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The ICC has confirmed that the inventor of Hot Spot, Warren Brennan, raised concerns with them this week over the effect of bat coatings on the technology

Brydon Coverdale in Chester-le-Street08-Aug-2013The ICC has confirmed that the inventor of Hot Spot, Warren Brennan, raised concerns with them this week over the effect of bat coatings on the technology, which detects edges using thermal imaging, but that he was warned against suggesting players were deliberately trying to cheat the system.Although Brennan has not explicitly stated any such worries in public and has declined to comment, he sent a tweet on Monday to former England captain Michael Vaughan that said: “Michael, it’s time you investigate why players are using fibreglass tape on the edges of their bats.”Channel Nine also reported on Thursday that Brennan had raised his “serious concerns” with the ICC about flaws in the system. The Channel Nine report stated that Brennan feared silicone tape on bats could fool the technology by dulling the Hot Spot and ensuring no mark shows up on the edge even if a batsman has nicked the ball.Nine reported that testing was carried out, which showed that a second layer of tape had the dulling effect. Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s general manager of cricket operations, met with team management of both England and Australia in Durham on Thursday, and the ICC has announced Hot Spot will continue to be used for the rest of this series.Allardice confirmed that he and Brennan had met in Melbourne on Friday to discuss the series and Brennan afterwards sent an email raising concerns.”He followed up with an email to me on Monday suggesting that they’d looked at some clips and that coatings on the bat might have been dulling down the Hot Spot mark,” Allardice said. “He made us aware of that. On Tuesday, he did some testing and informed us of that. He also advised us that he was intending to make a media statement.”We talked about the timing of that. It’s his company, his product, he’s free to say whatever he likes in the media. We were expecting to see something either yesterday or today.”We didn’t really talk about the inference that players were doing it deliberately to try and beat the Hot Spot. I think we did warn him that if he made a statement along those lines, if the inference was that the players were trying to cheat the Hot Spot system he would need some strong evidence to support that. There is no evidence to support that assertion and certainly from the comments of the teams you can see that they don’t believe that that happens.”Both Michael Clarke and Alastair Cook have vehemently denied that any of their players have deliberately used tape in an effort to fool Hot Spot and the teams are happy for the technology to continue to be used throughout this series. When Allardice was asked if the ICC would consider changing its playing conditions to prevent the use of such tape on bats, he said “a lot more evidence” would be required before any such move was made.”I think it’s very early days, in that players have had coatings on bats, and manufacturers’ stickers on bats, and reinforcing tape on bats for forever and a day,” Allardice said. “We listened to Warren’s view and there may be something in it but I’d think we’d want to gain a lot more evidence before we’d look at rule changes or anything like that.”This was a theory that he put up on Monday this week. He did some tests that he felt supported that theory. We would like to see some more evidence from on the ground with players in action to support that. At this stage we’ve got no intention of changing the rules in the short term.”

Australia great passes away in Thailand following a suspected heart attack

Andrew Miller04-Mar-2022Shane Warne, one of cricket’s all-time greats, has died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 52 in Koh Samui, Thailand, while on holiday.Warne, who was named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Century, claimed 708 Test wickets in a 15-year career for Australia between 1992 and 2007, and was also an ODI World Cup winner in 1999.According to his manager Michael Cohen, he died of a suspected heart attack.”Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived,” Cohen’s statement read. “The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course.”Related

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According to Reuters, Thai Police said Warne and three other friends were staying in a private villa and one of them went to inquire about him after the former cricketer did not turn up for dinner.”The friend did CPR on him and called an ambulance,” Chatchawin Nakmusik, an officer with the Bo Phut police in Koh Samui, told Reuters by phone.”An emergency response unit then arrived and did another CPR for 10-20 minutes. Then an ambulance from the Thai International Hospital arrived and took him there. They did CPR for five minutes, and then he died.”The police did not know the cause of death but were not treating it as suspicious, Chatchawin said.The shocking news comes hours after the death of another icon of Australian cricket, former wicketkeeper Rod Marsh, who also suffered a heart attack earlier this week at the age of 74.”Warnie”, as he was known throughout the cricketing world, was without question one of the true icons of world cricket, a man who almost singlehandedly revived the art of legspin in the early 1990s.Although luminaries such as Pakistan’s Abdul Qadir had kept the art alive, Warne brought a new glamour and attacking intent to legspin, with his bottle-blond hair allied to a keen tactical brain that he used to outfox a host of unwitting opponents in his pomp.After an underwhelming debut against India in January 1992, where his solitary wicket came at a cost of 150 runs, Warne hinted at his full potential in bowling Australia to an unlikely victory over Sri Lanka in Colombo, before – in his fifth appearance – he ripped out seven match-winning second-innings wickets against West Indies at his home ground of Melbourne in the 1992-93 Boxing Day Test.4:17

Shane Warne’s ball of the century

However, it was the 1993 Ashes tour that truly cemented Warne’s legend. In the opening match of the series at Old Trafford, and having been shielded from England’s batters during the preceding one-day series, Warne’s first delivery left the sport dumbfounded as he served up the so-called “ball of the century” to Mike Gatting – a drifting, dipping, spitting legbreak, that turned a full two feet from outside leg to hit the top of off.Gatting was so confused, he did not initially realise he had been bowled – and in that moment, Warne exerted a hold over England’s batters that was so absolute, they would not come close to reclaiming the Ashes for another 12 years. And even when they did, in the seismic summer of 2005, Warne’s fingers were the last to be prised from the urn, as he carried Australia’s attack with a career-best haul of 40 wickets.Away from the cricket field, Warne could not help but court controversy. He was rarely far from the front pages of the tabloids amid a string of revelations about his personal life. In 1995, both he and his then team-mate Mark Waugh were fined for giving information to an Indian bookmaker during the previous year’s tour of Sri Lanka.In 2003, on the eve of that year’s 50-over World Cup, Warne was suspended from international cricket for a year after a banned diuretic was found during a routine drugs test – he claimed it had been given to him by his mother to help him lose weight.However, though that setback might have ended lesser careers, the year away from the game arguably gave Warne an extra lease of life going into his mid-30s. He returned to action with four five-wicket hauls in a row to lead Australia to a memorable 3-0 series win in Sri Lanka in March 2004, and then played a quietly crucial role in their subsequent “final frontier” victory in India.He retired from international cricket with typical showmanship in the 2006-07 Ashes, leaving the field arm-in-arm with his long-term bowling ally Glenn McGrath – a fellow great in one of the all-time great Test teams – after reclaiming the Ashes with a 5-0 whitewash (the first that Australia had inflicted on England since 1920-21).Even at the age of 37, the Warne legend was not done. In 2008, he was recruited by Rajasthan Royals to captain their franchise in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), and duly delivered the title with 19 wickets at 21.26 in the course of the campaign. Though he went wicketless in the final against Chennai Super Kings, he couldn’t be kept out of the action, as he and Sohail Tanvir sealed the victory with the bat in a thrilling final-over finish.Prior to his IPL involvement, Warne had spent eight seasons (2000-2007) in county cricket with Hampshire, after being recruited by his friend and England rival, Robin Smith. He claimed 276 first-class wickets at 25.59 in his time at the club, and later had a stand at the Ageas Bowl named after him.In retirement, Warne became a trenchant commentator, primarily for Fox Sports in Australia – ever insightful on tactical matters, if at times a touch bombastic. He also dabbled in professional poker, a card game that he said replicated the sort of mind-games that he had revelled in during his playing days. He became a fixture at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne and at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, where in 2009, his deep run into the tournament meant that he arrived late for his commentary duties at that summer’s Ashes.Tributes to Warne have poured in from the cricket world, from team-mates and rivals alike. Brian Lara, arguably the greatest batter to have faced Warne in his pomp, tweeted an image of a broken heart, adding: “Speechless at the moment. I literally don’t know how to sum up this situation. My friend is gone!! We have lost one of the Greatest Sportsmen of all time!! My condolences goes out to his family. RIP Warnie!! You will be missed.”Adam Gilchrist, Warne’s team-mate in one of the greatest Test teams of all time, added: “Numb. The highlight of my cricketing career was to keep wicket to Warnie. Best seat in the house to watch the maestro at work. Have often felt a tad selfish, that Heals [Ian Healy] and I pretty much exclusively are the only ones who had that thrill and pleasure at Test level. Rip Warnie.”

Warwickshire are in the wrong half of the table and urgently needed this dominating, day-one performance, courtesy of Varun Chopra’s unbeaten ton

David Lloyd at Guildford05-Jun-2013
ScorecardVarun Chopra made his third first-class century of the season•PA Photos

Plenty has been made of Surrey’s struggles so far this season. But Warwickshire are hardly sitting pretty, in the wrong half of the table and urgently in need of this dominating, day-one performance.The defending champions can argue that a horribly long injury list and the usual international calls have played havoc with their plans. Still, they have fallen short of last year’s high standards on a few too many occasions and will hope that Varun Chopra’s towering, so far unbeaten, century proves a significant turning point.Woodbridge Road and big scores generally go hand in hand (Kevin Pietersen blazed an undefeated double hundred here last year and Justin Langer went past 300 not so long ago). But, even so, this was a truly impressive display from Chopra and precisely the sort of innings he needs to keep himself on England’s radar with back-to-back Ashes series just around the corner.Having already played for the Lions this summer, Chopra is clearly in England’s thoughts. Now he has three first-class hundreds to his credit this season (after 163 against MCC and 108 at Taunton) and is pushing hard for ‘first cab off the rank’ status, if and when the national selectors decide to look outside their current Test squad for another opener.Chopra, a couple of weeks away from his 26th birthday, began a little streakily when top-edging Chris Tremlett’s first ball of the match for four over the keeper’s head. And he had a sticky patch in the 30s with Zander de Bruyn appealing unsuccessfully for lbw three times in quick succession. But apart from those moments, and a near run-out, the right-hander was in commanding form – pulling meatily, cutting precisely and, best of all, driving through the covers with delicious timing.Good things often come in pairs, of course, and there is no doubt the return to the side of Ian Westwood not only lifted Warwickshire spirits but also served as a reassuring presence for Chopra.The pair gave Warwickshire five century starts last season and they were at it again today, with Westwood, who had missed four Championship matches because of an ankle injury, supplying roughly half the runs during a scene-setting stand of 153. Bizarrely, 41 of those runs came off four mid-morning overs when Stuart Meaker, especially, and de Bruyn were taken to the cleaners.By the end of the day, no one’s bowling figures looked too flash, not even Jade Dernbach’s. The fast bowler hot-footed it home from Nottingham after being discarded by England, replaced Jon Lewis in the Surrey XI by prior arrangement deep into the last hour, fell flat on his face (literally) after sending down one delivery and wandered off with 0 for 30 from six overs.Chopra, meanwhile, strode away to the dressing room – having struck 28 fours in his unbeaten 187 – with the determined march of a man whose work is not yet done. He re-emerged a little later to admit to having a “sneaky eye” on going past his best of 233.”When you wake up in the morning, see the sun is shining and know you are going to play at Guildford, it has to be good,” Chopra said. “Thankfully, our captain won the toss. I’ve missed out in a few games this season but generally I’m pretty pleased with the way things are going.”Oh, that Surrey could say the same. But while the first day scorecard does them no favours, they stuck at their task reasonably well and have several batsmen – Ricky Ponting among them – who will fancy getting to grips with this friendly pitch and fast outfield.

Amit Mishra, Ashok Dinda and Shami Ahmed are expected to miss out when India name their Champions Trophy squad on Saturday

Amol Karhadkar03-May-2013Three bowlers that featured in India’s squad during the home ODIs series against England in January are likely to miss out on the Champions Trophy, to be played in England from June 5.Legspinner Amit Mishra, one of the stars of the current season of the IPL, is set to be a casualty along with Bengal pace duo of Ashok Dinda and Shami Ahmed when the selectors name the squad in Mumbai on Saturday evening.While fast bowler Umesh Yadav is certain to return to international cricket after breaking down with a lower back injury during the first Test against England last November, Vinay Kumar and Irfan Pathan are front-runners in what would be a five-man pace bowling attack.With the conditions in England not favouring spin, Mishra, who was the reserve spinner for the England ODIs, is likely to miss the cut with R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja available. While Vinay has been ignored by the national selectors since the last year’s Asia Cup in March, Irfan broke down after returning from India’s limited-overs tour to Sri Lanka in July-August last year.This would mean that in the absence of Zaheer Khan, who hasn’t recovered from side strain, India would be able to field the seam attack of Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar with Vinay and Pathan being the back-up bowlers. Both Vinay and Irfan have had an impressive IPL campaign so far, and one of them will lose out on a plane to England only if the selectors decide to stick with Ahmed. Dinda, having had a horrendous run with the ball for Pune Warriors, especially in the death overs, is all but certain to be axed from the 15-member squad.In the batting unit, the only major change is likely to be Shikhar Dhawan replacing Cheteshwar Pujara. Having recovered from the fracture that he suffered during his memorable Test debut, Dhawan is all set for another stint in the shorter version. Dhawan, who last featured in an ODI almost two years ago, hasn’t done much of note during his five ODI appearances.Despite being under pressure to retain their places in the squad, opener Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh are likely to return their places in the squad.

After taking a five-for in the morning, No. 11 Seales hung around for his partner Roach to hit the winning runs

Danyal Rasool15-Aug-2021Antigua 2000, Dominica 2017 and now Jamaica 2021. West Indies and Pakistan added another chapter to the list of enthralling, nail-biting Tests between these two sides as the hosts eked out a stunning one-wicket win with Nos. 9 and 11 holding on.As Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales kept batting, the nerves kept building. Finally, it all came down to a fateful Hasan Ali over, as a nick evaded a valiant dive from Mohammad Rizwan to race away for a boundary before Roach pushed two through the off side to guarantee a 1-0 series lead.Pakistan had their chances, but the story, for now, is thoroughly West Indian. The hosts looked like they had been edged out of this match so often towards the death, and yet refused to acknowledge it was game over. But it did look like that when Roston Chase and Kyle Mayers fell in quick succession, when Jason Holder was cleaned up by Hasan and when Joshua Da Silva – the last recognized batter – fell with 26 still to go. However, West Indies kept knocking down the runs, and the scoreboard pressure shifted entirely to Pakistan. The visitors might have been firm favourites after the hosts had been reduced to nine down, but as Pakistan lost their nerve, Roach and the teenager Seales held theirs.For Pakistan, there was historical precedence in perhaps their most famous Test of all. In 1954, a Fazal Mahmood inspired side defended 167 – exactly what they had on the board today – against England at the Oval: the origin story of Pakistan cricket. It might even have been comfortable when Shaheen Afridi blew apart the top order, and when a middle-order West Indian collapse saw Pakistan burrow deep into their tail. But the catching, so sensational up until the final session, let them down in crucial moments.Roach was put down by Rizwan as a partnership with Da Silva flowered, before Hasan dropped him as well in the deep with 19 runs still to get. In the final session, Da Silva was once again dropped by Abbas. Rizwan’s 45-yard sprint to seal Jomel Warrican’s fate looked also to have done it for West Indies, but there was perhaps an opportunity to pluck a diving one-handed catch off the Roach edge that ended up going to the boundary in that final over.It may seem ages ago now, but a dramatic morning session saw more drama than many entire days, spanning eight wickets across two innings. Seales led the charge in the mission to remove the lower order cheaply, and within an hour-and-a-half, Pakistan’s last five had fallen for 35. Of those 35 runs, 28 were added by an enterprising Hasan in just 26 balls with two fours and two sixes. That pushed the lead above 150 for Pakistan, each extra run giving himself and his fellow bowlers precious breathing room.Moreover, Babar Azam’s presence at the crease was always going to be vital, but a Mayers delivery seared up off a crack and looped up to Holder at second slip early in the day. Azam had departed for a valiant 55, and while it brought Pakistan agonizingly close, his side ended up needing just a bit more from him.From there on, it was down to the raw pace of Seales against Pakistan’s lower order. Yasir Shah and Afridi were sent back with little bother, but Hasan rode his luck as Pakistan brought up 200. Seales, though, would not be denied a maiden five-for in just his second Test, and got there when Hasan’s hook went straight to Roach at fine leg. In the process, he became the youngest West Indies bowler to earn a Test five-for as the hosts were set 168 to win.Jayden Seales became the youngest West Indies bowler to a Test five-for•AFP/Getty Images

The Afridi show began in a somewhat surreal over that had three reviews for leg before wicket by Pakistan against Kieran Powell, the third finally resulting in success. Kraigg Brathwaite didn’t last long in the face of a hostile spell from Afridi, his poke at one that jagged away leading to his downfall, but only after a review. Nkrumah Bonner dragged on in Afridi’s following over, and suddenly, the pre-lunch session turned into a damage-limitation exercise for West Indies.After the mad rush of the first session came the relative slow burn of the second. No less absorbing for its slightly slower pace, it carried with it the sensation of a building crescendo. West Indies made the early running as Chase and Jermaine Blackwood, West Indies’ top scorer with 55, threatened to take it away for the hosts with a 68-run fourth wicket partnership.They came out after lunch a much more confident pair, Blackwood continuing to put anything too wide or too full away. Hasan in particular came in for punishment off successive overs as he struggled with his lines; and with a small target to defend, there wasn’t much room for error, every boundary tilting the scales the batters’ way.Chase, Pakistan’s pet peeve in 2017, was looking just as untroubled without quite having as much of an impact on the scoreboard. But all West Indies needed was a partnership, and as long as the pair continued remained at the crease, the danger signs flashed for Pakistan.Faheem Ashraf, Pakistan’s impact allrounder of late, was the man to break the partnership, constantly threatening Chase’s outside edge in a probing over. When the edge came, Imran Butt was never going to drop a low catch; and in Ashraf’s next over, the same combination got rid of Kyle Mayers for a pair.But the moment of the session came in late, when a few Holder boundaries had brought the required runs down under 60. Blackwood hung his bat out at Hasan once too often, sending it straight to first slip; except Butt at second decided only he could be trusted behind the stumps, diving sensationally to his left to hold on to a stunner. On the stroke of tea, Holder found his off peg knocked back with a beauty.It looked like a bridge too far when Da Silva and Roach came out after tea still needing 54, but as in Antigua and Dominica, the West Indies lower order refused to give in. They began to knock off the runs gradually, and suddenly, with the pair looking relatively untroubled, West Indies had less than 30 left to go. Pakistan, to their alarm, found they were still in a game, and with West Indies refusing to roll over, it became a game of shredded nerves as much as exquisite skill.There was the glory of Rizwan’s catch that spanned the length of the ground, the errors like Hasan’s drop at deep square leg, the guts of Roach going for his shots with the ultimate consequence on the line and the heart of Seales seeing off some searing pace bowling from Afridi. Pakistan broke West Indian hearts four years ago, but in a classic that contained shades of Antigua, West Indies have exacted exceptionally sweet revenge in Jamaica.

A round-up of the Caribbean T20 matches played at Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad on January 9

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jan-2013
ScorecardJamaica earned their first victory of the Caribbean T20 by defending a moderate total in a shortened match at Queen’s Park Oval. Having made only 116 for 6 in 17 overs, Jamaica derailed a Windward Island chase that was progressing smoothly at 65 for 2. Tamar Lambert, the sixth bowler Jamaica used, took three wickets in the 11th over to reduce them to 66 for 5. Windward Islands wicketkeeper Lindon James scored an unbeaten 24 off 15 balls but got no support from the lower order and they finished on 104 for 9 in 17 overs.Jamaica’s total had been built around Danza Hyatt’s 44 after they were sent in to bat. Only two other batsmen got into double figures, Lambert making 16 and debutant Andre McCarthy 19. Garey Mathurin took 2 for 18 and there were two more run-outs as Windward Islands kept Jamaica to 116 for 6, but the total proved a few too many.
ScorecardTrinidad & Tobago’s second victory of the Caribbean T20 was a crushing one, their batsmen amassing a formidable total before their bowlers stifled Leewards Islands at Queen’s Park Oval.T&T opener Lendl Simmons made 62 and Darren Bravo contributed 65, both batsmen hitting five sixes in their innings to lead their team to 187 for 4. Pollard’s cameo was vital too; he made 29 off 12 balls. Tonito Willet, who took 2 for 18, was the only Leeward Islands bowler to go at less than six runs an over.No T&T bowler, on the other hand, had an economy rate of more than six runs an over. Legspinner Samuel Badree, who opened the bowling, Yannick Ottley and Kieron Pollard took two wickets each, pegging Leeward Islands back at regular intervals. Badree struck twice in the first over and Leeward Islands never recovered from 4 for 2. Later on, they lost three wickets for four runs to slip to 66 for 7. Chesney Hughes was the top scorer with 20 and only two of his team-mates got into double figures as Leeward Islands were restricted to 92 for 8 in 20 overs.

Australia skipper won’t play in Tasmania’s Shield clash against WA; will instead play club cricket and in Tasmania’s Second XI against South Australia

Alex Malcolm17-Nov-2021Australia captain Tim Paine is set to go into the Ashes series without a first-class fixture under his belt but he is set to play club cricket and second XI cricket for Tasmania over the next week before Australia’s intra-squad clash in Brisbane ahead of the Gabba Test.Paine is recovering from neck surgery he had in September and has not played at all yet this summer. His last competitive game was in April.Related

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He was hopeful of playing up to four full matches, including a Shield game, before the first Ashes Test at the Gabba in December.Rain last week washed out any hopes of playing for his club side University of Tasmania. He is now set to play on the first day of their clash with South Hobart Sandy Bay on Saturday, but he won’t take part in Tasmania’s Shield clash against Western Australia, starting on Sunday.He will instead play in Tasmania’s Second XI team in a four-day game against South Australia which is scheduled to begin on Monday. Paine will also have the chance to play in the intra-squad clash in Brisbane starting on December 1.Australia’s chairman of selectors George Bailey was not concerned about Paine’s preparation.”Just get some cricket under his belt, which we’re really confident he’s going to get back this weekend,” Bailey said on Wednesday. “And I think from all reports, surgery has gone really well. He’s feeling really, really confident. I think they’ve actually had to hold him back a little bit in the last couple of weeks to make sure the actual healing process has gone well and now it’s just a matter of actually getting some game time under his belt, so he’s really confident and really excited to be leading the team come the first day at the Gabba.”Paine will turn 37 on the opening day of the Ashes series and told last week that he has not given any consideration to his future beyond this summer.Alex Carey and Josh Inglis have both been named in the Australia A squad on Wednesday but Alex Carey is expected to be the second wicketkeeper in the intra-squad match and the Australia A wicketkeeper, and possibly captain, for the England Lions game starting in December. Inglis is set to play as a batter given he was part of the group that was required to do 14-day quarantine on the way back from the T20 World Cup in the UAE and is likely to head back to Perth Scorchers for the start of the BBL.

The preview of the third IPL match, between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Pune Warriors on April 5, 2013

The Preview by Vishal Dikshit04-Apr-2013

Match facts

Friday, April 5, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)

Big Picture

After the top two teams of last year’s points table kicked-off the carnival on Wednesday, the bottom two will meet in Hyderabad on Friday. While the host city has a new team – Sunrisers Hyderabad – led by the same captain Kumar Sangakkara, Pune Warriors have a new captain – Angelo Mathews – after Michael Clarke was ruled out of the entire season.Sunrisers will feel the absence of an in-from Shikhar Dhawan, who was Deccan Chargers’ leading run-scorer last season. After retaining 20 players from the Chargers, Sunrisers revamped their leadership, bringing together Tom Moody and Sangakkara, who had worked together as coach and captain for Sri Lanka. They also have overseas pace options in Dale Steyn and Clint McKay, and allrounders Darren Sammy and Thisara Perera, but only Steyn picks himself.Warriors had an unsettled team last year and the addition Ajantha Mendis, Ross Taylor, Abhishek Nayar, and the return of Yuvraj Singh, will bolster their prospects. Steve Smith is more a batsman than allrounder these days and Warriors will be tempted to include Clarke’s replacement, Aaron Finch, who scored two fifties and a hundred against England Lions recently. With Marlon Samuels, Luke Wright, Wayne Parnell also in the squad, a right balance might not be easy to find.

Players to watch

Kumar Sangakkara scored 48, 63, 139, 55, 142, 105 and 58 in the recent ODIs and Tests against Bangladesh. He will now have to score in the shortest format against compatriots Ajantha Mendis and Mathews, among others. His captaincy will also be under the spotlight, because he led Chargers to only four wins last season.Yuvraj Singh scored consecutive fifties in the Deodhar Trophy and took 3 for 39 and 3 for 19 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, so his recent form has been promising. With captaincy off his shoulders, and having missed all of 2012, he will want to score more than the two fifties he scored in 2011.

Stats and trivia

• Warriors won only four out of their 16 matches last season
• Warriors did not have a single bowler in the top-20 wicket-takers last season. Ashish Nehra, now with Delhi Daredevils, took 11 wickets for them and was in 26th place. Their leading run-scorer, Robin Uthappa, was 12th with 405 runs.

Quotes

“I am not looking far ahead. I am not looking at the semi-finals or anything like that. I just want to concentrate on every game, and on what we do in every game.”
“We have got replacements who are probably good enough to do the job and we are excited to give that opportunity to a younger guy.”

Dravid and stand-in captain Rahul both felt India were short on runs in the first innings, and expect Kohli to return for the decider

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jan-20227:29

Dravid: As a batting unit, we can look to seize a few key moments

India head coach Rahul Dravid has said the team management will have conversations with Rishabh Pant over his shot selection, even as they continue backing his natural aggression with the bat. Pant was out for a duck in India’s second innings in Johannesburg, edging Kagiso Rabada behind after charging out of his crease.”We know Rishabh plays positively and he plays in a particular manner and that has got him a little bit of success,” Dravid said in his post-match press conference. “But yeah, of course there are times when we’re going to have some level of conversations with him around, just a little bit of maybe just selection of the time to play that [shot].”No one’s ever going to tell Rishabh not to be a positive player, not to be an aggressive player, but sometimes it’s just a question of picking and choosing the time to do that. I think when you just come in, maybe giving yourself a bit more time might be a little bit more advisable, but look, in the end we know what we’re getting with Rishabh – he is a really positive player, he’s someone who can change the course of a game very quickly for us, so you naturally won’t take that away from him and ask him to become something very different. Sometimes it’s just about figuring out what is the right time to maybe attack or maybe play out a slightly difficult period that sets the game up for you or sets the innings up.”He’s learning. He plays in a particular way, so it’s always something that he’s going to keep learning, he’s going to keep improving and keep getting better.”Related

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On a challenging pitch characterised by uneven bounce, India were neck-and-neck with South Africa for three-fourths of the Test match before the hosts pulled away in a fourth-innings chase of 240, their captain Dean Elgar steering them home with an unbeaten 96. Dravid felt the result could have gone differently had India put up a bigger first-innings total after winning the toss.”It’s been challenging wickets for both the teams,” he said. “This fourth innings was probably their best innings as well. The wickets have been a little challenging, I will give that to the batsmen, but yes, honestly we pride ourselves on wanting to do better and wanting to get better, so yes, as a batting unit we can certainly look to maybe seize a few key moments and when we get those partnerships, maybe make them a little bit longer.2:54

Cullinan: ‘I thought India’s batters were too loose’

“There could have been phases in the first innings where it was challenging, the ball was tending to kick up a little bit, but we could have probably got maybe 60-70 runs more, it probably could have made a significant difference in this game.”So yes, certainly we would like to bat a little bit better, maybe some of the guys who got starts could have converted those into, say, hundreds. That was a difference in the first game – we had [KL] Rahul who went on to get a hundred for us and we ended up on the winning side. Second game, they had someone who ended up on 96 at the end of the game and they ended up on the winning side, so it really shows you the importance of, on these kinds of wickets especially, one of your batsmen going on and making a big score.”It’s not easy batting conditions, so if one of your batsmen who gets set can go on and make a significant score, that certainly adds those 60-70 runs to the total, which sometimes prove to be the difference in the end.”‘We had their backs’ – Rahul on Pujara-RahaneIndia’s captain for the Test match, KL Rahul, also felt his team had fallen 60 to 70 short in that first innings.”I think if I have to be really harsh, it’s the first innings, after winning the toss we could have put 60 or 70 more on the board and gone in [to the second innings] with 50-60 lead,” Rahul said at the post-match presentation. “That would have been really crucial for us in the second innings.”Apart from Rahul, no batter managed to get to 50 in that innings, with the second-best score coming from No. 7, R Ashwin, who hit a counterattacking 46 to lift the side to 202. That was to remain the lowest innings total of the match.Dean Elgar solidly carried South Africa past KL Rahul’s India•AFP via Getty Images

India had a wobble the second time around too, going from 155 for 2 to 184 for 6, before Shardul Thakur hit a vital cameo to follow up bowling figures of 7 for 61, the best Test figures for an India bowler against South Africa.Rahul was all praise for Thakur. “Shardul has had a great Test match. In the few Test matches he’s played, he’s really created that sort of impact and won us games. Really happy with the way he’s bowled and with the contribution that he had with the bat as well, it was really crucial for us and gave us a change to win the Test.”Before Thakur, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane did the bulk of the work in India’s second innings, hitting brisk half-centuries in a stand of 111 for the third wicket. The partnership came at a time when the pair’s places in the side were potentially under pressure, with both batters having endured extended periods of poor form.The team’s official stance, however, has always been to back both batters publicly, and Rahul maintained that stance.”They’ve been great players for us, they’ve done the job for the team over the years. They’ve obviously been under the pump a little bit but in the team we really believe Pujara and Ajinkya are our best middle-order batsmen and they prove that time and again,” he said. “So we really had their backs and to go out there and put up a performance like that it really shows the mindset they are in and the fighters they are. We always knew they could do something like that. Hopefully that gives them a lot of confidence and they can do out in the next game and put in an even better performance.”

A whole lot of not a lot at Hove, but it’s an improvement on this time last year

Paul Edwards16-May-2021
A match that had once seemed likely to end in a Sussex victory with Jofra Archer displaying his fitness for Test cricket ended in the most sclerotic of draws with Archer not even on the field. The first of these outcomes had always seemed likely once Kent had survived a short session on Saturday, and the second was probable once the England bowler’s sore elbow had prevented him bowling that same evening.Despite their lowly positions in Group C these sides never appeared to contemplate the possibility of setting up a game and the 43 overs we saw this afternoon might not be numbered among the most gripping of the season. Other correspondents could even judge them balls-achingly tedious.But Jack Leaning will take a different view. The former Yorkshire batsman notched only his second first-class century since 2017 and will approach Thursday’s game against Glamorgan in a more confident mood. Likewise, from their different perspectives, Tom Clark, who took his maiden first-class wicket, and Tawanda Muyeye, who batted half an hour for 12 not out on his debut. A drop of red ink is as comforting as a duvet to a young professional making his way. Every solid defensive shot is a moment.And if these slightly aimless sessions were still a disappointment we could scourge no one but ourselves. On Friday, when a 104-over day had heaved itself beyond seven o’clock, we little thought how fortunate we were to see any cricket at all, let alone to be doing so when millions could not.Zak Crawley was batting on that second evening, so such ingratitude required public abasement. But our penance, such as it might have been, was useless. The following evening, when only 24 overs were possible, Crawley was dismissed by the excellent Jack Carson and even that moment was given the elbow by Archer’s inaction, forced or otherwise.Thus to Sunday with the Channel turquoise in its shallows but gravely blue farther out to sea. A pleasant dawn was replaced by an unlucky bag of showers, some of them slight, others heavy with Anabaptist doom. While David Millns and Graham Lloyd made one of their inspections the clouds to the west were grey as an undertaker’s work-suit; to the east they were blue as one of Bryan Ferry’s more exotic two-piece numbers. Birds gathered ravenously on the white pyramidal roofs of the hospitality suites. By the way, the gulls in Hove have clearly been watching Alfred Hitchcock movies; I’ve seen smaller turkeys. The white thugs waited for scraps; we waited for cricket.Related

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At ten past one our patience received its reward when the Sussex team, minus Archer, took the field and Carson bowled the first over from the Cromwell Road End. The cricket soon became good-humoured, gentler in its rhythms and enriched by jokes and encouragement. Neither side could win the game but the practice had value for Leaning, whose back foot drive off George Garton was the stroke of the day. A little while later he swept Delray Rawlins for a single to reach his century and Ollie Robinson was attempting to emulate that feat before he was lbw to Clark for 85 late in the piece.And so concluded a match in which we had been at the mercy of not only the elements but also the endless work of the Sussex groundstaff and the good judgement of Messrs Millns and Lloyd. But umpires are rather fortunate at the County Ground in that they are two of the few officials in this area to whom folk actually pay attention. There are large parts of Brighton and Hove where people pat legislation on its head and send it over to Eastbourne. Visit North Laine and you will find businesses that seem to regard official forms as entertainments to which only other people need pay any attention. One would not be surprised to find a Private Walker or two sidling in the alleyways: “Need any vaccines, guvnor? I can help you there.”(And should Millns and Lloyd ever jack in umpiring they could go into business together selling perfumed unguents and other bathroom aromas. They already have the names for it. “Oh darling, could you be terribly sweet and pop into Millns and Lloyd for a rosewood and peony diffuser?” This would be a tremendous achievement for two lads from Clipstone and Accrington, where, one imagines, no-frills aerosols are produced by firms called something like Broadbottom and Snout.)Such reveries occur to one on these afternoons at Hove, for this place retains its tender hold on the heart, even on days when there is nothing much going on. A year ago at least one of us would have paid twenty quid simply to sit here for half an hour during the perfect weather that taunted us during lockdown. And it is easy to be seduced by the County Ground, to be beguiled by its cricketing families, by the scent of the sea, by the view down Selborne Road and by the writers who have honoured this sacred space. Surely, one thinks, at odd moments, the romance is all too much, too heady…And then one understands that resistance is utterly useless. In dusk’s first fading light a fox and vixen stroll over the outfield as though asserting some ancient right; perhaps they have their den in George Cox’s garden. And so, like the foxes, we go in search of supper and leave a great ground to its kindly ghosts on a spring evening.