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Pakistan’s Haseebullah Khan’s 135 downs Zimbabwe; hosts West Indies open account

Sreshth Shah18-Jan-2022A devastating opening spell from West Indies fast bowler Shiva Sankar rattled Scotland so bad that they could never recover. Scotland were bowled out for 95 and West Indies chased the target down in less than 20 overs to earn their first points in their home U-19 World Cup.Sankar got the new ball to swing away from right-handers, and his first scalp was Scotland opener Charlie Tear after he smacked one straight to mid off. Sankar then went full on middle stump to No. 3 Samuel Elstone, and he missed the flick and was out lbw. The third wicket for Sankar, though, was his best ball – an outswinger enticing No. 4 Tomas Mackintosh to drive, only for him to edge it to the slip cordon.The score of 29 for 3 was soon 57 for 5 when left-arm spinner Anderson Mahase picked off the next two batters. No. 5 Jack Jarvis pulled a short ball to Sankar at midwicket and the No. 6 Muhaymen Majeed missed a flick after charging down the track, leaving the wicketkeeper to complete a straightforward stumping.With the lower order exposed at one end, the rest of West Indies’ bowling unit went for the kill. McKenny Clarke’s extra pace induced an edge off Rafay Khan, after which the tall right-arm offspinner Onaje Amory used his height to get turn and bounce and find the outside edges of Lyle Robertson and Scotland captain Charlie Peet.The tenth wicket, however, was of Scotland’s best batter Oliver Davidson. Having opened the batting and seen all the wickets tumble around him, he had to show restraint through his innings. He trundled along to 43 in 92 balls before being the last man out in anticlimactic fashion, run out while looking for a two. It was a terrific performance on the field led by stand-in captain Giovonte Depeiza, who was leading the side in Ackeem Auguste’s absence.West Indies opener Matthew Nandu was tentative in their chase of 96, more so after his first-ball duck against Australia in the tournament opener. The other opener Shaqkere Parris, though, was more enterprising with his shot making. Together they put on 37 for the first wicket.Parris entertained with three fours and a six, but he seemed to get bogged down by Peet’s unorthodox round-arm left-arm spinning deliveries that seemed to dart into the stumps. Parris missed a Leet delivery that went straight with the arm, and he was walking back for 26 in 29 balls after his leg stump was rattled.The other left-arm spinner Oliver Davidson soon removed Rivaldo Clarke after his cut took the edge to the keeper, but that was about all the success Scotland had. West Indies did not lose a wicket from 66 for 3 onwards, and the unbeaten batters Teddy Bishop (23*) and Johnson (14*) saw the game off without any fuss.Dunith Wellalage turned in key performances with bat and ball•Getty Images

In the other Group D match, Sri Lanka captain Dunith Wellalage produced a dominating all-round show against Australia to throw the group wide open with one round of matches left.Wellalage – the batting allrounder who also bowls left-arm spin – first ran through the Australia batting with a five-for to bowl them out for 175. And when Sri Lanka were 49 for 4 in their chase, he smacked 52 to set up their win.Although Wellalage top-scored in the chase, he was ably assisted from the No. 6 and No. 7 batters who came after him. Wicketkeeper Anjala Bandara made 33 in a 70-run fifth-wicket stand with Wellalage. And after that, Wellalage added a further 52 with Ranuda Somarathne. After Wellalage fell, Somarathne saw the chase off to finish unbeaten on 32.Australia’s only bright spot was their opener Campbell Kellaway, who made 54. Wellalage, who introduced himself as the sixth bowler, made the most damage through the middle overs. After removing Kellaway in the 29th over, he rattled the stumps twice in the 31st to dismiss Nivethan Radhakrishnan (21) and Tobias Snell.Those three wickets in quick time saw Australia fall from 107 for 3 to 112 for 6, and if it wasn’t for William Salzmann’s 22, they would’ve folded for much lesser.Sri Lanka’s win sets Group D up for a grandstand finish. The winner of the Sri Lanka-West Indies clash in the last round definitely progresses to the Super League stage. But the loser of that game can also go through if Australia don’t win by a big enough margin against Scotland in their last match.Haseebullah’s century is the tournament’s highest individual score so far•ICC via Getty Images

Over in Group C, Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batter Haseebullah Khan hammered 135 to lift Pakistan to 315 for 9, a total 115 runs too much for Zimbabwe in their game at Diego Martin.Haseebullah put on a 189-run third-wicket stand with the No. 4 Irfan Khan, who made 75 in 73 balls. After that, the rest of Pakistan’s batters smacked quick-fire cameos to give Zimbabwe an uphill chase. The 16-year-old Awais Ali then picked up three late wickets in the second innings to finish with 6 for 56, the tournament’s best figures so far.Haseebullah, the opener, hammered ten fours and four sixes in his 155-ball innings while Irfan crunched six fours and one six. Their third-wicket stand was broken by right-arm seamer Alex Falao when Irfan fell in the 45th over, but that did not plug the flow of runs.Qasim Akram, the Pakistan captain, scored an 11-ball 20, Abbas Ali made 13 in six balls and the No. 9 Zeeshan Zamar hit three sixes in his six-ball 21 to take Pakistan to 315. Falao picked up another four wickets after Irfan’s dismissal to finish with 5 for 58.Pakistan’s opening bowlers, Zeeshan Zameer and Ahmed Khan, together with first-change bowler Awais pegged Zimbabwe back early with their breakthroughs. On the back of their effort, Pakistan had reduced Zimbabwe to 82 for 6 which soon was 111 for 7.But Brian Bennett went on to hit a 92-ball 82 to get Zimbabwe as close to the target as he could. He did the bulk of the scoring in a 73-run eighth-wicket stand with Tendekai Mataranyika to take Zimbabwe to 200. But Awais returned to clean both of them up, and also the final wicket, to finish with a six-for. Despite Zimbabwe’s late rally to protect their net run rate, they still fell short by 115.

“The easiest thing for me is to not have these conversations but that’s not who I am,” says India coach

Shashank Kishore20-Feb-2022Wriddhiman Saha “deserved honesty and clarity”, and Rahul Dravid’s chat about him potentially not being picked in India’s Test team going forward came from a “deep respect for Saha and his achievements and contributions to Indian cricket”, the head coach has explained.On Sunday, Saha told ESPNcricinfo that Dravid had indicated to him the team management’s inclination to groom a younger wicketkeeper as Rishabh Pant’s understudy following the South Africa tour, and that he could “take some other decision” if he wanted.Moments after India’s 3-0 series win over West Indies, Dravid was asked about the selection call and how he felt about a private conversation being played out the way it has, in public.”I’m not hurt at all,” Dravid said. “I have a deep respect for Wriddhiman Saha and his achievements and contributions to Indian cricket. My conversation with him actually came from that place, from my respect for him. He deserved honesty and clarity. I didn’t want him to hear about it from the media.”These are conversations I constantly have with players. I’m not hurt about it at all because I don’t expect players to always like all the messages or agree with everything I have to say about them. That’s not how it works. When you have difficult conversations with people – sometimes you have to have them with players – you don’t always expect them to agree with you or like you, but that doesn’t mean you brush it under the carpet and don’t have the conversations.”Related

• Saha parts ways with Bengal after obtaining NOC from CAB

• BCCI: 'We will speak to Saha and want to know if he was threatened'

• Dravid targeting flexibility in roles, continuity in selections

• Be ready for unpopular calls from Dravid the coach

• Pujara, Rahane, Ishant, Saha dropped for SL Tests

Dravid elaborated on how he and Rohit Sharma, who has now been elevated to all-format captaincy, have ensured players are constantly being spoken to about their roles, and how those not in the XI are given reasons for their exclusion.”Before every playing XI is picked, even now, either me or Rohit will speak to the guys not playing and are open to answer questions on why they are not playing and what are the reasons a particular XI might play,” Dravid said. “It’s natural for players at times to get upset and feel hurt, but I just feel that because of the respect I have for them, my team deserved clarity and honesty, and that’s all I was trying to convey.”Saha last played for India in November 2021 against New Zealand in Kanpur, when the team management rested Pant. The 37-year-old Saha battled neck spasms to make a fighting, unbeaten half-century in the second innings to set up India’s declaration. It was in the same Test that KS Bharat, ten years Saha’s junior, stood in admirably as a substitute wicketkeeper and impressed with his neat glovework on a turning surface.Saha retained his place in India’s squad on the tour of South Africa, where he didn’t play a single Test, even as the chorus over the inclusion of a younger second wicketkeeper, Bharat, grew louder.India are scheduled to play five more Tests this year, two of which will be against Sri Lanka next month at home. The third Test, one that was postponed in Manchester last year following a Covid-19 outbreak in the Indian camp with India leading 2-1, will be played in England in July, while two are lined up in Bangladesh later in the year.The squad for the Sri Lanka series was announced on Saturday, with Saha among four senior players – Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma the others – to be left out. This was the first time since MS Dhoni’s retirement in 2014 that Saha has been left out of India’s squad altogether, with the selectors preferring Bharat, a veteran of 79 first-class matches.”We have only three Tests [five] this year and with Rishabh Pant having established himself as our No. 1-choice wicketkeeper, we were looking to groom a younger wicketkeeper,” Dravid explained. “That was it. This doesn’t change my feelings or respect for Wriddhi or his contribution.”Like I said, the easiest thing for me is to not have these conversations or not speak to players about it, but that’s not who I am or what I am going to do. I don’t expect them to like it, but at some stage I hope they will respect the fact that I was at least able to front up and have these conversations with them.”

Despite Ben Duckett coming close to twin tons, Nottinghamshire were below par, particularly with the ball

ECB Reporters Network17-Apr-2022An unbeaten half-century by world No. 1 Test batsman Marnus Labuschagne guided Glamorgan to a seven-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire in the LV= Insurance County Championship, ending their first visit to Trent Bridge for a red-ball match since 2007 with a first win on the ground since 1998.Chasing 166 to win in the fourth innings after taking Nottinghamshire’s final two second-innings wickets inside the first hour of play, Glamorgan wrapped up a 23-points win before tea on the final afternoon.Australia’s Labuschagne, in his first game back with the Welsh county after successful summers in 2019 and 2021, was dropped on 25, although it is doubtful that the miss had any bearing on the outcome of the match.It is a sobering result for Nottinghamshire, a popular tip to be Division Two champions this season. Ben Duckett came close to scoring a century in each innings but it was generally a below-par performance by the home side, particularly with the ball.James Pattinson, in his first match back at Trent Bridge, was outbowled by fellow Aussies Michael Neser and Michael Hogan, while the Australia-born Netherlands seamer Timm van der Gugten made an outstanding contribution both with bat and ball.Nottinghamshire added 18 runs to their overnight lead of 147 before Glamorgan removed their last two wickets. Brett Hutton shouldered arms to the ball that bowled him, one of three dismissals in the match where the batter offered no shot. Joey Evison made a creditable 37 before gloving a legside catch to wicketkeeper Chris Cooke as he went to pull James Weighell.Evison batted with a runner and was unable to bowl as Glamorgan set about their chase, one in which Nottinghamshire needed a salvo of early wickets if they were to create any real pressure for the batters on a wicket that had lasted well.None was forthcoming, openers David Lloyd and Andrew Salter rattling along at four runs an over before the latter departed in the 14th, the home side’s ambitions not helped by Pattinson conceding 22 in three overs.Salter was lbw as left-arm spinner Liam Patterson-White managed to squeeze the ball past his inside edge. There was a second setback for Glamorgan in the last over before lunch when Lloyd was also out to a ball he chose to leave, Dane Paterson bringing one back to clip off stump.Paterson and Patterson-White applied a squeeze after lunch. That changed when Labuschagne lofted the left-arm spinner for six over long-off and Sam Northeast crashed four through the covers but when Northeast took on a short ball from Pattinson in the next over, he was caught at long-leg by Paterson, who struggled to track the flight of the ball against the glare of the sky before landing on his back with ball in hand.Northeast’s dismissal took one of Glamorgan’s potential match-winners out of the equation but others remained, not least Labuschagne, who had a let-off behind the stumps on 25 when Tom Moores dived across first slip but could not cling on to an edge off Paterson’s bowling.Labuschagne completed his half-century, a relatively workmanlike affair, when he cut Pattinson for just his third four, before Kiran Carlson, who made 47 in a stand worth 74, completed the victory with a flourish, handing Pattinson the indignity of being hooked for six to win the contest with 39 overs to spare.

The results will be compiled in two weeks and shared with the ICC, with the bowler optimistic that he will be cleared

Umar Farooq22-May-2022After three months of remedial work on his bowling action, Mohammad Hasnain has undergone an official test in a bid to revive his international career. Hasnain was suspended from bowling in international cricket in February, after he failed a biomechanics test in which the majority of the deliveries he bowled exceeded the 15-degree tolerance limit for a legal bowling action.The official outcome of the test, which is expected to be compiled in two weeks, will be shared with the ICC and all member boards in the world. Hasnain is optimistic that he will be cleared, but in case of an adverse outcome, he will have to go back to the drawing board to rework his action.Hasnain was first reported in January by umpires in the Big Bash League, where he was playing for Sydney Thunder. While awaiting his results in January, he was allowed to play any cricket that came his way. He subsequently featured in the PSL for his franchise Quetta Gladiators in their first three games of the season, as regulations allowed him to, but was benched soon after the board found out that his action was illegal.According to the ICC’s regulations on illegal bowling actions, the PCB can allow Hasnain to continue bowling in their domestic tournaments. But the PCB decided against it as the PSL is considered to be an international league. As a result, the PCB sent him back to the High Performance Centre to rework his action. It is understood that Hasnain worked with coaches who bowled around 5000 balls to him to help fix his action.ESPNcricinfo understands that the coaches figured out that Hasnain had been rotating his arm inconsistently to make the ball swing, causing a jerk. To bowl quicker deliveries, his landing was wild, making his alignment go out. It is understood that the structure of his new bowling action remains the same though his wrist, arm rotation and landing has been tweaked allowing him to bowl with consistent and repeatable action. He underwent multiple unofficial tests and the PCB, alongside Hasnain, went for official tests after getting encouraging results.Until he was suspended, Hasnain had been in and around Pakistan’s white-ball squads and already has a T20I hat-trick to his name. He had impressed in his short stint at the BBL, recruited as a replacement for English quick Saqib Mahmood, taking 3 for 20 in Thunder’s 28-run win over Adelaide Strikers on his debut. For the PCB, Hasnain has been an asset and among the bowlers the system had invested in as he was the among the few names in Pakistan who can bowl at 145kmph consistently.

Fast bowler Rusty Theron is also included after missing the Ireland T20Is due to injury

Peter Della Penna22-Jun-2022Former Melbourne Renegades fast bowler Cameron Stevenson has been included in USA’s T20I squad for the first time as one of several changes to the group headed to Zimbabwe next month for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier B tournament, from July 10 to 17.Stevenson, 29, has played 12 ODIs for USA, including five during the recent tour of Texas, since making his List A debut for the national team in the CWI Super50 tournament at Trinidad in November 2019. However, he has not played a T20 match since suiting up for the Renegades on New Year’s Day 2017, when he took the wicket of Kevin Pietersen at the MCG in a seven-run win over Melbourne Stars.Stevenson effectively takes a spot made available by the absence of Ian Holland, who was USA’s standout player at the ICC Americas T20 World Cup Qualifier in Antigua last November when his team-leading 10 wickets in six matches propelled USA to a first-place finish and a spot in Zimbabwe. But Holland is unavailable to tour Zimbabwe due to his County cricket commitments at Hampshire.Fast bowler Rusty Theron is also included after missing the Ireland T20Is due to injury. It will be the 36-year-old’s first tour of the African continent with USA since making the switch in 2019 having previously played nine T20Is and four ODIs for his native South Africa from 2010 to 2012.The trickle-down effect of the Covid-effected T20I series against Ireland in December has also had an impact on USA’s squad for Zimbabwe. Sushant Modani and Yasir Mohammad have retained their spots in USA’s T20I squad after impressing as last-minute replacements against Ireland when four players – including Steven Taylor and vice-captain Aaron Jones – were ruled out in December due to Covid.Modani took advantage of his opportunity and scored a fifty on T20I debut in a win over Ireland. He was also one of USA’s most in-form batters in the recent ODIs in Texas, scoring three fifties and a maiden ODI century across the eight games. Teenage legspinner Mohammad also made his T20I debut against Ireland and played a crucial role in the two matches to maintain his spot for the Zimbabwe tour, effectively replacing left-arm spinner Karima Gore who was initially in USA’s T20I squad against Ireland before being ruled out with Covid.The arrival of Stevenson combined with the emergence of Modani and Mohammad – plus the return of Taylor, Jones and Jaskaran Malhotra, who also missed the Ireland matches with Covid – means a number of players make way. Ryan Scott, who made 8 and 11 in his two innings opening the batting against Ireland, has been left out. Xavier Marshall has also been dropped after scoring 4 off 11 in his only innings against Ireland. Teenage allrounder Ritwik Behera was also dropped after struggling in his pair of opportunities against Ireland, making a four-ball duck followed by 16 off 23 balls. Jessy Singh and Ali Sheikh were also left out after not taking the field against Ireland.USA’s squad leaves later this month to begin their preparation for the T20 World Cup Qualifier with four T20 matches in Namibia – two each against Namibia and Jersey – before moving on to Zimbabwe where they will play two more warmup matches against the Netherlands on July 6 and 7.USA have been placed in Group A of the Qualifier to be staged in Bulawayo where they will face Jersey, Singapore and Zimbabwe. The top two teams in each four-team group – Hong Kong, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea and Uganda are in Group B – will advance to the semi-finals where the two winners will advance to the T20 World Cup in Australia this October.USA T20I squad: Monank Patel (capt./wk), Aaron Jones (vice-captain), Marty Kain, Ali Khan, Jaskaran Malhotra, Sushant Modani, Yasir Mohammad, Saurabh Netravalkar, Nisarg Patel, Gajanand Singh, Cameron Stevenson, Steven Taylor, Rusty Theron, Vatsal Vaghela