She could become first West Indian and only fourth bowler in women’s cricket to get 300 international wickets

Annesha Ghosh22-Jan-20222:28

Anisa Mohammed – ‘I like to prove people wrong’

A new variation to unleash on the opposition and four wickets to add to her tally during the four-ODI tour of South Africa.These, along with helping West Indies fine-tune their preparations ahead of the ODI World Cup in March-April, are on the checklist of their premier offspinner Anisa Mohammed as she heads into the bilateral series next week, four wickets shy of becoming the first West Indies women’s player to 300 wickets in international cricket.”I’m currently working on a new variation,” Mohammed, the leading ODI wicket-taker of 2021 and the all-time highest wicket-taker in T20Is, said in a virtual press conference from Johannesburg. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to use that in this upcoming series against South Africa, and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to execute and get a positive result from that.”Behind only India’s Jhulan Goswami, England’s Katherine Brunt, and Australia’s Ellyse Perry, Mohammed, who has 171 wickets in ODIs and 125 wickets in T20Is, is hopeful the series against South Africa starting on January 28 at the Wanderers propels her to the distinction of the first spinner to reach the 300-wicket mark in the women’s international game.Related

• South Africa-West Indies Women's ODI series rescheduled, to begin from January 26

• Dane van Niekerk ruled out of 2022 Women's World Cup with ankle injury

• Afy Fletcher returns for South Africa ODIs, Qiana Joseph out injured

“This would be a huge milestone for me. I’d really like to get it in this series and not have to wait for the World Cup,” Mohammed said. “That’s something that I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time. I’ve been working on my game and I really hope that I’m able to pick up just four [wickets]. I’m just telling myself, ‘Four wickets – I have four matches to get four wickets,’ so I’m really excited.”A veteran of four ODI World Cups and West Indies’ most-capped player, Mohammed, 33, is mindful of the responsibility her experience and heft of personal achievements in a career spanning nearly 19 years bring with them, especially with the 50-over World Cup in New Zealand around the corner.”I’m one of the senior players on the team. This is my fifth ODI World Cup. And I’ve said to some of the younger players, ‘Playing in a World Cup the atmosphere is different and you have to keep a level head.’ I think having played four World Cups – this will be my fifth one – I have to step up as the one of the senior players on the team and try to perform and while I do that, try to keep the younger players calm and help them to be able to go out there and execute as well.”Named in the ICC Women’s ODI Team of the Year and the ESPNcricinfo Women’s Team of the Year for 2021 recently, Mohammed gave little away on whether the upcoming world event could be her swansong – “I’m not going to put a timeline on my career” – but admitted she was cognizant of the phase she has entered in her career.Anisa Mohammed is on the verge of joining the 300-wicket club•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“It’s a great feeling to be named in the ICC ODI Team of the Year last year,” Mohammed said. “And that’s definitely inspiration to go forward and try to make it into this year’s team as well. To be honest, I’m just trying to enjoy my cricket. As you know, I’m coming to the latter part of my career, so I’ve been trying to enjoy whatever is left of my career.”I’ll be 34 this year. I don’t know how long I have, but I just really want to make sure that when I leave cricket or when I retire, I have a good memory of West Indies cricket and representing West Indies.”West Indies were not among the five teams to earn direct qualification to the ODI World Cup but made the cut based on rankings in the wake of the pandemic-enforced cancellation of the global qualifier. They will fancy their chances against South Africa, who will be missing their designated captain and premier legspin-bowling allrounder Dane van Niekerk through an injury.”That’s a big blow for South Africa. And it’s never nice when you have an injury,” Mohammed said. “But if you’re looking at winning and losing, I think that’s an advantage for us because, as we know, she’s a key player for the South Africa team, not just in her batting and bowling but also her leadership qualities. And I think that we have to take full advantage of that – of her not being here. But having said that, I would like to wish her a speedy recovery.”Mohammed, for her part, will spearhead an attack bolstered by the addition of the experienced legspinner Afy Fletcher in their 18-member squad.”We’re really excited for Afy. It’s nice having her back,” Mohammed said of Fletcher, who is returning from a maternity break, having last played for West Indies in September 2020. “Unfortunately, she could not bring the baby with her. We would have liked to have a baby on tour, like the other teams, but she calls her baby every day and chat with him online. So it’s nice having a baby around and having some fun with him as well.”

The seventh-wicket pair put on 166, the third successive century partnership of the innings

Himanshu Agrawal13-Mar-2022Jharkhand posted a mammoth 769 – their highest score since they began playing first-class cricket from the 2004-05 season onward – on the back of wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra’s commanding knock of 266 and No. 8 Shahbaz Nadeem’s unbeaten 123, his highest score in first-class cricket. These followed Virat Singh’s innings of 107 from Saturday, as Nagaland stared at a mountain to climb after spending 177 overs on the field across two days.It was a day where multiple records tumbled: Jharkhand achieved their highest first-class score by far, eclipsing the 556 they had made against Hyderabad in 2015; Eden Gardens witnessed its second-highest first-class total; and Kushagra bagged the second-highest score by a Jharkhand batter in first-class cricket.Kushagra and Nadeem added 166 for the seventh wicket, capitalising on some ineffective bowling as well as poor fielding from Nagaland, who dropped Kushagra on 132 on the second morning after also giving him lives on 10 and 44 on the first day. Eventually, Kushagra took only 269 balls to hit 266, 160 of which came in boundaries.He reached his double century off 213 deliveries in the morning session, and displayed a range of strokes throughout the day: a drive to bisect cover and mid-off, a pull between fine leg and deep square leg, a punch off the back foot and a loft over the bowler’s head, among others.At the other end, Nadeem displayed the patience and application of a frontline batter, grinding his way to a second first-class century. He got to his fifty off 100 balls, and reached the three-figure landmark off 196 deliveries. He hit 14 fours, and one effortless six, a casual walk down the pitch to legspinner Khrievitso Kense followed by a gentle loft over long-on.Nagaland’s frustrations on the day were summed up when a straight drive from Nadeem off medium-pacer Raja Swarnkar in the 161st over hit the stumps at the bowler’s end and ricocheted to the rope for four.Earlier, overnight batter Anukul Roy had got to a half-century before falling for 59 to end a 128-run partnership with Kushagra. Jharkhand were 489 for 6 at that point; if Nagaland thought they would soon be done chasing leather, Kushagra and Nadeem rid them of that notion by putting on the third successive century stand of the innings.

Highlights of tournament for WI captain were the wins over New Zealand and England in the league stage

Valkerie Baynes30-Mar-2022″You’ll be seeing us around,” Stafanie Taylor, the West Indies captain, said after an emphatic 157-run defeat at the hands of title favourites Australia knocked her side out of a World Cup tournament regarded as a resounding success for her team.Two batters down chasing a mammoth 306 from 45 overs after Anisa Mohammad injured her hamstring while fielding and Chinelle Henry took ill during the match, West Indies had been comprehensively out-played long before that.Australian centurion Alyssa Healy and Rachael Haynes put on 216 runs for the first wicket and a steady stream of wickets knocked West Indies’ pursuit on the head shortly after it got going via Deandra Dottin and then Hayley Matthews, with Taylor only able to hold the innings together for so long, by which point the run rate required had blown out.But Taylor said reaching the semi-finals showed the progress her side had made since reaching the tournament based on world rankings when the qualifiers were cancelled amid the Covid-19 pandemic, then losing their four-match ODI series against South Africa in the lead-up 2-1.West Indies set the World Cup alight by defeating New Zealand and England in their first two matches but fell away after that, winning just one more game – against Bangladesh – before a washout against South Africa left them relying on South Africa’s narrow defeat of India to scrape into the final four.”We beat two of the top teams and I reckon no one expected that,” Taylor said. “And to be in the semi-finals, no one expected that. The way we played throughout the tournament has been really good.”We had some downs and that happens. It’s about learning and I believe that we are still learning. I’m very proud of the way we played. We still have more to go, so yeah, you’ll see us around.”Matthews was West Indies’ leading run-scorer with 260 at 37.14 and a strike rate of 80.00 as well as their leading wicket-taker with eight at an average of 26.80. She echoed her captain’s belief that the tournament was a success and hoped it would provide a solid platform for future growth.”Beating a team like New Zealand and then being able to beat a team like England right after, these are things that we couldn’t imagine doing a year ago,” Matthews said. “It’s just really, really good to be a part of the growth that this team has had over the last year and I genuinely do think that if we continue moving in this direction, there’s only bigger things for us.”When you speak about the advantages some of the other teams would have over us, like Australia or England, with their domestic structure and the amount of talent that they have to pull from within their pools, and then you look at us competing against teams like that, it just shows the fight and the heart that we really do have as a team.”When you look at the characteristics of this team, you think of people who play with their hearts on their sleeves. We come into every game with so much emotion and so much passion, trying to represent the West Indies and the Caribbean and we plan to continuously do that, all the time, try to play with us as much fight as we possibly can.”We are by no means the absolutely best cricketers in the world compared to some of the others but at the same time we play with so much fight and so much spirit that we can compete with the best in the world, which is brilliant to be a part of.”And Matthews believed that West Indies were on the right path towards developing more local talent via domestic competition such as the recently announced three-team Women’s CPL starting later this year.”The more cricket we can play at a lower level to the domestic stuff, the better,” she said. “Hopefully we can get some more young girls coming through the system.”In this batch of players, this may be a lot of their last World Cups… it would be really good if we could start to nurture some younger players throughout the domestic cricket season and get some more people filtering into West Indies stuff.”

She plays pinch-hitter to perfection before taking a wicket in four miserly overs

ECB Reporters Network18-May-2022Issy Wong starred with bat and ball as Central Sparks beat holders South East Stars by 34 runs in the Charlotte Edwards Cup at Guildford.Wong, renowned for her quick bowling, excelled in the role of pinch-hitter with 45 in 28 balls and was well supported by England wicketkeeper Amy Jones with 40 as Sparks rattled up 170 for 6 after being invited to bat, Alice Davidson-Richards the pick of the host’s attack with 2 for 27.Chelsea-born speedster Wong returned to the day job, taking 1 for 14, including three frugal overs at the top of the Stars’ innings. She was ably assisted by Sparks’ spin twins Hannah Baker, who took 2 for 19, and Sarah Glenn (2 for 22), while Grace Potts added 4 for 36 mopping up the tail, meaning that despite 41 from skipper Bryony Smith, Stars finished well short on 136 all out.From the moment Wong clubbed Alice Capsey over the scoreboard at mid-wicket in the first over, Sparks were on the charge.Wong treated Tash Farrant’s bowling with similar disdain and with fellow opener Eve Jones taking a heavy toll on Freya Davies at the other end, the 50-stand came off 30 balls.Davidson-Richards made the breakthrough when Eve Jones top edged to mid-on, but the bowler was out of luck when new batter Amy Jones hoisted her to Emma Jones at deep mid-on only for the fielder to grass the chance.Emma Jones would partially atone when she caught Wong at cover, but the drop proved costly as Amy Jones forged on, driving powerfully to hit six fours before Smith had her caught at cover.Smith and the impressive Davidson-Richards kept some level of control, but impressive cameos from Ami Campbell and Gwen Davies saw Sparks post an imposing target.Smith got the chase off to a rattling start with three boundaries off the first over from Potts and Saturday’s half-centurion Aylish Cranstone caught the mood almost hitting an Emily Arlott delivery into the road.Wong gave Smith a life on 19 when she shelled a catch on the square leg boundary, Arlott the aggrieved bowler, but the boot was on the other foot in the following over when she too dropped Smith off Wong. Wong though wouldn’t be denied, removing Cranstone via a top edge bagged by Amy Jones as Sparks reached 44 for 1 at the end of the powerplay.The fielding lapses continued, Abi Freeborn dropping Capsey off an attempted reverse sweep. However, Baker struck twice in four balls as first Smith skied a catch behind and then Amy Jones stumped Capsey, who had given the bowler the charge.Glenn followed up with two in two to despatch Farrant and Emma Jones before Potts cleaned up.

The India allrounder could feature in three County Championship games and the 50-overs Royal London Cup

Deivarayan Muthu and Matt Roller21-Jun-20223:29

Shastri: ‘Washington is going to be one of India’s premier all-format allrounders’

India allrounder Washington Sundar will turn out for Lancashire in county cricket this season, subject to fitness and visa clearance, ESPNcricinfo has learnt.Washington, 22, could be available for up to three County Championship games, from July, and the entire 50-overs Royal London Cup. He could become the second Indian to feature in English county cricket this season after Cheteshwar Pujara, who racked up 720 runs in eight innings at a stunning average of 120 for Sussex in division two. Shreyas Iyer had signed up as Lancashire’s overseas player for the Royal London Cup in 2021 but had to eventually pull out because of a shoulder injury.”I am extremely excited to play county cricket for the first time with Lancashire Cricket,” Washington Sundar said in a media statement from the county. “To play in English conditions will be a great experience for me and I can’t wait to play at Emirates Old Trafford.”I would like to thank both Lancashire Cricket and the BCCI for allowing this opportunity [to] happen and I’m looking forward to joining up with the squad next month.”Mark Chilton, Lancashire’s director of cricket performance, welcomed Washington into the set-up. “Washington is a multi-format all-rounder whose skills with both bat and ball will be a great addition for us in the Royal London Cup and County Championship this summer,” he said. “His international and IPL experiences will be invaluable in the development of our younger cricketers, many of whom he will be playing with during his stay. The addition of Washington is one that will excite our members and supporters, along with helping our continued push to bring silverware back to Emirates Old Trafford.”Lancashire are currently third on the County Championship division one points table, behind Surrey and Hampshire, with 108 points. They will resume red-ball cricket with a clash against Gloucestershire from June 26 after their Vitality Blast T20 games.Washington is currently working his way back from a hand injury at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. The red-ball games in England will be Washington’s first since he sustained a finger injury while playing a three-day tour game against a County Select XI in Chester-le-Street in July 2021. The injury had sidelined him from that England tour and the second leg of IPL 2021.Washington has suffered multiple setbacks because of injury and illness since last year. He was lined up to return to action for his state side Tamil Nadu in the 20-overs Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, but it is understood that the Indian team management had then warned Tamil Nadu against rushing him back into action.He then made a successful return in the 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy, taking 16 wickets in eight games at an economy rate of 4.77 in Tamil Nadu’s run to the final. It paved the way for his India white-ball return, for a three-match ODI series in South Africa, but he had to miss that after testing positive for Covid-19.Washington Sundar has suffered multiple injury setbacks in recent times•BCCI

Washington marked his comeback with all-round contributions at home in the ODI series against West Indies, but that was short-lived, too, as he sustained a hamstring injury ahead of the T20Is.More recently in IPL 2022, he hurt his webbing twice and played just nine games for Sunrisers Hyderabad, scoring 101 runs and claiming six wickets. The franchise’s head coach Tom Moody pointed out that the injuries to Washington and T Natarajan shook up the balance of the XI.Washington’s Lancashire gig will clash with the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), which kicks off on June 23 in Tirunelveli. Washington is with Salem Spartans in the TNPL, but it is understood that he did not take part in the side’s preparatory camp in Chennai.The red-ball games for Lancashire could be Washington’s opportunity to prove his form and fitness. While speaking on ESPNcricinfo’s analysis show T20 Time:Out during the IPL, Ravi Shastri, the former India coach, talked up Washington as a future all-format allrounder for India.”He is going to be one of India’s leading allrounders,” Shastri had said. “He is the future. You have [Ravindra] Jadeja today. Three years down the line, if Jadeja is still fit, he will play. There is Axar [Patel] around. But this guy is your premier allrounder across all three formats of the game. Hear what I am saying. Three formats of the game.”This guy is a serious cricketer. He is still very young, he has got to understand his own game, how good a player he is. Shot selection will come, especially for the white-ball format. [If he] works on his fitness so that he is not injury-prone, India have got a serious cricketer in him. Across all formats of the game. I think it is up to him really to do the hard yards on fitness. No excuse. He can’t depend on X, Y, Z. He has to look at himself in the mirror and say I want to work hard and I want to be the leading allrounder in Indian cricket over the next three years. And he can do it. Easy.”

Players and their families will not be required to serve out a mandatory quarantine upon arrival in India

Shashank Kishore01-Jun-2022In a change from what has been the norm in the last couple of years, the BCCI has decided to do away with stringent biobubbles for India’s upcoming T20I series against South Africa starting June 9. ESPNcricinfo understands that players and their families will not be required to serve out a mandatory quarantine period upon arrival either.The Indian team is expected to link up in New Delhi, the venue for the series opener, on or before Saturday. The South African team, led by Temba Bavuma, is expected to arrive in the city on June 2. Their touring contingent includes as many as ten players who featured in IPL 2022.The change in regulations also means that player movement in and out of the hotels and stadia would not be restricted. However, everyone has been advised to remain cautious and avoid large gatherings, as far as possible. It is understood that Covid-19 tests will only be carried out if someone reports symptoms, as against the policy of regular testing earlier.Related

• 'Going to try and bring that into my game' – Pretorius hopes to emulate Dhoni's calmness

• India's T20I line-up: Who will be the second spinner? Or the back-up opener?

• Rahul to lead; Hardik, Umran, Arshdeep in India squad

• Bavuma puts spotlight on 'inclusive leadership group'

• Bavuma: 'IPL win will do Miller's confidence a world of good'

The BCCI’s decision to open up multiple venues for the same series is encouraging. It’s a practice they have slowly embraced over time, since last November, when they hosted New Zealand and Sri Lanka at multiple venues.For a brief while in February, they reverted to hosting an entire leg in one city due to the omicron threat when West Indies toured. The ODI leg was played in Ahmedabad before Kolkata hosted the T20I leg. This time around, players will travel across five venues – New Delhi, Cuttack, Visakhapatnam, Rajkot and Bengaluru – across 12 days. There will also be no cap on crowd attendance at any of the five venues either.The decks have also been cleared for all state associations to begin the sale of tickets, allowing 100% attendance, across all venues. Sunday’s IPL final in Ahmedabad witnessed possibly the biggest crowd at a cricket match in India, with the official number pegged at 104,859.India’s declining number of active Covid-19 cases have led to the easing of restrictions. The country recorded 2745 active cases on May 31; the corresponding numbers for the same date in 2021 stood at a whopping 127,510 cases.Most cricket boards around the world have moved on from stringent biobubble measures to managed environments, with minimal restrictions. For example, Bangladesh’s recent home Test series against Sri Lanka was held without any bubble restrictions. The upcoming England vs New Zealand Test series, starting June 2 at Lord’s, will also be hosted on similar lines.However, New Zealand Cricket has asked its players to “avoid mass gatherings and events of high exposure”, while making masks mandatory when indoors with people from outside the environment and unable to socially distance. They will also carry out immediate testing in case of symptoms and five days of isolation if there is a positive case. The ECB has specified no such restrictions on their part.

Australia’s captain said their collapse from 298 for 5 on the second morning was “an opportunity missed”

Andrew Fidel Fernando11-Jul-2022They won an attritional series in Pakistan, and dominated Sri Lanka in what was essentially a two-day win last week. But this loss in Galle, by an innings and 39 runs, might be a “reality check” for an Australia team intent on improving their long-form cricket in Asia.So said captain Pat Cummins, after the second Test hurtled to a conclusion on the fourth evening – Australia collapsing to 151 against spin inside 41 overs.”Some batters went out with a really clear plan, and you just get a ball with your name on it earlier than you would’ve liked,” Cummins said. “It’s a good reality check for people touring over here that it’s really hard. So many positives out of last week, that we did find methods that work. One small hiccup doesn’t mean you have to change everything. And it makes for more learning than after a win.Related

• Australia left to regret their reviews…again

• Jayasuriya's 12-wicket haul, Chandimal's 206* give Sri Lanka series-levelling win

• Stats – Dream debut for Prabath Jayasuriya and a record knock by Dinesh Chandimal

“I think half our batting line-up and half our bowling line-up hasn’t played a lot over here in the subcontinent. So the experience on these two vastly different wickets [in the two Tests], I think we got a lot of lessons out of it to take to India next year.”Cummins pointed to the second morning as a session in which Australia let the match slip. Although they had won the first day, ending at 298 for 5 at stumps, they then lost their last five first-innings wickets for 35 runs, finishing at 364 all out. This was after Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne had hit hundreds, and while Smith remained at the crease, the wickets fell at the other end.”That was probably an opportunity missed. The way we set up the game on day one, we were hoping to get 400-plus, which history suggests here puts you in a really good position,” Cummins said. “Unfortunately none of us hung around with Smith long enough to get up to the 400-plus, which meant even if we were out there for 180 overs you were kind of level at the turn.”Dimuth Karunaratne and Pat Cummins pose with the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy, which they shared•AFP/Getty Images

Australia’s second-innings collapse took less than two sessions, after they started 190 runs behind. Usman Khawaja and David Warner put on 49 to begin, suggesting the surface remained decent for batting. But then they lost 10 wickets for 101.”Certainly as the game went on the footmarks started to react a bit more,” Cummins said. “A fresh bowling side always makes a bit of a difference as well. So it all happened pretty quickly, and unfortunately we were on the wrong side.”The plan had been to just bat. It was still close to five sessions left in the game. I think if we were behind by just over 100 we were still in the game, but 200 probably put it beyond us. We were trying to bat for the rest of the day then come up with a plan for tomorrow.”Australia’s tour has come in the backdrop of a crippling economic crisis and a major political crisis in Sri Lanka. Cummins and the Australia team have made efforts to reach out and understand the situation better, even making appeals for fundraisers. On day two of this Test, large protests were seen on the fort overlooking the ground, and at the central intersection at Galle, which is right outside the stadium.”We’ve got protests round the ground, it really hits home how lucky we are to be travelling the world but also in some ways it’s more than just being here to play cricket, you can see the impact it can have. It hasn’t been lost on our group, something we speak about quite a bit.”You couldn’t escape the protests on Saturday. We got lots of messages from back home, just saying ‘How is it? Hope you’re ok.’ And we felt totally fine.”

Zimbabwe could not come back after losing five wickets in the first seven overs in Harare

Mohammad Isam31-Jul-2022Mosaddek Hossain’s stunning opening spell set up Bangladesh’s series-levelling win against Zimbabwe in Harare. The part-time offspinner completed his maiden five-wicket haul in just the seventh over of the innings, and became only the fourth Bangladesh bowler to take a five-for in T20Is, after Elias Sunny, Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib Al HasanWith Zimbabwe in tatters, Sikandar Raza scored a fighting half-century – his second of the series – but a total of 135 proved inadequate. Opener Litton Das spearheaded Bangladesh’s chase with a half-century and the target was achieved with seven wickets in hand and 15 balls to spare.Five wickets in seven overs
Opening the bowling for the first time in T20Is, Mosaddek struck with the first ball of the match – Regis Chakabva edging the wide, innocuous delivery to the wicket-keeper. Wessly Madhevere, who had struck a fifty in the first T20I, slammed one straight to cover-point where Mahedi Hasan took an easy catch off the last ball of the over.In his second over, Mosaddek had captain Craig Ervine caught at slip while attempting a reverse sweep, reducing Zimbabwe to 6 for 3. Sean Williams was next to go, chipping one back at Mosaddek in the fifth over, with the bowler having to jump to complete the return catch.Mosaddek completed his five-for when Milton Shumba dragged one towards deep midwicket, only to see Hasan Mahmud run hard and complete a diving catch. Mosaddek became the first Bangladesh bowler to take the first five wickets to fall in an innings, and 31 was the lowest score for which Zimbabwe had lost their first five wickets in a T20I.Sikandar Raza struck 62 off 53 balls and added 80 for the sixth wicket with Ryan Burl•AFP/Getty Images

Raza leads the recovery
Raza and Ryan Burl stopped the slide with an 80-run stand for the sixth wicket. Raza scored his second half-century of the series, hitting fours through cover and deep third, and also sixes over the leg-side boundary. He struck 62 off 53 balls before falling to Mustafizur in the 19th over.Burl had fallen in the 18th, when Hasan Mahmud bowled him for 32. Towards the end of the innings, Luke Jongwe struck a late six, as Zimbabwe tried to capitalise on the recovery that Raza had led.Litton starts quickly
Litton got Bangladesh’s chase off to a quick start when he struck Tanaka Chivanga for two sixes and a four in the third over. But he lost his opening partner Munim Shahriar cheaply for the second game in a row when Richard Ngarava bowled him through the gate.Litton added 41 for the second wicket with Anamul Haque but got out shortly after reaching his half-century – his 56 off 33 balls included six fours and two sixes. Anamul struck two fours in his 16, but once again got out soon after getting set.The final act
Afif Hossain was unbeaten on 30 off 28 balls and Najmul Hossain Shanto made 19 off 21 balls to take Bangladesh to the target. Their unbroken 55-run stand for the fourth wicket ensured there were no more hiccups for Bangladesh, who had lost their previous two wickets in the space of four balls.The seven-wicket victory brought Bangladesh level at 1-1 in the series, with the decider on Tuesday in Harare.

“Everything that we’re doing in the T20 space ties back into the World Cup,” says Finch

Alex Malcolm19-Sep-2022With Mitchell Marsh absent with an injury, Steven Smith will bat at No. 3 against India. His role in Australia’s first-choice XI in the lead-up to the men’s T20 World Cup, however, will remain fluid.Australia are missing three of their first-choice players in the top six for the three-match series against India starting in Mohali on Tuesday, with Marsh, David Warner and Marcus Stoinis all back at home. Mitchell Starc is also resting because of a niggle. It means Australia will structure their side differently out of necessity, with just nine matches to go before starting their title defence at home against New Zealand.Related

• India and Australia's chance to fine tune their T20 World Cup plans

• Tim David earns Australia call for T20 World Cup

• Tim David's long-awaited Australia debut is finally on

• Injured Starc, Marsh and Stoinis to miss India T20Is

Smith has batted at No. 3 in T20Is only once in the last 12 matches he has played across a two-year period. That was also out of necessity, against England in the 2021 T20 World Cup, when Marsh was left out for structural balance as Australia chose a fifth specialist bowler.Since then, Smith has batted no higher than No. 4 regardless of Marsh’s availability or not, with his long-time role as a floating “Mr Fix it”, who would enter early at the loss of wickets in the powerplay, abandoned for a more permanent place in the middle order.But his lack of strike power in the middle order has created questions around his place in Australia’s first-choice XI for the World Cup, particularly after Tim David was added to the squad. In his last 12 games, Smith has only batted eight times, with a strike rate of 107.20, down from his already middling career T20 strike rate of 125.27.Aaron Finch confirmed on Monday that Smith would likely bat at No. 3 in the series against India, and he reiterated Australia’s faith in Smith’s capabilities as a versatile cog in the line-up.”Most likely he’ll bat at three in this series with Mitch Marsh being out,” Finch said. “We know the quality that Steve’s got. He’s one of the best players that has ever played the game over all formats of the game. So we know the skill that he’s got and the game sense and the tactical nous that he’s got.”So we’re really confident that regardless of what role he has to play within the structure of the squad, that he can do that very, very well.”Finch confirmed that Australia would experiment with the structure of their side and their personnel in various positions, with an eye on both the upcoming World Cup in Australia as well as the different conditions that will be presented in the three matches in India.”Every decision that we make, I think, has one eye towards the World Cup and seeing the wicket yesterday [in Mohali], it looked like there was quite a bit of grass on it,” Finch said. “And we know in Mohali, the ball can swing around and it can carry through quite a bit, so I think we will be mindful of not being too narrow-minded in terms of our focus.”What we’ve tried to do over the last sort of six-eight-ten months is make sure that everything that we’re doing in the T20 space ties back into the World Cup and, for us, it’s about making sure that once we get there that we’ve had plenty of different combinations of teams that we can play. Because the last thing you want to do is have an injury derail your whole campaign because you’re pigeon-holed into playing one style of cricket or one structure of team. So there’ll be a little bit of mixing and matching, but still with that one eye towards the World Cup, to make sure that we’re still as rounded as we can be as a squad.”The loss of two allrounders in Marsh and Stoinis, and a left-arm quick in Starc, will force Australia to structure the bowling differently, which in turn has a direct influence on the top seven they can select.Cameron Green could make his T20I return against India•Getty Images

David looks set to make his Australia debut in the middle order as a direct replacement for Stoinis, after having played 14 T20Is for Singapore. But he only bowls very part-time offspin. Cameron Green, who is not in Australia’s World Cup squad but is on this tour of India, is another who could play if Australia want a pace-bowling allrounder. Green made his T20I debut for Australia on the tour of Pakistan earlier this year, but has only played 14 professional T20s in his career.However, Finch felt Green was capable of being a three-format player after his recent performances in the ODI series’ against Zimbabwe and New Zealand in Australia.”I think his ability to bat at five, six, seven in the one-day team has been really impressive,” Finch said. “The fact that such a young guy was able to guide us home in a really tricky run chase, in a great partnership with Alex Carey in the recent series against New Zealand, shows that he’s got all the tricks and the game sense for such a young guy to be super successful in all three formats for Australia.”He’s just such a great kid, someone who continues to impress with everything that he does.”

Zimbabwe coach confirms Sean Williams will return for second ODI, but Blessing Muzarabani remains unlikely to feature in the series

Andrew McGlashan30-Aug-2022Zimbabwe coach Dave Houghton is seeing encouraging signs that his players are learning how not to “freeze” against the strongest opposition, and hopes that the batters can put together a complete performance during the remainder of the ODI series against Australia.Having been put into bat, the top order – led by a career-best 72 from Wessly Madhevere after the openers had negotiated the first ten overs – built a solid if an unspectacular platform during the opening game on Sunday, as Zimbabwe reached 185 for 4 in the 43rd over before losing their last six wickets for 15.However, Houghton was buoyed by the performance after their recent displays at home had relied on runs from the middle and lower order, led by the prolific Sikandar Raza.Related

• Williams: 'Definitely a big skill gap' between Zimbabwe and Australia

• Houghton interview: 'Real test will be to play fearless cricket against India, Australia'

• 'I like the challenge' – Madhevere hopes for a run at No. 3

“I’ve been quoted about fearless cricket,” Houghton said, Yes, we want to play fearless cricket; we want to see guys expressing themselves. I’ve seen these guys play franchise cricket, and I’ve seen what they can do; and [then] see them play international cricket, especially against these strong sides, and freeze a little bit. Somehow, I’m trying to take away that freezing.”For me, to see our two youngsters go out there against [Mitchell] Starc and [Josh] Hazlewood and get us 40 off the first ten without losing a wicket – that was a big plus for us. Now you can sit down in a team meeting and say, ‘Yes, it was a little different and a little scary going out first against these guys but look what you achieved. What can you do the next game and the game after?’.”It’s building blocks all the time. Tours like this don’t happen very often for us, so when you get the opportunity it’s a real learning for us.”Houghton was open in admitting that the skill gap between Zimbabwe and teams such as India and Australia is “huge”, but is focusing on ensuring the team move back up the rankings and compete with sides around them.He hoped that some of what the players learn in Townsville can be put to use in the T20 World Cup next month when they will return to Australia for the Group B qualifiers in Hobart with the aim of reaching the main draw.”The skill gap is huge between us, India, Australia and England – there’s no hiding from that,” Dave Houghton•AFP/Getty Images

In the more immediate term, Houghton wanted to see an improvement in the team’s fielding for the second ODI on Wednesday, recalling previous landmark victories and how it is an area Zimbabwe can compete in regardless of batting and bowling skill.”The skill gap is huge between us, India, Australia, [and] England – there’s no hiding from that,” he said. “Your batters are better than us, they’re more experienced, your bowlers are taller and faster than us. What we can do is field competitively, which I wasn’t happy about the other day; [I] thought we were lethargic and looked very jetlagged.”For us to compete with these sides and try to get a win against them – which we’ve done over the years with our giant-killing sides – every part of your game has to be right on song from the beginning. If we put a score on the board, [and] then bowl and field incredibly well, we can put enough pressure on sides [so] that if they aren’t quite on their game we can beat them.”Houghton suggested the batters may take a different approach to trying to finish the innings, having had trouble combatting the short deliveries in the first match, where Cameron Green bagged a maiden five-wicket haul.”What we talked about at the end of the game is how we get that last bit of our innings organised a bit better,” he said. “They were all trying to take it on but weren’t quite good enough at it, so is there another way? Can we ramp it a bit? Maybe, if we don’t hook, can we back away and cut?”These are all things for them to solve themselves, but we need to play the backend better which, for us, [is] a new situation. The games we won against Bangladesh – and when we did compete well with India – we got all the runs at the middle and back, and nothing at the front. So hopefully we’ll put both ends together at one stage on this tour.”Houghton confirmed that experienced allrounder Sean Williams would return after an elbow injury ruled him out of the opening match, and would likely replace a fast bowler. However, Blessing Muzarabani is unlikely to feature on this tour as he continues his recovery from a thigh injury with the focus on getting him ready for the T20 World Cup.