All posts by n8rngtd.top

The Brisbane Heat batter is set to arrive in Bangladesh on January 26

Mohammad Isam24-Jan-2024In a major coup for the Bangladesh Premier League, Brisbane Heat batter Josh Brown has signed up with the Chattogram Challengers. The franchise announced that Brown will arrive in Bangladesh on January 26, in time for their matches in Sylhet. Chattogram have won two out of their three outings in the tournament so far, beating Sylhet Strikers and Durdanto Dhaka. Their next match is on Saturday when they take on Fortune Barishal.Related

• BPL week two: All-round Nawaz propels unbeaten Khulna; Sylhet remain winless

• Mohammad Haris leaves BPL 2024 after being denied NOC

• Brown: 'To do what I did in a pressure game was surreal'

• BPL week one: Shakib vs Tamim, Babar's heroics, eight successful chases and more

Brown shot to the limelight with his 57-ball 140, which included 12 sixes, in the Big Bash League Challenger against the Adelaide Strikers. It took Heat to the final, in which Brown struck another half-century to power his side to the BBL trophy on Wednesday. reported before the BBL final that Brown’s management had fielded offers from franchises in both the BPL and the UAE’s ILT20.”Absolutely, I’d be interested,” Brown said after his record-breaking 140. “If the opportunity came up I’d take it with both hands. I’ve just got to keep scoring runs.”Brown is not the only major signing for the Chattogram franchise. They also announced a few days ago that England batter Phil Salt had signed up for them although he is likely to arrive after stints in the SA20 and ILT20. Brown’s signing comes hot on the heels of Mohammad Haris, another Chattogram player, pulling out of the BPL due to the PCB denying him an NOC.

Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu got together at 57 for 5 and their centuries took Sri Lanka to a position of strength on the first day of the Test

Mohammad Isam22-Mar-2024Five down for not too many. Against a side that has antagonised you at every step on this tour. The fast bowlers were making life uncomfortable. But captain Dhananjaya de Silva and Test newcomer Kamindu Mendis took the bull by the horns and put on a show. They became only the second Sri Lanka pair to add a 200-run stand after having lost five wickets for less than 60. Incidentally, de Silva was involved in the other 200-run stand too, eight years ago.Kamindu and Dhananjaya are from the same school in Galle, though they didn’t play together there. Being in the same Test XI was a proud moment for him, Kamindu said, but when they got together at 57 for 5, nostalgia was far from their minds.”Dhana is someone that I looked up to as my senior. I’m really happy that I get to play with Dhana now that he’s Test captain as well,” Kamindu said. “Being five down for 50-odd is something that can happen in Test cricket sometimes. Their fast bowlers bowled really well, in good areas. The wicket also supported the seamers, as well as the overcast conditions.Related

• Bangladesh's fast-bowling evolution bears fruit in green Sylhet

• Dhananjaya, Kamindu tons put SL on top on fast bowlers' day

“At that time, the goal for us was just to get settled at the crease, and once we did that, to set about playing a long innings. And after that our partnership got settled and we were able to carry on.”They both scored centuries, Kamindu’s first in Tests and Dhananjaya’s first as Test captain.It however didn’t start well for Kamindu. Mahmudul Hasan Joy dropped a sitter from an edge first ball, which, had it been taken, could have finished Sri Lanka off, exposing the lower order.Taking advantage, Kamindu counter-attacked. He started off with plenty of drives on the up, as he peppered the cover and point boundaries. The sixes were all off short balls, as he ramped one and pulled two. Dhananjaya was happy to hang back to use the fast bowlers’ pace and bounce to place the balls. He struck most of his fours in the arc between third and cover point, driving rarely.Kamindu was in the 70s when Dhananjaya entered the 90s. But Kamindu got to his century first, before his captain got there in the same over.”They were bowling a lot of short balls,” Kamindu said of the Bangladesh quicks after lunch. “I thought that the boundary on one side was short. I think if I can hit the short ball, it will be good for us. Their fast bowlers bowled well, but they also bowled some bad balls. Dhananjaya and I stayed positive.”Kamindu replaced Sadeera Samarawickrama in the Sri Lanka XI, and might have done enough to warrant a place for a while.”I’m very happy, this is my second Test match,” Kamindu said. “I know it’s very difficult to get an opportunity [in the Test side] because our Test team is very settled. In the last couple of years I worked tirelessly to get to this point.”More than the runs, it was the way Kamindu carried himself under pressure that would have impressed the Sri Lanka selectors and team management. He took the pressure off Dhananjaya by scoring quickly, and when it looked like Bangladesh bowlers could re-enter the game, he shut it down with his free-flowing stroke play. A maiden century, in his first Test after almost two years, will give him a boost for sure.

Bangladesh got to 126 for 4 on the back of Nigar Sultana’s 63*, but their bowlers failed to prevent defeat with 42 deliveries to spare

AAP31-Mar-2024Tayla Vlaeminck celebrated her return to international cricket with a wicket with her third ball, as Australia thrashed Bangladesh by ten wickets in their series-opening T20I in Dhaka.Playing her first game for Australia since January 2022, Vlaeminck beat Sobhana Mostary with her speed to hit the batter’s stumps. She finished with 1 for 30 as Australia kept Bangladesh to 126 for 4, before chasing the target down without loss and with seven overs to spare.Vlaeminck, the fastest female bowler in Australia, suffered two anterior cruciate ligament ruptures and a shoulder dislocation before her 21st birthday. That came before her most recent extended break, when stress fractures in her foot and a shoulder dislocation required more than two years of recovery.She admitted before the Bangladesh tour that she at one stage privately questioned why officials had kept faith in her. But on Sunday afternoon, she answered it herself. Vlaeminck bowled with speed in her first match on the subcontinent, piercing through Mostary’s defences as the No. 3 attempted to play back. Vlaeminck’s return helped push her case for selection for the World Cup later this year, also in Bangladesh.Nigar Sultana scored exactly half her team’s 126•Getty Images

Fellow Victorian Sophie Molineux also did her case no harm. After a ruptured ACL destroyed her 2023, she had Dilara Akter caught with the first ball of the match. She also bowled Fahima Khatun in the final over of the innings, finishing with 2 for 25.Bangladesh owed their final total of 126 to captain Nigar Sultana, who scored exactly half the runs, remaining unbeaten on 63 from 64 balls after walking out at No. 4 in the second over.In reply, Alyssa Healy (65 not out in 42 balls) and Beth Mooney (55 not out in 36 balls) made light work of the chase.Healy smashed nine fours and a six in a dominant innings, raising fifty in 34 balls. Mooney also hit nine boundaries as she too brought up a 34-ball fifty, with the pair taking Australia to their fourth ten-wicket win in T20 history.

Essex take grip with ball before Khushi thrashes quick fifty to cut into deficit

ECB Reporters Network19-Apr-2024Shane Snater rediscovered the form with the ball that deserted him last season to drive a massive hole in some fragile Lancashire batting on a rain-shortened day at Chelmsford.The Zimbabwe-born Dutch international blasted out the top three in the Lancashire order at a personal cost of one run before returning to add a fourth for figures of 4 for 42. Snater took just eight expensive wickets in an injury-ravaged campaign last year, having taken a combined 67 in the two previous seasons. He now has 10 wickets in three Vitality County Championship matches this April.He was ably supported by fellow seamer Sam Cook, who managed to marry both hostility and parsimony to finish with 3 for 18 from 14 overs, as Lancashire limped to 146 all out. In 12 overs under the floodlights, Feroze Khushi refused to hang about with nine fours in a whirlwind 53 from 33 balls as Essex knocked 68 off the deficit for the loss of his wicket, caught in the slips off George Balderson.A mid-morning downpour encouraged Essex captain Tom Westley to ask Lancashire to bat on a green-tinged wicket and local knowledge proved decisive inside the 45 minutes possible before lunch once Snater had been introduced. The seamer removed Keaton Jennings to a magnificent flying catch in the gully by Matt Critchley in his first over, and trapped the freewheeling Luke Wells plumb lbw in the next.Wells had plundered 13 runs – including a straight-driven four and a six flicked off his legs – in a Jamie Porter over that led to the bowler’s departure from the attack after conceding 22 runs from three overs.The brief morning session completed, the players had barely reached the pavilion for lunch when the latest April shower lengthened the interval by more than an hour and three-quarters. When they did return in mid-afternoon, Josh Bohannon faced just nine more scoreless balls before he edged Snater and Dean Elgar took a stunning one-handed catch low down at first slip.Cook bowled unchanged for nearly two of the truncated sessions and gained reward in his ninth over when Balderson failed to withdraw his bat in time and was caught behind.George Bell hit two of his four career half-centuries at Chelmsford last season, and added a high of 99 against Hampshire last week, but Snater’s first ball after tea had him bang to rights in front of his stumps for just 4. However, his one scoring stroke in 22 balls had been a sumptuous straight drive that was arguably the most aesthetic shot of the day.The Lancashire slide continued apace when Matty Hurst hung his bat out to Cook and was a second victim for wicketkeeper Michael Pepper. Tom Bruce got a leading edge to chip Porter to mid-on before 19-year-old Noah Thain claimed a wicket on debut with his third ball in first-class cricket when Tom Bailey steered to second slip.However, the ninth-wicket partnership between Jack Blatherwick and Will Williams proved to be the biggest of the innings, helping to repair the damage of 92 for 8 with some lusty hitting.With a six apiece, the pair put on fifty in 36 balls before Blatherwick went for another heave to Simon Harmer’s second ball of the game and holed out on the long-leg boundary. Cook wrapped up the innings when he had Nathan Lyon held at point to leave Williams not out on 32.

The India captain didn’t explain why, but outlined it had to do with conditions and early morning starts

Shashank Kishore02-May-20244:45

Rohit: Dube will be bowling a few overs

India’s selectors picked four spinners in their 15-man squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup because Rohit Sharma wanted them, though he did not want to reveal his reasons for doing so just yet.”I don’t want to go too much into detail on it, I’m sure opposition captains are listening to this,” Rohit said in Mumbai. “I definitely wanted four spinners. We’ve played a lot of cricket there [Caribbean]. We know what the conditions are like. With morning starts at 10-10.30am, there’s a little bit of technical aspect involved in this.”India picked left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav, legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal and left-arm spin allrounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel in their provisional 15, which left space for only three specialist fast bowlers and no slot for Rinku Singh. Chahal was not a part of India’s T20I squads for their two most recent series – in South Africa in December and against Afghanistan at home in January – and was selected after his impressive form in IPL 2024.”Maybe when I do the first press conference [upon landing], I’ll give more details,” Rohit said about picking four spinners. “The reason for four spinners is this, which I’m not going to say in public. But I wanted four spinners for sure. With two of the spinners being allrounders who can bat, Axar and Jadeja, and two attacking spinners – Kuldeep and Chahal – it gives you the balance in the spin department. Based on the team composition of the opposition we can decide what we want to play with.”Related

• Similar but different India have tough choices to make with their batting order

• India's T20 World Cup squad: Pant, Dube and Samson make the cut

• 'Rohit said just show us what you can do' – How Shivam Dube knew he was in the reckoning for the World Cup

• How Samson jumped the queue and got his T20 World Cup ticket

Dube selected for middle-order power

While Rohit wouldn’t be drawn into discussing whether Virat Kohli could be his opening partner instead of Yashasvi Jaiswal, he emphasised the need for more power in the middle order, which led to Shivam Dube’s selection.”The one thing we really looked at was middle-overs hitting,” Rohit said. “The top-order hitting has been alright, hasn’t been bad, but there are options there as well. In the middle overs we wanted someone to come and play that role where he can play freely without worrying about who is bowling and who is not. We picked Shivam Dube based on the IPL and a few games before the IPL as well.”Dube has been in explosive form for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2024, his 350 runs coming at a strike rate of 171.56, and he is third on the six-hitting charts this season. He was also the highest run-scorer in the T20I series against Afghanistan in January, with 124 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 158.97. Rohit also expected Dube to contribute with the ball, if needed, though he has bowled only one over in his first ten games in IPL 2024.”I know Shivam has not bowled a single over, but he’s a seasoned cricketer who bowls a lot of overs in red-ball cricket,” Rohit said. “Honestly if we need Shivam to bowl a few overs, he will bowl a few overs. Hardik as well, he has been bowling regularly in the IPL. Whenever it’s been required, he has come and bowled. Like Ajit [Agarkar] said, he’s come and played all the games, fitness wise, there are no issues.”Allrounder Shivam Dube was selected for his hitting ability but he has bowled only one over in 11 innings in IPL 2024•BCCI

Why KL Rahul missed out

India’s decision to pick Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson as the two wicketkeepers ahead of KL Rahul was to do with their ability to bat in the middle order.”KL is a terrific player, we all know that” chairman of selectors Agarkar said. “The thing is we were looking at guys batting in the middle order, and at the moment KL is batting at the top.”When it was pointed out that Samson is batting at No. 3 for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2024, Agarkar said: “We feel Sanju has the ability to come down the order, if need be, Rishabh has been batting at five-six. That was more the thinking, about the slots we needed. These two were better at this point. Guys who spend a bit more time in the later part of the innings at the World Cup, that was the thinking.”After suffering a severe car accident in December 2022, Pant made a successful comeback in IPL 2024, scoring 398 runs in his first 11 innings for Delhi Capitals at a strike rate of 158.56, and proving his wicket-keeping skills were back to their best. Samson has 385 runs in nine innings for Royals, at a strike rate of 161.08.2:01

Samson over Rahul – the right call?

‘Rinku’s exclusion one of the toughest calls’

Rinku Singh’s exclusion was the “toughest” decision India’s selectors had to make while picking the squad.”He [Rinku] has done nothing wrong, nor has Shubman Gill. It’s just the combinations,” Agarkar said. “We’re not sure of the conditions we’ll get [in USA] and we wanted to have enough [bowling] options.”We had a couple of wristspinners to give Rohit more options, I don’t think it’s anything to do with Rinku. It’s not his fault that he missed out, it’s more the 15 we felt we needed, with two keepers who are both terrific batters, we will have an extra batter sitting out. We got to have another bowling option, but he’s still one of the traveling substitutes. That’s how close he was, but we can only take 15.”Rinku has played 15 T20Is for India, scoring 356 runs at a strike rate of 176.23. However, he’s had a quiet IPL 2024: 123 runs off 82 balls in eight innings at a strike rate of 150.