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Perry, who opened the batting, scored a brisk unbeaten half-century in a comfortable chase

Andrew McGlashan24-Jan-2023Megan Schutt’s career-best T20I figures, and a crisp half-century from Ellyse Perry opening the batting, spearheaded Australia to a convincing eight-wicket victory in the opening T20I against Pakistan as they began the final build-up to their T20 World Cup title in South Africa last month.Schutt became the fourth Australia bowler to take a five-wicket haul in T20Is and finished with their third-best figures behind Molly Strano (5 for 10) and current team-mate Jess Jonasssen (5 for 12).A target of 119 was always unlikely to challenge Australia and they eased home with 38 balls to spare. Perry, who earlier claimed 2 for 3 from two overs, opening with captain Meg Lanning as Beth Mooney managed what was termed a “niggle” although she had been able to keep throughout Pakistan’s innings.Lanning was beaten by an excellent arm ball from Sadia Iqbal but Perry, dropped on 3 when Iqbal missed a tough return catch, followed her rapid scoring in India – and prolific WNCL form – with a confident 57 off 40 balls which included a six pulled over wide mid-on against a free hit from Fatima Sana.Schutt’s first wicket came courtesy of a superb catch down the leg side by Mooney to remove Bismah Maroof although Australia needed DRS to confirm it had touched the glove. Three balls later Sadaf Shamas spooned to mid-on as Pakistan lost their way after a promising start.Schutt completed her maiden five-wicket haul when she returned at the death, getting Sana taken at cover then top-scorer Omaima Sohail and Tuba Hassan with slower deliveries.However, the single standout moment of Australia’s display in the field was the remarkable return catch snaffled by Alana King from a fiercely struck drive by Nida Dar. King, who barely had time to react, flung out her right hand and even appeared to surprise herself at holding on.King’s figures were only dented marginally in her last over when Ayesha Naseem launched her third six of an impressive counterattack, although King had her revenge.Naseem’s 20-ball innings was the highlight of Pakistan’s display as she showed a boldness that is not always on display. She launched Tahlia McGrath into the fig tree over long-on and played a ferocious pull off Darcie Brown onto the grass bank at midwicket.Brown had an off day which included consecutive no-balls in her opening over and the 34 she conceded was the most of what remains a T20 career in its infancy.It had been Perry, a player at the opposite end of the experience spectrum, who had opened the wicket-taking for Australia with a superb yorker to remove Muneeba Ali which ended a spritely opening stand of 27 in 4.2 overs.In her next over Perry added Javeria Khan via a bottom edge as Pakistan lost 4 for 5 but she wasn’t called upon to bowl again by Lanning who used seven options and that still left Annabel Sutherland not required.

Sunrisers knocked out of contention after slipping to their ninth loss this season

Alagappan Muthu30-Sep-20212:34

Chopra: Gaikwad was in complete control

Chennai Super Kings stormed into the playoffs with a six-wicket victory over the now eliminated Sunrisers Hyderabad. While they are yet to be assured of a top-two spot, which offers two shots at a place in the final, the progress MS Dhoni’s men have shown this IPL season suggests that target may not be too far off their reach.DJ in da house

Sunrisers were restricted to a meagre 134 for 7 on Thursday and this is how it happened.The match was played on a fresh Sharjah pitch. It remains unhelpfully slow but early on it also offered sideways movement. So Dhoni was prompted to do something he rarely ever does. He turned to Dwayne Bravo (4-0-17-2). It was only the sixth time in five years that the West Indies allrounder was on as early as the seventh over of an IPL game.But there was a reason for this and its name was Kane Williamson. The Sunrisers captain came into the game with an immense record against Super Kings – 327 runs at an average of 47 and strike rate of 145. Taking him out early means wrecking 90% of their batting plans. (Jason Roy had already been dismissed). So, Dhoni went to his “champion” and he obliged with a lovely outswinger that moved late, beat the bat, struck the pad and got the wicket.

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The Super Kings squeeze

Sunrisers were now in a horrible predicament. Their best batters were back in the hut. There were still 13.3 overs to face. And their opposition has a long and storied history of exploiting slow pitches.Super Kings went 48 balls without giving away a single boundary between the sixth and the 14th overs, with Ravindra Jadeja at the forefront of that squeeze. The left-arm spinner looked unhittable as he attacked the stumps, taking all the pace off and getting just enough turn. He finished with figures of 3-0-14-1.Josh Hazlewood then thrived at the death, picking up two wickets in three balls, as Sunrisers, having made it to the end of the powerplay on 41 for 1, just fizzled out.The Super Kings cruise
The rise of Ruturaj Gaikwad has been remarkable. When he first came along, he seemed rather ill-fitting with the needs of T20 cricket. A batter who didn’t have a power game, and worse who didn’t even bother to look for those big hits. All those fifties he made last season to pick up consolation victories came at about a run a ball.Cut to 2021 and Gaikwad (45 off 38) is not just looking for the big hits, he’s executing them better than virtually any other opener out there. His 75-run partnership with Faf du Plessis (41 off 36) broke the back of a small chase and ensured even a little hiccup towards the end – three wickets in eight balls – didn’t matter.

Opener’s 319-ball innings leads Pakistan to 326 before Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Abbas strike

The Report by Valkerie Baynes06-Aug-2020A career-best innings from Shan Masood answered every question England had asked of Pakistan on the first two days of this opening Test.Masood batted for nearly eight hours and faced 319 deliveries for his 156, which highlighted an ability to adapt throughout the course of an innings and effectively told the story of his cricketing life so far.Not long into the evening session, it was Pakistan asking all the questions when Shaheen Shah Afridi trapped Rory Burns lbw with the fourth ball of England’s innings and Mohammad Abbas accounted for Dom Sibley and Ben Stokes to put the hosts under pressure at 12 for 3.By the close, Ollie Pope had played a steadying hand with an unbeaten 46, but it was going to take much more from him and Jos Buttler, who was not out 15, come the third day after Joe Root was dismissed by Yasir Shah for a battling 14.Masood resumed on 46 having played a supporting role to Babar Azam the previous day. As opener, Masood had navigated a tricky start in which Stuart Broad and James Anderson bowled tight opening spells.But England’s bowling attack had lost all potency post-lunch on the first day and Masood and Azam cashed in where possible without taking too many unnecessary risks, save for Masood’s ill-advised charge at Dom Bess which ended in a missed stumping by Buttler. Masood had earlier survived a dropped catch by the wicketkeeper off the same bowler.When Azam failed to add to his overnight score of 69 in the face of some improved England bowling on the second morning, Masood took the lead role, although he could have been upstaged had Shadab Khan not got too flashy and skied Bess straight to Root at mid-on after a knock of 45 from 76 balls that was, until that moment, very sharp.Most impressive from Masood has been his ability to show how far he has come after past disappointments against England – and particularly Anderson – learning from experience and changing for the better.Masood left balls on the fourth-stump line that he would prevoiusly have nicked off to and played with soft hands when he had to so as to avoid offering chances to the slips.So when Anderson struck with his sixth ball of the day, luring Azam into an attempted drive that ended up in the hands of Root at first slip, Masood didn’t panic.When Anderson and Broad bowled six maidens on the trot between them, Masood maintained the patient approach that had got him this far. Indeed, it was Asad Shafiq who scored Pakistan’s solitary run from eight overs bowled by Broad and Anderson in that period.Shafiq fell for to Broad for 7, caught by Stokes at second slip, followed by Mohammad Rizwan, caught behind off Chris Woakes, to leave Pakistan 176 for 5. That brought Shadab to the crease and, having negotiated their way to lunch, Masood adapted after the break. The pair fell into a lovely rhythm of shot-making and nabbing quick singles that frustrated England’s bowlers throughout a sixth-wicket partnership worth 105.England had only conceded 48 runs during the morning session but saw Pakistan regain the momentum immediately after lunch, as Bess and Root bowled ahead of the arrival of the second new ball. Masood then stroked his way through the 90s in half-a-dozen balls to bring up his hundred, loudly celebrated on the Pakistan balcony.The partnership should have been more but Shadab’s wild swing at Bess ended things, although it sparked another change in gears from Masood. What looked like being a rebuilding job, became something else when Jofra Archer dismissed Yasir and Abbas with consecutive balls, the former without adding to his score of 5 when he was dropped by Buttler off the bowling of Bess.Masood flicked the switch, seeking as many runs as he could get before he ran out of partners. He took 16 off one Bess over, including two sixes in three balls, was keen to run a second to bring up his 150 and did when Buttler’s relay shy at the stumps went wide and he wore a Broad short ball painfully on the elbow, all before tea.Masood didn’t last long after the break, falling lbw to a Broad delivery that nipped back and struck the back pad on line with leg stump. But by then he had more than done his job, racking up his third consecutive Test century after tons against Sri Lanka in December and Bangladesh in February, the fourth of his career overall.Pakistan’s bowlers kept up the good work with Abbas particularly damaging in picking up the wickets of Sibley and Stokes for nought in the space of eight balls. The delivery that bowled Stokes was an absolute diamond that found just enough late movement to beat the bat and kiss the top of off stump.Naseem Shah showed his pace with no reward and when Yasir chimed in with a faint edge off Root which went through to the keeper, England were left looking to Pope and Buttler to erase a deficit still north of 250.

Pant or Vijay; Jadeja or Khaleel – final chance for MSK Prasad’s selection panel to firm up their World Cup probables

Nagraj Gollapudi14-Feb-2019Before the cricket world turns its gaze IPL-wards starting March 23, there is one key limited-overs series that India will play, at home, against Australia. Comprising two T20Is and five ODIS, it starts on February 23 and runs through March 13. India, as the senior selection committee chairman MSK Prasad said recently, have nearly sealed the 15 World Cup spots. There is “one odd” berth left to fill and plenty of players vying for it.On Friday, Prasad’s panel will meet in Mumbai to pick the squads for the Australian series, giving a possible hint at the player(s) that are likely to travel to England.Going by form and experience, 13 men pick themselves up: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah. That leaves two spots to firm up.Specialist batsman or allrounder?If the selectors and the team management opt to go with a fourth specialist fast bowler – like Khaleel Ahmed – that leaves one seat vacant.Could it be KL Rahul’s? He was being looked at a back-up opener or, given his talent and ability to score quickly, a makeshift middle-order bat. Then came a dip in form and the suspension for his behavior on an Indian talk show.KL Rahul reverse pulls the ball•Associated Press

Rahul has since returned to playing and has scored two eighty-plus scores in the ongoing unofficial Tests against the England Lions. But will runs against an A team be enough to push him up the pecking order, especially considering Rishabh Pant and Vijay Shankar have been doing it in international cricket?Pant might have made his name with his explosive batting, but what has impressed the selectors and team management is his composure. Following a good run with India A last year, he struck a very polished hundred in the New Year’s Test against Australia in Sydney.The advantage of picking Pant is that he can be the floater in the line-up – a man for all situations. The one factor that goes against him is experience – he’s played only three ODIs – but as Prasad pointed out recently, his fearlessness makes him hard to ignore.If the selectors feel Pant is too big a gamble, the other batsman they are likely to consider is Vijay. He replaced Hardik Pandya, who too was suspended during the Australia series, and played the Melbourne ODI. Then, he featured in three of the five ODIs and all the three T20Is in New Zealand, where he was pushed up to the No. 3 position. Is that an indication the Indian team management see him as a batsman who, if needed, can bowl a bit?Vijay Shankar brings out a lofted shot•AFP/Getty

Vijay has a solid technique, plays with a high elbow and has the ability to clear the boundary without using a lot of muscle. During the final ODI of the New Zealand series, he played the lead role to pick India out of the pits from 18 for 4 with a 98-run fifth-wicket partnership with Rayudu. That performance, on a seaming track, when the opposition was on top, could prove pivotal. Not least because India won the game. Also man-to-man, Vijay is a better fielder than Pant.The one other batsman the selectors might just consider is Ajinkya Rahane, who helped Mumbai win the Vijay Hazare Trophy last year. But his strike-rate – 77 in 11 innings since being dropped from the Indian ODI side – is likely to work against him.Extra specialist fast bowler or bowling allrounder?Ravindra Jadeja and Khaleel Ahmed have been a regular part of the Indian ODI set-up since September 2018.Jadeja returned to the fold having sat out for more than year between the West Indies tour in 2017 and the Asia Cup last year. Since then, he has taken 16 wickets from 11 matches, including two four-wicket hauls. There was nothing spectacular with the bat, but Jadeja is the second-most experienced player behind Dhoni, having featured in seven ICC tournaments. He was integral to India’s Champions Trophy success in 2013, held in England, and finished as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker. If the English summer is anything like last year, Jadeja’s fingerspin will definitely prove an asset, especially as pitches become weary at the back-end of the World Cup.Khaleel Ahmed celebrates a wicket•Getty Images

The other option for the selectors is picking a fourth specialist fast bowler. Two contenders for that position right now are Khaleel and Umesh Yadav but it is not clear whether Umesh would be fit in time for the Australian series after being forced to skip the Irani Cup due to an injury sustained while playing the Ranji Trophy final.As a left-arm fast bowler, Khaleel brings a whole new dimension to the bowling attack. India have tried him out in each of their limited-overs assignments since the Asia Cup and he has done fairly well – 11 wickets from eight matches. If he can crank up his pace and keep it around 140 kph consistently, he’ll make the selectors job even harder.This Australia series gives Prasad’s panel – and indeed the players too – one last chance before April comes and India have to pick their World Cup 15.

The fast bowling duo was added after Dale Steyn picked up a heel injury that ruled him out of the series

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Jan-2018South Africa have added the fast bowling duo of Duanne Olivier and uncapped 21-year-old Lungi Ngidi to their squad for the second Test against India later this week. The changes came into place after Dale Steyn picked up a heel injury in the Cape Town Test that ruled him out of the series.Olivier has played five Tests – all of them in 2017 – and Ngidi made his international debut in a T20I against Sri Lanka last year but is yet to play the other two formats at the international stage.Olivier last played Tests in September-October against Bangladesh when he took five wickets in four innings before representing Knights in T20 and one-day cricket. He had made his Test debut against Sri Lanka a year ago in Johannesburg where he took five wickets in the match but has not been able to establish himself as a regular member of the side against strong competition. He also struggled with a knee injury this season, which kept him out of some domestic games.Ngidi, on the other hand, has played three T20Is in which he has collected six wickets with an impressive economy rate of 5.50. He played all those matches against Sri Lanka last year in January, and took 4 for 19 in Johannesburg. He was part of the ODI squad but withdrew with an abdominal muscle injury. He was then part of the South African A side that toured England where he suffered a back injury. It took Ngidi four months to recover and he has only played one first-class match since comeback and took nine wickets for 83 in the game, signaling his readiness for more game-time.Since then he has featured in domestic matches for Titans that featured his best T20 figures of 4 for 14 against Warriors in the Ram Slam T20 Challenge.Both Olivier and Ngidi are currently playing in the domestic one-day cup and will
compete with allrounders Chris Morris and Andile Phehlukwayo for one spot in the final XI, with conditions on the Highveld set to suit an attack of four seamers. However, with India’s bowlers challenging South Africa, they may opt to include a seventh specialist batsman in the XI and all of Olivier, Ngidi, Morris or Phehlukwayo could be benched.The second Test starts on January 13 in Centurion.Squad for second Test: Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Theunis de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock (wk), AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi

Rob Andrew, the former England rugby union fly-half and long-term professional rugby director at the RFU, has been unveiled as the new chief executive of Sussex

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Nov-2016Rob Andrew, the former England rugby union fly-half and long-term professional rugby director at the RFU, has been unveiled as the new chief executive of Sussex.Andrew, 53, played first-class cricket for Cambridge University between 1982 and 1985, and also turned out for Yorkshire’s 2nd XI as a batsman and offspinner.His rugby career included 71 caps for England and five for the British and Irish Lions. He played in three World Cups between 1987 and 1995, before spending ten years at the RFU, eventually leaving at the end of last season.He succeeds Zac Toumazi as Sussex’s chief executive at a tricky period in the club’s long history. The club was relegated at the end of 2015, bringing to an end a period of unprecedented success including three County Championships between 2003 and 2007, and with the ECB turning its attention towards the new city-based league scheduled to be launched in 2020, Andrew’s high-profile appointment is intriguingly timed.He will take over at Sussex in January 2017, with a brief to build on Toumazi’s work in overseeing the integration of the professional club with the recreational board and its 245 affiliated league clubs.Commenting on the appointment, Jim May, chairman of Sussex said: “I am extremely pleased about the appointment of Rob Andrew. He has exceptional experience, both playing and administering sport which will be of great help to our cricket management delivering success.””I am thrilled and really excited to be joining Sussex,” Andrew said. “The structures that have been put in place under the Sussex Cricket Limited umbrella have laid a very strong foundation for the future.”I am looking forward to working with everyone connected with Sussex to help create success in professional cricket, recreational cricket and community programmes and ensuring that Hove remains a very special cricket ground.”I will be focusing on driving forward the strategy over the next few years and helping write the next chapter in the rich history of cricket in Sussex. These are exciting times for Sussex Cricket and cricket in general and I can’t wait to get started.”