All posts by n8rngtd.top

Offspinner Anisa Mohammed and wicketkeeper-batsman Merissa Aguilleira, meanwhile, have been dropped

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Apr-2019West Indies women have named a fit-again Hayley Matthews and left-arm pace-bowling allrounder Stacy-Ann King in the 14-member squad that will tour Ireland and England in May-June.Offspinner Anisa Mohammed, who was part of the squads that toured Pakistan and the UAE for the limited-overs series against the former, has been dropped alongside wicketkeeper-batsman Merissa Aguilleira, who had led the T20I side in Karachi in designated captain Stafanie Taylor’s absence.Matthews returns to the national fold after missing both series against Pakistan with an injured medial collateral ligament that she had sustained while playing for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Women’s Big Bash League last December. She has been named deputy to captain Taylor. King, meanwhile, last played for West Indies in 2016 at the World T20 final against Australia in Kolkata.Interim chairman of selectors Robert Haynes said: “Stacy Ann King’s return to the West Indies Women’s team to tour Ireland and England is no real surprise after her performance during the recently concluded Colonial Medical Insurance Women’s Super50 Cup and CWI’s T20 Blaze tournaments. Her experience is very vital in this very crucial series against England, a series that we must win, so her ability to bowl good left arm swing will be an added dimension to our bowling attack.”Anisa Mohammed and Merissa Aguilleira’s performances in the recent women’s championships weren’t what we expected or how we wanted them to perform, so unfortunately they were not picked on this touring squad. There are other ladies who are vying for these coveted spots, we have three other wicketkeepers who have all been scoring consistently thereby outperforming Merissa.”The fourteen-member squad along with six reserve players will assemble in Antigua from May 6 to 20 for a training camp, before the touring party’s departure to Ireland on May 21. They will play in three T20Is, on May 26, 28 and 29 there before taking on England in three ODIs as part of the ICC Women’s Championships, on June 6, 9 and 13. West Indies will round out the tour with three T20Is against England, to be played on June 18, 21 and 25.West Indies are currently ranked sixth and fourth on the ICC ODI and T20I team rankings, and occupy the seventh spot on the eight-team ICC Women’s Championship table. In their most recent international outings, they had won the T20I series 2-1 against Pakistan, in Karachi, but lost the subsequent ODIs 1-2.Squad: Stafanie Taylor (capt), Hayley Matthews (vice-capt), Deandra Dottin, Afy Fletcher, Karishma Ramharack, Chedean Nation, Chinelle Henry, Kycia Knight, Kyshona Knight, Shakera Selman, Shamilia Connell, Shemaine Campbell, Natasha McLean, Stacy Ann KingReserves: Shabika Gajnabi, Sheneta Grimmond, Reniece Boyce, Britney Cooper, Shanika Bruce, Shawnisha Hector

Pacer picks four wickets on debut while the opener scored his maiden ODI ton

Himanshu Agrawal29-Mar-2022New Zealand hadn’t played an ODI for over a year, had as many as 12 first-choice players plying their trade in the IPL, and were playing Netherlands in the format after 26 years. Still, debutant quick Blair Tickner, and top-order batters Will Young – who got to his maiden ODI century with an unbeaten 103 – and Henry Nicholls combined to ensure the hosts comfortably took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.After Tickner became the fourth New Zealand bowler to take four wickets on ODI debut to restrict the visitors to 202, Nicholls and Young kept New Zealand motoring along in a second-wicket stand of 162 before Nicholls fell for 57, as they completed the chase with more than 11 overs to spare.Young got to his hundred after dancing down the pitch to loft over mid-off in what turned out to be the winning runs for his side. He had reached fifty off 54 balls in the 19th over, by which time he had slammed five fours and two sixes. Three of those fours came off successive deliveries in the eighth over off Logan van Beek: first a pull behind square, then a perfectly-timed push between cover and mid-off, and finally another pull but this time in front of square.Related

• Dane Cleaver's chance to step out of cousin Kane's big shadow

But the shot of the day came in the 18th over when Young skipped down the track to left-arm wristspinner Michael Rippon, and effortlessly lofted the ball for a big six over long-off. However, that remained the only boundary hit from the 11th to the 24th over, as Rippon and captain Pieter Seelaar kept things quiet.While Rippon sent back Nicholls to break the massive stand, he also got Ross Taylor with a beauty: he tossed the ball up from around the wicket, inviting Taylor to drive, but the ball landed right in between his bat and pad, and spun back in to hit the stumps.Earlier, it was the pair of Rippon and Seelaar that had rescued Netherlands with the bat after they were reduced to 45 for 5 by the New Zealand pacers at the end of the 13th over. Tickner had got two of those wickets, with one each having gone to Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry and Colin de Grandhomme.Jamieson was the first to strike when he had Max O’Dowd gloving down the leg side to wicketkeeper Tom Latham in the third over of the innings, while three overs later, Henry had Stephan Myburgh edging to Martin Guptill at gully, where the latter took a good low catch.
And while New Zealand’s debutant shone with the ball, Netherlands’ own debut batter Vikramjit Singh impressed with the bat, albeit only for a short while. Before becoming Tickner’s maiden ODI wicket, left-hand batter Vikramjit had shown signs of a young Darren Bravo with his compact technique, hitting four pleasing boundaries on his way to 19.He used soft hands to collect the first of those, before gently driving Henry down the ground and punching him with a short-arm jab through the covers for four. But from 41 for 2, Netherlands slipped further to lose another three wickets for as many runs as Tickner had Vikramjit caught at third man while Scott Edwards gifted a return catch to de Grandhomme, and Bas de Leede, whose father Tim was part of the only previous ODI meeting between the sides in 1996, also found third man off Tickner.That is when the union between captain Seelaar and Rippon began. Happy to nudge and tuck the ball to keep the scoreboard ticking, they slowly but steadily took their side towards hundred, as legspinner Ish Sodhi and debutant allrounder Michael Bracewell kept things tight. Seelaar swept them once each for four, but when on 43, ended up tickling down leg off Tickner to end the 80-run partnership.Rippon, who been pretty quiet until then, soon found the boundary and reached his half-century in the 45th over before being the last man out for 67. He kept dragging Netherlands by regularly running singles, and was involved in crucial partnerships with the tailenders to push his team to a respectable total. A cameo from van Beek and contributions from Philippe Boissevain took them past 200, but that would prove easily gettable for New Zealand in the end.

Lancashire fast bowler faced possibility of retirement due to injury before maiden call-up

Matt Roller01-Jul-2022On Thursday afternoon, Richard Gleeson saw a WhatsApp notification pop up on his phone. Matthew Mott, England’s white-ball coach, had sent him a message saying, “I’m going to give you a ring.” Gleeson turned to his wife, Laura, and said, in a state of shock: “I think I’m about to get picked for England.”He was right. Gleeson, an uncapped 34-year-old seamer, has been named in England’s 14-man T20I squad to play India next week and with three games in four days putting heavy demands on their seamers, he is highly likely to make his debut. It would be the crowning moment of an improbable comeback story: only eight months ago, he wondered if he would ever play professionally again.Gleeson is one of the game’s late developers. For most of his adult life, he played club cricket for Blackpool and minor counties for Cumberland and became a coach at the Lancashire Cricket Board after a series of unglamorous jobs. At 27, he was trialling with Northamptonshire and earned a first-class debut against the touring Australians; the following year, on a pay-as-you-play deal, he was a key man in their T20 Blast title-winning side.Related

• Late-bloomer Gleeson leaves his mark on T20I debut

• Gleeson wins first England call-up for T20Is against India

• Rohit returns to lead white-ball squads for England series; Hardik back for ODIs

• Rashid to miss India white-ball series to make Hajj pilgrimage

• India to play Derbyshire and Northamptonshire in T20 warm-ups

His ability to bowl yorkers at good pace made him stand out and his upwards trajectory continued. He played for the England Lions in early 2018, moved to Lancashire at the end of that season and appeared in the Bangladesh Premier League, the Big Bash and the Abu Dhabi T10. When England needed standby bowlers for their white-ball squads in the Covid summer of 2020, he travelled to the Ageas Bowl as a reserve.But when he returned to Lancashire, things started to unravel. On the morning before a four-day game, he felt a sharp pain in his lower back – “absolute agony, like being stabbed repeatedly” – and scans diagnosed a stress fracture, caused in no small part by the first lockdown of the pandemic which had left him unable to train.His back was effectively being held together by a single piece of cartilage and he spent the whole winter in rehab, working his way back to fitness. The following summer, he played the first game of the Blast, conceded 21 runs in his only over, and could barely move the next day due to the pain of bowling. He returned for the quarter-final defeat against Somerset but was only “around 70% healed” and was again expensive.Gleeson went for another scan in December, knowing that bad news would probably prove terminal for his career. After all, his contract with Lancashire had already expired: “I was basically unemployed for two months,” he recalls. “I didn’t know what was going to happen – or if I was going to play cricket again. That thought had definitely crept into my mind.”But when I had the scan, the fracture was 100% united, which the specialists had said was the best-case scenario.” Lancashire offered him another contract, initially just for the T20 Blast. “There were no guarantees that I’d get back out on the park and it could be that if I bowled again it would flare up, so it was almost like a suck-it and-see-contract.”In fact, that contract expires in two weeks’ time – but there are no longer the same concerns about whether another will follow. After taking 20 wickets in 12 games in the Blast this year, the joint-most by an England-qualified bowler, Gleeson hopes to win a contract in next week’s wildcard draft for the Hundred, and will soon sit down with Lancashire to discuss his future. But first, he has an England series to think about.England have generally used slower-ball bowlers at the death in short-form cricket of late, but are looking at Gleeson as an old-school, yorker option who can hit the blockhole more often than not. “The one area in our white-ball stuff where we’re looking for options is at the death,” Jos Buttler, England’s new captain, said on Friday.Gleeson is the joint-leading wicket-taker in the Blast this summer•MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images

“He bowls some excellent yorkers and watching him in the Blast this year, he’s bowled brilliantly. It was quite an easy selection… everyone was unanimous on that. We certainly see that death-bowling area as somewhere he can use his expertise.”Gleeson has thrived at the death in the Blast, closing out a tie and a one-run win in the two televised Roses games, while against Durham he took a superb 4 for 19, with all four wickets clean bowled.”Obviously if you do things on TV, it gets people talking,” he says. “I’ve had the responsibility of bowling in the powerplay and at the death and I relish the big moments. Dane [Vilas] has entrusted me with that responsibility with Saqib [Mahmood] being out.”I think I’ve done quite well and stepped up to it. If I’m nailing my yorker, it’s obviously a difficult ball to get away, no matter what time of the game. That’s been a big part of it, but you have to be clever with it as well and use it at the right time.”And he has thrived this season while juggling his new commitments at Myerscough College in Preston, where he has been teaching a BTEC cricket course. He has even had to ask for “a little bit of leave” after his England call-up to miss a CPD (Continuing Professional Development) training day which clashes with the India series.He has taken an unusual route but next week, Gleeson will find himself bowling to some of the biggest names in cricket in Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya. His outlook is simple: “They’re all human, at the end of the day. I’ll just go out there, relish it and do the same thing I have all season. If it’s good enough, it’s good enough.”

The India captain says his team has the character and skill to win difficult tours; they just need the experience to close out tough situations

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Sep-20181:43

Did think about a win at tea – Kohli

India’s captain Virat Kohli believes India have the character and skill to win difficult tours; they just need the experience to close out tough situations with fearless and smart cricket. He said the scoreline of 4-1 to England didn’t show how competitive the series was, and that both the teams and those who understand cricket know it.”Definitely there will be things we will sit down and think about that could be taken as opportunities,” Kohli said in the post-match presentation at The Oval. “I know we have missed quite a few. But we have no regrets in terms of the way we have played. Obviously when both teams are going for wins, you are going to have results that look like that. England play fearless as well. We decide to play fearless as well. You will hardly have draws in this kind of series.”That’s exactly what the scoreline shows. Not saying it is not a fair scoreline. They played better cricket than us, they deserve to win. But it does not mean that we have been outplayed every game. Barring Lord’s. We have been competitive in every game. People watching and people understanding the game know that. We can take a lot of heart from that but at the same time we need to learn from things we didn’t do right and apply them the next time we step on the field.”The biggest lesson for India, Kohli said, was the way rookie allrounder Sam Curran played. India voted for him as England’s Man of the Series.”There is a reason why we voted for Sam as the Man of the Series,” Kohli said. “Coming in at that stage in the batting order, and with the ball as well, he has made very important contributions. If you look at the significance of the matches, the first one was massive, and after 2-1, the fourth one was massive. He made plays in both those games. It takes character for someone to come in and play like that. He put England in front in both those matches. We can learn from that. Guys coming in, being fearless, taking on the situation head on but being smart about that. That is something we need to learn and apply.”Kohli was also full of praise for KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, who stretched England on the fifth day at The Oval, with fourth-innings centuries in the face of an improbable target. “A lot of credit has to go to both those young guys,” Kohli said. “Stepping up at such a difficult stage. Three wickets down for two runs. Jinks [Rahane] got stuck in with KL but I think the way KL and Rishabh batted showed the character we have in the team.”The kind of cricket we played in the series, it might not show in the scoreline, but both the sides know that it has been a competitive series, it has taken a lot out of both the sides.”We have taken the challenge head on. Today was an example of two guys not giving up and actually entertaining the crowd. This is probably the revival of Test cricket and shows what it means to us. It is a great advertisement for Test cricket.”

Allrounder will return to UK after jarring his knee in the field on debut in Rawalpindi

Vithushan Ehantharajah05-Dec-2022England allrounder Liam Livingstone has been ruled out of the ongoing Test series with Pakistan after sustaining a right knee injury during the first Test.Livingstone, who was making his debut in the format, jarred his knee while fielding a ball on the boundary on day two, after England had posted 657 in their first innings. He remained off the field for all of Pakistan’s first innings, but did bat in England’s second effort, scoring an unbeaten 7 but looking in clear discomfort as he hobbled between the wickets. He scored 9 in the first innings and did not bowl.A scan on Sunday morning (day four) revealed the extent of the damage. He will now return to the UK on Tuesday and begin a rehabilitation programme under the supervision of the ECB and the Lancashire medical teams.Related

• Ben Stokes hails 'greatest away Test win' as England stick together in adversity

• Ben Stokes' England seal win for the ages in Rawalpindi's dying light

At this stage, England have yet to make a decision on whether to call up a replacement. A destructive batter in the shorter formats, Livingstone’s main selling point on this tour was his spin capabilities, offering legspin and offspin options to the team. Will Jacks, drafted into the XI for this Test at the very last minute following illness to Ben Foakes, took 6 for 161 with offies of his own on debut. Meanwhile, Leicestershire’s Rehan Ahmed offers an exciting albeit raw option as a legspinning allrounder.Fast bowler Mark Wood, also with the squad, seems the most likely to replace Livingstone in the XI in the short term. The second Test at Multan, which begins on Friday, is expected to play out on a similar docile surface. The Durham quick’s lightning pace will no doubt be a boost provided he can return to match sharpness in the next few days after missing the opening Test with a hip injury.