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“I just backed my strengths – the yorkers and cutters,” Natarajan said of his impressive performance

Deivarayan Muthu08-Dec-2020India captain Virat Kohli has said that T Natarajan could be in contention for the T20 World Cup next year at home if the left-arm seamer builds on his impressive start in Australia. On his first international tour, Natarajan stepped up with his yorkers and slower variations, in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, helping India to a 2-1 T20I series win. Natarajan made an impact on his ODI debut as well, picking the wickets of Marnus Labuchange and Ashton Agar in another match-winning spell in the third game of the series.ALSO WATCH: T Natarajan ends Glenn Maxwell’s innings (India subcontinent only)“Natarajan – special mention to him because in the absence of [Mohammed] Shami and Bumrah, he’s been the guy who has stood up and really delivered under pressure which is outstanding for the fact that he’s playing his first few games at the international level,” Kohli said during a virtual media interaction. “He’s very composed, very sure of what he wants to do. He’s a very hardworking guy, very humble guy, and you feel happy for guys who are committed and working hard for the team when they get the results and make the team win.”So, I wish him all the best and I hope that he continues to work hard on his game and continues to get better because a left-arm bowler is always an asset for any team. So if he can bowl that well consistently it will be a great thing for us heading into to the [T20] World Cup next year.” The T20I leg of the tour ended with Natarajan posing with both the series trophy and the Player-of-the-Series trophy, which Hardik Pandya had handed over to him, in the team photo. Natarajan wasn’t supposed to be in India’s T20I squad in the first place. He was originally picked as a net bowler, but an injury to mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy opened up an opportunity and he seized it with a chart-topping six wickets at an economy rate of 6.91 in a high-scoring T20I series.Speaking to Sony Pictures Network, Natarajan said that he didn’t burden himself with expectations and simply backed himself to execute his skills.”I’m very happy to have played against a good team in Australia and won the series,” Natarajan said. “I have no words to describe my happiness. I didn’t have many expectations. I just came in as a net bowler and then because of some injuries I got a chance. I just wanted to utilise that chance. I was in good form in the IPL which helped me. Everyone around me supported me and motivated me, so I had the confidence to do well here.”In the second T20I, Natarajan showed that there’s more to him than just the yorker, bowling offcutters into the Sydney pitch and threatening the edges of the bat. On a used Sydney pitch on Tuesday, Natarajan rolled out more cutters to pull Australia back in the slog overs.”I just backed my strengths – the yorkers and cutters. Depending on the conditions, I ask the wicketkeeper or captain whether I need to bowl the slower ones or yorker. I adapt to it depending on that. I didn’t change too much about my bowling. Whatever I did in the IPL, I wanted to do it in Australia and wanted to execute it cleanly.”It has been an incredible couple of months for Natarajan. On the day he became a new dad, he yorked AB de Villiers with what was arguably the ball of IPL 2020. He then received his maiden T20I cap from one of his heroes Bumrah earlier this month in Canberra. If Natarajan continues to evolve, he could well be bowling alongside Bumrah in the 2021 T20 World Cup in the death overs.

Tourists hold their nerve against spirited England bowling effort to take 1-0 series lead

The Report by Valkerie Baynes02-Jul-2019
Australia – led by the bowling of Ellyse Perry and the batting of Alyssa Healy – have claimed early Ashes honours, winning a tight opening contest by two wickets in the first one-dayer at Leicester.England never recovered from a top-order batting collapse, led by Perry’s three wickets, despite the best efforts of England spinner Sophie Ecclestone, who claimed 3-34 as the tourists wobbled in their modest run chase. They reached the target with 45 balls remaining on the back of Healy’s half-century but, in the face of some tense moments, the match was close, peppered with some poor shot selection, particularly from England, and nervy fielding on both sides.The loss ended England’s winning streak across all formats at 14 after they crumbled to 19 for 4. Player of the Match Perry had Amy Jones out attempting a pull which ballooned to Healy behind the stumps and accounted for Jones’s fellow opener, Tammy Beaumont, who chopped on a short time later.Megan Schutt bowled Sarah Taylor with an in-swinger and then Perry had Heather Knight out lbw for a duck, walking across her stumps.It became 44 for 5 for England when Fran Wilson was out to a dubious lbw decision to spinner Jess Jonassen. Replays showed Wilson clearly gloved the ball first but, with no DRS for this series, Wilson could do nothing but march off the field making no secret of her consternation.Natalie Sciver launched a salvage mission with a spirited 64 off 95 balls but when she and Katherine Brunt were out lbw, to Jonassen and Delissa Kimmince respectively, and Anya Shrubsole was caught brilliantly by a leaping Rachael Haynes at mid-off, it fell to Ecclestone to carry on the attempted fightback.Ecclestone showed fine touch, reaching 27 of as many deliveries, including five fours, but her cameo ended when she attempted to loft Ashleigh Gardner for a second four in a row but found Beth Mooney just inside the long-on boundary.Laura Marsh was left standing unbeaten on 24 off 52 when Schutt bowled Kate Cross with a beautiful leg-cutter which clattered into off-stump.Chasing just 178 for victory, Australia more than fancied their chances. Despite the early loss of Nicole Bolton, caught behind attempting to drive Shrubsole, the tourists were in control at 41 for 1 after the first Power Play.But Brunt, celebrating her 34th birthday and in the rare position of first-change bowler, made the breakthrough with the first ball of her second over when she had Meg Lanning out to a plumb leg-before decision.Sarah Taylor’s stunning glovework shone as usual with a leg-side stumping to dismiss Perry cheaply off the bowling of Sciver.The England bowlers kept the pressure on Australia by claiming wickets at fairly regular intervals, including that of the dangerous Healy – who reached 66 off 71 balls before holing out to Wilson off Marsh. By the time Marsh bowled Mooney, attempting a paddle-sweep, Australia were 150 for 7 and, while the run rate required was easily attainable, England were in with a sniff if they could just take the remaining wickets.Shrubsole put down what should have been a regulation caught-and-bowled off Kimmince, demonstrating the less-than-assertive fielding that had bothered both sides at times. Orthodox spinner Ecclestone gave England a glimmer of hope with her penultimate ball, when she tempted Jonassen into a stroke that went straight to Shrubsole at mid-on.Needing 11 runs off the last 10 overs, the Australians held their nerve, Kimmince struck a lofted four off Brunt which had everyone’s hearts in their mouths as it went just wide of star fielder Wilson and five wides off the next ball sealed a low-key end to a thrilling contest.Both sides admitted nerves were a factor, with England captain Knight putting the hosts’ batting collapse down to “maybe absorbing pressure a little bit more”.”Disappointed with the bat, we lost too many early wickets and that ultimately cost us,” Knight told Sky Sports. “I’m really proud of the way the girls managed to get us to a total, would have liked a few more, but not to be today. I don’t think it was particularly being too aggressive that cost us the wickets. It’s maybe a few soft dismissals instead.”Australian captain Lanning said her side would be looking to improve going into Thursday’s second ODI.”Our bowlers did really well to put England on the back foot early but England bowled well as well so it’s just nice to get over the line,” Lanning said. “Hopefully the quality improves over the series. It was a great contest and everyone fought really hard but we feel like we’ve got a little bit to work on, as probably England do as well.”The Ashes will be decided over three one-dayers, a four-day Test and three T20Is.

Promoted Worcestershire have been hard to break at the Ageas Bowl and Hampshire needed Kyle Abbott’s ability not just with the ball but also with the bat

ECB Reporters Network15-Apr-2018
ScorecardKyle Abbott stood out with bat and ball•Getty Images

Kyle Abbott mastered both bat and ball for Hampshire during a rain-affected third day of their Specsavers County Championship with Worcestershire.Abbott scored an impressive half century in the morning before striking three times either side of a prolonged break to leave his team needing seven wickets on the final day, with Worcestershire requiring 265 runs to win.Abbott took 60 wickets and scored a useful 418 Championship runs in his debut campaign after joining Hampshire as a Kolpak. And a similarly prosperous season could be in store, with six wickets and 51 runs already chalked up in the opening fixture of 2018.After running our Hashim Amla the previous day, Abbott admitted he felt he had work to do.”To be honest I lost a little bit of sleep last night running out the best batsman in the world but I came out this morning with a little bit of fire in my belly,” he said.There’s plenty in that wicket. It’s going up and down, it’s still nibbling about. I think it would take a big effort. Nothing’s impossible but I still think we’ve got the ball firmly in our court.”I wasn’t in the greatest rhythm to be quite honest, I struggled a bit. The run ups are still a bit wet and now and then you just slip on the crease and lose your body position a bit.”Resuming on four in the morning, Abbott owed his side with the bat having suffered a golden duck in the first innings before running out well-set debutant, and former South African teammate, Hashim Amla the previous evening.The name of the game for Worcestershire was grab the two early wickets and set about a chase, but that was not to happen. Abbott, alongside Brad Wheal, batted in supreme comfort – with the ball offering very little for the Worcestershire bowlers despite a green-tinged wicket and thick grey skies.The pair proceeded to keep pushing Hampshire’s lead, which started the day 242 runs ahead, with crunching drives and delicate flicks off the legs the regular method of scoring.Abbott and Wheal added 72-runs for the ninth wicket before the latter edged Ed Barnard to Joe Clarke at second slip – scoring his 100th first-class run and his highest professional score of 19.Abbott continued and reached his seventh first-class half century from 69 balls – along with adding another 15 runs with Fidel Edwards.
But he ended the innings with an attempted drive, which flew to George Rhodes at first slip -Hampshire reaching 244 and setting their visitors 324 runs to win.In a tricky seven over spell before lunch, Abbott struck to dismiss Brett D’Oliviera – the opener stuck on the crease to an in-ducker.
Progress was then stunted by a prolonged rain break – which forced play to be suspended for the entirety of the afternoon session and most of the evening.In total 51 overs had been lost to set up a tricky 16 over spell for the Worcestershire batsman. And so it proved when man-of-the-day Abbott struck just five balls after the resumption, as he created an angle to slam into Tom Fell’s off-stump.Daryl Mitchell and Clarke appeared to have bedded down with a riskless 32 run stand before Abbott rapped the latter on the pads.
Mitchell, who ended on 34 not out, was assisted to the close by nightwatchman Josh Tongue.

If Ben Stokes thought for a moment he would be able to put his past behind him, his hopes were quickly dispelled when he arrived for training at the Sir Viv Richards stadium in Antigua

George Dobell in Antigua01-Mar-2017If Ben Stokes thought for a moment he would be able to put his past behind him, his hopes were quickly dispelled when he arrived for training at the Sir Viv Richards stadium in Antigua.There, in the middle of the playing area, was the familiar shape of Carlos Brathwaite practising his boundary hitting. As ball after ball landed in the stands and on the grass banks, it must have seemed wearingly familiar for Stokes.But it’s not that which is making Stokes squirm. He is a man completely at ease with the cut and thrust of competition. He understands there will be days when he comes off second-best and has no problem living with the consequences of victory or defeat. There’s no animosity or ill-feeling between Brathwaite and Stokes. Only respect.The pair bumped into each other at a function at Coolidge (the old Stanford ground, now the new home of West Indies cricket) on Tuesday night and exchanged a good-natured chat and what passes for handshakes in the Caribbean. “They’ve about five ways of doing it here,” Stokes says. “He was as big as he was back then.”And it’s not memories of breaking his hand on a locker in the Barbados dressing room that is embarrassing him, either. He regrets it, of course. He knows it was immature and, as he says, “unnecessary”. But it was also part of his development. He missed a World T20 tournament because of it and learned better ways to control his emotions.”If I ever repeat something like that again – I don’t think I ever would – but if I did, I’d be very disappointed in myself,” he told the BBC on Wednesday. “But I feel now I’ve got a better way of dealing with failure. I try and deal with it now as I deal with success. I never look too far ahead after doing well, so I just try to have the same mentality about failure: just chuck it behind you, start working harder to get better.”Being in a leadership role, I’m maybe going to have to take a step back a few times. But I’ll still have that same desire and hunger and want to get in people’s faces, because that’s what makes me the cricketer I am. I don’t want to lose that.”Ben Stokes is ready to face his demons when England take on West Indies on Friday•Getty Images

No, the reason Stokes is mumbling bashfully is because he has been asked to talk about his newly-acquired wealth. As comfortable as he is facing the quickest bowlers or with the game at its tightest, he looks horribly embarrassed when asked to reflect on the personal implications of having attracted USD 2.16 million from Pune in the IPL auction. Most comfortable out on the pitch or thinking of himself as one of the boys, he knows now that he will never just be ‘Ben Stokes the talented lad from Cumbria’ but ‘Ben Stokes, the millionaire’. He relishes the spotlight on the pitch, but off it? That’s a new and uneasy experience.”Being out on the pitch is a lot easier than talking to you lot,” he says. “Being out there is something we’re used to and something we’ve been doing for years and years. And probably being out on the pitch is where I’m most comfortable.”The auction stuff is very tough to talk about. It’s one of those things that makes me a little bit awkward. You may have noticed…” His voice trails off. “The main thing you want to do is walk off at the end on the winning team. All things outside that bubble go out of the window once you go out on to the pitch.”While he’s hardly going to win a lot of sympathy for his new-found wealth, his discomfort is understandable. For Stokes knows that he has hardly started. He knows the rewards have preceded the achievement and that, for all his success to this point, most of his ambitions remain unfulfilled. England have not won the Champions Trophy or World Cup. They haven’t won in Australia or made it to the top of the Test rankings. The bank balance might suggest Stokes has made it, but he knows there is still a long way to go.”I’m 25,” he says. “I’ve hopefully 10 years left in me in international cricket if the body holds up. So moving forward there’s still a lot more I want to achieve personally and in terms of this England team.”It’s noticeable that most of his ambitions are team related. He’s never going to be one to target 8,000 runs or 300 wickets. He targets victories and trophies. It’s not hard to see why he was appointed Joe Root’s Test vice-captain.”If we deliver on the stuff we’ve been doing in the white-ball form then hopefully we’re going to go far. We’ve been really, really good over the last two years in white-ball cricket. We got a bit of stick in India, which was undeserved. We scored a lot of runs against a really good team. Scoring 350 and losing and then chasing 370 and getting 360 and losing… I don’t think there’s much bad you can take away from that.”We’ve got a good chance and we know how talented this team is. Look at how destructive our batting order is. You only have to look at the game at Trent Bridge when we got 444 to see how that went and we’ve been scoring 350 on a regular basis. And when you do that you’re going to win more games than not. So I think we should be one of the favourites but we don’t want to get big heads. We’ll keep our feet firmly planted on the ground.”If the auction success has had any influence on Stokes it has been to sharpen his desire to live up to his billing. “It’s given me more drive to work even harder, if anything,” he says. “You see success can get you things like this. And wanting to be successful for many more years to come will probably give me more determination to work harder.”Stokes was joined at training by Jake Ball. After scans produced encouraging results on Ball’s knee, he took part in catching drills and bowled a little in the middle. But the fact that he was supervised not by one of the coaching staff but by the team doctor underlined the impression that he is unlikely to play on Friday. Alex Hales also attended training, though his involvement was limited to wearing the catching mitt and returning the ball to the bowlers. Tom Curran is expected to arrive on Thursday.Meanwhile the England camp have said they will wear black armbands to mourn the death of John Hampshire. As he and his family were particularly fond of Barbados, it may well be that they wait until the third ODI for the tribute.

A knock of 53 from captain Mehedi Hasan Miraz and an unbeaten 31 from Jaker Ali helped Bangladesh seal a tense chase of 215 against Sri Lanka Under-19s to secure a third-place finish in the Under-19 World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Feb-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Mehedi Hasan Miraz led Bangladesh Under-19s from the front with three top-order wickets and a steady 53•Getty Images

A knock of 53 from captain Mehedi Hasan Miraz and an unbeaten 31 from Jaker Ali helped Bangladesh Under-19s seal a tense chase of 215 against Sri Lanka Under-19s to secure a third-place finish at the Under-19 World Cup.Having dismissed Sri Lanka for 214, Bangladesh were progressing steadily during the course of an 88-run third-wicket partnership between Miraz and Nazmul Hossain Shanto. Sri Lanka bowlers had tied down the big shots early in the chase – Bangladesh went 105 balls without a boundary between 8th and 25th over – but the low target meant that the batsmen could rely on singles and keep the equation in check.Sri Lanka, however, began turning the match around in the 36th over when Miraz was run-out for a 66-ball 53, his fourth successive half-century in the tournament. Two overs later, they lost a well-set Nazmul for 40 in the same fashion. Shafiul Hayet and Mosabbek Hossain consumed 8.1 overs for a partnership of 28 for the sixth wicket and once they fell quickly, Bangladesh were left needing 15 runs off the last two overs.With the score at 200 for 6, Jaker, who had retired earlier in the innings due to cramps, returned to the crease and hit a crucial four in the penultimate over, playing a lap-scoop off Asitha Fernando to ease some pressure. Bangladesh went into the final over needing four runs and sealed the win off the third ball, through another four from Jaker, this time over midwicket.Earlier, Sri Lanka lost their way in the middle overs after a promising start and were held together by captain Charith Asalanka’s 76. Openers Kamindu Mendis and Salindu Ushan, got starts in their 60-run stand, but Miraz dismissed the top three batsmen with his offspin to leave Sri Lanka in trouble at 70 for 3 in the 18th over.That score turned to 131 for 5 before Asalanka rebuilt in the company of Wanidu Hasaranga; the pair adding 55 runs for the sixth wicket. Once the latter was dismissed however, another collapse ensued and it was only Asalanka’s third fifty of the tournament that pushed the score to 214. Miraz had returns of 3 for 28 and won the Man-of-the-Match award for his all-round performance.

Ricky Ponting was committed to the last. He closed the first class chapter of his career with an unbeaten 169 to earn Surrey a draw against a Nottinghamshire side which was powerless to build on an impressive opening two days

Vithushan Ehantharajah11-Jul-2013
ScorecardRicky Ponting ended his first-class career with the sort of commitment that has been taken for granted during an illustrious career•Getty Images

Ricky Ponting was committed to the last. He closed the first class chapter of his career with an unbeaten 169 to earn Surrey a draw against a Nottinghamshire side which was powerless to build on an impressive opening two days. Needing nine wickets, they could only manage seven, as Ponting unfurled a special innings to sign off his long-form career with impeccable class.He finishes on 24,150 runs – 493 of them coming in his six innings in Surrey whites, including two hundreds and a fifty. Today’s hefty unbeaten score gives him an illusory average of 123.25 in this stint, but it wouldn’t seem right if a career so illustrious came to end with a dismissal.That was particularly so when it all ended by him facing the part-time leg spin of Ajmal Shahzad, who resorted to his party trick for the last over of the day before hands were shaken. “There’s no worse time to be batting when a part-time bowler comes on,” he told ESPNcricinfo, laughing. But after resisting some juicy long hops, that was that.”First class cricket is over for me,” he said. “As much as I enjoy it, I need to look after in my personal life now. It’s been nearly 21 years that I’ve played and a lot of that time has been away from home. I’ve got a young family and it will be nice to just live a life as a father.”Those that turned up were treated to a display so masterful that at times it seemed Ponting played the day better than the sun itself – guiding Surrey away from dark periods with illuminating boundaries when Nottinghamshire sniffed blood. He was impenetrable in defence and countered with some smart hitting that gave Graeme White and Shahzad (off his long run naturally) cause for self-reflection; the ball thudding off his bat with that signature twang whenever they tried to settle.He ended immovable, satisfied but, ultimately, disappointed that Surrey come away from yet another Division One game with very little.”It’s nice to finish knowing you can still play,” he said, “but unfortunately it wasn’t in a winning team. We just haven’t grabbed the opportunities we’ve had. Even at the start of this game, winning the toss on this wicket and getting bowled out for 198 – that was the big moment in this game. We had to bat well in the first innings if we wanted to win and we didn’t do that.”There is no doubt that Surrey have developed a great affection for Ponting, who finishes his stay at the end of July before a cameo in the Caribbean Twenty20 and the start of an off-field career with Channel Ten as part of their Big Bash coverage.Beers were cracked open in honour of their adopted great, before the skipper hammered it home: “It wasn’t until Gareth spoke to the boys up there about my career being over that I had the chance to sit back, take my white pads off and put them to one side and think that’s the last time I’m going to be wearing them.”Behind the scenes, Ponting has taken it upon himself to imprint his values into the talented and impressionable youth at the club. It’s an ingrained stewardship that he says came to him in his final years as an international player, as he looked to bring Australia’s next crop through.He even had half an eye on Ashton Agar’s exploits at Trent Bridge, conscious of the 19-year-old’s talents having watched him guide Western Australia home against Tasmania in a Sheffield Shield match – a knock Ponting described as “fearless”. As Agar notched up a 98 in a similar manner, the former Australian captain couldn’t help but smile. “I thought I played pretty well on debut to make 96 and he’s ended up making more than me!”The day started awkwardly, with two Surrey wickets falling in the first hour; Harinath bowled by Harry Gurney, essentially around his legs and Zander de Bruyn’s suicidal run out.When the new ball arrived immediately, Ponting upped the rate but the wicket of Davies brought about a change of tact from the Australian. Only six runs ahead, with five wickets remaining – the last four of which added nothing in the first innings – runs were traded for minutes, and Zafar Ansari batted brilliantly for his 117.Nottinghamshire had a whiff of victory when Samit Patel removed both Ansari and Gareth Batty in nine balls, before also ending Chris Tremlett’s 34-ball stay with some ominous variable bounce.
It was no less than Patel’s efforts deserved as he displayed commendable appetite and stamina to dig out a win with more than 50 overs of bowling – the vast majority of which were on the money.But he was no match for Ponting, and that is something a lot of other bowlers have had to accept over the last 20 years. He leaves Surrey staunch in the belief of his teammates and that success in the county championship is a won toss on playful pitch away.As for the next two days, family time and rest are the order of the day – his long term future in a nutshell.He recognised as much: “I’ve spent a lot of time in the middle – these old bones need a little bit of time off,” he said.

Durham’s Chris Rushworth produced his second career-best performance of the week as Warwickshire’s Championship challenge faltered

06-Jun-2012
ScorecardChris Rushworth’s wickets have given Durham a shot at their first win of the season•Getty Images

Durham’s Chris Rushworth produced his second career-best performance of the week as Warwickshire’s Championship challenge faltered at Chester-le-Street.Brought in as a replacement for Graham Onions, 25-year-old Rushworth followed his one-day best of 5 for 31 against Nottinghamshire on Sunday by taking 5 for 46. After an opening stand of 61 Warwickshire were all out for 197, trailing by 80, and Durham reached 28 for 2 in their second innings.Rushworth’s previous first-class best was 4 for 90 at Chelmsford in 2010 and this is only his second Championship appearance in the last season and a half. Resuming on 228 for 5, the day began badly for Durham when Paul Collingwood was out to the first ball. He played forward and the ball from Chris Woakes went through to Tim Ambrose.Collingwood appeared to query Steve Garrett’s decision and the umpire indicated he was lbw. It sparked the loss of five wickets for 49 runs and Durham were all out for 277. Three of the last four fell to catches at second slip by Rikki Clarke, giving him five in the innings, and there were four wickets each for Woakes and Keith Barker.Acting captain Varun Chopra and Ian Westwood began very cautiously for Warwickshire, scoring only 30 in the first 20 overs. Rushworth had four confident lbw appeals turned down as he conceded only one run in his first six overs, while left-armer Jamie Harrison’s first nine overs cost only 13.The breakthrough came in Steve Harmison’s second spell when left-hander Westwood slapped the second ball, a long hop, straight to Collingwood at cover. Collingwood then returned to second slip and caught Will Porterfield, who edged an airy drive at Ben Stokes.Chopra departed for 29 when he was caught down the leg side by Mustard off Harmison, then Rushworth removed Darren Maddy and Clarke in successive overs to leave Warwickshire rocking on 90 for 5. While Tim Ambrose dug in, Woakes made 29 before becoming the second batsman to be strangled down the leg side, then Stokes sent Barker’s middle stump flying.Rushworth returned to take the last three, leaving Durham with 11 overs to bat. They were in the sixth when Mark Stoneman was adjudged lbw to a swinger from Barker, then Woakes got one to skid on and pin Will Smith in front. Harrison, acting as nightwatchman for the second successive day, survived the last three overs with Gordon Muchall.

Daniel Brettig24-May-2011Shane Watson is best suited to setting a speedy agenda at the top of the Test batting order rather than plugging gaps further down, the national selector Greg Chappell has said.Since becoming vice-captain under the team’s new leader Michael Clarke, Watson has pondered his ideal place within the XI, and has given ground to the possibility of moving down the order if it would help solidify a batting unit prone to collapse. Such a move would also allow Watson the chance to bowl a little more, and perhaps escape a pattern of being dismissed between 50 and 100.However Chappell was adamant that Watson should remain an opening batsman, to be partnered in Sri Lanka by either Simon Katich or Phil Hughes, as his ability to score runs quickly at the outset of an innings was a priceless asset.”I think at this stage we’re pretty happy with him opening,” Chappell told . “The beauty with Shane is that when he gets runs he tends to get them at a good strike rate. If you’ve got someone who makes runs at that sort of strike rate at the top of the order a la Matthew Hayden, it can make a very big difference.”If we get to the point where there’s others who we think might do the job it will come up in discussion, but the issue is if you take him out of that role and whoever replaces him doesn’t do it as well and he doesn’t do as well somewhere else, it’s not a straightforward exercise. He’s ideally suited to opening, he likes opening, he’s doing it well.”I think we’re very comfortable with that situation at the moment. It’s nice that he’s thinking outside himself and looking at it from a team perspective, but I can tell you the best thing for the team at the moment is for him to keep opening and keep scoring runs the way he does.”One of the more curious selections for the Australia A tour of Zimbabwe is that of David Warner in both limited-overs and first-class squads, an indication that his healthy conclusion to the 2010-11 Sheffield Shield for New South Wales had caught Chappell’s attention. Known mainly as a rapid-fire opening bat in Twenty20 cricket, Warner’s technical fundamentals are arguably more pure than those of his Blues compatriot Hughes, leaving open the possibility of a Test match future.”He finished the season off really well, I was pleased that New South Wales gave him those four-day opportunities because I’ve felt for some time that he has the ability to be a good long-form cricketer and the danger is you can pigeonhole somebody,” Chappell said. “I saw him get 90-odd here in Melbourne against Victoria at the MCG and he got a hundred up at the SCG I saw and they were two pretty impressive innings.”He has that capability so let’s see how he progresses over the next little while, but I don’t think there’s any thought from the national selection panel about shifting Shane from where he is at the moment.”

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat has been pleased by the unity of purpose shown by those involved in running cricket in the country

Cricinfo staff15-Jun-2010ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat, who recently visited Zimbabwe with ICC president David Morgan to meet with Zimbabwe Cricket officials, has been pleased by the unity of purpose shown by those involved in running cricket in the country, and believes that a gradual return to Test cricket by the national team is only a matter of time.”The biggest change has been the togetherness of everybody working for Zimbabwe cricket in the same direction,” Lorgat told Cricinfo’s Switch Hit podcast. “Everybody seems to be on the same page. There’s no doubt they want to see the team starting to perform well. So everybody is doing the right thing.”What was quite encouraging for me was that many if not all of the recommendations that we had made in early 2009 following the task team visit in November 2008 have been very enthusiastically adopted by the Zimbabwe board. I’m pleased that people have taken on board those recommendations. They all seem to be working together, from across the spectrum among Zimbabweans, they seem to be working in the same direction.”Peter Chingoka, the Zimbabwe Cricket chairman, has said Zimbabwe are looking to return to Test cricket in 2011 with a home series against Bangladesh, while New Zealand are talking positively about resuming ties, but it will still be some time before they engage the strongest teams in the five-day game”What was also quite heartening from listening to the key Zimbabwe board directors was that they understood that they needed to progress over a period of time,” Lorgat explained. “So playing some of the top sides is not on their horizon at the moment. They really want to play against teams they can compete with, and that’s why Bangladesh is being mentioned, and I think that’s in the planning stage.”That view was echoed by Zimbabwe Cricket’s managing director, Ozias Bvute, who said that Zimbabwe are hoping to play against the lower ranked Test sides and the A sides of the stronger nations as they look to gain experience of different conditions and re-establish themselves in the world game.”It would be premature for us to jump straight into a normal playing schedule like all the other nations,” he said. “Instead we are working on a new calendar which will hopefully see us play Bangladesh, West Indies and then New Zealand over the next two years. We are yet to approach any of these boards with our request though we would like Bangladesh to play in a Test match here in Zimbabwe soon after the 2011 World Cup ends in April next year.””We will engage the rest of the cricketing world with the objective of playing once-off fixtures in Zimbabwe over a period. We recognize that in the short term, it may not be commercially viable for the other nations to have Zimbabwe touring but we will engage them with the prospect of allowing our national team to play their A sides in their countries. This will allow our team to familiarize themselves with other playing conditions and ultimately gain more experience.”Bvute suggested that Zimbabwe could return to a normal cricketing schedule in five to six years, and that while recent results have been encouraging, a lot of work still needs to be put in before the team can be consistently competitive.”The gradual re-entry is intentional to allow our cricketers to build confidence and gain momentum,” he explained. “Supreme to all this is the integrity of the results such that they are reflective of competitive cricket matches. Crucial to us is that we set out a re-entry programme that is gradual and responsible and that will allow us to assess ourselves over a period of time. It will not happen overnight.”

Both teams will face each other on the back of comprehensive wins in their opening games

Vishal Dikshit07-Oct-2024

Australia vs New Zealand

Sharjah, 6pm local timeAustralia squad: Alyssa Healy (capt & wk), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia WarehamNew Zealand squad: Sophie Devine (capt), Suzie Bates, Eden Carson, Isabella Gaze, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Fran Jonas, Leigh Kasperek, Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Lea TahuhuTournament form guide: Both teams started their campaigns with emphatic wins. Defending champions Australia handed Sri Lanka a six-wicket loss and New Zealand stunned India by 58 runs.News brief: These two teams had just met for a three-match T20I series in Australia, who won 3-0. New Zealand also came into the tournament with a winless streak of 10 straight games but the manner in which they took on India, from ball one, belied their recent form and was the best kind of start they could have had before running into their trans-Tasman rivals. The toss many not be as crucial in Sharjah for the evening game because not as much dew is expected there, proven by the wins registered by the teams batting first there in the evening games. The pitches there have kept low, turned, and not offered much for the batters, with not even one team crossing 120, before the England vs South Africa clash.Player to watch: Amelia Kerr is a top allrounder, but it’s her T20I record against Australia that doesn’t do justice to her reputation. Her batting strike rate against them is under 96 with an average of under 18, and her economy rate is over seven an over even though she has picked 16 wickets – the joint-most for her against any opponent – against them. She would want to leak fewer runs on Tuesday in spin-friendly conditions while continuing to take wickets, and also show her technique against spin while batting whether her team requires quick runs or a more watchful approach, depending on conditions and match situation.