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‘If I make mistakes, or it is because of me that the team is losing then I will definitely think about it, and if there is someone better than me to do the Test captaincy, then he should’

Osman Samiuddin in Abu Dhabi07-Dec-2018Fresh after a second home-series defeat in two seasons, and with a daunting series in South Africa to come, Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed has admitted that results could eventually force his hand. Defeat to New Zealand on the final day in Abu Dhabi consigned Sarfraz to a fourth loss in seven home Tests, a stark contrast to the seven years that preceded his ascension.Asked whether there could come a time in South Africa when he reconsiders the Test captaincy, Sarfraz said, “When things like this happen, you do start to think about it.”But let’s see what happens. The tour of South Africa is a tough one and if you start thinking like this before it then it is not helpful for anyone. If I make mistakes, or it is because of me that the team is losing then I will definitely think about it, and if there is someone better than me to do the Test captaincy, then he should.”In the background, Mohsin Khan, the head of Pakistan’s cricket committee, has argued publicly that Sarfraz should relinquish the Test captaincy. He has been given no guarantees by the board to stay on as leader, other than on a series-by-series basis. And Pakistan have retained Mohammad Rizwan in the Test squad for South Africa, a wicketkeeping understudy who has recently started getting selected once again, and is also in a rich vein of form with the bat.As far as facing the music goes, Sarfraz will not be alone. The pressure will be as high on his fellow seniors Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq. Both scored centuries in this Test, but crucially both were out cheaply on the final day. And both had failed to take Pakistan home in their chase of 176 in the first Test in Abu Dhabi.Neither is under pressure of the axe, but a poor series in South Africa could tip that equation.”They are both senior players, you can’t drop them,” Sarfraz said. “They scored hundreds and took us out of trouble. That time we needed their hundreds. In the second innings, Azhar was out to a good ball, they did not commit mistakes. But if the batsman is in good form then he has to carry that in both the innings.”We have that example of Kane Williamson who carried his team’s batting throughout the series. Our batsmen have scored runs, but not consistently. If they played a good and big innings then they did not score big in the next.”Neither was Sarfraz going to shift the blame onto the coaching staff. Mickey Arthur has been coach during all six of Pakistan’s final-day blowouts since 2016. Grant Flower has been the batting coach since 2014, and the failures of Azhar and Shafiq to progress over the last year, as well as the nature of these collapses, is bound to bring scrutiny on their roles.”The head coach has his job, the batting coach has his, but it’s the responsibility of the players as well,” Sarfraz said. “Mentally, we have to be strong as a batting unit. The batting pair who play the new ball has to set the momentum because it’s not easy to bat on the fifth day.”Before the series I had said that it’s the responsibility of the batsmen. The batting coach does his job. He tells them the basic faults and helps them improve their technique. But if the batsman is in form then he has to carry that form.”

The New Zealand captain emphasised that conditions could not be used as an excuse for the side’s fielding lapses

Sidharth Monga in Delhi02-Nov-2017Three nights after a heart-breaking loss, New Zealand experienced another defeat they will hate. Kane Williamson, their captain, said in Kanpur that they had to accept the result and move on, but it will be difficult to move on from this one. In the first T20I of the series, in Delhi, they lost primarily because of their fielding, which is a matter of pride for them. Three catches went down, and all three batsmen – Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli – went on to hurt New Zealand bad.”We were outplayed in all the areas, fielding included, which is something we pride ourselves on and something we need to be much better at in Twenty20 cricket,” Williamson said. “That made the difference as we saw today. That proved to be vital in a lot of ways. Guys went on to score big scores for their side in the Indian team, and 200 on that surface was a very big total.”The conditions underfoot were wet even in the first innings. It seemed the fielders struggled to adjust to the dew, but Williamson refused to accept that as an excuse. “They [these conditions] are tough to prepare for exactly but given the experience within our side we’re certainly not using that as an excuse,” he said. “Most of the time when you come here and play in the evening, there’s dew as there is on a number of other grounds that guys have played at. Not going to sugarcoat it but we were below par and came up against a what is a very good Indian side that played very well in all the areas.”It’s hard to put your finger onto one thing [for catches going down]. Often, it’s a flow and effect from other areas that perhaps aren’t going so well. We were put under pressure with the ball, and I suppose that’s the frustrating thing. But you do want to make a difference in the park when our bowlers were struggling against guys that were in good form and hitting the ball really well. That will be a focus for us. It’s what we pride ourselves on. We were disappointing today in the park. Dew is part of the challenge. Guys have experienced dew many times, so, it’s not an excuse. It’s something that you’re aware of and you need to adapt just like I suppose the batter on a surface that’s going to be variable. Something we are aware of and need to be better.”
Mitchell Santner, whose bowling has been impressive all tour long, was one of the fielders who missed catches in Delhi. Even in the first ODI, he had reprieved Kohli, who went on to score a hundred. The fielding has not been the usual top-class variety you associate with New Zealand. It can be difficult to make the adjustments required on a non-stop tour, but Williamson felt this was more about the mental set-up.”The one-dayers I think we were fairly good in the field,” Williamson said. “We weren’t good tonight. You don’t become a bad fielding unit overnight, so I suppose it’s a mindset when guys are engaged every ball. And that is challenged when you are under pressure on the field as we were tonight but we need to be better than that to be able to improve what’s happening on the scoreboard and iron your position, so I suppose when the opportunity comes it makes a difference.”The message for his team was clear: it is when the bowlers are under pressure that the fielders are really tested, and that they can’t afford to keep failing like they did in Delhi.

The ECB have confirmed that the England tour of Bangladesh will go ahead as planned.

Andrew McGlashan at Lord's26-Aug-2016Jos Buttler has admitted England’s players have been forced to think about issues they have not previously considered, after the tour to Bangladesh was given the go-ahead but with the option remaining open for individuals to decide if they would travel.Late on Thursday evening, the ECB confirmed that the tour – scheduled to start on September 30 – would proceed, following the security assessment undertaken earlier this month. The one-day squad, plus Alastair Cook, were briefed at the team hotel in London with the players making use of the time to ask a significant number of questions.The squads for the tour will only be named after the current series against Pakistan is completed, so the question of whether any players will pull out may remain unclear for a couple of weeks. Buttler would be a certain selection for the one-day leg of the trip, but would not comment on whether he would tour despite describing the meeting as “positive”.”There are things that people have probably never even considered before about cricket, and things people probably didn’t realise went on for every single tour we go on,” he said. “They are normally never privy to these conversations behind the scenes.”It’s probably new ground for a lot of people, some guys in the meeting – Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook – were part of the team that went back to India in 2008 so have been in this situation before and probably know how to deal with it. But it’s new ground for people and it’s important we try to deal with it the best we can.”It was a positive meeting with lots of information to digest. All you can say is it’s something you have to digest. It’s tricky for us at the moment, we’ve got a game tomorrow and international cricket needs your full focus to perform well.”Buttler would not divulge details of what was discussed at the team hotel but indicated there had been a reassuring level of information from Reg Dickason, the ECB’s head of security, PCA chief executive David Leatherdale, head of operations John Carr and team director Strauss.However, Buttler was keen not to take his focus off the second one-day international against Pakistan at Lord’s on Saturday.”It was a private meeting, there was a lot of information. As a player you felt there was a great duty of care from the board and a lot has been considered which was put across to the players,” Buttler said. “There was lot to digest which is tough to do mid-series – there’s no good time for these things to happen – but they have to be discussed. It’s paramount we are as professional as we can be and think about it when we can, but 11am tomorrow is not the time.”

A three-wicket burst from Pragyan Ojha pegged Australia A back on day two before Peter Handscomb and Marcus Stoinis restored parity with an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 110 runs

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Chennai23-Jul-2015
ScorecardSteve O’Keefe ran through the lower order to finish with figures of 6 for 82•K Sivaraman

A three-wicket burst from Pragyan Ojha pegged Australia A back on day two of their first four-day match against India A before Peter Handscomb and Marcus Stoinis restored parity with an unbroken partnership of 110 for the fifth wicket. At stumps, Australia A were 185 for four, 116 behind India A’s first-innings total of 301.Abhimanyu Mithun struck early for India A, getting one to shape away from a full length outside off to find Cameron Bancroft’s outside edge as he pushed hard at the ball without moving his feet. At the other end, Travis Head nicked Umesh Yadav when he slanted one across with a bit of extra bounce; the ball flew between the wicketkeeper and the diving Karun Nair at first slip.That ball apart, Umesh struggled with his direction, too often offering width or straying on to the legs of Head and Usman Khawaja, the two left-handers at the crease. The pair put on 50 in 83 balls before Head holed out to mid-off while going after Ojha. Six overs later, Khawaja was gone too, finding deep midwicket with an uppish pull off the same bowler in the last over before tea.Three balls into the final session, Ojha dismissed another left-handed batsman, getting Nic Maddinson caught at leg slip – Nair diving low to his right – when he stretched out and jabbed at him. Australia A were 75 for 4 at that point, with two new batsmen at the crease.The excited buzz of the close fielders around Handscomb and Stoinis died down gradually as the ball grew older and softer. The slowness of the surface allowed both batsmen to sit back against the spinners and watch the ball onto their bats. Mishra in particular struggled to bring the batsmen forward. He may or may not have overcome the lack of zip that has hindered him at various points through his career; on this pitch, there was no way to tell. He will hope the pitches in Sri Lanka will have a little more life in them.Handscomb was eager to use his feet when he got the opportunity, skipping nimbly down the track when he sensed some flight, and wasn’t afraid to work the spinners against the turn. A brace of late-cut doubles off Mishra in the 50th over of the innings took him to his half-century, and he celebrated the landmark by jumping down the track and clouting his next ball to the midwicket boundary. In the next two overs, Stoinis lofted Ojha for a straight six and Handscomb pulled Mishra to the midwicket boundary.It prompted the legspinner to go around the wicket and try to hit the rough outside the right-handers’ leg stump. Neither batsman looked particularly troubled and the day wound down to a quiet close.In the morning session, India A went past 300 thanks to a seventh-wicket partnership of 62 between Vijay Shankar and Amit Mishra. Australia A’s bowlers came in with the same plans that brought them success on day one – stump-to-stump line to a 5-4 leg-side field – without quite maintaining the same level of discipline. There were no rank bad balls, but the seamers occasionally bowled too straight or too full, allowing Shankar and Mishra to inch the score upwards through a steady trickle of singles square on the leg side.As lunch approached, Shankar grew more expansive, lofting the offspinner Travis Head for a six over mid-off and punching Sean Abbott to the cover boundary. He went from 42 to 46 with another back-foot punch off Abbott at the start of the second session, and in the same over drove him fiercely to the right of mid-off to bring up his half-century.He ran out of partners, though, as Steve O’Keefe broke the partnership and ran through the tail. He had Mishra lbw prodding forward and playing for the turn, while Mithun, Yadav and Ojha perished going for aggressive shots.

Chris Rogers anchored Victoria’s innings before a Chadd Sayers burst with the second new ball pulled South Australia back into the contest

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jan-2013
Scorecard
Chris Rogers anchored Victoria’s innings with his 57th first-class century before a Chadd Sayers burst with the second new ball pulled South Australia back into the contest on day one of the Sheffield Shield match at Adelaide Oval.Rogers’ innings provided another reminder of the technique and poise available to the national selectors should they wish to add an experienced batsman to their party for the Ashes later this year. But it was a less auspicious day for the potential India tourists David Hussey, bowled for one after flying to Adelaide on match morning from ODI duty in Hobart the night before.The Bushrangers lost Rob Quiney cheaply upon winning the toss and batting, but Rogers formed fruitful stands with Michael Hill and Peter Handscomb to seemingly blunt SA’s bowlers. The Test spinner Nathan Lyon had a barren day, as did the former Victorian club swing bowler Daniel Worrell.However Sayers pinned Rogers LBW with his first delivery after taking the new ball, and added the wickets of Hussey and Handscomb. Joe Mennie chimed in to dismiss John Hastings shortly before the close.

While Mumbai’s depleted attack might not seem threatening, they have the pedigree of Dhawal Kulkarni and Ramesh Powar to test MP, who are banking on TP Sudhindra and Ishwar Pandey to make inroads

Abhishek Purohit in Indore01-Jan-2012There was a time when your Ranji Trophy season used to be as good as over
the moment you drew Mumbai in the knockouts. There was a time when teams
were in awe of the 39-time champions. That awe has now been replaced by
respect for their past deeds but teams today know that Mumbai are
fallible, as Rajasthan showed last season. That the depleted Mumbai side
facing Madhya Pradesh is almost unrecognisable from the formidable sides
of the past is not lost on the hosts. Devendra Bundela, the MP captain, even
said that they were “not taking Mumbai lightly.”Such confidence might seem misplaced in a side in its first season in the
Elite League in seven years but TP Sudhindra, MP’s leading wicket-taker
this season, had a more practical take on the issue. “Several of us have
played with a lot of the Mumbai players in tournaments like the Times
Shield. It is not like they are unknown to us.”Familiarity with the Mumbai players has certainly helped but not as much
as the self-belief that comes when you defeat established sides like Delhi
and Gujarat. Both those wins came at the pace-friendly Emerald High School
Ground on the outskirts of Indore. The pitch at the Holkar Stadium, the
venue for the quarter-final, is known to be much better for batting. With
a pace-dominated attack, there is no doubt over where the MP team would
have preferred to play. But this is a knockout game and the Holkar Stadium
had to be chosen as it has much better facilities.The change in venue might just suit MP’s batsmen though. The outstanding
performance of their new-ball pair of Sudhindra and Ishwar Pandey – with
57 wickets between them – and the form of Naman Ojha have allowed them to
carry an underperforming batting unit. Only Bundela, apart from Ojha, has
managed more than 300 runs this season. More than half of Mohnish Mishra’s
263 runs came in his crucial hundred against Bengal.Mukesh Sahni, the coach, admitted that his batsmen have not clicked
together. “It’s not that they have not made runs,” Sahni said. “But when
one of them has scored, the others haven’t and so on. All of them have
been hitting the ball well in the nets. But scoring runs in the middle is
different. I have been telling them, ‘this is the moment. All of you have
to come good in this game.'”While Mumbai’s depleted attack might not seem threatening, they have the
pedigree of Dhawal Kulkarni and Ramesh Powar to test MP, who are banking
on Sudhindra and Pandey to make inroads. “Medium-pace bowling is our
strength,” Bundela said. “Our bowlers have taken wickets both at home and
away.”Sudhindra said that while making the semi-finals by getting past a side
like Mumbai would be very satisfying, it would pale in comparison if MP
actually manage to win the Ranji Trophy for the first time.

The limited-overs series between Australia and England will turn into one continuous flood-relief effort, as the situation worsens in parts of south-east Queensland

Brydon Coverdale12-Jan-2011The limited-overs series between Australia and England will turn into one continuous flood-relief effort, as the situation worsens in parts of south-east Queensland. Twelve people have died in the floods but that number is likely to rise, and up to 20,000 homes are expected to be inundated in the state capital, Brisbane.The Australia and England teams will be collecting donations in the crowd at the Adelaide Twenty20 international and it will be the first of many fundraising drives during the series. England’s players will donate part of their match fees for the first Twenty20 to the flood relief appeal, as will their Australian counterparts, while Kevin Pietersen is keen to auction a shirt and bat he used during the Ashes to assist the flood victims, and Cricket Australia has donated $100,000 to flood relief.Shane Warne and Darren Gough are also becoming involved, tweeting their interest in setting up a “legends” Twenty20 match to help raise funds. Cricket New South Wales will donate all gate receipts from their Big Bash match against Queensland on January 29, the day before the Brisbane ODI, which Queensland Cricket remains hopeful will go ahead.”It’s been really heartening to see how many people are so willing to stop and do something to help,” Cricket Australia’s spokesman Peter Young said. “Everyone is feeling the pain. It’s really heartening to get calls from clubs in the community who are having sausage sizzles, and they’re saying ‘where do we send the money?’ We have a program called Cricket Cares. What’s been demonstrated today is that cricket does care.”We decided a week or so ago that we, Commonwealth Bank and Channel Nine would run a fundraiser during the Brisbane ODI, on January 30. Given the deteriorating situation with the floods, we’ve decided to broaden that, so we’re starting the fundraising tonight at the international T20 in Adelaide and we’ll run fundraising through the matches culminating in the match at Brisbane.”The offices of Queensland Cricket in Brisbane have been sandbagged and the state’s staff were working from home on Wednesday, as the city was in the grip of a major natural disaster. The Brisbane River was expected to peak at 5.5 metres on Thursday, which would be the worst flooding in the city in more than a century.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has cancelled the no-objection certificates that it had given all its players for the third season of the IPL

Cricinfo staff29-Jan-2010The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has ruled out the participation of its players in IPL 2010 and has revoked the no-objection certificates (NOCs) granted to its players.”No Pakistani player will go to the IPL this time,” Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, told Cricinfo. “Why should we allow them to go? They didn’t pick any of the players and it was an insult to us. Why should we let one or two players go? We will not take this lying down.”Butt’s statement seems to have shut the door on the issue, though a PCB release issued minutes earlier held out some hope.”All NOCs issued to Pakistani players for their participation in IPL 3 stand revoked,” the PCB statement said. “In the future if any player receives an invitation for participation in IPL events, PCB will decide the matter on a case-to-case basis after consulting the relevant government authorities.”The decision came after Pakistani players were ignored at the player auction for the third edition held in Mumbai. Of the 11 players in the IPL’s final auction list of 66, none were bought by any franchise.That sparked outrage in Pakistan and led to statements on both sides – including one from India’s home minister – regretting the blackout of Pakistani players at the auction. There has also been a warning issued by a regional party in Mumbai warning against Pakistanis being hired by the franchises, but recent reports indicated that Pakistani players could play a role in the next IPL season.One player, allrounder Abdul Razzaq, has also been linked to two franchises though officials of both franchises deny any specific deal has been concluded.The participation of Pakistani players in the third IPL season has been a subject of much controversy for the past three months, with some element of confusion over rules and eligibility. It was thought, when their names were included on the auction shortlist earlier this month, that the issue had been resolved but events at the January 19 auction suggest they are taking a new turn.

Saud Shakeel and Kamran Ghulam were also pulled up for celebrating too close to Temba Bavuma after his dismissal

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Feb-2025Shaheen Shah Afridi, Saud Shakeel and Kamran Ghulam have all been slapped with fines and a demerit point each for separate Level 1 breaches of the ICC’s code of conduct, after their tri-series game against South Africa in Karachi on Wednesday.Afridi was fined 25% of his match fee for breaching Article 2.12 of the code of conduct, which pertains to “inappropriate physical contact” with a player or someone else during a match.Related

• Agha, Rizwan smash tons in Pakistan's highest ODI chase

• Pakistan's first 350-plus chase, Rizwan-Salman's record stand

In the 28th over of South Africa’s innings, Afridi was seen stepping into the path of batter Matthew Breetzke as he attempted a run. This, as the ICC put it, led to “physical contact and a heated exchange between the two players”.That was off the last ball of the over. Just the ball before, Breetzke, after defending the ball, made a gesture with his bat, which Afridi reacted to by walking down the pitch and saying something. Breetzke didn’t back down, and the umpires were quickly at the scene.Off the last ball, Breetzke took off for a run after playing the ball away to the leg side and Afridi moved towards the batter. Breetzke bumped into him before completing his run.Shakeel and Ghulam, the substitute fielder, were fined 10% of their match fees for “celebrating too closely to batter Temba Bavuma following his run-out in the 29th over”.That was a breach of Article 2.5 of the code, which relates to “using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter”.None of the three had any prior demerit points.Pakistan won the match, chasing down South Africa’s 352 for 5 with one over left – it was their first successful chase of 350-plus runs in ODIs, and got them into the final of tri-series, where they will take on New Zealand on Friday before the action shifts to the Champions Trophy.

He struck a 59-ball ton after slotting at the top in a 175-run opening stand with Warner

Sidharth Monga28-Oct-20231:17

Tom Moody: ‘Travis Head highlighted how much his game has evolved’

No wonder there were no doubts he was going to slot right back as the opener. Travis Head came back from the broken hand that kept him out for the first five matches of this World Cup with a roaring century off just 59 balls, the third-quickest World Cup hundred for Australia. Along the way he brought up the second-quickest half-century for an Australia batter in World Cups, taking just 25 balls to get there in the clash against New Zealand in DharamsalaHead, who had broken his left hand while trying to pull Gerald Coetzee during the ODI series against South Africa just before the World Cup, was predictable tested with the short ball early, but he hardly looked in any trouble on World Cup debut.Head nearly made it for the last match, but at the last moment, Australia chose to give him three more days. On the eve of the match, Head only batted 20 minutes in the nets, and didn’t look in great touch, regularly missing the middle of the bat. In the match, though, he hardly mis-hit anything.Related

• 'I enjoy watching it' – Gilchrist feels sense of deja vu watching Head cause carnage

• Head's successful comeback vindicates Australia's gamble

• James Neesham: '2019 was the first thing I thought of when coming off'

• Pat Cummins on dizzying Dharamsala finish: 'I had to remember I'm in the middle of a cricket field'

• Travis Head produces the winning hand in 388 vs 383 nail-biter

Head announced his intentions with an aerial off-drive for four off the third ball he faced. Then Matt Henry gifted him two free-hits in the third over, both of which he cleared the front leg and pulled over midwicket for sixes. New Zealand tried to take away his arms with straighter lines, but Head kept taking runs through midwicket, his most productive zone.With David Warner almost matching him shot for shot – only the second time two openers have scored fifties inside 30 balls – Australia notched the third-highest 10-over score in ODIs where ball-by-ball data is available. While Warner did slow down just a touch, Head’s intent didn’t change even in the middle overs. He didn’t let Mitchell Santner, second-highest wicket-taker this World Cup, settle into his work at all, taking a four and a six in his first two overs.Warner missed out on a century as he hit a return catch to Glenn Phillips, but Head kept up with his intent. He finally fell for 109 off 67, bowled off a straighter one from Phillips, having hit seven sixes and 10 fours, and having set Australia on their way to a massive total.