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Shubman Gill “has a bit of Rohit in him,” says India’s stand-in captain after the ODI series win in West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jul-20222:38

Dhawan: Gill has a ‘bit of Rohit touch’ in him

Shikhar Dhawan, India’s stand-in captain for the ODIs in the West Indies, has praised the maturity of his young squad which swept the series 3-0. With India resting Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah – and KL Rahul unavailable because of injury and Covid-19 – Dhawan was pleased with how the bench strength had handled pressure during the series.”The way the boys responded … They are young in age but quite mature and sensible, they can handle pressure quite nicely,” Dhawan said after India won the rain-interrupted third ODI by 119 runs in Trinidad.Related

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“Because of domestic cricket and the IPL … the transition to international cricket becomes quite easy for us. At the same time, hats off to all the boys – both the batting and bowling unit, the way they responded was amazing. They were quite disciplined and practical. They weren’t going with emotions but were using their sense out there. It’s a big, big tick for all of us.”Dhawan was pleased with the way almost every batter contributed in the series. Shubman Gill starred with 205 runs from three innings, Shreyas Iyer made 163 runs with two fifties, while Sanju Samson and Axar Patel also scored crucial half-centuries. Dhawan also said the plan to use allrounder Deepak Hooda with the ball worked so well that he opened the bowling with the offspinner in the third ODI.”If you talk about the batting unit, everyone has scored runs – Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju, Axar … there couldn’t be a better sign for a batting unit,” Dhawan said. “And they all are youngsters. So to play in these conditions after the England tour, be it batting first or chasing, or to play with the same grit in the third game after you have won the first two, that’s a big thing in itself.”Before the series, we knew Deepak could play an allrounder’s role. The way he responded in the first match, that confidence just went up that instead of five overs, he could bowl seven-eight overs too. And not only against left-handers, but he also bowled well to their right-handers. After two games, we realised that their left-hander might struggle a bit against his offspin, we thought of giving him the new ball because there was not much swing for the fast bowlers. So given the wicket, we thought the offspinner might work, and today the first over was a maiden.”In the absence of regular openers Rohit and Rahul, India had to choose between Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan and Gill to partner Dhawan at the top. They chose Gill and he ended up being the Player of the Series, averaging 102.50 with three 40-plus scores and two century partnerships with his captain.Shubman Gill smashed his way to a second fifty of the series on Wednesday•AFP/Getty Images

“He [Gill] has got a very good technique and he is a classy player; you can see that the touch he’s got – I think he has got a bit of Rohit touch in him,” Dhawan said. “He has a lot of time in him. Good to see that he has scored 98 today. He knew how to convert his fifty to 90s. We both got two 100-run partnerships in three matches, that’s a very good sign. The way we handled the first ten overs and their bowling attack, it was really good.”Apart from having a successful series as a captain, Dhawan also made important contributions with the bat. His recent form had not been great: he averaged only 28 in his previous five ODIs before the tour of the Caribbean, and his last hundred was in June 2019. Dhawan finished as the second highest run-scorer in this series, with scores of 97, 13 and 58.”I am very pleased with my batting because the way the ball is hitting my bat and my shots are coming out … With the experience I have and the calmness I play with, I was not rushed at all while batting. I handle the pressure in an even better manner now, so that feels good.”India’s bowlers also played their part in the series win. In the absence of Bumrah and Shami, Yuzvendra Chahaland Shardul Thakur emerged as the top wicket-takers of the series with seven wickets each, while Axar Patel and Mohammed Siraj played supporting roles.”Mohammed Siraj is a quality bowler. After playing for so many years, his self-belief has also increased,” Dhawan said. “Even when I give him a field, he would say, ‘No, I want this field.’ So that pleases me because that shows his self-belief. So when he backs himself, as a captain, it becomes very easy for me. When you see boys know what to do, they know their responsibilities, it feels great as a captain.”Dhawan’s series win was India’s fourth consecutive overseas victory in limited-overs cricket since the tour of South Africa in January this year. He will now hand back the captaincy to Rohit, who returns for the five-match T20I series against West Indies beginning in Tarouba on Friday.

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Karthik Krishnaswamy13-Apr-2021

New Zealand will visit Edinburgh for an ODI and a T20I, while Australia will also play a T20I in June

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Dec-2019Cricket Scotland has announced fixtures against New Zealand and Australia for the home summer of 2020. New Zealand will play an ODI and a T20I ahead of their trip to Ireland, while Australia will arrive for a T20I before travelling on to England.New Zealand had been due to visit for an ODI on June 26, but have changed their itinerary and will be in Edinburgh for games at the Grange on June 10 and 12. Australia will now play at the Grange on June 29, ahead of three ODIs and three T20Is against England in July.”The opportunity to play against two of the best teams in the world is an exciting prospect,” Scotland men’s head coach, Shane Burger, said. “We have beaten teams of this calibre previously and we will be looking to push them all the way on all occasions.

Scotland 2020 fixtures

• T20I v New Zealand, June 10, Edinburgh

• ODI v New Zealand, June 12, Edinburgh

• T20I v Australia, June 29, Edinburgh

“Cricket Scotland has set big goals for the year 2020 and this is part of that vision of playing against the world’s best and challenging players and staff to keep improving both on and off the field.”Scotland memorably beat England in an ODI in Edinburgh in 2018, although their recent form in World Cup League 2 has been patchy with losses to USA and UAE earlier this month. In October, they secured qualification for next year’s T20 World Cup, despite finishing fourth in their group behind Papua New Guinea, Netherlands and Namibia.Cricket Scotland CEO Gus Mackay said: “We are delighted to welcome Australia and New Zealand to Scotland for three summer internationals in 2020.”To host these high-profile matches further demonstrates Cricket Scotland’s ambitions of playing more fixtures against Full Member opposition and also provides our fans and supporters with more international cricket. In addition, it presents a great opportunity to prepare for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be held in Australia the same year.”

From watching India play at Lord’s from the stands, to walking out to bat at The Oval, Vihari’s journey is still a work in progress

Deivarayan Muthu in Bengaluru16-Oct-2018After finding no takers in the 2014 IPL auction, Hanuma Vihari signed up with Hutton CC in the Essex league in England. During his time off, he was in the stands for the Lord’s Test that year, soaking in Ajinkya Rahane’s counterattacking century. Four years later at The Oval, he would walk in to bat after Rahane was dismissed.After overcoming early jitters, he made a fifty on Test debut and claimed three wickets to boot. He could not break into the XI for the home series against West Indies that followed, but celebrated his 25th birthday with the side. Some turnaround, eh?”It was a wonderful Test where Ajinkya [Rahane] got that hundred. I think I went to watch the second day, but after four years actually me representing India was also wonderful. It was a great feeling,” Vihari gushed on the sidelines of the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-final between Andhra and Hyderabad at the Just Cricket Academy Ground in Bengaluru.

Hanuma Vihari on:

From being a Rayudu fan to playing against him: “It is very special. Once I look at at those memories of watching Rayudu bat when I was a kid in Hyderabad… He’s a great batsman and in my opinion he’s one of the best in the county because the amount of time he has when he plays I still admire him a lot. Great fun playing against him.”
Captaining Andhra: “It made me think about the game more. Once you think about the game more, it will help your batting as well. You know what the bowler is exactly trying to do, it’s a great honour to be captaining Andhra. It’s a wonderful team and we’ve been playing wonderful cricket in the last two years.”

“Sharing the dressing room with them on my birthday was very special. Because it was my first birthday after coming into the national side and everyone greeted me well.”Vihari had started out being a nervous wreck in his early exchanges at The Oval. He fell over his front foot and was pinned plumb in front for a duck by Stuart Broad. But umpire Joel Wilson shot down the appeal, and England didn’t review either, handing Vihari a lifeline. Broad kept targetting his pads with booming inswingers, but a piece of advice from captain Virat Kohli helped him weather that burst.”I was just looking to get the runs to get the deficit down and obviously having Virat at the other end helped because he gave me clues of what Broad was doing,” Vihari said. “I was making adjustments with my front foot because he [Broad] was getting it in quite sharply. I [opened my stance], giving more space with my front foot and those were the adjustments I made to ensure I counter the inswing.Vihari picked out his straight drive off left-arm seamer Sam Curran as the shot that made him believe he “belonged here”.”That was the moment where I got confidence because if you move your feet in and drive the ball, you get your eye in,” he said. “Those are one of the moments you need in international cricket to be confident about yourself.”Vihari wasn’t as confident when he went unsold in the 2014 auction. He did get another gig with Sunrisers Hyderabad the next season, but he blew it by tallying just 39 runs in four innings. He hasn’t been part of the IPL since.”He was always talented but there was a time when he wasn’t getting the opportunity,” Vihari’s former coach at Andhra, and current India Under-19 bowling coach Sanath Kumar said. “He wasn’t getting recognition and he wasn’t even getting picked up for the IPL. All those things – and some bad experiences in Hyderabad – weighed on his mind and he started doubting himself. “Such setbacks have defined Vihari’s career. He lost his father in 2005 when he was 12 and was later dropped from Under-13s state side. He hadn’t been selected for the 2012 Under-19 World Cup either, but was eventually picked as a last-minute replacement for the injured Manan Vohra.”These setbacks have made me a better person,” he said. “Once you reflect on it, it will make you more humble and whatever you achieve, you have to keep going consistently and not relax or get complacent. But those are things, which make you stronger. If you are strong enough, it can make you a stronger person. Otherwise, you crumble. That is the choice I had. Every international player has a story. This is my story.”He has added another chapter to his story by unlocking his power game in limited-overs cricket. It was on display against Hyderabad on Monday: he cracked four sixes in his 99-ball 95, including three that went out of the ground. He also was central to Andhra qualifying for the semi-finals in the 2017-18 Vijay Hazare Trophy, scoring 378 runs in eight innings at an average of 54 and strike-rate of 103.84. Only his Andhra team-mate KS Bharat, Saurashtra’s Cheteshwar Pujara and Karnataka’s Mayank Agarwal had made more runs than him in that season.”My mindset has also changed in limited-overs cricket. I want to be more aggressive,” Vihari said. “I have a formula in the four-day format, which I don’t want to change much. But in the one-dayers and T20s, I want to be more expressive; I know I have the shots. I want to be the X-factor in the team. I just don’t want to contribute to the team score but I also want to win matches. With my game, I want to create some fear in the opposition when I’m there in the crease.”

Chris Gayle’s slowest half-century set it up, and his bowlers finished the job on a slow pitch, as the Guyana Amazon Warriors fell agonisingly short of a win against St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots

Peter Della Penna in Lauderhill06-Aug-2017
1:26

‘We came out on top in the key moments’ – Brathwaite

The slowest T20 half-century of Chris Gayle’s career wound up being an incredibly valuable one as St Kitts and Nevis Patriots defended 132, including seven off the final over, to beat Guyana Amazon Warriors by four runs in Florida. Two run-outs on either side of a Carlos Brathwaite yorker in a chaotic last over sealed a second win in two days for the Patriots.Gayle storm turns into soft drizzleGayle struck 85 off 52 balls on this ground five years ago against in a then record score of 209 for 2, against New Zealand. On this weekend’s pitch, timing the ball off the wicket was difficult. Three of the six balls Gayle hit to or over the rope in his innings came off full tosses. However, he still only had 15 dots in his 55-ball unbeaten 66, searching for singles far more than usual to take Patriots to 132 for 3. They needed every bit of Gayle’s output after fellow opener Evin Lewis, who scored a T20 century on this ground a year ago against India, struggled to 4 off 15.U-S-A! turns into U-S-ehhhhh…Amazon Warriors captain Martin Guptill sat out with a left hamstring strain. It meant that USA captain Steven Taylor, who grew up 20 minutes away in Miramar and has spent most of his life playing on the Lauderhill wicket, was promoted from No. 5 to open with Chadwick Walton in pursuit of Patriots’ 132 for 3.The Central Broward Regional Park was the site of one of Taylor’s two T20 centuries for USA, but after scoring 7 on Saturday, he only managed a skewed two over point that came off his first ball facing Samuel Badree. Five dots of pressure followed before the American charged down the wicket. Badree was expecting it, and bowled slightly wider and flatter. Devon Thomas collected for a simple stumping.Afghanistan’s presidential maiden CPL wicketOne of Mohammad Nabi’s nicknames in Afghanistan is “The President” for his icon status. Both he and Rashid Khan went wicketless on day one in Florida, and Rashid endured a frustrating time in the field again on Sunday, finishing with 0 for 36 in four overs.It took 11.2 overs of the second innings before Nabi finally took the first wicket by an Afghan in the CPL. Nabi had conceded just eight off his first two overs and two balls into his third, Babar Azam tried to take him over Brathwaite at long-off. But the Pakistan batsman was beaten in flight and a simple catch was taken to create a bit of CPL history. After his 0 for 17 on Saturday, he ended with 1 for 18 on Sunday.Supersub one moment, human the nextFabian Allen came on as a sub fielder for Brandon King and pulled off an early contender for catch of the tournament, perhaps even the catch of 2017. Jason Mohammed was on 41, with 31 needed off four overs and seven wickets in hand. Two overs earlier, Jason Mohammed had carved Brathwaite over cover for six. He tried to find that region against Hasan Ali at the start of the 17th.
Mohammed timed the ball fairly well but struck it much squarer as it hung up in the crossbreeze. Allen was cover sweeping and tracked 20 yards before flying through the air, reaching out with his preferred left hand to pluck an absolute stunner.Allen showed he was human after all though, just one over later. Gajanand Singh drove to Allen, who fumbled a collection on the boundary and then compounded the error with a horrendous relay that beat Thomas and the backup fielder for two costly overthrows in a tense chase.No doubting ThomasAmazon Warriors needed eight off the final over with five wickets in hand and Gajanand on 28. After a single first ball by Rayad Emrit, Brathwaite fired a yorker down leg for a wide. Emrit called Gajanand through to steal another run, but Thomas fired a direct hit to remove Emrit.A single by Sohail Tanvir put Gajanand back on strike. But the batsman was bowled as he tried to ramp a Brathwaite yorker, to elevate the tension in the ground. New man Veerasammy Permaul missed a swipe on a delivery angled through his legs – another bye was attempted to try and get Sohail Tanvir through to strike, but Thomas struck with a direct-hit again. Amazon Warriors now needed a four from Rashid off the last ball to force a super over. But he couldn’t get bat on Brathwaite’s full one off the last ball.

West Indies could be without captain Jason Holder for their must-win match against South Africa in Barbados on Friday after he injured his hamstring during the loss to Australia on Tuesday

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jun-2016West Indies could be without captain Jason Holder for their must-win match against South Africa in Barbados on Friday after he injured his hamstring during the loss to Australia on Tuesday. Holder was able to bowl only two overs before he left the field, which forced West Indies to use occasional legspinner Andre Fletcher and stand-in captain Kieron Pollard to make up the rest of his overs.Chasing 283 to secure a place in the tri-series final, the Australians reached their target with eight balls to spare thanks in part to a stunning cameo of 46 not out from 26 deliveries from Glenn Maxwell. Friday’s match between West Indies and South Africa now becomes a straight elimination game, with the winner to take on Australia in the final on Sunday.”I’ve strained my left hamstring,” Holder said after the match. “Hopefully I’ll be ready for the game on Friday, still not sure at the moment. I think the bowlers made a very good attempt at trying to defend the runs. It was just unfortunate we were one bowler short.”Fletcher came on and slipped in three tight overs. In hindsight he probably could have gone on for two more. Having said that we fought right down to the end with a bowler short, so credit must go to the bowling unit.”West Indies were arguably a few runs short of par on a good batting pitch after being sent in by Steven Smith, although a 192-run stand between Denesh Ramdin and Marlon Samuels ensured a strong total after they slipped to be 31 for 3.Samuels finished with 125, his first hundred against Australia in any format, and he was Man of the Match for the second consecutive game against Australia despite the losing cause. There was plenty of chat between the two sides over the course of the match and Samuels said he had been spurred on by Australia’s words.”I’ve been saying that over the years,” Samuels said. “Most times I come out to bat and nobody has anything to say, I don’t perform that well. But when somebody has something to say, I want to stay out there longer and see how long they can talk.”I’ve got a hundred against everybody in the world now [full ICC members]. It’s very satisfying. Nevertheless, we still have a game on Friday and that game is very important for us to win.”Coach Phil Simmons said he was proud to see his team – which is ranked at No. 8 in ODIs – competing well with higher-ranked opposition. Even if they did not win on Tuesday, he said, they gained a lot out of the game. “A loss is a loss but there are a lot of things we can take from it. When you’re up against Australia and you’re 30 for 3, to come back and make 280, you have to take that. Taking it to the second to last over, you have to take that, especially with our main bowler and captain missing. [And also] how well Shannon [Gabriel] bowled on his debut, to have someone in the 150s regularly, it’s great to see.”The work that the guys have put in over the past five or six weeks has been excellent. For us to be in a competition with No. 1 and No. 3 in the world, and still be in the competition and looking to be in the final in the last game, it’s what we spoke about at the start of the tournament, that we need to make sure we are winning games against these top teams in order to be moving up the table.”