General General Cricket Thread

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Bedingham fuses old-school mettle with new-age urgency​

It was an innings that oozed class, and showed that even if South Africa hadn't fielded a makeshift squad, Bedingham would have been right in there

Firdose Moonda
15-Feb-2024

Perhaps the only one in South Africa's squad in New Zealand, but most definitely one.
And he showed it with his first Test century in his fourth match; the only hundred of the Hamilton Test so far and a knock that oozed class, confidence and a combination of old-fashioned temperament and new-age urgency. It was an innings that confirmed that even if South Africa were not forced to send a makeshift squad on this trip, Bedingham would have been in the touring party.

With a decade-long professional career and a first-class average that sits a shave under 50, you may even wonder why you haven't seen Bedingham sooner. The answer is because he wasn't always sure he wanted to play for South Africa.


Bedingham left the domestic system four years ago to take up a deal with Durham - playing as a local on an ancestral visa and flirted with the possibility of qualifying for England.
He has since changed his mind, and though he will continue to try and get a British passport for post-career opportunities, he has committed his international playing future to South Africa's Test team. He even chose not to put his name in the SA20 draft - and because he is not nationally contracted, he had no obligation to - so that he could work on securing a Test spot. Now, he can consider that done.

In a line-up where the top order - all debutants last week - has been exposed against high-quality swing, seam and pace in New Zealand, Bedingham has had to come in tricky positions in each of his four innings. In the first Test, South Africa were 30 for 3 and 68 for 3 and he made 32 and 87. In the second Test, they were 63 for 3 and 39 for 3. The most precarious of those situations was the latest, where they had a lead of only 70, more than half the Test still to play, and South Africa desperate to set New Zealand a decent target.

He was greeted with a delivery from Will O'Rourke that reared off the surface and that he just managed to fend off with his gloves. In O'Rourke's next over, Bedingham responded with a crack through the covers off a short, wide ball. And so began the cat and mouse game between the two most impressive players on the day, who only had praise for each other at its conclusion.

For Bedingham, the challenge was adjusting to O'Rourke's high release point and the movement he was getting. "He definitely presented a different challenge," he said afterwards. "I don't think I have faced [Morne] Morkel before but it felt like that. He bowled with great energy the whole day and got the ball to move back. He looks very, very good."

"I don't want to look back at not throwing my name in the draft. I just hope this innings can win us a game and draw the series. I am not looking at the SA20"
David Bedingham

For O'Rourke, it was about keeping his lines tight and trying to bowl fuller because of Bedingham's strong ability to score runs square of the wicket. "He batted really well on a slower-ish deck. He punches through the off side really well. If you give him any width, he seems to latch on to that," O'Rourke said. "We tried to attack with some short stuff for a little bit and he played that pretty well too, so we just went back to keeping it simple."

For now, Bedingham has won the battle. His proactive approach meant that unlike someone like Zubayr Hamza, who faced 63 balls for his 17 runs, Bedingham was always looking to score. "The way that I play is a positive brand," he said. "When they had attacking fields there is always the opportunity to score. I kind of tried to score and I am thankful and lucky enough that it worked."

He targeted Rachin Ravindra, taking 31 runs off the 32 balls he faced from him, and Neil Wagner, who bowled 25 balls to him and conceded as many runs. His overall strike rate was 78.01, and he had a foil in Keegan Petersen, who played a patient role at the other end but may still be wondering if 43 is enough to buy him any more time in the Test side. Petersen was dropped twice in two seasons and has struggled to kick on since his Player-of-the-Series performance against India two summers ago.

 

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Rohit, Jadeja tons and Sarfaraz's 62 drag India out of trouble on day one​

Sarfaraz's 66-ball innings lit up the afternoon but ended in heartbreak after he was run-out with Jadeja seeking a 100th run

Sidharth Monga
15-Feb-2024

Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja put on India's first century partnership of the series • AFP via Getty Images
India 326 for 5 (Rohit 131, Jadeja 110*, Sarfaraz 62, Wood 3-69) vs England

On the first day of the third Test, India's batting finally came together but not without an early alarm. Down at 33 for 3 on a pitch that was full of runs and with two debutants to follow, India were looking at possible trouble. But a 204-run partnership between Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja for the fourth wicket - India's first century stand of the series - took them to 326 for 5 at stumps. Rohit and Jadeja got centuries while Sarfaraz Khan made a sparkling debut, hitting 62 off 66, before being run-out.

This was the first time India were playing two debutants in their top seven since their first Test in 1932, and the first time since 1999 they had three players in the top seven who had played fewer than two Tests. That in mind, Mark Wood gave England a leg-up when he got rid of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill - India's only centurions this series before Thursday- with the new ball. Gill, in particular, got a ball that swung in and then nipped away, that took the outside edge. These two scalps doubled Wood's tally of wickets in the first six overs of a Test innings.

 

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ICC bans UK-based club cricketer Rizwan Javed for 17-and-a-half years for corruption​

It's the second-lengthiest ban handed out by the ICC's anti-corruption unit

ESPNcricinfo staff
15-Feb-2024

Case pertains to corruption at the Abu Dhabi T10 League in 2020-21 • Getty Images
The ICC has banned Rizwan Javed, a UK-based club cricketer, for 17-and-a-half years - the second-longest sentence handed out by the ICC to date - after he was found guilty of five different breaches of the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) anti-corruption code.

Javed was among eight players and officials originally charged by the ICC in September 2023 over allegations of corruption at the 2021 Abu Dhabi T10 league. The magnitude of the ban is only behind the 20-year ban given to Zimbabwe cricket official Rajan Nayar in 2018.

Javed, as laid out by the ICC in a legal document, participated in matches for Cheadle Hulme Cricket Club in the Cheshire Cricket League until August 24, 2019, but in this case was under the scanner for his attempts to corrupt players in the T10 league, in particular within the Pune Devils franchise during the 2020-21 season.

Last year, the ICC had said it had "disrupted" attempts to corrupt games, and charged eight people - including Bangladesh international Nasir Hossain - accordingly. While the ICC said that Nasir had co-operated with investigation and had received a two-year ban, in Javed's case, the ICC said he did not respond to the charges or offer co-operation.
Javed was found guilty of:

• Article 2.1.1 - Being party to an attempt to fix, contrive or influence improperly matches or aspects of matches in the Abu Dhabi T10 2021 (on three separate occasions).

• Article 2.1.3 - Offering a Reward to another Participant in exchange for that player engaging in Corrupt Conduct.

• Article 2.1.4 - Directly or indirectly soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging or intentionally facilitating any Participant to breach Code Article 2.1 (on three separate occasions).

• Article 2.4.4 - Failing to disclose to the DACO full details of any approaches or invitations received to engage in Corrupt Conduct under the Code.

• Article 2.4.6 - Failing or refusing, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation carried out by the DACO in relation to possible Corrupt Conduct under the Code.

"Rizwan Javed has received a lengthy ban from cricket for his repeated and serious attempts to corrupt professional cricketers," Alex Marshall, ICC general manager - integrity, said. "He has shown no remorse and no respect for the rules that are in place to protect our sport. The sanction imposed should send a strong message to other corrupters trying to target cricket at any level and demonstrates that any attempt to corrupt cricket will be strongly dealt with."

The ban is backdated to September 19, 2023, the date Javed was provisionally suspended on. The decision was handed out by Michael J Beloff KC, chair of the ICC code of conduct committee.

 

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Sri Lanka celebrate 3-0 sweep against Afghanistan​

Pramod Madushan takes 3, while Asitha Fernando, Dunith Wellalage and Akila Dananjaya finish with two wickets each.

 

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India’s Ashwin reaches 500 Test wickets to join exclusive club​

AFP

RAJKOT: India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin claimed his 500th Test wicket on day two of the third match against England to become just the ninth bowler to make the feat.

Ashwin, an off-spinner who began the Test on 499 wickets, dismissed opener Zak Crawley for 15 in Rajkot.

He is only the second Indian to reach the milestone after fellow spinner Anil Kumble (619).

 

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Australia win rain-hit third T20 against New Zealand by 27 runs​

AUCKLAND: A “clinical” Australia beat New Zealand by 27 runs in the rain-shortened third Twenty20 in Auckland on...

 

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Devine happy to have New Zealand's semi-final chances in their own hands​

'I guess we're really fortunate as well that we play last in our pool. So, we know exactly where the situation will lie before we play'

Shashank Kishore
13-Oct-2024

Sophie Devine trusts a flexible New Zealand squad to come good in this T20 World Cup • ICC via Getty Images

Only twice in eight previous editions of the women's T20 World Cup has a side lost out on a semi-final berth because of an inferior net run-rate. Sophie Devine has been part of both those heartbreaks, in 2014 and 2023. As luck would have it, New Zealand are faced with yet another net run-rate scenario this time around as well.

By Sunday evening, New Zealand would have a fair idea of what they should do to progress. An Indian win against Australia will mean they will have to beat Pakistan by a certain margin to qualify. India losing will mean they can beat Pakistan by any margin and qualify.

This may seem like a potentially sticky scenario to face, but Devine, the New Zealand captain, doesn't see it that way. "We're really pleased with the position we're in," she said ahead of the Pakistan match in Dubai. "I think if you asked us at the start of the tournament that we'd have fate in our hands in terms of the semi-finals race going into our last game, we would've taken it.


"I guess we're really fortunate as well that we play last in our pool. So, we know exactly where the situation will lie before we play [Pakistan]. For us it's simple, we reflect, review, watch the Australia game - "go, Aussie girls" - with a lot of interest. Hopefully our Aussie mates do us a favour."

New Zealand could've overtaken India's net run-rate had they achieved their target of 116 in 14.3 overs against Sri Lanka. Asked if that thought ever crossed their minds, Devine was clear they weren't "too focused" on that.

"I've seen it so many times in different competitions and different leagues where you start focusing on those little things like net run-rates, I've seen teams lose completely when they're in a position to win," she said. "Cricket has a funny way of biting you in the bum.

"We wanted to make sure that we won the [Sri Lanka] game, and we still did it comprehensively with a couple of overs to spare and wickets in hand. So, we're in a really good position where we know exactly where our ball is going to lie before our last game.

"If we've got to go about things slightly differently, we've got the options to do that with a squad that's really flexible, that we've got an order that can change and we've got a lot of spinners, a lot of bowlers that can come in and out of the side and do a job."

Devine was equally mindful of what Pakistan could do to them. Only last December, they beat New Zealand in New Zealand by a 2-1 margin in the T20Is. In the subsequent ODIs, Pakistan managed to tie the third game and take it into a Super Over before winning.

Monday's fixture could be an emotional one for Fatima Sana, who has returned to the UAE from Pakistan after attending her father's funeral. And Devine doesn't want to leave anything to chance against a team that can sting them.