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Joe Root battled through a cold to register an unbeaten century on his first day as England captain. It was an unyielding illustration of the drive he will bring to the job

George Dobell at Lord's06-Jul-2017At 5.45pm, Joe Root ran a three.He was 153 not out at the time and had been batting for the best part of five and a half hours.They weren’t even his runs. Moeen Ali had hit the ball – the harsh would say edged the ball – down to third man off Keshav Maharaj and looked happy to accept two.But Root is hungry. Greedy, even. He is desperate to revive the fortunes of this team – his team – and he pushed for that three as if this was the final over of a T20 game.It wasn’t perhaps the most eye-catching moment of this innings. It didn’t draw the applause of the back-foot drive in the final moments of the day that would have pleased any of the greats who have batted at this grand old ground; it wasn’t as dismissive as the flick through midwicket from off stump that told Theunis de Bruyn what he thought of his bowling; it wasn’t as authoritative as the lofted drive for six off Maharaj.But as a statement, as an example, it was perfect. Root doesn’t want his England team just to flash and flail; he wants them to have the hunger to run threes for one another late in the day. He doesn’t want them to be satisfied with a decent day. He wants them to win.As he put it, revealingly, at the close of play: “It’s a good start; but that’s all it is: a start.”We probably shouldn’t be surprised. He picked a team that might, in some ways, be considered mean. He might have gone for Adil Rashid as his spinner, but he reasoned that Rashid bowls too many four-balls and, with runs hard to come by at times in Test cricket, England couldn’t afford such profligacy. Instead he went for Liam Dawson, who will resent every single scored off him.Defensive? It depends how you define the word. Dawson won’t bowl many unplayable balls, but he’ll give away nothing and make life much harder for batsmen than England sometimes have of late. There’s an aggression of sorts in that.This was, in many ways, a golden day for Root. A day he’ll remember forever and a day he described as “a dream” afterwards.How could it have been bettered? On his first day as England captain, he won the toss at a full, sun-soaked Lord’s, he made his 12th Test century and, in front of his father, grandfather and son, registered the highest score made by an England skipper in his first innings in charge. It’s the stuff he would have imagined when playing in the garden as a boy. It doesn’t get any better.Joe Root was dropped in the gully on 16 by JP Duminy•Getty ImagesMore importantly, he earned his side a strong position. On a much-improved Lord’s surface – a surface offering the bowlers enough assistance to keep them (and spectators) interested even with an older ball – he rescued England from a precarious 76 for 4 to a situation where they plundered 175 from 35 overs in the final session. There is a lot of work ahead, but they’re in pole position here.And it’s all the more remarkable for the fact that Root was suffering from a cold. His voice was broken and husky after play – all those Churchillian speeches, he joked – and he admitted to waking “groggy” and wearing a jumper throughout a warm day. He actually wore three layers and took on fluids at every opportunity – as he “wanted to sweat the cold out”. He looked exhausted by stumps; though not so exhausted he couldn’t have run another three.”There was nothing going to stop me trying to enjoy the day,” he said. “It’s an amazing opportunity and privilege to be England captain. A little cold wasn’t going to get in the way.”If anything, it may have helped me concentrate out there. I knew I wasn’t 100 percent so needed to work really hard to get through it and make the most of the start I got.”None of this should mask the faults in England’s performance. They were, yet again, three-down dangerously early – the 23rd time in their 64 most recent Test innings they had lost their third wicket with the score on 55 or fewer – and they were four-down before lunch. Had the substitute fielder, Aiden Markram, been on the fence (as he surely should have been) when Root had 5 and top-edged a hook to long-leg, or JP Duminy, at gully, held on to a relatively simple chance offered by Root on 16, England “might have been bowled out for 200″ as Vernon Philander put it. While this was a day to celebrate and enjoy, no dispassionate analysis should ignore the fact that, to some extent, South Africa let England off the hook.Let’s imagine, too, the reaction had Root’s pull landed in the hands of Markram. England would have been 24 for 3 and England’s new captain might have been branded reckless. On such moments are matches, and sometimes careers, defined.As it was, nearly everything fell Root’s way. The match situation – by the time he came to the crease, less than half-an-hour from the start of play, England had lost both openers and the ball was nipping around devilishly – ruled out (almost) any chance of complacency and South Africa’s cricket was, at times, uncharacteristically shoddy.He admitted he had never previously been reprieved by a spinner bowling a no-ball (as he was here after an apparent stumping on 149) and that, when he top-edged that pull, he had started to walk back to the pavilion.”I was walking back,” he said. “I thought I’d hit it straight to him. And that [the no-ball] has never happened to me against a spinner. It’s a nice feeling to get that call back when you know you’ve made a glaring error.”But luck was on my side today. It could have been very different but when you do get lives in Test cricket you have to make the most of them. Getting dropped, chipping someone on the boundary and getting a reprieve as well… it all just sort of seemed to fall into place today.”It sure did. And it will have taken the pressure off Root for future innings. There will be no statistics about how long it has been since he has failed to register a century, or anything like that. Other England batsmen have started well – his three immediate predecessors, Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen, also recorded centuries in their first Tests as England captain – and that has been no guarantee of future success. But he can, to some extent at least, relax into the job now.”There was a little bit of relief,” he said. “You want to tick it off early. More than anything, I walked out to bat feeling the same as I have done previously for England. I was quite surprised how normal I felt when I got out there. I like to think it’s in my nature to go out and see the situation and play accordingly.”Most of all, he set an example for his team.”Early on as captain you want to try and set the example,” he said. “You’re trying to get messages across to the guys but you need to show them that you’re willing to do those things yourself.”It is very special. You obviously want to start well as captain and you want to set the example. You’ve been harping on at the lads about how you want them to approach their cricket and you want to make sure you go out and do exactly as you have been preaching about.”He sure did that.

Sixteen opening partners in the IPL for Parthiv Patel. Can you get all 16 right in this quiz using the clues?

ESPNcricinfo staff01-May-2016And then there was the 17th: Unmukt Chand is also one who’s been part of a partnership for the first wicket with Parthiv Patel, but he came on to bat after one of Parthiv’s partners (not giving out an answer) retired hurt.

Roger Harper remembers West Indies’ one-wicket defeat to Pakistan at the 1987 World Cup

Alagappan Muthu20-Feb-2015When you log in to Facebook from a new computer or a new country, you might be given a security check. The site asks you to prove you are who you say you are before granting access and one way to do that is by recognising your friends/adversaries/competitors from a set of pictures.The World Cup put West Indies through its version of that test and they are struggling to prove they are who they say they are.Kemar Roach just about picked out Scotland in the warm-ups but, in their first group game, a leprechaun disguising himself in a new fluorescent green outfit (minus the shamrock) confounded everyone. By the time Darren Sammy and Lendl Simmons got the hang of it, West Indies were locked out.So maybe it is good that they play a more familiar face on Saturday. They have met only one team more often than Pakistan in 50-over history (and that is Australia). More pertinently, West Indies have won 68 of those 128 matches against Pakistan and an even healthier six out of nine at World-Cups. As comforting as that is, Jason Holder and his men might be better motivated by pain and the urge to not feel it again.Perhaps they should remember 1987. Roger Harper sure does.Lahore. Imran Khan captaining in Imran Khan territory. The hosts were favourites. The visitors were a fading power, at least in one-day cricket. Partisan crowds. The World Cup like never before.The match see-sawed wildly. An Imran special to start. A Viv Richards counterattack for flavour. An Abdul Qadir six for kicks. A dash of controversy from Courtney Walsh and Saleem Jaffer. West Indies had only 216 to defend, but they did it like it was 116. Pakistan needed two runs off the final ball. Nails were torn off, nerves jangled but the noise never ceased.Two taken. A classic. And a heartbreak. Twenty-eight years later, Harper still retains that feeling of disappointment.”The team had just come back in the dressing room,” he said. “Some things were shared about the importance of the match and what it meant to our chances of progressing in the tournament. It was a World Cup and we had fought our way back into a winning position and then just fell short.”As it turned out, they could have made the semi-finals with one more victory; instead, England and Pakistan progressed from Group B.

“We felt that we had a competitive total, a defendable total. And it would have been had we taken our chances”Roger Harper

It might be jarring to inspect those wounds, but West Indies’ class of 2015 does mirror their seniors. Like Sunil Narine, Malcolm Marshall had pulled out of the tournament. Michael Holding and Joel Garner had run their last. It was a new side; a young side seeking to establish their identity and keep up with their history. The 15 men in Christchurch right now preparing to face Pakistan again might empathise with that.”We weren’t as good as we used to be,” Harper said. “But at the same time we had guys who had been around for a couple of years or so. I still thought we had enough talent. Youth was blended in with the experience of Richards, [Desmond] Haynes and [Jeffrey] Dujon. We were confident of getting the job done.”Pakistan were not lacking talent, either, all the way down to No. 7 Saleem Yousuf. It didn’t matter that he was facing Walsh with his tail up. It didn’t matter that he had walked in with his side 107 runs off their target. It didn’t matter that until then he had worn an ODI average of 14.45 with no fifties. It is understandable that West Indies felt “more in control”, according to Harper, but Yousuf’s 49-ball 56 began creating problems. They were compounded by a deafening home crowd and the noise only escalated when he was dropped.”We were looking to get close to 250. Though we fell short, we still felt that we had a competitive total; a defendable total,” Harper said. “And it would have been had we taken our chances. Yousuf was dropped at, I think it was long-on, off Walsh in the 48th over or something like that and it took Qadir in the end to get them through.”West Indies had squeezed out the ninth wicket in the penultimate over and 14 runs were still needed. Then Qadir defied his position at No. 9 by belting Walsh over the long-off boundary midway through the final over. Blood pumping, breath heaving, field closing in on him, Qadir sliced the final ball of the chase – an attempted yorker – to third man and raised his bat in glory even as he was completing that second run.A half-century for a helmet-less Phil Simmons on debut gained a bitter aftertaste; the way he had milked Qadir and took on Imran and Wasim Akram to very nearly match Richards’ strike rate became consolatory praise. Walsh received more press for choosing not to run out a rapidly backing-up Jaffer at the non-striker’s end as he pulled out from bowling the last ball, than for the spell that returned West Indies’ hopes. Four crucial wickets that cut through the middle order and nearly turned the game around. Nearly.

AB de Villiers’ latest Twenty20 onslaught shows he’s currently the most nerveless all-round hitter of a cricket ball around

Abhishek Purohit02-May-2013There are hitters. There are finishers. There are sloggers. And there are, as Brad Hodge says, “cultured sloggers,” such as AB de Villiers, who have taken Twenty20 batting to another level. After his latest assault on Ashok Dinda tonight, “surreal slogger” is more like it. It wasn’t the fact that de Villiers took 26 runs off the Dinda over. It was the ridiculous regularity with which he kept coming up with different strokes for different deliveries and kept executing them.Sample these. Very wide ball slog-swept over deep midwicket. Wide ball carted straight over the bowler. Short slower ball smashed flat over long-off. Full delivery reverse-swept to fine third man. Length ball scooped from outside off over short fine leg. Forget Dinda. Last IPL season, de Villiers did the same to Dale Steyn, the highlight being a near-yorker on middle stump lofted over extra cover for six.It is very well to say that T20 frees the batsman from the bother of having to guard his wicket and in a way, forces him to innovate with the pressing need to score more all the time. While that means a great bowler like Steyn can easily have an off day in the format, it does not explain the almost eerie calm with which de Villiers’ scoops a fast bowler over short fine leg.This is an incredibly difficult shot to execute, even without the fear that you can get out. And there is also the risk of injuring yourself badly. Brendon McCullum did it with success against the extreme pace of Shaun Tait in 2010, and has said he knew he could have had his jaw smashed, but went for it anyway., as he did not think he could have scored in front of square.For many batsmen, the scoop is an option to break free. Many bend their knees and go across with clear desperation in their eyes, hoping to connect and avoid getting hit. De Villiers tries this shot regularly, and he makes it appear as normal as if he were going for a cover drive. There is absolutely no desperation about him, neither in expression nor in movement.And then the reverse sweep to the fast bowler. The way he turned Dinda miles clear of short third man, he might as well have been glancing one off his pads past short fine leg. These are no longer innovations for de Villiers, or ploys to unsettle a bowler. They are as normal a part of his arsenal as orthodox cricketing shots, of which he has plenty as well.Chris Gayle bulldozes attacks with sheer presence and reach, but he has his hitting zones marked out. Kieron Pollard will go hard and straight. Bowlers can attempt to deny these batsmen what they prefer. How does one attempt to control de Villiers, whose range is 360 degrees?The first time he was involved in a one-over eliminator scenario, against Delhi Daredevils, he and Gayle took singles off the first three balls. De Villiers couldn’t connect with the fourth. No problem. He sent the last two over deep midwicket for six.The absence of the need to guard his wicket would have been of little help at that moment. It is a combination of extraordinary skill, pinpoint execution and unbelievable clarity of mind that enables de Villiers to get away with he does. He has got to be the most nerveless all-round hitter of a cricket ball at the moment.

Greg Dyer, the players’ association president, on the sort of changes needed in the board – at the state and national level

Interview by Daniel Brettig04-Dec-2011What are the major problems inherent in CA’s current structure?
The problems are really two-fold. One is the qualifications of the individuals on the board, the skill set – and that is not to denigrate any one of them. There are some very high-quality people on that CA board, but they’re not pre-qualified, there’s no skills list and set that they’re asked to live up to. So they’re not necessarily well-qualified to be running a modern corporate structure, which is basically a marketing company in many respects.The second problem is the lack of independence. Cricket Australia has a very substantial job to do, but it has come out of this historical anomaly, where effectively CA was tasked with running the international aspects of the game on behalf of the states. You could understand why that was set up as a model, where the states had representation, and the board was effectively an accumulation of the states, and CA simply did the states’ work. Now CA is running the game, basically, domestically as well as internationally, and taking a huge hand in the way in which the strategy of Australian cricket works. So you’ve got constant conflict between what CA wants to achieve versus what the states need to get out of it. There’s an inherent conflict of interest, which I’m sure they manage in the best way they can, but it inevitably means there is no singular purpose about CA – it is a set of compromises from the states’ agenda.Dyer’s proposed model for CA

Company form
CA becomes an incorporated association in structure with a membership of constituent organisations.
It has a number of agreed objectives which cover the full extent of its activities and enable it to manage the business of Australian cricket.
The constitution should define the general powers of the association and the separately defined (subset) powers of the board of directors.
Membership structure
State Associations have senior membership status; ditto the Australian Cricketers’ Association.
ACT and NT, umpires etc have associate membership status.
Senior members have two delegates each to an AGM, associate members have one delegate.
Voting
Voting rights for each member could be pro rata, based on the number of affiliated local or other constituent associations each member has, or in line with some other indicator, such as registered player numbers. Alternatively, a simpler model would allocate 10 votes for senior members, five for associates, or similar.
The members appoint a president by vote at the AGM (three-year terms). They may also want to appoint a patron (a significant public person) for a longer term, if required. The role of patron is entirely ceremonial.
Meetings
AGMs would be held to consider accounts, elect officers (board and president), and consider any other business as appropriate and within CA’s general powers.
A minimum number of, say, 30 votes could requisition a general meeting at another time to consider and vote on any matter within the association’s powers, but not overriding the board’s defined powers.
Board
Could have up to nine members. For example, with three directors up for election each year on a three year rotation.
Board chairman would be elected each year, after the AGM, by the nine directors.
Director candidate nominations can be provided by any member association, but nominees should be subject to the scrutiny of a selection panel before being eligible for election.
Selection panel for the board
Could be three: one Australian Institute of Directors representative, one outgoing existing board member, and the president.
Panel is required to adhere to particular agreed selection criteria, and to ensure that the board has an appropriate spread of knowledge and background, given the specific powers it must exercise under the constitution.
Candidates reviewed for skills, background and fit with the ongoing six board members to ensure that an appropriately rounded board will be elected.
If there are more than three qualified and approved candidates, an election is then conducted at the AGM, with voting recorded from all member associations.
Powers
The board’s powers are defined by the constitution, but include all the usual powers, such as the appointment and remuneration of the CEO and the delegation of authorities to the executive.
Development, approval and execution of a strategic plan covering short and long term goals.
Agreeing on the CEO’s key performance indicators (in line with the strategic plan) and then their regular review.
Approval of annual budgets and monitoring of results.
Doing all things necessary to ensure that CA is properly organised, staffed and run so as to successfully implement the strategic plan.
Strategic plan
The draft updated strategic plan must be provided to all members annually for comment and input prior to its re-adoption by the board. Ultimately, however, the plan is the board’s responsibility.
The document should address all the main areas of CA’s objectives (as defined by the constitution).
Board meetings would then receive reports from the executive to cover the areas of its delegated authority and the achievement of the strategic plan’s goals and objectives.

Should the new structure be broader-based, in terms of the skills of directors – chosen for their ability to chart the path of the company rather than to protect the interests of their home state?
In the corporate world we seek to put together groups of people who have broad skills that run right across the gamut of the company’s operation. So you have the HR specialists, the legal guys, the marketing guys – people with the industry skill set and knowledge. You’ll have people who’ve played the game, because that is important too, but it is in a broad base of skills which matches what the organisation needs to achieve. So you’ve got this well-rounded group of individuals who are put together for the task at hand… that is basically my premise. We need to put together a group of people who have the right skills to do the job that is required, rather than a group representative of state associations, who have to do the bidding on behalf of their state to make sure they get their share.The state associations will pick their delegates, logically, if they have any common sense at all in the current system, to best represent their own interests on the national board. That’s their job, so that almost means they’re by definition the wrong person. You can’t blame the state associations, because they are entirely beholden to CA these days for their financial and developmental areas, and their result at the end of the year is basically dependent on CA largesse. There are inherent conflicts between what is good for CA and what is good for state A or state B.The handing down of the governance review is imminent. Do you expect the states to recognise the need for change, or will there be a drawn-out struggle to relieve them of their current power?
I really hope not. I hope the report from Colin Carter and David Crawford gets made completely public. I hope it gets laid on the table for everybody to read. I’m not sure they’ll come up with a model which looks exactly like mine, but I suspect it won’t look terribly different because that is the only logical way you can set an organisation up for success.Having put it on the table, then they have to talk about it, decide at CA level which recommendations they’re going to go forward with, and then it has to go back in to the states for a decision, because at the moment they’re the stakeholders, the guys who hold the power. It is such an amazing opportunity, and if they miss it, it’ll put cricket back another five years.Urgency about this issue seems to be evident at CA, but how confident are you that the view is shared widely enough for change to take place?
I haven’t spoken to all the participants, but I have spoken to some and they do recognise the need for change. All power to CA for bringing this on. James Sutherland is to be applauded for having the guts to do something like this, because it is pretty far-reaching. But I think the executive at CA are probably just as frustrated by the situation as anybody else. I think they don’t get the direction that they need. They’re constantly looking to play the politics of compromise between the states and CA’s objectives, and the model I’m talking about – and hopefully that is recommended – can give them much better clarity around their purpose and their objectives over the next five years or more. The executive, leaving aside the board and the state boards, is probably sitting there hoping they achieve some real change.Where do the players and their rights sit in this debate?
Historically there has been a sort of us-and-them mentality. Cricket administrators have known what’s best, if you like. But today the players are the administrators’ best asset, so they need to be working with them. They need to be trying to improve the quality and the value of those assets, and you only do that by working with them, rather than feeling like it is an us-versus-them kind of mentality. The whole structure needs to change in order to improve that relationship with the players.Change at board level would continue an important year of regeneration and even revolution around the national team.
There’s a mood for change, but in some respects it is back to the future – they’re doing some basic things again that they’d forgotten about, and it is great. A bloke like John Inverarity is old guard, old-school, almost by definition, and I think it is a really good thing they’re returning to some of those values and putting teams of people together who are likely to succeed.The ICC is also undergoing a governance review. Do you think that change in Australia could be a catalyst for similar movement on a global level?
I’m not sure that of itself change in Australia will produce change at the international level, but one thing is for sure, if we fail to take this opportunity in Australia, it is much less likely we’ll achieve change at the international level down the track. One of the objectives of CA should be to try to achieve change at the ICC level, but that won’t be achieved overnight. They’re going to have to work the politics and be a little less naïve in the way they do do that, than they’ve been in the past.

How India’s ‘Fab Four’ handled spin was always going to be a central focus of this match, and of the series

Jamie Alter in Colombo25-Jul-2008

How India’s ‘Fab Four’ handled spin was always going to be a central focus of this match, and of the series. The assumption was that Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman would prove a sterner test for Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan than the likes of Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa, whom Mendis outsmarted in the Asia Cup. What unfolded at the SSC was a poor batting display, put into motion by Virender Sehwag’s ungainly dismissal and culminating in Dinesh Karthik’s ill-advised slog-sweep back into Muralitharan’s hands.While he got only one wicket, Mendis, on debut, provided plenty of worries to the Fab Four. He took away the batsmen’s focus from Muralitharan, who then laughed all the way home. Mendis was entrusted with the ball after ten overs and a few full tosses were duly put away by Gautam Gambhir. With the last ball before tea, he beat Dravid with a legbreak, but it wasn’t enough for his first Test wicket. After the break, Mendis, like Monty Panesar before him, had an Indian legend as his first Test victim. It came with the flick of the finger, the carrom ball. Dravid was beaten clean and square by a ball which landed on middle stump and hurried past an uncertain back-foot prod, disturbing the off stump. Mahela Jayawardene was the first to run to Mendis, embracing him in a bear hug and beaming ever so proudly. The look on Dravid’s face said it all.When asked if the hype surrounding Mendis going into the Test was justified, Jayawardene had put it back to the media, saying it came from them. Is it too early to usher him into Test cricket, was the question on the eve of this Test. On the evidence of his performance today, and more so the way he withdrew the focus from Murali, the answer is a firm no. Today provided a mere glimpse of where Sri Lankan spin is heading.India’s capitulation to 159 for 6 continued the larger theme of their best displays being outside the subcontinent. Batting could never have been easier than on this dodo-eyed track but the introduction of two unconventional spinners – one the highest Test wicket-taker and the other on debut – changed the equation.Murali’s first strike was classical sucker-punch stuff, Gambhir forced into chipping a leading edge to short cover. Murali burst to life to celebrate his 150th wicket at the SSC and soon trained his attention towards the new batsman. Tendulkar was 172 short of Brian Lara’s record 11,953 runs in Tests, but that was immaterial.A riveting battle began between the two spinners and Tendulkar, offering fans a treat. It was a battle of wits mostly between Murali and Tendulkar. Concentration writ across his brow, his feet moving back to Murali, and forward to Mendis’ wrist-spin from around the stumps, Tendulkar’s device was attack.

He was beaten on the seventh delivery he faced from Mendis, attempting to flick the ball across the line but only getting a leading edge to the off side. He was firm on attacking, using his feet to caress Murali through mid-on and slog-sweeping Mendis from off stump to deep midwicket. From then on Tendulkar mostly opted to play Murali by going back. So far back, in fact, that he was almost onto his stumps. Alas, the contest was over before it could truly blossom. Murali slipped in a doosra from around the stumps, it turned across from middle and leg, and Tendulkar’s uncertainty resulted in an inside edge onto the stumps. A contest that had promised a lot more ended abrubtly.Blood scented, Murali bustled in, round-arm, wide-eyed, and bowled delivery after delivery of testing spin. Wilting under the pressure, Ganguly and Karthik played panic shots. Ironic, for perhaps they were so puzzled by Mendis that they took chances against Murali. Ganguly puttered along to 23 before a needless attempt at a sweep was gobbled up. With VVS Laxman showing laudable application, all Karthik had to do was see out the ten-odd overs till stumps. Instead his comeback innings was over before it began, a silly swipe going nowhere but into Murali’s hands.Sri Lanka’s spinners were far more successful than India’s on a track that allowed Sri Lanka to post 600. And the pressure told. To look back at the last time India were under immense pressure from spin, you would have to pick out Murali’s one-man show in Delhi or in Bangalore a few months before that when the unlikely duo of Arshad Khan and Shahid Afridi spun Pakistan to a famous win.Gary Kirsten, India’s coach, blamed India’s predicament on poor batting, and three of India’s shots were indeed damning. The first-day rain, the four Sri Lankan hundreds, the umpiring review, all faded into the background as Murali and Mendis spun a web around India. The series has sparked into life.

An exemplary fielding performance and a perfectly executed 19th over help Australia eke out a narrow win

Valkerie Baynes24-Feb-20232:45

Baynes: Australia’s death bowling the difference

India needed 18 runs off nine balls when Ellyse Perry sprinted to her right from deep-backward square leg, threw herself into the air and flicked the ball back before tumbling over the boundary rope to save two runs. That moment epitomised what makes Australia tick. Every piece of effort is given at 100% and forms part of the whole juggernaut, which even when pushed by India in the T20 World Cup semi-final prevails by five runs.At the time, left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen – who hadn’t played since their opening match as Australia opted for legspinner Alana King for the next three games – was in the middle of executing the perfect 19th over, conceding just four runs when India needed 20 from 12 balls, and pegging Sneh Rana’s leg stump back with the last ball.With India left to get 16 off the last over, the eventual Player of the Match Ashleigh Gardner gave away only ten and claimed her second wicket as Perry again held her nerve and settled under a skier, by Radha Yadav, at long-on to allow Australia to snatch a berth in their seventh successive T20 World Cup final.Related

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Harmanpreet rues luck, missed chances after semi-final exit

After the win, Gardner said the victory ranked “pretty high” on Australia’s unmatched list of triumphs.”I think at the ten-over mark in India’s batting innings, everyone had probably written us off, but I think that just shows our character within our side and that’s why the best teams win in those types of positions,” she said.”What we speak about is when our backs are up against the wall, we always try and find a way, and today we probably had no right to win at one point there. They were cruising and then we found a way to get some wickets and ultimately came out on top.”It was similar to last year’s Commonwealth Games gold-medal match, which Australia had won by nine runs. That, combined with Thursday’s performance at Newlands, suggests the gap might be closing somewhat compared to the 85-run thumping they had dished out to India in the final of the T20 World Cup back in 2020.India, on the other hand, squandered their chances with crucial drops of Beth Mooney and Meg Lanning, Australia’s two biggest run-scorers on this occasion, as well as leaking runs through numerous misfields and overthrows.”We showed our class today in the field and we always speak about as a group being the best fielding team in the world, and I think today really showed that,” Gardner said. “Ellyse Perry was elite on the boundary. Whether it’s dropped catches, [or] missed opportunities in the field, those ultimately add up to quite a lot of runs and I think we took those moments when we really needed to.Player-of-the-Match Gardner contributed 31 off 18 balls with the bat and followed that with two wickets•ICC/Getty Images

“I certainly think Pez is probably the blueprint for our side going forward – certainly on the boundary. At the end of the day, that could have been the difference between us and them.”Gardner, who had also contributed an excellent 31 off 18 balls with the bat, revealed it was no accident that Australia are so strong in the field.”We have KPIs and there are markers that show us whether we’re positive or negative in the field,” she said. “So there’s a pretty clear indication of how we’ve fielded. We just know how to push each other. In our training sessions, there are always really high-pressure situations, and as athletes, we all push each other – whether it’s on the field or off the field, whether it’s in the gym, running.”That’s something we really pride ourselves on is being fit, being strong, and ultimately that’s one of the things that has an impact in the field.”India captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who overcame illness to put her side in a winning position before being run out when her bat got stuck in the pitch, acknowledged that the difference in fielding was the key.”The Australian side, they always field very well; and from our side, we made some mistakes,” Harmanpreet said. “But again, we have to just learn [from] whatever mistakes we have made. But obviously, the Australian side is better than us. They always field well, and today also, after I got out, their body language completely changed. The way they stopped two-three boundaries, that also made a huge difference.”Jemimah Rodrigues, India’s second-highest run-scorer on the day, agreed: “When you lose, you always find a lot of reasons. You can blame anything… but yeah, that is one aspect. As an Indian team, we know that we need to improve our fielding and our running between wickets. Today the running between was really good but I think there’s so much to learn from.”Gardner, Jonassen and Mooney all said that competing under pressure in franchise tournaments such as their own WBBL and England’s much-newer Hundred had contributed to Australia’s strength, which is encouraging for India ahead of their inaugural WPL season, which starts next month.”It probably comes back to the exposure of those sorts of situations,” Jonassen said. “Having such a quality domestic set-up, having the WBBL, having some of the best international players coming over every year – that plays a significant part. Then we’re almost primed for those same situations on the international stage.”We’ve had a few young players making debuts in different formats this season as well that have come from those competitions, and we’re always looking to try and improve, and try and push each other to that next level and try and get the most out of each and every person because ultimately we know if we can gain an extra one or two percent individually, then the team’s collectively going to be better off.”And such is Australia’s depth that Jonassen jokingly revealed her disbelief when head coach Shelley Nitschke told her after training on match eve that she was back in the side.”I had to get her to repeat it because I had walked about ten laps after training yesterday, sort of getting my head around how I would mentally deal with if I missed out again,” Jonassen said. “I’ve got my partner and my mum who have flown over, so I was pretty disappointed up until today that I wasn’t able to play a game in front of them. Hopefully one more and it’s another successful one.”One more will mean a contest for the trophy against either hosts South Africa or England. Besides India at this World Cup, only England have looked capable of threatening Australia. Whoever it is will need to do more than just threaten, as India found out.

The new La Liga season has started in a disappointing fashion for Atletico Madrid, with Diego Simeone admitting he got things wrong.

Simeone admits tactical errors contributed to Atletico's opening defeatLost to EspanyolSimeone believes the loss will be a "learning experience" for himFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Simeone has admitted he made a tactical mistake in his side's 2-1 defeat to Espanyol on the opening day of the La Liga season. According to a report from Diario AS, Simeone reflected on his decision to substitute key players such as Thiago Almada, Alex Baena and Julian Alvarez, which he now believes was an error. The substitutions came with the score at 1-0 and 1-1, and Espanyol went on to score two second-half goals to secure the win.

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The defeat at the RCDE Stadium is a disappointing start to the 2025-26 campaign for Atletico, who have struggled on the road and failed to capitalise on a strong transfer window. Despite a number of new signings, including Giacomo Raspadori, Thiago Almada, Matteo Ruggeri, Marc Pubill, and Santiago Mourino, their familiar vulnerabilities reappeared. The loss marks the first time an Atletico side under Simeone has lost its opening league match.

WHAT SIMEONE SAID

Speaking after the match, Simeone said: "We lost the game, first of all. The result hurts us. But I, starting the season, need to hold on to the very good things that were seen. We need to be more efficient, we had Julian’s chance that could have been a goal after a good play by the team. Football is wonderful, they had that set piece and it was 1-1 and then 2-1 and we end up with zero points." On his substitutions, he added: "I think this has been a learning experience for myself. There is a learning for me, you’ll see."

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AFPWHAT NEXT FOR ATLETICO MADRID?

Atletico will aim to bounce back from this opening-day defeat when they host Elche in their first home fixture of the season on Saturday, August 23. The team will be keen to get their campaign on track at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano stadium. The match against Elche will be followed by a trip to Deportivo Alaves on August 30.

A comprehensive all-round performance helped Pakistan clinch the low-scoring encounter

Danyal Rasool02-May-2024

Pakistan secured their first win of the tour, beating West Indies by eight wickets after a comprehensive all-round performance. It came thanks to a clinical all-round performance after the visitors won the toss and batted first, with Sadia Iqbal and Nida Dar taking three wickets each to skittle West Indies out for 84. There were no real jitters in the chase despite the manner of Pakistan’s defeat in the third T20I, and, spearheaded by Ayesha Zafar, they eased to victory with 21 balls to spare.A day after Pakistan named a near-unchanged squad for the upcoming tour of England, the players repaid that faith with what was by far the most impressive performance of the tour. Despite the series having slipped out of Pakistan’s reach, they began with a sharpness and urgency that belied how little was truly on the line.Qina Joseph was caught out of her crease off Iqbal and stumped first ball to set the tone. But it was the wicket of Hayley Matthews, West Indies’ talismanic captain and the outstanding performer of the series, that gave Pakistan true belief. After an uncharacteristic struggle, she was caught off Fatima Sana’s bowling after managing just a run in nine balls.Shemaine Campbelle was the only batter who scored runs and pushed the run rate up but was run out at an inopportune time after a 20-ball 26. The dismissal opened the floodgates as Pakistan took complete control thereafter, with four wickets falling for as many runs towards the death overs as West Indies stuttered along to 84 for 9.Pakistan had made hard work of an eminently gettable target late on in the third T20I, but there appeared no such danger today right from the outset. A breezy cameo from Sidra Ameen set the tone early, and when she and Muneeba Ali fell in quick succession, Zafar and Gull Feroza took complete control. Zafar in particular was in great touch finding the gaps and the occasional boundary to keep the score ticking over. Some sloppiness leaked into West Indies’ game as two relatively simple catches were put down off Matthews’ bowling, but in truth, the game was a foregone conclusion by then.Appropriately, the game ended with one of the shots of the day from Zafar, who lofted a half-volley over mid-on for an elegant boundary to make the win official.

David Warner, who has signed up at the ILT20, is set to feature in both series, while Tim David could play too

Alex Malcolm20-Jan-2024

A lighter-than-expected workload for Australia’s three-format fast bowlers across the Test summer so far could allow the selectors to pick them for one or both of the upcoming T20I series against West Indies and New Zealand, which are the only six T20Is Australia play before the T20 World Cup in June.Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc have got through four Tests unscathed so far, with none of the four home matches reaching a fifth day. Neither has had to bowl more than 38 overs in a game, and Cummins is the only one who has bowled 20 overs in an innings more than once; but he has only done it twice in eight innings across the summer.All three are being rested from the ODIs against West Indies in early February, and it seemed likely they would be rested from the T20Is too. But given how their workloads have unfolded across the summer, there may be an opportunity to play one or both of those series, with the selectors meeting on Monday to finalise those squads.Related

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“We’ll give some thought to that,” Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’ll be some that may play, and there’ll be some that might not play. It’ll be different squads [for each series]. We’ll look to potentially be at full strength for the New Zealand series.”We’ve got six games before the World Cup. A lot of the World Cup planning is in place at the moment. We’ll try to be as close to full strength for the New Zealand series as possible. The West Indies series is slightly nuanced.”There were concerns over how all three would come out of the ODI World Cup into the Test summer, but those fears have disappeared as they are in great shape and keen to play all seven Tests this season, including two against New Zealand in early March.Australia’s selectors are wary of the workload that both Cummins and Starc will have at the IPL as big-money signings, meaning they could be rested from the West Indies series before only playing part of the New Zealand series. However, Hazlewood would be the likeliest of the three to play both T20I series, given he is not going to play in the IPL unless an opportunity arises to be a replacement player.None of the three played any of Australia’s eight T20Is last year, as they were all rested in order to be fit for Test assignments and the ODI World Cup. Australia even defied the odds to win a T20 World Cup in the UAE in 2021 and an ODI World Cup in India in 2023 with an attack comprising Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc and only one specialist spinner in Adam Zampa. Glenn Maxwell was the second spinner and first-choice fifth bowler, with other overs being provided by allrounders.It appears as if Australia will back the same structure in for the T20 World Cup on the slower pitches in the West Indies, with Australia not scheduled to play any matches in the US.David Warner is set to return from the ILT20 for Australia duty•AFP/Getty Images

David Warner to play both seriesMcDonald confirmed that David Warner would be selected for both the West Indies and New Zealand T20Is, and will be required to leave the ILT20 to return to Australia by February 7. Tim David is in the same boat, having signed for MI Emirates, and will likely return to Australia if selected. Marcus Stoinis, who is at the SA20 with Durban’s Super Giants, might also return home early if he is selected for both of Australia’s series as expected.”Davey will be picked,” McDonald said. “He will come back from the ILT20. I think most of our players that are going over there are due back in on [February 7] in preparation for the [first] T20 in Hobart.”However, Australia are still yet to confirm who will captain the team at the T20 World Cup. Despite leading Australia to the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup last year, Cummins is very unlikely to be named T20I captain, having not led the team previously in that format.Mitchell Marsh captained the side on an interim basis in South Africa last year with great success, leading an inexperienced group to a 3-0 series sweep. He was also Australia’s vice-captain during the ODI World Cup, having led the ODI team too in South Africa. Immediately after the World Cup, Matthew Wade captained the T20I side in Marsh’s absence for the five-match T20I series in India.Meanwhile, McDonald will not coach the ODI and T20I series against West Indies in order to spend some extra time at home ahead of the New Zealand T20I and Test tour, although he is likely to be with the squad for some of the matches. Assistant coach Daniel Vettori will take the reins for those two series, having rested during the Adelaide Test. Fellow assistants Andre Borovec and Michael Di Venuto both coached Australia’s T20I sides last year in India and South Africa, respectively, when McDonald remained at home.