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Renegades, however, took a blow after the loss. They’re not precariously positioned at eight points with two other teams

The Report by Alex Malcolm12-Jan-2018
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBetter late than never. Melbourne Stars finally broke their tournament duck with a comfortable 23-run win over a depleted Melbourne Renegades at Docklands stadium.The Stars had been yearning for their senior players to step up and Kevin Pietersen and Peter Handscomb answered the call. Their 110-run second-wicket partnership underpinned the Stars total, which still might have been under par were it not for a whirlwind finish from Glenn Maxwell.They finally took wickets in the Powerplay with a new opening bowling combination in Daniel Worrall and Jackson Coleman running through a Renegades top-order that struggled in the absence of Aaron Finch and Cameron White.The Renegades tournament chances took a blow with the loss. They not only have to find contributors with the bat beyond Finch and White, they will also lose their best spinner Mohammad Nabi to international duty. Nabi bowled beautifully again conceding less than seven an over for the sixth time in the tournament.Long live King KevPietersen’s returns this season have been far from dismal but they have been underwhelming by his lofty standards. Some quality starts have been left uncharacteristically unfinished. His intent to rectify that was clear. He entered in the fourth ball of the innings after Mohammad Nabi removed Ben Dunk for a first ball globe. Pietersen took his time to adjust to the slow surface, scoring just 10 off his first 11 balls. But he still controls the game better than most and puts bowlers under extreme pressure. He was invited to hit over mid-on against the turn of Jon Holland and duly did it twice. He created width from Jack Wildermuth and pierced backward point in consecutive balls. He destroyed Brad Hogg with slog sweeps and pull shots to anything fractionally overpitched or underpitched. He raced to fifty in 28 balls and kicked on. Handscomb was the perfect foil, feeding him the strike and finding the boundary at regular intervals. The pair added 110 from just 70 balls before both men holed out in back-to-back overs.The diminishing finisherJames Faulkner made a name for himself in international cricket as an exceptional power-hitting finisher in limited overs formats. But his BBL to-date has not matched his reputation. He has not been dismissed in his six innings, scoring 118 runs in total. However, he is only striking at 107 compared to his career rate of 124. He also averages a boundary every 9.5 deliveries across his career. He’s faced 25 balls without a boundary across the last three games. That included the 12 balls he faced against the Renegades. He was fortunate Glenn Maxwell caught fire in the last four overs pounding two sixes and two fours in his 16-ball unbeaten 31. But it was the second time in the tournament the Stars have failed to double their total after 10 overs having been only one wicket down at halfway. Part of that was due to Nabi who bowled his last two overs during the last seven of innings, having bowled his first two in the Powerplay. His figures of 2 for 15 were incredible given the carnage around him.Where’s Worrall been?The Stars pace bowling has been a problem all tournament. Worrall replaced Scott Boland, who had conceded 11.20 per over in his three games. Worrall bowled exceptionally well to the Renegades new top three. He swung the ball away prodigiously at good pace from both the right-handed Tim Ludeman and the left-handed Marcus Harris. He conceded just six runs from his first 11 deliveries before erring with his last ball to Ludeman. But his build-up of pressure helped Coleman force a mistake from Harris. Coleman bowled very well himself and picked up the rewards courtesy of some outstanding catching from Maxwell and Pietersen. Maxwell reeled a screamer at backward point off Ludeman. He flung his right hand up to knock it down and held onto the rebound. Pietersen needed just one grab with two hands diving high to his right at cover to remove Tom Cooper, although he did grass a similar chance from Matthew Short earlier.Time in the middleThe Renegades had not lost more than one wicket in any powerplay all tournament and had scarcely been under pressure after 10 overs. Cooper’s dismissal left the Renegades 4 for 56 in the 10th. Dwayne Bravo was able to move up the order having only been used in a finishing role during the season to-date. He made 26 from 18 balls and struck one of the most astonishing sixes of the tournament. He hit good length delivery from Faulkner 103m into the upper deck at forward point with a vertical bat. Despite holing out not long after, his innings will provide impetus for the remainder of the tournament. Wildermuth also played a nice cameo, clubbing 23 from 11 deliveries to keep the game interesting. His second six made the equation 33 from 12 balls but he fell three balls later and the tail stood no chance from there.

The left-arm spin-bowling allrounder is the third Indian player after Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron to bag a county cricket contract in 2018

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Apr-2018Bolstering the list of India cricketers opting to play county cricket in the 2018 season, left-arm spin-bowling allrounder Axar Patel has signed up with Durham for the final six County Championship fixtures. He will make his debut on August 19 against Glamorgan in Cardiff.Axar’s joining of the club comes close on the heels of India captain Virat Kohli receiving permission from the BCCI to play county cricket this summer, ahead of India’s five-Test tour of England in August. The other India players to turn out for county sides this season include Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron, who will be playing for Yorkshire, Sussex and Leicestershire respectively. R Ashwin, who played for Worcestershire last season, is the also likely to feature in county cricket, although he has yet to zero in on a team.Axar, 24, will be on hand for Durham’s three home games against Northamptonshire, Sussex and Middlesex, before wrapping up his stint with away games against Leicestershire and Warwickshire.Axar, who made his first-class debut in 2012, for Gujarat, has collected 79 wickets in the format, including 14 for India A in two matches against South Africa A in 2015. His only first-class hundred – an unbeaten 110 – came against Baroda in 2016, in addition to his ten half-centuries that form part of his 1,163 first-class runs.In his 49 limited-overs appearances for India, he has struck 249 runs and picked up 54 wickets. His work with the Kings XI Punjab in the IPL has fetched him 606 runs and 59 wickets at an average of 20.20 and 26.81 respectively.

CI chair Brian MacNeice met with players to address concerns about lack of fixtures

Matt Roller19-Sep-2025Cricket Ireland (CI) hopes that India’s men will tour for a white-ball series next summer on their way to England.India will travel to England for five T20Is and three ODIs from July 1-19 next year, and ESPNcricinfo understands that CI officials have held discussions with their BCCI counterparts over a potential visit before that tour begins. India’s men have toured Ireland three times for short T20I series in the past seven years (in 2018, 2022 and 2023) and attracted strong crowds at Malahide on the outskirts of Dublin.Paul Stirling, Ireland’s captain, said on Tuesday that he was “disappointed” that his side had played so little home international cricket this summer, and described them as “underprepared” to face England in their ongoing T20I series. Brian MacNeice, CI’s chair, said after Friday’s washout in Malahide that he had met players and staff to address their concerns.Related

• Stirling 'frustrated' by Ireland's sparse summer schedule

• Dublin downpour leads to Ireland-England washout

“I opened the meeting by saying, as far as I’m concerned, the quantum of cricket that we’re playing in ’25 isn’t good enough to prepare you guys to play international cricket and to be competitive at ICC tournaments,” MacNeice said. “I’m not hiding from that.”We mapped out our views and thoughts on what the schedule for ’26 and ’27 looks like, and I wanted to get their input not just on the international schedule, but also the domestic schedule… It was a really positive session yesterday. There’s more work to be done, honestly, but it was a good session.”Sunday’s third T20I against England will be Ireland’s ninth and final home men’s international of the 2025 summer, with four of the first eight lost to weather. Their slimline fixture list is, in essence, the result of the high costs they incur while converting club grounds into international venues and the relatively low value of their broadcast rights deals.”[The players] understand the challenges that we’re facing and some of the reasons why we had what we had, but they also are very clear about what we’re trying to achieve. I think they’re fully bought into that,” MacNeice said.Per the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, Ireland are due to host New Zealand (one Test), Bangladesh (three ODIs and three T20Is) and Afghanistan (one Test, three ODIs and three T20Is) next summer. “There’s still a couple of variables that have to be figured out before we lock in the final schedule, but we’ll be hosting Test cricket here next year,” MacNeice said.MacNeice also said that Ireland’s new stadium project at Abbotstown on the outskirts of Dublin is “very much on track”, and said that he has held positive meetings with senior ECB officials this week around the 2030 men’s T20 World Cup, which Ireland, England and Scotland will co-host.He confirmed that he would be “very supportive” of a proposal for a two-division World Test Championship featuring Ireland, and said that the process of hiring a new chief executive to replace Warren Deutrom is going “really well”, with the hope of making a recommendation for his successor to the board in late October.MacNeice was appointed chair of the board for the planned European T20 Premier League (ETPL) on Thursday, with Deutrom becoming the league’s director. The ETPL was due to launch in 2025, but its inaugural season was postponed to 2026 after it struggled to find buyers for franchises.

Robert Haynes takes over as interim chairman as new CWI president hints at return of exiled star players

George Dobell11-Apr-2019Floyd Reifer has replaced Richard Pybus as West Indies’ coach just weeks ahead of the World Cup.Reifer, who was briefly captain of West Indies in 2009, has been appointed to the role in an interim capacity following a review of West Indies’ coaching and selection policies led by newly-elected Cricket West Indies (CWI) president, Ricky Skerritt.The entire West Indies selection panel has also been dismissed. Courtney Browne, who had been a selector since 2013 and head selector since 2016, has been sacked with Robert Haynes, who played eight ODIs for West Indies between 1989 and 1991, appointed as interim head selector in his place.”We have found it necessary to immediately adjust our selection policy to become more open, inclusive, and player-centric,” Skerritt said. “I am therefore pleased to confirm that we have terminated the old embedded selection policy which secretly, but actively, victimized some players and banished them from selection consideration.”While Pybus was only appointed to the role of interim head coach in January and was at the helm when West Indies recently defeated England in a Test series, his dismissal is no surprise. He had ruffled many feathers during his time as West Indies’ director of cricket – University of West Indies vice-chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles recently described Pybus’ decision to shut down the West Indies’ high-performance centre in Barbados as “deeply troubling” and “an act of vandalism” – and was seen as closely aligned to former CWI president, Dave Cameron.Indeed, it is understood that despite Jimmy Adams, West Indies’ director of cricket, not including Pybus’ name among a not so shortlist of 11 suitable candidates for the interim position in December, Cameron decided to appoint him anyway.Pybus had also been party to the decision to consider for selection only those players who made themselves available for selection in the Caribbean’s regional tournaments. As a result, many of the West Indies’ best T20 players were squeezed out of selection contention. It is possible his departure may encourage one or two more players who have previously announced their international retirement to reconsider.Lockhart Sebastien, Travis Dowlin and Eldine Baptiste are the other selectors to be dismissed. Adams and Reifer will assist Haynes with team selection for now. The team captain, Jason Holder, will also be involved in selection of the World Cup squad. Pybus will return to the role of High Performance Director.”Robert Haynes will be in place for three months or until the selection system review is completed,” Adams said. “Following this, full-time two-year appointments will be made. The Head Coach will also have selector status to ensure he or she has meaningful input into the selection process which is such a big factor for team success.”Reifer has enjoyed a previous stint of as interim head coach during which West Indies won a T20 series in Bangladesh. He has also coached the West Indies A side, including to victory over England, and the Combined Campuses and Colleges side to victory in the regional 50 over tournament in 2018.Skerritt explained that his appointment was reflective of the board’s new “West Indian first policy” designed to promote and encourage regional talent whenever possible.”Floyd Reifer had been identified as the outstanding emerging local coach,” Skerritt said. “Our landmark decision to immediately introduce a well suited young West Indian professional as our men’s team coach is therefore a clear indicator of the seriousness of our West Indian first policy and represents our commitment to celebrate the best of what it means to be West Indian. This decision also underscores the need for fresh thinking, and an even more urgent need to embrace the new inclusive selection policy.”We believe very strongly in localising the expertise that we put behind our teams and we believe in bringing in non-Caribbean expertise only where it is not available across the region. We want to be sure that the team does well at all times with the possible resources but we also have to make sure that they have a Caribbean support team around them.”Our performance record overseas under international coaches has been dismal at best. All of our victories in ICC tournaments have been with the help of local coaches. That is also why we have decided to give the opportunity to a young but seasoned professional, who lives among us, and who has dedicated his life to developing our young people and teaching them our cricket culture.”The changes we have triggered this week are more than a change in personnel or a shake-up in the ranks. This is a calculated strategic move designed to reignite the passion for a culture, where our cricket is being put back where it belongs: at the very centre.”West Indies depart for Ireland in less than three weeks for a tri-series ODI tournament also involving Bangladesh.

England lose Zak Crawley to last ball of day after being set 374 to win with series on the line

Matt Roller02-Aug-20253:22

Bangar: ‘Jaiswal’s Sehwag-esque impact makes it easier for batters to follow’

The fate of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy will be sealed at The Oval on Sunday. England need another 324 runs to pull off the second-biggest chase in their history and win 3-1; India need eight wickets – or nine, in the improbable event that Chris Woakes walks out to bat one-handed – to square the series. The draw is no longer on the table.India are the favourites, and owe that status to four men: Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored his sixth century, and second of the series; Akash Deep, the nightwatcher whose maiden Test fifty wore England’s seamers down; Ravindra Jadeja, who passed 500 runs for the series; and Washington Sundar, whose late blitz took the target from 335 to 374 inside five overs.Related

• England made to toil amid mishaps of their own making

• Akash Deep joins nightwatch lore with Oval knock to remember

• Butter-fingered England spill six chances

• Oval and out: Jaiswal's series comes a full circle with statement hundred

England have been here before. They chased 371 in the first Test of this series with five wickets in hand, and cruised to 378 against India at Edgbaston three years ago without breaking a sweat. A punchy opening stand between Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett shaved 50 runs off the target as the shadows lengthened, and England will not be overawed by scoreboard pressure.But Crawley’s dismissal in the final over of the day swung the pendulum firmly in India’s favour. It was Mohammed Siraj, the last seamer standing in this series, who delivered a moment of high skill and high drama. With two balls remaining, Siraj pushed Jaiswal back to deep square leg, a bluff to mask the searing 84mph/135kph yorker which followed, and crashed into off stump.It will be a huge test of both teams’ character, skill and resilience as the series heads into its 24th – and surely final – day. A draw would be a superb achievement for India under new leadership, not least from 2-1 down and on the ropes in Manchester; for England, a series win would be their first against a ‘Big Three’ opponent under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.3:25

‘Root’s wicket will be most important for India’

In Woakes’ absence, this was a brutally tough day for their three greenhorn seamers Gus Atkinson, Josh Tongue and Jamie Overton, who bowled 79 out of 88 overs between them in India’s second innings. Ollie Pope did his best to rotate them but the workload was immense, particularly without a specialist spinner. Their cause was not helped by six dropped catches, and India profited from their profligacy.Akash Deep was the unlikely protagonist of the morning session, seizing an opportunity to chance his arm after seeing out two balls as nightwatcher on Friday evening. He popped the third ball of the day over mid-on for four and decided to keep on swinging, punching the air and thumping his chest when he reached 50 for only the second time in his professional career.England could have had him twice in two balls: they were convinced that Tongue had trapped him lbw, only for the DRS to uphold umpire Ahsan Raza’s not-out call, and Crawley dropped Tongue’s follow-up at third slip. By the time his leading edge was pouched by Atkinson at point off Overton, Akash Deep had added 107 in partnership with Jaiswal.Akash Deep’s gleeful hitting cast Jaiswal in an unfamiliar role, playing in his partner’s slipstream. But he continued to inflict death by a thousand cuts on England’s seamers, scoring heavily behind square on the off side and seizing on any width offered. He reached his hundred after lunch by pinching a single into that very same region, bookending his first tour of England with centuries.By that stage, he had lost another partner. Shubman Gill’s fine series ended with the first ball after lunch, which nipped back off the seam and thumped into his knee roll to give Atkinson his seventh of the match. His overall aggregate – 754 – was second only to Sunil Gavaskar among Indian batters in a Test series, but his highest score in four innings in London was just 21.2:58

Bangar: ‘Akash Deep could be India’s No. 8’

Karun Nair soon became Atkinson’s eighth victim of the Test, edging behind for 17. Nair was struck on the glove first ball, and dropped by Harry Brook – whose view was obscured by Crawley diving across him – on 12 before failing to account for Atkinson’s extra bounce. After a top score of 57 in eight innings, it seems Nair’s comeback series may also prove to be his farewell.Dropped twice on Friday evening, Jaiswal got a third life from Duckett at leg gully, but holed out to deep point for 118 soon after. But India’s lead continued to swell: Jadeja successfully overturned an lbw decision after being struck flush on the right boot and added exactly 50 for the seventh wicket with Dhruv Jurel, as England finally resorted to their occasional spinners.The pitch had clearly flattened out from the first two days but still offered something to work with. Overton managed to get a 76-over-old ball to swing away and trap Jurel lbw, and Tongue threatened to end the innings quickly: Brook finally held on to one when Jadeja steered to him on 53, and Siraj was distraught when given out lbw off the inside edge, with India out of reviews.But Washington went down swinging, as though Brook’s advice in Manchester to “get on with it” was ringing in his ears. He hauled four leg-side sixes in 12 balls, the last of which brought up a 39-ball fifty. By the time he miscued to Crawley at midwicket to give Tongue his fifth wicket, he and Prasidh Krishna (0 off 2) had put on 39 vital runs for the 10th wicket.Duckett and Crawley were left with 14 overs to lay a foundation for England, and Gill was clearly desperate to avoid a repeat of their freewheeling stand in the first innings, posting a deep point from the outset to stem the flow of runs. If it initially seemed curious that Siraj was held back to first change, then his crucial strike vindicated Gill’s decision to give him a single, late burst.

Having not played ODIs since the 2015 World Cup, Sri Lanka’s new captain couldn’t have asked for a better initiation again

Andrew Fidel Fernando22-May-2019Sri Lanka’s less-heralded players helped ease through the side’s first test in the UK, as they beat Scotland by 35 runs via the DLS method.Opener Avishka Fernando, who had had a poor tour of South Africa earlier this year, produced 74 off 78 balls, while Dimuth Karunaratne, on ODI captaincy debut, made 77 off 88. The pair put on 123 runs for the first wicket. Kusal Mendis also contributed 66 off 56 balls through the middle overs, but it was bowler Nuwan Pradeep who impressed most of all, taking 4 for 34 in the rain-shortened second innings.For Karunaratne, the match was not only a test of his leadership, but also an examination of his batting. Having not played ODIs since the 2015 World Cup, there have been doubts over whether he could score quickly enough in this format. He was dropped twice before eventually being caught at long-on, but in making a half-century, and providing the middle order with a good platform, Karunaratne suggested he was not completely out of place in ODIs.”Playing an international one-dayer after such a long time is not easy,” Karunaratne said afterwards. “I was under pressure early on and was struggling a little bit. But once I got set and thought about how to play – which bowlers I should target – I felt better. Fortunately, I got a couple of chances. But thanks to the runs I got, I got some confidence.”Avishka was excellent as well. We know how capable he is. He can hit hard and rotate the strike as well. We talked to him about what we needed from him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get a hundred, but I think he can get a big hundred in the World Cup.”Sri Lanka made 322 for 8 in their 50 overs, but had seemed set for a score of over 350 at one point, before they experienced a serious middle-overs stutter. Having been 203 for 1 at the end of the 33rd over, Sri Lanka mustered only 19 more runs in the next seven overs, as they lost three quick wickets. While that slowdown was not ideal, it was important that Mendis and Lahiru Thirimanne stabilise the innings at that stage, Karunaratne said. Sri Lanka later made 99 runs in the final ten overs.”We planned to bat out 50 overs, so when we were struggling in the 33rd over – we had lost a couple of wickets, in Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera – we were trying to make sure we batted long. Kusal Mendis was playing well, and Lahiru Thirimanne went in and did a good job. When you have wickets in hand, you can go for it at the end. We were struggling through that period, but we rotated the strike, and in the last ten overs we went for our big shots.”Although they had a substantial score to defend, the arrival of rain partway through Scotland’s innings had complicated the task of Sri Lanka’s bowlers, who were visibly struggling to grip the ball. Pradeep, though, was able to maintain excellent control, and was rewarded with the Player of the Match award for his returns.”When Scotland were going quite well, I spoke to Nuwan Pradeep and asked him to try a couple of bouncers,” Karunaratne said. “He did that really well and we were able to squeeze them through that middle period. It’s not easy to bowl yorkers, especially with the ball getting wet because of the rain. If you don’t execute it well it will go for a six. But Pradeep knows how he has to bowl, and he went for the straight yorker. I hope he takes that confidence into the World Cup.”

A nasty injury to Nick Gubbins meant the South were always up against it in the chase as Lancashire duo Matt Parkinson and Saqib Mahmood impressed

Dan Norcross in Barbados24-Mar-2018
ScorecardThey may or may not, as the late BBC Rugby Union commentator Bill McLaren might have said, “be singing and dancing in the streets north of an irregular line drawn somewhere between the South Chilterns and the North Malverns,” but either way the North players were blasting out their chorus of “We all grew up in a council house, now we want a cheque from Andrew Strauss” from the dressing room as England’s director of cricket handed over GBP40,000 following a crushing victory founded on the brilliance of Joe Clarke.The 3 Ws Oval, which hosted this series decider because the Kensington Oval has been given over to a music festival, is situated within the idyllic surroundings of the University of West Indies, Cave Hill campus, overlooking the sea. Three thirty-foot high stumps mark the spot where the great Sir Frank Worrell is buried and looms large over the playing area along with the West Indies’ Hall Of Fame.On a pitch that became increasingly sluggish over the course of the day, the North team wisely elected to bat and despite the early loss of Alex Davies, who saw his stumps splattered by another distinctly rapid delivery from the exciting left-armer Tom Barber, they continued the pattern of these matches by getting off to a flier.Man of the Series Clarke, who had so frustrated assistant coach Andy Flower with his dismissal on Wednesday was imperious, being particularly harsh initially on Jamie Porter and later on pretty much everyone. In tandem with Sam Hain, who himself could only resemble Jonathan Trott more if he shaved his head and surgically inserted a diastema into his front teeth, Clarke put on 143 for the second wicket and with the score motoring along at over six-an-over with wickets in hand, dreams of 350 or more were not far-fetched.But Hain played a hideous swipe the ball after reaching his 50 to be bowled by Porter and then Clarke fell in chaotic fashion soon after. A vigorous but distinctly speculative appeal for an lbw against Keaton Jennings had been turned down, but in the ensuing hullabaloo Clarke saw the opportunity to steal a leg-bye. Jennings was fixated on the umpire and entirely unaware of Clarke. Laurie Evans’ smart pick up and direct hit at the non-striker’s end was just enough to see the back of the man that Mark Ramprakash had identified as the player most likely to be playing within the senior England set-up before any of his other colleagues in the North side. His 112 from 98 balls contained five sixes and ten fours.The innings was in danger of imploding in a manner to which watchers of the England Test team have become only too accustomed of late. That it didn’t was due almost entirely to the busy ministrations of the skipper Steven Mullaney, who for the third time in the series rebuilt the North’s effort with a 50-plus partnership alongside the estimable Brett D’Oliveira and proved the value of experience accompanying some of the more precocious talents.Mullaney was the victim of another direct hit, this time from Sam Curran off his own bowling and the North closed on 296 for 8.
The loss of Nick Gubbins to a bad-looking hamstring injury (that will be assessed in London on Monday) was a further massive blow to the South side. These teams have very much been selected along the lines of six batsmen, a keeper and four front line bowlers, so much depended on the makeshift opening pair of Bell-Drummond and Ollie Pope. Both thrived initially but after Bell-Drummond again fell when well set on 37 with the score on 87, the loss of Gubbins was acutely felt.South skipper Sam Northeast, in stark contrast to his Northern counterpart, got out rashly for a 24 ball 14 when really he needed to keep the prodigiously talented but young Pope company.Lancashire’s Matt Parkinson, consistently landing his leggies on a challenging length, tormented the South batsmen and went through his entire ten-over allocation without conceding a boundary while producing 1970s style figures of 1 for 27. Rawlins threatened to turn the game but his dismissal sparked a collapse of 2 for 3 from six balls, Saqib Mahmood again impressing when he bowled the full fast yorker at which he is ludicrously adept yet oddly reluctant to employ in the middle of the innings. In fairness he ended as the series’ leading wicket taker with nine wickets; seven of which were clean bowled.The innings inevitably dribbled out, 93 runs short of the target. It was the least exciting of the three matches but it should take nothing away from what has been an enthralling series in which a number of young players have impressed the selectors, and a few more seasoned professionals such as Mullaney and D’Oliveira have selflessly provided the necessary ballast to make for splendid contests.After the game Strauss spoke glowingly about the contributions across the three matches of Clarke, Gubbins, Rawlins, Parkinson, Pope and Matt Critchley. Alongside Barber, who really does possess some exciting pace, causing D’Oliveira and Clarke to hop and sway on numerous occasions today and Curran, who every day looks more like a bowling allrounder with an ever increasing bag of (perhaps Jade Dernbach inspired) variations at the death, there is plenty to be excited about the future of England cricket out here in Barbados. And given what is transpiring in New Zealand, it was a pleasing sight.

The hosts take on New Zealand in the tournament opener, having lost to them twice in the recent tri-series

Karthik Krishnaswamy18-Feb-20251:35

Urooj: Babar’s form is still a concern

Big picture: Pakistan vs New Zealand (again)

We live in a time when the ODI is starved for attention, with the older sibling commanding instant respect for its age and wisdom and the younger one bawling at full lung capacity if you dare to look away while it cartwheels around the room. For all that, the middle child never fails to remind us how captivating it can be whenever a global tournament comes along. The last two ODI World Cups produced so many classics between them, and so many passages of play that showcased the variety of skills that this format can both compress and give breathing room to.Given how little we’ve seen of it over the last year-and-a-half or thereabouts, then, our appetite for the ODI should be at its peak, even if the Champions Trophy remains an awkward fit in the calendar and the interests of the ICC’s member boards. So much has happened since Sarfaraz Ahmed lifted this trophy eight years ago, enough for everyone to forget that it even exists, but here we are now, and here it is once again.We have Pakistan, the defending champions and (co-ish) hosts, to start us off, and they’ll face familiar foes in the tournament-opener. No visiting team has played more ODIs in this country than New Zealand’s 11 since the start of 2019, and they begin this Champions Trophy a mere five days after beating Pakistan in the final of an ODI tri-series. Karachi hosted that match, and will host this one too.Related

• Rizwan says Rauf is 'fully fit' for Champions Trophy opener

It says something about the two teams that New Zealand and Pakistan finished fourth and fifth – just inside and just outside the knockouts spots – on the league tables of both the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, and that Pakistan won the head-to-head meetings both times. It speaks of two teams with potentially title-winning strengths as well as title-squandering flaws, and this, perhaps, makes it the ideal contest to kick things off.

Form guide

Pakistan LWLWW (last five completed ODIs, most recent first)
New Zealand WWWLW

In the spotlight

He’s gone 21 innings without an ODI hundred, and while this wouldn’t be abnormal for most batters, Babar Azam isn’t most batters. That sequence only includes two single-digit scores, so it isn’t as if he’s been struggling, but few things will bring as much joy to Pakistan at the start of a global event on home soil as a big score from their until-recently-irreproachable run machine. He’s batting at the top of the order now rather than No. 3, so a score of significance will also ease any doubts Pakistan may have about the structure of their line-up.Rachin Ravindra was struck by the ball on his forehead during the tri-series•AFP/Getty Images

In the recently concluded tri-series, New Zealand’s spinners finished with a combined economy rate of 4.41, which was remarkable considering their Pakistan and South Africa counterparts went at 5.67 and 5.94 respectively. It speaks to the quality of Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell, who picked up five wickets apiece during the tri-series at near-identical averages and economy rates. They form as enviable a spin combination as any in this tournament: a left-arm fingerspinner and an offspinner, both extremely handy with the bat.

Team news: Rauf boost for Pakistan

Haris Rauf played no part in the recent ODI tri-series after going off the field with a side strain during the opening game against New Zealand. He has been bowling in the nets in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy, though, and Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan was confident he would be fit to start the tournament-opener. This should leave Pakistan able to pick a full-strength XI.Pakistan (possible): 1 Fakhar Zaman, 2 Babar Azam, 3 Saud Shakeel, 4 Mohammad Rizwan (capt & wk), 5 Salman Agha, 6 Tayyab Tahir, 7 Khushdil Shah, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Abrar Ahmed.New Zealand go into the Champions Trophy with two of their original fast-bowling selections – Lockie Ferguson and Ben Sears – out of the tournament. There’s also doubt over whether Rachin Ravindra – who hasn’t played a game since being struck on the head by the ball while fielding during the first match of the tri-series – will be fit to start, but the opener has been batting during training sessions in the lead-up to this tournament. New Zealand will take a call on him after their training session on Tuesday, with Will Young likely to open alongside Devon Conway should they decide not to risk Ravindra. Ferguson’s replacement Kyle Jamieson will not arrive in Karachi in time to be available for the first game.New Zealand: 1 Rachin Ravindra/Will Young, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Michael Bracewell, 8 Mitchell Santner (capt), 9 Matt Henry, 10 Jacob Duffy, 11 Will O’Rourke.

Pitch and conditions

Karachi hosted the last two matches of the recent tri-series, and they ended up as extremely dissimilar contests. On February 12, South Africa posted 352, the highest-ever total achieved at the venue, but that record only lasted a few hours as Pakistan hunted it down with an over to spare. Two days later, Will O’Rourke bagged four wickets and the unhittable Santner took 2 for 20 in his ten overs as Pakistan, electing to bat first in the final, were bundled out for 242, a total that New Zealand chased down with five wickets and 28 balls to spare.What sort of surface will the National Stadium serve up on Wednesday, then? Recent history suggests this is a testing venue for fast bowlers in ODIs, as their combined average of 33.67 and economy rate of 6.02 over this decade would attest. Where Lahore has tended to be just as harsh to spinners, however, Karachi has given them a modicum of respite; while their wickets have come at 45.50, they have only gone at 5.11 per over.Going by recent trends, pitches in global tournaments have tended to be good batting surfaces with something for bowlers to work with: the last three ICC ODI events – the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 and 2023 World Cups – finished with overall run rates of 5.54, 5.59 and 5.82 respectively.Wednesday is expected to be a warm day in Karachi with a high of 29 degrees Celsius, and little to no chance of rain.

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand (2000) and Pakistan (2017) both beat India in the final when they won their respective Champions Trophy titles.
• These two teams have met three times in the Champions Trophy, in 2000, 2006 and 2009, with New Zealand winning all three times.
• New Zealand have faced Pakistan 11 times in ODIs since the start of 2023, and the results have been neck-and-neck. While New Zealand have won five and lost six, they’ve won three of the last four meetings.
• Of the 47 New Zealand batters to score 1000 ODI runs, Daryl Mitchell has the best average (50.42). His strike rate of 97.89 is also hugely impressive, since all five batters above him on that list average below 30.
• Of the bowlers from the eight teams in this tournament, Shaheen Shah Afridi (21 at 22.04) is the highest wicket-taker in ODIs since the end of the 2023 World Cup.
• Babar, Fakhar Zaman and Faheem Ashraf are the only members of Pakistan’s squad who were also part of their victorious 2017 campaign.

Quotes

“We’re all equal whether someone’s a platinum or an emerging player. The senior players have a bit more pressure on them, and we expect ourselves to perform on the biggest occasions, and this is as big as it gets.”
“Anytime you’ve been in conditions you’re been coming up against is an advantage. We’re lucky we’ve been over here for a couple of weeks and played in Pakistan quite a bit over the last three years”

MP captain Patidar’s unbeaten 40-ball 81 wasn’t enough as Mumbai chased down 175 with 13 balls to spare

Himanshu Agrawal15-Dec-2024Mumbai have yet another star in the making, and yet another trophy in a cabinet which is fast running out of space. Even before the ball landed beyond the straight boundary to confirm victory in the 2024 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final against Madhya Pradesh, Suryansh Shedge was leaping and punching the air. He now has three crucial contributions in his last four innings, the latest of which helped Mumbai seal a 175-run chase with 13 balls to spare.Shedge hit an unbeaten 36 off 15 balls while adding an unbroken stand of 51 from 19 deliveries with Atharva Ankolekar, who hit the winning six. Shedge smashed three fours and three sixes during his knock, none more impressive than a six which would have made Suryakumar Yadav proud. The 21-year-old got across to a length ball from Venkatesh Iyer in the 17th over, and nonchalantly swiped him over long leg to all but confirm Mumbai’s second Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title. He now has knocks of 30* (eight balls), 36* (12) and 36* (15) in three of his last four T20 games.Related

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The chase was set up by Suryakumar and Ajinkya Rahane, who finished as the tournament’s highest run-getter. They took some time to add 52 for the third wicket, but that helped steady Mumbai after they were 47 for 2 in the fifth over. Rahane even got lucky when, off the last ball of the powerplay, he got a leading edge which flew to mid-off, where Rajat Patidar dived to his left only for the ball to escape his grasp.Rahane and Suryakumar built steadily, but with another 110 runs required from 69 balls, Suryakumar accelerated. He scooped and lofted Rahul Batham for four and six. Rahane started the next over by reverse sweeping and pulling Kumar Kartikeya for four. Venkatesh got Rahane for 37 in the 12th over, but Suryakumar bashed Batham for two sixes in the 13th.Rajat Patidar smashed an unbeaten 81 off 40 balls•PTI

Shivam Shukla then had Suryakumar caught at short fine leg for 48. When Shedge and Ankolekar came together Mumbai needed 46 from 32 balls, and the match could have gone either way. But the two ensured the trophy came their way.Earlier, MP needed Patidar, their captain, to make a match out of it. He was only behind Rahane on the runs charts and continued to rake in the runs, cracking an unbeaten 81 off 40 balls with six fours and six sixes. MP were 86 for 5 at the start of the 13th over, but Patidar looked immovable, helping MP score 80 runs in the last seven overs.There was the pull, the loft, the upper cut, the slice, and the swipe to savour for a sizeable Chinnaswamy crowd, as Patidar picked up the pace after managing just nine from as many deliveries at the start. His shots had plenty of power, the ball crashed into the stands, and it made for a fearless display of T20 hitting. But, at the end of the day, Patidar’s heroics were not quite enough.

Despite the loss, the West Indies captain reckoned there were a lot of positives to draw from the two-Test series

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Aug-20243:06

Brathwaite: ‘We needed a bigger first-innings score’

West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite reckoned that not taking the lead despite bowling South Africa out for 160 in the first innings of the second Test was a key reason behind his team’s 40-run loss in Providence.Electing to bat, the West Indies bowlers led by Shamar Joseph’s five-wicket haul had South Africa on the mat at 97 for 9. Dane Piedt and Nandre Burger then added a 63-run stand for the final wicket to take South Africa to 160. In reply West Indies were bowled out for 144, conceding a 16-run lead.While Brathwaite agreed that South Africa’s last-wicket stand was vital, but felt West Indies’ batting effort in the first innings was “just not big enough.”Related

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“Yeah, if you look at it, obviously it was quite big,” Brathwaite said on South Africa’s last-wicket stand on the opening day of the Test. “But bowling them out for 160, I was happy. That partnership for them was, was good. You know, it’s cricket where partnerships do happen. So, I won’t really stress on that too much.”But what I would say is our first innings total needed to be bigger. We needed to get a lead from it. I think that was very important. You can never complain about the bowlers’ effort to bowl them out for 160 but yeah, the batting effort in the first innings just wasn’t big enough. We had to fight back into the game. And, in the end, we fell short.”Despite losing the series 1-0 after the first Test ended in a draw, West Indies had a few positive takeaways from the two games. Shamar Joseph didn’t play the first Test but came back to rattle the South Africa top order with 5 for 33 in the first innings. Jayden Seales was West Indies’ highest wicket-taker with 12 which included 6 for 61 in the second innings in Providence while Jason Holder scored a half-century in the first innings. Brathwaite also singled out Alick Athanaze as someone who he sees scoring a “lot of Test hundreds”.Jayden Seales picked up his best figures in Test cricket in the second innings•AFP/Getty Images

“I think bowling-wise, you look at Shamar coming back in, not playing the first Test, and coming in bowling out South Africa on the first day. Jayden throughout the series, continued to keep coming despite the hot conditions. That was a positive,” Brathwaite said. “You see the two spinners, one of the first time two spinners played together in the Caribbean, and they did well, in particular this game where both of them were under three runs an over. That’s one thing we asked for, and that was great to see.”I think Alick, his innings was important to continue to keep learning as batters. Alick has a world of potential. I can see him scoring a lot of Test hundreds, but we just got to keep thinking about our game, finding ways to improve. Pretty pleased with the bowling effort throughout the series, and batting-wise, we scored above 200 in three of the innings. So it is just for us to aim to do it more consistently, and that’s always the task. We always hear about being consistent. And I think mentally it’s to find ways to be better.”While the prospect of Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph and Seales in future Test matches serves as a delicious prospect, Brathwaite also pointed out that he is very excited about the batting unit.”As I said, the future is very bright for our fast bowling unit, and we’ve still got Kemar Roach, with loads of experience on it. You know, he still has a lot of Test matches left in him. So it’s very exciting,” Brathwaite said. “But I must say, I’m very excited about the batting unit. I really think the line-up we have, can do the job. And obviously, I’ve been asking for more Test matches. We had five on the back. And yes, we didn’t come out with guys averaging above 50. But I think once we learn from this, going forward will be easier, and obviously being mentally tough is most important in playing Test matches.”So, I am excited for the fast bowlers, but I really believe that this top five can do a good job for West Indies. So, we just got to keep believing.”