New Zealand set to tour Pakistan after 18 years; to play ODI, T20I series

Inside out | Bumrah regains vengeance, 'unlucky' Shami corrects old mistakes to buy new luck

There were two sets of debates that started during the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand. First, it was about Jasprit Bumrah, who failed to leave an impact on the game, and the second was about the role and credentials of Mohammed Shami in England conditions. It was wondered if Bumrah had lost his venom and with that the ability to produce bite off the surface and movement in the air after returning from injury. For Shami, it was an argument that his bowling partner Ishant Sharma faced for years before he finally changed his methods and settled the debate. It was argued if Mohammed Shami has not bowled enough full deliveries in England to affect dismissals instead of looking pretty of bowling by big moving back of length deliveries. There was a debate between Star Sports commentators Dinesh Karthik, who argued that Shami has bowled enough good balls to have more wickets in his bag than he actually has, and former England captain Nasser Hussain, who said that how many more Test matches than 10 one bowler needs to prove his mettle. India were completely outplayed in that game by New Zealand, and they were outbowled comprehensively by their Kiwi counterparts. What proved to be their deficiency? It was the good old swing, generated by bowling full length that failed them on the big occasion. India have their strongest bowling attack now, and they can’t go to someone else having left Bhuvneshwar Kumar in India to take advantage of conditions favouring swing bowling. Hence, what they needed was a change in approach and methods to get batsmen out, and it was fitting that Bumrah started off the proceedings well. In the very first over of the day, he set up Rory Burns with away going deliveries. The batsman left alone a couple of them, while others forced him to play as Bumrah was taking the ball away from way outside the line of leg stump. The fourth ball of the over moved away from Burns after pitching in the line of the stumps and forcing him to play at it. A flummoxed Burns could not see a whooping inswinger coming his way, and he was late on the ball that swung back towards his pads, and Bumrah had settled the debate about his venom by the first over itself. Shami had picked up some wickets in the first innings of the WTC final, but his lengths, in general, was not fully in the fullish zone. And, like Bumrah, he too had to adopt course correction to reap the rewards. He was given the new ball and he made good use of it by bowling fuller length. He made a swift change in his bowling style and did not just put the ball up there for batsmen to drive at juicy half volleys in search of swing, but he added impetus by using all the variations he had up his sleeve. The pair of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow stood up with the best resistance and they tested Bumrah and Shami for their accuracy and relentlessness. Turned out, they were up for the challenge. On numerous occasions, both of them beat both Root and Bairstow around the off-stump with balls they could not have survived without a piece of good luck. With less than half an hour left in the afternoon session, Virat Kohli first brought Bumrah into the attack to challenge Bairstow and Root, and he heard the call from his captain. He was almost all over Joe Root with big inswingers, one after another, He also slipped in one booming yorker that asked Root to defend valiantly to save his off stump. Bumrah got one to jagg one back sharply off the surface as Root got very late on the last ball of the over, but luckily, the inside edge gound went flying between stumps and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant to fine leg boundary. The story was similar on the other end as the Indian skipper changed Siraj from the other end with Shami with just a couple of overs left for the break. He was bowling more fuller balls throughout the day than his previous appearances on England soil. Shami returned with outswingers the game of hiding the ball outside off along with straightening the line of attack to induce shots from Bairstow continued throughout the over. However, Shami did not try to bring one back towards the right-hander and was just altering the line of outswingers to ask Bairstow to play at it from the line of the stumps. Not for so long though. The first ball he bowled in the next over was a whooping inswinger that found Bairtsow rooted to the crease in anticipation of an away going delivery. It was Shami at his deceptive best, Albeit the wicket of Bairstow was well thought out and as a result of perfect setup and imagination on how to deceive batsman, on either side of that wicket, Shami earned wickets with pieces of good luck. He kept on troubling Sibley with one that swung away from the line of off stump but got him dismissed with one starting on the pad that held up a touch in the surface. The batsman had found another frustrating way to get out but Shami, who has been “unlucky” all this while did not complain one bit. He also got one more with another moment of good luck when Dan Lawrence compounded England’s misery by strangling the ball to Pant’s gloves. Shami was fuller in length, straighter in line to induce many false shots but yielded no rewards in the first session of the day. The scoreboard will not dictate how he got those two wickets and that’s exactly the way natural justice works as scoreboards will also not dictate how brilliantly he bowled in the first session of the day. India’s move to play Shardul Thakur as the fourth seamer also paid dividends as he cut short the main bowlers’ task by taking two big wickets. Jasprit Bumrah reestablished that he was back with a vengeance when Sam Curran attempted to repeat his 2018 heroics with the bat. India’s inability to wipe off the tail has been well documented, and Bumrah made sure the first day of the series will not be a continuation of the same agonising journey. He switched to round the wicket angle and started bamboozling Broad with deliveries that swung away from the line of stumps. After beating him on numerous occasions, the pacer employed his famous trick—yorker to find Broad’s toe in front of the stumps. The master that Broad is of bowling unplayable deliveries to left-handers from round the wicket had taste of his own medicine as he gave himself out lbw after missing a toe-crusher from Bumrah. Indian pace attack led by Jasprit Bumrah, and aptly supported by Shami was well aware of the challenges they were to face. They were mindful of the problems they faced in the WTC final and as they have shown over the last few years, they were able to put all; those harsh lessons learnt into good effect to put England on the brink on the very first day of the series. There are many challenges remaining for them to win in the series, but the pace battery has started on a welcome note for Virat Kohli’s India and has rung alarm bells in the Joe Root-led England camp.

The Hundred | Paul Stirling replaces injured Devon Conway

After getting the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Cricket Ireland, their star opener Paul Stirling would now be participating in The Hundred, the newest format of cricket. Stirling will join Southern Brave to replace injured New Zealand batsman Devon Conway. The NOC was given to Stirling after Zimbabwe’s tour of Ireland was postponed due to Covid travel restrictions posed on the incoming guests by the United Kingdom government. Speaking on this occasion, Stirling said, "I've watched the first few rounds of The Hundred with great interest and am delighted to have been given this chance to be involved.” Brave, who have won their last two games might avail the services of the Irishman in their very next game on August 05 against the Manchester Originals away from home. Stirling is pumped up to join the Brave as well. "The Southern Brave team has been outstanding so far under James Vince, and I hope I can contribute to the ongoing success of the team," said the 30-year-old. Richard Holdsworth, High-Performance Director for Cricket Ireland was also excited about this opportunity for Stirling. "With the T20 World Cup approaching, the opportunity for one of our leading players to have an experience like this can only be beneficial," he said.

Manchester Originals vs Southern Brave: Where to watch Live, Probable XI, Fantasy XI details

Two high flyers of The Hundred will finally meet at Old Trafford when James Vince’s side Southern Brave will travel away from home to take on Carlos Brathwaite’s Manchester Originals. Both the sides have notched up victories in their last two games and hence have made this fight interesting considering that one of them will lose their winning run. With Buttler performing national duties, West Indian Brathwaite has taken over the reins at Originals while Devon Conway’s injury has forced him to be replaced by Irishman Paul Stirling. So in this battle of the heavyweights, the team that winning it would also go on top of the Points Table. Manchester Originals vs Southern Brave: Match Details Match Number- 19 Date and Time: 05 August, 2021, 11:00 pm IST, 06:30 pm Local, 05:30pm GMT Venue: Emirates Old Trafford Manchester, United Kingdom Live Stream: Fancode Pitch Report The pitch at Old Trafford has surprisingly been spin-friendly as the English summer has progressed. Therefore, another pitch where Matt Parkinson could utilise all his abilities might be waiting for the travelling Southern Brave. Weather Forecast According to BBC Weather, there are more than 50% chances of precipitation at the time of play at Old Trafford. However, the showers would remain light, so hopefully, audiences would be able to have a match at their hands. Manchester Originals Probable XI Philip Salt, Joe Clarke (wk), Colin Munro, Colin Ackermann, Tom Lammonby, Carlos Brathwaite (c), Calvin Harrison, Tom Hartley, Lockie Ferguson, Steven Finn, Matthew Parkinson Southern Brave Probable XI Quinton de Kock (wk), James Vince (c), Paul Stirling, Alex Davies, Ross Whiteley, Colin de Grandhomme, Chris Jordan, Liam Dawson, George Garton, Tymal Mills, Jake Lintott Fantasy XI Quinton de Kock, James Vince (c), Paul Stirling, Joe Clarke (wk), Colin Munro, Colin de Grandhomme, Carlos Brathwaite, Chris Jordan, Lockie Ferguson, Steven Finn, Matthew Parkinson Captain James Vince Vice-Captain Carlos Brathwaite

BAN vs AUS | Composed Afif and Nur-Ul-Hasan guide Tigers to victory over struggling Aussies

Yet another game, yet another composed innings from Afif Hossain, who is slowly turning into the much-desired finisher that Bangladesh has been looking for. Courtesy of his knock of unbeaten 37 off 31 balls, Bangladesh were able to chase down a tricky total of 122 to register victory over Aussies in the second match of the five-match series going on between the two sides at the Sher-E-Bangla Stadium in Dhaka. This was the second win for the Men in Green and Red after they defeated the Green and Gold in the first match of the series as well on Tuesday, August 03. With this victory, Bangladesh now leads the five-match series 2-0 and require just one win to clinch their first-ever series win against Australia in their cricketing history. Chasing a small but dodgy total on a low and double paced Dhaka wicket, the Tigers didn’t get off to a stellar start and lost their two openers at the score of 21 in the fourth over. Mahedi Hasan, who was promoted as a pinch hitter to bat at number four lived a lot many lives before finally getting stumped. Before his wicket, Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah Riyad had gotten out as well and with Mahedi’s dismissal, Bangladesh were staring at defeat at 67-5 before Afif Hossain partnered with wicket-keeper batsman Nur-Ul-Hasan. The duo added an unbeaten 56 off just 44 balls to take Bangladesh home, which looked really tough initially. 21-year-old Afif was adjudged Man of the Match for his efforts. Earlier in the evening, after winning the toss, the Australian skipper changed his decision from the previous game and decided to bat first seeing the condition of the wicket. However, the change in the decision did not translate into a change in fortunes for Wade’s team as they managed to score only 121 runs in trier 20 overs. Mitchell Marsh top-scored for Aussies with 45 off 42 balls while Moises Henriques scored 30 off 25 balls. Mustafizur Rahman was the pick of the bowlers for Bangladesh and finished with figures of 3-23 from his four overs. The two teams will now meet in the third match after a day’s break on Friday, August 06 at the same venue.