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Freya Kemp set to bat at No. 5 at Edgbaston in allrounder’s absence

Valkerie Baynes10-May-2024Nat Sciver-Brunt will miss England’s opening T20I against Pakistan at Edgbaston on Saturday after undergoing a “minor medical procedure”, her captain Heather Knight has revealed on the eve of the match.Knight said the absence of allrounder Sciver-Brunt opened the door for left-hander Freya Kemp to bat at No. 5. Allrounder Kemp is in England’s T20I squad purely as a batter as she continues her return from a back problem.”Nat Sciver-Brunt is unavailable tomorrow,” Knight told reporters on Friday. “She’ll be available for the next game. She’s had a minor medical procedure, so this game tomorrow comes a little bit too soon for her.”We obviously played those three T20s in New Zealand without her as well and without a few other players, so that gave us an opportunity to find out about a few people and add to our depth a little bit. There’s some good young allrounders coming through. Dani Gibson has been impressive, particularly with the ball at the back end. Freya Kemp is obviously a massive clean ball-striker and a left-hander which we don’t have a lot of in England, and when she’s back bowling as well, she’ll become a real asset.”There’s some really good talent coming through. It is just about guiding those younger players and keeping them on the right track to fulfil the potential that they have.”Related

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Maia Bouchier enjoyed a breakthrough tour of New Zealand in March, making the most of her opportunities at the top of the order amid the late arrivals of Danni Wyatt and Sciver-Brunt from the WPL as England won the T20I series 4-1.That tour was an important stepping stone in England’s build-up to the T20 Women’s World Cup in Bangladesh in October, as is this visit by Pakistan and the upcoming home series against New Zealand in June and July.”In New Zealand I felt like our T20 game evolved a little bit,” Knight said. “We played on pitches that were slightly more tricky in the powerplay, slightly bigger boundaries, and we had to play a slightly different game. That was really good for us. It probably added a few more tools in our bag and made us be a bit smarter with how we attacked, and how we put pressure back on the bowlers. There was a lot more hitting into pockets, hitting twos, it was harder to hit sixes out there.”I feel like that’s evolved us a lot as a side and evolved our method a little bit. That’s going to be the same in Bangladesh, it’s conditions that we haven’t played a huge amount of cricket in as a squad, so it’s about having as many skills in our cricket toolbox to try and call upon when we need them, and building settled positions. As a bowling unit as well, having different people to bowl in different positions and giving opportunities as and when there is the chance to do that.”Heather Knight during a practice session in Birmingham•PA Images via Getty Images

Meanwhile Pakistan are coming off the back of a disappointing tour by West Indies, who won their T20I series 4-1 and swept the ODIs 3-0. But Knight said there would be no complacency in her side as a result.”They’ve had some good results as well in New Zealand, they won that series away, which is a really good result for them,” Knight said of a Pakistan side captained by Nida Dar since last year, taking over from Bismah Maroof who recently retired from international cricket.”They’ve also got a new captain and a few retirements in their team and that quite often I think brings energy and reinvigorates the team, so we’re certainly not underestimating them at all. They’ve obviously got a few gaps to fill, so it’d be interesting who they bring in and what young talent they potentially bring in. It’ll be a good challenge for us.”The match in Birmingham is the first of three T20Is between the sides, with games in Northampton and Leeds to follow ahead of a three-match ODI series.

He became only the third bowler in men’s T20 cricket to take seven in an innings

Mohammad Isam02-Jan-2025Taskin Ahmed became only the third bowler in history to take a seven-wicket haul in men’s T20s, claiming 7 for 19 in Durbar Rajshahi’s Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) match against Dhaka Capitals. It is also the best bowling figures in the BPL’s history, beating Mohammad Amir’s 6 for 17 for Khulna Tigers in 2020.Taskin continues to be consistent in all formats after he finished 2024 with 63 international wickets at 19.23, Bangladesh’s biggest haul in the year.He emulated Colin Ackermann, who was the first bowler to take seven wickets in a T20 – in a Vitality Blast game in 2019 – and Malaysia’s Syazrul Idrus, who took seven for Malaysia against China in 2023.After Dhaka decided to bat at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Taskin removed both openers Litton Das and Tanzid Hasan in his first two overs. He bowled a ripper to Litton, who fended the short ball towards first slip, before Tanzid was caught behind chasing a wide one.Dhaka recovered in the middle overs before Taskin returned with the wicket of Shahadat Hossain in the 17th over. Beaten by a slower ball, Shahadat holed out to Ryan Burl who took a sharp catch at long-on. Taskin had Chaturanga de Silva later in the same over, before a triple-wicket final over. Alauddin Babu was the first to go in the 20th, skying one to mid-off, before Taskin yorked Mukidul Islam. He missed out on the hat-trick but got Shubham Ranjane next ball to finish with 4-0-19-7.The glut of wickets in the last four overs slowed Dhaka down significantly, leaving Rajshahi with a moderate 175 to chase. They reached the target in the 19th over, with seven wickets in hand.Taskin said it was a proud moment for him, becoming the bowler with the best figures in the BPL. “I have always thought about taking a lot of wickets. If you don’t visualise it, you can’t make it happen. Obviously you need luck to take wickets. I am happy that I could execute my plans… It is a great feeling that I could deliver whenever my captain brought me into the attack.””It is always special to take a five-wicket haul in every format,” he added. “I have taken three or four wickets plenty of times. You need luck to get five. I am really happy. It’s a big deal for me. I am from Bangladesh so I will remember holding this BPL record.”Taskin said that he was happy with the type of pitches on offer at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, with the surfaces mostly sporting. “I think there is little margin for error. We can’t get away with any lose deliveries. Pitches are great for batters, who face a bit of challenge only against the new ball. I think such pitches will help us in the Champions Trophy [in February] where we will play on mostly good batting tracks in Pakistan and UAE.”

The star allrounder, returning after a year-long ban, will arrive in Dhaka from Minnesota this week

Mohammad Isam04-Nov-2020Shakib Al Hasan, whose international ban ended late last month, is among 113 cricketers who must pass a fitness test – to be conducted on November 9 and 10 – before making it to the draft of the upcoming Bangabandhu T20 tournament.A total of 80 cricketers, including Shakib, will be tested on the first day at the Shere Bangla National Stadium’s indoor facility, supervised by the board’s strength and conditioning coaches. None of them need to undergo a Covid-19 test, though they have been asked to follow health protocols.The 12-month ban on the star allrounder, for failing to report corrupt approaches, ended on October 29. Shakib is currently in Minnesota, but is expected to arrive in Dhaka later this week.Chief selector Minhajul Abedin said last week that the board wanted Shakib to play the T20 tournament, the second event in the 2020-21 domestic season, which doesn’t have too much cricket as Bangladesh is recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 situation.ALSO READ: The coaches behind the success of Bangladesh’s best playersIn October, the BCB held a three-team President’s Cup, where 46 cricketers – from the Bangladesh preliminary squad for the postponed Sri Lanka series and from the high-performance set-up – were picked. The Bangabandhu tournament is likely to be a five-team competition, beginning in late November, with the BCB, which has been trying to bring cricket back in the country slowly, managing the bio-secure bubbles.It is the board’s continuous attempt to slowly bring back all the domestic competitions one by one, but not without managing the bio-bubble on their own in these two tournaments.Apart from Shakib, 31 Bangladesh internationals have been called up for the tests, including Nasir Hossain, Sohag Gazi and Shahriar Nafees, who haven’t been in the scheme of things for the national team for a long while – 35-year-old Nafees last played internationally in April 2013.The rest of the group is made up of first-class or club-level cricketers who played in last season’s National Cricket League, the Bangladesh Cricket League, and the Dhaka Premier League. Many of these cricketers have been training in the nets and gyms, and some have even participated in small T20 tournaments around the country to stay fit, as they haven’t played any competitive cricket since mid-March.

The wider sporting world has allowed athletes to play with the virus, but the league is adopting more stringent protocols

Nagraj Gollapudi18-Mar-2023Even as sporting authorities worldwide are permitting athletes to participate in events despite testing positive for Covid-19 over the last year, the IPL has decided to stick to its 2022 policy of asking players with the virus to go through a week-long isolation period before rejoining their teams.While the season will no longer need to operate out of a bio-secure bubble, which had been mandatory for the three years since the pandemic, the IPL has said it wants to be “careful” and players testing positive will not be allowed to participate in a match or in training until they return consecutive negative tests, the earliest of which can be taken on day five of recovery.”While there has been a decline in the number of Covid-19 cases in India we still have to be careful of the emerging strains which are becoming a concern at regular intervals,” the IPL’s medical guidelines, which were distributed to franchises this week, say. “Positive cases must be isolated for maximum seven days. Positive cases will not be allowed to participate in any match or any form of activity/event during the period of isolation.”From day five, they can undergo a RT-PCR, provided they must be must be asymptomatic without any medication for 24 hours. Once the first result is negative the 2nd test must be done 24 hours apart. Only after obtaining two negative RT-PCR tests 24 hours apart i.e. day five and day six, can they rejoin the group.”The IPL pointed out that testing will be carried out only for those actually showing signs of Covid-19, not for those who are asymptomatic. Any participant continuing to test positive even after day seven would need to present two negative tests 12 hours apart before rejoining the group.This is in contrast to the loosening of restrictions in dealing with Covid-19 cases in global sport including international cricket. Last August, Australian allrounder Tahlia McGrath became the first cricketer to play a match despite testing positive for Covid-19 in the Commonwealth Games T20 final against India.A few months later, at the men’s T20 World Cup, Mathew Wade, who had tested positive, was named part of the Australian team in the league match against England which was eventually washed out. In January, Australian opener Matt Renshwaw reported Covid-19 symptoms on the first morning of the New Year’s Test against South Africa in Sydney, tested positive before toss, but went on to play the match.The ICC has allowed players to participate in matches at global events including the CWG in England and the T20 World Cup in Australia last year. It remains to be seen, though, whether it will retain the same process during the ODI World Cup in India later this year.

Kushal Bhurtel’s 99 had helped Nepal post 290 for 8 but it never looked overwhelming for Zimbabwe

Danyal Rasool18-Jun-20231:36

Williams: I’m going to give that one to my dad

An unbroken 164-run partnership between Craig Ervine and Sean Williams saw Zimbabwe canter to an eight-wicket victory against Nepal to open their World Cup Qualifier campaign. At a packed Harare Sports Club, Ervine played a captain’s knock to ensure Nepal’s 290 for 8 never looked overwhelming for his side, his fourth ODI hundred the highlight of a brilliant Zimbabwean batting performance. Williams went one better, scoring Zimbabwe’s fastest-ever hundred to help the side wrap up the game with nearly six overs to spare.Zimbabwe started brightly in their pursuit, with Joylord Gumbie taking advantage of the powerplay to strike early boundaries and get the side off to a punchy start. After Sompal Kami trapped him in front, Wesley Madhevere and Ervine continued in the same vein. Zimbabwe were particularly adept at rotating the strike, and quick to punish the loose deliveries. With Nepal’s attack ill-equipped to threaten, especially on a surface as docile as this, the home side had the experience of knowing the game was theirs to lose.That experience proved especially salient when Williams joined his fellow old hand Ervine at the crease. Madhevere had been done in by the short ball, but these two left-handers were perfectly equipped to handle Nepal’s spin. Crucially, they went about neutering Sandeep Lamichhane from the very first over, getting on top of his variations and punishing him whenever he erred in line and length.In the end, the only person discombobulated by Lamichhane’s variety was the bowler himself as he struggled for rhythm. Zimbabwe ensured he registered his second-most expensive figures in ODI cricket, 10-0-77-0, and was wicketless just the third in his career.Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh added 171 for the first wicket for Nepal•ICC/Getty Images

Williams was instrumental in taking pressure off his captain, happy to take on the role of the aggressor. This reflected in the speed with which he brought up his 34th half-century, taking just 41 balls. By then, the asking rate had been tamed, brought down well below six. Soon after a caress through the covers brought up Ervine’s hundred, and as cries of “captain” broke out from the Harare crowd, their leader saluted them back.Ervine took 111 balls for his hundred, and Williams wouldn’t be content with just a half-century either. He continued accelerating as Zimbabwe turned the chase into a formality, and the only obstacle to his century was that Zimbabwe were running out of runs to chase. But with five runs required, he slashed Gulshan Jha to the wide long-off boundary to level the scores. His hundred came in just 70 balls, and the Castle Corner was only too happy to get on its feet again.Nepal had begun so much brighter than they ended, a sensational 171-run opening stand between Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh providing the dream platform on a placid pitch to go and push ahead past 300. But when Bhurtel, whose stroke-making all day had been sublime, was cruelly cleaned up by Wellington Masakadza on 99, Nepal’s day turned. Sheikh fell soon after, and Zimbabwe’s fingerspinners sent them back into rebuilding mode.There were cameos, especially from Kushal Malla and captain Rohit Paudel, but Richard Ngarava seared through the middle order with four wickets, and the innings began to peter out. The last five overs saw just 32 runs scored, and when the players went in for lunch, the sense was that Nepal had well and truly lost momentum.In the end, with Williams and Ervine in that kind of form, none of it might have mattered after all. As the players indulged in a lap of honour to thank a crowd that had stayed back to celebrate, this day in Harare truly belonged to Zimbabwe.

After losing to Sydney Sixers they were straight on a plane to Perth for Tuesday’s Eliminator final

Andrew McGlashan26-Nov-2023Sydney Sixers 126 for 1 (Perry 82*) beat Sydney Thunder 123 (Knight 38, Litchfield 34, Gardner 4-26) by nine-wicketsSydney Thunder were left having to undertake a hasty cross-country journey in their bid to reach the WBBL final after falling to defeat against local rivals Sixers at the SCG.Victory would have secured Thunder a home Challenger final on Wednesday, but instead they will have to take the long route to the final – in every sense – after Ellyse Perry’s unbeaten 82 secured a comfortable nine-wicket win.Thunder will now face Brisbane Heat in the Eliminator on Tuesday at the WACA before the winner backs up against Perth Scorchers a day later in a bid to play Adelaide Strikers in next Saturday’s final.Such is the condensed nature of schedule, the Thunder players boarded a coach to the airport immediately after the Sixers match concluded to catch a five-hour flight to Perth and ensure they had a day to prepare in the city on Monday.Thunder’s regular season has stuttered to a conclusion after they were well placed to push for top spot a couple of weeks ago. Instead, five defeats in their last six games has seen them cling onto fourth place meaning they (and Heat) will have to win three matches to take the title.”It’s frustrating, there was that real carrot of staying in Sydney and having a home semi-final,” Thunder captain Heather Knight said. “But, I’ve just said to the girls now, if you’d said at the start of the year that we were going to make finals after winning just [five] games in two years we’d have taken it.”We are obviously going to have to do things the hard way now with a flight over there and win three games to try and win it. We’ve got to park what happened in the back of the group stages and move on.”Against Sixers, in front of a crowd of 7118 to complete the three days of matches at major stadiums, a batting collapse proved costly as Thunder lost their last eight wickets for 39 including the last five in the space of 11 balls.Although the tempo hadn’t been high, Chamari Athapaththu and Phoebe Litchfield had laid a foundation only for the innings to crumble after they fell. Litchfield was going along nicely when she rifled a drive to mid-off which was well held by Suzie Bates.From there, wickets tumbled against Sixers’ spin duo of Ashleigh Gardner and Linsey Smith while three run outs added to their problems. Knight attempted to hold the innings together with a run-a-ball 38.Thunder thought they had broken through early when Sam Bates had Suzie Bates lbw, but DRS showed there had been a thin bottom edge on the sweep.From there an opening stand of 59, dominated by Perry, set the base for the chase before Bates fell to a brilliant leg-side stumping by Tahlia Wilson. But Perry eased to a 44-ball fifty and finished the game in a rush of boundaries leaving Thunder to collect their already-packed bags and head straight to the airport.