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Poor fielding display condemns holders to third straight loss in round-robin stage

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Mar-2022Lisa Keightley, England’s head coach, says that she shoulders the blame for the collapse in form that has left her team’s defence of the World Cup hanging by a thread, following their third straight loss of the tournament, and their sixth ODI defeat in a row.After opening their campaign with narrow defeats to Australia and West Indies, England batted first in Mount Maunganui and posted 235 for 9 in their 50 overs, with half-centuries from Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones and five wickets for South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp.In reply, however, England missed a number of key opportunities in the field – most notably against Laura Wolvaardt, who anchored South Africa’s chase with 77 from 101 balls. Sune Luus and Kapp backed up their earlier efforts with the ball with a pair of important 30s, before Shabnim Ismail and Trisha Chetty sealed a three-wicket win with four balls to spare.England, who beat South Africa by two wickets in a similarly tense semi-final of the 2017 World Cup, now face four must-win contests in a row, starting with Wednesday’s clash with India in Mount Maunganui. Even that, however, might not now be enough for qualification with Australia, New Zealand and West Indies already better placed to push for a spot for the semi-final berths.”As a coach, I take a huge amount of responsibility,” Keightley said. “It’s up to me to drive the team and get the wins on the board, that’s the job of the coach. And we’re trying really hard, the coaching staff and myself, to get the players up and about and we don’t have to do too much.”The players are pretty gutted,” she added. “They were pretty gutted after the last match and they wanted to bounce back. They were unable to do it, so the responsibility and the buck lies with me and I’m happy to cop that.”Moving forward, do I feel the pressure? I don’t feel any more pressure than what the players feel and I’m no more disappointed than the players. We came into this World Cup wanting to play better than we have and we haven’t, and it’s been frustrating.”After an arduous winter campaign, which featured the disappointment of England’s Ashes defeat in Australia, the weariness of England’s fielding performance will raise inevitable questions about the fitness levels of the squad, with the veteran new-ball pairing of Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt likely to come under particular scrutiny.Keightley, however, hinted that England would once again be relying on their experience of their proven matchwinners in the India game, rather than rotate them out, despite the likes of Freya Davies and Tash Farrant waiting in the wings as new-ball options.”We will have to have a look, see how they pull up, and make those decisions,” Keightley said. “They’ve done a great job for England over a number of years and they’re working really hard to do their job for the team. I think we’re on a new [pitch for the India match]. So it probably makes sense to play some senior bowlers.”Related

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One bowler who did once again emerge with credit was the spinner Sophie Ecclestone, whose ten overs went for just 23 runs, including the key wicket of Mignon du Preez for 8.”Sophie has been amazing,” Keightley said. “She bowled well again today, and in the last games she has been fantastic. If we’d taken our chances in the Powerplay, we would have put pressure through the middle with Charlie [Dean] coming infor her first World Cup game. We tried really hard and created chances, we’re just not taking them.”We haven’t really put our finger on it really, we have fielded pretty well throughout the Ashes and took a lot more chances than we have today,” Keightley added. “The last two days, we’ve trained really well and the girls have been up and about and putting a lot of effort in.
“We just haven’t got the rewards in the games that matter, so it is something that we’ll have to think about when we review after this World Cup.”Despite England’s bleak standing on the World Cup table – only Pakistan, with four defeats out of four, sit below them – Keightley is adamant that the round-robin format can still get them back into the qualification mix.”We’re trying hard to get those wins and once I think we win a close one, we’ll get a bit of momentum and finish strong,” she said. “We’ve just got to dust ourselves off, come back out in two days’ time and play the way we want to play.”

Opener produces vital half-century to help revive England from another wobbly start

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Dec-2025After their combined tally of eight runs in four innings at Perth, it proved to be a day of revived fortunes at the Gabba for two of the most scrutinised batters in England’s ranks. While Joe Root secured the plaudits for his magnificent maiden century on Australian soil, Zak Crawley’s bounce-back from a first-Test pair proved a similarly cathartic display.Though he fell when well set, gloving a pull off Michael Neser shortly after the first interval, his 76 from 93 balls was nonetheless a crucial contribution, coming as it did after his first-Test nemesis Mitchell Starc had again struck hard with the new ball, dismissing Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope for ducks in his first two overs.Crawley, by then, had already driven Starc through the covers for four, to bring up his first runs of the series, and he carried on in a similar vein, picking off a total of 11 boundaries, the majority coming when Australia’s bowlers strayed into his arc.”I did feel good, to be honest,” Crawley told TNT Sports at the close of the first day’s play. “I felt much better than Perth. I was just trying to keep it simple, just trying to score straight on the leg side, and then if it was really full, maybe on the off side. Yeah, I was happy with my knock.”Crawley’s relative watchfulness outside off was the key feature of his innings, and a tribute to the hours in the nets that England have put in (in between some notable moments of downtime) since their two-day defeat in the series opener.”I think it’d have felt a long break if I’d have got two hundreds, to be honest,” he said. “It was big old gap after a two-day game. But yeah, it’s a good chance to get some practice in. And I felt comfortable. I felt calm today, and managed to settle the nerves. So I was pleased with how I played.”I had a clear plan and I stuck to it. There were still a couple of loose shots in there, as I tend to do, but got away with them, and I played nicely down the ground as well. By trying to score on the leg side, that made me leave a bit better outside off with the extra bounce today, and then when I got in, the ball started doing a bit less.”England’s close-of-play score of 325 for 9 looked significantly more healthy thanks to an unbeaten tenth-wicket stand of 61 between Root, who finished unbeaten on 135, and Jofra Archer, whose 32 not out was his highest Test score, in just his second innings at No.11.Until Australia have batted, it will be hard to tell how good that score actually is, but after the groundstaff had given the pitch a final trim to 3mm of grass before the match, Crawley knew it had been a good toss for England to win, notwithstanding their early collapse to 5 for 2.Related

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“The last few days, it’s been really green here. So we all thought it’s going to be a green nipper again. And they obviously shaved it this morning, so it looked like a great wicket to bat on, with the overheads as well.”I was gutted to get out when I did, the pitch was just getting a bit flatter there,” he added. “But obviously we finished the day well with Rooty and Jof at the end there. So it’s good day.”At 264 for 9 with approximately half an hour of the day remaining, there had been some speculation that England might declare to insert Australia under the lights, much as they had done in their previous pink-ball Test against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui two years ago. But with Root going strong, and with memories of England’s infamous declaration at Edgbaston in 2023, Crawley said a repeat scenario had not been on the cards.”No talk of declaring,” he said. “We were talking about boys going really hard, and if they got out, then it was kind of a win-win situation. So they went hard, and they came off, and there’s a valuable 50 runs there for us.”Root will be on strike when day two gets underway, and will have the chance to extend England’s innings into the morning session, with six overs to come until the new ball is due. For now, though, he will have a chance to savour a significant landmark in his career, and one that may just confirm his credentials as England’s greatest Test batter.”I’m chuffed for him,” Crawley said, after Root’s 40th Test hundred and his first in Australia. “He hasn’t been speaking about it at all to us, that’s just the outside noise. He’s just very focused on just getting whatever score is needed on the day, and proved to be a hundred today.”But he’s the best player I’ve ever played with, or probably against as well. And he’s a champion bloke. I’m chuffed to bits for him.”

The New Zealand batter was on 17 when he was caught backing up early by Hasan Mahmud, but he was quickly offered a second life

Mohammad Isam23-Sep-2023Bangladesh captain Litton Das recalled batter Ish Sodhi after fast bowler Hasan Mahmud had run out the New Zealand player when he left the crease early at the non-striker’s end.Senior Bangladesh batter Tamim Iqbal spoke about the incident at the post-match press conference and appeared to be against bringing batters back after dismissing them. Sodhi was on 17 off 26 balls when he was called back. After the reprieve, he scored 18 off 13 with the help of two sixes.The incident took place in the 46th over when Mahmud broke the wicket in his bowling stride as Sodhi backed up early. The bowler appealed to umpire Marais Erasmus who went straight to the TV umpire. Replays showed that Sodhi was out of his crease when Mahmud dislodged the bails.Sodhi walked off with a smile on his face but as he neared the boundary rope, Bangladesh’s captain Litton told the umpire that he wanted to call Sodhi back. Informed of the gesture, Sodhi ran back to the middle and gave Mahmud a hug.Litton’s decision could be seen as surprising considering the run-out at the non-striker’s end was destigmatised last year by the MCC. In March 2022, the MCC moved the wording of this dismissal from Law 41 (Unfair play) to Law 38 (Run out), to remove some of the stigma around such dismissals.”The bowler is always painted as the villain but it is a legitimate way to dismiss someone and it is the non-striker who is stealing the ground,” Fraser Stewart, MCC Laws Manager, told the , at the time. “It is legitimate, it is a run-out and therefore it should live in the run-out section of the laws.”New Zealand finished on 254 all out in 49.2 overs.

Four things Sri Lanka might have learned from their T20 February, with an eye to the World Cup

Andrew Fidel Fernando27-Feb-2022

They have a top three

Pathum Nissanka’s strike rate across these eight matches was 117, but he stuck it out for 260 runs. For now, Nissanka is not necessarily a match-winning T20 opener, but in the context of a hilariously fragile Sri Lanka top order, his tenacity is useful. Plus, at age 23, there’s an element of investing for the future here.Kusal Mendis, meanwhile, hit 100 runs in the three innings he got in Australia (he was injured for the India series), and hit a good 69* in Melbourne to top score in Sri Lanka’s only victory in this stretch.Charith Asalanka was not quite at his best this month, but given his runs at the T20 World Cup last year, he’s hard to displace.The likes of Danushka Gunathilaka, Janith Liyanage, and Kamil Mishara didn’t make enough of an impact to break into that top three.

Kumara could still be a good T20 bowler (just not at the death)

Lahiru Kumara played just five of the eight matches, but got nine wickets – as many as Dushmantha Chameera, who played all eight. This is a slightly unfair comparison, since Chameera bowls more often at the difficult stages of an innings – the death in particular – and Kumara has been given easier conditions. But if Kumara can be a wicket-taking threat through the early and middle overs, that’s enough, for now.Through the course of those five matches, Kumara has often been the quickest bowler on show (across both teams), and roughed opposition batters up with his bouncers. If he stays fit, and keeps working on those skills, the quicker tracks in Australia could suit him nicely in October.Related

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Shanaka the big-hitter emerges

No one wanted to say it. But although the T20 team was doing better under Dasun Shanaka than it had under several previous leaders, the captain’s own form had been awful. In 20 innings as captain until the first match of this India series, Shanaka had hit just 334 runs at a strike rate of 107.Just in the last two games at Dharamsala though – one of the bounciest tracks in South Asia – Shanaka has found his range. He bashed 47 not out off 19 in the second match, then a stunning 74 not out off 38 in the third, having come in at 29 for 4.Sri Lanka had lacked lower-order firepower in the last T20 World Cup. They need Shanaka to continue his big-hitting into October and November.

The Chandimal experiment is over. Right?

Dinesh Chandimal has played 61 T20 innings, striking at 104. Let’s not sugarcoat it. These are appalling numbers. When it comes to Chandimal, though, there always seems to be hope that he can resurrect the hyper-aggressive past version of himself, and this is what the selectors thought when he tore up the Lanka Premier League in November last year, hitting 277 runs at a strike rate of 151, as a finisher.Sadly, he has not even come close to replicating those numbers in the seven T20I innings he got in February, making just 112 runs, at a strike rate of 97. He’s got to be done, right? No way the selectors can pick him in this format. That is until he carves up another domestic season.

Both teams are on course for a top two finish at the ongoing Europe Region Qualifier

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jul-2023Ireland and Scotland have qualified for the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup, after favourable results in the Europe Region Qualifier on Thursday. While a washout against Germany pushed Ireland through, hosts Scotland beat Denmark by 33 runs to confirm their berth for next year’s tournament.”While it’s true that we’d rather have achieved qualification on the field today, we’re delighted to have achieved our primary objective of qualifying for next year’s T20 World Cup,” Ireland captain Paul Stirling said. “We came to Scotland with a clear plan and style of play we wanted to implement, and I think we delivered on that front.”So we’ll celebrate job done this afternoon, but there is a trophy on the line tomorrow, and we are keen to continue that winning momentum going into the India T20 series next month.”Related

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Scotland’s victory over Denmark makes it five wins out of five for them in the Europe Region Qualifier. This spree also has them on top of the tournament’s points table. However, had Denmark beaten Scotland, then Italy would have stood a chance of making it to the T20 World Cup next year, since they would have been the only other team that could match Scotland’s points total had they beaten both Austria and Germany in their upcoming games. Ireland, meanwhile, won all four of their matches before their match against Germany was rained out. Ireland and Scotland gained automatic entry into the Europe Region Qualifier thanks to their participation in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. Germany and Jersey made the Qualifier on the basis of taking part in the 2022 global qualifiers, while Austria, Denmark and Italy earned their spots by winning their respective sub-regional qualifiers.The 2024 T20 World Cup, scheduled to be hosted jointly by the West Indies and the USA, is set to be a 20-team tournament. The teams will be divided into four groups of five each for the first round, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the Super 8 stage. The Super 8 teams will be split into two groups of four each, with the top two in each group reaching the semi-finals.Twelve teams had already qualified for the next T20 World Cup before the regional qualifiers. These are hosts West Indies and USA, the top eight teams at the 2022 T20 World Cup – Australia, England, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka – and Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who qualified by virtue of the T20I rankings.The East Asia Pacific Qualifier is currently underway in Papua New Guinea, with the hosts on top of the four-team table. The top team from this event will qualify for the T20 World Cup.Qualifiers for the Americas (for one spot at the World Cup), Africa (two spots) and Asia (two spots) will also take place over the coming months.

Bjorn Fortuin, Sisanda Magala and Ryan Rickelton were the other first-time additions to the list that has grown from 16 to 20

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Mar-2023Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Bjorn Fortuin, Sisanda Magala and Ryan Rickelton have been added to South Africa’s expanded list of centrally contracted players for the 2023-24 season. Cricket South Africa has made provision for four more players, increasing the list from 16 to 20.Heinrich Klaasen, who was upgraded during the past season, also keeps his new grade, while Wayne Parnell has been contracted for the first time since returning from his Kolpak deal in 2021. Three players have lost their deals from the last contracting cycle: Janneman Malan and Andile Phehlukwayo have been dropped off the central contracts list and Dwaine Pretorius has retired.Though CSA’s director of cricket, Enoch Nkwe, had initially indicated a split-contracting system, this was not specifically announced. Instead, Nkwe said the increased number of contracts was created to allow for single-format players to get national deals. “The number of contracted players has increased from 16 to 20 this season to ensure that we have a wider pool of white-ball specialists and Test players. We look forward to seeing them compete at the highest level in what is an important next 12 months for the limited-overs and Test sides, with the [ODI] World Cup taking place later this year as well as the start of the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.”On the list, Quinton de Kock and David Miller are white-ball players only, with both having announced their retirement from red-ball cricket in previous years, while Dean Elgar and Keegan Petersen have only played for South Africa in Tests. The rest of the players on the list play in all formats at domestic level and would be in contention for national selection on that basis. There was some suggestion that de Kock and Elgar would walk away from international cricket soon but their re-contracting suggests they have committed to South African cricket for another 12 months.South Africa are currently playing their last Test of the 2021-2023 WTC cycle, where they could finish third, and will not play in whites until hosting India in December. For the rest of the year, their focus is on white-ball cricket, with the team yet to secure automatic qualification for this year’s 50-over World Cup. They play Netherlands in two must-win World Cup Super League matches on March 31 and April 2. South Africa will then go into a winter break – which may be interrupted by World Cup qualifying in Zimbabwe in June – and then play Australia in white-ball matches at home in August-September.The national women’s contracts are expected to be announced later this month.South Africa men’s contracts listTemba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Dean Elgar, Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, Marco Jansen, Sisanda Magala, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Rassie van der Dussen.

Afghanistan to play UAE in three-match T20I series once a year for the duration of the deal

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Nov-2022Afghanistan will play their home games in the UAE over the next five years. An agreement was signed between the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB), firming up the deal. As part of the agreement, Afghanistan will play UAE in a three-match T20I series in each of the five years.The ECB will “provide valuable logistic support to the Afghanistan Cricket Board, including visa assistance and office space”, an ACB statement said.Of late the Afghanistan team has already been playing and training in the UAE, but on a series-by-series basis. Now, there’s a formal longer-term deal in place.Given the political situation in Afghanistan, it has remained a no-go zone for international teams. The situation escalated with the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Several ACB staff were among those who fled the country in the immediate aftermath, and thereafter getting visas for players based in Afghanistan to play abroad became a bigger challenge. The board subsequently arranged UAE residency visas for about two dozen players.Related

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As per the ICC’s Future Tours Programme (FTP), Afghanistan are set to host Australia, Pakistan and West Indies in three ODIs each, as well as Zimbabwe across formats, in the next year leading into the 2023 ODI World Cup. In the UAE, these can be spread across venues in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.Mubashir Usmani, the ECB secretary said of the development: “Both parties, the Emirates Cricket Board and the Afghanistan Cricket Board enjoy long and cordial relations and we are happy to support the ACB in ensuring that they have a home for their cricket.”We are also thankful to the Afghanistan Cricket Board for agreeing to play a series of T20I matches against UAE Team each year. This will provide our UAE team with invaluable exposure and help in their development.”Previously, the ACB had used the National Cricket Academy in Lahore as a base to train in 2013, and also signed a similar deal with the PCB in 2017. In between, in 2015 it signed an agreement with the BCCI to move base to Greater Noida, on the outskirts of Delhi.

He will only fly to India as a travelling reserve, barring “something miraculous” in his recovery from injury

Matt Roller16-Aug-2023Jofra Archer has missed out on selection in England’s World Cup squad after running out of time to prove his fitness and will only fly to India as a travelling reserve, barring “something miraculous” in his recovery from injury.Archer was England’s leading wicket-taker when they won the tournament four years ago and closed out their triumph in the final with a nerveless Super Over, but has not played since the IPL this year due to an elbow stress fracture.Luke Wright, an England selector and Archer’s former Sussex team-mate, said that England were “desperate” for him to be fit but that they were reluctant to “force him into playing” ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation.”There has got to be a duty of care with Jof,” Wright said. “We know how desperate we all are to have him – there’s no doubt about that – but we’ve also got to get it right for him. He’s been very unfortunate with these injuries… regarding the World Cup, unfortunately, we’re just running out of time.”He’s not going to come round quite quick enough, especially for the first part of the World Cup. There is a duty of care with him. We have to make sure that long-term, we get it right because we see him as a huge asset for a long time. As much as the temptation is to try and rush him in and get him in for the start of this World Cup, unfortunately, we’re just going to run out of time.”Speaking while working on the BBC’s coverage of the Hundred, Archer said he would retained some hope of featuring in India: “I’m feeling alright, I’m a bit hopeful as well. Right now, I’m feeling OK and rehab and everything is going as planned. You just need a little bit of luck and a little bit of hope.”Jofra Archer struggled with injuries at the IPL•BCCI

England have picked six frontline seamers in their provisional 15-man squad – which can be tweaked until September 28 – and anticipate a gruelling workload for their seamers, with nine group games scheduled in 37 days and flights required between venues across India.Most of their first-choice fast bowlers have suffered injuries at some stage in the last two years and England hope that Archer will be available to play a part in the second half of the tournament in the event that one of them goes down again.”I don’t think we can, unfortunately, have him in the squad to start with,” Wright said. “Best-case scenario for Jof really at the moment would probably be [that he is] available for the back-end of the tournament. That’s best-case scenario, which obviously, in a squad of 15, is going to leave us quite light.Related

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“The last thing we want to do is really to put a massive time [limit] on him and try to push him and force him into playing before he does [feel ready]. We’ve got to get him right, first and foremost.”But is there an opportunity or a place where potentially he could play at the back-end of a tournament, if all things go well and there was an injury? Yes, there’s a potential chance. But obviously, a lot of things have still got to go right with this rehab before then.”When you look at that squad, you cannot have a bowler that might not be available for the second half and definitely not for the first half. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it. If something miraculous happens with him, we have time to change things but I just don’t see it happening. It is just coming too soon and we can’t rush this decision on Jof this time.”

Sunil Narine had to leave the field as Knight Riders were forced to field with only ten men in the 20th over against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Aug-2023The red card made its first appearance in the Caribbean Premier League 2023, when Trinbago Knight Riders were behind the required over rate at the start of each of their last three overs while bowling against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots on Sunday in Basseterre. They were left with only ten men for the final over as a result, and just two fielders outside the 30-yard circle, losing Sunil Narine from the field.As per the new rules in the CPL, if the bowling team doesn’t start the 18th over in time, one additional fielder enters the 30-yard circle with four allowed outside. If they miss the time limit at the start of the 19th over, one more fielder must enter the circle, leaving three in the outfield. And if they don’t start the final over on time, one player must go off the field and they can have just two players outside the circle. Knight Riders incurred all three penalties and Patriots’ No. 5 Sherfane Rutherford made them pay with 18 runs from the final over, bowled by Dwayne Bravo.Fortunately for Knight Riders, Nicholas Pooran, captain Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell smashed their way to the 179-run target with 17 balls in hand. Pollard later called the new penalty rule “absolutely ridiculous”.”This could be a historic moment here… oh, red card,” Ian Bishop called on the official broadcast as the red card was whipped out by on-field umpire Zahid Bassarath before the start of the final over of the Patriots innings. “You don’t want to see that colour card. They must field with only ten, so somebody has to leave the field. And only two outside the 30-yard circle. The absolute last thing that he [Pollard] would want. And imagine the bowler!”