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The ICC is expected to make a decision this week on where the tournament is hosted

Andrew McGlashan19-Aug-20241:23

Healy: ‘I just want to create a really connected group’

Australia captain Alyssa Healy has said it feels like the “wrong thing” to host the upcoming T20 World Cup in Bangladesh as the country continues to deal with the consequences of the recent violence which led to hundreds of deaths and the ousting of the government.The ICC is expected to make a decision this week on where the tournament will be hosted with UAE considered the favourite after BCCI declined a request. Sri Lanka is another option while Zimbabwe has emerged as a potential late solution.The Australian government is among those including the UK and India to have issued warnings about traveling to Bangladesh.Related

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“I find it really hard to see a cricket event going on over there at the moment and taking resources away from a country that is really struggling,” Healy said. “They’re needing everyone they can possibly get in there helping people that are dying.””I’d find it hard to fathom playing there at the moment, as a human being, I feel like it might be the wrong thing to do. But I’ll leave it to the ICC to work out.”Speaking on Sunday, allrounder Sophie Molineux said players had been kept in the loop.”We’ve been [in] chats with Cricket Australia and they’re doing a lot of work with the ICC, and we’ve got full faith that they’ll come up with the right decision for everyone.”Australia will name their World Cup squad next Monday and Healy was confident they would be able to adapt to whichever country ended up hosting. They had seen their tour of Bangladesh earlier this year where they played three ODIs and three T20Is as a key fact-finding mission.”I feel like we’re so well balanced in the…players that we get to choose from, wherever the World Cup gets put, I think we’re going to have the right squad to take it on,” Healy said. “We’re obviously blessed we got to Bangladesh and got a taste of those conditions. But wherever we get put, we’ll be ready to adapt.”Meanwhile, England captain Heather Knight said that if the replacement venue was UAE then she does not expect vastly different conditions to those in Bangladesh.It is expected Australia will name a settled squad. Fast bowler Darcie Brown is set to be available after spending the winter recovering from a stress fracture of her foot which kept her out of the Bangladesh tour. Molineux (rib) and Grace Harris (calf strain) were also recently ruled out of the Hundred through injury, but neither are considered a major doubt for the World Cup.Jess Jonassen was the significant omission from the previous squad for Bangladesh and she is likely to find it hard to squeeze back in for the World Cup barring injuries with Molineux, Georgia Wareham, Alana King and Ashleigh Gardner the spin options. The World Cup squad will also play the three T20Is against New Zealand in September which act as preparation for the tournament.

As if being England’s youngest specialist spinner for 90 years was not demanding enough, Mason Crane underwent the ritual glare from a posse of cricket experts

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jan-2018England supporters had waited all series but finally, in Sydney, Mason Crane became the youngest specialist spinner to play for England for 90 years.England’s record for producing legspinners is an abysmal one as Andrew Miller reflected in his round-up of the Not-so-Famous Five who have plugged a gap or two in the past half-century.So just to see Crane, at 20 years and 320 days, become the youngest England spinner since Ian Peebles played against South Africa in 1928 was something to celebrate.Crane might have followed Tom Curran in claiming Steven Smith as a maiden Test wicket had his edge not fallen short of Joe Root at slip. And twice, inside-edges from Usman Khawaja fell short of short leg and he also edged between wicketkeeper and slip.By the time it was all over, although Crane went wicketless in his 17 overs, a long line of former England and Australia players were queuing up to offer praise.Mason Crane bowls on debut at the SCG•Getty Images

It has become part of a legspinner’s initiation ceremony to undergo an evaluation from Shane Warne, the greatest leggie of them all. “His action is nicely balanced, there is nice momentum and he explodes through the crease,” Warne said before adding: “He’s very aggressive. He is feisty, looks to get into the batsman’s space. He won’t back down from the challenge.”On ESPNcricinfo, Graeme Swann, said: “I think it was a good day, a day that showed a lot of promise. It’s never easy bowling wrist spin, full stop, it was a hot day, a very good batting pitch, but he bowled 16 overs of very solid legspin.”Another former England spinner, Vic Marks, said: “The simple fact is Mason Crane has bowled impressively and with zest. I think he’s done pretty well.Mental strength was picked on by several observers, including the regular ESPNcricinfo contributor, Mark Butcher. Butcher said: “I’m not surprised that he’s settled quickly because one of his great strengths and, for me, one of the things that make him stand out among English spinners of many vintages is that he doesn’t seem to carry a lot of the mental fragility that his predecessors have done.”Mason Crane receives his Test cap from Graeme Swann•Getty Images

Ebony Rainford-Brent, who won the Women’s World Cup as a player, added: “Mason has got a little bit about him. I like energetic actions; I like bowlers who get through the crease. He’s very light on his feet – ballerina-esque.”Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, can be a demanding judge, but he seemed happy enough. “Mason has got the right style of energy and he gets plenty of revolutions on the ball,” he said, before adding a rider: “He’s not the kind of bowler you’d see playing every single Test match but we’ve seen enough today to know that, if England work well with him, there’s things to be worked on over the next few years.”That leaves the most trenchant observer of all – Vaughan’s fellow Yorkshireman Geoffrey Boycott. But, on second thoughts, that’s enough to be going on with. Best to let the toughest critic of all take a look for at least another day.

Rizwan, who scored 90 not out, was the lone spark for Pakistan in another disappointing game for their batters

Ashish Pant19-Jan-2024Unbeaten half-centuries from Glenn Phillips and Daryl Mitchell backing up frugal two-wicket hauls each from Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson gave New Zealand a comfortable seven-wicket victory in the fourth T20I against Pakistan and a 4-0 lead in the five-match series.Sent into bat, Mohammad Rizwan was the lone spark for Pakistan in another disappointing game for their batters, in Christchurch. He scored an unbeaten 90 off 63 balls, while the rest of the batters managed only 61 off 55 and Pakistan reached 158 for 5 in their 20 overs.In reply, Shaheen Shah Afridi struck three times in his first two overs to have New Zealand under pressure for the first time in the series. But Mitchell and Phillips took their time in settling in before opening up their shoulders big time to help New Zealand coast to victory in 18.1 overs. Phillips remained unbeaten on a 52-ball 70 while Mitchell scored 72 not out off 44 with the duo adding an unbeaten 139 off 93 balls for the third wicket.

Rizwan, Babar light up powerplay

Pakistan were batting first for the first time in this series. But Henry put an early spanner in their works when he had Saim Ayub edging to first slip, where Mitchell took a straightforward catch on the second attempt.Rizwan, however, wasn’t going to get bogged down. Adam Milne, playing his 50th T20I, was taken for two successive fours, while Tim Southee also was given a similar treatment. Rizwan then dispatched Ferguson miles over deep midwicket, with Babar Azam also joining in on the fun as Pakistan raced to 51 for 1 in six overs.

Rizwan goes big, but middle order disappoints

Rizwan continued his merry ways, finding the gaps at regular intervals. But as has been the case with Pakistan’s batting this series, they failed to stitch partnerships. Babar fell to a 149.5kph Milne bumper that he could only mistime to Phillips at deep midwicket. Fakhar Zaman came in and sucked the momentum out of the innings, labouring to 9 off 15 before Ferguson put him out of his misery. Sahibzada Farhan, who replaced Azam Khan, lasted two balls as Pakistan slipped to 86 for 4 after 13 overs.Mohammad Rizwan stayed unbeaten on 90 but it wasn’t enough•AFP/Getty Images

However, Rizwan continued to play the lone ranger. He took 38 balls to reach fifty but with wickets falling at the other end, he focused on rotating the strike more than taking risks. That Pakistan got past 150 was down to Mohammad Nawaz hammering Milne for three successive sixes in the 19th over that went for 21.However, on a two-paced surface, 158 seemed a touch under par.

Afridi rocks New Zealand early

The skip in the step was back and so was the famous celebration. Finn Allen struck Afridi for two fours on the bounce, but on the fourth ball of the first over, he closed the face of the bat too soon on a full-length ball on leg stump to be caught at point. Two balls later, Tim Seifert’s feeble chip landed straight into the hands of Babar at mid-off. Afridi was not done yet. He then got a short-of-length ball going at Will Young, who struck a powerful pull but Nawaz at short midwicket flung to his right and plucked out a good catch. New Zealand suddenly found themselves in unfamiliar territory at 20 for 3 after 2.4 overs.

Phillips, Mitchell ace the chase

It was like a perfect template on how to set up a chase when the team has lost a few wickets early. Phillps was his usual busy self, collecting boundaries and sprinting like a gazelle between wickets. Mitchell was patient, initially, even when the required run rate breached the nine-run mark.New Zealand managed only 38 runs in the powerplay and reached 70 after ten. But importantly, they did not lose a wicket. Not that they did not give chances. A big moment in the game came in the tenth over when Mitchell mis-hit a sweep off Nawaz to deep backward square leg where Mohammad Wasim misjudged the catch with the ball falling almost at his feet. In the 13th over then, it was Farhan who dropped a dolly at long-on.Mitchell made sure he cashed in. With the required rated climbing, he got into overdrive finding gaps regularly. From scoring 14 off his first 16, he raced to his fifty off 34 balls with a six off Afridi. Phillips also got his half-century in 41 balls with both batters switching to carnage mode. The Pakistan bowlers looked clueless and the target was eventually achieved with 11 balls to spare.

Fast bowler gets stitches on his head for an external injury

Mohammad Isam18-Feb-2024Fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman has been taken to hospital in Chattogram after taking a blow to the head during a Comilla Victorians training session at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.Mustafizur fell down immediately after being hit by a ball on the left side of his head. The incident took place on Sunday morning while Comilla were preparing for their next BPL game against Sylhet Strikers on Monday.Eyewitness reports said Mustafizur was near his bowling mark when he got hit by the ball. Team-mates and coaching staff rushed to his side and took him to the ambulance at the ground.”During practice a ball hit directly at the left parietal area (head) of Mustafizur Rrahman,” Zahidul Islam, the team physio, said. “There was an open wound at his parietal area and we have worked with compression bandage to stop bleeding and immediately had shifted him to Imperial hospital. After CT scan we are satisfied that he had only external injury. There is no intracranial bleeding. Now surgical team has given him stitches on the open wound.”Comilla’s media manager Sohanuzzaman Khan told ESPNcricinfo that Mustafizur was in good spirits. “When we were prepping him for the ride to the hospital, he seemed to be acting normally,” he said.Comilla are at No. 2 in the BPL points table with seven wins in nine games.

Colin Ackermann’s hundred almost made Northants pay for a day of dropped chances but Leicestershire agonisingly fell two runs short and still remain without a win

ECB Reporters Network29-Jun-2017
ScorecardNorthamptonshire plucked victory from the jaws of defeat against Leicestershire to win the pink-ball Specsavers County Championship match by just two runs at Wantage Road.Colin Ackermann’s 105 and Matt Pillans’ late-order 56 were steering Leicestershire towards a record chase of 394.Then Pillans, with only No. 11 Dieter Klein for company, received a ball from Rory Kleinveldt that bounced a little more and took the splice of the bat to point. Leicestershire old-boy Josh Cobb dived forward to take the catch and Northants pulled a win out of the fire – it was Northamptonshire’s joint-second narrowest margin of victory.A thrilling final day where Leicestershire resumed needing 350 more to win with ten wickets in hand swayed back and forth. At 299 for 5 Leicestershire were on course to get up, only for Richard Gleeson to take two wickets in two balls seven overs into the second new ball. But then Pillans, on-loan from Surrey, swatted a 41-ball fifty – for the first time in first-class cricket – to revive the visitors’ hopes.In need of another breakthrough, Gleeson delivered – drawing an edge from Ackermann to wicketkeeper Ben Duckett after an innings worthy of winning a game. When No. 10 Clint McKay also fell caught behind, to Kleinveldt, 26 were still needed.But back came Leicestershire. Klein survived for 20 balls and escaped an edge behind the wicket that Duckett dropped diving to his right when seven were needed. He and Pillans nudged Leicestershire to within one hit. Gleeson bowled a maiden to Klein before Kleinveldt came up with the winning moment – a potentially pivotal one for Northants’ hopes of promotion.Northants’ coach David Ripley said: “It’s the year of the thriller – the fourth game from seven that’s been very tight – and it feels pretty good. I thought the game had slipped away at the death, they were edging to victory and we were looking back to dropped catches or maybe batting extra time, lots of things were going through my head.”Leicestershire were heartbroken, denied a first win of the season. Ackermann’s century gave them a sporting chance, a well-paced innings that steered his side from danger after both openers fell in the first seven overs of play. He faced 198 balls and struck 14 fours and a six, sharing stands of 127 with Mark Cosgrove, and 58 with both Ned Eckersley and Pillans.Rory Kleinveldt struck in the nick of time for Northants•Getty Images

Ackermann was the rock around which Leicestershire built their chase which was reduced to 117 needed with five wickets in hand in 32 overs after tea as Northants took the second new ball.The target was brought down to 95 when Gleeson suddenly found a double breakthrough. First Lewis Hill drove at one that left him and edged to first slip. Next ball, a knee-high slower ball struck Rob Sayer and he was given out lbw to record a pair.Ackermann edged the first ball he faced to the second new ball through third slip who had just been removed but responded to being beaten outside the off stump by Ben Sanderson by running down the wicket and lifting a six into the Spencer Pavilion over long-on and hoisting another boundary over extra-cover.But he couldn’t win the game on his own. Enter Pillans on his Leicestershire debut, whose first-innings 35 saved Leicestershire from a huge deficit. He uppercut Gleeson over backward point for six, pulled four more through midwicket off Sanderson and lifted the next ball over mid-off for another boundary. It looked like being a fairytale debut until Kleinveldt found a ball to snatch the dream away.That it took until the death was of Northants’ making. Six chances were shelled, one on the third evening and five on the final day. The biggest misses were of Cosgrove on 23 – a sitter to Alex Wakely at second slip that would have had Leicestershire three down after just over an hour’s play – and Ackermann on 43 – a flying edge to first slip that Kleinveldt put down. Duckett’s miss appeared to be one-drop-too-many but Northants had a Get Out of Jail card up their sleeves.

Batter focussed on here-and-now as big guns wait in wings after World Cup debacle

Cameron Ponsonby30-Nov-2023After the disasterclass of the ODI World Cup, the time has come for England to pull their pants down, turn them inside out and put them back on again. It’s white-ball reset time.The curiosity of the latest rebuild, however, is that the messaging that it’s a rebuild at all appears to be coming from the outside more than the inside. Yes, there are a fresh set of players out in the Caribbean, but the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Mark Wood and Adil Rashid are nonetheless sat at home resting and recovering, ready (retirement announcements pending) to reclaim their place in the team.”There hasn’t been that message,” Ben Duckett said after England’s first training session in Antigua, in reply to whether the message to the group was that this is the new era, with the shirts they’re playing in being theirs to keep.”I need to go and prove that I’m good enough to be on this team and so do the other guys, so I don’t think it’s the case at all, this team could change next series.”Rather than being a new team at the beginning of their own journey, à la the original 2015 White-Ball Reset™, the England team that will step out for the first of three ODIs against West Indies on Sunday, do so in a Hunger Games-type scenario. Battling it out for the odd spot in the XI at the expense of their mates to their left and right. England’s next strongest ODI team may well look suspiciously like the one that came before it.Take the expected top three of this tour: consisting of Phil Salt, Will Jacks and Zak Crawley. England fans can expect that both Bairstow and Root will return to the ODI set-up in due course, meaning in reality the trio are battling it out for the opening spot that has been vacated by the dropping of Dawid Malan.Similarly, you can bracket Duckett and Ollie Pope together as the two players lined up to replace Ben Stokes, assuming that Stokes does indeed reduce his overall workload and steps back from ODIs in the wake of this week’s knee surgery. Duckett batted for hours across England’s first training session of the tour, whilst Pope had a net that appeared pain-free as he returned from the shoulder injury he sustained during the Ashes. However, a cause for slight concern was that, during fielding practice, Pope exclusively threw underarm as he continued to nurse his shoulder back to full fitness. England confirmed that Pope is fit to play if selected, but his shoulder is still clearly not at 100%.”I’m genuinely just thinking about the next three weeks,” Duckett, who scored his maiden ODI century against Ireland in September, said at the prospect of this being a career-defining series for a number of players. “I know how difficult it is to stay in a team when there’s this many players and I think the biggest thing I’ve learned over the last 12 to 15 months is not thinking too far ahead.Related

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“I just think it’s a massive opportunity to show what we can do. I’ve been around and not around the white-ball group for the past however many years and it’s been impossible to break into, so for me personally I’m just buzzing to get a go and be out here.”At a time when traditional logic dictates that the three formats are getting further and further apart, for England the opposite seems to be true. The new generation of white-ball players, deemed to be the ones to take this team forward, include the current Test opening pair in Duckett and Crawley, the Test vice-captain in Pope and generational talent-elect Harry Brook. Even with the ball, Gus Atkinson, who received a two-year contract from the ECB, is surely pencilled into England’s plans for the India Test series and similarly so too is the tall left-arm spinner Tom Hartley. The fresh faces on show here are largely either those currently in the Test side or those with multi-format aspirations.Duckett himself was in effect on standby for Stokes across the World Cup, in case the Test captain’s knee completely gave way: “I wasn’t even thinking about it [to be honest]. There was no way Stokesy was missing out. He would have hobbled through it and still scored runs.”A cynic could argue that, for the likes of Duckett, missing the World Cup was a blessing in disguise. A chance to emerge from the ashes (not those ones) unscathed, ready to take the team forward.”I don’t think there is ever a good time to miss a World Cup. It could be the only opportunity I have. So certainly not in that way. Those same group of players could go out there and win that World Cup at a different time. It was tough to watch at times and I’m watching mates go out there and struggle. It was really difficult.”[But] for me personally I have had six weeks to kind of take a breather – it has been a big 12 months for me – and it might actually be quite refreshing. I feel raring to go now.”

Welsh Fire fall short in chase as defending champions leap from bottom of table to third

ECB Reporters Network14-Aug-2023Trent Rockets climbed off the bottom of the table with a nail-biting win over Welsh Fire, as bowler John Turner held his nerve with 14 required from the final five balls.He finished with superb figures of 1 for 22, while Rockets were able to set a competitive total thanks to New Zealander Colin Munro who smashed 66 off 35 balls after his team had been reduced to 40 for 4 early on. In the end they reached 152 for 6.The defeat is a blow to Fire’s hopes of a top three finish, as they let Rockets off the hook with the ball and never really got going with the bat. It came down to the last ball with Roelof van der Merwe needing to hit a six to win, but he could only manage a single as Fire finished on 148 for 6, Joe Clarke top scoring with 54 off 34.This was billed as Trent Rockets international top order batting against the equally international class of the Welsh Fire bowling attack, and the home side opted to bowl first to unleash that threat.It went the way of the bowlers early on, England’s David Willey dismissing both openers. Alex Hales got a thin edge through to wicketkeeper Clarke, who took a fine diving catch, while Dawid Malan was out lbw trying to guide the ball down to fine leg, a review showing it would have clipped leg stump.Joe Root started in typically busy fashion and also unfurled the ramp shot he has used so often this summer, but it was to get him out from a Jake Ball slower ball as the lack of pace saw the ball just spoon up to Clarke.When van der Merwe got his first ball to turn and dismiss Tom Kohler-Cadmore, playing down the wrong line, the Rockets were in serious trouble at 40 for 4 after 41 balls.Samit Patel hit van der Merwe for a 94-metre six, but then perished next ball trying to repeat the shot, this time top edging into the covers to be caught by Stephen Eskinazi.Munro should have been run out after a brilliant piece of boundary fielding by Harris Rauf, but Shaheen Shah Afridi tried to throw the stumps down when a simple throw through to keeper Clarke would have been enough.Munro then hit van der Merwe for two big sixes, with another six off Rauf taking him to his half-century off 27 balls. Despite that Pakistan ace Rauf conceded only 19 off his 20 balls, while Munro finished on 66 off 35 as he steered his side to a competitive total.Stephen Eskinazi was dropped by Daniel Sams off Turner on 5, however the bowler was not to be denied when he hit the off stump of Jonny Bairstow, the England man’s second low score in a row since returning for Welsh Fire as he departed for 3.Fire fell behind the required rate early on, struggling particularly against the swing of Luke Wood. The acceleration needed to come, but Eskinazi perished trying to hit Sams over the top, caught by Joe Root coming in from long-on.Luke Wells was dropped by Munro at deep square off Lewis Gregory on 3, but departed for 8 after Sams made no mistake on another skied effort off Ish Sodhi.Clarke and Tom Abell did not find things easy, but managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over without ever getting ahead of the rate, with Fire needing 34 from the final 15 balls. The first five of those went for no runs, with Abell run out and Clarke given out off the fifth. However it turned out to be a no-ball and a free hit, which Clarke hit for six to keep Fire alive needing 26 off the final 10.Glen Phillips hit 12 of those off Sams before being caught at long-off, leaving Clarke and David Willey 14 to get from the final set. But Rockets, and Turner, held their nerve.

The 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season will be his last tournament as a cricketer – both for international and domestic cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Nov-2024Wriddhiman Saha, the India wicketkeeper, is set to bring the curtains down on a 17-year career at the end of the ongoing 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season. Saha, a veteran of 40 Tests, made the revelation through a social media post.Saha is currently preparing for Bengal’s fourth-round fixture against Karnataka in Bengaluru, having returned to the team after spending two years as a player-mentor with Tripura. He had returned to Bengal following a meeting with Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain.