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Middlesex have made Dawid Malan club captain and that begged the question whether a man with leadership ambitions might one day fill the most demanding role of all

David Hopps01-Feb-2018Dawid Malan did not break into England’s Test side until shortly after his 30th birthday, but what odds that one day – even if just fleetingly – he might captain England?That thought might have crossed the mind of more than a few people when Middlesex announced that he had been appointed as their new club captain. Here is the chance he has long yearned for to make an impression.The need to find Joe Root occasional rest periods will exist as long as he remains a multi-format player, the vice captain Ben Stokes is facing charges of affray and the player who stepped into that role in Australia, James Anderson, is approaching the end of his career.Malan, one of the few figures to emerge in credit after England’s 4-0 Ashes thumping, struck a maiden Test hundred in Perth and showed resilience throughout, gaining a reputation as a tough cricketer with an appetite for the challenge. Even if he just steps in for a day, his odds have tightened considerably compared to only six months ago.Middlesex have been heavily reliant upon overseas players to lead the club in recent seasons as Angus Fraser, their managing director of cricket and also an England selector, testified.But Malan’s stock has risen and, with a certain irony, he has been entrusted with the job just as England can be expected to make more demands on his time.Malan takes over the captaincy of the club in all formats, with Sam Robson appointed as his four-day vice-captain. Middlesex will appoint a stand-in captain in T20 and 50-over cricket only if should that prove necessary.It has taken almost 350 appearances for Middlesex across all formats, with him amassing more than 14,000 runs in the process, including 23 centuries, before he was appointed – although he did lead Middlesex in the NatWest Blast in 2016 and also led the England Lions to a tri-series win against Pakistan-A and Sri Lanka-A in the same year, impressing Andy Flower along the way.Fraser said: “In recent years Middlesex Cricket have looked at overseas players and new signings to captain the club but I now feel the time is right for players from within to take on major leadership roles.Dawid Malan slugs one to the leg side•Getty Images

“Since my return to Middlesex there have been a number of players who have developed from promising youngsters into high quality and highly-respected figures in domestic cricket. No player has done this more than Dawid Malan and that is why I am delighted he has taken up the offer to be club captain.”Dawid has always held the desire to captain teams and we have for some time believed he has had the potential to captain the club, hence his appointment as T20 captain in 2016. Along with the belief I have that he will become an excellent leader, Dawid stands out because he is somebody who we believe will do the job for several years.Fraser conceded that England absences complicated the issue but said that such considerations should not prevent Malan from gaining his rightful rewards. It is a view recently taken by Yorkshire with Gary Ballance and, somewhat controversially, by Kent with Sam Billings, a decision that will see Sam Northeast leave the club.”England commitments – and I hope Dawid continues to thrive as an international cricketer – may mean we do not see him for periods of the season but, in my mind, that should not stop the right man from holding the position he deserves to hold,” Fraser said.”In light of this Middlesex Cricket have made Sam Robson vice-captain in County Championship cricket. Sam is another player that has been developed by Middlesex and is a cricketer that is ready to take on further responsibility and new challenges. The pair of them will bring fresh ideas and energy to the County Championship cricket we play.Fraser also had warm words for the outgoing captain James Franklin, the New Zealand allrounder, who he said had “selflessly stepped in to fill a leadership hole.”So Malan as an England captain, however briefly? It might be seen as a bizarre suggestion, but there was a time when people would have scoffed at the thought that Paul Collingwood, by then pushing 34, would be the man to lead England to their only success in a major ICC tournament.

The team’s success in levelling the two-Test series against England means Bangladesh may persist with surfaces that take spin quite early

Mohammad Isam03-Nov-2016Pitches that start turning quite early could become the norm in the Test matches Bangladesh play at home. The series against England was played on such surfaces, and Bangladesh competed admirably. They came within 23 runs of victory in Chittagong before taking all 10 wickets in single session to level the series in Dhaka.While it would certainly enhance their biggest strength – spin bowling – it may also pose a challenge to the batsmen. But Bangladesh’s top three have showed signs of being up for it.Tamim Iqbal avoided some shots, assessing their risk to be too much, on a turning pitch but still made a century at a strike-rate of 70.74 in the second Test. His opening partner Imrul Kayes was fully committed to being aggressive, his 78 off only 120 balls in the second innings helped set a target beyond England’s reach. Mominul Haque, at No. 3, was his usual composed self and contributed with his 10th half-century.With confidence that their batsman can handle it, Bangladesh are set to welcome touring sides – especially those with a reputation of struggling in the subcontinent – with tailor-made pitches for the spinners.”I think wickets at home will be made according to our opponents,” Tamim told ESPNcricinfo. “If we are playing against teams from the subcontinent, then I don’t think playing on such wickets will help us, but it will be different when we play against teams like Australia, England and New Zealand.”Tamim added that standing up to tough conditions was quite pleasing. He was the only batsman from either side to score a hundred in the two Tests. “It feels really good to have made runs in these kinds of difficult tracks. The team took a decision, and we stuck by it. The planning meant that we had to work hard, so scoring around 230 runs is something good.”I think my 78 in Chittagong has its own value. The ball spun a lot with many things out of the batsman’s control. The 104 in the second Test is most valuable among my hundreds against England, considering the conditions and the fact that we won the game.”Mominul’s had an additional challenge. He isn’t a regular in ODIs and T20Is and was coming into the Tests having not batted in international cricket for over a year. He got a three-ball duck in his first innings of the series, the outside edge carrying off the wicketkeeper’s leg to gully, but adjusted better later on with help from batting consultant Thilan Samaraweera.”When I was playing and got four months [off], it was very hard [coming back],” Samaraweera said, “Especially in the first innings of the first Test. However you train and whatever you do, when you come to the game, you are under pressure. That’s a different pressure. Importantly, you have to stick to the routines to get your body right for the game.”In the first inning of the first Test, the way he [Mominul] got out, that’s hard. The first few balls, you don’t know. We talked a little bit, different things. They are willing to work, that’s the key thing. Whatever I say, if they don’t listen to, it won’t work. But these boys are absolute superstars. Straightaway they work [at it].”Bangladesh’s limited-overs captain Mashrafe Mortaza also praised how the team read the pitches in Dhaka and Chittagong and attacked England.”The thing I liked the most was the batting approach, it was very positive. Since it was hard to stay in these wickets, the batsmen had to score rapidly. Batsmen like Alistair Cook and Joe Root didn’t do well, so it showed that settling in these wickets wasn’t easy.”Bangladesh’s batting was criticised because there were some bad shots and some untimely dismissals. While it is hard to deny such mistakes, what thrilled me was how they were able to read the wicket. They knew they had to play the shots, so guys like Tamim and Imrul batted very well. And at least one batsman stood up whenever necessary.”

On the tenth anniversary of their famous win over Australia in Cardiff, Bangladesh thumped a full-strength Indian team in front of a raucous Mirpur crowd

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu18-Jun-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMustafizur Rahman took 5 for 50 on debut to smash India’s chances of chasing 307•Associated Press

On the 10th anniversary of their famous win over Australia in Cardiff, Bangladesh thumped a full-strength Indian team in front of a raucous Mirpur crowd. Nineteen-year-old Mustafizur Rahman keeled over India’s batsmen with an assortment of cutters to become the second Bangladesh bowler after Taskin Ahmed to claim a five-wicket haul on debut. His performance came after a rapid 102-run opening stand between Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar had formed the centrepiece of Bangladesh’s 307, their highest against India in ODIs.The 79-run victory, only their fourth against India, meant Bangladesh needed to win only one out of their next five ODIs to cement their spot in the 2017 Champions Trophy, which will be contested by the top-eight-ranked ODI sides as of September 30, 2015.This was Bangladesh’s ninth straight win at home, but for the first 15 overs of the second innings it seemed the streak would be broken. After an impressive start by Mustafizur and Taskin, Bangladesh looked like they were buckling under the experience and the class of the Indian batting. Rohit Sharma settled down and brought up his fifty off 53 balls, and Shikhar Dhawan was dropped twice by Mushfiqur Rahim.Taskin, whose debut five-for last year came in a defeat, began the turnaround when asked to come back for a second spell. After missing the first two, Mushfiqur made amends, pouching Dhawan and Virat Kohli, both batsmen undone by extra bounce from Taskin. The wickets were set up by tight and intense bowling. Tasking bounded in and kept bowling the in-between length away from the batsmen’s reach. The pressure contributed to the next two wickets, craftily snapped by Mustafizur.The pressure rose with every dot and diving save in the field until a period of 10 runs off 29 balls culminated in Rohit’s failing to read an offcutter from Mustafizur. Ajinkya Rahane was tied down similarly and succumbed to another offcutter, for nine off 27. That Rahane wicket reduced India to 115 for 4, and Bangladesh knew MS Dhoni’s wicket could be the game. Drama was to follow.Mustafizur had to leave the field for a while after colliding with Dhoni in the middle of the pitch, but arguably Bangladesh’s best player of all time, Shakib Al Hasan, took over the baton. Bangladesh celebrated angrily when Shakib drew an edge from Dhoni, which Mushfiqur took beautifully to redeem himself after the earlier drops. If there was indignation palpable at the man who knocked out their hero of the night, Bangladesh found a poetic end as Mustafizur returned to snuff out whatever remote chance India had by dismissing Suresh Raina and R Ashwin off successive balls. He could have become only the second bowler after Fidel Edwards to claim a six-for on ODI debut had he hung onto a return catch off his penultimate delivery. However, he had done enough and finished with outstanding figures of 9.2-1-50-5.The day had begun in similar vein for Bangladesh. In rare sunlight after some bleak weather, Tamim and Sarkar set to work immediately after Mashrafe Mortaza chose to bat, launching a relentless onslaught on the Indian bowlers. Bangladesh soared past 100 off only 79 balls, their fastest against a top-eight team. Tamim raced down the track to the fifth ball of the match, and though he inside-edged it towards fine leg, he had signalled Bangladesh’s intent. They weren’t going to hold back.Tamim found his groove quickly, hitting three fours and a six off Umesh Yadav in the sixth over. The first one was edged but did not carry to Dhawan at wide first slip, the second was lashed over point, the next pulled powerfully before the over ended with a belt over covers as Tamim brought back memories of assaulting Zaheer Khan in the 2007 World Cup.Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav erred on the pads, which was the theme of the early part of the innings and Dhoni was forced to bring his lead spinner – Ashwin – as early as the eighth over. The opening pair was separated in the 14th over by some indecision between the wickets, Raina’s accurate arm cutting short Sarkar’s promising innings at 54.Tamim reached a fifty too before a drizzle grew heavier, resulting in a delay of about an hour. It catalysed a shift in momentum with Ashwin striking thrice in four overs after the resumption. Ashwin had an able ally in Raina who settled into an asphyxiating rhythm in an uninterrupted spell, which read: 10-0-40-0.Sabbir Rahman, though, combined well with Shakib, assembling 83 runs in 14.2 overs before Ravindra Jadeja bowled Sabbir with a signature flat darter. Shakib could have also been dismissed on 38 had Jadeja held onto a tough return catch. Shakib would add 14 more before perishing to Umesh.Bhuvneshwar and Umesh tightened things up at the death, giving away only 35 while picking up four wickets in the last five overs. However, late cameos from Mashrafe and Nasir hauled Bangladesh to their second 300-plus score in four ODIs. Interviewed at the innings break, Shakib said that Bangladesh were 25 runs short. But as it turned out, they had ended with 79 more, capping off the night in a mood of revelry with Taskin and Mashrafe reprising their chest-bump from the World Cup.

A stuttering top order and a lame effort with the ball saw Delhi Daredevils succumb for the ninth time in 12 matches, while Rajasthan Royals sounded out a warning with a nine-wicket thumping

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando07-May-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
–>A stuttering top order and a lame effort with the ball consigned Delhi Daredevils to their ninth loss in 12 matches, while Rajasthan Royals sounded a warning with a nine-wicket thumping that embellished their unbeaten home record, and propelled them to second place on the table.Royals’ seventh straight victory in Jaipur was founded first on robust bowling, as Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Watson, Stuart Binny and 41-year-old debutant Pravin Tambe struck upon a collective consistency that erased the damage done in Shaun Tait’s early, wayward overs. Their openers then flew to an unbeaten century stand in staggeringly orthodox fashion, and ensured Daredevils’ modest total would not challenge them.Ajinkya Rahane, who opened alongside Rahul Dravid, was dropped on 4, but did hardly a misdeed thereafter, as he finished not out on 63 from 45 balls, after he hit the winning run in the 18th over. Dravid had more of the strike in the early overs, and though he was the slower scorer, reached his fifty first, before departing for 53, with the match almost secure, at 108 for 1.It was Royals’ bowling, however, that had the bigger impact on the match, as they muzzled a seasoned Delhi Daredevils top order, despite their strike bowler’s indiscretions. Tait began the match with an 11-run over, three wides among those runs, and his second cost 17, later in the Powerplay. But James Faulkner and Watson had struck once each in between those Tait overs, and that was enough to scare Mahela Jayawardene and David Warner into relative reticence.On a pitch so full of runs, Daredevils did not hesitate to bat first, but the visitors were barely scoring at six an over inside the Powerplay, and when Warner departed in the eighth over to leave his side at 47 for 3, the run rate dipped further still. Jayawardene attempted a measured rescue, but fell too, before he could make any meaningful impact, and were it not for a well-paced 64 not out from Ben Rohrer, whose recent nuptials had evidently done him good, Daredevils may not have reached 154 for 4 on a pitch on which they should have made 180.Royals’ openers exploited Daredevils bowling, and the pair went about playing orthodox cricket, with just the level of aggression required for such a chase. Daredevils’ seam bowlers strayed towards the pads too often, and Dravid laced the first four of the innings through the leg side, and continued to prosper there, throughout his innings. Rahane began with more nerves – an inside edge past the stumps in the eighth over in addition to the early life – but he found the going simple enough in the end, thanks largely to the largesse of the bowlers. Watson arrived after Dravid’s fall in the 14th over and struck two powerful fours off Umesh Yadav almost immediately, as Rahane coasted beyond 50 at the other end. The pair blasted one six apiece in the 17th over to take their side to the brink.

Afternoon showers on day three put an outright result in serious doubt as only one session could be played out

The Report by Sidharth Monga02-Jul-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Misbah-ul-Haq declared after making a quick half-century and taking Pakistan past 550•AFP

Afternoon showers on day three put an outright result in serious doubt as only one session could be played out. In that session, Pakistan added 63 to their overnight 488 before declaring. In the next 70 minutes, Sri Lanka were put through a sterner test than the Pakistan openers, but they lost just one wicket.Pakistan’s quicks generated more response from the pitch than their Sri Lankan counterparts, but that didn’t translate into too much success as Tillakaratne Dilshan rode his luck. An overnight declaration on 488 was a consideration because of the weather: 45 overs had already been lost on day two, and forecast for the rest of the Test wasn’t the brightest either. However, Pakistan went for the scoreboard pressure, and declared only after they reached 550.Pakistan didn’t meander aimlessly, though: Misbah-ul-Haq went at a strike-rate of 82.50, much higher than his ODI career statistic, and Abdur Rehman hit two straight sixes in his 18 off 13. It took Pakistan little under an hour, and 12.4 overs, to score the 63 runs that took them past 550. In the process Misbah reached his 17th half-century, scoring 37 off 40 balls on the third morning. The fields were spread far out so he had to rely more on well-placed ones and twos as opposed to boundaries. Asad Shafiq and Adnan Akmal perished for the cause, but Rehman provided the required thrust with sixes off both spinners. Rangana Herath bowled one over fewer than a whole ODI innings.Ten minutes later, with runs on board already, Pakistan made a spirited start with the ball. Aizaz Cheema and Junaid Khan bowled faster and hit the seam more often than the Sri Lankan bowlers. As a result, they bowled more threatening deliveries in one spell than Sri Lanka did in the whole innings. Cheema began with a short-of-a-length delivery that reared towards Tharanga Paranavitana’s chest. Paranavitana never settled in, and was caught bat-pad to a Junaid delivery that seamed in. This was Paranavitana’s seventh duck in his 28th Test, a high rate for a Test opener.Tillakaratne Dilshan, at the other end, tried every trick in the book to get out, but the pitch and luck smiled on him benevolently. The seam movement in Junaid’s first over seemed to have rattled him, and he hoicked at the last ball of that over; the leading edge fell straight of mid-on. Until lunch, Dilshan kept slashing and flashing, twice edging short of the cordon, once bisecting keeper and first slip. In Saeed Ajmal’s first over, minutes before lunch, he survived a desperately close lbw shout when he was hit just above the knee roll bang in front and inside the crease. However, nothing stopped the aggressive Dilshan: he followed that lbw shout with two lofted fours, a response not too different to the rest of his innings. By lunch he had raced along to 46 off 54.Kumar Sangakkara was much more reassuring for Sri Lanka, clipping the first ball he faced for four, and continuing to do so. The only moment of concern at Sangakkara’s end arrived when he got a thick inside edge onto his pad, but it was too meaty for Azhar Ali at short leg to react in time.No play was possible after lunch.

The batsman Adrian Shankar has been released by Worcestershire after barely two weeks with the club and there is more to the departure than a simple change of mind

George Dobell26-May-2011Worcestershire have released batsman Adrian Shankar after barely two weeks with the club – and passed his registration documents to the police after it emerged there was more to the departure than a simple change of mind.The background of Shankar, who represented Worcestershire in the CB40 and County Championship last week, and whose deal was terminated without further comment on Thursday, has started to unravel. It has emerged he is actually three years older than he told the county and talked his way into a two-year contract through a mixture of bluff and bravado.Worcestershire only signed Shankar on May 10. In the press release that announced this, the club stated that Shankar was 26 years old and had just returned from a prolific winter in Sri Lanka. It also stated that he was in demand from several other counties.None of it is true. Shankar is actually 29 and, while he may have played some cricket in Sri Lanka, it was not at first-class or an equivalent level.”Adrian Shankar was signed by Worcestershire CCC on the 10th May after agreeing terms,” said the club in a subsequent statement. “It quickly became evident that documents provided in order to satisfy the club’s obligations to the England and Wales Cricket Board were unacceptable. This documentation has now been passed to West Mercia Police for investigation and no further comment will be made by the club while the investigation is taking place.”Shankar left Bedford School (he played in the same team as Alastair Cook) after his A Levels in 2000, made his second XI debut in 1999 (for Nottinghamshire) and his first-class debut in 2002. He’s subsequently played second XI cricket for Sussex, Worcestershire, Lancashire and Middlesex.Were the details he gave Worcestershire correct, it would have meant he made his second team debut aged just 14. But when Shankar registered at Cambridge and Bedford, he gave his date of birth as May 1982. Only much later did it change to May 1985.It seems he produced identification proving that he was born in 1985, but he has explained his past by suggesting he might have been the youngest Cambridge University captain in history. Until yesterday, even the Cambridge University Cricket website (www.cucc.net) carried that version of events. Meanwhile, a little research proved that several of the players he was supposed to have played against in Sri Lanka were actually playing elsewhere on the same days.Shankar has also said that his career progression has been held-up by an 18-month bout of glandular fever, that he played tennis to national standard as a junior and that he was in the Arsenal academy at the start of Arsene Wenger’s tenure.On the field Shankar is, at best, an ordinary player. After a decade in the game, he had a first-class average of just 19 and has passed 50 only once in 21 innings. He made 143 in the Varsity Match of 2002 (as a 17-year-old, if you believe his version of events) but, as Chris Scott, the Cambridge UCCE coach, said: “The bowling was unbelievably bad. He was a poor player and there’s no way I would have recommended him.”Oddly, however, when Shankar signed for Lancashire, the Cambridge coach was quoted in a press release referring to him as one of the finest young players the side had seen since John Crawley. “I phoned Lancashire and made it clear that I’d never said anything of the sort,” Scott said. “No-one at Worcestershire or Lancashire asked my opinion before they signed him.” Instead of smelling a rat, however, Lancashire simply removed the offending paragraph.Does any of this matter? Is it just an example of a determined man refusing to give up on his dream?Perhaps. But Shankar was also taking another man’s place in the Worcestershire team. And, by claiming to be 26, Shankar slipped in under the threshold to qualify for the young player incentives handed out by the ECB to first-class counties. He therefore gave himself an unfair advantage in the fight for a place in the Worcestershire team. His swift release was no surprise.The episode also raises questions about Worcestershire. It seems incredible that no-one at the club thought to check Shankar’s story. Five minutes spent on the web would have been enough to raise suspicions; ten minutes on the phone would have confirmed them.Instead, however, Worcestershire contented themselves with a photocopy of a passport and took Shankar’s word for his former achievements. They even threw Shankar straight into their first team – as an opening batsman – without even taking a look at him in a Second XI game (though he did play for their second team in 2003). He was out for a third-ball duck against Middlesex and, batting in the middle-order in the Championship against Durham, was unbeaten on 10 when injury ended his innings.

Somerset maintained the pressure on Friends Provident t20 South Group leaders Sussex by coasting to an emphatic fourth win of the campaign by 84 runs

20-Jun-2010

ScorecardSomerset maintained the pressure on Friends Provident t20 South Group leaders Sussex by coasting to an emphatic fourth win of the campaign by 84 runs with nine balls to spare over Kent in Beckenham. In a repeat of last season’s semi-final, the Sabres rattled up an impressive 189 built around an unbeaten 77 from Man of the Match James Hildreth and Jos Butler’s 48 not out.The visitors defended their total strongly as local lad Ben Phillips came back to taunt his former club with 2 for 24. Somerset, having been invited to bat, sprinted to 32 inside four overs only to lose captain Marcus Trescothick for 12 after he pulled a slow-ball bouncer from Azhar Mahmood into the hands of Alex Blake at deep midwicket.Nick Compton (24) looked comfortable in helping double the total until a stunning overhead stop and rapid throw to the wicketkeeper by Martin van Jaarsveld at cover left him short of his ground and run out.Third wicket pair Hildreth and Zander de Bruyn (nine) posted the Sabres’ 100 in the 13th over, but in the same over De Bruyn miscued an attempted pull shot to short midwicket where Malinga Bandara accepted a good, low chance. In the following over Bandara bamboozled Kieron Pollard (one) with a googly that beat his defensive push and brushed off stump to make it 109 for 4.Unhindered by the losses, Hildreth charged on to a 43-ball 50 and batted through to reach a competition best 77 from 55 balls with 13 fours. He found a willing ally in teenage right-hander Butler, who even out-foxed the wily Mahmood during a cameo 48 from 22 balls as the fifth-wicket pair added 80 in 6.2 overs.The former England Under-19 finished the innings in style, hoisting the final delivery of the innings for six in an expensive last over from Bandara that cost 17.Kent announced their intentions early when Rob Key launched a six into the crowd over square leg, but within 21 balls both he and opening partner Van Jaarsveld (six) were back in the pavilion.
Van Jaarsveld drove to mid-off then Key, on nine, miscued a heave to leg high to De Bruyn at long-on off Phillips who, having seen Blake hook a six to long leg, sent down another short one that the left-hander edged high to Buttler.Pollard then replaced Phillips at the North End to take two key wickets in his first over. Geraint Jones (25) uppercut a short one to Phillips patrolling the ropes at deep cover then in-form Darren Stevens (six) lofted a slower ball to cover and marched off – Kent’s slender chances of victory went with him.Alfonso Thomas, with 3 for 15, and Pollard who finished with 4 for 15, duly ran through the Kent tail as the hosts lost their last five wickets for 13 runs.

A maximum of 19 slots are to be filled, including five for overseas players

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Dec-2024A total of 120 players will feature in the WPL 2025 mini-auction, which will be held on December 15 in Bengaluru. Out of those, 91 are Indians and 29 from overseas, including three from Associate teams. A maximum of 19 slots are to be filled across five teams. Five of those can be taken by overseas players.Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru have four vacancies each, while UP Warriorz have three. Below is the full auction list.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();