Category Uncategorized

Malaysia, Guernsey and Fiji were the victorious teams on the opening day of the World Cricket League Division Six in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Sep-2011Malaysia, Guernsey and Fiji were the victorious teams on the opening day of the World Cricket League Division Six in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.Adverse weather conditions meant one of the three games was shortened and the Duckworth-Lewis method applied after the rain clouds arrived in the late afternoon bringing thunder and lightning. No re-calculations were required for Fiji’s match against Nigeria, or Guernsey’s against Jersey, while hosts Malaysia had their game abandoned against Kuwait but not before D/L was imposed.After a delayed start at the Selangor Turf Club cricket ground, Malaysia’s Suresh Navaratnam dismissed Irfan Bhatti with his second delivery as the hosts made a spirited start against Kuwait. Watched by a small crowd of supporters at a venue that is surrounded by the Selangor Turf Club racetrack on the south-side of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia then removed Aamir Javed five overs later when the 22-year-old was bowled by Hassan Ghulam, while Navaratnam dismissed Sibtain Raza not long after for just one run.Captain Hisham Mirza briefly steadied the innings but the slide continued when he fell for 22, with six wickets being lost before the score had passed 100. After a series of sloppy shots Kuwait were bowled out for 151 in the 47th over, Navaratnam collecting figures of 4 for 15.
Faris Almas had his stumps rearranged by Abdullah Akhunzada as Malaysia’s chase suffered some early blows, but captain Suhan Alagaratnam and Ahmed Faiz added an unbeaten 54 for the third wicket and put their side ahead of the required rate before the rains arrived. After a lengthy stop in play, the match was called to a halt and Malaysia won by 38 runs after D/L was calculated.”I am very happy to have won,” said Alagaratnam. “One win and we’re building momentum. I was surprised Kuwait chose to bat, the wicket was a bit sticky early on. Our bowlers, especially Suresh [Navaratnam], did really well and the spinners played a big part. It’s a little disappointing not to have finished the match but we know our strengths and I was glad to see how fast we were to the ball when fielding.””We’re very disappointed to have lost,” added Kuwait captain Hisham. “Our batsmen couldn’t cope with the early swing. If we win the toss tomorrow, I will think hard about bowling first.”We’re missing Mohammad Murad, he’s the kind of bowler that gets early breakthroughs and he works well with Saad Khalid. Nevertheless we’re looking forward to the rest of the tournament. One strong team would have lost today. We can bounce back.”At Kinrara Oval, Jersey took on local Channel Island rivals Guernsey in the sides’ hotly anticipated first round game. Stuart Le Prevost’s side won the toss and elected to bat against Peter Gough’s bowling attackGuernsey’s star allrounder Jeremy Frith made his intentions for the tournament clear after the 33-year-old smashed his way to 80 runs to be the cornerstone of the side’s innings. Frith departed after being caught by Jersey’s Ben Stevens off the bowling of Gough.Ross Kneller ably assisted Frith for some time, with the 28-year-old right-hander hitting a half-century, while after their departure Le Prevost and David Hooper added important runs. Jersey’s bowlers shared the spoils with captain Gough the pick of the attack with 2 for 11.Jersey initially looked like making light work of their target of 252, knocking off 131 runs before a wicket was lost. The fortunes began to change after a passing rain shower forced the teams from the field. Dean Morrison had been run out for 59 before the brief interval, and when the teams returned to the field Ben Stevens departed without a run to his name after being bowled by Jamie Nussbaumer.Nussbaumer then dismissed in-form batsman Ed Farley who dragged the ball onto his stumps to depart for 64, gathering thunderclouds adding to the drama at Kinrara. Corey Bisson added a hard-fought 29 but Jersey captain Gough managed just 17 runs.As thunder and lightning struck around the ground and the rain clouds converged, Jersey began to lose wickets and at six down in the 44th over, it began to look as though the threatening downpours might end the match. Jersey moved ahead on D/L after a 19-run over off Stuart Bisson, but the rain held off and a reinvigorated Guernsey bowling attack fought their way back into the game.Jersey fell just short despite Edward Farley’s half-century•ICC/Peter Lim

With two overs remaining, Jersey needed 14 with just one wicket in hand, and after some tight bowling the target was 10 from the final six deliveries. Tim Ravenscoft bowled James Faudemer with the second ball of the over to secure a nerve-wracking win.”Obviously gutted about today with the fact we couldn’t score a victory but to keep them down to 250 on such a good batting track was good,” said Gough. “I was really pleased with the way our two young lads worked out in the middle. Corey Bisson and Sam de la Haye both worked really hard and now it’s about improving for tomorrow.””I think we were 15 to 20 short of runs on the board and then we didn’t bowl well to begin with which didn’t help us,” added Frith, who was named man of the match. “I am a little disappointed that I didn’t make it to a hundred and got us to 270 but fundamentally today got us two points. Jersey played fantastically and all credit to them, they probably deserved to win. It was a tough game out there but it’s good to walk away with a win and take the two points.”Fiji got their tournament off to a flying start at Bayeumas Oval, beating the promoted Nigeria by 63 runs. Having won the toss and elected to bat, Fiji lost wickets early on but the Rika brothers, captain Joe and his brother Colin, came together and were soon batting fluently in the morning sunshine.Their fightback was cut short when the Fijian captain was removed by Kunle Adegbola, but Colin Rika’s 40 helped his team pass 100 before the lower order took up the challenge. Wicketkeeper Maciu Gauna made an unbeaten 37 from just 35 deliveries while No. 10 Mohammad Khan’s quickfire cameo helped Fiji reach 203 for 8.In reply the Nigerians simply could not handle the veteran Iniasi Cakacaka’s canny offspin, the 43-year-old dismissing key batsmen Ramit Gill and Sean Philips on his way to 4 for 27. Despite the best attempts of Oluwaseun Odeku, who reached 29, Nigeria were bowled out for 140 in 41 overs.the side was on its way to be all out for 140 when Lomani took two bottom order wickets and the victory was sealed for Fiji when Joshua Ogunlola was run out.”It was great to start off with a win and the boys are feeling good,” said Joe Rika. “Iniasi [Cakacaka] did really well to come back after making a duck with the bat, to come back and take four wickets was a great effort. The boys are really happy and we’re looking forward to our next match tomorrow.”

Worcestershire will be playing Division One cricket next season after a remarkable last day run-chase snatched an unlikely promotion

George Dobell at New Road16-Sep-2010
ScorecardWorcestershire will be playing Division One cricket next season after a remarkable last day run-chase snatched an unlikely promotion. But it was not only the worn pitch and demanding target that they defied.It was also the departure of five of their senior players and a crippling financial problem that has forced them to cut their cricket budget to the bone. Their promotion is little short of miraculous.
Just five weeks ago to the day, Vikram Solanki resigned the Worcestershire captaincy after a crushing defeat at Colwyn Bay. At the time, Worcestershire were still 37 points adrift of Glamorgan. Few even considered the possibility of promotion.But, since Daryl Mitchell assumed the captaincy, Worcestershire have enjoyed remarkable success. They have won three and drawn one of their four championship games under his command (it’s seven wins out of nine in all competitions) and, in all, have won four of their last six games.Some, particularly Glamorgan supporters, may feel aggrieved by this result. Certainly, Worcestershire served up some declaration bowling to gift Sussex 106 runs in nine overs and set-up the declaration.Yet the eventual requirement – 301 from 70 overs – still favoured Sussex. The pitch, twice used this season, offered variable bounce to the seamers and generous turn to the spinners.
Worcestershire shouldn’t really have even gone close.But there is a fearlessness in youth. And, in the form of Moeen Ali and James Cameron, Worcestershire have two talented, young cricketers who seem to thrive in such moments. It bodes well for their future and the future of their team.Both men scored centuries. They took the attack the Sussex bowling with such alacrity, that they scored 200 in the afternoon session and paved the way to victory with almost 15 overs in hand. An anxious wait followed to see whether Glamorgan could engineer a victory over Derbyshire but, when the result came through, it precipitated rapturous celebrations at New Road. Thoroughly deserved they were, too.It was surely fitting that it was two young cricketers who should have set up this victory. Worcestershire’s success this season has, largely, been built upon the excellence of youngsters such as Moeen, Alexei Kervezee, Richard Jones and Daryl Mitchell, who at 26, is hardly a veteran.Moeen batted gloriously. At times, none of the bowlers had any answer to his strokeplay as he displayed a range of stoke and sweetness of timing that was more than a little reminiscent of David Gower. Jimmy Anyon for punished for four consecutive boundaries, while Luke Wright was hit out of the attack with something approaching disdain. Monty Panesar, despite conditions he should have savoured, was driven to distraction and cut to ribbons. Moeen scored 99 between lunch and tea and reached his century from just 106 deliveries.The comparison to Gower isn’t entirely positive, of course. It also means that Moeen is sometimes loose outside off stump and there were moments, early in his innings, when he was fortunate to survive. He escaped edges through the slips on 23 and 26 and, had Ben Brown at short-leg responded more quickly, might also have been caught on 54.But there’s substance behind the style. Moeen finishes this campaign as Worcestershire’s leading run-scorer in the championship and T20 and surely faces a winter with the England Lions.Cameron was impressive, too. This, his maiden first-class century, also came in his first game as an opening batsman. He looked secure against all bowling and, in skipping down the pitch to deposit Panesar for two straight sixes in the same over, demonstrated pleasing self-confidence and a wide range of strokes.Sussex weren’t at their best. Maybe it was the fact that they were already assured of promotion, or may it was the after effects of the previous night’s celebrations, but both with the ball and in the field, they appeared jaded. Panesar finished with 52 championship wickets but, on this surface, will be disappointed both not to have taken more and to have conceded more than four an over.Worcestershire stuttered with the winning line within grasp, but they were not to be denied. Their four-wicket victory was their seventh championship success of the season and means, one year after being relegated without a win to their name, they are back up among the best sides in the land. The fact that six of the nine Division One sides are the owners of Test grounds, speaks volumes about the uneven battle that lies ahead.Afterwards Worcestershire’s director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, credited his side’s spirit for their success. Suggesting that the departure of the bigger name players may not have done the club any harm in the long run, Rhodes also warned supporters not to expect any recruitment this winter.”At the start of the season, everyone was tipping us to finish bottom,” Rhodes said. “So this is a great effort and I’m very proud of them. A good spirit in the dressing room is massive. It’s your 12th man. We’ve had hurdles [to that] in the past. But now we have lads who enjoy eachothers’ company and enjoy playing together. It’s like Shakib said: everyone here comes in willing to work and determined to improve.”It’s important that people understand that next season is about consolidation. It will be very tough, but if we can stay up then perhaps there will be a bit more money around in a year or two.”There’s no funding. Unfortunately we will not have the finances to improve the squad in any way. We should be able to afford an overseas player, but it won’t be a top-notcher. [In Division One] we’ll have to rely on the guys who got us here.”It is true that challenges lie ahead. Worcestershire’s record – they have been promoted three times and relegated twice in the last five years – suggests that life in Division One may prove desperately tough, while the club’s financial position remains precarious. Survival remains the goal.But such worries can wait. For now, Worcestershire deserve their celebrations. In the circumstances, their promotion is an excellent achievement and their team contains a couple of players with very bright futures.

Georgia Voll has been included for the ODIs and T20Is while Grace Harris will be part of the latter

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Dec-2024Allrounder Sophie Molineux has been ruled out of the multiformat Ashes series due to a knee injury that will require surgery while captain Alyssa Healy remains unsure whether she will keep wicket due to her ongoing knee problem.Molineux, a left-arm spinner, managed a knee issue through the WBBL, where she captained Melbourne Renegades to a maiden title, and the problem flared again after the ODI series against India. Molineux was ruled out of the recent trip to New Zealand and now faces a further spell on the sidelines.”Sophie Molineux will undergo left knee surgery next month, following that we will provide further updates on an anticipated return date,” team physiotherapist Kate Beerworth said.Related

• Sutherland's 78-ball century overwhelms NZ in rain-hit ODI

• Ryana MacDonald-Gay seals place in England's Test squad for Women's Ashes

• Jon Lewis: T20 World Cup exit was 'line in the sand' for England Women

One of the key issues for Australia to resolve ahead of the Ashes will be whether Healy is able to keep wicket having handed the gloves to Beth Mooney in New Zealand. Healy has been included in the Governor-General’s XI squad for a 50-over warm-up game against England on January 9 at North Sydney Oval which she said would be good test for her knee.”That’ll be a great opportunity for me to take the gloves for a little bit and see how everything’s progressing,” Healy told reporters at the MCG. “I can’t really give you any more information than that. It’s kind of play it by ear at the moment to see how everything pulls up.”But I did thoroughly enjoy running around the field in New Zealand. So if that’s the option and is less disruptive to our side, then that could be the way moving forward. But the aim is to take the gloves and hopefully I can do that.”Having an angry joint in there and flaring that up, and knowing the really tight schedule with the Ashes as well, probably managing that and not wanting to blow it up too much that it’s going to affect my ability to play at all. So that’ll be the real test, I think, in the next 10 days, moving into the series as to how that pulls up, how it responds to keeping again, and we’ll just assess as we go.”Georgia Voll, who made a stunning start to her international career against India, with 173 runs in three ODIs including a century, has been included for the one-day and T20I series which form the first two parts of the Ashes. Grace Harris will join for the T20Is at the SCG, Canberra and Adelaide.”It was pleasing to see Alyssa Healy return to action against New Zealand and looked in good touch, along with a number of batters continuing their strong form on from the recent series against India,” national selector Shawn Flegler said.”Whilst Georgia Voll didn’t play against New Zealand, she’s made a brilliant start to her international career and will be a strong option with the bat if required in her debut Ashes series. The bowling group provides plenty of variety which will be important against a strong England batting line up.”A squad for the day-night Test at the MCG in late January will be named in the coming weeks.”I think you look at the way we’ve probably shaped up in Test cricket over the last couple of seasons, it’s looked a little bit different to what we’ve done in the white-ball format,” Healy said. “So there is some reasoning as to why that Test squad hasn’t been announced, and we’ll probably look at that over the next few weeks, just to see where all the bowlers in the domestic cricket are at and their loads and how they’re going to prepare for a Test match.”Knowing it’s pink ball, knowing it swings a little bit more, and what the conditions are going to be like, I think there’s a few players around the country at the moment that could stick their hand up for a baggy green which I think is really exciting.”The Ashes starts with the first ODI at North Sydney on January 12 followed by matches at Junction Oval in Melbourne and Hobart.Meanwhile, legspinner Georgia Wareham has also been called into the Governor-General’s XI squad in place of fast bowler Darcie Brown to give Wareham more game time ahead of the Ashes having only featured in one of Australia’s last six ODIs where she wasn’t required to bat or bowl.

Australia ODI and T20I squad for Women’s Ashes

Alyssa Healy (capt), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris (T20s only), Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

“We will just take it as it plays out, get to the end of the event. I’m satisfied that it will still be an outstanding World Cup”

Nagraj Gollapudi16-Oct-20232:35

Arthur: Pakistan were ‘timid’ with their performance

The ICC will review the criticism by Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur that the India vs Pakistan World Cup match on October 14 in Ahmedabad felt more like a “bilateral series” game, though it remains confident that the tournament will be remembered as an “outstanding” one once it’s over.Arthur admitted after his side’s seven-wicket loss that with barely any Pakistan presence at the packed Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the team was affected by the partisan crowd. Pakistani fans were conspicuous by their absence at the ground, with no fans having received visas to travel across the border. Only a handful of Pakistani journalists made it in time to cover the match, and a small number of Pakistani-origin fans who are residents/citizens of other countries.”Look, I’d be lying if I said it did [not affect us],” Arthur said after the match. “It didn’t seem like an ICC event, to be brutally honest. It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI event.”Related

• PCB files complaint with ICC over 'inappropriate conduct by spectators' at India vs Pakistan game

• It's been a gripping World Cup, and that's just the ticket saga

• An atmosphere that could have been so much more

• Searching for green in a universe of blue

• An hour of hell: Pakistan's jaw-dropping collapse

Asked to respond to Arthur’s comments, ICC chairman Greg Barclay seemed to downplay them as the kind of criticism that is par for the course at such tournaments. “Every event that we have, there’s always criticisms from various quarters,” Barclay was quoted as saying by AFP in Mumbai, where he was attending the International Olympic Committee Session, which voted for T20 cricket’s inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.”Things that perhaps we’ll take away and try to work on, try to do better… so this event’s only [at] the start. Let’s see how the whole thing plays out and we’ll go away and we’ll review what could change, what we can do better, how we can improve World Cups and the general offering around cricket.”We will just take it as it plays out, get to the end of the event. I’m satisfied that it will still be an outstanding World Cup.”While the India vs Pakistan contest was watched by a record crowd – both at the ground and globally – the organisers have not yet put out the official attendance.The Ahmedabad venue is the largest ground in cricket in terms of capacity with over 110,000 seats.ESPNcricinfo has sent a query to both the ICC and the BCCI, the tournament hosts. There has also been no response from ICC and BCCI to a query on to how many seats were officially put on sale for the marquee contest. When the plan for ticket sales for the tournament was released in late August, the BCCI had said September 3 was slotted solely for the India vs Pakistan game tickets. On October 8, the BCCI announced it was putting a further 14,000 tickets on sale for the match. Three days later, the BCCI put out a post on X (formerly Twitter) announcing that another set of tickets – no numbers revealed – originally meant for its official partners, was being sold.There have been numerous complaints from fans about the online ticketing system in place and the early part of the tournament – excluding India games and games held in Delhi – has been marked by low attendances.

New deal to include increase in Blast coverage, and more women’s fixtures than ever before

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jul-2022The ECB and Sky Sports have extended their broadcast partnership by a further four years, until the end of 2028.The new deal, which is set to begin in 2025, includes a commitment to 90 extra hours of cricket each year, and guarantees that the Hundred – the new competition that was a major factor in the last rights cycle for 2020-24 – will continue for at least another five seasons.That hike in live coverage includes a commitment to a 50 percent increase in the number of Vitality Blast fixtures being broadcast, including one game per round being shown free-to-air on Sky Sports’ YouTube channel.The exact details of the new deal’s free-to-air provisions will be confirmed at a later date – the BBC’s current agreement extends until the end of 2024 – although at least two women’s T20 internationals each year will be broadcast on terrestrial TV, as well as eight women’s Hundred matches – an increase of two from the current deal.Sky have also pledged to continue supporting grassroots cricket through the ECB’s Dynamos Cricket programme.Clare Connor, the ECB’s interim chief executive, said: “Sky have been fantastic partners for cricket for over 30 years. Their broadcast coverage is rightly lauded as the best in the world, but more significantly than that we have a shared commitment to growing the sport and investing in more opportunities, not only for people to watch and follow cricket in all its forms, but also to pick up a bat and ball.”Thanks to Sky and the support of other partners, we saw a record 14 million people playing, attending or following cricket in 2021. This year alone, 10,000 children will get the chance to have a free taste of cricket through Sky Dynamos Intros, while many, many more will benefit from facilities and opportunities to play which are only possible because of Sky’s investment. It shows this media rights model is working, and we are very grateful for Sky’s ongoing support.”We have worked closely with the wider game and our First-Class Counties to agree this new deal with Sky, which will see not only more live women’s and men’s cricket on Sky, but also more on free to air TV as well. I would like to place on record our thanks to the First Class County Chairs, to all of the Sky teams involved and to ECB colleagues including Tony Singh and Tom Harrison, who have played the central role in delivering this outstanding result for cricket.”Our shared values and vision with Sky will make cricket accessible to even more people over the coming years and will use the power of sport to inspire the next generation, while safeguarding the wonderful traditions which are such a key part of our game.”Stephen van Rooyen, Sky Sports’ EVP and CEO UK and Europe, added: “This is an exciting time for English cricket and we’re thrilled to be furthering our long and successful partnership with the ECB. Together we will continue to help grow the game while boosting participation in the sport by children from all backgrounds through initiatives like our Dynamos Cricket Intros.”On screen, we will continue to push boundaries in our BAFTA-winning coverage, bringing Sky Sports viewers even more live action from 2025 – including more women’s cricket than ever before – with men’s and women’s England internationals and domestic cricket. Sky’s investment over the last 30 years has contributed to a great deal of success on the pitch, and we hope to be at the forefront of much more to come.”

The points docked after the Test at the MCG ended up being the difference for Australia

Daniel Brettig09-Mar-20218:06

Ravi Shastri on India qualifying for WTC from bio-bubble: ‘I cannot say enough how proud I am of my team’

Though Australia were comfortably clear in the World Test Championship standings at the time, Australia’s coach Justin Langer has admitted to a feeling of dread when his side dropped four points due to a penalty for slow over rates during the Boxing Day Test against India – ultimately all that separated the team from a place in the final later this year.While Tim Paine’s side won only two of the four series it contested over the period of the WTC, while also having away series against Bangladesh and South Africa cancelled due to complications around Covid-19, they would have claimed enough points over matches played to squeak past New Zealand into second place behind India if not for being docked the four points at the conclusion of the MCG loss.Langer claimed that the team had no idea they were behind the required over rate by enough of a margin to incur a penalty until after the Test concluded, despite regular updates always being provided by match officials. In 2008, Australia’s then captain Ricky Ponting resorted to bowling part-timers at a critical moment of a Test match in Nagpur when there were concerns the team’s over rate had sagged to a level at which he may well have been suspended under the disciplinary system in use by the ICC at the time.Related

• England and India docked two WTC points apiece for slow over rate

• Australia players '100% behind' head coach Justin Langer, says Tim Paine

• Covid summer brings Australia back to the field

• A decade of Glenn Maxwell: is there another chapter to write?

• India are the best Test team irrespective of WTC standings

“Our manager Gavin Dovey had gone home … for Christmas with his family in England, and it wasn’t until after the game that we realised our over rate was down,” Langer told SEN Radio. “That’s really slack on our behalf, but I remember we were in the team room afterwards and I spoke to Painey and Dene Hills, our analyst, about it. I was a bit grumpy about it and I thought ‘imagine if this cost us the World Test Championship’.”And I mentioned it to the players afterwards that two overs down could cost us the World Test Championship. And so, we have to get better at that and make sure it doesn’t happen in Sydney and Brisbane. It didn’t, but we also couldn’t bowl out India twice and we didn’t make enough runs. It was relevant at the time, and it certainly became incredibly significant over the weekend.”At the start of his reign as coach in 2018, Langer had coined the phrase “From Lille to Lord’s”, in reference to a tenure that had begun with a commemorative trip to the battlefields of the Western Front and took in a couple of chances to play finals at the home of cricket: the 2019 World Cup final and this year’s WTC final, albeit before it was moved to Southampton’s Ageas Bowl.The MCG proved costly for Australia, and not just because of the defeat against India•Getty Images

“It’s disappointing for a couple of reasons – one we didn’t get to play in South Africa to have another crack at it after the India series and is it’s disappointing for me because this Test Championship goes over a couple of years, we were in the box seat for a lot of it,” Langer said.”We’ve played some great cricket. Losing to India at home that was really disappointing, but…we got docked two [four] points for a slow over rate, and that cost us. That’s how close it was and how often do you get docked points in Test cricket these days? Rarely. We have that in our control, that’s an attitudinal thing, at the time we probably thought ‘oh it’s not that big a deal’, but that cost us the WTC after what had been two really good years when we were ranked No. 1 again. The things we can control we have to control, and we can’t for a second relax in Test cricket.”After Australia’s white-ball squad returned home from a 3-2 T20I series defeat in New Zealand that he sat out, Langer expressed approval for Glenn Maxwell’s recently stated desire to put himself back into Test match contention given the multiple Test series looming for the national team in Asia over the next two years.”I’m absolutely supportive of that,” Langer said. “We know how destructive he can be. We’re always looking for greater consistency from Maxy and all of our players, but he’s so destructive and so talented and a gun fielder.”I’d love that energy in the field. For example, I think we dropped 16 catches in this Test series, things that are in our control like the over rate, and they’re areas we want to keep getting better at because otherwise the old ‘catches win matches’ costs you. Glenn Maxwell’s fielding, he bowls handy offspinners, absolutely we would encourage him to get amongst it. I’d like to see all our star players playing. It would be good for Glenn Maxwell, but it would be great for domestic cricket.”You imagine young bowlers bowling against a hungry Glenn Maxwell who wants to push to play Test cricket in the future. He’ll be hungry, I’d love to see [Aaron] Finch play as well. I’d love to see all those guys play because never underestimate the benefit for young players, within your team and the opposition, playing against the best players. But that’s going to be a decision for Victoria and I’ll watch that really closely.”It remains to be seen whether Maxwell will be included in the Victorian squad for their coming bracket of Sheffield Shield matches ahead of his next stint in the IPL.

It was the second washout for the Spartans in as many games

The Report by Hemant Brar13-Nov-2019Match abandoned Tshwane Spartans 33 for 4 (de Villiers 10*, van Biljon 3*, Morris 2-8) v Nelson Mandela Bay GiantsTshwane Spartans were in a precarious position against Nelson Mandela Bay Giants before a floodlight failure, lightning and then rain forced the game to be called off.The Spartans were 33 for 4 in 7.1 overs when the floodlights malfunctioned at 6.10pm local time. While the players were waiting for power to be restored, a lightning threat forced them indoors. The floodlights were back on in about 40 minutes but then rain made an appearance and the match was eventually called off at 7.35pm.The Spartans’ first game, against Durban Heat, was abandoned without a ball being bowled. The Giants are at the top of the table for now with six points from two games.The Spartans didn’t have a great start after being put in as Chris Morris dismissed Theunis de Bruyn and Dean Elgar in the third over. de Bruyn top-edged a flick in front of square leg, while Elgar failed to put bat to a full toss and was trapped lbw for a first-ball duck.Vaughn van Jaarsveld fell in the next over when Junior Dala hit the stumps direct at the non-striker’s end with the batsman a bit slow to get back in. Dala dented the Spartans further with captain Heinrich Klaasen’s wicket to leave them reeling at 28 for 4 in the sixth over.AB de Villiers tried to rescue them and was batting on 10 along with Pite van Biljon before the external factors had their say.