Month: September 2017

England v West Indies – ODI Series Preview

Following on from an unexpectedly close 2-1 Test series win by the hosts, and success for the visitors in the sole T20 International in Durham over the weekend, the West Indies tour of England draws to a close with a five-match ODI series to be played out in the autumnal chill of late September.

The first game is on Tuesday at Old Trafford in Manchester, and will be followed by matches at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, the County Ground in Bristol and The Oval in south London before finally finishing on 29th September at the Rose Bowl in Southampton – by which time woolly hats, scarves and gloves will no doubt be the order of the day – especially for the visitors!

For England, this will be their first ODI encounter since their surprise and agonising defeat to eventual champions Pakistan in the semi-final of the ICC Trophy held on home soil in June that many pundits expected them to win. Prior to that tournament, England had won the last three ODI series they had played- home wins against the Proteas of South Africa (2-1) in late May and neighbours Ireland (2-0) earlier that month, as well as a 3-0 away win in Antigua and Barbados against their current opponents, the West Indies.

England have made strong progress in white-ball cricket over the last two years, but still only sit fourth on the ICC ODI rankings and that first 50-over major tournament title still eludes them. They will see this series as valuable training ahead of the next World Cup to be held in England in 2019.

As for West Indies, their 50-over form has been much more patchy, and they currently sit ninth in the ODI rankings, outside the automatic qualification spots for the 2019 World Cup. They need a 4-0 or 5-0 series win against England to dislodge Sri Lanka from the last qualification spot and avoid having to go through a qualification tournament to avoid missing out on another major tournament after they failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy.

Prior to their one-off game in Ireland being washed out as a no result a few days ago, the Windies had lost a home series against India 3-1 in late June, only managed a 1-1 drawn series with Afghanistan in St Lucia earlier that month, and lost 2-1 to Pakistan in Guyana in April. They also lost the aforementioned home series against England 3-0.

However, since all of those series, there has been a thaw in relations between a number of senior players and the Cricket West Indies board which sees several big names return to the squad for this series and which they will hope will generate a turn around in fortunes in 50-over cricket. The effect of the return of Jamaicans Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Jerome Taylor will be intriguing to watch, and hopefully result in a close series befitting of the West Indies of old.

It is those three returning Jamaican veterans who headline the potential personal milestone for the West Indies side too:

Chris Gayle (West Indies)

Big hitting self-styled “Universe Boss” Gayle currently sits in joint eighth place worldwide for ODI centuries alongside India’s Sourav Ganguly and Sri Lankan Tilakaratne Dilshan. All three have 22 centuries to their name in the format, and one more will see the big man claim that eighth spot all for himself.

He also has 17,972 runs for West Indies across all three formats of the game, needing just 28 more to notch up his 18,000.

Marlon Samuels (West Indies)

Expect salutes a-plenty if all rounder Samuels makes an appearance, as it will be his 188th in ODI colours for West Indies, enough to take him past the legendary Sir Vivian Richards and into eighth place for his national side.

Jerome Taylor (West Indies)

Taylor’s 126 ODI wickets are enough to see him tenth in the West Indies’ all time list – five more will see him overtake fellow quick Mervyn Dillon and move into ninth place.

Eoin Morgan (England)

Captain Morgan may be a beverage that hails from the visitors’ neck of the woods, but it is England’s skipper who will be looking to raise a glass to personal success. He has scored 5,028 runs for England in ODIs (excluding the runs he scored for Ireland before switching allegiance) and needs just 65 to move past Paul Collingwood into second place all-time for his adopted country. Only Ian Bell has scored more.

Joe Root (England)

England’s Test captain will be looking for the 45 runs he needs to move past Graeme Hick’s 3,846 in ODI cricket, and in the process move into his country’s top ten all-time.

Jos Buttler (England)

India’s MS Dhoni recently became the first keeper from any country to notch up 100 stumpings in ODI cricket -so it’s perhaps surprising that Buttler is England’s joint leading disturber of the bails in ODIs with just 15 to his name, alongside Alec Stewart. One more bit of nifty glove-work behind the wickets will see him become a national record holder in his own right!

 

 

Independence Cup – Pakistan v ICC World XI T20I Series Preview

International cricket returns to Pakistan on Tuesday for only the second time since 2009. Eight years ago, a terrorist attack against the visiting Sri Lankan team sent shock-waves around the cricketing world, and sent Pakistan into exile. Apart from Zimbabwe, who visited two years ago for a limited overs series, no team has been keen to visit due to security concerns, and Pakistan have been forced to play their home games in the United Arab Emirates for eight long years.

This week’s Independence Cup series marks a hopeful beginning of the end to that exile. The ICC, much to its credit, has arranged a three-match T20 International series between Pakistan and a World XI comprising players from seven countries. All three games are to played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

The ICC team, led by ex-England head coach Andy Flower, contains a number of current internationals of the highest quality, and the matches have been granted official T20 International status, so the games have an added gravitas beyond their symbolic nature.

The 14-man ICC World XI squad is captained by South Africa’s Faf du Plessis and comprises the following players:

Faf du Plessis (South Africa, Captain), Hashim Amla (South Africa), Samuel Badree (West Indies), George Bailey (Australia), Paul Collingwood (England), Ben Cutting (Australia), Grant Elliot (New Zealand), Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh), David Miller (South Africa), Morne Morkel (South Africa), Tim Paine (Australia, Wicketkeeper), Thisara Perera (Sri Lanka), Darren Sammy (West Indies) and Imran Tahir (South Africa)

The matches are seen as the first baby steps towards Pakistan regularly hosting other nations again on home soil, a progression given a further boost with the news today that Sri Lanka will play one game of their T20 series against Pakistan in Lahore rather than the UAE later this year. Given it was Sri Lanka that were attacked back in 2009, this is a remarkable gesture from the islanders, and will be greeted with glee in Pakistan.

The ICC World XI as a team will be playing its first official T20 Internationals and first games in any format since 2005, when a previous incarnation played three ODIs and one “Super Test” against Australia – a series which unlike this one was ill thought out and poorly attended by the locals in Australia.

You suspect that poor attendances are not going to be an issue in Lahore, where the series has brought unbounded joy to local fans, so long starved of the chance to see their national side in the flesh rather than beamed in from Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

Pakistan have named a full strength squad, and are treating the series seriously. These are their first games in any format since they sensationally won the ICC Champions Trophy in England in June, so it will be a triumphant homecoming for a team regarded as heroes in their homeland.  They are in form in the shortest format too with their last outing in T20s in April this year seeing them beat world T20 champions West Indies 3-1 in an unusually long four games series held in Trinidad and Barbados.

With the games having official ICC T20I status, players’ statistics will count to their overall career records and rankings. Personal milestones will of course take a back seat, given the larger significance of the games being held, but nonetheless there are a few players to keep an eye on:

Morne Morkel (ICC World XI, South Africa)

With 46 T20I wickets in his column, Morkel he’ll be out for four more to notch up 50.

The big South African quick will also play for his third official international side if selected – having also represented his country and the Africa XI side in an official ODI series against an Asia XI in 2007.

(Incidentally, he won’t be the first player to be able to claim this honour surprisingly, as a number of players in that Africa XI v Asia XI series also played in the ICC World XI Super Series in 2005, such as Shahid Afridi, Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock.)

David Miller (ICC World XI, South Africa)

BIg hitting middle-order batsman Miller currently has 846 runs in the shortest format of the game, so will be looking for 154 across the three games to reach 1,000.

Shoaib Malik (Pakistan)

All rounder Shoaib currently has 1,625 T20 International runs to his name, enough for ninth place in the world all-time. He’ll be confident of moving a few places up the top ten list with South Africa’s JP Duminy (1,683), Australia’s David Warner (1,686) and countryman Umar Akmal (1690) well within his sights.

Imran Tahir (ICC World XI, South Africa)

Currently ranked second in the world in the ICC T20I bowler rankings, exuberant spinner Imran Tahir has taken 55 wickets in the twenty over game, enough for 12th place in the world all-time. Afghanistan’s Mohammed Nabi sits in ninth on 59, with New Zealand’s Nathan McCullum and Tahir’s fellow South African Dale Steyn in joint tenth place on 58. Tahir will be confident he can overhaul all three in this series.

 

Sri Lanka v India – only T20 International Preview

Tomorrow’s T20 International at the R Premadasa Stadium in Khettarma, Colombo represents last orders at the last chance saloon for Sri Lanka.

Having lost their home Test series against India 3-0, and followed it up with a 5-0 drubbing in the ODI series that followed, the Lions are staring down the barrel of an unprecedented home cross-series whitewash by their northerly neighbours.

India will be string favourites such is the form they are in, and such is the malaise that Sri Lankan cricket finds itself in. Riddled by injury, suspension, and resignations of captains and selectors alike, this has not been a few weeks to remember for the islanders, and they must be looking forward to this portion of their season ending.

The only glimmer of hope is that they have had marginally more success in the shortest format of the game, having beaten admittedly weakened Australian and South African sides in recent times.

India by contrast are rampant, racking up all manner of records in the Tests and ODIs that preceded this game. If they do make it a 9-0 series clean-sweep, they will match a record set by Australia when they beat Pakistan by a similar margin across all three formats in 2010.

History between the sides in this format doesn’t bode well for Sri Lanka either – of the ten games played, India lead 6-4, whilst their hosts have never beaten India at home.

So plenty to play for – a record and a clean-sweep in the sights for the visitors, while the Lions will be out to save their pride.

From an individual player persepective, its no surprise that India’s two superstars will be the ones to keep watch of:

Virat Kohli (India)

India’s supreme leader and inspirational batsman plays his 50th T20 International in Colombo.

He currently sits in fifth place in the all-time T20I run-makers list with 1748 runs to his name. 32 runs will see him leapfrog Afghanistan’s Mohammad Shahzad into fourth place, while a score of 59 will see him move one notch higher to third, past New Zealand opener Martin Guptill.

MS Dhoni (India)

Fresh from breaking Kumar Sangakkara’s world ODI stumping record with his 100th such dismissal in the last ODI (also his 300th game in that format), former captain Dhoni has more dismissal and appearance records in his sights.

This will be MS’s 78th T20 International game, moving him up into joint fifth place all-time, alongside Pakistan opener Mohammad Hafeez.

In this format, Dhoni has racked up 66 dismissals – 43 catches and 23 stumpings. Four more will see him move to 70, and enough for a share of the world record with South African megastar AB de Villiers.