Andre Russell will not play in Kolkata Knight Riders’ crucial match against Gujarat Lions in Kanpur on Thursday

Nagraj Gollapudi17-May-2016Andre Russell will not play in Kolkata Knight Riders’ crucial match against Gujarat Lions on May 19. The 28-year old allrounder limped off the field midway through the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday with a suspected injury to his left leg; he did not travel with the squad that reached Kanpur on Tuesday evening.Russell is the tournament’s third highest wicket-taker with 15 scalps, and Knight Riders’ fourth highest run-scorer with 188 runs. He bowled 2.3 overs against Royal Challengers and left the field twice, first midway through the Royal Challengers innings and after bowling three deliveries of the 19th over. In the penultimate over, Russell was helped off the field after he tumbled for the third time in his follow-through.With Knight Riders needing to win both their remaining matches to confirm a place in the playoffs, they will hope Russell can regain his fitness as soon possible. The medical staff is monitoring his injury and a definitive prognosis is likely in the coming days.Knight Riders have 14 points from 12 games and have to face Lions away and Sunrisers Hyderabad at home. They are among four teams with a positive net run-rate (0.28) and can make the knockouts even if they do not win any more matches. In that case, however, Knight Riders will have to depend on other teams’ results going their way as well.

Batsman Lahiru Thirimanne has left Sri Lanka’s ongoing tour of England after sustaining a lower-back strain, which restricted his movement

Andrew Fidel Fernando26-Jun-2016Batsman Lahiru Thirimanne has left Sri Lanka’s ongoing tour of England after sustaining a lower-back strain, which restricted his movement. Wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella, who was in England already with the A team, has joined the national squad as Thirimanne’s replacement. Thirimanne played all three Tests, but had not played in the ODIs – against Ireland or England – on the tour.Angelo Mathews and wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Chandimal are nursing hamstring injuries, but have been named in the XI for the third ODI in Bristol. An SLC statement said seam-bowling allrounder Farveez Maharoof is also “sporting an injury to his left hand”, though he too continues to play.Dickwella had been in Sri Lanka’s Test squad, but did not play a game. He has played one ODI – in India in 2014 – four Tests and three T20 internationals.

Daniel Bell-Drummond and Joe Denly set Kent on their way to a five-wicket win over Hampshire in the Royal London Cup to boost their quarter-final hopes

ECB Reporters Network26-Jul-2016
ScorecardDaniel Bell-Drummond continued his good form after returning from Lions duty•Getty Images

Daniel Bell-Drummond and Joe Denly set Kent on their way to a five-wicket win over Hampshire in the Royal London Cup to boost their quarter-final hopes. Matt Coles took six wickets and Kent survived a collapse with the target in sight to come away victorious.Former England batsman Denly continued his impressive recent form with a chanceless century, his sixth in the format. Bell-Drummond helped add 203 for the first wicket, a club record against Hampshire, and notched his highest score for Kent with an exciting 91.The pair looked unstoppable and on course for a ten-wicket annihilation but three wickets in seven balls halted the charge.Bell-Drummond, who survived a caught behind appeal early on, was the first to finally depart when he picked out Tom Alsop on the boundary rope. Four balls later Brad Wheal, on his Hampshire 50-over debut, took his second, getting Denly looping one up to Sean Ervine.Skipper Sam Northeast was then lbw to Ryan McLaren and Darren Stevens was well caught by Mason Crane, Wheal with a third to send a panic through Kent.A collapse was in motion when Sam Billings pulled tamely to Gareth Berg to put Wheal on a hat-trick but Alex Blake and Will Gidman steered the away side out the storm and to victory with 39 balls to spare.Earlier Hampshire were stuck in, and despite a solid 38-run stand to kick-start the innings, they haemorrhaged wickets regularly. Tom Alsop was the first man to depart as he tickled a delivery outside off stump to be caught behind and he was quickly followed back by opening partner Will Smith who dragged on.Captain Ervine added a stodgy 21 before attempting to ramp over his shoulder but was caught at extra cover.Adam Wheater gave the hosts hope with a nicely crafted half-century, from 56 deliveries, during a useful 61 run partnership with Liam Dawson. But in the 31st over both departed in exactly the same way, Coles grabbing his first with Wheater hooking to Blake. And Blake was again the catcher when Dawson fell into the same trap three balls later.From then on it was the Coles show on his former home ground as he yorked Lewis McManus and had Gareth Berg slashing away from his body.Coles had his fifth when Gareth Andrew chipped to extra cover, and with his final delivery pulled off a remarkable reaction caught and bowled to see off Ryan McLaren, who had quietly scored 43. It was the second time Coles had taken six wickets in a List A fixture, finishing this time with 6 for 56.Wheal was the last to depart, mind boggled by a slower ball, to give Hampshire a below-par total of 229, which never looked enough once Denly and Bell-Drummond got going.

South Africa’s national men’s team will need to field a minimum average of six players of colour, of which at least two must be black African, in their XI effective immediately, in order to meet their transformation targets

Firdose Moonda03-Sep-2016South Africa’s national men’s team will need to field a minimum average of six players of colour, of which at least two must be black African, in their XI effective immediately, in order to meet their transformation targets. The instruction was confirmed by CSA’s board at their AGM on Saturday and follows confirmation in July that all national teams will be obliged to meet targets as part of what CSA has termed a drive to transform “aggressively,” and “make cricket a truly national sport accessible to all.”The targets will not be imposed on the XI in every match they play but calculated on an average basis over the season. That means that South Africa’s selectors will not be strictly bound to that combination all the time, but if there are some matches where they do not meet the targets, they will have to compensate in other games.Although the emphasis and timing of CSA’s transformation efforts appear to be a response to being banned from bidding for or hosting major tournaments by the country’s sports ministry as punishment for the slow progress of change, CSA has denied that is the case even though there is talk of a World T20 being held in South Africa in 2018.”That would be an unfortunate analysis of the situation but the coincidence cannot be avoided,” CSA president Chris Nenzani said. “We are not driving transformation in order to host an event. That event is going to come and go, as many events before it. We are driving transformation because we believe it is the right thing to do. We have to talk about transformation, whether or not there is 2018.”Nenzani harked back to when CSA hosted its first transformation conference in more than a decade in 2013 as being the starting point for this wave of policy-making. The major outcome of that meeting was that a target for black African players was put in place for franchise teams. In 2014, CSA increased the domestic target to five players of colour at franchise level and six at the semi-professional provincial level. In 2015, the board again increased the numbers to what they are today. Currently, all franchise and provincial teams must field six players of colour, of which at least three must be black African.”All along we maintained a view that we would not want to set targets for the national team premised on the fact that if your system begins to work it should naturally assist you in terms of players coming through to the national set up. That was the hope that we had, that natural progression would ensure player were getting in, black players in general, black African players in particular,” Nenzani said.However, CSA has since admitted it is not seeing players come through quickly enough and has decided to implement a target at the highest level as well. “The very fact that there is a need to set certain targets indicates that the system has not been working optimally to achieve representivity,” Nenzani said. “The idea of setting targets in the national teams is to say the system has not assisted us in producing. We are setting targets forcing the system to work towards the targets.”There is a degree of leniency in the new numbers because they will not apply on a match-by-match basis but will be assessed over a period of time. “We are saying let’s look at this target over a season which allows the coaching staff and team management to have flexibility,” Nenzani said. “If there are reasons that the coach says, ‘In this match, because of a number of reasons and conditions, I am not going to be in a position to play black players,’ or even that ‘I am going to go into this match without a single black African player,’ that flexibility is allowed but it should be based on objective reality. If I were to be put in the same situation, I should see the same reality.”An obvious concern is that South Africa will load their XIs with players of colour who do not have clearly-defined roles, or that they will only pick players of colour for fixtures with little significance. “It has happened already where you have players selected as going to play and then they don’t bowl and they don’t bat. We are hoping that the people who have the responsibility to implement these decisions are going to go a step further and show commitment,” he said.”As a board we have taken a decision to say we are going to make sure these decisions are implemented and we are going to assess and evaluate the implementation process. We are going to introduce what we call consequence management. If you fail to act in a manner that advances the efficacy of the system, you need to account for that.”By and large, South Africa are already meeting these targets. In the two Tests against New Zealand, they fielded that exact combination although they did not have either AB de Villiers or Morne Morkel (both white) because of injuries. In the ODI series in the Caribbean in June, South Africa fielded no less than six players of colour in every XI, although their black African component varied between one and two. In their second match they made history when they fielded eight players of colour.”What is really encouraging is that the Proteas, who are our flag bearers, are already achieving these targets and in some cases exceeding the targets we have just set. The Test starting XI that played in the recent series against New Zealand contained six players of colour and two Black Africans and the ODI starting XI had as many as eight players of colour (73%) in their most recent series against the West Indies and Australia,” Nenzani said. “The South Africa A side had six players of colour and three Black Africans in the starting XI that beat the Australia National Performance Squad by nine wickets in the final match of their quadrangular series in Australia today.”Many questions still remain unanswered, such as whether South Africa fears a talent exodus as white players escape limited opportunities. For now, the focus is on making more use of the players they have by including all South Africans, especially those previously marginalised, in the sport. “This is a national imperative, it is a constitutional imperative. It is important for transformation to succeed,” Nenzani said.

Afghanistan earned a hard-fought two-wicket win in the second ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur to level the three-match series

The Report by Mohammad Isam in Mirpur28-Sep-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAsghar Stanikzai scored a crucial half-century in a tricky chase for Afghanistan•Associated Press

Afghanistan earned a hard-fought two-wicket win in the second ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur to level the three-match series, banking on astute planning to leave the home crowd at the Shere Bangla National Stadium stunned. The win came mainly through a 107-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Mohammad Nabi and captain Asghar Stanikzai in a chase of 209. Both batsmen were out with Afghanistan 35 away from a win, but Najibullah Zadran rallied the lower order and the side scraped through with two balls to spare.Nabi and Stanikzai came together at the crease in the 16th over with Afghanistan at 63 for 4, following Mohammad Shahzad’s miscued slog to backward point off Shakib Al Hasan. The pair struck a four and a six off Shakib in the same over but had to wait another 5.4 for another boundary.Despite the lull in boundaries, the pair kept rotating the strike and Stanikzai fought cramps to score his sixth ODI fifty, which included four fours and two sixes. Nabi, who had taken the wickets of Shakib and Mashrafe Mortaza earlier in the match, missed out on the landmark when Mashrafe trapped him lbw in the 40th over, and the side lost Stanikzai in the next over, caught at the deep square leg boundary off debutant Mosaddek Hossain.Rashid Khan became Shakib’s fourth victim, in his final over, trapped plumb in front for 5, with Afghanistan 20 runs away from the target. Mirwais Ashraf played out Shakib’s last two deliveries carefully, and the bowler ended with returns of 4 for 47. Najibullah and Ashraf then saw off the next over, which was Mashrafe’s last.The match could have still swung Bangladesh’s way had Mushfiqur Rahim completed an easy stumping of Zadran with 13 runs required. Bangladesh’s players were crestfallen, but Taskin ended up removing the left-hander in the final over with the scores level. The winning hit came from the other Zadran, Dawlat, who slashed a boundary through backward point.Afghanistan’s chase had started with Shahzad flicking a four off the first ball before Nawroz Mangal took two fours off Shakib in the fourth over. Two balls later, however, Mangal misread Shakib’s length and spooned a catch to cover. Shakib went onto have Rahmat Shah lbw for a two-ball duck in the same over.Shahzad sparkled briefly and added 45 runs for the third wicket with Hashmatullah Shahidi, who was trapped lbw for 14 by Mosaddek off his first ball in ODI cricket. Shakib then had Shahzad skewing a catch to backward point for a run-a-ball 35.Bangladesh’s innings would have ended sooner had it not been for the 43-run stand for the tenth wicket between Mosaddek and Rubel, who kept out Rashid’s hat-trick delivery in the 43rd over. Rashid was rampant at that stage, having removed Taijul and Taskin off successive balls.Mosaddek finished with an unbeaten 45, including four boundaries and two sixes. The scoop over long leg and pull over midwicket stood out. When he had come out to bat, Bangladesh were 138 for 5 with Shakib having been given out lbw to a debatable decision. Mosaddek saw wickets tumble around him, but stayed composed.Earlier, Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah added 61 for the third wicket, but Bangladesh lost their last seven wickets for 86 runs. That proved the turning point.

Younis Khan has been ruled out of Pakistan’s first Test against West Indies, with doctors advising him 10 days of rest to regain his strength after recovering from a bout of dengue fever

Umar Farooq06-Oct-2016Younis Khan has been ruled out of Pakistan’s first Test against West Indies, with doctors advising him 10 days of rest to regain his strength after recovering from a bout of dengue fever.”Younis has informed chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq that he won’t able to play the first Test,” a PCB spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo. “The selectors are yet to announce the squad, but its is confirmed that Younis will not take part in the opening game in Dubai. He asked for rest to be fully fit before his national selection since he has recently recovered from dengue.”Last month, the 38-year-old Younis contracted a high fever that was later diagnosed as the mosquito-borne disease dengue, for which he was treated in a Karachi hospital. This forced him to miss the first round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan’s premier first-class tournament.
Doctors have advised Younis to extend his rest for another 10 days. He is expected to be available for the second Test in Abu Dhabi.Younis last missed a Test match in May 2011 – also against West Indies, coincidentally, in St Kitts – and has since featured in 41 successive matches, scoring 3839 runs in that period, at an average of 59.06. He is now Pakistan’s leading run-getter in Tests with 9456 runs at 53.72, and in his last appearance scored 218 against England at The Oval.Pakistan will begin their three-match Test series with a pink-ball, day-night match at the Dubai International Stadium from October 13. The second Test begins on October 21 in Abu Dhabi, and the third in Sharjah on October 30.

Left-arm spinner Alex Hartley and batsman Natalie Sciver played key roles in England Women’s series-clinching five-wicket win over West Indies Women in Kingston on Thursday

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Oct-2016
ScorecardFile photo – England Women’s left-arm spinner Alex Hartley finished as the leading wicket-taker in the five-match series, with 13 dismissals•WICB Media/Athelstan Bellamy

Left-arm spinner Alex Hartley’s career-best 4 for 24 subdued a powerful West Indies Women’s batting line-up to 155, paving the way for England Women’s series-clinching five-wicket victory in the fifth ODI in Kingston. Natalie Sciver’s unbeaten 58 eased the side home in the 39th over.The result took England’s points tally in the ICC Women’s Championship to 23, leaving them one win away from confirming their direct qualification in next year’s Women’s World Cup, a target they will look to achieve on the tour of Sri Lanka next month.Hartley accounted for West Indies’ senior batsmen in her haul, dismissing Deandra Dottin, Merissa Aguilleira, captain Stafanie Taylor and Shemaine Campbelle. Dottin fell in the 23rd over, bringing an end to a promising third-wicket partnership of 37 with Taylor after West Indies got off to a slow start. Aguillera fell four overs later.Hartley then went on to sap any momentum West Indies could have gained in the slog overs by dismissing Campbelle and Taylor in the 41st and 43rd overs. Taylor fell for 57 off 101 balls, with three fours and a six, having steered the side to 137 with little support from the other batsmen, and the innings lasted only five more overs after her wicket as the last five wickets fell for 24. Hartley took her second four-for in the series and finished as the highest overall wicket-taker with 13 wickets in five matches, a record for England in a bilateral one-day series.While West Indies’ batsmen had failed to put together a half-century stand, England built their chase around the 56-run partnership for the third wicket between captain Heather Knight and Sciver. England were 56 for 2 in the 17th over when the pair came together and by the time the stand was broken, at 112 in the 29th over, they were firmly in control of the chase. Sciver’s unbeaten 58, her sixth ODI fifty and second in the series, came off 74 balls and included six fours.Knight said: “To come to the Caribbean and beat the ICC Women’s World T20 champions on their home patch, in tough conditions, and with a couple of set-backs along the way, shows how much character, desire and talent there is within this squad.”Throughout the five matches, momentum has constantly shifted between the two sides, which shows how evenly matched the teams are.”

Mitchell Santner will re-join Worcestershire next season with his director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, affirming that he has some “some unfinished business” at New Road

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Nov-2016New Zealand allrounder Mitchell Santner will re-join Worcestershire next season with his director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, affirming that he has some “some unfinished business” at New Road.Santner will link up with Rapids for the NatWest T20 Blast, which is now in a condensed midsummer slot, after the conclusion of the Champions Trophy being held in England in June.He will hope that it is a more successful undertaking than last season when he bowled four overs in the opening match against Durham Jets but then suffered a broken finger in the field and was never seen again.Rhodes is delighted to land the services of Santner for a second spell, subject to obtaining the normal visa clearances and a No Objection Certificate from New Zealand Cricket.Rhodes said: “For T20 cricket, people with three disciplines are really exciting. We know spin is a major player for T20 cricket so to have a top spinner is fantastic. We know Mitch can hit the ball out of the ground, because he has done that, but also being a left hander is useful to the composition of our top six – and he is also a great fielder.”There is some unfinished business with Mitch. Last summer he was very unlucky to pick up that finger injury that needed pinning in the first game he played.”We know he is a good player, an international player, but I always like to have signings where people have got something to prove and I think he feels that way so that’s why it is an exciting signing.”Losing Mitch was a massive blow to our hopes of qualifying. We’d had a good start and him playing all those games would have been an extra bonus for us.”Worcestershire have already signed Australian allrounder John Hastings for the 2017 campaign. Hastings’ previous county loyalties have been with Durham but they remain under financial pressure after major restructuring, and an ECB bailout, prevented them from going bankrupt.

Prithvi Shaw became the first Mumbai batsman to score a hundred on Ranji Trophy debut in more than two decades, after Amol Muzumdar last achieved the feat in 1993-94, to highlight Mumbai’s semi-final win against Tamil Nadu

The Report by Arun Venugopal in Rajkot05-Jan-2017
ScorecardFile photo – Suryakumar Yadav’s 73 in the first innings had helped Mumbai get a 106-run first innings lead•PTI

That Mumbai did not so much storm as saunter into their second successive Ranji Trophy final and their 46th in all – a six-wicket win over Tamil Nadu in two sessions will qualify as nothing less – will gladden them for more than one reason. Firstly, it was a strong opening partnership, an elusive ingredient all season, that set up the chase of 251 on the final day.Secondly, and more importantly, it was Prithvi Shaw, a 17-year-old debutant, who was in the vanguard with a fearless hundred. During the course of his 175-ball 120, Shaw also became the first Mumbai batsman to score a hundred on Ranji Trophy debut in more than two decades, after Amol Muzumdar last achieved the feat in 1993-94.If one delivery were to sum up the contrasting fortunes of Shaw and Tamil Nadu, it was the second ball of the 51st over. Shaw, on 99, steered Vijay Shankar to gully, and as B Indrajith completed the catch, he was shattered. Even as Shaw tried to drag himself off the field, the umpires asked him to wait to check for the no ball.As it turned out, Shankar had overstepped; Suryakumar Yadav instantly went up to Shaw and patted his shoulder. Four balls later, Shaw steered Shankar to gully again. But, this time the ball went along the ground and Suryakumar dashed to the danger end. As Shaw’s helmet came off to reveal his pubescent face, the magnitude of his achievement on the big stage hit home.This wasn’t the first instance, though, of Shaw seeing off a nerve-wracking period; he and his partner Praful Waghela were put under considerable pressure by Tamil Nadu’s bowlers and close-in fielders yesterday – it showed in the nervy running between the wickets – and there was no respite in the morning session either, when play began after a 35-minute delay owing to poor visibility caused by dense fog.This time, however, Shaw wasn’t looking to play for stumps, and found his bearings with a crunchy backfoot punch through covers off Aswin Crist in the second over of the day. Despite two gullies and a short point breathing down on him, Shaw continued to middle the ball confidently. He was similarly unruffled by Dinesh Karthik’s chirp about the impending bouncers from behind the stumps, and was comfortably ducking them.When he leant forward to Crist and produced two punchy cover drives off successive deliveries, it became further evident that neither Crist nor Vignesh posed a threat to him. Also, with little swing on offer, captain Abhinav Mukund turned to Aushik Srinivas, his lead spinner. Aushik hadn’t conceded a run in his three overs late on Wednesday, but Shaw slog-swept his first delivery of the morning from the line of the stumps; it was a shot that would fetch him rich returns all day. Emboldened by Shaw, Waghela, too, unwrapped a brace of powerful sweeps against Aushik, who went for 31 in his four-over spell and was taken off the attack.Shankar and B Aparajith were introduced belatedly, but the outcome wasn’t going to change. If swatting Aparajith for a six over long on was another illustration of Shaw’s bravado, he showed in the next delivery that he could be sensible too; he stayed on leg stump, beside the line of the ball, and gently worked the ball off the backfoot into the vacant cover-point region for a single. Ironically, the top-edged pull for four that brought up Shaw’s fifty was the only shot that lacked conviction. Despite losing Waghela, who was caught after top-edging a pre-meditated sweep off a good length, Mumbai went into lunch the more confident team at 113 for 1.Left-arm seamer T Natarajan, who had been introduced only an over before lunch, was Tamil Nadu’s latest gambit. Mumbai’s response was to unleash a double-barrelled assault, with Shreyas Iyer and Shaw having fun at their opponents’ expense. Aushik returned for a fresh spell, and bowled from over the stumps to target the rough outside the right-hand batsmen’s leg stump. Whenever Shaw didn’t kick the ball away, he swept furiously off the rough.The field was now spread out and the spinners bowled defensive lines to provoke a loose shot, but despite only 29 runs coming in the first 10 overs after lunch, Iyer and Shaw didn’t lose their heads. Eventually, it was Tamil Nadu’s patience that wore thin, as neither the change of bowlers or ball – two balls were replaced in the space of 10 overs – brought them the desired results.Shankar ended the 91-run stand by removing Iyer in the 47th over, but Suryakumar blew out the faintest flicker of hope for Tamil Nadu with some lusty hitting. The only element of interest was if eventual man-of-the-match Shaw would hit the winning runs, but he perished to a slog after attempting to finish the game quickly The winning run in the following over was an anti-climax when Siddhesh Lad turned Aparajith’s delivery into the leg side for a single; it was a good few seconds later – after the scorers provided the confirmation – that Mumbai knew they had done it. In a chase that was as effortless as it was meticulous, who could fault them.

A round-up of East Zone matches in the Inter State T20 tournament played on February 1, 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Feb-2017Jharkhand slumped to their third straight defeat in the Inter-State T20 tournament, falling short by 24 runs against Tripura at the Eden Gardens. They had raced to 106 for 2 by the 13th over in pursuit of 193, but lost three wickets in three overs from that point. Opener Shasheem Rathour scored an unbeaten 70 off 53 balls, but they managed only 168. Earlier, they had put Tripura in and conceded 32 extras; this was the second-highest contribution to Tripura’s score, behind Udiyan Bose’s 74 off 38. Their eventual total of 192 was achieved thanks to a late surge – they scored 23 off four balls before losing wickets of consecutive deliveries to be bowled out in 19.5 overs.File photo – Wriddhiman Saha hit an unbeaten 74 off 45 balls as Bengal won by ten wickets against Assam•BCCI

Shreevats Goswami scored 71, Wriddhiman Saha scored 74, and the pair put on an unbroken 150 for the opening wicket as Bengal defeated Assam by ten wickets in the day’s second game. Bengal had restricted Assam to 146 after losing the toss. Assam captain KB Arun Karthik was among the three batsmen in the entire match to go past 20 – incidentally, he also remained unbeaten in the seventies, scoring a career-best 76 off 47 balls. The rest of Assam’s line-up couldn’t get going, restricted in particular by medium-pacer Sayan Ghosh who took 3 for 30. In response, Bengal’s openers chased the score down in 16 overs.