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The legspinner was eligible to feature in his second successive Under-19 World Cup, but the selectors did not want to distract him from his progress at the senior level

Nagraj Gollapudi10-Jan-2018

Rashid Khan is eligible to play his second Under-19 World Cup but isn’t part of Afghanistan’s squad for the 2018 edition of the tournament. Rashid, the second-highest ODI wicket-taker in 2017 (43 wickets), was one of the names on the selectors’ shortlist, but they decided not to pick him, given how far he has progressed at the senior level, and given the wealth of other spin options in their squad.Players born on or after September 1, 1998, are eligible to play the 2018 edition of the tournament, which begins on Saturday in New Zealand; Rashid was born on September 20, 1998.Rashid was Afghanistan’s top wicket-taker in the 2016 edition of the tournament, with 10 wickets at an average of 17.10. The legspinner made his ODI and T20I debuts a few months before that tournament, and has since gone on to become the senior Afghanistan side’s leading strike bowler. He is also among the most sought-after wristspinners in franchise T20 leagues. Delivering stump-to-stump legbreaks and a well-disguised googly at a brisk pace, Rashid has flummoxed a number of batsmen around the world.Afghanistan, who earned Full Membership of the ICC last June, enter the Under-19 World Cup as contenders based on their recent form: the Under-19s won their maiden Youth Asia Cup late 2017. Afghanistan’s strength remains their bowling attack, which is dominated by spinners including the mystery offbreak bowler Mujeeb Zadran, the third-highest wicket-taker in Under-19 ODIs since the 2016 World Cup.Immediately after the Under-19 team’s Asia Cup triumph, coach Andy Moles requested the selection panel, led by the former Afghanistan captain Nawroz Mangal, to consider including Rashid in the squad. Yet, despite the temptation of playing him, the Afghanistan selectors felt bringing Rashid back into the Under-19 fold would only distract him.”We have three very good spinners in the squad and the selectors felt that Rashid has moved on with his career and these young spinners need to develop their game for the good and future of Afghanistan cricket,” Moles told ESPNcricinfo. “I am very happy with the selection policy as it ensures and encourages growth in our outstanding talent for the future.”If Rashid had been picked, he would have been the fifth member of the Afghanistan squad to feature in consecutive Under-19 World Cups, the others being Naveen-ul-Haq, Tariq Stanikzai, Zahir Khan and Ikram Ali Khil.Those four could be the last Afghanistan players to feature in two Under-19 World Cups. Chief executive officer Shafiqullah Stanikzai has said the ACB has put in place a policy that, going forward, no player can play more than one edition of the tournament.”We have passed a new resolution about our junior cricket that a player will participate in only one Under-19 World Cup [from the next edition],” Stanikzai said. “That way every two years we will have a new pool of players and help our development programmes in junior cricket.”Stanikzai also said the ACB backed the selectors’ decision on Rashid. “The core idea is for the player to go from strength to strength. Rashid has represented Afghanistan senior side, he is playing all the leagues, so we have to push him up, not bring him down. Instead of giving Rashid, we (the selectors) preferred giving a chance to Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan and Mujeeb Zadran. We are quite strong in the spin department and we are keen to see how these bowler cope in New Zealand.”

South Africa regained the one-day series lead with the kind of showing that coach Russell Domingo believes typifies their new style of play

Firdose Moonda25-Feb-20171:21

‘We expect New Zealand to bounce back’ – Parnell

In their most dominant performance on the tour of New Zealand so far, South Africa regained the one-day series lead with the kind of showing that coach Russell Domingo believes typifies their new style of play.It is a brand of cricket built on shared responsibility with new members of the squad as able to contribute as some of the stalwarts. Dwaine Pretorius’ career-best 3 for 5 from 5.2 overs on the back of a maiden half-century in Christchurch is the best example of it.”It’s been a feature of our side’s performances over the last year that the younger players have all come in and put in performances straight away which speaks a lot about where the team is at the moment and the culture of the group,” Domingo said. “It’s always pleasing when some new players are stepping up nor relying on one or two players.”And Pretorius is not the only one. Twenty-year-old Andile Phehlukwayo has emerged as a long-term all-round prospect and in the batting department, Quinton de Kock is one of the leading players in the world.Although AB de Villiers, who became the fastest to 9000 ODI runs, was the man of the moment in Wellington, South Africa’s recent ODI successes have been built on the foundations de Kock has laid. As he did in Test cricket last year, de Kock has reeled off five consecutive fifty-plus scores in ODIs. He has yet to convert one of his three in New Zealand into a century, but Domingo brushed that off as part of the game.”He has got a phenomenal rate of transferring those fifties to hundreds so I’m sure he’d be disappointed he hasn’t got a hundred because he is playing as well as he has ever played. I suppose he would feel a little disappointed in the manner of some of his dismissals. That’s the nature of how he plays.”He is such an aggressive player and I by no means want to curb his natural instinct. He is an x-factor player and some days he is going to get it wrong and that’s okay but on the days he gets it right, he is going to win the game for you. He is still a baby, its hard to believe he is only 24. We’ve had some great players play international cricket for South Africa, who’ve got 10 or 11 hundreds in 200 games. He has got 12 in 77. That’s a phenomenal return for a young player like that.”At this early stage of de Kock’s career, he already lies sixth on South Africa’s ODI century-makers’ list above a big name like Graeme Smith. The former captain played 196 ODIs and scored 10 centuries, de Kock could go on to double or even treble that. Also below de Kock is JP Duminy, who has played 170 ODIs and only has four hundreds to his name, three against Zimbabwe and one against Netherlands.Duminy has not registered three figures in two years, since the 2015 World Cup. In that time, he has managed just four fifties. Although he can cite limited opportunity – Duminy usually bats at No.5, behind players who don’t often leave him with many overs to face – by his own admission, there have been chances wasted.After the Christchurch ODI, where he was given a chance at No 4, Duminy explained he understood he needed to step up. “A lot of us got in but we didn’t take it home for the team. That’s something we need to look at – especially myself, getting in and not taking it home for the team,” he said.He was unable to in Wellington, where he was run-out and his string of low scores – only one over 30 in seven innings – could raise concerns, especially with Farhaan Behardien waiting on the bench.Some pressure for his place may be just what Duminy needs to kickstart a change in fortunes, as it did in Tests. After being dropped last summer during the series against England, Duminy returned with a much improved mindset and scored two important hundreds, in Perth and in Johannesburg, to prove he still has plenty to offer. The upcoming Tests will be another chance for Duminy to build on that progress.Eight members of the Test squad, who are not part of the limited-overs outfit, will arrive in Auckland on Sunday, where they will begin a week-long camp. Batting coach Neil McKenzie and fitness trainer Greg King will break away from the ODI group to oversee the Test players’ preparations. South Africa do not have a warm-up match before the series starts in Dunedin on March 8 but all their players have been in action in the domestic one-day cup.Among them are the two senior seamers, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel, who are the favourites to make up a pace pack with Kagiso Rabada, although South Africa have three other quicks in reserve. Rabada will be the most worked of all of them, with South Africa well aware of his importance to every XI. Rabada was left out of the Christchurch game with a knee niggle and returned in Wellington and Domingo has explained that its unlikely Rabada will be given time off with the series still on the line.”It’s a fine line between resting players and trying to win series. You’ve got to try and and manage that process quite carefully, particularly for a guy like KG. I read the other day that he bowled 200 overs more than anybody else in the last year. He is only 21,” Domingo said. “But its hard to leave KG out of the next game in Hamilton. He is a seriously good bowler and it’s no coincidence that when he is back in the mix, we look a seriously good side.”

Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Imtiaz Ahmed has died in Lahore, five days short of his 89th birthday

Umar Farooq31-Dec-2016

Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Imtiaz Ahmed has died in Lahore, five days short of his 89th birthday. He was Pakistan’s oldest living Test cricketer and had been suffering from a chest infection.Imtiaz played 41 Tests for Pakistan between 1952 and 1962, and captained in four of those matches towards the end of his career. He made 2079 runs at an average of 29, and took 77 catches and effected 16 stumpings. His career-best score of 209 came against New Zealand in Lahore in 1955.He was an integral member of Pakistan’s first official Test side, led by Abdul Hafeez Kardar to India. He played the first three Tests as a batsman but took over the gloves from Hanif Mohammad in the fourth Test in Chennai, and kept wicket for the rest of his international career until his last appearance at The Oval in 1962.Imtiaz’s first-class career ran from 1944-45 to 1972-73, having made his debut as a 16-year-old for Northern India before partition. He played 180 games, scored 10391 runs with a best score of 300 not out, took 322 catches, and effected 82 stumpings.In 1960, Imtiaz received the presidential pride of performance award, and later in life he was awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz for his services to the Pakistan Air force; he retired as a wing commander after 27 years spent mainly in administrative roles.After has playing career, Imtiaz had served as a Pakistan selector for 13 years and was the head of the selection committee between 1976 and 1978. He then took up a coaching role and spent nearly a decade developing Under-19 cricketers. His last assignment was with the department that handles women’s cricket in Pakistan, where he served as an advisor for three years from 2005 to 2008.

A five-wicket haul from Bhuvneshwar Kumar won Sunrisers Hyderabad a tight game against Kings XI Punjab despite a 50-ball 95 from Manan Vohra

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy17-Apr-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:05

Agarkar: 160 was gettable without Bhuvneshwar

Manan Vohra defied a pitch of inconsistent pace and bounce and a situation stacked against his team to produce one of the IPL’s great backs-to-the-walls innings. His 95 off 50 balls revived a floundering chase, taking Kings XI Punjab to within 15 runs of victory, but Bhuvneshwar Kumar would ensure he wouldn’t be able to finish the match, taking two wickets in the 19th over to finish with 5 for 19.In the end, neither of them would be involved in what became the nerviest finish of the season. Eleven off six balls usually favours the chasing side, but seldom is a chasing side nine down at that stage. Siddarth Kaul conceded four off the first two legal balls, slipping in two wides, but pulled himself together to send down the perfect yorker with six needed off three. Ishant Sharma couldn’t put bat to it, and Sunrisers just about held on to their undefeated home record this season.Difficult pitch, quiet PowerplayA pitch full of cracks turned out slower than is usually the case in Hyderabad, with some balls skidding through and others stopping with tennis-ball bounce. Kings XI’s seamers looked to exploit this by bowling at the stumps and pitching just short of a good length.Denied the drive-able ball, the batsmen couldn’t play square with too much confidence either – given the line and the tendency of the ball to keep low. Sunrisers only scored 29 in the Powerplay, hitting just one four and losing the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan, caught behind off the glove looking to pull Mohit Sharma.Warner adapts and prospersSpin came on for the first time in the seventh over, and David Warner immediately picked up his first boundary with a reverse-sweep off KC Cariappa. In his next over, he switch-hit him for six. By the end of Sunrisers’ innings, all but two of Warner’s nine boundaries would come behind the wicket.Wickets kept falling at the other end – Axar Patel dismissed Moises Henriques and Yuvraj Singh off successive balls in the 10th over – but Warner, with a bit of help from Naman Ojha, ensured Sunrisers reached a competitive total. Having scored only 6 off his first 16 balls – all in the Powerplay – Warner went at a strike rate of 168.42 thereafter to finish unbeaten on 70 off 54.Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Act 1Interviewed between innings, VVS Laxman, the Sunrisers mentor, felt 159 was a match-winning total given the conditions and his team’s bowling resources. As it happened, it wasn’t the pitch that gave Sunrisers an early wicket but Bhuvneshwar’s swing and full length, trapping Hashim Amla lbw first ball. Glenn Maxwell promoted himself to No. 3 for the first time this season, and Bhuvneshwar dismissed him as well. This time it was the slower ball, coupled with a change of field – he brought third man into the circle, pushed mid-off back, and Maxwell took him on, unwisely.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Those skiddy Afghan spinnersFor the first time this season, Sunrisers were playing both Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan. They bowled expensive first overs – Vohra and Eoin Morgan took 29 off the fifth and sixth overs of the chase – and Warner had to pull both out of the attack. After a quiet over each from Moises Henriques and Kaul, he brought them back.Nabi struck immediately, bowling Morgan with one that skidded on, and skid would give Rashid two wickets in the next over – bye bye, David Miller and Wriddhiman Saha. Kings XI were 62 for 5 after 10 overs, and an offbreak from Nabi at the start of the next over could have easily had them 62 for 6. Vohra, though, was saved by the umpire Anil Dandekar, who saw or heard an inside edge when there was none. At that stage, he was batting on 32. In the last ball of the same over, Nabi dropped the simplest of return catches off Axar Patel.Vohra unrolls his own pitchEven in the early part of his innings, Vohra had timed the ball better than anyone from either side. What he was also doing, better than most batsmen this season, was picking Rashid’s googly out of the hand. Having brought up his fifty in the previous over, the 15th, Vohra went after Rashid again, pulling and lofting him for 4, 0, 6, 6, 4. Suddenly, Kings XI only needed 35 from 24 balls.Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Act IIKings XI, however, had already lost six wickets, and they lost a seventh when Mohit Sharma sliced Bhuvneshwar straight to deep point in the 17th over. Two balls later, Vohra timed a back-foot punch so sweetly that he hit it to the same fielder on the full, only for Shikhar Dhawan to drop it. A big six off Kaul in the next over brought the equation down to 16 off the last two, but Bhuvneshwar wasn’t done yet.KC Cariappa, for reasons unknown, decided to slog rather than give Vohra the strike, and Bhuvneshwar went through him with a yorker. Another yorker – or near-yorker – followed when Vohra got back the strike. It struck Vohra on the ankle, on the full, right in front, as he walked across to flick, and Bhuvneshwar had bowled the most important ball of the match.

The South African is set to join the team in a coaching role although Daniel Vettori will remain part of the management group

Nagraj Gollapudi19-Dec-2017

Former South Africa batsman and India coach Gary Kirsten is likely to return to the IPL in a coaching role at Royal Challengers Bangalore. Although the franchise has not yet made the news public, Kirsten will handle the coaching responsibilities although a defined role is yet to be established. Daniel Vettori, who has been head coach in the past, will remain part of the management group.Kirsten’s first coaching stint in the IPL lasted all of two years, ending after Delhi Daredevils removed him as their head coach in 2015. Kirsten had signed a three-year contract with Daredevils in 2014, but the franchise ended terms with him following two seasons in which they finished eighth and seventh on the points table. Numbers-wise, Kirsten’s IPL coaching record was far from flattering: Daredevils won only seven out of 28 matches, with 20 defeats across the two seasons.Despite suffering that dent on his CV, Kirsten has managed to stay afloat. This week he makes his debut in the Big Bash League as the coach of Hobart Hurricanes. Kirsten was shortlisted for the job by the former Tasmanian and Australian pair of Ricky Ponting and David Boon, as the Hurricanes needed a replacement for Damien Wright, who had parted ways with the team after a second-from-bottom finish in the 2016-17 BBL.Despite his struggles in the T20 format, Kirsten’s reputation as a coach remains strong. He is one of the few coaches to have taken two teams to the top of the ICC Test ranking – India in 2009 and South Africa in 2012.Vettori took over as Royal Challengers’ head coach before the 2014 IPL, which the team finished in seventh place. In 2015 they finished third in the league stage and lost the second Qualifier to Chennai Super Kings. The next year, led by Virat Kohli, Royal Challengers marched into the final with phenomenal performances in the league stage but they ended runners-up to Sunrisers Hyderabad. This was followed by a poor 2017 season, which they ended at the bottom of the table with only three wins from 14 matches, with Kohli sitting out the initial part of the season to recuperate from a shoulder injury.Along with Kohli, Royal Challengers are expected to retain South Africa batsman AB de Villiers and could be tempted to use the right-to-match card for India legspinner Yuzuvendra Chahal and possibly the West Indies batsman Chris Gayle.

يحل فريق ليفربول ضيفاً على نظيره توتنهام هوتسبير، ضمن منافسات الجولة السابعة عشر من مسابقة الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز “بريميرليج”.

وسيخوض ليفربول مواجهة اليوم أمام توتنهام على ملعب “توتنهام الجديد” في تمام الساعة السادسة والنصف مساءً بتوقيت القاهرة.

ويحتل ليفربول المركز الأول في ترتيب الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز، برصيد 36 نقطة، بينما يأتي توتنهام هوتسبير في المركز الحادي عشر برصيد 23 نقطة.

ويسعى ليفربول إلى تحقيق الانتصار بالعلامة الكاملة اليوم، بعد أن سقط في فخ التعادل في آخر مواجهتين أمام فولهام ونيوكاسل يونايتد.

اقرأ ايضاً.. جوتا: سأشتري “ورقة وقلم” حتى يجدد نجم ليفربول عقده

ودفع آرني سلوت المدير الفني لفريق ليفربول، بالدولي المصري محمد صلاح بالتشكيل الأساسي في مواجهة اليوم. تشكيل ليفربول اليوم أمام توتنهام في الدوري الإنجليزي

حراسة المرمي: أليسون بيكر.

خط الدفاع: أندرو روبيرتسون – فان دايك – جو جوميز – ترينت ألكسندر أرنولد.

خط الوسط: دومينيك سوبوسلاي – أليكسيس ماك أليستر – ريان جرافينبيرخ.

خط الهجوم: محمد صلاح – لويس دياز – كودي جاكبو. بدلاء ليفربول اليوم أمام توتنهام في الدوري الإنجليزي

كيليهر، واتارو اندو، داروين نونيز، كورتيس جونز، هارفي إليوت، جوتا، تسيميكاس، كوانساه، نيوني.

The Reds to take on Spurs 👊🔴 #TOTLIV — Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 22, 2024

With a prolific 2016-17 domestic season and now an impressive summer in England, George Worker is eager to return to the international side after missing out on the Champions Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Sep-2017

As New Zealand’s limited-overs tour of India comes closer, George Worker is looking to push for a place in the squad after he followed a prolific 2016-17 domestic season with an impressive club season in England.Worker, who is currently touring India with the New Zealand A side, was the highest run-scorer in New Zealand’s domestic one-day competition last summer with 659 runs in 10 games at an average of 82.37. Even though that earned him a recall to the ODI side after nearly two years for two matches in the tri-series against Ireland and Bangladesh in May, he was left out of the Champions Trophy squad the next month.”I guess there’s a few spots available for that ODI tour after the A tour,” Worker told . “I won’t be worrying about it. I’ll be going out there trying to perform and carry on my good form like I have over the last couple of seasons.”Worker, 28, hasn’t been able to nail down his spot in New Zealand’s limited-overs side after his ODI debut against South Africa in 2015. He has played only four ODIs and two T20Is, with one half-century in each of the formats.During the English summer this year, Worker represented Knowle and Dorridge Cricket Club in the Birmingham Premier League. He scored 1569 runs, including nine centuries, at an average of 142.64 in 15 innings during his stint. Having accounted for 28 dismissals at an average of 12.75 in the league, including his best figures of 7 for 32, Worker’s left-arm spin could further strengthen his case for a place in the limited-overs side for the conditions in India.”Hopefully, I’ll just have to see. The conditions will be favourable to a bit of spin,” Worker said. “The standard of club cricket is pretty good. It’s renowned as the best in England.”The one thing that helped me was the pitches were good. You come across wickets that are a bit green and a bit wet and you have these slow dibbly-dobbly bowlers. It does make a difference because the wickets are good.”Worker was prolific with the bat in New Zealand’s first-class competition too – the Plunket Shield – last summer, scoring 486 runs from eight innings at an average of 60.75, including four half-centuries and one hundred.

The inaugural season of the GLT20, Cricket South Africa’s franchise T20 tournament, will not take place as scheduled in November and December

Firdose Moonda10-Oct-20172:06

The rise and fall of the T20 Global League

The inaugural season of Cricket South Africa’s T20 Global League, which was scheduled to begin on November 3, has been postponed to November 2018 instead.The franchises understood that the delay in securing a stable television broadcast deal and central rights sponsorship for the tournament were the main reasons for postponing the GLT20, the brainchild of former CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat who had parted ways with the board last month.SACA expresses “concern and disappointment”

The South African Cricketers Association has called for an “independent review” into what has caused the postponement of the T20 Global League.
“This has a very significant impact on a large number of local and overseas players, all of whom have signed contracts to play in the league,” Tony Irish, chief executive of SACA, said. “Some players turned down other opportunities in order to commit themselves to these contracts. We will be looking at all implications of this for players, including what compensation should be paid to them.”
“SACA is well aware of the fact that this will also affect various other groups including franchises, coaches and stadium owners. I think it will be necessary for CSA to appoint its own independent review into what has actually transpired here as there are significant implications across South African cricket.”

ESPNcricinfo learned that CSA had informed all the eight franchises of the decision over the past few days. “We have not come to this decision lightly,” CSA’s acting CEO Thabang Moroe said. “Having discussed it with all our stakeholders including the franchise owners, we believe that the interest of the league should be our first priority. We have re-assessed our strategy and believe that postponing the first edition of the T20 Global League to next year will serve us well. We will regroup and come back stronger and better.”With less than a month to go before kickoff, the event faced numerous logistical challenges, not least the inability to secure a broadcast deal or a title sponsor, resulting in hefty financial losses. Though local broadcaster SuperSport is understood to have been close to putting pen to paper, the deal was going to be worth much less than CSA anticipated.Last week, Moroe told reporters that CSA was bracing for a $25 million loss on the first edition of the tournament, which amounted to half of the organisation’s cash reserves. He also provided an assurance that the tournament would go ahead as planned.Moroe had taken over from Lorgat, who parted ways with CSA on September 28, after his relationship with the board became untenable. The board’s unhappiness with Lorgat’s methods of organisation of the T20 Global League was one of the reasons for his departure, but one of the GLT20 franchise owners told ESPNcricinfo that Lorgat’s absence had created “much bigger challenges” in putting the tournament together, because he was its driving force.”When you know that something is not right then you should not do it,” the owner said. “We are half-prepared and it will be a bigger disaster if we go this way.”There was no indication that any of the current owners, seven of whom are from overseas, would withdraw from the event. Moroe met with the franchise owners on at least one occasion and was confident they remained committed to putting the tournament together. However, the time-frame was too short to put together an event of the quality CSA and the owners wanted.The postponement of the GLT20 leaves an enormous gap in the South African cricket calendar. For six weeks in peak summer, neither the national team nor the domestic franchises will be in action because CSA had created space for the event. Zimbabwe are due to visit South Africa over Boxing Day for a four-day, day-night match that is awaiting Test status, which means that after Bangladesh’s tour ends on October 29, South Africans will not see any live home cricket until December 26, unless a contingency plan is made.

Ben Stokes has branded criticism of England’s performance in the Trent Bridge Test as “harsh” and “unfair”

George Dobell25-Jul-2017Ben Stokes has branded criticism of England’s performance in the Trent Bridge Test as “harsh” and “unfair”.England were defeated by 340 runs in the second Investec Test leading some well-known former players to dismiss their performance as “appalling” (Michael Vaughan), “rubbish” (Nasser Hussain) and “tripe” (Geoff Boycott). And while Stokes admitted that England had failed to adapt to either the match conditions or pitch in Nottingham, he took exception to any suggestion that the side lacked commitment.”The whole fight and desire [question] and everything like that that’s been thrown at us I think is very, very unfair,” Stokes told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s almost like people are saying that we don’t have the desire or the fight to play for England but everyone who takes part in the game – not just the 11 but everyone in the squad, coaches – the desire, the commitment, the fight to represent your country and do well is always there. So I think that kind of criticism is harsh, yes.”Whether anyone in the media did question England’s “desire”, “commitment” or “fight” is debatable. While Vaughan said England’s batting hinted at “a lack of respect” for the values or Test cricket, the context of his comments suggested he was referring to a lack of sophistication rather than effort.Indeed, the one man who did bring up any lack of fight was England’s assistant coach, Paul Farbrace. Almost immediately after Stokes had given his interview, Farbrace told reporters that “everyone” in the dressing room accepted the team “lacked some fight” at Trent Bridge.”Everyone put their hands up after the Trent Bridge performance and said it lacked some fight, certainly in the second innings, and there were some disappointing dismissals in both innings,” Farbrace said.While it would be stretching a point to suggest such conflicting comments hint at any unrest within the England camp – there is no indication of that at all – it is possible they reveal a lack of direction coming from the dressing room and team management.Certainly both Stokes and Farbrace accepted England’s batting had been below par in Nottingham. Stokes talked of a failure to “assess” the situation, while Farbrace suggested some dismissals were “reckless” and others were “disappointing defensive dismissals”.”The big thing is just for us is to be able to adapt quicker,” Stokes said. “We didn’t adapt whatsoever in that second innings at Trent Bridge to what we needed to do, which was just to bat. But unfortunately it didn’t happen. The only way we can give ourselves the best chance is just assessing the situations better.”Farbrace agreed: “There is a fine line between being positive and being reckless. We had some reckless dismissals, and we also had some disappointing defensive dismissals in the last game.”Not all of them were people playing big shots and getting caught on the rope; we had people caught around the crease, and being bowled, through perhaps being not quite as positive with their footwork and clinical as they could have been in defence. It unfortunately wasn’t a one-off – it’s happened a few times before.”It appears the balance of England’s side will be unchanged at The Oval. While Tom Westley – who had a nervous first session in which he was bowled by a net bowler – will replace the injured Gary Ballance at No. 3, it seems the flat pitch expected for the ground’s 100th Test renders it unlikely that England will drop either of their spinners. “We know what [our best team] is. We play two spinners who are attacking bowlers,” Stokes said.”We have the option to play two spinners or bring another batsman in,” Farbrace added. “But I think the one thing our selectors have done well in the last few years is be very consistent. Players have sometimes been given one game more rather than one game too few and I think that’s the way we should be.”When you pick people, you want them to know they’re going to get a run of games. We’re trying to build confidence in the team. Yes, we know it was not a great performance at Trent Bridge by any means, but chopping and changing doesn’t tend to solve anything.”The only question, then, will focus on the fitness of Mark Wood. He has never previously played three successive Tests in the same series and it emerged at the end of the Trent Bridge Test that he had a heel injury – though he bowled with impressive pace in the Oval nets, knocking Joe Root off his feet. If he is not deemed to be fully fit, Toby Roland-Jones will come into the side in his place.It was also interesting to note the presence of Ben Foakes and George Garton in the England net session. Garton, an unusually quick left-arm seamer who plays for Sussex, has represented the Lions recently and is clearly seen as an outside option for the Ashes in Australia – he is only 20 and has played just seven first-class matches – while Foakes, the Surrey keeper, might well be emerging as England’s second choice behind the stumps.Matt Walker and Anthony McGrath, coaches at Kent and Essex respectively, were also at the training session as part of England’s attempts to involve more county coaches within the set-up.Investec is the title sponsor of Test match cricket in England. For Out of the Ordinary thinking visit investec.com/cricket

England captain Eoin Morgan says his bowlers were badly let down by their batsmen after a collapse of 8 for 8 sealed a 75-run defeat to India in the third T20I at Bangalore

Deivarayan Muthu in Bangalore01-Feb-20171:30

‘We fell away terribly towards the end’ – Morgan

England lost 10 for 83 in the last innings in the second Test in Visakhapatnam. They lost 5 for 70 in the first innings in the third Test in Mohali. They lost 7 for 54 in their second innings in the fourth Test in Mumbai. The visitors then suffered a more cataclysmic fall in their second innings in the fifth Test in Chennai, losing 10 for 104 after piling on 477 in their first dig.The limited-overs players then roused the side from its gloom after Christmas, pushing India in 50-over cricket and proceeded to go 1-0 up in the subsequent T20 series. England were then at the receiving end of two incorrect umpiring decisions and lost the second T20. In the series decider in Bangalore, they unravelled dramatically against legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal and left to head home empty-handed.England experienced a fair share of collapses on this gruelling tour, but losing 8 for 8 on Wednesday night was as chaotic as it could get. Their breezy start to the chase – they were 119 for 2 in the 14th over in pursuit of 203 – starkly contrasted with what was to follow. The two set batsmen – Joe Root and captain Eoin Morgan – were dismissed by Chahal in successive balls and England eventually suffered the second-worst eight-wicket collapse in international cricket to be rolled over for 127 with 21 balls to spare in their innings.England captain Eoin Morgan cut a sorry figure at the post-match press conference, but did not mince any words about his team’s batting performance.”It does hurt. Very disappointing,” Morgan said. “Maybe 60% of the game we were competitive and right in amongst it but fell away terribly in the end. Committed a cardinal sin of losing two in-players in one over and allowed India to build a little bit of pressure and we weren’t up to it at all.”So what really went wrong in the middle?”I can’t put a finger on it. We haven’t produced a batting performance as bad as that in two or two-and-a-half years,” Morgan said. “We pride ourselves on our batting, it has been a strong suit for a long time but this series our bowlers have outperformed our batsmen I think.”Morgan, who had played for Royal Challengers Bangalore for a season in the IPL in 2010, believed that England were on track to exploit the flat surface and the short boundaries at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium at the halfway mark of the chase. Root bedded himself in, and Morgan himself hinted at hitting full tilt with three sixes from Suresh Raina’s part-time offbreaks in three balls during the 12th over.”I thought we were going quite well,” Morgan said. “A majority of the runs at this ground are always scored in the last 10 overs. Bangalore have done it extremely well for a long period of time and India did well today. So, I think we needed 110 [sic 117] off the last 10 maybe with eight wickets in the shed.”Morgan said that England could have chased the target down had he or Root kicked on with contributions from the lower-middle order.”If a better performance from either me or Joe – a 70 or 80 from me or him and if the two of us seeing off – and a couple of guys batting around us could have made a huge difference,” Morgan said.England’s sharp nosedive began with Morgan galloping down the track, fetching a slog-sweep from outside off and skying a wrong’un to deep midwicket. He backed his intent but blamed the execution for the dismissal.”It wasn’t necessarily a big shot,” Morgan said. “It wasn’t executed that well, I didn’t mean to hit it in the air. The ball – it was a googly – held up a little bit. I wanted to hit down the ground, but hit it squarer.”Morgan also conceded that losing a close ODI series “hurt” more than losing the T20 series, but was confident of recovering from the setbacks.”We had performances in the one-day series that were potentially worthy of winning,” he said. “In this series probably the last game [in Nagpur] hurt us more. The game got away from us, we should have won. Today we underperformed and we weren’t good enough.”I don’t think [there will be a lingering feeling]. If there was a consistent run of performances like that it would hurt to fail again. But like I said, our batting has been outstanding for a long time and tonight it wasn’t anywhere near as it should be.”