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Lalit Modi has promised a show tomorrow at the Cricket Centre, the BCCI headquarters, but it is likely to end up as a silent affair, barring the media noise

Nagraj Gollapudi09-May-2010Lalit Modi is expected to reply in in person on Monday to the show-cause notice served by the Indian board, comprising five charges, on April 26. However, his appearance at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai is unlikely to produce the dramatic denouement the saga has promised.On Saturday, after sending an emissary with the documents asked by the board last month post his suspension, Modi said that he had nothing to hide and he would “personally reply” to the show-cause slapped on him.BCCI sources said Modi’s reply, once it comes in, will be taken up by the board’s three-man disciplinary committee, comprising Shashank Manohar (BCCI president) and two vice-presidents – Arun Jaitley and Chirayu Amin, who was appointed the interim IPL chairman after Modi’s suspension. “The disciplinary committee is likely to meet in mid-June,” a BCCI official said.Immediately after his suspension, Modi had threatened to come out with various revelations that would expose many names. “Wait for the IPL to finish – I will reveal the men who have tried to bring disrepute to the game and how we stopped them from doing it,” he’d said. It is clear, though, that Modi’s reply is going to be detailed and voluminous – some estimates put it at 5000 pages.But for now, Modi will need to remain patient to hear from the disciplinary committee, which might even ask him to depose before it if need be; otherwise the panel would pass its conclusions to the board. The special general body will then sit to take a vote on the decisions and ratify. Meanwhile, Modi will have the opportunity to challenge the board’s decision.

Leicestershire establish 133-run lead despite being skittled before tea in first innings

ECB Reporters Network30-Jun-2024Career-best bowling from Ben Mike and loan signing Ben Green enabled Leicestershire to dismiss Middlesex for 86 as the opening day of their Vitality County Championship match saw 21 wickets fall in bowler-friendly conditions.Earlier, Ryan Higgins and Toby Roland-Jones led the way for Middlesex as Leicestershire were bowled out for 179. Lewis Goldsworthy and Lewis Hill shared a 65-run partnership for the third wicket before a collapse from 82 for 2 to 126 for 8 was rescued by fast bowler Scott Currie’s unbeaten 34.Leicestershire had extended their lead to 133 by reaching the close at 40 for 1 after Sol Budinger, caught off a top-edged pull, was out for the second time in the day.Green, the 26-year-old allrounder, is Somerset’s leading wicket-taker in the Blast this season but has not figured in their red-ball side. He played three Championship matches for Leicestershire earlier in the season and is back at Grace Road as emergency cover for the latest round with seven senior members of the Foxes’ first-team squad either injured or unavailable.Leicestershire had surprised some onlookers by opting to bat first, yet on a green pitch and with heavy cloud cover, it was hardly a surprise that the Middlesex seam attack should find plenty of encouragement.They removed both Leicestershire openers within the first seven overs. A rare failure from Rishi Patel, leg before half-forward to Roland-Jones for his first single-figure score of the season, preceded the departure of Budinger, who marked his first appearance of the season with two boundaries before edging Higgins to give Leus du Plooy the first of three catches at second slip.Middlesex could not immediately press home their advantage, with Henry Brookes and Ethan Bamber struggling to bowl the right lines at first. As they added 65 over the course of the next hour or so, it might have appeared that Goldsworthy and Hill were getting the upper hand.But then Bamber found some late swing from a ball that squared up Hill to have the Leicestershire skipper caught at first slip. Harry Swindells, like Budinger making his seasonal debut, chopped on to Higgins two overs before lunch, leaving the home side 94 for 4.Worse was to follow at the start of the afternoon, four more wickets tumbling in the first seven overs of the middle session as more edges flew to hand. Higgins had Goldsworthy snaffled by du Plooy before Roland-Jones struck three times in as many overs.Louis Kimber followed his epic, record-breaking 243 against Sussex last week with a 15-ball duck, caught at backward point off a leading edge, before Green edged to second slip and Ben Cox feathered one behind.Middlesex were batting 12 overs before tea but were three down by the interval and 53 for 6 half an hour after the resumption, which made the 53 runs Leicestershire were able to add for their last two wickets look potentially invaluable.Higgins dismissed Mike leg before and Brookes had Matt Salisbury caught at third slip, but Currie’s six boundaries gave their bowlers something to work with.Indeed, after Mike found the edge to have Mark Stoneman caught at second slip in his first over and produced an inswinger missed by Sam Robson, Green’s spell at the pavilion end soon had Middlesex in trouble.Max Holden was given out caught behind off an inside edge from the Devonian’s second ball before his first two overs after the tea interval included a near-unplayable delivery to bowl Higgins and one that took the edge of Josh De Caires’s bat to give Currie a catch at third slip.An airy drive saw Jack Davies caught behind to give Green his fourth at 70 for 7 before Mike returned with three wickets in five overs, bowling Luke Hollman with a full delivery, trapping Roland-Jones leg before with a full toss, notching his second career five-for as du Plooy fell for 28, bowled between bat and pad.Matt Salisbury completed the rout by bowling Bamber before the home side, batting positively, added 40 in nine overs with Budinger, who hit a six and two fours in his 18, the one casualty.

Royals had their moments with ball and bat, but they ended up with too much to do in Harshal Patel’s final over

Sidharth Monga23-Apr-20233:00

What’s making Maxwell click at RCB?

Royal Challengers Bangalore overcame a 50-for-7 collapse at the end of their innings and defended a total for the third time in IPL 2023 to go level on points with table leaders Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants.It was a weird match with arhythmic twists and turns. However, the centrepiece of RCB’s win was a lightning 127-run partnership between Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis in just 11.1 overs after they came together at 12 for 2, which perhaps made the pitch look easier than it was.The pitch itself was an enigma. RCB were in doubt that it was a dry pitch that would slow down and wanted to bat first, and Royals wanted to chase. Even though they were bowling first, Royals didn’t name a single batter in their substitutes’ list, and continued to not use Jason Holder’s batting. RCB continued to benefit from the Impact Player rule as they managed to play two players who wouldn’t have featured but for the rule: du Plessis with his rib issue, and Harshal Patel with a finger injury that made batting difficult for him. Eventually both made crucial contributions.

Boult strikes like lightning

With five first-over wickets to his name this season already, Trent Boult’s starts have become unmissable. This one was as good as any: full inswinger, past Virat Kohli’s inside edge, plumb lbw first ball. With the first ball of his second over, Boult had Shahbaz Ahmed caught at short midwicket. Some even joked that RCB’s last batting pair was at the wicket when Maxwell walked out.Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis added 127 in just 11.1 overs•Associated Press

Maxwell, du Plessis put on a show

If it was the last pair, they were not going to hold back. Maxwell square-drove the first ball he faced for four, and repeated the same shot for the same result in the same over. Du Plessis got stuck into Sandeep Sharma, hitting two sixes and a four in the fourth over. Maxwell kept manipulating the field, and lofted R Ashwin for a six to make it 62 for 2 at the end of the powerplay.Unlike the typical RCB innings, there was no slowdown immediately after the powerplay. Maxwell reverse-swept Yuzvendra Chahal in his first over for a six, and two overs later he and du Plessis took 16 off a Jason Holder over.

Royal Challengers Bangalore fined for slow over rate

Royal Challengers Bangalore have been fined after they maintained a slow over rate in the game against Rajasthan Royals. As it was the team’s second offence of the season, Virat Kohli, the stand-in captain for the match, has been fined Rs 24 lakh while all other members of the playing XI, including the Impact Substitute, have been fined either Rs 6 lakh or 25% of their match fee, depending on whichever is lesser. The team also had to face the on-field penalty and could field only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle in the 20th over

While du Plessis kept going down the ground, Maxwell mixed both straight hits and innovative ones behind square.

The collapse

Neither of the batters looked like getting out even when going at such high strike-rate, and eventually it had to be a run-out to send du Plessis back. A slight slowdown ensued, and Maxwell found backward point with a reverse-sweep to the last ball of R Ashwin’s quota.With both danger men gone, Royals snuck back into the match. The wily Chahal bowled the 17th and the 19th overs for just 11 runs and the wicket of Mahipal Lomror. Suddenly the pitch began to look like aiding slower balls again, and RCB huffed and puffed to 189.

Jaiswal, Padikkal fuel the chase

After an incutter from Mohammed Siraj bowled Jos Buttler for his second duck this IPL, Padikkal and Jaiswal set the chase up beautifully. Like Chahal and Shivam Dube before him, Jaiswal, too, made a big contribution against the team that had released him, RCB. Padikkal and Jaiswal managed to hit at least one boundary an over from overs 2 through 10. It left Royals needing 98 off the last 10. In the over after that, Padikkal brought up his fifty.Harshal Patel took the key wicket of Sanju Samson•BCCI

The Hasaranga-Willey slowdown

If it was the death overs during which the RCB slide began, Wanindu Hasaranga and David Willey started it around the 11th over for Royals. Hasaranga conceded just five in the 11th. Three more deliveries went without a boundary in the 12th, and Padikkal became the first one to hole out, off Willey.Sanju Samson was watchful against Hasaranga, who enjoys a great match-up against him, in the 13th. Jaiswal, who tends to struggle once the field spreads, holed out off Harshal in the 14th having scored seven off the last 10 balls he faced.

The endgame

The equation was still within touch especially with Samson and Shimron Hetmyer still there. Samson managed to get the better of Hasaranga in the 15th but just like Maxwell’s dissmisal earlier in the day, a well-timed late cut found short third in the 16th.Royals needed 65 off 28 then, which is not unheard of, but Hetmyer got stuck, failing to connect cleanly with even a single shot. Mohammed Siraj later said the ball was reversing in the end, which might explain Hetmyer failing to hit even one of the nine balls he faced cleanly.It was Dhruv Jorel who kept RR alive with 34 off 16, but he didn’t assume the leadership role in the partnership with Ashwin. Off the last ball of the 19th over, he took a suicidal second, which handed the strike over to Ashwin for the last over.Ashwin got lucky with two boundaries in the last over, but with 10 required off the last three, he too holed out to a slower ball. RR still didn’t send out Holder, who has faced only two balls in this IPL, and there was too much left for debutant Abdul Basith to do.

England director looks to Woakes, Wood to play leadership roles with the ball in West Indies

Andrew Miller09-Feb-2022Andrew Strauss, England’s interim director of cricket, believes that the absence of Stuart Broad and James Anderson in the Caribbean will encourage other members of England’s Test team to assume leadership roles, and thereby provide more “options” for the incoming regime, as and when a new head coach and permanent MD are appointed later this year.Speaking at Lord’s on Wednesday, following the unveiling of a new-look Test squad shorn of eight players who featured in this winter’s 4-0 Ashes defeat in Australia, Strauss denied that Broad and Anderson’s voices had become too powerful within the England dressing-room. However, he singled out Chris Woakes and Mark Wood as two members of the bowling attack whom he believed had the capacity to grow in their absence.”It’s hard to criticise either Jimmy Anderson or Stuart Broad in how they are on and off the field,” Strauss said. “They are exceptional performers on the field and they are very professional off it, which is why they have played for so long.”What I do think is it gives an opportunity at the moment for people to stand up and play leadership roles they haven’t previously. We need a good solid spine to that team moving forward. We need leaders, not just the captain, and this provides an opportunity for some of the players to do that.”Teams always need a number of influential voices to push the team forward. Everyone expects the captain to do that but anyone who has played for England knows that influential voices behind the captain are important. In the bowling attack, we’re looking at the likes of Wood and Woakes to play more of that role. Expect a lot from Stokes and Bairstow as well. They have the chance to pull out the stops and help Joe Root.”Wood was England’s stand-out performer in the Ashes, claiming 17 wickets at 26.64 including a career-best 6 for 37 in the fifth Test at Hobart, but the retention of Woakes is a more contentious pick. His six Ashes wickets came at 55.33, and further exacerbated a split between his world-class record in home Tests (94 wickets at 22.63) and his unconvincing stats abroad (31 wickets at 52.38).However, the fact that the Tests in the Caribbean will be using a Dukes ball may have played to Woakes’ favour – as well as the fact that he can be relied upon to pitch the ball up and attempt to make it swing, an issue that was an apparent bone of contention between Root and his senior pairing after the second-Test defeat, when England’s captain publicly criticised the defensive lengths that they had bowled under the Adelaide floodlights.While Strauss did not directly address that apparent cause of disquiet, he acknowledged that the vagaries of the Kookaburra ball demand a certain ruthlessness when the window of opportunity opens. With that in mind, he hinted that England would once again be looking to develop the horses-for-courses, home-and-away stable of bowlers that had been a feature of Ed Smith’s tenure as national selector, prior to his removal from the set-up by Strauss’s predecessor, Ashley Giles, last year.Mark Wood was the stand-out performer for England in Australia•Getty Images

“When the odds are in your favour in Test cricket, you have the opportunity to really put pressure on the opposition and dominate those sessions,” Strauss said. “I think Australia did that exceptionally well against us and we weren’t good enough against their bowling. I don’t think it is a case of criticising our bowlers, I just feel like when you are learning to win as a team, you have to identify those sessions and you have to win them well.”When you are looking at selecting teams you need to make a distinction between England teams at home and away, because I think they are different things. Then, secondly, you are always looking at it strategically. What are our needs now between winning today and tomorrow and what are our best resources to do that?”What you want is variety in your bowling attack. When you look at the team we’ve selected, we’ve got Mark Wood who gives us that X-Factor of extra pace, and we’re looking at Saqib Mahmood as someone who can develop into that kind of bowler. Then you want the tall, hit-the-deck bowlers and ones who are able to swing the ball. We’re trying to have that variety in the attack, so whatever the conditions we can exploit this.”Despite the clarity of his decision-making, the timing of Anderson and Broad’s removal from the set-up has come under fire, not least from the former England captain Michael Atherton, who wrote in The Times that it was an “odd moment” to make such a call.England have won one Test series in the Caribbean since 1968 (coincidentally it came in 2004, the last time that neither man featured in an England Test squad), and Strauss was at the helm for the chaotic campaign in 2009, when he and Andy Flower came together as an emergency captain-coach partnership following the sacking of Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores.”I’ve been to the West Indies a number of times and it’s not an easy place to go and win, and England’s record there is not good,” Strauss said. “We definitely have to take that into account. When you’re selecting teams you’re always trying to balance winning today with winning tomorrow, and you’re trying to do both, quite frankly.”Thinking back to 2009 – and history doesn’t repeat itself, so you have to be careful not to draw those parallels – but one of the things we did early in that tour was just have a frank and honest conversation about where we were as a team, and that’s the sort of thing that will happen out there on the ground in the West Indies.Related

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“We need to get better. And there have been all sorts of reasons why you could mitigate our performance recently, around workload and bubbles and all that sort of stuff. But we’re looking forward here. No one likes to see English Test cricket where it is currently. That’s the players’ responsibility, the coaches’ responsibility and we need a degree of honesty and humility as well for us to move forward.”We feel like we’ve selected a team that is capable of winning out in the West Indies and that is absolutely the intention,” Strauss added. “But of course we’ve got half an eye on tomorrow – it’s the start of the new cycle and it would be remiss of us not to do it. My job is really to give that new director of cricket and coach options to choose from going forward and we’ve got that opportunity right at the moment.”When Strauss last came on board as England’s director of cricket, in the spring of 2015, he made a similarly big call about a big personality by finally ending speculation about Pietersen’s potential recall to the Test team – a decision that subsequently helped the incoming head coach, Trevor Bayliss, to start his tenure with a clean slate.However, Strauss insisted that to describe Anderson and Broad’s longevity as an “issue” that needed similar resolution did a disservice to their outstanding contributions to the Test team.”I don’t see it as an issue to be ‘dealt with’,” Strauss said. “I think that’s very harsh on James Anderson and Stuart Broad. They’ve given everything to England cricket over a long period of time. The new director of cricket and coach will have their own strategic ideas and that’s absolutely right for them to go in the direction they feel is fit. What I’m trying to do is just create options for them.”After speculation that Alec Stewart and Richard Dawson might be drafted in as England’s stand-in coach for the Caribbean tour, Strauss eventually opted for Paul Collingwood, Silverwood’s deputy, to provide continuity. He will be backed up by Marcus Trescothick, Jon Lewis, Jeetan Patel and Carl Hopkinson for the series and, like Flower before him in 2009, Strauss acknowledged that Collingwood had a big opportunity to stake his claim for the role in the long term.”It’s a five week tour, and it feels like there’s a distinct advantage of having someone who has been part of that set-up already,” Strauss said. “Paul Collingwood obviously deputised for Chris Silverwood out in the West Indies with the T20 team and had done a very good job out there by all accounts.”He is definitely one we should have an eye on moving forward for the head coach’s role. It’s an opportunity for him to understand what that job entails and to start this process with the red-ball reset as well. He’s the right sort of character to do that. He’s enthusiastic, he’s got bundles of energy, he’s very clear on how he sees the England Test team playing.”

New Zealand were given a confidence boost by victory in the last T20I but still look short of spin resources for the conditions

Andrew McGlashan02-Oct-2020Australia will reacquaint themselves with ODI cricket on Saturday after a gap of 12 months with a 20-year record of dominance over New Zealand to protect and the chance to equal a world record if they are able to win the Rose Bowl 3-0.Meg Lanning’s team currently sit on 18 consecutive ODI wins having most recently played the format last October against Sri Lanka. Three victories over the next few days would take them level with the 21 consecutive wins put together by Ricky Ponting’s side in 2003.Defeat in the final T20I was a reminder that they may not have it all their own way, but New Zealand have not held the Rose Bowl one-day trophy since 1999 and were beaten 3-0 in the previous series, which was held in Australia in early 2019 although they should have won the opening match in Perth.”We’re definitely aware of it, not necessarily within what we are talking about but you see it in the media,” allrounder Jess Jonassen said. “It’s been an incredible achievement so far to have won so many on the trot.”It’s not a record we are necessarily setting out to try and break because we know of the calibre of players in this New Zealand set-up. They have any number of people who can take any game away from you. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. If we do get to that position, hopefully we can go for a clean sweep. The noise and the chat around that world record would be pretty much at the forefront by then.”For New Zealand, having ended a 13-match losing streak across formats against Australia by winning the final T20I, they are able to head into the series with a lift to their confidence.”The great thing is we are now able to play three [ODI] games in six days, like everyone else we haven’t had much opportunity to do that,” head coach Bob Carter told ESPNcricinfo. “It’ll be really good to get a gauge and really test ourselves with that batting order, how we respond to playing a 50-over game, developing those skills you need through different phases.”They are hampered on this trip by the absence of offspinners Leigh Kasperek and Anna Peterson, especially as the Allan Border Field pitches are being used multiple times and offering considerable help to spin, leaving a lot on the shoulders of Amelia Kerr, but Carter is keen to look at the bigger picture.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“The thing to understand is as a team, we need to build our depth,” he said. “Can we build it to the level of England or Australia? Maybe not, but then again you can say that sometimes reflects in the men’s game, but we know how wonderfully well the Blackcaps do in all the major competitions. For me that’s what I’m trying to transfer from my high performance role to the White Ferns, try and express to the girls that we are able to produce significant performances.”Not having the two offspinners, who are very fine bowlers, was something that we had to look at. And again, this about us trying to create some depth. The bonus for us that Maddy Green, who would be considered as a developing offspinner, has now shown herself that she can bowl two overs for six [in the last T20I] and pick up a valuable wicket. Sometimes you’ve got to adapt because you’ve got what you’ve got. Amelia has now started to really find her rhythm after not bowling for some time. And the seamers, it’s great to see Lea Tahuhu, running in how she is, and Rosemary Mair.”There has also been the positive return to international cricket for Amy Satterthwaite who looked in excellent form during the last two T20Is. “She’s been working two or three times a week since early June and also been doing all her strength work,” Carter said. “It was a case of her proving it to herself. I personally wasn’t surprised how well she played; think she might have surprised herself.”The challenge for them against Australia, even with the hosts missing Ellyse Perry, is significant – there have not been too many close matches in the run of 18 wins; the five-run win against New Zealand last year and a two-wicket margin against England among a lot of one-sided outings. They are a team that does not want to stand still.”We just want to live our team values and one of those is being fearless,” Jonassen said. “Over the last few years, we’ve really grabbed the concept of fearless rather than reckless and think that has allowed us to push to envelope in 50-over cricket as well.”I was only talking to someone the other day that when I came in playing National League, 180 was seen as a good score and 200 was almost the mental barrier over the opposition, whereas now it’s 250-260 and sometimes that’s not enough. The more that we are playing fearless cricket from a batting perspective that will always push the game forward.”New Zealand captain Sophie Devine has said that the last 12 months has been about building self-belief in her team. This series will be another test of how deep that runs.

The opener also felt the chase of 382 could have been possible had he or Shakib Al Hasan stuck around until at least the 30th over

Mohammad Isam at Trent Bridge20-Jun-2019Bangladesh are not giving up their semi-final hopes just yet. That’s what Tamim Iqbal has said, despite his team’s chances of getting there coming down significantly following a 48-run loss to Australia. Having lost to England and New Zealand too, Bangladesh not only have to win their three remaining games but also hope other results go in their favour.”I think we still have a chance,” Tamim said, when asked if Bangladesh were now aiming to finish at No. 5, as the best of the rest. “I don’t think any of my team-mates are thinking along those lines. We have a chance if we win three matches. If God forbid we don’t have anything to play for, then we will think about No. 5.”Tamim said one way of ensuring everything goes right would be for Bangladesh to minimise the kind of mistakes they made at Trent Bridge. He felt the batsmen did their job in going past 300 for the third time in the competition, and that they could even have got to their target of 382 had he or Shakib Al Hasan stuck around until at least the 30th over, which could have left them a T20-style chase in the last 20.WATCH on Hotstar (India only) – Mushfiqur Rahim’s unbeaten 102“A positive side is that we made 320-plus in our last two matches, and both were chases,” Tamim said. “The batsmen believe that we can chase around 320-330. I think we lost the game in a spell of three or four overs. We actually bowled well in the last three overs. I think we have to minimise mistakes.”I am not too experienced in chasing a big score, so I stopped looking at the scoreboard. I was trying to be 180-200 at the 30-over mark. It would give us a chance in the last 20 overs chasing the remaining runs. We wouldn’t have made 330-odd if we had gone hard early. I think Shakib and I got out at the wrong times.”After making 62, his highest score in the tournament, Tamim played on to Mitchell Starc in the 25th over, setting Bangladesh back at a crucial stage. “Maybe everything is not going according to plan. I have felt confident in the last two matches, but luck hasn’t been on my side. I normally play this shot through third man quite well but it wasn’t my day.”I think I am hitting it well, but it is a matter of time that I get a big one. But the problem is, we don’t have much time.”

Until the second T20I against Pakistan at Eden Park, New Zealand’s summer had gone without a blemish but since then they have won once in seven outings

Andrew McGlashan in Hamilton24-Feb-2018Kane Williamson is confident that New Zealand’s recent problems in T20 won’t damage their confidence in the one-day game as they prepare for the marquee white-ball section of the season.Until the second T20I against Pakistan at Eden Park, New Zealand’s summer had gone without a blemish but since then they have won once in seven outings. However, their ODI record stands at eight wins on the bounce ahead of the Seddon Park opener against England.”I think we park the T20 for now and focus on a lot of the good one-day cricket we’ve been playing,” Williamson said. “The plans are fairly different so it’s important we go back to that. We know it’s a tough challenge against England.”We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. There’s been some good one-day cricket played by our group but we do know we’ll have to adapt to the opposition and the surfaces which have been different throughout each venue.”Those surfaces will include a used pitch for the opening match, the same that was played on for the T20 last weekend, which is expected to again offer purchase for the spinners. Williamson is ready for England’s “very aggressive” approach with the bat, but still sees a place for the more nuanced side of one-day accumulation.In the T20s it felt as though there was too much on the shoulders of Martin Guptill and Colin Munro, but the longer format brings the traditional skills of Williamson and Ross Taylor back to the fore and makes a very strong-looking top four. Williamson was able to practice leaving the ball in the nets on Saturday and you sensed he was itching to be able to build an innings again.”I think T20 cricket keeps pushing the boundaries of cricket, whether into the one-day game or even the Test game – you see people being a lot more positive,” he said. “But at the same time, that doesn’t completely change it – because you do get on surfaces that require a lot more batsmanship, perhaps more defence for a period of time, to get through some of those tougher moments.”T20 is definitely having an influence, but it’s important that all of us don’t get too carried away with it at times when the conditions might dictate something else.”Williamson was not getting wrapped up in Ben Stokes’ comeback – for all that Stokes has looked impressive in the nets, a player returning after such a long break could actually work in New Zealand’s favour at the start of the series – although he acknowledged the enviable all-round depth England have.”That comes back to the cricket we want to play, our plans, our styles,” he said. “There are a number of quality matchwinning players in the English side who have been playing good cricket. It’s tough to focus on one name.”The main question marks around the New Zealand side heading into this series are the middle order and whether the five-six combination of Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls packs quite enough of a punch, notwithstanding Williamson’s belief that batting doesn’t always have to be gung-ho.Latham as wicketkeeper in the top five adds the balance that New Zealand want, but his one-day runs have dried up again this summer as they did last season. Nicholls is making a decent fist of the finisher’s role at No. 6 with three half-centuries in eight matches this season, but when serious lower-order hitting is needed it falls to Colin de Grandhomme who has a strike-rate of 112 from his 11 ODI innings.Williamson, though, remained confident in his side to find another level after the limited competition provided by West Indies and Pakistan in the 50-over game.”The way they’ve been adapting to conditions, which have changed a lot, has been a real strength,” he said. “So it’s important we look to do that again, but at the same time we want to be fluid in how we operate in terms of guys perhaps being able to adjust to slightly different roles when that’s required.”

A one-over eliminator was needed the separate the two teams after the match finished in a tie

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Dec-2016
Canterbury won the one-over eliminator

ScorecardLuke Ronchi’s unbeaten 31-ball 58 was not enough to take Wellington across the line•Getty Images

Canterbury pipped Wellington in the one-over eliminator at Hagley Park after both teams finished their respective innings on 166, thanks in part to a late surge by Wellington’s Luke Ronchi and Luke Woodcock, who added 29 runs in the match’s last nine balls.With Wellington needing 20 off the final over, Ronchi and Woodcock managed 19. Then, in the one-over eliminator, Wellington finished on 5 for 2, losing both Woodcock and Ronchi to run-outs. Wellington’s Jeetan Patel struck first ball for them in their defence but followed that up with five consecutive wides. Tom Latham struck a four off the next legal delivery to give Canterbury the match and four points in an anticlimactic ending.Chasing 167, Wellington were reduced to 95 for 5 in the 14th over – courtesy Todd Astle’s double strike – but they clawed back by adding 71 runs in their last 40 balls. Woodcock, who came in to bat at No. 9 in the 19th over, smacked 17 in his six-ball innings, complementing Ronchi’s 31-ball 58, which included four fours and three sixes.In Canterbury’s innings, Henry Nicholls hit an unbeaten 66 off 40 deliveries. He came into bat two-down, and stitched together partnerships with Cam Fletcher (46 for the fifth wicket) and Tim Johnston (31* for the sixth wicket). Nicholls struck seven fours and two sixes, and with Johnston, added 16 runs off the last over to take Canterbury to 166 for 5.

Ross Taylor’s monumental innings was described as “immense” by New Zealand’s batting coach Craig McMillan and “one of the best innings I have seen” by his batting partner Kane Williamson

Daniel Brettig at the WACA15-Nov-2015Had the DeLorean from been available to Australia’s pace bowlers in Brisbane, they’d have been about as disoriented by the sight of Ross Taylor’s double century as Marty McFly was by news the Chicago Cubs had supposedly won the 2015 World Series.Taylor’s monumental innings, described as “immense” by New Zealand’s batting coach Craig McMillan and “one of the best innings I have seen” by his batting partner Kane Williamson, was an achievement made all the more admirable by the fact he had started this tour in truly grim touch.In Brisbane, Taylor had battled through a truly tortured first innings, and looked only marginally more sure of himself in the second. A duck and 16 in his two warm-up innings were likewise scant indicators that Taylor had it in him to construct the highest ever score by a New Zealand batsman against Australia, and the only double hundred ever made by a visiting Test batsman at the WACA Ground.There is no doubt Williamson played a key role in showing Taylor the way forward, playing so fluently and assuredly both at the Gabba and here that others were shown how Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon could be successfully tackled on their home turf. But Taylor also showed his own development by scoring in zones his previously dominant bottom hand might once have cancelled out.Unbeaten on 235 at day’s end, Taylor will hope to take New Zealand into the lead and a position to pressure Australia – certainly Williamson and McMillan are hoping he can.”I think it would be one of the best innings that I have seen,” Williamson said. “The tempo that he batted and the length of time that he has been at the crease has been outstanding and moving our team’s position forward. I know it is a tough ask but hopefully he can keep going a little bit tomorrow, build a couple of partnerships would certainly help us a lot, but certainly an absolutely fantastic innings so far.”I thought he was really calm out there. He just went about his work in a reasonably aggressive way and that’s when he bats at his best I think. To get that momentum in his innings from pretty much the word go – there were certainly some tough periods but he was playing so well. It was such a nice thing.”McMillan was part of the New Zealand side that so nearly forced a match and series win over Steve Waugh’s powerful team at this ground in 2001, a performance built largely on a record stand between Nathan Astle and Adam Parore. Taylor’s union with Williamson eclipsed their record, before the former went on to heights McMillan said he had always been capable of reaching.”I think it was an immense innings and it had been brewing for some time,” McMillan said. “He’d been a little bit short of time in the middle and runs, but what do they say? Form’s temporary and class is permanent. That got shown today. His concentration in the first two or three overs of the day really set the tone for the way he was going to bat.”His tempo was superb, hitting straight down the ground was something he’s worked really hard on in recent times just to open up that area that probably hasn’t always been a strength of his, but some of those straight cover drives were some of the best you’ll see from any player in the world.”You’d have to rank it right up there as one of New Zealand’s best Test knocks, with the conditions, with the match situation, you throw all that into the mix and it’s one of the best. There’s still a lot more batting to be done. He can go as long as the concentration stays strong. We want more partnerships from that lower order, guys to hang in with him, bat as long as possible and see what happens from there.”Williamson and Taylor were both highly successful in picking off more or less every bad ball the Australians bowled, an efficiency that allowed them to dictate terms all day and prevent the hosts from gaining momentum. McMillan said he had encouraged his men to stay positive throughout, ensuring that the bowlers knew they would be hurt if they strayed from all but the most disciplined of lines.”They’re attacking bowlers who come after you, but the upside of that is there’s scoring opportunities,” he said. “One of the impressive things from our guys over the last two days is how efficient they’ve been when they’ve been offered a scoring opportunity. They’ve hit gaps well and they’ve really put anything loose away, which has put that pressure back on the Australian bowling attack.”That’s a key when you’re facing a good attack that’s got extra pace is that when they miss, you’ve got to make sure you hurt them, you’re not looking just to defend and survive, you’re actually looking to score, and obviously Kane and Ross in that partnership did that beautifully today but it flowed right through the partnerships in the order throughout the day, and that’s something we’ll continue to be looking for.”

Alice Springs will host an international cricket team for the first time in 13 years after Cricket Australia announced England would play a tour match there during the 2013-14 Ashes

ESPNcricinfo staff07-May-2013Alice Springs will host an international cricket team for the first time in 13 years after Cricket Australia announced England would play a tour match there during the 2013-14 Ashes. Traeger Park is set to host a two-day game between England and the Cricket Australia’s Chairman’s XI on November 29 and 30 after the original venue, Manuka Oval in Canberra, had to withdraw due to scheduled resurfacing work.The last time an international team played in Alice Springs was when the West Indies side led by Jimmy Adams played a one-day match there against a Northern Territory Cricket Association Invitation XI in November 2000. The England game will take place after the first Ashes Test in Brisbane and before the second Test at Adelaide Oval.”When we were informed that Canberra could not host this year’s Chairman’s XI fixture, we wanted to bring the match to an iconic part of Australia,” Andrew Ingleton, CA’s executive general manager of game and market development, said. “Alice Springs, set against the backdrop of the MacDonnell Ranges, is an iconic part of our great country and an ideal setting for the game.”Matt Conlan, the Northern Territory’s minister for sport and recreation, said it was exciting for the territory to be part of the Ashes battle.”The Ashes is one of the biggest events in Australian sport and for Alice Springs to have a slice of the action in between the first and second Tests of this highly anticipated series is incredibly exciting,” he said. “It’s been 13 years since Traeger Park hosted an international cricket team and I’m delighted this drought we now be broken in November.”