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Garth, Gardner, Perry and Molineux ran through Bangladesh, bowling them out for 89 in 26.2 overs to set up the win

AAP27-Mar-2024A ruthless Australia showed little mercy to Bangladesh, thumping them by eight wickets to sweep their ODI series in Dhaka on Wednesday.Already 2-0 up, Alyssa Healy won the toss and had little hesitation in bowling. And opening pair Kim Garth and Ellyse Perry dominated early, removing the top three batters – Fargana Hoque (5), Sumaiya Akter (0) and Murshida Khatun (8) – by the end of the eighth over with just 24 on the board.Bangladesh never recovered, and stumbled throughout the innings, losing wickets at regular intervals to be bowled out for 89 in 26.2 overs.It could have been worse for Bangladesh, though, but Australia bowled 14 wides, helping extras finish as the top-scorer with 20. Captain Nigar Sultana was next best with 16, which she made off 39 deliveries.Garth, who had returned in place of the rested Megan Schutt, claimed 3 for 11 in seven overs to claim the Player-of-the-Match honours, while Ash Gardner, Perry and Sophie Molineux provided solid support.Australia didn’t waste much time to knock off the target with Healy (33 in 34 balls), Perry (27 not out in 28) and Beth Mooney (21 not out in 22) helping them get to 93 for 2 in 18.3 overs.The two wickets to fall were of Healy – leg before to Rabeya Khatun – and Phoebe Litchfield, who was caught and bowled by Sultana Khatun for 12.Gardner’s three-wicket haul earned her the Player-of-the-Series award, given her exploits in the opening matches. She made 32 and took 3 for 22 in the first ODI, and in the second claimed 2 for 22 and made an undefeated 20.Australia will now meet Bangladesh in three T20Is, the first of which will be played on Sunday, March 31, and will be followed by matches on Tuesday, April 2 and Thursday, April 4. All the games will be played in Dhaka.

West Indian fast bowler in formidable form as Derbyshire lose in three days

ECB Reporters Network05-May-2024Sussex 479 (Pujara 113, Coles 72, Alsop 64, Haines 58) beat Derbyshire 246 (Tickner 47) and 109 (Seales 5-29) by an innings and 124 runsAn electric spell of reverse swing bowling from Jayden Seales inspired Sussex to a crushing victory over Derbyshire inside three days in the Vitality County Championship match at Derby.The 22-year old West Indian fast bowler took a career-best 5 for 29 and was twice on a hat-trick as Derbyshire crumbled to 109 for 9, with Blair Tickner absent hurt, to lose by an innings and 124 runs.Danny Lamb opened the way for Seales’s devastating burst by taking 2 for 10 after he scored 37 in the morning before the visitors were bowled out for 479, a lead of 233.Any chance Derbyshire had of avoiding an innings defeat vanished when they collapsed from 71 for 2 and the match ended with Derbyshire’s New Zealand fast bowler Tickner unable to bat after he revealed on social media that his wife has been diagnosed with a serious illness.Sussex already had a healthy lead of 111 going into what became the last day and although Cheteshwar Pujara added only nine runs to his overnight 104, the lower order ensured they secured maximum batting points.Derbyshire at least had the incentive of a new ball that was only three overs old and Daryn Dupavillon made full use of it by removing the overnight pair.Jack Carson was tempted into cutting at a wide ball and was caught behind before Pujara was lured into an indecisive shot by a ball that moved away enough to take the edge.But Finn Hudson Prentice and Lamb added 49 to stretch the lead towards 200 before Lamb gave Morley the charge and was stumped.After Ollie Robinson drove Morley for six, he chipped the spinner to short midwicket and when Hudson-Prentice holed out to long on, Derbyshire had five overs to negotiate before lunch.David Lloyd and Luis Reece survived with few alarms but it was a different story after the interval once Seales made the first breakthrough.Lloyd tried to pull a ball which struck him on the thigh pad and was lbw before Reece aimed a big drive at Hudson- Prentice and played on.The collapse gathered momentum with Wayne Madsen lbw to Lamb aiming to work through midwicket and Brooke Guest edging a drive into his stumps.Seales then returned at the City End to make the ball reverse at pace and keep low which was too much for a team already sliding towards defeat.His first ball bowled Aneurin Donald and the next pinned Anuj Dal in front. Zak Chappell survived the hat-trick ball but more mayhem followed in his next over.Matt Lamb was beaten by rapid swing and Jack Morley yorked although Seales was denied another chance of a hat-trick when Sussex turned to spin to improve their over rate.Chappell struck a few defiant blows before he was caught at wide long on and with Tickner, who chose to play in the game, absent the match was over.It was Sussex’s second win of the season but they were deducted a point from their haul of 24 for a slow over rate while Derbyshire finished with three bowling points.

He accepted breaching seven counts of the anti-corruption codes of SLC, the Emirates Cricket Board and the CPL

ESPNcricinfo staff02-May-2024The ICC has banned West Indies batter Devon Thomas from all cricket for five years. Thomas accepted breaching seven counts of the anti-corruption codes of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).Thomas had been suspended for corruption in May 2023 when he was slapped seven charges, which included “contriving to fix” matches. The period of ineligibility is backdated to 23 May 2023, when he was provisionally suspended. Thomas accepted breaching the same seven charges of which four were from the SLC anti-corruption code, one from the ECB code, and two from the CPL code.Calling the five-year ban a “period of ineligibility,” an ICC release stated the “the last 18 months of the period of ineligibility would be suspended.”Back in 2023 the ICC had stated the charges against Thomas were with regard to his conduct while playing in the LPL, Abu Dhabi T20 and the CPL. The most serious charge against him – of attempting to fix a match – was from the 2021 LPL in which he played just one game for Kandy Warriors.The four charges under the SLC anti-corruption code were of “contriving or being party to an agreement to fix or attempt to fix, contrive or influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or other aspects of matches”, “failing to disclose […] full details of an approach” to the ACU, “failing or refusing, without compelling justification, to cooperate” in an ACU investigation, and “obstructing or delaying” the investigation by “concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information”.The single charge he faced under the ECB code was for failing to disclose details of an approach made to indulge in corrupt conduct during the 2021 edition of Abu Dhabi T10, when he was a part of the Pune Devils team.The remaining two charges were from the 2022 and 2021 editions of the CPL when he represented St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and Barbados Royals. One of the charges was, again, failing to disclose an approach. The second charge is about failing to report the “receipt of any gift, payment, hospitality or benefit (a) that he knew or should have known was made in order to procure a breach of the CPL Code, or (b) could have brought the player or the game of cricket into disrepute”.”Having played both international and professional domestic/franchise cricket, Devon attended numerous anti-corruption education sessions,” Alex Marshall, ICC General Manager – Integrity Unit, was quoted as saying in the release. “He therefore knew what his obligations were under the Anti-Corruption Codes but failed to meet these obligations across three different franchise leagues.”This ban is apt and should send a strong message to players and corrupters that attempts to corrupt our sport will be dealt with firmly.”Thomas, 34, is primarily a white-ball player having represented West Indies in 21 ODIs and 12 T20Is, from 2009 to 2022, apart from his lone Test in Australia in December 2022. He laat played domestic cricket for Leeward Islands in March 2023.

Left-arm seamer takes 3 for 12 as hosts run riot at Durham

ECB Reporters Network19-Jun-2024Northern Diamonds bowled Lancashire Thunder out for just 61 – the lowest total in the four-year history of the Charlotte Edwards Cup – on the way to a five-wicket victory with 6.2 overs to spare against their arch-rivals at Durham’s Seat Unique Riverside.Scotland left-arm seamer Rachel Slater returned a superb three for 12 from four overs bowled straight through with the new ball, while opener partner Lizzie Scott also struck twice added to two wickets for the off-spin of Erin Burns in a final group clash which started with neither side able to qualify for Saturday’s Finals Day.Having almost perfectly made use of helpful bowling conditions, the Diamonds slipped to 37 for four in this helter-skelter contest. But Thunder had left themselves with too much to do, and their former batter Rebecca Duckworth steered the hosts over the line with an unbeaten 21.Both sides finished this competition with three wins from their 10 matches. Diamonds have won their last two and Thunder have lost their last two.Given the Diamonds are hosted by Yorkshire as a region, this was the first of two Roses T20s in as many nights, with the men’s teams facing off at Headingley in the Vitality Blast tomorrow. And the first blow was struck by the White Rose county in emphatic fashion.Diamonds got off to a near-perfect start, beginning with the correct call at the toss.Captain Hollie Armitage elected to bowl on a green pitch which offered obvious seam movement and also prodigious swing for Slater and Scott, the latter playing her first game of this season’s T20 competition.Thunder slipped to 19 for four inside the opening five overs, losing key trio Emma Lamb, Australian Katie Mack and in-form Seren Smale, whose 88 not out in their defeat at Central Sparks on Friday represented – at the time – the highest score by any batter in this competition.Scott had Fi Morris and Mack caught, the latter brilliantly by a diving Katherine Fraser at backward point, and left-armer Slater bowled Lamb and Smale.Unfortunately for Thunder, things got worse quickly, and 13 from Tara Norris batting at number nine proved to be their highest score. Only three batters reached double figures as a procession of batters came and went on a sunny North East day.Captain Ellie Threlkeld was run out from cover at the striker’s end before debutant all-rounder Grace Johnson chipped Slater to mid-off – 24 for six in the seventh.Kate Cross was bowled by Australian Burns before, considering the circumstances, the riches of back-to-back boundaries through the covers for Norris off former Thunder seamer Sophia Turner took the score to 50 for seven in the 11th.But it was only a brief respite. Norris was bowled on the pull at Scotland off-spinner Katherine Fraser before Liberty Heap was stumped off Katie Levick’s leg-spin.And when Sophie Morris chipped Burns to cover, Thunder were all out inside 15 overs for a record low total.Left-arm spinner Morris and new ball seamer Cross then both struck twice apiece to give Diamonds something to think about at 37 for four after eight overs, 25 runs still needed.England’s Cross trapped Emma Marlow lbw and had Bess Heath caught behind to finish with figures of two for 14 from four overs.Duckworth’s unbeaten 21 represented the highest score of the match.

Nick Knight also felt that “it didn’t seem right or fair” that India knew where they were playing

Shashank Kishore27-Jun-20241:54

Knight: Playing conditions are not fair at this World Cup

Did India have a clear advantage knowing where their T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final was going to be staged? India captain Rohit Sharma didn’t think there was any. Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar thought otherwise.”Clear advantage,” Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo’s Timeout show. “Rohit has to say that. He can’t say it was an advantage. India would’ve picked their side based on it. India’s problem has been semis and finals and when you know you’re playing in Guyana, if you’ve been wondering why they’ve got four spinners in their squad, this could be the reason.”Former England batter Nick Knight concurred with that assessment that “it didn’t seem right or fair” that India knew where they were playing. It’s a school of thought that seems to have found favour from several quarters, most notably his former colleague and opening partner Michael Vaughan.Related

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“Literally, it’s their tournament,” Vaughan said in the podcast on Thursday. “They get to play whenever they want. They get to know exactly where their semi-final will be. They play every single game in the morning so people can watch them at night in India on TV.”I get that. I get that money is a big play in the world of cricket. And I get that in bilateral series, but you would think that when you get to a World Cup, the ICC should be a little bit fairer to everybody. It shouldn’t be just India just because they bring a few quid in.”As I said, bilateral, I completely understand it. But when you get to a World Cup, there cannot be any kind of sympathy or any kind of sway towards one team in the tournament. And this tournament is purely set up for India, simple as that.”6:19

Rohit: We’ve played with a free mind in last two-three years

Knight went a step further in questioning the ICC’s decision to have separate rules for both the semi-finals. The Afghanistan-South Africa semi-final on Wednesday night had a reserve day scheduled, while the India-England semi-final had only the provision of an extension by 250 minutes, and no reserve day. The decision to have the final on a Saturday was among other scheduling concerns raised.”I can’t quite get my head around why we’ve got to this point,” Knight said. “I thought watching the group stages, it could’ve been condensed. I thought they were elongating moments at times between games. And why can’t we play the final on Sunday? Am I oversimplifying this to give teams the extra day to travel? I wonder if we could’ve pushed it altogether a little bit more to prevent this situation from happening.”Manjrekar called for the ICC to make it a level-playing field, and not solely focus on commercial gains.”It’s a wrong way to go about it,” he said. “I’m talking about a very idealistic kind of a situation. In this sport, we’ve put the cart before the horse a lot. We’re so excited to take it to the USA, New York. But what about the conditions? You’ve got to focus on making the product high-quality and a level-playing field and then look for commercial gains.”We can’t just say ‘this is what the market wants, let’s cater to that’ because this is not really a pure, commercial venture. It’s got to be about having a high-quality [product].”

Smale, Morris half-centuries set up visitors with bat before Stars crumble in chase

ECB Reporters Network26-Aug-2024Thunder 250 for 8 (Smale 76, Morris 54) beat South East Stars 130 (Chathli 54, Cross 6-40) by 120 runsEngland’s Kate Cross took List A best figures of 6 for 40 as Thunder beat South East Stars by 120 runs in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy at Beckenham.Batting first, Thunder made 250 for 8 from their 50 overs, Seren Smale top-scoring with 76 and Fi Morris making 54. Ryana MacDonald-Gay was the Stars’ most potent bowler with three for 42 and she also claimed a run out, while Kalea Moore took 2 for 49.Cross, however, did the damage by claiming the key wickets of Bryony Smith and Alice Davidson-Richards in successive balls. Despite a batting 54 from Kira Chathli Stars never really looked like chasing down the target and they were all out for 130 from 36.4 overs.Thunder won the toss and chose to bat on a slow Beckenham track, putting on 53 for the opening wicket before Moore bowled Alice Clark for 23 in the 15th over.MacDonald-Gay bowled Emma Lamb for 24 in the next over, but Smale and Morris shifted the momentum with a 96-run stand that was only broken when the latter chipped a Moore full toss to Paige Scholfield at cover.MacDonald-Gay nearly had Smale for 43 in the next over but Chathli couldn’t hang on to an inside edge and she was joined by Ellie Threlkeld, who made 33 before she was cleaned up by MacDonald-Gay. At that point the Thunder were on 205 for 4 with seven overs left but they lost wickets too frequently to mount a serious charge during the death overs.MacDonald-Gay bowled Naomi Dattani for 14 and then ran out Danielle Collins for 1 as she chased a non-existent single, before Smale was smartly run out by Phoebe Franklin going for a second.It was impossible to say who were favourites at halfway but Scholfield was unable to bat in her usual slot due to an injury and the odds tilted further in the visitors’ favour when Cross intervened.Stars skipper Smith went for just 12, caught at extra cover by Clark and Cross’s next delivery bowled Davidson-Richards off the inside edge for a golden duck. Chathli survived the hat-trick ball at the start of the next over and was then dropped off the sixth ball by Dattani when she was on 2.Makeshift opener Chloe Hill made a useful 18 in a partnership of 45 for the third wicket until Sophie Morris had her caught by Clark. Moore was bowled by Dattani for 6 and when Aylish Cranstone was lbw to Fi Morris for 9 Stars’ hopes looked thin.They looked thinner still when the same bowler had Franklin caught for 2 at cover by Cross and wafer-thin when Cross returned at the City End to get Chathli caught at long-on by Fi Morris.In her next over Cross had MacDonald-Gay caught in the deep by Fi Morris for 13 and although Scholfield came in at No. 10, she was batting in visible discomfort and lasted just two balls before chipping Cross to Dattani for 1. An emphatic win was concluded when Cross bowled Dani Gregory for a duck.

She always had the power, and now Shafali Verma wants to build on her confidence and add consistency to it for a better-rounded game

Daya Sagar and Vishal Dikshit02-Oct-20242:47

Shafali: ‘I have worked on the mental side of my game’

Consistency, power-hitting, and confidence. Shafali Verma wants to combine the three things she has learnt at different stages of her career to take India to glory at the T20 World Cup next month.She always had the power, it was her “natural game”. Consistency is something she has picked up more recently, highlighted by her maiden international century in June this year. And she is hoping to tap into the confidence she gained from leading India to victory in the Under-19 T20 World Cuplast year, where she was also the third-highest scorer.”I will draw inspiration from the Under-19 World Cup last year,” Shafali told ESPNcricinfo at a QUA brand shoot in Delhi recently. “Of course, it was a massive thing for women’s cricket in India that we won an ICC trophy. It was the biggest moment of my life and I will take confidence from that so that we can lift the T20 World Cup this year as well.Related

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“Our main focus right now is that we win the [World Cup] trophy. Individual goals and records are a part of the game. But there’s no better feeling than your team winning, and those nights I get good sleep.”Shafali has been part of the India team’s camps at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru in the lead up to the T20 World Cup, which runs from October 3 to 20 in Sharjah and Dubai. She hasn’t played any competitive cricket since the T20 Asia Cup in July, and since she didn’t feature in the Hundred and didn’t put her name in the WBBL draft for the upcoming season, she has been utilising this time to work on herself in different ways.”At the start of my career, I just used to go out and hit, but now I’ve made some changes mentally”•Getty Images

“I’m not playing the WBBL and the Hundred because I’m working on my fitness and mental levels,” she said. “But even when I played those tournaments, I learnt that fitness is very important because if you want to play long knocks then having good fitness is extremely important.”One such long knock Shafali played recently was when she scored the double-hundred against South Africa in the home Test in June.”That day I told myself I had to play a long innings, and not let that opportunity go,” she said. “I don’t know how many bad patches and struggles I went through before that, and such knocks are so rare. But that day everything was going well and my aim was to play for as long as possible.”Speaking about consistency, she said, “At the start of my career, I just used to go out and hit, but now I’ve made some changes mentally. Now I have the game to block a couple of deliveries as well, I can play along the ground too. You become more consistent once you make mental changes in your game. I’m hoping to carry on this consistency and do well for the team.”The T20 World Cup in 2020 was my first World Cup and that time I used to go after every ball. Early in your career, such thing may work, but after a point the opposition starts doing video analysis and they can work out your game when it comes to your strengths and weaknesses. I didn’t do that well in the 2023 T20 World Cup either but I learnt a lot from that tournament.”Now people have started to say my consistency has improved and in the last three-four years I’ve learnt how important being consistent is. I’m just 20 now and plan to get better from the learnings of the last three-four years.”Shafali’s USP, right from her early days in the Women’s T20 Challenge which led to her India debut at the age of 15 in 2019, has been her power hitting, something she doesn’t want to let go of.”These kinds of things you learn from an early age and I have worked a lot on it,” she said. “Now it comes very naturally to me. But it’s not like if something comes naturally then you don’t have to work hard on it. Just like you work on your weaknesses, you should work on your strengths as well. So the truth is that I’ve learnt this from childhood and now it comes naturally to me.”

County successfully appeals “disproportionate” punishment for outsized bat during Blast match

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Sep-2024Worcestershire have received a suspended two-points deduction for the next season’s Vitality Blast, after their allrounder, Josh Cobb, was deemed to have used an illegally-sized bat in their North Group match with Durham in July.Cobb admitted a breach of ECB Directives 3.2 and 3.3 after his bat failed a bat-gauge test during the Durham match, at which stage he had not yet faced a delivery. The Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) adjudicator originally imposed a straight points deduction, but this was amended on appeal to a suspended penalty, which will be imposed if Worcestershire commit a further breach of this nature.It is the second such penalty to be levelled in county cricket this summer, following the 12-point deduction that Essex were last month handed in the County Championship, following Feroz Khushi’s breach of the regulations during their opening fixture of the season, against Nottinghamshire in April.Essex issued a scathing riposte to that verdict, with Keith Fletcher, the club president, decrying it as “stupid”, not least because it wrecked the club’s hopes of challenging for the County Championship, with their final match of the season, at home to Surrey – who have already been crowned champions – taking place this week.Worcestershire were similarly aghast at the original verdict, and explained in their appeal that the loss of two points could mean the difference between reaching the knock-outs of the Vitality Blast and an early elimination.”Being docked points next year potentially/effectively puts a club of our size, with our resources, out of contention for qualification to the later rounds in 2025,” the club wrote to the adjudicator, Chris Tickle. “This has an impact on next year’s squad, coaching team, sponsors and, therefore, the club’s finances. This impact is potentially devastating to us and is disproportionate.”In his amended verdict, Tickle wrote: “Given those circumstances, I am persuaded that it is in the interests of justice to review my decision.”Dave Lewis, the interim director of the Cricket Regulator, said: “I am pleased that we were able to work with Worcestershire CCC and the Cricket Discipline Commission and that the adjudicator was able to reconsider their original decision in this case.”We also note that this is the second oversized bat case this year, and the Cricket Regulator will be working with counties, players, and officials to inform them about the issue with a view to preventing a recurrence next season.”The Cricket Regulator is the independent body which enforces the rules for domestic professional cricket as well as working to educate participants and prevent potential breaches. The Cricket Regulator investigates and prosecutes cases but does not decide on any penalties.The Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) is the independent adjudication body which hears cases, rules on responsibility for breaches of rules and issues penalties to teams and participants.

The alleged incident happened during the 2023 ODI World Cup, for which he has been suspended for two days and will be “terminated immediately” after; Phil Simmons takes over his role

Mohammad Isam15-Oct-2024Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe has been sacked by the BCB for the alleged “assault” of a player during the 2023 ODI World Cup. He has been suspended for 48 hours in lieu of a notice period, and he is to be “terminated immediately” after that period. He was also served a show-cause notice by the board.The BCB also announced the appointment of Phil Simmons, the former Zimbabwe, Ireland, West Indies and Afghanistan head coach, as Bangladesh’s interim head coach until the Champions Trophy in February 2025.”Hathurusinghe has two counts of misconduct,” BCB president Faruque Ahmed said at a press conference in Dhaka on Tuesday. “First is about an assault on a player. Secondly, he took too many leaves, more than what was in his contract.”The suspension-cum-sacking is because of an incident at the 2023 World Cup when, during a match against New Zealand in Chennai, Hathurusinghe allegedly hit a player during one of the drinks breaks. ESPNcricinfo has learned that the player had had a slightly delayed reaction to the drinks break – he had been tasked with taking drinks out to his batters in the middle – prompting Hathurusinghe’s reaction. Apparent eyewitnesses reported the incident to the BCB’s higher-ups in Kolkata two weeks later, but it went unaddressed.Ahmed also said that Hathurusinghe was guilty of misconduct as a BCB employee because of all the extra leave he took. ESPNcricinfo understands that Hathurusinghe’s contract with the BCB capped his leave at 45 days per year, but he took 112 days in 2023 and 59 days till date in 2024.The BCB’s chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury handed over a letter to Hathurusinghe, informing him of the decision, at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, hours before Ahmed’s media announcement.”There were couple of incidents about the current coach which, for me as a former player, were quite painful,” Ahmed told the media. “As it doesn’t set a good example for the Bangladesh team, we have served him with a show-cause notice and suspension from duty as head coach today. His suspension is for a 48-hour notice period, which we are not bound to give him. But we did it out of courtesy as he is an international figure. We have suspended him, and with immediate effect afterwards he will be terminated.”There was a misconduct with a player, and misconduct as an employee. He also spent more than three months [on leave], that is also a large part of his misconduct. He informed us in a scattered way, in one or two emails, that he has to go home. It can’t be for more than three months. Even as a board president, I cannot do what I want. I am guided by some rules. It is the norm. So there was a serious breach in that regard.”BCB not naming player involved in incident: ‘The victim is not very comfortable about it’Ahmed would not name the player involved in the alleged assault incident. “It was a sad incident for the particular player. I am not defending anyone, anything might happen in the heat of the moment, but you cannot hit a player. It is not on. This is the right punishment. It should have happened some time ago,” he said.”The victim is not very comfortable about it. I will not mention his name. We will only talk about the misconduct. This incident shouldn’t have happened.”Ahmed said he had read about the incident before he became the BCB chief, and he started an investigation after being elected to the post in August.”I investigated myself. I spoke to the victim. I spoke to the eyewitnesses,” Ahmed said. “Both of their versions are already in the report. [The incident] was mentioned in a previous report.”I remember feeling really disappointed when I read about the incident last year. I felt something should have be been done about it at the time. The ICC is quite strong about racism and abuse. They would be more serious about assault.”Hathurusinghe returned for his second stint as Bangladesh coach in February 2023. In August this year, shortly after Ahmed was appointed as board president, he had said that Hathurusinghe should no longer continue as Bangladesh’s head coach. Ahmed said Hathurusinghe’s sacking had nothing to do with “personal reasons” though.”When I spoke about Hathurusinghe previously [before being elected BCB president], I spoke as a former player who was assessing a coach. I said at the time that he doesn’t have much more to give to Bangladesh. My decision today isn’t influenced by personal reasons.Under Hathurusinghe, Bangladesh produced underwhelming performances during last year’s ODI World Cup and this year’s T20 World Cup. His biggest achievement in this stint was Bangladesh’s 2-0 Test series win against Pakistan in August. It was their maiden win in Pakistan, and first overseas Test series win in 15 years. However, following that, in India, they lost 2-0 in the Tests and 3-0 in the T20Is which included a 133-run thrashing in the third match.Simmons appointed after BCB speaks to ‘a number of coaches’Ahmed expressed satisfaction at Simmons being appointed interim head coach. He said that they got a coach with a good track record, who has worked in several countries and with several franchises. He said that Simmons will be the head coach from the home Test series that starts against South Africa starting next week, running up till the Champions Trophy in February 2025. In this period, Bangladesh will also play an ODI series against Afghanistan and tour the West Indies for an all-format gig.”We have appointed Phil Simmons for the interim period. His initial contract is up to the Champions Trophy. He was head coach in different countries. He has a very good track record. He has worked with many franchises, including tournaments like the Pakistan Super League and Major League Cricket.”He has had a healthy career as a coach. We spoke to a number of coaches, and we got a really hard-working guy.”

Teen prodigy Sam Konstas has a chance to score his third century of the summer, after helping NSW navigate a wet day at the SCG

AAP07-Dec-2024Sam Konstas has helped New South Wales survive a tricky 20-over session, taking the Blues to 137 for 1 at stumps on a wet day two of the Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia.After rain washed out the opening five hours of day two at the SCG, NSW were asked to contend with an 80-minute period before stumps on Saturday.The Blues lost one wicket, Blake Nikitaras edging speedster Lance Morris to Cameron Gannon in the gully on 38.Otherwise NSW got through unscathed, with Konstas 80 not out and the Blues moving closer to Western Australia’s first-innings total of 211.After Konstas rocketed to 55 by stumps on Friday, he was far more circumspect in Saturday’s shortened period.The opener squeezed out two boundaries behind point in one over against Gannon, and used his feet to hit Corey Rocchiccoli back down the ground for four.He offered one half-chance late, sweeping Rocchiccoli in the air to deep square leg, only for a tough diving chance to be put down by Brody Couch.Tanveer Sangha also navigated through 28 balls, after being sent in as a nightwatchman at No.3 following the fall of Nikitaras.Konstas’ runs continued a serious purple patch for the opener, who scored 107 against a Test-quality Indian attack for the Prime Minister’s XI last week in Canberra.He also began the summer with twin Shield tons against South Australia, shooting him into the conversation for a Test debut.The 19-year-old has made no secret of the fact he feels ready for the game’s toughest level, keen to challenge himself as soon as this summer.A century on Sunday will only strengthen his case, with he or Josh Inglis likely to be next in line if Australia make changes to their top order.Tasmanian allrounder Beau Webster is also in Australia’s squad after three sparkling years with the bat in the Shield, but his chance is more likely to come if a vacancy opens up at No.6.Konstas’s runs have also come at a good time, with this the last round of the Sheffield Shield before the BBL break.It means he and other hopefuls will not play another Shield game until February, by which time Australia’s Test side will be in Sri Lanka for a two-match series.