Mahmudullah admitted the batsman lacked a clarity of plan to counter Neil Wagner’s “bouncer theory”

Mohammad Isam in Wellington12-Mar-2019Neil Wagner’s sustained short-ball attack has dominated Bangladesh over the first two Tests of the series, with the tactic fetching the New Zealand quick 15 out of his 16 wickets so far. Batsman after batsman fell to Wagner’s short-ball persistence: Mahmudullah and Mohammad Mithun were dismissed by the bowler three times, while Liton Das, Mominul Haque and Mehidy Hasan each fell twice. Wagner’s short ball also claimed the wickets of Shadman Islam and Tamim Iqbal.Mahmudullah said that many of the Bangladesh batsmen, including himself, were caught in two minds against Wagner’s lines of attack. Often, their proclivity for attacking to counter Wagner landed them in more trouble. Tamim, Mahmudullah and Soumya Sarkar played Wagner well but apart from Soumya, the other two failed in their attempts to pull off the short length on four occasions.Mahmudullah conceded that the batsmen need to carry much of the blame for the Wellington defeat, where they were effectively bowled out in 117 overs in a match that was already restricted to a maximum of 315 overs, after two days were lost to rain.”In the first innings, Tamim and Shadman gave us a good start and even after Wagner started with his bouncer theory, we were handling him well but then we gave it away,” Mahmudullah said. “We have to bat with more guts for longer periods. A number of our batsmen are playing half-hearted shots, or we are not committed. We are in two minds whether to play a shot or not. You need to back yourself. If you want to attack, you should know how you want to cope with their bouncer theory.”They will probably have a fast wicket in Christchurch, so our batsmen have to be more responsible, particularly with three new bowlers in the side. I think it is the batsmen who should take more of the blame. We were bowled out twice inside two-and-a-half days.”Mahmudullah said that Wagner had had to pitch the ball very short in Hamilton where Mahmudullah and Soumya Sarkar staged a fightback on the fourth day. But in Wellington where the pitch had more bounce on offer, he could pitch the bouncer slightly further up.”We knew about him from the last time we were here. Now we are talking a lot about the Wagner factor,” Mahmudullah said. “There was certainly help in the pitches for both sets of pace bowlers but we couldn’t utilise it as well as they did. I believe that our batsmen have the skill level to handle their short-ball tactics.”Wagner had to pitch it really short in Hamilton while here he got bounce from a length slightly further up. It was easier to play or leave in Hamilton. Here there was a bit more in the pitch. He made use of it. He was successful to his credit.”Mahmudullah also regretted the reprieves to Ross Taylow, after he Shadman put down chances off Abu Jayed’s bowling when the New Zealand batsman was on 20. Ross was on 20 at the time and he went on to score 200 in quick time to take the game away from Bangladesh.But Mahmudullah also urged the bowlers to find ways to control the flow of boundaries. This was the first time that Bangladesh conceded 400-plus runs in an innings at more than five an over.”If we had captured those chances, we could have given better momentum to the bowlers. It may have brought us few more wickets. They were playing with seven batters and with the kind of help that this pitch produced for the bowlers, it would have helped our guys.”Jayed, Mustafizur and Taijul bowled quite well but we ended up conceding five runs an over. We have to find ways to bowl better in the next match,” he said.

All of the five matches will be played in UAE from March 22, with the fourth one significant to Australia because Warner and Smith will have served out their bans

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Feb-2019Australia will not, after all, play any of their five-match ODI series against Pakistan in Pakistan. The PCB finally released the schedule for the series, which begins from March 22 and sees the bans handed out to Steven Smith and David Warner end in the middle of it.The scheduling of the series has long been a subject of interest, partly because of the PCB’s hopes of organising at least part of it in Pakistan, which would have meant Australia’s first visit to the country in over 20 years. But its timing is important because it could be the scene of the returns to international cricket of Warner and – injury permitting – Smith.The five games will be played across ten days from March 22 to March 31, and kicks off with two ODIs to be held in Sharjah, the first international game the venue will host in over a year. The final two games will take place in Dubai, with the third ODI in Abu Dhabi. March 29, when the fourth ODI is to be played, is the first day Smith and Warner become available again after the bans imposed on them in the wake of the Newlands ball-tampering scandal. Smith though isn’t expected to feature, still recovering from an elbow injury that also ruled him out of the Pakistan Super League.

Pakistan vs Australia in UAE 2019

22 March – 1st ODI, Sharjah (d/n)
24 March – 2nd ODI, Sharjah (d/n)
27 March – 3rd ODI, Abu Dhabi (d/n)
29 March – 4th ODI, Dubai (d/n)
31 March – 5th ODI, Dubai (d/n)

For the past few months, the PCB had tentatively harboured hopes of Australia committing to playing some of the five ODIs in Pakistan. Wasim Khan, former chief executive of Leicestershire who recently arrived in Pakistan to take over as managing director of the PCB, had promised he would “ask the question” of CA, assuring them the highest level of security.Earlier this year, CA officially turned down the chance of playing any of the series in Pakistan. At the time, the PCB insisted discussions were still ongoing and had asked CA to at least visit for a security recce. The team may not be traveling but CA will at least gain first-hand experience of the security protocols the PCB puts in place.”The PCB was optimistic it would be able to convince Cricket Australia to send its side for some matches after successfully staging high-profile bilateral international series and the HBL Pakistan Super League matches in the past 18 months,” the PCB director Zakir Khan said. “We are disappointed for the enthusiastic and passionate cricket fans in Pakistan who will now have to wait for some more time before they can see the Australia cricket team live in action for the first time since 1998.”However, the CA has confirmed that they will send their security expert to oversee the execution of security plans for the HBL PSL 2019 matches and bilateral series against other international sides in Pakistan, and will also speak with the ICC-recommended PCB security consultant. In the meantime, the CA have confirmed they will maintain regular contact with the ICC,” Zakir Khan added.Pakistan has seen international cricket begin to trickle back to the country over the past three years with West Indies arriving in April 2018 to play three T20Is in Karachi. An ICC-approved World XI played three T20Is in September 2017, while Sri Lanka played a T20I the following month. The PSL has also begun to move increasing numbers of matches to Pakistan since the 2017 final was held in Lahore. Three further games took place in Pakistan in 2018, with eight scheduled to be played across Karachi and Lahore during the upcoming season of the PSL.

The captain warned his team against getting stuck in predictable ways after their third defeat in a row

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Mar-2019Winless after three games, Royal Challengers Bangalore will need to be more “experimental” and “brave” when things aren’t going their way, if they are to turn their fortunes around this season. This was Virat Kohli’s view after Royal Challengers slipped to a 118-run defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad, which he termed as one of his side’s “worst losses ever”.The platform for Sunrisers’ thumping win came from their openers Jonny Bairstow and David Warner, who both made hundreds and put on 185 in just 16.2 overs. While giving the two batsmen credit for their “brilliant effort”, Kohli felt his bowlers could have varied their plans to them a little more.”Probably one of our worst losses ever. I mean, there’s literally nothing I can explain right now,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation. “Nothing went right for us from ball one, until the last wicket fell in our batting innings, so really difficult one to explain, I guess. We were outplayed in all departments by a quality, quality side, and this showed why they won the previous year, made the finals last year, and now they’re up and running again, so credit to them, they played really well and deserved to win.”We could have tried a few different things, probably [taking the] pace off the ball and a few more bouncers in our innings should have been good, but we really didn’t try anything once those guys got in. It was very difficult to contain runs, and a few of the edges just fell in between as well, you need some luck going your way, get a couple of wickets and stop the run flow.”But the way they batted, I think it was outstanding, just to show intent for 16-17 overs on the run is a brilliant effort, especially in the first innings, where we thought the ball wasn’t coming on as well as the second innings. So credit to both of them, they were world class today and they definitely deserved to be on the winning side.”Kohli once again stressed on the need to be more flexible, and not become predictable, when asked about Royal Challengers’ prospects for their next game, against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur.”Well, the pitch is definitely going to be nice, so we’re going to be in with a contest again. We have to bring our A game to the table. What we did against Mumbai [Indians] is the kind of intensity we need to bring to the ground, and when things don’t go our way we need to be a bit more experimental, a bit more brave out there in the middle.”If we go through the motions, if we do the regular basic stuff, then things are going to keep going away from us. So we’ll have to find ways of winning moments, and eventually getting the result our way and really get going in the tournament, which is very important. If we want to gain some momentum we need to start well, and probably next game should be that game for us.”Kohli opened the batting in Royal Challengers’ season-opener against Chennai Super Kings, but has since moved down to No. 3. He felt this lent his team the best possible balance, and didn’t think any drastic changes were necessary for the rest of the tournament.”We’ve thought about that initially as well. When I’ve opened I’ve done well for the team, but the important thing is to find the right balance in the batting line-up, and I feel myself at three brings in that balance to the side,” Kohli said. “Myself and AB [de Villiers] batting together has always been an advantage for us, so that’s probably the mindset behind me batting three. So I don’t see that changing.”We just need a better start from the boys up front. Just three games into the tournament, we still have 11 games, and things can turn around pretty quickly in this particular league. We’ve seen that in the past, so we’ve got to stay optimistic, not think of too many changes now, and just go with that set batting order and try and capitalise on the moments that come our way.”

Kings XI have a proud home record to look up to, Knight Riders have momentum from a resounding win

The Preview by Shashank Kishore02-May-20198:50

Kartik: Kings XI need to maximise Powerplays better

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As Manish Pandey hoisted Hardik Pandya into the stands to force a Super Over, R Ashwin and Dinesh Karthik, good friends and Tamil Nadu team-mates, could’ve been forgiven for looking at the fixtures and the points table frantically. A win for Sunrisers Hyderabad would’ve meant Friday’s game in Mohali would have been a knockout. Mumbai Indians’ win now leaves both sides with a chance even if they lose on Friday, but that will mean the stars have to align, a route they’d not want to take after having endured a roller coaster of a season.Kings XI Punjab’s season thus far bears an eerie resemblance to their 2018 campaign – well-placed halfway through, before a loss from a winning position causing an implosion. Now, the push has come to shove and there is no way out. It’s the survival of the fittest.Change has been the only constant for Kings XI; they have changed their playing XI in each of the 12 matches. The only solace they can fall back on is their proud home record: four wins in five games so far. The big square boundaries have given the two Ashwins plenty to bowl with even if the surfaces have not often aided much turn. However, they will know all too well that no boundary is big enough for Andre Russell, most certainly not if he continues to bat at No. 3 and stays till the death overs.Kolkata Knight Riders snapped a six-match losing streak and the win at Eden Gardens three nights ago may have come as a balm amid hints of friction in the camp. Nothing can cover up the cracks like a win, and the journey to Mohali and the two off days they have could not have come at a better time.Finally, they’ve managed to address issues that seemed apparent to everyone but themselves: the batting line-up conundrum. Shubman Gill opened and justified the change with a sparkling 76. His strike rate of 158 is the third-best for any opener who has scored 100 runs this season. Meanwhile, Russell showed how he can adapt to situations by batting his way in before the end-overs onslaught.Kings XI’s focus will be on the team combination. Do they trust Mujeeb Ur Rahman again and bring him in against a power-packed side, knowing his confidence may be down after conceding 66 in his four overs against Sunrisers or play an extra seamer in Ankit Rajpoot? Do they look to drop the under-firing David Miller and strengthen their bowling stocks further? One way of doing that could be including Karun Nair and playing Sam Curran to balance out the overseas personnel. It’s anybody’s guess how they’ll go.

In the news

Moises Henriques could’ve offered them the batting muscle along with a few overs, but he hasn’t yet recovered fully from the ankle injury. Kings XI also won’t have the services of Varun Chakravarthy, who has left the squad following a shoulder injury. They’ve tried out all other players in the squad barring Darshan Nalkande and Agnivesh Ayachi. Knight Riders have an entire squad to choose from.Kings XI will need to find a way to stop the Russell madness•BCCI

Previous meeting

Russell walloped five sixes and three fours in a 17-ball 48 to give Knight Riders 218 for 4. Kings XI Punjab challenged the chase at different stages but didn’t have enough firepower to cross the line. David Miller’s 59 not out merely reduced the margin of defeat.

Likely XIs

Kings XI Punjab: 1 KL Rahul, 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 5 David Miller, 6 Mandeep Singh, 7 R Ashwin (capt), 8 M Ashwin, 9 Ankit Rajpoot, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Mohammed Shami Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Andre Russell, 4 Robin Uthappa, 5 Dinesh Karthik (capt, wk), 6 Nitish Rana, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Harry Gurney, 10 Sandeep Warrier, 11 Prasidh Krishna

Strategy punt

• Russell can seamlessly switch to six-hitting at the death – he has the second-best strike rate (249) and has scored the most runs (351) in overs 16 to 20. How do Kings XI prevent him from getting there? Perhaps their captain Ashwin, who likes to bowl with the new ball, may want to hold himself back a bit as Russell’s strike rate against the carrom ball is a modest 97.1 across 35 balls.
• Kings XI have to not just win but try and improve their net run-rate too. Gayle will be aware of this. So how do they keep him quiet? Maybe Knight Riders could unleash his West Indies mate Sunil Narine upfront? Gayle’s strike rate against offspin this season is a low 73.1 across 26 deliveries, with a dot-ball percentage of 50.
• Now that Gill has shown promise at the top of the order, Knight Riders may want to resist the temptation to open with Narine. Two of Gill’s three half-centuries this season have come while opening. He also strikes better (158) here than anywhere else in the order, and manages a boundary every 4.7 deliveries; the corresponding numbers at No. 3 and No. 5 stand at 15 and 13.5 respectively.

Stats that matter

• Russell is 58 away from 5000 T20 runs. If he gets there, he would have done so in exactly 300 T20s.
• Knight Riders’ pace bowlers have taken the fewest number of wickets in the competition (22). They are also the second-most expensive pace-bowling unit (economy of 9.5), behind only to Kings XI (9.6).
• Kings XI’s win percentage is a lowly 16.7 when Gayle scores less than 30.

Pradeep hailed by his team for keeping them in the contest against Afghanistan

Sharda Ugra in Cardiff04-Jun-2019Two yorkers from Lasith Malinga crashed into the stumps and had zing bails light up the growing gloom around the Cardiff Wales Stadium and Afghan hearts, but by then Sri Lanka were as good as home.An oxygen-depleted win but a win all the same in their second game of the 2019 World Cup. Against the event’s sweetheart qualifiers, Afghanistan, by 34 runs (D/L method), which doesn’t prove anything except give Sri Lanka valuable points and a breather – and certainly for Malinga, his first win after 21 ODI defeats and one NR since July 6, 2017.WATCH – Highlights from the Afghanistan-Sri Lanka game on Hotstar (India only)Sri Lanka’s last ODI win against a frontline team outside of Asia was almost two years ago, against India at the Champions Trophy. In between then and now, purgatory, doubt, batting collapses (not that those have gone away) and one defeat after another.Tuesday’s win, says coach Chandika Hathurusingha gives the team the booster shot of confidence they needed. “We really needed a win. We haven’t got much success lately… We need this badly.”The Sri Lankans were to make the single change that may be what is needed to alter their narrative. Even if that meant putting all their eggs in the one basket that Cardiff offered them – picking five seamers in conditions with clouds overhead that made the swinging ball sing. It was this fifth horsemen that was to prevent their apocalypse.Nuwan Pradeep, hipster haircut, gunslinger walk, slinger action, biting pace and mean inswing – and left out on the weekend, turned up and did his job during the work week and produced his career-best ODI figures that made victory possible. Once it was done, the Sri Lankans gathered together in a huddle of relief, bunting Man of the Match Pradeep on his head over and over.Captain Dimuth Karunaratne’s grin was visible from a distance; never mind the fates and losing the toss again, his team had climbed out of the hole they had dug for themselves after recording the highest power play total of the competition and then imploding (7 for 36 in 11 overs.) Twenty runs across the last two wickets did take Sri Lanka past 200 but Hathurusingha said while the score had never seemed enough they had expected the seamers to “bowl well on the wicket, hit the deck hard and hit the seam”. The innings break had not featured a pep talk but a talking-to: “I tell them what has to be done. That they have to come and perform.”It is what the Sri Lankan bowlers did; the 15 wides at the end of the innings will cost them heavily elsewhere, but the extravagance of the Afghan batsmen allowed them to get away with it. The key was to just to pitch the ball up or back of a length, depending on who disliked what, hit the pitch hard when required to create dot ball pressure and extract the error. Or as Thisara Perera put it, “Keep our line and length and don’t panic.” Isuru Udana and Pradeep, the least experienced of the five, were particularly efficient in tandem, Pradeep sending home the two most dangerous Afghan batsmen on the day – the first, opener Hazratullah Zazai and the second captain, Gulbadin Naib.Hathurusingha said Pradeep had “single-handedly” kept Sri Lanka in the game. In conditions like Cardiff where the ball swings and often climbs, he finds himself in his element and there was no better day to put it out on display. Left-arm paceman Udana said of Pradeep: “He was the main man today he was the man who changed the game.” Pradeep had never played with a cricket ball until the age of 20, was discovered through a soft-ball competition, and has had a career for Sri Lanka restricted by a series of injuries. His last ODI was against New Zealand in January, missing out on the March tour of New Zealand due to injury. On Tuesday in Cardiff, Pradeep was quick enough and sharp enough to be the bowler Sri Lanka required to give their world cup campaign the buoyancy it needed.Nuwan Pradeep celebrates dismissing Rashid Khan•Getty Images

On our Smart Stats Forecaster, Naib’s wicket brought down Afghanistan’s win probability from 61% to just under 50%. When Mohammed Nabi went, it nosedived further from 44 to 28 and was spot on in predicting the trend of the contest. The Malinga yorkers were just the celebratory, flashy outlet Sri Lanka needed at the end of a tense game.The combined experience of the senior seamers – Malinga, Lakmal and Perera have played 455 ODIs between them – was to help pass on wisdom and calmness to the younger two. Udana, playing only his seventh ODI, used his experience from the Bangladesh and Afghan T20 leagues to offer insights into the Afghan batsmen to his team-mates. Malinga’s last two wickets with his signature yorkers were the Afghan Nos. 9 and 10 and ended the game, but it was Pradeep that had virtually dragged it out of Afghanistan’s reach and imagination.Sri Lanka on the field were far from ship-shape but they were to find moments of inspiration – Thisara’s diving catch off Zazai on the long-leg boundary, Karunaratne’s direct hit to run out Najibullah Zadran – that made them buzz, bouncing on the balls of their feet, backing each other up. There was Malinga, the angry lion in winter, patting Pradeep on the back after he conceded five wides in the 25th over in an attempt to bounce out the batsman. The Lankans had found the energy and the collective will to compete.Hathurusingha hoped this game was going to change Sri Lankan ODI fortunes, especially at the event where it is most urgent and most noticed. When asked about Malinga’s tongue lashing and whether he agreed with it, he said: “When you play for your country there is a lot of pride at stake. They are all hurting. I’m sure about that. They really, really want to perform well for the country. What Lasith said, whatever he said, is what he believes and I think all the players get a lot of confidence after this win for sure.”Now if only the batsmen could follow.

Jackson Bird thrives as seamers make hay on unconventional Ageas Bowl surface

Daniel Brettig at the Ageas Bowl23-Jul-2019Batsman and bowlers alike were left puzzled by a Southampton surface that seamed like a green top but dried out rapidly over day one of Australia’s lone Ashes warm-up while also providing variable bounce.A ledger of 201 for 17 across the day hardly depicted a batting paradise, but nor was it exactly the sort of slow, seaming surface that the tourists can be expected to face against England over five Tests at Edgbaston, Lord’s, Headingley, Old Trafford and The Oval over the next two months. Marnus Labuschagne, the only batsman to pass 30 all day, and Jackson Bird, one of four pacemen to take three wickets or more, were united in their puzzlement.”We were umming and ahhing this morning about what to do if we were going to bowl or bat,” Labuschagne said after making 41 out of 105 for his side. “I actually called Sam Northeast up in the change room and he was saying that on this wicket they tend to bat first because of the deterioration during the game. It’s really hard to tell – the conditions with the ball as well, there was plenty of swing and seam for pretty much the whole day, so I don’t really think it made too much of a difference batting first or second.”The heavy roller probably did, over here it flattens it out a little bit for probably 30-40 minutes but towards the back end it was still pretty lively and going. It was just the dryness of the wicket, with the bowlers we had who did bowl a heavier ball into the wicket I think they got considerably more up and down out of the wicket than you would potentially in a championship game with the bowlers bowling a bit slower and a bit more sideways movement. But everyone you’ll see will adapt and hopefully get some runs in the second innings.”Bird, who has played county cricket for Hampshire and Nottinghamshire in the past, said it was not like any pitch he had seen before in these parts. “It was a funny sort of wicket, you don’t really see this sort of wicket in England,” Bird said. “There was lots of live grass on it but the surface was really dry, so there was a bit of inconsistent bounce from the top end, and it nipped around a little bit as well with that inconsistent bounce, which made it hard. The wicket got a little bit better as the day went on, but the bowling all day was reasonably good.”Where this all leaves Australia’s Ashes preparations is anyone’s guess, but suffice to say there were more than a few batsmen who would have preferred greater time in the middle, particularly given its dual status as a preparatory fixture and also a selection trial.”This game is a very serious game and it’s one where we’re all looking to perform,” Labuschagne said. “As a whole squad everyone wants to score runs, take wickets and I think we’re getting the best out of each other by playing this hard cricket and its the best preparation for the upcoming tour.”Facing the majority of the people out there bowling 130-140kph plus, facing the extra pace on a wicket that is going a little bit up and down, you need to make sure your ducks are in a row and your plans are in order. You wish as a batter it counted as 141 but no, 41 is still 41. In a low-scoring game those scores do help the team but from a personal view, it’s frustrating when someone does get in and doesn’t go on with it.”As Labuschagne’s opponents, Bird complimented the Queensland No. 3 on his diligent planning for the surface. “He had a plan especially facing up to me, he came down the wicket and across to off stump and tried to take away getting bowled and lbw,” Bird said. “The wicket could nip and stay a little bit low so he took that mode of dismissal out and it seemed to work for him. Although he nicked one in the end but that happens sometimes. It was good to see him have a plan, he’s had a really strong start to the county championship season this year.”Regarding the selection trial, with the final Ashes squad to be named at the end of the match, Bird admitted to more than a few unusual emotions. “It’s a weird situation that we haven’t been in before,” Bird said, “but everyone’s really embraced it the last week and it’s been really good to get in both teams in separate groups and I guess try to get the team camaraderie as much as you can in a weird situation.”Our batters are world class as well, so anytime you get to come up against those guys it’s good for your confidence and good for honing your skills I guess. It was a poor day out for the batters but the bowlers took a lot out of it. I’m expecting the batting group to bounce back in the next three days.”

The nearly-est of nearly-men throughout tournament history and one of them will lift the trophy at long last

The Preview by Andrew Miller13-Jul-2019

Big picture

And so it all comes down to this. After 47 matches stretched across six weeks, after a rollercoaster of a group stage (which, like all the best big dippers, started tame before lurching into a series of gut-wrenching twists and turns), and after a pair of semi-finals that were as compelling as they were different, we’re left with just two teams standing. World Cup virgins the pair of them, each with their own tales of heartbreak and regret to fall back on as they look to go that one step beyond.England and New Zealand, eh? The nearly-est of nearly-men throughout the tournament’s history. Three times runners-up in the first five editions on the one hand (followed by a three-decade bout of mourning that gives Queen Victoria a run for her money); eight semi-final appearances out of 12 on the other, a succession of doughty line-ups invariably greater than the sum of their parts, invariably found wanting in the final analysis. But at some stage on Sunday afternoon, someone’s World Cup record is going to have to lurch into credit … at long, long last.But it also had to be these two teams, didn’t it? Fate plays a spurious hand in sporting contests – it’s there for all to see when it suits the narrative but strangely takes a back seat on all other occasions – but these two teams have been locked in a special embrace for the past four years; from the shellacking that was meted out on Eoin Morgan’s men at Wellington in the 2015 World Cup, to their stunning resurgence on home soil a couple of months later. And now onwards to the biggest stage of all.WATCH on Hotstar (INDIA ONLY) – Highlights of England’s semi-final win over AustraliaNew Zealand are the team on which Morgan modelled England’s rebirth, and now they are the team that England must beat to achieve that ultimate fulfilment. It’s a symmetry that was not lost on the captain in the build-up – not least when he caught up with Brendon McCullum, his closest of friends and de facto mentor, outside the Lord’s pavilion in the moments before the pre-match press conference. When asked about that reunion, and the lessons he had gleaned from their often bruising encounters on the field, Morgan said that, above all, McCullum’s stewardship had proved “you can get to the top by being yourself, not trying to be somebody else”.And with that in mind, the match-up in Sunday’s final offers both sides the best opportunity of the tournament to be as true to their selves as they could wish to be. England arrive with their chests puffed out, their confidence spilling over, their key weapons fit and firing in every facet of their game – precisely the sort of cocksure attitude that would have set previous England sides up for disaster … except that in this team’s case, Morgan has been conditioning them to embrace the role of favourites pretty much since that first flowering of competence against these same opponents four years ago.It’s a subtle positioning for any sporting team to achieve – on the cusp of arrogance, maybe, but in reality, it’s just a matter of self-awareness – something that the great Australia dynasty from 1999 to 2007 knew better than any other side.England know they are a good team, and they know they go into this contest as overwhelming favourites – a tag that Kane Williamson was all too happy to palm off in their direction on the eve of the contest. As such, now is not the time for the team or its individuals to start second-guessing themselves or their methods.But England have learned also, from the pitfalls they’ve encountered in the tournament to date, that there are moments to push and moments to sit tight – never better demonstrated than in their dramatic explosion against Australia in the semi-final. From 6 for 0 after three overs to 50 for 0 after ten, and onwards to their date with destiny. It is an inadvertent benefit of those back-to-back defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia that England have been playing knock-out cricket since, as it were, the Last 16 – a fact that Morgan admitted had forced them to play with more positivity and smartness than perhaps had been the case in their carefree opening rounds.As for New Zealand, they have no qualms whatsoever about assuming their habitual position of underdogs. “England rightly deserve to be favourites, but whatever dog we are, it’s just important that we focus on the cricket that we play, any team can beat any team, regardless of the breed of dog,” Williamson said.They are a compelling story in their own right. A side with unfinished business on the one hand, after the crushing disappointment of their maiden World Cup final appearance at the MCG four years ago, and yet seemingly grateful to have another chance so soon to set the record straight. Not that they are seeking to project any confidence that they can do so, of course.They are a vastly different outfit to the 2015 team, with just six survivors from that final still in the squad today. McCullum is gone of course, taking with him his hair-raising habit of charging the new ball and clobbering his team a fifty-run start before the bowlers have found their length. Now they sit deep, bat long, stay in the game with caution to the fore – that has been their method throughout a tournament in which they have yet to pass 300 with the bat, but have remained competitive thanks to a bowling attack with individual components that any team would envy.They’ll roll out that familiar canny game on Sunday – new-ball threat, old-ball savvy, and a senior statesman in Williamson whose batting has been like a barometer all World Cup long. And by the end of their measured, forensic display with bat and ball, we’ll know for sure whether the formula that they shared with England four years ago is a World Cup-winning one, or just another cause for regret in a 44-year tale of woe.

Form guide

England WWWLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
New Zealand WLLLW

In the spotlight

It perhaps wasn’t as obvious as it should have been coming into this World Cup, but for a team that invests so much faith in the power and majesty of its batting, the poise and presence of Jason Roy at the top of the order is absolutely fundamental to their tempo. His fifty in the tournament opener against South Africa settled the nerves after the shock of Jonny Bairstow’s first-over first-baller; his bruising century against Bangladesh in Cardiff set up the second-highest total of the World Cup to date. And his absence with a hamstring injury coincided with their headless chicken defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia. But it was his evisceration of Mitchell Starc at Edgbaston that really showed his worth. Tight in defence, lethal in attack. He played with respect when the delivery called for it, and furious aggression when Starc erred even fractionally in line. And given the potency of New Zealand’s own attack, it’s a template that his team will want him to replicate on the biggest stage of all.Eoin Morgan and Kane Williamson pose with the World Cup trophy•Getty Images

Okay, so Williamson is a given. With scores of 40, 79 not out, 106 not out, 148, 41, 40, 27 and 67 in his eight innings to date, the significance of the skipper to New Zealand’s cause is self-evident. But the real story of their tournament has been the support cast – intermittent, erratic, and yet providing sufficient runs from somewhere in the order to get them over the line more often than not. In that seismic semi-final, it was Ross Taylor who did the needful with a superbly weighted 74 from 90 balls. Hindsight demonstrated that he had measured the conditions to perfection, and given that he had come into the tournament as one of the outstanding form players of the past 18 months, he is surely one of the men on whom New Zealand has to rely come Sunday.WATCH on Hotstar (INDIA ONLY) – Taylor’s innings against India

Team news

Bairstow appeared to tweak his groin while batting in the semi-final, but he was not sent for a scan and seems set to take his place in an unchanged XI. Given the green tinge on the pitch, it is highly improbable that England will sub out one of their seamers to accommodate Moeen Ali.England (probable): 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Liam Plunkett, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Mark WoodHenry Nicholls was to undergo a fitness test on Saturday after tweaking a hamstring against India, but no other changes are anticipated. The legspinner Ish Sodhi played in New Zealand’s last visit to Lord’s against Australia, but that was on a used deck.New Zealand (probable): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Henry Nicholls, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Lockie Ferguson.

Pitch and conditions

It’s perhaps an indication of the distance that England have come since the start of the tournament that Morgan did not raise more of an eyebrow at a remarkably green wicket that had more in keeping with a golf green than a cricket pitch two days out. Some of the colour had drained from the surface by preview day, but there’s still going to be some live grass come the 10.30am start on Sunday. “It looks greener from afar than it is up close,” said Morgan, diplomatically, adding that it’ll go whiter and burn off when the sun comes out. Whether England would choose to bat or ball first “depends on how hard the wicket gets”, he added.

Strategy punt

• There’s mode of attack in New Zealand’s ranks that England will be unable to replicate (even allowing for Jofra Archer’s ambidexterity in the nets). Left-arm seam has accounted for a staggering 39 wickets at 13.6 in the course of the four group games at Lord’s – compared to 18 at 42.7 for the right-arm quicks. And that tally, of course, includes Trent Boult, who claimed a hat-trick in New Zealand’s defeat against Australia. England, meanwhile, lost nine of their ten wickets to Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff in their group-stage loss to the Aussies. If Boult can shape the new ball down the slope, into England’s front pads, there could be fireworks.
• England’s recent prowess against spin will be tested by one of New Zealand’s unsung heroes of the campaign. In the three matches where Mitchell Santner has conceded over 6 RPO, NZ has lost two and scraped through the third, by five runs against West Indies. Conversely, his first spell of 6-2-7-2 against India was instrumental in their successful defence of 239.

Stats and trivia

• The importance of Roy and Bairstow’s opening partnership extends beyond numbers. Their mere presence at the crease has been talismanic for England. On the seven occasions that England have not lost more than one wicket in the first Powerplay, they have won every time. On the three occasions they’ve lost more than one wicket in the same period (including of course with James Vince in the side for Roy) they’ve lost every time.
• In keeping with the theme of this tournament, the team batting first has won seven out of the previous 11 World Cup finals. However, each of the last two has been won by the chasing team, India in Mumbai in 2011 and Australia at the MCG in 2015.
• England have won seven of their last nine meetings in ODIs with New Zealand, including a 3-2 victory on their tour of New Zealand in February and March 2018. However, New Zealand have won both of their most recent encounters at Lord’s – by 51 runs in 2008 and by five wickets in 2013.
• Of the four World Cup finals played at Lord’s, the team in the away dressing room has won all of them. England will be in the home dressing room on Sunday.

Quotes

“Whether having had experience in a final or not is a good thing, any final you get the opportunity to play in is a really positive thing. But at the same time, as we know, in this game nothing promises, so it does come down to putting a performance on the board that gives us the best opportunity to win.”
“I haven’t allowed myself to think about lifting the trophy. Cricket and sport, in particular, is very fickle. If you ever get ahead, it always seems to bite you in the backside, so for us to win it, I think around the country it would be awesome, great for the game..”

The fast bowler has paid a hefty price for diving in the field in an ODI against Pakistan in March, missing the World Cup and Ashes, but is now looking ahead

Alex Malcolm29-Jul-2019When Australia announced their six-strong fast bowling cartel for the Ashes series on Friday, Jhye Richardson’s absence slipped quietly by.One of the stars of Australia’s last Test series against Sri Lanka, and arguably the gold nugget find of their toughest home summer in decades, was instead sitting in a hotel room in Darwin preparing for a guest appearance in a club match for Nightcliff the following day, his first outing since dislocating his right shoulder against Pakistan in Sharjah in March.There was a small hope, after a careful build up, that he might be given the opportunity to be added to the Ashes squad for the back end of the Test series should his playing return go smoothly. But despite getting through Saturday’s match, where he took 1 for 67 from his 10 overs, the selectors had already told him two days earlier that they would settle with the pacemen they had in England.Richardson, 22, has every right to be bitter at the cricketing gods. A selfless act of desperation to save his team a boundary in Sharjah cost him the opportunity of a lifetime, appearing in a World Cup and an Ashes in the same English summer. But there was no bitterness, just a slow realisation and acceptance.”I think just progressively I got the understanding that I wasn’t quite ready to go,” Richardson told ESPNcricinfo on Saturday. “But I gave it my best shot. I had a lot of good people around me. I did everything I could. That was in the back of my mind. I said to myself you’ve done everything you can and it wasn’t meant to be.”When [the injury] first happened, initially I’d like to think I was pretty calm. Obviously your adrenaline is still going because a highly traumatic injury has just happened and you’re still buzzing around trying to figure out what’s going on. You probably don’t understand the true effect of what’s just happened at that moment. When I got home, the magnitude of the potential of having an extended time on the sideline probably sunk in a little bit more. But I think with that though, having the plan or the goal to get to the World Cup helped a lot. It gave me a lot of positivity. Whilst it was quite ambitious it sort of allowed me to keep track on something and really put my mind to something.””While it would be great to go over there it would be just as good to watch the guys go about their business over there and hopefully win an Ashes series. If something goes down, I’ll try and get over but if that doesn’t happen, we’ve still got a lot of cricket in Australia as well in the Australian summer. If the pace bowling stocks do get tested a little bit then I’m ready to go.”Getty Images

Unlike Josh Hazlewood, who found it hard to watch the World Cup having also missed selection, Richardson’s only trouble was staying up late enough in Perth. “I watched a bit of it,” he said. “Most games on the TV. I didn’t quite make it through all of them.”He watched while the Ashes carrot was still dangling in front of him. Cricket Australia’s selectors and medical staff liaised with the WACA high performance team in Perth to put a program in place. He did join the Australia A squad for their training camp in Brisbane in early June and then returned to Perth to progress to eight to ten-over spells in the nets ahead of Saturday’s game in Darwin. CA even sent cameras and an analyst to Darwin to record data on his return.Despite already knowing he had missed his chance, he was upbeat about his performance in his comeback clocking the mid-130kph mark.”Obviously I was very, very rusty,” Richardson said. “It was the first game in three or four months so I couldn’t expect miracles. In terms of shoulder wise, I coped fine. The pace was okay. Probably a little bit better than I expected. From all reports here, the day’s gone well. After today, it gives me a little bit more confidence that I’m ready to go. Practice is always good, but just being able to play in a game over bowling in the nets with no batter, just gives myself a better idea of where I’m at, and where I’m at I’m pretty happy with.”Richardson will not stay in Darwin to play more cricket. Instead he will head back to WA to resume pre-season training with the Western Warriors. He has no shortage of inspiration within the WA squad. Nathan Coulter-Nile suffered a shoulder dislocation in a BBL game in December 2015, and returned to play international cricket in March the following year, while Ashton Turner is also currently recovering shoulder surgery after missing World Cup selection.Richardson’s durability is another source of confidence. Last Australian summer he played more days and bowled more overs than Pat Cummins in all formats. Five consecutive Shield games before Christmas, where he delivered 190 overs and took 27 wickets, propelled him to his Test debut.”Everyone speaks about needing to be in such a good rhythm to bowl well,” Richardson said. “And they say you bowl your fastest when you’re not trying to bowl your fastest. So bowling a lot of overs takes a bit of pressure off steaming in trying to bowl as fast as you can. It’s a big mental game. It’s trying to get on top of the batsman and figuring out what their weaknesses are. I think bowling a lot of overs does help get your body accustomed to bowling a lot so the more balls you bowl the better you’re going to get. It definitely helped in that respect.”The development of his fast bowling craft has been the most impressive feature of his meteoric rise. As a teenage tearaway his radar was not always on song, but he has learnt the value of control at the professional level.”It’s just been a thing over time,” Richardson said. “Obviously coaches are there to help you, but on a personal level, bowling to the best batsman in the world it doesn’t quite work trying to bowl as fast as you can because they still have the most time to hit the ball where they want to. You feel like bowling 145kph is still not quick enough. I kind of just, over time, gained an understanding that it’s not the be all and end all of fast bowling. There’s probably something else that you need to work out, whether that’s swinging the ball or seaming the ball or have a few variations.”

Justin Langer concedes batsmen haven’t produced as tourists head for Derby with questions aplenty

Daniel Brettig in Leeds26-Aug-2019After the grief, comes the post-mortem. Australia’s contrivance to lose the Headingley Test and an Ashes-sealing series lead was the source of enormous pain for the tourists, not least the coach Justin Langer. He had watched, as impassively as he could, from the sidelines as months if not years of carefully laid plans were torn up by a combination of Ben Stokes and Australian folly.”We’re all feeling it. My gosh,” Langer said. “You have no idea how much that hurts, losing today. You have no idea. So we’re feeling it but leaders – whether you’re the captain, coach or senior player – you have to get up. You’ve got to – we’ll be disappointed for a day or night. We probably won’t talk much for a day or a night or so. Then when we get back into it tomorrow, we’ll review it like we do every game. We’ll review it together and make sure we get it better next time.”So in the minutes, hours and days to come before the fourth Test of the series at Old Trafford, Langer will look not only at the collective loss of composure that allowed Stokes to take control, but also the performances or lack thereof that allowed England to be chasing 359 in the first place. Chief among these is the fact that Australia’s batting returns in this series have not been those worthy of a team securing a 2-0 Ashes series lead.ALSO READ: Farrell: Do you remember how it started?Only Steven Smith and his substitute Marnus Labuschagne are scoring their runs at an average of better than 40. Only Travis Head, barely, has joined them in averaging better than 30. David Warner, Headingley first innings aside, has struggled mightily; Usman Khawaja has fared little better; Matthew Wade made near enough to all his runs in one dig, the second-innings century at Edgbaston; Tim Paine’s captaincy is facing pressure on the basis of his decision-making at the end of the Headingley Test, compounding questions already writ large across his batting.”There’s actually going to be some big questions,” Langer said. “One thing I do know is we’re not batting well enough at the moment. I said at the start of the series that the team that bats best will win the Ashes. We’re certainly not at our best with our batting at the moment. We’ve got some real questions to ask for the practice game then the fourth Test match.”I think there’s a number of guys who will be looking to play well. Not just Uzzy. Uzzy’s played a lot of cricket, he averages over 40 in Test Match cricket. He got a Test hundred seven innings ago I reckon. We know he’s a very good player and he, like the rest of them, will be working hard to be ready for the fourth Test.”We can’t fit them all in. That’s one issue we’ve got. We’ve also got to work out after a long summer, we’re going to have to rest some players. Just to give them a mental freshen-up more than anything. The other thing, we’ve got two back-to-back Test matches to win or lose the Ashes. And we’ve talked from day one that we’re going to have to give guys chance to freshen up – they’ve been here for Australia A or the World Cup. And sometimes the mental break is as important as anything.”The major permutation will be how to make room for Smith’s return from concussion while retaining Labuschagne. A possible solution will be to move Khawaja up to open with Warner, placing Labuschagne at No. 3 and Smith at No. 4 ahead of Head and Wade. But that would force the dropping of Marcus Harris after only one match, since he himself was recalled at the expense of Cameron Bancroft, who had demonstrated more than enough technical flaws for England to exploit in the first two Tests.At the same time, Langer and the rest of the support staff need to lend a supportive ear to players who will be having nightmares about Leeds for a long time to come. “It was an unbelievable game of cricket,” Langer said. “Everyone remembers the ’81 Botham game. I hate to say it, but for the game of cricket, that was an unbelievable game. Ben Stokes, that was extraordinary. We are obviously very, very disappointed up in the change rooms. But we have to shake ourselves up and get ready for the next one.”We had our chances, we had three or four. He played like a man with nothing to lose, and you’ll never see a better innings than that. At lunch we knew it was game on. I thought the first hour today was as good Test match bowling as you will ever see. Then when the new ball came, which probably surprised a few people, we maybe tried a little bit too hard, bowled a little bit too short. Then we pulled it back after lunch, and they had lost 5-30 at one point. But we just couldn’t finish it off, and we’ll have to get better at that.”There is, at least, some consolation in the fact that the bowling unit is functioning well, the Stokes episode apart. Josh Hazlewood might easily have taken the match award for an Australian victory, with nine wickets across a succession of high-quality spells. Pat Cummins’ fitness is holding up, so too James Pattinson’s, while Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc wait in the wings. For the marathon of a five-Test series, Australia should have the cattle to go the distance, provided they do not let their minds cloud over into negativity.”We’ve been on the right side of a lot of wins too. We haven’t been on the right side of winning overseas for a while now,” Langer said. “That’s why games like this are so important for us. What can we take from it – we fought so hard. We bowled them out for 67. It was brilliant. We bowled fantastically well yesterday – as good a Test match bowling as you’ll ever see. We’ll win a lot more games than we lose if we bat well – and with the bowling depth we got. Unfortunately it didn’t happen today.”We’ve got 10 days, we’ve got a game in Derbyshire to play, we have plenty to play for. It’s 1-1 in this series, we have been so close, I mean one more wicket and we are 2-0 up and feeling pretty good about ourselves. But that’s sport. We’ll pick ourselves up.”

England’s wicketkeeper steps down after long-term battle with anxiety issues

Andrew Miller27-Sep-2019Sarah Taylor, one of the most talented wicketkeepers in the history of the game, has announced her retirement from international cricket, having struggled in recent years with a long-term anxiety issue.Taylor, 30, made her England debut as a 17-year-old in 2006, and went on to make 226 appearances all told. Her tally of 6,533 international runs places her second on England Women’s all-time list of run-scorers, behind her long-term captain, Charlotte Edwards.In the course of her career, Taylor played key roles in some of England Women’s most memorable triumphs, including the World Cup and World T20 triumphs in 2009, and the unforgettable home World Cup win in 2017, in which she produced key innings of 54 and 45 in England’s semi-final and final victories over South Africa and India respectively.However, Taylor will undoubtedly be remembered primarily for her work behind the stumps. Her tally of 232 dismissals across formats is a record for women’s internationals, but the style and skill of many of her takes have marked her out as one of the most naturally gifted wicketkeepers of any gender and any era.The speed of her glovework was matched by her instinct for where the ball was going, not least when pulling off leg-side stumpings, a mode of dismissal which became her trademark when standing up to England’s seamers.But in recent years Taylor’s anxiety has affected her ability to enjoy the game, and having taken an extended break after England’s semi-final defeat at the World T20 in India in 2016, her appearances had been carefully managed – with her belated recall for the 2017 World Cup offset by her absence from last year’s World T20 in the Caribbean.”This has been a tough decision but I know it’s the right one,” said Taylor. “For me and for my health moving forward. I can’t thank my team-mates enough, both past and present, and the ECB for being supporters and friends along my journey.ALSO READ: Taylor interview: ‘I couldn’t handle being the best because the only way was down'”Playing for England and getting to wear the shirt for so long has been a dream come true and I have been blessed with so many great moments throughout my career. From making my debut in 2006, to Ashes wins, and of course the World Cup final at Lord’s, to name just a few.”I’ve also been blessed with travelling the world and making lifelong friends along the way.”Taylor’s final international appearance came during this summer’s drawn Ashes Test at Taunton, when she scored 5 in her solitary innings before withdrawing from the T20 leg of the series to manage her anxiety issues.England’s disappointing showing in the Ashes – they lost the points-based series 14-4, with a solitary win in the seven matches – led to the resignation of Mark Robinson, the hugely respected head coach who had been so integral in helping Taylor balance her priorities in overcoming her anxiety.Nevertheless, Taylor’s integral role in helping to grow the profile of women’s cricket, not least through her unique and stylish talents, cannot be understated.”To be right in the thick of women’s cricket as it’s gone from strength to strength – not only in England, but across the world – has been an amazing experience,” she said, “and I can look back on what women’s cricket has achieved with great pride at playing some small part in it.”The England girls are role models on and off the field, and they have undoubtedly inspired – and will continue to inspire – so many young people to take up the game, girls and boys. I can’t wait to see the heights that this team can reach.”I am extremely proud of my career. I leave with my head held high and with excitement for what my future holds and what my next chapter brings.”Clare Connor, ECB Managing Director of Women’s Cricket, said: “Sarah can be immensely proud of everything she has achieved in an England shirt, and of everything she has done for the women’s game.”She is someone that young people can look up to, for her achievements and talent on the pitch – but also for her bravery and resilience off it. She has come through significant adversity and performed on the world stage for her country.”We are very grateful to Sarah for her contributions to English cricket over the last 13 years. She has become a powerful voice within women’s sport and I’m sure she will make a success of the next stage of her professional life. We all wish her the very best.”