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Gillespie confident Tait will be back

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Shaun Tait will be back, according to his South Australia team-mate Jason Gillespie © Getty Images
 

Jason Gillespie says he was “not totally shocked” by Shaun Tait’s decision to take a break from cricket but he is certain Tait has not walked away for good. Gillespie said he had spotted several signs that Tait was struggling to handle the physical stress from his unusual bowling action.”Being a fast bowler and a pretty good mate, you pick up little things, and I could tell he was hurting for a while,” Gillespie told the . “Seeing his warm-ups, seeing him getting strapped and preparing for games, even walking back to his mark, there were some little signs there.”This has stemmed from physical pain. He has had trouble getting past some ailments and mentally that has got on top of him a bit. What he has done is a really brave thing. He could have kept going through the motions but that would not have helped anyone.”Gillespie said Tait had given indications during South Australia’s one-day game in Traralgon on Sunday, following his Test return in Perth, that he was not enjoying his cricket. “I knew things were bugging him a bit,” Gillespie said. “There were a couple of comments in the huddle or at drinks breaks that made my ears prick up. I certainly didn’t expect him to give the game away, but I wasn’t totally shocked, either.”I can absolutely guarantee he will be back. He is 24, he went from playing cricket in the hills to playing professional cricket very quickly. It takes some time for your body and mind to adjust to that. It has got on top of him, but I am very confident he will be back. I have had a couple of messages from him saying ‘I’ll be fine’ and he will be. He just needs to take a bit of time away.”Another of Tait’s South Australia colleagues, the now-retired Darren Lehmann, who is also the Australian Cricketers’ Association president, said Australia needed to be aware of the pressures on young cricketers. “We have to make sure we have mechanisms to ensure these young cricketers develop as people and not succumb to a vicious circle of homesickness,” Lehmann said in the . “It is great representing your country but behind the glamour there are the empty times and heartache of missing friends and family at home.”

Joining Sydney Thunder the 'best decision' – Michael Hussey

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Michael Hussey has admitted that Sydney Thunder were “below ground zero” when he had joined the side. Two seasons on, he departs Thunder, having been cellar dwellers in the tournament’s first four seasons, as champions. Hussey has also said that joining the club is “the best decision” he has made.”Sometimes the most challenging and hardest decisions turn out to be the best,” he said. “I’ve learnt so much about myself as a person and learnt so much about what it takes to build a winning team and it’s been a great education for me. I’m just really proud of everyone and happy for everyone that has been involved.”This is what you plan for and you hope to achieve but when you actually do it, it takes a bit of time for it to sink in. There’s been a bit of heartache along the way, but to reach the summit with these guys has been reward for a lot of hard work, not just by the player but by the backroom staff too.”Hussey walked out to bat to a guard of honour, and left the field, with the game still not won, to a standing ovation. While flattered and a touch bashful afterwards, Hussey was, as ever, keen to deflect attention from himself, and admitted his head was thoroughly in the game.”That was all really nice,” he said. “As I was walking out it wasn’t something I was expecting. So it was a nice touch. As I walked off I was more annoyed with myself for playing such a silly shot at that stage and I wanted 35 more runs. But I did think to myself I’ve got to give myself a couple of moments and soak this in because this is an amazing stadium to play at and as a player it’s a privilege and honour to play on this hallowed turf. Soak it in, then the stress started again as we had to get those 35 runs.”Without question, Hussey leaves Thunder in good shape. They have benefitted from a well-balanced, experienced list (at an average of 33y, 52d, theirs was the oldest team to play a T20 final) that has not been hit too hard by national call-ups.What would the younger players learn from playing with him. “A good work ethic,” Hussey said.”To keep calm under pressure. That it’s important to have good players, but equally important to have good characters in a successful team. That’s what we have tried to bestow on our players. To win humbly, be modest, be respectful of the game and each other.”There remains a nagging sense that Hussey is not quite done yet. He said ending now was “all part of the plan,” but is so fit and able that it feels almost wasteful to bid him farewell. “I was going to finish last year but through succession planning and building the squad further it was prudent to play one more season. It’s never been about me, it’s about building the club for sustainable success. There’s no point hanging on too long.”

SA should open with Cook – Richards

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Barry Richards has some advice for Stiaan van Zyl.”He should bat at No. 3, where he is best.”He also has some advice for South Africa’s decision-makers.”If I was a selector, I would have selected Stephen Cook. He has had 10 years of producing some very good scores and been very consistent,” he said.Only one of the current selection panel was present to hear Richards’ thoughts at the New Year’s address after play on the third day but the message was clear. “You can’t manufacture opening batsman,” Richards said. “They either like it or they don’t like it and if you don’t like it, its very hard to be successful at it.”As an opening batsman himself, Richards would know. He would also be able to relate to why van Zyl felt compelled to try. “I can understand why Stiaan wants to bat there because there was no other place in the middle order,” Richards said. “He wanted to get into the Test side and he was asked ‘Will you open?’ and he said yes because he has got a pretty good technique. But I think it has worked against him. I would have preferred a Stephen Cook.”Cook may yet be added to South Africa’s squad, which will be announced at the conclusion of this Test match, for the next two Tests but, at 33, he would likely be a stop-gap, which has Richards worried about the country’s depth. “Long-term I think the cupboard is a little bare,” he said. “I don’t watch a lot of franchise cricket so I’m not sure who is knocking on the door but if there is a young player out there, there is an opportunity for him.”In a time of transition in South Africa’s Test squad, there have already been opportunities for bowlers – Kagiso Rabada is the most standout example but there is also Chris Morris, who made his debut at Newlands and Hardus Viljoen, who has been included in the squad. South Africa have a captain for each format and only Faf du Plessis really seems made for the job. AB de Villiers is over-burdened, sometimes with the gloves, sometimes with being the best batsman in the world – and prone to miscalculating the over rate – and Hashim Amla has been reluctant. In the last few weeks, he has been even more in the spotlight as results and his own rut got worse.After a good start to captaincy in which he won a series in Sri Lanka, a one-off Test in Zimbabwe and a series at home against West Indies, scoring a hundred and a double-hundred in his first four matches, Amla hit a slump. His next 13 innings yielded only one half-century and his last nine saw him dismissed in single-figures five times. South Africa lost four out of five matches, including three in India.Richards could sympathise with their fortunes in India and how they took their toll on Amla. “India had the best spinner on either side in Ashwin and he was always going to be the key. South Africa might not have prepared as well as they could have because I don’t think they even thought the wickets were going to be exactly like that,” he said. “Next time they go, they will be much more prepared about how you to go about it and the targets they set themselves as a team. Two hundred is a good target on wickets like that. Instead of playing the kind of cricket that Ben Stokes can play, you can’t do it on those sort of wickets, you’ve got to plan differently and set your targets lower.”With the lofty goal of winning a first series in India in 15 years and keeping their unbeaten run on the road (South Africa had gone nine years without a series defeat away from home), it appeared as though Amla’s anxieties over his ability to lead was bleeding into his batting and Richards noticed it. He also hoped for a return to better fortunes after Amla’s century – which swelled to 201 – against England in the ongoing Test.”He has to exclude what’s swirling around in the captaincy stakes while he is batting,” Richards said. “If he can do that, it’s going to be enormous for South Africa. I don’t think he is doing that at the moment. I think he worries about things that are happening from a captaincy point of view while he is batting and you can’t do that. Maybe this is the corner he has turned.”Whatever the outcome of the Newlands Test, Amla remains “on a learning curve” as a captain, according to Richards and may still need to confront the question of “whether he wants the job”.”I’m not close enough to the team to know whether he goes in afterwards and seeks people out to see where he can improve or is he saying to himself, ‘I don’t know if I want this, it’s affecting my batting’. And if we don’t know those answers, we don’t know how to plan for it. It is a decision Hashim will have to come up with himself. The most important thing for South Africa is for him to make runs, You can always get help in the field, you’ve got another ten guys around you but when you are out there batting, you’ve got to have your full focus on your batting.”

Australia sneak home in tense finish

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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsShaun Marsh top scored in Australia’s chase•Getty Images

It lasted only three days, but Test cricket’s first match with a pink ball provided an electric finish. At 8.47pm on a Sunday, under floodlights, in front of 33,923 spectators, Australia squeezed out a victory over New Zealand that was far tenser than the one-sided World Cup final between the same countries, eight months ago to the day. Chasing 187, Australia eked out their last two runs through Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc, who could barely jog given the stress fracture in his foot.The three-wicket win was confirmed as Siddle punched one past point off Tim Southee, Starc hobbling through to give Australia a 2-0 win in the series. By the end, New Zealand had six slips; it was all or nothing for Brendon McCullum’s men, a five-wicket haul from Trent Boult having given them a chance. For a while Australia were doing it easier, but a couple of late wickets brought the Test back to life.Shaun Marsh steered Australia to within 11 of their goal but when he edged to slip for 49 off Boult, New Zealand had a sniff. In Boult’s next over he claimed Peter Nevill, whose inside edge was snapped up sharply by BJ Watling. Australia still needed two, and surprisingly Starc limped to the crease ahead of Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon. A Siddle straight drive off Southee crashed into the stumps at the bowler’s end, adding to the tension, before the winning runs came.It was a breathless end to an experimental match, and there will certainly be more day-night Tests in future. The match crowd of 123,736 was an all-time Adelaide Oval record for a non-Ashes Test, despite the fact that the game lasted only three days. The low scores were more the result of batsmen failing to knuckle down than of the pink ball doing anything untoward; in all four innings the ball held its colour well, and there was appropriate swing and seam movement.The longest individual innings of the Test was the 117-ball effort of Shaun Marsh in Australia’s chase. He walked to the crease hoping the result of this match was in his hands, and certain that his own Test future was. At 32, on his sixth chance at Test cricket, and having been run out for 2 in the first innings, this was it. Australia’s captain and vice-captain had just departed. New Zealand had the momentum. At 3 for 66, Australia needed 121 more runs.New Zealand confidently appealed for an lbw from Marsh’s first ball but he had managed an inside edge on to his pad off Boult. His start might have been nervy but he survived. Marsh began to find a few runs here and there, helped along by a short one from Mark Craig that was cut to the boundary. His confidence grew, as did his calm. A 49-run stand with Adam Voges steadied Australia, until Boult induced an edge to slip from Voges on 28.The Marsh brothers then found themselves batting together for Australia for the first time in any format. What a time for it to happen. Mitchell Marsh survived some shaky moments and the brothers put on 46, pushing Australia to within sight of the win. For a while it looked as if they were going to be together to score the winning runs in a Test; Steve and Mark Waugh batted together 73 times in Test cricket but managed that achievement only once.However, Mitchell became overconfident after lifting Mitchell Santner for a six, and next ball holed out to mid-on for 28 trying another lusty blow. It looked like Shaun would have to get Australia home on his own, but his edge off Boult sent palpitations through both camps. In the end, New Zealand just hadn’t set Australia quite enough, despite the low-scoring nature of the match.The bowlers at least made Australia work hard for it, Boult especially asking more questions of them than a TV quiz show host. Boult led the attack outstandingly, swinging the ball in to trap Joe Burns lbw for 11 and then adding Steven Smith in a similar manner for 14. Just before Smith fell, David Warner’s streaky innings ended when he edged to slip off Doug Bracewell for 35. Australia lost their first three wickets for 66, but the rest of the order did just enough.They could thank Hazlewood for ensuring the target was gettable. His career-best 6 for 70 – and nine wickets for the Test – made him Man of the Match, and he stepped up as leader of the attack in the absence of the injured Starc. New Zealand added 92 to their overnight total for the loss of their last five wickets, three of which were claimed by Hazlewood.He started the day by having Watling caught at second slip without adding to his overnight score of 7, but Australia’s hopes of a swift end to the innings were dashed by debutant Mitchell Santner. He top scored with 45 and looked confident throughout his innings, striking five fours and one six, and compiling useful partnerships with both Craig and Bracewell.Craig managed 15 before he gave Hazlewood a five-for by edging behind and Santner looked set for a half-century when he lofted Lyon over long-on for a six that took him to 45. However, Lyon outfoxed him two deliveries later, dragging his length back to turn one past the advancing Santner, who was stumped. In spite of the rush of blood – and of a dropped catch later in the day when Smith skied one to midwicket – Santner’s debut was impressive.Southee holed out for 13 off Mitchell Marsh and Bracewell was left unbeaten on 27 when Hazlewood ended the innings by bowling Boult just before tea. It meant Australia faced a tricky chase and would have to bat in the swinging evening conditions but they were good enough – just. And a memorable end to Test cricket’s first day-nighter was set to play out.

Rogers signs with Victoria

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Chris Rogers is now a Victoria player © Getty Images
 

Chris Rogers has confirmed he will play for Victoria in 2008-09, ending days of speculation after he left Western Australia and was chased by the Bushrangers, South Australia and Queensland. The announcement completes an eventful week for Rogers, who was axed from Cricket Australia’s 25-man squad of contracted players on Wednesday.Rogers left the Warriors because he felt “stale” after a decade in Perth. He was also frustrated by the lack of opportunities he was given in their one-day side, which contributed to him losing his national contract as he was considered a Test-only player.”The decision to leave the WACA and my home town of Perth was not one I made lightly,” Rogers said. “I have many fond memories of my time there and wish to thank all those who have helped me achieve what I have so far in my career.”Equally, I’m looking forward to a fresh start with Victoria. They’ve proved they’re a quality side in making each of the three interstate finals and I’m really keen to make a strong contribution to the top order, and more generally within the squad. I feel I have plenty to offer the Bushrangers and will also be doing my best to create further opportunities with the Australian team.”Rogers, 30, made his Test debut at the WACA in January, scoring 4 and 15. He finished the Pura Cup season with 744 runs at 43.76 in 2007-08, a year after compiling an imposing 1202 runs at 70.70. However, the national selectors chose only two specialist openers in their squad for the next year, Phil Jaques and Matthew Hayden, and they believe other contracted players like Simon Katich, Shaun Marsh and Brad Hodge could also step into the role.Rogers, who is in England preparing for a county season with Derbyshire, adds significant strength to Victoria’s top order. The Bushrangers lost the Pura Cup final to New South Wales and their opening combination was the least stable part of the side all summer.Cameron White, the Victoria captain, said Rogers would be a valuable addition. “The top of the order in four-day cricket is somewhere we’ve probably struggled to find some consistency,” White said. “Hopefully he would give us that. He’s a player that’s played Test cricket for Australia now, he’s a proven player.”David Hussey, one of the state’s middle-order stars, described Rogers as a “classy batsman”. “[He is a] quality player, quality bloke,” Hussey said, “and would fit into our culture perfectly.”

'Pakistan went off the ball' – Jennings

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Rain may have forced play on the reserve day, but South Africa coach Ray Jennings believes Pakistan did themselves in by taking excess breaks while batting on Friday © George Binoy
 

After a wait that seemed interminable on the reserve day, the momentum inthe semi-final swung South Africa’s way off the very first ball. PieterMalan had one more delivery to complete the 19th over of Pakistan’s innings and he strayed down leg side. The wicketkeeper Bradley Barnes moved quickly to cover the lineof the ball and, once Umar Amin had overbalanced, he whipped the bailsoff in a trice to stump the batsman even as the umpire signalled wide. Somepeople called it a lucky break but South Africa’s coach Ray Jennings saidit was anything but.”We set out to try and control the first ten balls today,” Jennings said. “The wicketkeeper was picked because he was the best in the country and he can stand up to someone like Wayne Parnell [the left-arm medium-fast bowler]. You haven’t seen the best of him yet, he can stand up to the stumps from the first ball.”Barnes has been standing up to the stumps to South Africa’s medium-pacers once the shine wears off. On Saturday, the ploy of having fielders in the circle worked as several Pakistan batsmen holed out while trying to clear the in-field.”I always believed that if we got a score like 260, no side is going to bat second and beat us,” Jennings said. “The only way they could have beaten us was if the rain affected the game through some sort of calculation. Nine out of ten times teams don’t make that score. We really bowled badly last night to start off with but I was quite confident that it was a matter of time before Pakistan collapsed.”The situation overnight though was precarious. Had there been seven more balls, the game would have been decided by the Duckworth/Lewis method and there would have been no need to come back on the reserve day. When play was called off, Pakistan needed five runs off seven balls to win the game on the D/L method, albeit without losing a wicket. Jennings felt Pakistan had read the situation poorly, for there were frequent interruptions which slowed down the pace of the game and hindered the completion of 20 overs.”Pakistan really went off the ball last night,” Jennings said. “They interrupted the game 4-5 times with [by calling for] batting gloves and water. So if they hadn’t done that they might have played the final. I think they interrupted themselves and paid the penalty.”The South Africans, however, were extremely pleased with the game going into the reserve day for as JJ Smuts, the opening batsman said: “It’s much easier to score six an over off 20 overs. It’s difficult to do over 50. In a shorter game the chances become a lot tighter. We backed ourselves to win if we played a full 50 overs to win the game.”

A brutal game: Tahlia McGrath opens up on form struggle

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Australia vice-captain Tahlia McGrath has admitted she is going through the toughest period of her career, low on confidence after a difficult World Cup.Left without a ODI or T20 World Cup trophy for the first time in eight years, Australia return to the field in February with a home multi-format series against India.Dumped out of the ODI World Cup by eventual-champions India in the semi-finals last month, Australia’s next global event is a T20 World Cup in England in June.McGrath finds herself at an interesting juncture, having deputised for Alyssa Healy and led the team 15 times since 2022. She and Ashleigh Gardner are the two main options to replace Healy as captain when the wicketkeeper retires.But at the same time McGrath is open with her own form struggles, after limited opportunities with bat and ball in a World Cup where she scored 69 runs at 13.75.”Cricket’s a pretty brutal game and it’s very much based around confidence,” McGrath said.  “And when it’s not going your way, the world gets pretty big on you. I definitely underperformed and felt the pressure a bit.”Asked if it had been the toughest period of her career, the 30-year-old indicated it was.”Probably. I think you add captaincy into that, you add time away from home,” McGrath said. “And, obviously, when you lose a World Cup, it’s pretty hard to get over as well. It’s been a challenging time.”As much as I was doing everything possible to get us playing some finals cricket [in the WBBL], I was hanging out for a bit of a break.”McGrath opted against nominating for next month’s WPL in India, allowing her a rare stint with South Australia before the multi-format series against India.She has also refrained from picking up a bat since the WBBL ended a fortnight ago, ahead of 50-over cricket resuming for South Australia next month.”It’s properly distancing myself at the moment,” she said. “There’s not much point in me picking up a bat.”I wouldn’t achieve much. So, it’s get away from the game, go for walks along the beach, play a bit of golf, see some friends and family.  And just refresh, get that energy back and put in the work after Christmas.”McGrath has spent the past year adapting to playing as a No.7 in ODIs and No.6 in T20Is, leaving her batting in just half of Australia’s World Cup games. But the desire remains to go back up the order, where she has previously starred.”I’m a very team-first person, and love being in the XI and contributing,” McGrath said. “I haven’t quite nailed that No.7 spot, so I probably need to go away and do a bit of work on that and make that my own first of all. Then once I can do that, try and get myself up the order.”

Collier backs English version of IPL

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David Collier: ‘We believe that an English Premier League will be very successful including a broad range of cricketers.” © Getty Images
 

David Collier, the ECB chief executive, has said it will be very hard for England’s top players to take part in future Indian Premier League (IPL) tournaments because of the international schedule. He added that the ECB was preparing to adapt their domestic Twenty20 Cup to attract more leading players and offer an alternative to the IPL.”It is a question of finding periods of the year for this [the IPL] to take place,” he told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek show. “We are one of the few countries who play in June, that is why our competitions are so successful because we can attract the best players in the world. That is why we believe that an English Premier League will be very successful including a broad range of cricketers.”An expanded Twenty20 Cup is on the agenda of the ECB meeting this week and changes could take place as early as this season’s tournament in June. An increase in overseas players is one option on the table with more drastic changes being discussed for the 2009 event.Recently, Kevin Pietersen has said that frustration is growing that England players are unable to take advantage of the money on offer. Dimitri Mascarenhas is the only representative from England, have coming to a deal with Hampshire who will release him for two weeks.There has been talk of the IPL being brought forward so it doesn’t clash with the start of the English domestic season, but there isn’t much room in a congested calendar. “The obvious time for the IPL to play is April and May, but that clashes with the start of our international season,” said Collier.”We play New Zealand on May 15 in England, for our players to take part their schedule has to come forward a few weeks to fit into that calendar. We should also not forget that we go to the West Indies in the spring of next year. The IPL has said that the tours programmes will take precedence, and clearly that will clash with us being in the West Indies.”Collier also said that it will take time to find out how commercially successful the IPL will be and that it will have to operate at a loss for some time. “Certainly if you look over a five-to-10-year period, we can believe the claims that Indian cricket is worth a billion dollars,” he said. “But there are 10 franchises, and every one has a turnover of about eight million dollars, it is being said in India that those franchises will be making a loss for a number of years.”That is not unusual, in the US when franchises start, they make losses for a number of years. But if you are investing in such numbers, you expect a return in the not-too-distant future, and that will happen in India. But it will not be for a while.”

Many thanks to Auckland

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Comeback kid: James Anderson returned in style with five wickets after spending time with Auckland © Getty Images
 

Bowler of the dayJames Anderson was a left-field selection for this match. Everyone predicted that Stuart Broad would replace Steve Harmison, but no-one truly imagined that Matthew Hoggard would also be sent to the dog-house. Even so, Anderson was the “captain” of England’s bowling during their summer series against India, and their Man of the Series to boot, with 14 wickets and a five-for at Lord’s. As far as Peter Moores is concerned, his time is now. Doubtless it helped that Anderson spent four days up at Auckland last week, finding his match fitness with 38 arduous overs in an innings defeat. The benefits of that work-out were fully apparent in a spectacular day’s work, much to New Zealand’s chagrin.Delivery of the dayAnderson is not a like-for-like replacement for Hoggard. On the credit side he is quicker, on the debit side he is more erratic, but when he’s on song, he is capable of bowling balls that no cricketer in the world can keep out. Matthew Bell discovered that in Anderson’s first over of the morning, when he was turned inside-out by a beauty that swung in at pace, pitched and seamed past the edge to clip the outside of his off stump. There’s no answer for that in the coaching manual. It makes you wonder why he insisted on banging it halfway down the track all through the one-dayers.Edge of the dayThere were a few flying around today – five catches in the cordon and two drops as well – but as far as Tim Ambrose is concerned, there’s only one that counts, and that was the one that flew off his splice through the vacant third slip and away to the boundary to bring up his maiden Test century. Rooted on 97 overnight, he had had to endure two of the finest maiden overs that Jacob Oram can ever have bowled – one to end last night’s play and the other to resume the ordeal this morning, and Oram thought he had his man when he jagged a lifter off the seam and past Ross Taylor’s outstretched hand. But Ambrose was not to be denied, as he became the first English wicketkeeper to score an overseas century since Alec Stewart at Auckland 11 years ago.Take of the dayAmbrose’s hundred was an innings of remarkable confidence and aggression, but then so were those of Matt Prior and Geraint Jones before him. The real reason for excitement about England’s latest wicketkeeper is that his glovework appears, at this early stage of his career, to be second-to-none. He was blemish-free on debut in Hamilton, and so far in this innings has taken every chance that has flown his way. The most impressive effort, however, came off a Stuart Broad short ball that climbed violently past Taylor’s nose. Ambrose – all five foot six of him – timed his leap to perfection, hung for an eternity, and plucked the ball in a single outstretched glove.Fielder of the dayMonty Panesar has improved his fielding no end from the Bambi-legged bundle of nerves who first took the field at Nagpur two years ago. But he’s still prone to the occasional moment when he’d prefer the ground to swallow him up. Such as the moment in the 28th over when Taylor drove speculatively towards him at mid-off, only for the ball to bounce straight through Monty’s legs and away to the boundary. Or the moment in the 34th over when Stephen Fleming hurtled for a suicidal single and Monty fumbled the (admittedly poor) throw from Kevin Pietersen. Or the moment in the 53rd over when Daniel Vettori clipped Collingwood to fine leg where Monty, yep, let it through his legs. Two balls later, at the start of the new over, Collingwood struck to remove the tailender, Mark Gillespie, so perhaps we’ll let him pretend that last one was a plan.Rearguard of the dayDaniel Vettori is better than a mere No. 8 batsman these days. Much better. In fact, since New Zealand’s tour of Australia in November 2004, he has averaged 46.18 in 22 Tests, which is nearly 20 runs better than his career mark of 27.65. He made a critical 88 in Hamilton, but his unbeaten 50 in this innings was arguably even better, seeing as he lost Brendon McCullum early and had to marshall the tail as well as give the ball some humpty. No shot was better than the extraordinary flick for six that brought up his half-century. He simply leant back and dabbed the ball up and over the slips, and the pace and bounce of Broad did the hard work for him.Disappointment of the dayThe Wellington crowd is probably 80% English, but there are still enough Kiwis around who realise that Fleming has never yet scored a Test century on his home ground, and that – with his retirement looming – this is his last chance to correct that statistical anomaly. Today’s innings, sadly, was a struggle. He needed a bagful of luck to get as far as he did, as he inside-edged over his middle stump and earned a reprieve from Collingwood at slip. But just when it seemed he’d got over the worst, he produced the worst shot of the lot, a limp waft outside off – half cut, half leave – that looped ever so gently to Pietersen at point. Fleming did at least pass 7000 runs in his innings. His next target is 7160, which will guarantee him a career average of 40. He currently has 7016 …

Abhishek Sharma named in Punjab's Vijay Hazare Trophy squad

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Abhishek Sharma has been named in Punjab’s 16-man Vijay Hazare Trophy squad, which begins its campaign against Maharashtra on December 24, while Shubman Gill and Arshdeep Singh will join the squad at a later stage*, Punjab Cricket Association [PCA] has announced.Punjab have selected a strong group of power-hitters and allrounders, including Prabhsimran Singh, Naman Dhir, Anmolpreet Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Sanvir Singh and Harpreet Brar. Gurnoor Brar and Krish Bhagat will lead the pace attack.The extent of Gill, Abhishek and Arshdeep’s availability remains unclear, with India scheduled to play three ODIs against New Zealand starting January 11, followed by five T20Is from January 21. Gill, recently dropped from India’s T20I squad for the T20 World Cup and the New Zealand T20Is, is set to captain the ODI side, while Abhishek and Arshdeep are part of the T20I squad.Related

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  • Leaving Gill out: did India pivot for the right reasons?

Punjab, last season’s losing quarter-finalists, will play all seven of their league matches in Jaipur. Arshdeep was their leading wicket-taker in the 2024-25 edition. Their group includes Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Goa and Mumbai, with league-stage fixtures concluding on January 8, three days before India’s first ODI.Punjab have not named a captain in the official squad announcement.

Punjab’s Vijay Hazare Trophy squad

Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Harnoor Pannu, Anmolpreet Singh, Uday Saharan, Naman Dhir, Salil Arora (wk), Sanvir Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Jashanpreet Singh, Gurnoor Brar, Harpreet Brar, Raghu Sharma, Krish Bhagat, Gourav Choudhary, Sukhdeep Bajwa