All posts by csb10.top

England’s footballers are “absolute legends” who have their best years in front of them, according to Ben Stokes.Stokes, captain of the England ODI side which has taken an unassailable lead over Pakistan in the Royal London series, watched Sunday night’s Euro 2020 final with the rest of his squad while observing social distancing protocols to prevent further outbreaks of Covid-19 within the group.And while accepting the football team would be “devastated” to have lost to Italy on penalties, he insisted their cricketing counterparts were “incredibly proud” of their achievements in reaching a major final for the first time in 55 years and had complete faith in them winning trophies in the years ahead.”They’ll be absolutely devastated, no doubt,” Stokes said. “But what they’ve managed to achieve is incredible. The nation has been completely captured by what they’ve done on the field.”Obviously everyone in the nation would have loved to see England win, but just watching the games you feel a real connection to the team. The way Gareth Southgate has led, the way Gareth Southgate speaks… I think he’s been phenomenal in everything he’s done.”Us as a national team, albeit in a different sport, we’re just incredibly proud of what they managed to do.”It’s such a young team full of talent that the sky is the limit for them. There’s so many more years ahead, so many more tournaments to go and prove themselves in. But in my eyes and everybody else’s eyes in this changing room, they are absolute legends already.”Stokes is a man who has experienced both triumph and disaster on the biggest stage. Handed the responsibility to defend 19 from the final over of the 2016 World T20 final, he was unable to prevent Carlos Brathwaite thrashing him for four successive sixes to take West Indies to the trophy.Three years later, however, Stokes held his nerve in the World Cup final at Lord’s to help England win the 50-over World Cup “by the barest of margins”. It later emerged that, ahead of the Super Over that settled that match, Stokes had helped calm Jofra Archer’s nerves by telling him that, whatever happened over the next five minutes, it would not define him.Joe Root tries to console a distraught Ben Stokes at the 2016 World T20 final•AFP

As such, he is better placed than most to assure England’s footballers – and those who were unable to score from their penalties, in particular – that such a moment need not prove the defining moment of their careers.”I hope they’re not defined by it,” Stokes said. “You look at where they’ve gone over the last two or three years and the things they’ve managed to achieve and you know it’s just such a young team. They’ve got so much more time on their hands to go out and win trophies for England. They’re blessed with youth.”Never has an England team been so exciting to watch. I’m not massively into my football like some of the other lads, but I absolutely watched every time they’ve walked out into the field and they’re just a real exciting to watch at the moment.”You know they will be devastated. They’ll probably hurt for a few more weeks. But I’m sure once they get over it and have an understanding of what they’re able to achieve, there will be a lot bigger occasions to come for those guys, no doubt.”

Josh Inglis’ second century of the Vitality Blast season denied Worcestershire Rapids a place in the quarter-finals as Leicestershire Foxes finished their North Group season with a seven-wicket victory at the Uptonsteel County Ground.After victory for the Birmingham Bears earlier, the Rapids had to win to deny their Midlands rivals the final qualifying position but their 169 for 6 proved insufficient as Inglis made them pay for a dropped catch on 14 by hitting eight sixes and 10 fours in his career-best unbeaten 118 off 61 balls to see the Foxes home with 13 balls to spare.Ed Barnard had hit 43 from 24 balls to top score for the Rapids, Jake Libby making 35 and Ross Whiteley 31 but no-one could go on to make the big innings that was needed.The Foxes finish out of the quarter-final places but have the distinction of having the group stage’s top run-scorer and top wicket-taker in their ranks, Inglis totalling 531 runs and Afghanistan pace bowler Naveen-ul-Haq 26 wickets.Related

• Harrison four-for helps Notts polish off Durham

• D'Arcy Short, Joe Weatherley help haul Hampshire through to quarter-finals

• Chris Benjamin fires on Birmingham debut to haul Bears into quarter-finals

• Lancashire join Yorkshire in quarter-finals after visitors' sporting act

Having won the toss and opted to bat, the Rapids were 49 for 2 after the Powerplay. Jack Haynes lofted a Naveen slower ball to mid-on, Brett D’Oliveira made three off-side boundaries but clipped a Gavin Griffiths full toss to square leg.Daryl Mitchell soon picked out long-off, his demise elevating left-arm spinner Callum Parkinson to all-time leading Foxes T20 wicket-taker on 70, overtaking Claude Henderson’s 69, and at 74 for 3 at halfway, the Rapids had work to do.They suffered a blow when Libby, looking well set, was stumped, and Ben Cox was run out at the non-striker’s end as Colin Ackermann deflected a firmly-struck Whiteley drive on to the stumps in his follow through. The Foxes skipper damaged a finger in the process and took no further part.Whiteley and Barnard added 76 in seven overs before the former was brilliantly caught on the square-leg boundary by Ben Mike, Barnard picking up five fours and one extraordinary checked drive for six off Griffiths.In reply, the Foxes were level pegging with the Rapids at 49 for 2 in the Powerplay, although it would have been advantage to the visitors had the Inglis chance to Mitchell at short extra off Ben Dwarshuis been held.The home side lost Lewis Hill and were only narrowly ahead at 79 for 3 from 10, but back-to-back sixes for Inglis off Pennington began to take the game away.Inglis passed fifty from 33 and needed just 22 balls to move into three figures, attacking Barnard, D’Oliveira and Dwarshuis in turn to delight the home crowd before driving Morris over his head for the winning four.”It was a nice way to finish my season here,” Inglis said. “I’ve got good starts in all my innings at Grace Road without going on to get a score, so to finish in that way and get the win was really good, because I’ve really enjoyed my time here.”Alex Gidman, Worcestershire’s coach, said: “It’s been a tough but really enjoyable campaign for us so I’m disappointed for the players and supporters that we couldn’t get over the line and get into that quarter-final.”We thought we batted really well to get back into it and put up a competitive score that was about par, but that was an exceptional innings from Inglis and this is the beauty of the game – that one guy can bat magnificently like that and win the game single-handedly.”

Beth Mooney is readying herself for the “foreign” challenge of facing the pink-ball in the day-night Test against India next month but is confident the basics of the game will hold her in good stead despite the rarity of the occasion.The Test will now be held at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast after India’s entire tour was moved to Queensland due to Covid-19. For Mooney, that brings the benefit of being one of the few players in the Australia squad who doesn’t need to quarantine ahead of the series while the Queensland winter climate has also aided her preparation with the ability to train under lights.Mooney’s Test debut came in the 2017 day-night Ashes Test at North Sydney Oval but it will be more than two years since Australia have played the format.Related

• Hard quarantine set to challenge preparation for India and Australia

• India Women in Australia: Start delayed by two days, all games to be played in Queensland

“I shouldn’t rub it in too much to the southern states but being from Queensland, I’ve been out in the sunshine and fortunately been able to train at the new facility at Norths under lights and had an opportunity to face the pink ball,” Mooney said. “The Test match is a day-night Test and that poses a different challenge to one that we’re normally used to.”So I’ve had a couple of opportunities under the lights to face the pink ball and been really tested. It’s something pretty foreign to us as a group and it’s really important that we try and get as much of that sort of format into our game as well.”But at the end of the day it’s still about a bat and a ball and a cricket match so hopefully the skills that we’ve developed over a long period of time in T20 and one-day cricket really help transfer that into the Test.”Mooney is also confident that the Metricon Stadium surface will be able to replicate the pace and bounce that had been hoped for at the WACA, which provided conditions for an enthralling contest during the 2014 Ashes.Beth Mooney ready for day-night Test cricket at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast•Getty Images

“The WACA [would have] offered a little bit of assistance for our young quicks in Tayla, Darcie, Pez, Maitlan Brown,” Mooney said. “We’re really lucky that Metricon are putting up the drop-in wickets now for us to get prepped for that Test. There hasn’t been any cricket played on that wicket so I expect it to be a really great four days and really competitive Test cricket will be seen on that wicket, and it’s a great outfield as well.”From all reports with the groundies [ground staff], and speaking to people that have played on the wicket, I think we’re playing on it at the right time of the year and hopefully we can get a big crowd out to watch hopefully a spectacle of women’s Test cricket.”While two multi-format series in a season – the Ashes will follow in January and February – provide plenty for Australia to focus on, the big target at the end of the summer is the ODI World Cup in New Zealand with the semi-final exit in 2017 a major motivation for the side over the last four years. Though they have played six matches, all against New Zealand, over the last 12 months and set a new world record which currently stands at 24 consecutive victories, this home season is the final push to get World Cup plans firmed up.”This is a real reset for us as the Australian women’s team,” Mooney said. “Obviously the end goal is the World Cup next year with, we’ve got an Ashes series and a WBBL between that, but our priority now is making sure we get the right make-up of our team in the next little bit, get the right people firing at the right time.”We’re really grateful that India are willing to come out here and tour and leading into a World Cup it’s important that we get up and running and back together as a group.”The Australia squad will come together as a whole on September 13 when the players from Victoria and New South Wales complete their hard quarantine – along with the entire India group – leaving a week of preparation which is likely to include a couple of practice matches before the ODI series begins on September 21 in Mackay.”I think it’s really important for us and obviously the Indian team that there’s enough lead-in time to that first game,” she said. “Especially for us, we haven’t played cricket together or training together since that series in New Zealand. So that week lead into the first game will be really important for us to make sure we get everything right and get everyone going at the right time.”

Yorkshire 308 (Brook 118, Thompson 57, Davey 4-72, de Lange 4-55) beat Somerset 134 (Fisher 5-41) and 141 (Fisher 4-23, Thompson 3-32) by an innings and 33 runsYorkshire are top of the Championship, albeit only briefly, Somerset dispensed with in two days at Scarborough. Victory was secured with the penultimate ball of the day with the pavilion clock showing five to seven after Yorkshire had claimed the extra half hour. The final blow was landed by Jordan Thompson, a slower ball which defeated Marchant de Lange’s leg-side smite on the full toss and spread-eagled the stumps. De Lange is not a batter who plays for the morning.It was the Festival Dinner in the Scarborough marquee immediately afterwards and the MC for the evening had been stricken by sciatica and feared that he might have to do his duties sitting down. That at least was an improvement on Somerset, who have spent the entire week in a state of collapse.To scores of 107 and 181 against Nottinghamshire, can now be added 134 and 141 against Yorkshire, an innings-and-160-run defeat followed by an innings and 33. Title challengers a week ago, the task of their captain, Tom Abell, is now to rally spirits so the canker does not spread to Finals Day in the Vitality Blast. “Our skill levels aren’t up to it at the moment,” said Abell. “The manner of the defeat is unpleasant. But this is where it’s important to stick together.”Yorkshire’s stand-out bowler was Matt Fisher, who returned a career-best 9 for 64 in the match, and their slip catching was exemplary: eight caught, none spilled. The premature win might disappoint the Festival crowd with two days of glorious sunshine forecast and no cricket to watch, but they should be placated by further proof that in Harry Brook, Yorkshire possess one of the best young batters in the country. And, if that doesn’t do the trick, well, there is always the crazy golf at Peasholm Park.The game was as good as up for Somerset when they resumed their second innings 174 behind, but with 44 overs to bat on a sunny evening (plus at least eight more in the extra half-hour) but they should have had the wherewithal to take the game into a third day.Instead, after 10.1 overs, they were 18 for 5. Fisher wreaked havoc in a new-ball burst of 4 for 2 in six overs and, if he swung the ball away appreciably at a little above 80mph (around 130kph), and was again backed by sharp-as-a-tack Yorkshire slip fielding, Somerset were enervated.Tom Lammonby determinedly rehearsed shots of grim defence at the non-striker’s end, but then fell for nought, undone at third slip by David Willey’s outswinger. The rest fell to Fisher. Azhar Ali was plucked at second slip in his third over; James Hildreth and George Bartlett, both lbw, bookended his fifth. Abell attempted a streetwise leave-alone and lost his off stump.It looked as if the match would slide into a third morning when Somerset finally fashioned resistance from their eighth-wicket pair of Jack Leach and Ben Green, but offspinner Dom Bess had Leach caught at slip in the penultimate over and Yorkshire claimed the extra half hour. Thompson yorked Green and then fell de Lange – although not before he had hit Bess out of the ground.The match won, a man who had climbed out of a first-floor window of a time-worn boarding house behind the arm to sit on a flat roof, picked up his chair and clambered back through the window again, presumably content with the outcome.At 159 for 5 overnight, Yorkshire’s lead was a paltry 24 runs and there was a sepulchral feel to the morning. Somerset’s head coach, Jason Kerr, had given it the speech about the big first hour, and that the ball would swing felt inevitable, but the envisaged recovery never materialised – Brook was just too good.Related

• Yorkshire bowlers put their side in full control against Hampshire

• James Vince rearguard frustrates Yorkshire in absorbing finish

• Somerset scattered like seagulls at Scarborough before Harry Brook books in

Brook’s rich vein of form, across all formats, has come too late for Ashes consideration, but when it comes to Lions squads, or young player of the year awards, he surely has few equals. He appears to be a much calmer player than he was in April, and is all the better for it and has modified his trigger movement which had previously seen him lurch back and across onto off stump. He has said his improvement in white-ball cricket came from studying Joe Root’s method, and there is a touch of Root, too, about his tempo in four-day cricket where he seeks positivity without undue risk.If Brook’s first-day 79 from 86 balls had been impressive for its enterprise – a flood of impeccable drives and cuts – his continuation to 118 was just as notable for a different reason. In challenging conditions, he hunkered down and also left the ball impressively on a Scarborough surface with an occasionally steep bounce that many found disconcerting. It was the 13th over of the morning before he reached his century with successive fours against Abell, the first driven through the legs of de Lange at mid off, the second a wide half-volley which he drilled square to the popular banking.He departed with the second new ball just one ball away, a splendid catch low to his right by Abell when he cut at Green, but even then, with the lead 96, Somerset found nourishment hard to come by. Thompson, too, dubbed The Man Who Makes Things Happen in these parts, made very little happen for much of the morning before he made good his time at the crease by taking toll of the second new ball with some lantern-jawed aggression.Somerset’s batting travails of late have been well documented and there is no doubt that the highly-talented crop of young batters coming out of the Taunton schools do appear to better designed for T20. This might well be the way of the world, although the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, could easily be persuaded to address it with the rigours of Latin and the reapplication of the cane.But a lack of pace bowling resources is Somerset’s most glaring weakness. The loss of Craig Overton to England and Lewis Gregory to injury has exposed their slender resources. Jamie Overton left for Surrey and Jack Brooks’ future, at 37, is uncertain. They took the second new ball with Josh Davey, a consistent performer who at that point had 4 for 58 but who had a right to be weary after 23 overs, and Lammonby, who did not find the swing his captain had hoped for and who – like the other options, Abell and Green – is a fourth seamer at best. That is where a reinforcement is sorely needed.

Hobart Hurricanes have signed one of the hottest young properties in English cricket with Harry Brook set for his first stint in the BBL this coming season.The 22-year-old had an outstanding season for Yorkshire in the Vitality Blast. He was the fourth-highest runscorer with 486 runs at a strike-rate of 149.07 batting in the middle order. Across both the Blast and the Hundred he only failed to make 20 in three of his 18 innings striking at 150.33 for the English summer and was duly rewarded by being named the Professional Cricketers’ Association Male Young Player of the Year. The previous three winners have been Zak Crawley, Tom Banton, and Ollie Pope.With Dawid Malan set to be unavailable for the Hurricanes due to his likely involvement in the Ashes, Brook will slot perfectly into their middle order.”I can’t wait to come out to Australia and play in the Big Bash for the first time,” Brook said.”Over the years I’ve really enjoyed watching English cricketers like myself come out to Australia, and it seems that not only have they really enjoyed their time playing in the BBL, but a lot of them have also taken their game to the next level.”I’m really hoping that I can do the same, so I just can’t wait to get there, get stuck in and learn as much as I can.”The Hurricanes targeted a power-hitting middle-order overseas player to round out their impressive top six. They are likely to have Matthew Wade, D’Arcy Short, and Ben McDermott for most of the season in the top three with Peter Handscomb, Tim David, and Brook rounding out a superb middle order.They have locked in Sandeep Lamichhane as their overseas legspinner and have a bevy of fast-bowlers to choose from as they chase an elusive BBL title.Hobart Hurricanes squad: Scott Boland, Harry Brook (England), Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Peter Handscomb, Caleb Jewell, Josh Kann, Sandeep Lamichhane (Nepal), Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Mitch Owen, Joel Paris, Wil Parker, D’Arcy Short, Matthew Wade (c), Mac Wright

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is not able to take up coaching roles with the Australian and Indian teams because of “time commitments”. Ponting said “giving up 300 days a year is not something I would do” with a young family by his side. He also revealed that he was approached to be India’s head coach before Rahul Dravid took over the role earlier this month following Ravi Shastri’s exit after the T20 World Cup.”Time is the only thing that’s stopping me [from taking the job], to be honest,” Ponting told podcast. “I’d love to coach the Australian team, but what I have done with my playing career was being away from family as much. I have a young family now, a seven-year-old boy, and to give up 300 days a year is not what I would do. That’s where the IPL works so well for me.”To be able to coach 8-10 weeks in winter months, and to be able to come back and do the Channel 7 stuff in the summer, I have got enough work to keep me happy and to keep me around the game but also be able to spend time with the family.Related

• Langer has a little apocalypse now and then

• Dravid appointed new India head coach on two-year term

“Let’s see what they [CA] do, if they ever split the coaches among say, white-ball and red-ball teams. I think everyone loves to coach the Australian team. I actually think, from my view, it’s almost an older man’s job and not for someone who has got a young family or for a person like Justin [Langer] where he is on the other end now where his family is all grown up and moved away. You are not giving up that side of your life. It’s over 300 days a year, a pretty hard job. Justin’s been under pressure since he took over the job, more so, the last few months. That’s the only thing that would stop me – the time commitment.”Ponting also said he had a “couple of conversations” about the India coach offer during the IPL but he had to decline it for the “exact same reason”. He was also “surprised” that Dravid took up the job given that he has a young family to take care of.”The people that I spoke to were pretty hell-bent on finding a way to make it work because first up, I can’t give up that time, that means I can’t coach in the IPL,” Ponting said of his conversations about the India coach job.”There was a lot of chat about how happy he (Dravid) was [with] his academy role… I am not sure about his family life… I think he has got young kids… Anyway, so I am surprised that he took it. The people that I spoke to were sure they got the right person, so they were probably able to get Dravid to do it.”Ponting also confirmed he will continue to be with Delhi Capitals next IPL though he hasn’t extended his contract with them officially yet. Having worked as the head coach of Capitals for the last four seasons, he said he wants to focus on developing the fringe players.”Some of the young players I have had the chance to work with are exceptional and really good people,” he said. “That’s what I want to be able to do – the Prithvi Shaws, the Shreyas Iyers, the Avesh Khans, these guys, we had them in the system for three-four years that have really turned into exceptionally good IPL players, and some of them have also turned into international players.”For me, it is not even about those big-name players. If I can keep a few of these guys, great. But it’s more about the guys on the fringe – a lot of them haven’t played a game. When you see them in the team, at the training, how hard they train and how much they enjoy the game, that’s what I want to recreate if that’s possible.”With the IPL retention deadline set as November 30 for the existing franchises – teams can retain only four players – he added that Capitals would try to keep the core players though that will be a challenge given that two more teams are added to the next IPL, and there will be a big auction soon.”With the retention stuff, you can keep only four players, and we had 24 players in the squad last year. So to try and bring the majority of the players would be ideal, but It will be a challenge as well. With the two new teams, you can guarantee that they are talking to Pant, Iyer – they are trying to secure these guys as they are generational franchise players. It’s up to me at Delhi to make sure they don’t get their hands on them.”

Harshal Patel doesn’t think he’s very talented. His study of his bowling action has led him to conclude it’s biomechanically imperfect: he has “massive lateral flex at the point of delivery” which means the height from which he bowls – and consequently the bounce he could get – is reduced. The action is a greater risk of injuries too. He also admits that although he’s a ‘fast’ bowler, he can’t really bowl over 140kph regularly.And despite that self-aware assessment of his skills, Harshal has just come off a season where he topped the wicket charts in IPL 2021 and won the Most Valuable Player award, then rocked up to his first international outing by becoming the eighth player to win the Player of the Match award on T20I debut for India.Related

• Harshal Patel: 'I learnt how to express myself in games without worrying about whether I'm going to play the next match'

• India, New Zealand play for individual gains in dead rubber

• Harshal Patel rises from doing bit-part roles to being main man

• IPL 2021 – Stats – A season of wickets for Harshal Patel

• Harshal, openers sparkle as India pocket T20I series

What Harshal lacks in more visible skill, he adds in subtlety. What he lacks in pace, he makes up for with patience. Where there is no dazzle, he has an industriousness that has allowed him to maximise his craft. And he’s brought a self-aware, thinking mind behind it all. The skill has brought 446 wickets in 238 senior-level matches across formats. Patience has meant that he could reap the rewards of top-level cricket in 2021, having made his senior debut in 2009. The industry and thinking mind strengthen the belief that there’s more good days to come.What’s it like, being Harshal Patel?The self-aware cricketer
“Somebody like me, who was not exceptionally talented, I had to build my game from ground up,” Harshal told host broadcaster after winning the match award on debut.”For me it was the ability to differentiate between my skillset and the things that I could not do, things that my skillset or talent wouldn’t allow me to do… You need to keep working on that and make it so good that even with limited skill or limited options, you can make it work and consistently execute that.”Every top-level athlete knows what their limitations are, but few acknowledge it as openly as Harshal did. He could do that because for Harshal, the lack of pace, imperfect action or non-explosiveness are incidental. What’s not there is not there, he’s figured out a way to work with what he has.

Live cricket on ESPN+ in the USA

Live coverage of the India vs New Zealand series is available in the USA on ESPN+. You can subscribe to ESPN+, and also watch the match highlights in English and in Hindi.

The canny bowler
What do you do if you can’t blast batters out with pace? You develop canniness and consistency.Harshal has two slower balls, the off-cutter and one from the back of the hand. He worked on his yorker till he could deploy it in high-pressure situations confidently when he was told he would be bowling at the death for Royal Challengers Bangalore. He can bowl from close to the stumps or wide of the crease, over and around the wicket. In his game-turning 4-0-25-2 in the second T20I against New Zealand, each of his two wickets were ratified only after the umpires checked for a back-foot no-ball – so wide of the crease was Harshal going. Both times, he was completely safe.Heavy dew meant Harshal couldn’t rely on the yorker – the slower one that looped deceptively or the pacier one. He found that out the costly way, getting hit for six and then bowling a full-toss above waist height. He adjusted by bowling cutters into the pitch, varying his pace and angles expertly.”The margin of error as it is, is lesser on those deliveries, and when the ball is wet you can’t grip the ball so it becomes even tougher,” Harshal said. “I tried to bowl one slower yorker which went for a six because it turned into a full-toss. Then I tried a pacy yorker which turned out to be a beamer. After that I realised that this is probably not going to work in these conditions. Obviously it was difficult. Two of my main weapons in the death overs were gone for today. But at the same time, I knew how to adapt to the situation. It was a bit of a double-paced wicket with variable bounce. I wanted batters to hit to the square boundaries, and that strategy worked.”He also has an understanding of angles – an even more prolific domestic stalwart Jaydev Unadkat is similar – that lets him lucidly explain how he uses them.”Angles are a big part of my bowling. To give an example, if you bowl a fourth-stump line from close to the stumps, it remains a fourth-stump line. But if you bowl it from the corner of the crease, it still comes into the batter and it sort of becomes difficult to hit you through the offside,” Harshal said.”I think that’s another thing I realised that I can add to my repertoire without trying to do too many different things. So I bowl yorkers from close to the stumps, and from the corner of the crease. That has a massive impact on where the ball lands and where the batsman plays the ball. It’s a massive advantage and a massive weapon for me.”Harshal Patel – “I feel progress doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a slow process, a gradual process”•BCCI

The monastic patience
When it was put to him that patience and consistency are as much part of the ‘talent’ skillset as anything else, Harshal agreed.”Mindset, being able to decipher wheat from chaff, is in itself a skill, is in itself a talent. It’s something that I won’t say was innate in me, but I learned through experiences,” Harshal said. “I was not born with it. I was a very impetuous, very impatient person growing up. Life sort of teaches you these things if you don’t know them… That is something that my process of ten years in domestic cricket has taught me. All the failures I’ve had through these ten years have taught me that you need to be patient.”People don’t talk enough about patience. I feel progress doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a slow process, a gradual process. If you want to make a change, if you want to get better at something, you need to allow yourself enough time to sort of figure that out, how you are going to do that. If you keep jumping from one place to another in your mindset, that’s not going to work for you.”The process of gradual learning also meant he converted a perceived weakness – his less-than-biomechanically-perfect-action and his less-than-top-notch-speed – into strengths.”I always wanted to correct that, because we are told that you are more injury-prone if you don’t correct that,” Harshal said of the lateral flex in his bowling action. “Also the height of your delivery gets reduced if you have a lateral flexion and you won’t get a lot of bounce and all those things. But what I realised after playing 7-8 years of domestic cricket is, that lateral flexion gave me an angle which was difficult for batters to line up to. That made my slower balls more effective. If I talk about red-ball cricket, that big angle into the batsman allows me to bowl outswingers from a very tight line and beat the batters when it straightens. So I started looking at that as an advantage.”Obviously, being a fast bowler you want to bowl fast. But then I realised my speed ceiling is probably 135kph. If I’m bowling really well, in very good rhythm, I can probably clock close to 140kph. But I will never be able to bowl consistently at higher than 140. That’s something I realised and I started working on other things, other skills that I needed to do well at this level.”With his IPL 2021 season, Harshal was always going to be around top-flight cricket in the recent future. His international debut has only cemented that. But he’s not going to sit back and admire his laurels yet, simply because that is not what he was aiming for.”I don’t feel that this is the ultimate thing that I was striving for,” Harshal said. “What I was actually striving for was to actualise my own potential. I knew that I could play at the highest level, I could do well at the highest level with ball and with the bat as well. So my process was always driven by my internal drive to constantly get better and actualise that potential.”So I never, at any moment (during his years in domestic cricket), felt that the dream is running away from me. I always felt that if you put in the work, if you are patient, if you make good decisions where you can sleep well at night – then things are eventually going to go in your favour. I’m someone who looks at things long-term. I feel if you look at things in a very short frame of time you do get frustrated, but if you look at long-term success and long-term goals and processes, you are less likely to get frustrated and think that ‘this dream is escaping from me’.”

Ben Stokes will remain a Durham player at least until the end of the 2024 season, after signing a new three-year contract extension with the club.Stokes, 30, recently returned to action with England in the first Ashes Test at Brisbane, after missing much of the 2021 season to manage his mental health in the wake of a badly broken finger.Much of Stokes’ rehabilitation work ahead of his comeback was done at the Riverside, where he made his County Championship debut against Essex in 2010. He has since gone on to play 64 first-class matches for the club, scoring 3611 runs, with a best of 185 against Lancashire.More recently, however, his demands as an England player across formats have limited his availability to Durham. He has so far played 72 Tests, scoring 4650 runs at 36.61 and taking 163 wickets, as well as 101 ODIs and 34 T20Is.”I am delighted to commit to a further three years with Durham,” Stokes said. “I have had some fantastic memories playing for the club over the years and I look forward to experiencing more of this in the future.”Durham’s Director of Cricket, Marcus North added: “Ben is one of the finest players in the world and while we may not see him as much as we would like, his influence around the club remains huge.”It’s fantastic to see Ben back fit and well following his time away from the game and now back playing for England in the Ashes. We are extremely happy that Ben has agreed his future to Durham for a further three years.”

The PCB is set to host another season of the Pakistan Super League during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the first 15 games to be played in Karachi from January 27, and the remaining matches scheduled in Lahore, including the final on February 27. There are provisions in place to avoid a postponement even if a handful of players contract Covid-19 – the franchises have 20 players on their roster, with an additional pool of reserve players to provide cover in case of an outbreak.ESPNcricinfo has obtained PSL’s Covid-19 protocol document, which details how the PCB will form its bio-bubble environment. The document broadly covers health and safety protocols that are being put in place at venues, and has a step-by-step guide to every stage of the tournament.What will the PSL’s bio-secure bubble look like?
This season the PCB has replicated the biosecure bubble that was created by Restrata, an independent company that managed the environment during the rescheduled Abu Dhabi leg last season. The PCB will regulate the bubble itself, forming three distinct bubbles with different protocols.The main bubble will comprise all teams, support staff, match officials, hotel staff and certain PCB officials. Vehicle drivers, close protection security staff, reserve players, bubble-integrity managers, anti-corruption officials and hotel staff will all reside within the bubble and are not allowed to leave. As per the guidelines, each franchise will be allotted rooms on a separate floor of the hotel and maximum possible efforts will be made to avoid interaction between teams at the hotel.The second bubble will be created in a separate hotel and will include the TV production crew, key event management staff and essential hotel staff and drivers. The third bubble will comprise of groundstaff, who will be housed in dedicated biosecure accommodation.Vigilance will be more stringent for the primary bubble. The bubbles cannot interact with each other and every individual will be required to follow general health and safety guidelines, as well as specific protocols to maintain the integrity of the bubble.How often are teams going to be tested for Covid-19?
There will be as many as 17 tests starting on January 20 – the day teams are checking into the hotel. There is a mandatory three-day quarantine, followed by four days of training, before the tournament starts from January 27 in Karachi. The first three days of quarantine will have regular testing before everyone with two negative PCR results is allowed to enter the bubble. Every individual will then have a PCR test every second day.What if an individual requires hospital treatment for an injury or illness?
The PCB has designated Agha Khan Hospital in Karachi and Hameed Latif Hospital in Lahore to handle all potential medical requirements of individuals involved in the PSL.A medical passage will be established through which individuals requiring hospital visits for scans and/or consultations will be moved with minimal contact with others. Individuals will be provided a dedicated treatment room, sanitised passageways, PPE suits for all medical staff and will be taken around in a dedicated vehicle.What happens in case of a positive test?
The individual(s) will be immediately separated from the rest of the squad and undergo a PCR test.All close contacts (those who have had an interaction of longer than 15 minutes from less than two metres away in the previous 48 hours) will be isolated and tested. All casual contacts will also be isolated and tested immediately.Once the case is confirmed as positive, the individual will isolate for a minimum of seven days and self-monitor their symptoms, providing updates to the Bio-bubble integrity manager. On day seven, if the individual is asymptomatic, they will have to undergo a Rapid Antigen Test and on returning a negative result, can be re-integrated into their bubble.If symptoms persist on day seven, the isolation will continue till day 10. If the individual is asymptomatic on that day, there will be no need for an exit test to rejoin the bubble.What happens if protocols and guidelines are breached?
With every team there will be a bio-bubble integrity manager policing the bubble. The offender may face a sanction ranging from reprimand to expulsion from the league. Penalties can be levied for minor or major breaches, from game bans to match-fee fines. The PCB can require any participant to quarantine in their hotel room in case of a breach, and undergo repeated testing.How many fans will be permitted?
The PCB had originally announced full crowds for both the Karachi and Lahore legs. However, Pakistan’s National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) determines regulations surrounding Covid-19 restrictions, and with cases rising steeply in Pakistan over the past few weeks – particularly in Karachi – the NCOC announced that the Karachi leg would see a maximum of 25% crowd attendance. Lahore, for now, is still set to see full crowds. Spectators’ entry is subject to Covid-19 protocols – no one will be allowed to enter the venue without a valid vaccination certificate.What is the PCB’s contingency plan for a Covid outbreak?
Each of the last two seasons, the PSL was played over two legs due to Covid outbreaks, but this season, the PCB has made contingency plans to try and ensure the PSL isn’t postponed or cancelled. The PSL management will instead reset the bubble and start over after seven days, recreating the bio-bubble from scratch. In case of outbreaks among franchises, matches can go ahead as long as there are 13 players available on each side. There will also be a reserve pool for franchises to pick players from. A PCB official confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that if the league were to be postponed for some reason, it would have to be cancelled altogether, since there will be no window to play the remaining games.Could the entirety of the PSL be held in one city?
It would appear unlikely at present. ESPNcricinfo understands that all bookings and hotel confirmations have been finalised in both Karachi and Lahore, and there are at present no plans to change that.

Saqib Mahmood will be handed England cap No. 702 on Wednesday morning, after being locked in for his Test debut at Bridgetown in the second Test against West Indies.Mahmood, 25, was named in England’s XI a day in advance of the match, although his involvement had been on the cards since midway through last week’s drawn Test in Antigua, when England’s fastest bowler, Mark Wood, suffered “acute pain” in a right elbow injury that may yet rule him out for next week’s final Test in Grenada too.In a more surprising development, Ollie Robinson has also been omitted, despite appearing to have recovered well from a back spasm that caused him to miss the opening match of the series.Although he returned to the nets this week, a step that had been described as “pretty positive” by Paul Collingwood, the interim coach, England have chosen to hold Robinson back with the series finale looming large on March 24. Seeing as he was hampered by the same problem in the final Ashes Test in Hobart, the management feel that the flare-up has come too recently to risk a repeat in Barbados.Chris Woakes and Craig Overton, who struggled as a new-ball pairing in Antigua, will once again complete the attack alongside Jack Leach and Ben Stokes.For Mahmood, however, the opportunity is one to relish, having been spoken about as a potential Test cricketer ever since bursting onto the scene with Lancashire in 2019. He made his T20I debut in New Zealand that winter, but made his most telling mark to date in last summer’s belated call-up for the ODI series against Pakistan, when he was named Player of the Series for his haul of nine wickets at 13.66 in a 3-0 series win.”He’s a great option to have up our sleeve,” Root said. “He’s very mature for a guy who hasn’t played a huge amount of international cricket. He has a real understanding of how he wants to operate.”Although he does not bowl 90mph as consistently as Wood, Mahmood is the quickest of the remaining options in England’s squad, while his proven ability to bowl reserve swing is likely to come in handy on a surface that Kraigg Brathwaite, West Indies’ captain, said was similar in appearance to the strip used in Antigua last week.”He’s been very impressive, he’s got a slightly different trajectory and will give us a point of difference,” Root added. “He’s done that when he’s played in other formats, he clearly has good control, especially if the ball moves with reverse swing.”Related

• Robinson, Overton in line for recalls as Paul Collingwood praises Stokes' return to form

• Robinson making progress but Wood 'unlikely' to be risked in Barbados

• West Indies docked two World Test Championship points for slow over rate

• Fortress Bridgetown beckons after Antiguan appetiser

His selection means that England will be fielding debutants in each of the first two Tests, following Alex Lees’ maiden appearance in Antigua. Lees did not enjoy the same success as many batters in the match, making scores of 6 and 4 in his two innings. But Root – who himself made a second-innings century – backed him to come good.”I think the challenge for any new player coming into the team is to not make any drastic changes,” Root said. “I think being strong on what you know serves you well for such a long period of time.”One of the most challenging things about batting at the top of the order, albeit I only did it for a limited amount of time in Test cricket, is the amount of time you’ve got to think on your dismissals.”It is so easy to overthink and over analyse. So it’s about just making sure you are absolutely clear about how you want to go and play and being as ready for it and as assured as you can be.”