SL vs BAN | Sharjah similar to Dhaka: Bangladesh coach banks on skilful bowlers and dangerous batters

WBBL 2021 | Sophie Devine lights up the tournament, becomes second Kiwi to hit a century

Sophie Devine became the second New Zealand woman after Rachel Priest to score a century in the 2021 edition of the Women’s Big Bash League. The Kiwi women lit up the Sunday after a gloomy Saturday ruined the first day of a bumper weekend. Devine’s 101 off 59 balls was the reason that Perth Scorchers Women got to 186-2 in their 20 overs. Devine, who has scored two WBBL centuries already in previous editions of the league has now become only the second woman after Australian Alyssa Healy to score three or more centuries in the Australian domestic women’s T20 league. Healy has four to her name. Winning the toss, Sydney Thunder skipper Hannah Darlington decided to field first at Aurora Stadium in Launceston, Tasmania and would go on to regret it massively as the Scorchers Women pair of skipper Devine and experienced Beth Mooney added 173 for the first wicket, the second-highest partnership in the history of the tournament and the highest for Perth Scorchers Women. Devine, who started thunderously went on to play like that as she hit her fifty in 32 balls. But instead of resting, the 32-year-old kept marching and brought up her second fifty in just 26 balls, and thereby got to her third hundred in just 58 balls. While Mooney got out in the 19th over at the score of 62 from 54 balls, Devine too perished on the second ball of the 20th over. But with help of Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu’s 12 off six balls, the team eventually got to 186-2 in its 20 overs. In reply to that, Sydney Thunder Women were struggling at 60-4 in the 13th over at the time of writing this. Earlier in the day, in another game where Brisbane Heat were up against Adelaide strikers, Darcie Brown of the strikers picked up the first hattrick of the season as she dismissed Georgia Redmayne, Ellie Johnston and Laura May Kimmince on the fourth, fifth and sixth deliveries of the sixth over. However, that come to nothing as Heat eventually win the 11 overs a side game by five runs.

T20 World Cup | Stuttering Kiwis not the biggest challenge, but count them out at your own risk

It has not been smooth sailing for the New Zealand team, post their tour cancellation against Pakistan early this September. Individually for players too, it wasn’t a great going barring Lockie Ferguson, who too lost his shape in the IPL final and a one-match wonder Jimmy Neesham. Kyle Jamieson was not part of his XI, Tim Southee did good in the chances he got, but not brilliantly well enough to keep his spot in the team and captain Kane Williamson had troubles of his own. Thus to assume that much like their glories of the past where they have been able to make it to the last four stages of four out the last five ICC events since 2015, they would make it to the semis here too, might be a gross misjudgement even when they are in probably the lightest or weakest Super 12 group ever. There are reasons for this argument. Major challenges Kane Williamson's form and fitness big worry Willaimson in his last 10 innings has been able to get past the 50 run landmark only once. Although the saying, ‘form is temporary and class is permanent’ was developed primarily for someone like him, but the fact that it is not just the form that he is suffering from makes the Kiwi campaign look all the more gloomy. The 31-year-old has been nursing an elbow injury for quite some time now and carrying it to the World Cup, where one more aggravation to it could most probably end the campaign for him (worst-case scenario, if it happens in a big game, his team’s too). Hence it has now become a risky affair for the team, which till August, before their Bangladesh tour was touted to be among the top three contenders for the trophy. Picking a suitable XI Williamson’s fitness and form are not the only challenges that the Blackcaps are facing. Picking a suitable XI for UAE wickets is another challenge that they would have to negate, which could very well mean deviating from their four-pronged pace attack, which is also probably their biggest strength. Now they would look to play two spinners in games that would not involve Pakistan and most probable Afghanistan as even Indians sem to struggle against left-arm and leg-spin which Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi bowl respectively. Thus either among Kyle Jamieson or Trent Boult, depending on the form of the players would have to make way for two spinners to play together. Spinning wickets While New Zealand have spinners who are capable of playing spin but do they have batters who are capable of tacking spin, especially the spin that three Asian nations in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan will bring in on the dry pitches of the Emirates? That’s a million dollars question given the fact how Phillips, Neesham and even Williamson to an extent struggled in the recent IPL. Devon Conway and Tim Seifert, the two players that the Kiwis would be banking on in a huge way have not been prolific against spin either and if Warm-up matches are a criterion to go by since these players have not played in UAE so far, then the Blackcaps might be in for a huge surprise in their matches at Sharjah and Abu Dhabi against Pakistan and Afghanistan. Then does it mean that everything is going bad for the Kiwis? Don’t they have anything to hang on to? All-rounders: A huge strength Here comes their biggest strength. The team is brimming with people who can contribute with both bat and ball in the same game. Be it Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Santner, Jamieson or even Southee and Sodhi, all of them are capable of hitting 20-30 runs in a game and then rolling over their arm to bowl 3-4 overs, giving skipper Williamson a lot of variety in the attack. Even the ones who might not make it to the playing XI such as Mark Chapman and Todd Astle are more than capable enough all-rounders in the shortest format of the game. Thus along with the big-hitting abilities of Phillips and Nesham, the inning-anchoring abilities of Conway and Willaimson and the wicket-taking abilities of Boult and Southee, it is the all-rounders that would be key to the Kiwi success in this World Cup. Squad Kane Williamson (c), Todd Astle, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee Probable XI Devon Conway, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson (c), Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert (wk), Jimmy Neesham, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult Recent form and UAE experience As a team ew Zealand haven’t really played much cricket since the World Test Championship. The team that did play five T20Is in Bangladesh is totally different from the one playing this World Cup. Hence the only standards of judging are the team form is the warm-up games where they were good enough against Australia, but eventually lost courtesy a Mitchell Starc special with the bat, bit against England their batting was exposed, although late blows from Astle and Sodhi made the picture look less worrisome at the end. But being 103-8 in only the 13th over in a T20 game is something to really worry about. The Kiwi team has not played much T20I cricket in UAE and of the seven matches that they have played against Pakistan from 2009 to 2018, the Blackcaps have lost six of them, meaning that they are not really good at winning when it comes to UAE. But all that could change if their key players fire at the right time. Players to look out for Devon Conway The 30-year-old South Africa born has had a stellar record in the shortest format of the game averaging at almost 60 in the 14 games that he has so far played for the Blackcaps. He has a strike rate of more than 150 and the best score of unbeaten 99 and with four fifties in his kitty, he is the batter that no bowler would like to face and every team would like to have. Although his recent form has not been that great with him accumulating only 203 runs in his last nine T20 innings, one which was a 70*, but given the fact that South Africans playing for other nations such as Custis Camphor for Ireland and Chris Greaves for Scotland have done amazingly well in this World Cup, the Kiwi supporters down under would be hoping that he might be in the same line. Ish Sodhi The biggest bowling asset for the New Zealand team would be their leg spinner, Ish Sodhi. He has had a lot of experience now since he last played the shortest format World Cup in 2016 and the accuracy of his deliveries have gotten better over the years as well. Even in the last warm-up game, the leggie took 3-26 to restrict England under 170. In his last 10 games, the Ludhiana born Aucklander has 12 wickets to his name and his economy has been below seven making it a great prospect for the Kiwis to play him all games. His partnership with Santner could well be the deciding factor on whether the Blackcaps will move to Semi-Finals or not. How far can they go? Based on the current form and the competition that they have in their group, the biggest battle that the Kiwis will face would be in Sharjah against Pakistan in their very first game. If they are able to succeed in it they might as well get to the semi-final and if not, it would be very difficult for them to beat India thereafter. However considering that they always pull a surprise or two in ICC events, counting them out just yet wouldn’t be a wise piece of advice.

Tim Paine vying to play for Tasmania to regain full fitness before Ashes series

Australia skipper Tim Paine is striving hard to get back to full fitness before the home Ashes series is scheduled to start early December this year. He underwent surgery on his neck and said that will resume wicketkeeping training from coming Tuesday. He is working hard to play for Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield tournament to assess his recovery from the operation and ensure full match readiness for the series. "I had a little bit of a hit on the bowling machine (on Thursday)," he told SEN. "Tuesday next week is pretty much the six-week mark (since surgery), where I can start to look up, which is obviously a key part of wicketkeeping. If I squat down, I need to be able to tilt my head up so I can see the ball coming. Hopefully, I'll get the all-clear on Tuesday and I can start wicketkeeping practice, albeit a pretty low intensity for a week or two.” "But I'm looking to hopefully play in a second XI game for Tasmania in mid-November and a Sheffield Shield game after that so that will give me a decent lead-in of two or three weeks of proper cricket before the first Test." The Ashes series holds a monumental place in Paine’s career as this could well be his swansong from international cricket. He would certainly love to leave the international stage on a high, particularly after losing the last home series to India last summer. Notably, Paine was elevated to the leadership of the Australia Test team in the aftermath of the ball-tampering saga in the Newlands Test between South Africa in 2018. He has led Australia to an Ashes retaining series away from home in 2019 but the series loss to India last summer has somewhat spoilt his legacy and he would be desperate to correct all of that with an Ashes triumph later this year.

T20 World Cup | Countering setbacks, restoring belief, this is more than just a tournament for Pakistan

At times, it takes a small obstacle to instigate an individual or a team and provide them with much-needed inspiration. AND Pakistan got that, days before the beginning of the World T20 2021, courtesy New Zealand and England. The Blackcaps and the English side had cancelled their respective tours to the Asian nation citing security concerns. The two teams faced a lot of heat for their decision. PCB’s new chairman Rameez Raja was so furious that he went on to say that apart from India, Pakistan will also target New Zealand and England in the World Cup. "We go in the World Cup now and where we had one team in our target - our neighbours India, they now add two more teams - New Zealand and England. So pick up the strength and develop a mindset that we are not going to lose because you didn't do right by us with us and we will avenge that in the ground," ESPNcricinfo quoted Raja as saying. So, here they are, apart from India, Pakistan do have New Zealand in their group and will lock horns with them on Tuesday (October 26, 2021) in Sharjah. Well, this is about the fixture but the important question is, is this mindset and approach good? Probably yes, probably no. The fans would be affirmative about this thinking while the pundits would contradict it and rightly so. Taking a few things on the chin and turning it around for yourself is a positive aspect but targeting just two or three teams in a global tournament is surely not a way to the right path. But we can still give that “benefit of doubt” to Rameez Raja as the board had to go through some major losses. Here is the time for the Pakistan unit to take up the onus and turn the tables for themselves. So, here we look at how this Pakistan squad looks like, what are their strengths and weaknesses. Babar Azam: The batsman There was a viral meme which had two pictures in a collage form that read “art & artist” and if we had to make something similar in cricket in the past few months, this would probably have “batting & Babar Azam” in it. The right-handed batsman has been in sublime form and has been among runs. Whether it’s the international fixtures or Pakistan’s National T20 tournament, Babar has been in great touch but there is a huge issue here that needs to be fixed. This glitch is Pakistan captain’s scoring rate. He has the ability to get his eye in and score a good amount of runs at the top but the striking rate puts the other batters under the pump. The team management and Babar himself would need to fix this up or alternatively can play the role of anchor who carries the bat through the innings and let the other batters go all guns blazing. Plenty of all-rounders & leaders Pakistan have two of the most experienced all-rounders in Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik in their line up. It’s not just about how many runs can these two players chip in with or how many wickets they can take, it’s much more than that. It’s about how much knowledge they bring to the table considering the amount of cricket that these two players have played around the globe especially in the T20 format. Apart from these two, the unit also has the services of Imad Wasim and vice captain Shadab Khan. While Imad has some captaincy experience as he has led Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League, Shadab is considered to be one of the finest fielders that Pakistan have ever seen and he can set an example for the other players in the field. With Malik and Hafeez being the ex-skippers of the national side and Imad and Rizwan who have the experience of leading PSL franchises, the on ground planning can become much easier for Babar Azam. Presence of Sarfaraz Ahmed The wicket-keeper batsman Sarafraz Ahmed might not find a place in the final XI considering Rizwan being there but the former skipper is one of the most successful Pakistan captains. He has led the U19 team to a World Cup win and the senior side to the Champions Trophy triumph, beating India on both the occasions. This goes without saying that a captain who has won an ICC tournament has a lot to offer even if he doesn’t take the field. MS Dhoni is probably the best example of this. So, Sarfaraz can chip in with some ideas that might help the think tank make better plans against a particular team and his presence in the dugout would make a lot of difference. Aggressive stroke-makers Pakistan have an equipped batting armour and this became much evident during their practice match against South Africa where Fakhar Zaman and later Asif Ali hammered the Proteas bowling all around the park. Zaman in fact notched up a fifty during the course. So, Pakistan at the moment have much more depth in their batting order which would make life tough for the opponents. Moreover, they have the batsmen who possess the ability of taking on any bowling line up on their given day. A lot would depend on Fakhar Zaman as well as he has the experience of opening the innings. So, if a wicket falls early, he will have the responsibility to building the innings from scratch and if the side gets a steady start, the left-hander’s task would be to capitalise on it. Bowling: A new found concern Pakistan generally fancy their chances on their bowling but the team management would have taken a back after South Africa batsmen unleashed an onslaught against them. Despite picking up early wickets, Pakistan were not able to defend a target of 187 runs in 20 overs. With the likes of pacers like Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali, the fans would expect their team to defend such a formidable total. But that’s not the end of the story. The think tank can rejig the strategies and come up with better plans. Pakistan will begin the campaign against India in Dubai on october 24, 2021.