All posts by n8rngtd.top

New Zealand fast bowler Hamish Bennett has said that the opportunity to lead an attack in all three formats influenced his move from Canterbury to Wellington

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jun-2016New Zealand fast bowler Hamish Bennett has said that the opportunity to lead an attack in all three formats influenced his move from Canterbury to Wellington. The bowler, who represented Canterbury for 10 years, admitted the decision was difficult but fit in with his aspirations of an international comeback.”That’s the opportunity Wellington were offering, being able to lead the attack in all three forms,” he told . “If you’re doing that for an association and doing it well, if there is an injury or form drops in the Black Caps, they look around at who’s leading the attacks and you hope your name is at the top of the pile.”Bennett was approached by Cricket Wellington in early May and said it was the first time he considered leaving Canterbury.”I don’t want to look back when I’m 40 and if I didn’t take the opportunity which is on my plate now, I would have regretted it. It wasn’t an easy decision. It was bloody tough. At the end of the day, I looked at what’s best for my family and making the move was the best thing for me.”Bennett was part of the New Zealand squad in the 2011 World Cup but has not played international cricket since January 2014. He has played only one Test and 14 ODIs after his international debut in October 2010, and has 23 international wickets with a best of 4 for 16 against Kenya in the World Cup.His international stint was dotted with absences due to injury. He played only four matches in the 2011 World Cup before being ruled out due to an injury to the ankle and Achilles tendon. The following year, he underwent surgery in an attempt to overcome a persistent back injury. Bennett returned to international cricket after a gap of almost three years when he was called up to replace Adam Milne in the ODI home series against India in January 2014. He played the last two matches of the series, taking three wickets.Overall, Bennett has played 51 first-class matches since his debut in the 2005-06 season, taking 158 wickets at an average of 32.48. During his stint with Canterbury, Bennett took 154 wickets in 48 matches. He has 92 wickets from 73 List A matches and nine wickets from 25 T20 games.

The Jamaica Tallawahs bowlers led them closer to the top spot in the CPL table by wrapping up St Kitts and Nevis Patriots for only 75 in 15.5 overs to secure a 108-run win in Kingston

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jul-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKeswick Williams led the Jamaica Tallawahs attack with three wickets•CPL/Sportsfile

The Jamaica Tallawahs pace bowlers led them closer to the top spot in the CPL table by wrapping up St Kitts and Nevis Patriots for 75 in 15.5 overs to secure a 108-run win in Kingston. The margin was second-highest for a victory in the CPL, and incidentally, the record for the highest margin belongs to Patriots’ 119-run win against Tallawahs.
Tallawahs’ win on Saturday was their fourth in six matches, placing them a point behind Guyana Amazon Warriors.Patriots’ chase of 184 didn’t get the start they wanted as Andre Russell removed Lendl Simmons for a duck on the third ball of the first over, which conceded only one run. Steyn also stifled with an equally economical first over. Russell was clubbed for a four and six by Faf du Plessis in the third over, before having the batsman caught at cover point in the same over for 12. Evin Lewis and Jonathan Carter also got starts but fast bowler Kesrick Williams derailed the chase by taking three wickets – of Carter, Lewis and Brad Hodge – in four balls in the ninth over, to reduce Patriots to 53 for 5.Like Hodge, Devon Thomas also fell for a first-ball duck in the next over before Steyn and Shakib Al Hasan wiped out the tail, as Patriots lost their last eight wickets for only 22 runs. While Williams finished with 3 for 19, Russell, Steyn and Shakib took two apiece with economy rates of less than six each.When Tallawahs were asked to bat, they lost their openers Chadwick Walton and Chris Gayle cheaply but Kumar Sangakkara steered them towards a competitive total with a half-century, his first of the tournament in six innings. He forged crucial partnerships with Rovman Powell – 74 in 7.1 overs – and Andre Russell – 45 in 5.2 overs. When Sangakkara fell for 65 in the 16th over, Shakib provided a late surge with an unbeaten 34 off 17 balls, including five fours and a six, to take them to 183, a total that proved to be too much for Patriots.

Najibullah Zadran, who was the fifth wicket to fall for Afghanistan as Bangladesh fought back in the final ten overs, said that the match was in Afghanistan’s control but the batsmen failed to execute at the death

Mohammad Isam25-Sep-2016Afghanistan may have been celebrating loudly in front of a quiet crowd at the Shere Bangla National Stadium had they not panicked at the wrong moment. Instead it was Bangladesh who walked off with a seven-run win, thankful for their bowlers delivering some really good overs at the end.The moment that first changed the momentum of the chase came in the 41st over, when the settled Rahmat Shah came down the pitch in search of a bit shot but was stumped easily off Shakib Al Hasan. Afghanistan were still very much in the game but the 144-run third-wicket stand was broken, offering the hosts an opening. The other set batsman, Hashmatullah Shahidi, then holed out in the 44th over, and it felt like it was up to Mohammad Nabi to finish off the game. But he was deceived by Taskin Ahmed’s slower ball with Afghanistan still needing 23 off 14 balls.Bangladesh closed it out very well, with Rubel and Taskin bowling fast yorkers that left the batsmen with little room to swing. Najibullah Zadran, who was the fifth wicket to fall in the 46th over, said that the match was in Afghanistan’s control but the batsmen failed to execute in the final ten overs.”I think that the match was in our hands,” Zadran said. “It was just 70 or 72 runs in the last ten overs with five to six wickets in hand [Afghanistan needed 77 runs off the final ten with eight wickets in hand]. It was easily chaseable. Unfortunately we didn’t bat properly and we didn’t bat according to the plan and we played some shots which were unnecessary at that time.”We were near to the victory. In the end four-five batsmen didn’t play well and we lost the match. We had some of our main players who could hit the ball towards the end. But we didn’t need to hit those shots in the end, we just needed to get ones or twos. That’s why we couldn’t get it.”Zadran was all praise for the third wicket stand between Shahidi and Rahmat. Both batsmen scored fifties after they had lost the openers, Mohammad Shahzad and Shabir Noori, in the first 7.3 overs.”It was a really good partnership. We lost the first two wickets very early and then Shahidi and Rahmat Shah started a good partnership. This was our plan as well, that we should play out overs but unfortunately we were not able to reach the target.Towards the end, as Bangladesh fought back, it seemed that Afghanistan might be getting overawed by the reactions of the large crowd. But Zadran said they are now getting accustomed to playing in front of a lot of people, and the pressure may have actually been on the home side. “[Crowd pressure] wasn’t that much [on us] but I think pressure was on Bangladesh as this was their home conditions. The big crowd was just for them. They [had to] try to go for win and if they lost, it was big pressure. We are also getting familiar with the big crowds.”

WI captain Carlos Brathwaite has rued the batting failure of his team in the first T20 against Pakistan in Dubai and said it was “poor execution” that led to them being bowled out for 115

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Sep-20161:56

Poor execution by our batsmen – Brathwaite

West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite has rued the batting failure of his team in the first T20 against Pakistan in Dubai and said it was “poor execution” and a failure to “assess conditions quickly enough” that led to them being bowled out for 115. West Indies had only two batsmen scoring in double-figures as left-arm spinner Imad Wasim ran through their line-up with figures of 5 for 14.”[We lost because of] poor execution, [their] good bowling, you know we are an aggressive, exciting team, two games ago we scored 240 odd and today we scored 115,” Brathwaite said. “We have ebbs and follows ups and downs, today it just didn’t come off for us. I don’t think we assessed the conditions quickly enough. Majority of the shots didn’t show situation awareness.

Pakistan’s captain Sarfraz Ahmed on …

A focus on fielding and fitness
“If you have to beat a good team, your fielding has to be very good. If you field well off the bad balls and take the catches, that will lead to your success. That’s what the good teams do. Fielding saves you runs.
Everyone is working on their fitness. We had a fitness test just before this tour, our fitness has improved a lot. We’ll soon have the same standards as international standards.”
Imad Wasim and reading the pitch
“Imad is an attacking bowler, he was in great form in the CPL and he knows how to bowl in the Powerplay. Our target was to attack with him.
We knew how the pitch will behave, it was skidding. A bit of grass on the pitch helped the spinners too. We made use of that advantage.”

“I don’t want to just say we didn’t bat well, credit must go to Imad Wasim who bowled fantastically, anytime you get 5 for 14 in an international match you must be doing something right, and to get it in a T20 international is even better. But these things happen. We are an aggressive team and I won’t tell any of the guys in the room to lose their aggression, it is just a matter of being more situation aware going into tomorrow’s game.”Wasim opened the bowling for Pakistan and got a wicket with his fifth ball, before striking twice in his second over to dismiss Andre Fletcher and Marlon Samuels. He struck twice in an over again when he bowled Kieron Pollard and then snared Brathwaite in the tenth over to complete his five-for. Brathwaite said Wasim’s familiarity with the West Indies batsmen because he played the CPL had given him an edge.”Imad had a head start on us, playing CPL for Jamaica Tallawahs. He knew our batsmen, and we knew him as well, and planned for him, and on the day his execution was better than ours,” Brathwaite said. “We didn’t execute it the way we wanted to. On some other day those same shots could have gone for boundaries and sixes and if we were 45-50 odd for 1 after six overs, setting a beautiful platform to go on and score 140-150 which looked like would have been a winning total on the surface today.”We are an aggressive exciting team, when it comes off it looks fine, but you have days like these when it doesn’t come off. There is no blame to point, we had a slow start and we lost the game. We keep our chin up, move forward, and look ahead to tomorrow’s game.”The main positive for West Indies was Dwayne Bravo’s 54-ball 55 while batting with the tail, taking the score from 15 for 3 to 115 . The only substantial support he got was from No. 10 Jerome Taylor, whose 66-run partnership with Bravo salvaged the innings from 48 for 8. They batted together for 7.5 overs and scored at a run rate of 8.42 before Taylor was bowled by Sohail Tanvir in the last over.”Anytime a team is 20-odd for 5, they need a herculean effort by two, three guys,” Brathwaite said. “I know we had that today from Bravo getting 50-odd, Jerome Taylor played a fantastic innings, and to be honest defending 115 is always going to be difficult. We tried our best, it didn’t quite come off today, our batters didn’t play very well, the key was getting early wickets. I tried my best as captain to switch around the bowlers and mix it up so that batsmen don’t get accustomed to one bowler. That didn’t work and fantastic work from Khalid [Latif] and Babar [Azam].”Because we had one bad game it does not dent the belief we had in the 11 guys that took part, we understand that in professional sport you have ups and downs, today was a definite down for the team,” he said. “We didn’t play like world champions, we didn’t play like the No. 1 team in the world, and the result shows. Well played to Pakistan and tomorrow we will bring a better game.”

The captain Callum Ferguson led South Australia to their first win of this Matador Cup campaign, scoring an unbeaten 73 as the Redbacks gained a bonus point against New South Wales

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2016
ScorecardAlex Carey’s 43 helped South Australia to a strong start•Getty Images

The captain Callum Ferguson led South Australia to their first win of this Matador Cup campaign, scoring an unbeaten 73 as the Redbacks gained a bonus point against New South Wales. Chasing 209 for victory after New South Wales were bowled out for 208, South Australia reached their target with ease in the 40th over.While Ferguson was named Man of the Match, plenty of attention was on the South Australia batsman Tom Cooper, who the previous day had appeared at the inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes. Cooper scored a valuable 47 in the South Australia chase before becoming one of three wickets claimed by Doug Bollinger, who had also appeared at the inquest.But the Redbacks were always on target for victory after a brisk 72-run opening stand between Alex Carey (43) and Jake Weatherald (37). The primary question became whether South Australia would gain a bonus point by winning inside 40 overs, a goal which they achieved with four balls to spare.New South Wales had been bowled out in the 49th over, having never really gained any significant momentum during their innings. Ed Cowan top scored with 50 and Nic Maddinson made 36, but their 77-run second-wicket stand was the only fifty partnership of the innings.South Australia’s inexperienced bowling line-up kept the Blues in check, with fast bowler Wes Agar collecting 3 for 38 from nine overs, medium pacer Cameron Valente 3 for 40 from 9.3, and left-arm spinner Tom Andrews 2 for 49 from nine. The offspinner Michael Cormack was thrown in the deep end on debut, asked to bowl the first over of the game, and finished with 1 for 42 from 10 overs.