All posts by n8rngtd.top

The New Zealand quick has shattered several records in his first year, but refuses to be drawn into stats

Deivarayan Muthu06-Jan-2021At the start of New Zealand’s home summer, Kyle Jamieson was just feeling his way into the side. The 6ft 8in quick towered over everyone else by the end of it, bagging 27 wickets in four Tests at an astonishing average of 12.25. Eleven of those wickets came in the final Test against Pakistan in Christchurch, where he had started his first-class career for Canterbury in 2014. Only Richard Hadlee and Daniel Vettori have better Test-match figures for New Zealand than Jamieson.”It’s kind of weird when you say it! Those two guys are legends of New Zealand cricket and I’ve just played my sixth Test,” Jamieson said at the post-match media conference. “I guess It’s nice to be in and around those names but I’m just happy to be part of this group and to help in some small way in us winning games. We set out the summer with the goal of winning four Tests and just happy to do that.”Related

• Shane Jurgensen: 'Boult, Southee, Jamieson and Wagner are similar to the West Indies attack of the '80s'

• Could Kyle Jamieson's stellar home summer spark IPL interest?

• Jamieson hits the heights with absurdly brilliant beginning

• Jamieson has 'a real strong desire to improve' – Williamson

• NZ become No. 1 Test team after series sweep against Pakistan

In the absence of the injured Neil Wagner, Jamieson became New Zealand’s enforcer at the Hagley Oval, harrying Pakistan with pace, bounce, swing and seam. While his bouncing out of Fawad Alam in the first innings was pure theatre, it was his dismissal of Mohammad Rizwan in the second that showed he could be just as threatening by dropping the ball on a length and moving it. Having seen that Rizwan’s game is largely about hard-handed pushes that occasionally forces his bat to travel too far in front of his body, Jamieson disguised his inswinger as a ball potentially up there for the drive, only once it pitched it turned into something entirely different, storming through the Pakistan captain’s defences.”It’s not often you have six months where you can dedicate yourself to the game and there’s some strength and conditioning stuff which was really helpful,” Jamieson said. “The inswinger was kind of a product in the winter as well. That has come in handy a couple of times. I guess it’s a general thing. When you get such a big block of time to be able to work on your batting, bowling and strength and conditioning, it sort of comes out in ways like this.”Jamieson has shattered several records in his first year in Test cricket, but he refused to be drawn into stats, saying he still has a lot of work to do. He’s yet to test out his skills overseas and at home, he has had to deal with the fifth day of a Test match only once.”I still think there’s quite a bit [of improvement that can be done]. I still feel like I’m a long way off the cricketer I want to be,” Jamieson said. “I’m 12 months into my international career and it’s a long process. Hopefully, I’ve got another nine-ten years in this group and if that happens there could be a wee bit more to come.Kyle Jamieson’s 36 wickets have come at a miserly average of 13.3 apiece•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“There’s always things you’re trying to work on. It’s nice to be able to move the ball both ways and in different conditions that won’t necessarily always be helpful. In terms of different deliveries and different formats you got white-ball cricket and different variations there. There’s nothing specific but you’re always trying to improve your game and those things kind of pop up from time to time.”With Lockie Ferguson working his way back from injury, Matt Henry returning to the Test team and Jacob Duffy becoming the first New Zealander to take a four-wicket haul on his T20I debut this summer, New Zealand’s pace stocks have probably never been stronger. Jamieson credited their excellent High Performance system for his rapid progress as well as the overall health of the national team.”I went to the Under-19 programme, pretty much out of high school, so had about a year-and-a-half there. And winter training squads and those sort of stuff for about four-five years,” he said. “The time and effort they’ve put into my game has certainly helped me where I am now.”Without that, I’m definitely not sitting here, having experienced the things that I’ve, and I think our High Performance structure is probably one of the better in the world with not the same sort of money and resources that other countries have. So, that’s a huge credit to them and the powers that be there to put those plans and structures in place. “

Green has shown enough poise to suggest that the lessons of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be converted into truly influential displays

Daniel Brettig18-Jan-2021With the possible exception of Will Pucovski, seldom has more expectation accompanied a recent Australian debutant than that experienced by Cameron Green.He had undoubtedly scored the runs to warrant his place at such a young age, cracking comfortably more than 1000 with four sizeable centuries in his most recent 12 Sheffield Shield games. Green also carried the promise of a possibly dominant allrounder having first been chosen by Western Australia as a bowler and scooping plenty of wickets before he was held prisoner by a series of back problems.Add to this the prospect of starting out in the highest of high-profile Test series against India, and there was much for Green to take in, even before he took the batting and bowling creases. What spectators and viewers have seen of Green in the subsequent four matches is a player of enormous promise, undoubtedly, but one still smoothing the rough edges of his game with the bat and even more so with the ball.He has, as Simon Katich observed during his breakout innings of 84 at the SCG, “two gears”, those of stolid defence and then a much more freewheeling and powerful hitting game. The nuances of Test cricket require a range of different gears at many points in between those poles, as aptly demonstrated on the penultimate day of the series.Cameron Green punches down the ground•Getty Images

Green walked out to accompany a settled Steven Smith when Australia had just lost the fourth wicket of the morning session, Matthew Wade glancing into Rishabh Pants gloves and perhaps into history as far as his stop-start Test career is concerned. The Gabba surface, which has rewarded tight bowling throughout the match, had begun to deteriorate further in terms of the widening of existing cracks and the forming of new ones, while Mohammad Siraj was putting in yet another outstanding spell.Perhaps genuflecting to Smith, who with every hour of this series has looked more like his usual Test match self and must now be looking forward to rejoining battle with South Africa three years since the unseemly events of 2018, Green concentrated almost solely on survival through his first 41 balls, managing only six singles in that time. He may also have been run out by his very first ball, edging Washington Sundar towards the covers and being reprieved on his instinctive dash for a single by the fact that the bowler was off-balance in retrieving it.This period underlined that, at this developmental point, Green is still liable to be tied down by good bowling without the ability as yet to find unseen corners of the field in which to escape the strikes with singles or more forcefully turn the scoreboard over with twos. This meant that Smith, playing far more positively, took the major share of responsibility in the early part of their stand to ensure the scoring rate did not dip below three an over with time and the unpromising weather forecast on Australian minds.A view pushed consistently by Greg Chappell down the years and now more widely understood, is the value of getting gifted players into the Australian side early on, the better for them to learn many of the required lessons at the highest possible level and thus mature as quickly as possible without gaining too many bad habits. It was the same philosophy that saw Smith himself make his Test debut for Australia as early as a 21-year-old in 2010 before ironing out the deficiencies in his game rapidly enough to be an international force by the age of 24.So it should follow that, much as Smith has worked his way into this series, Green will be able to evolve in a timely fashion in his Test career. “I certainly feel as though I’ve got better as the series has gone on, just purely out of spending time in the middle that’s for sure,” Smith said.”I think I said after Melbourne the longest I’d spent in the middle was 63 balls or whatever it was, the one-day hundreds that I scored at the SCG, and that was for about 12 months. So certainly been able to spend a good amount of time in the first innings in Sydney playing with really positive intent. That made me feel a lot more comfortable at the crease and able to find some rhythm.”I thought [Green] batted really well. They bowled pretty well to him to be fair, the wicket was starting to do a few things. I reckon there was that one over from Natarajan where he copped a few, that’s where the wicket started to sort of play a few more tricks. I think he got five balls in that over that did probably five different things.”The other half of Green’s game, still taking time to unfold in the wake of back stress fractures, is that of a pace bowler who has the natural gifts of height and trajectory with which to worry most top players should he get all the mechanics into a sound enough order. This much was neatly summarised by Damien Fleming earlier in the Test, with the understanding that a bowler concentrating on technical form and changes to ensure the avoidance of future injuries will always take time to “groove” an action before full fluency returns.”He bowls full and definitely shapes the ball away from the right-hand batsmen,” Fleming said on Seven. “His first Test match in Adelaide, I think it was deliberate for him to bowl short to Virat Kohli. Now since that Test Match, I think he has bowled a fraction short, hasn’t given that red Kookaburra enough time to swing in the air. I think it’s due, isn’t it? Your fourth Test match, get your first Test wicket?”He’s made changes to his action because of stress fractures. He’s come into this series with hundreds of runs in Sheffield Shield so his batting technique is grooved, but unfortunately, he is still trying to groove this bowling action which over time is only going to benefit himself and the Australian cricket team. But, you know, four-over spells in Shield cricket coming into this Test series, I don’t think he has built the confidence in his action yet.”That sort of confidence may be derived from a wicket or two, and this was certainly something Smith had in mind as he looked at some of the widening cracks at the Gabba. “All the boys have been really impressed with him around the group, the way he’s handled everything as a young kid coming into play Test cricket,” Smith said of Green.”I think tomorrow he might actually be quite a handful with the ball, with that extra height and those cracks coming into play, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him firstly take his first wicket in Test cricket, which I know he’s pretty eager to get, but I think he might just be in for a pretty reasonable day.”If Green has not dominated moments of this series in the manner of India’s find Siraj, he has shown enough poise at a young age to suggest that the formative lessons of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be converted into truly influential displays well before he reaches the age at which Smith finally felt at home as a Test cricketer.

Zimbabwe also play Afghanistan in three T20Is in the UAE next month, with the tour starting on March 2

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Feb-2021Zimbabwe have named a 15-member squad for their two-Test series against Afghanistan starting on March 2 in Abu Dhabi. The squad, however, is missing the veteran pair of Brendan Taylor and Craig Ervine, who were absent from a Zimbabwe Cricket camp owing to illness, and were thus not considered for the tour. Meanwhile, Tarisai Musakanda – whose solitary Test so far came against Sri Lanka back in 2017 – has returned to the Test party.

Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe

1st Test – March 2
2nd Test – March 10
1st T20I – March 17
2nd T20I – March 19
3rd T20I – March 20

Top-order batsman Musakanda recently slammed consecutive centuries for the Southerns in domestic cricket. He made 111 and 125 against the Northerns in a tournament the team management had seen as preparation for the Afghanistan Tests. Middle-order batsman Ryan Burl – who also bowls useful legspin – has made a comeback to the Test side, having himself played his only Test against South Africa in 2017.Apart from Taylor and Ervine, other notable absentees from the Test squad include Tendai Chatara, Chamu Chibhabha and Peter Moor, who are yet to recover from their right upper-arm, thigh muscle and hamstring injuries.Related

• Sean Williams: Playing in Covid-19 times 'not for the faint-hearted'

• Afghanistan, Zimbabwe look to flex Test credentials in maiden meeting

• Notts sign Zimbabwe U-19 wicketkeeper Dane Schadendorf

• Ireland white-ball tour of Zimbabwe postponed

• When Kyle Jarvis had Covid-19, malaria and tick bite fever

But the Test side retains the experience of captain Sean Williams, wicketkeeper-batsman Regis Chakabva and allrounder Sikandar Raza, while also including the younger duo of pacer Blessing Muzarabani and allrounder Brandon Mavuta. Uncapped Wesley Madhevere, who had impressed with the bat on the limited-overs tour of Pakistan last November, has also earned a Test call.The trio of Milton Shumba, Faraz Akram and Tinashe Kamunhukamwe will be joining the squad later for the three-match T20I series, which is scheduled to begin after the Tests.The first Test starts on March 2, followed by the second from March 10. The series then moves on to the T20Is from March 17 onwards. All five matches will be held in Abu Dhabi.Zimbabwe Test Squad: Sean Williams (capt), Ryan Burl, Sikandar Raza, Regis Chakabva, Kevin Kasuza, Wessly Madhevere, Wellington Masakadza, Prince Masvaure, Brandon Mavuta, Tarisai Musakanda, Richmond Mutumbami, Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava, Victor Nyauchi, Donald Tiripano

Joe Root and Chris Silverwood speak with Javagal Srinath after on-field exasperation

George Dobell24-Feb-2021England’s captain and coach have asked the match referee to ensure “consistency” in the process by which the TV umpire comes to decisions after more contentious moments on the first day of the third Test in Ahmedabad.Joe Root and Chris Silverwood went to see Javagal Srinath, the ICC match referee, after the end of the first day’s play to register their frustrations after two decisions – both of which went India’s way – were made, in their view, unusually quickly.In the first instance, Shubman Gill was reprieved by the TV umpire, C Shamshuddin, when replays suggested Ben Stokes, at slip, may have failed to complete a catch cleanly. In the second, Rohit Sharma was adjudged not out after an appeal for a stumping.On both occasions, Shamshuddin appeared to come to his decision surprisingly quickly and without recourse to the numerous angles which usually accompany the decision-making process. At one stage, Root could be heard on the stump mics asking the on-field umpires why only one camera angle had been utilised when he felt a different one could have provided more certainty.By contrast, when Jack Leach edged a low chance earlier in the day, Shamshuddin was provided with various angles – including one from a stump camera – before coming to his decision.These incidents follow those in the second Test where Ajinkya Rahane survived a review for a bat-pad catch when the TV umpire on that occasion, Anil Chaudhary, failed to review the correct passage of play. Rohit also survived another close call for a stumping with only one angle of the incident available to the TV umpire, while the on-field umpires chose to review Virat Kohli’s dismissal after he was clean bowled.Related

• Pink-ball beauty is in the eye of the beholder as India seize control of third Test

• England's collapse after winning the toss, and spinners dominating a day-night Test

• The secret to Axar Patel's success: go straight and undercut

As a result, Root and Silverwood went to see Srinath after stumps. “The England captain and head coach spoke with the match referee after play,” an England team spokesperson said.”The captain and head coach acknowledged the challenges the umpires faced and asked respectfully that in making any decisions there was consistency in the process. The match referee said the captain was asking the right questions of the umpires.”The ICC have been contacted for comment.England have clashed with Shamshuddin previously. He stood down – reportedly due to ill health – from a T20I series decider between England and India in 2017 after Eoin Morgan expressed “extreme frustration” with his performance.Zak Crawley, the one England batsman who emerged from the wreckage of a poor batting performance with any credit, admitted his side’s “frustrations.””When we batted, Jack Leach had a similar sort of one [low catch, similar to the Stokes dismissal] where it didn’t quite carry and it seemed like they looked at it from five or six different angles,” Crawley said. “When we were fielding it seemed like they looked at it from one angle.”That’s where the frustrations lie. I can’t say whether they were out or not out, but I think the frustrations lie with not checking more thoroughly.”The ICC have decided to dispense with neutral umpires during the Covid-19 pandemic in light of the difficulties with international travel. They have attempted to compensate for any possibility of unconscious bias by providing teams with an extra review per innings.

Veteran Porterfield to combine playing career with job as fielding coach

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Mar-2021Cricket Ireland has announced new coaching consultancy roles for William Porterfield, Ireland’s former captain across all formats, and Gary Wilson, the wicketkeeper-batsman who retired last week.Porterfield, 36, will combine his playing career with a job as consultant fielding coach, working with the men’s and women’s teams and the Ireland pathway system. He has also be named as Wilson’s assistant at the North West Warriors in Ireland’s interprovincial set-up.Recognised as one of Ireland’s best fielders, Porterfield’s last international appearance came in an ODI in January 2020, having stepped down from the captaincy a few months earlier.”I’m really excited about these two roles – both working within the national system and within the provincial system in the North West,” Porterfield said. “I had a bit of a taste of coaching with the Birmingham Bears last year, and am looking forward to working with some of Ireland’s most talented players – being able to pass on knowledge and experience from a coach’s perspective. It will be a bit different being a coach while still playing, but it’s going to be a great opportunity and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”The fielding role with Ireland is something I’m passionate about. I’ve prided myself on my fielding throughout my career, and tried to set high standards, so hopefully I’ll be able to help not only players from the senior men’s and women’s squads, but players from the under-age teams as well.”Related

• Ireland emphasise need for ICC funding and more context as Test drought continues

• Porterfield steps down as Ireland captain

• Dockrell, Porterfield, Rankin dropped for Afghanistan ODIs

• Gary Wilson retires to take up coaching role

Having called time on his professional career to take over as North West Warriors head coach and pathway manager, Wilson has also been given a consultant wicketkeeping role with Ireland, again working across men’s, women’s and age-group teams.Wilson said: “I’m thrilled to be able to support keepers up and down the Irish pathway in this new role. It’s a great opportunity to get back involved in the international set-up so soon after retirement, and it’s a role I’m looking forward to massively.”When I was initially discussing the scope of the role, what I really felt added to it was the ability to share my knowledge and experience with the keepers within the women’s game. Ed [Joyce] has been doing such a fantastic job as head coach, and I’m delighted to be able to work with him on bringing on the senior and emerging talent that we have here in Ireland.”Richard Holdsworth, Cricket Ireland’s high performance director, added: “I’m delighted that we have not only appointed these two roles we have long sought, but to have appointed two world-class players like William and Gary represents a real win for Irish cricket and the players in our performance system.”For any young player to be able to access and learn from two of the best players Ireland has produced is an immense opportunity. I know both William and Gary have a passion for Irish cricket and are keen to help develop and improve Irish cricketers at all levels. I wish them well, but know they need no additional motivation – they are two of the most self-motivated people I have worked with and I look forward to seeing their work in this new capacity.”

No point in judging bowlers too harshly on surface where all batters have thrived

Mohammad Isam24-Apr-2021The aggregate batting average on this Pallekele pitch can only be compared to the 1997 Test at the R Premadasa Stadium, in which Sri Lanka posted a world-record 952 for 6. After seeing his bowlers suffer for three days, Sachin Tendulkar called it unfit for Test cricket. Depending on how much more is scored in this contest, similar criticism awaits.The Bangladesh pace bowlers, an already endangered breed, have collective figures of 1 for 231, going for 4.20 per over for 55 overs. After making a promising start on the third afternoon, they couldn’t cope with the old ball, and neither did they create any more chances with the second new ball. Their performance is inferior to that of the Sri Lankan pace bowlers’ 6 for 279 at 2.63 per over. But comparing the two pace attacks is also like saying apples are like oranges.Sri Lanka actually has a fast bowling culture. When they figured out their spin stocks wouldn’t be able to withstand an out-of-form Test team, they tried out a grassy pitch. Although it has now morphed into a sluggish, almost dead surface, at least they tried to rely on their fast bowlers. Bangladesh would never do such a thing in a home game. Even pretending to trusting fast bowlers is a big no-no.The general lack of commitment towards pace bowling in Bangladesh’s philosophy is the danger ahead of the next Test. They will certainly think about dropping one of their three, bringing in a spinner or a batter; and reverting to type.But the team management can do better than get disheartened so easily. There is ample evidence that encouraging a particular pace bowling unit can only help Bangladesh in the medium- to long-run.The Pallekele pitch provided very few tools such as pace, bounce, swing, seam or reverse swing to the pace bowlers. Yet there were encouraging glimpses.Taskin Ahmed created the most chances among the three pace bowlers. He was willing to bend his back even in long spells. Ebadot Hossain too was expensive but for an out-and-out fast bowler who is used in short bursts, it would take a breakthrough Test performance to turn a corner. Despite his hugely underwhelming record, Ebadot seems to have the coaching staff’s confidence. Otherwise he wouldn’t have lasted this long in Bangladesh’s set-up.Abu Jayed relies heavily on seam and swing, so he won’t always be penetrative on these pitches. He bowled well in Bangladesh’s last Test, in Dhaka where the pitch also lacked everything a fast bowler needs, and he has a few four-wicket hauls in overseas conditions so there’s no point in thinking he can’t do a better job in the next game. Sure, he could have been a lot more accurate, but it is also his eleventh Test.Bangladesh probably picked a five-man bowling attack exactly for this reason. They may not have expected to make 541 given their indifferent batting form, but they certainly believed that if there was indeed life on this pitch, this pace attack might extract something out of it. Since there’s nothing, it is better not to read too much into their bowling figures just yet.Taskin, who is playing his first Test in almost four years, admitted that the pitch was difficult for the bowlers, where even good balls are getting punished.”Bowlers will have a difficult time on such wickets in Test cricket,” Taskin said. “There are few options to create chances. A good ball at times becomes easy to play. A boundary is coming with a slight erring of line or length. We declared on 541. Someone like Lakmal even bowled 36 overs. It would have been better had there been some help for bowlers.Related

• Taskin Ahmed creates space for pace in new Bangladesh bowling plan

• Bangladesh's new, positive outlook bodes well for their Test future

• 'If our batters average 40, with our attack, we'll have enough to bowl sides out'

• Double-centurion Karunaratne and de Silva bat through wicketless day

• Lahiru Kumara ruled out of Bangladesh Tests due to hamstring injury

“It is important to bowl consistently at a length in Test cricket. One has to bowl according to the field too, and then surprise them with a bouncer. We have created one or two chances, but it went into a gap. I think it is a very good batting track. We have to be consistent and patient as a bowling unit.”Taskin added that he hasn’t bowled so many overs in an innings in more than a year, but it is the sort of experience he wants to have, for the future.”I think I bowled 25 overs in the previous NCL. It is certainly a huge learning curve to bowl in these conditions where one has to concentrate on bowling according to the field. One has to be fit and skillful to survive in these conditions.”I am giving it my best effort. Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow. If the second Test is also played in this type of wicket, our bowlers have to be more economical. We have to focus on the batsmen’s weakness,” he said.If Bangladesh can secure a draw in this game, Sri Lanka may rethink the type of pitch they want in the second Test, at the same venue. They don’t have the option to think about a spin-formula, so either a similar pitch or one that actually aids the pace bowlers are their options.It should still encourage the Bangladesh team management to give this pace trio another try. Taskin, Jayed and Ebadot certainly should be given the confidence that what they learned from this pitch should work even better in more favourable conditions and surfaces. If batters like Soumya Sarkar and Liton Das can be given so many chances, these bowlers also deserve a longer rope.

Meanwhile, the Pandya brothers are also dispatching oxygen concentrators to the centres dealing with the crisis

ESPNcricinfo staff24-May-2021The BCCI will contribute 2000 10-litre oxygen concentrators towards India’s efforts in fighting against the Covid-19 pandemic. India is currently facing a second wave of infections, recording 250,000 new cases every day on average for the last seven days.”Over the next few months, the board will distribute the concentrators across India with the hope that critical medical aid and care will be provided to the needy patients and this initiative will reduce the havoc unleashed by the pandemic,” the BCCI stated in a release.Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI president, said the board acknowledges the role the medical and healthcare community has played and continues to play in dealing with the pandemic. “They have truly been frontline warriors and have done whatever possible to shield us,” he was quoted as saying in the release. “The oxygen concentrators will provide immediate relief to those affected and will help in their speedy recovery.”The BCCI secretary Jay Shah too hoped that the board’s effort would “help in narrowing the demand-supply gap that has been generated across the country” and urged everyone eligible to get vaccinated. In March 2020, during the first wave, the BCCI had contributed Rs 51 crore to the ‘PM Cares Fund’.Meanwhile, Pandya brothers – Hardik and Krunal – are also dispatching oxygen concentrators to the centres dealing with the crisis.”This new batch of Oxygen Concentrators are being dispatched to Covid centres with prayers in our hearts for everyones speedy recovery,” Krunal tweeted on Monday.