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Before Hazlewood, the last Australia bowler to top the T20I bowling charts was Nathan Bracken in 2008

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jun-2022Josh Hazlewood continued his rise in T20 cricket by claiming the No. 1 spot among bowlers in the ICC rankings. Before him, the last Australia bowler to top the T20I bowling charts was Nathan Bracken back in 2008.With six wickets, Hazlewood was the leading wicket-taker in Australia’s recent 2-1 series win over Sri Lanka, as he rose two places to go above Tabraiz Shamsi and Adil Rashid to the No. 1 spot. Before that, Hazlewood had grabbed 11 wickets in Australia’s victorious campaign in the T20 World Cup last year.

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Hazlewood, remarkably, hadn’t played a T20I between March 2016 and September 2020.Meanwhile, India opener Ishan Kishan entered the top ten in the T20I batting rankings for the first time. Scores of 76, 34 and 54 in the first three T20Is in the ongoing series against South Africa propelled him 68 spots from his No. 75 ranking at the start of the series. Kishan is now the top-ranked India batter in T20Is, above KL Rahul who sits at 14th.Kishan remains the top-scorer in the series with 164 runs, as India hit back in the third game in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday to keep the five-match series alive.Pakistan captain Babar Azam continues to lead the batting charts, with his opening partner Mohammad Rizwan rising a spot up to No. 2, from where Aiden Markram slipped to third after missing the series against India after testing positive for Covid-19.In other notable movements among bowlers, Hazlewood’s team-mate Ashton Agar gained three places to move up to ninth, while Sri Lanka’s Maheesh Theekshana jumped 16 spots to eighth. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s six wickets in three games against South Africa helped him rise three places to No. 11 with a career-best ratings points total of 635.

Opener scores 100, Tom Moores 72 not out as Kent pay for wayward bowling

ECB Reporters Network25-Jul-2023Nottinghamshire opener Ben Slater completed his first LV= Insurance County Championship hundred since April last year to lay the foundation for a solid opening day against Kent at Trent Bridge.The left-hander, who has had a lean year by the standards he has set in recent seasons, made exactly 100, with wicketkeeper Tom Moores finishing unbeaten on 72 as Nottinghamshire closed on 275 for 5.Kent’s bowling lacked consistency. Matt Quinn and Arshdeep Singh kept to a little over two runs an over but Jas Singh’s two wickets came at a cost of 11 fours and a six in 12 overs.Beset by injuries and other non-availabilities, Kent were forced to sign two on-loan batters ahead of this fixture but might have expected more from their seam attack on a pitch that looked green enough to have tempted Nottinghamshire to bowl first had they won the toss.Under an overcast morning sky, batting looked hazardous when the stumps were under threat but Kent’s bowlers were too often wide of that mark in the opening session, conceding boundaries in 12 consecutive overs across one expansive passage of play.Joey Evison, a talented allrounder who left Trent Bridge last year through lack of opportunities, inflicted the only wound to the Nottinghamshire top order when Haseeb Hameed, who was beginning to find his timing after a slow start, played all round one that hit the knee roll of his front pad.The exception among the Kent seamers was Arshdeep Singh, the Indian white-ball international left-armer who is playing in the last of his five first-class matches in England this summer. Unlucky at times from the pavilion end as Nottinghamshire reached 116 for 1 at lunch, he was rewarded for switching ends shortly afterwards as the New Zealander Will Young, another at the end of a short-term contract, pushed forward to a ball that found the edge.Nonetheless, the day was still unfolding nicely for Nottinghamshire until just over an hour into the afternoon session, when they lost Joe Clarke and then Slater within four overs. Clarke, who had steered his first ball for four to the short boundary on the Bridgford Road side, looked in ominously good touch as he drove and pulled two more boundaries and then hoisted Singh over the longer boundary for six.Yet he was stopped in his tracks on 22 when pinned in front by a swinging delivery from Quinn. Minutes later, after running three from a straight drive to complete his hundred from 150 balls, Slater was squared up a touch by a ball from Singh that found the thinnest of edges, a second catch for Harry Finch, who continued as stand-in wicketkeeper with Jordan Cox injured and Sam Billings taking time away from the game.It left Steven Mullaney and Moores with a rebuilding job at 169 for 4, not helped by a stoppage of 108 minutes after a burst of heavy rain followed by a lengthy mopping-up operation.The delay cost 15 overs and, seemingly, Kent’s hopes of building any momentum on the back of those two important wickets as the fifth-wicket partners added 83 before there was another breakthrough, Mullaney falling leg before as Singh hurried one through.Kent had missed two chances along the way, with Mullaney dropped inexplicably by Ben Compton at first slip on 16 off Arshdeep, and Moores given a life moments after his eighth four had taken him to a 77-ball half-century as Singh shelled a difficult caught-and-bowled.

Jess Jonassen claimed three wickets as Melbourne Stars’ poor season continued

AAP22-Nov-2024Brisbane Heat secured a WBBL finals spot with a nine-wicket win over the Melbourne Stars in a rain-affected fixture.Heat’s bowlers ripped through Stars’ top-order batters in a match reduced to seven overs a side at Brisbane’s Allan Border Field. Stars made just 46 for 6 after losing their initial four wickets in a three-run span – Heat duo Lucy Hamilton and captain Jess Jonassen took two wickets each in 10 balls.Related

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Heat cruised to 47 for 1 from 5.2 overs – they can’t miss the finals and remain a strong chance of pinching top spot from ladder-leaders Sydney Thunder. They joined Melbourne Renegades on 12 points, one behind Thunder.Renegades play Thunder on Saturday in their last game before the finals while Heat’s last match is against Sydney Sixers on Sunday.After heavy rain delayed the start on Friday night, the last-placed Stars scored 21 for 0 from their initial two overs. But Heat’s 18-year-old quick Hamilton – who destroyed Stars five days ago when taking 5 for 8 – again turned tormentor.She claimed two wickets in three balls and, next over, skipper Jonassen collected two more.Heat were untroubled in their run chase: Grace Harris set the tone by smacking the first three balls of the innings for four. She and sister and Laura Harris put on 34 for the first wicket as Heat cruised to victory.

Afghanistan lost their last six wickets for only 21 runs, crumbling swiftly on a slow and used Sharjah surface

Himanshu Agrawal09-Nov-2024First, Afghanistan’s spin quartet ended with combined figures of 38-0-144-7. Bangladesh’s trio replied with 21.3-2-72-5. But where Afghanistan’s quicks bowled 12 overs for 108 runs without a single wicket, Bangladesh’s fast bowlers were more incisive with four wickets in 22 overs, which went for only 111. That was the difference in the end as Afghanistan fell 68 short in their pursuit of 253 and Bangladesh levelled the three-match series with one game to play.Bangladesh’s win was set up by captain Najmul Hossain Shanto’s 76. When Shanto fell on his 119th ball in the 41st over of the first innings, his innings appeared to be too slow. But the value of his runs was visible when the Afghanistan batters struggled to get going, justifying that batting wasn’t easy on a slow and used Sharjah surface. Six of Afghanistan’s top eight scored at least 14, but only one could go on to score a half-century. Rahmat Shah’s 76-ball 52 remained the highest.Afghanistan’s chase of 253 began in sedate fashion. The Bangladesh quicks started with tight lines and lengths with the new ball swinging, but their first two breakthroughs were down to some fantastic catches. Soumya Sarkar anticipated a ball rushing onto him at wide slip to have Rahmanullah Gurbaz caught off Taskin Ahmed, while Mehidy Hasan Miraz – at square leg – leapt and plucked one to send Sediqullah Atal back off Nasum Ahmed’s first ball.Atal departed for 39, ending a 52-run second-wicket partnership with Rahmat, but his dismissal started a sequence where Nasum and Mahmudullah kept a check on Afghanistan, conceding only 19 runs across the next seven overs.Mehidy took over captaincy duties after Shanto had to leave the field with a hand injury, and brought himself back to bowl in the 24th over. One over past the halfway mark, Afghanistan’s required rate had crossed six runs an over, and the slide began in the 29th.Mustafizur Rahman had Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi caught at fine leg for a 40-ball 17 and then Nasum bowled Azmatullah Omarzai for his second duck of the series with a beautiful ball which turned away to hit off stump.Three balls later, Rahmat paid the price for a mix-up with Gulbadin Naib, who pushed one to cover and called. With Naib watching the fielder, Rahmat was halfway down the pitch, and ultimately both ended up running towards Jaker Ali, the debutant wicketkeeper. Jaker, playing in place of the injured Mushfiqur Rahim, threw the ball to Nasum at the other end and Rahmat was well short.Thus, Afghanistan lost three wickets in the space of six deliveries, and although Naib swung his bat around for an entertaining 26, and added 44 for the sixth wicket with Mohammad Nabi, his dismissal left the rest with too much to do. They lost their last five wickets for only 21 runs and folded for 184 in 43.4 overs.That batting performance made Shanto’s half-century and Jaker’s death-overs batting cameo look even better. Bangladesh had lost Tanzid Hasan early in the afternoon, but Shanto and Soumya accelerated. Despite a Shanto slowdown after the powerplay, Bangladesh made 82 in 14 overs.However, it took a further 23 overs to get another 82 for Bangladesh, despite losing only two more wickets in that period. All four of Afghanistan’s spinners – Rashid, Nabi, Nangeyalia Kharote and AM Ghazanfar – operated during that phase, and conceded just two fours and a six.Rashid broke the 71-run second-wicket partnership between Shanto and Soumya when he trapped the latter lbw. Soumya, on 35, didn’t review despite a consultation, and later saw the replays show the ball had pitched outside the line.In all, Shanto took 75 balls to get to his half-century, which he completed halfway into the 28th over. Both Mehidy and Shanto struggled to put the Afghanistan spinners away, and had to rely on their running between the wickets amid a plethora of dots. In the 32nd over, Shanto was given out lbw on 55 off Ghazanfar, but he reviewed and overturned the decision.But Rashid broke the 53-run stand when he cleaned Mehidy up with a googly next over. With 12 overs to go and Bangladesh on 174, Bangladesh were on course for a strong finish but with Shanto slow but Kharote struck three times in the next three overs to dent their cause. Towhid Hridoy, Shanto and Mahmudullah all departed in quick succession.But Jaker and Nasum ensured Bangladesh would post a competitive score. The last six overs were taken for 60 runs, as Nasum started the fun with a slog sweep for six off Kharote. When Afghanistan switched to pace in the 47th over, Jaker bashed Fazalhaq Farooqi for back-to-back sixes, with one landing over the roof beyond deep midwicket. Nasum hit 25 at just better than a run a ball, while Jaker put the finishing touch. The debutant ensured Bangladesh crossed 250.

Kent lifted by aggressive, unbeaten 80 from opener but still trail by 172 runs

ECB Reporters Network23-Aug-2024Worcestershire club captain Brett D’Oliveira made a triumphant return after injury as his side strengthened their grip on the Vitality County Championship Division One bottom two encounter with Kent at Visit Worcestershire New Road.D’Oliveira struck 97 off 90 balls and his positive approach enabled Worcestershire to seize the momentum and establish a first innings advantage of 276.It was his first knock since missing the entire Metro Bank One-Day Cup campaign to have extensive rehab on a shoulder problem which has troubled him for the past 12 months.Tawanda Muyeye struck an aggressive unbeaten 80 from 84 balls in reply for Kent to leave them 172 in arrears with eight wickets in hand heading into the third day.D’Oliveira came in at 201 for 4 and batted with great freedom on a pitch offering assistance to the seamers. He received excellent support in two partnerships both worth 85 runs in 16 overs, initially from Adam Hose and then Ethan Brookes who also played fluently in scoring his maiden half-century for Worcestershire.A career best 43 from No.10 Adam Finch then shepherded Worcestershire to batting points.Rob Jones had batted with great application during the early part of the day to help lay the foundations for D’Oliveira. The Kent attack was generally below par in the helpful conditions, offering up too many ‘four’ balls, but there was satisfaction for debutant Akeem Jordan.Jordan, who until recently was playing for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the Birmingham and District Premier League, finished with 5 for 97 from 26.1 overs.Worcestershire resumed on 137 for 2 and Jordan struck an early blow for the visitors when Gareth Roderick (63) nicked a delivery which moved away and was caught behind.Jones looked in good touch and cut George Garrett for four and then turned Jordan off his legs for another boundary. A square drive to the ropes by Hose at Grant Stewart’s expense eased Worcestershire into a first-innings lead.Jones looked set to complete his second Championship fifty of a challenging season but on 49 he fell to a superb catch by Jack Leaning. He pushed hard at a delivery from Joey Evison and edged to Leaning who held onto the chance at second slip at full stretch away to his right.D’Oliveira immediately looked to seize the initiative with a succession of boundaries.He batted in attacking manner not seen on either side previously during the game and dominated the partnership with Hose. D’Oliveira raced to a 46-ball half-century with seven fours.Hose, himself returning after playing for Northern Superchargers in the Hundred, provided the perfect foil until he tried to pull Jordan and top edged a catch to fine leg.Brookes helped D’Oliveira sustain the momentum in completing his fifty off 59 deliveries.D’Oliveira looked set for his century but on 97 he attempted to cut spinner Matt Parkinson and only picked out backward point. His 90-ball knock contained 15 fours after another partnership of 85 in 16 overs.Brookes also fell to Parkinson although he was unfortunate as he attempted a sweep and the ball bounced up onto his elbow and then rolled onto the stumps.Tom Taylor struck a quickfire 20 before he and Joe Leach went lbw to Jordan and Ogborne respectively. But Adam Finch ensured a fourth batting point for Worcestershire when he cut Parkinson to the boundary in the 107th over.The pace bowler lofted Jordan for a maximum over deep midwicket before he was bowled attempting another big hit.Taylor almost broke through in his first over of Kent’s second innings. Muyeye, on nought, edged just short of third slip and was then dropped at gulley off the next delivery from Taylor.But the Worcestershire allrounder was responsible for the first Worcestershire success with the run out of Ben Compton. He pushed Joe Leach gently towards mid-off but Taylor pounced to run out Compton at the non-striker’s end well short of his ground.Muyeye decided attack was the best policy and his half-century contained one six and eight fours. But captain Daniel Bell-Drummond, who scored just five in a partnership of 62 with Muyeye, was bowled after offering no shot to Finch.Jack Leaning then had a let off on 15 when he survived a sharp caught and bowled chance against Brookes.

Ramiz Raja warns that the country is paying price for lengthy exile from international cricket

Danyal Rasool02-Dec-2022The Rawalpindi pitch on which England racked up a world-record 506 runs on the first day of the first Test was “embarrassing”, according to PCB chairman Ramiz Raja. Terming Pakistan as living in “the dark ages of pitch preparation” owing to a decade-long hiatus of Test cricket in the country, Ramiz said it would take at least another season for the quality of pitches to begin improving.”It is embarrassing for us, especially when you have a cricketer as chairman,” Ramiz said, speaking to media during the lunch break on the second day of the Test. “This is not a good advert for cricket. We’re a better cricketing nation than this.”The quality of Test match pitches has become a point of intense scrutiny, effectively since the day Ramiz took over as chairman last year when he promised to bring drop-in pitches to Pakistan. While such talk has continued apace in the past 15 months, tangible progress on the subject has been non-existent, with Ramiz decrying the costs of having them shipped from abroad as prohibitive.”Ultimately, the only situation is a drop-in pitch. Which is extremely expensive if we’re bringing it from abroad. Instead, we’re developing soil here for drop-in pitches. That way, we can prepare square turners or bouncy wickets depending on what we want.”This is not an issue of not leaving grass on the pitch. The grass looks good from the point of view of optics. We need to create bounce, which can happen without grass, as happens on Australian pitches. They don’t leave lots of grass on the pitch. We get different pitches in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.”We have the same pitches because we get the same kind of soil. We’ve tried to bring a curator from abroad; we needed to bring a curator from Australia for the Lahore Test, because the situation had got out of hand. When I want a spinning pitch, we don’t get that either, so it ends up being half and half. We don’t want that.”While Ramiz implied there were structural issues undermining pitch preparation in Pakistan, there had been relatively little controversy about the quality of the surfaces for Test series until Australia’s visit to Rawalpindi in March. The pitch for that match produced 14 wickets in five days, and was awarded a poor rating and docked a demerit point by the ICC.Pindi was recently regarded as Pakistan’s spiciest Test pitch, the one that offered the most assistance to the bowlers. When South Africa visited in January 2021, the Test in Rawalpindi was something of a classic, with all four innings producing scores between 200 and 300, leading to a thrilling climax on day five.Eighteen of South Africa’s 20 wickets fell to Pakistani pace bowlers, an advantage that Ramiz acknowledged Pakistan needed to capitalise on. Even the surface in Karachi at the time produced an absorbing contest, with Pakistan triumphing by seven wickets on the final day.Related

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Ramiz’s repeated talk of overhauling pitches in Pakistan has led to criticism that the PCB chairman is micromanaging their preparation. That speculation isn’t completely unwarranted, either, with Ramiz flying in Toby Lumsden, a former curator at the MCG, to help with the Gaddafi Stadium surface ahead of the third Test against Australia.Ramiz, however, insisted he did not interfere in the preparation of individual Test match pitches. “The board doesn’t direct how pitches are made. I’ve left this to the thinktank. We look at our strengths and then the pitch and then make selections. I try and limit my involvement because otherwise I can’t hold people accountable. For accountability you have to cede control. I aim to create a pitch that ends up defining our tactics so a template is set.”We live in the dark ages of pitches in Pakistan. They aren’t exposed in T20 and 50 overs but they are in Test cricket. We lived in an apartheid situation where teams didn’t come here. Pakistan players had played 70 Tests without playing here. It’s an achievement that we managed to stay afloat. We’ve tried everything, bringing in a curator from abroad. Pitches are the lifeblood of cricket in a country, but having said that, I’ve never seen batting like England’s on Day 1 either.”Pakistan were untroubled in their own first innings, when England were finally dismissed for 657, if not quite as explosive. With little seam movement or variable bounce, Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq eased to an unbeaten 150-run stand. In the Rawalpindi Test against Australia in March, the same pair put on an undefeated 252 for the opening partnership on the fifth day.Ramiz, however, warned there would be little immediate improvement to that situation. “This will improve by next season. Unfortunately we’ll see the same kinds of pitches for the New Zealand series.”

West Indies players will be allowed to train after two Covid-19 tests and three days of isolation in the hotel

Mohammad Isam10-Jan-2021The 38-member West Indies contingent arrived in Dhaka on Sunday morning to become the first international side to arrive in Bangladesh since the Covid-19 outbreak.The pandemic has already had a direct effect on the tour after fast bowler Romario Shepherd, who was part of the tourists’ ODI squad, returned a positive result in Guyana prior to their departure.Keon Harding, the 24-year-old Barbados fast bowler has been named as Shepherd’s replacement, making it nine uncapped players in the 15-man ODI squad. Owing to the pandemic, a number of senior West Indies cricketers have opted out of the tour for both the ODIs and Tests.Those who have arrived on Sunday will undergo Covid-19 tests, after which they will isolate themselves in their hotel rooms for the first three days before being tested again; if they test negative on both tests, they will be allowed to train from the fourth day.West Indies will play a warm-up one-dayer at the BKSP ground in Savar on January 18, some 40km from Dhaka, before the first ODI on January 20.A third round of testing will take place after day seven of the tour and also once before the start of the ODI series. The Bangladesh board will reportedly also provide local net bowlers who will be kept in a “mirror bubble” alongside other service providers and ground staff, in accommodation facilities inside the Shere Bangla National Stadium. Both sides will also be tested upon arrival in Chattogram for the third ODI on January 23, and there will be more testing before and during the Test series, which is scheduled for next month.The BCB’s media committee chairman Jalal Yunus said that they have taken into account every contingency when planning the bio-secure bubble for the tour. He said that the BCB President’s Cup and Bangabandhu T20 Cup in October and November gave them a clear idea about what to expect.”We are really happy to return to international cricket after a long time,” Yunus said. “It is definitely a challenge to host a series during a pandemic. We are very much confident that we can complete this series without any hindrance. We are prepared to handle any form of crisis in both venues. We have gained experience of a bio-bubble having already held two domestic tournaments. Hopefully, it will be a very smooth tour.”They [West Indies] have agreed to be compliant. The agreement includes all the dos and don’ts. We will be strict about the entire tour. The biggest thing is that there will be a number of tests. All the floor attendants at the hotel and catering staff have been tested, and the same applies for any service provider including net bowlers and the board’s photographer.”This upcoming ODI series will be Bangladesh’s first international assignment since Zimbabwe toured the country in February and March last year, when the T20I series had limited entrance with Bangladesh not yet feeling the full force of Covid-19. Since then, Bangladesh have had tours to Ireland, England (for the Ireland ODIs), Sri Lanka and New Zealand postponed, apart from home tours against Australia and New Zealand.

The series will be played from April 27 to May 11 in Colombo

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Mar-2025Sri Lanka will host India and South Africa for a women’s ODI tri-series in April and May, the SLC announced on Thursday. This tri-series was not part of the Future Tours Programme originally.Each team will play the others twice – making it four matches per team – before the top two teams play the final. The series will start with hosts Sri Lanka taking on India. All of them will be day games, played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo from April 27 to May 11.Sri Lanka are currently on a white-ball tour of New Zealand, while most of India’s players are participating in the WPL at home. Some South African players are also at the WPL. Until this tri-series was announced, South Africa’s next international assignment was a tour of the West Indies in June.This tri-series will give the three teams extra prep time in the lead up to the ODI World Cup in October this year in India.Sri Lanka are currently the Asia Cup champions, while South Africa had reached the semi-finals of the last ODI World Cup, in 2022, after knocking India out in the league stages. India are, however, the highest-ranked of the three at third – South Africa are fourth and Sri Lanka seventh – in the ICC ODI rankings.

Sri Lanka women’s tri-series schedule

April 27, Sri Lanka vs India
April 29, India vs South Africa
May 1, Sri Lanka vs South Africa
May 4, Sri Lanka vs India
May 6, South Africa vs India
May 8, Sri Lanka vs South Africa
May 11, final