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Celtic return to action against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League this evening, with the Hoops having succumbed to a 3-0 defeat to holders Real Madrid in their most recent outing last week.

Despite running the 14-time champions close in what was an enthralling encounter at Parkhead, the Scottish champions were ultimately left licking their wounds as the La Liga side ruthlessly surged ahead after the interval.

As manager Ange Postecoglou recently suggested, his side will need to produce more than just a strong 60-minute display if they are to have success in this season’s competition, with tonight’s clash in Warsaw already potentially crucial to their hopes of progression.

Ahead of what is a mammoth meeting with the Ukrainian side, the title-winning coach will no doubt have a handful of key selection decisions to make, with the Old Firm outfit unable to afford another disappointing result.

One man who could potentially make way is winger Liel Abada, with the Israeli international having notably struggled last time out against Carlo Ancelotti’s side, with his underwhelming first-half display seeing him withdrawn at the break.

That 45-minute outing saw the 20-year-old make just 14 touches and lose possession six times, with journalist Adam Doyle suggesting that the youngster looked “out of his depth” against such elite opposition.

Having netted a brace against bitter rivals Rangers just a few days earlier, the expectation would have been for the £6.75m-rated man to be brimming with confidence, yet he went on to produce a largely frustrating display.

The £10k-per-week man saw an early chance turned away by opposition stopper Thibaut Courtois, before spurning an even better opening late in the half after latching onto Jota’s through ball, only to fire his effort straight at the towering Belgian.

That lack of cutting edge will no doubt have been a great source of frustration for Postecoglou amid what was a truly magnificent first-half showing on a collective basis, with the 57-year-old knowing his side will have to be ruthless in front of goal if they are to have any hope of reaching the knockout round.

With ample depth in the attacking ranks – with teammate Kyogo Furuhashi seemingly set to be available – the former Yokohama boss has plenty of alternatives if he is to take Abada out of the firing line, with a place on the bench perhaps what is needed for the promising, yet misfiring, starlet.

Having levelled a T20I series against the defending champions recently, South Africa will bank on familiarity of conditions to make the semi-finals

Sruthi Ravindranath07-Nov-2018

South Africa’s squad

Dane van Niekerk (captain), Chloe Tryon, Laura Wolvaardt, Lizelle Lee (wk), Sune Luus, Shabnim Ismail, Masabata Klaas, Mignon du Preez, Marizanne Kapp, Trisha Chetty, Yolani Fourie, Zintle Mali, Robyn Searle, Tumi Sekhukhune, Moseline Daniels

World Cup pedigree

South Africa’s best showing was in 2014, when they reached the semi-finals. Eight players from the current squad were a part of that campaign, where they faltered under pressure to lose by nine wickets against eventual runners-up England. Stage fright got the better of them then. It was against England were they let pressure get to them in the World Cup semi-final last year too, but they stretched the game into the final over. They’re an improved side since, and have an experienced captain in Dane Van Niekerk, alongside a host of internationals who have played in the Women’s Big Bash League. South Africa have reasons to feel confident of their chances of going into the semi-finals again, at least.

Recent T20 form

They’ve had the best preparation of any team heading into the World T20. They played a bilateral ODI series in the Caribbean, which they tied 1-1. In the T20Is that followed, they came back from 2-0 down to level the five-match T20I series 2-2 against the defending World T20 champions.Dane van Niekerk sets off after bowling Mithali Raj for a duck•ICC

Top performers

South Africa lost offspinner Raisibe Ntozakhe to a suspension before the tournament, but they will be bolstered by the return of the veteran fast bowler Shabnim Ismail. Ismail is South Africa’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is, with 72 wickets in 69 matches. She picked up career-best figures of 5 for 30 against India earlier this year. She has also played in every Women’s World T20 since the competition’s inauguration in 2009, and she’s South Africa’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament.In a side with a number of experience players, teenager Laura Wolvaardt has made a mark as an explosive and bankable opener. Since her ODI debut as a 16-year old in February 2016, she has been among the top run-scorers in the format and also has the joint-most 50-plus scores. She finished as the second highest run-scorer behind van Niekerk in the limited-overs series against West Indies, with 192 runs in six innings. She scored an unbeaten 55 in the fourth T20I, on a pitch dominated by spinners, and took South Africa to an eight-wicket win to keep the series alive.South Africa’s batting has been heavily dependent on the openers, who have done the bulk of scoring in recent times along with Van Niekerk. The side will be expecting Wolvaardt to get them off to strong starts, as scoring in the middle overs could be challenging in slow conditions.

Captain and coach

Given captain van Niekerk’s experience, form, and all-round ability, she will be the most important player for the side in this tournament. She is not only their leading run-scorer in T20Is with 1505 runs in 69 matches, but also their highest wicket-taking spinner with 49 wickets. She also has the most runs for South Africa since the last World T20. In spin-friendly conditions, her legspin could make quite an impact. She was the leading run-scorer in the limited-overs tour of West Indies, where she averaged 70 across four innings.Hilton Moreeng, who has been with the team for nearly six years now, has coached South Africa at five major tournaments. He has been a key factor in their advancement and has mentored some of the senior players in the current squad all through their international careers. Ahead of the South Africa’s departure to the Caribbean, he echoed captain van Niekerk’s thoughts, saying they were capable of beating any team on their day.

Where they will finish

South Africa are placed in Group A alongside England, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, with all the group matches scheduled in St Lucia. While they’ve struggled against big teams in world tournaments, they’re also the most likely to surprise, especially considering their preparation ahead of the tournament.

Plays of the day from the third ODI between India and New Zealand in Mohali

Karthik Krishnaswamy23-Oct-2016Guptill’s monster hitMartin Guptill has a thing for hitting roofs. His sixes have twice hit the roof at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington and once at Auckland’s Eden Park. Stepping out of his crease to Hardik Pandya, he hit the first ball of the fourth over of the match for a humongous six that would have exited the PCA Stadium had he aimed towards the single-tier stands behind wide long-on. Instead, he launched the ball over the bowler’s head, and ended up pinging the front wall of the third tier of the stand behind the straight boundary.Those Dhoni handsAmit Mishra had just dismissed Ross Taylor with a superlative bit of flight, slowing the ball down to bring the batsman forward, getting it to dip to make him stretch and drag his back foot out of the crease, and turning it past his outside edge. MS Dhoni, as he so often does, wasted no time in getting the bails off.
Dhoni’s task was just a little harder in Mishra’s next over, though, when he spun another legbreak past a groping batsman. This time, though, Luke Ronchi’s foot did not slide as far out of his crease as Taylor’s had done, and the ball turned from a little wider outside off, which meant Dhoni had a greater distance to cover between collecting the ball and stumping Ronchi, with less time at his disposal. But in his inimitable, non-textbook manner, he collected the ball without drawing his gloves back an inch, and whipped the bails off before Ronchi even knew what had happened.The spillIndia lost Ajinkya Rahane in the third over of their chase. Virat Kohli, new at the crease, had just shown what kind of form he was in, driving Matt Henry to the cover point boundary off the third ball of the fifth over. The next ball was shorter, and Kohli went on the back foot, looking for a dab to third man. He had not accounted for the presence of a catching fielder at wide slip, however, set for precisely that kind of shot. The ball went low to Taylor, one of the better catchers in world cricket. He fell to his right, got both hands to the ball a couple of inches off the turf, and dropped it.Those Kohli wristsRight through India’s chase, the only trouble their batsmen encountered from a flat Mohali pitch was the occasional tendency for the ball to stop on them. Rahane and Dhoni were both out caught at short cover, playing too early and having to check on-the-up drives. In the 33rd over, James Neesham got a shortish ball, angled into Kohli’s body, to stop on him. Kohli adjusted brilliantly, standing still for an instant to let the ball get to him before whipping it off his hips to the midwicket boundary, nearly getting it to carry all the way over the rope.

What is truth and what is fiction about this England Test side? The next few weeks will show us, but for all the talk of youthful exuberance they will need senior players to lift and a good start is vital

George Dobell in Cardiff07-Jul-20154:35

Simon Jones’ keys to victory

It was telling that, amid all the talk of “turned corners” and “new ages” on the eve of the Investec Ashes, the Test rankings should be published showing England down to No. 6 in the world.Such a lowly ranking should hurt England. It should hurt a side who have advantages of which Pakistan, for example, can only dream. It should hurt a side whose board, not so long ago, carved up world cricket to try and ensure they retained such advantages. It should hurt.And it should provide a reminder, if any were required, that for all the positivity following the limited-overs win against New Zealand that this England side are, to date, strong on potential and weak on achievement. It was a reminder that they have won only one of their last five Test series and that the last time these two old foe met, Australia were the overwhelming victors. Nobody should doubt the enormity of the task in front of England in this series: Australia are strong favourites.And yet, hope continues to smoulder. It is not just that there are more than a few chinks in the Australian armour – they have won only two of their last 15 Ashes Tests in England (or Wales) and lost 10 of their last 16 away Tests – but that, irrespective of the statistics, the sense is that England have a few young players who have the talent and character to lead England to higher ground.Ben Stokes, for example, may well be England’s most talented allrounder since Ian Botham. Jos Buttler has the strokeplay to drive bowlers to distraction and Gary Ballance recently entered the top 10 quickest men to reach 1,000 Test runs. They have no shortage of talent, motivation or potential.But potential is the most over-used word in cricket. It is, rightly or wrongly, still Ashes series that define the reputation of an England player and, against this opposition, all three men are unproven. While Stokes enjoyed some good moments with bat and ball in the 2013-14 Ashes series, Ballance and Buttler have played only one Ashes Test between them and even Joe Root knows that his average against Australia – 33.18 – is modest for one with such ability. All face tests that will go some of the way to defining their careers over the next seven weeks.In reality this series may have come slightly early in the development cycle of the England team. It may be we reflect that Mark Wood and Adam Lyth, with just two Tests each, were a little green and that Ballance and Root and Stokes and Buttler were still learning their trade as international players. It may be that we come to reflect on this series as the Australian team reflect on the Ashes of 2013. They were defeated, yes, but they learned plenty under their new coach, Darren Lehmann, and were better equipped for the challenges ahead.But England cannot go into this series looking for moral victories. They cannot use it as a training ground or as a rehearsal studio. They cannot accept defeat on the basis that they have learned from the experience. This is the Ashes. This is the final destination. As Andrew Strauss stated last week: “Ultimately it’s very hard to come out of an Ashes series as a loser and be pretty happy with yourself. It is about winning and losing, as professional sport is, generally.”The burden for England is that victory alone is not enough. As the lukewarm reaction to a perfectly respectable 3-0 victory in 2013 showed us, they are not only required to win but win with style.Perhaps because of raised expectations caused by T20 cricket, perhaps because of the variety of competing leisure pursuits, perhaps because of the long-term damage caused by the lack of cricket on free-to-air TV, the game in the UK finds itself fighting for the oxygen of publicity. Winning would help it inspire more supporters, certainly, but winning with style would help far more.England have talked a good game in this regard over the last few weeks. Even in his pre-match media conference, Alastair Cook admitted that, at the start of his period as captain, he had become accustomed to leading “a methodical team” which contained bowlers who were expert in “really banging out areas time again” and batsmen who “relentlessly ground down opposition” whereas now, with “a more free-spirited” side, he had to “be able to get on that front foot as captain.” In short, he had to captain the aggressive team he has now to their strengths, not attempt to mould them into the team of 2012.It is debatable that such a narrative stands up to scrutiny. While England have lost players such as Nick Compton and Jonathan Trott since Cook was appointed captain on a permanent basis, they have also lost Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann and Matt Prior. None of those three could be described as methodical. And while there are a couple of dynamic new players in the side – the likes of Stokes and Buttler – the opening bowlers are the same and Ballance, at No. 3, has done an admirable job of providing a like-for-like replacement for Trott.But sometimes it does not matter what the reality is. Perception is everything. And if England feel they are more comfortable playing aggressive cricket, they should play it. And they should play it in the knowledge that they will face far less criticism if they go down fighting than if they adopt a safety first approach.For that reason, they have an opportunity. They have an opportunity to play the sort of exciting cricket that can capture the hearts of a nation and the sort of exciting cricket that can knock Australia off their game. They have an opportunity to show they have learned from New Zealand and that, playing with a smile and respect for their opposition, is not a sign of weakness, but a hallmark of strength. They have an opportunity to leave the snarls and sledges to Australia and to win the arguments with skill and flair. They have an opportunity, with no major football or athletics events to share the headlines, to put cricket at the centre of the British summer. They have an opportunity to not just earn respect for winning, but affection for winning with style. They have an opportunity to prove that the No. 6 ranking is wrong.England can win. If Moeen Ali can rediscover the consistency he demonstrated against India, if James Anderson and Stuart Broad can utilise the new ball, if Ballance and Cook and Lyth can see off the new ball, if Root can sustain his magnificent form and Stokes can prove himself to be the player many suspect he is, England can win. The time for talk is over.

Bangladesh have failed to win a game in the last three editions of the World T20. Now as the hosts, this is their best chance yet to reverse that hoodoo in conditions that suit them best

Mohammad Isam15-Mar-2014

Overview

The nuances of T20 cricket have eluded Bangladesh, and that is reflected in their 10-match losing streak in the World T20 since 2007. Expectations, quite naturally, would remain modest, but Bangladesh should take maximum advantage of being the host nation.The known conditions in Dhaka and Chittagong, the mad support that this team possesses and the growing reputation of being a good team at home are positive factors. But they have to deal with a tricky format. Due to the new design of the World T20s, they will have to play the qualifying round against Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Nepal. On paper, Bangladesh are far ahead in terms of experience but they had slipped up against Afghanistan earlier this month in the Asia Cup, and their encounter, on the opening day, could be the group decider.The players have readily admitted their limitations in this format, particularly in the last 12 months when they have won just a single T20, against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. Their most recent T20s were against Sri Lanka in Chittagong in February, where they lost both games off the last ball.The team management and selectors have tried a few different personnel and plans in the T20s but it is quite similar to how they play in ODIs. Experience in the batting line-up and spin bowling will help them, but at the same time, they have to play in the moment, and not stick to an exact plan, a method that hasn’t worked in the past.The fact that Bangladesh hasn’t won an international match in 11 games in 2014 will also eat into their confidence but this team has done well in the past with their backs to the wall. They find themselves in that position at the start of the World T20.

Key player

Mushfiqur Rahim has batted at No.4 in the last 12 Twenty20s, and is as important as the start Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan will provide for the team. His captaincy has been lately criticised for looking too strait-jacketed, but it will be his handling of bowlers in the first six and last five overs that will be crucial.

Surprise package

Sabbir Rahman has only just made his T20 debut for Bangladesh in their last game against Sri Lanka, and gave a glimpse of how he goes about ramping the scoring rate in the last few overs. He tends to start off slowly, but he has a range of shots that would be effective for a team looking for a final flourish. He fields well too, and will be a handy addition if a space is made for him in the middle order.

Weakness

Bangladesh have usually started and ended poorly with the ball. They would have to find a way to stop the opposition’s onslaught in these two crucial times, and at the same time, look to end well with the bat too.

World T20 history

Bangladesh’s sole win has been against West Indies in 2007, in what was their first game. They were shocked by Ireland in 2009 and since then, have made early exits in the next two editions as well.

Recent form

They have won just one out of their last five T20s. In 2013, they drew 1-1 in Zimbabwe but lost to New Zealand and Sri Lanka 1-0 and 2-0 at home. Unlike the lead-up to the 2012 tournament, Bangladesh hasn’t played any extra matches in this format, but their ongoing schedule should keep them well warmed up.