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The India captain said it had become a ‘talking point every game’ and that a review that didn’t go their way was a “game-changer moment”

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Mar-2019Australia chased down the fifth-highest target in ODIs on Sunday in Mohali, probably their favourite ground in India having won some memorable matches including the 1996 World Cup semi-final against West Indies and the thrilling chase in the third ODI of the 2013 series. That chase of 304 was engineered by James Faulkner, and more than five years later, Ashton Turner stunned Virat Kohli’s men who also had to battle the dew in addition to several muffed chances in the field. While reviewing the defeat, Kohli said towards the end of the post-match presentation that DRS “was not consistent at all” and that a review that didn’t go India’s way was a “game-changer” moment. Here’s what all he said at the presentation:On what went wrong“The wicket remained good throughout. We’ve been on the wrong side of the dew twice in two games, but that’s not an excuse. Especially with five down, giving 10 runs an over in the end was a bit of a harsh pill to swallow, but, look, it was very difficult to bowl in the end. The guys tried their best, but Ashton played a hell of a knock. [Peter] Handscomb played a really good innings too, to hold the innings together. [Usman] Khawaja was good again, but I think Ashton was the gamechanger.”If he took dew into account while opting to bat“[In the] last game we were told there was going to be dew, we were on the wrong side of that. We had a good wicket to bat on, [and] Australia would have done the same. So, again they just played better again in the second innings, and that’s something you just have to accept. It’s a record chase for them and they deserved to win in the end. So we wanted to bat first anyway. It was never a confusion in our minds, we wanted to bat first anyway.”On delaying the introduction of Yuzvendra Chahal (the legspinner came on to bowl after 19 overs when Australia were 105 for 2)“We had to get the fifth bowler out of the way. If Kedar [Jadhav] and Vijay [Shankar] were bowling with the dew, it was going to be even more difficult. It was always going to be tough for the bowlers who are not specialist bowlers, so we wanted to get the 10 overs out of the way first. We backed Chahal to bowl. He is a wristspinner and they go get some purchase off the pitch. But in the end, you can see it even standing now, it became too wet to bowl and just those last three-four overs for everyone was the difficult part. I think the first part of the bowling was fine, and they did a pretty good job. But in the end they were going pretty hard, and it was difficult to bowl in the right areas.”On how damaging the fielding goof-ups were“Yeah, crucial. We were sloppy in the field. We were not at our best, and we should have grabbed those chances and made the most of the opportunity when it came by. But the DRS call (when Turner was ruled not out on review for a caught behind when he was on 41 and Australia still needed 66 from 39 deliveries) as well, was a bit of a surprise for all of us. It’s becoming more of a talking point every game. It’s just not consistent at all, and that was a game-changer moment as well. But yeah, that’s more of an uncontrollable, but the controllable we had to do right, and we didn’t do it right, and the opportunity slipped away.”

England in control against Australia A while Lauren Winfield-Hill, Paige Scholfield post tons against Test side

Valkerie Baynes16-Jun-2023Tammy Beaumont scored a double-century as England Women piled on 510 runs in a day to build a huge 390-run lead against Australia A Women during a three-day warm-up for the Women’s Ashes Test at Trent Bridge next week.Beaumont retired out on 201 from 238 balls in Derby with England 611 for 7 in response to 221 all out by an Australia A side captained by left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen, the only member of Australia’s Test squad to move into the A side for the build-up game.Beaumont and Emma Lamb, who fell for 10 on Thursday when she was caught by Tahlia Wilson off the bowling of Maitlan Brown, are England’s incumbent Test openers, having done the job in last year’s draw with South Africa at Taunton. Heather Knight, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Sophia Dunkley all scored half-centuries and Amy Jones cruised to 88 off just 65 balls before Jonassen had her caught by Brown.Related

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Jones was full of praise for Beaumont’s knock, which resumed on 65 on the second morning with England 120 runs behind with nine wickets in hand. She shared a 170-run partnership with captain Knight for the second wicket and 148 with Sciver-Brunt, Knight’s deputy, for the third.”Five hundred runs in a day is a great effort and Tammy set that up brilliantly,” Jones said. “I thought it was an incredible innings really. I don’t remember any chances. She just looked really free flowing and soaked up pressure in the harder moments of the game as well, so she was brilliant and we had some good partnerships throughout which is good to see.”But an intriguing sub-plot was developing in Leicester, where England A, led by captain by Lauren Winfield-Hill, took a lead of 278 runs after two days of their three-day warm-up against Australia’s Test players. Winfield-Hill, who lost her England central contract ahead of this season amid a nine-month period of being overlooked for the senior side, reached 106 from 148 deliveries batting at No. 4 before legspinner Alana King had her caught by Georgia Wareham.Meanwhile Danni Wyatt, who is part of England’s Test squad but moved to the A side this week, scored 37 off 43 balls at No. 5 before she was trapped lbw by Australia pace spearhead Darcie Brown. Wyatt had moved to the top of the order in the shorter formats last year when Winfield-Hill lost her place during the 50-over World Cup and Beaumont was dropped from the T20 side ahead of the Commonwealth Games. Winfield-Hill made a return to T20Is during England’s winter tour of West Indies, twice batting at No. 3 below Wyatt, who has played 245 white-ball internationals but is yet to make her Test debut.Paige Scholfield, the leading run-scorer in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy so far this season, also scored a century, while Bess Heath and Grace Scrivens, who led England to the Under-19 T20 World Cup final earlier this year, scored a half-centuries against the Australians.Ashleigh Gardner, the Australian allrounder named Player of the Tournament after helping her side lift the T20 World Cup in February, didn’t bowl as a precaution after being hit on the right index finger while catching before play on Thursday. While there was some swelling, the injury didn’t trouble her while batting or fielding and she was expected to be fit for the Test starting on Thursday.England A closed on 562 for 9 in reply to Australia’s first-innings 284, which was built on opener Beth Mooney’s century. Kim Garth was the pick on a “tough day” for Australia’s bowlers, with 4 for 69, and King claimed three wickets.”There is a lot of positives to come out of it though,” Garth said. “I think we actually did quite well on a wicket that’s not offering much for the bowlers. Credit to them as well, they did bat very well. If you asked the coaching staff upstairs, I think they probably would have wanted a game like this rather than just cruising through three days of cricket so I think there’s plenty to take out of it into next week.”

Both captains played down the significance of Rashid Khan’s absence, with the Afghan spinner being rested

Mohammad Isam12-Jun-2023Bangladesh captain Litton Das believes their experience will give them the edge over Afghanistan in the one-off Test in Dhaka that begins on Wednesday. Litton is standing in for the regular captain Shakib Al Hasan who is out with a finger injury. His opposite number, Hashmatullah Shahidi, is also making his captaincy debut after being appointed two years ago.The other similarity between the two captains is the absence of their best bowler, respectively, from their attacks. While Shakib is out for a few weeks with the injury, the Afghanistan Cricket Board has rested Rashid Khan “to prioritize his long-term fitness”. Litton played down Rashid’s absence although the legspinner took 11 wickets in the only Test between the two sides four years ago. He said that Bangladesh’s maturity in Tests will keep them ahead of the visitors.”We will take them as seriously as we would have done with Rashid in their team,” Litton said. “Our last Test was in April after which we played a white-ball series. We play a lot of Tests, which gives us the advantage over them. It gives us a better level of maturity in this format. We don’t have a great idea about them. They play a lot of ODIs and T20s, which makes it hard to judge them in Tests. We have a plan in our mind, and if we can execute it, we will get a good result.”Related

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Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said that they will miss Rashid, but they have options in both the pace and spin departments to make up for his absence. He said that legspinner Izharulhaq Naveed, who impressed during last season’s Big Bash League, could step up”It will be challenging. We all know that Rashid is one of the main bowler in our team. He did very well in the past in Test matches. Still we have another option like wristspinners and they will perform well .”He (Izharulhaq) played good cricket. He played in the Big Bash. T20 cricket is different. He did very good in the past in age-group cricket also and so he will be one of the biggest star in future for Afghanistan.”I think both Shakib and Rashid are rested. We have good quality players and we have good quality players, and other options to win the game for us and I think that would be the point,” said Shahidi.He was also confident that even if Mirpur dished out a greenish pitch, Afghanistan had the pace firepower to take advantage of it. “I think we saw the pitch today and they made it green and that’s fine for us because we have good seamers and we have good spinning options as well so we will be thinking of our own strength and what we have and what we have to work and we are ready for everything,” said Shahidi.Litton countered the point by saying that they wanted to challenge themselves on a green wicket in Mirpur, having played on raging turners here for most of its existence. “Mirpur has had a turning wicket for most of the time. We want to challenge ourselves on a grassy pitch. We want to see how we can survive here and play a long innings.”It is quite normal to want to play on an even wicket. We also have a quality pace attack. You would need five bowlers on such a wicket too. This is what I prefer,” said Litton.He will be Bangladesh’s 12th Test captain and although it is a stopgap option, Litton believes that he has been helping out in the field as a wicketkeeper for quite some time. Litton made 800 runs last year, only the third Bangladeshi to reach that landmark in a calendar year in Tests. But there’s still some concern about his conversion rate.”I have been doing this in the field for a long time, so it is not really a major challenge. I will have to run things in the field. There’s a ‘captain’ added next to my name. As for my batting, it is important to have the focus. It helps you read the game better. When I get into that mindset, I want to play a big innings,” he said.As for Afghanistan’s batting, Shahidi has to bank on memory, and recent white-ball form. “We have batsmen that we can trust. They did well in the past. We also have someone who played good cricket in ODIs recently – Ibrahim Zadran. Rahmat Shah is doing well. I scored a double-hundred in the last Test against Zimbabwe.”We have other promising batsmen also and I believe our batsmen will do very good and we will keep improving day by day and match by match in batting department.”

Nagraj Gollapudi05-Nov-2018Gautam Gambhir has criticised the Cricket Association of Bengal’s decision to invite former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin to ring the bell at Eden Gardens before the start of the first T20I between India and West Indies on Sunday. Azharuddin was banned for life by BCCI in 2000 for his role in the match-fixing scandal and soon after that Sourav Ganguly, now the CAB president, was made India captain.Azharuddin, who played 99 Test matches, has always insisted he was innocent and, in 2012, a division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court called the BCCI life ban illegal. He attempted last year to contest elections to the Hyderabad Cricket Association, but his nomination was rejected on technical grounds.Regardless of the controversy around him, Azharuddin has retained a place in India’s cricketing fraternity and has even conducted camps for youngsters around the country. Before ringing the bell on Sunday, he was part of the Jagmohan Dalmiya Conclave, a series of programmes conducted by the CAB in memory of the former BCCI president.Gambhir became the first player to voice opposition against Azharuddin being brought back into cricketing activities.”India may have won today at Eden but I am sorry @bcci, CoA &CAB lost,” Gambhir tweeted on Sunday night. “Looks like the No Tolerance Policy against Corrupt takes a leave on Sundays! I know he was allowed to contest HCA polls but then this is shocking….The bell is ringing, hope the powers that be are listening,”Commentator and former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar also made an indirect reference to the issue, referring to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report on the fixing case. “Guess the time has come for all of us to reacquaint ourselves with one of the most crucial documents on Indian cricket,” Manjrekar tweeted, along with a link to the report.Azharuddin rang the Eden Gardens bell a week after Ganguly revealed his “deep sense of fear and worry” at how Indian cricket was being run by the current administration led by the Committee of Administrators (CoA). Ganguly was part of a core group of players also including Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman that is widely seen to have helped repair Indian cricket after the fixing scandal hit it with full force in 2000. Ganguly is now seen as a future BCCI president.Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman at the launch of Sachin Tendulkar’s autobiography

Several big names were implicated in the 2000 fixing scandal, including former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje. The case was handled by India’s CBI, which concluded that Azharuddin was involved in match-fixing.In its report, the CBI said: “The evidence against Azharuddin … clearly establishes the fact that he took money from bookies/punters to fix cricket matches and also the fact that the ‘underworld’ had approached him to fix matches for them.”Azharuddin, in his statement to the CBI, had admitted to receiving money from the bookie Mukesh Gupta to fix some matches, but has stated that he “did” only two matches for him – an admission the CBI called “a dilution of the actual facts”.The government then forwarded those findings to the BCCI, which appointed former CBI joint director K Madhavan as the inquiry commissioner. Madhavan’s inquiry found Azharuddin guilty and the BCCI banned him for life. The BCCI also imposed life bans on former Delhi and India batsman Ajay Sharma and Indian team physiotherapist Ali Irani, and five-year bans on batsman Ajay Jadeja and allrounder Manoj Prabhakar.In his appeal to the High Court, Azharuddin challenged Madhavan’s appointment, saying the BCCI rules did not have any provision for an inquiry commissioner and so any conclusion reached by the commissioner should be invalid. In 2012, the Court upheld Azharuddin’s appeal on the technicality relating to the appointment of inquiry commissioner.Azharuddin then approached the BCCI for a revocation of the life ban, but the ban has never been formally revoked. ESPNcricinfo understands that the BCCI was on the verge of challenging the court’s order, but turned its focus towards the IPL corruption scandal that broke in 2013, and has since not pursued the case. The matter came before the CoA last year, but it left the decision to the BCCI’s general body.No one at CAB, neither Ganguly or the secretary Avishek Dalmiya, were available for comment in response to Gambhir’s tweet. It is also understood that the CoA will not interfere in the matter, as it was the CAB that had invited Azharuddin.

Allrounder hits fifty and takes two parsimonious wickets as Vipers scramble last-ball single to tie

ECB Reporters Network15-Aug-2019Southern Vipers and Lancashire Thunder produced a thrilling tie under the Hove lights in the Kia Super League.On a slow pitch Thunder’s 132 for 7 didn’t look enough but by the seventh over of their reply Vipers had slumped to 24 for 4. Stafanie Taylor and Maia Bouchier appeared to be taking Vipers to victory but the game seemed to swing back Lancashire’s way again in the 19th over when Taylor was bowled sweeping Sophie Ecclestone, who then ran out Bouchier for 40 with a direct hit on the turn.Vipers needed 12 off the final over and were back in control when Amanda-Jade Wellington struck the first two balls from Emma Lamb to the boundary only to be stumped off the next. Tash Farrant scrambled two off the fourth delivery but was bowled attempting a reverse-hit off the fifth. Carla Rudd could only manage a single off the final ball to leave the scores level.Skipper Kate Cross had made the breakthrough in the second over when Danni Wyatt feathered an edge to the wicketkeeper before Suzie Bates played on to Ecclestone in the next over. Thea Brookes mistimed a drive to mid-off to give Cross a second wicket and Lancashire appeared to be in control when Tammy Beaumont squirted a delivery well outside off stump from Emma Lamb to point in the seventh over.But player of the match Taylor, who had earlier taken 2 for 23, and Bouchier turned things around in a terrific stand of 94 in 12 overs which got Vipers’ target down to 15 off 12. Taylor took her aggregate in four innings to 173 runs as she hit Sophia Dunkley for two sixes and also struck four boundaries in 51 from 43 ballsHaving won the toss Thunder found themselves in early trouble when they lost openers Tahlia McGrath and Sune Luus in the first two overs. McGrath steered Farrant’s third ball to backward point and Luus was run out by Wyatt’s accurate throw from deep mid-wicket as she came back for a second.Skipper Beaumont mixed up her bowlers effectively and Vipers were in control when New Zealand leg-spinner Wellington came on in the seventh over to pick up two wickets and reduce Thunder to 28 for 4. A promising start by Dunkley ended when she drilled a return catch back to the bowler and Georgie Boyce played across a quicker delivery to fall for a two-ball duck.Thunder fought back through Harmanpreet Kaur and Lamb, who shared 62 in seven overs for the fifth wicket and played with increasing confidence. Harmanpreet appeared to be moving through the gears when she drove Taylor over extra cover for six and hit the next ball for four but she was caught on the mid-wicket boundary for 34 off the next delivery. Lamb fell for 29 off 24 balls in the next over when she became Wellington’s third victim.Thunder were 94 for 7 in the 16th but Cross and Ecclestone put on 38 for the seventh wicket and they proved to be crucial runs.

Facing protests from other state associations, the BCCI has revoked the special allowance granted to Puducherry concerning outstation players

Nagraj Gollapudi20-Sep-2018Facing protests from other state associations, the BCCI has revoked the special allowance granted to Puducherry concerning outstation players.Puducherry is one of the nine new teams that the BCCI inducted into domestic cricket as per the Lodha Committee recommendations approved by the Supreme Court. Keeping in mind the unique challenge the Union Territory faced in terms of recruiting local talent, the board relaxed the rules that defined who a local player is.Originally, it was one who had a birth certificate from that state, or was an employee of an organisation in the jurisdiction of that state in the last one year, or a student of an institution in the jurisdiction of that state since August 2017. But the BCCI, with the approval of the Committee of Administrators, gave special allowance to Puducherry, permitting the registration of even those players who have only been working or studying there since August 2018.Some of the other new states objected to Puducherry being given special privileges. For several decades, the BCCI has put a cap of three outstation players, known as professionals, per team. Most times, these professionals are senior players who move out of their native state to play/mentor/coach weaker teams.Puducherry had filled their quota with the appointments of Abhishek Nayar (former Mumbai captain and allrounder), Pankaj Singh (former Rajasthan captain) and Paras Dogra (former Himachal Pradesh batsman) but still went ahead and bought more players who, until recently, had been involved with other states. Many of them were part of Puducherry’s first-ever game on Wednesday in the Vijay Hazare Trophy against Manipur, with media reports suggesting there were no local players in the XI.One of the objections came from Ratnakar Shetty, former general manager, game development at BCCI. Currently the convener of the cricket consensus committee at Uttarakhand Cricket Association as well as part of the committee of administrators at Hyderabad Cricket Association, he said eligibility rules ought to be uniform for every team participating in any tournament.”I was shocked to hear that BCCI has given special permission to include more than the (cap on the) number of outstation players in the team,” Shetty wrote in an e-mail to BCCI CEO Rahul Johri which was published by the . “This kills the spirit of the game and the rules of level playing field that was aimed when the eligibility rules were framed.”It also raises the question as to why only Puducherry has been given the special status. I am sorry to say that this decision is not in the interest of domestic cricket and will lead to lot of corrupt practices in future. It also puts all the other states where there was strict compliance to a disadvantage.”The entire purpose behind the Lodha Committee recommending that every state in India have its own cricket team was to encourage local talent to come to the fore. It is understood that though not everyone in the BCCI was convinced about allowing more than the permissible number of outstation players to Puducherry, the CoA pointed out that, for this season, the eligibility norms could be relaxed.The BCCI inducted the Cricket Association of Pondicherry as an associate member last month and told them to start registering players who fulfilled the board’s criteria – employees or students of the state since August 2017. But having just taken root, the CAP requested for more time and was told by the BCCI that it was willing to relax the rules. Accordingly, some outstation players enrolled themselves in local educational institutions or organisations in August to become eligible to play for Puducherry.However, with objections mounting, the BCCI seems to have changed its mind, revoking the special allowance to Puducherry, starting from their next match on Friday. A CAP official confirmed that a “request” had come from the board, asking them to pick only those players registered before August 31, 2017 in the XI and that they would oblige to it.

The 38-year-old allrounder has informed the selectors that he wants to focus on his limited-overs career

Umar Farooq04-Dec-2018Pakistan allrounder Mohammad Hafeez, 38, will retire from Test cricket after the ongoing third game against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi, having informed chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq that he wants to focus on his limited-overs career.”Today, I want to announce my retirement from the Test-match format so that I can focus my energies on playing for Pakistan in the white-ball formats,” Hafeez said after the second day’s play. “I am eyeing to represent Pakistan in the ICC World Cup next year. I feel honoured that I represented the country in 55 Test matches, including the opportunity of captaining the team. I feel satisfied that I performed to the best of my abilities in my 15 year-long Test career.”I wish the Test team the very best for their upcoming assignments starting with the tour to South Africa, the team management especially the coach and captain have worked very hard in forming an exciting core of players that can serve for long.”PCB chairman Ehsan Mani paid tribute to Hafeez, saying his contribution in Test cricket “will be remembered for a long time”.”Hafeez gave some memorable and matching-winning performances for Pakistan in the Test match format,” Mani said. “He lent great balance to the XI with his bowling abilities.”One of the longest-serving international cricketers left in the game, Hafeez made his debut in both Test and ODI cricket in 2003. He marked his international debut with a half-century in a seven-wicket win against Sri Lanka in Sharjah that April, in Pakistan’s first ODI since their disappointing showing at the 2003 World Cup.In all he made 10 Test hundreds in his 15-year career, all of them coming in Asian conditions, including a best of 224 against Bangladesh in Khulna in 2015. His highest score elsewhere was a hard-fought 95 against England at The Oval in 2006, that would surely have set his team up for victory but for the subsequent forfeiture of the match due to a ball-tampering furore.Hafeez announced his decision after he had managed only 39 runs in four innings and went wicketless against New Zealand. Having been dismissed by Trent Boult for a duck on Tuesday, he could have one final chance to add to his 3644 Test runs, should Pakistan return to bat in their second innings.Hafeez’s international career appeared to be winding down after he was downgraded in Pakistan’s central contract list in August this year, and he even contemplated retirement. But his wife Nazia, along with the former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, talked him out of it.After a late call-up to the Pakistan Test squad for their two-Test series against Australia in October, Hafeez marked his return with a hundred in a double-century opening stand with Imam-ul-Haq. Their 205-run partnership in the first Test in Dubai was was only the 10th double-century opening stand made against Australia in Test cricket. However, in seven innings since his 126 in Dubai, he has not passed 20.

New Zealand suffer first defeat despite belligerent Glenn Phillips half-century

Matt Roller01-Nov-2022Ten days into the Super 12s, England finally turned up at the T20 World Cup and delivered a clinical performance in a must-win game against New Zealand at the Gabba. Victory in their final group game against Sri Lanka on Saturday should be enough to send them through, barring a significant net run-rate swing.Jos Buttler chose to bat first on a used pitch and produced his first significant innings of the tournament, making a superbly-paced 73 off 47 balls after two reprieves to set up England’s total of 179. He became England’s leading scorer in men’s T20Is in the process, on the night he won his 100th cap.New Zealand, who would have qualified for the knockout stages with a win, looked well-placed in the chase. After 14.4 overs, they were 119 for 2 as Glenn Phillips, picking up from where he left off against Sri Lanka, dominated a 91-run partnership with a slow-scoring Kane Williamson.Related

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But unlike in last year’s semi-final in Abu Dhabi, a game which loomed large over Tuesday night’s match in Brisbane, England managed to strike regularly towards the end: Ben Stokes removed Williamson, Mark Wood rushed James Neesham, and Sam Curran closed out the win with a superb spell at the death.New Zealand’s net run rate is healthy enough that they will almost certainly qualify for the semi-finals by beating Ireland by any margin in their final group game, while Australia’s title defence is hanging by a thread on home soil: they either need to beat Afghanistan and hope England fail to beat Sri Lanka in Sydney, or thrash Afghanistan to ensure they overtake England on NRR.Buttler sets England up
Under Eoin Morgan, England were a chasing team: he did not choose to bat first in a T20I once in his last five-and-a-half years as captain. Under Buttler, there has been a shift: they have now won seven out of eight completed games when batting first since the start of July, and have posted at least 175 every time.After a relatively quiet start, seeing off Trent Boult and Tim Southee’s new-ball bursts, Alex Hales took charge in the second half of the powerplay, racing to 37 off 25 as England took 48 from the first six overs. He hit the first ball of the fifth over straight back over Southee’s head for six, then hit back-to-back boundaries through the off side.Williamson thought he had taken a huge catch to dismiss Buttler for 8 in the final powerplay over, diving low to his left to snaffle a miscue off Mitchell Santner, but replays confirmed the ball had squirmed through his hands and hit the ground before he snaffled it at the second attempt. He apologised, and said afterwards: “I knew I’d bobbled it and thought I’d squeezed it into my chest… a little bit embarrassing in the end.”England struggled against spin through the middle on a used pitch which offered plenty for Santner and Ish Sodhi, who took 2 for 48 in eight overs between them. Hales was stumped while charging Santner after reaching a 39-ball half-century, and Buttler was dropped again on 40 when Daryl Mitchell put down a straightforward chance off Lockie Ferguson.England scrape past par
England shuffled their batting line-up, with Moeen Ali promoted to No. 3 with a licence to take down spin and Dawid Malan ending up as low as No. 8. Moeen holed out to long-on before Buttler reached a 35-ball fifty, while Liam Livingstone’s bright cameo was ended by a brilliant Ferguson yorker as he attempted back-to-back scoops.New Zealand dragged things back with regular wickets: Harry Brook was caught at long-on looking for back-to-back sixes, Buttler was run out and Stokes was pinned lbw by Ferguson, but England’s lower-middle order kept on swinging and scrambled up to 179, which looked just above par.Phillips on fire
Buttler threw Moeen the new ball and was nearly rewarded with the wicket of Devon Conway, who dragged his back foot behind the crease just before Buttler whipped the bails off after Moeen beat him on the outside edge. Buttler himself was key to the wicket when Conway did fall, flinging himself low to his right as Conway attempted a paddle-scoop off Chris Woakes.When Finn Allen fell to Curran’s short ball, picking out Stokes on the rope, New Zealand were 28 for 2 after five overs and struggling, but Phillips was quickly up and running. He started streakily, inside-edging a 96mph/155kph Wood thunderbolt – the quickest ball of the World Cup to date – past his leg stump, and then survived thanks to an inexplicable drop from Moeen.Facing Adil Rashid, Phillips skewed a leading edge straight to Moeen at cover, who seemed to take his eye off the ball or lose it in the lights. He failed even to get a hand to a straightforward chance, and when Phillips crunched three sixes over the short midwicket boundary in quick succession – one off Wood, and two in a row off Rashid – it looked as though it would prove a costly drop.Clutch Curran
Stokes, who had hurt his left index finger while taking the catch to dismiss Allen, removed Williamson in his only over, the ball steered to Rashid at short third, and Buttler sensed an opportunity. He brought Wood back for the 16th over, a move vindicated by Neesham’s miscued pull, which Curran settled underneath at deep midwicket and celebrated with a roar as he turned to the crowd.Woakes, whose 19th over in the 2021 semi-final had cost 20 runs, then struck at the death as England closed in, having Daryl Mitchell caught at long-on off a slower ball by Chris Jordan, on as a substitute fielder for Livingstone. Curran then removed Phillips to end the game as a contest, again caught by Jordan, and closed it out with a combination of yorkers, bouncers and slower balls at the death.

Six men’s titles in two seasons has cemented this WA side as the dominant force in the Australian game

Tristan Lavalette26-Mar-2023Not long after Cameron Bancroft’s boundary sealed Western Australia’s Sheffield Shield title defence, those left marvelling at cricket’s undisputed domestic powerhouse were trying to pinpoint their seemingly magical formula for success.WA’s nine-wicket victory over Victoria in the final at the capped their second straight season of capturing a treble of domestic titles when put alongside Perth Scorchers’ BBL successes.Even though the hierarchy at the WACA prefer a measured approach, which is drilled down into their players, talk of a dynasty was unavoidable after WA had won their sixth straight title.Victoria coach Chris Rogers is perhaps well placed to judge where this WA team stacks up in history having been at the helm of consecutive unsuccessful Shield finals against his home state.Related

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• 'I thought that my red-ball career had passed me by' – Turner after drought-breaking century

• Western Australia's trophy surge continues with back-to-back Sheffield Shield titles

As a gritty opener, Rogers was coming through the WA ranks during the late 1990s when the stacked team was led by legendary skipper Tom Moody and featured Test legends Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn and Mike Hussey amongst others.He sees parallels with the likes of teenaged Teague Wyllie and emerging allrounder Aaron Hardie destined for international opportunities having played valuable roles in WA’s back-to-back Shield triumphs.”I started playing when we had all the legends under Tom Moody and that was an incredible side and this side is doing great things if not better than that era,” Rogers said. “They’ve got a great squad and amazing depth.”WA’s eventual comprehensive triumph masked periods in a see-saw of final where they were seriously challenged by an emerging Victoria looking to kick-start a successful era of their own.Like they’ve shown repeatedly in recent years through the various formats, WA proved decisive in key moments especially on day two when they slumped to 4 for 53 in their first innings in reply to Victoria’s 195.
On a green-tinged surface against a strong Victoria attack, WA was in a precarious position until composed veteran Ashton Turner came to the rescue with a game-changing cavalier century to restore his team’s advantage.He combined in key partnerships with Hardie, Josh Philippe and Joel Paris to deflate Victoria who could never recover.”We speak as a group a lot about key moments in games and a theme for this week was ‘walk towards the pressure’,” said Paris, who combined with Turner in an invaluable 105-run partnership while also taking five wickets for the match.”They put a lot of pressure on us. Ash and I spoke about how we wanted to keep them out there as long as possible. We cashed in on the back end and got us to the lead which made it really tough for them.”WA’s sustained success has been built around a local core and continuity with the only change from last year’s title-winning side being Turner replacing recently retired Shaun Marsh.”All of us are from WA originally. A lot of the players have played together or against each other since we were playing Under 9s and 10s,” Paris said. “When you’re on the road as much as we are throughout the season, the closeness of the group is super important.”We understand each other as cricketers and people better than anyone and that certainly goes a long way when we’re out in the middle.”Ashton Turner has not been a regular in red-ball cricket but played the defining innings•Getty Images

The tight knit nature of the playing group memorably reared when Turner reached his first Shield century in more than five years, triggering raw emotion from his teammates in the dressing room.”My favourite moment was seeing AT score a hundred,” said Bancroft, who was part of all three titles this season. “It’s been a big journey for him in red-ball cricket. He spoke that morning [on day two] about being really brave and taking the game on, which is what he does best. To watch that come into action was pretty special and something all the team is proud of.”The camaraderie is a far cry from the dark days of WA cricket in the 2000s during a period marked by ill-discipline and little silverware leading to the recruitment of Langer as coach in 2012.”We’ve been building for some time. [The turnaround] probably started when JL came on board and he showed the core group of players that we have now what it truly means to be professional athletes and professional cricketers,” Paris said. “Winning Shield titles is so hard. We’ve identified this as a special group….I’m really lucky to be a part of.”While WA’s players were diplomatic of their feats as per the organisation’s well-worn mantra, the revelry was starting to kick-in from the terraces with those involved savouring this new golden era.”Six titles in a couple of years is pretty unheard of. The challenge is to keep being consistent,” Bancroft said. “But that’s not a conversation for today. We’ll enjoy tonight and this win.”

England have won a Test match, at the ninth time of asking – and it was a handsome victory in the final analysis too

The Report by Andrew Miller03-Jun-20181:32

Root unsurprised to see Buttler and Bess flourish

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Live Report archiveThis is not a drill. England have won a Test match, at the ninth time of asking – and it was a handsome victory in the final analysis too. A three-day win, sealed in an extended afternoon session after a day of relentless dominance, ensured a 1-1 share of the two-match series, and postponed – at least until August and the arrival of Virat Kohli’s India – the existential angst that has hung over Joe Root’s team in the early weeks of the season.In an uplifting development for England’s medium-term prospects, the day was delivered in a pleasing synthesis of old guard and new. James Anderson and Stuart Broad topped and tailed Pakistan’s second innings with a share of five wickets, as they continued to rail against those who might seek to have them put out to pasture. However, it was the young guns, Dom Bess and Sam Curran, who hustled England towards their goal, as well as a notable returnee, Jos Buttler, who delivered the point-of-difference innings for which he had been selected.For Bess, in particular, it was an especially triumphant day. Rarely can a 20-year-old have looked quite so at home and composed at the highest level of the game, especially when he had hardly been called upon to perform the role for which he had been selected.And yet, Bess hasn’t wasted a minute of his seven days in the Test limelight. Having made his mark with the bat – both in adversity at Lord’s and in forging a position of relative authority in England’s only innings here – he had time here to showcase his athleticism in the field before being finally tossed the ball for the 23rd over of Pakistan’s second innings: a stunning one-handed pluck at mid-off to extract the dangerous Haris Sohail was a pretty impressive way to pass his time.When his spell finally began, Imam-ul-Haq greeted Bess with a fairly contemptuous smack back down the pitch – a continuation of Pakistan’s rather breakneck approach to their second innings, as if they had sized up Buttler’s earlier belligerence and decided that attack was the only means of defending their hard-won series lead.But to the bowler’s immense credit, he refused to be cowed, or to desist from tossing the ball up and inviting further aggression. From the sixth ball of that very same over, he slid one into Imam’s front pad, benefiting from the natural variation that can occur when you consistently target the footholes, and up went umpire Bruce Oxenford’s finger to end a wait that a less ebullient character would surely have allowed to cramp his style.A change of ends for Bess allowed his fellow rookie (and birthday boy) Sam Curran to join the fray – and in his second over he too was in the wickets, properly this time, after his maiden Test wicket had been a first-innings slog to deep midwicket. This time, a perfect off-stump lifter to Shadab Khan, the game’s only remaining teenager, was deflected to Alastair Cook at first slip, and one of Pakistan’s most reliable sources of runs in their victories at Lord’s and Malahide had been dispatched for just 4.Thereafter, it was back to Bess to make up for lost time – as Pakistan continued to bat as if running out of time. Faheem Ashraf, perfectly capable of playing the long game when it suits him, chose instead to take a slog outside off and skied a simple catch to backward point. And then Usman Salahuddin – hitherto batting with the patience of a player who has waited seven years to get his big break – was lured inexplicably into a rash swipe to mid-on.Bess’ figures at this stage were 3 for 21 in 8.2 overs, and not even a massive first-ball mow over deep midwicket from Hasan Ali could wipe the grin from his face. Quite rightly, Joe Root trusted him to close out the contest, and to judge by the number of air shots that landed safe in the closing overs, he would surely have done so, had it not been for the old stager Broad, who docked the tail via two old-school nicks to slip in consecutive overs to wrap up a point-proving display with match figures of 6 for 66.That wasn’t, however, the most devilish array of sixes in the day’s play. That accolade was reserved for Buttler, who transcended the tricky conditions, the seeping of English wickets at the other end, and his own lack of familiarity with first-class cricket to tailor the contest to his own strengths. In essence, that involved planting his front foot, flinging his ninja-quick wrists through the line of the ball, and belting England into an invincible position before the innings had fully ebbed away.Having resumed on 34 overnight – Buttler duly became the first man in the innings to pass fifty, and had he been allowed to loiter for a further three overs, he might well have recorded the first century of the series to boot. His final 11 balls went for 4, 6, 1, 1, 1, 4, 4, dot, 4, 6 and 4 – 35 runs in all – but at the other end, Broad and Anderson, in this discipline at least, were unable to fulfil their sides of the bargain.It mattered not in the end – England are off the mark for their home summer. And Buttler, having segued seamlessly from the IPL to Test cricket in only a matter of days, seemed perfectly primed to take on Scotland and Australia in the middle-distance 50-over format. It all comes rather quickly at the moment, triumph and disaster as well.