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The Pakistan team management confirmed to ESPNcricinfo the change would have to be made just 90 minutes ahead of the scheduled start in Centurion

Danyal Rasool in Centurion 26-Dec-2018A late injury setback for Haris Sohail means Shan Masood will take his place in Pakistan’s starting eleven for the Centurion Test. Haris, who has had knee troubles for much of his career, saw another knee injury flare up, forcing him up onto the sidelines.The Pakistan team management confirmed to ESPNcricinfo the change would have to be made just 90 minutes ahead of the scheduled start. It is a blow to Pakistan’s hopes of standing firm against an intimidating South African attack, with Haris one of the players in impressive touch across the home summer. Two centuries against Australia and New Zealand had been accompanied by a string of medium-sized scores, seeming to suggest Haris’ career was back on track after lengthy injury layoffs.This is the second time injury has struck Haris on a tour of South Africa. When Pakistan toured here in 2013, an ankle injury ruled him out of making what would have been his international debut.Haris’ replacement, Masood, has not played international cricket in over a year, dropped after several low scores across series against England, West Indies and Sri Lanka. Masood has, however, been performing impressively for a number of months on the domestic circuit since. He scored 161 against England Lions in Dubai last month, and was in contention to open the batting had Pakistan opted to drop Fakhar Zaman or Imam-ul-Haq.Masood had made his Test debut against South Africa in 2013, in Abu Dhabi. He scored 75 in his first innings as Pakistan won by seven wickets on that occasion. Since, however, he has managed to add just another two fifties and one hundred in 23 innings, his career average standing at 23.54.

A look at the 2023 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy teams, key matches and players to watch

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Apr-2023

Diary dates

April 22: Season starts with all eight teams in action. Sunrisers, winless over the three-year history of the competition, take on two-time champions Southern Vipers at the Ageas Bowl, Thunder host South East Stars, defending champions Northern Diamonds are home to Western Storm and The Blaze, the newly named Nottinghamshire side which has replaced Loughborough-based Lightning, welcome Central Sparks.
July 22: Southern Vipers vs Northern Diamonds. We’ll have to wait until well into the competition before these sides meet for the first time since the 2022 final, in which Diamonds prevented a Vipers three-peat. By then we’ll have a good idea of where each side stands this year. Diamonds are unlikely to lose as many players to England duty through June and July. These sides play each other again immediately after the August pause for the Hundred.
September 21: Play-off between the sides placed second and third after the group stage to determine who faces the top side in the final.
September 24: The final. Will it be another Vipers-Diamonds clash, as has been the case over the first three seasons, or will another team break into the reckoning?

Key signings

Central Sparks have secured Australian batting allrounder Erin Burns from May until the start of August, bolstering their addition of left-arm quick Katie George (Western Storm) and top-order batter Chloe Brewer (South East Stars) during the off-season.Diamonds have lost a lot of experience with Linsey Smith going to Vipers and Nat Sciver-Brunt to The Blaze. They added batter Rebecca Duckworth to their line-up from Thunder but it is Chloe Tryon, the South African batting allrounder, who looms as the biggest fillip during a substantial stint from April-August.South East Stars have brought in allrounder Paige Scholfield from Vipers after Eva Gray’s move to Sunrisers.Southern Vipers welcome back Smith, their Kia Super League OG, from Diamonds but have lost wicketkeeper Carla Rudd (retired), Scholfield and Tara Norris (Thunder).Sunrisers received a much-needed boost when they managed to sign Dane van Niekerk, the hugely experienced former South Africa captain, following her international retirement. She will be with them from May until late July, when she joins Oval Invincibles for the Hundred, while Gray bolsters the bowling stocks.The Blaze Along with Nat Sciver-Brunt, Blaze have added legspinner Sarah Glenn and South Africa allrounder Nadine de Klerk after an impressive off-season recruitment drive.Thunder have also been active in the market, securing former Vipers left-arm quick Norris while retaining former West Indies allrounder Deandra Dottin. Naomi Dattani and Fi Morris have also joined from Sunrisers and Western Storm respectively.Western Storm have handed Academy product Sophia Smale her first professional contract after a breakout season in the Women’s Hundred, where she was Oval Invincibles’ leading wicket-taker.

Players to watch

Central Sparks: Grace Scrivens, England’s captain, may have taken the clutch wicket that edged her side past Australia and into the Under-19 T20 World Cup final, but that narrow victory was set up by legspinner Hannah Baker’s 3 for 10 which allowed England to defend a paltry total of 99 and showed she has plenty of gumption.Diamonds: Fast bowler Lizzie Scott was also part of the England U19 team which finished as T20 World Cup runners-up to India in January, building on her performance in last year’s final where she took the important wicket of No.3 Georgia Elwiss in just her third RHFT appearance.South East Stars: Tash Farrant’s season was ruined by a back stress fracture last year, just as she had worked her way back into the England side, so it will be interesting to map her return.Southern Vipers: Opener Ella McCaughan played a couple of excellent knocks in 2022, including a half-century against Lightning and 47 in a 98-run stand with opening partner Maia Bouchier their play-off victory against Stars.Sunrisers: Grace Scrivens is a player the Sunrisers can build their hopes of winning some games on and the confidence she has gained from leading her country at U19 level could see her take the next step sooner rather than later.The Blaze: Grace Ballinger, the 21-year-old left-arm seamer, was joint-leading wicket-taker for Lightning last season alongside the experienced Kirstie Gordon and has been awarded her first full professional contract this year.Thunder: Left-arm swing bowler Tara Norris, who represents United States, won wider international recognition as the first player to take a five-wicket haul at the WPL, although Vipers fans are familiar with what she can bring to a side after she finished 2022 as the competition’s third-highest wicket-taker with 12 at 19.75 and an economy rate of 4.08.Western Storm Experience gained from the Hundred and England’s runner-up finish at the Under-19 T20 World Cup stand Sophia Smale in good stead to make the next, exciting step in her career.

The veteran allrounder batted through till the end of the innings in a low-scoring innings, and bowled economically as Bangladesh played meekly in their chase

Varun Shetty14-Nov-2018Sri Lanka kept their semi-final prospects alive in Group A with a comprehensive win over Bangladesh that they would not have counted on at the halfway mark. Put into bat, they managed only 97 from their 20 overs, thanks mostly to former captain Shashikala Siriwardene’s 31. The allrounder batted until the last over of an innings that never found momentum, and returned figures of 4-0-10-2 as Asia Cup winners Bangladesh surrendered early in the chase against their regional rivals.It was Jahanara Alam who had given them a strong chance once again. The seamer managed to utilise the conditions right from the first ball, getting an outswinger to curve back at Yasoda Mendis’ toes and roll onto leg stump. This made it appear like the strategy to not open with Chamari Atapattu would not make much of a difference. But Sri Lanka chose to promote wicketkeeper Dilani Manodara to No. 3.But Alam and the spinners gave away nothing to her or to makeshift opener Hasini Perera, and the Powerplay score of 17 for 1 wasn’t wildly different from what they’d managed against South Africa two days ago. And the batting experiment looked even worse as Sri Lanka fell to 30 for 3 in nine overs, that third wicket a complete mess with Manodara and Atapattu at the same end as Bangladesh got rid of the former at the other.Atapattu and Siriwardene pushed the pace over the next two overs, but with the captain’s top edge and dismissal in the 13th over, another experiment had failed. With the big hitters all gone early, Siriwardene was left with the lower middle-order, using her experience to manoeuvre the gaps on an outfield that was still reeling under the effects of rain that has affected the entire week. She hit two fours and a six, most of which came late in her innings, and fell with two balls to go. Alam, once again, cut short any momentum Siriwardene wanted to provide, and followed it up with her third wicket to stop Sri Lanka from getting to three figures.At the toss, Sri Lanka had wanted 120, and Bangladesh had wanted to restrict them to 120; but Sri Lanka fell 23 short of their target and Bangladesh fell 25 short of that. Such was the shock from left-arm seamer Udeshika Prabodhani’s two wickets in the first over, that Bangladesh looked like they had decided not to attempt any attacking shots. It was the chase of an inexperienced side, and that was visible with the first ball. Sanjida Islam received a poor decision from umpire Jacqueline Williams, being struck well outside off stump, but Ayasha Rahman was not alive to the situation and the review was not taken.Three balls later, Fargana Hoque did review, but her 50-50 lbw decision was deemed umpire’s call, the tracker showing the ball brushing leg stump. Prabodhani continued tormenting them with inswingers, but went off in the fifth over when she dropped a return catch and seemingly split the webbing between middle and ring finger.They wouldn’t need her though. The Sri Lanka spinners took charge, using the wind to drift the ball menacingly away, lobbing it slower and slower at the batsmen. Most of them defended for the most part, two of them looked to drill it through the off side only to be caught at short extra cover, and the occasional slogs didn’t go too far on a sluggish pitch.At the halfway stage, Bangladesh hadn’t even made 30, and their lack of intent made it evident they weren’t getting anywhere close to the target. In all, they hit three boundaries, and played 75 dot balls, the kind of batting performance that fits with an early exit from a major tournament.

Ehsan Mani, who had meetings in with top BCCI officials on the sidelines of the Asian Cricket Council meeting last Thursday, said he is hopeful of finding common ground

Shashank Kishore in Dubai23-Sep-2018Ehsan Mani, the new PCB chairman, wants to remain open to talks with the BCCI, even as both boards are set to face off soon in an ICC hearing in Dubai. A dispute-resolution panel set up by the ICC will hear Pakistan’s compensation claim of US$ 70 million against India for refusing to honour their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that guaranteed six bilateral series between 2015 and 2013. The tribunal will begin from October 1.”This process has already gone beyond resolving it amicably,” Mani said. “It’s in the final stages of reaching a conclusion. Both sides have to find a common solution for the future and I’ll explore every possibility for the sake of the game. Had I been involved when the dispute happened, every effort would have been made to sort it bilaterally. Unfortunately, we are where we are. We have to still progress, but my doors are always open.”Mani has had meetings in Dubai with Rahul Johri, the BCCI chief executive, and Amitabh Chaudhary, the acting secretary, on the sidelines of the Asian Cricket Council meeting last Thursday. Without going into specifics of the meeting he described as productive, Mani insisted there was still some bridge-building to do.”Cricket boards have to work towards playing cricket, they shouldn’t get into politics, that’s what we’re talking with our Indian counterparts,” he said. “There’s some bridge-building to do, hopefully we will be able to make some ground because the relations haven’t been great.”I have already had a very constructive discussion with my colleagues from India who are here. We’ll have a lot of common ground going forward. We all understand whatever has happened in the past has happened; we have to move forward. At the end of the day, the game is bigger than any one person; it’s bigger than the politicians. It reaches out across global spectrum.”India and Pakistan last played a full bilateral series in 2007 in India. Since then, there has just been one bilateral tour that Pakistan made to India for two T20Is and three ODIs in December 2012. However, the teams have continued to play each other at multi-national events like the World Cup, the World T20, the Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup.In November 2016, India women had forfeited six points for failing to play a scheduled three-match series part of the ICC Women’s Championship due to the political stalemate between the two countries. This consequently closed out doors on India’s automatic qualification for the 2017 World Cup.”When an India-Pakistan match is played, over a 100 billion people watch the game from all over the world. No one cares about the politics,” Mani said. “The main thing is to get the cricket going and this is a main thing in that direction. I am very hopeful the board will work towards it. Am not saying we will get results on day one but we will work towards the common goal. The boards’ endeavour should be for cricket, not anything else.”Political tensions between the two countries took another twist on Sunday when India cancelled a scheduled meeting of the countries’ foreign ministers slated to be held in New York later this month. Mani was diplomatic when asked if this had the potential to spill over onto the PCB-BCCI talks, but insisted efforts had to be made from both sides to ensure politics and sport don’t mix.”When politicians talk, we shouldn’t get it into it. We should focus on matters concerning the cricket boards. When the Kargil incident happened [in 1999], even then we didn’t stop dialogues. We knew cricket was tough, but every effort was made to renew bilateral ties. I strongly believe politics and politicians shouldn’t influence cricket.”

Lead swells to 275 at stumps on day three, despite Dubey scoring a century for Madhya Pradesh

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Mar-2023
Services offspinner Pulkit Narang picked up a four-wicket haul to help dismiss Madhya Pradesh for 294 and hand Rest of India a first-innings lead of 190 on the third day of the Irani Cup in Gwalior. Mumbai batter Yashasvi Jaiswal followed up his first-innings double-hundred with a 46-ball half-century to swell Rest of India’s overall lead to 275 at stumps. Jaiswal was unbeaten on 58 along with Abhimanyu Easwaran, who made 26 not out off 51 balls.From an overnight 112 for 3, MP fought their way towards 300, thanks in no small part to Yash Dubey, who scored his fourth first-class ton. However, his dismissal by Narang sparked a collapse as MP lost their last five wickets for 53 runs. Narang also accounted for Saransh Jain, who was the second-highest scorer for MP with 66 off 150 balls. Jain and Dubey added 96 for the sixth wicket before Narang ran through the lower order.Earlier in the day, Harsh Gawli converted his overnight 47 into a half-century, but Navdeep Saini cut his innings short at 54 off 149 balls. Saini, who is working his way back from injury, proved his fitness and form by taking 3 for 56 in 20 overs. As for Narang, he ended with 4 for 65 in 25.5 overs.Rest of India then had a wobble at the start of their second innings, losing their captain Mayank Agarwal for a duck to left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya. However, Jaiswal and Abhimanyu struck up an unbroken 84-run stand for the second wicket off 102 balls to help their team re-establish command over MP. Jaiswal struck eight fours and a six, including three in a row off fast bowler Avesh Khan in the fourth over. Jaiswal was also severe on Ankit Kushwah, taking him for 19 off 13 balls.

Rashid Khan led an inspired bowling performance to restrict Daredevils to 163 after a bright start, and Sunrisers’ batsmen just about managed to overhaul that total

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy05-May-2018How do you beat Sunrisers Hyderabad? It may have felt like a distant memory before Saturday, but Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings showed the other teams a way early in the season: bat first, set a challenging target and expose a slightly suspect batting line-up.On Saturday, Delhi Daredevils did most of that, and put Sunrisers under plenty of pressure, but fell short at a few key moments. Having won the toss and pushed on to 95 for 1 in their first 10 overs, they only managed 68 in their last 10, as Sunrisers’ bowlers reeled them back on a slow, dry track.Still, 163 was the biggest total any team had managed against Sunrisers this season, and they didn’t always look convincing while chasing it. They profited from a couple of dropped chances, went without a boundary for 36 balls at one point, and eventually needed 14 off the last over. It could have gone either way, and Yusuf Pathan – who had been dropped on 0 by Vijay Shankar on the square-leg boundary – sealed the deal with two meaty hits off Daniel Christian: a straight six off a full-toss, and a four, swiped over short fine leg, off a short ball.Those hits may also have sealed Daredevils’ fate in the tournament. With only three wins from ten games, the playoffs are all but out of reach for them.The Shaw must go onThat’s what the big screen at the stadium said after Prithvi Shaw hit his first boundary of the match, a straight six off Sandeep Sharma. By the end of the 10th over, Shaw had made 65 off 35 balls, out of Daredevils’ 95 for 1. The other end, despite some sparkling shots from Shreyas Iyer, had only made 30 off 25.Part of the reason for Shaw’s rate of scoring was the hardness of the new ball, which made up somewhat for a slow pitch. But it also had something to do with Shaw’s range of strokes: case in point the last over of the Powerplay, delivered by Siddarth Kaul.Before this game, Kaul had conceded only 59 off 62 short and short-of-good-length balls this season. After a fullish knuckle ball that Shaw launched over the long-on boundary, Kaul pulled his length back, delivering three short or shortish balls. Two were angled into the body to try and cramp Shaw for room, and the other was only marginally outside off stump. None of them was a rank bad ball, and Shaw put all three away for four, to three different parts of the ground.The slowdownThe Shaw, however, didn’t go on past the first ball of the 11th over, an attempted sweep off Rashid Khan looping to short third man off the outside edge. Daredevils slowed down considerably after that.This was partly down to the older ball becoming difficult to hit, and mostly to Sunrisers’ bowling and tactics. Rashid bowled three of the seven overs from the 11th to the 17th, varying his pace and getting some balls to grip the surface while others hurried on; Bhuvneshwar Kumar sent down his third over in the 14th to try and keep the pressure on; and Kaul and Sandeep varied their pace excellently.The changes of pace were particularly effective against Rishabh Pant, who kept losing his shape while trying to launch himself into slower balls angling away from him. He only scored 18 off 18 before falling to Rashid in the 17th over. By that time, Daredevils were 135 for 5.They went without a boundary for 18 balls before Shankar clattered a six and a four off Bhuvneshwar in the 20th over to move Daredevils past 160.Hales v AveshThis was only Alex Hales’ second match of the season, but belatedly or not, his inclusion has given Sunrisers the top-order muscle they possibly lacked without David Warner. Today he muscled 45 off 31 balls, and 28 off 9 came off one bowler. Avesh Khan. The 21-year old kept bowling short, and kept getting hit by Hales and, occasionally, Shikhar Dhawan. There were two fours in the second over, and four sixes in the sixth.Perhaps it was a plan, for Hales miscued one pull, on 9, only for Glenn Maxwell to drop a sitter at deep square leg. That apart, it didn’t work, and the opening pair added 76 in nine overs.One piece of magic, and a pair of expensive bowlersIt took a beauty to end the opening stand, an Amit Mishra legbreak that pitched on leg, beat the outside edge, and hit the top of off, its flat trajectory rooting Hales to the crease. Dhawan played all around a full ball in Mishra’s next over and was bowled for 33 off 30, his strike rate reflecting the not necessarily straightforward batting conditions as well as a conservative, let’s-get-our-eye-in approach from all of Sunrisers’ top order barring Hales.The third-wicket stand between Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey – which featured lots of singles to deep fielders and not a lot of high-risk shots – brought only 21 runs in its first 22 balls, at which stage Sunrisers needed 57 off 32 balls. But Pandey struck a pair of fours off Christian, and Williamson followed up with an uppercut six off Avesh in the next over, suggesting these were the bowlers Sunrisers wanted to target. It was a fairly well-executed strategy. The two of them ended up conceding 84 in 6.5 overs, and the rest of Daredevils’ bowlers just 80 off 13.

Scorchers cruise to victory and stay atop after Tye bags three wickets and Inglis and Bancroft control the chase

AAP and ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jan-2023Nic Maddinson’s suspected serious knee injury has compounded Melbourne Renegades’ woes after they suffered a fourth consecutive BBL defeat. Renegades copped a five-wicket loss to the red-hot Perth Scorchers at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, continuing their slide after a positive 3-0 start to the season.Aaron Finch’s 65 off 48 had given the home side a sniff, steering them to 155 for 6 from their 20 overs, with Scorchers quick AJ Tye taking 3 for 32 to restrict the hosts. But Josh Inglis and Cameron Bancroft got Scorchers over the line in a controlled chase.Scorchers reached the target with two balls to spare, despite the efforts of Renegades quick Kane Richardson. It was Scorchers’ fourth straight win, firming up their spot at the top of the table.Maddinson’s slump continued when he was out for a first-ball duck, giving him a total of just three runs in his last five innings. His day got worse when he injured his knee while fielding during the second over of Scorchers’ chase, twisting his left leg as he turned to throw the ball.The 31-year-old immediately slumped to the turf and was assessed for several minutes before being driven off the field. Renegades are yet to determine the full extent of the injury, with Maddinson set to be sent for scans.Wicketkeeper Peter Handscomb also failed to see out the match, substituted off after 16 overs as he struggled with the effects of the soaring temperature.Andrew Tye was Player of the Match after taking 3 for 32•Getty Images

Import opener Faf du Plessis and Bancroft gave Scorchers a solid platform in their chase.Richardson was on a hat-trick when he removed Adam Lyth with the last ball of one over and du Plessis with the first of another, but he could not complete the feat.Bancroft was brilliantly run out by Will Sutherland, but Inglis took the reins and put his side on the brink of victory.There was late drama when Inglis unsuccessfully reviewed an lbw decision and was given out before Nick Hobson hit the winning run off Sutherland.Earlier, Finch became the second player to reach 3000 career runs in the BBL, joining all-time leading scorer Chris Lynn. Tye was the pick of Scorchers’ bowlers claiming the key wickets of Finch, Handscomb and Mackenzie Harvey. Jason Behrendorff also bowled superbly claiming 1 for 17 from four overs.

He says the backing from the team management has helped “take a bit of pressure off” as he makes a return to India’s squad

Shashank Kishore18-Sep-20225:50

How Harshal Patel has used his injury to become even better

Training without the fear of competition has been liberating for Harshal Patel.Having recovered from a rib injury that ruled him out of the Asia Cup that just finished in the UAE, Harshal is looking forward to life on the road again, which will soon include a maiden World Cup appearance. But first he has to deal with the T20Is against Australia starting on Tuesday in Mohali.Related

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Harshal has spent the past four weeks in rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. The first two weeks were spent working on his physical conditioning, before he resumed bowling. One of his key focus areas has been to be ahead of the curve and continue as the X-factor bowler teams yearn for.”I want to be tighter with my execution,” Harshal told ESPNcricinfo in August. “And I achieved that more or less last IPL [19 wickets in 15 matches]. I will continue to strive for that. If I’m bowling one or two bad balls out of 24, [I want to see] if I can completely eliminate that.”You’re not going to be able to do that every single game, but if I can do that in two games out of five, or three games out of five, that will be a goal worth striving for.”Known for his terrific slower balls and a potent dipping yorker, Harshal vaulted to the top of the wicket-taker’s charts at IPL 2021 and has ridden that wave all the way to an India cap last November.Nearly a year on, he’s emerged as a key member of India’s T20I arsenal. The time off due to injury, he believes, has helped him explore different facets of his craft apart from working on their execution, which is the “tougher bit.” Two of those areas are his new-ball bowling and variations in lengths.”I’ve explored a little bit in terms of the lengths I can bowl with the slower ball,” he explained. “Usually when I bowl the slower balls, it’s mainly fuller or at the good length. But now I’ve started bowling more shorter slower balls which are working out very well for me. That’s one thing obviously.”I’ve also been working on my new-ball skills for a while. I started doing that mid-IPL. Just because in the IPL, what I was supposed to do [mainly middle-overs and death bowling], all my skills were top notch, so I didn’t need to work on them.”So, every time I’d go to practice, I’d take a new ball and start bowling with it because it’s good to have a skill and not need it than the other way round,. It’s just something I’ve been working on and if I get an opportunity, for India or for RCB [Royal Challengers Bangalore], I would love to do that.”Harshal is deeply analytical, and challenges himself to keep getting better. That the team management has been clear of what they expect of him has helped, too.Harshal Patel: My ability to bat at No. 8 is something they [team management] really value•Getty Images

In the 30 T20s this year, he has bowled 54 overs in the middle phase for 19 wickets at an economy rate of 6.61 and 41.1 overs at the death for 18 wickets at 10.17. In comparison, in the 11 innings where he came on in the first six, he has averaged just one over per game.”They [India coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma] have been nothing but supportive,” Harshal said. “Whatever the team ethos is, they have taken precedence over individuals, which is a great thing.”They told me my role exactly. They said, ‘we want you to be able to bowl in all three phases, not just middle and death’. They’ve been bowling me once at the end of the powerplay every single game just to get used to that.”It isn’t just his bowling that Harshal has been working on. He takes great pride in his ball-striking too. “My ability to bat at No. 8 is something they [team management] really value,” he said.”I have not been working a lot on my batting because of time constraints, because you’re constantly in competition. But during rehab, I’ve had a chance to hit 500-700 balls over two-three weeks. It’s something I’ve wanted to work on for quite a while because I really want to contribute in that capacity as well.”What has helped along the way is clarity of roles and backing from the captain and the coach. Harshal believes this is critical for individuals from a mental standpoint, because it helps in better decision-making, especially when players return from injuries.”It does take a bit of pressure off you,” he said. “Because sometimes people make foolish decisions when they’re returning to play. They’re either trying to do too much or trying to push too hard because they feel that their place is in danger or for whatever reason.”But if you know for a fact the team management will remember what you’ve done prior to getting injured, and those performances and contributions are not forgotten, then that gives you a sense of calm or comfort that once you go back into the team – obviously you will have to perform again and again and that goes for every single cricketer – you know that you will hold that place in the team.”As Harshal looks ahead, the mention of ‘World Cup’ brings a smile to his face. He grew up like any other kid dreaming of playing in one, and in about a month’s time, it will all come true.”Obviously I am super excited,” he said. “I will get nervous at some point, but at this point of time, I’m just excited. The two World Cups India have won in 2007 and 2011, I vividly remember where I was and what I was doing.”After we won the World Cup, like every kid, we took our scooters and went onto the roads to dance and jump and shout. It would be great if I could play and if we end up winning the World Cup, to have that circle completed would be a great feeling. But [right now] it’s going to be a lot of excitement and nervous energy.”

Thinks his side’s semi-final finish at the Women’s Asia Cup will help grow the game back home; happy with the spirit shown after early defeats

Mohammad Isam13-Oct-2022You couldn’t fault the Thailand contingent for being excited despite their 74-run loss in the Asia Cup semi-final against India. There was hardly any buzz in the atmosphere at the Sylhet International Stadium, but Thailand’s excitement was infectious. After the match, the two teams posed for a group photo, while some of Thailand’s players sought out their Indian counterparts for selfies.There were many reasons to be happy. Thailand didn’t really make a fist of things on their big day, but restricting India to 148 for 6, and then batting out the 20 overs was a big step for them. For the 12th ranked T20I team in the world, the performance, according to coach Harshal Pathak, was a big deal.Related

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He said the team’s effort will have a dual effect on the game back home. The team won’t be given a parade, but there will be a lot of appreciation among the few who follow the game. The bigger influence, though, will be on those who dream of playing for Thailand in the future.”There will be more awareness among the public after the team does well. If you think about the focus group of new cricketers, obviously they will be inspired,” Pathak said. “They are looking up to someone like [Naruemol] Chaiwai, Natthakan [Chantham] and Chanida [Sutthiruang].”Pathak said that after a short break, he will speak to the team about this Asia Cup experience, and how they can grow from it. “We will really evaluate what we have done well, what we want to achieve and how we are going to go about it. We have faced a lot of high-quality bowlers in different situations. We have to understand how we can play dominating cricket.”After crushing defeats at the hands of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Thailand shot back with a four-wicket win over Pakistan. This was followed by wins over UAE and Malaysia, putting them above Bangladesh on the points table. After Bangladesh, the defending champions,lost to Sri Lanka and had their last game rained out against UAE, despite being routed by India to end their round-robin stage Thailand could celebrate at their team hotel in Sylhet with a semi-final spot in the bag.”I expected a little more at the start of the tournament. I was targeting going to the final. But I am very happy with the way the team bounced back after the two [early] losses,” Pathak said. “They have shown character. Adjusted and adapted well.”We had better intent today compared to the first game against India. We got back into the game in the last ten overs with the ball. We took control after they got off to a good start. The bowlers did well, and [the captain] put some really good field settings. We had very good plans today.”He said that his coaching method is also evolving according to the needs of the team. When he joined four years ago, Pathak had said he had to get into a lot of details when explaining things to the players. But now things are different.”Cricket is not the main game in Thailand. In India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, cricket is a religion. You pick up the game by watching around you, and the knowledge base keeps growing as you go through the system. Coaches need to tell the players about plans or fine-tune the mindset.”For a developing [cricket] country like Thailand, a coach has to go quite deep to explain things. At the start of my stint with Thailand, I used to go into a lot of details. Now I have confidence that they can do a lot of things on their own. Now we have to take it to the next level.”

“I’ve made the decision take a step back to enable me to spend time focusing on myself,” Australia’s captain said

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Aug-2022Australia captain Meg Lanning will take an indefinite break from the game for personal reasons.It means Lanning, who recently led Australia to the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games to follow their T20 and ODI World Cup titles in 2020 and 2022, will miss the Hundred where she would have played for Trent Rockets. Australia’s domestic season starts in late September with the WNCL ahead of the WBBL in October. Kim Garth, the Ireland allrounder, will replace Lanning in the Rockets squad.Australia’s next series is an away T20I tour of India in mid-December ahead of hosting Pakistan next January before the T20 World Cup in South Africa.”After a busy couple of years, I’ve made the decision to take a step back to enable me to spend time focusing on myself,” Lanning said in a statement. “I’m grateful for the support of CA and my team-mates and ask that my privacy is respected during this time.”Cricket Australia’s head of performance, women’s cricket, Shawn Flegler said: “We’re proud of Meg for acknowledging that she needs a break and will continue to support her during this time.”She’s been an incredible contributor to Australian cricket over the last decade, achieving remarkable feats both individually and as part of the team, and has been a brilliant role model for young kids.”The welfare of our players is always our number one priority, and we’ll continue to work with Meg to ensure she gets the support and space she needs.”Melbourne Stars general manager Blair Crouch said: “We’re fully supportive of Meg’s desire to have a break from cricket and we will give her all the time, support and space she needs.”Lanning made her international debut in 2010 and was named captain as a 21-year-old in 2014. She has led the team in 171 matches across all formats with 135 victories. Since 2017 she has only missed five internationals.