India coach says if there was enough time, they could have tried Mayank Agarwal as an opener with KL Rahul dropping back to the middle order

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jul-2019India coach Ravi Shastri has acknowledged that the team missed a “solid” middle-order batsman, particularly in the semi-final, where their leading run-scorers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were dismissed cheaply. His statements come in the context of the talk – from before the World Cup – focused on the No. 4 spot and the middle order in general, which cropped up again following the 18-run defeat to New Zealand on Tuesday.The uncertainty in India’s batting order was further compounded by injuries. KL Rahul and Vijay Shankar had been seen as No. 4 options when the World Cup squad was picked, and India began the tournament with Rahul at that slot. However, Rahul moved up to open the innings after Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out due to a hand injury. Vijay batted at No. 4 for a couple of games before being ruled out of the tournament due to a toe injury. Vijay’s injury meant that Rishabh Pant played at No. 4 in the last four matches. Neither Vijay nor Pant managed a 50-plus score from No. 4 position.”In hindsight, yes, we did need a solid batsman out there in the middle order. But now, that’s something for the future,” Shastri told . “That’s a position that was always giving us problems, but we just couldn’t nail it. Rahul was there but then Shikhar Dhawan got injured. Then Vijay Shankar was there, and he got injured. We just couldn’t control it.”Another much-debated decision by India’s selectors was Mayank Agarwal’s selection over Ambati Rayudu as Vijay’s replacement. Agarwal, who is yet to make his ODI debut, was not part of the standby list which had only Rayudu and Pant as batsmen. Shastri stated that the team had not thought of picking Agarwal for the semi-final to allow Rahul to drop back to the middle order.”Not really, because it got too tight. By the time Mayank came to join us, there wasn’t much time,” Shastri said. “If there was one more game, that is, if this semi-final was a game later, we would have definitely done it. He flew in, and Rahul had just hit a 60, and then a hundred. But I know what you mean; if we had one more game, that could well have been done.”Ambati Rayudu flicks one to the leg side•Getty Images

Agarwal’s selection and Rayudu’s omission – first from the original squad, and then as a replacement option – drew criticism from former India captain Sunil Gavaskar and VVS Laxman.Another incident that Gavaskar came down heavily on was MS Dhoni’s batting position in the semi-final, saying Dhoni should have batted higher up the order. Dhoni came out to bat at No. 7, after India’s chase had lurched from 5 for 3 to 21 for 4. Shastri said Dhoni’s batting position was a team decision.”Everyone was in with it — and it was a simple decision, too. The last thing you wanted was Dhoni coming out to bat early and getting out — that would have killed the chase. We needed his experience later. He is the greatest finisher of all times — and it would have been criminal to not make use of him in that way. The whole team was clear on it.”And Rishabh Pant did look pretty secure when he got out to bat, even against Trent Boult, didn’t he? You could then say that if Pant had continued and not got out… but that’s sport. You grow up in quick time. He will learn, he already knows it. But I am happy that the team showed spunk. They didn’t give up even after losing Pant and Pandya. What a fightback that was.”He [Dhoni] was magnificent. The composure in the situation. And let me tell you, if not for that unfortunate run-out, I think he had his calculations going inside his head. Which ball to hit, how much to keep for [Jimmy] Neesham’s last over. You could see his brain was ticking. He wanted to do it so desperately and it was clear on his face when he came back to the dressing room.”

Allrounder’s hundred and Steven Smith’s concussion means his could be the most prized wicket on either side at Headingley

Andrew Miller19-Aug-2019Two Tests into a pulsating Ashes series, and the notion of “redemption” is already becoming very tedious. One journalist at Lord’s even added the word to his listed of muted phrases on Twitter on Sunday afternoon, at the moment that Ben Stokes clipped Nathan Lyon off his toes to jog through to his seventh Test century and – lest we fail to notice the elephant in the room, let alone ignore it – his first since the events outside Mbargo nightclub on September 25, 2017.Before the Fall. After the Fall … can’t we all just move on? Just as Steven Smith is still being expected by some to keep apologising for events that occurred close to two years ago now, in spite a series of on-field performances that confirm that the sport is so much richer for his involvement than his banishment, so Stokes too can’t help but be judged by his returns in the context of that incident.And yet, it is clear that for Stokes in particular, that terrible night in Bristol and its career-threatening aftermath remain as enduringly relevant as ever, not because he feels he deserves to be punished for evermore, but because of his desire to bury those lingering bad memories between a mountain of new accolades.And so it wasn’t enough for Stokes to light the flame of the 2019 World Cup with that extraordinary outfield catch in the tournament opener at The Oval. Or to carry the team’s batting when the wheels started to wobble in defeats against Sri Lanka and Australia. Or to dig deep and refuse to falter when New Zealand surged in the early stages of England’s run chase in the final. Or to go beyond even his own exhausting limits, and do it all again minutes later in the Super Over.No, that was just the start for Stokes as he enters, at 28, his prime as an international sportsman. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo’s George Dobell in Jaipur earlier this year, Stokes said that his personal motivation for winning the World Cup was to ensure that the feat became the first paragraph of his rewritten player profile. That objective duly achieved, he’s making a play for the rest of the word-count.And so, in that context, a first Test century since Bristol feels very significant indeed. Not to mention, a first Test century at Lord’s since his riotously carefree 101 from 92 against New Zealand four years ago. And his first against Australia since in December 2013 when, in only his second Test, he went toe-to-toe with Mitchell Johnson on a Perth flier, scoring 120 from 195 in an exhibition of pugnacity that was entirely at odds with the timid tone of England’s overall campaign.Self-evidently he’s not the same cricketer that he was before his life choices became tabloid fodder. Prior to his recall in New Zealand in February 2018, Stokes’ international career been rattling along at a strike-rate of 98.74 in ODIs and 63.77 in Tests (or 3.82 an over, brisk by any standards). Now that he has placed a greater premium on his wicket, those numbers have slipped to 87.16 and 48.45 respectively. And if, in doing so, he has sacrificed a few top-notes of destruction, then he’s also sent self-destruction packing at the same time. That run of ODI form in early 2014, for instance – 0, 5, 5, 4, 0, 4, 0, punched locker, broken hand – isn’t going to be replicated in a hurry.Ben Stokes belts one through the leg side•Getty Images

And so it was fitting that Stokes’ first Test century of his new era was a hard-fought grind. He could have been out three times in his first six balls as Lyon ragged it out of the rough outside the left-hander’s off stump, and would have been out for 6 from 13 balls had Lyon again reviewed an lbw appeal that was hitting leg.But somehow, he found a means to endure, by sliding ever deeper into his crease, watching the turn and shelving the sweep, and taking it upon himself to be the sheet-anchor that this England batting line-up so desperately needs, as it attempts an urgent and cruelly abrupt metamorphosis from pro-active, hard-handed white-ball bullies to soft-power Test survivors.And on that note, it is also telling how Stokes’ name has been exempt from the mutterings of post-World Cup burn-out that have afflicted so many of his team-mates in that glorious campaign. Jason Roy looks lost at the top of the order, Joe Root’s form is in freefall, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow are fighting against instinct to make that transition. Moeen Ali has been canned, and is currently bowling seam-up for Worcestershire in a losing cause at Northampton. Aside from Stokes, only Chris Woakes and the new boy Jofra Archer seem genuinely unaffected by what’s gone before, though Archer may be facing exhaustion issues of a different type if 44 overs per Test becomes the norm.ALSO READ: Archer could be the weapon that turns the series – Root“It was a dogged hundred,” Stokes admitted of an innings in which his first fifty came from 106 balls, a notch below that post-Bristol strike-rate. “I’m proud of how I managed to get through from not feeling great to playing my shots. That comes from experience and knowing all kinds of situations, Tests, ODIs, just finding a way to get there, keeping an eye on how many overs, how many runs to get us there.””I looked at the score at 60-70 and I had no idea how I was still there,” he added. “I was speaking to Graham Thorpe [the batting coach], saying ‘nothing is working’, and he said ‘just find a way’. I know the bigger picture but sometimes you get annoyed. When it got to the stage where I could start playing my shots, everything felt a bit easier.”And it’s a measure of Stokes’ exhaustive groundwork that, once the time came to flick that switch, with England suddenly 200 runs to the good and scenting an opportunity to square the series with an aggressive declaration, he was able to up the tempo as surely as he had done in the World Cup final, powering Lyon out of the rough for consecutive sweeps for six, before calibrating his angles and options with a thinking-man’s swagger to rattle through to his second fifty from 54 balls.And in doing so, Stokes left a dent in one of Australia’s key weapons in the series. Lyon began the innings level with Dennis Lillee on 355 Test wickets, and ended it on the same number after an admittedly luckless but nevertheless expensive analysis of 26-3-102-0.”We kept out Nathan’s good balls and when we attacked we really committed to doing it,” said Stokes. “He could have had me five or six times to be honest, but I thought attack was the best form of defence by the end because every time I defended one I kept nicking it but finding the gap which was remarkable.”I was running down the wicket and laughing at some points, thinking I can’t be placing it any better. From a five-fer to none for 100 will give our batting unit a lot of confidence, especially on a pretty helpful wicket from spin. Not taking anything away from him, he bowled really well and probably didn’t deserve none for 100.”And as the teams regroup and head for Headingley with the series at an apex, Stokes’ quiet authority begins to take on an altogether new significance, especially if – as anticipated – Smith is deemed unfit to take his place in Australia’s line-up.In case it needs restating, Stokes missed the last Ashes due to those events he’d sooner not remember. He could be about to reach this series’ make-or-break moment as the most prized wicket on either side.

The India captain admitted his team made some poor decisions but with the World T20 just over a year away would rather the mistakes happen now

Deivarayan Muthu in Bengaluru23-Sep-20193:02

Should have reassessed our target after the start we got – Kohli

Having spent his entire IPL career at Royal Challengers Bangalore, Virat Kohli knows that it is easier to chase at M Chinnaswamy Stadium than set a target. He knows that the dew often sets in later in the evening and neutralises the threat posed by spinners. Yet, with the series on the line, he chose to bat first in the third T20I against South Africa. He challenged himself and his team-mates to step out of their comfort zones, as India tune up for the T20 World Cup in Australia next year.After Kohli became the first captain to decide against chasing at the venue, several batsmen dared to jump out of the crease to manufacture scoring opportunities, a departure from India’s earlier ODI-style approach to batting in the shortest format. Rishabh Pant was trialled at No. 4 once again (although he wasn’t supposed to bat at that spot), but India’s experiments didn’t quite come off, and a revamped South Africa side claimed a series-levelling victory.Tabraiz Shamsi celebrates Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket•Associated Press

Left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks had Rohit Sharma nicking off for 9 in the third over, but Shikhar Dhawan laid down the marker when he hit Andile Phehlukwayo for back-to-back boundaries in the next over. Dhawan usually prefers to bide his time – be it in T20Is or ODIs – but here he hung up caution and decided to have a proper crack at South Africa’s bowlers. He regularly flitted around the crease in a bid to force the bowlers into bowling in his swinging arc.

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India were fairly well placed at 62 for 1 in seven overs, but then the pitch suddenly became slower and South Africa’s bowlers exploited it efficiently to throw a spanner in their works. Despite the pitch getting slower and wickets falling at both ends, India were keen to find higher gears. Pant took on Bjorn Fortuin, but the left-armer slid one across the batsman and had him slicing a catch to long-off. Two balls later, Shreyas Iyer ventured out of the crease and was stumped by a leg-side wide.ALSO READ – Monga: India haven’t figured out their T20 game, but they’re willing to changeSuddenly India lost four wickets for 29 runs and although they had depth in their batting line-up – Washington Sundar at No. 9 and Deepak Chahar at No. 10 – they couldn’t get the big hits away on a pitch that was now very responsive to the cutters and change-ups from Hendricks and Phehlukwayo. Not even Hardik Pandya could get the big hits away.India scrambled only four boundaries after Iyer’s dismissal in the 13th over and ended with a below-par 134 for 9.”Yes, we wanted to go for a big score and that’s exactly why we batted first,” Kohli said of India’s approach, at the post-match press conference. “In the past, in certain games in T20 cricket, we have been 20-30 runs short batting first. That has cost us the game. So, the idea again as I said at the toss, was to come out of our comfort zone and then try to get that big score because we are batting till No. 9. But quickly we realised the pitch didn’t allow us to keep doing that.”Kohli reckoned that India would have been better off had they recalibrated their focus to 170 “rather than thinking of 200″.”Because of the intent we showed the pitch obviously didn’t allow us to get to that total and we kept losing wickets. They [South Africa] hit the right areas and understood the pitch,” he said. “It was a combination of good bowling and not great decision-making. These kinds of games will keep happening as long as we are wanting to come out of our comfort zones as a team and putting ourselves in a situation, which could be the case in a big game in a big tournament.”Kohli’s bat-first decision also handicapped his bowlers, who had to cope with the dew in the second innings. While Washington came away with 4-0-27-0 and Deepak found swing in the early exchanges, Navdeep Saini and Krunal Pandya struggled with their lines and lengths. Nearly every Indian fielder had a towel, often furiously wiping the ball with it in the break between overs.Quinton de Kock took advantage of it, making a bruising, unbeaten 79 off 52 balls, and finished off the chase with nine wickets and 19 balls to spare. While such a heavy defeat might invite some pressure, Kohli said that India are ready to take more risks and “take the toss out of the way” in their run to the T20 World Cup.”Nothing is a given or a guarantee before you start playing,” Kohli said. “I think if we as a team are willing to get out of our comfort zones a lot more, then we will be unfazed with what happens at the toss. That’s why we have people batting till nine. Unless you do that and start taking those risks, you are always going to be put under pressure somewhere or the other. We want to make sure we iron all of those things out before we head into the World Cup.”

Under-suspension Zimbabwe look to kick off Hamilton Masakadza’s farewell series on a high as hosts Bangladesh aim to recover from their Test defeat to Afghanistan

The preview by Liam Brickhill12-Sep-2019

Big Picture

Zimbabwe are a cricket team in desperate need of context; Bangladesh, one that is aching for a return to normalcy and stability. Bangladesh’s first T20I match of the year, against an opponent they have dominated at home in recent years, should give them just the sort of soft landing they need in this tri-series ahead of what will likely be sterner challenges against Afghanistan, who are probably the favourites at this stage.Hot on the heels of the Test defeat to Afghanistan, further ructions are at play in Bangladesh’s cricket system, with the Bangladesh Cricket Board set to take charge of the next edition of the BPL after a fallout with the team owners. Shakib Al Hasan has grown increasingly frustrated in his captaincy tenure, and the T20 World Cup is just a year away. A win over Zimbabwe will go some way towards calming everything down a little bit for Bangladesh.Zimbabwe, of course, do not have any global tournament on the horizon to look forward to. They are still under suspension, and both the men’s and women’s sides lost their places at the T20 World Cup Qualifiers as a result. The suspension opened up divisions in their squad that are yet to fully heal.Zimbabwe enter the series without one of their most accomplished players as Sikandar Raza has been left out for ‘disciplinary reasons’ – a curious catch-all phrase that is yet to be fully explained. Their head coach, Lalchand Rajput, admitted that Raza will undoubtedly be missed, but he also underscored that Zimbabwe are a team in transition, with their eyes on the future. What that means for Raza’s future remains to be seen. And with only three members of the squad aged 25 or under, and nine aged 30 or above, Zimbabwe do not appear to be in a huge rush to usher in a new era.And first, they will say goodbye to the past. This series will be Hamilton Masakadza’s last in national colours. A long-time servant of the game, Masakadza has struggled a little of late, amid tumultuous times, and will be desperate for his last games as captain to be happy ones. So, surely, will Shakib.

Form guide

(Last five completed matches, most recent first)
Bangladesh: LWLWWZimbabwe: WLTLL

In the spotlight

Since his teenage Test hundred on debut 18 years ago, Hamilton Masakadza has summited several statistical peaks for his team, and he will go out playing a format in which he blazed a trail for his country, holding several Zimbabwean records. But the last year has been a lean one in all formats: he has passed fifty only once in internationals – during the Sylhet Test the last time Zimbabwe visited Bangladesh. Runs at the top of the order will provide a fitting finale, as well as vastly improving his team’s chances of success.Shakib Al Hasan is Bangladesh’s leading wicket-taker in this format over the last year, and is only narrowly behind Liton Das as their leading T20I run-scorer over the same time period. Indeed, he is central to Bangladesh’s fortunes no matter the format, and in a sense the spotlight is always on him. Perhaps that is why he has become an increasingly reluctant captain. But there will be no let-up for him just yet, and Bangladesh will continue to look to Shakib as a leader with bat and ball, even if he doesn’t have the captain’s hat on.AFP

Team news

Tamim Iqbal is still on R & R leave, so Bangladesh will have to cobble together a new opening pair for this series. But plenty of experience remains in the core of the middle order. There could be some new faces lower down, however, and Afif Hossain’s three quick wickets for the BCB XI on Wednesday could see him picked ahead of Mosaddek Hossain, while pace bowler Yeasin Arafat may be in line for a T20I debut.Bangladesh (probable): 1 Liton Das, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Sabbir Rahman, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 5 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Mohammad Saifuddin, 8 Afif Hossain, 9 Taijul Islam, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Yeasin ArafatBrendan Taylor kept wicket in Zimbabwe’s warm-up match, and will likely take the gloves again, despite Zimbabwe having, somewhat bizarrely, two specialist wicketkeepers in the squad in Regis Chakabva and Richmond Mutumbami. The absence of Raza leaves a hole in the middle order but Timycen Maruma’s outing against the BCB XI in the tour opener means he should fill the vacant slot ahead of either of the wicketkeepers. Chris Mpofu, Zimbabwe’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is over the last year, didn’t get a bowl in the warm-up, so he may well be left out of the series opener.Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Hamilton Masakadza (capt), 2 Brendan Taylor (wk), 3 Craig Ervine, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Timycen Maruma, 6 Ryan Burl, 7 Tino Mutombodzi, 8 Neville Madziva, 9 Kyle Jarvis, 10 Ainsley Ndlovu, 11 Tendai Chatara

Pitch and conditions

The T20 strip at the Shere Bangla Stadium has built a reputation for big scores in recent times: Bangladesh breached 200 here for the first time during West Indies’ visit in December last year. This should be a good track to bat on, while probably offering a little more to the spinners than it will the quicks.While the track might be conducive to exciting cricket, the weather may not. Rain is forecast in Dhaka in the morning and the evening. This being an evening game, wet weather is likely to be around.

Stats that matter

• Hamilton Masakadza’s 1529 runs in this format are the most by a Zimbabwean, and almost twice as many as the man below him on the list, Elton Chigumbura. He also holds the record for most fifties (10), and most runs in a series – the 222 he scored over four games in Bangladesh in 2015/16.
• Craig Ervine is Zimbabwe’s leading run-scorer in this format over the last year, with 211 runs at an average of 70.33
• The last time these two teams met in a T20 here, allrounder Neville Madziva inspired Zimbabwe to a win when Bangladesh seemingly had the match in the bag, spanking two sixes and a four in the final over to pull off a memorable heist
• Bangladesh have won five of the nine T20Is between these two sides
• Shakib Al Hasan is Bangladesh’s leading run-scorer and wicket-taker against Zimbabwe in this format, with 185 runs at 37.00 and 12 wickets at 17.50 against them

Former South Africa batsman is the first one to be imprisoned under a 2004 law, that came into being following the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal

Firdose Moonda18-Oct-2019Gulam Bodi, the former South Africa and Lions batsman, has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to eight charges of corruption in a landmark case in South Africa. Bodi, who has two ODI and one T20 international cap, is the first person to be imprisoned under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act of 2004, came into effect in the aftermath of the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal in 2000.

Clause 15 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act of 2004

Any person who, directly or indirectly-
accepts or agrees or offers to accept any gratification from any other person, whether for the benefit of himself or herself or for the benefit of that other person or of another person; or
gives or agrees or offers to give to any other person any gratification, whether for the benefit of that other person or for the benefit of another person-
(i) in return for-
(aa) engaging in any act which constitutes a threat to or undermines the integrity of any sporting event, including, in any way, influencing the run of play or the outcome of a sporting event; or
(bb) not reporting the act contemplated in this section to the managing director, chief executive officer or to any other person holding a similar post in the sporting body or regulatory authority concerned or at his or her nearest police station; or
(ii) as a reward for acting as contemplated in subparagraph (i); or
(c) carries into effect any scheme which constitutes a threat to or undermines the integrity of any sporting event, including, in any way, influencing the run of play or the outcome of a sporting event,
is guilty of the offence of corrupt activities relating to sporting events.

The Act contains a clause that relates directly to corruption in sporting events (see sidebar) which makes match-fixing and spot-fixing in South Africa a crime. It carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. The State asked for Bodi to receive five, which has been granted.Bodi was charged under the Act after being banned by Cricket South Arica for 20 years for his role in contriving to fix or otherwise influence aspects of the 2015 RamSlam T20 domestic tournament. At the time, CSA said none of the fixtures were affected by fixing after the conspirators’ plans were foiled and held their own disciplinary process before handing evidence over to the police.Bodi handed himself over to police in July last year and pleaded guilty on November 4, 2018. He was due to be sentenced in January. Multiple postponements led to the sentencing being delayed to October 18. Bodi will apply for leave to appeal and an extension of his bail. He was released on R3000 bail last (US$202) last year.Six other players, Ethy Mbhalati, Alviro Petersen, Thami Tsolekile, Jean Symes, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Pumi Matshikwe received bans of between two and 12 years. None of the other players were pursued by police. One of them, Petersen, has since served his ban and returned to working in cricket, as a commentator. Petersen was at the Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria for Bodi’s sentencing.