All posts by csb10.top

Big Picture

Australia’s opening victory over India was, to a degree, unexpected. However, the manner in which the tourists staggered over the line suggested strongly that Aaron Finch’s team remains very much a work in progress, both mentally and technically.Having put together a diligent display with the ball and in the field – albeit aided by MS Dhoni’s ‘take it to the finish’ batting instincts – the Australians appeared to be on course for a comfortable victory with Glenn Maxwell in the vanguard.But the collapse that followed Maxwell’s skied miscue of a Yuzvendra Chahal legbreak was redolent of a team lacking either recent form in the case of Ashton Turner, or confidence in chasing as is the case with Marcus Stoinis, Maxwell and Peter Handscomb, all part of Melbourne Stars’ traumatic surrender of the Big Bash League final to Melbourne Renegades led by Finch. Equally, the mastery of Jasprit Bumrah over Australia was well and truly maintained, leaving it possible to wonder how the game might have panned out if he had been bowling the final over rather than Umesh Yadav.India, too, have questions, particularly around Dhoni’s place in the batting order alongside the younger wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who has been good enough as a pure batsman to earn a place in the team. A seasoned team that has not lost a T20I series to Australia in more than a decade will expect better in Bengaluru.Rishabh Pant or MS Dhoni for India?•AFP

Form guide

(last five completed matches)
India LLWLW
Australia WLWLL

In the spotlight

Criticism of MS Dhoni’s batting methods is far from new – he has weathered plenty of questions about his chosen way of modulating an innings over many years. What has changed is the presence of Pant in close proximity alongside him as a possible option to not only bat in the middle order for India but also take the gloves. In a way this, resembles how a young Adam Gilchrist was a specialist batsman in an ODI team led by Ian Healy in South Africa in 1997. Australia won that series, but Healy was out of the team by year’s end.Not only did the handing of the wicketkeeping gloves to Peter Handscomb suggest he is now firmly in the running to replace Alex Carey as the No. 1 keeper in Australia’s white-ball run to the 2019 World Cup, it also placed the Victorian right-hander in a key post as middle-order batsman. Following the Stars’ BBL final defeat, Handscomb was not alone in carrying a good deal of frustration and anxiety about the circumstances of a failed chase. Both Handscomb and the Australian management will be hoping for a more sure-footed innings in the second game.

Team news

The expensive Umesh and the young Pant might both be somewhat nervous about their places after the opening loss. India are also likely to bring back the rested Shikhar Dhawan. If they stick to their policy of giving a run to the fringe players, then Dhawan coming back could mean Rohit Sharma earning a rest.India (possible) 1 KL Rahul, 2 Rohit Sharma/Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Rishabh Pant/Vijay Shankar, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Dinesh Karthik, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Umesh Yadav/Siddarth Kaul, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Mayank Markande, 11 Jasprit BumrahPeter Handscomb plays on the leg side•Getty Images

Australia’s team for Vizag included the shuffling of Stoinis up the order and Handscomb taking the gloves in place of Carey. Kane Richardson, Nathan Lyon, Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh are among the options in reserve.Australia (possible): 1 Marcus Stoinis, 2 D’Arcy Short, 3 Aaron Finch (capt), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Peter Handscomb (wk), 6 Ashton Turner, 7 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Jhye Richardson, 10 Jason Behrendorff, 11 Adam Zampa

Pitch and conditions

Fine, warm weather is forecast for Bengaluru, while the pitch can be expected to be on the flat, slow side.

Stats and Trivia

• Australia and India have never played a T20I in the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, although the tourists did complete a three-wicket victory over Bangladesh at the venue during the World T20 in 2016.
• India have not lost a bilateral T20I series against Australia since being defeated in a one-off match at the MCG in January 2008.

Quotes

“Obviously it’s important to go out there and win every game but eventually we have to understand that it’s cricket, it’s an unpredictable sport. Talking about momentum, I guess we have been doing really well, we haven’t been losing consecutive matches… So, when it comes to momentum, it is with the Indian team and I’m pretty sure that tomorrow and as well as in the one-day series, we’ll do well.””Sometimes plans don’t come off but ‘Stoiny’ up the top has been unbelievable for the Stars. I daresay if he gets his crack again to open he’ll dominate. And Finchy at three I like as well, he can control it, he’ll still probably bat in the Power Play and he can really dominate from that position.”

Another strong performance by England’s bowlers carried their side to a resounding victory in the first women’s T20I against Sri Lanka in Colombo.Just as they had in Katunayake to set themselves up for a 3-0 sweep of the ODI series on Thursday, England’s bowling attack, this time led by Linsey Smith’s 3 for 18, restricted Sri Lanka to a total of 94. Tammy Beaumont’s unbeaten half-century meant the visitors made light work of the chase, reaching 95 for 2 to win by eight wickets with 34 balls to spare.There were landmarks aplenty as debutant Freya Davies and Anya Shrubsole claimed two wickets apiece with only three of Sri Lanka’s batsmen reaching double figures and none of them passing 20. Shrubsole’s 2 for 20 allowed her to overtake good friend Danielle Hazell as England’s leading T20 wicket-taker with 86 wickets at an average of 13.96.It was Beaumont’s second fifty in as matches for England after her 63 in the last ODI against Sri Lanka. Her latest score took her past 1000 T20I runs, making her the fifth English woman to achieve the milestone.”It’s not something you really think about,” Beaumont said of passing the 1000-run mark. “My dad told me the other night how many I needed to get and I forgot when I was out there. For me it’s all about trying to perform for the team and it’s nice to get an accolade like that but more important to go one-nil up early on and put in a good team performance.”The win was England’s eighth in a row since losing their first to ODIs on the tour of India last month and a streak Beaumont was keen to see continue.”Winning is a habit and that’s what were trying to do here,” she said. “Two more games to go here and then a very busy summer of cricket and we’ll try to take that into the Ashes and then the West Indies.”Fast bowler Davies described standing at the top of her mark before bowling in her first match in an England shirt with her parents looking on as “a mixture of fear and excitement”.”It was really exciting to get out there with the girls today and get that win,” Davies said. “It’s a day you look forward to for so long, so reality was strange but really exciting.”It’s nice to have mum and dad here. They’d have been devastated if they’d missed it and it’s always good to get a couple of wickets and get some of the nerves under control a little bit, but just happy that we came out and got a win to go one-nil up in the series.”England lead the three-match series 1-0, with the remaining two matches to be played in Colombo on Tuesday and Thursday.

All four IPL play-off matches will begin half an hour early to avoid the matches spilling over past midnight. Traditionally, evening matches in the IPL begin at 8 pm IST, but the BCCI has decided to advance the start of the playoff matches this season to 7.30 pm, with the toss at 7 pm.It is understood that the four Women’s T20 Challenge matches, to be played in Jaipur next month, are also likely to start at 7.30 pm, and will be broadcast live.The decision was taken on Saturday in Delhi. at a meeting of the Committee of Administrators (CoA), the supervisory authority until the BCCI conducts fresh elections.Evening matches stretching well beyond the regulation window of 200 minutes as per the IPL’s playing conditions has been a concern for a while now. Last season too, the CoA had deliberated over the issue, after the tournament broadcaster reportedly flagged it to the BCCI.Slow over rates, constant delays in play caused by players calling for drinks or change of equipment, or captains taking too long to adjust fields, have been major factors behind matches going on past midnight.As per the IPL’s playing conditions, each innings is to last 90 minutes – which includes the two strategic timeouts – with a 20-minute break between innings.Slow over rates attract monetary fines. This season, four captains – Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli and R Ashwin – have copped fines of INR 12 lakh each. Whether fines have been enough of a deterrent has been a talking point, with a number of former players and coaches weighing in. Some have even suggested new approaches to tackling slow over rates; Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody, for instance, reckons that the IPL needs to emulate the Caribbean Premier League (NRR) and bring in a net-run-rate penalty.

Big picture

Had Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers met before their respective previous matches this season, this contest would have had just one familiar favourite. Take these stats into consideration: The last time Royal Challengers won against Super Kings was in 2014, and right now, they are a full 10 points behind the table toppers. CSK fans have enough to put any debate to rest against the supporters of the team in red.Yet they were left bruised by Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday and Royal Challengers overcame an Andre Russell-special on Friday. All that sets this clash up beautifully.

Form guide

Royal Challengers: Beat Knight Riders by 10 runs, lost to Mumbai by five wickets, beat Kings XI by eight wickets
Super Kings: Lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets, beat Knight Riders by five wickets, beat Royals by four wickets

Super Kings’ batting has been largely dependent on MS Dhoni this year, and his absence from the side on Tuesday showed that. He’s bailed them out of danger in at least three instances this season and is also the side’s highest run-getter so far. And without him, the middle order (No. 4 to 7) could add only 37 runs to the total against Sunrisers.Royal Challengers were also missing a key player in their last game – AB de Villiers – but their captain ensured his absence was never really felt. Kohli’s century made sure RCB posted a par-plus total at Eden Gardens while Super Kings – without their talisman – fell below this year’s average first-innings score at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium. Should the weather at home co-operate, RCB might just have a good chance to break their losing streak against CSK.MS Dhoni flexes his muscles•BCCI

Team news

Super Kings’ coach Stephen Fleming said on the eve of the match that Dhoni (back spasm) and Bravo’s (hamstring) availability will depend on “how they scrub up” at the end of the training on Saturday. The CSK captain was, however, seen practising his big hits for nearly an hour.De Villiers is understood to still be recovering from taking a bouncer to the head from Jasprit Bumrah and his availability will be subject to a return to full fitness.

Previous meeting

The highly-anticipated season opener where these two teams met ended up being one-sided with Super Kings routing the Royal Challengers for 70 on a slow surface at the MA Chidambaram. The hosts had chased it down with 14 balls to spare.

Likely XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 AB de Villiers/Heinrich Klaasen, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Akshdeep Nath/Shivam Dube, 7 Pawan Negi, 8 Yuzvendra Chahal, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Navdeep Saini, 11 Mohammed SirajChennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Scott Kuggeleijn/Mitchell Santner, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Shardul Thakur, 11 Imran TahirVirat Kohli paced his fifth IPL century to perfection•BCCI

Strategy Punt

• De Villiers scored a cracking 30-ball 68 last year against Super Kings in Bengaluru. He had also scored a crucial 14-ball 28 in Royal Challengers’ last win against Super Kings, in 2014. There’s no doubt he’ll slot right back in if he’s fit. So, how can Super Kings stop him? Since IPL 2015, he’s lost his wicket 12 times in 31 games to legspinners. He’s also been having trouble picking the wrong’un, as he was exposed by Rajasthan Royals’ Shreyas Gopal earlier this month. Super Kings could use Tahir, who’s been their highest wicket-taker this season, against him. De Villiers has lost his wicket twice in three IPL games to his South African team-mate, and averages just 19.5 against him.
• Dhoni boasts an average of 75.8 in IPLs at the M Chinnaswamy. His unbeaten 34-ball 70 had helped Super Kings chase 205 here last year. Royal Challengers could use Dale Steyn to weaken the Dhoni threat, considering the fast bowler has dismissed him twice in seven IPL innings.

Stats that matter

• Super Kings need one more win to claim the joint-highest consecutive wins against a team. They have seven against Royal Challengers.
• Kohli has the most runs (738) by any player against Super Kings, but he has not made a 30-plus score against them since their return last year and has averaged just 10.66.
• In the last three games, Deepak Chahar has leaked 78 runs during Powerplay, bowling a total of eight overs. In the first six matches, he had conceded at an economy rate of just 5.6 in this phase.

Whatever else you might say about Chandika Hathurusingha, the man does not do incognito. If you have paid him any attention over the past few years, chances are you have an opinion. More than likely, it is mighty sharp.”He has great cricket knowledge,” is something people say of him. Well that one, almost everybody can agree on. But what about: “He is a great coach”? This is not so universally held.If you are a Hathurusingha hater, you probably hail from Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. His tenure at New South Wales did not seem to prompt such polarising opinions. In much higher profile roles in South Asia, though, where sports meld with politics, and cricket plays a role in the national wellbeing (more true for some South Asian states than others), he has been an unapologetic ruffler of feathers.A month into his job, in Bangladesh, the superstar in the team, Shakib Al Hasan, was suspended for some months for “serious misbehaviour” with the coach. In Sri Lanka, Hathurusingha was part of a decision to sack Angelo Mathews as captain, and axe him from the limited-overs sides entirely over fitness issues last September. It was the selection committee, then headed by Graeme Labrooy, that finalised that call, but months later, Mathews’ relationship with Hathurusingha had soured to the extent that in the course of batting an entire Test-match day in Wellington, Mathews dropped to the ground, completed a set of press-ups after and gestured pointedly towards the dressing room. It was only a little more polite than flipping the bird.ALSO READ: Nuwan Pradeep ruled out of Bangladesh game after blow to bowling handAnd yet, can you argue with Hathurusingha’s results? On his watch, Bangladesh made the knockouts in a World Cup for the first time, beat India and South Africa in ODI series at home, defeated Sri Lanka in an away Test, and made the semi-final of the 2017 Champions Trophy. In general, they became a serious force in world cricket for the first time. Specific players may have had grouses; Mahmudullah was dropped for the 100th Test – the one they won in Colombo – and Mominul Haque was edged out of the Test side. But if you try to argue that Hathurusingha did not leave Bangladesh (or should that be abandon Bangladesh?) in an immeasurably better place than he found them, then friend, you have let your Hathu-hate get the better of you.Among the cornerstones to his success in Bangladesh, Hathurusingha felt, was his insistence that he be part of the selection committee. “If I’m responsible for the fortunes of the team, I should be given the power to choose it,” has been his reasoning. Sri Lanka Cricket, who had practically pleaded with Hathurusingha to be their coach for three years, had initially allowed him this.Dimuth Karunaratne steers the ball into the off side•PA Images via Getty Images

But here’s the thing, Hathu: SLC is an untameable beast. He had the SLC board president on-side in his first few months in charge of Sri Lanka, just as he had done practically throughout his Bangladesh stint. But what if the SLC head is himself so plugged into the nation’s political machinations, that the moment the governmental weather changed, that SLC president was ousted by judicial writ? Late last year, Hathurusingha lost his allies in administration, and with them the guarantee that he could have his way with the side. In February, following Sri Lanka’s modest tour of New Zealand and their woeful Tests in Australia, he was in serious danger of being sacked by the governmental arm that had installed itself in place of a regular board.And so we come to Bristol at the World Cup, where Hathurusingha is ostensibly head coach of Sri Lanka but, weirdly, it is on the opposition that bears the clearer marks of his influence. Even his critics in Bangladesh would concede that it was under Hathurusingha that this team developed the steel required to win; that it was on his watch that they began to seize key moments, the way they’d done in the victory against South Africa last week. During the Hathu years, Tamim Iqbal had become more consistent, Soumya Sarkar had begun to flourish, Mustafizur Rahman was thrown in and adorned, Mehidy Hasan got a start, and even Mahmudullah hit those back-to-back World Cup tons.Compare this to the Sri Lanka side, which was in turmoil long before Hathurusingha arrived, and has not ceased to be in flux despite his best efforts. Last year, Hathurusingha had elevated Dinesh Chandimal to leadership, and then the selectors changed, and now Chandimal has barely been heard from for months. Captain, instead, is Dimuth Karunaratne – a man Hathurusingha seems happy to work with especially following the historic Test win in South Africa, but not one he would have ideally chosen for such honours. Save, perhaps, for Thisara Perera, there is no one in this ODI side that appears visibly altered by Hathurusingha’s 18-month presence.A good run at the World Cup could be key to changing all that. The historic Test win in South Africa, to which Hathurusingha did genuinely contribute, bought him goodwill, but it is limited-overs advances that will swing open the door those victories propped ajar. Sri Lanka still have Australia, England and India to play, so the match on Tuesday is virtually must-win. For the coach, a defeat might be a haunting by his own past successes, but nothing no one didn’t expect. But if a victory helps light up Sri Lanka’s campaign, maybe the team will switch to a smoother track. Perhaps Hathurusingha could still become the kind of transformer for Sri Lanka he once was for Bangladesh.

England U19s have named a familiar squad for this summer’s tri-series against India and Bangladesh, retaining ten players from the touring party that was beaten in all three formats in Bangladesh at the start of the year.George Balderson, the Lancashire all-rounder, will captain the squad for the first time, while there are maiden call-ups for Tom Clark (Sussex), Blake Cullen (Middlesex), Joey Evison (Nottinghamshire), and James Taylor (Derbyshire).All of the 16 squad members will be eligible for selection for the U19 World Cup in South Africa in 2020, while recent regulars Jamie Smith, Adam Finch, and Tom Lammonby are all past the age threshold.Each team plays eight games in the tri-series, which runs through July and August, with the final at Hove on 11 August.The squad includes Ben Charlesworth, the all-rounder who broke into Gloucestershire’s Championship side in last week’s defeat to Middlesex, and Hamidullah Qadri, the offspinner who became Derbyshire’s youngest-ever player when he made his debut two years ago but has been limited to second-team cricket this summer.Jon Lewis, the U19s head coach, said: “We’re expecting a big test against India and Bangladesh this summer – two countries who are very strong at this level of cricket.”We enjoyed a brilliant learning experience on tour to Bangladesh in the New Year, where our players were tested in some unfamiliar conditions, so it will be interesting to see if we can turn the tables on home soil.”These fixtures are excellent for developing a player’s skills, experience and character – some of the best young cricketers from the three countries will be battling against each other and these ‘best versus best’ experiences are what we feel give the players the greatest opportunity for learning whilst on the international pathway.”England U19 squad: George Balderson (Lancashire, captain), Kasey Aldridge (Somerset), Ben Charlesworth (Gloucestershire), Tom Clark (Sussex), Jordan Cox (Kent), Blake Cullen (Middlesex), Joey Evison (Nottinghamshire), Lewis Goldsworthy (Somerset), Jack Haynes (Worcestershire), George Hill (Yorkshire), Nick Kimber (Nottinghamshire), Dominic Leech (Yorkshire), Jack Morley (Lancashire), Daniel Mousley (Warwickshire), Hamidullah Qadri, James Taylor (both Derbyshire).Meanwhile, the England Lions have been forced to make two changes to their squad to play Australia A at Canterbury next week.Injuries to Ben Duckett (groin) and Saqib Mahmood (abdominal) during the latest round of Championship matches see them drop out of the squad. Duckett batted at No. 7 in Nottinghamshire’s second innings against Somerset after his knock, while Mahmood did not bowl during Northamptonshire’s second innings.They are replaced by Sam Hain, the Warwickshire batsman who hit twin hundreds against Hampshire this week, and Sam Curran, who has taken 18 wickets in four games for Surrey since returning from the IPL.

Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood made contrasting entries to the Ashes tour under the gaze of Worcester Cathedral at New Road, the former’s ability to take wickets but also go for runs neatly encapsulated in a spell reading 4-1-27-1 after the tourists had declared at 266 for 5 on the opening day.Taking the new ball, Starc got his line right in the opening over to pin Tom Fell lbw for a duck and with 1 for 0 after a single over would have been happy with his start. However, with the captain Tim Paine looking on from mid off – Matthew Wade taking the gloves in this game – Starc’s next three overs went for 27, most of them finding the middle of the talented teenager Jack Haynes’ bat, to the delight of a largely sedate crowd.Hazlewood, meanwhile, gave virtually nothing away while returning 2 for 2 from four overs, bowling Josh Dell off his glove with some prancing bounce and then getting Haynes lbw in his final over before the close. The combination of wickets and economy would have been of interest to Paine and the watching selection chairman Trevor Hohns, as all assess their options ahead of the second Test at Lord’s next week.Sent in to bat by Worcestershire on a fine if cloudy morning, Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft had opened for the Australians but neither would have been entirely happy with their stays. Harris was only able to survive for 58 minutes before he was bowled trying to leave one from the otherwise-expensive Adam Finch, and Bancroft made a determined start before also losing his stumps in trying to drive at Josh Tongue.More comfortable were Usman Khawaja, gliding to an attractive 57 before touching a good one from Tongue behind the stumps, and Travis Head, who made the most of his return to a ground where he played county cricket last year by carving out a third hundred in six matches on this tour, having also contributed a useful 35 and 51 at Edgbaston.There was time too for Wade to punch 20 from 16 balls before Paine declared, giving Starc and Hazlewood 45 minutes of bowling before the 6pm close. Wade kept wicket in order to prepare himself for the event of Paine being sidelined from one of the remaining four Tests and forcing a change in gloveman, while also granting the captain a mental break from the task of keeping wicket.

Having put on a brave face in the aftermath of Headingley, Australia’s captain, Tim Paine, admitted in the afterglow of retaining the Ashes in England for the first time in 18 years that the trauma of that defeat had been enough to break a team.What’s more, he reckoned that the wider trials and tribulations of Australian cricket over the past 18 months, in the wake of the Newlands scandal that thrust the Test captaincy on his shoulders and the national coaching job on Justin Langer’s, served as an important contributor to the team’s ability to rebound from Leeds with a largely commanding victory over England at Old Trafford, culminating in a far better collective display in the field on the final day to bowl out the hosts with 13.4 overs to spare.”In terms of what we’ve been able to achieve as a group is pretty satisfying from where we’ve come from in the last 18 months,” Paine said. “Great character, shows the great people we have got and shows we’ve also got some bloody good cricketers in our team. I am also proud of our staff. Also from where we’ve come from even from last week, that was a loss that would break a lot of teams, but we weren’t. I could feel it during the week. We turned up here and did our job like good sports teams do.”The group has clearly been through a bit of adversity, some more than others. But the guys sat in that change room have been through what happened at Cape Town and it’s times like that you find out what sort of people you have got and you find people who can give up or keep fighting and I think we have got guys who have come back and kept fighting and are wanting to get better and keep wanting to be in situations like we got at Headingley because those games, when you do win, feel very special.”Headingley’s loss make this all the more sweeter after a lot of people wrote us off. There were a few nervous moments there, coming off Headingley but I thought we learnt from that, held our nerve and bowled really well against a team that fought really hard like we knew they would.”Paine’s captaincy, the team’s fielding and catching, and the bowling of the inexhaustible Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood plus Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon had all stood up far better to the pressure of the moment, leading to a victory that will be both celebrated wildly and recorded as an important moment in Ashes history.”It’s exciting, you are going to see emotion when you get a bunch of people together who have a common goal and have worked so hard for it for a such a long time,” Paine said. “This has been two years in the planning so to carry it out over here under pressure and with everything we’ve had thrown at us … it’s a nice place to play cricket but it is bloody difficult in England, if I am honest.Tim Paine directs strategy at the start of play•Getty Images

“I couldn’t be more proud of the way our group have handled everything thrown at them. At the end, it was just a bit of raw emotion when you have a little bit of success particularly on the back of last week and the last 18 months. We haven’t had a lot of success and not a lot of happy times. But we are beginning to get them and that is awesome.”My dream was to come here and win an Ashes. I certainly didn’t want to be the captain winning the Ashes. It doesn’t mean any more or any less to me. I have said a lot of times my part in this team is just one job that many are doing, I just get a lot of the credit, I suppose, but it is something we share around between the players and staff. I am just happy to be a part of it. I could have been working at Kookaburra [in 2017], so this isn’t bad.”Among many key moments on the last day was Paine’s use of Marnus Labuschagne’s wristspin to break a pesky stand between Jack Leach and Craig Overton as the final hour drew near. The subsequent wicket not only set up Hazlewood’s final wicket but also underlined how Labuschagne had made a difference to the team.”Even from when I captained him in Dubai he has been working on his legspin bowling,” Paine said. “He came on the trip and bowled a lot in the nets and we said, ‘he can bowl’.”He has bowled a lot of overs in county cricket for Glamorgan, which has helped him. He is improving all the time. He is one of those cricketers if you tell a youngish part-time legspinner to warm up at that part of a Test match, I don’t think too many would want to bowl.”Marnus wanted to bowl. He wants to bat in the games when the best bowlers are on and even in the field, he wants to make a difference all the time. His energy is great and a really exciting cricketer for us and someone we can build our team around in the future.”As for Hazlewood and Cummins, Paine offered the praise of a grateful captain. “They are extremely consistent and that is why they are good,” he said. “What I love about those two fast bowlers is that from day one of the series the same effort is coming all of the time. I can’t fault them. They run in fast, bowl as hard as they can and for me that is a real weapon to have.”I am not sure there are a heap of bowlers going around that would get through the workload that our guys are and maintain pace and skill like those two do. Pat is No. 1 in the world and rightly so and Josh has been right up there as well. We’re lucky to have them.”Last but far from least, the dominance of Steven Smith with the bat had been the rock on which Australia’s Ashes challenge was built, and at one stage the rock on which England’s campaign was dashed.”Anyone who’s watched him bat know the talent, hunger and skill that he has got,” Paine said. “People don’t see how driven he is and how he trains, eats and sleeps batting. He is just a genius and I never had any doubt he would come back and be the player he was. The scary thing is he’s getting better. I don’t know where it is going to stop but we are enjoying being on the ride, that is for sure.”

Chris Silverwood, England’s bowling coach, has warned that Jofra Archer needs to be “cut a bit of slack” after his wicketless showing in the first innings at Old Trafford.Speaking before the start of the third day of the fourth Test, which England need to avoid losing to keep the Ashes alive, Silverwood – a former fast bowler himself – said that Archer is finding his way in what is only his third Test and cannot be expected to bowl at 90mph in every spell of the series.”I think we’re just going to be careful with Jofra,” Silverwood told Sky Sports. “He’s playing his third Test match, so we’ve got to cut him a little bit of slack. He’s still finding his way into international cricket. He’s figuring out what it’s all about.”Test cricket is hard work. You must put the workload in, but it’s there, and he’s trying and we’ve seen what he’s capable of. But he’s not going to do it every day.”Archer set the series alight with his performance on debut at Lord’s, where he bowled at speeds of up to 96mph and left Steve Smith with concussion following a fearful blow to the head. He then claimed a six-wicket haul in England’s remarkable win at Headingley last week to heighten the expectations on a player who had already played an integral role in England’s World Cup win earlier in the summer.However, having bowled 44 overs at Lord’s and a further 31.1 at Headingley, Archer’s speeds were noticeably down in his 27-over spell at Old Trafford, averaging in the mid-80s compared to the early 90s, a point which Justin Langer, Australia’s coach, had flagged before his debut when he vowed to “keep wearing him down” as the series wore on.Archer’s approach to the crease was shown by Sky’s analysts to be slower too, a point which Silverwood acknowledged.”The one thing that we see, sat on the side when he’s running in, he gets his knees pumping and he really attacks the crease,” Silverwood said. “But again, it’s part of his learning process, he is figuring out what he can and can’t do in Test cricket at the moment. And it’s his third game.”The exciting thing is we know he can hit 90-plus miles an hour but, saying that, I didn’t bowl fast every day either, even though I tried. Sometimes it just doesn’t click.”Archer also appeared non-plussed at one late stage of the innings, when directed by his captain Joe Root to bowl round the wicket to Tim Paine – a tactic that lasted for two balls before he reverted to his standard angle from over the wicket. Root’s captaincy of Archer has raised eyebrows all series long, amid concerns that he is over-using his most potent weapon, and expecting him to fulfil too many roles in the attack.”You’ve got to drip-feed things in,” said Silverwood. “It’s an educational process for Jofra coming into the team, and obviously it’s the same for Joe. He’s learning how to captain Jofra, and hey, as fast bowlers, we’re a little bit grumpy, aren’t we? We normally like to get on with how we want to do it. But you’ve got to be open to suggestions and ideas and try new things as well.”It won’t have helped Archer’s mood to have been bowling to a batsman in such a stunning vein of form. Irrespective of that Lord’s incident, Smith has now racked up 589 runs at 147.25 in the series, and Silverwood admitted that his success had left the England team scratching their collective heads.”We’ve tried a few [plans], to be honest,” he said. “Everything we’ve thrown at him, he seems to have come up with an answer. But he’s just very good. I mean, it’s great to watch him, though preferably not against us. We’ve gone from Plan A to Plan B to Plan C, and he seems to figure out a way, which is probably where the genius lies within him.”England could, of course, have removed him for 118, not 211, had Jack Leach not bowled a fateful no-ball while inducing an edge to slip midway through the second day.”You don’t want anybody to bowl no-balls, it’s hard enough to get Steve Smith out anywhere without obviously this happening,” said Silverwood. “But there’ll be nobody more disappointed with Jack about that. And I’m sure he will work very hard not to let that happen again.”It can take the wind out of your sails, to be honest, as a group and as a team,” he added. “But at the same time, you’ve got to get over it because these things happen. We’ve got to put that behind us now and move on.”

Aiden Markram has been ruled out of the third Test against India after fracturing his right wrist as he lashed out at solid object in frustration following his second-innings dismissal in the Pune Test.

Watch cricket on ESPN+

India v South Africa is available in the US on Hotstar and ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ and tune in to the Ranchi Test.

Markram was given out lbw for a duck by the on-field umpire, and after a consultation with his opening partner Dean Elgar, he chose not to review the decision. However, replays showed the ball would have missed the leg stump.”A CT scan of Aiden Markram’s wrist showed a fracture involving the wrist bones,” team doctor Hashendra Ramjee said in a CSA press release. “The medical team has therefore ruled him out of the next Test match against India. Arrangements have been made for him to see a specialist on his return to South Africa for further management of the injury.”Markram has had a mixed tour of India. While he scored two hundreds in the practice games, he couldn’t carry forward his form into the Test series. After scoring 5 and 39 in the first Test in Visakhapatnam, he was dismissed for a pair in Pune.ALSO READ: Lockers, bread rolls, amateur barbers – cricket’s famous self-inflicted injuriesThe 25-year-old opener accepted he had let his team down. “It’s sad to be going home on this note and I completely understand what I’ve done wrong and take full accountability for it,” Markram said via the press release. “It’s unacceptable in a Proteas environment and to let the team down is what hurts me the most. I’ve learned a lot from this and the other players I’m sure, have learned from it as well.”We understand in sport that emotions run high and sometimes the frustration gets the better of you as it did for me, but like I said, it’s no excuse. I’ve taken full responsibility for it, I have apologised to the team and hopefully I can make it up to them and the people of South Africa soon.”Earlier this week, Mitchell Marsh too had fractured his right hand after punching the dressing room wall at the WACA following his dismissal in the Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania.The team management hasn’t called up any replacement for Markram who left for South Africa on Thursday morning. The third Test starts on October 19 in Ranchi.