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The hosts took the “wind out of Pakistan’s sails” in the 21 overs on day one, said New Zealand batting coach Craig McMillan

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Hamilton25-Nov-2016The hosts took the “wind out of Pakistan’s sails” in the 21 overs on day one, said New Zealand batting coach Craig McMillan, though he remained wary of what could continue to be a tough pitch. New Zealand had moved to 77 for 2 in Hamilton after being asked to bat on a lively surface, having become increasingly confident as the morning wore on. They hit 38 runs in the six overs preceding the rain that washed out the remainder of the day’s play.”It was favourable conditions for the bowlers, so I thought the way we played took the wind out of their sails to be fair,” McMillan said. “We were very positive and decisive in that first session. I thought our guys – especially Ross Taylor – were pretty harsh on any width that was offered up, and he made the most of it.”Taylor remained not out on 29 off 20 balls, cracking six boundaries – five of those behind square on the offside. It was a particularly important innings for Taylor, who has not only been in modest form, but has been troubled by a growth in his left eye over the past week.”I thought Ross moved really well today,” McMillan said. “Even the first ball that he left – sometimes he doesn’t like leaving the ball. I thought his decision-making was excellent. Sometimes he got some short wide ones. We know how well he enjoys playing the cut shot, so it was perfect really.”Opener Jeet Raval continued his bright start in Test cricket, finishing 35 not out off 63 balls. He had been dropped at first slip by Sami Aslam in the first over, but was largely secure against the right-arm bowlers, though Mohammad Amir continued to trouble him through the session.”He looked really good today. Always helps when you get dropped in the first over. I thought it was a quality first over from Mohammad Amir where he asked some serious questions from the left-handers,” McMillan said. “But Jeet just showed a composure that we’ve seen from him at the level below. It’s nice that you can see him take that step up and see that composure again. It’s what we’ve come to expect and what we know about him.”Really the key for any Test opener is the decision making. The good thing about this Pakistan bowling attack is that they ask a lot of questions. We know we have to be precise in the decisions we make at the top of the order in seamer-friendly conditions. I think he’s shown the ability to do that, and it’s been great to see.”McMillan expected the pitch to be just as tough upon resumption on day two because it will have been “sweating under the covers”. Nevertheless, he said New Zealand had been surprised by Pakistan’s omission of Yasir Shah. The visitors chose four quicks instead, perhaps swayed by the colour of the Hamilton surface, and the wet forecast over the first three days.”Yasir is a world-class bowler, so it’s good for us, I think,” he said. “If the game goes along to five days, you’d think that days four and five, a spinner might be needed and will come into calculations. They’ve decided that he wasn’t needed and they went for the extra fast bowler. We’ve got Mitchell Santner on our side, so we’ve got pretty much all bases covered.”

Chris Morris suffered from an injury and a personal loss on the recent tour of Bangladesh, and hopes to perform well enough to fight of competition and secure a place in South Africa’s limited-overs sides

Firdose Moonda16-Sep-20151:19

‘Our conditioning will be vital in India’ – Morris

Cricket changed Chris Morris’ life. Twice. The first time, it made him a millionaire, the second, it almost robbed him of everything money could not buy.In 2013, Morris received riches to the tune of R5.5 million (US$625,000 at the time) when he was bought by the Chennai Super Kings franchise at the IPL auction, after they spotted him during the Champions League T20 the year before. With the money, Morris bought his parents a house, got married and made a life, which included occasionally playing international cricket. He struggled to secure a regular spot in the South African side but remained part of their plans and was taken on their most recent tour to Bangladesh, where it all went wrong.Morris only played in two of the five limited-overs matches and struggled physically, with a groin injury, and emotionally, after the death of his grandfather. The combination almost cost him his career.”It was a really tough journey,” Morris said at a bowling camp in Johannesburg. “I’ve come back from a bad tour of Bangladesh that I don’t think I ever should have gone on but I was never going to turn down an opportunity to play for my country, so it was a lot of mental stuff that went on behind the scenes.””I had to find my reason for playing cricket again so I took a couple of days off, went to the bush, went hunting, played a lot of golf and found my passion again. It sounds horrible to say that as a young cricketer but I had a lot of things going on in my head that I needed sorted out and luckily we got them sorted. It was about going back to the drawing board.”When I was a youngster it was very easy to say why I wanted to play cricket and that was because I wanted to play for my country, and having coming back from that tour doing so badly I thought maybe I was not good enough to play for my country. I had a couple of dark days but there is always motivation when you put that jersey on.”Chris Morris wants his cricket to be enjoyable again•AFP

Morris’ returns of 2 for 32 and 0 for 29 are hardly the stuff of shattered dreams but they were disappointing for a player looking to push for a more permanent place. More devastating was the injury, which took extensive rehabilitation to overcome. “You are in a very dark space when you are injured,” Morris said. “I don’t think I ever wanted to throw in the towel but I was a little bit confused in my head as to why am I playing this game and what do I want to achieve out of the game. I think I almost lost sight of that a little bit.”During his time off, Morris had time to think about where his cricket was going. He was known for his bowling but remembered that when he first started playing, he had batted in the upper middle order and had designs on becoming a genuine allrounder. “When I first got into the Lions side, I had to bat at No.6 or 7 and bowl fast – that was my role,” Morris said. “So automatically batting takes a back step and you become that slogging tailender. I feel I have underachieved in four-day cricket very horribly. I know my bowling will always be No.1 and that will get me into most teams but I’d love to be a genuine allrounder.”Morris’ first-class batting average of 30.64 is better than his List A (25.29) or T20 (21.45) figures but he believes there is more he can do. ” I lost sight of my goals with batting recently and now, this is the hardest I have ever worked on my batting. I am hitting a lot of balls, I am doing a lot more drills which I absolutely hate but we’ve got to do them, so I am working hard on my batting,” he said. “Then, if my bowling is not up to standard on the day, hopefully my batting will lift me, and if my batting is not up to standard, hopefully my fielding and if I am not a good fielder, I will carry the drinks as well.”Warming the bench will not be an option for Morris on the tour of India, especially in ODIs, where he is all but guaranteed a spot after David Wiese was left out of the squad. He will complete with Wiese for a place in the T20 XI and both will be looking over their shoulders at the likes of Wayne Parnell, who will be at home but doubtless eyeing a comeback, and the rest of the reserve bowlers.Some of them like Marchant de Lange and Kagiso Rabada are in the squad, others like Beuran Hendricks are not, and competition is fierce enough for Morris to know he will have to stand out to earn a spot. “The pecking order I wouldn’t know, but I know there are a lot of gun bowlers pushing for that spot they say is missing in South African cricket,” he said.If Morris can fill it, the 2016 World T20 could be in his future and he admitted he had thought about it. “The World T20 squad is always going to be in the back of your head. It’s the World Cup, who doesn’t want to go? I will be pushing for it as hard as I can,” he said.For now, Morris is “just happy to be playing cricket without pain,” and hoping it can make him feel like a millionaire again.

The pink ball will make its Bangladesh Cricket League debut for the first time in Wednesday’s final

Mohammad Isam21-Feb-2013The pink ball will make its Bangladeshi debut when the Bangladesh Cricket League final begins on Friday. The BCB’s decision to experiment with the ball will be, quite literally, under the spotlight, as the first-class match between Central Zone and North Zone is a day-night fixture – another first for the country – at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.Both teams, however, have been given very little time to get acquainted with the ball, as they were each given a set of three pink balls to train with on the eve of the match.The initial report after the centre-wicket net session from both teams has been cautiously encouraging. Central Zone’s Marshall Ayub, who is the tournament’s leading run-scorer, was wary of how much the ball would swing, but said he had no trouble sighting the ball.”The ball moved sideways, so I think how much it swings tomorrow will be in the back of everyone’s mind,” Marshall said. “Everyone is talking about the pink ball in the dressing room, but I have done some catching and fielding. It seemed visible enough under artificial lights.”North Zone batsman Farhad Hossain found it quite easy to deal with the new pink ball, though he believed what happens in a competitive match will be far more important. “We played with a new ball mostly, so wear and tear wasn’t an issue,” Farhad said. “I think we have to find out what happens tomorrow when the ball gets old. So far I think it has been okay sighting the ball. I also found it easy catching the ball, even though one of the light towers wasn’t used.”It is a very different experience for us, but we want to see how it goes tomorrow. The only issue [is] it becoming discoloured [as it gets older], [which may] trouble the batsman because the ball will [need to] be changed. A newer ball under lights can swing around.”The BCB have set aside 30 balls for the five-day match as a precautionary measure, after concerns about its longevity had been raised. A domestic match in South Africa held in September last year was the last occasion when a pink ball was used in a competitive match. But concerns over its ability to hold colour, especially given how easily the sheen goes away, remained. It had to be changed roughly every 25 overs during the match The other hurdle for many of the players will be to switch between the formats in such a short space of time. The BPL final was on February 19, ending four weeks of continuous Twenty20 cricket, and three days later it is a first-class final. But Marshall said it is hardly an issue. “I think we will manage between the formats quite well.”

Mitchell Starc’s presently irresistible blend of swing, speed and direction is all in the wrist – the result of a fiendishly simple piece of advice from Wasim Akram

Daniel Brettig07-Feb-2012Mitchell Starc’s presently irresistible blend of swing, speed and direction is all in the wrist – the result of a fiendishly simple piece of advice from Wasim Akram.Since a brief meeting with Wasim at the SCG nets during the New Year’s Test against India, Starc has plucked 14 wickets at 13.42 in all competitions, finding the rhythm to test the very best batsmen.Twice he has removed Sachin Tendulkar, lbw to a ball curling back in the Perth Test, then pouched in the gully as he stretched to cover a Starc delivery snaking across him in Sunday’s Melbourne ODI. That dismissal was largely the result of the batsman’s knowledge that he could just as easily received a delivery that swung back: exactly the sort of doubt a left-arm bowler must create.Watching it all from the commentary box has been Wasim, who said his words to Starc had focused on sending the ball down with a snap or flick of the wrist at the point of delivery, a gambit known to enhance swing. It appears to have done the trick for Starc, who turned heads when he next appeared in the Twenty20 Big Bash League before returning to the national side.”One thing I like about him is he’s got the in-swinger going to the right-hander, he’s got the pace, he’s tall and he’s fit,” Wasim told ESPNcricinfo. “When I saw him in the nets we just mainly spoke about the swing bowling and wrist positioning.”I told him when he comes in to bowl to the right-handers like he does normally, to flick his wrist at the last moment to gain the most swing – the snap. On these wickets [in Australia] if he learns to do that he will get a lot more wickets.”If he’s done well after talking to me for half an hour, the credit goes to him. He’s picked it up so well, he’s a nice guy and I’ve told him next time I’m around, I’m here for the one dayers so if he wants to come up to me I would like to have a word to him about reverse swing as well.”Wasim’s advice, which also covered how to use the variation from around the wicket to pose more questions for batsmen when the ball lost its shine, was delivered with a healthy helping of encouragement, for the former Pakistan captain liked plenty of what he saw in Starc even before he had seen him bowl in the flesh.”It is a very simple, beautiful action, an easy action, upright, wrist is straight, everything is very natural to him, so that is a plus,” Wasim said. “He’s got a bright future. I had a very quick arm action, but his action is very beautiful, nice and smooth. Now he is flicking the wrist he’ll be more dangerous and over the next three to four months he is only going to get better. With his action there is less chance of injuries, that’s for sure and a good sign for him.”While Starc has benefited from Wasim’s empathy for left-arm bowlers, the older man said he was also impressed by the way the Australian attack has been harnessed by a former international foe, Craig McDermott.”He has a very good coach in Craig McDermott, who has been there and done it himself and he knows the psyche,” Wasim said. “I have a problem with coaches who’ve never played cricket at that level. First-class level, fine, but that level is different. You need to be able to explain it to a youngster that ‘look, I have done it’ and that’s how they pick things up very quickly.”Starc is not the only left-armer Wasim is hoping to aid during his time in Australia he is also open to working with Mitchell Johnson during his rehabilitation from foot surgery. Their paths may yet cross in Perth this week while the triangular series visits the west.”Being a left-arm bowler I can explain much more to left-armers than right-armers. The wrist positioning, angle, the crease,” Wasim said. “I remember seeing Johnson three years ago in South Africa, he was bringing the ball back in, he was getting wickets left, right and centre, but after that series it was gone.”Being a left-arm bowler at this level if you don’t have the in-swing you’ll be struggling, you’re not going to get many wickets. I can work with him and if he can get in touch I would love to help him – he’s a very talented cricketer, and he has a future as well, as long as he can get his in-swing back.”

Pakistan are likely to announce a captain for the World Cup within the next few days, possibly even before the fourth ODI of the current series against New Zealand scheduled for February 1

Osman Samiuddin29-Jan-2011Pakistan are likely to announce a captain for the World Cup within the next few days, possibly even before the fourth ODI of the current series against New Zealand scheduled for February 1. Indications, for the moment, lean towards the Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq taking over from Shahid Afridi, the current ODI skipper, for cricket’s showpiece event. But the situation remains fluid and Misbah’s chances were far greater a few days ago; a comfortable win over New Zealand on Saturday, with a starring role from Afridi, will no doubt impact on the final decision.The PCB announced a 15-man World Cup squad earlier this month, but much to the surprise of almost everyone, didn’t name a skipper for the event. Afridi has been Pakistan’s ODI captain over the last year but just before the New Zealand tour began, a number of key players and team management officials raised concerns with the board over his captaincy. The development placed the board in a quandary, between players and the captain, ultimately compelling them to delay the announcement.Expectedly the decision has been slammed by a number of ex-players, most notably Inzamam-ul-Haq; the broad feeling of discontent doesn’t revolve around the personalities as much as the instability inherent in such a situation. The board and the chairman Ijaz Butt, it is believed, have no real issue with Afridi remaining captain, but such are the nature of the concerns the players and team management have, that the board has found itself having to choose sides.It is understood that players are mostly unhappy with Afridi’s regular and very public assessments of his side’s performances, mostly when they have been critical. In addition, Afridi’s statements to the ICC with reference to the spot-fixing case involving three Pakistani players have also been felt by some players in the current squad to have been incendiary and unnecessary. Though local reports suggested that a group of senior players had thrown their support behind Afridi, players such as Kamran Akmal and Misbah still hold reservations.The inability of Afridi and vital members of the team management to gel with each other has not helped matters; one important management official is thought to have pushed particularly forcefully for Misbah’s elevation to the captaincy over the last few weeks in New Zealand.The delay has allowed the board chairman to travel to New Zealand to hold discussions with Afridi, senior players and management officials before making a decision. In a meeting before the team departed Butt also advised Afridi to try and improve his interaction with players over the course of the series. These meetings will ultimately decide who is to be appointed.On paper, Afridi’s record as captain is not hugely impressive, with seven wins and 10 losses in 18 games (and one no-result). He averages nearly 36 with the bat in that time, including two hundreds in Sri Lanka, and well over his career numbers. And though the 25-ball 65 against New Zealand in Christchurch on Saturday was his first fifty in 12 ODIs, he has, on five occasions, made scores between 24-49, which given the way Afridi bats and the position he bats at, are often vital hands.His bowling has not been as incisive, taking only 17 wickets in that span and generally going for runs. But in pushing ODI series against England and South Africa to the final game each time, in overseeing several fightbacks in tough circumstances Afridi would seem to have built up some credit.Misbah’s case for captaincy, on paper, is weaker. He has not been part of the ODI set-up for much of the last year; in fact, he only played two ODIs in 2010 and was dropped midway through the series against South Africa. His often poor strike-rate also works against him, and if Younis Khan is in the playing XI, robs Pakistan of some power in the middle. But he has built up momentum from his Test exploits, where he has been in exceptional form with the bat and has just led Pakistan to a drought-breaking Test series win.

Eric Simons has confirmed that Gautam Gambhir will not play in Friday’s match against Chennai Super Kings at the Feroz Shah Kotla

Jamie Alter in Delhi18-Mar-2010Gautam Gambhir will not play in Friday’s match against Chennai Super Kings at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Eric Simons, the assistant coach of Delhi Daredevils, has said. Gambhir pulled a hamstring during Wednesday’s defeat to Mumbai Indians and was forced off the field within the first 10 minutes of the match. In his place the vice-captain Dinesh Karthik has been elevated to the lead the side.”He [Gambhir] is going for a scan to see how bad it is. Once we assess him, only then we will know how long he will be out for. It’s reasonably serious and he won’t play on Friday,” Simons said.”The captain plays an important role. He should understand the game and should be able to take quick decisions. So many captains have been fined for slow over-rate in this tournament and we need to be careful.”Karthik has captaincy experience leading his state side Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy and other domestic competitions but this is his first task leading players of international quality in a lucrative tournament. Delhi won their first two matches before losing heavily to Mumbai at home.Gambhir joins a long injury list that includes Graeme Smith, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Ashish Nehra, Charl Langeveldt and MS Dhoni – all within one week of the IPL. Yusuf Pathan recovered from a shoulder issue and Virat Kohli survived a dodgy fall while bowling. However, most injuries – Gambhir’s the notable exception – have been the sort that cannot be avoided on the field, as Lalit Modi, the IPL Commissioner, stressed on Thursday.”I think injuries are not happening because it [the IPL] is packed too soon, injuries are happening because of the game,” Modi told the TV channel CNN-IBN. “Injuries will take place if the person gets hit by a ball on the wrong place and that’s what happens. Cricket is a game like that, it’s not because of the schedule that one gets injured.”

MacDonald-Gay takes four wickets to keep the table-toppers in command

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay30-Jul-2025Surrey continued their Metro Bank Women’s One-Day Cup charge with a three-wicket win over Warwickshire at the Edgbaston Community Sports Ground.Warwickshire were lifted to 239 all out by a dazzling maiden professional century by Davina Perrin (113 from 125 balls). Supported by Natasha Wraith (47, 49), Perrin salvaged her side from 32 for five after early damage done by Ryana MacDonald-Gay (four for 47) and Alice Monaghan (three for 48)Surrey then reached 240 for seven with 20 balls to spare as Alice Capsey’s sparkling 79 (73) underpinned the chase and Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s composed 43 not out (43) saw it to a comfortable conclusion.Surrey chose to bowl and did so very effectively in the opening overs as four batters had their furniture rearranged in the first 40 balls. Monaghan bowled Meg Austin through a pull and Abi Freeborn through the gate. MacDonald-Gay bowled Bethan Ellis behind her legs and induced Amu Surenkumar to play on. When Sophie Beech, on her debut, tucked her first ball to leg and was called for a quick single by Perrin and run out by Phoebe Franklin’s throw, it was 32 for five.Perrin and Wraith skilfully excavated their side from the hole with a partnership of 118 in 19 overs. Perrin posted the century stand in the grand manner with a straight six off Danielle Gregory before Monaghan returned to hit the stumps for a third time, Wraith’s as she tried to lift to leg.Issy Wong (21, 27) continued the recovery in a stand of 55 in nine overs with Perrin whose superb innings finally ended when she she lifted a Gregory full toss to long off. She walked off to a huge ovation and with her team right back in a game they seemed to have lost in the opening overs.Surrey’s reply took an early hit when Wong trapped Kira Chathli lbw. Bryony Smith (38, 31) and Capsey added 75 from 62 balls but when Smith launched Phoebe Brett over long off for six she immediately signalled for treatment and soon had to retire hurt having aggravated a side strain.Surrey shrugged off the blow as assertive cameos from Paige Schofield and Grace Harris kept the scoring rate high. Schofield fell lbw when she missed a sweep at Georgia Davis and Harris, match-winner in the final three days earlier, was bowled by Wong.Capsey was lured down the track by Brett and stumped and Millie Taylor kept Warwickshire in contention by removing Monaghan and Franklin in an over, but Wyatt-Hodge, with plenty of time on her side, eased Surrey calmly to their target.

This ends India’s reign as the top team across all three formats

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jan-2024Australia have replaced India as the No.1-ranked Test team in the ICC rankings. Prior to this, Australia had held the top spot briefly following their win in the World Test Championship final in June.Before the latest update, both Australia and India had a rating of 118 each, but India were ahead on points. However, India lost one rating point after they drew their two-match series in South Africa 1-1, and are now placed second. Australia, meanwhile, beat Pakistan in the first two Tests to stay on 118 rating points.This also means India’s reign as the No. 1 team across all three formats has come to an end. In last September, they had become only the second team in men’s history to occupy the top spot across formats.

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India and Australia also occupy the top two spots in ODIs. India are No. 1 with a rating of 121, Australia just below with 117.In T20Is, India (265) have a lead of nine over the second-placed England (256).When it comes to player rankings, Kane Williamson, Babar Azam and Suryakumar Yadav are the No. 1 batters in Tests, ODIs and T20Is respectively.Among bowlers, three spinners – R Ashwin in Tests, Keshav Maharaj in ODIs and Adil Rashid in T20Is – occupy the top spots.

Renuka Singh took three wickets to help restrict India A to 144 for 5 and set up victory

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Nov-2022Yastika Bhatia, Jasia Akhter and Renuka Singh starred for India D as they beat India A by seven wickets in Raipur to lift the Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy.Put into bat, India A didn’t have a great start, with Renuka trapping Shivali Shinde lbw in the first over. Soon after, she dismissed Disha Kasat too, making it 25 for 2 in the fifth over. Wicketkeeper-opener Nuzhat Parween and Harleen Deol stabilised the innings, taking the side to 52 for 2 by the halfway stage of the innings.The next five overs produced 46 runs as both batters opened up. Deol reached her fifty in 40 balls, with Parween following her in 42. The two added 105 for the third wicket, in 13.1 overs, before Renuka broke the stand with Parween’s wicket. Deol fell in the last over of the innings to Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who also had Sajeevan Sajana stumped three balls later.Chasing 145, Bhatia and Akhter set the platform with their 70-run opening partnership in 11 overs. Akhter was the aggressor, hitting three fours and as many sixes in her 38-ball 47.Jemimah Rodrigues and D Hemalatha fell for single-digit scores but by then Bhatia had assumed control. At one point, she was on 21 off 27 balls. Off the next 14, she smashed 31 to bring up her half-century in 41 balls.India D needed 38 runs in the last five overs, which Bhatia and Sushma Verma knocked off with an over to spare.

He smashed seven sixes and four fours in his 38-ball 67

Andrew McGlashan12-Jul-2021So, those questions about Chris Gayle’s form. The opener put on a thunderous display, with his first T20I half-century since 2016, to secure a series victory for West Indies as he pummelled the Australia attack around St Lucia in what became a cakewalk of a chase.Having made 102 runs in nine innings since his recall earlier this year, Gayle launched seven sixes in an innings that took him past 14,000 T20 runs. After he departed, stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran ensured there was no hiccup in the chase he closed it out with more than five overs to spare. It is the first time West Indies have won a bilateral series (or more than one match) against Australia in any format since 1995.Australia had made three changes – two enforced by injury to Ben McDermott and Ashton Agar – and changed tact by opting to bat first when Aaron Finch again won the toss, but it was a laboured effort after some initial momentum in the powerplay. Moises Henriques and the recalled Ashton Turner added 59 but it took almost eight overs.

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West Indies were excellent with the ball despite Obed McCoy being able to bowl only one over. Fabian Allen and Hayden Walsh Jr, who took his series tally to eight wickets, bowled their eight overs for 44. Allen also took a spectacular rebound catch in the deep to remove Finch in a display that further enhanced his fielding credentials.The Wade, Finch contrast
The struggle for the majority of Australia’s innings is highlighted by the fact that they had a useful 41 off the first five overs. That was largely down to Matthew Wade who again struck the ball sweetly as he did in the opening match of the series. However, with some of the issues being faced by other batters, Australia needed him to make the most of those starts and kick on but he departed when he missed a slower ball from McCoy. His opening partner is finding things aren’t quite coming out of the middle at the moment and Finch never got his timing during a run-a-ball stay where he was often losing his shapes on shots. He eventually fell to a worldie of a catch, completed by Allen at deep midwicket who remained magnificently alert when Dwayne Bravo missed the initial chance, and hurled himself low to the ground to grab it.Fabian Allen was brilliantly alert to hold rebound catch•AFP

Walsh does it again
The Finch wicket was Walsh’s second of the innings as he again did a terrific job, this time also bringing notable economy to his four overs. Pooran had held back his spinners – the match was a rare example of all the powerplay play overs being bowled by seamers of various descriptions – and when they were introduced Australia struggled to up the tempo. Allen removed the in-form Mitchell Marsh when he missed a sweep and Walsh claimed his first by ending a lively start from Alex Carey who had reverse-swept his first ball of the series for four. The spinners, which included one over from Gayle, did not concede a single six as Australia only cleared the boundary twice – both hits coming from Henriques.Gayle’s reminder
Gayle arrived for the fourth ball of the chase after Mitchell Starc, who bowled excellently after two expensive outings, had Andre Fletcher taken at midwicket. He saw out the over from Starc but then things got lively. When he got on strike to Josh Hazlewood’s first over he went 6, 4, 4, 4. There was a look in his eye of a batter on a mission. He was measured too but after a brief period of more sedate play, he deposited Adam Zampa for a straight six and followed it up in the 11th over with three consecutive sixes against the legspinner, the third of which took him to a 33-ball half-century. He saved the biggest for a huge leg-side blow off Riley Meredith that was followed by another the next ball before a top edge ended the show. Five of the last seven deliveries he faced cleared the rope. The match and the series were done and dusted.