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Former Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons has come out in support of Shakib Al Hasan, the recently-sacked national captain

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Sep-2011Former Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons has come out in support of Shakib Al Hasan, the recently-sacked national captain. Shakib, Siddons said, has the ‘perfect credentials’ for a captain, but lacked the support required to lead the team.”He [Shakib] is the only person to lead the side,” Siddons, who now coaches Wellington in New Zealand, told Bangladesh newspaper, the . “A captain must be consulted on everything regarding the team and must be listened to when he speaks or raises an issue. This does not happen with Shakib or any other captain at present. He is a great thinker, and is also the team’s best and most-respected player, perfect credentials for a captain.”Shakib and his deputy Tamim Iqbal were axed earlier this week following Bangladesh’s poor performance during last month’s tour of Zimbabwe, with indiscipline being cited as one of the reasons for their removal. Shakib has always had strained relations with the board, having questioned team-selection more than once. Current Bangladesh coach Stuart Law had expressed surprise at Shakib’s removal and said he had the respect of his players.Siddons had coached Bangladesh between October 2007 and April 2010, and moved to the Wellington job after his contract was not renewed following a disappointing World Cup and home series against Australia. Siddons and Shakib worked together in the capacity of coach and captain for close to two years, barring brief spells when Mashrafe Mortaza took charge.The selectors have not named a new captain, triggering speculation about who could be ready to take over. Mushfiqur Rahim, who has played 24 Tests and 98 ODIs, and is one of the few players who is a regular part of the national XI, is tipped as a frontrunner for the job. Siddons, though, said he did not think the players were eager for the post. “Not one other player in the side apart from maybe Ash [Mohammad Ashraful] is willing to take it [captaincy] on. They know there is no support around them and they will be blamed for any results.”Siddons also said he did not understand the need to have a selector or observer in the dressing-room during matches. During the tour of Zimbabwe, Siddon’s successor Stuart Law had reportedly expressed displeasure over selector Habibul Bashar and ‘tour observer’ Shafiqur Rahman Munna’s presence in the dressing room.”I believe a selector should be allowed to visit the dressing-room and sit in there to discuss or chat at times, but should not make it his home during a game,” Siddons said. “I have never understood the reasoning behind having an observer with the team, and especially not in the [dressing] room. This is a blatant mistrust of the coach and players, and is never a positive.”

Sreesanth, who injured his knee in Sri Lanka, is hoping to come back to match fitness for the BCCI Corporate Trophy, which begins on September 1

Cricinfo staff20-Aug-2010Sreesanth, who injured his knee in Sri Lanka, is hoping to come back to match fitness for the BCCI Corporate Trophy, which begins on September 1. He has been going through physiotherapy and rehab at the NCA in Bangalore, and resumed bowling on August 20.Sreesanth was attempting a comeback after a bout of swine flu and then a stress fracture of the back had kept him out of the national side. Upon reaching Sri Lanka, he injured the knee while warming up for the first training session on the tour. It was diagnosed as a medial collateral ligament tear in his left knee.Sreesanth had returned to India, and then went to England to consult Jonathon Lavelle, an orthopaedic consultant in England, for further diagnosis. He is relieved that the knee doesn’t need surgery and is hopeful of starting another comeback through the Corporate Trophy.The domestic tournament is the only event through which Sreesanth can stake a claim for selection for Australia Tests: the Irani Cup coincides with the first Test of the series.

The counties who met Lalit Modi in India in March have rubbished the allegations that they were involved in secret talks to set up a parallel IPL in which the existing franchises could bid for nine domestic teams in the UK

Cricinfo staff07-May-2010The counties who met Lalit Modi in India in March have rubbished the allegations that they were involved in secret talks to set up a parallel IPL in which the existing franchises could bid for nine domestic teams in the UK. In a formal complaint to the BCCI, Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, alleged that Modi was trying to induce the counties into activities that could prove “detrimental to Indian cricket, English cricket and world cricket at large.”Clarke’s accusations forced the BCCI to slap a second show-cause notice notice on Modi in two weeks, after the board suspended him from all BCCI positions including that as the chairman of the IPL and pressed five specific charges ranging from financial impropriety to “behavioral pattern.””This is totally overblown,” Colin Graves, the Yorkshire chairman, told the on the accusation that Modi’s plans had the potential to “hijack” the game. “It was a fact-finding mission. Lalit Modi did not put a proposition on the table. There were no secret proposals, no secret agenda, nothing underhand,” Graves said.Though Graves was not in Delhi at the meeting, Yorkshire’s chief executive Stewart Regan met Modi, along with representatives from two other counties: Colin Povey, the Warwickshire chief executive and the Lancashire committee member David Hodgkiss.”We attended that meeting in an educational capacity, as we wished to learn more about how the IPL has gone from nowhere to being one of the biggest sporting businesses in the world inside two years,” Yorkshire’s chief executive, Stewart Regan, told Cricinfo immediately after the BCCI made public the accusations against Modi. “The success of the IPL proves that cricket is a product that people want to buy and that sponsors want to get involved with, and those were the key learning areas that we were interested in. It would not be appropriate to comment any further.”Graves concurred with Regan on the success of the IPL model, pointing out the ECB could definitely learn a lot from that. He also stressed that the ECB were kept in the loop about the discussions and he had personally sent Clarke the notes of the meeting. “IPL has been extraordinarily successful and we can learn a lot from it. There was a proper business discussion about how things might develop in the future, the sort of discussions that can benefit the whole of English cricket. Stewart Regan took notes of the meeting and forwarded them to all the Test grounds. I then passed those notes to Giles Clarke. Lalit Modi invited all representatives of the Test grounds to be his personal guests at the IPL final. We turned the invitation down as we were not in a position to discuss anything in detail.”According to Clarke, Modi had presented the counties with a commercial proposition wherein if they supported his idea, the IPL would guarantee each county a minimum of $3-5 million per annum plus a staging fee of $1.5 million. “We have not been guaranteed anything, but if anybody puts anything on the table we will discuss it. We have nine Test grounds and only seven Tests a year. We have to find ways to fill these grounds outside the England team. The nine Test grounds are united in the belief we cannot allow the status quo to continue. There is no future in us creating another Twenty20 competition for all 18 counties. It is not attractive enough to fill the Test grounds. We have to create something new and exciting, a tournament with the appeal of IPL, a British version. We will continue to put these ideas to Giles,” Graves said.

Three teams with ten points keep table toppers in check

Mohammad Isam28-Mar-2024

Key takeaways

Abahani Limited are on a hot streak in the Dhaka Premier League after winning their first six matches on the trot. They are on top of the points table while Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, Legends of Rupganj and Mohammedan Sporting Club are behind them with ten points each. Only net run-rate separates the three teams.The veterans stepped up this week with Shakib Al Hasan making important contributions for Sheikh Jamal – including a fifty and three wickets in two games, while Tamim Iqbal struck three fifties in a row for Prime Bank Cricket Club. Mashrafe Mortaza was the biggest surprise taking 5 for 19 bowling offspin against Gazi Group Cricketers on his way to his eighth five-wicket haul in List-A cricket.

Best batters

Parvez Hossain Emon has hit three centuries in this DPL season. He is the first to cross the 400-run mark in the competition, with Mohammedan’s Mahidul Islam Ankon (373 runs) hot on his heels.Related

• DPL week 1: Abahani's flying start, Mahedi's last-over hat-trick, and Tamim gets stuck in traffic

Ankon struck three fifties this week, helping Mohammedan to five wins so far. Tamim too had a productive week with three fifties while Emon and Towhid Hridoy were the only centurions. Hridoy struck an unbeaten 125 off 84 balls for Abahani against Rupganj Tigers Cricket Club, with six sixes and eleven fours. Abahani won that game by 140 runs. Emon’s 110 though came in a losing cause as Mohammedan beat Prime Bank by one wicket at BKSP-4 in Savar.

Best bowlers

Maruf Mridha, the young left-arm quick who plays for Gazi Tyres Cricket Academy, has risen to the top of the wicket-takers’ chart with 16 scalps. At the other end of the experience scale is Legends of Rupganj’s Mashrafe, with his five-wicket haul. Abahani’s left-arm spinner Tanvir Islam took the other five-for this week, with figures of 6-3-7-5 against Brothers Union.

Best match

Mohammedan’s one-wicket win against Prime Bank could be decisive in the title race. Batting first, Prime Bank raced to 218 for one with openers Emon and Tamim, and No. 3 Sabbir Rahman all firing. They collapsed thereafter, to be 279 all out.Mahfuzur Rahman Rabby is one of the stars to look out for•BCB

Mohammedan were given a revised target of 272 runs in 47 overs after rain interrupted play at the BKSP-4 ground, in the 33rd over. After Ankon’s 78, it was their No. 8 Abu Hider, whose 36-ball 54 took Mohammedan home from 159 for 6.

Points to ponder

Abahani continue to dominate the points table but they could face stiff competition from old rival Mohammedan and a new one in Sheikh Jamal.
Rupganj Tigers and City Club remain winless while Partex Sporting Club, Gazi Tyres and Brothers Union have all opened their accounts.

Players to watch

After allrounder Ariful Islam and left-arm spinner Mahfuzur Rahman Rabby made good starts in the first week, Maruf Mridha shone among the Under-19 graduates this season. Prime Bank opener Emon has also shown consistency with his three centuries while Mohammedan’s Ankon is steadily rising too.

Team-mates told her “go for the hundred because you don’t get opportunities like this very often”

Firdose Moonda15-Feb-2023Muneeba Ali knows that cricketers don’t get days like the one she had against Ireland very often. Only one of them will become the first woman from their country to score a T20I hundred. When more centurions come, they will join an elite club.It’s only once every couple of years that a cricketer can say they’ve scored a century at a World Cup. Before today, across seven editions of the Women’s T20 World Cup, there were five centurions: Deandra Dottin, Meg Lanning, Harmanpreet Kaur, Heather Knight and Lizelle Lee.Muneeba is the first woman from Pakistan to score a T20I hundred and the sixth to achieve the feat at a World Cup, and she did it all without even a T20I fifty to her name. Her previous best in the format was 43.”I enjoyed that,” she said afterwards. “We don’t get these chances in international cricket regularly so I cherish this moment.”And so she should.In what became a stirring riposte to being beaten 2-1 at home to this same Ireland team, Pakistan piled on the second-highest score of the tournament so far and then dismissed Ireland for under 100. The victory was set up by Muneeba, who started gently when she flicked the second ball she faced fine for Pakistan’s first four and steered the fourth past deep third and then brought out a power game that left Ireland out of answers.She pulled Leah Paul behind square, swatted Arlene Kelly down the ground and swept Cara Murray through short fine leg. But she had to survive being dropped on 47, when she heaved Paul to long-on, where Louise Little charged in and then had to pull out of the catch to avoid clashing into mid-on, to bring out her favourite shot: the drive through extra cover. There were four of them, including the hit that saw her reach her century, and it was the result of a mis-field, one of several from an Ireland outfit that had a tough day out but could still admire Muneeba’s effort. “It was difficult to be on the other end but as a spectacle it was outstanding,” Arlene Kelly said.Kelly blamed a bowling performance that saw Ireland spray the ball “two sides of the wicket,” and “string together a couple of dot balls and then give a loosener,” for how heavily they conceded but also acknowledged that Muneeba’s approach put them under pressure. Like many batters at this tournament – England, Australia and India’s line-ups for example – Pakistan “want to take a fearless approach,” Muneeba said, and approach their batting proactively rather than reactively.That reflected in the way Muneeba paced her innings. She knew from about the 12th over, after she’d reached fifty, that a hundred was there for the taking. By the 15th over, she was on 70 and her hundred came in the 19th over, with her second fifty scored in only 26 balls. “There were enough overs and I had enough runs and my team-mates were telling me to go for the hundred because you don’t get opportunities like this very often,” she said.She took on Laura Delany and Kelly, both medium-pacers – evidence that she “enjoys playing pace and is still learning against spin,” but she said she will continue to “work on my boundary options.” Crucially, Muneeba wants to concentrate on batting through the innings and giving Pakistan the ability to end innings on a high note.”There are always some overs which are more productive than others but what is important is how you finish an innings and that is something we could do well today,” she said. “In the first few overs we took our time to settle and that’s how it normally should be. Today was my day and I built a good innings.”Not long after that innings ended, Muneeba had to come out and keep wicket in Pakistan’s defence. Asked if she found it difficult to concentrate on that task after the highs of her hundred, she smiled and replied in the negative. “That wasn’t hard because I got good runs so I was enjoying my time in the middle. I wanted us to win.”And after they did, it all sunk in: days like these don’t come very often at all. “I realised only after the match that I had done something special.”

England come unstuck in stiff chase as opponents make up for lapses in series opener

Vithushan Ehantharajah28-Jul-2022South Africa unfurled a near-perfect short-form display to beat England by 58 runs in Cardiff, squaring the T20I series ahead of Sunday’s decider at the Ageas Bowl.Just 24 hours after defeat by 41 runs in Bristol on Wednesday evening, it was a redemptive performance from the Proteas to draw level at 1-1. Rilee Rossouw’s 96 not out spearheaded a total of 207 for three, before Tabraiz Shamsi (three for 27) and Andile Phehlukwayo (three for 39) successfully defended their score by skittling their opponents with 20 balls to spare.Jos Buttler said he wanted to see how his team went chasing after winning a first toss in eight and opting to bowl first, and the Proteas were more than happy to oblige. A brisk start – 32 for none after three overs, then 58 for the loss of Quinton de Kock at the end of the powerplay – was maintained throughout.Rossouw was the main event, but Reeza Hendricks provided the perfect warm-up act, backing up Bristol’s half-century with another here, before eventually falling for 53. That ended a stand of 73 between himself and Rossouw, who had 39 at this point, with 8.3 overs to go. With Tristan Stubbs struggling to replicate the hitting from his six-heavy 72 from 28 deliveries, 57 of the remaining 95 runs came from the senior man.England were poor in the field, with wayward lines and lengths, and a variety of fielding errors. Gleeson was able to make amends for dropping Hendricks around the corner at fine leg for 51 by taking the right-hander’s wicket in the next over. However, Buttler’s grounded catch down the leg side off Rossouw – who had just 37 – was far more costly.Tabraiz Shamsi produced a three-wicket spell•Getty Images

That being said, Chris Jordan’s concession of just four runs in the 20th over gave the hosts a spring in their step going into he break. And when Buttler became the first batter of the night to find the stands beyond the longest boundary, and then struck six-six-four off Phehlukwayo, England were in the mix. But Phehlukwayo held his fourth delivery back, resulting in a skier from Buttler taken well by Hendricks running to mid-on, and as four England wickets fell for 51 runs in 6.4 overs, the required rate began to spiral above 12.With 100 needed off the remaining 42 balls, the only reason to sniff an England victory was the presence of Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone at the crease. The ability to smash boundaries at will – as per Bairstow’s eight sixes in his 53-ball 90 on Wednesday – was the only way out of this hole. Unfortunately for England, within 14 balls, the pair had been dismissed – caught at backward point off Rabada and behind off Phehlukwayo, respectively – with 67 left for the tail.The final three wickets fell for just eight, the last of them, Richard Gleeson, off the back of a DRS call seemingly taken on a whim by the fielding side. As with everything else in the match, it went South Africa’s way.Reaping RossouwIt might not have been a century, but Rossouw’s score was a reminder of both his talents and what South Africa have missed out on over the last six years. That he became a Kolpak in his prime, smashing 122 in an ODI against Australia in October 2016, his last appearance for the Proteas before Wednesday’s T20I, was a particularly sore point as he remained visible elsewhere, notable in England for Hampshire and now Somerset.But the prodigal son is now a man, and his innings here typified an underlying sense of maturity to his game. It was particularly evident against those he didn’t target: Reece Topley started well to him and the off spin of Moeen Ali was always going to be tricky for the left-hander to go after. But he struck well against Gleeson, Jordan and particularly Adil Rashid, taking 18 runs off the nine deliveries he faced from the legspinner. But for Stubbs chewing up half of the final over, Rossouw probably would have reached a maiden international T20I hundred. Nevertheless, off the back of a stunning Vitality Blast season for Somerset (623 runs at a strike rate of 192.28), it’s abundantly clear the 32-year-old is making up for lost time.Right-hand, left-hand – overthinking?No sooner had Eoin Morgan posited that it would take a brave man to shunt Bairstow down the order, Buttler did just that. By no means the more ruthless of the two, it was an example of how both teams were persisting with right-hand-left-hand combinations.Related

• Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali outgun South Africa despite Tristan Stubbs' heroics

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It’s nothing new, and in this instance was down to the disparity between the two square boundaries. With the leftie Rossouw batting through the innings from the fourth over, David Miller waved a procession of right-handers through, including Stubbs who came in ahead of the stand-in captain. Similarly, Bairstow was held back for Moeen to enter at No.4 in England’s innings after Dawid Malan had fallen. Then, when Moeen himself was dismissed for an enterprising 28, Sam Curran came in at six ahead of Liam Livingstone.None of them really came off, though the reasons for the promotions were totally justified given the form of Stubbs (72 off 28) and Moeen (52 off 18) from the night before. Not to mention the fact that Bairstow was in by the ninth over anyway, and Rossouw was always going to come in at No.3 to accompany Hendricks. On this occasion, it was a tactic that made a lot of sense but did not produce any tangible reward.Roy …The good news for Jason Roy is, barring injury, he will get the series-decider on Sunday to see if he can improve on the 59 runs off 80 he’s managed across the international T20 summer.The bad news is it looks like it may just be another opportunity to fail. Since a century in the final ODI against Netherlands in Amsterdam, Roy has struggled to get going on home soil. Barring a 41 in the third ODI against India, he has struggled to get the measure of the white Kookaburra ball, occasionally showing flashes of timing amid plenty of mishits and lapses in judgement.The issue that affects Roy more than others is aesthetics: his very nature is to go after attacks, and it is counted as an upside of his character that, even when struggling, he never shies away from a battle. That, however, means in the midst of this kind of run, he looks like a man pushed into the corner swinging haymakers with his eyes closed.

Aaradhya Yadav, Shaik Rasheed and Manav Parakh join their captain and Siddarth Yadav in isolation

PTI21-Jan-2022Five Indian players, including captain Yash Dhull, have been ruled out of India’s final group-stage game of the Under-19 World Cup, against Uganda, after testing positive for Covid-19 in a fresh round of RT-PCR tests. Of the six players, who had isolated before the match against Ireland on Wednesday, only Vasu Vats has tested negative, a source in the ICC said.Dhull, Aaradhya Yadav and Shaik Rasheed had all returned positive Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) on Wednesday, while Manav Parakh and Vats had displayed symptoms of Covid-19 but returned negative RATs. Siddarth Yadav had, meanwhile, returned a positive RT-PCR test.Related

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“One positive out of this unfortunate situation is that the 11 who played against Ireland have all tested negative,” the ICC source said.Among the infected, Dhull has the worst symptoms but he, along with the other players, “should be fine” before their quarter-final on January 29 (if they top Group B, which they are currently leading), the source said.India registered a thumping win over Ireland in the second game, on Wednesday, to qualify for the knockouts after barely managing to field a team in the wake of the outbreak.All the infected players are required to undergo five days of isolation as per tournament protocols and can only rejoin their team after returning three negative tests within that period.How did the virus enter the bubble?
After winning the Under-19 Asia Cup in the UAE, the Indian team had flown to the Caribbean via Amsterdam. A support staff member, who is fine now, had tested positive during the hard quarantine upon arrival in Guyana after catching the infection in transit and it is believed the players contracted the virus from him.The entire squad underwent a five-day hard quarantine in Guyana upon arrival and underwent three RT-PCR tests within that period. However, with the reports taking as long as 48 hours to arrive, the third test report was only made available on the seventh day.”The players mingled with the coach in that period and that seems be to be the most likely source of outbreak in the team,” the source said.It has also been learnt that the tournament’s bio-bubble could be stricter with team not being allocated dedicated floors in the hotel as it was during the Asia Cup in the UAE.However, despite a tight bubble in Dubai, the virus managed to enter the environment and a league game between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh had to be abandoned after two officials involved in the game tested positive.

Kolpak-returnee quick opens up on his time away from the national team and the thrill of potentially making the XI against India

Firdose Moonda23-Dec-2021Duanne Olivier was so confident he would not play for South Africa again that when he signed a Kolpak deal in 2019, he framed his Test cap. So, what happens if baggy green No. 94 is needed later this week?”I am going to have to ask if I can get a new one. Otherwise I need to break the frame,” Olivier said, from South Africa’s bio-bubble in Centurion three days before the Boxing Day Test against India, which should mark Olivier’s comeback.Although he is still bashful about his chances of being in the starting XI, with Anrich Nortje out through injury and Olivier leading the first-class wicket-charts, he is all but certain to play.When, and it is when and not if, he does, Olivier is going to be battling butterflies, just like he always does. “I am a nervous person when it comes to playing. Wherever I play I am always nervous. If it’s my first over, I am very nervous,” he said. “I’ll have different feeling this time. will be different feelings. Maybe it might be similar to a debut because I haven’t played for three years. It will be interesting to see what the nerves will be like but I’m sure, if I am selected to play, I think my nerves will be shot through the roof.”Related

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Olivier will partly be worried about performance in a big series against a team that is “not No. 1 for no reason,” he reminded. “It’s massive series. They (India) haven’t won here, so they want to come and win here and for us, we don’t want that to happen.”And he will partly be concerned about what South Africans still bitter from his decision to leave think. “I know people will have mixed feelings about it, but at the end of the day, it’s okay. You handle that and you deal with those pressures or the criticism that comes with that.”But the one thing he does not have to worry about are the feeling of his team-mates, some old, many new, who are more than happy to have him.Earlier in the week, South Africa Test captain Dean Elgar said he’s be happy to have anyone who is in form, in the squad. “I want our best opportunity to win matches and win series, and in order for that, you need to make tough calls on bringing people back, for instance. I was very keen to have him back,” Elgar said. “There’s no bad feelings about what’s happened in the past. I want to win cricket matches for South Africa, I want to win series for South Africa, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got 100% backing when it comes to that in our change room. It’s nice to have him back.”Except that it’s not exactly the same Olivier who has returned. “You can see that he’s a different cricketer to what he was the first time he played for us,” Elgar said. And that’s a good thing. “Obviously with his trip away from South Africa, he’s learnt a lot, he’s played a lot of cricket in the UK, so he’s bringing a lot of knowledge and experience back into the change room, which is something that we need at the moment.”Olivier himself feels like someone else, as a person and a cricketer. “Firstly, I am more mature and a bit more grown up,” he said. “And from a cricketing point of view, I do genuinely believe I am different. The UK helped me a lot in perfecting that fuller length that every bowler wants to bowl. For me, it was quite difficult because it can come across floaty and I wasn’t that consistent. I am still working on it and I am not going to get it right every single time but the three years I spend in the UK helped me immensely, just the way I approach my game. I can still go short if I want to, but at the end of the day, the games dictates that. People thought I only bowl short and fair enough, I did that but now I feel like I have a different element to my game.”Duanne Olivier celebrates a wicket during his stint with the English county Yorkshire•Getty Images

A fuller length has long been talked about as the key to success on the Highveld, where two of the three Tests will be played, and especially at the Wanderers, Olivier’s new home ground, albeit that the temptation is to bowl short. But Olivier has seen for himself that fuller is better. In adjusting his lengths, he has been rewarded and taken 24 of his 28 wickets this summer at the Wanderers, including both five-fors. He hasn’t yet played at SuperSport Park, the venue of the first Tests, but it will be similarly seamer-friendly, with the promise that someone will take the series lead.”It looked like there was a bit of grass, green grass on it and I assume they will probably take a little bit off. I reckon probably a touch slow on day one but it’s always a wicket that speeds up and the game moves forward,” Olivier said. “And there has always been a result. I don’t know when last a Test match, even a four-day game, there was a draw.”The last drawn Test in Centurion was in 2009, against England, and there have only been three drawn Tests at the venue in 26 matches, all against the same opposition. South Africa have beaten India both times they played them at this venue and will hope history repeats itself as they seek to rebuild as a Test outfit, gain points on the World Test Championship table and begin to turn the page over two years of upheaval – two years Olivier missed.But he did not entirely escape the goings-on in this cricketing landscape and he is well aware of the importance of this contest in the broader context of South African cricket. “If we come out on top, it will mean a lot for South Africa in general, for Cricket South Africa and for players, because it’s like a make-or-break series for players,” he said. “If you do well against a top team in the world, it says something.”For me, it’s probably the biggest series I will play so, if selected, there will be those pressures. We’re playing against world class players but at the same time, it’s an exciting challenge. Like, I’ll need to bowl to (Virat) Kohli. It will be tough, but it’s exciting. We’ll be bowling to probably the top four batters in the world. It’s like making a statement to them. We are here to compete. We are not just going to roll over. For me, that’s very important: throwing the first punch, to know that you are here, you are present.”Perhaps as long as that punch doesn’t have to be through the glass frame to retrieve his Test cap.

Derbyshire narrowly fail to avoid follow on and ship six wickets before close

ECB Reporters Network29-May-2021Dillon Pennington produced his career-best performance with the ball as Worcestershire closed in on victory after enforcing the follow-on against Derbyshire on day three of the LV=Insurance County Championship match at New Road.The paceman bowled a series of excellent spells from the New Road End and was rewarded with figures of 4 for 44 from 19.4 overs. Club captain Joe Leach, Ed Barnard and Alzarri Joseph all picked up two wickets as Derbyshire were bowled out for 270 – despite a fine unbeaten 81 from Matt Critchley – in reply to Worcestershire’s first innings total of 421.Leach asked the visitors to bat again 151 runs in arrears half an hour before tea and they ran into trouble with Pennington again shining with three wickets as they closed on 112 for 6.Worcestershire’s bowlers were backed up by some razor-sharp catching.Derbyshire resumed in the morning on 91 for 3 and Pennington’s excellent opening spell brought him the wicket of debutant Ben McDermott. The Australian T20I international drove hard at a delivery which he edged to Daryl Mitchell at second slip.Madsen completed his half-century off 127 balls with seven fours but added only one more run before Barnard ended his innings with Mitchell holding onto his second catch of the day.Fynn Hudson-Prentice gave Critchley good support during a sixth wicket stand of 56 in 14 overs. But Leach ended the resistance of Hudson-Prentice on 25 when he mistimed his drive and was caught by Jack Haynes at third slip.Critchley completed a 67-ball half century soon after the resumption when he pulled Leach for his eighth boundary.Pennington came back into the attack and his first delivery saw Alex Hughes caught behind for 25. Joseph trapped Ben Aitchison lbw via a low full toss and then bowled Sam Conners as he backed away to leg.Pennington wrapped up the innings when Dustin Melton was pouched by Fell at first slip – and he was back amongst the wickets when Derbyshire followed on.Cox pulled off a superb one-handed catch low to his right after Pennington found the edge of Brooke Guest’s bat on 7.Leus du Plooy needed 30 balls to get off the mark before collecting two boundaries in an over from Joseph. But he picked up a key wicket when Derbyshire captain Billy Godleman edged another catch – this one head high – to Mitchell.Spin was introduced via Brett D’Oliveira and he enjoyed a success with Du Plooy using his feet but only succeeding in providing a low return catch.Pennington’s sixth wicket of the match came when McDermott looked to work the ball to leg but went leg before. He was then indebted to a spectacular catch by Fell at first slip to dismiss Critchley.It became 93 for 6 when Hudson-Prentice went back to D’Oliveira and chopped onto his stumps

Sheldon Cottrell suffered the injury during West Indies’ first group game, against UAE, in which he bowled only 4.4 overs

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Mar-2018A hamstring injury has ruled West Indies fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell out of the remainder of the ongoing ICC World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe. Cottrell suffered the injury during West Indies’ first group game, against UAE, in which he bowled only 4.4 overs; he has been replaced by uncapped Guyana right-arm quick Keemo Paul.Paul, 20, shot into the limelight during West Indies’ Under-19 World Cup victory in 2016, but their run to the title was controversial because of the fast bowler’s actions. In their final group match against Zimbabwe – a game West Indies had to win to make the quarter-finals – Paul effected a mankad to dismiss the last wicket. In the final, against India, Paul hit the winning runs.Paul has 82 wickets across first-class and List A cricket, with a bowling average of 17.35 and 21.32 in the two formats respectively.With two wins in two games – the second against Papua New Guinea – West Indies are currently second position in Group A, trailing Ireland by virtue of an inferior net run rate. The two sides will face each other on March 10 in Harare.