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.
Former England captain makes 72, his highest first-class score at venue
Paul Edwards18-May-2023Nottinghamshire 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.
Both the board and Smith will be legally represented, and the findings of the arbitrators will be made public
ESPNcricinfo staff04-Mar-2022The “tentative findings” made by the Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) report about CSA’s director of cricket, former South Africa captain Graeme Smith, will be the subject of the board’s “agreed formal arbitration proceedings” from March 7, the board said in a statement on Friday.It had emerged on December 20 last year that CSA would launch a formal inquiry into the conduct of Smith and national men’s head coach Mark Boucher after reviewing the contents of the SJN report.The SJN report, which was made public in December, found that Smith, Boucher and former international AB de Villiers, among others, had engaged in conduct that was prejudicial and discriminatory on the basis of race. However, the ombudsman, Dumisa Ntsebeza, was unable to make definite findings and recommended a further process be undertaken, which CSA will now embark on.Both the board and Smith will be legally represented, and the findings of the arbitrators will be made public, CSA said. David Becker, Smith’s attorney, said, “Graeme and his advisors have consistently voiced material concerns with the SJN process, in particular the “tentative findings” made against him.”He looks forward to demonstrating through this impartial process that these findings are without merit.”Lawson Naidoo, chair of the CSA board, said, “The use of formal arbitration proceedings to deal with these issues is in keeping with CSA’s commitment to deal with the SJN issues in a manner that treats them with utmost seriousness but also ensures fairness, due process and finality,”.The proceedings will take place before advocates Ngwako Maenetje SC and Michael Bishop, who have been jointly appointed by the parties.Smith and Boucher are not the only figures who will be investigated, but are the most high-profile, as CSA looks into all areas of its operation.More recently, in February this year, it was understood that CSA was unlikely to take action on the manner in which Smith and Boucher were appointed, despite the SJN report citing irregularities in their hiring. Speaking to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts and Culture, Naidoo had explained that because Smith and Boucher’s appointments were rubber-stamped by the previous board, no further investigation would be undertaken.Boucher will, however, still face a disciplinary hearing in May over charges of “gross misconduct”.
Pakistan tour unaffected with both players in quarantine at home
ESPNcricinfo staff22-Oct-2020Two Zimbabwe players and two members of support staff have tested positive for Covid-19.Regis Chakabva and Timycen Maruma, the two positive players, were both part of the provisional 25-man squad picked to travel to Pakistan, but were left out of the 20-man party that arrived in the country this week.Chakabva and Maruma were room-mates in Zimbabwe’s biosecure bubble at the Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) Academy in Harare, and both tested positive for the virus. ZC then screened and tested those deemed to have come into close contact with the pair, and two other members of staff “who were providing support services” at the academy also returned positive results.ALSO READ: Chigumbura targets much-needed return to formThe positive tests will not put the series in Pakistan in doubt. The touring squad stayed at a separate facility in a separate hotel in Harare as part of their own bubble, and all tested negative both before departure and upon arrival in Islamabad. Their quarantine period ends on Tuesday, and they will be tested again before then.”Chakabva and Maruma, as well as the other two infected backroom staffers, are currently observing a period of self-isolation in accordance with Covid-19 protocols,” a ZC statement said. “We wish the four a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming them back at work soon.”Apart from providing support to those infected and affected, we will continue to adhere to government and public health guidelines with regards to our facilities and staff, and will be taking further steps to curb the spread of the coronavirus.”
Australia have managed Hazlewood’s workload carefully to ensure he was in peak condition at Lord’s
Daniel Brettig at Lord's15-Aug-2019For years, “fit to play” the key phrase for a fast bowler, or any cricketer for that matter, who pulled on the baggy green cap. Ricky Ponting used to talk about wanting Australia’s players to be able to look him in the eye and tell him, niggles or injuries or not, that they were fit to play. Famously, Nathan Hauritz missed the 2009 Oval Test on a tinder dry pitch because he could not.Plenty of days passed where pacemen in particular showed visible discomfort on the field, only to have the public assured that they were “fit to play”. Only later, at the end of a match or series, would the truer picture emerge, of injuries carried, ailments ignored, surgeries deferred.In 2019, about eight years after Cricket Australia entered the conversation about being a little more nuanced when it comes to managing fast bowlers, a different phrase is being used a lot: cherry ripe. Australia wanted James Pattinson to be “cherry ripe” for Edgbaston, and he was spelled from Lord’s to ensure he would be “cherry ripe” for Leeds.In the meantime, the tourists had the luxury of recalling a “cherry ripe” Josh Hazlewood for the second Test, and after Tim Paine sent England in to bat, he aptly demonstrated the advantage of upgrading the team’s expectation of him from “fit to play”. The opening spells delivered by Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, later to be augmented by a sustained, brutal burst of short stuff from the latter, underlined the value of having bowlers who are not only of high quality, but also carefully managed to be in peak physical condition for the battle at hand.Four years ago, there was plenty of variety to the Australian pace battery’s angle of attack to England. Partly this was because plans changed as the pitches did, but it was also to do with the fact that the bowlers were both physically and mentally geared for knockout victories rather than more subtle approaches.ALSO READ: Hazlewood’s economy leaves Starc on the periphery at Lord’sHazlewood summed this up most of all, leaving him with a bit of thinking to do about his bowling in England once he was left out of the team for the final Test at the Oval. He had bowled full and tried to swing the ball in that series, occasionally getting it right but also struggling at times to control the swing. He would also float the ball up into the driving zones of the England batsmen, easing any pressure that he had been trying to build up.This time around, Hazlewood has made no secret he is concentrating on bowling a good length, not too full, and working the seam of the ball rather than trying to swing it. It’s a method he demonstrated in Southampton during the internal trial match and then at Worcester between Tests. Against England batsmen wanting to feel the bat on the ball, it is an ideal blueprint, as his Lord’s opening spell figures of 2 for 5 from six overs amply demonstrated.He was helped, much as Pattinson and Nathan Lyon had been in Birmingham, by the fact that Jason Roy simply cannot resist either feeling for the ball outside his eye line or trying to assert himself with a tone setting shot or two early. He did both in the space of Hazlewood’s first three balls of the Test, swishing at his first ball, beaten by his second and wretchedly edging his third. This not only provided Hazlewood with a triumphal return to Tests, but also rather backed up his pre-series assertion that Roy was, if the experiences of Aaron Finch last summer were anything to go by, pushing the proverbial excrement up hill in trying to become a Test opener from a white-ball foundation.Australia’s slip cordon start to celebrates as Jason Roy is caught behind•Getty Images
Joe Root, too, gave Hazlewood some help by continuing his recent trend of becoming an lbw candidate. Running a few balls away from Root down the Lord’s slope then nipping one back would have been very close to the top of Hazlewood’s plans for the England captain, and he achieved it much more quickly than Root would have preferred.When he took his cap from the umpire at the end of his sixth over, Hazlewood had cause to feel a little happier about all the waiting he had been made to do throughout the World Cup and then the first Ashes Test, for his physical and mental states were such that he had been able to land the ball on something like a sixpence throughout. How he had wished to do that in 2015.If the wickets did not fall quite as quickly thereafter, the Australian attack still combined artfully in a variety of spells that showed how the Dukes ball could be utilised at various stages of its age. For not only are Australia’s three pacemen all offering variations in height, line and trajectory, they can also bowl contrasting spells that end up proving complementary.After lunch, with the ball starting to swing more than it had done in the morning session, Hazlewood and Peter Siddle delivered spells from the Pavilion End that gained appreciable away movement, drawing the batsmen forward and reaping the wicket of Joe Denly then a dropped chance from Paine off Rory Burns’ outside edge.At the other end, Cummins delivered a brutish, bang it in spell that forced the batsmen back where Hazlewood and Siddle brought them forward. The mixing up of footwork this created was to be rewarded when Burns jumped back to fend off a ball rearing up towards his hip and armpit, wonderfully held by Cameron Bancroft at short leg. Siddle’s reward came when he found Jos Buttler’s outside edge, and after Ben Stokes had been done on the sweep by Lyon, Cummins bent his back once again to winkle out Chris Woakes.There was not much friendly about this line of attack, short and sharp with a fine leg, deep square leg, square leg, leg gully and short leg – going as close to a Bodyline field as it is possible to do under the game’s present laws – but nor was it low energy. Bouncers take extra effort, and fatigued fast men undoubtedly push themselves closer to the limit of injury when asked to bowl heaps of them. But if Cummins had more bowling at Edgbaston than Hazlewood, he was still fresh enough to bang it in for Woakes, Jofra Archer and Stuart Broad.A final England tally of 258 was more a reflection of three dropped catches from the Australians than it was of the quality of much of the bowling, which was lifted by the aspiration for the touring pacemen to be “cherry ripe” rather than merely “fit to play”. A six-pack of fast men, rotated through a series to ensure their best or near it is consistently on offer, may very well be something for Australia and their opponents to get used to.
The camaraderie – and needle – in the lead-up to the women’s exhibition T20 match in Mumbai is at a high; so is the desire to grow the game and share cricketing knowledge
Annesha Ghosh in Mumbai22-May-20182:55
Exhibition T20 a precursor to women’s IPL
Ten months on from that scintillating World Cup semi-final performance, Harmanpreet Kaur has satisfied one of her long-held desires: to bat alongside one of her “favourite players” – Australia captain Meg Lanning.Ten months on from India fluffing their lines in a thrilling World Cup final, Smriti Mandhana’s self-proclaimed “boring” teetotal habits has found her an admirer in England batsman Danielle Wyatt.Ten months on from helping make either match-up possible for India at the World Cup, Veda Krishnamurthy has won over New Zealand allrounders Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine with “awesome chats”.
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Not for the first time has Harmanpreet, Mandhana or Krishnamurthy rubbed shoulders with non-India internationals; at the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia it’s been the norm since 2016. But for them – or any of their 17 India team-mates – to train at the Wankhede Stadium alongside ten top overseas players, to move to Bhangra numbers on team-bus rides, to discuss “life and cricket” during a welcome dinner at the iconic Taj hotel in Mumbai… Their journey these past few days has already become as momentous as their destination: the first ever Women’s T20 Challenge, set up as a double-header with the men’s IPL Qualifier 1.”When I went to Big Bash, all of them used to ask, ‘When is IPL starting?’ and I had no answer for them,” Mandhana, one of the captains in the one-off exhibition match, recalls on the eve of game.Annesha Ghosh
But now, as she prepares to lead Bates and her New Zealand team-mate Lea Tahuhu, Australian duo Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney, and England offspinner Danielle Hazell, Mandhana could possibly venture a tentative answer: not too long from now.
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Ten years ago, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy had been watching Brendon McCullum “start the IPL with a bang”, live at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Then part of an age-group New South Wales cricket tour, the now best friends will be facing off at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday.”Looking at world figures for major sporting tournaments, the IPL’s right up there in terms of crowd numbers along with NFL and Superbowl,” Perry said after training with her team, the IPL Supernovas, at the Brabourne Stadium. “From a female perspective that’s what we want to do: bring in more fans to the game, people who like watching the women’s game, appreciate the skill and nuances of the game, and also get to have their own heroes in different teams.”That, Perry believes, is the “real goal” for women’s cricket, and the match showcasing the best in women’s T20 at the IPL is a “huge landmark” in planning for the same.For Healy, who jokes about having “a bit too much of a personality” for her Trailblazers captain Mandhana to handle, the camaraderie that has blossomed in the two days’ of interaction between players is as important.”Obviously, going to the IPL and seeing all the boys learning off one another is really important for the game of cricket in general, and I don’t think women’s cricket has had that for very long,” Healy says. “There’s the Big Bash and [England’s] Kia Super League, but for us to be able to come over here and mingle with the Indian players especially and learn how to play better in their conditions, it’s only going to improve women’s cricket all around the world.”
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Suzie Bates is aware of the threats that await her in the future, both near and not so near. “I have played a lot of cricket against Jhulan Goswami, but over the past two days, I’ve had a few battles with [legspinner] Poonam Yadav in the nets. So [India T20I vice-captain] Smriti has already warned me the next time India play New Zealand, I’ll have to deal with a lot of overs from Poonam.’Annesha Ghosh
While chuckling at the prospect, Bates takes a moment to emphasise how alive she is to the immediate challenges at hand, especially from her New Zealand team-mate allrounder Sophie Devine.”They [Trailblazers] have really solid batting line-up. Meg Lanning, the way Danni Wyatt’s been batting, and Mithali Raj is a great ambassador for the game. I do enjoy having Sophie Devine in my team, but having her in the opposition is not going to be too much fun.”
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In the closing moments of the nets session at the Brabourne Stadium, Devine walks up to the India quick-bowling allrounder and her Supernovas team-mate Pooja Vastrakar. A brief, animated chat later, Vastrakar ends her session with a string of lofted strokes over an imaginary infield and a few flamboyant strokes down the ground.Putting aside these obvious benefits of such young India internationals meeting and mixing with the best in the women’s game, there are more advantages to be had by the next tier of players too. One of the four back-up players for India’s forthcoming Asia Cup, young quick bowler Sukanya Parida, isn’t part of either squads for Tuesday’s match. That, however, she refuses to count as a missed opportunity. “Why should it when you can bowl in the nets with someone like Devine?”And pick up tips on swinging the ball both ways, while you’re at it, of course.”That’s the cool thing,” Devine says of her interactions with the Indian players. “You can learn things from people who may not belong to your own team. It’s two-way traffic and I think to be able to share the knowledge this way… that’s what grows the game.”
Outgoing Bangladesh T20 captain Mashrafe Mortaza says that he felt he would be holding back the next generation of fast bowlers if he continued to stay on
Mohammad Isam04-Apr-2017Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza said that his aversion to T20s ultimately pushed him to retire from the format. Speaking on the day that he announced the current T20I series against Sri Lanka would be his last for Bangladesh, Mashrafe said that he was asked to rebuild the T20I side when given the captaincy in 2014, but now he was blocking the path of other fast bowlers like Rubel Hossain.”It is always tough to hang up your jersey,” Mashrafe said following Bangladesh’s six-wicket defeat in the first T20I at Colombo on Tuesday. “But I thought that if I look behind me, someone like Rubel is missing out. He should have been in the first XI, but he is missing out because of me. Since he is performing better than me, he should be in the team. I still feel this team is the best place for our youngsters to grow for a bigger stage like Tests and ODIs.”I never enjoyed that format when T20 started. I played five World Cups but I never enjoyed it. Maybe because of my injuries. This format is quick and sharp so you don’t get enough chances to warm up your body, especially my legs which hurt a lot. I still kept going because cricket board was respecting me as a captain. I was trying really hard to build this team as much as I can. I don’t know how much I did but it was a real pleasure to captain in T20s.”Bangladesh had picked four fast bowlers in the game on Tuesday, with Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed and newcomer Mohammad Saifuddin accompanying Mashrafe. The captain had taken just one wicket in Bangladesh’s previous T20I series, against New Zealand, while Rubel took seven wickets but still missed out. Interestingly, it was the exiting Mashrafe who bowled better than the rest in the game, finishing with figures of 2 for 32 in four overs.Mashrafe didn’t reveal too many details about what pushed him to take such a decision, but said that the final call was made the night before the game. He informed the BCB president Nazmul Hassan almost immediately but also stated his intention to continue in one-day cricket.”I am not thinking about [quitting ODIs] at this moment,” Mashrafe said. “I don’t plan out many things, but [retiring from the T20I team] was a tough decision. A lot of people are involved in such a decision, like my family, friends, team-mates and the media. I thought it would be the same if I took the decision today or two days later.”The only thought was that I would leave the format. Perhaps it was a sudden decision. I didn’t think too much about it. I felt that I didn’t want to play T20s.”
Sri Lanka will look up to their dynamic young group to deliver again, and help the visitors wrap up the series in Ranchi
The Preview by Andrew Fidel Fernando11-Feb-2016
Match facts
February 12, 2016
Start time 1930 local (1400 GMT)1:35
‘We’re game to play horses for courses’ – Shastri
Big Picture
In the first match, India’s batsmen seemed not to know much about the pitch in Pune. They also seemed not to know much about Sri Lanka’s second-string seam attack. Actually, no one did. Why would they? After a year of modest performances, and with the frontliners all in the sick bay, these new guys were selection Hail Marys. For a change, someone up there answered the prayers of Sri Lanka’s fan base.The result suggested there was truth to what Sri Lanka’s local coaches have been saying all along. The domestic structure is so sick it could be used as a pro-euthanasia poster case. The administration sometimes veers towards the ridiculous. But there is no shortage of talent in Sri Lanka, even if, judging by the size of some players, there could be a dearth of protein. Kasun Rajitha was sharp, and seamed it beautifully away. Dushmantha Chameera’s pace is beginning to trouble batsmen all around the world. And if Dasun Shanaka’s batting is anywhere near as good as the balls he sent to Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni, he could be settling in for a long career.India were left reeling, but they will most likely land on their feet in Ranchi, and find the track there is much more to their liking. Dhoni seemed unfazed by the loss, because in the fantasy land of limited-overs batting, the Pune pitch was an anomaly. The top order is still rocking – it hasn’t been long since they were so good as to make the middle order obsolete. The spin attack also seems well drilled, and Ashish Nehra was effective with the new ball in Pune.
Form guide
(last five completed matches, most recent first) India: LWWWL Sri Lanka: WLLLW
In the spotlight
Sri Lanka did not like facing R Ashwin in the longest format last year, and now he is troubling them in T20s. On a night that belonged to the seam bowlers, Ashwin spun the ball sharply to take two wickets in Pune. A return to slower conditions will tip his offbreaks with a little more venom. Ashwin will understand a little of the weaknesses of the Sri Lanka top order, and will also know that as a group, they have not played spin well over the past year. Ashwin’s 31 not out with the bat was not enough to cover for the top-order collapse, but on other days, such runs could be invaluable.Like the man himself, Sri Lanka have seemed a bubbly, dynamic unit with Dinesh Chandimal at the helm. In the past, Chandimal’s major worry has been his own batting. Chandimal’s leadership was coming along, but that T20 international average continued to flounder. Even now, it is less than 15. There won’t be many matches in which Chandimal can afford to soak up balls and play himself in, as he did on Tuesday, but if that innings can serve as a launching pad for the series, Sri Lanka may begin to consider him for more permanent leadership roles.
Teams news
India may opt to give left-arm spinning allrounder Pawan Negi a debut, and assess him ahead of the Asia Cup and World T20. Hardik Pandya, who managed only two runs in his first outing with the bat in addition to going wicketless, in Pune, is likely to miss out.India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 MS Dhoni (capt.)(wk), 6 Yuvraj Singha, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Ashish NehraTillakaratne Dilshan is available for selection again, following recovery from a hand injury. He will probably take the place of Niroshan Dickwella. With plenty of spin cover via Milinda Siriwardana and Dilshan’s finger spin, Sri Lanka will likely look to give their quicks another run, regardless of the surface’s nature.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Niroshan Dickwella, 2 Danushka Gunathilaka, 3 Dinesh Chandimal (capt.)(wk), 4 Chamara Kapugedara, 5 Dasun Shanaka 6 Milinda Siriwardana, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Seekkuge Prasanna, 9 Sachithra Senanayake, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Kasun Rajitha
Pitch and conditions
Ranchi has never hosted a T20 international, but two of the three ODIs played there have yielded moderately high totals. The track for the second match appears dry, and the weather is expected to remain good for the encounter, with temperatures in the low 20s.
Stats and trivia
In 15 T20s at the helm, Dinesh Chandimal averages 12 and has a strike rate of 90. His 35 on Tuesday was his highest score as captain.
India’s home win-loss ratio is 0.625 – worse than all the full member teams apart from Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
Sri Lanka have the highest away win-loss ratio, with 13 victories from 17 away games.
Quotes
“[Pune did] A little too much but we should have adapted well. We should have got 140. That would have been a competitive score on the surface. What we have to learn is very early you have to make sure what the conditions are, what the pitch entails and what is a competitive score on that pitch is.” “It’s very important that people in Sri Lanka know that there are back-up players. When most of the seniors play in the last few years, we need back-up players [now]. It’s good to see them do well.”
John Glover led some late Glamorgan batting aggression to put his side in a dominant position at the end of the third day of their Championship match with Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl
04-Aug-2013 ScorecardJohn Glover did damage with the bat for Glamorgan•PA Photos
John Glover led some late Glamorgan batting aggression to put his side in a dominant position at the end of the third day of their Championship match with Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl.Glover, who had hit only one previous half-century in his career, struck eight fours in an unbeaten 51 before his captain Mark Wallace declared with Glamorgan 129 ahead at 478 for nine in their first innings. In the 41 overs which remained Hampshire lost openers Jimmy Adams and Michael Carberry in making 115 for 2, still 14 behind and with a day left.Both sides are in desperate need of a win, Glamorgan having won only once in ten Division Two fixtures and Hampshire twice. Glamorgan went into the third day at 226 for 4, still trailing Hampshire by 123, but they soon made up the deficit on their way to a healthy lead of their own on a pitch still offering little support to the bowlers.Chris Cooke, 73 not out, and Jim Allenby made their fifth-wicket stand worth 127 before Allenby edged Sohail Tanvir to Liam Dawson at slip when the score was 297. Cooke, eight runs short of his maiden first-class century, was dismissed in the next over, also caught at slip by Sean Ervine off Chris Wood just as a big opportunity beckoned.Cooke, whose previous best had been a modest 44, hit 16 fours, which hinted at his promise, and faced 153 balls but his exit only hastened some lower-order hitting by Graham Wagg, who made 33, Wallace, Dean Cosker and above all by Glover.Hampshire ran out of ideas in the heat of the Southampton afternoon as Wallace and Cosker each reaped 39 while the belligerent Glover took the attack to the tiring Hampshire bowling. In the end opening batsman Will Bragg, who made 5, was the only Glamorgan batsman not to reach double figures and the declaration came with No. 9 batsman Glover reaching his landmark.Glamorgan’s lead began to look formidable as Adams departed at 20, deceived by Cosker’s turn, and then Carberry departed at 102 after a second-wicket partnership of 82 with Liam Dawson.Carberry at least had the satisfaction of reaching 10,000 career runs in first-class matches while making 62 but his departure to Wagg’s medium pace lifted Glamorgan beliefs that their second win could be on the way at last.
Gautam Gambhir has termed the big loss in the second game a “wake-up call” early in the season
Abhishek Purohit in Colombo27-Jul-2012Gautam Gambhir has said that the India batsmen got complacent after making 314 in the first ODI against Sri Lanka and has termed the big loss in the second game a “wake-up call” early in the season. He has, however, pointed out that some of the India players could be rusty as they are coming out of a near-two-month break while Sri Lanka have just won a tough series against Pakistan.”Sometimes what happens is when you have made 300-plus runs and you are coming after a break and end up winning the first game, you can take things for granted thinking that we have got 300, so we can again turn up and get 300,” Gambhir said. “It is a good wake-up call for us that we can’t.”Our energy levels were not up for it. All of us were thinking, we managed 300, we have won the toss again, we are batting first in those flat conditions, [so] we can again turn up and get 300-plus and try and restrict Sri Lanka but then that is not the way you go into a game. You have to go into the game thinking [that] Sri Lanka will come hard at you and [it is a] new wicket, new conditions, new start.”We can’t take Sri Lanka lightly at any stage. They are a very good side especially in their own backyard so it is important that we got to be ready for this challenge tomorrow and whatever they throw at us we should be able to give it back to them.”MS Dhoni had said earlier that India rely a lot on the starts provided by the top three batsmen – Virender Sehwag, Gambhir and Virat Kohli in this series. Sehwag and Kohli fell early in the second game, and before the batsmen could assess the pitch, according to Dhoni, India were 60 for 5. Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka vice-captain, said his side would target the India top order again tomorrow.”When it comes to the top order, they make a huge difference,” Mathews said. “If we can get a few wickets early on, we can put pressure on the middle order batsmen. In the first two games they didn’t have the time to get set and score.”The first two matches were in Hambantota, where it was so windy that Sehwag said batsmen were being thrown off their stance. Up north-west in Colombo, the conditions have changed to hot and humid; the humidity, especially, can be very tiring. Gambhir, however, said that India shouldn’t bother too much about the conditions.”Breeze was playing a huge role in Hambantota. At times it was difficult to play on one side of the wicket especially against the breeze because it was so strong,” Gambhir said. “We all know that the Premadasa is a flat track and there are great opportunities of making big scores. It is pretty humid so we need to get adjusted to it as soon as possible.”We should be raring to go rather than thinking what are the conditions and how are the conditions. As a professional cricketer you need to get used to these conditions as soon as possible and try and get the results in your favour.”The Premadasa pitch, before being relaid for the 2011 World Cup, used to heavily favour the side batting first as the ball would move around in the evening. While Gambhir felt it would still do a bit under lights, Mathews said that the pitch doesn’t change much now for the chasing side and referred to Sri Lanka’s successful chase last month against Pakistan at the same ground.