Benny Howell and Jake Lintott also included in 13-man squad for 50-over tour games

Matt Roller04-Jul-2022Rehan Ahmed, the 17-year-old legspinner, has won an England Lions call-up for two 50-over games against the touring South Africans next week after a breakthrough season for Leicestershire in the T20 Blast.Ahmed starred for England at the Under-19 World Cup this year, taking 12 wickets in four games and showcasing his sharply-spun googly. He took 19 wickets in the group stages of the Blast, the most of any right-arm legspinner, and will be given an opportunity as one of two frontline spinners in the Lions squad.Jake Lintott, Warwickshire’s left-arm wristspinner, is also included as England look to test their wristspin depth, with Matt Parkinson winning an opportunity in the main white-ball squads against India while Adil Rashid is in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrimage.Related

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Tom Abell, the Somerset captain, will lead a squad which features three players who have previously won full England caps in Tom Banton, Ben Duckett and David Payne. Will Smeed, the 20-year-old top-order batter, could make an overdue List A debut after a remarkable start to his T20 career.Sam Hain will be given the chance to showcase his recent improvement at No. 3, after two full seasons without playing a 50-over game. He has the highest List A average of all time and has been a Lions regular but has made strides in T20 cricket of late, significantly improving his strike rate.Benny Howell, the Gloucestershire change-up specialist, could play his first game for the Lions at the age of 33. Stephen Eskinazi and Adam Hose are the other batting options while Sam Cook and George Scrimshaw, Derbyshire’s beanpole seamer who has been a prolific wicket-taker in the Blast this season, round off the squad.Benny Howell could play his first games for the Lions•Alex Davidson/Getty Images

The two fixtures against South Africa clash with England’s ODIs against India and a round of County Championship games. Mo Bobat, the ECB’s performance director, thanked the counties for their “collaborative approach… enabling us to field strong teams”.”It’s always great when we can bring some of our best and highest potential players together, particularly to take on senior international opposition,” Bobat said. “The two games provide an excellent opportunity to continue to grow our depth and assess players’ readiness for England.”The squad reflects a balance of England’s next best players and some future players of note, as well as high performers from this season’s Vitality Blast campaign.” Paul Collingwood, England’s assistant coach, will act as head coach.The ECB said that the first fixture at Taunton on July 12 will “permit full squad participation” to help South Africa prepare for the ODI series, but the second game at New Road will be played as an 11-a-side List A game.South Africa named a 17-man ODI squad last month, which will be captained by Keshav Maharaj in the injury-enforced absence of Temba Bavuma.England Lions squad: Tom Abell (captain), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Banton (wk), Sam Cook, Ben Duckett, Stephen Eskinazi, Sam Hain, Adam Hose, Benny Howell, Jake Lintott, David Payne, George Scrimshaw, Will SmeedFixtures: July 12 – 1st 50-over match, Taunton; July 14 – 2nd 50-over match, New Road

Focused build-up to series pays dividends as England are caught cold on hottest day

Firdose Moonda19-Jul-2022South Africa “were a bit more up for it” in the opening match of their all-format tour, according to Rassie van der Dussen, as they outplayed an overworked England on a scorching day in Durham.With international schedules in the spotlight, not least because of Ben Stokes’ ODI retirement, it did not go unnoticed that the two teams’ journeys to this series were vastly different. South Africa have played only five T20Is since mid-April while England have played six white-ball matches in the first 17 days of this month alone, and lost four of them. Van der Dussen cited the hosts’ packed schedule as a possible reason for their big defeat, but also praised the way South Africa prepared ahead of the series and adapted to conditions on the day.”They [England] are all match-winners on their day. They’ve been playing a lot of cricket. We could see that today. It was obviously very hot but it just looked like we were a bit more up for it,” van der Dussen said afterwards.Although he emphasised that South Africa did not find the weather too bad after their recent tour of India “which was much worse”, he acknowledged that “it was a good toss to win,” because it meant England got the worst of the heat.On a big outfield, and in the knowledge that the opposition bowlers would tire, South Africa focused on accumulation rather than boundary hitting, and did not hit a single six in their innings in an innings reminiscent of ODIs of old. “We’ve done a lot of conditioning work and it’s part of our game-plan to hit space and run hard and make sure we get runs off good balls,” van der Dussen said.But they wouldn’t have been able to do that without some practice. “We came here quite early – ten days ago – because we knew we had to prepare well,” he added. “It’s a long tour with a lot of cricket still left to play. We played two warm-up games and got used to the conditions.Playing tour matches ahead of series proper has not been part of South Africa’s reality since before the Covid-19 pandemic. That cost them severely in New Zealand in February, where they lost the first Test by an innings and 276 runs after coming out of quarantine, but acclimatised to win the second by 198 runs and draw the series. Now that travel is normalising, South Africa are returning to a more old-school way of touring, and are fortunate their calendar allowed them the time to do that.Related

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In van der Dussen’s case, it’s also paid off personally, as he continues to enjoy a rich vein of ODI form that has resulted in three hundreds in his last 14 innings. This was his career-best performance and while it wasn’t flashy, it underlined his worth as a batter who can hold an innings together and anchor a big total. “When I go in, I try to read the situation of the game and plan my innings accordingly,” van der Dussen said. “I try to adapt and have the options and shots to try and put bowlers under pressure regardless of the situation.”He has been particularly successful with the reverse-sweep, shots down the ground and strike rotation, which were all part of his approach in Durham. “There wasn’t a lot of bounce in the wicket so I knew if they went short, you can try and negate that but you’ve got to play straight. That was the general game-plan,” he said. ‘With England’s batting line-up as it is, you know you need to put a good score on. We knew we had to keep the intensity up, keep the body language up and keep looking to score.”South Africa did that and ended up “setting the tone” for what van der Dussen hopes will be a successful culmination of their efforts in training over the last few months.

Four dropped catches and sloppy ground-fielding hurt Bangladesh in the first ODI against Zimbabwe; it’s been an issue for long, says their captain

Mohammad Isam06-Aug-2022Bangladesh have just lost their first ODI against Zimbabwe in nine years, and a series of lapses in the field, highlighted by four dropped catches, hurt them big time on Friday in Harare. Though Bangladesh scored 303 for 2, Sikandar Raza and Innocent Kaia hit centuries to take Zimbabwe home by five wickets, and the two of them made maximum use of the sloppiness in the field.Tamim Iqbal, Bangladesh’s captain, acknowledged the issue, but pointed out that fielding has been an area of concern all along.”Our total fielding effort hurt us [in the first ODI]. We have given away too many easy runs,” Tamim said. “We could have created a little more pressure through dot balls, instead we conceded easy singles. You can point out a lot of things when we lose. But when we win, I always give the reminder what mistakes we have made. We got away with dropping catches and not fielding well, but today it got back to hurt us.”Related

• Raza and Kaia's record-breaking hundreds sink Bangladesh

• Tamim becomes first Bangladeshi to reach 8000 ODI runs

• Stats – Zimbabwe's first ODI win over Bangladesh since 2013

• Raza: I may not be a fighter pilot, but I am a fighter

Substitute fielder Taijul Islam dropped a simple catch in the covers when Raza was on 43. Raza finished on 135 not out off 109 balls. Kaia was dropped twice in one Shoriful Islam over. He was on 68 when Taskin Ahmed dropped him at deep third, and Shoriful spilt a straightforward return catch at the end of the over with Kaia on 74. Kaia scored 110 in 122 balls. Taskin, who had a poor day in the field, dropped another sitter at fine-leg when Luke Jongwe was on 17. That didn’t cost Bangladesh much, as Jongwe was dismissed for 24, but the match was as good as over by then.”I have been saying that we have been dropping a lot of catches so it had to cost us at some point,” Tamim said. “This was probably the day. Previously, we have got away with it. We won despite dropping a couple of catches. On these types of wickets [which are good for batting], when you drop four catches, you are not going to win the game.”We have to take the chances. When there’s help in the wicket [for bowlers], there are always chances coming even when you have dropped a catch. But on such a good wicket, it becomes very difficult. We couldn’t hold on to any of the four chances. It is the biggest difference [between winning and losing].”Tamim defended the team management’s decision to not play a left-arm spinner, and add an extra batter at No 7, Afif Hossain in this case. But left-arm spin has done well for Bangladesh and Zimbabwe over the years.”I won’t call it [not playing a left-arm spinner] a wrong decision,” Tamim said. “The story would have been different had we bowled first. But we have to think about the combination for the next game.”At the same time, though, we have had our opportunities, which we didn’t grab. I am not someone who blames a defeat on other things. We must have made mistakes. We take full responsibility.”Things could also have been different had Bangladesh scored more than the 39 they did in the last five overs despite having wickets in hand. They had the experienced Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah in the middle for the last four overs, but couldn’t get a move on.”We should have scored 15-20 runs more when you consider the circumstances,” Tamim said. “We were 250 for 1, so in that kind of situation you can push a little harder to get those 15-20 runs. We had to tackle the first 10-15 overs, which I thought we handled very well with a good partnership [between Tamim and Litton Das]. We didn’t finish well.”It will be very unfair to point out one or two individuals. As a group, we should have got those 15-20 runs. Those in the middle really tried hard. They have done it a lot of times, so I am not one to point fingers at my players.”

The BCCI is also launching a girls’ Under-15 one-day tournament from this season

Edited PTI copy22-Sep-2022The Indian Premier League (IPL) will return to its original, pre-COVID-19, home-and-away format from the 2023 season, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has conveyed to the board’s affiliated state units.The IPL has been held at only a few venues since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 as the lucrative league took place behind close doors across three venues in UAE – Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. In 2021 too, the tournament was held across four venues – Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Chennai – before it was again moved to the UAE because of COVID-19 cases in teams’ camps.However, with things “going back to normalcy”, the IPL will return to its old format in which each team plays one home and one away match. Ganguly also mentioned the “BCCI is currently working on the much-awaited Women’s IPL” to hold it “early next year.”Related

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Full domestic season in 2023
“The next season of men’s IPL will also go back to the home and away format with all ten teams playing their home matches at their designated venues,” Ganguly’s note said to state units.The note gave them a “snapshot” of the ongoing domestic season.The BCCI is conducting a full-fledged domestic season for the first time since 2019-20 and all multi-day tournaments will also return to the traditional home-and-away format.Women’s IPL to start early next year, new Under-15 one-day tournament for girls
The BCCI is also working to host the inaugural edition of the much-anticipated Women’s IPL “early next year”. The tournament is likely to take place in March after the women’s T20 World Cup ends in late February in South Africa.”The BCCI is currently working on the much-awaited Women’s IPL. We are expecting to start the first season early next year,” Ganguly wrote in the letter dated September 20.The Women’s IPL is expected to raise the standard of women’s cricket in India. Besides the Women’s IPL, the BCCI is also launching a girls’ Under-15 one-day tournament.”We are glad to introduce a girls U15 One Day tournament from this season. Women’s cricket has seen phenomenal growth across the world and our national team has been performing well. This new tournament will create a pathway for our young girls to play at the national and international level,” Ganguly wrote.The inaugural women’s under-15 event will be played from December 26 to January 12 across Bengaluru, Ranchi, Rajkot, Indore, Raipur and Pune.

Any player who was in the original BBL draft and not picked up is eligible as a replacement

Andrew McGlashan13-Oct-2022Melbourne Renegades will have to adjust their plans for the start of the BBL after losing No.1 draft pick Liam Livingstone to his England Test call-up.Livingstone found a place in the squad for the Pakistan tour in December, but Renegades still expect the allrounder to appear for them after the series and before he heads to the SA20. However, he will now likely have a maximum of six games with the Test series ending on December 21 and the South Africa tournament starting January 10.There is a chance Livingstone could be available for the Christmas Eve game against Hobart Hurricanes followed by five more matches.Renegades, who had first pick in the draft after finishing bottom last season, will be able to sign a replacement player for Livingstone – something they already needed to do for the latter stages once he left for South Africa – with any player who was nominated in the draft and not originally picked eligible to be brought in.Related

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It is also understood that the league retains the ability to sanction a signing from outside the draft pool if they are viewed as being of the calibre that would be beneficial to the tournament.The loss of Livingstone, who was not considered a likely Test candidate when the BBL draft took place, for the beginning of the competition is a blow after the league went to huge lengths to get the draft off the ground in late August. The BBL is facing a considerable squeeze in January with the emergence of the SA20 and ILT20 which had seen a number of players only make themselves available for part of the BBL.The draft itself also threw up the outcome of a number of the platinum players – including Faf du Plessis and Andre Russell – being overlooked as clubs favoured availability over marketability, although the final result was still a reasonably strong list of overseas names.Players selected in the draft will be paid a flat-fee based on the category they came from, but with Livingstone’s availability having changed since he was selected his platinum figure of AU$340,000 will now be on a pro-rata basis for the number of games he remains available for, with Renegades able to use the difference to fund their replacement.”We’ve been aware of this possibility for a little while now and have been working through Liam’s availability and what’s best for the Renegades,” James Rosengarten, Renegades’ general manager, said.”We believe Liam can still have a big impact for us in BBL|12, and in our recent discussions, he’s still looking forward to being part of our team, being back in the BBL and playing as many games as he can for our club following his international commitments. We’ll continue to work with Liam over the coming weeks as to exactly how this looks.”At the same time, we have already been working behind the scenes on finding the best player for our needs when Liam is unavailable. There are several world-class players who are now available to us during this period, and we will leave no stone unturned to give our team the best chance of success this season.”A league statement said: “As is the case in all T20 competitions, changing player availabilities are not unprecedented or unexpected. We are well prepared to assist all clubs to navigate changing international commitments for overseas players.”Other teams are also working through the exact availability of some of their overseas signings as more international series get locked in for December and January. Pakistan have confirmed their home matches against New Zealand, although that was a known tour when the draft took place. There remains a chance Hobart Hurricanes could lose Faheem Ashraf to the Test squad and Shadab Khan is likely to be away for the ODI series in mid-January.However, the likely postponement of a brief Pakistan-West Indies series may provide extra availability of replacement players towards the latter end of the BBL.The tournament begins on December 13 and runs until February 4. Following the cancellation of the Australia-South Africa ODI series in January more of Australia’s multi-format players will be available after the Test matches finish although the main fast bowlers are not expected to take part while Steven Smith does not have a deal.

The usual candidates like Virat Kohli and Jos Buttler also feature in our Team of the Tournament, put together using Smart Stats

S Rajesh14-Nov-2022

Jos Buttler (capt & wk)

Opened the batting, kept wicket, led his team and in general did much of the heavy lifting in England’s successful campaign. He started the tournament slowly, with 18 and 0 in his first two innings, but found his groove with a 47-ball 73 against New Zealand, and didn’t look back thereafter. Along with Alex Hales, he destroyed India in the semi-final, and though his contribution in the final wasn’t huge, he set the ball rolling for a tricky run-chase with a crisp 17-ball 26.

Alex Hales

Back in favour with the England management after a significant absence, Hales justified the show of faith with key contributions at the top of the order in must-win games. His best was the unbeaten 47-ball 86 which shut out India and got 107.5 impact points, the eighth-highest among all batting efforts in the tournament. He also scored a vital half-century against New Zealand and 47 against Sri Lanka. Hales and Buttler were without doubt the outstanding batting pair of the tournament, scoring 368 runs at a rate of 9.2 per over; no other pair managed even 230 runs.Jos Buttler and Alex Hales – England’s dynamic duo opens for ESPNcricinfo’s Team of the Tournament too•Getty Images

Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli turned into a run-machine, again, in this tournament. Back in his favourite Australia, he found the perfect tempo for most of his innings, while conditions suited his style of play as well. His stunning unbeaten 82 against Pakistan got India’s campaign off on an unbelievable high and was ranked sixth in terms of impact points for a batting performance. No batter scored as many runs (296) or fifties (four) as he did in the tournament, and the fact that he was dismissed just thrice meant he finished with a Bradmanesque average (98.66) as well.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Suryakumar Yadav

Among all the batters who scored at least 10 runs in the tournament (there were 144 of them), Suryakumar’s strike rate of 189.68 was the highest. In fact, only three others even touched 170 – they were Finn Allen (95 runs), Rashid Khan (57) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (22). The fact that Suryakumar finished with the third-highest aggregate, while also scoring at that phenomenal strike rate, illustrates the stratospheric heights at which he operated throughout the tournament. His average batting impact of 61.69 was the highest among all batters in the tournament.

Glenn Phillips

Glenn Phillips had the most impactful match performance of this World Cup: his 64-ball 104 against Sri Lanka fetched 182.6 impact points, primarily because of the context in which he scored those runs. Phillips came in at 7 for 2 which soon became 15 for 3 after four overs; while he was at the crease, the other batters made 42 from 43 balls; the next-highest score in the innings was 22, and in the entire match was 35. He also scored 62 off 36 in a losing cause against England.Glenn Phillips took off with bat and in the field this tournament•ICC/Getty Images

Sikandar Raza

Sikandar Raza was the only player to achieve the double of 200 runs and 10 wickets in the tournament (though admittedly he also benefited from playing extra matches in the qualifying first round). In those three first-round matches, Raza was outstanding with both bat and ball, scoring 136 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 172, and taking five wickets at an economy rate of 5.54. In the Super 12s the runs dried up a bit – 83 in five innings – but he starred with the ball in Zimbabwe’s brightest moment of the tournament, taking 3 for 25 as they beat Pakistan by one run. No batter hit as many sixes as Raza did (11) over the entire tournament.

Shadab Khan

He was at the heart of Pakistan’s revival. After losing two of their first three games, in a must-win match against South Africa, Pakistan had slumped to 95 for 5 when Shadab rescued them with a dynamic 22-ball 52. He then chipped in with two wickets as well – including the key one of Aiden Markram – and Pakistan were up and running in the tournament. Shadab the bowler was consistency personified: not once did he go for more than 33, while four out of seven times he went at under a run a ball. His 11 wickets in the middle overs was the highest aggregate by any bowler in that phase in the entire tournament.

How is Smart Stats’ Total Impact calculated?

Total Impact for a player in a match is a numerical value that is the sum of his Batting and Bowling Impacts. These Impacts are calculated based on the context of a batting/bowling performance.

The context is based on an algorithm that quantifies the pressure on the batter/bowler at every ball of an innings. The factors that go into calculating the pressure index include runs required, overs left, quality of batters at the crease and those to follow, quality of bowlers and number of overs left for each bowler, and pitch/conditions and how easy/tough it is for batters/bowlers.

Sam Curran

Almost half the total deliveries Sam Curran bowled in this campaign were at the death (64 out of his 136 balls were bowled between overs 17 and 20). England trusted him with a difficult job, and he more than justified their faith in him, returning exceptional figures of 9 for 70 in those 64 balls: an average of 7.77, and an economy rate of 6.56. His 5 for 10 against Afghanistan was the best bowling figures of the tournament in terms of raw numbers, but in terms of impact that was easily bettered by what he did in the final: 3 for 12 from four, including only seven from overs 17 and 19. In terms of bowling impact it fetched 100.1 points, the third-highest for any bowling performance in the tournament.

Mark Wood

Wood played only four matches before being sidelined, but with his hostile pace he made an impact in every game, taking three-wicket hauls in two of the four games. He finished with nine wickets at a strike rate of 9.3 balls per wicket, the best among all bowlers who sent down at least 10 overs in the tournament. Eight of those wickets were of batters in the top six, which meant those wickets invariably put the skids on the scoring rate. His economy rate was slightly high, but given his striking abilities, that was a worthy trade-off.

Josh Little

Josh Little had a remarkable tournament. Not only did he take a hat-trick against New Zealand – one of only two in the tournament – he also held his own against the big boys in the Super 12s. In the qualifying first round, his four wickets came at an average of 21.25 and an economy rate of 7.08; in the Super 12s, he improved them both, taking seven wickets at an average of 14.85 and an economy rate of 6.93. Figures of 2 for 16 in that famous win against England when he dismissed both openers, 2 for 21 against Australia and 3 for 22 against New Zealand were ample proof of just how effective he can be against the top teams.Josh Little (centre) showed a big gun or two how it’s done•PA Photos/Getty Images

Anrich Nortje

South Africa’s tournament turned into one to forget, but one player who stood out for them was Anrich Nortje. His stats do justice to the way he bowled: 11 wickets at 8.54, an economy rate of 5.37 and a strike rate of 9.5 balls per wicket. Among the 50 bowlers who bowled more than 12 overs in the tournament, his economy rate was the best while his strike rate was only marginally bettered by Mark Wood (9.3). In a tournament where Kagiso Rabada flopped badly, Nortje gave his captain both control and incisiveness. Not surprisingly, Nortje’s bowling impact rating of 51.84 was way better than anyone else’s (with a four-match cut-off); the next-best was Curran at 46.58.

Hardik Pandya (12th man)

Hardik Pandya’s bowling was an asset throughout the tournament (except in India’s last game against England), while his batting shone in India’s first and last games.

A number of the top order spent useful time in the middle at the start of the Test build-up

AAP17-Nov-20222:48

Brathwaite gung-ho about playing ‘ten, solid days of Test cricket’ in Australia

West Indies openers Kraigg Brathwaite and Shamarh Brooks made half-centuries in a total of 297 for 5 at stumps on day one of their tour match against Combined NSW and ACT.The duo added 133 with captain Brathwaite and Brooks getting on top of a young attack at Canberra’s Manuka Oval which included recent Australian Under-19 representatives Liam Doddrell and Jack Nisbet.Left-arm orthodox spinner Riley Ayre made inroads to have the tourists 207 for 5 before allrounder Jason Holder and Jermaine Blackwood took their side safely to the close of play.Related

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West Indies have two tour matches before the Test series begins in Perth on November 30 and will be keen to get their batters in form before taking on Australia’s pace bowling attack.Brathwaite, Holder and Blackwood are mainstays of the West Indies side and their early tour success will be a boost to the visitors’ hopes of challenging Australia.Brathwaite is the most experienced of the West Indies batters and is 13th on the all-time Test list for his country with 4893 runs at an average of 34.45.The 34-year-old Brooks did not make his Test debut until the age of 30 and has been in and out of the team in his short 11-Test career that includes a maiden century against Afghanistan in 2019.Brooks is yet to open in a Test match for West Indies where he has batted at No.3 or in the middle order.

It was ruled not out because Zampa had turned his arm over before taking the bails off, but he says he wasn’t sure he would have withdrawn the appeal had it stood

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jan-2023There was an incident of a bowler – Adam Zampa – attempting to run the non-striker – Tom Rogers – out backing up during the Melbourne derby in the BBL on Tuesday. However, Stars bowler Zampa had turned his arm over before stopping and whipping the bails off, so even though Rogers was outside his crease, it wasn’t out. And though David Hussey, the Stars coach, said “we would have withdrawn the appeal” had it been given out, Zampa himself wasn’t too sure about it.Zampa, in fact, stressed that he “saw red a little bit” when Rogers rushed out before he had delivered the previous ball, the fourth of the final over of Renegades’ innings.