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Axar Patel will lead DC with Rishabh Pant suspended for this crucial game

Karthik Krishnaswamy11-May-20243:34

Aaron: Not going to be easy for RCB to dominate Axar and Kuldeep

Match details

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (7th, P12, W5, L7) vs Delhi Capitals (5th, P12, W6, L6)
Bengaluru, 7.30pm IST (2pm GMT)

Big picture: Has the surge come too late for RCB and DC?

RCB have won their last four games on the bounce, and Delhi Capitals have won three of their last five. Their key players have clicked in unison more often than not over recent weeks. Unfortunately for both teams, though, all this may have come a little too late in the season. Both teams are still in contention for the playoffs, but neither has its destiny entirely in its own hands – read this for a more in-depth understanding of where they stand.Both teams can still control their ends of the bargain, though, and this is what RCB and DC will look to do going into their first meeting of the season, at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday night. DC are better-placed than RCB at this stage, with two extra points from the same number of games, but they might just be underdogs going into this contest. RCB are in a serious run of form, and they will be backed by one of the most fervent home crowds in the tournament. And DC, most significantly, will be without their captain and talisman Rishabh Pant.

Form guide

Royal Challengers Bengaluru WWWWL (last five completed games, most recent first)
Delhi Capitals WLWWL

Team news and Impact Player strategy

Royal Challengers Bengaluru
RCB have used either Glenn Maxwell or Lockie Ferguson as their fourth overseas player in recent games, depending on conditions and opposition. Maxwell’s record against Kuldeep Yadav (79 off 45 balls, four dismissals, strike rate of 175.55) could prompt RCB to play him in this match, given how much better DC’s attack looks when the left-arm wristspinner is able to control proceedings. If RCB play Ferguson instead, expect Mahipal Lomror to play rather than Vijaykumar Vyshak.Possible XII 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Faf du Plessis (capt), 3 Will Jacks, 4 , 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Swapnil Singh, 9 Karn Sharma, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Vijaykumar Vyshak, 12 .Delhi Capitals
DC coach Ricky Ponting has confirmed Axar Patel will captain the team in Pant’s absence. He also suggested that David Warner – who has missed four successive games with a hand injury – could be fit to return, having trained on both Friday and Saturday. Ponting, meanwhile, hinted at an opposition-specific bowling selection, with the Australian quick Jhye Richardson in line to play as a new-ball specialist to try and break through a strong RCB top order.Which Indian batter comes in for Pant remains to be seen. Prithvi Shaw is an option, but with Ponting indicating that Abishek Porel was likely to continue opening, DC may prefer a middle-order batter, in which case Yash Dhull or Kumar Kushagra could get a game.Possible XII 1 Jake Fraser-McGurk, 2 Abishek Porel (wk), 3 David Warner/Shai Hope, 4 , 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Lalit Yadav/Sumit Kumar, 8 , 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mukesh Kumar, 11 Jhye Richardson, 12 .Axar Patel will lead DC in Rishabh Pant’s absence•BCCI

In the spotlight

At the 12-game mark in the season, DC have the spin attack with the best collective average of all teams this season (24.88) and the fourth-best economy rate (8.18). Up against them through the middle overs, though, will be Rajat Patidar, who has the second-best strike rate against spin (229.85) of any batter who has scored at least 100 runs against that style of bowling this season. With Virat Kohli also having upped his intent and shot range against spin in recent games, with telling effect, we could be in for a mouthwatering middle-overs battle.RCB have opened the bowling with a spinner in each of their last four games, with either left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh or offspinner Will Jacks bowling the first over depending on their opposition’s opening combination. It will be interesting to see if they try this tactic against DC, who will have a left-right combination if either Warner or Porel opens alongside Jake Fraser-McGurk. And no matter who bowls at him, Fraser-McGurk will look to hit the ball out of the park. He’s struck at 255.20 in the powerplay this season, going at 244.57 against pace in this phase, and a ludicrous 323.07 against spin.

Stats that matter

• RCB have won four of the last five meetings between these two teams.
• In 11 T20s, Kohli has only been out once to Axar, but he’s only scored 78 off 71 balls against the left-arm spinner. DC will be happy for the match-up to continue in this manner, but the events of recent matches suggest that Kohli may play Axar differently if he gets the chance, bringing out his rediscovered sweep and slog-sweep at every opportunity.
• Dinesh Karthik enjoys batting against Khaleel Ahmed, scoring 28 off 14 balls against the left-arm quick while only being dismissed once.
• Tristan Stubbs (187 runs at a strike rate of 296.82) and Karthik (180 at 233.76) are the most prolific run-scorers in the death overs (17-20) in IPL 2024.

Pitch and conditions

It’s no surprise that the match that produced the record IPL total and the record run aggregate for any T20 game came at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. It’s a bit of a surprise, though, that there have been no 200-plus totals in any of the other four matches at the venue so far this season. There was early help for the new ball in the most recent match here, where RCB bowled Gujarat Titans out for 147, and it will be interesting to see if conditions on Sunday night bring fast bowlers into the game in a similar way. It has rained on and off in the evenings in the week leading up to the match, and weather interruptions could be likely.

Quotes

“The position I was going [in] to bat was very challenging for me, because this year I’ve got a new role, getting to play in the middle order, so I’ve done some changes […] I spoke with Virat , DK , who have a lot of experience, so I think that helped a lot […] If you’re going at the top of the order, you get some extra cushion to think and plan your innings, but if you’re going around the 10th-11th over, you don’t get that cushion. You have to be really quick in making your decision. It helped me a lot to talk with the great players in our team.”
“Obviously Rishabh Pant is not there, so we’ve got to think about an Indian middle-order player potentially to come in for him. David Warner missed the last game. He got that nasty knock on his hand about a month ago now, hasn’t played a game since. He trained really strongly yesterday. He’s here now. He’ll be up hitting balls in the middle now, so he’ll be doing some more batting today, so hopefully he’s available for selection tomorrow. There’s a chance against RCB as well, with their dominance at the top of the order, that we might think about changing our bowling line-up as well, someone like a Jhye Richardson to bring into the side as a specialist new-ball bowler to potentially take early wickets against RCB.”

Pujara grinds for two hours to make 28, while Washington Sundar marks his first-class comeback with a wicket

Shashank Kishore05-Jul-2023
As many as 14 wickets fell at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on an intense day where South Zone appeared to have taken the honours until they collapsed late in the day to even things up.Vidwath Kaverappa, the Karnataka fast bowler, picked up his third five-for as North Zone were bowled out for 198. Barring Prabhsimran Singh, who top-scored with 49, none of the other North batters capitalised against a quality attack.Related

• Duleep Trophy: Four good men, four great opportunities missed

Then Baltej Singh removed B Sai Sudharsan and R Samarth in quick succession as North hit back. As stumps loomed, South captain Hanuma Vihari, not a night watcher, strode out to take strike but he lasted all of four deliveries and was out to Harshit Rana. The rut didn’t end there; Ricky Bhui was out next ball. South ended on 63 for 4.Earlier, South’s decision to bowl seemed to pay off when North slipped to 18 for 3 inside the first hour. Prabhsimran and Ankit Kumar steadied the innings with a 79-run stand, the only period where they appeared to have had some control over proceedings. Ankit’s dismissal once again exposed a brittle lower middle order.The match marked a comeback into first-class cricket for Washington Sundar, who finished with 1 for 44. Playing in his first red-ball game after six months, Sundar who has been on a steady diet of white-ball games, mainly in the TNPL post his hamstring injury that limited his IPL participation, had the wicket of Rana, who made a breezy 31 at No. 9 to shore up the innings. Those runs could yet be very handy as North attempt a comeback against a seemingly strong batting line-up.Washington Sundar celebrates after picking a wicket•PTI

Atit Sheth’s 74, an innings of hard grind and flamboyance in equal measure, rescued West Zone on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy semi-final after their star-studded top order collapsed against a disciplined Central Zone attack in Alur.Sheth, the Baroda allrounder, came into bat at 65 for 5 shortly after lunch, and revived the innings, first briefly with Cheteshwar Pujara and then with Dharmendrasinh Jadeja. He added 45 with Pujara, who battled through for two hours in his trademark fashion before slashing a short ball to the slips on 28.Then West recovered as Sheth and Jadeja added 73 in under two hours to keep the scoreboard ticking. Sheth played some flowing drives in his knock of 129 deliveries in which he hit nine fours and a six.Easy on the eye, his footwork against spin was mighty impressive. His manner of countering Saurabh Kumar, fresh off a career-best 8 for 64 in the quarter-final last week, was a mark of his confidence. He seldom played against the turn, got to the pitch and picked lengths early to showcase his full range of shots.Jadeja was chancy, often sweeping against the turn but doing so effectively to throw the bowlers off gear for a brief while post tea. The partnership ended when offspinner Saransh Jain had him jabbing to silly mid-off.Earlier in the morning, West’s decision to bat first under overcast skies was a brave one. Central’s pace duo of Shivam Mavi and Avesh Khan kept Prithvi Shaw and Priyank Panchal honest. Shaw, known to be a quick starter, reined himself in and didn’t hit a boundary until after the first hour. He looked solid for much of his stay at the crease before a fresh catch sent him back for 26.Shaw punched Saurabh straight to silly point, where the ball got stuck in between Dhruv Jurel’s pads as he tried to take evasive action. He somehow managed to hold on to break a 43-run stand. Exactly an over later, Yash Thakur had Panchal out lbw to a delivery that nipped back in to hit him plumb in front.Suryakumar Yadav walked in and played a delightful flick to get up and running, but he ran out of luck early. After being reprieved in the slips, he was out chasing a wide delivery off the very next delivery as Mavi had a second wicket, with West slipping to 56 for 3. Sarfaraz Khan was next. After 11 tentative deliveries, he was out chopping on to a lifter from Mavi.Het Patel, picked as first- choice wicketkeeper over Harvik Desai, then came under scrutiny from Avesh Khan immediately after lunch. Two balls after being reprieved by a no-ball off which he drove loosely to the slips, he was bowled neck-and-crop playing down the wrong line. Avesh’s hard length and late inward movement had him play down the wrong line as he was bowled.From there on, it was Sheth’s rescue that ensured West crossed 200. Central’s bowlers briefly lost their plans against him, which resulted in Sheth profiting off a few reverse sweeps late in the day before he was Mavi’s fourth victim.Mavi and Thakur shouldered much of the fast bowling workload for Central mainly because Avesh spent much of the second and third session off the field as a precautionary measure following an on-field collision with Rinku Singh while attempting a catch.

Unbeaten knocks from Bismah Maroof and Ayesha Sameen went in vain after they had pushed Pakistan to a challenging total

Shashank Kishore12-Feb-2023Forty-one needed off 24.Jemimah Rodrigues had lost her timing briefly. Harmanpreet Kaur was nervously chewing her fingernails. Coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar was furiously writing notes in his diary. The Pakistani players could scent a famous win. This seemed like a contest like no other at Newlands in Cape Town.And then everything Pakistan did right until that point came crashing down. Confidence gave way to nerves, fielders fumbled, bowlers lost their lengths, and they leaked eight boundaries in the next three overs. And that was game, set and match to India.Richa Ghosh, the gum-chewing, big-hitting teenager who won the Under-19 World Cup last month, led the turnaround, coolly hitting medium pacer Aiman Anwer for three successive fours in the 18th over to bring it down to 14 off 12.At the other end, Rodrigues, who has held the batting line-up together, found her range. She pulled, swept and then fittingly hit the winning runs by backing away and carving a boundary through extra cover, which also brought up her half-century.Their unbroken 58-run stand, a perfect combination of aggression and touch play for the best part, leading India to their highest successful chase at the Women’s T20 World Cup.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Bismah Maroof leads the way

Bismah Maroof’s career strike rate over 122 T20I innings prior to Sunday stood at 90. When she walked out to bat in the second over, she was faced with the challenge of forcing the pace on a slow surface with a lot of grip. Manufacturing shots wasn’t easy as Javeria Khan had found out in her short stay before top-edging a sweep. And so, Maroof got her eye in by playing street-smart cricket, ensuring Pakistan kept scoring at least at a run a ball, until they got to a stage from where they could launch.That launch point seemed really far off at 43 for 3 in the eighth over, when Nida Dar, Pakistan’s best batter for the conditions, was bounced out by Pooja Vastrakar in what was a perfectly set-up dismissal. Every time Maroof tried to shift gears, Pakistan found a stumbling block. When Sidra Amin was out reverse sweeping in the 13th, Pakistan were in trouble at 68 for 4, and fast reaching a point of no return.

Ayesha Naseem gives India the jitters

Maroof now needed a partner to play the perfect foil, and she found one in Ayesha Naseem. All of 18, Naseem showed why she’s rated highlty. A game without half-measures and a penchant to hit the long ball have had several former players in awe. On Sunday, she played a knock that matched the grandeur of the occasion, and in doing so, briefly gave India the jitters. In throwing Renuka Singh off guard with 18 runs off the 16th over, she changed the complexion of the innings.And suddenly, here they were with Maroof nudging and caressing the ball into the gaps for her half-century, while Naseem backed away and muscled big hits for fun. Pakistan found their hitting range and scored 58 off the last five to post their highest total at a T20 World Cup, setting India 150 to win.

The top-order wobble without Smriti Mandhana

Opening in place of the injured Smriti Mandhana, Yastika Bhatia struggled for rhythm and timing despite going for shots. The outcome, though, was anything but effective as she was out for a 20-ball 17. Shafali Verma too wasn’t at her fluent best, streakily picking boundaries off thick edges and misfields. Shafali was kept quiet from overs seven to nine, and this increasingly led to her eventually trying for a release shot.When she stepped out to loft left-arm spinner Nashra Sandhu off the first ball of the 10th, it seemed destined to cross the ropes for most parts. Until Amin intercepted the ball with a superb leap sideways to pull off a stunning boundary catch at long-off. In the same over, Sandhu nearly had Rodrigues stumped. India were stuttering at 67 for 2 at the halfway mark, needing another 83 off the last 10.

The Ghosh-Rodrigues show

Harmanpreet allayed some nerves by hitting two boundaries in quick succession, but when she top-edged a swipe across the line to short third, India were in trouble. Sandhu’s second wicket capped off a terrific spell that read 4-0-15-2 had Pakistan on top with India needing 55 off 36. Then, Ghosh and Rodrigues combined like a dream, seemingly intent on taking the game deep, and in doing so, allowed Pakistan to make mistakes. At the first sign of it, they pounced on them and quickly turned the game on its head to seal a memorable win.

CSA is invoking both the WTC and the FTP agreement terms in search of points on the table, as well as financial compensation from CA

Firdose Moonda17-Feb-2021Cricket South Africa (CSA) has lodged a formal complaint with the ICC over Cricket Australia’s (CA) decision to indefinitely postpone next month’s three-Test series. Last week, CSA wrote to both the ICC and CA expressing its dissatisfaction at the tour being pushed back, also asking for means of redress after CA cited an “unacceptable” level of Covid-19 risk in South Africa as the reason for not travelling. But now, CSA has escalated the matter and asked for it to be heard at the ICC’s dispute-resolution council.In a letter sent by acting CEO Pholetsi Moseki, seen by ESPNcricinfo, CSA is invoking both the World Test Championship (WTC) and the FTP agreement terms in search of points on the WTC table, as well as financial compensation from CA. It has asked the ICC to look into whether CA’s cancellation amounts to acceptable or unacceptable non-compliance as per the WTC terms, bearing in mind that the series cannot be rescheduled before the end of the WTC window, which is April 30, 2021. It also wants the ICC to obtain a report on the health situation in South Africa to determine if Australia breached the terms by not travelling.Related

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• 'Time is right to walk into a new chapter' – Faf du Plessis retires from Test cricket

• Relations between CSA and CA 'strained', admits Graeme Smith

• Ireland to host South Africa for ODI, T20I series in July

According to the ICC’s FTP agreement, which has been in place since 2004, member countries are obliged to fulfil their fixtures unless there are circumstances which prevent them from doing so, including government instruction. In 2007, when the Australian government instructed their men’s team not to tour Zimbabwe on political grounds, the ICC adjudged that decision to be acceptable non-compliance. Similarly, in 2008, the ICC found that India’s decision not to tour Pakistan on government advice constituted acceptable non-compliance. Neither Australia nor India faced sanctions at that time.CA has maintained that its decision not to travel to South Africa on this occasion was made on “overwhelming” medical advice.Moseki cited a clause from WTC competition terms that calls for independent experts to determine whether the health risks are severe enough to prevent Australia from touring, and asked for those experts to come from within South Africa. “It would seem inappropriate to appoint a health and safety consultant outside of South Africa given that such an expert consultant would be unlikely to properly and accurately comprehend the Covid-19 related risks within South Africa and how they may be adequately managed,” Moseki wrote. “Given the nature of the pandemic, it will inevitably require location-specific advice.”South Africa has passed the second-wave peak of the coronavirus pandemic, and although the country remains on level-3 lockdown (with level-5 being the most strict) restrictions were eased on February 1, the day before Australia announced their decision to pull out. South Africa’s infection rate is falling, although it is still recording more than 1,000 positive cases of Covid-19 each day in the last few days compared to Australia, which is registering cases in single digits daily.

A round-up of the Under-19 World Cup games on February 1, 2020

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Feb-2020
ScorecardMatthew Patrick was at the centre of a very tense game, first picking up two wickets with his offspin to further a South Africa collapse and then scoring a vital 25 runs off 61 balls to see West Indies through to victory in the fifth-place play-off match in Potchefstroom.South Africa were rather well placed at 120 for 4 in the 29th over but then Patrick and left-arm spinner Ashmead Nedd (10-1-18-2) took control of the innings, triggering a collapse that resulted in the hosts losing six wickets for only 23 runs.With only 143 on the board, West Indies might have hoped for a straightforward finish but they ran straight into trouble, losing two wickets with only 11 runs on the board. Bryce Parsons and Merrick Brett turned five of their 19 overs into maidens and picked up four wickets between them as well to keep South Africa in the game, but Patrick, coming in at No. 6, absorbed all that pressure and made sure he stayed there while the winning runs were hit.Jonathan Figy plays a drive•ICC via Getty

ScorecardUdaybir Walia’s Player-of-the-Match performance helped Canada take 13th place with a win over UAE in the play-off at Potchefstroom. Walia came in at No. 8 and made an unbeaten 42 as he put together an unbroken 86-run stand with Harmanjeet Singh Bedi to rescue his team after they’d fallen to 93 for 6 in a chase of 175. Earlier in the day Walia, bowling for the first time in the tournament, took 3 for 16 to close UAE’s innings after medium-pacer Akhil Kumar and offspinner Gurjot Gosal shared five wickets to restrict UAE.A Aravind, Ansh Tandon and KP Meiyappan all got into the 20s for UAE around Alishan Sharafu, who came in at 70 for 4 and was unbeaten on 65 by the end of the innings after Canada had elected to field. In response, Canada lost wickets regularly, four of them to offspinner Rishabh Mukherjee, who finished the tournament with eight wickets in his last two matches. But little damage came from the other ends as Walia and Bedi saw Canada through.Ifeanyichukwu Uboh wheels away in celebration•ICC via Getty

ScorecardA five-wicket haul by Ifeanyichukwu Uboh helped Nigeria to their first win in the Under-19 World Cup, beating Japan by eight wickets. His efforts brought the opposition down from 81 for 3 to 115 all out which then set up opener Sulaimon Runsewe to score a half-century and close the game out with 164 balls to spare. Japan have not won any of their games in this tournament, nor put up a total above 120, but they looked good for it with Shu Noguchi doing his best to stick to the crease, but his wicket for 31 off 77 balls caused a seven-wicket collapse for only 34 runs.

While spotlight remains on Matheesha Pathirana, CSK bowling consultant Eric Simons credits “unsung heroes” Shardul Thakur and Tushar Deshpande for victory

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Apr-20241:35

Gavaskar on Hardik: ‘Ordinary bowling, ordinary captaincy’

Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai Indians captain, felt Matheesha Pathirana was the difference between the two sides on Sunday night as the heavyweight clash billed as the IPL’s “” ended in victory for Chennai Super Kings.Pathirana, who missed CSK’s last two games with a hamstring niggle, was a late inclusion. And he finished with figures of 4 for 28; this included the wickets of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in his very first over, the eighth of the innings, to put the skids on Mumbai after a 70-run opening stand.”Definitely it was gettable,” Hardik said of Mumbai’s 207-run target. “But I think they bowled pretty well, Pathirana was the difference. He came and got the wickets, at the same time they were also quite smart with their approach. They used the longer boundary well.Related

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• Ball-by-ball: Dhoni finishes off CSK innings in style

“It was about batting well and keeping our intent, which we did till Pathirana came in. We were on course to get the total, those couple of wickets [in his first over] we lost set us back. From there we were chasing the game.”CSK had a number of bowlers who used their slower variations well and bowled into the pitch to extract something off the deck in the face of some dew. Shardul Thakur was taken for 33 off his first three overs, but came back superbly in his final over to concede just two to deny a set Rohit Sharma and Hardik with Mumbai needing 77 off 36.Then Tushar Deshpande got into the act, dismissing Hardik by having him hole out to the longer boundary at deep midwicket. Soon, the equation turned into a daunting 72 off 24. Pathirana then came back for his final over to send back the big-hitting Romario Shepherd with a fuller ball that splayed his stumps.While it was natural for Pathirana to get the spotlight after his four-for, CSK bowling consultant Eric Simons felt Thakur and Deshpande turned the game. “The unsung heroes tonight were Tushar and Shardul,” Simons said at the post-match press conference. “Shardul bowled one of the best overs I have ever seen. At that stage they were looking at 12s-13s an over, the game’s very much in the balance. He bowls the over and it goes up at 14. The game turned there.”Matheesha will get a lot of accolades and he deserves it because of the way he bowled and the breakthroughs he gave us. But those two gentlemen did extremely well for us to push the rate out of reach out of MI.”Tushar is a very intelligent bowler. Our conversations are around his tactics, his understanding of conditions and oppositions. One of the things we try and do is make sure bowlers have clarity when they arrive at game and they know exactly what they have to do and also understand the tactics. So not just what the tactic is but also why it is like that. And he has a very clear understanding of the tactic and also why it is like that.”Hardik Pandya’s Mumbai Indians came out second best in the IPL’s “El Classico”•AFP via Getty Images

That CSK’s bowlers found themselves with 206 to defend was down to Shivam Dube’s 38-ball 66 and Dhoni’s cameo – including three sixes in the final over. For much of Dube’s innings, Hardik held his spinners back and preferred to go with pace into the wicket. Offspinner Mohammad Nabi bowled three overs for 19, while Shreyas Gopal, their legspinner, bowled just one over.”It was about what was best at that point,” Hardik said of his tactic to hold back his spinners. “In hindsight we can see how we could’ve used our spinners and done something different, but in the longer term I like to play with what I can work with, that’s percentage cricket. On that wicket, for seamers, it was much more difficult for him [Dube] to do what he did [to pacers] than to the spinners.”The defeat was Mumbai’s fourth in six games. It broke a sequence of two straight wins. Currently eighth on the table, they now get on the road for four away fixtures and are in need of a big second half to remain in contention for the playoffs.In looking for this, Hardik wants the team to keep it simple. “We just need to keep our intensity high, be smart about our plans,” he said. “If we can do that, we can get the goal we want.”

CA chief was blunt in stating that staff reductions at the central governing body were inevitable

Daniel Brettig29-May-2020A major round of redundancies at Cricket Australia appears only days away as its chief executive Kevin Roberts maintained his insistence on cutbacks. Roberts said so while outlining details of a home summer schedule that will feature more international fixtures than originally planned amid vastly improving financial forecasts.He said on Friday that CA was looking at a revenue shortfall of about A$80 million (US$ 53mn approx.) for the home season, an estimation that back in April was believed to be as high as A$230 million (US$ 153 mn approx.) in discussions with state associations. Such a rapidly shifting set of forecasts has maintained a strong sense of scepticism among the states and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) about the true state of the game’s finances and the cost-cutting prescribed as a result.While Roberts made it clear that CA did not wish to follow Victoria or Queensland in taking the axe to community cricket programmes around the country in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, he was blunt in stating that staff reductions at the central governing body were inevitable. A total of 146 employees have so far been made redundant across every state association apart from New South Wales. CA stood down around 200 staff on 20% of their usual salaries until June 30, while executives and remaining staff remained on 80% of their usual pay.ALSO READ: Queensland cuts take cricket job losses to 135Those cuts followed CA’s initial advice to the states that their annual distributions would have to be reduced by as much as 40% over two years, a figure subsequently argued down to 25% with in-built flexibility should revenue shortfall not be as significant as previously forecast. Even so, NSW and Queensland are still to agree to new funding deals, while Western Australia’s agreement with CA will not take effect unless they do.”We are focused on delivering the best season possible noting that the likelihood of significant crowds is very slim,” Roberts said. “Ordinarily that’ll deliver well over A$50 million revenue to CA. The T20 World Cup is a big question and that’s a factor of A$20 million. And you mentioned biosecurity plans, it’s likely that our biosecurity measures that we need to put into place to deliver our season will cost in the order of A$10 million.”We’ve made a commitment to significantly reduce the cost base of Cricket Australia. Unfortunately, that means that no area of the organisation will be untouched. It’s premature to talk about the details of those plans. That will come in the not-too-distant future. We are really focused on the activities that will drive positive cash flow for Australian cricket given the importance of CA generating revenue to support states and territories.”Once we’ve generated that revenue from the commercial activities, our highest priority in terms of where that revenue is invested in community cricket. So we are looking to minimising the reductions in community cricket.”Both the states and the ACA have complained that CA has been tardy or incomplete in providing financial information, something Roberts tried to justify while still talking about the governing body’s state association owners and player partners as though they were outsiders to the game’s decision-making.”What’s been reported is there’s unanswered questions. I guess what hasn’t been reported thus far is there’s been many workshops, exchanges of information packs, documents, emails, discussions, video meetings that have occurred,” Roberts said. “Many, many, questions answered. It is true there’s a couple of unanswered questions and it’s also true there’s a couple of questions that can’t be answered out of respect for the organisations involved.”So as an example we’ve still got over A$10 million in overdue debtors right now, but it wouldn’t be appropriate out of respect for those organisations that owe CA money for us to be talking about that publicly in reference to those organisations. We’ve certainly answered just about every question that’s come our way, there’s a couple that remain to be answered and we’re in the process of doing so, and there’s some that are of a more confidential nature.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Australia’s international schedule for next summer is actually going to provide more content for broadcasters than initially scheduled, with a limited overs tour by New Zealand in late January and early February replacing the equivalent matches that were cancelled this March due to the coronavirus pandemic. These matches would appear to now clash with the likely climax of the Big Bash League, which has been a source of much discussion around the desire of the broadcasters Fox Sports and Seven to give it greater prominence and better players.”We’ve got some exciting innovation that we’ll be announcing in due course around the BBL for next season. That runs from the start of the tournament to the finals series,” Roberts said. “Certainly, we’re focused on elevating the BBL series.”Speaking with David White (NZC chief executive), as recently as this week, we’ve expressed our commitment to work on various plans with NZ for the season ahead. We need to be flexible in that regard too because we can’t know exactly how this will play out. We’re very confident if the schedule does play out as announced, we’ll see a great NZ series and a fantastic BBL finals series as well.”Less promising are the prospects for scheduled matches in the north of Australia in August and October, including a series against Zimbabwe that looks almost certain to be postponed. “We take seriously our responsibility to get the game to the people all around Australia and we’re really excited about the possibility of going north to Townsville and up to the [Northern] Territory as well,” Roberts said.”Obviously there’s a high degree of uncertainty around the prospect of that happening, and there’s an even higher degree of uncertainty around the prospect of having fans at the matches, but regardless no doubt the local communities up north will be excited to welcome the teams to battle each other on the field, regardless of whether there can be fans at the match. We really hope those series can occur as planned. If they can’t then there’s the opportunity to postpone them and still ensure that we can take cricket to the likes of Townsville and Darwin.”

Tourists suffer top-order implosion, losing eight wickets in a session in final bat before first Test

ESPNcricinfo staff28-May-2022County Select XI 247 and 112 for 1 (Compton 56*, Ajaz 1-12) need 152 runs to beat New Zealanders 362 for 9 dec and 148 (Jamieson 36, Wagner 36, Porter 5-31)After four playing days of largely serene progress in their build-up towards the first Test, New Zealand were blindsided by the County Select XI at Chelmsford. Jamie Porter ripped out five top-order wickets to belatedly remind the England selectors of his prowess in seaming conditions, and despite recovering somewhat from a parlous position of 9 for 5, the tourists have a scrap on their hands if they are to avert defeat on day four.This second four-day friendly, after a rain-affected outing down in Hove, has allowed New Zealand to rotate their personnel with a view to getting playing time for as many of the party as possible. But Kane Williamson, the Test captain, managed a nine-ball duck in his only outing before next week’s encounter at Lord’s, while there were single-figure scores for Tom Latham, Will Young, Devon Conway (his second of the match), Tom Blundell and Colin de Grandhomme – all likely starters in the Test XI.The dismissal of de Grandhomme completed a five-for for Porter inside five overs, leaving New Zealand on 19 for 6. That anaemic scoreline had improved to 70 when the eighth wicket fell, but the County Select XI were still eyeing up a target below 200, only for some timely lower-order resistance from Neil Wagner and Kyle Jamieson to stave off complete collapse. A 63-run stand pushed the New Zealanders towards something defendable, before Worcestershire left-armer Ben Gibbon picked up both to complete an impressive outing.The New Zealanders’ second-innings 148 meant the County Select XI would need to score 264 for victory – more than they had managed collectively the first time around. But Ben Compton continued his prolific summer with an obdurate, unbeaten half-century and although Ajaz Patel removed Dom Sibley after an opening stand worth 88, the ECB’s scratch team will return needing 152 more with nine wickets in hand in the morning.There had been little to suggest that New Zealand were in for such a torrid morning examination when the unbeaten openers, Young and Latham, resumed the innings in bright sunshine, having played out a maiden from spinner Liam Patterson-White the previous evening. But Porter struck with his third, 12th, 16th and 18th balls to leave the visitors five down and not yet into double-figures.Young was the first to go, lbw for a three-ball duck playing no stroke to one nipping back in. Williamson, who joined up with the squad this week after leaving the IPL early to witness the birth of his second child in New Zealand, had spent some time in the field on Friday and now walked out in place of Conway in his customary berth at No. 3. But quickly heading in the opposite direction was his deputy, Latham, who thick-edged Gibbon’s sixth delivery to third slip.Ben Compton led the chase with an unbeaten half-century•Getty Images

Williamson has not played Test cricket since November, having experienced issues with a chronic elbow problem. Although he was fit enough to play for Sunrisers Hyderabad at the IPL, his returns were underwhelming, and he would have been hoping for a lengthy stay in the middle ahead of his comeback. Instead, Porter found extra lift from a length outside off stump to induce a startled prod to slip.With Conway, another recent arrival from India, also looking for a workout against the red ball after making 4 off 14 in the first innings, Porter struck again from round the wicket, rapping the left-hander on the pads. Two balls later, wicketkeeper Blundell propped forward to also be given out lbw – although he lingered for some time after the decision, with a strong suggestion that he had got an inside edge.At that stage Porter, who has seemingly drifted out of contention for a Test cap despite being called up to the England squad in 2018, had figures of 4 for 4 from three overs; and they improved still further when de Grandhomme defended the ball softly down into the turf, only for it bounce back and dislodge the bails.The New Zealanders finally got the scoreboard moving with the arrival of Tim Southee, who cracked five fours and a six during a 17-ball innings. He scored 34 out of the 37 added in partnership with Daryl Mitchell for the seventh wicket, before another belligerent slap down the ground off Patterson-White was intercepted by the diving Gibbon at long-on. Mitchell then became the eighth wicket to fall, providing a success for Jack Blatherwick, as his ungainly attempt to pull ended up in the hands of point.From there, Wagner and Jamieson dug in for 20 overs of respectable batting that took the innings into the afternoon session. Gibbon eventually trapped Wagner with a full delivery angled into the pads, before Jamieson’s attempt to thrash the ball into Hayes Close ended up in the hands of Porter at long-off. Wagner and Southee both then delivered ten overs, their first proper bowl before Lord’s, as the County Select XI made a good start in pursuit of victory; Sibley fell cutting at Ajaz but the spinner dropped Tom Haines off Wagner in the penultimate over to sum up New Zealand’s day.

India Test captain also bats for resumption of multi-day tournaments at the domestic level

Annesha Ghosh29-Sep-20213:31

Raj: Will be great if Tests become a regular feature in bilateral series

Two days of training is all India have had to familiarise themselves with the pink ball as their debut in day-night Test cricket beckons. On the eve of their first-ever pink-ball Test, starting Thursday against Australia on the Gold Coast, India captain Mithali Raj revealed her side first practised with the pink ball only on Tuesday.”The first training session that we had with the pink ball was yesterday,” Raj told reporters from India in an online interaction on Wednesday. “Yes, for everybody it was a little bit of a different experience because we are not so used to seeing a pink ball around. It does move quite a bit. That’s pretty much the first impression of playing with a pink ball.”Related

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ESPNcricinfo’s Stump Mic podcast had reported on Tuesday that India went into the multi-format Australia tour, where the standalone pink-ball Test is bookended by three-match ODI and T20I legs, without any practice sessions with the pink ball in the two-week preparatory camp held in Bengaluru in August.Though two intra-squad matches were held under lights at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, and the players took part in at least one evening training session that also involved fielding and catching drills, the pink ball did not make an appearance in the camp. The focus of the preparations at the time had largely been on white-ball cricket, the 50-over format in particular, given the 2022 ODI World Cup begins in under five months’ time.”We were preparing for the one-day series back home in the Bangalore camp, so it was more to do with the white ball,” Raj said. “Of course, we tried to play a few games under the lights to get used to the day-night Test and the one-off [day-night] game in the one-day series.”The preparation was more of the one-day format in the camp. Yeah, if we could have got a little more time between the last one-day [match] and the Test, it would have been quite helpful. But, again, I understand it was shortened because of Covid-19 protocols.”The pink-ball fixture against Australia is India’s second Test this year. They had drawn the standalone red-ball Test against England in June which followed the same points system as the ongoing series: four points for a win in the Test; two for a draw, and two points for each limited-overs victory. Prior to the England Test, India went nearly seven years without playing the format, and on the domestic circuit, their multi-day competition – the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal Three-Day Game – hasn’t been held since the 2018-19 season.Raj, who remains the side’s most experienced player in the format with 11 Test caps along with pace spearhead Jhulan Goswami, batted for the resumption of multi-day tournaments at the domestic level.”Clearly, if the girls are to do well in this format, they have to have some sort of match experience in the domestic circuit,” Raj said. “So, if this is going to be a regular [feature], probably, we will have another addition to a domestic calendar of playing [the] days’ format.”Heading into the Test, which will be played on a drop-in surface of Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium, India, on an unbeaten five-match streak in the longest format, trail the hosts 2-4 on points in the multi-format series. They had won only one of the three ODIs and will continue to miss their designated vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur through a thumb injury sustained prior to the ODIs.Though the final-over victory in the third ODI on Sunday swung a semblance of impetus India’s way, the proposition of facing the pink ball remains mostly an unknown for the visitors, unlike Australia, who played a pink-ball Ashes Test in 2017. Raj, for her part, acknowledged the challenge, saying India were yet to get the first-hand experience of “when it (the pink ball) gets older if it helps the seamers or the spinners”.She, however, emphasised that India were “taking confidence from the one-day” leg of the tour as far as picking up 20 wickets goes, having got “pretty much eight or nine wickets in the Australian side”. “I am confident, the girls are confident, the bowlers seem confident because they have really done a good job in the one-day format,” Raj said.The addition of a Test match on their away-from-home assignments against England and Australia this year has been an encouraging sign for India’s future in the format, Raj said. The prospect of playing on home conditions, she added, would be equally welcome.”Playing Tests at home would also be quite significant because we would have the advantage and the girls would also get the experience of playing a Test at home,” Raj said. “Most of the girls in the current squad have toured abroad, been part of the 2014 Test in England and the last Test in England, so I think most of them have played Test matches abroad, so it would be nice to have a Test even at home.”

New competition continues cricket’s attempts to rid itself of elitist tags, as revealed in ICEC report

Andrew Miller30-Jun-2025Lord’s is well on its way to proving it is not the “Augusta of cricket”, according to MCC’s chair Mark Nicholas, following the launch of a new nationwide T20 competition, the Knight-Stokes Cup, aimed specifically at state-school pupils.The tournament, named in honour of England’s former women’s captain Heather Knight and current men’s Test captain, Ben Stokes, is for Year 10 pupils (ages 13-14) with separate events for boys and girls. It will begin in April 2026 with a season-long qualifying process, followed by regional knockouts and a finals day at Lord’s in September.The initiative, spearheaded by another former England captain Michael Vaughan, is a continuation of the sport’s bid to rid itself of the “sexist, classist and elitist” tags that it received following a damning 2023 report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC).The creation of a “national Under-15 state school finals’ day for boys and girls” was one of the report’s specific recommendations, alongside a call for MCC to discontinue its hosting of the annual Eton-Harrow and Oxford-Cambridge fixtures – two of the longest-running annual sporting contests in the world.A decision on the future of those historic fixtures has since been deferred until 2028, but Nicholas insists that MCC has made, and will continue to make, significant strides in broadening the reach of cricket’s most famous venue.”We’re an open-hearted body,” Nicholas told ESPNcricinfo. In particular, he contrasted the club’s bid for greater inclusivity with the explicitly exclusive offering of Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, the home of the annual Masters tournament, and a venue that is renowned for its strict rules and entry criteria for members and patrons alike.”People who say, ‘oh, we’re the Augusta of cricket’, we’re not at all,” Nicholas added. “Augusta is a fabulous exclusive place. Its mystery comes from its exclusivity. We want Lord’s and MCC to be inclusive. The fact that children can come here is very important for the future of cricket, and very important for the future of MCC and Lord’s.”Children who attend private school are significantly more likely to play professional cricket than those in the state sector, with the ICEC report citing 2021 statistics that showed 58% of England players were privately educated, out of a nationwide figure of 7% of pupils.Various factors contribute to this, including the cost of equipment and the standard of playing facilities. However, as Nicholas pointed out, the private sector also acts as a conduit for the best young talent in the country, citing the example of Harry Brook, England’s white-ball captain, who attended Sedburgh School in Cumbria on a sports scholarship.”It’s not absolutely right to say that there’s no state-school players involved in the England team,” Nicholas said. “But state schools have other priorities, and it’s not easy to fit cricket into the curriculum, especially when there’s pressure on GCSEs in the summer term.”While the incentive for state-school pupils to play at Lord’s is a strong one, Vaughan also recognises the importance of role models in driving interest in cricket. Twenty years on from his role in captaining England to glory in the 2005 Ashes, he backs the current men’s and women’s teams to provide similar star billing to the sport.”We talk about 2005 all the time, and all the stories been told,” Vaughan said. “But the proudest bit is when people of that age come and say, ‘I got into cricket because of ’05’.”They might be 28, they might be 30-35, but they would have been at school, and not necessarily at independent schools either. It’s then that you know you’ve done something great.”[The current men’s and women’s teams] have also played a part in changing people’s lives, and that’s why this tournament’s so important. Because, yes, it’d be great to create a new Heather [Knight] and a new Ben [Stokes], but it’s not about that. It’s about creating fans and cricket lovers.”That’s why this has been created, to make sure that, for the first time, a state school is going to be represented at Lord’s next year, and that’ll be every year going forward.”Speaking ahead of the announcement, Knight said: “As someone who played cricket from a young age at my local state school and then here at Lord’s including in a World Cup final, I’m proud to have my name associated with this new competition which will inspire thousands of state-school children across the country and continue the vital work that cricket is doing to create more opportunities for children from state schools to play and access the talent pathway.”Stokes added: “Coming from a state school myself, when I was informed that they wanted to name this competition after me, it was a pretty easy ‘yes’. Playing at Lord’s is the pinnacle of any cricketer’s career and something I dreamed of when I played cricket at my school so to open up the opportunity for boys and girls to play here is fantastic. I can’t wait to see the competition get underway next year and start to see some of the incredible talent that’s out there in our state schools come through the system.”