Tag Futebol

Aussie players could miss IPL

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Australian cricketers could be barred from participating in this year’s IPL, after the right-wing political party, Shiv Sena, warned that they would not be welcome in parts of the country in retaliation for a series of attacks on Indian students in Melbou

Cricinfo staff14-Jan-2010Australian cricketers could be barred from participating in this year’s IPL, after the right-wing political party, Shiv Sena, warned that they would not be welcome in parts of the country in retaliation for a series of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne.The Australian Cricketers’ Association, a body which is not recognised by the IPL, requested access to the tournament’s security plans but was denied, and has consequently refused to recommend this year’s event to its members. This has led to the prospect of 25 players, including Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee and Shane Warne, sitting out of the tournament in March and April, and missing out on an estimated total of A$9.2m.”The players rely on us to ensure that security is properly assessed and a recommendation is provided to them,” Paul Marsh, the ACA’s chief executive, told the Age. “If the IPL won’t allow us to review arrangements for this year’s event, how can we recommend to our players that they play in the event?”Shiv Sena’s leader, Bal Thackeray, recently declared that “kangaroo cricketers” would not be welcome in the state of Maharashtra, but a spokesman, Diwakar Raote, subsequently qualified those remarks. ”We are not against Australians, we are not against Australian tourists, but this agitation is because of how we feel about what is happening,” he said.”We will respect any guest who comes but we will not allow Australians to play until the attitude is changed in Australia. What we are hearing is that they are killing our people, they are burning our people, they are stabbing our people. For what? The students are going there. Do you think we are going to do the same thing? No. But we will not allow you to play.”Ponting, who is currently involved in the third Test against Pakistan in Hobart, felt there was still sufficient time to sort the issue before the IPL gets underway in March.”I’m sure CA and all the players and the players’ association will do everything they have done for every tour we have been on for the last 10 years to check out some of these threats and most importantly keep the players up to date with everything they are finding out,” he said. “That happens on every tour we go on and we will be expecting and demanding that happens again.”

Samarawickrama: Taking the game a little deeper gave us momentum

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He also reveals how moving around the crease has helped him, a skill he developed during the last LPL

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Sep-2023If Sri Lanka had aimed too high in their Super Four game against Bangladesh, they could have ended up with a sub-par score. These are the thoughts of Sadeera Samarawickrama, the star of Sri Lanka’s batting innings, who struck 93 off 72 balls.Across the match, Samarawickrama was the only batter to make more than 20 at more than a run a ball. But he lauded Pathum Nissanka, who hit 40 off 60, and Kusal Mendis, who made 50 off 73, for setting the foundation.”When Pathum and Kusal were batting, the pitch seemed a bit slow and they did really well,” Samarawickrama said. “If they had taken risks at that point and got out, maybe I would have got out cheaply too. But because they took the game a little deeper and gave us some momentum, I found it easier too.Related

  • Sadeera 93 trumps Hridoy's 82 as SL start Super Four with close win

  • Struggling with bat, Shanaka leads Sri Lanka to victory with ball

“When I saw the pitch, we talked about how this wasn’t a 320 pitch – it’s a 250 surface. Even that you just have to get in the last eight overs or so. If we had gone too hard early, we might have been out for 220. So what I tried to do after getting a start was to get the team to 250.”Samarawickrama, who made his Sri Lanka debut in Tests in 2017, has clearly worked on his white-ball batting since then. On Saturday, he frequently shuffled towards off stump to access the leg side, and backed away to leg to hit through off – often behind point.These were skills he had developed and used in last year’s Lanka Premier League, he said. In that tournament, he was second on the run-scorers chart, with 294 runs and a strike rate of 131.25. It was that performance, in fact, that had launched him back into the conversation as an international player.”Moving around the crease is something that I started in the LPL last year – playing with the bowler’s mind and figuring out how to put pressure on him,” Samarawickrama said. “However the pitch plays, I have to back my strengths, one of which is to back away and hit. It’s something I learned with a lot of hard work, so I back myself to do that.”Sri Lanka have now also won 13 ODIs consecutively, second only to Australia, who had won 21 in a row.”When you play as a team, your own performances are lifted,” Samarawickrama said. “If we had lost, my performance today wouldn’t be highlighted either. If the top order isn’t doing well, the middle order gets it done. If the middle order can’t do it, the top order has scored runs. We’re playing as a team.”

Dan Lawrence's Blackpool pleasure leaves Lancashire beached

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England’s spare batter hits 135 off 125 as Essex seize their moment to set up a victory push

Paul Edwards12-Jul-2023
Just before play was due to begin at Stanley Park yesterday it was noticed that the stumps were missing.There were probably moments over the next eight hours or so when Lancashire supporters wished that nobody had bothered to find the bloody things. Even more usefully, perhaps, the locals might have hoped that the rain which delayed the start of our day’s cricket for 45 minutes and then interrupted it briefly in mid-afternoon would hose down for something like 36 hours. Anything to prevent them having to watch their side collapse like a detonated block of flats and then offer as bad a session of outcricket as they have produced all season.Essex, though, are the sort of team who seize on such weaknesses like peckish piranhas. Their seam attack exploited Lancashire’s batting frailties magnificently to earn a first-innings lead of 137 and the last third of the day featured a quite savage assault on Keaton Jennings’ dispirited bowlers and demoralised fielders by Dan Lawrence, the spare batter in England’s Ashes squad who leaves for Surrey at the end of the season.Capitalising gleefully on the home side’s weakness, Lawrence hit nine sixes, losing at least three balls in the adjoining park, reaching his third century with his fifth maximum and hitting four more of the rascals before perishing in the final over of the day when Jennings caught him at long-on for 135, clubbed off 125 balls.Related

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  • Somerset tighten grip despite Hampshire's late resistance

  • Hannon-Dalby's stereo display powers Warks to innings win

At the other end, Doug Bracewell had hit four sixes in his 61 not out and the pair had added 106 in one ball short of nine overs, but Bracewell will be no more than a footnote to this day’s cricket. The headline writers will be thinking about Lawrence, Essex supporters will be wondering if their side can seal a fourth win of the season and Lancashire followers will be hoping for shelter from the storm.Cricket, however, is rarely so accommodating and the locals’ slumber will be tortured by Essex attack’s merciless demolition of Lancashire’s first innings. Hindered by the Kookaburra ball, which appears to be disliked throughout the county game, but aided by cloudy skies, Tom Westley’s quicker bowlers went to their work with a rare will.Having successfully negotiated the newish ball and reached 76 for 1, Lancashire lost eight wickets for 45 runs either side of lunch and it took Phil Salt’s six over square leg to help them avoid a follow-on that Essex might not have enforced in any case. Sam Cook took four of the wickets but Paul Walter also removed three in eight balls just before the first interval. There were times when the speed of the cricket would have defeated the scribble on the scorecard but Lancashire did not provide such accessories for the third day of this game. It was very prescient of them.Lancashire’s coaches should not be so forgiving. Essex’s seamers bowled with the ruthlessness of men who sensed an opportunity to establish a match-winning advantage and some of the Lancashire’s top order had to be worked out by their opponents. Jennings, for example, pushed at a delivery from Cook which nipped away and went via the edge to Matt Critchley at second slip.Other dismissals were almost entirely the batter’s own work. Among the latter group was Dane Vilas, who pushed his second ball into the off side and called Josh Bohannon for a risky single but was well beaten by Bracewell’s direct hit from the covers. Both Rob Jones and Tom Hartley nicked catches when feeling for balls well outside the off stump. And the innings ended on a note of farce as Tom Bailey ducked away from what he believed to be a beamer from Cook, only to see the ball lollop into his stumps.Dismissed for 145 and already well behind in the game, Lancashire’s bowlers then enjoyed their only decent half-hour of the day. Having been caught at slip for a four-ball duck in the first innings, Nick Browne padded up to Bailey’s third ball of the second dig was sent on his way for a pair. It is doubtful whether the opener will nurture fond memories of Blackpool or, indeed, of Bailey’s bowling.

Next over, Alastair Cook perished, also for nought, when he cut Will Williams straight to Vilas at point and the same bowler accounted for Westley ten overs later. But 27 for 3 and a deficit of 164 was as good as this day got for Lancashire.Sure, they took five more wickets but those successes were nothing but a backcloth to Essex’s rapid accumulation and there were times when the home side’s disciplines seemed to be disintegrating. The only consolation home supporters can take – and it is a fragment – is that Essex did not declare half an hour before the close and that their openers did not have to risk further indignity on their side’s worst day of the season.All that Lancashire have to do now is bat out the final day in order to collect five points for the draw. It will test their professionalism rather more than a run-chase would. But at the end of a day when the gulf between two sides has been so plain, a gloomy statistic comes to mind. In the last 40 years Essex have won seven County Championships; Lancashire have managed just the one.

Jofra Archer likely to miss first four matches for Rajasthan Royals

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Fast bowler undergoes successful surgery to remove glass fragment from his hand

Nagraj Gollapudi31-Mar-2021Jofra Archer is set to return to India to play for the Rajasthan Royals after a period on the sidelines recovering from injury, despite some early doubts over his availability for the 2021 IPL.ESPNcricinfo understands Archer, who had finger surgery on Monday in England, is expected to miss at least the first four matches of the Royals’ schedule.The IPL, which will be played behind closed doors in India, starts on April 9 with the Royals scheduled to play their first match on April 12 in Mumbai against the Punjab Kings.The Royals were awaiting an update from the ECB on a firm date of departure, but it is understood the franchise expects him to be out for at least for the first four matches.On Wednesday, the ECB said Archer had undergone successful surgery to remove a fragment of glass from the middle finger on his right hand and that he would now begin two weeks of rehabilitation. He would be reviewed by a consultant before returning to training and more would be known about the effectiveness of an injection to an ongoing elbow problem, once he was bowling again, the ECB added.In terms of his IPL involvement, the ECB said it was too early to confirm and a decision would be made once he was given the all-clear to return to bowling.Archer suffered a cut to his hand while cleaning at his home in January shortly before flying to India to prepare for their four-Test series. The ECB’s medical team managed the injury throughout the tour, and it did not impact on his availability.Archer returned to England from the India tour immediately after the T20 series in March to have the injuries seen to, the elbow issue having troubled him since the South Africa tour in January 2020.On Tuesday, Ashley Giles, the ECB’s director of cricket, revealed detail of Archer’s finger injury on BBC’s Tuffers & Vaughan show. According to Giles, Archer suffered a cut on the middle finger of his bowling hand in January while at home in Hove after dropping a tropical fish tank in the bath.”They’ve operated and I think they found a small fragment of glass still in attendance. It obviously healed but there was part of the fish tank still in his finger,” Giles said.On April 15 the Royals play against the Delhi Capitals, followed by the Chennai Super Kings on April 19 and then the Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 22.Additional reporting from George Dobell

Leicestershire strive for parity on back of Hassan Azad 92

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Steadfast Hassan Azad innings anchors Leicestershire reply but falls short of third successive hundred

ECB Reporters Network26-Jun-2019Hassan Azad’s carefully compiled 92 saw Leicestershire build a steady reply to Northamptonshire’s 299 on the third day at Wantage Road. Azad batted for over two sessions to help Leicestershire reach 273 for 7 before bad light curtailed the day 15 overs early.Following a century in each innings against Gloucestershire in his last match, Azad again demonstrated a thirsty appetite for occupying the crease and blunted a game Northants attack who operated with good control throughout the day and found some movement.The 25-year-old left-hander showed excellent judgement to leave well and was proactive in his defence, often advancing at the bowling to negate the moving ball. There were only three boundaries – one of them a top-edged pull over the wicketkeeper’s head – in his 132-ball half-century.His strike rate was pedestrian but it was a classic case of grinding out a score when timing wasn’t particularly easy and the bowling was probing.After tea, Azad very carefully swept Rob Keogh’s offspin for four before an all-run four, via an overthrow, took him to 90. His latest advance down the wicket saw him shimmy out at Luke Procter to drive him through mid-off and take him past 600 runs for the season.But within sight of a third consecutive century, Azad clipped Procter straight to Matt Coles at backward-square leg. The trap had been set for much of the day and he finally succumbed after a 212-ball vigil.Procter struck again immediately, trapping Colin Ackermann lbw for a third-ball duck and as the new-ball was taken, Northants sensed a first-innings lead.The new ball paid prompt dividends as Harry Dearden edged Ben Sanderson to wicketkeeper Adam Rossington, who was wrong-footed and dived to his left to take a sharp chance. Sanderson then swung one into Mark Cosgrove to win an lbw appeal.Cosgrove had batted with Azad for much of the afternoon in a stand of 115 for the third wicket. The evergreen Australian played the shot of the day by driving Coles with a flourish past mid-off on a day where timing the ball proved difficult and played another flowing cover drive for four off Procter. But after reaching a fifth fifty of the season in 87 balls with six fours, fell for 63.Dieter Klein was then pinned lbw by Coles after striking three boundaries in his 15 and the wicket was the fifth to fall for 48 runs in 12.2 overs.The late burst saw Northants finally find reward for a day where they remained consistent with the ball. Initially they were frustrated with only one wicket with the first new ball – Paul Horton edging Nathan Buck to second slip for 29 after an opening stand of 60 – and had to wait until after lunch for a second breakthrough when Neil Dexter was caught in the crease by Brett Hutton and fell for 27.

Gary Kirsten replaces Daniel Vettori as RCB coach

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Kirsten, the former India and South Africa coach, had joined the RCB set-up as a batting coach before the 2018 edition

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Aug-2018Gary Kirsten has been appointed coach and mentor of IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore. Kirsten had joined the RCB set-up earlier this year as batting coach. He replaces Daniel Vettori, who was with the side for last eight years – initially as a player and then, since 2014, as a coach.Kirsten’s appointment comes on the back of strong coaching credentials. It was under his coaching stint – from 2008 till 2011 – that India lifted the 2011 World Cup, apart from topping the Test rankings. After that, he moved on to coach his old national side, South Africa, taking them to the summit of Test rankings as well.However this is not Kirsten’s first assignment as a coach in the IPL; he coached Delhi Daredevils for two seasons, in 2014 and 2015, both times with little success. He was also the coach of Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League in 2017.In a statement from the franchise, Sanjeev Churiwala, the RCB chairman, said: “During the last IPL season, Gary has proved to be a brilliant mentor to both seasoned and young RCB players and we are confident that he will bring a fresh perspective to the team.”In 11 editions of the IPL, RCB have never been able to win the title despite having some of the best T20 players over the years in Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Dale Steyn, and Mitchell Starc. In 2018, they failed to make it to the playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.

Saha out for at least two months with shoulder injury

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The wicketkeeper-batsman, who had recovered from a thumb injury he picked up earlier, has been advised to not even lift a bat for two months

Sidharth Monga19-Jul-2018Wriddhiman Saha, India’s first-choice Test wicketkeeper, will be out of action for at least two months with a shoulder injury. His injured shoulder will soon be assessed to see if it requires a surgery. As of now he has been advised to not even lift a bat for two months. The India selectors and the BCCI, however, had never made it public that Saha had recovered from the thumb injury he picked up earlier this year, and that it was this serious shoulder injury that was keeping him sidelined.This injury – which could even put him in doubt for the Australia tour – caps what has been an extremely disappointing year for Saha, who will be 34 by the time India travel to Australia later this year. After he scored 0 and 8 in the first Test of the year, against South Africa in Cape Town, he suffered a hamstring injury and was sent home. During the IPL he had injured his thumb, which was believed to be the reason for his missing the Afghanistan Test.
A BCCI press release in June had said: “Saha suffered an injury to his right thumb while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the VIVO IPL Qualifier 2 against Kolkata Knight Riders on 25th May, 2018 at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. He was under observation by the medical staff of the BCCI and the management has decided to give him adequate rest before the start of the England Test series. Saha’s recovery period is expected to be around five to six weeks.”What has followed raises more questions over the BCCI’s handling of injuries, its communication regarding injuries, and, more importantly, over the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru where Saha was undergoing the rehabilitation. It is learnt that the NCA medical team communicated to the BCCI that Saha will need five to six weeks of rehabalitation; it now looks like it might take five to six months.The BCCI didn’t help matters by withholding the information that a shoulder injury – much more serious than the thumb one – existed when Saha was not picked for the Afghanistan Test. India’s injury management has been under the scanner with Bhuvneshwar Kumar already ruled out of the first three Tests in England. Bhuvneshwar, whose workload was managed during the IPL because of a back condition, was cleared to play all three formats on the long tour of England. The injury resurfaced during the ODIs; he missed the first two matches but aggravated the injury when playing in the final ODI, a day before the Test selection.Curiously the chairman of the selection committee still believes Saha is out with a thumb injury. “Saha’s recovery from a fractured right thumb hasn’t been satisfactory. He hasn’t responded well enough to the rehab at the National Cricket Academy, in Bengaluru. At this moment, therefore, Saha is uncertain for all five Tests, not just the first three,” chief selector MSK Prasad was quoted as saying by the .

PCB rejects Azhar Ali resignation over Amir

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Azhar Ali has sought to resign as Pakistan ODI captain over the presence of Mohammad Amir at the training camp in Lahore for the national team. The PCB, however, did not accept his resignation and asked him to continue, and he agreed

Umar Farooq29-Dec-20151:02

PCB rejects Azhar Ali’s resignation

Azhar Ali has agreed to continue as Pakistan’s ODI captain after a request by him to resign, over the presence of Mohammad Amir at the training camp in Lahore for the national team, was rejected by the PCB.”Azhar Ali met the chairman PCB [Shaharyar Khan]. He tendered his resignation. The chairman didn’t accept his resignation, Azhar Ali agreed and he will continue as captain,” the PCB said in a statement.Azhar, along with Mohammad Hafeez, had refused to join the camp earlier, but had finally relented following a meeting with Shaharyar Khan. ESPNcricinfo understands that Azhar had agreed to join the camp, but had said he would need time to decide on his role as captain.Amir is in the selection mix for the first time after his five-year ban for spot-fixing in the 2010 Lord’s Test. He was one of the 26 probables named for Pakistan’s pre-season conditioning camp. Azhar and Hafeez were originally scheduled to join the camp after completing domestic matches, but they did not do so. Azhar went on to state that he would not attend the camp “as long as Amir is there”. After their meeting with Khan, though, the PCB chairman had said: “I do respect their concerns but some of them, I told them, are not acceptable. So they understood and confirmed that they are on the same page with us.”

Mahmudullah, seamers rout Chittagong

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Barisa Bulls’ batting revival came at the perfect time for them, although it was not quite so for Chittagong Vikings who were crushed at their home ground by 33 runs

The Report by Mohammad Isam30-Nov-2015
ScorecardAl-Amin Hossain had a good game, picking up 2 for 34, including Tamim Iqbal•BCB

Barisal Bulls’ batting revival came at the perfect time for them, although it was not quite so for Chittagong Vikings who were crushed at their home ground by 33 runs. Mahmudullah, Seekkuge Prasanna and Mehedi Maruf played without fear, on a good pitch to pile on 170 for 7, which was more then enough for their bowlers.While Chittagong slipped to their fourth loss in five matches, Barisal put up their third win in four matches and did so only after overcoming some stutters.The start of the Barisal innings was a grim reminder of how they got bowled out for 108 and 89 in their last two innings. Evin Lewis, Rony Talukdar and Sabbir Rahman all fell lbw to leave the score at 12 for 3 in the third over. Maruf, playing in his first match of this campaign, mounted resistance when he whacked Enamul Haque jnr’s full toss for a straight six. Then he paddled Elton Chigumbura over the square leg boundary, a shot that stood out among the nine sixes and eight fours in the innings. But Maruf was dismissed in the 10th over for a bright 28 off 25 balls, and Barisal slipped again when Nadif Chowdhury was the fourth leg-before victim in the 12th over.Mahmudullah and Prasanna ensured there wasn’t a lull in the scoring though and eventually they started hitting sixes almost at will. Their partnership for the sixth wicket provided 61 runs in 33 balls.Prasanna bashed Ziaur Rahman for two sixes over midwicket and Mahmudullah smashed Enamul over long-on. With runs leaking and pressure mounting, Chittagong played a hand in their own undoing. Ziaur and Naeem Islam, at long-off and long-on, dropped Prasanna and parried the ball on both occasions for sixes in the 16th over. The second instance was a no-ball as well. Prasanna was finally dismissed for 36 off 20 balls, after hitting a four and four sixes. A measure of Barisal’s misfiring batting until this match was that this partnership was only their second fifty-plus stand in the competition.Mahmudullah pushed on and made his second half-century in the competition. He was caught behind at the end of a nine-ball over by Chigumbura, who conceded 16 and 22 in his two overs, not to mention the four wides and a no-ball. All of them added up to a total that became too much to chase.Chittagong’s reply would have depended heavily on their top order but Al-Amin Hossain dealt a major blow when he had Tamim Iqbal caught at mid-on. Kamran Akmal, playing his first BPL game this season, was run out after he ran wide of the crease and then failed to drag his bat in the third over. Mohammad Sami then took an excellent catch at mid-on to get rid of Dilshan who made 19.Al-Amin struck again in the sixth over, drawing Anamul’s leading edge which was easily taken at point. In came Chigumbura, with his team at 40 for 4 before the Powerplay was even done, and his day only got worse as he was caught behind after making 5 off 11 balls.When Ziaur was caught at long-on off Sami in the 14th over, Chittagong’s chase was all but over. They were 77 for 6, with only the tail to rely on to handle an equation that read 94 needed off 37 balls. Naeem Islam was the only notable contribution – 38 off 40 balls. Kevon Cooper ended up with three wickets to take him to second place among the top wicket-takers in the BPL so far, while Al-Amin took 2 for 34.

Australia draw confidence from Finch feat

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ESPNcricinfo previews the second T20 at Chester-le-Street

The Preview by Alan Gardner30-Aug-2013

Match facts

August 31, Chester-le-Street
Start time 2.30pm (1330 GMT)England will hope to void another monstering by Aaron Finch in the second T20•PA Photos

Big Picture

Did those at the Ageas Bowl on Thursday witness the explosion of a new Twenty20 sensation, or will “Finch-hitting” become a byword for a flash-dash-and-crash-in-the-pan one-off? Like Stay Puft terrorising Manhattan, Aaron Finch stomped around the pitch, towering over the opposition and effortlessly depositing sixes wherever he chose. He will have the chance to make bowlers’ nightmares flesh again in the second T20 at Chester-le-Street – England may need to resort to calling the Ghostbusters.At domestic level, Finch’s record is formidable but it has taken a freakish knock to cement his spot in the Australia team – though credit should go to the selectors for persisting with him, after scores of 1, 7 and 4 in his three previous T20 internationals this year. Perhaps the answer is to only play him versus England, against whom he has an average of 224 from three innings.The conditions in Durham, where bowlers can usually expect a little more TLC, may mitigate against a similar run bonanza but, after a first win in any format since beating West Indies in an ODI on February 10, Australia’s confidence will have soared like one straight out of the middle of Finch’s bat. This was the first time Australia had fielded the bench-press top four of Finch, David Warner, Shaun Marsh and Shane Watson and it really only takes one of those to go big to create problems for any side; another dismantling of England would set up the ODIs nicely.For England, there was encouragement in the spirited way in which they went about their chase, including another gem from Joe Root in his first innings in the format – and that after having his lip split by a bouncer that forced its way through the grill of his helmet, too. While Finch may bestride the strike rate column in international T20 as the fastest gun to have faced 30 balls or more, there’s an impish presence right on his tail: at 183.67, Root’s career strike rate is just 0.11 lower. Bowl a few more yorkers and England might just make things competitive this time.

Form guide

England: LLWLW
Australia: WLLLL

Players to watch

The man set to deputise for Alastair Cook as England’s ODI captain in the forthcoming series, Eoin Morgan, is fast losing his status as undroppable in limited-overs cricket. He hasn’t passed fifty for England since the World Twenty20 – 23 innings in all formats – and has been in scratchy touch for Middlesex after returning from surgery on a broken finger. He could do with reminding everyone of his own personal brand of genius.For Australia, you can’t look past Aaron Finch – and that’s not just because he is a hefty slab of a cricketer. T20 innings of that magnitude usually require a bit of luck and Finch was honest enough to admit of his record 14 sixes that “any one of those could have gone straight up in the air”; but, amid the pints and the pop music, he will command something close to unbroken attention when he walks out for the follow up at the Riverside.

Team news

England will almost certainly want to look at Michael Carberry, so either of the openers could make way, provided Root doesn’t suffer any after effects from being hit on the head. Danny Briggs suffered at the hands of Finch, conceding more runs than any other bowler, and may rotate back out for the ever-reliable James Tredwell. Boyd Rankin is the other bowling option in the squad.England (possible) 1 Michael Carberry, 2 Michael Lumb, 3 Luke Wright, 4 Eoin Morgan, 5 Joe Root, 6 Ravi Bopara, 7 Jos Buttler (wk), 8 Stuart Broad (capt), 9 James Tredwell, 10 Steven Finn, 11 Jade DernbachSteven Smith has returned to Australia after suffering a quad strain, depleting the 18-man limited-overs squad by one. Adam Voges may not be able to force his way back into a powerful top order but there could be changes to the bowling attack, with Mitchell Starc and Nathan Coulter-Nile providing good bench strength. Fawad Ahmed should get another opportunity to acclimatise to international cricket.Australia (possible) 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 George Bailey (capt), 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 James Faulkner, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Fawad Ahmed

Pitch and conditions

The Chester-le Street surface for the Test provided plenty for the seamers and, even with the priorities of T20 in mind, the pitch is unlikely to be as flat and unthreatening as that in Southampton. The average score for the team batting first during this year’s FLt20 was just shy of 170. A sunny day is forecast, so batting shouldn’t be too taxing.

Stats and trivia

  • Australia’s win in the first T20 was their first victory in international competition in 200 days.
  • They now have a 4-3 win record against England in the shortest format.
  • England last T20 at Chester-le-Street was a seven-wicket defeat against South Africa last year, after making 118 for 7.
  • Finch’s century was the first T20 international hundred scored in the UK.

Quotes

“Rooty played well for his 90 on his first knock in Twenty20 international cricket. If we were chasing 200 we get it. You can’t legislate for someone getting 150 off 63 balls.”
“It’s only one T20 game. There are still five one-dayers and another T20 to come and I’m sure they’ll come back with some new plays so we’ll have to adapt again.”
Aaron Finch wasn’t getting carried away with his achievement

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