All posts by n8rngtd.top

Gloucestershire protest in vain against six-run penalty for a slow over-rate, leaving Sussex to score seven off the final over

ECB Reporters Network04-Aug-2019Delray Rawlins hit a superb unbeaten 35 as Sussex secured a controversial three-wicket victory over Gloucestershire at the Bristol County Ground with two balls remaining.Gloucestershire players protested in vain when they incurred a six-run penalty for a slow over-rate, leaving the visitors to score eight off the final over.Rawlins then kept his cool to knock off the winning runs, finishing with five fours and a six from a 17-ball innings which ultimately proved decisive.Ian Cockbain had earlier scored 61 not out, sharing in stands of 67 and 38 with James Bracey and Benny Howell for the third and sixth wickets respectively as the hosts raised 159 for 6 after being put in.Having successfully chased to beat South Group leaders Kent by nine wickets in their previous outing, Sussex again elected to field first. That looked a good decision once new-ball bowlers Ollie Robinson and Reece Topley accounted for openers Miles Hammond and Michael Klinger in quick time as Gloucestershire’s top-order again fell short of expectations.Gloucestershire enjoyed a much-needed stroke of luck when Bracey was dropped at cover point on one by Rashid Khan off the bowling of Chris Jordan. He made good his escape, posting 30 from 26 balls and staging a restorative stand with Cockbain.Sussex deployed spinners Khan and Danny Briggs in tandem in an attempt to stem the flow of runs, a ploy which accounted for Bracey and the dangerous Ryan Higgins and caused Gloucestershire to lose crucial momentum during the middle overs.Heavily dependent upon Cockbain, Gloucestershire were indebted to the Liverpudlian, who punished anything short of a length in raising 50 from 41 balls to keep his side in the game.When big-hitting Jack Taylor missed a straight delivery and was pinned lbw by Jordan in the 16th over, it was left to Howell to provide late acceleration, the veteran all-rounder scoring at two runs a ball in a valuable stand with Cockbain before holing out to long-on off Robinson in the final over.Cockbain finished unbeaten on 61 from 49 balls, with five fours and a six, but not even his innings could dispel the feeling that Gloucestershire had fallen short of requirements.Sussex found the going equally difficult on a two-paced pitch, Philip Salt and Laurie Evans succumbing to David Payne and Tye respectively as Gloucestershire made good use of the new ball.Sussex remained favourites until skipper Luke Wright, having compiled a painstaking 24, lost patience and holed out to long-on off the bowling of Tom Smith. When Australian international Alex Carey played across the line and lost his off stump to Chris Liddle, they were 87 for 4.Dropped by Cockbain at backward point on 11, David Wiese threatened to dig the visitors out of a hole until falling lbw to Payne for 37 with the score on 126 in the 17th over.Tye then returned to dismiss Khan, while Jordan holed out to long-on in the penultimate over as Payne finished with 3 for 35. But the six-run penalty ensured Sussex were favourites going into the final over and Rawlins needed no second invitation.Both sides wore shirts emblazoned with a rainbow in support of the Rainbow @ Grief Encounter charity, which helps bereaved children and their families, like Gloucestershire spinner Tom Smith’s following the death of his wife, Laura, last August. Many players also wore rainbow face paint after Smith last week spoke of the support the organisation and the Professional Cricketers’ Trust had given him and his two young daughters.

Chasing 143,Taylor and Timycen Maruma helped the visitors ease home with more than two overs to spare against the BCB XI

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Sep-2019Zimbabwe’s tour of Bangladesh – their first international assignment following the ICC suspension in July – got off to a promising start with the tourists registering a seven-wicket win in a T20 tour game against Bangladesh Cricket Board XI.Brendan Taylor steered the 143-run chase with an unbeaten 57, and shared an unbroken 78-run fourth-wicket partnership with Timycen Maruma.The Zimbabweans had got off to a good start: Taylor and captain Hamilton Masakadza added 42 for the first wicket in nearly five overs, with Masakadza hitting six fours in his 32-ball 31. Offspinner Afif Hossain, however, pulled things back for BCB XI, striking in three consecutive overs to remove Masakadza, Craig Ervine and Sean Williams to leave Zimbabwe at 66 for 3 in eight overs. Taylor and Maruma, however, controlled the chase thereafter, sealing victory in the 18th over. Taylor’s 44-ball knock included two fours and three sixes, while Maruma struck five fours and a six in his 28-ball 46.BCB XI’s innings had faltered after their top four were dismissed, all after making promising starts. Sabbir Rahman (30) and Mushfiqur Rahim (26) were the top-scorers in the side but once they fell in the 15th over, the local side managed only 35 in the last five overs. Sabbir and Mushfiqur had added 53 for the third wicket, building on the side’s quick start, but they fell within three balls to the left-arm spin of Williams, who also claimed the wicket of opener Mohammad Naim in his haul of 3 for 18.Zimbabwe and Bangladesh will play the first match of the T20I tri-series on September 13 in Dhaka, followed by a game between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan the next day.

They’ve now won their last 12 completed T20Is, and broken their own record

Mohammad Isam15-Sep-2019A Mohammad Nabi special powered Afghanistan to a 25-run win over Bangladesh to send them top of the points table at the halfway point of the tri-series. Afghanistan have now broken their own 2016-17 record of most consecutive T20I wins, and in some style, as the home side was bowled out for 139 in pursuit of Afghanistan’s 164 for 6.Nabi blasted seven sixes and three fours in his unbeaten 84 off 54 balls. He came to the crease with Afghanistan in trouble at 40 for 4, and finished with a flurry of big hits in the last five overs. He added 79 runs for the fifth wicket with Asghar Afghan, as the pair rode out Mohammad Saifuddin’s maiden four-wicket haul.Afghans lose four in PowerplaySaifuddin and Shakib Al Hasan took two wickets each in Afghanistan’s Powerplay. Rahmanullah Gurbaz was out first ball, undone by a superb Saifuddin outswinger, before Shakib had Hazratullah Zazai caught at deep square-leg for 1. Najeeb Tarakai also holed out to deep square-leg before Najibullah Zadran, who had blazed a half-century against Zimbabwe the previous night, gave mid-off a simple catch in the sixth over.Experience bails them outAfghan and Nabi slowed down the scoring rate to settle down, before both opened out after the halfway mark with sixes off Taijul Islam and Mosaddek Hossain. Taijul nearly had Afghan but replays showed he had over-stepped at the start of the 15th over when he had him caught at the leg-side boundary. Nabi and Afghan pasted Taijul for two more sixes in the over, before Saifuddin broke their 79-run stand by removing Afghan for 40 off 37 balls in the 17th over.Nabi goes soloNabi smashed Mustafizur Rahman for a huge six soon after Afghan’s departure, and then – after a double-wicket 17th over from Saifuddin – smacked 21 runs in the 18th over, surprisingly bowled by Soumya Sarkar. Two more sixes came in the 19th, bowled by Saifuddin, and Nabi seemed in with a chance of pushing for three figures, only to be denied by Mustafizur, who closed out the innings by conceding just three in the 20th.Hosts mimic Afghanistan’s startBangladesh’s plan to counter Mujeeb Ur Rahman by sending the right-handed pair of Liton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim to open went kaput inside five overs. Mujeeb took three of the four wickets to fall, getting Liton to top-edge to cover before Mushfiqur was bowled attempting a scoop off Fareed Ahmad.Shakib and Soumya fell in the fifth over to Mujeeb, who hardly gave them any room. Minutes after an argument with Rashid Khan, Shakib gave him a simple catch at mid-on, which ensued a send-off from the Afghanistan captain, before Soumya was trapped lbw for a duck.No heroes for BangladeshAfghanistan were on top despite a 58-run fifth-wicket stand between Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman, and Mujeeb’s last over accounted for the latter, and Gulbadin Naib’s legcutters removed Mahmudullah and Afif Hossain, Bangladesh’s hero from their first match.Apart from Mujeeb’s four-wicket haul, Fareed, Naib and Rashid took two each.

Dutch batsman’s new deal will take him through to his 40th birthday

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Oct-2019Essex’s Championship-winning captain Ryan ten Doeschate has signed a one-year extension with the club, putting an end to speculation that he would follow Ravi Bopara out of Chelmsford.Ten Doeschate told ESPNcricinfo he would “take stock” before committing to a new contract at the club after leading them to a second Championship title in three years, saying he was “deeply aware there’s a time to move on.”But after his team-mate of 16 years Bopara left the club to join Sussex on Wednesday, ten Doeschate confirmed that he would spend the 2020 season at Essex.Ten Doeschate said: “I’m really pleased to extend my contract at the club and my affinity for Essex and the players just grows stronger and stronger.”We had an amazing season in 2019, but we’re constantly striving to improve and we want to build on our success.”I’m excited about the challenges and battles we’ll face in 2020, and I’m looking forward to giving my all in what will hopefully another successful year.”Ten Doeschate captained the club across formats from 2016 to 2018, but relinquished the T20 captaincy to Simon Harmer this year. He has represented the club 477 times in all formats, scoring 27 hundreds and taking more than 300 wickets in the process.He is currently in the UAE, where he will hope to play a key role in leading Netherlands through the T20 World Cup qualifier.Anthony McGrath, Essex’s head coach, said: “Ryan is a huge player for us, both on the field and in the dressing room, so we are all delighted that he will be staying for at least another season.”He’s a natural leader and has led this side to some fantastic achievements over recent years, and hopefully with any luck, there will be more to come.”

Preparations are on in Kolkata to play the Test under lights, and a request has been made to the Bangladesh board

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Oct-2019The BCCI has moved a step closer to hosting a day-night Test, with a request going across to its counterparts at the BCB for the second and final Test of the upcoming India-Bangladesh series, scheduled to be played at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, to be played under lights.ESPNcricinfo understands that the Indian board is waiting for the go-ahead from the BCB, but preparations are already underway in Kolkata despite the inclement weather of the past few days.BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury told reporters that discussions were on at their end. “We are having this discussion but we haven’t decided yet,” he said. “We will only decide after speaking to the players and team management.” The players are expected to get back with an answer on Monday night.One of the concerns for Bangladesh is their lack of match practice with the pink balls that are used in day-night Tests – only one game has been played in the country with them, the first-class Bangladesh Cricket League final in February 2013. The Indians have also not played much with pink balls – they are the only Test-playing nation, apart from Bangladesh and the two new Full Members, Afghanistan and Ireland, to not have played a day-night Test yet.Sujan Mukherjee, the chief curator at Eden Gardens, confirmed that the organisers had been informed about the day-night Test. “We are waiting for the final go-ahead now, but yes, we are expecting it to happen,” he said. “As such, there is nothing different for us to do. A pitch is a pitch, we are hoping to make it a sporting one, with some pace.”That said, the weather in Kolkata has made it difficult to get going. “It has been raining intermittently for the past many days, and non-stop for the last three days. But I am sure we will have time to do a good job.”Dew could be a factor if the game goes ahead as a day-night encounter, Mukherjee pointed out: “Only the dew could be a concern. In the evening, in November… it will mean drying the ground during the game.”But Sourav Ganguly, the new BCCI president, has spoken of the need to evolve, calling day-night Tests “the way forward” soon after taking charge last week. He also said that he had spoken to Virat Kohli, the India captain, who was on board.”We all are thinking about this. We will do something about this,” Ganguly said on Friday at Eden Gardens at a Cricket Association of Bengal event. “I am a big believer in day-night Tests. Kohli is agreeable to it. I see a lot of reports in newspapers that he is not, but that is not true.”The game needs to go forward and that is the way forward. People should finish work and come to watch champions play. I don’t know when that will happen, but it will.”Ganguly had been pushing for India to play with the pink ball even when he was head of the BCCI’s technical committee. In the past, he had recommended that the BCCI continue to invest in playing Duleep Trophy matches under lights, an experiment first used in 2016. This season the board had initially planned for the Duleep final to be a day-night affair only to change its mind at the last minute.The Eden Gardens Test is scheduled to begin on November 22, with the series of three T20Is (Delhi – November 3, Rajkot – November 7, and Nagpur – November 10] and the first Test, in Indore from November 14, preceding it.

Knowing what’s coming doesn’t make it easier, as Wagner and Southee showed in winning a few battles despite being behind in the Test

Andrew McGlashan14-Dec-2019New Zealand’s eyes are still firmly fixed on trying to save, or even win, the opening Test in Perth but if, as is very likely, Australia come out on top they may have won a few little battles late on the third day.Their short-ball tactics, led by Neil Wagner and this time implemented by Tim Southee as well, are so well telegraphed yet still continue to reap considerable reward. “The five men out on the pull gave it away,” Joe Burns said with a smile.Burns was one of the five Australia second-innings wickets to fall to the short delivery, when he gloved Southee to gully, the odd one out being Tim Paine who was cleaned up second ball.Significantly, the plan worked for the second time in the match against Steven Smith, who picked out deep square leg having been given a working over by Wagner which included a painful blow on the gloves. It meant that for the first time in his career, Smith had gone three Tests without a half-century.David Warner miscued a pull to mid-on, Marnus Labuschagne picked out midwicket (although not until he had scored another fifty and become the first batsman to 1000 Test runs this year) and Travis Head flicked straight to leg gully, his second poor dismissal of the match. Those moments are unlikely to have much bearing on this game, but they are little markers for the Tests to come.”First and foremost it’s to try and get through this match but we have wait and see what the wicket’s like in Melbourne,” Ross Taylor said. “It’s definitely a tactic we’ve used in New Zealand to good effect and Neil has been a fantastic exponent of doing that. The match-ups throughout this whole series, not just this match, will be key and we’ll get a lot of confidence from that.”Burns acknowledged that knowing the plan was coming and play it are two different things, highlighting the fact that the pace of New Zealand’s – around the low 130kph-mark without the injured Lockie Ferguson – presents a different challenge to when the ball is fired down at 150kph.”We spoke it, they’ve done it to us and all sorts of different teams in the past,” he said. “We spoke about being clear how you want to play. It’s always disappointing when you lose wickets but credit to the New Zealand bowlers, to get through the overs they’ve done and get executing the short ball for long periods of time. It’s probably why they are No. 2 in the world”It’s easier said than done to say you’ll come round the wicket, or for Wagner to bowl long periods of the short ball to that field, there isn’t much margin of error if you miss. If you bowl bad balls you’ll leak a lot of runs. Credit to them, it’s a big part of their bowling plans. As a batter you just try to wear them down, pounce on bad balls, but they didn’t miss too many times.”It’s awkward because you feel like you can play it. At the speeds they bowl it’s challenging, different because they are asking you to play the shot to get off strike and you are bringing in all their catchers. Credit to them because they can execute it for a long period of time. They find a way to keep creating wickets when they flatten out.”

A run chase that appeared to be very tight turned into a canter amid some huge sixes

Alex Malcolm10-Jan-2020A Glenn Maxwell masterclass helped the Melbourne Stars cruise past the Melbourne Renegades and remain entrenched at the top of the BBL table.The Stars were 3 for 54 in the seventh over chasing a tricky target of 169, but Maxwell worked his way through the gears to make a flawless 83 not out from 45 balls to mow down the target with eight balls to spare and seven wickets in hand.Glenn Maxwell produced another spectacular innings•Getty Images

He struck seven sixes and ran 10 twos. He got outstanding support from Nick Larkin as they shared an unbeaten 114-run stand, of which Larkin contributed just 31.Earlier, the Stars’ bowlers pegged back the Renegades with an outstanding last four overs. Haris Rauf and Nathan Coulter-Nile starred as the Renegades lost 4 for 22 having looked set to make 180-plus. Shaun Marsh hit 63 and shared an 86-run opening stand with Marcus Harris but it went to waste as the innings fell away badly.Change brings returnsAaron Finch’s departure for Australian duty meant the Renegades had to make one change at the top. They made two. Marsh returned to his natural habitat while Harris was promoted. The former was a fait accompli, the latter a genuine surprise. Sam Harper had given the Renegades dynamic starts all year and top-scored with 73 in their last game but was slid all the way to No.6. The change worked. Marsh and Harris put on 86 in 10.3 overs to give the Renegades their best start for the year. They punished anything short, with Stars debutant Lance Morris getting clubbed over the fence twice by Harris. The two left-handers found the boundary in every single over bar the first without taking any undue risks. That was until Harris took on Hilton Cartwright for a reckless single and was run out by a classy direct hit.Old habits die hardStand-in skipper Dan Christian had spoken in the build-up about the need for his top-order players to push onto 70-80 and take the innings deep. Marsh was unable to fulfill his captain’s wish whee chipped a return catch to Sandeep Lamichhane with 39 balls left in the innings. Beau Webster and Christian were promoted to Nos. 3 and 4 and it seemed a masterstroke as they smashed 33 off the next 16 balls including three towering sixes. But Maxwell turned to his big guns in Sandeep Lamichhane, Haris Rauf and Nathan Coulter-Nile with the trio taking 4 for 22 in four overs. Rauf conceded just eight runs off the bat in 12 balls and Coulter-Nile deceived both Tom Cooper and Harper with brilliant slower balls. Marcus Stoinis produced an excellent run out from the deep on the last ball to save another run as the Renegades turned an almost guaranteed total of 180-plus into just 168.Stoinis misfiresStoinis wore the gold cap proudly in the field as the BBL’s leading scoring, but he miscued in the first over of the chase and failed to add to his total. Samit Patel was used first up in a specific match-up and it worked a treat as Stoinis faced two dots before holing out to mid-off. Patel let himself down shortly after dropping a sitter off Ben Dunk before Webster made amends to remove Dunk with a stunning diving catch at mid-off. Cartwright struck the ball powerfully in a new role opening as he clubbed 35 from 21 balls with four fours and a six before playing around a leg break that slid on from Cameron Boyce. The Stars slipped to 3 for 54.Maxwell’s masterclassMaxwell entered this game with scores of 40 not out and 59 not out in the Stars last two matches to make light work of two simple chases. The Renegades set him a task here needing 115 from 79 balls with Stoinis already out and Pete Handscomb absent. He rose to the occasion and put on a clinic. He started in first gear with one boundary in his first 11 balls before he struck his first six, but thereafter he was calculated. He and Larkin ran 10 twos, eight off the bat of Maxwell as he placed and weighted his shots with supreme skill. He didn’t attack the spinners, instead playing risk-free cricket. Then with 60 needed from 30 balls, with Patel bowled out, he flicked the switch. He struck six sixes in 16 balls, five off pace bowlers. Each was bigger than the next. He sealed it with a monster over square leg to win with a scarcely believable eight balls to spare.

The West Indian overcame an equation that read 85 off 40 balls even when his team-mates were misfiring all around him

The Report by Mohammad Isam15-Jan-2020Andre Russell blew away Chattogram Challengers at the final hurdle, dragging Rajshahi Royals to the BPL final after a thrilling two-wicket win in the second qualifier. The match ended when Russell slammed Asela Gunaratne’s no-ball for a six over midwicket, the seventh of his 21-ball unbeaten half-century.Russell, who said ahead of the tournament that he preferred the BPL to the Big Bash League, delivered right when it mattered, winning it with four balls and only two wickets to spare. That the margin was so close indicated how the match wasn’t really shaping up to go Rajshahi’s way until the West Indian’s intervention.Malik leaves too much for RussellWith his side in need of quick runs, Shoaib Malik’s 14 off 22 balls was a strange little innings. He was first playing a supportive role to Irfan Sukkur, who was striking the ball fairly well during his stay, but even when he made 45 off 42 balls with the six fours, Malik had to take control of the situation. Instead, he continued to mistime the ball, and ended up caught top-edging a sweep off Ziaur Rahman, leaving Russell to make the bulk of the remaining 85 runs to win, off just 40 balls.But no chase is too much for RussellThe match turned in the 17th over when Rayad Emrit, despite his two wickets in the over, went for 20 runs. Rubel Hossain pinned down Russell in the following over with four dot balls, but Russell still struck a six off the last ball.Then came the big over when young Mehedi Hasan Rana, so impressive in the league phase and leading into this over, went for 23 runs. Russell slammed two sixes and a four, before tail-ender Abu Jayed edged one more four to leave eight off the last over. Crucially, Russell would be on strike.Russell seals the dealGunaratne bowled wide of the crease from around the wicket to cramp Russell, but after two decent attempts, he bowled a wide ball, and then mistakenly got one in his slot. Russell slammed it out of the ground, and the umpire signaled a no-ball, as the Rajshahi players belatedly ran to the pitch to greet their captain for the magnanimous effort.Mehedi twists, turns and hitsBut the match wasn’t going that badly for Mehedi, or Chattogram. After Afif Hossain holed out in the deep square-leg boundary, Liton Das became the marked man. But he didn’t last long either, as Mehedi ran him out with an athletic swoop.After Liton inside edged one on to his pads, he called for the run with the ball not too far from the pitch itself. Rana got quickly to the ball, turned and threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end with Liton well short of the crease. It is likely that Liton didn’t expect Rana to do the tougher job of affecting the direct hit on the turn, but it was an excellent effort from the young pace bowler.Gayle sets the paceA single fifty in his last 17 innings may have worried T20 promoters around the world but Chris Gayle put some of it to rest with a blazing half-century. He struck five sixes and six fours in his 24-ball 60, giving Chattogram the perfect start. There was the usual Gayle flicks and hoicks, which brought the half-filled stadium alive, as well as the deft touches, and at times a quick single. All part of the Gayle package.Chattogram dip mid inningsWith Gayle at the crease, Chattogram flew into the nineties in the 10th over, but the moment Afif snuck one through his slog, Chattogram had to recalibrate their approach. That, however, couldn’t happen with Mohammad Nawaz removing Mahmudullah and Nurul Hasan in the following over, before Liton took a brilliant catch at short midwicket to get rid of Chadwick Walton.But this was a long time ago in the game. Russell’s power made sure all these efforts from Chattogram fell well short when it really mattered.

What will especially lift the hosts is that it was their wristspinners Hasaranga and Sandakan that sewed this game up

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando26-Feb-2020
Kusal Mendis and Avishka Fernando dovetailed beautifully through the middle overs, producing an effortless 239-run third-wicket partnership that became the bedrock of Sri Lanka’s 345 for 8, and by extension, their series-sealing 161-run victory over West Indies. Mendis hit a run-a-ball 119 and Fernando made 127 off 123 deliveries, as they punished West Indies’ indiscipline with the ball and sloppiness in the field, rescuing Sri Lanka from a scoreline of 9 for 2 in the third over.Although the surface clearly suited batting, and a stiff wind across the ground made things difficult for bowlers, a target of 346 was always going to be daunting. And West Indies never really had the measure of this chase. There was a mildly positive 64-run opening stand, as well as a customary Shai Hope fifty, but at no stage did they manage to put Sri Lanka under pressure.What will especially lift the hosts is that it was their wristspinners that sewed this game up – Wanindu Hasaranga and Lakshan Sandakan taking three wickets apiece through the middle overs to send West Indies into a nosedive. Sandakan claimed the final wicket in the 40th over to finish with figures of 3 for 57. Hasaranga was more impressive, returning 3 for 30 from his 10. Each of his wickets came via the googly, which West Indies’ batsmen repeatedly failed to pick.Coming in at 9 for 2, Mendis had had a nervy first six deliveries – beaten second ball, dropped on two by Kieron Pollard soon after, then rapped hard on the gloves by a Jason Holder delivery that leapt at him from a length. But he settled quickly after the early chance, working his way through the Powerplay with Fernando. Sri Lanka got to 49 for 2 after 10 overs but really it was in the period that followed that the two young batsmen began to flourish, in lock-step, almost never more than 10 runs apart from each other.With West Indies’ quicks frequently straying into the pads, unable to contend the wind that blows across Sooriyawewa, Mendis and Fernando accumulated freely into the ground’s vast, unguarded spaces, on the legside in particular. When they hit boundaries, generally they were punishing short balls, which tended to sit up on this surface. Mendis was particularly prolific with the pull shot, while Fernando heaved across the line to good effect as well. They also ran exceptionally well between the wickets, frequently putting pressure on fielders, who would fumble or send in wayward, harried throws.When the spinners came on, their progress seemed even more effortless. Neither Fabian Allen nor Roston Chase got a lot of turn off the pitch, and these two batsmen were by now experts at hitting gaps. Fernando may just about have played the better innings in the end, but no two single strokes were more alluring than Mendis’ advancing, inside-out hits over cover against Allen in the 26th over. He had reached fifty off the 55th delivery he faced; Fernando got to his-half century off his 56th ball.The pair marched almost inevitably to their hundreds – each advancing steadily and surely through the nineties to get to the milestones in successive overs – Mendis in the 37th off his 107th ball, and Fernando in the 38th off his 109th. Such was the evenness of their progress, that at this stage, they had only hit 15 fours between them, Mendis striking nine of those. With only two wickets down, the score at well over 200, and the death overs now upon them, they started hitting out, Mendis hitting three more fours before eventually top-edging Alzarri Joseph. Fernando hit four more boundaries before holing out to deep midwicket.Their partnership was not only the best ever at this venue, it was also Sri Lanka’s third-highest in all of one-day cricket. It came at better than a run-a-ball as well, which meant it had provided an outstanding platform for the lower middle order. Thisara Perera did the most to do justice to the base Mendis and Fernando had given, hitting 36 off 25 balls. Dhananjaya de Silva, Hasaranga and Isuru Udana also provided cameos, as West Indies’ fielding effort became exceedingly frayed through the death overs.Hope floated through the early overs of the chase, hitting some exquisite legside boundaries to set himself on his way, but then he ran Sunil Ambris out, and before long, was out himself for 51 off 65 balls, chipping Angelo Mathews to short midwicket. Then Sri Lanka’s wristspinners took over.Bravo didn’t pick Hasaranga’s googly and edged to slip, where de Silva took an excellent catch. Chase then let a beautiful Sandakan stock ball wriggle between bat and pad and clatter into his stumps. Pollard followed soon after, in similar fashion, but to the bowling of Hasaranga. By the time Holder was out, also bowled by a googly, West Indies were 130 for 5 in the 31st over, and never really looked like they would make much of the chase.Keemo Paul and Allen had a little bit of fun, but even that didn’t last long, as Nuwan Pradeep came back to take two wickets in an over. After the first ODI had been decided in a tight finish, this was a proper thumping.

‘The Test’ will show footage from team meetings and training sessions, with commentary from players

Daniel Brettig10-Mar-2020Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine was called to account by coach Justin Langer for his leadership mistakes during the frenzied final hour of the Headingley Test in front of the rest of the team, and the footage will be aired as part of a deep dive documentary on the national side’s 16 months after the Newlands scandal.Paine, who is also shown delivering a blunt but rousing message to the team in the dressing room in the minutes after the one-wicket loss to England that threatened to derail their bid to retain the Ashes, is challenged by his close ally Langer about the singles made available to Ben Stokes as he charged towards an extraordinary result in Leeds.Langer and team analyst Dene Hills had forced the touring squad to review footage of the dramatic defeat the morning after it as a way of ensuring it would not be allowed to fester as an issue, something the coach has previously attributed to advice from the former Adelaide Crows AFL coach Don Pyke, who had admitted he waited too long to debrief his side after the 2017 Grand Final loss to Richmond.The decision to do so and the confrontation between Langer and Paine is one of numerous raw moments captured by the documentary series, , to be available on Amazon Prime from March 12. It chronicles the long road from the Newlands scandal to the retention of the Ashes at Old Trafford last September, but is never more revealing than when Paine first speaks to a stunned and silent dressing room in the minutes after Stokes has delivered England their miracle.”I’ll go and do media now boys, but I just want to say f*** that’s going to f***en hurt a lot, no doubt, the next couple of days. However, as I said to a few of you out there, we’ve still got two Test matches,” Paine says to the dressing room. “So let this f***en sting, we had our chances to win that game and we f***ed it up. S*** happens, we can talk about that another time.”We’ve got two Test matches, we’ve got a bit of time off, let’s take time, stick together, keep knowing that the process we’ve got in place to beat these blokes is going to work. So it’s not game over, it’s not toys out of the cot, it’s a game of cricket, s*** f***ing happens. Yep, it was f***ing important, and we wanted it, we should have f***ing won it. Let’s move on, and start getting our heads around winning the next two f***ing Tests.”Paine walked straight from that address to his post-match press conference, where he explained, in part, why he had not brought the field up to deny Stokes the opportunity to farm the strike with Jack Leach at the other end. “If we didn’t it probably would have finished a lot earlier, the way he was hitting them, to be honest,” he said. “It’s one of those things. It is a really difficult period of time to captain. I don’t think anyone has done it perfectly. I certainly didn’t. I don’t claim to have. But when a guy is going like that, you bring the field up he’s hitting them for four or six anyway.”Langer, meanwhile, is shown to be critical of the field settings as the Stokes-Leach partnership is unfolding, and clearly has them in mind when he calls a still forlorn Australian squad into the boardroom of the Leeds Marriott Hotel the following morning.”Truth is, this could easily break us,” Langer tells the team. “That’s what everyone else, the whole rest of the world will be saying, but it’s our choice. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to watch what happened yesterday, and for no other reason except we’re going to learn. It’s going to give us the s***s watching it, but we’re going to learn from it, shake ourselves off, and we’re going to get up to be ready for the next Test match.”Ben Stokes and Jack Leach’s last-wicket stand gave England an unexpected win in the Headingley Test•Getty Images

There are plenty of glum faces as the tape is rolled, as the likes of Nathan Lyon and Marcus Harris struggle to watch. After Stokes is seen coshing the winning runs, the following exchange ensues. “Hard to watch, hard to watch but it is what it is,” Langer says. “The only thing I will say, there was an opportunity in my opinion with 71 to go, last ball of the over. If we’re reading the play, there is no way there can be a run there. We want six balls at Leach, right, we’ve got to squeeze in on them, we can’t give an easy run like that.”Paine replies: “If he wanted to sweep from wide out of rough, we thought that it was actually a chance to get him out.”Langer: “Were our plans clear enough to Stokes, do you reckon?”Paine: “We know, we could’ve changed the fields, we could’ve bowled more bouncers. We had blokes coming on saying ‘bowl slower balls’. Hoff [Josh Hazlewood] bowled him three slower balls and he hit them for three sixes. So 100% we could do things slightly differently. We didn’t panic, we didn’t s*** ourselves, we tried our best, we had a crack, the bloke had a day out. Absolutely I’ve been awake all night, I’ve changed the field a hundred times, I think we all have, but we didn’t.”Langer: “The question is, when we’re under that pressure, we know that were we really clear on what the plan was.”Hazlewood chimes in: “Plans were really clear, Painey came up at the start of the over, said let’s try some slower balls and try to go wide, probably wasn’t wide enough on occasions, and I tried a yorker, just missed.”Langer: “He’s faced 220 balls by now, and we’ve got Leach who’s come in, you want Patto [James Pattinson] to have six balls at Leach surely. The opportunity missed there, is that we let him have a single. That’s just intent, that’s just game awareness, which we all talk about.”Tim Paine offers a handshake to Ben Stokes•Getty Images

Paine: “I was sort of umming and ahhing, ‘f*** well if we get one or two at Leach, Patto can hit him on the toe … but the percentage play will now be to bring the field up. Balls five or six we should have had the field up when we had 60 or 70, played it simple, seen that. Got it wrong.”Langer: “No-one ever wants to have that feeling again that you had yesterday, or last night when you lie in your bed. We’re going to stay together, we’re going to stick together, we’re going to work hard together, we’re going to get ready together to be ready for Old Trafford together to win the fourth Test match.”The documentary format is to broadcast numerous similarly confronting moments from team meetings or training sessions, followed by commentary from the players concerned. Of the Headingley debrief, Langer says: “After it, Painey says to me, ‘mate, I found that really confronting, because I had to admit that I made some mistakes’. And I said, ‘that’s not a weakness, mate, that’s a strength, because we’re all human, and it’s good to admit weakness or vulnerability in front of your mates’, because then they’ll go ‘oh yeah so we actually did make some mistakes’.”The documentary was launched in Sydney on Tuesday evening, and both Paine and Langer have spoken of their own reactions to it: alongside limited-overs captain Aaron Finch and vice-captain Pat Cummins, they formed a committee that reviewed each episode of the series, directed by Adrian Brown.”Even as someone who knew what was going to be in it, it was fascinating for me to sit back and watch,” Paine told RSN Radio last week. “There were times where I was watching it with just sheer joy and there were others when I literally felt like I was going to cry.”Langer, meanwhile, has admitted the openness of the documentary was difficult for him to watch at times. “It’s very confronting,” Langer said. “But it is what it is, that’s what actually happens in the Australian cricket team. I’ll be fascinated how the public reacts to it, I hope they enjoy it. Looking back on it after 18 months, I’ve spoken very publicly about the first six months of the job and how hard it was. To watch that, I was getting sweaty under my tracksuit every time I watched it. But looking back, that’s actually what happened.”