Glenn Phillips and Mitchell Santner have thrown their support behind struggling captain Kane Williamson, backing him to come good “at some point”. Williamson’s performance came under scrutiny after New Zealand lost to England by 20 runs in Brisbane. The New Zealand captain faced 40 balls, and scored as many runs, taking his tally at this World Cup to 71 off 76; not once during this time has he batted at…
England’s victory against New Zealand means that there are still plenty of qualification possibilities in Group 1, with just three games to go. Here is a look at what each team needs to do to make it to the semi-finals. New ZealandPlayed: 4, Points: 5, NRR: 2.233, Remaining match: vs Ire (Adelaide) Despite the defeat against England, New Zealand are still reasonably well-placed to qualify. A win by any margin…
Alan Thomson, the former Australia and Victoria fast bowler who took the first wicket in ODI history, has died aged 76. Thomson, who bowled with an unusual action where he delivered off the wrong foot, played four Tests in the elongated 1970-71 seven-Test Ashes series. He played in the first two Tests of that series in Brisbane and Perth, but was not selected to play in the New Year’s Test…
In the chase against New Zealand on Saturday, Sri Lanka had lost their top three for five runs, inside two overs. By the halfway stage they had lost six. Against Namibia, early in the tournament too, their top order had fallen in a heap. The key for Sri Lanka, assistant coach Naveed Nawaz said, was to keep wickets in hand through the early overs, even if they didn’t score many…
Big picture It is not often that Zimbabwe stand a decent chance of qualifying for the semi-final of an ICC tournament. They were one win away from making the final four of the ICC Knockout – later renamed Champions Trophy – in 2000, but fell short against New Zealand; they made the Super Sixes in the 2003 World Cup, but fizzled out in the race to the last four. All…
England 179 for 6 (Buttler 73, Hales 52, Ferguson 2-45) beat New Zealand 159 for 6 (Phillips 62, Curran 2-26) by 20 runs Ten days into the Super 12s, England finally turned up at the T20 World Cup and delivered a clinical performance in a must-win game against New Zealand at the Gabba. Victory in their final group game against Sri Lanka on Saturday should be enough to send them…
Worcestershire have appointed former fast-bowling stalwart Alan Richardson as their new head coach. Kadeer Ali, who began his playing career Worcestershire in the early 2000s, will take up the role of assistant coach. Both are internal appointments, following Alex Gidman’s departure last month. Richardson, who took more than 250 wickets in four seasons with Worcestershire, started his coaching career with Warwickshire in 2014 before returning to New Road as bowling…
Western Australia 115 (Hardie 44, Steketee 6-38, Neser 2-32) & 1-6 (Rocchiccioli 3 not out, Neser 1-3) trail Queensland 211 & 97 (Burns 31, Morris 4-26, Paris 3-15) by 188 runs Queensland seamer Mark Steketee was almost unplayable on a green WACA pitch as he continued his strong start to the Sheffield Shield season, before Western Australia’s quicks engineered a stunning fightback as 20 wickets fell on day two of…
KL Rahul has unequivocal support from captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid after three single-digit scores in the 2022 Men’s T20 World Cup. In 13 matches since the start of the Asia Cup in August year, Rahul has averaged 27.33 at a strike rate of 121.03. In the same period, his two top-order colleagues, Virat Kohli and Rohit have scored at strike rates of 142.49 and 138.79, which has…
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan has downplayed the team’s chances against India, who he feels are the “favourites”, but says he will try to produce an “upset”, when the two sides meet in the T20 World Cup in Adelaide on Wednesday. Shakib called on his young team to forget about India’s might and play with a “nothing to lose” mentality, as he feels Bangladesh are “not here to win the…