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The India allrounder says day-night Tests ending sooner than expected have been the norm so far

Deivarayan Muthu27-Feb-20210:51

Is the pink ball responsible for Tests ending quickly?

Sixteen pink-ball Test matches have been played so far, with only five of those stretching up to the fifth day. The most-recent pink-ball Test, between India and England in Ahmedabad, finished within two days, throwing up the shortest Test result since 1935 and the shortest in India. The day-night fixture against Bangladesh in Kolkata in 2019 had resulted in the second-shortest Test in the country.Two days after the Motera Test, R Ashwin conceded that the challenges posed by the pink ball to the batsmen could be responsible for such Tests ending quickly.”It could be. Honestly, if you give a little bit of favour stacked towards the bowlers, this is what might happen,” Ashwin said during a virtual media interaction. “Because the ball…[there’s] a little bit of advantage towards the bowlers. It starts to swing more, it seams more, and the margin of error for the batter is so much more little. Instead of the ball beating the bat or probably getting a thick outside edge, it ends up getting a fine edge and goes behind to the keeper. These are things that we’ve noticed and it even happened at the Eden Gardens when we played Bangladesh.Related

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Ashwin even cited the examples of the 2020 Adelaide and 2018 Auckland Tests, explaining that pink-ball Tests have usually had early finishes.”It could very well be spoken about how we really played well in that game [against Bangladesh] and won that game and all that… but that’s been the nature of the pink-ball Test. Even the one in New Zealand, where England got all out for 59 [58], and we got all out in Australia for 36 – if you look at the larger picture of Test cricket, you might say these are one-off occasions, but these are regular affairs in pink-ball Tests.”In the third Test in Ahmedabad, England reunited James Anderson with Stuart Broad at the expense of a frontline spinner in Dom Bess. England captain Joe Root later told the host broadcaster that the swing and seam the pink ball had offered at practice had prompted that decision. England’s selection came under sharper focus after they lost 19 of their 20 wickets to spin on a turner.6:27

Ashwin: ‘What makes a good surface? Who defines this?’

As for Ashwin, he said that he was uncertain about the behavior of the pink ball.”Look even before I started the game in the nets, we were a little skeptical as a spin group – I mean not as a spin group, I’ll just talk for myself,” Ashwin said. “But, when I did bowl, the balance of the ball seemed very different to that of the red ball – when you tried to put a lot of revs, it probably wasn’t rotating as much on the seam as I thought the red ball was rotating.”Clearly, the chance of it catching the glossy surface was far greater and if at all it caught the seam, it was you know spinning quite big at times, and it was not really responding the way the red ball might respond. Whatever was happening was happening a little quicker off the surface, so I think it did make a difference. If we’d played a red-ball game on the same surface, I think the pace of the game might have been a touch slower. But these are all things I’m talking about in hindsight. Only if you’ve done it, you will know it.”Sighting the pink ball wasn’t an issue, according to Ashwin, but he said that the way it skidded rapidly off the track was “quite different”. Ashwin and Axar Patel, in particular, undercut the pink ball to make life even more difficult for the tourists.”The way it skidded was how it skidded (laughs) because I can’t really explain,” Ashwin said. “But a small few microseconds make such a huge difference in the game. If it’s going to skid on like even a fraction of the second quicker, it’s the difference between hitting the inside edge and hitting the pad. So, it is quite different, sometimes the batsman can be caught with bat behind the pad because the [pink] ball skidded faster than what you are used to the red ball skidding. So, to make an adjustment with the span of five-six days it’s not so easy, but the more we play, the players will get better at it.”‘If it’s going to skid on like even a fraction of the second quicker, it’s the difference between hitting the inside edge and hitting the pad’ – R Ashwin•Saikat Das/BCCI

Ashwin said that India didn’t have any apprehensions about playing with the pink ball and reckoned that the players would deal with it better with more game-time.”There is no apprehension. If there’s apprehension, we can probably express. There is no apprehension as such for the pink-ball Test. I think it’s completely a new sort of a facet that’s being introduced into the game. You are used to playing with the red ball, and everybody is conditioned, like I said, to playing with the red ball, and all of sudden they’ve brought in the pink ball. And the pink ball is bringing new dimensions to the game, so it’s about adapting. If you play more and more and obviously get used to it, the players are going to adapt better for the good.”It’s the same thing with one-day cricket, right? We were playing with the red ball for a long period of time, then we shifted to the white ball. Initially, the white ball was doing a lot more and now it literally does nothing. That’s how this format will also evolve because people are trying to understand what works with the pink ball and what doesn’t, how to adapt and all these sorts of stuff. Anything new is going to throw a lot of challenges and that’s the beauty of the sport.”When asked if there are any differences between the Kookaburra pink ball and the SG variety, Ashwin said that he couldn’t pinpoint any, given the small sample size. Ashwin – and India – had used the Kookaburra pink ball in Adelaide last year, and the SG one in the home Tests against Bangladesh and England.”I don’t think there’s enough sample size to compare both because I’ve played only a grand two days of pink-ball cricket with the Kookaburra and the same with SG,” he said. “So, the surfaces have been different – different conditions and different dynamics to the ball. I think what I realised with the pink ball in Australia was it definitely aided more bounce and pace off the surface than the red one. Here also, it was the same. It offered more bounce and pace off the pitch than the red ball would. That’s probably due to the lacquer in the ball and also probably the slightly more prouder seam that both these pink balls have. I can’t really different much at this point of time and I’ll have a very few sample size in my hand when I’m done.”

“We are one-all, and very excited about that because of how well we played in the first game”

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Feb-2021Joe Root has urged England to learn their lessons quickly following a chastening defeat in the second Test against India in Chennai. England collapsed to 164 all out in their second innings shortly after lunch on day four, as India wrapped up a crushing 317-run victory, their largest win by runs in Tests between the two sides.The deficit would have been greater still but for a brief flurry of 43 from 18 balls from Moeen Ali at No. 9, whom Root confirmed will play no further part in the series after choosing to fly home for the final two Tests. But having made only 134 in their first innings, England amassed fewer runs in the match (298) than India’s two highest scorers, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin, who made 306 runs between them, including a century apiece.”We were outplayed in all three departments this week,” Root told the official broadcaster after the game. “It’s a bit of an education. We’ve got to learn from this because sometimes these are the conditions that you come up against.”We’ve got to find a way of scoring runs in these conditions, finding ways of building pressure for long periods of time with the ball, and in bowling six balls at one batter. Credit to India, they made that very difficult for us.”After losing an important toss, England were pushed on to the defensive from the outset thanks to a masterful initiative-seizing innings from Sharma, whose first-day 161 included 80 runs in the first session alone. By the time England’s turn came to bat on the second day, India’s total of 329 already looked daunting.”On day one, we could have probably been a little bit tighter and squeezed the game a little bit more, restricted them and made it a little bit harder for them to score as freely as they did,” Root admitted. “And then, with the bat, it was obviously quite a challenging wicket from day two onwards, but we’re going to have to be quite smart about how we’re going to score runs out here, how we’re going to build an innings, and we’ve got to learn from the opposition who played very well in these conditions.”The result was quite the comedown after England’s 227-run victory – their match aggregate of 298 was their lowest since the Edgbaston Test against West Indies in 1995, and their second-lowest in Asia behind the Mumbai Test in 1981-82.Asked his opinion of a Chennai surface that has been the focus of intense scrutiny throughout the match, Root acknowledged that the pitch had been “challenging”, but stopped short of outright criticism.”It’s very alien to what a lot of English guys will have experienced before, as are green seamers that you might across in the UK. Do I think it was a good pitch? I wouldn’t say it was a good pitch, but it made for very exciting cricket.”I do think that the toss was an important one to win but it wouldn’t have guaranteed us to win the game either,” he added. “India showed that you can score runs on it and found a way of managing a very tricky surface so we’ve got to learn from that.”There are not many times that guys will have batted on a wicket that has bounced and spun and misbehaved as much as that. One thing I take from how [India] played is how calm they stayed, how unflustered they were when deliveries did really misbehave.”How they didn’t get away from their game plan, how they knew exactly the way they were going to score their runs. How they managed to bat at the other end for long periods of time.”And as a batting group, how does that look for us individually? How I am going to manage these big turning deliveries and how am I going to stay really calm and clear under pressure? We’ve got to take bits from it and add it to our own games, and come back better for it as well.”However, Root insisted that England were still very much in contention with two Tests to play, including the unknown quantity of the day-night Test at Ahmedabad next week, which will be played with a pink SG ball – a match for which James Anderson and Jofra Archer are expected to return to lead the seam attack, after Anderson was rested and Archer missed out with an elbow complaint.”He has been back into training the last couple of days,” Root said of Archer. “His workload will build up ahead of the game. Hopefully he will be available for selection all being well for this pink-ball Test.”We are one-all in the series, with two very important games to come and we’re very excited about that because of how well we played in the first game,” Root added. “We’re very much in the series. [The day-night Test] will be very different. We’ve only played two pink-ball games, one in Australia with a Kookaburra, one in England with the Dukes, so it’ll be different again, I’m sure, but it’s an exciting opportunity to play at what looks like a fantastic venue.”Day-night cricket offers something different again, so we are very much looking forward to that. We’ll have a little bit of a break now to refresh and have a look at a few things, but it’s exciting times.”It’s just very important that we stay level as a team,” he added. “We’ve got to stay very level, and understand that we’ve played a lot of very good cricket in the recent past. We don’t get too far above our station when we win and we don’t see it as doom and gloom when we have tough weeks like we have this time round.”We performed well last week, but we got to learn the lessons. There’s a few guys that haven’t played a lot in this part of the world. So we got to learn quickly and I think that’s one thing that we’ve done quite well in the recent time, so hopefully we can take that into the rest of this series.”

The legspinner was a threat throughout the final of what will be a rematch for in the decider

Daniel Brettig06-Apr-2021Though rain curtailed his chances of delivering an outright victory, Mitchell Swepson showed why he looms as a major threat to New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield final with another outstanding exhibition of wrist spin bowling on the final day of the drawn match in Wollongong.A rematch between these two teams was confirmed when Western Australia were bowled out at the WACA having been set 480 by Tasmania. With the Covid-19 situation having now improved in Brisbane the five-day final appears set for Allan Border Field from April 15-19.Swepson finished with 4 for 59 to take his season tally to 29 wickets at 22.44 from just four Shield matches – either side of a neck injury – and again spun the ball expansively on a deteriorating surface to keep the Blues batsmen wary throughout a day that ended shortly after lunch due to persistent showers.Nathan Lyon was named Player of the Match for his workmanlike figures of 6 for 128 in the Bulls’ first innings of 433, but it was Swepson’s improvement across the course of the game to be the standout threat on the final day that would have excited the Australian selectors most of all.One early leg break that pitched around leg stump and then fizzed past the defensive bat of Jason Sangha underlined the difficulty of facing Swepson. Matt Gilkes was fortunate to survive a vehement lbw appeal when he padded up on the back foot to a delivery that spat out of the footmarks and appeared destined to hit the stumps in the same way Daniel Hughes had been bowled on the third evening.Sangha made it as far as 29 before he flicked Swepson from around the wicket into the lap of the short leg fielder Bryce Street, who somewhat fortuitously hung on. Gilkes went on to his second half century of the match, as part of a young NSW batting line-up that functioned rather better than the older top six that had been routed in their previous game against Tasmania, before edging Brendan Doggett behind in the last over before lunch.When play resumed, Swepson made short work of the debutant Lachlan Hearne, tempting the left-hander into a drive and then zipping a leg break back between bat and pad to rumble the stumps. At this point, the Blues led by only 84 runs with five wickets remaining and more than half the day’s allotted overs to be bowled.Wicketkeeper Baxter Holt eked out 18 deliveries without scoring as the lead advanced by another nine runs, before the rain that briefly interrupted the morning session returned more steadily to hasten the abandonment.

BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla says, “remainder of the IPL will happen but in due course”

Nagraj Gollapudi04-May-2021IPL 2021 has been postponed, following several positive Covid-19 cases across franchises over the past couple of days. There is no official word yet on when or whether the remainder of the tournament will be staged, though BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla was emphatic it “will happen” and a decision would be taken when the pandemic situation improved.In a statement, the IPL said the decision was “unanimously” taken by the tournament’s Governing Council and the BCCI. “The BCCI does not want to compromise on the safety of the players, support staff and the other participants involved in organising the IPL,” the statement said. “This decision was taken keeping the safety, health and wellbeing of all the stakeholders in mind.”These are difficult times, especially in India, and while we have tried to bring in some positivity and cheer, however, it is imperative that the tournament is now suspended and everyone goes back to their families and loved ones in these trying times.”The statement also said the BCCI would do “do everything in its powers to arrange for the secure and safe passage of all the participants in IPL 2021”.Shukla, speaking to Star Sports, hinted at the decision-making process. “Obviously the currently situation in India is pretty bad, everybody is scared, so even they [foreign players] might be scared. A few players spoke to their franchises about wanting to leave the country, the franchises also confided in us. Not many players were willing to leave the country, but obviously there is a panic-like situation, and if people are scared, we need to look at that aspect and take steps accordingly. So taking the players’ concerns, their families’ concerns in mind, we have taken this decision.”Though the statement itself was unclear on the tournament resuming, Shukla’s comments suggested that it would at some point. “One thing I want to make very clear, it has not been cancelled – it has been suspended, it has been postponed, it has been deferred. So it will happen. The remainder of the IPL will happen but in due course, when the Covid situation improves, a decision will be taken.”

The immediate cause

The announcement came following increasing Covid-19 positive cases within the IPL. The Sunrisers Hyderabad became the third franchise to register cases when it was confirmed earlier on Tuesday that Wriddhiman Saha had tested positive for Covid-19 and was isolating from the rest of the squad.On Monday, the Kolkata Knight Riders’ Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier tested positive and the day’s match between the Knight Riders and the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Ahmedabad was put off. Within hours came news from Delhi of two confirmed cases in the Chennai Super Kings camp: bowling coach L Balaji and a member of their service staff.Balaji’s case, in particular, raised concerns among the other franchises as he was in the team’s dugout on May 1 during the match against the Mumbai Indians. Earlier on Tuesday, it was confirmed that the Super Kings had gone into isolation for a week. The Saha news soon followed, before the tournament’s postponement was announced.Related

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What happens to the overseas players now?

The Australians, who can’t go home for another ten days, are expected to spend the time in the Maldives, joining broadcast commentator Michael Slater. There are 24 Australians in the playing and coaching staff among the franchises; though some, like Dan Christian, have playing deals in England, and even those borders are currently sealed to non-UK nationals flying in from India.The two Bangladeshi players, Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman, will have to undergo 14-day quarantine once they are back home, according to the country’s health authority, which refused the BCB’s request for a shorter isolation period. They are expected to return home in a chartered flight in a couple of days. They were both named in Bangladesh’s preliminary squad for the ODI home series against Sri Lanka, which is likely to start on May 23. The BCB will be hoping that the pair arrives in the next couple of days so that they have a few days of training, after the 14-day quarantine, before the first ODI in Dhaka.The ECB said it was in “close contact with our players and staff in India as arrangements are put in place for them to return home safely”.Cricket South Africa said those travelling back to South Africa would undergo home quarantine “in line with the current World Health Organization recommendations”.New Zealand recently lifted its travel ban for India but there are limited flights between the two countries, and the New Zealand players will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine whenever they get home. NZC issued a statement saying it was liaising with different authorities to find a solution.

The broader pandemic backdrop

The tournament has been held with India in the grip of a vicious second wave of the pandemic, with the six host cities – New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad – among the worst hit. The IPL’s “caravan” model of scheduling, with two of the six venues being used at any given time, cut down on air travel and other risk factors as compared to the usual home-and-away concept, but still left teams vulnerable.The rising numbers – around 400,000 new positive cases daily over the past few days – prompted several countries to ban travellers from India. The Australian government even imposed a ban on its own citizens returning from India until May 15 and said any transgression would be deemed a criminal offence.It led to a statement last week from the BCCI that sought to reassure all stakeholders and the eight teams that the tournament bubble was “totally safe”.However, the players were getting anxious. Liam Livingstone and Andrew Tye (both Rajasthan Royals) and the Royal Challengers pair of Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson returned home – to England and Australia – before the clampdowns. The Delhi Capitals lead spinner R Ashwin also left the IPL after the first leg to attend to his family, many of whom had tested positive for Covid-19. Senior Indian umpire Nitin Menon too returned home to Indore to attend to his parents, who were positive. Australian umpire Paul Reiffel admitted he was minutes away from leaving India until the travel corridor through which he was planning to return was shut off.

The ICC’s acting CEO has said teams will continue to be ranked based on percentage of points contested

Nagraj Gollapudi14-Jun-2021The shift to a ranking based on the percentage of points contested, which came about thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, will extend into the second (2021-23) edition of the World Test Championship, with one caveat. Instead of 120 points being available over each series, independent of the length of the series, every Test match will now carry an equal number of points. At the end of the WTC cycle, teams will be ranked based on the percentage of points accrued over all the matches they have played.The above points system was revealed by Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s acting chief executive officer, during a media chat organised by the ICC on Monday. As a consequence of several series in the first cycle of the WTC being postponed due to the pandemic, the ICC altered the points system last November, deciding to rank teams based on the percentage of points won from the series they contested.Related

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That shift allowed New Zealand, which was behind India, Australia and England in the points tally at the time, to leapfrog those teams and become the first team to make the inaugural WTC final after consecutive home series wins over West Indies and Pakistan. India’s historic 2-1 win in Australia, followed by a 3-1 victory at home against England, allowed them to book the second finalist’s slot and eventually finish on top of the WTC table.During the 2019-21 WTC cycle, every series – regardless of length – had 120 points up for grabs•Ishita Mazumder/ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Four days before the WTC final, Allardice said the ICC had decided to stick to the percentage-of-points-won methodology as it provided twin benefits. “We are going to stick with the percentage-of-points-won method to rank teams,” Allardice said. “When we looked at the first 12 months of the competition you had teams on a number of points, but it was all relative to how many series they had played. So one of the ways to compare teams on an ongoing basis is what proportion of the points that have been available in the matches they played have been actually won. And that percentage served us well in the second half of the Championship.

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“The other thing is if we are using the percentage of points won we can put a standardised number of points per Test match. So it doesn’t matter if it is a two-Test series or a five-Test series, the same number of points will be available for each match that’s played, but every team would be judged on the percentage of those points it wins, not on total.”The alteration in the points system was originally devised and recommended by the ICC Cricket Committee, which is headed by former India captain Anil Kumble. However, not everyone was impressed by the ICC’s move. Ahead of the four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy last year, India captain Virat Kohli said the amended points system was “confusing”. India had played four out of their six scheduled series in the WTC cycle at that point and were leading the table with 360 points. However, Australia, who had earned 296 points from three series, toppled India after the revision, with 82.22 percentage points (296 out of 360) compared to the latter’s 75 (360 out of 480).Allardice understood the critics’ view, but said the ICC had had no option but to change the system. “The principle that we had when we created the competition was that every match in a series that was played as part of the Test Championship should count. The point system was also to try and reflect that a two-match series is worth the same as a five-match series. That was trying to make sure that everyone was playing for the same number of points in total, everyone was playing for the same number points home and away.The points system for the inaugural WTC was changed midway through the competition due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic•Getty Images

“One of things that happened during this cycle is that it became evident that not everyone was going to complete their six series as a result of some of the postponements due to Covid. So we left the final in the spot in the calendar where it was originally scheduled. But because we are going to have teams playing uneven number of series we needed to tweak to the points system to try and make it as fair as possible and to make sure it reflected the matches that they did play rather than too heavily influenced by they didn’t play.”As it turned out it was a fair system. New Zealand didn’t play one series as a result of the Covid disruption las year, but they’ve still been able to qualify for the final through the strength of their performances in other series. So we prefer not to have changed the points system in the middle of a tournament but due to the circumstances of Covid and the need to ensure that the best two teams got to the final we thought it was necessary that it was approved at the end of last year.”Best-of-three final not “realistic”
Allardice also said the suggestion of India coach Ravi Shastri to have a best-of-three final to determine the winner of the second edition of the WTC – was a good one but not “realistic”, due to the lack of a free window for such an event in the cricket calendar.”In a perfect world a three-Test series would be a great way to decide the World Test Championship,” Allardice said. “But the reality (of) the international cricket schedule is we are just not going to have [a situation where] blocking out a month or so for all the teams in the tournament for the final is realistic. That’s why one-match final was decided upon. Why it is quite exciting is because it brings something new. Here were are – we’ve got a one-off Test match to decide the best team in the world over this two-year cycle.”Draw “certainly a valid result”
Allardice was asked whether it was fair on the two finalists in case the match were to end in a draw due to rain interruptions. Announcing the WTC prize money on Monday, the ICC said both teams would share the Test mace, and the pot of USD 2.4 million, in case of a draw.”One of the idiosyncrasies of Test cricket is that the draw is a result,” Allardice said. “One of things while talking about the structure of the competition was to we didn’t want to start the final with one team having to win and one team having to draw, so both teams start on Friday even. They have five playing days to get a result. We have set aside a reserve day so that if time is lost during those five days it can be further made up on the reserve day. It isn’t a six-day Test match.”And if after those five days the result is a draw, then the view was that the fitting result is that the Championship is shared. Whether we like it or not a draw is certainly a valid result in Test cricket.”

There were five run-outs during Pakistan’s chase, before rain gave the home side a win by the DLS method

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jul-2021West Indies Women successfully defended their low total of 125 in a rain-affected second T20I against Pakistan Women to seal the three-match T20I series in North Sound on Friday. The hosts won the match via the DLS method, with Pakistan Women seven runs short of the par score of 110 when rain stopped the game with two overs remaining. Pakistan had five run-outs, with Nida Dar top-scoring with 28.Having elected to bat first, West Indies rode on contributions from middle-order batters Chedean Nation and Kycia Knight, who hit 28 and 30 not out respectively, and injected urgency into the innings after coming together at 69 for 4 in the 14th over.Knight and Nation stitched a 32-run stand from 26 balls for the fifth wicket, both hitting two fours and a six apiece. For Pakistan, Anam Amin and Fatima Sana picked up two wickets each, with the latter conceding just 18 runs from her four overs and also bowling a maiden.Pakistan suffered early blows during their chase, with the top three back in the dugout with just 25 runs on the board. Hayley Mathews bowled Javeria Khan in the first over, while Javeria Rauf and Iram Javed were among the five Pakistan batters who were run-out. Pakistan’s innings also featured rain interruptions and the worrying incidents of two West Indies players – Chinelle Henry and Nation – collapsing on the field and being taken to hospital.Dar and Sidra Nawaz’s partnership of 42 for the fourth wicket helped stabilise the innings, but it wasn’t enough as rain interruptions threatened an early finish. Nawaz’s dismissal for a 25-ball 17 sparked a mini-collapse, with Pakistan losing three wickets for 11 runs. Aliya Riaz (17* off 15) and Sana (8* off 6) showed intent at the end, but the rain came down just after the pair had taken 15 runs off Anisa Mohammed’s 18th over, denying the game a potentially thrilling finish.

Five UAE players have now received bans of varying degrees in the last two years

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jul-2021UAE players Amir Hayat and Ashfaq Ahmed have been banned from all forms of cricket for eight years by the ICC’s anti-corruption tribunal for violating ICC’s anti-corruption code.The bans are backdated to 13 September 2020, when they were provisionally suspended for corrupt conduct in relation to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in April 2019. Hayat played the last of his 13 internationals in February 2019, while Ahmed, 37, last played for UAE in April that year.The ruling means five UAE players – Mohammad Naveed, Shaiman Anwar and Qadeer Ahmed – have received bans of varying degrees over the last two years. While Ahmed is in the middle of a five-year ban, Naveed and Anwar were banned for eight years.Following a full hearing and presentation of written and oral arguments, the Tribunal found both Amir and Ashfaq guilty of:

• Article 2.1.3, which deals with a player taking a bribe to try to fix a cricket match or ensuring the occurrence of a particular event for the purposes of betting on a cricket match.
• Article 2.4.2, which deals with gifts being given to a player in exchange for them breaking the ICC anti-corruption code and bringing the game into disrepute.
• Article 2.4.3, which deals with a player failing to disclose gifts and benefits offered to them with a value of USD 750 or more. There are exemptions to this: gifts given to them by family or friends, food or beverage gifts and cricket hospitality gifts in connection with the matches the player is involved in.
• Article 2.4.4, which deals with a player failing to disclose a corrupt approach made on them.
• Article 2.4.5, which deals with failing to disclose anything that may be seen as evidence of corrupt conduct.

ICC hoped the bans would serve as a warning to the others. “Both Amir and Ashfaq had played cricket at the highest level for long enough to understand the threat from match fixers,” ICC general manager Alex Marshall said in a statement.”The two UAE players, attended several ICC anti-corruption education sessions, and knew how to avoid becoming involved in any corrupt activity. They failed in these obligations and let down their teammates and everyone involved in UAE Cricket, in their adopted country. Their lengthy ban should serve as a warning to others.”

Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj pick up five wickets between them to earn the visitors a 91-run lead

Shashank Kishore21-Jul-2021
For a better part of the last ten years, the Indians have preferred to play friendly tour games in the run-up to Test series overseas. The rigours of a first-class game that they have grown to appreciate in recent times are for days like Tuesday when they were given a proper workout by a potential opponent when the Test series starts.Haseeb Hameed, now 24, may be unrecognisable from the boyish avatar in 2016, when he broke through as a sprightly 19-year old in India . But all the traits that made him a classical Test opener in the making were on display in Chester-Le-Street on the second day of India’s tour fixture against the County Select XI. He made 112, his third century of the season and eighth overall, further justifying the selectors’ decision to pick him in England’s squad for the first two India Tests.For the record, the Indians took a 91-run lead, with the hosts finishing 220 for 9, with Avesh Khan ruled out of the remainder of the game due to a fractured left thumb.Related

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Each of the Indian bowlers got a proper workout. After reducing the hosts to 56 for 4, shortly after lunch, Hameed was an epitome of composure and concentration. He focused on crease occupation for a better part of the first two sessions, before giving the Indians a glimpse of his free-flowing strokeplay in the final session.He was particularly aggressive against Axar Patel’s left-arm spin, hitting him for three successive boundaries to dash out of the sixties. Then, he carried on with the same tempo, lofting Ravindra Jadeja. In the nineties, he was kept honest as Jasprit Bumrah came steaming in for one last hurrah at the end of a long day, but Hameed didn’t show signs of nerves or desperation of getting to the impending landmark, eventually getting there calmly off 228 deliveries.The Indians were made to rue a missed opportunity after KL Rahul put down a chance behind the stumps off Patel. Hameed was on 60 when he was deceived in flight while looking to drive through the covers. He accounted for just over 50% of the runs the home team made and his 75-run partnership with Lyndon James was the highest of the day.Hameed’s footwork was crisp and unhurried. His judgment over which deliveries to play or leave, especially off Bumrah and Umesh Yadav in the morning session, immaculate. This was a statement without trying to make one – he wasn’t going to be bullied by an experienced attack. As the day wore on, he showed nimble footwork against spin.Before the Hameed show, the Indian pacers ran amok, raising prospects of enjoying a second hit at some stage during the day. While that wasn’t to be, they wouldn’t really complain at having a good workout against a batting line-up determined to prove themselves. Among them was one of India’s own, Washington Sundar, who missed making a mark in this game. Coming in at No. 4, Sundar lasted all of seven deliveries, prised out by a Mohammed Siraj lifter that he fended awkwardly to second slip.Jake Libby and Robert Yates were dismissed before Sundar, allowing Yadav and Bumrah to get onto the scoreboard. Libby’s indecisiveness cost him as he chopped on, while Yates poked at Bumrah’s away-going delivery to Rahul. As wickets fell around him, a resolute Hameed continue to grind his way through, taking 134 deliveries to raise his half-century.Bumrah and Yadav bowled five sharp overs each before and after lunch. While Bumrah bent his back and hit the deck hard, Yadav got the ball to move away, and to his credit, he made the batters play more than they left. Shardul Thakur, who had Hameed nicking behind, ended with 14-6-31-1. He pounded in over after over, mixing up full deliveries with skiddy short ones, causing the batters to weave and duck occasionally.Thakur had come close to picking up another wicket when James gloved a short delivery down the leg side, only for the ball to fly wide of a leaping Rahul down the leg side.Jadeja and Patel didn’t have much of a workload, mostly playing a holding role. Jadeja had a wicket to show for when he had debutant James Rew caught by Rohit Sharma at slip. Liam Patterson-White brought some late excitement to the proceedings when he took on India’s premier left-arm spinner, nonchalantly lofting him over the infield, then reverse-sweeping his way to some runs and having fun at the end of a hot day before being the last man out.As much as they would’ve been satisfied with how things panned out in the game, the Indians would’ve also been encouraged by the sight of their captain Virat Kohli, enjoying a hit at the nets a day after the BCCI said he was being rested from this game for a stiff back. At lunch, Kohli took throwdowns from Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour and specialist Nuwan Seneviratne from 18 yards. He also faced Sussex offspinner Jack Carson, with head coach Ravi Shastri observing the session from a distance.The development was a welcome one for the Indians, who will also concerned by the fitness of vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, who has a swollen hamstring. Also part of the nets was India’s most experienced fast bowler Ishant Sharma, who was back in action after picking up a hand injury on the final day of the World Test Championship final.

Wicketkeeper believes Marcus Stoinis’ composure under pressure was the key to the pair finishing off Pakistan

Deivarayan Muthu12-Nov-20212:33

Matthew Wade: Marcus Stoinis’ innings ‘freed me up’ to play the way I did at the end

Marcus Stoinis’ takedown of Haris Rauf – and not Pakistan’s lapses in the field – was the turning point in a wildly fluctuating semi-final, according to Matthew Wade.Wade was dropped on 12 by Hasan Ali in the outfield when he miscued a slog in the penultimate over of Australia’s chase of 177. Wade then hit the next three balls for sixes as Australia snatched victory, with an over and five wickets to spare.”I don’t think any of them [the drop and missed run-out chances] were the turning points of the match,” Wade said at the post-match press conference. “I think the way Marcus Stoinis batted at the end, to be honest, was probably the turning point of the match.”I think when I came out there, he might have hit the spinner [Shadab Khan] for six, the first ball when I got out there. I think that kind of play, in my eyes, he’s really gutsy in those decisions that you make out in the middle, win you games. He could’ve easily blocked that ball he went for, hit a six and then that total comes down a little bit more.”But I think the turning point of the game I thought was Marcus’s over against Rauf. I thought that kind of swung the momentum our way and gave us an opportunity to win the game. It’s just an easy thing to do to focus in on missed chances. Yes, maybe it would have gone down late in the last over, but I’m still confident we could have gone home.”

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Wade usually opens in the BBL, as does Stoinis, but on Thursday the pair sealed a tense chase without panicking. When they came together, Australia required 81 off 46 balls. They finished it off with an over to spare. Wade put down their success to “confidence” and work put in behind the scenes.”It’s confidence, I think. Confidence in your ability to be able to finish the game,” Wade said. “To be able to bat with Marcus has been awesome. Obviously [I’ve] played a lot of cricket with him at Victoria and early on in his career. Obviously saw him grow into the cricketer he is today.”To go out and bat with him certainly gives you a lot of confidence. I know if I can just hang with him for four or five overs, then he’s going to find the boundary. He’s too good and strong not to. So, the reason that me and him are working well towards the back end is we know each other’s game so much.Related

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“In the optional sessions, the day before the game, you’ll find me and Steve Smith and Marcus Stoinis go down again in closed sessions because we haven’t got a lot of match practice. It’s been invaluable to see what those guys are doing in training, especially Stoiny, work out his strengths, when he’s hitting the ball at his best. And he can see me do exactly the same thing.”Wade, 33, admitted that his international career might have been over had he not won the semi-final for Australia. In the recent past, Australia have had other keeping options in Josh Philippe, Alex Carey and Josh Inglis, who was a wildcard pick in the World Cup squad after impressing in the Vitality Blast and the Hundred in the UK. However, the team management persisted with Wade and he delivered under pressure.”I don’t feel like it’s on the line anymore so much because I’m not 23 anymore,” Wade said. “And if this is it, this is it. It’s not really on the line for me. It’s going to be all over, I suppose. A little bit, I think… I was a little bit nervous coming into the game and knowing potentially it could be the last opportunity to represent Australia.”I just wanted to do well and really wanted us to win this game, give us an opportunity to win the whole thing. We have a great bunch of guys in that dressing room and guys that I have played with for a long, long period of time.”So, yeah, just really I feel like this game was probably hard on nerves than maybe what the final will be because now we’re in it. We’ve got nothing to lose. We’re going to go out there, do our absolute best. It [the final] might be my last game too. As I’ve said to you before in the past, I’m comfortable with it. If it is it, then it’s it. I’ll play as long as they need me and hopefully, we can win some games while I’m there.”Matthew Wade scooped Shaheen Shah Afridi for two sixes at the close•ICC via Getty Images

The scoop served Wade well against Shaheen Shah Afridi at the death when fine leg was up in the circle and he pointed out that the shot allows him to manipulate the field.”I’ve had those [scoops and laps] for a longish period of time,” Wade said. “I’ve been playing them from early on in my career as well. But, yes, certainly [it] was something I needed to tap back into a little bit more when I’m batting down the bottom.”It’s easy to have the fine leg up a lot of the time at the end, but someone that laps, it kind of opens up the whole field for you. You’ve got to either have mid-off up or third man up or one of the fielders on the off side. It kind of opens the whole field up for you a little bit.”