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Tamim Iqbal’s brilliant 151 on the second day in Mirpur revealed a lot about his character – his aggressive streak as well as his efforts to temper it with patience

Sriram Veera in Mirpur26-Jan-2010Until very recently, if Tamim Iqbal had to be described by a punctuation mark, you would have picked a nice big bold exclamation mark. You would have also been tempted to colour it red. It wasn’t a difficult stereotype to arrive at. His batting was a scream of adrenalin and his life zoomed on the fast lane given that he races around in a BMW. The crimson ‘!’ was the easiest symbol to settle upon. Things are changing, though. Maturity hasn’t moved in yet but it is a frequent visitor these days.Today, all the typical Tamim strokes – the audacious slog-sweeps, the thrilling hits over mid-on, and the numerous sweep shots – were there, but what symbolised this knock was the uncharacteristic military snap with which he shouldered arms to a series of balls, well outside off stump from Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag. It was aimed at his past reputation, at the Tamim stereotype. One could understand the bowlers’ plan – surely, Tamim will go after them and throw his wicket away? But it didn’t work, as he kept leaving those deliveries. Ball after ball, over after over. It has to be a landmark event in Tamim’s brief batting career.There was a solitary moment of intrusion from the old Tamim which reminded us that no hasty conclusion can be drawn yet, that Tamim’s battle is still on but the journey to self-awareness has started. He lunged across, fetched a ball from outside off and top-edged a slog sweep but it fell clear of a desperate Sachin Tendulkar at mid-on. It wasn’t a brain freeze. It was just a relapse to his older self. The way he looked at that incident at the end of the day said much about him. “I knew Sehwag would try to bowl outside off to trap me and make me play a stupid shot. And I did it once. Just once.”A lovely smile lit up his face. There was no seriousness involved; just the naughty smile of a youngster talking about petty misdemeanours committed in adolescence. It conveyed that batting will essentially remain an activity of fun for Tamim and that he will continue to express himself; just that he is trying hard to add a slice of wisdom to it.Tamim’s new-found resolve could possibly be the influence of his coach and the youngster acknowledged his role. “Jamie Siddons was throwing his cap away in the dressing room! I knew my mistake and after that I played really well.” More smiles all around. “Siddons has been the best coach we have ever had. He has really worked hard with me.”There was another thing that Tamim said, and did, that epitomised his spirit perfectly. During the tea-break, when he was still 21 runs short of hundred, he was involved in an earnest conversation with Siddons, just beyond the boundary. “He said ‘no need to rush, just play your game and play as straight as possible’,” Tamim explained. As it transpired, he moved to his ton in just 14 balls post tea. He looted 14 runs – a charged four, a lashed boundary, and a slog-swept six – from three consecutive Pragyan Ojha deliveries, didn’t connect with couple of pulls and even charged out at a Zaheer Khan delivery. It was the very definition of rush. What was he thinking? “Oh it wasn’t like that. I thought the ball was there to be hit, so I hit it.” It brought laughter all around and confirmed his essential thirst for adventure.Barring Zaheer, nearly all the Indian bowlers bowled at that characteristic attribute of Tamim. However he didn’t oblige today. Only Zaheer, especially with the old ball which he got to reverse, attacked him with a sense of purpose. He got the ball to move in, took it out, and punctuated his spell with bouncers. This is where Tamim really sparkled. He picked the trajectory of nearly every ball; only once was he squared-up, by a beauty that left him. A screeching yorker was muffled out, the front foot was carefully taken out of the way of late inswingers, a purposeful forward stride met ones that left him and importantly, he played the moving ball late. It showed the innings wasn’t just a matter of tempering his attitude but a show of skill as well.There was another piece of evidence that showcased his desire for improvement. He scored 66 runs in the arc from fine-leg to midwicket, a majority of it coming from sweep shots. It is something that he has been working hard on in the recent times with Mohammad Salahuddin, former assistant coach of the national team. “For hours and hours, he bowled at me and helped me practice the sweep shot. I wasn’t that comfortable against spin before. Even during this series, I have been working with him.” Last evening, there was an SMS from Salahuddin: “If the ball turns just a little, sweep.” And Tamim did exactly that.There was a poignant moment when Tamim shared a lovely little story. “I dedicate this hundred to my father (Iqbal Khan); he did everything possible for me to play cricket and it was his dream that I should play for Bangladesh.” Tamim’s elder brother Nafees has also played for Bangladesh and hit a Test hundred, a match-saving effort against Zimbabwe. Iqbal Khan died before his sons made their debuts. This son has not only played for the country, scoring the fastest hundred by a Bangladeshi in the process, but also promises to play for a long time. “So far, this is my best knock but there are many more to come. I am very new to Test cricket but I am beginning to understand myself better now.”The journey towards maturity has started. From reining in his aggression with the bat, to sending his BMW back to Chittagong for fears that it might get damaged on Dhaka’s roads, the 20-year old Tamim is threatening to grow up quickly. And it can’t hurt Bangladesh. In the here and now, it has given Bangladesh a rare hope, which looked unlikely as of last evening, of getting out safe, and perhaps even getting something beyond mere safety, from this Test.

Durham left with too much to do after openers, Cartwright smash rapid fifties in total of 221 for 8

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay05-Sep-2025Hampshire Hawks reached Finals Day for an 11th time as they comfortably beat Durham by 26 runs in their Vitality Blast quarter-final.Hampshire made a brilliant start, with Toby Albert and Chris Lynn smashing half-centuries to put on 112 for the first wicket. Durham did restrain them briefly in the middle overs, but Hilton Cartwright’s 61 took the Hawks to a massive total of 221 for 8.Durham’s chase was full of starts, with Ollie Robinson the only batter to pass fifty, but an excellent all-round bowling effort from the Hawks restricted Durham to 195 for 6.Alex Lees won the toss and elected to bowl first at the Banks Homes Riverside and Matthew Potts kicked things off with a tidy first over, but Albert showed some early intent as he launched Callum Parkinson’s first ball down the ground for six. The opening pair of Albert and Lynn continued to take on the bowling, with Jimmy Neesham’s first over going for 24 runs.Durham had a chance to breakthrough, but Albert was dropped by Robinson on 25 as a Parkinson delivery was nicked but the keeper couldn’t cling on.The pair continued to hit anything short and in the slot to the boundary, as they displayed incredible power to get the visitors to 89 without the loss in the powerplay, a season high. Hampshire then passed the century mark, with Lynn and Albert both recording fifties, but Nathan Sowter struck to remove Lynn for an excellent 51.Albert continued his assault as he heaved back-to-back Parkinson deliveries to the boundary, but the opener went for one hit too many as he picked out Colin Ackermann on the fence and he had to go for a swashbuckling 68.Cartwright then came to the crease and played a lovely reverse sweep for four and James Vince started to tick with consecutive boundaries off Raine. However, the Hawks skipper went for 27 as his ramp shot from a Raine ball didn’t have the legs on it and David Bedingham produced an excellent catch to dismiss him.Cartwright continued the onslaught, but Neesham picked up the wicket of James Fuller to stem the flow of runs.Australian Cawrtwright became the third half-centurion for the Hawks as he hit a Raine ball for six, but Benny Howell was then run out and Potts removed Cartwright for 61. A cluster of wickets then fell as Liam Dawson was run out and Potts removed Scott Currie, but the Hawks still reached an imposing total of 221 for 8.Durham, in front of their biggest crowd since 2019, had a daunting task, and that wasn’t made any easier as Graham Clark clipped one to Scott Currie in the deep to depart for 9.Bedingham heaved a Chris Wood short ball into the stands to give Durham their first maximum of the night and the South African smashed one down the ground in the same over. Bedingham then went for an enterprising 22 to leave Durham in trouble, as he sent a Currie ball straight to Howell on the leg-side boundary.Lees started to open his shoulders as he clipped a Dawson ball to the long-on boundary for four, but the impressive Howell removed him for 26 with the Durham skipper holing out to Dawson on the leg-side boundary.Ackermann was then run out by Wood for 16 after he tried for a single that wasn’t really there to leave Durham staring down the barrel of a T20 Blast exit.The Hawks then got Raine for 13, with Howell getting his second, but Neesham came out firing and smashed four boundaries in an over, but his cameo ended at the hands of Wood. Robinson showed some resistance with a tidy ramp shot off Currie and reached fifty from 29 balls but it was too little too late for Durham and they fell 26 runs short.

Openers’ 140-run stand helps Giants get off the mark after four straight defeats

Firdose Moonda06-Mar-2024Gujarat Giants 199 for 5 (Mooney 85*, Wolvaardt 76, Molineux 1-32) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 180 for 7 (Wareham 48, Gardner 2-23) by 19 runs It was fifth time lucky for Gujarat Giants who won their first match of this year’s WPL in Delhi, after four defeats in Bengaluru. The change of venue worked a charm for Giants who bucked the Chinnaswamy chasing trend by choosing to bat first and racked up the second-highest total in their WPL history thanks to their first century stand. Laura Wolvaardt and Beth Mooney put on 140 for the first wicket and though the middle order fell away, they asked Royal Challengers Bangalore to pull off the highest successful WPL chase of 200.If any team was up for the task, it was them. RCB chased down 189 against Giants last year, when Sophie Devine scored 99 from the opening berth and she looked in the mood for a repeat. Batting at No.4, Devine was at the crease two balls after the powerplay, with RCB on 42 for 2. She took them to halfway in a good position in 76 for 2 but then was bowled by left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar to leave RCB’s middle order to finish the job.Richa Ghosh played a spirited hand with 30 off 20 balls and shared in a stand of 33 with Georgia Wareham, who scored 48 off 22, but skied an Ash Gardner full toss to Meghna Singh at cover and all but ended RCB’s hopes. The result means Giants have their first points and will enter the race for the knockouts, with three more league matches left to play.

First fifties for Giants

Lack of runs was the main problem for Giants after the Bengaluru leg of the competition, with no top-order partnerships of more than 50 runs (Ash Gardner and Phoebe Litchfield had a 52-run fourth-wicket stand against UP Warriorz) partnerships and no individual scores of fifty or more. They put both of those right in their first outing in Delhi. Mooney and Wolvaardt’s opening combination worked well for the second time in three matches. After posting 40 against Warriorz, they got to 50 off 27 balls in the fifth over with Wolvaardt the aggressor and Mooney the accumulator. Theirs is the only opening stand in Giants’ history that has gone past a half-century, with no fifty-plus opening stands in 2023 either. Wolvaardt went on to record the first fifty by a Giants batter this year and she did so off just 32 balls with a stunning straight drive past Ellyse Perry and their stand grew to 140 – Giants highest in their history.Laura Wolvaardt notched up 76 off just 45 balls•BCCI

Bisht – and RCB – vs Umpires Wolvaardt’s dismissal for 76 gave RCB an opportunity to get back into the innings and the two overs cost just 15 runs. But after Devine was brought back and her third over costing another 15 runs, the pressure was on the left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht. Mooney hit the first ball straight past her for four, then couldn’t get the second away. For the third, Mooney brought out a reverse-sweep and missed, prompting a loud appeal from Bisht for lbw, which was denied. RCB reviewed. Replays showed Mooney had inside-edged onto her front pad. Bisht kept the next ball full, Phoebe Litchfield tried to scoop and missed, RCB appealed again and were denied again. RCB reviewed again, only to see the ball pitching outside leg. Later, the same umpire gave Smriti Mandhana out in the chase when she missed a pull off Gardner and she reviewed the call. Replays showed the ball was hitting leg stump and Jayapal was right again.

All RCB at the end

Mooney’s onslaught didn’t blunt RCB’s fielding efforts and Mandhana was quick to respond when Mooney called Litchfield through for a non-existent single in the penultimate over. Her throw found Richa Ghosh in time to catch Litchfield out of her crease and run her out for 18. Giants promoted hard-hitting Gardner to No.4 and she sent the first ball she faced to Simran Bahadur at long-off to depart for a duck. Wareham conceded two wides and a single to close out the over. With Mooney off strike to start the last over, D Hemalatha stepped out of her crease to try and smack Sophie Molineux through the in-field but missed and was stumped. Four balls later, Mooney was facing again when she hit the ball to point and called Veda Krishnamurthy through for a single. Veda was never going to make her ground and became the third Giants batter to be run out. RCB closed out the innings with two overs that cost only 12 runs and brought them four wickets.

Mooney gets her own back

Mooney was on strike for all three Giants run-outs, and it was her calls that left her partners in tricky situations, but she made up for that when she completed a run-out in RCB’s innings. S Meghana was coming back for a second run off Meghna Singh but took on Wolvaardt’s arm and always looked in trouble. The throw came in and Mooney collected and whipped the bails off to give Giants a clear advantage just after the powerplay.

Wareham mayhem at the death

RCB’s hopes of a win were almost certainly out of mind when Wareham decided to have some fun. She’d just seen Ghosh dismissed, her team needed 71 off 24 balls and Tanuja Kanwar delivered a juicy full toss on offstump which she could not resist. Wareham cleared the front leg and boshed the ball over deep mid-wicket for her first six and RCB’s sixth. She hit one more, off Meghna over wide long-on, and RCB finished with eight sixes, an interesting statistic considering Giants only hit one six, but ended up on the losing side.

A fit-again Daryl Mitchell is likely to return, in place of Mark Chapman, for New Zealand

Andrew Fidel Fernando28-Oct-20221:29

Tim Southee: On the day everyone poses different threats

Big picture

Fatigue-wise, New Zealand have had a kind start to the tournament. They thrashed Australia in Sydney, then took the short flight to Melbourne, where their match against Afghanistan was rained out without a ball being bowled. They’d have preferred to play that match, of course, but they’ve not had to contend with crazy schedules or serious changes in timezone.Sri Lanka, meanwhile, have been whipped around, and they arrive in Sydney in some disarray. They’d started their campaign in Geelong, in the qualifiers, and have since lost no fewer than three fast bowlers to injury. Then three days after the qualifiers ended, they were playing a match in Hobart. Two days after that they played Australia in Perth. Now they’ve been shot back across the breadth of the continent to Sydney. Within the side, there seems to be a little consternation about their schedule, by the way. Their next match, on Tuesday, is in Brisbane. Then they come back to Sydney.Related

• The future is uncertain, so savour Boult and Southee while you can

• 'Adaptable' Mitchell looking forward to 'cool challenge' of batting at No. 5

• Sri Lanka replace injured Binura with Asitha

Sri Lanka tend to find grievance in high-profile assignments, however, but perhaps more importantly, they have a history of weaponising that grievance, to blast their way to good results. Test tours of South Africa in 2019, England in 2014, the T20 World Cup in 2014, and of course the big one – the 1996 World Cup – are some examples. But here they are up against a side that seems much-better drilled, and way more settled than they are.Out of 13 completed matches this year, New Zealand have lost only three. They have a nuclear top order, good firepower through the middle, and a top-class seam attack for Australian conditions. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, are getting by on top-order runs without the middle order really contributing, and their attack looks more vulnerable following Tuesday’s loss to Australia.Sri Lanka have to dig deep and find a new gear to overcome their cricketing, and fatigue-related circumstances. New Zealand merely have to build on what they’ve already been doing.

Form guide

New Zealand WLWWW (completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LWWWL

In the spotlight

That the likes of Trent Boult, Tim Southee, and Lockie Ferguson are good at turning it on is known, but don’t sleep on Mitchell Santner, who has put up some impressive stats this year. Against Australia, he took 3 for 31 bowling inside the powerplay, and then through the middle overs. In T20Is this year, he has 17 wickets from 12 games, with an economy rate of 6.69.Wanindu Hasaranga went for 0 for 53 against Australia•ICC via Getty Images

It’s not often that Wanindu Hasaranga gets taken apart, but he clearly was in the last match, going for 0 for 53 from his three overs, as he kept trying to toss the ball up and get Australia’s batters caught in Perth’s big outfield, but failed repeatedly. Perth’s bouncier pitch didn’t quite suit his bowling but Sydney, where Sri Lanka’s spinners have done well in the past, may suit him nicely. It’s rare that he has two bad games in a row.

Pitch and conditions

Thankfully, after two rained-out games on Friday, the forecast looks good in Sydney. This match will be played on a fresh pitch, and the short boundary will be the opposite direction to New Zealand’s first game here. The SCG has generally been the best batting surface so far in the tournament.

Team news

Pramod Madushan will likely slot in for Binura Fernando, who was the third Sri Lanka quick to be ruled out of the tournament.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Kusal Mendis (wk), 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Dhananjaya de Silva, 4 Charith Asalanka, 5 Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 6 Dasun Shanaka (capt), 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Chamika Karunaratne, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Pramod Madushan, 11 Lahiru KumaraNew Zealand are set to bring in Daryl Mitchell for Mark Chapman.New Zealand (possible): 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt.), 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Ish Sodhi, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Trent Boult

Stats and trivia

• Pathum Nissanka is the fourth-highest run-scorer in T20Is this year, with 636 from 21 innings. But those runs have come at a strike rate of only 111.
  
• Sri Lanka have been one of Santner’s favourite opponents in the past. He has taken seven wickets against them in five matches at a strike rate of 6.26.
  
• New Zealand have won 10 and lost seven T20Is against Sri Lanka. In T20 World Cups, however, the tally is 4-1 in Sri Lanka’s favour, though they haven’t met at this tournament since 2014.

Quotes

“If it’s a good batting wicket and a fast outfield, the runs are there for taking. We need to go with a different game plan on a pitch like this..”
Sri Lanka assistant coach Naveed Nawaz on needing to adjust to Sydney, having played in three other venues in the past 12 days.“Feels like it’s been a while since we’ve played, but we’ve had a couple of good trainings in between.”
New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee on the entirely different kind of challenge that his team faces.