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Newlands witnessed its second consecutive one-sided game as Sydney Sixers needed just 8.5 overs to breeze past Yorkshire’s 96 and give the county side the rudest of welcomes to the main draw

The Report by Kanishkaa Balachandran16-Oct-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsIt was sort of a day for Yorkshire•Getty Images

Newlands witnessed its second consecutive one-sided game as Sydney Sixers needed just 8.5 overs to breeze past Yorkshire’s 96 and give the county side the rudest of welcomes to the main draw. The Sixers showed why they are among the better bowling units in this competition, keeping Yorkshire to a score below 100 under sunny skies. The seamers shared all nine wickets to fall, striking with such regularity that the innings failed to gather any momentum.It was as if the teams were batting on different pitches. It was a collective struggle for Yorkshire as several across-the-line swipes failed to find the middle of the bat; punches and lofts hit the toe end of the blade and didn’t have enough to clear the fielders. That only two batsmen went past the 20s – the highest score was Joe Root’s 25 – was indicative of how tough it was. When Brad Haddin and Michael Lumb swung and swished, the ball hit the sweet spot more often than not and found the boundary 16 times during their association. Yorkshire managed only 11 boundaries in all.The Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale himself found it hard to get bat on ball after opting to bat first, and had limped to 8 off 18 balls before he walked across his crease opting to improvise against Josh Hazlewood, only to see his leg stump cartwheel. After Phil Jaques fell for a breezy 19, the seamers applied the stranglehold that stayed through the innings. At one stage, Yorkshire managed only eight runs off five overs. Root broke free with a flick to midwicket and a pulled six – the only one of the innings – off Watson. However, the slowness of the pitch consumed him as well as he swung too early against Moises Henriques and lost his off stump.The run-rate took a beating as well – it stayed below five an over for seven consecutive overs, sneaked above five for a couple of overs before slipping again. The pressure piled on with every quiet over as the middle order ended up swishing at thin air as if they were shadow-practising a sword fight. Yorkshire managed only three boundaries of those coming in the last ten overs. Mitchell Starc, who leaked 13 off his first over, came back well, landed his yorkers correctly and finished with 3 for 22.The only consolation in the field for Yorkshire were the wickets of Shane Watson and Brad Haddin. Though Watson lasted just one over, Haddin lasted eight and by the time he was done, the Sixers were eight away from victory. Haddin and Lumb charged the bowlers and bashed the ball to all corners, propelling the score to 62 for 1 after just five overs. It was over so quickly that the few who showed up in the stands had more time to kill before the second game of the evening. With two wins, the Sixers went one step closer to the semi-finals.There was a touch of irony too to the proceedings, that the two players who made the maximum impact in this annihilation, Starc and Lumb, have both represented Yorkshire.

Cricket will take another step towards a new era next week when Kent and Glamorgan stage their County Championship match under floodlights

Andrew McGlashan11-Sep-2011Cricket will take another step towards a new era next week when Kent and Glamorgan stage their County Championship match under floodlights with the pink ball in the latest part of trials to see whether the format is viable for first-class and Test matches.While reaction to the experiment has been mixed – and spectators could well end up huddled under blankets with a Thermos – Gary Keedy, the Lancashire spinner, who was part of the MCC match against Nottinghamshire in Abu Dhabi when the same format was used in March, believes the proposals have a future.”The game in Abu Dhabi for me was a total success,” Keedy told ESPNcricinfo. “I support the experiment and whether it works in this country only time will tell. I wouldn’t want to play a competitive match until a few games had been played and everyone was happy with the outcome. I’m not saying Kent-Glamorgan won’t be competitive but it will be the ideal time to try it out.”My experience is that if you give it enough chances – and it will probably take more than one or two games to find out – that it can be a success. There is arguably a tough period at twilight where the transition from light to dark can be difficult, but we’ve all played under floodlights and we can all bat under floodlights, we are not strangers to that any more.”Although Keedy’s primary role is with the ball he did have a chance to experience conditions with the bat in Abu Dhabi and didn’t think they would be too tough to overcome. “I actually had a chance in the twilight period. It’s like anything, once you adapt to conditions everything becomes easier. To start with you have to get used to picking the ball up, seeing the shadows and once you get through that it’s just like batting as normal.”The Championship game at Canterbury is set to be played using a pink Tiflex ball – the manufacturer that has provided balls for Division Two – but in the longer term Keedy suggests that the Duke brand may be the best solution if a pink version can be produced because he has found that ball lasts longest. One of the main concerns about the coloured ball for first-class cricket is whether it will stay in decent condition for 80 overs.”The white Kookaburra scuffs up quite quickly and can go from pink to brown, depending on the surface, but if they are prepared to change the ball that could be a solution,” Keedy said. “I actually find it easier to bowl with a brand-new Kookaburra than I do a brand-new Dukes, whether it’s the seam or lacquer I don’t know. So, for me, a pink Kookaburra is certainly easier to bowl with but it’s one of those things that we won’t know until we try it.”Despite the floodlit experiment now arriving in county cricket the English game is probably the least likely market for the format in the future, partly because of the climate and also because international crowds – which is the ultimate reason for the idea of floodlit Tests – are still healthy in England.”The one thing you’ll get by playing in September is you know it will be dark whereas if you tried it earlier in the summer you’d barely need the floodlights so it would defeat the objective,” Keedy said. “In the subcontinent it’s dark at six so it works brilliantly. If you are playing mid-June in a floodlit game [in England] you could be playing at 9 o’clock and not need the lights.”

Set a demanding target of 361 in a minimum of 76 overs on the last day of this game at Grace Road, Leicestershire fell just 23 runs short

George Dobell at Grace Road27-Aug-2010

ScorecardSometimes the margins between success and failure really are agonisingly small. While history may well remember the summer of 2010 as one of the most miserable in the history of Leicestershire CCC, it could all have been different.Set a demanding target of 361 in a minimum of 76 overs on the last day of this game at Grace Road, Leicestershire fell just 23 runs short. Had they won, it would have been the fourth highest successful run chase in their Championship history and they would have jumped to third in the table.As it is, however, the draw for which they were forced to settle ends any lingering promotion hopes and, realistically, any chance they had of focusing on cricket for the last month of the season. There will be no silver lining for Leicestershire.In the end, Surrey almost stole the win. With Chris Tremlett suddenly transformed into a world-class fast bowler – which is not how he looked for most of the day – Leicestershire lost 5 for 42 in 11 overs of the final session and were left clinging on with eight wickets down.Surrey didn’t really deserve the win. Tremlett’s last spell apart, their bowling was toothless and their fielding quite awful. For young men, the likes of Arun Harinath and Tom Lancefield (‘Lance-can’t-field’ as one comedian in the press box puts it) are remarkably ponderous and unreliable.There were times when some of Surrey’s more senior players could barely conceal their frustration. Still, both sides deserve credit for showing the enterprise to set-up a run chase. While the declaration bowling in the morning was far from pretty, it did allow for a fascinating final couple of sessions.Leicestershire were well on track at one stage, too. A stand of 183 in 36 overs for the fourth wicket between Jacques du Toit and Paul Nixon ensured the run-rate never climbed much above six and, with both men going well, Surrey looked bereft of ideas.Both men scored their first championship centuries of the season. Du Toit, who pulled impressively and drove one straight six off Gareth Batty’s off-spin, started cautiously (his first 50 contained just one boundary and occupied 96 balls) but accelerated smoothly, with his second 50 taking just 46 deliveries. 39-year-old Nixon was less orthodox. Several times he demonstrated his penchant for the reverse-sweep, but he also ran between the wickets superbly and drove nicely. His century contained nine boundaries and occupied 140 balls.Intriguingly, both men are out of contract at the end of this season and far from certain to win new deals. These innings may not make much difference, either. Increasingly it is finance, not cricketing merit, that will govern such issues and, as many players may shortly discover, it will not pay to be out of contract at the end of the next couple of seasons.The loss of du Toit, clipping to mid-wicket, precipitated a decline, however. Tremlett produced yorker after yorker to dry up the scoring and, when Nixon was deceived by Jade Dernbach’s excellent slower ball and dragged it on to his stumps, the chase was over. It was a brave effort from Leicestershire, however. Particularly for a side dismissed as “dreadful” by their own chairman on the first morning of the match.Meanwhile, off the pitch, Leicestershire’s board held an informal meeting on Thursday night to discuss the implications of the players’ letter demanding the resignation of the chairman, Neil Davidson.The board subsequently released a statement which, more or less, said nothing. It read: “An informal meeting of Directors took place on Thursday 26th August to
bring those Directors returning from holiday up to date with recent events at the club. A full Board meeting is scheduled for Friday 3rd September when the Chairman returns from holiday. A statement will be released after that meeting.” Elsewhere, the petitioners calling for a Special General Meeting have written to the club’s president, David Wilson, asking him to intervene in the matter.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge, and hopefully we can lean back on the experiences that we’ve had here the last couple of times that we’ve toured”

Ashish Pant15-Oct-2024New Zealand Test captain Tom Latham is hopeful the cloudy conditions and the pitch being under covers for a length of time due to all the rain Bengaluru has received in the past week, will potentially bring the fast bowlers into play thereby helping the visitors get into the game in the first Test against India.”Yeah, certainly wasn’t expecting the weather that we’ve had over the last couple of days since arriving here,” Latham said on the eve of the game. “And looking at the forecast, it obviously does look sort of similar to what we’ve got today.”So, obviously wicket being under covers for a longer duration, and it not necessarily being as hot as what we would usually expect here. So that potentially brings the fast bowlers into play.””It’s hard to say because I haven’t really had a look at the wicket in terms of a team that we play. But, yeah, we’ll obviously cover both bases [spin and pace] depending on when we see the pitch tomorrow.”Related

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Spin has been New Zealand’s kryptonite in the current World Test Championship [WTC] cycle. They are coming into the series on the back of a 2-0 loss against Sri Lanka, where they lost 37 of their 40 wickets to spinners.Latham admitted the results in Sri Lanka weren’t ideal but said that New Zealand did manage to do “a lot of good stuff in that tour”. He pointed to the first Test in Galle where New Zealand managed scores of 340 and 211. They were then blown away for 88 in the first innings of the second Test but came back with 360 in the second dig. That didn’t prevent a loss in both Tests though.”Yeah, obviously results weren’t ideal in Sri Lanka. I think that first Test was a reasonably small margin in terms of the defeat. But we actually did a lot of good stuff in that tour,” Latham said. “It’s obviously easy to look at the result. But I think from a batting point of view, you take away the first innings of the second Test and you know we did a lot of good stuff there.”We sort of changed our approach a little bit in terms of how we played and just the way things unfolded. And I thought we played really nicely. And, yeah, I guess you come here to India, it’s slightly different conditions.”So hopefully it offers a little bit more here in India for the seamers. And then, you know, potentially later on in the next couple of Test matches, spin might play a little bit more of a factor.”This is Latham’s first assignment as full-time Test captain – he has led New Zealand in nine Tests previously – after Tim Southee stepped down in the aftermath of the Sri Lanka series. His own form in the WTC 2023-25 cycle has been patchy with 368 runs in 16 innings at 23.00.However, Latham has a decent record in Tests in India with five fifties in as many Tests while averaging 35.70. He has also led New Zealand in a Test match in India previously and is hopeful his past experiences will hold him in good stead going into the crucial three-game series.”It’s obviously a huge, exciting privilege for me to be in this position,” Latham said. “Regardless of whether I’m captain, not captain, I’m always trying to perform my role as best as I can for the team. And that’s certainly not going to be any different being captain.”Yep, there’s a little bit more responsibility, but I guess I’m lucky that I’ve been in this position before, have captained here in India before, and have done it back home as well. So I think, like most of the guys, I’m just excited to get into things. It’s been a bit of a build-up for me since, obviously, taking over.”While aggression and intent have been the flavour of the town in Test cricket, New Zealand have taken a more old-school approach. In their eight Tests in the WTC cycle, they have gone at an average of 3.37 runs an over. While Latham agrees that teams the world over have taken a more aggressive route in Test cricket, he wants his players to do what comes to them naturally.”Yeah, if you look around the world recently over probably the last 12 months, I think a lot of teams have sort of taken the approach of being a little bit more aggressive and putting bowlers under pressure a little bit more,” he said. “But I think if you look at our team as a whole, everyone’s got a slightly different game plan.”We’ve got different guys that play completely different ways. And for us, it’s about letting guys go out and express themselves as much as they can and try to stick to their plans as best they can.”New Zealand have never recorded a series win in India, and Latham admits his side will have to play “really well” to change that record. He is, however, banking on New Zealand’s recent visits to India and their sub-continent expeditions in a bid to force a win in the three-Test series.”They know how to play in their own conditions,” Latham said. “And I think when you look at India as a whole, you obviously look at the spinners when you come over these conditions. But they’ve got just as equally good seam attack in terms of [Jasprit] Bumrah, [Mohammed] Siraj, obviously [Akash] Deep, who’s played the last couple of Test matches against Bangladesh.”So just a well-rounded side from a bowling point of view. They have a lot of match-winners that can take a game away from you pretty quickly.”We’re obviously going to have to play really well. We’re looking forward to the challenge. And hopefully we can lean back on the experiences that we’ve had here the last couple of times that we’ve toured.”

Allrounder’s left-arm spin takes 4 for 85 in Somerset’s second innings

ECB Reporters Network06-Sep-2023Tom Kohler-Cadmore scored a well-made 84, but Hampshire’s patience was rewarded with their sixth LV=Insurance County Championship victory of the season.Kohler-Cadmore and James Rew’s 107-run stand threatened to frustrate odds-on-favourites Hampshire, who had taken two early wickets. But Liam Dawson plugged away with 4 for 85 before the second new ball opened the visitors up as Hampshire won by 185 runs before tea, with 33 overs shy of survival.Hampshire, whose title ambitions were ended by Surrey’s victory the previous day, took 21 points to Somerset’s three – with both sides only battling for prize money in the final month of the season.Hampshire needed eight wickets, Somerset a less likely 400 runs on the final day at the Ageas Bowl. Somerset were rolled for 137 in the first innings, and when Sean Dickson – who had completed a half-century the previous evening – was castled by Mohammad Abbas to the 11th ball of the day, it felt like a landslide victory was coming for the hosts.Andy Umeed, who had played his part in the 68-run stand with Dickson, edged a rising Abbas delivery to second slip two overs later to make the lunch orders start to feel redundant. But Kohler-Cadmore and Rew bedded in and ate away at the overs.Kohler-Cadmore was skittish and refused to err from his aggressive tendencies, with plenty of plays and misses in the early part of his innings exciting the Hampshire cordon.His lack of fear might not have been the traditional way to save a match for his team, but it benefited both his side and himself – with his fourth half-century of the season coming in 67 deliveries. Rew took 16 balls to get off the mark and at various points was three of 31 and 11 off 49 but never seemed bogged down or frustrated.The pitch remained as slow and flat as it had been across the match, with Dawson finding some significant turn, and very occasional spit out the rough, but it was much too slow to provide a stern test. However, the left-arm spinner did break the 107-run alliance between Kohler-Cadmore and Rew.Rew had retaken his place as the highest run-scorer in Division One, he now has 1,077 runs, but a drive away from his body found an inside edge and was caught by wicketkeeper Ben Brown.Kohler-Cadmore’s resistance ended on 84 with a brilliant off-spinning delivery from Tom Prest five overs before the second new ball. It caught the edge of the rough wide of off stump to turn back and bowl the slog-sweeping batter. It was the former England under-19 captain’s maiden first-class wicket.The second new ball pulled the rug out from under Somerset’s resolve. Lewis Gregory edged Kyle Abbott behind to the fourth ball with the new cherry. Neil Wagner was castled by the South African quick in his following over, before Dawson bowled Jack Brooks and had Shoaib Bashir lbw to complete the victory.

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.”

Joe Root readies himself for a bigger role with the ball in Moeen Ali’s absence

George Dobell12-Jan-2021Joe Root has hinted that England will opt to field an extra seamer in the first Test of their series in Sri Lanka, rather than adding a third spinner to their attack.Despite playing at Galle, a venue with a long-earned reputation for favouring spin bowling, England are set to select only two specialist spinners in Dom Bess and Jack Leach. They are likely to pick three seamers and turn to the part-time spin of Root and Dan Lawrence as required.Ahead of the tour, it had seemed likely England that would pick three spinners in each Test. Since 2016, spinners have claimed twice as many wickets as seamers in Tests at Galle – the venue for both Tests in this series – and have done so at a lower overall average, strike rate and economy rate.Related

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On England’s last tour to Sri Lanka, in late 2018, spin accounted for 100 wickets – the most ever in a three-Test series – while James Anderson and Stuart Broad claimed only one wicket between them. England used a three-man spin attack comprising Moeen Ali, Jack Leach and Adil Rashid in all three Tests, who claimed 48 wickets between them in a 3-0 win (Root’s offspin accounted for a 49th).But illness and absence have reduced their options. Moeen, England’s joint leading wicket-taker with Leach on the last tour, has been ruled out of contention having contracted Covid-19, while Rashid has limited himself to limited-overs cricket as he comes to terms with a long-term shoulder problem. Other options, such as Liam Dawson, are also unavailable through injury.That leaves England with three choices for third spinner. Although none of Matt Parkinson, Mason Crane and Amar Virdi are officially part of the Test squad at present, they are all part of the tour party as reserves and are considered to be available for selection.Only Crane has previously played Test cricket – he took 1 for 193 in Sydney at the start of 2018 – but he underwhelmed in the warm-up match (he conceded 37 from five overs, though he did dismiss Zak Crawley when he attempted to run a short ball to third man). Virdi didn’t bowl at all in that match, while Parkinson’s last first-class appearance was in September 2019. It is a situation which raises familiar questions about the lack of opportunities provided to developing spinners in the county game.England’s options have been diminished further by the likely absence of two seam-bowling allrounders. Ben Stokes has been rested for this tour, while Chris Woakes was obliged to spend the first week of it in quarantine having been deemed a close contact of Moeen. As a result, Woakes was unable to participate in the warm-up game and may be considered a little short of match fitness in conditions which are expected to be hot and humid.Sam Curran is set to play ahead of Chris Woakes or a third spinner•ECB

Those draining conditions – and the lack of the usual preparation time – might persuade England not to place too many demands on individual bowlers. And with Sri Lanka’s batsmen not always looking comfortable against pace, England are likely to want one of their quicker bowlers – Olly Stone or Mark Wood – alongside the allrounder, Sam Curran, and one of Broad or Anderson.That means Root, who took his Test-best figures of 4 for 122 at Port Elizabeth at the start of 2020, may well be obliged to contribute with the ball, while Lawrence and, to a lesser extent, Dom Sibley provide further part-time options.”I’ve readied myself for it [a role with the ball],” Root said. “I’ve prepared for it in practice and it does seem to be coming out OK at the moment. If it is the case that I need to bowl longer spells than previously and take a bigger workload in this series, then I’m looking forward to that challenge. It’s certainly an option and it will come down to the balance of the side.”As you’d expect in Galle, it’s going to spin. It’s just when in the game it’s going to spin – that’s the question.”But the pitch does look very different here from memory to what it did on previous tours. I don’t think it’s going to be miles away from what you’d expect a Galle wicket to play like, but if there’s weather around in the Test match and there’s a tacky nature to the pitch and it sweats with the covers on that probably brings seam into the game a bit more than it might normally do. Everything is pointing towards it being a bowlers’ game.”While Root will wait for another look at the pitch and the weather conditions before confirming his side – Galle has been hit by unseasonable rain in recent days – he did confirm he will bat at No. 4, with Jonny Bairstow at No. 3. He also said that Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley will open, and has previously confirmed that Jos Buttler will keep wicket.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

While he acknowledged that England’s lack of preparation time – they go into the series having played just one day of warm-up cricket – is far from ideal, he knows they have to start well to have a hope of winning the two-match series. The fact that they’ve lost the first Test in five of their last six series is not lost on him.”The preparations and build-up time is not ideal,” Root said. “There’s no point hiding behind the fact: we haven’t had the ideal lead-up to this series. It’s probably the shortest lead-up we’ve ever had going into an away Test match series. But regardless, it is about making sure we start the game well. So many times in these two-match series, it’s imperative you get off to a good start.”It’s something we’re desperate to keep improving on. We’ve started series poorly, as was mentioned last summer, and if we are to keep improving as a team we can’t be behind the eight ball going into the second Test match of every series.”The way we are going to do that is by scoring big first-innings runs and controlling the game. If we can manage to do that I think we’ll have success here.”

‘You come directly under a head coach as it’s his domain and you work according to his mindset. We will try to help Misbah as much as possible and move forward,’ Waqar says

Umar Farooq in Lahore20-Sep-2019When Waqar Younis twice served as the Pakistan head coach in the past – 2010 to 2011 and 2014 to 2016 – Misbah-ul-Haq was the Test captain on both occasions. Three-and-a-half years since his last stint with the team, Waqar has returned to the support staff set-up as the bowling coach and Misbah is now the head coach.Waqar will, as a result, work under Misbah after the PCB overhauled the support staff that was led by Mickey Arthur until the World Cup. Waqar and Misbah have shared a cordial relationship and the former fast bowler brings with him loads of coaching experience. This will be his fifth term in the Pakistan support staff, having served twice as the head coach, as the bowling coach in 2006-07, and the bowling and fielding coach briefly in 2009-10.His two stints as head coach had not ended on a good note earlier as he resigned both times before the end of his tenure. In 2011 he stepped down amid differences with then limited-overs captain Shahid Afridi and in 2016 he quit after a dispute with the PCB’s management following that year’s T20 World Cup.Will working under Misbah be a “demotion” of sorts for Waqar? He doesn’t think so.”As far as thinking like it’s a demotion, it’s only a myth that you go up or down,” Waqar said. “Our goal is how to make Pakistan a better team. For me the exciting thing is to try and help some of the promising youngsters who are in the pipeline, and some more who will come in the near future too.”You come directly under a head coach as it’s his domain and you work according to his mindset. The others are helping hands like the fielding coach and bowling coach. We will try to help Misbah as much as possible and move forward.”In three years lots of things have changed,” Waqar said when asked what made him come back. “The format has changed in domestic cricket, new people have come, there are new coaches, new thinking has come. I am not here to make controversies, I will try to make the Pakistan bowling attack a good one.”Waqar clarified that he wasn’t “mentally ready” to apply for the post of head coach again and he knew that Misbah was the main contender for the job. Waqar applied for the bowling coach position and he was the main candidate after another shortlisted applicant, Mohammad Akram, withdrew at the last minute.”I decided that I wasn’t mentally ready to get back into the set-up [as head coach] so I applied for bowling coach,” Waqar said. “I think I have a very good chemistry with Misbah, I’ve got a very good understanding with him and it will help in the future. The PCB has given Misbah an opportunity and it’s our responsibility to support and back him because he’s a very honest man and passionate about the game.”My role is very simple and well-defined. I had done both the roles as a head coach and a bowling coach so I have an idea. The best thing is that I know about Misbah’s mindset because whatever coaching I had done was with Misbah as the captain.”Their first assignment together will be two limited-overs series against Sri Lanka starting September 27 in Karachi with three ODIs followed by as many T20Is in Lahore next month. Currently, Waqar and Misbah are holding a training camp at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore where Waqar is working with young fast bowlers.”The emphasis of the camp is on training and fitness, we are always focusing on fitness with our bowlers,” Waqar said. “We have bowlers in the pipeline like Mohammad Hasnain and Nasim Shah and in the next few months they will come on the scene.”The best thing is Sri Lanka is coming, it’s a plus for Pakistan, and other teams should also come. Our short-term goal is that we should win matches early on and build the confidence.”

The opener currently stands provisionally suspended from all international and domestic cricket after returning a positive result on a dope test

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Aug-2018Habib Bank Limited (HBL) will appoint a new captain for this year’s Quaid-e-Azam Trophy after the team stripped Ahmed Shehzad of the role. Shehzad captained HBL last year in the QeA, but currently stands provisionally suspended from all international and domestic cricket organised by any national cricket board or its affiliate members after returning a positive result on a dope test. He is not part of HBL’s current 25-man squad for the QeA, meaning the removal from the captaincy was something of an inevitability. In the absence of Ahmed Shehzad last year, HBL were captained by former Pakistan fast bowler Umar Gul.Shehzad underwent a random test during the 50-over Pakistan Cup in April, but it was only in June that news reports suggested he had failed to clear it. The PCB tweeted confirmation of the failed test, but said that according to ICC rules, it could not name the player until the result was backed up by Pakistan’s anti-doping agency; the original finding was from a WADA-accredited laboratory in India.Shehzad had the right to apply for his B sample to be tested separately (taken at the same time as his A sample), but opted not to do so, instead accepting the charge in response to the PCB’s show-cause notice to the player. The PCB will form a panel to hear Shehzad’s explanation, before determining what sanctions to apply. A date for the hearing is yet to be decided.Depending on the nature of the prohibited substance, the player could face up to a two-year ban. The last Pakistan international to suffer that fate was Raza Hasan, who tested positive for cocaine in 2015, and was banned until 2017. In the last few years, Pakistan spinners Yasir Shah and Abdur Rehman were also banned for minor doping offences, each serving three-month bans.

Faf du Plessis has conceded that JP Duminy’s place in the Test side will come in for scrutiny after a run of poor form

Firdose Moonda10-Jul-20172:05

Moonda: Duminy’s Test career may be over

JP Duminy may not be able to keep his place in South Africa’s Test XI after the returning captain, Faf du Plessis, conceded Duminy was under pressure due to poor form. That observation is vastly different from the support du Plessis had offered in the recent past, often saying Duminy looked at his best in training and it was only a matter of time before he translated that into match-day performances.Now, after eight innings without crossing 40, du Plessis has been forced to admit Duminy is not doing enough. He made 15 and 2 in the first Test at Lord’s, with his dismissal on the stroke of tea on day four particularly culpable as South Africa slipped to a 221-run defeat.”JP will be the first guy to say he knows he needs to score runs for this team and it’s no different for anyone else,” du Plessis said. “He is desperate to do well as anyone in that position. You want to try and score runs every time you go out that. He knows at the end of the day that it’s about runs. He understands that if it has to come to a position where there is someone else that needs to be looked at… he will be the first to acknowledge [that]. He is a crucial part of our senior player group and he will always put the team interests above himself so yes, he will be the first to acknowledge that.”With du Plessis back in the squad after missing the first Test for the birth of his first child, one option would for him to slot straight back into the team in Duminy’s place but the captain said South Africa will consider a few other things. Kagiso Rabada is suspended from the Trent Bridge match for ICC code of conduct violations and South Africa may look at playing both allrounder Chris Morris and reserve quick Duanne Olivier to make up for his absence. In that case, Theunis de Bruyn would have to miss out, with du Plessis coming in for Duminy.”With losing KG – do you look at possibly playing a four-seam attack because you are losing quite a high-quality bowler? That’s means there would be a batsman that will miss out,” du Plessis said. “That’s one option.”Either way, du Plessis seemed to suggest that de Bruyn, who scored 48 in the first innings in what was just his second Test, has moved up the queue and possibly ahead of Duminy for the rest of this series. “You can look at someone like Theunis de Bruyn who has played pretty well this game – standing up at Lord’s and it’s only his second Test match. He was solid in that first innings. He played well,” du Plessis said.JP Duminy was twice dismissed cheaply at Lord’s•Getty Images

The form of the middle order was the only positive South Africa’s batting could take from the Lord’s Test after the top four let them down yet again. Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock and Vernon Philander all scored half-centuries and du Plessis would like to see one of them in particular go on to convert that into something bigger.”Temba has once again been consistent,” du Plessis said. “But now, something Temba needs to work on is making sure he converts those starts. He is playing brilliantly but he knows that fifties don’t win us matches. The difference between the two teams is that one guy scored 190. That changed the outcome of the game.”Bavuma has scored three fifties in his last four Tests but only has one hundred in his short career, against England in January 2016. Having to constantly bail the top order out may be a handbrake for him, however, and du Plessis stressed that the top two must come good. Dean Elgar got a start with a half-century in the first innings at Lord’s and du Plessis was confident Heino Kuhn, who was unconvincing on debut, will show his experience at some stage.”Heino Kuhn is not a young guy anymore but he is new to Test cricket,” du Plessis said. “I don’t think everything is supposed to be a fairytale where you just rock up and score two hundreds in your first game. Ask Dean. He got a pair in his first game. It’s about character and how you stand up to that. This will be good. It will make him stronger.”