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New Zealand had started the fourth day with hope but that soon evaporated once the offspinner got to work

Tristan Lavalette03-Mar-20242:54

How Lyon and Co made it six out of six for Australia on NZ soil

Nathan Lyon crushed New Zealand’s hopes early on day four to complete a 10-wicket match haul as Australia recorded a convincing 172-run first Test victory at the Basin Reserve.After a stirring fightback on day three, New Zealand resumed at 111 for 3 as they eyed the daunting target of 369 with a near capacity crowd hopeful of a rearguard.But after a sedate start, with the surface appearing to be playing a little easier than the opening three days, Lyon claimed the wickets of Rachin Ravindra, Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips in two overs to effectively end New Zealand’s resistance.Watching wickets tumble at the other end, Daryl Mitchell held firm in vain and was the last batter dismissed for 38 off 130 balls.On a surface that turned and bounced sharply, Lyon always loomed large and once again he was Australia’s match-winner to finish with 6 for 65 and match figures of 10-108. It was the first 10-wicket haul by a spinner in New Zealand since 2006.Lyon, who also top-scored in Australia’s second innings with 41, was the standout performer alongside Cameron Green, whose masterful unbeaten 174 in the first innings was remarkable on a bowler-friendly surface. It was just the fifth Test match where 13 bowlers took a wicket and the first since 1966.With just one Test victory over Australia since 1993, New Zealand’s misery continued having struggled to muster much resistance with the bat after being bowled out for under 200 runs in both innings.After starting well having sent Australia in, New Zealand rued a wayward bowling effort where they watched helplessly as Green and Josh Hazlewood combined for a record 116-run last-wicket partnership. New Zealand also were left to lament not selecting frontline spinner Mitchell Santner as the surface increasingly offered bite as the match wore on.New Zealand’s capitulation early on day four was an anti-climax after an impressive fightback gave them some belief. But New Zealand needed to rewrite the record books if they were to take the lead in this series with their highest successful fourth-innings run chase being 324 against Pakistan at Christchurch in 1994.Needing a further 258 runs, there were no alarms in the first 30 minutes for Ravindra and Mitchell, who had combined for a calm half-century partnership late on day three.Cameron Green added his name to the wicket taking•Getty Images

They defended well and looked to be proactive although it almost proved their undoing when they took off for a tight single with Mitchell relieved after Marnus Labuschagne’s shy at the stumps missed.Having played watchfully late on day three given the precarious situation, Mitchell started to show glimpses of his innate aggressiveness when on his 82nd delivery he hit his first boundary of the innings after slashing a short delivery from Mitchell Starc.After flowing to a fifty off 77 balls before the close, Ravindra was shackled and started to look anxious in his bid for runs. Australia sensed this and packed the off-side field as Lyon changed to the southern end of the ground.It did the trick with Ravindra falling for the trap as he miss-hit a cut shot to point to trigger a collapse. Later in the over, Lyon dismissed Blundell for a duck after he tentatively pressed forward and inside edged to short-leg much like his soft dismissal in the first innings.New Zealand’s hopes entirely rested on Mitchell and Phillips, who had been their star in this match with a 70-ball 71 in the first inning before claiming his first five-wicket Test haul in Australia’s second innings.But Phillips was no match for Lyon after being trapped lbw on the back foot as he reviewed unsuccessfully. It was Lyon’s first five-wicket haul in New Zealand as he joined Shane Warne and Muthiah Muralidaran as the only bowlers to have reached that feat in nine countries.After his marathon knock, Green had not bowled in the match until day four and showed off his prowess with the ball as he delivered a brute of a delivery that ballooned off the gloves of Scott Kuggeleijn to wicketkeeper Alex Carey.Green’s wicket meant seven Australian bowlers took wickets for the match, which was the most for them since 2012 against West Indies in Roseau.Fittingly, given their heroic performances, Green, Lyon and Hazlewood claimed the final wickets as Australia’s stranglehold over New Zealand continued.

Allrounder hits counterattacking 90 against former team to put visitors on top

ECB Reporters Network06-Apr-2024Ben Mike returned to haunt his former county Yorkshire with a brilliant, counterattacking 90 as Leicestershire’s lower order carried their side to a first-innings 354 on day two at Headingley.This was another weather-shortened day in the Vitality County Championship opener, play only starting at 1.40pm due to a wet outfield – two hours earlier than day one.Yorkshire held sway overnight with the visitors at 164 for 5, and three wickets inside the first 75 minutes strengthened their position. Seamer Matt Milnes claimed two of them on the way to 4 for 73. However, allrounder Mike impressively led the revival from 215 for 8, sharing a record ninth-wicket stand of 119 either side of tea with tailender Tom Scriven, who contributed a valuable 56.Mike then struck twice in his first two overs with the ball as Yorkshire replied with 72 for 2 from 18 overs at close.Mike, who hit four sixes in 113 balls, left Yorkshire in November, one year into a three-year deal. He returned to the Uptonsteel County Ground in search of greater opportunity in this competition.The 25-year-old only played two Championship matches during his season and a bit at Headingley, the latter part of 2022 spent on loan wearing the white rose. In Yorkshire colours, Mike claimed a best of 4 for 40 with the ball in a One-Day Cup match last August but didn’t top 30 with the bat in any competitive fixture.Home supporters will, therefore, have fully expected sod’s law to kick in, and it did as Mike played superbly. He was aggressive but selective with it from No. 9 in the order, arriving at the crease at 177 for 7.He slog-swept and pulled three leg-side sixes en route to a 56-ball fifty, taking on the left-arm spin of Dan Moriarty and the seam of fellow allrounder George Hill. He later pulled Milnes for another as a century came into view.Mike wasn’t without fortune, however. On 38, he miscued Moriarty and offered a tough chance to Jordan Thompson running in from long-on. Another skied miscue shortly afterwards caught the strong wind sweeping across Headingley and took another catch out of the same fielder’s reach as he ran towards midwicket.Mike was ably supported by Scriven, the pair recording Leicestershire’s highest ever ninth-wicket partnership in first-class fixtures, beating a record which stood for 85 years.Yorkshire’s day had started well. Milnes had both Australian overseas batter Peter Handscomb, for 26, and nightwatchman Scott Currie caught behind as the score slipped to 177 for 7 inside the first six overs of play. Both were playing loosely outside off stump.Matthew Fisher cartwheeled Ben Cox’s off stump for 32, leaving the Foxes in danger of not reaching 250. But Mike was followed to a fifty by Scriven, who got there off 71 balls. By that time, the visitors were far, far happier at 327 for 8.Seven more runs had been added when Ben Coad, bowling with the new ball, trapped Scriven lbw, only for Mike to ensure a third batting point for reaching 350.One of Yorkshire’s issues last season was their inability to finish off the tail in matches. If they are to fulfil their Division Two title ambitions in 2024, that needs addressing.The innings was wrapped up when Milnes had Mike caught superbly at deep cover by Fisher, leaving Yorkshire with almost an hour-and-a-half’s batting to do before close.And it wasn’t entirely straightforward as Mike had Fin Bean caught behind with his third ball and captain Shan Masood caught at second slip playing loosely – the latter for a duck – as the score slipped to 47 for 2 in the 13th over.Adam Lyth played fluently for 43 not out, the ex-England opener reaching 12,000 Championship career runs on the way, before bad light stopped play four overs early.

“It’d be really interesting to hear what the public think about it. If the everyday viewer really likes it and thinks it’s good, then it can continue.”

Nagraj Gollapudi19-Apr-20242:08

Jaffer: Impact player not good for Indian cricket

The Impact Player rule has given him “nightmares”, but Ricky Ponting, Delhi Capitals’ head coach, is happy for the IPL to retain it if it is making the tournament a “better spectacle.””I can answer it in two ways,” Ponting told ESPNcricinfo in a conversation on April 16, a day after Sunrisers Hyderabad plundered 287 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru to break their own record, established earlier this season, for the highest IPL total. “It’d be really interesting to hear what the public think about it. If the everyday viewer really likes it and thinks it’s good, then it can continue.Related

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“If the average person gets a bit confused by it and doesn’t know what’s going on – an Impact Player here, someone goes in, someone comes out – if they are confused by it [then you have a rethink]. At the end of the day, we’ve got to think about the product that’s going there and what everyone’s watching as well.”From his perspective as a coach, Ponting admitted he wasn’t too keen on the Impact Player rule, which was introduced by the IPL in the 2023 season, allowing a team to bring in a 12th player as a tactical substitute. While the move was welcomed by captains, coaches and players in its inaugural run last season, there have been voices of opposition this year. Among them is India captain Rohit Sharma, who led Mumbai Indians to five IPL titles.In a conversation this week with the podcast co-hosted by Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan, Rohit said he was “not a big fan” of the Impact Player primarily because it was detrimental for the development of allrounders especially in India.Ricky Ponting with Rishabh Pant at a Delhi Capitals training session•Delhi Capitals

Ponting agreed with Rohit, and said it would be a simpler job for a coach if he only had to pick the best XI.”From a player’s point and a coach’s point of view, the game would be much easier if you just pick 11, just pick your best 11 and put the 11 on the park and go and play,” Ponting said. “Because I’ll tell you now, we’ll sit back after training tonight and select our teams and you’ve got to pick two teams and you’ve got to have your five impact guys.”There’s so many different ways you can go around doing that, looking at different combinations. It actually can be a bit of a nightmare.”The Impact Player has helped teams, especially those stacked with power hitters such as Sunrisers and Kolkata Knight Riders, to bat explosively across the three phases this season and set totals in excess of 250 more than once. A total of 549 runs were scored in what was a batting gala in Bengaluru where RCB lost to Sunrisers by 25 runs.Ponting, who was busy overseeing Capitals’ training on Monday evening in Motera, was informed by his son Fletcher about Sunrisers making 287 in Bengaluru on the back of a blistering Travis Head century.Later in the evening Ponting received several messages from friends who were astonished by the slew of records broken in Bengaluru including that for the most sixes in a team innings. “It looks to me like [the Impact Player is] having an impact on the game,” Ponting said. “More runs are being scored. So you’d think people that were sitting back and watching that game last night would be mesmerised by the cricket. I was getting messages last night saying what a crazy game of cricket, what an unbelievable game of cricket.”So if the Impact Player is making it a better spectacle, then it should stay.”

Says scoring rates are unlikely to be this high at the T20 World Cup, which starts just a week after the IPL

S Sudarshanan04-May-20241:18

McClenaghan on Starc: Big players stand up in big moments

IPL 2024 has been a mixed bag for Mitchell Starc. He was the most expensive pick ever at an IPL auction – going for INR 24.75 crore – but was also having a tough time with the ball. In an edition that is seeing an unprecedented high-scoring rate, Starc had just seven wickets and an economy of 11.78 in his first eight outings, and had conceded more than 50 three times.On Friday, he bounced back with 4 for 33 in Kolkata Knight Riders’ 24-run win over Mumbai Indians, and said the Impact Player rule had a part to play in the bowlers’ inflated numbers this season.”The Impact Player rule changes things a fair bit,” Starc said at the press conference. “Everyone gets to bat a lot deeper having a batting and a bowling XI. There’s a lot made of that rule throughout the tournament and there’s been a lot of high scores, which is the nature of the wickets and the grounds we play on here. When you have batters and batting allrounders come in at Nos. 8 or 9, it’s a long batting line-up.Related

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“There’s no fear in the powerplay when all you have to do is to clear the infield and score runs. Certainly, there has been some really good batting, don’t get me wrong, it’s not just the rules that play a part there. There’s been some fantastic scoring, some fantastic partnerships and some individual brilliance with the bat.”Starc began his spell against MI with a full ball that thudded into Ishan Kishan’s front pad but was sliding down the leg side. Kishan then hit him for a four and a six but Starc exacted revenge by flattening his leg stump. He then came back at the death and picked up three wickets in the final over to finish with his best figures of the season.”I haven’t changed too much,” he said. “It’s about assessing conditions after the first innings. We certainly spoke about it and the batters that came off throughout that first innings mentioned the wicket and the lengths that were the hardest to face. That created the bowling plans for us.3:02

Starc explains the effects of the Impact Player rule on the IPL

“As T20 cricket doesn’t always go the way you want it to go, and of course I wanted to go a bit better at the start. But I am not the only bowler going for runs. It is what it is. The fact that we sit second [on the points table] and are building towards the more important games at the back end and are playing some good cricket, hopefully I can be a part of it too.”There is just one week’s gap between the IPL and the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA. But Starc is not worried about his workload.”It’s T20 cricket, it’s not as demanding as Test match cricket,” he said. “Physically it is not a problem and it’s fantastic lead-in to play here in the best T20 league in the world. You’re playing some high-quality cricket leading into the World Cup, a lot of players at this tournament are going to be at the World Cup.”In that regard, it’s a great thing to see and test your skills. In terms of length of time, that’s part and parcel of international cricket. My main focus is to play in Lucknow in two days’ time. The World Cup is next month – at this moment, it’s [about] trying to help KKR win the tournament.”Starc expects the T20 World Cup to provide a more even contest between bat and ball, unlike the IPL where totals of over 200 have been commonplace.10:20

Will the T20 World Cup be as high-scoring as the IPL?

“There’s no Impact Player rule [in international cricket], so whether that affects the scores is yet to be seen. I think it probably will. People talk about the balance of the team when you can’t just bring someone in. Your allrounders come back into play. Captains have to think a bit tactically, too, when you have just 11 players. It’s been interesting to experience it first-hand in the IPL.”Starc also lauded the “exciting, young group” of fast bowlers at KKR. Harshit Rana played all games before his one-match suspension and has taken 11 wickets at an economy of 9.78. Vaibhav Arora has picked up nine wickets in six outings at 9.42.”I am a bit more experienced and a bit older, at the same time I haven’t played a lot of T20 cricket,” Starc said of his interactions with them. “[So it is about] working off each other in a way.”I am certainly not there to tell people what to do, I am happy to answer questions if they have [any] or look to lead more by example at training and get my work in. We are a pretty good group, the whole group of players and staff is awesome to be around.”I would like to think I am approachable, so happy to train with the boys. I was training with Harshit Rana the other night, made him run extra which he wasn’t happy about . But no, it’s a great group and a lot of time we have a lot of fun.”

Sanju Samson got a chance at the top of the order but he was lbw for 1

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jun-2024India sprang a surprise at the start of their T20 World Cup warm-up game against Bangladesh in New York, sending Sanju Samson out to open the batting alongside captain Rohit Sharma.Samson’s stay was brief: he was lbw to Shoriful Islam for 1 in the second over of the match.Rohit, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli are the three regular openers in India’s 15-member squad. Kohli wasn’t available to play in the warm-up game, having only arrived in New York on the eve of the match. Samson is one of two wicketkeeper-batters in the squad alongside Rishabh Pant.Pant batted at No. 3, replacing Samson at the crease.India’s opening combination was a topic of debate in the lead-up to the tournament, with Rohit, as captain, expected to take one of the two opening slots.Kohli, who has spent most of his T20I career as a No. 3 batter, comes into the World Cup on the back of a hugely successful IPL at the top of the order, topping the run charts with 741 at an average of 61.75 and a strike rate of 154.69, and showcasing an improved ability to access the boundary against spin in the middle overs – this had been an area of concern in recent seasons.Jaiswal, meanwhile, offers India a high-intent, left-hand option with the tactical advantage of preventing oppositions from bowling left-arm spin in the powerplay – a style of bowling both Rohit and Kohli have struggled to score quickly against in the past.Given that this is a warm-up match where both teams can use their entire squads – with a maximum of 11 allowed to bat and 11 fielding at any given time – not too much can be read into the choice of Samson as opener and Pant at No. 3. It’s possible that India may be looking to have a good look at both their keepers before deciding on whom to pick in their tournament-opener against Ireland on June 5.

She will replace the injured Grace Harris in the squad

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jul-2024Deepti Sharma will return to the Hundred this year after signing for London Spirit as a replacement for the injured Grace Harris. Deepti played for Spirit in the competition’s inaugural season in 2021 and was an unused member of Birmingham Phoenix’s squad the following summer.The Hundred starts on July 23 with Spirit due to play their opening fixture away against Southern Brave the following day, but Deepti will miss the start of the competition due to the Asia Cup in Dambulla. She will be replaced by Erin Burns for the first two games, who is already in the country playing for Northern Diamonds.Deepti is one of three India players due to be involved in the Hundred this season, along with Richa Ghosh (Birmingham Phoenix) and Smriti Mandhana (Southern Brave). Like Deepti, both players are part of India’s Asia Cup squad so will miss the first week of the competition.Related

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The ECB confirmed the latest tranche of replacement players on Thursday afternoon, with Sophie Molineux (Manchester Originals) joining Harris in pulling out of the Hundred. Cricket Australia confirmed on Friday that Molineux had suffered a fracture rib and Harris a calf strain.Molineux has been replaced by Kim Garth, while Bethan Ellis will join her at the Originals after Mahika Gaur pulled out due to a side strain. Tash Farrant has been ruled out with a hamstring injury but is yet to be replaced at Oval Invincibles, while Beth Langston is in for Claire Nicholas at Welsh Fire.As ESPNcricinfo revealed on Wednesday night, England’s Test batters will be released to play in the men’s Hundred immediately after their third Test against West Indies at Edgbaston, while their bowlers and allrounders – including Ben Stokes – are only likely to play the second half of the group stages due to workload management.Further replacements include Leicestershire’s Louis Kimber, who takes up the injured Will Smeed’s spot at Phoenix, while Mohammad Amir has signed for the Invincibles – who are defending champions – for the start of the competition as short-term cover while Spencer Johnson concludes his commitments at Major League Cricket.

Hundred replacement deals:

Birmingham Phoenix: Louis Kimber and Tim Southee replace Will Smeed and Naseem Shah.
London Spirit: James Neesham and Matthew Taylor replace Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope while they are with England; Deepti Sharma replaces Grace Harris, with Erin Burns replacing Deepti until the end of the Asia Cup.
Manchester Originals: Kim Garth and Bethan Ellis replace Sophie Molineux and Mahika Gaur.
Northern Superchargers: Mitchell Santner replaces Daniel Sams.
Oval Invincibles: Harrison Ward and Mohammad Amir replace Gus Atkinson (while he is with England) and Spencer Johnson (while he is at MLC). Tash Farrant has withdrawn, replacement TBC
Trent Rockets: Riley Meredith replaces Joe Root while he is with England.
Beth Langston: Beth Langston replaces Claire Nicholas.