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Australia’s limited-overs captain heads to Sri Lanka in another uncertain run of form

Alex Malcolm30-May-2022Australia’s selectors and new coach Andrew McDonald are adamant T20I skipper Aaron Finch is under no pressure for his place in the T20 World Cup title defence later this year but he is eager to quieten the public debate about his form.Australia’s white-ball team heads back on the road on Wednesday for three T20Is and five ODIs in Sri Lanka beginning on June 7. The T20I side will be nearly at full strength with only Pat Cummins and Adam Zampa missing from the team that won the World Cup last year. Cummins is resting from the T20I series after playing in the IPL while Zampa is on paternity leave.Finch made 55 off 45 balls in Australia’s last T20I against Pakistan in Lahore and was named Player of the Match. It was his first T20I half-century in 14 innings, having registered six single-figure scores in his previous eight games which included a five-match home series against Sri Lanka in February where he twice batted at No. 3. He also made scores of 23, 0, and 0 in his three ODI innings in Pakistan prior to the half-century in Lahore.Finch had, by his own admission, an “inconsistent” IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders following the tour of Pakistan. After arriving late he made 58 in his second innings against Rajasthan Royals but was only selected for five games in total having registered four other scores of 7, 3, 4, and 14.Related

• Aaron Finch is in a rut, and faces a big week in his ODI career

• Near full-strength Australia brace for trial by spin as Sri Lanka search for formula

• Tim David looms large in Australia's plans despite Sri Lanka absence

• Steven Smith's T20 role among question marks for Sri Lanka series

• Pat Cummins rested for Sri Lanka T20Is; big guns return for white-ball leg

Australia’s upcoming schedule was released on Monday with Finch likely to get 11 T20Is and 11 ODIs prior to the T20 World Cup and he has a simple outlook.”Just get some more runs,” Finch said on Monday. “It’s been a reasonably lean patch. I’ve been through that plenty of times in my career. At times, you go through stages where you get a heap of runs in a hurry and then go through some lean patches.”With such a busy schedule of cricket, there’s a lot of time to be able to build and I suppose get back into the groove of one-day cricket especially. We haven’t played a huge amount of that over the last little while, so it’d be really nice to try and get some big runs and keep everyone off my back for a little while.”Finch has been tinkering with his set-up and his movement patterns for some time, trying to regain the rhythm and flow that once made him one of the best limited-overs in the world. He noted at the back end of the Pakistan series that he was getting too open in his stance, but admitted he was “trying to go a little too hard” in the IPL by moving around the crease a lot and hoped to settle into a better base for the Sri Lanka series.Aaron Finch only made one score of note in the IPL•PTI

“When you’re worried about the ball swinging back into your front pad, you can tend to open up which then has a bit of a flow-on effect,” he said. “So it’s just trying to get back to a little bit more square and making sure that I’m giving myself every chance to get through the first five or six balls and then in T20 or ODIs you can sort of flow on from that.”They’re obviously your most vulnerable times. But just squaring up my technique again. I was just a bit open and hips and shoulders and feet and everything and just lost the ability to transfer my weight back through the ball.”Australia aren’t planning on tinkering too much with their winning T20I set-up in Sri Lanka. However, the absence of Zampa and Cummins, as well as spin-friendly conditions, may give them the opportunity to play two spinners rather than three quicks in a four-man attack as they stick fast with the seven-batter philosophy that won the World Cup.”Not knowing what we’re going to get conditions-wise for the T20s, I think Colombo and Kandy are so different, I think we’ve got to be flexible and adaptable and making sure that when we get to the World Cup that we’ve got plenty of options that we can go with,” Finch said.”Whether we jig our side to have two spinners or go with the three quicks and use the allrounders a bit more, so we’ll have to be flexible, and I think that creates some great options for us.”

The seven final bidders comprise Disney Star, Sony, Viacom-Reliance, Zee, Fun Asia, Super Sport and Times Internet

Nagraj Gollapudi11-Jun-2022Amazon has pulled out of the race to own the media rights to the IPL for the next five years. ESPNcricinfo has learned the global e-commerce giant is not among the final list of seven bidders participating in the e-auction on Sunday to decide who will get to broadcast one of the most lucrative tournaments in the cricket calendar.Amazon has been a lead player in acquiring lucrative streaming rights across global sports and was expected to bid aggressively for the IPL’s digital rights packages. In 2021, the company struck a billion-dollar-a-year deal (for 10 years) to broadcast just 15 Thursday night matches in the National Football League in the USA. Their withdrawal will be a blow to the IPL.It is learned that the decision not to pursue the media rights was made by Amazon’s top brass in the US and that it was communicated to the IPL on Friday – the deadline for bidders to submit their paperwork.With Disney-Star, Sony, Viacom-Reliance, Zee, Fun Asia, Super Sport and Times Internet still in the running, the number of bidders this time is exactly half that of the previous auction, when 14 companies vied for the broadcast rights of the IPL from 2018 to 2022. Star India beat all comers with a record bid of $2.55 billion in the global consolidated category (TV and digital for India and rest of the world), making it the richest media rights deal in cricket.This time, though, the IPL has segregated the TV and digital rights into their own packages. Package A consists of TV rights for the Indian subcontinent. Package B caters to digital rights for the Indian subcontinent. Package C contains digital rights for a special bouquet of matches, including the playoffs, for the Indian subcontinent. And Package D, TV and digital rights for the Rest of the World, which is divided into two sub-categories: combined ROW or five individual regions.The auction will start at 11am IST on Sunday with the simultaneous sale of Packages A and B. Only once winners are decided for them will Packages C and D come up for bidding. Also, given there is a half hour interval between every bid, there is a strong chance the auction may spill over into a second day.Every bidder can compete for more than one category but will need to list their price on a per match basis. For Package A, the base price per match is INR 49 crore (USD 6.3 million approx.). For Package B, it is INR 33 crore (USD 4.2 million approx.). For Package C, it is INR 16 crore (USD 2.05 million approx.). For Package D, it is INR 3 crore (USD 390,000 approx.).The IPL has made one change to the e-auction though. The winner of Package A can enter into a contest for the digital rights with the winner of Package B. Originally, this contest was supposed to feature bid increments of at least 5% but now it’s become a direct face-off. No minimum bid increments. The same process would be repeated to determine the winners of Packages C and D.

Anil Kumble, Faf du Plessis and Andy Flower are in favour of changing the rule

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-20223:30

Should teams be allowed to change XIs after the toss if it rains?

Teams should be allowed to make changes to their XI if rain curtails play after the toss but before a ball has been bowled, according to ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time Out experts Faf du Plessis, Anil Kumble and Andy Flower.Kumble and Flower, who have extensive coaching experience in T20 leagues, and Du Plessis, the former South Africa captain, said the tweak in the rules would allow teams to field their best XI for a rain-hit contest.The discussion happened while South Africa and Zimbabwe were made to wait after the toss for the start of their Super 12 match because of rain in Hobart. The game was eventually reduced to nine overs a side after Zimbabwe had chosen to bat.”That’s something I’m sure will get discussed in the next committee meeting, especially in this format,” Kumble said, when asked whether changes should be allowed to the playing XIs after the toss in such situations. “In a game like this, where the toss has happened, the teams have been announced, it could eventually be a five-over game, so yes.”Kumble said, however, that both teams knew there was rain around before the toss, so they would have taken that into account.Flower, who coached Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2022, said the best combination for a five or six-over match would be different to a 20-over match.”What the fans want to see is the best contest between the best two elevens, and if the best two elevens need to be altered slightly given that the match changes to a five or a six-over game, then the fans would like to see the best elevens take each other on,” Flower said. “I don’t see why sticking with the status quo makes particular sense. I’d like someone to explain that to me if possible at some stage.”Du Plessis, who captains RCB in the IPL, said that the potential rule change will be good for the fans. “From a captaincy perspective, it’s quite a decision-making process when there’s rain around,” he said. “From a captain’s point of view, you try and push the umpires to say let’s wait for the toss, because you do want to pick the right team if it gets affected by the rain.”In terms of the rule change, I think it will be nice, especially for the fans, to see team changes and stuff after the toss.”

Australia will take the same team that lifted the Ashes urn into the first Test against South Africa, for a series the captain Steven Smith believes can be the making of many younger members of his side

Daniel Brettig in Durban28-Feb-20181:22

Wessels: South Africa will target Smith and Warner

Australia will take the same team that lifted the Ashes urn in Sydney seven weeks ago into the first Test against South Africa, for a series the captain Steven Smith believes can be the making of numerous younger members of his side.It was in the corresponding Test four years ago in Centurion that Smith and Shaun Marsh sculpted centuries that set an ultimately victorious tone for the team then led by Michael Clarke – both still regard those innings as the finest of their careers. Similarly, a host of Australian pace bowlers have saved their very best for South Africa, with Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins eager to add to a tradition of success: Australia have not lost a series in this part of the world since the end of apartheid.

Du Plessis finger could help not hinder

Australia’s captain Steven Smith reckons his opposite number Faf du Plessis’ damaged right index finger may not be as much of a hindrance as many think. South Africa’s captain injured his finger during the ODI series against India, and will enter the Tests without anything in the way of match practice.
Noting that both he and du Plessis tended to play with a strong bottom-hand grip, Smith observed that anything that served to lighten the batting grip and place more onus on the top left hand could actually aid a batsman to play more correctly. “He holds the bat pretty heavily with his bottom hand, probably much like I do … sometimes it’s actually a good thing if this hand is injured you start using this one a bit more and you keep your shape a bit better,” Smith said. “I actually don’t mind if something is injured in my right hand, if that makes sense.
“If he hasn’t picked the bat up and had that much time in the middle or in the nets, he might be a little bit underdone, but he’s obviously a class player, he’s played a lot of cricket and it usually doesn’t take too long to get things back in the groove for that sort of player. He’s a good player, there’s no doubt about that. He’s scored runs, some really good runs in Australia. Got hundred in the pink ball game [in Adelaide in 2016], so there’s no doubt he’s a really good player and hopefully we can keep him quiet throughout this series.”

While Smith admitted the prospect of a four-Test series, elongated from three at the behest of the former Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards after a thrilling Cape Town denouement in 2014, would be especially taxing at the end of a long summer, he was adamant that his team had refreshed sufficiently to take on Faf du Plessis’ side. At the same time he looked for breakout overseas performances from the likes of Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja and Mitchell Marsh alongside the senior men.”There’s no doubt it’s a tough tour. Conditions wise it’s as similar as you get to back home but you’re still away from home and they’re a good team,” Smith said in Durban. “So it’s a chance where guys can find some confidence that they can play well away from home and hopefully some guys have innings like Shaun at Centurion and make a name for themselves and give them that confidence they can do it against quality attacks like South Africa.”No doubt throughout the series guys are going to have some sort of fatigue set in. It has been a long summer and every Test back home went five days and things like that, but in the end you’re playing for your country and you find ways to get yourself up. You don’t need too much motivation when you’re playing for your country.”It’s just going to be about helping each other out and making sure that if guys are feeling fatigued someone else will take the load for a bit and just trying to share that as much as possible and make sure we can keep each other as fresh as we can be and just in the challenge really.”Most critical for Australia’s chances in the looming bout will be the physical and mental readiness of the “big three” fast bowlers, who alongside Smith and Nathan Lyon were the difference for Australia in the Ashes. Smith, who himself needed time away from the game after showing signs of fatigue in the ODI series defeat to England that preceded the trip to South Africa, said he had sensed a greatly refreshed mood amongst his spearheads.”They all had a little bit of time off at the end of the one-dayers, which I don’t think you actually need that long,” Smith said. “I think a week or two actually just does a world of good to anyone and I know that when we landed here, Starcy for instance was so happy the way the ball was coming out, he was swinging it and you could just see on their faces that they were a bit more refreshed and just ready to go. Everyone is excited about this series, it’s going to be a cracker.”Smith, of course, is as pivotal to his team’s chances as anyone, and as the world’s leading Test batsman by a distance, he has a record and reputation to maintain against Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and the soon-to-retire Morne Morkel. Having effectively steeled himself to put together outstanding series against India and England over the past 12 months, Smith was hopeful of having everything “just click” for him at the batting crease this time around.4:45

Wessels: SA can’t afford spicy pitches against Australia

“It’s too early to tell yet. I don’t know. It sort of just happens out in the middle sometimes,” he said. “I really enjoyed the couple of weeks I had off after the one-day series. I needed that, I was very drained. It got to the point where I actually didn’t want to pick my cricket bat up for a bit which is very rare for me. I just love batting.”It got to a point where I wanted to do it again, so I think that was the moment where I was sort of refreshed and ready to go. I feel like I’ve been batting well since we’ve been here. Hopefully, I can stand up again and lead the boys and get myself in that zone again to have the success against a good bowling attack.”The Kingsmead pitch looks to have even grass coverage but Smith expected it to be on the slower side, in keeping with South Africa’s stated intentions to deny the Australian pacemen the sort of spicy surfaces served up for the recent India series. To that end, Smith said patience and the ability to grind out difficult periods of play with bat and ball would be vital.”I thought that they’d go with quite slow wickets or maybe green wickets,” Smith said. “One of the two. I didn’t think they’d have a great deal of pace. But looking at the wicket now a couple of days out, it looks like it could be quite slow, maybe not a great deal of carry. But I’m terrible at judging wickets, so it’s just about summing it up when we’re out there and adapting to whatever we’re dealt and identifying it quickly and making sure we’re doing everything we need to do on our feet quickly.”First Test match is so important so you don’t want to be behind the eight ball early in this series. I think the average first innings score’s around 270-280, so it could be quite a hard grind and playing the long game as much as you can and toughing out difficult periods and just being on top of every run, every run could be crucial. Just being all over that and making sure we start well with the first Test.”Australia’s enviable record in South Africa has gone some way to erasing memories of the previous encounter between the sides in late 2016, when Rabada, Philander and company skated to a victory that caused great turmoil in Australian cricket but has since been cited by many as the making of Smith’s captaincy. Certainly the unchanged XI, in contrast to the five changes made between Hobart and Adelaide 18 months ago, is a marker of stability and improvement.”That wasn’t a great time, it was a bit of a low point for Australian cricket, but I think since then we’ve made some really good strides and the cricket we’ve been playing, particularly back home in the Ashes was magnificent,” Smith said. “Now it’s about doing all those things we did well, the basic things, but doing them at another level. If we do that then I’m confident we can have a lot of success.”I think our squad together now is a really good squad. Even the guys that aren’t playing have been training exceptionally well. Petey [Handscomb] got a hundred before we came away in Shield cricket and averages 47 in Test cricket so I think it is showing us that we’ve got a good side. Having said that, we’re going to have to be up for the challenge here.”

The India captain suffered from back issues during the Lord’s Test, which India lost by an innings and 159 runs

Nagraj Gollapudi at Lord's12-Aug-2018Virat Kohli is optimistic about leading India in the third Test, which begins on August 18, even though he spent portions of the Lord’s Test suffering from a “sore” back.”The good thing is I have five days before the next Test,” he said. “We are confident that, with rehab and strengthening, I should be ready for the next game although not (with) the same intensity in the field. But I should be good enough to hold a position in the field and be 100% with the bat. Again, I will have to look at the running bit of things, which was difficult today. As of now it is sore.”Kohli explained that it was a recurrence of an injury he suffered in February, which forced him to sit out a T20I in South Africa. “As of yesterday and today it was not great,” he said. “The back is one thing that can be very tricky when it goes off. It happened during the latter half of the last leg of the South Africa tour when I missed a T20I game because that was very sudden. It happened one day before.”The first signs of Kohli’s problems were seen on Saturday evening, and they seemed to persist because on Sunday morning, he did not take the field even as England declared their innings on 396 for 7. Kohli had missed 37 minutes of play today and so he had to wait that time out before he could come out to bat. But when he did, he could barely walk.2:42

ESPN Shorts: Kohli the tinkerer

He kept grimacing while playing his strokes and was eventually dismissed while trying to fend off a short delivery from Stuart Broad. Kohli immediately asked for a review but replays clearly showed he had indeed nicked the ball that was caught brilliantly by debutant Ollie Pope at short leg.The Indian captain limped off through the Long Room and into the visitors’ dressing room.There were other concerns for Kohli as well. When asked about the XI India picked to play at Lord’s, he had to admit that they had erred by choosing a second spinner when conditions were heavily in favour of fast bowling.Despite the first day being washed out, India still changed the balance of their side by leaving out Umesh Yadav and bringing in left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav. The absence of a third frontline seamer was clear when they couldn’t keep the pressure on England when they reduced them to 89 for 4 and 131 for 5 on the third day to threaten a fightback having been skittled for 107.”The weather was unpredictable,” Kohli said at the presentation. “It was different when we started then it changed suddenly, [but] I think we got the combination a bit off before the game. We have a chance to correct that next game. [At] Two-nil down the only option is to come out positive, make it 2-1 and make it an exciting series from there.”

“It comes with a bit of hard work, fitness and pride in your performance”

Mohammad Isam10-Jan-2022The delivery Trent Boult bowled to get his 300th Test wicket was as memorable as the milestone itself. He came around the wicket to Mehidy Hasan Miraz. The ball pitched outside off stump, and swerved in, talking like only Boult can make the red cherry talk.A fist pump followed as the crowd roared. After the initial high-fives, came two big hugs. From Tim Southee, his mate since the Under-17 days, and from Ross Taylor, playing his last Test, one who has held 19 catches in the slips off Boult over the years. As the crowd continued clapping, his team-mates did too, forming a circle around Boult. The umpire handed him the ball, which Boult took his time holding up.

On Ross Taylor’s last Test

“It has been an emotional few days. Some big hundreds scored. Definitely Rosco’s last Test match and the occasion it brings. He is still cheeky enough. He still has a bit of joke in his stead. He says I don’t get too many nicks to first slip in the first place. We will miss him there. The way the boys caught there in the last five years has been exceptional.”

“It definitely means a lot,” Boult said after the day’s play, having picked up his ninth five-for in Tests to help roll Bangladesh over for 126 in reply to New Zealand’s 521 for 6 declared. “I am sure it will sink in over the coming days. It comes with a bit of hard work, fitness and pride in your performance.”It is very special to have Timmy (Southee) out there with me this afternoon. To join the names like Daniel (Vettori) and Sir Richard (Hadlee) is also very special. Winning the Test match and getting back in the series will be special as well. It is definitely the focus at the moment.”Boult said that joining New Zealand’s 300-wicket club, which also has Southee, made it extra special. “He is pretty proud of me. Nice to join him,” Boult said. “Very special to have him out there this afternoon. I am sure we can enjoy a few more wickets together. Our friendship has dated back many years. I think we met towards the end of Under-17s. We have had a career to date of probably ten-plus years underneath the black cap. I am also learning off him.”He has an incredible work ethic. His record speaks for itself. It comes from a lot of hard yards, and his desire to be better every day. It is always a great feeling when both of us are taking wickets. Those have been the best memories.” Southee ended the innings with 3 for 28 to Boult’s 5 for 43.Boult began Bangladesh’s top-order demolition on the day by removing Shadman Islam and Najmul Hossain Shanto, while Southee got rid of Mohammad Naim and Mominul Haque. The visitors were 11 for 4 at that stage, and Boult removed Litton Das after tea to make it 27 for 5.He said that while the pace and bounce on the pitch helped, it’s the breeze that blows across Hagley Oval that assists swing bowlers like him and Southee.”That’s the beauty of Test cricket. The little subtleties that come with different grounds, winds,” Boult said. “The wicket obviously offers a bit of bounce with grass on it. I thought the way the boys started, to get a couple of wickets early, not really letting up on the pressure, I suppose we did what we spoke about. It is simply to get them playing on the front foot, and bowl for each other at each end. Only half the job done but it was a satisfying afternoon.”I am generally trying to pitch the ball up. Get a bit of movement in the air. The wicket offers a bit of bounce. It has a good grass covering. The wind is the big thing for us as a bowling unit. It is generally left to right. It suits me and Timmy nicely, and then [Neil] Wagner and KJ [Kyle Jamieson] come in behind to do the stuff they do.”

Kent seal second win of Championship season after Warwickshire’s final-day collapse

ECB Reporters Network22-Jul-2022Kent took a huge step away from the lower reaches of the LV=Insurance County Championship Division One with a thumping 177-run victory over struggling champions Warwickshire at Edgbaston.After resuming on 28 for 2, in pursuit of a target of 325, the home side folded to 147 all out before lunch. Matt Milnes led the demolition with a destructive burst of 6.5-1-11-4 but Kent’s quartet of seamers all played their part in building the pressure under which the Bears buckled.The result leaves Warwickshire, who visit leaders Surrey next week, in real jeopardy of following their title triumph in 2021 with relegation in 2022. Kent, meanwhile, spring into mid-table after an excellent performance by a team galvanised by the arrival of overseas pacemen Navdeep Saini and Matt Henry.Related

• Surrey consolidate top spot after Overton's 'day-hawk' gambit

• Adaptable Salt keeps things simple ahead of latest England chance

• Bohannon rediscovers form to put Lancashire within reach

• Denly century gives Kent a golden shot at vital win

• Worrall takes 11 as Surrey close in

Their seam attack possessed the cutting edge that the depleted Bears, without the injured Liam Norwell, Olly Stone and Chris Woakes, sorely lacked. Kent’s bowlers also were supported by fine work in the field, led by captain and wicketkeeper Sam Billings who took 12 catches in the match, surpassing the previous Kent record of ten (Fred Huish, 1911, and Jack Hubble, 1923).The final day had a helter-skelter start as Sam Hain hit his first three balls for four but then edged a fine delivery from Saini to Billings.Dom Sibley and Will Rhodes dug in to add 35 but then came a moment which summed up the old cricket truism that it’s when things are going against you that Lady Luck will give you another good kicking. Rhodes, having looked in decent nick and started to sow the seeds of a partnership with Sibley, was strangled down the leg side off Quinn.That’s always an infuriating way to get out – all the more so when it triggers a collapse of 61 for 7 in 91 balls.Kent seam depth in this game showed itself as, with spearheads Saini and Henry grazing, Matt Quinn and Milnes took up the attack and took five wickets in 30 balls.Quinn followed the wicket of Rhodes with that of Dan Mousley who edged behind. Milnes produced an unplayable lifter to take Michael Burgess’ edge and then forced Sibley to play on. Milnes had 3 for 7 after taking a return catch from Danny Briggs.With Warwickshire’s last two wickets needing to find 196, Kent turned to the spinners to improve their over-rate. Jack Leaning disposed of Craig Miles, caught and bowled, before Milnes returned to round off the rout when Olly Hannon-Dalby edged to first slip. Kent’s visit to Birmingham simply could not have gone any better.”The win is a product of all the things we talk about in the dressing room, how we are going to try to turn this around, and I think we saw all of it in this game,” Matt Walker, Kent’s coach, said. “You can’t just want to win and that’s enough, you have got to put the things in place and I was really impressed with the way the boys went about their work.”Our first day’s batting didn’t quite go to plan but our response after that over the next three days was outstanding. That felt like a Kent side of old. The quality through those two-and-a-half days was brilliant and it felt like a real team performance with some real key moments that we had to win and we did.””The league table doesn’t lie, what’s happening doesn’t lie,” Mark Robinson, Warwickshire’s coach, said. “What people can’t see behind the scenes is all the thought and the effort that goes in and the hurt that the players are feeling. In both the last two games they have committed a lot to the games and it’s just not been enough.”

Early-season, batsmen-friendly surfaces saw 11 centuries scored in the fourth round of the Sunfoil Series, but still no wins (or losses)

Firdose Moonda19-Oct-2017Results Summary National coach Ottis Gibson had lamented the lack of crowds in the country’s first-class competition. Now, he may know why. A fourth consecutive round of draws means there were still no winners (or losers) in the competition, and though only nine points separate top of the table from the last-placed lot, excitement in the tournament is hardly high.Defending champions, Knights, looked like they may be the first to blink when they suffered a first-innings deficit of 203. Lions then rapidly set them a target of 401 but the Knights held off the challenge. Lions scored 464 in their first innings, anchored by hundreds from Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen. Bjorn Fortuin took 6 for 78 to reduce Knights to 261 all out. A quick century from Stephen Cook and 67 from van der Dussen allowed Lions to declare on 198 for 2 late on day three. They took one Knights wicket that evening and needed nine on the final day, but Luthando Mnyanda and Keegan Petersen held them off for most of the day before Theunis de Bruyn and Rudi Second secured the draw.Titans and Cobras both only batted once against Dolphins and Warriors respectively but even that did not buy them enough time to force a result.Dean Elgar’s 237* and Heinrich Klaasen’s 111 led the Titans to a total of 500 for 6. Dolphins collapsed to the seam of Alfred Mothoa and spin from Tabraiz Shamsi and Shaun von Berg in response. They were bowled out for 216 and put in again. Dolphins were much more composed in their second innings as Sarel Erwee and Cody Chetty both scored their second successive hundreds to save the game.Warriors may not have anticipated themselves in a similar position to Dolphins when they scored 347 in their first innings at Newlands, led by Yaseen Vallie’s 150. Nineteen-year-old left-armer Michael Cohen took 5 for 107 to keep Warriors in check but it was the Cobras batsmen who did the damage. Pieter Malan’s 195 formed the spine of their innings. They declared on 530 for 8 on the third day and removed one Warriors’ opener, leaving themselves with nine wickets to take on the final day. But Edward Moore struck a century and Colin Ackermann (106) only dismissed late in the day, making a result impossible.On the national radar Wiaan Mulder was pulled out of the Lions-Knights fixture after the first day to join up with the national one-day squad. He was not out on 18 overnight. In that same match, discarded Test opener Cook found form with his first century of the summer but de Bruyn did not have the opportunity to go big. He was 44 not out in Knights second innings when the match was drawn. Duanne Olivier, the Knights’ national bowler did not play this round.Elgar showed off his international form with a double-century for Titans. His opening partner Aiden Markram scored 67 while Klaasen, who traveled with the Test squad as a reserve wicketkeeper to New Zealand earlier in the year, made 111. Interestingly, Lungi Ngidi was named in Titans’ squad but did not make the final XI. He did do some substitute fielding.Much was expected of Cobras’ middle-order batsman Jason Smith but he has yet to get going in the competition. He failed to get past fifty but managed his top-score of the season, 41.Top Performers There were 11 hundreds from this round of matches, taking the total number of centuries in the competition so far to 34. Early-season, batsmen-friendly pitches have rendered the bowlers blunt, which will be a concern for the national team later in the summer. Spinners have been the biggest beneficiaries with left-armer Fortuin the latest to prosper. His 6 for 78 for Lions was the standout performance of the week. Left-arm seamer Cohen also claimed a five-for for Cobras.Though the runs are coming fairly easily, Moore has cashed in. He scored a third hundred in four games for Warriors.Spotted at the game Despite the lack of in-stadium support, the match between Dolphins and Titans in Pietermaritzburg was attended by members of a local care home, who were brought in on the first day.

Which team bought which player? How the 2017 IPL auction panned out

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Feb-20171:38

Sixty-six players sold in 2017 auction

Sold players

INR 1 crore = INR 100 lakh = INR 10000000 = USD 149254 approx
INR 1 lakh = INR 100 thousand = INR 100000 = USD 1493 approxEoin Morgan (Base price INR 2 crore) – Sold to Kings XI Punjab for INR 2 crorePawan Negi (Base price INR 30 lakhs) – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 1 croreAngelo Mathews (Base price INR 2 crore) – Sold to
Delhi Daredevils for INR 2 crore

Ben Stokes (Base price INR 2 crore) – Sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for INR 14.5 crore

Corey Anderson (Base price INR 1 crore) – Sold to Delhi Daredevils for INR 1 croreNicholas Pooran (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 30 lakh

Kagiso Rabada (Base price INR 1 crore) – Sold to Delhi Daredevils for INR 5 crore

Trent Boult (Base price INR 1.5 crore) – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 5 crore

Tymal Mills (Base price INR 50 lakhs) – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 12 crore

Pat Cummins (Base price INR 2 crore) – Sold to Delhi Daredevils for INR 4.5 crore

Mitchell Johnson (Base price INR 2 crore) – Sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 2 croreAnkit Bawne (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Delhi Daredevils for INR 10 lakhTanmay Agarwal (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 10 lakhMohammad Nabi (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for 30 lakhK Gowtham (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 2 croreRahul Tewatia (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Kings XI Punjab for INR 25 lakhAditya Tare (Base price INR 20 lakh) – Sold to Delhi Daredevils for INR 25 lakhEklavya Dwivedi (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 75 lakhAniket Choudhary (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 2 croreT Natarajan (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Kings XI Punjab for INR 3 croreNathu Singh (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 50 lakhBasil Thampi (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 85 lakhM Ashwin (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Delhi Daredevils for INR 1 croreTejas Baroka (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lakh

Rashid Khan (Base price INR 50 lakh) – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 4 crore

Pravin Tambe (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 10 lakh

Chris Woakes (Base price INR 2 crore) – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 4.2 crore

Karn Sharma (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 3.2 croreRishi Dhawan (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 55 lakhMatt Henry (Base price INR 50 lakh) – Sold to Kings XI Punjab for INR 50 lakhJaydev Unadkat (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for INR 30 lakhVarun Aaron (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Kings XI Punjab for INR 2.8 croreManpreet Gony (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 60 lakhMartin Guptill (Base price INR 50 lakh) – Sold to Kings XI Punjab for INR 50 lakh (second round)Jason Roy (Base price INR 1 crore) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 1 crore (second round)Saurabh Tiwary (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 30 lakh (second round)Chris Jordan (Base price INR 50 lakh) – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 50 lakh (second round)Nathan Coulter-Nile (Base price INR 100 lakh) – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 3.5 crore (second round)Praveen Dubey (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 10 lakh (second round)Navdeep Saini (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Delhi Daredevils for INR 10 lakh (second round)Ben Laughlin (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 30 lakh (second round)Billy Stanlake (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 30 lakh (second round)Mohammed Siraj (Base price INR 20 lakh) – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 2.6 croreRahul Chahar (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for INR 10 lakhSaurabh Kumar (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for INR 10 lakhAsela Gunaratne (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 30 lakhDaniel Christian (Base price INR 1 crore) – Sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for INR 1 croreRovman Powell (Base price INR 30 lakhs) – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 30 lakhsDarren Sammy (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Kings XI Punjab for INR 30 lakhMunaf Patel (Base price INR 30 lakh) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 30 lakhRinku Singh (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Kings XI Punjab for INR 10 lakhShashank Singh (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Delhi Daredevils for INR 10 lakhMilind Tandon (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for INR 10 lakhKulwant Khejroliya (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 10 lakhChirag Suri (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lakhR Sanjay Yadav (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 10 lakhShelley Shaurya (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lakhShubham Agarwal (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lakhIshank Jaggi (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 10 lakhRahul Tripathi (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for INR 10 lakhPratham Singh (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lakhAkshdeep Nath (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lakh (third round)Lockie Ferguson (Base price INR 50 lakh) – Sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for INR 50 lakh (third round)Manoj Tiwary (Base price INR 50 lakh) – Sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for INR 50 lakh (third round)Darren Bravo (Base price INR 50 lakh) – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 50 lakh (third round)Sayan Ghosh (Base price INR 10 lakh) – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 10 lakh (third round)

Unsold players

Faiz Fazal (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Alex Hales (Base price INR 100 lakhs)Ross Taylor (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Irfan Pathan (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Sean Abbott (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Ben Dunk (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Jonny Bairstow (Base price INR 1.5 crores)Andre Fletcher (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Johnson Charles (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Dinesh Chandimal (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Kyle Abbott (Base price INR 1.5 crores)Ishant Sharma (Base price INR 2 crores)Lakshan Sandakan (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Ish Sodhi (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Brad Hogg (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Pragyan Ojha (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Imran Tahir (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Umang Sharma (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Prithvi Shaw (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Unmukt Chand (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Asghar Stanikzai (Base price INR 20 lakhs)Mahipal Lomror (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Shivam Dubey (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Manan Sharma (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Rush Kalaria (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Priyank Kirit Panchal (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Vishnu Vinod (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Shreevats Goswami (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Mohammad Shahzad (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Mohit Ahlawat (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Manvinder Bisla (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Abu Nechim (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Umar Nazir Mir (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Pawan Suyal (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Mayank Dagar (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Sarabjit Ladda (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Mitchell Swepson (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Akshay Wakhare (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Cheteshwar Pujara (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Abhinav Mukund (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Michael Klinger (Base price INR 50 lakhs)S Badrinath (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Marlon Samuels (Base price INR 100 lakhs)Evin Lewis (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Nic Maddinson (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Parvez Rasool (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Jason Holder (Base price INR 1.5 crores)David Wiese (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Thisara Perera (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Farhaan Behardien (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Anamul Haque (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Shane Dowrich (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Kusal Perera (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Niroshan Dickwella (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Brad Haddin (Base price INR 1.5 crores)Glenn Phillips (Base price INR 10 lakhs)RP Singh (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Pankaj Singh (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Fawad Ahmed (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Michael Beer (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Akila Dananjaya (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Nathan Lyon (Base price INR 1.5 crores)Rahul Sharma (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Himanshu Rana (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Apoorv Wankhade (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Akash Bhandari (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Akhil Herwadkar (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Pankaj Jaiswal (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Dishant Yagnik (Base price INR 20 lakhs)Rishi Arothe (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Ronsford Beaton (Base price INR 20 lakhs)Kanishk Seth (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Joe Burns (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Colin Munro (Base price INR 50 lakhs)James Neesham (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Wayne Parnell (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Mitchell Santner (Base price INR 50 lakhs)Harpreet Singh (Base price INR 20 lakhs)Colin de Grandhomme (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Andile Phehlukwayo (Base price INR 100 lakhs)Dwaine Pretorius (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Ben Wheeler (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Kesrick Williams (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Tejendra Singh (Base price 10 lakhs)Virat Singh (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Manjeet Singh (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Mehedi Hasan Miraz (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Mahmudullah (Base price INR 30 lakhs)Sabbir Rahman (Base price INR 30 lakhs)B Indrajith (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Amit Verma (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Himmat Singh (Base price INR 10 lakhs)Ashton Turner (Base price INR 20 lakhs)Chaitanya Bishnoi (Base price INR 10 lakhs)

England batter believes that some of his team-mates haven’t been in the right “headspace” to get the runs expected of them

Andrew McGlashan02-Jan-2022Zak Crawley has conceded that some of England’s batters may have been overawed in the Ashes series but believes the last two Tests could start a rebuilding process.England were blown away for 185 and 68 in the Melbourne Test as the Ashes were lost inside 12 days. They have not passed 300 in the series so far, are yet to score a century, and in 2021 the side equalled their record of 54 ducks in a calendar year.Related

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Crawley was thrust into the side for the Boxing Day Test at the expense of Rory Burns, having barely batted since the end of the English season because of the disrupted preparations in Australia. He made 12 and 5, taking his Test record for the year to 173 runs at 10.81, and termed the second evening against Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins as the toughest period he had ever faced.”Just not fearing them,” Crawley said when asked about how England could counter Australia’s attack. “I feel like quite a few of us on our first Ashes tour maybe we were a bit wary of them when there’s no need to be.”It’s a great place to bat even though they are great bowlers, some of them are the best in the world, but when you get in as Rooty [Joe Root] and [Dawid] Malan have shown, they look very comfortable at times. I’m certainly going to do that this game, [play with a] bit more confidence, because I know full well that I can score a hundred here this week.”Overall in his first-class career Crawley, who made his mark with 267 against Pakistan in 2020, has five centuries from 66 matches and an average of 30.91. Graham Thorpe, England’s assistant coach who is filling in for Chris Silverwood this week because of the head coach’s Covid-19-related isolation, spoke last week about the gap between county and Test cricket and that England’s batting had been exposed on this tour.”Everyone has seen the talent that our batters have shown over the last few years,” Crawley said. “We’ve all got the talent to score big runs in Test cricket, you just have to get in the right headspace to perform like that. Feel like that’s where we’ve gone slightly wrong, haven’t been in the right headspace, but physically and talent-wise there’s no question that we can score big hundreds over here.”Crawley admitted he had not had a good year in 2021 but argued there were some extenuating circumstances and also walked away from his Melbourne examination with a positive reflection.”That evening with the crowd, it didn’t go my way but I look back on that with quite a few fond memories,” he said. “Special to be a part of. Fair play, they bowled well, but hopefully I can have a good week this week.”I haven’t played my best cricket. I actually feel in a really good place with my batting. Those stats [averaging 10] are misleading sometimes. I’ve never experienced anything like playing in India, if I scored 10 it felt like a good score, then I didn’t feel in great touch in summer and all of a sudden you are averaging 10.”I’m hoping it will be a slightly flatter wicket here [Sydney, for the fourth Test], it usually is, [Melbourne] offered quite a bit. I learned that there were certain balls I could leave where in England you have to play and I’ll try and do that better this week. It’s great chance to start again and build up the side into a better place.”