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The Australia coach is pleased by the competition for places at the start of the season

Daniel Brettig30-Oct-2020About the time Cameron Green was getting into the 190s for Western Australia in Adelaide, a fourth century in his most recent nine Sheffield Sheld matches, a mea culpa message buzzed through to the phone of the former selector Greg Chappell. It was from Australia’s coach, Justin Langer, who was finally ready to concede his first impressions of Green had been overtaken.In fairness to Langer, that first impression had taken the shape of a zingy, swinging spell of pace bowling from Green at Bellerive in early 2017, when he snapped up 5 for 24 on his Shield debut for the state while batting at No. 8. Chappell, though, had remained steadfast in his belief that Green would ultimately be more valuable to Australian cricket as a batsman than a bowler, with the risk of losing that opportunity through the injuries so often suffered by young speedsters.ALSO READ: Warner, Smith, Cummins and Hazlewood likely to be rested before India TestsSo Langer, a few days before selecting Green in Australia’s limited-overs squad to face India without seeing him even bowl a single competitive ball this season, reached out magnanimously to Chappell. “I texted Greg Chappell a couple days ago,” Langer said, “and I said ‘GC, wasn’t it me that was telling you what a great batsman Cameron Green was’ and I had a whole lot of smiley emojis, because Greg Chappell’s been telling me for two years ‘Cameron Green is brilliant, he is the best young batting talent’.”[Back then] I said ‘mate he’s six foot seven, I saw him bowl to George Bailey in his first over and he’ll never bowl a better over in his whole career than he did’. When I first saw him bowl I thought his action was like a young Shaun Pollock, because it was just so simple, but then he grew a lot.”I know he’s working hard on his action to ensure he stays healthy, but if Greg Chappell’s telling me he’s the best young talent he’s seen for a long time, and I’ve seen how he bowls, he’s potentially in the future a great all-round package. At the moment his batting speaks for itself and he’s bowling a few overs. But it’ll be a pretty good package won’t it, if he stays fit and healthy.”Leaving aside a low score on a grassy pitch in the Shield game against Tasmania that began on Friday, Green has won plaudits from opposing captains, bowlers and team-mates for offering a maturity of approach that does not always seem the way of a 21-year-old. No less a judge than the Test captain Tim Paine has spoken warmly of Green’s awareness of what bowlers and captains are trying to do, and of the unruffled countenance that has allowed him to put together many hours at the crease.Cameron Green acknowledges his 150•Getty Images

“He bats long periods,” Langer said. “I know George Bailey’s really big on this as one of our new selectors, he bats time. Allan Border used to say ‘there’s a lot more time than you think young fella’, so there’s a lot of time in Test cricket, there’s a bit more time in one-day cricket. Obviously there’s less time in T20 and he was batting down the order for the Scorchers last year, which is a tough spot for anyone let alone a kid, but he’s ticking a lot of boxes at the moment.”I go back to the point, competition’s healthy, he is banging really hard on the door, like Moises [Henriques] has been doing, and he deserves an opportunity as a specific replacement for Mitch [Marsh]. So they’re banging on the door hard, which is a positive thing.”When I used to go play county cricket all those years ago, all the English guys used to say ‘in Australia you’ve got this great youth policy, you always pick these young players’ and they talk about Damien Martyn or Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke. But what I kept saying was ‘it’s not a youth policy, you just pick the guys who are playing the best cricket’. Cameron Green’s got, albeit in Sheffield Shield cricket, four hundreds in his last six or seven Shield games, so he’s a terrific young player.”Expectations of course are now sky high, not least after Chappell himself labelled Green the best young talent he had seen come through since Ricky Ponting. But Langer is hopeful that the same temperament Green has displayed in the middle will be applied to dead-bat the dangers of thinking too far ahead, or letting the ego chase deliveries that the mind and hands would prefer to leave well alone.”It tends to happen doesn’t it, the new kid on the block comes in and there’s high praise and people get carried away,” Langer said. “How does he handle it? He watches the ball as closely as he is now, he stays fit and healthy and he gets on with his job.”That’s the hardest part actually of playing international cricket, eliminating the distractions, but that’s what mental toughness is about, he’s not going to have it all at the moment, it’s going to be a journey for a long time for him as it is with any young player. But this is all part of it, people will say ‘he’s the next future captain, he’s the next Ben Stokes, he’s the next this and this’, that’s why I tell all of them not to listen to any of it. If he wants to keep watching the ball, that’s all he needs to do.”

She’s been pigeon-holed as a red-ball specialist, but suddenly, with a must-win Test coming up, that’s no bad thing at all

Raf Nicholson16-Jul-2019Kate Cross knows a thing or two about women’s Test matches. Last time England won one, at Perth in 2014, she played a central role, taking 6 for 70 across both innings as England triumphed in a low-scoring thriller. Since then she has sometimes struggled to escape being pigeon-holed as a red-ball specialist, a somewhat useless designation in the women’s game given that only one Test is played every two years.Nonetheless, as England gear up for a must-win four-day encounter at Taunton this week, it is that very reputation which both she and England are hoping can once again bring home the Ashes bacon.”If someone’s telling me that they think that I’m a specialist Test player then to me that is a compliment in a way, it’s someone saying how consistent you are,” Cross says as she reflects on the double-edged sword that is her red-ball reputation. “In Test match cricket you know you’ve got to keep bowling in the same areas and you’ve got to put pressure on batsmen and starve runs. I think it’s a format that suits me.””We relish the opportunity to play in a Test match, and when you get your whites it’s really special, because it’s such a rarity. It’s quite hard to train for because there’s not many opportunities to get the red balls out. But everyone wants to play in it – it’s a childhood dream for a lot of the girls.”For Cross, the dream is one step closer after she was on Tuesday announced in England’s 13-strong squad for the Test. Only six of those players, including Cross, survive from the 2014 Perth Test – which was also the last time England won the Ashes. This time around, with England already 6-0 down on points and the spectre of a 194-run defeat at Canterbury looming large over the England camp, success against Australia seems an elusive thing.But Cross – something of a Test veteran, with three under her belt (they’ve only played six in the past decade) – knows that the longer format represents an opportunity for a clean slate for her teammates, and something of a leveller for both sides: “we don’t play a lot of it, so no one really knows what to expect.”Her own memories of the 2014 Test at the WACA are ready and waiting to be drawn on this week as she seeks to inspire her teammates to a repeat performance.”It’s probably going to be one of my all-time highs of my career,” she says. “I remember my dad texted me the day before and he said, ‘just take everything in, just enjoy the moment. It doesn’t matter the result, you’re getting a Test cap for England, just enjoy every second of it’.”Kate Cross conceded just one run in the final over•PTI

“And that’s an overriding feeling that I’ve got from that Test match, is the enjoyment that I had. Even though it was 40, 50 degrees and we were sweating our asses off, and it was difficult and I’d never been in a situation like that when we were fighting for four days, I still really enjoyed it and I had so much fun out there.Replying to England’s first innings of 201, Australia had already lost both openers to Anya Shrubsole, when Cross was called into the attack in the tenth over with Jess Cameron and Sarah Elliott in her sights.”I remember when Lottie [captain Charlotte Edwards] threw me the ball, I thought to myself ‘just land it on the strip at least!’ I bowled quite straight, my first delivery was quite a straight one, and I thought, ‘okay you’re going to be fine here. Just imagine you’re playing at Heywood [her home club] on a Saturday, this is fine’.”My first wicket [Cameron] was a big one because I took it in my first over, which really settled me into the game. It was my fourth ball. And I think if you watch my reaction and my celebration, I’m just in shock! I thought ‘you can’t have just got a wicket in your debut Test’. If you look at any photos, it’s just pure shock!”Many consider Perth in 2014 to be one of the greatest women’s Test matches ever played – with Cross again in the thick of the action in the second innings, claiming three wickets for no runs in the space of seven balls as England successfully defended a target of 185: looking back, Cross recognises what a privilege it was to be at the heart of such an occasion.”I remember just taking myself off at the end of the game, and I just sat on the hill with a beer. I remember I was sat there on my own at the end of it all, because I just wanted to take it all in and cherish it, I guess.”It’s a moment she would often return to over the years, as – after that spectacular start to her international career, only her fifth appearance in an England shirt – she struggled to retain her place, and eventually went two years (between July 2016 and July 2018) without playing a single international match. That included missing out on England’s 2017 World Cup win – a period she describes as “the toughest summer that I’ve had to go through”.Did she consider giving up and walking away? “If the ECB kept offering me contracts I would never have said no,” she says. “If [coach] Mark Robinson had turned round and said ‘look, we don’t quite think you’re good enough’, I would have walked away and said, ‘well I’ve given it my best shot’.””But while you’re still getting the opportunity to be a professional cricketer, and still getting the opportunities to learn, even though you’re not playing international cricket – which sometimes for us is really difficult, because we feel like we train more than we play. You often don’t get the opportunities that you want to showcase all the skill development that you do in the nets.”Robinson, though, never gave up on Cross: late last year he made a crucial intervention to which she attributes her recent return to form.”We sat down before I went to Australia and we tweaked my action a little bit. So my bowling hand, the one that carries the ball, I’ve got a bit more fluid motion in that. I used to load up quite near my hipbone, and now the ball comes up past my ear, and that’s to get a little bit more fluidity in my action, which consequently has helped my consistency as well.”Her returns for Perth Scorchers in the WBBL last winter were not spectacular – six wickets across 14 matches – but something, somewhere along the line, clicked. She returned to the England side for their T20 series against India, and saved them from what looked like certain defeat in the final match by defending three from the final over. She has subsequently been part of Robinson’s first-choice XI in every match this summer, and opened the bowling in all three of the Ashes ODIs: she feels that she is “back to somewhere near my best”.”I’m probably a bit fitter, which helps. For me, I’m quite a rhythmical bowler, so if I’m running in and attacking the crease, and if I’m staying tall and I’m getting seam movement then I’m generally in quite a good place.””It’s great for me to be able to help out Anya [Shrubsole] and Katherine [Brunt]. I would like to think that I offer something different. I try and contain batters, and put pressure on. If you look at the wickets that I took against the West Indies, they weren’t absolute jaffas of deliveries, I just felt like I created pressure and bowled a lot of dot balls, which then led to wickets being created. Robbo jokes with me that I’ve got the workhorse role in the team, I’m the one who bowls uphill into the wind and does the job that no one wants to do.””For me I love the challenge,” she concludes. A good thing too. Being handed the new ball in a must-win Test against Australia – challenges don’t come much bigger than that.England squad for Ashes Test Heather Knight (capt), Tammy Beaumont, Katherine Brunt, Kate Cross, Sophie Ecclestone, Georgia Elwiss, Kirstie Gordon, Amy Jones, Laura Marsh, Nat Sciver, Anya Shrubsole, Lauren Winfield, Sarah Taylor (wk)

CSA will be the majority shareholder and SuperSport a part-owner of a flagship T20 tournament that will take place in South Africa in November and December 2018

Firdose Moonda08-Jun-2018A flagship T20 tournament will take place in South Africa in November and December this year, but not as the T20 Global League. Instead, a yet-to-be-named competition will take place, of which CSA will be the majority shareholder and satellite television company SuperSport a part-owner. Details such as the number of teams, matches and allowances for overseas players are yet to be ironed out.The new league will replace the stillborn T20 Global League, which was due to be played last year, was postponed three weeks before the scheduled start, and caused considerable uncertainty in South African cricket. Chiefly, the T20 Global League accounted for the departure of CSA’s former CEO Haroon Lorgat, who parted ways with the organisation in September 2017 after fallouts with the board over the details of the running of the league, among other things.The original tournament was Lorgat’s brainchild and was launched in June last year in London, with seven foreign owners for the eight teams including three IPL owners and two from PSL. None of those stakeholders will be involved in the new competition, which is essentially a South African product.Thabang Moroe, CSA’s acting CEO, who will remain in place for at least the next two months, told ESPNcricinfo that the eight previous franchise owners have been refunded their deposits of USD 250,000 even though CSA had initially sought to engage them about staying involved. Two owners, however, have denied receiving a refund.The only outside involvement in the new tournament will come from SuperSport, who will be the official broadcast partner of the league. CSA did not have a broadcast partner when it tried to launch the T20 Global League. When the T20 Global League was conceptualised, SuperSport believed it already had the rights to all cricket played in South Africa. However, their deal excluded what CSA defined as “new business”, and the board sought a broadcaster abroad. At the same time, they were engaged in discussions with SuperSport, which is understood to have offered CSA much less than Lorgat wanted.Sources have since revealed that SuperSport was also interested in owning a team in the league and eventually put together a proposal with other businesspersons to buy the league from CSA. Now, SuperSport have confirmed the involvement they desired and will contribute capital, together with CSA, to fund the new league. Moroe called the deal “the biggest in the history of South African domestic cricket, which will ensure the welfare of the game in South Africa.”No other financial details have been released at this stage, including whether there will be a player draft or auction, as there was for the T20 Global League. When the tournament was postponed, South African players were paid out 60% of their contract value and foreign players 50%. In total, the player payout amounted to around R80 million (USD 6.08 million), which made up less than half of CSA’s total loss of USD 14.1 million.There is no indication of whether the new tournament could be similarly lucrative for players this year, but CSA is committed to involving some international stars, which will doubtless increase their wage bill. The specifics around how many foreign players will be included, and other logistical details, will be discussed in the coming weeks.Most importantly, the numbers of teams and fixtures will be of interest. The T20 Global League was due to have eight teams and 57 matches, over 44 days but the new tournament is expected to be played over a smaller window, because of South Africa’s other commitments.South Africa will tour Australia for three ODIs and two T20Is between October 31 and November 17, and then host Pakistan for a full home series from December 26, which leaves a five-week window for the new tournament to be played. The T20 Global League was due to conclude on December 16, a public holiday in South Africa which marks the start of the festive season. If the new tournament takes the same format, that reduces the window to four weeks.The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA), that helped negotiate the player payouts from the failed T20 Global League and has been pushing for a tournament in the country welcomed the news as long overdue.”We believe that it is critical for South Africa, as one of the world’s leading cricket countries, to have its own world class T20 competition and that this is as attractive to players as some of the existing T20 leagues in other countries. Players and their performances will be at the heart of the success of the competition,” Tony Irish, the SACA CEO, said in a release.SACA said it has not been privy to any discussions between CSA and SuperSport but hope to engage with the parties as the tournament date draws closer. SACA is also in the process of finalising its MoU with CSA which should conclude by the end of the month.

Shakib Al Hasan is the strongest candidate to replace Mashrafe Mortaza as Bangladesh’s T20I captain, according to BCB president Nazmul Hassan

Mohammad Isam05-Apr-2017Shakib Al Hasan is the strongest candidate to replace Mashrafe Mortaza as Bangladesh’s T20I captain, according to BCB president Nazmul Hassan, who said he wanted different captains for each format.The BCB had split the international captaincy in 2014, when Mushfiqur Rahim was stripped off the ODI and T20I leadership. Mashrafe became captain in the limited-overs formats and transformed Bangladesh into a competitive unit in two years. But now that Mashrafe has announced his retirement from T20Is, Hassan swiftly named his choice as successor, though Shakib has to be endorsed by the board of directors.”Shakib is the most likely candidate to take the T20 captaincy,” Hassan said. “We always had five candidates. Since Mashrafe and Mushfiqur are already captains, we only had Tamim, Mahmudullah and Shakib as the remaining ones. Shakib’s mental attitude and performance shows that he has matured, and is a full grown-up. He is ahead of the other candidates.”Hassan said Mashrafe will remain ODI captain. “There’s no chance of changing the ODI captaincy. One year ago we thought the Champions Trophy will be his last tournament, but now it seems he can play more.”He will play as long as he is fit. There’s no chance for him to be out of the squad. It is a different issue if the captain or coach thinks someone can play in his place.”Hassan also revealed a conversation he had with Tamim Iqbal, Shakib, Mushfiqur and Mashrafe in Colombo on Monday. He said he gave them a guarantee of a long-term place in the Bangladesh team, unless disciplinary issues arose. ESPNcricinfo learned the players understood that it was a confidential conversation, but Hassan divulged many of the contents of the meeting.”On the eve of the first T20, I spoke to Tamim, Shakib, Mushfiqur and Mashrafe. I told them that nobody can drop you given how much you’ve contributed to the team. At least until I am around. You have to make your own exit plan. If you play badly for a game or two, or even for a year, you won’t be dropped. Except disciplinary issues, you won’t be dropped for performance.”Who would drop Shakib? Tamim has been one of our best batsmen. Mushfiqur is our batting pillar. He is like our Rahul Dravid. Who would drop them? No question about it. Mashrafe is beyond performance. He doesn’t have to bat or bowl well. He has a lot of something different. It is hard to find another Mashrafe. His leadership quality, and his love for team and the country is a rare quality. I am not saying others don’t have it but his is of a different level.”

Marchant de Lange has bolstered South fast bowling stocks ahead of the ODI series against England but Albie Morkel could miss out because of a back spasm

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Jan-2016Marchant de Lange has bolstered South fast bowling stocks ahead of the ODI series against England.But the likelihood that Albie Morkel will also be added, following injuries to Dale Steyn and Kyle Abbott, has receded because he has been afflicted by a back spasm.Morkel’s injury became apparent when he was playing in the Momentum One-Day Cup in East London. A decision on his involvement – or a replacement – is expected on Monday.De Lange hardly advertised his wares when he took 2 for 69 for a South Africa A side thrashed by 163 runs by England in Kimberley in a warm-up match ahead of the series. But he now has the chance to add to his three ODI caps, the last of them won more than a year ago.Russell Domingo, South Africa’s coach, reiterated that as well as the absence of Steyn, Abbott and Vernon Philander, there was also concern over the workload of Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel in the recent Test series which pointed to likely opportunities for de Lange to push his claims.”Marchant gives us more options with our fast bowlers,” Domingo said. “We need to manage the workloads of Morkel and Rabada, who have played a lot. We need to manage them over the next few days. We need to broaden our fast bowling base for this series.”We have had a lot of injuries of late. Not having Dale and Vernon is a big blow, but it’s an opportunity to test the depth of South African cricket and to provide opportunities for the fringe bowlers to step up and put in some good performances.”South Africa do have the encouragement of a 3-2 win against India in their last ODI series as they seek to redress the balance after a 2-1 defeat in the Test series. The opening match takes place at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.”In South Africa we will always want to be regarded as favourites in home conditions,” Domingo said. “We have a good and settled side, we have been playing really well and we have some of the best one-day batsmen in the world.”

The PCB has endorsed the life ban on Danish Kaneria after the former Pakistan legspinner lost his appeal on July 2 against the original punishment imposed by the ECB

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jul-2013The PCB has endorsed the life ban on Danish Kaneria after the former Pakistan legspinner lost his appeal on July 2 against the original punishment imposed by the ECB. Because of an agreement between boards affiliated to the ICC, the ECB ban on Kaneria was applicable throughout world cricket and after the endorsement from his home board, effectively means the end of his career.”PCB has been made aware of the decision of Appeal Panel of the Cricket Discipline Commission of England and Wales Cricket Board which upheld the life ban imposed on Mr Danish Kaneria,” the board said in a statement. “Mr Kaneria was duly represented in the proceedings through a legal counsel of his choice and no question with regard to jurisdiction, composition, procedure or fairness of the Appeal Panel was raised by Mr Kaneria’s counsel.”Under ICC Anti-Corruption Code and PCB’s Anti-Corruption Code (Article-9) PCB is bound to recognize, respect and enforce the ban in Pakistan, meaning this ban is also being enforced by PCB in Pakistan. Therefore, Mr Danish Kaneria is suspended for life from any involvement in the playing, organization or administration of cricket in any form or manner under the jurisdiction of PCB. PCB hopes Mr. Kaneria will reflect on his past conduct and will now initiate efforts towards redemption and rehabilitation.”Kaneria was banned by the ECB in June 2012 after being found guilty of corruption in the spot-fixing case involving Mervyn Westfield, where he had been “cajoling and pressurising” his Essex team-mate into accepting money to concede a set number of runs in an over during a Pro40 match in 2009. He had been hoping to get the sanction reduced, having earlier lost another appeal against the convictions in April this year.Kaneria, 32, was Pakistan’s most successful Test spinner and the fourth-highest wicket-taker for his country with 261 in 61 Tests at an average of 34.79, putting him behind only Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Imran Khan. He picked up 1024 wickets in 206 first-class games at 26.16, including 307 for Essex. His regular Pakistan domestic team Habib Bank Limited, for which he took 231 wickets, had already parted ways with him last year.

The preview of the second ODI between Sri Lanka and India in Hambantota

The Preview by Devashish Fuloria23-Jul-2012

Match facts

Tuesday, July 24
Start time 1430 (0900 GMT)Thisara Perera will have a bigger role in Nuwan Kulasekara’s absence•AFP

Big Picture

In the latter stages of the first ODI, Sri Lanka’s lower-order batsmen made a push towards the target of 315, but their attempt was too late. The hosts lost by 21 runs but that late charge revealed the fragility of India’s bowling attack, which depends heavily on the batsmen to provide a cushion of runs. When the teams meet again in Hambantota on Tuesday, Sri Lanka’s batsmen will want to time their acceleration better.Bowling has been India’s weaker suit for a while and Sri Lanka’s opportunity lies in exploiting the rustiness that may linger after a six-week break. Apart from Irfan Pathan and R Ashwin, the other Indian bowlers were expensive in the first ODI, but Sri Lanka lost momentum when Kumar Sangakkara had to stabilise the innings. Zaheer Khan bowled some good balls, but also many easy ones. Umesh Yadav generated pace but lacked direction and Pragyan Ojha was worked around. Sri Lanka could take a cue from the way Thisara Perera attacked to plan their comeback.India, on the other hand, will back their strong suit – the batting – to deliver consistently and make up for the weakness in their bowling.

Form guide

(Completed games, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LWWWL
India WWLWW

Watch out for…

In Kulasekara’s absence, Thisara Perera will share the responsibility of leading the bowling attack along with Lasith Malinga. Perera took three wickets in the first ODI and also scored a 28-ball 44 that gave Sri Lanka a glimmer of hope during the chase. At No. 8, though, his skills may be underused.After an indifferent IPL, Virat Kohli started the new season where he had left the old one. Four centuries in five innings – three of them against Sri Lanka – means the Sri Lanka bowlers need to find a way to get past him to test the rest.

Team news

Sri Lanka have included fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep in the squad as a replacement for the injured Nuwan Kulasekara but it is the left-armer Isuru Udana who is likely to make an ODI debut.Sri Lanka: (probable) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 6 Lahiru Thirimanne, 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Thisara Perera, 9 Isuru Udana, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Rangana HerathIndia have a settled batting order, which allowed then to play a fifth bowler in Pathan, who bowled economically in the first ODI. Rohit Sharma squandered another opportunity, but India are unlikely to change much so early in the season.India: (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 5 Rohit Sharma, 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Pragyan Ojha.

Stats and trivia

• The overall bowling averages of India and Sri Lanka in the last 12 months – 36.43 and 37.97 – are just above that of Zimbabwe in one-day internationals.
• Malinga had an economy of 5.36 in the last 12 months; against India, though, it was 7.52.
• Kohli’s ODI average is 51.33, but it drops to 29.15 in 14 matches in Sri Lanka.

Quotes

“I guess IPL has been a factor. The Indian players have played a lot against Malinga. But that doesn’t mean that he is bad bowler. He can destroy any opposition on a given day.”

“It was important for us to set up a platform and [so] Sanga [Sangakkara] was trying to build an innings. [But] We never had momentum going into the last 10 overs. We’ll try to refocus and come back strong.”

A disciplined bowling performance enabled Durham Dynamos to claim their second Friends Life t20 victory in the space of three days and move a giant step closer to a quarter-final place. Despite appearing all but beaten at the halfway stage of their oppone

26-Jun-2011
ScorecardA disciplined bowling performance enabled Durham Dynamos to claim their second Friends Life t20 victory in the space of three days and move a giant step closer to a quarter-final place. Despite appearing all but beaten at the halfway stage of their opponents’ innings, Durham rallied impressively to claim a three-run victory over Leicestershire Foxes.Needing to hit a boundary off the final ball of the game, Leicestershire’s Claude Henderson could only roll the ball back to bowler Mitch Claydon, who had earlier claimed two wickets in his first over.Leicestershire, who finished on 184 for 7, looked like securing their second victory in as many days when former Durham University student Will Jefferson hammered 63 runs from 30 balls. However, after Jefferson was trapped leg before to Dale Benkenstein’s first delivery of the afternoon with the score on 113 for three, the visitors quickly lost their momentum.Liam Plunkett removed both Jacques Du Toit and Abdul Razzaq in the very next over, and the Foxes’ lower order were unable to keep up with a run rate that eventually sailed to more than 10 an over. Durham’s innings of 187 for 5 was a collective effort, with the first five batsmen in the order all scoring 18 runs or more.Opener Gordon Muchall was the linchpin, equalling his best ever T20 score as he made 64 runs off 50 balls before holing out during the final over of the innings. Muchall has cemented his place in the Durham side for all forms of the game this season, and his collection of eight boundaries included an eye-catching square cut off former England international Matthew Hoggard that brought up his half-century.Muchall received support from a number of quarters, with Phil Mustard and Ian Blackwell both scoring 25 as Durham compiled their runs at a steady rate. Blackwell was particularly destructive, reverse sweeping Henderson for four before producing a more orthodox sweep to claim a six off the South African’s very next ball.Benkenstein and David Miller also contributed to Durham’s sizeable total, with the former cracking 23 off 15 balls just two days after top-scoring in Friday night’s emphatic victory over Lancashire. He eventually fell going for a shot too many off Hoggard, but while the Leicestershire skipper finished with two wickets, he was unable to stem the flow of Durham runs.

Tom Maynard cracked an unbeaten 63 from 38 balls as Glamorgan Dragons got back to winning ways in the Friends Provident t20 with a seven-wicket win over Middlesex Panthers in Cardiff

26-Jun-2010
ScorecardTom Maynard cracked an unbeaten 63 from 38 balls as Glamorgan Dragons got back to winning ways in the Friends Provident t20 with a seven-wicket win over Middlesex Panthers in Cardiff. Glamorgan had won their opening three South Group matches but had suffered four successive defeats – and were then stripped off fast bowler Shaun Tait, who had been drafted into the Australia one-day squad.This time they held their nerve chasing down 167 to win with seven balls to spare after Middlesex, who won the toss, had been helped to 166 for 2 with contributions from Scott Newman, Neil Dexter, in his first game as captain replacing Adam Gilchrist, and Dawid Malan.The Dragons were given a fine launching pad in their reply with openers Mark Cosgrove and Jim Allenby – 45 from 35 balls – putting on 56 for the opening wicket. Allenby and Maynard combined to add another 54 from 32 balls with Maynard hitting sixes over cover and midwicket off Dexter and Pedro Collins respectively.Though he lost Allenby and Gareth Rees, 21-year-old Maynard did not panic as Glamorgan were left needing 16 for victory from the final two overs. Maynard, who had been dropped off Collins on 21, released the pressure by hitting Tom Smith for a six over long on and then a four from consecutive balls as he wrapped up the game in the penultimate over.Earlier, Newman had helped Middlesex build a useful base with 48 from 40 balls before Dexter and Malan, with 40 not out apiece, shared a partnership of 76 from the final 44 balls. Newman had an escape on 30 when he survived a leg-side stumping off Robert Croft, but made the most of his life hitting slow left-armer Dean Cosker over long on and midwicket for two sixes from three balls.But just two short of his half-century he perished to a brilliant return catch by Croft, who dived low to his right. From 90 for 2 in the 14th over Dexter and Malan gave the Panthers’ innings some real impetus sharing five sixes between them, but it proved not enough in the final analysis.

“there’s a lot of reminding ourselves of a philosophy, how we want to play and basically what our blueprint is to winning”

Firdose Moonda25-Jul-2024Last month, a South African T20 squad that last played together in December 2023*, traveled to (the USA and) the Caribbean and reached the World Cup final. This month, a South African Test side that last played together in the first week of January** is traveling to the Caribbean to begin their busiest period of red-ball cricket this cycle and attempt to get their WTC campaign on track.South Africa sit eighth on the points table but have only played four Tests, and you could argue only one real one. The Newlands Test against India lasted seven overs longer than an ODI thanks to an unsatisfactory Cape Town pitch and was no one’s idea of good quality cricket and their trip to New Zealand was headlined by what Kagiso Rabada called an “unacceptable” clash with their marquee T20 tournament and saw a second-string squad become the first South Africans to lose a Test series to New Zealand. Effectively, South Africa’s WTC starts now, with the first of four two-match series between now and January, and a real chance to develop something like form in this format, which is as rare a cricketing commodity as it gets for teams like them.”It’s a challenge that’s not necessarily unique to us and probably something that all the teams outside the big three face. It feels like we’re starting again and again as a team,” Temba Bavuma, South Africa’s Test captain said in Johannesburg. “You can hear in terms of the conversations, there’s a lot of reminding ourselves of a philosophy, how we want to play and basically what our blueprint is to winning. It’s nothing that is unique to us as a South African team . The challenge is we’ve just got to make it work with what we have. We don’t use it as an excuse. I think there’s definitely a lot of excitement from the guys and we’d like to focus on that excitement more than all the other uncontrollables.”Related

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Bavuma himself has only featured for a few hours in a Test in this cycle and has not played any international cricket in 2024. He was injured while fielding on the first day of the Boxing Day Test against India and later ruled out of the series with a hamstring strain. He played one SA20 match, two first-class games and in the CSA T20 Challenge but has flown largely under the radar as he readies for a high-profile comeback.”I’ve come out refreshed over the last couple of months of no cricket. It’s largely been about being in the gym and doing my rehab. I’ve been under rehab for the last two and a half to three months,” he said. “Mentally, that’s been tough; physically, it’s also been tough but I am quite refreshed and quite excited to have the opportunity again to be out there with the boys.”Since taking over the Test captaincy in February last year, when he was also removed as T20 skipper, the next six months will be his most consequential assignments as a leader. South Africa play in West Indies and Bangladesh and then host Sri Lanka and Pakistan at home which, on paper, seems to give them a fairly good chance of pushing for the WTC final. But they do all that at a time when players have already spent months playing in successive tournaments, from the SA20 to the IPL to the T20 World Cup and MLC, and gearing up for more. The CPL takes place after South Africa’s tour to West Indies followed by a fairly full home summer before another SA20, IPL… and so it goes. There is also the Champions Trophy sandwiched in-between and all that has made player management tricky.South Africa are already without three fast bowlers, for example, after Anrich Nortje opted out of a central contract to concentrate on T20s, Marco Jansen was rested from this series and Gerald Coetzee was ruled out with a side strain. “Obviously, it’s a setback. We build our fast bowling attack on our fast bowlers. We’ll still find a way to be effective in those conditions. Guys like KG, Lungi (Ngidi) and Nandre Burger – it’s a massive opportunity for them again to put up their hands and lead that bowling attack,” Bavuma said.Ngidi has only played one Test since December 2022 and Burger only has two caps to his name. Uncapped Migael Pretorius is also in the squad along with experienced domestic professional Dane Paterson, but it’s fair to say there is a level of experimentation happening as South Africa try to find their best Test combinations without much game time.A makeshift South Africa side lost the Test series to New Zealand back in February•Getty Images

“Looking at the inexperience and all the new faces that we find within the team, it’ll be a good test for the team and for those younger guys to kind of stamp their authority on international cricket,” Bavuma said.The same can be said for the batting. South Africa will have Tony de Zorzi (four caps) opening the batting alongside Aiden Markram and Tristan Stubbs (one cap) and David Bedingham (four caps) slotting in at No.3 and 5 respectively. That puts the onus on Bavuma not just to anchor the line-up, but to provide impetus and it’s something he is keen to take on.”It’s a responsibility. In my Test career, I’ve always found myself at No.6 or No.5 but I think now with the responsibility coming in, wanting to step up, wanting to score big runs, that opportunity comes in nicely at No.4,” he said.Those members of South Africa’s Test squad who were not at the MLC – Bavuma, de Zorzi, Stubbs, Dane Paterson, Keshav Maharaj and Kyle Verreynne – took part in a training camp last week in Durban. They will meet their MLC counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago on Monday ahead of a four-day warm up match against a West Indies Invitational XI from Wednesday. The first Test starts on August 7.