Category Uncategorized

The West Indies batsmen gifted their wickets to Bangladesh’s bowlers, according to Kieron Pollard, who said their seven-wicket defeat in Khulna was a “bad day”

Mohammad Isam in Khulna30-Nov-2012The West Indies batsmen gifted their wickets to Bangladesh’s bowlers, according to allrounder Kieron Pollard, who said their seven-wicket defeat in the first ODI in Khulna was a “bad day” and nothing more. After dominating the Test series, the visiting batsmen were rolled for 199 in 46.5 overs, despite the pre-match expectation that the big-hitters in the West Indies line-up would make life hard for the hosts.”It was mostly a bad day,” Pollard said. “They weren’t bowling anything magical. We gifted our wickets away. I think we have to blame ourselves for the way we batted. At the end of the day, we can’t look for excuses. The batsmen have to bat 50 overs, and not let the tail bat for 10 to 15 overs, like they had to do today. Now we know that when we play bad, Bangladesh will take the initiative.”West Indies had chosen to bat, the logical decision on a flat and slow pitch. But Lendl Simmons’ scratchy innings was over quickly, and Chris Gayle gave it away after making 35 off 40 balls, when he looked set for more. The major breakthrough for Bangladesh came in the 14th over, when Sohag Gazi drew the in-form Marlon Samuels into an early drive. The ball took the edge and was caught on the second attempt by Mahmudullah at slip. Samuels had made 260 in the Khulna Test but was dismissed for a duck today.”We had a very good start with Lendl [Simmons] and Chris [Gayle]. We were on just where we liked to be after 10 overs,” Pollard said. “Then we lost wickets in clusters, we lost Gayle and Samuels. But having said that, the other guys are here to play and did well before. It is a matter of us taking that extra time, that extra over or two, to continue what we have been doing.”After Samuels’ dismissal, Pollard and Darren Bravo added 52 runs for the fourth wicket before Pollard threw his bat at a short ball from Abdur Razzak, only to be caught at short midwicket. His departure in the 23rd over, with West Indies on 100 for 4, caused the rest of the innings to disintegrate. Pollard was disappointed, but promised to treat the delivery the same way the next time it is bowled at him.”It was an innings that was needed today, because we had lost three wickets,” Pollard said. “That ball, nine out of ten times, you’d hit it out of the ground, to the boundary. Little extra bounce, hit it straight to the fieldsman.”It is a soft dismissal. But that’s the way it is, I was just trying to play to the situation. If I get the same ball tomorrow, I will try to play the same shot as well. This time it will go to Dhaka.”Pollard praised Bangladesh for their performance without Shakib Al Hasan. “One guy missing is a big gap in the Bangladesh team but they played well. Whatever happened in the Test series is in the past, we didn’t turn up as we would have liked to in this game. There are four more games to go, so it is a matter of us regrouping as international cricketers.”

England, the reigning World Twenty20 champions, have been unveiled as the top T20 side as the ICC launched their rankings for the shortest format of the game

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-2011England, the reigning World Twenty20 champions, have topped the ICC’s inaugural rankings for the shortest format of the game. England batsman Eoin Morgan tops the batting ratings, Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis is the top bowler and Australia’s Shane Watson the No. 1 allrounder.England have 127 points and are ahead of Sri Lanka, who have 126 in the rankings, announced on Monday. If England win their T20 against India at Eden Gardens on October 29, they will have a four-point lead over Sri Lanka. If they lose, though, they will slip below Sri Lanka and India.”The introduction of rankings for international Twenty20 cricket provides real context to the various series played between member countries on an ongoing basis,” England’s team director Andy Flower said. “Until now we haven’t had the chance to play a large number of Twenty20 Internationals so this will offer a benchmark as to who is performing at international level.”The next four teams – New Zealand (117), South Africa, India and Australia – were separated by only six points. Pakistan, who won the World Twenty20 in 2009, were ranked seventh followed by West Indies, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.Bangladesh, along with Associate Members Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Scotland, which have T20 international status, will join the table as soon as they have played sufficient matches (at least eight T20s since August 2009) to qualify for a ranking.Since August 2009, England played 20 T20s, winning 12, losing six and two no-results. Pakistan played the most matches (24) during the same period, but lost more than 50% of its matches, which contributed to its low rating.Brendon McCullum and Kevin Pietersen were No. 2 and 3 behind Morgan in the rankings for batsmen, while spinners occupy seven of the top ten spots for bowlers. “I believe spin bowlers have adapted to T20 cricket better than most,” Daniel Vettori, who has retired from T20s, said. “To see spinners succeed in a tough environment is great for the game and means bowlers can enjoy Twenty20 cricket, most of the time!”Watson, the No. 1 allrounder, is followed by Shahid Afridi, David Hussey and Mohammad Hafeez. Abdul Razzaq, at No. 10, is the third Pakistan player among the top ten allrounders.

West Indies coach Ottis Gibson has said that leaving Ramnaresh Sarwan out of the squad for the Sri Lanka tour was a tough decision

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Oct-2010West Indies coach Ottis Gibson has said that leaving Ramnaresh Sarwan out of the Test team was a tough decision but one that needed to be made in the interests of the touring squad in Sri Lanka. Fitness issues and indifferent form have kept Sarwan out of the side in 2010, but Gibson said he still has a lot to offer the team.”It came down to whether we can continue to take Sarwan on tour and then have one of our best players not available to us for selection all the time,” Gibson said. “The decision was taken to give him more time to get fit. I still think he’s got a lot more contributions to make to West Indies cricket and that gives him the opportunity to do the things he knows he needs to do to not just get fit, but stay fit to make those contributions.”Gibson backed the “strong decisions” made by the selectors in picking a new-look squad, with Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo stripped of their leadership roles following their refusal to sign WICB’s central contracts. Darren Sammy took over as captain from Gayle, while Brendan Nash was named vice-captain.”The selectors have picked a team in trying to chart the way forward for the West Indies in the coming years,” Gibson said. “We are in the decision-making business and West Indies cricket, from where it sits currently, needs strong decisions and those are the decisions the selectors have taken. It’s an exciting time for Darren and Brendan but also for some of the young guys who have been picked.”The squad includes the uncapped pair of fast bowler Andre Russell and wicketkeeper Devon Thomas, who was picked in place of Denesh Ramdin. Gibson was confident that both the team and the new players stood to benefit from their presence on a potentially tough tour of Sri Lanka.”Thomas’ selection comes at the back of a very good stint at the Sagicor High Performance Center in Barbados,” Gibson said. “He has had rave reviews when they went on tour in Canada. The thinking of the selectors is that the subcontinent is a tough place to tour, and if you’re going on a tour like that you need to have cover in specialist positions so therefore the view of taking two keepers [Carlton Baugh is also in the side] is exactly that.”When I see Andre Russell, he excites me. He is a big, tall fellow and he has got some pace. We took the decision to take him along and it will give me an opportunity to work with him and introduce him into the international arena that way.”Gibson also reposed faith in the inexperienced leadership pair that will take charge of the side. Sammy has played only eight Tests since his debut in 2007, while the Australia-born batsman, Nash, has featured in 15.”Darren Sammy as a cricketer and as a leader always plays with passion. Hopefully when he leads, he continues to lead in that way. What we don’t want is for him to get the job and change the way he is. I said to him already that he must be his own man and make sure that we, as management, will take as much stress off him so he can do his job.”Brendan Nash, since he’s been here, has been very professional,” Gibson said. “Growing up in Australia, he’s got a steely Australia attitude, meticulous with his preparation. That’s what I see of Nash and that’s what I hope he brings to his role as the vice-captain of the team – to lead in that regard, continue to show the younger players in the team in that way.”

Former West Indies fast bowler hopes to instill in the squad a sense of the pride with which they dominated cricket in the past

Cricinfo staff06-Nov-2009Former West Indies fast bowler Joel Garner, recently appointed team manager for the tour to Australia, has said he hopes to instill in the squad a sense of the pride with which they dominated world cricket in the past. Garner, also a West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) director and president of the Barbados Cricket Association, will travel with the side to Australia for their three-Test tour of Australia.”There are some things that are non-negotiable, things like discipline, punctuality and I think that players know and understand that there are some things that are not negotiable, the way we approach our cricket, the way how we train, all of those things will come back into force,” he said.
“The West Indies team that we had that was a good West Indies team of the 70s and 80s was not all talent. We were successful because we worked hard and we took the time out to do the things that were right and to bring the cricket up.”Garner aimed to make a difference on the tour in an attempt to revive West Indies cricket which
has faltered, more especially over the past two decades, through weak leadership and general mismanagement. “I’m looking at bring back some of those values that made us great, back into the team,” he said. “The first thing you have to do is start talking and let them understand what it takes to get to the top. You don’t just really want to make the squad, you want to make the team and you want to keep working, you want to keep performing.”Chris Gayle was recently reappointed to lead the team, marking the end of the contractual dispute between the striking players and the WICB. Garner said the time had come to forget the bitter contractual row and strive to put West Indies back at the top of the cricketing map.”What is happening in world cricket [is[ there are divisions where you have four or five world teams who are at the top and they want to go it alone and they want to play more cricket between themselves because they have the bargaining power,” he said. “We have to understand we have to get from the position of number eight to be in those top four to be a force to be reckoned with in world cricket.”The time to put aside all the nonsense [has come] and [we have] to look forward in a positive way. If you are only going to come to the party and not participate in the party then you’re in the wrong sport.”Senior players such as Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo also returned to the squad for the three-Test series following the strike, while youngsters such as Adrian Barath, Kemar Roach and Gavin Tonge made the cut as well. For Garner, 56, one challenge was to ensure team unity.”We have a challenging period ahead with the merging of the fellows who played during the strike and those fellows who were on strike,” he said. “It is going to be a challenge to sort of get everything working smoothly and get them to play competitive cricket while we are in Australia.”That’s what is going to take most of the time and when we talk about the players who were playing and those who went on strike, this is where they need to understand they need to move on. We have to look at the future of West Indies cricket we have to look at what is happening in world cricket.”

England batter leads way as Eagles come close to breaking their drought on damp night in Hove

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay13-Jun-2025Essex’s hopes of claiming their first win of the season in the Vitality Blast were thwarted by the rain when they were well on top against Sussex Sharks at Hove.In a game reduced to 17 overs a side, Jordan Cox – making only his second appearance in the competition this season after being involved with England Lions – hit four successive balls from offspinner Jack Carson for six on his way to a 47-ball 82 in an imposing total of 177 for 4.Shane Snater then took three wickets without conceding a run as Sussex slumped to 23 for 3 after 3.1 overs when the rain which had delayed the start returned at 9.35pm. Umpires Martin Saggers and Hassan Adnan abandoned the game shortly afterwards as the rain set in.It was a frustrating outcome for an Essex team who did not play like a team beaten in their first five games and that was largely down to a high-class contribution from England international Cox.Together with left-hander Paul Walter, he added 115 in 9.1 overs for the third wicket with Walter contributing 35 from 22 balls, after opener Dean Elgar had got the innings off to a rumbustious start with 33 from 18 balls, seven of which he hit to the boundary.The best way to describe Sussex’s bowling effort would be mixed, with three overs costing a combined 70 runs. Skipper Tymal Mills had to take himself out of the attack after bowling two bouncers in his first five balls, which went for 25 and had to be completed by Tom Clark.The eighth over went for 30 as Cox struck Carson for three leg-side sixes before going down the pitch to loft the off-spinner for a straight maximum and Cox hit another six off James Coles in the tenth over which went for 15.It wasn’t all bad. Ollie Robinson was economical and Henry Crocombe, in his first T20 appearance for nearly two years, finished with 2 for 28 and picked up both Walter – lbw to a fast, full and straight delivery – and Cox, who was well caught at deep backward square by Harrison Ward off the first delivery of the final over. Cox’s runs came from 47 balls and he also hit six boundaries.Carson had the consolation of removing Elgar with his first ball, courtesy of a juggling catch at long-off by Robinson but Sussex were left to score at 10.40 runs an over.Sussex made the worst possible start. Zimbabwean Snater bowled Ward through the gate with the first ball of the reply and skipper John Simpson was taken at short fine leg off the fifth. Cox then took a terrific catch standing up off the first ball of Snater’s second over to remove James Coles and at 23 for 3 Sussex were in considerable strife before rain saved them.

Her late onslaught with the bat changed the mood of the game after Stars’ bowlers had been on top

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Oct-2023Charli Knott produced a decisive all-round contribution as Brisbane Heat confirmed their standing as the early-season pacesetters in the WBBL with victory over Melbourne Stars to make it four wins from four.Knott gave a stuttering Heat batting performance, which had included just eight runs off the two power surge overs, a late boost with 31 off 14 balls. She dominated a stand of 43 alongside Georgia Voll that enabled 51 runs to come from the last five overs.Opening the bowling, she then gave Heat the ideal start as a viciously-spinning offbreak ripped through Sophia Dunkley to leave the England batter perplexed at what had happened.Heat’s spinners had a major say in the chase with Knott, Sarah Glenn and captain Jess Jonassen taking six wickets between them.Glenn claimed the huge wicket of Meg Lanning when she missed a sweep while Jonassen removed Maia Bouchier with a low caught-and-bowled opportunity. Knott’s second wicket came courtesy of a stunning running catch at deep square leg by Nicola Hancock to haul in Nicole Faltum’s powerfully struck sweep.While Alice Capsey remained there was hope for Stars, but when she was stumped off Jonassen for a 43-ball 52 there was too much left to do despite Kim Garth’s best efforts.Heat had made a strong start with the bat and reached 49 without loss in the sixth over before Ellie Johnston, playing in place of the rested Georgia Redmayne, top-edged a short ball from young quick Milly Illingworth having pulled her for six earlier in the over.Grace Harris couldn’t quite find her stride before playing across a full delivery from the impressive Annabel Sutherland. Stars continued to chip away with the ball and at 99 for 5 in the 16th they were on top, but Heat’s late flourish changed the complexion.

“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.

Meg Lanning’s team will ramp up their preparations over the next week ahead of the T20I series

Andrew McGlashan20-Mar-2021There could be some fiercely-contested training sessions among the Australia squad in New Zealand over the coming days as players stake their claims for a spot in the side for the first T20I later this month.Having now reached the stage where the squad can train during their managed isolation in Christchurch, there will be a number of centre-wicket sessions ahead of the series in lieu of any practice matches – Australia complete their isolation the day before the first T20I in Hamilton.Coach Matthew Mott has said how tough it will be to select the final XI with Tayla Vlaeminck and Ellyse Perry available again after injury, comments echoed by captain Meg Lanning, while the need for an enlarged squad in the current era means there is no shortage of options including the uncapped seamers Darcie Brown and Hannah Darlington.Related

• Australia want to keep evolving to avoid being 'caught out' at World Cup

• Australia have an eye on pace to stay ahead of the pack

• Mott on starting XI: 'Going to be one or two very disappointed players'

It is the competition for bowling slots that could make for some challenging sessions for Australia’s batters as the young pace bowlers look to make an impression.”We’ve got a couple of centre-wickets coming up where everyone will have a chance to push their case and see what they’ve got,” Lanning said. “They’ll certainly be a few spots up for grabs, a little bit will be dictated by conditions and where we are playing. The next 10 days really does give us an opportunity to see some players, see Darcie Brown, Hannah and Tayla, where they are at and how they can fit in and play a role for us.”There is no huge changing of the guard taking place in the Australia squad ahead of a 2021-22 season that includes a visit by India, the Ashes and the 50-over World Cup, before next year’s Commonwealth Games and the defense of the T20 World Cup in early 2023, but one eye is being kept on ensuring the group does not stagnate.Getty Images

The depth available to the selectors has been further highlighted by a record number of centuries in this season’s WNCL and Lanning hopes the competition for places pushes those in possession to improve their games.”I think it shows we are keen to evolve our squad and keep bringing new skillsets in,” Lanning said. “We have been successful over the last few years with that squad but it’s important that we are able to add some new things. We feel like we are adding different skillsets all the time and that’s challenging the players who are in the team to keep getting better.”I think it’s really important as a team that we continue to challenge ourselves by adding new members to the team, especially young players with so much energy and no real fear. If it means the senior players have to take their game to another level then that’s only going to be a good thing.”

Pakistan were bowled out for 240 at the Gabba after Asad Shafiq’s 76 ensured a collapse was halted

The Report by Andrew McGlashan21-Nov-2019Australia finished the opening day of their Test summer in a strong position on one of their happiest hunting grounds, although for periods either side of a five-wicket surge in the afternoon they were made to work hard by Pakistan.Whether Pakistan’s 240 – boosted by Asad Shafiq’s 76 – will be enough to keep them in the contest remains to be seen and rests with their bowling attack. At nine for 75, they would have hoped for much better; at 5 for 94, they probably feared much worse, before Yasir Shah helped Shafiq add 84 for the seventh wicket. For Australia, the feelings might have been reversed.Mitchell Starc, on his return to the Test side, finished with 4 for 52 – cleaning up the tail as he can do so well – and was on a hat-trick late in the day when 16-year-old debutant Naseem Shah faced up to the first delivery of his career and somehow squeezed the ball to the leg side.Mitchell Starc finished with four wickets•Getty Images

After not quite getting their lengths right in the opening session, Australia’s three quicks were excellent after the interval as Pakistan’s impressive morning’s work unravelled. That was compounded by the controversial dismissal of Mohammad Rizwan, who edged behind off Pat Cummins only for replays to suggest Cummins had no part of his foot behind the line, but third umpire Michael Gough gave him the benefit of some very slim doubt.That left Pakistan 6 for 143 and still in danger of folding for under 200. However, Shafiq, who scored 137 at the ground on his previous visit, continued his excellent form from the warm-up matches where he made hundreds against Australia A and a Cricket Australia XI. He was eventually cleaned up by a beauty from Cummins with the new ball during Australia’s strong finish as they claimed 4 for 13 to end the innings.Captain Azhar Ali had won the toss and despite a green tinge to the surface, was not lulled into bowling. He and Shan Masood then played superbly during the opening session, happy to give the two hours to the bowlers unless there was a loose delivery to attack in a session that brought just five boundaries. The pair left well, helped by the back-of-a-length approach from the quicks, and a lunch score of none for 57 – by the standards of visiting teams at the Gabba – was a fine start. To show how tough a place it is for visiting sides, their final partnership of 75 was the highest for a visiting team in the first innings of a Test at the ground.Then, however, things started to change. In the sixth over after the break, Cummins, bowling around the wicket, squared up Masood to take his outside edge. Three balls later, Hazlewood drew a nick from Azhar which carried low to first slip where Joe Burns held on. All of a sudden, two new batsmen were at the crease. One of them was Haris Sohail, who struggled in the warm-up matches, and he did not last long when he flashed at Starc.The fear that Pakistan were about to completely lose their way increased when Babar Azam played a horridly wild drive at Hazlewood to provide another slip catch. After such a build-up for Azam – including runs in the T20Is and the Australia A match – it was a hugely deflating shot.Asad Shafiq acknowledges his half-century•Getty Images

Nathan Lyon then returned to the attack for his second spell and struck first ball when a hard-handed Iftikhar Ahmed inside-edged to short leg and it had the feel of a full-blown collapse that could decide the Test by tea on the opening day.That did not transpire, thanks to a mixture of punchy and pugnacious batting. Rizwan, playing just his second Test, counterpunched strongly either side of tea to score at better than a run-a-ball before the nick off Cummins prompted significant amount of slow-mo replays of the front foot. When it comes to calling no-balls on replays, the benefit of any doubt goes to the bowler. Cummins, though, may still have got lucky.There was no great expectation that Shafiq would now have much support, but Yasir proved otherwise in a stand that spanned 26 overs. The pair took advantage of a period where Tim Paine sat back a touch, using Lyon and Marnus Labuschagne ahead of the second new ball – Australia’s over rate was poor for much of the day, which can now lead to points deductions in the Test Championship.Shafiq’s fifty came from 99 balls and when the pair made it to the 80-over mark there was a chance that if they survived to the close Pakistan could yet eye 300. However, those hopes were dashed in the amount of time it took Starc to get loose as he speared a yorker through Yasir then found Shaheen Afridi’s edge first ball, although it needed a review which Paine, perhaps still haunted by his DRS errors in the Ashes, was reluctant to take.When Shafiq’s fine innings was ended by Cummins, it looked as though Australia would bat before the close, but Naseem – who generated one of the biggest cheers of the day when he on-drove Starc for his first boundary – and Imran Khan took the innings deep enough that when Naseem lobbed a short delivery in the air, Australia’s openers would not have to contemplate batting until the morning.

The very first stand-alone women’s World T20 is less than a week away, and the South Africa captain feels women’s cricket thoroughly deserves the “alone time”

Liam Brickhill03-Nov-2018The build-up to the World T20 is well underway, and unofficial warm-up games between England, West Indies, South Africa and India drew huge crowds to the Sir Vivian Richards cricket ground in Antigua on Thursday. South Africa captain Dane van Niekerk called the atmosphere at the ground “the best” she had ever experienced at an international.”It was close to one of the biggest [crowds],” said van Niekerk. “The atmosphere was the best I’ve played around. It felt like an official game, and it was India South africa so it was quite daunting.”India reached 146 for 4 in their innings, having opted to bat first, and though Laura Wolvaardt managed 42 in South Africa’s chase, van Niekerk’s team fell three runs short in front of a crowd enlivened by celebrations for Antigua and Barbuda’s 37th independence day.”I got a bit nervous there at the end and kept on telling myself it’s just a warm-up game, but with everyone around it just made for a really good cricket match,” said van Niekerk. “And then with the England West Indies game, the way the West Indies women played, it just shows you what a team can do when the crowd gets behind them.”The very first stand-alone women’s World T20 is less than a week away, and van Niekerk said that women’s cricket thoroughly deserves the “alone time”.”It’s due and it’s well deserved,” she said The growth of women’s cricket has shown that it deserves the time – the alone time if I can say it like that. You have to pinch yourself when you see how quickly it’s grown. And the entertainment factor is there now, with bigger hits, quicker bowlers, athletic players, it’s a lot more exciting. It’s well deserved for women’s cricket at the moment, and hopefully we can do justice to the tournament.”South Africa reached the semi-final of the 2014 edition of the World T20, while last year they came within touching distance of a berth in the final of the 50-over World Cup, only to fall to England in a tightly contested encounter in Bristol. With match-winners in almost every department this time around, van Niekerk believes this is “definitely” the best chance her team have ever had to reach – and win – a global final”The team we have is the best we’ve had. We have experienced players and young players, exciting players. It is our best chance, it’s just up to us if we want to win it or not.”South Africa blooded several rookies on their tour of the Caribbean in September, drawing the one-day series 1-1 and then fighting back from 2-0 to hold the reigning T20 champions to a 2-2 draw in the T20Is. Wolvaardt, the 19-year-old top-order batter, averaged 43 in the T20s, striking the ball at 111.68, while fellow teenager Tumi Sekhukhune played a similarly vital role, taking seven wickets across both series. One of the main things the youngsters have brought to the side, van Niekerk said, is “fearlessness”.”The massive thing is the fearlessness,” she said. “The younger ones are fearless. They don’t quite know yet who’s bowling at them or who they’re facing. It’s exciting for me just to watch them go about their job, because they just play the ball. When you play as long as we have, you start knowing the players and you know who’s bowling at you or the aura a player has around them. The younger players don’t have that. It’s something some of our senior players have taken away from them: just play the ball. I told them to flourish and just have fun.”The Decision Review System (DRS) will be used in an ICC World T20 event for the first time ever, and it will also be the first time that van Niekerk and her team will be using it.”We’re not experienced at all, this will be my first time,” she confirmed. “I’m just trying to keep all the bowlers calm. Because I think Lizelle [Lee] is the only one who has used it. We had a bit of a chat about it. It’s going to be an experience. We’ve felt like in the past we’ve got a few hard [decisions], but hopefully now we can use the DRS to our benefit.”We spoke to the keepers in Trisha [Chetty] and Lizelle, and they are going to play a massive role. They are going to see if it’s going to hit or not. We said if you feel like it’s really far fetched, just don’t go for it, but I’ll back any player if they want to use it. It’s not there just for me to use it or make that decision, we are a team. If you feel it’s out, go up. But the keeper is going to be the most important player for those decisions.”