All posts by n8rngtd.top

The Kolkata Knight Riders shackle themselves to the bottom of the points table with a confused batting display

Alagappan Muthu24-Apr-2021A good T20 total is built on the back of batters being brave. The Kolkata Knight Riders forgot all about that on Saturday, losing to the Rajasthan Royals by six wickets and tumbling to the bottom of the IPL points table.A haunted team

The Knight Riders lost their last game in heroic fashion. It left Andre Russell “heartbroken” but the worst of the impact may have been on Eoin Morgan who, even as early as the presentation that night, was wondering what might have been.So maybe he and his team devised a plan. Let’s not try anything in the powerplay. Let’s not give our opponents an easy wicket. If we can do that, then with the hitters down the order, we could really do some damage. #BestLaidPlans.Wasting resources

Nitish Rana once scored an IPL fifty without the help of a single four. He didn’t need them. He just kept clearing the boundary. Here, he looked shackled. Here, he was caught behind for 22 off 25 with one measly four and one measly six.Shubman Gill lorded it over the Australian Test attack – which some say is the best in the world – but against one that had gone the last T20 without picking up a single wicket, he just caved without a fight.Morgan was run-out without facing a ball.The debacle against the Chennai Super Kings happened three nights ago. But it was still affecting the Knight Riders, the shackles they placed upon themselves eventually becoming too difficult to break.The bitter end

Twenty-five for one in the powerplay. Sixty-one for four just past the halfway mark. When a batting team falls so far behind the rate, they start to hit out at everything. The Royals understood that and put all of their effort into taking the pace off, while also digging it into the pitch. Mustafizur Rahman (1 for 22), Chetan Sakariya (1 for 31) and Jaydev Unadkat (1 for 25) were especially useful in this regard, posing problems even for a hitter like Andre Russell because they took away his base and therefore his power.Ironically, it was two seam-up deliveries that took down the Knight Riders’ two finishers, Chris Morris dismissing Russell and Dinesh Karthik in the 18th over and setting his team up with a below-par target of 134 to chase.Samson steps up

Knowing it was only a matter of lasting the full 20 overs, the Royals captain Samson (42* off 41) took the responsibility upon himself and made sure he was out there when the winning runs were scored. The innings began with a flowing cover drive against Varun Chakravarthy’s mystery spin and included a vicious six off Pat Cummins’ pace, but for the most part, Samson was focused on just being at the crease, ticking the singles over so that he could, with as little risk as possible, push his often fragile team across that finish line.

Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy have questioned the selection of the West Indies ODI squad for the tri-series involving Australia and South Africa in June

ESPNcricinfo staff20-May-2016Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy have questioned the selection of the West Indies ODI squad for the tri-series involving Australia and South Africa in June. They expressed surprise at Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine being in the squad despite not meeting what they considered to be one of the WICB’s criteria for selection – playing West Indies’ domestic 50-over competition.Gayle, Bravo and Sammy did not play the Nagico Super50 in January because they were playing the Big Bash League in Australia at the time. Pollard and Narine also did not participate in the Nagico Super50, though. Pollard was injured during the Ram Slam T20 in South Africa in November last year and only regained fitness in time for the 2016 IPL, and Narine was not allowed to play because his bowling action had been declared illegal. He was cleared to bowl by the ICC only in April.In a series of tweets and retweets, the players who had been left out of the squad expressed their incredulity at the selection. “@KieronPollard55 & #SunilNarine selected for WI Tri-Series. How is that possible @westindies?” asked Gayle on Twitter. “WICB stop Sunil from playing super 50 and now they pick him. If @KieronPollard55 was fit he would’ve play the B Bash just like the rest of us!!”Bravo called the development “magic” on Twitter. “Joke of the day: WI selectors. One minute Pollard & Narine were not good enough & now are perfect for Tri Nation series? It’s like magic! One minute we have to be available for domestic super 50 to be selected and the next minute, it seems we don’t. Magic! Get serious people!”Sammy, while congratulating Pollard, asked him how he had managed a comeback: “@KieronPollard55 great to see u back in odi team but tell me how did u qualify for selection having not played the super50 or ODI since 2014.”In response to Sammy and the others, Pollard seemed to say he did not know why he had not played an ODI since October 2014: “Bingo, or I should say Pingo. Numbers shuffled and up popped P55!! Or should I [say] lucky days!! Think the truth, or real reasons of expulsion will finally come out??? Have been baffled for 15 months. Then Pingo.”Andre Russell was the other high-profile omission from the West Indies ODI squad. He too did not play the Nagico Super50 and played the Big Bash League instead. It is not known, however, whether the injury he sustained during the IPL played a part in his non-selection. None of these players – Gayle, Bravo, Sammy and Russell – were contracted by the WICB earlier this year, but all four were part of West Indies’ title-winning squad at the World T20 in India.

Adam Wheater, the wicketkeeper-batsman, is to return to Essex three years after leaving for Hampshire

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Sep-2016Adam Wheater, the wicketkeeper-batsman, is to return to Essex three years after leaving for Hampshire. Wheater, who had already gone on loan to Essex after losing the gloves at Hampshire, has signed a two-year contract.With Hampshire preferring Lewis McManus as their wicketkeeper for the second half of the season, Wheater was asked to play as a specialist batsman – something he did creditably, scoring a maiden first-class double-hundred in July after which he reiterated his desire to keep wicket.During Wheater’s previous spell at Essex, where he made his first-class debut in 2008, his path was blocked by James Foster and he eventually bought himself out of the final year of his contract to move to Hampshire ahead of the 2013 season. That caused some controversy, when Wheater was preferred to club favourite Michael Bates because of his batting.Foster remains Essex’s first-choice keeper but, at the age of 36, he has already begun to look at opportunities outside the game, taking up the post of cricket professional at Forest School last year. Wheater, who was rumoured to be a target for Essex, will now be considered next in line.”It’s great to be back at Essex, where I started my career,” Wheater said. “I’d like to thank Hampshire for their understanding of moving to Essex and wish them every success in the future.”The signing will bolster Essex’s squad for an expected return to Division One of the Championship. With only one team set to go up, the Division Two leaders are 20 points clear of Kent – who have only one game remaining – and need just a handful of bonus points from their last two fixtures to seal promotion.Wheater made seven first-class hundreds in his four seasons with Hampshire, as well as two in List A cricket. In 2016 he averages 47.22, with a high score of 204 not out, but after McManus was granted an extended run behind the stumps, Wheater made it clear he would prefer to seek opportunities elsewhere rather than play as a specialist batsman, despite a year remaining on his contract.His loan move to Essex was announced last week but it has swiftly been made permanent. He joins Varun Chopra – who will also return on loan from Warwickshire after signing a three-year deal – in making a comeback to the county.Essex’s head coach, Chris Silverwood, said: “To be able to bring Adam back to the club on a permanent basis is brilliant for us, he comes into the squad with Division One experience, which is exactly what we need should we get promoted.”

Only a victory in Melbourne will keep the Ashes alive heading into the new year

Andrew McGlashan24-Dec-2021There is a chance that 2021 finishes as a record-breaking year for Joe Root, and record-equalling for England, but for significantly different reasons.Root currently sits fourth in the list for most runs scored by a batter in a calendar year, and needs 159 to go ahead of Mohammad Yousuf’s golden 2006 mark. His team, meanwhile, is one defeat away from equalling the record for most Test losses in a calendar year, which is currently at nine, registered by Bangladesh in 2003.Related

• Zak Crawley's Ashes SOS – why England have kept the faith

• 'Not good enough' – Root admits anger at England's results

• Has cricket turned into an obligation for England?

The two records are closely linked. If Root achieves his in a single innings – ideally the first time England bat in the match – it will give them a chance of avoiding the second. Having not passed 300 yet in the series, where they trail 2-0 after two games, they have to put up a total that will pressure Australia, even if the MCG pitch is on the livelier side, more than seen of late.”It’s been very enjoyable personally, in terms of batting, spending time out there making some big scores, but nothing compares to winning,” Root said of personal success amid a struggling team. “If I perform well in the last three Tests here, it gives us a good chance of getting the scores on the board to win games.”Root has twice fallen after passing 50 in this series, nicking Cameron Green on both occasions, with England having produced just four half-centuries – the other two coming from Dawid Malan. Root carries a huge burden in this fragile batting order and desperately needs others around him to lift their games. There are likely to be changes with Zak Crawley and Jonny Bairstow in the mix with Root imploring his fellow batters to keep it simple.”It’s asking all of our batters, whoever it is that does play, to do basic things very well. Give yourself an opportunity to go and make big runs and build big partnerships,” he said. “I bang on about that all the time but it’s the fundamentals of batting: be willing to concentrate for long periods of time, being able to wear bowlers down, take themselves deep into an innings and make those big scores that put you ahead of the game.”If you look at these last two games, it’s been mental [lapses], not through lack of confidence or anything like that, but understanding of conditions and sniffing the danger. I think we can be a bit smarter about that.”He is also willing to carry that responsibility himself as he continues to search for a first Ashes hundred in Australia, having spent time working in the nets at the MCG to ensure he knows where his off stump is, so he can judge what to play and what to leave.”That’s the most frustrating thing on my part, an experienced batter shouldn’t be making that mistake twice,” he said. “Hence why I’ve been doing the work and I expect better from myself.”Despite the continued batting problems, it was the bowling that dominated the fallout from Adelaide after Root’s comments that he felt England got the lengths wrong, which led to Ricky Ponting questioning why he did not push the bowlers into changing.Does Joe Root have a big score in him to finish the year?•AFP

“I like to give our bowlers, especially the senior ones, that responsibility,” Root said. “They have more than 300 Tests between them and over 1000 wickets, and they know what they are doing. It’s working alongside them, it’s not a dictatorship. Every now and again, you don’t always agree on everything and that’s fine. Ultimately, it’s about coming to a point where you get the results we want. Unfortunately, in the last game, we didn’t quite get there.”There has been differing reaction from within the England camp with Stuart Broad saying in his column, which came out while the second Test was still progress, that the economy rates would have “gone through the roof” by bowling fuller, while in the James Anderson suggested there could some validity in the criticism, although he referenced data that showed Australia were no fuller.”We have to be better at assessing it during a game,” Anderson said. “We can’t just go after the game ‘we should have bowled fuller’. If we are bowling too short, at lunch we need information back, saying we need to push our lengths up. We have to be a bit more proactive at that too as a whole group.”In Australia, you have to hit the pitch hard and bowl every ball as if your life depends on it, as fast as you can, because you don’t get anything here for just putting it on a length. You have to put your back into it. It is a balancing act to make sure it is full enough but not floaty. Look at the numbers. They show both sides bowled similar lengths. They did not bowl any fuller than us. But it is a case of the difference in techniques of the batters. It must be, because they took 20 wickets and we didn’t.”All parts of England’s game are going to have to work harmony in Melbourne if this series is to be alive going into 2022, but it could well be Root who has to make the difference for them in the end.

Sri Lanka’s new high performance manager Simon Willis, has said he aims to bridge the gap in standards between Sri Lanka’s domestic system and the international game.

Andrew Fidel Fernando03-Jun-2016Sri Lanka’s new high performance manager Simon Willis, has said he aims to bridge the gap in standards between Sri Lanka’s domestic system and the international game.High-profile players and some administrators have repeatedly drawn attention to the ailing health of Sri Lanka’s first-class system. Though an overhaul of the Premier League tournaments is beyond Willis’ purview, he has outlined a vision to create a well-defined “player pathway” from grassroots cricket to the international level, and to create more cohesion within the system.”We’ve got to work together so that when players get picked, it doesn’t get two or three years to get established in international level,” Willis said. “We have to ensure that everything we do underneath – whether that’s A team, Under-23 or Under-19 – is preparing them for transition to an international environment.”That might not be just cricket skills. It might be travelling overseas. People might struggle being away from home for a long period of time. We need to prepare them for that. It might be playing in different conditions – like what we’ve seen in England with a swinging ball.”Sri Lanka have struggled in all formats over the past 18 months, making little impact in major limited-overs tournaments, and having lost 10 of their 14 Tests since December 2014. Much of that has been put down to difficulty in replacing retiring stars.”The first thing is to provide an oversupply,” Willis said. “We need more players than just one or two. We need to create competition. We want players banging down the door to get into international teams – both men and women.”But they should be capable of winning matches on consistent basis. Not just once a week or in two or three years. We see two of the greats who recently finished their careers – Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene – they were capable of winning matches in all formats, consistently. That’s the challenge we’ve got in our player pathway.”Willis said he would also aim to link Sri Lanka’s national team management more effectively with the domestic system. A breakdown in the relationship between the board, selectors and the team had led to the overnight sacking of a selection committee in March, on the eve of the team’s departure for the World T20.”From my understanding, there’s been a small disconnect between the national team and what’s going on underneath,” Willis said. “I see myself as the glue that links those things two together.”Graham Ford – the head coach of the national team – will tell us his needs, as well as Angelo Mathews, who is the present captain. Us as a team will be trying to identify players and develop them in certain ways and provide them with opportunity overseas or in this country, to develop international players that the national team requires.”Willis – who has a Level 3 certificate for coach education – has also been hired to up-skill Sri Lanka’s coaches. He said he hoped to work with local coaches to put in place a central database containing in-depth information on key players, and he also spoke about tapping into knowledge already contained in the system.”For me, it’s really important all Sri Lankan coaches are seen on the grounds. Whether that’ll be a provincial game or in a club game, we need to be out there watching players and communicating with coaches further down the chain. This is a part in the education process. It’s a two-way process. Not just top-down, we need to learn from those people who are specialising down the grass root level, because we can learn lessons along the way.”

Sutherland has been diagnosed with a stress reaction in her femur

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Mar-2021Allrounder Annabel Sutherland has been ruled out of Australia’s tour to New Zealand later this month after being diagnosed with a stress reaction in her femur.Sutherland, who has so far played three ODIs and six T20Is, reported pain after the last round of the WNCL against Tasmania.Molly Strano, the offspinner who was also a late addition to Australia’s T20 World Cup squad last year after Tayla Vlaeminck was ruled out, has been called up as Sutherland’s replacement for the trip which includes three ODIs and three T20s. Strano has played seven T20Is but has yet to make her ODI debut.Related

• Australia start to look beyond greatest generation with trans-Tasman tour

• Darlington: 'Every day I'm pinching myself that this is happening'

Sutherland had taken four wickets in four WNCL matches for Victoria alongside making scores of 13, 34 and 15.”It’s unfortunate that Annabel has been ruled out of the series, but our medical team were able to identify the issue early which allows her to go away and get herself right with a busy period coming up,” national selector Shawn Flegler said.”Molly comes into the squad off the back of strong performances for Victoria in the WNCL, where she’s the current leading wicket-taker. We’ve got plenty of pace-bowling options in the squad, so Molly gives us another spin option should we need it.”Australia’s squad includes two uncapped players, the pace bowlers Darcie Brown and Hannah Darlington, as the selectors start to have on eye on the future.The squad will depart on March 13 and undergo two weeks managed isolation in Christchurch ahead of the first T20I on March 28Squad Meg Lanning (capt), Rachael Haynes, Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Hannah Darlington, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy (wk), Jess Jonassen, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Molly Strano, Georgia Wareham, Belinda Vakarewa, Tayla Vlaeminck

England wicketkeeper Amy Jones and Australian star Ellyse Perry shared a fourth-wicket partnership of 83 as home side Loughborough Lightning beat Western Storm by five runs

ECB Reporters Network05-Aug-2016
ScorecardHeather Knight’s 74 from 46 balls took Western Storm close•Getty Images

England wicketkeeper Amy Jones and Australian star Ellyse Perry shared a fourth-wicket partnership of 83 as home side Loughborough Lightning beat Western Storm by five runs in a thriller, despite Heather Knight’s 74, the highest score in the Kia Super League to date.Jones and Perry came together at a perilous 31 for 3 to share the impressive stand, building a solid platform before accelerating to put Lightning in a great position. A flurry of wickets saw Storm slow the rate down, before an Eve Jones cameo saw Loughborough post 158 for 8 off their 20 overs.Western Storm were looking for a fast start but were pegged back by some tight early bowling from Loughborough. Knight’s excellent knock looked to have given Western Storm the platform to chase down the score, but when she was run out, the game went away from the visitors.”It felt really good and it was about trying to get a partnership together with Ellyse,” Amy Jones said. “Luckily I’d had a couple of opportunities in warm-up games so it was nice to push on a bit and get the win.”Knight was undoubtedly disappointed to fall short. “We just wanted to stay in the game as long as possible but a couple of wickets cost us but we can turn things around quickly and we can get back on track.”Nine runs off the first three balls of the match looked to have given Loughborough a great start, but a clever piece of bowling saw Lightning captain Georgia Elwiss lured out of her crease, to be stumped by New Zealand international Rachel Priest.Storm captain Knight then forced a mistake from one off Loughborough’s overseas stars, grabbing the wicket of Sophie Devine before Anya Shrubsole bowled Dane Van Niekerk after runs had begun to dry up.That brought together the partnership of Jones and Perry, who first consolidated for a period before their expansive range of shots began to show. The England wicketkeeper took the lead racing to 46 off 30 balls, departing to a Priest stumping again off Freya Davies.Perry was then involved in a mix-up that saw Paige Scholfield run out, but by then had taken on the momentum, hitting her 44 off 37 balls before holing out in the deep to Lizelle Lee.Eve Jones smacked a quick-fire 25, launching Georgia Hennessey for a six and then the very next ball, hitting another boundary, before departing to Shrubsole as the innings reached its end.The Western Storm chase wobbled early, as an excellent Powerplay saw Loughborough get the prize wickets of overseas stars Priest and Stafanie Taylor before Knight and Fran Wilson started the rebuilding process.Knight was the aggressor in the partnership of 78 with her England colleague but when Wilson departed, the task got harder, though the composure shown by the Storm skipper, suggested otherwise.However, the match turned when Elwiss got the faintest of touches on a Hennessey straight drive, to leave Knight stranded out of her crease and with it the chances of Western Storm. Sonia Odedra’s impressive spell of 2 for 20 was the pick of the Lightning bowlers, whilst Perry’s final over secured the victory.

South Africa’s captain, Faf du Plessis, described his hundred in Adelaide as his “best” in Tests after a week in which he was found guilty of ball-tampering by the ICC

Firdose Moonda at Adelaide Oval24-Nov-2016″My best.” That’s where Faf du Plessis rated this century – his second at Adelaide and sixth overall. It came after a week of intense scrutiny over du Plessis’ methods of shining the ball, a week in which he was found guilty by the ICC and fined, a week in which he made headlines for all the wrong reasons. His team-mates stood steadfastly behind him and he saw this innings as his chance to stand steadfastly ahead of them.

SA learn to think pink

South Africa’s first day-night Test experience was “super strange” in the words of captain Faf du Plessis, who admitted it would take some time to get used to the timings of this type of game.
“It’s super strange,” du Plessis said. “When we walked off after the first session and it felt like a normal tea and almost like on session left in the day but there’s two sessions left. Then the last one, you have a massive dinner and think it’s time to go back to the hotel and there’s one session left. We will get used to it.”
Even though “everything is weird about it”, du Plessis was optimistic about the future of the pink ball.
“We’re going to get back [to the hotel] at 11pm. Your brain will be spinning for another two hours. That’s normal when you finish a game. So you go to bed at 2am and wake up at 8am and you’ve got to go again. Everything is weird for us at the moment.
“But it’s fascinating. It’s changing Test cricket. There was a massive crowd in today, so they obviously love it. The cricketers also enjoy it because it’s a different challenge.”

“I’m just pretty proud of today. It was a big day for me to stand up as a captain and make sure I lead from the front,” he said. “To get through all of that and this week in the manner that I did today makes me really proud.”Du Plessis expected some heat when he made his first public appearance – he had addressed the media the day before – but he was surprised that, after he stood alone to take South Africa’s total over 250, he was not wholeheartedly forgiven.”I was expecting a little bit of hostility but not to that extent,” he said. “When I came out, I was obviously quite aware of it [the booing]. As the innings went on, it disappeared a bit. To be really honest, when I got to 100 I wasn’t expecting to still get booed so that was disappointing.”It also added a little to du Plessis’ already immense desire to do his talking with the bat. “I was really motivated before today. I felt it was a character test and the only way I could do it is by scoring runs but it did help a little bit. Maybe 5%.”What helped more was that du Plessis was more focused than he has been ever before. The pink ball seamed and then swung, it also turned; the Australia attack searched and, in the case of most of his team-mates, found; but du Plessis had promised himself he would not give it away easily. “I have never been that switched on. Every ball I said to myself, ‘that is not enough. I want to get a big one here.’ I was just more motivated than I have ever been,” he said. “Surprisingly, technically I was the best I have been this series as well. I felt really good.”Before this innings, du Plessis’ contribution was a top score of 37 and he did not seem to have the same control he has displayed in the past. Today, his defences could not be breached but he also looked to score. He was not the same batsman who stonewalls for fun, he was someone who had purpose and, if he had more partners, he would have carried on. “I could have gone for another day. I really wanted to bat. The way I felt mentally I could have gone for a week,” du Plessis said.But with the chance to put Australia in under lights and make some early inroads, du Plessis decided not to search for an extra 20 or 30 runs and take advantage of a situation in which Australia were forced to seek an emergency opener. Du Plessis knew David Warner had spent time off the field and could not bat, he wanted to see if his bowlers could make the ball talk at night and, with the knowledge that 224 was the top score in last year’s day-night Test in Adelaide, he felt a total over 250 was good enough.”The position of the game was that it was time for us to declare. We were trying to get some wickets,” he said. “I don’t think we would have declared if we were seven down in the last hour of the night. We would have tried to get to 300. We got 250 but it feels like we got more. It isn’t a massive score but the statistics of the pink ball says it may not generally be a five-day game. It speeds up a little because there is a lot more action on the ball – 250 is perhaps 350 with the red ball.”