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North Zone captain Shikhar Dhawan, with a ton, led his side to a bright start on the first day of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final in Chennai

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Oct-2012
ScorecardShikhar Dhawan’s century ensured North Zone’s positive start in the Duleep Trophy quarter-final in Chennai•K Sivaraman

North Zone captain Shikhar Dhawan, with a ton, led his side to a bright start on the first day of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final in Chennai. Following scores of 99*, 152 and 61 in the Challenger Trophy, he scored 101 here in an opening stand of 164. His partner Rahul Dewan scored a half-century, as the duo weren’t separated till the 58th over of the day to lay the base for a strong first-innings total. West Zone ended with three wickets – the openers and Sunny Singh, who fell four short of a half-century in the final over of the day.Fifteen boundaries in Dhawan’s innings boosted his strike-rate to 56, the highest among all batsmen. His departure – he was stumped off offspinner Kamlesh Makwana – was followed by his partner Dewan’s dismissal, also off the same bowler, seven overs later. A third-wicket stand of 76 between Sunny Singh and Nitin Saini looked to see them through to the close before Singh was caught behind in the 90th over, as the day ended.Left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh, who was part of the India Under-19 squad that won the World Cup in Australia, was the most expensive of all the bowlers, with an economy rate of 4.16 in his 18 overs.

Anurag Thakur, the president of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, has said that the BCCI welcomes the sports bill proposed by the Indian government but objects to a few clauses

Tariq Engineer10-Sep-2011Anurag Thakur, the president of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, has said that the BCCI welcomes the sports bill proposed by the Indian government but objects to a few clauses. The provisions that Thakur said were unacceptable are those that specify term limits for office bearers, require at least 25% of elected representatives to be former players and bring all national sports federations under the Right to Information Act, which would essentially require the board to divulge operational information to anyone who files a legitimate request.Thakur said that the BCCI already limits terms for its president and office bearers to three years, which is a significantly shorter period than the bill’s limit of 12 years. He also said the accounts of the board are available online and that “we we work in a very transparent and effective manner”. [Ed’s note: The BCCI’s website has a link to its annual report which says “coming soon” and currently there are no sets of accounts available on its website.]”The BCCI is the most professionally-run sports organisation in the world, especially in India,” Thakur said. “And we have taken cricket to new heights … (As for) the issue of RTI, as per the Chief Information Commissioner, he has very clearly stated in the Supreme Court that BCCI doesn’t fall under the category of RTI. So I think if the government makes some changes to the RTI Act, then only we will come under it.”One of the potential drawbacks of falling under the RTI Act, according to Thakur, was that it could get in the way of the day-to-day operations of the BCCI if the board is forced to respond to requests about selections issues and scheduling. “The BCCI is an autonomous body and there should not be government interference.”On the subject of reservations for former players, Thakur pointed out that a number of former players are already in executive positions, such as Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath, the president and secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, and Shivlal Yadav, the vice-president of the Hyderabad Cricket Association. “On the technical committee and selection committee (of the BCCI), we have only cricketers and umpires,” Thakur said.

Cricinfo looks ahead to the three-match ODI series between India and Australia

The Preview by Sriram Veera16-Oct-2010

Match Facts

Sunday, October 17, Kochi

Start time 9:00 am (0330 GMT)Michael Clarke had a poor Test series. Will the ODIs bring a change in his fortunes?•Getty Images

The Big Picture

Michael Clarke will lead Australia in the ODIs, and he’ll feel the pressure. There has been an intense debate in Australia about the future, including captaincy. There appear to be three camps: Ponting loyalists, Clarke aficionados and the anyone-but-Clarke club. The third should worry Clarke. His poor performance in the Tests this tour has added more fuel to critics who believe Clarke rarely performs when the team needs it. Australian captains have been tough; Clarke is seen as a bit of a show pony by his critics. This three-match series will give him another opportunity to silence them.In India, there is no such debate. There are those who put MS Dhoni’s success down to luck but they haven’t reached a critical mass. And even they can’t put forward an alternative name for captain. Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar put it thus: “Dhoni is a guy who does things that are supposed to be done and leaves the rest to fate. He doesn’t try to control everything. That is his greatest strength.”The series will be a contest between two men – one itching to prove that he is the man for the future, and one whose future in the pantheon of successful Indian captains is already secure. If only the weather allows them. Australia haven’t been able to practice in Kochi, the venue of the first ODI. Their players, during this time, have been tweeting about spending their time in the gym and wishing the rain would stop.

Form guide

(most recent first)
India LWLWL
Australia WWLLL

Watch out for…

Just when Callum Ferguson was establishing himself in the ODI line-up and looking ahead to securing a place in the Tests, he twisted his knee in the Champions Trophy final and had to sit out for a while. The Champions League, the Twenty20 tournament in South Africa, was his comeback and he starred with two half-centuries, finishing fifth on the tournament run tally. The best thing going for him is that there seems to be almost no one in Australia who doesn’t rate him highly. This ODI series should help him kick-start his ambitions and others’ hopes.R Ashwin’s time has surely come. A stable head, calm temperament and rapidly developing skill-set puts him right up there in the reckoning for a spot in the playing XI. The all-round development has been visible: He developed a carrom ball and has now honed it to perfection, he uses the crease more intelligently and has already developed a reputation of bowling in the Powerplays. His development hasn’t gone unnoticed. “He is used to bowling in the Powerplays. He is an aggressive bowler, he has the variety and he is always ready to bowl whenever you throw the ball to him,” Dhoni said at the end of the Champions League. “He wants to perform; he has grown as a player over the last three IPLs.”

Team news

Shikhar Dhawan, the only surprise call-up in the Indian squad for the series, is likely to make his ODI debut.India (probable): 1 M Vijay, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Virat Kohli/Rohit Sharma, 6 MS Dhoni (capt and wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Munaf Patel.Doug Bollinger is the senior-most fast bowler in the squad but is yet to fully recover from the abdominal strain that ruled him out of the Bangalore Test. He hasn’t bowled since picking up the injury and it remains to be seen whether he will be fit for Sunday’s match. Fast bowler Mitchell Starc could make his debut in case Bollinger misses out.Australia (probable) 1 David Warner, 2 Tim Paine (wk), 3 Michael Clarke (capt), 4 Shaun Marsh/Callum Ferguson, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Steve Smith, 8 James Hopes, 9 Nathan Hauritz, 10 Clint McKay, 11 Doug Bollinger/Mitchell Starc.

Pitch and conditions

The unrelenting rain has put the first ODI under threat. We have to wait and watch whether it will clear up in time to allow some play. The consistent rain has affected the pitch preparations and it will be interesting to see how it plays.

Stats and trivia

• India have a poor record of chasing against Australia: They have lost 34 games and won only 17 while batting second against them.
• MS Dhoni has 225 ODI dismissals as a wicketkeeper and stands sixth in the all-time list. He needs nine more dismissals to go past Ian Healy.
• Clarke averages 43.03 in ODIs but it dips against India: he averages 37.83 and has scored one hundred from 25 games against India. He averages 33.88 against the Indians in Australia while it jumps marginally to 38.57 in Indian conditions.
  

  Quotes

  “Boys are just looking at some video footage of the Indian players.”
  
  “We need this rain to stop asap … I am very frustrated.”
  

West Indies skipper praises Jomel Worrican’s work but urges his batters to be braver for the second Test

Danyal Rasool19-Jan-2025West Indian captain Kraigg Brathwaite did not ignore the elephant in the room, but did not hide behind it, either. He said straightaway that Pakistan “prepared a dry spinning pitch from day one”, while acknowledging it was their right to do so, and challenging both his batters and his bowlers to adapt to it better in the second Test.”We expect the same type of pitch in the second Test and we’ve got to come better,” Brathwaite said at the post-Test press conference. “It was a difficult pitch to bat on for sure. But it’s their decision how they want the pitch. We’ve just got to come good.”What encouraged Brathwaite was West Indies’ ability to, for the most part, match their hosts toe-to-toe. While Sajid Khan and Noman Ali found themselves in the wickets, the best bowling figures of the Test belonged to West Indian left arm spinner Jomel Warrican, whose figures of 7 for 32 in the second innings are the third best ever by a visiting bowler in a Test in Pakistan. With the bat, too, West Indies’ efforts of 137 and 123 weren’t worlds removed from Pakistan’s second innings score of 157, with a first innings fifth wicket stand of 141 between Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan the sharpest point of difference.”It’s great to see. Jamal has worked extremely hard over the years and it’s good to see he got his first five-wicket haul. His hard work has paid off. He bowled well; he was consistent. I wish him all the best in his second test match.”I do think we could improve bowling wise. We gave them 50-60 runs too much in the first innings because the pitch spun from ball one and we could have created enough pressure on the batters to get more wickets. Saying that, we also didn’t bat as well as we could. I think Alick [Athanaze, whose fourth innings 55 was West Indies highest individual score] showed us today how easy it can be. You’ve got to be braver in your shot selection. But I think a better all-round performance and we could win the second Test.”Jomel Warrican took 10 for 101 in the match•AFP/Getty Images

With the pitch tricky and the Test match short, smaller differences were always going to prove decisive, and Brathwaite was keen to stress that, despite the margin of victory, he felt the disparity between the two sides was small. With Pakistan’s strategy certain – both captains effectively confirmed they expected a similar turner for the second Test – which also takes place in Multan, starting on January 25 – surprise is not something that can catch West Indies out.”I think we could be better with the ball in the first innings. We gave them 50 runs too much, and on top of that, we didn’t bat as well as we could have, especially in the first innings. Both innings the top order didn’t get any runs. So I think batting wise the top six should be able to bat at least a session.”Pakistan only batted one session in their second innings, too, and I think bowling wise once we stay consistent in bringing batters onto the front foot, we’ll have a better chance of limiting that first innings total. And we’ve got to bat better, we’ve got to find a better way.”While he didn’t commit to that strategy, perhaps judicious aggression, a measure of which West Indies began to introduce into their batting as each innings wore on, is something West Indies might look to do more of next week. Some batters found the use of reverse sweeps from outside the line a fruitful scoring option, while West Indies’ most destructive phase with the bat came when the tenth wicket partnership put on 46 in 21 balls, taking the spinners on when they flighted the ball.”The ball was ragging, so one is going to have your name on it regardless. The pitch was difficult as you could see. It was very dry before even the game started. So I’m not surprised with the game finishing early.”

Rocchiccioli and Gannon claim three wickets each as the two-time defending champions won by an innings without their frontline pace attack

Tristan Lavalette07-Oct-2023Western Australia’s second-string attack overwhelmed Victoria on a sluggish WACA pitch in an ominous start to their bid for a hat-trick of Sheffield Shield titles.In a re-match of the last two Shield finals, WA once again had Victoria’s number as they showed off their enviable depth of talent. Without frontline quicks Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson, Matt Kelly and Joel Paris, WA’s new-look pace attack produced a disciplined performance on the final day to bowl Victoria for a second time out shortly after tea.Fringe quick Cameron Gannon was relentless, while left-arm debutant Liam Haskett shone with fast and aggressive bowling. With Morris and Richardson engaged in centre-wicket practice after the match, selection headaches loom for WA’s hierarchy.Tall offspinner Corey Rocchiccioli conjured sharp spin and found inconsistent bounce on a wearing pitch that finally started to play some tricks having been sedate throughout the match. Rocchiccioli finished with the remarkable figures of 3 for 14 from 26.2 overs, including 20 maidens.Having taken three wickets on day one, Rocchiccioli outbowled Test offspinner Todd Murphy, who took just 1 for 141 off 32 overs in WA’s first innings.”He’s going to keep getting better,” WA captain Sam Whiteman said of Rocchiccioli. “The impressive thing is he’s taking wickets at the WACA which is notorious for [a lack of] spin.”I’m particularly proud of the bowling group, which is a completely different attack than what we finished with last season.”Allrounder Aaron Hardie capped a strong match by taking the early wicket of former Victoria captain Peter Handscomb. Hardie, who recently made his international limited overs debut, claimed five wickets for the match and made 48 at number five in WA’s first innings.WA’s attack set up the victory after bowling out Victoria for 256 on day one before opener Cameron Bancroft scored a century to power them into a big lead.With national selector Tony Dodemaide in the terraces, Bancroft made an early season statement to replace David Warner who is set to retire from Test cricket during the summer.But it was a particularly lacklustre performance from Victoria, who were left to rue gifting wickets on day one and they never recovered. The return of Will Pucovski, who made 39 in Victoria’s first innings, from an extended absence was encouraging, and so too was the final-day grit from nightwatchman Mitch Perry.”Getting sick of losing to them [WA], so was enough motivation to stay out there as long as I could,” said Perry, who made 43 from 173 balls.Resuming at 64 for 3, still trailing by 161 runs, Victoria’s hopes of avoiding defeat largely rested with Handscomb but he fell for 2 after being caught behind off a superb Hardie delivery. It ended a disappointing match for Handscomb, who has been keen to shake being pigeonholed as a subcontinent specialist. He lacked rhythm in a first innings of 31 from 85 balls and fell badly after miscuing a whip to point off a leading edge.Hardie, who had opened the bowling, was in a fiery mood with a searing bouncer smashing into Perry’s body and leaving him shaken. But Perry, something of a nightwatchman specialist, gamely fought on and found a willing partner in Jonathan Merlo, who was intent solely on defence.Pinned back to the crease, Merlo excruciatingly faced 36 balls without a run. He finally opened his account with a push through covers for two runs before being clean bowled next ball by a cracking Gannon delivery.Victoria shut up shop after lunch with captain Will Sutherland, normally such a belligerent batter, continuously blocking alongside Perry. They weren’t particularly looking for runs, essentially taking turns holding up an end. Sutherland’s 75-ball grind of 6 ended when Bancroft snared a sensational catch at short-leg off Haskett. Perry’s rearguard finally ended shortly before tea as Victoria inevitably slumped to a hefty first-up defeat.

Bhuvneshwar’s Player-of-the-Series performance in the England T20Is has taken him back into the top ten for bowlers

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jul-2022Jasprit Bumrah has climbed up five spots to become the No. 1-ranked ODI bowler, following his career-best 6 for 19 against England at The Oval on Tuesday. Trent Boult is now second, with Shaheen Shah Afridi, Josh Hazlewood and Mujeeb Ur Rahman rounding off the top five.Bumrah ran through the England line-up in the first ODI, dismissing Jason Roy, Joe Root, Liam Livingstone and Jos Buttler along the way. After picking up 4 for 6 in his first four overs, he returned to pick up two for none in seven balls at the death, finishing with India’s third-best figures in men’s ODIs.

Full rankings tables

• Click here for the full team rankings

• Click here for the full player rankings

Mohammed Shami, Bumrah’s new-ball partner, also moved up three places to joint-23rd – with Bhuvneshwar Kumar – on the back of his three-wicket haul against England.As for Shikhar Dhawan, who scored an unbeaten 31 in that ten-wicket win over England, he moved up one spot to equal 12th on the batters’ rankings. His captain Rohit Sharma top-scored for India in the chase with an unbeaten 76, but remained at No. 4.From the ODI series between Ireland and New Zealand, Harry Tector, who scored his maiden ODI century in the opening game, rose ten places to No. 34 among batters.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Suryakumar Yadav, meanwhile, jumped a whopping 44 spots to achieve his career-best No. 5 ranking in T20Is following his century against England in the third T20I. Suryakumar, who also achieved a career-high rating of 732, is now India’s highest-ranked T20I batter. Having made his T20I debut only last year, Suryakumar has quickly become an important part of India’s T20I set-up, scoring four fifties and a century in 17 innings with a strike rate of 177.22.Bhuvneshwar’s Player-of-the-Series performance in the T20Is against England has taken him back into the top ten among T20I bowlers. He is the only Indian in the top ten in a list led by Hazlewood.Over in the Test rankings, Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal climbed after their match-winning performances against Australia in the second Test in Galle.Karunaratne’s first-innings 86 took him to 782 rating points [his personal best] and the No. 7 spot among Test batters, while Chandimal’s unbeaten 206 took him 19 positions up to No. 29.

“We want to be a side that plays free cricket, not have any baggage of lack of [batting] depth”

Saurabh Somani11-Mar-20211:34

Kohli promises India’s batsmen will play more freely

India are set to embrace a more dynamic approach to their T20I batting, which has tended in the past to blend caution with aggression. The main ingredient that prevented India from being more aggressive in the past, according to captain Virat Kohli, was a lack of batting depth. The squad picked for their five-match T20I series against England has addressed that issue, in Kohli’s view, while also adding several “X-factor” players.”The kind of players we have added into the squad is precisely to give our batting line-up more depth and not play in a similar kind of pattern that we have played with in the past,” Kohli said on Thursday, the eve of the first T20I. “We want to be a side that plays free cricket, not have any baggage of lack of depth and one guy having to bat long enough to make sure we get to a big total.”We have explosive batsmen in the team now, who can change the game at any stage even if you are two or three wickets down. That’s exactly what we’ve tried to address in picking this squad. So this time around, you will see guys a bit more expressive in terms of approaching the innings, and playing more freely. Not worried about whether we have enough batsmen to take care of things if we lose a couple of wickets early, which was the case before to be honest. We didn’t have enough depth in the batting to be able to play freely throughout the first 10 or 12 overs. But I see us being much more positive and free from this period onwards.”Related

• Ishan Kishan adds the impetus that new-age India have been looking for

• Kohli: We weren't aware of what we had to do on that pitch

• Suryakumar Yadav: distracted hothead to calm run machine

• Rohit advises Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan: 'Enjoy the moment'

• Spin questions for England as India try on new big-hitting avatar

In the past India leaned towards the conservative approach of keeping wickets in hand for a final-overs charge, as against the strategy favoured by teams like England and West Indies (when at full strength), who bat deep and consequently go hard from the start. The presence of players like Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya, alongside allrounders such as Washington Sundar and Axar Patel and newcomers like Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan, is likely to free up the top order and allow them to be more expansive.That also means that of the three openers in the squad – Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan – only two can be fitted into the XI, and Kohli said Rohit and Rahul are India’s first-choice options.In the past, India have leaned on their top order to bat deep into T20 innings•BCCI

“If Rohit plays, then it’s quite simple, KL and Rohit have been consistently performing at the top of the order for us and those two would start,” he said. “In a situation where Rohit takes rest or KL has a niggle or something like that, then Shikhi obviously comes in as the third opener. But the starting composition, Rohit and Rahul will be the ones who start.”Earlier, one of the openers or Kohli at No. 3 have tended to take on the anchor’s role, and India haven’t done too badly with that approach. But the evolution of the T20 game has meant it’s time to take the next step. Since 2018, while batting first, India’s run rate while batting first in T20Is is 8.79, behind only England (9.05) and New Zealand (8.87). However, their run-rate during powerplay overs, a key indicator of the strategy adopted by the top order, is 7.99 in this same time-frame, fifth best among the top ten sides.On the other hand, in that same period, India’s batting average of 35.24 is the only one above 30 among the top ten sides. And their powerplay average of 45.95 is the second best overall, behind Australia’s 48.38. Now, with more batting depth, they can trade-off average for run rate – batsmen going harder would typically mean more wickets falling, but also give them a better chance of putting on extra runs.With the firepower of Pant and Pandya available in the middle order, and the added freedom for them of having bowlers who can bat in the lower order – especially when Ravindra Jadeja returns – India have recognised that keeping wickets in hand could be counter-productive.”I think we have played with a certain kind of pattern in the past. We didn’t probably have a big tournament to work towards, but if you look at the squad and the additions we’ve made, we’ve tried to address a few things that we needed in specific: guys who can be X-factors with the bat, do things which are the need of the hour in T20 cricket,” Kohli said. “These guys have done so in the IPL on a regular basis. We have tried to cover all those bases.”Now it’ll be interesting to see how they go about things in these five games because these are the only games we have as a team before the World Cup and we want to see how these guys fare out there in the middle. I feel like the squad right now with what we have, barring Jaddu [Jadeja] who will come back whenever fit, is the squad that I feel is the most balanced in terms of all the options readily available for us to take on the field as and when we want.”

Imran Tahir takes three wickets to help bowl out Jamaica Tallawahs cheaply

The Report by Shashank Kishore04-Oct-2019Guyana Amazon Warriors. Table toppers, unbeaten, full of confidence. What could go wrong? Well, eight balls into the game, they lost four wickets to Oshane Thomas and Derval Green. Intriguingly, both of them were on hat-tricks at that stage, with Thomas’ wickets coming off the last two balls of the first over and Green’s off the first two balls of the second.Neither of them got there, and with their backs to the wall, Shoaib Malik, the only overseas captain in CPL 2019, resurrected the innings via an 82-run stand with Sherfane Rutherford. Malik finished unbeaten on 73 to help Amazon Warriors post 156. This was 77 too many for Jamaica Tallawahs, who looked defeated at the halfway mark itself, and were bowled out in 16.3 overs. Amazon Warriors, meanwhile, remain unbeaten in CPL 2019 with one league game remaining.The four-in-four magic
This was by all means a bat-first pitch. Tallawahs knew it would get slower and stop on the batsmen as the game progressed, which is why they couldn’t have bargained for a better start. In the very first over, Thomas bowled Brandon King as he backed away to slap a length ball over cover, and then had Shimron Hetmyer caught behind, albeit in controversial circumstances with replays suggesting no conclusive evidence for the edge.Off the first two balls of the next over, Green beat Chandrapaul Hemraj for pace by pushing him back and flattening the leg stump before getting Nicholas Pooran lbw with a full inswinger that tailed in late to crash into the pads. Eight balls, eight runs, four wickets. Tallawahs were on fire.The revivalMalik and Rutherford walked in to a crisis and walked out of one very quickly. From the fourth to seventh overs, Rutherford counter-attacked to ensure they had at least one boundary every over. Off Green’s second, Rutherford carved out three fours to put the pressure right back. Malik quickly slipped into the role of second fiddle, the pair raising their half-century stand off just 39 balls; Rutherford’s contribution was 33.Tallawahs were slightly shaken by the counter and continued to slip, not even Rutherford’s wicket to break the stand coming as a respite. They had let Malik off the hook on 20 when Zahir Khan misjudged and eventually put down a sitter at short fine-leg in the 12th over off Dwayne Smith.This merely proved to be the trigger for Malik to go on the attack as he brought up a half-century off just 35 deliveries. Then he took apart Thomas at the death as the bowler erred consistently in lengths to concede 26 off the penultimate over. Malik finished on 73 not out and Amazon Warriors had momentum by their side.Tallawahs stifled in the PowerplayChris Green quietly continues to make heads turn. The Australian selectors may well have an excellent Powerplay spin option to consider for next year’s T20 World Cup, because he is accurate, economical, gets the ball to skid, bounce and varies his angles well. All this helped get rid of Chris Gayle first ball when Green went around the stumps and got one to fizz straight on and beat Gayle on the inside edge. Malik cleverly went with spin at the other end too, with Imran Tahir, who had Chadwick Walton hole out to long-on in the fourth over.Glenn Phillips and Liton Das limped to 26 for 2 in the Powerplay. Phillips looked to up the ante as he hit Qais Ahmed, the Afghanistan legspinner, for successive fours in the seventh over to signal a change in intent, but with the asking rate spiraling, he holed out at long-on. It was the start of another collapse, the second of the night.Team hat-trick, againQais impressed with his variety and his back-flip celebrations, too. He had Smith with a ripping legbreak and Imran Khan with a topspinner off the last two balls off the 14th over. Off the first ball of the next, Keemo Paul, the only fast bowler employed by Amazon Warriors, had Liton mistime a pull straight to midwicket. Steven Jacobs averted four in four by a hair’s breadth as a strong lbw appeal was turned down, with replays proving he may have been struck a tad too high. Two balls later, he too was gone and Tallawahs were 70 for 8. It summed up a sorry tale of a season where whatever could go wrong went wrong.

Returning to red-ball cricket after almost two years, Yuzvendra Chahal puts his lack of game-time in the longer format down to a time crunch rather than a disinterest in days’ cricket

Sreshth Shah in Alur13-Aug-2018Returning to the red-ball format ‘isn’t easy’ after a two-year absence, according to legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who is currently representing India A against the touring South Africa A side.Chahal has taken only four wickets in the two games, and he admits that adjusting to a newer format takes time because the batsmen’s approach differs across formats. “It does take a bit of time to adjust because the batsmen don’t have a lot of pressure [in red-ball cricket],” Chahal said on the third day of the second unofficial Test in Alur.”In ODIs and T20s, if the run-rate is high, then the batsman tries to go after you and get out. But in the longer form you need to get them out with your skills. You need to use your brain more. So it’s quite different because you need to bowl 30-35 overs here, but only four overs in T20s.”Chahal, however, puts his lack of red-ball cricket down to the paucity of time and not because of any disinterest in the format. He firmly believes that playing red-ball cricket vastly improves one’s skills, primarily because the format requires much more planning. Chahal is confident of using the lessons from the A series in white-ball cricket too, and feels his addition into India A’s four-day squad is a move towards the goal of Test cricket.”After 2016 [his last first-class appearance for Haryana in the Ranji Trophy], I have continuously played white-ball cricket, so I didn’t get time,” Chahal says. “But if you bowl with the red ball, your bowling will improve and your mind will get sharper. You need to adjust on these kinds of surfaces where spinners don’t have much help, so you use your idea – whether bowling outside off stump or changing the field – so in this format you need more planning. We can implement these learnings in ODIs and T20s too.”Because there’s a difference between red and white, so the selectors sent me here. A two-year gap is a long time, and I need to stay fit for longer periods, because you need to bowl 30-35 overs a day. It’s difficult to bowl a good ball but to take a wicket off it, that’s even more difficult. The more I play this format, the more I’ll mature.”Chahal, though, is not looking at the Indian squad that’s due to be announced for the last two Tests against England. Instead, he wants to focus on what he learnt during the ODI and T20I legs of the tour of England and Ireland, where he took nine wickets in eight games. Chahal’s next international assignment is likely to be the Asia Cup in the UAE with India’s 50-over squad.”Not even thinking about the squads for the last two Tests in England,” Chahal says. “My experience of England was very good because it was my first tour, but my focus is on this game. If my name doesn’t come, then my mind will be on the Asia Cup. So I’ll shift my focus on that series after this game.”When asked about India’s current form in England, where their batsmen crumbled at Lord’s inside four days to concede a 2-0 series deficit, Chahal praised England’s pace attack, but also remained positive about India’s chances in the last three games.”The conditions are great for pacers in England, swing is there too. You saw James Anderson reached 550 wickets,” Chahal said. “Batting is always tough there, but, it’s a five-game series. Even if you lose early matches, you have the opportunity to come back in the final three games.”

Mark Taylor, the Cricket Australia board director, has admitted that compromise must be found between the game’s governing body and the Australian Cricketers Association before the game suffers further damage

Daniel Brettig11-Jul-20173:46

What exactly is the Cricket Australia-ACA pay dispute?

Mark Taylor, the Cricket Australia (CA) board director, has admitted that compromise must be found between the game’s governing body and the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) before the game suffers further damage, in an ugly pay war that has put the national team’s upcoming series at risk of abandonment.In speaking at an Ashes event organised by the Nine Network in Melbourne on Tuesday, Taylor became the first senior CA figure connected to the MoU debate to offer a public opinion on the dispute in more than six weeks, since the chief executive James Sutherland was interviewed by the ABC on May 25. Taylor also remains the only board director to have spoken publicly about it at all.Prior to that, Taylor had spoken firmly about CA’s desire to breakup the revenue sharing model on Nine’s programme on May 14. But he took on a more conciliatory tone this time, 11 days after the expiry of the most recent MoU between the players and the board left more than 230 of the country’s cricketers unemployed and a mounting mess of commercial problems for the board. Not least of these is reassuring its chief broadcaster Nine – for whom Taylor commentates – that the Ashes will go ahead as planned.”I think there’s got to be compromise on both sides, I really believe that,” Taylor said on Tuesday. “I think at any negotiation you give and you take. I think when you get to that situation, which I hope we are getting very close to now, then you get close to a resolution. I’m confident there will be a resolution soon. I don’t know when but I just hope both sides keep working hard at it.”I think everyone has probably read and heard enough about things that don’t involve people scoring runs and taking wickets, me included, and I think that [the cricket] is what we all want to see. That includes sponsors, TV networks, past players, commentators, and I think the quicker we get to that situation the better for the game.”I’m still very confident there will be an Ashes series and I’m very confident there will be some Test-match cricket played by Australia before them. That’s certainly what I’m working towards and I’m assuming both parties are working towards that. It’s far from ideal and it’s cost an Australia A tour of South Africa which is disappointing, no doubt about it. But at this stage we haven’t lost a Bangladesh tour and we certainly don’t want to lose an Ashes tour here in Australia.”While Taylor has only recently returned home from holidays, he said all board directors had been kept informed of progress in talks by CA’s lead negotiator Kevin Roberts, including conference calls every three days that he had dialled in to from overseas. ESPNcricinfo understands that some progress appeared to have been made by the middle of last week before regressing and forcing the cancellation of the Australia A tour. While talks go on, little if any movement from entrenched positions has been discernible since.Mark Taylor said it was necessary for everyone involved to “be adult” about the pay dispute; Ian Chappell said while his sympathies lie on the side of the players, give how protracted this dispute is, there has to be fault on both sides•Getty Images

A director since 2004, apart from a brief absence in 2012-13 when the CA board was changed from a body of 14 state representatives to an independent group of nine, Taylor agreed that it was vital to find a way for the two parties to coexist in whatever new landscape was drawn up as a result of the next MoU.”Day to day it’s management’s job, I’ve been away for the last couple of weeks, only got back on Sunday night myself, but I’ve been kept abreast of the situation,” he said. “Calls every three days, sometimes a bit more often if need be, and now I’m back in Australia I’m well aware of the situation. And I’ll be doing everything I can to try and find a resolution to this.”I think we all have to be adult about it. It’s a big game these days. Players are fully professional. Cricket boards are trying to do what they think is right for the game in general, so there’s going to be times when you disagree and that’s where we are at the moment. But I think both sides have to work towards finding a resolution which is in the best interests of the game and the players.”From a game point of view, it’s far from ideal. We are in July, the Ashes are still four months away, but the Bangladesh tour is only a month away. The quicker we can get it resolved the better, the quicker we can move on and rebuild the relationship [that] I think is important between CA and the ACA. The quicker we can start rebuilding that, I think that’ll be good for the game.”The former captain Ian Chappell, meanwhile, termed the standoff as “the biggest bust up since World Series Cricket between players and administrators” and reckoned both sides of the argument, whatever their merits, had begun to be damaged from the moment the previous MoU expired on July 1.”I think once it went past the June 30 deadline I think it started to hurt the game from both points of view,” Chappell said. “I think the public were probably sick to death of it by then it was a plague on both their houses as far as the public are concerned. I think the quicker it gets resolved the better and if it’s going to be a partnership, which I think it needs to be, it’s not a boss-employee situation.”If it’s going to be a partnership there’s got to be give and take on both sides, and probably most importantly there has to be a bit more respect, that’s the first thing that needs to happen to help rebuild the relationship. My sympathies are always going to be on the side of the players, but when a dispute goes on this long there has to be fault on both sides.”The job of the players association is to work with the administrators. Your job as a cricketer is just to play the game and having come from an era where the players had to fight the fight, that’s not an ideal situation at all. To me it’s up to the players association to get the thing sorted out with the board, and for the players to just play their game.”