All posts by n8rngtd.top

Visiting openers negotiate tricky passage to cut arrears before early close

Paul Edwards10-Apr-2021
A day that began with snow at Emirates Old Trafford ended with bad light at 4.30pm followed by rain, sleet and a premature dusk tugging at the sky’s skirts. In between those meteorological events, one of them eccentric, another inevitable, we had a day of shreds and patches in which Lancashire established a first-innings lead of 106, only for Sussex’s openers to reduce the advantage to 68 without too many alarums. If Dane Vilas’s bowlers hear any dreamy lullabies this evening, they will concern early wickets in good weather on the morrow. One cannot like their chances with the weather but the pressure exerted by Saqib Mahmood and Tom Bailey will warm the home coaches this evening. Merciful God, something needs to.There are days in the close season when one arrives at this ground and observes with sage joviality that cricket would be impossible. The rain is icy and grey skies complete the wintry aspect. This was one such morning. Friday’s improvement in the weather had been brief. Folk arrived from distant parts – well, Skelmersdale anyway – with talk of snow. Sleet speckled the morning air, sending the already euphoric photographers scurrying for their cameras. A thrush perched outside Exchange Quay looked so beruffled it might have been a distant descendant of Thomas Hardy’s possibly percipient bird.Related

• Headingley snow prevents Glamorgan from turning up heat on Yorkshire

• Derbyshire thrash their way into trouble as Hannon-Dalby profits

• Jack Leach discipline, Tom Abell dash keep Somerset in the hunt

• Burns, Foakes dig in to keep Surrey afloat

Eventually, play got under way and things immediately proceeded much as they had on Friday: Dane Vilas pushed Sean Hunt to deep point and took a single. At times one believes Lancashire’s captain would look to keep the scoreboard moving in the aftermath of nuclear winter. Rather like Don Bradman or Alastair Cook, he finds the tedium of incessant accumulation most congenial.One imagines Hunt will be particularly glad we got on the field. A Guildford lad who played all his age-group cricket for Surrey, Hunt took his maiden first-class wicket, that of Alex Davies, on Friday afternoon and nearly 24 hours later he got two more leg before decisions from Neil Bainton when Luke Wood and Danny Lamb played around very straight balls. In a match where more experienced bowlers have been taken out, Hunt can take pride in having adhered to his disciplines.The next wicket was taken by George Garton, who stopped the ball off his own bowling and ran out the non-striking batsman, Bailey, for 24 when he and Vilas were negotiating a single. Another “shall-we? shan’t we?” total balls-up resulted in Tom Hartley being run out by Stiaan van Zyl for 4 but by then Lancashire had a full bag of bonus points. Almost immediately Vilas was dropped by the scampering wicketkeeper, Ben Brown, when he top-edged a skyer towards long leg. The escape counted for nothing but entertainment. Next over Lancashire’s captain was caught at deep point by Aaron Thomason for 189 when reverse-sweeping Carson. It is the eleventh time Vilas has passed 150 in his 22 centuries.Our season is barely three days old yet there has been so much to learn. Brown’s bowlers, two of them Championship debutants, can reflect on their first experience of big school. Carson, for example, could have dismissed both Davies and Vilas quite cheaply on Friday afternoon but instead ended the innings with 2 for 106 from his 24.4 overs. Every inaccuracy was seized upon and punished. In that context Brown’s decision to give his young offspinner second and third spells on Friday, and then more bowling on Saturday, suggests Carson has the steel to prevail and will, in time, repay his skipper’s faith. By September we shall all know more about the matter.We will know more about Tom Haines and Thomason, too, but what they revealed this afternoon was a shrewd awareness of their responsibilities and a determination to defend the commonwealth. The pair had to face a very tough examination from Bailey and Mahmood with the new ball but the nearest Lancashire came to a breakthrough was when Haines miscued a drive over Josh Bohannon’s head at cover. Were Sussex to have been 38 for 2 at the close we would be considering a very different final act to this drama. As things are, a draw is the most likely outcome and the only things a fellow can ask of this evening are a hearty supper and an improving book. Patrick Kavanagh’s seems about right.

SRH will continue to miss Williamson, and might want to rejig their top order with Bairstow pushed to open

Annesha Ghosh16-Apr-20212:35

Bond: It will be hard work against Sunrisers’ tough bowling line-up

Big picture

The Sunrisers Hyderabad had lost two straight games at the start of their IPL campaigns in 2014, 2016 and 2020 too. In 2016, they went on to win the title, and in 2020, they made the playoffs, finishing third. But a look back at history might not be enough if they are to avert a third successive loss this season. Especially as they go up against defending champions Mumbai Indians, fresh from consigning the Kolkata Knight Riders to an epic capitulation after coming up marginally short in their season opener against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.Chasing at Chepauk in their first two games, the Sunrisers combusted in a rash of ill-judged shots, particularly in their last outing, against the Knight Riders, the want of solidity and fluency in their middle order exposed. They could miss the services of Kane Williamson for a third game on the trot, but even in his absence, the Sunrisers possess resources potent enough – at least on paper – to pose the Mumbai Indians a challenge.That possibility, however, might warrant some tinkering in the line-up, perhaps even a promotion to the opening spot for Jonny Bairstow, who, if handed the gloves, could allow the side to bring in an Indian allrounder – like Kedar Jadhav – in place of Wriddhiman Saha, who kept in the first two matches but struggled with the bat.Team combination concerns aren’t as acute for the Mumbai Indians, but they might sense an opportunity to hand offspinner Jayant Yadav his first game of the season, a tactical ploy that has reaped captain Rohit Sharma impressive rewards over the past two editions.

In the news

Williamson is unlikely to be fit to make the playing XI, as he continues his recovery from an elbow injury, but he said in a social-media video posted by his franchise that he was “pretty optimistic” about returning to full fitness “within the week”.England batter Jason Roy, whom the Sunrisers had acquired as Mitchell Marsh’s replacement, finished his seven-day quarantine on Friday, but might have to wait before getting a game.

Likely XIs

Mumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt) 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Ishan Kishan, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Rahul Chahar, 9 Marco Jansen/Jayant Yadav, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Jasprit BumrahSunrisers Hyderabad: 1 David Warner (capt), 2. Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 Rashid Khan, 7 Jason Holder, 8 Abdul Samad, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Shahbaz Nadeem, 11 T NatarajanThey have won one and lost one, but the Mumbai Indians are already starting to look formidable•BCCI

Strategy punt

Amid weather concerns, India and New Zealand fight for a taste of silverware after near-misses in recent ICC campaigns

Andrew Miller17-Jun-20214:48

Manjrekar: Losing the toss will be ideal for India

Big picture

Imagine that the guardians of Test cricket, in a bid to assess the future health of the grand old game, dispatch a delegate from its golden age through time and space to watch the inaugural World Test Championship final of 2021.You can take your pick as to when that golden era might exactly have been, but whatever their year of origin, any time-traveller alighting on Southampton this week might assume Test cricket was in a pretty moribund state. Here, after all, is the sport’s brand-new showpiece occasion, more than a decade in the making after endless false starts – ones that screamed, more than anything else, of a fundamental lack of faith in the product.And instead of taking its rightful place at Lord’s, Eden Gardens or the MCG, the contest has been shunted out to a souped-up service station on the lesser-travelled east-bound carriageway of the M27, where for the next five days (or six) India and New Zealand are braced for weather as torrential as the abuse that the WTC format has attracted in the past two years – not least from the new ICC chairman, Greg Barclay, who declared on the day of his investiture last autumn that it was “not fit for purpose”.

Watch cricket on ESPN+

The WTC final is available in the US on ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ and tune in to the match.

A maximum of 4000 people a day will be permitted to witness the spectacle – 25% capacity, in keeping with the UK’s current lockdown restrictions. That figure might have been more come day four, and the government’s so-called Freedom Day of June 21, but that date is a can that has been kicked on down the road for another day.So there’s a fair amount conspiring to dampen the mood, you might say.There is, however, an alternative narrative, one that, with an iota of heft from those who profess to love and nurture the sport, could be resonating high above this current air of mild apathy.The WTC final will be taking place in spite of a once-in-a-generation global pandemic at the now-famous Ageas Bowl, cricket’s original bio-secure venue, the existence of which unequivocally saved the ECB’s bacon in the summer of 2020, and showed the wider cricketing world how to ensure that the show can go on in these times.Related

• Five things India must keep in mind in the WTC final

• Ajaz Patel primed to add new chapter to 'a hell of a story'

• Bowlers promise the familiar as well as the unknown

• How New Zealand have transformed into world beaters

The contest will also feature, indisputably and thankfully, the two best Test teams in the world.There’s been nothing pretty about the permutations on the WTC table. The pandemic caused such havoc to the Future Tours Programme that a points average had to be introduced to mitigate the rash of cancelled series. But after flirtations from two flawed outfits, England and Australia, it is India and New Zealand who have surged to the top of the tree, and irrespective of how the coming days pan out, it would be difficult to wish for two better representatives for Test cricket in 2021, both as a statement of its current health, and as an expression of its future hopes.First and foremost, India’s presence is sacrosanct. They are here because they are an outstanding, well-rounded outfit, unbeatable at home and now indomitable overseas, as their stunning, bare-bones triumph in Australia last winter testifies. But the presence of their vast market also gives the format hope of long-term traction – of TV viewership, sponsorship interest, administrative buy-in. All the things that we wish did not matter so much in elite-level sport, but which we know to be key to the cause.The prospective absence of India from such a showpiece had, after all, been the main sticking point in the broadcast negotiations for the format’s abortive first attempts. And now, as it happens, the near converse status applies. Following last month’s postponement of the IPL, the void in India’s daily sporting diet is so gaping that this one-off contest has an even greater opportunity to seize the limelight and the narrative – if the weather can give it half a chance, of course.Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli take part in a fielding drill on the eve of the WTC final•ICC via Getty

But then there’s New Zealand – the David to India’s Goliath, the stones in their shoe, as Thomas Tuchel said of Chelsea’s Champions League victory over Manchester City. They are a team that has become used to being patronised as plucky underdogs, but they have shown some seriously sharp teeth in their six-year journey to the uppermost echelons of the sport – via Brendon McCullum’s heavy-metal cricket at the 2015 World Cup, to Kane Williamson’s more sanguine but no less intense leadership in more recent years.Back at the 2019 World Cup, it was quietly suggested that New Zealand had pooped the Big Three party by knocking India out in their semi-final clash at Old Trafford. However, the extraordinary events of that subsequent final against England proved beyond all question their right to be considered among cricket’s on-field elite.As model of what cricket can be when it looks beyond the self-interest of its big boys, New Zealand’s achievements in recent years have been little short of heroic. Who, apart from 1.2 billion-odd Indians, would begrudge them a taste of silverware after such agonising near-misses in recent ICC campaigns?Most fundamentally, the WTC final is the start of something new for an ancient format. It’s taken nigh on 150 years for the sport to reach this point: a willingness to cap Test cricket’s eternal quest for with a true coronation event.There have been title fights in the recent past, but usually only of a dynastic nature – perhaps most famously, Australia’s epic series victory in the Caribbean in 1994-95, the moment at which West Indies’ two-decade hegemony was finally ended. The world rankings have added an extra frisson in recent years, especially since the introduction of the ICC’s Test mace in 2003, but all too often the handover moments have been lacklustre and debatable, more Duckworth-Lewis recalculation than heavyweight knock-out.Finally, however, the sport has got its moment, and two sides to savour. New Zealand have warmed up, if that is the right word, with a significant achievement in their own right – a first series win in England since 1999, courtesy a complete squad performance across two Tests at Lord’s and Edgbaston. From the form of Devon Conway on debut at Lord’s to Tim Southee’s ageless display of swing bowling in the same game, they have shown a cohesion that transcends mere experience, and Williamson’s elbow niggles aside, could not hope to be better placed for their shot at glory.5:13

Fire and Ice: The Kohli-Williamson story

India, by contrast, have had only an intra-squad practice to wet their whistle since arriving in England. Yet they have the depth of quality within their ranks to rehearse for most contingencies, and they have been acclimatising in Southampton throughout their build-up period, so could not be better attuned to the ground’s vagaries – not least the Australian-style acreage of its vast outfield.In spite of everything that has conspired against this concept, the moment has finally arrived for Test cricket to reach its pinnacle. Better late than never.

Form guide

India: WWWLW
New Zealand: WDWWW

In the spotlight

There were times during India’s recent home series against England in which Rohit Sharma was simply outstanding. His 161 on the first day in Chennai was more than his opponents managed in four of their next six completed innings, while his mastery of the ultra-spinning conditions in Ahmedabad provided an even more stark gulf in class. And yet, he arrives in England with a significant point to prove, given the gulf in his home and away averages is threatening to become every bit as much of a chasm. In 18 Tests in India, he averages a staggering 79.52 with seven hundreds and six fifties; elsewhere in the world that slumps to 27.00 from 20 matches, with his highest score outside of Asia coming in Auckland seven years ago, when he made 72 from No. 5. The challenge of the swinging ball, in particular Trent Boult’s arc back into the right-hander, will be a significant one for the whole Indian line-up, but the man at the top of the order has the form and the stature to set the tone for his team, so long as he heeds VVS Laxman’s advice, and focuses on the whereabouts of his off stump.It’s often said of Kane Williamson’s long-standing elbow injury that he is suffering “irritation” in the joint, which is arguably the only time such a mealy-mouthed emotion manifests itself in New Zealand’s extraordinarily chilled-out captain. Williamson missed the Edgbaston victory to give himself every chance of full fitness for this, the culmination of his five-year stint as Test captain, and whatever the long-term prognosis, he has done the needful to reclaim his place at No. 3, taking a cortisone injection in the lead-up to the match that he described, with typical under-statement, as “nice”. Like McCullum before him, Williamson’s personality is imprinted on his team – likeable, tougher than anyone gives them credit for, and perfectly content to be considered a touch dull if it affords them to space to extend their repertoire to its fullest. This week he’s been usurped by Steven Smith as the ICC’s No. 1-ranked batter, but this is a week, at long last, when such rankings can take second place to tangible rewards. If Williamson bats long, his team has a greater chance to slot into their roles around him.Kane Williamson and Tom Latham will be key to New Zealand’s batting effort•ICC via Getty

Team news

New Zealand made six changes for their series-sealing victory at Edgbaston last week, and they stitched together a perfect match-winning outfit from the outer extremities of their squad. From Will Young at No. 3 to Matt Henry with his player-of-the-match-winning haul, through to Ajaz Patel, who has now officially leap-frogged Mitchell Santner as the team’s premier spinner, every man in the XI did his duty to give the team management a serious dilemma. Ross Taylor’s mind-over-matter 80 will have done enough to reassert his hold at No. 4, while – fitness permitting – BJ Watling will return behind the stumps for the final appearance of his career. The real dilemmas centre on the fast bowling. Sentiment demands that the old guard – Southee, Trent Boult and Neil Wagner – get the chance to finish the job that they have started, but Henry’s form is hard to ignore, as is Kyle Jamieson’s point-of-difference lankiness. Might they copy England’s approach, and bench Patel in favour of an all-seam attack? Wagner’s thirst for exhausting spinner-length spells, allied to Colin de Grandhomme’s canny swingers, would mitigate such an approach – even if England’s recent experience would caution against it.New Zealand (possible): 1 Tom Latham, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Henry Nicholls, 6 BJ Watling (wk), 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Ajaz Patel/Kyle Jamieson, 10 Neil Wagner, 11 Trent Boult.The beauty of a one-off Test such as this is that both teams can, to a greater or lesser degree, sack off any over-riding concerns about the conditions and the team balance, or the need to prioritise certain players at certain venues, and just unleash the very best XI that they can muster. And to that end, India have chosen – notwithstanding a week of rain in the offing – to back their twin spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin to bring their A games in the first instance, and balance the batting in the second, in what on paper looks a devastatingly complete team. There’s a fire and ice mixture in the top six, where Rishabh Pant’s last Test innings in England gives no reason to doubt that he’s ready to kick on from a breakthrough start to his year. Had India felt they needed the extra batter, Hanuma Vihari would have been the back-up option. Jasprit Bumrah is the nailed-on new-ball option with Kohli opting for Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma as other pace options as the BCCI announced the team on the eve of the final. Shami was desperately unlucky on the last tour of England in 2018 – more so than his 16 wickets at 38.87 suggest – but Ishant has been averaging 23 in all conditions since 2015. The experience he’s gleaned in a 14-year career probably deserves to be trusted.India 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Rishabh Pant (wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.The WTC final will be taking place in spite of a once-in-a-generation global pandemic at the now-famous Ageas Bowl, cricket’s original bio-secure venue•ICC via Getty

Pitch and conditions

Gadzooks! The long-range weather forecast clearly has a sick sense of humour. The week began with the hottest day of the year in many parts of the UK, the mercury pushing a sweaty 30 degrees, but all it took was the suspicion of a final trim for Simon Lee’s lovingly prepared pitch for the heavens to open and all hell to break loose. Assuming the flood warnings subside sufficiently for play to get underway on Friday, Lee has promised a surface with “pace, bounce and carry”, which will please the seamers in both squads, and doubtless give Ashwin and Co. plenty to work with too. But if this weather persists, you can expect a nice fuzz of live grass too, many even an entire rainforest beneath the covers.

Stats and trivia

• India have lost both of their previous Tests in Southampton – by 266 runs in 2014, and by 60 runs in 2018.
• However, India did emerge victorious in all three of their previous ICC tournament fixtures at the venue, beating Kenya by 98 runs in the 2004 Champions Trophy, before overcoming South Africa and Afghanistan at the 2019 World Cup.
• New Zealand have won both of their previous completed fixtures at Ageas Bowl, two ODIs against England in 2013 and 2015.
• Williamson needs 44 runs to overtake Stephen Fleming’s aggregate of 7172 in Tests, and become New Zealand’s second-highest run-scorer of all time, behind Ross Taylor.
• Jadeja needs 46 runs to complete the 2000-run, 200-wicket double, a feat previously achieved by four Indians in Test cricket – Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Ashwin.
• India have beaten New Zealand just once in five previous ICC events – at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. They also lost in the final of New Zealand’s only trophy-winning campaign, the ICC knockout in Nairobi in 2000.

Quotes

“Every team has their challenges, and some people see ours as being a slightly smaller population. But we are just looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead, and committing to the sort of cricket that is important to us.”
“This is not one-day cricket, this is not a T20 game that finishes in a few hours. This a hard-brand of cricket, that we take a lot of pride in. And a great example of that was what you saw in Australia.”

Senior batsman has got NOC and is available for selection for his home team immediately

Shashank Kishore11-Jul-2021Sheldon Jackson, the domestic veteran, is set to return to Saurashtra, the team he won the Ranji Trophy with in 2019-20. After the Ranji win, Jackson moved to Puducherry as a professional player. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Jackson ended up not playing in the Ranji Trophy for Puducherry, and only represented the team in the limited-overs formats, in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Saurashtra Cricket Association president Jaydev Shah confirmed to that Jackson has obtained the NOC from Puducherry and is eligible for selection immediately.Related

• Wasim Jaffer named Odisha chief coach ahead of domestic season

• Sheldon Jackson – support act to Cheteshwar Pujara, leading man in his own right

• Sheldon Jackson puts 'dark phase' behind him and embraces 'new perspective'

• Meet Chetan Sakariya – who overcame personal tragedy to make it to the IPL

While Puducherry failed to make the knockouts of both limited-overs competitions, Jackson was the team’s second-highest run-getter in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, with 227 runs in five innings, including a best of 104. He did even better in the Mushtaq Ali T20s, top-scoring with 242 runs in five innings, including his maiden century in the format, an unbeaten match-winning 106 against Andhra. He has credited this stint for his return to the IPL fold after four years, being signed for his base price of INR 20 lakh by the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2021 auction.Jackson, 34, is among the more accomplished batters in the domestic circuit, averaging 49.42 in 76 first-class matches, with 19 centuries and 27 half-centuries. He averages 37.42 in 60 List A matches, while striking at 117.09 across 59 T20s.The exits of Jackson and Pankaj Singh, the former India fast bowler (who retired from all forms of cricket), leaves Puducherry with a huge void to fill ahead of the season. The side has had three professional players – the most allowed to any team – in all seasons since their entry into the domestic fold in 2018-19, much like most of the teams that were brought into the domestic ambit following the Lodha recommendations.

T20 stalwart reveals he taught Edwards the slower variation that dismissed Finch in the chase

Andrew McGlashan11-Jul-2021Dwayne Bravo is the second-most capped player in T20 history – his international captain Kieron Pollard is well ahead at the top – and there were examples of that wealth of experience dotted throughout West Indies’ hugely impressive performance in St Lucia.It had been five years since he had batted as high as No. 5 in international cricket and two years since he’d done it at any level. Having briefly looked as though his presence might stall the innings when he sat on 17 off 17 – especially with the fact that Andre Russell, Nicholas Pooran and Fabian Allen were to follow – he then finished with 47 off 34 balls. It was both his longest and highest innings since making 55 off 54 against Pakistan in Dubai in September 2016.”It was always in the team plan if we bat first and we lose early wickets for me to go in and control the innings with the bat – it’s more my style of play,” he told the host broadcaster. “Pick up the ones and twos, lay that solid platform for the likes of Russell, Fabian, Pooran, if Polly is in the squad, to do what they have to do in the back end.”He did admit, though, to realising the batting power that was still to come. “I must be honest, at some point I was trying get out at the back end to allow Russell and these guys to finish off,” he said.

Watch cricket on ESPN+

West Indies v Australia is available in the US on ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ and tune in to the match.

The runs on the board were just one part of the role he played. There was the knowledge and advice he was able to bring to the match-defining 103-run partnership with Shimron Hetmyer. “I had never batted with Bravo before … he was just telling me to keep going and just do what you do best,” Hetmyer said. “I really trusted him batting and running between the wickets.”As Hetmyer cut loose in the latter part of the innings – turning 14 off 13 balls into 61 off 36 – Bravo had the best seat in the house.”We needed partnerships and the way Hetmyer batted in the first game and into this game, it’s just a pleasure to see him bat,” Bravo said. “He’s a batting leader in our group, we gave him the responsibility to take control of the batting and show some maturity. We all know how classy he is and how dangerous he can be, [the advice was] just to bat deep, it’s a ground that has a big wind factor advantage.”It’s just about guiding the younger players: Hety, Pooran, Obed McCoy, Hayden Walsh…that’s the kind of information we keep feeding to these younger players.”In the field, Bravo remains very solid – notwithstanding one missed chance running from short third man – and while he claimed the late wicket of Dan Christian, his most significant contribution was not obvious on the scorecard.When Fidel Edwards removed Aaron Finch with a slower ball that cannoned off the pads into the stumps he immediately ran to Bravo – a master of such variations – in his celebration.”Two days ago I teach him how to do it,” Bravo revealed. “I said, you have the perfect action to bowl a different slower ball. I let him stand about five feet away from me and said Fidel, all you have to do with your action is sling the ball like this with pace but he didn’t have the confidence to do it in a game. So I said to him do a few in a practice. I said do it [in the game], nothing wrong with trying, so for me to see him have success I’m happy.”

Will play alongside local star Sandeep Lamichhane for Kathmandu Kings XI

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jul-2021Shahid Afridi and local superstar Sandeep Lamichhane will reunite as team-mates in the Everest Premier League, Nepal’s domestic T20 tournament. Legspinner Lamichhane made his international T20 debut alongside the legendary Afridi when they were part of an ICC World XI team that took on world champions West Indies in a hurricane relief exhibition match at Lord’s. The duo will represent Kathmandu Kings XI in the competition that will run from September 25 to October 9 at Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur.”Welcome on board with Kathmandu Kings XI,” Lamichhane told Afridi in a video message at the launch of the team’s campaign. “All the boys are really excited to see you here on the field. And I personally know you are going to have a great time during your visit to Nepal. Can’t wait to see you joining the team.”

Former Australia captain reveals he was approached by BCCI to coach India before Dravid was appointed

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2021Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is not able to take up coaching roles with the Australian and Indian teams because of “time commitments”. Ponting said “giving up 300 days a year is not something I would do” with a young family by his side. He also revealed that he was approached to be India’s head coach before Rahul Dravid took over the role earlier this month following Ravi Shastri’s exit after the T20 World Cup.”Time is the only thing that’s stopping me [from taking the job], to be honest,” Ponting told podcast. “I’d love to coach the Australian team, but what I have done with my playing career was being away from family as much. I have a young family now, a seven-year-old boy, and to give up 300 days a year is not what I would do. That’s where the IPL works so well for me.”To be able to coach 8-10 weeks in winter months, and to be able to come back and do the Channel 7 stuff in the summer, I have got enough work to keep me happy and to keep me around the game but also be able to spend time with the family.Related

• Langer has a little apocalypse now and then

• Dravid appointed new India head coach on two-year term

“Let’s see what they [CA] do, if they ever split the coaches among say, white-ball and red-ball teams. I think everyone loves to coach the Australian team. I actually think, from my view, it’s almost an older man’s job and not for someone who has got a young family or for a person like Justin [Langer] where he is on the other end now where his family is all grown up and moved away. You are not giving up that side of your life. It’s over 300 days a year, a pretty hard job. Justin’s been under pressure since he took over the job, more so, the last few months. That’s the only thing that would stop me – the time commitment.”Ponting also said he had a “couple of conversations” about the India coach offer during the IPL but he had to decline it for the “exact same reason”. He was also “surprised” that Dravid took up the job given that he has a young family to take care of.”The people that I spoke to were pretty hell-bent on finding a way to make it work because first up, I can’t give up that time, that means I can’t coach in the IPL,” Ponting said of his conversations about the India coach job.”There was a lot of chat about how happy he (Dravid) was [with] his academy role… I am not sure about his family life… I think he has got young kids… Anyway, so I am surprised that he took it. The people that I spoke to were sure they got the right person, so they were probably able to get Dravid to do it.”Ponting also confirmed he will continue to be with Delhi Capitals next IPL though he hasn’t extended his contract with them officially yet. Having worked as the head coach of Capitals for the last four seasons, he said he wants to focus on developing the fringe players.”Some of the young players I have had the chance to work with are exceptional and really good people,” he said. “That’s what I want to be able to do – the Prithvi Shaws, the Shreyas Iyers, the Avesh Khans, these guys, we had them in the system for three-four years that have really turned into exceptionally good IPL players, and some of them have also turned into international players.”For me, it is not even about those big-name players. If I can keep a few of these guys, great. But it’s more about the guys on the fringe – a lot of them haven’t played a game. When you see them in the team, at the training, how hard they train and how much they enjoy the game, that’s what I want to recreate if that’s possible.”With the IPL retention deadline set as November 30 for the existing franchises – teams can retain only four players – he added that Capitals would try to keep the core players though that will be a challenge given that two more teams are added to the next IPL, and there will be a big auction soon.”With the retention stuff, you can keep only four players, and we had 24 players in the squad last year. So to try and bring the majority of the players would be ideal, but It will be a challenge as well. With the two new teams, you can guarantee that they are talking to Pant, Iyer – they are trying to secure these guys as they are generational franchise players. It’s up to me at Delhi to make sure they don’t get their hands on them.”

Captain goes to stumps unbeaten on 46, with hosts needing 122 more to keep the series alive

Saurabh Somani05-Jan-2022Stumps A sturdy display by South Africa’s top order put them in position to level the series against India, ending the third day’s play on 118 for 2, practically halfway through their chase of 240. Fortunes swung from one team to another during the course of a gripping day’s cricket, as India made 266 in their second innings – less than what looked possible when Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were putting together a century stand, but more than seemed probable when India slid to 184 for 6 and then 228 for 8.South Africa lost Aiden Markram and Keegan Petersen in their chase, but each of the partnerships they have had so far have been substantial, especially in the context of the target. Markram and Dean Elgar took a leaf out of the Pujara-Rahane book and began aggressively, putting on 47 in ten overs. Elgar and Petersen then added 46, while the unbroken Elgar-Rassie van der Dussen stand has yielded 25 runs in 12.4 overs so far.Elgar played his usual bloody-minded innings, wearing blows on the body, shrugging off edges and balls whistling past, and always finding a way to survive. Apart from the opening burst where Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami had a rare period of not landing the ball exactly where they wished, India’s bowlers kept asking questions of the batters; but until stumps, South Africa’s top order weathered them.While the hosts ended the day with the advantage, the morning had brought forth a deluge of runs via Pujara and Rahane. Both men had come into the game with increasing scrutiny about their spots in the XI, and ended up making fifties. They were proactive and on the lookout for runs. Pujara showed his intent early by whacking an on drive to the long-on boundary off Lungi Ngidi in the day’s second over – this, after he had already glanced a four at the start of it. It was the sort of ball which Pujara might ordinarily have just pushed to cover. Three overs later, Rahane rose with the ball as Jansen banged it in short outside off, and cut it beautifully over point for six.Jasprit Bumrah and Marco Jansen exchanged words in a mid-pitch confrontation•AFP via Getty Images

Just when South Africa were looking flat, Kagiso Rabada found ferocious rhythm after the first drinks break. He hit the hard length outside off that has made balls rear up on this pitch, and moved it away just enough to catch Rahane’s outside edge with the batter unable to prevent his hands following the ball. In his next over, Rabada got one to dart back into Pujara at pace, and trapped him lbw.Rabada then gave Rishabh Pant a working over in just two balls, beating him outside off first up and then firing a missile that rose up to throat and had the batter in a complete tangle as he fended with his gloves and saw the ball land short of the slips. Next ball, Pant danced down the track and tried to whack Rabada over cover, but only got an edge through to the keeper. With Rabada in the seventh over of his spell and his bowling clearly a cut above the rest, Pant’s shot selection might not have been the best.India had gone into lunch at 188 for 6, but after that Shardul Thakur came out swinging – and also connecting. There was one top-edged six, but five superbly timed fours as Thakur pushed India’s lead into the 200 territory. After he was caught on the boundary off Marco Jansen, Hanuma Vihari farmed the strike and went for his shots. Even so, he wasn’t always successful in shielding the bowlers, and Bumrah faced down a short-ball barrage from Jansen, in the middle of which there were words exchanged and a mid-pitch confrontation where players had to separate the two men, who were team-mates at Mumbai Indians just three months back.India’s target seemed like a safe one given the nature of the surface, where some balls were spitting up off a length. But a confident Markram put his failures of this series behind him to play an attacking role in the opening stand.Thakur continued to have a fantastic Test when he trapped Markram lbw in an over that had two close calls already. R Ashwin then provided an important breakthrough, getting Peterson lbw. He had van der Dussen in some trouble too, and while KL Rahul rotated his bowlers around – the injured Mohammed Siraj bowled the least – and all of them kept things tight, Elgar and van der Dussen survived till stumps.