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A computer programme will help select North and South teams to take part in a new county one-day competition to be staged in the UAE next spring.

George Dobell09-May-2016A year to the day since he was unveiled as the new managing director of England cricket, Andrew Strauss has announced a new competition aimed at making England more competitive at the next World Cup.The most eye-catching aspect of the competition is the use of the Professional Cricketers’ Association ranking system – effectively a computerised formula – to help select two sides (the North and the South) which will contest a three-match series in the UAE next spring.A maximum of five England-qualified players for each side – the top four players from each division and the top spinner if not one of those four – will be chosen using the PCA’s Most Valuable player rankings from this year’s Royal London Cup, the domestic 50-over competition, with the rest chosen by the England selectors. The spinner will only qualify through their bowling exploits, so batting allrounders who bowl a little spin are unlikely to qualify.The three-match series will take place in Abu Dhabi next March and is currently viewed as a three-year plan aimed at improving England’s chances in the 2019 World Cup.Had the rules been in place in 2015 the players to qualify from the South would have been Steven Davies, Benny Howell, Liam Dawson, Ravi Bopara and, as the spinner, Jack Taylor. From the North, Wes Durston, Samit Patel, Scott Borthwick and Alex Hales would have qualified. Riki Wessels finished ahead of Hales but was not, at the time, England qualified. Stephen Parry would have qualified as the spinner.Twenty-six players will be chosen for the two squads in total, with no age limits applied. Nobody who has retired from ODI cricket will be selected, ruling out the likes of Marcus Trescothick, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood or Jonathan Trott, while it is also unlikely that members of England’s ODI squad – who will have just finished a series in the Caribbean in March – will be considered for selection.No sponsorship or broadcast arrangements have yet been made for the games, though there is plenty of time to resolve both issues.There is no obvious downside to the idea. While it might, potentially, encourage selfish cricket for players on the brink of the top four – and it does raise the vaguely amusing but highly improbable prospect of Kevin Pietersen qualifying in the unlikely event he decided to return to county cricket – the tournament might be considered another small step towards giving England the best chance in 2019.Might it have been played in England? Ideally, of course. But the schedule, for 2016 at least, precludes that. Not only is there limited space, but the 50-over final does not take place until the brink of autumn. Possibly in 2017, when most 50-over cricket is played in a block and the final is scheduled for mid-summer, that could change, but the UAE – with its excellent facilities and reliable climate – remains the more likely host for now. “Nothing is off the table,” Strauss said.But perhaps the most relevant point is that Strauss has chosen to use this idea to promote ODI cricket. He might have used it to improve the T20 or Test sides, but he came into the job after England had endured another wretched World Cup campaign and promising to give new impetus to List A cricket – the format that seems to have slipped down the pecking order at domestic level – and has stuck to that commitment. The ECB see the 2019 World Cup, which they host, as a once in a generation opportunity to inspire new interest in the game and know how important a part a successful England team could play in that.This North v South series is not the full answer to England’s ODI issues. But anything that encourages greater relevance and intensity in the domestic game is to be encouraged and if this scheme “accelerates the progress of one or two players” as Strauss puts it, then all well and good. And, taken in conjunction with other alterations – the move to something approaching a block format in 2017, the emphasis on improved pitches – it should help.The MVP rankings were launched in 2007 and the PCA has worked with the ECB’s high performance centre at Loughborough to enhance them for this new venture. The system moves beyond basic averages, with batsmen gaining points for strike-rate and a percentage of the team’s score while bowlers are rewarded higher for which batsmen they dismiss. The quality of opposition is taken into account as well as overall conditions.”This is a good opportunity for England, domestic players and the game,” Strauss said. “Finding the best players outside the current England set-up, playing them against each other in overseas conditions and placing them in an England environment will help us see if they’re ready for international cricket.”As a player you always like to see how you rank – it gives you recognition and here it comes with the added bonus of getting further into the England reckoning as we look ahead to the World Cup here in 2019.”And for fans it also gives an added element to the Royal London Cup, putting the spotlight on the players to follow in the 50-over game. This is a shot in the arm for the domestic game.”

Hashim Amla has called on South Africa’s top six to take responsibility for run-scoring and not leave it up to the lower order to finish games in the ongoing ODI tri-series in the Caribbean

Firdose Moonda14-Jun-20162:02

‘Need to operate better as a team’ – de Villiers

Hashim Amla has called on South Africa’s top six to take the responsibility for run-scoring and not leave it up to the lower order to finish games in the ongoing ODI tri-series in the Caribbean. South Africa are carrying a longer tail than usual in the tournament, and the lower order has failed to contribute in the three matches so far, but Amla said it was not up to the tail-end batsmen to get the team over the line.”As a team we have always backed ourselves for somebody in the top six to take it through and bat as deep as possible,” Amla said, ahead of South Africa’s match against West Indies on June 15. “Obviously we are very disappointed after our last game. We got ourselves into a very good position to win it and we didn’t quite take it through. We lost some wickets at crucial times and that cost us. Hopefully we don’t make the same mistake in the next game.”In their loss against Australia last Saturday, South Africa collapsed from 210 for 4 to 252 all out, losing 6 for 42. They had previously lost 7 for 28 in the opening defeat against West Indies and 6 for 91 in the victory against Australia. In the three matches so far, there were only two instances of a batsman in the bottom six getting into double figures: Farhaan Behardien’s 62 and Kagiso Rabada’s 15 in the game South Africa won.Effectively, that means South Africa’s tail begins when JP Duminy, who has not scored an ODI half-century in nine innings, is dismissed. Although Behardien has shown an ability to contribute, he has not done so consistently and Wayne Parnell has been unable to replicate the domestic form that led to his recall to the national side. The bowlers follow Parnell in the line-up, which leaves South Africa with no option but for the top six to pile on the runs, especially as they don’t have much in the way of reserves.The only additional batsman in the squad is Dean Elgar, who was brought in to replace the injured Rilee Rossouw, but including him in the XI is tricky. If Elgar were to come in, South Africa would have to leave themselves short in the bowling department. Another option is to lengthen the batting by including Chris Morris, possibly at Parnell’s expense. Morris has recovered from a hamstring niggle and is available for selection but, as a lower-order allrounder, the responsibility cannot be left to him alone.”It’s the responsibility of the batsmen. That’s what we enjoy doing and that’s what we would like to do,” Amla said. “We didn’t manage to do it in this game and I guess that does happen occasionally where you are not going to get it right, but we want to get it right as often as we can.”At least South Africa know conditions in Basseterre will assist them in their quest for more runs, although Amla warned not to expect some of the towering totals that have come to define one-day cricket recently.”It is a good wicket. It’s a higher-scoring ground than in Guyana, where 200 was a good total. Here 260 seems like a good score,” he said. “In this day and age, where we’ve seen scores of 350 in one-day cricket, it’s sobering to see 250 being a difficult score to get.”Australia managed 288 in their win against South Africa on Saturday, but their 265 was inadequate against West Indies on Monday. Amla believed if South Africa could get somewhere close to the 260-run mark, they would give themselves a chance. “The key is to try and get the team to score around 250 or 260. It’s a good enough wicket that you can to chase it down if you bat well.”If South Africa are faced with a higher chase, Amla said he expected the lower order to come into play. “In many games even chasing scores like 280, you end up needing your No.7, 8 and 9 to contribute a little bit,” he said. “It’s not a matter of batters or bowlers, it’s a collective effort to turn it around in the field as well as with the bat.”All the talk about the need for a better showing is because halfway through the round-robin stage, South Africa are at the bottom of the table. They have won only one match, though they have played one less than Australia. South Africa will now take on a buoyant West Indies, who are fresh off a victory over Australia, on Wednesday. With a maximum of 15 points still up for grabs, South Africa are by no means out of contention but, having failed to score as many runs as they would have liked, they know they are up against it. “We are all extremely hungry to turn it around and get back to winning ways but it’s still early in the competition,” Amla said.

A round up of the Central Zone matches from the Inter State T20 Tournament held on February 3, 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Feb-2017A miserly spell of 3 for 6 in four overs from legspinner Shubham Agarwal helped Chhattisgarh eke out a six-run victory over Railways in Jaipur. Chhattisgarh have now won two matches out of four and sit in third place in the Central Zone group table. Railways were 93 for 3 in the 14th over after being set 127 to win, but could manage only 27 for 5 from the last 6.1 overs after Shubham removed set batsman Hemant Singh (24 off 31).Part-time offspinners Ashutosh Singh, who removed Mahesh Rawat for 27 off 21, and Sahil Gupta, who dismissed Karn Sharma, also played their parts. The duo conceded only three runs and took a wicket each from their respective solitary overs. Earlier, Shubham had top-scored for Chhattisgarh, scoring 36 off 32 balls after Amandeep Khare (31 off 19) – the only other batsman to go past 30 in the match – had been dismissed in the sixth over. Medium-pacer Amit Mishra took 3 for 16 as Railways restricted their opponents to 126.File photo – Piyush Chawla took 3 for 37 but couldn’t rescue his team with the bat as they folded for 135 in their chase•BCCI

Chandrakant Sakure picked up the wickets of Piyush Chawla (24 off 18) and Praveen Kumar (20 off 14) on debut as Madhya Pradesh defended 161 against Uttar Pradesh to remain unbeaten after three matches in the Inter-State T20 tournament. UP, who were bowled out for 58 against Railways on Thursday, slumped to 60 for 6 in 11.1 overs. Chawla and Kumar added 44 off 30 deliveries to keep UP alive before Sakure’s strike off successive deliveries proved to be decisive.Eklavya Dwivedi (33) was the only other batsman to come up with a contribution of note. Earlier in the game, MP overcame a batting wobble of their own to post 161 for 9.They were 69 for 4 when Naman Ojha was dismissed for 37. Sohraab Dhaliwal struck four fours and four sixes in his 25-ball 51 to give the innings momentum. Ankit Rajpoot was the pick of UP’s bowlers, with figures of 4 for 29. The loss was UP’s third in four matches.

Raghu Iyer, CEO of the Rising Pune Super Giants, believes IPL franchises did not go for international stars like Usman Khawaja and Martin Guptill because they did not want to upset their team balance

Arun Venugopal07-Feb-20164:49

‘Guptill going unsold defies logic’

Every IPL auction brings with it its regular quota of surprise picks and omissions. While many uncapped India players made the first category on Saturday’s auction, Usman Khawaja and Martin Guptill were probably the shock omissions this time around. Guptill has been one of the world’s best white-ball players in the past year; during this period, he averages 49.12 in nine T20Is with a strike rate of 165.12, besides scoring nearly 1600 runs at 63.72 in ODIs.Khawaja, on the other hand, is in the form of his life, having racked up three big hundreds and a fifty in his last five Test innings. More pertinently from an IPL perspective, he smashed 345 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 163.5 not too long ago to give Sydney Thunder their first Big Bash League title. Some of the other big names missing out were Mahela Jayawardene, Michael Hussey and George Bailey
The marketplace, though, is not given to such sentiments, and franchises said there were good reasons why they did not go for these players. “I think teams had very clear strategies at the top of the [batting] order,” Raghu Iyer, CEO of the Rising Pune Super Giants, told ESPNcricinfo.”Almost every team had a settled opening pair. We, too, had Faf du Plessis, and then bought Kevin Pietersen and Steven Smith. However good these players were we couldn’t accommodate them in our plans. [However] Khawaja was really unlucky not to have been picked by any team.”Another franchise’s mentor, however, said it was pointless to pick up players if the teams were not going to play them. “Although they are very good T20 players, all these teams have settled opening pairs,” he said. “If you look at Sunrisers Hyderabad, they have [David] Warner and Shikhar [Dhawan], Mumbai Indians have Lendl [Simmons] and Parthiv [Patel]. You don’t want a class player like Guptill or Khawaja to sit out the entire season.”Iyer felt this was an extension of the prudence that franchises have displayed in recent years when it comes to spending on foreign players. “Even in this auction they have been a lot more rational with their prices on foreign players. They went all out only for the players they wanted. In Shane Watson, RCB got the allrounder they wanted, likewise we went for Mitchell Marsh and Delhi for Chris Morris. These are sureshot picks in the playing XI.”The Indian boys, on the other hand, have gone for a lot of money. It’s sometimes difficult to predict the auction dynamics, but it augurs well for the Indian boys.”Iyer also said that a number of players were likely to not be bid for given the nature of the auction itself. “It’s a mini-auction with most teams going into it with a settled core already. Of course, in our case we had to build our entire squad and we are quite satisfied with we bought. But settled teams like MI or KKR were looking for back-ups and to plug a few holes here and there.”A member of the coaching staff of a franchise, however, said some players were not in the wishlist of teams because of their relative ineffectiveness in Indian conditions: “How much of Guptill’s performances are inside New Zealand and how much outside? There were doubts about his adaptability in Indian conditions. Even [RPSG coach] Stephen Fleming didn’t go for him.”Guptill has an average of 38.37 from the 10 ODIs he has played in India. He has, however, played only one T20I and scored five runs. Khawaja, though, did well in India last year when he captained the Australia A team and scored two fifties and a hundred in a tri-series featuring India and South Africa’s A sides.Players like Bailey or Hussey, despite his successful run with the Sydney Thunder, were perhaps deemed to be relatively high-priced. While Hussey had put his base price at INR 2 crore, Bailey sought one crore for his services. It is understood there were reservations in the Kings XI Punjab camp about Bailey’s ability to command a place in the side as a specialist batsman alone. “They might have thought that having him as captain blocked a slot for another foreign player, like Shaun Marsh,” an IPL insider said. “These things matter a great deal too.”

Nawaz and Yasir picked up eight wickets between them, but the hosts now have the runs – and the history – to feel confident

Andrew Fidel Fernando18-Jul-2022Stumps Kusal Mendis and Oshada Fernando set a platform with their 91-run partnership, the middle order then thrust Sri Lanka onward in an urgent middle session, and Dinesh Chandimal gave Sri Lanka command of the first Galle Test, hitting 86 not out off 121 balls while putting up lively stands with the tail.Mohammad Nawaz wheeled his way to a maiden five-wicket haul, and Yasir Shah produced some spectacular legbreaks, but Pakistan’s situation in this match is looking increasingly dire. On a surface taking substantial turn, they are now 333 runs behind, with one opposition wicket still to get. The highest successful chase in Galle is 268; the highest fourth-innings score of any description is 300.Half-centuries from Fernando, Kusal, and Chandimal tied Sri Lanka’s innings together, and it was the morning’s third-wicket stand that set Sri Lanka up for a strong batting day. At this stage, Sri Lanka were more or less batting normally, Fernando coming down the track to create single options either side of the pitch, while Mendis played more on his back foot to take toll of the shorter deliveries, which came too often from the Pakistan spinners.There were occasional big shots before lunch, such as when Fernando ran down the track and launched Yasir into the sightscreen roughly midway through the session. But largely, the batters were happy to wait for the bowlers to err, which they did, rarely managing to build pressure, as they gave up runs to Kusal’s sweep, or Fernando’s cuts. Fernando got to his half-century towards the end of the first session, but was out soon after the break, edging Nawaz to slip.But then, thanks partly to Kusal, who reached his own fifty early in the second session, Sri Lanka raised the tempo. He began to sweep violently, and find easy singles into the outfield, until eventually, when on 76, he got the best ball of the match – a fast, but big-spinning legbreak, from Yasir that pitched well outside leg, but ripped to beat the outside edge, and clip the off stump.Already having built a decent score, Sri Lanka’s middle-order batters were undeterred by these losses. Through the afternoon session, they kept coming at Pakistan’s bowlers, never with more intent than when Dhananjaya de Silva joined Chandimal at the crease. Their partnership of 40 came off 36 balls, and featured three sixes and two fours. De Silva was out to another excellent Yasir delivery that rushed him, but then Niroshan Dickwella also produced a brisk-but-brief innings to keep Sri Lanka cantering.Mohammad Nawaz picked a five-wicket haul to keep Pakistan in the game•AFP/Getty Images

By tea, they were seven down, but 261 runs ahead, having scored at 4.4 runs an over through that session.It was in a slower-paced evening session, though, that Sri Lanka truly grabbed the match by the collar. Chandimal, in perhaps the form of his life, prodded Sri Lanka on in the company of tailenders, who gamely held on for him. With Maheesh Theekshana, he produced a ninth-wicket stand worth 41, before putting on 21 in the company of Prabath Jayasuriya. He was unhurried, but efficient, hitting only four fours and two sixes through the course of the day, but still striking at more than 70. He had also hit 76 in the first innings, and a 206 not out last week against Australia.Nawaz was the only Pakistan bowler who delivered consistently testing spells – Yasir was given to dragging his length down too often, despite having bowled some unplayable ones as well. Nawaz had taken nightwatcher Kasun Rajitha’s wicket with a slider in the second over of the day, had Angelo Mathews top-edging a cut shot by getting the ball to bite off the surface, bowled Dickwella, who under-edged his reverse sweep, and snuck a quick one on to Ramesh Mendis’ off stump.He ended the day with 5 for 88; Yasir 3 for 122, having gone at 4.20 an over. Pakistan barely used their quicks, not bowling a single over of seam in the afternoon session, and keeping Naseem Shah out of the attack until the 75th over.Of the fast bowlers, Hasan Ali was clearly the best, conceding just 15 runs from his ten overs. He was rewarded with the wicket of Theekshana late in the day.