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A team under pressure. A captain refusing to give up. The odds piling up against them. And then one fine day, the stars align.Pakistan cranked up the deja vu in Adelaide on Sunday as they sailed into the T20 World Cup semi-finals. If anyone is still working on time travel, please follow this cricket team. They’ve made it 1992 again.This game wouldn’t even have played out this way if not for Netherlands shocking South Africa. Some people might call that destiny.At the receiving end of this unreal series of events were Bangladesh and Shakib Al Hasan. His wicket turned this game, adjudged lbw on field, and upheld on DRS even though he was absolutely certain he’d nicked the ball.Bangladesh were 70 for 1 after 10 overs. Then they lost their captain and could manage only 127 for 8. Advantage Pakistan.Wasim Akram lite
Shaheen Shah Afridi admitted he’s not 100% at this tournament. Someone should splice that press conference video with the ball he bowled to Mosaddek Hossain. Left-arm. High pace. Around the wicket. Reverse swing. Bowled ‘iiiiimmmmmmm!Growing up, he would have shoved Wasim Akram videos straight into his veins. Now, he’s recreated his idol’s most famous dismissal on the grandest stage with everything on the line. How many people get to do that? How many people are good enough to do that?The good, the bad and the collapse
Najmul Hossain Shanto (54 off 48) was smiling. His leading edge had pretty much bunny-hopped for four over point. That was the first over. Back when Bangladesh had gained a sizeable advantage batting first on a used pitch where shot-making got harder as time went on.Even halfway through, they were sitting pretty. Then it happened.Shadab Khan looped one up over the batter’s eyeline. Shakib accepted the invitation and came charging out of his crease. The legspinner’s dip deceived him. A big hit turned into a scramble to put bat on ball.Shakib thought he did. Umpire Adrian Holdstock on field didn’t. DRS came into play, and everything turned murky. UltraEdge showed a spike, but the third umpire Langton Rusere thought that was bat hitting ground. Only there seemed a fraction of daylight between those two things.The on-field decision was upheld. And Shakib was distraught. He kept standing there, swinging his arms around, wondering what was going on. The Bangladesh captain had to literally be pushed out of the field.That wicket was part of a procession: 6 for 36.Mohammad Haris played a crucial innings of 31 off 18 balls•Associated Press

Another expensive no-ball
The Adelaide pitch wasn’t great for strokeplay. Batters kept trying to hit out but it just wasn’t happening. On the broadcast, a telling stat came up: the strike rate when pace was on was 122, but it was only 28 when pace was off.That kept Bangladesh in it. That’s the reason this game was even alive. Remember, earlier in the day, on this very surface, South Africa came undone against Netherlands’ slower balls to turn this into a quarter-final.Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan put on their first fifty partnership of this T20 World Cup. But Bangladesh fought back.They were an angry team. A team raging against the way the world was working. At one point, when an lbw didn’t go Bangladesh’s way, Shakib grabbed his cap and flung it into the turf. They could easily have been distracted by these things but they kept at it.They pushed this game into the death – and then unravelled.Taskin Ahmed, who could have had a wicket in his first over if not for a bad fumble from the wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan, who has carried his team on his back in these Super 12s, overstepped.The equation was 30 off 28. They had taken a wicket five balls ago. The pressure was piling on Pakistan.Then – much like in that game against India – a team that desperately needed a free-hit got one. And 21-year old Mohammad Haris whacked it for six.Pakistan are into the knockouts now. They even returned the favour to Netherlands, giving them a great chance of finishing fourth in Group 2 which ensures they will play the next T20 World Cup.Now, if India beat Zimbabwe in the last group game on Sunday, Pakistan will travel to Sydney, where once again conditions have been very helpful to slow bowling. Conditions that could favour Babar and his men if they go up against New Zealand in the first semi-final.

David Warner has given up his attempts at having his lifetime leadership ban overturned and launched a scathing attack on the process, claiming the independent panel put in place to review the sanction wanted to put him through a “public lynching”.In lengthy social-media posts that went up shortly before 6pm on the eve of the Adelaide Test, Warner alleged that the counsel assisting the review panel, which is independent of Cricket Australia, had made “offensive” comments during the process.Related

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When CA ratified the amendment to their code of conduct, which allowed Warner to appeal his leadership ban, they confirmed it was not an appeal against the initial decision or a review of the original offence – the role he played during the Newlands ball-tampering saga in 2018.”In effect, Counsel Assisting, and, it appears, to some extent the Review Panel, want to conduct a public trial of me and what occurred during the Third Test at Newlands,” Warner wrote. “They want to conduct a public spectacle to, in the Panel’s words, have a “cleansing”. I am not prepared for my family to be the washing machine for cricket’s dirty laundry.”Counsel Assisting the Review Panel appeared to be determined to revisit the events of March 2018 and the Review Panel appears determined to expose me and my family to further humiliation and harm by conducting a media circus.”Regrettably, I have no practical alternative at this point in time but to withdraw my application. I am not prepared to subject my family or my teammates to further trauma and disruption by accepting a departure from the way in which my application should be dealt with pursuant to the Code of Conduct.”Some things are more important than cricket.”As part of the statement that extended beyond 700 words, Warner added that the counsel assisting’s role had been terminated and that CA had supported him in challenging the approach the review panel had taken, but that after a week they had “decided to ignore the request in any meaningful way””It appears that the Panel has given no more than passing consideration to issues of player welfare and the interests of Australian cricket and is instead determined to conduct a public lynching,” he wrote.Warner also spelt out the impact the last four years have had on him and his family and the efforts he has made to rehabilitate himself.”Since that Test and even though my ban from leadership roles may never be lifted, I have taken it upon myself to reform, to rehabilitate and to transform my approach to the game,” he wrote. “I have served and been subject to a crushing, unprecedented, penalty that has horribly impacted me and my family for the past nearly five years.”A Cricket Australia spokesperson confirmed that they supported Warner’s bid to have the hearing in private.”We are disappointed with this outcome as our intention was to give David the opportunity to demonstrate why his lifetime leadership ban should be varied at an independent hearing and we amended our Code of Conduct accordingly,” a statement said.”We supported David’s wish for these discussions to be heard behind closed doors and respect his decision to withdraw his application. David is a very senior and highly regarded member of the Australian team who has been a great ambassador for the game as a whole since his return from a year-long ban.”Although it was far from certain that Warner would have had the opportunity to captain again if his ban had been overturned he had been discussed as a short-term option for Australia’s T20 side heading into the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Sky Sports will broadcast all World Cups in the UK and Ireland under an exclusive eight-year deal struck with the ICC for an undisclosed sum.The arrangement marks the first time the two organisations have shared a direct contractual relationship and forms part of the ICC’s drive to sell media rights individually in key markets.Last August, Disney Star* bagged the broadcast rights for the Indian market to show all ICC events between 2024 and 2027 in a massive deal. The ICC had put out a tender to sell those rights with multiple bidders participating in the walk-in bid. Subsequently ICC put the rights for the USA market up for sale but there has been no further update on that.There was no bidding process involved for the UK market, though. In a media release on Friday, the ICC said it had decided to engage directly with Sky, which has a long-term broadcast deal already in place with the ECB to show cricket – both men’s and women’s – within the UK.It is understood that rather than a tender process, the ICC factored in the ECB-Sky relationship and felt it would be beneficial to lock in a deal directly with Sky. The ICC believed that doing so would simplify things from a production and marketing perspective.Beginning in 2024, the partnership will see Sky and its NOW streaming service hold broadcast and digital rights for all men’s and women’s ICC events, including ODI and T20I World Cups through to the end of 2031.During the course of the partnership, Sky will broadcast 28 international events, including both men’s and women’s showcases every year as well as a World Test Championship Final every two years and Under-19 tournaments. Three of those events have already been confirmed to take place on UK soil – the 2025 World Test Championship final, the Women’s T20 World Cup in 2026 and the 2030 Men’s T20 World Cup.Geoff Allardice, the ICC chief executive, said the partnership presented “some exciting opportunities for innovative collaborations”.”I am confident this partnership can support our long-term ambition to attract more players and more fans to the game,” Allardice said.Jonathan Licht, Sky Sports MD, said more people in the market were watching top-level cricket following the successes of England Women at the 2017 World Cup, and the men’s team’s dual successes at the 50-over and T20 World Cups – they are current holders of both trophies.”This new direct partnership with the ICC means that Sky Sports viewers in the UK and Ireland will continue to enjoy every ball, run, wicket and catch from every international tournament for many years to come, and we’re all hugely excited to see what’s in store,” he said.The 2019 Men’s World Cup, hosted by England, recorded the highest average audience for a cricket tournament in the UK to date and drew the highest ever UK TV peak for cricket of 8.8m viewers as Sky shared the rights to the final with Channel 4. England’s victory over Pakistan in the Men’s T20 World Cup final last year in Australia was the highest-viewed T20 match in the UK ever following a similar partnership with the terrestrial broadcaster.

Let no one influence you into believing this was a choke.Truth be told, this was a game of high-intensity cricket, fitting of a grand finale. The pressure was immense, and Australia, more skilled and adept at handling big-match temperament – this was their seventh straight final – came up triumphs to clinch their sixth T20 World Cup title and their third in a row.If anyone needed more validation that this is the best women’s cricket team in the planet, it couldn’t have been delivered at a bigger stage. Australia made 156 seem like 180, before their bowlers stood tall on the face of a late assault from Laura Wolvaardt that threatened to take the game away.South Africa needed 59 off 30 balls, with Wolvaardt pumping a packed Newlands crowd with some of the most aesthetically-pleasing shots. Then, much to their agony, she swiped across the line to a full delivery from Megan Schutt and was trapped lbw. South African hearts sank, a teary Wolvaardt trudged off slowly, and boisterous applause gave way to stunned silence.Australia believed and Australia delivered.For South Africa, it was a case of being so near, yet so far. However, even in defeat, Sune Luus & co had done what no other South African senior team – men or women – had done: compete in a world final. This was as bittersweet as it could get.

Dangerous Healy falls early

Four overs in, this seemed a proper arm-wrestle with neither side catching the game by the scruff of its neck. The first signs of drama, that wouldn’t abate for the rest of the evening, came in the fifth over when Alyssa Healy bludgeoned a boundary down the ground, and then saw Marizanne Kapp roar with her wicket to finish the over. That wicket – brought about by spongy bounce that had Healy slicing an attempted cut to cover – laid down a marker: that hit-the-deck stuff was going to be harder to hit than fuller deliveries. Shabnim Ismail then closed off the first six overs with a maiden to have Australia 36 for 1, their slowest powerplay of the tournament.Marizanne Kapp dismissed Alyssa Healy•ICC/Getty Images

Ashleigh Gardner revs up

Sent in ahead of Meg Lanning, Ashleigh Gardner offset any pressure there may have been on Australia with a fierce counterattack. Two back-to-back fours off left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba were followed by back-to-back sixes off Nadine de Klerk, shots that were possible courtesy outstanding footwork and a solid hitting base that allowed her to get underneath proper length deliveries. The attack put the pressure right back on South Africa. And just when Australia were beginning to exert their dominance, Chloe Tryon deceived Gardner in flight to have her caught at long-off for a rampaging 21-ball 29. At 82 for 2 in the 12th, Australia were still in control.

Mooney keeps calm, bats through

It didn’t take long for Beth Mooney to recalibrate her approach. This wasn’t a surface where she could fearlessly belt the ball. Manufacturing shots wasn’t easy due to the slowness; this was the same deck on which both semi-finals were played. But she quietly slipped into the role of an accumulator, allowing the others to take charge, without allowing dot-ball pressure to creep up. As her innings progressed, Mooney manipulated the fields expertly. Traps set for the scoop at short fine leg were just traps, as Mooney reverse-scooped over vacant short third in picking crucial boundaries to ensure Australia didn’t lose momentum.Ellyse Perry, Grace Harris and Lanning fed off this confidence, knowing they had insurance in the form of Mooney, to play their shots. While Ismail returned to pick up two wickets in the final over and concede just two off her last four deliveries, Australia had put up a formidable score. Mooney finished with an unbeaten 53-ball 74, her second straight half-century in a world tournament final.

South Africa’s slow powerplay

South Africa needed a big powerplay to allay some of their nerves that had been a constant feature, and understandably so, right through the game. They limped to 22 for the loss of Tazmin Brits in the powerplay, and allowed stage fright to gnaw at them slowly. It was a bizarre passage too. South Africa had an lbw reprieve, and there were mis-hits, tight bowling and uncharacteristic misfields. The asking rate jumped past 10 and the heat was on.Chloe Tryon celebrates with the crowd after taking a low-catch to remove Meg Lanning•AFP/Getty Images

The run-out that shouldn’t have been

Boundaries had been a rarity in the first six overs, but Wolvaardt’s first two were delightful. The hit down the ground off Darcie Brown as she erred on the fuller side was an on-drive out of the top drawer, as was her skip down the pitch while moving leg side of the ball to wallop an inside-out six off Jess Jonassen. But just when South Africa appeared to be wresting back some momentum, they lost Kapp to a slog and Luus to a run-out, with both her and Wolvaardt nearly stranded at the bowler’s end. At 54 for 3 in the 11th over, their target seemed many moons away.

South Africa believe through Wolvaardt

Wolvaardt had to now put behind her the run out gaffe, and she did so admirably. Without playing a shot in anger, she kept reeling off boundaries, brought up her half-century off 43 balls with one of the most pleasing cover drives, and brought South Africa to within 59 runs of victory with 30 balls left. In Tryon, she had a batter who could bash the ball. The pair put together 55 in 37 balls to keep South Africa’s hopes alive, before they both fell in successive overs to all but extinguish their hopes.

Will Sutherland, the Victoria fast bowler, faces “a period on the sidelines” after scans confirmed a stress fracture in his lower back. Sutherland, 23, had a breakout Sheffield Shield season, and had signed up with Essex for the County Championship season, but that deal has been cancelled.”It’s disappointing for Will after a fantastic season. He had signed with Essex to go over and play in the County Championship – but this news will keep him at home and working on his rest and rehabilitation programme for the next few months,” Cricket Victoria’s head of male cricket, David Hussey, said in a statement.”He has put his name up in lights with some big performances through the summer and we want him to be ready for next season, so we’ll do everything we can to support him with his injury rehabilitation.”Related

• Essex sign Doug Bracewell for 10-game County Championship spell

• Taking the aggressive route key to Sutherland's breakout season

On the Essex website, head coach Anthony McGrath said, “It’s really unfortunate that Will has injured himself so close to the 2023 season. We were all looking forward to welcoming him to Chelmsford and we’re sorry to hear he will face a period of time recovering from his stress fracture.”Everyone at the club wishes Will a speedy recovery and we hope to see him back on the pitch soon.”Sutherland topped the Sheffield Shield wicket-takers’ table with 41 wickets in Victoria’s run to the final, which they lost to Western Australia. He’d also stood in as captain during the course of the season.In the final, Sutherland played through pain and put in a big performance, returning 5 for 75 in the first Western Australia innings, and then scoring 83 in 84 balls after Victoria had fallen behind top set a 91-run target, which was easily overhauled.

A new franchise in the USA, a fully-fledged women’s league and maintaining distinctive local flavour are among the keys to ensuring the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is the second-best T20 league in the world, after the IPL, according to chief operations officer Pete Russell.Seven seasons in, the 2020 CPL is shaping up to be the most difficult yet, with the Covid-19 pandemic and its knock-on effects meaning there is every chance the league will have to be played without overseas players, behind closed doors, or across only a handful of venues as organisers draw up contingency plans.But in an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Russell said he was confident that the CPL was well-placed to meet that challenge, having learnt from the mistakes it has made to date.”Private enterprise is interesting when you bring it into sport. It definitely has value to it, but you do have a lot of hurdles and obstacles you’ve got to overcome,” Russell said. “I think the tournament has now overcome a lot of those hurdles. It’s very well established in the Caribbean – even including carnival, it’s without doubt the number one entertainment product there.

CPL ‘shut down corruption quickly’

Russell says that the CPL dealt with things quickly last year when officials from the St Kitts and Nevis franchise were pulled up by anti-corruption officers, as reported by ESPNcricinfo. “I think there was naivety involved on the part of the owners – we responded incredibly quickly to that situation and shut it down quickly, and actually it did very little damage to us both in terms of making sure that the team could continue to play in the league but also in terms of its integrity,” he said. “We’d beefed up our anti-corruption that year and took on a lot more responsibility ourselves, and actually got to the root of it very quickly.”

“The challenge it has from a commercial perspective is its home audience is only seven million [people]. If you compare that to India and other parts of the world, you’ll see that the economics of getting a large home media deal aren’t there, so you have to be a lot more creative in how you build your revenue profile.”We’ve been able to do that. It broke even – or a little bit better than that – last year. This year will be a challenge, but we’ve put it in a place where we can see how to make money going forward. It’s on a stable footing – we’ve got owners now who are good, we think. It’s always difficult when you’re selling franchises when you don’t know what you’re going to get, but I think now we know our owners very well and vice versa – that relationship is very strong.”St Lucia Zouks finished fifth in the 2019 CPL•Ashley Allen – CPL T20 / Getty

Things have not always been straightforward regarding the franchise owners. Vijay Mallya was removed as Barbados Tridents owner after failing to pay his players and fighting extradition, officials from St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were pulled up by anti-corruption officers last season, and the St Lucia franchise has changed hands three times in as many years – it was most recently purchased by Kings XI Punjab’s parent company, KPH Dream Cricket Private Limited in February.As things stand, two of the teams are owned by the parent companies of IPL franchises – Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel were re-branded as Trinbago Knight Riders after they were bought by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment in 2015. And though Russell admits it would “make sense” for St Lucia’s new owners to change the team’s name from Zouks to Kings XI, he doesn’t think the CPL would lose its local flavour and turn into a mini-IPL. Indeed, in the immediate term, the fact that IPL owners have a stake in the league may help avoid a clash between the two tournaments this year.”I talk to Venky Mysore [Red Chillies CEO] a reasonable amount because he has a huge amount of knowledge: what he’s learned in the IPL is only going to help us, not just in terms of the audience that they bring in terms of the Indian market, but also the learnings and professionalism. It’s no coincidence that they’ve won the number of titles that they have. All ships rise in that scenario: other owners know that the tide mark has gone up.”Similarly with Kings XI, I’m excited to be working with some great people. If you’ve got owners like that, it’s not as if there’s any threat – at the end of the day, CPL still runs and manages the league. We’re very open-minded about the way we operate. We’ve probably got a lot more wrong than we’ve got right over the years, but we learn from our mistakes and the league is in a very strong position.”Expansion is a balancing act, and Russell thinks it unlikely that a new Caribbean-based franchise will be created any time soon. Instead, the target is breaking into the US. That is easier said than done – players were frustrated by small crowds and the loss of home advantage when games were played there in 2018, and having an American CPL franchise would present a clash with USA’s own plans for franchise cricket in the next two years – but setting up an American franchise within the next five years remains an ambition.The Barbados Tridents players celebrate with the CPL trophy•Getty Images

“Would we set up another franchise in the Caribbean? I doubt it. Would I set one up in America or Canada? Probably, because that would make sense in terms of breaking into new markets and making the commercials a little more palatable.”We’ve got the largest professional [cricket] league on that side of the world, and it makes sense to collaborate and to build a powerful base there. Who knows: I could quite easily see how you would have a North and South conference in the future, once the infrastructure is in place.”The downside with any expansion is that the league risks becoming bloated: the last two Big Bash seasons, in which average attendances were down and interest waned due to an increase in the number of group games from 40 to 56 serves as a warning sign.Similarly, the CPL is determined to maintain its distinctiveness as a league. Last year, the number of overseas players per team was reduced from five to four, and there has been more of a collaborative effort with Cricket West Indies to enhance the opportunities afforded to young, local talent. Better pitches have helped the league’s entertainment value, too – scoring rates have climbed from 6.98 runs per over in 2013 to 8.30 last season.”I always look at these leagues and think less is more. I’m not one for playing 56 games, just because of the fatigue element. In my personal view, the Big Bash lost their momentum a little bit when they did that. The IPL is a different beast, but again – that’s a lot of games that they are playing.Chris Gayle celebrates his hundred•CPL T20 via Getty Images

“I think we are second [to the IPL] – I don’t think we necessarily get the credit we deserve sometimes. Everyone goes back to the Big Bash, or the Blast – and the PSL is doing a great job, the tournament they ran there was first-class – but if you just look at the engagement levels we get, we’re up there for sure. When people switch on a CPL game, they know where they are: sometimes with other leagues you switch on and go: where is this? Is this the Blast? Is it Big Bash? It’s not always the case, but they can sometimes be a bit samey.”As for a women’s league, the CPL has lagged behind most other competitions: last season, two T10 games were staged immediately before the second qualifier and the final, but only as exhibition matches.”It could be sooner than you’d think” Russell says, with regards the possibility of a fully-fledged competition. “In those T10 games, we played them in Trinidad, we didn’t move the boundaries in, and they were still clearing the ropes quite comfortably – there’s some really good players there.”If we can be the catalyst and give them the opportunity, not only does it motivate them, but it motivates a whole new generation of potential women’s cricketers to come through. Like all of these things, the economics have to play a part, but I think we can do it. If we can have the same attention to detail, then it can be very successful.”

Big picture

South Africa lead the series after a convincing 74-run win in Paarl, but it is the hosts who are under pressure, having found themselves in this position only to falter more than once during their home summer. The Proteas led Test, ODI and T20 series against England after the opening match but went on to lose all but one of their subsequent encounters (the ODIs finished 1-1 after the second was washed out and the visitors won the third). South Africa’s results have also been inconsistent against Australia, bouncing back from a mammoth 107-run defeat in their first T20I to win the second, only to suffer another heavy defeat in the last to concede the series.There is, however, much for South Africa to be pleased about. A tight bowling performance led by Lungi Ngidi, Heinrich Klaasen’s maiden ODI century, a second successive fifty in the format for David Miller and Kyle Verreynne’s 48 on debut suggest they are in decent shape with bat and ball. Quinton de Kock, who smashed 70 off 47 balls en route to victory in the second T20 against Australia, and Temba Bavuma, who returned from a brief injury layoff in the first ODI, add extra power meaning this South African side is full of promise.Promise alone is not enough against an Australian side which is near full strength apart from the injured Glenn Maxwell though, and with the likes of David Warner, Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne to contend with, the task for South Africa to hold their nerve and prevail is considerable.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)South Africa WLWWW
Australia LLLWL

In the spotlight

As South Africa’s premier allrounder, Andile Phehlukwayo‘s ability to close out a game comes into focus. While none of the home bowlers conceded more than six an over, he will be looking to improve on a return of 1 for 52 from his 10 overs. That comes off the back of his 1 for 47 from eight overs and none for 23 from two in two ODIs against England last month. He only played one of the three T20s against Australia, scoring 0 and taking one wicket.Australia found themselves wanting in terms of another imposing partnership to pick up where Smith and Labuschagne left off after their 84-run stand for the third wicket in Paarl. Alex Carey can play a vital part as a middle-order bolster in both limited-overs formats. Carey has featured as an opener for the majority of his domestic T20 career, but moved down the order in the most recent edition of the Big Bash, a role he has become more familiar with in white-ball internationals over the past year. Carey has not reached a half-century in the four ODI innings he has played since scoring back-to-back fifties – against New Zealand and South Africa – at the World Cup in July and said he wished he was able to take his side’s batting deeper in the first match of this series. He has a chance to do so now.

Team news

South Africa could be forgiven for sticking with a winning side. Janneman Malan is expected to be fit after suffering a leg problem late in Australia’s innings during the last match and, while he did fall for a first-ball duck on debut, it would seem harsh to drop him on that basis. However, Jon-Jon Smuts provides an option as both an opener and extra spinner, should they choose to go that way.South Africa: (possible) 1 Janneman Malan, 2 Quinton de Kock, 3 Temba Bavuma, 4 Kyle Verreyne, 5 Heinrich Klaasen, 6 David Miller, 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Anrich Nortje, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Tabriaz ShamsiThe decision to combine Mitchell Marsh and D’Arcy Short as a fifth bowling option cost Australia 70 runs in the first match – they conceded 35 runs from five overs each – and may lead them to look towards Ashton Agar to reprise his role from the T20 series in which he was the leading wicket-taker from either side with eight at an average of 8.50 and economy rate of 5.66.Australia: (possible) 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Steve Smith, 4 Marnus Labuschagne, 5 Mitchell Marsh, 6 Alex Carey, 7 D’Arcy Short/Ashton Agar, 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood

Pitch and conditions

Forecasts predict hot, dry conditions and the pitch is typically slow. Expect to see plenty of twos and threes on this ground, which has the biggest outfield in the country, and has been used increasingly less for international cricket over the past decade.

Stats and trivia

• South Africa have won nine of their last 10 ODIs against Australia and have not lost to them on home soil since 2011.
• Lungi Ngidi is just three wickets shy of reaching the 50 mark in ODIs, with 47 from 25 matches so far.
• Of just three matches between these two sides at Bloemfontein, Australia have won two.

Quotes

“We’ll start this as a new game and a new start to the series, I think for us in order to play consistent cricket, it’s important that we start every new game like it’s the first game of the series to help us going towards winning series, back-to-back, as opposed to going one-nil and falling back towards the back end.”
“It’s a great opportunity to see where this group’s at and I’ve no doubt that we’l respond really strongly.”
Alex Carey believes that Australia will strike back after losing the series opener

New Zealand arrived in Australia ranked No. 2 in the world and with genuine belief they could challenge the home side, but instead left whitewashed in their worst-ever defeat.They will head back across the Tasman needing to urgently regroup before facing India – which begins with the white-ball matches followed by two Tests in February – with reputations, if not quite on the line, then in need of some urgent repair work.That is especially the case for the batting which had a collective failure across the three Tests, their highest score eventually being 256 (after the boost of five penalty runs for Marnus Labuschagne and David Warner running in the danger area) which was the lowest high score a visiting side has made in a series of at least three Tests in Australia.In the first three innings of the series, when the contest was on the line, they could not make 200 with only Tom Blundell’s hundred and Glenn Phillips’ debut half-century offering later boosts. Blundell’s 172 runs was their highest tally for the series and there were just four individual fifties to go alongside his century. Although at times they did not get the rub of the green, highlighted by Tom Latham’s borderline lbw decision in the second innings in Sydney, they were rarely able to handle the sustained pressure of Australia’s attack.”It’s just not one or two things, it’s a number of things – basically, in all departments we were outplayed,” Kane Williamson, who had missed the final Test with flu, said at the presentation. “With the ball in hand there was an incredible effort throughout the series, but at the same time, we really did struggle to put them under pressure for any period of time, to pick up wickets in clumps, and then a lot of credit goes to the way they played with the bat as well.”With the bat, it was kind of the reverse situation, where we weren’t able to get any partnerships together to create any sort of first-innings total to apply any pressure.”So a number of areas [to work on], and we got exposed in a number of respects over here with an outstanding side in Australia with a fantastic bowling attack. It’s important as individuals and a group that we do use this experience to be better for it as players, but collectively come out of it stronger.””For us it’s [about] staying tight, maybe regrouping a little bit, we’ve got a bit of time off before our next series but also so much to learn from this experience, and we must make sure we do so.”Latham, who stood in for Williamson as captain, admitted there would be some soul-searching after the team had arrived with such high expectations but cautioned against any kneejerk reactions.”There’s no one more disappointed than ourselves. We came over here with some high expectations. You want to come over here and play a good brand of cricket and win. We’ve failed to do that and that’s cricket, it’s important we do try and learn from this,” he said. “Australia set the standard in this series, we knew they were a tough opponent and that’s a standard we need to try and reach.”We have been playing some decent Test cricket and it’s important we don’t start pointing the finger or looking at other factors. It’s important we learn from this and when we get back together as a red ball team we face India and we can hopefully play our brand of cricket.”

Sri Lanka Cricket has proposed a split, two-country quarantine for the Bangladesh team in the board’s latest attempt to convince Sri Lanka’s health ministry to allow Bangladesh’s tour of Sri Lanka next month to go ahead.Sri Lanka’s health authorities have so far insisted on a strict 14-day quarantine for all arrivals, which the Bangladesh Cricket Board has refused to agree to. Now, SLC have floated the idea of Bangladesh’s players doing seven days of quarantine in Bangladesh before flying to Sri Lanka and doing seven further days of quarantine in the island.Neither Sri Lanka’s health authorities nor the BCB has agreed to such a plan, however. Ostensibly, maintaining a biosecure bubble while flying internationally also seems a complex and difficult proposition. But SLC is being forced to come up with creative solutions, as its health ministry has so far refused to budge on the 14-day quarantine.”We had a positive meeting with the Covid-19 Task Force yesterday, and everyone was in agreement that we should make this tour happen,” SLC vice-president Ravin Wickramaratne told ESPNcricinfo. “But we have to take what the doctors are saying into account also.”Acting on the health ministry and epidemiologists’ recommendations, Sri Lanka has so far fared better during the pandemic than many other nations. The Covid-19 death toll is at 13 and life has largely returned to normal in the island, save for the closed borders.Bangladesh’s refusal to undergo a 14-day quarantine – in which players would not be allowed to do so much as leave their hotel room – is because the BCB believes it is unfair to ask players to spend so long out of action – and in isolation – ahead of a major Test series. Earlier, SLC had asked the health ministry if the Bangladesh players could train in the second half of the 14-day period with a bubble in place but this was refused.Sri Lanka also does not have major stadiums adjacent to hotels, as England do in Southampton and Manchester. SLC expects to have more clarity from the health ministry in the next few days. In any case, this series is now unlikely to start until at least mid-October.

Umar Akmal’s appeal against his three-year ban will be heard next Monday on July 13 by an independent adjudicator at the National High Performance Centre in Lahore. The adjudicator is a former Supreme Court judge, Justice (retired) Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, and notices have been issued to both Akmal and the PCB with regards to the timing of the hearing.The appeal was set to be heard on June 11 but became yet another victim of the coronavirus pandemic, coming at a time when cases were increasing rapidly across Pakistan and lockdowns were imposed across Lahore. As a result, it was postponed; and now that the date of the new hearing has been confirmed, Akmal is set to learn his fate in a week’s time.Akmal was banned for three years by the PCB on April 27 for failing to report corrupt approaches and was found guilty of two breaches of the board’s anti-corruption code. The charges come under Article 2.4.4, which deals with “failing to disclose to the PCB Vigilance and Security Department (without unnecessary delay) full details of any approaches or invitations received by the Participant to engage in Corrupt Conduct under this Anti-Corruption Code”. While each charge carries a three-year ban, they are being run concurrently.The severity of the punishment was at the time considered surprising, but it emerged he had been handed the stiffer-than-expected penalty for failing to show sufficient remorse. Players who had fallen foul in a similar manner to Akmal previously were handed far lighter sanctions, with Mohammad Irfan banned in 2017 for six months, while Mohammad Nawaz was given a two-month ban.Three weeks later, Akmal announced he would contest the decision on grounds that the length of the ban was unprecedented for a breach of the nature he had been found guilty of committing. According to the PCB’s code, the appeal does not mean a fresh hearing will have to be conducted, with the appeals process limiting itself to “a consideration of whether the decision being appealed was erroneous”.The ban has come as the most significant setback to 29-year-old Akmal, whose career has been littered with controversy. Repeated incidents of indiscipline since his debut in 2009 have meant that he has been fined and suspended on several occasions; and an inability to stay fit has led to penalties as well. In September 2017, he copped a three-month ban for publicly criticising then Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur, and earlier this year, was reprimanded by the PCB for misbehaving after failing a fitness test, reportedly exposing himself to a trainer in frustration at one point.