England claim unassailable 3-0 series lead on back of Roy’s century and Stokes’ unbeaten 71

The Report by Valkerie Baynes17-May-2019
Jason Roy and Ben Stokes are back – and it seems England are here to stay.Roy’s century laid the foundation but it was Stokes’ rescue mission after England suffered a mini-collapse against Pakistan that delivered the hosts a three-wicket victory with three balls to spare at Trent Bridge and an unassailable 3-0 series lead.Belligerent is a term at risk of being over-used in cricket but it is simply the essence of Roy’s batting style and was there for all to see as he stepped back and away to club Mohammad Hafeez over the extra cover boundary to bring up his eighth ODI century.His knock of 114 off 89 showed fewer signs of the rust he had to scrape off en route to 87 in the second match of the series in Southampton, his return from a back injury. On reaching his ton, Roy pumped both fists in triumph and looked to the skies, rolling his eyes in relief, as if that commendable 87 and the 79 that followed in Bristol were not enough.However, when he was out edging behind a pull at Mohammad Hasnain, England’s chase looked like being derailed.England lost the wickets of Joe Root, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali in quick succession, a collapse of 4 for 15, and it fell to Stokes – who had been rather subdued in recent times – to save the day. Stokes played with a cool head and, at the right times, a swinging bat to reach an unbeaten 71 off 64 balls.He was well supported by Tom Curran, who followed his four wickets to be the pick of the England bowlers with an important cameo of 31 off 30. Before he got off single figures, Curran survived two run-out chances off the same ball, narrowly in the second instance with replays suggesting he may have been out had Pakistan made an issue of it.Roy’s innings was not chanceless. He was dropped by Fakhar Zaman off Imad Wasim while on 27 and with England 62 without loss. The mistake – not the only one in the field by Pakistan – proved costly.James Vince, opening in place of the resting Jonny Bairstow, made a handy score without going on with it, his 43 off 39 balls coming during a stand of 94 with Roy. Root also chipped in but after he was out on the second grab by Hafeez in a tricky one-handed juggling effort over his shoulder off the bowling of Imad, England lost Buttler and Moeen for ducks.Joe Denly, in the side as a back-up spin bowling prospect for the World Cup found himself in the role of potential batting saviour alongside Stokes. With England needing 101 off 80 balls the pair went into steadying mode, with the likes of Curran, Adil Rashid and Jofra Archer still available as testament to their formidable batting depth – with or without Bairstow and the suspended Eoin Morgan.That depth was called upon, however, when Denly fell to a brilliant caught-and-bowled by Junaid Khan, the left-armer changing direction on his follow-through and leaping high to his right to pull down the ball and send Denly on his way for 17.Needing 44 off the last five overs, Stokes and Curran looked comfortable but when Curran was bowled by Hasan Ali, England needed 22 off 16. A six and a four in Junaid’s next over as good as settled things, before Stokes hit the winning run off Hasan.Earlier, Babar Azam’s steady-handed 115 off 113 balls helped Pakistan to 340 for 7.Babar was involved in two century partnerships after Pakistan overcame the loss of in-form opener Imam-ul-Haq, who retired hurt on just 3 when he was struck flush on the left elbow attempting to pull a Mark Wood delivery in the fourth over. X-rays revealed no fracture but he remained in the changing-room with his arm packed in ice until late in the innings.Fakhar and Babar steered their side to 116 before the first wicket fell to some good pressure from Curran. Looking to smack the ball over cover, Fakhar sent the ball to third man, where Wood claimed a good catch diving forwards.Babar and Hafeez teamed up for the second century stand of Pakistan’s innings, Hafeez cracking a boundary off Wood to bring up his half-century before Wood’s response was to have him caught simply at mid-on by substitute fielder Chris Jordan for 59.Babar brought up his century with a sweetly struck four off Curran, but he was out slicing the same bowler over cover as Archer ran in to take a fine catch.When Imam returned with seven wickets down and only 16 balls remaining, he looked in some discomfort still and it begged the question whether it might have been wise to put in a batsman who could swing with more freedom, especially when he added just three more runs to his score.Curran claimed 4 for 75 off 10 overs but looked gutted not to have bagged five wickets as he walked off.Wood made an encouraging return to cricket, showing the pace and wicket-taking ability that heralded his initial comeback from an ankle injury in the Caribbean. Playing his first match since early March against West Indies, he hit 91.6mph in his first over here and ended with 2 for 71 off his 10 overs.

Gloucestershire secure victory despite Varun Chopra’s 154 but miss out on knockout spot thanks to NRR

ECB Reporters Network07-May-2019James Bracey scored his maiden one-day century to hand Gloucestershire victory over Essex, but it was in vain as his side exited the Royal London Cup.Batsman Bracey, who only made his format debut earlier in the competition, crashed a classy hundred from 86 balls to see Gloucestershire to a four-wicket victory. But wins for Middlesex and Somerset elsewhere meant the west country men failed to go through due to their lower net run rate.Essex, who were knocked out before the match having only managed two victories in the tournament, had posted 293 thanks to Varun Chopra’s third ton of this year’s competition.Gloucestershire began their reply confidently, although Miles Hammond rode his luck when he was dropped on 20 by Dan Lawrence on the square-leg boundary. Hammond, on the back of 95 against Sussex, only scored one more run before he was caught behind off Simon Harmer while aiming down the track, before Aaron Beard demolished Gareth Roderick’s stumps.Chris Dent and Bracey then settled the innings down and put Gloucestershire on track with the required run rate during an 117-run stand. Neither came across as overly aggressive but both accumulated with skill, both posting half centuries – Dent from 67 balls and Bracey from 51 balls, which included a firmly struck six down the ground.The partnership was broken when Dent walked following a low catch to Harmer at short midwicket and Graeme van Buuren and Jack Taylor followed in quick succession, skewing to mid-on and lbw respectively.Beard, on just his second List A outing, ended with figures of 3 for 51 as he had Ryan Higgins well caught by Harmer running around to cover.
Gloucestershire still needed 86 from 9.5 after that wicket but Bracey maturely ticked the runs off along with Benny Howell, who had a runner after injuring his hamstring in the field. Bracey ended with an unbeaten 113 but it was Howell who ended the game by carting Matt Coles for six over midwicket.Earlier, stand-in Essex captain Harmer won the toss and elected to bat on a good-looking wicket, which proved a tad sluggish as the match went on.Chopra enjoyed stands of 42 and 66 for the first and second wickets with Alastair Cook and Tom Westley but both partnerships were ended by run outs. Cook was called through for a quick single after flicking to square leg, before Westley greedily attempted a third run – both comfortably short of their ground after van Buuren’s throws.Lawrence and Ravi Bopara both departed quickly, the former handing Bracey his maiden professional wicket and the latter bowled through the gate by Tom Smith.Essex looked below par at 147 for 4 but they still had Chopra, who owed his team-mates, and he carried the innings – bringing up his half-century in 70 balls. The opener continued his sluggish pace as he ticked over three figures in 129 deliveries during an 83-run stand with Rishi Patel, who scored 26 before edging behind when trying to whoosh down the ground.That wicket saw Chopra kick on with power – demonstrated with sixes down the ground and over deep square-leg – and deftness with paddle sweeps, as he passed through 150 in 163 deliveries. He fell a few balls later, finishing his season with 421 runs from five innings.The hosts looked set for a push for 300 but Essex lost five wickets in the last six-and-a-half overs to stutter to the innings break, and Gloucestershire maintained the momentum to complete their chase with seven balls to spare.

With or without Andre Russell, West Indies seem a batsman short – and they’ll have to find a way to beat Bangladesh to keep their World Cup alive

Jarrod Kimber in Taunton16-Jun-20192:55

Ganga: WI need more specialist players in their side

The big three seem to have already pre-ordered their semi-final berths. And so many see the rest of the round robin as a chance for one more team to slip into fourth. Most believe New Zealand is the most obvious team for that. New Zealand have won three games, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, and their biggest challenge should’ve been India, but that game was abandoned because of rain. This means New Zealand are unbeaten after four games with seven points.West Indies have played four games, accruing three points, but they’ve played Australia and England, had a washout against South Africa, and destroyed Pakistan.Within the camp, West Indies are looking at their final five games as the easier part of the draw. While many may have written them off after a poor show against England, they still really believe they are a chance for that final semi-final spot.When asked about this, Jason Holder diplomatically said, “Interesting you said easy teams. I don’t feel any of the teams are easy, but we may – at this present time with five games left, I think the ball’s in our court, we’ve just got to be consistent. We’ve got to play some consistent cricket going into the back half of this tournament.”There is no doubt when you look at the fixtures for the two teams, New Zealand have had a dream run, and West Indies have been unlucky. They ended up playing England on the tournament’s biggest playing surface – helping their opposition. Then they lost the toss and batted first when it was the only time that bowlers would get any help. Against South Africa, they had them 29 for 2 when the rain came, and on South Africa’s recent form, you’d have expected them to struggle from there. And West Indies bounced out Australia’s top order, before allowing Steven Smith to put on a competitive total, and being Mitchell Starc-ed after a good start in their chase.Andre Russell has always had the heart – but does he have the knees?•Getty Images

That West Indies beat England twice at home, and competed with Australia so well in this tournament, it’s clear this is a quality team. But at the moment they find themselves four points behind New Zealand, and equal with their opponents for their next game, Bangladesh.With Bangladesh beating West Indies seven of the last nine meetings, it’s not an ideal must-win match. While it’s not uncommon for teams to have good records against the West Indies of recent times, this will give a confident Bangladesh more belief. They are also use to playing with them in the BPL, so they won’t be star struck by the bigger names, as they’ve been their team mates. Mashrafe Mortaza talked about the recent record of Bangladesh against West Indies, “So we take it positively that, as we said, the matchup, I think our bowling has been fantastic against them last two, three series we played against them. So I think we have to take this positive stuff and the ground and do our best.”West Indies also have question marks over their most important player, Andre Russell.They still seem wedded to Russell, who they appear to believe is the key to them winning this tournament. But he’s not completed 10 overs in a match and has spent as much time limping from the field as bowling on it. Holder said, “We’re keeping him in cotton wool until tomorrow. I saw him yesterday. Saw him this morning as well, and he’s progressing quite nicely yes, you know. We’ll have a final answer with him tomorrow morning.”But Taunton is a small town, you wonder if there is enough cotton wool to protect Russell’s glass knees. He didn’t train on Sunday, and he trained extensively before the England game – which he played in.With or without Russell, West Indies seem one batsman short. And that means batsman, not hitter. Nicholas Pooran’s been excellent in this World Cup, but he has never made a professional hundred, and he’s batting at four. No other team in this tournament is taking such a risk in their top four. On a green-looking Taunton wicket, the lack of batting smarts that affected them at Southampton might come into play again. The first batsmen in the nets today was Darren Bravo. His experience and skill could be important for this game.And if they don’t beat Bangladesh, their hopes of a semi-final spot are virtually gone.

Defeat dulled the enjoyment the allrounder could take from his innings, but it was important on a personal level

Sidharth Monga27-Jun-2019Jimmy Neesham likes to call it the “fastest 47” in ODI cricket, and he’s not wrong. After having being in the funk for two years, almost having given up on cricket and then setting himself right, Neesham came back to smack 47 off 13 balls against Sri Lanka on his return. That innings, he says, was 18 months in the making, a reward of all the hard work he had put in when he was away. Yet it was just a score of 47 in a career whose highest score was 74.The chance to play this World Cup, he admits, was sooner than he expected when he set on path to recovery. He was more philosophical about success and failure. He had now learnt to deal with personal failures much better by looking at his efforts through the team of the prism. He was happier nicking off first ball if New Zealand won than scoring a hundred in a defeat. Deep down, though, there must have been some desire to prove himself in more trying circumstances than walking in at 316 for 5 and smashing the ball around.Jimmy Neesham smashes a six as he leads the counter-attack•Getty Images

It is not ideal but this World Cup has provided him these challenges. There was the tense chase against Bangladesh where he ended up holing out to long-off. They lost two wickets in the first over against West Indies where he did better and added 41 for the fifth wicket Kane Williamson for the fifth wicket and himself ended up with 28 off 23 balls.WATCH on Hotstar (India only) – Jimmy Neesham’s unbeaten 97At Edgbaston against Pakistan, though, Neesham found himself with a much bigger task. He walked in to join Williamson at 46 for 4, and would soon lose Williamson too. In difficult batting conditions, he battled through, especially when facing the red-hot Shaheen Shah Afridi, and ended up unbeaten on a career-best 97 to give New Zealand a competitive score of 237. This was the longest innings of Neesham’s 55-match career. It must give New Zealand some confidence as they continue to struggle with their openers.On a personal level, that has to feel satisfying. “I’m pretty tired now,” was Neesham’s immediate reaction after having bowled three overs to go with it. “That’s sort of my emotions at the moment, I think. Yeah, obviously, I suppose there’s external noise about whether you have the ability to guide an innings like that, and I sort of have the belief in my own ability that I have the ability to come out at 40 for 4 and guide our team to 200-plus and also the ability to come out at 310 for 3 with two overs to go. So it’s just about putting it out there, I suppose, and having belief in your own processes.READ MORE: Second spinner might have helped New Zealand, admits Santner“Obviously, we had a large period of time where we had to soak up pressure. That was the nature of the wicket and the nature of the bowling attack. We certainly had a belief, if we could get through that hard period, we’d be able to score some runs at the back end, and obviously that’s what ended up happening.”Neesham did soak up all the pressure, getting beaten multiple teams by Afridi, but then turning it on towards the end. He scored 26 off the first 58 balls he faced followed by 71 off the next 64. This was a near perfect rearguard in conditions ideal for both seam and spin, for which he was congratulated by Pakistan fielders even as he walked off in the innings break. He, in turn, sought out Afridi to congratulate for the spell he had bowled.However, Neesham was not willing to draw too much pleasure out of the knock. “It [this innings] is something I’ll probably reflect on after the tournament is finished,” Neesham said. “I think, obviously, the whole point of trying to graft out our partnership like that is to try to get ourselves in a position to win the game. I feel like we potentially did that. We potentially had a score that was defendable. Obviously, in a game where you lose, you don’t take a whole lot of pleasure out of stuff like that.”

The series had been in doubt after Zimbabwe were suspended, but a late confirmation from Zimbabwe Cricket has kept it alive

Mohammad Isam07-Aug-2019Zimbabwe are set to play in a T20I tri-series in Bangladesh – with Afghanistan as the third team – next month, which will be their first assignment since the ICC suspended them last month. The series was part of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) schedule for the 2019-20 season, and they waited till Wednesday evening for confirmation from Zimbabwe Cricket. The series was meant to have given Zimbabwe preparation for the World T20 qualifiers later this year from which they were removed on Tuesday.Bangladesh’s 2019-20 home season will open with their maiden Test against Afghanistan, in Chattogram from September 5 to 9, before they play the tri-series from September 13 to 24. The double-league phase will be played in Dhaka and Chattogram, with the final to be held in Dhaka on September 24.”We are holding the tri-series as planned,” said BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury. “We had to wait till now for them to confirm their participation. The ICC has clearly stated that they are allowed to play against member boards.”ESPNcricinfo has learned that additional ODIs against Zimbabwe, following the T20I tri-series, have not been ruled out by the BCB. These matches, or even a single ODI, could well be Mashrafe Mortaza’s farewell from international cricket, but talks of a fitting send-off are still on within the BCB.

Spinner’s over-step is a symptom of wider problems in the England camp

George Dobell in Manchester05-Sep-2019It looked, for a moment, like the perfect delivery. Not just a perfect delivery, but a perfectly executed plan.Jack Leach, bowling round the wicket, had drawn Steve Smith forward and, having found just a little drift into him, gained just enough turn away from him to see the ball take the edge of the bat and carry to slip. Smith had already scored 118 by then but, such is his form and so great his dominance, England might have settled for that. Besides, Australia were 273 for 6 and England could, perhaps, anticipate bowling them out for little more than 320.But then came the replays. And after that came the realisation. Leach, despite the most gentle of run-ups, despite bowling at a 51 mph, had over stepped. Smith was reprieved and England’s joy turned to despair. We may look back on it as the tipping point in this series.Maybe that’s unfair on both Leach and Smith. Certainly Leach, at times, bowled really nicely. His misjudgement was, it its way, tiny: no more than a rash shot from a batsman or a dropped catch from a fielder. But the consequences were significant and it was avoidable. An unforced error, as they say in tennis.Jack Leach with his team-mates after his dismissal of Steven Smith of Australia is shown to have being a no ball•Getty Images

Most of all, when we come to reflect on this series in years to come, we’ll almost certainly conclude that the difference between the sides was one man: Smith. England have thrown pretty much everything they have at him in not just this series but the previous couple. The fact is, while most other batsmen have struggled, Smith has gorged on runs. Yes, the pitches might have offered England more assistance. And yes, James Anderson’s availability might have tested Smith more. But to a large extent, England just have to accept he has been too good for them.There will be nagging irritation, however, that England did not do themselves justice. For there were moments on the second day when they became more than a little ragged in the field. Tim Paine was also reprieved twice – he was dropped on 9 and 49, once at slip by Jason Roy and once at mid-on by substitute fielder Sam Curran; both relatively straightforward chances – with Jofra Archer also missing a tough caught and bowled chance offered by Smith when he had 65. England keep dropping catches. Leach’s no-ball is a symptom of a wider malaise.Most of all, England didn’t seem able to build or sustain pressure in the field. With Ben Stokes, suffering from a sore shoulder, unable to replicate the match-shaping spell he produced in Leeds and Smith managing to manoeuvre the ball into the gaps with his unique skill, England leaked 124 runs in 32 wicketless overs after lunch.Archer, only five months into his England career, already looks as if he is in danger of being ruined – news that he required a pain-killing injection after normal play in the World Cup final and before the super-over should have alarm bells ringing – with his pace dropping by the match. Not for the first time in this series, it seemed England’s captain, Joe Root, had no way of lifting his team and no answers to the questions raised by Smith. It was agony from an England perspective; a session where you could feel their Ashes hopes slipping away.And then there’s that no-ball. Spinners – certainly finger spinners with a gentle approach to the crease, shouldn’t be bowling no-balls. Ravi Ashwin, for example, has never bowled a no-ball in Test cricket. And while Moeen Ali has, they have all been head high full tosses rather than front-foot no-balls. In all, finger spinners have, on average, bowled one no-ball – including head-high no-balls – every 1,236 deliveries in Test cricket since the start of 2010.So while we must be careful not to pin too much blame on Leach – he’s not responsible for England’s enduring inability to bat, or catch, after all – we can’t just dismiss it as ‘one of those things.’ That’s too cosy; that’s too laissez-faire. For we know that, in ODI cricket, England went more than 10,000 deliveries without conceding a front-foot no-ball. We know that, if there are free-hits at stake and they make it a priority, it can be done. But in training in recent days, England’s bowlers have regularly over-stepped in the nets without any of the coaching staff acting as umpires and notifying them of their error. As a consequence, instead of good habits becoming ingrained, bad habits can take root. It seems just a bit sloppy and just a bit unnecessary. The team management have to take some responsibility.England’s issues extend beyond playing matters. At some stage, if England are to make any meaningful use of home advantage, Ashley Giles, the director of England’s men’s cricket, will have to improve the communication between the team and the groundsmen.England turned up in Manchester expecting to find a hard pitch offering pace and carry. Just as they turned up for the World Cup final expecting a batting paradise. On both occasions – and several more in between – they have been disappointed. Indeed, one member of the England team management noted that this surface – offering little of the grass coverage that might have encouraged England’s seamers – would have delighted Australia. If England are to have any hope of dismissing Smith, they require lateral movement and the carry to ensure nicks make it to slip. They didn’t really have either here.Everyone understands that the job of groundsmen is desperately tough, with poor weather and an unrelenting schedule combining to reduce preparation time. But at some stage it would surely make sense for the left hand to know what the right hand is doing in English cricket. It would surely make sense for Giles to make it clear what groundsmen are expected to provide and hold them accountable if they do not.England’s Ashes hopes aren’t over yet. Not quite. They only need to escape with a draw here to make it to The Oval with their chances alive and it may well be that poor weather comes to their aid. But, for the second Test in a row, you get the impression they’re going to require something special to keep them in it. They can’t keep expecting Stokes to bail out their substandard batting and fielding.

Allrounder was England’s stand-out performer of a memorable summer, but regrets the one that got away

Andrew Miller16-Sep-2019Ben Stokes says that his memories of being England’s matchwinner in both the World Cup final at Lord’s and last month’s incredible Headingley Test will stay with him forever, but that he would willingly sacrifice his heroic role in the latter in exchange for an Ashes victory.Stokes completed a remarkable summer’s work at The Oval on Sunday, where England squared the Ashes 2-2 with a 135-run win in the fifth and final Test. In doing so, they denied Australia their first series win in England since 2001, although the win was not enough to claim back the urn, which was successfully retained by Australia thanks to last week’s victory in the fourth Test at Old Trafford.But on a personal level, Stokes’ summer could scarcely have been more of a triumph. In the Ashes, he was named England’s Player of the Series for his haul of 441 runs and eight wickets, including that stunning unbeaten 135 in England’s one-wicket win at Headingley, a performance that was hailed as one of the greatest Test innings of all time.And, following on from his Player-of-the-Match display against New Zealand in the World Cup final, where he marshalled England’s run-chase with an unbeaten 84 before crashing eight more runs in three balls in the Super Over, as England broke their 44-year duck to win their maiden 50-over title, albeit on boundary countback.And now, with a month of down-time ahead of England’s tours of New Zealand and South Africa, Stokes finally has a chance to take stock of a summer in which so much was expected of England’s cricketers, and so much was ultimately delivered in a pair of campaigns that captivated the nation.”It has been a blast,” said Stokes. “Before England had played a game this summer we knew we had the World Cup and the Ashes ahead of us and now we’re stood here at the end as World Cup winners and with a drawn Ashes series. Obviously we’d like to have won it, but we haven’t lost anything.Ben Stokes takes the applause after sealing England’s win•Getty Images

In August last year, Stokes’ career stood at a crossroads, as he stood trial for affray at Bristol Crown Court following a brawl outside a nightclub in September 2017, and since his acquittal, his desire to transform his reputation and make up for lost time has manifested itself in a series of outstanding performances – including a thrilling outfield catch in the World Cup opener against South Africa at The Oval; a trio of battling half-centuries against Sri Lanka, Australia and India that helped keep a floundering World Cup campaign on track, and a second Ashes century in the second Test at Lord’s.”All I wanted to do was have an impact in as many games as possible and help England win as many matches as possible this summer,” he said. “It probably hasn’t all sunk in yet, but at some point I’ll be able to look back with some satisfaction at what we managed to achieve as a one-day team and a Test team this year.”So many people have been in touch at various times during the summer, and that catch here at The Oval against South Africa feels like such a long time ago, but I guess that is where it all really started.”It hasn’t all been plain sailing because we had to dig ourselves out of a hole in the World Cup and then we had to scrap until the very last to get that trophy, but we got it.”The same in the Ashes where we had to fight all the way to the end to get the draw, but we got it and I think that is something we can be so proud of. When things got tough, we didn’t crumble, we stood tall to the end and showed the character in our dressing room.”There have been some incredible highs and some moments that I can hardly believe happened, but they did and I will always be able to remember what it was like being out there in the middle when we won the World Cup or won at Headingley.”But as good a day as that was, I would still swap that drama at Headingley for an overall Ashes win though.”That opportunity slipped away in the Old Trafford Test, where Steve Smith’s double-century established an Australian stranglehold on the contest that England were unable to escape, despite another battling fourth-innings display. And though Australia’s subsequent celebrations would have been painful for England to witness, Stokes insisted that the team had needed no extra motivation to square the rubber at The Oval.”Every game means something regardless,” he said. “There is no such thing as a dead rubber against Australia and, with the Test Championship, there is something riding on each game with the points on offer.”We were motivated enough to perform here and didn’t need anything extra to get us going. We were pretty disappointed not to get the urn back after giving ourselves that chance at Headingley, but as a one-day group and a Test group this summer we’ve not lost anything.”Stokes paid tribute to his Ashes team-mates after the Oval win, not least the openers Rory Burns, whom he said had “set a great standard” for the batting line-up with 390 runs in tough conditions, and Joe Denly, whose dismissal for 94 in the second innings had left the dressing-room “devastated”.He also singled out Jofra Archer as “the sort of guy who can help get those Ashes back when we go Down Under”, with his combination of fierce pace, relentless accuracy and huge stamina, and praised Stuart Broad for once again setting the tone for the bowling attack and proving that he’s “nowhere near done” after claiming 20-plus wickets for the fourth time in an Ashes series, a record for an England bowler.But, most of all, he said that the Oval win was a fitting send-off for England’s coach, Trevor Bayliss, who is leaving the role that he took over in the summer of 2015, with the express aim of lifting that elusive World Cup.”I’m not sure I’m looking forward to life without Trevor in the dressing room because he’s been an amazing person to have around over the last four years,” said Stokes.”He obviously got brought in to do a bit of a job with our one-day cricket but he’s had a massive influence on this group of Test cricketers too.”I’m really glad that we managed to win this last game for him. There were a lot of things that we were playing for out there and Trev was one of them.”I’m so glad that we got to send him off with a win because he has been amazing for English cricket.

Maratha Arabians role is Flower’s first in franchise cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Oct-2019Andy Flower has been named as head coach of Maratha Arabians in the upcoming Abu Dhabi T10, days after ending a 12-year association with the ECB.Flower left his role as technical director in the England set-up on Saturday, and had hinted that he was more likely to take up roles on the franchise circuit than return to international cricket. There had been speculation that he would head to the IPL, but this is his first coaching role since leaving the ECB.”I have just come off a tremendous run with English cricket and am now looking ahead to the future with hope,” Flower said.”Anything that is new and is innovative like T10 cricket always has an automatic appeal. From a coaching perspective it presents new challenges to test yourself against in a world-class environment.”Flower departed the ECB after 12 years in the national team set-up. He started out as Peter Moores’ assistant in 2007, before taking over in 2009. His reign saw England win their first men’s ICC world tournament – the 2010 World T20 – as well as away Test series in India and Australia, as England rose to become the ICC’s No.1-ranked Test team. After the 2013-14 Ashes, he took up a role as technical director, which involved overseeing the Lions side.The league also announced that the Arabians had retained captain Dwayne Bravo, along with Lasith Malinga and Afghanistan pair Hazratullah Zazai and Najibullah Zadran. They have also signed Chris Lynn as an ‘icon player’ ahead of Wednesday’s player draft.The Arabians reached the semi-finals last season, finishing fourth after losing to Bengal Tigers in the third-place playoff.The league has moved to Abu Dhabi from Sharjah this season, and starts on November 15.

With 12 months to go for the T20 World Cup, both teams will look to make positive strides in the opening game of the series

The Preview by Sreshth Shah13-Nov-2019

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Afghanistan must be hurting. Playing hosts to West Indies in their adopted home in India, their ODI campaign went so badly that the team’s losing streak in the format extended to 12 by the end of the series. There’s a mismatch in the philosophy of their batting (defensive) and bowling (attacking) units, and that gulf appears to have become deeper after the recent integration of a few young batsmen in the squad.But T20Is are Afghanistan’s best format. With a stockpile of mystery spinners and a batting unit that goes deep (if not always big) Afghanistan have made oppositions, especially when in the subcontinent, wary.There’s only one problem, though: they appear to have forgotten the art of winning.Last month, they shared the tri-nation T20I series trophy in Bangladesh because of a washed-out final. Prior to the title clash, they had lost two in a row, to Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.T20I defeats used to be rare for Afghanistan, back-to-back losses even more, but the only team since 2017 to hand them that fate in a bilateral series are West Indies.Although the West Indies side that blanked Afghanistan 3-0 in 2017 is vastly different from the squad that is touring India currently, there are a few similarities. The side is rejuvenated under a new captain – Kieron Pollard – and the influx of a new set of cricketers after the latest Caribbean Premier League season gives them an opportunity to blindside Afghanistan since they have seen very little of these players.What used to be Afghanistan’s advantage earlier has now shifted away from them, and if the visitors can negate the spin threat Afghanistan possess, there’s no reason why West Indies cannot top Afghanistan in the T20I series too.

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Afghanistan LLWWW (completed matches, most recent first)West Indies LLLLL

In the spotlight

Mujeeb Ur Rahman has, for long, been the junior in the trio of spinners Afghanistan have unleashed on their opponents. But as teams focused more and more on not giving wickets to Rashid Khan, they have ended up exposing themselves to Mujeeb’s guiles. The teenager was Afghanistan’s highest wicket-taker in the ODIs against West Indies, and earlier this year was the most successful spinner at the Shpageeza Premier League as well. In 2019, Mujeeb’s gone wicketless only once and takes a wicket every 15.66 runs. Not once has he conceded more than 30 runs in T20Is this year and as a new-ball bowler, the tone Mujeeb sets against a West Indian opening unit – that hasn’t seen much of him – may just be the difference between West Indies scoring a middling score and a big one.Opening batsman Brandon King made a useful 39 in his national debut for West Indies in their win in the third ODI and it won’t be surprising if he walks into the T20I team as well after a fantastic CPL 2019. A ninth-round pick during the CPL draft, King smacked 496 runs in 12 innings, at an average of 55.11 and a strike rate of 149.94 as an opener for Guyana Amazon Warriors to break down the door that was stopping him from wearing the West Indies maroon. A right-hand batsman who prefers hitting straight rather than square, the potential for King to make an impact in his first T20I series is massive. He’s a traditional stroke player, something missing among most of West Indies’ white-ball batsmen these days, and if he can get into his zone swiftly against Afghanistan, King has shown that the longer he stays in the middle, the more dangerous he gets.

Team news

There are plenty of youngsters in both squads, and with the T20 World Cup only 12 months away, expect a few new faces in the XIs. West Indies, however, will be without Nicholas Pooran, who was handed a four-match ban for ball tampering in the ODI series.Afghanistan (possible): 1 Hazratullah Zazai, 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Javed Ahmadi, 4 Najibullah Zadran, 5 Asghar Afghan, 6 Gulbadin Naib, 7 Rashid Khan (capt), 8 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 9 Naveen-ul-Haq, 10 Sayed Shirzad, 11 Mujeeb Ur RahmanWest Indies (possible): 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Brandon King, 4 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 5 Sherfane Rutherford, 6 Kieron Pollard (capt), 7 Jason Holder, 8 Khary Pierre, 9 Hayden Walsh Jr, 10 Alzarri Joseph, 11 Sheldon Cottrell

Pitch and conditions

A bug invasion in the third ODI forced players to wear masks, and with the game being played under floodlights in Lucknow again, another attack can’t be ruled out. North India is now experiencing the onset of winter, and dew is expected to play a big role as the evening progresses. With both teams expected to field multiple spin bowlers, there could be an effect. The night sky in Lucknow is expected to be hazy, and some reports suggest that the air quality could be hazardous.

Stats and trivia

• West Indies will become the first team to play two T20Is at Lucknow’s Ekana Stadium, having played in the ground’s inaugural match against India in November 2018.
• Afghanistan’s spin bowlers have conceded 7.87 runs per over in 2019, but average more than six wickets per game for the side.
• Less than 12 months ago, Hayden Walsh Jr was playing for USA

England bowler targets comeback for Sri Lanka tour after muscular injury is ruled out

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jan-2020James Anderson says that the injury that forced his withdrawal from England’s tour of South Africa was the “most pain I’ve ever been in on a cricket field”, but insists he may yet be fit to take part in the tour of Sri Lanka in March, after being diagnosed with a broken rib.Anderson, who claimed 5 for 40 in the first innings of last week’s second Test in Cape Town, was restricted to eight overs on the final day of England’s victory push, and just two in the final session, after confiding to his team-mate Stuart Broad that he feared he had “ripped a muscle off the rib”.Speaking on his BBC “Tailenders” podcast, Anderson described how he first suspected he had a problem during an exploratory over with the new ball before lunch, but that it was his two-over burst immediately after tea, with England still needing five wickets to force victory, that confirmed his participation in the tour was about to end.”I felt a bit of side soreness from the first Test,” Anderson said. “I felt fine throughout that second Test, bowled six overs on the final morning and felt pretty good. We took the new ball just before lunch and it didn’t feel right.”I didn’t bowl again until after tea. We needed some wickets and Joe [Root] asked if I was able to have a go.”I was in the most pain I’ve ever been in on a cricket field. I couldn’t pull through properly. It was hurting every time I bowled, so I knew there was something not right.”Anderson’s initial fear was that the injury was a torn muscle, which would have entailed a lay-off of up to four months – and given that he was restricted to just four overs during last summer’s Ashes after aggravating a calf injury, that sort of prognosis could well have jeopardised his preparations for this summer’s home Tests against West Indies and Pakistan.”I was saying to Stuart Broad ‘I think there’s something really wrong here’,” Anderson said. “I thought I’d ripped a muscle off the rib, so a broken rib isn’t the worst outcome. A torn muscle would be anywhere from two, three or four months. A broken rib will hopefully be healed in three or four weeks.”The circumstances of the injury were something of a mystery to England’s medical team, who initially assumed he must have been struck in the ribs while batting.”I’d have remembered if I’d been hit,” said Anderson. “They think it is through the constant force of me bowling. The muscles were strong enough, but the bone wasn’t.”They said it doesn’t look like a stress fracture, it’s actually cracked. They said they’d not seen one like this in a bowler before.”It’s just a case of waiting for the bone to heal. I can do anything that doesn’t hurt, so hopefully my fitness won’t drop off too much. I can still do stuff in the gym.”Once the bone has healed, I can get straight back into it. It might be three weeks before the bone has healed properly, then I can get straight back into it.”Anderson’s optimism confirms his hunger to fight back from this latest set-back and extend his Test career – he is currently 16 wickets shy of becoming the first fast bowler in history to reach 600 Test wickets.ALSO READ: Ollie Pope leading the charge for England’s young gunsAnd despite intimating recently that he would be willing to skip the tour of Sri Lanka in March – where he played a bit-part role last year in England’s 3-0 series win – he is now hopeful of putting his name back in the frame, and dispelling any suggestion that, at the age of 37, his illustrious 17-year England career is about to come to an end.”I’m not ruling out being fit for the Sri Lanka trip,” he said. “Obviously I’m absolutely devastated not to be part of the last two Tests, especially having bowled really well in the second Test.”I know a lot does get talked about as you get older, but it’s more knowing within yourself. I thought I could still do it, but you don’t know unless you do it on the field.”That will help me through the next few weeks, knowing that I want to come back stronger and still play a part in this England side.”Anderson still managed to play an important role in England’s victory push, taking the catch at leg gully to dislodge the obdurate Rassie van der Dussen for 17. And he was able to take pride in the progress of a young team featuring four players under the age of 22.”I feel like we progressed as a team in that week and I’m sure they will continue to do in the next couple of games,” he said. “It was a bit subdued from my point of view, but one of the best wins I’ve been a part of.”Obviously it didn’t end well, but it made all the hard work worthwhile, proving to myself that I can still do it.