Ian Pont, a former Essex player and fast bowling coach, now at the Ultimate Pace Foundation in Bengaluru, analyses England's disastrous World Cup campaign in an exclusive conversation with Manu Shankar/Rediff.com.
Australia will be desperately hoping to play a full game under clear skies when they face arch-rivals England in their must-win Champions Trophy clash in Birmingham on Saturday.
Rising Pune Supergiants brought their stuttering IPL campaign back on track with a convincing 34-run win over hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad via Duckowrth Lewis method in a rain-affected match.
Unbeaten in all the three games they have played so far in the tournament, Gujarat Lions would look to continue with their impressive winning run when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in an IPL match in Rajkot on Thursday. The Lions have been in red-hot form in their debut season with convincing wins in all the three games and they would seek to maintain a clean slate tomorrow at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium. The home side will also be bolstered by the return of all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who did not play in the Lion's seven-wicket thrashing of defending champions Mumbai Indians in Mumbai due to his wedding.
David Warner and Shaun Marsh smashed fifties to complement their bowlers' efforts as Australia crushed England by seven wickets in the third one-day international in Sydney on Sunday to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
It will not be the first time that the competition has had to be held outside India.
Opener Chris Gayle blasted a 47-ball century as West Indies crushed England by six wickets in a Group 1 match of the Super 10 stage of the ICC World T20 at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, on Wednesday.
A win on Friday would seal the three-match series for Virat Kohli and Co.
The side leave later on Monday for the series in England, where they can expect a hostile reaction after being embroiled in a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in late March. The sides will play five one-day matches and a Twenty20 international.
A selection of musings from around the cricket World Cup.
Sunrisers Hyderabad's mentor VVS Laxman has said that opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan's form is not a matter of concern for the team and added that domestic players need to score runs.
#RIP #Brexit #Trump #Aleppo made Twitter a pretty distressing place in 2016. Dhruv Munjal wonders what 2017 will bring.
England will be determined to get their act together against defending champions Sri Lanka.
England captain Alastair Cook and Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews also joined in to pay their respects to Phillip Hughes.
Desperate to break their title jinx, Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore will be hoping for a positive start to their campaign in the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League, when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad, in Bengaluru, on Tuesday.
England will rest James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Moeen Ali, Ian Bell and Gary Ballance in the five-match one-day series against New Zealand starting next Tuesday. Kent wicketkeeper Sam Billings was the only uncapped player named in the 14-man squad.
Joe Root's purposeful half-century lifted England to a 56-run victory over New Zealand in a one-off Twenty20.
England face unbeaten New Zealand in the first semi-final of 2016 World T20 at New Delhi's Ferozshah Kotla Stadium on March 30. While England have been champions in 2010, New Zealand will be eyeing their first World T20 title. Following is a factbox of the two teams:
Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle list IPL 2020's 50 Most Valuable Players after the league phase.
RCB began their campaign without skipper and star batsman Virat Kohli as well as another key player A B de Villiers due to injuries and lost their opening match against defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.
England's rampant one-day side powered to a fourth straight win over Australia, following up their world record rampage at Trent Bridge with a commanding six-wicket victory at Chester-le-Street on Thursday led by centurion Jason Roy.
Only the top ten teams will be taking part in this World Cup and they all will play each other in a round-robin format before the semi-finals stage.
Unlike in the T20I series, England do not have the option of battling this phenomenon with a practice outing against the spin-bowling machine, Merlyn. With both teams travelling to London on Friday, there might not even be enough time to sit down for some video analysis. In that light, the English batsmen will have to contend mentally with how to play Yadav on Saturday.
Rendered ineffective in the previous match, India's wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal will look to bounce back against 'well-prepared' England batsmen when the two teams clash in the series-deciding third Twenty20 International, in Bristol, on Sunday.
On a roll after three consecutive wins, a resurgent Sunrisers Hyderabad will start as overwhelming favourites against struggling Rising Pune Supergiants in an Indian Premier League match, in Hyderabad, on Tuesday.
Facing early elimination, two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders need to record a win to stay afloat when they take on table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Back to their winning ways after sucessive victories, a rejuvenated Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to continue their good run when they take on laggards Kings XI Punjab in an IPL T20 clash at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium on Saturday.
Their morale on the upswing after back-to-back victories, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders will aim to continue the winning run when they take on the inconsistent Sunrisers Hyderabad in their fifth IPL cricket match in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.
David Warner played another blazing knock smashing 31-ball 59 runs to power Sunrisers Hyderabad to a convincing victory against struggling Kings XI Punjab at the Hyderabad Stadium on Saturday. Chasing a modest 144-run target, the Sunrisers' skipper attacked from the start scoring seven boundaries and three sixes in his match-winning knock which gave Hyderabad it's third win in a row. Shikhar Dhawan played a supporting role scoring a patient 45 runs off 44 balls. For Kings XI Punjab, it was their fourth defeat in five matches. Earlier, the Sunrisers dished out another superlative bowling effort to restrict Kings XI to 143 for six. Electing to bowl first after winning the toss, the SRH bowlers, including the promising Mustafizur Rahman, Moises Henriques and others picked up wickets at regular intervals and also did not allow Punjab to score big runs. Moises Henriques scalped two wickets, while Bangladesh pacer Rahman deserves a special mention as he claimed two wickets, including a wicket in a maiden over, giving away just nine runs off his four overs.
Images from the 3rd ODI between England and India played at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday
Notwithstanding Rising Pune Supergiants' poor run in IPL-9, Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman considers the debutante side as a formidable unit and said his team will have to put its best foot forward when they clash with them in their IPL match on Tuesday. "It goes without saying that (RPS Captain M S Dhoni) Dhoni will be looking forward to use Ashwin against Warner and Shikhar. I believe that Pune has got a very formidable batting line up," Laxman said in a pre-match press conference at Hyderabad. "Lot of people talk about Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Faf Duplessis being similar. They are all extrordinary T20 players. We cannot at all be complecent or we cannot at all underestimate the batting strength of Pune. We are very mindful," he added. The former Test batsman, however, exuded confidence that SRH can take on any opposition if it sticks to its plans and executes them well. "But, I believe that if we concentrate on our plans and try to execute our plans, then we can do well against any opposition. It's more about concentrating and playing to our strength, while strategizing for each and every opposition batsman or bowler," he said. Noting that the MS Dhoni-led Pune team would look to bounce back strongly, Laxman said no team can be ruled out as it is still the early part of the long IPL tournament.
The function was attended by Hon Grant Robertson, Minister for Sports and Recreation of New Zealand, ICC Chief Executive David Richardson, New Zealand Cricket Chief Executive David White and Event Brand Ambassador Corey Anderson among others.
Facing the prospect of a series defeat at home for the first time in 15 months, skipper Virat Kohli will have a relook at his team combination as hosts India take on a resurgent England in a do-or-die second T20 International, in Nagpur on Sunday.
Seamers Kagiso Rabada and Wayne Parnell wreaked early havoc to set the platform for an easy South African victory in the third and final one-day International against England at Lords' on Monday.
Steve Smith's brilliant hundred and a clinical show by the bowlers at the death helped Australia beat England by 12 runs in their World Cup warm-up match, in Southampton.
Australia, bidding to avenge their defeat in the Ashes Test series earlier in the tour, went 1-0 up in the One-Day International encounter when they beat England by 59 runs in Southampton on Thursday.
Saudi Aramco had right from the beginning resisted the price tag Reliance had put for the 20 per cent stake in O2C business, which comprises the company's twin refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat, petrochemical plants and 51 per cent in fuel retailing venture.
Jonny Bairstow bludgeoned a brilliant 83 not out in Durham to lead England to a three-wicket win over New Zealand on the Duckworth-Lewis method on Saturday, earning a 3-2 victory in the five-match series of one-dayers.
Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle list IPL 2020's 50 Most Valuable Players.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will have captain written against his name one last time when the talismanic wicketkeeper-batsman leads out India 'A' against England in the first practice match, in Mumbai, on Tuesday.
