Multan Sultans were eliminated after losing by 25 runs

Danyal Rasool15-Nov-2020
How the game played outThe game the PSL was perhaps created for will happen, after all. Lahore Qalandars will vie for the title against Karachi Kings on Tuesday, having swept aside Multan Sultans by 25 runs in the second Eliminator.David Wiese was at the heart of all they did tonight, his 21-ball 48* helping his side post 182 – 30 runs more than Multan Sultans have ever successfully chased. Before he came in, Lahore Qalandars’ innings was a stop-start affair, having burst into life at the top thanks to a delightful cameo by Tamim Iqbal and a 36-ball 46 by Fakhar Zaman. It had fallen away since, Multan’s bowlers – notably Shahid Afridi with 2-18 – making their presence felt, winning the middle overs and removing Mohammad Hafeez and Ben Dunk cheaply. However, as their disciplines fell away in the last three overs, Wiese found his chance to capitalise. Multan plundered 46 off the final 14 balls, and momentum was on their side.But Multan, the best side in the group stages, had by no means given up the ghost, Adam Lyth getting them off to a flyer with a 28-ball half-century. He took the attack to Shaheen Afridi, who went off with a side strain – though he did come back to finish his spell. But Wiese wasn’t to be kept out of the action, coming into the attack and getting rid of Lyth; his figures would end up reading 4-0-27-3. For good measure, he even took a stunning catch on the boundary to get rid of Rilee Rossouw in an astonishing individual performance that dragged his side to the brink of glory.Turning pointIt might seem like a straightforward win for Lahore in the end, but there were key moments in the first innings where Multan might rue their indiscipline. Having weathered the early storm and made key breakthroughs in the middle, Multan, for all their focus on data and analytics, would have known Lahore arguably bat a batsman light. So when Ben Dunk was removed in the 15th over with the score on 111, Multan were one wicket away from forcing Mohammad Faizan, and then three number 11s, out to bat. For that, however, they needed to break the Samit Patel-David Wiese partnership, upon which the game hinged for Sohail Akhtar’s side.Multan seemed to be doing all right in terms of keeping the runs on a leash until the last two balls of the 18th over, when Patel worked away Sohail Tanvir for two boundaries to push Lahore up to 144. The claustrophobic pressure appeared to have suddenly lifted, and a wretched penultimate over from Junaid Khan was smashed for 20 runs by Wiese. By then, the South African was on a rampage, and signed off the innings with two colossal sixes. It was officially only the halfway mark, but Lahore seemed a lot closer to the final than that.Moment of the matchEveryone knows by now Shahid Afridi is nowhere close to the explosive big hitter he once was. There’s little need to get excited by him walking out to bat; he might once have been a trailblazer, but several around the world have mastered – indeed, bettered, the art he helped pioneer. At 40 – or 45, if you believe his autobiography – any exploits off Afridi’s bat are very much dying embers of a flame that once burned brightly, but Haris Rauf may just have snuffed them out tonight.In the 14th over when Afridi walked out to bat, Rauf sent down a searing yorker first up tailing into middle stump. Few might have kept it out, but Afridi was notably slow in getting his bat down, the ball, almost tauntingly, whistling through his legs and onto the base of middle stump. As Afridi began to walk off, utterly befuddled, Rauf clasped his hands together by way of apology. It was Rauf’s 50th T20 wicket this year, and he may just have ended an iconic Pakistani career with it.

No.3 has better average away from Caribbean, and believes it’s ‘about time’ he delivered

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Nov-2020Darren Bravo believes “it’s about time” he started scoring runs for West Indies again, having endured a lean patch coming into the tour of New Zealand.Bravo began the tour well, with a century in the first warm-up match against New Zealand A in Queenstown, and is expected to play a key role for West Indies in the two Test matches.”I’m at a stage where I understand my game much more,” Bravo said at a virtual media interaction in Queenstown on Sunday. “Obviously more mature and I think and stuff like that. I think it’s about time I get the runs flowing once more.”West Indies have one more three-day warm-up game before the Tests, as well as three T20Is, although Bravo is not part of that squad. His 135 was the highest individual score in the fixture against New Zealand A, which also served as a reminder of the stark difference in Bravo’s batting home and away. He has played 29 Tests at home for an average of 26.78, but when he’s not playing at home, that average shoots up to 50.39. Only one of his eight Test hundreds have been scored at home, and Bravo is hoping the trip to New Zealand for his first Test outside the Caribbean since 2016 brings about a return to form too.”I can’t really put a finger exactly on what is the reason for it [the difference in the home and away records],” he said. “But if I do have to say, there’s probably less distraction. When you’re away from home you tend to be a bit easier. Maybe conditions also help particular types of players, it all depends on your style of play. Every time I bat for West Indies I try to my utmost to perform my best, but for some reason it tends to click for me more when I’m away from the Caribbean. Hope the good fortune continues this series.”Bravo batted at No.3 against New Zealand A, the same spot he’ll bat in the Test matches too. He has played more innings at three than any other number, having made his debut at that spot too a decade ago in November 2010, but it’s not the one he would have chosen for himself.”Initially when I came into the Test team I batted at No.3. There was no opportunity to bat at No.4 with the likes of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, so I had no choice but to go in at three,” he said. “I think I did pretty well there (he averages 40.08 at three, well above his career figure of 37.69), but if I had a choice, I would have chosen No.4. But I’m willing to do whatever it takes for the team to do well, so here it is, I’m back at No.3 again and looking forward to it.ALSO READ: Lockie Ferguson bides time as Kyle Jamieson jumps NZ’s red-ball queue“For any innings to be successful you definitely need a very good foundation. Batting at No.3 it’s important I set that foundation for the middle order, I don’t want to expose them early to the new ball. But having said that, the likes of Roston Chase and Shamarh Brooks have been playing pretty well, so I am quite confident that the guys will do well. But being a senior player, it’s important for me to set the tone and show the right example. I know some of the guys definitely look up to me as a player. Captaining Trinidad and Tobago in the four-day tournament [Bravo captained the team in the early part of 2020] sort of gave me that insight of what it takes to be a leader.”The West Indies tour of New Zealand will be among the first high-profile cricket series to allow spectators in stadiums after the Covid-19 pandemic. While acknowledging that fans in the stands added plenty to the atmosphere, Bravo said he rather preferred empty galleries when batting.”You definitely like fans out in the stadium but for me, more so when I’m batting, whether there are fans or no fans, it doesn’t really make a difference,” he said. “Actually it’s a bit easier when the fans are not there [laughs]. But it would be nice to have fans at the game, it will be tremendous.”As one of the senior members of the team, Bravo has been imparting batting tips to players, but he’s not chary about receiving advice in return, even from the younger set.”I try my utmost best to give advice as much as possible. I even take advice, even from the youngest player,” he said. “I believe when you give advice you open yourself up to the other players, that in itself gives you confidence. There will be a situation where you might need some sort of help, that very same young player or senior player can come to you and say, ‘You can probably try this.'”So all in all, communication is very important. Not just talk the talk, but also walk the walk. As a team, we have been trying to do that each step of the way. It’s going to take a little time, but I believe it’s about time that we get it right.”

Dhawan, Samson, Chahal, Raina and Sreesanth among prominent names to feature in the domestic T20 tournament this year

Shashank Kishore08-Jan-2021When and where will the matches be played?The tournament – a total of 169 matches – will be played between January 10 and 31 across seven venues. The group phase, to be played till January 19, will be conducted in bio-secure bubbles across Mumbai, Vadodara, Indore, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai.The knockouts will be played after a gap, from January 26, in Ahmedabad, at the new Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, the largest cricket ground in the world in terms of capacity. The quarter-finals are on January 26 and 27, followed by the two semi-finals on January 29, and the final two days later.Related

• Suryakumar Yadav, Rahul Tewatia, Suresh Raina look to Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for a boost

• SMA 2020-21: Six groups, Ahmedabad to host knockouts

• Ranji Trophy not yet ruled out, Ganguly keen

Will spectators be allowed to enter?No, the tournament will be played behind closed doors.How many teams are in action and what will be format?There are 38 teams in action, and they have been divided into six groups: five elite and one plate. The elite groups have six teams each, while eight new teams – barring Puducherry – form the plate group. This is slightly different to 2019-20, where the 38 teams were mixed across five groups.Will the plate sides play more games in the group stage then?No, all teams, irrespective of groups, will play five matches in the league phase. This is a reduction from the six they played in the preliminary phase in 2019-20.Six groups, one of them with eight teams – how do they figure out who qualify for the knockouts?In 2019-20, the top two from each group (ten teams in all) made it to the Super League, where they were divided into two pools. Each side then played the other four in their pool with the top two from each making it to the semi-finals.This season, though, the top team from each of the six groups gets a direct entry into the quarter-finals. The final two spots will then be taken by the two teams from the five elite groups with the most points. This could, for example, mean three teams from a single group qualify. If teams are tied on points, the net run-rate will become the deciding factor.Sreesanth gets his Kerala cap for the 2020-21 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy•Kerala Cricket Association

Who are some of the major players in action?While most of the marquee Indian players are either in Australia or on breaks or are sidelined because of injuries, there are a host of big names to keep the selectors and scouts occupied.Heading the list are Shikhar Dhawan (Delhi captain), Sanju Samson (captain of Kerala), Yuzvendra Chahal (who will turn out for Haryana), Dinesh Karthik (Tamil Nadu captain), Suresh Raina (he recently retired from international cricket but is still available for Uttar Pradesh), Suryakumar Yadav (the Mumbai captain), Krunal Pandya (Baroda captain) and Devdutt Paddikal (the Karnataka opener).Then there’s Sreesanth, making a return to representative cricket after seven years following the completion of his ban for spot-fixing. Another old hand, Piyush Chawla, will turn out for Gujarat.Any big-ticket names missing out?Yes. Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey are all back in India after travelling with the national team to Australia, but are not available for their teams for different reasons.Hardik, who returned to India in December after the white-ball leg of the Australia tour, is having his workload managed. Rahul returned to India midway into the ongoing Test series after spraining his wrist while training. Pandey will miss out because of a tennis elbow. And Iyer is not part of the Mumbai squad because of a shoulder niggle he picked up in Australia.Who are the defending champions?Karnataka, led by Pandey, pipped a strong Tamil Nadu, which had Karthik, R Ashwin and Vijay Shankar, in a last-ball thriller to lift the trophy last season. This made them the first team two win both white-ball titles in the same season, having won the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy as well. Incidentally, Tamil Nadu were the losing side there too.

An independent Anti-Corruption Tribunal found Lokuhettige guilty of three offences

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jan-2021Former Sri Lanka allrounder Dilhara Lokuhettige has been found guilty of three offences under the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.An independent Anti-Corruption Tribunal has found Lokuhettige guilty of:

• Article 2.1.1 – for being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive or otherwise influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or other aspect(s) of a match.
• Article 2.1.4 – Directly or indirectly soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging or intentionally facilitating any Participant to breach Code Article 2.1.
• Article 2.4.4 – Failing to disclose to the ACU full details of any approaches or invitations received to engage in corrupt conduct under the Code.

Lokuhettige had been slapped with three corruption charges – by the ICC’s own Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) – in April 2019, five months after the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) had also charged him.Concerns over Lokuhettige had initially been raised by an Al Jazeera documentary on cricket corruption in Sri Lanka. In that piece, both Lokuhettige was seen to be in the room when another former Sri Lanka cricketer was talking to an alleged fixer, as well as an Al Jazeera journalist posing as a prospective bettor.Lokuhettige was provisionally suspended by the ICC in November when the ECB laid its charges. The November allegations relate to the 2017 T10 tournament, to which Sri Lanka had sent a team. Former Sri Lanka seamer Nuwan Zoysa was also found guilty of three corruption-related offences to do with that T10 tournament, in November.Lokuhettige played 11 white-ball internationals for Sri Lanka, picking up eight wickets to go with 101 runs with the bat. His last competitive game was a first-class fixture for Moors Sports Club in February 2016.As Lokuhettige lives in Australia and held no positions with Sri Lankan cricket, he’d not faced any sanctions from SLC at the time.Lokuhettige is the fourth former Sri Lanka player to be found guilty of corruption-related charges over the past few years, along with Zoysa, Jayananda Warnaweera, and most notably Sanath Jayasuriya, who served a two-year suspension that ended last year.

There will be plenty of players heading overseas in a few weeks

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Mar-2021The Australian season still has another month to run, with the Sheffield Shield final due to conclude on April 19, but by then a number of players will be overseas at the IPL with plenty more then heading to the UK for a county season and the Hundred – Covid-19 and travel permitting. Here is a rundown of where Australian cricketers are due to be during the winter. It will be updated as further deals are confirmed.

Indian Premier League

(April 9-May 30)
Jason Behrendorff – Chennai Super Kings
Dan Christian – Royal Challengers Bangalore
Nathan Coulter-Nile – Mumbai Indians
Ben Cutting – Kolkata Knight Riders
Pat Cummins – Kolkata Knight Riders
Moises Henriques – Punjab Kings
Chris Lynn – Kolkata Knight Riders
Glenn Maxwell – Royal Challengers Bangalore
Riley Meredith – Punjab Kings
Jhye Richardson – Punjab Kings
Kane Richardson – Royal Challengers Bangalore
Daniel Sams – Royal Challengers Bangalore
Steven Smith – Delhi Capitals
Marcus Stoinis – Delhi Capitals
Andrew Tye – Rajasthan Royals
David Warner – Sunrisers Hyderabad
Adam Zampa – Royal Challengers Bangalore

County cricket

(starts April 8)

CC = County Championship, RLC = Royal London Cup (50 overs), T20 = T20 Blast
County Championship fixtures
Royal London Cup fixtures
T20 Blast fixtures
Sean Abbott – Surrey (CC, T20)
Cameron Bancroft – Durham (CC)
Jackson Bird – Lancashire (CC)
Ben Dwarshuis – Worcestershire (T20)
Peter Handscomb – Middlesex (CC, RLC)
Marcus Harris – Leicestershire (CC, RLC)
Travis Head – Sussex (all formats)
Josh Inglis – Leicestershire (T20)
Marnus Labuschagne – Glamorgan (CC, RLC)
Mitchell Marsh – Middlesex (T20)
Ben McDermott – Derbyshire (RLC, T20)
Michael Neser – Glamorgan (CC, RLC)
Billy Stanlake – Derbyshire (all formats)
Peter Siddle – Essex (CC, RLC)
Daniel Worrall – Gloucestershire (all formats)

The Hundred

(July 21-August 21)
Men’s Hundred fixtures
Women’s Hundred fixtures
Nicola Carey – Northern Superchargers
Nathan Coulter-Nile – Trent Rockets
Aaron Finch – Northern Superchargers
Ash Gardner – Birmingham Phoenix
Rachael Haynes – Oval Invincibles
Alyssa Healy – Northern Superchargers
Meg Lanning – Welsh Fire
Chris Lynn – Northern Superchargers
Glenn Maxwell – London Spirit
Sophie Molineux – Trent Rockets
Beth Mooney – Welsh Fire
Ellyse Perry – Birmingham Phoenix
Jhye Richardson – Welsh Fire
D’Arcy Short – Trent Rockets
Marcus Stoinis – Southern Brave
Annabel Sutherland – Trent Rockets
Elyse Villani – Trent Rockets
Georgia Wareham – Welsh Fire

David Warner – Southern Brave
Adam Zampa – Birmingham Phoenix

The allrounder withdrew from the Australia tour but is in line to be part of the Victoria-Queensland title showdown

Andrew McGlashan26-Mar-2021Allrounder Annabel Sutherland, who was ruled out of Australia’s tour of New Zealand with a stress reaction in her thigh, could make a surprise return to action for Victoria in the WNCL final against Queensland.It had been assumed that Sutherland’s season was over when she withdrew from the national squad, but on Friday she was named in Victoria’s 15-player squad having recently resumed training.Sutherland’s availability would be a significant boost for Victoria who are without six other Australia players for the title decider.Victoria captain Elyse Villani would not expand much on Sutherland’s inclusion except to say: “Everyone in the 15 is a chance to play.”The state made a request to Cricket Australia about delaying the final until after the tour of New Zealand to enable full-strength sides to take part but that was declined. Queensland will be without Beth Mooney and Jess Jonassen.Related

• Sutherland ruled out of NZ tour, Molly Strano called up

• NSW miss WNCL final for first time, Queensland cling onto second

This is the first WNCL final (or finals series) in the tournament’s history not to have New South Wales taking part. Victoria booked their spot with two games of the group stage remaining while Queensland nervously watched ACT beat South Australia which secured their spot.”[It was] very nerve wracking, the momentum swayed a number of times throughout that game and we had severely noise at our hotel because we were having many cheers for the ACT girls,” Queensland captain Georgia Redmayne said. “Last year we were on the wrong side of that, waiting for another game, that atmosphere in that when they hit that winning run was really special.”Victoria are chasing a third title, and their first since 2004-05, while Queensland have never won the competition but have been runner up on five occasions.Villani shapes as one of the key players in the final, particularly with Victoria missing so many big names, after enjoying a prolific tournament with 593 runs at 98.83 which sees her 37 runs shy of setting a new record for a WNCL campaign. However, she is not putting an extra pressure on herself despite Victoria having lost their last two matches against Western Australia in Perth.”If you fall into that trap you get yourself into trouble,” she said. “We’ve just to commit to playing a really positive brand of cricket knowing that it may come off some people and may not come off for some but if we all commit to that we are giving ourselves the best opportunity”I’m just really enjoying my cricket, there’s secret formula. I’m really happy on and off the field, really enjoying myself, loving the company of the girls and feel like I’ve rediscovered my love for the game over the last 18 months.”Victoria squadMakinley Blows, Lucy Cripps, Sophie Day, Bhavi Devchand, Elly Donald, Nicole Faltum, Tess Flintoff, Kim Garth, Zoe Griffiths, Ella Hayward, Anna Lanning, Courtney Neale, Annabel Sutherland, Elyse Villani (capt), Amy VineQueensland squad Meagan Dixon, Holly Ferling, Grace Harris, Mikayla Hinkley, Ellie Johnston, Ruth Johnston, Laura Kimmince, Charli Knott, Lilly Mills, Georgia Prestwidge, Georgia Redmayne (capt), Courtney Sippel, Georgia Voll

England have “full FTP schedule” from June onwards, says Ashley Giles

George Dobell10-May-2021England’s centrally contracted players are unlikely to be available for the completion of the IPL wherever and whenever it is rescheduled.While the England management were happy to allow up to a dozen English players to miss the Test series against New Zealand at the start of June due to their involvement in the IPL, any rescheduling of the event is likely to clash with series in the Future Tours Programme (FTP). And that, according to England men’s director of cricket, Ashley Giles, means they will be viewed differently.The IPL was postponed last week due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases in India. With BCCI president Sourav Ganguly having accepted the competition cannot be completed in India this year, various dates and venues have been mooted. Those include the second half of September, before the T20 World Cup, and from mid-November, after it.Related

• BCCI mulls September-October window for remainder of IPL 2021

• England counties offer to host remainder of IPL in September

• Could Sri Lanka potentially host the remainder of IPL 2021?

• India to play three ODIs and five T20Is in Sri Lanka

• England considering 'new faces' for New Zealand Tests – Giles

But England’s top players will be in action at both times. And with very little space in the schedule until their Caribbean tour ends at the end of March 2022 – just ahead of the next season of the IPL – it is increasingly probable they will play no part in any rearranged tournament.Giles dismissed the suggestion that this signals any change of approach from the ECB. While the series against New Zealand was a late addition to the schedule – it was only finalised in the early part of this year and does not feature as part of the World Test Championship – most of England’s remaining obligations have been in the FTP for a long time.”We’re planning on the involvement of England players in England matches,” Giles said. “We’ve got a full FTP schedule. So if those tours to Pakistan and Bangladesh [in September and October] are going ahead, I’d expect the players to be there.”The New Zealand scenario was very different. Those Test matches were formalised at the end of January, by which time all those contracts and NOCs [no objection certificates] were signed for full involvement in the IPL.”None of us knows what a rearranged IPL looks like at the moment; where it’s going to be or when. But from when we start this summer against New Zealand, our programme is incredibly busy. We’ve got a lot of important, high-profile cricket including the T20 World Cup and the Ashes. And we’re going to have to look after our players.”England are currently scheduled to depart for a six-match limited-overs tour of Bangladesh on September 16. They are then due in Pakistan in mid-October and, while that tour is not strictly speaking part of the FTP, it’s an important one for various reasons and will mark England’s first to the country in 16 years.Even before the T20 World Cup finishes, some of England’s touring party for the Ashes are likely to have arrived in Australia ahead of a series that is likely to start on December 8. England then have a limited-overs tour to the Caribbean at the end of January 2022 – days after the completion of the Ashes – before a Test series to the same destination in March.Meanwhile Giles expressed a hope that players would be allowed “a bit more freedom” from bio-bubbles as the England summer progresses. The Test squad are likely to enter their latest bubble from around May 28. For those who play all formats of the game, it could seem the start of a daunting period.All of England’s home fixtures in 2020 were played in biosecure environments•Pool/Getty Images for ECB

“We think it’s probably unreasonable to expect that our players could be in bubbles all summer,” Giles said. “We want to keep them in safe environments, obviously. But we are really aware of the importance for these guys, their time with loved ones, families in particular. That’s the balance we are trying to strike.”We are hopeful this year that as we see society move a certain way, that we can move with it. It could be the case that we may start tighter, as society is right now, and look to release, as everything else does.”Despite the hectic schedule, Giles remains keen to see the England players appearing in the Hundred. The event starts on July 21 – the day after England’s men play a day-night T20I in Manchester – and runs until August 21. England’s Test series against India is scheduled to start in Nottingham on August 4.”We’d love them to be involved in the Hundred at some point and the launch of that competition,” he said. “It would be great to have our best players playing in it.”But we’ll have to look at workloads very carefully. We’ve got a lot of cricket coming up so it’s a difficult juggling act but I know the players are also looking forward to that tournament and would love to be involved at some stage if they can.”