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Smith will be landing in the UAE on Thursday; franchise still confident he will be ready for their first game on September 22

Daniel Brettig17-Sep-2020Steven Smith was still experiencing concussion symptoms as he was ruled out of all three ODIs against England, and will need to recover fully before returning to action in the IPL for the Rajasthan Royals, whom he also captains.Smith is supposed to land in the UAE on Thursday evening, with Royals playing their first match on September 22. ESPNcricinfo understands that the franchise remains confident Smith will be available for that game, against Chennai Super Kings in Sharjah.A “dog thrower” short ball from the Australian team assistant coach Trent Woodhill had struck Smith on the side of the helmet in training ahead of the first ODI at Old Trafford, and though he passed initial tests, Smith showed signs of a later onset concussion in the subsequent days.This was consistent with Smith’s experience during last year’s Ashes series, when he was hit on the side of the head below the helmet by Jofra Archer at Lord’s and was initially cleared to return to the middle to complete his innings.But when he felt poorly the following day, Smith was ruled out of the Test and substituted on day five by Marnus Labuschagne before also missing the Headingley Test three days later. It was not until the fourth game at Old Trafford that Smith was fit to resume.This time around, the short limited-overs tour of the UK left much lesser time for Smith to recover, and after he struggled physically following running and net sessions ahead of the final ODI, he was ruled out by medical staff and left to only watch the decider. Australia’s captain Aaron Finch described Smith as feeling “groggy” before the game, and though CA’s sports science division has grown its knowledge of concussion enormously in recent years, there remains much to learn.ALSO READ: Australians in the IPL: ESPNcricinfo’s one-stop guide“Steve is making progress and working with our medical team through the concussion protocols required to return to play,” CA’s head of sports science Alex Kountouris said. “Unfortunately, he was not ready to play the final ODI against England. We are working collaboratively with his IPL franchise on his return to play from here once he arrives in the UAE.”The conservative management of Steve through this injury is consistent with our approach to put the player’s welfare first, as we did with him during the Ashes last year. That says a lot about the environment within our Australian teams. We are striving to create environments where players trust that our medical team will always put their welfare first and therefore speak openly with them, whether this is about concussion, other injuries or mental health.”Cricket Australia has strict protocols when it comes to head impacts and concussions and, as we’ve seen over the last 12 months, we’re not willing to compromise on those. We have done a lot of research over the last few years to better understand head impacts and concussions specific to cricket, and that has helped up in how we manage our players. We place the welfare of the player before the game because we strongly believe that is what’s best for the player.”In the UAE, Smith’s progress will be monitored by the medical staff and also the Royals’ head coach Andrew McDonald, who is also Justin Langer’s senior assistant with Australia when he is not fulfilling a pair of pre-existing contracts in overseas leagues.All parties will be careful to ensure Smith is at his physical and mental best for the home summer, where he will rejoin battle against India after missing the 2018-19 series due to a CA-imposed ban for his part in the Newlands ball-tampering scandal.

Match squelching towards a draw despite teasing with enthralling contest early on fourth day

The Report by Valkerie Baynes16-Aug-2020More rain sent the second Test squelching towards a damp-squib draw, made even more disappointing by the fact that the small amount of play possible on day four teased at an enthralling contest.Despite squeezing in 10.2 overs of compelling cricket – more than on the washed-out third day – the players left the field after an hour as the rain arrived, remaining so heavy that stumps was called shortly before 4pm with the outfield too wet to even attempt a mopping-up operation.While play was allowed, England claimed the one wicket they needed to wrap up Pakistan’s first innings and lost one of their own when Rory Burns fell to Shaheen Shah Afridi on the fourth ball of the reply.Pakistan resumed on 223 for 9 with Mohammad Rizwan unbeaten on 60 and Naseem Shah not out 1.Rizwan came out swinging but failed to connect with James Anderson’s first ball. He scored a four in each of Anderson’s next two overs, the first charging down the pitch and getting a thick outside edge to an intended straight hit that sailed over gully’s head, the second a more controlled jab through backward point.But he fell a short time later, having added 12 to his overnight score, when he shovelled the ball to Zak Crawley at cover to give Stuart Broad his fourth wicket.Afridi made the early breakthrough for Pakistan, dismissing Burns for a four-ball duck. He almost had a wicket first ball but Burns’ nick to Asad Shafiq at second slip didn’t quite carry. Shafiq gobbled up the catch a short time later though, to send Burns on his way and put England at 0 for 1 in reply to Pakistan’s first-innings 236.Dom Sibley and Crawley both wore body blows from Mohammad Abbas who, like Afridi, was finding sublime movement to keep the batsmen under intense scrutiny before the weather had the final say for the fourth day in a row.

Klinger leaves the Renegades job with a year to run on contract after two unsuccessful seasons

Alex Malcolm02-Feb-2021Michael Klinger has stepped down as Melbourne Renegades coach after an unsuccessful two seasons to take up a role as the head of male cricket at New South Wales.Klinger, 40, had a year to run on his three-year contract with the Renegades after being appointed to the role just prior to the 2019-20 season when BBL08 title-winning coach Andrew McDonald vacated the position to become Australia’s assistant coach.Klinger’s two years at the helm of the Renegades, his first experience as a senior coach, were disastrous with the club winning just seven of 28 games and finishing last on the BBL table in both seasons.”I’m grateful for the opportunity that I was given by the Melbourne Renegades. I’d like to thank everyone at the Renegades for their continued support throughout,” Klinger said.”Although the seasons didn’t go to plan, I thoroughly enjoyed my time as head coach and can see a bright future in the coming seasons with such a young and talented group. I wish them all the best for the future.”My new role as Head of Men’s Cricket with CNSW is an extremely exciting position. I’m looking forward to this great opportunity working with Greg Mail and their senior squads, pathways, and Big Bash programs.”Renegades general manager David Lever said the club was supportive of Klinger’s move.”On behalf of everyone at the club I’d like to extend our thanks and best wishes to Michael in his new role in New South Wales,” Lever said. “Maxy’s dedication to the role, his composure, and broader role as an ambassador for the Renegades has been exemplary.”Despite injuries and unavailability of key players, limited preparation time in his first season, and an extended period on the road in his second season, Maxy never looked for excuses and confronted each challenge with the same commitment, character, and class that made him such an excellent player for so long.”We thank Michael for his service and outstanding leadership and wish him and his family all the best for their new opportunity.”The Renegades will now begin searching for a new coach for the second time in three years.At New South Wales, Klinger will oversee the men’s program working alongside Leah Poulton, NSW’s head of female cricket, and reporting to head of cricket Greg Mail.”We are delighted to have a person of Max’s calibre joining our team,” Mail said. “He is a universally respected figure in Australian cricket and brings experience across a wide range of high-performance environments and across all formats of the game.”We’d like to thank Cricket Victoria and the Melbourne Renegades for releasing Michael from the remainder of his contract so that he could pursue this opportunity that we believe will benefit not just CNSW, but Australian cricket as a whole.”

Neil Wagner led the attack for New Zealand, breaking a fluent stand between Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal on the fifth morning, after which two more wickets fell

The Report by George Binoy13-Dec-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:06

Arnold: NZ quicks’ variety was the clincher

In conditions where the old ball did nothing and New Zealand’s three first-choice quicks produced innocuous medium-pace, Neil Wagner ran in relentlessly with tremendous stamina, sending down a barrage of short deliveries, harrying the batsmen at around 140 kph and broke Sri Lanka’s resistance. Until Wagner came on, Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews had been untroubled and scored freely, but once he broke through his one wicket quickly led to many, and New Zealand completed a 122-run victory after lunch on the final day in Dunedin.Before Brendon McCullum turned to Wagner, Sri Lanka made 45 runs in 15.5 overs, and Mitchell Santner and Doug Bracewell had just begun to control a previously brisk run rate. Wagner immediately resorted to a short-pitched attack from over the wicket – like he had done on the third day – targeting the right-hand batsman’s ribs with men catching close on the leg side.Chandimal had been cover-driving and cutting Trent Boult and Tim Southee, his fierce punishment of anything loose taking him swiftly to a half-century. Mathews had played with softer hands and a straighter bat, batting with calm. Wagner gave them no width, no opportunity to get on the front foot, hustling them with pace, forcing hurried evasive actions and awkward fends off the body.Wagner’s method of attack had become so ingrained in the batsman’s psyche that they expected little else from him. And so Mathews, after moving hurriedly towards the off side to let two consecutive short balls whizz past his ribs, began to play the third delivery in a similar manner. Except that this time Wagner bowled a full length. The ball crashed into the inside of his front pad, shot between his legs and flattened middle stump. Mathews had not even played a shot, and was the first Sri Lankan batsman to not be caught in this Test.Chandimal had to shelve his cavalier approach against Wagner. He had got to 50 off 90 balls – scoring 19 off 26 this morning – but made only eight off his next 41 deliveries. Subdued into a defensive mind-set, he padded up to a ball from the left-arm spinner Santner that went on with the arm, and was adjudged lbw not offering a shot. After a partnership of 56, Mathews and Chandimal had fallen with the score on 165.Wagner now went around the wicket to aim at the ribs of the two left-handers – Kithuruwan Vithanage and Milinda Siriwardana. He pinned them to the crease with his length, and then bowled a fast full-toss at Siriwardana, who was hit on the back pad as he squared up in his crease. The umpire Nigel Llong gave him lbw but Siriwardana successfully reviewed the decision, replays surprisingly suggesting the ball would have missed off stump, perhaps because Wagner had delivered from extremely wide of the crease.Wagner was given the second new ball for the last delivery of his first spell, which comprised eight overs at speeds that did not ebb.Southee took two deliveries to strike with the new ball, swinging it back into Vithanage from over the wicket, hitting the left-hander’s pads. Vithanage had played an enterprising innings, a run-a-ball 38 full of shots.The slide was swift after lunch. Boult struck in the third and fifth over of the second session – drawing an edge from Rangana Herath and having Siriwardana caught at short cover, both batsmen not bothering with defence.Sri Lanka went down swinging, and were bowled out for 282. However, the fact that an inexperienced batting line-up had lasted 95.2 overs after playing 117.1 in the first innings will be some consolation for a team rebuilding from the retirements of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

Cleaver and Mitchell put on unbroken 86-run stand to make sure the day ended with honours even

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Feb-2020Dane Cleaver once again proved a thorn in India A’s side, scoring a dogged, unbeaten 46 to make sure honours were even at the end of day one of the second four-day fixture in Lincoln.After choosing to bat, New Zealand A were in danger of falling away at 190 for 5, but Cleaver, fresh off his rearguard 196 in the previous game, dug in. He received good support from Daryl Mitchell, who is back in the A team after the T20Is for the senior team against India.Significantly for the Indians, New Zealand A kept R Ashwin wicketless in 22 overs – not ideal preparation for the offspinner, it would seem, ahead of the two-Test series that begins on February 21.New Zealand A would be disappointed that none of their top order carried on after getting starts – the top four all got into double-digits before falling, with only Glenn Phillips getting to a half-century.Phillips was caught behind on 65, one of two quick strikes by pacer Avesh Khan. Earlier in the day, Mohammed Siraj had struck twice and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem had opener Will Young edging behind – one of three catches to KS Bharat – but that was the extent of the visitors’ success on the day. Cleaver and Mitchell went to stumps having put on 86 runs together.

Jamaica Tallawahs were pushed into rebuild mode following the departure of several key senior players, and their coach Paul Nixon believes they will have to cope with it by being smarter in their approach and more energetic on the field

Peter Della Penna in Lauderhill04-Aug-20172:27

We’ve got to be smarter without big hitters – Nixon

A fresher and more energetic unit, rebuilt in the offseason to make up for the loss of several key senior players, will be vital to Jamaica Tallawahs’ chances of securing a third CPL title, according to their coach Paul Nixon.On the eve of the tournament’s opening weekend in Florida, Nixon believes that while some of the departures created challenges, the overall depth of the squad and younger legs in the field may help the defending champions in their bid to secure consecutive titles.”We’ve got a different brand of cricket now,” Nixon told ESPNcricinfo, before the team’s back-to-back matches against Barbados Tridents in Florida. “We had a lot more hitters then, now we have to be a lot smarter.”The three biggest names missing from the squad are Chris Gayle, Chadwick Walton, and 2016 CPL Player of the Tournament Andre Russell. Nixon was reconciled to Gayle and Walton’s departures – with the former’s skills in decline and the latter accepting a hefty pay rise from Guyana Amazon Warriors – but admitted that Russell’s absence as part of an anti-doping violation still stings. The team has acquired Lendl Simmons, fresh off a good IPL in which he scored two fifties in seven matches for Mumbai Indians.”For us, Andre Russell is a frustrating one,” Nixon said. “But we’ve got world-class players coming in. We’ve got Lendl Simmons, who had an outstanding IPL and for us to have his quality and his experience, I think he’s going to be one of the men of the tournament. We’ve got some other good young guys in the side as well.”Among the newer faces, Nixon picked 20-year-old Odean Smith, who has played for West Indies Under-19s. The coach is hopeful Smith can pick up some of the slack in Russell’s absence, while also lifting fielding standards, an area that was exposed as the team’s weakness towards the end of the regular season.”We’ve got Odean Smith, who is a really attacking batsman, bowls very high 80s, pushing 90 mph and is a really attacking fielder. He’s going to bring a massive amount of positivity. Some of the older guys, having Chris out of the field… Chris cost us a few runs in the field because he was an older guy who struggled a bit with his knee and his back. We’re an exciting fielding unit and now we’ve got to be a little bit smarter without the big hitters.”Paul Nixon believes the team can build their attack around Pakistan left-arm spinner Imad Wasim•CPL/Sportsfile

Nixon believes Pakistan’s left-arm spinning allrounder, Imad Wasim, is a player the team can build around. Imad, who was also a part of Pakistan’s Champions Trophy-winning squad earlier this year, was Man of the Match in the CPL 2016 final, taking 3 for 21 to dismiss Guyana Amazon Warriors for 93.”Immy is a guy who has had a massive amount of experience in the last 12 months,” Nixon said. “From being a star with the ball last year, one of the very best. We had Garey Mathurin and also Imad who were outstanding left-arm spinners last year. Responsibility with the ball is never an issue with those guys and Imad is very keen to bowl up front. He loves it when batsmen come after him.”But he didn’t have that many opportunities with the bat last year and hopefully he won’t this year if our top order can do the business but a perfect guy, a left-hander to come in 5, 6, 7, somewhere in there. It depends on the pitches and we’ll see how it goes but he’s not a guy that’s going to clear the ropes too many times. He’ll hit it in the gaps and works hard in those gaps and he’s a good accumulator. On the belting pitches, then he might have to come down the order but on the turning pitches, a bit more Pakistan-like pitches, there might be an opportunity to bring him up.”In terms of medium-pace allrounders, Rovman Powell and Timroy Allen have also been earmarked as options to take on the finishing role in the lower-middle order that Russell excelled in. Both are still raw in terms of experience but have shown flashes of their ability to clear the ropes. Nixon says the most important thing for them to do to develop further is to maintain consistency.”Rovman was a massively inexperienced cricketer with huge natural ability for striking the ball. He played a really nice innings in the preseason where he got in, knocked it around and then dominated. We all expect so much so soon. Rovman’s got the ability to change games, win matches and clear the ropes easily but you have to earn the right to do that in matches generally over a consistent period of time. He’s learning about his options to each bowler, the right areas to hit and every ball is not just a corker that he can smash out of the ground.”Timroy and Rovman are both similar characters. They can both hit the ball out of the ground consistently well. It’s just making sure that their role in the team is the right role. Timroy is the perfect guy for a coach to come in the team with eight or 10 balls left, go and strike it at 150 or 200. So if he can get 20 off 10 balls then that’s what we’re looking for. As a coach having those guys up your sleeve is really important.””He’s [Rovman Powell] learning about his options to each bowler, the right areas to hit.”•CPL/Sportsfile

After a week of training in Jamaica before coming to Lauderhill, Nixon is eager for their campaign to get underway. He’s also hoping that their fortunes in Florida change – the team lost their pair of games against St Lucia Zouks last year.”We knew that we’d organised to go through [the playoffs], so we probably took our foot off the gas a little bit, great lessons for us all. But Florida cricket, people over here, the passion for the game, the ground is looking fantastic, the wickets are always fantastic here. So we’re looking to setting off our campaign really well.”

He ends a nearly 20-year career during which he was of the world’s premier white-ball allrounders

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Nov-2020Shane Watson has announced his retirement from all cricket, bringing an end to a nearly 20-year career during which he was of the world’s premier white-ball allrounders. Watson had already retired from international cricket in March 2016, and had only been playing in overseas T20 leagues since his retirement from the Big Bash League (BBL) last year.Now he has confirmed that the IPL game between the Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders in Dubai on October 29 was his last game at senior level. Watson made 14 to close out a season in which he scored 299 runs for the Super Kings at an average of 29.90 and a strike rate of 121.05.”It all started out as a dream, as a young kid, saying to my mum as I watched a Test match as a five-year-old, ‘I wanna play cricket for Australia.’ And now as I officially announce my retirement from all cricket, I feel crazily lucky to have lived out my dream, and then some,” Watson said on his YouTube channel . “It really does feel like the right time. Knowing that I’ve played my last game of cricket, ever, for my beloved CSK, who’ve been so incredibly good to me over the last three years. To think that I’m finishing up my playing days as a 39-year-old after all of my injury setbacks that I’ve had along the way, I feel so ridiculously fortunate.”Shane Watson clips one to fine-leg•BCCI

Watson’s international record is immense. He is somewhat underrated as a Test cricketer given an excellent record for an allrounder who often opened the batting: 3731 runs at 35.19, including four hundreds, and 75 wickets at 33.68, including three five-wicket hauls.But it’s as a white-ball cricketer that he’ll be best remembered. In ODIs, he scored 5757 runs at 40.54 and a strike rate of 90.44, and made nine hundreds, in addition to taking 168 wickets at 31.79. He was part of two World-Cup winning Australia sides, in 2007 and 2015, and was a powerhouse performer in the Champions Trophy, winning the Player-of-the-Match award in the finals of both the 2006 and 2009 tournaments.In T20Is he made 1462 runs at a strike rate of 145.32, and took 48 wickets while maintaining an economy rate of 7.65. He was the Player of the Series in the 2012 World T20 in Sri Lanka, where he topped the run charts with 249 at a strike rate of 150.00, and finished second on the wickets charts with 11, while conceding 7.33 runs per over. He remains one of only eight allrounders to have achieved the double of 10,000 runs and 250 wickets across the three international formats, which is a remarkable achievement given that his career was often interrupted by injuries that, over time, brought down his bowling workload considerably.Watson has been a mainstay in T20 leagues around the world ever since winning the Player of the Tournament award in the inaugural IPL season in 2008, when his all-round contributions – 472 runs at a strike rate of 151.76, and 17 wickets and an economy rate of 7.07 – powered the Rajasthan Royals to the title. After playing 78 games for the Royals from 2008 to 2015, he played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore for two seasons before being signed up by the Chennai Super Kings in 2018.He ended that season with one of the most famous innings of his franchise career, an unbeaten 57-ball 117 that helped the Super Kings cruise through a chase of 179 and win their third IPL title.Apart from the BBL and the IPL, Watson has also been a regular presence in the Pakistan Super League, the Bangladesh Premier League and the Caribbean Premier League.

It’s a second injury blow for Paarl Rocks after Aiden Markram was ruled out

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Nov-2019JP Duminy will play no part in the 2019 Mzansi Super League (MSL) after picking up a hamstring injury in the lead-up to Paarl Rocks’ season opener.Duminy, who retired earlier this year as the country’s highest run-getter in T20Is, was diagnosed with a high-grade partial tear to his right hamstring after undergoing an MRI scan. He had also missed last season’s MSL because of a hand injury.Duminy’s injury is a second blow to the Rocks squad. Earlier this month, Aiden Markram was ruled out from the competition after he hurt his hand in a self-inflicted injury on the tour of India.While Kyle Verreynne has since replaced Markram in the side, Rocks have not named one for Duminy yet. “We will assess our options on Monday,” Rocks coach Adrial Birrell said in a statement. “[We will] then decide how to best replace JP.”As for Rocks captain Faf du Plessis, he believes the two setbacks offer an opportunity for the rest of the squad to step up. “JP brings a lot of value in a lot of different areas. His experience will be missed, especially by the younger guys. I have full confidence in our team to bounce back from this. We have strengthened our batting this year and we’ll use this setback as motivation.”The semi-finalists from last season play their first game of the season against Quinton de Kock’s Cape Town Blitz on Sunday.

The Australia wicketkeeper caught a ball dropped from 80 metres above the MCG

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-2019Alyssa Healy has had a memorable season and now she has added a world record to her list of accolades after claiming the highest catch of a cricket ball.The feat, released to mark tickets going on sale a year out from the Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia, took place at the MCG last month where Healy caught a ball dropped by a drone from 80 meters – beating the previous record of 62 metres set by Englishman Kristan Baumgartner in 2016. Former England captain Nasser Hussain once held the record of 49 metres.”After I didn’t get a hand on the first practice and then the next one went straight through my gloves there was cause for concern,” Healy said. “You don’t get the cue from the ball going up in the air off the bat and it was swinging a lot on the way down because it just gets dropped.””As you can tell in the video, it was pure elation to get it, I didn’t want everyone to come and not get the record so when I’d secured it in the gloves I carried on like a bit of a pork chop, but overjoyed to break the record.”The 2020 T20 World Cup aims to set a new world record for the attendance at a women’s sport event when the final takes place at the MCG on March 8. The current world record is 90,185, set at the FIFA Women’s World Cup final 1999 in California.Tickets for the tournament, including the final in Melbourne, are available from AUD20 for adults and AUD5 for children.

ESPNcricinfo understands the board is displeased with his recent slew of public comments and has reportedly placed a gag order on him

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Nov-2018It’s only been two weeks since a four-member cricket committee came into being to oversee Pakistan’s cricket affairs, and though they may not have begun their work properly just yet, they’ve been in the news every single day. That is almost entirely down to Mohsin Khan, the head of committee, who’s made a number of public statements that have put the PCB in an awkward position and have raised tensions with other stakeholders.This, ESPNcricinfo understands, has compelled the PCB to start rethinking its decision to appoint him, and it has reportedly placed a gag order on his public comments. The PCB has refused to confirm or deny whether it has asked him to stop talking so publicly.”My statements are wrongly being taken and few people who are against my appointment are doing propaganda,” Mohsin told ESPNcricinfo. “I am here to serve my country and I have had never a discipline issue ever in my entire career. I don’t want to go into details and want to ignore all the negative stuff. I am directly reportable to chairman and he is perfectly fine with me.”Mohsin has riled up coach Mickey Arthur as well as captain Sarfraz Ahmed in his short tenure so far. In comments made just before his appointment, Mohsin called Arthur a “stupid donkey” on a TV channel. Soon after he argued that Sarfraz should be relieved of the Test captaincy.All that came after his very appointment had forced the PCB into an apparent disowning of the Qayyum Report on match-fixing – something it was then keen to insist was not the case. Arthur is understood to want an apology from Mohsin – the pair, according to the terms of the committee, officially meet three times a year – though the PCB chairman Ehsan Mani has said only that all parties should move on from the matter.Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq is also thought to be annoyed by Mohsin’s public comments on selection matters. He has reached out and sought clarity from the board about the committee’s role and suggested that he will not be happy with any intervention in selection affairs. ESPNcricinfo understands that Mohsin’s role and behaviour has been discussed among senior board officials, discussions that have also brought up names of who could replace him should he continue as he has done.All of Mohsin’s comments have been made to TV channels, a few of them to to whom he is contracted as an expert for this home season. It is not clear what officials think of his TV commitments though, as his PCB role is honorary, it is unlikely they can get him to stop them.