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The SRH allrounder said he didn’t know whether his bowling would be needed against RR but he was prepared just in case

ESPNcricinfo staff24-May-2024Abhishek Sharma said he “didn’t know” whether he would have to bowl for Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 against Rajasthan Royals in Chennai but was ready in case the call came. And despite bowling just three overs previously in IPL 2024, Abhishek sent down a match-winning spell of 2 for 24 to put SRH in the IPL final.”To be honest, I didn’t know I will bowl this match but I was very much ready with my bowling because I’ve been working really hard on my bowling,” Abhishek said after the game. “The last two years it’s been really good with my batting so I wanted to work on my bowling with my dad. So special mention to my dad.”Abhishek’s had a blockbuster season with the bat, scoring 482 runs at a strike rate of 207.75 in 15 innings. His 42 sixes are the most this season, and the most for an Indian batter in any IPL season. On Friday night, however, it was his left-arm spin that came to the fore against RR’s middle order. He had Sanju Samson caught at wide long-on with his third ball and bowled Shimron Hetmyer with a carrom ball in his third over to leave RR six down. Abhishek did not concede a boundary in his first three overs.He was the sixth bowler used by SRH in their defence of 175 as the Chennai pitch began to offer lots of turn in the absence of dew. Though he hadn’t bowled much for SRH this season, Abhishek had bowled 20 overs in Punjab’s successful campaign in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last season.Related

• Abhishek Sharma, a top-order whirlwind India has never seen before

• Shahbaz and Abhishek spin Sunrisers Hyderabad into IPL final

“When I saw the starting XI, I knew he’s [Abhishek] going to bowl today,” Varun Aaron said on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out show. “He’s a really good bowler. I’ve seen a lot of him in domestic cricket. He’s one of those bowlers who tosses it up a little bit, more than the others. He bowls that carrom ball which comes out from the front of the hand, that was a really good ball. That shows he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve and he’s a full-time bowler for Punjab. He’s one of those who likes to bowl and tells the captain, ‘I want to bowl in domestic games, it helps me be in the game more.’ He’s one of those allrounders who look forward to bowling. The other thing is he would have been wanting this chance to bowl for the longest time and he lapped it up really well.”Though he hasn’t bowled much this IPL season, Abhishek is one of only a few Indian batters who can bowl as well in limited-overs cricket, along with the likes of Shivam Dube, Riyan Parag and Nitish Kumar Reddy. That skill-set has been missing in the Indian team for a while – none of the specialist batters in the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup can bowl.”He backs himself 100%,” Tom Moody said on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out show. “Yes, he doesn’t bowl as much as he needs to bowl in domestic cricket for whatever reasons but for the future of Indian cricket he needs to be bowling because he is a serious package to be reckoned with. [Bats] at the top of the order, someone who can bowl left-arm spin whatever the format, he’s going to be a real asset going forward.”The reason that makes him unique as a spinner is he tosses it up and what he tries to do is get overspin on the ball, so the ball comes down like that (with seam upright and facing the batter, not sideways), Nathan Lyon style, it dips. So he doesn’t bowl side spin, he bowls overspin and he’s got that clever carrom ball he’s been working on which is the one Hetmyer got and was an absolute peach.”

Fastest hundred in Lions history secures useful lead as Sri Lanka reply strongly

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Feb-2023Sri Lanka A 332 (Croospulle 128) and 202 for 3 (Madushka 84*, Mendis 67) lead England Lions 405 (Smith 126, Lees 97, Bohannon 54) by 129 runsJamie Smith struck a 71-ball century, the fastest in England Lions history, to give his side an outside chance of a victory push in the second unofficial Test against Sri Lanka A in Galle.Smith’s effort surpassed Luke Wright’s 91-ball hundred against New Zealand A in 2008-09, and featured 13 fours and eight sixes all told. By the time he was dismissed for 126 from 82 balls, he had formed the backbone of the Lions’ 405 in 76.4 overs.Alex Lees, who himself made a 94-ball hundred in the Lions’ warm-up match earlier in the tour, chipped in with 97 from 113 balls, while Josh Bohannon made 54 from 62.Their efforts allowed the Lions to build a first-innings lead of 73, and though Sri Lanka A responded well to reach 202 for 3 by the close, with half-centuries from Nishan Madushka and Kamindu Mendis, they did chip out three wickets in that time, including Mendis for 67 shortly before stumps.”It is certainly the most entertaining and most enjoyable innings that I have ever played,” Smith said afterwards. “I would say it is the best innings that I have ever played.”I didn’t know that it was a record century and I didn’t go out there to achieve that obviously. When you get in that situation and you’re flying along you are just focusing on being positive and trying to hit boundaries – hit the ball as far and as hard as I can.”The Lions team has been noticeably positive in its approach to batting on this tour, and Smith acknowledged that the success of the Test team under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum had been an inspirational factor.”You definitely take on board the style of play that the England team are employing because that’s the style they want to see,” he said. “I always knew I had the talent to play that way but to get out here and to do it is really positive for me.”The coaching staff here give you the freedom to go out and play that way. There are no limits as to what you can do. I’m not focusing on whether I get out, it’s about how you can make runs and being positive. That has certainly helped me to make runs here and play the way I did.”At the age of 22, Smith – who is also keeping wicket on this trip – is very much one of the coming men on the county circuit, and was picked for his first Lions tour after playing his part in Surrey’s County Championship victory last season.”It is the next step in my career and it has been an opportunity to show my skills and test myself against some really good bowlers,” he said. “It’s good to get in this environment and to play against spin and try and adapt my game to that.”The pitch is pretty flat but the beauty of us scoring so quickly is that it gives us an opportunity and time to bowl them out. We’ll aim to do that in the morning and then well hopefully have a chase. We won’t fear chasing any total.”

Batter was rushed to a hospital after complaining of chest pain while playing a Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match

Umar Farooq21-Dec-2021Abid Ali was taken to hospital after complaining of chest pain while playing for Central Punjab against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the ongoing last round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in Karachi.According to a PCB statement, he was taken to a specialist hospital immediately, “where he was diagnosed as a case of Acute Coronary Syndrome” or ACS. “He is under the care of Consultant Cardiologist who is liaising with PCB medical team regarding further treatment. He is currently stable.”ACS is often used to describe a range of conditions resulting from a sudden, reduced blood flow to the heart.Abid returned to his domestic side, Central Punjab, following the recent Bangladesh tour, where he was Player of the Series for the Tests after scoring 263 runs at 87.66. He was playing his sixth first-class game this season and had scored 766 runs at an average of 51.89 with three hundreds. On the last day of the ongoing game at UBL Complex in Karachi, he had crossed a half-century when he complained of discomfort around his shoulder and chest area before he was rushed to the hospital.Abid has been the highest run-getter in Tests for Pakistan since his debut in 2019, and in 2021 he is fifth in the world with 695 runs in nine Tests at 48.87, including a double-hundred against Zimbabwe in Harare. He made his debut in Rawalpindi in 2019 after spending 12 years in domestic cricket for 7116 runs in 106 first-class games. He made his Test debut at the age of 31 and began with a century, and also became the only player in history to reach three figures on both Test and ODI debuts.Central Punjab are sitting in fourth place on the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy table at the moment and are out of the finals race, with Northern and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sitting in the top-two spots. They have drawn five games, won two and lost two so far this season.

Imminent return of England’s big guns puts spotlight on understudies

Andrew Miller31-Aug-2020

For England in particular, this series has been all about building for the future, broadening their selection base ahead of next year’s postponed T20 World Cup, and ramping up the competition for places that was such an integral aspect of their rise to become last summer’s 50-over champions.But if it has been hard to give the rookies in the current set-up the full bells-and-whistles “Big Match” experience, given the echoing stands at Emirates Old Trafford and that unavoidable vibe of glorified training session, then the timing of today’s squad announcement will serve to heighten the jeopardy as Eoin Morgan’s men prepare for Tuesday’s series decider against Pakistan.The impending return of Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and, fitness pending, Jason Roy, for the upcoming series against Australia means that this final contest of the Pakistan tour could also be the final appearance of the year for many of England’s fringe candidates, some of whom have advanced their cases for long-term inclusion rather better than others.On the batting front, in particular, two players have stood tall and confirmed their intentions to go toe-to-toe with their more vaunted rivals. After taking a few matches to find his feet at this level, Tom Banton announced himself in unambiguous terms during Thursday’s first-match washout, transcending the conditions and his team-mates in a 42-ball 71 that was all the more impressive given England’s stodgy start in tricky batting conditions.And while Banton’s follow-up effort of 20 from 16 balls in the second game wasn’t quite in the same league, it did at least contain the most eye-popping stroke of his career to date, a preposterous switch-slap for six over backward point off Imad Wasim. It showed he is beginning to buy into Morgan’s stated team ethic of backing oneself and one’s ability, and letting the doubts slide into the ether. It’s safe to presume he’s here for the long term, even if, as Graham Thorpe hinted last week, he may yet have to wait for more regular opportunities.But what then of Dawid Malan, England’s eternal T20I understudy? His performance on Saturday was a microcosm of his T20I career to date – a match-winning 54 not out from 36 balls, which mirrored his career average of 54.60 and strike rate of 150.00, and lived up to Morgan’s pre-series acknowledgement that, time and again, he seizes his rare opportunities in the first XI and presses his case for a permanent berth. And if Morgan has been critical of Malan’s attitude in the past, most notably his curious highlighting of a non-run off the final ball of his century in New Zealand, then the man himself seemed to go out of his way to address that on Saturday with a conspicuously low-key acknowledgement of his fifty.All the same, it is surely Malan and Sam Billings, a star in the ODIs against Ireland last month but once again a fringe performer in this series, who have the most at stake in this final outing – certainly among England’s batsmen. Jonny Bairstow, ballistic from the get-go on Saturday, is set to slip to No. 3 when Roy is fit again and may yet fill that role if Banton opens with Buttler against Australia, and with Morgan embracing his floating role in the middle order, it means that specialist batting berths are at a premium – even before we get onto the curious cases of Joe Root and the still-absent Ben Stokes.As Michael Vaughan put it during the BBC’s return to terrestrial broadcasting on Saturday, England used to have about six men who could be considered automatic picks for their white-ball teams. These days, it’s more like 20-25. Disappointment is an inevitable by-product of such unprecedented riches.England’s seam bowling too will have received something of a hurry-up from the inclusions of Wood and Archer, the latter for the first time in white-ball cricket since the World Cup final last summer. While there is promise galore in England’s current bowling stocks, not least in Saqib Mahmood, who is surely a star in the making, there was little about their bowling effort on Saturday that inspired much confidence for the here and now. Chris Jordan and Tom Curran both struggled to hit their lengths while Babar Azam and Mohammad Hafeez were cutting loose, and if David Willey feels he’s worthy of another chance in this final outing, he’s likely to feel equally miffed at his exclusion from both Australia squads.As for Pakistan, they will doubtless rue their missed opportunity in the rained-off opening game, in which – Banton’s onslaught aside – they dominated with the ball, particularly through their spinners. They had plenty of reasons to believe during the second match as well, at least until Bairstow opened his shoulders from the outset of England’s reply, and if their conservative team selection has raised eyebrows, then at least the incumbents have shown the value of their experience, in particular the ageless Mohammad Hafeez.All the same, youth and regeneration is what Pakistan cricket is famed for, even at the most straitened times in their recent history, and the teenager Haider Ali is waiting in the wings for his chance to seize the stage. Tuesday would be as good a time as any to do so, where a share of the series would be a worthy reward for Pakistan’s efforts in this most curious of summers. They aren’t far away from being a mighty fine side in all formats, but at some stage they’ll need the results to start coming again.

England WWWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Pakistan LWWLL

What is to be done with Moeen Ali? He’s been out of sorts before, and generally come storming back with a sweetly timed mow for six to trigger another torrent of runs. But his slumps in form at England level have rarely been as long and lasting as this current one. Despite a lengthy break from action after the World Cup last summer – during which he lost his starting berth – he’s simply not yet found his mojo with bat or ball alike. Four innings this summer, including the ODIs against Ireland, have yielded 10 runs from 17 balls; and he’s yet to claim a single wicket in 26 overs. At the age of 33, time is not on his side either.It’s not for nothing that Babar Azam is currently ranked as the No. 1 T20I batsman in the world. Pakistan’s captain, opener and general envoy of all things optimistic produced another sweetly timed declaration of his pedigree in the second match, as he caressed the first ball of the match through midwicket for four off Mahmood, and added six further boundaries in his 44-ball 56. But you once again got the sense that he had left a few runs unaccounted for in that performance. Had he and Hafeez been in harness for the remaining seven overs, England would surely have been hunting down something way in excess of 200. And that’s been the tale of his summer all told, with a glut of cameos in the Tests as well but a highest score of 69 on the tour to date. He has got one last chance to put on a show to remember.

There’ll be time enough for changes when the Australia series begins, so it’s hard to see England tinkering excessively with the side that secured a solid victory in Sunday’s second outing. Moeen is likely to be given another chance to find his form, while Lewis Gregory, England’s most economical bowler in a high-scoring contest, hasn’t yet had a chance to display the death-hitting skills for which he has truly been selected. Willey is itching for a chance after his command performances against Ireland and is the obvious candidate for inclusion, perhaps at the expense of Chris Jordan, about whom England already know plenty.England (possible): 1 Tom Banton, 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Moeen Ali, 6 Sam Billings, 7 Lewis Gregory, 8 Tom Curran, 9 Chris Jordan / David Willey, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Saqib MahmoodPakistan are likely to be without Mohammad Amir, who reported soreness in his hamstring during Sunday’s game. The veteran Wahab Riaz is the like-for-like left-arm option on the bench. Despite some criticism of their old-boy-orientated team selection, Hafeez in particular justified his retention at the age of 39 with a power-packed half-century. The rookie Haider – half of Hafeez’s age – may get his first outing of the series, probably at the expense of Shoaib Malik.Pakistan (possible): 1 Babar Azam (capt), 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Haider Ali, 5 Shadab Khan, 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Iftikhar Ahmed, 8 Imad Wasim, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Shaheen Afridi

A cloudy but broadly dry evening is in store for the third and final instalment of this Manchester trilogy. The batting conditions for the opening fixture were slow and tacky as England struggled to make consistent headway, but the same strip had turned into a belter two days later once the sun had dried it out.

Stats and trivia

• If England avoid defeat in this final contest, they will secure their sixth consecutive series victory in T20Is, dating back to the visit of India July 2018.
• Pakistan, by contrast, are in danger of losing their fourth series out of five, having won 11 in a row between 2016 and 2018-19, during their rise to No.1 in the ICC rankings.
• During his innings of 69 from 36 balls on Sunday, Hafeez became the second Pakistan batsman after Shoaib Malik to reach 2000 T20I runs, and the ninth overall.
• Both Hafeez and Malik played in Pakistan’s first T20I, against England at Bristol in 2006.

“Before I became captain I didn’t feel that comfortable jumping up and down the order. But now it’s my decision I feel more at ease, say, slipping down to No. 6 and having Jos Buttler ahead of me than I would have beforehand.”
“The total was good but we didn’t go well in the bowling, credit to Malan and Morgan the way they played. We’ll learn a lot, talking to the bowlers under pressure and I will try to learn from this.”

The captain moving up the order is good for the team, but the strike rates of the other top-order batsmen needs quite a lot of work

Osman Samiuddin07-May-2019There was a time before he became captain when it mattered where Sarfaraz Ahmed batted.In the run-up to the last World Cup, it seemed like opening might be a good idea. As opener, he made 34, 65 and 32 in a three-game series against Australia not long before the tournament, but was then shunted down to seven and eight for five ODIs against New Zealand right after it.Then at the World Cup, he didn’t play Pakistan’s initial games. When they did pick him, they made him open (against South Africa’s attack by the way, on a great surface for all kinds of fast bowling). He made 49 and an unbeaten 101 in his first two goes as opener, but then four bats later he was moved down again.Then, in the English summer of 2016, he became Pakistan’s No. 5. He was a good one too: 55, 105, 38, 12 and 90 across five innings. More significantly, in a hopelessly non-vogueish batting line, he made those 300 runs at a strike rate of nearly 92.Three further innings at five – 35, 60* and 24*, strike rate 101.8, thanks – and that was that. The 24* came on October 5, 2016. In the 24 times he has batted in an ODI since, he’s ventured above six just three times.That innings was also the last he played before taking on the captaincy, so it’s not as if he’s been forced by others to not bat five. But such, presumably, is the overwhelming nature of the role that his batting, and where he bats, has become, well, somehow less important.So the fact that he has batted at five and four in Pakistan’s two 50-over warm-up games on this tour so far is significant, if only because it brings his batting finally back into focus. And that is where he plans to stay.”My aim is in England to bat four or five, throughout the World Cup,” Sarfaraz said ahead of their first ODI against England at The Oval. “We’ve come to a World Cup, it’s a long tournament so it’s good to have a stable and set batting order in which everyone knows where they are batting.”We will obviously be flexible so that when there are fewer overs left we might switch around if we need somebody as a hitter and look at sending Imad [Wasim] or Asif [Ali].”Asif Ali tries to go big•AFP

Ordinarily, this would be a good thing. Sarfaraz is not a power-hitter but he is the right side of restless in the middle overs, one of the few who weaponises running, and is innovative enough (bring back that sweep off the fast bowler). Of all the positions he’s batted in, five is, by some distance, his most productive: averaging over 50 and a strike rate of 92.And not that it’s been planned that way, but his sample sizes across the main positions he has played in – opening and then four to seven – are actually similar: ten innings as opener, nine at four, ten at five, 20 at six and 12 at seven. So his record at five really makes it a no-brainer.The only problem now is the strike rates of Pakistan’s batting above him. Fakhar Zaman is fine, but Imam-ul-Haq (80.23), Babar Azam (84.03 at three) and Haris Sohail (85.08 at four) means that Pakistan could really do with plenty more explosiveness before Sarfaraz arrives. Mohammad Hafeez and his very similar strike rate has also to be factored in once he returns from injury (which is soon).The batting has, as Sarfaraz said, become more modern than it was in 2016, but not maybe by a whole lot. “One of the issues then was that our strike rotation was poor and we’ve worked on that,” he said. “Our strike rate was low generally but if you look at Fakhar, he goes at 90-95. Babar plays long innings but when he finishes he is near 85-90. So things are better – it’s been a few years since that series and we’ve been preparing this side for the last 18 months.”What they really, desperately, want is for Asif to bolt into their squad for the World Cup. He is about the only man in or around the squad with the kind of power to really propel the second half of an ODI innings – in theory. If it hasn’t turned out that way in practice it is because opportunities have remained limited. Even then, Pakistan aren’t the kind of side that can easily overlook a strike rate of 130 in eight ODI innings and a career List A one of 109.He has, however, at best, two games to make a case. Shoaib Malik returns from his leave most likely in time for the second or third ODI and he is, for reasons that aren’t always obvious, among the first names in any Pakistan XI.Still, unlike any side other than England, Pakistan have this incredible opportunity to fine-tune their first-choice XI in precisely the conditions they will be playing the World Cup in.”It is definitely a big advantage for us, playing five top-quality ODIs before the World Cup,” Sarfaraz said. “We’re all focusing on the World Cup. But our first target is this ODI series. If we can take some confidence from this series, it will definitely help us in this World Cup.”

Fast bowler Michael Neser took 4 for 1 in 3.1 overs to leave South Australia reeling at the Adelaide Oval

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Feb-2018
ScorecardMichael Neser in his follow through•Getty Images

Fast bowler Michael Neser tore through South Australia’s middle order to put Queensland in a strong position on day two at Adelaide Oval.The Bulls added just 16 runs on the second morning before being bowled out for 342 in their first innings. Redbacks quick Daniel Worrall picked up the last two wickets to finish with four for the innings.South Australia moved to 29 for 0 loss before losing three wickets for nine runs, with Brendan Doggett claiming both Jake Weatherald and Travis Head.Callum Ferguson and Jake Lehmann battled briefly before Neser took 4 for 1 in 3.1 overs to leave the Redbacks reeling at 7 for 89. Adam Zampa made a quick-fire 57 to try and salvage something from the wreck but Mitch Swepson put an end to that to hand Queensland a 180-run first innings lead.Left-arm seamer Nick Winter removed both Bulls openers in the second innings but the Redbacks have a huge mountain to climb to get back into the game.

No play was possible on the second day in Hobart due to persistent rain

The Report by Brydon Coverdale13-Nov-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:47