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Rampant New Zealand annihilate Australia in a lopsided decider

New Zealand comprehensively defeated Australia in the series decider at the Westpack Stadium in Wellington to clinch the five-match T20 series by a 3-2 margin. As the scoreline suggests, the series was closely fought between the two sides looking to try various team combinations on the road to the World T20 scheduled for later this year. New Zealand had made a brisk start in the series, winning the first two matches convincingly. But a tremendous Australian resurgence meant that the series was stretched to the final game. New Zealand needed players to turn up at the top of their marks with the series at stake (2-2), the players put their hands up to put Australia under pressure right from the start. The hosts were given a modest total of 143 to chase and clinch the series, but with Australian bowlers running riot in the last couple of games, the onus was on the faltering batting line up to see the Blackcaps through the finishing line. The hosts made a change in the batting order promoting Devon Conway to open the batting while Tim Seifert was shifted down the order. The decision to combine Conway and Martin Guptill must have baffled the Australian camp. The move paid off well for the hosts, and the duo started teeing off after taking some balls to settle their eyes in. Ashton Agar was handed the new ball by Finch in search of some spin available in the last game, but Guptill was in good enough form and mood to not allow him into a rhythm. The left-arm spinner was punished for his inaccuracies from his second over and the Blackcaps were up and running in the chase. The two Richardsons—Jhye and Kane were brought into the attack one by one, but the latter was treated by an in-form Guptill who punished him for being either too full or too short in the penultimate over of the only powerplay. The newest entrant into the talent-rich pool of the Australian pacers—Riley Meredith has been impressive all series with his consistent pace, but Finch needed some wickets out of him in the powerplay to shift the game towards Australia. The young man failed to put pressure on batsmen as Devon Conway took a liking to him and deposited him for a boundary and a six to end a perfect powerplay for the hosts. Adam Zampa was introduced into the attack after the powerplay on a pitch that had little grip and bounce, but the treatment dished out to him was not any different from others. If Australia were not concerned by Guptill’s way of batting up until that point, Zampa’s next over brought a carnage for them. Guptill started the over with a signature no-look shot that landed at the roof of the Westpac Stadium and followed it by another no-look slog sweep and a big six down the ground to bring up a superlative fifty from just 33 balls. Guptill came into the series with questions marks over his fitness and lack of runs for a prolonged period of time. Not only did he pass the fitness test, but he also repaid the faith of Williamson and Garry Stead in matches that followed. The innings in the decider would give him confidence and ease the nerves of Kiwi think tank going into the T20 World Cup. Guptill's batting partner today, Devon Conway was rewarded with a promotion given the poor returns from Seifert. He was calculative in his batting but never for once slowed down after he got into his groove. With the openers not playing any false shots, Finch was running out of options and once again looked towards Meredith. The Hurricanes bowler took the white ball in the 12th over and dismissed both Conway and Williamson on back to back deliveries. Williamson, in particular, was once again hurried by the speedster, something that has emerged out to be the theme in this series. However, the task was steep for the tourists as the required run rate was already cut down to size by the opening partnership of Guptill and Conway, and whatever left was completed very competently by Glenn Phillips who made no fuss about the pressure of series-decider. Earlier, Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to put the runs on board with a revamped batting order where the vice-captain Matthew Wade was shunted down the order after four failures in the series for an enterprising and exuberant Josh Philippe. The move though did not pay off immediately for the tourists as an accurate Trent Boult had done his homework on Philippe’s shuffling across to the off side and trapped him plumb with the one coming in. Although the first part of the revamping did not work, Matthew Wade’s shift to number three worked well both for him and the team as the left-hander found some rhythm going from the first few balls he faced. Along with Finch, Wade started the resurrection work for Australia with some crisp shots over the in-field. The batsmen were finding boundaries periodically but were not dominant enough to put real pressure on the bowling attack. The hosts knew the Australian captain and vice-captain was not taking the game away from them, however, there was an imminent threat of onslaught in the later half of the innings. Realising they were not going at a rapid rate and lack of momentum with the bat, Finch called time on his cautious batting and put the leg spinner Ish Sodhi to the sword in his second over, and hit him for two boundaries. Sodhi was economical in his first over and it prompted Finch to attack him, and the spinner was lucky enough to see the back of the Australian skipper with a short one that deserved to be punished. At the halfway point, Australia were 74/2 and it was a perfect platform for the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis to go big and put a real bug score on the scoreboard. However, inconsistency and Maxwell remained best friends as the all-rounder found a fielder stationed on the square leg boundary off a full toss from Mark Chapman. Here, one thing that needs to be mentioned is how Kane Williamson marshalled his troops with the series on the line. Playing with five proper bowlers in the game (Sodhi, Santner, Boult, Southee and Neesham), captain Kane did not give the ball to Neesham. He rather chose to give a couple of overs to rookie Mark Chapman and wicket-keeper Glenn Phillips. The move worked and the lack of pace completely halted the Aussie momentum. Despite the pressure, Wade worked through the Kiwi bowling and got boundaries whenever options were available. Trent Boult was brought back in the 15th over and dismissed Wade with a knuckle ball to push Australia significantly back from the path of a big score. Stoinis was keeping his shape and Australia in the game with periodic hits over the boundaries, but Sodhi’s best for the night was yet to come. The leg spinner came back in his third over and accounted for both Stoinis and Ashton Agar to crush all the hopes of an Australian big score in the series decider. However, one has to say that it is quite rare that back to back full tosses are miscued by quality batsmen in the world. Mitchell Marsh was left to do it all alone, and he could not become a hero for the Aussies to save them from the prospect of not having too many runs to put New Zealand under pressure. For his fantastic 77 with the bat in an all-important series decider, Martin Guptill was adjudged Man of the Match while consistent good performances with the ball across the five-match series earned Ish Sodhi Man of the Series award.

Covid-19 may push WTC finals between Ind-NZ out of Lord’s

The World Test Championships might not be played at the iconic Lord’s Stadium in London. The International Cricket Council (ICC) is said to be in a discussion with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to finalise the venue for the June event. Quoting ICC sources, The Times of India wrote that the ICC are not banking Lord's to be the venue for the Test Championship finals. "The ICC’s medical board after discussions with ECB advisers will come to the final conclusions,” the report stated. “The ICC could go the way of ECB and might host the final at one of the two venues used by ECB for the English summer last year,” the source told TOI. In such circumstances, out of the two venues in Manchester and Southampton, the latter has a greater preference because of the huge presence of the South Asian community in the area and ICC planning to allow some amount audience for the game. Southampton cricket boss Rod Bransgrove confirmed to Cricbuzz that the availability of Ageas Bowl had been discussed by ICC. "I can't give much information apart from the fact that there has been discussion about it," he said. "I can say we have been asked to stage it and also inquired if Southampton is available. I don't know if anything has been finally decided as yet," Bransgrove added. Indian team clinched the remaining spot for the final of the inaugural edition of WTC after defeating England 3-1 in their four-match home Test series. The Virat Kohli-led team will meet New Zealand, which finished second on the WTC Points Table at the end of the two year’s window from 2019 to 2021. The final was initially slated to be played at Lord’s, but pandemic has now changed the course of the event. The match is scheduled to be played between 18-22 June.

4th Test Report: Axar-Ashwin blow England away to lead India into WTC Final

India scripted a fantastic come back in the series after being outplayed in the first Test of the series to achieve that all feared and expected before the series began in Chennai on February 05. India won the last game of the series by an innings and 25 runs to snatch the lead and the Anthony de Mello Trophy from England, and also booked a spot for themselves in the World Test Championship at Lord’s in June. At the start of the third day, the writing was on the wall for the tourists and the unbeaten duo at the end of the third day’s play—Axar Patel and Washington Sundar made sure they did not get any opening to come back in the game. They extended the overnight lead of 89 runs to 160 runs as England dropped their shoulders way earlier than they themselves would’ve expected. Washington Sundar missed out on a much-deserving hundred—his second in this series, as he was left stranded by the bowlers-batsmen around him, but he already did enough to put India in a position to allow them to boss the game. England were under the pump and Kohli did not fail to read what other analysts could read from away from the ground and unleashed their tormentor-in-chief in the form of Axar Patel right from the second over, while Siraj was tasked to search some help off the surface as he did in the first innings. After Siraj could not find anything from the surface or in the air, Kohli brought Ashwin from the other end, to unleash all of India’s might with the ball against England batsmen who were already back in the UK in their head. Crawley was flummoxed by a delivery that turned viciously, and he committed the cardinal and perpetual sin all batsmen have been guilty of committing to a delivery that went straight on and India were up and running in the afternoon session. The next man in Jonny Bairstow had looked improving in his game in the first innings, but his development was short-lived. Axar Patel has been all over him in the two games he played, but Ashwin was the man for India today and he played with his mind with an extra closing-in fielder at the leg slip position. Ashwin bowled his delivery perfectly to that well-laid plan and Bairstow—showing signs of a batsman already dismissed in his mind—guided that gently spinning ball into the hands of Rohit Sharma to walk away probably for the last time for England in Test matches for another duck. When you are desperate for runs, and not finding it easy to take on the bowlers who have had an upper hand against you, luck too starts disowning you at the wrong times, and Sibley must have realised today that the whole universe has gone against him. He smashed a sweep shot directly into the thigh of Shubma Gill at short leg and Pant was eager for the rebound to send the English opener back to the pavilion with a helpless look on his face. The senior pros in Joe Root and Ben Stokes have had to face many such phases in this series, and more than not in the last two Tests, they have failed to live up to the expectations and could not raise their game. Maybe Stokes found that Axar will be unplayable for him, and hence he attempted to put some pressure back on the left-arm spinner. He attempted a scoop, more in hope than in his decisiveness to counter Axar’s threat, but could not time it well enough and Kohli was more than ecstatic to snaffle the catch to send another wave of panic into the England dressing room. Root has been hailed as the best player of spin bowling among England batsmen and was looking good to establish himself once again. He was nimble-footed and was quick to adjust according to length, but twice in this game, he was guilty of playing from the backfoot to deliveries he should come forward to defend. Ashwin beat him in the air and he played for the trajectory, not for the length and gave himself out after missing the ball. It was a bizarre scene in the middle as Root considered himself as plumb, but Ashwin thought it could have spun past the leg stump, and the England skipper took a review in hope of surviving but left leaving his team in disarray along with a review. What pundits from England have been seeking is an improvement from the younger players and the duo of Ollie Pope and Dan Lawrence sent a good signal about their skillset and temperament. Pope was not getting stuck in the crease and instead was aggressive to punish the loose balls. For his bad luck though, Axar was too accurate, and he turned to be attempting one shot too many to give Rishabh Pant to weave his magic behind the stumps, after a magical innings with the bat on the second day. Ben Foakes who has been one of the best England batsmen on spinning pitches in the last two games was not good enough to keep Axar defending and one delivery finally took the edge of his bat to reach Ajinkya Rahane at the first slip, although India’s vice-captain looked less assured of having caught that than Ben Stokes’ catch which he claimed. England were doomed even before the start of the third day’s play after they let India off the hook and the partnership with Rishabh ant and Washington Sundar took away all their spirit and heart out of their game. If anything was left there to be feasted upon, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar took off from the same point Pant left had left the crease from, albeit with a very low intensity of onslaught. England started off the series well and gave India a proper headache and what the head coach Ravi Shastri told in his interview with the host broadcaster a ‘kick in the backside’, but the prospect of an Indian comeback was never far away. It took a bad loss in the first Test to shake off the Indian team after the incredible heist in Australia, but the Indian team how they have been on their home soil in the last few years came roaring back in the series. Rohit Sharma turned out to be the best batsman for the hosts in the series and shut down all the calls around his place in the team. Virat Kohli rated his 161 in the second Test very highly and credited him for setting the tone for an Indian comeback, followed by Ashwin and Axar’s heroics with the ball. Axar Patel took 27 wickets in the last three Tests at a staggering average of 10.59 runs per wicket while Ashwin scalped 32 wickets at 14.71 runs per wicket. Ashwin was adjudged man of the series for his important contributions with the bat, along with dominating bowling performances and the off-spinner established his credentials as the biggest match-winner for India on home soil with his eights man of the series award. England could not find a way to cope up with the challenges the Indian spinners and the pitches threw at them and ended the series in a familiar sight of letting go of the series after a dominating start.

PSL's return might clash with IPL

Pakistan have been forced to indefinitely postpone their premier franchise T20 tournament, the Pakistan Super League, two years in a row. With as many as seven players contracting Covid-19 since 27 February, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) faced a row of criticism for the mismanagement of bio-bubble. ESPNCricinfo reported on Saturday, March 6, that given the packed calendar and ICC’s headliner T20 tournament this year, PCB are looking to complete PSL by the end of May, the only window that might be available to them. The last few days have been intense at the PSL with local media attacking the board over the relaxation in bio-security standards. Even former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq asked as to how people are freely entering and leaving the bubble as they please. PCB CEO Wasim Khan stated that the board at the moment is making sure that the players can exit the tournament safely, but they want to continue and finish the PSL, something the managed to do last year. "It's firmly our belief that we will continue to aim to do that and find a window at a later date. We had to deal with a minor breach at the beginning and we've done everything we possibly could. But with any assumptions for a bio-secure bubble, it takes partnerships, it takes discipline, it takes self policing. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do that effectively enough, and that is why we find ourselves in this situation." Khan told Cricinfo. After two players and a support staff returned positive post the first round of testing, PCB sat with the owners of the franchise to discuss if they would like to carry on with the league. Safe to say they lost the confidence of the players and the owners in the next couple of days with the likes of Dan Christian flying out of the country. Reflecting on the same, Khan stated that they would need to earn the trust back and learn from their mistakes. "If you really want to carve out a window, you can. But we have got a lot of cricket happening. You'll have to think of player welfare, too. There are windows we'll explore with the franchises to make this work. Trust will need to be built, there needs to be better partnerships to ensure everyone plays their part in policing this environment." Khan added.