Tag Futebol

The ICC has begun reviewing, of its own volition, footage of Faf du Plessis shining the ball with saliva, with what appears to be a sweet in his mouth at the same time, to check for a breach of its Code of Conduct

Firdose Moonda17-Nov-20161:46

Moonda: Du Plessis incident won’t take shine off win

Faf du Plessis will find out by Sunday if he will face a charge for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct after South Africa’s stand-in captain was shown on camera shining the ball with what appeared to be a sweet in his mouth. ICC CEO David Richardson is expected to take a call over the incident, which took place during the recent Hobart Test.The footage emerged on Wednesday, the day after the conclusion of the match, which South Africa won by an innings and 80 runs to take the series. It was not reported by match officials within the stipulated 18 hours after the game. Instead, the ICC was alerted of the incident through media queries and is now reviewing it of its own volition. It has until Sunday, a stipulated five days after it began reviewing the footage, to make its decision.”The ICC has been alerted to the footage and is currently reviewing the incident from the perspective of it being a possible breach of the ICC Code of Conduct,” an ICC spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo.Although Cricket South Africa has not made an official comment on the matter, it is understood the board is confident du Plessis was acting within the laws of the game. Cricket Australia has also not commented, neither has it registered an official complaint.This is not the first time du Plessis has come under scrutiny. In 2013, five penalty runs were awarded to Pakistan, the ball changed and du Plessis fined 50% of his match fee for rubbing the ball close to the zipper of his trouser pocket during a Test in Dubai. Du Plessis pleaded guilty to the charge and match referee David Boon said he was satisfied that du Plessis’ actions were “not part of a deliberate and/or prolonged attempt to unfairly manipulate the condition of the ball”.Faf du Plessis was previously fined in 2013 for ball-tampering in a Test against Pakistan•Getty Images

It is also not the first time South Africa have faced allegations of tampering with the ball, by either opposition or officials. In March 2014, David Warner accused AB de Villiers of scuffing up the ball with his gloves, for which Warner was fined 15% of his match fee. After the Perth Test, Josh Hazlewood said he saw South Africa throwing the ball onto the pitch in order to try and accelerate the deterioration of one side in order to generate reverse-swing. Ahead of the Hobart Test, du Plessis maintained the ball had reversed the same for both teams and said the issue had been “blown out of proportion”. Neither incident was taken up further.Previously, in July 2014, Vernon Philander was fined 75% of his match fee after footage of him digging into the ball with his nail was made available to Jeff Crowe, the match referee in Sri Lanka. Philander accepted his penalty without contest.South Africa were originally scheduled to play a two-day pink-ball practice match over the weekend in Melbourne. Instead, that game has been altered to a one-day match on Saturday, giving them extra time off after their series win and ahead of the final Test, which starts in Adelaide from November 24.

In the bid to revive cricket in Chittagong, Tamim Iqbal has announced that he will organise age-group tournaments for the next three years

Mohammad Isam22-Oct-2015In the bid to revive cricket in Chittagong, Tamim Iqbal has announced that he will organise age-group tournaments in the region for the next three years. He is one of the last international cricketers to hail from the south-eastern division that was once considered the second-most important cricket hub in Bangladesh.Tamim said that the lack of quality among Chittagong players was directly related to the lack of competitive tournaments in the city and region. He will become the second cricketer from Chittagong to take steps to give back to the game after former Bangladesh batsman Aftab Ahmed started coaching and received a good response.Tamim said he will take assistance from local coaches like Nurul Abedin to organise the different age groups. The tournaments will bear the name of his late father Iqbal Khan, who was a footballer and coach, and was instrumental in the rise of his brother Akram Khan, the former Bangladesh captain, and Tamim’s elder brother Nafees Iqbal.”Chittagong isn’t producing many cricketers,” Tamim said. “I think tournaments are not properly held. So I want to organise three age-group tournaments each year for the next three years, in the name of my father. It will be at the U-13, U-15 and U-17 levels.”Tamim hoped the tournaments would pave the way for the future generation of cricketers from his home city to graduate to the national level. Currently, the Chittagong divisional cricket team is third among the four Tier-2 teams in the National Cricket League.”When the likes of Akram uncle and Nannu uncle used to play, Chittagong had big tournaments like Star Jubo or Star Summer,” Tamim said. “Many players from across the country used to play in these competitions but these days although the leagues are going on, these tournaments aren’t taking place. If age-group tournaments can be organised, many players will represent Chittagong at the national level in the future.”After Tamim Iqbal, Nazimuddin was the only cricketer from Chittagong to have played for Bangladesh.

Allrounder Shakib Al Hasan returns to the Bangladesh squad for Test series against Zimbabwe, which begins on April 17 in Harare

Mohammad Isam05-Apr-2013Bangladesh has been boosted by the return of Shakib Al Hasan in the 15-man squad that will take on Zimbabwe in two Tests later this month. The recall of Sajidul Islam after five years, and the persistence with Shahadat Hossain, are both due to the shortage of fit pace bowlers after Abul Hasan was ruled out of the tour with a back injury.Tamim Iqbal has been retained in the Test squad despite a right thumb injury. He has an outside chance of playing in the first game but is expected to recover in time for the second Test.Shakib missed Bangladesh’s tour of Sri Lanka as he needed time to recover from surgery for a stress fracture in his right shin. Chief selector Akram Khan said the allrounder could be available for the first Test that starts on April 17, but only as a batsman.”Shakib [Al Hasan] will play as a batsman in the first Test,” Akram said in a press briefing. “Whether he will bowl or not is up to whether he recovers in time, but he will definitely be ready to bowl in the second Test match.”Shakib will bring much needed balance to the team, and it is clear that he is far more comfortable after the surgery in late February. He has begun batting in the nets.Sajidul is a left-arm swing bowler who made his Test debut in New Zealand in 2008, but was subsequently not picked again. He has taken 27 first-class wickets this season for Rangpur Division and North Zone. He makes up a four-man pace attack that also includes Shahadat, who took just one wicket in the Galle Test last month. Abul’s injury paved the way for his inclusion after he had a terrible Twenty20 outing last week against Sri Lanka.”Shahadat is a Test specialist so we want to continue with him. We are having a shortage of pace bowlers, so we need him to perform.”Sajidul has made a return after doing well in the Bangladesh Cricket League lately. He has been one of the pace bowlers training in the Academy over the last month while the senior side was in Sri Lanka,” Akram said.Shahriar Nafees and Enamul Haque have also been included in the side after both missed the Sri Lanka tour with injuries. Nafees cut his hand while shaving his bat, and Enamul suffering from a hamstring injury. There was no place for Naeem Islam, who also withdrew from the last tour with a right quadriceps tear. Mohammad Ashraful has taken control of the No. 3 position for now after a productive tour.There was no place for Elias Sunny and Marshall Ayub, while Anamul Haque misses out due to college exams, for which he has taken a short leave from cricket. Mashrafe Mortaza had sounded out his inclination to play Tests, but did not recover sufficiently from a heel contusion.Squad: Mushfiqur Rahim (c & wk), Tamim Iqbal, Jahurul Islam, Mohammad Ashraful, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Mominul Haque, Nasir Hossain, Sohag Gazi, Rubel Hossain, Shahadat Hossain, Shahriar Nafees, Enamul Haque, Robiul Islam, Sajidul Islam.

Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan allrounder, has received a visa to play across Indian cities in the IPL for Kings XI Punjab

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Apr-2012Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan allrounder, has received a visa to play across Indian cities in the IPL for Kings XI Punjab. He had initially experienced a delay in receiving his visa, and then got one that was valid only for Delhi and Chandigarh.Mahmood confirmed the news in a tweet on Wednesday afternoon.
On Monday, Mahmood, who is now a British citizen, had said that the issue was not political and was likely to be solved quickly. “The guy who made the visa only entered the name of my entry point into the country [Delhi] and destination [Chandigarh],” quoted him as saying. “It’s just procedural and not a political issue, and should get sorted out in a couple of days.”Mahmood was bought by Kings XI at the auction in February for $200,000. He was expected to be available for selection from the beginning of the IPL but missed the franchise’s first four games due to the visa issues. He will be available for their fifth game on Wednesday evening against Kolkata Knight Riders at home.

Ricky Ponting is aware he will forever be known to many as the Australian captain who lost three Ashes series. And he is happy enough to live with that

Daniel Brettig in Sydney29-Mar-2011Ricky Ponting, who stepped down as Australia’s captain in Tests and ODIs, is aware he will forever be known to many as the man who presided over three Ashes series defeats. And he is happy enough to live with that. He said he already has consoled himself with the thought that there were plenty of other achievements speckled across his leadership tenure, even if a harsh-marking public does not regard them with quite so much reverence as possession of the urn.”There probably are a few people out there who will look at me in that light [as the man who lost three Ashes series as captain], I’d like to think that through my playing time I’ve achieved a whole lot more than that though, whether that be as a player or as a captain of this side,” Ponting said. “It’s funny how we talk about losing the Ashes three times, playing in three World Cup-winning teams never comes up very often, winning 16 consecutive Test matches doesn’t come up very often, winning 30-odd consecutive World Cup games doesn’t come up very often, but that’s the world we live in.”I and all my teammates know, and everyone at Cricket Australia knows what I’ve been able to achieve in the game, and that’s what I’m very proud of.”It was instructive to hear Ponting assess his own achievements, knowing that the greatest Test series victory of his time in the job – conquering the final frontier of India in 2004 – took place while he was in the dressing rooms nursing a fractured thumb. Rather than any Test series, Ponting opted for his maiden World Cup victory as captain in 2003 as the highlight, when his team emerged from the most dysfunctional of beginnings to charge unbeaten through the tournament.Shane Warne’s ignominious departure on event eve due to a drugs ban might have derailed a less united party, while Ponting’s unwavering belief in Andrew Symonds was rewarded with a coruscating century against Pakistan in that very first match. Great escapes were made against England and New Zealand, and Ponting’s masterpiece of precise destruction – a brazenly-struck 140 – was reserved for the final as India were humbled at the Wanderers.”I think if I was to pick one it would probably be the first World Cup that I captained [in 2003], a relatively new captain going into that tournament,” he said.”As everyone knows we got through that tournament undefeated, I made a big hundred in the final and to this day that’s probably one of the proudest moments of my career.”There was some level of pride in Ponting, too, at how he had handled the slide of a great team into difficulty. Not so much in the manner of his captaincy on the field, which was at some times reactive and others woefully misguided – including the over-rate farce in Nagpur 2008 when the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was surrendered – but more in how he had kept trying to keep his head while all around him people were losing theirs. Few captains have endured such lengthy inquisitions on their future with as much frankness and even temper as Ponting.Ricky Ponting picked Australia’s 2003 World Cup win as his highlight as captain•Getty Images

“Whenever you’ve got questions being asked like that about you going into a big game it’s always reasonably hard to deal with, but to tell the truth it’s something I’ve had to deal with for the last six or eight months,” he said. “There’ve been a lot of questions out there about me and my leadership and even my batting at different times, so there’s no doubt that’s got harder to deal with.”The thing I’m really proud about is how I’ve handled it and how I’ve responded, to be able to respond the way I did with the bat in the last game under probably the most pressure the team and I have been under in a long time, was really satisfying.”The thing you can’t forget either is whenever you’ve been in a position of responsibility like I’ve been in for a long period of time, those questions are going to come your way at some stage. “Whoever the next captain might be has to make sure he’s ready for that as well.”What remains for Ponting is to concentrate again on his batting, offer advice to younger team-mates when it is sought or merited, and keep one eye on the distant goal of a final Ashes tour in 2013. “I would’ve liked to have won an Ashes series away, that would’ve been a nice thing to have done as a captain, and obviously sitting here now I’ve given up that opportunity to do that, that’s something I would’ve loved to achieve,” he said.Ponting, however, has not set a time-frame for retirement and hoped that, with the burden of captaincy now off his back, he’d be able to perform better as a player.”[2013] is probably unlikely but it depends how I play, I haven’t put a finish date or time on when my international career’s going to be over.”To tell the honest truth I think the fact I’m not captain anymore might give me the chance of actually playing better.”It’ll just keep me a bit mentally fresher than I have been the last couple of years. I think if I’m mentally fresh and got my skills in reasonable order I think I’ll be able to certainly bat better than I have in the past six months.”

Shane Warne, the Rajasthan captain, singled out the dropped catch of Sachin Tendulkar as the turning point in his team’s 37-run defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians in Jaipur, their first at the venue in nine games

Cricinfo staff12-Apr-2010Shane Warne, the Rajasthan Royals captain, singled out the dropped catch of Sachin Tendulkar as the turning point in his team’s 37-run defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians in Jaipur, their first at the venue in nine games. Tendulkar was on 45 when he top-edged a pull off Siddharth Trivedi and was put down by Aditya Dole at fine leg. He went on to score an unbeaten 89, including 20 off the final over, to boost Mumbai to a challenging score that they managed to defend, to ensure their qualification for the semi-final.”Dropping Sachin’s catch hurt us because he went on to score the runs. We also responded poorly in the bowling and fielding department after the missed chance,” Warne said after the match.Rajasthan began their chase poorly, losing four wickets inside the first seven overs, two of them to run-outs. “The first six overs were a bit of a mess and panic,” Warne said. “We conceded 60 runs in the last four overs. I know these things happen but we had a bad start to our run chase. A few run outs also hurt us. But we batted deep with Aditya Dole and (Abhishek) Raut adding few crucial runs in the end.”Some late hitting helped reduce Rajasthan’s margin of defeat, but they are currently at fourth place with a net run-rate of -0.288, and two games left to play. They are tied on 12 points with two other teams, but, along with Kings XI Punjab, have played one game more than the rest. “It was not at all a good time to lose a match,” Warne said.Tendulkar was involved in two important partnerships, with JP Duminy and Kieron Pollard. Rajasthan had begun well with three wickets in the Powerplay, but Tendulkar and Duminy rebuilt the innings while Pollard accelerated in the death overs. “We needed a solid performance, and I thought 170-plus was a competitive total on this track,” Tendulkar said. “The target was to stay there till the end, because we had lost lot of wickets early on. So that added some responsibility on me and JP.”I knew it was a matter of a couple of big overs, and they had to come at some stage.”Tendulkar also singled out Zaheer Khan for praise, as he bowled an excellent first spell, nipping the ball away and earning the wicket of Naman Ojha. “Full marks to the way our fast bowlers bowled up front. Zaheer, especially; his first spell was terrific,” he said. “The fielding was very sharp and overall good. There were some very important run-outs and catches; when all these things gel together, it’s obviously a special performance.”

Since the third season in 2025, the MLC has opted for a window in June-July that ensures no clash with other competitions

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Sep-2025The fourth season of Major League Cricket (MLC) will be held from June 18 to July 18, 2026. Like the previous edition, the six-team competition will feature 34 games in all.But even with the Season 4 dates now out, there is no public confirmation from USA Cricket (USAC) on whether it has revoked the termination of its contract with American Cricket Enterprises (ACE), the owners of the league.The confusion has left USA players concerned, as recently stated by Corey Anderson, who is the operational director of USA Cricketers’ Association, which is not recognised by USAC.Since the third season in 2025, MLC has opted for a window in June-July that ensures no clash with other global franchise competitions, allowing for a bigger pool of talent to tap into. Originally a 19-match tournament in 2023 that expanded to 25 matches in 2024, the competition has been a 34-match event since 2025. MLC is set to avoid a clash with the Hundred for the second successive year. The Hundred’s dates have not been publicly confirmed but ESPNcricinfo understands it will run from July 21 until August 16.”Season 3 showed that demand for top-tier cricket in the USA is real and accelerating,” Johnny Grave, MLC chief executive, said in a statement. “MLC is winning new fans, followers and viewers throughout the USA and around the world. We’re delivering on our promise to grow the game across the USA and build relations with new and existing commercial partners.”According to MLC, ACE is now targeting ten international standard venues by 2030 with investments upwards of US$ 150 million committed.The six teams participating in the event are Los Angeles Knight Riders (owned by Knight Riders Group), MI New York (Indiawin Sports), San Francisco Unicorns (Anand Rajaraman, Venky Harinarayan), Seattle Orcas (GMR Group, Satya Nadella, S Somasegar), Texas Super Kings (Chennai Super Kings, Anurag Jain, Ross Perot Jr) and Washington Freedom (Sanjay Govil). The MLC is also planning to add two more teams by the 2027 season, with a move to Canada also being explored.The 2025 edition was won by MI New York, their second title in three seasons, defeating Washington Freedom by five runs in the final.

CSK’s new leader reflects in the early stages of this year’s IPL and how he does not believe he is batting any differently

Alagappan Muthu09-Apr-20240:55

Wasim Jaffer: Ruturaj Gaikwad played according to the situation

The last Chennai Super Kings captain, MS Dhoni, had such a strong connection with this team that he has broken down while talking about them and wants to end his career at their home ground. The new CSK captain, Ruturaj Gaikwad, seems to be cut from the same cloth. His connection to this team is the driving force behind his captaincy.Gaikwad, speaking after CSK secured victory over Kolkata Knight Riders, said he doesn’t want to change anything just because he’s the one in charge right now. He also mentioned that Dhoni had sounded him out about leading CSK in IPL 2022 and in 2023, after every match, he sat down with the coach Stephen Fleming and discussed what he would have done had he been captain.Related

• Hussey hopes Dhoni keeps going for 'another couple of years'

• Live report – CSK vs KKR – Gaikwad, Jadeja get CSK back to winning ways

• Jadeja & Co pin KKR before Gaikwad finishes the job

• Iyer after KKR's loss at Chepauk: 'Fell short in terms of assessing the wicket'

“I don’t want to be a specific kind of character,” Gaikwad said. “Just like to flow things as they’re flowing. Keep the culture of the CSK basically going. That’s what I feel. The success we’ve had, the things we have been doing, I don’t want to change a single bit of it. I just want to come there, take my own decisions and just give as much freedom as possible because that’s what has been happening from when I joined CSK. Nothing really changes and I’m enjoying myself.”Gaikwad was bought by CSK for IPL 2019. He didn’t play any of the games that season and started slowly in 2020 but the team stuck by him and both of them have reaped rewards since. He has held the orange cap and his performances have helped them win two titles. The support that he has felt over the years is what he wants to offer to others now.

How Gaikwad came to know he would be CSK captain

Gaikwad was told about the added responsibility he would have this season in the middle of a training session with Dhoni.”To be honest, not really deep conversations, I feel…it was in a very chilled state. Just one conversation I would say. Just we were practicing and he came and told me all this stuff. Obviously for everyone, others on the outside, they would think they are big shoes to fill but I feel I would always be myself and I would like to continue the culture that has been going.”I remember in 2022 when he said to me, probably not next year, but after that you might get a chance to lead, so be ready for it. So obviously after that I was always ready for it. It was nothing new to me or a surprise or a shock. I know how to control the game. I know how the game progresses, which change [to make], what to do when, as I was doing for the state team as well. Even last year as well Fleming and me used to discuss captaincy after every game, about how I felt, what changes, bowling changes what I felt we needed to do, this or that. Every game we had one-on-one conversations so that really helped.”Ruturaj Gaikwad was able to pace a relatively simple chase•Associated Press

Has captaincy affected Gaikwad’s batting?

Gaikwad has made 155 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 117.42. He has had to work with a new opening partner this year, an IPL rookie in Rachin Ravindra. Have any of these changes forced him to bat differently?”There are certain things where the outside people don’t really get to know,” Gaikwad said. “Last year, [the] three, four games that we started, it was in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Mumbai and again Chennai. All those games were on flat wickets. So I feel the pitch really matters a lot.”First game [this season] I thought I’d got a good start, got a good ball [out for 15]. Second game, same I think, I’d got a good start, had to accelerate a little bit, you tend to make a mistake there [out for 46]. And third game, again I felt I was in great shape, second ball not really do anything [out for 1].”Sometimes there are phases where you get good balls. Sometimes there are phases where you are slightly unlucky. Sometimes there are phases where things don’t really fall in place, [a] good shot, going into fielder’s hands. So you don’t really need to think on that. I always felt I was in good shape, starting really well, good headspace, so I wasn’t really worried.”And captaincy, while batting, is a totally different approach. Even when I was playing my first game, or the first fifty I scored for CSK, I think [it was a] similar kind of situation, we were chasing 140 and I always wanted to stay till the end and make sure I finish the innings so pretty much same. Nothing really changes even though I am captain or not.”The past and the future: Ruturaj Gaikwad and MS Dhoni saw CSK home•BCCI

Gaikwad’s Dhoni flashbacks

With three needed for victory on Monday, Ravindra Jadeja made as if he was going to come out to bat. He was in full kit and was about to step out into the ground when all of a sudden he just turned around and went right back to seat. It was all a tease, instigated by himself, to wind the crowd and even his own team-mates up, who roared with laughter when they finally realised what was going on.The noise that greeted Dhoni’s arrival for his first innings at Chepauk this IPL was incredible. It was so loud that Andre Russell fielding on the boundary had to shut his ears.”I was actually thinking, it was a little bit [of a] tricky situation. I knew that he was facing the last ball of the [17th] over. There was less chances of him taking a single and facing the next over again. And I was always thinking that probably if he gets to play two-three dot balls and I go and play, if I had an opportunity to get a dot ball, I would’ve definitely done it. But, yeah, it was a little bit nostalgic for me. Even my first fifty, we ended up finishing the match together. That was the first time I was batting with him. So obviously immediately as he was walking in, I had that flashback in my mind so good to share the 22 yards with him.”

New captain takes heart from the fight his team showed over 10 hard-fought days against Pakistan in Karachi

Alagappan Muthu06-Jan-20233:03

Southee: ‘Great finish to a tough series’

There was but one member of this New Zealand squad on tour in Pakistan to have ever played cricket in the country, and that was their batting coach. Even so, they were “one ball away from series victory” and the captain Tim Southee took a lot of heart from that.Karachi provided conditions that made batting and bowling a hard graft, so much so that both Test matches only really came alive on the final day. Last week, an odd declaration from Babar Azam gave New Zealand the chance to nick a win after it seemed like they had been batted out of the game. And on Friday, they had Pakistan at 80 for 5 in a chase of 319. They weathered Sarfaraz Ahmed’s brilliant counterattack. And in the dying light, became the only team with any chance of victory.”You play to win Test matches and we got ourselves in, probably, positions to win both of them,” Southee said at the post-match press conference. “It was pretty tough going but the guys toiled away and we were one ball away from a series victory. So yeah, disappointing to walk away [0-0] and I’m sure Pakistan are the same. You walk away, you toil away for 10 days and a drawn series. So yeah. A lot of good cricket was played in and amongst those 10 days.”Related

• Jamieson-like Henry Shipley ready for the big stage

• For Sarfaraz, the job's not done yet, redemption is still just out of reach

• 'The home Test season hasn't gone according to expectations' – Babar Azam

• Fantastic Sarfaraz ton not enough as bad light has final say in Karachi thriller

• Sarfaraz Ahmed rates sensational Karachi century as his best

Southee: ‘Surfaces were tough to score runs on’

When the umpires had to take the players off the field for bad light, New Zealand were one wicket away from victory, and Pakistan needed just 15 runs. Southee, captaining for the first time in Test cricket in this series, was asked whether he had any regrets about the timing of his declaration. He gave his team 93 overs to take 10 wickets. They got in 90, and took nine, before the game was called off.”We felt the surfaces was still a pretty good surface if you wanted to just bat,” Southee said. “Tough if you wanted to score runs. So it was a bit of a balancing act to try and get the right amount of overs left and the right amount of runs. And I guess to get a little dip at them [2.5 overs] last night and get them two down, that was a great start.”I guess you always look back and there’s ways you could improve and you could get better with hindsight. But that was a decision we made at the time. The guys that were batting felt that it wasn’t easy to just go out and hit the ball. So it was one of those ones that you had to weigh up. Last night we declared and made the most of the three overs we had. But it was one of those decisions you make with discussions around how the batters are feeling, what the surface is doing and what you think is right at the time.”

Sarfaraz made us delay the second new ball, says Southee

The biggest stumbling block in New Zealand’s road to victory was Sarfaraz. Making a comeback to the Pakistan team for the first time in nearly four years, he found a way to score fluently in conditions that weren’t really conducive for that. Sarfaraz finished with 118 runs at a strike rate of 67 and slowing him down was of such importance that New Zealand denied themselves the second new ball, worried that it might come onto his bat better. Pakistan were 267 for 6 after 80 overs, 52 shy of their target.”With the two batters still in, Sarfaraz and [Agha] Salman, we felt that runs could have come quickly,” Southee said, “And I think that’s a build-up of the way Sarfaraz played through the day, which delayed us taking the new ball. If he hadn’t played as positively as he did through the day, then we would’ve been able to take the new ball when it became available and had a lot more runs to play with. So again it was a bit of a balancing act. If you take the new ball, it may come on a bit easier and we were just trying to manage how to get through that partnership, which we did. We were able to take that new ball and get another couple of wickets. So yeah, its a fine line and you go on a bit of a gut feel what you feel is right at the time along with the other leaders in the group.”

Southee happy for the Karachi fans

This was New Zealand’s first tour of Pakistan in 19 years and although the result didn’t go their way, Southee was happy he was part of the entertainment.”Dunno if I rate draws,” he said. “But yeah it was an exciting finish. I hope that the people watching enjoyed the end there. It was nice to see a few people through the gates at the end there, a bit of an atmosphere around. It would’ve been better to win but I guess for the people that were watching, I hope it was exciting.””We’ve really enjoyed our time here so far. It’s a place a lot of the guys haven’t been. We’ve been welcomed very nicely and the guys have enjoyed it and we’re now looking forward to the one-day series.”

Gutsy century digs out dramatic draw for much-changed Kent team at Canterbury

ECB Reporters' Network14-Jul-2021Sussex 181 and 332 for 4 dec (Orr 119, Haines 94, Head 49*) drew with Kent 165 (Podmore 37, Atkins 5-51) and 257 for 7 (Finch 115*, O’Riordan 47)Kent clung on for a draw in their LV= Insurance County Championship match with Sussex, after an engrossing final day at Canterbury.Jack Carson took 3 for 87 and Sean Hunt 2 for 48, but despite a cluster of wickets in the final hour, Sussex were unable to polish off Kent’s tail.Hastings-born Harry Finch made 115 from 212 balls against his home county as Kent closed on 257 for 7, after Sussex had declared on 332 for 4, 40 minutes into the morning session.The visitors began day four on 277 for 3, and Matt Quinn, who finished with 3 for 118, took the only wicket to fall when he had Oliver Carter caught by Marcus O’Riordan for 18.Travis Head reached 49 not out when the visitors declared, setting Kent a target of 349 to win. The hosts’ reply got off to a desperate start when Ollie Robinson had Joe Gordon caught behind for a duck in the first over, but O’Riordan and Finch batted through to lunch, with Kent on 52 for 1.Related

• Doubts grow over viability of county competitions as clubs face difficulty putting out sides

• Dead game, and dread circumstances, haunt final throes of Durham bore-draw

• Tom Lace makes Hampshire earn their place as Gloucestershire fall at the last

• R Ashwin sends six-wicket Test warning as Surrey give Somerset final-day hurry-up

O’Riordan was dropped three times before he was finally run out in bizarre circumstances for 47. Chasing a single, he nearly ran into his batting partner Finch. As he veered sideways to avoid a collision, the ball was gathered by Tom Haines, who ran him out with a direct hit.Heino Kuhn faced 27 balls before he was bowled by Carson for 4, leaving Kent on 139 for 3 at tea. Finch reached three figures with a glance off Carson that just eluded leg slip before nestling against the rope, but Kent’s outside hopes of a win dimmed when Dan Lincoln was out for 41, caught by Robinson off Carson.Conversely, Sussex’s hopes surged when Carson then had Harry Houillon caught by Danial Ibrahim for 9.Hunt had Finch caught behind and when he subsequently trapped Hamid Qadri lbw for 4 there were still five overs remaining, but Harry Podmore and debutant Bailey Whiteman survived a tense final spell to finish not out on 36 and 0 respectively.The result means Sussex finish bottom of Group C while Kent are fifth, leaving both sides in the third tier when the championship resumes in late August.