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ESPNcricinfo understands that the Indian board has already sent ECB the NOCs

Annesha Ghosh03-May-2021The BCCI has granted four India Women players No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for their participation in the inaugural Hundred, the eight-team tournament which starts on July 21.ESPNcricinfo understands that the Indian board has already sent the ECB the NOCs and the official announcement regarding the four contracted players comprising the Indian contingent is likely to made by the teams soon.Related

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The Indian players with the Hundred contracts will extend their stay in the UK following the completion of India’s multi-format assignment against hosts England which begins with a one-off Test on Bristol on June 16 and concludes with the third and final T20I on July 15. A three-match ODI series is also slotted in between.Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Deepti Sharma made up the Indian contingent at the now-defunct Kia Super League (KSL), the ECB’s domestic T20 tournament that made way for the Women’s Hundred.Twenty of the 24 overseas signings for the women’s competition have already been made, with confirmation of Ellyse Perry’s involvement in March making her the 11th Australian player to sign on. The four teams with one vacant overseas spot each are Southern Brave, London Spirit, Manchester Originals and Northern Superchargers.During India’s home series against South Africa in March, India T20I vice-captain Mandhana, who represented the Western Storm in the 2018 and 2019 seasons of the KSL, had confirmed that the ECB and the BCCI had been in touch regarding the NOCs.The Hundred, which was postponed last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will kick off with the women’s match between the Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals in London before their respective men’s sides meet the following day.With no player draft for the women, teams are selected by their respective head coaches. Players with contracts for 2020 were given the option to roll them over to 2021 at the same salary band, or to negotiate with other teams. Teams can sign a maximum of three players with England central contracts, and have until June 2021 to finalise their squads.Some of the big overseas names in the tournament include Sophie Devine (Birmingham Phoenix), Deandra Dottin (London Spirit), Marizanne Kapp (Oval Invincibles), and Meg Lanning (Welsh Fire).

Ned Eckersley’s 82 and a composed 39 by Cameron Bancroft rule out any late drama

ECB Reporters' Network23-May-2021Derbyshire’s young pace bowler Ben Aitchison returned career-best figures before the LV=Insurance County Championship match against Durham at Derby ended in a draw.The 21-year-old Aitchison bowled superbly to take 6 for 28 from 16 overs but 82 from Ned Eckersley and a composed 39 by Australian Test opener Cameron Bancroft ruled out any late drama at the Incora County Ground.Bancroft batted for nearly three hours and Eckersley passed 7,000 first-class runs on another cold and blustery day as Durham were bowled out for 208.Matt Critchley captured his 100th first-class wicket but the game was always heading for a draw once Durham reached the 108 needed to avoid following-on.Aitchison’s spell briefly raised Derbyshire’s hopes of enforcing it but Bancroft’s discipline ensured Durham were spared any embarrassment.Related

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Derbyshire’s bowling in a truncated morning session matched Bancroft’s application to the extent that only 31 runs came from 14 overs.Aitchison’s line demanded respect and after Scott Borthwick survived an edge which did not quite carry to second slip off the fourth ball of the day, the Durham skipper fell victim to the seamer’s relentless accuracy. Borthwick was defeated by just enough movement to take the outside edge and Brooke Guest, keeping wicket in place of the concussed Harvey Hosein, plunged forward to take a good low catch.Three balls later, David Bedingham, who made a double hundred against Derbyshire last month, was walking back without scoring after a leading edge was well taken by Anuj Dal running in from point.Bancroft and Jack Burnham battled through to lunch but in the second over after the interval, Burnham chased a wide ball from Sam Conners and was caught behind with Durham still 51 away from the follow-on.That was comfortably saved before Bancroft was lbw pushing forward at Critchley and after Eckersley took four fours from an Alex Hughes over to reach 50, Stuart Poynter gloved a sweep and was caught at slip.Aitchison completed his first five-wicket haul when Eckersley played across the line and Mark Wood was caught at deep mid-wicket to give him the best figures for Derbyshire against Durham.

Surface for clash between England and India previously used for Gloucestershire T20 fixture

Valkerie Baynes15-Jun-2021Heather Knight, the England captain, has expressed her disappointment at being given a used pitch to host India in the first women’s Test between the sides for seven years.Knight revealed on the eve of the match at Bristol’s County Ground that the pitch had been used for Gloucestershire’s T20 Blast fixture against Sussex last Friday and described the situation as “not ideal”.”We’d much prefer to be on a fresh one but it is what it is,” Knight said. “We found out last week, which obviously we tried to get changed, but it was a little bit too late for that to happen.”It’s unfortunate, it’s not ideal, we’d much rather be on a fresh one, but we don’t know how it’s going to play yet. It still could play very well. Generally, at Bristol you look at the deck, sometimes it looks not great but actually plays brilliantly. So yeah, look, it’s not ideal but it is what it is and we’re obviously going to have to perform as best we can on the wicket we’re given.”The provision of a used pitch at Taunton for the 2019 Women’s Ashes Test sparked controversy. On that occasion the same surface had been used during the men’s World Cup nearly six weeks prior. As it turned out, the pitch offered little assistance to anyone and the match ended in a draw allowing Australia to retain the Ashes.Related

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“We don’t know how it’s going to play necessarily,” Knight said. “Obviously slightly different with it being used but we’re confident we’ve got the squad and the XI that we’re going to pick to win this Test match.”At Taunton there was a lot of talk about the pitch and it didn’t actually do too much so I guess we’re going to have to wait and see and see how it plays.”It’s not something that we can change now. There’s no point looking too much into how it will play, we’ll obviously try to adapt as much as we can to the situation and how the wicket plays. We’ve got to go out there now and get our heads round playing on the pitch we’ve been given.”An ECB spokesperson said that the surfaces for all of England white-ball fixtures with India would be freshly prepared – with the exception of the second T20I at Hove, which would use a hybrid pitch.”We are all disappointed that the wicket for the LV= Insurance Test match against India will have had 37 overs played on it,” the spokesperson said. “We know that England Women deserve a fresh wicket and we are sorry that we were unable to provide that in this instance.”With the Test only being added to the calendar in mid-April, coupled with the lack of available first class grounds, we knew a fresh TV pitch was going to be a challenge. We accept that this issue shouldn’t have arisen and we will make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.”For her part, Mithali Raj, the India skipper, was prepared to play whatever conditions prevailed. “We are here to play a match,” she said. “Whatever strip we get, we will try and get a result out of it. That’s what our thought process is. Whether it’s a used wicket or a fresh wicket, as players and captain, I definitely want my team to get a result and for that it’s important we put down our strategies accordingly.”Unlike the Ashes, where the Test is the middle game in a multi-format series, this match kicks off India’s tour which also includes three ODIs and two T20Is. Each white-ball game is worth two points for a win while four points are up for grabs for victory in the Test with two each for a draw and one each for no result.Women’s Tests are a rarity and, as much as the players say they enjoy them, they are almost universal in stating their understanding that the shorter formats are the way forward for growing the game.England Women had to contend with a used pitch at Taunton during the 2019 Ashes•Getty Images

Even so, there is a sense of pressure to make each Test entertaining, something that Knight feels differs from the expectation on her male counterparts.”You obviously want to be entertaining and want to put on a show and show off the best of your skills and the best of women’s cricket,” she said. “But our job first and foremost is to try and win and be successful. That’s at the forefront of our mind, and if we can do both at the same time, even better.”I think often in women’s cricket, when we’re playing Test matches, we’re judged slightly to a different standard than the men’s game is. I think there’s games that you look at in isolation, a Test matches in the men’s game, that if it was a women’s game it would get looked at differently and judged on a different pedestal and saying it was attritional cricket or whatever, which I hope doesn’t happen this week.”As a group of players we want to be successful, we want to win, and obviously if we can entertain whilst that goes on, that’s even better. We certainly don’t want to be known as a boring side and have a draw but our first port of call is to win games of cricket and that’s what we’ll be looking to do this week.”Knight will be playing 100th match as England captain and her eighth Test match, with a proud record in the format including a highest score of 157 in the 2013 Ashes draw at Wormsley, her second Test appearance. More recently she scored 62 and 79 not out against Australia in 2017, which also ended in a draw.”I’m desperate to be successful in Test match cricket because it doesn’t come around very often,” Knight said. “I’ve had a little bit of success and will be desperate to have more.”For me personally, it’d be about my mental approach, being able to deal with the things that red-ball cricket throws at you, being able to concentrate for longer and being really tight, and also taking those opportunities to score that you get given.”

India chewed up 181 dot balls while creeping to 201 for 8 in Bristol

Annesha Ghosh27-Jun-20211:52

Mithali Raj: I need to groom players when I’m around

Mithali Raj has admitted that India’s long-standing inability to minimise their dot-ball percentage and rotate strike more proactively will need to be redressed if they are to save the ongoing three-match ODI series against England.Chewing up 181 dot balls and posting a paltry 201 for 8, India suffered an eight-wicket loss in the first ODI on Sunday in Bristol as England overhauled the target with more than 15 overs to spare. After the openers, including debutant Shafali Verma, fell cheaply, India laboured to just 27 for 2 in the powerplay, their lowest tally in that phase since the second ODI against West Indies in November 2019.Raj top-scored with a 108-ball 72 but aside from Verma, who made a 14-ball 15, no India batter could score at a 90-plus strike rate. England’s four-pronged seam attack did their part to keep a hold on the opposition’s scoring rate.Related

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“Clearly, yes, we need to look into that aspect and work on rotating the strike,” Raj, the India Test and ODI captain, said afterwards. “Having said that, we require at least another top-order batter, in the top five, to get us the runs.”We also need to understand that the England bowlers are very experienced, the seamers especially, [more so] than the seamers we have. They are bowling in their conditions; they know how to bowl in their conditions, and they really bowled well today.”The next-best score from the India batters came from No. 3 Punam Raut, whose 61-ball 32 did little to inject urgency in the innings. On 18 occasions since the 2017 World Cup, Raj has batted below her traditional No. 3 spot – at Nos. 4 or 5 at all times – with Raut coming in at first-drop in 13 of those instances. In each of the last 14 ODIs, Raut batted at No. 3 and Raj slotted in below her with the scoring rate often found wanting in pace.Asked if promoting herself to one-down could allow her to bat more freely, and India to make better use of their batting personnel, Raj said her decision to bat outside of the top order was anchored in longer-term scenarios.”I think I’ve got most of my runs in the No. 3 slot, but it is also important to have batters in the side,” she said. “We can’t really fill [the line-up] with allrounders who sort of pitch in bowling or in batting. We need to have batters in the side who’ll score runs. If I go at No. 4, I’m also giving an opportunity for the team because I know for a fact that I’m not going to play forever. I also need to groom players in a sense when I am around, and guide them in the middle.”Mithali Raj scored her 56th ODI fifty but struggled for rhythm•Getty Images

Since the 2017 ODI World, India’s average first-innings total setting a target has been 213, the fifth-best tally as per matches played among the top nine ODI teams on the ICC rankings. With the next edition of the world tournament scheduled for March-April 2022 in New Zealand, India have their work cut out if they are to come close to catching up with Australia’s average first-innings score of 289 or defending champions England’s 259.”Over the years, I’ve seen that we, the Indian team, are far more comfortable chasing a target because we know how to up our run rate,” Raj said. “But when it comes to posting a target, I guess there’s something we need to work on when and how we get to 250 because we can’t be going bang, bang and then lose wickets in the top order and you have the lower order to score those runs, like how we did today. That will take us to 200 or 210, but that’s not something we’d want.”So, yes, as a batting unit, along with the batting coach, we need to sit down to find a way where, if we bat first, how we could try to put a total of 250 on the board and where we need to put on the acceleration and how we get our innings to do that.Raj also rued the dearth of finishers in the domestic pool for India to scout appropriate talent from.Shafali Verma holed out to mid-on off Katherine Brunt on ODI debut•PA Images/Getty

“Unfortunately, in our domestic competitions, most of the batters who get an opportunity are top-order [players] and they go on to score heavily,” said Raj, who leads heavyweights Railways on the domestic circuit. “Then they get picked for the Indian team and we all have batters who are top-orders in their respective sides.”So, when it comes to finishers or lower-middle order or No. 6 or 7, we clearly don’t have players for that particular slot who have scored runs on the domestic circuit, so they walk into the team in that slot we’ve picked.”Unfortunately, we don’t have anybody in that role right now but, yes, we’ll have to groom somebody who shows potential in that area. We are looking into that area. We have a few players in mind and groom somebody.”Among the changes for the second ODI, Raj said a rejig of the bowling attack as well as the batting order was imminent. Given Jhulan Goswami was the only quick to pick up a wicket and bowling allrounder Pooja Vastrakar contributed a 17-ball 15 at No. 7 – though she remained wicketless in her 4 overs for 23 – Shikha Pandey’s place could come under the scanner.”Clearly, our seam bowling [combination needs changing],” she said. “That puts a lot of pressure if you don’t get those wickets. When the spinners come in, a lot of pressure is on them to get wickets and even control runs. It’s not that they’ve done it before, but then [again], they can’t do it time and again. Somewhere, I think, we also need to groom our fast-bowling department.”Other than Jhulan Goswami, the others who are there in the team, when they get an opportunity, they should be able to step up because these conditions do assist seamers, so they should be able to use these conditions to bowl well. So that’s one thing we really need to work on. Of course, it will be a constant answer that the batting line-up will have to fire at some point. So that’s what we’ll be looking into going into the second game.”We’ll definitely look into the composition of the team and maybe a little more shuffle in our batting order to see that we can improve in things we have not really done well in this game today.”

Shrubsole’s side make it two from two after dominant bowling display limits hosts to 110

Alan Gardner27-Jul-2021Southern Brave 112 for 2 (Mandhana 61*) beat Welsh Fire 110 for 7 (Matthews 33) by eight wicketsSouthern Brave produced a clinical all-round display to pick up a second consecutive victory of the tournament, their pursuit of Welsh Fire’s modest target overseen by an unbeaten 61 from India opener Smriti Mandhana.Cardiff’s opener in the Hundred came with the threat of rain but the sun was shining by the time Anya Shrubsole’s batters had completed the job with 16 balls to spare. Shrubsole won the toss and inserted the home side under glowering skies and then led the way in harness with 20-year-old Lauren Bell, who once again impressed in claiming the wickets of Fire’s two international-class batters, Hayley Matthews and Sarah Taylor.Fire struggled to get going, despite Matthews peeling off six boundaries – including an eye-catching uppercut over mid-off – in making 33 from 20, and were going at less than a run a ball for most of the innings. Georgia Redmayne attempted to dig in and see the innings through but managed just one four during her 15 from 20 before she became the second run-out of an impressive Brave display in the field.Georgia Hennessy was the only other batter to reach double-figures, cuffing and scrapping 23 from 24 as a shower swept through, but Brave walked off the happier at halfway. They were soon ahead of the asking rate, as Fire struggled for either wickets or the required economy, Mandhana taking advantage of being dropped on 26 to complete the formalities in company of Stafanie Taylor.Brave’s game face
Having won from adversity in their opener away to Trent Rockets, Brave pulled out another two points on the road thanks to a much more dominant display. Where they had been forced to drag themselves up from the depths of 57 for 5 at Trent Bridge, here they followed up another suffocating display with the ball – they have twice conceded just 110 from 100 – by flexing some of the top-order muscle that makes them one of the favourites for this competition.Although Danni Wyatt fell relatively cheaply, thanks to some trademark excellence from Sarah Taylor in taking a glove down the leg side, and Sophia Dunkley miscued a full toss, Mandhana took up the cudgels to drive Brave’s chase with a 35-ball fifty. Mandhana ticked up through the gears and eventually finished the match with her third six. Charlotte Edwards, the coach, clearly has her side well drilled and with their first home match coming up later this week, they will be looking to get on a roll.Clear as a Bell
Fire had made a solid-if-unspectacular start to their innings, 50 for 2 after 45 balls and with Matthews beginning to purr after thrashing the legspin of Amanda-Jade Wellington for a pair of imperious, back-to-back boundaries – one off the back foot, one off the front. With the slow bowlers looking vulnerable, Shrubsole went back to her tall, willowy spearhead, Bell.Her initial spell had seen more than a couple of inswingers disappear down leg, but after starting with a slower delivery to the set Matthews, which was pushed for a single, Bell went back to what she later described as her “best ball”. Full and curling in, Matthews flashed a drive but only succeeded in sending a thick edge to backward point. Better was to come, as Bell repeated the mantra at the top of her mark and then defeated the new batter, Sarah Taylor, with a booming indipper. Bell’s best ball was good enough to deal with two of the very best.Spin mystery
Cardiff does not have a reputation for aiding spin, not least because of the short, straight boundaries that can be a target in limited-overs cricket – but it did not seem as if the memo had made it through to either side before this game. Brave brought in Charlotte Taylor and her non-turning offbreaks, but she ended up being her side’s most expensive bowler, going for 19 from 10 – although she did also buy the wicket of Sophie Luff, who was stumped after taking six runs off the previous two deliveries.As the second innings began, however, Fire said “hold my beer”. Bryony Smith’s offbreaks had gone relatively well when she opened the bowling in their opener at Headingley, but she was immediately given the charge by Wyatt, who boshed a brace of fours through the covers in the first five. Smith was then brought back inside the Powerplay from the River End and saw Mandhana, who up to that point had 4 from 5, advance out to dump her into the stands; 10 metres more and it would have been in the Taff.Mandhana doubtless knows plenty about playing spin bowling and later in the chase she targeted Fire’s leggie, Nicole Harvey. Mandhana drove her second ball from Harvey down the ground, and although she should have been caught in the same set – Alex Griffiths missing a straightforward chance at deep midwicket – another straight six and swept four, meant the opener took 18 runs from eight Harvey deliveries, as Brave coasted towards their target.Curiously, for the second match running, left-arm seamer Katie George, who has been capped by England but spent her winter recovering from a back stress fracture, did not bowl while batting down at No. 9. Whatever the case there, Fire need to work out a more effective strategy for playing on their home patch.

Tom Latham will lead New Zealand

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Dec-2021India and New Zealand have been hit by injuries minutes before the second Test in Mumbai, with all of Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja and Ishant Sharma and Kane Williamson ruled out.

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Rahane is out due to a minor left hamstring strain he picked up while fielding on the final day of the Kanpur Test. Jadeja’s is a right forearm injury that required scans which revealed swelling. “He has been advised rest,” stated a BCCI release.Ishant, meanwhile, dislocated his left little finger on the final day in Kanpur, leaving the door open for Mohammed Siraj’s return. Siraj had himself sustained a finger injury during the T20I series, but has now been deemed fit.For Williamson, it’s the recurrence of an old left-elbow problem that has troubled him for much of the year. Coach Gary Stead confirmed the injury had flared up during the first Test and with it failing to improve in the days following the match, the call was made to rule him out. In his absence. Tom Latham will lead the side.”It’s been a really tough time for Kane having to deal with such a persistent injury,” Stead said. “While we’ve been able to manage the injury through the year and the T20 World Cup, the shift to Test cricket and the increased batting loading has re-aggravated his elbow.”Ultimately the injury is still not right and while he got through the Kanpur Test, it was clear playing in the second Test wasn’t an option.”Meanwhile, the absence of Rahane and Jadeja could leave India’s team management contemplate a sixth batting option. If they go down this route, it could mean a debut for KS Bharat or Suryakumar Yadav at his home ground. Wriddhiman Saha was ruled fit by Virat Kohli a day before the match.