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Karachi’s process vs Lahore’s momentum. The game needs no more billing than that

Danyal Rasool16-Nov-2020

Big picture

It was all one grand vision, a masterplan that, five years on from the investment poured into it, has finally paid dividends. When the PSL was envisioned five years ago, former chairman Najam Sethi might have imagined one day a grand stadium being lit up to welcome Pakistan’s biggest rivalry in a big final, played out in front of 40,000 fans and millions watching on TV. Lahore vs Karachi would be a marquee occasion, one that elevated the status of the league to another level, and commanded interest not just from within Pakistan, but across cricket’s global T20 ecosystem.Most of those plans looked like pipedreams at first. Getting foreign players to actually come to Pakistan was initially so onerous a task that players had to be paid for simply making the trip. It likely didn’t help that Lahore and Karachi were by some distance the worst two franchises in the league for the first two years, and neither of them made it to a final in the opening four seasons. The financial agreements between the PCB and the PSL always appeared poised on an uneasy precipice; just recently, the latest dispute resulted in the two parties ending up in court.For a brief, glorious moment on what should be a cool Karachi evening, all those concerns will be swept under the carpet, like gnawing family disputes at a wedding reception. Half a decade on, the PSL will deliver what it was created to provide. Lahore Qalandars will face Karachi Kings in what is, by far, the biggest game in the league’s history, the dream final secured after Karachi’s Super Over win on Saturday, followed by two uncharacteristically efficient Lahore performances. There may be no fans at the National Stadium, but television sets around the country – perhaps even further beyond – will have eyeballs on them in record numbers as Pakistan’s two most storied cities rejoice in getting one over the other.Narrative aside, there is a colossal cricket match to be won here, and the teams are intriguingly evenly matched. Karachi have generally had the wood over Lahore; their most recent meeting was a 10-wicket thrashing Lahore suffered at Karachi’s hands. However, Lahore appear to have momentum, as well as form on their side. They have, in Shaheen Afridi, the best bowler in the tournament in the form of his life, while Haris Rauf isn’t far behind. David Wiese is playing like a man inspired, while Mohammad Hafeez enjoys a late career surge. All that without even mentioning Ben Dunk, who is yet to fire in the playoffs. Karachi, though will remember his blistering onslaught from earlier this year, when a 40-ball 99 inspired Lahore to a stunning eight-wicket win over Imad Wasim’s side.Karachi are perhaps less explosive, but, Saturday’s Super Over notwithstanding, somewhat more assured in the way they secured passage to the final. In Babar Azam, they have an opening batsman almost nailed on to get runs at the top of the order, with his opening partner Sharjeel Khan providing the fireworks. Throw in Alex Hales, and that makes for a lethal top three, with Wasim, as evidenced by that last-ball boundary, one of a handful who can chip in with vital runs down the order. Mohammad Amir finds himself in sensational form after shutting Multan Sultans out with perhaps the most perfect Super Over in history.Karachi’s process against Lahore’s seemingly unstoppable momentum. The game needs no more billing than that.

Form Guide

Lahore Qalandars WWWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Karachi Kings WLWWLShaheen Afridi takes off after removing Haider Ali for a first-ball duck•PCB

In the spotlight

Both sides’ batting just doesn’t add up. It’ll get one of them through the playoffs to the title, but no side with these batting line-ups could go an entire league without eventually being found out. Both of them are at least a batsman light; Karachi almost found out to their cost in a spectacular collapse against Multan. The top three may be dynamite, but with Iftikhar Ahmed, Wasim, Chadwick Walton and Shane Rutherford to follow, there isn’t much of a back-up plan should they lose a few early wickets.Lahore, meanwhile, have greater concerns in that department, which came to the brink of being exposed in both knockout games. Samit Patel and Wiese put up a 59-run stand on Sunday, and they were required to contribute to 42 and 41-run partnerships with Hafeez on Saturday. To Lahore’s relief, that last line of defence stood firm because there’s very little to follow; Muhammad Faizan is slotted in at No.8 followed by Afridi, Dilbar Hussain and Rauf. Add to this the somewhat unfancied Sohail Akhtar unconvincingly padding up at three and a somewhat unreliable Fakhar Zaman up top, and you wonder if Lahore are pushing their luck.

Team news

Lahore will go into the final unchanged if Afridi’s side strain, which forced him off the field for a while on Sunday, doesn’t hamper him.Lahore Qalandars (probable): Fakhar Zaman, Tamim Iqbal, Sohail Akhtar (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Ben Dunk (wk), David Wiese, Samit Patel, Muhammad Faizan, Dilbar Hussain, Haris Rauf, Shaheen AfridiKarachi have the option of calling upon Cameron Delport to bolster their ranks in the middle though that would necessitate removing one of their overseas players from Saturday’s game.Karachi Kings (probable): Sharjeel Khan, Babar Azam, Alex Hales, Iftikhar Ahmed, Chadwick Walton (wk), Imad Wasim (capt) Sherfane Rutherford, Wayne Parnell, Mohammad Amir, Waqas Maqsood, Arshad Iqbal

Pitch and conditions

The pitches prepared for the playoffs have been flat, though an 8pm start means dew will be a factor. Expect the side that wins the toss to bowl first.

Stats and trivia

• Four of the top five highest run-scorers in this year’s PSL are from Lahore. The other one in this list is Karachi’s Azam.
• Amir needs one wicket to take his overall PSL tally to 50. Only Wahab Riaz (76) and Hasan Ali (59) have more wickets than him in the competition.
• Three of the 11 players who started both of Lahore’s playoff games are uncapped at international level. For Karachi, all but 19-year old Iqbal have played international cricket.

Chamu Chibhabha scored a half-century and picked up four wickets, including that of the in-form Mohammad Shahzad, as Zimbabwe defended 226 and levelled the five-match series at 2-2

The Report by Shashank Kishore04-Jan-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsChamu Chibhabha’s four wickets, including that of the in-form Mohammad Shahzad, pulled the plug on Afghanistan’s chase•Chris Whiteoak

Zimbabwe were defending 30 less than a total that was single-handedly chased down by Mohammad Shahzad last week. On Monday, Shahzad was left with the unenviable task of steering his team out of a proper top-order wobble if they had any chance of achieving the 227-run target to seal the series. But the pressure of a chase on a Sharjah deck that was superbly used as an ally by Graeme Cremer and Chamu Chibhabha told as Zimbabwe won by 65 runs to take the series into the deciding final ODI on Wednesday.Normally known for his belligerence, Shahzad transformed himself into a slow accumulator, seemingly intent on batting himself into a position from where he could pull off a heist. Run-scoring wasn’t easy, and Zimbabwe’s fielders made the target look 20 runs greater than it was. Eventually, the frustration of being unable to unfurl the big hits consumed Shahzad as Chibhabha, who conjured a fighting half-century earlier in the piece, prised out the big fish for a 72-ball 45, to leave Afghanistan in tatters at 88 for 5.Hashmatullah Shahidi held one end up, but Afghanistan’s freefall left him with little to work with. He fell for 31 as the wheels came off the chase soon after. Crèmer’s loopy legspin earned him two wickets, while Chibhabha had four scalps with his accurate seam-up. Afghanistan were bowled out for 161 in 45 overs as Zimbabwe earned a shot of redemption as the series was back on an even keel.Afghanistan’s batting approach upfront, at least in the series, has often bordered on the thin line between aggressive and over-aggressive. But this time around, they seemed intent on proving the doubters wrong by showing they possess a solid defensive game too. As a result, deliveries that would have otherwise been met with a fierce swing were either defended or left alone, and within the bat of an eyelid, they were behind the eight ball right from the start.Nevill Madziva, who relies on angles and late swing, gave Zimbabwe their first breakthrough when he had Noor Ali Zadran nick one to Richmond Mutumbami. Five overs later, Asghar Stanikzai flicked a low full-toss to midwicket to leave Afghanistan in trouble at 13 for 2. The early losses seemed to affect Shahzad’s shot-selection as he soon went into his shell.The two-paced nature of the pitch, which accounted for Rashid Khan’s wicket when a leading edge was well taken by a diving Hamilton Maskazda at point, induced more doubts in Shahzad’s mind. But it wasn’t yet the crisis it turned out to be later, for there was hope at least till Mohammad Nabi was around. But his wicket simply threw Afghanistan’s innings off the wheels and they hurtled with every blow that came after, as Chibhabha’s middle-order wreckage left the tail with too much to do.The effervescence of Zimbabwe’s efforts with the ball and on the field almost took the focus away from an insipid batting effort that resulted in their losing their last seven wickets for 56 runs. In two of the three ODIs so far in the series, Zimbabwe’s half-hearted approach towards shot-making on sluggish pitches exposed their lower order much earlier than they would have liked. The end result was scores of 82 and 175.On Monday, the lower order faced a challenge of a different kind, as the top-order batsmen, who got off to starts, fell to a succession of misguided strokes, resulting in Zimbabwe failing to cash in on the 92-run opening stand between Chibhabha and Peter Moor. After a slow start, Moor, who had tallied all of 86 runs in five previous ODI innings, found his hitting range and struck four sixes, all over deep midwicket off the spinners, to bring up a half-century.But Rashid Khan, the 17-year old legspinner playing in only his sixth ODI, had the last laugh as he triggered Zimbabwe’s collapse. He finished with 3 for 43, while Amir Hamza, the left-arm spinner used generally as an attacking option, did his bit by picking up two wickets.What should have been a stroll suddenly turned into a struggle as one batsman after another walked in and walked out, even as Afghanistan’s pacers, particularly Dawlat Zadran, proved there was more to their attack than just a plethora of slow bowlers capable of applying the squeeze. But the inability of the batsmen to rise to the party somewhat reduced the bowling effort to a footnote.

Questions from employees are believed to have been about the way the stand downs were handled

Daniel Brettig29-Apr-2020Kevin Roberts, the Cricket Australia chief executive, has given no indication the governing body will rethink its drastic cuts to the salaries of staff who have been stood down, even though he apologised to employees for the way the decision was communicated.As the CA chairman Earl Eddings and fellow director Paul Green prepared to present to their state association owners and players union partners on Thursday, Roberts addressed all staff via videoconference and stated his regret on behalf of his executives. Nevertheless, he appeared determined not to make any material changes to a model that saw some 200 staff stood down on 80% pay cuts while executives and the remainder of staff remained at work on 80% of their regular pay.ALSO READ: CA to open books to states, announce contractsMounting anger at the way that CA has handled the switch from a position of absorbing the Covid-19 pandemic shocks within the business and making deep cuts to staff pay, state association grants and revenue projections for the players under the governing body’s MoU with the Australian Cricketers’ Association has forced Roberts to address staff directly. Meanwhile, the sense of anger and distrust has compelled Eddings and the board to deal urgently with their owners and partners.Questions from staff to Roberts are believed to have referenced issues around the way the stand downs were handled, with staff given only a brief period to agree in writing to the move, while the chief executive is understood to have claimed that CA should have shared more information about its finances sooner.ALSO READ: Roberts ‘stumbled’ explaining CA’s financial battle – SpeedThese details, when shared with the states and the ACA, will be a matter of interpretation as much as they are numbers in black and white. Roberts had previously stated that CA, with average monthly revenue outflows of between A$30 million and A$40 million [US$19.5 to 26.1 million approx.] for the year, was looking at being down to A$40 million in cash by August, a level of reserves deemed insufficient given the uncertainties ahead due to the pandemic.However, it appears almost impossible that CA’s cash position can get any lower than A$40 million, given scheduled arrivals of ICC disbursements in July, sponsor fees in July and August, and instalments from broadcast rights deals with Fox Sports and Seven domestically in September and from Sony for international rights in October. Added to CA’s investments and the debt facility secured from banks, the governing body may be looking at having more than A$200 million [US$130.5 million] available at precisely the time Roberts warned it was in danger of going broke.ALSO READ: CA chief won’t back down on drastic staff cutsIt is that wide variation that has caused states to ask for as much financial detail as possible, with the underlying truth that ultimately the associations of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania would be required to prop up the central governing body in the unlikely event that it did become insolvent.Despite a longstanding drift towards the centralisation of decision-making, allied to a move to a financial model in which they received annual guaranteed grants in exchange for a loss of direct representation on the CA board, the states remain in possession of reserve powers over the composition of the board and – should they so wish – a revision of how it is constituted.As sporting governance experts Colin Carter and David Crawford stated in their 2011 review that led to the current board and financial models: “Under our recommended model, the States will control Board appointments and, if there is reason to do so, can at any stage dismiss the Board. That is the States’ protection. And we also find it difficult to imagine that the CA Board would fail to understand that adequately funding the State structures and teams and recognising existing stadium commitments is in the best interests of cricket. As the AFL Board seeks to protect the viability of its own shareholders, so we would expect that cricket’s leaders would do the same.”The simple solution is also the right one. The Board should be free to allocate cricket’s resources and there should be no pre-conditions other than ensuring that each State should be provided with an agreed level of funding that will enable them to fulfil their role.”

Despite being strong on paper, RCB have not fired collectively as a unit

Srinidhi Ramanujam07-Mar-2023

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Giants

Two games and two defeats. Bottom dwellers Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Giants are sailing on the same boat, with both teams desperate to get off the mark and keep their knockouts hope alive.Just two matches into the inaugural edition, Royal Challengers are already being compared by fans with their men’s side in the IPL: strong on paper but have not fired collectively as a unit. Smriti Mandhana will be keen to change that perception and collect those two crucial points. In their previous game against Mumbai Indians, the captain stressed the importance of one of the top four batting deep to guide them to a competitive total, which has not happened so far. Their bowlers are still toiling for wickets. After two losses, allrounder Dane van Niekerk could replace Sophie Devine in their quest for first victory.Meanwhile, Giants are still without their captain Beth Mooney, who suffered a knee injury in their opener against Mumbai Indians, and there is no official update if she would take the field on Wednesday. However, pacer Kim Garth, who has taken over Deandra Dottin’s place in the squad, has bolstered the bowling. With five of Giants’ six bowlers in the XI being capped internationals, they will rely heavily on their bowling to move out of the last spot on the table.

Players to watch

For Royal Challengers, Shreyanka Patil showed glimpses of potential in her confident 15-ball 23 against Mumbai. Though the spin-bowling allrounder went for runs with the ball, she could play a key role against Giants. Wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh hasn’t come to the party yet, and expect her to light up the stage after two dull innings.Kim Garth returned with a five-for against UP Warriorz, with three of those coming in the powerplay. The Australian could once again be a top performer for Giants. D Hemalatha has also played two crucial knocks in two matches, lower down the order, and will be determined to carry that form into this match as well.

Playing XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore (possible): 1 Smriti Mandhana (capt), 2 Sophie Devine/Dane van Niekerk, 3 Disha Kasat, 4 Ellyse Perry, 5 Heather Knight, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Kanika Ahuja, 8 Shreyanka Patil, 9 Megan Schutt, 10 Renuka Singh, 11 Preeti Bose/Sahana PawarGujarat Giants (possible): 1 Sophia Dunkley, 2 S Meghana, 3 Harleen Deol, 4 Ashleigh Gardner, 5 Sushma Verma (wk), 6 Dayalan Hemalatha, 7 Annabel Sutherland/Georgia Wareham, 8 Sneh Rana (capt), 9 Tanuja Kanwar, 10 Kim Garth, 11 Mansi Joshi

Stats and trivia

• RCB have taken just three wickets from their two matches so far.
• Only Harleen Deol has crossed the 30-run mark in an innings in Giants’ line-up.

Quotes

“As batters, we need to put up a good total on board. It’s a pretty short tournament, we can’t dwell on it. In franchise cricket, even after two losses, we can turn it around quickly.”

“I enjoy being the leader. The responsibility comes on your shoulders. You have the time to show your leadership. The girls fought very hard. Whenever the team needs me, I will do my best.”

Left-arm seamer has missed only six of New Zealand’s 70 Tests since his debut

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Nov-2019Trent Boult is likely to miss the second Test of New Zealand’s series against England after leaving the field due to a pain in the right-hand side of his ribs on the fifth day of the first Test.Boult, who bowled one over on the final day before going off, will undergo an MRI scan tomorrow to determine the extent of the injury. In his absence, his fellow left-arm quick Neil Wagner stepped up with five wickets to seal an innings-and-65-run victory.The second Test at Hamilton starts on Friday, and with New Zealand starting a three-match series in Australia soon after that fixture, it seems unlikely he will be risked. Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry are the other seam-bowling options in the 15-man squad.Boult has missed only three Tests since 2016, and just six of New Zealand’s 70 since his debut.”A lot was taken out of both teams in this Test,” Kane Williamson, New Zealand’s captain, said. “It was a really tough effort for long periods. But we have that squad of 15 and all the guys will meet up in Hamilton and we will have to assess the fitness of everybody.”

Essex’s bowlers struggled to make inroads on a cold, overcast day as Hampshire reached 303 for 4, with Northeast six runs shy of a century

Valkerie Baynes at the Ageas Bowl05-Apr-2019The sight of Rilee Rossouw cutting loose against Essex’s bowlers while team-mate Sam Northeast anchored the innings gave Hampshire a bright start to the County Championship season, despite the gloomy conditions.A small but appreciative quorum of onlookers braved the frigid temperatures and overcast skies at the Ageas Bowl, their numbers possibly boosted by fans of Liverpool FC – whose players were staying in the adjoining hotel – killing time ahead of the evening’s Premier League match against Southampton.They were warmly rewarded with a top-class display from Hampshire’s batsmen, highlighted by Rossouw’s fireworks and Northeast’s thoughtfully compiled innings while further enhanced by neat cameos from captain James Vince and last-minute import Aiden Markram.Essex may have been left ruing their decision to put the hosts in after an uncontested toss with play starting 20 minutes late due to poor light. With the help of the floodlights and a slightly brightening sky, the Hampshire batsmen got on with their job in impressive fashion.Vince’s move up the order to open, partly to cover for the retired Jimmy Adams but also to give himself the best chance of breaking back into the England Test team, was an unspectacular success in its infancy. He batted with trademark ease to reach 40 off 68 deliveries before Ravi Bopara had him out lbw in his second over on the stroke of lunch.Markram had been in the country for less than 72 hours, having flown in on Tuesday night as a late overseas signing to replace Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne. But he found his feet immediately to score an eye-catching half-century.Markram, who recently played his way back into the South African limited-overs set-up after some prolific run-scoring at domestic level, brought up his fifty with a sweet straight drive off Sam Cook. He went on to reach 63, including nine fours before Matt Quinn had him caught behind by Dan Lawrence, filling in behind the stumps for Adam Wheater, who had left the field with an injured hand.Hampshire’s first-team manager, Adrian Birrell, was pleased with Markram’s showing.”He’s only had one hit here outside since arriving, it’s been raining the rest of the time, so from having one outdoor net, he’s in form,” Birrell said. “He’s played well in South Africa but coming over here is a different game. I thought he applied himself very well and came up with good plans.”Markram’s dismissal brought another South African to the crease in Kolpak player Rossouw and he took off at an impressive clip. By tea he had added 45 off 41 deliveries.After the break, Rossouw took a liking to compatriot offspinner Simon Harmer, smacking him for two sixes in three balls, and another a while later as he moved to 76 off 66 balls. It was Harmer to whom Rossouw holed out off the bowling of Jamie Porter in a small consolation for Essex, but his knock, which included four sixes and 10 fours all up, was damaging.All the while, Northeast went about his business, although he was by no means slow and was not to be outdone on strokeplay either, carving out 12 fours and a six of his own on his way to 94 off 153 balls when bad like halted play for the day late in the evening session.”We need a guy to anchor the innings and he was that today,” Birrell said of Northeast. “I was just disappointed we couldn’t have a few more overs so he could get to his hundred but a very good day overall and we ain’t finished yet.”Joe Weatherley was the only batsman not to make the most of his time in the middle, caught by third slip Tom Westley off the bowling of Quinn for 13 early in the day. But there was no argument that Hampshire weren’t on top at the close.

Yasir Shah led the way once again, but the captain’s 89 and Watling’s resilient 42* have kept New Zealand fighting in the third Test

The Report by Danyal Rasool03-Dec-2018Day 1 Stumps This was a day of – pardon the cliché – proper Test cricket. It was a day that Yasir Shah threatened to hijack once more after an extraordinary pre-lunch burst that reduced New Zealand to 72 for 4, with three wickets lost for two runs. Equally, it was a day that Kane Williamson looked to have salvaged for his side with a phenomenally gritty partnership alongside BJ Watling, who finished unbeaten on 42 off 180 balls, having come in to bat all the way back in the first session. In the end, it was perhaps a day that concluded with as little to separate the sides as there had been at the toss, where a delighted Williamson had decided to bat first, as you do in Abu Dhabi.New Zealand went to stumps with three wickets still in hand, having accumulated 229 attritional runs across 90 overs. Watling kept the innings together after Pakistan looked like they would blow away the tail when Williamson fell, and on a track that is already taking in ludicrous turn for Day 1, every run he and the remainder of New Zealand’s batsman can put together could be priceless by the end of the week.Bilal Asif was just as impressive as Yasir throughout the day, though it wasn’t until the final session that he had something to show for it. That was when the pitch started misbehaving altogether more noticeably; the players might gave gone in for tea, but the pitch seemed to be on something stronger than that. The only problem the spinners had was the ball was turning too much, an unusual situation for the opening day of a match. Bilal accounted for Colin de Grandhomme this way, with a sharply turning ball flicked to leg slip, where Asad Shafiq completed a smart catch. Tim Southee, too, fell to the off spinner, and it was around then New Zealand were in danger of being bowled out on Monday before the late resistance of debutant Will Somerville in Watling’s company.But the day was arguably defined by the second session partnership of Williamson and Watling, which accounted for 104 runs in 249 balls. After Yasir’s salvo in the opening session, New Zealand were left to pick up the pieces, and the pair foraged and gathered rather well. New Zealand abandoned all other concerns but the defence of their wickets, not worried that the run-rate dropped like a stone. The pair scrapped their way through the 32 overs in the middle session, adding 72 runs along the way, but most gratifyingly, they had the asterisk next to their name that denotes their continued presence at the crease after tea.Even scoring at more than 2 per over in the session was a climb from where the run-rate was at one point: from overs 20-44, New Zealand added 45 runs to their total, going at under 1.50. In the second half of the post-lunch session though, Williamson began to capitalise as the bowlers’ lengths drifted more regularly, and brought up another plucky half-century. He was unbeaten on 71 by tea, but it was altogether slower going for Watling.The wicketkeeper batsman has been around the New Zealand setup for almost a decade now, and you could see why. Often, he has played innings with complete disregard for his own reputation or instincts, with his reserves of concentration seemingly never running low. Monday was another such day, where for the best part he was simply hanging around for Williamson, an anchor around which his captain built his own innings. He struck only one four in over two sessions of play, but it is that store he sets by his wicket that makes him such a valuable cricketer for the Black Caps. It is not the first time he has done so, and it’s unlikely to have been the last.Williamson, for his part, was desperately unlucky to miss out on what would have been a well-made hundred, chiefly responsible for ticking the scorecard along when Pakistan were at their most menacing. He was the one who declawed Yasir after lunch. He also seemed to take the fangs out of the pitch, which began to look treacherous after he had been dismissed. So supremely comfortable was he at the crease, that it was a shock to see him dismissed with such a well-rehearsed plan. Hasan Ali encouraged a drive on the up, where Asad Shafiq was perfectly positioned for a simple catch, sending the New Zealand captain back 11 runs away from a 19th Test hundred.In the morning, Yasir’s bruising body blows to New Zealand in the last 20 minutes before lunch undid much of the hard work of Jeet Raval and Williamson in the previous hour. It had all been going along steadily for the visitors before Yasir found prodigious turn to beat Raval’s inside edge, the ball clipping enough of leg stump to withstand a review from the batsman. That brought a very edgy-looking Ross Taylor to the crease, who went back to a ball so short it was almost a long-hop. It neither turned nor bounced, instead clattering into the batsman’s middle stump. Henry Nicholls’ dismissal was even softer, with the left-hander sweeping all around a Yasir googly, managing only to catch an edge that dragged it back into the stumps.The day had begun perfectly for New Zealand. The toss is more important here than just about anywhere in the world outside of Sri Lanka, with the side batting first only ever having lost once. But Pakistan, fielding 18-year old debutant Shaheen Afridi, found cheer in his first spell, trapping Tom Latham in front of the stumps. Fittingly enough for a young man with the future ahead of him, it was a review that got him the wicket, with the umpire originally having turned the appeal down.Having seen out a crucial passage of play late in the day, New Zealand will need to be up for another one early morning tomorrow. Instead of being skittled out under 225, the lower order has held its own against a surging Pakistan late in the day, even a new ball unable to dislodge the unflappable Watling, with Somerville playing an impressively composed innings on debut. So important is this first innings total any runs scored now already feel like a burden on a potential fourth innings chase, which, judging by the way today has gone, could come far sooner than the fifth day.

The decision was taken after the organisers decided to move the event to a more central location, and the upcoming season will also see the addition of a sixth franchise team

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jun-2019The second season of the Global T20 Canada will be held in Brampton in July and August, after the organisers decided to host the event in “a more central location”, according to a press release. The inaugural edition of the tournament had been played in King City in June-July last year at Maple Leaf Cricket Club, which is located 50 km north of downtown Toronto. The city of Brampton is approximately 45 km west of downtown Toronto.The league will also add a sixth franchise team to replace the West Indies B side that had participated in last year’s competition and finished runners-up. Global T20 Canada organizers had previously announced over Twitter on May 3 that the sixth team would be called the “New York Legends”. However, that plan has since been scrapped with the identity of the city and nickname yet to be decided.Declaring that the city has the “biggest cricket fans in Canada”, Brampton’s mayor Patrick Brown said the City of Brampton had committed to more cricket infrastructure. “Currently two existing venues are getting lights and we are in discussions on the feasibility of a multi purpose complex that includes a cricket stadium.” The grounds for the matches, which will be played between July 25 and August 11, have not yet been finalised.The league is owned by the Bombay Sports Company Limited, formerly known as Mercuri Canada. The inaugural season was played between six teams, and featured international players like Steven Smith, Andre Russell, Anton Devcich, David Warner, Chris Gayle, Lasith Malinga, and Sunil Narine. The first edition was won by Vancouver Knights, who were captained by Gayle.This year’s draft is scheduled to take place on June 9. It was initially announced to be held on June 1 but was postponed by organisers less than 24 hours before it was due to begin.