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For Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, Tuesday’s judgement was far worse than the franchises expected and the initial reaction was to hunker down, close ranks and reflect on the situation rather than react

Arun Venugopal14-Jul-2015For Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, Tuesday’s judgement was far worse than the franchises expected and the initial reaction was to hunker down, close ranks and reflect on the situation rather than react. Speculation abounded in the absence of any official comment from either franchise, including rumours that suggested the franchises might be up for sale, but it seems whatever decisions are to be taken will be done after consideration and not in a knee-jerk manner.As the initial shock wore off concerns shifted to the huge hit the franchises’ brand identity would have taken. The immediate impact of Super Kings’ suspension, for instance, was felt in the stock market as India Cements’ share price dipped in the afternoon. Later in the day Aircel, one of Super Kings’ key sponsors, said in a statement that it was “reviewing our position in the matter [its association with the team].”One senior Super Kings official, however, said they had not once entertained thoughts of giving up the team. “You know, we have worked very hard to nurture the team over eight years,” he said. “Besides, will anyone even come up to buy the team now? We will never sell the team.”The official swiftly dismissed as rumour news of Super Kings appealing against the order. “All that you have been hearing and reading are rumours,” he said. “We haven’t taken any decision and neither will we arrive at anything without consulting our in-house legal counsel. We will be sitting down to discuss this in a day or two. The pros and cons of an appeal will have to be considered. We are not in a hurry.”The official, however, admitted that the outcome was “shattering.””We were trying to brace ourselves for this as everyone was talking about a possible suspension. But we didn’t expect to be suspended for two years. In that way, it has been very disappointing,” the official stated.The Royals management, meanwhile, were nervous ahead of the announcement in the morning, but slipped into a huddle soon after. It is understood they, too, are in consultation with their legal team to study the different aspects of the order.”I thought we would get away,” one Royals source said. “I don’t know whether it was the heart thinking or my head. So, the suspension was a bit of a shock.”The biggest impact, as the Super Kings official said, would be on the brand identity. George John, manager, marketing and operations, Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited, said it was too early to speculate on how much the team will be hurt on the sponsorship front. He, however, said sponsors had not abandoned them even in the wake of the 2013 spot-fixing scandal that saw top Super Kings official Gurunath Meiyappan being arrested.”We have never had any problem with our sponsors,” John told ESPNcricinfo. “They have always stood by us. They know what we stand for.”Brand consultant Harish Bijoor felt while the reputation of the two teams had corroded, advertisers and broadcasters were unlikely to pay a huge price. “They are all fair weather friends,” Bijoor said of advertisers and broadcasters. “Their money is totally protected, their contracts are reasonably waterproof to protect themselves against these things. Contracts are clean and sharp. The only people who suffer are the two franchise owners.”Please note that the recommendations are that these two teams don’t play for two years. It’s quite likely that many of the stars of these teams are likely to be figuring in other teams. Two or three teams, theoretically, might come into the IPL. End of the day, the net count of the matches will remain the same if not go up. Nobody loses except the franchises.”Bijoor said it was the end of the road for both Super Kings and Royals as brands, “even if not legally.” “Brands have morality elements. The real custodian of the brand is the viewer. The problem is this brand is not like EPL. It is not as old as a Manchester United is, or as old as a Chelsea is. And loyalties are portable. People will take their loyalties to a new brand. At the end of the day, nobody is wedded to a team as much as to a [MS] Dhoni or a [Suresh] Raina or a [Rahul] Dravid.”He suggested that the teams re-brand themselves if and when they come back into the league, either after the term of suspension or after a change in ownership: “Brands enjoy positive karma and negative karma. This is a bit of negative karma as far as these brands are concerned. Changing the name, the ownership, the entire ethos and putting together a set of corporate governance laws will change that. It has to be an amalgam of many things. It’s a brand restructuring guy’s delight.”

Simon Taufel, the recently retired Australian umpire, will give the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey lecture this year. He will be the first umpire to do so.

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jan-2013Simon Taufel, the recently retired Australian umpire, will give the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey lecture this year. He will be the first umpire to do so.Taufel became the most respected umpire in the world after standing in his first Test match aged 29 in 2000. He was named umpire of the year five successive times from 2004 to 2008 and stood in 74 Tests, 174 ODIs and 34 international Twenty20s – the last of which being the World T20 final in October.He will be the third Australian to deliver the lecture, this year on July 24, following Richie Benaud in 2001 and Adam Gilchrist in 2009, and the third non-international cricketer after Christopher Martin-Jenkins in 2007 and Desmond Tutu in 2008.”Simon Taufel has been one of the most respected umpires in world cricket for over a decade,” MCC president, Mike Griffith, said. “I am delighted that he has accepted the club’s invitation to give the thirteenth lecture.”He will offer a unique insight into how the spirit of cricket preamble practically translates within the modern game. As a member of the MCC laws sub-committee, the club already benefits from his vast knowledge and experience to help tackle the key issues surrounding the game’s laws. I am very much looking forward to listening to him address the current areas of contention in the sport.”Taufel said he was initially shocked to be asked: “I am delighted, honoured and humbled to be able to participate in such an important cricket event – I look forward to representing umpiring in this fine tradition and all that Lord Cowdrey stood for.”The spirit of cricket Cowdrey lecture began in 2001 in memory of the late Lord Cowdrey, a past president of MCC, who, together with another former president, Ted Dexter, was the driving force in having the spirit of cricket included as the preamble to the laws of the game.Previous lectures have been delivered by Kumar Sangakkara, who, in 2011, was the youngest person to do so, former England captain Geoffrey Boycott and West Indian great Clive Lloyd.

A round-up of the second day’s play of the seventh round of matches of the Ranji Trophy Elite, 2011-12

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Dec-2011Group AFor the second day in a row, eighteen wickets fell at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. With two more days to go, Saurashtra brightened their hopes for a knockout berth by setting a target of 247 and then reducing Railways to 97 for 6.Railways, reeling overnight at 71 for 8, could only add a further ten runs in their first-innings. Subsequently Saurashtra, sitting on a comfortable lead of 94, failed for the second time in succession as they mustered a meagre 152, but the target set seemed to be enough going into the third day.With the exception of Ravindra Jadeja, who played late to top score with 45, the visitors showed the same lack of application as that of the Railways’ batsmen. Luckily it did not hurt Saurashtra so much as Kamlesh Makvana ripped apart the Railways’ batting order in their second innings with his fastish offbreaks, which fetched him his fifth five-for in first-class cricket. There was not much hope for Railways when senior batsmen like Sanjay Bangar and Shivakant Shukla gave away their wickets by charging out to Makvana.The Railways coach Abhay Sharma, however, didn’t blame the nature of the pitch for the slew of wickets. “Some of our batsmen played bad shots. I don’t think the curator is responsible in any way. When you have a three-day gap between two matches, a curator could have hardly done anything,” Sharma said. “In northern India, it’s difficult to water the pitch as it might remain wet and also you can’t just use the roller on a dry pitch.”Orissa were staring at a big first-innings deficit as they ended on 76 for 6 in reply to Rajasthan‘s 423 in Jaipur. Robin Bist’s unbeaten 127 and Puneet Yadav’s 63 were instrumental in Rajasthan getting to an imposing score. The pair added 124 for the fifth wicket before Yadav was caught behind by Alok Mangaraj. The 24-year-old Bist, originally from Delhi, continued till he ran out of partners, hitting 16 fours in his knock. This is his fourth century in five matches for Bist, who at 829 runs is the top run-maker of season so far. Basanth Mohanty finished with 4 for 104.Rajasthan’s Pankaj Singh then made early inroads with the ball before Sumit Mathur, instrumental in Rajasthan’s victory against Saurashtra last week, took three wickets in five overs to leave the visitors in trouble. With Orissa still adrift by 347 runs, the defending champions would like the enforce the follow-on and try and go for an innings victory to get the bonus points and keep alive the chance of a knockout berth for second year in a row. If they do manage to do that, Rajasthan would have to thank Bist a lot. “This has been my best season in Ranji Trophy. Before this season, I had just one Ranji century. Now, I have five,” Bist told the at the end of the second day’s play.Wasim Jaffer became the highest run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy and, along with the belligerent Suryakumar Yadav, steered Mumbai past Punjab‘s first-innings total during a typically elegant knock. Punjab toiled all day but were blunted by Mumbai’s ultra-defensive approach in the first session, and later by Jaffer’s and Yadav’s aggression. With Saurashtra and Rajasthan in strong positions in their games, Punjab’s chances of making the quarter-finals were slim. Read the full report here.The second day’s play in Shimoga followed the course of the first, as Uttar Pradesh mirrored Karnataka‘s batting effort to finish 39 runs short of the first-innings lead, with four wickets standing. Like their Karnataka counterparts on day one, UP built a solid base in the morning, only to lose wickets in a clump in the lead-up to tea. Like Stuart Binny on the first day, Mohammad Kaif battled through the slump, before stalling it with a dogged seventh-wicket stand. Read the full report here.Group BTamil Nadu strengthened their position against Madhya Pradesh in Chennai, with Dinesh Karthik scoring 156 – his second century in as many games – to take the team to 486. The hosts then consolidated their position by sending the vistors’ top order comprising Naman Ojha, Mohnish Mishra and Devendra Bundela – essentially the MP batting’s engine-room – back to the dressing room in no time.Earlier Karthik was bold in his strokeplay, despite having only the tail for support. Yo Mahesh, M Rangarajan and L Balaji all frustrated the MP bowlers, while Karthik went from strength to strength. After the debuant Amarjeet Singh failed to latch on a hard-hit return catch when Karthik was on 89, the former Tamil Nadu captain progressed to make 156. For MP, Ishwar Pandey finished with 4 for 123 off nearly 40 overs. Zafar Ali, the MP opener, witnessed three partners depart before stumps, leaving plenty for the visitors to do on the third day to match TN’s score.Gritty half-centuries from Sourav Ganguly and Anustup Majumdar put Bengal well on course to take a first-innings lead against Baroda at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara. It was an eventful day for Ganguly who started the morning by wrapping up the Baroda innings while he finished with figures of 3 for 1. But Bengal were in for a rude jolt when they were wobbling at 98 for 4, which included the wicket of Manoj Tiwary, who had scored a century in each of his previous three matches. Bengal lost their opener Jayojit Basu to the left-arm seamer Gagandeep Singh, before Firdaush Bhaja had Arindam Das caught in the slips. Shreevats Goswami’s boundary-filled 38 came to an end when he nicked Gagandeep to the keeper. Gagandeep struck again when he had Manoj Tiwary caught at cover.Luckily Ganguly found a stable partner in Majumdar and the paired added vital 93 runs for the fifth wicket before the former Indian captain retired hurt due a left hamstring pull. Till then, Ganguly had 60 runs to his credit including nine fours. Majumdar, who ended the day unbeaten on 71, added a further 73 with Laxmi Shukla before stumps.Gujarat just about managed to take a slender first-innings lead of 21 runs against Haryana in Surat. Resuming on 46 for 1, the Gujarat top order showed an appalling lack of discipline and application, with no one managing even a half century. Luckily for the team, Pratharesh Parmar and Manprit Juneja showed some resistance, adding 63 for the fifth wicket, to help Gujarat to match Haryana’s score. For Haryana the job was done by India legspinner Amit Mishra and the debutant offspinner Jayant Yadav, as the pair took three wickets apiece to peg the hosts back. The other debutant, Mohit Sharma, took two wickets.Haryana erased the deficit of 21 by ending the day on a healthy 61 for no loss. If Gujarat lose this match, they would be relegated to the Plate division. And with the pitch aiding the spinners, a result seems likely. “The match is wide open and any target above 250-275 is going to be difficult to chase in the fourth innings on this ground with the wicket taking spin,” Jayendra Saigal, the Gujarat coach, said. “Our batsmen did not do justice to their talent today.”

New Zealand’s one-day woes continued into a ninth straight game as their batting failed to cope with moist early-morning conditions, before Gautam Gambhir collared them again

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga04-Dec-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
M Vijay was not at his most fluent, but barring that India had few worries in Vadodara•AFP

New Zealand’s one-day woes continued into a ninth straight game as their batting failed to cope with moist early-morning conditions in Vadodara. Zaheer Khan, coming back after injury, and Munaf Patel swung and seamed the ball all right, but New Zealand will look back at how unremarkable their response was. With the pitch easing out in the afternoon, Gautam Gambhir made the chase look ridiculously easy, becoming only the eighth captain to score centuries in back-to-back ODIs.From the time he won the toss and put New Zealand in, Gambhir hardly put a foot wrong, keeping his perfect captaincy record and India’s unbeaten home season intact. New Zealand’s openers gifted their wickets, the middle order went into a shell, and even though James Franklin and Nathan McCullum added 94 for the eighth wicket, it was never going to be enough. Not with Gambhir making room and peppering the off side with drives and cuts, bringing up his fifty in 30 balls, out of India’s 64 then.Watching Gambhir bat, the struggle New Zealand went through early in the morning seemed far away. Brendon McCullum, making a comeback himself, laid out a welcome mat for Zaheer, guiding a widish delivery straight to second slip. Martin Guptill ran himself out soon after.Between those dismissals, Williamson set the template for the day. His front foot went across to the first ball he faced. It swung in enough down the leg side to be called a wide, but Williamson had fallen over trying to correct the movement. Neither Williamson nor Ross Taylor could get rid of that tendency during their short stays. Taylor’s wicket, though, came in a tame fashion as he tried drive Zaheer on the up. The shot was played away from his body, and an inside edge ensued.Taylor’s No. 4 position has been a matter of debate, with arguments that he should take more responsibility and bat at No. 3. Williamson’s inability to counterattack only seemed to highlight that notion. For the third game running, he got off to a slow start, and did little to hit Munaf off his plan.Munaf loves to bowl back of a length, just outside off, and wobble the ball slightly either way. He tends to get a bit rattled when somebody uses that predictability to come down and hit him. In this series, though, no one has come close to doing that. And once Williamson allowed Munaf to do what he wanted, that lbw call seemed a matter of time with the batsman regularly falling over.Modern captains tend to go into the containment mode once the 15th over ends irrespective of how many wickets they might have got. Gambhir, who had put New Zealand in, was refreshingly old-school. When he saw R Ashwin turn the first ball, he set Test-match fields for Scott Styris and James Franklin. Yuvraj, at leg slip, soon came into action taking a sharp low catch to send Styris back. Daniel Vettori did a B McCullum, guiding Yusuf Pathan straight to slip for another sharp catch for Yuvraj, who later returned to leg slip to get rid of Gareth Hopkins too.Having fallen behind the over-rate, though, Gambhir omitted to use four of Zaheer and Nehra’s overs. Facing part-time spinners on a pitch that had eased out a bit, Franklin and N McCullum had little trouble building a partnership. It was almost as if Gambhir was not concerned at all by their stand.The way he turned out with the bat, Gambhir need not have worried either.After having been at the wrong end of Gambhir’s off-side play in Jaipur, New Zealand tried to cramp him up, and found that Gambhir was equally adept at scoring through the on side. He flicked the second ball he faced fine for a boundary. In Kyle Mills’ next over, he picked the gap between mid-on and midwicket. In Mills’ next, Gambhir started making room and went into his favourite off side. He capitalised on the correction on the next delivery, moving to 23 off 11.Andy McKay got the same treatment: wide ball, four; too straight, four; wide again, four. With time, Gambhir’s favourite chips over extra cover and midwicket came out too. He might have seemed to slow down after reaching his fifty, but he took only 58 further deliveries to get to the hundred.M Vijay didn’t struggle like he did in Jaipur, but had to stay content with being the lesser partner in the opening stand. And like he did in Japiur, Virat Kohli came out and scored a half-century in the company of his captain as India cantered home.

Plays of the day from day four of the third Test between South Africa and England at Cape Town

Andrew McGlashan in Cape Town06-Jan-2010Complaint-watch
The most eagerly anticipated part of the day wasn’t the start of play, but what South Africa would do having “raised concerns” about the ball on the third evening. They had until play began to make an official complaint, but word came through that they weren’t going to take it to the next level and left it in the hands of the match referee. The ICC later confirmed they wouldn’t be taking further action and a 16-hour news story was quickly coming to end. The lingering ill-feelings are unlikely to go away as quickly.Take your time
It was not in England’s interests to get too many overs in during the morning session so that South Africa had less opportunity to pile up their lead. After aiming for wickets in the first hour it soon became an exercise in delaying the declaration and England’s bowlers certainly did their bit. One Stuart Broad over took six minutes, while James Anderson used up seven for the over that became the final one of the session. In all, the morning included just 24 overs when there are meant to be 30. England clearly had a tactic, but it left the spectators short-changed. And on this occasion the bowlers couldn’t blame the heat.Duminy breaks free
When JP Duminy walked in South Africa’s lead was already very comfortable, but the pressure was firmly on the left hander. The last three balls he’d faced in the series had brought his downfall and he was on a king pair. That was survived with a solid forward defence and slowly he began to find his timing. He managed to break free with a six over mid-on off James Anderson, but he still had problems with short balls targeted at the body. Those 36 runs will have made him feel better, but only time will if they save his spot.Cook stranded
Duminy, though, could have pulled off a key breakthrough for his team when he had the chance to run out Alastair Cook on 45. Andrew Strauss defended towards backward point and for some reason the opening pair decided there was a run available even though the ball was going almost straight to South Africa’s best fielder. Cook had no chance of making his ground, but even though Duminy took aim he couldn’t hit a single stump from side on…however, in the end it didn’t prove too costly.Pulling up short
As Cook and Strauss completed their first hundred opening stand since the first innings of the Lord’s Test against Australia and South Africa were starting to wonder where a wicket was coming from. Cook had been playing the pull with authority during his innings, but then tried to connect with a ball that wasn’t quite short enough and got a spiralling top edge that was swallowed by Mark Boucher. Cook didn’t give his captain a glance and just turned on his heels.Daryl’s latest shocker
The Umpire Decision Review System has had its critics, but by and large it has been a success in this series. And during this match it has overturned two howling errors, which is just what it was introduced for. The umpiring in the last three Tests has been very impressive, but Daryl Harper has lowered the standards in this game. Yesterday he gave Ashwell Prince out when he missed the ball by a foot and his second shocker was not spotting Kevin Pietersen’s inside edge that saved him from an lbw. Pietersen immediately asked for the review which confirmed the large chunk of wood involved, although Pietersen was soon stone-dead to Dale Steyn. At least the system works.

England coach suggests white-ball captain suffered from formats not being prioritised

Danyal Rasool28-Feb-20255:09

Who will England’s next white-ball captain be?

Sat alongside his departing captain Jos Buttler, perhaps it was telling the first emotion England coach Brendon McCullum voiced was sadness rather than pride. As Buttler announced he was quitting as England’s white-ball captain, expressing his own disappointment at the way events had panned out, McCullum’s initial reaction was to offer sympathy for Buttler and how much he had invested into a role that hasn’t quite worked out.McCullum suggested that was down to the circumstances Buttler had to lead his side in, rather than any shortcomings in his captaincy itself. Even as England struggled in white-ball ICC events since winning the 2022 T20I World Cup, Buttler often found himself leading sides on bilateral tours that weren’t close to full strength.On an ODI and T20I tour of West Indies late last year, sandwiched between Test series against Pakistan and New Zealand, none of England’s all-format players were part of the squad. Against Australia in September, Joe Root was rested after a busy Test season, while a number of players, including Root and Mark Wood, sat home while England toured West Indies at the tail-end of 2023. England lost all three ODI series.Related

• Buttler goes down with the ship as England journey comes full circle

• All-but-through SA hope to pile more misery on out-of-contention England

• Jos Buttler quits as England's white-ball captain after Champions Trophy exit

• Decline and fall: England face up to scale of ODI rebuilding job

McCullum appeared to allude to those circumstances as he spoke of England’s next white-ball captain, and his desire to avoid putting him in similarly unenviable circumstances. “That’s something Keysy [Rob Key] and myself and the ECB are trying to ensure, that we give every format the most amount of attention that we possibly can,” he said. “It’s a tricky balancing act at times.”McCullum has been Test coach since 2022, and had his pick of players for that format. But with all three formats now falling under his stewardship, he hinted that full availability for Test cricket may no longer be as set in stone in future.”Looking back even on these most recent series, you’d argue that you could rest some players for some Test series and try and balance things out across formats,” he said. “Give us a couple of weeks to work things out and digest what’s unfolded here, work out what areas we’ve been short in and done okay in, work out the structure of how we want to do things moving forward. We’ve got a couple of months before our next assignment, so there is a bit of time to work that out.”McCullum kept returning to the theme of Buttler’s captaincy, and how he felt it would be remembered more kindly than raw results might suggest. He said Buttler had set a solid foundation for his replacement, comparing it to the health of the England Test side following Joe Root’s resignation as Test captain in 2022 after a series of indifferent results.2:16

McCullum: England fans deserve to see better results

“I said to the boys tonight in the team room sometimes it’s not necessarily the time that you’re in the post and the results that you get during that time. The impact you have in leadership positions can be felt after you left the post, and I’m sure that’ll be the case. I think Joe Root was a classic example of that with the Test captaincy. He was able to at least hold the fort to a degree under incredibly trying circumstances, and then the uplift of performance when Stokesy [Ben Stokes] took over sort of followed from that, and hopefully it’ll be the same across the white-ball teams whenever we decide on who that person is going to be.”The ECB had hoped linking up Buttler with McCullum, two preternaturally attacking white-ball players, would help unleash England’s white-ball potential in the way managed by Eoin Morgan following the 2015 World Cup. However, with results spiralling, England and McCullum have been criticised for what has come to be seen as a simplistic approach, not necessarily suited to the skillsets of the specific players England’s white-ball sides have at their disposal.McCullum pushed back against that notion firmly, pointing out the close margins England had missed out by this tournament. “We’ve had our opportunities and played some okay cricket,” he said, “and both games we could have won, and then we’re sitting here and talking about something slightly different. I genuinely believe we’ve got immense talent in English cricket across all forms.”If anything, we are lacking confidence. There’s a perception out there that we’re a happy-go-lucky, arrogant type of team. We couldn’t be further from that. These guys are too hard on themselves, they’ve got immense talent they are desperate … to perform. That’s actually stymying the ability of us to get the performance we want. They care too much. That’s not a bad thing. They’re just desperate to perform and do right by all those who support the team, and support them. Until we get to the stage where we’re able to still handle walking out there and playing, without wearing disappointment so heavily, then we’re always going to stymie ourselves. That’s our job over the next little while.”While Harry Brook is the favourite to succeed Buttler, McCullum said England had not decided on a successor. While that is partly because, in McCullum’s words, Buttler’s resignation “came a little sooner than expected”, he felt it also spoke to the characters in the England side.”There’s some really good leaders that have developed,” McCullum said. “That’s the mark of Jos’s captaincy, he brought on other leaders within the group. They’re not necessarily seasoned players, but they are young guys who have got good cricketing knowledge and he’s encouraged them to learn and develop as leaders. Whoever we settle on, we’ve just got to make sure we’re giving them the right support so that we can improve our performances.”

Offspinner Sajid Khan will play his first game of the series

Danyal Rasool02-Jan-2024Pakistan vice-captain Shaheen Shah Afridi has been rested for the third and final Test against Australia at the SCG to manage his workload. Saim Ayub will make his Test debut in place of opener Imam-ul-Haq, who struggled in the second Test at the MCG despite scoring a half-century in Perth.The decision that has been enforced upon the visitors is the continued unavailability of Abrar Ahmed. He bowled in the nets on Monday, but there are lingering doubts about his ability to remain fit over the course of five days, as well as concerns around how his body responds to being Pakistan’s lead spinner and potentially bowling over 50 overs across the Test. Having pulled up with discomfort in his right leg during the Prime Minister’s XI game in Canberra, Pakistan are aware that risking playing him means potentially going down to ten players early into the Test match.Abrar was subsequently ruled out of each of the Tests, and Sajid Khan, the man flown in as his replacement in Perth, will play his first game of the series. It is the first Test Sajid will play since Australia’s tour of Pakistan in 2022. He fell down the pecking order behind Abrar and Noman Ali since, but injuries to both, as well as Pakistan’s eagerness to play a spinner at the SCG, has seen him return to the side.Saim Ayub will make his Test debut•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Afridi’s absence is the big surprise, with captain Shan Masood praising him for being the leader of the attack just hours earlier. But his lack of pace since his return from injury last year has been the most talked-about aspect of his bowling, his pace rarely rising above the low 130s. In addition, he has had to shoulder greater responsibility in the absence of key frontline bowling partner Naseem Shah, with the absence of Pakistan’s first-choice spinner and an inexperienced fast bowling attack throwing an even greater burden his way. Consequently, he has bowled – by far – more deliveries than any other player across both sides this series, sending down four balls shy of 100 overs. The man in second place on that list is offspinner Nathan Lyon at 69.5 overs.Imam being dropped to the bench is less of a surprise, not so much for his struggles in Melbourne but how out of touch he looked while at the crease. Masood also stressed the importance of playing attacking cricket, with Imam’s strike rate of 31.22 not quite conducive to that philosophy. While Ayub has limited red-ball experience – the 21-year old has only played 14 first class games – his aggressive disposition is more likely to fall in tune with that brand of cricket.Australian captain Pat Cummins announced earlier on Tuesday that the hosts were going into the third Test with an unchanged side after having taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in this series.

Brunt was also mum on international future, saying she needs ‘to reflect on that bit and see where I’m at’

Valkerie Baynes07-Aug-2022A tearful Katherine Brunt exited the Commonwealth Games without a medal to show for what had been – until their semi-final loss to India – an excellent tournament for England… and without knowing whether she will play international cricket again.Brunt, England’s 37-year-old seamer, had seen this event as her “one and only shot” at standing on a Games medal podium, but when India ended their hopes of contesting the gold-medal match, it seemed the host nation never recovered and they were thrashed by New Zealand in the bronze-medal playoff.Brunt had also said in the lead-up to the Games in Birmingham that she would see how she felt after the tournament before deciding whether to call time on her international career or play on to next year’s T20 World Cup in South Africa.Speaking immediately after Sunday’s loss to New Zealand at Edgbaston, tears rolling down her cheeks and her voice wavering, the emotions were too raw for Brunt to make any announcement on her future.Related

• Brunt: 'If I break after the Commonwealth Games, so be it'

• Brunt: 'I've considered retirement constantly' over 'most challenging year of my career'

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• Hayley Jensen, Sophie Devine help New Zealand bag bronze medal

“I don’t know,” Brunt said when asked if she had played her last game for England. “I need to reflect.”I’ve got to get up in two days and play the Hundred, which is savage, but that’s life, that’s sport, and I will. But yeah, I need to reflect on that bit and see where I’m at, what my next goal is.”Brunt described Sunday’s defeat, built on an excellent all-round bowling performance from New Zealand – led by Hayley Jensen and 18-year-old Fran Jonas – and an unbeaten half-century from captain Sophie Devine as one of the toughest of her career, which has been going for as long as Jonas has been alive.”Everything is heightened when you get to the end of your career,” Brunt said. “Everyone will experience it. Things seem to mean a bit more, other things seem to slip away a little bit further. As long as I can hold my head up high and know I gave it everything I’ve got.”Despite her vast experience – perhaps because of it – England’s Commonwealth Games campaign on home soil meant a huge amount to Brunt, who said the team wanted to win a medal for the host nation.”It felt like a lot,” she said. “You’re doing it for your country. Normally, playing international cricket, I play for England, it shouldn’t be any different but it did feel different. It felt like the actual whole country was behind us and we’re just sad we let them down.”We couldn’t quite do it. On a personal level, it was my one and only shot at that so obviously I’m taking it quite bad. I’m exhausted. I’ve given it everything I’ve got and I can live with that.”England fielded a side featuring two 17-year-olds in Alice Capsey and Freya Kemp plus 20-year-old Issy Wong and all three newcomers performed admirably. In fact, England enjoyed a strong campaign despite losing captain Heather Knight to a hip injury before the start.They went undefeated through the group stage, including a thumping seven-wicket win with 50 balls remaining against New Zealand, before the latter turned the tables to win by eight wickets with 49 balls to spare when the bronze medal was on the line.Heather Knight consoles Katherine Brunt after the defeat•Getty Images

But it was England’s semi-final defeat on Saturday to India, who were set to play Australia for the gold medal later on Sunday, that did the damage. That match was even more fraught for Brunt, who received an official reprimand and one demerit point for using an audible obscenity when she had a catch dropped off Deepti Sharma.Brunt admitted that England found it hard to recover from that defeat while conceding that New Zealand wouldn’t have had it easy trying to overcome their semi-final loss to Australia.As it happened, New Zealand were able to set aside their disappointment overnight and focus on the bronze medal as a major prize, rather than a consolation without feeling any pressure as hosts or title contenders.”We’re all gutted,” Brunt said. “We’re a lot better than that. Obviously we had a big knock with Heather – a huge head on her shoulders, loads of experience and plenty of runs in the bank. We took a big hit, but we tried our best for her and thought we’d done enough but that game against India was brutal, and in the end, they deserved it.”We’ve got lots of youth in our team and they won’t have been in games like that, against India or against New Zealand, and they won’t have experienced bowling or battling against the best players in the world. So there’s plenty of learnings to take from yesterday and today for them to grow and move forward.”

The 21-year old smashes 29-ball 71 in shortened game before Todd Astle wraps up victory with 4 for 13

Shashank Kishore01-Apr-2021 10-overs a side Finn Allen has arrived. The 21-year-old, all of three T20Is young, made the joint second-fastest T20I fifty by a New Zealander in a 10-overs-a-side contest at Eden Park to help New Zealand hammer 141 for 4. This was 65 too many for Bangladesh, who ended their tour with six straight losses.The rainFor over two hours, intermittent rain kept a thin but boisterous crowd on tenterhooks. When rain finally abated to give way to some cricket, Liton Das, leading in place of the injured Mahmudullah, elected to bowl. But soon enough, all that glee at getting to do what he wanted, disappeared as Allen and Martin Guptill bristled their way to an 85-run opening stand in just 5.4 overs.Guptill sets the tone, Allen followsGuptill scored each of the 23 runs New Zealand made in the first two overs, which also consisted of six dot balls. Swinging cleanly to pepper the arc between cow corner and long-off, he did all the early running. Allen, who faced just one delivery in this phase, opened the scoring with an audacious reverse sweep for four off left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed.