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Milton Shumba Ryan Burl Record Highest Sixth Wicket Partnership For Zimbabwe Fifth Highest Overall

Milton Shumba, Ryan Burl record highest sixth-wicket partnership for Zimbabwe, fifth-highest overall

Playing against Ireland, Zimbabwe number six and seven, Ryan burl and Milton Shumba recorded the fifth-highest sixth-wicket partnership in the history of T20i cricket. The pair threaded together unbeaten 88 runs to guide a struggling Zimbabwean innings from 64-5 at the end of the 10th over to 152-5 in 20 overs against Ireland at Castle Avenue, Clontarf during the second T20I of the five-match series.

This is also the third-highest sixth-wicket partnership by a Test-playing nation in T20I with the record being held by Australia’s Cameron White and Michale Hussey who added 101 unbeaten against Sri Lanka in 2010 during the T20 World Cup match in Bridgetown, Barbados. As far as Zimbabwe are concerned, this is their fifth-highest partnership for any wicket in T20I cricket with the highest being 111 by current skipper Craig Ervine and former skipper Sean Williams created in 2019 against Ireland in Bready.

Shumba, who is playing only his sixth T20I also achieved his highest individual score of 46 runs which he hit off just 27 balls courtesy of some innovative shots which included a reverse pull shot, yes you read it right, a reverse pull shot over third-man to get not one but two fours. The 20-year-old hist four fours and two sixes to gather his runs which came at a strike rate of more than 170.

Burl, Shumba’s partner started slowly, but eventually picked up pace as he smashed 37 off 33 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes.

Zimbabwe are leading the five-match series 1-0 courtesy of a three-run win in a thrilling last-over finish in the first match on Friday, August 27.

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Wood, Woakes available for Oval Test, Buttler's paternity leave may open door for Ollie Pope

England get a shot in the arm as pacer Mark Wood, who injured his shoulder in the Lord’s Test and Chris Woakes, who has missed the series so far are likely to be available for the fourth Test starting on September 2 at the Oval. However, they will miss the services of Jos Buttler possibly from the entire remaining part of the series. As per a BBC Sport report, Wood has recovered from the shoulder injury that ruled him out of the Leeds Test while Woakes has completed his rehabilitation process after suffering a heel injury. Buttler, who is expecting his second child anytime soon could well miss at least one, if not both the remaining Tests of the series. He also has not had a great run with the bat so far in the series and his absence could open the door for Ollie Pope in the middle order while Jonny Bairstow would take up the wicketkeeper’s role. It would be interesting to see if England would be willing to risk James Anderson either by playing for a fourth Test on the trot or giving him rest at the Oval with the return of Woakes. England could also drop Sam Curran, who has not best time with the bat for Mark Wood and bank on Woakes and Overton to provide impetus with the bat lower down the order.

Elton Chigumbura and Kyle Jarvis to scout young Zimbabwean talent

Hamilton Maskadsza, the Director of Cricket in Zimbabwe Cricket on Saturday, August 28, appointed two of his former teammates Elton Chigumbura and Kyle Jarvis as Talent Scouts for the Board to unearth the players who can and will represent Zimbabwe cricket in future. Announcing the new development, the ZC press release quoted Masakadza as saying, "We are excited to have Elton and Kyle, who both excelled as players at the highest level of the international game, joining us as national talent scouts.” “They will play a very important role as we move to establish a fully structured scouting network that is designed to identify, track and develop talented players from the youth level who will be nurtured through our development system,” the release further added. Jarvis played 13 Tests, 22 T20Is and 49 ODIs between 2009 and 2019 and picked up 132 wickets in a career marred by injuries, which forced him to retire at the young age of 32 in 2020. Chigumbura, who was part of the transitional phase of Zimbabwe cricket and debuted in 2004 at the young age of 18 years, went on to play for 16 years for the country, representing the Chevrons in 213 ODIs, 14 Tests and 57 T20Is between 2004 and 2020. He has to his credit 5801 runs and 138 wickets in all formats combined.

Bangladesh batting coach Prince expects Liton Das to open in T20Is against New Zealand

Litton Das, who has made a comeback in the Bangladesh T20I squad, could well be in contention for one of the opening slots in the upcoming series against New Zealand, batting coach Ashwell Prince has said. However, he also highlighted “strong competition” for the opening slots in the series against the Blackcaps. Litton missed the last series against Australia due to an injury and after Cricket Australia and BCB denied him entry into the biosecure bubble. Bangladesh employed the pair of Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Naim in his absence, but their partnership did not flourish at the top of the order. They failed to provide either a solid or rapid start to the hosts and their highest partnership stood at 42 which came in the last game of the series. They also struggled to hit boundaries against the new ball, but Prince did not raise it as a point of concern due to “tough conditions” against Australia. He pointed out that the balls were not coming onto bats and hence it was tough to score quickly as it would have been on better pitches. "Personally I am not really concerned about the opening batsmen. I think we had one or two good partnerships in Zimbabwe but conditions were tough against Australia. It is not easy to score boundaries frequently as you would in pitches where the ball is coming on. Adapting to the conditions is important. Partnership would be important. I think we have a strong competition in the opening position. I am sure Liton Das will get an opportunity in this position, as well,” Prince said. Prince said that the conditions are unlikely to change but chose to bank on the “experience” of senior players to overcome those hurdles in the upcoming series against New Zealand. "I am expecting similar conditions against New Zealand. The batsmen from Australia series had a nice discussion yesterday, sharing with guys like Liton Das and Mushfiqur (Rahim) who didn't play in that series. These are experienced guys but they shared what worked and what we like to improve on from the Australia series, taking it into the New Zealand series coming up," he said. The series between Bangladesh and New Zealand is scheduled to start on September 1 in Dhaka and the hosts have all the reasons to start favourites in the series after their first series win over Australia earlier this month.

AUS W vs IND W series delayed due to Covid-19, relocated to Carrara Oval, Ken Mackay in Queensland

The Covid-19 has forced the rescheduling of another series albeit without much of a dealy as the entire India women’s tour of Australia has been now had a venues change with the ODI series being rescheduled as well. Reports by major media houses suggest that the entire tour, previously slated to be played in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth at North Sydne Oval, Junction Oval and WACA respectively, has now been shifted to Queensland because of Covid-19-enforced restrictions. Consequently, the first ODI, which was to be played on September 19 at North Sydney Oval would now be played at Ken Mackay Oval in Brisbane, this same venue will also host the remaining two ODIs before the teams travel to Gold Coast for the one-off day/night Test to be hosted at the Carrara Oval which has hosted Big Bash League homes games for the Brisbane Heat over the years. The dates for the Test remain the same and it is scheduled to be played from September 30 to October 3. Following the Test, the T20Is will also be played at this venue only. While the Indian departed for Brisbane in the afternoon of August 29 and will remain in at least seven days of quarantine, the Australian players from New South Wales and Victoria would also have to undergo quarantine measures on reaching Queensland. There has been no official confirmation of the change in events either by Cricket Australia or the Board of Control for Cricket in India.