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India are looking to be well-prepared for the Champions Trophy, Asia Cup and T20 World Cup

Hemant Brar11-Oct-20242:39

Ten Doeschate: ‘We don’t give opportunities; the guys earn opportunities’

The Indian team is trying to “push the limits” of what they can do. According to assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, they are doing this in order to be well-prepared for the challenges in the next 18 months: the Champions Trophy, Asia Cup and T20 World Cup.With Rohit Sharma as captain and Rahul Dravid as coach, India had shed their safety-first approach with bat in limited-overs cricket. It paid dividends when they finished as the runners-up of the 2023 ODI World Cup and the winners of the 2024 T20 World Cup.Now Suryakumar Yadav has replaced Rohit as T20I captain and Gautam Gambhir has taken over as coach, but the template has remained the same. In the first T20I against Bangladesh in Gwalior, India chased down 128 in 11.5 overs. Then, batting first in Delhi, they found themselves on 41 for 3 inside the powerplay. But Nitish Kumar Reddy and Rinku Singh only momentarily took their foot off the pedal and powered India to 221 for 9.”Hundred per cent,” ten Doeschate said, when asked if playing fearless cricket was part of the team philosophy. “I think it has shown in the way we have played. The Test match in Kanpur is a great example.”Related

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In that second Test in Kanpur, rain and a wet outfield allowed only 35 overs across the first three days. But India’s attacking approach with the bat meant they won with more than one session to spare.”We are trying to push the limits of what we can do as a team,” ten Doeschate said. “We have obviously got the quality to do it. And then it’s about giving the players the belief to do it in a safe space, that if it’s not going to go right, it’s also okay. And even if you look back at the first two games, someone like Sanju [Samson] getting a quick start in the first game in Gwalior, it would have been easy for him to knock it around and just get a 50-60 not out. But you can see he was trying to push the boundary. He knows the state of the game, and the messaging has been pretty consistent with that.”We want the guys to expand their game. We want to move cricket forward, like it’s going with the times. And we want to be prepared for the big crunch moments that are coming up in the next 18 months.”Gautam Gambhir oversees India’s training session in Hyderabad•PTI

Another change since Gambhir became the coach has been the push to make as many players in the side bowl. In the second T20I, despite Hardik Pandya not rolling his arm over, India used seven bowlers, with each picking up at least one wicket.”You see the way the game is going, it’s very rare that all five bowlers, or even six bowlers, are going to go well on a given day,” ten Doeschate said. “So it’s nice to have options. Ideally, you want them to bowl a little bit more, but someone like Hardik not bowling in the last game, it’s just a testament to the depth of the bowling in the team.”India fielded the same XI in the first two T20Is. But now with the series sealed, they are likely to try their bench strength.”That was always the plan,” ten Doeschate said. “Obviously, there’s a nice depth in the squad – a lot of guys have the IPL experience. We are trying to expose as many guys as we can to international experience with what we have coming up. So someone like Harshit Rana, we are keen to give a game to. Obviously, Tilak [Varma] came into the squad a bit later. Jitesh [Sharma] is there as well. We want to give Sanju another chance. So there are options.”The third and final T20I will be played in Hyderabad, where the average run rate in IPL 2024 was 10.54. But ten Doeschate said India would not blindly trust the data.”Certainly the data and the evidence is around that [a high-scoring game]. But a little bit like when we got to Delhi the other day, you don’t want to read too much into the data. We probably feel that those first three wickets we lost was maybe because of going a little too hard. The wicket was a little bit sticky.”So we will have a look at this wicket. We are aware of the high-scoring nature of this pitch during the IPL but also we are five months away from the IPL now. So conditions could change as well. Fingers crossed, it’s a high-scoring game and a quality game.”

The wicketkeeper-batter has been handed a “surreal” chance to make an New Zealand debut because of the absence of a number of IPL-bound players

Deivarayan Muthu24-Mar-2022It has been an eventful few weeks for Dane Cleaver. In February this year, he became a dad, and around mid-March, he made his captaincy debut for Central Districts, against Northern Districts, in the four-day Plunket Shield. Nearly two weeks later, he is preparing to make his international debut for New Zealand, against Netherlands, at his domestic home ground of McLean Park, in front of his friends and family.Blair Tickner, Doug Bracewell and Will Young, Cleaver’s team-mates at Central Districts, are also part of New Zealand’s squad, drafted in because of the absence of a number of seniors who are gearing up for IPL 2022. Their presence adds to the celebratory mood in the New Zealand camp.Related

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“Yeah [starting to sink in], absolutely. Just being around the group and I suppose dreaming of this moment and hopefully getting the opportunity on Friday night [in the one-off T20I],” Cleaver, a wicketkeeper-batter, said. “Yeah, there’s a pretty excited bunch of family members that are organising their way over for Friday night. So, it will be very special to amongst not only friends and family but just home crowd in general.”Cleaver heard the news of his call-up from selector Gavin Larsen. “Gavin Larsen gave me the call and just, I suppose, ran me through the possibility and the squad selection,” Cleaver said. “It was a pretty surreal moment really – I suppose something you always aspire to and all that time and effort, love for the game, trainings, travel, everything sort of culminates in that. Yeah, [it] took a while to sink in and now that I’m here, it’s really exciting.”Sure, this is a second-string New Zealand side, but the 30-year-old Cleaver’s call-up is reward for his toil in domestic and A-team cricket. He was part of New Zealand’s squad in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup alongside Michael Bracewell. More than a decade later, the pair could make their international debuts together, against Netherlands. Fun fact: in the 2008 Under-19 World Cup, it was Cleaver’s first cousin Kane Williamson, who captained New Zealand.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Cleaver has now played nearly 200 games across formats for Central Districts and is seen as a senior figure in the set-up. He brings with him strong Super Smash form: he hit 369 runs in nine innings at an average of 46.12 and a strike rate of 166.21 in the latest edition. Only Bracewell scored more runs than Cleaver. Cleaver was particularly brutal in the middle overs; his middle-overs strike rate of 171.52 was the best among batters who had faced at least 100 balls in the season.”Yeah, absolutely [confident ahead of a possible international debut],” Cleaver said. “I think playing Netherlands [in the warm-ups] last week – you see the quality in their side and also the fact that you can stack up against an international side and taking that form from domestic into this… I suppose it’s just another game of cricket and just got to prepare the best you can and hopefully have some fun.”The weather in Napier, though, could spoil the fun, as it did during the third warm-up fixture against Netherlands.”You’ve got to take in a bit of a what-will-be-will-be attitude,” Cleaver said. “You can’t control the weather – so you got to prepare the best you can and I’m pretty positive that it will turn around in the next couple of days and we get some good cricket on Friday night.”New Zealand have a rich stable of wicketkeeper-batters – Tim Seifert, Devon Conway, Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips, Finn Allen – but this is Cleaver’s chance to shake things up, and step out of his illustrious first cousin’s shadow, ahead of twin World Cups.

His eight sixes help hosts from 112 for 7 to 319 all out in reply to Essex’s first-innings 271

ECB Reporters Network20-Jul-2022Will Jacks hit eight sixes in a remarkable 150 not out against Essex to spearhead a stunning Surrey recovery on day two of a so far memorable LV= Insurance County Championship match at the Kia Oval.Jacks, 23, batted with a maturity beyond his years to turn a superb contest on its head as Division One leaders Surrey – 112 for 7 at one stage – reached 319 all out in reply to Essex’s first innings 271.In six overs’ batting before the close, Essex then lost Alastair Cook and Sam Cook, both for 4, while staggering to 19 for 2 – a deficit still of 29 runs. Dan Worrall, fresh from his first innings 6 for 56, had former England opener Cook caught at the wicket from a ball angled across him and nightwatchman Cook well held at second slip.Jacks’ spectacular late onslaught will be long remembered at the Oval and included leg spinner Matt Critchley being plundered for 26 in an over and off spinner Simon Harmer 23 more from another. Jacks, having got to three figures, scored his third fifty from just 17 balls with six sixes and three fours.Coming in at 88 for 4, he took 105 balls for his half-century and 167 balls to reach his third first-class hundred, but this was clearly the best and most eye-catching innings of his burgeoning career. In all Jacks batted for more than four hours, facing 184 balls and hitting 10 fours besides those eight sixes.But Surrey’s dramatic rally, and Jacks’ tour de force, also owed much to the resilience of the tail, with Tom Lawes, Kemar Roach and last man Worrall featuring in stands of 55, 85 and 67 for the eighth, ninth and tenth wickets.Roach, in particular, batted with the assurance of a top-order player for his 29 from 92 balls, also negotiating the second new ball with aplomb until he was bowled by a lovely looping off break from Harmer as he pushed defensively forward.Fast-medium bowler Shane Snater was the pick of Essex’s bowlers with 3 for 35 from 21 overs. He even had figures of 3 for 8 from his first 12 overs, with seven maidens in his first eight overs, and the Essex attack initially combined superbly to put the squeeze on Surrey.But that was before Jacks, aided by his tailend partners, first guided Surrey towards parity with measured batting and then, once Roach was dismissed, accelerated to go first from 84 to 96 with two legside sixes in three balls off Harmer. Then came six more sixes, three each off Harmer and Critchley from a collection of slog-sweeps, pulls and effortlessly struck shots down the ground that fully showcased Jacks’ power.It was all so different from the day’s earlier events. Resuming on 24 for 1, Surrey first lost their captain Rory Burns for 24 in the second full over of the morning, leg before trying to whip to mid wicket a ball from Cook, who was bowling around the wicket to the left-hander.Hashim Amla, beaten twice by Snater but having batted carefully to reach 12, then mishit a pull at Jamie Porter’s medium pace and saw Nick Browne hang on to a diving catch at mid wicket at the second attempt.Ollie Pope, who hooked Cook for six but was dropped at second slip off Porter on 23, had only gone on to 26 when he lobbed a checked drive at Snater to mid off, where Tom Westley dived forward to take the catch.And, after lunch, Surrey’s top order continued to find ways to get out against Essex’s disciplined bowling when Ben Foakes (11) limply cut the first ball he faced after the interval, a short one from Snater, straight to cover point.That left Surrey 95 for 5, and it soon got worse for the home side as Cameron Steel, his feet anchored to the crease, was beaten and bowled off stump for 5 by a fine ball from Snater. Then, aiming an expansive smear through extra cover, Jamie Overton – also on 5 – was undone by a cleverly-flighted off break from Harmer which turned through the gaping gate to hit his stumps.Jacks, in what proved to be the day’s pivotal moment, had already been dropped low down by Alastair Cook at first slip on 9 off the metronomic Snater, but was clearly determined to make the most of his escape and not give his wicket away and, first with Lawes, he began to rebuild the innings from the depths of 112 for 7.Lawes, the 19-year-old all-rounder, impressed with fours on driven off Sam Cook, cut fine off Critchley and slog-swept off Harmer, but after reaching 19, he was distraught to loft a drive at Critchley straight to extra cover. Roach, however, dug in alongside Jacks and a wonderful day’s cricket, eventually, belonged to Surrey.

The visitors had a wobble in the morning but ended up comfortable winners

AAP19-Oct-2022Caleb Jewell inspired Tasmania to a seven-wicket victory in their Sheffield Shield clash with South Australia at Adelaide Oval.Tasmania started the final day at 0 for 104 in their pursuit of 235, but the loss of Tim Ward, Jake Doran and Ben McDermott during the morning session on Wednesday saw the visitors slip to 3 for 164.Jewell kept his cool to guide Tasmania over the line, with Jordan Silk there in support.Related

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Ward fell on the sixth ball of day four when he edged Wes Agar behind. Jake Carder took an excellent diving catch while running with the flight of the ball to remove Doran, and McDermott fell a short time before lunch.Jewell dug in to ensure there would be no late wobbles, with the 25-year-old notching his century in fine style by pulling Agar for six.Veteran paceman Peter Siddle was crucial in Tasmania’s victory, returning the excellent figures of 4 for 51 and 4 for 45.Tasmania’s win marked a huge turn around from their season-opening flop, when they lost to Queensland by an innings and 172 runs.

Legspinner handed chance for game-time as stand-in for injured Matt Kuhnemann

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Apr-2023Matt Parkinson will feature for Durham against Derbyshire in the LV= County Championship on Thursday, after joining the club from Lancashire on a two-week loan.Legspinner Parkinson, 26, has featured in just one of Lancashire’s three Championship fixtures to date, taking 5 for 120 in the second innings against Surrey, and comes into the Durham line-up as a replacement for the injured Australia spinner, Matt Kuhnemann.The extra game-time is opportune for Parkinson, who was surplus to international requirements this winter and was also overlooked in last month’s Hundred draft. He has featured 12 times for England across formats, including a solitary Test appearance against New Zealand at Lord’s last summer, when he was called up as a concussion substitute for Jack Leach.”Following conversations between Matt and the club’s coaching staff, it was agreed that game time in the County Championship would be preferable,” Mark Chilton, Lancashire director of cricket performance, said.”Earlier this week, an opportunity arose for Matt to join Durham on loan and the deal has been agreed between both counties and the player.”This is a great opportunity for him to get some more overs under his belt in a more competitive environment. We are looking forward to seeing how he performs and to welcoming him back into the squad.”Kuhnemann had himself replaced fellow Australian Todd Murphy at Durham, but was unable to take the field on the final day of their drawn match against Durham after suffering a back problem, and will continue to be assessed by the club’s medical staff.Parkinson’s two-week stint covers a solitary Championship game. Durham are one of ten teams in action this week, with Lancashire sitting out the round prior to their match against Nottinghamshire starting at Trent Bridge on May 4, for which he will now be ineligible.

PNG gave West Indies a near-scare in their opening game and will hope to go one better against a demoralised New Zealand side

Sruthi Ravindranath16-Jun-20242:12

Time for NZ to give Ish Sodhi a go?

Match details

New Zealand vs Papua New Guinea
June 17, Tarouba, 10.30am local time

Big picture: New Zealand look to end with a bang

Is it one last time for New Zealand’s golden generation in T20Is? They only have three players under 30 in their side. None of their senior batters have come to the fore in the tournament so far. Trent Boult, well, has been Trent Boult-ing, but he’s confirmed this will be his last T20 World Cup.Though Kane Williamson believes it may not be the end of the road yet for many seniors, New Zealand bowing out of the tournament early will make them rethink the future.Related

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They did come together to show their prowess against Uganda in the last game, rolling them over for 40. Though all of their bowlers made a mark, their batting unit, one of their biggest letdowns this tournament, did not get much time in the middle. The win also came a bit too late, their fate already sealed: they will not be heading to the knockout stage of a men’s World Cup for the first time since 2014.Papua New Guinea, meanwhile, will be exiting with different emotions. They gave co-hosts West Indies a near-scare in the first game. Their spinners bowled superbly in that game. Their fast-bowling unit has been impressive. This will be the first time these teams come up against each other. Can PNG’s bowlers challenge New Zealand’s demoralised batting unit?Alei Nao has been a bright spot for Papua New Guinea•ICC via Getty Images

Form guide

New Zealand WLLLW (last five matches, most recent first)
PNG LLLLW

In the spotlight: Glenn Phillips and Alei Nao

No New Zealand player is among the top 40 run-scorers at this year’s T20 World Cup. At No. 43 is Glenn Phillips with 58 runs in two innings. He top scored with a run-a-ball 18 against the unplayable Afghanistan bowling unit in the first game and followed it up with 40 against West Indies. He came in at No. 6 and counterattacked, hitting three fours and two sixes in his 33-ball stay, after yet another top-order collapse but his knock went in vain. He’s been one of the positives in New Zealand’s dull tournament.Alei Nao has been the pick of the bowlers for PNG. The 30-year old seamer struck with his very first delivery at this T20 World Cup, removing West Indies’ Johnson Charles for a duck in Providence. He has been excellent for PNG with the new ball and has taken a wicket in the powerplay in all three games. Nao has taken four wickets at an economy of 5.10 so far.

Team news: No major changes

PNG brought in left-arm quick Semo Kamea for Charles Amini in the last game against Afghanistan. Both teams are likely to go with the same playing XI barring any injury concerns.New Zealand possible XI: 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 James Neesham, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Trent BoultIt’s been a disappointing T20 World Cup for Kane Williamson and New Zealand•ICC/Getty Images

Papua New Guinea possible XI: 1 Assad Vala (capt), 2 Tony Ura, 3 Sese Bau, 4 Lega Siaka, 5 Hiri Hiri, 6 Kiplin Doriga (wk), 7 Chad Soper, 8 Norman Vanua, 9 Alei Nao, 10 John Kariko, 11 Semo Kamea

Pitch and conditions: Batters beware

The pitches at the Brian Lara Stadium have not been too conducive to batting. The fast bowlers have had a bit of help with the new ball, while the spinners have found some turn. It is expected to be partly cloudy in the morning, and thunderstorms can be expected in spots throughout the day.

Stats that matter: NZ’s batting woes

• New Zealand have the best economy rate of 4.22 in the powerplay in the T20 World Cup 2024
• PNG have scored at a run rate of 5.22 this tournament, the third-lowest behind Uganda and Sri Lanka
• New Zealand have the second-lowest batting average (12.60) among Full Member nations at this T20 World Cup behind Ireland

Captain Niki Prasad wants to make sure team “stays on top” after a dominant display in Malaysia where India cruised unbeaten to a second Women’s U-19 World Cup title

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Feb-2025″Coming at the start of the tournament, I think I mentioned one thing that we are here to dominate, we are here to make sure that India stays on top.”Those were the words of India captain Niki Prasad after she led India to a second consecutive Women’s Under-19 World Cup title in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. And dominate is what India did throughout the tournament, winning all their games and not letting any team score more against them than the 113 for 8 that England made in the semi-finals.India had chased in four of the six games before the final, and they won all those matches comfortably, never losing more than two wickets. After South Africa won the toss and chose to bat in the title bout, India just replicated the template that served them so well through the competition, their spinners playing a pivotal role in getting the opposition out for 82.Related

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India then chased down the target in 11.2 overs, with G Trisha – who also returned figures of 3 for 15 with the ball – scoring an unbeaten 44.”We are definitely going to create this legacy of winning ICC trophies, winning a lot of trophies for India,” Prasad said at the post-match presentation ceremony.Prasad had to put behind her the disappointment of not making the squad for the previous Under-19 World Cup, which India won under the captaincy of Shafali Verma in 2023, but she’s soaking it all in now.”I think I’m feeling really happy that I am right here standing, making sure that India stays on top. And it’s obviously a special moment that we’re playing the World Cup and doing this for India,” she said.India lost the toss and were asked to bowl. Prasad said India drew from their experience bowling first in most of their matches in the competition.”I think all of us just tried to stay calm and down-to-earth and just stick to doing what our job is,” she said.G Trisha poses with her medal after taking India to the Under-19 World Cup glory•Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

“I think if we would have won the toss we would have definitely chosen batting but you know throughout the tournament we’ve been bowling well and we’ve been bowling first [more] so nevertheless we just wanted to go out there and show what we can do.”Trisha, who was named Player of the Match and Player of the Tournament, dedicated the latter award to her father, who was in the audience.”Because of him I started playing cricket. I don’t think without him I would have been here,” said Trisha, who was also part of the team in 2023.While she played in the middle order in 2023, Trisha was pushed up to open this time around, and she ended up topping the run charts with 309 runs from seven matches with an average of 77.25. No other batter reached the 200-run mark. Her strike rate of 147.14 was also the best in the tournament.Trisha, who said she idolises Mithali Raj, has been working on her power game in recent times and credited India’s batting coach Apoorva S Desaii for giving her role clarity before the competition.”So we’ve been working on [my power game] since a while. For this tournament our batting coach Apoorva sir he has kept telling ‘you are going to open the innings and make sure you’re ready for it’,” Trisha said.Apart from her heroics with the bat, Trisha also returned seven wickets from the six games she bowled in.Parunika Sisodia struck in her first over of the Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup final•Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

India’s left-arm spin trio ‘like a family’

One of the major factors in India’s domination was their trio of left-arm spinners Vaishnavi Sharma, Aayushi Shukla and Parunika Sisodia, who were three of the four highest wicket-takers in the competition.While Vaishnavi topped the charts with 17 strikes, Shukla and Sisodia were not far behind with 14 and 10 wickets respectively.According to them, the three are close and have developed a great understanding between themselves.”I guess back in the room in the hotel, what all three we talk about is nothing related to our bowling,” Sisodia said after India’s win. “All our bowling just came and, you know, in the game coming on we just enjoyed ourselves.”We keep telling each other a little bit of, you know, what the batters are doing, helping each other [on the field].”At this point, I guess, we are just, you know, eye contacting and we are understanding each other now.”With all of them being left-arm spinners, is there competition or does this fact not affect them?”We are like the best friends,” Sisodia was quick to respond, with emphasis on the “best”. Vaishnavi, who was too overcome with emotion to speak a few minutes earlier was quick to interject: “We are like family actually. We all are family.”Asked about their plans for the future, Sisodia said: “I guess all of us… I mean, not just us [three] but the whole team, we all want to just go ahead and, you know, never look back from here.”Wicketkeeper and opener G Kamalini, who was animatedly photobombing the interview, then came in and summed up the feelings of the team in a line in Tamil: ” [We have lifted the World Cup].”