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This will be the only international match – men’s or women’s – played in South Africa this summer to not have DRS

Firdose Moonda14-Dec-2024There will be no DRS for the one-off Test between South Africa and England in Bloemfontein, the first women’s Test in South Africa in 22 years. The match will be the only one out of the 21 internationals played by both men and women in South Africa this home summer without DRS.This was the first season where DRS – a technology that costs millions of dollars – was used for women’s bilateral internationals in South Africa. CSA said it has opted to prioritise DRS in white-ball women’s internationals for now.”The inclusion of the DRS for the ongoing inbound tour against England was agreed upon at the planning stage of the tour, noting that it will be the first time it was used for women’s bilateral tours in South Africa in recent history,” Enoch Nkwe, South Africa’s director of national teams and high performance, said in response to a query about the absence of DRS for the Test.”The white-ball formats were prioritised with regards to DRS for this tour as it directly impacted the Proteas Women’s rankings in T20I cricket and the Women’s Championship as well as the overall CSA strategy for the senior women’s national team.”While the development of the red-ball format is important, it is worth noting that resources are currently being directed at the white-ball formats due to the significance of ODI and T20I cricket in the current women’s international cricket landscape.”South Africa had already qualified for the ODI World Cup before the series against England but aimed to finish as high on the Women’s Championship points table. In the ICC rankings, they are currently ranked fourth in ODIs and fifth in T20Is. There was one instance during the ongoing England tour when DRS malfunctioned. In the third over of South Africa’s chase in the first ODI in Kimberley, Tazmin Brits was pinged on the pad by Lauren Bell and was given out lbw. She wanted to review the decision but could not because the technology was down.ESPNcricinfo understands that, in a home summer where India men’s T20I series was the only profit-making visit, the expense of using the technology was deemed too much for this match. This, despite CSA announcing a profit of US$45.6 million from the last financial year and benefiting from two successive years of India visits.The Test match will be produced on a budget with only seven manned cameras (some matches are broadcast with as many as 30) and two run-out cameras on one side of the field (as opposed to the usual four, two on each side). That means that if there is a fielder in the way of a run-out decision on one side, the TV umpire may not be able to make a decision.The two on-field umpires for the match – Kerrin Klaaste and Lauren Agenbag – will be officiating a Test for the first time.DRS has become the norm in international cricket but there are still matches played without it. At this year’s men’s ODI World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe, DRS was only in place from the Super Six stage. There was no DRS at this year’s women’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers in the UAE, or in the recently completed Ireland Women’s tour of Bangladesh.

“I want to play all the formats and succeed in all the formats… if I want to do that, then this is the challenge I have to go through,” Shubman Gill says about being an all-format player and leader

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Oct-20253:13

Gill outlines the challenges of being an all-format player

Test captain, T20I vice-captain, and now ODI captain as well. Shubman Gill isn’t just one of a vanishing breed of all-format international players but also one holding leadership roles in each of them. He is aware of the toll this can take on him, especially mentally, but he is prepared to take on that challenge in order to achieve his own goals in all three formats.”Physically, most of the time, I feel fine, but sometimes, yes, there is mental fatigue, because when you are constantly playing, there is obviously a certain expectation that I have from myself, and to be able to keep up with my own expectations sometimes becomes the challenge,” Gill said on the eve of the second Test against West Indies in Delhi, in his first press conference since being appointed India’s ODI captain.”But I think that’s the challenge, to be able to play all the formats for India, and I want to play all the formats and succeed in all the formats for the country, and win ICC titles. So, if I want to do that, then this is the challenge I have to go through.”Related

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Gill replaced Rohit Sharma as ODI captain, and will captain two former full-time captains in Rohit and Virat Kohli when India play three ODIs in Australia later this month. With both Rohit and Kohli in their mid-30s and retired from both the other formats, a certain amount of doubt surrounds their future as ODI players with the next World Cup in that format two years away.”Absolutely,” Gill said, when asked if he saw Rohit and Kohli playing an important role in ODIs leading into that World Cup. “The experience the two of them have [is immense], and there are very few players who can match the number of matches they have won for India.”There are very few players in the world with such skill and quality along with that experience, and we look at it from that perspective.”Gill becoming ODI captain capped a five-month period over which he has become the face of Indian cricket, with his appointment as Test captain in May followed by a Test tour of England in which he scored 754 runs – the second-most by any India batter in a bilateral series – at an average of 75.40. While Gill acknowledged how “exciting” these months had been, he said he wanted to put past achievements behind him and keep looking ahead.”[The ODI captaincy] is obviously is a big responsibility and an even bigger honour, so I’m very excited to lead my country in that format, and yes, the last few months have been very exciting for me, but I’m really looking forward to what the future has,” he said. “I want to stay [in the] present as [much as] possible and don’t really want to look back on what I’ve been able to achieve or what we, as a team, have been able to achieve. Just want to look forward and win everything that we have in the upcoming months.””The challenge is to stay on top for five days in a Test match, and that is more difficult than captaining in a T20 game”•Associated Press

When asked what qualities he had inherited, or would like to inherit from his predecessor Rohit, Gill picked two. “So many qualities that I have inherited from Rohit – the calmness that he possesses, and the kind of friendship that he has among the group is something that I aspire to, these are the qualities that I want to take from him.Asked to compare the task of leading teams in red- and white-ball cricket, Gill felt Test cricket presents captains the stiffest challenge. He was perhaps reflecting on missed opportunities in his first series in charge, in England, where India drew 2-2 when they could have potentially won the five-Test series had they not let momentum slip away from them in a handful of sessions.”I feel in Test matches, the better team [in that match] does come on top at the end of the day because you’ve got more chances and more opportunities to make a comeback,” Gill said. “Whereas in T20, if you have three-four overs of bad period, there might be a case that you are completely taken away from the game. So, it is different in that sense.”When you are playing a Test match, whenever a team wins a Test match, for that particular match, that team deserves to win the Test match because they played better cricket not for two-three hours or not for one day, but consistently over a period of three, four or five days.”So the challenge is to stay on top for five days in a Test match, and that is more difficult than captaining in a T20 game. Whereas, in a T20 game, you get off to a really good start and then you maintain that, then you are sort of able to be on top of the game for the entirety of the game, but in a Test match, you can be on top for two days, but if you don’t turn up on day three, the other team can make a comeback.”0:49

Chopra: ‘Sai Sudharsan needs runs or the pressure will mount’

Gill on Sai Sudharsan: ‘We think he’s the man for us’

Leading into the Delhi Test, there has been a lot of media scrutiny on B Sai Sudharsan, Gill’s opening partner at Gujarat Titans in the IPL, who is under a certain amount of external pressure with an average in the early 20s across his first four Tests, and with a number of other middle-order batters knocking on the door. Gill suggested Sai Sudharsan’s numbers were a little misleading, and said he continues to enjoy the full backing of the team management.”I don’t really think he’s had a lean run,” Gill said. “He got one innings in the first match [in Ahmedabad]. At The Oval, he played a crucial innings of 40 runs [38] on that wicket where the ball was seaming. The match before that, he scored a fifty [61] in Manchester. Not every match everyone is going to score a hundred.”You have to give young players more opportunities. They are still trying to figure out their game. And we believe that you have to first see someone’s potential and then see their game in the entirety, not just judge someone from one, two, three, four matches. Once you have given someone enough matches – six, seven, eight matches – then you can sit back and have a think over it, where he needs to learn, or if he needs to play some more domestic matches or play some more India A games.”But as of now, we think he’s the man for us and he’s someone that can play for India at No. 3 for a very long time.”

The Netherlands batter backs the side to move forward and learn from the defeat against Sri Lanka ‘as quickly as possible’

Shashank Kishore21-Oct-20237:49

Maharoof: The new-ball spell of Madushanka and Rajitha set up the win

If this was the Netherlands of 2007, or perhaps even 2011, Sybrand Engelbrecht may have soaked in the satisfaction of notching up an important personal milestone – a maiden ODI half-century – in a World Cup fixture. But the class of 2023 thinks differently.Three nights after stunning South Africa in a sensational defence in Dharamsala, Netherlands appeared to have gone cold early on against Sri Lanka in Lucknow. Feet weren’t moving, wickets kept tumbling, the scoreboard appeared stalled and there was a sense of hopelessness to proceedings at 91 for 6. Teams of the past may have unravelled. This Netherlands team didn’t.Related

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Engelbrecht and Logan van Beek hit sprightly half-centuries in a 130-run stand that brought them back into the game and gave their bowlers a score to defend. It wasn’t to be, though, despite the best efforts of their spinners who had combined figures of 4 for 125 off 28.1 overs in a defence of 263; Aryan Dutt was particularly impressive with his offspin that brought him 3 for 44.”I must admit it’s still a bitter pill to swallow,” Engelbrecht said after Netherlands’ six-wicket loss to Sri Lanka in which he made 79. “Getting 260-odd after that start we thought it was a very competitive score. Maybe the pitch got a little bit better, but I thought they controlled the innings really well. And we just didn’t quite pitch up today with the ball, unfortunately. So, yeah, not the ideal result for us, but we’ll move forward and we’ll try and be better and learn from this as quickly as possible.”Engelbrecht was particularly effusive in his praise for van Beek, who struck his maiden half-century (59) on Saturday. His enterprise during their partnership helped take the pressure off Engelbrecht, who was the more industrious of the two.”I think a lot of credit needs to go to Logan, I thought he batted brilliantly, and we just tried take it as deep as possible,” he said. “We just told ourselves, if we can get to the last ten overs with six down, we’re giving ourselves a good chance.”So, for us, it really wasn’t necessarily about trying to accumulate runs. It was just about making sure that we got into positive positions and pick up the runs when we could. But to try and lay a bit of a foundation for us to start scoring a little bit more freely to the back end, which we managed to do. So, happy with the partnership.”Would they have taken 262 after all that?”At the halfway stage we thought we had a decent score,” Engelbrecht said. “I don’t think we would have taken it necessarily. I think, you know, the pitch definitely got better as the day went on, but I mean, I spoke to Max [O’Dowd] about it as well, and there was still consistently something in the pitch if we bowled the right areas. And I just thought we didn’t string enough good balls together for long enough to put the Sri Lanka team under pressure.”In recent times, Sri Lanka have been a bit of a bogey team for the Netherlands. Twice at the World Cup Qualifiers in June, they fell short, including in the final. In both games, Netherlands were more than in with a shout at the halfway mark but collapsed at the first sign of spin. Which is why their revival on Saturday feels like a vindication of the work they’ve put in behind the scenes, including a long pre-World Cup camp in Bengaluru to acclimatise to different surfaces and conditions.Sybrand Engelbrecht brought up his first ODI half-century•AFP/Getty Images

“We were very confident in the growth that we’ve shown as a team over the last 6-12 months,” Engelbrecht said. “We’re a better team now than we were when we played them at the Qualifier and we thought that if we stick to our processes, if we implement our plans and execute well for long enough, we stood a really good chance. And I think there were periods in the game that you could definitely see that. So, credit goes to them. They played well. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t string it together for long enough.”At a personal level, Engelbrecht has had to grapple with challenges, like several others in the team, of working a day job and balancing cricket on the sidelines. In the highest level of club cricket back in Netherlands, Engelbrecht has been a heavy scorer for Voorburg Cricket Club, who he helped steer to three straight finals.Engelbrecht said he hadn’t made too many adjustments to his game coming into the World Cup. It’s understandable too, considering he didn’t think he even stood a chance of playing in the tournament and only came into the system after the Qualifiers in June-July.”I haven’t made a lot of adjustments,” he said. “I’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible. I think when you do make the step up from club cricket in the Netherlands, you could maybe sometimes think, ‘oh wow, I need to do so much more, you know, things differently.'”But the reality is, in our changing room we’ve got really good cricketers and we just need to back ourselves and our processes and stick to our plans. So, nothing really changed, it’s just trying to be as clear as possible and to watch the ball as closely as possible. So, I’m happy that it came off for me personally today, but as I said, we’ve got really, really good cricketers in our changing room and it will show as we go along.”

He hopes Bangladesh’s upcoming tour to Pakistan “gives everyone something to cheer about” back home

Mohammad Isam08-Aug-2024Bangladesh’s political and social upheaval has touched its cricketers in several ways. Wicketkeeper-batter Nurul Hasan was directly involved in the protests, even at times chased by the police in Dhaka. Others like Akbar Ali and Kamrul Islam Rabbi have openly supported the students right from the early days of the protests. Anamul Haque, the Bangladesh batter, suffered a more direct loss. His close friend Akram died in the student protest in Dhaka on July 25.Anamul, who will lead Bangladesh A in two four-day games against Pakistan A in Islamabad, spoke to reporters at the Shere Bangla National Stadium ahead of the team’s departure on Friday. He explained how traumatising it was to lose contact with his family during the protests, particularly after his friend died.”I think you have heard that a friend, who was like a brother to me, died in the protests,” Anamul said. “We were very close. I get emotional when I think about him. I wish this tragedy and trauma doesn’t happen to anyone. I was in Chattogram, so I couldn’t reach my family in Dhaka. Everyone was touched by this tragedy in some capacity.”Related

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Like most others in Dhaka, Anamul also spent sleepless nights after the fall of the Awami League government, as uncertainty and disorder gripped the capital. “I was up from 2am to 5am. I was taking care of my child,” he said. “I went down to see what was going on. I saw many people in the streets, guarding their property. I don’t know what these people want. We don’t want to live like this. We want to live in peace. Everyone deserves their fundamental rights. I think we all work honestly.”He also praised the students for handling Dhaka’s traffic in the absence of the police force, which has gone missing for at least three days. “The students are doing extraordinary work in trying to control the traffic. They are maintaining discipline. This is the country that we have always wanted,” he said.Anti-government protestors display Bangladesh’s national flag after storming prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s residence•AFP/Getty Images

Anamul was diplomatic when asked about the silence from Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza, two of Bangladesh’s biggest icons and Awami League MPs, regarding the protests. One could sense his unease in talking about such a sensitive topic.”I think it is up to the individual, whether they want to talk about it or give a Facebook status. I had a traumatic time. I was concerned about my family, and the family of my friend who died. I spent my time thinking about him,” Anamul said. “I couldn’t meet my family, I couldn’t visit his family. I wrote about him on social media. Someone else probably thought differently. I think they can tell you better. They did what was best for them.”Anamul hopes Bangladesh A’s tour of Pakistan gives the players good preparation ahead of the senior team’s Test series, which gets underway later in the month. He also hopes the cricketers can bring positive news to Bangladesh’s fans in a trying time for many of them.”Cricket is a place of emotion. It unites us,” he said. “This tour will really help us, especially the Test tour that follows in Pakistan. There will be batting-friendly conditions there generally. It gives chance to both sides. We are playing Tests after a long time too. I think we could give everyone something to cheer about.”Bangladesh A will play two four-day and three one-day games against Pakistan A in Islamabad. The senior side will then play a two-Test series which begins on August 21 in Rawalpindi.

Archie Vaughan and Kesh Fonseka add important runs as spinners loom as key fourth-innings weapon

ECB Reporters Network28-Jan-2025
Thomas Rew’s run-a-ball 71 helped England Men U19s to take a 255-run lead into the final day of the first Youth Test against South Africa Men U19s in Stellenbosch.Leg-spinner Chad Mason claimed four for 97 – his 26 overs more than double than any of his team-mates – as the Young Lions reached the close at 275 for eight.Captain Archie Vaughan (44) and Kesh Fonseka (43) made key contributions at the top of the order while Jack Home was unbeaten on 34 and primarily tasked with extending his side’s lead in the morning.South Africa added a handy 50 runs for the final two wickets this morning to be bowled out for 319 and a lead of 20 runs.

Farhan Ahmed finished with innings-best figures of four for 78 and his spin partnership with Tazeem Ali and Vaughan looms as important on the final day.Mason was the mainstay of the home attack today and after he made the initial breakthrough of Ben Dawkins (33), well caught by Muhammad Bulbulia at first slip, he also got the key wicket of Rew who had counter-attacked to reach his half-century from 54 balls.