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New Zealand captain Kane Williamson believes there are lessons to be learnt from playing against a good side in tough conditions, and said Mitchell Santner was a “highlight” of their tour of India

Arun Venugopal in Visakhapatnam29-Oct-2016New Zealand captain Kane Williamson slammed his side’s “extremely poor” batting performance after they lost eight wickets for 16 runs to be bowled out in 23.1 overs, their shortest completed ODI innings, and go down to India by 190 runs.New Zealand came into the series decider on an equal footing. While conceding 269 on a slow surface may have made their task difficult, they wouldn’t have expected to be rolled over for 79. Williamson said there were no excuses for how abject they were.”It’s extremely disappointing. After a tough Test series to bounce back and show the heart that was required, the fight that we needed to go two-all against a very good Indian side, was a superb effort,” he said after the match. “But it is hard to look past out last performance right now, the emotion of just finishing the game.”They got above-par initially with the bat on a tough surface. There are certainly no excuses from our end, we were extremely poor with the bat today. We want to be showing steps of improvement everyday. That’s what’s so frustrating, because we failed as a batting unit. The spinners of the Indian side bowled very well but I don’t think it justified losing eight wickets for 20 or so runs. We were poor and India were very good.”While ruing the number of runs they conceded with the ball, Williamson lauded India’s batsmen for the partnerships they stitched together. First, Virat Kohli shared a 79-run stand with Rohit Sharma before putting on 71 runs with MS Dhoni. Kedar Jadhav and Axar Patel then added 46 crucial runs in 6.3 overs at the end.”The way the put together partnerships on a pitch that was slow was a very good effort. They kept going at five runs an over on this pitch, they certainly deserved to win today,” he said. “They were fantastic. At the half-way stage, although we knew they had a good score on the board on that surface, we knew if we could get partnerships together, who knows, we could’ve done better. If we kept on a bit and played in excess in of 25-30 overs, with a bit of dew around, then who knows. But that was a long way off. We were never going to get there.”Except for Tom Latham, and to a lesser extent, Williamson, New Zealand’s batting remained inadequate throughout the series. While Ross Taylor showed signs of returning to form in the last two games, he managed only 119 runs. Martin Guptill (111) and Corey Anderson (31 from four matches) also didn’t turn up. Williamson stressed on the need to replicate the kind of consistency India’s batsmen demonstrated.”If you look at any winning performance, there are one or two significant performances. If you look at the India side, there’s Virat [Kohli]. I think pretty much every game he made a significant contribution,” he said. “Sometimes the conditions weren’t the easiest to bat in but whoever that person is, we need a lot more. I think Tom Latham was outstanding.”It was nice to see Guptill show that presence at the crease in the last couple of games, but we need to take those little good bits a lot further and look at someone like Virat, who I suppose… to get a 150 in that Mohali game was a hugely significant performance as opposed to perhaps a 40 or 50.”Williamson believed there were lessons to be learnt from playing against a good side in tough conditions, and said Mitchell Santner was a “highlight” of their tour. With 10 scalps, Santner was New Zealand’s joint-highest wicket-taker in the Test series, along with Trent Boult. He was also their most economical bowler in the ODIs.”He has been outstanding, a young cricketer who is new-ish to the side. Although conditions are favourable to spinners here there are a lot of spinners who come here and struggle,” he said. “I guess it’s because of the pace of the wicket against extremely good players of spin. Mitch has performed day in and day out. His change of pace and his ability to spin the ball was a great asset to have. Not to mention his batting and his fielding as well. [We] look forward to seeing his progression in the future.”

David Warner credited a change in approach to ODIs – constructing an innings and even slowing down – for his supremacy in the format since 2015

Daniel Brettig06-Dec-2016
David Warner and Australia picked a good time to return to their strongest format since Darren Lehmann became coach. Under Lehmann, Australia have won 25 ODIs at home and lost only four, picking up the 2015 World Cup and being unbeaten in the other five series’ they have hosted.It is in Warner that Australia have found their most prolific century-maker this year, six hundreds in a format that he once regarded as his weakest. Intriguingly given Lehmann’s high-tempo approach to the game, Warner said in the aftermath of his Man-of-the-Match winning hundred to defeat New Zealand at Manuka Oval that composure and even slowing down a little had been key to his success.”First and foremost it’s been the format I struggled at early in my career,” Warner said. “The last 18-24 months I’ve really worked hard to try to construct my innings and build an innings, and not play too many big shots early in my innings. If the ball’s there I’m still going to go after it, but that’s just what I put it down to, trying to construct an innings and relay that Test match attitude into the one-dayers.”You do get a few more balls in your area in the one-day stuff where you can actually play through the line, and there’s probably not as much movement off the wicket as well especially when you play on grounds like Manuka. It was an absolute belter to play on.”The “belter’ was handed to Warner and the rest of the home side by the New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who wagered on some early assistance for his swing bowlers. However, Australia were always going to bat first, not only because of how the Canberra pitch would behave in the afternoon but also how it was expected to later on – making it easier for the bowlers to place their opponents under pressure.David Warner raced to his sixth ODI hundred of the year in Canberra•Getty Images

“Their best attribute is probably swinging the ball with the new rock and I think they tried to make the most of that,” Warner said. “We knew batting here first is always a plus and we knew we had to try to keep wickets in hand for the last 10 overs.”We’ve seen that with the away teams that have come here, they’ve got into great positions but really not been able to finish off the games, it just gets too far ahead. You can still finish off well, but I think when opposition teams come here they see that big gap in the run rate go up and try to up the ante too early later.”The victory gave Australia a trio of wins, including the dead rubber Test match against South Africa in Adelaide. Warner reckoned the change in momentum had been driven in the first instance by personnel changes, which in turn provided senior members of the team with greater impetus to push forward.”It’s one of those things where if you get some fresh faces in and around, your energy gets up and going, and I can’t really put my finger on it,” Warner said. “I just think the boys took it hard, it really hurt us down in Hobart. Losing that series, we saw it really does hurt. I think it was the kick up the backside that we needed to get us back up and going.”We don’t want to lose too many series’ at home especially, but the guys have worked out a way out to come back. If it was a bit of [lost] form from people. The senior players have to keep stepping up, if we do that then the other guys will follow us.”

Family affair in prospect as England allrounder gets his first game-time of the season

George Dobell28-May-2021Moeen Ali is set to return to action on Saturday with an appearance in the Birmingham League.Moeen, who recently returned from the IPL, has received approval from the England team management to play for West Bromwich Dartmouth (WBD) against Walsall in Premier Division One of the country’s oldest cricket league.The match promises to be something of a family affair. Moeen will be joined in the WBD team by his brother, Omar, and his cousin, the former England swing bowler, Kabir. Another cousin, Ismail Mohammed, who is on the staff at Worcestershire, is also in the side.Moeen’s oldest brother, Kadeer, will be absent, however. The former Gloucestershire and Worcestershire batter is WBD’s regular captain but has been asked to help out the Worcestershire first team in a coaching capacity (he is the county’s second XI coach) this weekend. In his absence, Kabir will captain the side.Several, though not all, of the England players who were at the IPL are likely to return to LV= Insurance County Championship action in the round of games starting on June 3. A firm decision on each player’s involvement will be taken by the England management in the coming days.

Sam Hain was instrumental in Birmingham ending a run of three straight defeats and keeping alive their hopes of a quarter-final place in the NatWest Blast

ECB Reporters Network17-Jul-2016
ScorecardSam Hain continued his excellent limited-overs form•Getty Images

Birmingham put their NatWest t20 Blast campaign back on track after three straight defeats with a 28-run victory over Leicestershire at Edgbaston.The Bears’ 186 for four was built on an opening stand of 125 inside 13 overs by Sam Hain, who scored 79 off 52 deliveries, and Ian Bell, who made a 35-ball 57.While those two were together the Bears looked set to total over 200 but the Foxes, led by Clint McKay’s one for 16 off four overs, fought back well to leave a target around par on a good batting pitch.But though a string of Foxes batsmen got a start, none played the decisive innings the team needed as they fell short on 158 for nine.A Bears attack including Keith Barker for the first time in the competition this season kept taking wickets at important times to reassert their
qualification bid and extinguish the Foxes’.After the visitors won the toss, Hain and Bell began in measured fashion, with the latter still to score after two overs, before accelerating past 60 in the sixth over.The century partnership arrived in the 12th over, both openers having taken advantage of a short boundary to clear the ropes on the off-side.Hain was first to his half-century, from 36 balls, Bell’s following from 32, but the latter’s dismissal after striking four fours and four sixes in his 57, edging Rob Taylor behind, signalled a sharp drop in momentum.Bell’s wicket was quickly followed by that of Matt Wade, on his home debut, as the Australian fell lbw to his countryman McKay for five.When Hain sought another six – his third of the innings to go with nine fours – off Cameron Delport but found only the hands of Ben Raine at deep extra-cover, three wickets had fallen for 26 runs in 18 balls.Laurie Evans perished in similar fashion to Hain and although Rikki Clarke (24 not out) landed a couple of hefty blows, a skilful final over from McKay sent the Foxes into the mid-innings break in perky mood.The Foxes reply started briskly with Mark Cosgrove and Mark Pettini adding 36 in 27 balls before the latter pulled Oliver Hannon-Dalby to Jeetan Patel at deep mid-wicket.Delport’s 18-ball 20 included an audacious reverse-swept six off Josh Poysden but the South African perished attempting a repeat off Ateeq Javid.As the required run-rate rose, greater risks had to be taken. Cosgrove (42 from 29 balls) hoisted Patel to long off, Lewis Hill charged the same bowler, missed, and was adroitly stumped by Wade and when Farhaan Behardien lifted Clarke to long-off all that remained in the Foxes’ locker was some futile swishing.

The Perth Scorchers bid the WACA ground farewell with their third Big Bash League title in four years and a vintage performance straight from their tried-and-tested copybook

The Report by Will Macpherson at the WACA28-Jan-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details2:28

Macpherson: Most comprehensive BBL final result ever

The Perth Scorchers bid the WACA ground farewell with their third Big Bash League title in four years and a vintage performance straight from their tried-and-tested copybook. Their nine-wicket win came with 25 balls to spare, comfortably the most emphatic winning margin in a BBL final.Their triumph lifted one of the BBL’s peculiar hoodoos, as they become the first table-toppers to take home the title. The Sydney Sixers, whose women’s team won the WBBL earlier in the day, were the latest – and likely the last – victims of BBL cricket, the WACA way.Just like the final game of the regular season, and the semi-final, the Scorchers’ night could barely have run closer to their well-worn plan. Adam Voges won the toss and bowled, as they prefer to and 28 of 35 captains this BBL season have done. They took wickets in the Powerplay and strangled the Sixers, keeping them to 141. In the chase, their top order did the work in a belligerent Powerplay, then they sauntered home as if they had an early dinner reservation. Which they may well have done – the game was over in the blink of an eye.The plan is for the Scorchers to play next season at the new 60,000-seater Perth Stadium, across the river from the WACA but hulking, seeming bigger at each glance. Just another homogeneous state-of-the-art bowl, there will be no Fremantle Doctor, history or iconic floodlights. A third title (they have now won half of all the BBLs) intensifies the Scorchers’ undoubted aura but with the WACA goes some of the Scorchers’ strength.As much as the Scorchers’ quality and the long journey west, the wonderfully partisan crowds have made the scorching stadium a horrible place to visit; indeed there are vast swathes of Australia’s uninhabitable red centre that are louder than ‘The Furnace’ when the opposition take a wicket, but the celebratory roar is unique in the competition, and the new stadium has plenty to live up to. Every other BBL club aspires for a hostile atmosphere like the WACA’s and a club identity like the Scorchers.Every other club aspires to cricket like the Scorchers’ too. They have had the deepest squad, as evidenced by the fact that they did not need the Marsh brothers here, or Jason Behrendorff, their highest-ever wicket-taker, all tournament. Their team is built on consistency of selection and experience of the competition, and it evolves slowly. They have the clearest – and perhaps even most defensive – gameplan, and are immaculately drilled, too. At the WACA, particularly chasing, they are mighty tough to beat.This always looked a big toss, given Mitchell Johnson’s flying form and the Scorchers’ unrivalled propensity to squeeze. The Sixers, too, had batted first just once all season, and they managed 99 for 9 then. Their batting, marshalled by the specialist finalist Moises Henriques, is suited to the chase.And so it proved. Johnson began with a smile, then four dots, a single and another dot. At the other end, Daniel Hughes looked to tuck into Ashton Turner but soon holed out. Already, Sixers were scrambling, and in the next over Nic Maddinson was run out and Michael Lumb caught behind. It was all eerily reminiscent of the semi-final win over Melbourne Stars. Johnson took 1 for 13, with 16 dot balls. Again, he was on fire.Brad Haddin, as he tends to be these days, was there for a good time, not a long time, powering his way to 38 and adding 57 with Henriques, and particularly tucking into Tim Bresnan and Ashton Agar, who he stuck sweetly down the ground for consecutive sixes. But the eventual Player of the Match Jhye Richardson, selected ahead of Behrendorff, bounced out Haddin (it was very close to a no-ball), then did for Henriques and Jordan Silk in the same over.Johan Botha and the tail wagged, but Sixers’ hopes of 160 and a competitive match went with Henriques. Tim Bresnan, an inspired short-term signing whose T20 value has risen exponentially over the last fortnight, bowled beautifully at the death to nip any chance of a big score in the bud, dismissing Sean Abbott, Ben Dwarshius and Botha.It seems generous to call what followed a chase. Sam Whiteman, the flair in a functional top order, came out swinging from the hip, sending Jackson Bird for six to the 60m leg-side boundary and a triptych of violent fours. Ben Dwarshius was then biffed for two sixes behind square. At the other end, Michael Klinger built an innings. The first seven overs brought 70.When Whiteman was stumped, out came Ian Bell, looking determined to be there at the end, cutting with élan and pulling with control. In the course of his unbeaten 71, Klinger made this his most prolific BBL season ever, and again overtook Aaron Finch as the league’s all-time top-scorer. Appropriately, it was he who struck the final blow, lofting Botha high and handsome down the ground. The WACA erupted, one last time.

Sri Lanka recovered from 26 for 5 on the first day against Australia in Colombo to reach 214 for 5 at stumps. Dhananjaya de Silva was the stand-out with his maiden Test century, compiled in an unbeaten 188-run stand with Dinesh Chandimal

The Report by Brydon Coverdale13-Aug-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal rescued Sri Lanka on a gripping first day in Colombo•AFP

Sri Lanka: 214 for 5. Hardly an inspiring score at stumps on the first day of a Test. Runs ground out, just a few wickets here and there, Australia probably on top. Nope. This was not the kind of day that can be judged from the closing score. It was a day on which Sri Lanka’s top order capitulated to be 26 for 5. A day on which Dhananjaya de Silva, in his third Test, led the recovery with a brilliant maiden century. And a day that ended with Sri Lanka in command.The runs came slowly, but at least they came. They came with patience, class, respect for good bowling and, yes, a little bit of luck. But the way de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal rebuilt this innings was, for fans of Test cricket, a thing of beauty. Australia’s batsmen could learn something from their approach. By stumps, de Silva was on 116 from 240 balls, Chandimal on 64 from 204, and their partnership was worth 188. They had undone all Australia’s morning work.The dry pitch turned from the first hour. Nathan Lyon picked up two wickets early, then like Jon Holland, bowled well without fortune as the day wore on. Sri Lanka’s three-man spin attack will pose Australia significant challenges. There was little swing, not as much reverse as in the previous two Tests. Australia picked four pace bowlers but used only three. All of the pace wickets came from Mitchell Starc, comfortably Australia’s best player of the series.If Australia’s batsmen have looked bewildered on this tour, the selectors appeared similarly baffled in Colombo. How else to account for shortening their batting order when runs have been their biggest problem? Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja were dropped, Shaun Marsh and Moises Henriques came in. Henriques, with a first-class batting average of 31, an average of 15 in the last Sheffield Shield season, and no first-class cricket since November, was listed at No.5. He did not bowl.The selectors believe Henriques bats well against spin. It is true that he scored 68 and 81 not out against India on Test debut in Chennai in 2013. But he failed to reach double figures in the rest of that tour, a series that also featured clouded selection policies. It remains to be seen how Henriques will handle Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera and Lakshan Sandakan, but his selection was a clear message to the incumbents: learn how to play spin, or you won’t play in Asia.Sri Lanka’s batting has also faltered often in this series, but always there has been someone to rescue them. In Pallekele it was Kusal Mendis with a remarkable maiden Test century in the second innings. In Galle it was Mendis again, with 86 after the score wobbled to 9 for 2 on the first morning. This time it was de Silva, who entered this series uncapped, and by stumps on day one in Colombo sat second only to Mendis on the series run tally.The precarious situation when de Silva walked to the crease cannot be forgotten: 26 for 5. Yes, the series was already won, but suddenly there appeared the very real prospect of Sri Lanka finishing with a humiliation: overhauling their lowest ever Test total, the 71 they scored against Pakistan in Kandy in 1994, seemed a distant goal. And indeed, when de Silva was given out caught at bat pad off Lyon for 5, disaster seemed likely.But de Silva knew he had not hit the ball – hadn’t even got close to it, really. He reviewed the decision of umpire S Ravi and was rightly reprieved and from then on – this was the 20th over of the morning – not a single wicket fell for the rest of the day. There were some nervy moments – Mitchell Marsh spilled a tough chance at gully when Chandimal was 11, two Australian reviews were struck down, de Silva was dropped by Shaun Marsh at cover on 104 – but the batsmen survived.De Silva attacked when given the chance and struck three fours in one over from Starc. He was strong when pulling and flicking off his pads, though his boundaries came all around the ground, including plenty through cover. His fifty came with a lofted boundary over cover off Mitchell Marsh, his hundred with another boundary cut off the legspin of Steven Smith. It took de Silva 209 deliveries to reach his century. It was a proper Test innings.Chandimal was even more circumspect, nudging singles and rotating the strike, playing the perfect foil to de Silva. His fifty came from 165 deliveries, and by stumps he had struck only four fours. Even more than de Silva he showed Australia’s batsmen how a challenging pitch can be handled: with the utmost patience. Chandimal himself had walked out at 24 for 4, a frenetic first hour bringing plenty of wickets.Sri Lanka’s openers continued their disastrous series, Kaushal Silva flashing at Starc and edging to slip for a 15-ball duck, and Dimuth Karunaratne bowled trying to drive Starc for 7 from 34 deliveries. Neither man has reached double figures even once in this campaign from five innings, Sri Lanka’s series triumph having come in spite of their insipid top order. What might they have achieved if the openers had found form too?Lyon was called on in the sixth over of the Test and immediately found some turn. In the 12th over he struck with a delivery that was fullish, quick and spun appreciably, and Kusal Perera managed only an edge to Smith at slip. Lyon claimed another wicket when Angelo Mathews top-edged a sweep and was caught at fine leg for 1.Then Mendis flashed hard at a Starc delivery that angled across him and Smith snapped up his third catch at slip for the morning. Mendis had been the key batsman in the first two Tests, and Australia thought his wicket was the big one. As it turned out, at least two big ones were still waiting to be taken at stumps.