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Former England batter to work under Renegades head coach David Saker after previous BBL experience as a player at Perth Scorchers and an assistant at Hobart Hurricanes

Alex Malcolm23-Nov-2023Former England batter Ian Bell has joined Melbourne Renegades as an assistant coach for the upcoming BBL season under head coach David Saker.Bell has been expanding his coaching resume in recent years having previously worked in the BBL for Hobart Hurricanes in 2021-22 as an assistant under then-coach Adam Griffith.Related

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He has worked with New Zealand this year as a consultant prior to the ODI World Cup having also done stints with England Under-19s, Derbyshire, Birmingham Phoenix and Chennai Braves in the Abu Dhabi T10.Bell has got playing experience in the BBL having won a title with Perth Scorchers in the 2016-17 season. Bell and Saker have worked together previously when Bell was an England player and Saker was an England assistant coach.Bell will work with an experienced playing group including a lot of long-time opponents, with Renegades adding Bell’s former Ashes foes Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon to an already experienced squad that includes Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh and Kane Richardson. He will also be familiar with Renegades’ overseas players Quinton de Kock, Joe Clarke and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

“For me right now, coming off a six-month lay-off with injury, I want to play all formats if I can”

Matt Roller18-Sep-2022Sam Curran was ruled out of last year’s T20 World Cup through injury two weeks before the tournament began, and he is not taking his involvement in the 2022 edition in Australia for granted.Curran was only a peripheral member of the limited-overs set-up when England picked their 50-over squad in 2019 and suffered a lower-back stress fracture while playing in the IPL in the build-up to last year’s tournament in the UAE.Just over a month before their first game of the 2022 edition, against Afghanistan on October 22, he is anxious not to put the mockers on himself. “I don’t actually want to talk about it too much,” he said, laughing, when asked about playing in a World Cup for the first time.Related

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“I missed the last one. I need to get through this series and then hopefully, when I’m in Australia, I can be excited about it. The biggest thing this summer was getting my body through it… the priority now is the World Cup.”Curran spent the English summer focusing on white-ball cricket, working closely with Surrey and England’s medical teams to ease him back from injury. He made five Championship appearances but with restrictions on his workload – he bowled just 41 overs – and decided with the ECB in August to focus on short-form cricket ahead of the World Cup.”I didn’t bowl much for Surrey at all,” he said. “The most I bowled in a game was 20 overs [24] and it felt like the sensible option. The Test team were flying at the time so my focus was purely on the World Cup and trying to have a good Hundred, to keep performing and to get my body right.”Curran has not played Test cricket in over a year but a strong T20I tour to Pakistan would put him in the frame for the three-match series here in December. “I’m still pretty young so I want to play as much as I can,” he said.”You’ve seen guys who are choosing to rest in certain periods because there is quite a lot of cricket. For me right now, coming off a six-month lay-off with injury, I want to play all formats if I can.”He was used up the order in short-form cricket this season, first by Surrey in the Blast and then by Oval Invincibles in the Hundred, but England’s top-order logjam means that he is more likely to come in as a finisher during the World Cup.”I’m trying to be as adaptable as possible. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of rotation: guys coming back from injury, newer guys coming in. My role might vary as guys come back or guys come in. The role I’m given is just to contribute with the ball when I bowl and when I’m batting.”That may be lower down the order here but I guess it’s about adapting to conditions. I don’t think about it too much at Surrey or in the Hundred because I had pretty set roles but with England, naturally I do because we’ve got so many allrounders who can be adaptable.”I might get sent up as a floater to take on different types of bowlers. Whenever I do play for England, I play with an open mind. You don’t just want to be a cricketer whose set for one role which I think is one of my strengths: to be as adaptable [as possible] for the captain and for guys in the team.”It is four-and-a-half years since Curran made his international debut against Pakistan and he is looking forward to playing against some familiar faces on his first trip to the country. “Most of the Pakistan guys I know,” he said. “I played against a few of them at the Under-19 World Cup, like Shadab [Khan]. He’s a fantastic player.”This is a great chance for myself and most of our players – even guys that aren’t in the World Cup squad – to stake a claim, keep knocking down the door; but also just to be here, be involved with a pretty historic trip to Pakistan and take it all in.”

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

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“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.

Hilton Cartwright held the Stars together before Glenn Maxwell marshalled his team brilliantly

The Report by Andrew McGlashan18-Jan-2020The Melbourne Stars dug deep with a superb performance in the field, and an unlikely starring role for Nic Maddinson’s left-arm spin, as they were brilliantly captained by Glenn Maxwell against a Perth Scorchers team, whose batting is starting to look seriously wobbly as the push for the finals heats up.On a slow pitch, both teams laboured with the bat, but the Stars hauled themselves to 6 for 141 as Hilton Cartwright batted throughout the innings for the fourth-slowest fifty-plus score in BBL history. Matt Kelly made an impressive return to the Scorchers attack with 3 for 27 including the scalps of Marcus Stoinis and Maxwell.Nic Maddinson held a stinging return catch•Getty Images

Maxwell then assessed the conditions quickly in the field and did not bowl an over of pace after the powerplay when the Scorchers had been handily placed on 1 for 41. Between them, the four Stars spinners had figures of 14-0-89-6, including the first wickets of Maddinson’s T20 career in his 108th match. Two run outs, one of them of captain Mitchell Marsh, compounded the problems for the Scorchers, who face another long flight home as they try to regroup.Kelly’s confidence boosterLast season, Kelly’s performances caught the eye so much that he earned a late deal with the IPL and was tipped for Australia honours. Things have been tougher for him this campaign and he lost his spot in the starting XI before returning for this match. It was an encouraging display on the day, which included removing the in-form Stoinis early when he jabbed a very full delivery to cover. Stoinis did not think he was out, but the replays were clear when the third umpire checked. Nathan Coulter-Nile’s attempts to pinch-hit didn’t work – as early signs emerged that scoring could be hard work – before he heaved Kelly to deep midwicket. Kelly later on returned to claim Maxwell, who reverse scooped to the keeper.Hilton Cartwright registered the fourth-slowest 50+ innings in BBL cricket with his 58 off 56•Getty Images

Cartwright’s hard yardsAt the end of the powerplay, the Stars were just 2 for 29 – their lowest tally of the season – and the Scorchers continued to squeeze. After ten overs, they had crawled to 3 for 49 and that included Maxwell launching Fawad Ahmed for six. At that point, Cartwright was 18 off 31 balls and it would not be until the final over that he would take his innings above a run-a-ball, even that coming with an inside edge between his legs. Crucially, though, he did not give it away, which meant the Stars never had two new batsmen at the crease. The bit of late impetus that the Stars managed came from Nick Larkin, who played another smart innings to hit 24 off 18 balls.A deceptive foundationImportantly, the Stars managed to keep hold of the Scorchers in the powerplay, although the visitors were going along reasonably comfortably. Coulter-Nile’s first two balls were short and pulled away by Josh Inglis, who also dispatched a free hit from Lance Morris over the rope. Dan Worrall made an important inroad when he removed the in-form Inglis, who played one on to his stumps, although it was in the seventh over that the game started to change. Cameron Bancroft reverse swept Sandeep Lamichhane’s first ball for four, but three deliveries later Liam Livingstone swung him to deep midwicket.Maddinson’s unlikely roleMaxwell quickly adapted his gameplan and decided it was spin to win. Lamichhane and left-arm wristspinner Clint Hinchliffe did not allow the Scorchers to get away, and then the surprise package emerged in the tenth over: Maddinson’s round-arm left-arm spin, which had previously delivered five overs in T20 cricket. The first ball brought a wicket, although that was through a run out as Bancroft called for a single that Marsh was unsure of at the non-striker’s end. Maxwell then turned to himself, Lamichhane and Hinchliffe until the 15th over. It was a period that did not bring a wicket, but only went for one boundary as Bancroft got stuck and Kurtis Patterson, playing his first BBL match of the season and first game of any sort since October, found his feet. When Maddinson returned, the equation was 55 off 36 balls, and his first delivery was drilled down the ground by Patterson. But when Bancroft crunched a full toss towards him later in the over, Maddinson instinctively stuck out a hand and held on to a stunning catch. From there, the chase unraveled badly for the Scorchers amid senseless shots with Maddinson also bowling the 18th and 20th overs in one of the more unexpected death-bowling displays of the season.

Australia’s batsmen must change their style or the selectors must change personnel to fit the desired game plan, captain Aaron Finch has said

Daniel Brettig12-Nov-2018Australia’s batsmen must change their style or the selectors must change personnel to fit the desired game plan. The captain Aaron Finch gave this frank assessment in the knowledge that the national team has only three ODI series left to form cohesive plans for next year’s World Cup, with performances and changing tactics indicating that these are some distance from completion.

‘Bully’ Lynn vulnerable to pace – du Plessis

Chris Lynn’s power game is dangerous against medium pacers but South Africa’s genuine speed had him covered, according to South Africa captain Faf du Plessis.
“I do feel he is going to give you a chance from a bowling point of view because he’s an X-factor player who wants to go hard at the ball,” du Plessis said. “That creates an opportunity for us as a bowling attack to try and get him out. We’ve got a bit of pace in our attack so that helps. You can push him back.
“He looks like he’s comfortable when the ball is a little bit slower and 130s, and he tries to bully that pace. The nice thing is we do have pace in our attack to make sure he doesn’t get to free his arms consistently.”

Finch sounded a note of disappointment and some indecision after losing the decisive third match to South Africa in Hobart, having gambled on the hyper-aggressive pairing of himself and Chris Lynn at the top of the batting order in pursuit of 321 for victory only to see both openers dismissed cheaply by the new ball. Running his eye down a batting order that has now shuffled Glenn Maxwell as low as No. 7, Finch said that the Australian bent towards aggression had created a “fairly one-dimensional” collection of batsmen.Alongside the coach Justin Langer and the selectors Trevor Hohns and Greg Chappell, Finch said that either the selected group needed to become more adaptable to the demands of the 50-over game, or the selectors had to go in another direction. This calculation will be complicated by the fact the banned duo of David Warner and Steven Smith will return to eligibility in April, with the World Cup set to begin on May 30 in England.”If you look at our line-up on paper at the moment you’d say it’s an attacking side,” Finch said. “A fairly one-dimensional side in terms of attack, versus workers of the ball and your traditional batsmen. Not to disrespect any of the players by any stretch, but it’s probably that way and we haven’t got it right for a while.”And that does expose you in the middle order at times when you come upon some different wickets or a really good attack who get on top of you early. We’ve got a bit over two months until the next one-day games against India, so that’ll be a really good opportunity to sit down and reassess and start mapping out that process of how I and JL (Langer) and the leaders think we can be the most successful in this format.”The side we’ve got at the moment is that way inclined, it’s not necessarily the way we’ve been trying to play. So it’s going to be a combination of both, we have to either adapt our game plan a little bit around the way the side is structured best, or we slightly change our personnel to fit a style we think can win. That’s something that will come out over the next couple of months when we sit down and dig into it and find a way to get back on top of the world.”Asked about England’s high octane approach to the early overs of an innings, after which the likes of Joe Root and Eoin Morgan could either carry on the momentum or repair things after the loss of early wickets, Finch said that the more sedate early overs approach of India also needed to be considered in Australia’s planning.”That [England] is not the only way it’s heading,” he said. “If you look at India, they’re quite conservative in that first 10, really solid in that middle 30 overs where they rotate the strike and lose minimal wickets, then they load up at the back end. When they’re chasing they’re pretty clinical or have been in the last five or six years.Getty Images

“There’s two totally different ways to go about it, but they’ve both been ultra-successful in the last couple of years. I don’t think it’s all about going head on and smacking it, all-out attack, the way England play, but if you can mix and match, and find what best fits your batting seven, I think it’d be naive and ignorant to think every team can play like that, or every team can play like India. I think it’s about finding out balance and finding what works best for us.”Like the decision to take the new ball away from Mitchell Starc for the opening game of the series in Perth, the promotion of Lynn, who swapped places with Travis Head, was the result of lengthy talks between Finch and Langer. “JL and I discussed it and slept on it to be honest,” Finch said. “We had a chat last night and went through it and were excited about it. We thought it was a really attacking move to try to take South Africa head on in that Powerplay, something we hadn’t nailed in this three game series so far, and we wanted to fight fire with fire almost.”It didn’t pay off, but that’s cricket. Some days it comes off and you get off to a flyer, that makes it a bit simpler down the line. I think it can be a long-term plan. It was an attacking option to put Chris at the top, change him and Travis. I think to put a couple of guys up there who can take it on and get off to a bit of a flyer is an attacking move. If I had my time again I’d still do it again, it just didn’t come off for Chris or I.”Chris, it was only his fourth game, so he’s still relatively new to international cricket. He’s been around domestic cricket and various tournaments for a long time, but international cricket he’s probably still trying to find his feet a little bit and work out … he knows what works best for him in the shortest format, T20, just about finding that balance at international level as well. The way he can turn a game, we saw it briefly in Adelaide when he flicked the switch against [Kagiso] Rabada for that over, yes he got out but he changed the momentum of the game totally. That’s still definitely a thought going forward.”By contrast, Finch was adamant that Maxwell was currently not deserving of any position higher than No. 7, from where he walked out to bat in Hobart with an enormous task to conclude the chase. An innings of 35 from 27 balls was handy, but not enough to either bridge the gap to South Africa’s total or convince Finch that his fellow Victorian should bat any higher.”If you look at Glenn’s stats recently he probably hasn’t made as many runs as he’d like as a pure batsman, so therefore for him to be in the side and as an allrounder he’s probably batting in that No. 7 spot,” Finch said. “With guys playing reasonably well around him, [Marcus] Stoinis played really well at No. 5 today, Alex [Carey] at five and six he played excellent, so I think Maxy would’ve liked some more runs and obviously wants to bat higher.”But the reality is he’s in the side as a bit of an allrounder, but he hasn’t scored as many runs as he needed to in one-day cricket over the last little while to probably justify taking up a top four spot. That’s just reality. We’re all under pressure when we lose, no doubt about that. Between the batting line-up not having got it right for a little while now, there’s going to be some questions asked, whether its Maxy, Lynny, Heady, myself, Stoin, there’s going to be questions asked of all of us. It’s important we start to really nut down the balance of the side and get that right.”

It has looked likely for quite some time, but defeat at Old Trafford confirmed that West Indies will have to progress through next year’s qualifying tournament to reach the 2019 World Cup

The Report by Andrew McGlashan19-Sep-2017England 210 for 3 (Bairstow 100*, Root 54) beat West Indies 204 for 9 (Holder 41*, Stokes 3-43) by seven wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsIt has looked likely for quite some time, but defeat at Old Trafford confirmed that West Indies will have to progress through next year’s qualifying tournament to reach the 2019 World Cup. Barring some early striking from Chris Gayle it was an insipid performance as England secured their 13th victory in the last 14 completed ODIs between the teams.Jonny Bairstow, who had retained his place at the top of the order having replaced Jason Roy in the Champions Trophy semi-final, took his opportunity in commanding style with a maiden ODI century from 97 balls, celebrated with a skip of delight when he completed a three with just a handful of runs needed for victory. He and Joe Root added 125 in 19 overs for the second wicket to ensure a canter for England in their first ODI since the semi-final defeat against Pakistan at Cardiff.West Indies limped to 204 for 9 in their 42 overs – the match trimmed after a two-hour delay due to a damp outfield which threatened to become a significant issue as the sun shone in Manchester – and even those heights required Jason Holder’s unbeaten 41. Gayle, playing his first ODI since the 2015 World Cup, was dropped third ball by Root at second slip and plundered three sixes in the first four overs but that was deceptive: from 43 without loss after five overs, West Indies made 161 for 9 in the remaining 37.Jonny Bairstow brought up his maiden ODI hundred•Getty Images

Spin played an important part with Moeen Ali breaking the opening stand when brought on in the sixth over – albeit with a long hop – and Adil Rashid claiming 2 for 31 in nine overs. Ben Stokes was the leading wicket-taker with 3 for 43 and the disappointment that his figures were dented somewhat by a 15-run final over, which included two full-toss no-balls, will have been tempered by the fact that Marlon Samuels was among his successes. Stokes had not taken Samuels’ advice to go and “field on the boundary”, standing at slip to the spinners, but kept his thoughts to himself.The main hope for West Indies was that, as in the T20 at Chester-le-Street, spin and pace off the ball could leave stroke-making tricky for England’s dashing batting line-up. That was not the case, though, and they could not push the required rate into anything bordering a challenging situation. Alex Hales was again quickly out of the blocks before driving Jerome Taylor to backward point, but Bairstow and Root didn’t need to do anything more than bat properly.Bairstow has been desperate for a run in the one-day side and has been the poster boy for the depth England now have, because whenever called on he has usually delivered. The opportunity has come at opener after Jason Roy’s lean year in one-day cricket and he doesn’t appear to have designs on wasting it. Roy will be pondering what it means and it probably leaves him needing injury or rotation to get his place back during the tours of Australia and New Zealand.Root was just Root, moving along in unfussy fashion to a 49-ball half-century, against a side whose interest in the contest quickly waned as the target was hauled in, until he chopped on against Kesrick Williams, who added a second wicket when Eoin Morgan edged behind. But it made no difference. The main interest was whether Stokes would leave Bairstow enough runs to play with for his hundred. There was no stealing his thunder.For a handful of overs, it looked as though England may be tested and made to rue a dropped catch. Having waited for the action, the crowd were greeted with some heavy-hitting from Gayle after he thick-edged his third delivery from Chris Woakes only for it to burst through Root’s hands. The combination would have their redemption, when Root took a spectacular chance over his shoulder running backwards from cover.Ben Stokes struck in consecutive covers•AFP

After the early chance, Gayle had launched Woakes over long-on and taken two further sixes off David Willey in the space of three balls. With Evin Lewis at the other end, it felt much like the T20 on Saturday. However, Gayle’s mobility – never great at the best of times – appeared hindered with a leg problem (although he was able to field later on) and jogged singles became walks. The early momentum was being sucked out of the innings when Gayle tried to clear the off side and Root made amends. With the openers gone and Shai Hope struggling to get his innings going, England regained control.It took Hope and Samuels, who did not find the boundary during his 46-ball stay, 14 overs to add their 50-run stand which was broken when Hope was well caught at deep square leg by Bairstow to give Stokes his first wicket.The one Stokes really wanted, however, came in his next over when England successfully reviewed for a glove down the leg side by Samuels after the delivery had originally been called wide. There were no fireworks when the decision was confirmed although Stokes managed a smile in the huddle and appeared to enjoy watching Samuels walk off.Jason Mohammed and Rovman Powell managed a six apiece – Powell’s a wonderful straight drive off Liam Plunkett – but the pair fell in consecutive overs when looking to kick on. Mohammed picked out deep midwicket off Rashid and Powell sent a leading edge to mid-on. Not for the first time, Holder was left to try and repair the damage and his fine strike rate – 124.24 – was second only to Gayle, but it didn’t prove anywhere near enough.