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Visitors five down and still 85 from victory after Pennington, Paterson rock top order

ECB Reporters Network19-May-2024Hampshire’s opportunity to notch a first win of the season is in the balance after a fast-moving third day of their Vitality County Championship match at Trent Bridge left them with still much work to do.Chasing a modest 169 to win, Hampshire ended the day still 85 runs away from their target at 84 for 5 and probably a man short unless Tom Prest can bat with the injured shoulder that has kept him off the field since tea on day one.Nottinghamshire had been bowled out for 209 in their second innings by tea, with veteran quick Kyle Abbott and offspinner Felix Organ taking three wickets each after Joe Clarke and Jack Haynes had made half-centuries.But Hampshire then slumped to 44 for 5 as Dillon Pennington and Dane Paterson led a determined effort with the ball by the home side before Fletcha Middleton and James Fuller saw out the final overs to calm their nerves.Still eight runs behind at 33 for 1 overnight, Nottinghamshire stumbled into early trouble as the pattern of the first two innings repeated itself.Against a ball that was only 15 overs old, they lost wickets in each of Abbott’s opening three overs. Will Young edged to wicketkeeper Ben Brown from a ball that lifted and left him, Ben Slater was pushed back in his crease to be leg before and Tom Moores saw his off stump uprooted by one angled in from wide by the veteran South African seamer.At 44 for 4 – effectively 3 for 4 – Nottinghamshire were in a difficult spot that could have turned worse still had Clarke not been dropped on 17 at 65 for 4. It was Michael Neser at first slip – substitute for the injured Prest – whose hands let him down, a second such error of the match by the Australian and a fifth for Hampshire overall.Clarke punished the mistake by passing fifty for the fourth time this season as he and Haynes added 96 for the fifth wicket before the former was out for 57, gloving a catch to Brown after being tempted by a short delivery from Mohammad Abbas.Haynes completed his half-century from 111 balls, but against the spin combination of Liam Dawson and Organ on a three-day old pitch Nottinghamshire’s hopes of building a substantial lead unravelled.Organ struck the first blow as Haynes was caught at short leg via an inside edge on to pad, picking up a second when Lyndon James, trying to help one round the corner, gave an easy catch to short fine leg.Dawson then claimed two in consecutive overs as Olly Stone’s paddle sweep looped up gently for James Vince to catch running across from slip before Dillon Pennington was trapped leg before. Organ wrapped things up by having Calvin Harrison stumped, leaving Hampshire needing 169 to win.With Nick Gubbins missing the match on paternity leave and Prest unlikely to bat, it was never likely to be a straightforward task against the Nottinghamshire attack, even with 127 overs at their disposal.Knowing the potency of the new ball so far in this contest, Hampshire made no attempt to hurry yet still found themselves two down for 15 inside the first 10 overs, thanks to two superlative catches.Nottinghamshire captain Haseeb Hameed took the first, plucking the ball out of the air one-handed at mid-on as Ali Orr mistimed his shot horribly against Pennington, who picked up his second wicket soon afterwards.This time Harrison produced the athleticism, using every inch of his 6ft 4ins plus a fully extended right arm to grab the ball a good eight feet off the ground. Organ, the man out, had aimed a rather wild slash at a ball wide of off stump but was nonplussed nonetheless that it had not cleared the cordon.It was enough for Nottinghamshire to sense an opportunity and they took full advantage of Hampshire’s frailty.Skipper Vince, on whom much seemed to rest, fell for 6, leg before to a full delivery from Paterson that he was trying to work to leg, Dawson hit James straight into the hands of short cover and Brown lost his off stump to a swinging delivery from Paterson, leaving Hampshire 44 for 5 and facing a fight for survival.

The ex-Kent batter struck 207, following up the 116 not out he scored last month against his former club

ECB Reporters Network25-May-2024Jordan Cox hit a double hundred for on his return to Canterbury as Essex dominated on day two of their Vitality Championship game, declaring on 591 for 7 before they reduced Kent to 118 for 4 in reply. Cox made 207 on his first game back at the Spitfire Ground, in a 255-ball innings that included 21 fours and five sixes.Shane Snater hit a career-best 83 not out and Michael Pepper made 82 before Matt Critchley took 2 for 19, including the key wicket of Kent’s top scorer Ben Compton, who made 41. Joe Denly and nightwatcher Matt Parkinson were not out on four and 10 at stumps, with the hosts still trailing by 473.With Essex on 287 for 4 overnight, both sides felt the first hour would be crucial and it unfolded exactly as the majority of the crowd feared it would. It quickly became obvious this was going to be exactly the sort of day Kent supporters have endured too often this season and the news that Wes Agar was unable to bowl after injuring his shoulder yesterday did nothing to improve morale.Cox had averaged just 24.06 in 2023, his final season for Kent, but he was averaging 66.66 coming into this game. Having already scored a century in the fixture at Chelmsford, there was an air of inevitability about his march to three figures this time round.There was polite applause when he reached the landmark with a cover-driven four off Parkinson and he celebrated by gyrating his hips like a middle-aged uncle who’d accidentally wandered into a rave.Kent then enjoyed a spasm of hope when they took two wickets in nine balls. The breakthrough came when Pepper slashed at Arafat Bhuiyan and was caught by the sub fielder Jaydn Denly at slip.Simon Harmer then holed out to Parkinson for six, caught at the second attempt by a juggling sub fielder Joe Denly on the deep cover boundary, only for Snater to come in and join Cox for the biggest partnership of the innings, taking Essex to 449 for 6 at lunch.Cox took a single off Bhuiyan to reach 150, then hit the same bowler for successive sixes, before Snater reached 50 with a single off Denly.
As Cox neared 200 Kent put every single fielder on the boundary, but he still found the backward square leg boundary to get to 199. The field duly came in and he drove Evison for a single, also bringing up Essex’s biggest seventh wicket partnership against Kent, beating the 152 set by Nadheem Shahid and Derek Pringle in 1992.When Cox was finally bowled by Marcus O’Riordan Essex immediately declared and as much as it must have hurt the home fans to see a homegrown talent torment them, he walked off to applause from every section of the ground.Zak Crawley immediately went on the attack, but he’d made just 16 from 12 balls when he edged Sam Cook to Dean Elgar at first slip.
Daniel Bell-Drummond was on 0 when he was dropped by Aaron Beard, but the fielder atoned when he strangled Bell-Drummond for 16 in the penultimate over before tea, leaving the hosts on 48 for two at the end of the session.Cook limped off injured after pulling up during a run-up, and O’Riordan seemed to be coping well until he was lbw to Critchley for 30. The bowler celebrated the wicket with a Cristiano Ronaldo-like leap.Ben Compton was perhaps unlucky to be lbw for 41, trying to sweep Critchley. This left Matt Parkinson to come in as the nightwatcher with over five overs left, a dangerous spell that he just about survived.

Fast bowler arrives at Chelmsford with county competing for the title

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jun-2024Essex have signed the South African fast-bowling allrounder Eathan Bosch on a short-term deal, covering four Vitality County Championship matches.Bosch, 26, has claimed 92 wickets in 38 first-class matches since making his debut for KwaZulu-Natal in 2017, and heads for Chelmsford with the club once again challenging for the County Championship title. They are currently two points behind leaders Surrey at the halfway mark of the competition, and face Durham at Chelmsford in their next fixture on Sunday.”I’m super excited to be here,” said Bosch. “It was a pretty easy deal to accept, and I’m looking forward to my time with the Eagles. It will be nice to play outside of South Africa, and to see what my skills can bring to the table.””It will definitely be a learning experience, but I’m looking forward to experiencing a bit more of the country, and especially Chelmsford!”Essex Head Coach, Anthony McGrath, added: “Eathan is a terrific addition for us, and we’re delighted to welcome him to the team.”There’s huge value in a well-stocked seam bowling cupboard, and with his experience of bowling in different conditions, he will add a new dimension to our attack.”He will also be able to push everyone around him to new heights, which will be extremely beneficial as the Championship season heads towards its finale.”Bosch has a burgeoning ability with the bat too, having made a century and seven fifties in making 1,053 first-class runs at 22.89. Though he has yet to make his senior international debut, he represented South Africa at Under-19 level in two Tests and two ODIs, and appeared for Pretoria Capitals in the SA20 in 2023 and 2024.His arrival at Chelmsford comes after fellow seamer Ben Allison was loaned to Worcestershire for two Championship fixtures, a repeat of the short-term move he made at the end of the 2023 season.”This is an excellent opportunity for Ben to get game time while not compromising on the quality of cricket he will play,” McGrath said. “He is still developing as a cricketer, and the most important thing for him now is simply to be playing; as such, this is a great chance for him, and we’re looking forward to seeing how he gets on.”

Test vice-captain says winning can become habit as team looks towards 2025-26 challenges

Vithushan Ehantharajah23-Jul-20242:00

Ehantharajah: England comfortable sitting in fourth gear now

Victory over West Indies in the second Test at Trent Bridge secured England their first multi-match series win since the end of 2022. Something which vice-captain Ollie Pope hopes can become a habit.It is a slightly misleading statistic. England have only lost one series under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum – the recent 4-1 defeat to India – and Sunday’s result, which gives them a 2-0 lead heading into the final Test beginning on Friday at Edgbaston, means they have now won four out of seven completed series.There was also victory over Ireland in a one-off Test last summer, and India in a Test rescheduled from their 2021 home series. With 16 wins from 26 matches, Stokes’ win percentage of 61.53% currently ranks third behind legendary Australians Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting as far as those who have captained at least 25 Tests.Related

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And yet, after drawn series against New Zealand and Australia – both missed opportunities – followed by the loss in India, the onus was on England to get back to winning ways as soon as possible. Particularly with the shift in personnel brought about, primarily, to build towards the 2025-26 Ashes.”There was obviously a lot said after the India series about those kind of things,” Pope said when asked about the importance of notching this series win after the last 18 months. “Although it [talk of a lack of series win] fell in an Ashes series, and India is always a tough place to go.”I think winning can become a habit and the way we’ve gone about these two games is high class and that’s shown in the results so far.”That the series has been secured with the help of new faces speaks to Pope’s optimism about the future. James Anderson’s enforced retirement after Lord’s came alongside a stellar debut performance from Gus Atkinson, who emerged with 12 for 106 from the match courtesy of five-wicket hauls in both innings.With Ben Foakes and Jonny Bairstow discarded, Jamie Smith’s 70 in his maiden innings along with seven catches so far has ensured a seamless transition with the wicketkeeper position. Shoaib Bashir’s match-winning 5 for 41 on the final day of the second Test – his third five-wicket haul in just his fifth appearance – vindicated the gamble to select the offspinner instead of Jack Leach, who is above the 20-year-old in the pecking order at their county, Somerset.New blood settling quickly is a familiar quirk to this team; Atkinson, for instance, was the fifth player on debut under Stokes to claim a five-for. But the manner in which selectors moved away from others – notably Anderson, England’s greatest Test cricketer – suggests cultivating a comfortable environment and making uncomfortable decisions are not mutually exclusive.Ollie Pope’s 121 and 51 earned him the Player-of-the-Match award•Getty Images

“I think [there were] some big calls and some tough calls on guys to make. But it feels at the minute that we’ve got a really nice balanced attack and batting line-up as well.”Obviously we want to give guys confidence and that we’re building the team around them. But at the same time in international cricket there’s always going to be pressure for spots. And that’s shown in the last few weeks that the guys that have come in have done beautifully and we can keep building from here.”The way Bash bowled was amazing. Stokesy coming in as well [as an allrounder]. And then we’ve got the two quick guys this game as well, which was a really nice varied attack. And the batting is looking to take shape and hopefully it will be that way for a couple of years as well.”Pope’s part in that batting line-up came to the fore at Trent Bridge, scoring 121 in England’s first innings, then 51 in the second. It was a far-from-flawless sixth Test century as he was dropped on 46 and 54. But after 57 in his only innings at Lord’s, it seems Pope has emerged from a slump that saw him average just 19.05 in 18 red-ball knocks for England and Surrey – a run which began after a match-winning 196 in the first Test of the India series. He is averaging 44.64 as a Test No. 3 since his promotion to the role under Stokes.”I actually felt I played better in the second innings,” Pope said. “I got dropped twice in the first innings, one I actually creamed anyway. I didn’t feel quite at my best but I felt pretty good. And I felt pretty good at Lord’s last week as well so I’m happy to make it count this game, got that bit of luck and was able to cash in.”As well as an unassailable 2-0 lead, England left Nottingham with a bit of history, scoring 400 for both innings for the first time. The strike rates of 4.60 and 4.70, respectively, were brisk but no real risks were taken. A change of tack, perhaps?Pope does not think so – “it’s just out natural games” – but does acknowledge the batters are looking to adopt a more “ruthless” approach in this next stage of their evolution as a collective. All while retaining their capacity to go after opposition attacks.”There might be a day where we go and get five- or six hundred at some point in the future as well. And that’s a cool thing to have.”I feel that everyone has kind of grown into their roles and now there’s a real hunger. There always is a hunger, but now there’s an extra bit in that batting line-up and now we feel like we can go on to do even better things. At the time it was about building confidence now it’s about hopefully we can keep becoming more and more ruthless.”We put on just over 400 in the third innings of the game and had we not done that it might’ve been a closer affair in the end. We want to be as ruthless as we can as a batting unit, but still play the way we do because that’s our natural game. But being ruthless is being part of Test cricket as well.”

Three Sri Lanka batters make half-centuries but Lions need only 75 on final day

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Aug-2024Nishan Madushka, Angelo Mathews and captain Dhananjaya de Silva found form with half-centuries but Sri Lanka are facing a defeat to an inexperienced England Lions team at New Road.Trailing by 185 runs on first innings, Sri Lanka were bowled out in 87.1 overs on the third day of their tour match in Worcester. After Dimuth Karunaratne top-scored with just 26 on the opening day, Madushka, Mathews and Dhananjaya registered Sri Lanka’s first three half-centuries of the tour as they racked up a total of 306.But that left the Lions a target of just 122 to win, and they made a dent into the requirement on the third evening. Ben McKinney, the Durham opener, made 20 off nine balls – hitting three fours and a six – and the Lions need only 75 more runs for victory heading into the fourth day, with eight wickets in hand.Related

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Offspinner Farhan Ahmed, the 16-year-old younger brother of England legspinner Rehan, was the most successful bowler for the Lions, taking 3 for 87 from his 29 overs and dismissing Madushka, Mathews and Sadeera Samarawickrama, who made 25. Seamers Josh Hull, Zaman Akhter and Lyndon James took two wickets apiece.Dhananjaya took two wickets in two balls in the third over of the Lions’ run chase, knocking back McKinney’s leg stump and having Ollie Price caught at slip on the reverse-sweep. But the Warwickshire pair Rob Yates and Hamza Shaikh saw the Lions through to the close, and will have the opportunity to take them home on Saturday morning.The tour match is Sri Lanka’s only match practice before the first of three Tests against England starts in Manchester on Wednesday. This is their first Test tour to England since they lost a three-match series 2-0 in 2016.

Bad weather spares Leicestershire further examination but innings defeat looms

ECB Reporters Network10-Sep-2024Yorkshire remain on course for a victory that they believe may be enough to realise their promotion ambitions despite bad weather washing out more than half of the second day of their Vitality County Championship match at Leicester.Leicestershire will resume on day three at 35 for two in their second innings, trailing by 246 after Yorkshire had posted 379 following an excellent 126 from captain Jonny Tattersall and a career-best 88 from pace bowler Matthew Fisher, who also claimed both Leicestershire wickets.Rain forced the players off shortly before two o’clock and they were unable to return. It meant 57 scheduled overs were lost but with two full days still to come Yorkshire would be mightily disappointed should they fail to turn their strong position into a win.Ahead of this fixture, head coach Ottis Gibson predicted that one win from his side’s final three Division Two matches would be enough to secure a top-two finish, even though they trailed second-placed Middlesex by a point going into this round.In the play that was possible, Leicestershire’s hopes of limiting Yorkshire’s lead after they were dismissed for 98 on day one went unfulfilled in an opening session dominated by a 138-run ninth-wicket partnership between Tattersall and Fisher, who could not be parted for an hour and a half, and only when home skipper Lewis Hill had belatedly recalled Rehan Ahmed into the attack.The England wrist spinner, who turned 20 last month and has been named in the squad to tour Pakistan next month, was successful with his fourth delivery (having struck with his second in his first spell on day one) as Tattersall’s fine innings ended with an edge to slip. He finished with three for 60.The Yorkshire captain had completed his second hundred of the season in the sixth over of the morning from 170 balls. He celebrated with two lovely straight driven fours off Scott Currie and had raised his boundary count to 14 by the time he was out.The pitch appeared to offer far less to the bowlers than it had 24 hours earlier, when the first dozen overs of the morning saw Leicestershire lose seven wickets for 15. The corresponding period this time resulted in Yorkshire adding 51 without loss as Fisher posted his maiden first-class half-century for the county. Even the new ball, taken as soon as available nine overs into the day, had little effect.More to the point, in the broader context, the shift in the balance of the contest had enabled Yorkshire to turn one batting bonus point overnight to three, which may be vital as they bid to seal their return to Division One, matching Middlesex’s haul against Gloucestershire. They were one short when Tattersall was out, but Fisher and Ben Coad added another 31 from just 26 balls before Ahmed dismissed Fisher, helped by a sharp catch snapped up at ankle height by wicketkeeper Ben Cox.Seamer Tom Scriven, still searching for his first five-wicket bag in first-class cricket, finished with four for 103.There was time for Leicestershire to face one nervy over before lunch, and though they survived that one, they slipped to 34 for two for two shortly before the rain arrived, Fisher continuing his productive day by taking both wickets.Opener Rishi Patel, whose approach to his side’s 281-run first-innings deficit was to be ultra aggressive, profited only briefly from it before he was leg before playing a horrible hoick across the line. Partner Ian Holland was more cautious but departed quickly nonetheless, caught at first slip.

“We know what we’re doing with him, and where we’re going. He’s comfortable,” says interim coach Trescothick

Matt Roller15-Sep-2024England will continue to take a cautious approach to Jofra Archer’s workloads during their five upcoming ODIs against Australia, after he bowled just 3.3 overs across the drawn, rain-affected T20I series.Archer has been steadily eased back into international cricket this year, playing two T20Is against Pakistan in May before featuring in all eight of England’s matches at June’s T20 World Cup. He did not play at all for Sussex in the second half of the Blast group stages and was managed carefully through the Hundred, twice being rested to the frustration of Southern Brave captain James Vince.Since the end of the Hundred, he has played two matches: one for Sussex in the quarter-final of the T20 Blast, and the other for England in their defeat at the Utilita Bowl on Wednesday night. He was rested for Friday night’s game in Cardiff and would have played in Sunday’s series decider had it not been washed out by the Manchester rain.He has proved why England have invested so heavily in him, since his comeback from the back and elbow issues that have kept him on the sidelines for so long. He was their joint-highest wicket-taker at June’s World Cup, and on Wednesday night provided a reminder of his skills at the death, clean-bowling Sean Abbott and Xavier Bartlett in successive balls.Related

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Archer is in England’s 15-man squad for the five-match ODI series which starts in Nottingham on Thursday, though may be rested for one or two of them. He has not played a 50-over game in the last 18 months and while he retains long-term ambitions to play red-ball cricket, he has not played a first-class match since May 2021.”Jofra will have to be managed throughout the series,” Jos Buttler told Sky Sports on Sunday. “He’s played a really good stint now of T20 cricket, but obviously you can only bowl four overs in there. There’s a jump in intensity getting loads up to taking full part in an ODI – and of course, as an England fan, to push those loads up hopefully to get back into the Test arena as well.”Marcus Trescothick, England’s interim coach, said that Archer was “comfortable” with the ECB’s long-term plan to manage his workload. “He knows the plan,” Trescothick said. “It’s discussed long in advance of picking the team on each day. We know what we’re doing with him, and where we’re going. He’s comfortable: he knows what he’s doing.”That’s a bigger structure, in terms of what we’re trying to do with Jofra. You come into the series knowing what we’ve got and what we can do with him. That’s an agreed plan between the coaches, directors, physios and all the different people. We’ll still be managing him [in the ODIs] – exactly the same thing.”Trescothick will be part of all three of England’s tours pre-Christmas, as an assistant coach for the Test series in Pakistan and New Zealand, and continuing to deputise for Brendon McCullum during the white-ball tour of the Caribbean in November. “It’s going to be slightly abbreviated, but I’ll be popping into all of them,” he said.He said that his manner as a coach has been informed by his experience working with McCullum, which he hopes will allow for a smooth transition when McCullum takes charge across formats from January. “I’m directing it in a way that I know will be very similar to when he comes in,” Trescothick said. “He’ll talk the same way, manage in the same fashion, and debrief in the same way.”We’ve spent two-and-a-half years together coaching… It’s not copying it, because I’m putting my own stamp on it, but it’s done in a very similar sort of fashion involving the very similar people in terms of the coaches we have around it. It’s the start of what’s going to go on, and it’ll carry on pretty seamlessly when he takes over in January.”

It’s not clear if the team management wanted to rest him or Bumrah himself wanted to be rested

Alagappan Muthu31-Oct-2024Jasprit Bumrah is likely to miss the third and final Test of the series against New Zealand in Mumbai. Bumrah was with the team when they began training at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday, but all he did were some light fitness work and some fielding drills. He did not bowl during either of the training sessions that India had at the stadium.It is understood that Bumrah doesn’t have an injury, and it’s not known yet if the team management wanted to rest him or Bumrah himself wanted to be rested.The news that Bumrah could miss the game came to light shortly after head coach Gautam Gambhir mentioned that all the players were available for selection, and brushed aside concerns about Bumrah not bowling at training.Related

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“I think he [Bumrah] is just done his preparations,” Gambhir said on Thursday, “I think we know how the weather is in Mumbai, so obviously he needs to conserve his energy as well. So he’s done his bowling, he’s prepared really well, and he’s fine. That’s why he’s a senior player, he knows how much he needs to prepare for the Test match.”Bumrah has played all four Tests of the home season so far, and has bowled the third-most overs (90) and picked up the third-most wickets (14) . He was handed the vice-captaincy of the team recently and is in line to lead them at the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in November, when Rohit Sharma is expected to miss the first Test for personal reasons. Given his other role as the team’s bowling leader, India will want Bumrah to be fit and firing for each of the five Tests of that tour, which begins on November 18 and goes through to January 7.There were no indications from the team management, in the two days they attended training at the Wankhede, that Bumrah would miss the game. Assistant coach Abhishek Nayar even highlighted how India’s recent Tests haven’t really gone the distance and that Bumrah’s workload hadn’t hit the levels where they would be concerned about him.”In the two Test matches that he’s bowled [against New Zealand] around 20-25 overs. So he hasn’t bowled a lot,” Nayar said on Wednesday. “Yes, there will always be a thought process about his workload. Also we played two games that we’ve not had five-day cricket, it’s more three, three-and-a-half. So he’s got ample rest. But Booms is very important to us and his workload will always be something on our mind.”Fast bowlers are unlikely to get a lot of assistance from the Mumbai pitch that has been prepared. The red soil should ensure there is good bounce and the early-morning moisture combined with the new ball might provide a small window for them to do a little damage, but largely it is the spinners to whom both teams will be turning to. India have already gone down 2-0, their first series defeat at home in 12 years, making the Test something of a dead rubber, although there are WTC points at stake. India are on top of the WTC table and fighting for a spot in the final at Lord’s in June 2025.

The batter posted his List A stats on social media, expressing surprise at his omission

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Dec-2024Prithvi Shaw has been left out of Mumbai’s squad for the first three rounds of the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy beginning December 21. The announcement was made on Tuesday, two days after Mumbai beat Madhya Pradesh in Bengaluru to win the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.Ajinkya Rahane, who played a key role in the triumph by top-scoring in the tournament, has been rested following a request for a break. Rahane made 469 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 164.56, with five half-centuries, as an opener.Shreyas Iyer continues to remain captain, while Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube and Shardul Thakur feature in a full-strength 17-member squad. Opener Ayush Mhatre, who missed the domestic T20 competition to be part of India’s Under-19 Asia Cup squad, returns to the mix.Shaw’s exclusion comes at a time when questions continue to be raised about his form and fitness. He failed to hit a half-century in nine innings in the SMA Trophy – 197 runs with a highest of 49 against Vidarbha in the quarter-final.Related

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Shaw expressed surprise at his omission by posting his List A stats in an Instagram story. “Tell me god, what more do I have to see…if 65 innings, 3399 runs at an average of 55.7 with a strike rate of 126, I’m not good enough…but I will keep my faith in you and hopefully people believe in me still…cause I will come back for sure. Om Sai Ram.”The spotlight has been on Shaw since he was dropped from Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy squad in October owing to fitness and disciplinary issues. While he received support from Greg Chappell and Kevin Pietersen, Shaw’s fitness standards and “work ethic” – as stated by Iyer – continues to be a concern. In December, Shaw wasn’t picked in an IPL auction for the first time.”He needs to get his work ethics right, and if he does that, the sky is the limit for him,” Iyer said after Mumbai won the SMA Trophy. “We can’t babysit anyone, right? Every professional who is playing at this level, they need to know what they should be doing. And he has also done it in the past; it’s not that he hasn’t. He has to focus, he has to sit back, [and] put a thinking cap on, and then figure out himself. He will get the answer by himself.Baroda, semi-finalists at SMAT, will be without Hardik Pandya for the first few rounds of the Vijay Hazare Trophy as part of his workload management, keeping in mind India’s upcoming schedule that includes six white-ball games at home against England followed by the Champions Trophy. Hardik played seven games for Baroda in the SMA Trophy, where he hit 246 runs at a strike rate of 193.70, with two half-centuries. He also bowled 19 overs in those games for six wickets.

If not the remaining two Border-Gavaskar Trophy Tests, then Australia’s visit to Sri Lanka will decide who meets South Africa at Lord’s in June 2025

S Rajesh29-Dec-2024

India

For India to be sure of qualifying, they need to win both their remaining Tests in Melbourne and Sydney. Then they would finish on 60.53, which would be more than Australia’s 57.02 even if they were to win their upcoming two-Test series 2-0 in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s points ceiling for this cycle is 53.85 – a tally they would end up with if they were to sweep Australia at home.If India win one Test and draw the other, they’ll finish on 57.02; in such a case, they could lose out on the second spot to Australia, who would finish on 58.77 if they were to also win both Tests in Sri Lanka. For India to qualify with 57.02, Australia would need to get no more than 16 points in Sri Lanka (a win and a draw).A win and a defeat in Australia would put India on 55.26, which would leave them pinning their hopes on Sri Lanka beating Australia by at least a 1-0 margin.Two draws would leave India on 53.51. Sri Lanka can go past that with a 2-0 win, while Australia would need at least one win in Sri Lanka to beat it.If India draw a Test and lose the other they would finish on 51.75 and be out of the race; in such a case Australia would finish ahead of India even if they were to lose 2-0 in Sri Lanka.India still have plenty of work to do in Australia•AFP/Getty Images

Australia

If Australia were to win the Melbourne and Sydney Tests against India, they would be certain of qualifying for the WTC final – in such a case, they would finish on 57.02 even if they were to go on to lose 2-0 in Sri Lanka.A win and a draw against India would leave them ahead of India even if they were to lose both Tests in Sri Lanka, but then Sri Lanka could go past Australia with a clean sweep.If Australia were to win one and lose one against India, they would need at least one win in Sri Lanka to stay ahead in the race. The same applies if both Tests against India are drawn.If they were to draw one and lose the other against India, they would need two wins in Sri Lanka.Defeat in both Tests against India would push Australia out of contention.Sri Lanka cannot afford any more slips, and still need Border-Gavaskar Trophy results to go their way•Associated Press

Sri Lanka

The maximum Sri Lanka can finish on is 53.85, if they beat Australia 2-0. For that to be enough for a second-place finish, one of two scenarios have to play out in the remaining Border-Gavaskar Trophy Tests:

• Both Melbourne and Sydney produce draws
• Australia win one of the two home Tests, while the other is drawn

In any other scenario, either Australia or India will finish higher than 53.85 and knock Sri Lanka out.