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ESPNcricinfo previews the first ODI between West Indies and England in Antigua

The Preview by Andrew Miller02-Mar-2017

Match facts

March 3, 2017
Start time 0930 local (1330 GMT)

Big Picture

After the rigours of a winter in the subcontinent – and with little to show for their efforts following gruelling losses in all three formats against India – a spring sojourn in the Caribbean, three ODIs in the course of a fortnight on tour, has the distinct flavour of a rest cure. Nothing, however, is quite that straightforward for one-day cricket at the moment, as West Indies’ absence from this year’s grand jamboree amply testifies.Could it be that West Indies’ failure to qualify for this summer’s Champions Trophy is the wake-up call that cricket in the Caribbean has long needed? This time last year, of course, they were beating England in thrilling fashion in the final of the World T20, but that emotional triumph was achieved, quite literally, in spite of the WICB, which remains defiantly at loggerheads with so many of its star players, as epitomised by its failure to select the man of that match, Marlon Samuels, for these three games.But at the same time, the cosy assurances that West Indies cricket would forever be invited to the sport’s biggest gatherings has been shattered, and already their new coach, Australia’s Stuart Law, has admitted that qualification for the 2019 World Cup is the team’s over-riding priority.They are currently ranked at No. 9 in the world, one place outside the automatic slots, and it’s fair to say that West Indies’ record against England in the coming six months will make or break their ambitions. They have these three games, plus five more in the summer, ahead of September’s qualification cut-off, and there’s no time like the present to get their late push up and running.And what of England, the renaissance team of world white-ball cricket? Their stunning coming of age since the 2015 World Cup has been dissected ad nauseam but, two years down the line, Eoin Morgan’s men can no longer get away with surprising people with their potential. In particular, despite their fighting efforts in a historically heavy-scoring ODI series in India, their ambitions faltered because of the shortcomings of their bowling attack. These three matches – plus five more against Ireland and South Africa in May – will be critical to their fine-tuning process.They go into the series with a glut of absentees. David Willey, Mark Wood, Jake Ball and Reece Topley are among the seamers who might have been expected to press their claims in these three games, but injury has struck them all down and instead the stage is set for the likes of Liam Plunkett, Steven Finn and Tom Curran – newly inducted into the squad after a hefty journey from the heart of Sri Lanka.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
West Indies: LLTWL
England: WLLWL

In the spotlight

Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight, out in the middle of a cricket field. That is rather how Ben Stokes feels, after admitting his discomfort at talking about his status as England’s most newly-minted cricketer. And yet, even without the small matter of USD 2.16 million in his back pocket, following his stunning acquisition by Rising Pune Supergiant in the IPL, Stokes was destined to be the talk of Antigua, given what happened to the last four balls he sent down against West Indies, in the World T20 final in Kolkata. And, even if that experience had all been a bad dream, we’d still have Stokes’ last visit to the Caribbean to look back on, and that broken hand courtesy of a punched locker in Barbados. In an otherwise low-key series, his presence alone adds an element of vital intrigue.It takes two to tango, however, and in the maroon corner, Carlos Brathwaite is revving up to resume his heavy bombardment against an England bowling line-up that – for all their strides as a team – has been under the cosh in recent contests. At least, that’s how the narrative is meant to pan out. Unfortunately for Brathwaite, life hasn’t been quite that simple since Kolkata. Expectations, both personally and from West Indies’ fans, have been through the roof in the past 12 months, much like those four sixes had been. “Unfortunately, it went downhill quickly,” he told the Daily Mail. “Because of what happened that night, people expected things and I guess, for a brief period, I expected them as well. It became a negative.” He has the chance, over the course of these four matches, to reset his ambitions, and those of his team.

Team news

Kieran Powell, back in West Indies’ one-day squad for the first time in three years, could pick up where he left off by facing England in an ODI at Antigua, just as he did on his last appearance in March 2014. If selected, he is likely to open the batting with Evin Lewis, who cemented his claim to a top-order berth with 148 in a thrilling run-chase against Sri Lanka in November.West Indies (probable) 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Kraigg Brathwaite, 4 Shai Hope (wk), 5 Jonathan Carter, 6 Carlos Brathwaite, 7 Rovman Powell, 8 Jason Holder (capt), 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Ashley Nurse, 11 Shannon GabrielThough Ball remains with the England squad, he didn’t look comfortable during training and is unlikely to be risked following his knee injury. Alex Hales is likely to sit out as well as he fine-tunes his recovery from a broken hand, while Tom Curran is still in transit and won’t be in the frame until the second match at the earliest. Therefore, Sam Billings is expected to open with Jason Roy, with Jonny Bairstow squeezed out of a strong middle order. Plunkett and Finn could both feature, along with both the front-line spinners, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.England (probable) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Sam Billings, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 Steven Finn.

Pitch and conditions

In a development that would make Antigua’s local heroes Curtly Ambrose and Andy Roberts weep, Caribbean wickets tend to be pretty slow and low these days. Nevertheless, England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, admitted he had been surprised by the amount of grass still in evidence on this surface. With a 9.30am start in the offing, there may be some early assistance for his seamers if he manages to call correctly and bowl first.

Stats and trivia

• Stokes’ locker punch in 2014 was not the wisest shot he has ever played, but dare one say it, his frustrations were justified. In his last three ODIs in the Caribbean (all in Antigua, in fact) he made a grand total of nine runs in three innings, and took no wickets in six overs.
• Brathwaite’s struggles to live up to his Kolkata heroics have been telling. A grand total of 248 runs at 16.53 in 18 subsequent innings, with his solitary half-century coming in his one-off Test appearance against India in Antigua. Having struck four sixes in as many balls in Kolkata, he’s managed 11 more in 301.
• It is technically an away fixture for England although, in keeping with recent Test tours of the Caribbean, the visiting support is likely to be vast. Of a ground capacity of 13,000, some 7,000-8,000 tickets have been sold to England supporters.

Quotes

“I know the media will bill the series as Carlos Brathwaite v Ben Stokes, but it’s West Indies v England.”
“We do have one eye on the Champions Trophy, getting a reasonable squad together before then and one idea of nailing down our team.”

Lauding his team’s self-belief in home Tests, Sri Lanka’s stand-in captain Rangana Herath also said that the pitch at the P Sara Oval would prove a little more helpful for batsmen than it had been in previous matches

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Colombo14-Mar-2017Sri Lanka’s most recent Test outing may have been the chastening 0-3 result in South Africa, but, where home Tests are concerned, there is a great deal of belief, acting captain Rangana Herath said.There has always been a disparity between Sri Lanka’s home form and their overseas returns, but this has been especially pronounced over the last two years. While they have lost nine of their previous ten away Tests – not counting the series against Zimbabwe – they have won each of the last six Tests at home. Half of those wins came against Australia, who were the top-ranked Test side at the time.”The most important thing for a team to have is a winning mentality, and I think we have that in our team,” Herath said. “In matches we’ve played at home – against Australia especially – we’ve won. Maybe all our players won’t perform in the same match, but the trust that we have in each other is what helps us progress. We’ve got to carry that on in the next match as well.”Among the other home trends Sri Lanka will seek to extend is the proliferation of centuries. Five batsmen have scored hundreds in two of Sri Lanka’s most recent Tests at home. With the batsmen having already spoken in meetings about turning their big scores into match-winning ones, Herath hoped for more of the same at the P Sara Oval.”We play with either six or seven batsmen, and not everyone will get runs in every match. What we stress is that whoever gets a start, needs to carry on and get a big score,” he said. “That’s what Kusal Mendis and Upul Tharanga did in the last match. I’d love to see all the batsmen get runs, and I’m sure someone will here.”Though the surface at the P Sara has sometimes been a difficult venue for batsmen – Angelo Mathews even described it as an ‘extreme pitch’ during the most recent Test at the ground – Herath suggested there would be a little more for batsmen in this match, though bowlers of any ilk can prosper as well. The P Sara ground is effectively Herath’s home venue in domestic cricket.”The pitch is pretty similar to Galle. We know here that there is bounce for the fast bowlers in the first two to three days, though I’m not sure if this wicket will live up to that. I’ve played here a lot, and my experience is that towards the fourth and fifth days, it will take some spin as well.”

Pakistan will not tour Bangladesh this year as per schedule; the PCB said the series has been postponed indefinitely by mutual consent

Umar Farooq26-Apr-2017Pakistan will not tour Bangladesh this year as per schedule; the PCB said the series has been postponed indefinitely by mutual consent. Pakistan was to play two Tests, three ODIs and a T20I series in Bangladesh in July and August.”We had spoken about the possibility of hosting them [Bangladesh in Pakistan] this year,” PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan told ESPNcricinfo. “Pakistan have now toured Bangladesh twice without them reciprocating, and we feel we cannot tour Bangladesh for the third straight time. Therefore, we have decided to postpone the tour, and will explore another window in the next year or so.”Bangladesh last toured Pakistan in 2007-08, for a five-ODI series. Since then, Pakistan have toured Bangladesh twice, in 2011-12 and 2015. The PCB had invited Bangladesh for a two-match T20I series this year, only for the BCB to rebuff the invitation.On Pakistan’s last visit to Bangladesh in 2015, the PCB had reportedly taken US$ 325,000 and justified it by saying the series had “technically” been Pakistan’s home series. This year the BCB rejected all such proposals to share revenue, though it was open to playing at a neutral venue if necessary.The PCB, however, was not keen on that option. It is understood the Pakistan board feels that hosting teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the UAE – its adopted home – is not financially viable.Relations between the Pakistan and Bangladesh boards have been sour in the past. During the Zaka Ashraf regime, the PCB had stopped communication with the BCB and barred its cricketers – who had already been auctioned to various teams – from featuring in the Bangladesh Premier League.Bangladesh were the fourth team – after West Indies, Ireland and Sri Lanka – to refuse to travel to Pakistan in the last two years. Nevertheless, the PCB is looking to build on hosting an incident-free PSL final in Lahore in March by inviting a team of international cricketers to play a T20 series in September. However, even the PSL final – touted a success – was marred by Quetta Gladiators’ entire foreign contingent deciding against travelling to Pakistan for the final.In another development, members of the ICC board were briefed on the security situation in Pakistan. According to Shaharyar, Giles Clarke, the head of the ICC task force on Pakistan, confirmed that Lahore would host a World XI in September.”We wanted to share the series between Lahore and Karachi but since the security assessment was focussed on Lahore only, it was decided to restrict the series to Lahore for now,” Shaharyar said. “The presentation about the PSL final was well received and all members understand that the World XI tour will further pave the way for major international cricket in the country. They were supportive overall and we are looking forward to host some of the top players of the world.”

With both teams loaded with power-hitters at the top, the onus is on the bowling units at a venue that favours run scoring

The Preview by Sreshth Shah28-Apr-2017

Match facts

Gujarat Lions v Mumbai Indians
Rajkot, April 29, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)

Form guide

• Gujarat Lions (sixth): defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets, lost to Kings XI Punjab by 26 runs,defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets

• Mumbai Indians (second): lost to Rising Pune Supergiant by three runs, defeated Delhi Daredevils by 14 runs, defeated Kings XI by eight wickets

Head to head

This seasonOn a batting-friendly surface at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai chased down Lions’ score of 176 – courtesy a 36-ball 53 from Nitish Rana and useful contributions from Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard – to win with six wickets to spare.OverallLions won both their meetings against Mumbai in the previous season.

In the news

Dwayne Smith was left out of Lions’ XI during their last match against Royal Challengers. James Faulker – his replacement – was economical and Lions may stick with him. Irfan Pathan, a replacement for Dwayne Bravo, is available for selection.Allrounder Krunal Pandya has recovered from the illness that kept him out of Mumbai’s previous game, but his selection will be subject to a fitness test before the match. Ambati Rayudu announced on Twitter this week that he had fully recovered from a groin injury he suffered early in the tournament. He said he had been “training hard and eagerly awaiting a call up”.

The likely XIs

Gujarat Lions: 1 Brendon McCullum, 2 Ishan Kishan, 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Aaron Finch, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 James Faulkner, 8 Andrew Tye, 9 Basil Thampi, 10 Nathu Singh, 11 Ankit SoniMumbai Indians: 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Jos Buttler, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Rohit Sharma (capt), 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya/Karn Sharma, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan, 10 Mitchell Johnson/Lasith Malinga, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Strategy Punt

Lions’ bowlers could attack Nitish Rana with the short ball early. Despite his success against the short ball, Rana has been out in the previous two innings attempting to pull bouncers from Dan Christian and Pat Cummins.

Stats that matter

• Mumbai’s pace-attack has two left-arm quicks in McClenaghan and Johnson, but left-arm pacers struggle at Rajkot. They concede 116 runs in 66 balls with an average of 58 runs per wicket.
• Off their eight games, Lions have scored 170-plus totals five times. They have also conceded 170-plus total six times.
• Nathu Singh has bowled four overs in two games but has only gone for 15 runs. His economy of 3.75 is the best in the IPL.
• Mumbai have not breached the 160-run mark this season when Nitish Rana has made a single-digit score.
• Brendon McCullum enjoys batting against Jasprit Bumrah. Off 19 balls in four innings, McCullum has hit him for 37 runs. Against Lasith Malinga, though, McCullum has been dismissed four out of seven times.
• Harbhajan Singh has dismissed Suresh Raina five times, the most by a bowler against Raina in the IPL.
• Andrew Tye takes a wicket for every 11 runs he concedes in the IPL. Lions have used 16 bowlers, but Tye has taken 12 of the 33 wickets their bowlers have earned.
• Aaron Finch has a strike rate of less than 100 against three Mumbai bowlers: off Krunal Pandya, he has managed only 7 runs in 12 balls. Against Malinga, he has scored only 13 runs in 18 balls. Against Mitchell Johnson, Finch has scored 32 runs off 35 balls. Johnson has also removed Finch three times, the most by a single bowler to him.
• Rohit Sharma has hit only three boundaries in 68 balls against Ravindra Jadeja and has been out twice. Dhawal Kulkarni concedes 9.48 runs per over against Rohit – going for 49 runs in 31 balls – but has dismissed him four times.

Stuart Broad has emerged as an injury doubt ahead of the Test series against South Africa after requiring a scan on his heel

George Dobell21-Jun-2017Stuart Broad has emerged as an injury doubt ahead of the Test series against South Africa. Broad bowled just one over before leaving the pitch as his Nottinghamshire side defeated Leicestershire by an innings after complaining of pain in his left heel. An England spokesman subsequently confirmed he would have a scan in the next 24 hours to ascertain the extent of the problem.The news is likely to cause concern in the England camp ahead of the Test series, starting at Lord’s on July 6. England are already likely to be without Chris Woakes, who is recovering from a side strain, while Ben Stokes played in the Champions Trophy with a sore knee and James Anderson has just recovered from a thigh injury.Broad will also be keen to play in the Royal London Cup final at Lord’s on July 1, while England would have wanted him to gain some pink-ball experience in the round of day-night Championship matches that is scheduled for next week. It may well be that he is rested from one or other game as a precaution even if the scan shows nothing more than bruising.Broad has managed his heel problem for some time. While specially made boots have alleviated difficulties, it is likely that he rarely bowls pain free these days. While Peter Moores, the Nottinghamshire coach, stressed that Broad left the field purely as a precaution and would not have done if the context of the match had been different – Notts were cruising to victory – the fact that he is undergoing a scan and the proximity to the Test series suggest the issue may be a little more serious than suggested.”Stuart had a bit of pain in his heel,” Moores said. “He’s had it for a while. If the situation had been different he could have pushed on through it but there was no need to so he came off and we’ll monitor it and look after him.”

India captain Mithali Raj has expressed concerns about the lack of opening stands from her batsmen, after they went down against South Africa by 115 runs on Saturday

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jul-20172:12

There’s always pressure chasing 270 – Mithali Raj

A lack of strong opening partnerships for India in the Women’s World Cup has become a worrying sign for the team. Captain Mithali Raj said after their 115-run loss in Leicester on Saturday that a strong start is something the team had been looking forward to, especially while chasing 274 against South Africa, as it makes the task easier for the rest of the batting line-up.”Yes, it’s been happening since the West Indies game that the openers have not given us the start that we expect,” Raj said after the match. “The way they (the openers) opened the World Cup campaign for us against England, we were expecting maybe one or two off games but it can’t be four in a row. So that is a worrying factor because whether you bat first or chase, it’s important your top order gives you those runs on the board. I feel that when you are chasing 270 there’s always going to be pressure but you need the opening pair to give us a start so that the batters can take from thereon. Unfortunately, today we didn’t get that.”India’s openers Punam Raut and Smriti Mandhana scored 22 and 4 respectively as their partnership was broken in the second over of the chase when Marizanne Kapp had Mandhana caught at deep square leg. Since their dominating partnership of 144 in the first match against England, India’s openers have produced stands of 0 against West Indies, 7 against Pakistan and 21 against Sri Lanka.India’s task of chasing became tougher when South Africa racked up a challenging total of 273 on the back of a blistering 65-ball 92 from opener Lizelle Lee and a steady 57 from captain Dane van Niekerk. India’s decision to bowl was questioned as Lee started hammering sixes – seven in all – against spinners Ekta Bisht and Deepti Sharma who had troubled oppositions in the last few matches. Leicester, incidentally, is the same ground where England had amassed 377 and Australia had scored a stiff 290, both batting first against Pakistan. However, it is also where South Africa had bundled West Indies for only 48.”We did ask few people here at the ground and they told us that the team that bats second has more percentage wins,” Raj explained after the match. “And our matches with South Africa in the Qualifiers as well as in the Quadrangular Series, we probably have come close to 260, we lost one game though with 10 runs, that also was around 270 target. Considering these aspects, we chose to field first.”I’ve seen the way they have batted and even though they lost a wicket in the early overs, Lee has played exceptionally well for that innings and that is what put them on the track. We did realise that her wicket was important, but I give full credit to her batting because her shots were very clean and she did play one of the best innings I have seen so far in the World Cup against us. The bowlers have done a decent job of holding them in the middle overs, we managed to pull ourselves back into the game and maybe a few shots later in the innings got them to 270.”Dane van Niekerk on Lizelle Lee: “The shots she played was ridiculous and hopefully that form can continue for us”•ICC

Van Niekerk, who was named Player of the Match for her half-century and 4 for 22, dedicated her award to team-mate Lee while showering praises on her.”First of all, this goes to Lizelle Lee,” van Niekerk said. “I think she deserves it a lot more than I do. We said if we get more such trophies in the changing room, we have more better days than bad days. I think Lizelle Lee setup the game brilliantly well and I think she deserved a big hundred today. She’s been brilliant, she strikes the ball as clean as anyone in the world and she showed it today. She stuck to her guns and she found her groove and her rhythm and that’s the way she wants to bat and we back that all the way, it came off today. The shots she played was ridiculous and hopefully that form can continue for us.”Lee’s knock had powered South Africa past 125 in 20 overs before they stuttered a bit around the 150-mark. Van Niekerk’s fifty came in handy when she arrived at 160 for 4 in the 28th over and chaperoned the lower order to help them score 70 runs in the last 10 overs.”Yeah, personally [one of my better performances] I guess, especially against a team like India and the form they are in,” she said of her performance. “Coming into this game I thought they were the team to beat, and Australia, so it’s always great to contribute. I just thought of taking it deep, I know my game well enough to say that I can take it away at the back end, struggled a bit, but I stuck to my plans and today it came off.”While I was in there, we hit a bit of a slump and I said, ‘If we can get 250-plus, we have something to bowl at’. We know how good their batting is but if we stick to our lines and lengths…I spent a bit of time there so I kind of got a feel of where the good lines and lengths were and I said to the bowlers, ‘If we hit that consistently well, and we put them under pressure, hopefully it will go our way’.”The only criticism van Niekerk had for her team was for the bowlers, who dismissed India for 158 in 46 overs. She admitted she was being “harsh” on the bowlers, but only because they had taken seven Indian wickets within the first 20 overs, to set up a big win.”I will probably be a bit harsh on my bowlers but I thought we had to get them out a bit earlier, especially having them seven down for 65,” she said. “At the end of the day you don’t want it to go that long but the wicket died down so you can only do so much on a wicket like that.”We said we wanted all three facets of the game firing and we did that today, it wasn’t as clinical as I hoped it would be, but a win is a win. We came here for two points and we got it. Everyone chipped in and it was a brilliant team performance.”India, placed second with eight points, will face Australia and New Zealand in the remaining matches while South Africa, placed fourth with seven points, will take on Sri Lanka and Australia.

Ed Pollock and Dominic Sibley made light work of their victory target at Chester-le-Street

ECB Reporters Network13-Aug-2017Ed Pollock made Birmingham’s victory a formality•Getty Images

Birmingham Bears took a comfortable stride towards the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-finals when they thrashed Durham by eight wickets at Chester-le-Street.Despite 53 off 37 balls from skipper Paul Coughlin, Durham could only set a modest target of 145 for 8 and the Bears’ young opening pair of Ed Pollock and Dominic Sibley launched a blistering reply with 51 off the first four overs. Victory was achieved with 5.1 overs to spare.Swivel pulls produced two of the left-hander Pollock’s four sixes as his superbly-timed strokes took him to 52 off 25 balls before he skied a catch to the wicketkeeper.The closest Durham came to an early breakthrough was when Pollock, on 11, pulled Usman Arshad for what looked a certain six until Graham Clark leapt to palm the ball back in-field from above the rope.Two overs later Pollock pulled Brydon Carse for a huge six behind square then cut the next ball crisply for four as 19 came off the over.With 79 on the board when Pollock departed in the eighth over, the Bears were able to coast, although Colin de Grandomme joined in the barrage with two sixes off Paul Collingwood.The New Zealand player became Ryan Pringle’s second victim when he drove to long-on before Sibley stepped across to lift Arshad behind square for six to reach 50 off 37 balls. He remained unbeaten on 51, made largely through orthodox strokes.The contest was as good as over when, after choosing to bat on a pleasant afternoon, Durham subsided tamely to 30 for 4 in the sixth over.Keaton Jennings was the first to go. After struggling to four off ten balls on his return to county duty against Worcestershire on Friday evening, this time he stroked the first ball of the match, from Olly Stone, to the extra cover boundary. But he added only a single before lobbing Jeetan Patel’s second ball to short midwicket.Three balls later, Collingwood advanced to loft Patel over long-off for six, but it was his only scoring shot as he aimed to smash Stone over midwicket and fell lbw.Tom Latham spooned Stone gently to mid-off in the same over, then Clark made 12 before cracking a short ball from Oliver Hannon-Dalby straight to extra cover.Coughlin hit three sixes and scored the bulk of the runs in propelling the score from 68 after 12 overs to 110 after 15. Stuart Poynter’s unbeaten 36 off 30 balls further raised Durham’s spirits, only for Pollock and Sibley to dash them in impressive style.

Iyer, Parthiv hit half-centuries as India A extend lead to 149 at stumps

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Oct-2017Prakash Parsekar

Ankit Bawne’s 16th first-class century, an unbeaten 116, helped India A sustain their domination over New Zealand A on the second day of the second unofficial Test – a pink-ball day game – in Vijayawada. Bawne helped build the platform set by Shreyas Iyer’s 79-ball 82 as India A ended on 360 for 4, a lead of 149, when bad light forced an early end to proceedings.Bawne, who replaced Hanuma Vihari in the XI, and Parthiv Patel, coming in place of Rishabh Pant, added 154 unbroken runs for the fifth wicket. Parthiv, playing his first game for India A in nine years, was unbeaten on 56. Bawne, who has a first-class average of 51.17 over 72 matches, was the aggressor, hitting 13 fours and five sixes during his as yet unbeaten 166-ball stay.Priyank Panchal and Karun Nair, the captain, failed to convert their starts and were out for 46 and 43 respectively. Iyer, who struck a counter-attacking century in India A’s victory in the first Test last week, added 133 for the second wicket with Panchal, before New Zealand A struck twice in quick succession to have a sniff at 142 for 3. That would become 206 for 4 when Ish Sodhi had Nair caught and bowled. But the visitors were to be denied for the next 28 overs.

Since the revised playing conditions will come into effect midway through both series, the ICC has decided to let them go ahead as per the old rules

Nagraj Gollapudi09-Sep-20172:15

New rules, new face

The new set of ICC playing conditions, effective September 28, will not be applied for the limited-overs series between England and West Indies, and Australia and India. This decision has been taken because the revised rules come into play midway through both series and the ICC wanted to avoid the resulting discrepancy.So, the first games of cricket with teams not losing a review for an umpire’s call verdict on DRS, and umpires having the authority to send players off the field for bad behaviour will be the Test series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and between Bangladesh and South Africa beginning in the last week of September.Three months ago in June, the ICC cricket committee had taken suggestions from the Marylebone Cricket Club, custodians of the laws of the game, and approved various changes to the playing conditions.These included restrictions on bat sizes, introduction of DRS in T20Is, and an amendment to the run-out law so that batsmen are no longer dismissed if their bat pops in the air at the time of the stumps being broken after having been grounded behind the crease initially. Catches and stumpings will also be permitted off deliveries where the ball makes contact with the protective helmet worn by a fielder or wicketkeeper.The ICC has also made it mandatory for all international matches to have DRS with accredited ball-tracking and edge-detection technology once the new rules take effect. However, reviews will no longer be reset after 80 overs in a Test match.

Becomes the first BCB president to serve a second term after the board’s directors chose him to be chief for the next four years

Mohammad Isam01-Nov-2017Nazmul Hassan is the first BCB president to serve a second term after the board’s directors chose him to be chief for the next four years. It was a straightforward choice as he was the only candidate among the 22 directors, though the scenes at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur suggested something else. There were at least 15,000 people who turned up to celebrate Hassan’s win even before he was officially sworn in by the election commission.However, apparently, the man at the centre of all the attention was reluctant to remain chief and had to be convinced to stay in the role by the directors.”I had decided to be a board director after four years of being the president,” Hassan said. “I thought that someone else could take over the responsibility, and we can all help him. The full-time manner of this position was becoming a challenge for me. But the directors want me to remain president. They said with tough times coming, they need me. Since there were no competition, I have been elected again.”As well as being the BCB president, Hassan is a director of Beximco Group, a conglomerate holding company headquartered in Dhaka.