders are currently closed to anyone who has been in India in the last few weeks.”We’ve spoken to Mike today. He is in good spirits,” Todd Greenberg, the chief executive of the Australian Cricketers’ Association, said. “His symptoms are relatively mild. He is in a stint of isolation in his hotel room…he has good support systems around him.”Related

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Hussey is the third person from the Super Kings contingent to test positive after the Super Kings’ bowling coach L Balaji and a member of the franchise’s service staff. It is understood that Hussey was Balaji’s partner on the team bus. On Monday, the entire Super Kings contingent went into a week-long isolation, in accordance with the IPL’s medical guidelines.On Tuesday, the IPL decided to postpone Wednesday’s scheduled match between the Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals. The 2021 IPL was postponed shortly after.Apart from the Super Kings, there have been positive tests from at least three other franchises. From the Kolkata Knight Riders, mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and seam bowler Sandeep Warrier tested positive, forcing their match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 3 to be rescheduled.The Sunrisers Hyderabad wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha and the Delhi Capitals’ legspinner Amit Mishra also tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday.

‘Every time I get onto the field, the aim is to contribute to the team’s success in whichever way I can’

Annesha Ghosh02-Jul-20211:41

Shikha Pandey -‘We are working towards playing a fearless brand of cricket’

Shikha Pandey is eyeing better all-round returns on the tour of England following her performance with the ball in the second ODI, where she picked up 9-1-34-1, her economy the best among the Indian attack.Though India lost the match, Pandey was pivotal to setting the tone of India’s attempt to defend 221 and the bowling unit’s much-improved performance. She gave away just two runs in her first two overs, including a maiden, and got the ball to hoop early, causing discomfort to Tammy Beaumont, the in-form England opener.Heading into the third and final ODI in Worcester on Saturday, which then leads into the three-match T20I series, Pandey, 32, was hopeful to build on her outing in the second ODI in Taunton.”Not setting long-term goals,” Pandey said when asked about the all-round role she may be expected to play in the 2022 ODI World Cup. “That’s not really something that works for me, so [I’m] just setting short-term goals. For me it’s one session, one spell, one ball at a time when I’m going in to bowl. I think I have found some rhythm back in the second game, so just going to go ahead, follow the basics and keep doing all I can.

Mithali Raj set to play third ODI

The India captain had not fielded in the second ODI on Wednesday after suffering from neck pain, with Harmanpreet Kaur leading the side. On Friday, Pandey said, “Mithali di is all well. She has been assessed by the medical staff, [physio] Tracy [Fernandes] ma’am…” The BCCI later tweeted, “Captain @M_Raj03 has recovered and is training with the girls as we prepare for the 3rd WODI tomorrow here at New Road, Worcester,” with photos of Raj training with the team.

“As a bowling allrounder, I am, yes, supposed to be scoring runs and every time I get onto the field, the aim is to contribute to the team’s success in whichever way I can. There are goals being set but at a very short-term basis; no long-term goals in mind. So, it’s just the game tomorrow and bowl well and in case I get to bat, probably score better and contribute a lot more with the bat.”The solitary wicket – of opener Lauren Winfield-Hill – Pandey took in Taunton was also her first one on the tour.Winfield-Hill’s dismissal was as much a result of Pandey’s ability to entice a set batter into prodding at an away-going delivery as it was of Taniya Bhatia’s deft work with the gloves. Standing up to the two seamers, Jhulan Goswami and Pandey, Bhatia, in sparkling form throughout the series effecting four dismissals in three innings, snagged the faintest of edges to dismiss Winfield-Hill for 42.”Firstly, I am huge fan of Taniya,” Pandey said. “The kind of keeping, standing up to the stumps to medium pacers is not an easy job and the way she stood up to us, even with the new ball, is amazing. You can count on your fingers the number of keepers that can do that in international cricket. So, firstly, it’s commendable what she is doing for us.Related

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“It’s a few, small, little things we noticed on the field that if the England batters are standing way too outside the crease and I’m the swing bowler, so my swing gets negated,” Pandey said, elaborating on the thinking that prompted Bhatia to stand up to the stumps. “There are pretty practical decisions being taken on the ground that we need to get them to play from the crease and that’s how Taniya comes in.”I think the first wicket we got yesterday [of Beaumont, being bowled by Goswami], Taniya standing up to the stumps made a huge difference. So, firstly, Taniya is doing a great job for us and it’s just about responding to the situations on the field.”After the loss in the first ODI, captain Mithali Raj had called for the Indian seam attack to take more responsibility and support Goswami, the pace spearhead, better. Pandey said the seamers’ improved performance in the second match was down mainly to having drawn up more well-defined plans.Shikha Pandey – “I have found some rhythm back in the second game, so just going to go ahead, follow the basics and keep doing all I can”•Associated Press

“[After the first match] We just sat down and spoke about what we are capable of and backing out strengths and having clearer plans in place and just going by them and not looking too much for the wickets and just keeping it tight,” Pandey said. “That was what was said: to keep our plans simple and going about our business early in the innings.”I think we did pretty well in all departments in the second game and we are catching up,” she said. “Considering this is a multi-format series, we know going ahead if we win all four games we can still win it.”We are not really gauging ourselves against them; it’s just about backing ourselves, and we know as a team we are a very good team and when we play to our strengths, we have a good day and we know we can beat any team in the world. We are just backing ourselves and looking forward to the next game and not thinking too about much about what has happened.”Head coach Ramesh Powar, she said, had also played a part in keeping the team’s morale up.”He has backed us a lot,” Pandey said. “Even after the second game, the talk in the dressing room was very positive. He has always said if we play to our potential, to what our strengths are, we can beat any team in the world. He has got full confidence in us and he backs us as a group. I mean, what else do we need? As a coach he has been very helpful in all three departments. He has backed us a lot.”Shikha Pandey heaves a sigh of relief after picking up Lauren Winfield-Hill’s wicket•Getty Images

India’s first-innings totals so far in the series – 201 and 221 – have hardly been a challenge to the England line-up. Aside from Raj and Shafali Verma, no other India batter has been able to make an imprint on the scoring substantially. However, Pandey said the onus to win the team a match was as much the batters’ responsibility as it was of the bowling contingent’s.”I wouldn’t say batting is the main concern,” she said. “At the very outset, I can give you a player’s perspective. When I get into a game, we think about all three aspects of the game together. So if the batters cannot get us runs, it’s us, the bowlers, the bowling unit, we need to fight hard and back the batters. I wouldn’t say it is one department of the game that’s lacking.”If we can get all the three [departments clicking] together on the day, we will be doing well. Thinking too much about what has happened is not really going to help us, so just thinking ahead about what we can do as a team together. Whatever runs the batters score, the bowlers have to defend it and whatever runs the bowlers initially get the other team to score, the batting team has to go chase it.”

A poor show with the bat was followed by a toothless performance with the ball as Lahore finished last for the fourth season in succession

The Report by Danyal Rasool11-Mar-2019

How the game played out

Unlike JK Rowling, for whom “rock bottom had become the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life”, Lahore Qalandars don’t seem to have any intention of moving from the bottom of the PSL table.In one of their poorest performances of the season so far – remember, they were shot out for 78 just weeks ago by Peshawar Zalmi – Lahore were brushed aside in a dead rubber by Multan Sultans. Having stumbled to a below par 140 for 8, a shocker of a bowling performance allowed Multan to go past the target in a mere 12.3 overs. That concluded the Qalandars’ fourth successive campaign propping up the PSL table.Fakhar Zaman declared somewhat confidently after losing the toss and being asked to bat that he would have batted first anyway. One wonders why. The Lahore captain himself scored a respectable 36-ball 53, but there was no one else who looked capable of exploiting the short boundaries at the National Stadium in Karachi. It didn’t help that Mohammad Abbas was at his consistent best, while Shahid Afridi, playing his first ever PSL match in Pakistan, was the most economical, taking two wickets and conceding just 18 in his four overs.If the Qalandars’ batting performance was because of the pitch, then explain the Multan Sultans innings. The carnage they inflicted on the hapless Lahore bowlers was stunning in its brutality. A pair of sixes in the second over from Umar Siddiq set the tone, but in truth, no Multan batsman allowed Lahore any relief. Shan Masood’s 24-ball 48 broke the back of the already toothless attack, while Johnson Charles and James Vince helped Multan bring up their 100 in just the eighth over. In the end, it was every bit the cakewalk matches against Lahore have tended to be often this season.

Turning point

Fakhar holed out to Afridi just after reaching a half-century. In an innings where none of his teammates could really get going, it was crucial for the Lahore captain kick on and push his score closer to, and maybe even beyond, three figures. When he fell for 53, it seemed inevitable that Lahore would end with a well below-par total.

Star of the day

In the first two matches since the PSL returned to Pakistan, it appeared Karachi wasn’t the best place for bowlers to bolster their economy rates. But Multan’s bowlers put together a real team performance, complementing each other and systematically putting the pressure on the batsmen. Abbas’s waning form has been the subject of much attention of late, but the last two matches suggest he may be regaining his powers. Chris Green has been in and out of the team, but he got the ball rolling with a beautiful delivery that beat Riki Wessels and tickled the leg-side bail, while Afridi showed he still had something to offer with the ball. Combined, the three bowlers’ figures read 12-0-65-6, and with numbers like those, even the slightly more expensive Junaid Khan and Mohammad Ilyas didn’t hurt Multan too much.

The big miss

When Shaheen Shah Afridi removed Luke Ronchi off the first ball in the last game, it seemed like the 18-year-old pacer would go on to show his fans in Pakistan what a bowler he is turning out to be. But that game ended with the teenager on the wrong side of a merciless assault, as he conceded 62 runs in his four overs. The scars have stayed for the left-arm bowler, who turned in another off-colour performance, the two overs he sent down costing the side 25 runs. He wasn’t by any means the only bowler who went for runs, but it’s been a damp end to a promising PSL season for Shaheen Afridi, just as it has been for his unfortunate team.

Where the teams stand

Multan leapfrogged Lahore to ensure they don’t finish bottom, and Lahore occupied that position for the fourth season in succession. Both teams bow out, however, with just three wins in ten matches each.

Ricky Ponting was the man who asked for the reviews that preceded Mark Benson’s exit from the Adelaide Test

Brydon Coverdale at Adelaide Oval08-Dec-2009Ricky Ponting was the man who asked for the reviews that preceded Mark Benson’s exit from the Adelaide Test, and after the match finished he said he would ask the remaining officials for their thoughts on the system. Benson was expected to announce his retirement on Tuesday after returning to England, having officiated for only the first day of the Test.The ICC has denied that his departure was directly caused by his decisions being queried, including one caught-behind appeal that Ponting was convinced was out and was overturned by the third umpire Asad Rauf. Ponting said he still supported the review system and was keen to speak to Rauf and Ian Gould following the controversy.”The thing I want to do is to have a chat with the umpires and see what their views and opinions are on the whole system,” Ponting said. “That’s the important thing. Sometimes important people can be overlooked in some of these rule-changing decisions that are brought in. I’m going to speak to the umpires who were officiating in this game tonight and get their opinions on it all.”That’s what I want to find out from them. I want to see how they are going with it all. It’s one thing for the players to accept these changes and technology, but it’s another thing from the umpires. I want to get the overall feeling from them as to how they think it’s going.”Despite wasting both his reviews early in West Indies’ second innings and being left to rue his hastiness later on, Ponting said the system could still have a positive effect on Test cricket. However, he said it would take some time to get used to reviewing on-field decisions, just as it had been an ongoing learning process dealing with one-day changes like Powerplays.”Ideally with a lot of those rule changes and things that we’ve brought into 50-over cricket over the last couple of years you’d like to have trialled them elsewhere,” he said. “I think there’s still some refinement that can be done with the technology that’s used [in reviews].”That’s the big thing with it all. If you’re going to go into something like this you’ve got to go in 100% and use whatever you can to make the system work its best. We’re all still coming to terms with it and the more we play with it and learn about it and experience it the more we’ll probably appreciate it.”One man who doesn’t appreciate the system is the West Indies captain Chris Gayle. He was scathing of the review process after the Gabba Test, and remained unconvinced following the Adelaide draw. “I still stand firm,” Gayle said. “It’s just complicated.”

The pool incident is unlikely to leave him for a while, but on the pitch, he steered Australia into pole position

Andrew McGlashan13-Mar-2022Alex Carey had already left his mark on this tour before today. Unfortunately, it was for falling into the hotel swimming pool which went viral on social media courtesy of his captain recording it and giving millions a good laugh.It would be far too easy to therefore make reference to finding out whether he can sink or swim in Test cricket or whether he had been treading water since his debut at the start of the Ashes. So let’s just leave it to the man himself before getting to the serious business.”I’ve always wanted to have signs in the crowd to have my name on them but probably didn’t expect it would be about falling in a pool,” he said. “I still lay there at night time, can’t really describe happened.”While his slip is unlikely to leave him for a while it was a timely day to also be remembered for what really matters: his performances in the middle. He took Australia into a surely impregnable position only to fall seven runs short of a maiden century in the closing moments when he missed a sweep against the part-timers of Babar Azam.”I’m always disappointed when I get out. So close but unfortunately that’s the way it goes,” he said. “Thought I was pretty disciplined and patient throughout the day. To be honest I saw an opportunity to get one over cow [corner]. My head will probably hit the pillow tonight and have a few other shots go through.”These remain early days in a Test career that began rather hastily in early December (thrown in the deep end, perhaps) following the shock resignation of Tim Paine shortly before the Ashes. The succession planning was well in place, and it was little surprise when Carey assumed the position, but his handful of matches had not been without a few uneasy moments.It has been his glovework that has raised more questions after dropped catches against England and another couple put down in the opening Test in Rawalpindi. That side of his game will get a thorough working over in the next three days on a pitch where the ball is turning and uneven bounce could come into play. With Nathan Lyon joined by Mitchell Swepson there will be a lot of time spent up to the stumps. But he will take the gloves having contributed to the match as he carried Australia’s innings through the final session and beyond 500.He had made a maiden Test fifty against England in Adelaide and his slightly underwhelming batting returns in the Ashes needed a few asterisks by them: he offered to open in place of the injured David Warner for the small chase at the Gabba, only to edge behind with four runs needed, and gave his wicket for the cause in the second innings at the SCG the ball before Pat Cummins declared. However, coupled with only passing fifty once in four games for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield, it had left him a little thin on runs.”Guess it was a little bit of reward for some hard work,” he said. “I have full trust in my ability, the summer was really enjoyable…I went away from there with some learnings and take outs. I feel like over the last couple of years I’ve been pretty consistent in red-ball cricket, the last dozen games in first-class haven’t been my strongest but still feel really good out in the middle.”While Australia were not in trouble when he arrived at the crease, they were certainly at risk of falling short of the type of total they wanted. Sajid Khan had trapped Travis Head lbw then produced a superb delivery to end Usman Khawaja’s marathon innings. At 360 for 6 there was even a chance for Pakistan to keep Australia under 400 which would not have applied the scoreboard pressure Cummins wanted.It was not an overly fluent display from Carey – he never flicked the switch into one-day mode – on a surface where timing has become harder work especially against the older ball. But a few strokes did stand out, notably a straight drive followed by a cover drive against Shaheen Shah Afridi with the third new ball and his brace of straight sixes off Sajid. When he lofts spinners (or quick bowlers) down the ground, he has as smooth a swing of the bat as any player while he also swept well, until his dismissal at least, in what is just the second of potentially nine subcontinental Tests over the next 12 months.”Having the ability to sweep spin is probably going to be handy,” he said. “I do that in Australia on reasonably flat wickets and I’ll continue to do that. I probably looked at Usman’s innings to be honest and the way he played was fantastic. He has one gear, basically, throughout and sticks to that.”I stuck to my patience, my dismissal was probably otherwise, but when I came back into the rooms there were eight other blokes saying they would have played the same shot. I want to keep improving my own game but guess it’s a little step in the right direction.”Unlike the one he took into the swimming pool.

In light of Mitchell Johnson’s retirement from the BBL, David Barham is acutely conscious of the tournament needing to get its playing roster strengthened by more overseas star power

Daniel Brettig25-Jul-2018More international firepower is needed to ensure the expanded Big Bash League can grow its audience after a recent downturn, while Melbourne Stars and Sydney Sixers must perform strongly enough to reignite interest in Australia’s two largest cities.These are the views of the new Seven network head of cricket, David Barham, who helmed Ten’s widely lauded BBL coverage for five years before being recruited to the rival broadcaster when it scooped the free-to-air portion of Cricket Australia’s A$1.18 billion television and digital rights deal in April.With Wednesday’s revelation that Mitchell Johnson is withdrawing from the BBL due to the increased length – now 14 games per side – of the competition, Barham is acutely conscious of the tournament needing to get its big market teams functioning strongly and its playing roster strengthened by more overseas star power. The race has well and truly begun for the signature of AB de Villiers, to name one.”Last year it was all down to the Melbourne Stars, they couldn’t get out of their own way [losing their first five games]. And if you have one team with a lot of the big names in it not firing a shot, that hurt,” Barham told ESPNcricinfo. “The Stars are important, and Sydney [Sixers] were shocking as well, they lost their first six, so neither of them could win a game. That really had a big impact.”Provided everyone’s up and alive…that was probably the first year where you had a competition with games that weren’t relevant. You knew the Stars after five games were gone. The draw was a bit around them, so that hurt and I suppose that can happen again. But I think as the standard keeps improving, and that’s what cricket’s got to do, the standard’s got to keep improving … I think in the end they’ve got to bring in more internationals and I think they will as they go.”International players will be playing for a number of games in certain places. So you might have Joe Root for four games and swap him for Dwayne Bravo or someone for the back end. Or you might be able to get de Villiers for four games at the back end of the summer. If you start rolling a couple of these blokes in late in the tournament [it will help].”Another major change Barham pointed to is the fact that after seven seasons of sitting on different networks, Test matches and the BBL would run seamlessly from one broadcast to the other under the Seven banner. Commentators talking about BBL games was almost unheard of on Nine’s Test coverage: not so anymore.”The other thing that’s really important this year that no-one’s really factored in from a Seven and cricket point of view is there’s a lot more cross-promotion,” Barham said. “Not knocking Nine at all or Ten for that matter, but Nine didn’t promote the BBL for five years, so you had this situation where BBL stood out on its own and Test cricket was there [separate]. We’ve got this whole summer where we’re talking about each other the whole way.”I look at it and go – you’ve got a big group of people who follow BBL who are younger, a big group of people at Test cricket, and this group in the middle. If we can make the group in the middle [follow both], the game will grow, television audiences will grow, everything will grow. That’s part of the strategy for me, because I want the commentators to do everything [Tests and BBL] as well.”So we won’t just have a Test commentary team, we’ll have Ricky doing both, Michael Slater doing both, only a few specifically doing one form. I hope that means young people will look at Michael Slater and go ‘he’s good, I like him, might watch a Test match’. That’s the strategy.”Mitchell Johnson holds aloft the BBL trophy•Getty Images

An example of this will be the extremely tight crossover between matches during the day/night Test between Australia and Sri Lanka in Brisbane in late January. Barham described the scheduling of a BBL fixture in Melbourne to start in the final session of the fourth day at the Gabba was a sort of “insurance policy”.”How long will that Sri Lanka Test go in Brisbane?” he asked. “You’d imagine it’ll be a swinging ball, day/night, will it go to the end of that fourth day, will it get to a fifth day? So in some ways, because we want to have cricket on all summer, it was a good way of guaranteeing we do.”And if we end up having a problem with a magnificent Test match going down to the wire and we have a BBL game which s really exciting, and we’ve got two channels going, happy days. It’ll just be a matter of someone else [in programming] to decide what they want to put where.”Some queries have been raised over whether the tournament’s expansion would create a sense of fatigue among its followers, who have averaged in the region of 1 million a night on Ten’s coverage from 2013 to this year, peaking in 2015-16 before starting a gradual decline that has also been reflected in attendances. However, Barham noted that beyond the conclusion of school holidays at the end of January, the tournament would largely revert to a Thursday-Sunday pattern akin to football fixtures.”They’ve been pretty smart with how the scheduling is. On every night through the school holidays, then it pretty much slips into a pattern of Thursday, Friday, Sunday,” he said. “I reckon that’s a pretty good strategy. Thursday, Friday, Sunday for the last two or three weekends in February, pretty good sport viewing times, people are used to watching footy and other sports in those times, I think you can stack it up and make it work.”I think it’ll stop the fatigue thing too. It’ll give you a bit of a break between and you can look forward to Thursday, Friday and Sunday. You also get a build up to a finals series, which…the whole thing used to scream along at 100 miles an hour and you’d go ‘oh finals.’ There was no space.”

Usman Khawaja was the other hero with an unbeaten hundred, while Manish Pandey’s century for India B went in vain

The Report by Shashank Kishore in Alur27-Aug-2018AFP

When Jack Wildermuth earned his first Australia cap during the T20I tri-series in Zimbabwe in June, he did so not just because of his seam bowling but also his promise as a lower-order hitter. On Monday, he added a chapter to his batting legend. With Australia A needing five off the final ball to seal a place in the Quadrangular series final, he muscled a six over long-on to clinch a thrilling win over India B in Alur. The result set up an enticing final between the same two teams on Wednesday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.Wildermuth’s unbeaten 62, which came off just 42 balls, was his first half-century in List A cricket. All his runs came in an unbroken partnership of 93 with Usman Khawaja, who made an unbeaten 101. When the two came together, Australia A were in trouble at 155 for 5 in a revised chase of 247 in 40 overs. The initial 50-over target was 277; rain arrived when Australia A were 132 for 4 in 24.1 overs.Wildermuth’s hitting was special, but he was aided by some generous India B fielding. With Australia A needing 28 off 12 balls, Wildermuth drilled a full delivery from Siddarth Kaul to extra-cover, where Kedar Jadhav, slow to move, put down the catch. A little while earlier, with Australia A needing 79 and Wildermuth on 4, Ishan Kishan missed a regulation stumping, grabbing at the ball before it got to him, much to Shreyas Gopal’s frustration after he thought he had foxed the batsman with his googly.Outside of these two lapses, Wildermuth batted like a man possessed. In the final over bowled by Prasidh Krishna, off which Australia A needed 19, he used the depth of the crease superbly. First, he walked across his stumps to belt the ball one-bounce to the long-on boundary. Then, with nine needed off two balls, he went deep into his crease again to carve a full delivery to the extra-cover fence.Then he used a bit of tactical acumen against the frazzled Prasidh, who had seen Wildermuth’s movement back into his crease. Off the final delivery, Prasidh anticipated the same sort of footwork, and shortened his length just a touch. This time, though, Wildermuth advanced towards the ball and swung it over wide long-on to clinch victory.At the other end, Khawaja had struggled for timing towards the end of his innings. Wildermuth had been the dominant partner through the first half of their partnership, belting 32 of the first 50 runs they put on. Then – Wildermuth later revealed – they decided that Khawaja would go after the bowling while his partner aimed to bat deep into the chase. As it turned out, Khawaja struggled to clear the ropes, and had to instead rely on paddles and scoops that he couldn’t quite pull off, increasing the pressure on Wildermuth. Fortunately for Australia A, this didn’t cost them the game.Before all that, Khawaja, the beneficiary of multiple slices of luck, made full use of his chances to pick runs off the fast bowlers and do the early running in a 77-run opening stand with vice-captain Alex Carey. He was dropped on 5 when Jalaj Saxena misjudged a catch at square leg off Prasidh in the fourth over. With the early jitter out of the way, Khawaja expertly handled Kaul’s threat, lacing him for three cover drives to force Manish Pandey, the India B captain, to change the bowling. Kulwant Khejroliya, the third seamer, was brought in to add left-arm variety, and Khawaja welcomed him with a disdainful flick over midwicket in the 10th over.Australia A had moved to 70 without loss in 12 when Pandey introduced spin. By the end of the 19th over, they had slipped to 95 for 3, with the offspinner Jalaj Saxena doing the bulk of the damage. He picked up the first two wickets, Carey bowled by sharp turn when he looked to flick against the turn and Travis Head caught behind, top-edging an attempted paddle-sweep. Khejroliya got one to reverse late from around the wicket to sneak past Handscomb’s under-edge and flatten middle and leg stumps.Then the rain arrived to turn the game to shave 10 overs off the chase. Instead of 145 in 155 balls, Australia A now needed 115 in 95, and Khawaja needed to get a move on. For a while, India B’s spinners kept him quiet, and the required rate climbed.With 72 needed off 42, Wildermuth charged Saxena and swung him for two big sixes over deep midwicket. Off the next over, with Australia A needing 66 off 36, he was put down at deep square leg off a mistimed slog. Shortly after, when he scooped one to short fine leg on 97, Shubman Gill dropped him. Khawaja smashed the next ball to the cover boundary, leaving Australia A needing 28 off two overs. This dropped chance and Jadhav’s, in the space of three balls, proved crucial.All this meant Pandey’s brilliant 117, his seventh List A century, went in vain. The innings took his tournament tally to 233 runs in three innings without being dismissed. With India’s next limited-overs assignment – the Asia Cup – slated for September, Pandey couldn’t have timed his return to form, after a poor IPL, any better. He was still a picture of disappointment after the game, though, having “miscalculated one or two bowling changes.”The next-best score in India B’s innings was 36 from Mayank Agarwal, who hit three fours and a six before becoming the first of Michael Neser’s two victims. Deepak Hooda provided vital blows lower down the order along with Pandey to shore up the total when it looked like India B might end up somewhere near the 250 mark. But even the late surge towards the end didn’t prove quit enough.