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Jarrod Kimber watches India, and Smriti Mandhana in particular, produce a performance worthy of a World Cup opening fixture

Jarrod Kimber at Derby24-Jun-2017To get into the County Ground at Derby, you have to go around the Pentagon. It’s a roundabout with an impressive name. On the Pentagon is a giant pair of stumps to tell you how close you are to the ground. But there is also a smaller sign on the roundabout, one that one says: “Derby’s done it”.The “it” is to be the co-host of the Women’s World Cup, and to get the opening game. Derby doesn’t get a lot of world events followed by millions of people, so this means something for them. The staff and organisers looked nervous as the day started. The opening ceremony was underwhelming, featuring kids holding bits of coloured material that didn’t really represent the nations they were supposed to (Pakistan was teal, West Indies pink and New Zealand blue). And then the singing of the song was meant to be met with the flags being carried out on the ground, but instead, it was met by one man running manically across the outfield trying to get the attention of the flag holders.And if the game meant a lot to Derby and the organisers, think about what it meant to the women playing in it. This is the only tournament that they get on their own. The World T20 is tacked on to the men’s tournament. Women almost never play Test matches, and while their T20 leagues are growing, none of them has yet caught fire. The Women’s World Cup isn’t just the peak of women’s cricket; it’s the peak, the slope, and the entire mountain of the sport.Not to mention that, as the women’s game becomes professional, the pressure to perform and justify your contract also comes into play. They are no longer earnest amateurs and they are no longer playing for family and friends. The stage is bigger; so is the potential for failure.That extra pressure seemed to play on England and Punam Raut in particular, both of whom started tentatively. Raut amassed dot balls while being dropped early twice; England bowled either too short, or too wide, or both. If Smriti Mandhana was nervous, it was hard to see through the barrage of effortless back-foot square drives and brutal pull shots. If the World Cup wanted an opening ceremony, forget a few unorganised kids holding things, the 20-year-old Mandhana brought her own fireworks.The crowd was loving it. But then, the crowd seemed to love all of it. They lined up for autographs before the game and screamed for the first ball. Fathers explained the scoreboard and fielding ring to their daughters, boys and girls played throwing games out at the racecourse end, middle-aged women were signed up for cricket clinics by volunteers. A husband and wife (he suppported India, she supported England) argued over which team had the upper hand, and a teenage girl walked around the ground holding a 1990s vintage Hawk cricket bat. There was even a technical recreation of Jenny Gunn’s action with a father and son. Not to mention the normal cricket crowd of odd people scoring the match and one guy watching the action in between reading The Turncoat by Alan Murray.Derby’s County Ground doesn’t get to host many global events•Getty ImagesAlan Murray must be some writer to stop you from watching Mandhana slapping 90 from 72 balls. And if Mandhana brought a sledgehammer, Mithali Raj brought in a paintbrush. Wearing her floppy hat, she was stroking the ball like she was painting the scenery and not scoring a run a ball half-century. It was stunning, and not remotely as brutal as the manner in which she had smacked down the journalist who asked who her favourite male cricketer was before the tournament began.The press still hasn’t quite embraced the Women’s World Cup. No full-time cricket writer from an English newspaper turned up at Derby, despite the fact that the England’s men’s team isn’t playing today, let alone the fact that they are in the midst of a T20 series that couldn’t matter less if it were being played by sock puppets.It was only six years ago that John Etheridge, The Sun’s cricket writer, tweeted “Women’s cricket – what is worse? Those who criticise it or those who patronise it?” and followed up with “I’m sorry, but women’s cricket is a joke. The standard is truly appalling”. He went on to add: “I’m afraid that fewer than 10 per cent of cricket pundits (esp TV commentators) think it is any other than rubbish,” and “All the TV comms privately say it is appalling but, of course, they can’t say that on air”.In the last few years, attitudes towards women’s cricket have changed, especially among the press. But there is still a feeling that women’s cricket is such a rare event that it isn’t covered like a proper sport. It was Ellyse Perry, speaking to the BBC, who called for more critical analysis of the women’s game. Had more of the cricket press turned up today, they would have seen how much the women’s game has changed. Harmanpreet Kaur clipping sixes and muscling straight boundaries was a heavy-handed indication of that.England very much pioneered the professionalism in women’s cricket that Kaur’s shots represent. But, as the entire game’s standard and athleticism has risen, England are no longer the powerhouse they once were. This is a good sign for the world game, but England looked like also-rans in the last WT20, and even after dumping the great Charlotte Edwards in a bid to revitalise their cricket, today they didn’t look much better. Their new-look full-time and well-trained outfit managed two wickets in the first 49.5 overs of their bowling, which was a combined effort between bowlers and fielders. And then they batted. They lost early and frequent wickets, slowed down their tempo, rebuilt and came back, only to lose wickets again.They did make history, when Nat Sciver was given not out, and then out, making her the first-ever victim of DRS in women’s cricket history. But mostly they weren’t very memorable.When Heather Knight ran herself out by hitting the ball back to the bowler and taking off, England were pretty much out of the game due to being consistently poor in four parts of the match. But when Katherine Brunt came in to bat with Fran Wilson, they put together the kind of partnership that makes poor days end in wins. They took risks with their shots, and also started pushing their running to dangerous tip-and-run territory, but India couldn’t capitalise. In the final over of the Powerplay they took 17 runs, four of them boundaries, from Shikha Pandey. And suddenly England needed 76 off the final ten to win, just two more than India had scored in their final ten.Katherine Brunt’s dejection epitomises England’s collective display•Getty ImagesThen something amazing happened.Katherine Brunt gave herself room to cut from a full length to point, and took off. The ball travelled towards Deepti Sharma – and at this point, it is important to note that the Indian women’s cricket team received its first-ever fielding coach two weeks ago. It’s important to note it because Sharma ran in, picked up, turned and threw down the non-striker’s stumps like it ain’t no thing. The umpire didn’t even bother going upstairs; Brunt was lying on her back, covered in dirt.England never left the dirt.Ekta Bisht added another run-out, a clever one in her followthrough, that will guarantee that Biju George remains the Indian women’s fielding coach for some time. It wasn’t just any old player, it was Fran Wilson, England’s last hope. Wilson scored her 81 runs at better than a run a ball, and if anyone could have got the tail home, it was her. Instead she became England’s third and second-last run-out of the day. England’s loss was a true team effort.India were magnificent. They dropped some catches, and they got very nervous before Brunt was run out, but their bowlers and batsmen were in charge of match from start to finish.India were embarrassed in the last World Cup; they finished fourth in a four-team group in a World Cup that they hosted. This was a big event for them. They are now professionals; Raj’s comments got them more exposure, and they were opening the tournament against one of women’s cricket’s great sides. India’s women team needs one big moment; they lost embarrassingly to Pakistan women in the WT20 last year, a defeat that contributed to their failure to make the semi-finals of another tournament that they had hosted. They needed something big.The Indian team has not had a lot of big World Cup wins, so beating England in the first game certainly was Something Big. When Veda Krishnamurthy launched herself to complete the catch of Anya Shrubsole, they’d won, they’d done something big. India’s done it.

Always a monster at scoring on the leg side, Virat Kohli has become so adept at playing inside-out drives that he can now pierce any gap from point to mid-off, and this evolution has contributed to some insane numbers

Alagappan Muthu in Bangalore19-May-2016There was one thing Virat Kohli failed at on Wednesday night: trying to restrain his grin as he walked off with a century . He bit his lip. That didn’t help. He bowed his head. But that only made him look cooler.There was a time when Kohli simply seemed agitated playing Twenty20 cricket. He wasn’t always as strong as he is now. He couldn’t thwack sixes as often as he does now. It had bred frustration, which clouded his mind and reduced him to base instinct. For a bottom-handed player such as him, that roughly means slogging into the leg side. Until December 2015, he averaged 35.37 with a strike-rate of 128.97. No centuries. Thirty-two fifties.Kohli’s first boundary on Wednesday came off the first ball he faced, standing tall to dispatch a back of a length delivery through the covers. A shot like that depends on the top hand for timing and direction, so bottom-handed players have trouble getting the maximum out of them. The same holds true for inside-out drives through the off side.But Kohli is a master of those, against pace and spin. He has become so adept that he can pierce any gap from point to mid-off and this evolution has contributed to some insane numbers. Since January 2016, his average is 99.33 and his strike-rate 148.11. Four centuries. Twelve fifties. That is half as many 50-plus scores in one year as he had made in the previous eight.Kohli was always a monster on the leg side with the power he generates with his wrists. Now he is a phenom on the off side as well.You have to put yourself in the bowler’s shoes to understand the impact of that. You think you can be safe with a nice, fifth or sixth stump line, but he can carve it to third man, drill it through the covers or thump it back over your head. Okay, target the stumps then. But the bottom-handed meanie will whip it anywhere between square leg and mid-on. Is it any wonder that Kohli has hit 443 runs on the off side and 422 on the leg side in this IPL?A bottom-handed player being more productive on the off side is a sign he has broken his limitations. Kohli has done so by developing a shot that could eclipse his flick and become his new trademark, at least in one-day cricket, when there is considerably lesser swing and seam movement. The cover drive.It was the first thing he practiced when he got to the middle – off the front foot and the back foot – and it brought him the first of his eight sixes against King XI Punjab when he charged at KC Cariappa and hit with the legspin. He can play it from the crease, or outside it, on the up and any which way he pleases. Kohli’s strike-rate through the covers in this IPL is 156.20. In all T20s prior to the start of the season, that figure had been wallowing at a mere 118. Party to this improvement is his knowledge of when to use the shot.”Your head should always be where your toe is, that’s how your body is dictated when you’re playing the drive,” Kohli demonstrated in a batting masterclass for in April. “And that’s how you connect [with] the ball close to your body, close to your head and it stays in control.”If the ball pitches ahead of [where] your foot [can reach], you have to play it along with your pad and make sure your follow through is such that the ball bounces right in front of you. If the ball is a bit fuller, the sensible thing to do, which I do most often, is I collapse my back foot rather than bending on the front foot.”So many factors at play. So many decisions to make. And all Kohli gets is a split second. In addition to that, a bottom-handed player has to let go of his natural inclinations to play the drive well. Otherwise, he might hold the bat too tightly, the wrists lock up and a full flow of the arms is not easy.Creditably, Kohli hasn’t been pushed into overhauling his technique to expand his range. He has adjusted by moving his feet and himself into a position – usually quite a distance outside leg – where the bottom hand does all the work to get the cover drive away. There have been times when he has nailed the shot without making room too. Remember the fours he shovelled through the off side against West Indies and Australia in the World T20? The wristy flourishes at the end are a clear indication of his bottom-hand dominance.So Kohli, it appears, hasn’t abandoned his natural game. He has merely augmented it in the quest to become a complete batsman.Victory may not be that far off.

Watch @imVkohli battle stitches in his hand to score his fourth hundred in #IPL https://t.co/TIvU8BDVFO

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 19, 2016

Stats provided by Shiva Jayaraman and Bharath Seervi

There was that time, in the sun, at the G, during a World Cup knockout game, where they looked beautiful. And then it all went bad

Jarrod Kimber at the MCG19-Mar-20152:02

Crowe: Bangladesh’s best World Cup so far

Thirty-three overs and two balls. Bangladesh were in the game for precisely that long. How long they could, or would, have been in the game after that is unimportant, that is the moment their World Cup ended.Before that, it was wonderful. It was a land of lollipops and hope. The line and length was more from a fiction on Bangladesh cricket than the real one. The sight of Mushfiqur Rahim, their wicketkeeper, so far back and still taking it above his head was almost surreal. They were at the MCG, a ground their players have dreamed of more than they have played at, which in their almost 30-year ODI history is now twice. And this was a knockout game in a World Cup. Their first.They were playing for each other in a World Cup knockout match at the MCG against India. They were keeping each other in check in a World Cup knockout at the MCG against India. They were together as a team in a World Cup knockout match at the MCG against India. They had a chance in a World Cup knockout match at the MCG against India.There were poor moments. Mashrafe Mortaza’s first ball was so slow and tame that a pack of elderly mall walkers passed it before Rohit Sharma guided it to the rope. Nasir Hossain dropped, or seemingly missed a return catch from Rohit. Shakib Al Hasan got upset at another misfield. There were some sloppy overthrows.However, they were outnumbered by the seemingly endless well-placed seam and spin deliveries. Mashrafe kept the field up and the fielders kept the pressure up. Taskin Ahmed’s carry. Rubel Hossain’s pace and carry. They took three wickets. One through good flight from Shakib and quick hands from Mushfiqur. Rahane was kept quiet until he behaved in an odd way.Virat Kohli’s dismissal was perhaps the moment that Bangladesh cricket would like to mount on their office wall. Rubel went quick and short. Then peppered Kohli four times short of a length outside offstump. Finally, a wide one. Kohli had spent a summer smashing these balls through cover regions all over this land, but Rubel took his edge. He started with aggression, went with patience and then finished with bait.In 33.1 overs, though one of the best batting line-ups in the world had seven men waiting, Bangladesh had the scoring rate at less than 4.5 an over. It’s not pour-champagne-on-yourself-while-dancing-at-Southbeach time, but it’s a good place to be.Virat Kohli’s dismissal energised Bangladesh•Getty ImagesMashrafe kept six men in the circle. Mashrafe bowled a very good ball. Umpire Ian Gould didn’t think it was good enough. It was straight, and it was probably hitting. But it was near leg stump. Suresh Raina didn’t hit it; he was not even in the same postcode as the ball. The only question was whether it pitched in line. It looked like it did.DRS suggested it wasn’t.The next ball Mashrafe beat Raina again, this time outside off stump. It looked like his quickest ball of the match. Raina had now faced 19 balls for 10 runs.The next over he faced against Mashrafe was the first of the batting powerplay. Raina backed away, took a length ball from the stumps and Raina’d it over cover. The rest of the match was much like that shot.There was a no ball that wasn’t that could have stopped Rohit’s carnage. There was the complete loss of line and length. There was the complete loss of hitting the pitch at times. Bangladesh turned on each other, they went from chest bumps to angry exchanges. There was an edge from Tamim that he wanted to bounce before Dhoni, but it didn’t. There was the comedy run out of Imrul Kayes. Dhoni even dived to take a catch. And then there was a catch down on the padded boundary triangle. That maybe moved, it probably didn’t. It maybe mattered, it probably didn’t.Five overs after DRS went against them, it rained on Bangladesh. It cleared up soon after for India. For Bangladesh, the clouds seemed to follow them for the rest of the game.There was that time, in the sun, at the G, during a World Cup knockout game, where they looked beautiful. Thirty three overs and two balls is fleeting, but at least it is something.

The Plays of the Day from the IPL match between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai

Sidharth Monga28-Apr-2013The byes
This is one of the rare instances in any cricket. Dirk Nannes bounds in, bowls short of a length, beats the pull, hits the top of off. Four runs to the batting side. That’s because this was a free hit, and the ricochet bounced over the cordon for four byes.The over
Marlon Samuels can finish his T20 full spells in the time it took Nannes to bowl the first over of the chase. He began with a wide down the leg side that MS Dhoni failed to collect, followed by a front-foot no-ball. The free hit hit the bails and went for four byes. One legal ball, 10 conceded, none off the bat. Three uneventful deliveries later, Nannes bowled another wide. The nine-ball over went for 18. Only six of them came off the bat.The field
Kolkata Knight Riders were taken to the cleaners by Michael Hussey, but Gautam Gambhir showed he is an optimistic soul with the field he welcomed the new batsman with after finally getting Hussey out for 95. It was the 16th over, and Chennai Super Kings were 158 for 2, but Dhoni walked out to face Sunil Narine with a slip and a silly mid-off. Dhoni played out a dot, which he would have probably done anyway considering it was the last ball of Narine’s quota.The shot
In the 13th over of the Super Kings innings, Hussey went down on a knee to sweep, and Rajat Bhatia changed the delivery to bowl wide outside off. However, despite the premeditation, Hussey had enough time to change the shot, and drive it square, between point and cover-point for four. Hussey tried the sweep off the next ball too, Bhatia bowled wide and full again, but this time Hussey couldn’t recover in time, and could get just the single off the full toss.The wide that wasn’t
In the 18th over of the first innings, with Dhoni’s killer intent obvious to all, L Balaji bowled a perfect wide yorker, which swung in a touch, and bounced inside the white guide line for a wide. This being a batsman’s game, though, Simon Taufel penalised him for it by calling it a wide. Balaji responded with a trademark grin, but he must have hurt inside. That was not the total cost of the call; the compensatory delivery, the seventh of the over, went for the first four of that over, ruining an otherwise good over.The run-out that wasn’t
Three balls after missing Jacques Kallis’ stumping, MS Dhoni pulled off what should have been a spectacular run-out. Manvinder Bisla was taking it easy when Dhoni deflected a wide throw – with his back to the stumps – onto the stumps. The replays showed Bisla’s bat was clearly in the air. Everyone agreed, but the third umpire C Shamsuddin, who saw hundreds of replays before ruling it not-out. One for those who knock Super Kings for the umpiring calls going their way.

India needed to survive 13 overs but Virender Sehwag was dismissed first ball, attempting an ambitious drive, for the second time in the Test

Sambit Bal at Edgbaston13-Aug-2011Even at the best of times batting is a matter of chance. Every stroke carries the prospect of dismissal. A half-volley can be dragged onto the stumps and a long hop can land in the hands of an outfielder. Batting involves constantly balancing risk and opportunity, and the assessment of risk varies from batsman to batsman. Alastair Cook hit only three boundaries in the first two sessions of the third day at Edgbaston, but he ended with 294 runs. Virender Sehwag aimed to cream the first ball he received through the covers and ended with his second golden duck of the match.Cook began the day with England leading India by 232 runs with seven wickets in hand; Sehwag took guard with India needing to score 486 to avoid innings defeat. When Cook’s innings ended, ironically with a forcing shot, he had batted over 13 hours; Sehwag lasted only eight minutes over both innings. Barring a miracle, or a washout, England will win.Rewind to December 2008 in Chennai. Andrew Strauss, Cook’s opening partner, scored 123 and 108, batting for more than 12 hours in the Test. Sehwag played a leaden-footed drive in the first innings to be bowled for 9, but two hours of extraordinary hitting from him in the final session on the fourth day set India on the road to an improbable chase. His 68-ball 83 was good enough to earn him the Man-of-the-Match award. It was the defining innings of the Test.When Sehwag belted his first hundred as a Test opener, in Nottingham in 2002, his methods seemed too outrageous to survive the rigours and scrutiny of international cricket. But with more than 7500 runs scored at a strike rate of 81.89, it can be argued he has earned the right to bat as he pleases; or rather to bat in the manner that is most profitable to him. After all, a couple of hours of mayhem from Sehwag can ease the path for those to follow.Why is it considered more criminal for a batsman to lose his wicket to an aggressive stroke than to a defensive one? After all, in the first innings at Edgbaston, Sehwag was dismissed not attempting a stroke and it was deemed merely unfortunate.These arguments are not without merit. That Cook’s epic was the result of monumental patience and meticulous application is of little consequence to Sehwag’s approach to batting. He is entitled to choose the method most likely to bring him success. However, to apply this argument without a caveat would be both naïve and simplistic.Batting in Test cricket is also about adapting to varying conditions and match situations. That Sehwag had consigned the first ball to the boundary almost all through the World Cup didn’t meant anything when it came to opening in Test cricket in England. Even Sehwag knows the virtue of grafting, of playing out a tough period to set a base. He did so in Melbourne in 2003, when the pitch was damp on the first morning, and ended up with 195. More tellingly, he batted out a whole session in Adelaide in 2008 without hitting a four, to save India a Test.Runs were of little consequence to India this evening. Their only logical target was to bat out 13 overs. James Anderson was likely to nip the ball away. Sehwag hadn’t played a Test since January, and had batted only half an hour in the practice match after missing the first two Tests. And Rahul Dravid, India’s best batsman in the series, deserved to be given the best chance to succeed. Trying to hit the cover off the first ball wasn’t the smartest way to begin.Perhaps the stroke came out of nervousness. Or perhaps Sehwag was as dead sure that he could hit it for four as Dravid was when he cut the first ball of Anderson’s second over to the point boundary. But given that the percentages were loaded against a drive on the up, and that it brought about his dismissal when India needed to sell every wicket dear, it was a moment of madness that described the shambolic nature of India’s campaign in England.

Even when AB de VIlliers reached his century today, the packed Western Terrace of Headingley still hadn’t forgiven him for his first-day non-catch

Andrew McGlashan at Headingley20-Jul-2008

The Western Terrace at Headingley is notorious for its atmosphere and they made their feelings known when AB de Villiers walked in on the second day. A chorus of boos rang around the ground following de Villiers’ non-catch against Andrew Strauss on Thursday, and even when he reached his century today the packed stand still hadn’t forgiven him.It was a new experience for de Villiers, one he found difficult to accept, but when he finally departed for 174 the roars of discontent had subsided to a lower level. “It was the first time I’d ever been booed walking out and that was very disappointing. It hurt quite a lot,” he said. “But if anything it motivated me and I’m very satisfied to be sitting here right now with a hundred.”de Villiers’ century came on the back of being given a piece of Michael Vaughan’s mind at lunch on the opening day, following his claiming of a catch against Strauss. It looked an ugly moment on TV, the ball clearly being grassed, but de Villiers had tried to calm the issue by apologising straight away.”The truth of what happened [with the catch] was the ball hit my right hand and went straight into my left hand,” he explained. “I was pretty sure I’d taken the catch although I went straight to [Graeme Smith] and said I’m not 100% sure. He said don’t worry, it’s being referred. There was no way I was going to let Straussy walk off without telling the umpires I wasn’t sure.”I’m very happy it was referred and given not out, because I would never have been able to go to bed at night if I’d known he had to walk off the field. When I walked past Andrew I told him I wasn’t sure because I never had my own chance to go to the umpires. That’s the end of the story and it was very sorry to be booed onto the field. I didn’t feel I deserved that.”As well as receiving a heated reception from the crowd there were the predictable chirps from the England players. He was then stuck on 99 for more than 40 minutes, surviving a huge appeal for caught behind off Andrew Flintoff, who was less than impressed. “I wasn’t expecting anything less,” said de Villiers. “I did get my fair share of words when I walked on, but that’s part of the game. If anything it played into my hands and motivated me to stay there for as long as possible.”I was under quite a lot of pressure on 99, we couldn’t afford to lose a wicket, and Freddie was bowling unbelievably well. I actually thought, gee that’s too good, and I was smiling. That’s when Freddie had a go because he thought I was laughing at him. That’s where the little misunderstanding came from.”However, when he reached three figures there was acknowledgement from most of the England players and de Villiers holds no grudges about anything that has happened between teams. “I’m not going to take any offence from their players. Whatever is said on the field or in the dressing room is alright. I really respect that and thank the boys for clapping for a hundred.”

But through all the boos and stares, de Villiers stood firm. He has changed as a batsman from the dashing, ultra-aggressive figure who made his debut against England in 2005-06. That series was a microcosm of his early career as he was shunted up and down the order (and even kept wicket). However, he has now found his home at No. 6, so much so that if Neil McKenzie had failed his fitness test JP Duminy would have opened, rather than disrupting de Villiers in the middle order. He has adapted his play and this was the slowest of his six Test centuries, taking 264 balls, showing a new level of maturity.”It’s important on any English wicket to leave well. Myself and Ash [Ashwell Prince] discussed it and said it’s one of those wickets where we are going to have to be patient,” he said. “You have to know where your off stump is and where you want to score. I was lucky at stages and played and missed a bit, but that’s part of the game.”His effort has put South Africa firmly on course for a 1-0 series lead. However, three days into the previous Test, the visitors were in a similarly dire predicament as England now find themselves so de Villiers is prepared for a hard slog. “It’s going to take a lot of patience and guts. As a batter you have to be patient, but we are going to have to be even more patient with the ball and take our chances. If we stick to out disciplines, there’s no reason we shouldn’t win the Test.”The difference is that confidence is now oozing from a team which has settled into conditions. As Makhaya Ntini showed in the final session the bowlers are finding their groove after a slow start, and the same also applies to the batting. With de Villiers’ marathon innings following Ashwell Prince’s elegant 149 it means that the only member of the top six not to reach three figures is Jacques Kallis. With the series not yet at the halfway mark, that’s a pretty sobering thought for England’s battle-weary bowlers.

India all but batted England out of the first Test as early as the second day, overhauling their 246 for a first-innings lead of 175 and three wickets still in hand. India began the day 127 behind, lost a wicket in the first over, but kept on batting enterprisingly, moving into the lead in only the 57th over. KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja led the batting charts with contrasting fifties.It was only after five wickets fell that England managed to bring some control into the proceedings. All five fell to attacking shots, only the second time it has happened since ESPNcricinfo started doing ball-by-ball commentary. The other instance was England trying to set up a declaration in Barbados in 2022.The other side of the aggressive intent was that wickets kept falling. Everyone bar R Ashwin got himself in. Everyone including Ashwin kind of gave his wicket away. No one other than KS Bharat fell lbw, bowled or caught at the wicket.The closest one got out to falling to a plan was when Yashasvi Jaiswal hit a catch back at Joe Root in the first over of the day. Root went on to create chances from both Rahul and Shubman Gill, but was taken off after just four overs despite looking like the best spinner on display. Rahul edged the first ball he faced, Ben Foakes failed to collect it, and the umpire called the resultant run a bye. Even if Foakes had caught it, England were out of reviews after burning them all in the first 14 overs.KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja led the batting charts on the day with contrasting 80s•BCCI

Debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley got another long spell during which he got on the board with the wicket of Gill. Among the specialist batters, Gill was the only one who frequently defended well in front of his body. As the dots accumulated, Gill looked for the big release shot. He got away when he miscued Root, but ended up hitting Hartley straight to midwicket.England immediately went to the only pacer in their attack, Mark Wood, to look to test Shreyas Iyer. But Rahul hit him for three boundaries even before he could bowl to Iyer – the back-foot punch past point was one for the highlight reels. The hallmark of Rahul’s batting was his willingness to stay back against spin and keep picking singles. Twenty-six runs of his half-century, brought up off just 72 balls, came off the back foot.Iyer’s method might not have been so foolproof, but he was ruthless each time the bowlers erred. And they erred frequently. A classic example was Rehan Ahmed’s first over of the day. When you first encounter Rehan, two things make the batter’s job difficult: he bowls with a scrambled seam and he bowls both the legbreak and the wrong’un out of the back of the hand. Naturally, Iyer struggled to pick him. The first ball went past the edge, the second took the edge but fell short of slip, the third hit the glove but went right down, and yet he offered a short ball, which gave Iyer the boundary.The first maiden of the day came immediately after lunch. In the second over from that end, the third after the break, Iyer picked a wrong’un and perhaps wanted the bowler to know he had done so, but the slog sweep that he committed to ended up with the only boundary fielder on the leg side, deep midwicket. In Rehan’s next over, Rahul picked the variations all right and went one better by hitting two sixes, both down the ground. The second of those took India into the lead.The partnership between Rahul and Jadeja began on steroids, crushing any hopes of momentum England might have had with that early wicket after lunch. The partnership reached 52 in 51 balls, but soon Rahul picked out deep midwicket with a long hop from Hartley, 14 short of what would have been only a second home century to go with seven away from home.Axar Patel added to England’s misery in the final session•Getty Images

At long last, England managed some control, bowling 11.1 overs leading up to tea for just 21 runs to Jadeja and Bharat. Jadeja, a proper old-fashioned player of spin, was happy to just wait for the bad ball except for not letting Jack Leach settle by stepping out to him. Bharat didn’t start convincingly, but post tea, he, too, started getting the regular ordinary ball. He went from 10 off 44 to 41 off 81 but missed trying to sweep a second boundary in a Root over.Ashwin and Jadeja, great partners with the ball, soon got into a misunderstanding to give England their first set of two quick wickets, but India already led by 112 at that point.Axar Patel was yet to come.Both Jadeja and Axar batted like proper top-order batters, keeping the good balls out and putting away the bad ones. It is unfair almost to have to bowl to batters of such ability for the eighth wicket, but the spinners on show failed to question them enough.Axar ended a sedate day for himself with a four, six and four off the last three balls. Despite that, India went at under three an over since the wicket of Rahul, but they still added 133 runs for the loss of just two wickets. It meant more mileage on the pitch, more time for it to break, and also more runs in the bank for India. Jadeja ended the day with a century in sight, and his partnership with Axar read 63 in 19.3 overs.

MatériaMais Notícias

Dois dias antes de disputar a semifinal do Campeonato Paulista, diante do Palmeiras, o Ituano emitiu comunicado oficial acerca do meio-campista André Luiz informando sobre o seu afastamento temporário.

Ao lado de outros sete jogadores, ele foi acusado de participar de um esquema de manipulação de resultados na Série B do Campeonato Brasileiro de 2022. Na época, o jogador defendia o Sampaio Corrêa.

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Afirmando ter recebido a notícia da denúncia ‘com grande surpresa’, o Ituano agregou que preferiu optar pelo afastamento em forma de ‘consonância com nossa política de tolerância zero perante este tipo de comportamento’.

Outro ponto devidamente abordado pelo time que também obteve vaga na próxima fase da Copa do Brasil ao eliminar o Ceará, nos pênaltis, é em relação a sequência dos procedimentos. Indicando a possibilidade de rescisão contratual, o clube do interior paulista falou que ‘os assessores jurídicos do Ituano já estão analisando o caso em maiores detalhes’ em busca de uma posição definitiva’.

CONFIRA O COMUNICADO DO ITUANO NA ÍNTEGRA

Com grande surpresa, o Ituano Futebol Clube recebeu a informação sobre o recebimento de denúncia oferecida pelo Ministério Público de Goiás contra o atleta André Luiz, em caso de suposta manipulação de resultados.

O Ituano Futebol Clube reforça seu mais absoluto repúdio a tentativas de corromper o futebol, comprometendo-se a apoiar sempre autoridades e entidades desportivas no vigoroso combate a esta grave ameaça.

Allrounder Lyndon James finished on 92 not out after leading a Nottinghamshire recovery from 50 for 6 as they closed on 212 for 9 on day one of their Vitality County Championship match against Hampshire at Trent BridgeMohammad Abbas, who took 15 wickets in the two matches between these counties last season, was the scourge of Nottinghamshire again with 4 for 36 – but Hampshire may yet rue their dropped catches as they look for a first win of their Division One campaign.James, eight away from a first hundred since September 2022, was dropped on 23 and 32 as Hampshire’s slip fielders suffered a day of contrasting fortunes, holding all three chances offered in the morning session but putting down three in the afternoon and another after tea.Hampshire have an excellent record against Nottinghamshire, winning eight of their last 11 matches, including both of last year’s encounters.Nottinghamshire, who fielded the same XI that beat Lancashire to break their duck for the season last week, found themselves two down before they had scored a run as Abbas struck in the second and third overs of a new-ball spell in which he did not concede a run until his 35th delivery.Abbas, who was missing last week due to illness, had Ben Slater caught behind with a ball that nipped away late and dismissed Will Young with one that squared up the New Zealander and took the shoulder of the bat, looping to backward point.The Pakistan international took a breather after only six overs but there was scant respite for the home side, who were 17 for 3 when Joe Clarke edged to third slip off Kyle Abbott and 37 for 4 when left-armer Keith Barker – making his first appearance of the season – found some extra bounce from the Stuart Broad End and had Haseeb Hameed caught behind, a first dismissal in four innings for the Nottinghamshire captain.On a green-tinged pitch of somewhat mottled appearance, Hampshire’s decision to bowl first on winning the toss looked the right one.James Fuller got in on the act by uprooting Tom Moores’s leg stump with a big inswinger before Abbas returned to grab a third scalp as Jack Haynes slashed at a ball outside off stump and was caught at first slip by a tumbling Tom Prest, whose non-appearance after lunch suggested he had injured himself in the process.If 50 for 6 wasn’t bad enough, it should have been worse still for Nottinghamshire, yet the sharpness in the field that had characterised the morning session for Hampshire deserted them after lunch.The scoreboard will say that Harrison and James fashioned a recovery in adding 69 but their partnership should have ended on 31 when Michael Neser, fielding as sub in place of Prest at first slip, let one slip through his hands when Harrison was on 9. Barker, the unlucky bowler, suffered again in his next over when James Vince, at third slip, spilled another chance when James was on 23.James had another let-off on 32 when Fletcha Middleton put him down at second slip off Fuller in what was the easiest of the three chances.In the event, it took the introduction of Liam Dawson’s left-arm spin to part the seventh-wicket pair when Harrison was bowled by a ball that skidded through low.Another opportunity went begging after tea as Olly Stone was put down on 9 off Abbas, Vince again the culprit at third slip, the Hampshire captain copping a nasty blow around the base of his left thumb in the attempt. He was able to continue, but only with the aid of strapping and painkillers.After surviving his two scares, James dug in to reach his second half-century of the season off 135 balls with his fifth boundary, finding some dogged support from Stone, with whom he added another 59 before a slip catch finally stuck, Dawson at second just about getting his fingers under a nick offered by Stone as Abbas, with the second new ball, took his fourth, before the day closed with Dillon Pennington leg before to Abbott.Nick Gubbins is missing from the Hampshire line-up after becoming a father for the first time earlier this week.

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A confiança em mostrar serviço pelo Botafogo no Campeonato Estadual dita as palavras do goleiro João Fernando e do meia Caio Vitor. Contratados para fazerem parte da equipe alternativa comandada por Lúcio Flávio, os atletas traçaram suas perspectivas para a temporada.

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O elenco que defenderá o Botafogo no Carioca está em pré-temporada desde o dia 15 de dezembro.

O goleiro João Fernando, que foi contratado após uma passagem pelo Flamengo, destacou a tradição alvinegra de formar bons goleiros.

– Estar no Botafogo é um privilégio. Além da tradição, é um clube que possui histórico recente de potencializar excelentes goleiros, como Jefferson, Gatito e agora o Perri. Chego com a expectativa de beber dessa fonte e com a certeza de estar dentro de um elenco qualificado, que está dando duro na pré-temporada e vai chegar em grande forma para iniciar o Estadual – garantiu.

Após ter defendido o Volta Redonda no Estadual passado, Caio Vitor demonstrou sua expectativa por ver seu futebol evoluir no Alvinegro.

-Me sinto extremamente feliz com a oportunidade de vestir a camisa do Botafogo e participar do projeto. Fui muito bem recebido e sinto um grupo forte, em constante evolução e muito focado. A expectativa é a melhor possível para iniciar a temporada e dar alegrias ao torcedor. Espero que seja o início de uma grande jornada – afirmou.

Os botafoguenses estreiam no Carioca dia 15 de janeiro, contra o Audax. O elenco principal, comandado por Luis Castro, inicia sua pré-temporada dias antes, em 9 de janeiro.