The series isn’t without context, as there are World Cup Super League points up for grabs

Deivarayan Muthu22-Mar-20217:01

Will the toss be decisive in the ODIs? And, Rahul or Pant? Or both?

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In the year of the T20 World Cup and the inaugural World Test Championship final, most bilateral ODI series are expected to fly under the radar and this India-England series is no different. After being close to their full-strength in the T20I leg of the India tour, England will be without three of their 2019 World Cup heroes – Joe Root (rested), Jofra Archer (injured) and Chris Woakes (rested) – for the three-ODI series. It’s not an entirely context-free series, though, with World Cup Super League points up for grabs.This is a chance for England to take their first steps towards prepping for their 50-over World Cup defence in 2023 in India and test out the likes of Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Liam Livingstone and Reece Topley, who didn’t feature in the T20I series at all. In the absence of Root, their second-highest scorer behind Eoin Morgan in ODIs, England need to choose between Ali, Billings, Livingstone and Ben Stokes for the No. 3 spot.Livingstone, who is uncapped in ODI cricket, looks a decent bet, having opened for Lancashire and more recently for the Perth Scorchers in their run to the Big Bash League final. But then again, England could bump Stokes up to No. 3 and slip in Billings as a finisher, something that Dinesh Karthik suggested on during the T20I series.Related

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Matt Parkinson, Livingston’s Lancashire team-mate, has been in England’s bubble since January for the subcontinent tour of Sri Lanka and India, but hasn’t got a game yet. Sure, Parkinson is a legspinner who doesn’t have too many attacking variations like Adil Rashid, but is he good enough to be England’s second spinner?Likewise, Kuldeep Yadav has got very limited game-time since the last IPL in the UAE – eight matches to be precise, including a tour game in Sydney. Yadav hasn’t played together with fellow wristspinner Yuzvendra Chahal since Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow picked them apart when England and India last met in this format, in World Cup match at Edgbaston.Since then, MS Dhoni has retired from international cricket and Kedar Jadhav has been axed from the set-up. The absence of a Jadhav-like player – a batsman who can pitch in with the ball – proved a thorny issue for India in Australia. The selectors and the team management have addressed it by bringing Washington Sundar and Krunal Pandya into the mix. Hardik Pandya bowled short, sharp spells in the T20Is, but India may manage him more carefully as far as the longer formats are concerned in a T20 World Cup year.Suryakumar Yadav, who made stellar contributions with the bat in the T20Is and impressed Virat Kohli with his “X-factor”, could be the latest entrant in India’s middle-order roulette in ODI cricket.

Form guide

India: WLLLL
England: LWLLWAfter a quiet T20I series, Sam Curran will look to hit form in the ODIs•Surjeet Yadav/Getty

In the spotlight

T Natarajan‘s ability to nail yorkers, often on demand, makes him a compelling white-ball prospect, but this ODI series and the following IPL will be a test of his fitness more than anything else. Having emerged from a tennis-ball background, Natarajan hadn’t played as much with the cricket ball on the bounce as he did in 2020-21. R Ashwin revealed on his YouTube channel that the left-arm seamer had a tibia issue on his knee during the Australia tour and has since returned to the side after undergoing rehab at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.Sam Curran batted as low as No. 9 in the T20I series decider, with Morgan putting it down to a tactical move to perhaps break up the bevy of left-handers in the England line-up. On the whole, Sam Curran was under-utilised by Morgan – both with ball and ball. He got to bat in two other innings, scoring 3 and 6* from No. 7, and got to bowl just ten overs in five outings. In the absence of Archer and Woakes, Sam – or his elder brother Tom Curran – could potentially be given greater responsibility in the ODIs.

Team news

In the deciding T20I on Sunday, India left KL Rahul out to “bring in a good balance with bat and ball”. He could miss out again if they lean towards a sixth-bowling option for the ODI series opener. Kohli has also confirmed that Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan would start the ODI series as openers. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is set to lead the seam attack in what will be his fourth ODI since the 2019 World Cup.India (possible): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 KL Rahul/Krunal Pandya/Washington Sundar, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal/Kuldeep Yadav, 11 T NatarajanMorgan hasn’t guaranteed a return for Ali and if he doesn’t make the cut, Livingstone may make his ODI debut on Tuesday. Billings, who has excelled as a finisher since his return to the ODI team in 2020, is likely to play his first match of the tour.England (possible): 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Ben Stokes, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Sam Billings, 7 Moeen Ali/Liam Livingstone, 8 Sam Curran/Tom Curran, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Reece Topley, 11 Mark WoodT Natarajan, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav tune up for the ODI series opener•PTI

Pitch and conditions

The MCA Stadium in Pune has traditionally rolled out pitches that favour batsmen. The venue has hosted only four ODIs so far, with 300 having been breached thrice. The last time England faced India in Pune, Jadhav and Kohli cracked centuries to hunt down 351 in January 2017. The weather is expected to be fine for the duration of the match. All three ODIs will be played behind closed doors.

Stats and trivia

• Stokes is set to play his first ODI since his starring role in the 2019 World Cup final at Lord’s.
• Both India and England come into this series on the back of 2-1 ODI series defeats at the hands of Australia.
• Among teams that have played at least ten ODIs since the last World Cup, India have the poorest record in the powerplay with the ball: six wickets at an average of an average of 144.16 and economy rate of 5.76. During this period, England’s bowlers have taken 17 wickets in the powerplay at an average of just under 23 in nine games.
• Since 2010, India have lost only three bilateral ODI series at home. They had suffered defeats to Pakistan in 2012, South Africa in 2015 and more recently to Australia in 2019.

Quotes

“Even though we didn’t pick up the trophy, we learned a huge amount. It has been an extremely productive tour so far in white-ball cricket. The biggest picture always being the World Cup in both white-ball formats. You don’t always have to win every series in order to win a World Cup. You continuously need to get better, need to be tested as a side, need to fail in order to learn. That involves losing, which isn’t fun, but it is part of the journey.”
“Along the way, scheduling and workload is something everyone will have to be very aware of and keep an eye out for, especially in today’s day and age where you just don’t know where restrictions might come in.”

Sri Lanka will arrive in Dhaka on May 16, shortly after the Eid ul Fitr weekend, and complete a three-day quarantine

Mohammad Isam05-May-2021The upcoming three-match ODI series between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be held at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, the BCB has announced.The matches, part of the ICC’s ODI Super League, will be held on May 23, 25 and 28, within a bio-bubble stretching between the team hotel and the ground.Sri Lanka will arrive in Dhaka on May 16, shortly after the Eid ul Fitr weekend, and complete a three-day quarantine. Their first practice session will be on May 19 at the National Cricket Academy ground, adjacent to the stadium. The visitors will then play a practice match at the BKSP on May 21. At the conclusion of the ODI series on May 28, the Sri Lankan team will depart on the following day.This will be Bangladesh’s third ODI series within the ICC’s World Cup qualifying campaign. They are currently in sixth place, having beaten the West Indies 3-0 at home in January, but lost to New Zealand 3-0 in in March. Sri Lanka lost to West Indies 3-0 last month, are now in 12th place.The two teams only last week played out their final World Test Championship series, which Sri Lanka won 1-0 after a 209-run win over Bangladesh in Pallekele.Sri Lanka will become the second international team to arrive in Bangladesh since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The BCB successfully hosted West Indies in January-February this year, in a three-ODI and two-Test series in Dhaka and Chattogram.This will however be a different situation, since Bangladesh are in the middle of a strong second wave of Covid-19 cases. The country has been under a lockdown since April 5. The international flight suspension ended on May 1, but the country’s lockdown has been extended till May 16.Bangladesh will be without their fast-bowling coach Ottis Gibson, with the team opting to use a local coach instead.

Fast bowler also “mindful” of not wanting “to go searching too much” with the Dukes ball

ESPNcricinfo staff26-May-2021New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson will have “conversations” with his fellow quicks about the Duke ball and be “mindful” of how it behaves during the upcoming tour of England.One big reason for New Zealand’s consistency in Test cricket over the last few years has been the battery of pacers they have built, including their latest recruit Jamieson. On his first England tour, Jamieson has for company the experience of Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Doug Bracewell and Matt Henry, who have combined to play 14 Tests in the country.”Their experience [will be really helpful] – from the guys like Tim, Wags, Doug and even Henry as well, who’s played a lot over here,” Jamieson said. “There’s so much experience around English conditions and what the Dukes ball can do. So I’ll try and look [and] lean on for the next few weeks.”Related

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Like most sides that tour England, the talk among the visiting bowlers is expected to be around the Dukes ball, which tends to aid a lot more swing than both the Kookaburra – used in New Zealand – as well as the SG ball. But Jamieson first wants to get used to the Dukes ball and its challenges, already wary of expecting it to do a lot.”It’s is certainly a bit different – it’s a bit darker and harder as well, [and] the seam is a little bit more narrow. So it’s just [about] trying to get used to that and the hands,” he said. “There have been conversations around what the Dukes ball can do, but whilst being mindful of the fact that you don’t want to go searching too much and try to move the ball too much, and then getting caught on the bounce a little bit. So I’m sure over the next few days we’ll have a few more conversations on what it looks like and then go from there.”New Zealand’s scheduled warm-up fixture was replaced with a two-day intra-squad practice game instead to begin on Thursday. This will now facilitate an extra day of training outdoors, with the first Test against England set to start next Wednesday at Lord’s before the second Test at Edgbaston from June 10. The World Test Championship final against India will be starting on June 18 in Southampton.

Middlesex batter to move on season loan ahead of permanent deal

Matt Roller02-Jul-2021Nick Gubbins, the Middlesex top-order batter, is close to completing a move to Hampshire which will see him join the club on loan for the rest of the season as a precursor to a permanent deal.Gubbins, 27, was Middlesex’s leading scorer in their County Championship-winning season in 2016 with 1,409 first-division runs at 61.26 including four hundreds. He has been part of several England Lions squads across formats in the years since, but struggled to score consistently in red-ball cricket, averaging 24.15, 34.41 and 22.08 in the three Championship seasons between 2017 and 2019.His form has improved in the last two years, with a first-class average of 37.56 since the start of last summer’s Bob Willis Trophy, and he made a brilliant fourth-innings 124 against Surrey at The Oval in May from No. 3. But with his contract up at the end of the season, he has decided to turn down an extension at Middlesex and join Hampshire instead.Gubbins has made three appearances in the T20 Blast this season but dropped out of the squad for Friday night’s game against Somerset, and it is anticipated that his move will be confirmed in the coming days, with a loan for the rest of the season preceding a multi-year contract. Middlesex are also expected to confirm extensions for a handful of out-of-contract players in the next few weeks.Gubbins will be Hampshire’s replacement for Sam Northeast, who, as revealed by the on Friday, is set to leave the club despite signing a contract at the start of this season that was due to run until the end of 2022. Northeast will initially move to Yorkshire, who are missing several senior batters on England duty or to injury, on a short-term loan deal.Northeast, considered by some to be the best uncapped batter in the country, joined Hampshire from Kent ahead of the 2018 season and has performed solidly, averaging 36.92 in first-class cricket and 51.62 in List A cricket. But his T20 returns have tailed off significantly, and he was dropped after the first game of this season’s Blast. He has been left out of their matchday squads for the past two weeks while weighing up his options, and his departure is expected to be confirmed by the club shortly.

Katherine Brunt provides vital support in sixth-wicket stand after India post 222 target

Annesha Ghosh30-Jun-2021England Women 225 for 5 (Dunkley 73, Winfield-Hill 42, Brunt 33*, Poonam 2-63) beat India Women 221 (Raj 59, Verma 44, Cross 5-34, Ecclestone 3-33) by five wicketsKate Cross’s second career five-for and a second successive three-for from Sophie Ecclestone, followed by a sixth-wicket unbeaten 92 stand between half-centurion Sophia Dunkley and Katherine Brunt set up England’s five-wicket win in the second ODI as Mithali Raj’s second fifty in as many games was in vain.India scored 71 off their last 15 overs to set England 222; the hosts needed 65 off theirs to clinch a second straight win and bolster their lead to 6-2 in the seven-match multi-format series. By then, Dunkley, batting for the first time in ODIs having made her debut in the format on Sunday, had put on 24 with Brunt. It took the duo less than 13 of those 15 overs to overhaul the target as Dunkley finished on 73 not out and Brunt on an unbeaten 33.Exuding the nerveless, clear-headed approach that underpinned her 74 not out on Test debut earlier this month, Dunkley steadied England’s chase after the home team lost half their side with 79 still needed. Her release shot – an imperious six into the long-on stands off pacer Shikha Pandey in the 34th over – put England in the driver’s seat after intermittent strikes had denied England’s top five any fifty partnerships.A maiden from Pandey in the first half of the Powerplay set the tone for India’s defence, under stand-in captain Harmanpreet Kaur as Raj didn’t field owing to neck pain. Jhulan Goswami drew first blood with a jaffa in the fifth over. Landing one on a good length, Goswami had it seam away slightly after pitching on middle, when, as replays suggested, the original line had been heading down leg. The misreading of the line caused the in-form Beaumont to be bowled for just 10.Beaumont’s opening partner, Lauren Winfield-Hill, showed early promise with a bouquet of cracking drives through the covers and over the bowler’s head. She hit four fours and a six en route to her 42 but fell to a feather of an edge in Pandey’s second spell thanks to brilliant Taniya Bhatia, standing up, with the gloves.Pandey could have had a second wicket a ball later. Kaur claimed a low catch diving forward to a Sciver lofted drive to mid-off, and was adamant her fingers were under the ball as she did so. The on-field soft signal, however, was not out, and was duly upheld, much to her displeasure, when the zoomed-in TV replays proved inconclusive.Kate Cross claimed a five-for as England took control of the second ODI•PA Photos/Getty Images

It could have proven to be a pivotal flashpoint. Instead, on 92 for 3, with Sciver having added another six runs since the close shave, offspinner Rana caused her to edge to Bhatia for the second of the wicketkeeper’s superb takes. Poonam picked up Amy Jones in the 29th over, keeping India’s chances alive, until Brunt and Dunkley staged a meticulous rebuild.As with their bowling performance, with the bat, India showed better intent than the first ODI. Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma’s fifty opening stand came up in the 11th over, but in the next over, the introduction of England’s third pacer, Cross, led to the first breakthrough, with Mandhana chopping on a good-length, scrambled-seam delivery that nipped away from the bat.England had turned to spin as early as the ninth over, with Ecclestone bowling six overs for 20 runs and picking up the wicket of Verma in her first spell. Badly dropped on 21 by Winfield-Hill at mid-off, and parched of runs in the first three balls of the 17th over, Verma, six shy of a maiden ODI fifty, trotted down the pitch but was stumped adeptly by Jones as Ecclestone dragged her length back.No. 3 Jemimah Rodgriues, replacing Punam Raut as one of three changes to India’s XI, struck two emphatic fours in Ecclestone’s fifth over. That’s all she could score in her 15-ball stay before coming down the wicket to Cross, and offering up a leading edge for Brunt to complete an easy take.After India slipped from 56 for 0 to 77 for 3 in the space of 29 balls, Raj and her deputy, Kaur, strung a fourth-wicket stand of 68 runs, their third fifty-plus stand in their last four ODI innings together, to lift India to 145 for 4 by the 34th over. Their stand ended with Cross eliciting a cavalier hoick off Kaur that ended up in a benign top edge for the bowler herself to gobble up.Related

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The next-best partnership was worth just 15, between Raj and Deepti Sharma, whose flick found Dunkley in the deep, as Cross made giant strides on her merry march to the Player-of-the-Match honours. Sharma’s wicket capped off Cross’s four-for, the first by an England bowler in a home ODI since Anya Shrubsole’s epochal five-for in the 2017 World Cup final at Lord’s.Cross sealed her five-for with the wicket of Sneh Rana, who made the XI at the expense of Pooja Vastrakar. Drawing a leading edge similar to Rodrigues’, Rana was held at the second attempt by a relieved Heather Knight, as England celebrated with a group hug to mark a fine performance from a popular player.Ecclestone followed up her 3 for 40 in the first game with 3 for 33 in the second, Bhatia her second scalp at Taunton. In Shikha Pandey, Sciver picked up her 50th ODI wicket.Raj found support towards the end of the innings from No. 10 Goswami, who pulled Brunt twice with aplomb in her unbeaten run-a-ball 19. Regular dismissals at the other end meant Raj dropped the scoring pace somewhat as she neared her fifty, a highlights-worthy compilation of back-foot punches, cuts, trademark cover drives, and a failed attempt at pulling a superb Cross bouncer in the 36th over.On 48, Raj copped a bouncer from Cross on the front of her grille, but quickly shook it off to bring up a half-century, her 57th in the format. However, she was run out nine runs later, after a terrific recovery from Dunkley on the deep square boundary. After recovering from a misfield, her bullet throw was well gathered in front of the stumps by Jones, who whipped off the bails to claim the key scalp among her day’s four dismissals.A 29-run tenth-wicket stand between Goswami and Poonam Yadav, who was picked over Ekta Bisht as the second frontline spin-bowling option, dragged India past 200. Ecclestone bowled Yadav for a 15-ball 10 off the final delivery of the innings. And though India bettered their 201 tally in the first post 221 in the second, it again proved insufficient to get the better of England.

van Buuren adds aggressive fifty, takes three wickets as Robinson’s 75 goes in vain

ECB Reporters Network12-Aug-2021Chris Dent hit an unbeaten 112 as Gloucestershire cruised to an eight-wicket win over Kent Spitfires in the Royal London Cup at Beckenham, with 74 balls to spare.Graeme van Buuren added an aggressive 51 not out as Gloucestershire closed on 219 for 2, leaving the visitors with an anxious wait to see if Lancashire would deny them a place in the quarter-finals by beating Essex at Old Trafford.Ollie Robinson made his highest List A score of 75 but Kent failed to build on a solid opening partnership and were restricted to 218 for 9. Van Buuren took 3 for 34, with James Bracey taking five catches.Gloucestershire began the day in sixth place in the table, but knowing they would qualify on points-per-game in third if they won and Lancashire lost to Essex.The visitors won the toss and asked Kent to bat under unexpectedly cloudy skies.Robinson was dropped on 12 and 21 and Kent advanced to 61 without loss, but the hosts toiled after Tawanda Muyeye pulled Jared Warner to Tom Smith at midwicket for 30.Van Buuren then bowled Jack Leaning for 16 and had a disgruntled George Munsey caught behind off the next ball. Harry Finch bottom-edged the hat-trick ball for a single but fell in the next over for one, becoming Ollie Price’s maiden victim at county level when he was caught behind.Robinson then edged Van Buuren behind and Bracey claimed his fourth catch of the innings when Josh Shaw found Grant Stewart’s inside edge and was out for six.Darren Stevens gave Kent some hope with 40, but when he was caught by Bracey off Matt Taylor Kent were down to the bowlers, with six overs remaining. Harry Podmore made 19 but when he tried to accelerate he holed out to Taylor and Smith took a steepling catch.Warner bowled Nathan Gilchrist for five and it was left to James Logan and Matt Quinn, unbeaten on 17 and 3 respectively, to nudge the total towards something defendable.Just how defendable it was became clear as Gloucestershire marched to 72 without loss before Price was lbw to Leaning for 24 in the 12th over. Logan trapped Bracey lbw, attempting to reverse sweep for 23 and Muyeye was unlucky not to take his first Kent wicket when Dent was dropped on 70, but the Spitfires were doomed by failure to make any further inroads.A Van Buuren six over midwicket sent a number of supporters to the exit and Dent reached his century with an edge through the vacant slip area for a single off Quinn, before cutting Stewart to the boundary for the winning runs.

English duo sign up for maiden BBL campaigns

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Nov-2021Perth Scorchers have signed the English duo of Laurie Evans and Brydon Carse for their upcoming Big Bash campaign.Evans, the Surrey batter, has not been capped but built up an impressive record on the T20 circuit in recent years, featuring in leagues in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean.Durham seamer Carse made his England debut during the ODI series against Pakistan in the northern summer, when he was called up after a Covid outbreak. Both players were involved in the Hundred and will be making their first appearances in the Big Bash, with the competition due to start on December 5.Related

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“Laurie is a top player who will bring versatility, power and experience to the team, he is a great competitor, and we look forward to welcoming him to the Scorchers,” Perth Scorchers head coach, Adam Voges, said.”Brydon is an impressive young talent who can make an impact with both ball and bat and has the ability to take the game away from any opposition.”Evans, 34, has played 184 times in T20 cricket and averages 33.85 with a strike rate of 133.88. His arrival will help cover for the absence of England batter Liam Livingstone, who made 426 runs at 30.42 last season.”I am chuffed to bits to be given the opportunity to play for the Scorchers this summer, they are a really successful team in the Big Bash,” he said. “I think over my career I have prided myself on being there at the end and winning games of cricket in tight situations, that’s what I’ll be looking to do.Laurie Evans featured for Oval Invincibles in the Hundred•Getty Images

“The Big Bash is certainly a tournament the world looks at as one of the biggest and I’m just really grateful to be given the opportunity to be a part of it.”Carse, a team-mate of Scorchers batter Cameron Bancroft at Durham, has only taken 21 wickets in his T20 career but enjoyed a productive summer across all formats. The 26-year-old claimed a maiden List A five-for in his second ODI appearance for England, and also showed his promise the with bat in scoring a 30-ball half-century in the Vitality Blast.”The Scorchers have been one of the top teams in the Big Bash for a number of years and to have the opportunity to play at Optus stadium in front of Scorchers fans will be special,” Carse said.”I’m hoping to create some match-winning performances with both bat and ball, I like to think I play my cricket with a smile on my face and enjoy it. The squad has a lot of depth in all departments and I’m very confident that we can go all the way – it’s exciting.”

Allrounder prepared to play through pain again but will wait to see how side strain responds to treatment

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jan-2022Ben Stokes has said he wants to play in the fifth Ashes Test in Hobart but admitted his availability to feature as a specialist batter would depend on how his side strain responded to treatment, with the potential to do further damage ahead of England’s Test tour to the West Indies in March.Stokes suffered a “low grade tear” while bowling in Australia’s first innings in Sydney, but played on through the pain, scoring half-centuries in each innings as England fought their way to a draw – thus ending any prospect of being whitewashed 5-0 for the third time in 15 years.England saw a number of players sustain injuries over the course of five days at the SCG, the most serious being a finger fracture that has ruled Jos Buttler out of the final Test. Jonny Bairstow took a blow on the thumb on the way to scoring a first-innings hundred, with his fitness to play in Hobart also to be assessed.Related

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All three played their part in helping England get through the final day: Stokes scoring 60 off 123 balls, Bairstow 41 off 105 and Buttler 11 off 38.Writing in his newspaper column three days out from the fifth Test, Stokes said he couldn’t say “definitively” if he would be involved.”The big question now is whether I can play in the final game as a batsman or not,” he wrote in the . “I’m not going to say definitively just yet because there are still a few days to go and we need to see how I respond to the treatment, but what I will say is that I want to play.”If it is a question of playing through a bit of pain, I know it is not going to be as bad as it was in Sydney and I got through that okay. But there are other things to consider such as the West Indies tour to come and the likelihood of doing more damage.”Stokes came into the Sydney Test with a top-score of 34 from six innings, but found some form with the bat after being forced off midway through an over on the second day. He stayed on the field, despite the injury, to ensure he would not have to give up his spot at No. 5.”I’ve never had a side strain before but when I bowled the ball that caused the low grade tear, it must be what surgery without the anaesthetic feels like, it was agony,” Stokes said. “As painful as it was, amazingly it is not the most pain that I have been in on a cricket field. That will always belong to my broken finger, but this comes a close second.”The medics and Graham Thorpe suggested perhaps I shouldn’t field, but I felt I needed to be out there to give some support to the team especially when the bowlers were having to step up and bowl my overs.”Stokes suffered the strain after being brought on for a sustained spell of short-pitched bowling, but denied England’s choice of tactics contributed to situation.”Some people might have an issue with the type of bowling, but it could happen bowling normally and I can’t start worrying about getting injured, otherwise I’m not doing my job properly. Anytime you bowl in a Test match there is a risk of injury.”

Nation was stretchered off while Taylor was hit on the helmet and suffered concussion

Firdose Moonda03-Feb-2022West Indies lost Chedean Nation and Stafanie Taylor to on-field injuries during the third ODI against South Africa, who won the fixture by 96 runs. The four-match series is level at 1-1, with one game to play.Nation was stretchered off the field in the 40th over of the South African innings after tumbling while trying to stop a Mignon du Preez boundary. She was at midwicket as du Preez swiped, Nation ran in, slipped and fell head over heels. She was unmoved as the ball crossed the boundary and required 12 minutes of on-field treatment before being taken off.Earlier, in the 36th over, Nation had jammed her shoulder into the ground as she attempted to stop the ball and though she appeared to recover quite quickly, it may have been the initial blow which forced her off the field. She was taken to hospital “out of an abundance of caution”, according to the West Indies media manager.A little more than 90 minutes later, Taylor copped a blow to the helmet off a Nadine de Klerk bouncer. That was at the end of the 13th over and by the first ball of the 14th, Taylor, at the non-striker’s end, stood hunched over with her hands on her knees, shaking her head. She faced another delivery, took a single and then decided she could not continue. She received on-field assistance but walked off the field, pointing to her neck. Taylor was found to be concussed, and eventually replaced for the remainder of the game by Aaliyah Alleyne.South Africa posted their highest total against West Indies in a bid to level the series. Laura Wolvaardt scored her third ODI century and first against a top-eight rated team and shared in a 141-run third-wicket stand with Sune Luus to set South Africa up for their highest total against West Indies.”I felt like I wasn’t getting great starts,” Wolvaardt told the television broadcast after her innings. Her previous three knocks have not progressed past 25. “We focused on building a partnership that took up a lot of time and faced a lot of overs. It’s very nice to see what we can do if we actually do what we are supposed to and get it right.”Luus contributed 56 but the innings’ impetus came from Chloe Tyron, who smashed a 24-ball 43 to put South Africa in touching distance of 300. With South Africa scoring at a shade under six an over, Shakera Selman’s return of 0 for 39 in 10 was the most miserly of the bowling. Shamilia Connell, who conceded only 54 runs in her 10, finished with four wickets.The South Africa innings ended a ball short due to an umpiring error, which denied them the opportunity to bring up only their third total over 300. Still, it was too much for West Indies who started the innings without Nation and lost soon Taylor. By then, the series’ leading wicket-taker, Ayabonga Khaka, had removed both openers in her first two overs, making use of swing through the air on a humid Johannesburg evening.Kycia Knight’s 69 kept West Indies in the hunt but she holed out to long-on to become offspinner Raisibe Ntozakhe’s first victim since making her ODI comeback in this match. Ntozakhe was cleared to bowl again in September last year after being reported for a suspect action in September 2018. She finished with 1 for 53.Shabnim Ismail took two wickets in two balls to leave West Indies 170 for 7 in the 37th over. Alleyne batted to the end but was left with too much to do. With Nation unable to bat, South Africa only needed nine wickets and took them before West Indies had faced their full quota of overs.The series finale will be played on Sunday at the same venue, the Wanderers. South Africa will wear an all-black kit to show their support for victims of gender-based violence and West Indies will wear black armbands for the same cause.

He retires as Netherlands’ highest run-getter in T20I cricket, with 1239 runs

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Jan-2022Netherlands batter Ben Cooper, 29, has announced his retirement from international cricket.”Today, I announce my retirement from international cricket,” Cooper posted on Twitter. “It has been an absolute honour and privilege to don the oranges and represent the Netherlands for the last eight years.”It’s been a time filled with amazing highs, special moments and tough lows. There’s nothing I would change about it and will look back at my time with very fond memories.”@kncbcricket thank you for the opportunity to live out a childhood dream. To my Netherlands team-mates and coaches (past and present) I thank you all for the amazing memories and couldn’t ask for better people to share the field and change rooms with. I have no doubt the current squad and talent coming through will continue to achieve great things for Dutch cricket.”Cooper, who was born in New South Wales, made his international debut for Netherlands in an ODI in August 2013, against Canada. In all, he played 71 white-ball internationals for Netherlands, scoring 1426 runs. He retires as Netherlands’ highest run-getter in T20I cricket, with 1239 runs at an average of 28.15 and strike rate of just under 125.His last game was at the T20 World Cup in the UAE, where Netherlands failed to qualify for the Super 12s last year. Cooper’s retirement follows that of Ryan Tendoeschate who ended his playing career after the T20 World Cup and switched to coaching.