All posts by csb10.top

West Indies 'not overwhelming favourites at T20 World Cup' – Roger Harper

by csb10.top Uncategorized

They may be defending champions but West Indies won’t be “overwhelming favourites” at the men’s T20 World Cup slated to be held in Australia in October-November according to chairman of selectors Roger Harper.In 2016, Darren Sammy’s West Indies became the first team to win two World T20 titles (they’d previously won in 2012). Over the last four years, their fortunes have plummeted; they’re currently ranked No. 10 in the format.”You have to be realistic here,” Harper told Trinidad-based radio station i9555 fm last week. “We are the defending champions, yes, but at the same time we are not the No. 1-ranked team in the world. That in itself says what has transpired since we won the last World Cup.”West Indies have a ray of hope, though, with new captain Kieron Pollard, who recently played in his 500th T20 game, joining hands with Dwayne Bravo – among the seniors to make a comeback – to chart a revival.Pollard took over the ODI and T20I captaincy from Jason Holder and Carlos Brathwaite respectively last September. As part of their plan to bring in experience to mentor youngsters, Bravo was brought out of retirement.”My memory doesn’t tell me exactly where we were ranked that time but the team [in 2016] we put out for that World Cup was filled with a lot of very experienced T20 specialists,” Harper said. “Now we have a little blend of a few experienced T20 players and some of the young guns coming through.”The rankings notwithstanding, Harper felt West Indies still remain a threat at the T20 World Cup, which is in considerable doubt due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the ICC and the event organisers remain optimistic, they aren’t in a hurry to make a definitive decision yet.”Don’t get me wrong, I still think we have a good chance of winning the tournament, but I don’t think we would be going into the tournament as overwhelming favourites,” Harper explained. “I think it’s a matter of getting what we think is our best squad, picking our best XI for each game, looking forward to them performing at their best and making smart decisions and winning the critical moments.”In their most-recent tour, just before cricket came to a grinding halt across the globe, West Indies endured mixed results against Sri Lanka. They lost the ODI series 3-0, but bounced back to register thumping wins in the two T20Is. Despite the results evening out, Harper saw some positives, especially in the batting department.”In terms of result, it fluctuated but one thing that has been relatively consistent is the way the team has batted,” he said. “[Of late] we have seen the consistency in batting with the white-ball team, both in 50-over and 20-over games. We identified that bowling at times wasn’t as sharp and as smart as it needed to be.”But with the inclusion of some of the older, wiser heads, we have seen some improvement there as well, especially at the end of the innings. I think generally we have seen some improvement and now it’s just a matter of turning those improvements into consistent, positive results.”Getty Images

Harper feels onus on islands to develop Test talentHarper also hoped to see West Indies becoming a better Test side, and for that, simply having a “scattering of world class players” wasn’t going to be enough.”[Domestic players] have to start thinking big and raise their standards,” he said. “Our players will have to stop thinking in terms of just trying to make it to the West Indies team and start thinking in terms of developing themselves into world-class players.”We need to have world-class players in the West Indies team. That’s how our cricket and our team will get to the top, if we have a number of world-class players in the team giving us world-class performances on a consistent basis.”If you are just making 30s, and the press is slamming that he deserves a strike… I would like my job to be that I don’t have to pick somebody. If you are making 30, we have a person who is making 31, then I have to decide which one to select.”But if you are averaging in the 60s or 70s, all I have to do is write your name down, you pick yourself. That’s what we have to encourage our players to do: think bigger, aim higher, think of putting in world-class performances and raise their standards to be match-winning world-class players.”What I have found is that at the U-19 level, we can compete with all the teams around the world but then a lot of those players from other teams make a huge jump from U-19 to the Test team and look completely mature and different.”We have to ensure our guys can make that leap as well. A lot of it has to do with their thinking and maturity in terms of cricket. We have to help them along by developing their mental skills and tactical awareness, and help them apply their skills better.”Harper felt it was also the responsibility of the islands to groom their young players instead of doing “buck-passing” to Cricket West Indies (CWI).”My belief is that West Indies stands on the skills of the territories,” he said. “The West Indies team comes from the territories, players will not fall from the sky. We always keep pointing at the West Indies board but I feel the territories have a serious responsibility as well to develop the world-class players. This is what was done in the past.”I think a lot of buck-passing has been done. We are very proud to say when a Brian Lara is breaking all those records that he is from Trinidad but when a player is not doing well, you say what the West Indies cricket board is doing. I think there is some inconsistency and we need to get back what we were doing in the past and take the responsibility of developing quality, world-class players.”

Cricket Australia spin chief: Sheffield Shield pitches, not the ball, need to change

by csb10.top Uncategorized

Australia’s leading spin bowling mentor, Craig Howard, has argued that the exit of the Dukes ball from Sheffield Shield matches cannot be the only fix if the game’s decision makers are serious about encouraging the use and development of spin bowlers in domestic ranks.Rather than focusing on the type of ball, as was the case with Cricket Australia’s announcement last week that the Kookaburra ball would be used in all domestic matches next summer after numerous seasons of the Dukes being used in the back half of the Shield competition, Howard told ESPNcricinfo that preparation of more spin-friendly pitches had to be considered in order to allow the likes of Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa, Lloyd Pope and new Victorian recruit Wil Parker to grow.While the durability of Nathan Lyon is not in question, there is a dearth of strongly performing spin bowlers behind him, particularly after the retirement of Steve O’Keefe from New South Wales. Howard said that CA should look to some of the more “creative” measures used elsewhere, notably by some counties in England, to encourage the use of spin in first-class matches. He echoed O’Keefe’s call for the practice of “scarifying” or raking surfaces on a good length for spin bowlers to make pitches more likely to turn early in games and break up later on.ALSO READ: The kings of the Dukes ball and how it wasn’t all bad for spin“I think the ball played its role in being able to develop other areas of the game, the batting component and also being able to bowl with it, but it’s more so that the wickets are playing a slightly larger role,” Howard said. “A lot of them probably don’t resemble too much of the Test wickets at the same venue, which I think is probably the thing that ideally would be looked at.”If you use Adelaide Oval as an example, from a frontline spin point of view, so that’s not including your guys picked to bat in the top six or seven to bowl a few handy part-time overs, we had just three overs out of every 100 were frontline spin. If you put that into context from a Test match point of view at Adelaide Oval, the last day Test match played there [against India in 2018] it was 41% of the overs bowled in that game were from spinners. There’s certainly some concerns there.”I know a few people have got some different ideas on how we go about it, and obviously it’s got to fit in line with the motivations of everyone. I don’t think they can go in and say ‘it’s all about spin so let’s just make spinning wickets’ because we want to have the ability to play against the swinging and seaming ball as well.”In England, the Taunton home of Somerset has become known as “Ciderabad” due to the preparation of pitches devised to aid the bowling of Jack Leach and Dom Bess, among others. While at times Somerset’s pitches have attracted criticism from opponents and disciplinary action from the ECB, it has undoubtedly aided the development of spin bowlers in terms of granting them a greater opportunity to be involved in matches – something seen far more often at Test level than in Shield fixtures in Australia.

ECB pitch regulations allow for “considerable turn from the protected area on the first or second playing days of the match” and then “excessive turn from the protected area on the third or fourth playing days of the match”, only penalising the host team in the event of the amount of spin being considered “excessive” early in the game. The overall philosophy of pitch regulations states that a surface should “be prepared to provide an even contest between bat and ball and should allow all disciplines in the game to flourish. In all cases, pitches will be judged on how they play, and not whether they are dry or what colour they are”.”I know county cricket have been innovative in some areas so I think that’s one thing that has helped bring on some spinners in their system,” Howard said. “We can keep challenging our batsmen’s ability to play the moving ball, but it also will provide the wicket with the opportunity to break up with less grass in those areas, it’ll allow for the wickets to break up later in games as well. That would provide a real challenge for batters to be able to survive it, but also a challenge for the bowlers to have to bowl sides out.”The toss is another area that has been discussed. Last season teams bowled first in 15 of the 27 Shield matches whereas in the last four years of Test matches in Australia only three sides have bowled first. “It is a bit of an indication of the length of grass and the greenness of the wickets as opposed to Test matches in Australia,” Howard said. “So it’s more so that the wickets in first-class cricket aren’t replicating what’s happening in Test match cricket.”

Howard, who is currently awaiting clarification over his role as CA’s spin consultant at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, acknowledged that there were cultural barriers to his suggestion in Australia, where the independence of groundsmen and the preparation of pristine surfaces – generally on the greener side in domestic matches – were something akin to articles of faith for the game down under. However, he is adamant the preponderance of drop-in surfaces and also a reduced amount of traffic on pitch squares over a season required a counterbalance.”From my point of view if we happen to over-scarify or something like that and a side gets bowled out for 150, that’s probably happening a little bit in Shield cricket at the moment normally through green wickets,” he said. “I just think anything we can provide that offers diverse conditions where players get to develop their games from a whole of game point of view, spin, quicks, medium pace, then I think it would be a better first-class system.”I think with a lot of the drop-in wickets because they can be quite placid, they tend to default to making them more lively, so putting more moisture into them to make them more challenging to get results. I think what that does is it means there’s a lot less deterioration in the wickets, being only four days, and then as the wicket improves the best batting conditions are day four and the game slows up at the back end. In an attempt to try to get results they tend to be going the other way, putting in the moisture and keeping longer grass on the wickets, which ultimately doesn’t really replicate what a Test match pitch does, and makes it difficult for spinners to be relevant.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The encouraging thing from Howard’s perspective is the knowledge that if a spin bowler does learn their craft effectively in Australia, they will likely have enough natural powers of spin to succeed elsewhere in more helpful conditions. Under the current Future Tours Programme, which may have to be redrawn due to Covid-19, Australia are due to have away series against Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India in 2022 plus there is this year’s Bangladesh tour to reschedule.”Australia is a very challenging place to bowl spin, as you can see by a lot of the spinners who come here from other countries and have done particularly well in Test cricket elsewhere,” Howard said. “Yasir Shah is a really good example, he comes here and struggles to get it off the straight a bit, because it is incredibly difficult to bowl. That’s why when we get a good one, they’re generally one of the best in the world at the time, because its high revolutions with high overspin which is not easy to do.”There’s obviously some areas they need to look at, because we’re going to need spin for quite a number of our games over the next period outside of Australia. If they’re only facing a handful of overs in first-class cricket in green conditions, how are we going to know the players who can actually play in tough, challenging conditions and create some defensive and attacking weapons as spinners and batsmen.”

Steve Bucknor: My 'mistake' in 2008 Sydney Test 'might have cost India the game'

by csb10.top Uncategorized

Steve Bucknor, in speaking about his career, has said that he made “two mistakes” during the controversial Australia-India Sydney Test in 2008, which made headlines for the “monkeygate” spat between Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh and the contentious umpiring decisions.In an interview with , Bucknor said: “I made two mistakes in the Sydney Test in 2008. Mistake one, which happened when India were doing well, allowed an Australian batsman to get a hundred. Mistake two, on day five, might have cost India the game. But still, they are two mistakes over five days. Was I the first umpire to make two mistakes in a Test? Still, those two mistakes seem to have haunted me.”India had reduced the hosts to 134 for 6 on the first day before an unbeaten 162 from Symonds and half-centuries from Brad Hogg and Brett Lee propelled Australia to a commanding 463. The first decision Bucknor refers to was when Symonds, on 30, edged a delivery from Ishant Sharma to MS Dhoni but Bucknor remained unmoved. Replays later showed Snicko had picked up the edge but there was no DRS at the time.The other decision Bucknor recalls probably refers to Rahul Dravid’s dismissal on the last day when India were set 333 to chase from a possible 72 overs. In the 34th over of the chase, with India fighting for a draw on 115 for 3, Bucknor ruled Dravid caught behind. Dravid’s bat was tucked behind his pad, and replays confirmed the ball had flicked Dravid’s front knee roll on the way. Michael Clarke later picked up the last three India wickets in five balls with about six minutes to spare, and Australia won the match and took a 2-0 series lead.”You need to know why mistakes are made,” Bucknor said. “You don’t want to make similar mistakes again. I am not giving excuses but there are times when the wind is blowing down the pitch and the sound travels with the wind. The commentators hear the nick from the stump mic but the umpires may not be sure. These are things spectators won’t know.”The episode became a blot on Bucknor’s otherwise celebrated record, as he was removed by the ICC from officiating in the third Australia-India Test in Perth.Looking back at happier times from his career, Bucknor recalled two World Cups, starting with 1992 when he had officiated only in a handful international matches but got to stand in the final. He would go on to officiate in four more consecutive finals until the 2007 edition.”I stood in only four Tests and three ODIs before that [1992 World Cup],” Bucknor recalled. “And I was the only umpire from the Caribbean at that World Cup. So I didn’t know if I was good enough to be there. During the tournament, I was told I was doing very well. The captains had good things to say. My aim was to be among the six umpires for the semi-finals. I would have been happy to even be a reserve umpire. I stood in the New Zealand versus Pakistan semi-final in Auckland. And after the match I was told, ‘Bucknor, you’re doing the final.'”I remember in 1996, West Indies versus Australia in the semi-final. I was in Delhi and I left my hotel room when Australia were 15 for 4. I went down to the lobby and told them to book my tickets to Jamaica. I then packed my bags and got ready to leave the next morning. That night, West Indies lost. I was sad because I wanted West Indies in the final. But personally, I was happy. Once the game was over, I was told, ‘Bucknor, first flight out to Pakistan for the final.'”The former umpire also explained his signature style of taking a long pause before declaring a batsman out. “I created replays in my mind,” he said. “Did the ball pitch outside leg? Was it high? Is it missing off? These are the questions I asked myself. I was criticised in my own country when I started out. One commentator said that if there is an appeal in the last over of the day, Bucknor’s finger will go up the next morning.”Bucknor retired in 2009 after officiating in 128 Tests and 181 ODIs; his Test record of umpiring in most matches was broken by Aleem Dar in December 2019.

Heather Knight 'pretty gutted' at 2021 Women's World Cup postponement

by csb10.top Uncategorized

England captain Heather Knight has admitted she feels “pretty gutted” about the ICC’s decision to postpone the Women’s World Cup from 2021 to 2022, and raised fears that boards will use it as “an excuse… to put women’s cricket on the back burner”.The ICC made the decision on Friday, citing the need to maintain the “integrity of the tournament” by ensuring that all teams had sufficient preparation.”We have taken the decision to move the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup to give players from every competing nation, the best opportunity to be ready for the world’s biggest stage and there is still a global qualifier to complete to decide the final three teams,” Manu Sawhney, the ICC’s chief executive, said.”Moving the event by 12 months gives all competing teams the chance to play a sufficient level of cricket ahead of both the qualification event and leading into a Cricket World Cup so the integrity of the tournament is maintained.”ALSO READ: Why the Women’s World Cup was postponedBut Knight expressed her fears that boards would not give sufficient attention to women’s cricket without a world tournament to prepare for. Alyssa Healy, the Australia wicketkeeper, also expressed her frustration at the decision, which she labelled “remarkable” in response to a tweet from journalist Scott Bailey comparing the number of Covid-19 cases in New Zealand and India. Knight’s England team were back in training this week ahead of their series against South Africa, which is due to start at the end of this month. It will be the first women’s international cricket to be played since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.

Jordan Thompson stars with bat and ball as Yorkshire close in

by csb10.top Uncategorized

Yorkshire are closing in on a resounding Bob Willis Trophy victory over Leicestershire at Emerald Headingley, but it will not be enough for them to reach the Lord’s final later this month.The White Rose county’s fate was sealed just before tea on day three when they failed to reach 400 in their first-innings reply to Leicestershire’s 124 – bowled out for 252. They needed to post 400 in order to give themselves a chance to reach 90 points in the North Group, a mark that is likely to secure a place at Lord’s.Leicestershire then closed on 78 for 5 from 26 second-innings overs (16 were lost at the end of the day to bad light), and victory here could still see the hosts top the North table. But the Lord’s finalists will be Essex from the South and either Worcestershire or Somerset, who are locked in battle at New Road, from the Central.Yorkshire’s bid for 400 and a 24-point haul was undermined by collapses at either end of their first innings in overcast and bowler-friendly conditions.They started day three on 36 for 2 and quickly slipped to 46 for 4 as Will Fraine and Tom Loten played loosely at left-arm quick Dieter Klein and were caught at mid-on and behind respectively. But Harry Brook, Jonny Tattersall and standout performer Jordan Thompson – he later claimed three wickets – all hit half-centuries and fashioned a recovery either side of lunch which raised hopes again.Brook, particularly fluent on the way to 53 – an on-drive against Ben Mike will not be forgotten in a hurry – shared 75 with Tattersall before lunch. Tattersall later added 116 with sixth-wicket partner Thompson, helping to secure a first batting point and taking them towards a second.However, when the previously wayward seamer Mike found his range and uprooted wicketkeeper Tattersall’s off-stump for 71, that left Yorkshire at 237 for 6 in the 65th over of their innings and sparked a damaging flurry of wickets.The hosts lost their last five for 15 runs in only 29 balls, with Thompson lbw for 62 as one of three wickets for offspinner Arron Lilley, who also removed Matthew Fisher and Duanne Olivier. When a diving Sam Evans brilliantly caught Ben Coad at point off Mike in the 69th over, that ended Yorkshire’s silverware hopes.Yorkshire can point to an encouraging campaign that has seen the emergence of young players such as allrounder Thompson, who posted his second half-century in five games and took his tally of wickets to 13. But they will want to strengthen that view with a third win – added to two draws – that should see them top the North given pre-game leaders Derbyshire’s struggles against Lancashire at Liverpool.And, after tea, they made the ideal start to Leicestershire’s second innings when Coad trapped Sam Evans lbw to leave the score at 4 for 1 in the third over.Thompson’s seamers then accounted for three wickets in as many overs as Leicestershire toppled to 47 for four in the 18th. Hassan Azad and Harry Dearden were both caught behind in the 14th, the former down leg-side, as the score fell to 35 for 3. Then, in the 18th, on-loan Essex batsman Rishi Patel was caught at cover by Jack Shutt.Fisher also struck to get Harry Swindells caught behind in the 22nd over. There was no play beyond 5.40pm, and Colin Ackermann and Lilley will begin day four on 23 and 10 respectively.Yorkshire’s players, meanwhile, wore black armbands following the death of director of cricket Martyn Moxon’s mother on Monday.

The Hundred: Northern Superchargers sign Hollie Armitage; retain Katie Levick, Adil Rashid, David Willey

by csb10.top Uncategorized

Northern Superchargers have retained Katie Levick, Adil Rashid, David Willey ahead of the Hundred’s belated launch in 2021, while England academy batting allrounder Hollie Armitage has become the first player to move teams in the women’s competition.The eight men’s teams in the ECB’s new 100-ball competition have until January to negotiate with players they wish to retain from the squad they selected in October 2019, while in the women’s tournament, players can opt to roll their contracts over to 2021 or negotiate with other teams if they wish to do so.ALSO READ: Bairstow seeks Hundred payday as Pope joins Welsh FireArmitage, who was contracted to the Oval Invincibles for the 2020 season before its postponement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was born in Huddersfield and played for the Leeds-based Diamonds side in the inaugural Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. She joins Lauren Winfield-Hill and legspinner Levick in the women’s squad.”I love being up North – there’s no better place to be playing cricket and I can’t wait to get started,” Armitage said. “There’s been a lot of publicity around the Hundred, and I think it will be great – both on and off the field. I expect the competition to be central to women’s cricket really taking off in this country.”Rashid and Willey were picked as the Superchargers’ local icon players in the men’s competition before the draft last year, and will join Ben Stokes in the squad.”With myself, Ben and David already confirmed we’re looking to build a really strong side for 2021 and hopefully we can have a successful first season,” Rashid said.

CSA board impasse likely to impact ICC chairman elections

by csb10.top Uncategorized

The ongoing impasse in Cricket South Africa’s administration could have global ramifications as voting for the ICC chairmanship gets underway. South Africa’s vote could prove crucial in the race between Greg Barclay and Imran Khwaja, but there is some uncertainty over who will vote from CSA and who they will vote for.Usually, each of the ICC’s Full Members cast their vote through their representative – usually the board president or chairman – but CSA does not have an elected board or president in place after the entire board stepped down last month. Instead, CSA has two bodies at an impasse, each claiming a position of authority and leaving it unclear who will represent CSA at the ICC.ALSO READ: CSA Members’ Council refuses to appoint new interim boardAs things stand on Thursday afternoon, CSA’s Members’ Council – the highest decision-making authority in the organisation made up of the 14 provincial presidents – is preparing to authorise their interim president, Rihan Richards, to vote at next week’s ICC meeting. Richards confirmed he is expecting to carry out the task, after consultations with the rest of the Members’ Council, and though he would not indicate which candidate he is backing, he said it will be the one that “will be in the best interests of South African cricket.”But Richards may not be the person who casts the vote, as the Members’ Council may face sanctions from South Africa’s sports minister Nathi Mthethwa, who had instructed them to work with the interim board. If that happens, and the interim board continues in its role, that interim board hopes to send one of its nine members to represent South Africa at the ICC. That member has not been selected yet and ESPNcricinfo understands that the interim board’s position would be to vote for Khwaja.The ICC chairman is selected by a secret ballot and needs a two-thirds majority to win the vote. The new chairman will be decided by winning 11 of the 16 votes (or 10 of 15 if CSA is not allowed to vote) in this election. If Cricket South Africa is being run by the government at the time of the vote, it could be that they will not be allowed a ballot.As things stand, CSA is not being run by a government-appointed body, with the Members’ Council insisting they will be involved in the selection of an interim board even though the current interim board is determined to continue in their role.

Angelo Mathews will 'absolutely' be bowling during Lanka Premier League

by csb10.top Uncategorized

Angelo Mathews will “absolutely” be bowling through the course of the Lanka Premier League, even if Andre Russell – the tournament’s star player and Mathews’ Colombo Kings teammate – will take it easy with the ball initially.Kings will play in the tournament opener against Kandy Tuskers on Thursday, and the team’s two high-profile seam-bowling allrounders appear key to the franchise’s fortunes, on first glance. Mathews had bowled during the West Indies tour of Sri Lanka in February and March but in the past few years has closely monitored his bowling workload as he faced repeated, lengthy injury layoffs.”We couldn’t play for eight months, but I worked hard to get to a certain standard fitness-wise,” Mathews said a day out from the first LPL match. “We also had a ten-day camp in Kandy with the national squad, and I bowled little by little there. I’m hoping to bowl in ODIs and T20s in future so that I can contribute to the team. I’ll be bowling in the LPL as well.”Russell, however, will have to be assessed before it is ascertained whether he will bowl, Mathews said. Russell had suffered a hamstring injury in mid-October, during the IPL, and though he returned to play a match on November 1, he had not bowled in that game.”He has finished his quarantine and he trained with us yesterday,” Mathews said. “We have another training today, so we will see how he is going before he decides whether he will bowl in the first match. But hopefully he will bowl at some point in the tournament.”LPL teams face a challenging schedule over the next three weeks, with two matches slated for most days, while teams will frequently be required to play on back-to-back days. Each team will play eight league games before the tournament moves into the knockouts – two semi-finals and a final are scheduled.”Although T20 is only 40 overs, it’s the fastest game in cricket, and you have to push yourself physically, so it will be difficult,” Mathews said. “But every team has double-headers, but we can’t make that an excuse. The Sri Lanka team also has a South Africa tour next month, so they couldn’t extend this tournament. We just have to be grateful that we are getting on the field at all after eight months.”Mathews also thanked the tournament organisers and medical personnel whose work has allowed the LPL to begin in the midst of a global pandemic. Every team has a doctor assigned, and all those working in the hotels and around the ground are required to wear personal protective equipment.”I think we should thank the Sri Lankan government, ministers, health authorities, SLC and the medical staff who have done an amazing job to get us on the field and get this tournament up and running with all these challenges. This is what we love doing, and even in the middle of Covid, we’re able to play. The [military] forces are doing a great job as well.”We just have to be careful because we’re in a bubble. There’s lots of attention to detail and testing is being done every three to five days.”

BJ Watling and Kyle Jamieson put New Zealand ahead

by csb10.top Uncategorized

The wicket of Shan Masood late in the evening ensured New Zealand remained the happier team at Mount Maunganui, but Pakistan put in a second impressive day on an improved batting pitch to ensure the hosts haven’t run away with the game just yet.Having bowled New Zealand out 11 overs after tea for 431, Pakistan were left needing to negotiate a tricky 20 overs before stumps, and they came close to getting through that period unscathed, only for Shan Masood to tickle Kyle Jamieson for a catch down leg side in the 16th over, having seen out 41 balls until then.

Watch cricket on ESPN+

New Zealand vs Pakistan is available in the US on ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ and tune in to the series

Masood had offered the only chance until that point, driving well in front of his body against a Tim Southee delivery that swung back less than he anticipated, and edging to third slip, where the substitute fielder Daryl Mitchell put down a tough low chance.That and the wicket ball apart, there were few alarms for Pakistan against New Zealand’s pace attack, with Abid Ali looking particularly impressive with his judgment outside off and his alertness to pounce on scoring opportunities. He ended the day batting on 19, with the nightwatchman Mohammad Abbas alongside.Apart from the visual evidence of the ball swinging and seaming far less than it had done on day one, there was numerical evidence to support the idea that the pitch was getting better to bat on. Where New Zealand’s batsmen achieved a control percentage of 76 through the first 20 overs of their innings, Pakistan’s top three went at 88.Rather than seam movement, the main threat from this pitch now seems to be the increased frequency of uncertain bounce – low bounce in particular – and sharp turn for the spinners. Yasir Shah picked up three wickets in New Zealand’s first innings, and he could become hugely influential if Pakistan can get close to New Zealand’s first-innings total. They’ll have to contend with Mitchell Santner’s left-arm spin before that, however, and the continued threat of New Zealand’s quicks – especially the effect of uncertain bounce on Neil Wagner’s short ball.Wagner bowled three overs before stumps, despite having suffered a painful blow to the toe from a Shaheen Afridi yorker while batting. Wagner is set to have his foot x-rayed after the day’s play, and New Zealand will hope it won’t reveal any major damage.That yorker from Shaheen followed another that burst through Wagner’s defences to bowl him, only for replays to show the bowler had overstepped. Wagner contributed 19 to a lower-order effort that stretched New Zealand’s total to 431 after Pakistan had reduced them to 317 for 6 at one stage.BJ Watling drives one towards point•Getty Images

Chief architects of the lower-order fight were the tiny-and-towering pair of BJ Watling and Jamieson, who added 66 for the seventh wicket in 22 overs to build on the efforts of the upper middle order, in particular Kane Williamson who completed his 23rd Test hundred earlier in the day.Their partnership, which spanned 22 overs, came to an end in the third over before tea, when Mohammad Abbas extracted bounce and an unusual amount of seam movement in the corridor to get Jamieson to nick off. It was one of a handful of deliveries that had moved as much all day, and it brought Abbas a much-deserved first wicket in his 29th over of the innings.Until then, Watling and Jamieson had looked mostly untroubled against all of Pakistan’s bowlers, save for a brief period early in the partnership when Yasir was engaged in a cat-and-mouse contest against Jamieson. The legspinner dared Jamieson to hit over the top with a series of loopy tempters – there were two towering sixes, but also a wild slog and miss – and wrong-footed him on a couple of occasions with his quicker skidder, with an inside edge saving the crease-bound batsman from a possible lbw on one occasion.Other than that, though, Jamieson showed the same gifts of technique and composure that had brought him scores of 44, 49, 51* and 20 in his four previous Test innings, and got into good positions to defend the faster bowlers in particular. At the other end, Watling was typically compact in defence while cashing in quickly whenever there was width on offer. He was also adept in getting off strike against Yasir, waiting for the line to drift either side of the stumps to get down on one knee and sweep.There were a couple of flowing drives too, most impressively an effortless straight punch off Faheem Ashraf that beat a diving mid-on to his left. He was finally dismissed for 73, getting cramped for room while trying to ramp a short ball over the slips, handing Afridi his fourth wicket.Abbas and Afridi began the day with a seven-over-old ball, but neither found any swing, and what seam movement there was was minimal.Their lines, as a result, were more defensive than on day one, wider outside off in an attempt to play on the batsmen’s patience. Neither of the overnight batsmen lacked that quality, and Williamson, on 94 overnight, waited until his 14th ball of the morning to add to his score.Kane Williamson acknowledges his home crowd after bringing up his 23rd Test hundred•AFP via Getty Images

Pakistan made their first bowling change in the eighth over of the morning, and that gave Williamson the opportunity to bring up his hundred, with Naseem Shah overpitching and allowing him to unfurl the most pleasing of drives to bisect extra-cover and mid-off. This was Williamson’s first Test hundred in his hometown, and having brought it up he immediately switched gears, having sussed out that there was little in the pitch to threaten him.He began driving balls that weren’t quite half-volleys, picking up two off-side fours in this manner off successive balls from Abbas, and then beat mid-off to his left with a back-foot punch off Naseem, finishing with left elbow high and both feet off the ground. Having taken 261 balls to bring up his hundred – his slowest in Test cricket – Williamson had scored 20 off his next 20.But Pakistan clawed their way back, with a bit of luck finally going their way with the dismissal of Henry Nicholls, after he had extended his overnight partnership with Williamson from 89 to 133. Pakistan had been trying to attack Nicholls with the short ball, and Naseem produced a loud caught-behind shout when he hurried the batsman through a hook from around the wicket. It was given out, perhaps because there seemed to be two noises, and Nicholls, after a lengthy consultation with his partner, declined to review, only for replays to show the ball had brushed both his forearms without hitting bat or glove.Then Pakistan brought on Yasir in the 18th over of the day, and he struck with his third ball, drawing Williamson forward with his flight, and finding the edge of his defensive bat with dip, turn and bounce. As with most Williamson edges, the ball barely carried, but Haris Sohail took a sharp one-handed catch diving to his right – it was referred upstairs by the on-field umpires, who made a soft signal of not-out, but replays showed that Sohail had got his fingers underneath the ball as he fell.Watling and Mitchell Santner then added 36 before Ashraf struck in the eighth over after lunch, getting him caught behind after preying on Santner’s tendency to play angled-bat shots to rising balls in the corridor.

Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds caught making derogatory remarks about Marnus Labuschagne

by csb10.top Uncategorized

One of Cricket Australia’s broadcast partners has been forced to apologise after Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds made derogatory remarks about Marnus Labuschagne.Warne and Symonds were preparing to commentate on Friday’s BBL match between Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renegades seemingly unaware that the feed was live on Kayo, the streaming arm of Fox Sports, with the start of play delayed due to the third Test match between Australia and India still taking place in Sydney.The conversation started plainly enough with Warne suggesting that Labuschagne should be brought on to bowl. However, Symonds then referred to “ADD”, presumed to be attention deficit disorder, in relation to Labuschagne, with Warne following up with a swipe at his mannerisms when he bats.The final part of the brief segment involved Symonds referring to giving Labuschagne “the hogpile” – a group of people jumping on each other.Warne: “Give Marnus a bowl.”Symonds: “Do something… that or his ADD.”Warne: “Jesus, it’s annoying. ‘No!!!’ [imitating Labuschagne batting] Just f***** bat properly.”Symonds: “You’ll have to give him the hogpile, ‘mate, if you keep that shit up, we’re gonna squash your guts out of your arse.”After the footage was posted on social media, Kayo tweeted: “Our stream started early and caught some unacceptable comments. On behalf of @kayosports and the commentary team, we unreservedly apologise.”Labuschagne is currently part of the Australian team in the ongoing Sydney Test.

Game
Register
Service
Bonus