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South Africa are mindful of the problems Australia’s pace pack could pose if they were to produce seamer-friendly tracks like they did against India

Firdose Moonda27-Feb-20184:45

Wessels: SA can’t afford spicy pitches against Australia

After putting in specific instructions for pace and bounce for the Test series against India, South Africa have asked, not demanded, that their groundsmen prepare good cricket pitches that lean towards the slower side for the four-Test series against Australia starting Thursday in Durban.After only getting what they wanted once at Newlands during India’s tour, South Africa have not only toned down the severity of their requests, but have turned them the other way. They don’t want green tops for this series – keeping in mind, perhaps, the strength of Australia’s pace pack – but are instead keen on surfaces that could even take some turn. South Africa see that as their best chance of beating Australia in a home series for the first time since readmission.This is partly why coastal cities have been awarded three of the four Tests, because they usually assist the quicks a little less than surfaces on the Highveld. Russell Domingo, who was still South Africa’s head coach when the schedule was announced, explained at the time that the team had identified Australia’s struggle against spin – they had just lost in India and Bangladesh.But South Africa are being careful with how much slowness they’re asking for, because they’ve already been made to rue their requests more than once this summer. “Everybody knows what happened at the Wanderers, so we’ve left the groundsmen to prepare the best possible pitches that they can this time,” head coach Ottis Gibson said after the final T20I against India on Saturday.Leaving the groundsmen to do their job has long been suggested as the best way to get balanced pitches. This time around, even the pre-series meeting between them and captain Faf du Plessis hasn’t taken place. Further, some groundstaff have complained about a lack of proper equipment and training but they haven’t been heard by CSA yet. This has left some officials worried about the quality and standard of pitches in the future. However with South Africa’s expectations for the Australia series in alignment with how conditions normally are at this time of the season, it may not be a too much of a problem just yet.There is a fair amount of wear on almost all the surfaces around the country, having been in use since September. Newlands and Wanderers have already hosted a Test, an ODI and two T20s, St George’s Park hosted a Test (albeit one that lasted one-and-half-days) and an ODI. Only Kingsmead in Durban is fresh; it’s been required for only one ODI at the start of February.The ongoing drought issues in Cape Town that have forced cancellation of all club fixtures for the second half of the summer and have diminished opportunities for a grassy surface. This could make things tricky for Evan Flint, the Newlands groundsman, especially if a tournament like the Global T20 is added to an already packed cricket calendar.”Around the country, pitches are old and need replacing and when you do that, you have do to them one at a time,” Flint told ESPNcricinfo. “We only use the three pitches in the middle for televised games, so those get used a lot and very rarely replaced. I think we should really start to think about drop-in pitches because then we also provide the team with exactly what they want when they want it.”While Flint is in du Plessis’ good books after his Test pitch provided seam movement against India, he wasn’t exactly thrilled with his work and aims to produce a more balanced pitch in future. “It was the least controversial pitch but I don’t think it was that good. It was too one-sided towards the bowlers,” he said. “We’ve been discussing preparing good cricket pitches and they won’t mind if they are a bit on the slow side. That’s sort of where we are at anyway, because we’re late in the season. And a pitch of that description doesn’t require freshness. It should be a good series.”That’s what we’re all hoping.

Somerset spinner in prime position to fill key England vacancy, after overcoming trauma of suspect action

Andrew McGlashan in Auckland21-Mar-2018A bad round of golf didn’t seem so frustrating for Somerset left-arm spinner Jack Leach when his phone rang last week. It was the call that told him to get on a plane to New Zealand after Mason Crane had been diagnosed with a stress fracture of his lower back.”We’d had a couple of days’ golf and I’d just played the worst round of my life,” Leach said. “My golf’s shocking. I don’t even enjoy it, I won’t pretend, and I’d just lost to [director of cricket] Andy Hurry. It was a bad day up until I got the call but it turned into a very good day.”For any player a maiden call-up to the senior side is a wonderful moment, but Leach can be afforded an extra dose of satisfaction. A year ago he was trying to rebuild his confidence having, to the surprise of many, been discovered to have an illegal bowling action. The problem was discovered in September 2016, during routine testing at the ECB academy in Loughborough, and the issue became public when he wasn’t called up to the India squad later that year as an injury replacement for Zafar Ansari.

Trescothick’s forgotten pen-pal

A ten-year-old Jack Leach once received a hand-written letter from the man who now sometimes fields on his knees to him at slip for Somerset.
Marcus Trescothick was Leach’s hero growing up, and was sent a letter by him one Christmas, but could not remember penning the response until Leach showed him a copy years later.
“I reminded Tres of this like last year or something and said ‘do you remember this letter?’ and he said ‘no, no, it was probably my agent writing back to you’. So then I showed him the letter and he was like ‘oh, that’s my writing!’ so he had actually decided on this one he wanted to reply, which is quite a nice story. I share a dressing room with him now so it’s nice to know he was bothered to reply.”

Now he is an injury or tactical decision away from a Test debut, which is just reward for the most prolific spinner in county cricket over the last two seasons with 116 wickets – 51 of them coming in 2017 as he settled into his new action.”It wasn’t until the back end of last season that I started to feel mentally back to normal,” Leach said. “It was more the mental rather than the physical aspect of it, getting used to feeling like I could just bowl normally again. That I’d done the work and didn’t have to control it in my mind because the last thing you want to do in a game is think about your action. You want to be focusing on how you’re going to get them out so it was about doing that repetition in practice so I didn’t have to think about it.”Leach has previously spoken about the fears he had of being labelled a chucker or cheat after the kink in his action was revealed. Over the last year he has worked with an ECB psychologist and believes in the long run the challenge he’s been through will serve him well for a Test career.”It’s about having that resilience isn’t it? The day it came out … that was like a horrible thing for me, I hadn’t had that exposure I guess. Up until then it had been all very positive – you’re doing well in county cricket, no one knows a lot about you apart from your stats are good, so you just get praise. So to experience that before I’d actually played any international cricket or been involved with international cricket was actually quite good for me. I’ve learnt a little bit about that side of it as well.”It made me understand my bowling a lot better, it’s made me a better bowler … having a stronger and smoother action was what was going to help me. It was only a good thing to find that out and something that’s probably pushed me on.”Not only has Leach had to battle the issue over his action, he has also had to fend off suggestions he has had it a bit too easy due to the wickets at Taunton, which always felt a slightly odd argument when England’s incumbent spinners were struggling to have much impact on pitches offering assistance.”I’d be keen on more wickets [like Taunton],” he said. “It is a double-edged sword because you do get that ‘can he only do it on turning wickets?’ I know from when I’ve played away from home that I can do it away from home as well so I have no lack of confidence, I guess, away from Taunton or away from spinning wickets. It’s about being adaptive and learning all those different things. I’d say bowling at Taunton has been a very good thing for me because it’s given me more overs as a spinner which sometimes in England is tough for spinners. It’s definitely progressed my career quicker, I would say. I also now look forward to bowling on flatter pitches to test my skills on those.”Leach has been involved with the Lions over the last five months, firstly in Australia and then West Indies. Down under was a challenging experience for him – he played for an England XI in a two-day game in Western Australia where he picked up four wickets but went at 10 an over during a run chase – however he learnt a lot from watching Nathan Lyon. The Caribbean brought considerable success despite the Lions being well beaten, as he claimed 18 wickets in the three four-day matches.Moeen Ali has manfully carried England’s spin-bowling role over his 49 Tests with some notable success at home, but plenty of toil overseas, with an Ashes bowling average of 115 a particular low point. Crane was given a debut in Sydney but is raw, and now faces time on the sidelines, while Adil Rashid has given up first-class cricket. With tours to Sri Lanka and West Indies next winter, two trips where spin will play a big role, there is a huge opportunity for Leach.”I always believed that this was where I was hopefully going to get to. I definitely did,” he said. “I think those little lower moments definitely made me stronger and definitely helped someone like me. No doubt there will be more. I try to learn not to get too emotional and just learn from every opportunity.”

Azhar Mahmood, bowling coach, warns that fast bowler’s workload must be managed across all three formats of the game

Melinda Farrell at Malahide13-May-20180:52

Mahmood calls on Pakistan to manage Amir’s workload

Mohammad Amir was forced from the field with a “chronic” right* knee injury late on the third day at Malahide, a development that will be the cause of some anxiety within the Pakistan camp not only as they look forward to the end of this Test but two more against England.Amir first went off the field after a three-over opening burst, with what appeared to be a slight limp. He came back out soon after, however, and though he was walking gingerly, he eventually came on to bowl again. Two balls in, however, he got into a discussion with captain Sarfraz Ahmed and though it looked as if Amir was suggesting that he finish his over, he eventually walked off. Medical staff will assess the injury after treatment overnight before deciding if he is fit to take part in the rest of the match, though initial assessments suggest it isn’t serious and that he could bowl tomorrow.”He has got a chronic knee problem which has slightly flared up,” said Azhar Mahmood, Pakistan’s bowling coach. “Hopefully, he will be okay tomorrow to bowl for us. He’s having treatment and hopefully tonight we will do a bit more treatment, tomorrow morning, ice as well, so he will be fine.”According to Mahmood, it has been a recurring problem for the fast bowler and it will do little to alleviate concerns about Amir’s long-term future in five-day cricket. Amir has spoken of wanting to manage his workload in the future with the help of a rotation policy that allows him to sit out occasional Tests.That concern comes from having bowled more international overs than any other Pakistan fast bowler since Amir’s return to international cricket in January 2016, a return after five years out. And though it has been over six months since Pakistan’s last Test and Amir has played plenty of cricket in between, this is now twice in two Tests he has gone off with an injury – against Sri Lanka in Dubai it was a problem in his right shin that forced him off.”Yes, you can say that because unfortunately he came back after five years and since he came back he played every format for us,” Azhar said. “We have to manage his workload as well so maybe that’s a sign for us to in the future to see where he stands and we’ve got a bunch of young guys coming up and we want to have Test bowlers separately to the one-day and T20s, so we are working on that and hopefully we can come up with something.”Mahmood emphasised that keeping Amir in Test cricket is Pakistan’s greatest priority.”We want him to play Test cricket because he is our No.1 bowler and we want him to run in and bowl for us. Workload – I have seen a lot of fast bowlers and their body can’t take it, so they just manage to play one format or two formats, but for him it’s a concern for us but hopefully we will manage his workload in the future.”Frustratingly for Amir and Pakistan, the injury occurred just as he was bowling probably his best spell of the tour so far. He got more swing as Ireland followed on than he did in the first innings, though his luck had not returned – two more catches were spilled off his bowling in that burst, bringing to 16 the number of missed chances off Amir’s bowling in his last 17 Tests.*3.15pm, May 14: this story was amended when the PCB clarified that the problem was with Amir’s right knee having originally said left

The opener hit 117 off 67 balls while there was also a half-century for Peter Handscomb and with the ball Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh and Ashton Agar impressed

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jun-2019While one Australian left hander was filling his boots in Nottingham, another was doing similar in Northampton as Matthew Wade hammered 117 off 67 balls to guide Australia A to a convincing victory at the start of their tour.His innings was the standout feature of a very efficient performance from a side that contains plenty of international experience. Wade, who was playing as a specialist batsman, still harbours hopes of resurrecting his international career despite being overlooked during a prolific home season, the form from which does not seem to have dissipated after a few months off.”I was happy with it. I haven’t played for a while so wasn’t 100% sure how I would strike the ball after a late arrival but I struck it as clean as I have for a while,” he said. “My mindset coming over here has been staying true to how I want to play, not letting things that may come in the future get into my head. I just want to come out and play the way I want to play and I know my game is good enough to succeed in any format or any competition I play in.”Elsewhere there was a neat innings from Peter Handscomb (64) who many feel should be part of the current World Cup squad, while the same sentiment applies to Josh Hazlewood who bagged 2 for 51 in his first competitive outing since being laid low by a back injury in early January.Mitchell Marsh, who was on standby to replace Marcus Stoinis at the World Cup, and Ashton Agar combined to take five wickets as Northamptonshire were held to 262 for 9 then Marsh helped complete the chase with an unbeaten 40.However, it was mostly about Wade as he flayed 18 fours and three sixes in a powerful display with the Northamptonshire attack powerless to stop him. He added a rapid opening stand of 58 with D’Arcy Short – his partner contributing just 7 – then put on 85 in 10 overs with captain Travis Head. When he fell in just the 21st over, Wade had scored 117 of the 170 runs leaving a simple task for the middle order to finish things off with 14 overs to spare.”I was feeling good, my timing was there which is always key,” Wade said. “I’ve trained a long time in the nets the way I want to play in games. I’m quite attacking at the moment, but the mindset isn’t to swing at every ball. When I feel I’m just trying to get myself in for 20-30 runs it never really works out, I need to walk out and me positive in the mind, look to score and in England you get such value for shots.”In the field, Hazlewood only had to wait until his third over to strike when he trapped Richard Levi lbw, but the Northamptonshire top order put in a solid display. Rob Newton (53) and Josh Cobb (49) added 92 before Marsh and Agar started to make inroads.Alex Wakely also struck a half-century but when he fell to Agar in the 43rd over the lower order couldn’t lift the tempo although an unbroken final-wicket stand of 30 meant the home side batted out their overs.

Tim Seifert hit 57 for St Lucia Kings in the chase, but Usman Tariq took four wickets and Sunil Narine got three for Knight Riders to stop them short

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2025Alex Hales played anchor, Nicholas Pooran the aggressor, Kieron Pollard the controller in the middle overs, and Andre Russell the finisher to take Trinbago Knight Riders to 194 in Qualifier 2 of CPL 2025 against St Lucia Kings. In reply, Tim Seifert started quickly, but Kings never recovered from a slowdown after the first four overs, and eventually fell short by 56 runs.Unlike Kings later in the game, Knight Riders had scored just 25 runs in their first four overs after Kings asked them to bat. By then, Khary Pierre had bowled Colin Munro for 6, and Pooran, the new batter, had smashed all of his 14 runs in boundaries.But after a slow start, Knight Riders lashed 36 runs off the last two overs of the powerplay. Pooran sending Alzarri Joseph for six over extra cover in the fifth over before going 6, 4, 4, 4 off David Wiese in the sixth. Hales, meanwhile, had hardly had the strike until that stage.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Pooran reached his half-century off 31 balls to end the ninth over, but was dismissed immediately after as he missed an attempted sweep against Roston Chase, and was bowled for 50. Eleven overs into their innings, Knight Riders had 89 on the board, and Kings had things under control. But the last nine overs saw Hales, Pollard and Russell bash 105 runs.On 15 off 21 balls at one stage, Hales broke free with a six off Tymal Mills in the 12th over. With five overs left, Pollard targeted Tabraiz Shamsi, and sent him for three sixes. But Joseph checked Pollard’s flow in the 17th over by having him caught at long-off for 35 – an innings that included four sixes – but Kings’ pain hadn’t ended there.With three overs left and just 146 on the board, Hales cracked three sixes in the next two overs. The second of those, an inside-out loft over the covers off Joseph, took him to his fifty off 41 deliveries. One final act of aggression from Knight Riders, however, still remained. Russell slammed Wiese for 6, 6, 4, 6 in the final over, which went for 23 runs, and propelled Knight Riders to 194. Russell had thumped 28 in 12 balls before being run out off the last ball, whiles Hales remained unbeaten on a patient 58.Tim Seifert scored 57 in the chase to give St Lucia Kings hope•CPL T20 via Getty Images

Chasing 195 for a place in the final, Seifert got Kings off to a quick start. He had scored 32 of the 38 runs Kings had until then, and was dropped on 38 in the ninth over. At the other end, Johnson Charles, Seifert’s opening partner, was struggling to get going. He ticked along to just 17 off his first 23 deliveries, before Pollard ended his stay to complete the ninth over.The required run-rate was already past 12, with Seifert also slowing down. Kings were never in the game after that. Although Seifert got to his half-century with back-to-back boundaries off Akeal Hosein in the 12th over, and Usman Tariq conceded a boundary each to Seifert and Tim David in the 13th, two wickets in as many balls ended Kings’ faint hopes of victory.Tariq first had Seifert chipping to short third for 58, and then got Ackeem Auguste caught at wide long-on as the batter went sweeping first ball. From 98 for 3, Kings lost five wickets in the last six overs of the chase. Sunil Narine got into the act by having David caught behind in the 15th over, and then struck twice in the 19th to dismiss Aaron Jones and Wiese.Tariq added two more wickets to his tally in the final over by getting Chase and Mills, as Knight Riders booked a date Guyana Amazon Warriors on Sunday.

Short ball to England captain raises eyebrows of former team-mate, as England face battle for semi-final berth

George Dobell at Lord's25-Jun-2019Ben Stokes has insisted England “are not, for one minute going to take a backward step” in their remaining World Cup group games, even if their former team-mate Kevin Pietersen believes that Eoin Morgan doing just that during his brief innings was a contributory factor in their 64-run defeat to Australia.Morgan, England’s captain, dismissed a suggestion made by Pietersen on Twitter that he had backed away from Mitchell Starc. “The England captain backing to square leg when Starc bowled his first delivery to him made me think England may have a problem over the next week,” Pietersen wrote. “I hope not, but I’ve not seen a captain show such weakness for a while.””Really? Excellent,” said Morgan with an icy smile when asked about the comments. “It didn’t feel that way at all.”He did, however, accept that confidence may have been dented over the last few days and conceded that his team had “struggled with the basics of what we call our batting mantra”.Defeat at Lord’s – England’s third in seven games in this World Cup – has left them needing to win at least one and possibly both of their final two group matches against India (Sunday) and New Zealand (Wednesday) if they are to qualify for the semi-finals.”I think both this game and the last, we struggled with the basics of what we call our batting mantra,” said Morgan. “You know, strong intent, building partnerships, and doing it in our own way. We haven’t done those things for long enough periods of the game to either chase down 230 or 280 and that’s disappointing.”Confidence is not where it was at the start of the tournament, simply because we started really, really well. I think it’s a matter of rebuilding it. India is going to be a tough challenge on Sunday, as is New Zealand. It’s a matter of going back to our strengths.”It probably was our disappointing performance with the bat. Again we were left short with the basics. To fail to build substantial partnerships is disappointing.”Watch on Hotstar (India only): Highlights of England’s damaging defeat at Lord’sStokes, who has top-scored for England in their last two matches, believes England must stick to the aggressive approach that took them to the top of the world rankings and has called on his team-mates to “dig deep” in those remaining games.”Two back-to-back losses can sometimes make you think differently as a team,” Stokes said. “But we are not going to go away from our method of playing. We just need to adjust to situations and conditions, but we are not for one minute going to take a backward step. Especially in these last two group games.”We have to really dig deep in these last couple of games; not go back on how we know we play well. Everybody’s obviously disappointed in the last two games, but this is our World Cup and we are going to go about it the way we know how we play best.”We know how much the World Cup means to fans. It means a lot to players as well. It’s one of the greatest times to be a cricketer: representing your country at a World Cup.”Watch on Hotstar (India only): Highlights of Aaron Finch’s centuryWhile Stokes accepted that England’s performance in the last couple of games, defeated by Sri Lanka and Australia while chasing apparently modest targets, did not prove it, he suggested the side were far better at adapting to different surfaces and situations than they had been. As a result, he feels confidence will not be hit by the defeats.”We make better decisions now,” he said. “Obviously it doesn’t look that way when we’ve bowled out quite cheaply in the last two games, but we are a very, very confident team in terms of our batting line-up and these last two games aren’t going to knock our confidence at all.”

Captain credits tough Test against Ireland for battle-hardening his team ahead of famous victory

Osman Samiuddin at Lord's27-May-20181:11

Sarfraz proud of Pakistan after Lord’s win

Five uncapped players before the tour began; four bowlers with less than ten Tests between them before the tour; 16 Tests between three of the top four before this Test and just four of the XI that won at Lord’s in 2016 took to the same field two years later; it was easy before the Test began to let these facts outweigh another hefty fact: that Pakistan had won seven of their last 10 Tests against England going in.Yet it was precisely those nuggets of inexperience that helped Pakistan win an eighth in 11 – and their fifth at Lord’s – according to the man who led them to it. Sarfraz Ahmed made clear to his players before this tour that there should be no fear of losing, and only an opportunity to learn.”We thought that even if we lose we should learn,” he said after a nine-wicket triumph that will find itself among the more memorable ones in England.”We had nothing to lose but a lot to learn. I don’t think we’ve ever had such a young team at Lord’s before. This squad had 12 [11] players who had never played at Lord’s before so the way they responded is great.”For collective contributions and sustained dominance – one afternoon session apart – it is difficult to recall a more complete away performance in recent years. Pakistan didn’t wilt in the field, not with the ball and, in conditions helpful for swing, batted with rare judgment and discipline.”No praise is enough for the boys especially the fast bowlers who set the tone on the first day, then our batsmen responded,” he said. “You name anyone [Mohammad] Abbas, [Mohammad] Amir, Hasan [Ali], Faheem [Ashraf] and Shadab [Khan, batsmen Azhar [Ali], Asad [Shafiq], Babar [Azam] and Haris [Sohail]. The way this young team has played I don’t think any young team would have done something like this at this ground.”Though it hasn’t felt the same as 2016, Pakistan were probably as well prepared coming into this Test as two years ago. They had 15 days of cricket in England alone before Lord’s, as well as the staple training camp in Lahore before the tour.And a difficult win against Ireland, where they wobbled with the bat, where they dropped catches, where they often bowled the wrong lengths, reaped no end of benefits.”We knew that even a Test against Ireland would not be easy and they gave us a really tough time,” Sarfraz said. “We weren’t up to the mark in bowling and batting so when we played the Leicestershire [two-day] game we told the bowlers to pitch the ball up. And that was the difference from Malahide. That was the perfect Test for us coming here.”Sarfraz had a better game himself than at Malahide, barring his dismissal off what became the last ball before tea on the second day. There were no dropped catches and most sessions he managed the field well around him. Not that he is a great self-analyser.”I shout and scream at my players like always, all that is in front of you guys. I got really angry with Hasan Ali because he wasn’t getting a wicket [post-tea on Saturday]. But the best thing is they listen to me and understand me.”

Australia fielded a four-pronged pace attack, leaving out a fit Lyon for the first time since 2013

Andrew McGlashan12-Jul-2025Nathan Lyon’s shock omission for the final Test against West Indies at Sabina Park was based on “exceptional circumstances” created by the pink-ball day-night encounter, but Australia selector Tony Dodemaide admitted that Lyon had been disappointed by the decision.Aside from the three Tests he was injured for in the 2023 Ashes, Lyon has been ever present in the side since the 2013 tour of England when he was initially overlooked in favour of Ashton Agar. He claimed six wickets in Grenada leaving him one behind Glenn McGrath’s tally of 563 as the second-most for Australia in Tests.Dodemaide said the call “didn’t come naturally for everybody” but further examination of the limited data available from pink-ball Dukes matches, evidence from Australia’s training sessions, and the fact daylight goes quickly had persuaded them spin would play a limited role.Related

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“It’s something that wasn’t front of mind, certainly a difficult [decision], but we thought the exceptional circumstances justified having the four quicks so that we could rotate those guys and keep the pressure on,” Dodemaide said. “On a well-grassed surface and a hard surface with lots of night time play hours, that was the best way to win the game.”Dodemaide also referenced the 2018 pink-ball Test between West Indies and Sri Lanka in Barbados which was played with a Dukes and saw the spinners have very limited impact. However, for this match the home side recalled their frontline spinner Jomel Warrican in place of seamer Anderson Phillip. Overall in pink-ball Tests, Lyon has 43 wickets at 25.62.”But the key in here is it’s a conditions-based decision to go with the four quicks,” Dodemaide said. “What we found here with the limited data that we have on particularly the pink Dukes ball… [is] that it actually behaves a little differently to the Kookaburra one. It doesn’t go as soft.”The Kookaburra one tends to have a trough when it doesn’t move so much in those middle overs. That’s not the case with the Dukes one, the history tells us that, and that’s been our live experience when we’ve been here for the past couple of days in terms of the practice sessions that we’ve had. We’ve seen out here in practice the last couple of days that the ball does, big ball does a lot and it’s very difficult for the batters.”The last time Australia fielded an all-pace frontline attack was during the 2023 Ashes at Old Trafford when they left out Todd Murphy, using three frontline quicks alongside Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh. To find a four-pronged pace attack without a spinner goes way back to 2012 against India at the WACA.Lyon’s omission means he won’t be on the field for the 100th Test of his close friend Mitchell Starc, with the pair having featured in 94 Tests together.”They’re great mates,” Dodemaide said. “He’s disappointed because he wants to play every game. He’s a great competitor and he believes he can be effective in any conditions. But he’s a team man as well and understands the right thing for the team and he’ll do his best to support the guys. But it’s a one-off. It’s no reflection on performance for Nathan. It’s simply the best way we think we can win this game.”This is Australia’s first day-night Test overseas having won 12 of the 13 played at home. They were only able to get their hands on the pink Dukes balls when they arrived in Jamaica earlier this week and had one training session under lights.

Dwarshuis injured on debut but Labuschagne leads fightback with ball then bat

Andrew Miller19-Sep-2024Australia 317 for 3 (Head 154*, Labuschagne 77*) beat England 315 (Duckett 95, Labuschagne 3-39, Zampa 3-49) by seven wickets It was a tale of two unconventional opening batters at Trent Bridge, both aggressive left-handers, both with a love of placing bat on ball, especially through anything remotely off-line or length. But where Ben Duckett’s innings ended tamely, on 95 from 91 balls, to open the door for a spirited Australia fightback, Travis Head’s powered onwards and upwards, to 154 not out from 129, and ultimately to a seven-wicket victory in the first ODI.That converted century, Head’s sixth in 66 ODIs and his second against England, was the fundamental reason why Australia overcame the odds, including a sickness bug that robbed them of a swathe of key names, not least Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc – two of the “big three” (alongside the absent Pat Cummins) without any of whose presence Australia had lost each of their last eight completed ODIs against England.The other reason was the resilience of their makeshift attack, stretched to eight personnel including four spinners once Ben Dwarshuis – fresh from bowling Phil Salt on his international debut – had been forced to leave the field after just four overs with a strained pectoral muscle.At the scene of their then-record pummelling in 2018, and with Duckett and Will Jacks proving once again what an invitingly flat pitch Trent Bridge can be, Australia had been bracing themselves for another huge chase at 213 for 2 in the 33rd over.But then, up popped the lesser-spotted legbreaks of Marnus Labuschagne, whose haul of 3 for 39 in six overs not only included the key scalps of Duckett and Harry Brook, both to looping return catches, but also lit a fire under Australia’s premier leggie Adam Zampa, who responded to a leaky first three overs with final figures of 3 for 49.Marnus Labuschagne struck in each of his first two overs•Getty Images

Matthew Short’s offspin also returned a maiden ODI wicket, and when Head served notice that this contest now belonged to him, by picking up Jacob Bethell and Adil Rashid with consecutive deliveries, England had been bowled out for 315 in a dramatic collapse of 8 for 102 in 17.1 overs. In total, Australia’s spinners claimed 9 for 190 in 30.4: it was a combined impact that England’s own spin cohort, led by Adil Rashid – who remains one wicket shy of 200 in ODIs – couldn’t come close to matching.Labuschagne, like Head, was only just warming up in that phase of the game. After arriving almost slap-bang in the middle of Australia’s chase, at 169 for 3 in the 27th over after Cameron Green had become Bethell’s maiden ODI wicket, there was almost no one better equipped to act as a foil to the now free-flowing Head. His pitch-perfect innings of 77 not out from 61 balls included the winning boundary off Jacks with a full six overs left unused, to cap an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 148 from 107 balls.This was the de facto reboot of England’s ODI fortunes, after their destruction at the 2023 World Cup and leaving aside a barely remembered campaign in the Caribbean in December. A new-look team, led for the first time by Brook, showed promise in patches, not least during Duckett and Jack’s 120-run stand for the second wicket from exactly 100 balls. But even while the going was good in the first half of their innings, Eoin Morgan in the Sky commentary box considered their approach to be no better than “measured”, the sort of damningly faint praise that suggested they ran the risk of being mown down by a more emphatic performance.So it proved, with Australia outgunning England by 10 sixes to eight, five from Head, and three from Steve Smith in a notably aggressive cameo at the top of the order. After the early loss of Mitchell Marsh, Smith’s commitment to attack pushed his team ahead of the rate at 69 for 1 after the powerplay, and allowed Head, with a run-a-ball fifty, to settle in for the longer haul.Head had a moment of fortune on 6, when Brydon Carse – in from the boundary at deep point – all but clawed down a replica of Ben Stokes’ “you cannot do that” epic from the 2019 World Cup. But the feature of Head’s early innings was a fascinating duel with Jofra Archer, making his first ODI appearance in 18 months. Armed with the new ball, Archer bowled a handful of unplayable deliveries, including a cutter that left Head wide-eyed with wonder, but he was also picked off for 53 runs in six overs, including a fabulous flick for six off the toes that obliged him to return the look of incredulity.Ben Duckett can’t believe what he’s done after falling for 95•Getty Images

For England, it was a case of what-might-have-been, not least for Duckett, whose self-admonishment was plain as day after he gave away an international century for the second time this month, after his 86 in the Oval Test against Sri Lanka.In his first opportunity to reprise that now-familiar opener’s role in ODIs, Duckett took particular toll of a nervy Sean Abbott, clubbing four fours in an over en route to a 49-ball fifty, meaning that Marsh was already searching for alternate bowlers, even before it had been confirmed that Dwarshuis had strained a pectoral muscle with an off-balance shy from the outfield.Zampa had been the scourge of England’s batting in their most recent ODI encounter, claiming 3 for 21 at Ahmedabad in the 2023 World Cup. However, Jacks thumped his second ball back over his head for six, and as the hundred stand came up in 86 balls, he’d leaked 27 runs in his first three-over foray by the end of the 19th.In his 100th ODI, however, Zampa couldn’t be kept out of the action for long, as Jacks drove on the up to cover, but by the time Brook had stepped into two superbly poised drives over cover for six off Short’s part-timers, England were ominously placed on 201 for 2 after 30 overs.Enter Labuschagne, for what seemed to be a speculative spell of legbreaks. However, his impact was that of a perfectly deployed secret weapon. With the fourth ball of his spell, he landed a googly that stuck just enough in the pitch to confound Duckett’s back-foot push, and he reached to his left to pluck the simplest of caught-and-bowleds. One over later, out came that googly again, and Brook this popped another mistimed push straight back to the bowler.Jamie Smith came and went for 23, caught in the deep two balls after Aaron Hardie at deep midwicket had been forced to sacrifice a chance in order to save the boundary, and at 256 for 5, England’s hopes of a 350-plus innings were back in the hands of their main men from the T20I series, Liam Livingstone and Bethell, who was making his second format debut of the week.Zampa, however, still had three overs up his sleeve, and no sooner had he returned to the attack, Livingstone chose to take him down. It was a suboptimal option. A huge thrash through the line skewed to Green at long-on, and the rest came meekly. Far too meekly, as it turned out.

New Zealand register a narrow win over USA while the England vs Nigeria game was abandoned without a ball being bowled

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jan-2025Australia and South Africa moved closer to the semi-finals of the Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025 with dominant shows on the opening day of the Super Six stage.Australia registered a seven-wicket win over West Indies in Bangi in the morning fixture. After opting to bowl, Australia struck immediately and reduced West Indies to 7 for 3. West Indies never recovered from the early blow and kept losing wickets regularly. Fast bowlers Eleanor Larosa, Caoimhe Bray, and legspinner Tegan Williamson each picked up two wickets and eventually West Indies were all out for just 53 runs in 16.3 overs.Despite a brief rain delay, Australia reached the target in 10.5 overs, with captain Lucy Hamilton top-scoring with 28 runs off 29 balls. Larosa was named the Player of the Match for her figures of 2 for 6 in three overs.Ritu Singh’s 5 for 15 against New Zealand went in vain•ICC/Getty Images

New Zealand produced an 18-run win over USA at the Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangi. In a low-scoring Super Six game, New Zealand were all out for 97 after they were put in to bat, thanks to offspinner Ritu Singh’s 5 for 15 in 3.5 overs. However, New Zealand’s collective bowling effort triggered the USA lower-order collapse as they went from 73 for 5 to 70 all out.For New Zealand, none of the batters converted their starts. There were only two noteworthy stands: a 32-run opening partnership between Kate Irwin and Emma McLeod and a 34-run stand between Hannah Francis (25 off 33) and Rishika Jaiswal (17 off 27) for the seventh wicket. Ritu accounted for three out of the top five batters and picked up two more wickets in the final over.In reply, USA lost opener Chetna Pagydyala for a first-ball duck in the second over, but Disha Dhingra held fort with a 24-ball 30. However, when she was dismissed in the seventh over off Anika Tauwhare, USA struggled to keep their innings going. Ritu also contributed 14 with the bat but was run-out in the 13th over. Jaiswal and Irwin starred with two wickets each to bundle USA out in the 18th over.Monalisa Legodi rattled Ireland with four wickets•ICC/Getty Images

South Africa continued to stay unbeaten in the tournament as they crushed Ireland in their rain-affected match in Kuching. The contest was reduced to 10-overs-a-side and Ireland, after opting bat first, kept losing wickets regularly from the second over and were all out for just 35 in 9.4 overs. Fast bowler Monalisa Legodi offspin all-rounder Kayla Reyneke were the star performers, picking up four and three wickets respectively.South Africa chased down the target in just 6.1 overs, but lost three wickets in the process. Captain Reyneke remained unbeaten on 16 to take the team home. With this win, South Africa topped the Group 2 with six points.The England vs Nigeria game was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to rain.