Foxes’ four-run loss hits chances of sealing spot as one of the third-placed sides chasing qualification

ECB Reporters Network15-Sep-2020Leicestershire Foxes suffered a setback in their bid to reach the quarter-finals of the Vitality Blast as Derbyshire Falcons pulled off a first victory of the season in a low-scoring North Group affair at the Fischer County Ground, Leicester.Having restricted the Falcons to 147 for 8 from their 20-over allocation, seamer Gavin Griffiths taking a career-best 4 for 35, the Foxes fancied their chances of cementing their position as one of the third-placed sides chasing qualification, especially after defeat for Birmingham Bears in the Central Group earlier in the day.But despite an unbroken stand of 68 for the fifth wicket between Harry Dearden and George Rhodes, building on a useful 32 on home debut from Nick Welch, the Foxes fell short of their target, some tight and intelligent death bowling from Dustin Melton and Michael Cohen pinned them down over the final three overs, when neither batsman could find the rope.Having opted to bat first, the Falcons were 42 for 1 after the Powerplay overs, largely down to Wayne Madsen, who had made 26 of them off 16 deliveries but was almost out without scoring, backing away a little to a ball from Callum Parkinson, the left-arm spinner, that missed leg stump by a whisker and was given as four after evidently taking a deflection off the bat as it sped past wicketkeeper Lewis Hill. The same over had seen Luis Reece dismissed as Parkinson read the batsman’s intention to step down the pitch and turned the ball away from him to facilitate an easy stumping for Hill.Madsen made the most of his good fortune with boundaries of a more authentic nature off Griffiths and Will Davis, including the night’s first maximum as he lofted the latter over long-on, and though a bowling change at both ends stemmed the flow of runs a little, Madsen looked well set at 33 off 22 balls in the 10th over when Billy Godleman’s poor decision to take a single as George Rhodes swooped to field at short extra gave his experienced colleague no chance to make his ground, leaving the Falcons 64 for 2 at the halfway stage.It was a scratchy innings by Godleman, who loosened his arms to launch Parkinson over long-off in the 13th over but was out next ball as the left-armer beat him in flight and enabled a second stumping for Hill. Matt Critchley and Leus du Plooy kept the board turning over but at 101 for 3 after 15, Derbyshire needed to build some momentum to post a competitive score.It did not help that Du Plooy, having helped one round the corner for his second boundary, was out to the second ball of the 16th over, his steepling drive dropping for Davis at long-on, and when leg-spinner Gareth Delany bowled Critchley in the next over the Falcons were looking at a relatively modest total, even though Anuj Dal announced his arrival with a six muscled over wide long-on.A slower ball from Griffiths accounted for Dal at the start of the final over of the Falcons’ innings and after Alex Hughes swelled the total with six over the bowler’s head, new batsman Mattie McKearnan and Hughes were caught in the deep off the last two balls as Griffiths claimed three wickets in the over.The Falcons’ 147 for 8 left the Foxes needing to score at 7.4 runs per over to register a third win of this truncated season, a rate of which they were quickly ahead as openers Delany and Nick Welch helped themselves to half a dozen boundaries in the first three overs. Welch, the 22-year-old Zimbabwean making his home senior debut, picked up two in the same over off his compatriot, Dustin Melton, and dispatched him for a towering six over deep mid-wicket, clearing the roof of The Meet.But the left-armer Michael Cohen struck back for the Falcons, dismissing Delany via a swivel-pull scooped up at short fine by Hughes and Arron Lilley, whose uppercut turned into a catch taken low down by Melton at third man as the Foxes completed the Powerplay overs only marginally in front and with two important batsmen lost.Colin Ackermann found his range immediately, lifting Matt Critchley’s leg spin for six over long and slog-sweeping four in the same over before repeating the feet in Critchley’s next. Welsh pulled Cohen to the rope and the Foxes seemed to be back on track until Hughes entered the attack to remove the threat of Ackermann, taken by wicketkeeper Brooke Guest standing up.The Foxes had now slipped marginally behind the required rate at 72 for 3 after 10 and suffered another setback when Critchley produced a lovely ball to bowl Welch for 32, leaving Harry Dearden and George Rhodes with a rebuilding job.Although the two found boundaries hard to come, they kept the total building with intelligent placement, yet entered the final five overs of the contest with still 42 required. Hughes and McKearnen, the other leg-spinner in the Falcons side, kept the pressure on and though the left-handed Dearden picked up a boundary off each the Foxes still required 20 from the last two overs, which came down to 10 off the final six balls.It proved too much, Melton coming up with an excellent final over to leave the Foxes five short of their target. Rhodes could have won the match with a six off the last ball. He failed and although he was dropped in the attempt Derbyshire’s joy was not diminished.

Royals’ star player is finding life off the field tough in the Covid era

Andrew Miller29-Oct-2020On the field, at least, Jofra Archer appears to be having the time of his life right now. His already astronomical profile has soared yet further thanks to a series of outstanding displays with ball, and bat as well, for Rajasthan Royals, for whom he has been the stand-out competitor in this year’s IPL, with his haul of 17 wickets at an economy rate of 6.71, including eight in his first six overs of a match.Rarely in his career has Archer bowled at a more consistent top speed, regularly in excess of 150kph – a trait perhaps aided by his decision to shelve his slower balls on the UAE’s unresponsive wickets and stick to raw pace – and his lower-order batting has touched new heights in the competition too, with 107 runs from 54 balls to date, including ten sixes.Off the field, however, it’s a slightly different story, and it was a lugubrious Archer who faced the UK media on Wednesday, as he reflected on a year spent in the gilded cages of bio-secure bubbles in both England and now the UAE.”You’re just counting days down,” he said. “I might actually get a calendar just to cross them down to feel like the days are going faster.”Archer’s angst is understandable. No player spent longer in the bubble than his 87 days in the course of the English summer, a period which was broken up by two brief breaks between the West Indies and Pakistan Test series in August, and then during the Pakistan T20s in September.He did of course take one further, unscheduled break when he left the bubble without permission to visit his home in Brighton after the summer’s first Test, but as a consequence of that, he then had to spend a full five days in isolation during the second Test at Emirates Old Trafford.And compared to that experience, Archer admits that the Royals’ beach-fronted hotel for this year’s IPL is a step-up from the on-site facilities that England’s players endured this summer, in order to get their home fixtures completed.”I guess, bubble-wise, it’s the best of a bad situation, so no complaints,” Archer said. “It’s a little bit better than being trapped at the cricket ground. Here it’s okay, but then the demands at IPL, if it’s not media, it’s meet-and-greets and whatever. You’re not at the ground but you still can’t get away from cricket. Even doing this [interview] now, you still can’t escape it.”It’s okay. I guess we’ve got a few group games left, our last group game is the 1st [November] and then the play-offs are the 10th… it will be over soon anyway. You’re just counting days down till you’re free again.”It might seem strange that Archer would wish the tournament away when he is in such a rich vein of form. And yet, the real difficulty this year, he says, has not been his off-field existence – regular games of Call of Duty have kept him amply occupied during his down time – rather, it’s the absence of a crowd to get behind his spectacular efforts.”No crowds [takes away the enjoyment],” he said. “The bubble doesn’t. It’s a really nice hotel, we’ve got a beach and other activities. I think no crowds is probably sucking most of the excitement out of the game.”At the age of 25, Archer knows that he is in the prime of his career, and therefore he will have to make sacrifices if he is to capitalise on it in the Covid-dominated climate. And yet, with his England team-mate Mark Wood acknowledging that he may have to consider a white-ball-only future, he is conscious that something may have to give in his workload, given how important he is to all three forms of the game.”It just goes down to man-management,” Archer said. “You can definitely play all three [formats] but they can’t expect you to play every single game of all three … God… thinking about it that is a lot of overs actually!”Bigger squads would definitely have to be taken into consideration or some guys would just have to play a few formats,” he added. “Being a person that plays all three formats, I’ve probably done the most bubble days out of anyone.”If you’re going to play in all three formats, you can’t play all the games. You probably play two Test matches, miss the last one and take some time off and maybe come back for the second ODI or second T20.”I don’t think it’s impossible but you need to be managed properly, and I think everyone at England has done a great job. But also Woody has just had a kid and the time he is spending now away from cricket is very, very precious.”With times moving forward, especially being in a Covid bubble, I think he would probably back me in saying you are going to need to have your family with you. Especially in these bubbles. It helps you stay sane. I reckon about four days, five days in, you start to get a little bit of cabin fever. You need your family to take some of that pressure off you.”

Cheteshwar Pujara picked up from where he had left off on the 2018 tour with a patient half-century

Andrew McGlashan06-Dec-2020Indians 8 for 237 (Rahane 108*, Pujara 54) vs Australia AAjinkya Rahane, who is set to take over as captain from Virat Kohli in a few weeks, made the ideal start to his tour of with a superbly constructed hundred on the opening day against a demanding Australia A attack for which James Pattinson, in his first red-ball outing for nearly a year, put in a performance to suggest he would be ready for the Test side if needed.Overall, it was a mixed outing with the bat for the Indians, Rahane’s fine century and Cheteshwar Pujara’s obdurate fifty balanced against three ducks in the top six. Pattinson, who is actually an incumbent player having faced New Zealand at the SCG in January when Josh Hazlewood was injured, finished with 3 for 58 including the scalp of Pujara for a 140-ball 54.The Indians, for whom this was the first multi-day match for all of them since March, recovered from 3 for 40 and 6 for 128 through the efforts of Rahane, who brought up his hundred from 203 deliveries, helped by contrasting lower-order contributions from Kuldeep Yadav and Umesh Yadav, the latter somewhat denting Pattinson’s figures.The other standout feature of Australia A’s bowling display was the eight overs sent down by Cameron Green across two spells. Generating good pace and carry on a pitch that offered encouraging bounce, he caused problems to the Indian batsmen.Rahane won the toss and batted in the first of two warm-up matches, the second under lights at the SCG starting Friday, as a decent smattering of spectators gathered on the grass banks outside the ground. However, the openers did not last long. Shubman Gill fell first ball he faced, to Michael Neser, getting an inside edge onto his pads which looped to the slips. In the next over, Prithvi Shaw edged a rapid outswinger from Pattinson.Pujara and Hanuma Vihari negotiated the remainder of the opening spells, but Australia A’s phalanx of pacemen – there was no specialist spinner included the XI with Mitchell Swepson having moved to the T20I squad – maintained the pressure, particularly Green whose first four overs cost just four runs as it hit a challenging length outside off. Tim Paine was regularly taking deliveries on the rise, although it remains to be seen when this is the case in Test cricket.Jackson Bird broke through when he pinned Vihari lbw although there may have been some doubt over the decision and at lunch, the Indians sat on an uneasy 3 for 65.A large part of the afternoon session saw Pujara and Rahane steady the innings with a stand of 76 in 28 overs. Pujara’s innings was an early reminder of how he was the rock behind India’s series win here two years ago during which he made 521 and wore the Australian attack down.Playing his first competitive cricket since March, he was the soon back into his bubble (the batting variety, rather than the biosecure variety) and at one stage went 27 deliveries between scoring shots, a sequence that was ended by an inside edge to the leg side.His half-century arrived from 129 balls, via a brace of overthrows, before a dismissal that may become a large part of Australia’s plans for the Test series as he turned a delivery off his pads and was well caught, low down, at leg gully by Marcus Harris. It was very similar to the way Australia removed him in the second innings of the MCG Test in 2018, when he flicked Pat Cummins around the corner for a duck – albeit with India miles ahead in the game and sandwiched between scores of 106 and 193.The Indians then slipped again as Wriddhiman Saha, who suffered a hamstring injury in the latter stages of the IPL, was given lbw in captain Head’s first over although it looked a rough decision. R Ashwin was then pinned by a full, fast delivery from Pattinson as the Indians lost 3 for 12 before tea.Although he was beaten on occasions, Rahane’s game looked in very good order with some of his drives especially pleasing on the eye. His most expansive moment was when he went to his fifty with an upper cut for six off Pattinson during the early stages of a stand with Kuldeep which frustrated Australia A’s attempts for swift mopping up of the tail.Rahane cashed in against the old ball, relative to the general pace of scoring through the day on a surface that rarely allowed the batsmen to break free. When the new ball was taken, he moved to 98 with a glide through the slips before a brace into the covers brought the hundred. For a man who will have a vital part to play in the series, it was the ideal performance to set up the tour.

Dwaine Pretorius also cleared to join as squad size is reduced from 19 to 17

Firdose Moonda18-Dec-2020Top-order batsman Raynard van Tonder and fast bowler Lutho Sipamla have received maiden call-ups to South Africa’s Test squad, while allrounder Dwaine Pretorius has been cleared fit to be a part of the group too. In addition to members of the squad that was named last week, two more players have tested positive for Covid-19 and will no longer be part of the playing group. That takes the total number of players in preparation for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka to 17.In keeping with doctor-patient confidentiality, CSA will not name the two players who have been removed from the squad but them, and at least 10 others including van Tonder and Sipamla, were part of domestic matches in which cases of Covid-19 were detected this week and may not be able to enter the bio=bubble on Saturday, which may necessitate further changes to the squad.Related

• SA face selection headache amid domestic Covid-19 scare

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former national Under-19 captain van Tonder has been rewarded for his form in the domestic four-day competition, where he is on top of the run-chart. His most recent knock was a double-hundred, which set the Knights up for a big win over the Lions, Sipamla’s team. That match was Sipamla’s first red-ball cricket of the summer and he took 2 for 75. Also, in that fixture, one Lions player tested positive for Covid-19 on day three and was substituted, with the game allowed to continue. Testing and monitoring have continued when it comes to other Lions players.Pretorius, who also plays for the Lions, was not involved in the match as he was recovering from a hamstring injury, which had ruled him out of the aborted white-ball series against England. He was due to play in the round of fixtures that were scheduled to start this Sunday but because the matches have been postponed, Pretorius has been added to the national squad.”Pretorius has made great progress from the hamstring injury he picked up last month just before the start of the England tour. He would have completed the last step of the CSA Return to Play protocol by playing in the now postponed round of the 4-Day Cup and will instead work closely with the team’s medical staff and coaches to ensure that he is Test match-ready,” a CSA statement said.Kagiso Rabada, the other injured player among South Africa’s regular playing group, has not been cleared to play after sustaining a groin injury against England and is expected to sit out the Sri Lanka series. Rabada’s absence has resulted in South Africa calling up reinforcements including Sipamla and, earlier this week, Migael Pretorius.South Africa’s players were tested for Covid-19 between Wednesday and Thursday and will be tested again on arrival in Centurion tomorrow. They will spend the first 72 hours in managed isolation in their hotel rooms with training on a one-on-one or small group basis and will be tested for a third and final time on Tuesday next week, two days before the series starts on Boxing Day.Squad: Quinton de Kock (capt & wk), Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Beuran Hendricks, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Rassie van der Dussen, Sarel Erwee, Anrich Nortje, Glenton Stuurman, Wiaan Mulder, Keegan Petersen, Kyle Verreynne, Migael Pretorius, Dwaine Pretorius, Lutho Sipamla, Raynard van Tonder

Retained Trent Rockets captain Lewis Gregory expects “quite a few teams” to take interest in Somerset team-mate

Matt Roller03-Feb-2021Lewis Gregory has backed his Somerset team-mate Tom Lammonby to be signed in the Hundred draft this month following his breakout season in county cricket last summer.Lammonby, a former England Under-19 captain, struggled in his first season in Somerset’s T20 side in 2019 but flourished in the abbreviated 2020 season when he was handed an unexpected opportunity as an opener in the red-ball side.His three Bob Willis Trophy hundreds – including 116 in the final against Essex and 107 not out against Worcestershire in a must-win group game – impressed those involved in England’s pathway selection, while he maintained a strike rate of 177.94 in the T20 Blast, the third-highest in the competition out of batsmen with more than 100 runs.And Gregory, who has been retained as Trent Rockets’ captain on a contract worth £80,000 (plus a captaincy bonus), suggested that his team-mate was likely to attract attention from teams in the Hundred as a potential long-term pick thanks to his value as a finisher in the middle order and his left-arm medium pace.”I think there will be quite a few teams after him, if I’m honest,” Gregory said. “He’s a brilliant kid, who works his absolute socks off. To see him contribute in the manner that he did last year – in both red-ball and white-ball cricket – was great.”He’s got a very, very high ceiling and he’s going to keep developing and keep growing. He’s got a very bright future and it won’t be long before we’re seeing him in an England shirt, [so] I’ve no doubt that there will be a few teams interested in him.”Gregory, Somerset’s T20 captain, has spent his entire professional career at the club and admitted that he would find it “weird” to miss five weeks of the 2021 county season while playing in the Hundred. Those involved in the new tournament will miss the Royal London One-Day Cup next year, which will instead take on the role of a “development competition” between July and August.”It will be weird, but you get used to playing in franchise competitions and developing as a team quite quickly,” he said. “Naturally I’ll see that Somerset are playing games in the 50-over comp and miss being around, but equally [the Hundred] is a new opportunity to go out and play on the global stage.”That’s an exciting prospect for anyone that’s going to be involved in the competition. I think it will become the norm and something that we’re used to very quickly.”Gregory’s Trent Rockets side are one of three teams – alongside London Spirit and Southern Brave – who will make only two picks at the draft, which will take place between the second and third India vs England Tests later this month. They opted to retain the vast majority of the players they signed at the initial draft in October 2019, including their three overseas signings: Rashid Khan, D’Arcy Short and Nathan Coulter-Nile.Gregory has been a regular contributor for Brisbane Heat in the BBL•Getty Images and Cricket Australia

Gregory said he has been involved in “a few conversations” regarding the Rockets’ strategy but has largely left things to Stephen Fleming and Mick Newell, the side’s head coach and general manager respectively. The two players they released were Harry Gurney – who was offered a new deal but opted to enter the draft instead – and Luke Fletcher, and they appear likely to sign two seamers in the draft as a result.”It was a no-brainer, really,” Gregory said of his decision to stay with the Rockets. “Trent Bridge is a place that I’ve really enjoyed playing cricket, so when the opportunity comes about to call that your home ground, I don’t think you have to think about it too much.”There’s a lot of talent around English cricket at the moment and a lot of good county cricketers are going to miss out. There will be a lot of talent that’s not playing in the Hundred, which shows that the standard of the competition will be one of the strongest across the world.”Related

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Gregory was speaking from his hotel room in Canberra, ahead of Brisbane Heat’s fixture against Perth Scorchers on Thursday night, with the winner progressing to the Big Bash final. Having grown used to the competition’s new rules this season, he suggested that the Hundred could look to incorporate the Power Surge – with the powerplay split into two blocks – and a bonus-point system in future years.”I don’t think it will be used initially but [the Power Surge] could easily be brought in. I’d be fine with that, as long as I’m not bowling in it. I’ve [also] enjoyed the Bash Boost point, which brings in a game within a game – you’re not just looking at the final target but also the 10-over score. They’re nice innovations and it’ll be interesting to see how they develop over the next year or so. I can definitely see them being tried and tested around the world.”I think four [powerplay] overs up front is potentially not long enough in a T20. I think you could either have five up front and one over at the back end, or even a five and a two. But it’s created different perspectives on things, and brings a different dynamic. You stay in the game a little bit longer when you’re chasing, knowing that there are two overs to capitalise on with only two men out, and you can make a charge a little bit later.”

The Australian was part of the ICC Elite Panel since 2012

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jan-2021Bruce Oxenford, 60, has decided to retire from all formats of the game, thereby bringing an end to a 15-year international umpiring career.The last of his 62 Tests was the recently-concluded Australia vs India match in Brisbane. He will, however, continue to officiate in domestic fixtures in Australia.Oxenford, who was inducted into the ICC’s International Panel of umpires in 2007-08, was promoted to the Elite Panel in 2012. He pioneered the use of the arm shield as protective gear for umpires in international cricket.”I had a wonderful time as a match official and will miss the camaraderie that comes with being a part of such a professional group,” he said in a statement. “I shall particularly miss seeing and interacting with the magnificent people who are part of the support structure of our game around the world.”Oxenford is one of six Australians, after Daryl Harper, Darelll Hair, Simon Taufel, Rod Tucker and Steve Davies, to stand in at least 50 Tests. Overall, only 16 umpires have officiated in 50 or more Tests. He stood in three 50-over men’s World Cups and three T20 World Cups, apart from officiating in two global women’s tournaments.”I look back with pride at my international career as an umpire,” he said. “It is still hard to believe that I officiated in close to 200 international matches. Such a long career was not really something that I had hoped for before commencing on this journey.”Most importantly, I want to thank my wife Jo, son James and daughter Kristen for all their love and support over the years. It would not have been possible for me to have such a long career without their sacrifices and for this I am eternally grateful.”During his playing days, he featured in eight first-class matches for Queensland as a lower-order batsman and legspinner.

Shreyas Iyer’s 67 in vain as India could only get to 124 for 7 in the first T20I, with England sealing an eight-wicket win

Deivarayan Muthu12-Mar-20212:06

Ian Bell: Jofra Archer is ‘a real entertainer’ when he bowls like this

Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Chris Jordan ambushed India with blistering pace and trampoline bounce, taking the two-paced Ahmedabad track out of the equation and reminding the world why they are the No.1-ranked T20I side. England’s irresistible attack consigned India to 22 for 3 in first six overs – their second-lowest powerplay score in T20Is – and although Shreyas Iyer scored 67 off 48 balls, the hosts could muster only 124 for 7.In stark contrast, England stormed to 50 for 0 in their powerplay in the chase, with Jason Roy and Jos Buttler repeatedly mowing India’s depleted attack to the boundary. India captain Virat Kohli had promised a similar gung-ho approach from their top order on the eve of the series opener, but while the intent was there, the execution was awry.KL Rahul dragged a 141kph dart from Archer back onto his stumps for 1 and then Kohli backed away first ball to Adil Rashid, who had taken the new ball for England, swishing him in the air to mid-off for a duck. When Wood blasted out Shikhar Dhawan with a 148kph thunderbolt, India were 20 for 3 in the fifth over, with their top three having managed a mere five runs together.Iyer tried his best to give India’s bowlers something to defend, but that soon became next to nothing once Roy and Buttler got cracking. Both the England openers fell lbw to spin, but Dawid Malan and Johnny Bairstow took them home by batting at a similar high gear and throwing down the gauntlet to India for the rest of the series.England’s fast men crank it up
While India had packed their attack with three spinners – legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal and fingerspin-bowling allrounders Axar Patel and Washington Sundar – England went the other way, recalling Wood, at the expense of allrounder Tom Curran, and pairing him up with Archer and Jordan.It was Archer who set the tone for England by removing Rahul and marking his return from an elbow injury with a second-ball strike. Like Rahul, Kohli and Dhawan, who was picked in place of the rested Rohit Sharma, looked hurried and were dismissed cheaply.While Archer and Jordan regularly hit 140kph, it was Wood who set the pulse racing by breaching 150kph. After bowling a sharp eight-over burst in Galle, Wood was rested for the red-ball leg of the India tour. He came back with a sharper spell in Ahmedabad and at one point he had even prompted Eoin Morgan into deploying a short leg for him.Quite fittingly, Wood capped his spell with a 149kph delivery that was just about diffused to third man. Archer returned at the death to get Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur off consecutive deliveries, but Sundar denied him a hat-trick.Shreyas Iyer brought up his third T20I half-century•BCCI

Iyer steps up
The second delivery that Iyer faced summed up the challenge posed by the pitch: Jordan hit a hard length, but the ball stuck in the surface and forced him to spoon a checked drive in front of cover. After Rishabh Pant failed to clear the longer square boundary and holed out for 21 off 23 balls, Iyer simply saw off England’s main bowlers and set about repairing the innings.Iyer smartly used the pace and bounce of England’s bowlers to his advantage, picking 36 of his 67 runs square of the wicket or behind square. He did go after the change bowlers – Sam Curran and Ben Stokes – and ultimately holed out in the last over of India’s innings with Dawid Malan pulling off a blinding catch at deep square leg. Barring Iyer, Pant was the only Indian batsman to cross 20.Roy, Buttler…and sustained hitting
India matched Chahal up with Roy early in the chase in an attempt to exploit the opener’s perceived weakness against spin. However, Roy muscled the legspinner for six first ball and then crunched him behind point for another boundary. Buttler, too, joined the fun, dashing out of the crease and swiping Patel over midwicket for six.All up, Roy took Chahal for 26 off 13 balls before the leggie pinned him in front. Sundar, who was held back until the 12th over, then trapped Buttler, but Malan and Bairstow rushed England to a 1-0 lead.

“Maybe Rahul’s loss of form has been a blessing in disguise,” he says

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Mar-20212:41

Gambhir: A perfect T20 batting display from India

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes the lack of runs from regular opener KL Rahul has ended up benefiting India by providing them with an ideal opening combination of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Following scores of 1, 0, 0 and 14 from Rahul, India dropped him for the T20I series decider against England on Saturday, thus pushing Kohli up the order to partner Sharma and the duo put on a 94-run stand in just nine overs to set the platform for a match-winning total of 224.”Your best batsman should bat the most number of overs in limited-overs cricket. So it was very important for Virat Kohli to bat at the top of the order,” Gavaskar told . “So maybe KL Rahul’s loss of form has been a blessing in disguise because this has given us an opening combination to look forward to.”Sharma and Kohli’s rapid partnership followed opening stands of 2, 0, 7 and 21 in the first four matches where India used three different combinations also involving Shikhar Dhawan and Ishan Kishan. On Saturday, Kohli, who opened for the first time in T20Is since 2018, batted out the entire 20 overs to finish on 80* from 52 deliveries by accelerating towards the death while Sharma smashed a quickfire 64 off 34.Related

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With the T20 World Cup scheduled for this October in India, Gavaskar said he would continue with the latest pair.”I would persist with this opening formula. Look at the way they fed off each other,” he said. “You could see the interaction between the two of them, whenever each of them got the big shot going. When that happens, when two leaders of the team show the way, it becomes easier for the guys coming down the order. With Suryakumar Yadav in India colours and playing those cameos, it’s really good.”Soon after India clinched the series 3-2, Kohli told the host broadcaster at the presentation that he would also open in the upcoming IPL, starting April 9, and he could also open in some additional T20Is India are likely to play between the England tour and the T20 World Cup.