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Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim has called the team’s first-ever drawn Test match against Sri Lanka “a huge achievement”

Mohammad Isam in Galle12-Mar-2013Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim has called the team’s first-ever drawn Test match against Sri Lanka “a huge achievement”. He said the draw in Galle was the team’s first major step towards becoming consistent in Tests.”We had never even taken the lead against Sri Lanka in the past,” Mushfiqur said. “From this performance, we want to continue being consistent in the second Test. That’s how it should be in Test cricket.”Bangladesh posted 638 – their highest Test score – and batted 196 overs, the longest they have managed since getting Test status in 2000. Sri Lanka has been their most frequent Test opponents but they have beaten Bangladesh in all 12 games in the past, often by large margins. Mushfiqur said that their track record against the hosts spurred his side during this Test.”Our past record against Sri Lanka definitely motivated us. For instance, they have scored 19 or 20 centuries [18 centuries] against us. We stressed on the fact that this is a big opportunity for us. We thought this is a chance for us to make them work hard on the field as we batted on and on.”The team that often keeps you in the field for days that beat you regularly, we wanted to give it back to them. I think they are shocked, because they couldn’t imagine we would play well.”The captain pointed out the different players who had made contributions, mostly with the bat, an end result that is relatively new to him in Tests. “We need a pen and paper to write down the positives in this Test. We had the team’s highest score, Ashraful and my highest scores,
Mominul’s debut fifty, Nasir’s maiden 100. I think this was also the highest score in Galle.”Mushfiqur gave a reminder of the circumstances that surrounded his team ahead of the tour and the Test match. Bangladesh has been riddled with injuries to major players and off-field issues that have been brewing since the inception of the BPL last year. In addition, there was a senior player making a comeback in the Test team.”It was a big game with a lot of pressure on us. We were without two of our senior players. Ashraful came into the side quite late and there was pressure on him to perform.”I think if we can approach matches and for our batsmen to select which balls to hit and not to hit, we can be a lot more consistent in the future,” he said.He played down the immediate influence of financial benefit which the BCB
has recently included in the players’ contract for drawn Tests. But Mushfiqur said it was a good move which was in line with the cricketers’ belief. The team will now get an extra Tk 100,000 ($1250) for drawing the Galle Test apart from their match fees which has also been recently increased.”It was always a challenge for us to be competitive over five days. I think the board also thought along these lines that we should get extra remunerations if we can draw a game. I think it is very good, and we have done well.”

Peter Ingram, the New Zealand opening batsman, has said his international career is “pretty much gone”

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jan-2011Peter Ingram, the New Zealand opening batsman, has said his international career is “pretty much gone” after being left out of the 30-man preliminary 2011 World Cup squad that was announced last month.I’ll just play for Central Districts and Taranaki if I get a chance,” he told the yesterday. Ingram, who played eight ODIs in 2010, scoring 193 runs at an average of 27.57, said he didn’t even get a call from the selectors telling him he hadn’t made the cut for the World Cup.”I was third in the one-day averages last year for New Zealand and I didn’t even get a call. It just shows what they [selectors] are like.”Ingram plays domestically for Central Districts, which narrowly failed to defend their HRV cup title, losing to Auckland by four runs last weekend. “We’re pretty gutted, but that’s cricket,” he said. “We’re still pretty pumped, we’ve still got two competitions that we want to win and we’re pretty excited about that. It can still be a pretty good summer.”New Zealand Cricket decided to move the HRV Cup to December from its traditional spot in January so that it wouldn’t clash with the international calendar, which resulted in lower attendances, but Ingram said the change was the right move. “We have to have the Black Caps available. We need the likes of Rossco [Ross Taylor] playing. He brings an extra 1000 people into the ground, I reckon.”Central Districts currently lead New Zealand’s domestic four-day competition, the Plunket Shield, having notched up three consecutive victories.

Legspinner Imran Tahir took a hat-trick as Warwickshire bounced back from their championship humbling at Chester-le-Street with a five-wicket Friends Provident t20 win against Durham tonight

02-Jul-2010
ScorecardLegspinner Imran Tahir took a hat-trick as Warwickshire bounced back from their championship humbling at Chester-le-Street with a five-wicket Friends Provident t20 win against Durham tonight. It kept the visitors on course for the quarter-finals, while Durham’s fifth successive defeat in the competition left them next to the bottom of the North Group.At 51 for 7 Durham were on course for their lowest Twenty20 total, but Albie Morkel and Gareth Breese added 66 in the last eight overs to take them to 117 for 8.Warwickshire were unable to call on England Lions pair Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott but cruised home with two overs to spare. They were 68 for 2 after 11 overs but then both Darren Maddy and Ian Westwood were run out.They needed 41 off six overs, but Rikki Clarke eased the pressure by driving Ian Blackwell over long-off for six. After Jim Troughton was stumped for 34, Clarke hit a second six on his way to an unbeaten 29 as Warwickshire took 19 off the 18th over, bowled by Neil Killeen in his first appearance of the season.After being put in on a sunny evening, Durham were already in the mire when Tahir came on for the 12th over. He has already had eight wickets in an innings against them at Edgbaston this season, plus 6 for 69 last Wednesday, and continued to wreak havoc largely with his googlies.He hurried a delivery between bat and pad to bowl Gordon Muchall for 10, then Will Smith drove to mid-on, where Ant Botha held a juggling catch. Left-hander Ben Harmison edged the hat-trick ball to Clarke at first slip.Durham took seven runs off each of the first two overs, with a boundary for both openers, but then totally lost their way. The next six overs produced a total of 11 runs for the loss of four wickets.Ian Blackwell lobbed a simple catch to mid-on off Neil Carter, who also yorked Ben Stokes, while Phil Mustard miscued to midwicket off Boyd Rankin and Dale Benkenstein drove Keith Barker to mid-off.Breese hit half of Durham’s total of eight fours in his unbeaten 30, while Morkel drove the only six, off Tahir. Morkel, who had to send for a runner after suffering a leg injury, reached 48 off 42 balls before holing out off the final ball of the innings.

Graeme Smith, the South African captain, has warned Kevin Pietersen he faces a hostile reception when the first Test begins at Centurion on Wednesday

Cricinfo staff13-Dec-2009Graeme Smith, the South African captain, has warned Kevin Pietersen he faces a hostile reception when the first Test begins at Centurion on Wednesday.Pietersen was born in Pietermaritzburg and played first-class cricket for Natal in 1997 before moving to England after voicing his displeasure at the racial quota system in place in South Africa. He was given a tough time from the home crowds when he toured South Africa with England’s one-day side in 2004-05 but responded sensationally, smashing 454 runs in six innings.He is yet to play a Test in the country of his birth and while Smith insisted there was no hostility between Pietersen and the South African players, the South African public will not have forgotten the criticisms Pietersen made about their country’s cricket system.”He obviously gets a hostile reception from South African fans because he’s made a lot of remarks about the country that I don’t think he’s ever apologised for, Smith told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sportsweek. It’s hard for people just to wash away those things and I think that’s why people still give him a hard time.”It creates a little bit of tension towards him. Our job is to play the game. From my perspective there’s certainly no tension going into the game.”It’s up to the players to get on with it. You want the game of cricket to be remembered for some fantastic cricket. That’s how I want cricket to be viewed by the fans and by the media.”We’ve all moved on and got on with our lives. He [Pietersen] has really performed well in his international career. There’s a cricket respect there.”Smith also maintained there was no tension between himself and Andrew Strauss, the England captain, despite their confrontation in the Champions Trophy match between the sides at Centurion earlier this year. Smith requested a runner towards the end of his 141 when he was struck down by cramp but Strauss refused, insisting that because cramp is a fitness problem and not an injury, it didn’t merit a runner.”There’s always going to be differences of opinion between two captains of opposite nations, but there’s very much a mutual respect. I’ve always said Andrew comes across as an intelligent guy, obviously captaincy is bringing out a different side to him. He’s performed well and he seems to be managing the side well. There’s no bad blood whatsoever.”

Somerset look to shore up opening combination in push for maiden County Championship

Matt Roller19-Aug-2021Somerset have brought Azhar Ali back to the club in a bid to solve their top-order batting problems and spearhead a push to win their first-ever County Championship title.Somerset have averaged 18.46 for the first wicket in the Championship this season giving them the lowest average opening stand in the country, with Tom Banton and Tom Lammonby both short of runs at the top of the order. Tom Abell has been prolific at No. 3 and has returned to fitness following a hamstring injury but appears unlikely to shuffle up to open.They signed Devon Conway for two Championship games in July during his spell as the club’s second overseas player for the T20 Blast, but he has since returned to New Zealand after suffering a finger injury while playing for Southern Brave in the Hundred.As a result, they have brought Azhar back for a third spell at the club, following stints in 2018 and 2019. They expect him to be available for “at least three” of the final four rounds of Championship games following international duty in the Caribbean, and the Bob Willis Trophy final if Somerset finish in the top two.”I am very excited to be returning to Somerset – it has become like a second home for me,” Azhar said. Andy Hurry, the club’s director of cricket, described him as a “class act… [who] embodies everything that you want an overseas player to be.”Meanwhile, Gloucestershire have brought in Azhar’s Pakistan team-mate Zafar Gohar for their final four Championship fixtures. Gohar, the left-arm spinner, made his Test debut against New Zealand earlier this year and has experience playing in England for Moddershall and Oulton and Warwickshire’s second XI in 2019.Gloucestershire’s defeat in their final game in the first stage of the Championship means that they are in Division Two and playing only for prize money in September. “Gloucestershire are a fantastic club with a rich history, and I’m looking forward to hopefully playing my part in ensuring the season finishes on a high,” Gohar said.

Rohit Sharma’s 87 was pivotal to India scoring 229 on a tricky surface, a total they defended with aplomb

Valkerie Baynes29-Oct-20231:46

Pujara pleased to see Rohit bring out the sweep

Mohammed Shami ripped the heart out of England as India defended a modest total in Lucknow to maintain their unbeaten World Cup run and condemn their opponents’ campaign even further.Shami claimed 2 for 4 from three overs inside the first powerplay in a breathtaking spell and Jasprit Bumrah 2 for 17 from five as England lurched to 40 for 4 after 10 overs chasing 230 for just their second win of the tournament. Shami claimed two more and Bumrah one to ensure that wasn’t to be as none of England’s batters passed Liam Livingstone’s 27 and India romped to a 100-run victory with 15.1 overs to spare.Related

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David Willey’s fierce, wide-eyed celebration upon removing Virat Kohli for a nine-ball duck hinted at the menace England were expected to bring but have sorely missed in this tournament. It was matched by Dawid Malan’s steely gaze which followed the ball over deep midwicket as he clubbed Mohammed Siraj for six to get off the mark after Willey, Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid had helped restrict India to 229 for 8, Rohit Sharma’s 87 in tricky batting conditions leading the way for the hosts.But then Bumrah beat Malan’s outside edge with one that shaped away and, two balls later, got his man via an attempted cut which Malan chopped straight onto his stumps. Bumrah made it two wickets in two balls when he had Joe Root tripping over himself and rapped on the front pad as England stumbled to 30 for 2 after five overs and the batting woes which had plagued them looked set to continue.Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami combined to take 7 for 54•Associated Press

Bumrah amd Shami were outstanding through the later half of the first powerplay, the former’s maiden in the seventh over followed immediately by a wicket maiden for Shami, who squared up Ben Stokes with two excellent balls that beat unconvincing attempts to defend and then lured the batter to attack a fuller ball that splattered the stumps.Jonny Bairstow survived on 13 when Kohli failed to pull down a difficult chance at slip but Shami resumed where he’d left off in his previous over with a second wicket in as many deliveries as Bairstow dragged one on that nipped in from the perfect length just outside off stump.England needed something big from Jos Buttler, their besieged captain, who had managed just 95 runs from the first five games, including a highest score of 43 in the opening match against New Zealand. But Kuldeep Yadav ensured Buttler’s lean run continued with a gem of a delivery that turned ferociously from outside off and crashed into the top of middle and off to send him on his way for just 10 and leave England reeling at 52 for 5.Shami returned for a second spell in the 24th over and struck first ball to remove Moeen Ali, inviting the drive and finding an edge which sailed through to KL Rahul behind the stumps. Shami’s dismissal of Adil Rashid, bowled through the gate, left India with just one wicket to get and Bumrah obliged with a superb yorker that struck the base of Mark Wood’s middle stump.After winning the toss and asking India to bat on a two-paced pitch, England started well, restricting their opponents to 35 for 2 in the opening powerplay.Willey began with a maiden in the first over of the match but then his second went for 18, including two sixes by Rohit over midwicket and down the ground to put England’s bowlers under pressure early. However, Woakes – back after being dropped for England’s defeat to South Africa in the previous game and with only two wickets from his side’s sole win of the campaign against Bangladesh heading into this match – got one to nip back, beat Shubman Gill’s drive, and clatter into middle and off stumps. That brought Kohli to the crease but his mistimed drive at Willey was comfortably taken by Stokes at mid-off to leave India shellshocked at 27 for 2 in the seventh over.Jos Buttler was done in by Kuldeep Yadav’s sharp spin•Associated Press

Woakes, bowling his sixth over on the trot, struck again when he had Shreyas Iyer simply taken by Wood at mid-on to make it 40 for 3 and England thought it was 51 for 4 before Rohit managed to overturn his lbw dismissal at the hands of Wood, when ball tracking suggested it was missing leg stump, and his subsequent four through deep backward point was met by a thunderous roar from the home crowd.Rohit brought up his fifty, smearing Wood just wide of mid-on and running two, then lifted the next ball effortlessly beyond deep backward square leg for six before dancing down the pitch to Moeen Ali and lofting him over mid-off for four in what shaped up as a crucial innings for India.But then Willey returned to the attack and immediately broke a 91-run stand for the fourth wicket when Rahul advanced and sent the ball to Bairstow at mid-on. Rohit became over-excited, picking Rashid’s googly and holing out to deep midwicket where Liam Livingstone ran in from the boundary’s edge to take a strong sliding catch, jamming his knee hard into the turf and leaving a massive divot.England conceded their first extras in the 40th over when Suryakumar Yadav shaped to reverse-sweep Moeen, but the ball evaded the bat as well as Buttler and dribbled away for four byes. Ravindra Jadeja was quick to review his lbw dismissal to Rashid in the next over, but the decision was upheld on umpire’s call when ball-tracking showed the ball clipping the top of leg stump and England could claim the upper hand in the contest.From there Surayakumar took it upon himself to keep India’s innings afloat. He moved to 48 and took his team past the 200-mark with a sublime flick for six over fine leg off Wood. No sooner had Bumrah driven Wood through the on side for four and he was put down by Moeen at long-off but then Surayakumar picked out Woakes at deep point to give Willey his third wicket and fall one run shy of his half-century.Only Bumrah – run out for 16 on the last ball of the innings – joined Rohit, Surayakumar and Rahul in double figures as India ended up shy of the total they would have wanted, even with their foes so out of touch. But thanks to his work with Shami through England’s innings, it proved to be plenty.

Stand-in captain is “concerned” but says the team is “working on” converting starts into big hundreds

Mohammad Isam20-Oct-2023The last half an hour of the India-Bangladesh World Cup contest in Pune played out like the ending of a cricket-themed Bollywood movie. The protagonist reached his century and won the match right in the nick of time. Virat Kohli chased his 48th ODI century almost to perfection. He ran two runs within 20 yards of the bat. He slammed fours and sixes as the crowd cheered on. He farmed the strike with KL Rahul. Even the umpire missed a near-certain wide when things got tight.In all of this, the Bangladesh players stood around like they had absolutely no control over what was happening in the middle. It would have been made no difference to Kohli’s concentration but Bangladesh didn’t even try to slow down the game. Not even the odd by-play, like the bowler stopping in his stride. Perhaps even a cheeky wide when Kohli was getting close to his milestone would have shown that they were still capable of affecting this match instead of what actually happened, where it looked like they were just waiting for the ordeal to end.Having lost three games on the trot, Bangladesh’s campaign is in need of a lift and their acting captain Najmul Hossain Shanto is looking at his batters to provide it.”We were well prepared. Our top order did well but the two set batters [Litton Das and Tanzid Hasan] should have played long knocks. If one of them scored 120 or 130, it would have made life easier for the latter batters. I think we couldn’t bat well in the middle overs. One of our openers should have batted a bit longer. It would have been a different ball game.”We made our best start, adding 93 runs for the opening stand. But we couldn’t bat well in the middle overs. It is our responsibility to bat well. I bat at No. 3, which is an important position. We had couple of soft dismissals. It was a good wicket but the batters didn’t take responsibility. We have made big scores before too. If Litton and Tanzid batted for longer, it would have helped Mushy [Mushfiqur Rarhim] or [Mahmudullah] Riyad later in the innings.”Shanto has scored two of Bangladesh’s four ODI hundreds this year, and since he and Mehidy Hasan Miraz struck centuries against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup, they have gone nine innings without a three-figure score.”Nobody is satisfied scoring 50, 70 or 100, not the players or the coaching staff, unless it helps the team,” Shanto said. “Every batter is talking about it. Tanzid and Litton aren’t satisfied with their knocks. Big players convert these starts into 100s or 150s. We are all concerned, and we are working on it.”Tanzid Hasan came good against India after a series of low scores•ICC via Getty Images

Bangladesh have put a lot of faith in Tanzid, backing him through a series of low scores since he made his debut last month. Shanto took pride in the way the team was able to bring the best out of one of their young players and hoped that he kicks on from here. “Tanzid played really well but we expect better knocks from him. I hope he improves on it in the next matches. Every player should be backed like [Tanzid] was. Not half-hearted, but 100%. Tanzid batted well, but we need more from him. If we support him, he can play more such knocks.”Given Bangladesh need big scores from their batters, it seems strange that they are not letting some of them occupy their preferred spots. Shanto has been shuttled down to No. 4 twice in this World Cup but he typically bats at No. 3. Towhid Hridoy has been pushed down to No. 7 though most of his success has come batting at No. 5. They had an opportunity against India to use Mushfiqur’s experience at No. 4, in the absence of Shakib, but chose not to.Shato defended the team’s tactics. “Everyone is well aware of their batting positions so they are quite comfortable with it. If they know the plan beforehand, then there’s no difference. Hridoy likes to bat at No. 5. Mushy is scoring runs at No. 6. Riyad is batting well at No. 7. Shakib would have batted at No. 4. I think it was the right batting order.”With five matches still in hand, Bangladesh remain in semi-final contention. They have also turned things around from tougher positions in the past but it was only after shedding a lot of baggage. In a World Cup campaign, every day adds to the overall pressure of doing well.Perhaps Shanto’s clear speaking and candid press conference at the end of the Pune defeat was a bright spot. To see him willing to accept responsibility was a breath of fresh air. “We will definitely want to win the next match, every match. We haven’t played at our best yet, especially in our batting. We must be more responsible. There’s a lot left to do in this tournament. It is important to play a good game. It can change our momentum. Nobody knows, we can win the next four or five matches.”

Three wickets for Thompson help restrict Birmingham as Bairstow, Malan, Rashid return to action

David Hopps10-Jun-2021Yorkshire 147 for 4 (Bairstow 34, Kohler-Cadmore 31*) beat Birmingham Bears 144 for 8 (Hain 59, Thompson 3-23) by six wickets with 11 balls to spareYorkshire encouraged the belief that they have finally assembled a T20 squad that can challenge for honours as they overcame Birmingham Bears by six wickets with 11 balls to spare at Headingley.The presence of three England T20 internationals – Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan and Adil Rashid (carded to come in at No.11) gave them obvious extra pedigree in their first match of the tournament, but it was an energetic approach by young players who have developed while the likes of Bairstow and Rashid has been otherwise engaged that also indicated some lean T20 years might be behind them.Rashid’s absence from Yorkshire’s side, particularly in the Championship, has occasionally attracted pointed remarks, largely unfair, but it is even more striking that this was Bairstow’s first Blast appearance for Yorkshire since 2016. Rashid finished wicketless, but Bairstow and Malan assembled a second-wicket of stand 58 in 34 balls that set them up nicely on a slow but accommodating surface to overhaul the Bears’ sub-standard 144 for 8.If Yorkshire looked focused, the Headingley crowd displayed a split personality – unruly on the West Stand, where down-in-one beer challenges, chants and fancy dress predominated, as if release (perhaps temporary) from lockdown was too much to take; watching with serious intent elsewhere where Tim Bresnan’s return to Headingley in Birmingham colours probably brought learned assessments of his comparative strike rates across all competitions.Birmingham wasted an appealing batting night with a wild top-order display. Will Rhodes’ standing has grown substantially since Yorkshire released him, but he made nought, toe-ending a wide full toss from Matthew Waite to mid-off. Waite, a combative all-rounder playing his first match for two years, also removed Adam Hose who endured a painful blow in the box, bad enough for a five-minute hold-up, then resorted to an over of leg-side slogging, as if disorientated, before one of them fell into the hands of Adam Lyth at mid-on.Jordan Thompson was another effervescent allrounder who had a good night, although for all his energy and ambition, his three wickets were blessed with fortune. Dan Mousley hacked a dirty full toss to long on, Carlos Brathwaite tried to clip a gift outside leg stump and got a leading edge which Thompson sprang backwards to his left to claim. Another caught-and-bowled ended Michael Burgess’ tortuous stay.From 89 for 6 in the 13th over, Birmingham were forced into damage limitation and Sam Hain, who glued things together with 59 from 43 balls, would have been grateful for a rare face of sanity – the unmistakeable figure for Yorkshire watchers of Bresnan, returning to Headingley for the first time since leaving the county at the end of 2019.Hain included three sixes in his 59 – the most extravagant, a falling-backwards ramp shot against the pace of Lockie Ferguson – but, by and large, his was an unobtrusive innings which contrasted with the untamed thrashes going on around him.Bresnan’s presence in the closing overs was a welcome sub-plot for the Headingley crowd which had been unable to offer him a farewell last season. In between the applause at each end of his innings, he spent much of the time desperately urging extra speed from his considerable frame as Yorkshire hunted run-outs; a Ferguson-Thompson combo on the square leg boundary, with Thompson’s throw hitting direct, was the closest effort and sent him diving into the dirt. He did muscle Waite for a straight six before he fell in the penultimate over.Matches between these sides have brought few major batting displays: Tom Kohler-Cadmore’s 94 not out at Edgbaston being an exception. But Yorkshire’s chase was pretty straightforward.Malan had played only one match for Punjab in IPL, but he had also been with England in India and admitted to having felt “a bit of bubble fatigue”. His 23 from 20 balls was that of a man finding his way back. When Malan lofted Bresnan into the leg-side ring and Bairstow chopped on to Danny Briggs, it was left to a trio of younger players to round things off.Kohler-Cadmore’s stand with Harry Brook was a sensible affair – 49 in eight overs. Kohler-Cadmore has had a lean Championship season and he was dropped twice in his unbeaten 31. Yorkshire have often made a meal of closing out matches, so when Brook tried to lift the tempo and fell at long on, there were concerns. But this time Will Fraine’s no-nonsense finale took them home in emphatic fashion.

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.”

Measures taken as ECB look to tighten belts across game amid rising costs of the Hundred

George Dobell22-Nov-2018England’s World Cup-winning cricketers go into their crucial World T20 semi-final against India tonight with further uncertainty hanging over the women’s game, after the ECB confirmed that cuts are envisaged to the Kia Super League budget, as part of a wider effort to cut costs across the game.The tournament’s future had already been shrouded in doubt amid the ECB’s plans for a new-team competition from 2020 onwards, potentially encompassing both men’s and women’s squads.But with the ECB’s reserves dropping sharply – their latest set of accounts showed they had plummeted from £73.1m in 2016 to £8.6m in 2018 – and the costs of setting up The Hundred rising sharply – from £13m to over £40m – belts are being tightened across the game.An ECB spokesman insisted there would be no reduction in the number of teams, matches or salaries paid to players in the KSL. He also insisted there would be no dilution of the match-day experience for spectators. Instead he said “efficiency savings” had been identified around match-day costs and flights for overseas players.It is understood that the proposed cuts are in the region of 12-20 percent, and that several of the counties are advising the ECB to rethink the decision, given that the tournament has been instrumental – since its inception in 2016 – in bridging the gap between domestic and international women’s cricket.The arrival of major overseas stars, such as India’s Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur, Australia’s Ellyse Perry and West Indies’ Hayley Matthews, have helped to raise the overall standards of the tournament, with the result that England’s head coach, Mark Robinson, has leaned heavily on performances in the KSL to keep up the pressure for places in England’s international teams.Not only did Robinson select three uncapped players for his World T20 squad – Kirstie Gordon, Sophia Dunkley and Linsey Smith – on the strength of their performances in last summer’s competition, he also trusted each of them to make their England debuts in their opening match of the tournament against Bangladesh in St Lucia last week.The trio have all made telling contributions in England’s progression to the semi-finals, and speaking before their departure for the Caribbean, each of them was effusive in praising the tournament, not least for the opportunity to take part in televised matches outside of the international arena.”When you first start out in the KSL on TV, you don’t know what to expect so things can put you off, but the more you get used to it, it more it doesn’t faze you,” said Dunkley. “It’s pretty good practice for when you step up to international level, it’s one thing that won’t put you off your mark.”Gordon, who had to give up her burgeoning career with Scotland in order to play for Loughborough Lightning – a gamble that has now handsomely paid off – pointed to the steady increase in crowds as proof of the tournament’s appeal.”For the first few years in the KSL, there were crowds but they weren’t that big, but in the last couple it’s kicked on, and at the last Finals Day, there were 4-5000 tickets sold out at Sussex.”It’s massive for the women’s game to have a full crowd on television, and trying to inspire the next generation of girls growing up, knowing they can play cricket.”