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They have a young captain in Jason Sangha and Daniel Sams will have a vital role with bat and ball

Andrew McGlashan12-Dec-2022Captain Jason Sangha
Coach Trevor Bayliss

Squad

Ben Cutting, Ollie Davies, Brendan Doggett, Fazalhaq Farooqi (Afghanistan), Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Alex Hales (England), Baxter Holt, Nathan McAndrew, Usman Qadir (Pakistan), Alex Ross, Rilee Rossouw (South Africa), Daniel Sams, Gurinder Sandhu, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, David Warner, Sam WhitemanIn Rilee Rossouw, David Warner, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Sam Whiteman, Usman Qadir
Out Sam Billings, Usman Khawaja, Jonathan Cook, Saqib Mahmood, Chris Tremain, Mohammad Hasnain

What happened in the draft

It felt like they had done well with Alex Hales, David Willey and Rilee Rossouw. Willey was an enticing platinum pick with his availability for most of the season, but he recently withdrew from the deal sending Thunder back to the drawing board and they brought in Afghanistan left-armer Fazalhaq Farooqi. Hales will return to his long-term club on the back of T20 World Cup success and Rossouw has had an impressive season in the format. Both, however, will only be around until early January.Related

• Explainer – Why David Warner withdrew the appeal against his lifetime captaincy ban

• Tanveer Sangha hoping for Sydney Thunder BBL return

Last season: Knockout

Thunder reached the finals on the back of a strong mid-season run where they won six games on the bounce including a 129-run hammering of Melbourne Renegades where Daniel Sams hit an astonishing 98 off 44 balls. But they fell short against Adelaide Strikers where they had got the equation down to 39 off 23 balls then 14 off the last over which Harry Conway was able to defend. Jason Sangha led the run-scoring with 445 at 49.44 and a strike-rate of 132.04 and Sams was the leading wicket-taker with 19 although Tanveer Sangha and Gurinder Sandhu were the most consistent performers.

International impact

The return of David Warner to the BBL was the big off-season story, but the window for his availability after the South Africa series may shrink with the squad due to depart for India in late January. Still, when he does suit up in green it will be one of the most anticipated moments of the tournament – especially the derby clash with Steven Smith’s Sydney Sixers. Beyond that, and the overseas players, Thunder are unlikely to be hit by international call-ups as they have no one else in the Test set-up with Usman Khawaja having moved to Brisbane Heat.

Key player

Daniel Sams is another player who might feel he has a part to play in the future of Australia’s T20 side after being on the fringes in recent seasons. For Thunder, he will have a big role to play with bat and ball, although with the later bringing down his economy rate a touch may help his international ambitions. In terms of the batting, it will be interesting to see how and where he is used. As he showed last season with that 98 he has the potential to be destructive, although that innings was an outlier in the campaign. But since then he has produced equally powerful innings in the T20 Blast (71 off 24 balls) and the Hundred (55 off 25 balls).

Young player to watch

Tanveer Sangha’s stress fracture is a blow to their bowling attack, but Ollie Davies caused instant excitement when he struck two quickfire innings at the start of his BBL career in late 2020, but things have been tougher since then making 74 in 11 innings. The early stages of this season were hindered as he came back from a hip injury but in November in made 115 off 106 balls playing for the combined NSW/ACT XI against West Indies in Canberra.

There will be no camp in Chennai before the CSK players leave India

PTI10-Aug-2021Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni landed in Chennai on Tuesday ahead of the departure of a group of players to the UAE, which will host the remainder of IPL 2021 starting next month.A bunch of Indian players will travel to the UAE most likely on August 13.”Indian players in the team, whoever is available, will travel to UAE on August 13 in all likelihood,” Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanathan told PTI.Fans celebrated Dhoni’s arrival in Chennai on social media.

The matches had been scheduled for early August but were always doubtful

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jun-2020Zimbabwe’s three-match ODI tour of Australia in early August has been postponed due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19.Although the series, which was set to be played in northern Australia, had been included in the schedule put out last month it was always unlikely it would take place.A range of issues have prevented the games from being played including the short length of the series, the significant bio-security measures that would need to be implemented prior to August, and concern for the health and safety of players, match officials, and volunteers.Speaking earlier this month Justin Langer indicated the matches were not on his radar when he spoke about getting the players ready for a potential return to action in September with the possibility of a rescheduled limited-overs tour to England.The matches were due to be played on August 9, 12, and 15 although only the third game had a venue confirmed with Townsville. It is the first full home series Australia have lost due to Covid-19 although the final two ODIs against New Zealand in March were cancelled after the opening game of the series was played behind closed doors at the SCG. Their Test tour to Bangladesh in June was also postponed.Outside of the 2015 World Cup it would have been Zimbabwe’s first visit to Australia since taking part in a tri-series in 2004 and Cricket Australia said they were committed to finding a future slot for the matches. Since Covid-19 struck, Zimbabwe have also lost series against Ireland, Afghanistan and India.”While we are disappointed to postpone the series, CA and ZC agree that in the best interest of players, match officials, volunteers as well as our fans, that this is the most practical and sensible decision,” CA’s interim chief executive Nick Hockley said. “We are committed to working with Zimbabwe Cricket on alternative dates to reschedule.”Acting Zimbabwe Cricket Managing Director, Givemore Makoni, said: “We were excited about facing Australia but, given the circumstances, deferring the tour was the only option. We are, however, looking forward to the rescheduling of the series as soon as practically possible.”There are ongoing discussions between CA and the ECB about Australia travelling in September for the ODI and T20I matches that were originally scheduled for July. The next scheduled home cricket for the men’s team is two T20I series against West Indies and India in early October although they are also likely to be moved if, as expected, the T20 World Cup is postponed.

Lahore Qalandars had reduced Peshawar Zalmi to 20 for 5. Then walked in Misbah-ul-Haq, who combined with Darren Sammy to seal a knockouts berth for his side

The Report by Peter Della Penna05-Mar-2019How the game played out
The largest sixth-wicket stand in PSL history was spurred by the oldest player to score a T20 half-century as Misbah-Ul-Haq, playing his first match since February 15, rescued Peshawar Zalmi from a perilous position of 20 for 5 to complete a four-wicket win with a ball to spare. The win helped Zalmi clinch a playoff spot while Qalandars are on the brink of missing the knockout stages after the loss.Chasing 125, Misbah entered at 8 for 2 in the second over in the midst of a destructive spell by Shaheen Afridi. But with Zalmi in serious strife, Misbah was joined by another cagey veteran in Darren Sammy and the pair added an even 100 for the sixth wicket, taking the match into the final over before Sammy fell with four balls left.Qalandars had several chances in the final over to turn the tide their way, but Misbah was dropped at deep square leg on the first ball by Ryan ten Doeschate on 55 before a missed run-out led to overthrows to level the scores. A single by Wahab Riaz to short third man was fumbled to symbolically end the match.Turning points

• Playing his first match of the season, Tymal Mills bowled a superb spell for Zalmi, showcasing his array of slower balls and changes of pace to keep batsmen off balance. Mills got Anton Devcich miscuing a drive to mid-on in the second over of the match to get the ball rolling in the field before coming back in the 15th getting Haris Sohail uppercutting to third man for a top-score of 43.
• With the score 34 for 5 after 9 overs of the chase, Misbah slog swept Sandeep Lamichhane for a pair of sixes over midwicket to begin the 10th over, getting the Zalmi chase back on track.
• With 31 off 18 needed, Sammy drove Haris Rauf over mid off before a streaky edge led to a second four in the over. There was nothing streaky about the six he pulverized over cover to end the over, taking the equation down to 13 off 12.

Star of the dayAt 44 years and 281 days, Misbah showed he’s still got something left in the tank. He now has 108 runs in the season in his two knocks without being dismissed.The big missFakhar Zaman’s use of Sandeep Lamichhane. Fakhar got spooked too easily by Misbah’s back-to-back sixes to start the 10th. Rather than back his champion legspinner to break a burgeoning stand – especially since Lamichhane had taken 4 for 10 two matches prior against joint first-place Quetta Gladiators – Lamichhane was taken out of the attack and didn’t return until Ryan ten Doeschate left injured four balls into the 20th over. A single followed, and he ended with 22 for 0 in 2.1 overs.Where the teams standZalmi are level with Quetta Gladiators on 12 points atop the PSL table, though Zalmi have a better net run rate. However, Gladiators have another game in hand and, if they win, will finish at the top of the league heading into the playoffs. Qalandars sit in fifth place, on six points, two behind both Islamabad United and Karachi Kings. On the plus side, one of the final two matches for Qalandars is against last-place Multan Sultans, giving them hope that they can sneak into fourth.

Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer said that losing two wickets in the first over hurt the visitors’ chances in the tournament opener in Mirpur

Mohammad Isam15-Jan-2018Two wickets in the first over of the match cost Zimbabwe dearly in their tri-series opener, according to the captain Graeme Cremer. He said that the visitors expected Bangladesh to open with spin, since openers Hamilton Masakadza and Solomon Mire both prefer pace early on.Mire should have been more careful at an innocuous wide down the leg side, off which he was stumped. What stung a little more was Craig Ervine’s soft dismissal two balls later, when he hit one straight to short midwicket. Cremer said that it was a body blow to Zimbabwe as Ervine plays the anchor’s role in ODIs.”We thought they would open with one spinner at least,” Cremer said. “Our openers like pace on the ball. They know that. We didn’t know if it was going to be Shakib [Al Hasan] or Nasir [Hossain]. We thought one of them might open.”We look to Solomon to power those ten overs, so it’s always tough to lose him early. Ervine steadies the innings, so to lose him also was really tough. Momentum definitely shifted towards Bangladesh and it is hard to get out of that. It really made it tough. But the credit goes to them. They bowled really well.”Shakib Al Hasan, who took both wickets and was later adjudged the Player of the Match, said that the Mire dismissal came unexpected.”It wasn’t a planned dismissal. I think it was a good stumping by Mushfiq ,” he said. “He had a good day as a wicketkeeper. We needed early wickets, whether it was the first or second over. In this pitch, wickets in hand make it much easier to score in the slog overs.”Shakib also said that Zimbabwe’s usual weakness against left-arm spin meant that Bangladesh opened with him and Sunzamul Islam.”We were always successful against Zimbabwe because of left-arm spin, which is why we began with two left-arm spinners,” he said. “There was help in the pitch in the early stages.”Shakib praised the pace attack for putting together a fine effort, particularly from Rubel Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman. He said that Rubel usually bowls in a tough period in the middle of the innings when batsmen are set. Mustafizur, he said, is working hard to iron out the chinks in his bowling.”I expected them to bat better but I think we bowled really well today,” Shakib said. “Mustafizur, Mashrafe and Rubel did great work. Rubel always bowls when batsmen are set and scoring runs, and he delivers for the team. Nasir’s four overs were important too.”I don’t think he (Mustafizur) bowled too poorly at any stage [in the recent past],” he said. “We can’t expect him to take a lot of wickets all the time. I think he is improving, because he is working hard in his bowling. I am satisfied with his bowling today.”Cremer admitted that Mustafizur’s famed cutters were hard to decipher at times. “He bowled really well,” the Zimbabwe captain said. “His slower ball is really hard to pick up. You have to wait a long time. It is a bit different than his normal stock delivery. He bowled good areas today.”

New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has said familiar conditions at home will help his side rebound mentally from the India tour

Andrew Fidel Fernando15-Nov-2016Australia’s Test-match losing streak may be making headlines, but their neighbours across the Tasman have not fared much better this year. Of nine Tests played in 2016, New Zealand has lost six, winning only the two matches against Zimbabwe. Their four most-recent results have all been losses.Unlike for Australia, however, the losing streak has come overseas, against formidable opposition: the first loss came against South Africa, and the next three in India, where many teams have suffered in the last three years.Now back at home, with a grassy pitch before them and a long summer ahead, coach Mike Hesson has said his team will not dwell on the overseas failures. They will instead aim to fall back on memories of their unbeaten stretch at home between 2013 and 2015.”I think we’ve won seven out of our 11 Tests at home in the last three years, with a couple of draws and a couple of losses,” Hesson said. “You do that because conditions are familiar to you, and you adapt quicker than other sides.”We’ve been stressing the fact that we need to prepare for conditions that we’re more familiar with. We’ve got some experience to draw on over the last three or four years. It’s a matter of going through that rather than reliving India. Conditions over there were significantly different to what we’re going to face over here.”New Zealand’s batsmen had had a particularly torrid tour of India, where no one managed a century across three Tests. Their main destroyers on that tour had been spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who shared 41 scalps between them. Hesson said his batsmen had rebounded mentally since that series, which ended a month ago.”The conditions are here very different, so the skillset required is different. We acknowledge that we didn’t adapt as well as we needed to in India. Hence, we underachieved, especially with the bat. Here, I’m very confident the guys know the conditions.’We’ve got some experience to draw on over the last three or four years. It’s a matter of going through that rather than reliving India’ – Mike Hesson•Associated Press

“There was a period of having to deal with dented confidence, but that was some time ago. At the time we needed to dwell on some of the areas we hadn’t performed well in, and we’ve done that. Then we need to move on – that’s the nature of international cricket. When you perform and you win easily, you don’t dwell on that either. You move on.”The top order will have to contend with the likes of Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz and Yasir Shah, as they battle for Test form. Pakistan’s attack had delivered two Test victories in England this year, and Hesson believes they are a particularly dynamic outfit.”We’ll be challenged by this Pakistan attack, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “They’ve got an attack that suits all conditions around the world. They swing the new ball, they reverse it, and they’ve got a very good spinner. They’ve also got experience in their batting line up. They’re tough in every condition, so they’re bowling attack is going to pose some challenges for us.”The Hagley Oval surface has generally been seam-friendly over the first two days of the Test. Although it had a significant covering of grass two days from the Test, Hesson expected the pitch to settle quickly.”The pitch has good pace and bounce, which stays throughout. And I think it turns into a pretty flat surface. It’s one of those surfaces where you are going to need to have resources to bowl a lot of overs, rather than think you’re going to bowl them out in a session and a half. I don’t think it’s going to be like that.”

Mel Cairns, the wife of former New Zealand allrounder Chris Cairns, has denied that an alleged discussion about match-fixing in a Manchester bar ever took place

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Nov-2015Mel Cairns, the wife of former New Zealand allrounder Chris Cairns, has denied that an alleged discussion about match-fixing in a Manchester bar ever took place.The jury in Chris Cairns’ perjury trial had previously been told about a night out in Manchester in 2008, when Eleanor Riley, the former wife of Lou Vincent, one of the main prosecution witnesses, gave evidence that Cairns had said he was confident he would get away with fixing because “everyone was doing it in India”.Mel Cairns, who was appearing via video link, was present on the night, which involved several hours of drinking. Asked by Cairns’ barrister Orlando Pownall, QC, whether there had been any discussion of fixing, she replied: “Absolutely not.”Vincent was playing for Lancashire at the time, having previously been involved with the Indian Cricket League (ICL) alongside Cairns, where he said he was under “direct orders” to fix matches.Chris Cairns is accused of perjury and perverting the course of justice during his 2012 libel case against Lalit Modi. He denies all charges.Mel and Chris Cairns met in 2008, when he was still married to his previous wife. They subsequently lived together in Dubai, where Cairns has said he was looking to get involved in the diamond trade. The couple were married in 2010 and have two children.It was put to Mel Cairns by the crown prosecutor, Sasha Wass, QC, that she was lying to protect her husband. Wass had previously alleged that the money Cairns was paid by an Indian diamond company was “a reward for fixing cricket matches”.Mel Cairns said: “I would never lie to help my husband in court.”An Australian who played college basketball in the US, Mel Cairns works with professional athletes in sports marketing and management. She said she “absolutely would not have a relationship” with Chris Cairns if match-fixing had been discussed after they had first met.Mel Cairns was giving evidence over video from the couple’s home in Canberra because she said they could not afford for her to travel, although she had wanted to be with Cairns during the trial, which began more than four weeks ago.”It broke my heart to watch Chris walk every day, alone to and from court, and knowing he was going home alone by himself,” she said.The trial continues.

On Friday Eden Park hosts the deciding Test, the first five-day match here since 2006, with much focus on the drop-in pitch which was lowered into place

Andrew McGlashan in Auckland21-Mar-2013Last Saturday Eden Park was hosting a rugby match between the Roosters and the Warriors in the NRL. On Friday it hosts the deciding Test between England and New Zealand, the first five-day match here since 2006, with much focus on the drop-in pitch which was lowered into place just hours after the rugby finished.The process where the pitch, grown near the No. 2 Oval, is wheeled on a large flat-bed frame into the ground took about three hours. Drop-in pitches are not new, Eden Park has used them since 2002, but they always add intrigue especially considered the talk surrounding the nature of the pitches so far in the series.Mark Perham, the head groundsman at Eden Park for 11 years who looks after the surfaces for cricket and rugby, said he had received no direction from New Zealand Cricket over what to prepare. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a result. No one wants to see three draws. Getting through the new ball is key, wickets can go in clumps so the game can move on pretty quickly.”The pitch for this Test has been used for three Twenty20s earlier in the season and has since been reseeded. Perham added that he expected more pace and bounce than the previous two Tests and said that a good guide are the pitches produced on the neighbouring oval which hosts Plunket Shield matches and which uses the same soil.However, he said there was unlikely to be much for the spinners as the clay-based soil used does not break up although Bruce Martin, who plays for Auckland, picked up seven in a match early in the summer and 5 for 45 in the second innings against Canterbury.There were a wide range of totals this season in the Plunket games staged next door including teams being bowled out for under 200, but also a total of 658 for 9 during which Colin Munro (269) and Craig Cachopa (166) added 377 for the sixth wicket. In another match Gareth Andrew, the Worcestershire allrounder, hit an unbeaten 180 at No. 8 although that may have more to do with the standard of New Zealand domestic cricket.The lack of recent Test history at this ground will add to the head-scratching for the captains. The previous Test here in 2006 resulted in a 27-run win against West Indies and there hasn’t been a draw since 1999 (pre the era of drop-in pitches). “The main difference [for internationals] is you have all the good bowlers,” Perham said.England have a mixed history with drop-in surfaces in New Zealand. They encountered two during the 2002 tour, the first producing the famous Christchurch Test which began with England 0 for 2 in the first over, was followed by seven wickets for Matthew Hoggard and then turned into a batting paradise with record-breaking double-centuries from Graham Thorpe and Nathan Astle before England ultimately won by 98 runs.Fortunes were reversed in Auckland where New Zealand slumped to 19 for 4 before reaching 202 then skittling England for 160. They eventually won by 78 runs, but the main controversy of that match was the use of the floodlights on the fourth evening which left Nasser Hussain furious because he said his fielders could not see the ball. New Zealand took advantage and amassed their match-winning lead.There are also the dimensions of the ground – with a straight hit of less than 70 metres – to consider, which Brendon McCullum said will be factor. “Since the wicket has been turned around the dimensions are significantly different to previous Test matches,” he said. “In one-day cricket and T20 there’s an expectancy for the ball to sail over the boundary but perhaps less so in Tests, so it will be an interesting scenario if some guys gets in and can access those short boundaries. It will have its quirks.”Whatever happens this time, though, Perham won’t be listening to any of the comments. “You’ve just got to take it on the chin, I don’t listen to any of it. We just want to produce the best cricket wicket possible, where if you bowl well you take wickets and if you bat well you score runs. You don’t want to get back into dirty green seamers. Who wants to see the Test over in three days?”The pace bowlers on both sides might put their hand up to that question.

Internet rumours that suggested Chris Cairns had been involved in match-fixing during his time with the Indian Cricket League had made him “barking” angry, according to his advisor Andrew Fitch-Holland, who gave evidence on the third day of Cairns’ libel

Alan Gardner at the Royal Courts of Justice07-Mar-2012Internet rumours that suggested Chris Cairns had been involved in match-fixing during his time with the Indian Cricket League (ICL) had made him “barking” angry, according to his advisor Andrew Fitch-Holland, who gave evidence on the third day of Cairns’ libel action against Lalit Modi.Cairns is suing Modi for defamation over a 2010 tweet that implicated him in corruption. He has vigorously denied claims of fixing. Cairns, the retired New Zealand international, captained Chandigarh Lions in the ICL for three seasons before having his contract cancelled, officially for failing to disclose an injury.Following the meeting with ICL officials in 2008 that led to his dismissal, Cairns became aware of online gossip linking his departure with match-fixing. The rumours had appeared on a “plethora of fan-based websites across the world,” Fitch-Holland said.Although Cairns was concerned about this, Fitch-Holland said he advised that he “did not think it was a good idea to call out the big guns” at that time.”It would have been a disproportionate response to low-level, unspecified tittle-tattle,” he said. However, he contrasted this with the allegations made in Modi’s tweet.”There is a massive difference between that and your client saying it,” Fitch-Holland said, in response to questioning from Ronald Thwaites QC, representing Modi. Fitch-Holland added that he had spoken to major media outlets in the UK during late 2008 to reiterate that Cairns had been sacked by the ICL over an ankle injury.The court also heard from Cairns’ wife, Mel. Describing the moment she asked Cairns if he had been involved in fixing, she said it was “the most horrible question I have ever had to ask”. Cairns had replied “absolutely not”, she said. There were tears in her eyes as she answered Thwaites’ question as to whether she believed him.”When something is said, over and over, accusing the man that you love of something … Of course I want to believe him and I do believe him,” she said.Fitch-Holland was the last witness to appear for Cairns. Later on Wednesday the court will hear evidence from Howard Beer, the former ICL anti-corruption officer, who is appearing on behalf of Modi.