Jason Holder hopes West Indies can feed off their victory in the second Test and continue to defy expectations in the series decider at Lord’s

Melinda Farrell06-Sep-20173:24

‘I’m glad to be here with him’ – the Hope brothers on playing together for West Indies

Few would have predicted a decider at Lord’s after the thrashing at Edgbaston but West Indies captain Jason Holder believes the confidence born out of their performance at Headingley could lift his side to victory in a “momentous” match.Only two members of this West Indies squad – Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel – have played a Test at the home of cricket, adding to the sense of occasion for Holder’s men.”It’s obviously a momentous game for everybody,” Holder said, speaking at Lord’s on the eve of the match. “Especially in our group. A number of us are playing our first Test match here at Lord’s, our first series in England. There’s a lot to play for, and our guys are really up for it.”West Indies haven’t won a Test series in England for 29 years but go into the final match having beaten their opponents in two of their last three Tests (going back to Barbados in 2015). Victory at Headingley was West Indies’ first in England in 17 years and further history beckons.It is a rare challenge for Holder, still relatively callow in his captaincy. In some ways, his side has already surpassed expectations and inspired hope for the future. Should they acquit themselves well at Lord’s, no matter the result, they will have gained the respect of many who perhaps underestimated their qualities. But they would gain so much more with victory.”It would be great to win the series in England, but there’s a process towards going about that,” Holder said. “We can’t focus on the end result.”Our focus is our process. I spoke about consistency a lot on this tour, and that’s the main objective for me. Once we’re consistent and do the small things well, that end result should be more or less in our favour.”There have been unforeseen and unfortunate distractions in the build-up to the final Test. Bowling coach Roddy Estwick has returned to Barbados after the death of his mother and in his absence former Middlesex, Sussex and Yorkshire swing bowler Paul Hutchison has temporarily stepped into the role. Holder hopes Hutchison’s local knowledge will prove invaluable.Shai Hope chats with Brian Lara during West Indies training•Getty Images

“We’ve tried to get as much information as possible coming into this game,” Holder said. “We’ve got the luxury of having an outsider, Paul Hutchison, give us some tips about how to bowl here at Lord’s. He’s had some experience of bowling here at Lord’s.”There’s a lot of talk about the slope and such and we’ve studied it and had a chance to formulate some plans about how we go it. But cricket is always played on the day. You may be faced with different dilemmas and you just have to adjust and cope with it. That’s the nature of professional sport.”The threat of devastation from Hurricane Irma throughout the Caribbean has also loomed large in the thoughts of the players, particularly for Antiguan Alzarri Joseph, whose island was originally feared to be in the direct path of the storm.”I understand it hasn’t done major damage to Antigua, where Alzarri is from,” Holder said. “It’s gone further up north. We just hope the islands it is going to affect, the people prepare well and hopefully they are not hurt too badly.”We send our prayers back home, we have everybody back home in our thoughts and prayers. There’s not much we can do from here but sit and pray and wish them all the best.”West Indies declined to name a team before the toss, deciding to take another look at the pitch. It will, no doubt, have surprised them to see it displaying odd markings, known as ‘fairy rings’, caused by fungus spores below the turf. One perfect ring sits just short of a length for batsmen at the Pavilion End – perfectly positioned as a ‘bullseye’ for short balls coming from the Nursery End.But who will bowl them for West Indies remains unclear. It could be the case that Devendra Bishoo misses out on the final Test – he bowled 31 overs at Headingley, compared to the 44 bowled by Roston Chase – giving West Indies the option of including an extra seamer. Miguel Cummins and Joseph played in the first Test at Edgbaston while Raymon Reifer was particularly impressive in the nets at Lord’s on Wednesday.But whoever walks out at Lord’s will have the opportunity to create their own history, the challenge put to them by their coach, Stuart Law, at the start of the series. Some have already done so, with Shai Hope becoming the first batsman to score two centuries in a first-class match at Headingley. But, for a team which – more than any other international side – seems to have the ghosts of the past constantly hovering, making history at Lord’s would quieten talk of past legends and garner hope that last week’s victory was no false dawn.”It has done a lot,” Holder said of the Headingley win. “The first game, pretty much everybody wrote us off. Our heads were a bit down after how we got defeated in the first Test match.”To pick ourselves back up and come back and respond how we did at Headingley was remarkable. It’s obviously given us some new life. We’ve got a chance to win this series so we are going out in this last Test match to win it.”

A round-up of the Ranji Trophy Group B matches played on October 8, 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Oct-2017Hindustan Times

Haryana collapsed to 140 all out on the third day in Lahli as a Cheteshwar Pujara-led Saurashtra enjoyed the unusual feeling of winning by an innings despite making less than 300 when they’d batted. The traditionally seamer-friendly conditions were on show again as Jaydev Unadkat and Chirag Jani shared the four Haryana wickets left standing and sealed Saurashtra’s victory before lunch.Forced to follow on after being bundled out for 107 in their first innings, Haryana’s batsmen struggled once again, except Chaitanya Bishnoi – who made 56. Deepak Punia’s resistance was snipped at 34, leaving Haryana reeling at 136 for 9. Three balls later, they were all out.Spinners Jalaj Saxena and Karaparambil Monish shared nine wickets on the third day to hand Kerala a thumping nine-wicket win over Jharkhand in Thiruvananthapuram. Saxena impressed with his all-round performance: he finished with 11 for 77 and a half-century in the first innings.Starting their second innings with a 57-run deficit, Jharkhand collapsed from 37 for 2 to 89 all out within 42 overs, with Saurabh Tiwary top-scoring with an unbeaten 26.Kerala needed only five overs to get to the target of 33, for the loss of Saxena, who was dismissed in the third over.Jammu & Kashmir took a 102-run lead against Rajasthan on day three after their five top-order batsmen put up 50-plus scores. Ahmed Bandy converted his overnight score of 72 into a 102-run knock, while captain Parvez Rasool fell three runs short in his pursuit of his ninth first-class century.J&K’s openers made a strong reply to Rajasthan’s 330, before Shubham Khajuria was bowled by medium pacer Tanvir-ul-Haq for 53. The 83-run second-wicket stand between Bandy and Pranav Gupta was then broken by Mahipal Lomror, who dismissed the former shortly after he scored his maiden first-class century. Solid partnerships followed as J&K raced to 400 for 4 after tea. They lost Rasool (97 off 126 balls) and Aditya Singh (32 off 112 balls) before the close of play.Puneet Bisht (2*) and Samiullah Beigh (1*) took J&K to 432 for 6 at stumps.

The 23-year old batsman had wondered why he couldn’t bat long in his first season of the Ranji Trophy. Now, he has a monumental score next to his name

Sidharth Monga in Delhi18-Nov-2017In his maiden first-class season, it took Nitish Rana nine innings to be dismissed for fewer than 25 runs. It was his only single-digit score in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy. The first hundred, though, came in the last innings of the season, and in the second innings, which is rarely counted as important runs in this tournament. Rana went up to seniors, including Gautam Gambhir, and asked, “Why am I getting out on 50? 70? Why am I not scoring big runs?”The reply he got from them had to do with concentration. “They told me when you play under-16, under-19 or under-23, you get one or two quality bowlers in the opposition. So you can get away with breaks in concentration after you have seen off the main bowlers. In Ranji Trophy there are more quality bowlers, and you have to concentrate for longer.”Rana says he went to the nets and started to bat longer and harder, and made sure he was only concentrating on the next ball. He also got an IPL call-up from Mumbai Indians, with whom he said he grew mentally and technically as a player. All of that was on display at the Airforce Sports Complex in Palam, Delhi, where his innings of 174 buried Maharashtra under a mountain of runs (419) on a pitch with uneven bounce. Delhi bowlers used the advantage handsomely to leave the visitors on the brink of a follow-on at 59 for 8.Delhi began the day at 260 for 4 with Rana unbeaten on 110, but the 23-year old showed awareness that his job was far from done. He batted through the first session, in partnership with impressive debutant Lalit Yadav who scored 52, and only after he felt Delhi were secure did he try to get adventurous. This was his fourth first-class hundred and his highest score.The significance of that innings showed in how Ishant Sharma – back from the India squad once he was not picked for the Kolkata Test – ran through the Maharashtra top order with the quality of bowling India could have done with at Eden Gardens. Ishant was on the target – full but short of driving length just outside off – from ball one, and it was almost unfair on the batsmen facing the new ball after 111.1 overs in the field.The bounce had been uneven for other bowlers too but, largely, it deviated on the lower side. Ishant started hitting both bands of the spectrum. Rututuraj Gaikwad fell in the first over, forced to play outside off. Murtaza Trunkwala fell to similar fate, and Ankit Bawne was rapped on the gloves as soon as he came in. Rahul Tripathi, another IPL star, hit Ishant for a four but would soon nick another length ball outside off. Ishant’s spell of 6-2-14-3, in which he barely bowled a loose ball, left Maharashtra reeling at 14 for 4. Nitin Saini then got rid of Rohit Motwani to make it 51 for 5.Maharashtra would have sighed in relief when bad light sent players off early but 10 minutes later the conditions improved, and they lost a further three wickets in the 15 minutes of play possible after resumption. Lalit added two wickets to his debut half-century, and Manan Sharma chipped in with one. Despite the loss of 43 overs to bad light on the first two days, Delhi were now almost assured three points, and could even dream of a full complement of seven if they can enforce the follow-on and then win by an innings or by 10 wickets. The latter could ensure their progress to the knockouts even before the final round of league matches.

Mithun’s second-successive five-for triggers Delhi’s sensational collapse as Karnataka continue to top Group A

Akshay Gopalakrishnan in Alur12-Nov-2017
ScorecardAssociated Press

KL Rahul getting some much-needed batting time ahead of the Sri Lanka Tests with a stroke-filled 92 was the biggest takeaway from an unpalatable final day in Karnataka’s Group A clash against Delhi in Alur. The home team grabbed a 348-run first-innings lead, but refrained from enforcing the follow-on, Vinay Kumar opting to give his bowlers a rest, perhaps having recognised the surface lacked bite to force a result.Karnataka marched to 235 for 3 when the teams shook hands at 3.15pm local time, half an hour after the tea break. The home team took three first-innings points to retain their top position in Group A, with a knockouts berth within touching distance.The predictable end didn’t seem coming early in the morning, though. Abhimanyu Mithun’s second successive five-for brought a tapering contest to life as Delhi unraveled spectacularly to fold for 301. R Samarth, who was a livewire on the field, set the tone with a stunning catch at gully to send back Milind Kumar. But he was just warming up.Off the next delivery, Samarth stopped a delicate dab behind short leg by sticking his left hand out and then quickly transferring the ball to his right and to flick it onto the stumps, and catch Manan Sharma short of the crease.Karnataka opted for the second new ball after the twin strikes, and Mithun continued to bowl at a lively pace to attacking fields. Gautam Gambhir, the overnight centurion, who had impressed with an off-side game par excellence on the third day, pursued an expansive drive. Samarth was once again in the thick of things, this time pouching a straightforward catch at gully.Navdeep Saini, reprieved by Rahul at first slip, was trapped plumb in front by Vinay as Delhi lost their penultimate wicket shortly after crossing 300. Mithun then dished out a short ball to send last man Kulwant Khejroliya packing and wrap up the innings. It had taken just an hour for Delhi to lose their last six wickets, for 24 runs.The passage exhibited the quality of Karnataka’s bowling and fielding. With the pitch continuing to remain flat, Karnataka’s openers traced to a 121-run opening stand in no time, with Rahul dominating courtesy drives, sweeps and cuts. Samarth took off with a blazing straight drive but then made for a study in contrast as he buckled down.Rahul raised his half-century with a slog-swept six off Milind in the sixth over after lunch, and followed it with a crisp drive through the covers. A mindless run out denied him what would have been a well-deserved century. Rahul dabbed one gently to backward point and casually strode out for a single without looking at the fielder. Nitish Rana swooped down quickly and fired a direct hit at the bowler’s end.The rest of Karnataka’s batsmen tried to make the most the time on hand to get some practice for the season ahead. Mayank Agarwal struck a brisk 23, before chopping on a short ball that was too close to him. The popular duo of Karun Nair and Manish Pandey struck thirties, occasionally giving a sizable Sunday crowd something to cheer with their crisp strokes, and steering the game to its tedious conclusion.

Boult’s relentless accuracy and Lockie Ferguson’s raw pace hit the high notes after Nicholls’ enterprising 83 in a dominating win

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando22-Dec-20174:01

Highlights – Boult blinder seals series for NZ

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsGetty Images

A snowballing 130-run sixth-wicket stand propelled New Zealand to 325 for 6, before a smoldering Trent Boult blasted West Indies out for 121 with help from tearaway Lockie Ferguson.West Indies have lost every game on tour, but rarely have they appeared so outmatched. The top order showed no fight against Boult’s sniping accuracy and Ferguson’s out-and-out-pace. They were virtually out of the game inside the first six overs, in which three wickets fell, and were all out by the 29th over. With this match goes the series – West Indies are 0-2 down with one match to play.For the hosts, the 204-run victory featured several highlights. Not only were Boult’s figures of 7 for 34 better than his previous best, they were also the second-best ODI figures for New Zealand by a whisker – Tim Southee having taken 7 for one run fewer in the 2015 World Cup. Henry Nicholls also produced a furious finish to the innings, after he and Todd Astle had lifted New Zealand from 186 for 5. His unbeaten 83 off 62 balls was also a personal best.Elsewhere, George Worker produced an efficient fifty at the top of the innings, Ross Taylor’s half-century held New Zealand together in the middle overs, and Ferguson made clear his potential, claiming 3 for 17 in four overs of hostile fast bowling.Quicks of both teams were aided by the surface. Though Hagley Oval is usually the domain of swing and seam movement, it was the lift in this pitch that defined the match. West Indies had actually begun the match with some promise, dismissing four New Zealand top order batsmen with deliveries that leapt more than anticipated.Although the West Indies’ quicks’ shorter lengths had proved a danger to batsman while the ball was new, there was also opportunity later on – 68 per cent of New Zealand’s runs came square of the wicket. All innings long, only two boundaries were hit in the “V”.Boult began to maraud the moment he got ball in hand. He could have had Evin Lewis with his second delivery, had Worker held a very difficult chance some distance to his left. No matter. The last ball of that over zipped between Kyle Hope’s bat and pad, and thundered into the stumps. Next over, Boult had Lewis miscuing a pull shot to the fine leg fielder – the drop having cost no more than nine runs.Every time Boult bowled, a wicket did not seem far off. Still in his first spell, he had Shimron Hetmyer caught at slip for 2, then later, Shai Hope sending a ball high into the air off his top edge, to depart for a belligerent 23. By the end of Boult’s initial six-over burst, the target already seemed 100 too many for the West Indies.Perhaps they would have made a more creditable reply had Ferguson not added to their discomfort, however. Now quite clearly the fastest bowler in New Zealand – having pipped Adam Milne for that title – Ferguson went either at the stumps or at the body, and on a pitch that suited his bowling, had success doing both. Jason Mohammed was his first victim, fending at a delivery headed for his throat – the ball taking the shoulder of the bat and floating back to the bowler. Two balls later Rovman Powell played a shot that seemed to be light years two late – the offstump uprooted before the bat was even in position. Ferguson also dismissed Jason Holder with a short ball, before Boult came back to flatten the tail.So good were New Zealand’s quicks that perhaps West Indies were always going flounder, but in the first third of this match, the visiting quicks made regular breakthroughs, which suggested a contest could be on the cards. Then Nicholls and Astle turned what began as a recovery into a hailstorm of death-over boundaries. By the time Astle was dismissed for 49 in the final over, the previous 28 balls had produced 64 runs.As was the case for Ferguson, this was a pitch that suited Nicholls’ batting beautifully, however. Adept at the cross-batted strokes, he cut and pulled his way into a rhythm early in his innings, and let fly with the innovations later on. Of particular note was the overhead scoop off Ronsford Beaton in the 45th over – the shot that heralded the mayhem. Three overs later, Nicholls was walloping two sixes and two fours in a Shannon Gabriel over that yielded 22. In the first 37 deliveries he faced, Nicholls had hit 27 – overturning an lbw decision against him in that time. Off his last 25 balls, Nicholls plundered 56, even finding a place for the full deliveries beyond the square boundary.Astle’s innings was not quite so explosive – he had largely sought to turn the strike over to Nicholls, scoring exclusively with singles and twos off his first 35 balls. He did eventually hit out, slog-sweeping Rovman Powell for six twice in the 49th over. A little fortune made that final flourish possible: Astle had been dropped off Powell by wicketkeeper Shai Hope, in the 46th over.West Indies were not completely without performers. Sheldon Cottrell – the left-arm quick who replaced the injured Kesrick Williams in this match – was the first bowler to use the short ball effectively in this match. His figures worsened as a result of New Zealand’s fast finish, but he claimed a creditable 3 for 62 nonetheless. Holder returned 2 for 52 for himself.But although visiting teams sometimes feel as they have the measure of New Zealand conditions, the home side almost unfailingly have in their ranks players who turn the match emphatically in their favour. This is New Zealand’s ninth series victory in their 10 last bilateral series at home.

The Essex seamer, who took 75 wickets in the Championship-winning campaign, has been given the all-clear after his back problems, and is now eager to return to action for England Lions in the West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jan-2018Jamie Porter, the Essex seamer, has been given the all clear following the stress fracture which ruled him out of the England Lions tour to Australia late last year, and is now stepping up his preparations for the Lions trip to the West Indies next month.Porter, who took 75 wickets in Essex’s County Championship winning campaign, was diagnosed with a hot spot in his back – later confirmed to be a stress fracture – before the Lions left for Australia. He was withdrawn from that part of England’s plans and given a recovery process which included joining the Pace Programme at Loughborough and on their pre-Christmas trip to Desert Springs in Spain.A second trip to Spain now beckons on a four-day warm-weather training camp with the Lions before the squad flies out to Jamaica on January 31 for a tour that includes three four-day matches and three one-day games against West Indies A.

Updated Lions squads

Whole tour
Keaton Jennings (Lancashire, capt), Joe Clarke (Worcestershire), Dan Lawrence (Essex), Sam Curran (Surrey), Jamie Porter (Essex), Paul Coughlin (Nottinghamshire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Nick Gubbins (Middlesex), Alex Davies (Lancashire). Dominic Bess (Somerset)
Red-ball only
Haseeb Hameed (Lancashire), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Toby Roland-Jones (Middlesex), Jack Leach (Somerset), Mason Crane (Hampshire)
One-day only
Sam Northeast (Kent), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), Tom Helm (Middlesex), George Garton (Sussex), Matt Parkinson (Lancashire)

Porter’s injury meant he had to watch the Ashes from afar rather than being alongside the main squad with the chance of a call-up if needed which he admitted was “tough to swallow”.”I got told I had the hot spot and then had a CT scan, so there was a three-day period where we were scratching our heads wondering if I could get through Australia with it,” he told the ECB website. “But when the scan results came back and I saw the stress fracture, that was definitely the final blow.”You look at what followed in the week or so after that, with people in the Ashes squad going down injured, and you just never know. Hopefully I will get the opportunity with the Lions in the West Indies to put things right and put my name in the hat again.””I had my final scan results back on Friday and it’s all clear,” he added. “So I’m back bowling at full whack, and I feel good – and I do want to hit the ground running.”Another pace bowler to suffer a back injury, Toby Roland-Jones, will also continue his comeback on the red-ball portion of the Lions tour. He was hit with his stress fracture just days before the Ashes squad was due to be named, for which he would have been a certain selection following an impressive start to his Test career against South Africa and West Indies.Elsewhere in the Lions squads, Essex’s Dan Lawrence, who was initially only included for the first-class leg of the trip, has been added for the one-dayers to replace Liam Livingstone after his call-up to the Test squad for New Zealand.Livingstone, Ben Foakes and Mason Crane are part of the squad for the three four-day matches against West Indies A before they link up with the Test team for the two-match series at the end of March.Sam Curran, the Surrey allrounder, won’t be part of the pre-tour camp in Spain after the England Lions management decided he was better served continuing his overseas stint with Auckland.

David Willey has expressed sympathy with his Yorkshire and England team-mate Adil Rashid’s decision to put his first-class career on hold

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Feb-2018David Willey has expressed sympathy with his Yorkshire and England team-mate Adil Rashid’s decision to put his first-class career on hold. Willey, who has previously mulled the possibility of becoming a limited-overs specialist, said that cricket’s packed schedule was likely to push more players into making hard choices.Rashid requested not to play Championship cricket in 2018, something Yorkshire have reluctantly agreed to – though Martyn Moxon, the club’s director of cricket, said they could not afford to have many players opting out of formats. Rashid is 30 and could still change tack but for now has decided to focus on his white-ball skills.Willey only featured in two Championship matches last year, partly down to injury alongside his England commitments, and has only played six times in first-class cricket since moving from Northamptonshire in 2015. Although he suggested at the time he had ambitions to represent England in Tests – following the path of his father, Peter – he has found the competing demands difficult to balance.Approaching his 28th birthday and having recently become a father for the first time, Willey has previously described himself as being at a career crossroads, one which had given him “sleepless nights”. He spent part of his winter playing for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash and has previously put himself up for the IPL auction and the selection process for the Pakistan Super League.”It’s to be expected,” he said of Rashid’s decision. “It is too much to play everything and that’s cricket now. If you look around now with all the white-ball cricket around the world people can make a career out of that.”People make decisions in all different careers as to what they enjoy and what suits them and it wouldn’t surprise me if more guys do it over the next few years with the amount of white-ball cricket that’s available throughout the year. Whether more people decide to do it or not is another matter but it’s certainly been discussed.”It’s just the way the game seems to be going and these Twenty20 competitions are appealing to people not only for the cricket but also financially. At the end of the day we have a short time playing sport – it’s not something we do until we’re 60 years old – and there comes a time when you have to make decisions for yourself and your family.”Earlier this week, Jos Buttler suggested he could see a future in which T20 was the only form of cricket played, while admitting he had effectively shelved his own Test ambitions by taking up opportunities in franchise leagues around the world.A number of England players could be tempted to follow Rashid’s example. The ECB has put greater focus on the short formats to drive interest, with a new T20 competition slated for 2020, and Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, has not played a first-class game since 2015.Such a split would undoubtedly raise questions about the future of Tests, as well as creating significant problems for the domestic game, with Moxon warning that “county set-ups can’t accommodate specialists” who want to pick and choose their commitments.”It’s probably nearly impossible to play Test cricket when you’re playing so much white-ball cricket,” Willey said. “Last year we were barely available for any four-day cricket because of the Champions Trophy so it then becomes difficult to play regular red-ball cricket, which you need to be doing if you want to be pushing for Tests.”If you’re only playing two or three games a year, you’re probably not making much of a contribution to a Championship title and you’re certainly not going to be able to push for Test cricket, so if you are in that position you’re probably thinking ‘what am I playing it for?”

The new Australia captain wanted to foster an environment where players did not feel they had to conform to a narrow idea of what an Australian Test cricketer should be

Daniel Brettig in Johannesburg30-Mar-2018Tim Paine began his first day as fully-fledged Australian captain with one small but significant departure from custom by initiating a pre-game handshake between all players and ended it by flagging a revolutionary departure from custom, at least for his team, by announcing a firm redefinition of the captain’s role.As the teams began their warm-ups on an overcast Johannesburg morning, he approached his opposite number Faf du Plessis to ask whether the two teams might shake hands at the end of the national anthems, a gesture common to football but only seen in international cricket after a match. Given the events of Cape Town and the fate befalling Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, Paine unsurprisingly has been thinking a lot about the image of the game. The handshakes were a telling way to show it.”I’ve been watching this week and they’ve had the soccer on and I notice they do that every game,” Paine said. “I thought cricket is the gentlemans’s game and I spoke to our players about how it was something I wanted to bring in. I waited for Faf to come out today and spoke to him and he was happy to do that. I think he thought it was a good idea and who knows, maybe other sides and South Africa may start to use it as well.”It’s not something we are going to do every Test match, but it is not a bad way to start a Test series. I think it’s something that we will use going forward; I just think it’s a good show of sportsmanship and respect. In this series, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge and a bit of tension between the two sides, we want to be super competitive but we also want to be respectful of our opposition, so it was important we showed that. It’s something we want to take forward and, if other teams want to do, we’ll do it to start every series.”It was still competitive, there wasn’t too much verbal going on back and forth between the two sides, we’ve spoken a bit about that as a group, about that going forward that is not the way we are going to play our cricket. It still felt like a Test match, it was still really competitive, we were playing a different style but as well a lot of the guys were thinking about some other things or were a little bit flat.”

‘Time for Lehmann to heal’ – Paine

One more contrast came from the pair of South Australians in the tour squad – the coach Darren Lehmann now overseeing his last Test match and the seam and swing bowler Chadd Sayers playing in his first. Paine said the decision to quit had appeared to lift plenty of weight from Lehmann’s shoulders, while the opportunity to play for Australia after five years on the fringes had been very welcome for Sayers, who does not conform to the Australian idea of a fast bowler but now has two wickets and the respect of South Africa.
“[Lehmann’s] been a little bit more laid-back today to be honest,” Paine said. “I think what we sensed yesterday and he even touched upon it himself was just a little bit of relief. It’s obviously been really difficult, and he’s been copping a fair amount of flak and so have his family, so I think for him to take that away from them and for him to be able to move on and try to heal a bit from what’s happened, I can sense a bit of relief and a load off his shoulders.
“I thought [Chadd] did really well. Obviously he was really nervous, but Chaddy’s the sort of bowler where he’s always at you. He did it again today, he bowled 25, 26 overs, which is a really big effort here in the altitude. A lot of the boys were really blowing, but Chaddy keeps on trucking on so we’re really rapt for him to get a game and take a few wickets late get some some rewards for his earlier hard work.”

A little over six hours after the handshakes, Paine sat before the media and contemplated leadership beyond this day. Should he remain captain, he said he wanted to redefine the post as a collaborative part of a wider whole, rather than the traditional branding of it as the major leadership rose above all others. Paine is clearly not a subscriber to the oft-quoted line that the position of Australian captain is second only to that of the Prime Minister.”I think at the moment that it’s something that I probably will be doing,” Paine said when asked whether he would want the captaincy long-term. “I have not put a hell of a lot of thought into anything past this week. Now we’ve also got a new coach that’s got to be appointed, who’s going to want a say on the way we go about it, the way I go about it.”My captaincy style will be – I’ve never been a big believer in the cricket team being the captain’s team, I think that’s a bit old school. When you didn’t have all the resources that we do now, I see the captain’s role as being that link between the players and the staff and just a really small, privileged role within Cricket Australia. But it’s just one part of the wheel and I’ll be trying to be very involving of all my staff, all my players and that’s the way I operate best.Australia captain Tim Paine leads the team out•Getty Images

“A lot of our focus as a team has been around this week, we are not looking too far ahead at this moment. I know it’s a cliche in sport that you get that ‘one week at a time’, but at the moment we’re taking it one day at a time and slowly trying to build back the respect of the cricket world, our fans and the public. We know we’ve got a long journey ahead of us to get where we want to get to, but the last couple of days have been the start of that long journey.”Paine has gained most of his leadership experience as a lieutenant of George Bailey in Tasmania. He said that he wanted to foster an environment where players did not feel they had to conform to a narrow idea of what an Australian Test cricketer should be. Instead, they needed to be themselves, with the team broadening its horizons to make allowances for that sort of diversity.”We still want to keep a really competitive brand of cricket but I think there’s times we’ve got to be more respectful of our opposition, we’ve got to be more respectful of the game of cricket,” Paine said. “At times we’ve tended to push the boundaries as far as we possibly could. I think that we’ve seen that people probably don’t like that, so it’s time for us to change.”We’re happy to do that, I think it actually suits this group of players, we’re a different group of players than Australia have had for a long time, we haven’t got too many guys that like to verbalise and have that sort of really hard-nosed Australian approach. We’re about creating an environment where guys can come in and play cricket and just be themselves. I think if we can achieve that then we’ll have guys having better results as well.”Paine’s desire to establish a culture that was inclusive even led him to picture the returns of the players who had been banned for ball-tampering. The anguish shown by Smith and Bancroft upon their arrival home had clearly left a mark. “I think a few guys watched it and I think it really cut them up, as it did anyone that watched that,” Paine said.”We saw how difficult it was and how much not playing for Australia is hurting those guys. I think it’s really important for us to realise how lucky and privileged we are. We want to make this environment in the Australian cricket team one that people can come in, be themselves and play their cricket to their best of their ability. And we want to have that sorted by the time that those guys are ready to come back into this team.”Reflecting on the events of the past week, Paine quipped that his visiting wife had not seen much of him due to all of the many meetings and coffees needed to try to rebuild a team that had lost so much in the space of only a few days. “It’s been strange and very difficult,” he said. “I don’t think my wife’s too happy, I’ve hardly seen her for the last couple of days and she’s come over for it.”It’s just been really challenging for everyone involved. It’s a really stressful time and our thoughts are certainly with our team-mates who aren’t here at the moment. We’ve had conversations and a lot of coffees with each other talking about what we’re going to do to change and how we’re going to do that going forward. From all this dark cloud at some stage there’s going to be a silver lining and I think all the guys are really keen to be involved in how that looks.”We’ll look to get through this week and we go home. We’ve got a fair bit of time off and potentially a new coach will come in and share some ideas with us. Got a fair bit of time before our next Test where we can all get together and I’m going to be very involving of our whole staff and playing group. We’ll all sit down and map out how that looks, how we’re going to play.”

Ross Taylor, who was New Zealand’s main injury worry after the ODI series, is progressing well ahead of the first Test

Andrew McGlashan19-Mar-2018Martin Guptill has been added to the New Zealand squad as batting cover for the first Test against England but Ross Taylor is progressing well after the thigh injury he suffered in the one-day series.Guptill’s call-up confirms that the selectors still see a Test future for him after he last played against India in October 2016. Last season, Guptill announced he would be making a move into the middle-order to try and revive his Test ambitions but injuries have limited him to one Plunket Shield appearance since the decision in which he batted No. 3.He made 73, also batting at No. 3, against England in Hamilton last week during the two-day red-ball warm-up and after that innings reiterated his desire to make a go of things away from opening in first-class cricket to earn back his Test place. The recall has come sooner than expected.”I’ve got a couple more games to go for Auckland so hopefully I can get into the middle order and stay injury free,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I’ve still got ambitions to play some more Test cricket, I’ve got to score some runs to Auckland and hopefully the call will come. But if it doesn’t, I’ve given it a good go.”Guptill’s highest Test score of 189 came at No. 5, against Bangladesh in 2010, and his versatility helped him earn the spot but it is arguably not the greatest vote of confidence in some of the players coming through the Plunket Shield. The leading run-scorer this season is 38-year-old Michael Papps while Greg Hay, the 33-year-old Central Districts opener who faced England last week, is second followed by Jesse Ryder.The other players with more than 500 runs this season are Luke Woodcock, who is 36, former Test opener Hamish Rutherford, Will Young from Central Districts and wicketkeeper Tim Seifert who has recently been capped at T20I level. However, the decision does mean a player hasn’t been pulled out of the current round of matches.Taylor was ruled out of the deciding ODI in Christchurch after aggravating a thigh injury from earlier in the series during his unbeaten 181 in Dunedin. He had also missed the match in Wellington.”We opted for extra batting cover for that final spot and with Martin having been playing in the middle-order recently, he can cover a number of positions for us,” selector Gavin Larsen said. “Ross is progressing nicely and is expected to take a full part in training [on Tuesday].”

New Zealand seamer Matt Henry is taking Division Two by storm as another three wickets at Canterbury made clear

ECB Reporters Network11-May-20181:50

Nick Gubbins again advertised his England credentials

ScorecardKent’s New Zealand strike bowler Matt Henry continued his stunning, early-season form by taking 3 for 24 to leave second-placed Sussex struggling on 69 for 4 as 14 wickets fell on the opening day of this Specsavers County Championship Division Two clash in Canterbury.Henry, the Kiwi firebrand with nine Test caps, spent most of the winter carrying the drinks as the Black Caps entertained Joe Root’s England.
However, the 26-year-old has fired on all cylinders since joining Kent last month and, in only his fourth game for the club, leads the national bowling averages with 30 championship wickets at a miserly average of 8.56.Sussex lost both openers within 14 balls of starting their reply. Phil Salt departed first, following a Harry Podmore away swinger to feather one through to keeper Adam Rouse, who tumbled to his left four balls later to snaffle an edge from Luke Wells off the bowling of Henry.The slippery paceman was soon celebrating again after having Harry Finch caught throat-high at slip by Sean Dickson and then Stiaan van Zyl played outside a full inswinger to have his furniture rearranged, again by Henry.Ben Brown (20*) and Luke Wright (28*) counter-attacked thereafter, riding their luck to take the visitors through to the second day still trailing Kent by 146 runs.Kent top-scorer Heino Kuhn was delighted by the character Kent showed throughout the day. He said: “I found the conditions pretty decent and, if you applied yourself, there were enough bad balls around to score from. I managed to keep the good balls out for a couple of hours, I inside edged a couple for four, which I’ll away take. But we went from 125 for two to 134 for six, which was a little disappointing, but at least the last couple took us to 215.”I’m happy for Grant [Stewart] and Calum [Haggett] for getting us past 200 and the bowlers with Matt to the fore did really well. Matt is international class and I told the guys in slips today that I’m happy to playing with him, rather than against him, because he bowled a few unplayable balls today.”As for Sussex head coach Jason Gillespie, he was delighted by his side’s mid-session comeback with the ball. “Losing four wickets at the end of the day wasn’t ideal, but the opposition are allowed to bowl well too. I thought we were a little bit slow into our work at the start of the day.”It took us a little longer to get our lines and lengths right and we bowled well after lunch. David Wiese bowled really well, he was slow to get cracking and get the motor running, but when he did he was a real handful. The first hour tomorrow will be pretty crucial. We need ‘Browny’ and ‘Wrighty’ to develop this partnership for sure.”Earlier on in the opening day, Kent had posted their first batting bonus point of the season yet still underperformed with the bat after succumbing for 215 inside 75 overs.Batting first after an uncontested toss on a sunny morning at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, Joe Denly’s third-placed side lost eight wickets for 51 runs in the mid-session but went on to reach 200 in spectacular style when tail-ender Grant Stewart hammered a brace of sixes in taking 17 off an over from Ollie Robinson.In only his fourth first-class game Stewart, who had been out of action for three weeks with a hamstring strain, became his side’s joint second top-scorer with a career-best 31 before becoming last man out when chopping on against Ishant Sharma.Sharma, the Indian paceman who was capped by Sussex ahead of the match, finished with three 62 and Robinson bagged three for 51 against his former county, but it was South Africa paceman David Wiese who stood out with four for 53 – including the prized scalps of Denly and Heino Kuhn, who had added 75 for the third wicket.Kent lost openers Daniel Bell-Drummond and Dickson in the first session of the match but were in the process of rebuilding until Wiese caused havoc after lunch.The 32-year-old right-armer from Roodepoort had Denly caught behind on the hook, then top-scorer Kuhn, after hitting 11 fours in a fluent 60, pushed inside the line of a leg-cutter to edge to Sussex gloveman Ben Brown.Adam Rouse fenced outside off to steer a low catch to Finch at second slip then Zak Crawley gloved a third successive bouncer from Robinson through to the keeper.Sharma replaced Wiese at the Nackington Road End and came to the party with two more Kentish wickets. Podmore pushed down the wrong line to have off stump pegged back, then Henry tamely chipped one to mid-on with Kent still 37 runs short of reaching a batting point.Left-hander Calum Haggett dug in for over 100 minutes for a crucial 31 with three fours before being bowled through the gate by Robinson, leaving Stewart to clinch Kent’s sole batting point with some belligerent, late-order hitting.