Rest of the World

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KP_fan wrote:

msp83 wrote:So India is getting back on the field tonight, kicking off their WTC campaign. Rohit has already confirmed Jaiswal will open, and Gill drop down to 3. When all the talk of Yashasvi taking over from Pujara at 3 was going on, I felt he should open, particularly since the team views Gill as the eventual successor to Virat Kohli at 4. Going forward, I see a top 4 of Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran/Devdutt Padikkal/Rohan Kunnummal, Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Eswaran has been hard done by......Jaiswal was jumped over him
Mayank Agarwal should not be ruled out...he has batted very well in FC and has a decent test match showing also.

And don't forget the favorite boy of seniors and BCCI in KL Rahul...as soon as he is fit he will walk back into the 11

Its been tough on Easwaran. Think Mayank and KL might find it difficult to now fight their way back in. Particularly if Yashasvi has a good start to his career. KL might still make a comeback when Rohit leaves, but I hope Easwaran, Rohan and even Padikkal will make better cases for themselves.
As for Yashasvi jumping over Abhimanyu, though its tough on the latter, think is the right call. Jaiswal scored hundreds on his Ranji, Duleep and Irani trophy debuts. He's versatile and has shown adaptability as indicated by his IPL success. And, its not much noted these days, but he's a handy parttimer with the ball, he very much was for the U-19s, hope he'll get a few chances right away to work on that secondary skill of his...

India batting on, the lead is close to 350. Hope Rohit settles there. No point batting on now.

So India declare on 181-2. Got their in 24 overs. WI need 365 to win and level the series...

52 off 34 ball ishan kishen
Brutal hitting.....the pinnacle of which was a one handed SIX  over cover

He is tiny like Pant and can slog even harder.
He should continue to bat like this and what a collosal loss not having played him in 5 tests vs Aus

Kishan should have played the Australia series and the WTC final. KS Bharat isn't an extraordinary keeper and he's not a test level bat. Just don't understand what they saw in him...
Kishan's keeping hasn't been great though, it has to be said. Even Rishabh wasn't that good to start with, but worked on that part of his game and has become a very safe keeper though not outstanding... Don't think Warrican would have bowled the number of overs he did, had RP been around! Kishan can't quite match there!

Msp on seamers
Here is the Peking order when all fit
Bumrah
Siraj
Shami
Yadav is out as he is regressing .
Shardul
Next lot would be Prasidh, Mukesh, Shivam, Saini
Malik and avesh khan have gone down in reckoning

msp83 wrote:Kishan should have played the Australia series and the WTC final. KS Bharat isn't an extraordinary keeper and he's not a test level bat. Just don't understand what they saw in him...
Kishan's keeping hasn't been great though, it has to be said. Even Rishabh wasn't that good to start with, but worked on that part of his game and has become a very safe keeper though not outstanding... Don't think Warrican would have bowled the number of overs he did, had RP been around! Kishan  can't quite match there!

Rohit, Gill, yashasvi, Pant, Sky, and Ishan can be a very explosive line up.
I don't think Rahane will be in for Aus in Dec which is our next test engagement

Mukesh getting the new ball ahead of Unadkat. But he starts off with a terrible first over, spraying it all around and making things easy for TC who's intent on leaving in any case.

KP_fan wrote:

msp83 wrote:Kishan should have played the Australia series and the WTC final. KS Bharat isn't an extraordinary keeper and he's not a test level bat. Just don't understand what they saw in him...
Kishan's keeping hasn't been great though, it has to be said. Even Rishabh wasn't that good to start with, but worked on that part of his game and has become a very safe keeper though not outstanding... Don't think Warrican would have bowled the number of overs he did, had RP been around! Kishan  can't quite match there!

Rohit, Gill, yashasvi, Pant, Sky, and Ishan  can be a very explosive line up.
I don't think Rahane will be in for Aus in Dec which is our next test engagement

Don't think there is space for both Ishan and Rishabh together in a test lineup. And I feel Virat, now that he's starting to find ways to adjust with his changed reflexes, should be around for a while longer. Have a feeling after the World Cup, Rohit's only stable format will be tests! What an irony that will be!

Mukesh bowling really poorly for the first time in his debut test. He was good to average in the first innings, he's not up to it right now. And he does seem to have a serious enough No-Ball problem that he needs to work on. He's not even Fast to keep doing that.

Mukesh not making the batter play enough. Wasting the new ball which in any case isn't doing much.

Unadkat on as first change, and he's making them play the ball more in that first over. Brathwaite and Chanderpaul up to all that India could throw at them so far. The Ashwin Jadeja double act may not be too far away.

Ashwin on now. WI openers again denying new ball success to India. They've done it in 3 out of 4 innings now. But neither of them have got a real big one though the skipper played a fighting innings in the first attempt here.

Good to see that enterprising declaration by India. I imagine they will close this game out sometime tomorrow ; though I presume the spinners will be doing most of the work ?  At least it is not likely Port of Spain will produce a fourth day washout

Two wickets before stumps. There is some rain forecast for tomorrow - heard that before! - but as ever with the Caribbean it should blow through quickly. Ashwin and Jadeja have found big turn and uneven bounce, plus the West Indies have a long tail and it's only four wickets away from exposure, so India should be very confident.

Also got the second and final Sri Lanka-Pakistan test starting tomorrow, plus the continuing battle for T20 World Cup qualification continues through the week.

Sri Lanka all out for 166, again only Dhananjaya leading the resistance with the bat, while Shah and Ahmed did the brunt of the damage. Two run-outs as well, with one coming in the third over of the test! Hope Boycott wasn't watching.

Pakistan 19/1 in reply thus far.

Naseem Shah is a curious one at the moment. His record on the sub continent is very good, pitches that usually offer less to seamers but outside of that it's abysmal.

Welcome news for the West Indies as it's absolutely pouring down in Trinidad. Start delayed, could be a little while before they get on.

They don't get on at all. Test drawn.

The easiest WTC points lost.
Bcci tactically should have done a 4 test series vs WI

Duty281 wrote:Welcome news for the West Indies as it's absolutely pouring down in Trinidad. Start delayed, could be a little while before they get on.

They don't get on at all. Test drawn.

Clearly India should have declared earlier

The rain saved India, Blackwood has a history of scoring hundreds in 4th innings chases!

Actually I just checked and it was a 95. It certainly felt like a hundred at the time! Another classic outlier performance vs England

alfie wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Welcome news for the West Indies as it's absolutely pouring down in Trinidad. Start delayed, could be a little while before they get on.

They don't get on at all. Test drawn.

Clearly India should have declared earlier

Now the Pak game vs Lanka hit by rain
End of July is not a good time to organize anything in sub continent or WI or even in Eng for that matter

Scotland going at some rate of knots in the T20 playoffs. Munsey scoring a ton already.

McMullen with one of the worst T20 knocks you'll ever see. Scotland going at over 11 an over for pretty much all of the innings, loads of wickets in hand, and McMullen has been crawling at just under a hundred SR for nearly a quarter of the innings!

Not that it'll matter. Despite Ireland's almost wobble against Italy, both Ireland and Scotland are cruising through to the T20 World Cup. PNG set to join them after beating Japan in the East Asia-Pacific qualifier.

Pakistan winning the second test by an innings and 222 runs.

Sri Lanka rolled for 166 and 188, in between Pakistan's 576/5. Nauman Ali 7/70 and at one point threatening all ten.

Means a 2-0 series win for Pakistan and a perfect start to their WTC campaign. Next series for them is away to Australia in December.

With 4 bowling all-rounders india has packed themselves with 7 bowlers of whom Umran Malik is a waste .
He is always about 15kph short of his touted 155+pace....mindlessly short.

Batting is struggling for India and I think it's the pitches....150 par type.
Kuldeep has looked superb against BD in tests and now here
He should be India's 3rd spinner ahead of Axar

West Indies level the ODI series with India at 1-1. Hetmyer has made his ODI return for West Indies, after a near two year absence from the format.

I also saw today that in the Kabul Premier League a batsman hit seven sixes in an over. 48 runs in total with a no-ball and five wides. The commentator was quite excited to say the least.

https://wisden.com/stories/videos/watch-afghan-batter-smashes-seven-sixes-in-bonkers-48-run-over-in-kabul-premier-league

New York beat Seattle to win the first edition of Major League Cricket. Seattle put up 183/9 batting first, with De Kock making 87 off 52. New York's bowling saw the very worst (Wiese 4-0-65-1!) and the very best (Rashid Khan 4-0-9-3!) of T20 bowling.

It was not a difficult chase at all for New York, because Pooran smashed 137 off 55 balls (13 sixes) as his side cruised home.

Event seems to have been a success. But not sure if there'll be an open top bus parade in New York, mind...

NZ are currently playing a T20 series away to the UAE. After narrowly losing the first game, UAE have hammered NZ in the second, marking the UAE's first ever win over NZ in cricket.

The series is most notable for the return of Jamieson, after a six month injury absence. The Kiwis need him to be fit for the World Cup.

I also see Australia have omitted Labsuchagne from their World Cup plans, despite him being a constant ODI presence over the last few years. The Aussies are also concerned about Smith, who has suffered a wrist injury but should still be fine for the World Cup.

Pakistan and Afghanistan currently playing an ODI series, Pakistan 2-0 up after two.

The first ODI saw Pakistan bowled out for 201, but Afghanistan were shot out for 59 in response.

Today's game was much more intense. Afghanistan posted 300/5, and Pakistan were cruising at 208/3, before a collapse put the game right in the balance. Pakistan needed 11 off the final over, with two wickets remaining, and Shadab Khan was the victim of a mankad, which for whatever reason is considered controversial (but Shadab trying to gain an advantage for a possible run isn't).

But it didn't matter as Naseem Shah got two boundaries to get Pakistan home, the last off an outside edge. It's all provided some spice between the two teams ahead of the World Cup and Asia Cup.

These are both two intriguing teams. Afghanistan have got a superb bowling attack, with Rashid Khan, Mujeeb, Nabi and the recent discovery of the fast bowler Farooqi, which gives their bowling a much needed extra dimension. But their batting is a weak point, even if they did fire today. They could cause a few problems for the bigger teams at this tournament. Pakistan have got plenty of talent, but perhaps their options at 5/6, long tail and lack of bowling depth might provide some concern.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/new-zealand-news-kane-williamson-has-two-weeks-to-prove-fitness-for-odi-world-cup-1394472

Williamson still in with a chance of making the World Cup squad.

The much anticipated Asia Cup game between India and Pakistan, I think the first ODI meeting since 2019 between the two, ended in disappointment as the game was rained off at halfway.

Pakistan showed their potential, through bowling India out for 266 in 49 overs. The pace trio were all sublime - Shaheen 4/35, Naseem 3/36, Haris Rauf 3/58 - even if the spin trio were all a disappointment (combined 0/133). India's innings relied on Kishan's 82 and Pandya's 87, with no other batsmen scoring 20. In fact, Bumrah's 16 was the third highest score!

Pakistan likely the more disappointed of the two with regards to the rain. I think Pakistan are still much undervalued in their chances of winning the World Cup - they're 13/2 fourth favourites with Bet365.

Some very sad news overnight - Heath Streak has succumbed to cancer at the age of 49. One of Zimbabwe’s finest ever cricketers

That is awful news. No age to go.

Here's highlights of Streak's 6/87 at Lord's in 2000: https://youtu.be/GkvDIdemjL4?si=hm-env4GlSEMWP9t&t=244

Such sad news about Heath Streak.

227 Test wickets whilst being the only Zimbabwean to pass 100 sums it up. His countries best bowler by a long distance. He sat alongside Andy Flower as clearly their best players in that short golden period.

Obviously he had his problems in later life outside of his cancer battle. I think it's been interesting how the narrative there has changed since his illness. A bit of perspective with news of his terminal diagnosis perhaps allowed that. In an incredibly strange way Henry Olonga's premature announcement of Streak's passing recently perhaps even allowed him to see that for himself. The response then, as now with his actual passing, has been overwhelmingly positive. Focusing on the great player and what he did for Zimbabwean cricket in that capacity during a successful but extremely challenging time. Rather than on how his coaching career ended.

RIP Heath.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66701805

NZ will take a punt on Williamson's fitness by picking him for the World Cup, even if he is unlikely to be fit for the first game.

An amazing ODI between South Africa and Australia today, in the first of a five game series.

South Africa scored 222ao, with Bavuma making 114 of those runs. Australia's reply started dreadfully, with Warner going for a duck and Green, up at 4, being concussed early on. At 72/5 and 113/7 all seemed lost, but the concussion replacement Labuschagne and Abbott Agar combined for a match-winning 112 run partnership to get Australia the win.

Labuschagne not in Australia's World Cup squad as things stand, but this may force a reconsideration.

Labuschagne really must be the greatest concussion sub of all time, admittedly in a fairly limited field

Duty281 wrote:An amazing ODI between South Africa and Australia today, in the first of a five game series.

South Africa scored 222ao, with Bavuma making 114 of those runs. Australia's reply started dreadfully, with Warner going for a duck and Green, up at 4, being concussed early on. At 72/5 and 113/7 all seemed lost, but the concussion replacement Labuschagne and Abbott combined for a match-winning 112 run partnership to get Australia the win.

Labuschagne not in Australia's World Cup squad as things stand, but this may force a reconsideration.

Think it was Agar who partnered Marcus to the win…but indeed a remarkable win from an apparently hopeless position. I am a bit out of touch with all this white ball selection stuff (still resting after the Ashes !) but I do wonder if Australia can leave Labuschagne at home : bit like England and Harry Brook ?

Labuschagne further ramping up his chances for the World Cup - he top scored with 124 off 99 balls today, with Warner also getting a ton, as Australia amassed 392/8 in the second ODI v South Africa.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/naseem-shah-likely-to-miss-2023-world-cup-with-injured-shoulder-1398705

Crushing blow for Pakistan, as Naseem Shah is set to miss the entire World Cup with a shoulder injury. That would set back their chances quite a bit.

India have strolled to an Asia Cup win. They destroyed Pakistan by 228 runs en route to the final, and Pakistan didn't even get that far after narrowly losing to Sri Lanka.

Then, in the final, Siraj took four wickets in one over as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 50 (50!). Should be no bother for India to knock those runs off and make a statement before the World Cup.

Duty281 wrote:https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/naseem-shah-likely-to-miss-2023-world-cup-with-injured-shoulder-1398705

Crushing blow for Pakistan, as Naseem Shah is set to miss the entire World Cup with a shoulder injury. That would set back their chances quite a bit.

Even more injury news, unfortunately, which isn't good for the competition.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/sep/17/travis-head-injury-world-cup-australia-south-africa-fifth-odi

Firstly, Travis Head has fractured his left hand in the ODI series v South Africa. It means he will miss at least half of the World Cup, and Australia will need to decide if it's worth carrying him and hoping he can play a part down the line.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/south-africa-anrich-nortje-sisanda-magala-to-undergo-fitness-tests-to-determine-availability-for-world-cup-1398970

Also for South Africa, Nortje and Magala are doubts for the competition. They each played one game in that ODI series v Australia, before breaking down with injury. Magala has what seems to be a recurrent and serious knee problem, while Nortje, one of South Africa's key players, has a back problem.

Lot of players missing for many sides at the World Cup:

England - Archer, Roy (technically), Stone, while Rashid and Wood currently have niggles
New Zealand - Williamson and Southee doubts, Mitchell also has a problem with a dislocated finger
Australia and SA - As above, but Australia also have concerns over Cummins, Smith and Maxwell
India - Pant obviously out, Patel struggling and Iyer trying to race back to fitness
Sri Lanka - Theekshana missed today's Asia Cup final with injury so there's a question mark, Chameera also missed the whole Asia Cup, as did Hasaranga
Pakistan - Naseem Shah out, Rauf and Imam battling to be fit in time
Bangladesh - Ebadot out, Shanto a doubt

Afghanistan and the Netherlands may have a clean bill of health, however!

Meanwhile, at the Asian Games, Nepal beat Mongolia by 273 runs. In a T20.
https://www.icc-cricket.com/match/103178#scorecard

Not only was that a record T20 total, but one of the Nepalese got the 'perfect' 50, bringing it up in 9 balls.

Makes a mockery of the records when there are such mismatches, in my view.

If you liked that, you'll love this: Argentina women beat Chile women by 364 runs in the first of a 3 game T20 series.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/chile-women-in-argentina-2023-24-1402761/argentina-women-vs-chile-women-1st-t20i-1402764/full-scorecard

Lowlandbrit wrote:If you liked that, you'll love this: Argentina women beat Chile women by 364 runs in the first of a 3 game T20 series.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/chile-women-in-argentina-2023-24-1402761/argentina-women-vs-chile-women-1st-t20i-1402764/full-scorecard

Good find. 64 no-balls from the Chile women? Including one bowler who bowled 17 no-balls in just one over? Were they unaware of the rules, or was the game in the hands of some betting syndicate?

And no sixes in a total of 427 is really quite something. 2nd T20 is tonight at 6. Might follow that instead of the Super League Grand Final.

Full credit to Jessica Miranda of Chile by the way. Only bowled one no-ball in four overs, and scored 27 with the bat (9 Chileans scored 1 or fewer). They need to build the team around her.

Just a follow up on the close-fought T20 series between Argentina and Chile's women's sides.

The second T20 saw Chile bravely, because they had just conceded 427, put Argentina in. This time Argentina were restricted to 300/6, with just the 25 no-balls (down from 64), and Chile were bowled out for 19, with 9 ducks, a 3 and a 1 on the scorecard.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/chile-women-in-argentina-2023-24-1402761/argentina-women-vs-chile-women-2nd-t20i-1402765/full-scorecard

The third T20 had Argentina opting to bat first. They piled up 333/1, with 32 no-balls and zero maximums. Chile were bowled out for 22, with nine ducks, a retired hurt, and a score of 1 on the scorecard.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/chile-women-in-argentina-2023-24-1402761/argentina-women-vs-chile-women-3rd-t20i-1402766/full-scorecard

Extras must have been doing well for Chile given the apparent failure of their entire batting XI to register more than 4 runs between them...