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Eddie Byrom fifty guides hosts to resounding win over Worcestershire

ECB Reporters Network13-May-2023Glamorgan 258 (Neser 86, Finch 5-74) and 82 for 0 (Byrom 51*, Lloyd 30*) beat Worcestershire 109 (Roderick 38, Harris 4-18, Neser 4-40) and 227 (Waite 45, van der Gugten 5-48) by 10 wicketsTimm van der Gugten cemented his place as the season’s leading bowler in the LV= Insurance County Championship Division Two with his third five-wicket hall of the campaign as Glamorgan wrapped up victory against Worcestershire on the third day in Cardiff.Glamorgan won by 10 wickets after they finished off the Worcestershire second innings inside the first hour of day three. Set a target of just 79 to win, Glamorgan were seen home by Eddie Byrom, who top scored with 51, and David Lloyd.After the Worcestershire top order had failed for the second time in the match it was left to the tail to set a challenging target, but only 32 runs were added on the third morning before they were bowled out for 227.This win gives Glamorgan their first victory of the season and 20 points to keep them in the hunt for a promotion spot. Worcestershire have now lost two and drawn two since their opening-round victory against Derbyshire.No runs had been added to the overnight score when Glamorgan got their first breakthrough as Matthew Waite was bowled off an inside edge by Jamie McIlroy. Waite is Worcestershire’s leading run-scorer this season and his innings of 45 was the highest score by his team in this match. His wicket left Worcestershire eight wickets down and only 45 runs in front.Van der Gugten completed his five-wicket haul when he had Josh Tongue caught at point by Byrom. Joe Leach scored 24, an innings that included the only six of the match, before he was bowled by a ball that kept low from James Harris. As the last wicket fell Worcestershire were 78 runs in front.The pitch started slow and without much bounce and these features only became more pronounced as the match wore on. Despite this, the Worcestershire bowlers did not have enough runs to defend.Lloyd and Byrom took Glamorgan to 34 without loss at lunch, meaning they needed anther 45 runs to win after the interval. The two carried on as they had started after the break as they saw their side home with an unbroken stand of 82.

Starc will be part of a star-studded New South Wales attack as Australia frontline quicks tune up for the India Tests

Daniel Brettig14-Nov-2018Mitchell Starc has been released from his AUD1.8 million IPL contract with Kolkata Knight Riders ahead of a 2019 that features the World Cup and an Ashes tour, as Cricket Australia haggles with player managers over the balance between international commitments and T20 riches.While players complained to the Simon Longstaff/Rick McCosker cultural review of CA that they were too often treated as commodities, the market value of Australia’s best fast bowlers is a source of increasing debate. Starc, who will join Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon in New South Wales’ Sheffield Shield match against Queensland in Canberra from Saturday, said he was happy to prioritise internationals over the IPL, but admitted the security of a longer-term CA deal would be attractive.India’s captain Virat Kohli has sought assurances that his best fast men would not have to push through a full IPL schedule ahead of next year’s World Cup in England, and it has been revealed that the agent – and players’ union executive member and Cricket NSW Board director – Neil Maxwell was seeking a longer-term contract for his client Cummins from the departing team performance manager Pat Howard. That discussion will now sit with the interim performance chief Belinda Clark.”I got a text message two days ago from the owners of Kolkata saying I’ve been released from my contract, so at the moment I’ll be home in April,” Starc said in Sydney. “It’s an interesting one. As far as I’m aware everyone’s on one year at the moment [with CA]. It’s a bit of a changing time with people at CA and that’s a better question for those behind the scenes with CA with what they want to do with contracting. For us we’re not so worried about contracts at the moment, it’s about performing on the field and that will take care of the rest of it come contract time whenever that is.”I’m sure it would [provide security] for a lot of people, it’s probably no different to working life outside of the sporting field. When you look at some of the dollars involved in the IPL and some for the T20 leagues around the world, for guys who might be on the fringe or what to concentrate on T20 cricket, it’s very beneficial to play. At the moment for me I just want to play as much Test and one-day cricket as I can, and the IPL is a lovely bonus on the pay packet, but if I miss that to play more Test matches, I’m taking that option.”The jumbled international schedule will see Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins and Lyon playing Shield cricket opposite Australia playing T20s against South Africa and India, as they prioritise the Test matches to follow. “That was essentially the reason we weren’t considered for the T20s at all, to try and get some red ball cricket ahead of the Test matches coming up,” Starc said. “Whether we play one or two Shield games it’s important we get some good game time with bat and ball against the red one and try to perform coming into that first Test.”As bowlers we’re under no illusion that you can’t play every game and it is very important for us to find that red ball form heading into a massive Test series as well. I think I’ve played two T20 games in the last four years. Although it’d be nice to play every game that you can for Australia when available, you’ve got to look at the bigger picture sometimes and for us it’s performing the best we can in Test cricket for Australia.”Test cricket is definitely the No. 1 for me, but I’m playing one-day cricket as well and that’s another format that I love and we’ve got a World Cup coming up next year as well. I love playing Shield cricket, love playing Test match cricket, you can’t play every game on the schedule, it’s keeping one eye on what’s coming up and that’s a massive Test series, so for us its preparing through Shield cricket and heading into the back end of the summer come February and March, it’s a lot of one-day cricket heading into that World Cup. So you do have to change with different times of the year.”Speaking on Howard’s final official day at CA, after seven years of increasing micromanagement for fast bowlers, Starc said that the imperfect science behind decisions on when he and his pace compatriots would continue to divide opinion. “I don’t think there’s a perfect way to do it,” he said. “With the schedule the way it is, how much cricket we’ve got on when guys are injured and you’ve got a lot of people out, there’s no perfect answer.”No matter which way you go, someone’s always going to be on their back about it and there’s plenty of people writing or talking about it. They’re not trying to stop us play cricket, they’re trying to look after bowlers. It’s not about stopping them bowling, it’s about being smarter around training and preparation. There’s a lot of sports science these days, they’re in the job to help bowlers bowl for longer, and faster and stay on the park.”Starc was shifted from taking the new ball to first change in the opening ODI against South Africa, a gamble that was quickly backtracked upon by the captain Aaron Finch, but said he was quite prepared to alter his role in the national side if it meant better results over the next nine months up to and including the World Cup, which was won by Australia at home in 2015.”It was a different role for me the other day, and it changed pretty quickly from the plan that it was going to be, a small target to defend and I had to come on earlier than what Finchy may have wanted,” Starc said. “Coults [Nathan Coulter-Nile] had been swinging the ball and bowling fast and had opened the bowling for Australia when a few of us weren’t around.”We’ve got a group of bowlers who can perform different roles at different stages. Whether that means my role changes or whether I go back to the new ball role, you’ve just got to be flexible. It’s period where we need to find our way to win cricket games. If that means going away from what we’ve done in the past and my role changes, then so be it.”

Kuldeep, Pant to be named in squad for five-Test series in August and September

Nagraj Gollapudi17-Jul-2018India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is likely to miss the first part of the five-match England Test series, starting on August 1. ESPNcricinfo understands that Bumrah has still not recovered from the thumb injury he suffered during India’s first match of the UK tour, their opening T20 against Ireland last month.Bumrah is likely to be left out of the Test squad, which will be released by the BCCI on Wednesday. It is is understood the selectors have opted to include the left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav, who made such an impact in the T20 and ODIs against England, and wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who gets a maiden Test call. Also making a comeback is Indian strike bowler Mohammed Shami, who had to sit out the majority of the IPL due to a hamstring injury.Shami was originally meant to be in the reckoning for the limited-overs squads in England, but he failed the mandatory yo-yo fitness test, which he eventually cleared recently. Shami is likely to be part of a fast-bowling contingent comprising Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. The allrounder Hardik Pandya is also included among the seam-bowling options.Kuldeep, who was India’s highest wicket-taker in the limited-overs leg of the England tour, will be part of a three-man spin pack comprising R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.But it is the inclusion of Pant which a significant move on the part of the selectors. With Wriddhiman Saha still recovering from a thumb injury picked up in the IPL, Dinesh Karthik is the first-choice wicketkeeper. Pant, who has played in four T20Is, might come as a surprise pick considering experts have pointed out his wicketkeeping skills aren’t yet of the highest quality.Pant is currently in the UK playing for India A against the Lions in Worcester. He has 15 dismissals on the A tour.Talking at the post-match presentation after losing the ODI series 2-1 in Leeds, India captain Virat Kohli said that he and the selectors did not need to take any hard decisions.”Our squad is pretty settled. We are really excited to be going into a lengthy Test series. It is going to be very challenging, but something that we are looking forward to as a side. We want to play hard cricket. We want to play tough cricket, which I’m sure the English team would provide us. It is going to be a hard-fought series between two quality sides.”The selectors are also understood to have overlooked Rohit Sharma, who scored two centuries in the limited-overs leg of the England series. Rohit was in contention for the middle-order role, but a patchy series in South Africa left the selectors and team management unsatisfied. Rohit was dropped from the one-off Afghanistan Test in June. Karun Nair is likely to be handed the extra batsman slot.

Afghanistan collapsed after the rain break to hand the Proteas an easy chase

The Report by Liam Brickhill15-Jun-2019South Africa have finally won one. So far have the Proteas’ stocks fallen in this tournament after three defeats and an unconvincing outing against West Indies, that an Afghan victory in this match was not unthinkable.But this was a make-or-break encounter for both teams, and it was Afghanistan who blinked – and broke – first, collapsing in a heap after they were unnerved by repeated rain breaks in the afternoon. Having been 39 for 0, Afghanistan’s disintegration began in earnest after the second – and longer – of two rain intervals as they lost four wickets in two overs to Imran Tahir’s guile and Andile Phehlukwayo’s wiles, slipping to 77 for 7.WATCH on Hotstar (India only) – Tahir’s four-wicket haulBut for Rashid Khan’s boshing, they might have folded for under 100. He cracked a rapid 35 from No. 9 to save some of Afghanistan’s blushes before they were bowled out for 125. All told, they had lost 10 for 86, with Tahir collecting 4 for 29 and Chris Morris 3 for 13. Phehlukwayo chimed in with two wickets of his own, and he also performed a crucial holding role, stringing together 36 dot balls as Afghanistan’s hit or miss (and today, it was usually miss) tactics backfired.As has been the case throughout their campaign so far, Afghanistan’s batsmen just didn’t score enough runs to give their busy, bustling bowling attack enough to work with. Had they managed to scrounge together even 250, there might have been a game on – Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla were kept to just 35 runs in the Powerplay, and endured some uncomfortable moments early on – but without a total to defend, any intensity remaining in the competition quickly dissipated.Faced with a chase that even they couldn’t muck up, South Africa rode on de Kock’s 72-ball 68 to secure a nine-wicket victory – and a vital two points – with slightly more than 21 overs to spare. But while de Kock and Amla’s 104-run opening stand settled the result, the match really turned on Tahir’s remarkable spin with the ball.This hasn’t been an easy World Cup for Tahir. He had only taken three wickets in four innings before this game, at an inflated average of 44 – easily his worst entry into a World Cup since he debuted at the 2011 tournament in India.He has also leaked runs, and been strangely reticent about using his googly so far in English conditions. Before this game, just 21% of his deliveries at the World Cup had gone the other way, and none of those had brought him a wicket. But today he threw his trust back into his variations, with devastating effect. His very first ball was a googly, and it snuck between the obdurate Noor Ali Zadran’s bat and pad to bowl him for 32 and turn a wobble into an outright collapse.Moments before, Phehlukwayo had found the edge of Hashratullah Shahidi’s bat, Faf du Plessis gobbling up the chance in the slips, as Afghanistan stumbled back into the game after an hour-long hiatus in proceedings while the rain fell. Moments later, Afghanistan were in the midst of a full blown meltdown as four wickets tumbled in the space of 10 balls.Two balls after Noor Ali was castled, a clueless Asghar Afghan popped back a simple return catch back at Tahir. In the next over, Mohammad Nabi chopped Phehlukwayo onto his own stumps, and soon afterwards Gulbadin Naib slapped a Tahir long-hop to midwicket, where Aiden Markram pulled off a two-handed blinder. For once, Tahir’s celebration was not a euphoric solo sprint as he instead charged straight to Markram. All three wickets – even the filthy half-tracker – had come from googlies.Rashid’s hitting then rescued Afghanistan from ignominy. Before he became a globetrotting, batsman-eating, legspinning T20 sensation, Rashid was a batsman in the typically forthright Afghan mode, and he showed glimpses of his early iteration in a death-or-glory cameo from No. 9.Rashid wore a Rabada stinger on the forearm, but also gave as good as he got, slamming a 90mph delivery handsomely over mid off to raise Afghanistan’s 100. He also bruised the figures of his legspinning compadre somewhat in the melee, sweeping and slashing three boundaries in four balls, but Tahir soon won the war. Rashid actually picked Tahir’s quicker one, and was aiming to add a six in the same over, but he could only get it as far as Rassie van der Dussen, right on the rope at deep midwicket.With minimal fuss, Chris Morris returned to mop up the tail, and South Africa’s target was a DLS-adjusted 127 from 48 overs. The key battle in the chase – and Afghanistan’s last, slim hope – was that between Rashid and South Africa’s embattled top order. After Hamid Hassan and Aftab Alam had kept things tight early on, he was introduced as early as the ninth over, but de Kock’s immediate response was to sweep his first ball powerfully to deep square leg.Having set down roots, de Kock took three more boundaries off Rashid – some more convincing than others – and raised his fifty in style in the 17th over, off the 58th ball he faced. With de Kock pushing the game along from the other end, Amla had the space and freedom to spend time at the crease and focus on playing himself back into a bit of form.Together they took South Africa beyond 100 in the 23rd over – the first century opening stand between the pair since their record-breaking partnership against Bangladesh almost two years ago. As the match got away from Afghanistan, their fielding – never their strongest suit – grew increasingly ragged, and the white flag was raised.Growing bored of circumspection, de Kock targeted Naib but Nabi pulled off a stunning intercept at midwicket to dismiss him for 68. By then, though, the job was as good as done. South Africa dawdled a little in sealing the deal, but Phehlukwayo – shunted up the order to No. 3 – eventually stepped out to slam Nabi down the ground for the first, and only, six of the day to secure a win and two points.South Africa might have attacked their total a little more earnestly, with an eye on their net run rate, but their campaign is nevertheless still alive after their first win at the fifth attempt. Afghanistan’s hopes of a dream run to the semi-finals have all but ended.

An untimely downpour put paid to Ben Stokes’ plans for an outdoor bowl in Auckland on Monday, but he came through a five-over spell in the Eden Park indoor school

Andrew McGlashan in Auckland19-Mar-2018An untimely downpour put paid to Ben Stokes’ plans for an outdoor bowl in Auckland on Monday, but he came through a five-over spell in the Eden Park indoor school and is on track to be able to bowl in the first Test against New Zealand.An ECB spokesman confirmed Stokes had come through his spell – his first serious bowl since the one-day series finished – with “no issues” and, weather permitting, would bowl outside on Tuesday and Wednesday. After the ODIs, Stokes suffered some back stiffness and required an injection last week in Hamilton.However, whether Stokes is able to provide a full fourth-seamer’s role in the Test could yet determine the balance of the side. He was not used for more than a five-over spell during the ODIs and has not bowled in a first-class match since the beginning of September.It may yet be a step too far for him to be entrusted with the workload Joe Root would want from one of his quick bowlers and could require another bowler to be picked at the expense of a batsman, with Stokes batting at No. 5. That would bring Craig Overton and Mark Wood into the frame, with the former the favourite if an extra seamer is required, and mean James Vince missing out.Meanwhile, Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket, has praised the way Stokes has gone about his cricket since returning for the one-day series in New Zealand and expects “more match-winning performances” after he was named Man of the Match in Mount Maunganui.”It has been a pretty fraught time for him and everyone involved in the situation,” Strauss told . “It has been a very difficult one for us to deal with but thankfully I think we’re through it now.”Ben’s doing what he does best, he’s representing England with an unbelievable amount of courage, passion, determination and motivation. He is going to put in some more match-winning performances over the coming months and remind everyone, I suppose, of what he can do in an England shirt.”Stokes’ trial will begin on August 6, after he entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of affray following the incident in Bristol on September 25, which means he will miss the Lord’s Test against India and Strauss said a plan for the summer would be discussed when England return from New Zealand.”We have obviously got to sit down at the beginning of the summer and plan how we are going to react to that situation. It is far from ideal that he [Stokes] is going to be missing that Lord’s Test match but I still think he has got a full role to play this summer.”I am sure he will be very keen to get everything out of the way and have his opportunity to tell his side of the story but that is still quite a long way away in the distance. Prior to that, there is still a lot of cricket still to be played and some really important cricket to win.”

A wonderful game of 50-over cricket was decided with two balls to spare much to the despair of a young Worcestershire team

David Hopps17-Jun-2018
ScorecardSo now we know that Heino Kuhn is not unstoppable; it is just that Worcestershire did not stop him soon enough. Kent will contest the Royal London Cup final thanks to Kuhn’s fourth hundred in five matches, all of them in the 50-over competition, but the ball before they secured their two-wicket victory in a stomach-churning final over at New Road, Kuhn was holding back the tears as he left the field grim-faced fearing another magnificent display had this time ended in failure.Kuhn was 121 not out as Worcestershire sought to defend 11 off the final over, the task at the end of a wonderful semi-final handed to their 19-year-old seamer, Pat Brown, whose experience stretched to 16 matches across all competitions. Brown, attempting a full delivery for the first time, watched his second ball sail over his head for six, only to produce a nerveless response by deceiving Kuhn with a knuckle ball with his next and have him caught at short midwicket.The youngster, only playing because of injuries to Joe Leach and Josh Tongue, had outwitted county cricket’s form batsman, only for Harry Podmore, who had achieved something of a miracle by crossing while the ball was in the air, to strike Brown’s next ball over mid-off to take the game.Kent now await the winners of Monday’ s semi-final between Hampshire and Yorkshire, leaving Worcestershire to come to terms with defeat in a semi-final for the second successive year.This was not Kuhn’s most attractive century in the sequence by any means, but his game craft after Kent lost 3 for 31 in pursuit of 307 was once again excellent. Worcestershire will forever rue the simple return catch Daryl Mitchell shelled when the South African was 50. That enabled Kuhn and Alex Blake, who contributed an open-your-shoulders 61, to add a decisive 115 in 14 overs for the sixth wicket.By the time Blake fell at long-off, Kent were in sight of the line. Ed Barnard produced two excellent overs at the death, underlining what his innovative half century had shown earlier – that here is an allrounder who relishes the pressure – but to no avail.All that meant that Ben Cox might feel that this was another game when his excellence was overshadowed through no fault of his own. Such is the competition among England’s young wicketkeepers that, even at 26, Cox cannot be sure that he will one day win the England opportunity that many down Worcester way are adamant he deserves, but his reputation has risen another notch even if his maiden hundred in 50-over cricket failed to take Worcestershire to their first Lord’s final for 14 years.Beneath the Big Three of Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler and Sam Billings, county cricket can take pride in some natural glovemen who would have passed muster in any era, Ben Foakes and Ryan Davies among them, and Cox’s undoubted talents will be more widely recognised after he backed up his usual exemplary display behind the stumps with an unbeaten 122 from 106 balls which revived Worcestershire.They had subsided to 48 for 4 by the time the cathedral clock showed noon, but Cox, find willing allies in Brett D’Oliveira and Barnard, swept them to 306 for 6 with a potent combination of energetic scampers, powerful blows and judicious improvisation.Worcestershire’s early wobble was one wicket away from feeling terminal. Matt Henry, Kent’s incisive and influential Kiwi, struck immediately by having George Rhodes caught at slip. Podmore silenced Callum Ferguson, who looked in mint form before he shuffled across his stumps to be lbw, Darren Stevens, cricket’s version of the Baobab tree, bowled through a canny spell in which Joe Clarke failed to hit him over the top and Mitchell was bowled off his pads ad he tried to make room.Cox, though, has had an excellent tournament. He secured Worcestershire’s semi-final spot with 80 from 85 balls in their final group game victory against Warwickshire. Stevens might have bowled both him and D’Oliveira before marking the end of his spell by munching a banana. The stand swelled to 140 from 24 overs before D’Oliveira, who should have been stumped on 45 against Denly’s legspin, fell to a full toss from the same bowler when 78, a brilliant one-handed catch in the deep by Henry.If Calum Haggett had not wandered infield from long leg, Cox would have fallen to the hook shot on 82, which equalled his previous best; the bowler, Podmore was furious. There was another nervy moment on 95 when the small scoreboard showed him on 109 and the crowd’s jeers caused him to momentarily lose concentration: when you are chasing a maiden hundred, the last thing you need is for the scoreboard to award you a fantasy one.But Worcestershire regathered and 44 came from the last two overs as Cox was backed up by Barnard’s 50 from 28 balls, an innings of wonderful invention.Cox judged that Worcestershire’s 306 was “about par”. The average score at Worcester in this season’s Royal London Cup was 349, but this was a used pitch and there was a little bit of encouragement for the new ball. But Kent recovered from early damage as Worcestershire had earlier as Kuhn added to hundreds already logged against Surrey, Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire.Lord’s was theirs and Billings, who seems fated never to get near the side he has been chosen to captain, will pray that he can surf Kuhn’s wave and make a contribution when it most matters.

India captain happy with the work his team’s done pre-tournament in Australia, and says players have been spoken to about remaining flexible in their plans

Sidharth Monga22-Oct-20229:06

Rohit: ‘Want to have an open mind’ when selecting the team

India have often started Men’s T20 World Cups with little or no preparation or acclimatisation to the conditions, but this time they left for Australia about 20 days before their first match. And it is important too, because securing progress to the semi-finals often turns out to be a tri-series within each group between the three top teams – as it happened last year. And when you play one of the big teams – Pakistan – first up, you need to hit the ground running.”That’s something we’ve been talking about for a while, like when you go on big tours, you need to prepare well, especially when you travel outside India,” India’s captain Rohit Sharma said on the eve of the match against Pakistan. “You need to have time in hand to prepare the way you want to prepare, because it takes time.Related

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“A lot of the guys are not used to playing in foreign conditions, be it Australia, South Africa, England, New Zealand, and all those countries. It’s always nice to have time in hand, and this was a conscious effort from the team management, the BCCI, that come the big tournament, we want to have time in hand to prepare ourselves. The talk of having time in hand started right after the last World Cup.”We said, we know where the World Cup is happening, and we made a very conscious decision of going to Australia a little earlier than expected because we were supposed to play the [ODI] series against South Africa, which unfortunately we all had to miss to prepare for this big event. That is something that was happening in the background right after the [2021] World Cup. We know how key the preparation is. A lot of the guys who are part of this team have not been to Australia, so that was also one of the reasons we wanted to come here early.”Rohit spoke a little about what the preparations entailed. “We had a great time in Perth,” he said. “We were there for nine days, and then we came to Brisbane. We prepared, we played a couple of practice games in Perth just to get used to the conditions, the pitches. Obviously you can’t travel all around Australia and play on all pitches, but we could get whatever we could get.Rohit Sharma with head coach Rahul Dravid during India’s training session•Getty Images

“I thought Perth was the right time [zone] for us to start. Obviously, the time difference is not too much, also, so you can easily get acclimatised to the time zone, and that was also one of the reasons. I thought the way we went about the entire Perth leg was good for us. We could specifically focus on certain things when it comes to batting, and the bowlers could work on certain things … and we were lucky enough to get that time in hand to prepare ourselves and come here to Melbourne.”Rohit comes with the reputation of being a meticulous captain who prepares well, knows his match-ups and hardly ever makes an unplanned move. However, he spoke of the need for instinct too, because a lot of data of T20s in Australia is from their summer and not early spring.”You’ve got to be instinctive as well,” Rohit said. “Sometimes you just have that feeling that this is the guy who will do the job for you. Yes, you have to look at the match-ups as well. We’ve been going through a lot of numbers all these days about how people have been successful in Australia. Although it’s a different time, not a lot of cricket has been played during this month in Australia, it was important for us to get some kind of data around what happens in October-November in Australia and what are the kind of people who have been successful here [then].”We saw a lot of things about how you need to be successful firstly as a team and then as an individual, as well. We went through all of it, but obviously, like I said, it’s a bit of both. Sometimes you just feel that this guy is bowling pretty well, you need to just get him to play the game; he’s in good form.”On the other side, you will look at the match-ups, as well. It’s a bit of both. On that given day, whatever we feel is the right playing XI, we will go by that. I certainly want to keep my mind open on that when it comes to playing XI. We don’t want to get stuck with one particular way of making your playing XI. We want to be open about it. If we have to change one or two players in every game, we’ve got to be ready for it.”That’s how we have prepared all our guys as well. The message was given long before we came here, that if we need to change one or two players for the match-ups for what sort of conditions we are playing in, guys will be ready for it. So it’s not a last-minute thing where we are changing the players. This is the talk that has happened in the team long [time] back, and guys are ready for it.”Rohit was asked if this was the biggest match of his career, seeing as he was leading the team against arch-rivals Pakistan in a World Cup match. He didn’t agree with the assessment because he has played a T20 World Cup final against Pakistan and won it, and has played a Champions Trophy final and lost it. He laughed off some war parallels. And quickly went back to cricket: that they knew they needed to change the way they played, the players needed to be given the security to go out and play that way, and that they as ready as they can be in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence.

Mumbai are in the title-clash for the first time while Himachal would look to extend their good, recent form in the domestic circuit

Shashank Kishore04-Nov-2022

Big picture

December 21, 2021 was a landmark day for Himachal Pradesh cricket. They won their first domestic title that day, upstaging star-studded Tamil Nadu in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final.On Saturday, they will have an opportunity to add another chapter to what has been a magical year. At stake is the opportunity to be crowned T20 champions when they take on Mumbai in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.It was only two seasons ago that Mumbai hit the nadir in T20 cricket, finishing last in their group. It sparked a revamp of sorts, with the team bouncing back to win the 50-over competition that followed. Red-ball success took a while, but they began playing like the Mumbai of old when they made the Ranji Trophy final earlier this year.Related

• Hrithik Shokeen becomes first Impact Player to be used in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

• Prithvi Shaw turns it on for Mumbai with blistering 134 in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

From the depths of 2020-21 to now, there’s been a massive change in their approach, amid calls for sweeping changes to their selection policies and cricket structure. Some credit should be given to Amol Muzumdar, their former captain, who has transformed a team from the ruins to one that is fighting to be the formidable force they once were.Mumbai’s batting line-up is among the most intimidating going around. Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan are determined to break selection doors down, Shreyas Iyer is hungry to prove he’s no T20 pushover, especially after being ignored for the T20 World Cup, and Yashasvi Jaiswal is fast climbing up the ladders to be among the next-in-line openers.Ajinkya Rahane, the captain, has been told in no uncertain terms he needs to score more runs in domestic cricket to be considered for India again. In that sense, every member of the batting line up has something at stake as far as their future is concerned. Saturday is a great opportunity for them to come together for one massive show of strength to help Mumbai clinch their maiden T20 crown.Himachal Pradesh will be riding on the momentum they’ve built superbly during the course of the season. From having two of their matches washed out to progressing despite knowing every game is a must-win is commendable. Theirs is a team of seasoned campaigners who have slowly built on their experience of playing together as a group for a while now.Prashant Chopra and Ankush Bains are nearly decade-old veterans, as is captain Rishi Dhawan, who continues to pick wickets and score runs season after season. That the next gen is closely being followed by IPL scouts is validation of the talent coming through.Among them are Vaibhav Arora, whose most recent IPL stint was with Punjab Kings after being picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders last year, and has bristling pace. Pankaj Jaswal was scouted by Mumbai Indians as an X-factor player who they believe can be honed to play the role Hardik Pandya did for many years.Their recent success is also a byproduct of improved infrastructure in the hilly state. From having one main ground – the HPCA Stadium in 2013 – they now have 50 turf wickets across eight centres in the state. It’s no coincidence that Himachal have continued to develop across men’s and women’s cricket because of this. The emergence of Renuka Singh as one of India Women’s frontline seamers is as much because of this as fast bowler Arora’s is.On Saturday, the accrual of all these gains could yet be on display when they play a seemingly strong Mumbai. Himachal are the underdogs without an inkling of doubt, but they’re unlikely to be perturbed by tags given to them. After all, many years ago, there weren’t many who would have even given them a chance to get this far to be a rising force in Indian domestic cricket.It’s all set up then for a fascinating contest.

Form guide

Mumbai WWWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Himachal Pradesh WWWWW

In the spotlight

Prithvi Shaw is the season’s second-highest run-scorer going into the final•PTI

Prithvi Shaw is second on the tournament’s run charts, behind Delhi’s Yash Dhull, but 189 of his 321 runs have come in two innings, against relatively modest attacks (Mizoram and Assam) early in the tournament. Normally reticent, he has been vocal about his disappointment of missing the India bus and the work he’s done in terms of his fitness to warrant selection. After a brief lull, he showed signs of form during the course of a blistering 21-ball 32 that set up Mumbai’s chase in the semi-final against Vidarbha. A big knock in the final in front of the national selectors won’t be a bad way to send out a message.Among the most prolific allrounders in Indian domestic cricket, Rishi Dhawan has gone wicketless in just one of the six games Himachal have played. His 11 wickets have come at an average of 13.72 and economy of 7.19. He bowls in the early 130s, but accuracy and control over his variations, especially a potent cutter, are his USP. All these elements were a key part of his 3 for 25 that derailed Punjab in the semi-final. Can he bowl Himachal to a second title win in a short span?

Team news

With such a short turnaround time, it’s unlikely both teams will make too many tweaks to their winning combination.Himachal (probable XI): 1 Prashant Chopra, 2 Ankush Bains (wk), 3 Abhimanyu Rana, 4 Sumeet Verma, 5 Akash Vasisht, 6 Nikhil Gangta, 7 Pankaj Jaswal, 8 Rishi Dhawan (capt), 9 Ekant Sen, 10 Mayank Dagar, 11 Vaibhav AroraMumbai (probable XI): 1 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Sarfaraz Khan (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Shams Mulani, 8 Tanush Kotian, 9 Tushar Deshpande, 10 Aman Hakim Khan, 11 Mohit Awasthi

Pitch and conditions

It’s the onset of winter in the far east, where the light dips sharply by 4.30pm. And so much of the game will be played under lights. That means dew will certainly play a part at some stage, impacting at least the team defending a score in the second half of the innings. This makes the toss all the more vital. Purely from a batting perspective, the surfaces have been full of runs. So, expect it to be a high-scoring contest.

Stats and trivia

• Among those who have made at least 300 runs in a single edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Prithvi Shaw’s strike rate of 183.42 in this edition is the second highest. Rishabh Pant struck at 195.71 in 2017-18.
• Himachal Pradesh have won all six completed matches they’ve played so far in the tournament (two of their games were abandoned). If they win the final, they’ll be only the fifth team after Bengal (2010-11), Uttar Pradesh (2015-16), Karnataka (2018-19) and Tamil Nadu (2020-21) to win the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy without dropping a single game.

Ryan Higgins claimed four wickets as Gloucestershire’s seamers seized control on the second day of the Specsavers County Championship match with Leicestershire at Bristol

ECB Reporters Network30-Aug-2018
ScorecardRyan Higgins claimed four wickets as Gloucestershire’s seamers seized control on the second day of the Specsavers County Championship match with Leicestershire at Bristol.The former Middlesex allrounder returned 4 for 26 from 15 overs to help dismiss the visitors for 111 in reply to 202, nightwatchman Gavin Griffiths top-scoring with 36 not out, having gone in at No. 3. Higgins was well supported by David Payne, Craig Miles and Matt Taylor, who all got the ball to swing and nip about off the seam after Leicestershire had begun the day on 11 for 1.By the close Gloucestershire had cemented their advantage, Miles Hammond making 68 and Chris Dent 61 not out in a second-innings total of 152 for 1, which meant they led by 243.There was little sign of the carnage to come when Paul Horton and Griffiths took the Leicestershire score to 48 for 1 with few alarms before Horton, on 27, edged a defensive shot off Higgins through to wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick.Higgins struck again from the Ashley Down Road End, bowling Colin Ackerman with a ball that left him and it was 70 for 4 when Mark Cosgrove’s defences were penetrated by Miles, who disturbed his stumps with a full delivery.Griffiths batted through the morning session to be unbeaten on 24 at lunch, with the score 78 for 4, despite having been struck a couple of painful blows by Taylor, who managed to get some life out of the slow pitch.The afternoon session saw Neil Dexter depart to a diving catch by Roderick off Miles, while Ned Eckersley was caught behind off Payne looking to force the ball off the back foot. Left-armers Payne, who deserved better figures, and Taylor both got the ball to swing from the Pavilion End and the latter picked up his first wicket with a return catch off a leading edge to send back Ben Raine.The accurate Higgins pinned Callum Parkinson lbw and then had Dieter Klien caught at cover before Taylor wrapped up the innings with a leg-before verdict against Mohammad Abbas. Griffiths had watched from the other end as nine wickets went down for 63 runs, finishing unbeaten, having battled away for 144 balls and put some more recognised batsmen to shame.Soon Gloucestershire openers Hammond and Dent were putting conditions in perspective with a century stand in 27 overs as their side built on a lead of 91.Hammond was the more aggressive of the two left-handers, going to his half-century off 76 balls, with 7 fours. His attractive innings ended with the score on 107 when he edged Dexter to Ackerman at second slip. Skipper Dent looked untroubled in moving to fifty off 100 deliveries, with nine boundaries, on a day totally dominated by Gloucestershire.

The match referee will not compromise the safety of the players. If it continues to behave dangerously, the match could still be called off

Sidharth Monga in Johannesburg27-Jan-2018The Wanderers pitch has by no means given an all-clear even though the Test is set to continue after the umpires took the teams off 19 minutes before stumps on day three. The umpires will remain on alert for any other behaviour they might consider dangerous to the safety of the players.The pitch has had extravagant bounce and seam movement throughout, but on day three the umpires were worried about players’ safety. After meetings between the match officials and the captains, and possibly consultation with the ICC, the match referee decided to continue play on day four. ESPNcricinfo understands this was more deferring the decision to the next morning so they could sleep over the decision, understand the ramifications of it, including other sanctions and the fact that India had already courageously fought their way with the bat on this pitch, and hope the pitch settles down on day four. Despite all these considerations, the match referee will not compromise the safety of the players. If it continues to behave dangerously, the match could still be called off.The officials could afford to buy the overnight time because they were losing only 19 minutes. There’s no telling how it might have panned out if a batsman had been hit on the head at, say half past three and not 11 minutes before 5pm. The delivery that led to the suspension of play was a short-pitched delivery from Jasprit Bumrah, which hit Dean Elgar on the helmet, but the umpires had been concerned all day with balls rearing off a length and hitting the batsmen in the ribs, gloves, and thighs.The first time the match officials spoke to the teams about the state of the pitch was during the tea break on day three. According to India’s manager Sunil Subramaniam, the umpires’ concern was that the new ball could behave dangerously. While India’s second innings lasted only one ball with the second new ball, Elgar was hit four times in 8.3 overs of bowling with the new ball in South Africa’s innings.In the captain’s meeting with the match referee, India – in a great position to win the Test and after having braved this difficult pitch – made it clear there was no way they wanted the match to stop. The South Africa manager said they told the match referee they were not going to comment whether the pitch was safe or not, but they were happy to play if the officials deemed the pitch to be safe. The eventual decision still rests with the match referee. There is provision in the law that they could attempt to repair the pitch, if possible, to see if the match can continue, but it can’t be done if it disadvantages one of the teams, which in this case will be India’s fate. So that route is unlikely to be taken.The pitch has come in for harsh criticism from experts and former cricketers covering this series, with Michael Holding calling it a “s**t pitch”, one he would rate 2 on 100.