“It was a little bit out of character,” says New Zealand captain about the series of dropped catches throughout the T2I tri-series

Deivarayan Muthu14-Oct-2022Kane Williamson is pleased with the form of allrounder Michael Bracewell and opening batter Finn Allen as New Zealand build up to the men’s T20 World Cup.Bracewell, who is more of a batting allrounder for his domestic side Wellington, emerged as the joint-highest wicket-taker in the T20I tri-series in Christchurch, with eight strikes in five games at a scarcely believable economy rate of 4.94. Those returns fetched him the Player-of-the-Series award, though New Zealand lost the final to Pakistan on Friday.Related

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Allen, who was picked ahead of Martin Guptill, showed his explosive power at the top, striking at just over 145 across five games. Both players have now made strong cases to be in New Zealand’s starting XI for the T20 World Cup.”Both performed beautifully well and [they] played really valuable roles within the side,” Williamson said at the post-match press conference. “[They play] complementary roles too – Finn at the top is super aggressive and hits the ball really, really hard and looks to take it on, which has been great. And it complements Dev [Devon Conway] really well.”Michael – Man of the Series – incredible effort, especially to not win the series as a team. He showed his contributions throughout these five-six games. He was really disciplined with his lengths and made life quite difficult on these sorts of pitches as well.”In the final, Bracewell bowled two tight overs in the powerplay in which he gave up just four runs and drew a top edge from Babar Azam to midwicket. Mitchell Santner is usually New Zealand’s go-to powerplay spinner, but Bracewell has shown that he can also bowl the tough overs against top batters. Bracewell also tied down Mohammad Rizwan, keeping him to a run-ball 6 against him.”It [bowling in the powerplay] is something that I’ve practiced a lot now, particularly in the nets and had a chance to go out in the middle and bowl a few times in the powerplay,” Bracewell told . “It’s something that I am getting more and more comfortable with. Obviously, it’s pretty daunting bowling to Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam. But it’s a challenge that I’m really enjoying.”In last season’s Super Smash, Bracewell took only six wickets in 25 overs at an economy rate of 6.84. Having done well for New Zealand – both at home and away – Bracewell feels he is a more rounded offspinner now than he was last summer.”I feel very fortunate for the opportunities that I’ve got. I’m just trying to learn as much as I can and soak up as much knowledge from the rest of the spin bowlers in our group,” he said. “Being able to play in different conditions all around the world is an absolute privilege. So, I’m really enjoying it and I feel I have a few more skills than I did eight months ago.”With New Zealand carefully managing their injury-prone quicks Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne, and Santner missing the early exchanges of the tri-series, the team management has had to juggle between finding their balance for the tri-series and preparing for the World Cup.Finn Allen “is super aggressive and hits the ball really, really hard,” Kane Williamson noted•Getty Images

“It’s not really how we were looking at this [tri-series]. We were looking at this tournament in isolation a little bit,” Williamson said. “Having said that clearly, there’s a big tournament at the end of it, but trying to focus on what’s in front of us and play the cricket that’s in front of us. You can sometimes get carried away looking ahead and all these sorts of things; so, I thought that was good. There was some improvement throughout the series and some lessons.”I think it’s valuable as a team to get this sort of exposure and competition quickly before a tournament like that. Tournament sport – it’s different and not playing similar teams day in and day out. It’s thinking on our toes and adjusting as a side quickly with different venues and different oppositions.”New Zealand dropped at least eight catches in the tri-series, but Williamson wasn’t overly concerned by it. He drew confidence from New Zealand’s tidy effort in the field on Friday in isolation.”That [dropped chances] was definitely touched on [in team discussions],” Williamson said. “Not just the catches; it can happen, although it was a little bit out of character. As a side, it’s something that we pride ourselves on, but that energy and intensity how we operate… we definitely saw an improvement today, which is important and hopefully we can continue that standard going ahead.”New Zealand will open their T20 World Cup campaign against defending champions and hosts Australia at the SCG on October 22.

The offspinner admitted she was fortunate to gain one of her wickets

AAP08-Nov-2022Spinner Molly Strano returned to the top of the all-time WBBL wicket-taking list as her Hobart Hurricanes stayed in semi-final contention with an eight-wicket win over the Melbourne Renegades.Renegades were dismissed for 80, the lowest complete innings score of this season’s competition. Hurricanes cruised to their small target at Blundstone Arena with 56 balls to spare, taking 10.4 overs.The win lifted fifth-placed Hurricanes to within two points of Perth Scorchers in fourth and they having a game in hand. Hurricanes have the best net run rate of any of the eight teams.Spinner Strano spearheaded the Hurricanes bowling efforts as they dismissed the Renegades in 17.2 overs. Her haul lifted her WBBL career tally to 131, one ahead of Brisbane Heat spinner Jess Jonassen.”It does not drive me, it actually sits better with me when JJ is at the top of the table because she is more skilful than I am,” Strano told .Strano hinted she may have been a trifle fortunate to get one wicket as Josie Dooley was given out lbw after appearing to hit the ball with the bottom edge of her bat.”You can probably call it a half-hearted appeal, just a very polite inquiry,” Strano said.The heavy loss dropped Renegades back to last spot on net run rate below Sydney Thunder, who they beat on Sunday.Only Courtney Webb and Hayley Matthews provided any resistance against Hurricanes’ battery of spinners and medium pacers. Captain Sophie Molineux was the only other double-digit scorer for Renegades but her dismissal from a catch off a miscued shot triggered a collapse.Their last seven wickets fell for 34 and they had a disastrous powerplay, losing 3 for 3.When Hurricanes batted, Molineux dismissed their two South African stars, with Coyte taking a fine one-handed catch at backward square leg to remove Lizelle Lee and Mignon du Preez falling lbw.Elyse Villani, who had scored just 56 runs from her six previous WBBL innings, returned to form in making a season-high unbeaten 41 off 34 balls.

The two-week tour will include three ODIs as well in Dhaka and Chattogram

Mohammad Isam27-Dec-2022England’s first bilateral tour of Bangladesh in six years is confirmed for March 2023. The two sides will play three ODIs and three T20Is over two weeks, to be held in Dhaka and Chattogram.The three-match ODI series is part of the Super League, a tournament to decide which teams get direct entry into the 2023 World Cup. Both England and Bangladesh have already qualified. The first two matches are in Dhaka on March 1 and 3, before the third takes place in Chattogram on March 6.Then, Bangladesh and England will play their first-ever bilateral T20I series. The first match is in Chattogram on March 9, before the other two will be held in Dhaka on March 12 and 14.

Bangladesh vs England schedule

1st ODI: March 1, Dhaka

2nd ODI: March 3, Dhaka

3rd ODI: March 6, Chattogram

1st T20I: March 9, Chattogram

2nd T20I: March 12, Dhaka

3rd T20I: March 14, Dhaka

There was some speculation that the Bangladesh Cricket Board may be reluctant to host England’s big-hitting batting line-up in Chattogram. Especially given how just a few days ago, India put up a 400-plus total there.England are likely to arrive in Bangladesh around February 20. They are scheduled to play two practice matches before the ODI series begins.England have won all four bilateral ODI series between the two sides, although it got close in 2016. Bangladesh drew the Test series which followed those games, coming from 0-1 down with a performance that ranks among their very best.ECB chief executive Clare Connor was excited to see the two sides returning to play each other in a bilateral series after a long time.”It is exciting that the England men’s white-ball squad will return to Bangladesh for the first time since 2016,” she said. “The atmosphere generated in Dhaka and Chattogram for this eagerly-anticipated tour will be fantastic. There is a great passion for cricket across Bangladesh, and we expect a tough challenge against a side who have an excellent record in home conditions.”

Defending 390, India bowled the visitors out for 73 to complete a 3-0 series whitewash

Sidharth Monga15-Jan-20232:05

Maharoof: Kohli is simply the GOAT of international cricket

A more comprehensive drubbing is difficult to imagine. Centuries from Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill powered India to 390 on a slow and seemingly lifeless track before the ball started hooping around under lights. Mohammed Siraj took four wickets of Test quality, and Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav supported him with two each as India bowled Sri Lanka out for 73. India’s victory margin was comfortably the biggest in ODI history, beating New Zealand’s previous record of 290 runs against Ireland.The change in conditions was dramatic all right, but the difference in quality of the two sides was no less stark. India chose to bat first to challenge themselves to set an above-par total and then defend it in dewy conditions. As it turned out, the match hardly lasted long enough for dew to become a factor, with Sri Lanka bowled out in 22 overs.

Watch on ESPN Player in the UK

WATCH replay of the third India vs Sri Lanka T20I by clicking here

The win, though, was set up with the bat. Rohit Sharma and Gill gave India the quick start they needed before Kohli took over. Gill fell for 116 off 97 in the 34th over; Kohli scored an unbeaten 166 off 110 balls. These were two contrasting centuries. If the two innings had a pulse, Gill’s resembled that of a cricketer: explosive power interspersed with near-inactivity. Kohli’s was that of a mid-distance runner: regular, rhythmic mid-to-high heartbeat maintained efficiently without any huffing and puffing. In the home stretch, he turned into a sprinter.It should not be a surprise. It was only the second ODI century for Gill, who is still coming to terms with pacing international innings, whereas Kohli’s was his 46th. It was his 10th against Sri Lanka, the most any batter has scored against a single opposition.2:30

Jaffer: Gill will be India’s next big batter after Kohli

India scored only one run off the bat in their first three overs, which suggested the batters needed to get used to a slow surface, but once they got going, they went hard. The lack of depth in the Sri Lanka bowling showed, which meant the batters could afford to not go hard against Wanindu Hasaranga.Gill and Rohit scored in spurts. After the slow start, Gill followed a Rohit six with four consecutive fours in the sixth over, bowled by Lahiru Kumara. A brief lull was then broken with two sixes and a four from Rohit in the 10th over, bowled by Kasun Rajitha.Then five overs went without a boundary immediately after the powerplay. Rohit then tried to manufacture one by pulling a shortish ball in the air in the 16th, and was caught at deep backward square leg, done in by the lack of pace and bounce in the pitch.Kohli walked in, and cover-drove the second ball he faced for four. In his second over at the wicket, Kohli delivered a one-two to legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay, cover-driving him for four before going back to late-cut the next ball, which was predictably flatter.Gill, who had gone from 5 off 14 to 35 off 28 to 52 off 55, then opened up with a short-arm slog-swept six off Vandersay. He took 34 balls to get the 48 runs needed for his hundred while Kohli settled into an upgraded version of the already efficient anchor he was: scoring at more than a run a ball without taking any risks.After he got to his hundred, Gill tried to switch into a higher gear in the last nine overs of the second powerplay, and hit Vandersay for three fours in the 32nd before being defeated by the low bounce of a slower ball from Rajitha in the 33rd.Kohli, on a risk-free 58 off 56 then, slowly pushed himself ever so slightly to reach 82 off 76 by the end of the 40th over. That the pitch had become even slower and more difficult to score off was apparent in the way Shreyas Iyer struggled for timing.In the last 10 overs, Sri Lanka’s fielding fell to pieces. It began with Vandersay running from long-on and getting lobbed by a Kohli mishit. Kohli acknowledged his luck there, which was also acknowledgement of the wretched luck he has had over the last three years. Then there was an ugly collision between Ashen Bandara and Vandersay as they converged on a ground shot from Kohli.3:33

Jaffer: You don’t miss Bumrah when Siraj is bowling like this

During his hundred in the first ODI, Kohli seemed to run out of juice towards the end. Here he barely broke a sweat. And once Kohli is fresh and set in the death overs, the pressure on the fielding side is extreme. Catches kept going down, balls kept getting fumbled, loose balls kept arriving, and Kohli went from zero sixes in the first 40 overs to eight by the end of the innings, the most he has hit in an ODI innings.Kohli more than doubled his score in the last 10 overs, scoring 84 off the last 34 balls he faced without much contribution from the other end. India scored 116 from the last 10.Bandara was going to miss the chase with his injury, and Vandersay availed a concussion substitute in Dunith Wellagagae. One batter short, Sri Lanka’s task was always going to be tough, but the red-hot Siraj made it impossible.Siraj has been using the outswinger more these days while the ball is still swinging, and has become less reliant on his favourite toy, the wobble-seam inducker. As it turned out, the ball kept swinging. One wide slip took a catch, then a second slip came in, then a third, and it suddenly looked like India were pushing for a Test win on the last evening.Avishka Fernando and Kusal Mendis fell to the classic outswinger, Nuwanidu Fernando inside-edged a wide outswinger, and Hasaranga got the wobble-seam delivery that seamed in to hit the top of off.Shami looked no less dangerous, and the pressure created resulted in two soft dismissals against him. Kuldeep bowled Dasun Shanaka through the gate, and Siraj ran out the striker Karunaratne with a throw in his follow-through.In the end, India stopped trying to get the last wicket from the other end to let Siraj go for a five-wicket haul. Eventually he got an lbw decision in his favour with the last ball of his allotment of 10, but Rajitha had inside-edged it, and reviewed successfully. The last wicket ended up adding 22 before Kuldeep ended the match with the wicket of Kumara.

Captain refuses to write his team off as they continue to fall on the wrong side of results with one win since the start of last season

Umar Farooq19-Feb-2023Karachi Kings have won only three out of their last 19 PSL matches, they won just one game in 10 last season, and they’ve begun PSL 2023 with three defeats. That’s not a great position to be in while preparing to take on their biggest rival, Lahore Qalandars, but captain Imad Wasim refuses to write his team off yet.”We are presently coming with a losing streak from last season until now, but once we get winning momentum then you become a force,” Imad had said after narrowly failing to chase down 169 against Quetta Gladiators last night. “But it’s not happening right now and it’s our mistake. We will sit and talk about it. Someone needs to play that finishing role and be that one person so that we can have our belief back. Faith is very important in any sport and any career and I still have faith in Karachi.”They will not have too much time to do this introspection, with the Qalandars clash lined up later today, but Imad did try to make sense of the rut. “I won’t say we are playing very bad cricket overall but we are only playing good cricket in phases. Sometimes it happens in a team when you aren’t able to click all together – once we do, we will start winning.”We made a lot of mistakes but they are done. No team goes out and tries to lose, it’s just a lean patch that hasn’t come to an end since last season and we are trying to get out of it. As a professional, when you see the chips are down, everything is against you, that is when you turn up to win your team a game.”Imad is one of the most experienced PSL captains, second only to Sarfaraz Ahmed, but his record is patchy: 44 captained, 20 won, 20 lost (Super Overs aside). This season, all three losses have come at home, even as they’ve fiddled with their combination and strategy. Among the changes dished out was Matthew Wade, the Australian wicketkeeper-batter, who played as opener in the first game scoring 23 off 15, but was pushed down to the middle order for the next two games and has scored 18 off 18 and 15 off 19 from there. Imad did say finding the right person to finish innings was on his mind.”We aren’t able to finish well, it is one of the factors [in our slump]. Secondly, our death overs are a factor…”Then there is the matter of making it count once in, and Imad said that too had been discussed with the team. “Sometimes if you don’t show enough intent, you give away your wickets very easily in such conditions. It was talked about, not letting it go so easily because with one set batsman in, anything is possible, especially on Karachi pitches. But it’s not happening, everyone who is getting set is getting out other than Shoaib Malik.”Imad had advocated an aggressive brand of cricket coming into this tournament, and he said the rocky start has not changed his mind. “It’s a way of playing cricket, you play shots and express yourself. Unfortunately, we’ve lost wickets in the powerplay and so have not been able to express ourselves, but once we settle in everything will click. We are still going to play the same brand of aggressive cricket with the ball and bat.”

It’s hard to decide which of Shakib’s performances was more meaningful as both were critical to Bangladesh’s win

Mohammad Isam06-Mar-2023Shakib Al Hasan packs many things into the regular phenomenon that is “Shakib Al Hasan Day”. He rescues Bangladesh’s batting from a slump. He farms the strike with a tailender as he looks for a late burst of runs. When handed the ball, he makes early breakthroughs, offers middle-overs stability and then adds the finishing touches with late wickets. These are supposed to be rare days, but Shakib has had many in his 16-year career.Shakib now has a fifty and a four-for in an ODI for the fourth time in his career, the most by any cricketer, beating the three times by Chris Gayle and Shahid Afridi. He has also done the five-for.But a brilliant allrounder playing for a team often in trouble usually means that these Shakib Al Hasan days are more necessary than ornamental.In this game Shakib touched 300 ODI wickets, and is now 24 short of reaching 7,000 runs in the format. Only Afridi and Sanath Jayasuriya have reached these heights in ODIs. On most days, Jayasuriya and Afridi had seven or eight match-winners to share the load. For much of his career, Shakib had two or three others. Now perhaps there are a few more.It is hard to decide which of Shakib’s performances on Monday was more meaningful. Both were critical to Bangladesh’s win.He made 75 off 71 balls when the innings was in decline. He couldn’t find any of Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain and Mehidy Hasan Miraz to stick around for long enough to share slogging duties in the last ten overs.To ride out Bangladesh’s mini middle-order collapse, Shakib waited for 35 balls before getting his first boundary. When he did, he struck Sam Curran for two in a row. The rest of his boundaries came towards the death, when he was running out of partners, but Shakib is the sort of busy player who reaches 30-odd without anyone noticing and then finds the boundaries.Related

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Shakib then had work to do with the ball. England went off to another quick start, before he removed both openers, Phil Salt and Jason Roy, to bring the home side into parity. Salt was cross with himself for getting out to a short ball, but Roy had no answer for what he calls Shakib’s “undercutter”. It is essentially the arm ball, which Roy played back, and allowed to sneak under his bat.Shakib kept bowling tightly but those watching had his impending 300th wicket in mind. It was also increasingly looking like his last two overs, which Tamim had kept him back for after finishing Taijul Islam’s spell from the pavilion end, were going to shape the match.Taijul removed Jos Buttler, but Shakib also took James Vince’s wicket to seal the deal, getting Vince to follow his line on leg and middle only for it to break sharply and take the outside edge (Mushfiqur Rahim juggled a bit but took it safely). For his 300th ODI wicket, Rehan Ahmed couldn’t time Shakib’s half-tracker, only to be caught at short midwicket.Bangladesh have always won when Shakib has taken four wickets and scored a fifty in an ODI. The first instance came in the seminal Bangladesh-New Zealand series of 2010. Shakib started the series with 58 and a four-wicket haul, apart from being thrust into the captaincy following Mashrafe Mortaza’s injury in the first over.The next double, against Zimbabwe in 2014, was in his return to international cricket after serving a BCB suspension. The third one came against Afghanistan in the 2019 World Cup, when pretty much everything Shakib touched turned gold. It was only the second instance of a fifty and a five-wicket haul in the World Cup.What takes Shakib to the strata of truly allrounders is his consistency in Tests. He has taken five wickets and scored a fifty in Tests ten times. Only Ian Botham has done it more. Shakib has done the single fifty and five-for six times, and one instance each for two fifties and a five-for, a hundred and a five-for, a hundred and a 10-wicket haul, and a fifty and 10-for. Bangladesh won only three of these Tests.It highlights the physical load Shakib has taken over the years, regardless of the team’s result. For a long time since Mohammad Rafique retired, Shakib had to do the attacking, consolidating and defending with the ball. He has always had to quickly put the pads on too, to get the team a fighting half-century. Only in the Tests against West Indies (2009), Zimbabwe (2014) and Australia (2017) did the rest of the team contribute enough to win the Tests.Tamim Iqbal, who has seen these days from Shakib for many years, praised his long-time teammate for his contributions.”I thought he was phenomenal,” he said. “The way he batted, especially with the tailenders, those 20-25 runs were very important. Honestly, the wicket didn’t have that much spin, but the way he bowled was brilliant. It gave confidence to Taijul, who didn’t start well. He was talking to Shakib. I thought it was a fantastic effort from him.”Tamim said Shakib’s ability to handle pressure made him a special cricketer and called him a “blessing”.”I think he is mentally very strong,” he added. “Most of the time you will see him come out of pressure situations with similar performances. He has done it in the past. He has great skill-set to back his mentality. Not many people are blessed like him to bowl 10 overs and bat the way he bats. Any team will be blessed to have a player like him.”Blessing is perhaps the best way to describe Shakib for Bangladesh. Over 16 years, it has at times been a bit of a stretch to ask him do it over and over again. But Shakib has done it, be it in a dead rubber or on the biggest stage. In another World Cup year, a final push from Shakib is critical to Bangladesh’s ambitions.

Captain Tom Bruce also made an important half-century as the home side paced things superbly

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Apr-2023New Zealand A produced a fantastic final-day run chase to topple their Australian counterparts in Lincoln as they hunted down an imposing 365. Dean Foxcroft and captain Tom Bruce got them within sight of the target before Cam Fletcher’s unbeaten half-century finished the job.After resuming on 31 for 0, New Zealand A had taken time to lay a foundation. Xavier Bartlett made two morning breakthroughs for Australia A, claiming openers Sean Solia and Henry Cooper, before the middle order got to work.Related

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Foxcroft and Cole McConchie, who has been named in New Zealand’s squad to tour Pakistan, added 73 for the third wicket before Foxcroft and Bruce compiled a crucial 95 for the fourth.South African-born Foxcroft, who may have to wait until 2025 to be eligible for the national side, was three runs away from a century when he was superbly caught by Jimmy Peirson from an under-edged reverse sweep against Mitchell Swepson.Swepson kept Australia A in the match when he also removed Rob O’Donnell as the batter advanced down the pitch and missed. And when Bruce, having made 64 off 73 balls, fell to Bartlett, there were still 67 runs needed with the lower order exposed.However, Doug Bracewell cracked four boundaries in a nine-ball 18 to make significant inroads into that alongside Fletcher, who struck three sixes in his rapid display.Wes Agar removed Bracewell to a catch in the deep but Scott Kuggeleijn was able to partner Fletcher through to the target.All the Australia A attack came in for punishment with Swepson going at nearly four an over through 31 overs.The second of two four-day matches begins in Lincoln on Saturday.

Hosts can’t keep up with the Joneses as Eve and Amy lead Sparks home with six wickets to spare

ECB Reporters Network10-May-2023Erin Burns helped Central Sparks avenge their defeat at the hands of Southern Vipers earlier this month with a five-wicket haul to help her new side to victory in this Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy match at Hove.Chasing a modest 181, Sparks looked in little trouble from the moment their captain, Eve Jones, cut the second delivery of the innings from Lauren Bell to third man for four and they romped home with 8.4 overs to spare.They lost their first wicket at 68, in the 20th over, when Abigail Freeman, driving, was bowled by Georgia Elwiss for 28. After that their biggest setback came when the players came off for rain – and even then they had a superior run-rate. The result was confirmed by a second-wicket partnership of 85 in 15 overs between Jones (73) and her right-handed namesake Amy Jones, who picked up the scoring rate and raised the 100 in the 26th over when she hit Linsey Smith for successive fours. There were three more boundaries in her eye-catching, run-a-ball innings of 40.The Vipers bowlers could simply not keep up with the Joneses and their fielding flagged too as the result became inevitable in the warm afternoon sunshine.By the time Eve Jones was out, to the last ball of the 38th over, chipping a return catch to Elwiss, Sparks were just 12 runs short of victory. The captain had led from the front, facing 124 balls and hitting seven fours.The Vipers’ innings of 180 from 47.2 overs was a disappointment and represented a considerable comeback from Sparks who looked likely to be on the receiving end of a total of well over 200.Sparks had won two of their previous four matches and on each occasion had chosen to bowl. They did so again here, despite the good looking pitch, and had cause to regret the decision when Vipers opener Ella McCaughan, after making her customary solid start, decided to play more shots on the way to her 90-ball 59, with six fours.She lost opening partner Maia Boucher in the third over and then Australian debutant Nicole Faltum ramped Issy Wong straight to third man. But when Vipers were 96 for two in the 25th they looked confident of setting a more robust total.They were undone, mostly, by the Australian Burns, an exciting recruit for this season, who will be available until the end of July. Burns’ off-spin shone as she returned figures of 5 for 36 from her 10 overs, including the important wicket of McCaughan, who was caught sweeping at short fine-leg.The middle-order collapse saw Vipers lose six wickets for 42 runs with captain and key batter Georgia Adams making the second-best score of 29.With the pacey but erratic Wong withdrawn from the attack after bowling another beamer at the start of her ninth over, Burns was supported by Georgia Davis, who took 3 for 19, but the steadiest of the bowlers was Emily Arlott, even though she took just one wicket on the ground where she took a hat-trick last year.

Young batter is poised to open for Australia in Women’s Ashes Test

Andrew McGlashan18-Jun-2023″I still feel like I’m going to watch the Ashes, I need to remind myself that I’m potentially playing it,” says Phoebe Litchfield.In a way, it’s unfair to a player to say an international career feels inevitable because, however talented, there is a huge amount of work that goes into reaching the highest level.But sometimes, a player who is clearly going to make that step pops up.In mid-2019 a social media clip of Litchfield, the left-handed batter, playing cover drives in the New South Wales nets as a 16-year-old went viral. Later that year she made her WNCL debut for NSW and WBBL debut for Sydney Thunder, in the latter scoring a half-century in her second game.In late 2022, on the T20I tour of India, she made her Australia debut and her first ODI series followed a few months later against Pakistan, in which she made 154 runs for once out.Her caveat of “potentially” playing in the Ashes is understandable for a young player who doesn’t want to jump ahead of selection calls, but it would be a huge surprise if she doesn’t add a Test cap come next week in Nottingham.Related

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• Mooney locks in Test opening role with warm-up century

• Annabel Sutherland century helps Australia to draw with England A

The retirement of Rachael Haynes opened one vacancy and the late withdrawal of Meg Lanning created another at the top of the order. Alongside Alyssa Healy’s desire to move down the order to manage her workload, everything points to Litchfield opening the batting as she did in the warm-up match against England A.”I’m so excited, can’t put it into words,” she tells ESPNcricinfo. “The T20 tour to India and the Pakistan series here were amazing highlights but think there’s an added layer to the Ashes. If the opportunity to open arises, I’ll definitely grab it. It’s probably the best position.”Ask others about Litchfield and there is one word that crops up frequently. “Just fearless, we speak about that in our white-ball cricket, and she embodies that,” Australia’s stand-in captain Healy says.Her technique was honed by working with her father Andrew at home in Orange when she couldn’t travel to Sydney 250km away. “It started when I just picked up a bat and it was probably very backyard cricket, then as I progressed, he told me where my front elbow should go and sort of progressed from there. Wouldn’t say it’s a perfect technique, but people have said it looks alright.”There is no multi-day cricket in the Australian domestic women’s game – there isn’t in England, either – but Litchfield has experienced two-day men’s cricket when she played the local competition in Orange. Although, she adds: “To be fair, our team wasn’t that good, so we didn’t last the full day most times.”Litchfield is something of an outlier in Australian cricket as a specialist batter coming through the game. The dominance of white-ball cricket in the women’s game lends itself to multi-discipline cricketers. If you look at a possible Australian XI on the England tour, it’s potentially only Litchfield from the batting group who does not have a second string, albeit Beth Mooney plays as a specialist batter. Litchfield still keeps wicket as a back-up but has never been pushed into being something she isn’t.”I began as a bowler but bowled off the wrong foot and as soon as I went down to training sessions, they were like you can’t bowl like that because you’ll get an injury,” she says. “So, I stopped bowling early on. I was a keeper, still have that as a secondary skill, but for the time, just want to focus on being the best fielder I can be and obviously, the batting.”While Litchfield’s talent was clear from early on, there has been an evolution in her game over the last 12 months. She is adding power to her T20 cricket, while last season, she averaged 49.87 in the WNCL which included a maiden century. Litchfield may not feature in the T20s of the multi-format Ashes – although Lanning’s absence leaves a hole to fill there, too – but she wants to be as versatile as possible.”Being a full-time cricketer, I can work on my game all the time,” she says, speaking just a few days after completing university exams. “I’ve been in the nets working hard on different shots and just being able to work hard on the craft of batting. There’s a lot to work on both the power game and just mentally. Your cover drive can be good, but out in the middle, a lot can happen and it’s about weathering that.”You can’t look perfect all the time; not that I want to look perfect but leading into one-day cricket and the [Ashes] practice matches, I’ve been working hard on the technique because that’s what gets found out, especially over in England with the swinging ball.”For someone who clearly loves batting, the chance to do it for a whole day in a Test match is an exciting prospect. “I’m so keen,” she says. “Now that I’ve got an added appreciation of batting and really enjoying it, I’m excited at the prospect of batting all day. Whether my mind can do it, we’ll see, but keen to give it a crack.”

Prajapati ton in vain for Oman as hosts take another step towards the ODI World Cup

Madushka Balasuriya29-Jun-2023A valiant Oman fell achingly short of the finish line, as Sean Williams’ 142 trumped Kashyap Prajapati’s 103 – the first ton by an Oman batter against an ICC full member – to help Zimbabwe secure a narrow yet crucial 14-run win to kick off the Super Six stage.Williams’ masterful innings was aided by cameos from Sikandar Raza and Luke Jongwe, along with several other useful contributions right throughout the order. Then with the ball, Tendai Chatara and Blessing Muzarabani picked up three apiece, and Richard Ngarava grabbed a pair to stall Oman’s charge.

Oman penalised for slow over-rate

Oman were fined 40% of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate – they were two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration – against Zimbabwe.
Their senior bowler Kaleemullah, meanwhile, had one demerit point added to his record for a code-of-conduct breach relating to using inappropriate language, actions or gestures.

The result means Zimbabwe have one foot in the World Cup proper, with another win from their next two games securing qualification – though they can qualify even with two losses, provided other results go their way.For Oman, while their chances of qualifying are now virtually non-existent by virtue of their inferior net run rate, their performance was yet another reminder of the closing gap between Associate nations and their full-member counterparts.Oman will rue missed opportunities with each of Williams, Raza and Craig Ervine dropped, while there were also several easy runs given away and run-out chances missed. By contrast, Zimbabwe grabbed every inch, most notably when Raza completed an awe-inspiring over-the-shoulder grab to dismiss the set Prajapati.In the twilight of his career, Williams is currently at the peak of his powers, putting up scarcely believable numbers. In Bulawayo, a ground where he has played countless hours of club cricket, he struck a 103-ball 142 – nearly becoming the second man after Sanath Jayasuriya to score back-to-back scores of 150 or more in ODIs. His average is vying with his strike rate, and he is now on 532 runs for the tournament with three more games potentially left to play.Kashyap Prajapati’s 103 was the first for Oman against a Full Member team•ICC/Getty Images

On Thursday, he arrived in the middle overs and shifted gears effortlessly. The surface in Bulawayo was not completely to the batters’ liking but in Williams, Zimbabwe had a man for all occasions.He was part of key partnerships throughout – 64 with Wessly Madhevere, 103 with Raza, 41 with Ryan Burl for 41 and finally 21 with Jongwe. In each of those, Williams was the more dominant partner, finding boundaries all around the ground when needed. Only the excellent Kaleemullah managed to keep him to a strike rate of less than 100 (90).When Williams fell with still five overs left, Oman might have had hopes of getting in a few miserly overs but Zimbabwe’s tail wagged significantly – through a combination of excellent running, streaky boundaries and fielding lapses – to take 55 off the final five.At that stage, with a target of 333 set, on a track that wasn’t exactly straightforward to bat on, Oman went about their chase with the nous of more seasoned campaigners – never letting the required rate get out of hand, finding boundaries when necessary and limiting dot balls.But where Oman had provided the Zimbabwean batters with breathing room, Zimbabwe kept the pressure on, and when the chances came they didn’t flinch. Though no one was surprised; they’ve only been doing it all tournament.