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Bumrah was excellent throughout, Ashwin got Smith for a duck and Siraj bowled with pace and movement

Andrew McGlashan25-Dec-2020 27,615 spectators (itself a triumph for many reasons) the ground reverberated to the excitement of what could be about to unfold, but debutant Shubman Gill and the experienced Cheteshwar Pujara took the sting out of the mini session – aided by Gill being dropped on 4 at slip by Marnus Labuschagne – to the extent that they scored at three-and-a-half an over.Australia’s total followed their 191 first innings in Adelaide as ball continued rule in the early stages of the series, the opening day of this Test coming on an MCG surface that offered more encouragement than any in recent memory. Those planning to attend the fourth day will be a touch nervous.Bumrah was excellent throughout, Ashwin got the better of Steven Smith for the second time in the series (Smith’s first Test duck in four years) and Siraj, filling the shoes of Mohammed Shami, bowled with pace and movement, his second spell reading 9-4-16-2 including a classic working over of fellow Test rookie Cameron Green.Ashwin was outstanding, both holding the scoring rate – he conceded just 1.46 runs per over – and claiming three of the top seven having been introduced in the 11th over by stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane who was another to have an impressive day both with bowling and fielding tactics. The dismissals of Smith, Labuschagne and Travis Head were all perfectly executed plans.The opening wicket of the day was also a working over as Joe Burns battled outside off stump before getting a thin edge against Bumrah in the fifth over. While he was far from alone in struggling, if David Warner returns for the third Test somebody will have to stand aside and it may need another show of faith from the selectors.Mohammed Siraj is thrilled after dismissing Marnus Labuschagne•Getty Images

Briefly it looked as though Matthew Wade would add more pressure onto the debate as he dominated the early scoring with crisp, confident driving of the type Warner excels at, but he undid the good work on the stroke of drinks when he tried to launch Ashwin over the leg side. However, the dismissal owed everything to the fielding brilliance of Ravindra Jadeja who held onto the catch over his shoulder despite a near collision with Gill, and after taking the ball was still able to avoid trampling his team-mate.Smith laboured 29 balls for 1 in the first innings in Adelaide but was unable to get off the mark this time when he glanced a delivery off his pads to Pujara at leg slip who held a sharp chance. The hands he found with such dramatic effect in the one-day series a few weeks ago have momentarily gone missing. Australia were 38 for 3.For 28 overs either side of lunch, Labuschagne and Head did a solid repair job although Labuschagne looked for all the world to have gone lbw on 26 when he was sweeping Ashwin only for the ball-tracker to show the delivery clearing the stumps. There were signs that the initial storm had been weathered when Head, especially, started to find scoring a little easier but it proved an illusion.Rahane had opted not to bring Bumrah back when it looked a prime moment for the strike bowler, but when he did the impact was not long in coming as, in an over that included two no-balls, he found Head’s outside edge from an around-the-wicket line which has often troubled the left-hand batsman and the captain took a sharp catch around fourth slip.Labuschagne has scored useful runs this series but has not looked as settled as his prolific 2019-2020 summer and has certainly had to work harder for them. The scoring seized up against the accuracy of Ashwin and Siraj with 10 runs in eight overs before Labuschagne clipped Siraj towards leg gully where fellow debutant Gill continued India’s good catching day.It was clear Tim Paine, who survived a borderline run out on 6 when he was saved by a missing frame, wanted to provide more urgency, but it was a struggle for Green who kept hitting the field and he fell to a perfect set up. Siraj sent down a series of outswingers before bringing one back into Green’s pads. The control and precision of the dismissal from Siraj capped a superb first day for him in Test cricket.Australia’s hopes of counterattacking were hit further in the next over when Paine became the latest to be caught behind square, turning Ashwin to leg slip. Without their captain to marshal them as he did in Adelaide, it was a tall order for the last three wickets to be expected to lift the total too far, but Nathan Lyon’s bludgeoned 20 took them to the brink of 200.The possibilities generated by Starc’s early response had dissipated a little by the close, but India’s batting line-up should face their own stern examination tomorrow. Their hopes in the series could rest on how they come through.

Hosts’ batting coach at a loss to explain how they were all out for 135

Andrew Fidel Fernando14-Jan-2021The worst he’s seen. That was batting coach Grant Flower’s summation of Sri Lanka’s first innings at Galle, where they were all out for 135, against an England attack that were far from unplayable.Among Sri Lanka’s worst shots were those of Kusal Perera, who fell reverse sweeping Dom Bess’ second ball of the series, as well as Niroshan Dickwella, who slapped a wide long hop from Bess straight to point. Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews and Wanindu Hasaranga also all fell playing attacking shots.”I can’t explain it,” Flower said of the batting performance, after stumps. “I’ve been with the team for a year. It’s the worst batting I’ve seen. It’s purely mental I think. I don’t have any reasons to explain that.”Every single batsman should take the blame. They’ve only got themselves to blame. One of the guys was unlucky – Dasun Shanaka – when it came off Jonny Bairstow’s ankle. But the rest just got themselves out. There was some decent bowling, but the pitch isn’t a minefield.”Flower said the flaws in Sri Lanka’s batting were all in the head, rather than in their techniques. Although Sri Lanka lost 2-0 in South Africa, they had not had as woeful an innings there, as they did on Thursday in Galle.”I can’t give much technical advice,” Flower said. “I can only talk to them about the mental aspect, and ask them what they were thinking regarding their dismissals. I’ve only spoken to a few as well as the coach. I’m at a loss for words. I’ve never seen us bat that badly. Whether it was nerves or coming back from South Africa…”But they know these conditions so well, so they should have had a big advantage over England. But the England batsmen showed us this afternoon there’s nothing wrong with the pitch so far. It’s going to get worse, but today it played well and we batted terribly.”The batsman who did worst on Friday was Kusal Mendis, who collected a second-ball duck. This was his fourth consecutive nought in Tests, having made 12, 0, 0, and 0 in South Africa. He was out pushing at a straightening Stuart Broad ball, outside off stump. He edged it to the wicketkeeper.”I think in South Africa there might have been a few technical things [with Mendis’ batting], but today it didn’t have anything to do with technique. I think it was just a mental lapse. He was playing at a ball that he shouldn’t have.”

The series is on the line on Saturday and though the visitors lost the first T20I, they have quality in their line-up

Danyal Rasool12-Feb-2021

Big picture

The South African side might be second-string, but there was nothing second-rate about the cricket on show at Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday. In a pulsating encounter that took until the 240th ball of the match to finally reveal the winner, South Africa competed with Pakistan, and, for large chunks of the game, were the better side, only falling short due to two stunning individual performances by Mohammad Rizwan and Usman Qadir. It is bound to encourage the visitors that they may have more strength in depth than they have been given credit for, and they enter the second match with the series feeling very much alive.Pakistan will have concerns despite the narrow win. It was, in truth, a fairly indifferent performance from the hosts, particularly for the batsmen and the fast bowlers. Rizwan side, no one exceeded 21 with the bat, while Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Faheem Ashraf combined to leak 118 runs in 11 overs. That isn’t a template to winning T20I games, and Babar Azam’s side will be well aware they will require a more rounded performances if they are to wrap up the series at the earliest opportunity.South Africa will rue, once more, their failure to capitalise on important moments, as was the case in the Tests series. Having kept Pakistan on a leash for large periods and picked up wickets regularly, the visitors were unable to make the pressure tell on Rizwan, who rose up to the responsibility of being (virtually) last-man standing with flying colours. Junior Dala and Lutho Sipamla consistently missed their lines and leaked a costly 49 off 5 overs. With the bat, Janneman Malan played a sumptuous knock, but unlike Rizwan, could not convert his 29-ball 44 into a match-winning score, while Reeza Hendricks struggled to convert an anchoring half-century into an explosive innings once the asking rate changed the game’s dynamic.South Africa have never lost a T20I series in Asia, and need to win tomorrow to keep that record. They will have decisions to make in the bowling department, while hoping senior players like David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen come to the party in a way they did not on Thursday night. Pakistan, meanwhile, have more recognized options like Hasan Ali or Mohammad Hasnain to call up on for some of the quicks who had a torrid time in the first game. With the T20 World Cup less than a year away, neither side will mind getting a chance to provide experience to players who may be needed in India in October.

Form guide

Pakistan WWLLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
South Africa LLLLL
Mohammad Rizwan had a remarkable game, scoring a spectacular century and pulling off an acrobatic run-out•AFP / Getty Images

In the spotlight

Khushdil Shah was called up to the Pakistan side based off his momentous National T20 Cup performances late last year, but so far, the left-handed power hitter has done little to justify his selection. One-hundred and fifteen runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 113 is very much not what was advertised when Pakistan decided to take a punt on him, and for most of those games, he has never really looked like getting into the zone that makes him arguably the most destructive striker on the domestic circuit. On Thursday, he fell for a run-a-ball 12 after one big hit, struggling to adjust to changes in pace deployed against him. T20I cricket is a step up from the domestic circuit Khushdil has become a bit of a legend on, but should his struggles here continue, he might earn a one-way ticket back to that level.In four tightly-knit overs, Tabraiz Shamsi demonstrated what a devastating blow his absence was to South Africa’s chances in the Test series. The Lahore surface was conducive to the spinners, and if Qadir got the headlines for four spellbinding overs, Shamsi wasn’t far behind either. He landed the ball in the right areas frequently enough to keep the batsmen wary, conceding just two boundaries in four overs that cost just 20. Hussain Talat’s dismissal, while controversial, came about simply due to Shamsi’s mastery in flight, drawing his man forward to give Klassen the opportunity to catch him out of his crease. Pakistan will expect him to be just as threatening tomorrow.

Team news

Pakistan might be tempted to bring in Asif Ali after the middle order misfired, while Hasnain or Hasan could get a go, possibly for Afridi, who is due a rest.Pakistan (probable): 1 Babar Azam (capt) 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk) 3 Haider Ali 4 Khushdil Shah 5 Asif Ali/Hussain Talat 6 Faheem Ashraf 7 Iftikhar Ahmed 8. Mohammad Nawaz 9 Hasan Ali/Shaheen Afridi 10 Haris Rauf 11 Usman QadirDala and Jacques Snyman had difficult games, but South Africa turned in a stable enough performance not to require a massive overhaul.South Africa (probable): 1 Janneman Malan 2 Reeza Hendricks 3 Jon-Jon Smuts/Jacques Snyman 4 David Miller 5 Heinrich Klaasen (capt &wk)) 6 Andile Phehlukwayo 7 Dwaine Pretorius 8 Bjorn Fortuin 9 Lutho Sipamla 10 Tabraiz Shamsi 11 Glenton Stuurman

Pitch and conditions

The wicket should once again take spin, but there was a sense there were more runs in it than the first T20I produced. A high-scoring game would not be much of a surprise.

Stats and trivia

• Rizwan’s century in the first T20I made him just the second wicketkeeper-batsman to score international hundreds in all three formats. The other is former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum.
• Babar Azam’s duck was just the second time the Pakistan captain has failed to score in a T20I. The first time it happened came against Bangladesh last year, also at the Gaddafi Stadium.
• South Africa have now lost five consecutive T20Is, the first time this has ever happened.

Surrey battle back despite conceding first-innings deficit of 106 to Gloucestershire

ECB Reporters' Network10-Apr-2021Ben Foakes and Rory Burns kept Surrey alive against Gloucestershire as they closed day three at Bristol 232 for 5 in their second innings, leading by 126.After Gloucestershire took a first-innings lead of 106, Surrey lost three for seven to slip to 48 for 3, still trailing by 58. But Burns, who made 74, and Foakes, unbeaten on 81 at the close, shared 97 for the fourth wicket.Related

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Burns fell before tea and when David Payne bowled Jamie Smith with the last ball of the session, Surrey were 187 for 5, only 81 ahead. But Foakes and Jordan Clark took their side to the close still in the game.It’s been a difficult few months for Burns who never got going during last summer’s internationals and whose paternity leave interrupted his winter with England that eventually saw him dropped for the final two Tests in India. A skittish dismissal in the first innings here was not the start to the season he envisaged but a 130-ball stay would have raised hopes of a return to form.He began with two back-foot steers for four off Payne and punched the same bowler to deep square to raise fifty in 93 balls. He dismissal would have grated – top-edging a pull to sky a catch to long leg where Payne took a smart catch.Burns guided Surrey through a concerning wobble as Mark Stoneman fell over trying to work Ryan Higgins to leg and departed lbw and Hashim Amla edged Matt Taylor behind for a 12-ball duck. Ollie Pope was also caught at the wicket to Taylor, again playing a loose drive, and Surrey were heading out of the contest.But Foakes settled with Burns after lunch and the pair moved the visitors into the lead with Foakes passing fifty in 92 balls and will return on day four hoping to build the lead beyond 200. Surrey lost Burns and then Smith before tea, the latter to one from Payne that held its line from round the wicket, as Gloucestershire reclaimed the ascendency.The hosts nudged their lead into three figures at the start of the day as Reece Topley added the wicket of Jack Taylor to claim 5 for 66 – his first five-wicket haul in a first-class match since 2014.

Regulation tweak may lead to law change given mandatory use of headgear

Andrew Miller31-Mar-2021The ECB are hopeful that a tweak to their playing regulations for this season’s County Championship may prompt a change to the game’s laws, after it was deemed that batsmen will remain not out if any part of their helmet falls on the stumps and breaks the wicket.The measure, which was also included for last season’s Bob Willis Trophy fixtures but did not come to pass during the competition, will apply to all ECB competitions this summer, and is aimed at ensuring that all players wear the maximum available protection – including parts such as the more recently introduced stem guards at the back of the helmet, that are liable to be dislodged when struck by a ball.The issue of player safety shot to prominence in November 2014, when the Australian batsman Phillip Hughes was struck on the back of the neck while batting in a Sheffield Shield fixture at Sydney, and died two days later of a brain haemorrhage.Twelve months after that tragedy, the ECB stipulated that all professional cricketers in England and Wales would be required to wear helmets while batting or fielding close to the wicket.And according to Alan Fordham, the ECB’s operations manager, the regulations tweak is a logical progression from that requirement.”If a batsman’s helmet becomes dislodged, or a part of it becomes dislodged – most likely its neck protection – and breaks the wicket, the batsman would be protected by the regulation change,” Fordham said.”If we were playing purely by law, then that would be out, but we are protecting the batsman and that arises from the fact that it’s mandated that you need to wear a helmet, and we want to encourage as much protection for batsmen as possible.”Incidents of batsmen being dismissed in such a manner are rare, but far from unheard of. Kevin Pietersen was out hit wicket to Dwayne Bravo at Old Trafford in 2007 when a bouncer broke his chin-strap and caused his helmet to land on the stumps.More recently, Australia’s Alex Carey narrowly avoided the same fate in the World Cup semi-final against England in 2019, when he caught his helmet after being struck on the jaw by Jofra Archer.According to MCC’s most recent revision of the Laws of Cricket in April 2019, Law 29.1.1.4 states that a wicket is put down … “by the striker’s person or by any part of his/her clothing or equipment becoming detached from his/her person”.The ECB’s playing regulations have added a caveat to that wording: “However, any detached equipment shall not include the striker’s protective helmet, or any part thereof [that is] designed to protect the head, neck and/or the face.””For the purposes of interpreting these Laws of Cricket,” the appendix to the regulation continues, “such a description will include faceguards, grilles and neck guards.”Fordham, who also sits on the MCC laws sub-committee, said that the matter had been raised in recent meetings, and that he anticipated an universal adoption of the policy in due course.”Its status at the moment is it isn’t law,” he said. “It may become law but that will be an MCC decision, but we’ve cracked on with it because we think it’s the right thing to do.”

CA says that the governing body is still open to hearing and investigating any new information about the Newlands incident

Daniel Brettig15-May-2021Cameron Bancroft has conceded there had to be wider knowledge of Australia’s ball-tampering tactics against South Africa in the Newlands Test than the punished trio of himself, David Warner and Steven Smith.Speaking to the interviewer Donald McRae in Durham where he is playing county cricket, Bancroft admitted under questioning that it was “self-explanatory” that bowlers in the Test team had to be aware the ball was being tampered with.”Yeah, look, all I wanted to do was to be responsible and accountable for my own actions and part. Yeah, obviously what I did benefits bowlers and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory,” Bancroft said. “I guess one thing I learnt through the journey and being responsible is that’s where the buck stops [with Bancroft himself]. Had I had better awareness I would have made a much better decision.”When pressed further, he replied: “Uh… yeah, look, I think, yeah, I think it’s pretty probably self-explanatory.”On Saturday night*, Cricket Australia clarified that the governing body was still open to hearing and investigating any new information brought to light about the Newlands incident, whether from Bancroft or anyone else.”CA has maintained all along that if anyone is in possession of new information in regards to the Cape Town Test of 2018, they should come forward and present it,” a CA spokesman said. “The investigation conducted at the time was detailed and comprehensive. Since then, no one has presented new information to CA that casts doubt on the investigation’s findings.”While levying heavy penalties on Bancroft (nine months), Warner and Smith (one year each, with Warner banned from holding any leadership positions for life) for their roles in ball-tampering, CA had ring-fenced the matter away from the rest of the team, although head coach Darren Lehmann resigned a few days later after seeing the tearful press conferences of the players upon their early returns to Australia.In March 2019, former chief executive Kevin Roberts had this to say about that prospect, while defending the initial investigation conducted by the former CA head of integrity, Iain Roy, between the Cape Town and Johannesburg Tests: “If they’ve got any concerns about ball-tampering or any concerns about any integrity issue in the game, we’ve invited them to report that through our anonymous integrity hotline or through other means that are available to them.”We haven’t had any such reports, so we won’t jump at shadows, but if anyone does report concerns about any integrity matter prior to ball-tampering or whatever it may be, we’re serious about addressing that, and we have a process to address it. We’re really serious about addressing any unresolved issues and we’re sincere in the way we’re going about that. So if there are any reports or allegations as opposed to innuendo, then we will investigate that thoroughly.”Certainly the investigation needed to be conducted swiftly, we needed to fulfil our commitment to field a team against South Africa the following week, and we didn’t know whether we’d need to fly 11 new players in to fill that team or no new players. The ultimate answer was somewhere in between. So the investigation was absolutely fit for purpose, but we haven’t rested on those laurels. We’ve made repeated and extensive invitations to anyone to report any integrity matters or concerns about ball-tampering ever since.”Though Smith and Warner have returned to the team, Bancroft is now a long way from international consideration, having played the first two Tests of the 2019 Ashes series before being discarded and then struggling to recreate his best days in the Sheffield Shield in 2019-20. He performed better last summer but is not considered to be in the front rank of contenders for a place in the national side.

The new payment system has created a bit of a divide between players and the board

Andrew Fidel Fernando28-May-2021The Sri Lanka men’s players’ rejection of their central contracts is “very unfair”, essentially because the board is offering more for winning series against top-ranked opposition. This is according to Aravinda de Silva, one of the architects of the new payment scheme.The players have contended that the new system is not transparent however, and senior players, in particular, have felt that the proposal rewards future potential over performance and experience. They made their grouses public in a statement last week, after Sri Lanka Cricket had revealed the details – including specific salary figures – of the proposed scheme.De Silva’s comments are an indication that SLC is unwilling to budge on contracts, despite player resistance. The new contracts system was devised largely by the technical committee, which de Silva heads, as well as director of cricket Tom Moody. According to de Silva, the new contracts have been modeled on kinds of contracts often offered in the corporate world.”We discussed this matter in depth before we presented it to the players,” de Silva told . “Unlike in the past, we have increased the benefits three-fold than what it was but purely on the team’s performance… If they win a Test series, we pay them US$ 150,000 which was earlier limited to US$ 50,000. It has to be a collective effort by the whole team.”Related

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De Silva, though, is only correct in a narrow sense about the incentives. This three-fold increase in incentive is only available if they defeat the No. 1 Test team in a series. There are far more modest incentives for beating lower-ranked sides. In fact, for teams ranked 6th and lower, the team would likely have earned higher sums under the old contracts.The ODI series incentives follow a similar pattern – substantial increases on previous years for beating top-ranked teams, but more modest increases and sometimes decreases for defeating lower-ranked outfits.De Silva did, however, correctly point out that: “We also introduced a slab for the T20 format, which also runs up to a maximum of US$ 50,000, which earlier didn’t have any rewards at all.”The comments came after Sri Lanka lost the first two matches of the ongoing ODI series against Bangladesh, thereby surrendering the trophy.”The most important fact is that they should get into the middle and play positive cricket and start winning games for the country rather than complaining,” de Silva said.”This positive approach will encourage us to consider offering them more benefits, like some of the other countries in our region. If the team creates value, their incentives will also go up.”

Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje could slot back into the XI while William Porterfield might be retained as opener

Firdose Moonda12-Jul-2021

Big picture

This series didn’t get the David and Goliath stereotype Andy Balbirnie joked about in the lead-up to the first ODI, but it did get another: rain. Only 40.2 overs were possible on Sunday, the 500 spectators that braved the wet weather saw as much cricket as they did rain and there’s scant evidence to suggest what this series may hold, except one complete match fewer.Ireland’s batting was steady without being explosive, South Africa’s bowling was economical without being particularly incisive, and conditions seemed to reward patience. Both teams had plenty on display but did not have the opportunity to see the results of their efforts because of the wash-out.The hosts will be pleased with the way William Porterfield and Balbirnie set up the innings and the hitting power of Harry Tector and Mark Adair, while Lungi Ngidi made the biggest impression among the South African pack. After being expensive in the Caribbean, Ngidi seemed to rediscover his control and built pressure at the start of the Irish innings. Andile Phehlukwayo also enjoyed a successful comeback to the national side after warming the bench in the West Indies, and will want to continue to establish himself as the premier seam-bowling allrounder.The shared points mean South Africa have moved off the bottom of the World Cup Super League and now lie above Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. They will want to pick up all 20 points that remain on offer to jump into the top five and feel more secure about their chances of automatic qualification, however early these days may be.Ireland have now leapfrogged Netherlands, who beat them in their most recent ODI series, and sit ninth. Any points they can take off South Africa in the next two matches will put them in a strong position ahead of their series against Zimbabwe.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Ireland LWLLLSouth Africa LWLWW

In the spotlight

Ireland’s scoring rate in the first ODI was described as “old-fashioned” by pundits, including Niall O’Brien, and their pedestrian pace will need some acceleration if they are to challenge some of South Africa’s big-hitters. For that, they’ve got George Dockrell. The left-arm-spinner-turned-batter was the top run-scorer in Ireland’s Inter-Provincial Limited Over Cup that finished last month. He scored 364 runs in five innings, including four fifties and a hundred, at a strike rate of 87.92, the second highest among the top-10 run-scorers.Kyle Verreynne was tidy behind the stumps in the first match and even if he has to hand the wicket-keeping gloves back to Quinton de Kock, he will want to grab the opportunity to establish a spot in the middle-order. Verreynne is competing with Heinrich Klaasen as South Africa search for someone who can operate as both a stabiliser for the mid-section of their innings and a finisher. On a ground with small boundaries, Verreynne will have few better opportunities to show his attacking abilities.

Team news

William Porterfield returned to open the batting with great success and is likely to be retained in that position. Ireland chose to play Dockrell as a specialist batter and will likely continue to do so, with the option to use him in a two-spinner, three-seam attack.Ireland: (possible) 1 Paul Stirling, 2 William Porterfield, 3 Andy Balbirnie (capt), 4 Harry Tector, 5 George Dockerell, 6 Lorcan Tucker (wk), 7 Simi Singh, 8 Andy McBrine, 9 Mark Adair, 10 Josh Little, 11 Craig YoungSouth Africa rested de Kock and Anrich Nortje from the first ODI but may want to bring them back for a crucial match in the series. That would mean Janneman Malan misses out and Keshav Maharaj may have to sit out, with the hope for further opportunities in the T20Is.South Africa (possible): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Temba Bavuma (capt), 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 Kyle Verreynne, 6 David Miller, 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Anrich Nortje, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi

Pitch and conditions

After persistent rain caused Sunday’s ODI to wash out, clear skies are expected for Tuesday, which bodes well for a complete game. On the evidence of the overs that were played in the first match, run-scoring was not as free-flowing as South Africa may have hoped with Ireland’s run rate hovering below five runs an over. There was plenty of seam movement on offer and with the amount of rain experienced in the last few days, a green-tinged top should see more of the same.

Stats and trivia

• Paul Stirling needs another 164 runs to become the first Ireland player to reach 5,000 ODI runs.
• Andile Phehlukwayo has represented South Africa 100 times across the three formats.

Wristspinner picked as a wildcard is now Southern Brave’s leading wicket-taker

Matt Roller17-Aug-2021The consensus after the Hundred’s initial draft in October 2019 was clear: Southern Brave were the favourites. They had signed a strong local core supplemented by some star overseas players, and more than anything had a world-class pace attack comprising Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills and Andre Russell.Jake Lintott, the bald, stocky, Somerset-born left-arm wristspinner, had not even registered for the draft. The last of his four professional T20 appearances had come more than a year previously and while he was coming off the back of a good season for Warwickshire’s seconds, Wiltshire and Clevedon CC, that was never going to be enough to see him picked in a Hundred squad.Nearly two years later, Lintott is Brave’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament’s first season, with 10 in seven games – only Adil Rashid and Rashid Khan have more across the men’s competition. Russell withdrew, Archer was ruled out through injury, and while Mills and Jordan have both been exceptional at the death, it has been Lintott who has led the way, setting up their five-match winning streak and qualification for the knockout stages with his skill through the middle of an innings.Lintott’s late rise after years of hard graft has led his Warwickshire team-mate Carlos Brathwaite to dub him “cricket’s Jamie Vardy” and his success lends hope to all late developers. He was 27 and a veteran of hundreds of second-team fixtures across several different counties when Warwickshire offered him a contract for last summer’s Blast in the days before the tournament; he took 10 wickets with an economy rate of 6.30 across his nine games.That success led to a full-time deal signed earlier this year, which he has juggled with his role as head of cricket at Queen’s College, Taunton. “I’ve had no days off since April,” he laughed in mid-June, and his 15 wickets this season – with another miserly economy rate of 6.97 – backed up his previous performances.It meant that when Southern Brave were looking for a wristspinner in the wildcard draft to fill the gap left in their squad by Shadab Khan’s unavailability, Lintott’s name was front and centre. “We looked at local wristspinners and went through the domestic season to look at guys who had come through in the last couple of years,” Mahela Jayawardene, their head coach, explained.”We wanted to know about his character as well,” he said. “Obviously it’s a big stepping stone for him, handling the pressure of playing in front of big crowds.” Following a character reference from Graeme Welch – Warwickshire’s bowling coach, and one of Brave’s assistants – they decided to take a punt on him. They lacked variety in their opening game when they picked two slow left-armers in Danny Briggs and Liam Dawson, so Lintott came in for game two.Since then he has racked up an impressive list of victims: Tom Banton (twice), Finn Allen, Moeen Ali, Colin Ackermann, Harry Brook and Ian Cockbain, before adding Sam Billings, Laurie Evans and Tom Curran in the qualification decider against Oval Invincibles on Monday night, when his 20 balls cost only 14 runs. Those figures stood in stark contrast to Invincibles’ overseas players Sunil Narine and Tabraiz Shamsi, who returned 0 for 61 across 40 balls between them.”I was really chuffed to contribute to a win,” Lintott said afterwards. “I felt like our spinners did a decent job and focused on doing a job with our lengths. Previously [at the Ageas Bowl] I’ve been a little full at times which has meant getting hit, so I tried to be really clinical with lengths and bowled a lot of googlies – probably about 80% tonight – to try and go across them as much as possible.”I’m pretty meticulous in planning. Me and Graeme Welch are tightly knit and do a lot of work together looking at batters’ strengths. I found, looking at the Oval guys, that they were very much leg-side dominant and liked to hit towards midwicket a lot, so I was trying to get the ball going across them as much as possible and be real clinical with my lengths.”Heading into the knockout stages, Lintott has a chance to reinforce his status as one of the unlikely stars of the Hundred’s first season, and he credits the relaxed atmosphere that Jayawardene has cultivated as a key factor in his success. Brave have a simple enough formula, Lintott bowling in tandem with his Warwickshire team-mate Briggs through the middle of the innings to tie teams down before Jordan and Mills take over at the death, but it has served them well so far.”I wasn’t in the draft for the initial competition, so that shows you how surreal the last 18 months have been,” Lintott said. “I have to pinch myself, really. It’s been an amazing year and a half for me, and moments like tonight are pretty special.”I knew that I’d done well in the T20 [Blast] and my plan was always to give myself the best opportunity [in the wildcard draft]. Luckily, Southern Brave were looking for a wristspinner and that opportunity arose. To play in front of full houses – I’ve not done that before because of Covid – is a pretty special feeling.”The best thing to take from this is just the players that you’re playing with and the learning that goes on when you’re training with them. The most impressive thing for me is that everyone in this group is so supportive and has backed me 100%. The reason I’ve done well with Warwickshire is that I’ve felt backed for the first time in my life, and I feel exactly the same here. It’s been really good – a privilege to be part of.

Injuries have parched him of steady opportunities but he has been able play more consistently since the start of the 2020-21 BBL

Matt Roller05-Aug-2021Adam Milne, the New Zealand fast bowler, has set his sights on October’s T20 World Cup in the UAE despite injuries limiting him to two T20I appearances since November 2018.Milne played only 12 professional games in a two-year period between November 2018 and December 2020, twice undergoing surgery on his left ankle, but has been able to string games together more consistently since the start of the 2020-21 Big Bash League and has been the standout fast bowler in the group stages of the ongoing Hundred to date, playing for the table-topping Birmingham Phoenix.He won an international recall for New Zealand’s T20I series against Bangladesh earlier this year and while he proved expensive in that series, he has been in contact with the selectors in recent weeks to discuss his potential involvement in the upcoming tours of Bangladesh and Pakistan before the World Cup.New Zealand are expected to confirm squads for those tours at the start of next week, though it is unclear at this stage whether Milne and the other players with IPL deals will be part of them. Milne confirmed he is expecting to fly to the UAE to fulfil his contract with the Mumbai Indians where he will link back up with Shane Bond, Mumbai’s assistant coach and his Sydney Thunder head coach and mentor.Related

• Adam Milne's 'roller-coaster ride' brings him into New Zealand's T20 World Cup plans

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• New Zealand to tour Bangladesh for five T20Is in September

• T20 World Cup 2021: New Zealand in Group 2

“I’d obviously love to play more for New Zealand,” Milne told ESPNcricinfo. “I’ve had a lot of injuries over the last three years which has stopped me playing any cricket at all really, and you can’t play for New Zealand if you’re not playing any domestic cricket.”It’s nice to be playing well over here, and I feel like out of all of the formats, I’ve got a really good record in T20. I know this is slightly different with the 100-ball format, but I’d obviously really like to be part of that World Cup team and there has been a little bit of communication behind the scenes back home.”The hardest thing for a fast bowler is stringing a whole period of cricket together. It’s all been short-format for me, so it’s not as taxing as longer forms, but it’s been nice to be able to play consistently and gain a bit of trust in the body and get a bit of rhythm in my bowling. When you’re coming in and out, you’re not quite getting that rhythm, so it’s been nice to keep that going.”Milne’s preparation for the Hundred was not ideal. He was due to play six games for Kent in the group stages of the Vitality Blast but one was washed out and he was forced to self-isolate for 10 days during the final two as a close contact of a team-mate who had contracted Covid-19.But he has still managed to hit the ground running over the last two weeks. He is the competition’s fourth-highest wicket-taker with seven in his first five appearances, and has the best economy rate (1.02 runs conceded per ball) out of any seamer. He has also hit speeds of 93mph/149kph – only Marchant de Lange has bowled a fast ball in the tournament – and produced one of its first viral moments with an outrageous caught-and-bowled to dismiss Ravi Bopara.