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Smriti Mandhana has admitted that playing a day-night Test had been inconceivable to her until the announcement of India Women’s first-ever pink-ball Test, against Australia later this year.”Frankly, when I used to watch day-night Tests of men, I actually never felt that I will be able to experience this moment – it’s wrong to say ‘I’ at the moment – that the Indian team will be able to experience the moment,” Mandhana told ESPNcricinfo. “So, when it got declared, I was like, ‘Oh, wow. That’s going to be crazy.'”Related

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The day-night Test against Australia, part of a multi-format seven-match tour, is scheduled from September 30 to October 3 at the WACA Ground in Perth, the venue for first ever international fixture between the two teams, a one-off Test in January 1977. The pink-ball Test will be India’s first four-day fixture (the standard length of women’s Tests) against Australia since 2006 and their second Test match this year, with a one-off Test against England scheduled to take place next month in Bristol.”I remember playing my first day-night one-day or T20 match,” Mandhana said. “I was pretty excited, like a small kid. I was like, ‘Wow, we’ll be able to play a day-night match’ and all of that.”Now that we are going to play a day-night match, [we have] lots of things to work on but [there’s a] lot of excitement…excitement about being part of a day-night Test match, and that too in Australia, against Australia; it’s always a good challenge. It’s going to be a great moment for the Indian women’s cricket team.”Mandhana’s only two Test appearances date back to 2014, when India last played the longest format. She debuted in the Wormsley Test against England in August that year and featured against South Africa in Mysore three months later. India won both Tests, by six wickets and 34 runs respectively.Smriti Mandhana made her Test debut during India’s victory over England in Wormsley back in 2014•Getty Images

A frontline opener for India across formats, Mandhana, who is currently serving a pre-England-tour mandatory quarantine with the India squad in Mumbai, said the excitement around playing a Test for the first time since 2014 remained unparalleled.”When we got to know of the first Test, against England, the whole team was really excited,” Mandhana said. “We all were looking forward [to it]. The last Test match I was part of was in 2014, so it’s been quite a long time, we haven’t gone out in whites, so that excitement of playing a Test match [after nearly seven years] was on another level.”At the domestic level, the last multi-day women’s tournament in India – the 2017-2018 Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal Three-Day Game, was held in March-April 2018, in Thiruvananthapuram. Mandhana didn’t feature in that ten-match competition as she had been on national duty at the time for home series against Australia and England.When asked if the lack of familiarity with the pink ball could be a concern around India’s preparedness heading into the Australia tour, Mandhana said the focus at present was the Test against England starting June 16.”It’s too early at the moment,” she said. “It’s just going to be a process. You have to get adapted to it. It’s too early for us to start the pink-ball preparations because the match is three-four months later.”At the moment it’s more about the England Test match, the Dukes ball and all of that stuff, so let’s see.”

Kent were all out for 74 in their second innings and beaten in two days by Glamorgan in the LV= Insurance County Championship.Darren Stevens celebrated his 45th birthday with his 30th first-class five-wicket haul and figures of 5 for 53, but Glamorgan took a first-innings lead of 59 runs, which Kent only just surpassed. Glamorgan’s 39-year-old Australian seamer Michael Hogan destroyed the Kent top order with five quick wickets, leaving a meagre target for the home side.Glamorgan opener David Lloyd knocked off the 16 runs to win on his own and finished it with a six to record a 10-wicket win.A total of 18 wickets fell on day two, with Glamorgan’s overnight batters Lloyd and Billy Root two of three to fall in the half hour played in the morning session before rain brought an early lunch.Stevens bowled immaculately and trapped Lloyd leg before wicket for 62. Matthew Milnes then dismissed Root lbw and clean bowled Glamorgan captain Chris Cooke for a golden duck in consecutive deliveries. Wet weather then forced the players from the field.When the teams returned, Kiran Carlson was caught at second slip by Zak Crawley from the bowling of Stevens and Milnes accounted for Callum Taylor lbw.Stevens soon grabbed his fifth wicket when Timm van der Gugten was caught behind by Ollie Robinson. Kent’s change bowlers Miguel Cummins and Fredrick Klaassen wrapped up the Glamorgan innings just short of a batting bonus point for reaching 200.Darren Stevens celebrates his five-for•Getty Images

But Kent were quickly in trouble second time around. Opener Daniel Bell-Drummond skied an attempted pull shot off the bowling of Lukas Carey which just escaped Van der Gugten at mid-on, but Hogan did remove Jordan Cox lbw. Carey then had a huge shout for leg before against Kent’s No. 3 Crawley which was turned down.Hogan’s accuracy was relentless. He had Bell-Drummond caught behind and clean bowled England’s Crawley – who failed to play a shot – for just a single.Joe Denly was the next to go. He had nearly been run out by Carlson after dropping his bat, but was then lbw to Lloyd.Hogan had Robinson caught behind by Cooke after tea as Kent slipped to 41 for 5, still 18 runs behind. The Australian then made it five when Jack Leaning looked disappointed to be given out lbw. Stevens then took a wild hack at a Lloyd delivery and was clean bowled.Kent’s Heino Kuhn was batting with a runner due to a calf problem, but when he was lbw to Van der Gugten, his team collapsed to a paltry 74 all out, allowing Glamorgan to wrap up victory with two days to spare.

Shakib Al Hasan will not get a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the BCB to take part in the remainder of IPL 2021 for the Kolkata Knight Riders, most likely in September-October this year. Board president Nazmul Hassan has pointed to Bangladesh’s busy international schedule in that period in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in India in October-November, but could well be shifted to the UAE keeping in mind the Covid-19 situation in India.”Given our schedule, it is almost impossible (for Shakib) to get the NOC. I don’t see any possibilities, nor any opportunity. The World Cup is coming up, which makes every game important for us,” Hassan told on Sunday.Mustafizur Rahman, the only other Bangladeshi in the IPL – for the Rajasthan Royals – is also unlikely to get an NOC, given his importance in Bangladesh’s white-ball plans.Related

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After touring Zimbabwe for a Test, three ODIs and three T20Is in June-July, Bangladesh will take on Australia in five T20Is at home in July-August, and both New Zealand (three T20Is) and England (three ODIs and three T20Is) are expected to tour Bangladesh after that for white-ball matches in the lead up to the World Cup.Akram Khan, BCB’s cricket operations chairman, stressed that keeping in mind all these matches, especially the England series – where the ODIs will be a part of the World Cup Super League – it was important for all the players to train and play together. “We have to consider the team training together,” he said. “We want to go into the England series with full strength. Both the ODI Super League and the World Cup T20 are important to us.”Shakib was involved in a tussle with the BCB in March after he accused the board of “misrepresenting” his letter requesting an NOC to play in the IPL. In response, the BCB threatened to revoke his NOC, but ended up granting it. Shakib had missed the New Zealand tour in March this year because of a thigh injury and later opted out of the two-match Test series in Sri Lanka to play in the IPL. He has since skipped the PSL, opting to play in the Dhaka Premier League T20s instead.

Harshit Rana has played 16 matches for India. In nine of them, he has shared the dressing room with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. The 23-year-old fast bowler, still making his way towards being a first-choice pick, praised the influence of the two senior players and highlighted India’s team environment as “very happy.””It is a big thing for me, and for the entire team too,” Rana said on the eve of the second ODI against South Africa, on Tuesday. “If such experienced players are with you in the dressing room and on the field, the environment stays great. At this time, off the field – even dressing room – it is a happy environment for the entire team. Everyone wants to be better. In their minds, they always want youngsters to get better. When I am bowling, for example, they always tell me how to bowl better. When a player gets such a great team environment, things automatically go well.”They are always motivated – whether it is good times or bad times. They back you and tell you what next steps you should take. As a youngster, this really helps you, because when you are on the field – in a pressure situation – they help you out a lot.”Related

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Harshit broke into the Indian white-ball team as a hustle-and-bustle seam bowler with excellent slower balls. Those skills mark him out as a middle-overs specialist, but he took on a different role in the first ODI on Sunday when he opened the bowling and picked up two wickets in his first over.”With the new ball, I’ve practiced a lot with Morne [Morkel, the bowling coach], and also talk a lot with Arshdeep [Singh],” Rana said. “He has a lot of experience, and he helps me in practices by telling how I should bowl better.”Fast bowlers have also been able to pose more of a threat this year with the ICC changing the rules of ODI cricket. Though all 50-over matches start with two new balls, at the start of the 35th over, the bowling team gets to decide which one they’ll keep for the rest of the innings.”You know that the bowlers don’t get as much help in today’s cricket,” Rana said. “This rule has been very helpful for us, because that one older ball, we always keep in the back of our minds. Whichever ball is older after the 34th [over], we try and focus on that. And about choosing the ball, that all of us do. Whoever feels which ball is older.”In India, bowling is different because the variations are what you have to depend on. In each phase, you have to bowl differently in different roles: sometimes attacking, sometimes defensive.”India may be considering a change in their middle order for Wednesday with Rishabh Pant and Tilak Varma getting a long hit against net bowlers with assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate watching on.

Bangladesh batting coach Ashwell Prince expects Liton Das to be in the mix for one of the opening spots in the T20I series against New Zealand. Liton was one of two returnees to the side after missing the T20Is against Zimbabwe due to an injury and the Australia series due to a family emergency.Liton has opened in 23 out of 33 T20Is for Bangladesh, but in his absence Bangladesh have mostly used the Soumya Sarkar-Mohammad Naim pair, although they too were broken up after eight matches. After their 102-run stand against Zimbabwe in July, they hardly put a dent in the powerplays, lasting no more than 3.3 overs in the following six matches. When Mahedi Hasan was promoted in the fifth T20I against Australia, he added an encouraging 42-run stand in 4.3 overs with Naim.Prince said that finding boundaries is much harder at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, but he welcomed the competition among the openers.”Personally I am not really concerned about the opening batsmen,” Prince said. “I think we had one or two good partnerships in Zimbabwe but conditions were tough against Australia. It is not easy to score boundaries frequently as you would in pitches where the ball is coming on. Adapting to the conditions is important. Partnership would be important. I think we have a strong competition in the opening position. I am sure Liton Das will get an opportunity in this position, as well.”Prince said that the Bangladeshi batters involved in the Australia series had a discussion on how best to tackle the conditions, that is likely to be similar against New Zealand later this week.”I am expecting similar conditions against New Zealand. The batsmen from Australia series had a nice discussion yesterday, sharing with guys like Liton Das and Mushfiqur (Rahim) who didn’t play in that series.”These are experienced guys but they shared what worked and what we like to improve on from the Australia series, taking it into the New Zealand series coming up,” he said.But Prince said that Bangladesh will take these visitors lightly at their own peril. He said that New Zealand will plan better now that they have seen how Australia played here.”I think we can expect New Zealand to analyse and plan well, using the recent Australia series to learn from. They are a street-wise team who would plan meticulously against every batsmen, bowlers and pitches. They will use every bit of information to help them,” he said.

Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills’ death-bowling partnership was a key factor in Southern Brave’s triumph in the first season of the men’s Hundred and Mahela Jayawardene, their head coach, has suggested that England should look to replicate it at October’s T20 World Cup.Only Adam Milne, the standout bowler in the tournament, finished the season with a lower economy rate at the death than Jordan (1.37 runs per ball) and Mills (1.11) and Brave’s captain, James Vince, increasingly held the majority of their spells back until the death, forcing teams to take more risks against the new ball in order to get ahead of the game.They closed out a tight win against London Spirit in tandem midway through the group stages – which Jayawardene said was the “turning point” for their season after a slow start – and continued to impress in the knockout stages. In both Friday’s eliminator and Saturday’s final, their opponents anticipated the ‘backloading’ tactic but lost wickets while attacking against the new ball, meaning Mills and Jordan could close out both innings with little pressure on them.Related

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“From the beginning we knew that those two were going to be our closers, and that we needed to make sure we took it to that part of the game so that the experienced guys could close it for us,” Jayawardene said. “What we initially found difficult was the Powerplays where we weren’t picking up wickets.”We rotated a few things and conditions helped. In the play-offs, we got a fresh wicket at The Oval and luckily Craig [Overton] got released from the Test squad – we felt that he’s a very good new-ball bowler – and him and George [Garton] had a very good combination going. That allowed us to keep CJ and T to the back end.”Some of the teams realised that the back-end bowling was going to be tough so they were coming harder up front. We then realised that meant there were opportunities for us to pick up wickets and start taking control. Jake [Lintott] was brilliant in the middle, picking up regular wickets, and everyone picked their roles, fed off each other and they bowled brilliantly as a unit.”Mills was particularly effective in the knockout stages, taking 4 for 21 in 36 balls across the eliminator and the final without conceding a boundary, and ended the season as the second-most economical bowler behind Milne. He had been challenged by England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, to present “a really strong case” for T20 World Cup selection before the tournament and Jayawardene said that he would be “disappointed” to see him miss out.”I’d be disappointed if he’s not on that plane for the World Cup,” he said. “You have some amazing talent in CJ but obviously Jofra [Archer] is not going to be available for the World Cup and I think CJ and him [Mills] had a very good partnership for us. It gives England a lot of good options going into the World Cup, especially in the UAE as well.”Throughout the comp he’s been fantastic. In the last two games, the eliminator and the final, I think he bowled 40 balls for 20-odd runs and didn’t give away a single boundary. That shows the quality of T – a healthy Tymal Mills is always going to be an asset. In the shorter format of the game he knows his skills and it’s a hard skill that he’s executing.”This was Jayawardene’s fourth T20 title as a coach, following three IPLs with Mumbai Indians, and he kept up his streak of losing the opening match of the season before Brave went on a seven-match winning run to lift the trophy, although in this case, Southern Brave lost their first two games. He hailed the way his team had “managed the pressure” of needing to win almost every game, but confirmed that he has no interest in taking up a role coaching in international cricket despite his recent success.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“Ideally we would like to have a good start but we were blown away in our first game by Trent [Rockets] – completely outplayed. In Wales it was a good game [against Welsh Fire] but we made a few mistakes and realised we needed to eliminate them and the boys reacted brilliantly. The turning point was probably London [Spirit] where we defended a small total at Lord’s: we were out of the game but guys came back and defended and that belief carried through.”It wasn’t one or two guys, it was a complete unit. We’re very proud of the boys and the way they’ve managed the pressure. The last three or four games for us have pretty much been play-offs every game. We didn’t want to let our destiny to be controlled by other results. You need to peak at the business end of the tournament and we did.”Having done 18 years of international cricket as a player I don’t want to live out of a suitcase for 12 months of the year. This is a good challenge for me and it’s early days. I don’t do too many tournaments so that I have my personal time to spend back home with the family. I’m happy to help out as a consultant here and there [with Sri Lanka] but not on a full-time basis.”

Debutant Rachin Ravindra rushed through a leg-side clip in the very first over and chipped a simple return catch to offspinner Mahedi Hasan. Will Young slashed at Shakib Al Hasan and dragged a non-turning ball back onto his stumps. Colin de Grandhomme tried to slog his way out of the mess, but holed out to deep square leg – the only fielder in the deep on the leg side in the powerplay. Tom Blundell misjudged an arm ball from left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed and was also knocked over. Just like that, New Zealand lost four wickets in their first four overs of the series opener against Bangladesh, and the fall turned out to be so cataclysmic that they were rolled over for 60 – their joint-lowest total in T20I cricket.New Zealand’s stand-in coach Glenn Pocknall conceded that their inexperienced side misread the conditions at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, which offered sharp turn and bounce to the spinners, even with the new ball. In addition to that, the track was two-paced, with Shakib even saying that Wednesday’s pitch was “more difficult” than the ones rolled out for the recent Australia T20Is.”We probably didn’t quite assess the conditions as well as we thought we did,” Pocknall said after the defeat. “Losing four wickets for not many runs was always going to be a challenge in any form of cricket, especially this. We came back really well from that [collapse] with a good little partnership between Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls. I think we will take a lot from that performance in the way that they batted in the middle for our game in a couple of days’ time.”Stand-in captain Latham and Nicholls provided a glimpse into how New Zealand can tackle these turners. Both batters were decisive in their footwork – fully forward or right back – and often used the depth of the crease or their feet to disrupt the Bangladesh spinners. However, when they looked to raise the tempo against the seamers, they both holed out off Mohammad Saifuddin. The 34-run fifth-wicket stand between Latham and Nicholls was the highest of the match.”Yeah, obviously slightly disappointing with the start. I thought the way we managed to build a little bit of partnership through the middle… we knew it was going to be tough and unfortunately we kept losing wickets at crucial times really,” Latham told the host broadcaster at the post-match presentation. “As soon as the guys came in, it was certainly hard to start. We knew it was always going to be a challenge. We were prepared for this, but unfortunately we couldn’t quite put it together today.”Hopefully, we will take plenty of learnings from what happened today and for us it’s about trying to find a way in these conditions and obviously it’s completely different to what we have back home. So, it’s about trying to assess what a good score is on this sort of surface and as we showed with the ball tonight, certainly it isn’t easy with runs on the board. So, if we can put a competitive total and put pressure on if we do bat first, you never know what might happen.”Related

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Pocknall echoed Latham’s comments, saying the New Zealand attack could apply pressure on Bangladesh if their batters work their way to a competitive total.”Both teams performed exceedingly well with the ball and two quality outfits in terms of spin bowlers and the fast bowlers were able to execute their slower balls,” Pocknall said. “I think the bowling attacks really even themselves out. So, the challenge in two days’ time is to [find out] how we can get to a 100 and then, yeah, defend that. I think we can defend that with an extra few runs.”The lone bright spot on an otherwise forgettable day for New Zealand was how their spinners immediately got cracking in Dhaka. Cole McConchie struck with his first ball in international cricket as Mohammad Naim scooped a catch to short cover while Ajaz Patel matched the relentless accuracy of the Bangladesh spinners, returning 1 for 7 – the second-most economical four-over effort for New Zealand in T20Is. As for Ravindra, he came back after conceding 10 in his first over to end with 1 for 21 in his four overs.”They [conditions] do favour them but they’re also very inexperienced at this level. Cole and Rachin made their debuts and Ajaz, I think, has played two or three Twenty20 international games,” Pocknall said. “But, the thing that all three of them have is they have performed very well at domestic level and that’s a big reason why they’re here. So, to see them do what they do is a really positive sign for the rest of the series.”New Zealand have a one-day break to reflect further on their first-ever T20I loss against Bangladesh before they face Mahmudullah’s men again in the second game at the same venue. The one way for them – from 60 all out – is up.

Dispute and discontent over a Sheffield Shield “debacle” in Brisbane has highlighted the immense challenge confronting Cricket Australia (CA) this summer.Stunning details of Tuesday’s sudden postponement of a Shield match between Queensland and Tasmania, set to feature star Marnus Labuschagne and a stack of Ashes hopefuls, have been laid bare.Queensland Cricket (QC) chief executive Terry Svenson first learned of what he termed a “rushed” and “panicked” decision via a groundsman at Ian Healy Oval.Svenson told he then called CA counterpart Nick Hockley, who at that stage was also unaware the game had been aborted because of Covid-19 cases in Brisbane that prompted Tasmania’s squad to flee the state.There is hope the sides’ first four-day match of the season will be played next week, with discussions between CA, QC and Cricket Tasmania (CT) continuing.But the circumstances that led to the postponement, which legend and QC board member Ian Healy lashed as an “absolute debacle” that “disrespected” the integrity of the Shield, underlined how this season’s schedule – domestic and international, male and female – remains a precarious beast.England are expected to name a men’s Ashes squad soon but the prospect of the final Test being staged in Perth has significantly diminished. The Shield chaos will have done little to soothe the various concerns of Joe Root’s squad.The AFL and NRL navigated another season of lockdowns, border closures and coronavirus-related scares.Part of CA’s problem is that it is trying to appease multiple state governments but also state associations – effectively its shareholders – in addition to players and foreign cricket boards. Common ground can often be hard to find.”We should still be playing,” Svenson told Healy on the latter’s radio show. “We have to be better at making decisions like this and not panicking.”That decision to postpone and ultimately cancel the match was done before we heard from the Premier and CHO [chief health officer].”There’s a flaw in the decision-making process. There has to be a sign-off process. Surely if there’s a material change in the game, has to be the CEO of Cricket Australia and the relevant state CEOs. That’s what I’ve appealed to Nick to do and Nick is aligned with my view.”Healy was stunned by the visitors’ haste. “Tasmania decides ‘we’re out’ … can you imagine the [Canterbury] Bulldogs flying home and deciding not to play a [NRL] game without Peter V’landys knowing? It’s unbelievable,” he said. “What the hell were Tasmania thinking?”CT made its decision because of fears that players could be forced to quarantine upon returning home, while it was also worried about future travel to South Australia and Western Australia.”To some extent, I certainly understand that,” Svenson said. “I would have liked to have seen them hang around for another 24 hours.”CT counterpart Dominic Baker claimed “players were happy to come home”, having debriefed with captain Matthew Wade on Tuesday.”He said the sentiment of the group was, if we can get out and get back, that’d be preferable. They don’t want to be sitting around, doing nothing,” Baker told . “No doubt there would be a level of frustration amongst the group.”

Mohammad Saifuddin, the Bangladesh medium-pace-bowling allrounder, has been ruled out of the rest of the T20 World Cup because of a back injury. Rubel Hossain, the veteran quick, has been moved in to the main squad from the reserves’ list as a replacement for Saifuddin and is now available for selection for Bangladesh’s next match, against England on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.Saifuddin, 24, played all of Bangladesh’s games so far, picking up at least a wicket in each of them, and also hit an unbeaten 19 in six balls against Papua New Guinea in the last first-round game at the World Cup. He played the game against Sri Lanka too, on Monday, proving expensive in his three overs – he took 1 for 38 – and not getting a chance to bat.His replacement, Rubel, is vastly experienced, having played 159 international matches including 28 T20Is, in which he has picked up 28 wickets with an economy rate of 9.45.Bangladesh, who got into the main draw of the tournament after a stutter, losing to Scotland before beating Oman and Papua New Guinea, have had a poor start in Group 1, losing by five wickets to Sri Lanka after a decent batting performances was followed by a poor show in the field. The game against England on Wednesday is, therefore, a key one for Bangladesh to stay alive in the competition, with matches against Australia, South Africa and West Indies to follow.

Lance Klusener and the Afghanistan Cricket Board have mutually agreed to part ways, and not extend the former South Africa allrounder’s contract as head coach of the national men’s team. Klusener, who was appointed in the role in September 2019, has a contract that runs till December 31 this year, and will step away from his position after that.”Having spent two years with the team, I will take away some memorable moments with me,” Klusener said in a press statement on Monday. “As I walk away from Afghanistan cricket team and its cricketing structure, I look forward to the next stage in my coaching career and opportunities it brings.”Thanking Klusener for his contributions to Afghanistan cricket, the ACB confirmed in a statement that the hunt for the next head coach had started: “The ACB has launched the recruitment process for hiring a new head coach and is looking forward to have the services of another reasonable option to replace Lance Klusener as the head coach of Afghanistan for the upcoming events.”While they hardly played any cricket in 2020 due to Covid-19, Afghanistan performed fairly well under Klusener, winning one out of the three Tests, three out of the six ODIs and nine out of 14 T20Is. During his first series as the coach, Afghanistan beat West Indies 2-1 in the T20I series in India. They also beat Ireland 3-0 in the ODIs and 2-1 in the T20I series earlier this year. In the recently-concluded T20 World Cup, they crashed out of the group stage after winning just two out of the five matches. He had resorted to online coaching when Covid-19 had struck last year.Klusener had taken over from Andy Moles, who was serving as the team’s interim head coach after the exit of Phil Simmons following the 2019 World Cup. Klusener’s contract was then extended at the end of 2020.Klusener played 49 Tests and 171 ODIs for South Africa from 1996 to 2004. Considered one of the best ODI allrounders of his time, he scored 1906 runs and took 80 wickets in Tests, as well as 3576 runs and 192 wickets in ODIs. He has served in various coaching roles following his retirement, working with international and domestic teams as well as IPL franchises.