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Young England off-spinner leads side boasting plenty of international experience

Valkerie Baynes10-Aug-2022Charlie Dean will replace injured England captain Heather Knight as skipper of London Spirit for the Women’s Hundred.Dean, the 21-year-old off-spinner, takes over from the vastly experienced Knight, who missed England’s entire Commonwealth Games campaign – they lost the bronze-medal play-off to New Zealand – with a hip injury that has left her needing to use crutches and is expected to keep her on the sidelines for a period of months.”It’s a great opportunity for me, I’m really looking forward to leading this team,” Dean said. “Obviously, we are gutted that Heather can’t join us this year, but we have an exciting squad filled with experience and young talent and we can’t wait to get started on Friday.”Related

• Charlie Dean stands tall with bat and ball as Vipers claim T20 title

• Knight's hip injury rules her out of CWG and the Hundred

• Aussies at the Women's Hundred: Gold-medal winners galore and domestic stars

• Mandhana, Rodrigues, Deepti – the Indians to watch in the Hundred

A relative newcomer to the England set-up, Dean earned her only T20I cap for England during the washed-out second match in that leg of the Ashes series in January. She didn’t take the field as play was abandoned in the fifth over with England 25 without loss. Dean was not part of England’s squad for the Commonwealth Games, which was played as a T20 competition.She has played 16 ODIs, making her debut against New Zealand last September, most recently in the series with South Africa, which she finished as leading wicket-taker.Dean was key to Southern Vipers’ Charlotte Edwards Cup triumph in June, taking two wickets and sharing a match-winning partnership with Ella McCaughan to help defeat Central Sparks by six wickets in the final. She was also the competition’s second-highest wicket-taker.In 2021, she took six wickets for London Spirit, who finished their inaugural campaign in fourth place on the eight-team table, at an average of 28.00 and an economy rate of 7.09. During that time, she impressed Knight and made her international debut a short time later.Dean will lead an impressive international contingent at London Spirit, including two Australian Commonwealth Games gold medallists in Beth Mooney – the Games’ leading run-scorer – and fast bowler Megan Schutt, as well as talented New Zealand allrounder Amelia Kerr.London Spirit open their 2022 season against Southern Brave, last year’s runners up, in Southampton on Friday.

Afghanistan wore a dazed look playing less than 24 hours after the heartbreak against Pakistan

Sidharth Monga08-Sep-2022Even Virat Kohli was shocked it came in this format. One-thousand-twenty days and 83 international innings since he last scored a hundred, Kohli got his elusive No. 71 in a T20 international against Afghanistan in India’s final match of the Asia Cup. Given the opportunity to open the innings in the absence of the resting captain, Rohit Sharma, Kohli played a vintage innings, going from 10 off 10 to 50 off 32 and then scoring 63 off the last 21 balls he played. Bhuvneshwar Kumar then returned figures of 4-1-4-5 with each-way swing to leave Afghanistan reeling.Playing less than 24 hours after the heartbreak against Pakistan, Afghanistan wore a dazed look. They dropped three relatively easy catches, and looked like they had no response when Kohli went on the offensive. And Bhuvneshwar didn’t need to set batters up. Outswingers took edges, inswingers smashed the stumps, and slower balls were chipped to fielders.New opening pair takes time and then goes bang

The match started with the energy of a dead rubber. India made three changes, and it would have been tough for Afghanistan to get up and dust themselves in a match they didn’t have anything to play for. The first two overs went quietly by, but in the third KL Rahul began to push India’s intent. Kohli took apart Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the sixth, coming down the wicket and reaching the pitch of the ball to negate his mystery, and also employing the rare sweep. Soon he had overtaken Rahul.In the eighth over came a pivotal moment of the match: Kohli mis-hit a pull of Mohammad Nabi, but Ibrahim Zadran misjudged the space behind him, ending up going one-handed and tapping the ball over the boundary.Rahul falls but Kohli keeps accelerating
Rahul tried to push the scoring rate up, followed in Kohli’s steps with a fifty and just when he was looking dangerous and poised for his typical steep acceleration, he mistimed a pull down the ground for a catch to long-on. Suryakumar Yadav began with a six first ball but played on the second ball. Rishabh Pant then struggled to get going.Bhuvneshwar Kumar celebrates Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s wicket•AFP/Getty Images

At the other end, Kohli was now into the death overs, still fresh and his eye in. This is where he gets dangerous in T20 cricket. This is a phase he has been trying to get into in T20 cricket for a while, but he has not been able to.Kohli then unleashed punishment on Afghanistan. He gave Rashid Khan the charge and hit a six, which is not easy to do. Then the left-arm quicks Fareed Ahmad and Fazalhaq Farooqi were taken apart. The hundred came with a flat six via a pull to a short-of-a-length delivery. He then kissed his wedding ring to acknowledge the support and love of the person who showed him perspective during this century drought, his wife Anushka.In the final over, it looked like Kohli was just showing off. There was a charge and a flick for a six, a no-look pull for a six, and then the extra-cover drive along the ground for four.Bhuvneshwar runs through the batting

Things were only about to go worse for Afghanistan. Bhuvneshwar’s fourth ball was the perfect delivery: pitching on leg stump, swinging against the angle, hitting Hazratullah Zazai in front of leg stumps and would have gone on to hit leg stump. Two balls later, he swung the ball the other way and went through the gate Rahmanullah Gurbaz presented.In his second over, Bhuvneshwar produced the outswinger-inswinger trick again. Karim Janat edged to slip, and Najibullah Zadran was late on an inswinger, trapped right in front.Bowling four on the trot, Bhuvneshwar had Azmatullah Omarzai chip a slower ball straight to short cover. The five-for reduced Afghanistan to 21 for 6.Ibrahim then scored a fifty but that was only delaying the inevitable.

In his book, Steven Smith revealed he was mystified by Virat Kohli’s accusations of DRS misuse during the Bengaluru Test earlier this year

Daniel Brettig26-Oct-20171:20

Smith on the India series’ DRS controversy

Steven Smith believes his opposite number Virat Kohli invented claims of systemic DRS abuse by the touring team as a form of gamesmanship during a this year’s Border-Gavaskar Test series, in which Australia’s captain also described the BCCI’s decision to release select stump microphone audio of verbal exchanges as “pretty ordinary”.In shedding light on the hot-tempered encounter between India and Australia earlier this year, where the unfancied visitors came exceptionally close to ending the hosts’ long unbeaten run on home territory, Smith revealed how he is to this day mystified by Kohli’s accusations, which were dropped and never again mentioned from the moment the series was decided. Speaking exclusively to ESPNcricinfo – the full interview will run next week – Smith called the claims “rubbish”.Kohli’s accusations followed a moment amid the cauldron of Australia’s fourth-innings chase of a small target on a difficult pitch in the second Test in Bangalore, when victory would have granted Smith’s team an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series following their surprise win in the opener in Pune. When given out lbw to a shooter, Smith ran the decision past his batting partner Peter Handscomb, who instinctively motioned towards the team viewing area for advice – a move outlawed under DRS protocols. Smith, too, turned around, before being sent on his way by the umpire Nigel Llong.”It wasn’t until afterwards that I realised what a talking point it had become, fuelled by Kohli’s post-match claims that we’d called on off-field assistance twice earlier in the match to help our on-field deliberations,” Smith wrote in his book, . “As far as I was concerned, we’d never tried to consult with the dressing room beforehand and although he said he’d brought those previous occasions to the notice of the umpires, I can say categorically that we were never spoken to by either those umpires or match referee Chris Broad about any such breaches in protocol.”Virat has always been a player who’s thrived in the most intense of environments, and like me he loves a battle and I can only think it was his way of raising the temperature in the series in an attempt to get the best out of himself. The idea of getting messages from the sidelines for that purpose was not a tactic we as a team ever spoke about and … I can’t work out what he was referring to in his remarks.”There was never anything further on the matter from the ICC and Virat never detailed the incidents he was referring to. And during the brief interactions we had – including at the captain’s briefing for the IPL as that tournament followed the series – he was friendly and it was as if any ill-feeling he may have had over the incident had disappeared. It was and still is all a big mystery to me.”Getty Images

Smith also remains annoyed by how the BCCI chose to highlight an exchange between Ravindra Jadeja and Matthew Wade during the decisive Dharamsala Test match, during a series in which there were many instances of heated discussion among opponents. Smith additionally pointed out that ICC regulations prohibit broadcasters from airing audio captured on stump microphones when the ball is dead.”It was an example of the banter that took place on the field, but it gave a very one-sided view of what was happening,” Smith wrote. “There would have been plenty of examples that could have been released of Indian players engaging with me and my team, such as when they were constantly in the ears of Matt Renshaw when he resumed his first innings in Pune having had to retire ill because of diarrhoea. Ian Gould asked Matthew and Ravindra to cut it out in Dharamsala and that was where it ended. So to rake it up in the way that it was benefited no-one.”What was overlooked in the minor controversy that followed was that, under ICC guidelines, the broadcaster shouldn’t have been broadcasting audio from the stump microphones, except for instances when the ball was in play, and it certainly wasn’t when Matthew and Ravindra were having their discussions. But whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation, it was a timely reminder to players of both sides that the old adage of what happens on the field, stays on the field, no longer applies.”Looking more broadly at the on-field behaviour of the Australian side, Smith said he had no qualms about his team seeking a verbal edge over opponents when matches get tight. He also took issue with the perception that his team was “nice as pie” on the field when dominating a match and only went into verbal aggressor mode when things were not going their way.”I know there is a view that has us as the ugly Aussies and that although, when we are on top, we are all nice as pie on the field, when the opposition gets success against us then we are quick to get into them verbally, but I don’t see it like that,” he wrote. “It’s simply that, as a group of players, we don’t like backing down in a contest and the greater the intensity of the action on the field the more we all back each other up.”If that’s through the odd word with our opponents so be it. The umpires are there to step in if anything is out of order and I don’t think there was much, if anything, that fitted the bill through the series.”

Hogan, Neser make early inroads to keep momentum going Glamorgan’s way

ESPNcricinfo staff13-May-2022Durham 311 and 39 for 2 (Lees 12*, Potts 2*) trail Glamorgan 365 (Root 88, Neser 62, Carlson 53, Northeast 51, Potts 4-61, Raine 4-61) by 15 runsBilly Root orchestrated a Glamorgan fightback on day two of their LV= Insurance County Championship Division Two match against Durham at the Riverside.Root dragged his team out of trouble at 163 for 7 with a fine innings of 88 to defy the Durham bowlers. Sam Northeast, Kiran Carlson and Michael Neser also scored half-centuries, but it was the visitors’ lower order that frustrated the hosts, adding 202 runs for the final three wickets.Matthew Potts and Ben Raine took four wickets apiece, but Durham’s bowling in the afternoon outside of the duo was below-par, allowing the Welsh outfit to accumulate a healthy lead of 54. Michael Hogan and Neser nipped out Sean Dickson and Keegan Petersen to leave the hosts in trouble in their second innings still 15 runs behind.Resuming on 31 for 2, Glamorgan looked to make headway into Durham’s first-innings total, but were pegged back from the seventh ball of the day as Scott Borthwick took a diving catch at second slip to dismiss David Lloyd after Chris Rushworth found his outside edge. Marnus Labuschagne took 19 deliveries to get off the mark, and did not seem comfortable at the crease. His stay lasted a further three balls before he played across the line and was pinned lbw by Raine.Northeast provided the early resistance and marched towards his fifty at a good rate, striking Rushworth for three-straight boundaries. The 32-year-old notched his fourth half-century of the campaign, but failed to kick on for his first ton of 2022, edging behind to Ned Eckersley for 51 as Rushworth had his revenge. Carlson followed the mantra of Northeast to put the pressure back on the Durham bowlers. Ben Stokes’ first three overs consequently went for 29, with Carlson racing towards his half-century from 42 balls.The lunch break came at the right time for the hosts, and Potts returned with a spring in his step to bowl Carlson with the first ball after the interval. The Durham seamer claimed his fourth of the innings as Cooke was caught down the leg-side, leaving Glamorgan reeling at 163 for 7.However, Root and Neser stabilised the Glamorgan ranks, and the Australia international led the way with an aggressive approach. Neser capitalised on loose bowling from the home side to score a brisk fifty, his first in the County Championship, reaching the mark with a firm strike down the ground against Borthwick.The stand between Neser and Root surpassed 100 before Raine removed Neser for 62 to give the home side hope of earning a slender lead. Root ensured that Glamorgan secured a third batting point and then advanced beyond Durham’s first-innings total.He and Timm van der Gugten, with runner Labuschagne due to his ailing hamstring, frustrated Stokes, Carse and company in a defiant partnership of 83 for the ninth wicket. Root was on the precipice of a deserved hundred, but gave away his wicket for 88 with a loose drive off Raine, who then claimed his fourth scalp to end the Glamorgan innings.Hogan and Neser made early inroads to remove Dickson and Petersen, handing Lloyd and his team momentum to take into day three.

A shortened third day at Wantage Road has still left the promotion battle between Northants and Nottinghamshire on a knife edge

Paul Edwards at Wantage Road21-Sep-2017Although there was only 25.3 overs’ play at Wantage Road on the third day of this game the cricket never wanted for intensity or purpose. Needing a further 281 runs to beat Northamptonshire and thereby settle the promotion issues in Division Two, Nottinghamshire had reduced that requirement to 207 when the umpires brought the players off for bad light just before lunch. Rain set in during the afternoon.Yet in making their modest progress the visitors had lost only their nightwatchman, Luke Wood, who for the second time in the match had fulfilled his primary duty on the evening of one day and then completed useful innings of 44 on the morning of the next. In addition Wood has taken four wickets in each innings, thus making this contest something of a numerophile’s delight in addition to its weightier fascinations.Wood is developing into a substantial cricketer. His left-arm swing bowling on the first morning was impressive and he is far more than a No9 batsman capable of facing the artillery in the last few overs of a day. And Nottinghamshire will need their top order to discharge their responsibilities as competently as Wood has done if they are going to face down a Northants attack strengthened by the availability of Richard Gleeson, who has recovered from the back spasm which prevented him bowling on the first two days.However, if Northants bowl as they did for the first 45 minutes of this morning’s cricket, Nottinghamshire’s batsmen should enjoy themselves. Rory Kleinveldt’s radar was awry in this period and runs came easily, 18 of them in the first three overs of play. On the other hand, if the Northants’ attack is as penetrative as it was in the next hour we are in for a splendid scrap. Some taste of the battle that might lie ahead was offered by Gleeson and Ben Sanderson, both of whom beat the groping bat regularly yet had only the wicket of Wood to show for their efforts. That fell when the nightwatchman attempted to pull Gleeson but only hoisted a skier which Alex Wakely ran back from mid-off to catch. The same fielder in the same position had dropped a low chance off the bowling off Kleinveldt when Wood had made 20.While Wood was scoring 31 runs on the third morning, Jake Libby set about anchoring the innings in a manner befitting someone who will bat on all four days of this match. Libby took his score from 6 to 30 in 100 minutes’ stout resistance and his defensive technique was admirable. Like Cheteshwar Pujara, he was tested to the uttermost by Gleeson, one or two of whose deliveries from the Pavilion End really did seem like fast leg-breaks, the sort that Len Hutton, on his best form, might have nicked. Sometimes, playing and missing is the best you can do, and if that is true for Pujara, it will probably satisfy the other Nottinghamshire batsmen as well. They might use Wood’s obstinacy as an example of what will be required.”It’s always nice to get out there and have a bat,” said the nightwatchman. “I pride myself on my batting so to get out there as a nightwatchman and do my job then get some runs in the mornings has been nice. We got a bit of momentum going today and they got a little bit more deflated than they had been previously in the game. We felt we were getting on top and if the weather’s good on the last day that can only help us really. We would have liked to have been chasing fewer runs but we feel this total is gettable. We have the players who can chase this total down.”

Scotland opener Michael Jones made 87 on debut, but the rest of their batsmen crumbled to Boyd Rankin and co. in Dubai

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jan-2018
ScorecardAndy Balbirnie hits one over the infield on the off side•Associated Press

Half-centuries from Andy Balbirnie and Niall O’Brien, couple with a robust bowling performance led by Boyd Rankin’s three-for, helped Ireland consign Scotland to a six-wicket defeat and register their third victory in as many matches in the ongoing tri-nation series in the UAE.Set a target of 220, Ireland lost their captain William Porterfield to Safyaan Sharif off the second ball of the chase, but, a 103-run second-wicket stand between Paul Stirling and Balbirnie ensured the early wobble was negated. Stirling, however, fell for 38 in the 21st over before O’Brien hammered a 53-ball 55, including five fours and two sixes.Balbirnie, on the other hand, followed up his century in the last game with a brisk 67. While both Stirling and Balbirnie fell to Tom Sole, Sharif added a second wicket to his name in O’Brien with Ireland only 22 runs away. Ed Joyce (31 off 44) and Kevin O’Brien (13 off 8) hit seven fours between them to help Ireland overhaul the target with more than 15 overs to spare.Earlier, Ireland bowlers lent validation to their captain’s decision to bowl by stifling Scotland to 63 for 3 inside 20 overs. Barry McCarthy dealt the opposition the first jolt, sniping George Munsey for a duck in the third over. Rankin followed suit, taking the first of his three wickets in Matthew Cross, who holed out on 18. A run-out cost Richie Berrington his wicket, before debutant Michael Jones, the opener, dropped anchor to steady Scotland’s innings with a fifty stand with Calum Macleod (33 off 38). Jones motored on to score 87, clobbering nine fours in his 135-ball knock, and took his side past the 175-run mark.Rankin then found his second wicket in Jones, following which Scotland could only add another 43 runs off the remaining 6.3 overs. Wicketkeeper Craig Wallace and Tom Sole chipped in with 34 and 20 respectively, but Scotland were rolled over for 219 in their final over. Each of Ireland’s five bowlers were among the wickets.

James Vince also joined Gladiators, who in turn received Iftikhar Ahmed on trading Azam to United

Umar Farooq09-Dec-2021Shahid Afridi and James Vince have been traded by Multan Sultans to Quetta Gladiators in exchange for a Diamond and Silver pick in the upcoming PSL draft. In another deal, Gladiators traded wicketkeeper-batter Azam Khan to Islamabad United and have received Iftikhar Ahmed’s services instead.After moving to his fourth PSL franchise, Afridi said: “I am excited to join Quetta Gladiators, a side that has had a roller-coaster ride in the past few events despite winning the title in 2019. In my final PSL event, it will be my dream and wish to sign off with another PSL trophy after tasting success with Peshawar Zalmi in 2017. PSL is an event that encourages and inspires a player to give his very best. I will use the same motivation to help my team and put up performances that can help us achieve our event objectives.”For the upcoming edition, the PSL management has also rejigged categories for some players ahead of the draft, notably moving Mohammad Rizwan – who captained Sultans to the title last year – up from Silver, the third-most valuable category, to Platinum, the most valuable. United batter Asif Ali and Lahore Qalandars bowler Haris Rauf also take their places in the Platinum category. This year, the categories were decided by the PCB. In previous editions, the six franchises would classify players into categories.Leaving Iftikhar was a tricky decision for United as they were allowed to have up to two local players in each of the Platinum and Diamond categories. Since they now have Shadab Khan and Asif in platinum, they had to leave one of Hasan Ali, Faheem Ashraf and Iftikhar out. They added Azam in the Gold category instead.”It has been a difficult decision to move from Islamabad United, but looking ahead at my future in T20 cricket that is linked to the Pakistan team, I thought this was the best move,” Iftikhar said.”I am grateful to the Islamabad United management for their support and understanding, as they have continued to stand behind me in all my decisions. I am thrilled to be rejoining Shahid Afridi at Quetta Gladiators after 2017, when we last played together in HBL PSL. Quetta Gladiators include a number of my contemporaries with whom I have played lot of cricket.”The seventh PSL season will be beginning on January 27 next year, with a pre-tournament draft on December 12. The league, which begins about a month earlier than usual to make room for Australia’s upcoming tour of Pakistan in March-April, will be ending on February 27.Every franchise is allowed to retain up to eight players from their previous roster and pick another eight in the draft. Players who were picked up as replacements for the Abu Dhabi leg in PSL 6 have not been considered in the original roster. Each team is also allowed to pick two additional players in the supplementary round.Only two venues will be hosting the PSL: Karachi’s National Stadium will be staging the first 15 matches, while all other games – including the final – will be played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.The deadline for PSL trades closed on Thursday with only United, Gladiators and Sultans utilising the option to trade. Teams now must decide their retentions – maximum of eight – by 4pm Pakistan time on Friday.

England paceman sympathises with Kagiso Rabada after his on-field aggression leads to two-Test ban

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Mar-2018James Anderson says he recognises the difficulties that Kagiso Rabada is having in controlling his on-field aggression, in the wake of his shoulder-barge on Steven Smith during the Port Elizabeth Test that led to a two-Test ban.The ICC has announced that Rabada is appealing his ban, which was automatically triggered by his accumulation of eight ICC demerit points in the space of 24 months, for offences including an audible obscenity directed at Ben Stokes during last summer’s Lord’s Test, and “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact” with Sri Lanka’s Niroshan Dickwella during an ODI in Cape Town.But Anderson, whom Rabada recently replaced as the ICC’s No.1-ranked Test bowler, following his 11-wicket haul against Australia, has sympathy for his fellow paceman.”There’s definitely got to be a place for emotion,” Anderson said. “I’ve certainly been there and done it, the thing is you have to control it the best you can. Sometimes it is hard, especially in the heat of the moment in a big series, if you get an important wicket.”Anderson is himself no saint out in the middle. During the Ashes, he was singled out by Australia’s captain Steven Smith as “one of the biggest sledgers in the game”, and he was at it again today during England’s warm-up match in Hamilton, when the umpires had to step in after he offered a few choice words to Kyle Jamieson during his century.However, unlike Rabada, Anderson has not yet been sanctioned by the ICC for his on-field behaviour, and he believes that there is a line that players should not cross, even if it can be hard to spot in the heat of the action.”Of course there’s a line, bowlers do know what that line is but at times it’s such a strange feeling,” he said. “I’ve watched myself back and watched me take a wicket and seen how I’ve celebrated and think ‘what am I doing?’ It’s literally one of those things, the build-up of emotion where you are trying so hard to get a wicket and win a game and this emotion just comes out as a big release.”It can feel like an out-of-body experience at times. I’m not excusing behaving badly on the field, I’m just saying I can understand what does happen to bowlers when they show that emotion. You see it with fielders, they can sometimes celebrate over the top but we are aware there’s a line, but you just hope as you can keep the emotion the check to stay the right side of the line.”

CSA has added three players to their usual 18-member men’s contract list, bringing the total number of new deals to five for the 2017-18 season

Firdose Moonda04-Mar-2017CSA has added three players to their usual 18-member men’s contract list, bringing the total number of new deals to five for the 2017-18 season. Stephen Cook, Keshav Maharaj, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo and Tabraiz Shamsi were all awarded deals with Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw, who both signed Kolpak agreements with Hampshire the only two players from the 2016-17 period not on the list.In an important development, Quinton de Kock and Kagiso Rabada were awarded multi-year contracts, although CSA did not specify the duration of their deals. In the past two-year contracts were the longest awarded but CSA is seeking to give players greater certainty in the aftermath of the Kolpak-exodus which has seen seven recent internationals sign deals.

CSA central contracts

Men: Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Farhaan Behardien, Stephen Cook, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Imran Tahir, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn
Women: Dané van Niekerk, Ayabonga Khaka, Suné Luus, Marizanne Kapp, Mignon du Preez, Shabnim Ismail, Trisha Chetty, Chloe Tryon, Lizelle Lee, Matshipi Marcia Letsoalo, Laura Wolvaardt, Masabata Klaas, Andrie Steyn, Moseline Daniels

When Abbott and Rossouw’s exit was confirmed in January, CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat said his organisation was considering various ways of keeping players in the South African system and longer-term contracts were one option.There were also no details on the type of contract awarded to AB de Villiers, who has opted out of Test cricket for most of 2017, or that of Dale Steyn, who will be out of action until at least June, as he recovers from a shoulder injury. Both players were on two-year deals last year.The only other player nursing a injury on the list is Morne Morkel, who has not played for South Africa since June last year but has been included in the Test squad for the upcoming series in New Zealand and is expected to make a comeback.CSA also award 14 women’s contracts and have made one change to their previous list. Batsman Laura Wolvaardt, who is just 17 and became South Africa’s youngest international centurion (male or female) when she scored 105 against Ireland in August 2016, was the only new inclusion while Dinesha Devnarain was left out. Sune Luus and Ayabonga Khaka were promoted to the top tier.

Angelo Mathews is an unlikely starter for Sri Lanka as they seek to overcome a powerful South Africa side that has won seven of the last eight meetings between the sides

The Preview by Andrew Fidel Fernando02-Jun-2017

Match Facts

June 03, 2017
Start time 1030 local (0930 GMT)2:44

Fleming: SA have all bowling bases covered

Big Picture

Well, it’s too early in the tournament for South Africa to stutter. Let’s get that out of the way, for starters.This, instead, is the portion of a global tournament in which they ordinarily stomp around crushing weaker teams without mercy. It is almost indisputable that Sri Lanka are the weaker side, too. One glance at the ODI player rankings will bear that out. Where South Africa have four batsmen in the top ten, Sri Lanka’s highest ranked batsman is way down at No. 26, and that is Angelo Mathews, who is unlikely to be available for this clash. On the bowling front, Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir take up the top two spots, while Sri Lanka’s best, Suranga Lakmal, comes in at No. 24. Add the recent history between these teams – the 5-0 walloping South Africa had dealt out earlier in the year – and Sri Lanka’s prospects begin to appear exceedingly grim.It is hope that holds Sri Lanka together, at present. Hope that Lasith Malinga’s return to the ODI attack will inspire the other quicks to avoid being repeatedly launched out of The Oval. Hope that Lakshan Sandakan’s wristspin can prove effective enough in the middle overs to muzzle powerful opposition batsmen. Hope that the youthful exuberance of men like Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella can compensate for the lack of form and results. Hope that Thisara Perera will play like the all-round superstar he once promised to be, rather than the sporadic performer of the last three years.South Africa are fresh from a series loss, so they perhaps are not as buoyant as they could be. But in demolishing England at Lord’s in the final match of that series – a dead rubber – they have Rabada and Wayne Parnell going into the tournament with some confidence. South Africa will back themselves to bowl the opposition out. Most of their likely top five have made recent runs as well.

Form guide

Sri Lanka WLLLL (completed matches, most recent first)
South Africa WLLWL

In the spotlight

Imran Tahir missed two of the three matches against England with a hamstring concern, but has now recovered and is available. That is not good news for Sri Lanka. In nine matches against them, Tahir has claimed 20 wickets at 17.60 – his best average against any team playing in the Champions Trophy. In the bilateral series earlier in the year, he repeatedly dominated the middle overs, and sunk Sri Lanka’s innings even when they achieved good starts.Having been out of Sri Lanka’s sides a year ago, Upul Tharanga finds himself constantly laden with responsibility in 2017. He is gearing up to be acting captain again, with Mathews having sustained a calf injury. As the only player with more than five ODI centuries to his name in the team, Tharanga will likely have to hold Sri Lanka together with the bat, while the younger men attack around him, if his team is to make something out of this tournament.

Team news

South Africa captain AB de Villiers hinted that the team would try to make room for Morne Morkel in the XI, but the transformation policy complicates that selection slightly. Elsewhere David Miller has sufficiently recovered from a niggle and is likely to be in the XI.South Africa (possible): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 AB de Villiers (capt), 5 JP Duminy, 6 David Miller, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Wayne Parnell/Morne Morkel, 9 Andile Phehlukwayo, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Imran TahirMathew’s unavailability has not been confirmed yet. He is set to undergo a fitness to make a definitive ruling on whether he can play. It seems almost certain, however, that he will not be bowling even if he does make the XI. If Mathews can’t play, Kusal Perera may come in lower down the order, with Sri Lanka committed to sticking with Tharanga and Niroshan Dickwella at the top of the innings. There is not much to choose between Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Kulasekara for the position of second specialist quick, but there is also the chance they will both play, meaning Sri Lanka go into the match with one fewer batsman.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 2 Upul Tharanga (capt), 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Asela Gunaratne, 6 Chamara Kapugedara, 7 Kusal Perera, 8 Thisara Perera, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Lakshan Sandakan, 11 Lasith Malinga

Pitch and conditions

The Oval surface is not expected to be quite as batting-friendly as it was for the tournament opener between England and Bangladesh, but it’s unlikely to suddenly become a bowlers’ fantasy either. The weather is forecast to be cloudy but dry in London – the temperature hovering around the 20-degree mark.

Stats and trivia

• South Africa have won eight of the last nine ODIs between these teams.
• Nuwan Kulasekara is one scalp short of completing 200 ODI wickets and becoming the fifth Sri Lanka bowler to the milestone
• AB de Villiers, who has now played exactly 100 ODIs as captain, averages a monumental 66.33 when leading the team, with a strike rate of 110
• When these teams last met in the Champions Trophy, in 2009 at Centurion, Sri Lanka won by 55 runs

Quotes

“I would love to get my hands on it. It feels good in my hands. I would love to take that home one day.”
“From the outside it will look like South Africa have an advantage going into this match, because they beat us recently. But there’s also something to be said about going in as underdogs. We know what we have to do to beat them.”