All posts by n8rngtd.top

With six runs to defend, Shane Shillingford sniped out the last three Guyana wickets in the space of seven balls to force a rare tie in first-class cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Dec-2017A low-scoring contest between two teams at the farthest ends of the points table produced a thriller on the final day at Providence Stadium as table-leaders Guyana tied with Windward Islands, with Shane Shillingford trapping Anthony Bramble in front after scores had been levelled at 164. It was the first time in the 152-year history of the West Indies’ first-class championship that a match ended in a tie.With six runs to defend, Shillingford sniped out the last three Guyana wickets in the space of seven balls across two overs, including that of No. 6 batsman Bramble, whose 54-ball 45 had injected momentum into the hosts’ chase after they had slumped to 88 for 4. Despite the last five batmen scoring only a combined ten runs, Bramble’s 20-run partnership with No. 9 batsman Veerasammy Permaul put Guyana in seven runs’ sight of victory before Shillingford struck thrice to complete his five-wicket haul. His efforts were well complemented by left-arm quick Delorn Johnson’s three-for, which also accounted for top-scorer Vishaul Singh (56).Earlier, Shillingford had dented Guyana’s first innings with a four-wicket haul that had denied them a top-score beyond Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s 59. In doing so, Shillingford had partnered up with Sherman Lewis, whose 3 for 62 helped Windward Islands dismiss half the opposition line-up for single-digit scores.Despite the dual offensive, Guyana were able to fetch a first-innings lead of 77, having skittled out the visitors for 117 after opting to bowl first. Permaul five for led the charge for Guyana, as only two of the Windward Island batsmen scored in excess of 17. Gudakesh Motie and Sherfane Rutherford claimed two wickets apiece.Even though Windward fared reasonably better in their second dig, scoring 241 on the back of opener Devon Smith’s 95, dearth of support from other batsmen meant the line-up could last only 84.2 overs as all of the five Guyana bowlers used finished with two wickets each.

In scheduling the women’s final at MCG, organisers are hopeful of topping the record for a women’s cricket match

Daniel Brettig30-Jan-2018Two more editions of the burgeoning Women’s Big Bash League will help build anticipation for a standalone Women’s World Twenty20 tournament in 2020, with a showpiece final expected to draw the largest crowd for a women’s cricket fixture.That’s the view of Australia’s captain Meg Lanning, who was visibly enthused by the concept of the World T20 standing apart from the men’s event as a forerunner to further growth for the women’s game. The dual women’s and men’s tournaments were launched in Melbourne on Tuesday with Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Geelong, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney announced as host cities: both finals, the women’s on March 8 – also International Women’s Day – and the men’s on November 15, will be held at the MCG.In scheduling the women’s final at Australia’s biggest venue, organisers are hopeful of topping the record for a women’s cricket match – the estimated 70,000 who turned up to Eden Gardens in Kolkata for the 1997 50-over World Cup final won by Australia. The biggest attendance for a women’s sporting fixture of any kind was set in 1999, when 90,185 witnessed the women’s football World Cup final between the USA and China at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The overall attendance for that event was 1,194,215 – an average of 37,319 per match.Among other venues, the SCG will host both women’s semi-finals and one of the men’s semis, with the other to be held at Adelaide Oval. Perth’s new stadium has also been awarded matches. “I think it shows how far it’s come,” Lanning said of the standalone event, which will follow this year’s event in the Caribbean. “The support for the women’s game’s been great throughout the Ashes and been building over time and that’s not just cricket, it’s sport in general. To show that we want to play a final here at the MCG and fill it out, I think, it just shows where it’s headed.”For it to be a home World Cup I think that’s a very special moment as a player and we saw how successful the one in 2015 was here with the men’s, so the fact it’s a standalone tournament for the women and the final’s going to be here at the MCG on International Women’s Day, that’s certainly something we want to be a part of.”Cricket Australia has worked assiduously on the WBBL over the past two years, gaining greater television traction than first expected, and there are longer-term plans to move the tournament into its own October slot in the calendar rather than running concurrently with the men’s BBL as is currently the case. Fixtures for the WBBL semi-finals, in which first and second-placed Sydney teams will have to travel to play in Adelaide and Perth against lower-ranked opponents due to the matches being held as double-headers with the men’s playoffs, has highlighted the difficulties of running the vents side by side.”At the start of the year everyone knew the finals would be held where the men’s were and it’s a difficult one, I don’t think everyone’s going to win out of it,” Lanning said. “The fact you’ve got two of the same teams playing in the same state I think it makes a lot of sense to have them as true double-headers and I think that’ll help really build excitement and hopefully the crowds are bigger as well. WBBL is about the fans’ experience and hoping to bring new fans to the game … it’s probably not ideal for the Sydney teams but we knew that at the start of the year.”I think it’s something we could look at. I think we saw through the Ashes with that standalone series that it created a lot of interest and the crowds were really good, so it’s definitely something we can look to, especially with this T20 tournament being standalone it makes a lot of sense.”Australia currently hold neither 50-over or T20 crowns in the women’s game, while the men’s team have long been one of the shortest formats strugglers. This was acknowledged by the captain Steven Smith, who also admitted he could not say for sure whether or not he would be leading Australia at the 2020 event.”Who knows? A couple of years away obviously. I’d like to be,” Smith said. “I think playing in a World Cup here in 2015 it was incredibly special to be a part of, so I’d love to be a part of the World T20 and captain that side, but it is a couple years away.”[We need] the right balance of players and the right way to play the game. A lot of strategy has come into T20 cricket now and the right match-ups with the right guys bowling to the right batters and things like that. There’ll be a lot of strategy around it and I think the right personnel to get the job done.”

Richard Gleeson’s rise towards an unlikely England career has taken another step after he was called into the England Lions squad in West Indies

Andrew McGlashan08-Feb-2018Richard Gleeson’s rise towards an unlikely England career has taken another step after he was called into the England Lions squad in West Indies as a replacement for the injured George Garton.Gleeson, the 30-year-old Northamptonshire quick, has only been playing the professional game for three seasons having previously plied his trade for Cumberland in the Minor Counties set-up. In 2016 he had a match-by-match deal with Northamptonshire, largely due to the county’s difficult financial position, but impressed enough to earn a three-year contract although little more than a year ago was still working as a community coach.”I was sat having dinner out with a few of the lads when James Whitaker rang. Rips [David Ripley, Northants coach] had said that Andy Flower had been in touch on Thursday night to enquire about my availability, but to actually get the call was just a phenomenal feeling,” Gleeson said.”Just over a year ago I was working as a community coach up at Lancs so to get the opportunity to play for my country is a dream come true, though something I never thought could actually happen. I’m over the moon.”He was already due to head out to Barbados next month for the North v South one-day tournament, but now has the opportunity to get immersed with the England system at a time when his name has been touted as an option to bring some extra pace.Gleeson has a strong record across all three formats: in first-class cricket he averages 24.91, one-day cricket 30.27 and in T20 22.51 with an economy rate just over seven an over.Last season, his coach David Ripley endorsed Gleeson’s T20 credentials for England although admitted that was not the format the county had first earmarked him for.”The white-ball stuff was actually a surprise because he had caught the eye in red-ball cricket,” Ripley said. “He had a little bit of pace and could hold the ball up a little bit from a slightly angular action and we liked the look of him.”But then he got into the white ball team and the speed he bowled with the white ball in short spells, to which he has added a yorker which he has improved this year, means he now looks like a banker in all formats.”Also speaking last summer, Gleeson reflected on his belated journey into the professional game,”What had started out as a six-month position with Lancashire Cricket Board had turned into a full-time job, doing a lot of Chance to Shine work with schools,” he said.”I worked in a factory for a few months after university, so it was great to be working in coaching, which is what I’d set out to do with the course I chose at university.”But when I was playing in a match for Cumberland against Bedfordshire, their captain, James Middlebrook, told me he thought I had something and said he could put me in touch with Northants. They played me in a Second XI game and then threw me in against the Australians in a tour game. I got a couple of wickets and it went on from there.”His Lions chance has come after Garton, the Sussex left-arm quick who was drafted into the Ashes squad as cover early in the tour, suffered a side injury in preparation for the Lions warm-up match against a Jamaica XI. He played in the game, but managed just five overs – taking 2 for 13 – and has now been forced home to recover ahead of the domestic season.Gleeson won’t arrive in Jamaica in time to be considered for the first four-day match against West Indies A which begins on Sunday but will be in the frame for the remainder of the tour.

Return to county cricket after successful Yorkshire stint, but ball-tampering fall-out means speculation is rife

Andrew Miller at Hove29-Mar-2018Jason Gillespie never thought he’d be returning to county cricket quite so soon after bringing his trophy-laden tenure at Yorkshire to an end in 2016, but he’s adamant that his new role at Sussex is a long-term commitment, despite inevitable speculation linking him to the Australia head coach role in the wake of the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal.Speaking at Hove during his belated unveiling, after visa issues had delayed his arrival earlier in the month, Gillespie was tight-lipped about the events in South Africa that had led to the sacking of Australia’s captain Steve Smith, and left the future of their incumbent coach Darren Lehmann in serious jeopardy.However, Gillespie insisted that his excitement at taking up the reins at Hove was the only thing on his mind for the foreseeable future.”I’ve signed a three-year deal, and I have every intention of honouring that commitment,” Gillespie said. “I also have a couple more years on my contract with the Adelaide Strikers, and I enjoy and cherish that job.”I have only been here since Saturday, so it is a bit early to think about other jobs! It is a really good opportunity here. I am excited about the role. It is fantastic. I have a great group of kids coming through, with some good experienced cricketers, and strong support staff. I am really looking forward to it.”The allure of Hove wasn’t abundantly apparent on Sussex’s pre-season media day, with torrential rain flooding the square and forcing the entire squad to take shelter in the pavilion.However, Gillespie’s enthusiasm for getting stuck into his new role was far more obvious. He spoke with passion about the challenge of reviving the fortunes of a club that has hit a fallow period after rising to become the dominant Championship team of the early and mid-2000s.”You always ask yourself when an opportunity comes up, do you feel you can help, and make a difference,” he said. “I genuinely feel that with Sussex.”I’ve been very clear on this, I’m not talking to the team about wins and losses,” he added. “Trophies are end results. We need to put in place how we are going to go about playing the game. We want to entertain our crowds and show the pride and passion of representing Sussex.”What I can guarantee is that the lads that represent our county are going to have a smile on their face, have great body language and be enjoying themselves.”Such a stated focus on cultural values will surely have caused some jealous glances from Cricket Australia towards the South Coast, as they set about reframing their priorities in the wake of the Cape Town Test.For the time being, Lehmann – Gillespie’s former Australia team-mate – retains the support of the board, after it was decided that he had no prior knowledge of the decision to use sandpaper on the match ball during the third day at Newlands.However, Lehmann’s role in fostering a team culture in which such actions were deemed acceptable may well come under scrutiny at the end of what has been an acrimonious series against South Africa.Gillespie himself, writing in his Guardian column earlier this week, described Australia’s predicament as a “train-wreck”, and cast doubt on Lehmann’s claim that he had been ignorant of his players’ intentions.”I would be amazed if this was not the case,” he wrote, “and that the moves he made when it all unravelled on the field were not done on instinct to protect his players.”Sussex chief executive Rob Andrew, the man who lured Gillespie back to the English game, admitted that he was keeping his fingers crossed that there would be no change of heart from his new head coach, given what a state of flux world cricket has been in since the events of Saturday afternoon.”Sadly nothing surprises me in the world of sport,” Andrew said. “Dizzy says he’s committed to Sussex and I hope he is. Cricket Australia have not come knocking so everything’s hypothetical. We will deal with situations when they are real.”

Australia’s captain, meanwhile, has looked notably assertive with the bat in net sessions this week, and reckons himself to be hitting the ball far better than at any stage during his prolific Ashes summer

Daniel Brettig in Cape Town21-Mar-2018When Steven Smith confirmed an unchanged team for Australia’s Newlands bout with South Africa, his
matter-of-fact tone belied that this had been a far from straightforward decision. Mitchell Starc had been hampered by a calf problem and Mitchell Marsh by a groin strain, and both had to pass bowling fitness tests in front of the selection chairman Trevor Hohns.Much like the vagaries of the charge, hearing, ban, appeal and exoneration for Kagiso Rabada, this series has been a test for Smith in plenty of ways both expected and unforeseen. He is facing an opponent seemingly well equipped to keep him, to use the term of Faf du Plessis, “quiet”, while his otherwise peerless bowling attack has failed conclusively so far to do likewise for AB de Villiers.All the while the mental strain of a long summer and all the attendant distractions of this series have added up. By Smith’s own admission, he “reads everything” in the press and on social media, and is also feeling fatigued between the ears relative to his headspace during a prolific Ashes series.However there is one point of positivity, drawn perhaps from the experience of watching de Villiers play with such boldness and freedom irrespective of the match situation. Smith has been notably assertive with the bat in net sessions this week, and reckons himself to be hitting the ball far better than at any stage against England – with the possible exception of one evening during the Perth Test, when he raced to 92 before settling in for an epic 239.”I feel really good, my hit today was the best for six months,” Smith said. “It’s probably been the opposite throughout the summer, I didn’t feel I was hitting the ball that well but my mind was in a good place, maybe now my mind is not in as good a space as it was but I feel now I am hitting the ball better. It’s nice to mix and match between the two, but if I get the two in the right place together then hopefully it will mean some big runs.”You play the way you feel and all that out in the middle. I’m feeling good and fresh after week break before training, in a good place. I’ve had a bit of success here without scoring a hundred, scored a few runs here last time, got out to Dean Elgar again which wasn’t very nice. Hopefully I can make a big impact in this game.”In observing de Villiers, Smith has seen a player very much at ease with his game and surroundings. There were the familiar words from Smith about creating an “uncomfortable environment” for the Proteas maestro, something for which he may take inspiration from the way du Plessis and his bowlers have succeeded in corralling him at the crease for Australia.”He’s played beautifully, you want to get those guys out early but its actually been nice to watch and the way he’s developed his innings in the games,” Smith said. “It was nice to get his wicket in the last innings, [but] he looks to have a good game plan, a lot of time, looks comfortable and hopefully we can make him very uncomfortable in this game.”Getty Images

As IPL teammates until recently, Smith and du Plessis know each other well, and it is clear the latter has succeeded in switching his bowlers onto their most alert mode whenever the Australian walks to the middle. “With all good players you want to make sure you make it as tough as possible for them,” du Plessis said, “especially in the first hour or 15 to 20 balls.”They are just a bit better than normal players so if you let them get going, they kickstart their innings quickly. In the previous game I think he was on one off 15 balls, so it’s about making sure you are concentrating when you bowl those first 15 balls at him so he doesn’t get off to that fluent start. I’m sure he’ll be hungry for runs in this game as well.”Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, meanwhile, may not get as much assistance from the Newlands square in roughing up the ball for reverse swing, as it has a far lusher and more watered appearance than those of Kingsmead and St George’s Park. Nathan Lyon has noted that one of Starc’s less trumpeted abilities is to land the ball consistently on one side when bowling, the better to condition the ball for reverse, but that by his groundsman’s estimation it will take time.”It’s going to depend on how rough we can get the rough side by hitting the wicket,” he said. “You can see Starcy is a massive weapon for us when we want to get the ball reversing, the way he releases the ball he can land it on the rough side and rough it up naturally. I dare say it’s still going to play a part, but I don’t think it will play a part as quick as what it probably has in the past two Test matches.”Time, of course, was a factor used brilliantly by South Africa’s top-order pair of Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla in Port Elizabeth, soaking up the best overs of Starc and Hazlewood to buy time for de Villiers to excel. Smith acknowledged that he may have to change things up more frequently this time around in the field.”It depends on what’s happening,” Smith said. “That middle session where those guys batted really well was where the ball started reversing really big and at that time I thought it was the best option to get them out. Unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, but they scored 42 runs in the session I think and got rewards later on. It certainly depends on what’s happening out in the middle. Nathan’s been very successful against Dean as well, so that could come into play pretty early.”Whether with the bat or the ball, Smith, Starc and Australia may well need to make things happen in Cape Town, as their mental and physical reserves start to dwindle at the end of a long summer.

An x-ray revealed that Lewis Hill’s arm was not broken after he was struck by Marchant de Lange, but that was about as far as the good news went for Leicestershire

ECB Reporters Network11-May-2018
ScorecardTim der Gugten was in the wickets•Getty Images

Glamorgan’s seamers ensured they ended the first day in control of their Specsavers County Championship match against Leicestershire at the Fischer County Ground.Timm van der Gugten picked up two wickets in two balls before Michael Hogan and Marchant de Lange each took three wickets after Leicestershire captain Michael Carberry won the toss and chose to bat first.It looked the right decision on a biscuit-coloured pitch – Glamorgan opted for a toss in the hope of batting first themselves – but Van Der Gugten and Hogan both found just enough movement through the air and off the seam to trouble the Foxes’ top order.Van der Gugten, who came into the match having picked up 12 championship wickets this season at an average of just 11, was first to strike, having Paul Horton leg before to a delivery which came back in to the right-hander.The Australian-born Dutch international then made it two in two, Colin Ackermann pushing hard at his first ball and lofting a simple catch to Hogan at wide mid-off.No further runs had been added when Hogan had Carberry caught behind, a thin edge off a ball he could have left, and it might have been 9 for 4 had Mark Cosgrove been run out before scoring: the left-hander had given up his attempt to complete an unlikely single when Aneurin Donald’s throw missed the stumps.Cosgrove was unable to make the most of his good fortune though: having gone to 14, he was trapped leg before by a full, inswinging delivery which umpire Mike Burns decided had hit pad before bat.Ateeq Javid battled his way into double figures, only to push at and edge behind a wide delivery from David Lloyd he could have safely left alone.There was more trouble for Leicestershire when Lewis Hill took his eyes off a short ball from de Lange that didn’t get up as much as he expected it to, and was hit above the elbow. With one ball remaining before lunch he left the field for treatment and the umpires took the players off early.The procession continued after the break, when Hogan bowled Ben Raine off the inside edge, before Neil Dexter led something of a recovery, reaching his second half-century of the season off 97 ballsDexter and Callum Parkinson added 80 for the seventh wicket, but Parkinson edged Hogan to third slip, and Hill – an x-ray having confirmed his arm to be unbroken – was unable to provide Dexter with extended support, de Lange bowling him with a quick delivery which came back in to the right-hander.Dexter was last to go, an attempt to loft the off-spin of Andrew Salter for a straight six ending in the hands of long-on.Glamorgan openers Nick Selman and Jack Murphy then put the Leicestershire innings in to some sort of context by putting on an unbroken partnership of 82 off 24 overs.

The line, which the BCCI took a ‘dim view’ of, was in a SWOT analysis that is part of an ICC document called ‘A Global Strategy For Cricket – Update’

Sidharth Monga17-May-2018″Not a truly global sport – heavy dependence on revenues and fans from India…”One sentence, listed under “weaknesses” in a SWOT analysis that is part of a 25-page ICC document called “A Global Strategy For Cricket – Update”, dominated the agenda of the meeting between the BCCI and the ICC working group to develop a global strategy for cricket. On the eve of the meeting, which was held in Delhi on Thursday, 18 full members of the BCCI joined a teleconference and took a “dim view” of the development. The BCCI threatened to call a general meeting to consider and deliberate on the Members’ Participation Agreement with the ICC to “safeguard the BCCI’s interest before the same is executed on behalf of the BCCI”.After the meeting, the ICC was in damage-control mode. “It’s listed as potential weakness but I would actually focus on it as a strength,” the ICC CEO David Richardson said. “We need Indian cricket as part of global strategy. It’s certainly a strength that we have such a huge cricket economy behind us. It’s not a big issue from weaknesses point of view; if anything it’s a reminder for other countries that they cannot rely on India alone, they need to do something themselves.”The BCCI is certain that the sentence will be removed from any further discussions.”If Sachin Tendulkar was the dominant batsman for India, you didn’t try to find ways to cut down his scoring,” a BCCI official said. “You asked other batsmen to start scoring more.”The meeting was a first among the updates the ICC plans to give its member boards.”I’d like to thank everyone involved for their positive commitment to the strategy, their time and energy today and their feedback which will now be incorporated into the ongoing development work,” Richardson said. “We have a number of further member meetings scheduled to do the same thing as part of ensuring we end up with a comprehensive global strategy for the long-term good of our sport.”The meeting itself was cordial. “They were totally on the defensive once they knew what the BCCI’s stance was overnight,” another BCCI official said. “Other than that there is still some way to go for any decisions to be taken in this group.”Two other interesting matters in the document were “breakaway rebel body” and “cricket events like T10”, under threats in the SWOT analysis. “It’s a quite historical fact,” Richardson said. “Don’t forget whenever you do a strategy paper they do a SWOT analysis. Sometimes it will focus on threats or weaknesses that exist. Sometimes these are real and big risks, sometimes they are just there, not a threat, and this is the case here.”T10, interestingly, is filed under both threats and opportunities. The ICC’s position regarding T10 is to wait and watch: to not lose out should it become popular but to watch out if the format outgrows its ambit.

Australia now head to Zimbabwe for a T20I tri-series that also includes Pakistan but perhaps the most significant tour will be when Australia A and South Africa A play a tri-series in India in August

Melinda Farrell at Edgbaston27-Jun-2018The Australian squad may be leaving England without a win but Justin Langer believes they won’t be carrying any mental baggage either, despite a disappointing tour. After the 22-run loss in the standalone T20I at Edgbaston, Langer said he believes the tough lessons learned will benefit the younger players in the squad.”Light at the end of the tunnel, there’s no doubt about that,” said Langer. “We knew it was going to be a big job knowing where we came from in South Africa.”There’s been some great learning and some real positives that have come from this trip. On the surface it looks like a complete disaster but we have talked about a team for the World Cup and the Ashes and I think we have unlocked a few answers, but it hurts when you get beaten, particularly in England.”My first Test match was against the West Indies and it was pretty scary. You faced four fast West Indians and you are a skinny kid. I remember David Boon saying ‘Test cricket will never get tougher than this’.””I thought he was just being nice to me but it was so true. I learned something from it and I was tougher from it. When you look at Trent Bridge for our young blokes to get hit for 480-something, it doesn’t get tougher. Hopefully it will add some layers to their character and not scars.”Langer pointed to the lack of experience in the squad, the absence of several first-choice players as well as Australia’s long-standing battles to master spin as key reasons Australia had struggled throughout the tour. But he was full in his praise of England’s prowess in the short forms of the game.”I have been blown away by how well England are playing but they have got 880 games between them, they’re all in good form, they’re at the peak of their powers right now and we’ve come up against them,” said Langer.Justin Langer talks to his players at practice•Getty Images

“There’s so many people talking about our style of play at the moment. When I started playing Test cricket I could not hit them off the square. I could hit them to third man and hit them to fine leg and I didn’t have much else, but by the end of my career I would come out and I would be swinging, I would be playing cover drives and pull shots and I’d be hitting the spinners over their heads.”My point is, we talk about England now and they are guys playing brilliant cricket. They are confident, they’re scoring hundreds and they’ve been playing together for a long time. They have the core together and they take confidence from it, at the moment we haven’t got that. What I do know is we will learn lessons from how England are playing at the moment but it is hard to compare us because we are at such a different stage of our journey.”The journey for both teams, in the one-day format at least, leads straight back to England and Wales next summer, and while there may have been valuable lessons learned by this group of players, Langer made it clear he is expecting to come back for the World Cup with a more experienced squad.”If Steve Smith and David Warner and Mitch Marsh, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc come back in, all of a sudden you’ve got 800 games of experience again and we’ve got a lot more experienced team,” said Langer.”And if some of these young guys who are gaining some experience here, or the guys who have taken it up – Shaun Marsh in the one-day series, he scored two hundreds. Ashton Agar has been really good with the ball and shown a lot with the bat.”Billy Stanlake has had some good games. If we can get some of those guys learning and growing and if some of the other guys are available, who knows what could happen in 12 months’ time?”It’s a fact of life, we don’t know what’s going to happen in 12 months. That will just be natural if some of those more senior players come back in the team, that’s just reality.”Australia now head to Zimbabwe for a T20I tri-series that also includes Pakistan but perhaps the most significant tour will be when Australia A and South Africa A play a tri-series in India in August. A number of players in and around the Test side will be in that squad and, while Langer won’t be present, performances in India could have a significant impact on the make-up of the Australian Test side during the home summer, when they host India and Sri Lanka.”It’s huge,” said Langer. “We’ll probably pick the Test team after the Australia A team. It’s a great opportunity, particularly for our young batsmen, or any batsman in Australia.”It’s very, very rare to pick a Test squad after something like that. We’ve got a short period so it’s going to be a huge tour. It’s exciting. I won’t be at that tour, because from about the end of September, we’re not going to go home for about 18 months. So I probably won’t go to India for that tour.”I’ll certainly be watching it closely because we have to start building the top six in the Test team.”

Coach Ottis Gibson hopes to have his tournament template ready by the home summer

Firdose Moonda15-Aug-2018South Africa are certain about two-thirds of their 2019 World Cup squad after their series win in Sri Lanka, according to coach Ottis Gibson, who hopes to have his tournament template ready by the home summer. The main questions appear to be in the bowling department, where South Africa seem spoilt for choice having rested several of their experienced players on the tour.Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Junior Dala, Wiaan Mulder, Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj did duty in Sri Lanka, and have 112 caps between them, less than half of Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir and Chris Morris’ combined tally of 235 matches. All ten of them are unlikely to find spots in the World Cup squad, which leaves Gibson and the selectors with decisions to make over the coming matches – South Africa play Zimbabwe and Australia – before entering the final 10 fixtures against Pakistan and Sri Lanka ahead of the World Cup.”Right now it would be 10 spots out of 15 (that we are sure of),” Gibson said. “It wasn’t all about winning. If it was all about winning we would have brought Tahir and all the other guys. But winning a series in Sri Lanka right now doesn’t give us a strong indicator about where we are going towards the World Cup. This exercise in giving young players opportunities to see where they are gives us a better chance when it comes to sitting down and picking a team. By the time we get to Pakistan in South Africa, we’ll be picking a team that is very close to the team that will go and help us win the World Cup.”Gibson did not get into the specifics over which ten spots are secure but reading between the lines, it appears he would like to beef up the attack with a more experienced player. “We brought a very inexperienced bowling line-up [to Sri Lanka]. Not so much on purpose; it’s also who is available,” Gibson said. “Morris isn’t here because he’s injured. We felt Dale, maybe going back and playing some more county cricket would be good for him. We know what Dale can do in one-day cricket. Tahir, we know what he can do in one-day cricket. That gave us the opportunity to see Shamsi and Maharaj, and I think Shamsi has been brilliant on this trip.”Shamsi appears to have done enough to be taken as Tahir’s understudy, which would likely leave no space for Maharaj, and if Steyn and Morris come into contention, it’s likely Dala and Mulder, who both showed sparks of promise alongside inconsistency, could miss out.In the batting department, South Africa are more settled. Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy and David Miller are likely to make up five of the top six. Miller’s place, despite three scores of under 25 in the four matches he played in addition to sitting out the last ODI in Sri Lanka, is all but guaranteed. “Miller is very much a part of what we’re doing. But in order to see somebody you have to rest somebody. Miller missed out because we wanted to keep playing the two allrounders to see what they’ve got,” Gibson said. “Everybody was told before the series that we are going to look at other people.”The No.3 spot, though, remains up for grabs because Aiden Markram has struggled. Reeza Hendricks made a strong claim with a century on debut but South Africa may still look elsewhere. “Christiaan Jonker was supposed to be here but he got injured, so we have to have a look at him at some point as well.”As for South Africa’s problems against spin, which were once again exposed on the subcontinent, Gibson maintains that they will stick to an aggressive approach rather than cowering at the sight of their nemesis. “What I don’t want is for people to go back into themselves and start to think you’ve got to defend. I want guys to look to score. In the last couple of games, where we tried to defend, it’s a different story.”South Africa’s next assignment is three ODIs and three T20s against Zimbabwe at home at the end of September, before a short white-ball tour to Australia in November.

The pacer quits with 56 wickets from 68 T20Is, and will remain available to play in the other formats

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Aug-2018India women pacer Jhulan Goswami has retired from T20Is, calling time on a career that began 12 years ago with the first ever T20I for India women in August 2006. The announcement comes with the Women’s World T20 – to be played in the West Indies – less than three months away.In a statement released by the BCCI, Goswami thanked the board and her team-mates for all the love and support she garnered during her stint with the T20I team and wished them luck going forward.With India last having played a Test match almost four years ago, Goswami quitting T20Is means that for all practical purposes she will now be playing only the ODI format for India.Goswami is the leading wicket-taker for India women with 56 wickets in 60 T20Is. Her 5 for 11 against Australia at ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in 2012 are the best bowling figures for India in the shortest format.The Bengal pacer’s last appearance in a T20I was the Asia Cup final against Bangladesh women in Kuala Lumpur, which India lost by three wickets.Goswami, who made her debut international debut in 2002, is also the highest wicket-taker in ODIs with 203 scalps from 169 games, the only bowler with more than 200 wickets in the format. She has represented India in ten Tests, taking 40 wickets at 16.62. She remains the only Indian bowler so far with five-wicket hauls in each of the three formats.