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It adds to CSK’s woes who are already running thin on seam-bowling resources

Deivarayan Muthu02-May-20243:14

How should CSK balance their overseas bowling combination?

Chennai Super Kings’ depleting bowling stocks have disrupted their balance as they enter the business end of IPL 2024, their head coach Stephen Fleming has said.Deepak Chahar, who had missed two games with a niggle earlier in this season, bowled just two balls on Wednesday evening against Punjab Kings before pulling up and leaving the field. While Shardul Thakur filled in for him and completed the over, Chahar didn’t return. CSK were already without Matheesha Pathirana, who was out with a niggle and Tushar Deshpande, who didn’t even travel to the ground because of flu.While Fleming didn’t specify the nature – and extent – of Chahar’s injury, he suggested that early signs weren’t promising.Related

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“Yeah, the travel log is pretty busy,” Fleming said after CSK lost to Punjab by seven wickets. “There’s a lot of ins and outs. So, Deepak Chahar doesn’t look good. The initial feeling wasn’t great. So, I’m hoping for a more positive report when the physio and the doctor have a look.”The Sri Lankan pair of Pathirana and Maheesh Theekshana is also set to fly out to Colombo for visa work ahead of the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies. CSK, though, are hopeful of having them back for their reverse fixture against PBKS in Dharamsala on May 5. Mustafizur Rahman’s IPL stint, meanwhile, ended with Wednesday’s match. He will now link up with the Bangladesh side for their home T20I series against Zimbabwe, which begins on May 3.Richard Gleeson impressed on his IPL debut•AFP/Getty Images

“The Sri Lankan boys are off to get their visas,” Fleming said. “We’re hoping that their process is smooth and we get them back for the next game up north. Richard Gleeson was good and it was a positive. Losing Fizz [Mustafizur] is disappointing, there’s a lot happening isn’t it?”Tushar has a bit of flu going around as well. So we’ve had to make a few changes, which is unusual. Again, that’s part of it and again we have got the resources. Just they haven’t had the game time to be really comfortable with their roles and us to be comfortable with a game plan, which we’re struggling with a little.”On his IPL debut, Gleeson, 36, swung the new ball both ways, and provided CSK with one of the three wickets they took on Wednesday. Gleeson also has yorkers and bouncers in his repertoire but beyond him and Pathirana, CSK don’t have a specialist overseas seamer in their squad.Former New Zealand fast bowler and ESPNcricinfo expert Mitchell McClenaghan suggested that left-arm fingerspinner Mitchell Santner could be an option for CSK when they come up against PBKS in round two on Sunday.”Gleeson is a good new-ball bowler and can swing the ball both ways and had a little bit of zip and one hit Dhoni’s gloves hard,” McClenaghan said on Timeout, ESPNcricinfo’s analysis show. “He was impressive in his first outing in the IPL in difficult conditions. So he is going to be good from there and it’s what you do with the other spot. Mustafizur is gone. If Pathirana is out for more than one game, I would probably look at playing Mitchell Santner against Punjab. Because you can bowl him in the powerplay to Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran [Singh] and if you get Rilee Rossouw out, he will be a good operator in the middle.”3:15

Did CSK err by using Rizvi as the Impact Player?

Mukesh Choudhary, who has played just one competitive game since the start of 2023, and Simarjeet Singh, who hasn’t played any competitive matches in that period, are among the Indian bowling options along with Maharashtra legspinner Prashant Solanki, who was on the subs bench for Wednesday’s fixture.Reshuffling of personnel aside, CSK rejigged their batting line-up against PBKS, with Daryl Mitchell, who had scored a half-century against Sunrisers Hyderabad from No. 3, sliding down to No. 8. CSK aimed to stem a collapse on a slow surface by slotting in Sameer Rizvi as Impact Player, replacing Ajinkya Rahane, but he laboured to 21 off 23 balls. At one point, CSK went 55 balls without a single boundary off the bat – the longest stretch this season, beating Gujarat Titans’ 38 against Delhi Capitals. Fleming tried to make sense of those moves.”The Dube factor is the one [reason],” Fleming said. “So if you get to six overs, that’s the perfect time for him to come in. The next thing is with left-right [combination], we want [Ravindra] Jadeja, who has got a positive role as well, to come in and take them [the spinners] on as well. But they bowled well. The Rizvi one, we will discuss a little bit more, may go the other way around with that one but again he’s positive and his ability to hit sixes in training has certainly been good. But there’s a temperament part of that as well that young players need to learn. So we have got a bit of information from that.”The casualty was Mitchell going down the order. What we learnt from the first part of the tournament was if it goes too low, there are other players – Moeen Ali and MS [Dhoni] – who can push the game along. So the window closes there but it was very much getting the tactics right for what we wanted to do in the middle. And that was to break their spinners up but they won that competition.”

Rest of India set MP 437 to win, with the 2021-22 Ranji champs another 356 away with eight wickets in hand on final day

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Mar-2023Yashasvi Jaiswal followed up his double-century in the first innings with 144 in the second as Rest of India had one hand on the Irani Cup at the end of day four in Gwalior. Chasing a tall 437, Madhya Pradesh lost two wickets late in the day, but captain Himanshu Mantri remained unbeaten on 51 to give his side some hope despite the huge target.Resuming their day ahead by 275 runs, Rest of India lost six wickets in the opening session but still managed to swell the lead to 391. With variable bounce on display, the MP bowlers stuck to a wicket-to-wicket line and reaped rewards.Avesh Khan struck first, cleaning Abhimanyu Easwaran up with a short-of-a-length ball that kept low and snuck below his bat to hit the stumps. In his next over, Avesh pinned Baba Indrajith plumb in front. Ankit Kushwah then got a wicket two balls later, sending Yash Dhull back for a first-ball duck before trapping Upendra Yadav lbw soon after.Jaiswal, meanwhile, carried on merrily, smashing boundaries at will. He struck three fours in Saransh Jain’s ninth over, the third getting him to his century off just 103 balls with 13 fours and a six until then.A misjudgment in the calling brought about Atit Sheth’s wicket who was run-out for 30, before Saurabh Kumar was dismissed leg before wicket by Jain. Rest of India went into lunch seven wickets down, but managed to score 116 runs in the session.Jaiswal hacked Avesh for a six over deep midwicket after the break, as it helped the lead inch past 400. The left-hander was bowled by Jain, but not before smashing 357 runs in the match, the most by a batter in the history of the Irani Cup. Shubham Sharma wrapped the innings up with his part-time offspin, removing Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar off successive balls.Mukesh then gave Rest of India the perfect start in their defense, trapping Arham Aquil in front of the stumps second ball, as Aquil bagged a pair on first-class debut. Shubham and Mantri then added 51 for the second wicket before the former was done in by a Saurabh arm ball that caught the batter playing down the wrong line. But Mantri notched up his half-century, and will have to dig deep to force a result for his side on the final day.

Ireland captain rues the team’s lack of opportunities in the longest format and looks ahead to their USA, Caribbean tours

Matt Roller22-Dec-2021″Test cricket looks fun,” Andy Balbirnie, Ireland’s captain, tweeted on the second morning of the first Ashes Test. “Anyone want a game?? Seriously.”Ireland will head into the new year with the same, old problems: funding, facilities and fixtures. Their progress has been slow since they became Full Members of the ICC in 2017, highlighted by a first-round exit at the 2021 T20 World Cup after a humbling defeat to Namibia, and it is two-and-a-half years since they last played a Test.”We’re a Test member, or a Full Member, but at the moment it only really feels like a name,” Balbirnie said on Tuesday. “Nothing’s really showing for that. We’ve had our days out at Lord’s and Malahide but apart from that, all I can see is a name. It’ll be three years in the summer that we haven’t played a Test match.”Related

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Ireland’s ascent to Full-Member status means that, after a two-year grace period, their players no longer qualify as locals in county cricket, taking away a crucial breeding ground. “In my opinion, that was hugely detrimental to some of the young cricketers here,” Balbirnie said.”It’s massively disappointing, watching all of these brilliant Test series around the world – the Ashes particularly, staying up all night to watch such an historic series. I go back to that Lord’s Test because it was the highlight of a career. For the young guys coming through to maybe not have that experience again, that’s hugely disappointing.”The latest version of the Future Tours Programme sees Ireland pencilled in to play away Tests against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the next 18 months, but they are used to having fixtures cancelled at short notice, not least during the Covid era.Their long-term fixture list has been hit by the ICC’s decision to scrap the World Cup Super League after its inaugural edition – though Balbirnie admits there is an element of relief that the prospect of relegation for the next World Cup cycle is now off the table.”It’s a great thing for countries who aren’t in the Super League to strive towards,” Balbirnie said. “Certainly Holland had that opportunity in this [cycle] to play against the top teams, and they’re games that the countries below where we are need to play – to see how they can go against the top teams, and also to get kids to want to follow them.”The possibility of getting relegated from that league had some huge knock-on effects and some potentially damning years ahead, so without beating around the bush, there is a bit of a relief in that regard – but long-term, for the worldwide game, it’s a disappointing move but something we can’t control.””We were really disappointed about the T20 World Cup” – Andrew Balbirnie•Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images

The immediate outlook is more positive as Ireland look to rebuild following their early exit at the T20 World Cup and Graham Ford’s departure as head coach. They are in Florida over the Christmas period for two T20Is and three ODIs, becoming the first Full Member to play against USA on American soil in the process, and will then fly to Jamaica on New Year’s Eve for three Super League ODIs and a one-off T20I against West Indies.Their preparation has been hit by Covid, with several players returning positive tests in the build-up to the series, but David Ripley – the interim head coach – has a team that is nearly at full strength for Wednesday’s opening game.One positive on this tour is that Covid restrictions have been eased, after several series in bubbles. “It’s the way, in my opinion, it has to be going forward,” Balbirnie said. “That bit of freedom makes it a completely different tour with a lot less stress. I think all of us are double-jabbed; I’m not going to say everyone should be [but] the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to protect yourself and others around you.”Kevin O’Brien has been dropped, with the selectors bringing the curtain down on his fine international career. In his absence, Balbirnie, who had a disappointing T20 World Cup with 70 runs off 73 balls across three innings, will shift up to open the batting alongside Paul Stirling.Shane Getkate will bat at No. 5 as a finisher, with William McClintock also likely to slot into the middle order, and Curtis Campher is expected to fill the role as the “glue” batter, the role in which Alex Wakely thrived when Ripley coached Northamptonshire to two T20 Blast titles.”When we sat down after the World Cup and looked at the areas we stumbled in,” Balbirnie said. “Our boundary count in the middle [overs] hasn’t been good enough or consistent enough, and that’s something we need to address. We don’t want to put too much pressure on our batters but we understand that’s an area we need to improve.”Ireland will have to improve quickly, with the qualifiers for next year’s T20 World Cup due to be staged in Muscat in February. They will be the favourites to seal one of the two spots up for grabs in their half of the qualifying draw (a separate qualifier will be held in Zimbabwe in July) but will face competition from Oman, Nepal and UAE in particular.”We were really disappointed about the T20 World Cup,” Balbirnie added, “and this is just a chance to go out and try to play with a bit of freedom and give the guys confidence to go out and express themselves. It’s easy to say that but we’ve all got to go out and do it once we get over that line. I’ve seen a lot of good stuff in the period we have had here.”

Stead will still have to go throw a “robust” interview process this month

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2020Gary Stead, the New Zealand men’s head coach, could be in for a three-year contract extension until the 2023 ODI World Cup. NZC chief executive David White said the board is “delighted” with Stead’s work but the coach will still be expected to go through a “robust” interview process this month.”We are delighted with what he’s done,” White told stuff.co.nz. “When we appoint someone it’s a consultative process with players, management, and then a recommendation to the board. We’re hopeful to have that wrapped up before our board meeting at the end of August.”It’s important that the process is robust and is formal to a degree. It’s appropriate we do that.”White further said if Stead was reappointed, the contract would likely be till the 2023 World Cup in India.”We haven’t agreed a term as yet but I would think that’s likely to be until the next World Cup, which the ICC has now extended to November 2023. That would be a logical period,” White said.Taking over the reins from Mike Hesson, Stead was appointed as head coach in August 2018 for a two-year term until the T20 World Cup in Australia, which, originally scheduled for October-November this year, was recently pushed back until late 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.Last week, Stead had expressed his willingness over carrying on in his role and said he had begun discussions with the board about extending his tenure at the helm.”Talks have been pretty positive and, if New Zealand Cricket and the players feel as though I can keep contributing, then I’d be interested in continuing on,” Stead told . He also said he shared a “really strong” working relationship with captain Kane Williamson, adding that they were both gung-ho about taking the team to the next level.Stead, 48, had guided the team to the 2019 ODI World Cup final and, an extension until the 2023 ODI World Cup would mean his overseeing the two upcoming T20 World Cups as well – in 2021 and the following year, in India. That would take his tenure to just a year short of Hesson’s six-year term, the longest served by a New Zealand men’s head coach.

A rapid fifty from Matt Critchley and Alex Hughes’ four-for set up a comfortable 53-run win

ECB Reporters Network19-Apr-2019Matt Critchley played another match-changing one-day innings to set up a 53-run victory for Derbyshire over Northamptonshire in the Royal London Cup match at Derby.Critchley made an unbeaten 64 from 51 balls, his first List A fifty for Derbyshire, as the Falcons recovered from 137 for 5 to 268 for 6 with skipper Billy Godleman top-scoring with 87. Despite an unbeaten 50 from Luke Proctor, the Steelbacks never threatened to chase that down and Alex Hughes’ best List A figures of 4 for 44 saw the visitors bowled out for 215 with 37 balls to spare, their second North Group defeat.The Falcons began badly when Luis Reece nicked the third ball of the innings but Wayne Madsen and Godleman took the score to 50 before two wickets in successive overs checked the scoring rate.Madsen cut Jason Holder for consecutive fours before he edged Ben Sanderson and Hughes quickly followed when he was caught behind driving at the West Indies captain.South African batsman Leus du Plooy – signed this week on a Kolpak deal – impressed on his debut until he chopped Blessing Muzarabani into his stumps and when Tom Lace steered the Zimbabwe paceman into the hands of third man, the Falcons were in trouble..But although Godleman struggled to time the ball, he anchored the innings while Critchley provided the momentum in a stand that added 84 in 13 overs. Godleman whipped Nathan Buck over midwicket for the only six of the innings but played on to the next ball as he tried to run it to third man.The Steelbacks had prevented the Falcons from getting away until the last over of the innings, which cost 17 as Critchley moved around the crease to hit Sanderson for three fours.Even so, the total looked below par but that changed as the Falcons blew away the top order in the first nine overs with Hughes taking two outstanding slip catches.Josh Cobb edged a drive at Logan van Beek in the second over and the dangerous Richard Levi went in the next when he tried to run Ravi Rampaul and was snared by Hughes diving to his right at second slip.Hughes swooped in front of first to remove Alex Wakeley and the Steelbacks were in disarray when Rob Newton was run out in a mix up over a second with Adam Rossington.Hughes spilled another sharp chance when Rossington edged van Beek and that threatened to prove expensive when he drove the next two balls to the boundary. Rossington pulled Reece just over the head of deep midwicket for six but Hughes struck in his first over when he found just enough away movement to bowl him for 21.Any chance the Steelbacks had now rested with Holder but after hitting six fours in a 24-ball 30, he missed a big drive at Hughes and although Proctor and Sanderson added 73, it only delayed the inevitable.

Half-centuries from Aiden Markram and Hashim Amla led South Africa to a dominant position before a late collapse brought India roaring back to life

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy13-Jan-20181:07

Cullinan: It’s a hardworking pitch for both batsmen and bowlers

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAfter all the talk of the pace and bounce of the Highveld, Centurion ended up providing India the most subcontinental conditions they could have expected on this tour. The skies were blue, the pitch was brown, and R Ashwin bowled the bulk of India’s overs.That could have been the extent of India feeling at home. For the first 80.4 overs of the day, South Africa’s batsmen had pitched tents on this flat, friendly surface and pinned family photographs onto the canvas. Aiden Markram had fallen narrowly short of a hundred, but Hashim Amla looked all set to stroll past that milestone, and South Africa were 246 for 3.And then, Centurion 2018 turned into Kolkata 2010. Amla and Alviro Petersen had scored centuries that day, only for South Africa to collapse from 218 for 1 to 296 all out, in a typically Eden Gardens post-tea collapse.Here, South Africa lost three wickets for the addition of five runs, two of them to run-outs, and India, out of nowhere, were back in the game. They hardly deserved to be: Ashwin and Ishant Sharma apart, their frontline bowlers had been poor.Deserve, however, has nothing to do with Test cricket; a few overs is all it takes, sometimes, for a match to swing 180 degrees.It began, as it often can, with a moment of brilliance on the field. Amla got on his toes, rode the bounce of a short ball from Hardik Pandya, and tucked it gently into the on side. Faf du Plessis called for one, and Amla, after a moment’s hesitation, responded. That moment was enough; Pandya sprinted across in his follow-through, swooped on the ball, spun around, and fired a direct hit at the bowler’s end. Amla was gone, for 82.In walked Quinton de Kock, a left-hander. Ashwin, from round the wicket, greeted him with a quick-turning offbreak in the channel outside off stump. New to the crease, de Kock pushed at it without really moving his feet and edged to slip.All the swirling excitement and anxiety of the moment got to Vernon Philander, who ten minutes earlier would not have expected to put on his pads. A bunt into the leg side, and a mad dash to the other end despite his captain yelling at him to stay put cost him his wicket. South Africa were 251 for 6 and India flooded the stump mic with yelps of delight.For most of the first eight-ninths of this day, India’s voices had been muted. The first four South African wickets had added 85, 63, 51 and 47, indicative of an attack that seldom applied pressure from both ends, and a top order that batted with a great degree of comfort.Playing only his seventh Test innings, Markram passed 50 for the fourth time, and looked a natural fit at this level. Taking guard on off stump, he stood tall and stood still at the crease, making no trigger movement and as a result remaining perfectly balanced. Time and again India’s seamers slipped in the full, straight lbw ball in vain; Markram’s head refused to fall across to the off side, and he punched and drove handsomely through the V, the area wide of mid-on proving particularly productive.When the quicks dropped short, he punished them with punches and slaps through the covers and, on one occasion, a dismissive pull. The Saturday crowd at Centurion got to see all these shots frequently, since the fast bowlers, Ishant apart, kept feeding him boundary balls.Jasprit Bumrah showed control with the new ball, but sprayed it around in all his subsequent spells, while Mohammed Shami, much like day one in Cape Town, was wayward and below top-pace with the new ball. Just when he seemed to be finding some rhythm and reverse-swing around an hour after lunch, Shami went off the field, looking a little under the weather. India’s team management later clarified it was a “mild headache”.Bounce apart, there wasn’t a whole lot of help for the seam bowlers, and perhaps this was why India went in with Ishant ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had picked up 4 for 87 and 2 for 33 in Cape Town. Ishant responded impressively, coming on as first change and testing Dean Elgar’s footwork and judgment with his angle, a bit of seam movement, and a fullish length that drew the left-hander forward.Having fought his way through this spell, Elgar survived a testing period against Ashwin just before lunch, getting beaten twice in 10 balls, with India unsuccessfully reviewing for caught-behind on one occasion. Soon after lunch, Elgar stepped out and drove Ashwin back over his head – perhaps the shot of an anxious batsman looking to hit his tormentor off his length – but the next time he tried stepping out, he didn’t reach the pitch of the ball and ended up stabbing a catch to silly point.This was India’s best period of play all day, with Ashwin finding dip and bounce at one end and Ishant bowling tightly at the other. These two couldn’t keep bowling forever, however, and South Africa soon returned to free-scoring ways, with Amla turning the clock back with the wristwork on his flicks and back-foot punches. It took a change of angle for India to effect their next breakthrough, Markram edging Ashwin behind when he went around the wicket. The ball, angled across Markram, didn’t spin back as much as he expected, but it was the length that did him, pinning him awkwardly to the crease – rather than going neither forward nor back, he was trying to do both at the same time – and making him jab away from his body.AB de Villiers was busy right from the time he came in, unveiling the reverse-sweep to pick up a boundary off Ashwin when he was still in single figures, but there was a touch of looseness to his game as well. A jab away from his body at Bumrah resulted in an inside-edge that nearly trickled onto his stumps, and when he tried the same shot against Ishant after tea, he chopped on for 20. The ball had begun to keep low every now and then and this was a shot he could have avoided.At that point, though, South Africa were still in too dominant a position to worry unduly. Amla was looking at his serene best, putting Shami away disdainfully when he kept dropping short in a brief post-tea spell, driving Ashwin against the turn with a twirl of his wrists, and, on 79, keeping out a shin-high shooter from Bumrah as if it was a perfectly normal delivery. Just when he looked set to coast to a century and beyond, however, a moment’s hesitation brought India roaring back to life.

An unbeaten 202 from Alex Doolan put Tasmania in a very strong position at stumps on the second day against Western Australia at the WACA

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2016
ScorecardAlex Doolan scored just his second first-class century in three years•Getty Images

Amid all the talk about batsmen competing for a Test call-up, Alex Doolan’s name was never mentioned. And there was good reason: he entered this Sheffield Shield round with 1315 runs at 24.81 from his past three years of first-class cricket. But on the second day at the WACA, Doolan bounced spectacularly back to form with an unbeaten 202 that put Tasmania in a strong position at stumps.Of course, in order to add to the four Test caps Doolan won in 2014, he would likely need a lengthy run of good form to make up for his long lean patch. But he did have a productive Matador Cup, and his runs on the second day in Perth stood out on a Tasmania scorecard on which no other player passed fifty. The in-form George Bailey was lbw for 24 and was one of four Tasmanians out in the 20s.The Tigers had resumed on 2 for 60, with Doolan and nightwatchman Jackson Bird at the crease, and they put on 56 for the third wicket before Bird was out for 22. Bailey, Beau Webster (27), James Faulkner (13) and Jake Doran (41) all made starts, but Doolan was the only one able to go on with it, and finished the day with 33 fours, two sixes, and a new highest first-class score. His 202 had come from 311 balls.Jason Behrendorff picked up 3 for 73 and Simon Mackin collected two wickets for the Warriors. At the close of play, Simon Milenko was the crease on 5, alongside Doolan.