About 12 overs into the chase in St. Lucia, it seemed like a West Indies win was very unlikely but the captain took the ball because she wanted to change the game, and she did

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Nov-2018About 12 overs into the chase in St. Lucia, it seemed like a West Indies win was very unlikely. South Africa needed 57 runs in 48 balls, two of their most experienced batsmen were still on the field, and they had seven wickets in hand. That’s when the captain Stafanie Taylor, overcoming a neck injury, decided to take matters into her own hands. She bowled the next over and engineered a dramatic collapse starting with the wicket of Sune Luus, and finished with career-best figures of 4 for 12 which eventually gave the defending champions a famous win.”On the good side,” Taylor said, “When we were getting hit, I told [Deandra] Dottin that I’m going to bowl and that drove me I told myself I’m going to take over this bowling and that got me the breakthrough.”Their batting didn’t quite match their bowling though. West Indies endured a collapse of their own as South Africa’s veteran fast bowler Shabnim Ismail ran through their line-up with 3 for 12, restricting them to 107 for 7 in 20 overs, which was only one run more than what they scored in their opening game against Bangladesh.”Our batting is not best at the moment,” she said. “We struggled to reach 107. In the middle with Natasha [McLean] and Kycia [Knight] batted well and we need that partnership and bowling performance topped it off.”We’ve said that in team meeting, we’ve been working hard in the nets and our game. I believe it’s all about application, we need to give ourselves some time to assess the wicket. I don’t think we have given ourselves that time. We are goods batters, we can clear boundaries any time. We are not worried about boundaries, it’s just our application that needs to get better.”Stafanie Taylor finds a reason to smile at a press conference•ICC/Getty Images

South Africa captain Dane van Niekerk had a similar opinion about her batsmen, adding that she had no concerns about the bowling unit. South Africa had showed signs of struggle during their successful 100-run chase against Sri Lanka earlier this week as well, and in the game against West Indies, they lost nine wickets for 28 runs.”Sometimes we find a way to make it difficult for ourselves,” van Niekerk said. “With wickets in hand we saw the bulk of the runs being scored in the back-end on a wicket like this. Our plan was to bat steadily and look for a win in the 19th over types. But it was like panic stations there.””We got ourselves into trouble quite early due to slow starts. A number of soft dismissals cost us. Don’t think a lot of our batters can come out and say they got out to a great balls. We did a great job restricting them. But again, we panicked.”If you want to win a World Cup, you need to convincingly chase down 107 and we didn’t do that. We need to introspect as batsmen. Since our warm-ups our batting has struggled to get 100.”West Indies were also backed by some electrifying fielding on the day. Deandra Dottin was particularly spectacular, and it was her direct-hit to run out van Niekerk that opened the door to West Indies again.”Deandra at backward point is fixed,” Taylor said. “She’s fantastic. Batters fear her. When she’s going towards the ball nobody wants to take a run. When Dane got run out she was caught off guard and that turned out to in our favour.”A display like that usually revs up the home fans. “I think the crowd today was fantastic,” Taylor said. I was really surprised to see that crowd when I look back at CPL, there wasn’t that amount of people. And to see that amount of people that came out to watch our game, it’s just fantastic. And the girls were loving it.”

New Zealand’s bowling coach was pleased with the efforts of the left-arm quick, who took three important wickets on day four at Hagley Oval

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Christchurch29-Dec-2018Pitches in New Zealand tend to flatten out after a roaring start, but even though opposition teams struggle to get wickets in the second innings, New Zealand’s own quicks are generally capable of bowling their team to victory. Why? Because they hunt as a pack, according to their bowling coach Shane Jurgensen.There was evidence of that teamwork as they removed four Sri Lanka batsmen on day four – three of those wickets falling to Neil Wagner. The performance left New Zealand four further wickets from victory, with day five to play. In fact they may only need three wickets, if the injured Angelo Mathews does not bat again.”It’s awesome, because I think the bowlers actually bounce off each other,” Jurgensen said after play. “They all get on with each other – they’re really good mates. You’ve got the two left-handers in Neil and Trent Boult, and then you’ve got Tim Southee and Colin de Grandhomme, when there’s a bit more on offer in terms of seam and swing. You’ve got those four guys – two lefties and two righties. Neil’s ability to bowl those bouncers, it just adds another string in the bow for the group.”One of the big things with our bowling is we want to bowl in partnerships and put pressure on from both ends. I think that’s what we did in the first innings and that’s we needed all our bowlers to do in the second.”Having arrived in New Zealand only six days before this series started, following their three Tests in the UAE, New Zealand’s bowlers have also had to contend with a huge workload, having earlier spent six months without any international cricket on their schedule. Boult – New Zealand’s quickest bowler – has played in all five of those Tests, and Tim Southee has played four.”Trent is really fit,” Jurgensen said. “I think that’s what I’ve been really impressed with our bowling group – it’s our fifth test in six-and-a-half or seven weeks, and it’s a testament to their fitness during the winter, how hard they’ve worked, to still keep trucking in. Neil just provides that extra punch that we need, particularly at the back end of the game, and you saw another example of that today. He’s been doing it for a while now for us.”Perhaps the best on-field battle of day five was Wagner v Dinesh Chandimal. In the past, teams have targeted Chandimal with the short ball, on account of his reputation for being an impulsive hooker. Aware of this potential weakness, New Zealand and Wagner bowled a lot of bouncers at Chandimal, without much success for the first two sessions, with Chandimal routinely ducking or swaying out of the way.It was Wagner who eventually got his wicket. Early in the third session, Chandimal could not get out of the way of a delivery headed toward his throat, and ended up fending at it with his gloves, sending an easy catch to short leg. Wagner was ecstatic at having taken that wicket, letting out an almighty scream.”I was a good battle between them,” Jurgensen said. “Dinesh batted very well, he applied himself fantastically. His hook shot is certainly something that we’ve targeted. But one of the things that I was mentioning in the dressing room is that I don’t think he’s playing the pull or hook shot today, so maybe we need to change our fields slightly to suit that. Eventually Neil got him.”

West Indies captain understood to have agreed a deal in April ahead of Ireland tour

George Dobell in Barbados17-Jan-2019Jason Holder is set to join Northamptonshire as an overseas player for the early weeks of the 2019 season.Holder, the West Indies captain, is understood to have agreed a deal to represent the county in April ahead of West Indies’ trip to Ireland
from May 1, as part of their World Cup preparations.That means he should be available for two Championship and five One-Day Cup games. He is currently rated 10th in the ICC’s Test bowling rankings and third in their Test all-rounder rankings.Northants have previously announced that South African batsman Temba Bavuma will join them from May for around eight Championship matches, while Faheem Ashraf will join them for the T20 competition.

He also made it clear India won’t compromise on their bowling attack just to give World Cup aspirants game time

Deivarayan Muthu in Hyderabad01-Mar-20197:43

IPL won’t impact World Cup selection – Kohli

Virat Kohli made this much very clear ahead of the first ODI in Hyderabad: The IPL will not impact World Cup selection.”I don’t see IPL having any influence on World Cup selection,” he said. “I think that will be a very radical sort of analysis. We need to have a solid team. Before we head into the IPL, we need be absolutely clear of what team we want for the World Cup.”I don’t see anything changing despite how the IPL goes for any of the players. If one or two players don’t have a good IPL season, it doesn’t mean that they are out of the picture for the World Cup. Those things are not going to matter.”ALSO READ: Finch has a ‘balancing act’ on his handsHe also made it clear India won’t compromise on their bowling attack just to give World Cup aspirants enough game time. As such, India’s squad has a settled look with just one or two spots up for grabs. Among them are Rishabh Pant and Vijay Shankar, a batting allrounder who is now in the mix following Hardik Pandya’s back injury.Vijay’s bowling was tested in the second T20I in Bengaluru, where he returned figures of 2 for 38. Bowling four overs in a T20I is one thing, completing 10 in an ODI another. India’s captain insisted that going with one fewer genuine bowler will not be a wise move.”We will have to think about the combinations, I don’t think playing a bowler less is a good idea,” Kohli said. “Because with the extra fielder in till the 40th over, it becomes very difficult to sort of get few guys to chip in with a few overs here and there. We will have to work out the batting combination to try and give game-time to the guys we want to. But, I don’t see the bowling combination changing.”India had rejigged their combination both in New Zealand and in the two T20Is against Australia at home, but Kohli stressed that they have prioritised winning this ODI series over experimentation.AFP

“We are playing to win the series, else I’ll leave the ball to hit the stumps,” he said. “As I said earlier, if we want to see how a few guys play in a certain situation, we’ll make play them again in that situation.”It’s not like if a guy is not playing in a certain situation, he doesn’t have the ability. We could not win the T20 series because in the first match we didn’t play good cricket and in the second match, Australia played better than us.”I think it’s important you understand why we lost. From outside, it’s easy to say, they don’t have the heart to play. We always want to win games for India. If we only had to experiment, we would have got out for 50 as everybody would have got out trying to hit sixes.”Kohli was particularly buoyed by KL Rahul’s return to form following a horrid time of late. He was troubled by inswingers and eventually lost his place in the Test squad in Australia last year. Then, he was suspended for his controversial comments on an Indian chat show.However, he worked his way back into international cricket by finding form with the India A side. Against Australia in the T20Is, he unfurled some sparkling shots, including the lofted drive that he mastered during his stellar run in IPL 2018.”It [Rahul’s return to form] augurs really well,” Kohli said. “When he plays well, KL is operating at a different level, I feel, and we’ve seen him do that in the IPL last year and in patches over the last season we played as a team. Hopefully, he can keep batting like that. It’s very difficult to find a consistent player who can find good cricketing shots and still win you games and strike at over 140 or 150.”He has all the shots and has a solid game as well. Hopefully, he can build on it and get as many games under his belt, playing as much cricket as possible. And then it will be interesting to see what happens in the final World Cup squad. Definitely, he has made a strong case for himself.”Since the start of the Champions Trophy India have tried out as many as nine players at No.4, with Ambati Rayudu getting the most chances there. He has made 431 runs in 11 innings at an average of 53.87 and strike-rate of 89.23. Kohli hasn’t batted at No.4 in this period, but is ready to move down from No.3 if the management wants him to.”If that [batting at No.4] is the requirement of the team at a particular stage in the game or before a particular game, I’m more than happy to do it,” he said. “I’ve batted a lot of times at No 4, so I don’t necessarily need to try it out because I’ve done that a lot of times in the past.”My game doesn’t change from No. 3 to No. 4 because template is quite similar. In any given situation, I back myself to play the game that I know. If the team wants it at any stage, I’m more than happy to do it.”

Colin Munro has retained his place in a New Zealand squad where the majority of the names were very settled

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Apr-20192:03

Blundell picked because of his superior keeping – Stead

Ish Sodhi and Tom Blundell have claimed the two uncertain spots in New Zealand’s World Cup squad with the 15 names being confirmed in Christchurch on Wednesday.The roles of second spinner and reserve keeper had the most debate attached to them with Sodhi being preferred to fellow legspinner Todd Astle and Blundell, who is uncapped in ODIs, earning a late call-up following an injury to Tim Seifert.The rest of the squad, the first for the ten competing nations to be confirmed, is very much as expected with the shape of the World Cup party having largely taken shape since Gary Stead took over from Mike Hesson as coach.ALSO READ: How the World Cup squads are stacking upColin Munro keeps his place although is likely to find himself as the reserve batsman with Henry Nicholls slated to open alongside Martin Guptill. Jimmy Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme have taken the seam-bowling allrounder spots with Mitchell Santner, who has recovered from knee surgery, set to be the main spinner.”As with any squad named for a major tournament, there’s had to be some tough calls and there will be some disappointed players,” coach Gary Stead said. “The key for us was finding the right balance for the squad and making sure we had our bases covered for what is going to be a very competitive World Cup. As a one-day unit we’ve been pretty consistent over the past few years and possess a very experienced group of core players, proven at the top level.”The World Cup is the pinnacle of cricket and to be the first nation to name a squad for the tournament is really exciting. I’d like to congratulate all the players selected. To represent your country at a World Cup is a huge honour and I know the entire squad and support staff are looking forward to the challenges ahead.”The squad will have a series of two-day training camps in Christchurch later in April before heading to Australia for a trip that includes three unofficial one-day matches. A large number of the World Cup squad won’t be present for that tour as they are at the IPL so a collection of reserve players will be included.”We will have three training camps through April which will involve many players who are not in this squad as it’s important they’re ready on stand-by should we lose anybody in the lead up to or at the tournament,” Stead said.Squad Kane Williamson (capt), Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham, Colin Munro, Tom Blundell, Jimmy Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult

SACA claims the cricket board has violated terms between the two bodies

Liam Brickhill13-Apr-2019The South Africa Cricketers’ Association (SACA) has refuted Cricket South Africa’s claim that it was consulted about the sweeping changes proposed to restructure domestic cricket in the country.Presenting a united front at its second press conference in a week, CSA insisted that SACA had been brought up to speed with the details of the domestic revamp. Corrie Van Zyl, the head of cricket pathways, even went to the extent of saying, “I sat personally with SACA and consulted on the restructuring.”SACA, however, remains adamant that it had not been adequately consulted, stating further that the cricket board had ignored agreements between the two bodies. It further countered CSA by citing its chief executive Tony Irish’s ban from attending a meeting while the restructuring was being discussed.SACA’s words contradict CSA’s statements to the media. According to van Zyl, SACA has been engaged by CSA in the formulation of the strategies it will implement in the face of massive forecasted financial losses.”I sat personally with SACA and consulted on the restructuring, explained what it would look like, and in principle they supported that and understood where we are going,” van Zyl said. “But they did also say that they need to understand a lot more.”They were also part of other interactions – a joint financial committee, and also a cricket committee which SACA is part of – where we discussed the restructuring again, and at that stage no objection was raised to the restructuring. So we have consulted, and secondly we have been working together to make sure that we come up with a sustainable restructuring exercise.”Irish, however, argued that the Memorandum of Understanding signed by CSA and SACA last year contained clear guidelines on how the consultation process on a matter such as the restructure should happen, but that CSA “has simply ignored that agreement”.”I wish to again confirm that CSA has not properly consulted with SACA on the domestic restructure,” Irish said. “The fact that I was present at certain meetings when the issue of possible restructure was raised does not constitute consultation.”There has been no discussion with us on how any restructure would actually work and I have consistently stated to CSA that SACA cannot make any decision on this at least until we understand the financial position and the ‘human impact’ on the players.”Omphile Ramela, the domestic veteran and president of SACA, also confirmed the body hadn’t received a reply from CSA over concerns raised. “We have addressed our specific, constructive concerns to CSA in writing but have still had no reply,” he said. “The statements made have given us no further clarity on this. SACA has yet to agree to any restructure.”CSA stated yesterday (Friday) that it will continue to engage SACA going forward, yet SACA’s CEO was at the same time banned from a meeting of CSA’s Chief Executives Conference, of which he is a member, when the domestic restructure was being discussed.”While SACA is clearly at loggerheads with CSA, chief executive Thabang Moroe insisted that CSA had the full backing of the key stakeholders for the revamp. Moroe said, “We’ve just had a very successful two-day workshop with our CEOs, and all of the CEOs have asked me to quote them in saying that they are in full support of the plans that Cricket South Africa has put in place.”

A magnificent 190 for Hampshire and the misfortune of a few others has put James Vince back in the frame

George Dobell10-May-2019A few weeks ago, James Vince was all but resigned to watching the World Cup on TV. His form was decent but, with England ranked No. 1 in the world and a batsman as accomplished as Alex Hales assured only of a place as first reserve, Vince had been left among the also-rans for a spot in the squad.But then Hales was dropped. And while Vince was still not sure of elevation in his place, he has since seen Joe Clarke and Tom Kohler-Cadmore – both of whom represented the Lions recently – suspended, Dawid Malan injured and Jason Roy suffer a back spasm that has taken too long for comfort to shrug off. All of a sudden, Vince isn’t just in danger of making it into the squad, he’s in danger of making it into the team.That’s not to say he owes his call-up simply to the struggle of others. In every conceivable way, he timed his best innings of the season so far – a record-breaking 190 in the Royal London match against Gloucestershire; Hampshire’s highest List A score – perfectly. It came on the day news of Hales’ drug-test failure emerged and ensured he was in the forefront of selectors’ minds.”It was pretty good timing to get 190 that day,” Vince said at training ahead of the second ODI against Pakistan. “If Alex was here I don’t think I’d be here now. It has given me an opportunity. Now the plan is to get a game or two and get some runs and push my claim ahead of the World Cup.”In the white-ball stuff, I’ve been in and out and covered when guys have been injured. I’ve not really had a huge amount of games in a row but that’s the nature of international cricket.”It’s the nature of the way the white-ball side has gone over the last three or four years, too. They’ve played some magnificent cricket and got to No. 1 in the world, so it’s been a tough team to break into. When I have had opportunities it’s been to pop in for a game knowing that when the main guys are fit I’d be out of the side again unless I did something remarkable.”All I can do is my best when I do get an opportunity to wear the shirt and try to force my way firstly into becoming a regular in the squad and then taking opportunities whenever possible. It only takes an injury or something and I could get a run of games. My job is to be as ready as I can.”He is unlikely to get much of a chance to push his claims on Saturday. Unless Roy suffers a reaction to training on Friday, he will return to the England side in place of Vince who will have to be content with playing in Hampshire’s Royal London semi-final on the same pitch on Sunday.But there is every chance that, before the season is out, he could have regained his place in both England’s Test and ODI side. Noting the difficulties England have had filling the hole at the top of the order in Test cricket, he has opened for Hampshire in this season’s County Championship campaign. And while the big scores are yet to come, his willingness to embrace the role may have sent a positive message to the selectors.”I had a chat with Joe Root and Ed Smith before the summer started to try to see what would give me the best chance of getting back into the Test side,” he said. “And the feedback I got, especially from Ed, was the higher up I batted for Hampshire the better. I think they’re more comfortable moving guys down the order than up it.”Having already played 13 Tests, though, there may be those who feel Vince has been given every opportunity to show what he can do. But he hopes a minor technical change might have helped his footwork. On the evidence of his batting for England over the last week or so, when he made 18 in the ODI in Dublin and 36 in the T20I versus Pakistan, he looks in sublime form.”I have gone slightly narrower with my feet to try to get them moving a bit more rather than being stuck,” he said. “But apart from that I haven’t changed too much.”I have aspirations in all formats. First and foremost, I want to do well for Hampshire and then be as ready as I can to take any opportunities with England. It’s been a bit stop-start for me in international cricket, but if I can get a big score hopefully I can kick on from there.”

‘You can’t, on the day before the announcement and a team that’s been working for something for year and even longer than a year, come and say, ‘I want to make a comeback now.”

Firdose Moonda14-Jun-20192:03

Morkel: Management’s decision to not include de Villiers is right

South African middle-order batsman Rassie van der Dussen was “not surprised” to hear AB de Villiers wanted to play in the 2019 World Cup but believes it would have set a “difficult precedent” if the former captain was included. It would also likely have meant van der Dussen himself would not be at the tournament.ALSO READ: AB de Villiers revelations could bring South Africa World Cup squad closer – Faf du Plessis“It’s not necessarily the best question to ask to me because I am involved in it but had he not retired it definitely would have influenced me directly,” he said. “But you can’t, on the day before the announcement and a team that’s been working for something for year and even longer than a year, come and say, ‘I want to make a comeback now’. I am not saying he was wrong or he was right; so don’t misquote me. But it would have set a difficult precedent – not necessarily a wrong one, because it’s still AB, he is still one of the best players in the world – I just think it was handled maybe not in the correct way from his side.”Rassie van der Dussen celebrates his fifty•AFP

South Africa’s squad was informed of de Villiers’ desire to come out of retirement at their pre-tournament team camp, which included scaling the Table Mountain and training at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria. Though some, like Kagiso Rabada, have given little away about their opinion on the matter, van der Dussen explained de Villiers had been given options to make a comeback, which he refused.”As I believe it, Ottis [Gibson, the head coach] and Faf [du Plessis, the captain] gave him opportunities to, say, ‘Let’s manage your workload going into the World Cup because we want you to play a World Cup’. He had a fair chance to manage that and he said no and that he is happy to retire and that’s fair enough. And Faf accepted it, Ottis accepted it and they stood by it,” van der Dussen said.ALSO READ: Did de Villiers want to have his cake and eat it too?Zondi, Gibson and du Plessis have all confirmed they told de Villiers he could have time off but would need to play some part in the series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka which took place earlier this year to stay in contention. Van der Dussen made his ODI debut in the series against Pakistan and impressed. Van der Dussen scored five half-centuries in his first nine ODI innings to earn his place in the World Cup squad and, at the tournament, has so far been South Africa’s most convincing performer with the bat.Van der Dussen is South Africa’s second-highest run-scorer with 113 runs from his three innings, one run behind Quinton de Kock. He has labelled the tournament the ultimate test of a player’s ability, which is why he understood de Villiers’ interest in coming back.”I wasn’t surprised [that he wanted to come back],” van der Dussen said. “The media and the press reports quite a lot on AB and the things he’s said and how his last year has gone. I wasn’t surprised that he would want to make a comeback on the world’s biggest stage. That’s the thing all the biggest players in sport have in common. They want to perform when the pressure is on and when the stage is at its biggest.”Despite knowing he may have missed out if de Villiers had been accommodated, van der Dussen does not think the situation has put extra pressure on him to put in de Villiers-esque performances but hinted that if the situation demands it, maybe he could do just that.”In terms of did it affect me? No. I am quite happy to be mentioned in the same sentence as AB. He is obviously one of the best there has ever been,” van der Dussen said. “So do I have to replace him? I don’t feel I have to. Can I play match-winning innings for my country? I believe I can. Is that what he did? Yes, he did. It didn’t have as big an effect as I think people would like to believe it had.”

Bangladesh come into the series as the more settled side despite missing a few big names, but they’ve never won an ODI at the Premadasa Stadium

The Preview by Madushka Balasuriya25-Jul-2019

Big picture

While all eyes will rightfully be on Lasith Malinga ahead of his final ODI, the Sri Lanka quick’s swansong also brings into the focus the journey both these sides have been on over the last several years.In 14 ODIs against Bangladesh, Malinga has tasted defeat just three times, and remains probably the last member of the Sri Lanka squad, barring maybe Angelo Mathews, to remember having played Bangladesh when a Sri Lanka victory was considered a mere formality.For the rest of the squad, though, these games have been much feistier affairs, spurred on by disputes over celebratory taunts, shattered dressing-room doors, and coach swaps.The last six completed ODIs between the two sides, meanwhile, have been evenly shared – which is why it was such a shame their game at the World Cup was washed out. As such it’s safe to say that this series is set to be the most competitive bilateral contest, ever, between the two nations.Even so, Sri Lanka come into the game with more problems than the visitors. A chronic inability to pick up wickets in the middle overs has left the team management with their fingers perennially crossed over the return to form of Akila Dananjaya, while the batting order’s instability has long been a point of contention. Malinga’s imminent retirement only deepens their woesBangladesh, on the other hand, despite their underwhelming finish in a World Cup that began with so much promise, have by far the more settled side. Even without stars such as Shakib Al Hasan, Mashrafe Mortaza and Liton Das, they have built enough strength in depth to put out arguably the stronger of the two teams, and while captain Tamim Iqbal was keen to avoid the favourites tag in the build-up, the fact that the team will be disappointed with anything other than a win shows how far they’ve come.

Form guide

Bangladesh: LLWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka: LWLWL

In the spotlight

Shakib Al Hasan was unarguably Bangladesh’s star performer of the World Cup, but with him ruled out, Mohammad Mithun has a golden opportunity to stake his claim for a spot in an otherwise settled batting line-up. Likely to take up the coveted No. 3 role, Mithun could give Sri Lanka’s bowlers a tough time if he carries on the form he showed in the warm-up match.Lasith Malinga picked up 13 wickets at the World Cup, more than twice as many as any other Sri Lankan bowler. In his final game, expect him to push his ageing frame to the limit, and attempt to give himself a fairytale farewell.Mohammad Mithun gets creative•Getty Images

Team news

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), 2 Kusal Perera (wk), 3 Avishka Fernando, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Dhananjaya De Silva, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Isuru Udana, 9 Nuwan Pradeep, 10 Akila Dhananjaya, 11 Lasith MalingaBangladesh (probable): 1 Tamim Iqbal (capt), 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Mohammad Mithun, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Sabbir Rahman, 7 Mossadek Hossain 8 Mehidy Hasan, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Rubel Hossain

Pitch and conditions

The pitch at the Khettarama has the reputation of being high-scoring with ball coming on to bat, with teams putting up an average first-innings total of 313 in the last five matches here, of which four have been won by the team batting first. However, there’s an 80% chance of rain in the afternoon and evening, something the team winning the toss will have to take into consideration.

Stats and trivia

• Tamim Iqbal is 129 runs away from becoming the first Bangladesh cricketer to score 7000 ODI runs.
• No player taking part in this series from either side has scored a century at the R Premadasa Stadium. The highest score remains Angelo Mathews’ 97 not out.
• In eight attempts, Bangladesh are yet to win an ODI at the R Premadasa stadium.

Quotes

“Not too long ago we were in a similar situation and Sri Lanka came to our country and played a beautiful series. In cricket we’re like a family, and we need to help each other when these sort of things happen. Nobody in our team thought about not coming. We’re feeling very comfortable, and we’re only thinking about our cricket.”
“To be very honest I just heard from him just now, that’s the truth. So I haven’t even thought about it yet.”

Cricket South Africa had been trying to get SuperSport to broadcast the second season of the T20 tournament but it couldn’t be done

Liam Brickhill07-Aug-2019This year’s Mzansi Super League will once again be screened on , South Africa’s public broadcaster.There had been some speculation, especially ahead of the first edition of the MSL, that Cricket South Africa might look to as broadcaster, but they have ultimately stuck with once again, despite the lack of a financial incentive to do so. Last month the secured a R3.2 billion bailout from the government, and earlier this week it was announced that the broadcaster had failed to secure the rights for the country’s Premier Soccer League as it was not commercially viable. But CSA are short of other options.

List of retained players

Cape Town Blitz: Asif Ali, Janneman Malan, Anrich Nortje, Dale Steyn
Durban Heat: Kyle Abbott, Sarel Erwee, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Khaya Zondo
Jozi Stars: Dan Christian, Reeza Hendricks, Duanne Olivier, Sinethemba Qeshile, Ryan Rickelton, Rassie van der Dussen
Nelson Mandela Bay Giants: Junior Dala, Heino Kuhn, Marco Marais, Chris Morris, Jon-Jon Smuts
Paarl Rocks: Henry Davids, Cameron Delport, Bjorn Fortuin, Aiden Markram, Mangaliso Mosehle, Tabraiz Shamsi
Tshwane Spartans: Theunis de Bruyn, Tony de Zorzi, Lungi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla

“We only have literally two broadcasters in the country who can afford to broadcast cricket, and that’s and ,” chief executive Thabang Moroe said on Tuesday. “So you can imagine that CSA does not have much room to manoeuvre in terms of making decisions.”As things stand, we are lucky to find ourselves where we are, in the sense that we can broadcast international cricket both on free-to-air as well as pay TV. Obviously because none of them have exclusivity, we do not receive the same values as we would, had we given any of them exclusivity, but that’s the pain we have to take for wanting to spread the game.”As far as restructuring of commercial and broadcast deals is concerned, it’s difficult to say yes or no to that question now, the reason being the landscape that we operate in as far as the South African economy is concerned.”The second MSL will take place in November and December this year. The date for the player draft has not been announced yet, but it is expected to be shortly, as are the various South African and international marquee players.Dale Steyn is one of several Protea cricketers who have been retained by their franchises for this year’s tournament. More than 250 cricketers, including international stars, T20 specialists and Kolpak signings have entered the draft.”This is confirmation that MSL is now an established global brand that is taking its place at the head table alongside the other Global T20 events,” Moroe said. “We have drawn interest from around the world with players applying from virtually all the top tier international countries.”This will certainly be the biggest T20 event we have hosted since the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup that was staged here in 2007 and became the fore-runner of all the global T20 events that followed. We look forward to adding yet another highlight to our home international season that will be followed by the incoming tours by England and Australia.”