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Wtc Win Meant A Lot To Us Says Retired Wicket Keeper Batsman Bj Watling

WTC win meant a lot to us says retired wicket-keeper batsman BJ Watling

Former New Zealand wicket-keeper batsman BJ Watling played his farewell Test against India in the ICC World Test Championship Final and what better way to bid adieu to international cricket with a word title under his belt. The Blackcaps thrashed the most successful team in the two years WTC cycle by 8 wickets to win their second ICC title after a wait for more than two decades.

Watling who played an influential role in reinventing New Zealand’s lost ground in the traditional format ended his Test career with 75 Tests and 3790 runs in his career. He played quite a few stellar knocks for the national team and remained a rock behind the wickets since making his Test debut back in 2009. Having started his career as an opener, Watling finished as the most capped wicket-keeper batsman from the country.

Reflecting on a historic moment in Southampton earlier this week, Watling said that without a shade of doubt the WTC win meant a lot to the New Zealanders. Watling battled pain in his final Test and decided to carry on his keeping duties despite dislocating his finger.

"You could see that it meant a lot to the New Zealanders. You could kind of see the smiles on their faces underneath their masks and that everyone seemed to be pretty excited that we had managed to bring it home,” Watling was quoted as saying by Stuff.co.nz.

Over the last few years, New Zealand have become one of the finest Test sides across the world and Watling played a substantial role in the transformation. Watling was asked to present the caps to the players ahead of the WTC final as it was his farewell game. Even Indian skipper Virat Kohli paid a tribute to him while coming out to bat on the final day of the Test match.

"It just talks about teamwork and what it means to be involved in a team and that it's not just the team, it's about everyone involved. We have a fantastic group of support staff and players and in this competition, the way it's worked out, there's been a number of players that have played games over the two-year period that weren't actually there, so it sort of just alluded to things like that,” Watling said.

Tom Blundell who has been around the New Zealand Test circuit for a while now will replace Watling in the Test XI and Watling has high hopes from the swashbuckling stumper.

"I think we all know Tom is prepared and ready to go. He's already scored two fantastic hundreds and in the game that he played against England over here, his keeping was excellent.

"It's not easy over here with the Duke ball moving around, and he did an outstanding job and took some excellent catches. I have full faith in Tom. I think he's hungry, and he's ready to go,” Watling concluded.

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Misbah-ul-Haq hoping to solve the middle order woes in tour of England and West Indies

Head coach of the Pakistan national cricket team Misbah-ul-Haq is trying to focus on a couple of middle-order positions ahead of the T20 World Cup and the series against England and world champions in this format West Indies will serve as a dress rehearsal for them to get things in order and shuffle the batting order around to see which might work for them in the future. Pakistan who landed in UK a couple of days ago has enough time in their hand to set things rolling before the showpiece event slated for November-December this year. They will play three ODIs and as many T20s against England and will then fly to the Caribbean shores to lock horns against England in a five-match T20I series. "The PSL made a few things clear," Misbah was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz on Sunday (June 27). "I think it is that one slot we are trying to fill, at No. 5 and No. 6, that we've had issues with. We have Azam Khan now and Sohaib Maqsood with us to see if they can, and what combination we can make with them,” he added. It must be noted that ever since Misbah took over the reins as the head coach of the national side as many as fourteen players have been tried in those two middle-order positions. With Azam Khan and Shoaib Maqsood coming in the mix, they will certainly look to make these two positions their own as Pakistan prepare for the World Cup. "Overall, the bowling we know we have pretty much our attack. At the top of the order, we have our four pretty much and their replacements. So, we know our side more or less but a couple of positions that we need to focus on over the next two series,” Misbah said. Despite not having a productive time with the bat in the PSL, Azam Khan was selected on the basis of his past performances while Shoaib Maqsood returned to the national squad after a long hiatus owing to a rich vein of form during the recently concluded PSL. He scored 428 runs in the tournament but prefers batting in the top order. "We try that whatever players we have here are fully prepared and that we show confidence in them so they go out there and perform. Azam no doubt is talented although he is a little out of form recently. But everyone knows that in modern T20 cricket, the power you need at five or six, the strike rate you need, he has the potential for that. So, looking forward to seeing him, we just have to see what combination we want to go with,” Misbah stated. Pakistan had to select the team for both the international series before the resumption of the second leg of PSL. Had they got a chance to analyse the recent performances, Shahnawaz Dhani had a realistic chance of making it to the squad after finishing the tournament as the leading wicket-taker with 20 scalps under his belt. "It's always a good thing that the maximum number of players are in good form and in a good frame of mind. But you learn from cricket that it doesn't matter when you have good form and runs and you still don't perform. And sometimes you're not in good form but you come with more focus, you try harder to recapture that form. "One good thing is we have time. We have ODIs first, so we can utilise that time and then be properly prepared as we go into the T20s. Form is not something that sticks with you permanently or goes away permanently. As coaching staff and players you try and get that back and we have enough time to do it,” Misbah concluded.

ENG W vs IND W | India concede 181 dot balls in a timid display of conservative batting

The Indian Women team reached 201/ 8 in their 50 overs at County Ground, Bristol and that too thanks to some late hitting by skipper Mitahli Raj. However, if it comes to the dissection of the innings, the Indian skipper cannot get away just because she played some nice shots at the end. At one point in time, she and Punam Raut just choked the Indian batting scoring at even below three runs per over. They were the main reasons why Team India played 181 dot balls. It is 30 overs of dot balls, meaning that India scored its 201 runs in the remaining 119 deliveries only. The team started its innings in a brilliant manner with Shafali Verma playing in her usual way. But once she and her partner Smiriti Mandahna got out, Punam and Raj together played 94 balls to add only 56 runs. When Punam got out, it was followed by the wicket of Harmanpreet as well and suddenly India were 84-4 in the 28th over. At the same time, Mitlai was playing on 21 from 57 balls, striking at less than 40. If not for Deepti Sharma’s intent, India would have been looking at a much lower total. Not denying the fact that Mitlai did manage to crawl her way back and eventually ended her innings with a strike rate of above 65, still, the internet from the Indian team was lacking. On the other, England Women have been dominant ever since the start of the game. At the time of writing this, they were 114-2 in just 22 overs, scoring over five runs an over, even when the required run rate was just four runs per over.

Can’t comment on its longevity: Rahul Dravid on two team system

The Covid-19 and mandatory quarantine have forced cricket boards across the world to consider a different set of players to play in different series and to address the Future Tour Programme. This has meant that India would be sending a totally different team than the one currently present in England. The players on the Sri Lanka tour will be coached by Rahul Dravid and he feels that this system of different teams playing different series can continue in the short term. “This is a unique situation, quarantines and stuff. It’s very hard to predict what’s going to happen even on a month on month basis. But at this point in time, when travel between countries is a challenge, at least in the short term, something like this might have to be followed. India probably had no option but to do this,” Dravid said in a press conference that was organised before the Indian team left for the Lankan shores. The former India captain and coach of the India U-19 and A teams over the last few years, Dravid also feels that it is not a long term solution as too many stakeholders are involved in running cricket and getting all of them on board would be very difficult. “I’m not really sure if this is a long term solution. There are a lot of stakeholders, going to involve boards, sponsors, media rights… so much goes into all of this. But in the short term, this will ease the pressure,” he said. “It’s getting difficult for the same set of players to go through all the restrictions that are there currently. In the long term, it will need a lot more discussion,” Dravid added. The Indian team would be playing only thee three T20Is ahead of the World Cup in October-November this year. All these T20Is would be played on this tour of Sri Lanka which begins on July 13 in Colombo. Thus, for players to make a mark, it would be one last opportunity before the IPL starts in September. “We have a couple of selectors travelling with us, we’ll interact with them. Had a little bit of contact with the management in England. We didn’t want to disturb them during the WTC final, so will touch base with them over the next couple of weeks and plan,” Dravid said.

Sri Lanka fans start unfollowing cricketers after series whitewash against England

After facing an embarrassing 89 runs defeat at the hands of England in the final T20I thus succumbing to a 0-3 whitewash, the Sri Lankan fans expressed their disappointment by launching a campaign to boycott their players on social media platforms. Barring the second encounter where they got a sniff courtesy their brilliant bowling performance, the visitors never looked like seizing the initiative in any part of the three games. This is Sri Lank’s fifth consecutive series loss in this format. With the hashtag #unfollowcricketers trending on Facebook on Sunday, several Sri Lankan fans unfollowed the pages of vice-captain Kusal Mendis and opening batsman Dhanushka Gunathilaka which was confirmed by the newscenter.lk website. "The aim of the campaign is to unfollow failed Sri Lankan cricketers from their verified profiles on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter," the website said. Several fans also shared memes across social media circles urging fans to stop watching the national team on television following one of their worst performances ever in the English soil. "Don't let them have the social media attention if they can't perform for the national team. They do not deserve massive fan bases,” said a twitter user. While there wasn’t any reaction from the senior Sri Lankan players but the fans lashing at out the players were quite understandable given the current form of the Lankan side and the rich history they boast of. There was no immediate reaction from any of the senior players, but some observers posted that the latest performance in England was one of the team's worst in three decades. "I have been watching cricket matches since 1993 but I have never seen such a weak Sri Lankan cricket team. They can’t hit the ball,” sports reporter Manjula Basnayake wrote on her Twitter handle. Sri Lanka will look to redeem themselves when they meet England in the first of the three ODIs slated to be played at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday.