Fast bowler returns to Bristol after short-term county stint in early season

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jun-2022Mohammad Amir will play for Gloucestershire in the T20 Blast after signing as a replacement for Naseem Shah.Amir, 30, played two County Championship games for Gloucestershire earlier this season when Naseem was injured and will make his T20 debut for the club against Somerset on Friday night, subject to PCB clearance.Naseem, the 19-year-old fast bowler, returned to Pakistan earlier this month when his father fell ill and while his condition has improved, he will not return to Bristol due to “a hastily arranged Pakistan Cricket Board training camp,” according to Gloucestershire.Naseem played only four games in his time at Gloucestershire due to a shoulder injury which he suffered on debut. “He has shown incredible dedication and work ethic, despite some small issues meaning he couldn’t take the field as much as he and we would have liked,” Steve Snell, Gloucestershire’s performance director, said.”It has been great to see him develop as a young man – his English has improved immensely, which is something he should be very proud of. He is a very popular member of the squad, and we very much hope to see him back playing in Bristol in the years to come.”We’re delighted to welcome Mohammad back to the squad. He’s a proven international performer and to have his experience available to us for the remainder of the Blast tournament will be invaluable.”Just over halfway through the Blast, Gloucestershire sit fourth in the nine-team South Group and are well-placed to qualify. They will be without David Payne, the competition’s leading-wicket taker, for their next three games due to his involvement in England’s ODI series in the Netherlands.

One-wicket win sealed in final over of run chase after Tammy Beaumont’s 70 for Lightning

ECB Reporters Network23-Jul-2022England star Tammy Beaumont’s 70 was in vain as the Northern Diamonds completed a thrilling chase of 200 by one wicket with two balls remaining against Lightning at Durham to close in on the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy knockouts.Since being left out of England’s Commonwealth Games squad last Saturday, opener Beaumont has posted 119, 74 and this 70 off 105 balls in fixtures for England, England A and Lightning.But she was one of nine wickets to fall for 79 runs as her region slipped from 120 for 1 to 199 all out at the Seat Unique Riverside, handing Diamonds the chance of a fourth straight win to maintain pressure on pre-game leaders and defending champions Southern Vipers.It was an opportunity they did not pass up, despite significant alarm at 184 for 8 and then 197 for 9. Jenny Gunn finished with 41 not out off 77, while Katie Levick hit the winning through the covers off Marie Kelly’s offspin.Related

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Beaumont’s former England opening partner Lauren Winfield-Hill fell for 61 having got the chase off to a solid start. But, like the Lightning innings, Diamonds struggled against spin on a slow pitch. Kirstie Gordon, Josie Groves and Lucy Higham (3 for 50) shared seven wickets.Earlier, New Zealand offie Leigh Kasperek impressed with 3 for 39 from 10 overs for the hosts – all Lightning wickets falling to spin as they lost their third game in four.In the final game before the near seven-week break for the Commonwealth Games and the Hundred, the Loughborough-based side lost four wickets for one run in nine balls after electing to bat.They fell from 153 for 2 in the 35th over to 154 for 6 in the 37th on a slow pitch used for Tuesday’s men’s ODI between England and South Africa. Kelly’s run-a-ball 37 included a six over long-off, and she led a 69-run opening partnership in 14 overs with Beaumont.After she fell to a brilliant diving catch by Gunn off Levick – the legspinner’s 150th women’s List A wicket in her 101st match – a 51-run stand followed between Beaumont and Sarah Bryce. However, the signs of a home fightback were there.Diamonds’ spinners slowed the rate, racing through their overs and also applying pressure with some tidy fielding and clever field placing from captain Hollie Armitage.And it worked a treat, as wickets started to fall. The Bryce sisters, Sarah and then Kathryn, both offered up simple catches off Armitage’s leg-spin. The latter was the first of the aforementioned four-wicket middle order slump – the fixture’s key period.Kasperek trapped Beaumont lbw sweeping in that collapse. That was the first of two wickets in the 36th over, Bethan Ellis also trapped in front (154 for 6).Left-armer Linsey Smith, who claimed two wickets to match Armitage and Levick, bowled one over in just 99 seconds. Veteran seamer Gunn bowled another in two minutes, nine seconds. Higham then ensured a target of 200 with an entertaining 27.Diamonds encountered similar issues in their chase, despite a second-wicket 70 partnership between Winfield-Hill and Armitage. Smith had been trapped lbw by Grace Ballinger’s left-arm swing in the second over before the experienced pair settled things down, Armitage contributing 20.Winfield-Hill lofted Gordon’s left-arm spin for an eye-catching six over long-on on the way to a 57-ball 50. But by the time she reached it, Diamonds were 94 for 3 in the 19th over having lost Armitage and Sterre Kalis to Gordon, played on and lbw respectively.Fledgling allrounder Phoebe Turner chipped a return catch to legspinner Groves, and when Winfield-Hill slog-swept Higham’s offspin out to deep midwicket, Lightning believed again at 131 for 5 in the 27th over.England A wicketkeeper bat Bess Heath sliced Groves to backward point shortly afterwards, further strengthening Lightning’s cause. Langston and Kasperek then followed as the equation became 16 needed in eight overs with two wickets remaining.That became three needed with two-and-a-half overs remaining before ousted Emma Marlow caught at slip. The remaining three runs were secured in singles after Gunn had hit four fours.

It is understood Sriram will act as head coach of the T20I side, with current head coach Russell Domingo taking charge of the Test and ODI teams

Mohammad Isam19-Aug-2022The BCB has appointed former India allrounder S Sriram technical consultant for the Bangladesh T20I side, running from the Asia Cup later this month to the T20 World Cup in October-November this year. It is understood that Sriram will act as head coach of the T20I side, with current head coach Russell Domingo taking charge of the Test and ODI teams.Domingo is scheduled to reach Dhaka on Friday, to discuss his future plans, and on Thursday BCB president Nazmul Hassan said that they were going to make “drastic changes” to the Asia Cup-bound side.”We are not a strong side when it comes to T20 matches, and to do something about that, we have decided to bring drastic changes in our thought process and mentality,” Hassan said. “‘We want to start anew from the Asia Cup, and if we don’t do it now, we will face even worse results in the World Cup. We have done appallingly in the last T20 World Cup. We don’t know if we can get out of the circle of substandard results in T20 games. Since the Asia Cup is the biggest stage after the World Cup, we will try to change our way of playing and bring results.”Hassan, however, insisted that Sriram is a consultant and not coach. “The first thing is, Sriram was in our shortlist. He is coming to Dhaka on the afternoon of August 21. He is not taking over as coach. He is definitely not the head coach. He is coming as a technical consultant,” Hassan said.Sriram worked with the Australian team for six years from 2016, as assistant coach and spin-bowling coach, and has a role with Royal Challengers Bangalore at the IPL. In his time with Australia, he had a big impact on Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar, and worked closely with Nathan Lyon. He has also worked on developing Glenn Maxwell as a T20 spinner both during his time with Australia and RCB.Sriram played eight ODIs for India between 2000 and 2004, scoring one fifty and picking up nine wickets, and has a long and distinguished first-class career.In a statement, he said he was excited to put his extensive coaching experience to good use with Bangladesh. “I bring with me 25 years of cricketing experience and nine years of coaching at an elite level. I am really looking forward to working with the Bangladesh players. I believe Bangladesh has huge potential in white-ball cricket and the very thought of being involved with such a talented group of players at two high-profile events excites me.”Sriram takes over a team that has won just two out of seven completed T20Is this year, on the back of the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE, where they lost five out of five games in the second round of the tournament.Among the challenges for Sriram will be to have an impact in a crowded coaching setup. Domingo might not be involved, but the team also has the influential Jamie Siddons as batting coach while board director Khaled Mahmud is team director.

We have what we often cry out for, a T20I outside the World Cup with something on the line

Danyal Rasool01-Sep-20220:29

Pakistan players sweat it out in the nets

Big picture

It still feels like early days in the Asia Cup, but one of Hong Kong or Pakistan will see their tournament draw to a close on Friday. The format for the first round means one defeat can place any side under instant pressure. With India having pulled clear through wins over both opponents, there is clarity to the mission for both the Associate and the Full Member, the giants and the would-be giant killers.There may be limited cricketing or historical evidence to suggest Hong Kong could mount a serious challenge to a side with Pakistan’s firepower, but they will be well aware a knockout in the shortest format presents a golden opportunity to spring an upset. Against India, it was the bowling that let them down, even if a spirited batting performance demonstrated the threat the side can pose. Babar Hayat, Zeeshan Ali and Scott McKechnie provided the big hitting, while Ayush Shukla, Ehsan Khan and Yasim Murtaza kept things tight, allowing just 82 runs in their 12 combined overs.

Watch live on ESPN+

If you are in the USA, you can watch the Hong Kong-Pakistan game live on ESPN+, both in English and Hindi.

Pakistan, however, might feel this game plays into their hands to some extent. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan do not come flying out of the blocks, but the template they follow was similar to one that India executed against Hong Kong on Wednesday. They opened their innings conservatively, before the middle order put the bowlers to the sword, smashing 98 in the final seven overs. And while India’s approach may have been a game plan tailored to the opposition they were facing, scoring their big runs in the final overs is how Pakistan play anyway against nearly all opposition.And so we have what we often cry out for, a T20I outside the World Cup with something on the line. It might, on paper, be a mismatch, but across the tableau of relatively context-free bilateral T20Is, it is rare to find a game with as much riding on it as Pakistan against Hong Kong on Friday. It’s a game Hong Kong will savour, but they will tell themselves it might just be one they could also win.

Form guide

Pakistan: LLWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Hong Kong: LWWWL

In the spotlight

At his best, Khushdil Shah is perhaps Pakistan’s most powerful hitter of the ball, but in Pakistan’s colours in T20I cricket, he has never come close to hitting those heights. In the game against India, which saw a limp performance from almost every Pakistan batter, Khushdil’s innings – a timid 2 off 7 balls – still stood out for its total lack of intent. Perhaps a game against Hong Kong, whose bowlers don’t quite offer the same threat as India’s is just what he needs to produce a statement innings.Kinchit Shah has come into the Asia Cup on the back of some decent form•AFP/Getty Images

Hong Kong vice-captain Kinchit Shah has had a memorable time of late. The allrounder was in decent form at the Asia Cup qualifiers and the Cricket World Cup Challenge Group, striking a half-century against Uganda and 139 against Bermuda, and picking up a four-wicket haul against Kenya. He was steady, if not quite explosive, with the bat against India, scoring 30 in 28 balls. Off the field too, things have been good. After the game against India, he proposed to his partner. A win against Pakistan to go through to the next stage would cap a blissful few days for Kinchit, both personal and professional.

Pitch and conditions

The weather is expected to be oppressively hot throughout the tournament, and Friday in Sharjah will be no different. The slower bowlers have tended to prosper here of late, although the small boundaries might be a temptation for the batters too

Team news

There’s a cloud around Naseem Shah’s fitness. In the event of his absence, Mohammad Hasnain would be the like-for-like replacement.Pakistan: (probable): 1 Babar Azam (capt) 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk) 3 Fakhar Zaman 4 Iftikhar Ahmed 5 Khushdil Shah 6 Shadab Khan 7 Asif Ali 8 Mohammad Nawaz 9 Mohammad Hasnain 10 Haris Rauf 11 Shahnawaz DahaniDespite the defeat to India, Hong Kong will have been encouraged by their performance, with the bat in particular. Expect an unchanged side.Hong Kong (possible): 1 Nizakat Khan (capt) 2 Yasim Murtaza 3 Babar Hayat 4 Kinchit Shah 5 Aizaz Khan 6 Zeeshan Ali 7 Scott McKechnie (wk) 8 Haroon Arshad 9 Ehsan Khan 10 Ayush Shuka 11 Mohammad Ghazanfar

Stats and trivia

• Pakistan are yet to win a T20I in 2022. The two games they played in the format – against India and Australia – have ended in defeat
• Haris Rauf is five wickets shy of matching Shaheen Afridi’s T20I tally of 47. Should he get there against Hong Kong, it will have taken him five fewer innings than Shaheen to get there.

The proposed plan involves a total of 22 matches, with a maximum of five overseas players in each XI

Nagraj Gollapudi13-Oct-2022The long-awaited women’s IPL is set to become a reality next year with the BCCI planning a five-team tournament for March 2023, immediately after the Women’s T20 World Cup ends in South Africa on February 26.The BCCI’s proposed plan involves a total of 22 matches, with each squad comprising 18 players with a maximum of six from overseas. No more than five overseas players can feature in a playing XI, with four from Full Member countries and one from an Associate nation.As per the plan, which the BCCI sent on Thursday to state associations and which has been seen by ESPNcricinfo, each team will play the others twice during the league phase (20 matches), with the league topper heading straight to the final. The second finalist will be decided via an Eliminator between the second and third-ranked teams from the league phase. The BCCI is yet to finalise the schedule of the WIPL, but it will be wrapped up before the men’s IPL begins, which is likely to be at the end of March.Whether the March window has been pencilled in for the long term remains to be seen, but the BCCI said in a paper on the WIPL that it has identified a “clear 25 days Women’s IPL window in the FTP cycle”. The inaugural WIPL is likely to clash with the inaugural season of the Women’s Pakistan Super League.”It will be a challenge to play the WIPL in the home and away format, because with five to six teams it is not possible to have a match every day,” the BCCI said in its paper on the WIPL, which was sent to the states as part of the wider agenda for the board’s annual general meeting scheduled in Mumbai on October 18. “It is suggested that the tournament can be played in caravan style, where after finishing ten matches at one venue, the next ten matches to be played at the next venue. Therefore, ten matches each to be played across two venues in the 2023 WIPL season, ten each in the next two venues in the 2024 season, and for the 2025 season ten matches in the remaining one venue and the remaining ten in one of the venues from 2023 season.”Where will the teams be from?
Unlike the Women’s T20 challenge, the precursor to the WIPL, where the teams were assembled randomly, the BCCI will sell the five franchises. However, unlike the men’s IPL, where franchises bid for teams in a particular city, the BCCI has chalked out two plans for the WIPL. The first one comprises selling teams across six zones spanning the country. A set of cities in each zone has been shortlisted and comprises: Dharamsala/Jammu (North zone), Pune/Rajkot (West), Indore/Nagpur/Raipur (Central), Ranchi/Cuttack (East), Kochi/Visakhapatnam (South) and Guwahati (North-East).The second plan involves teams being sold but without a solid home base, with matches to be played at six shortlisted IPL venues: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.The BCCI will present the WIPL plan at the AGM next week but a final decision will be taken by the IPL Governing Council chairman – who that is will be decided at the upcoming AGM – along with the BCCI office bearers.Exponential growth in participation – the reason behind WIPL
Women’s cricket in India became a big talking point ever since they reached the final of the ODI World Cup in 2017 at Lord’s, where they lost to England in front of a full house. In 2018, the BCCI launched the Women’s T20 Challenge, but it was restricted to just one match. Over the next three years, it expanded to a three-team competition. Voices across women’s cricket, both in India and globally, were critical of BCCI’s reluctance to launch a women’s IPL at the time.The board and several state associations were originally concerned by the shallow player pool in women’s cricket, but those reservations have gradually receded now.”With the rise in popularity of women’s cricket in the country mainly due to prominent performances by the Indian Senior Cricket team on world stage by qualifying for semi-finals in 2018 T20 World Cup, finals in 2020 T20 World Cup, securing silver medal in recently held 2022 Commonwealth games in Birmingham, we intend to conduct the Women’s IPL on similar lines with the Indian Premier League,” the BCCI said in its paper on WIPL.The growth on the domestic front was massive with the paper listing “an overall increase of 111% in participation of players along various categories” in the eight-year period between 2014-22. A further breakdown listed the number increasing by 129% in the senior women’s category and a 92% increase in the Under-19 category.The WIPL – and the proposed WPSL – will join the FairBreak Invitational, the Women’s Hundred, WCPL and WBBL as T20 leagues that bolster the popularity and growth of women’s cricket globally. The WIPL paper also noted that the BCCI had studied both the WBBL and the Women’s Hundred models before finalising its plan.

In front of more than 90,000 fans at the MCG, India prevailed over Pakistan in a nerve-racking finish

Alagappan Muthu23-Oct-20225:51

Rohit Sharma on Virat Kohli’s 82*: ‘One of India’s best knocks’

That front foot…Just the way it lunges at the ball…Even in this game…Even against these guys…Virat Kohli isn’t a man. He is a feeling. It’s why every time he walks out to bat, he lifts the entire world with him. Or at the very least roughly around one billion of its people.On a day where only the extraordinary was allowed into the MCG, one of India’s greatest played an innings that may be their greatest ever in T20 cricket. It has to be because, in the end, they beat Pakistan, and it brought a tear to his eye.Related

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• Rohit on Kohli's innings: 'His best for sure, one of India's best too'

• Kohli: My best T20 innings because of the 'magnitude of the game and the situation'

• Drama at the death – a ball-by-ball account of a cracking finish

• 'Virat Kohli, what are you?'

How it ended
India went into the final three overs needing 48 runs to complete a chase of 160.And they were facing a bowling attack that was drawing every bit of venom available on a pitch that offered scary pace and seething bounce.Haris Rauf was more bolt of lighting than flesh and bone. He was the one who brought Pakistan back into this riotous game. So naturally he had to go.All night Kohli was batting at a level that shouldn’t be possible. Like a 27th letter of the English alphabet. It was preposterous. Just like the two sixes he hit to end the 19th over.The first one was a back-of-a-length slower ball climbing up above his waist. The only way he could have hit it straight over the bowler’s head is if his willpower actually bent the laws of physics.How can you clear the biggest cricket ground on the planet when there’s no pace on the ball, and when it was meant to get big on you? How?!An equation that read 28 off eight balls became 16 off six. And still mayhem lurked.On the other side of ecstasy, there’s agony – Mohammad Nawaz after the final over•Getty Images

Spin was the price this match paid to be this awesome. Anyone that couldn’t put pace on the ball was being dispatched. And Mohammad Nawaz knew the same fate awaited him when he fronted up for the final over.He started it well enough, with the wicket of Hardik Pandya, but when he ran into the day’s unstoppable force, everything changed.Kohli launched Nawaz over that giant square-leg boundary, and long before the ball landed, he was signalling for a no-ball. Pakistan didn’t like that. Babar Azam and the umpires were involved in a long, animated and emotional discussion. It was a marginal call, a full toss perhaps over waist-high, and in the end, India got what they wanted.A free hit, which Nawaz used to break Kohli’s stumps, but that didn’t matter. You can’t get bowled off a free hit. And, as the ball wandered away, Kohli sprinted three runs. Cue dissent from Pakistan once more. They felt the ball should’ve been dead once it had hit the stumps, but the umpires disagreed again. Rod Tucker signalled byes.India needed two off one, but Kohli was at the non-strikers’ end. And somewhere in the midst of all this Dinesh Karthik had been stumped.Two off one with R Ashwin on strike. Who writes these scripts?Nawaz ran in… and bowled a wide down the leg side. WHO WROTE THIS SCRIPT?!Ashwin, one of the cleverest going around, just sidestepped that ball, and then with one needed off one, he casually chipped the ball over mid-off. The sound barrier broke as 90,293 people at the MCG – and countless millions at home – all roared as one. Some in ecstasy, some in agony.Virat Kohli took a moment for himself after his incredible knock•Getty Images

Meanwhile, Kohli was on his knees – just as he was in Mohali, 2016. He punched the turf. This was new. And when he came up, he was mobbed. He allowed his team-mates their time with him but then wriggled away so he could be alone. Or well, as alone as he could be with a stadium full of people singing his name. He stared at the night sky, with his right hand raised, and his forefinger up. Was he saying thanks? Was he saying, ‘Ah, so this is why I went through that slump in form? Well, fair enough. Good deal.’ And then suddenly his thoughts were broken as the captain of the Indian cricket team hurtled onto the pitch and lifted him clean off his feet. When Rohit Sharma came to the presentation, he had no voice.The other hero
It now seems so long ago but India had another hero as well. His name was Arshdeep Singh. Last month at the Asia Cup, he shelled a catch in the dying moments of a very tight game against Pakistan and was met with the vilest abuse on social media. He’s 23 years old. All he wants to do is help his team win. And today he did just that, by removing Babar Azam lbw with his very first ball in a T20 World Cup.Back then, this game was all swing and hoop and the lurid geometry the white ball is capable of. Pakistan were reduced to 32 for 2 in the powerplay. Then Iftikhar Ahmed and Shan Masood built a partnership. They took down R Ashwin and Axar Patel. Spin just couldn’t catch a break in the game, leaking 107 runs in 72 balls, eight sixes and nine fours.Pakistan recovered to make 59 runs in the six overs immediately after the powerplay, prompting India to bring back their quicks, and within 12 balls Hardik and Mohammed Shami had three wickets. Shaheen Afridi came out at No. 9 and belted one NSFW six over the longest boundary of the ground at deep midwicket, pushing the total up to 159 for 8. And it was game on.Long before the pulsating denouement, Arshdeep Singh made crucial new-ball incisions to remove both Pakistan openers•Getty Images

The best vs the best
Defending 160 is hard work, even for Pakistan. Since 2019, they’ve only managed to do it thrice in 13 matches. This had all the looks of being lucky number four.Rohit and KL Rahul were given the short shrift. Suryakumar Yadav was bounced out. India were 45 for 4 after 10 overs. If they were going to win, they had to score nearly two runs a ball for half of their innings.Talk about goading a genius. Kohli was 12 off 21 then. He would pick himself up with a six off Nawaz – a thundering strike after stepping down the pitch. Hardik at the other end got going as well. India managed 55 runs in the five overs from 11th and 15th and Pakistan knew they had to bring back their big guns.Shaheen came on. But he hadn’t played any cricket since July 2022 and all that rust showed. A would-be leg-stump yorker turned into a low full toss – which isn’t the worst ball to bowl in T20 cricket, it still denies the batter the room they like to hit boundaries. But Kohli somehow managed it. And all it took was a twist of his wrist.That loft over extra cover which beat three fielders – one running back and two converging on it from deep cover point and long-off – was like a catharsis. Not so long ago, Kohli confessed to faking his intensity. Here, he felt its embrace and it was all natural. And it was all good. So good that he actually punched the air even though India still needed 37 off 15 balls.Hardik, though, was still struggling. The pressure to find those sixes was getting to him and he began searching in all the wrong places – like square of the wicket at the MCG. Rauf bowled a brilliant 19th over – the first four balls anyway – to push the equation up to 28 off 8. Then Kohli got on strike. He knew the straight boundaries were shorter. And he went for them. Got one down the ground. Then another behind the wicket. Poof, just like that, 12 off 2. To be that clear-headed, to be that calculative, in that situation, requires…Actually, there’s no real word for it.Kohli said it himself. “I have no words. I have no idea how this happened”.

Sri Lanka batter has been banned from accessing Tinder and his other social media accounts

AAP17-Nov-2022Sri Lanka batter Danushka Gunathilaka has been banned from using Tinder and his social media accounts after being granted bail while awaiting trial on charges of sexual intercourse without consent.Gunathilaka, 31, was arrested in the early hours of November 6 at Sydney’s Hyatt Regency Hotel, where he was staying while the Sri Lankan team were in Australia for the T20 World Cup. He is facing four counts of sexual intercourse without consent and has not yet given a plea.Related

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• Gunathilaka suspended by SLC from all cricket

Magistrate Janet Wahlquist granted Gunathilaka bail on Thursday in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court, where he appeared via audiovisual link from Parklea jail.Police prosecutor Kerry-Ann McKinnon opposed bail on the grounds Gunathilaka is a flight risk and that he could endanger the safety of the complainant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.Wahlquist said she would take into account how bail would be approached if Gunathilaka was an Australian citizen facing the same charges. Murugan Thangaraj SC, for Gunathilaka, agreed that would result in him being released.”Of course he would be on bail in these circumstances,” Thangaraj said.A police facts sheet filed with the court said: “The complainant tried to remove the accused’s hand by grabbing his wrist but the accused squeezed tighter around her neck.””The complainant was fearing for her life and could not get away from the accused.”In a police interview after his arrest, Gunathilaka corroborated some of the alleged victim’s story but denied he had been violent or consent was not given.Prosecutors allege the victim did not consent to sex without a condom or any of the other sexual acts performed.Thangaraj said Gunathilaka had complied with authorities investigating and surrendered his passport.”There is no capacity demonstrated for him to be able to flee,” Thangaraj said.Bail was granted with a AUD 150,000 surety and various conditions, including Gunathilaka not using Tinder or any other dating apps. He’s also prevented from accessing his existing social media accounts unless in the company of his legal team.McKinnon argued the alleged victim could be at risk. “This man was in her home, they walked to the address together,” she said.Thangaraj agreed the pair walked to her home together, but said it was night time, Gunathilaka had never been to the area before and they had walked for up to 15 minutes. “How will he remember where she lived, in those circumstances, even if he wanted to?” Thangaraj said.The unidentified complainant was being harassed via social media, and has had to close her accounts, McKinnon said. The harassment was coming from accounts with “Sri Lankan names”, she said.Thangaraj said that was irrelevant. “He has not encouraged a single person to do a single thing,” he said. “She’s off social media, so that’s all stopped.”Gunathilaka will be required to live at a specific address and report to police daily.After matching on Tinder, meeting up for a date and heading back to her Rose Bay home, the alleged victim claimed the cricketer refused to wear a condom and choked her three times. Gunathilaka travelled to Australia with Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup team but only played in their first game before being ruled out of the competition with a hamstring tear.Sri Lanka were eliminated from the tournament on November 5 after losing their final match. Gunathilaka was due to board a flight back to Sri Lanka the following day.The case will return to court on January 12.

Only three West Indies batters passed 30 as the hosts lost the first ODI by 142 runs

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Dec-2022England 307 for 7 (Sciver 90, Wyatt 68, Henry 3-59) beat West Indies 165 (Knight 39, Dean 4-35) by 142 runsBrisk half-centuries from Nat Sciver and Danni Wyatt, and a four-for from offspinner Charlie Dean, powered England to a 142-run win and a 1-0 lead in the three-match series against West Indies. England posted 307 for 7 after being put in to bat and bundled out the hosts for just 165 in 40.3 overs as Dean took her fourth four-for in just her 20th ODI.England scored at run a ball in the initial overs but slowed down after Alice Capsey was caught behind for 17 and Sophia Dunkley fell for 8 to Chinelle Henry. Sciver kept the innings on track with partnerships of 42 with Tammy Beaumont, 46 with Heather Knight, and 103 off just 95 balls with Wyatt to propel England to a huge score.

WI fined for slow over rate

• West Indies have been fined 40% of their match fee for slow over rate during their first ODI against England in Antigua on Sunday. Match referee Denavon Hayles imposed the sanction after ruling that West Indies were two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration. According to Article 2.22 of the ICC code of conduct, players are fined 20% of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time.
  West Indies captain Hayley Matthews pled guilty to the offence and accepted the sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing.
  On-field umpires Jacqueline Williams and Leslie Reifer, and third umpire Nigel Duguid leveled the charge.

Beaumont was the enforcer during the third-wicket stand with three fours, while Sciver relied on ones and twos initially before hitting three boundaries in five balls to push the run rate towards 5.50 again. Medium-pace bowler Aaliyah Alleyne then had Knight caught behind for 16 before Wyatt and Sciver started hitting boundaries regularly from the 33rd over.Sciver fell 10 short of a hundred when Henry came back and had her caught in the 40th over, but Wyatt followed that with two sixes off offspinner Sheneta Grimmond in the next over before she also fell to Henry for a 60-ball 68.Amy Jones, who hit Henry for three fours in the 46th over, and Sophie Ecclestone put on a quick 45-run stand off 41 balls to take England past 300.West Indies were dented early in their chase when Kate Cross broke the opening stand in the third over and Hayley Matthews retired hurt with the score on 21. The 63-run stand between Kycia Knight and Rashada Williams was the only substantial partnership for the hosts and it ended when Williams was run-out by Sciver for 34 in the 20th over. Dean then triggered West Indies’ slide by dismissing Shemaine Campbelle for a duck, and Kycia Knight fell to her namesake for 39 just past the hallway mark. Matthews returned to bat when they were 105 for 4 and struck a quick 34 off 32 with five fours before falling lbw to Lauren Bell. Dean took three of the last five wickets to wipe out the West Indies tail.”Both facets of the game [batting and bowling], we didn’t do what we wanted on a decent pitch and England was able to capitalise on it,” Matthews told CWI Media after the loss. “We’re going back to the drawing board and see what we can improve on in the next game. Our powerplay was pretty good but we let a little too many runs go by in the middle overs. It was good to see the partnership between Kycia and Rashada and I hope we can get a few more of those.”There was a moment of concern in the field for England when Capsey injured her left shoulder. She was taken to hospital for scans.The next game is also at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua on December 6.

Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have entered the quarter-finals with one round to go, while Bihar and Manipur will contest the Plate final

Himanshu Agrawal20-Jan-2023

Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka in quarter-finals

An innings victory over Haryana – in which seamer Akash Deep took ten wickets – took Bengal into the last eight, as they won with a bonus point. Akash Deep was the star, but the win was set up by Anustup Majumdar’s 145 and handy contributions with the bat from the lower order, as Bengal posted 419 after being sent in. Harshal Patel and Ajit Chahal shared seven wickets for Haryana.Sumit Kumar hit 70 not out, and added 63 for the last wicket with Aman Kumar, but Deep’s 5 for 61 gave Bengal a 256-run lead as Haryana were dismissed for 163. Bengal asked Haryana, the hosts, to follow-on, but in another batting collapse, Haryana went from 129 without loss to 206 all out. Deep again starred with 5 for 51, with Mukesh Kumar taking three.For Karnataka, captain Mayank Agarwal’s 208 gave them a first-innings lead of 143 over Kerala in Thumba, enough to pocket three points and finish the round as table-toppers in their group.Related

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• Unadkat: 'I am not happy just to make a comeback'

• Sarwate takes six as Gujarat collapse for 54 chasing 73

Responding to Kerala’s 342, propelled by Sachin Baby’s 141, Karnataka declared on 484 for 9.Kerala batted for 51 overs in their second innings and got to 96 for 4 when play ended.Apart from Agarwal, V Koushik was a star performer for Karnataka with 6 for 54 in the first Kerala innings.Meanwhile, defending champions Madhya Pradesh already had 32 points heading into the sixth round, and despite an innings defeat to Punjab, they made the quarter-finals.Nehal Wadhera cracked 214 and Anmolpreet Singh hit 124, as Punjab put up 443 in Mohali.With the ball, Siddarth Kaul’s four wickets helped bowl MP out for 244, as Harsh Gawli, Yash Dubey and Shubham Sharma got to half-centuries but failed to capitalise.Punjab asked MP to follow-on, and skittled them for 77. On this occasion, it was Arshdeep Singh who got 4 for 30, as Punjab boosted their chances of a place in the last eight.File photo: Aditya Sarwate helped Vidarbha seal a famous win•PTI

Sarwate’s 11-for floors Gujarat

Left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate grabbed 5 for 64 and 6 for 17, as Vidarbha stunned Gujarat at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. Gujarat were rolled over for 54, failing to chase 74 in the final innings. That was a record for the lowest first-class target successfully defended in India, topping the 78 by Bihar against Delhi in Jamshedpur way back in 1948-49.Vidarbha’s win came despite falling 182 behind in the first innings, as they themselves folded for 74 on the first day’s play. Sanjay Raghunath scored 33 of those, as Chintan Gaja and Tejas Patel picked up five wickets each.Sarwate struck early with the ball in Gujarat’s first innings after opening the bowling, before Aarya Desai and Bhargav Merai added 117 for the second wicket. Aarya top-scored with 88, as Gujarat lost five wickets for 41 runs in a lower-order collapse to finish on 256.By then, the match had barely moved into the second day, and the action came thick and fast. In Vidarbha’s second innings, Raghunath, Atharva Taide, Akshay Wadkar and Yash Rathod threw away respectable starts, before Jitesh Sharma counter-attacked with 69 from only 53 balls – including four fours and five sixes.Siddharth Desai bagged 6 for 74 to restrict Vidarbha to 254 and Gujarat’s target to 73, only for Sarwate and Harsh Dubey to run through their line-up. Only Desai got into double figures, as Vidarbha secured six vital points.

Andhra stun heavyweights Saurashtra

Left-arm spinner Lalith Mohan took 11 wickets in the match – including a career-best 6 for 58 in the second innings – as Andhra beat Saurashtra by 150 runs in Rajkot in one of the results of the season.In the first innings, Andhra’s batters right up to No. 8 made useful contributions, with Ashwin Hebbar’s 109 and Ricky Bhui’s 80 leading the way. That propelled them up to 415, before Mohan got down to work with 5 for 71, pushing Andhra 178 ahead.With a big lead in place, Karan Shinde hit an unbeaten fifty, even as Abhishek Reddy and captain Hanuma Vihari picked up pace in the second innings. Vihari declared at 164, and set Saurashtra 343, only for Mohan to grab six more to firm up the result despite Cheteshwar Pujara’s 91.

Bihar, Manipur qualify for Plate final

Following a commanding semi-final victory over Meghalaya, Bihar qualified for the final of the Plate group with a thumping 302-run win. Wicketkeeper-batter Bipin Saurabh’s 177 helped them to 428 in the first innings, before Meghalaya were bowled out for 134. But despite a first-innings advantage of 294, Bihar batted again.However, Meghalaya hit back by bundling Bihar for just 164 to keep their side afloat. Left-arm spinner Rajesh Bishnoi took 6 for 30 to give Meghalaya hope, but the target of 459 proved far beyond their reach.In Surat, Manipur didn’t have it all that easy against Sikkim, who they beat by only two wickets as they hunted down a 337-run target in the fourth innings. For Sikkim, Player of the Match Sumit Singh’s all-round effort – 56 and 168 with the bat, and 6 for 60 with the ball in the second innings – went in vain, as Manipur eked out a memorable win.Sikkim were 63 ahead in the first-innings exchanges courtesy Nilesh Lamichaney’s 83 and Bijay Prasad’s 4 for 18, after which Sumit smashed 168 at better than a run a ball in their second-innings total of 273. Manipur’s Pheiroijam Jotin got 4 for 33 and 5 for 62 in the game. In the chase, Ahmed Shah’s aggressive 43 not out followed 75 from Basir Rahman, 64 from Bikash Singh and 52 from captain Langlonyamba Meitan Keishangbam to help Manipur home.

Numbers that matter

• Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat, who recently made a comeback to the India Test team, played his 100th first-class match in his side’s loss to Andhra in Rajkot.
• Bengal, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Punjab remain unbeaten after six rounds of games in the Elite groups.
• Leading run-scorers
  Elite – Dhruv Shorey (Delhi): ten innings, 806 runs, average 100.75, three centuries, two half-centuries
  Plate – Taruwar Kohli (Mizoram): ten innings, 746 runs, average 74.60, three centuries, three half-centuries
• Leading wicket-takers
  Elite – Jalaj Saxena (Kerala): 45 wickets in 11 innings, average 17.93, five five-fors, two 10-fors
  Plate – Rajesh Bishnoi (Meghalaya): 39 wickets in 12 innings, average 15.58, five five-fors

Match referee Chris Broad noted how the fifth ball of the match threw up a puff of dust and kept deteriorating further

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Mar-20233:27

Chopra: If every Test lasts only two-and-a-half days, there is a problem

The pitch at Indore used for third Test between India and Australia has been rated “poor” by the ICC with Holkar Stadium handed three demerit points.The Test ended midway through the first session of the third day with Australia winning by nine wickets in a game dominated by the spinners.”The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start,” ICC match referee Chris Broad said.”The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match.”

The ICC rates a pitch as poor if any of the following criteria apply

The pitch offers excessive seam movement at any stage of the match

The pitch displays excessive unevenness of bounce for any bowler at any stage of the match

The pitch offers excessive assistance to spin bowlers, especially early in the match

The pitch displays little or no seam movement or turn at any stage in the match together with no significant bounce or carry, thereby depriving the bowlers of a fair contest between bat and ball

The pitch displays excessive moisture making its playing characteristics unpredictable, or excessive dryness leading to the surface to deteriorate.

BCCI now have 14 days if they wish to appeal against the sanction. A venue will be suspended from hosting any international cricket for a period of 12 months if it accumulates five or more demerit points over a five-year rolling period.Indore was given short notice about hosting the third match of the Border-Gavaskar series. Originally it was supposed to take place in Dharamsala, but the outfield is not yet up to par after it was relaid. The BCCI announced the shifting of the venue on February 13, about two weeks before the scheduled start of the game on March 1.India prefer playing their home Tests in conditions that take turn right from day one. That certainly was the case at Holkar stadium when the home team having won the toss and opting to bat slipped to 84 for 7 in just the first session. At the lunch interval, India coach Rahul Dravid was seen inspecting the pitch with the curator in tow.The captain, though, though minced no words when talking about the 22 yards. “Honestly speaking, these are the kind of pitches we want to play on,” Rohit Sharma said. “This is our strength, so when you’re playing at your home, you always play to your strength, not worry about what people outside are talking about.”Steven Smith observes the Indore pitch ahead of the Test match•Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Australia’s stand-in captain Steven Smith didn’t mind the conditions either. “I personally really enjoy playing on these kind of wickets,” he said. “I prefer this than just a genuine flat wicket that goes five days and can be boring in stages. There’s always something happening on these wickets. You’ve got to really work hard for your runs. But it’s showed that the guys can do it. Guys can do it, you’ve got to work hard for them and you need some luck. With this one, whether it might have been a little bit too extreme, potentially from the first ball. I’m not really entirely sure, but it was still another enjoyable.”But in terms of a balance between bat and ball, the uneven degree of both turn and bounce led to only two scores of fifty or more in the entire Test match. India’s total of 109 was their sixth-lowest in a first innings at home. Australia, in their first innings, suffered a collapse of 6 for 11. Spin was responsible for all but five of the 31 wickets that fell and there were, in total, 16 single-digit scores by the time the game ended on the third morning.The last time a pitch in India was rated poor was in 2017, the Pune Test where Australia beat India on a similarly spiteful turner. Broad was the one who handed out that sanction as well.Nagpur and Delhi, the venues for the first two Tests of this tour in 2023, produced surfaces which were rated “average” by match referee Andy Pycroft.