Category Uncategorized

This was India Women’s first Test win against Australia in 11 games since 1977

Srinidhi Ramanujam24-Dec-2023A drama-filled first 75 minutes on the fourth morning ended with Sneh Rana and Rajeshwari Gayakwad spinning Australia out of the only Test as India completed a historic win at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. It was India Women’s first triumph against Australia in Tests, in 11 attempts since 1977.Most of the hard work done by the likes of Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy on the third day to take Australia to 233 for 5 – with an overnight lead of 46 runs – was undone by India’s bowlers who picked up five wickets for just 28 runs in the first session on the final day. On a pitch offering turn and low bounce, Rana’s two wickets in two balls to dismiss well-set Annabel Sutherland and Alana King left Australia reeling. Gayakwad’s two unplayable deliveries then wrapped Australia up for 261, setting India a target of just 75, which they chased in under 19 overs.Rana ended the match with overall figures of 7 for 119, the best for an Indian spinner against Australia, which also earned her the Player-of-the-Match title.Related

• Healy 'comfortable with Australia's progression' with new-look outfit still finding their feet

• Stats – India Women's first-ever Test win against Australia

The day began with Pooja Vastrakar, fresh off her four-wicket haul in the first innings, providing the early breakthrough by trapping Ashleigh Gardner lbw with a little help from the DRS. The start of the collapse also saw India becoming desperate as they had two unsuccessful reviews after Gardner’s dismissal.Amidst that, India’s spinners exploited the pitch better to move ahead. Sutherland, who seemed set to grind, fell to Rana for 27 playing the sweep shot when she gloved one behind, and India used a review to get the decision changed. The next delivery saw King getting an inside edge onto the stumps. At 251 for 8, the game was all but over for Australia with Rana scalping 4 for 63 in the third innings.Sneh Rana finished the match with figures 7 for 119•BCCI

Gayakwad then completed the formalities, first flummoxing Kim Garth with an excellent delivery that spun sharply past the outside edge to hit top of off stump. In her next over, she tossed the ball up outside off stump and got it to deviate into the batter sharply. Jess Jonassen, this time trying to hold the fort for Australia with the bat, missed an expansive drive and got cleaned up. Having been a bit unlucky on the third day when she bowled wicket-taking deliveries across her 27 overs that didn’t fetch her one, Gayakwad came back well to bowl out Australia on the final day.Chasing a small target, India lost Shafali Varma caught behind to Garth on the fourth ball of the innings and went to lunch at 29 for 1. Debutant Richa Ghosh threw her wicket away with 20 runs needed when she went for a wild heave across the line to hand Gardner her fifth wicket of the match.However, a steady Smriti Mandhana negated the spin threat with her unbeaten 38 and sealed victory ten overs after lunch with a lofted straight hit after charging down the pitch.The hosts, thus, completed back-to-back Test victories at home against two quality opponents in England and Australia, with clinical all-round dominance.

England wicketkeeper admits he is still learning to pace innings batting at No. 7

Vithushan Ehantharajah26-Aug-2022Ben Foakes admits fitting into this new England men’s Test side can be a struggle but hopes Test century number two is a sign he is going about it the right way.Foakes finished unbeaten on 113 on day two against South Africa at Old Trafford, as the hosts declared on 415 for 9 to establish a first-innings lead of 264. While it was by no means the kind of aggressive innings we have become used to under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, the Surrey wicketkeeper reaching three figures from 206 deliveries, it was a vital contribution when England needed it most.It was an especially helpful knock alongside Stokes, who scored 103, as the pair put on 173 for the sixth wicket. Having come in on 147 for 5, still trailing the Proteas by four, the absorption of pressure and the subsequent accumulation of runs, which sped up when Foakes was batting with the tail, was a nod to a lot of introspection and hard work paying dividends for the 29-year-old.His first century came in his first innings in this format, back in November 2018 in Sri Lanka. Since then, he has established himself as a reliable No. 5 for Surrey: seven of his now 13 first-class hundreds have come for the county – he began his career at Essex, for whom he has three – at an average of 43. While he struggled at first to truly get to grips with batting lower for England, and adopting an altogether different mindset, this was a sizeable step in the right direction.”It’s a different role, at Surrey I just bat five and just play,” Foakes said. “When you get on quite challenging wickets batting at seven, obviously there’s a good chance you lose wickets quickly and you have to play a different way. I think for me it’s learning how to do that as well as I can. Just because it’s not my natural game. Finding a way to be able to, quite early on in my innings, put pressure back on the bowler rather than just batting.Related

• Ben Stokes scripts his moment before ceding centre stage to Ben Foakes

• Spin strategy allows game to drift as South Africa lose their grip

• Stokes, Foakes hundreds allow England to declare on 264-run lead

“When I bat at five hundreds are definitely something I think about, but at seven I think more about just trying to contribute because obviously you’re not going to get as many opportunities to get a hundred. If I can get 40 with the tail and dominate that partnership, that’s my job. Getting a big partnership here and getting a century definitely gives me some confidence going forward.”There was palpable relief at getting another significant score on the board 14 Tests and four years later, not just with the celebration of fist pumps to himself before receiving a warm embrace from his partner at the time, Ollie Robinson, and the appreciation of a packed out Emirates Old Trafford.Since his debut, Foakes was either thrust in and out on a whim or missed out through injury, as happened at the start of 2021 when he tore his hamstring. Then, during the Headingley Test against New Zealand earlier this summer, a bout of Covid-19 ruled him out of the second-half of the match and the next Test against India. Twin failures at Lord’s (6 and 0) heaped more misery on him, but he has come out the other side in impressive fashion. An average of 26.91 coming into this match has already improved to 31.82 thanks to the red ink.”I just felt awful in that game [Headingley],” he said. “Getting the opportunity of being number one and then pretty soon after getting something like that is very frustrating, I’ve had a bit of stuff going on since I first played but I’m used to little setbacks like that”To be honest, in my first 10 games I was kind of looking and thinking ‘jeez how hard is Test cricket’. The West Indies tour [in 2019], the wickets out there – and then I came in for those three in India [last year] and it was obviously crazy to bat on and I guess this is a different role as well.”I think it’s just that I’ve been a little bit out of touch,” he said of his performance at Lord’s last week. “I haven’t been lining it up as well as I’d like in the last couple of Championship games and then in the first one at Lord’s. So for me it was just working out how to do that better. That’s what I worked on between these two games. And I felt like I did line it up better and play better.”Because it’s not my natural game, it’s just trying to work out how to play best. And I think sometimes I haven’t got the balance right because I’m not an explosive batter. If I’m trying to get the score up I can start pushing at the ball and things like that and playing at balls I shouldn’t be. It’s been really clear, obviously practising in a different way for that role, but also being really clear when I am just going to bat or when I have to push the button… how I’m going to do it. Don’t just throw my bat outside off stump. I’m happy to get out if I’m doing this or this, but not just giving it away.”

Fast bowler hopes for more opportunities with seamer-friendly ball after five-wicket haul

Firdose Moonda10-Jun-2021Lungi Ngidi hopes to have more opportunity to bowl with the Dukes ball after it helped him earn his second Test five-for in St Lucia. Ngidi, who took 6 for 39 against India on debut in January 2018, rated the Dukes ball as more seamer-friendly than the Kookaburra, used in South Africa, or India’s SG, because of the way it behaves.”I prefer the Dukes ball. It stays harder and moves around a lot more,” Ngidi said after the first day’s play. “The Kookaburra ball tends to get a bit soft and once it gets soft, it doesn’t really swing and you try to look for reverse swing. The SG gets scuffed up really quick and it’s a really hard ball to maintain. But the Dukes ball is really a test of skill. Once you can get the wrist position right and hone in on your area, you can be very successful with this ball. Having bowled with it now, I hope I bowl with it for many, many years.”Ngidi had never used the Dukes ball in a Test match before, having not played any Tests in England or in the Caribbean before this tour. He did have access to it when practising in South Africa and said the training group was “trying everything to control that ball,” and showed off the results of their persistence inside two sessions on the first day.South Africa dismissed West Indies for 97, for their second sub-100 total since 2004, through a combination of aggression and discipline that Ngidi explained could be difficult to get right in favourable conditions. “You can get carried away, especially when it’s nipping around and swinging like that,” he said.In the morning session, South Africa were anything but over-excited by conditions. While Kagiso Rabada and Ngidi kept the brakes on West Indies, Anrich Nortje tore through the top order. “My role definition has been very clear – it’s been to make sure I keep one end quiet. We do have some really quick bowlers and a lot of batsmen were struggling with them so for me to give them nothing was part of the plan,” Ngidi said.Related

• In Kagiso Rabada's dip is the story of South Africa's decline in Tests

• Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje set the quicks agenda on 14-wicket first day

• Nkrumah Bonner out of St Lucia Test with concussion

His morning’s work was seven overs for 10 runs and he returned after lunch to take five wickets for nine runs, having changed ends in between whiles. “I felt more comfortable from the other end and my rhythm clicked,” he said. “It’s been a work in progress. I had to work very hard in the gym, on fitness, and the most important thing was the skill side of things and being able to swing the ball away from batters.”Ngidi celebrated his second five-for with an emotional gesture to the heavens and then settled in to watch West Indies’ enjoy some, albeit not the same, success. Teenage debutant Jayden Seales, playing in just his second first-class match, took 3 for 34 and Ngidi was particularly impressed with his performance. “I was keeping a close eye on him. His seam presentation is what I tried to do when we were bowling,” Ngidi said. “He has got a great wrist behind the ball, a very clean action and it seems like he can run in all day, so he is a danger. It’s a very exciting future for the West Indies with him in the line-up.”South Africa will hope it’s not too exciting, just yet. Their lead of 31 is still some way behind what Ngidi thinks could be match-winning, especially on a surface that will continue to suit the quicks. “On this wicket you are never really in. Maybe a lead of 150-200, we’ll take that,” he said. “But it’s still moving around a bit so any lead we can get, we will take as bowlers.”

Bangladesh name familiar-looking squad for T20 cricket’s showpiece event in Australia

Mohammad Isam30-Jan-2020Rumana Ahmed and Panna Ghosh have been included in the Bangladesh squad for the Women’s T20 World Cup, which begins on February 21 in Australia. The experienced duo replaces Rabeya Khan and Suraiya Azmin, who were part of the side for the India tour earlier this month.Rumana, the legspin-bowling allrounder, has recovered from a knee injury, which kept her out of action for several months last year including the T20 World Cup qualifiers. Panna, who has taken 31 wickets in 37 T20Is, is a seam bowler.The rest of the squad bears a familiar look. Salma Khatun leads the side that includes seamer Jahanara Alam, who played in the Women’s T20 Challenge in India last year, and Nigar Sultana, who has made 309 runs at 44.14 in the last 12 months.Bangladesh will reach Brisbane on February 3, after which they will play three tour matches on February 7, 10 and 12 at the Gold Coast District Cricket Club ground. Their official warm-up matches are against Thailand (February 16) and Pakistan (February 20), before their tournament opener against India on February 24.Squad: Salma Khatun (capt), Rumana Ahmed, Jahanara Alam, Shamima Sultana, Murshida Khatun, Ayesha Rahman, Nigar Sultana, Sanjida Islam, Khadija Tul Kubra, Panna Ghosh, Fargana Haque, Nahida Akhtar, Fahima Khatun, Ritu Moni, Sobhana Mostary

The three ODIs will be played on February 22, 25 and 28 while the three-T20I series is set to begin on March 4

Annesha Ghosh14-Jan-2019England women are set to tour India for the second time in less than a year for three ODIs and three T20Is. The ODIs will contribute points towards the ICC Women’s Championship in the second cycle.

England tour of India

• 50-over warm-up v Board President’s XI: February 18

• Three ODIs: February 22, 25 and 28

• Three T20Is: March 4, 7 and 9

ESPNcricinfo understands the T20I series, which is set to begin on March 4*, will played at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. The venue has hosted ever only one ODI and one T20I – both men’s matches. The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, will host the three ODIs, which will be played on February 22, 25 and 28. While the ODIs will begin at 9am IST, the three T20Is will start at 10am.ALSO READ: ‘We have moved on’ – Raj on row with KaurBarsapara hosting the three T20Is will also mark the return of women’s international cricket to Assam after more than 13 years. England were the visitors then, too, although it wasn’t a happy one, bowled out for 50 in a 10-wicket defeat. The first women’s international to be held in Assam also featured an England side that lost to India by seven runs in a low-scoring game in 1995.England, the reigning 50-over World Cup champions and currently the No. 2-ranked ODI side behind Australia, last toured India in March 2018 for a T20I tri-series in Mumbai, where they finished runners-up to Australia. In the three subsequent ODIs that took place in Nagpur, India came up trumps 2-1.The teams last met each other in the World T20 semi-final, in the Caribbean last November. India were knocked out in a one-sided affair but England came up short against Australia in the final.The ODI series against England will follow India’s first tour of New Zealand in nearly 13 years – and the first under new coach WV Raman – where they will contest three ODIs and three T20Is.*1pm GMT – The dates for the T20I series were updated after BCCI’s announcement on January 17