Al-Hilal eye move for Jose Mourinho and two other Premier League managers as they look to replace Jorge Jesus.
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Birmingham Bears have signed West Indies left-armer Dominic Drakes on a short-term contract until the end of the Vitality Blast.Drakes, whose father Vasbert played for Warwickshire in the 2000s, will replace Hasan Ali as one of Bears’ two overseas players, with the Pakistan seamer departing for international duty this weekend.Drakes, 25, has been capped 12 times in white-ball internationals and enjoyed had a spell in county cricket with Yorkshire last summer.”We’re really pleased to welcome Dominic to the squad. Dominic loves the big stage and is comfortable taking the ball in the powerplay and high-pressure moments,” Warwickshire’s Performance director, Gavin Larsen, said.”As a left-armer, Dominic will add something different to our pace attack and we can’t wait to see how he fares before the quarter-final.”Birmingham are top of the North Group with two games to play and assured of a spot in the Blast quarter-finals.”I can’t wait to link up with the squad ahead of what’s an exciting time for the club,” Drakes said. “The team have shown to be one of the strongest in the competition and I’m looking forward to adding to their initial success in the closing stages.”I love playing in big crowds and having the opportunity to play in a quarterfinal, plus the chance to go one step further to Finals Day is exciting.”
Hosts still trail Glamorgan by 125 following on but opening pair stand firm once more
ECB Reporters Network27-Jul-2023
Luis Reece belts one through the covers•PA Images via Getty Images
Promotion hopefuls Glamorgan are pressing for victory after Derbyshire collapsed dramatically on the third day of the LV=Insurance County Championship match at Derby.After an opening stand of 165 between Luis Reece and Harry Came, Derbyshire lost seven wickets for 44 to be bowled out for 318 but following on, the pair again played well to close on 78 without loss, 125 runs behind.Reece scored 131, his first Championship hundred of the season, and Came 65 but the home side fell apart against the second new ball as Glamorgan secured maximum bonus points.Leus du Plooy made 41 to complete 1,000 Championship runs for the season but his dismissal started the slide with Timm van der Gugten finishing with 3 for 94.Until that second new ball, Derbyshire had looked comfortable as they accumulated steadily against accurate but mainly unthreatening bowling.On a rain-interrupted morning, Came and Reece played patiently with the former reaching his 50 from 162 balls as the pair recorded Derbyshire’s highest opening stand against Glamorgan at Derby.The bowlers were getting little out of a slow pitch and after a brief rain break, it was a lapse in concentration that brought about the breakthrough. Came was tempted into driving at a wide ball from van der Gugten and edged into the gloves of Chris Cooke.It had taken 64 overs but Glamorgan only had to wait another four balls as Brooke Guest, who scored centuries in both innings of the corresponding match last season, was trapped on the crease lbw for a duck.Another shower left Reece on 99 at lunch but he completed his hundred immediately after the resumption with an edge past the slips off van der Gugten for his 12th four.When du Plooy drove van der Gugten to the cover boundary, he reached 1,000 Championship runs in a season for Derbyshire for the first time and although he was dropped at slip off Mitchell Swepson on 33, the wheels came flying off shortly afterwards.Reece was caught off the glove sweeping Swepson and when the new ball was taken, Jamie McIlroy got some late movement to have du Plooy caught behind.Haider Ali went in the next over cutting at van der Gugten and Anuj Dal failed to make the most of a dropped catch in the slips before he had scored when he edged McIlroy behind.At tea, Derbyshire needed another 63 to avoid following-on but the last four wickets went for only two runs in 19 balls. Andy Gorvin was getting the ball to swing in the overcast conditions but Alex Thomson edged a big drive before Tom Wood missed a sweep at Swepson.Gorvin tempted Zak Chappell into a drive which secured full bowling points and when George Scrimshaw was run out, Glamorgan had no hesitation in putting Derbyshire back in.The good news for the hosts was that the sun was now out and batting became easier as Came and Reece combined again to frustrate Glamorgan.David Lloyd rotated his bowlers but Derbyshire’s openers played responsibly to bat 33 overs to the close and give their side a chance of saving the match with Reece unbeaten on 53.
“We had great expectations, but we couldn’t play up to those. All the criticism is quite natural,” admits Taskin Ahmed
Mohammad Isam02-Nov-2021There’s a popular belief – mired more in hope than anything else – in Bangladesh that the team would often pull out a win whenever they were backed into a tight corner.They did it, for instance, when their very existence as a Full Member was questioned. They did it after a big group of players defected to the Indian Cricket League. They did it after they were smashed in their home World Cup.Related
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Rabada, Nortje set up SA's rout of Bangladesh
So, there was some hope that after losing their first three matches in this T20 World Cup, Bangladesh would feel cornered enough to bounce back strongly. Instead, it was the other less popular, but more regular scenario, that panned out in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.Faced with two dead rubbers, Bangladesh appeared to be homesick children after a long school outing. They appeared disinterested in the slim mathematical probability of their semi-final chances. Then came the Shakib Al Hasan blow, which reduced their squad to 13 members.Then, the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Dwaine Pretorius, aided by seam movement and bounce, hit them hard. When they were 45 for 6 in the 12th over, Bangladesh were at risk of getting bundled out for a total lower than West Indies’ 55 from earlier in this tournament, or their own 70 all out from the 2016 T20 World Cup.
Sign up for ESPN+ and catch all the action from the Men’s T20 World Cup live in the US. Match highlights of Bangladesh vs South Africa is available here in English, and here in Hindi (US only).
Some of Bangladesh’s dismissals appeared to give a window into their mindset. Feeling frustrated in only the fourth over, Mohammad Naim hit one straight to midwicket. Seniors like Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah were undone by short-of-a-length deliveries. Mushfiqur played around it while Mahmudullah didn’t know the ball hit his thumb, asking for a review. Afif Hossain missed a slog first ball, before Liton Das, who rarely faces a left-arm unorthodox bowler, got easily duped by Tabraiz Shamsi.They still have Australia to play later this week, but already the tournament feels too long for Bangladesh. This is usually how ICC events have ended for them. For many years, there have been reports of Bangladesh feeling homesick during long tours, particularly at ICC tournaments. Bangladesh had a poor ending to a bright 2007 World Cup in West Indies. They finished their 2015 World Cup and 2017 Champions Trophy meekly. New Zealand stuffed them in their last match in the 2016 T20 World Cup. They ended the 2019 World Cup with huge defeats, too.What is most worrying is how the batters have gone missing for most of this tournament. Bangladesh’s 84 all out against South Africa was the third time they got bowled out in double figures this year. They have averaged 129 runs in the Super 12s phase. Clearly, something is wrong in their batting in T20Is. The string of ten home matches against Australia and New Zealand on raging turners in pitches in Dhaka didn’t help their cause or confidence.”We haven’t played according to our potential. We are better than this,” an articulate Taskin Ahmed said at the press conference. “We lost games that we were supposed to win. Maybe we are not as good as other T20 sides, but even then we didn’t play up to our potential. I think we could have played better than this.”It could have been a different story if we made even 120 or 125. I think today’s wicket was different. The ball was seaming. There was off-the-pitch movement in both innings. They took nearly 14 overs to score 85 runs.”Taskin admitted that T20s are all about making runs, but Bangladesh couldn’t combine batting and bowling in this competition.”At the end of the day, runs are a factor in T20s. We didn’t have regular big totals. When we did get a big score in one game, we didn’t bowl well on that day. The opposite also happened. We made different mistakes in every game.”Losing is not fun. Nobody wants to lose. We had great expectations, but we couldn’t play up to those expectations. All the criticism is quite natural. We have to accept it.”We have to get over it before the next match, or the next series. We just want to give back one win for the country.Of course Taskin is hopeful. Perhaps he has a point to prove given that he has been in and out of the team throughout this T20 World Cup. But many of the batters, too, had to show their worth. Instead, they now simply appear to want to get out of the bio-bubble in the UAE, having been riddled with defeats, injuries and controversies.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been dealt another blow with an injured star now facing several weeks on the sidelines.
Arsenal navigate plethora of injuries to top Premier League table
Considering the sheer number of key first team players who’ve been sidelined at various points already this season, Arsenal’s position at the top of the Premier League table is all the more impressive.
The Gunners have endured a torrid season with injuries, much like last campaign, which has severely tested Arteta’s squad depth.
While Arsenal have still begun the campaign very strongly, and are unbeaten in their last 18 matches across all competitions, their relentless succession of fitness problems has affected big-name personnel across multiple positions.
Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest
Athletic Bilbao 0-2 Arsenal
Arsenal 1-1 Man City
Port Vale 0-2 Arsenal
Newcastle 1-2 Arsenal
Arsenal 2-0 Olympiacos
Arsenal 2-0 West Ham
Fulham 0-1 Arsenal
Arsenal 4-0 Atlético Madrid
Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace
Arsenal 2-0 Brighton
Burnley 0-2 Arsenal
Slavia Prague 0-3 Arsenal
Sunderland 2-2 Arsenal
Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham
Arsenal 3-1 Bayern Munich
Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal
Arsenal 2-0 Brentford
August proved particularly damaging, with Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Ben White and William Saliba all sustaining injuries.
Odegaard’s MCL knee injury against West Ham in early October proved especially problematic, keeping the captain out for nearly two months and robbing Arsenal of their creative heartbeat during crucial fixtures.
Gabriel Magalhaes remains absent for weeks following a thigh injury sustained during Brazil’s November friendly against Senegal. His regular partner Saliba has battled recurring problems, missing recent matches against Chelsea and Brentford due to an unspecified knock.
Arsenal handed Declan Rice injury twist after pre-Aston Villa update
The England international has been their arguable player of the season.
ByEmilio Galantini 6 days ago
Summer signing Cristhian Mosquera compounds Arteta’s concerns after suffering a ‘complicated’ ankle injury that will require further testing to determine his recovery timeline.
Declan Rice provided fresh worries after limping off late against Brentford with a calf problem, and while the England midfielder insisted he felt “fine” ready to play against Aston Villa this afternoon, Arteta suggests he’s subject to a late fitness test.
Leandro Trossard has missed matches with muscular issues but should return within ‘days’ according to Arteta’s latest briefing, with the same going for Saliba.
Havertz suffered a setback in his knee rehabilitation and won’t return until possibly late December, while Gabriel Jesus finally returned to contention recently after missing nearly a year recovering from an ACL tear.
Summer signing Noni Madueke was out for two months after knee damage against Man City in September, though scans cleared him of cruciate ligament damage. The winger has since returned to action, providing Arteta with a renewed attacking threat.
That is a staggering 10 first-team stars who’ve been sidelined at various points, or still are, with a pretty concerning update now coming to light on Mosquera’s condition.
Cristhian Mosquera facing eight weeks out after Arsenal injury blow
The Spaniard was forced off early doors during Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Brentford in midweek, and according to BBC journalist Sami Mokbel, Mosquera now faces ‘at least’ six weeks out through injury in ‘another blow’ to Arsenal.
The key phrase there is ‘at least’, and it could be as long as two months, with Saliba’s fitness now becoming more crucial than ever.
If the Frenchman is still unable to start, then Arteta will have little choice but to play Jurrien Timber alongside Piero Hincapie for this afternoon’s crunch clash against Villa in the Midlands.
White would then likely be handed his second consecutive league start at right-back for the first time since May, with Arsenal’s strength in depth now set to play an even more pivotal role in their quest to win a first league title in 22 years.
It is important to note that the timeframe for Mosquera’s injury lay-off are initial concerns from within Arsenal, with the ex-Valencia starlet set for further testing to determine his exact recovery timeline.
It is a blow for the centre-back personally after his fine start to life at N5, despite having to contend with being a back-up to Arteta’s first-choice centre-back pairing.
Arsenal believe Mosquera could become one of the best centre-backs in world football in a few years, according to some reports, and nothing we’ve seen so far disproves that theory.
Ravindra’s knowledge of the conditions makes him as local as anyone can be, while Williamson, who’s working towards his comeback, is no stranger to these shores either
Shashank Kishore08-Oct-2023YH Chandrasekhar, the curator at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, has one final look at the square at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, seemingly happy with the work behind the scenes to get ready for the New Zealand vs Netherlands match on Monday. He suddenly gazes left, where Rachin Ravindra is training. He signals to him, but Ravindra is focused on the ball. The curator walks towards the centre nonetheless to exchange pleasantries. It dawns then that there’s a sense of familiarity between the two.In July, Ravindra was part of the Hutt Hawks, the Wellington-based club that his father runs, on an exchange programme to Hyderabad where they trained and played a series of 50-overs matches against the academy team run by MSK Prasad, the former India wicketkeeper and chief selector. Four of those matches were in Uppal, where Ravindra batted on three different centre strips, “training like mad” – according to Prasad – to fine-tune his game against pace and spin.He’d have a bowling session in the early morning, followed by breakfast. And then a 50-overs game until 4.30pm, followed by an hour’s rest and another indoor net session with the ball before calling it a day. It’s a routine he followed for the entire duration of his stay in Hyderabad, before he travelled to Anantapur, adjoining the Karnataka border, for more game time before returning home to Wellington.Related
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All this cricket was packed into a two-week calendar that was originally meant for him to be off to rest and recuperate ahead of the long season. While New Zealand’s squad hadn’t entirely been firmed up yet, Ravindra had been sounded out to be ready as he was among the probables picked for the high-performance camp.It’s this sense of familiarity that Ravindra will bank on as he returns to Hyderabad to play Netherlands in their second World Cup fixture. He may not be a local, but his knowledge of conditions and pitches makes him as local as anyone can be. His return to the venue couldn’t have been more grand, given he’s coming off a memorable World Cup hundred on debut against England in a sensational takedown with his good mate Devon Conway.A little over a week ago in Hyderabad, Ravindra batted with composure and poise to make 97 against a high-quality Pakistan attack in a warm-up game. Yet, he may have not played the World Cup opener had Kane Williamson been fit and available. But with Williamson still recuperating from an ACL injury, Ravindra had his chance and he’s made the most of it, giving Williamson and the team management healthy selection headaches.Rachin Ravindra hit a fine century on World Cup debut•Associated PressWilliamson himself is no stranger to these shores, having played eight IPL seasons for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He’s Kane to the local staff and fans. , a salutation in the local language Telugu, is reserved for someone much admired as Williamson is. But merely playing for the local franchise doesn’t guarantee cult status. With David Warner and Williamson, to a lesser extent, the popularity stems from their embracing the local culture, making them as much a fan favourite as a Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma.If Warner did an imitation of the dance to send the small crowd into a tizzy during the warm-up game last week, Williamson has given them moments to cheer with his imitation of a dance gig from , an Oscar-winning chartbuster, during an ICC promotion. Beyond the familiarity and colour, the real reel fans, especially those back home, are interested in is from the nets, where they want to see if Williamson has managed to get back the whole range of his movements, if Tim Southee is bowling full tilt and if Lockie Ferguson brings his bristling energy to training.Williamson surveyed the ground, and pointed to the bright orange seating that hits your eye as the peak afternoon sun glows bright. It’s a humid day, he’s already guzzled quite a few bottles of water already, and is out to train. Williamson has been confirmed to sit out, but he’s the central focus of the team’s physio and trainers.He goes through a series of carefully orchestrated movements to test his full range of mobility. Like doing forward stretches to defend, playing the sweep to test his hamstring, rising onto his toes to tuck the ball, sprinting between the wickets, the trigger movement when he turns at full stretch – they were all carefully monitored and ticked off. The hope is he’ll be fit in time to play Bangladesh on Friday. And for him to get there, Williamson seems to have done most things in his capacity.Southee too bowled a fair bit, even if not full tilt, feeling his way back into full rhythm in an afternoon session where temperatures hovered over the mid-30s. Southee was carefully monitored by Trent Boult, whose late swing back in was quite a sight. Every now and then, there was laughter, banter and wholesome encouragement for each other as they pushed hard on match eve. Daryll Mitchell batted and batted, as did Will Young and Ravindra before they retired to the dressing room. Or so you thought as they all began to walk off.Williamson then nudged assistant coach Luke Ronchi as they walked right back into the nets again. Williamson wasn’t satisfied with the full range of his straight hitting. So, he tried to perfect hitting on length deliveries, asking Ronchi to chuck him balls in an area he circled out, focusing on holding his shape and then carefully feeling his side. Then to top off the session, Ronchi fed him full tosses which Williamson kept pulling until it got to a point where he couldn’t stay out any longer, with the sun going down.Watching Williamson train was watching a perfectionist practice his craft, oblivious to the world around him. The police sirens that marked the arrival of Netherlands, the chaos of the shutterbugs that followed to snap the team getting off the bus, the sound of the generator that was running full throttle behind him and smoke from the fumigation around the nets area – none of this seemed to cross his mind. He was simply, to quote the old cliche, seeing ball, hitting ball until the last lux of light allowed him to.
The Sydney Sixers allrounder is having fun playing cricket again, just 12 months after the lowest point of her professional career
Andrew McGlashan24-Nov-2022Ash Gardner has gone from a career low to a career high in the space of 12 months. The allrounder was named player of the tournament for this season’s WBBL after a previous campaign where she had lost all enjoyment for the game.Gardner, who signed a new three-year deal with Sydney Sixers on Thursday, has scored 339 runs with a strike-rate 153.39 and collected 23 wickets in their dominant regular season where they secured a record 11 wins to book a direct place in Saturday’s final. It is a stark contrast, both from a personal and team perspective, to last season where Sixers finished bottom for the first time with just four wins while Gardner made 197 runs and claimed just seven wickets.Related
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Sixers were consigned to the road throughout the 2021 campaign under varying restrictions due to ongoing Covid-19 border closures and Gardner has admitted she found it very difficult while the wider Sixers outfit also struggled to lift themselves.”Being able to reflect on last year, it was probably one of the lowest points of my career, not only on the field but off the field as well, I just wasn’t happy,” she said. “I wasn’t enjoying my cricket and that’s probably what led to my downfall last year. Not being able to go home, see friends and family for over three months, was pretty challenging and it kind of showed with the cricket I was putting out there. It wasn’t up to scratch.”Now, 12 months later, I’m in such a better spot. Really enjoying my cricket and that also comes down to the personnel in this side. It’s been a fantastic change and that comes from the top, Lottie [new coach Charlotte Edwards] has been fantastic at that, making sure people have smiles on their faces.”The arrival of Edwards, the former England captain, along with new overseas players Suzie Bates and Sophie Ecclestone has been a catalyst to Sixers’ huge turnaround in fortunes. However, a feature of the season has been the spread of performances in the squad: four players have passed 300 runs (while Erin Burns has made 294) and five bowlers have taken 10 or more wickets.Sydney Sixers are in the WBBL final this year, after finishing bottom last year•Getty Images”On the field she [Edwards] was a fantastic player herself so she’s got some really good insights. But off the field she makes sure to get around to every single person whether they are playing or not just to make sure they are still enjoying themselves,” Gardner said. “Because ultimately if teams aren’t enjoying themselves throughout these tournaments that’s when you seem to be at your lowest. That was probably us last year, we just weren’t having fun playing cricket. On the flipside this year we are all enjoying each other’s company and that’s been what’s helped.”Known throughout her career as someone who can clear the fence, it has been Gardner’s success with the ball that has given her most satisfaction this season and an unexpected role as a bowler in the power surge which was implemented in WBBL for the first time.”The consistency is the area of my game I’ve probably lacked in the past,” she said. “More so with the ball, taking wickets consistently is something I haven’t been able to do and ultimately have confidence in my bowling. In the past I was probably lacking that consistency of knowing what I wanted to bowl over and over again. Now I’m a lot more mature. Feel like my game has gone to another level which is really exciting.”To be honest I never thought I’d be an option for the surge but I’ve been lucky enough to take a couple of wickets – I’ve also been hit for a few runs – but that’s the beauty…with a four-over powerplay and the surge. I know as a batter it’s a fantastic thing to able to employ, but also as a bowler you feel like you are in the game. Batters feel like they have to try and target you so that’s when you tend to take wickets.”Shortly after the WBBL season finishes on Saturday, Gardner will move into Australia duty for the first time since the Commonwealth Games as they head on the T20 tour of India. They will be under the captaincy of Sixers team-mate Alyssa Healy while Tahlia McGrath will be her understudy.Gardner is widely considered a captaincy candidate for the future but believes she already has a leadership role in the team even without a title.”Yes, they’ve got the captaincy and vice-captaincy next to their name but there’s so many leaders in that side,” she said. “I’ve been fortunate to be playing there for over five years so feel as though I’m a leader, I don’t necessarily need to have the captaincy or vice-captaincy next to main name but still feel I can use my voice and raise opinions where needed.”
The fast bowler says his experience with various domestic teams helped him settle into the Indian team environment quickly
Alagappan Muthu25-Sep-20244:00
Akash Deep: ‘Very fortunate to play for India under Rohit Sharma’
India fast bowler Akash Deep has given a ringing endorsement of the country’s domestic system, saying it is so rigorous that players who make the step up from there to international cricket have already been battle-tested.”The structure the BCCI has for domestic cricket is so strong that by the time you get to this level, you have already played a lot of good-quality cricket,” Akash, who has played two Tests so far, said in Kanpur. “You know what your bowling is like and what you need to do. So I don’t find anything new here. The processes we follow to get here, we just need to follow those and take those forward.”India have invested a great deal into their pathways to create a strong pool of players capable of stepping into the national team in any format. Akash came through it himself, taking 35 wickets in the Ranji Trophy in 2019 at an average of 18.02 as Bengal made the final. From there he was picked to play for East Zone in the Duleep Trophy in 2022, the Deodhar Trophy in 2023, then onto India A cricket and, on the back of 11 wickets in two games against England Lions, a Test debut in February 2024. He picked up three wickets in his first spell, dismissing Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope, and 2 for 19 in the first innings of the Chennai Test against Bangladesh.Related
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The seniors in the Indian team also help newcomers feel at ease in a new environment. “I am very fortunate to play for India under [Rohit Sharma],” Akash said. “He keeps things so simple. I had some hesitation when I came to the Indian team, about the pressure, some confusion… but when I got to the ground, [Rohit] made things so simple for me that I didn’t know if I was playing domestic cricket or international cricket. I don’t think in my life I could have asked for a captain who makes things so simple.”Having been put at ease, Akash drew on all that he had learnt on his way up to international level – he had come in on the back of 30 first-class, 28 List A and 41 T20 games, where he picked up 104, 42 and 48 wickets respectively – and worked on how to improve further.Akash Deep already feels at home in international cricket•BCCI”I have played a lot of cricket in the last two years,” he said. “Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, so we are used to playing cricket for long periods. I think that as a cricketer, it’s important to understand yourself. Suddenly if we are selected for a new team, there shouldn’t be any confusion. ‘I have done this in the Ranji Trophy, what am I supposed to do here?'”I have worked on that, worked on my strengths. What can I add to my bowling? I have spent time thinking about those things. It’s about the simple things. I don’t put pressure on myself, that I have to play in [November’s tour of ] Australia, or in any other big series. I stay in the present. I think about today, this match, which helps me keep things simple.”Akash was asked about “this match” and in particular the pitch in Kanpur. “Whatever the wicket is like, if I play, my job is to put the ball in good areas,” he said. “Even if the wicket is not favouring fast bowlers, I need to find a way to pick up wickets. From what I have seen, it’s a sporting wicket, not a batters’ wicket.” India face Bangladesh at Green Park for the final game of the series after taking a 1-0 lead in Chennai.Akash also opened up on a little connection that he has with the ground here. “I am from Banaras, which is not far from here. I had heard of the stadium – Green Park – when I was young, and I thought that it’s because the whole ground was green. I hadn’t seen any stadiums at the time. I remembered it after coming here, that the first stadium I had heard of was Green Park. It feels nice, that I am here, at the place I had heard of as a kid.”
Panthers claimed their second successive win, thanks to contributions of 90 and 84 from Mubasir Khan and Haider Ali and an all-round contribution from their captain Shadab Khan. A 144-run fifth-wicket partnership between Mubasir and Haider powered the team to 283. Lions did look well-placed just before the halfway mark in their chase with Imam-ul-Haq’s second successive half-century guiding them to 127 for 3, before a collapse saw them lose their last seven wickets for 72 in 79 balls, giving the Panthers an 84-run win, and keeping Lions winless.Panthers won the toss and batted first; that has been a winning formula all tournament and it did not change in the only day game of this competition. Sirajuddin and Shaheen Shah Afridi gave Lions a perfect start with four early wickets, reducing Shadab’s side to 51 for 4, but a remarkable middle-order recovery got the innings back on track.The next 211 runs came at over a run a ball for the loss of just one wicket and Mubasir and Haider were on the path for well-deserved hundreds before falling short of that mark. A cameo from Shadab ensured Panthers posed an imposing total, even if a late mini-collapse saw them bowled out in under 47 overs.Mohammad Hasnain, enjoying a solid tournament, gave his side another good start with Sajjad Ali’s wicket in the first over. His contribution extended to the fielding, running-out Omair Yousuf to leave Lions 44 for 3. But a counterattacking knock from Imam got Lions back into the driving seat, as he went after spin and pace alike.But from the moment Shadab returned and drew an edge from the opener that Usman Khan latched onto, Lions’ resistance fell apart. Usama Mir and Shadab got stuck into the middle order, which could not replicate the role of their counterparts. Hasnain returned to clean Sirajuddin up to seal a convincing win and maintain the status quo of no chasing side winning in this tournament.
What he has achieved since slotting into India’s attack is to make viewers almost forget that Jadeja is out injured
Karthik Krishnaswamy24-Feb-20214:44
Why England have struggled against India’s spinners
The hardest ball to face on a turning pitch is the one that doesn’t turn.It’s an old and overused adage, but there’s a lot of truth to it. It goes a long way to explaining why England have found Axar Patel so hard to negotiate over his first three innings as a Test-match bowler: 2 for 40 and 5 for 60 in Chennai, and now, on day one of the third Test in Ahmedabad, 6 for 38.That’s 13 wickets at an average of 10.61 and a strike rate of 28.9. Some of those 13 wickets have come off balls that have turned and jumped, but most have come via that most deadly weapon, the one that goes on straight.Related
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England's collapse after winning the toss, and spinners dominating a day-night Test
Pink-ball beauty is in the eye of the beholder as India seize control of third Test
And Axar’s straighter one is particularly tricky to negotiate because it isn’t the classic arm ball, which is delivered with a vertical seam, or any other variation that can be picked out of the hand. Axar’s straighter ball is delivered with pretty much the same grip and release as most other balls he bowls.The traditional left-arm fingerspinner – Jack Leach would fit that description – usually delivers the ball with the seam pointing to a right-hand batsman’s first slip, and with a certain degree of overspin. With most of Axar’s deliveries, however, the seam is almost horizontal, aligned roughly from square leg to point. Because of his low, round-arm release, his palm usually faces upwards at delivery, which means he invariably undercuts the ball.Everything combines to ensure the ball lands on the leather as often as – or more often than – it lands on the seam. When that happens, the ball doesn’t grip the pitch and turn sharply, but, depending on the patch of turf it comes in contact with, either straightens ever so slightly or skids on with the angle.And every now and then, especially on pitches like the ones he’s bowled on in Chennai and Ahmedabad, one ball delivered with the same sort of release will grip and turn absolutely square. Natural variation. On Wednesday, Axar turned at least four such balls across the face of Zak Crawley’s bat.The third ball of Axar’s tenth over turned in this manner to beat Crawley’s defensive push by a distance. It was probably entirely reasonable, therefore, for him to play for turn when Axar bowled his next ball. An entirely reasonable but entirely inappropriate response, because the ball skidded on, kept going with Axar’s inward angle from left-arm around, and brought him his second wicket of the day, and his second lbw.If the pitch for the second Test at Chepauk, which threw up dramatic puffs of dust from beginning to end, was tailor-made for Axar’s bowling, this one at Motera may have been even more to his liking. The ball wasn’t leaping from a length as often to threaten the gloves or the shoulder of the bat. Instead, it was skidding through quickly, which made it more of a bowled-and-lbw pitch than a bat-pad pitch.Axar Patel followed up his five-for in the second Test with 6 for 38•BCCIAnd it’s possible that this also had something to do with the nature of the pink ball, which has more lacquer compared to the red ball.”I feel there’s a little more glare (shine) on the pink ball, because of which the ball was skidding a little more off the wicket, and I got the lbw decisions because of that,” Axar said in his press conference at the end of the day’s play on Wednesday. “Maybe because of this difference between the red ball and the pink ball, I was getting the ball to skid more off this pitch than the one in Chennai.”Given the skid on offer, both of India’s spinners made sure they attacked the stumps as much as possible, finishing with four lbws and three bowleds among their nine wickets.Of the 51 balls R Ashwin bowled to right-hand batsmen, he delivered 33 from around the wicket. From here, he could pitch the ball within the line of the stumps, beat either edge, and still end up within the line of the stumps. He beat Root’s inside edge to get him lbw from this angle, and he beat Ollie Pope’s outside edge to get him bowled.Axar, meanwhile, simply looked to be the most extreme version of himself.1:29
Axar Patel – ‘I was confident in my variations and line and length’
“Basically it’s my usual style, but because it was skidding so much, I was undercutting it even more, and trying to bowl a little quicker than usual too,” he said. “I tried to exploit [the skiddiness] as much as possible [when I came on], because the ball was new, and there was more shine. The older the ball became, the less it was skidding.”Perhaps the most impressive feature of Axar’s bowling, though, and the one that’s likeliest to be taken for granted, was his consistency. We’re used to Ashwin bowling an immaculate length, match after match, and we’re used to Ravindra Jadeja doing the same thing. What Axar has achieved since slotting into India’s attack is to make viewers almost forget that Jadeja is out injured.It’s a remarkable achievement for someone who’d only played 38 first-class matches before this series, in a career that dates all the way back to November 2012. Before this series, Axar had shown he could bowl accurately in white-ball cricket, but it’s an entirely different thing to bowl accurately while bowling Test-match lengths over long spells. On Wednesday, Axar bowled all his 21.4 overs in one unbroken spell.It was like watching Jadeja bowl, or, more accurately, his 2013 version. Over his many years as a Test cricketer, Jadeja has added multiple layers to his bowling, and he now takes wickets on all kinds of pitches. In time, India will hope Axar can get there too. But for now, they’ll be delighted to watch his current avatar wheel away, over after over, firing them in with his low arm, forever threatening stumps and pads.