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Fast bowler realises that both he and his team needs to take more responsibility with the bat

Mohammad Isam21-Jan-2021West Indies can no longer think about their lack of experience if they are to beat Bangladesh at home. Fast bowler Alzarri Joseph, one of the few members of this squad to have ODI caps prior to this tour, said that they now have enough information about the opposition and conditions to mount a comeback in the second game on Friday.West Indies went down by six wickets after being bowled out for 122. Joseph gave them a steady start, before left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein showed that their bowling has the bite that their batting lacked.Joseph, who went wicketless in his eight overs but was highly economical, said that the West Indies camp is very motivated to bounce back in the second game, knowing full well that another defeat would be the end of the series for them.”It probably might have boiled down to not having the experience playing against a team that is well experienced,” Joseph said. “Probably a bit of (lack of) application as well. But, that being said, we have already seen what is there to come at us, so we have no excuses in the second ODI. We have seen their bowling attack and somewhat of their batting. So we should be well prepared to give a better showing in the second ODI.”Everyone is aware of what’s at stake. Everyone is pumped up to give a better showing in the second ODI. It is really important for us to come in. This game is even more important than the last one. If we lose this game, it’s the series. Everyone knows exactly what they need to do. We have to play harder, dig deeper and push the Bangladeshis all the way. From ball one to ball 300.”Joseph admitted that had there been a hundred more runs on the board in the first game, they could have made a good fist of it. He said that the pace bowlers have to show patience in order to get the best of out pitches that are generally spin-friendly.”Maybe 220 would have been a more challenging total based on what the bowlers put up yesterday. A few more early wickets, and you don’t know what could have happened.”It wasn’t the best (pitch) to bat on, if I was to be honest. As a fast bowling group, we have to more consistent, hit good areas. Also play the patient game. I know its 50 overs, not necessarily the longest format. But being patient in the good areas is what is needed for the fast bowlers to be successful in this wicket,” he said.West Indies could have made a bigger score on Wednesday, particularly after Kyle Mayers and Rovman Powell added 59 runs for the sixth wicket. But from 115 for 5, they slipped to 122 all out.Joseph said that the lower order must take a bit more responsibility, and he himself has ambitions to become an allrounder, although his first priority being bowling.”We all have our roles to play, weight to pull. If the top half got skittled out earlier, the bottom half has to pull that weight. It is a team. We all need to look within ourselves and realise that this is international cricket, and we have to do better.”Personally I am aiming to become an allrounder myself. But as of now, I am just taking everything step by step. I am looking to, firstly, do my main attribute which is contribute what I can with the ball, and then I will give my best in batting.Joseph however ruled out the notion that bowling first is the best way to go with their fragile batting and somewhat better bowling attack. “A toss could go either way. We all have to be prepared for what we have to do first, or second. I think it all boils down to cricket.”We shouldn’t focus on the toss. We have to be better than Bangladesh in all three aspects if we want to win games,” he said.

The seamer’s third-over blitz helped PNG skittle Bermuda out for 89

The Report by Peter Della Penna in Dubai19-Oct-2019When Bermuda last played Papua New Guinea at ICC Academy Oval 1 in 2012, Janeiro Tucker produced a hat-trick of sixes in the final over off PNG captain Rarua Dikana to deliver a stunning five-wicket win. At the same venue on Saturday morning, it was PNG who stunned Bermuda with a hat-trick of their own as Norman Vanua’s third-over blitz set up a ten-wicket mauling.Bermuda were already struggling at 11 for 2 in two overs after the left-arm new-ball pace-spin duo of Nosaina Pokana and Jason Kila removed Okera Bascome and the 44-year-old Tucker, back for one last hurrah after first retiring in May 2018. Vanua was brought on in the third over in place of Pokana as captain Assad Vala rotated his bowlers rapidly to keep Bermuda off balance, and it worked to maximum effect in this particular sequence.Vanua struck the first blow in his hat-trick maiden off the fourth ball, bowling captain Dion Stovell, who was late driving a full length ball. Kamau Leverock then fished at a good-length ball outside off to edge behind for the second before Deunte Darrell was pinned on the toe with a yorker, making it 11 for 5. Sussex star Delray Rawlins could only watch helplessly from the non-striker’s end.Rawlins did his best to counter-attack, driving and pulling his way to a series of boundaries off Vanua in the fifth over to hit him out of the attack. But his stay was ended by Vala, who pierced through to bowl him for 25 and, at 43 for 6 in the eighth over, Bermuda faced an uphill battle to last the full 20 overs. Charles Amini, Damien Ravu and Pokana methodically worked their way through the rest of the order to wrap up the innings in just 17.2 overs.PNG attacked in the Powerplay, in pursuit of an early net run-rate boost. Vala and Tony Ura swept and drove their way to 47 for 0 after the first six. Vala eventually brought up a 32-ball half-century in the tenth with a four flicked over wide long-on, his seventh to go with one six, before he ended the match pinching a two to long-on with 58 balls to spare.

Australia’s coach has said he will have a ‘close look’ at various aspects of the side including leadership, and that Finch had ‘put his best foot forward’ with his performances in the T20 tri-series

Liam Brickhill in Harare08-Jul-2018Two formats, eleven games, three wins. Thus ends the first chapter in Australia’s new era after their defeat to Pakistan in the final of the T20 tri-series in Zimbabwe. But while they have lost more than they have won over the last month, they have gained in experience according to new coach Justin Langer, who also hinted that Aaron Finch could assume the role of captain across both limited-overs formats.”After this tour we’ll have a really, really close look at everything we’re doing at the moment including our leadership, which is such an incredibly high priority in Australian cricket,” Langer said. “Finchy has definitely put his best foot forward in this series. So we’ll look at that. We’ll look at all our staff. We’ll look at everything to make sure we keep flying forward, as is the expectation of the Australian cricket team.”After England’s 5-0 ODI hammering in England last month, Langer had conceded that Australia would need to work out whether Tim Paine was the right man to captain them in that format. Finch’s performances in this tri-series will certainly bolster his credentials for the role; he was the leading run-scorer, with 306 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 201.31, including a world-record 172 against Zimbabwe. He is second only to Fakhar Zaman in terms of overall T20I runs in 2018.”He’s been brilliant,” Langer said. “Finchy and I spoke privately yesterday and I told him he’s done a great job at the top of the order. To have someone that dynamic is a great example to all our players. As we saw from Pakistan today, you’ve got to play fearless cricket. D’Arcy [Short] started taking steps towards that today, like we’ve seen from him in Big Bash cricket. That’s how he needs to play his cricket.”Australia also have the leading wicket-taker in T20Is this year in Andrew Tye, but, as Finch pointed out, taking wickets will only get you so far in T20 cricket if you’re not also stopping the flow of runs.”When we’re having a big over, they’re very big,” Finch said. “Ten overs over 10 today, one over 20. Not a great way to structure a bowling performance. You’re always going to be under pressure regardless of how many wickets you take if they’re some of your stats. It’s just about guys getting back to the basics and making sure that they’re executing when there’s no pressure on so that when the time comes in a final like this, they’re confident in their skills and able to deliver.”Australia appeared to have the second half of the match well under their control when Glenn Maxwell struck twice in the first over, but Fakhar and Sarfraz Ahmed, and then Fakhar and Shoaib Malik led Pakistan’s riposte with the bat to wrest back control and hurt Australia’s bowlers “badly”.”You can’t take anything for granted against the number one team in the world,” said Finch. “Or any international team. They’ll hurt you if you’re complacent. I don’t think we were complacent, I think with the ball we just mis-executed and got hurt badly. Guys had really good plans, but just missed slightly, and that’s all it needs to be in T20 cricket against good players.”While Australia won’t be leaving Zimbabwe with the tri-series trophy, they have at least gained considerably in experience – the lack of which has created an imbalance in Australia’s squad, according to Langer.”I think we’ve shown, throughout this series and in England, just our lack of experience,” said Langer. “The only way you get experience is by number one, playing, but also having some really tough experiences. We’ve certainly seen that in England, and also the last two times we’ve played Pakistan. They’re the number one team in the world.”Whilst it looks horrible on the surface to lose, I think looking at the bigger picture, I was very impressed with the way Jhye Richardson and Billy Stanlake stood up today. They’re both really young cricketers, but besides Jhye’s last over, he fielded brilliantly and bowled really well. Billy’s been good throughout the series. So there’s some great experience for those guys. We’ve shown our inexperience over the last six weeks, but we’ll be much better for it.”To have a couple of experienced guys who are playing well, like Glenn Maxwell, Finchy and AJ Tye is awesome,” added Langer. “In a great team you’ve usually got eight of those sort of players with a couple of younger players. We’ve probably got three experienced players with eight very inexperienced players. So the balance isn’t quite right at the moment, but hopefully moving forward we’ll get that balance back as we usually have in an Australian cricket team.”

A flare-up in the dressing room immediately after the Champions Trophy final may have been the final act of Anil Kumble’s tumultuous final weeks as India coach

Nagraj Gollapudi21-Jun-20171:06

How the Kohli-Kumble saga played out

A flare-up in the dressing room immediately after the Champions Trophy final may have been the last act of Anil Kumble’s tumultuous final weeks as India coach. According to insiders, Kumble, who stepped down as coach on Tuesday, gave a “dressing-down” to one of his players at The Oval on Sunday, moments after Pakistan had completed a 180-run win to seal the title.Debriefings are part of the coach’s job and it was natural for Kumble to have been disappointed after the crushing defeat. But a BCCI official said his timing was not right.”After the final he gave a big dressing-down to the player,” the official said. “There is a time for everything. Team has just lost. They are down. You come and [give the dressing down].”Kumble was unavailable to comment on developments since Tuesday.The morning after the final, when Kumble met the BCCI top brass, he was told of the reservations the players, including captain Virat Kohli, had with regards to his approach. In his parting note, which he released on Twitter on Tuesday, Kumble said it was the first time he had been told of these differences. Yet, others in the know insist that the relationship between Kohli and Kumble had become dysfunctional over the last few months.On Tuesday, when the India squad left for the Caribbean to play a limited-overs series against West Indies, Kumble stayed back in London to participate in the ICC’s chief executives committee meeting, where he sat as chairman of the cricket committee. Although Kumble’s year-long contract ended with the Champions Trophy, the BCCI had given him an extension until the end of the West Indies series.”Kumble had accepted to travel to the West Indies, but that was subject to resolving the differences,” the BCCI official said. The BCCI had even booked a room in his name in the team hotel in Trinidad, where India start the five-match ODI series on June 23. Kumble was meant to land on Thursday.Kumble had been recommended by the BCCI’s three-man cricket advisory panel comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. Despite not having any formal coaching experience, the CAC felt Kumble had the right credentials for the job, and offered it to him ahead of candidates such as Ravi Shastri, who had been the India team director for two years.Before the Champions Trophy, the BCCI decided to invite fresh applications instead of extending Kumble’s contract. The job was advertised the day India landed in England (May 25) to start their Champions Trophy campaign. Asked if he agreed with the BCCI’s decision, Kohli simply said the BCCI was following its usual processes. Later on, during the tournament, he denied any rift within the team, saying there were “no issues whatsoever”. BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary, meanwhile, said the friction between coach and players was solely in the “realms of imagination” of the media.According to one of its officials, the BCCI had booked a room in the team hotel for Anil Kumble in Trinidad, where India start their five-match ODI series against West Indies•Getty Images

Only six applicants put forward their resume, one of them being Kumble himself. The CAC informed the BCCI that Kumble remained the frontrunner as his track record as coach had no blemish. The CAC was then asked to patch up the differences between Kumble and Kohli. Although the CAC met Kohli, it did not meet with Kumble.In his meeting with the BCCI on Tuesday, Kumble said that since the CAC did not want to meet him he could not have been doing anything wrong. “Anil just did not budge,” the BCCI official said. “He said the CAC met Virat and did not meet me [Kumble], so I am the guy who is right.”Kumble has never been shy of expressing his opinion, but the official said the last word in the dressing room has always belonged to the captain. Kumble, according to the official, was trying to “overstep” and that caused problems. “In the cricket construct it is the captain who takes the credit and the flak. Everybody else plays the supporting role. But Kumble wanted due credit.”It is understood “multiple meetings” took place during the Champions Trophy to attempt to repair the relationship, but Kohli’s opinion had not changed when he met the BCCI separately on Monday. “There is no cricketing difference between the two. It has been a personality clash.”Kumble and Kohli not wanting to reach out to each other to mend their differences may have widened the chasm between the pair over the past few months, culminating in the former opting to leave the job. The board official felt Kumble, being the senior, could have tried a little harder to reach out to Kohli. The official said being a prominent personality himself and having been in cricket for a long time, Kumble could have drawn on that experience to “handle personalities” in the dressing room.In his statement, Kumble said he had made clear the distinction between the roles of coach and captain. “I was informed for the first time yesterday by the BCCI that the captain had reservations with my ‘style’ and about my continuing as the head coach,” he said. “I was surprised since I had always respected the role boundaries between captain and coach.”

Lingering hopes of a positive outcome to Derbyshire’s match against Glamorgan at Derby were not so much put on ice as frozen out by a spectacular storm midway through the final afternoon

ECB Reporters Network27-Apr-2016
ScorecardJacques Rudolph said he had never played in colder conditions than at Derby•Getty Images

Lingering hopes of a positive outcome to Derbyshire’s match against Glamorgan at Derby were not so much put on ice as frozen out by a spectacular storm midway through the final afternoon.A violent hailstorm broke over the ground shortly after 2.25pm and turned the outfield white, leaving conditions too wet for the match to resume.By that stage, there was little chance of anything other than a draw with Glamorgan 87 for 2 in their second innings, a lead of 119, with Jacques Rudolph and Chris Cooke making sure there was no late panic in the visiting dressing room.Even before the start of the fourth day, both teams were struggling to get into a position from which they could have exerted enough pressure to force victory with Derbyshire 46 behind with one wicket intact.Tom Poynton and Andy Carter extended their partnership to 56 in nine overs and Derbyshire were only five away from a fourth batting point when Carter got a steepling leading edge off Michael Hogan.Carter’s career-best 39 had helped reduce the deficit to 32 so Derbyshire still entertained slim hopes if they could strike early.The lead had increased by 26 when James Kettleborough made his second misjudgment of the match with the same result, off stump knocked back offering no shot, and Will Bragg followed his first-day century with another lbw dismissal to Wes Durston’s off-spin.At lunch, Glamorgan were 79 ahead and Rudolph and Cooke quietly eased the game towards the draw that was confirmed when hailstones the size of marbles descended on the ground.In all, 138 overs were lost to weather of varying shades of winter and spoiled what Derbyshire’s elite performance director Graeme Welch believes could have been a very good game.”It’s not very often you see snow nearly at the start of May and Jacques Rudolph said it was the coldest he’s ever played in.”I think they probably got 50 or 60 runs too many in the first innings but we did well to get what we did with Andy Carter smacking it around and I think if the weather hadn’t intervened, it would have been a very good game on a very good cricket pitch.”For Hogan, who finished with four wickets, it was a case of what might have been. “It’s a shame because the weather ruined a good game of cricket.”If we had a full four days of play, it would have been a really nice game. Given our performance last week, we had some things to take care of and prove that was just a mishap and they probably thought they might be able to knock us over.”So we took it as a way to exorcise some demons.”

By the time Neil Broom had walked off at the end of the Otago innings having scored an unbeaten 117, the Perth Scorchers were looking at a target of 243 – far beyond their reach

The Report by Mohammad Isam25-Sep-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsNeil Broom hit eight sixes in his unbeaten 117•BCCI

Exactly at which point Neil Broom had begun to take off is hard to tell. It could be when he struck Burt Cockley for three consecutive fours in the 14th over, or just the sight of Ryan ten Doeschate at the other end, upon which he hit the first of his eight sixes. One can be quite certain that Simon Katich had no idea, because by the time Broom had walked off at the end of the Otago innings having scored an unbeaten 117, the Perth Scorchers captain was looking at a total – 242 for four in 20 overs – far beyond the reaches of his young team.And it remained so, as they made 180 for 6, and Otago finishing with an emphatic 62-run win. With the win, the New Zealand side not only kick-started their Champions League campaign, they set a few records on the way.They have now completed a streak of 14 consecutive Twenty20 wins, second only to Sialkot Stallion’s 25-match winning streak. They had made the highest team score in the Champions League, as well as their best as a team, and Broom became only the fourth batsman to score a hundred in the competition, and the first in two years.Broom was the main man for Otago, hammering, swatting and cracking sixes and fours on his way to a 56-ball unbeaten 117. He smashed nine fours and eight sixes. He played out 14 dot balls, most of them at the start of his innings when he saw two wickets fall in consecutive balls in the third over. There were some nervy moments during his 67-run third wicket stand with Derek de Boorder but that was, as it was later understood by Otago’s continuous onslaught, a way to unnerve the Scorchers’ bowlers. There were some close calls, including a dropped catch at slip by Adam Voges when de Boorder’s slash only found the edge in the fourth over.After de Boorder fell to Voges after making 45 off 28 balls with five fours and two sixes, ten Doeschate weighed in. The Dutch allrounder straightaway went after the bowling, and increasingly, Broom too became aggressive.Broom saw ten Doeschate survive a catch at long-on, the ball trickling over the rope, and still go after the bowling. Both were now on the charge, hounding the younger bowlers with boundaries off the first ball of their overs. They brought up their 100-run stand in just 39 balls, and Otago reached the 200-run mark in the 18th over.Soon, Broom reached his maiden Twenty20 hundred with a swivel pull, one of many leg-side sixes during his marauding knock. He struck three consecutive sixes in the 19th over, the second of which brought up his century. His second fifty came in just 17 balls.The Scorchers’ torment worsened when Liam Davis holed out at third man off the first ball of their innings. Ashton Agar, the other opener, fell off the last ball of the over, top-edging to the keeper. And as it happens in such dire situations, there was a run-out, Katich becoming the victim of poor calling with Voges. From 11 for 3, a successful chase looked improbable, to put it mildly.Otago’s blitz from 9 for 2 to 242 for 4 should have inspired the Scorchers but they didn’t find a Broom among themselves. Only a 65-run fourth wicket stand between Hilton Cartwright and Voges took them out of the slide, before Cartwright added another 51 runs for the fifth wicket with Ashton Turner. Cartwright was unbeaten on 69 off 53 balls with six fours and a couple of sixes.But this will be the most memorable day in Broom’s Twenty20 career, having not played for New Zealand since 2010. Otago too have proved themselves as a strong domestic side, though they have a lot to prove in the rest of this tournament.

The Videocon Group, an Indian conglomerate, has expressed interest in buying Deccan Chargers from its owners Deccan Chronicle, the first potential buyer to openly declare its position

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Sep-2012The Videocon Group, an Indian conglomerate, has expressed interest in buying Deccan Chargers from its owners Deccan Chronicle, the first potential buyer to openly declare its position. The franchise had formally been put up for sale on Thursday with the owners in the middle of well-publicised financial issues.Videocon have wanted to own an IPL team for a few years now, having lost out to the Sahara group in bidding for the Pune franchise in 2010. “We are interested and will place our bids for buying out Deccan Chargers,” Venugopal Dhoot, the chairman of the electronics-to-energy Videocon Group, told the . “It’s a good fit for our brand and will be used to connect to our consumers.”Another report quoted Dhoot as saying he would bid around Rs 700 crore [approx $126mn]. Chargers was bought by Deccan Chronicle for $107mn in the first IPL team auction in 2008, which made it the third-most expensive franchise, after Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore, at the time.Bidding for Chargers, under the aegis of the BCCI, closes on September 13, with the winning bid to be announced on the same day. The notice inviting bids states that the franchise will continue to be based in Hyderabad. Dhoot, however, was quoted in the as saying that if Videocon make the winning bid, they would like Chargers to be shifted to Ahmedabad, if the BCCI allows it.Deccan Chronicle are facing pressure from their lenders, having also mortgaged Chargers to banks as security against debts, and have had to put the franchise up for sale to raise funds. They had been trying to sell the franchise, in whole or part, for some time now, with T Venkattram Reddy, the Deccan Chronicle chairman, telling the recently that they were in advanced talks with potential buyers. But the deal reportedly faced complications, with some investors in the franchise asking the board to get involved.

Mitchell Johnson produced the fourth-best figures in Australia’s one-day history to set his team on the path to a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in Pallekele

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Aug-2011Mitchell Johnson is rapidly becoming Australia’s subcontinent specialist, after his six-wicket haul set up Australia’s victory in the first ODI in Pallekele. Sri Lanka’s batsmen struggled to handle Johnson, who has also proved himself dangerous man in India, where of foreign bowlers only Muttiah Muralitharan has more one-day wickets than Johnson.In his third ODI in Sri Lanka, the other two having come during this year’s World Cup, Johnson struck in his first over when Mahela Jayawardene flashed at a fullish ball outside off stump and edged behind. The key wicket of Kumar Sangakkara followed when he prodded a slower ball to short cover, and it was the best possible start Johnson could have hoped for in his 100th ODI.”You know it’s always going to be a challenge in these conditions,” Johnson said after the game. “It’s always hot, the wickets are always pretty flat and slow. You get yourself up for these challenges. I felt pretty calm today. I was a bit nervous through those Twenty20 games and I think that got the little jitters out. It was my hundredth game today, [which was] pretty exciting for me.”[The pitch] looked a little slower, a little drier [than in the two Twenty20 losses]. It didn’t get dewy tonight I don’t think. I didn’t mind bowling on it. I got the ball to tail a bit away from the right-handers, which is always handy.”Johnson’s 6 for 31 placed him fourth on Australia’s all-time list of best figures in a one-day international, behind only the seven-wicket hauls from Glenn McGrath and Andy Bichel at the 2003 World Cup, and a six-for from Gary Gilmour in 1975. It was a fine effort given that Johnson was the sixth bowler used, the only time in his hundred games he had been that far down the bowling list.”It’s exciting to be ranked against those guys,” he said. “But to be able to go out there and do what we needed for the team [was the main thing]. I didn’t know if I was getting a bowl today. But that was what was needed at the time. Sri Lanka got off to a very good start with the new ball and the spinners came on and slowed things up a bit. It gave me an opportunity to use my skills. In the end, the result that we won the game was the more pleasing thing.”The captain, Michael Clarke, used his spinners to make the initial breakthroughs after Sri Lanka’s openers put together a good partnership, and he rotated his bowlers well throughout the innings. Clarke said keeping Johnson up his sleeve had been a conscious plan, and the idea paid off.”I was just trying to get the ball a little bit older and he could use his strength, which is pace, and also he could use his angle to take the ball across the right-handers,” Clarke said. “He bowled beautifully. I thought he really executed his skill very well today and we looked after him in the field. The boys fielded really well today, we hung on to our catches, which is great to see because we’ve been training really hard.”Australia’s batsmen had little trouble chasing 192 and they had some valuable time in the middle to get used to the mystery spin of Ajantha Mendis, who could play a major role throughout the series. Clarke said learning how to handle Mendis would be an ongoing process, but he was confident they could avoid the kind of capitulation that took place in the second Twenty20, when Mendis took six wickets.”He’s a very good bowler and especially in conditions like this, where there’s enough spin for him,” Clarke said. “All of our batters know we’re going to be facing a lot of spin throughout this one-day series and into the Test series, and we saw it in the Twenty20 as well.”We have to continue to practice, continue to look at a lot of footage, because a lot of their bowlers have so many different variations that it takes some time to adjust and get used to it. I think what we did really well today was we allowed ourselves a little bit of extra time to get used to the variations of the bowlers and then have the courage to play our way and play our shots.”The series continues with matches in Hambantota on Sunday and Tuesday, before the teams head to Colombo for the final two one-dayers.

The hastily-arranged match between the Australians and an England XI captained by Lord Harris, now deemed to be the first Test staged in England, was won by the home side but produced a thrilling contest which ebbed and flowed to the end

Martin Williamson06-Sep-2010The hastily-arranged match between the Australians and an England XI captained by Lord Harris, now deemed to be the first Test staged in England, was won by the home side but produced a thrilling contest which ebbed and flowed to the end.The Australians came into the match without their trump card, the fast bowler Fred Spofforth who had injured a hand in a meaningless game a week earlier. His absence almost certainly proved the difference between the sides. Harris had failed to persuade two or three top names to play for him, but despite that the England team was strong.Despite the authorities dismissive approach to the whole tour, the appeal of a match between strong England and Australia sides proved a massive attraction. On the first day 20,814 spectators paid admission, with another 19,863 on the second. Thousands more found vantage points on trees outside the ground and on the gasometers.In glorious late-summer sun, Lord Harris won the toss and batted, reaching 404 for 8 by the close of the first day of three. WG Grace made 152 in three hours 55 minutes out of 281 scored while he was at the wicket, while Bunny Lucas and Lord Harris added fifties. Only three late wickets gave the Australians any hope.England’s tail was soon polished off on day two – the last six wickets fell for 16 runs – and then bowled out the Australians for 149. Fred Morley, the Nottinghamshire left-arm seamer, took 5 for 56 and the follow-on was enforced. When they reached the close on 170 for 6, still 101 from making England bat again, few doubted the game would extend to lunch on the final day.A small crowd of 3751 gathered for the last rites, and two quick wickets seemed to signal the end. But Billy Murdoch, Australia’s captain and a top-order batsman, remained and set about the bowling, and he found good support from the Nos 10 and 11, George Alexander and William Moule, who both chipped in with thirties. Built around Murdoch’s 153, they did enough to give their side a lead, but it was only 57.WG Grace, weary from bowling, chose to bat down the order but the decision backfired as England crashed to 31 for 5, both EM and FR Grace making ducks, FR bagging a pair in his only Test. WG Grace strode out at No. 7, steadied the innings, and England won by five wickets, sparking wild celebrations. The significance of Spofforth’s absence was underlined two years later at The Oval when England were set 85 and lost, Spofforth taking 14 wickets in the match.The was a sad footnote as Fred Grace, the youngest of the three brothers playing in the game, was dead within a fortnight. From The Oval he traveled to a match in the rain at Stroud, got soaked and then slept the night on a damp mattress. He contracted a chill and died days later from pneumonia. Despite failing with the bat at The Oval, his catch to dismiss George Bonner went into cricket folklore. The mighty Bonner skied one towards the gasometer side of the ground, the ball going so igh that the batsmen had completed two runs and were on they for a third when Grace held the catch. Where Grace took it was measured the same day as being 115 yards from the bat.

Stoinis’ 27-ball 61* allowed Australia to race to a modest target with nearly nine overs left

Danyal Rasool18-Nov-2024Australia signed off their T20I series against Pakistan as they played the rest of it: with a decisive seven-wicket win that also sealed the series 3-0. Pakistan limped to 117 before being bowled out in 18.1 overs, losing their last nine wickets for 56 runs. Adam Zampa ran rings around them after the Powerplay, his 2-11 in four overs the catalyst for their collapse. Babar Azam – who top-scored with 41 off 28, had led Pakistan to a good position in the first six overs; by that time, the visitors sat relatively pretty at 58 for 1.Marcus Stoinis put any jeopardy out of the contest in the chase when he smashed Haris Rauf for 22 in an over. His 27-ball 61 meant Australia got to the target with almost nine overs to spare after Pakistan had made a respectable start in their attempt to defend a below-par target. Jake Fraser-McGurk and Matthew Short fell early, while Jahandad Khan’s variations made life tricky for Australia in the powerplay. But, as Stoinis later guaranteed, the visitors were merely delaying the inevitable.Pakistan’s bright startPakistan came out with clear intent after they had shown precious little of it when trying to chase Australia down in the previous game. Sahibzada Farhan fell early, but what Pakistan were trying to do was obvious: take advantage of the Powerplay. Even Babar, usually a slow starter, found the boundary off the first ball and carried on in that vein. Haseebullah Khan was riding his luck somewhat, his edges finding the boundary, but that, too, was a product of flashing hard. The upshot was Pakistan racing to 58 – their highest powerplay score in an innings against Australia.Zampa’s sorceryZampa’s impeccable control and skill makes him little short of a sorcerer in this format. For Pakistan, today, he was also their torturer – toying with batters at will as he varied pace, line, and variations, keeping batters second-guessing all the time.Adam Zampa put Babar Khan’s proactive innings to a halt•Getty Images

It took him just five balls before he saw to it that Haseebullah’s luck ran out, the flash outside off stump finding short third. In his third over, he put an end to Babar’s entertaining knock, adjusting the flight of his delivery as he saw the batter running down the wicket, and cleaning up his stumps.Even when he wasn’t taking wickets, he was piling on the pressure at the other end. Pakistan’s stand-in captain Salman Ali Agha played out five dot balls against him before he was put out of his misery by Aaron Hardie in the following over, and his figures of 4-0-11-2 didn’t remotely flatter him.Pakistan’s balanceIt’s difficult to expect the batters to play high-risk cricket when you simply don’t have enough batters. Pakistan had clearly briefed the team they expected aggression from the outset, even from players to whom it doesn’t come naturally. Usman Khan tends to take a few balls before being able to launch, but he came out from ball one looking to slog – even when the shot was never on. It never looked sustainable, as was demonstrated when he holed out off his fourth delivery, triggering a Pakistan collapse.Marcus Stoinis made 61* off 27 balls•Getty Images

Every fall of wicket was made all the more concerning for the visitors because of the extreme length of their tail; they effectively ran out of batters when the fifth wicket fell, with Abbas Afridi coming out at No. 7. It proved a problem for them in the second game, too, and remains an issue they need to find a way to resolve.Australia get on top of Haris – finallyA running theme in this series is Haris Rauf coming out and dominating whichever Australian batter he finds at the other end. This has been especially true of Glenn Maxwell, but Stoinis said post-match he told Haris this was the only time “one of us” got Haris’ number.And Stoinis did so in enthralling fashion. At the end of the eighth over, Australia were 57 for 2, and Pakistan still believed they had time to insert jeopardy into the game. But the ninth over saw him clobber Haris for two fours and two sixes off the first four balls, with the final six flying out of the Bellerive Oval altogether. It began a passage of play that saw Stoinis plunder 45 off his next 12 deliveries, including a 25-run over off Shaheen Afridi. The following over, Abbas had Stoinis caught at deep square leg but had overstepped. Sixty-one runs came off the final 21 balls to draw curtains to the match and the series.