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Sky commentator and former England coach had made disparaging remarks in an exchange with a third party

Andrew Miller16-Nov-2021David Lloyd, the Sky Sports commentator and former England coach, has issued an apology to Azeem Rafiq and the wider Asian cricket community, after admitting to a text message exchange in which he had questioned Rafiq’s personal life and called into question the community’s willingness to participate in the social side of club cricket.Speaking at a parliamentary hearing in Westminster on Tuesday, Rafiq spoke about the sport’s response to his allegations of institutional racism at Yorkshire, and accused “high-profile media people”, including Lloyd, of engaging in “denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing” to damage his credibility.”It’s clear the problem is there,” Rafiq said. “Everyone’s known it for a very long time. I think it’s been an open secret. As I’ve seen over the last 15 months, if you speak out your life is going to be made hell – and there’s no doubt my life [has been made hell].”I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.”High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, ‘The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there’, ‘Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone’.Related

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• Live Blog – Parliamentary inquiry into Yorkshire racism investigation

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• Yorkshire CCC is institutionally racist, admits former chair Roger Hutton

“And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.”That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me.”And I thought, ‘Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it’.”Responding on Twitter, Lloyd, 74, acknowledged that he had made an error of judgement in making such generalisations, and pledged to work harder to “make cricket a more inclusive sport”.”In October 2020, I had a private message exchange with a third party involved in cricket, about a number of topics,” Lloyd wrote. “In these messages, I referred to allegations about Azeem Rafiq which I had heard from within the game. I also made some comments about the Asian cricket community.”I deeply regret my actions, and I apologise most sincerely to Azeem and to the Asian cricket community for doing this, and for any offence caused. I am strongly committed to making cricket a more inclusive sport.”It is very obvious now that more work needs to be done and I will do everything I can to remove discrimination from the sport I love, and the sport that has been my life for over 50 years.”

Maxwell will lead a depleted Stars’ side as 10 players contract Covid-19, Scorchers have had one player test positive

Alex Malcolm02-Jan-2022Three more Melbourne Stars players have contracted Covid-19 but Sunday’s clash with Perth Scorchers at Junction Oval will go ahead despite 10 Stars players and eight support staff being in isolation. A Scorchers player has also returned a positive Covid-19 test and another is in isolation awaiting a result.Stars have named a completely revamped squad and coaching staff for Sunday’s clash after Covid-19 ravaged the club following an initial case that was detected on December 30 causing an earlier fixture with Perth Scorchers to be postponed.Scorchers will miss two players and one coach from their squad. Batter Nick Hobson returned a positive PCR Test while fast bowler Matthew Kelly and batting coach Beau Casson have been deemed close contacts and are in isolation as a precaution. Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis are also unavailable after they were called up to Australia’s Test squad after Travis Head was ruled out of the Sydney Test due to Covid-19.Stars confirmed seven players and eight support staff returned positive PCR tests on December 31 and all are isolating for seven days under Victoria government health rules. A further three cases were confirmed late on January 1. The Stars also have a derby against Melbourne Renegades on January 3 before most of their Covid-19 cases are out of isolation.Related

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• Melbourne Stars vs Perth Scorchers postponed due to a Covid-19 case in Stars' camp

Stars will still be captained by Glenn Maxwell but they have called up six players to supplement the squad as per BBL rules. Tasmania Sheffield Shield batter Charlie Wakim and former Sydney Sixers batter Justin Avendano have been flown in. Victoria squad member Xavier Crone comes in as bowling cover while Victoria premier cricketers Patrick Rowe, Tom Rogers and Lachlan Bangs have all been called up. Rowe and Rogers played in Victoria’s two most recent second XI matches and Rogers is coming off an unbeaten 200 from 151 balls for Ringwood against Prahran in a 50-over first grade match just prior to Christmas. Rowe was Australia’s wicketkeeper in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup while Bangs is a left-hander from Prahran.Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf returns to Stars for the first time this season.Coach David Hussey and his entire team of assistants are also in isolation with Victoria state coach Chris Rogers called in as interim coach. Stars’ WBBL coach Jarrad Loughman and former Victoria, South Australia and Adelaide Strikers wicketkeeper Adam Crosthwaite will be Rogers’ assistants for the next two games.Melbourne Stars squad: Glenn Maxwell (c), Qais Ahmad, Justin Avendano, Lachlan Bangs, Hilton Cartwright, Joe Clarke (wk) Brody Couch, Xavier Crone, Tom O’Connell, Haris Rauf, Tom Rogers, Patrick Rowe, Charles Wakim
Perth Scorchers squad: Ashton Turner (c), Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft (wk), Jason Behrendorff, Laurie Evans, Aaron Hardie, Peter Hatzoglou, Tymal Mills, David Moody, Lance Morris, Colin Munro, Kurtis Patterson, Andrew Tye

SA batter Lizelle Lee is ICC women’s ODI cricketer of the year

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jan-2022Smriti Mandhana has won the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy for being the ICC’s Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2021. She becomes only the second player, after Australia allrounder Ellyse Perry, to win the highest individual distinction in the women’s overall category of the annual ICC awards more than once.Mandhana was also nominated for the Women’s T20I Player of the Year award, but that was won by England opener Tammy Beaumont. Mandhana was, however, named in the ICC Women’s T20I Team of the Year.Mandhana, who was named ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year and ODI Cricketer of the Year in 2018, pipped fellow opening batters Beaumont, Lizelle Lee of South Africa, and Gaby Lewis of Ireland to the honour. Jhulan Goswami, who won the same award in 2007, is the only other Indian woman to ever win an ICC annual award.Related

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Commenting on receiving the honour Mandhana told ICC: “I am truly honoured for receiving the prestigious Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2021. I am grateful to my team-mates, my coaches, my family, friends and fans who believed in my potential and supported me in this journey.”A recognition of such high class from the global governing body of cricket in an exceptional and difficult year will motivate me to continue to better my game and contribute to Team India’s success going forward. I look forward to 2022 with a clear focus on winning the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 in New Zealand as we continue to prepare as a team and unit.”In 2021, since India’s return to the field on March 7 following a 364-day absence from the international scene – primarily because of the Covid-19 pandemic but also the BCCI’s inability to schedule games for them even as the Indian men’s team got its share of fixtures – Mandhana scored 855 runs in 22 international matches across three series, at an average of 38.86, hitting one century and five half-centuries along the way. The crowning piece in her run tally was a Player-of-the-Match-winning maiden hundred in the longest format – 127 against Australia at Gold Coast – in what was India’s maiden women’s day-night Test.In 2018, Mandhana had finished atop the run chart in women’s ODIs with 669 runs at an average of 66.90 and was the third-highest scorer in T20Is with 622 runs at a strike rate of 130.67.The ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year award, instituted in 2006, was named after Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, the former England Women’s Test cricketer and administrator, in 2017 upon the reintroduction of the category. Perry won the honour in 2017 and 2019 and took home the ICC Women’s Player of the Decade award in 2020.

Lizelle Lee named ICC Women’s ODI cricketer of the year

Lizelle Lee is the top-ranked batter in women’s ODIs•UPCA

South Africa batter Lizelle Lee has been named the ICC women’s ODI cricketer of the year, following a stellar 2021 in which she ended as the leading run-scorer in the format.Lee, the top-ranked batter in the world, scored 632 runs in 11 matches at an average of 90.28, including one century and five half-centuries. She played a pivotal role in the ODI series against India last March, making 288 runs, as South Africa sealed a 4-1 win. During the third match of that series, in Lucknow, she made her highest individual score, blasting an unbeaten 132 to help the team to a narrow win. She was eventually named the Player of the Series.Lee carried her fine form into the tour of West Indies, where she was once again the leading run-scorer, finishing the ODI leg with 248 runs in four matches at an average of 124.”This award means a lot to me, I didn’t expect it,” Lee said. “It’s an honour to just be nominated, so this feels amazing. There are so many people to give credit to – my parents and my wife have been my biggest source of support, but also my team-mates.”There are a few innings that stand out, but I’d rank the ones against India and my 90-something against West Indies in tough conditions as one of the best.”

Decision part of Ramiz Raja’s plans to overhaul state of pitches in Pakistan

Umar Farooq15-Mar-2022The PCB has sought the services of former MCG and ICC academy curator *Toby Lumsden for a 10-day period to oversee pitch preparation ahead of the third Test against Australia in Lahore. He will also assist local curators as part of chairman Ramiz Raja’s broader plan to overhaul the process of pitch preparation in the country.Australia’s first Test tour to Pakistan in 24 years has been marred by plenty of criticism over the state of the pitches. Last week’s series opener in Rawalpindi ended in a tame draw, with the surface being rated by the ICC s “below average,” leading to the venue getting a demerit point. ‘Only 14 wickets fell across five days. While Pakistan managed to take all 10 Australian wickets in the first innings, the visitors managed just four overall, with Pakistan making 476 for 4 declared and 252 for 0 when the match was called off.Related

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ESPNcricinfo understands the surface for the ongoing Karachi Test was originally meant to assist the spinners. However, it has also been deemed too slow and not to its character. Australia batted for over six sessions after winning the toss to put up 556, with the Test very much in their control despite Abdullah Shafique and Babar Azam having put together an unbroken 171-run third-wicket stand in pursuit of 506.Raja has initiated an overhaul of pitches, and is set to look at installing readymade drop-in pitches from Australia in Lahore and Karachi as early as next year. The PCB is understood to have ordered two drop-in pitches in a bid to simulate Australian surfaces, which they believe would help their players acclimatise better on overseas tours.Lumsden landed in Lahore earlier in the week to begin work. He began at the ICC Academy in 2010 and held the job for two years before rejoining in 2017 as head curator. 1600GMT The story had earlier stated Tony Hemming as the curator PCB had summoned. This has been corrected.

No way through for England despite early wobble as first Test ends in stalemate

Andrew Miller12-Mar-2022West Indies 375 (Bonner 123, Brathwaite 55) and 147 for 4 (Bonner 38*, Holder 37*) drew with England 311 (Bairstow 140, Seales 4-79) and 349 for 6 dec (Crawley 121, Root 109) Nkrumah Bonner and Jason Holder drew the sting of England’s depleted attack in a tense final session of the first Test in Antigua, as their 80-run partnership, spanning 34.4 resolute overs, thwarted a well-judged declaration from Joe Root that briefly looked set to deliver an unlikely victory in a previously bat-dominated contest.After Root himself had become England’s third centurion of the match – a feat they last achieved on the tour of India in 2016-17 – West Indies were left needing a stiff but tantalising target of 286 in a minimum of 71 overs, against an attack lacking the services of Mark Wood, the man whose habitual 90mph pace might have been expected to unlock an unforgiving surface.Instead, England’s fight was carried by the disciplined, probing spin of Jack Leach, who bowled with great accuracy, and with five men camped around the bat for the majority of the final session, but with little luck to finish with 3 for 57 in 30.1 overs. Ben Stokes was England’s other main threat as he once again belied the pre-match caveats about his fitness to bang out 13 more overs for 24, but having prised out the key early wicket of Kraigg Brathwaite, he too was unable to get the better of a dogged fifth-wicket pair.After 21 wickets had fallen on the first four days of the match, the likelihood of England forcing victory on an unforgiving surface at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium had always been slim. And slim seemed to have left town when it was confirmed that Wood – who had been withdrawn from the attack before lunch on day three – would play no further part in the match, after reporting “acute pain” in his injured right elbow during a nets session before the start of play.With Wood’s participation in the rest of the series now in serious doubt, it would have been understandable had England chosen to shut up shop from the outset, after resuming their second innings with a stalemate at their mercy on 217 for 1. However, in adding a further 132 runs in 25 overs of an extended morning session, the evidence from the day’s outset was that England always intended to have a dart at West Indies’ brittle batting in the final two sessions.By the time Bonner had batted for 493 balls across his two innings, and found typically indomitable support from Holder – a man who never needs to be asked twice to produce his best performances against England – West Indies had located a backbone to reinforce their remarkable home record in the Wisden-turned-Richards-Botham-Trophy.Either side of the tea break, however, it had threatened to be a very different story. After a misleadingly calm start to their chase, in which Brathwaite and John Campbell had compiled their second fifty stand of the match, West Indies shipped four wickets for eight runs in 9.3 overs to reawaken the sort of jitters that their opponents have known only too well in recent times.Suddenly, from 59 for 0, with the vague prospect of hunting down a run-a-ball asking rate in an ODI-style fight to the finish, West Indies were in the soup at 67 for 4, with their only remaining objective being survival – a state of affairs that allowed England to shelve any reticence in their field placings, and throw everything they had into the pursuit of those final six wickets.The dismissal of Brathwaite was the trigger for West Indies’ wobble for he had been, by a distance, the more fluent of West Indies’ two openers. Aside from one atrocious hack across the line at Leach, for which he had deserved to be bowled for 24, Brathwaite found a comfortable balance between stickability and intent to set West Indies’ tempo with a solid knock of 33 from 82 balls.Inevitably, however, it was Stokes who dislodged him. After his first-innings exertions, Stokes had been held back until the 24th over – ostensibly waiting until the ball was ready to reverse-swing – and with his seventh delivery, he skidded a full-length nipbacker into Brathwaite’s shin, to send him on his way for 33 from 82 balls.Suddenly, West Indies’ serenity had been shaken, and Campbell never looked like filling the void. Leach in particular had him in his pocket – he should have been caught for 1 from 19 balls, when he skied a leading edge to Crawley, running back from slip, and the solitary boundary of his innings, an attractive drive through the covers off Leach, came one ball after he had skimmed a less convincing hack over the head of Stokes at mid-off.But on 22, Campbell’s luck ran out. Needing to up his own tempo now that the captain was gone, he gave Leach the charge but scudded a flat drive towards Craig Overton at mid-off, who swallowed the chance comfortably above his head to leave West Indies in a bit of strife on 59 for 2.With tea looming, Leach and Stokes turned the screw. The new men, Shamarh Brooks and Bonner were limited to two runs in the space of six overs before, in the final over before the break, Brooks swept Leach for a pressure-relieving four, then fenced at his very next ball, for Crawley to make amends with a sharp low take at slip.Jack Leach made two breakthroughs before tea•Getty Images

At 65 for 3, that wicket was perfectly timed to scramble the mind of the incoming Jermaine Blackwood – a man who, moments earlier, might have priming himself to be the hero, Ageas Bowl 2020-style, in an improbable run-chase. Now his only real role was to loiter, and that notion seemed to fry his synapses in the interval. Three balls after the resumption, he flung his bat through a revolting hack to nothing, and was pinned lbw for 2 to set the cat fully among the pigeons.Holder and Bonner, however, could not be dislodged. The former used his extraordinarily long levers to stretch down the pitch at every opportunity, smothering Leach’s threat with an ever-broad bat; the latter hung back on the crease, playing off the pitch and trusting his eye to get out of intermittent trouble.Aside from Leach and Stokes, however, there wasn’t enough threat from the rest of England’s attack. Even with Ben Foakes standing up to the stumps, there was nothing about Chris Woakes’ diligent methods that looked like forcing a wicket, and perhaps the best of the rest were the speculative offbreaks of the squirrel-in-a-blender, Dan Lawrence, who came inches from cleaning up Bonner, on 9, with the biggest turner of the match.England did eventually think they’d broken the stand … but only for a split-second, for Bonner, on 25 at the time, was already grinning as he signalled for a review because he knew he’d feathered an inside-edge from Craig Overton into his pads.The biggest what-if for England, however, came when Holder, on 13, and with a dicey 22 overs still in the bank, was pinned on the back leg, offering no stroke to a faster, flatter ball from Leach. England, with one review up their sleeve, and perhaps mindful of what had happened at Headingley in 2019 when Australia got too eager to play their get-out-of-jail card, decided discretion was the better part of valour. Replays showed that the ball was smashing leg, and Holder wouldn’t offer a better opportunity for 59 remaining balls.Despite being thwarted at the death, there were plenty of positives for England to take away from the first five days of their so-called red-ball reset. With centuries already in the bag for Jonny Bairstow and Crawley, the captain Root made it three for the match in the morning session – his 24th in Test cricket and 13th as captain, overtaking Alastair Cook’s previous record. After a stellar year in 2021, it was Root’s first of the new calendar year, and his first in his new berth at No. 3 as well.But in strolling off the pitch with an indomitable stand to their names, and with West Indies’ unbeaten run in Tests against England in Antigua extended into an 42nd year, Bonner and Holder did more than enough to remind their opponents that they are in a tussle once again in this series, with their next challenge looming large in Barbados next week.

Wijetunge, Abeywickrama appointed as spin-bowling coach and fielding coach respectively

Andrew Fidel Fernando17-Apr-2022Naveed Nawaz, the former Sri Lanka batter, has been named the Sri Lanka men’s side’s assistant coach under new head coach Chris Silverwood.Nawaz had recently been Bangladesh’s Under-19 coach, and had overseen that side’s victory in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup. The term of his appointment is two years.Related

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Also appointed to Sri Lanka’s coaching staff is former seam bowler Chaminda Vaas, who has been bowling coach in several stints over the past 10 years. Piyal Wijetunge, for years the lead spin bowling coach in the country, has also been added to the top team’s staff as well, while Manoj Abeywickrama has been named fielding coach. These coaches, however, have only been appointed until the end of Sri Lanka’s forthcoming Bangladesh tour, in May.Nawaz had even been considered for the head coach role as Sri Lanka sought to replace Mickey Arthur, over the past few months, but it is understood that eventually the decision was made to appoint a better-heeled international coach. In Bangladesh, Nawaz had played a role in developing young players such as Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Shoriful Islam, and Shamim Hossain, who have all since graduated to the senior men’s side.As a player, Nawaz played one Test and three ODIs for Sri Lanka, and was a force in first-class cricket in the late 1990s and early 2000s, hitting 6892 runs at an average of 36.27Vaas’ reappointment, meanwhile, comes only months after the board declined to renew his contract in December last year. He had been Sri Lanka’s bowling coach under Mickey Arthur, but did not do the job on the recent tour of India.

Olly Stone due to play “some part” in Bears’ T20 Blast season after year-long absence

ESPNcricinfo staff24-May-2022Chris Woakes remains troubled by a long-standing knee injury which has ruled him out for the first two months of the county season and Warwickshire have set “no timescale” for his return.Woakes was due to make his first appearance of the summer against Somerset at the end of April but has not played since England’s third Test against West Indies in Grenada and was not considered for the squad for the first two Tests against New Zealand next month.Woakes has managed an issue in his right knee for the vast majority of his career, which he has previously described as “just a dodgy knee from too much bowling”.”He has been struggling with a longstanding knee injury and has also had a little ailment with his ankle, but it’s the knee injury that is holding him back,” Mark Robinson, Warwickshire’s head coach, said. “At the moment there is no timescale on when he will be back.”Along with Mark Wood and Jonny Bairstow, he was one of three players involved in all of England’s series last winter – the T20 World Cup in the UAE, the Ashes and the West Indies tour – and struggled for form, averaging 52.36 across six away Tests and conceding 20 runs in an over as New Zealand pulled off an unlikely chase in the World Cup semi-final.He was entrusted with the new ball in the Caribbean in the absence of James Anderson and Stuart Broad but struggled for penetration, in keeping with his poor record away from home in Test cricket.Related

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Olly Stone, Woakes’ Warwickshire team-mate, is expected to play “some part” in their T20 Blast season after nearly a year out with a stress fracture of the lower back.”Stoney has had a niggle around his hip cartilage which he picked up in a Second XI match,” Robinson said. “We thought we had got him back but then he aggravated it in a club game, but he is progressing and is probably about 10 to 14 days away from ready, depending how quickly it heals.”We are definitely hoping he will play some part in the Blast, though whether he will have the overs under his belt to play a four-day game in that interim period, we don’t know.”Liam Norwell, another absent Warwickshire seamer, is in contention to return for their Championship fixture against Lancashire next month.”He has had a tough time with one thing after another… [but] Liam is probably the closest to a return,” Robinson added.

New captain hopes team will feel ‘ten feet tall’ as he and McCullum take on leadership roles

Andrew Miller01-Jun-2022Ben Stokes, England’s new Test captain, insists the first LV= Insurance Test against New Zealand at Lord’s is a “blank canvas” for his team, rather than the start of the much-vaunted “red-ball reset”, and hopes that his partnership with head coach, Brendon McCullum, will allow the players to feel they are “ten feet tall” when they walk out of the pavilion on Thursday morning.In a sign of their determination for clarity in their new era, England confirmed their final XI 24 hours in advance of the match – with recalls for James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and a debut for Stokes’ Durham team-mate Matthew Potts, who has been the outstanding English quick on the county circuit this summer with 35 wickets at 18.57 to date.Overall, however, there is a sense of continuity to England’s first team of the summer, with seven survivors from their ten-wicket loss to West Indies in March, not to mention the 1177-wickets’ worth of new-ball experience back at the team’s disposal. However, despite a recent record of one Test win in 17 outings, Stokes is adamant that the players should not feel encumbered by what has gone before.”I just want everyone to feel free under my captaincy,” Stokes said, having taken over from Joe Root last month. “Obviously there has been talk around the word ‘reset’, which is something I don’t particularly like. I just see this as a complete and utter blank canvas for this Test team going forward.”We have got so much experience in that dressing room, with myself, Joe, Broady, Jimmy, Jonny [Bairstow], and at the other end we’ve younger lads with inexperience, but this is our time. We are going to dictate how things go, going forward. There is nothing on this blank canvas. Everyone is starting fresh now, whether you are Matt Potts or Stuart Broad or Jimmy Anderson.”The sense of new beginnings chimes with Broad’s insistence that he will treat his return to the side as a second debut after the hurt of missing out in the Caribbean. But for Potts – England cap No. 704 – that feeling will be all too real, and Stokes has no doubt that he will live up to the occasion.”Obviously he’s a Durham lad – there’s no bias there,” Stokes said. “I’ve got to know him over the years at Durham, and he has been outstanding in the games I have played, and even before that – he has been the guy that Scott Borthwick [their captain] has turned to to take the wickets.”Potts and Stokes have played together for Durham and Northern Superchargers•Getty Images

In a summer already marked by high scores all around the county circuit, Potts’ wickets tally – which includes four hauls of six wickets or more, and a best of 7 for 40 against Glamorgan – is especially notable, and Stokes was full of praise for the tenacity he had shown even when the conditions have not been in his favour.”County cricket has not been all plain sailing for the bowlers [this season], like it has been over the last few years,” he said. “You’ve really had to work for your wickets and he’s managed to create things out of nowhere.”One thing that really made my mind up about Potts getting this opportunity was when he bowled us to victory against Glamorgan,” Stokes added. “He turned up on day four with a bit of a stiff side – and someone in his situation, with Test selection coming round the corner, he could have just sat back and said ‘no, I am going to just look after myself here’.”But he didn’t, he ran in and he won the game for Durham. That’s the attitude that sets you at the next level, and really makes you open your eyes that this kid is ready. He’s been phenomenal – he’s an athlete and everything I expect this team to be going forward.”Despite the magnitude of the occasion, Stokes insists he will feel no extra nerves when he dons his England blazer and walks out for the toss for the first time as the official Test captain, having stood in once before against West Indies in 2020.”It is a new responsibility but I will just be going out there, trying to do the same thing as I have in my 80 [79] games that I have played already, which is to try and win games for England.Related

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“I just have a bit more to think about now. I am excited, but I don’t see this as any hinder on what I bring to the team, as a few people have suggested I might. It is going to be a very proud moment, but it is what it is.”Either way, he knows he can count on the support of his friend and predecessor, Root, who is back in the ranks for the first time since 2016 having led England a record 64 times.”He says he is always going to be there, offering support and stuff like that, but he also said he doesn’t want to feel like he’s getting in the way,” Stokes said. “He just wants to let me be me, and I said the same to him: ‘Mate, just concentrate on your batting now, you don’t have all the extra responsibility on your shoulders. Don’t feel like you have to come to me, just concentrate on getting your runs, and I will come to you when I need some advice.'”I backed Joe in that five years he did, and I know full well I will have his backing, even though he has decided to step away from the captaincy role.”For the time being, Stokes’ primary sounding board will be his leadership sidekick, McCullum, whom the squad have been getting to know in person over the past few days following his arrival from the IPL last week. And the first impressions, Stokes said, were pretty consistent with what he had been led to expect of their new alliance.”He has pretty much done everything like he explained, the way he coaches,” Stokes said. “He hasn’t thrown one ball yet, he has lived up to that, but he has been good. He is all about making everyone feel, in his words, ‘ten feet tall’, and I think it is pretty obvious in the way he will speak in the dressing room, because of the way he played cricket and when he was in charge of New Zealand. It’s been a good few days working with him.”

Both batters hit centuries as hosts complete 378-run chase at a scoring rate of almost five

Karthik Krishnaswamy05-Jul-20221:21

Dravid: Brand of cricket depends on your players and their form

England came to Edgbaston having gunned down targets of 277, 299 and 296 in their last three Test matches. On Tuesday they made it four in a row, pulling off their highest successful chase in Test cricket as Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow completed sparkling unbeaten hundreds, making India’s celebrated bowling attack look utterly bereft of ideas in near-perfect batting conditions.Root sealed victory with a reverse-sweep, a symbolic moment if there ever was one. He played the shot or variants thereof – including a reverse-lap off Shardul Thakur for a six over the slips – four times in the closing overs of the game, as England picked off the last 46 runs of their target in just 34 balls. Pure Bazball.This has been an unusual summer of relatively flat pitches and an exceedingly flat batch of Dukes balls, but this sequence of audacious chases has come against two of the best fast-bowling attacks in the world – attacks that came to England last year and went away with a 1-0 series win and a 2-1 series lead respectively. A remarkable achievement for Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, the new captain and coach, even if the long-term viability of their all-out-attacking philosophy will be put to test more rigorously in due course, when England play in more bowling-friendly conditons.England began the last day needing 119, and India needing seven wickets. England had never successfully chased a target of this magnitude, and India had never lost while defending one of this magnitude. Now, venomous early bursts from Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were India’s only way back into the game.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

A ball-change in the second over of the morning – two balls had gone out of shape in the first 59 overs of England’s innings, and the third would also be replaced by the time the match was done – brought India a brief window when the replacement Dukes moved around appreciably, but it didn’t translate into a wicket. Bumrah and Shami beat the edges of both batters, and on one occasion Root inside-edged the ball narrowly past his stumps, but the two fast bowlers were also erratic, drifting too wide or too straight, with Shami conceding eight byes in the space of two overs.These errors were ruthlessly punished, and often even reasonably good balls. Bairstow met an off-stump ball from Bumrah with a full face to punch it between mid-on and midwicket, and Root opened his bat-face late to routinely steer good-length balls in the corridor either side of gully.One such back-cut brought up Root’s 28th hundred in Test cricket, and England were rushing along by this stage, with Root hitting five fours in the space of just four overs. At one stage, it appeared as if Root could dash to the target all by himself; Bairstow had beaten Root to 90, but he was still in the 90s when Root had moved to 135.Bairstow wouldn’t be denied his second hundred of the match, of course, and his fourth in his last five Test innings, getting there with a scampered single after pushing Ravindra Jadeja into the leg side. He celebrated with three back-to-back boundaries in the next over – slapped through point, drilled down the ground, pulled through midwicket – with Mohammed Siraj at the receiving end.That over, the penultimate over of the match, left Siraj nursing figures of 15-0-98-0. He went for nearly six an over in the first innings too, though there were four wickets to go with it. Thakur, meanwhile, conceded 113 in 18 overs across the two innings while taking just the one wicket. These two were part of an India attack that created sustained pressure on England last summer. On this visit, the two of them and Ravindra Jadeja, who extracted very little from the pitch while bowling a negative line from left-arm over, left Bumrah and Shami carrying too much of a burden to manage by themselves.

Australia have two matches remaining before heading to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games

Andrew McGlashan19-Jul-2022Ashleigh Gardner is working on a new role with the ball ahead of the Commonwealth Games which could see her take on greater responsibility within the powerplay.While not uncharted territory for offspinner Gardner – she did it with some success against India last season including removing Shafali Verma twice in three matches – it may now become a more regular task in Australia’s T20I side to operate inside the fielding restrictions.Gardner had a taste of it in the washed-out opening tri-series match against Pakistan in Bready where she bounced back from seeing her first two deliveries taken for four by Iram Javed to claim two wickets, the left-handed pair of Bismah Maroof and Muneeba Ali.Related

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“It’s nice to be playing a different role,” she said. “I generally don’t bowl those powerplay overs and it’s something that’s been spoken about and something I’m really excited to do. It’s an awesome challenge. Only bowling with two [fielders] out is quite difficult at times.”They [the coaching staff] alluded to it at the start of the series and even through my role clarity meetings that it was something I should wrap my head around. There’s always plenty of left-handers at the top of the order as well, so that being a genuine match-up.”[It’s] just being aware of that and comfortable doing it because it is a different role, people are going harder at the top of the order and you only have the two out for protection so it’s about being really clear on where you want to get hit.”In the second game against Ireland, against a top order compiled of right-handers, Gardner returned to operating in the middle of the innings, delivering three overs between the 10th and 16th, but can expect another chance in the powerplay before the series finishes.Across the first two matches of the series, Australia’s standout bowler has been legspinner Alana King who has bagged the remarkable figures of 5-0-17-6 and was player of the match against Ireland with opposition batters struggling to read her.”She’s one of those legspinners who bowls quite quick and quite flat, but does turn the ball as well, so she’s a handful when facing her,” Gardner said. “We’ve played quite a lot against her so we know the cues, but in saying that because she does bowl that little bit quicker you don’t have those cues all the time. When you get caught up is when you probably try and play it off the wicket. You really do need to hone in on her hand. It’s more the slider that’s her biggest weapon and the one she does try to rip is also really effective.”Australia have two matches of the tri-series remaining before they travel across to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games and so far, due to the rained-out game and a nine-wicket win, only three batters have had time in the middle but Gardner is relaxed if she does get a hit in the coming days.”If we keep our batting order the same to what we usually use I think that will be most beneficial to get those people plenty of time in the middle and then really utilise training to get the other batters a hit,” she said. “We have to face all our bowlers in the nets, so think that is a challenge in itself. If we do get a hit over these next two games, great, but if not we’ve got some really good facilities and great bowlers and coaches.”