All posts by n8rngtd.top

Former Test opener believes Smith should stay at the top against India after requesting the role last summer

Yash Jha08-Oct-2024Who will open for Australia? Who should open for Australia? Should Steven Smith continue at the top of the order or shift back to number four? These questions have surrounded the Australian Test set-up for a while, and are only gaining traction ahead of India’s visit to Australia next month.”Steve Smith made the call to be able to go and open, and I think he should stay there”. That’s the verdict from Shane Watson as the clock ticks down to the year-end Border-Gavaskar Trophy.”Obviously the safety blanket for him would be moving back to No. 4, but I would love to see him continue to take on the opening spot because he’s got the skill to be able to do it,” Watson said at the sidelines of the launch of the International Masters League in Mumbai on Tuesday.Related

• Watson: I think Pant is going to have a big series in Australia

• Australia sweat on Green as selection for India becomes complicated

• If not Steven Smith, then who? Australia's opening debate

• Is this the end for the Gabba?

Smith’s move up the order following David Warner’s retirement after the New Year’s Test against Sydney has been a subject of widespread debate, with no clear winner. Watson himself had backed Cameron Green to succeed as Test opener before Smith’s promotion, but has been convinced otherwise by Green’s performances – headlined by a career-best match-winning 174 not out against New Zealand in Wellington.”Cameron Green came in and batted at No. 4 and did a brilliant job,” Watson said. “His hundred that he got in New Zealand was something very special and he’s the perfect No. 4 candidate now with the future, moving forward.”As if not tricky enough already, Australia’s situation has been further complicated as they sweat on Green’s availability for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which starts in Perth on November 22. The 25-year-old allrounder was flown home from the UK following the third ODI against England after complaining of soreness in his lower back. He has had four previous stress fractures prior to his Test debut in 2020 but the exact nature of his current injury has yet to be confirmed. Cricket Australia’s medical team have been carefully assessing scans over the past two weeks to map out a plan for his recovery with an announcement on his availability for the India series expected to come this week.Smith’s four-Test stint as opener so far has yielded 171 runs – over half of which came in one innings against West Indies – at an average of 28.50, but Watson thinks it’s not a problem caused by his batting position.”I believe the reason why he didn’t do so well over the previous couple of Test matches is just [that] he was a little bit off with his technique,” Watson said. “You see [saw] him getting out a couple of ways which I’ve never really seen him get out before.”I know he would’ve had time just to go away, make some little technical adjustments, and if he opens and he makes those little adjustments, he can be incredibly successful as an opening batter knowing the incredible skill that he’s got.”

<Should Brisbane have been the venue for the first Test instead of Perth?

The Gabba will not host the first Test this summer•Getty Images

Watson also voiced his dissatisfaction with the decision to keep Perth as the venue for the opening game of the five-Test series and not Brisbane, traditionally the starting point of Australian Test summers.”I’m a traditionalist at heart. Growing up, the Gabba was always the first Test match and that’s the Test match I used to go to,” the former Australia allrounder said before highlighting the challenge Gabba poses to visiting sides.”The Gabba is a more challenging place to play for the foreign teams because there’s bounce, there’s seam, there’s swing, and it’s hot and humid. So it just provides a few more challenges, whereas Perth, for example, it’s not humid, the ball doesn’t swing as much, doesn’t necessarily seam as much as well.”I always just love the Gabba as being the place for the touring team to be able to come in and have to try and just take on the Australian conditions at their most challenging.”The ‘Gabbatoir’ had been an Australian stronghold for decades, with Australia boasting a 16-2 win-loss record in Tests in Brisbane in the last 20 years. But the fortress has been breached of late. West Indies claimed an upset 8-run win in January, while India famously clinched the 2020-21 series by handing Australia their first Test defeat at the Gabba in 32 years. The ground is also coming towards the end of its use for life with CA only signing a two-year agreement to play Test matches there with doubts over the Gabba’s viability beyond that as Brisbane requires upgraded infrastructure to host the 2032 Olympic games.

Bangladesh have picked their 15-member squad for the Under-19 World Cup, which begins next month in New Zealand

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Dec-2017Bangladesh have picked their 15-member squad for the Under-19 World Cup, which begins next month in New Zealand. The BCB did not name a captain but it is likely that Saif Hassan, the highly-rated opener, will lead the side because he has been captain for the last two years.Saif and Pinak Ghosh played the 2016 Under-19 World Cup, where Bangladesh reached the semi-final for the first time. Apart from these two, Bangladesh will depend on Afif Hossain and Towhid Hridoy for their runs.Qazi Onik and Robiul Haque will lead the pace attack, while the offspinner Nayeem Hasan is likely to be the main specialist spinner. Thirteen of the 15 players have played youth ODIs in the last two years, with reserve wicketkeeper Shakil Hossain and pace bowler Roni Hossen the only ones who have not.Bangladesh leave for New Zealand on December 26 and their tournament begins on January 13, when they take on Namibia. Canada and England are the two other teams in their group.Squad Saif Hassan, Pinak Ghosh, Mohammad Naim, Afif Hossain, Towhid Hridoy, Aminul Islam, Mohammad Rakib, Mahidul Islam Ankan, Shakil Hossain, Robiul Hoque, Nayeem Hasan, Qazi Anik, Roni Hossen, Hasan Mahmud, Tipu SultanReserve players Mohammad Sozib Hossain, Rayan Rafsan Rahman, Shakhawat Hossain, Saidul Islam, Yeasin Arafat, Abdul Halim, Monirul Isam.

“It’s just trying to find a window as to when you actually play that,” says Cricket Victoria CEO Nick Cummins

ESPNcricinfo staff and PTI02-Apr-2024Ten years after its previous edition, “active conversations” are on between the cricket boards of Australia, England and India to revive the Champions League T20 (CLT20) tournament. This comes from Cricket Victoria CEO Nick Cummins, who also said the biggest challenge would be to find a window in the jampacked cricket calendar for the tournament.”I think the Champions League was ahead of its time. The T20 landscape wasn’t mature enough at that point. I think it is now,” Cummins said on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai on Tuesday. “I know that there’s active conversations between Cricket Australia, the ECB, and the BCCI about the Champions League.”It’s just trying to find a window as to when you actually play that, because you’ve also got all the ICC tournaments as well. It may be that the first iteration of the Champions League will be of the women… [it may involve cricketers playing in] the WPL, the Hundred and the WBBL.”Related

• Meet the Global Super League, a new T20 tournament of tournaments

• Wiese: 'I feel like the bubble's got to burst at some stage'

• Ian Chappell: We need a debate on cricket's future

• The rise of T20 poses cricket a number of questions

• Stats – How cricket has changed over the past 30 years

The last edition of the CLT20 was held in India in 2014, with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) winning the title after defeating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the final in Bengaluru. That edition of the tournament, then in its sixth year, involved three teams from India, two each from Australia and South Africa, and one each from Pakistan, the West Indies and New Zealand.The tournament was played annually from 2009 to 2014, four times in India and twice in South Africa. The tournament was won twice each by CSK and Mumbai Indians (MI), and once each by New South Wales and Sydney Sixers.Cummins said he had been in talks with Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley for the revival of the CLT20, and that BCCI secretary Jay Shah might be in a position to shed more light on the topic.”I’m constantly talking to Nick Hockley, Cricket Australia CEO, for a Champions League, because I think it’s pretty important to bring that back,” Cummins said. “There are talks about it. It’s probably a question to ask Jay Shah. But certainly, from an Australia cricket perspective, we are very open to the idea of the Champions League. It’s just about finding a window in the FTP, but I think that’s the next step in the evolution of cricket.”Cummins drew comparisons with the club-based Champions League in football, saying that cricket needed to find a similar balance between international- and club-based competitions.”We still haven’t made out which league is the best. IPL, PSL or the Big Bash? The only way we can show that is by having Melbourne Stars play Karachi Kings or Mumbai Indians,” Cummins said. “Champions League is well overdue. Look at what Champions League does for football, the World Cup is fantastic and the Champions League is there [too] every time.”The idea of Mumbai Indians playing Melbourne Stars at the MCG would be just as exciting as India playing Australia at the MCG.”Football had a really big club vs country tension in the 90s. And they found a way for international football to exist side by side with leagues. Cricket is going through it at the moment. Every country has the right to have a T20 league, whether it is Nepal or Ireland. We shouldn’t place controls on how members want to play cricket.”The reality is there is no T20 competition in the world which has the best players in the world playing in it. Champions League would actually provide that. No other competition has Indian players. The IPL doesn’t have Pakistan players. So there is no competition in the world with the best players. The Champions League would be a way for the best to be playing against each other.”

CSK’s bowlers executed their plans perfectly on a slow pitch to consign Royals to their third straight defeat

Sidharth Monga12-May-20241:19

‘Royals were a batter short so couldn’t take risk’

Chennai Super Kings signed off their home league campaign with a win, giving themselves a decent chance of coming back to Chennai for the last two playoff games. Despite losing their 11th toss out of 13 and being asked to field in the afternoon heat 40 hours after finishing their last match in Ahmedabad, the CSK bowlers used a slow pitch expertly to keep Rajasthan Royals down to 141, which they chased down with relative ease.The slow pitch was right up the home bowlers’ alley, and they kept Royals quiet in a wicketless powerplay after which Simarjeet Singh kept getting wickets every time Royals tried to push back. Royals never really succeeded in mounting an attack, which CSK’s New Zealand batters, Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell, successfully did to put their chase on course with a Shivam Dube putting them on top.Related

• The CSK remix ft. Simarjeet Singh

• Samson: Losses make it 'challenging to focus on the controllables'

• As it happened – Royals slip to third straight defeat

The win took CSK up to 14 points from 13 matches, level with Sunrisers Hyderabad who have a game in hand, and two points clear of the nearest challengers outside the top four. Royals suffered their third straight defeat, which will be a cause for concern for them going into the playoffs, especially with Jos Buttler not expected to be available for the final week.RR’s power-less-play
These are the two slowest teams in the first two overs of the IPL. They like to suss the pitch out before they start attacking. Royals stayed true to form, scoring just seven off the first two, but they couldn’t kick on even after that with Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana and Shardul Thakur giving them nothing to drive. Their 42 for 0 was the slowest wicketless powerplay of IPL 2024, one run behind their 43 for 0 against Punjab Kings, but that came in a small chase.Simarjeet Singh exults after dismissing Jos Buttler•BCCI

Simarjeet cashes in
Usually CSK go to Ravindra Jadeja in the seventh over, but perhaps because of the right-left combination, which didn’t let their orthodox spinners bowl in their last match against Gujarat Titans, they bowled Simarjeet in the seventh over. Playing only his third match this year, Simarjeet had ground to make up after going for 60 in that Titans match. On this slow pitch, he was immediately on target: hard lengths and no room. When Yashasvi Jaiswal tried to take him on, the ball got big on him and resulted in a skier to cover. In his next over, Simarjeet became the beneficiary of an odd shot from a frustrated Buttler: a ramp on a slow pitch with fine leg back on the fence.With Royals’ only left-hand top-order batter gone, Jadeja rattled through his four overs for just 24 runs to go with Theekshana’s four overs for 28. Sanju Samson just kept looking for singles while Riyan Parag tried the odd boundary. It seemed as if Royals had decided they needed to get somewhere around 160 and not aim too high.The final kick doesn’t arrive
Even to get to 160, they would need two a ball for the last six overs after getting to 89 for 2 in 14 overs, which is when the spinners bowled out. Royals were banking on cashing in on pace, but just when they tried to go hard they handed Simarjeet another wicket: Samson caught at mid-off. Again Royals were pushed back.Deshpande and Thakur stuck to their plans in the death overs, and Royals never got the big overs. Only Parag’s 47 off 35 took them to 141, which was 23 less than the lowest total successfully defended in this IPL. Royals attacked just 30 balls in their innings, the sixth-lowest figure this season in non-all-out innings when setting a target.Shivam Dube played a crucial cameo after CSK had gone 39 balls without a boundary•Associated Press

Ravindra, Mitchell get chase going
CSK have been the only team slower than Royals in the early goings but they were mindful of not letting the bowlers settle into their defence. Ravindra flicked Sandeep Sharma for a six over midwicket in the second over, and went after compatriot Trent Boult in the third. Even though R Ashwin got Ravindra out in the fourth, Mitchell kept up the intent. Their 56 for 1 was their fourth-highest powerplay of this IPL.Royals claw back but Dube breaks chase open
In the middle overs, Royals clawed their way back. Yuzvendra Chahal got Mitchell, the spinners kept Moeen Ali and Ruturaj Gaikwad quiet, Moeen got out for 10 off 13, and 39 balls went without a boundary. Still it was 50 needed off seven overs. This was when Ashwin came on to bowl his last over with Dube on strike. Dube took the veteran spinner on for 6, 4, 4, with a leg-side wide in between, and while Ashwin came back with Dube’s wicket, CSK needed 35 off the last six.Captain Gaikwad stayed true to his anchor role for this chase, and saw his team home despite Jadeja getting himself out obstructing the field.

An unbeaten tenth-wicket stand of 17 from MacMillan and Vidler helped Australia clinch thriller after Straker’s six-for

Sreshth Shah08-Feb-2024An unbeaten tenth-wicket stand of 17 between Raf MacMillan and Callum Vidler took Australia past Pakistan in a topsy-turvy second semi-final in Benoni to seal a date against India in Sunday’s final for the 2024 Men’s Under-19 World Cup title.Chasing only 180 after Tom Straker’s 6 for 24 wrecked Pakistan in the first innings, Australia nearly threw away their advantage with the bat after a few clumsy top-order dismissals brought some parity into the contest. Fifteen-year-old Ali Raza (4-34) struck thrice late in the day, but the young pair of MacMillan (19*) and Vidler (3*) staved off the challenge posed by the inspired Pakistan bowling attack in the death overs to just about take Australia over the line. The winning runs in the final over were scored off an inside edge that very nearly crashed into the stumps but instead trickled behind for four.Australia also had opener Harry Dixon and wicketkeeper-batter Oliver Peake to thank for their contributions with the bat that held their fragile innings together.Dixon, who models his game on David Warner, hit his third half-century of the tournament and perhaps the most important of his youth ODI career with 50 in 75 balls. He held one end up as Sam Konstas (14), Hugh Weibgen (4), Harjas Singh (run out for 5) and Ryan Hicks (0) fell in quick succession to leave Australia reeling at 59 for 4. Along with Peake, he added 43 for the sixth wicket, but a double-wicket burst from left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas brought Pakistan into the game.Tom Straker starred with six wickets•ICC/Getty Images

Pakistan then went ahead in the contest when Raza with his blistering pace picked off Peake – on 49 – and Straker in the 42nd and 46th overs respectively. He then bowled the No. 10 Mahli Beardman for a duck leaving Australia scrambling with only one wicket in hand. But the tenth and most important wicket remained elusive.Earlier in the day, Pakistan were inserted to bat by Australia captain Weibgen. On a surface with ample spin and enough lateral movement, four of Pakistan’s top six were out for single digits. Straker, with his height and pace, dismissed Shamyl Hussain (17) and Saad Baig (3) while fellow new-ball bowler Vidler got Shahzaib Khan (4). Offspinners MacMillan and Campbell also found enough purchase to keep the left-hand heavy Pakistan line-up guessing.Two batters who did look comfortable for Pakistan, though, were the No. 3 Azan Awais and the No. 7 Minhas. They both struck 52 of different styles, to ensure Pakistan could make 179. Awais was more reserved, playing according to the struggling situation Pakistan found themselves in, while Minhas was more attacking in the back end, with the team searching for a respectable total. Their 54-run fifth-wicket stand seemed to set Pakistan up for a score closer to 200, but their dismissals in the 41st and 45th overs gave Australia an opening to exploit.And that came in the form of Straker’s extreme pace. He picked up a fourth wicket when Ubaid Khan mistimed a shot to cover in the 47th over, and when he returned for the 49th, Straker rattled the stumps of both the No. 10 and No. 11 Pakistan batters. In a game of close margins, the seven balls Pakistan failed to face in the first innings turned out to be mighty expensive.The result now sets up a repeat of the 2018 Under-19 World Cup final and more recently, the 2023 ODI World Cup final contested between the India and Australia senior sides. That contest will be at the same venue in Benoni on Sunday, February 11.