Afghanistan are poised to capture a second trophy on this tour unless Zimbabwe, who have lost two matches on the trot now, can get themselves out of their funk

The Preview by Alagappan Muthu09-Jan-2016

Match facts

Sunday, January 10, 2016
Start time 2000 local (1600GMT)

Big picture

Chaos in T20 cricket is always a spectacle, like the last over in a tense chase dragging on for nine balls, including two free hits, two big hits and two massive wickets. Whilst the fans may throng into the stadium hoping for a repeat, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe might well prefer pulling the plug on such amateur hour. Dawlat Zadran had been left to defend 20 runs off six balls, he ended up bowling an over and a half. Elton Chigumbura managed to get himself run-out off a free-hit delivery, and though his eagerness to pinch runs was understandable at that stage of the game, Zimbabwe should not have put themselves in a position that forced them to steal runs.Both teams have shown growth at various stages of the tour. Afghanistan shot Zimbabwe out for 82 and Zimbabwe shot Afghanistan out for 58. There was a Mohammad Shahzad century that led a cool chase and a Chamu Chibhabha special that will not soon be forgotten. The problem though is such fine performances have occasionally dovetailed with other players not pulling their weight. Greame Cremer picked up a five-for and ended up on the losing side. Afghanistan’s bowlers had offered a chase of 176 to their batsmen, who simply self-destructed.Correcting this discrepancy will be chief among both teams’ plans, and there is one last match on this tour to do so. For Afghanistan, the incentive will be adding the T20 trophy to their ODI trophy. And for Zimbabwe, the chance to come away with a squared series and a better account of their fight in unfamiliar territory.

Form guide

(Last five completed matches, most recent first)
Afghanistan WWWLW
Zimbabwe LWLLL

In the spotlight

Afghanistan aren’t quite lacking in players fond on using the long handle, but Gulbadin Naib‘s ability to do so in the closing stages of an innings without allowing the pressure of run rates to disorient his plans has stood out. He is 24 years old, and perhaps with time he can address a batting average below 30 in ODIs and T20Is. But for now all he needs to do is see ball, hit ball, which is one of his strong suits.Zimbabwe’s bowlers haven’t had the best time of it in the closing stages of an innings, including Luke Jongwe, who has recently taken over as their death-overs specialist. But having given away 27 runs in the 17th and 19th overs on Friday, he may need to show he is worth the thinktank’s faith.

Team news

Although Afghanistan have a vast pool of players to choose from, it is unlikely that they will disturb a winning combination.Afghanistan (probable): 1 Mohammad Shahzad (wk), 2 Usman Ghani, 3 Mohammad Nabi, 4 Asghar Stanikzai (capt), 5 Gulbadin Naib, 6 Karim Sadiq, 7 Najibullah Zadran, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mirwais Ashraf, 10 Dawlat Zadran, 11 Amir HamzaZimbabwe may need to rejig their batting order. Hamilton Masakadza is the only one bowlers would worry about among the top four, so perhaps someone like Sikandar Raza could be pushed up the order.Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Peter Moor, 2 Hamilton Masakadza, 3 Chamu Chibhabha, 4 Richmond Mutumbami (wk), 5 Malcolm Waller, 6 Sikandar Raza, 7 Elton Chigumbura (capt), 8 Luke Jongwe, 9 Graeme Cremer, 10 Donald Tiripano/ Neville Madziva, 11 Tendai Chisoro

Pitch and conditions

Sharjah offered excellent batting conditions, replete with dew to help the ball come onto the bat more. There isn’t much to suggest that will change. A pleasant night is forecast, with temperatures around 20C.

Stats and trivia

• Zimbabwe have the worst win-loss ratio – 0.235 – among all teams who have played at least 30 T20Is. Afghanistan’s 1.466 puts them in fourth place
• Zimbabwe’s bowlers, who concede an average of 7.81 runs per over, have the second-worst economy rate among all teams who have played at least 30 T20Is. Afghanistan’s 7.13 puts them at fourth again.

New Zealand were bowled out cheaply in their first innings for the third time in successive Wellington Tests, but Australia will be wary that they recovered to draw and win on the last two occasions

Brydon Coverdale in Wellington12-Feb-20160:59

‘We bowled well as a group’ – Hazlewood

For the third straight Basin Reserve Test, Brendon McCullum lost the toss. For the third straight time New Zealand were sent in on a pitch that was expected to offer the fast men some assistance. For the third straight time, they were knocked over inside 60 overs. If that scenario seems like it should favour Australia, it is worth noting that in neither of the previous two instances did New Zealand go on to lose the Test; they won one and drew the other.To that end, the Australians finished the first day pleased with their performance but wary that there remained plenty of work to come. Hefty second-innings partnerships against both Sri Lanka and India got New Zealand out of their previous Wellington troubles, when the pitch had flattened out and become easier for batting. Josh Hazlewood, who took 4 for 42, forecast harder times in the second innings.”I think while the ball is new at any stage it’s going to do a little bit, once the shine and the hardness of the ball is gone it’s quite a good wicket for batting,” Hazlewood said. “It didn’t turn much and once our ball got older it didn’t seam much, so I think it’s going to hold together pretty well. The next ten wickets that we need will be quite tough to get.”For the second time in consecutive Test matches, all ten New Zealand wickets fell to catches, as they struggled against deliveries that moved just enough, particularly from Hazlewood and Peter Siddle. Jackson Bird, playing his first Test in two-and-a-half years, could not find the right length and served up too many half-volleys and short balls, but Siddle was typically miserly and built important pressure bowling into the wind.”It does make a big difference, bowling in partnerships,” Hazlewood said. “He’s done a great job, not only this Test but throughout his whole career of just drying up one end and building those dots and that pressure which obviously ends in wickets, eventually. He was outstanding again today.”There was perhaps not as much swing as the Australians might have expected in Wellington but the ball did move about off the seam, and Hazlewood showed that he had learnt the lessons of his Ashes tour last year, on which he tried too often for the “miracle ball” instead of letting the conditions help him build pressure.Josh Hazlewood expects the Basin Reserve pitch to ‘hold together pretty well’ over the course of the Test match•Getty Images

He was well supported in the field. The coach Darren Lehmann had mentioned in the lead-up to this series that fielding was an area in which Australia needed significant improvement. They did not drop a catch on day one in Wellington and took ten, including a sharp take from Adam Voges at slip, a clever boundary juggle from Usman Khawaja, and most impressively a dive down the leg side from Peter Nevill to an inside edge off Siddle that dismissed Kane Williamson cheaply.”Not much gets past Nev, he has very high standards and that’s right up there with some of the best we’ve seen from Nev,” Hazlewood said. “We’ve done a lot of work over the last few days especially fine-tuning that catching and ground fielding and I think we saw today that we held on to everything and that makes a massive difference.”The same could not be said of New Zealand. On 18, Steven Smith was put down by Mark Craig in the cordon, and the miss cost New Zealand the opportunity to have Australia wobbling at 43 for 3. Smith went on to make 71 before Craig redeemed himself by snaring a good return catch low to his left.”Looking back I probably owe the boys 50 runs after putting Smith down at second slip,” Craig said. “No one likes dropping catches. It’s pretty disappointing personally, but we move forward.”Earlier, Craig had been one of the key reasons that New Zealand had not crumbled for something just over 100. He had come to the crease at 97 for 7 and went on to be his team’s highest scorer, finishing unbeaten on 41 and compiling impressive fighting partnerships with Corey Anderson and then Trent Boult.”You’ve got to give it to the way those Aussie boys bowled,” Craig said. “When they got it in the right areas they showed it was very tough to score. We would have liked a few more runs but the game is nicely advanced now.”The ball was a bit softer [when I batted] and it didn’t do as much as what it was doing early in the day … I wouldn’t say it was seaming massively but once they bowled that slightly fuller length it was doing enough to grab either way, grab both edges. It was definitely doing enough with that newer ball, once they got it full enough.”New Zealand’s bowlers also made a strong start and two early wickets from Tim Southee had Australia at 5 for 2, but Smith and Khawaja put on a fighting 126 for the third wicket to put Australia back on top by the end of the day. Still, only the incorrect no-balling of Doug Bracewell in the final over of the afternoon denied New Zealand the chance to have Australia four down at stumps.”If we managed to get one or two more wickets at the end it probably would have been parity, a pretty even day,” Craig said. “After losing the toss and getting put in, we’d take them five or six down any day. One or two more wickets and we’d have been really happy.”

Sunil Narine has written to the National League Representatives (NLR) after allegedly being mocked by Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) president Azim Bassarath

Nagraj Gollapudi26-Feb-2016West Indies offspinner Sunil Narine has written to the National League Representatives (NLR) asking for an independent probe into whether an email that mocked him for “pelting” was sent by Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) president Azim Bassarath.Narine, who was banned from bowling in international cricket on November 29, had undergone biometric testing at Loughborough University after being reported for a suspect action during the third ODI of West Indies’ tour of Sri Lanka earlier that month.In his letter to the six-member NLR, a copy of which has been seen by ESPNcricinfo, Narine claimed that Bassarath’s email had been sent on the very same day as his ban to various TTCB officials, including executive member Baldath Mahabir.”If indeed the letter came from Mr Bassarath and I have to stress the ‘if’ right now, it seems that he must have long believed that my bowling action was illegal,” Narine wrote.”There was such venom and almost joy in my being suspended that was evident in the email which said, “Let him start to Bowl !!!!!! He was not turning much in d first place!!!!! Straight ball and faster one all the time. !!!! PELTING !!!!!!!”But in a TTCB media release sent this week Bassarath strongly denied he had sent the alleged email. Bassarath also stressed that he would take legal recourse if the email was attributed to his name in the local media.In the immediate aftermath of his suspension, Narine claimed to have received a sympathetic email from TTCB chief executive Sooraj Ragoonath, a copy of which was sent to Bassarath, extending the board’s support to the offspinner and, soon afterwards, inviting Narine to play in the Nagico Super 50, the regional ODI tournament in which he had been the leading wicket-taker last year.However on December 18, Ragoonath wrote back, saying the WICB would not allow “any person who is debarred by the ICC” to participate in regional tournaments until cleared and that the TTCB had withdrawn Narine from the one-day squad. Narine was subsequently barred from entering the T&T players’ enclosure by the ground security at Queen’s Park Oval.”It was a time of extreme stress for me and I was grateful when I received an email from Suruj Ragoonath, the CEO of the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board, which contained the promise to provide me ‘with all the necessary support’ and invited me to a meeting to discuss how the TTCB could assist me and to get an idea of the support I would require,” Narine wrote.Instead, Narine said that he was taken totally aback on learning that the TTCB was contemplating banning him from bowling in club cricket in T&T. At a TTCB meeting chaired by Bassarath, Narine said, “An attempt was made to change the rules of the national tournament to prevent players suspended by the ICC from participating at the national level.”Responding to Narine’s allegation, Bassarath, through a TTCB release titled ‘Email link denied’, issued by the board’s media manager, stated, “Mr Bassarath wishes to totally disassociate himself from the alleged email currently making the rounds and which is being pronounced upon to suggest that it is authentic.”The president of the TTCB reserves the right to seek legal recourse to clear his name should the alleged email be attributed to him in reports carried in the local media,” the release read.Narine concluded, “Even though I seem to have been denied natural justice by the writer of the email which accused me of “pelting”, I believe that an independent investigation should be undertaken to determine, if it was not Mr Bassarath himself, who indeed was the person who sent the Emails using Mr Bassarath’s known and familiar email address as well as Mr Baldath Mahabir.”The NLR comprises six members elected by the local T&T clubs, and they sit on the TTCB. The members of the NLR are: Dinanath Ramnarine, Daren Ganga, Giles Antoine, Andre Lawrence, Anil Kamal and Clint Pamphille.

A round-up of all the Plunket Shield matches that were played from March 15-18, 2016

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Mar-2016Seamer Lachie Ferguson’s figures of 5 for 68 in Otago‘s second innings stretched his match haul to eight wickets as Auckland claimed a narrow 10-run win in Dunedin.Chasing 218, Otago were bowled out for 207 in 49.3 overs and to add their woes, offspinner Mark Craig was struck flush on the hand by a Ferguson beamer while batting. The injury forced Craig off the field, and is likely to put him completely out of action for at least six weeks.Ferguson was quick to dismiss the openers on the third day and leave Otago in early trouble at 33 for 2. Derek de Boorder counterattacked, but lacked support from the other end. He struck 81 off 76 before he was bowled by Ferguson. Allrounder Colin de Grandhomme complemented Ferguson well by taking two wickets. Auckland eventually walked away with 18 points.The match was set up by Robert O’Donnell’s 87, which helped Auckland to 255 in the first innings, and a lead of 78 runs, after they were asked to bat. Ferguson and Grandhomme had done the damage in Otago’s first innings as well, with combined figures of 27.5 -8- 66-6. Opener Ryan Duffy carried his bat for 90* off 163, but the other end was a case of revolving doors as Otago were bowled out for 177.Auckland collapsed to 139 within 51 overs in the second innings as Craig Smith took 4 for 35, but had the cushion of the first-innings advantage, and a solid bowling attack.Wellington defended 183 against Canterbury, courtesy three-fors from Ian McPeake and Jeetan Patel. Canterbury were skittled for 129 on a maniac final day, which witnessed the fall of 20 wickets.Having been inserted, Wellington made 206 on the back of England professional Scott Borthwick’s century, which included 13 fours. After rain wiped out the second day, Canterbury, riding on fifties from openers Leo Carter and Michael Davidson, opted for a bold declaration at 159 for 2.Fast bowler Hamish Bennett raised Canterbury’s hopes with figures of 5 for 54, which dismissed Wellington for only 136, with only three batsmen managing double figures, the highest being Michael Papps’ 51 at the top of the order.However, Canterbury’s hopes faded away as they succumbed to a collapse of their own. Each of their top-four batsmen reached double figures, but none managed a substantial contribution.Big centuries by Daniel Flynn and Bharat Popli set up a 115-run win for Northern Districts over Central Districts in Hamilton.After being put in to bat, Northern Districts piled up 458 for 6 declared on the back of a 258-run partnership between Flynn and Popli. Opener Flynn struck 26 fours during his 158 while Popli collected 27 fours during his 172.Central Districts were then bowled out for 293, with several of their batsmen failing to capitalise on their starts. Riding on a 165-run lead, Northern Districts put on 332 for 7, led by fifties from Dean Brownlie, Popli and Daryl Mitchell’s 49-ball 72, before declaring to set a target of 498. Central Districts showed more fight in the second innings, but came up short. Tom Bruce led the way for them with 166 off 233 balls and No. 8 Bevan Small scored 76. Spinners Joe Walker and Anton Devcich wheeled away for 57.2 overs, to share eight wickets between them, to seal the win. Devcich finished with eight wickets in the match.

Arun Harinath and Kumar Sangakkara led the Surrey fightback on the third day of their match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge

George Dobell12-Apr-2016
ScorecardArun Harinath dug in throughout a shortened third day to give Surrey hope of surviving•Getty Images

There was a mournful atmosphere at Trent Bridge for much of Tuesday.While the rain that delayed the start until 2pm drifted away in fact, in spirit it appeared to remain. And, amid the gloom, with all present reeling from the sickening news of James Taylor’s untimely retirement, the pavilion flag was lowered to half-mast to acknowledge Brian Hewes, the club’s former scorer. A well-respected and popular man, he collapsed in the Trent Bridge Tavern on Monday and was declared dead on arrival at hospital. In such times, it becomes apparent that the result of a cricket match really doesn’t amount to much.To the credit of both teams, though – the cricket world is not large and the shock will have been felt well beyond the confines of the Nottinghamshire dressing room – they managed to produce a highly competitive day’s cricket during which Arun Harinath gave his Surrey side a decent chance of claiming a draw and an outside chance of a victory.Harinath was reckoned by Opta, the data providers, to have played and missed 35 times during the day. But such his is method of leaving the ball – playing inside the delivery in the manner of Marcus Trescothick among many others – that a realistic figure would be a fraction of that.A more generous assessment would acknowledge that he left the ball well, made full use of the lack of third man for much of the day and put away the poor ball with some style. The greatest praise of all is that, for a while when he was batting with Kumar Sangakkara during their stand of 142 in 33 overs, it was hard to tell them apart.Having initially come into the first-class game as something of an old-fashioned blocked, Harinath demonstrated an increased range of aggressive strokes. He punished anything on his legs with a flourish, reacted with a series of hooks and pulls when Notts tested him with the short ball and attacked the spin with sweeps and lofted drives.Sangakkara almost ran him out on 44. Greg Smith’s direct hit from cover looked to have punished Harinath for his inability to have recover his ground – certainly a picture from a local photographer suggested so – having been sent back, but the umpire disagreed and he survived to register the sixth century of an increasingly impressive career.It might be tempting to conclude from the scorecard that Notts were distracted, they actually bowled beautifully at times. Jake Ball, in particular, seems to have come on significantly over the winter and drew warm admiration from the watching James Whitaker. Both Sangakkara and Steven Davies were undone by fine deliveries angled across them that bounced sharply and drew the edge, while Rory Burns may have been undone by a fraction of movement.Harry Gurney also impressed. Mick Newell, the Nottinghamshire director of cricket and England director, recently remarked that Gurney’s England days were over but he appears to have added the inswinger to his armoury over the winter and looks a much more effective performer for the improvement. Here he beat the bat regularly and will bowl less well and take a hatful of wickets. It was an admirable effort for a man who was clearly upset by the news from one of his oldest friends.”Titch and I first played together for Loughborough Town when he was eight and I was 11,” Gurney said afterwards. “We’ve played together pretty much the whole time. We signed for Leicestershire, came to Notts and then were in England squads together. That’s a lot of time spent on a cricket field with him. It’s devastating I won’t do that again.”Life is cruel. He’s always been so committed to all aspects of the game, not just his batting, but his fielding and fitness. He’s probably the last person this should have happened to, but supposedly his level of fitness has saved his life. We’ve got that silver lining I guess.”It’s devastating news. It was a rough morning with the news that came through. When we went out there we said let’s try and put the emotion to one side and give our all. We knew Titch would be in hospital checking the score and probably watching the live stream. We’re desperate to win the game for him and longer term try to win a trophy for him. That would be fitting.”Each time it appeared Surrey were inching towards safety, the Notts attack struck back. Jason Roy played back – and slightly across – a straight one and Ben Foakes attempted to drive over the top and managed only to give a return catch to Samit Patel. But a lead of 76, on a pitch showing signs of indifferent bounce, is not insignificant. Any result is still possible on the final day and the second new ball, due about half-an-hour into the morning, could prove crucial.

Amit Mishra, Chris Morris and Nathan Coulter-Nile claimed combined figures of 11-0-63-5 to set up Delhi Dardevils’ seven-wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu12-May-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsChris Morris took 1 for 19 and effected a run out off his own bowling•BCCI

Delhi Daredevils were without captain Zaheer Khan who missed his second game of the season because of a niggle. Chris Morris stepped up and unfurled cutters, fast yorkers, slower yorkers, and bouncers. Amit Mishra tested Sunrisers Hyderabad with googlies and claimed two wickets, both with seam-up balls, clocked at over 110kph. Nathan Coulter-Nile, playing his second game of the season, impressed in the end overs as the bowlers triggered Sunrisers’ disintegration, after a fast start from David Warner. From 80 for 1 after ten overs, Sunrisers finished with 146 for 8. Warner later said that they were 20-30 runs short.Quinton de Kock took charge of the chase. His cuts and pick-up shots flew off his bat. He looked in control until he was given out caught behind by umpire Marais Erasmus after a prolonged appeal. De Kock slashed at a short, wide ball and his helmet fell onto the ground as he completed his stroke, but Ultra Edge indicated there was no bat involved. When he was dismissed for a 31-ball 44, Daredevils needed 69 off 61 balls and Mustafizur Rahman had three overs left. Sunrisers believed but Sanju Samson and teenager Rishabh Pant showed nous to end Sunrisers’ four-match winning streak.Daredevils’ stand-in captain JP Duminy credited the “collective bowling effort” for the side’s sixth win in ten games. Mishra was introduced into the attack in the 11th over, after offspinner Jayant Yadav completed a tidy spell. Jayant gave the ball plenty of air in his three Powerplay overs. His reward, though, came off a quicker ball when Warner backed away outside leg, played inside the line, and had his leg stump pegged back for 46 off 30 balls. Mishra cranked up his pace in his second over, ending Dhawan’s sedate 34 with a 114kph seam-up ball. The variation accounted for Yuvraj Singh as well, as a leading edge carried to short fine leg. The shaky middle order was exposed.Mohammed Shami made another dent when he pinned Moises Henriques lbw for a duck. The ball wasn’t coming onto the bat and stroke-making was difficult. Kane Williamson aimed to force the pace before he was bowled by an inswinging Morris full toss for 27 off 24 balls. The fast bowler capped his spell by kicking an inside edge, that rolled back up the pitch, onto the stumps to effect the run out of Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 1. Deepak Hooda stepped on his stumps off the bowling of Coulter-Nile in the 19th over. Naman Ojha was caught at square leg off a full toss in the last over. This meant that Daredevils picked up five wickets in the last five overs for 33.The returning Mayank Agarwal began brightly with a lofted drive over mid-on for four. The opener was undone by the slowness of the pitch when he sliced Ashish Nehra to extra cover in the fourth over. An unfazed de Kock cracked Nehra for back-to-back boundaries in the same over before cutting Mustafizur for four in the sixth over. De Kock’s blows meant that Daredevils closed the Powerplay at 50 for 1.Henriques, however, dismissed Karun Nair and de Kock in the tenth over to tighten the chase. Samson and Pant steered Daredevils home with an unbroken 72-run stand off 50 balls. Pant, in particular, was aggressive against Mustafizur – first launching him over long-on for six and three balls later, whipping him for four past midwicket.Pant plundered 26 off Mustafizur from 13 balls, the most by any batsman against the left-arm seamer in a T20. Samson sealed the chase with a pulled six, and the night ended with Nehra warmly embracing Pant.

Zimbabwe are a better side than their displays in this series have suggested, and it is in their interests – as well as in India’s – for them to play to potential in the third and final ODI

The Preview by Karthik Krishnaswamy14-Jun-2016

Match facts

Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Start time 0900 local (0700 GMT)1:03

Can Zimbabwe stop series whitewash in Harare?

Big picture

Over the last two years and a bit, India’s ODI top three has been among the best in the world. They have had issues, however, with Nos. 4, 5 and 6. Addressing those issues must have been among the selectors’ primary concerns when they picked a largely experimental squad to tour Zimbabwe. Two-thirds of the way into the ODI series, India’s Nos. 4, 5 and 6 have faced one ball between them. One ball.Two matches down, the series already won, India have barely been tested. Their bowlers have enjoyed the conditions, which have offered a bit of swing and seam for the quicks and a bit of grip for the spinners, and have racked up sensational numbers. Of the five bowlers India have used, only Axar Patel (24.00) averages more than 20 in this series. But perhaps they have had it all too easy. No meaningful partnerships to stretch their patience or skillsets, no withering attack to quell, not one batsman building an innings and refusing to give his wicket away.The batsmen, needless to say, have had it even easier: they had to chase 169 in the first ODI and 127 in the second.Zimbabwe aren’t a great side. This was known even before the series began. But they are better than their displays so far suggest. It will be in both sides’ interests if they actually show up on Wednesday, and play to their potential. The series cries out for a big top-order partnership from Zimbabwe, for a burst of wickets from their bowlers, for the crackling contest that isn’t beyond them.

Form guide

Zimbabwe: LLLWW (last five matches, most recent first)
India: WWWLL

In the spotlight

It isn’t his fault that he has bowled with woefully inadequate totals to defend, and, given those circumstances, Tendai Chatara has actually bowled pretty well so far. His pace isn’t yet up to the level it was at before he broke his shin last year, but he has hit the deck, straightened a few past the edge, picked up Zimbabwe’s only wicket in the first ODI and could have had one in the second game too, had he not overstepped. He will hope Zimbabwe either bowl first or put decent total on the board on Wednesday, giving him a chance to apply some sort of pressure on India’s batsmen.Kedar Jadhav scored an unbeaten 105 the last time he batted in an ODI. That was in July 2015. Since then, he has lost his place to more established names and come back for this series only to notch up DNBs in the first two matches. He will hope India bat first, or that they get a decent target to chase, or that he gets a major promotion up the order.

Team news

Craig Ervine injured his hamstring before the second ODI, and Sean Williams, who replaced him, injured his finger soon after the toss and was unable to bat. It is unclear if either will be available on Wednesday. Timycen Maruma could get a look-in if both are ruled out. Zimbabwe already have a lengthy batting line-up, though, and might be tempted instead to pick an extra bowler – either a seamer in Donald Tiripano or Tawanda Mupariwa, or a spinner in Wellington Masakadza or Tendai Chisoro.Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Hamilton Masakadza, 2 Chamu Chibhabha, 3 Peter Moor, 4 Vusi Sibanda, 5 Sean Williams/Craig Ervine/Timycen Maruma, 6 Sikandar Raza, 7 Elton Chigumbura, 8 Richmond Mutumbami (wk), 9 Graeme Cremer (capt), 10 Tendai Chatara, 11 Taurai MuzarabaniIndia played the same XI in the first two games and, given the lack of batting time for their middle order, could shuffle the top six. MS Dhoni hinted after the second ODI that India might rest one of their bowlers, and that could mean Jaydev Unadkat, Rishi Dhawan or Jayant Yadav gets a look-in.India (probable): 1 KL Rahul/Mandeep Singh, 2 & 3 Karun Nair/Ambati Rayudu/Faiz Fazal, 4 Manish Pandey, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Axar Patel/Jayant Yadav, 8 Dhawal Kulkarni, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Jasprit Bumrah/Rishi Dhawan, 11 Barinder Sran/Jaydev Unadkat

Pitch and conditions

Chilly weather is likely to continue on Wednesday, with a high in the low 20s, though no rain is forecast. The early morning start will tempt both teams to bowl first and utilise the swing on offer, but India might look to bat first and challenge both their batsmen and bowlers.

Stats and trivia

• MS Dhoni is one short of 350 ODI dismissals. He currently has 260 catches and 89 stumpings from 277 matches.
• One stat to sum up the series so far: India’s batsmen average 100.66 per wicket. Zimbabwe’s average 15.47.

Quotes

“They put a fielder there. If there’s a fielder, hit it down, get the single. We didn’t do that.”

Afghanistan are trying to arrange more bilateral ODIs by proposing to play India and any team visiting India, like Ireland does when teams tour England

Peter Della Penna13-Jul-2016Afghanistan’s attempts to gain more ODI fixtures leading into the September 2017 cut-off for 2019 World Cup qualification is likely to gather steam with a proposal in the works to secure annual bilateral matches against India and teams touring India beginning next year.”If we sign the MOU which we sent to India, potentially Afghanistan Cricket Board will be in a better position than where we are right now, scheduling ODIs with India and scheduling ODIs with teams traveling to India on an annual basis,” ACB chief executive Shafiq Stanikzai told ESPNcricinfo. “But still it will be bilateral ties. If a traveling team to India wants to play us in India, it is totally up to them.”Stanikzai said the draft had been presented to BCCI president Anurag Thakur in May and further discussions had during the ICC Annual Conference in Edinburgh. The BCCI officials have not yet commented on the proposal.With Afghanistan shifting their home ground from Sharjah to Greater Noida, outside Delhi, Stanikzai said Afghanistan were well placed, geographically and rankings wise for fixtures against India and sides touring India in the same way Ireland had secured more ODIs against teams touring England.”Since induction into the FTP, a larger challenge arose for Afghanistan,” Stanikzai said. “A is arranging fixtures with Full Members and B is funding it and finding funds to accommodate your needs. The expectation of the Afghanistan people has grown immensely. Afghanistan Cricket Board is under tremendous amount of pressure by not having fixtures with Full Members. Comparatively, Ireland has obtained 14 [11] fixtures with Full Members.”The advantage Ireland has is geographical and teams traveling to England getting quality cricket against Ireland … but Afghanistan is a totally different story… For us, being in the FTP, yeah the window has opened but the challenges are much greater.”A strategic plan unveiled recently by the ACB set targets for Afghanistan to be a top-six ODI team by 2019 and a top-three team in both T20Is and ODIs by 2025. Stanikzai was confident it could be achieved, considering Afghanistan’s rapid growth on and off the field. He, however, said the gains would be stunted, if there weren’t enough fixtures against Full Members.”The biggest challenge for us for the time being is the competition structure or the fixtures for Afghanistan to compete against Full Members,” Stanikzai said. “That’s somewhere we are lacking and somewhere we need the support from ICC, or maybe Full Member boards should realise they need to make this great game more globalised and take it into the Associate world.”Afghanistan team is rapidly growing and the flow that Afghanistan national team currently is in is quite brilliant. If we don’t get any fixtures – we don’t have any confirmed fixtures after our Holland game for the rest of the year – so we are in danger of losing the flow, the momentum we have gained so far in the last nine to 12 months.”Stanikzai hoped that the problem would be fixed if the proposed 13-team ODI league was ratified. In particular, he believed a guaranteed set of 36 fixtures would open up big sponsorship opportunities. He said that tours like Afghanistan’s current trip to both Scotland and Ireland eat up a large chunk of resources, which could be offset if Afghanistan had more teams to market and compete against.”Afghanistan needs to be considered in a very exceptional case,” Stanikzai said. “Obtaining UK visa cost me USD 80,000 for the team. We don’t have a UK High Commission in Afghanistan. We need to travel to India and obtain visas. Going there, staying there, it took us 21 days to obtain UK visa to make this tour possible. Playing Scotland and Ireland is costing us more than USD 350,000.”If we are to host a Full Member, we are able to cover 80-90% of the costs but if we are traveling to play any other Full Member and they are asking us to cover our own passage, it is an extra burden on us. So things need to balanced. Either we need to be in a regular competition, which this 13-member ODI league will help us quite drastically and prosper quite hugely, and the Test league is also another good prospect for us.”

In a week in which there has been mild consternation in Australia about the state of the Galle surface, Angelo Mathews has made no apologies about what the visitors can expect at the SSC

Andrew Fidel Fernando12-Aug-20162:36

‘Lakmal is fit and an automatic choice’ – Mathews

In a week in which there has been mild consternation in Australia about the state of the Galle surface, Angelo Mathews has made no apologies about what the visitors can expect at the SSC: It will turn again, he said – get used to it.With the island’s ground curators directly employed by the board, Sri Lanka has long catered pitches to the team’s needs. Against India last year, surfaces at the P Sara Oval and the SSC had seam and bounce, as it was hoped those qualities would enhance Sri Lanka’s chances of winning (as it happened, India won both matches).Against teams from further afield, and particularly Australia, tracks are made to spin, spin, spin.Australia’s cricketers have focused almost solely on their own performances. But it is clear that reports in the Australian press about “pitch doctoring” in Galle, have prompted indignation within the Sri Lankan team.”We had to work really hard to win those two games,” Mathews said. “We played better cricket than them. I’m hearing that the Aussies have not played good cricket, and the wickets were poor – I mean, come on, you’ve got to grow up. We play on the same wicket. They’ve got spinners and we’ve got spinners. They’ve fought really hard, but it’s just that our spinners have bowled extremely well. Our spinners have exploited the conditions and bowled better than them. Credit should go to the whole team, the way they’ve worked extremely hard.”Home-team advantage appears to be increasingly sought in Test cricket. Over the past two years, Sri Lanka has played on pitches in Christchurch and Hamilton that were so thickly layered in grass, they were almost indistinguishable from the remainder of the square. The pitch at Headingley, in May, had been another green top. And often forced to tour temperate climates in their early summer (thanks largely to economic considerations), Sri Lanka have also been made to play in the colder foreign venues, like Dunedin, Leeds and Chester-le-Street, to cite three examples from the past eight months.The SSC surface has lately ceased to be the wellspring of runs it has been in the past, and on the eve of the Test, appears at least as dry as the pitch at Galle. Sri Lanka have already confirmed their triple-spin attack – with allrounder Dhananjaya de Silva’s offspin in support – will be set loose in the third Test as well.”It’s going to be a turner once again,” Mathews said. “SSC has traditionally been a very good, batting-friendly wicket. But in the last few games against South Africa and Pakistan, it did take a lot of turn. We hope that it will take a lot of turn again from day one, and we hope that it will be a spinners’ paradise.”On the batting front, the series win – and possibly some good catching – has bought openers Kaushal Silva and Dimuth Karunaratne another opportunity. Sri Lanka has recently become the most difficult country in the world to score runs as an opener, but Sri Lanka’s incumbent pair has nevertheless fallen short of the team’s expectations. So far in this series, neither Silva nor Karunaratne has scored more than seven, in four innings apiece. Still, given their history of better performances overseas, Mathews said he and the selectors would grant them another chance.”What the management and selectors think is that we can give opportunities to players who we believe can deliver,” Mathews said. “When it was tough in England, Kaushal fought really hard and showed his character. After two games, we don’t want to throw a character like him away.”Dimuth didn’t score runs in England, but he had got a big hundred in New Zealand and he showed his character there as well. Hopefully, he can deliver and everyone will get through that rough patch.”Dhananjaya de Silva had been one of the standout openers in first-class cricket this year, but as he is already settling in at No. 7, no other obvious opening candidates have presented themselves either. Mathews said the decision to retain Silva and Karunaratne had been made with a view to forthcoming foreign tours as well.”If we have guys who have scored heavily outside the team, we can consider replacing the openers – but that has not happened,” Mathews said. “We have got to keep in mind that the South African series is coming in a few months’ time. We believe that this set of players can go to South Africa and do well. They are talented, and if they are given opportunities, they can come good.”Mathews now has the opportunity to effect perhaps the most high-profile 3-0 whitewash for any Sri Lanka captain. They have three other 3-0 results, but those came against weaker Zimbabwe and Bangladesh teams, and a modest West Indies outfit propped up by mountains of Brian Lara runs. A whitewash against the world’s top-ranked team will likely be remembered fondly for years to come.”We are extremely excited at the prospect,” Mathews said. “We’ve trained harder than we had over the past two weeks, because we want to win it 3-0. Everyone is all geared up, and we haven’t taken the foot off the gas.”

Jeff Dujon, the former West Indies wicketkeeper, has said it would be a “terrible embarrassment” if West Indies were unable to qualify automatically for the 2019 World Cup

Andrew McGlashan28-Sep-2016Jeff Dujon, the former West Indies wicketkeeper, has said it would be a “terrible embarrassment” if West Indies were unable to qualify automatically for the 2019 World Cup.West Indies are currently jostling with Pakistan for the final automatic qualification spot in the one-day rankings ahead of the series in UAE, which starts on Friday. If Pakistan can repeat their 3-0 scoreline from the T20 series in the ODIs, they will jump ahead of West Indies into eighth place.The cut-off for qualification is September 30, 2017, with the ODI nations who sit outside the top eight then joining the qualifying tournament which is currently scheduled to take place in Bangladesh. West Indies missed out on a place in next year’s Champions Trophy after being pipped for the final berth by Pakistan and Bangladesh.”It would be a terrible embarrassment for West Indies to not automatically qualify,” Dujon, who played in the 1983 and 1987 World Cups, told ESPNcricinfo. “It would be damaging for any team who has tasted what it’s like to be in the top echelon of world cricket.”As someone who played in a very successful era, it’s very embarrassing but it has to be an indication of exactly where we are at and something needs to be done. It hurts.”We can’t be fooled by the fact that we’ve just won two tournaments – the World T20 and the U-19 World Cup – the fact we are still struggling to qualify shows we shouldn’t get carried away with that.”On the eve of travelling to the UAE, Phil Simmons was sacked as coach – less than six months after West Indies won the World T20 – with the WICB citing “differences in culture and strategic approach.” Dujon does not believe a satisfactory explanation has been given for Simmons’ departure, despite the strained relationship he had with the board following comments about one-day selection last year.”The sacking of Phil Simmons was a surprise. I’m not sure we have the real reasons, what we were given were a bit sketchy,” he said during a visit to London for a Lord’s Taverners event honouring wicketkeepers. “It’s disappointing for me that we haven’t been able to find a settled situation in the coaching area which would give the team some direction. It’s a setback. Jason Holder as captain also still has a lot to prove so things are in a pretty unstable situation now.”Simmons’ last engagement was the Test series against India where, although West Indies lost 2-0, there were moments of encouragement, particularly with Roston Chase’s match-saving maiden Test century in Jamaica and the promising returns of young quicks Miguel Cummins and Alzarri Joseph.”The talent is still there, it’s a matter of who is going to work with them to help them develop,” Dujon said. “We are still in a situation where we are trying to solve the problem from the top down rather than the bottom.”A promising move recently is that it seems we are going to have more A-team tours which is vital for development. They are meaningful when you go and play in countries who are better than you, it gives you a better gauge of where you are at. That has to be focus, as expensive as it may be, and hopefully we’ll have a better quality of player coming through to the top level in the next four or five years. Right now, some of the players who have come to the top level are not the complete article.”The Lord’s Taverners is the UK’s leading youth cricket and disability sports charity whose objective is to give disadvantaged and disabled young people a sporting chance