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Zimbabwe Cricket has announced that they will host Sri Lanka for two Tests followed by a one-day tri-series that will also involve West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Sep-2016Zimbabwe Cricket has announced that they will host Sri Lanka for two Tests followed by a one-day tri-series that will also involve West Indies. The two Tests will be played in Harare, with the first one from October 29 and the second from November 6.The tri-series will begin from November 14 with the first match between the hosts and Sri Lanka at the Harare Sports Club. The three teams will play each other twice, making it a total of six round-robin matches, before the final on November 27. The last four ODIs and the final will all be played in Bulawayo.Sri Lanka’s tour of Zimbabwe was originally scheduled in the FTP with two Tests, three ODIs and a T20I. Later, there were chances of the tour being replaced by the tri-series with West Indies, as the Tests were not being considered as financially viable, but now the Tests and tri-series both will take place. Had that happened, Zimbabwe would have gone without playing a Test for 11 months.There were chances of the Tests being scrapped because of Zimbabwe Cricket’s growing debt and the economic situation of the country as a whole. Recently, the Harare-based players had refused to train in protest over unpaid match fees, which dated back to July last year. The protests ended after being given an assurance by the Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Wildfred Mukondiwa.Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka last played a Test in a two-match series in 2004. They have played 15 Tests against each other overall, with Sri Lanka winning 10 of them and five ending in draws.

Fixtures-wise, the only potential clash for the IPL – even if just by two days – is with the proposed Lanka Premier League

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Aug-2020Australia’s home T20I series against West Indies has been postponed because of the Covid-19 situation, and that means the IPL now has an uninterrupted window – between September 19 and November 10 – as far as international cricket is concerned.West Indies were scheduled to play matches in Townsville, Cairns and the Gold Coast on October 4, 6 and 9, with the series being seen as a precursor to the now-postponed men’s T20 World Cup, originally set to start on October 18.Now the only potential clash for the IPL – even if just by two days – is with the proposed Lanka Premier League, which has a finish date of September 20. However, Sri Lanka Cricket last week stated that it is considering advancing the dates to ensure there is no overlap with the IPL. As such, only two Sri Lankan players – Lasith Malinga (Mumbai Indians) and Isuru Udana (Royal Challengers Bangalore) – are contracted in the IPL.Meanwhile, Australia’s short limited-overs tour of England is expected to end on September 15, leaving players from both sides just about enough time to hop over to the UAE in time for the IPL, which will be held across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. However, the IPL’s SOPs are yet to be made formal, and it isn’t known if players travelling from the UK – where the number of Covid-19 cases has been much higher than in the UAE – will need to undergo a quarantine period before entering the bio-bubbles of their respective teams, many of whom are likely to begin their training camps in the UAE after the third week of August.Most boards have either provided or agreed to provide no-objection certificates to their players to play in the IPL. However, there are still concerns with regards to the participation of South Africa players since their provincial and international borders remain closed for commercial flights.

Despite lighting up final day, Anderson presumes nothing amid need to rest and rotate bowlers

Andrew Miller09-Feb-2021After lighting up the final day of the Chennai Test with another ageless display of reverse-swing bowling, James Anderson insists he will be ready to put his “name in the hat” for selection in Saturday’s second Test, even though the team management may feel obliged to rest him given the intensity of their four-match series in India.Anderson returned figures of 3 for 17 in 11 overs in India’s second innings, including two in his first over of the final day, as he extracted prodigious late movement with a 26-over-old ball, to set England on their way to a comprehensive 227-run victory.However, with the second Test set to begin at the same venue on Saturday, and with Stuart Broad waiting impatiently in the wings after being rotated out of the side after his own starring role in England’s first Test of the winter against Sri Lanka, Anderson recognises the likelihood that he will need to be benched, even though he’s desperate, at the age of 38, to play as frequently as he possibly can.”Yes, of course [I want to play],” Anderson said at the end of the match. “When a batsman gets in rhythm and form they just want to keep batting and it’s the same for a bowler – you want to keep that going as much as possible.”But I’m very aware we’ve got four Test matches in quick succession here and there will be a need to rest and rotate. I’m not presuming anything. I’ll try and rest and recover from this game as best I can in the next day or two and get back in the nets and try and put my name in the hat for Saturday.”Related

• Joe Root: 'Really important we don't just stand still now' after England seal big win

• Stuart Broad 'frustrated and angry' at being left out of England side for first Test

• James Anderson and Jack Leach consign India to rare home defeat

• How good are Anderson and Broad in India?

• James Anderson's enduring class masks England fears about spin support

Following on from his starring role in the first innings in Galle, where he wrecked Sri Lanka’s match prospects with his best overseas figures of 6 for 40 in 29 overs, Anderson has now claimed 11 wickets at 9.90 in his back-to-back appearances, and after the match he was hailed by his captain, Joe Root, as “England’s GOAT”.However, Broad will be hankering for another opportunity after a string of recent performances every bit as impressive as his team-mate’s. He was England’s outstanding bowler in the course of 2020, claiming 38 wickets at 14.76 all told, even after being rested in favour of Anderson for the opening Test of the summer – a decision that sparked an angry response during a Sky Sports interview. And after setting up England’s first victory in Sri Lanka with match figures of 3 for 34 in 26 overs, his presence will add another wise head to England’s attack.”We have options, that’s the beauty of how we have gone about things this winter,” Joe Root, England’s captain, said. “It is really important that we look after our players and everyone comes into the games fit and fresh and able to deliver their skills at 100 percent. We can look at selection when we know what the wicket looks like and how we think it will behave.”However, an added factor in England’s plans may come when the series shifts to Ahmedabad at the end of the month, for a day-night Test match, played with a pink ball. England have had three previous such Tests, and with 14 wickets at 17.85 – including a five-wicket haul at Adelaide in the 2017-18 Ashes – Anderson’s prowess under lights may well be a crucial factor.Certainly, the balance and deployment of England’s attack at Chepauk proved to be spot-on, in the first innings as well as the second, with Anderson’s versatility as a defensive and attacking option showcased with his different impact in each.”We assessed conditions really well, set the right fields, we tried to keep the run-rate down to a reasonable level and I thought everyone stuck to their gameplan,” Anderson said, after claiming two first-innings wickets at an economy of 2.73, the best of England’s frontline options.”For me in that first innings, I felt I was the bowler to keep the run-rate down, try and dry things up, and let the spinners and Jofra [Archer] attack a little bit more.”In England it might be the other way around, the spinners have to do the drying-up job. I’m very aware that could be my job out here, and then you can attack more in the second innings if you do get reverse swing. It’s just trying to manage that throughout the game and pick the right moment to attack and you know when to sit back and defend a little bit.”And when the time did come to attack, Anderson’s introduction proved devastating with two wickets in his first over. However, he insisted, it hadn’t simply been blind luck that he was thrown the ball at that moment of India’s innings.Ben Stokes, James Anderson and Joe Root talk tactics•BCCI

“We were assessing the ball all the time,” he said. “Jofra started the day and he felt like it was reversing a little bit, but then we gave it a few more overs with the spinners to try and get a bit more wear into the ball to rough it up a little bit more.”We knew it would reverse when I came on to bowl and it’s just a case of trying to get into the right areas as much as possible. The pitch had deteriorated and there were little divots and chunks to aim at, but getting that extra bit of movement through the air makes it that little bit harder for the batsman, and it’s very enjoyable when it happens as well.”Enjoyment, in fact, has been a key factor of England’s recent resurgence as a Test team, which began with a fightback in South Africa last year – sparked by Anderson’s first-innings five-for at Cape Town, even though he missed the rest of the match with injury – and carrying on through to four series wins in a row, prior to this contest.”It really is [enjoyable],” Anderson said. “With the guys that we have got, we are creating something really special. We’re led amazingly well by Joe Root both on and off the field. The way he has batted the last three games has been incredible to watch.”We feel like we are building something, whether it is the fitness side of things, we are trying to push each other. For me, as I get older, I feel like I need to work harder at that and I am trying to keep up with the younger guys which helps me.”We are trying to develop skills to win anywhere in the world which you need to do if you want to get to No.1, which is what our eventual goal is. It is a really fun time to be around this group and we are just trying to keep challenging each other and trying to keep performing on the field as well.”

Kusal Perera, who tested positive for a banned substance in early December, may be face a lengthy ban from international cricket after his B sample also tested positive

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Dec-2015Sri Lanka wicketkeeper batsman Kusal Perera, who tested positive for a banned substance in early December, may face a lengthy ban from international cricket with his B sample understood to have also tested positive.Perera had to be cut from Sri Lanka’s tour to New Zealand after a random test conducted in October came out positive for a banned substance. He had the right to request analysis of a second sample, taken at the same time, but ESPNcricinfo learnt the results of the B sample matched his A sample.The ICC is yet to comment on the matter considering it is an ongoing disciplinary process. Although no official penalty has been announced yet Perera can be suspended for a maximum of four years for the failed tests.The ICC had served Kusal with a provisional suspension on December 7 after tests conducted on the A sample came out positive. According to the ICC’s Anti-Doping Code, a player has 14 days to request a hearing before an independent three-person Anti-Doping Tribunal. Failing that, implies the player “shall have been deemed to have admitted that he/she has committed the anti-doping rule violation(s) specified in the Notice of Charge” and to have accepted the consequences specified in that Notice of Charge.Sri lanka’s sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekera told reporters today that, “We are appealing against this because he was never found like this in the last four instances. We will back him with legal representation while doing every possible effort to help him to get out of this issue.”Neither the ICC nor SLC have confirmed what the banned substance is.

A widely hyped meeting between Smith and Labuschagne was reduced to sideshow status as the Heat maintained their horrid recent run of performances

The Report by Daniel Brettig23-Jan-2020Brisbane Heat fell into another fearful heap, this time to the Sydney Sixers, to all but surrender a Big Bash League match at the Gabba inside the first 10 overs.Following on from their loss of 10 for 36 to lose to the Melbourne Renegades, the Heat slid to 5 for 57 in the opening exchanges of their follow-up match to leave AB de Villiers and the tail scrambling for any sort of score. The return of Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith to the Heat and the Sixers attracted much comment before the game, but neither played much more than a peripheral role.Instead the plaudits went to the Sixers bowlers Steve O’Keefe, Jackson Bird, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Lyon and Tom Curran, before Josh Philippe and James Vince enjoyed the minimal stresses of an undemanding chase on a pitch that did not encourage much in the way of Twenty20 hitting. It was the Heat’s sixth consecutive loss at the Gabba.Heat cooled by spin and speedA widely hyped meeting between Smith and Labuschagne, after their batting “bromance” during the Test summer, was reduced to sideshow status as the Heat maintained their horrid recent run of performances. It was a slide Labuschagne was unable to arrest in only his eighth game in four seasons with the Heat, a matter of days after his return from India and the ODI team’s short tour. Slow, low Indian pitches were less than ideal preparation for the new ball at the Gabba, albeit on a mottled surface that offered both spin and bounce.Chris Lynn’s indifferent record against spin was continued when he tried to force a quicker ball from O’Keefe through point and was bowled, Matt Renshaw scooped straight to short fine leg, and Sam Heazlett was surprised by the steep bounce conjured by Nathan Lyon to pop back a low return catch, before Labuschagne miscued an attempted pull shot off Bird straight into the waiting hands of Smith at mid on. The Heat’s viewing area was by this stage a venue for plenty of thousand yard stares, with AB de Villiers left to do what he could with the wreckage.AB, Pattinson do what they canA somewhat stupefied Gabba crowd was then subjected to the “spectacle” of de Villiers, Jimmy Peirson and Ben Cutting trying to rebuild by running singles Seldom can de Villiers have played a T20 innings as long as 26 balls without a single boundary, while a tally of just 12 boundaries in total for the innings cannot have been what the broadcasters Seven and Fox had in mind. Peirson was bowled by a cracking off-cutter from Dwarshuis, which straightened off the pitch fro around the wicket to confirm the pitch’s capricious nature.In the end, the only fireworks were provided by James Pattinson, who also bided his time before connecting with a couple of solid blows off Dwarshuis and Curran. A 15-ball innings worth 27 provided some belated cheer for the home crowd, while also inching the Heat up close to the total of 130 that their coach Darren Lehmann thought might be defendable. Might be.Sixers rattle homeOnly early wickets would bring the Heat into the game, but they were to be sorely disappointed as James Vince and Josh Philippe kept their heads. Just nine runs came from the first two overs before Vince tucked into Mujeeb ur Rahman to the tune of 14 runs, and the rate grew steadily from there. The final over of the Powerplay reaped another bounty, this time 13, to lift the Sixers to 0 for 48 from six overs, more or less settling the result already.All that remained was for Vince to waltz to his first 50 of the tournament, and then exit the stage for Smith to spend some time in the middle opposite Philippe. Both batsmen helped themselves to sweetly timed boundaries off the bowling of Labuschagne, though Smith touched Pattinson behind before the Sixers enhanced their standing in the competition and the Heat stumbled closer to elimination.

Moeen Ali is prepared for a barrage of short-pitched bowling during the Ashes but believes that could be the opportunity for him to attack

Andrew McGlashan30-Sep-2017Moeen Ali is prepared for a barrage of short-pitched bowling during the Ashes but believes that could be the opportunity for him to attack and feels ready for whatever Australia will throw at him.Moeen completed an outstanding home summer with the Man-of-the-Series award in the ODIs against West Indies after excelling with the bat, making 102 off 57 balls at Bristol and an unbeaten 48 off 25 to take England above the DLS requirement before rain arrived at The Oval.That followed a prolific Test series against South Africa were he became the first player to score 250 runs and take 25 wickets in a four-match series. Overall in England’s seven-Test season he scored 361 runs at 32.81 and took 30 wickets at 21.30; in 11 ODIs he scored 283 runs at 70.75 and a strike-rate of 159.88. Although his five wickets came at over 70, his economy rate was respectable at under a run-a-ball.Moeen played a vital role in the 2015 Ashes – his lower-order partnerships Stuart Broad, especially at Edgbaston, giving England crucial late runs – but there is a thought that his technique against the short ball will be tested down under with him occasionally having had trouble when batting higher up the order.”It’s something I’ve been working on and I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I feel when you get in it’s a good place to bat. The ball doesn’t swing as much and hopefully whatever number I come in, I can express myself. I’m going to have to change a couple of things about the way I play but in terms of mindset I’ll just go and do what I normally do. The good thing is I’ve played against them before and I don’t want to speak too early or too confident but I’ll make sure I’m ready for it.”Hopefully they’ll get tired doing it [bowling the bouncer]. But you get chances to score all the time with the short stuff and I’m going to work hard on that. I am very excited about it.”Quite what role Moeen will play in the Ashes is now up in the air with Ben Stokes’ participation in the series uncertain. Should England be without Stokes, Moeen could be required to move up to No. 6 or 7 to fill the void. He has batted in every position from one to nine over his 44-match career, although 26 of them have been at seven or eight, and he has never made any secret of being keen to move up the list.”Yes, definitely. I’d love to bat wherever,” he said. “The higher up the better, I’d be very comfortable. Number eight, I’m kind of used to at the moment but if I get told to bat seven I feel capable of doing well there. Hopefully I can show that I can go out there and play against their bowlers and play well against them.”After a short post-season break, Moeen plans to work hard on his fitness ahead of leaving for Australia at the end of October aware of the physical demands the conditions could put on him.”I think I’ll give myself two weeks to prepare and come back and get a bit fitter. Batting and bowling is going to be hard out there so I just want to get ready for those conditions and keep up the confidence I have at the moment.”It’s something when you’re a young player you’re thinking you’d love to be on that tour. I never ever thought I would be on a tour like this and to be going, I’m very fortunate. Hopefully I can go out there and perform.”

The first T20I against South Africa was abandoned without even the toss taking place

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Sep-2019

WATCH on ESPN+

India v South Africa is available in the US on Hotstar and ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ and tune into the three T20s and three Tests.
Sunday, Sep 15, 9.20 am ET on ESPN+: India v SA, 1st T20, Dharamsala
Wednesday, Sep 18, 9.20 am ET on ESPN+: India v SA, 2nd T20, Mohali
Sunday, Sep 22, 9.20 am ET on ESPN+: India v SA, 3rd T20, Bengaluru

The opening match of India’s home season was ruined by persistent rain as the first T20I against South Africa was abandoned without even the toss taking place in Dharamsala. The entire square and the bowlers’ run-ups were covered, but rain refused to relent and created massive puddles on the covers, while the parts of the outfield that were exposed to the elements became slushy. As a result, the game was called off at 7.48pm local time, 48 minutes after it was scheduled to begin.Rain had made an appearance on Saturday afternoon, forcing the groundspersons into action. It had the final say on Sunday as well.With the first game of the tour washed out, batsman Temba Bavuma, 25-year-old tearaway Anrich Nortje and left-arm spin-bowling allrounders Bjorn Fortuin and George Linde will have to wait until the second match at Mohali on Wednesday to make their T20I debuts. Quinton de Kock, too, will have to wait until Wednesday to make his T20I captaincy debut.The third – and the final – game of the T20I series will be played in Bengaluru on September 22.

Despite reports to the contrary elsewhere, Andy Flower, Martyn Moxon and Tom Moody have all informed ESPNcricinfo they are not pursuing an interest in the role

George Dobell07-Dec-2018Ashley Giles remains a strong favourite to replace Andrew Strauss as director of England men’s cricket after the field of candidates thinned out considerably.Despite reports to the contrary elsewhere, Andy Flower, Martyn Moxon and Tom Moody have all informed ESPNcricinfo they are not pursuing an interest in the role. Clare Connor ruled herself out in the early stages, while Wasim Khan has instead accepted an offer to move to Lahore as MD of the Pakistan Cricket Board.That leaves a field that includes Giles, currently director of sport at Warwickshire; Mick Newell, the Nottinghamshire director of cricket; Mark Nicholas, the writer, broadcaster and former captain of Hampshire, and Ronnie Irani, the former England all-rounder.While Giles and Irani are understood to have been offered interviews by the ECB – one has taken place; the other is next week – Nicholas is understood to be mulling over an approach from a headhunter and has yet to fully commit to the process. Candidates have been required to put together a presentation to the ECB before the interview.Strauss decided to step down after his wife was diagnosed with cancer. Flower has filled the role in an interim capacity.If Giles is appointed it would complete a remarkable comeback. He was sacked by Paul Downton, the England team director at the time, as England’s limited-overs coach at the start of 2014 – barely six months after leading England to the brink of their first global ODI trophy – but has subsequently lead Lancashire and Warwickshire to trophies (The T20 Blast at Lancashire in 2015 and the Division Two title at Warwickshire in 2018) and served on several ECB working parties. He has also worked as an England selector, is an Ashes winner and led Warwickshire to the Championship title as coach in 2012.Irani offers strong competition, though. As chairman of Essex’s cricket committee, he was in a large part responsible for the club
embracing a home-grown policy that helped them win the Championship in 2017 and helped the club sustain their excellent reputation for developing players. He also has a business background which will be deemed important for an ECB that is keen to cut costs across the board and at Loughborough in particular.The ECB hope to have someone in place before England head to the Caribbean in January, though an announcement next week is more than possible.

Australia have already underestimated Siddle’s value in helpful conditions once, and to do so again would be to pay scant regard to the bowler who has had to cope with far many more average teams around him

Daniel Brettig in Abu Dhabi18-Oct-2018On days like the third in Abu Dhabi it was very plausible to wonder aloud that old question – who’d be a fast bowler? Over the past decade, Australian pacemen have become quite used to the “grin and bear it” posture after the batsmen have fallen in heaps too regular for their compatriots’ liking.It just so happens that Peter Siddle’s entire Test career has lasted that same decade, starting 10 years ago this week with the hard slog of the 2008 Mohali Test. Resplendent in a coral necklace, Siddle struck Gautam Gambhir on the helmet with his first ball and snared Sachin Tendulkar as his first wicket near the end of that same day, on the way to experiencing a hefty defeat as Ricky Ponting’s team effectively gave up global supremacy for the first time since Mark Taylor’s team won it in the West Indies in 1995.Siddle has played in a total of 63 Tests for 31 wins. Only eight of those have taken place overseas, and none of them in Asia. So it was not without plenty of knowledge that Siddle summed up the task faced by Australia’s bowlers in the wake of a first innings that cobbled a mere 145, turning Pakistan’s mediocre 282 into a vaunted score.”We tried a few different theories at different stages, we tried a little bit last night, different field placements and bowling different areas. It does make it hard when they are so far in front and they’re controlling the game. It does make it hard,” Siddle said. “Today we went back to just trying to dry up the runs, just trying to build up a bit of pressure and go from there.”It was a long day but it worked for us in the end, we weren’t getting a lot of benefit from the wicket, there wasn’t a lot happening there. But credit to Pakistan as well, they batted superbly to the situation of the game, they had time and they had a lot of momentum coming from their bowling innings. It was hard work but credit to all the boys, everyone that got the ball in their hand, dug in, tried their best.”We fiddled with the field here and there but we tried nearly everything we could. It’s just one of those days but like I said to get them in the position at the end of the day, whether they were going to declare or not, we don’t know but to be able to get those last few wickets quickly, at least put them under some pressure with the decision they were going to make.”Such small, incremental wins are about all a fielding side can hope for in these situations, where often even first innings parity still grants the team batting third the chance to drive the game and set it up for a final day pursuit of wickets while the pitch deteriorates. This is particularly true in the second of back-to-back matches, and the toll was as clear as the laboured walk of Mitchell Starc, now nursing a tight left hamstring, and the absence of Usman Khawaja, needing scans on his left knee after spending all of day three off the field after a mishap during warm-up.Others have felt the pinch of short turnarounds, whether it was James Pattinson tearing a side muscle at Lord’s in 2013 after another first innings tumble by the batsmen, or Siddle himself – missing the Perth Test against South Africa in 2012 because he was so sore from the Adelaide draw preceding it, or suffering a back injury in Perth in 2016 after being rushed back from another stress fracture sustained in New Zealand earlier the same year. In that light, he spoke empathetically of Starc, noting how the left-armer stayed on the field throughout, albeit as a slip fielding ring-in for much of it.”He’s not 100% but the good thing was he stayed out in the field, he’s bowled throughout this match when needed, so he’s a work in progress with how he’s travelling, but he still ran around in the field,” Siddle said. “We’ll just be assessing him in coming days, see how he pulls up tomorrow from spending all that time out there. At this stage a similar story is we don’t know until the next couple days how he’s assessed, but it was just good to see him out in the field and he still put in when he needed.”He’s pretty quiet and a pretty strong character so when things have popped up, he tries and keeps it pretty low-key. All he was thinking about was staying out in the field, backing up the boys, being out there with the lads and being able to contribute as much as he could. I don’t actually know. He’s kept it pretty close to his chest. It’s just good to see him out there. Obviously you know he’s struggling a little bit, but to see him still fight and bowl when needed, I think it shows good character that he still wants to put in for the team and be out there for the boys.”Unsurprisingly and not unfairly, Siddle pointed to the match situations he had bowled in when alerted to the unflattering comparison between his three wickets for the series at 56 runs apiece, and the 12 at 11.08 scooped by Mohammad Abbas. “He’s been able to bowl when his team has been out in front and we’ve been under pressure,” Siddle said. “It does make it a lot easier to bowl when the opposition is under pressure. His team has put him in those positions though.”That’s been the tough thing for us, that we’ve had to be very defensive, we’ve been under a lot of pressure when we’ve gone out there and faced him. Credit to him, he’s bowled superbly, he’s put the ball in the right areas, he’s been patient, he’s been consistent. He’s had a lot of success throughout. Credit to him. He’s done a lot better than a lot of fast bowlers have done in these two venues. Credit has to go to him that he’s worked hard and he’s done the job for his team.”At 33, Siddle was unabashedly chosen by the national selectors for his experience and hardiness, with his recent emergence as a T20 operator rewarded by a call-up as cover for Starc in the subsequent white-ball series to follow this Test. But it should not be forgotten that his re-emergence as a contender for international duty arrived via his expert use of the Dukes ball for Essex in England, in conditions so far removed from those of the UAE as to have him bowling in a beanie at times.Eight months out from next year’s Ashes tour, it would be easy to use this series as a reason to discard Siddle, particularly with a bevy of younger fast men trying to elbow each other out of the way for a Test berth in the early rounds of the Sheffield Shield. Aside from Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, current tourists Brendan Doggett and Michael Neser will compete with Chris Tremain, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Joe Mennie, among others.But Australia have already underestimated Siddle’s value in helpful conditions once – failing to call him up in place of the retired Ryan Harris until the story of the 2015 Ashes series had already been written, in an error acknowledged by the former captain Michael Clarke. To do so again would be to pay scant regard to the loyal service of a bowler who has had to cope with far many more average teams around him than strong ones.

The delivery from Dhawal Kulkarni hit the stumps, but the bails stayed put, and it ran away for four runs too

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Apr-2019Rajasthan Royals captain Ajinkya Rahane wanted the ball that pinged Chris Lynn’s stumps without dislodging the bails to be treated as a dead ball, he revealed after Royals lost their home match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday.Lynn was on 13 at the time, and off the 12th ball he faced – the ball after Rahul Tripathi had dropped Sunil Narine, the other batsman – Dhawal Kulkarni drew an inside edge that hit leg stump. However, the zing bails didn’t dislodge despite lighting up, and the ball ended up ricocheting to the fine-leg boundary. Lynn – and Knight Riders – awarded four runs, adding insult to the Royals’ injury.Rahane was seen having a discussion with the umpires after the incident. “The rules are the rules, but I told the umpires, ‘at least don’t give it as a boundary’. Already the T20 format is so tough for bowlers, and if you get such a situation, at least that ball can be a dead ball,” he said after Knight Riders had romped to victory by eight wickets, with 6.1 overs to spare.”That was my conversation with the umpires. But see, there is nothing to be gained from brooding about whatever is not in our control.”This was the second time in IPL 2019 that Royals had seen one of their bowlers hit the stumps but not get their man. In their match against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk, Jofra Archer had gone through MS Dhoni and nicked the stumps before the batsman had scored a run. Dhoni went on to hit a match-winning 75 not out off 46 balls then, and on Sunday, Lynn made use of his reprieve to smash 50 off 32.”I always like to ride my luck,” Lynn told Harry Gurney on iplt20.com. “It is a T20 game and I like to go hard in the first six overs. After I inside-edged it, I heard a second noise and I thought, ‘he’s either going to catch it, or the bail’s going to come off’. But I got lucky. I told the umpire, I saw him put up byes, so I went down and he actually changed it. I’m happy to ride that luck. I might actually go to a casino tonight if there’s one here!”The loss left Royals with just two points from five matches, sitting at seventh on the table with only the winless Royal Challengers Bangalore below them, and the other six teams at least four points clear.2:08

Five reasons why Kolkata won

Rahane though, said that there was no need to panic yet.”It’s not yet late, nine games are left. And things can change quickly in this format. What has happened has happened,” Rahane said. “When you lose, you think more deeply about it. When you win, you don’t think as much. I think there’s no need to panic or brood too much about this loss.”Out of five games, this is the only one that has gone very badly for us. In the last four matches, we played well. Yes, we could have won three matches but we didn’t. But the T20 format is such that you have to take a risk somewhere and back yourself. I don’t think it’s any individual player’s fault. We win as a team and lose as a team. So we need to improve as a team. The quicker we learn, I’m sure the results will change automatically.”The slowness of the pitch at Sawai Mansingh Stadium contributed to Royals mustering only 139 for 3, but Rahane didn’t want to point fingers for the below-par total.”We thought 150-160 would be challenging. But still, if we made 140, and found it difficult to score, we can learn from that as a bowling unit,” he said. “Especially when playing at home, the quicker we adjust to the pitch in terms of what lengths and lines we should bowl, the better. Overall, there are lots of things for us to learn as a team.”We knew the pitch will be slow. We have practiced here also a lot. It’s not right to give an excuse that we can’t play on a slow pitch. Like I said, we should know as a batting unit when to take risks and when not to.”Gurney, who was the man of the match on IPL debut with 2 for 25 in four overs, also used the lack of pace to his advantage. “The pitch looked quite dry, so quite early on in my spell I bowled a cutter and saw a bit of purchase. So I knew that for the rest of my spell, a majority of my balls would be cutters,” Gurney said. “Thankfully the ball gripped and I was quite effective tonight.”