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Scorchers’ late season slump continued against Heat with a ragged bowling and fielding effort proving costly

Tristan Lavalette29-Nov-2023
Grace Harris smashed a half-century to deflate Perth Scorchers before offspinner Georgia Voll claimed four wickets as Brisbane Heat stormed into the WBBL final after a commanding performance at the WACA.Having flown cross-country before playing on consecutive days, an indefatigable Heat relished a fast surface to post the highest score in a WBBL final. They then bowled and fielded with discipline in a superb defence to stun a crowd of 2226 fans.Heat will play Adelaide Strikers in Saturday’s final at Adelaide Oval. They’ve had to do it the long way after a convincing 44-run victory over Sydney Thunder in the elimination final at the WACA just a day earlier.”It’s always a great match-up when we play them. It’s going to be a great final,” Voll said with Heat and Strikers having split their two games this season. “It’s going to be an awesome atmosphere and hopefully we can knock them over one more time.”It was a disappointing end for Scorchers, who sat on top of the ladder before losing their last three matches of the regular season. Their slump continued against Heat with a ragged bowling and fielding effort proving costly.”Definitely a tough one, pretty stunned for words. But the dust will settle and we can celebrate what’s been a really great season,” Scorchers legspinner Alana King said.Harris vindicated captain Jess Jonassen’s decision to bat first in sunny conditions with a whirlwind in the powerplay. She had emerged from a form slump with 45 off 22 balls against Thunder and continued the momentum with a second ball boundary after charging offspinner Amy Edgar.Harris was equally destructive against pace and thumped quick Chloe Ainsworth through the covers in the next over.Harris scored 33 of Heat’s 41 runs in the first four overs with struggling opener Georgia Redmayne intent on turning over the strike. The end of the powerplay did little to curb Harris, who continued her aerial assault including a six over long-on that thundered into the mammoth sightscreen under the ground’s famous light towers.She fittingly reached her half-century with a boundary off seamer Piepa Cleary, who in frustration bowled a bouncer that flew way over Harris for a no ball.Scorchers resorted to allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt, who was playing her last game of the season regardless of the result. She stood up with the key wicket of Harris by trapping her lbw in a decision that was upheld after an umpire’s call on review.Georgia Voll grabbed 4 for 19•Getty Images

Without Harris, Heat were pinned down in the middle overs with Sciver-Brunt bowling an accurate full length, while King was a constant wicket-taking threat.Heat were in danger of again falling away in the latter overs much like against Thunder, but Laura Harris stepped up with consecutive sixes off seamer Sophie Devine in the 17th over.Charli Knott, on her 21st birthday, then took over with 32 off 14 balls as Heat had one foot in the final.Devine did not take up her favoured position at the top alongside Beth Mooney. Instead, Lauren Winfield-Hill held onto her opener’s role and smashed 15 runs quickly before falling to quick Nicola Hancock.It wasn’t long before Devine came to the crease at No.4 alongside Mooney as the pair briefly provided a flicker of hope for Scorchers. But they fell in quick succession with the burden on Sciver-Brunt, who attempted a rally against the odds.But when she fell lbw to Jonassen on 36, it was only a matter of time before Heat wrapped up a memorable trip to Perth as they kept alive their bid for a third WBBL title.

With Mitchell injured, Josh Clarkson is set to make his T20I debut in the three-match home series against Australia

Deivarayan Muthu13-Feb-2024Trent Boult is back in New Zealand’s squad as they prepare for the T20 World Cup with a three-match T20I series at home against Australia, which begins on February 21 in Wellington.The left-arm seamer, though, has been picked for only the second and third T20Is. He is currently with MI Emirates in UAE’s ILT20 league, where his franchise has made it to the knockouts. Should MI Emirates make Saturday’s final, Boult will only have a six-day break before he lines up for New Zealand in the second T20I in Auckland.Boult has not played for New Zealand since the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-final in Mumbai, where New Zealand lost to India. He then linked up with Deccan Gladiators for the Abu Dhabi T10 league before joining MI Emirates. This will be his first T20I appearance since New Zealand’s T20 World Cup semi-final defeat against Pakistan in November 2022.Boult’s return is a significant boost to a New Zealand side that will be without its regular captain Kane Williamson, who is on paternity leave, and premier allrounder Daryl Mitchell, who is undergoing rehab for a long-term foot injury. Mitchell has been carrying the injury for around six to seven months and is giving himself the best chance of recovering for the two-match Test series against Australia, which begins on February 29, also in Wellington.Related

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Mitchell’s injury-enforced absence opens up a potential debut for Central Districts’ big-hitting allrounder Josh Clarkson. Clarkson has played three ODIs for New Zealand so far, but is uncapped in T20Is. Since 2020, Clarkson has had a strike rate of 160.07 in the Super Smash, New Zealand’s premier domestic T20 tournament, the highest among all batters who have played more than 30 innings during this period.Clarkson, 27, hurt his shoulder during the most recent Super Smash, but the injury wasn’t as serious as initially feared and he returned to action for Central Districts in the 50-over Ford Trophy, where he also pitched in with the ball.”It’s been pretty crazy really,” Clarkson said, reacting to his T20I call-up. “Pretty crazy to be called up for the Bangladesh series and then now [for] the T20I series against the Aussies…it’s a pretty special feeling.”Growing up, Aussies are usually the pinnacle and the way they go about their game is sort of something that I try to imitate in my game. But yeah, pretty special feeling for myself and my family as well. I rang the old man yesterday and he’s in shock. He’s already booked his flight.”New Zealand selection manager Sam Wells was also impressed by Clarkson’s bowling in the ODIs against Bangladesh in December. On his international debut in a rain-hit game in Dunedin, Clarkson came away with 2 for 24 in his four overs.”Josh hits the ball as long and as hard as anyone and we were encouraged by his performances with the ball in his maiden ODI series against Bangladesh before Christmas,” Wells said.Josh Clarkson is in line for a T20I debut•Getty Images

Jimmy Neesham, who is currently with Rangpur Riders in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), and Michael Bracewell, who is recovering from a finger injury, were unavailable for selection. Mitchell Santner, who will captain the team in place of Williamson, Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips are the spin-bowling allrounders in the squad.Tim Southee has been picked for only for the opening T20I as New Zealand manage his workload between the South Africa and Australia Test series. Lockie Ferguson, who missed the Super Smash final for Auckland with injury, is fit again, so he replaces young tearaway Ben Sears.Ferguson will have a chance to prove his fitness and form when he turns out for Auckland in the Ford Trophy this Sunday before he joins the New Zealand set-up on Monday in Wellington. Matt Henry retained his place in the side after impressing against Pakistan in January.Wells said that that the T20I series against a strong Australia team will tune New Zealand up for the World Cup, which begins in June in the USA and the West Indies.”Facing Australia is always special for a New Zealand side and even more so when it’s at home in front of a big Kiwi crowd,” he said. “Australia has named a strong squad which is packed with power and match-winners, so it promises to be an entertaining series. With a T20 World Cup just around the corner in June, the series should provide a good gauge of where the sides are at.”The first T20I will be played at Sky Stadium in Wellington before Australia and New Zealand will move to Eden Park in Auckland for the last two games.

New Zealand squad for Australia T20Is

Mitchell Santner (capt), Finn Allen, Trent Boult (second and third T20Is), Mark Chapman, Josh Clarkson, Devon Conway (wk), Lockie Ferguson, Adam Milne, Matt Henry, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Seifert (wk), Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee (first T20I only)

The trio shared all ten wickets, before Dimuth Karunaratne’s fifty took the visitors’ lead to 211

Madushka Balasuriya23-Mar-2024A day belonging to the bowlers ended with Sri Lanka 211 runs ahead, after their seamers ran through Bangladesh’s line-up to secure a healthy first-innings lead of 92 in Sylhet before the batters stretched it further. Dhananjaya de Silva (23*), one of two first-innings centurions, was at the crease alongside nightwatcher Vishwa Fernando, after Bangladesh again troubled Sri Lanka’s top order on a wicket that continued to prove further more challenging for batters.Nahid Rana continued his excellent debut, accounting for the wickets of Nishan Madushka and Kusal Mendis during a fiery opening spell. There was also finally some joy for the spinners, with Taijul Islam and Mehidy Hasan Miraz getting rid of Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal, respectively.But it was Shoriful Islam who grabbed the prized wicket of Dimuth Karunaratne. The former captain had been in the middle of one his patented scratchy but durable innings, notching his 36th Test fifty, when he top-edged a sharp bouncer straight to fine leg. That reduced Sri Lanka to 113 for 5, and produced a nervy final few minutes of play as Vishwa and Dhananjaya played out till the close.But despite the best efforts of the Bangladesh bowling contingent, it was Sri Lanka’s seamers who ensured their side would be ahead on the day after a disciplined and probing effort had been duly rewarded with the hosts being dismissed for 188 less than an hour before tea.Having begun the day with Bangladesh three down, Sri Lanka’s seamers hogged the ball across the morning session and for most of the afternoon as well – spinner Prabath Jayasuriya got just a solitary over – as they finished by grabbing all ten wickets, the first time the quicks did that in a Test innings in Bangladesh since 2008.In a display of endurance as much as patience, each of Lahiru Kumara, Kasun Rajitha and Vishwa Fernando produced tireless spells of disciplined and high-quality fast bowling.Shoriful Islam got Dimuth Karunaratne for 52 late in the day•AFP/Getty Images

Kumara did the damage early in the day, sending three frontline batters packing before lunch. The first to go was Mahmudul Hasan Joy, who hadn’t looked comfortable negotiating the seaming ball outside off and eventually pushed too hard at one that had a little extra bounce.Shahadat Hossain too fell prey to that nagging length outside off, edging into the slip cordon, but Kumara saved his best for Litton Das. Having bowled a couple prior that held its line outside off, he got one to jag back in and burst through bat and pad to crash into the stumps.Litton had been looking good up until that point, but his wicket just an over before lunch proved to be crucial, as it ended an innings-best 41-run stand and brought about the last recognised batter – Mehidy – to the crease.That said, Taijul, who had come in the previous evening as a nightwatcher, was still in and looking increasingly more confident. A couple of lovely drives earlier in the day, mixed in with surprisingly adept defensive resilience, had seen the spinner upstage his more illustrious batting counterparts.This was perhaps borne out of him being more aware of his limitations, and thus less likely to take the bait being offered by the Sri Lanka seamers outside off. But just as Bangladesh would have been hoping he would carry on, he flashed at a wide, full one from Rajitha and found the edge.Mehidy then attempted to shield Shoriful from the strike, but that strategy necessitated a more proactive approach, and so he wound up getting a leading edge looking to aggressively work a straight one through midwicket.Sri Lanka might have been hoping to wrap up proceedings swiftly from then on, but both Shoriful and Khaled Ahmed decided to shed any pretence of dragging the innings further and looked to slog at any available opportunity. A couple of lusty blows off Jayasuriya were the highlight, while some fortunate edges afforded runs even off the seamers.In the end, Shoriful top-edged one too many, and Khaled fell shortly after, getting a thick edge on a swipe across the line. The pair’s 40-run stand came off just 35 deliveries, and given the difficulty with which runs subsequently got scored, might prove pretty valuable in the grand scheme of the game.

Munro hasn’t played for New Zealand since 2020 and has made himself unavailable for the T20I tour of Pakistan

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Apr-2024Colin Munro is under consideration for New Zealand’s T20 World Cup squad at the age of 37, four years after his last international appearance.Munro turned down a call-up for New Zealand’s upcoming T20I series in Pakistan but his record in the CPL means his name will come up for discussion when the selectors pick a 15-man squad this month. The ICC requires teams to submit their provisional squads by May 1, with a final deadline on May 25.New Zealand named a second-string squad for their five-match series in Pakistan on Wednesday, with nine players unavailable due to their IPL commitments, and selection manager Sam Wells revealed that they had sounded Munro out ahead of the tour. He declined the chance to be in the squad, but remains in their thoughts with an eye on the World Cup.Related

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“We got in touch with Colin. He’s obviously been in fine form for the last few years in various competitions around the world and, in particular, has an excellent record in the Caribbean Premier League,” Wells said. “He made himself unavailable for this tour but he’s potentially still an option.”Munro is the seventh-highest run-scorer in the CPL’s history, and the highest run-scorer among overseas players. He spent seven seasons with Trinbago Knight Riders before joining St Lucia Kings last year and has 2353 runs in the CPL overall, at an average of 35.65 and a strike rate of 128.86.He has not played for New Zealand since losing his central contract in 2020, and has previously addressed his disappointment at missing out on selection for the 2021 T20 World Cup. Munro turned 37 last month but has an excellent record in T20Is, averaging 31.34 with a strike rate of 156.44 across 65 matches.New Zealand have plenty of top-order batters in T20Is including Finn Allen, Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra, so it may take an injury for Munro to force his way in. “I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to work out that our top order is relatively settled,” Wells said, “but if anything were to happen with injuries and what-not, he’s still an option for us.”All four of New Zealand’s Group C fixtures at the World Cup are at venues with a reputation for assisting spinners. They start the tournament against Afghanistan at Providence in Guyana, then face West Indies, Uganda and Papua New Guinea at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad.

England opener says Bazballers still believe in their method

Andrew Miller28-Mar-2024Zak Crawley says that England will not allow their shortcomings in India to derail their positive approach to Test cricket but admits that a bit of “refinement” is needed to capitalise on their positions of dominance, such as the one that slipped through their fingers in the fourth Test in Ranchi last month.Speaking at the Kia Oval on the eve of the county season, Crawley insisted that England had never lost faith in their attacking methods, even though they were distinctly second-best by the time the series culminated in an innings defeat inside three days in Dharamsala.The 4-1 series scoreline, he added, could have been very different had England seized their opportunity in Ranchi. After two days of the fourth Test, India were facing a 100-plus first-innings deficit having slipped to 177 for 7 in reply to 353, only for Dhruv Jurel’s hard-fought 90 to turn the tide and allow his team’s spinners to put the pressure back on England.Related

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“We never really lost faith and had the same attitude, as you can tell from some of our press!” Crawley said, as he joked about some of the more outlandish expressions of optimism that came out of the England camp in the course of the tour.”We had the same attitude throughout and I don’t think that is arrogance. We genuinely believed in ourselves and thought we could win the series. We were in all the games. We certainly weren’t in the games when I was in India last time, so we gave ourselves a good chance and we weren’t quite clinical enough, like they were, to be fair.”We should have won in Ranchi to make it 2-2 and then you never know how the last one goes, but it is always hard to wrestle the momentum back. Over five days, their skills are always going to come out, and they are a phenomenal team. It was a really enjoyable tour though, we gave it a good crack, and there is a lot to learn from.”On a personal level, Crawley was pleased with his own performances, having been England’s leading performer for the second major series in a row, with 407 runs at 40.70 in the five Tests to go alongside his 480 at 53.33 in the Ashes. Given his struggles in the preceding two years, in which he had averaged 20.57 across 20 Tests between January 2021 and November 2022, that represented a significant uptick in fortunes.”Hopefully I can push on from here but I certainly feel in a better place now than I did at the start of last year,” Crawley said. “Whenever I try to maintain [my form], I think you start getting worse, so I am always looking to improve.”Against spin, I was trying to get forward to smother the ball and it kind of worked for me. My head is a lot further forward than it used to be in my set-up. But mainly it’s just my attitude. I am trying to embrace failure more and accepting it is part of the game. So, I’m trying to stick with that.”Although he made four scores between 60 and 79, Crawley was unable to hit the heights that he reached with his remarkable 189 from 182 balls at Old Trafford during the Ashes. Nevertheless, he was part of seven opening stands of 45 or more in the course of ten innings, as he and Ben Duckett consistently took the attack to India’s new-ball bowlers, including their outstanding quick Jasprit Bumrah.Crawley’s confidence against India’s seamers, particularly on the drive, continued a theme that began with his memorable first-ball four against Pat Cummins in the Ashes. And, in keeping with his role as the first batter in an aggressive line-up, he admitted that going toe-to-toe with the opposition attack leaders was very much part of his gameplan.”I was certainly conscious of that in the summer against the Aussies,” he said. “I just thought, ‘there are a couple of good balls in here, I just need to put them under pressure early’, so that was more of a conscious effort.”I feel like a bit more pace on the ball has always suited my game a little bit more,” he added. “I just think less when they’re bowling fast. You have to calm the brain and calm the mind and just react. That’s always suited me rather than the Tim Murtaghs of the world where you play seven different shots before it comes down and that has never been my forte, but I’ll try and get better at that as well.”Crawley revealed how he had undergone laser surgery at the age of 18 to correct a short-sightedness that had required him to use contact lens, adding that one of his practice techniques when younger had been to crank the bowling machine up to full speed and play the ball from halfway down the pitch. “It was only half-volleys but obviously 90mph would feel very slow by the time you go back,” he said.Crawley believes Bazball needs “a bit of refinement”•Getty Images

Even so, the challenge of facing Bumrah, with his high pace, wide range of skills and idiosyncratic action, is not something that can be easily replicated in training.”I love facing the best bowlers in the world. Him, Cummins, a few others, but he would probably be the best I have faced,” Crawley said. “He bowls fast anyway and lets it go later, so it feels even quicker. Then it is just a weird action, so it is hard to pick up at times and he has got tremendous skill. He swings it both ways, with a slower-ball yorker, so, yeah, he’s a phenomenal bowler. It was tricky but I loved it.”Though he stood out among England’s batters, Crawley’s series record still paled against that of his opposite number Yashasvi Jaiswal, whose 712 runs included back-to-back double-centuries in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot. But, he said, those efforts didn’t necessarily make him more hungry for big scores, because his best cricket invariably comes when he limits his focus to one ball at a time.”Whenever I have looked too far ahead like that, that is how you get out straight away,” Crawley said. “Actually, a couple of those occasions I was thinking, ‘I need to get a big score’ and I wasn’t in the process. That is why – as simple as that – I got out.”At Old Trafford in the summer, I was just trying to bat and bat time, I wasn’t thinking about getting a hundred. I was very present and it’s quite hard to get into that mindset. Whenever I’ve got into that mindset, I’ve managed to get a decent score, and if I got ahead of myself, I haven’t.”England do not play another Test series until the arrival of West Indies in July, and so there is plenty time for the players to absorb the lessons of the India series.”It just needs a bit of refinement,” Crawley said. “We always talk about absorbing pressure and putting pressure back on. The last couple of years we’ve done the putting back on pretty well, and we’ve spoken about maybe picking those moments to absorb at the right times as well. We can certainly refine that.”That’s not to say we’re going to get more negative. We will still try to play the way we have and try to score quickly, but just pick those moments where they’re on top. We need to make sure we stay positive and don’t let a tough result get in the way of what we’re done really well over the last couple of years.”[India] have won 17 home series on the spin, so it would have had to be pretty special for us to turn it over and we will not get too down on ourselves. We’ll still stick to what we know but just be slightly better.”

The PCB initially put out a statement confirming a Test series, before later saying no such agreement had been reached

Danyal Rasool13-May-2024Cricket Ireland has officially confirmed a first men’s tour of Pakistan in August and September next year. The series, which will see Ireland and Pakistan play three T20Is and three ODIs, was a part of the Future Tours Programme (FTP), scheduled for September 2025.The release makes no detailed mention of dates and venues, or any other specifics concerning the schedule of the tour. It follows in the wake of Ireland Women touring Pakistan, who also played three ODIs and three T20Is, in November 2022.The decision was finalised after PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi met Cricket Ireland chair Brain MacNeice. The PCB initially put out a statement appearing to confirm Ireland would also play a Test series in Pakistan, one that was not part of the FTP.”Chairman Cricket Ireland said that the Irish team would visit Pakistan next year in August-September for a Test series and would also review the possibility of a women’s team tour to Pakistan soon,” the PCB statement said.When ESPNcricinfo contacted the PCB for further details, the PCB denied that any such Test series had officially been in agreement, despite the board’s own statement ostensibly confirming it. A Cricket Ireland spokesperson said that details of the tour’s fixture list would be discussed by the two boards in future.Hours after the PCB release, Cricket Ireland put out an official statement on their own website relating to Naqvi’s meeting with MacNeice. In “wide ranging discussions”, it merely confirmed that the two boards “were able to agree a men’s tour next year – this will be yet another historic first, coming after the tour to Pakistan by our senior women in 2022.”The Pakistan men’s side is currently in Ireland taking part in a three-match T20I series. The sides split the first two games 1-1, with the series decider on Tuesday.

Both teams have exciting cricketers, their head-to-head record is almost dead even, and with higher-ranked teams in their group, this is a game they can’t lose

Karthik Krishnaswamy03-Jun-2024

Match details

Netherlands vs Nepal
Dallas, 10.30am local

Big picture – Netherlands favourites, but only just

There are two obvious groups of death in this T20 World Cup, and Group D is one of them. Netherlands and Nepal are the two lowest-ranked sides in the group, but one of them comes into the tournament with serious pedigree in punching well above their weight at World Cups.Remember this? And this? And this? And more recently, over the last two years, this, and this?Before they can try and pull off results of that nature against South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, however, Netherlands will have to get past the one team they are favourites against. And it won’t be easy.Related

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Netherlands have a 6-5 T20I record against Nepal overall, and their six meetings in the pandemic and post-pandemic eras have been dead even. They met three times earlier this year, in a triangular tournament in Kirtipur, and won once apiece in the league stage before Netherlands won a closely fought final.Netherlands may have been here and done it before, while Nepal have only featured in one previous T20 World Cup, but the results they achieved in that tournament – in 2014, when they beat Afghanistan and fell short of a Super 10s spot only by virtue of net run-rate – should tell you that this could be a seriously tight contest.

Form guide

Netherlands LLLWW
Nepal LLWWWDipendra Singh Airee, the man who can change – and finish off – a T20 game singlehandedly•Surjeet Yadav/Getty Images

In the spotlight – Michael Levitt and Dipendra Airee

Michael Levitt earned his first Netherlands call-up last year, at 19, and has gone on to become a key player at the top of the order since his debut this February. The South Africa-born Levitt has scored 349 runs in eight T20I innings so far, at an average of 43.62 and a strike rate of 156.50. He made Netherlands’ highest T20I score in only his second T20I, smashing 135 off just 62 balls against Namibia, and he comes into this tournament with form behind him too, scoring a 28-ball 55 in the warm-up victory over Sri Lanka.You probably remember him for scoring the fastest T20I fifty, off just nine balls, against Mongolia during last year’s Asian Games, but Dipendra Singh Airee, Nepal’s highest run-getter in T20Is, has shown his quality against higher-ranked teams too. Netherlands know what he’s capable of; earlier this year, Nepal were six down against them in Kirtipur, needing 57 off 24 balls, when Airee went ballistic. His 34-ball 63 took Nepal to the doorstep of victory, before Roelof van der Merwe bowled him with four runs needed off three balls and Netherlands sealed a two-run win.

Team news

Since Levitt’s emergence, Vikramjit Singh has dropped out of Netherlands’ first-choice opening combination. He may bat at No. 3 or 4 if he finds a place in their XI on Tuesday.Netherlands (probable): 1 Max O’Dowd, 2 Michael Levitt, 3 Vikramjit Singh, 4 Scott Edwards (capt & wk), 5 Teja Nidamanuru, 6 Bas de Leede, 7 Sybrand Engelbrecht, 8 Logan van Beek, 9 Aryan Dutt, 10 Paul van Meekeren, 11 Vivian KingmaWith a visa refusal ending Sandeep Lamichhane’s potential participation in the World Cup, the question of Lalit Rajbanshi’s spin partner becomes highly pertinent. Sagar Dhakal was one of only two Nepal bowlers to complete their four-over quota in their warm-up game against Canada. It suggests that Nepal may be mulling starting the 22-year-old against Netherlands, if they decide to go with two left-arm spinners.Nepal (probable): 1 Kushal Bhurtel, 2 Aasif Sheikh (wk), 3 Anil Sah, 4 Kushal Malla, 5 Rohit Paudel (capt), 6 Dipendra Singh Airee, 7 Gulsan Jha, 8 Sompal Kami, 9 Karan KC, 10 Lalit Rajbanshi, 11 Abinash Bohara/Sagar Dhakal0:50

Which team is the likeliest to be upset?

Pitch and conditions

Dallas was where this World Cup got underway, and it got underway with a bang, as USA chased down 195 with 14 balls remaining. Twenty-one sixes were hit in that game, ten coming off the blade of Aaron Jones, who smashed an unbeaten, match-winning 94 off 40 balls. Prepare for more big hitting if the conditions remain similar.The threat of rain hangs over the match, though, with Dallas experiencing stormy weather in the lead-up, and there’s a 20% chance of precipitation forecast for Tuesday.

Stats and trivia

• Sompal Kami is the only survivor from Nepal’s last appearance at the T20 World Cup in 2014. The seam-bowling allrounder, who was 18 at the time, made his T20I debut in that tournament, picking up 2 for 13 in an 80-run win over Hong Kong
• In the same match where Airee broke the record for fastest T20I fifty, Kushal Malla scored a 34-ball century, which at that time was a T20I record too. That record has since been broken, with Nepal at the receiving end as Namibia’s Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton tonked a 34-ball ton against them in February
• Malla (167.24) has the fourth-highest T20I strike rate among all batters with at least 500 runs in the format. Of batters from teams featuring in this tournament, only Suryakumar Yadav (171.55) is ahead of him
• Logan van Beek is playing his fifth T20 World Cup, having previously featured in 2014, 2016, 2021 and 2022.

Quotes

“We know the Nepal team quite well because we’ve played against them recently. But we’ve also played against South Africa, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka very recently as well … in the 50-over World Cup and in the qualifiers. So really looking forward to our group and I’m sure there’ll be a lot of jostling within the group.”

He said that he decided to go all out for the catch the moment he saw that Rohit Sharma, at long-on, wasn’t going to get to the ball

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jul-2024Suryakumar Yadav knew he “hadn’t touched the rope” and that he’d made the split-second decision of going all out for the catch the moment he saw Rohit Sharma further away from the ball at long-on as compared to him at long-off.The topic of discussion was the catch he took to dismiss David Miller in the final over to tilt the T20 World Cup final in India’s favour, decisively, as it turned out.”Rohit usually never stands at long-on but at that moment he was there,” Suryakumar told the . “So when the ball was coming, for a second I looked at him and he looked at me. I ran and my aim was to catch the ball. Had he [Rohit] been closer, I would have thrown the ball towards him. But he was nowhere close. In those four to five seconds, whatever happened, I can’t explain.”Related

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• Rohit and five other Indians headline ESPNcricinfo's team of the T20 World Cup

Was the catch clean? Did Suryakumar’s foot tickle the advertising skirting? Replays have been inconclusive so far.”When I pushed the ball [up and inside the playing area] and took the catch, I knew I hadn’t touched the rope,” he said. “The only thing I was cautious about was that when I pushed the ball back inside, my feet don’t touch the rope. I knew it was a fair catch. In hindsight, anything could have happened. If the ball had gone for six, the equation would have been five balls, ten runs. We might have still won, but the margin would have been closer.”Suryakumar revealed the method behind taking such catches, while also crediting fielding coach T Dilip for motivating the entire group by introducing the fielding medal after every match, which has ensured “everyone wants to do something extra on the ground”.”The catch I took, I have practised it at different grounds, depending on the wind,” he said. “I was standing a bit wide because Hardik [Pandya] and Rohit had put a field for the wide yorker, and Miller had hit straight. My mind was clear that I have to catch it come what may.”A day before the game, we do a quality fielding session where for 10-12 minutes, we have more than ten high catches, flat catches, direct hits, slip catching. It’s not a one-day exercise, I practise these kinds of catches during IPL, during bilateral series. Yesterday’s catch was the reward of the hard work done over the years.”Getty Images

Suryakumar said that such balance and agility wouldn’t have been possible without working on his fitness. He spent four months on the sidelines from November 2023 to March 2024, recovering from a sports hernia and an ankle injury. It was during this period that he worked on slimming down as part of his fitness regimen which also included working with a nutritionist.”I remember last August, I was at around 93kg, maybe because I was having too much local food,” he said. “I got injured and then had a hernia operation. I went to NCA [BCCI’s National Cricket Academy] from January 1 to April 1 [this year]. Even during off days, I used to not go home because I knew Monday morning would be my session. I couldn’t waste time.”I ate proper food prepared by my chef. I used to sleep sharp at 10pm and get up early in the morning. Even now, I have decided on my meals for the next week with the help of the chef and nutritionist; they decide how much protein and fat I will have daily, how much water I need to take with my food. We have a group for it which also has my wife. They decide and I just follow. It helped me here.”How has he soaked that moment in, along with the euphoria of being a world champion?”In those four to five seconds, whatever happened, I can’t explain,” he said. “The amount of reaction I have been getting for that, people have been calling, messaging; there are more than 1000 unread WhatsApp messages on my phone. The catch is all over social media. I’m grateful that I was there in those five seconds of play.”

Indian legspinner, who played for Kent in the Championship last year, sets up nine-wicket win

ECB Reporters Network14-Aug-2024India’s Yuzvendra Chahal made a stunning debut in the Metro Bank Cup, helping the Northamptonshire Steelbacks to a nine-wicket victory over the Kent Spitfires at Canterbury.Chahal, whose signing was only confirmed an hour before the start of play, took 5 for 14 during an unbroken 10-over spell, as the hosts were skittled for just 82 in 35.1 overs.Justin Broad was nearly as impressive, claiming 3 for 16 and Kent’s top scorer, Jaydn Denly, made just 22.Northants needed just 14 overs to reach the target, James Sales finishing on 32 not out and George Bartlett unbeaten on 31 as the visitors cruised home with 216 balls remaining.