Category Uncategorized

Despite being the leading English-qualified spinner in the 2016 season there was no place for Jack Leach in England’s touring squad but there remains a chance that could change

George Dobell31-Oct-2016England will resist the immediate temptation to send for reinforcements ahead of the tour of India, but it remains possible a player could be added to the squad in the coming weeks.Having suffered a chastening final day in Mirpur, where they missed several opportunities in the field and lost all 10 wickets in a session, there might have been a temptation to refresh a squad that is struggling to both play and bowl spin as well as the opposition. Alastair Cook, the captain, admitted on Sunday that England “haven’t got world-class spinners”.But while James Whitaker, the national selector, has confirmed England will keep faith with the 16-man squad originally named for the tour, replacement players will be called up in case of injury. That could even include the possibility of replacing James Anderson who was not named in the original tour party for the India series with the understanding that he would join the squad if he was deemed to be fit.”We’ve picked our squad and we stand by that,” Whitaker told ESPNcricinfo. “If someone is injured or becomes unwell, we can look at making changes but these are the players we believe are best equipped for the job.”James Anderson continues to make his comeback from injury at Loughborough and we will assess his fitness before deciding what his involvement on the tour will be.”Trevor Bayliss on…

Gary Ballance: “He’s more disappointed than anyone. He’s a guy that practices very hard, is very intense and he wants to do well so badly. He’s got a couple of good balls but he’ll be a discussion point, I’m sure.”

Haseeb Hameed: “We knew before the series started that he was waiting in the wings and can obviously play. It is an option for us. There will have to be some soul-searching in the next few days.”

Bangladesh: “We were outplayed. We weren’t consistent enough. If Bangladesh have more wickets like this, they’ve got a fair chance of winning more Test matches.”

India: “It’s going to be difficult, that’s for sure. We’re going to have play some very good cricket, but we’ve got that in us. We’ve shown in previous series we’ve been able to come back after losses. We’ve got to dig deep and play a very good team playing in their home conditions.”

One of the great truisms of cricket is that a player’s reputation can often improve most when he is not playing. So, with England’s spinners struggling to match the potency of their Bangladesh counterparts, the calls for the inclusion of Somerset’s Jack Leach or Middlesex’s Ollie Rayner have intensified.Leach, a left-arm spinner, claimed 65 Championship wickets during the 2016 season at an average of 21.87. No England-qualified player claimed more in Division One. Rayner, the Middlesex off-spinner, claimed 51 Championship wickets at an average of 23.56. By comparison with the spinners in England’s squad, Gareth Batty claimed 41 at 31.21, Adil Rashid claimed 32 at 33.84 and Zafar Ansari 22 at 31.40. All five of them played in Division One of the County Championship.Leach is in some ways an unlikely saviour. While Jos Buttler, his team-mate from Somerset youth teams, was soon fast tracked as a special talent, Leach was obliged to take a job parking trolleys in a Taunton supermarket as he attempted to pursue a career in the game.He has developed steadily, however, and is now an admirably consistent bowler. And while England are relatively well-served with spinners who turn the ball into right-handed batsmen (Moeen Ali and Graeth Batty have probably been the most reliable of England’s spinners on the tour to date), Leach might have offered England another option for a spinner who takes the ball away from them.While his excellent record in the 2016 Championship season comes with something of a caveat – Somerset played on pitches providing an unusual amount of assistance to spin bowlers – it is likely that England will encounter similar surfaces in India. His experience of operating on such surfaces might therefore have been useful and Somerset, who were criticised for preparing such surfaces, could argue that they were preparing England players for the challenge ahead.Most of England’s spinners have little experience of bowling in helpful conditions. Moeen, for example, developed on an unresponsive New Road surface and, when he did come across a helpful track, often found himself as second spinner behind Batty – until he moved to Surrey – or Saeed Ajmal. For that reason, he is still learning to deal with the expectation and pressure of bowling in circumstances where spinners are required to lead the attack.But the selectors have concluded that to make changes now would suggest panic and argue that the reasons for selecting the current squad remain as valid now as they did a few weeks ago. Leach, for example, is still seen as an inexperienced player who has yet to have the chance to familiarise himself with the England environment. He will depart for a Lions trip to the UAE shortly, though, and it remains possible that, should an injury befall any of the bowlers, he could be called up.Jack Leach had an oustanding county season•Getty ImagesThat includes Anderson. If he is ruled out of the tour in the coming days – and it seems a decision will be made in the next week – it is entirely possible the selectors could replace him with a spinner. The team management could argue that such a move would not be a sign of panic or demonstrate any lack of faith in the current squad, but represent a natural replacement for a bowler who would have been with the squad had he been fully fit.It would make little sense to replace Anderson with another seamer. England already have several options in that department – Stuart Broad and Jake Ball sat out the second Test in Mirpur, for example – but they have fewer spin options. Leach could, therefore, yet find himself in India within a few weeks.Meanwhile, England are sticking to their original plan to take a few days off before beginning preparations for the India leg of the tour. They fly to Mumbai on Wednesday and do not have any full training sessions planned until Saturday. Then they fly to Rajkot on Sunday where they will step up their preparations ahead of the first Test starting on Wednesday, November 9. Some players are likely to arrange net sessions in their days off, but there will be no official warm-up match.”The boys have been training very hard since we’ve been here,” Trevor Bayliss, the coach, said. “It’s been a fairly hectic two or three weeks, so I think part of it will be mental and physical rest so that we’re fresh going into those matches.”It’s not all about practice, practice, practice, even though that’s what people might think we need to do. But when the guys practice we want to practice properly and get our confidence for those matches.”

Nigel Howard was a surprise choice to lead an under-strength England overseas in 1951-52. His Test career started and ended with that ordinary tour to India

Steven Lynch11-May-2015The roll-call of England captains is an evocative list. Almost an A-Z: Atherton, Brearley, Cowdrey, Dexter, Edrich, Flintoff, Graveney, Hutton, Illingworth … With a Hammond and a May and a Strauss thrown in. Since the Second World War, it’s been an unbroken list of the biggest names in English cricket.Well, almost unbroken. England’s captain in India in 1951-52, was ND Howard. Who was he?In fact, Nigel Howard had taken over at Lancashire in 1949, when he was only 23, still their youngest full-time captain. He led them to a share of the Championship in 1950, and had enjoyed four reasonable seasons with the bat – over 900 runs each year since becoming a regular in 1948, with 1174 in 1950. For the time, it was solid but unspectacular: nothing really to suggest that here was a Test player in the making… except for one important thing. Howard was an amateur, and England’s captains (and most of the county captains too) came from the unpaid ranks back then. England hadn’t been led by a paid professional since the days of privately raised teams in the 19th century.During the home summer of 1951, England had been led by Freddie Brown, who had proved a popular captain in Australia the previous winter, despite losing heavily. But Brown was over 40, and didn’t fancy a winter in India: he stood down from the captaincy. I’d always imagined that Howard must have been MCC’s third or fourth choice to lead that winter tour – but actually the committee minutes reveal he was the first one asked, in June 1951.These were different times. It wasn’t only Brown who wasn’t too keen on playing in India: of the XI that won the final Test at The Oval in 1951, to clinch a 3-1 victory over South Africa, only four went on the tour, none of them established players. Howard’s Lancashire team-mate, the offspinner Roy Tattersall, had nine previous caps, including all five games that summer, but the other three – the young Hampshire allrounder Derek Shackleton and the Yorkshire pair of opener Frank Lowson and wicketkeeper Don Brennan – had only two caps each. There was no Hutton, no Compton, no May, no Evans, no Bailey, no Bedser, no Laker …

“He didn’t like India, and he never really felt well. He was as fit as a flea really, but I’m sure he thought he was going to pick up some awful plague”Tour manager Geoffrey Howard on Nigel Howard

It all seems rather peculiar now, but the fact was that England had long felt they didn’t need a full-strength team to subdue anyone who wasn’t Australia. It might have been true before the war, when only South Africa had given regular trouble, but the times were a-changing. In 1947-48, West Indies had seen off an experimental side – captained by 45-year-old Gubby Allen – and showed that was no fluke by winning a joyous series in England in 1950. Even New Zealand, who would not lower England’s colours until 1977-78, showed they were no longer pushovers by drawing all four Tests in the summer of 1949. Those were only three-day games – only Australia were deemed worthy of the full five – but that was changed the following year.That left India, who had been playing Tests since 1932, but still hadn’t won one. However, more regular international exposure had begun to harden them into a useful team, featuring batsmen like the two Vijays – stylish opener Merchant and prolific captain Hazare. At home, they would be difficult to beat, and any inferiority complex that might have existed before had been buried, chiefly by the combative allrounders Lala Amarnath and Vinoo Mankad.And so Howard was up against it. A successful series might have secured him the England captaincy at home as well, and there was an Australian visit looming in 1953. But India had the better of the first Test, in Delhi: only a superb rearguard from the Glamorgan left-hander Allan Watkins saved their blushes. He resisted for nine hours for 137 not out, and put on 158 with Donald Carr, the vice-captain.That innings of Carr, another amateur, posed a few problems for the management. Tom Graveney, the side’s best batsman, had missed the first Test, but had to return for the second, in Bombay (where he would score 175). Who would make way for him? Watkins grabbed the nettle, and suggested the captain – who’d made just 13 and 9 in Delhi – should step down. But, as Carr said, “It became clear that he was not going to let himself be left out.” Instead it was Carr, who’d just made 76 on debut, who was dropped. “I suppose it was inevitable really,” he admitted, “and I’ve sometimes wondered what I would have done in similar circumstances.” There’s not much doubt who Graveney himself would have left out: Howard was, he said, “a very ordinary cricketer – and that’s putting it kindly”. Carr was somewhat more generous: “I found Nigel a very nice fellow, and he had a good record as captain of Lancashire.”Denis Compton was at London’s St Pancras Station to see off members of the 1951-52 tour party to India•PA PhotosThe second and third Tests were drawn, but Howard continued to struggle – 20 in Bombay, 23 and 20 not out in Calcutta. He only made a run in the fourth Test in Kanpur, but it didn’t matter much: England’s spinners outbowled India’s, and the match was won. Victory was set up by Howard’s Lancastrian colleagues Tattersall and slow left-armer Malcolm Hilton, who shared 17 wickets.Ironically, Howard did now stand down – he had contracted pleurisy, and had to return home. It fell to Carr to captain England for the only time in the final Test in Madras – and it was a historic game, as India finally broke their duck and squared the series, in a match that had an unscheduled rest day when news came through late on the first afternoon that King George VI had died. Vinoo Mankad did the damage with 8 for 55 in the first innings (and four more in the second), then centuries from Pankaj Roy and Polly Umrigar set up a big lead. It was probably England’s lack of quick bowling that cost them: both Roy and Umrigar would struggle against the fiery young Fred Trueman in England later in 1952. But that’s not to detract from India’s win. The Times admitted: “Over the whole series England seemed rather lucky to have shared the honours.”Carr remembered: “The Indians were very polite to us after the match and said the reason we had lost was because we were so upset by the news of the King’s death.”The tour manager was Geoffrey Howard (no relation). He recalled his captain in Stephen Chalke’s fine 2001 memoir At the Heart of English Cricket: “He was very young, and his upbringing had been so materialistic. In a way, he’d had things too easy in his life. He’d got where he had because of his father.”He didn’t like India, and he never really felt well. He was as fit as a flea really, but I’m sure he thought he was going to pick up some awful plague. He was so apprehensive about his health – and the strange thing was that he died at the age of only 54.” That was in 1979, not long after he’d retired from the family textile business to the Isle of Man.Howard played on for Lancashire until 1954, but never did captain England again. It was Len Hutton, a professional, who would take on (and beat) the Australians in 1953. Still, MCC remained keen on the idea of amateur captains, even after the distinction between Gentlemen and Players was officially abolished in 1962. But they never took India – or anyone else – quite so lightly again.

Neither Graeme Smith or Michael Clarke have been flush with runs in the Test series, but have had a fair bit to say about each other’s teams

Firdose Moonda26-Feb-2014Unlike the two teams they lead, Graeme Smith and Michael Clarke have been doing their talking the way us normal folks do: with their mouths. Both leaders are short on form – with 37 runs for Smith and 60 for Clarke across four innings each – so they have to assert their authority by taking gentle at jabs at each other while leaving the rest of their XI to do the real roughing up.”There’s always a game being played within a game,” Smith admitted after the second Test in Port Elizabeth. On that occasion it was a game Smith had won, despite Clarke hinting the South African captain was too conservative in his tactics.When Clarke was asked when he thought the Australians would find themselves chasing, given the gloomy forecast for the fifth day and South Africa needing a victory to keep the series alive, the glint in his eye twinkled with mischief. “I’d have had five overs tonight,” he said, to a room that swelled with laughter. Really? Of course not.Then again, maybe he was not simply taking a dig. Clarke proved his penchant for not batting on regardless when he declared after 3.2 overs on the fourth morning at Centurion Park, with only two runs added to the Australian total. With a lead of 481 and having seen “enough in the pitch,” to know the variable bounce would give South Africa no chance, Clarke sent Smith’s team in and victory was promptly wrapped up in the final session.Smith prefers to err on the side of caution. South Africa’s overnight lead in Port Elizabeth after three days was 369. Most thought it was already enough, especially with the time left in the match because of the looming rain and the brittle Australian top order. Smith did not. He kept Hashim Amla at the crease for 90 minutes the following morning, until the advantage swelled to 447. Morne Morkel had predicted the evening before that 450 was the “magical number.”That gave South Africa just over five sessions to bowl Australia out but, with play looking likely to be washed out on the final day, it meant a likely two and a bit sessions. South Africa used every last minute of those, including the extra half hour awarded by the umpires, but managed to finish the match in time. In the end, they need not have worried. The rain only arrived at lunch time in Port Elizabeth on the scheduled final day so South Africa had the time they needed and Smith did not need five overs late on the third evening to win.As it turned out, Smith said he always knew that. “The disappointing thing is that a lot of you fell for it,” he joked, to the media. “The truth is that as a captain, you know what you want to do and how to get the best out of your guys.”That much is true for both. Clarke knows how to use Mitchell Johnson in short bursts and how to set fields the photographers can have fun snapping. The four short-midwickets he had for AB de Villiers was one example, and he only reduced them to three when de Villiers made a mockery of it and hit Peter Siddle for six over all of them. Smith has become astute in managing his bowlers, especially Dale Steyn, and coped well without the fourth seamer in Port Elizabeth. He also experimented with fielders, using close catchers at short cover more than in recent times.”Graeme has learnt a lot from when he first started and you can see he is more adventurous with field placings,” Peter Kirsten, the former South Africa batsman, told ESPNcricinfo. “On a slow wicket we saw him use two short covers, two short mid-wickets and that kind of thing.”One of those short covers was in place when Clarke drove loosely in the first innings in Port Elizabeth. That shot got him into trouble in the second innings, too, and extended his run of innings without passing 25 to 11. Smith is in an equally barren stretch, with four scores under 15 and seven innings since his last half-century. Clarke has set Johnson on him with success in three of the four innings in this series so far.Smith may regard the left-armers hold over him as nothing more than “bull dot dot dot”, which is also what he called a lot of Australia’s big-talk before the series. Some of that included Peter Siddle saying Australia would target South Africa from the top-down, by going after the leader first. Australia have remained true to that promise and, perhaps subconsciously, have influenced South Africa to do the same thing to Clarke.Overall, Kirsten said it seems the captains have the measure of each other in just about every way. “They’re both strong personalities and have good strength of character. When you do as well as they’ve both done as leaders, it gives you a lot of confidence,” Kirsten said. “It’s all a bit of cat and mouse now but it’s good to have some Jose Mourinho-style talk around cricket.”Which one of Smith or Clarke is really the special one may be decided after the Newlands Test.

West Indies’ top order has failed consistently against England and something will have to change to give them any hope in the final Test

Nagraj Gollapudi at Trent Bridge28-May-2012Marlon Samuels stood there at the non-striker’s end. Head down, motionless. His helpless and sorry figure summed up the terrible state of West Indies batting so far in this series. The previous delivery, Ravi Rampaul, West Indies’ last man, had gone chasing an away swinger from James Anderson, edging into the hands of the third slip. That meant Samuels missed out on scoring consecutive centuries in the same match by 24 runs.This was the second time in the match that Samuels, who had lofted Graeme Swann out of the ground for 16 runs, including two straight sixes in the previous over, was left stranded in such a frustrated position. In the first innings, it was his captain Darren Sammy, who having compiled a resilient maiden century, played an irresponsible pull shot to be caught in the deep at a crucial juncture. Samuels and Sammy had re-built the West Indies house after the early collapse on the first day. West Indies could have crossed the 500-mark but Sammy’s departure only hastened the visitors folding up the first innings at a good, but not good-enough total.West Indies were not in a similar position today, but it takes just that bit of application and determination to turn a corner. Samuels is the best example of that theory working. Unfortunately none of his top order batsmen had learned from him, as well as their own mistakes.Consider this: in the four innings played in the series so far, not one among the West Indies’ top order has managed to score a half century. But the more incredulous fact is that the West Indies top-four comprising Adrian Barath, Kieran Powell, Kirk Edwards and Darren Bravo have scored an aggregate of just 203 runs in the two Tests. Samuels, on his own, has managed 310 runs.At Lord’s, Barath had survived two hours on the first day to return not out at lunch. But as soon as he returned to crease, he went and pushed at the ball which he had left alone all morning. In Nottingham, he was clueless about his position and committed to playing the balls once again he should have let go. In the second innings at Lord’s, Powell had shown his weak mindset when he took on Stuart Broad, who had tempted him to go for the pull. The previous delivery, Powell had been alerted by his batting partner Shivnarine Chanderpaul, about two fielders being placed in the deep, yet Powell consciously fell into the trap.Edwards’ bad luck at Lord’s, when he was run out inadvertently for no mistake of his in the second innings, did not go away as he reported sick yesterday and survived just two deliveries, recording his second duck. His form in the first innings of both Tests has been no better with the England fast bowlers exposing cracks in Edwards’ poor defence easily. Bravo had been done by Chanderpaul’s erroneous call on the first day of the series last Thursday, but on Sunday he repeated the same mistake Powell had made minutes earlier, chasing a wide delivery outside the off stump delivery and edging.

“This group of players has been criticised because of the decline of West Indies cricket. You come to England, you are playing the No. 1 team in the world, it is difficult to expect that you are going to come and beat them.”West Indies coach Ottis Gibson

Not only does it reveal a poor choice of shot selection from the West Indies batsmen but it also highlights a weak temperament. Ottis Gibson, West Indies coach, said the problem was a “combination of both” technical and mental skills: “It is not entirely a technical thing. It is being able to repeat your skill over and over again. That is what top teams in the world do: they test your technique; they test your character; they test your mental strength. Perhaps that is where we are falling short,” Gibson said. “They are doing the hard work but they are not doing it for long enough.”Gibson said West Indies would utilise the two-day tour match in Leicester to not only give more batting time to some of their ailing batsmen but also probably reshuffle the batting order to encounter the top-order failure. He did not rule out moving one of the pair of Samuels or Bravo to No. 3 in place of the struggling Edwards. “We have got a good week off to go back and sort of reflect on where we are the moment and what we can salvage out of the rest of the series with one Test match to go and look at all the different options that we have available; may be moving Marlon or Darren to three or Darren.”Across the two Tests, West Indies have won many sessions of play while fighting hard in others. A good example came during the first session on the third morning when the pair of Ravi Rampaul and Kemar Roach put West Indies back in the game after the bowlers had been dominated by the pair of Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen on the second afternoon. “We were outstanding yesterday to get eight wickets for 169 runs considering the way we had bowled the day before where we leaked runs from both ends,” Gibson said.He said by blocking one end, West Indies had successfully suffocated England captain Andrew Strauss, who found it hard to accelerate once he had scored his century. “We made it tough for him and then that caused him to get out,” Gibson said. But his batsmen had not learned when they were put under the scanner.”When England make it tough for us, we get out far easier than they do. That is a concern. But we have shown that when we do the right things we can cause problems to the England team but we are not doing it consistently enough at the moment.”Gibson said though he was disappointed that West Indies had lost the Wisden Trophy, he would still not be disheartened by the critics, who were expecting his team to beat a strong side like England. “This group of players has been criticised because of the decline, if you like, of West Indies cricket,” Gibson said. “You come to England, you are playing the No. 1 team in the world, it is difficult to expect that you are going to come and beat them. We challenged them at Lord’s, we challenged them here for periods as well but not for long enough to create any winning opportunities.”

The dissolution of SLC’s interim administration under Arjuna Ranatunga was widely expected following a constant difference of opinion with the sports minister

Sa'adi Thawfeeq24-Dec-2008

The dissolution of Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim administration under Arjuna Ranatunga was widely expected following a constant difference of opinion between the former World Cup-winning captain and the sports minister, Gamini Lokuge. The decision comes in the backdrop of a tumultuous year that featured more controversies than cricket.The situation, which was constantly deteriorating, eventually came to a head after Ranatunga decided to sack 16 employees of Sri Lanka Cricket last week. The aggrieved employees approached the Minister, who ordered that no decision should be taken without first consulting him.Ranatunga was appointed to the post in January 2008 after former chairman Jayantha Dharmadasa decided to step down. Ranatunga said then that he was taking over to set things right in cricket but he leaves having done more wrong than right.Ranatunga tried to run Sri Lanka Cricket in the same autocratic and ad hoc way he captained the cricket team. But the circumstances are different, and what worked for him as captain has clearly backfired in his term as administrator. He has come across as obstinate and impulsive, and his refusal to involve his committee members in the decision-making process has earned him constant criticism. Worse, most of his decisions have turned out to be counter-productive.Incredibly for a player-administrator, he has managed to alienate the majority of Sri Lanka’s international players. The relationship, already rocky, virtually broke down when he unilaterally committed Sri Lanka to a tour of England in April-May 2009 despite being fully aware that a majority of the Sri Lankan players were contracted to play in the IPL in the same period. The England tour was not part of the ICC’s Future Tours Programme but hastily organised to fill a gap in the English summer that arose due to Zimbabwe’s withdrawal.Ranatunga justified his decision saying that the cash-strapped Sri Lankan board badly needed the US$2 million guarantee money the tour would bring. But the tour fell through when the sports minister sided with the players.

Ironically, Ranatunga, who began his tenure by appealing to the Indian cricket board to bail out Sri Lanka Cricket, is now seen as the biggest obstacle in the relationship between the two boards. The Indian administrators haven’t taken kindly to the Ranatunga’s constant jibing – he has emerged as a strong opponent of Twenty20 cricket and in fact blamed India’s loss in the first Test against Sri Lanka earlier this year to the after-effects of the IPL – and made it clear there could be no relationship between the two boards as long as Ranatunga was in charge. Consequently, the Indian board withdrew an offer of a US$70 million bailout package for Sri Lanka over a ten-year period in return for a commitment to Twenty20 tournaments organized by the BCCI.It is speculated that Ranatunga – who met President Mahinda Rajapakse after his removal – will be offered a ministerial post; those in the running to replace him include a former cricket board president, a former interim committee chairman and a current interim committee member.Whoever takes over the job, though, is likely to inherit a mess.

They lead England 2-1 having stayed calm in the face of an early onslaught in Rajkot

Karthik Krishnaswamy18-Feb-20245:02

Rohit: ‘The youngsters belong here and want to stay here’

It ended like so many India home Tests over the last decade. A hefty winning margin was in sight, and R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were fighting over the final wicket.Ashwin has more Test-match-ending wickets than anyone else in history, 23, one more than Shane Warne in second place, but Jadeja won on this occasion, completing his 13th five-wicket haul as India sealed victory by a record 434 runs.It was an entirely familiar finish, but seldom have India got to one in quite this manner. They had been 33 for 3 on the first morning, and recovered to post 445. England, in reply, had rocketed to 207 for 2 in 35 overs by stumps on day two. Later that night, Ashwin, the most experienced member of India’s line-up, had left Rajkot for personal reasons, leaving them with only four bowlers for the remainder of England’s innings.From there to the accelerated finish in the dying moments of day four, when England collapsed to 122 all out, India had played some of their very best cricket. And while it was in one sense a comeback win, it didn’t necessarily fit the traditional narrative of a comeback – where a team changes its style of play to counter and overcome a dominant opposition.Related

• Introducing Jais-ball: contemporary yet timeless

• For Ashwin, process trumps outcome in the face of England's risky business

• Crafty Kuldeep undoes Bazball in 12-over spell for the ages

• Jaiswal and India break six-hitting records

• Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravindra Jadeja star in India's biggest Test win by runs

It was, instead, a win of persistent belief in Plan A when Plan A may not have seemed to be working in any obvious sense. It had not seemed to work in the first Test in Hyderabad, where England pulled off a remarkable come-from-behind win. It had brought India a win in Visakhapatnam, but it seemed – at least to the spectator – that the result could have been different if not for a great display of fast bowling from Jasprit Bumrah. When Plan A led India to where they were at the end of day two in Rajkot, other teams may have wondered whether it was time to try something different.India did not. While they made micro-level tactical adjustments, like any bowling group would, their overall strategy remained much the same: hammer away on a good length, and keep the stumps in play as much as possible. They trusted in these methods, and trusted that they had too much quality in their bowling group for those methods to not bring rewards at some point.”When you’re playing Test cricket, it’s not played over two days or three days. We do understand the importance of extending the game for five days,” India captain Rohit Sharma said at the post-match presentation. “[England] played well, to be honest, and played some really good shots. They put us under pressure a little bit there, but look, we’ve got class in our squad, when it comes to bowling.”Obviously, the message was to stay calm because when things like that happen, it’s actually easy to drift away from what you want to do as a team. But I’m really proud of how we came back the next day, stuck to what we discussed, and when those things happen, it’s a delight to watch.”2:04

Harmison: Rohit’s captaincy applied pressure on England

Ben Duckett peppered the boundaries in Rajkot, hitting 23 fours and two sixes in a 151-ball 153, but India kept reminding themselves to judge themselves on whether they were bowling good balls and forcing the batters to take risks to score their runs.”Yeah, look, they actually played shots off really good balls,” Rohit said at his post-match press conference. “Even the first Test match where [Ollie] Pope got that [196], he was very much in control and played shots off some really good balls, and when the batter is doing that, obviously the plan is to keep it very simple, nice and tight, follow the plans that have been discussed.”These guys have bowled a lot in these conditions, so they exactly know how to keep coming back into the game. Rather than getting frustrated and doing too many things, it is important that you stick to your strengths, understand where the run-scoring opportunities are, for the opposition, and then try and stop them.”India’s persistence paid off, as Kuldeep Yadav bowled 12 incisive overs of wristspin on the third morning to lay the groundwork for Mohammed Siraj to burst through England’s lower order with an irresistible spell of reverse-swing. Their efforts, and those of the relentless Bumrah and Jadeja, helped India claim a 126-run lead. That swelled to 556, thanks to Yashasvi Jaiswal’s second double-hundred in consecutive Tests and half-centuries from Shubman Gill and Sarfaraz Khan, before India declared 50 minutes before tea on day four.”Lot of turning points,” Rohit said. “Once we won the toss… that was actually a good toss to win because we know in India how important it is to win the toss and put runs on the board. And the lead that we got was very, very crucial for us. And the way we came out and bowled after that onslaught from the English batters was important for us to stay calm. The bowlers actually showed a lot of character and not to forget we didn’t have our most experienced bowler as well. But for this group to come out and get the job done in that fashion was really, really proud to watch.”The group Rohit referred to was one of the more inexperienced combinations India have used in a home Test in recent times.Kuldeep, who made his Test debut in 2017, was playing just his 10th Test match, and Jaiswal his seventh. Sarfaraz was on debut, as was wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, while Rajat Patidar, at No. 4, was playing only his second Test. Gill (23 Tests) is still new to the No. 3 role that was occupied by Cheteshwar Pujara for most of the last decade.India have been without Virat Kohli (113 Tests) and Mohammed Shami (64) all through this series, while KL Rahul (50) has featured only in one Test. Jadeja (70) missed the second Test in Visakhapatnam, and Ashwin (98) bowled only 13 overs across the two innings in Rajkot.”Two debutants and not a lot of Test matches amongst the playing XI as well,” Rohit said. “So lot of these guys are learning from the experience they’re having in the middle. We got a lot to learn [from] how we played in Hyderabad, and then in Vizag when we won, obviously we knew it’s not going to be an easy one for us to just come out here and win this series, we have to work really really hard, especially with a lot of our frontline players missing as well.”A lot of credit to these young boys who have come in and shown a lot of character. Looks like they belong here, and they actually want to stay here as well. So yeah, it is quite satisfying when you win a Test match like that. We always talk about the bench strength. Today and even in Vizag, we got to see a lot of bench strength as well.”

A series victory in India is bigger than winning the Ashes, according to Australia players including Steven Smith and David Warner, who are gearing up for the “toughest challenge in Test cricket”. India and Australia go up against each other in a high-profile four-match Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting in Nagpur on February 9.”It [India] is a difficult place to win a Test match let alone a series. So if we are able to do that, it would be huge. I think if you win in India, it is bigger than an Ashes series [win],” Smith told cricket.com.au, in a video featuring several Australia players taking about the challenges of playing in India.Warner said he is looking forward to playing against the best spinners in the world. “Being a part of the last Ashes was fantastic but to go to India and beat India in India is the toughest challenge in Test cricket for us.”I’m looking forward to the tour, it’s always a hard graft. One thing that I’m looking forward to is applying myself against the best spinners in the world.”Fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who will miss the Nagpur Test due to an Achilles niggle in his left leg, said: “Probably been long since Australia won there or less frequently we have won. In world cricket that’s everyone’s goal – to try and win in India.”Mitchell Starc, who will also miss the first Test, having not recovered sufficiently as yet from a finger tendon injury, said a series win in India “has always been a crown jewel for Australian touring teams”.”Winning a series in India will be really special for our group,” Starc said. “I think it has always been a crown jewel for Australian touring teams. It’s one of, if not the hardest place to play away… Such foreign conditions and how strong the Indian team are as well.”On one side you’ve got all this history of the Ashes and on the other you have this tour of India, which has been for many Australian teams out of reach.”Captain Pat Cummins mirrored the sentiments of his team-mates, saying: “Winning a series in India is like an Ashes away series [win] but even more rare. It will be a career highlight, an era-defining series if we win out there,” Cummins said.

MatériaMais Notícias

Na manhã desta terça-feira, na Academia de Futebol, o Palmeiras deu sequência na preparação para o confronto com o Red Bull Bragantino, nesta quarta (22), às 21h35, no Allianz Parque, pela 10ª rodada do Campeonato Paulista. Foi o penúltimo treino do elenco antes do duelo pelo estadual.

> Veja classificação e simulador do Paulistão-2023 clicando aqui

A primeira atividade foi posicional, com os jogadores dispostos em pontos específicos, foram aprimorados movimentações, passes, lançamentos, cruzamentos e finalizações. Na sequência, foi colocado em prática um trabalho recreativo e, por fim, mais um treino tático, com muitas orientações da comissão técnica de Abel Ferreira.

continua após a publicidadeRelacionadasPalmeirasPalmeiras é um dos times com menos derrotas no mundo desde 2022Palmeiras20/02/2023PalmeirasAndrey Santos está no Brasil e aguarda desfecho de acordo com o PalmeirasPalmeiras20/02/2023PalmeirasOpção frequente no Palmeiras em 2023, Breno Lopes agradece as chances: ‘Tenho a confiança do grupo’Palmeiras20/02/2023

Neste momento, o único desfalque do Alviverde é Marcelo Lomba, que sofreu uma fratura em dedo da mão esquerda e está fora de combate. No entanto, ele vem treinando na linha nas atividades.

> Palmeiras x Bragantino: saiba onde assistir ao jogo pelo Paulistão

O Palmeiras não libera a entrada de jornalistas na Academia de Futebol para acompanhar os treinos. Assim, as informações são fornecidas pelas assessoria de imprensa do clube.

> Palmeiras x Red Bull Bragantino: mais de 27 mil ingressos vendidos; saiba como comprar

Uma provável escalação do Verdão é para pegar o Massa Bruta é: Weverton; Marcos Rocha, Gustavo Gómez, Murilo e Piquerez; Zé Rafael, Gabriel Menino e Raphael Veiga; Rony, Dudu e Endrick. Na manhã desta quarta-feira, o Alviverde fará mais uma atividade leve pensando no Bragantino.

Com o empate no Dérbi, o Palmeiras somou 21 pontos (seis vitórias e três empates) e se manteve como o dono da melhor campanha da competição até o momento. Por conta da combinação de resultados da rodada, o Alviverde, inclusive, já garantiu vaga nas quartas de final do torneio estadual sem precisar entrar em campo. Agora o objetivo é se manter como melhor campanha geral do campeonato para ter vantagem de decidir os confrontos de mata-mata no Allianz Parque.

The PCB has also hired Simon Helmot and David Reid as fielding coach and mental performance coach respectively

ESPNcricinfo staff14-May-2024

Gary Kirsten will start his two-year stint as the head coach of the Pakistan men’s national side on May 19 in Leeds, the PCB announced in Lahore on Tuesday.This will give him three days with the players and other members of the coaching staff before the first game of the four-match T20I series against England, at Headingley on May 22. The series will be Pakistan’s last before the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the USA, where they begin their campaign with a game against USA in Dallas on June 6.”These are indeed thrilling times for Pakistan cricket, with a new administration and players who are driven to deliver solid results,” Kirsten said in a statement. “The upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 presents a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our skills and uphold Pakistan’s legacy as a formidable force in cricket.”However, success will require collective effort, meticulous planning and unwavering support for one another. With 19 other teams vying for the title, we must consistently outperform our rivals to realise our aspirations.”On a personal level, I’ve missed the experience of coaching at the international level and nurturing talented players to reach their full potential. I’m committed to working closely with the team to elevate their game and bring joy to fans around the world.”Kirsten’s most famous coaching achievement came with India, with whom he was head coach from 2008 to 2011 and won the 2011 ODI World Cup. He was head coach of South Africa for the two years that followed, and is currently batting coach of Gujarat Titans in the IPL.The PCB has also brought in Simon Helmot and David Reid as fielding coach and mental performance coach respectively. The board said Reid would join the side on May 20 and continue until the end of the World Cup, while Helmot will link up with the side on May 31. Aftab Khan, currently the fielding coach of the side, will “assume responsibilities of high-performance coach” for the World Cup once Helmot takes charge.Related

Inspired by Woolmer, 'thick-skinned' Kirsten ready for Pakistan challenge

Shaheen, Babar and Rizwan outclass Ireland as Pakistan seal series win

Pakistan appoint Gillespie, Kirsten as head coaches

Imad Wasim: People remember the champions

Babar: 'Rauf positive about involvement in T20 World Cup'

“Ensuring the mental health and well-being of our elite cricketers is not just a priority, but a fundamental commitment,” Mohsin Naqvi, the PCB chairman, said. “Recognising that their performance on the field is intricately linked to their mental state, we have taken decisive action to provide them with the best support possible.”That’s why we’ve brought on board David Reid, a seasoned expert with nearly two decades of experience as a qualified mental health clinician. His track record speaks volumes, having successfully worked with world-record holders, Olympians and top-tier sports franchises like Chennai Super Kings, the Melbourne Stars and the Essendon Football Club in the AFL.”With his expertise in enhancing both functioning and performance, we are confident that our players will receive the comprehensive care they need to thrive both on and off the field.”Kirsten and Jason Gillespie were announced as Pakistan’s next white-ball and red-ball head coaches respectively last month. Gillespie will arrive in Pakistan in July, the PCB said, in time for the World Test Championship series at home against Bangladesh.

“Drawing is maybe as big as a loss for us,” the opener said ahead of his final Test, where he will also be standing in as captain

Firdose Moonda02-Jan-2024Dean Elgar likened the emotions of a Test series victory to winning a World Cup, while recognising that he has never played in one of the latter.”I only play the game to win,” Elgar said on the eve of his final Test. “I don’t care about stats. I care about wins. I care about series wins. That’s the greatest memories you can ever share with your team, everyone that has got an influential role in the background. Test series wins – you don’t top that. Maybe a World Cup win is up there. I have never had that opportunity but this is my World Cup. This is my arena where I want to win.”Elgar’s career will end this week with 86 Test caps and with him as one of only eight South Africans to have scored more than 5000 runs in Test cricket. He is 167 runs away from catching Mark Boucher, who is seventh on the list and will equal Herbie Taylor, with 18 Tests as captain, the fifth-most by a South African. While the runs are something Elgar hopes to reflect on in the future, being asked to lead the side, 11 months after being stood down from the captaincy because of an injury to regular skipper Temba Bavuma, is among Elgar’s proudest achievements.Related

Classy Elgar unveils a new dimension in farewell series

Jubilant South Africa put their name up in lights

Test's the best for David Bedingham as Newlands dream awaits

“I don’t think you get a bigger accolade or bigger credit than to be asked to captain. I did it in the past for a year-and-a-half or whatever it was and it has been the best learning experience for me as an individual – not just from a cricketing point of view but off-field stuff,” he said. “I give my 100% whether I am playing or captaining and I am going to have that mentality going into this game. For me, it’s about showing the right ways for the younger players and hopefully that catches on.”Playing against India, the team Elgar led South Africa to a 2-1 win against in the 2021-22 summer, holds extra meaning for him. “There’s no bigger honour than to captain your country irrespective of who you are playing against but being against India adds more flavour. India is the powerhouse nation in the world and we are in a situation where I can influence and try to get a 2-nil win.”

“It’s a massive Test for us, being our highlighted Test of the year. The New Year’s Test at Newlands, they don’t get much bigger and better, against really tough opposition.”Dean Elgar

Though South Africa’s innings win at SuperSport Park last week means that they cannot lose the series, Elgar does not want them to settle for that. Instead, he wants them to adopt a mindset that this is a series they should not share, because it will be played at home and with the final match at many of the players’ favourite venue: Newlands.”We are in a fortunate position knowing that we can’t lose the series but drawing is maybe as big as a loss for us,” he said. “It’s a massive Test for us, being our highlighted Test of the year. The New Year’s Test at Newlands, they don’t get much bigger and better, against really tough opposition. Playing the New Year’s Test is big for guys and they are going to have a lot of firsts so we want them to just live in that moment but be mindful of the opportunity of winning 2-nil. Drawing the series is not something we are thinking about at all.”This is South Africa’s first series of the 2023-2025 WTC, during which they will only play two-Test series and will not face England or Australia at all. The dearth of fixtures was believed to be part of the reason Elgar chose to retire, despite his 185 in the Boxing Day Test suggesting he still has much to offer, and though he did not confirm that, he also made it clear he will not be changing his mind. “One thing people need to understand is that I made my decision long ago,” he said. “A couple of months ago, I chose this to be my last series, irrespective of what is happening behind the scenes. I made my bed and I am sleeping in it quite nicely.”