Worcestershire Rapids sealed a home tie in the knockout stages of the Royal London One-Day Cup despite a maiden List A century from Durham Jets opener Graham Clark

ECB Reporters Network14-May-2017
ScorecardGraham Clark struck a maiden List A century [file picture]•Getty Images

Worcestershire Rapids sealed a home tie in the knockout stages of the Royal London One-Day Cup despite a maiden List A century from Durham Jets opener Graham Clark in a dramatic turnaround at New Road.The Jets appeared to be cruising towards their 271 target after an opening stand of 122 in 24 overs between Clark and Keaton Jennings.But former Durham all-rounder John Hastings and veteran Daryl Mitchell claimed three wickets apiece to turn the game on its head after tight spells from spinners Moeen Ali and Brett D’Oliveira helped to apply the pressure.The Jets eventually closed on 255-9 and went down by 15 runs.It was the Rapids fifth win in seven games and they are guaranteed to finish at least in the top two of the group ahead of their final match away to Derbyshire Falcons on TuesdJy.But it was rough justice on Clark who had followed up his 92 against Notts Outlaws on Thursday with another fine knock.Clark and Jennings were relatively untroubled although the latter had a let off on 19 off Hastings as keeper Ben Cox spilled a chance when he dived across Tom Kohler-Cadmore.Clark went to his half century off 66 balls and the 100 came up in the 20th over before Moeen Ali made a much needed breakthrough for the home side.Jennings went for a reverse sweep and an alert Kohler-Cadmore at slip held onto the chance.
Mitchell then bowled Michael Richardson after he pushed forward and Brett D’Oliveira held onto a return catch from Cameron Steel.Hastings came back into the attack and his second delivery brought about the downfall of Paul Collingwood, who perished to a low return catch.Then three wickets tumbled in three overs – the third of them being the prized wicket of Clark for 114 off 128 balls with two sixes and seven fours.He holed out to long on off Mitchell who also disposed of Ryan Pringle while in between Hastings sent back Paul Coughlin.Hastings claimed a third scalp in his final over when Stuart Poynter was caught behind and he finished with 3 for 50 from his 10 overs. Jack Shantry cleaned up James Weighell in the penultimate overThe Rapids innings centred around a first half century of the campaign from D’Oliveira after they had been put into bat.
D’Oliveira’s only other fifty plus score had been registered in the non first-class fixture with Leeds-Bradford MCCU.But the all-rounder ended unbeaten on 73 from 68 deliveries with three sixes and four fours on the same wicket used for Friday’s clash with Warwickshire.Collingwood put the brakes on in bowling 10 overs on the trot and conceding only 43 runs despite being struck for two straight sixes by Kohler-Cadmore.He collected the prized wicket of England Lions batsman Joe Clarke, but it was medium pacer Coughlin who enjoyed the most success with the ball for Jets in returning 3 for 36 in his nine overs.Moeen’s innings was a mixed affair of several pleasing drives but also much playing and missing before he nicked Chris Rushworth and was caught behind.Kohler-Cadmore threatened a substantial contribution and would have been disappointed at being tucked up on the back foot by spinner George Harding and offering a low return catch.Then Collingwood accounted for Clarke who was trapped in the crease and trapped lbw by a delivery which jagged back sharply.

Australian international players may populate South Africa’s new Twenty20 competition and even play exhibition or charity matches among themselves in the event of an extended pay dispute between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association

Daniel Brettig20-Jun-2017Australian international players may populate South Africa’s new Twenty20 competition and even play exhibition or charity matches among themselves in the event of an extended pay dispute between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association.With ten days remaining until the expiry of the current MoU, the sort of chaos to result from an lengthy period without an agreement between the board and the players is becoming clearer, following the launch of the new CSA competition that will clash with the start of the Australian season in a similar fashion to the way the IPL impinges on England’s.More than 400 players have registered their interest in the new tournament and its privately-owned teams, including numerous Australians. ESPNcricinfo has learned that these include some recent ODI representatives, though the group is not believed to include any players in contention for the home Ashes series. CA would need to provide No Objection Certificates in order for these players to take part, though their rights over the players may be legally tested in a post-MOU environment.The new tournament represents a challenge for CA even without the fact of the concurrent pay dispute, as for the first time there will be competition for Australian players who would otherwise be playing domestically in the Matador Cup and the Sheffield Shield leading into the home Test season. In that sense it leaves the board with a level of complication familiar to other countries who have been less able to firewall their own home season in the manner CA have become used to.Before the Ashes takes place, an Australia A tour of South Africa, a two-Test visit to Bangladesh and a limited-overs tour of India are all under threat due to the dispute. The abandonment of a tour to India would be hugely damaging to CA’s relationship with the BCCI, while the Bangladesh tour is significant given the current jostling for votes ahead of ICC meetings set to decide on a new constitution that CA supports.While CA has stated that it will press state players currently on multi-year deals to honour their contracts and continue to train and play in official competitions, it is expected that a lack of progress in pay talks would mean every contracted player is unavailable for selection. This would be both in solidarity with those out of contract but also on the premise that all contracts were signed to sit under a working MOU.A report in the has also indicated that some of the game’s top players have discussed the possibility of playing unofficial matches outside those usually organised by CA. The players, according to the report, “have discussed the possibility of putting on exhibition or charity games among themselves if the saga drags on, in what they believe would serve as a powerful message that they can continue to play outside the umbrella of CA.”Such a move would mirror events during the 2011 NBA lockout, when numerous players took part in exhibition tournaments, including one staged in Las Vegas that was composed exclusively of elite NBA players and dubbed “the lockout league”. Equally, numerous NBA players took up the option of playing overseas during this time, signing contracts that allowed them to return to the league whenever the dispute concluded.Exhibition matches would present a further challenge to CA’s authority, in line with the ACA’s recent establishment of The Cricketers Brand to manage the players’ intellectual property rights in the event of a new MOU not being finalised. At the launch of the new company late last month, the ACA’s chief executive Alistair Nicholson said the association had not yet contemplated the staging of matches.”That’s not something we’re looking at, at the moment it’s how do we support the players, we put in some commercial structures around the game post June 30,” he said. “What happens in regard to a cricket game, that’s not something that we’re necessarily planning for, but we’ll wait and see once we get past where negotiations are at.”This is around getting the commercial structures around [IP]. I’m not saying necessarily that the commercial demand for that will come right away, it’s about getting the right structure in regard to that. The key thing is if there are opportunities out there in regard to players’ intellectual property, we’ve got something there to support that.”The ACA have staged cricket matches over the past nine years under the banner of the “ACA Masters”, a travelling troupe of past and present players who have made annual tours to country regions in all states. They have also hosted events to create awareness of the program in capital cities, played matches against state representative teams, development programs and special squads, and established relationships with a host of country and suburban clubs.The parlous state of pay negotiations between the board and the ACA was further highlighted on Tuesday when the AFL (Australian Football League) announced a new six-year collective bargaining agreement with its players, for the first time linking their wages to the league’s revenue after the fashion of Australian cricket’s existing MOU. “This is a great outcome for our industry,” the AFL chairman Richard Goyder said, “delivering certainty and stability, respecting our players, and allowing the AFL to invest in the future.”We are very proud to work in partnership with our players to protect and grow the game, and I thank the [players’] Association for their strong advocacy on behalf of their members, and their commitment to the whole game.”A CA spokesperson said the AFL agreement was different to the cricket’s current model. “First, it only contemplates a share of revenue above budget forecast, rather than a fixed percentage of defined revenue streams. Second, it takes the costs of generating that revenue into account, whereas the current cricket model does not and is simply a gross share. So this model is very different to cricket’s and in important respects is much closer to the modified model that CA has proposed.”Talks between CA and the ACA are continuing.

Surrey enter their third successive Royal London Cup final knowing that they have lost the last two and this time, in Nottinghamshire, face the most formidable opponents yet

David Hopps30-Jun-2017

Match facts

Saturday, July 1, 2017, Lord’s
Start time 11.00 local (10.00 GMT)

Big Picture

Surrey have dominated 50-over cricket in England in the past two seasons and have reached the final of the Royal London Cup for the third successive season. So far, however, silverware has eluded them with successive defeats against Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. Now they face Nottinghamshire, a one-day side of greater reputation than the two teams against whom they have already been vanquished.Surrey looked favourites in 2015 when they dismissed Michael Klinger first ball and a hat-trick from Jade Dernbach, bringing him 6 for 35, cleaned up Gloucestershire’s tail only for their chase to collapse with the dismissal of Kumar Sangakkara and result in a six-run defeat.A year later they were back again, only to collapse to 136 all out against Warwickshire, losing by eight wickets with nearly 20 overs to spare before one of the biggest crowds for a Lord’s final for years.The upshot of that is that Surrey have only won one major trophy since 2003, which does not befit a club of such stature, and potentially Nottinghamshire could provide them with the toughest challenge of all.They have been in dazzling batting form, hitting 429 at Somerset in the play-off and then chasing down 372 in a semi-final defeat of Essex at Chelmsford, a record successful run chase at Chelmsford that represented one of the great limited-over matches in the history of English domestic cricket; the sort of game, in fact, that insists county cricket has a future whatever the challenges that lie ahead.But Notts do have cruelly-timed injury issues in their bowling attack and that plus the unpredictability of their top-order, often exceptional but somewhat inconsistent, might prove to be Surrey’s escape route.A potential duel between Kumar Sangakkara and the Australian quick, James Pattinson, might also be decisive. Sangakkara made 166 when Surrey edged Notts by four runs in a semi-final two years ago and his run-strewn summer has acted as a protective cover over a Surrey batting line-up that lacks depth.Mark Stoneman will be eager to prove his worth, however. An opportunity with England Lions suggested he might be a breaker in the England Test squad, but expectations were that he would not make the final squad, leaving a Lord’s final as a perfect place to work off his tensions.

Form guide

(Last five matches, most recent first)


Surrey:WWWWL
Nottinghamshire: WWWLW

In the spotlight

Chris Read is in his farewell season for Nottinghamshire and few stalwarts of the county scene have been more highly prized in recent years. In the decade since he last played for England, he has taken on the captaincy for the bulk of the time, kept wicket with grace and produced innumerable zestful rescue acts with the bat, especially on tough Trent Bridge surfaces. Greatly admired, he deserves a happy send-off in only his second domestic final in 20 years, whether it is here or later in the season in the NatWest Blast where Notts must also be strong contenders.Another wicketkeeper has also been gaining rave reviews. Ben Foakes, is one of the smoothest operators around, good enough for Alec Stewart, Surrey’s director of cricket and not a man given to hyperbole, to rank him as the best glove man in the world. He tops this season’s overall averages in the Royal London Cup with 481 runs at 120.25 (Kumar Sangakkara’s average of 85.5 puts him fourth). England’s coach, Trevor Bayliss, has spoken of the need to show loyalty to Jonny Bairstow, but there are those who would use Bairstow as a specialist batsman and get Foakes into the Test XI.Stuart Broad’s fitness will be sclosely scrutinised by all concerned•Getty Images

Team news

Jake Ball is an absentee for Nottinghamshire after suffering a knee strain in a Championship match against Kent which is also expected to rule him out of contention for the first Test against South Africa at Lord’s next week.It is tough luck for Ball, who was also injured on the eve of the final when he suffered back trouble shortly before Nottinghamshire’s win against Glamorgan in 2013. Luke Fletcher, a burly seamer and one of the characters of the circuit, will be a crowd-pleasing deputy.There may be more difficult discussions about the involvement of Stuart Broad. Broad is confident that he has fully recovered from a heel injury and would normally play, but if England get a whiff of risk there may yet be resistance. Cup final or not, it would play second fiddle to the opening Test of the summer. For the success of days like this, it is to be fervently hoped that he plays.Nottinghamshire (probable) 1 Michael Lumb, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Riki Wessels, 4 Samit Patel, 5 Brendan Taylor, 6 Steven Mullaney, 7 Chris Read (wk), 8 Stuart Broad (or Luke Wood), 9 James Pattinson, 10 Luke Fletcher 11 Harry Gurney.Surrey should have a full squad to choose from which seems to leave them perming two from three from Scott Borthwick, a close-season signing from Durham, Rory Burns and an effervescent newbie, Ollie Pope.The Curran brothers return with reputations enhanced. Tom has just made an assured England debut in the T20I series against South Africa and Sam, playing his third successive final at the tender age of 19, will be anxious to deliver an influential performance to underline himself as a talented and streetwise cricketer.Surrey (probable): 1 Jason Roy, 2 Mark Stoneman, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Scott Borthwick / Rory Burns, 5 Ben Foakes (wk), 6 Ollie Pope, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Tom Curran, 9 Gareth Batty (capt), 10 Ravi Rampaul, 11 Jade Dernbach.

Pitch and conditions

The final of the 50-over competition has traditionally taken place at the end of the season, but as the season has expanded it has become later and later and often overly influenced by the toss. It has also been increasingly overshadowed by Finals Day in the NatWest Trophy as T20 cricket has gained prominence.
A switch to midsummer therefore seems a positive move, especially as it connects the final to the group stages, so maintaining the narrative of the event.The weather in London is forecast to be settled, with sunny intervals in the afternoon and highs of 22C. All it needs is a decent surface and Read, for one, expects just that, envisaging decent pace and remarking: “There’s runs in it.”.

Quotes

“It’s just a mental thing. It is a case of everybody understanding that it’s a big occasion but not getting overawed by it.”
“There’s pressure on them perhaps. They’ve choked at the last maybe.”

Nottinghamshire are in no rush to sign up another overseas player when James Pattinson returns to Australia after Saturday’s Royal London One-Day Cup final

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge26-Jun-2017
ScorecardJames Pattinson claimed three wickets for no runs to wreck Kent’s top-order•Getty Images

Nottinghamshire are in no rush to sign up another overseas player when James Pattinson returns to Australia after Saturday’s Royal London One-Day Cup final.The 27-year-old fast bowler has given the Division Two leaders outstanding service, with 12 wickets in his nine one-day matches and 31 to date in five appearances in the Championship, having reached that total by taking three wickets in eight balls to begin the dismantling of Kent’s first innings here, after which Nottinghamshire came through a testing first floodlit passage of the match in what they will feel is pretty good shape.Had Pattinson not missed four Championship matches during the Champions Trophy, when he was frustrated not to play in any of Australia’s fixtures, he could be past 50 first-class wickets for the season already, which is why Nottinghamshire will keep his place in the side vacant for as long as possible in the hope of seeing him again before the summer is out.Pattinson is in the squad for Australia’s tour of Bangladesh at the end of August but until the contract dispute between the players and Cricket Australia is settled, it cannot be taken for granted that the tour will go ahead. The current contracts expire on Friday.Were Nottinghamshire to have Pattinson back when the Championship run-in begins on August 28, they could confidently expect to have the firepower to bring a successful conclusion to their promotion bid, irrespective of whether Stuart Broad and Jake Ball are required by England.”Happily we’ve got a bit of time on our side,” Mick Newell, the county’s director of cricket said. “After this match, we just have the Championship match against Derbyshire between now and August 28 and there is the option to play Dan Christian or Ish Sodhi in that one. So we can wait and see how things unfold with James before we decide whether to look at anyone else.”Kent were probably fortunate to lose only three wickets to Pattinson as Nottinghamshire’s attack, missing Broad because of the heel injury that threatens his participation in Saturday’s one-day final, proved as effective with the pink ball as they have been with the red.He bowled just as impressively in his second spell as his first, bowling full and straight and fast, getting inswing and outswing, and another burst of wickets always seemed likely. As it was, after seeing Will Gidman escape twice in the same over, dropped by Steven Mullaney in the slips and then almost snapped up by Chris Read, he had to be content with three.Only Daniel Bell-Drummond came between Kent and a still-more painful indictment of their decision to bat first on a greenish pitch, carrying his bat for 84. At 23 years old, he continues to grow in stature, steadfast where others at times were betrayed by impatience or misjudgement.At 6 for 3, Sam Billings – dropping in for half this match between T20 and England Lions assignments – decided to counter-attack aggressively, taking on both Pattinson and Ball with some success. It was a major blow for Kent, then, that a loose drive against Luke Fletcher saw his assault ended earlier than it should have been.Darren Stevens also paid the price for taking liberties with Fletcher. Gidman, having survived against Pattinson while in single figures, helped Bell-Drummond add 55 before being yorked by Harry Gurney but the prospects for a Bell-Drummond century and a Kent batting point receded rapidly as Mullaney, something of a partnership-breaker with his skilful medium pace, took three wickets in the space of 13 deliveries. Mitch Claydon, not unusually, did not hang around long enough to delay the second interval.Thus Nottinghamshire had maximum bowling points, as they have in all their nine matches so far. Yet the achievement was double-edged this time, perhaps, in that it required their batsmen to step into the unknown, facing the pink ball under lights.Kent didn’t threaten them much at first. Matt Coles offered too much width and Stevens, who took the new ball ahead of the debutant New Zealand quick Adam Milne, was fairly easily kept out, with little forewarning of the edge to third slip that saw Jake Libby depart at the end of the 14th over.They were now at the difficult stage, when the floodlights were not quite in charge, for which they had practised in a mock-up last Friday evening without gaining much confidence.Kent’s tails were up briefly as Brendan Taylor and Samit Patel, both in form – Patel with back-to-back double hundreds – went cheaply, although the balls that did for them would probably have succeeded in any light and with any colour. Taylor was caught behind trying to fend off a snorter from Milne and Patel lost his off stump to a lovely ball from Coles that swung late, much to the relief of Joe Denly, who had dropped him at gully second ball off Milne.Nottinghamshire’s confidence, then, will have been much bolstered by emerging from the remaining hour and a half with no more setbacks, particularly given that Mullaney, dropped on 50 off a hard chance to gully off Stevens, had to contend with an upset stomach as well as a hostile Milne. He and Alex Hales have added 83.

Every time Kyle Jarvis produces a high-class display for Lancashire, Zimbabwe wonder what might have been – and even what still could be

George Dobell at Old Trafford28-Aug-2017
Kyle Jarvis still shows flashes of world class form•Getty Images

But for the political situation in Zimbabwe, Kyle Jarvis might right now be established as one of the world’s leading seam bowlers.He had claimed two five-wicket hauls in his first eight Tests, after all, and aged just 24, should have had a long international career ahead of him.Alas, for international cricket at least, he tired of the poor pay and political wrangling inherent with Zimbabwe cricket in those years. Instead he threw-in his lot with Lancashire as a Kolpak registration. The possibility of qualifying for England was mentioned, too.While an England call-up looks unlikely – he will be 31 before he qualifies – rumours connecting him with a return to Zimbabwe have surfaced in recent times. Zimbabwe Cricket is now in better hands off the pitch and Heath Streak, the coach, has admitted the departure of Jarvis and Brendan Taylor (to Nottinghamshire) was a “massive loss.””I’m hoping Zimbabwe Cricket can entice them back into the fold,” he said. “Kyle has been one of the most consistent county bowlers for a number of years.”Certainly in this form Jarvis would be an asset to most teams. Bowling (in the afternoon, at least) a tight line and gaining just enough lateral movement to threaten both edges of the bat, he claimed his second successive six-wicket haul in Championship cricket and sustained Lancashire’s outside hopes of snatching the County Championship title.If that sounds unlikely – they went into this match 41 points behind Essex – it is worth remembering they play the leaders next week. A resounding victory in this game and that might narrow the gap considerably.That they are in a great position to push for a win here was largely due to Jarvis and the equally impressive Ryan McLaren, who again captained in place of Steven Croft, who has dropped himself in favour of Jos Buttler. After an underwhelming first couple of spells (his first nine wickeletless overs cost 38 runs) – he described them as “terrible” – from the James Anderson End, Jarvis switched to the Brian Statham End and almost immediately settled into a better rhythm. He claimed four wickets in 20 balls and six in the afternoon session as he exploited a slightly two-paced surface with remorseless accuracy and just enough seam movement to find the edge.Andy Umeed’s typically stubborn innings was ended when he tried to guide one to third man but was undone by extra bounce, before Tim Ambrose was caught down the leg side (the only fortunate dismissal in the haul) and Keith Barker was punished for trying to flick a straight one. Matt Lamb was bowled by one that nipped off the seam before Jarvis returned to clean-up the tail. Jarvis did not think it relevant, but 12 of the 13 wickets to fall went to deliveries bowled from the Statham End which seemed, from afar, to offer just a bit more seam assistance.Jonathan Trott makes a disconsolate exit•Getty Images

“I didn’t bowl well at all in the morning,” Jarvis admitted later. “I bowled terribly. I had no rhythm. There were some tough words at lunch. But then it came out really nicely.”When I came to England, I thought I was a swing bowler. But I’m not, really. My skill is to move the ball of the seam and, as my lines and my lengths improve, so my average is coming down. I can be a bit wayward when the ball swings.”While he did not deny he had been approached by Zimbabwe, his answers to questions on the subject may ease the minds of the Lancashire management. And, perhaps, diminish their enthusiasm (now confirmed by the club) for recruiting Steven Finn, who is out of contract at Middlesex at the end of the season, but likely to demand a hefty price-tag if he is to move.”It’s flattering to be linked with international cricket,” Jarvis said. “And it is tough being away from home and family.”But I’m contracted at Lancashire until the end of 2018 and playing for them is my only focus. I’m just thinking about the next game. I’d love to win the Championship with Lancashire. There’s no reason we can’t push for the title.”Qualifying for England has always been at the back of my mind. I came over to do that. But whether they’ll want a 31-year-old bowler I don’t know.”They may not. But with 29 first-class wickets at a cost of 19.41 apiece this season (and 148 at 28.03 since his Lancashire debut at the end of 2013) it is not impossible the club may consider him as an overseas player even if he did decide to return to Zimbabwe.Only a stand of 76 for the ninth-wicket between Olly Stone (who was preferred ahead of Boyd Rankin, who subsequently returned home due to illness) and Jeetan Patel – both of whom survived dropped catches – helped Warwickshire gain a single bonus point. That meant no respite for Ian Bell, in his first game since returning to the ranks, and no chance to build on their victory against Middlesex as Warwickshire seek to avoid relegation. There is some help for bowlers in this surface, but 200 may well prove to be 150 or so below par.Bell actually looked in decent touch in making 14 but, lured into a drive at one outside off stump, edged to Jos Buttler in the slips.How relevant might it be that Buttler found himself in the slips? It can his hopes of winning an Ashes tour place as Jonny Bairstow’s wicketkeeping substitute little good and surely suggests his only hope of selection is as a specialist batsman. But a man averaging 10.25 in the season – albeit it across a sample-size of just four innings at this stage – isn’t in much of a position to stake a claim as a batsman. Still, with five games to play and positions still up for grabs, he still has some time.So, perhaps, does Bell. Nobody has ever really claimed the middle-order place he vacated when he was dropped by England at the end of 2015 and it remains just about possible that, if he ended the season well, he could yet win a recall. Nobody should doubt his good intentions: failing in his dream job of captain of the club he has loved all his life has hurt deeply and he seems to remain a man coming to terms with his life after international cricket. He has not failed for a lack of effort.There are, though, some signs of hope for Warwickshire. The return of Stone, playing his first first-class match since May 2016 after sustaining a career-threatening injury, offers them a young bowler of sharp pace – he produced a fine, full ball to take Dane Vilas’ middle stump and looked the most hostile bowler on show despite the sluggish surface – while the introduction of batsmen Dominic Sibley and Adam Hose has replenished a squad that had grown a little stale for lack of turnover. It will, barring a miracle, come too late to save them from relegation but their success, and the club’s qualification for T20 Finals Day, suggests the first few bricks in the rebuilding operation have been laid.Haseeb Hameed was also unable to push his claim for Ashes selection when he edged one that may have left him a touch, while Alex Davies was unfortunate to receive a beauty that bounced and left him. With Stephen Parry surviving a torrid spell from Stone before stumps, Lancashire will resume on day two well-placed to establish a match-defining position.

While India will be gunning to accomplish a 10-game winning streak for the first time in their ODI history, a consolation victory for Australia would feel like an achievement for the visitors at this point

The Preview by Brydon Coverdale27-Sep-20171:25

Agarkar: India should look to play six bowlers

Big picture

New Zealand have done it once before. So have England. Pakistan, West Indies and Sri Lanka have each done it twice. South Africa have done it five times and Australia six. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have never managed it. And, perhaps surprisingly, neither have India. What is “it”, though? A winning stretch of at least 10 consecutive one-day internationals. And why is that relevant? Because India have now won their past nine ODIs on the trot. In Bengaluru, on Thursday, in what will be their 926th one-day international, they have the chance to accomplish a 10-game winning streak for the first time in their history of playing the format. An extra reason, perhaps, not to fall victim to dead-rubber syndrome.India have not lost an ODI since they succumbed to West Indies by 11 runs in Antigua in July; Australia have not won a one-day international since January 26, when they beat Pakistan in Adelaide on Australia Day. While India’s form-line consists of nine straight wins, Australia have lost their past 11 ODIs away from home. They cannot rescue the series, but even a consolation victory or two would feel like an achievement at this point. Should they find themselves on the end of a clean-sweep, Australia could fall to fourth on the ODI rankings, to sit alongside their fifth ranking in Tests and seventh in T20Is.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
India: WWWWW
Australia: LLLLL

In the spotlight

Virat Kohli is one-day international cricket’s Mr Consistent. In 2016, he scored 739 ODI runs from 739 balls. Incredibly, he has maintained that strike-rate of precisely 100 this year, too, having scored 1137 runs from 1137 balls in 2017. He is also the leading run-scorer in ODIs this year and has made a century in each of India’s completed bilateral series in 2017. Can he add a hundred in this series to the list?The axing of Matthew Wade in Indore left the wicketkeeping duties in the hands of Peter Handscomb, who had performed the role in two previous ODIs for Australia. In domestic cricket, Handscomb has been a semi-regular wicketkeeper over the years, though in the longest format, he has tried to leave that role behind to focus on his batting. It will be interesting to see how the job affects his run-making in the following games, and it is worth noting that in the 23 List A matches where he has kept wicket, his average is higher (45.75) than in the 43 games he has played as a specialist batsman (30.15).

Team news

There is no real need for India to make any changes unless, with the series won, they want to rest someone. An unaltered XI seems likely.India (possible) 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 MS Dhoni (wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Jasprit BumrahAshton Agar has gone home injured, which will mean a recall for Adam Zampa. Pat Cummins will be rested from the upcoming T20Is and there is the possibility that with the series already lost, the selectors may wish to start his break even sooner, in which case they could bring James Faulkner back in.Australia (possible) 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Travis Head, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Peter Handscomb (wk), 8 Pat Cummins/James Faulkner, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 10 Kane Richardson, 11 Adam Zampa

Pitch and conditions

The Bengaluru pitch has become a little slower and trickier in recent times, but this will be the first ODI to be played at the venue in nearly four years, the last game having yielded a 57-run win for the hosts against Australia. It is, therefore, difficult to know precisely what to expect. There is the possibility of some stormy weather in the city on Thursday.

Stats and trivia

• The M Chinnaswamy Stadium is Kohli’s worst home venue in ODIs: he averages 10.50 from four games there, with scores of 0, 8, 34 and 0.
• This will be David Warner’s 100th ODI, having made his international debut in the 50-over format in 2009
• The most recent team to achieve 10 consecutive ODI wins was New Zealand, whose run ended in the 2015 World Cup final. The most recent 10-match undefeated stretch was, however, achieved by South Africa, whose winning stretch lasted 12 games, spanning September 2016 and Feb 2017.

The former Leicestershire spinner and now spin-bowling consultant who helped correct Sunil Narine’s action said that Mohammad Hafeez’s flex will withstand biomechanical scrutiny

Osman Samiuddin02-Nov-2017The man who helped correct Sunil Narine’s action is confident that tests will find Mohammad Hafeez’s action to be legal. Match officials reported Hafeez for a potentially suspect action after the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi. The most-recent instance amounted to the third time in three years that Hafeez has been reported in international cricket.On Wednesday, in Loughborough, he underwent the ICC test that will determine whether his action is in breach of regulations. Carl Crowe, a former Leicestershire spinner and now a spin-bowling consultant, however, is confident Hafeez’s action will withstand biomechanical scrutiny.As well as Narine, Crowe helped Hafeez return from a one-year bowling ban, working with him during a brief stint in England last summer. Though he only spent a day or so with him this time before his test, Crowe felt a distinct difference in the faulty action he worked with last year and now.”He seems more balanced, and is using his body more efficiently, more effectively,” Crowe said. “That’s often an issue with guys who have issues with an arm being flexed. They need to be more efficient with their body, and one or two things we did [last year] helped him do that.”Did we do any work on his action at the moment? No. There are one or two things we’ve discussed in terms of skill development – not necessarily action development – because we’re confident he doesn’t necessarily really need that.”Results from the test are expected within a couple of weeks but whatever they show, the frequency with which Hafeez has been reported only to then return represents, in some ways, unchartered territory for the ICC’s approach and protocols in dealing with suspect actions. Twice already his action has been found to be illegal and each time he has rectified it and returned.At the moment, the first time a bowler is reported and his action subsequently found illegal, he can correct it and, if it passes another assessment, return to bowling immediately. If he is reported and his action found illegal again within 24 months of the first instance, he is automatically suspended from bowling for 12 months. This is what happened with Hafeez in 2015.At the moment, if Hafeez’s action is found to be illegal – for a third time – he will be treated effectively as a first-incident case. That is, he can rectify his action, pass a test and return anytime. Since the ICC clamped down on illegal actions in 2014, no other bowler has been reported three times.Additionally, Hafeez was reported once back in 2005 when protocols were different in allowing bowlers to return, and then again in a T20 Champions League game – outside of international cricket – in September 2014.Crowe once worked with Jenny Gunn, the England bowler whose singularly complex bowling action was at least partly responsible for the ICC’s standardization of testing protocols and development of testing labs across the world. But he doesn’t think there is anything in the biomechanic set-up of Hafeez’s action that could be a trigger for umpires.”Every bowler has different degrees of flex in their arm,” Crowe said. “Many bowlers have idiosyncracies in their action that make it look a certain way. I’m not sure, to be honest, if there is anything particularly wrong about Hafeez’s action.”When we worked together in 2016, he was very keen to take on board any kind of techniques that would help him become more efficient. My view is that it’s about being a better bowler. It can’t be that I am bowling with a straight arm now but disappearing. I’ve worked a lot with Narine over the years, and the performance has got to be high. Same with Hafeez – last year, when we worked together it was about being a better bowler, not just with a straighter arm.”Given his importance to their limited-overs revival – they won the Champions Trophy in June and became the number-one ranked T20 side on Wednesday – Pakistan will draw whatever comfort they can from Crowe’s confidence.”He’s been playing, since he’s remodeled his action, all over the world and I’m confident his action been the same for a while. I’m confident that he’ll go fine, that his flex won’t be a problem.”To the naked eye, of course, it is difficult to tell, but from what I can tell, I am confident. It’s been a consistent action since I’ve seen him. I’ve played back his action on my phone in slow-mo and am confident.”

While a few franchises have suggested retaining five players, others favoured utilising the right-to-match cards

Nagraj Gollapudi21-Nov-2017Less than three months before the next IPL player auction, there is no consensus among the franchises on the number of players that can be retained in a squad. At a crucial meeting between the BCCI and the franchise owners on Tuesday in Mumbai, many owners were split between retaining as many as five players or none, but most favoured utilising the right-to-match (RTM) card option at the auction. It was also decided that the player auction will take place in India in the last week of January.Tuesday’s meeting was attended by owners, including Shah Rukh Khan and Jay Mehta (Kolkata Knight Riders), Akash Ambani (Mumbai Indians), Ness Wadia and Mohit Burman (Kings XI Punjab) and Manoj Badale (Rajasthan Royals).The meeting was called by the BCCI at the behest of the Committee of Administrators, which wanted to apprise the owners of the discussions that took place during the IPL Governing Council meeting on October 24. Last month the IPL Governing Council heard a presentation by Hemang Amin, the IPL’s chief operating officer, on various important topics including the number of retentions, the purse available for the auction and the RTM card. Amin’s presentation was based on his meeting with all eight franchises.While the Governing Council was in favour of allowing teams to retain three players, the owners of the two richest franchises, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, argued in favour of retaining a maximum of five and four players respectively on Tuesday. ESPNcricinfo understands Mumbai wanted to retain five players and use two RTMs at the player auction, and were backed by Super Kings, who are back in the IPL after a two-year suspension and had suggested retaining four players with one RTM at the auction.However, Knight Riders proposed no retentions and sought five RTMs at the auction. Two franchises – Kings XI and Rajasthan Royals, the latter being the second franchise to return having served a two-year suspension – informed the BCCI that they wanted to build their teams from the scratch and did not want any retentions or RTMs. Meanwhile, Sunrisers and Royal Challengers were happy with three retentions and two RTMs.It is also understood that in the case of both Super Kings and Royals, they can only retain players from their 2015 squads. It comes as no surprise that both Mumbai and Super Kings, who have won the IPL multiple times, were in favour of retaining the maximum players in their attempts to keep their core group intact. Both teams included established match-winners who have been with the franchises for a long time.Mumbai will be keen to retain players like Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and probably Kieron Pollard, along with Krunal Pandya and Harbhajan Singh. Super Kings, on the other hand, would want to retain MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina and possibly the overseas duo of Faf du Plessis and Brendon McCullum.According to an IPL official, Knight Riders, Royals and Kings XI Punjab suggested the salary cap could be hiked to INR 70-80 crore per team, up from INR 63 crore at the auction in 2017, while the other franchises left that decision to the IPL governing council. The official also said the formula previously used to calculate the salary of a retained player would remain the same. This means that, based on the number of retentions, a retained player would get a percentage of the actual purse.Among the other decisions at the meeting, the IPL has allowed Kings XI to play three of their home matches outside Chandigarh as long as the remaining four home games are played at their home base in Mohali.A final decision is yet to be taken on Royals’ home base of Jaipur, which is affiliated to the Rajasthan Cricket Association that was suspended by the BCCI in 2014 after Lalit Modi became its president. However, with Modi calling time on his tenure as an administrator recently, the BCCI will decide on the status of the RCA’s suspension at its special general meeting on December 9. It is understood that Royals have told the IPL they want to play in Jaipur.According to the IPL official, final decisions on all the matters are likely to be taken at the next Governing Council meeting, which will then have to be approved by the COA. “There was, to a large extent, a consensus between the franchises on many issues. All of them want the league to grow bigger. Soon, we will deliberate on the suggestions given today and take a final decision,” the official said.

Shane Warne was critical of Australia’s selectors for the decision to recall Tim Paine, but former gloveman Ian Healy said that Paine “won’t let Australia down”

Adam Collins17-Nov-2017In response to a trio of shock Ashes selections from Australia, former legspinner Shane Warne has declared that England are in prime position heading into the first Test, which starts from November 23 at the Gabba. Australia picked Tim Paine, Shaun Marsh and Cameron Bancroft in a 13-member squad for the first two Tests, leaving out Matthew Wade, Matt Renshaw and Glenn Maxwell.”Australia looks confused,” Warne said at the ‘s season launch in Sydney. “They’re picking wicketkeepers [Paine] that aren’t even keeping for their state. To me, I think England are in a better situation going into that first Test than Australia are.”Despite the loss of Steven Finn to injury and Ben Stokes’ unavailability before they had even boarded the plane, England are “going along just nicely”, according to Warne. The most important thing for the visitors, Warne believes, is a change in English attitudes from the seven successful Ashes campaigns he played in from 1993 to 2007.”They don’t fear Australia anymore,” he said. “[They] haven’t for a long time and hence that’s why they can beat Australia.”Discussing the Test selection with ESPNcricinfo, former captain Mark Taylor praised Trevor Hohns’ panel for making a “really tough decision” by dropping a badly out of form Renshaw.”They have come out and said that an Ashes series isn’t the place to find form and that’s probably a fair point,” he said. “They have been saying for a while that they wanted to pick guys who were in form at the start of the series and Cameron Bancroft has been.”Taylor’s then vice-captain and now television colleague, Ian Healy, was equally supportive of the decision to leave out the 21-year-old after ten Tests, in which he averages nearly 37. That was before Renshaw endured a horror run in the three recent Sheffield Shield rounds, tallying 70 runs for Queensland in six innings and never making it past 20.”The Australian cricket team is not a club side, it is a representative side,” Healy told ESPNcricinfo. “You need to earn your spot to get in and stay in it. He hasn’t coped well this summer.”The former wicketkeeper has also backed the decision to leave out Matthew Wade in favour of Paine, who had not so much as kept for his state, Tasmania, in the domestic season so far.”He [Paine] is very consistent, his technique is good so he should be able to cope with the pressure of being catapulted into this Ashes series,” Healy said.Healy also backed Paine’s glovework, saying it is comparable to Peter Nevill, the man he beat for the Test nod: “He will do the job and he won’t let Australia down.”Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

Turning to the decision to give Shaun Marsh a middle-order reprieve, Taylor argued the call was justified on the basis of Marsh’s time as an opener. Marsh had lost his Cricket Australia contract, following the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in March, where he scored 151 runs in eight innings in India at an average of 18.87.”Someone with Shaun Marsh’s experience at the top of the order coming in at six could be handy if and when England take a second new ball,” he said. “That’s why I think he’s been given the spot.”Casting an eye to England’s own batting line-up, another former captain, Ian Chappell, praised both Joe Root and Mark Stoneman. The latter, he thinks, is ripe for Ashes runs. Stoneman has shown good form in the tour matches, with fifty-plus scores in each of his four innings so far, including a century in the ongoing match against the Cricket Australia XI in Townsville.”Stoneman is a very good player,” Chappell said. “It won’t surprise me if he makes more runs in the series than Alastair Cook. He is a good player and I can’t believe England have taken so long to pick him as an opener when they have had so many false starts since Andrew Strauss’ retirement.”He advocated both Steven Smith and Root going up the order to No. 3 in this series – in classic Chappell style. “You are better off coming in at one-for-shit rather than two-for-shit,” he said. “That would be my approach. But neither of them wants to.”Chappell’s forecast for the series is that it will come down to pace. Specifically, whether Australia can consistently field a fit Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins combination.”In Australia if you are struggling for wickets you can always resort to a bit of short-pitched stuff and that is more easily done with genuine pace,” Chappell said. “England has a good attack but I am just not sure how they will go if the Kookaburra isn’t doing much. It is the extra pace of Starc and Cummins that I am basing Australia’s superiority on. If one or the other were to be injured, that would change the dynamics quite a bit.”Rounding out the contributions of the former Australian captains was the man who led the whitewash four years ago, Michael Clarke, who is watching for David Warner.”Warner is a key [player],” he said. “I know he’s changed his attitude and approach and softened since, as Davey says, he’s married Candice and had kids. But I think his attitude is the key to Australia’s intent. When he walks out and bats with that intent, he always has success.”

The employment of a sports psychologist and tapping into the wealth of knowledge in Sri Lanka’s network of former players are on the agenda for Sri Lanka’s new coach

Madushka Balasuriya28-Dec-2017The employment of a sports psychologist and tapping into the wealth of knowledge in Sri Lanka’s network of former players are among new coach Chandika Hathurusingha’s first moves towards rehabilitating Sri Lanka Cricket.”I will get Kumar Sangakkara’s expertise and invite him to come and help us. If I don’t look for his help, then I will be wasting this opportunity I’ve been given,” Hathurusingha said to the media, following a prolonged training session with a pool of 23 players, some of whom will be travelling to Bangladesh next month.”Not only him, but other past players such as Mahela Jayawardene and Muttiah Muralitharan will also hopefully be working with us. We will definitely try and get as much expertise out of them. Whenever they have the time, and depending on what our needs are, we will definitely be utilising them as a resource.”It was also revealed that one of Hathurusingha’s first acts upon meeting his new charges was to ask them to answer a questionnaire consisting of 40 questions. The questionnaire was developed by Australian Sports Psychologist Dr Phil Jauncey, who has been working with Hathurusingha for the past four years.”I met him while I was working with [BBL franchise] Sydney Thunder. I was introduced to him by Michael Hussey, who was using him as his personal psychologist. I will be hoping to bring him down from time to time, maybe four times a year depending on the availability of our time, so that we can utilise his time productively.”I think he will be very useful both for me and the players; in fact, he has helped me quite a bit in the past in better understanding my players, both with Bangladesh and Sydney Thunder. He has also worked with Australia for the Olympics, in baseball, rugby league, and with Cricket Australia when John Buchanan was in charge.”Jauncey will be holding his first session with the team on the January 3 and will be with them for ten days. Depending on availability, it is also a possibility he may accompany the team on some tours.While fixing the team’s mentality is utmost among Hathurusingha’s priorities given the team’s dismal run of form in 2017, he also sees poor training habits that need to be addressed.”The biggest thing is I want to change the way they approach their training. I think that’s where we can get the biggest gain and build their confidence. And, to build their confidence, I need to change the environment; how we train and how we communicate, as well as the amount of information that keeps going in and out. So those are the areas that I think we can gain very quickly.”There are quite a few things that I don’t think we’re doing right, that’s why we’re in this position. Like I said, it’s a very, very talented bunch. There are so many cricketers that I can see being in the world’s top five or top 10, and if they’re not doing justice to their talent then that means there are a lot of things going wrong.”Hathurusingha’s first tour in charge will be when Sri Lanka travel to Bangladesh next month. It will be a swift reunion for both Hathurusingha and Bangladesh, who were not happy to see the Sri Lankan depart their shores after he masterminded one of the most successful periods in their cricketing history.”It has generated a lot of interest because I’m going back. I will use the information I have on them, but they will also do the same because they know how I work. So I think there’s a benefit to both sides.”It’s going to be a challenge, because we’re not performing to our capabilities and Bangladesh have been very strong at home in the last two years. So it’s going to be a challenge for us, and then Zimbabwe are also on the way up and doing well. So I think we can expect a good competition.”Hathurusingha, though, isn’t getting caught up in the drama of his “homecoming”. “The challenge is not just about the Bangladesh tour. If I look at it like that, we will only be looking at things from match to match and react to different things – the things that happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow. We need to look at the bigger picture.”My challenge is to take this team’s performance to its highest level. We’re targeting the World Cup, which is being played with a white ball. So when it comes to ODIs and T20 cricket, I will be judging the players’ performances with one eye on the World Cup. We’ll worry about the Test team ahead of the next Test series. The challenges we will face in that Test series will be different to the challenges we face in Bangladesh. But all the white-ball cricket we play will go towards identifying players for the World Cup in 2019.”