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A framework has also been drawn up to manage athletes who contract Covid-19 when sport resumes

Daniel Brettig01-May-20201:42

Tait: Legalised tampering might be chance for cricket to move forward

Shining the ball with saliva or sweat will be restricted in Australia under a framework released by the federal government about the staged return of both professional and recreational sport amid the coronavirus pandemic.The guidelines, drawn up by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in conjunction with medical experts, sporting bodies and federal and state governments, outline a staged return to play at all levels, hastened by the desires of the winter football codes in particular to return in time to salvage some of their seasons. Cricket Australia’s chief medical officer John Orchard was involved in the preparation of the framework.They will have international implications, and follow the revelation on ESPNcricinfo last week that cricket administrators were actively considering the possibility of allowing the ball to be polished with artificial substances to reduce the risks associated with using saliva on the ball and then passing it around the field of play.ALSO READ: Cricket to consider legalised ball-tampering in wake of coronavirusUnder the AIS framework, restrictions on sport are currently outlined as being at “Level A” restricting all training except that of the individual kind. But there will soon be a move to “Level B”, potentially little more than a week from now, which will allow the following: “Nets — batters facing bowlers. Limit bowlers per net. Fielding sessions — unrestricted. No warm up drills involving unnecessary person-person contact. No shining cricket ball with sweat/saliva during training.”The third and final “Level C”, to be permitted later in the year, is outlined as: “Full training and competition. No ball shining with sweat/saliva in training.”These step by step returns will run alongside government decisions about when and how. The NRL is set to be the first sport to return to action, having flagged a May 28 return date for the competition, which will be reduced to 20 rounds. The AFL is currently debating some of the logistical issues around its own return.Intriguingly, cricket as a non-contact sport may actually be permitted to return before the winter codes, leaving the northern states open to play. The Australian team’s next scheduled matches in Australia were slated to be as part of a limited-overs series against Zimbabwe in August.”Sport makes an important contribution to the physical, psychological and emotional well-being of Australians,” the framework report states. “The economic contribution of sport is equivalent to 2-3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on communities globally, leading to significant restrictions on all sectors of society, including sport. Resumption of sport can significantly contribute to the re-establishment of normality in Australian society.How would you shine the cricket ball in the time of Covid-19?•Getty Images

“The principles outlined in this document apply equally to high performance/professional level, community competitive and individual passive (non-contact) sport. The AIS Framework is a timely tool for ‘how’ reintroduction of sport activity will occur in a cautious and methodical manner, to optimise athlete and community safety. Decisions regarding the timing of resumption of sporting activity (the ‘when’) must be made in close consultation with Federal, State/Territory and Local Public Health Authorities. The priority at all times must be to preserve public health, minimising the risk of community transmission.”Standards for a return to elite sport are also a part of the report, which dictates how athletes contracting Covid-19 may be dealt with, and precautions that will continue to need to be taken even after full competitive sport is permitted to resume.”The resumption of sport and recreation activities will be a complex process. A careful stepwise process needs to be implemented to ensure the safety of athletes and other personnel and the wider community,” the report states. “Preparation for resumption includes education of the athletes and other personnel, assessment of the sport environment and agreement on training scheduling to accommodate social distancing.”The approach to training should focus on ‘get in, train, get out’, minimising unnecessary contact in change rooms, bathrooms and communal areas. Prior to resumption, sporting organisations should have agreed protocols in place for management of illness in athletes and other personnel. Special consideration should be made for para-athletes and others with medical conditions as they may be more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. Clubs and individuals should apply a graded return to mitigate injury risk, understanding that sudden increase in training load will predispose to injury.”Individuals should not return to sport if in the last 14 days they have been unwell or had contact with a known or suspected case of COVID-19. Any individual with respiratory symptoms (even if mild) should be considered a potential case and must immediately self-isolate, have COVID-19 excluded and be medically cleared by a doctor to return to the training environment.”Athletes returning to sport after COVID-19 infection require special consideration prior to resumption of high intensity physical activity.”Australia and New Zealand have been two of the world’s least-affected countries in the coronavirus pandemic. After being one of the first nations exposed to the virus, border closures, social distancing measures and business and large scale gathering shutdowns have helped to bring the virus to a standstill relative to events in the UK, United States and India.The full report can be found here.

No team has ever won at Emirates Old Trafford after choosing to bowl first

Matt Roller24-Jul-2020Kraigg Brathwaite has defended his captain Jason Holder’s decision to bowl first for the second match in a row, despite England putting themselves into a commanding position in the deciding Test in Manchester.No team has ever won at Emirates Old Trafford after choosing to bowl first, and the team that batted first in the last four Tests at the ground went on to win. With that in mind, and after his call to bowl first last week backfired, it was a surprise that Holder again opted to field on Friday, not least with offspinner Rahkeem Cornwall included ahead of seamer Alzarri Joseph.ALSO READ: Pope, Buttler stand shores up England effortHolder said at the toss that there was “a little moisture in the surface” and that the overhead conditions had played a part in his decision. The wicket of Dom Sibley, trapped lbw by Kemar Roach, in the first over of the day seemed to vindicate his call, but with England closing on 258 for 4 thanks to a unbroken 136-run stand between Ollie Pope and Jos Buttler, there are valid questions for Holder to answer.”It’s been a pretty even day,” said Brathwaite in a virtual press conference, defending Holder’s decision. “We had a plan to bowl first. There was moisture in the wicket, and we thought as a team we wanted to utilise it.”They got a good partnership, but I don’t think we’re out of it, to be honest. Once we come out tomorrow and control the scoring rate, build that pressure, then I think we can get some wickets in the morning.”With both Saturday and Monday’s play in doubt due to rain, West Indies may find themselves needing to bat well only once in order to save the game, but Brathwaite denied that the forecast had an influence in their plan to bowl first, and refuted the idea that Holder was playing it safe.”I wouldn’t say that: we saw some moisture in the pitch,” he said. “Our plan was to get wickets early and put them under pressure. I wouldn’t say it was because of the weather as such.”The inclusion of Cornwall in particular seemed to be at odds with the decision to bowl first. West Indies had relied on Roston Chase as their main spinner throughout the series, bowling tight lines and keeping things tight, but instead picked Cornwall, a more attacking bowler, but denied him the chance to bowl last on a wearing surface.And while he took an excellent reaction catch in the slips and bowled some dangerous balls, Cornwall struggled to tie England down, leaking 3.38 runs per over. “He was unfortunate not to get a wicket, but I thought he had a decent start,” was Brathwaite’s unenthusiastic analysis.Brathwaite suggested in particular that early wickets once play is able to resume would be crucial, with England leaving out Zak Crawley and changing the balance of their side in order to compensate for Ben Stokes’ quad muscle injury, which has left him playing as a specialist batsman.That means Chris Woakes, who has averaged just 12.6 with the bat since his hundred against India at Lord’s in 2018, finds himself due to bat at No. 7, perhaps giving West Indies encouragement that one wicket could bring a flurry.”Early wickets will be crucial with the new ball, the harder ball,” Brathwaite said. “But [even] if we don’t get early ones, if we stay in it, there’s one less specialist batsman – Woakes can still bat – but two or three wickets could happen.”We’ve got to be very disciplined when we start out in the first session. The harder ball on the surface is always good [so] I think the new ball’s crucial for us. Once we build that pressure with some tight overs, we’ll get some wickets early.”

He also believes the current Test team under Virat Kohli is the best-ever India team

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Aug-2020Sunil Gavaskar, the first man to 10,000 Test runs, was a batting template for an entire generation of Indian cricketers. He’s pleased that the next generation is raising the bar further. In an interview on ‘s E-Inspiration series, Gavaskar praised Rohit Sharma’s attacking style in particular, saying he would have loved to have been a free-flowing opener like Sharma.Since the start of 2015, Sharma has averaged 62.36 in 97 ODI innings and strikes at 95.44, with 24 centuries during that period. He is also currently the only batsman to have made multiple double-centuries – three – in ODI cricket, and is part of one of the most prolific ODI partnerships in history alongside Shikhar Dhawan. In the last home season, India transitioned him into a Test opening role as well, where he made a boisterous start with three centuries in five games.Gavaskar himself had a successful career as an ODI opener, finishing with an average of 35.13 in 108 matches. And while a strike rate of 62.26 was not automatically frowned upon during his playing time, he suggested that more belief in his own abilities might have made him score at a faster rate.”The way you see a Rohit Sharma opening the batting in one-day cricket, Test cricket smashing from the first over,” he said. “That is what I wanted to play. Circumstances and, of course, lack of confidence in my ability did not allow me to do that. But when I see the next generation doing it, I am absolutely over the moon, I love watching the next generation because there you see progress. You see how they are setting the bar higher for the next generation.”On a related note, Gavaskar said that the current Indian Test team under Virat Kohli is the best they’ve ever had. India are currently third in ICC’s Test rankings, one rating point behind New Zealand, and two behind Australia who are No. 1. They do, however, have a 64-point lead at the top of the World Test Championship standings as they brace for a Test series against Australia at the end of the year.Virat Kohli receives the ICC Test mace from Sunil Gavaskar•ICC

“I believe this team is the best ever Indian Test team in terms of balance, in terms of ability, in terms of skills, in terms of temperament. Can”t think of a better Indian Test team,” Gavaskar said. “This team has the attack to win on any surface. It doesn’t need any help [from] conditions. They can win on any surface. Batting-wise, there were teams in the 1980s that were pretty similar. But they didn’t have the bowlers that Virat has.”Much of India’s recent success in Tests, particularly the series win in Australia last year, has been credited to a potent and versatile bowling attack. The fast bowlers have near-identical numbers to the spinners under his captaincy, to the degree that no other Indian captain has ever had. The roster was part of the management’s plan to develop a bowling attack that would work anywhere in the world, and has made India a strong threat in overseas Tests. What’s left now, suggested Gavaskar, is a more rounded batting line-up.”[…] Without a question, India has got such a varied bowling attack today and that is so essential. There is a saying that if you don’t take 20 wickets, you won’t win a match. We have got the bowling to take 20 Australian wickets on one run less than what India has scored. You need to score runs also. We saw that in England in 2018. We saw that in South Africa in 2017 when we went there. (India lost both series)”We got 20 wickets every time but we didn’t score enough runs. But now I think we have also got the batting to be able to score more runs than Australians.”

England seamer would travel anywhere this winter so long as ECB gave bio-secure approval

Matt Roller03-Oct-2020Stuart Broad has admitted his desperation for crowds to return to English cricket grounds at the start of the 2021 season after an entire international summer behind closed doors.Broad enlisted England’s team psychologist David Young – who also works for Manchester City FC – ahead of the start of the first series of the summer against West Indies to ensure his “emotions are where they need to be”, and revealed his concerns about being able to perform without fans’ support.And while those concerns did not appear to come to fruition in a superb summer for him, in which he took 29 wickets across five Tests, Broad said in a virtual media session for the NatWest Cricket Awards that he was optimistic England fans would be able to travel to Australia for the 2021-22 Ashes as well as attending the start of next summer’s cricket season.”Obviously I’m desperate for crowds to be able to come back and enjoy our sport,” Broad said. “Let’s be honest, health and safety of people is much more important than that. But yeah, to be honest, I’m not even looking as far as Australia: I think England next April or May has got to be at the forefront of our minds to be able to get sports fans back into our stadiums.”The experts will study everything and hopefully we’re in a position in our country that that could happen – I know in October, we were due to start getting some fans back into stadiums but things took a little turn for the worse.ALSO READ: PCA accolade cements reputation of Chris Woakes, England’s ‘Mr Dependable’“I think Australia have done pretty well with it, haven’t they, so another year down the line we’d be hopeful that we can we can take our trusty support and the Barmy Army with us to Australia, because genuinely I do feel like it’s one of our best chances of doing well there with the quality of players we’re growing.”It would be awesome to be able to take our home fans to an Ashes series because they’re such special occasions.”England are not due to play Test cricket again until 2021, when tours to Sri Lanka and India are mooted to take place. In practice, the India series appears likely to be staged in the UAE, but Broad said he had no concerns about travelling overseas providing suitable Covid-19 protocols are in place.”To be honest, I wouldn’t have concerns about going away to a bio-secure bubble because I’ve seen it work so well this summer,” Broad said. “It’s felt very secure. We’ve had teams fly over and come into our bubble, and it seems to have worked really well, so if the likes of the IPL continue to work I don’t see a reason why we can’t do these bio-secure bubbles all around the world to get cricket on the screens.”I personally would be happy to go to anywhere as long as it was a bio-secure, safe environment to play some cricket because it gave everyone a boost this summer. If we got the go-ahead from the ECB – which I hope we do because I’m desperate to play some cricket this winter – I’m sure the players would be fully supportive of that.””One thing that’s very clear is training will be trickier than it was in April, May and June during the lockdown period because of the weather and being able to train outside. So there’ll be discussions about how we manage to peak at the right time and keep ourselves in condition.”I really didn’t want this summer to end. From the team’s point of view we were really growing and doing really good things and from a personal point of view I was in great condition and in a great headspace, so I just wanted the summer to continue. But unfortunately, it couldn’t.”

Sindh chased down 170 against Central Punjab, while Balochistan crushed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by six wickets

Danyal Rasool10-Oct-2020Balochistan beat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by six wickets
In a clash close to the top of the table, Balochistan avenged their crushing defeat against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last week by inflicting a similar loss on Mohammad Rizwan’s side. Awais Zia’s unbeaten 49-ball 92 helped Balochistan make short work of the 155-run target, which they achieved with six wickets and 20 balls to spare. After Shaheen Afridi removed Abdul Bangalzai for a first-ball duck and Bismillah Khan in his second over, Zia took charge of the chase single-handedly. Brushing aside the further losses of Imran Butt and his skipper Haris Sohail, Zia farmed the strike with Akbar-ur-Rehman at the other end, who played his part, finishing unbeaten on 24 and hitting the winning runs.After winning the toss, Balochistan had put KP in and removed both in-form players Mohammad Hafeez and Rizwan cheaply. Fakhar Zaman struggled to get going in the face of tight bowling, particularly by Akif Javed and Khurram Shehzad, whose combined figures of 8-0-40-3 a tell-tale sign of KP’s struggles with the bat. It was left to veteran Shoaib Malik to take them to a competitive total, as he rolled back the years to wallop 74 off 44 balls to help his side get past 150. But support from the other end wasn’t forthcoming, of which they eventually paid the price.Sindh beat Central Punjab by three wickets
In the evening game, it was a case of copy and paste for Babar Azam, who followed up yesterday’s 52-ball 86 not out with a 53-ball 86, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Central Punjab from slumping to a three-wicket defeat at Sindh’s hands. Chasing 170 and having lost their top four cheaply, Sindh dug in and benefitted from lower-middle-order contributions from Danish Aziz, who top-scored with an unbeaten 59, and Azam Khan. But when it looked like the asking rate might prove too steep, it was a blitz from Hassan Khan, who smashed 36 off 15 with four sixes, that powered Sindh past the finish line. That was despite the best efforts of Waqas Maqsood, whose figures of 3.1-0-14-3 might easily have been worthy of ending up on the winning side.After being asked to bat, Central Punjab were immediately set back by Sohail Khan removing Kamran Akmal in the first over. The Sindh fast bowler was the pick of the bunch, returning to get rid of Azam in the 15th over, as well as Saad Nasim to finish his spell. For Central Punjab, there were few contributors besides Azam, who was responsible for more than half of his side’s runs. Sindh’s team effort in the chase suggested that might have been an important point of difference.

Still no official word on Andre Russell’s availability as KKR look to go from 12 to 14 points against CSK

Karthik Krishnaswamy28-Oct-2020

Big picture

LWWLWWLLWLWL. That’s six wins and six losses, all more or less evenly distributed. It’s been that sort of season for the Kolkata Knight Riders, who’ve shown glimpses of being the force they used to be in their glory years, only to regress to the mean immediately afterwards.That sort of form has left them in a delicate situation with two games left to play in the league phase. They could win just one of them and still make the playoffs, but they could also win both and fail to qualify. With a net run rate of -0.479 – only the bottom two teams currently fare worse – they’ll probably need to win two out of two to give themselves a proper chance.First up they face the Chennai Super Kings, who are out of the reckoning for the playoffs and are now simply looking to, according to their captain MS Dhoni, enjoy the “12 painful hours” they have left in the tournament. Dhoni’s math may have been slightly off – he was speaking after the Super Kings’ victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore, which was their 12th game of the season – but if his players do find a way to enjoy themselves and play with freedom over their last two games, they could become dangerous opponents.All the pressure will be on the team that has something to lose.

In the news

A knee injury has kept Andre Russell out of the Knight Riders’ last three games, and it’s not clear whether he’s recovered enough to feature on Thursday, but news of his pull-out from the upcoming Lanka Premier League – for which injury has been cited as the reason – suggests he hasn’t.

Previous meeting

A 51-ball 81 from Rahul Tripathi carried an otherwise misfiring Knight Riders batting unit to 167, and the Super Kings appeared poised to haul it down when they needed 69 from 48 balls with nine wickets in hand. But the Super Kings were unable to deal with Sunil Narine and Russell – all of whose overs had been held back for the last 10 overs – and they imploded to lose by ten runs.

Likely XIs

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Ambati Rayudu, 4 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 5 N Jagadeesan, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Monu Kumar, 11 Imran Tahir.Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Nitish Rana, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 5 Eoin Morgan (capt), 6 Sunil Narine, 7 Pat Cummins, 8 Kamlesh Nagarkoti, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Prasidh Krishna.

Strategy punt

• One of the big contributors to the Super Kings’ victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in their last match, also played in Dubai, was the bowling of Imran Tahir, Mitchell Santner and Ravindra Jadeja, who tied Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers down expertly through the middle overs. At least two of the three spinners, who all turn the ball away from the right-hander, are likely to feature again, and one way for the Knight Riders to deal with their threat better than the Royal Challengers did would be to have left-hand batsmen face more of their bowling. This could mean Nitish Rana moving back to No. 3, perhaps, or Eoin Morgan or Sunil Narine batting at No. 4.
• It could even mean the addition of an extra batsman – the Knight Riders squad includes the left-handed Rinku Singh, who is yet to play a game this season – instead of either Kuldeep Yadav, Kamlesh Nagarkoti or Prasidh Krishna. The Knight Riders were three down early in both their most recent games, and they attempted to counterattack their way out on both occasions. That approach brought them a win against the Delhi Capitals, and also brought them back into the game against Kings XI Punjab, only for their lack of batting depth to hurt them later on. The inclusion of an extra batsman could enable the Knight Riders to play in this counterattacking fashion with a bit more security.
• When Dinesh Karthik has begun his innings within the first 10 overs this season, he’s scored 48 runs in eight innings at an average of 6.00 and a strike rate of 72.73. When he’s made his entry in the second half of the innings, he’s scored 100 runs in four innings at 33.33 and 175.44. The Knight Riders have batted him at No. 4 in their last two games, but he’s perhaps better used further down the order – below Morgan and/or Narine – or certainly in a role that brings him in close to the death (last five) overs: he has a strike rate of 188.88 in that phase this season, and an average of 42.50.

Stats that matter

• It’s time once again for Narine vs Dhoni. Narine has now bowled 63 balls to Dhoni in the IPL without conceding a boundary. He’s given away just 30 runs in all, while dismissing him once.
• Of all bowlers to have sent down at least 50 balls to left-hand batsmen this season, Varun Chakravarthy (10.83) and Jadeja (120.00) have the best and worst averages, respectively, though Navdeep Saini, who hasn’t dismissed a left-hander this season while conceding 110 runs, could be said to have done worse. Jadeja also has the worst economy rate (12.63), while Chakravarthy’s is a healthy 7.09.
• The Knight Riders (6.86) and the Super Kings (6.91) have the worst powerplay scoring rates of all teams this season. The Knight Riders (22.45) also have the worst average in this phase, followed by the Rajasthan Royals (23.60) and the Super Kings (23.71).
• If they play, it will be Narine’s 350thT20 game, Ravindra Jadeja’s 250th, and Kuldeep Yadav’s 100th.

Coach says defeat is part of bigger picture as South Africa strive to close the gap

Firdose Moonda01-Dec-2020South Africa have a considerable amount of catching-up to do to reach the same white-ball standards as a team like England, according to their coach Mark Boucher.Speaking after South Africa failed to win a match in a home T20 series for the first time in the format’s history, Boucher acknowledged that England are in a different class when compared with other teams.”England are step ahead of, not only us, but quite a few different teams in world cricket,” Boucher said, after the team’s defeat in the third T20 at Newlands. “We’ve got a way to go. If you look at this England team, when they got together probably in around 2017, they were also asking a lot of questions of themselves trying to find a balance that was going to suit their style of play. These guys have won a World Cup and are oozing with confidence. Their players are a lot more developed than what our players are. Our job is to get our guys in our team feeling what these guys are.”Boucher and his support staff’s work has been made many times more difficult by the almost nine-month period of inaction forced upon the national team by the coronavirus pandemic, and its effects on team selection, both of which left South Africa “exposed” in certain areas.”We didn’t have allrounders due to various reasons so we lacked a sixth bowler. You can’t hide behind that. Sometimes in T20 cricket, you’ve got a bowler who goes. And most teams, especially a team like England, tend to fancy a particular bowler on one night and you need a bit of cover for that individual, and we haven’t been able to do that,” Boucher said.Dwaine Pretorius and Andile Phehlukwayo have both been unavailable for selection for this series which forced South Africa to field XIs made up of specialists. They opted for a six batsmen-five bowler split, which meant they had no alternative but for each bowler to deliver a full quota of four overs. In the first match, they tried to use Heinrich Klaasen for an over of part-time spin, which backfired, while in the second, Lungi Ngidi was costly and in the third, Lutho Sipamla and Tabraiz Shamsi leaked runs, but South Africa had no-one else to attempt to apply the brakes.While Boucher was mostly satisfied with the team’s batting efforts, he lamented the lack of a left-hander, with David Miller also unavailable for this series. “Maybe (we could also have had) a left-hander in the middle-order, especially to a legspinner like Adil Rashid who turns the ball in to the left-hander. It showed in the England batting line-up how valuable that can be,” he said.Despite the forced absence of some first-choice players, Boucher insists South Africa are beyond the trial phase of their T20 World Cup preparation and want to fine-tune rather than figure out their overall squad. “We haven’t been experimenting. We’ve been using the resources that we’ve had,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of unfortunate circumstances that caused us to play combinations that we knew were not correct but we had to do it. We want to get into a situation where we are solid on a T20 squad.”He also defended the team’s demonstration of their new aggressive, but smart, style of play, which has yet to be fully explained. It seems to suggest a more proactive approach to shorter formats than is usual for South Africa, who tend to err on the side of caution. Boucher said he felt the team showed signs of clever thinking, even though it didn’t always work in their favour.ALSO READ: CSA will apply affirmative action in hiring coaching consultants“I do think they were smart. We were thrown a couple of curveballs,” he said. “A smart decision would be to play six bowlers but the balance of the side wouldn’t have worked out. On the field, I like the core group of guys to make decisions, and they made those decisions. We continuously talk about smart decisions and what we felt we did right and what we felt we could do better. We want to keep growing.”In the first two games, we were smart, we just didn’t play the big moments that well. If you look at the games, it came down to one or two overs that cost us. That’s just big moments that we didn’t play as well as England did and hence the results. The first two games were a lot tighter than people may think. This game not so much. I thought we had enough runs. We just didn’t execute with the ball and England are a powerhouse side and they are going to punish you.”Balking at the big moments has often been a criticism levelled against South Africa, but that’s not something they can dwell on right now. Rather than a close scrutiny of what they didn’t do in this series, Boucher hopes his squad can apply a wide lens to this series and see it in the context of their rebuilding process and the summer ahead, as they look to close the gap between themselves and teams like England.”Days like today are tough because we haven’t won,” he said. “We will try and encourage the guys that they need to trust the bigger picture. There are a couple of hard lessons being learnt at the moment but we are not going to quit. We are here for the long haul.”

Country moved into level three restrictions but international sport still allowed to take place

Firdose Moonda29-Dec-2020The ongoing series between South Africa and Sri Lanka will continue despite the country moving to a stricter level of lockdown. In the face of an increasing number of Covid-19 infections, the South African government has moved the country from level one to level three, prohibited all gatherings for two weeks and enforced a stricter curfew.The regulations allow for international sports to take place involving countries with a low or medium infection and transmission rate (which includes Sri Lanka). Matches must take place behind closed doors, and venues have to be closed by 8pm.”Only journalists, radio, television crew, security personnel, emergency medical services, and the necessary employees employed by the owners of the venue of the sport match, are allowed at the venue of the sport match and only the required number of players, match officials, support staff and medical crew required for the sport match, are allowed at the venue of the sport match,” regulation 36 (17) reads.CSA confirmed that the new regulations will not impact the series.No fans have been in attendance at any of South Africa’s international fixtures this summer, including the Boxing Day Test. Similarly, domestic matches have also taken place inside empty stadiums.South Africa’s borders remain partially open and international flights are allowed subject to travelers producing a negative test for Covid-19, obtained no less than 72 hours before the flight. South Africans are also allowed to leave the country with the same rules. That means that the national men’s tour to Pakistan, which takes place in January, is still set to go ahead.

Mehidy added crucial runs with the tail after Bangladesh were 134 for 4 at one stage

Hemant Brar04-Feb-2021Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s maiden Test hundred followed by a new-ball burst from Mustafizur Rahman put Bangladesh in a dominant position against West Indies in the first Test in Chattogram. After being reduced to 134 for 4 on the opening day, Bangladesh’s lower-middle order rallied on Thursday to post 430 in the first innings.Rahman then showed the way with the ball as he dismissed John Campbell and debutant Shayne Moseley cheaply to leave West Indies 24 for 2. After that, Kraigg Brathwaite and another debutant Nkrumah Bonner began the rebuild, taking the side to 75 for 2 at stumps.

Brathwaite praises bowlers’ discipline

West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite said after the day’s play that there wasn’t much on offer for the bowlers in the surface. He was happy his attack had dried up the runs for Bangladesh even though wickets weren’t regularly falling.
“We wanted to be a little aggressive this morning. Obviously the guys played well, showing a lot of discipline. There’s not much turn in the pitch,” he said. “I think once we build dots, it created pressure to get wickets. We were tight throughout the innings. We didn’t go over three runs (an over), which was good. I thought Bangladesh batted well.”

Earlier, Miraz became the sixth Bangladesh batsman to score a hundred from No. 8 or lower. However, it wasn’t a chanceless innings. He was dropped off Jomel Warrican when on 24 and had another slice of luck at 71, when he skipped down the ground to Rahkeem Cornwall only to get an inside edge, but the ball kept low and sneaked between wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva’s legs. Then on 85, Cornwall himself put him down – off Bonner – as he failed to hold on to a low chance at first slip.For the most part of his innings, though, Miraz showed excellent use of the feet against spinners, by either going deep in the crease to cut through point or skipping down the pitch to hit inside out. At the start of the day, Shakib Al Hasan and he added 67 for the seventh wicket before Shakib fell for 68. If West Indies thought they were into the tail, those hopes were dashed soon as Miraz stitched together 44 with Taijul Islam for the eighth wicket and a further 57 with Nayeem Hasan for the ninth.Miraz was on 92 when Hasan fell to Bonner but Mustafizur Rahman hung around to see him reach the three-figure mark. In all, Miraz hit 13 fours before being caught at long-on off Cornwall at the stroke of tea.The West Indies openers, Kraigg Brathwaite and Campbell, had their work cut out even if the pitch had shown few signs of assistance for bowlers. Just like Bangladesh, West Indies too started with a four off the first ball of the innings as Brathwaite flicked Rahman to the square-leg boundary.The similarities ended there as Rahman showed exemplary control with the ball, moving it both ways and mixing searing yorkers with an odd bouncer. With just 11 on the board, Rahman trapped Campbell lbw with the one that went on with the angle. On the next ball, he almost had Moseley in similar manner but the decision was overturned on review.Moseley hardly looked comfortable during his brief innings as Rahman kept peppering his pads. Eventually, he was lbw to the seamer when a yorker hit him almost full on the shoe and this time, the review didn’t help. At that point, Rahman had figures of 6-2-8-2.Brathwaite was firm at the other end and didn’t hesitate coming down the wicket against Shakib to hit him over mid-on. Even though the Bangladesh spinners kept the batsmen on their toes, Brathwaite, donning his sunglasses, ensured West Indies didn’t get bogged down and added 51 in an unbroken third-wicket stand with Bonner.In the morning, Bangladesh lost Liton Das in the third over of the day. His positive intent had helped Bangladesh wrest back some control on the first day and he looked set to continue in the same manner today as well. However, he could add only four to his overnight score of 34, bowled while trying to cut an arm ball from Warrican, who bowled unchanged throughout the session.At 248 for 6, it looked like West Indies could bowl Bangladesh out for under 300, but Miraz showed his skills with the bat and kept finding boundaries with ease while Shakib continued batting calmly at the other end. Gabriel’s struggles to get his length right also helped Bangladesh’s cause. With the new ball just ten overs old at the start of the day, that was an opportunity missed for the visitors.Warrican created another opportunity when Miraz, attempting a big shot, got an inside edge onto his pad and the ball lobbed towards silly mid-off. And despite taking evasive action initially, Moseley had two chances at it but failed to hold on.West Indies finally got the breakthrough when Shakib had a lapse in concentration against Cornwall. After getting beaten on the previous ball, Shakib tried to cut the offspinner again. This time, though, Cornwall tossed the ball higher and the resulting slice was pouched by Kraigg Brathwaite at point.At that stage, the match was hanging in the balance. By the end of the day, Bangladesh were certainly the happier side.

Shakib Al Hasan and Shadman Islam are out with injuries, while West Indies have no injury concerns

Mohammad Isam10-Feb-2021

Big picture

Oh, how the tables have turned! How beautifully the momentum has shifted West Indies’ way, and the pressure towards Bangladesh.West Indies hold the lead in the series, and therefore the edge, after their debutants Kyle Mayers and Nkrumah Bonner put together a comeback for the ages on the fifth day in Chattogram. Mayers’ unbeaten 210 was only the second time a batsman struck a match-winning fourth-innings double-century. That it came from a debutant, who had very little familiarity with the pitch he was batting on, made it all the more remarkable. Bonner’s 86 was a coming-of-age innings for a cricketer who has waited long. While Shannon Gabriel’s show of deadly pace on such a slow pitch on the third evening was inspirational.Related

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• History-making Mayers looking for more and more glory

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A delighted Phil Simmons, the West Indies coach, continued to be cautious, stressing on finishing the job, something they have failed to do on several previous occasions. But, while the Chattogram win didn’t come easy – Test wins don’t – it is also true that such a result can do wonders to the overall confidence within a squad.Quite the opposite is the case in the Bangladesh camp. Bad as the result was, the news that Shakib Al Hasan wouldn’t be fit for the second Test made things worse. And opening batsman Shadman Islam joined Shakib on the sidelines when he failed to recover sufficiently from the hip injury he sustained while fielding in the first Test. Soumya Sarkar – who underwent the PCR test on February 7 and has been kept in isolation since – has been named Shakib’s replacement, while no replacement has been named for Shadman.Who slots in for Shakib is just one of many questions staring at the Bangladesh team management. Whether the spinners can find their rhythm in the Dhaka Test is going to have a bearing on their fortunes, because, while Mehidy Hasan picked up eight wickets in Chattogram, more would be expected from Taijul Islam and Nayeem Hasan. Bangladesh have a spin-centric bowling strategy, that has now failed more often than it has worked for them, and with the Dhaka pitch likely to be assisting spinners, the make-up of Bangladesh’s team will need careful thought.

Form guide

Bangladesh LWLLL
West Indies WLLLL

In the spotlight

After his match-winning knock in Chattogram, Kyle Mayers will have the eyes of the world on him. He has called himself “a student of the game”, and it will be interesting to see how the newcomer goes, now that he will have a fair bit of hype to live up to.
A maiden Test century to go with eight wickets in the Chattogram Test has given Mehidy Hasan back his Test spot. But he will have to put in another big performace, especially in Shakib’s absence.

Team news

Whenever Shakib isn’t around, Bangladesh struggle with team balance. They have Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Yasir Ali and Saif Hassan among frontline batsmen and Taskin Ahmed, Abu Jayed, Ebadot Hossain and Hasan Mahmud among bowlers in the squad. Among them, Sarkar is the closest they have to an allrounder.
Bangladesh (possible): 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 4 Mominul Haque (capt), 5 Mushfiqur Rahim, 6 Liton Das (wk), 7 Mehidy Hasan, 8 Nayeem Hasan, 9 Taijul Islam, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Abu Jayed
It is unlikely that West Indies will make changes to the XI from the side that won in Chattogram. They have fast bowler Alzarri Joseph and left-arm spinners Veerasammy Permaul and Kavem Hodge and allrounder Raymon Reifer waiting in the wings, but they might have to continue to wait, barring an injury.
West Indies (likely): 1 Kraigg Brathwaite (capt), 2 John Campbell, 3 Shayne Moseley, 4 Nkrumah Bonner, 5 Kyle Mayers, 6 Jermaine Blackwood, 7 Joshua Da Silva (wk), 8 Rahkeem Cornwall, 9 Jomel Warrican, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Shannon Gabriel
West Indies are unlikely to make any changes unless they are forced to•AFP via Getty Images

Pitch and conditions

The pitch should help spinners more than the one in Chattogram did. Sides batting first in the last five years have averaged around 332, with five out of six teams winning the match after batting first.

Stats and trivia

• The 216-run partnership between Mayers and Bonner in Chattogram was the highest between two Test debutants in 57 years.
• Mehidy is two wickets short of 100 in Tests, while Liton Das is 34 runs short of reaching 1000 Test runs.

Quotes

“We start from zero again. We have to go back to the process, we have to practice and prepare well. It is going to be a different wicket, ground and everything. It is important for us to assess again. Going over the processes and ensure we do well.”

“It would have been great to have Shakib in the side in Mirpur but in his absence, myself, Taijul and Nayeem have to take more responsibility. We will try to bowl more in the right areas, so that they can’t play us easily.”