Middlesex’s runners-up spot in the Championship was a fine effort but it was a sharp contrast to their dismal form in the NatWest Blast – something the signing of Brendon McCullum can help to address

David Hopps02-Apr-2016Director of cricket: Angus Fraser
Captain: Adam Voges (Champ), Dawid Malan (T20), James Franklin (50)
Last season
In: James Fuller (Gloucestershire)
Out: Neil Dexter (Leicestershire), Gurjit Sandhu (released), Harry Podmore (Glamorgan – loan)
Overseas: Adam Voges, Brendon McCullum (T20), Mitchell McClenaghan (T20)
2015 in a nutshell
Judgement on Middlesex’s season in 2015 depends on which competition you care about most. They had a redoubtable Championship season, finishing second to Yorkshire, sustained by James Harris (69 wickets) with the ball and Nick Compton with the bat. Their limited-overs cricket, though, was dire, with a bottom finish in South Group for the second successive year testing their supporters’ patience in the NatWest Blast.2016 prospects
Middlesex have turned to New Zealand to address their failures in T20 cricket, winning the race for Brendon McCullum, whose desire they will hope has not been tempered by international retirement, and the pace bowling skills of Mitchell McClenaghan. Dawid Malan, unfortunate not to sneak into England’s T20 squad, is a heavy runscorer now asked to turn things around as captain. In the Championship, Middlesex can again hope for a top-three finish. James Fuller strengthens seam bowling stocks, Ravi Patel needs to impose his left-arm slows in all formats and a big season with the bat for Sam Robson would make them a tough Division One side to beat.Key player
If Middlesex have a pressing need to improve their Twenty20 form, it is fair enough to ask what game-changing contribution Eoin Morgan, England’s T20 captain, is going to make. Morgan made only one half-century in 10 outings in 2015 (he has only made three in 41 in IPL) and Middlesex will hope this time he returns from Sunrisers Hyderabad with his confidence high.Bright young thing
Max Holden has yet to make his county debut but Middlesex have been so taken by his batting potential that they have lavished a four-year contract upon him. A left-handed opening batsman who admires Alastair Cook and is said to share his desire to succeed, if not his height: he is 5ft 8ins tall.ESPNcricinfo verdict
Middlesex and Warwickshire are the two counties most likely to scupper Yorkshire’s ambitions for a hat-trick of Championship titles. Their 20-over cricket must surely improve.Bet365 odds: Specsavers Championship, Div 1: 15/2; NatWest Blast n/a; Royal London Cup 12/1

Sri Lanka Cricket has launched a ‘Super Under-19 Provincial Tournament’ to function as a sturdy link between schools cricket and senior cricket

Andrew Fidel Fernando12-Apr-2016Sri Lanka Cricket has launched a ‘Super Under-19 Provincial Tournament’ to function as a sturdy link between schools cricket and senior cricket. The tournament will be contested between ten teams over three weeks, starting from April 19. Each side will play four two-day matches in the group stage, before the leaders in each group progress to a three-day final, to be played at Khettarama from 10-12 May.”We have to invest into youth cricket, which we haven’t done enough,” SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala said. “We used to see a lot of schoolboy cricketers knocking at the door of the national team, at the age of 18 or 19, but now we don’t see that. We have a huge quantity of schools cricket, but we haven’t focused on the quality. So we have concentrated the best players from that system here, in order to consolidate our cricket at that age group.”The Western (Basnahira) province will produce three Super U-19 teams, as the “density of cricket in the Western province is more”, while Sabaragamuwa does not get a team, because SLC believes there is not enough cricket there to support a side. Players from the Sabaragamuwa province will instead be split between the Uva and Central Province sides.Sumathipala said there was also scope for the weaker provincial sides to absorb the reserve players from stronger provinces, in order to bolster their outfits. The tournament is expected to cost 26 million rupees (approx. USD $180,000).

Gujarat Lions guaranteed themselves a top-two finish on the IPL league table after a 96-run partnership between Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina set them up for an six-wicket win over Mumbai Indians

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy21-May-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDwayne Bravo’s end-overs bowling played a key role in restricting Mumbai Indians to 172 in excellent batting conditions•BCCI

Bravo fined 50% of match fee

Dwayne Bravo has been fined 50% of his match fee for breaching the IPL code of conduct during Gujarat Lions’ match against Mumbai Indians on Saturday. Bravo has admitted to the Level 2 offence of “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact with a player in the course of play during a match”.
While the IPL’s media release did not detail Bravo’s code violation, the incident may have occurred during the 14th over of Mumbai’s innings, when Bravo, after fielding a defensive shot off his own bowling, walked up to the batsman, Kieron Pollard, and shoulder-bumped him.
“Ridiculous outcome…!! Again I have seen worst happen obscenities used no outcome but @DJBravo47 fined,” Pollard tweeted, in response to news of the fine. “It’s slowly turning into a robotic game.. No emotions no actions nothing …2020 = entertainment !! Rigorous battles !! Evrything is a fine”.

Gujarat Lions guaranteed themselves a top-two finish on the IPL league table, and earned themselves two shots at a place in the final, after a 96-run partnership between Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina set them up for a six-wicket win over Mumbai Indians. Lions ended the league stage on 18 points while Mumbai finished on 14. To make the playoffs, Mumbai will need Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils – who also have 14 points each – to lose their matches on Sunday, and lose by big enough margins for their net run rates to dip below Mumbai’s -0.146.Rohit Sharma noted, after Raina chose to bowl, that the Green Park pitch wasn’t as green as it had been on Thursday when Lions had restricted Knight Riders to 124. It wasn’t just less green. It was even-paced, with the ball coming nicely on to the bat, and Mumbai’s total of 172 proved well short of challenging as Lions, given a strong platform by Raina and McCullum, and a sure finish by Dwayne Smith – who swapped places in the batting order with Aaron Finch – cruised home with 13 balls remaining.Mumbai got off to an excellent start with the bat, with Rohit enjoying the batting-friendly conditions to move to 30 off 16 balls, with four fours and two sixes, before pulling Dhawal Kulkarni straight to deep square leg in the fourth over. Nitish Rana walked in and pulled his first ball for four.Dwayne Smith had picked up four wickets on Thursday, and Raina tossed him the ball at the start of the fifth over even though the conditions were rather different this time. Martin Guptill, invisible till then, glanced his second ball for four, and should have put away his third one as well. It was shortish, and offered plenty of swinging room for Guptill to flat-bat it anywhere he pleased; he ended up dragging it to mid-on.With Smith’s deceptively quick bouncer consuming Krunal Pandya in the same over, Mumbai were forced into rebuilding mode. Rana and Jos Buttler only scored 27 runs in the first 30 balls of their partnership, and Mumbai were 72 for 3 at the halfway stage.Fifteen came off the 11th, as Rana slogged Ravindra Jadeja over long-on and Buttler chopped him to the backward point boundary. Rana began the 12th over with a four and a six off Smith, and Mumbai were back on track.Rana favoured the pull and the slog-sweep, and those strengths, and his left-handedness, was probably the reason Raina only used Jadeja for one over. Rana hit Shadab Jakati, Lions’ other left-arm spinner, for a six in the 13th over, and three fours – two in the midwicket region – in the 15th.Fourteen came off that over, and with Rana past the half-century mark, Mumbai were nicely placed going into the last five. They had lost Buttler to a reflex caught-and-bowled from Dwayne Bravo, but at the crease was Kieron Pollard, in the kind of situation he enjoys batting in.Rana clubbed another leg-side six off Dhawal Kulkarni in the 16th, going deep in his crease to shorten the length of the ball, but he miscued to deep square leg when he tried the same shot off Bravo in the next over. Pollard cleared long-on with a top-edge in the 18th before swatting a full-toss from Kulkarni straight down long-off’s throat. Suddenly, Mumbai had two new batsmen at the crease with only two overs to go.They would only get 12 from the last two, as Bravo and Praveen Kumar, both going around the wicket, either speared it too full for Hardik Pandya and Harbhajan Singh to get under, or dangled it too slow to line up perfectly. Both batsmen fell in the final over as Mumbai finished on 172 for 8. They had only scored 27 in the last four overs.Finch fell in the first over of Lions’ innings, victim to his tendency to get stuck on the crease early in his innings, but McCullum and Raina quickly got the chase into gear. Bowlers tend to attack Raina’s rib cage early on, but Mitchell McClenaghan overused the short ball in the third over, and the batsman pulled, slapped and uppercut three fours, having already picked up a boundary when Hardik let a drive slip between his legs at cover point.McCullum hit Krunal for two fours and a pulled six in the fifth over, and Lions were already past 50. With the field still in, Raina’s chancy slogs off Jasprit Bumrah’s slower balls proved quite productive in the sixth over – one went to the third man boundary off the top edge, and the other, not quite middled, sailed over deep midwicket. Rattled, Bumrah fed McCullum on his pads and then gave him width; 19 came off that over and Lions’ required rate dipped to 7.35.With the spinners, Krunal and Harbhajan Singh, routinely dropping short, Lions were racing home. This being the IPL, there was a small wobble, as McCullum, Dinesh Karthik and Raina fell in the space of 19 balls to leave 51 needed from 46. Smith, though, conveyed cold authority right from the time he flat-batted the second ball he faced back over Bumrah’s head, and he steered Lions home with a calm, unbeaten 37 off 23.

Ross Taylor led Sussex to their highest T20 score as they began their NatWest T20 Blast season with victory over Gloucestershire by a single run on Duckworth Lewis

ECB Reporters Network20-May-2016
ScorecardRoss Taylor led Sussex to a rain-assisted win•Getty Images

Sussex Sharks kicked off their NatWest T20 Blast season with victory over Gloucestershire at the Brightside Ground, Bristol, by a single run on Duckworth Lewis.Ross Taylor’s unbeaten 93, off just 48 balls, helped Sussex to their highest ever T20 total, beating the 239 for 5 scored against Glamorgan in 2010.However, the Sharks needed a little help from the rain to achieve their opening night success in the west country.
Chasing 240 to win, Gloucestershire looked well on course to at least take the game to the wire when the rains came. It was an agonising end for the host county whose 83 for 1, off 7.3 overs, left them just one short of their required target on the D/L method.Having been asked to bat first, Sussex made a decent first of things with the bat. Chris Nash and Phil Salt put the host county under genuine pressure with 48 for the first wicket inside five overs.When Nash was eventually bowled by Craig Miles for 30, Salt and Ben Brown added 14 for the second wicket in quickfire time before the former was caught by Miles off former Sussex left arm spinner Tom Smith, for 24.Salt’s ill advised attempted reverse sweep, brought Taylor to the wicket and the Kiwi looked in decent touch from the first ball he faced. He and Brown added 88 for the third wicket inside eight overs with Taylor particularly harsh on anything full outside the off stump.When Brown was stumped by Cameron Bancroft, off the bowling of Benny Howell in the 14th over, for 43, Sussex were 150 for 3 with Taylor having already passed his half century off 28 balls.Gloucestershire found it difficult to defend the short boundary to one side of the Bristol wicket and with Taylor and Matt Machan increasing the run rate, Sussex piled on the agony in the closing overs.Machan perished, in the 18th over, but not before hitting 31 off just a dozen deliveries. Wicket keeper Craig Cachopa was caught by Hamish Marshall off the bowling of Miles, for 0, with the bowler rounding off a decent spell of 2 for 29 from four overs.Still, Taylor was not to be undone and with Payne going for 27 in one over, the New Zealander closed in on his century. Unfortunately, for him, he fell seven runs short. He struck just four fours in his stay at the crease, but helped himself to eight sixes.The innings included six penalty runs for slow over rate. By the time the rains came later on, those runs would prove valuable, for Sussex.Gloucestershire lost Hamish Marshall for 12 at 14 for 1 in the second over of their response before captain Michael Klinger and Ian Cockbain struck the ball with great accuracy, to all four corners. At one stage, they were ahead of the D/L rate and looked in a decent position to at least challenge for maximum spoils.Sadly, for the home supporters, umpires Nick Cook and Rob Bailey took the sides off midway through the eighth over with Sussex ahead on the D/L method, by one run. With no further play possible, the victory points went back to Hove, if only just.

David Warner is hopeful of being available for Australia’s next match against West Indies on Monday, despite suffering a painful blow to the finger in the win over South Africa on Saturday

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jun-2016David Warner is hopeful of being available for Australia’s next match against West Indies on Monday, despite suffering a painful blow to the finger in the win over South Africa on Saturday.Warner was Man of the Match in St Kitts for his 109 against South Africa, but late in South Africa’s chase he was struck on the index finger of his left hand diving for a catch. Warner left the field immediately after the blow but he took hope from the fact that, while it had hurt, the feeling was different to when he had broken his thumb previously.”The finger is quite sore,” Warner said. “We’ll keep assessing it over the next 24 hours. It’s quite painful. To me it’s just got the same bruising marks as a normal bung on the finger does. I’m always hopeful. A sore finger is not going to stop me but if it’s broken, that might.”I was a bit hesitant. When I first looked at it, it didn’t look too good. It had that sort of purple mark on the nail. But it doesn’t feel like the thumb … I’ve broken the thumb twice, I know what that feels like. Hopefully, I’m being positive, and there’s not too much damage.”Warner was struck when he dived in an attempt to catch a JP Duminy cut off the bowling of Mitchell Marsh in the 39th over and while he failed to make the catch, Australia’s bowlers created enough chances to secure a 36-run win. Warner’s century was the difference in the match, and despite the short boundaries at Warner Park, nearly half his runs came in ones and twos.”It’s always challenging when you play on these small grounds, because in the back of your mind you’ve got to take the ego out of it,” Warner said. “When you’re in, you can feel like you can hit every ball for six. But once that ball got older it was harder to bat. It was actually quite hard to free the arms. You’ve got to try and get yourself in and be positive.”The boundaries are always going to come if you’re being positive, looking with intent to hit the ones and twos. That’s the most important thing about this game, is rotating the strike. There’s four fielders out until the last 10, you’ve just got to make the most of it until you get into there.”The hundred was Warner’s sixth in ODIs and his first outside Australia. Warner’s one-day form this year has been excellent – so far in 2016 he is the world’s leading scorer in ODIs, with 511 runs at 63.87.

Test cricket is “big-man cricket” and West Indies cannot use their youth and inexperience as a crutch to deflect against poor performances, according to Marlon Samuels

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Kingston29-Jul-2016Test cricket is “big-man cricket” and West Indies cannot use their youth and inexperience as a crutch to deflect against poor performances, according to Marlon Samuels. Two days before the second Test against India at Sabina Park, Samuels said the young players will have to keep earning their places with their performances.”Well, first and foremost, I’m not going to be here to tell you that it’s a young team,” Samuels said. “For me to say that is like finding excuses for the team. It’s a Test team, and Test cricket is big-man cricket, and the players should know that by now.”They are here, playing Test cricket. So we all have to step up to the plate, and put up a very good challenge against the Indians. The Indians are a very good team, a very good unit, so what we want to try and build right now is a team spirit, and build a stronger unit in order [to move forward]. Yes, we have new players coming in, but they still have to deliver. At the end of the day, you have to do that to keep your job here.”A string of impressive limited-overs performances won Samuels West Indies’ Cricketer of the Year award, but his Test form has been poor in recent months. Before scoring a half-century in the second innings of the first Test in Antigua, he had failed to pass 20 in his 10 Test innings.”You make a half-century, it’s a milestone,” he said. “You have to cherish it, but at the end of the day I always want more. I haven’t been getting the runs that I’m looking for in the Test arena, but I’ve been making up in the shorter versions, so it augurs well that I’m doing well for the team as well. It’s just, I need to start focusing more and putting in some big performances, so the team can benefit from my performances.”Samuels looked forward to another Test in front of his home crowd at Sabina Park, and said he wanted to show them “what they have been seeing over the years – me coming out here, playing shots and just enjoying myself in the middle”. But his main aim, he said, was to help West Indies bounce back from their innings defeat in Antigua.”It’s a great opportunity for me,” he said. “Not too many sportsmen get to play in front of their home crowd. I’ve got the opportunity more than one time, so I cherish it, playing in front of a Jamaican crowd. As I said, it’s a great opportunity, not only for me, but for the team to make a turnaround and come here and play some positive cricket and put up, not just a challenge, but a fight.”According to some media reports, Samuels has been considering Test-match retirement, and Jeffrey Dujon, the former West Indies wicketkeeper who is part of the TV commentary team for this series, had suggested on air that this might be his last Test series. Samuels did not reveal his plans, and said his only focus, for now, was to do well in this series.”Jeffrey Dujon can say anything,” Samuels said. “But what I say is, I’m here to focus on the Test series and put my best foot forward, and make a significant contribution, so that whatever I do, the team can benefit from it. So that’s my ultimate goal and that’s my focus at the moment.”

Mohammad Hafeez has been ruled out for the remainder of Pakistan’s tour of England, after suffering a calf injury

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Aug-2016Mohammad Hafeez has been ruled out for the remainder of Pakistan’s tour of England, after suffering a calf injury ahead of the second ODI against England at Lord’s. The fast bowler, Mohammad Irfan, has been called up in his place.After complaining about pain in his left calf, Hafeez was diagnosed with a minor strain which means he will play no part in the remaining three matches of the ODI series, as well as the one-off T20I at Old Trafford which concludes the tour on September 7.Although Hafeez will be staying in England to undergo intensive rehabilitation, Pakistan’s management decided that there was no point in retaining him with the team.The likelihood was that he was going to be dropped for the second ODI anyway, having endured a barren run of form since his arrival in England.He managed 102 runs in six innings of the Test series before being left out for the series decider at The Oval, and made 11 from 15 balls in Pakistan’s defeat in the first ODI at the Ageas Bowl on Wednesday.Irfan, the tall fast bowler who missed out on original selection for the squad, has been drafted into the squad following approval from Pakistan’s selection committee.Irfan, 34, was originally overlooked in favour of a recall for Umar Gul, having failed to impress the newly appointed chief selector, Inzamam-ul-Haq with 12 wickets in nine ODIs in the previous 12 months.However, he has been in action for Islamabad in the ongoing National T20 Cup in Rawalpindi, and will fly out to join the team ahead of the third ODI.Meanwhile, Azhar Ali defended his decision to bat first at Lord’s. Pakistan slipped to 2 for 3 in the opening moments of the match, with the England bowlers enjoying the 10.30am start and a green surface.”The start wasn’t good at all,” he admitted. “It was really difficult to come back from losing three early wickets. To some extent we made a recovery, but it was not enough. The early loss of wickets cost us the game.”But the first half of the game saw the ball come on the bat much better than the second half. If you start at 10.30, the openers have to take responsibility for getting you through the first 10 overs. But unfortunately the top order didn’t really do anything. They were out to good deliveries, but as professional players you should be able to cope with that and find a way.”But after five or six overs, there were some good shots players. The ball was coming on very well. In the second half of the game, it really wasn’t coming on well and reverse swing was effective.”While Azhar agreed with Mickey Arthur’s pre-match assessment that Pakistan are behind the rest of the world in ODI cricket – both tactically and in ranking terms – he took some encouragement from the fact his side were still able to reach 251 despite such a grim start.”We are behind,” he said. “But if the top-order had done better, we could easily have scored 300 today.”

After previous coaches Taj Malik, Kabir Khan, Andy Moles and Inzamam-ul-Haq steered Afghanistan’s progress so far, Lalchand Rajput could be overseeing the team’s next steps

Mohammad Isam30-Sep-2016Afghanistan’s development from a struggling team to a genuine threat to higher-ranked sides can be traced through the progressive contributions of their last few coaches. Taj Malik laid the foundations before Kabir Khan got them to think like international cricketers. Andy Moles took them to the 2015 World Cup, after which Inzamam-ul-Haq guided them to their maiden ODI and T20I series wins, over Zimbabwe.Now it is Lalchand Rajput, the former India batsman, who is taking Afghanistan further into unchartered territory. On October 1, in the third ODI, they will seek to take their next big step, by clinching their first-ever bilateral series against Bangladesh.Rajput was appointed in June this year after Inzamam left the role to take over as Pakistan’s chief selector. So far, Rajput has been able to consolidate and build on the progress made during Inzamam’s seven months as coach. Afghanistan now seem to be at least on par with Ireland, and a cut above all other Associate nations.A 2-1 series result could lead to their rise up the ODI rankings, which would be a huge confidence boost for the emerging team. Young batsman Hashmatullah Shahidi said that Rajput’s focus has been on the batting, especially on how to bat for the full 50 overs and rotate the strike.”In the last one year, Afghanistan cricket has been improving,” Shahidi said. “Before him [Rajput], Inzamam-ul-Haq did very well as our coach. Now Rajput sir is trying hard with us. He is giving us more confidence. He tells us that we are one of the best sides in the world.”He is asking us to play positive cricket against each and every team. He tells us to take everything positively. He is also working on our batting. He is teaching us how to play 50 overs, play till the end and concentrate on singles.”Shahidi said they are now focused on trying to finish their innings well, which they didn’t do in the first ODI that they lost by seven runs. They nearly repeated their mistake in the second game before managing to scrape through with a two-wicket win.”He [Rajput] told us that those who are set at the wicket should go till the end. This was our mistake in the first game. We had a good partnership but we didn’t finish the game. It will be hard for the new batsmen to come and play like set batsmen. We will try to fill that gap.”We had a good partnership and I scored runs in the first game but I should have finished the game. I will learn from my mistakes from the last two games,” said Shahidi, who made a fifty in the first ODI.He was also confident that their spinners Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan would once again have a major say in the outcome of the game, as they did in the second ODI, tying up the Bangladesh batsmen and then picking up late wickets to derail them completely.”Rashid Khan is a very good young talent. He has been successful in the last six months,” Shahidi said. “We have good spinners in the side like Mohammad Nabi, who bowled really well in the last game. They will, , do very well in the last game for us.”Steady batting and the spinners’ well-planned spells will be Afghanistan’s advantage in the third ODI. If they do end up beating Bangladesh, it would be a major milestone in their cricket history, and Rajput would be lauded for his contribution, much like his predecessors Malik, Khan, Moles and Inzamam.

With batting getting tougher as the surface wears on, in India, Kane Williamson has said that the first-innings total will be a key area, on the eve of the Indore Test

Sidharth Monga in Indore07-Oct-20163:38

‘We are yet to play our best cricket’ – Williamson

There was good news for New Zealand when Kane Williamson came to address the pre-Test press conference. He still didn’t confirm whether he will play in Indore after missing the Kolkata Test because of illness, but he will be key to one area New Zealand look to set right: first-innings total. In India, you do all your peaceful scoring in the first innings. The second is havoc. You don’t want yourself to be making up ground.”It has shown in the first innings of each Test match that the first innings has been the most vital as batting has got harder as the game has gone on,” Williamson said. “We’ll still need to have another look at the surface here but were are still expecting first innings to be important again.”Apart from preferably winning the toss on a surface that he described as “bare at the ends” and ‘soft”, Williamson will be expected to push that first innings a little further after they had shown a bit of promise at different times.”It is one of those fine lines where there have been some good bits but the good bits haven’t happened for long enough,” Williamson said. “Those 240-250 scores need to be 300-350. In saying that we are still to see this wicket, it might be more or it might be less, we don’t know just yet. But certainly the last two games if we could have pushed up our first-innings total that little bit further, it would have helped us out a huge amount.”This is where India can draw satisfaction. They haven’t let New Zealand run away even when they have had partnerships. India’s captain Virat Kohli said it was crucial to deal well with such periods. “One thing that stands out for me as a learning is how to control a session that’s not going your way,” Kohli said. “When you are taking wickets, you can afford to attack. But when you are not taking wickets, how to stop runs and still maintain enough pressure for you to come in the session and make breakthroughs.”The session when the other team is batting well, you should know how to control runs and at the same time not go negative. There is very thin line, which I think if you maintain more often than not you will come back in the next session and pull things back. That is the biggest learning. Not to go one-dimensional when runs are scored and the other team is batting well.”One of the reasons why India have been able to keep New Zealand in check with just four bowlers is Mohammed Shami’s performance: eight wickets at an average of 21.12. Kohli paid tribute to Shami’s return to fitness. “Shami is someone who’s come back very well,” Kohli said. “He has worked very hard on his fitness as well. You can see he’s able to bowl those five-six over spells now, and he can run in… Bigger momentum and then he can pick up two wickets on any surface. That’s the kind of skill he has, so as captain I feel that he’s a very important bowler for us in this full season and in future as well. But looking at the near future, his fitness and rhythm is very, very important. As you said, he’s a strike bowler and whenever he comes in he makes something regardless of the surface that we’re playing on.”

South Africa’s stand-in captain Faf du Plessis wants to see his boys also win the body-language battle ahead of the Test series

Firdose Moonda11-Oct-2016In targeting a clean-sweep over Australia, Faf du Plessis has promised South Africa will assert themselves with more than just bat and ball in Cape Town on Wednesday. South Africa’s stand-in captain wants to see his boys also win the body-language battle ahead of the three-Test series in Australia starting November 3.”As a captain, its important the intensity we play at. That does not always mean verbally, it’s body language and the way you carry yourself on the field,” du Plessis said. “When there is a battle that asks for another battle to come their way, that will happen. We are a team that will stand up against that. If that’s required of us as a team, we will also go into that space, but its a very focused and channeled aggression; more of a body language thing.

Important to build a pool of pacers – Saker

Australia’s assistant coach David Saker has given a vote of confidence to the rookie bowlers who have come under attack on this trip. Chris Tremain, Joe Mennie and Daniel Worrall are all on their first tour with the national side.
“I don’t think they’ve marked their card, it’s obviously a very hard place to come and bowl and their batting team has been amazing,”he said. “I think Chris Tremain has shown some really good things, Scott Boland the other day was really good.
“More the number of fast bowlers you’ve got, better it is, because of the injuries. they are one part of your team that does get injuries. So if you can add people to your fast bowling group all the time, it’s always very, very important.”

The only real needle in the ODIs so far came in Port Elizabeth when Matthew Wade and Tabraiz Shamsi had a verbal exchange that earned both of them a a 25% fine of match fee along with one demerit point. Talk became action when Wade took a single and made no effort to avoid running into Shamsi, who protested.Du Plessis took it up with the umpires but was proud of how Shamsi stood up. “It’s just showing the opposition you are here to play, no matter how many games you have played,” du Plessis said. “Shamsi has only played three ODIs but he showed he is there to compete, no matter who is on the other side. It was good to see we can also step it up in that department.”In the other departments, South Africa have exceeded expectation by dominating against the top-ranked ODI side, which is without their first-choice pace pack. However, du Plessis chose not to dwell on that, instead emphasising on how South Africa have out-batted Australia.”I am really impressed with the style of cricket we’ve played,” he said. “The first game set the tone for us where Quinton played one of the best one-day knocks you will see and then out-batting has been a level above what we’ve seen in the past. If you compare that to their batting, which is just as strong possibly on paper, maybe even stronger but they haven’t matched up with our batters at all. We haven’t allowed them to compete at times and even when they looked like they were going to compete, we stuck in and waited for the opportunity.”The third game in Durban was where Australia threatened their biggest comeback. Their only centuries came in that match as they piled on 371 for 6 before reducing South Africa to 217 for 5. Yet, South Africa found a way, which du Plessis was proud of.”In Durban, they were all over us and nine times out of ten, you should lose games like that. It took something magnificent for us to win and it’s happening more regularly in this team that guys are doing amazing things,” he said. “The style of cricket we have played has been a new level, hopefully that’s something we can drive forward. We need to make sure we keep playing like that because that’s the style I would like us to play.”South Africa started the season with a culture camp that addressed their dramatic slide from No. 1 to No. 6 in the Test rankings last summer and their early exit from the World T20. They decided on what they’ve termed a “different direction”, which is not about individuals but the collective, aiming to go “where no other South African team have been”.”We want to reach higher levels and achieve greater things than anyone else. From that perspective 5-0 is very important,” du Plessis said. “The fact that the Test series comes straight after this and 60% to 70% of both teams’ players are the same, the motivation of 5-0 will mean a lot to me.”