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Brad Haddin says he will continue playing his natural game but will try to assess situations better than he did at Newlands

Brydon Coverdale in Johannesburg14-Nov-2011Of all the shots played by Australia batsmen during their capitulation for 47 in Cape Town, Brad Haddin’s stood out as the most reckless. And of all the players in the team, few could afford such a blemish less than Haddin.As this week’s Johannesburg Test approaches, with a new selection panel ready to choose a squad to play New Zealand during the next fortnight, three men in Australia’s side are under pressure. Ricky Ponting is 36 and in a trough, Mitchell Johnson’s inconsistency continues to frustrate, and Haddin’s slump has become worrying.Haddin is 34, an age at which lean patches are dangerous, especially if a younger replacement is ready. Ian Healy was axed at 35. Haddin’s understudy, Tim Paine, has a broken finger and is out indefinitely, but Victoria’s keeper Matthew Wade is in fine touch and would not be out of place at Test level.Although Haddin was one of Australia’s better performers during the Ashes debacle, he now has a top score of 35 from his past five Tests. And the image that is freshest in the minds of those who watched the Newlands Test was of Haddin, with Australia at 18 for 5, slashing irresponsibly outside off and edging behind at a time when discretion was required.He had fallen to a similar rush of blood in the first innings, when Australia were 163 for 5. This week’s Test, which starts at the Wanderers on Thursday, is an important opportunity for Haddin, and the other struggling members of the side, with John Inverarity’s new selection panel watching on with interest.”It wasn’t my proudest moment the other day but the thing about this game is the way you fight back,” Haddin said. “It’s where your mental strength comes from, where you turn back up after the disappointment of the other day, not only individually but as a team. It shows what mental strength you have as a player moving forward.”Mental strength was one of the things Australia lacked in Cape Town. The assistant coach Justin Langer referred to the players’ lack of game awareness on the second day, when wickets fell at an alarming rate.Better shot selection, Langer said, was the key, although he also said it was important for the batsmen to retain their positive intent. Haddin doesn’t intend to go into his shell, but he does concede that he failed to assess things correctly at Newlands.”It’s important for everyone to play their natural game. There are moments in the game when you have to assess situations and that’s something I didn’t do great the other day. But the bottom line is you have to be true to yourself and your team-mates and play the way that’s got you here.”Haddin worked hard in the nets at Newlands on Sunday, on what was supposed to be the fifth day of the Test, and he will do so at the Wanderers when Australia train there on Tuesday for the first time. He is understandably keen to play as long as possible at international level, after he spent the best part of a decade in the queue behind Adam Gilchrist.Now it is Paine, 26, and Wade, 24, who are waiting in line. If Haddin has his way, they’ll be there a bit longer yet.”I’ve never looked at age or anything like that. For me it was always about being the best cricketer I could possibly be. If I get to the point where I think I’ve got no further part in the game then I won’t play the game anymore but at this stage I feel like I’ve got a lot of improvement in me and I’ll be kicking until then.”

Paul Harris, a former Cricket South Africa (CSA) board member has said that the body must undergo a forensic audit in order to fully exonerate chief executive Gerald Majola of financial impropriety

Firdose Moonda22-Nov-2010Paul Harris, a former Cricket South Africa (CSA) board member has said that the body must undergo a forensic audit in order to fully exonerate chief executive Gerald Majola of financial impropriety. “The auditors have been kept away from the process,” Harris, who is a former chair of the remunerations committee, told ESPNcricinfo. He also claims that CSA has lost money because of bonuses paid to Majola and 39 other staff members after last year’s Indian Premier League (IPL).Harris, together with Colin Beggs, former chairman of CSA’s audit committee and Professor Hentie van Wyk, former chairman of CSA’s finance committee, issued a statement disassociating themselves from the findings of the board’s internal commission of inquiry to look into bonus payments. The investigation, run by CSA vice-president AK Khan, was tasked with looking into R4.7 million (US$671,428) in bonuses paid to staff of which Majola received R1.8 million (US$257, 142).The commission made its findings public on Monday and cleared Majola of all charges of wrongdoing. They found that he made an “error of judgment” by not disclosing his bonus to remunerations committee (REMCO), but this was in line with precedents set in past non-CSA events and said they would put processes in place to make sure that all future payments are fully disclosed. They also instructed Majola to pay back R28,169 (US$4,024) for travel costs incurred by his children. Harris, Beggs and van Wyk were among the people who made submissions to the commission.The three claim that they “requested to the see the report before it was made public on several occasions,” according to Harris, but they were not provided with a copy. They have still not seen the report and said they have had to “rely on press reports in regard to the findings and board decisions.” The trio have still not seen the full report but are “dismayed at the press reports of the decision taken” and believe the board was too hasty is letting Majola off the hook.In their statement, the three claim that REMCO paid bonuses to staff, including Majola, in excess of the guidelines in 2009 and 2010 because the body had hosted the IPL and Champions Trophy. These bonuses went through the board and were considered to be CSA bonuses. The event bonuses which were paid independently and were paid by the IPL and International Cricket Council were not disclosed . Harris said this was a “duplication” of the money the board had already allocated to be paid as bonuses.He claims that the money from the IPL and ICC “belongs” to CSA and could have been used to “develop the game at grassroots level rather than … go into the pockets of executives who had already been adequately compensated.” Harris believes the board’s affiliates could have benefitted from the money and had the remunerations committee known the extent of the event bonuses, they would “never have authorised them”.CSA insisted that it distributed the bonuses according to precedents set during other ICC events, particularly the World Twenty20 in 2007. Harris said he was surprised to hear such a precedent existed. “I was always under the impression that bonuses were distributed from money that belonged to CSA and it was a complete surprise to me to hear that some money bypassed the system.” Harris, who is also the chief executive of First Rand Bank, believes that if needs be, the 2007 money should also be investigated.Both the 2007 and 2009 payments took place under the watch of Harris, Beggs and van Wyk, but they have only mentioned the 2009 payments in their statement, presumably because of the controversy surrounding it. They said that they consider themselves to be “legally accountable” for what happened and will consider their options once they have seen the report. Harris, Beggs and van Wyk were voted off the board at CSA’s annual general meeting in August.

Jacques Kallis’s participation in this Test was in such doubt last week that South Africa packed him off to an oxygen chamber to hasten his recovery from a rib fracture

The Bulletin by Andrew Miller16-Dec-2009Close South Africa 262 for 4 (Kallis 112*, Duminy 38*) v England

Live scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJacques Kallis was unstoppable as England rued bowling first at Centurion•Getty Images

Jacques Kallis’s participation in this Test was in such doubt last week that South Africa packed him off to an oxygen chamber to hasten his recovery from a rib fracture. The success of his treatment was plain for all to see on the opening day at Centurion, as he produced a brilliant unbeaten 112 to asphyxiate England’s ambitions in the rarefied Highveld atmosphere.In a performance buttressed by solid contributions from Ashwell Prince, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy, South Africa reached the close of a classic Test-match day on 262 for 4, a healthy return that left Andrew Strauss ruing his decision to bowl first on a green-tinged wicket. There could be no legislating, however, for the class of Kallis, who consigned his shaky form in last year’s tour of England to history to produce his 32nd century in 132 Test appearances.His recent experiences in the IPL have transformed Kallis’s mindset to such an extent that he is even unleashed as an initiative-seizing opener in limited-overs internationals. But nothing rouses him quite like the opportunity to drop anchor and bat all day, and for 203 deliveries he was the epitome of insuperable – just as he had been on England’s last tour of South Africa in 2004-05, when he top-scored for the hosts with 625 runs in five matches.In the course of his masterclass, Kallis had just two significant moments of alarm – the first from his very first delivery when Graham Onions induced a low edge through the cordon, and then again six overs before the close, when Stuart Broad, armed with the new ball, induced a streaky top-edge that flew wide of fine leg to secure his century in an improbably undignified manner.In between whiles, however, he paced his performance to perfection – bedding in when the sting went out of the attack; cashing in when the part-timers, Paul Collingwood and Jonathan Trott were handed exploratory spells; and counterattacking with premeditated effectiveness to knock Graeme Swann off his stride, after England’s offspinner had struck with his second delivery of the match to remove Prince for 45. Just when Swann believed he was turning the screw, Kallis dropped to one knee to put him back in his box with a six and a four through midwicket.Regardless of that indignity, Swann was the stand-out performer for England. Both of his dismissals were straight out of the textbook, with sharp turn and bounce accounting for Prince at slip and de Villiers at short leg in the last over before tea. It added up to the impression that Strauss had been suckered by the lurid nature of the Centurion wicket – to such an extent that he shelved his pre-series plan to hand a debut to the allrounder Luke Wright, and instead turned to the extra batting insurance in Ian Bell.In mitigation, Strauss was also let down to varying degrees by his three-pronged seam attack. England were given a flying start when Graeme Smith was strangled down the leg side for a duck by Broad’s third delivery of the morning, but instead of building on his good fortune, Broad quickly reverted to his back-of-a-length default setting. After an injury-plagued fortnight, James Anderson could not locate his rhythm despite two promising new-ball spells, and though Onions showed the way with a toiling wicket-to-wicket line that accounted for Hashim Amla (19), he succumbed to a calf strain midway through the final session and was limited to 14 overs in the day.To compound England’s frustrations, they also squandered both of their umpiring review opportunities during a foreboding afternoon session in which de Villiers and Kallis added 66 in 20 overs to push South Africa into the ascendancy. In the morning session, Prince had successfully overturned an lbw appeal from Onions when he had made just 19, and England were unable to redress the balance.Strauss had steadfastly (and correctly) refused to be drawn on three earlier occasions, but his resolve cracked twice in quick succession – first when Anderson ducked an inswinger off an inside-edge and into Kallis’s pads, and then when Swann and Prior were convinced that de Villiers had under-edged an attempted slog-sweep. With no HotSpot available to the third umpire, however, that decision was never likely to be overturned, and Strauss was rightly left kicking himself afterwards.As the afternoon wore on and Kallis’s bat grew broader with every delivery, Duminy settled into a tempo to match his senior partner, and was unbeaten on 38 from 103 deliveries at the close, with four fours and a two-stepped driven six off Swann to his name. South Africa’s measured tempo means that England remain very much in contention, especially with a still-new ball in their possession. But Kallis’s intent knows no bounds. Curiously, he has never yet managed a double-century in Tests. The time, he will feel, is nigh to put that right.

UP Warriorz couldn’t capitalise on the blazing start from Grace Harris and couldn’t defend their below-par total

Srinidhi Ramanujam26-Feb-2025Nat Sciver-Brunt put on an exceptional all-round show to propel Mumbai Indians to the top of the table with an eight-wicket win over UP Warriorz in Bengaluru. She took three wickets and followed it up with an impressive unbeaten 75 off 44 balls to chase down the target of 143 with 18 balls remaining.Warriorz initially rode on Grace Harris’ quickfire 45 and Vrinda Dinesh’s solid 33 but lost eight wickets for 54 runs to eventually end with a below-par total.Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews stitched together a solid 133-run stand for the second wicket and made the chase look easy. Though Matthews struggled her way to a 50-ball 59 after getting a life early on, Sciver-Brunt’s boundary-laden knock made sure MI raced to their third win in four games. Warriorz are fourth on the points table now with two wins after five games.With 254 runs from four matches, Sciver-Brunt is now the leading run-scorer of this WPL, overtaking Ellyse Perry’s 235.

Another Sciver-Brunt show

Sciver-Brunt came in early when MI were 6 for 1 in the fourth over, with Matthews struggling to get her timing and rhythm right. Chinelle Henry was swinging the ball both ways, making it difficult to score off her. But Sciver-Brunt took only five balls to change things around.She welcomed Saima Thakor with a hat-trick of fours in the sixth over – hitting to long-on, deep square-leg and deep cover – staying deep in the crease, and putting her bottom hand to good use and effortlessly manoeuvring the ball to both sides of the pitch.When there was width on offer, she cut fiercely, and when the length was short, she pulled behind and in front of square and toyed with the Warriorz bowlers. She brought up her fifty off 29 balls with nine fours, bringing the equation down to 54 off 47 balls. This included a hat-trick of fours off Henry as well, in the 11th over.From there, it was a cakewalk for MI as Matthews also found her range and started hitting boundaries. Overall, Sciver-Brunt struck 13 fours in her 44-ball stay.Grace Harris gave UP Warriorz a blazing start•BCCI

Harris moves up, Vrinda moves down

After four matches, Warriorz took a cue from the WBBL and the Hundred and promoted Harris to open for the first time in WPL after her struggles in the middle order. The move felt just right as she looked in her element from the start.With Kiran Navgire falling in the first over, it was up to Harris and Vrinda to steady the innings on a pitch that was holding up a bit, and the two shared 79 runs off 52 balls to give Warriorz solidity.Harris began with a scoop against Sciver-Brunt and punished Shabnim Ismail for three fours on the bounce in the second over. She kept attacking and smashed 6, 4, 4, 6 off Matthews in the fourth. She swept and pulled towards square leg, muscled the ball to long-on, and rolled her wrists to bisect the gap between mid-on and midwicket.On the other hand, Vrinda – who had scored only 40 in the previous four matches – looked in much better touch and played second fiddle to Harris well. She played a lofted cover drive elegantly to start the third over and followed it with a hook in the same over. Unlike Harris, Vrinda found boundaries on the off side with classy cover drives in her 30-ball 33.The first two partnerships gave Warriorz 81, the most for them in this WPL so far.

Middle overs remain a problem for Warriorz

It was something the Warriorz captain Deepti Sharma had admitted recently, that they needed to do better in the middle overs. But they couldn’t, squandering a strong start by losing wickets in clumps, again, to lose the plot. From 81 for 1, they collapsed to 123 for 7, losing five of those wickets in the middle overs for 30 runs.It began when Amelia Kerr removed Harris in the tenth over after the batter was dropped on 44 by Ismail off Jintimani Kalita. Offspinner Sanskriti Gupta then bowled a momentum-changing 11th over when she dismissed both Vrinda and Tahlia McGrath in the space of four balls. Warriorz slowed down and did not quite recover after that.Overall, they have lost the most wickets (24) in the middle overs (7 to 16) in this WPL so far and have been the slowest (6.72) in that phase too.

He says England can now look to launch another white-ball revolution like after their disappointing 2015 World Cup

Matt Roller05-Nov-2023After England’s team of thirty-somethings were finally eliminated from the World Cup, the oldest man in their squad recognised the finality of this defeat to Australia, their fifth in a row and their sixth in seven games. “Everything good comes to an end,” Moeen Ali said. “Maybe the writing was on the wall, and we just didn’t see it as players.”This dismal title defence will prompt an inevitable overhaul in England’s ODI set-up. The side that lost by 33 runs in Ahmedabad on Saturday contained eight members of their victorious 2019 squad; the exceptions were 36-year-old Dawid Malan, the retiring David Willey and Liam Livingstone, who is averaging 10 in the World Cup.Unlike eight years ago, when England’s group-stage exit at the 2015 World Cup led to a complete revamp of their limited-overs set-up, there is plenty of talent waiting for an opportunity. The issue is that 11 of the 15 players at this tournament are a month into two or three-year contracts, so a complete refresh may not be straightforward.Related

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For once, England’s schedule may work in their favour. They always planned to take a second-string ODI squad for their three-match series against West Indies next month, and then their focus turns to the T20 World Cup next June. They have a nine-month break between ODIs before hosting Australia in late September 2024.But the pressing issues are whether they will give Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott the opportunity to defend the T20 title they won as captain and coach in Australia last year – and if so, how they will freshen up their squad to avoid a repeat of the debacle that has played out in slow motion over the last month in India.Ben Stokes will have knee surgery when he returns home and did not commit to making himself available for the T20 World Cup when asked on Friday. Jonny Bairstow has been short of runs across white-ball cricket over the last three months, while Malan’s T20 numbers have dipped.Moeen, who is on a one-year central contract, plans to speak to England’s coach and captain at the end of this World Cup to discuss his future. He is their vice-captain in white-ball cricket but has only played in four matches at this World Cup, has gone wicketless across 24.2 overs and, even after his fluent 42 against Australia, has only made 83 runs.”I’m obviously going to speak to Jos and Motty and see what they want from me, whether they want me around or whatever,” Moeen said. “I don’t know. If they say, ‘look we’re going to go with younger players and start again’ then I’m more than happy. I get it, I understand… everything good comes to an end at some point.”Rob Key, England’s managing director of men’s cricket, will return to India this week and join the squad in Kolkata ahead of their final group fixture against Pakistan on Saturday. He will have to make some difficult decisions over players’ futures – and Moeen admitted that, in Key’s position, he would rip things up and start again.Moeen said that he expects the core of the T20 side to remain the same ahead of next year’s World Cup, but said of the ODI set-up: “If I was in charge, I’d play the younger guys. I’d just start again and I’m sure they’re going to do that. It’s common sense, more than anything. You want that fearless approach again, and it’s a great time to start again.”Maybe the writing was on the wall and we just didn’t see it as players because we thought we’d be performing well. But I just think everything good comes to an end at some point. It’s very exciting, because going forward we’ve got some really good players we know will come back into the squad with that fearless [style]. That start we had in 2015 could start again.”Moeen delivered another blunt assessment of England’s performance, saying that they have “been rubbish throughout: batting, bowling and fielding”. But they face two more significant games against Netherlands and Pakistan, needing at least one win and quite possibly two in order to qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy.”We’ve got to turn up properly as players,” Moeen said. “They are two massive games coming up. I know how important the Champions Trophy is in terms of experience at a world event because then for the World Cup, you get that experience – especially with, potentially, younger players coming in. It’s very important we make sure we qualify.”

Taniya Bhatia, who hasn’t played a T20I since the World Cup final in March 2020, is back in the squad

S Sudarshanan11-Jul-2022Offspinning allrounder Sneh Rana has made a comeback to the national side, finding a place in India’s 15-member squad for the Commonwealth Games starting July 29 in Birmingham. Rana, who returned to the side in 2021 after a five-year gap, had been rested for the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka that concluded last week.In another surprise move, the selectors included Taniya Bhatia as one of the two wicketkeepers alongside Yastika Bhatia, with Richa Ghosh left out of the main squad and named as one of the three standby players. Taniya’s last T20I appearance was the World Cup final against Australia in Melbourne in March 2020.Poonam Yadav, who didn’t get a game during the Sri Lanka tour, and Simran Dil Bahadur were the other two players in the standby list.Harleen Deol, who was included only for the ODI leg of the Sri Lanka tour, has also found a place in the squad.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Ahead of the tour to Sri Lanka, head coach Ramesh Powar had said that Rana had been rested with a view to managing her workload. “Sneh has been rested for this series and she is in the NCA working on her fitness,” he said. “Moving forward, the FTP that we have, there are about 20-25 T20 games and we want our players fresh for all the series. We want to manage the workload of the bowling unit as well as the batting unit. We are trying to balance it out. As of now, she is being rested and is working on her fitness.”Yastika’s elevation as the primary wicketkeeper, meanwhile, has been a recent development, with India having earlier preferred Ghosh’s skills with the big gloves in addition to her hitting down the order. Ghosh was India’s preferred keeper during the ODI World Cup this year, having been one of the stand-out players in the ODI series against New Zealand that preceded the tournament, scoring 146 runs at a strike-rate of 114.06 and an average of 48.66. But she managed only 81 runs in seven innings at the World Cup, getting into double figures only twice.Ghosh’s poor form continued through the Women’s T20 Challenge, and then into the tour of Sri Lanka, where Yastika took over keeping duties after the first T20I.Taniya has not played a competitive game since the Women’s T20 Challenge, but played a vital knock during that tournament, scoring 36 off 33 balls and putting on 82 with Harmanpreet Kaur to rescue Supernovas from 18 for 3 against Velocity. Taniya’s international record with the bat is modest, however, with her 22 T20I innings so far bringing her an average of 9.22 and a strike rate of 94.31.Jemimah Rodrigues, who made a successful return to the side in Sri Lanka after missing out on selection for the Women’s World Cup earlier this year, kept her place in the Commonwealth Games squad. She scored 72 runs in the three-match T20I series, including a player-of-the-match performance in the first match, where her unbeaten 36 bailed India out of trouble. S Meghana, who batted at No. 3 in each of those matches, also made the squad, though it is as yet unclear if she has been included as a back-up opener or as a No. 3.Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh and Pooja Vastrakar will form the seam attack, while Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma are the main spin options, with support from Deol’s legspin and Rana’s offspin.This year’s Commonwealth Games will include women’s cricket for the first time, with the eight-team tournament to be played under the T20I format. India are grouped alongside Australia, Pakistan and Barbados in Group A. India begin their campaign with the tournament-opener against Australia on July 29, before taking on Pakistan on July 31.All matches will be played at Edgbaston in Birmingham.Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (ice-capt), Shafali Verma, S. Meghana, Taniya Sapna Bhatia (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Sneh RanaStandby: Richa Ghosh, Poonam Yadav, Simran Dil Bahadur

India spinners wrap up victory shortly after lunch on day four

Alan Gardner16-Feb-2021India cruised to victory in a little over a session on the fourth day at Chepauk, Axar Patel collecting a five-wicket haul on debut as England went down by a crushing margin of 317 runs – emphatic retribution after the tourists had gone 1-0 up on this ground less than a week earlier.Having seen his side dominate the match from toss to finishing tape, Virat Kohli’s satisfaction was as palpable at his disgruntlement after the first Test. On a classically subcontinental surface, England twice could barely match the individual contribution of India’s first-innings centurion, Rohit Sharma, and were left with precious few scraps with which to slink off to Ahmedabad ahead of the day-night encounter, their six-match winning run in away Tests at a halt.Related

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The only slight regret for another enthusiastic crowd came in the absence of another R Ashwin landmark for them to acknowledge – he finished with 8 for 96, narrowly short of becoming only the fourth man to score a century and take ten-for in a Test.England’s task on their return to the ground was a near-futile one, but there was the potential to spend time in the middle against India’s spinners and salt away knowledge for the battles ahead. As it was, only Joe Root spent any significant amount of time at the crease – even 33 from 92 balls was modest by his recent standards – and barely a shot was played in anger until Moeen Ali decided to go down swinging with five towering sixes before being last man out, stumped off Kuldeep Yadav.Fittingly for a Test that saw some grumbling about the pitch but was more memorable for the displays of high-class wicketkeeping, the game ended with the ball in the hands of Rishabh Pant. This was only the sixth time in Tests that a match had featured five or more stumpings – and India’s march to victory on the fourth morning began with another, as Dan Lawrence charged at Ashwin only to be nutmegged, leaving Pant to seal his fate after collecting brilliantly down the leg side.That dismissal brought out Ben Stokes, searching for pointers in his ongoing duel with India’s offspinner. Despite digging in as the ball ripped and spun – one delivery from over the wicket nearly took him on the chin before Pant collected it above his head – Stokes was rendered near-strokeless, facing 38 balls from Ashwin of which 36 were dots, the last also bringing his wicket as an inside edge ricocheted off pad to slip.Patel picked up his third, following the dismissals of Dom Sibley and Jack Leach on the third evening, when Ollie Pope shovelled a slog-sweep straight to deep midwicket, and although Mohammed Siraj dropped Root with the lunch break approaching, Kuldeep Yadav was finally able to enjoy the feeling of taking a Test wicket, more than two years after his previous appearance, when Ben Foakes swept without conviction and was taken on the edge of the square.India rounded the rest up without much delay, as Root received a near-unplayable ball, which took the top glove as he pressed forward and flew to slip, and Olly Stone became another victim of the sweep to complete Patel’s five-for. Moeen had some fun with 43 off 18 balls as England at least managed to surpass their first-innings total – but nothing could take the shine off as India rewarded the returning Chepauk crowd with a thumping win, and the afternoon free.

He ended with 6 for 7 from 3.2 overs to bowl India to a series win

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Nov-2019When Deepak Chahar speared in a yorker to dismiss Aminul Islam, he, in one go, became the first Indian man to complete a T20I hat-trick, collected the best ever figures in a men’s T20I, and sealed a 30-run win against Bangladesh to close out the three-match series.Despite the presence of dew in Nagpur, which negated the effect of Chahar’s primary weapon – swing – he was still more than a handful for the Bangladesh batsmen with his incisive bowling, earning him 14 dots from his 20 deliveries.Here’s how ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentators recorded his wickets:2.4 Chahar to Liton Das, OUT, 2.5 Chahar to Soumya Sarkar, OUT, Chahar on a hat-trick12.6 Chahar to Mohammad Mithun, OUT, 17.6 Chahar to Shafiul Islam, OUT, 19.1 Chahar to Mustafizur Rahman, OUT, slapped straight to deep point and that’s a fifth for Chahar. He becomes the fourth Indian to pick up a five-for in T20Is. You’ll look at the replays and say some of those wickets came when batsmen were looking for big shots, but hey, a five-for is a five-for. India one strike away from a series win.19.2 Chahar to Aminul Islam, OUT, he’s got a hat-trick!! Deepak Chahar has the best figures ever in T20Is. 6 for 7. How incredible is that? You wanted a proper fast bowler’s wicket? There you go, he says. Spears in a yorker, and flattens the off-stump. Just for those in doubt, the hat-trick has been spread across two overs. What a win, India take the series 2-1.

Play was abandoned after Dane van Niekerk had taken her team to 177 for 8 in a rain-hit game

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2018Persistent rain forced a washout in the second women’s ODI between West Indies and South Africa on Wednesday. South Africa had won the first match, and the final ODI on Saturday will now be the series-decider.Points from this series go towards the ICC Women’s Champion, meaning both teams got one point each towards that.Rain had caused a delay right at the start, with the match initially reduced to 43 overs a side. It was further reduced to 38 overs after another hour was lost 10 overs into the South Africa innings. Put in to bat, the visiting side made 177 for 8 in the 38 overs, driven by captain Dane van Niekerk’s 53 off 66. Chloe Tryon made 37 off 44, but, that apart, there weren’t any significant contributions.Van Niekerk and Tryon came together at 85 for 4 in the 22nd over, putting on 67 runs to stabilise South Africa and take them towards a competitive total.Deandra Dottin was the most successful bowler, taking 3 for 29 in eight overs before rain ended proceedings.

England will continue to treat Moeen Ali as a batsman who “bowls a little”, according to their coach, Trevor Bayliss

George Dobell10-Jul-2017He may have taken a ten-wicket haul in the Lord’s Test, but England will continue to treat Moeen Ali as a batsman who “bowls a little”, according to their coach, Trevor Bayliss.While Moeen, who claimed the best figures by an England spinner in a Lord’s Test since 1972, has risen into the top 20 on the ICC’s bowling rankings – and, at No. 4 in the allrounder rankings, is ahead of team-mate Ben Stokes – England look likely to stick with Liam Dawson as their first-choice spinner.But if that appears to be a demotion for Moeen, Bayliss insisted it is more an attempt to alleviate him of too much pressure or expectation and suggested it was no impediment to his being England’s “best spinner”.

Bayliss on…

Jonny Bairstow: “That catch down the leg side was probably the best he’s taken since I’ve been here in the last three summers. Keeping to the spinners was not dissimilar to what we saw in Bangladesh and India and I thought he kept pretty well out there. I thought he did a very good job.”
Alastair Cook: “He’s loving it! I was having a bit of a laugh watching him in the field. He was out running around in the covers. He looked like he was enjoying it. For someone in that stage of his career, it’s a good sign.”
Gary Ballance: “The three guys who batted on Saturday night did an exceptional job. Gary made 30-odd in difficult circumstances. You can’t average 100 in county cricket without being able to play.”

“We’ll stick with one spinner and one batter that bowls a little,” Bayliss said after victory at Lord’s. “And that’s important for Mo more than anything. He wants to be in the team as a batter that bowls a bit so we’ve selected him as a batter and the second spinner.”It takes that little bit of pressure off him. He does see himself as a batter first and a spinner second. And I suppose that doesn’t mean he’s still not our best spinner but his No. 1 job is to bat.”Moeen enjoyed an outstanding Test with the ball at Lord’s, taking his career average below 40. But, ahead of that game, his bowling average since the start of 2016 was 53.02 and there were times in India, in particular, when it seemed he was losing his way with the ball in a haze of confusion over what the side required of him. At the same time, he was scoring runs more consistently, recording four Test centuries in 2016, including two in the series in India.While Dawson experienced a somewhat chequered game at Lord’s – he suffered a pair (he has been dismissed for a duck in three successive Test innings) but recovered after a nervous start with the ball to claim four wickets in the match – Bayliss feels the control his bowling can offer complements Moeen, in particular, and the make-up of the England side in general.It is for that reason he was preferred to Adil Rashid for selection, despite Rashid’s 23 wickets in the series against India. In the one Test Dawson and Rashid played together, the former conceded three runs an over and eight boundaries from his 43 overs, the latter conceded 5.15 runs per over and 18 boundaries from his 29.4 overs.”Moeen and Adil Rashid are very similar characters,” Bayliss said. “Both are attacking spinners and we just felt if we could get someone who could control a little better – and hopefully take some wickets as well – that might set us up more long-term.”In the second innings, Dawson did that role very well. If it is tight at one end, it allows Mo – as an attacking style offspinner – to attack at the other.”Liam admitted he was very nervous in the first innings. It was his first Test match at home and his first Test at Lord’s. It was one of those games when it didn’t quite come out for him how he would have liked in that first innings, but I thought he showed the character we know he has to come back and bowl better in the second innings. It was a good partnership with Mo.Liam Dawson claimed the big wicket of Hashim Amla in the second innings at Lord’s•Getty Images

“Dawson has the opportunity at the moment but there are a number of other good, young spinners – and Rash himself – pushing hard. But Dawson is the one with the opportunity at the moment. I thought in the one Test match he played in India, he was probably our best spinner. He deserves that opportunity.”Bayliss also feel the team selected by England for the Lord’s Test has the versatility and depth to prove effective on most surfaces.”The combination we had in this game could play on a lot of wickets,” he said. “We’re lucky that we have Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Ali who can bat five, six and seven. That allows us to have three other pace bowlers and another spinner. Somewhere along the line, we could throw in someone else in one of those positions, whether it is another batter, another pace bowler if we need one. It just gives us plenty of options.”