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In high-scoring Sharjah, the biggest hitters from both sides might bat further up than usual

Sreshth Shah02-Oct-20208:35

Are KKR under-utilising Kuldeep Yadav?

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With two wins and one comprehensive defeat each, the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Delhi Capitals have begun their IPL 2020 campaigns well enough to be among the top few teams. With every result causing big changes to the points table, though, only victories can ensure they remain in the top half of the table.Both teams have earned their two victories primarily on the back of their bowling. Pat Cummins and Kagiso Rabada have hit their straps for the Knight Riders and the Capitals respectively, and both teams have bowling line-ups that more or less cancel each other out: for the Capitals’ Anrich Nortje, there’s the Knight Riders’ Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti. Among the spinners, the combination of Axar Patel and Amit Mishra for the Capitals have made run-scoring as difficult as the Knight Riders pair of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy haveSo, the way these teams will likely be separated is by who bats smarter. They are playing in Sharjah – where all four innings so far have crossed 200 – and both have their share of hard-hitters. Batting spots, therefore, could play an important role.The cardinal sin at Sharjah would be if teams can’t maximise their batting resources across 20 overs, and therefore it will be an interesting sub-plot to see if teams use their biggest hitters further up the order than usual. Even No. 4, where Rishabh Pant bats, and Shimron Hetmyer at No. 5 could be wasted that low at Sharjah for the Capitals, and in what order Narine, Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan and Dinesh Karthik bat could seal the deal for the Knight Riders.This season, ten of the first 13 games have been won by teams batting first, but in Sharjah that stat is split down the middle with one win each for the batting and chasing side. It’s also the first time both teams would be playing at this venue. Although the Capitals lost their last game – compared to the Knight Riders, who are seeking their third straight win – Shreyas Iyer’s team enters the contest knowing they have won their last three meetings against Dinesh Karthik’s men.

In the news

On the eve of the match, Capitals’ bowling coach Ryan Harris confirmed that R Ashwin had had a full session at the nets and could be up for selection after recovering from a shoulder injury, sustained in their tournament opener. The final word on Ashwin’s availability, however, remains with the medical team. The Knight Riders are injury-free.Has the experiment of opening with Sunil Narine run its course?•BCCI

Likely XIs

Delhi Capitals: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Anrich Nortje, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Amit MishraKolkata Knight Riders: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Dinesh Karthik (capt, wk), 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Pat Cummins, 8 Kamlesh Nagarkoti, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Shivam Mavi, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Strategy punts

• In Sharjah, batsmen are going to try to send even the best bowlers for plenty. Therefore, attacking up front may be the best ploy for the later overs. Teams should try to take as many wickets early and not save their best resources for the death. That means Rabada, for example, who almost always bowls two overs at the top, could be given a third over in the powerplay.
• If the first punt is successful, though, then the Capitals should hold back at least one over from Rabada because Russell has struggled against ultra-fast bowlers, especially if they can execute the yorkers and short balls. Russell would remember that Rabada had floored him before dismissing him in the Super Over in 2019, and teams also know that Russell struggles against particular deliveries. Russell has an average of 22 against the short ball, including six dismissals in his last 28 innings, while his strike rate is just 62.16 against the yorker. However, whoever bowls to him must also be accurate because if the yorker ends up as a full toss, he hits those deliveries at a strike rate of 225.92.
• The Knight Riders may not want to open with Narine, because dot-balls can hurt teams in Sharjah more than elsewhere. Sides have slowly begun to understand that the short ball, on a leg stump line, is the way to keep Narine quiet, and off the 26 deliveries he has faced in IPL 2020, 17 (including leg-byes and dismissals) have been dot balls. It’s a dangerously high number.
• The Knight Riders may opt to leave out left-arm wristspinner Yadav. He has been the least successful of their three spinners, and the Capitals have four left-handers in their top seven, which poses a poor match-up for Yadav. They could play an extra batsman since, currently, their No. 7 is Cummins. There’s no real difference in economies for spinners (10.6) and pacers (11.0) in Sharjah this season, and therefore, more depth in their batting might allow their top order to bat more freely. If they do want some spin overs, Nitish Rana can bowl handy offbreaks, although they may not want to use him at all, since pacers have taken 14 wickets at an average of 39.1 in Sharjah this season, compared to spinners taking six wickets at 52.0.

Stats that matter

• When Narine has taken at least one wicket against the Delhi franchise, the Knight Riders have won 80% of their matches. And among the Capitals’ top seven that played their last game, no batsman has a particularly high strike rate in T20s against him. The strike rates of Dhawan (102), Iyer (100), Stoinis (86), Patel (73) and Hetmyer (64) are especially poor, while no one has topped 129.
• Since IPL 2018, of all his IPL opponents, Russell has scored the most runs (192) and has the second-highest strike rate (211) against the Delhi franchise. In all T20s since 2019, Russell also has the best ball-per-six ratio (6.1) and has struck the most sixes (142) too.
• The Capitals have a win percentage of 87.5% when Shaw scores 25 or more runs for them. The Capitals’ average score boosts up to 184 when he gets at least 25 runs. Compare that to a win percentage of 45% and an average score of 155 when he doesn’t get 25.
• If they play, it will be Mishra’s 150th IPL game and Rana’s 50th in the IPL and 100th overall in T20s. Cummins needs one wicket to 100 T20 strikes.

Former England captain makes 72, his highest first-class score at venue

Paul Edwards18-May-2023 Nottinghamshire 13 for 0 trail Essex 298 (Cook 72, Westley 66, Hutton 4-69) by 285 runsTrent Bridge has been sent more love-letters than Marilyn Monroe ever received and today this perfect old ground received a few more, not all of them from the cricketers. At first, though, one came from Alastair Cook, whose overtures were as gracious as one might expect; his 72 was studded with the strokes he has often played at Nottingham when wearing England colours. Later in the day the blandishments of Stuart Broad and Brett Hutton were brusquer, the pair sharing seven wickets, four with the second new ball, as Essex were dismissed for 298, two runs short of a second bonus point. And this rich day finally ended with a straight-driven boundary from Haseeb Hameed.But perhaps it was bound to be Trent Bridge that offered us comfort after the bum-numbing, brain-buggered tedium of Lancashire’s draw with Somerset at Emirates Old Trafford on Sunday. We had three sessions packed tight with fine things at Nottingham and although some of these may seem extraneous to the cricket, the folk in the Radcliffe Road Stand know it isn’t so.For example, the scorecards are actually made of card rather than the reinforced lavatory paper that some counties currently deem sufficient. And the teams printed thereon are a close approximation to the elevens that take the field rather than a press officer’s postmodernist entry for the Booker Prize. This morning they told us that Calvin Harrison would be making his first-class debut for Nottinghamshire and that Ben Duckett was absent from the home side. We later discovered that having made 401 runs in nine innings since April 6, Duckett had been withdrawn by the ECB, presumably to avoid him collapsing with chronic fatigue.Such an appalling fate has not yet befallen Broad and almost the first entry the conscientious spectators could make on their crisp cards today was to record the dismissal of Nick Brown, leg before wicket for 11 when half forward in the fifth over. Sadly, Broad claimed his victim without appealing to umpire O’Shaughnessy for his judgement, a practice that never fails to look graceless and which will no doubt inspire hundreds of imitations in junior cricket across the country.But such things could not mar our morning. Cook, who only faced six balls in his old mucker’s five-over opening spell, appears to be batting with greater freedom in his latter days and he milked three off-side fours off Hutton and Dane Paterson in the first hour. At the other end, Westley, watchful as a cat in a rat-alley, picked up ones and twos for 70 balls before he straight drove Broad to the pavilion boundary three overs before lunch.The pair continued in a similar vein on the resumption. The day was balmy and windless and it appeared we were set for a batting afternoon with Cook enlisting his formidable powers of patience and concentration to help Essex build something formidable. Ben Slater dropped Westley at long leg off Dane Paterson when the Essex skipper was on 40 and we thought the home side could not afford such laxity. It turned out they could.Six overs later, Cook tried to drive a wideish ball from the same bowler and Harrison marked his debut with a good two handed-catch to his left. Then just as Westley was beginning to dominate Steven Mullaney’s attack, he bottom-edged an attempted pull off Paterson and splayed his stumps much as a drunken driver scatters bollards. Sharp as ever to sense an opening, Nottinghamshire’s bowlers took two more wickets in the next half hour although they had help from their opponents. Dan Lawrence came down the wicket to Hutton and then feathered his drive to Joe Clarke behind the stumps. It was a funky “england23” shot and uncharitable spectators might have observed that Lawrence would have done better to think what Essex needed today rather than what Ben Stokes might want in three weeks’ time. Either way, it was a shabby effort. Two overs later, Matt Critchley meekly followed a ball from Hutton and Essex repaired to the pavilion on 205 for 5.The paradox was that Essex’s fresh batsmen needed the 20-minute break rather more than Nottinghamshire’s tired bowlers. On the resumption, most of the home attack overpitched and both Adam Rossington and Simon Harmer gave such deliveries serious rumpo. The pair had biffed ten fours in their 75-run stand for the seventh wicket when Broad took the new ball and arrowed one into the pads of Harmer who walked without waiting to be told he should. We had thus had a day on which neither bowler nor batsman had required an umpire’s decision. Maybe O’Shaughnessy should apply for an unemployment benefit of some sort.Harmer’s dismissal marked the day’s final shift. Essex lost their last five wickets for 28 runs in less than ten overs, a conclusion to the day’s cricket that most of those at Trent Bridge welcomed warmly. They know this is the best Test venue at which to watch county cricket and Nottingham’s position in the hierarchy is questioned only by the deep-dyed at other venues.This might produce a perverse determination on the part of some neutrals to resist its charms but such a resolve would be useless. One sight of the old pavilion or the uniform white-painted seats and we become soft clay in the hands of those who entered into the inheritance of this place and built it with love. It was really no coincidence that we noticed O’Shaughnessy and Tom Lungley walking round the boundary just before the toss this morning. They might have been beating the bounds of a medieval parish.

Century stand between Ollie Price and Ben Charlesworth proves decisive before Jack Taylor secures win with unbeaten 50

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay17-Aug-2025Gloucestershire 240 for 4 (Price 66, Taylor 50*, Charlesworth 50) beat Worcestershire 237 for 8 (Kashif 36, Cullen 35, Ahmed 2-21) by six wicketsGloucestershire maintained their 100 percent record in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup with a powerful six-wicket derby victory over Worcestershire at Visit Worcestershire New Road.Jack Taylor’s side ended their opponents’ unbeaten record after restricting them to 237 for 8 with an excellent display with the ball. Josh Shaw set the tone with an opening spell of 6-3-6-0 on his way to 10-3-27-1 as six Rapids batters reached 25 but none made it to 40.As the pitch eased for batting, Gloucestershire advanced comfortably to 240 for 4 with 43 balls to spare. The only century stand of the match, from Oliver Price (66) and Ben Charlesworth (50), proved decisive before skipper Taylor saw his side to victory with an unbeaten 50 off 36 balls, posting his half-century with the winning runs.Gloucestershire chose to bowl and did so impressively with the new ball, led by Shaw’s superb opening spell. On a pitch assisting the seamers, Worcestershire weathered the new ball unscathed but then lost three wickets for 18 runs in 22 balls as they sought to accelerate.Daaryoush Ahmed, on only his second List A appearance, had Isaac Mohammed caught at deep midwicket and trapped the in-form Jake Libby lbw. Brett D’Oliveira struck the first six of the match but edged Craig Miles to wicketkeeper James Bracey in the next over.Kashif Ali (36) and Ethan Brookes (31) added 62 in 13 overs before falling in successive overs. Kashif edged Graeme van Buuren to Bracey and Brookes hoisted Shaw to deep midwicket where Tommy Boorman took a brilliant catch.The pattern of batters getting in then getting out continued. Henry Cullen (35) edged Miles behind, Matthew Waite (28) drilled a low return catch to van Buuren and Tom Taylor (25) was caught right on the deep midwicket boundary off Matt Taylor. It was sharp, strong work in the field from Gloucestershire, though Fateh Singh finished the innings with a flourish when he struck the last two balls, from Miles, for six.Gloucestershire lost Bracey, who edged Khurram Shahzad behind, in the sixth over, and Cameron Bancroft was run out by Libby when he was slow to respond to Price’s call for a single, but Price and Charlesworth produced the day’s most fluent batting. They added 105 in 16 overs before departing in the space of six balls. Price nicked a pull at Shahzad to wicketkeeper Cullen and Charlesworth pulled Waite to deep midwicket.With 80 still needed and two new batters in, the Rapids had a glimmer of hope but those new batters were the vastly experienced Jack Taylor and van Buuren. With the home attack unable to call upon Brookes due to a back niggle, the fifth-wicket pair added an unbroken 82 in 60 balls to take their side to a fifth win out of five and the brink of qualification with three games still to go.

Hosts trail by 196 overnight with all ten wickets in hand after Northants are bowled out for 219

ECB Reporters Network10-Jul-2023Middlesex 23 for 0 trail Northamptonshire 219 (Zaib 49) by 196 runsMiddlesex’s pace attack shared the honours as they bowled out fellow strugglers Northamptonshire for 219 on the opening day at Merchant Taylors’ School.Toby-Roland Jones, Tom Helm, Ethan Bamber and Ryan Higgins claimed two wickets apiece to ensure the visitors failed to add to their one batting point this season despite an excellent 49 from all-rounder Saif Zaib.The hosts sent Bamber in as nightwatchman alongside regular opener Mark Stoneman and the pair batted through the five remaining overs with some comfort to close 23 for 0 in replay.For anyone who’d had enough Bazball drama from the Headingley Test this was, if you like, the antidote, or a day for the county cricket connoisseur – a day of line and length bowling with every run hard earned.Northamptonshire chose to bat on winning the toss but runs proved hard work from the get-go. Boundaries were rare while the visitors struggled to rotate the strike, so allowing Middlesex to dictate the pace of the game. And frustratingly for Northamptonshire, every time a batter appeared set a wicket would fall.Ricardo Vasconcelos was a case in point when shortly after finding the boundary for the third time he feathered one from Higgins (2 for 33) through to wicketkeeper John Simpson.That brought debutant Justin Broad to the crease, the German international playing his maiden first-class game after signing a contract with the Steelbacks last month. Plenty of playing and missing followed as he and opener Emilio Gay rode their luck, though each occasionally broke the shackles, Broad cutting one fiercely to the fence at point while Gay unfurled one majestic cover drive.Middlesex’s breakthrough came when Josh de Caires was thrown the ball for the obligatory spinner’s over before lunch. Fresh from his career best 7 for 144 against Hampshire a fortnight ago, he promptly beat Gay’s tentative defensive prod to trap him on the crease.The afternoon’s play was soporific. Broad began with successive fours off Helm, but once the bowler extracted revenge by trapping him leg before the runs all but dried up. There were long passages between wickets, but Northamptonshire’s batters struggled to advance the game.Sam Whiteman nicked Higgins to the recalled Stephen Eskinazi at slip, the catcher immediately leaving the field. News came later Middlesex’s white-ball skipper had suffered a bruised finger and he may now bat lower down the order than originally planned.Rob Keogh ate up 40 balls in reaching 12 before he was castled by Roland-Jones (2 for 49), who then had his opposite number Luke Procter caught behind in his next over.At that stage Middlesex were almost through, but they gave a life to wicketkeeper Lewis McManus soon after tea, de Caires shelling the nick at first slip.The drop proved costly as with the Kookaburra ball having gone soft, McManus proved a good foil for the more expansive Zaib, who drove the ball more convincingly than his teammates further up the order.The new ball was taken in gloomy light, Bamber’s first ball spitting off a length and striking Zaib a nasty blow on the hand.He quickly recovered as the half-century stand was raised around a brief stoppage for bad light, before Bamber trapped McManus lbw for 24, the third Northamptonshire batter to be out for that score.Helm got rid of Tom Taylor with a short ball though his attempts to catch Zaib similarly in two minds failed spectacularly when the all-rounder hooked successive balls over the ropes for six, shots out of context with everything that had gone before.The blows raised the 200 but Bamber bowled Zaib one short of what would have been an excellent 50 before a comical run-out ended the innings.

Teenage seamer Raphy Weatherall also out for season with back stress fracture

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2024A finger injury sustained playing in a T10 league in the Cayman Islands has ruled Ravi Bopara out of the T20 Blast’s knockout stages.Bopara is the fifth-highest run-scorer in Blast history and won the competition with Essex, his boyhood club, in 2019. He joined Sussex the following season and signed for Northamptonshire earlier this year on a T20-only contract.He made a significant impact with bat and ball in the group stages. He was Northants’ second-highest run-scorer and third-highest wicket-taker as they finished second in the North Group, reaching the knockout stages for only the second time since their 2016 title and securing a home quarter-final.They will face Somerset at Wantage Road on September 5, but Bopara has been ruled out. He has undergone surgery after sustaining a finger injury while playing for Miami Lions in the inaugural Max60 tournament in the Cayman Islands, a privately-owned T10 league which is not affiliated to Cricket West Indies and took place last week.”Bopara ruptured the tendon in a finger on his right hand while attempting a caught-and-bowled,” Northants said in a club statement. “[He] has had surgery but will need three weeks of recovery time.”Raphy Weatherall has been ruled out with a stress fracture•Getty Images

Raphy Weatherall, the 19-year-old seamer who took 11 group-stage wickets in the Blast, has also been ruled out for the rest of the season due to a lower-back stress fracture, a common injury among young fast bowlers.Northants will also be without Sikandar Raza for the quarter-finals and are waiting to hear from Cricket South Africa whether Matthew Breetzke will be made available to play. Ashton Agar, the Australian allrounder, has been cleared to return.

Queensland saw through the opening session without loss before the rest of the day was washed out

AAP28-Nov-2023Matt Renshaw’s search for a pivotal innings in his quest for a Test opening berth was undermined by persistent rain at the Gabba against Western Australia.Renshaw was unbeaten at lunch on 37 with opening partner Joe Burns 19 not out, but that was as far as they got on day one of the Sheffield Shield clash.The visitors won the toss and bowled. Renshaw was confronted with overcast skies, a pitch with a green tinge and a quality pace attack.It was just the test the Australian selectors would have wanted for Renshaw and he started his innings with aplomb. It was tough early with pace bowler Jhye Richardson finding his groove on return from a dislocated shoulder.Cameron Green, who is looking to push for a return to the Test side, sent down four overs for five runs.Renshaw left the ball well, rotated the strike nicely with Burns and played one sumptuous pull shot through midwicket to the boundary off Liam Haskett. He had the demeanour of a man prepared to settle in for a long innings.The 27-year-old is vying with Western Australia’s Cameron Bancroft and Victoria’s Marcus Harris to replace David Warner at the top of Australia’s order for the opening Test against the West Indies in January. Warner will retire after the third and final Test against Pakistan in Sydney.Renshaw will not be hanging his hat on a gritty 30-odd and with the forecast improved for the final three days of the Shield match he has the opportunity to post a big century.The three Shield games in progress that stated on Tuesday are the last of the calendar year but Renshaw, Harris and Bancroft will all get another key opportunity to impress Australian selectors next week when they represent the Prime Minister’s XI against Pakistan in Canberra.

The home side were bundled out for 157 as the game rushed to a three-day finish

AAP05-Oct-2023Tasmanian Beau Webster’s all-round excellence was instrumental in his side’s seven-wicket Sheffield Shield win against South Australia.Webster took a career-best 4 for 32 as the home side folded for just 157 in their second innings at Adelaide’s Karen Rolton Oval on Thursday.The meagre total left Tasmania needing 84 runs to win, achieved just after tea on day three.SA posted 307 in their first innings and in reply Webster made 62 as the visitors compiled 381.SA resumed in trouble on day three at 47 for 3, and any hope of setting the Tasmanians a challenging target vanished early.Captain Jake Lehmann was soon out for 8, trapped lbw by paceman Gabe Bell. And a brief Jake Fraser-McGurk cameo of 29 from 20 balls ended when he shouldered arms to a Lawrence Neil-Smith ball, which slid off the bat-face to his stumps.Webster, 29, once a potential AFL draftee from the Tassie Mariners who opted for cricket, soon captured the big wicket of Nathan McSweeney.McSweeney had anchored SA’s innings, striking eight fours in making 48 from 97 balls, but edged to wicketkeeper Matthew Wade.Webster’s impact heightened in the next over when, at second slip, he grasped a sharp catch, diving low and forward, to dismiss Harry Nielsen as Bell struck again.Webster then mopped up the SA tail, taking the last three wickets for his best bowling figures in 72 first-class matches.In the run chase, Tasmanian opener Caleb Jewell, after making 87 in the first dig, was trapped lbw for a second-ball duck by paceman Wes Agar.First-innings centurion Charlie Wakim and ex-Redback Jake Weatherald both fell to SA quick Jordan Buckingham.Captain Jordan Silk was unbeaten on 24 when the Tasmanians secured a comprehensive win to open their Shield campaign.

Former England batter issues statement after meeting with Rafiq organised by PCA

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Aug-2022Gary Ballance has issued an unreserved apology for using “racist” language towards Azeem Rafiq when the two were team-mates at Yorkshire.ESPNcricinfo revealed last year that the use of the word “P**i” by a player – subsequently identified as Ballance – when referring to Rafiq had been deemed “banter” by an independent report into allegations of racism at Yorkshire. Ballance at the time expressed his “regret” but said the language used came in the context of “a situation where best friends said offensive things to each other”.Ballance is one of seven individuals at Yorkshire charged by the ECB, alongside the club itself, after an investigation into the revelations that followed Rafiq’s emotional testimony before parliament in November 2021.Related

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It was reported by that Ballance and Rafiq spoke earlier this week in a meeting facilitated by the Professional Cricketers’ Association. Ballance, who has not played at all this season due to ongoing mental health issues, subsequently released a statement through Yorkshire.”I have wanted to meet Azeem in person for quite some time, but I had to make sure I was in a good place when I did so,” Ballance said. “Azeem has been through similar mental health challenges and understands why this has taken me a little time.”I apologise unreservedly to Azeem for the words I used when we played together. I did use unacceptable – at times, racist – language. If I had realised how much this hurt Azeem, I would have stopped immediately. That’s why I wanted to meet him this week and be clear in person that I intended no malice. That’s not an excuse, I realise that the language I used was wrong.”I have accepted, from the outset, the words I used were wrong and I hope this statement brings Azeem some comfort. There is no place in our sport for this behaviour and I am determined to play my part in ridding the game from racism and make it more inclusive. To do this we all need to be honest and learn from our past mistakes.”Rafiq told that he had accepted Ballance’s apology and said that his “courage means he is now part of the solution” in the fight against the problem of racism within the game.”From day one of opening up about my experiences, all I ever wanted was acceptance and apologies for what happened,” Rafiq said. “Gary has been brave to admit the truth and I understand why the mental strain has made it difficult for him to make this apology any sooner. Gary must be applauded for his honesty and unreserved apology and must now be allowed to get on with his life.”Ballance has been in action for Yorkshire’s 2nd XI this summer, but his previous first-team appearance came in September 2021. It was reported earlier this month that he was considering switching his international allegiance back to Zimbabwe, the country of his birth, but ESPNcricinfo understands that there has been no contact with Zimbabwe Cricket.

India have now failed to touch 250 in 12 of the 14 innings they have batted first in since the 2017 World Cup

Annesha Ghosh12-Mar-20213:30

Mithali Raj: India need 270-plus totals to compete with the best

Since the 2017 ODI World Cup, where India finished runners-up, only twice in 14 innings have they scored 250 or more batting first. Twelve months out from the next 50-over World Cup, and in their first series since returning to international cricket after a 364-day gap, they have returned 177 and 248 when trying to set a target. The first of those – in the series opener against South Africa – exposed the batting unit, and the team itself, as one that was a long way from finding their “rhythm”. On Friday, they were still not quite a 250 side, something they will have to resolve in the lead-up to the 2022 ODI World Cup in New Zealand.That said, India fared far better in their second dig at batting first at the Ekana International Stadium. A second straight fifty from No. 3 Punam Raut and 36s from their Nos. 4, 5, and 6 – Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Deepti Sharma – took India to 248 in the third ODI. It matches Raj’s expectations from her side, but the six-run DLS-determined defeat showed how India had squandered the momentum they had generated over three fairly brisk 60-plus stands.Related

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“When the middle order did get the start, we should have stretched that partnership a little more, I felt,” Raj told Anjum Chopra at the post-match interview. “Even when I got out, Punam and Harman’s partnership, and then Deepti’s partnership – each time I thought, ‘Okay, you know, I think this partnership is going to stay till the end’. But we lost wickets. That’s where we fell 20-30 runs short. But, overall, losing the first wicket [Jemimah Rodrigues] in the first over and still coming back to develop partnerships, I think the top order played well. But we could have done better in the batting innings.”The narrow margin of defeat also threw focus, again, on the non-selection of the big-hitting 17-year-old T20I opener Shafali Verma. Do India have a batter in their 50-over mix who can ramp up the scoring rate at will? Verma, in almost singlehandedly steering India to the 2020 T20 World final around this time last year, had proven how good a tone-setter she could be.While the new selection committee, appointed in September last year, hasn’t yet publicly elaborated on their selection calls, Raj, ahead of the first ODI, had called for “patience” regarding Verma’s place in India’s ODI “scheme of things”. With Kaur the only realistic bet for any end-overs acceleration in the current line-up, her dismissal in the 45th over for a 46-ball 36 in the third ODI and India thereafter managing just 27 off the last 20 balls, might reignite discussions about Verma.Should Shafali Verma get a run with the Indian ODI side too?•Getty Images

“We are looking at competing with the best – like the Australia and the England sides, so clearly we are looking at 270-plus,” Raj said when asked about the team’s likely approach in the last ten overs in the event of Kaur not being around to hit out. “Having said that, this is our third game after a long gap and we are one of those countries who started cricket quite late [after the pandemic-enforced break] and other teams have already played a couple of series.”We need to have some game time, but at the same time, we are also trying to work on the players to build a sort of game plan for future series and those will become important in terms of how we are going to plan for the World Cup and what are the things we need to work on. It’s going to be a process, yes, and we have started on it. I wouldn’t say, ‘yes, it’s our first series, and we are aiming at 200’, because clearly the girls need some outing out there.”We definitely need to have batters playing the last ten overs because obviously the sort of game a batter has, the low (order batters) or tail-enders may not. It’s important we have the batters playing the last ten overs and a settled batter will be very, very helpful in those times. We do have players like Harman and Deepti; it’s just a matter of a few innings. They will come good in those death overs.Then there’s the concern over dots accumulated. India on Friday didn’t score off 175 deliveries (nearly 59% of the allotted tally), while South Africa had 165 in 46.3 overs. Raj said while lessening the dot-ball percentage largely required an individual approach, much of the team’s overall strike rate ran the risk of taking a hit owing to an early dismissal.”In our ODI side, we have a batting order that is experienced. I wouldn’t call it an inexperienced or young order. But, yes, it [dot-ball percentage] is something we all work on. But, I think, it’s got more to do with how individual players are able to work on it, and a lot more depends on when the batters walk in. If you’re losing a wicket in the first over itself, clearly you wouldn’t be looking at getting six runs per over. You need to work on your partnerships and that might result in a few dot balls and lower strike rate.”But again, there are batters who try to make up for that when they develop a partnership. Usually, it’s made up in the latter part of the innings. But, again, it’s got more to do with how you play according to the situation, rather than working on the strike rate because clearly, we are not playing the T20 format. It’s more important how you utilise the momentum generated in the beginning or if there is a fall of wicket how you develop a partnership and then continue, stretch that. That’s what we, as batters, work on in the one-day squad.”

Home attack thwarted in battle between Division Two’s form sides

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay 22-Jun-2025A maiden first-class century from young opener Asa Tribe saw Glamorgan lay the foundations for a substantial first-innings score in the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match between Leicestershire and Glamorgan at the UptonSteel County Ground, Grace Road.The 21-year-old Channel Islander, making only his ninth first-class appearance, demonstrated a maturity beyond his years as having got off to a flying start against a much-changed and initially slightly out-of-sorts Foxes attack, he settled down to reach his century off 158 balls, including 14 fours and one maximum.The Leicestershire bowlers improved as the day went on, regaining some control over the scoreboard, but solid contributions from fellow opener Zain-ul-Hassan, Kiran Carlson and latterly Colin Ingram, who ended the day with an unbeaten half-century, ensured the visitors enjoyed much the best of the first day.Given both sides came into the match on the back of a run of victories – four for Leicestershire, three for Glamorgan – the number of changes made to their previous Championship line-ups came as something of a surprise, though injuries played a part. With Ian Holland and Josh Hull unavailable, and Rehan Ahmed nursing a niggle that meant he could not bowl, Leicestershire chose to leave left out regular wicketkeeper Ben Cox – one of their more prolific run-scorers this season – and with Handscomb taking his place behind the stumps, bring in left-arm spinner Liam Trevaskis and right-arm seamer Sam Wood for their first first-class outings of the season. Veteran seamer Chris Wright also came back into the side.Glamorgan too gave a spinner, Mason Crane, his first Championship appearance of the season, with Ingram, Ben Kellaway and Ned Leonard also returning. All will have been pleased to see skipper Sam Northeast win the toss and opt to bat first on one of the relaid pitches at the UptonSteel Ground, and certainly there was not too much to encourage the Leicestershire seamers during a first hour in which they gave Tribe in particular too many loose deliveries, meaning that even with his partner playing in a rather more restrained manner, the pair were still able to score at five an over before Zain somewhat unluckily became the only wicket to fall in the morning session, glancing a delivery from Wright down the leg side only for Handscomb to take a diving catch.Leicestershire’s attack improved in both accuracy and length after the break, and Tribe was fortunate when on 72 he edged Ben Green behind the wicket only for Handscomb, diving to his right, to drop the catch. He also lost Northeast, the captain looking less than impressed to be given out caught behind when hooking at a bouncer from Wood, but a cleanly hit straight six off Trevaskis took him into the 90s and he showed few nerves in going on to three figures before edging a tired drive at Logan van Beek, giving Handscomb a third victim behind the stumps.Carlson and Ingram put on 60 for the fourth wicket before Carlson used his feet once too often at Trevaskis and yorked himself, the ball squeezing on to his leg stump. Ingram, in company with Kellaway, worked his way towards his fifty, and although he lost Kellaway, trapped in front by van Beek delivery which came back, reached the landmark off 101 deliveries shortly before the close.