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Absence in Sri Lanka means limited preparation time ahead of Chennai Test

Andrew Miller28-Jan-2021If ever there was proof that cricket is a mental game, then Rory Burns is banking on showing it in the coming weeks in India, as he prepares to make his case for a return to England’s Test team following the birth of his first daughter Cora, despite not having played a first-class fixture since the beginning of September.Burns and his fellow late arrivals, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer, touched down in India on Monday, just as their England team-mates were wrapping up their 2-0 series win in Sri Lanka. The trio are expected to get their first opportunity for outdoor training at Chepauk Stadium on Sunday, five days out from the first Test against India – a team whose recent victory in Australia underlines the magnitude of the challenge that England are set to face.It’s hardly ideal preparation, but then there’s little about the current Covid-influenced climate that is. And until his mandatory six-day quarantine period has elapsed, Burns accepts he will have to make do with shadow-batting in front of his hotel-room mirror, while keeping his mind active with some exploratory dabblings in a psychology course – one that he says may or may not form the basis of a post-cricket career.”Psychology in cricket has always been an interest of mind, so I’m just dipping my toe in to see if I want to pursue it further,” Burns said during a media Zoom call. “It helps to keep you fresh and get your mind away from cricket, so that I don’t just sit there and stew about the game and things going on in the world. Because if 2020 wasn’t a humbler for people, then I don’t know what will be.”But I can’t wait to get going,” he added. “I’ve literally got a bat in front of the mirror. I’ve not gone the full Steve Smith and whited up yet, but just having the bat in hand makes me hungry to get going. It’s coming down alright, so hopefully that translates.”It’s obviously a challenge, but there’s not much we can do about that schedule. If you waste time thinking about that, it’s probably not going to do you any good.”And while Burns acknowledged that sitting out of the Sri Lanka tour for the birth of his daughter had been a “double-edged sword” in terms of asserting his status as England’s first-choice opening batsman, he added that the sense of perspective that comes with becoming a father for the first time was something that he would not swap.”It’s a strange feeling, but if you’re going to miss it for anything, the birth of your first child is one thing you would do it for,” Burns said. “It’s a pretty momentous occasion, isn’t it? She just makes me emotional looking at her, so the fact I’ve got a little girl to go and play my cricket for now, it’s a nice little perspective difference.”Rory Burns in action•Getty Images

Even so, his paternity leave does now mean that Burns – until recently considered to be England’s most bankable opening batsman since the retirement of Alastair Cook – has missed each of England’s run of five consecutive overseas Test wins.His absences began at Cape Town last year, when he suffered ankle ligament damage during a warm-up game of football ahead of the second Test against South Africa, and though he returned to the side for the English summer – and contributed a crucial pair of half-centuries to help turn the series against West Indies – his most recent England scores are a run of 4, 10, 0 and 6 against Pakistan in August.”Covid lent itself to that,” Burns said. “It’s been a stop-start year for everyone, not just myself.”I jumped back in with Surrey straight after the England summer and we had a decent T20 run,” he added, after helping his club to the final of the T20 Blast at Edgbaston. “It was good fun just to hack into the white ball and not worry about the red ball as much. But the break and refreshment, and new perspective, that fatherhood brings, it’s been nice to have a bit of time at home to spend with the wife, and then come back and be ready to go now.”Due to the demands of new parenthood, Burns found himself watching more of India’s Test series in Australia than England’s early-morning exploits in Sri Lanka, but he saw enough from two of his team-mates in particular, Joe Root and Dom Sibley, to know what combination of technical and mental prowess he’ll need to find to succeed on such a tough tour.Related

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“Joe obviously leads from the front,” Burns said, after his haul of 426 runs in Sri Lanka, including two big hundreds in each Test. “Some of the sessions I saw him bat, it was pretty incredible watching him go about his business.”He’s a leader by example, in terms of how he captains the team and how he wants people to go about their batting, so he’s an easy bloke to follow. We’re very fortunate that we’ve got Joe and Stokesy, people like that. You can’t help but learn from them.”And that is very much what Sibley set out to do in Galle, where he overcame a grim haul of six runs in three innings by tweaking his technique mid-match and grinding out an invaluable unbeaten half-century.”I messaged Sibs straight away, and told him how well he played,” Burns said. “We’ve got three days [in India] to put in our work and try and get used to conditions, so it’s a mental switch really, like Sibbers from innings one to innings two in that last innings in Sri Lanka.”He managed to switch his mental approach and it worked out for him, so I guess that’s the challenge. Fortunately, I’ve been around a little while now so I’ve got some experience to draw on.”

Caleb Jewell hit his maiden one-day hundred but South Australia’s innings fell away at the death

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Oct-2019Travis Head and Alex Carey combined in an unbroken stand of 130 to earn South Australia a bonus-point eight-wicket win against Tasmania.Head, South Australia’s captain, and Carey both finished unbeaten on 80 as victory came with 11.2 overs to spare. Carey faced just 52 balls, hitting 13 fours and six, after making starts in the first two matches without converting.Caleb Jewell had scored his maiden one-day hundred but Tasmania could not find a late push to their innings as they fell from 2 for 208 in the 43rd over to 7 for 255.Jake Weatherald (53) and Callum Ferguson added 50 for the first wicket in less than seven overs to give the chase early momentum. Riley Meredith, who has impressed at the start of the season, broke through and later added Weatherald’s wicket but he went for 8.62 from his eight overs.Cam Valente’s medium pace had set back Tasmania’s innings when he removed the in-form Ben McDermott and captain Matthew Wade before Jewell and Jordan Silk (87) put on 162 in 31 overs for the third wicket.However, both set batsmen fell in quick succession – Silk to Adam Zampa and Jewell to Kane Richardson – as the South Australia attack quelled the late scoring. Outside of the 17 boundaries hit between Jewell and Silk, Tasmania’s batsmen only managed another five between them.

The left-arm fast bowler, who was suffering from a toe injury, has featured in each of the three ODIs on tour

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jul-2018Mustafizur Rahman will stay on with the Bangladesh squad for the three T20Is starting July 31 in St Kitts. Abul Hasan, who had replaced the left-arm fast bowler for the series against Afghanistan in June, has been left out.Hasan was Mustafizur’s replacement after the left-arm fast bowler missed the series because of a toe injury he sustained during the IPL. Mustafizur’s workload and injury management soon came into focus once it emerged that he had informed the team management of the injury only after the practice games prior to that series.Meanwhile, the tour is also over for Anamul Haque, Nazmul Hossain and Mashrafe Mortaza, who retired from T20Is last year. While Anamul made just 33 runs in the three ODIs, Nazmul didn’t feature in either a single international on tour.The series opener will be followed by two T20Is at Lauderhill in Florida, which has hosted a number of West Indies internationals and Caribbean Premier League matches in recent times.Bangladesh’s T20I squad: Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat, Mehidy Hassan Miraz, Nazmul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Abu Hider, Abu Jayed, Ariful Haque

The scenario for Australia to stay in the tournament beyond the group stage is pretty simple according to captain Steven Smith, with a win needed over England to qualify for the semi-finals

Alan Gardner at The Oval 06-Jun-20172:14

What do Australia and Bangladesh need to do to qualify?

“I guess we’ve just got to beat England.” That was Steven Smith’s matter-of-fact conclusion after Australia were denied an almost-certain victory over Bangladesh at The Oval by the English weather. Having been saved from a potential defeat to New Zealand at Edgbaston in their previous match, Australia were left with two points from two games – but with destiny still in their own hands ahead of their last Group A fixture against England on Saturday in Birmingham.Smith was frustrated but understanding after rain ruined Australia’s attempts to chase a target of less than four an over, which was set up by Mitchell Starc’s four-wicket haul that saw Bangladesh dismissed for 182 in 44.3 overs.”Disappointing not to get a result but we can’t do much about the weather,” he said. “The equation is pretty simple for us now. We have to beat England and I think then we’re through.”This fixture was the first day-night match of the tournament but rain was forecast to arrive during the evening, which it duly did with Australia four overs short of the 20 required to constitute an officially completed game. Although the showers did relent long enough to allow the umpires, Nigel Llong and Chris Gaffaney, to inspect at 8 pm and schedule a restart for 8.30 pm – with seven overs lost – rainfall returned almost immediately, causing the groundstaff to cover the pitch again, to desultory cheers from the remaining Bangladesh fans in The Oval.Australia’s sense of frustration was compounded by the fact that at 83 for 1, they were well ahead of the 20-over Duckworth-Lewis-Stern par score of 48 despite having only batted 16 overs. Smith had blocked five balls from Mashrafe Mortaza with rain falling as he tried to hurry the innings through but, with the umpires appearing to signal for drinks, the downfall intensified and the players were taken off for the first time.Although the Bangladesh innings finished early, at around 4.40 pm, play couldn’t restart until 5.30 pm due to drizzle during the interval. The umpires then took the players off at 6.43 pm, meaning Bangladesh were only slightly behind the required rate of four-minute overs. The rain then stopped for around 45 minutes later in the evening but Llong and Gaffaney felt there was too much mopping up required to get the game going straight away and any chance to get in the four overs required slipped by.”A little bit frustrating,” Smith said of that missed opportunity. “The groundsmen perhaps could have shown a bit more urgency, being a big tournament, but I think they did the best job they could and the umpires said it was an 8.30 pm start, so you’ve got to do what they say.”Of course I didn’t want to go off, I was happy to keep batting through the rain. But the umpires are there to make a decision and I think drinks was at the end of that over, which probably didn’t help. If the game had just carried on, perhaps they may have had a different opinion. But to be fair it was raining reasonably hard when we came off.”The no result means that Australia will likely have to beat England to go through to the semi-final, although they could still theoretically go through with as little as two points – if England win all of their games and New Zealand-Bangladesh is washed out – either on net run rate or due to having a higher seeding than the other teams in the group. The high chance of rain affecting the England-New Zealand match in Cardiff on Tuesday may add to the intrigue.The computation for Bangladesh is slightly simpler, with a win required against New Zealand at Cardiff on Friday in their final match to stay in the hunt for a semi-final spot. A win over New Zealand combined with a pair of England wins over Australia and New Zealand would guarantee Bangladesh a place in the semis. Yet, Bangladesh could still miss out on the semi-finals on three points, having suffered a hit to their run rate in defeat to England last week. They would also miss out, regardless of a win over New Zealand, if England beat New Zealand on Tuesday and Australia beat England on Saturday in which case both England and Australia would end the group stage on four points.Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s captain, was nevertheless happy that his team remained alive in the tournament and referenced the point gained from a similar abandonment against Australia in the 2015 World Cup – when they qualified from the group stage at England’s expense – as reason to be optimistic.”I can remember in the 2015 World Cup, we got one point from Australia and it really helped us go through,” he said. “This time we’ve got a straight chance, even though we have to beat New Zealand. So our job is to play hard against New Zealand and you never know.”If you look at today’s match, I think Australia was far ahead of us. But in the last match, against New Zealand, I think Australia were in the same position. You can’t do anything with the weather so, as I said, both teams are now in the situation where Australia has to win against England and we have a great chance to beat New Zealand and go through.”

The PCB has served Younis Khan with a show cause notice for breaching various clauses in his central contract after he deserted his domestic team during the ongoing Pakistan Cup in Faisalabad

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Apr-20161:09

PCB gets tough with Younis

The PCB has served Younis Khan with a show cause notice for breaching various clauses in his central contract after he deserted his domestic team during the ongoing Pakistan Cup in Faisalabad. He has also been barred from rejoining Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, despite his willingness to return.”Younis has been a great servant of Pakistan cricket and a true role model for youngsters,” Shaharyar Khan, the PCB chairman, said in a statement. “I feel pained making this decision as we have to demonstrate that no one is bigger than the game. We will wait for Younis to respond before we proceed further in this matter.”Younis was found to have breached article 2.2.8 of the code. He was charged with questioning an umpiring decision, showing dissent and threatening an umpire – for which he was fined 50% of his match fee. Following the match against Punjab, he refused to face a disciplinary hearing and left the tournament in protest. The PCB also found that Younis had breached various clauses in his category A central contract with Pakistan.Younis called Shaharyar on Monday to apologise for his actions but the PCB determined that the charges against him remained intact. “The chairman clarified that while we have all regards for Younis, who has served the country with honour, he would follow the process dealing with such situation as stipulated in the relevant rules,” the PCB said in a statement.”The position with regard to Younis Khan is as follows: (a) In accepting the recommendations of the match referee, a fine of 50% of his match fee has been imposed.”(b) For breaching the following clauses of his central contract, a show cause notice has been issued to Younis Khan to explain his position to the board within seven days: clauses 2.2.1 (c), 2.2.2, 2.2.5 and 2.2.8 and breaches No. 17 and 20 of schedule 5 of the central contract.”(c) In light of the above pending disciplinary proceedings and due to the fact that a replacement player has already been added to the KPK Team, it has been decided, in the interest of the game, not to allow Younis to rejoin the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa team in the Pakistan Cup.”

Sri Lanka A finished the rain-affected first day of the first unofficial Test against New Zealand A on 115 for 3

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Sep-2013
Scorecard
Sri Lanka A finished the rain-affected first day of the first unofficial Test against New Zealand A on 115 for 3, thanks in part to an unbeaten 49 from Kaushal Silva. Rain delayed the start of the match, then returned to interfere after 21 overs, before impeding play for a third and final time, in the afternoon. Only 40 overs were possible in the day.Kusal Perera’s lean trot with the bat did not improve, as he was caught behind for 2 off Mark Gillespie during the fifth over of the day. Gillespie also trapped captain Dinesh Chandimal in front for 6, to finish with the day’s best figures of 2 for 40. Corey Anderson took the other wicket – that of the opener Dimuth Karunaratne.Silva and Ashan Priyanjan had put on an unbeaten stand of 48 when stumps were drawn.

Board strapped with debts of US$18 million

Firdose Moonda26-Sep-2012Zimbabwe Cricket has incurred debt amounting to US$18 million and has not paid some of its players, ESPNcricinfo has learned. The board has denied the allegations and said its “financial standing is sound” and it has “never failed to execute our mandate”.The situation came to a head three months ago, when Zimbabwe hosted an unofficial T20 tri-series between themselves, South Africa and Bangladesh, which Zimbabwe won. Midway through the competition, a delegation of players who had not been paid match fees in over a year sought the help of a government minister to ensure the board fulfilled its obligations to them.Apart from players who had not been paid at all, some were given only allowances, and put up in what an insider called “appalling conditions” for the duration of the event. ZC is also accused of asking some of their own players from outside Harare to pay their own expenses to travel to the capital to compete while Cricket South Africa paid all the costs for its own team to take part in the tournament.Certain players were “threatened” when they asked about the status of their payments and so looked for outside assistance. The intervention resulted in most of the players been paid, although there remain a few who have not seen any of the amounts owing to them. A source close to the Zimbabwe camp told ESPNcricinfo that five members of the squad who played at the World T20 had not been paid.This has led to some concerns being expressed over the players’ financial well being and whether they will be able to continue playing cricket in the future. “Some of them are the breadwinners of their families and so they can’t afford not to be paid,” the source said. Zimbabwe’s preparations for the World T20 were disrupted because those players who had found other employment were unable to attend some practices.Alistair Campbell, chairman of the cricket committee, said he was “not aware,” of any non-payment*. He said the 10 central player contracts were renewed in August, in keeping with the annual date for their turnover and that any players were told when their paperwork would be in order and all payments had been made. He conceded that ZC does have some “financial concerns” but said they are making efforts to sort it out.Campbell referred to the body moving out of its headquarters at Harare Sports Club two weeks ago. It was reported in the local media that ZC were forced out because they had not paid their rent, a charge ZC denies. It said it chose to move to property it owns in the suburb of Highlands for cost-cutting purposes. “Like every other company, ZC has had to review its expenditure within the framework of the current economic conditions,” the board said in a statement. “It does not make sense for an individual or company to pay rentals when they have a property that can be utilised for the same purpose.”ZC was previously not able to fit all its staff into the Highlands office but has since trimmed its administrative roster. “Harare Sports Club remains an international cricket ground and we are likely to have satellite offices there during international games,” the board said.Zimbabwe are scheduled to host Bangladesh in a series that was postponed from August this year, but no dates have yet been set for that tour. Talk that the delay was partly caused by ZC’s cash-flow problems has been squashed by the board, which insists it remains able to provide the necessary finance to run cricket in the country. “We have prepared and equipped a national team to represent us at the World Twenty20, the domestic season is set to commence on schedule, our franchise system continues to function, and our age-group teams have been well represented on the international arena,” ZC said.While Zimbabwe does have a functional franchise system, there is no active second-team competition and club cricket has suffered. ZC has little means of making money, with incoming tours often costing more than is made from selling television rights. The board made losses on all three series it hosted last year, and although it has sponsorship arrangements, these do not offer them enough money to fully fund cricket in the country.*09:20 GMT, September 26: This story has been updated.

Gloucestershire completed an emphatic 10-wicket win over rock-bottom Leicestershire to keep alive their hopes of promotion from Division Two of the County Championship

10-Sep-2011
ScorecardGloucestershire completed an emphatic 10-wicket win over rock-bottom Leicestershire to keep alive their hopes of promotion from Division Two of the County Championship. In overcast conditions, the Gloucestershire bowlers were always on top despite a fighting 63 from Ned Eckersley, as David Payne added a further three wickets to his first-innings six to finish with match figures of 9 for 96. He received good support from Ian Saxelby as Leicestershire lost their last five wickets for 34 runs.The home side then wasted little time in knocking off the 53 runs required for a timely victory, as the rain threatened to derail their progress. Gloucestershire remain in fourth place and play at second-placed Northamptonshire in their final match next week.Resuming on 255 for 4 after a delayed start, overnight batsmen Eckersley and Wayne White both added driven boundaries early on to take their fifth-wicket partnership to 51 before Eckersley lost his off stump to Saxelby attempting an extravagant drive against the new ball.
That left Leicestershire on 277 for 5, only 18 runs in front, but White continued to keep the Gloucestershire bowlers at bay and found support from Rob Taylor as the bowlers looked for another breakthrough.The home side were further frustrated when bad light and drizzle forced the players off and an early lunch was taken but on the resumption, Saxelby and Payne struck as the Leicestershire innings subsided. The rot set in when White departed after making 31, run out by a direct hit
from Will Gidman as the batsman attempted a second run.With Will Jefferson still feeling the effects of the hand injury that forced him to retire hurt on Friday, White’s dismissal was the crucial breakthrough for Gloucestershire, and the tail departed quickly as Payne snapped up two more wickets to take his match tally to nine.First he had Taylor edging to wicketkeeper Richard Coughtrie, and in his next over trapped Jigar Naik lbw not offering a shot. The left-arm seamer was denied the first 10-wicket haul of his career when Kane Williamson dropped Nathan Buck at second slip, but the Leicestershire innings soon came to an end as Matthew Hoggard, attempting to hook Saxelby, toe-ended
the ball to Jon Lewis at mid-on where the veteran, in his last home match for the county, took a low catch.Leicestershire were all out for 311, leaving Gloucestershire needing just 53 to win, and openers Chris Dent and Coughtrie hit seven boundaries as the home side reached 54 without loss in just nine overs to secure the victory that ensures that their hopes of promotion go to the wire.

A rampant Chennai Super Kings crushed the Warriors by eight wickets to win the Champions League Twenty20 final at the Wanderers

The Bulletin by Sriram Veera in Johannesburg26-Sep-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
R Ashwin removed the dangerous Davy Jacobs, and changed the tenor of the game•Associated Press

It was a reverse sweep that changed the entire complexion of the game. Davy Jacobs had started off imperiously and catapulted Warriors to 45 in the sixth over. Then R Ashwin got one to turn quickly towards the leg stump, Jacobs went for the reverse sweep, but was trapped in front. It’s a shot that he had successfully played in the previous game; the adventurous unorthodox spirit is his calling card, and he has reaped much success with that approach. But tonight it hurt his team. This can be a cruel game, sometimes.After Jacobs fell, Muttiah Muralitharan suffocated the Warriors with his skill, and L Balaji maintained the pressure with a disciplined spell in the middle, keeping the Warriors to 128, which was never going to be enough. And it wasn’t. This is the last time this group of players will turn out for Chennai, and they gave themselves a nice farewell present.Warriors’ Achilles heel is their lower order. Johan Botha bats at no 6; the batting isn’t that deep. And so, the middle-order chose caution over valour and Chennai closed in. L Balaji, who grew in confidence with the Warriors’ non-violent approach against him, slipped in a few quiet overs with his steady line and length stuff. Ashwin continued to tease them with his variations and Muttiah Muralitharan came on in the 10th over to harass them with his ability.He kept his doosras to a minimum, and ripped offbreaks across at varying pace. Success came in the 14th over: Mark Boucher, who has fallen most to Muralitharan than any other bowler in his career, was bowled, and Justin Kreusch was beaten by the dip and flicked straight to midwicket.There was a brief little moment in the 17th over when things stirred at the bull ring. “Fast cars and big shots, that’s Craig Thyssen,” Jacobs had said earlier in the week. Tonight Thyssen went after Balaji to pick up three boundaries – a pulled four, a delicate late steer and a muscled six over midwicket. The home supporters in the crowd started to find their voice: They chanted out “Let’s go Warriors” and tried to inspire the local team but Thyssen’s cameo was too late and too little to matter in the bigger scheme of things. In hindsight, Ashwell Prince’s fall – he was bowled missing a slog against a full toss from Doug Bollinger- also proved critical as there was too much pressure on the middle-order.The only chance for Warriors after that effort was take early wickets. They didn’t. M Vijay and Michael Hussey shut them out of the contest with assured knocks. Both play spin well. Vijay used his feet to repeatedly drive inside out while Hussey, as ever, worked the angles. There was a brief moment at the end when Vijay and Suresh Raina fell in quick succession and you wondered, ‘Hold on, do we have a twist here?’ The equation jumped from a comfortable 26 from 31 deliveries to 13 from 12. However, Hussey and Dhoni calmly escorted Chennai home. A score of 128 wasn’t enough to test Chennai. Jacobs’ wicket was the key.Half-way through the evening, Jacobs’ blitz at the start already seemed a distant memory. As ever, he had moved around on his nimble feet and ripped shots with slaughterhouse finality. He smashed Doug Bollinger and Albie Morkel to all parts of the ground. There were his usual shuffle-and-smash shots, but there were also some skillful upper cuts and neat cover drives. Things looked so bright for Jacobs and his team in the sixth over but the lights went out very quickly.