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Bangladesh Under-19s batsman Nazmul Hossain Shanto said his unbeaten 113 against Scotland Under-19s was special and stated that he had planned to rely more on singles than boundaries on a slow track in Cox’s Bazar

Mohammad Isam in Cox's Bazar31-Jan-2016Bangladesh Under-19s batsman Nazmul Hossain Shanto said his unbeaten 113 against Scotland Under-19s was special and stated that he had planned to rely more on singles than boundaries on a slow track in Cox’s Bazar. Shanto’s hundred took Bangladesh to 256 for 6 and they dismissed Scotland for 142 to make it to the quarter-final stage.”This is a special day,” Shanto said. “We have made it through to the second round. I got a century and the team won. There was a bit of pressure because we lost two early wickets. The pitch wasn’t great, the ball not coming on to the bat. I just wanted to rotate the strike.”Coming in to bat in the eighth over with the score at 17 for 2, Shanto scored a boundary through cover in his first ten deliveries but then held back his shots. His next boundary came after seven overs and he hit three more fours on his way to 50 off 71 ballsHis next fifty, however, came off only as 40 balls as he reached his second Youth ODI century off 111 balls, with a whipped four of Scotland’s best bowler Mohammad Ghaffar, in the 48th over. Shanto was pleased that he could finish the innings, something he said he has struggled with previously. The knock also helped him surpass Pakistan’s Sami Aslam as the batsman with most runs in Youth ODIs. Shanto’s tally in Youth ODIs is at 1747, with two centuries in the format.”It is fun to bat in these situations which don’t come every day,” he said. “I tried to take my team to a better position. I haven’t been able to finish the innings in the past. But today I could, and that was a good sign. It will help me in the future.”Bangladesh will play their last league game against Namibia Under-19s on February 2.

Preview of the fourth match of the Champions Trophy, between New Zealand and Sri Lanka

The Preview by Abhishek Purohit08-Jun-2013

Match facts

Sunday, June 9, Cardiff
Start time 9.30am GMTTime is running out for Sri Lanka’s greats to script a happy ending at a world tournament•Getty Images

Big Picture

New Zealand are the David Ferrer of cricket. They are the good, friendly triers. They try to make up for lesser talent compared to the big boys with honest effort. Of course, plain honest effort does not get you the big titles. But more often than not, it gets you towards the closing stages of the big tournaments: the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the extremely occasional final. Once there, they are widely expected to make way for the Nadals or the Australias. Both have no qualms about that; they know reaching where they do using what they posses, in relation to what the big boys have, is no mean achievement.On Sunday, Ferrer, at age 31, will play his maiden Grand Slam final in Paris in a career that has seen about ten Slam campaigns fail at the quarter-final and semi-final hurdles. Across the Channel, New Zealand – admittedly with slightly more experience of making big-tournament finals, courtesy the Champions Trophy – will begin their campaign in the tournament that has given them their lone ICC trophy till date.Very rarely do you not count a New Zealand side as one of the underdogs, but a team that has beaten South Africa and England on their home soils in one-day series recently has to be treated with some respect. The Champions Trophy might just be to New Zealand’s liking. The crunched format means they don’t have to sustain their run of form for too long.And unlike in Ferrer’s case, their opponent on Sunday will not be that impenetrable returning wall that goes by the name of Rafael Nadal. It is a side whose lot might be compared with that of Andy Murray before he finally, to Britain’s relief, won a Grand Slam.All the quality of Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lasith Malinga has not been able to deliver a world title for Sri Lanka in over a decade. More than being told by the outside world that they have it in them, they know they are too good a side to have finished on the wrong end of four successive final appearances in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012. In the last one, at the World Twenty20 final at home, they had West Indies 32 for 2 after ten overs and still blew it. Age was on Murray’s side; it is not on the side of these four Sri Lankan greats. On Sunday, they will begin one of their last attempts to not go down in history as one of the best collections of men to not have won a world title.

Form guide

New Zealand: LWWLL (completed games, most recent first)
Sri Lanka: LWWLL

Watch out for…

Two new balls? Helpful conditions for the fast bowlers? MS Dhoni defeated South Africa primarily through the stranglehold of his spinners in the opening match of the tournament in Cardiff. New Zealand could possibly face the combination of Sachithra Senanayake, Jeevan Mendis and Dilshan at the same ground. Tackling the lone English spinner in the one-dayers was one thing; even Suresh Raina bowled as many as six overs in Cardiff a couple of days ago. How the New Zealand batsmen go against the Sri Lanka spinners will be crucial to the outcome.There may not have been too much swing in Cardiff when India played South Africa, but there was lots of bounce, and a couple of India batsmen copped blows to their helmets. While New Zealand may not have someone with extreme pace, they would have had a look at how South Africa overdid the short ball against India, and will come with a better strategy against another side from the subcontinent. How well will the Sri Lanka batsmen deal with the bounce?

Team news

New Zealand are still sweating on the fitness of Daniel Vettori and to add to that, Grant Elliott has a calf injury. Brendon McCullum said he was waiting on both before finalising the team on the morning of the game.New Zealand (possible) 1 Luke Ronchi (wk), 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Grant Eliott/Colin Munro, 6 Brendon McCullum (capt), 7 James Franklin, 8 Daniel Vettori/Nathan McCullum, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Mitchell McClenaghanSri Lanka have not spent much time together as a squad after the IPL, compared to New Zealand who have been in England for over a month. But they do not seem to have as many injury worries, last-minute flare-ups notwithstanding.Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Kusal Perera, 3 Mahela Jayawardene, 4 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 5 Dinesh Chandimal, 6 Angelo Mathews (capt), 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Jeevan Mendis/Dilhara Lokuhettige, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Sachithra Senanayake, 11 Lasith Malinga

Pitch and conditions

When AB de Villiers won the toss against India, the skies were heavy enough to make it a straightforward decision to bowl on a cold morning. Soon after India started their innings, the sun came out and Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma prospered. There was little swing, some seam, and bounce was the only testing thing to handle for the batsmen.Cardiff had terrific, clear weather on the eve of the match, and more of it is expected on Sunday, with a high of 21 degrees.

Stats

• The last ODI Daniel Vettori played was the 2011 World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka in Colombo. The last international match he played, in September 2012, was also in Sri Lanka, during the World Twenty20
• Sri Lanka and New Zealand have met three times in the Champions Trophy. Sri Lanka won in 1998 and 2006, New Zealand in 2009
• Seven of the eight completed ODIs at Cardiff have been won by the chasing side. Only India have won batting first

Quotes

“I don’t know what it is that makes us do well in big tournaments. We give ourselves every chance and we seem to be thereabouts semi-final or finals stage. Whether it’s the nature of being able to bounce between different opposition and making sure that we’re well prepared, I’m not sure.”
“To me Lasith hasn’t put on that much weight. He’s very professional the way he goes about things and he knows exactly what to do and how to do it. He’s our premier bowler and he tries to give the maximum each time he walks into the middle.”

ESPNcricinfo previews Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2012

Nagraj Gollapudi03-Apr-2012Big picture
Kings XI Punjab have never believed in big names. In fact, they have just one millionaire on their roaster in Australian David Hussey ($1.4m). Their most expensive buy at this year’s player auction was former Pakistan allrounder Azhar Mahmood for $200,000. Their most popular face is the 40-year old Adam Gilchrist.Punjab’s maxim has been: we do not need the names, but we can still win. Last year they proved that theory correct when an unknown Paul Valthaty, who was clinging to the edges of domestic cricket before the tournament, catapulted himself into the front pages of newspapers and television screens with his batting exploits.But Punjab, the 2008 semi-finalists (which remains their best showing so far), is the only team from the original bunch of eight, which has failed to evolve. Ownership issues disrupted their development in the first three years of IPL. But last year, the franchise, after having successfully staved off a threat from the BCCI to remove it from the IPL, decided to put fresh plans in place. The biggest positive was the appointment of Gilchrist as the leader. He led Punjab to a fifth place finish last season, an improved showing over the 2010 season when they had ended at the bottom of the pile with only four wins.This year, Gilchrist has been appointed the coach-cum-captain. Two more Australians – Joe Dawes, who is the Indian bowling coach and former Australian fielding consultant Mike Young, have been hired as Gilchrist’s assistants.The franchise has also strengthened its domestic vaults. Ramesh Powar, who played for Punjab in first three seasons, is back to play the role of lead offspinner while the medium pace pair of Harmeet Singh and Parvinder Awana have been roped in to add more teeth to the fast bowling line-up.Like nervous teenagers, Punjab have always struggled to find their feet early in the tournament. In 2010, Punjab’s scored only one win in their first eight matches, which came in a tied game after a one-over eliminator. Last year, they started with a defeat, won three matches on a trot but followed it with five defeats in a row.Key players
Adam Gilchrist: Gilchrist is one of the two 40-year-old players* in the tournament. A hardworker, a good man-manager who leads by example, Gilchrist has been rightly appointed by Punjab as the coach-cum-captain. Last year, he inspired the likes of Valthaty to aspire for greater heights and helped Punjab finish at the middle of the points table. Needless to say, Gilchrist will push on the accelerator once again.David Hussey: The younger of the Hussey brothers did turn heads last season but for the wrong reasons. He managed only 64 runs in eight matches, leaving Punjab fans and critic’s wondering if he was worth the $1.4 million price tag. But Hussey is a pedigree player: he is the highest scorer in Twenty20 cricket (4270 runs) and also topped the batting charts for the Melbourne Stars in the inaugural season of the Big Bash League earlier this year. A brilliant fielder, who can keep a tight line with his offbreaks, Hussey’s biggest suit is his experience, making him a dangerous proposition. Shaun Marsh: Marsh has been Punjab’s most consistent and dependable batsman. By ending fourth on the IPL run charts last year, Marsh proved that his heroics in the inaugural edition of the tournament, where he finished as the highest scorer, was no fluke. Even though Marsh is yet to find a firm foothold in the Australian Test side, in the IPL he manages to slip into the zone easily and gives Punjab the right platform to build and chase totals.Big names in
Azhar Mahmood: Do not get deceived by his age: Mahmood, the only Pakistan player in IPL, is 37, but he is still the sturdy allrounder he was for Pakistan when he made his debut at 21. Mahmood, who now lives in England, was the player of the season for Kent in the County Championships. But Mahmood’s best has come in Twenty20 cricket. He finished as Kent’s highest scorer in the domestic Twenty20 competition with a century. With his experience, Mahmood can easily provide solidity to Punjab’s middle order and play the leading allrounder’s role in the absence of the injured Stuart Broad.Joe Dawes: Dawes, who was recently appointed as India’s bowling coach, replaced fellow Australian and former quick Jason Gillespie, who moved to Yorkshire as head coach. Dawes will take this opportunity as a good learning experience to understand Indian players, conditions and culture. In exchange, his coaching experience with Queensland is bound to come handy for the youngsters at Punjab.Big names out
Dinesh Karthik: Punjab sold him to Mumbai Indians for an undisclosed but substantial sum, reportedly good enough to offset the money spent on Hussey and Gilchrist.Below the radar
Piyush Chawla Chawla was Punjab’s joint highest wicket-taker last season and plays important role with his attacking legbreaks and a decent googly at any point in an innings. His bowling and his ability to play influential cameos with the bat, makes Chawla an important player for Punjab and a good man to help Gilchrist with his local knowledge.Abhishek Nayar Nayar has been one of the most attractive allrounders on the domestic circuit but frequent injuries have slowed his progress. This year, Nayar played with renewed vigour, showing maturity and patience during Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy campaign. He will be one of the regulars in the playing eleven and will look to make an impression, with an eye on the allrounder’s spot in the Indian team for World Twenty20 competition later this year. Availability :
Stuart Broad: The England allrounder underwent a scan for the calf-strain he suffered during the first Test of the Sri Lanka series and is reportedly expected to be fit in two weeks’ time.Ryan Harris: Punjab’s best fast bowler last season, Harris is currently on national duty with Australia in the Caribbean, participating in the Test series against West Indies. He will join the team from April 29.2011 in a tweet: Late starters, recovered to make headlines with their unexpected resilience, but lost the momentum again towards the end.April 13, 08:15 GMT: The article earlier mentioned that Adam Gilchrist was the only 40-year old in IPL. This has been corrected.

MS Dhoni said that Indian cricket was in its current position because of the 1983 World Cup win and the emergence of Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid

Sharda Ugra in Mumbai03-Apr-2011Before he led India to a World Cup victory, MS Dhoni’s earliest identity as a cricketer had been attached to the Twenty20 format. It was India’s victory in the World Twenty20 under Dhoni that was one of the factors that led to the speedy launch of the Indian Premier League. Dhoni then led his team, the Chennai Super Kings, to a double last year, winning the IPL and the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa.Yet, more than once during this World Cup, Dhoni has demonstrated that he is conscious of the course taken by Indian cricket in the last three decades and where Saturday’s victory now stands.At the media conference following India’s six-wicket victory, Dhoni was asked by an English reporter to explain what the World Cup victory actually meant to Indians who, Dhoni was told, did not enjoy much success in other world-level sport. Yuvraj Singh, the World Cup’s Player of the Tournament sitting next to Dhoni, raised his eyebrow, and his captain took the opportunity to say that India had been growing as a nation that supports sport, citing the examples from shooting, badminton, hockey and football.But cricket, Dhoni said, “was special” to Indians because of the change that the 1983 victory achieved for Indian cricket. “People started loving the sport and you then saw two individuals making their debut, Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar.” He then said that the successful careers of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, which began in 1996, marked the next step. “This was the chain of players because of whom we are in this position right now. We earn a lot of money, we get a lot respect and what we are trying to do is to pass it onto the next generation.”Three of the players mentioned by Dhoni were at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday night; Tendulkar a part of Dhoni’s team, Kumble in the audience and new commentator-columnist Ganguly, who stood at the boundary on the far side of dressing room from where he watched the Indian team go past on its lap of honour with Tendulkar sitting on Yusuf Pathan’s shoulders. Ganguly, who led India to the final of the 2003 World Cup and who still responds to India’s performance as if he were a part of the team, was beaming. “What a win,” he said, “what a performance.”Dhoni was asked to compare his two biggest victories as India captain and said, that while every format was “special” in its own way, “I have always loved the ODI format. Because I always think you see a lot of variety in one-day cricket.” The final he said had been the best example. “In this game, we lost a couple of early wickets and then you have two batsmen struggling to get runs.” He said that the one-day game showed “a glimpse” of what may not be Test cricket but was a shortened version of its demands.”Two batsmen looking for survival and looking to get runs at the same time. At the end you saw a slog, from Yuvraj and me. And at the end of it,” Dhoni said, “you see a result.” It is a summary that would please the ICC enormously which, after the unfortunate 2007 event in the Caribbean, has needed a successful World Cup to prove to its community that the three formats of the sport could survive. Between that World Cup and this one, there has been a mushrooming of the Twenty20 leagues, and was seen as a threat to the 50-over format. Now with the captain of the 2011 World Cup winners, and the biggest audience and market in the sport, enthusiastically endorsing the format, the ICC has further proof of what it has always maintained: that the 50-over game can play a few more innings.

The volcanic ash cloud which continues to close UK and much of European airspace is threatening to have a major impact on the World Twenty20

Andrew McGlashan17-Apr-2010The volcanic ash cloud which continues to close UK and much of European airspace is threatening to have a major impact on the World Twenty20 in West Indies because London is a transit point for many teams through to the Caribbean.Ireland and Zimbabwe are already located in the region, but Afghanistan’s journey has been disrupted and the longer the restrictions are in place the greater the chance of chaos to the travel plans of the other competing nations.Robert Bryan, the tournament director, said he still expected Afghanistan to arrive in the next few days despite the disruption. “We expect that Afghanistan will arrive here, notwithstanding the volcano dust in Europe, over this weekend.”England could be the most severely impacted side. An ECB spokesman told Cricinfo they are monitoring the situation and will make a decision in a few days time as to the arrangements for the team – who are due to leave next weekend – although there seem precious few alternatives with the nearby European airports such as Paris and Frankfurt also closed. The other issue is that a number of players are currently in India at the IPL and won’t be able to return to the UK until the airspace is reopened.India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh are teams who will be likely to travel through London to West Indies next week, but the latest reports suggest the skies won’t clear for at least a couple more days. One option for them could be to fly via the Middle East and then the United States so that they skirt the problem areas in Europe.Australia and New Zealand will probably be able to avoid the problems by flying via the United States if the issue persists, while South Africa may also be able to use the US or fly direct to the Caribbean.The advance team from ICC were forced to change their travel plans to West Indies this weekend, while ICC President David Morgan and ECB chairman Giles Clarke will take part in the board meeting via video conference having been unable to travel to Dubai from London.Tino Best, who has signed as an overseas player with Yorkshire, could have his debut delayed as he is unable to fly from the Caribbean to England. UK airspace is closed until at least 0100BST (0000GMT) on Monday.

Victoria looked well-placed to push for victory but not for the first time of late they let a strong position slip

Alex Malcolm09-Mar-2025An inspirational unbeaten century from Jake Lehmann in combination with a career-best 83 from Liam Scott secured South Australia their first home Sheffield Shield final since 2016 after they chased down 300 with four wickets to spare to defeat Victoria at the Junction Oval.Lehmann and Scott shared a match-defining 148-run stand to break the back of the chase having come together at 108 for 4. Henry Hunt also made a valuable early contribution of 66 and shared a 54-run stand with Lehmann. The trio withstood some brilliant spells from Scott Boland who took two late wickets to threaten to steal the game but ultimately Victoria could not sustain enough pressure with the ball.Related

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South Australia are now guaranteed a home final while Victoria can still made the decider if they beat Western Australia next week and other results go their way despite losing four matches in a row.Lehmann described his 12th first-class century as one of the best of his career after also going past 5000 first-class runs.”I feel like anytime you get a hundred and it’s in a winning team, and fourth innings is probably the hardest time to make hundreds these days, so yes, definitely up there,” Lehmann told ESPNcricinfo post match. “But it’s just probably on the vibe of the boys and the way we’ve played our cricket, and the belief in the team that we were always going to be able to chase them if we got into that last couple hours of the day.”South Australia coach Ryan Harris was full of praise for both Lehmann and Scott after the match. He was particularly proud of Scott’s efforts after backing up his 4 for 49 on day three with the ball with a match-winning 83.”I think his niche is probably No. 6 in this current set-up,” Harris told ESPNcricinfo. “And his overs, my communication with him is he’s probably a holder and now he’s a wicket-taker. And he’s done that because of having game time and learning his role and progressing as a player and as a person, learning the game. That only comes with game time and he’s done it beautifully. So he’s a huge player now.”Victoria coach Chris Rogers was left to lament how his side had lost a fourth game in a row after they had a lead of 163 with eight wickets in hand midway through day three and also had South Australia four down with 192 runs to defend on the final day.”We’re just missing something a little bit at the moment,” Rogers told ESPNcricinfo. “I just said to the group there were moments in this game where I think if we’d been able to get the upper hand we would have won this game against the side that’s on top of the table.”We feel like all the games we’re right in the contest, but then we just can’t get over the line. And that probably is the biggest frustration, and we’ve got to keep asking ourselves those questions, why aren’t we winning those moments?”The game was poised on a knife’s edge in the morning session when South Australia slumped to 54 for 3. Fergus O’Neill struck twice in three balls, pinning South Australia captain Nathan McSweeney lbw with a brilliant delivery that nipped in off the seam before taking the outside edge of Jason Sangha two balls later with one that straightened the other way.Lehmann and Hunt steadied with a 54-run stand but it was full of nervy moments. Hunt passed 50 but could have been out twice to Todd Murphy in one over, scoring a boundary off the outside edge while an offbreak beat his inside edge and went over the stumps past keeper Sam Harper for four byes.Lehmann also nearly fell to Murphy with Harper unable to hold a challenging catch down the leg side. Lehmann gave another life when he sliced a thick edge low to Xavier Crone’s left in the gully off O’Neill.Victoria still appeared firmly in the game when Hunt holed out to deep square for 66 off Sam Elliott. But Lehmann and Scott thoroughly dominated the middle session as Victoria fell flat.Boland bowled a very loose spell by his standards post lunch. He dropped short on several occasions and conceded four boundaries in three overs. Murphy gave up two at the other end as Lehmann and Scott set the tone for what was about to follow.The pair scored 104 runs from 30 overs in the middle session and scarcely looked troubled. Scott stood tall and drove powerfully through the off side against both spin and pace.Lehmann rotated the strike superbly without taking any undue risks and sweated on anything short and wide. Victoria spread the field to try and slow the scoring rate before the second new ball was due. But in the last 15 overs of the session Scott and Lehmann picked off 51 runs, including 16 off two overs of part-time spin from Campbell Kellaway and Harry Dixon.The trend looked set to continue against the second new ball as Scott raced past his previous highest first-class score while Boland struggled to get his line right in his first two overs after tea.But his international class shone through to force a late twist in the game. With 44 to win, Scott edged Boland to slip to give the hosts life. He then extracted another edge from Harry Nielsen shortly after to leave South Australia still needing 42 with just four wickets in hand. But Lehmann and Ben Manenti held their nerve.Lehmann survived another chance on 80 when he smashed Murphy straight to short cover but Kellaway could not hold the hot offer. Thereafter he latched on anything fractionally short to guide his side home, reaching his century and winning the game with three consecutive boundaries.

Shakib joins a line-up that also has Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Jason Roy and Spencer Johnson, among others

ESPNcricinfo staff17-May-2024Shakib Al Hasan has been signed by Los Angeles Knight Riders (LAKR) for the upcoming (second) season of Major League Cricket (MLC), the American franchise-run T20 league.”Shakib, of course, has a long-standing relationship with the Knight Riders family, having represented KKR in various phases – including our two championship [winning] seasons in 2012 and 2014,” a statement from the Knight Riders group said. “We can’t wait to see him turn up in Purple and Gold for LA Knight Riders this July.”LAKR, owned by the group that owns Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL and Trinbago Knight Riders men and women in the CPL as well as Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the ILT20 in the UAE, finished last in the inaugural season of the MLC in 2023.Related

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From that squad, they have retained Sunil Narine, the star of KKR’s table-topping run in the league stage of the ongoing IPL 2024, Andre Russell, Jason Roy, Spencer Johnson, Unmukt Chand, Ali Khan, Saif Badar, Nitish Kumar and Shadley van Schalkwyk, and drafted in local players Derone Davis, Matthew Tromp, Cirne Dry and Adithya Ganesh for the upcoming season.The MLC player draft was held on March 21 this year, and an additional draft will be held on June 16 for the six teams to complete their squads.The second edition of the tournament will start on July 5 with a fixture between MI New York and Seattle Orcas, the winners and runners-up of the inaugural edition. The final will be played on July 29.

The start date for the second edition of the UAE-based T20 league was announced less than a week after Gulf Giants were named inaugural champions

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Feb-2023The second season of the International League T20 (ILT20) will begin on January 13, 2024.The UAE-based T20 league announced the starting date for the second edition on Saturday, less than a week after Gulf Giants were crowned inaugural champions in Dubai.”Following the huge success of the DP World ILT20 2023, work has begun on Season 2 which is set to commence from Saturday, 13 January 2024,” an ILT20 statement read. “Season 2 will be played on the same 34-match format with four playoffs including the final. The tournament schedule will be announced in due course.”The early announcement of the date is unusual by itself for a T20 league circuit where launch dates and fixture lists are revealed closer to the time the league starts. It also means that there will likely be the same schedule crunch with the SA20, the Big Bash League and most likely the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) as there was this year.The ILT20 was one of two new men’s franchise leagues added to the calendar this season, along with the SA20. With a crossover of team owners in both leagues – and the IPL – there was plenty of jostling for players and calendar space this year, with the likes of England’s Moeen Ali entering into agreements with both leagues.Eventually, both leagues played out concurrently almost to the day, a scenario likely to be replicated next season: though SA20’s dates have not been announced yet, it will begin after the New Year’s Test so a clash is almost inevitable. There had been talk in the run-up to the ILT20 this year that they may work with other boards to minimise clashes – including the prospect of staging the ILT20 before January.Ultimately, Moeen became a prime illustration of both the schedule crunch and ever-growing opportunities for players, turning out for Sharjah Warriors at the ILT20 around international duty in South Africa, before heading to Bangladesh for a couple of BPL games. The BBL had significant overlap with these leagues, and the Pakistan Super League began immediately after.

The Victoria pace bowler has a fine record at the MCG and has been in superb form this season

Andrew McGlashan24-Dec-2021Victoria pace bowler Scott Boland has been handed a surprise debut in the Boxing Day Test against England with Australia taking a cautious approach over a minor leg injury to Jhye Richardson.Boland, 32, becomes the fourth Indigenous Test cricketer after Faith Thomas, Jason Gillespie and Ashleigh Gardner. He is one of two changes with Pat Cummins returning in place of Michael Neser.”It’s huge,” Cummins said. “Australia, we have a rich history and it’s great that it’s starting to be reflected.”Boland, who previously played 14 ODIs and three T20Is in 2016, has been selected as something of a home-ground specialist having taken 96 wickets at 25.56 in 27 first-class games at the MCG. This season in the Sheffield Shield he has taken 15 wickets at 10.80 which propelled him into the Australia A squad ahead of the Ashes, before he was hastily flown into Adelaide last week after Cummins’ Covid close contact drama.Related

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“The first thing you’ve got to wrap your head around playing at the MCG is you’ll have to bowl a lot of overs more often than not and he does that really well,” Cummins said. “The Shield game they won against New South Wales, think he bowled 50 overs.”His pace stays up, he’s always at you, bowls really well to left handers. Asks a lot of questions around that fourth stump, knee roll, a bit of nibble each way. He’s just really well suited here.””We earmarked him as a chance for SCG and here, we feel he’s really well suited. His record speaks for itself here in domestic cricket.”He gets his chance after Richardson pulled up sore after his efforts in Adelaide, where he took a maiden five-wicket haul in the second innings, with Cummins saying there was “small” leg injury which they did not want to risk.”He’s pretty sore,” Cummins said. “We thought seven days off, give him enough rest…so rather than risking him give him a week off.”Boland’s debut is a further sign of the depth of Australia’s fast-bowling stocks and means that six will now have been used across the first three Ashes Tests. Last summer Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc played unchanged against India while in the previous season the now-retired James Pattinson came in for two Tests.”The biggest factor has been the fitness of the bowlers,” Cummins said. “The fact that Joshy, Starcy and I haven’t missed many games in the last few years has probably been the biggest factor in us not rotating through quick bowlers. Inevitable in a five-Test series that things were going to pop up. It’s probably been a few years in the making where we have six or seven and need to use them.”Scott Boland will be the latest quick used by Australia•Getty Images

Reflecting on his own absence from the second Test after being deemed a close contact for having dined in an Adelaide restaurant next to a positive case, Cummins admitted his frustration at the situation but added that watching from afar gave him a difference perspective.”I said to JL [Justin Langer], I’m really angry but don’t know who at. There was no one to blame. When I left the restaurant I thought, that’s fine, I didn’t get near him and I’ll test negative. Then it became the state rules and you’ve got to follow them.”When I knew I wasn’t playing I thought this would be a good chance to sit back and enjoy it as a fan then after about an hour I was quite angry, wishing I was back out there. It was interesting to listen to some of the commentary, see what the rest of Australia is seeing outside of our little bubble.”

Babar Azam holds on to top spot, Mohammad Hafeez makes big gains, Dawid Malan re-enters top five

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Sep-2020England opener Tom Banton and Pakistan middle-order veteran Mohammad Hafeez have both made big gains in the ICC rankings for T20I batsmen at the end of the three-match series that ended 1-1, while Babar Azam, Pakistan’s captain in the format, held on to the top spot, opening up a 45-point lead over second-placed KL Rahul.

Shaheryar Butt moves up 351 spots

In the Luxembourg T20I tri-series that pitted Belgium and Czech Republic against the home side, Shaheryar Butt hit 236 runs in four outings, including a best of 125 not out in 50 balls against Czech Republic, to help his side register an all-win record. That helped him jump 351 spots in the batsmen’s rankings to No. 105. On the same day he scored the century, he also hit 81 not out against Luxembourg.
Belgium’s run of four wins also lifted them from 63rd to 47th in the team rankings, while Czech Republic and Luxembourg, who won one match apiece, slipped to No. 61 (from 54) and No. 63 (from 58) respectively.

Banton, who is headed to UAE to link up with his Kolkata Knight Riders team-mates for the IPL, hit 137 runs in the series, including 71 in 42 balls in the washed-out opening game, to move up a remarkable 152 spots on the ladder to reach the 43rd position.The other England batsman to impress, Dawid Malan, who hit 23 and 54 not out in the first two games, also got back in the top five after briefly reaching a career-high 804 rating points when he hit the half-century in the England win.Azam hit a 44-ball 56 from the top of the order in Pakistan’s defeat in the second game to consolidate his position at the top, with Rahul, Australia’s Aaron Finch and New Zealand’s Colin Munro between him and Malan.Hafeez, however, was the standout batsman of the series, and his 36-ball 69 in the second game and a match-winning 86 not out off 52 balls in the final encounter helped him move up 24 spots to No. 44, just behind Banton.Of the bowlers in action in the three games at Manchester’s Old Trafford, Pakistan legspinner Shadab Khan was the most successful with five strikes, including a best of 3 for 34, and that helped him stay in the top ten, at No. 8. England paceman Tom Curran and Pakistan quick Shaheen Shah Afridi (both with two wickets) moved up to the joint 20th spot.