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Lots of rain, lots of entertainment, lots of noise

Sanjeev Datadin04-May-2010The game
I’m a big cricket fan and love live cricket. I’m also a box-holder at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. This match promised a good old-fashioned rivalry between England and West Indies. Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard were in good nick after the IPL, as were Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan.Team supported
West Indies. I’ve been a fan since my father took me to see India v West Indies at Bourda, Georgetown in 1983.Key performer
Morgan played an excellent innings. So did Gayle and Luke Wright. But because of the rain delays, the DJ turned out to be the key performer of the day.One thing I’d have changed
To have no rain. England were a bit hard done by, and the crowd was robbed of some entertainment. It would have been interesting to watch a West Indies batting line-up of Gayle, Pollard, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo chase 192.Face-off I relished
Gayle v Sidebottom. Given all the talk about left-arm quicks against Gayle, I was interested to see how the contest with Sidebottom would pan out. Gayle took him for 15 in the first over. To be fair, the first boundary was off the edge, but as a spectator shouted out immediately after that boundary, “He paid for the whole bat… edge included.”Shot of the day
Craig Kieswetter smacked Ravi Rampaul over long-off to scatter the cheerleaders right below where I was sitting. But the shot of the day was Chanderpaul’s switch hit for six off Graeme Swann. The noise that followed was deafening.Player watch
Darren Sammy was cheered every time he touched the ball, no doubt because of his heroics against Ireland. It helped that he took two wickets when England were on the charge. Since it was Guyana, hometown boy Chanderpaul was inundated with advice and comments every time he came to field below where I was sitting.Crowd meter
The stadium was packed. It was so loud, you could not hear your own phone ring, much less anyone you were trying to speak to. Horns, beach shells, whistles, thunder sticks, tassa drums and the steel pans contributed to the noise. Then, of course, there was the typical Guyana crowd, shouting all sorts of advice and remarks to the players. It was loudest when the umpires came out to inspect the conditions after a prolonged rain delay and approaching darkness; there was definitely no shortage of encouragement to bring the players back out to continue the game.The spectators stayed through the heavy and prolonged downpour. The Providence is a semi-open stadium and many patrons were simply standing, or dancing, in the rain.It was amazing to hear what sounded like every spectator screaming “wiiddde” every time and English bowler bowled a wide.A new discovery
In our box the very unusual (at least in these parts) drink of scotch and tonic became the order of the day. I think I might stay with this one for a while.Entertainment
Plenty. There was chutney, soca, reggae, dancehall, and even some 80s hits. The live artists were average and sounded as if they were screaming into the microphone at times. There were cheerleaders perched on stages around the ground, tassa drummers, and colourfully costumed assortments of characters carrying a kind of horn, who provided their own brand of loud entertainment during any slight break in an over.Banner of the day
There were no banners up around the ground; a consequence of the stadium being sanitised in the name of ambush marketing. There was a t-shirt with a picture of Kieron Pollard smacking the ball, with the caption, “Polly what a cracker!”Marks out of 10
8. Plenty of rain, but also plenty of music, dancing, unusual drinks and great atmosphere.

Such was the draw of WG Grace that after a public spat with Gloucestershire, who he had captained since its formation in 1870, he was able to move to London and help establish a side that within a year had been given first-class status

Martin Williamson27-Jan-200682 pp, hb

Much has been written about WG Grace – perhaps more than any other cricketer with the exception of Don Bradman. But while his 19th-century exploits are well documented, less is known about the twilight of his career, and in some ways that is one of the most interesting periods. Such was the draw of the man that after a public spat with Gloucestershire, who he had captained since its formation in 1870, he was able to move to London and help establish a side that within a year had been given first-class status.Brian Pearce’s Cricket At The Crystal Palace helps to fill in the gaps about the brief history of the London County Cricket Club (by 1905 it had lost its first-class status, a victim of financial troubles and poor attendances). But in those five seasons, it was jazz-hat cricket at its best. Led by Grace (he only missed one of their first-class matches), LCCC attracted some of the best players of the era and also took on a quasi-MCC role of nurturing and encouraging the best young cricketers. The club was dominated by the Old Man, and Pearce manages to convey the sense of what it must have been like to play with and under him.This book is not just about WG. It gives the story of the Crystal Palace, which dominated the whole enterprise and ultimately led to its demise, and of the LCCC. Pearce injects colour and life into the narrative, and the illustrations are copious and interesting.This is clearly a labour of love but Pearce has managed to produce a book well worth buying. It’s not long – 82 pages in all – and if there is a criticism it is the rather slapdash and poorly formatted statistics. But that is one minor gripe which does not really tarnish the overall product.

The hosts have retained their core from this year’s T20 World Cup in a bid to become “championship-winning”, while the visitors are looking to create some depth in their ranks

Firdose Moonda22-Aug-20242:04

Sammy: ‘We want to become a championship-winning team’

No points on the line. No imminently looming World Cup to prepare for. Sport for sport’s sake, who’d a thunk?The three-match T20I series between West Indies and South Africa is a contextual anomaly on the cricket calendar because there does not seem to be any reason for it – other than that it was scheduled to take place. While fans may see it as an opportunity to just be entertained, neither side’s coaching staff was willing to take that approach. Instead, they’ve already begun a narrative of using these matches as a first step on the road to the T20 World Cup in 2026, even as the memories from the 2024 event have barely receded.West Indies hope to lay foundation for futureFor West Indies, the failure to reach the semi-finals of their home tournament – after defeat against South Africa – confirmed to white-ball coach Daren Sammy that they need to work on their tournament-play. “I want to become a championship-winning team. Right now, we are a series-winning team,” Sammy said. “We beat one team over a three- or five-game period and we know what to do, but I want this team to become a championship-winning team – where you can find and play a different opposition in a tournament, and be able to come up with the goods every single game.”Related

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In the lead-up to this year’s T20 World Cup, West Indies came out on top in four out of five T20I series, including two against South Africa and one against England. At the tournament itself, they were unable to beat either side in the Super Eights, when it mattered most. Whether another series against South Africa can help West Indies overcome this issue is debatable, but it does allow Sammy to keep his core group of players together – 11 of the 15 who were part of the World Cup squad are in this one – and hope the younger ones like Alick Athanaze and Sherfane Rutherford can learn from the likes of Johnson Charles and Rovman Powell.”Those guys of 2016 [the T20 World Cup West Indies won] are now the senior players,” Sammy said. “It’s a combination of youth and experience. And by the time you look at the next 16 months, hopefully the game plan we put in place, the roles and personnel we have will tick all the boxes, and the championship mentality we are looking for can come to fruition.”South Africa look to develop depth in talentSouth Africa have taken the opposite approach, and brought only six of the 15-member squad that reached their first men’s World Cup final as they try to create depth around the big names and among players who don’t always feature in T20 leagues. Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi have all been given the series off, with recalls for experienced names like Rassie van der Dussen, and call-ups for promising youth like Under-19 World Cup’s breakout star Kwena Maphaka.With several regulars given the series off, there was a recall for Rassie van der Dussen•Associated Press”It’s 18 months away from the 2026 World Cup. We’ve got nine series from now until then, which leaves us with around 32 to 36 fixtures before that World Cup,” Rob Walter, South Africa’s white-ball coach, said. “In terms of giving guys international opportunities and playing against quality T20 sides – not every one of our players is a marquee player in the league – we have to use these opportunities to play against strong opposition. We need to grow the base of our players that are competing at this level.”For me, the importance of fixtures like these are massive. The leagues and the congestion is a challenge, but actually it can be a positive for us in that we’ve got a broader group of players that are playing competitive cricket.”Walter will also be looking for some level of consistency as he builds the squad. Before the 2024 T20 World Cup, South Africa had not won a T20I series in six attempts since beating Ireland in August 2022. They went into the tournament with only two wins from their previous 11 games, though it’s worth remembering that they pulled off a stunning run of eight successive victories to reach the final.Batters to watch: Nicholas Pooran and Reeza HendricksThe highest T20 run-getter so far this year is Nicholas Pooran, who has played 54 matches and scored 1628 runs, including 11 fifties. He was also West Indies’ highest run-scorer at the T20 World Cup, with 228 runs in seven matches. Pooran is known as one of the biggest hitters and best finishers in the game, and will be after a three-figure score to top off a stellar 2024.Nicholas Pooran is the highest run-getter in T20s so far this year•AFP/Getty ImagesJust 181 runs behind him this calendar year is Reeza Hendricks, but the least profitable of South Africa’s top six at the T20 World Cup. Hendricks scored 113 runs from nine games in the competition and, after missing out on playing even a single game despite being a part of the squad at the 2022 tournament, may have a sense he did not fulfil his potential, especially as he just turned 35. But Walter is backing Hendricks to keep going, and Hendricks will know the expectation is that runs will come.”In my opinion, 35 is not too old. There’s many guys who are playing at older than that, and they’re playing the best cricket of their life,” Walter said. “We are cognisant of age and building for the future, but also of wrapping younger guys with experience. We want to get the balance right.”Bowlers to watch: Kwena Maphaka and Obed McCoyTo that end, Kwena Maphaka, who was the Player of the Tournament at the Under-19 World Cup this year, could get his first international cap. He has already played first-tier provincial cricket for Lions, and two matches for Mumbai Indians at the IPL, so he has had some taste of the big time. Walter has yet to see Maphaka bowl in the flesh, but likes what he knows about him so far.”He’s a wonderfully calm young guy, and seems to have his head screwed on very well,” he said. “He’s done some incredibly amazing things for a very young guy, and seems to have a really cool perspective on it all. We see him as a strong potential for the priorities moving forward, and it was an ideal opportunity to just get him on tour and get him into the system.”Kwena Maphaka was the Player of the Tournament at the Under-19 World Cup this year•ICC/Getty ImagesWest Indies will also be relying on their younger quicks, with all of Alzarri Joseph, Jason Holder and Andre Russell rested. That puts responsibility on Obed McCoy as the senior seamer, and he has experience to lean on. McCoy has played more T20Is against South Africa and India than any other opposition – nine matches each – and had also bowled West Indies to a 3-0 series win against South Africa in May. He has also spent time in the SA20, so his knowledge of the South African batters could prove crucial for West Indies’ think tank.The venue: Brain Lara Academy, TaroubaThe ground staff at the Brain Lara Academy are still smarting from news that the surface they prepared for the T20 World Cup semi-final between South Africa and Afghanistan was deemed unsatisfactory by the ICC, and will be keen to do better. As a reminder, South Africa bowled Afghanistan out for 56 and chased the score down inside nine overs, with the low scores being put down to uneven bounce and excessive seam movement. But happily, that’s not the norm here, and in 35 completed first innings in the CPL, the average first-innings score is 145, which, in the last two seasons, has increased to 158.On the weather front, there may be some nerves as well after rain washed out most of the first Test, which was held in nearby Port-of-Spain. But the news is better for the T20Is. There are morning showers forecast for Friday and Sunday – the days of the first and second match – which should clear by the afternoon. The third game, on Tuesday, might be in some danger of being affected, but downpours are not expected to be constant, and a three-hour playing window should be possible. All three matches will start at 3pm local time.

Tom Moody, Anil Kumble and Stephen Fleming have their say following another trophy-less World Cup campaign for India

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-20223:56

Should India allow players to participate in overseas leagues?

The next T20 World Cup is in two years. What should be the first plan to address the top-order issue?

Moody: I think the top order needs to be more dynamic. So I’d be looking at players that fit that profile. So, identifying who are the players who play the sort of fearless game that we see, for example, Suryakumar Yadav. But he plays in the middle order. Who is the version of him that I can have at the top of the order?Ideally, in my top three, I’d want two of them and then I have my anchor player that plays around circumstances, conditions, lot of early wickets, whatever it is, just to set the ship back on the right course if things go wrong.Related

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So who are those dynamic players? Rishabh Pant is one of them. Ishan Kishan is another one that I see who is an extraordinary talent. At the end of the day, it’s not the people you are picking but the brand of cricket you want to play. The people then follow the brand.

Do you feel that as a player grows in stature in Indian cricket, he almost loses the ability to play that brand?

Kumble: I think what is crucial in a situation like this is the communication that you have with your group of players, not necessarily what we think about as experts or what the media thinks. So, yes, the communication around the players is what brand of cricket that you are going to play and how you are going to support the kind of players who come in to play that kind of cricket. Because when you are playing that kind of cricket, it involves a lot of risk. Which means that you may not have performances consistently going your way.3:43

Moody’s advice to India – Set a brand of cricket, then pick players accordingly

There may be situations where you may get blown away for 80. Because if that’s the kind of cricket you want to play, where right from ball one, you’re going to go hard, then you need proper communication around the team. And it just doesn’t require the captain and the coach to do that, it requires everyone to get a buy-in. More importantly, what I see as something that certainly needs to be done is, how we keep talking about bowlers need to bat. But I think in Indian cricket, you need batters to bowl too for the balance of the team.That’s exactly what England have. They had too many choices today. They used Liam Livingstone. Moeen Ali has hardly bowled in this tournament. So those are the choices that you need. Unfortunately even in the India A team that gets picked, it’s mostly batters who don’t bowl. It’s important to create that brand of cricket and say that this is how the Indian team is going to do it and it should follow right through the system. I think the more and more you play T20s, it’s going to be like this, where you just come and show your power. So that’s exactly how I think T20 is going to go forward.Moody: I think the important thing we need to recognise is that today’s result for England is the legacy that Eoin Morgan has left in English cricket. He was the one who was very firm in the brand that he wanted his white-ball teams to play both in T20 and 50-over cricket, and he backed them. When you play that brand, you’re going to have highs and you’re going to have lows, but you have to stick with people.So you identify who those people are that can bring that style of cricket that you feel is the future, that’s going to give you the success, and that sort of breeds another generation of people. So you breed that success and that’s the turning point for India. There’s no shortage of talent, but it’s about accepting that this is the brand and that we’ve got your back. We know there’s going to be failure playing that way but we feel that you’ve got the skillset and we are going to surround you with the support to make sure you technically, physically and mentally can survive playing that type of cricket.1:06

Kumble: Brand of cricket India want to play will determine who plays in 2024 T20 World Cup

This is perhaps easier to instill on the newer bunch of cricketers?

Moody: Not necessarily. Look at Jonny Bairstow’s story. I know he is not in this World Cup because of his injury. But Bairstow did not play that brand of cricket 10 years ago. He’s evolved and turned into a beast. You look at him in the Test arena now. He’s even taking that approach to Test cricket. He’s always been a steady impact player but now he is like a different beast, isn’t he?

So you need four or five players to bat with Suryakumar’s intent, if not execution?

Moody: Yeah and he does it as a freelancer. He does it because that’s who he is. That is his own authenticity as a cricketer. And it’s breaking away the shackles of the others and saying this is what I want you to do, we’ve got your back.Fleming: I like to concentrate on the responsibility of the player, whether it’s the current or the up and coming, that this is the way the game’s going. It’s fine for Tom or Anil or me to say you have to go and play and be free, but you have to learn how to do it. And there’s a certain skill-set, courage, resilience and confidence that is needed to do it. So you can’t just go ahead and change your game straight away.But assuming I’m a young player, I’d be thinking, ‘hey I can see the game going this way. I’m going to learn some of these skills. I haven’t got them now, but I’m going to learn and I’m going to become a member of this next side whether it’s two years or four years down the track because I’m going to play a certain way’.

“Sheer numbers has often been the way you get recognised in India, but now it’s the way you get the numbers. It might not be as high, but the strike-rates have to be higher”Stephen Fleming on the way forward for India’s top order

So the responsibility will still lie with the player to pick up that skill, and that’s the exciting part. You’ve got one of the greatest stages you can have in the IPL to show your talent, so from now until then, get going. Where it gets interesting is he [Moody] talked about buy-ins, Morgan getting buy-ins from players and a number of coaches. In India it’s a bit harder, because you have to get buy-ins all the way down to the high-end domestic level. And there’s a lot of coaches and a lot of people you have to convince that this is the right way to go. Because sheer numbers has often been the way you get recognised in India, but now it’s the way you get the numbers. It might not be as high, but the strike-rates have to be higher. It has to be higher risk, it has to have an element of confidence to get down on the knee and start sweeping and doing these shots that are now becoming commonplace among the best of the world.The onus goes on the cricket landscape to pick these players up and teach them what’s the next way to play in the top order. It’s not a massive change, but you’re going to have to shift the mentality of a number of batters. Some of these top batters, they’re beautiful players to watch, but they might have to add a little bit of the unorthodox and just take the game on a little bit more, if India are to compete with England going forward in the next few years.Kumble: One is of course having that brand of cricket and then choosing the players to do that but I think it’s also important that these players play their specific roles wherever they play. Because it’s not about just playing that role for India and then going back to your domestic cricket and franchise cricket and then changing the way you’re going to go about it. Because, for example, Pant today batted for India at No. 6, he walked in in the 19th over. He never does that in domestic cricket. So you need some kind of role definition as well there and that’s something I think is very critical if you’re going to build a potent team where you need a back-up for those roles and not necessarily your six best players whatever role they can. It’s very difficult to do that in a World Cup.Moody: Just to build on that a little bit, the example you have there of Pant coming in the 19th over. That’s everything that went wrong with India’s pursuit of a total. Because how could you have a resource like that left and have the total they’ve got? If he’s coming in the 19th over, you’d expect the score to be 180 or 190. But having that as a wasted resource is purely because of the brand that was demonstrated for 70% of the innings. In my opinion, 60 or 70% of that innings was not the modern brand that is going to be good enough to win the T20 World Cup.2:00

Fleming on Rohit’s struggle: There’s pressure in being out of comfort zone

So Kohli and Rohit got it wrong today?

Kumble: I’m not saying they got it wrong. They are players that are capable of playing at a higher strike-rate. But obviously, Rohit has not been in the best of form. He was trying hard. It was not for a lack of trying, it was just that it didn’t work out. Maybe recognising on the surface, that since KL Rahul got out early, he should have known that in the first six overs, someone had to take the initiative. Virat hit that six over extra cover, but I think in the next few overs, the momentum was again taken away from India and given back to England. Especially after the sixth over, when the two spinners came on, I don’t think there was any intent to put the pressure back on England. Like Tom had mentioned, there was no identifying which bowler to take down today. Irrespective, he may end up getting three wickets, but you need to decide that okay, he’s the person I’m going to take down.Moody: In the powerplay, there was a simple difference with the approach and intent that we’ve been talking about. Five boundaries by India, 10 by England. Anil makes a really good point, he’s bowled enough overs to understand this. You can only bowl as well as you’re allowed to. And at times, you can bowl an over or two and you get away with it thinking, oh they haven’t really taken me down yet. Because suddenly the margin of your error when someone is taking you on shrinks dramatically. So that’s what happened today with India’s bowlers. The way that Jos Buttler and Alex Hales batted, they didn’t have a margin of error purely because they put so much pressure on them.

Indian players just play the IPL, but they come up against a number of players who have a great deal of T20 experience from around the world. Are Indian players short-changed that they play only one premier T20 tournament in the year?Fleming: It may be something to consider when you listen to the commentators talk about Hales and his experience at the ground [Adelaide Oval] and Phil Salt has played at the ground. It seems like a number of these players who are playing around the world are getting really important experience from playing these domestic tournaments that they can then tap into and feel a lot more comfortable.You look at the CPL which becomes more important with the next World Cup being there in the Caribbean, and how many players can you get put into that tournament to get an idea of conditions. It is an advantage. Young players maybe more so than the guys who have been a bit longer in the tooth. Bairstow is a great example. They can still keep getting better because you keep learning from these environments. Things are done in a different way in different parts of the world. So if you keep bolting, it’s like upgrading your phone. Every time you plug it in and get an upgrade you get another new tool. And these guys are just going around adding these new tools to their repertoire. So they become quite complete and then they just sync in to a certain way of playing. Playing with a different group of people outside of the people you know and usually play with, that can also be a good challenge and good for the maturity and pressure-wise, responding to it and again just adding something to your game.3:38

India’s top order – risk-averse or simply misfits?

Would you welcome a change at least for young players, if not the centrally contracted ones, to go and play in other leagues?

Kumble: I think exposure certainly helps. It certainly helps any cricketer. We have seen that with the kind of development that it has had on Indian cricket. For example, the IPL, where overseas players come in and the kind of changes we’ve had in Indian cricket has certainly helped. And likewise, if you identify the brand of cricket that we are looking at and then identify these key young players who you believe need those exposures, then why not? I think that’s important. The other thing that I also feel that needs to come into this team is the flexible approach to batting or the batting order. Because in T20s, I certainly believe there is no fixed batting order. You have to be flexible in the way you are going to go about using your resources. And yeah, in terms of giving an opportunity to a young player to go overseas and have a crack, then why not? I think it’s important that you need to have everything that you need to do that come 2024, you are well prepared to take on a World Cup event.Moody: What we’ve seen over recent years is that more and more Indian players get that exposure in county cricket and the benefit that they get with that exposure. Zaheer Khan is one of the greatest examples of all. Ishant Sharma is also another great example. That exposure of learning about their game, learning about other professionals around them and the volume of cricket that you play there. You talked about the lack of depth of Indian batsmen that can bowl; take tournaments like the CPL for example, if you’re using that as a platform, you couldn’t get a better platform to send six or 12 and have two batting allrounders per team in that tournament. And I know that tournament would say with open arms, please bring all of your development players, it doesn’t have to be your contracted players, and use this as a platform. Because it’s a win-win. The CPL will welcome it thinking gosh, we’ve got some top notch Indian players, and it gets a little bit of interest in a country where cricket is as big as we know. I think everyone’s a winner.Kumble: Yeah, I think it will only benefit the younger players if they get more opportunities. And I think one thing that certainly needs to be addressed is batters coming on to bowl. Otherwise, you’ll end up having this conundrum whether to go with five bowlers, six bowlers. I think if you have enough ability in the top 6 to give you two options, then I think it certainly opens up… you can pick and choose who you want at No. 7.Will Kohli and Rohit be a part of the squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup?•AFP/Getty Images

Have we likely seen the last of Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli in T20Is for India?

Moody: With two years to play out, I’d be surprised if they play a lot of T20 cricket for India between now and that World Cup. And I think that decision will be something that they’ll need to sit down with the cricket board and work out six months prior to that World Cup. Because I don’t see any point in them playing any T20 cricket for India, apart from franchise cricket of course, to that point, because it’s a great platform to look to develop the players that we’ve been talking about.Kumble: I think you’ll sort of not decide now, but it’s the decision of the player. And it’s about what brand of cricket you want to play and what is the buy-in of everyone else. I think that will determine who is a part of 2024 and who’s not.Fleming: I know there are big decisions made after big tournaments and some can be rash. I don’t like discarding players after a big tournament. I think there’s a process in which both the boys have identified there that you work through. You’re looking at talent, you are looking at the tournaments coming up and you put a bit of a plan in place that is in conjunction with the player, and with selectors and the board. You by no means shut the door, you work towards that door and see what sort of time frame you’re thinking and then come up with a plan.I’m not trying to sit on the fence but I just think it’s crude when you just put a line in the sand after a tough tournament when I think they have still something to give. Is there enough time for it? That’s a question a couple of years on. What’s the motivation level of the player? What’s the energy level? Often the decision is made before the selectors have to intervene. So it will be an interesting watch not just for India but for a number of teams when you reshuffle the deck and you see who’s still standing.

Batsman says he’s feeling good and he wants to do well away from home for his team

Firdose Moonda23-Jan-2021If Faf du Plessis sounds confident ahead of South Africa’s series in Pakistan it’s not necessarily because he is. It’s because he wants to be.Like every member of the touring party, he is entering the unknown and in an especially important period of a rebuilding Test team, he wants to make the best impression he can. “Fake it til you make it,” du Plessis joked, even though he is the batsman in the line-up who has truly made it.After his gracious stepping down from leadership last summer, du Plessis enjoyed a successful IPL and a stunning international return with two half centuries in South Africa’s T20 series and a career-best 199 against Sri Lanka. Without the weight of leading the team, du Plessis has played and spoken with freedom. “It’s coming from a place of contentment,” he said. “I am intentional in making sure I really enjoy my cricket. If that comes through in performances or the way that I speak, then I am glad that it’s happening.”But he also accepts that comes with some additional responsibility, especially when it comes to batting in conditions that are foreign to everyone. “I am batting well at the moment, feeling good and I really want to play my best cricket. I also want to put in some good performances in the subcontinent. It’s really important for me to do well overseas,” du Plessis said.Asia and England are two places abroad that du Plessis has not scored a hundred and the subcontinent is where his statistics are the least impressive. In 15 Test matches across India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the UAE, he averages 22.70, well below his overall average of 41.08. Given that South Africa have talked up Pakistan as being the best place for batting in the subcontinent, du Plessis could well be eyeing it as the tour to improve on those numbers but he hasn’t seen enough to be sure it will be as batsmen-friendly as its been hyped up to be.South Africa had their first training session at the National Stadium on Saturday but they have yet to see the surface they will play on and are still playing a guessing game on what to expect when the Test stats on Tuesday. Previous South African sides, like the last one that toured the country in 2007 and included coach Mark Boucher, noted that Pakistan was flatter than India or Sri Lanka and took less turn, while from the practice facilities Kagiso Rabada said he expects reverse swing to play a role. Du Plessis thinks spin will have a big say, especially as Pakistan look to make use of home advantage and South Africa’s historic weakness. “I think the wickets will be a bit more subcontinent like than it used to be back then and spinners will probably be a little more in the game,” du Plessis said.Faf du Plessis is coming off a career best 199 that he hit at home•Associated PressAfter tough tours of India (2015 and 2019) and Sri Lanka (2018), perhaps du Plessis is predisposed to saying that. Or maybe it’s the memories of playing Pakistan in their adopted home in the UAE, of a trial by turn, that inform his opinion of this tour. “Every time I went out to bat there, Saeed Ajmal was warming up. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night and he would be bowling at me.”Ajmal actually only dismissed du Plessis once in three innings in the 2013 series that South Africa won, but in an earlier rubber, and even though it was at home, du Plessis struggled to pick the doosra. There’s no-one in Pakistan’s squad who presents that kind of threat for this series, but there’s still a danger man in Yasir Shah.”From a spin point of view when you come to the subcontinent, the theory is like when we are playing in South Africa when we play and miss against the seamer. If he bowls a good ball and it spun past your bat, it’s just making sure you see it as a good ball and it went past your bat and you played it well,” du Plessis said. “But it’s also about making sure you are looking at two or or three ways of getting off strike. The challenge is when a spinner bowls a lot of dot balls and you feel stuck and you can’t get off strike and he settles into bowling a good area which Yasir Shah is very good at. He has really got good control. If you just let him bowl at you, he will bowl really well at you. You need to make sure you’ve got some plans to either get ones off him or have scoring options to get some boundaries.”He also identified left-armer Shaheen Shah Afridi, who “has been hot the last two seasons,” as another threat and warned South Africa of Pakistan’s captain as well. “Having Babar back is massive for them. I would say he is up there with the top three batters in the world at the moment,” du Plessis said. “His last two seasons, in all formats, have been nothing short of remarkable.”Babar currently lies sixth on the ICC Test rankings, third on the ODI charts and second in T20Is and his value for Pakistan has been reflected in the enormity of his absence. He missed the Tests in New Zealand with a fractured thumb and his return makes Pakistan a more competitive team. “With any team if you take out their best batter, it leaves a hole and If you take his runs out of the team, Pakistan becomes a team you feel you can get on top of quite easily,” du Plessis said.Pakistan might feel similarly about du Plessis or even Quinton de Kock, who had a poor series against Sri Lanka and appears to be straining under the weight of captaincy. Though du Plessis is not looking to take back the reins, he can see that de Kock is receiving support. “From a management point of view, they are trying to make sure they don’t put too much on his plate. (Mark) Boucher tries to do most of the things when it comes to setting up practices, talking, planning and meetings,” du Plessis said. “They are trying to make sure they are taking some of the burden off him so he can focus on just playing cricket. That’s when he is dangerous.”Though de Kock will return home with the Test squad and won’t captain the T20I side against Pakistan in Lahore, he will also lead South Africa in the home Test series against Australia and the white-ball matches against Pakistan that are scheduled to follow. By then South Africa will have spent several months in a bio-secure bubble, which, like many cricketers du Plessis thinks “is not sustainable,” and will need to be reconsidered as the pandemic wears on.For now, du Plessis is enjoying the challenge and ready to take on Pakistan. “Right now I am still in a good place. I am still motivated and driven but I can only speak for myself,” he said, with his game face on. Or not.”Fake it til you make it,” remember? The next few weeks will tell.

تحدث الإعلامي أحمد شوبير، عن اهتمام نادي جيرونا بالتعاقد مع نجله مصطفي شوبير، حارس مرمى منتخب مصر والفريق الأول لكرة القدم بالنادي الأهلي.

وقال شوبير، عبر قناة النهار: “مصطفى يمتلك وكيلا إسبانيا، هو من تواصل مع الحارس واختاره بنفسه وتعاقد معه وتلك المعلومة التي لدي”.

طالع.. حمزة عبد الكريم يتحدث عن العروض الأخيرة.. وسر تواجده في قائمة منتخب مصر

وواصل: “في وقت سابق، كان هناك عرض من نادي فالنسيا من خلال نفس الوكيل، ووقتها الأهلي رفض رحيل مصطفى شوبير عن صفوفه بعد جلسة مع محمد يوسف المدير الرياضي والذي شدد أن رحيل الحارس لا نقاش فيه”.

وأكمل: “حتى الآن لا يوجد أي عروض رسمية من جيرونا، لكنه مجرد اهتمام والأمور تبدأ من الصحف، وهناك أندية أخرى تتابع مصطفى لكنه يرفض اللعب لأندية في أي دوري درجة ثانية”.

واختتم: “حتى الآن مصطفى شوبير ضمن صفوف الأهلي، والنادي سيرى المناسب له في حال وصول عرض جيد، إما الموافقة وينتقل لنادي جديد أو الاستمرار في القلعة الحمراء”.

He is the first Indian in men’s internationals to get to his hundred with three back-to-back sixes (where data is available)

Sampath Bandarupalli07-Jul-20241 Abhishek Sharma became the first Indian to complete his century in men’s international cricket by hitting three consecutive sixes (where data is available). Shubman Gill has done something similar, but his back-to-back-to-back sixes took him to 200 in an ODI against New Zealand in 2023.46 Balls Abhishek needed for his century, the joint-third-fastest for India in men’s T20Is. Rohit Sharma’s 35-ball century in 2017 and Suryakumar Yadav’s 45-ball ton in 2023, both against Sri Lanka, are the two fastest tons for India, while KL Rahul also had a 46-ball hundred against West Indies in 2016.2 Innings Abhishek needed to score his maiden hundred in T20Is. No one from a Full Member country has got that landmark out of the way so quickly. He joins Evin Lewis, who like Abhishek, has a duck and a century as his first two T20I innings, while Richard Levi’s maiden ton also came in his second innings.65 Runs Abhishek scored against the Zimbabwe spinners, the most for India in a men’s T20I, going past Yuvraj Singh’s 57 runs against Pakistan in 2012 in Ahmedabad. Abhishek scored those 65 runs off 28 balls at a strike rate of 232.14 with six sixes and four fours.ESPNcricinfo Ltd317.39 Abhishek’s strike rate after being dropped in the eighth over. He scored 72 runs off his last 23 balls, with seven sixes and five fours. Abhishek’s first 24 balls fetched only 28 runs with three boundaries.2 Players before Abhishek to score a century in men’s T20Is in Zimbabwe. Aaron Finch’s world-record 172 against Zimbabwe in 2018 came in Harare, while Steven Taylor scored an unbeaten 101 against Jersey in Bulawayo in 2022.234 for 2 India’s total in Harare is now the highest by any team against Zimbabwe in men’s T20Is, surpassing Australia’s 229 for 2 in 2018. It is also the second-highest T20I total by any team in Zimbabwe, behind the 236 for 5 by Zimbabwe against Singapore in 2022.161 Runs scored by India in their last ten overs on Sunday, the third-most by any team in a men’s T20I innings, where ball-by-ball data is available. Nepal scored 192 runs in the final ten overs against Mongolia in 2023, while Japan scored 161 against China earlier this year.

All the stats highlights from the first ODI in Harare

Sampath Bandarupalli05-Aug-2022304 Target chased by Zimbabwe in the first ODI. It is their highest successful target against Bangladesh in ODIs and their joint-third highest chase. Their previous highest successful chase against Bangladesh was 258, way back in 1999 in Dhaka.3 Zimbabwe became only the third team to successfully chase down a target of 300-plus runs against Bangladesh in ODIs. Pakistan chased 327 during the 2014 Asia Cup in Mirpur, while England chased down 306 during the 2017 Champions Trophy.19 Consecutive wins for Bangladesh against Zimbabwe in ODIs, before the five-wicket defeat in Harare. Zimbabwe’s last ODI win against Bangladesh came in May 2013, when they won by seven wickets in Bulawayo.4 Instances of a team losing a men’s ODI despite batting full 50 overs at the cost of two or fewer wickets. All the previous three instances were also while batting first, with the last of them by South Africa, when they scored 266 for 2 against Pakistan in 2019.ESPNcricinfo Ltd301 Runs scored by Zimbabwe after the fall of the second wicket in the chase. It is only the fifth instance of a team scoring 300-plus runs for the third and lower wicket in a successful ODI chase. The highest is 347 runs by Australia against India in 2019, after losing two wickets for 12 runs during a 359-run target chase.2 Innocent Kaia and Sikandar Raza are only the second pair to score hundreds in the same ODI innings for Zimbabwe. Stuart Carlisle and Sean Ervine became the first such pair when they scored against India during the 2004 VB Series at the Adelaide Oval.192 Partnership runs between Kaia and Raza, the third highest stand for Zimbabwe in ODI cricket. The highest is the 224-run opening stand by Raza with Hamilton Masakadza against Afghanistan in 2014, while Carlisle and Ervine added 202 for the fourth wicket against India in 2004.135* Raza’s score against Bangladesh in Harare is the highest individual score during a successful ODI chase while batting at No.5 and lower. Michael Bracewell’s 127* against Ireland last month in Dublin while batting at No.7 was the previous highest.Raza’s 135 is also the second highest for Zimbabwe in a successful ODI chase, behind his own 141 against Afghanistan in 2014. Raza is also only the second Zimbabwe batter with multiple hundreds in successful ODI chases, after Craig Ervine.81 Balls needed for Raza to complete his century, the third fastest for Zimbabwe in ODI cricket. The fastest hundred is by Sean Williams off 77 balls against the UAE in 2019, while Brendan Taylor scored a 79-ball century against Ireland in the 2015 World Cup.

The allrounder is now very clear on what his role is for Australia after plenty of time chatting with captain Aaron Finch

Daniel Brettig17-Sep-2020Melbourne’s lockdown, in the cause of stemming the Covid-19 pandemic, has taken much away from a previously vibrant city. One thing it has gifted Australian cricket, however, is clarity about the role Glenn Maxwell is playing for the ODI team, a little more than a year after the absence of same contributed to a deeply disappointing World Cup campaign.It has been demonstrated in devastatingly effective fashion for Australia on the road against the world champions, inflicting England’s first ODI series loss at home since 2015. In games one and three in Manchester, Maxwell produced a pair of counter-attacking innings from No. 7 that left Eoin Morgan’s side without a riposte, and at the same time confirmed that yes, Maxwell does have a highly significant and consistent part to play for Australia over the next four years to the 2023 World Cup in India.In partnership with Alex Carey, who also shored up his flagging international fortunes since a productive World Cup, Maxwell unleashed a century of power but also presence of mind, demonstrating a level of peace and self-knowledge that had appeared absent from his game for much of the preceding few years. It was the product of careful consideration with limited-overs captain Aaron Finch.ALSO READ: Bursting of England’s bubble shows how long the road to 2023 will be
Shorn of scheduled series against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and West Indies, plus the postponement of the T20 World Cup, Australia’s Melbourne-based cricketers have had little else to do other than talk a lot between small-scale net sessions in Cricket Victoria’s Junction Oval base. For Maxwell and Finch, that meant hours to discuss exactly how the leader saw the role of his longtime friend and international team-mate.Shuffled up and down the batting order ad nauseum, dropped and recalled, and also having taken a break for mental health reasons early last season, Maxwell was clearly in need of some simple instruction. As the many conversations rolled on, the desired description emerged – not unlike that traditionally assigned to a wicketkeeper. From No. 7, Maxwell would be able to counterattack when Australia were in a hole, while Finch reserved the right to promote him in the order if those above him were able to set the right launchpad for the final 20 or so overs.”The really good thing is even in the lockdown period I was training with Finchy and we were able to talk about my role and certain things,” Maxwell said. “I just had so much clarity of what he expected of me in that role.”I think I was able to take the game on, with the clarity he gave me before the tournament, and was able to ride on that momentum as well. Just knowing I had the backing of him is awesome. He’s been great for this group over here, he’s kept us all together, all 21 of us in the hub here, and he’s done a great job. Whether in the field or with his batters, he’s been outstanding.”Finch had likewise articulated a specific, consistent role for Maxwell in his comments at the post-series presentation: “Maxi is in the team to do a specific role and that’s be able to take the game away from oppositions when you are having a good day but also be that guy who can counterattack and try and swing momentum. England had all the momentum at 5 for 70-odd and he dragged it back.”That partnership with Alex was fantastic, I’m really proud of both of them, they deserve a lot of success and a lot of credit. Not just for this win but how hard they’ve been working on their game.”What makes him [Maxwell] so damaging is he can play all around the ground, I don’t think there are many bowlers who can trouble him when he’s having one of those days but the way he navigated that innings, took it deeper and deeper, of course you have to take your chances chasing seven an over from a long way out and he did that perfectly. They fed off each other having the left-right hand combination, it was pretty special.”