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The batsman’s residency status is causing issues but the coach is in no doubt he is a Test player

Andrew McGlashan02-Apr-2021New Zealand coach Gary Stead is hopeful that issues around Devon Conway’s ability to leave and return to the country in the prevailing Covid-19 border restrictions will be sorted in time for him to be part of the Test squad to travel to England in May.The tour includes two Tests against England and then the World Test Championship final against India at the end of June. Conway, who qualified for New Zealand last August, has yet to make his Test debut but after a stellar season in limited-overs cricket, he has made an almost irrefutable case for a place in the squad, although how he gets into the XI remains a puzzle for the selectors.Under current New Zealand government border regulations, only permanent residents of the country can leave and return because of the Covid-19 processes involved. Although Conway qualified for national duty last year, his residency application remains to be completed – with the pandemic adding to the delay – so either that needs to be fast-tracked or an exemption will need to be gained.Related

• Conway toasts 'pretty special' ton: 'I will remember this for a long time'

• Conway in top five among T20I batsmen

• Can New Zealand's perfect summer be a precursor to silverware?

“Think it’s still in the pipeline but my understanding is Devon has been spoken to and is hopeful everything will be in place before [the tour],” Stead said. “You’ve all seen how Devon’s played this year; think I want him part of that Test squad, definitely.”I knew he was a good player, guess at times you can be pleasantly surprised how people make that adjustment. Devon looks like he’s got all the skills of being an amazing player. We are very fortunate that we’ve had people in our squad like Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson and you see someone like Devon Conway come along and you think here’s another guy who could be in that class.”New Zealand will take a large squad of 20 players on the England tour•Getty Images

New Zealand will take a squad of 20 to England – the group will be named next Thursday – so there is plenty of room for Conway, but there isn’t an easy answer for who he replaces in the XI if he is to make his debut. Will Young was preferred as the next-in-line batsman earlier in the season against West Indies.Apart from captain Williamson, Taylor, Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls would appear to be locked in. But with an average of 29.75 in his last nine Tests, the spotlight could come on Taylor, which potentially leaves one batting slot unless the balance of the side is changed to leave out an allrounder.There could be a short-term opening for the first Test against England, which starts June 2, if Williamson is unavailable because of his IPL commitments, but that would only kick the longer-term decision down the road.Tom Blundell has been Latham’s most recent opening partner (Young replaced him for one Test this season when Blundell took the gloves) but although Conway averages over 60 at No. 3 in first-class cricket, opening would not be his natural position.New Zealand have rotated their No. 7 between Daryl Mitchell and Mitchell Santner this season, depending on conditions, and if they feel able to go into a Test with just four specialist quicks, Conway could play as another batsman.The early part of the England tour is likely to be a bit of a juggling act for New Zealand. There is the potential for IPL players to arrive at various stages depending on when their teams are knocked out, and then their availability would be based on any quarantine required, although at this stage Stead expects everyone to be available for the second Test. The initial 20-man squad will then be trimmed to 15 for the WTC final.”It’s an interesting time at the moment because there’s a whole heap of different moving parts. We’ve selected what we think our XI is likely to be – or 12-13 depending on conditions – then looked that we have cover for each of those spots as well,” Stead said of picking the larger squad. “They’ll still be people disappointed to miss the squad and again think that’s the great thing about the depth we are showing at the moment.”The final round of the Plunket Shield takes place this weekend with some New Zealand players involved then those on contract will have two or three weeks off before a series of training camps are arranged ahead of the England trip with the squad due to depart mid-May.

Chahar’s record six-for has put him at 42nd among bowlers, while Oman’s Zeeshan Maqsood is now the sixth-best allrounder in the world

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-2019Twin half-centuries in the first two T20Is in Australia helped Babar Azam consolidate his position at the top of the men’s T20I rankings for batsmen. There was major movement just below him with Dawid Malan moving up all the way to No. 3 and Aaron Finch jumping from No. 4 to No. 2 in the latest update.Among bowlers, Deepak Chahar was the toast of town after recording the best figures in men’s T20Is – 6 for 7 – in the third T20I against Bangladesh, and while that helped him move up 88 spots to No. 42, it remains a list dominated by spinners: Rashid Khan is still at the top and only two quicks, Andile Phehlukwayo at six and Chris Jordan at ten, are in the top ten.Malan has made a brilliant start to his T20I career, scoring 458 runs at a strike rate of 156.31 in his nine games to date, with the 51-ball 103* in the fourth T20I against New Zealand his best so far. But Malan, and Finch – 37*, 17 and 52* against Pakistan – remain well behind Azam, who has 876 points to the Australian’s 807 and the Englishman’s 782. Below them in the top ten are Colin Munro, Glenn Maxwell, Hazratullah Zazai, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Martin Guptill and Eoin Morgan.Chahar’s upward movement, or the performance of the other bowlers in that series, haven’t impacted the top of that list, with Mitchell Santner, Imad Wasim, Adam Zampa and Shadab Khan below Rashid and ahead of Phehlukwayo, and Adil Rashid, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Ashton Agar also in the top ten. Santner, who picked up 11 wickets in New Zealand’s series of five matches against England, has reached the second place for the first time since climbing to the top in January 2018.The update includes the recent men’s T20 World Cup qualifiers, and his 12 wickets in the competition has lifted Scotland left-arm spinner Mark Watt 13 spots to No. 15. Among batsmen, Papua New Guinea’s Tony Ura has moved up to No. 37, one spot above Jonny Bairstow and Mohammad Naim, the Bangladesh batsman who made a name for himself after hitting a quick 81 in the last game against India. Also within the top 50 were Scotland’s Calum MacLeod (No. 44), UAE’s Muhammad Usman (No. 45) and Oman’s Jatinder Singh (No. 46).With Glenn Maxwell having taken an indefinite break from the game, Mohammad Nabi has moved to the top of the allrounders’ rankings, while in a big development, Oman’s Zeeshan Maqsood has jumped to No. 6.In the team rankings, Pakistan’s 2-0 series loss in Australia hasn’t cost them the No. 1 spot, but the difference between the two sides has been trimmed to just one point.

CEO Thabang Moroe said meetings with broadcasters and sponsors are ongoing, but didn’t specify how the dilemma of reducing two teams would be resolved with GLT20 franchises

Firdose Moonda31-Jul-2018Cricket South Africa’s yet-to-be-named flagship T20 tournament will consist of six teams, two fewer than the Global T20 League (GLT20) was due to have, and the same as the current number of domestic franchises. CSA’s board approved the number of teams on Saturday, CEO Thabang Moroe revealed, but it has not yet decided where those teams will be based.Interested members from the 12 provincial affiliates will need to bid for a team in the new tournament. CSA have appointed independent analytics agency Nielsen Sports to conduct research and present a proposal to the CSA board recommending which six teams to include in the tournament, which Moroe said will likely consist of 32 matches to be played in November and December this year.”There will be certain criteria applied by Nielsen which will involve monies, the ability to pull crowds, infrastructure around you and governmental support. The process will be independent,” Moroe said at a press conference in Johannesburg.That new format will therefore be dissimilar to the current domestic competition, the Ram Slam, which will also be played in the 2018-19 summer. The Ram Slam is contested between the existing franchises, who each have two home stadiums, thus ensuring the competition is taken all across the country. The new competition is unlikely to have similar reach with the big stadiums – The Wanderers, SuperSport Park, Newlands, Kingsmead, St George’s Park and Mangaung Oval – the frontrunners for a flagship tournament.No other details about the new league have been finalised but Moroe provide an assurance that his office is hard at work. “The league continues as far as planning is concerned. We have continued to meet with the broadcasters and with corporates for sponsorship opportunities,” Moroe said. “But we are not as far as we would like to be in terms of sponsorship.”Neither has CSA managed to sort out the issues that arose from the previous team owners’ unhappiness, so much so that three of the eight threatened to take legal action against CSA. Moroe will travel to Dubai and Mumbai between August 8 and 12 to meet with the previous owners to “discuss the future of the league and the future of Cricket South Africa.”ESPNcricinfo understands that Hiren Bhanu, owner of the Pretoria Mavericks who had offered CSA US$70 million over 11 years to buy the league, will attend the meetings in Mumbai. Bhanu remains hopeful of securing an equity share in the new league.So do the owners of the Durban Qalanders, Nelson Mandela Bay Stars and Bloem City Blazers, who all issued press releases in June confirming they reserved their rights as owners and wished to be reinstated. With the tournament now having shrunk from eight to six teams, it will be impossible for CSA to hold on to all the former owners, and Moroe did not elaborate on how the organisation plans to solve this new dilemma.

The Cricket Advisory Committee needed more time and to speak to the India captain Virat Kohli before finalising on Anil Kumble’s successor

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jul-20172:12

Kohli will be consulted, but he’s not the main decision-maker – Ganguly

India will continue to be without a head coach for the tour of Sri Lanka, which begins on July 26, after Sourav Ganguly said the Cricket Advisory Committee needed more time and to speak to the India captain Virat Kohli before finalising on Anil Kumble’s successor.The CAC, which also includes Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, had interviewed Lalchand Rajput, Richard Pybus, Tom Moody, Virender Sehwag and Ravi Shastri – Phil Simmons wasn’t available – for the job. Ganguly said the panel did not want to make a rushed decision without speaking at length to the stakeholders who would be working with the coach after the appointment was made.”We feel there is no hurry at the moment,” Ganguly said on Monday in Mumbai. “Sri Lanka tour is in a week’s time, the board headed by [secretary] Amitabh Choudhary and [CEO] Rahul Johri will probably continue with the same set for the time being.”We want to speak to Virat Kohli once he is back from America, all three of us along with the respective people concerned. We will explain to him that the coaches want to function in a certain way and make sure that everybody is on the same page before we make the announcement, because once we make the announcement it has to be till the [2019] World Cup.”You got to give credit to Virat that he is just completely straight about it. He has no input, he has not sent any names, but we feel as the Advisory Committee that he is the captain, which is the most important thing in cricket. He and everyone of us need to be on the same page because for us Indian cricket is more important. We are just a small bit; the main bit is the players who are going to play with the coach.”India have been without a head coach since the end of the Champions Trophy in England in June, when Kumble’s one-year term came to an end. Kumble had been offered an extension to cover India’s tour of the West Indies immediately after the Champions Trophy, but he declined owing to a breakdown in his relationship with Kohli. The India captain had earlier told BCCI officials that some players were uncomfortable with the “intimidating” style of Kumble’s man management.

Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad will face each other for the first time this season, and though they are in the top four of the IPL points table, a loss at this stage of the tournament will not be ideal

The Preview by Alagappan Muthu11-May-2016

Match facts

Thursday, May 12, 2016
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)

Big picture

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. A Daredevil and a Sunriser lock horns… Oh, you have? Well, you probably didn’t hear it this season because Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad have yet to play each other this IPL. Now, after 41 matches, with some teams even bracing against elimination, David Warner will finally have to ask himself, “How do I stop Quinton de Kock?”, and Zaheer Khan, “How can we tackle Mustafizur Rahman?”Fortunately, both have handled tricky questions quite well. Sunrisers are the only team that has opted to bat and defended a total in IPL 2016. That is about the best praise a bowling attack can hope for, especially in light of the chasing teams’ success this year. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has found swing again. Ashish Nehra’s resurgence has gone from strength to strength and Mustafizur’s cutter-yorker combination has mystified batsmen.Meanwhile, Daredevils had begun their season with a 98 all out and Zaheer laughed it off saying that their “one bad day is out of the way”. As a young player – and this team has many – hearing your captain say that brings a feeling of safety. They won the next five out of six games, but arrived in Hyderabad with two losses tied to their neck. Another at this stage of the tournament would not be ideal, even if the two teams meet again in a week’s time.

Form guide

Sunrisers Hyderabad WWWWL (Last five matches, most recent first)
Delhi Daredevils LLWWL

Watch out for

The openers. Warner and de Kock have been powerful influences at the top of their respective teams’ batting orders. Warner’s first boundary against Rising Pune Supergiants on Tuesday was a flat six over cover that gained elevation the longer it travelled. He has combined that innate striking ability with a thirst to bat long. De Kock has pretty much matched him, a mildly surprising fact if one remembers he is a bit like the little brother in the South African team. Little brothers aren’t supposed to smack the ball as hard as he does (with due respect to the younger McCullum.)The other openers. Zaheer and Nehra have had uncomfortably close relationships with injury. Both fast bowlers are in their late thirties, and it becomes quite apparent when they are fielding, but at the top of their run-up, with a batsman in front of them, they are excellent. Their spells with the new ball and at the back-end of the innings will be crucial.

Team news

Daredevils may prefer to have both Amit Mishra and Imran Tahir in the XI considering Hyderabad’s pitches are often fairly dry. De Kock is their wicketkeeper and perhaps their best batsman. That leaves two overseas spots for Carlos Brathwaite, Chris Morris, Sam Billings and JP Duminy, who has not played since last Thursday.Delhi Daredevils (probable): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Rishabh Pant, 3 Sanju Samson, 4 Karun Nair, 5 Sam Billings, 6 JP Duminy/Carlos Brathwaite, 7 Pawan Negi/Shahbaz Nadeem/Jayant Yadav, 8 Zaheer Khan (capt), 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Imran Tahir/Chris MorrisSunrisers have found their strongest XI and are unlikely to make any changes. Kane Williamson, though, might be under the scanner considering he has 90 runs off 89 balls from three matches. He is a good bridge between the big-hitters at the top and the finishers below, but would want to up his strike-rate.Sunrisers Hyderabad (probable): 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Moises Henriques, 6 Deepak Hooda, 7 Naman Ojha (wk), 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Barinder Sran, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

Pitch and conditions

Brief afternoon showers are forecast in Hyderabad, but the match shouldn’t be affected. With a slow pitch and the large square boundaries at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium, spin may play a substantial role.

Stats and trivia

• Warner’s strike-rate of 160.06 is the best for a batsman who has faced at least 250 balls. He has faced 293 balls this season – same as Shikhar Dhawan.
• Daredevils’ openers had added a mere 58 runs in their first six matches. In their last three games, they have added 198.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board chief has hailed his team’s achievement of qualifying for the 2015 World Cup and said it was the start of a new journey during which he wanted Afghanistan to be compared with Full Member nations

Umar Farooq05-Oct-2013Noor Mohammad Murad, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) chief executive, has hailed his team’s achievement of qualifying for the 2015 World Cup as a great moment in the country’s history, and said that it was the start of a new journey during which he wanted Afghanistan to be compared with Full Member nations. Afghanistan secured their passage to Australia and New Zealand by beating Kenya 2-0 in the World Cricket League Championship in Sharjah.”It is a great moment in the history of Afghanistan,” Noor Mohammad told ESPNcricinfo. “We have been waiting for this so long and these moments are not only huge for our cricket but for the entire nation. We have brought happiness to the faces of 30 million people back home, and it’s a proud moment for us that we became the reason to unite the nation.

Player reactions after sealing World Cup spot

Mohammad Nabi: “It is a very popular game in Afghanistan now, as you can see by the fact parliamentarians came to support us. This was the most important game in our cricketing lives. Knowing [that] if we won we would qualify for the World Cup meant so much to us. When I hit the winning shot I was so happy because we had qualified for the World Cup and this was the biggest achievement in my life.”
Kabir Khan, coach: “We were in a pressure cooker until today. It has gone now. The pressure cooker has opened and we are just where we wanted to be and I am really happy. This is one of the golden days of my life. I think I’m a tough person. I don’t get emotional, people can’t read my face when the pressure is on, but this is one of the few days when I have some tears in my eyes.”
Samiullah Shenwari: “We hoped we could go to the last World Cup but we missed it. Through hard work and more hard work we reached this day, and we managed to do it. This is thanks to all the prayers of our country, for our families’ support, and we are so thankful. This is the best day of my life. For the first time in our history Afghanistan will be playing at the World Cup. This is a big day for our country.”

“Our journey doesn’t end here. It’s a start of another phase and a new journey. We are not going to relax, we have a lot to do ahead of us. We have beaten all the Associate countries comprehensively and now we have set our sights at the next level to play Full Member [nations]. We want to be compared with the Full Member countries, and not at the Associate level. We want to rise more and more, and seek tougher opponents to play us.”About 3000 fans packed the field at Kabul’s only cricket stadium to watch the match against Kenya on a big screen, with noisy chants and dancing marking each boundary the Afghanistan batsmen hit. reported that celebratory gunfire rang through the air in Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad. Large crowds also celebrated in the southern city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement, where police had issued strict warnings before the game that people should not celebrate by firing guns in the air.”With cricket, we can change the face of the country and change the perception about us,” Noor Mohammad said. “Around 75% [of the] population resides in mountains, but cricket bought them on the ground as a unit and they cheered for one cause. Our youngsters are thinking ahead of the war and changing things around them. Winning the World Cup berth can innovate the youth and help them transform their mind-set.”Qualifying for the World Cup has given Afghanistan a massive financial boost. They will receive $1 million from the ICC as preparation fee for the tournament, in addition to the $422,000 awarded in April as part of the ICC’s Targeted Assistance and Performance Programme. In 2014, the top Associate and Affiliate Members – including Afghanistan – will also receive approximately $750,000 through the ICC Development Funding Policy.”We have a plan in place on a daily basis ahead of the World Cup, with the ACB guarding against complacency,” Noor Mohammad said. “We have specific plans for the development, skill building and improvement of the fitness of our players. We are not going to take a back seat, ensuring that things move forward with consistency.””Apart from the common man in the country, cricket is being taken beyond just a game. The political figures in the country are taking a keen interest, with his highness, Hamid Karzai [President of Afghanistan], calling me personally on the success.”Afghanistan will be part of Pool A in the 2015 World Cup, alongside Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, England and Sri Lanka. It has been a remarkable journey, one that began in the ICC World Cricket League Division 5 in 2008. In 2010, Afghanistan qualified for the World Twenty20 in West Indies after they beat UAE in the qualifier. They then finished second to Ireland in the qualifiers in 2012 to play the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.Earlier this year, the ACB had signed a deal with the PCB with a view to develop their national players within the well-established Pakistan cricket infrastructure. Noor Mohammad hailed the support of Pakistan, but lamented the lack of response from India and Bangladesh.”We have been writing [to the BCB] for the last one-and-a-half years to play us, but they are not responding positively,” he said said. “We are not expecting India to play us, but they can offer us the support through an exchange program for our U-19s, and can help in their development.”They are our neighbours and have a bigger cricketing history than us. We have seen the example of England supporting Ireland and Scotland, and South Africa helping the other African countries, but we are really disappointed to see the lack of practical support by India and Bangladesh.”

Ajantha Mendis and Jeevan Mendis scripted a comprehensive win for Sri Lanka in the World T20 opener against Zimbabwe

The Report by Firdose Moonda18-Sep-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details Jeevan Mendis starred in an all-round effort•AFP

Ajantha Mendis marked his return to Sri Lanka’s national side by achieving the best figures in T20 internationals. He puzzled and prised out the Zimbabwe batsmen to contribute to a comprehensive victory in the tournament opener.After Sri Lanka posted an imposing total, Ajantha tore through Zimbabwe. He took three wickets in his first spell to kill off any thoughts of a chase and returned to take three more to end Zimbabwe’s limp challenge. Mendis served up deliveries that held their line, those that turned in, the carrom ball and the googly from the back of the hand, leaving Zimbabwe with a sour taste in their mouths and befuddlement in their minds.Another Mendis, Jeevan, too was major weapon in the home side’s armoury. He starred in a 94-run fourth-wicket stand with Kumar Sangakkara and took three wickets. Together, the two Mendises dominated an overawed and outplayed Zimbabwe.Despite not bowling badly, a shoddy showing in the field and being completely at sea with the bat left Zimbabwe looking like the underdogs they were labelled as. They conceded heavily in the second half of the Sri Lankan innings when Sangakkara and Jeevan asserted their authority over an attack whose spinners held their own while the seamers fell apart.Kyle Jarvis found swing and bowled an impressive two-over spell upfront, after he loosened up with a full-toss. He should have had an early wicket, too. Debutant Dilshan Munaweera hoicked a delivery to midwicket and Malcolm Waller could only grasp humid air. Jarvis’ opening partner, Brian Vitori, suffered the same fate. Tillakaratne Dilshan got a leading edge over Brendan Taylor’s head and even though the wicketkeeper moved quickly, he could not get to it in time to take the catch.Sri Lanka’s opening pair flirted with danger twice more in their 54-run stand. Dilshan escaped a run-out when he stole a single to point and Munaweera was dropped a second time by Waller. Along with risk, came reward. Munaweera went on to glance Mpofu’s low full-toss to the boundary after Dilshan brought out his scoop to make things worse for the bowler.Luck finally went Zimbabwe’s way in the seventh over when Munaweera was run out, after he dropped his bat in search of a run that was not there. As luck came, it went. Graeme Cremer had Mahela Jayawardene given out lbw of a back-foot no-ball. But, two balls later, Dilshan tried to cut Cremer and was caught behind.

Smart stats

• Ajantha Mendis’ 6 for 8 is the best bowling performance in Twenty20 internationals surpassing his own 6 for 16 against Australia in 2011. Mendis’ figures are also the best ever in the World T20.

• The number of runs conceded by Mendis (8) is the lowest ever for a Sri Lankan bowler in a completed four-over spell. He is the only Sri Lankan bowler to concede less than ten runs in a completed spell on two occasions.

• Mendis bowled two maiden overs in his four-over spell. It is first instance of a Sri Lankan bowler bowling two maiden overs in a Twenty20 international. Shaun Tait is the only other bowler to achieve the feat in the World Twenty20 (2010).

• The margin of victory for Sri Lanka (82 runs) is joint-fourth on the list of largest wins (in terms of runs) in the World Twenty20. The highest is 172 runs for Sri Lanka against Kenya in 2007.

• Zimbabwe have now gone on to lose their last 13 matches. Their last win in Twenty20 games came against West Indies in 2010.

• The number of runs conceded by Chris Mpofu (49) is the third-highest for Zimbabwe in a Twenty20 international and the highest for them in a World Twenty20 game. Mpofu has also conceded 59 runs on two separate occasions.

Zimbabwe hauled Sri Lanka in temporarily. The hosts went 27 deliveries without scoring a boundary but Zimbabwe could not build on the pressure they created. Jeevan, who was moved up the order, broke the boundary drought when he drove down the ground off Mpofu, who was too slow to get down in his follow-through. The ball sliced between the long-on and long-off who both tried but failed to cut it off and Zimbabwe’s morale had been dented. Jeevan picked Cremer better than his predecessors and hit him for back-to-back fours to bring up the Sri Lankan 100. He also sunk his teeth into Elton Chigumbura who bowled a poor over, giving away the first six of the match.Zimbabwe unravelled in the last quarter while Sangakkara kept a cool head and collected runs in twos and threes, along with a gorgeous drive over point, which went for four. Their lapses would cost them, as they faced a tall target and Ajantha ensured they were never in a position to reach it.Hamilton Masakadza and Vusi Sibanda put on 37 for the first wicket, with Masakadza even having the gumption to take on Lasith Malinga. When Ajantha came on in the seventh over, he ended Zimbabwe’s hopes of running their own race of achieving a decent score or ending the match without being bowled out.A magic box of tricks came from Ajantha’s hands: the ball that held its line to bowl Sibanda, the carrom ball that had Brendan Taylor stumped and the googly to bowl Masakadza. With their top three dismissed, Zimbabwe needed fighters but Craig Ervine and Waller succumbed to Jeevan’s googly.After 10 overs, Zimbabwe were 59 for 5 and Ajantha could return to play some more. Zimbabwe reached three-figures but no more, as Mpofu spooned an easy catch to mid-off off Malinga to end the game.