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India captain Shubman Gill was visibly upset with the ball they were given by the umpires after the second new ball had to be changed in the first hour

Sidharth Monga11-Jul-20255:19

Kumble: There can’t be so many ball changes in a Test

The Dukes balls were at the centre of attention once again as India were unhappy with the replacement ball for the second new ball, incredibly just 10.3 overs into its life on the second morning of the Lord’s Test.The difference in results was stark. Jasprit Bumrah had wreaked havoc with the original ball, taking three wickets in his first 14 deliveries, but India went the rest of the first session without another wicket despite bowling to England’s Nos. 7 and 9. After plenty of remonstrations the ball was changed once again, 48 balls after the first ball change.The second new ball, which went out of shape in just 10.3 overs and didn’t pass through any of the rings on the gauge, had swung 1.869 degrees and seamed 0.579 degrees on average. The replacement ball swung 0.855 degrees an average and seamed 0.594 degrees. More than the data perhaps it was the softness and the age of the ball that irked India.Bumrah said he didn’t want to invite sanctions but also later said he didn’t remember having to ever get the ball changed on his previous two tours of England.Former England fast bowler Stuart Broad, who has been a critic of the balls used in England since 2020, said on the broadcast that the replacement ball looked like it was 18-20 overs old. He also expressed his displeasure on X.”The cricket ball should be like a fine wicketkeeper. Barely noticed,” Broad wrote on X. “We are having to talk about the ball too much because it is such an issue & being changed virtually every innings. Unacceptable. Feels like it’s been five years now. Dukes have a problem. They need to fix it. A ball should last 80 overs. Not 10.”Former England captain Nasser Hussain said there was a “serious issue with the Dukes ball” but felt they were also changed “too often” as players search for the perfect ball.”The first thing is that there’s a serious issue with the Dukes ball,” Hussain said on . “Both captains talked about it before the game. We’ve seen it in this game: in this session, it’s been changed twice. We’ve seen it in the last few years, really, the Dukes ball going out of shape.”The second point at play here is that I think the ball is changed too often. I think we’re getting a bit precious about cricket balls. In the history of the game, the cricket ball gets old, and the cricket ball gets soft. I think we’re getting a bit addicted to having the perfect cricket ball for 80 overs.”The third thing at play is that they got through in that first hour and Bumrah was unplayable … I looked up from my laptop at the back of comms box and went, ‘They’re changing the ball: why would you change the ball that is doing something to a random box of balls?’ You know nothing about that, you know everything about this … I get why they’re getting upset – it did look older, it did look softer — but why change? Why take the gamble? I thought that was a real bizarre thing to do when you’ve got something, especially in this time when the Dukes ball is so all over the place, when you’ve got something, stick to it. They didn’t.”The Dukes ball has been in the eye of a storm since 2020 as it has been going out of shape and soft too soon. The ECB’s decision to introduce Kookaburra balls for four rounds of County Championship matches has also brought the Dukes ball in focus.This series has featured regular complaints from the fielding captain – starting as early as the first session of a Test – and regular ball changes around the 43rd over. During this series, a combination of pitches and the balls has resulted in dramatic results. Wickets have come at an average of 86.09 between overs 31 to 80, the highest average in England since we have maintained ball-by-ball records. It is also marginally the third highest in all Test series we have ball-by-ball-records for, overwhelmingly behind Sri Lanka’s tour of Pakistan in 2008-09 and trailing Zimbabwe’s tour of New Zealand in 2000-01 by just 0.57.

The trophy commemorates the tragic Tangiwai train disaster of 1953 where 151 people, including the fiance of NZ fast bowler Bob Blair, lost their lives

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Feb-2024All New Zealand and South Africa Test series will now be played for the Tangiwai Shield, starting with the two-match Test series that’s set to begin on February 4 in Mount Maunganui. The trophy commemorates the tragic events of 1953, when 151 people on the train from Wellington to Auckland on Christmas eve – including Nerissa Love, the fiancé of New Zealand fast bowler Bob Blair – lost their lives in the country’s worst rail disaster.The tragedy coincided with the second Test between New Zealand and South Africa at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on December 24, which Blair was part of. On the opening day, New Zealand’s seam attack reduced South Africa to 259 for 8. The New Zealand squad spent Christmas at their team hotel, but woke up on Boxing Day to the news of the accident.Blair remained behind at the hotel to grieve. It was announced that he had withdrawn from the match, and flags at the ground were lowered to half-mast.But Blair appeared out of the players’ tunnel after New Zealand lost their ninth wicket for 154 in the first innings, which left the players and the crowd at Ellis Park stunned. Along with Bert Sutcliffe, he put up a 33-run stand to drag New Zealand to 187. It remains one of the most defining moments in New Zealand sporting history.”The background to this Test match is one of the most sad and moving and heart-breaking stories imaginable,” NZC chief executive Scott Weenink said. “It’s also an uplifting story of incredible courage and resilience, and in terms of the South African team and public, great compassion and empathy. I’m delighted to see this very important part of cricket history properly recognised and acknowledged.”The Shield was created by carver David Ngawati (Ngati Hine), is made from the native New Zealand timber puriri, and includes an inlaid mere made from pounamu, a type of stone sourced from the Tangiwai region. An NZC release said that the shield will be blessed and presented to the teams in Tauranga today.CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki said, “On behalf of CSA, I send my best wishes to everyone who was touched by this tragedy, and to both teams contesting the inaugural trophy. It’s important that the teams of today and tomorrow know where they came from, and I’m sure the Tangiwai Shield will do much to assist with that.”

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.”

Opener’s 64 off 35 renders chase a formality despite mid-innings wobble

Matt Roller14-Jun-2021Surrey 167 for 5 (Roy 64) beat Glamorgan 166 for 8 (Labuschagne 74, Moriarty 3-26) by five wicketsBowlers, beware: Jason Roy has got his mojo back. Surrey’s margin of victory at the Kia Oval should have been much bigger than five wickets as they won their third game out of three in the Vitality Blast, but a middle-order wobble obscured the fact Roy had killed the game as a contest inside four overs of the chase; Glamorgan, who once boasted a proud record of six T20 wins in a row at this ground, had Marnus Labuschagne’s third consecutive fifty to thank for sparing their blushes.Roy’s personality does not lend itself to bio-bubbles and “secure team environments” and his form has suffered at times over the last 12 months, with a rare lean patch in ODIs and scratchy form in both the Big Bash and England’s T20I series in India and South Africa. Last week, he started the Blast with an ugly innings of 45 off 42 at Lord’s, swinging rustily and being outscored by a ratio of five-to-two by Will Jacks, then thrashed a cameo of 30 off 14 at Taunton.But here, in front of 4000 or so supporters, he scoffed at Glamorgan’s plan to start with spin against him in the Powerplay, racing to 41 off 18 balls. “I always look for small progressions,” he said afterwards. “Lord’s was very scratchy and I didn’t have that rhythm, hitting a lot of fielders and just getting a bit frustrated. At Taunton I had a bit of fun after a four-and-a-half-hour journey – I thought ‘why not?’ But tonight, it was a lot better.”Roy had dumped the first ball he faced straight back over Prem Sisodiya’s head for four and the second over of the chase demonstrated his dominance over bowlers at this level. Andrew Salter, the offspinner, went full and straight to start with, so Roy cleared his front leg and smeared him over mid-off. Roy realised the second would be shorter, so rocked back and slapped a cut through point with a powerful snap of the wrists. Salter had nowhere to go, and went full again; Roy lined him up, and hammered him straight back over his head.He was quieter against Glamorgan’s seamers, but still brought up a 28-ball half-century off the final ball of the Powerplay. When Labuschagne was introduced, Roy swept his first ball hard for four, and belted his third over midwicket; the only surprise came in Labuschagne’s second over, when he miscued a skier to backward point via a thick top-edge.Marnus Labuschagne made his third consecutive fifty•Getty Images

“Someone has to get you out at some stage, don’t they?” Roy said of Glamorgan’s ploy to bowl spin at him up front, which has become a consistent plan against England in T20Is. “Sometimes it happens to be a left-arm spinner. A leggie got me out tonight eventually, didn’t they? So I’m sure someone will have something to write about. As a player, it gives you something to work on, which is always nice.”Roy’s innings took the equation from 167 off 120 balls to 79 off 71 by the time he was dismissed, effectively sealing the game despite their minor stumble. Sam Curran and Jamie Overton fell in successive overs after Roy’s dismissal before Laurie Evans drilled Sisodiya straight to long-off, but Jamie Smith’s cool-headed 35 not out saw them across the line with 10 balls to spare.Roy will play two more games for Surrey, at home against Sussex and Hampshire on Thursday and Friday, before he links up with England on Saturday ahead of their white-ball summer, which comprises six ODIs and six T20Is, three each against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.”You always go back to square one, no matter how many runs you’ve scored,” he said. “Before every series you go back to the drawing board and get yourself back to basics and go from there – you certainly don’t want to think that you’re going to score runs every game, because unfortunately that’s not the way the game works. But it’s obviously very nice to have these runs behind me – it makes it a lot easier.”[Last year] was a huge experience and a massive learning curve. I’ve come through the other side a lot better for it. It was a very tough year on and off the field so it was about keeping my head down and making sure I stay consistent with my training and back myself, knowing that eventually it would come right. Am I in a good headspace now? Absolutely.”For Glamorgan, Labuschagne had been the glue holding the innings together for the third game in a row after Nick Selman’s leg-side pick-ups had got them to 55 for 1 inside six overs. Surrey exploited match-ups to their advantage, with Gareth Batty and Dan Moriarty encouraging batters to hit towards the long boundary and Glamorgan duly obliging.Labuschagne had stated his desire to use the Blast as a chance to pitch his case for inclusion in Australia’s T20 World Cup squad at the start of the season and his early efforts have been persuasive: 93 not out, 59 and 74 tonight, giving him 226 runs for twice out at a strike rate of 146.75 and four cheap wickets to boot.One of his biggest assets in T20 is his willingness to use his position on the crease to throw bowlers off their line, and his ability to adjust. There was no better demonstration than the fifth ball of the 17th over, when he jumped outside leg stump to encourage Tom Curran to bowl wide outside off, despite having point and third man up inside the ring. Curran landed a perfect wide yorker, but Labuschagne stretched out and deflected it away through the gap, like a centre-forward in hockey deflecting the ball in at the back post.He had started slowly, eking out 17 off the first 22 balls he faced with Curran putting down a caught-and-bowled chance, but once Labuschagne had adjusted to the slowness of the pitch he was away, hitting 57 off the next 29. His slow start was put into perspective by Roy’s fireworks, but with Surrey applying the squeeze, there had been no other option.

A number of big-name sponsors are leaving their CA deals but the board sees it as a time to try a new approach

Daniel Brettig26-Feb-2020Domain, the naming-rights partner for Test cricket, is not the only brand to be exiting Cricket Australia’s suite of sponsors. Mastercard and Specsavers are also on their way out, with Bupa to scale down its commitment and so lose its naming rights sponsorship of the national cricket centre in Brisbane and place on the shirts of Australian team support staff.If this sounds like a worrying exodus for the game, it is nothing next to the climate in which CA’s last broadcast rights deal was signed, a matter of weeks after the Newlands scandal. Having been front and centre of that negotiation, CA executive Stephanie Beltrame is now concocting a plan to recast the governing body’s portfolio of partners in order to grow it.Cricket is hardly doing badly: in terms of revenue raised from corporate backers it sits third in Australia behind tennis and the AFL. However, the dwarfing of all other sports revenue by the cash derived from broadcast rights means that the wider commercial realm is due a rethink, and cricket is getting its own from the very person who played a large part in growing that broadcast revenue.As CA’s head of broadcast rights, Beltrame worked assiduously towards the creation of competition in the market for a 2013 deal that included the Big Bash League for the first time and was worth some A$500 million. The next step was bigger, bolder and more lucrative still, the 2018 agreement with Fox and Seven reaping A$1.18 billion for CA. Having returned from maternity leave, Beltrame is now the executive in charge of all commercial concerns, and wants the wider picture to follow the broadcast trend.”I prefer the term partnership than sponsorship because there’s so much more to it than a one way investment,” Beltrame told ESPNcricinfo. “I also want us to be able to form partnerships in other commercial areas, diversify our revenue and seek new opportunities so that we will be able to grow in the same way that we’ve seen growth across our media rights revenue. I have high expectations.”From time to time we’ll have a partner advise us that they’re exiting despite having what they regard as quite a successful result, but we just have to respect that decision. Every partner you want to be treated in the same way when you arrive as when you leave, and exactly the same way an employee should have that – so we don’t have any issues when partners go. We’d prefer they stay obviously, but you’ve got to respect the decision.”Among CA’s other current sponsors, KFC, Toyota and Sanitarium have deals that run until 2021, and its commercial betting partner Bet365’s much-debated contract expires the following year. Of Bet365, Beltrame said: “Ultimately because we still have a number of years left in the agreement, no decision has been taken about our association, whether that’s to status quo, to change, so I think they’re all considerations, but at this point in time we’re still in a current agreement.”Chief among Beltrame’s questions is to investigate, alongside the state associations, whether there is more to be wrung from the BBL, a far bigger proposition than it was at its inception in 2011. The league’s current list of four partners may yet grow.”If we believe a different model is required for BBL then we might look at changing the number of partners that can be associated with it,” Beltrame said. “And then some consideration of how do you grow the pie but still provide meaningful protection and exclusivity to brands. How the BBL fits in with international cricket, how brands can opt to be involved across Australian cricket or be involved in international only or BBL only.”Where the AFL has been able to successfully build sponsorships over a long period of time through its breadth of clubs, matches, length of season and connection to the passions stirred in club members and followers, tennis’ fulcrum is the Australian Open, a truly international event that sets the eyes of the world on Melbourne Park for two highly lucrative weeks. With its strong hold on the summer months, and the extra overseas eyeballs presented by its standing as a far more global game than AFL but somewhat less so than tennis, cricket should sit somewhere in between.”The mix of how [our revenue] made up is very different, we don’t have many partners, we’ve been quite exclusive for a long period of time,” Beltrame said. “I think there’s opportunities where we can create different partnerships at different levels. We can really take advantage of our national and international footprint. India’s touring here, what else can we do, how can we sell directly to India? There’s things we can do because of our remit as a national and international sport.”Some things, of course, are beyond anyone’s control, like the extreme weather that blighted this summer’s BBL almost as much as all previous events combined, or a slackening Australian economy after more than 25 years of growth. Whatever lies ahead, Beltrame wants CA to be able to adapt: “It just really starts from my perspective from reviewing what we’re currently doing – looking under the hood.”

With the return to fitness of Vernon Philander, South Africa have to work out how best to balance their attack for the second Test

Liam Brickhill in Cape Town02-Jan-2019They are 1-0 up but, ahead of the second Test at Newlands, South Africa have quite a conundrum to figure out: how to fit three world-class seamers into their attack along with the in-form Duanne Olivier. Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander are all undroppable, but there are only so many spaces going.Philander’s record makes his the first name on the teamsheet at Newlands, while Olivier’s wrecking-ball act at Centurion was so convincing that Faf du Plessis confirmed the day before the Test that he would definitely play. Unless South Africa opt for a four-pronged pace attack, someone will have to sit out and, on current form, it could be Steyn.Steyn ascended to the top of South Africa’s Test wicket-taking list on the first morning at Centurion, but he was taken apart by Babar Azam in a later spell and picked up only three wickets during the game. In patches, he didn’t quite hit his usual straps, and South Africa will want him as fresh as possible for the World Cup – admittedly still five months away.”We’re still talking about what we need to do,” du Plessis said on the eve of the second Test. “Historically, Newlands is a ground where it spins a bit. So it’s just about finding that balance. For us, it’s always tricky trying to find out what that is. There’s a few combinations: whether it’s the extra seamer, whether it’s a spinner or whether it’s playing a batsman less, it is something we speak about quite regularly.ALSO READ: Du Plessis says IPL a concern for bowlers’ workloads“I just like the fact that there’s a bit of variety in our attack. [Olivier] is a fit guy, he can bowl long spells, and you like to have that in your armoury. Then you’ve got the skill of Vernon, Dale, KG – not that they don’t have pace, but he’s just different. He runs at you, he’s around your head most of the time, and that’s not comfortable for anyone.”South Africa seem a little uncertain at how the pitch will play, which doesn’t help them solve their conundrum. Newlands curator Evan Flint said the excessive bounce that was a factor at Centurion will not be seen here, but there will be pace on offer. On days four and five there will be turn, which could benefit spinners on both sides.”We’ve been talking about the pitch already,” Rabada said. “It looks a little dull in a way, in that it might just be five days here. We were joking with Evan about it. But you never know with cricket pitches. Who knows what will happen. It still looks a good wicket. Newlands is always a good wicket, and whenever I’ve come here there’s always been a fair contest between bat and ball.”Du Plessis added: “It looks pretty similar to what we’ve seen here before. A little bit of grass, but also some patches there. If there’s wind, it does possibly play into the role of a spinner. We may possibly wait and see tomorrow what it looks like when we get to the ground.”Had Lungi Ngidi been fit, the conundrum would be even more complex. So plentiful are South Africa’s pace options that Dane Paterson, who has taken 30 wickets in five first-class matches this season, hasn’t really been part of the conversation despite coming in to the squad as injury cover before the first Test.Behind him, Anrich Nortje also started the domestic season with a bang, topping Warriors’ bowling table with 24 wickets at 21.04, and impressed so quickly in three Mzansi Super League outings that he picked up an IPL deal with Kolkata Knight Riders despite being sidelined with an ankle injury. The MSL also unearthed some other gems, and seamer Lutho Sipamla – who needs four more wickets to reach 50 first-class scalps well before his 21st birthday – could also find himself in the reckoning in the near future.”I don’t like to get involved in team selection and all that, it’s not my place, but yeah, it’s a bit of a headache now, with people talking about whether Vern’s going to come back and Duanne’s going to sit out,” Rabada said. “But it’s a good headache to have." He also said “there have been talks” of possibly going in to the match with four seamers and looking to end the game before spin becomes too much of a factor.The quality of South Africa’s options is not in question, but getting the combination right is key. “For us, it’s more about balance than anything else,” du Plessis said. “It’s not about playing a spinner or anything else, it’s what we feel is our most balanced team.”

Left-arm fast bowler Abu Hider starred with the ball, bagging a three-for, as the visitors were skittled out for only 103 runs

The Report by Mohammad Isam24-Oct-2017
ScorecardAssociated Press

Bangladesh A took a 2-0 lead against Ireland A after their eight-wicket win in the third unofficial ODI in Cox’s Bazar. Left-arm fast bowler Abu Hider starred with the ball, bagging a three-for, as the visitors were skittled out only for 103 runs. The home side won with 27 overs to spare.Andy Balbirnie’s decision to bat first backfired for the entire Ireland A batting line-up, barring himself. His 90-ball 52 amounted to more than half of the team total and featured three fours and a six. Having come in at No. 3, he added 48 runs for the seventh wicket with Shane Getkate, whose 23 was the only other double-digit score by an Ireland batsman other than Balbirnie’s.After Balbirnie fell to legspinner Tanbir Hayder in the 33rd over, Ireland added one more run at the expense of the last three wickets.Hider took out three of the top five batsmen – Stuart Poynter, Sean Terry and Simi Singh – while Sunzamul Islam and Hayder bagged two each. Subashis Roy, Abul Hasan and Al Amin also took one wicket apiece.Both openers got starts but failed to sustain their innings. Anamul Haque, playing his first match of the series, fell for 20, while Shadman could only amass 24. Captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto subsequently took Bangladesh A home with an unbeaten 41 off 38 balls.The fourth and fifth ODIs are scheduled to be held on October 25 and 26 in Cox’s Bazar.

The left-arm spinner George Dockrell has been recalled to Ireland’s squads for the tour of South Africa and the ICC Intercontinental Cup match against Hong Kong

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Aug-2016The left-arm spinner George Dockrell has been recalled to Ireland’s squads for the tour of South Africa and the ICC Intercontinental Cup match against Hong Kong.For the four-day match, Dockrell replaces Stuart Poynter while for the ODIs against South Africa and Australia in Benoni he is added to the squad that was on duty for the Pakistan series in Dublin. Ireland were humbled by 255 runs in the first ODI, being bowled out for 82, while the second was washed out.”While this week’s performance was disappointing, we feel this group of players deserve another opportunity,” Alan Lewis, the head of selectors, said. “These games will certain provide us with a stern challenge but I’m certain the squad will respond positively.”

Ireland squads

v Hong Kong, Intercontinental Cup
William Porterfield (capt) , John Anderson, Peter Chase, George Dockrell , Ed Joyce, Tim Murtagh, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Paul Stirling, Gary Wilson, Craig Young
ODI squad, South Africa tour
William Porterfield (capt), John Anderson, Peter Chase, George Dockrell, Ed Joyce, Tim Murtagh, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Stuart Poynter, Paul Stirling, Gary Wilson, Craig Young

In the Intercontinental Cup, Ireland currently sit second in the table, one point behind Afghanistan, while Hong Kong sit in fourth. The two sides meet in Belfast from August 30.Dockrell, who was released by Somerset at the end of 2015 English season, has been in and out of Ireland’s squads this year but has been brought back with an eye on taking advantage of wearing wickets towards the end of the summer.”We’ve opted for an extra spinner in George who has produced some of his best cricket over the past six years in this competition,” Lewis said. “Also we felt that the pitches in late August/early September are likely to offer assistance to the slow bowlers as the game progresses.”With the InterContinental Cup game against Hong Kong it gave the selectors an opportunity to continue to focus on the formula that has brought success so far in the competition”It’s a format which we have excelled in over the years, winning it four times. We’ve named what we feel is a well-balanced squad which will give William Porterfield plenty of options as we seek out another victory.”Boyd Rankin had previously been ruled out of both squads after suffering a stress fracture.

Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s ODI captain, was pleased with the manner in which his team bounced back with a seven-wicket win over South Africa in the second ODI in Mirpur, levelling the three-match series with one game still to be played

Mohammad Isam13-Jul-2015Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s ODI captain, was pleased with the manner in which his team bounced back with a seven-wicket win over South Africa in the second ODI in Mirpur, levelling the three-match series with one game still to be played. Bangladesh had lost the T20 series against South Africa 2-0 and went down by eight wickets in the first ODI. The win on Sunday was their first since the second ODI against India last month.Bangladesh had felt the weight of expectations ahead of the game and Mashrafe had little time to re-gather his troops, with the team’s training session delayed following a meeting with the BCB president Nazmul Hasan on Saturday. The Bangladesh captain was happy that the team had responded to his call to think about the process of winning rather than focus only on winning.”The chemistry of the team is quite normal,” Mashrafe said. “I wanted to see how the team reacts in a bad situation. They didn’t take it well and that is how a good team responds. I thank my team-mates. We didn’t get more than a day’s training but they were mentally strong. It looked good from outside and also when we were out fielding.”He also lauded the batsmen for paying heed to the discussions about their individual roles, particularly after they failed to put up a fight in recent matches. Soumya Sarkar was one of the batsmen who fell after getting starts. On Sunday, he battled hard before flourishing to make a match-winning 88 not out. Rubel Hossain and Mahmudullah, both making comebacks into the team, had important contributions.”We were thinking too much about winning. I wanted everyone to understand that you can win after playing out 600 balls in a match,” Mashrafe said. “Thankfully we got a good start in the game. From the moment Rubel took Hashim Amla’s wicket, we were fully in the game. I had some concern about our batting but we discussed a lot, which was more important than training. We talked about how we will start our innings, finish it and make it longer. It was good that Soumya finished the game. Riyad [Mahmudullah] was playing only his second game after returning from a finger injury which is never easy for any batsman.”Mashrafe also made a significant difference with his belief in the team and his tactics. He ensured that none of the South Africa batsmen were given time to settle against one type of bowler, and he took a calculated risk of finishing Shakib Al Hasan’s ten overs early while still ensuring the likes of Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel were given the ball, when the side was looking for wickets.”Bowling changes depend on the situation. I wanted to do a lot of things today. I finished Shakib’s over quite early, which was a bit risky,” he said. “But I was looking for a couple of wickets from him. I brought back Mustafizur at one point and he got me a wicket. Rubel and Riyad also bowled at stages when I needed wickets and they got us the breakthroughs. I always use my instinct as a captain.”I always feel that a batsman is not set until he takes a single comfortably. Hitting two consecutive boundaries doesn’t make him set. I want our bowlers to believe in this too. I don’t want to give away a single easily. But if you don’t bowl well, it is hard to control such things. It was easy today but I always want a batsman to not get set at the crease by taking singles.”

A round-up of Zimbabwe Domestic Twenty20 matches played on December 13, 2012

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Dec-2012
ScorecardAn unbeaten half-century by Vusi Sibanda led Mid West Rhinos to a comfortable 10-wicket win against Southern Rocks at the Kwekwe Sports Club. Sibanda’s 70 came off 44 balls and included seven boundaries and three sixes and helped his team finish the chase in the 14th over. The other opener, Jaik Mickleburgh, remained unbeaten on 47 and the win gave the team five crucial points to take them to the third position in the points table.Southern Rocks, who chose to bat, got off to a sluggish start even though opener Ben
Slater (42) kept things stable on one end till the 16th over. They scored at under
six runs per over initially but some late hitting by Tendai Chisoro and Prince
Masvaure took their score to 122.
ScorecardFifties from both the openers and a four-wicket spell from Tinotenda Mutombodzi set
up a 53-run victory for Mashonaland Eagles over Mountaineers at the Harare Sports
Club.Being put in to bat, Eagles were given a swift start by openers Sikandar Raza and
Chamu Chibhabha with a 94-run stand in 11.3 overs. The team got to 150 for 3 at the
end of 16 overs, but they lost six wickets for 16 runs to end up with 180 on the
board.Mountaineers lost opener Hamilton Masakadza in the second over but the other opener,
Mark Pettini, went on to score 49. However, he didn’t receive much support at the
other end as only two other batsmen reached double figures. The lower-order
collapsed with last seven wickets going down for 28 runs. Mutombodzi did most of the
damage and was supported well by Kyle Jarvis and Ray Price, who picked a couple of
wickets each.