All posts by n8rngtd.top

The question remains: will India rest one of their quick men in the fourth Test to manage workloads?

Nagraj Gollapudi01-Sep-2021Are India looking at resting at least one of their fast bowlers who featured in the defeat at Headingley for the Oval Test starting on Thursday? The question came up after they added young fast bowler Prasidh Krishna to their squad. Prasidh, 25, who made his international debut in the home ODI series against England in March, is the seventh pacer in the squad.In a media release on Wednesday, the BCCI said Prasidh had been added to the squad for the penultimate Test of the five-match series at the request of the team management. It is understood that Prasidh, who was originally part of the reserves, was sought as cover to the main group of fast bowlers comprising Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Siraj. The other two pace options in the squad include Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur.

India’s updated squad for the fourth Test

Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-capt), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Prasidh Krishna

At 6′ 2″, Prasidh, who plays for Karnataka in domestic cricket, could potentially be seen as a back-up for Ishant, who struggled for rhythm and consistency while finishing wicketless in the third Test. Ishant, who turns 33 on Thursday, had sat out the first Test due a niggle.”He’s been included in the team mainly considering all the workload management issues,” B Arun, India’s bowling coach, said on the eve of the Oval Test. “Nothing more to it than that. Ishant’s form in the last game that was a bit of concern but I think we have sorted things out. Prasidh Krishna is just a precautionary inclusion.”At the post-match media briefing at Headingley, India captain Virat Kohli said he had noticed “no issues whatsoever” with Ishant, but added that rotation of the fast bowlers could not be ruled out keeping in mind the heavy workloads in a five-match Test series.”That’s bound to happen,” Kohli said when asked whether some of the fast bowlers could be rested. “It’s a very logical and sensible thing to do – you obviously don’t want to push individuals to a place where they break. We will have that conversation with individuals and see who is placed where physically and who needs to have a game off. You obviously can’t expect with a short turnaround like this for guys to play four Test matches in a row so we’ll have to assess who are the guys that will be given that many number of days to recover and then be okay for the fifth one [Manchester].”Bumrah, who has been India’s best bowler with 14 wickets, has also logged the most number of overs for them: 108, followed closely by Siraj, who has delivered nearly 101 overs. In terms of biggest workloads in the series so far, they slot in behind the England duo of James Anderson and Ollie Robinson, who’ve sent down nearly 117 overs each. Shami has bowled nearly 97 overs in three Tests while Ishant has bowled 56 overs in the two Tests he has played in.All the Indian fast bowlers, including Prasidh, did not bowl at training on Tuesday, with the team management opting to rest the pace-bowling group two days ahead of the fourth Test.

Jake Carder made his maiden first-class century against his old side Western Australia in a tight high-scoring affair in Adelaide

AAP26-Sep-2021Travis Head improved his chances of a Test recall with a classy 163 in a high-scoring Sheffield Shield match in Adelaide.Head’s impressive 215-ball knock, which included 18 fours and three sixes, helped South Australia to a 27-run first innings lead against Western Australia at Karen Rolton Oval.A last-wicket stand of 74 either side of tea between Nathan McAndrew (65 not out) and Lloyd Pope (12), the highest first-class score for both men, lifted SA to 492.By stumps on day three, WA were 1 for 76 – a lead of 49, with little likelihood of an outright result given only 20 wickets have fallen on a flat pitch. Cameron Bancroft (27) was caught behind off spinner Pope, but Sam Whiteman and captain Shaun Marsh batted out the remainder of the day.SA captain Head added 231 for the third wicket with fellow lefthander and former WA player Jake Carder (118 off 237), whose maiden first-class century included 15 fours.SA were 3 for 372 following a brisk fourth-wicket stand of 73 off 13 overs between Head and Alex Carey, but then collapsed.
The last pair stayed together for 17 overs and though it took Pope 32 balls to get off the mark, he contributed to a SA record 10th-wicket partnership against WA.McAndrew, who took three wickets in the WA first innings, hit seven fours and two sixes to continue his good form in his initial first-class appearance for SA.The wicket of Pope was a reward for WA spinner and debutant Corey Rocchiccioli, who took 1-145 off 39 overs. Pacemen Joel Paris (3-73 off 26 overs) and Lance Morris (3-91 off 21) were the main wicket-takers for WA.

Bavuma also cognisant of SA’s advantage of playing after Australia v West Indies

Firdose Moonda05-Nov-2021South Africa will look to “add an extra five per cent” in all their departments, as they seek to beat England for the first time in six T20Is and topple one of the tournament favourites in a bid for a semi-final spot.”We want to play our best cricket tomorrow,” Temba Bavuma, South Africa’s captain said on the eve of the game. “It’s just to find a way to add an extra five per cent in all our departments. It’ll just be us trying to find a way to improve in every department. I think the bowling has been really good. The fielding, as well, has been really good. The batting, as well. But let’s just find a way to just improve in every department of our game.”That is as much as this South African side can do against a side that has had the better of them, and most others, recently. England have only lost once in their last 10 T20Is. They’ve also won the last three T20I series against South Africa, dating back to 2017, which is about the time South Africa’s decline began.That year, they were booted out of the Champions Trophy early, lost a Test, ODI and T20I series in England and have been fairly inconsistent ever since. Though Bavuma was talking about more recent times when he said, “obviously the team has gone through a lot,” it applies over several years and particularly in this tournament where issues of team culture and race were in the spotlight. “I think we’ve learnt a lot about each other. We’ve grown a lot as a team in finding ways to get through all the tough times that we’ve gone through collectively,” Bavuma said.Related

• SA are not perfect, but they are getting comfortable about it

• Last chance for South Africa to stay alive as they come up against formidable England

And so, the match against England is an opportunity, albeit a very difficult one, to start proving the tide has properly turned. While South Africa have showed signs of improvements, with successful winter tours, and plucky performances in the tournament so far, they lack out-and-out superstars in the AB de Villiers mould. The closest candidates are Kagiso Rabada, who started this competition slowly, and Quinton de Kock, who has yet to make a significant contribution, but that doesn’t bother Bavuma. “Every game we speak about going out and fighting it out as a team. We don’t leave it to individuals,” Bavuma said. “We don’t rely on individual brilliance to bring it home for the team, but it’s all about us as a team giving everything that we’ve got. Tomorrow it won’t be any different. We’ll still be showing the same character, the same fight that we’ve shown while in this tournament.”South Africa’s muscle has come mostly in the field, with their bowlers undoubtedly their strongest suit. Their top-heavy and relatively slow-scoring line-up have just about kept their heads above water, which Bavuma backed as being good enough.”Looking at the conditions, it’s not free-flowing type of cricket. We’ve really, really had to craft as a batting unit,” he said. “We’ve always spoken about being flexible as a batting team, as individuals, and looking at the players that we have in the team, I felt that I could do a role up front, but I could also do a role within the middle.Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen will play key roles at the top of the order•AFP/Getty Images

“We’ve had guy like Rassie van der Dussen go in earlier because we know if he has the opportunity to face a considerable amount of balls, he’s a guy that can really put a bowling attack under pressure. You have a guy like Reeza Hendricks, as well, who’s come off good recent form at the top of the order. So trying to utilise that form at its best. For me it’s just playing the conditions really. We know within our batting side we need someone to kind of hold things on one end to allow all our big hitters, if I could say, to get into the game. But that’s what we’ve seen has worked at this World Cup. That’s not to say going forward that’s going to be our strategy, but for now, that’s what we feel is best.”Bavuma expects Sharjah to be slow and low, and hopes that South Africa can bat quicker than they did against Sri Lanka at the same venue, where they made hard work of chasing 143. “We knew that the wicket would be on the low side. With the batting, we did take it quite deep, and I guess the learning from that is I guess maybe we’ll have to pull the trigger a bit earlier,” he said.Their scoring rate could be key if Australia beat West Indies and the semi-final berth will depend, not just on South Africa winning, but securing a higher net run-rate than Australia. “What’s happening with Australia-West Indies, what helps us is that their game happens before our game, so we’ll kind of get a better sense or understanding as to how we need to approach the England game,” Bavuma said. “If Australia win, then it’s going to come down to net run rate. We’ll have an opportunity somewhere along our game to control our net run rate or alter our approach.”At the least, then, South Africa will take on England knowing if five percent more will be sufficient, or if they need even more than that.

Captain’s knock enables home side to take 169-run lead

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay05-Apr-2025Gloucestershire 222 and 128 for 3 (Charlesworth 77*) trail Derbyshire 391 (Madsen 118, Came 83, Jewell 61) by 41 runsDerbyshire captain Wayne Madsen again left his mark on Gloucestershire with the 40th first-class century of his career on the second day of the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match at Derby.The 41-year-old’s hundred was his sixth against Gloucestershire and put his side in a commanding position with support from Harry Came who scored 83 and shared a third wicket stand of 177.Madsen also completed 16,000 first-class runs during his 118 and with Zak Chappell adding a breezy 61 from 67 balls, Derbyshire reached 391, a lead of 169.Marchant de Lange with 3 for 31 was the pick of the bowlers for Gloucestershire who closed on 128 for 3, still 41 runs behind, with Ben Charlesworth unbeaten on 77.Gloucestershire went into day two well aware of the damage Madsen could do and under another cloudless sky, he made the most of some very accommodating bowling.The visitors’ attack, with the notable exception of de Lange, lacked the discipline and consistency to put Madsen and Came under pressure, serving up far too many short and wide balls that could be dispatched to the ropes.Madsen welcomed Zaman Akhter by upper-cutting the seamer for six before Came reached his 50, which contained nine fours, from 80 balls.Derbyshire cruised along serenely with 68 runs coming in the first hour with Madsen reaching an inevitable half-century and the 89th of his first-class career off 81 balls.Gloucestershire’s miserable morning got worse when Came on 64 edged Matt Taylor to second slip where Ollie Price fumbled the chance. Price made amends with the penultimate ball of the session, trapping Came lbw as he went back to work the ball to leg but at lunch, Derbyshire were 49 ahead with Madsen eight away from another hundred.Whatever was said in the visitors dressing room clearly made an impression because they had their best spell of the match after the interval. De Lange quickly had Brooke Guest caught behind and in his next over tempted Luis Reeve into a drive which Ollie Price pouched at second slip.When Anuj Dal was trapped on the crease by Tom Price, Derbyshire had lost four wickets in 26 balls for 10 runs and the Price brothers combined two overs later to remove Martin Andersson.As the wickets tumbled around him, Madsen went to his hundred, the 39th first-class for Derbyshire, from 144 balls, and although Ollie Price dropped him four runs later, the offspinner finally removed him when he missed a reverse sweep.But Chappell crushed any hopes Gloucestershire entertained of wrapping up the innings quickly by dispatching Ollie Price for two big sixes on his way to a 60-ball 50.Taylor returned to bowl Chappell and have Jack Morley caught behind but Derbyshire had reasserted their authority leaving Gloucestershire with a lot of batting to do.They started badly, losing Chris Dent cheaply when he got an inside edge into his stumps going half forward to Chappell in the seventh over. But Charlesworth and Ollie Price played with increasing authority to add 70 from 98 balls before Derbyshire set a trap which snared Price.Pat Brown posted a leg gully for Price who turned a ball off his hip into the waiting hands of Andersson and Reece struck another blow when Miles Hammond moved across his stumps and was lbw.Charlesworth and James Bracey negotiated the last five overs but they will need to bat for a long time tomorrow to keep Gloucestershire in the contest.

Warwickshire pile up 665 for 5 declared – their highest score against Surrey – in placid conditions

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay 10-May-2025Warwickshire exploited perfect batting conditions to pile up 665 for 5, their record score against Surrey, on the second day of the Rothesay County Championship Division One match at Edgbaston.Tom Latham struck 184 off 319 balls, the highest score by a Warwickshire debutant, Ed Barnard harvested a career-best 177 not out from 254 and Zen Malik helped himself to a maiden century – 105 not out off 119 – as batters gorged themselves on a road of a pitch prepared to nullify the champions’ bowling threat.Surrey then embarked upon the long haul towards the follow-on figure of 516 and reached 98 for 1 at the halfway point of a match which will require some spectacular bowling if it is not to end in a draw. Just two wickets fell from a full quota of overs on the second day.After Warwickshire resumed on the second morning on 364 for 4, Latham and Barnard extended their partnership to 169 in 37 overs. Latham reached 150 from 263 balls and, after 400 minutes at the crease, was chugging towards a double-century in untroubled fashion when, to unanimous surprise, he edged Tom Lawes to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes.A debut double-ton eluded the New Zealander but his 184 is the highest by a player on his first-class debut for Warwickshire, displacing the 173 by John Whitehouse against Oxford University at The Parks in 1971.Surrey should have immediately added another wicket in the next over when Barnard, on 78, chopped Dan Lawrence to point but twelfth man James Taylor put down the simplest of catches. Barnard fully exploited the reprieve to advance to his ninth first-class century as Malik, playing only his second first-class game, settled in alongside him. The proud sons of Shrewsbury and Stoke-on-Trent respectively ruthlessly took advantage of a toiling attack which at times operated with eight fielders on the boundary.Malik’s maiden ton arrived in the last over before tea, the pair having banished the oldest partnership record for Warwickshire against Surrey from the history books. Their 215 consigned the 199 by Dick Lilley and Charles Baker at The Oval in 1906 to history. Baker bailed out of cricket early to become a professional cartoonist. Surrey’s bowlers may consider a similar career move if they encounter more pitches like this.After the teatime declaration it was the turn of Warwickshire’s bowlers to suffer. Ethan Bamber (9-2-14-0) bowled the best spell of the match so far and Barnard’s happy day continued when he trapped Rory Burns lbw. But Ryan Patel got off the mark by pulling Beau Webster for six and, alongside former Warwickshire favourite Dominic Sibley, saw it through to the close to lay a solid foundation for tomorrow’s grind towards that lofty follow on figure.