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Fast bowler Duanne Olivier has been released from South Africa’s Test squad ahead of the third Test against New Zealand, which starts on March 25 in Hamilton

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Mar-2017Fast bowler Duanne Olivier has been released from South Africa’s Test squad ahead of the third Test against New Zealand, which starts on March 25 in Hamilton. The move left South Africa with only Wayne Parnell as back-up to the quicks – Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander, and Morne Morkel. Chris Morris had been released from the squad midway through the second Test in Wellington.South Africa’s spin department, however, has been bolstered by the addition of offspinner Dane Piedt, who joined the squad last weekend.Olivier, 24, made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in Johannesburg in January this year, claiming match figures of 5 for 57 in South Africa’s innings victory. Olivier will now have to wait until at least July, when South Africa tour England, to add to his maiden Test cap.

Ireland were knocked out of the World T20, after persistent rain resulted in another washout against Bangladesh in Dharamsala

The Report by Mohammad Isam11-Mar-2016Match abandoned
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsTamim Iqbal blitzed a quickfire 47, but rain had the final say•Associated Press

Ireland were knocked out of the World T20, after persistent rain resulted in another washout against Bangladesh in Dharamsala. Play was called off at 10:20pm local time, after rain had stopped the game after eight overs in the Bangladesh innings.This result means the Bangladesh-Oman encounter on Saturday will decide who goes through from Group A, with both teams on three points each while Netherlands and Ireland are on one point each.The match was always at the mercy of the weather after rain forced the Oman-Netherlands game earlier in the afternoon to be abandoned. Rain had stopped at around 7:30pm and allowed the match to start at 9:45pm, but it relented for just over an hour.Bangladesh’s innings started like it did against Netherlands, with a dropped catch of Soumya Sarkar in the first over. This time it was Andy McBrine who spilled the chance at deep midwicket. McBrine also conceded four overthrows in the next over before Tamim Iqbal took to the Ireland bowlers with muscular hits.In the same over, he walked across to the off side to swing Boyd Rankin for a whipped six over fine leg before bunting him down the ground for four to get 16 runs from the over. Bangladesh were quickly up and running.Tim Murtagh was also hit for a six over mid-off, and four through the covers in the next over. Sarkar then struck three fours off Kevin O’Brien, an over that went for 19, the second of which was dropped by Rankin at mid-off. The third boundary was a scoop which completed Bangladesh’s first fifty-plus opening stand in two years.Tamim welcomed McBrine into the bowling attack with a straight blast for six before the offspinner had Sarkar stumped for 20 off 13 balls. Bangladesh were 63 for 1 in five overs before George Dockrell, who replaced Craig Young, was reverse swept for four off his first ball. Tamim survived a stumping chance off the next delivery before Sabbir Rahman slammed McBrine for a straight six in the next over.Tamim struck his fourth six in the eight over and three balls later was caught by the Ireland captain William Porterfield at short midwicket, having made 47 off 26 balls with three fours and four sixes.Rain, accompanied by lightning, interrupted play again as Tamim trudged off, depriving Ireland of a shot to redeem themselves.

The final of the Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier between Sri Lanka and Pakistan will conclude on Thursday after heavy showers in Dublin meant only the first innings was completed amid persistent rain

Ryan Bailey in Dublin31-Jul-2013
ScorecardNain Abidi top-scored with 45•ICC/Ian Jacobs

The final of the Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier between Sri Lanka and Pakistan will conclude on Thursday after heavy showers in Dublin meant only the first innings was completed amid persistent rain.Sri Lanka will require 113 runs to win when the sides return to the YMCA Ground on the reserve day but, with the forecast showing similar conditions for tomorrow, tournament organisers will be sweating about getting the showpiece final completed.Chandima Gunaratne continued her fine form with the ball as she took 2 for 7 off her four overs to restrict Pakistan to 112 for 5 during their rain-interrupted innings, despite well-constructed knocks from Nain Abidi and Bismah Maroof.However, after playing through light drizzle for the majority of the first innings, the umpires were forced to call a halt to proceedings as heavier rain left the Sandymount ground saturated.Sri Lanka’s captain Shashikala Siriwardene opted to bowl first in overcast conditions when she won the toss and her decision was quickly justified as the bowlers extracted movement both through the air and off the pitch.After breaking the shackles with a couple of boundaries, Javeria Khan departed for 11, giving Gunaratne her eighth wicket of the tournament.The wicket of Nahida Khan in the sixth over for 8 only brought Maroof to the crease as she scored a run-a-ball thirty-five to add some much needed impetus to the innings. But a brief, ten-minute interruption in the 17th over halted some of their momentum as three wickets were lost in the final over.Abidi was one of them. She had showed grit and determination to battle through difficult conditions early in her innings and revealed some deft strokeplay before she fell to Chamani Seneviratna as Sri Lanka completed the innings on a high.

Ross Taylor is confident he will return from injury earlier than anticipated, but it will still be too late to revive New Zealand’s one-day hopes unless they can stay alive in the series in St Kitts on Wednesday

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jul-2012Ross Taylor is confident he will return from injury earlier than anticipated, but it will still be too late to revive New Zealand’s one-day hopes unless they can stay alive in the series in St Kitts on Wednesday. Taylor is recovering from a shoulder injury he sustained during the first Twenty20 loss to West Indies in Florida, and he has been batting in the nets over the past two days.Initially, Taylor said the problem would keep him out for “anywhere between two and six weeks”, but ten days after suffering the injury he is already gearing up for a return. It remains to be seen whether that will be during the one-day series, which finishes on Monday, or for the first Test, which begins in two weeks.”It was my first net against the quicks [today],” Taylor said in St Kitts on Tuesday. “I had the spinners yesterday. It was nice to get out there. It was a little bit better today. There’s still a little bit of pain there but if I can keep improving like I have every day then I’m every chance of hopefully playing a little bit earlier than I was first expecting when I first heard about the injury.”In Taylor’s absence, the captaincy duties have fallen to the young batsman Kane Williamson, who has not yet found a way to deliver victory to a side that is struggling. However, Williamson scored 58 in the second ODI in Jamaica on Saturday, and Taylor has been impressed with the way he has handled the responsibility of leading a squad in which only two players, Doug Bracewell and Tom Latham, are younger than him.”He’s been great. He’s only young, and to come out here and captain guys who are a lot older than him is always a little bit intimidating,” Taylor said. “But the players respect him. He’s got a good cricket brain and the way he batted in the last game showed what a mature player he is. Hopefully for his own confidence he can continue that form with the bat and hopefully everyone else can rally around him and give him that first win which will give him a lot of confidence.”I’ve talked to him quite a bit. He’s been very forthcoming with asking questions and picking my brain. Hopefully he has learnt a lot. He’s got my full support and hopefully he can continue the way he’s going so far.”New Zealand must win on Wednesday to keep the five-match series alive, after West Indies took a 2-0 lead in Jamaica over the past week. Should New Zealand fail, it will be their first loss to West Indies in a bilateral ODI series in ten years, and Taylor believes the side has the ability to turn their form around.”We’ve just got to forget about the last two games and try and be as confident as possible,” he said. “When you do lose 2-0 you start second guessing yourself a little bit, but we’ve got to be as positive as possible and know that our performance in every game so far has been slightly better.”

Keaton Jennings has been retained as captain for South Africa Under-19’s tour of England in July 2011

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jun-2011Keaton Jennings has been retained as captain for South Africa Under-19’s tour of England in July 2011. Jennings is part of a 15-man squad that will play seven youth ODIs, starting at Edgbaston on July 16 and travelling on to Northampton, Arundel Castle in West Sussex, Taunton and Canterbury.The touring group also includes Quinton de Kock, who was Man of the Series award during Zimbabwe Under-19’s tour of South Africa in January this year, Malcolm Nofal, who has displayed plenty of all-round potential for the Gauteng Strikers, and several players with first-class experience. Ray Jennings, Keaton’s father and the former coach of the national side, will be head coach on the tour, while Shaheed Alexander and Geoffrey Toyana are his assistants.The tour will form an important part of the team’s preparation for the Under-19 World Cup, which will take place in Australia next year. Eleven players in this squad are eligible to play.”This tour is a very important component of the CSA [Cricket South Africa] Pipeline process,” said CSA Schools Cricket manager Niels Momberg. “This group were all identified some years ago and put through various levels of coaching and playing levels.”SA Under-19 squad Keaton Jennings (capt), Gihahn Cloete, Quinton de Kock (wk), Corne Dry, Rabian Engelbrecht, Malcolm Nofal, Lesiba Ngoepe, Duanne Olivier, Shaylin Pillay, James Price, Diego Rosier, Calvin Savage, Prenelan Subrayen, Regardt Verster, Lizaad Williams.

Pakistan opening batsman Imran Nazir, who was omitted for the ICC World Twenty20 and the ongoing Asia Cup, has said his early initiation into international cricket, at the age of 17, has done more harm to his career than good

Cricinfo staff16-Jun-2010Pakistan opening batsman Imran Nazir, who was omitted for the ICC World Twenty20 and the ongoing Asia Cup, has said his early initiation into international cricket, at the age of 17, has done more harm to his career than good.Nazir made his Pakistan debut in 1999 as a dashing opening batsman and an electric fielder, but over the years he wasn’t able to cement his position in the Test and ODI side. Nazir was regarded more as a one-day specialist, but in his 79 ODIs so far has averaged only 24.61. He played the last of his eight Tests back in 2002.”The truth is I was not ready for international cricket at that time, my technique was faulty and I didn’t have the mental strength or understanding of the game,” Nazir told . “Now that I have began to understand how international cricket needs to be played I have been dropped from the national team.”Nazir’s international career came to a standstill in 2008 when he joined the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League along with several Pakistan players. He was among the leading performers for the Lahore Badshahs but his stint lasted just one season after he and the league’s players returned to the official fold.He made a comeback to the one-day squad during the tour of Sri Lanka last year, but in five ODIs since his return , he has scored only 111 runs, with no fifty. He scored a half-century in a Twenty20 against New Zealand in Dubai, but in the two-match Twenty20 series against England in the UAE, he scored just 2 and 4 and was dropped for the World Twenty20.His aggressive approach has often cost him his wicket, and Nazir has admitted that he needs to reassess his style of play.”I am a more mature batsman now and if I get a chance to play again for Pakistan I will play in sensible fashion and cement my place in the team,” Nazir said. “I am ready to curb my natural instincts to play again for Pakistan.”But now after a lot of ups and downs in 11 years of international cricket I realise a batsman with limited range of shots cannot survive. Plus your shot selection has to be sensible, you must have the patience to wait for the bad ball to hit, not try a slog every ball as I used to do previously.”The Pakistan selectors have, traditionally, blooded several young players in their teens, including Hasan Raza, who at 14 was the world’s youngest Test cricketer. Nazir feels it’s always beneficial to give a player a decent run in domestic cricket before rushing him.”I would say a player must be given time in domestic cricket before he is blooded in international cricket. Give him time to adjust and understand the game.”

Marcus Stoinis returns having missed the England series while Matt Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk could form a new opening pair

Alex Malcolm14-Oct-2024Australia captain Pat Cummins will prepare for the upcoming Test summer by leading the ODI series against Pakistan while Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head will both miss the three-match contest for paternity leave.Cummins has been named captain of Australia’s 14-man squad that was announced on Monday for the series that begins on November 4 at the MCG. The squad is missing Marsh and Head who both have babies due in the coming weeks. Cameron Green who has been ruled out of the summer after opting for back surgery.Cummins is unlikely to play a Sheffield Shield game before the five-Test series against India. He will instead get all his preparation in via 50-over cricket. He will likely play a one-day domestic fixture for New South Wales on October 25 before captaining the first ODI.It remains to be seen whether Cummins will play all three ODIs against Pakistan given there is just a one-day break between the second and the third matches in Adelaide and Perth with a lengthy flight in between. Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc have also been named in the ODI squad but it appears likely that the bowling attack will be rotated as both Hazlewood and Starc are hoping to play at least one Shield match before the ODIs.Related

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“This is our last ODI series before the Champions Trophy and the balance of the squad was focussed on that as well as continuing to focus on preparation of individuals for the upcoming Test summer,” chair of selectors George Bailey said. “The one-day side had a great result in the UK particularly given illness and injury challenges. We view this is an opportunity to expand on that achievement in preparation for next February in Pakistan.”Marcus Stoinis makes his ODI return having not played since the 2023 World Cup. He was not selected for the ODI portion of the tour of the UK but did play in the T20I series against Scotland and England. Stoinis currently doesn’t have a state or CA contract, although he is close to qualifying for an upgrade, and hasn’t played in any domestic one-day matches for Western Australia at the start of the summer. But he remains in the plans for the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, especially now given Green’s injury and will be a key all-round figure alongside the emerging Aaron Hardie if Australia want to play an allrounder-heavy XI.Josh Inglis is the sole wicketkeeper in the squad with the in-form Alex Carey left out for the Pakistan series despite strong performances against England on his ODI return.The absence of Head and Marsh will open the door for a new opening combination with Matthew Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk a good chance to combine throughout the series. Short was one of Australia’s shining lights on the tour of the UK while Fraser-McGurk did not get a chance in the ODIs but looks set to play in the upcoming series.Cooper Connolly, who made his ODI debut in England, is the only player named in both the ODI and the Australia A squad for two four-day matches against India A that clash with the ODI series. The first four-day game in Mackay ends on November 3 ahead of the first ODI on November 4 while the second four-day game at the MCG runs from November 7-10 with the second and third ODIs being played on November 8 and 10. Connolly appears likely to play the first Australia A game before joining the ODI squad for the second match.Australia are yet to name the T20I squad for the three-match series that follows the ODIs against Pakistan. None of Australia’s Test players will play in that series which runs from November 14 to 18 as they will rest for the first Test which starts on November 22.That will mean Australia will need a new T20I captain given Marsh, Head and Cummins won’t feature. They will also have a different coaching staff as head coach Andrew McDonald and a number of his assistants will sit out to prepare for India.

Australia ODI squad vs Pakistan

Pat Cummins (capt), Sean Abbott, Cooper Connolly, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

Mohali and Indore are among venues to get two games after missing out on World Cup hosting rights

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jul-2023Mohali, Indore, Rajkot and Visakhapatnam will host two games each during India’s 2023-24 home season, which will feature series against Australia (three ODIs and five T20Is), Afghanistan (three T20Is) and England (five Tests). The BCCI may have awarded extra games to these four venues since they are missing out on the ODI World Cup in October-November.Among other venues that missed out on the World Cup, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati, Nagpur and Ranchi will also host matches during the 2023-24 bilateral season. Of the cities that are set to host World Cup games, only Hyderabad – where Australia will play one T20I and England one Test – Bengaluru and Dharamsala have been awarded bilateral games.With the bilateral calendar skewed away from the traditional venues, England will play none of their five Tests at India’s five biggest cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru). Instead, their tour will take them to Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi and Dharamsala. All five of these grounds have hosted five Tests or fewer.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

India’s first assignment in this home season is the ODI series against Australia, scheduled to run from September 22 to 27 in the immediate lead-up to the World Cup. The T20I series begins on November 23, four days after the World Cup final, and runs until December 3.After this, India are scheduled to tour South Africa for three T20Is (December 10 to 14), three ODIs (December 17 to 21) and two Tests (December 26-30 and January 3-7). They will get only a three-day break before the home T20I series against Afghanistan from January 11 to 17. This will be Afghanistan’s first-ever white-ball bilateral series against India. Their only previous match against India in India was their inaugural Test match in June 2018. India has, however, served as Afghanistan’s “home” venue in bilateral series against Ireland, Bangladesh and West Indies.It’s likely that a number of India’s Test players will get a break from the Afghanistan T20Is, allowing them to recuperate ahead of the first Test against England, which begins on January 25. That series is scheduled to run until March 11, with eight-day gaps between the second and third Tests and the fourth and fifth Tests.

The series is now level at 1-1, with three games to go

ESPNcricinfo staff19-May-2022Namibia 124 for 2 (Williams 62*, Erasmus 36) beat Zimbabwe 122 for 8 (Shumba 29, Wiese 3-27, Frylinck 2-17) by 8 wicketsA dominant all-round performance saw Namibia ease to victory by eight wickets over Zimbabwe to level the five-match T20I series. David Wiese provided the stand-out bowling performance, taking three key Zimbabwean wickets to stymie the first innings, with the home side limping to 122 in Bulawayo. In response, Namibia were never in any real danger of falling short, with a dominant unbeaten half-century from Craig Williams shepherding the chase as the visitors cruised to victory with two overs to spare.Zimbabwe got off to a nightmare start, losing their first five wickets for 49, by which time more than 11 overs had passed. Wiese was responsible for removing opener Regis Chakabva and number three batter Craig Ervine, but there was an element of self-destruction to the Zimbabwean performance, with two run-outs thrown in to compound their worries. Milton Shumba, Tony Munyonga and Ryan Burl provided some contributions at the back-end to take the score above 120, but it never quite looked like they had given their bowlers enough to work with.Namibia began cautiously, with Luke Jongwe dismissing Divan le Cock in the sixth over, by which time they had allowed just 26 runs. However, once a partnership between Williams and captain Gerhard Erasmus developed, Namibia were soon lifted out of trouble. The pair put on 65 off 53 balls as Zimbabwe found inroads difficult to come by. The dismissal of Erasmus for a 26-ball 36, bowled by Tendai Chatara, might have raised hopes of an unlikely comeback, but in Wiese, Namibia had someone with the experience and quality to see the game through.