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The two openers put on 365, the biggest partnership for the first wicket in ODI history

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy05-May-20191:35

All the records Campbell and Hope broke

185 (O’Brien 68, Nurse 4-51, Gabriel 3-44) by 196 runsBetween those two moments, separated by two days, Ireland bowled 62.1 overs, conceded 463 runs, and failed to take a single wicket.The bulk of those 463 runs – 365 of them – came on Sunday, as John Campbell and Shai Hope put on the biggest opening partnership in ODI history. They came within seven runs of the biggest ODI partnership for any wicket – a record held by another West Indies pair, Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels. They came within 17 balls of becoming the first opening pair to bat through the entire first innings of an ODI. They did, however, become the second pair of openers – after Brendon McCullum and James Marshall – to both score 150 in an ODI innings.It left Ireland an improbable 382 to chase, and they didn’t get remotely close. Kemar Roach and Sheldon Cottrell reduced them to 21 for 3, and there was no recovering from there, even if there were a couple of bright partnerships involving Kevin O’Brien, who made 68, first with Andy Balbirnie and then with Gary Wilson. Playing his 100th ODI, Balbirnie had to retire hurt on 28, when a nasty bouncer from Shannon Gabriel hit him on the helmet; he returned later but only added one run to his score.West Indies’ bowlers presented a much bigger wicket threat than Ireland’s had, Gabriel’s raw pace offering the starkest point of difference; he pinged O’Brien’s helmet too, apart from bagging three wickets. There were also four for the offspinner Ashley Nurse, including one off a dipping offbreak that spun through the gate to have Barry McCarthy stumped. With the last six wickets adding just 32, Ireland’s innings only lasted 34.4 overs.Ireland’s assortment of medium-fast seam and honest fingerspin must be the least threatening bowling arsenal of all the Full Member teams at the moment, and Campbell and Hope took it apart in an utterly controlled and clinical manner. Watching this, it was hard to believe that these two teams had both been in the same ODI boat, fighting to make the World Cup grade, the last time they met.John Campbell and Shai Hope put on the biggest opening stand in all ODI cricket•Sportsfile via Getty Images

Plenty has happened since then, and much of it has been encouraging for West Indies, to the extent that they will be counted among the most dangerous line-ups at the World Cup that they so nearly didn’t qualify for. Today’s partnership didn’t even come from their first-choice opening pair. Campbell, who clattered six sixes in a 137-ball 179, isn’t in the preliminary World Cup squad, and Hope, who stroked a cultured 170 off 152, doesn’t usually open the batting.Both, though, were too good for Ireland’s modest attack. They were watchful early on, but once they had seen off the initial new-ball nibble – Tim Murtagh and Mark Adair went past the edge on a fair few occasions, with Campbell in particular taking time to get his feet moving – they pretty much did as they pleased.Only 42 came off the first 11 overs, at which point Ireland made their second bowling change, bringing on McCarthy, their fourth seamer. McCarthy’s first ball was a stomach-high full-toss, which Campbell flat-batted over the long-off boundary. His third ball drifted onto Hope’s legs, and he tucked it away to fine leg for four. The next ball was a wide half-volley, and Hope unfurled an extra-cover drive. Four more. Eighteen came off that over, and from there on the runs flowed unchecked.Shai Hope defends off the back foot•Sportsfile via Getty Images

Hope drove the seamers eye-catchingly through the covers, often opening his bat face to beat short extra diving to his left, and down the ground, and used the shuffle across the crease adroitly to pick up leg-side singles and twos off all lines and lengths. Campbell was the likelier of the pair to hit over the top, and he also showed a fondness for the lap-sweep off the seamers, picking up three fours with this shot.After scoring only 37 in the first ten overs, West Indies scored 68, 80, and 74 in their next three ten-over blocks. Then came the long-promised carnage: in the last 44 balls of their partnership, Hope and Campbell clattered 106 runs. Both batsmen began clearing their front leg and flat-batting the ball where they pleased. Adair went for 21 in the 41st over, George Dockrell for 16 in the 42nd, Josh Little for 16 in the 45th, Adair for 18 in the 46th, and Murtagh for 17 in the 47th.By this time both batsmen were past 160 and the world-record partnership for any wicket beckoned. But trying to fetch a rising ball from outside off stump, Campbell sent a rare top-edge ballooning high in the sky. It took an age coming down, but a tumbling William Porterfield eventually got under it at mid-off. It was Ireland’s first ODI wicket in 374 balls. Like the old cliche about buses, the next wicket came in the same over, Hope picking out the fielder at deep square leg.Almost miraculously, only 16 came off the last three overs, and West Indies fell short of their highest ODI total – achieved just over two months ago – by eight runs. With the World Cup less than a month away, it’s not a bad time to make your two biggest ODI totals in the space of three matches.

The India A batsman admitted there was something wrong in his technique, but he had the backing of his coach Rahul Dravid

Deivarayan Muthu in Bengaluru05-Aug-2018Eighteen-year-old Prithvi Shaw’s method of driving through the off side defies the coaching manual. Instead of transferring his weight forward and meeting the pitch of the ball, he usually hangs back with his back leg often falling to the leg side. Karnataka veteran Vinay Kumar exploited this technical weakness when he had him caught at slips with an outswinger during his hat-trick in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Mumbai in Nagpur last year.In the Under-19 World Cup final against Australia at Mount Maunganui in February, Shaw kept reaching out for full away-swingers outside off. Seamer Zak Evans beat his outside edge twice before Shaw threw his hands in the corridor and squeezed two other balls to the off side in the second over of India’s chase of 217. After Evans threatened the outside edge, Will Sutherland found it with a perfectly pitched away-swinger. Shaw dragged his back leg down the leg side and his head fell over as he shaped to drive away from the body.Even on Sunday, when he was playing for India A against South Africa A at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Shaw was initially tentative outside off. A play and miss here. A stab past the slip cordon there. Seeing the hard, new ball move off the seam, Shaw then opted to shelve the drive in the early exchanges and later nailed them in the arc between point and mid-off once the ball became softer.”I think [in] the morning session that ball moves here. If you play [out] that first hour, it becomes easier and the ball comes on,” Shaw said after play on day two. “Taking the morning session out [is important] and the scoreboard kept moving.”Shaw admitted that he was working on maintaining a stable base, particularly while driving the ball, but wasn’t too bothered with his back leg collapsing down the leg side.”In the practice sessions, I tried to get the back foot across [and not down leg] but it’s not happening,” Shaw said. “But Rahul [Dravid] sir said, ‘it’s fine if you’re doing that and you’re scoring runs’. It’s not affecting me while scoring runs. I know it’s a mistake but I am still comfortable with my batting.”The drives weren’t perfect but they were easy on the eye, leaving a sparse Sunday crowd in Bengaluru chanting “Prithvi! Prithvi! Prithvi!” and the South Africans scratching their heads. Duanne Olivier, Beuran Hendricks, Malusi Siboto, Shaun von Berg, Dane Piedt and Senuran Muthusamy were all crunched through the covers. Just when Shaw seemed set for much more, he misread the turn of an offbreak from Piedt and was bowled through the gate for 136 off 196 balls.However, his senior opening partner, Mayank Agarwal, who is likely to be in contention for national selection alongside Shaw, kicked on to an unbeaten double-century on the second day. This follows a record domestic season in 2017-18, in which he tallied 2141 runs for Karnataka, and a productive maiden stint with India A in England, where he cracked three hundreds in the team’s run to the one-day tri-series crown.”Me and Mayank have a good understanding while batting,” Shaw said. “We’ve now played a lot together in the India A series in England and we’re continuing it here. It’s (the success) because of how we talk on the field while batting and whenever he does some mistake, I’ll be the one who tells him that. It’s very important when he have an understanding and to know how to build an innings. This is what kept us going today. Mayank’s double-hundred is a great knock and I think this is the best I’ve seen him bat. He is still going on and I want him to make a bigger score tomorrow.”Shaw gushed when asked about sharing the dressing room with M Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane in the four-dayer against England Lions in Worcester last month. Is he closer to sharing the dressing room with them in the national side? For a definitive answer, you needed to be a fly on the wall when his coach Dravid and chief selector MSK Prasad were chatting after an utterly dominant batting day.

Afghanistan’s hopes of qualifying hinge on a Nepal win over Hong Kong in the final group fixture on Monday

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Mar-2018Associated Press

Rahmat Shah and Najibullah Zadran came up with vital contributions as Afghanistan bounced back from three successive losses to register their first win at the World Cup Qualifers. The six-wicket win over Nepal with 11.2 overs to spare meant Afghanistan still have an outside chance to qualify for the Super Sixes.For that, they will need Nepal to beat Hong Kong in their final group game on Monday. This would force a three-way between Afghanistan, Nepal and Hong Kong, with Afghanistan having a good chance or progressing because of a superior net run rate. However, they will not carry forward points (points are only carried forward for victories against the other teams progressing to the Super Sixes, and Afghanistan have lost to both Scotland and Zimbabwe).Nepal’s decision to bat first, seemingly with an eye on their opponents who haven’t chased well so far in the competition, seemed justified when Paras Khadka, the captain, struck a 82-ball 75 at No. 3 to set up a strong platform. But with just one other batsman – Dipendra Airee – crossing 30, they were shortchanged. The innings came to a grinding halt in the final over, with Nepal collapsing from 105 for 1 to 194 all out.Rashid Khan, the Afghanistan captain who went wicketless in his team’s defeat to Hong Kong on Thursday, claiming three wickets. Mohammad Nabi, the offspinner, was also at it, slicing through the middle order to finish with 4 for 33. Sixteen-year-old mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who had shared the new ball with Shapoor Zadran, picked up 1 for 24 in his 10 overs. Forty seven of his 60 balls were dots. In all, Afghanistan’s bowlers bowled 193 dots.Rashid promoted himself to open but fell in the sixth over to fast bowler Karan KC. Afghanistan were then steered by a 65-run second-wicket stand between Javed Ahmadi and Rahmat, before Sandeep Lamichhane, the legspinner, struck. When Airee struck three overs later, Afghanistan were wobbly at 111 for 3 and in dire need of a partnership.Nabi brought his experience of 94 ODIs to calm down proceedings, while also knocking off runs quickly. His 34 came off just 32 balls courtesy two fours and a six. Najibullah, meanwhile, kept going. He brought up his second half-century of the tournament to see Afghanistan through.Nepal have one game left to play in the group stage, and are still searching for their first win in the tournament.

Chinaman bowler Tabraiz Shamsi put himself in contention for a Test debut with a four-wicket haul in the pink-ball warm-up match at the MCG

Firdose Moonda at the MCG19-Nov-2016
Scorecard
File photo – Hashim Amla had scored only 48 runs in four innings on this tour before this game•AFP

Chinaman bowler Tabraiz Shamsi put himself in contention for a Test debut with a four-wicket haul in the pink-ball warm-up match at the MCG. Although expensive, Shamsi proved difficult to pick and profited more than any of the other South African bowlers to set up an intriguing selection question for the final Test.The day-night game could see South Africa make some changes to their attack especially considering Vernon Philander was rested from the warm-up fixture as a precaution. Philander hurt his shoulder during an on-field collision with Australian captain Steve Smith in the Hobart Test. Should Philander’s niggle not clear, they might have to look for a third-prong in the pace pack to accompany Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott, who both delivered strong opening spells.Rabada’s four-over burst brought three wickets, including Rob Quiney’s. The left-hander scored nine, exactly the same number of runs he made against South Africa in the only Test he has played, in 2012. Abbott was economical and found some nip, but more eyes were on Morne Morkel, the only quick to deliver more than one spell.Concerns over match fitness had kept Morkel out of the first two Tests and he sought to allay those with six-overs initially and three more later on. He sent down some testing short balls with no reward. Reserve bowler Dwaine Pretorius delivered six impressive overs – he pitched the ball up and managed to nip it around a touch – but it seems unlikely he will be promoted into the Test XI.The real debate will be over Shamsi and left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, who hasn’t done much wrong in the two matches he has played. Both were expensive in this game, but Shamsi made more of an impact. He bowled Sam Harper and Blake Thompson and his variations proved tough for the Victoria batsmen to read as they folded up for 258. Seb Gotch (53), Matthew Short (52) and Evan Gulbis (53) scored half-centuries.South Africa opted to bat under lights but before they could take full effect, their struggling opener Stephen Cook had been dismissed. Not for the first time on this tour, Cook was found wanting with his footwork and faced 18 balls before he was trapped lbw on the backfoot for 11. His opening partner Dean Elgar found the going much easier and retired on 40 to give the middle-order time at the crease.Runs were secondary to South Africa’s intention to spend time in the middle and Hashim Amla made the most of it. He batted from the eighth over to the end of the innings and scored 81, after being dropped on 17 at first slip.Amla became more assured as the innings went on and seemed to want to get his eye in, having only contributing 48 runs on the tour so far. He had Temba Bavuma (33*) for company after JP Duminy (17) and Faf du Plessis (12) were both dismissed cheaply. Duminy was caught at slip while du Plessis fell to a half-hearted pull shot. Bavuma batted through the twilight period with characteristic caution. Quinton de Kock opted not to play the game at all.

A round-up of the Ranji Trophy Group B matches on November 18, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2015
ScorecardFile photo: RP Singh claimed 5 for 33 as Madhya Pradesh were bowled out for 160•AFP

RP Singh’s five-wicket haul on the final day handed Gujarat a 153-run victory over Madhya Pradesh in Surat. RP Singh ran through Madhya Pradesh’s batting line-up, reducing them to 5 for 32 in their chase of 314 on the final day. Ankit Sharma provided Gujarat with some lower-order resistance by scoring 55, but his team was eventually bowled out for 160. RP Singh’s 5 for 33 in the second innings earned him the Man-of-the-Match award.
ScorecardOpeners Baba Aparajith and Abhinav Mukund top-scored with 71 each, as their side’s fixture with Uttar Pradesh winded down to a draw on the final day. Chasing 391 after Suresh Raina’s blitzkrieg innings on day three, Aparajith and Mukund put on a 135-run opening stand. Dinesh Karthik then batted out the day after Tamil Nadu lost a couple of quick wickets, scoring a patient 38. Raina won the Man-of-the-Match award for his unbeaten 145 in the second innings.

ESPNcricinfo previews the Yorkshire Bank 40 final between Glamorgan and Nottinghamshire

The Preview by Alan Gardner20-Sep-2013So, farewell then, 40-over cricket (until you reappear at some point down the line). History will need to come with its notebook and pen to Lord’s on Saturday, when Glamorgan and Nottinghamshire will contest the final of the Yorkshire Bank 40, the last time the competition is played in its current form before the return in England of 50-over domestic cricket next season.The rise of Twenty20 has steadily diminished the presence of one-day cricket in the calendar – little more than a decade ago, counties would compete for three List A titles: NatWest/C&G Trophy, Benson & Hedges Cup and National League. The B&H was stubbed out as Twenty20 came into being and four years ago the remaining two competitions were amalgamated.The change of sponsor this year from Clydesdale to Yorkshire Bank led some wags to dub it the Why Bother 40, but 40-over cricket, which began with the John Player League back in 1969, continues to be a draw for the public. The counties had stubbornly resisted attempts to revert to a 50-over tournament but, with team England increasingly flexing its financial muscle and protection of the Championship taking on a higher priority, an agreement with the ECB was reached.Some argue that playing 50-over cricket in occasionally damp, seaming conditions doesn’t really aid England’s chances at global tournaments (unless they are at home). You can go further, and suggest that the added pressure of having to score at a higher rate for a shorter period has helped to create some of England’s more destructive current players, such as Jos Buttler, Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright.That is just as likely to have been the effect of T20, however, and those that have played internationally are particularly inclined to espouse the benefits of reflecting the ODI template in England’s domestic game.”I’ve enjoyed it but I think it’s key for young lads coming through, or anyone who gets an opportunity to play for England, that they’re playing the right cricket,” says Simon Jones, the former England seamer who is hoping for a winning send-off with Glamorgan at Lord’s.”Fifty overs is what they play at international level and I think that’s what should happen at county level, just to prepare people. You’re bowling ten overs rather than eight, the Powerplays are different, there are different strategies, it’s a totally different game. I think they’ve made a bold decision to go back to 50-over cricket and I think it’s the right one.”It is probably fair to say that the two counties who have reached the YB40 final do not have outstanding one-day CVs, however many overs are involved – which makes the match-up all the more appealing from a neutral perspective. For all their respective excellence this year, Glamorgan and Nottinghamshire are the unusual suspects, with just a few pieces of one-day silver between them.Nottinghamshire are firm favourites, their impressive squad bolstered by the availability of two of England’s Ashes winners, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann, though it is 24 years since the club last appeared in a Lord’s showpiece, when they beat Essex to lift the B&H Cup. Notts won their sixth Championship in 2010 but only have three List A titles in their history, the most recent being the Sunday League in 1991. However, as the captain, Chris Read, says “over the last few years we’ve been improving in this form of the game”.Jim Allenby has been a key player for Glamorgan with bat and ball•PA Photos

Having won Group A, Nott crushed Somerset by eight wickets in their semi-final. In James Taylor and Samit Patel they have two England internationals with over 500 YB40 runs this season; in Michael Lumb and Alex Hales, they have England’s T20 openers; at No. 5, there is David Hussey, veteran of more than 100 limited-overs internationals for Australia.Although a back injury has ruled out their joint-leading wicket-taker, Jake Ball, Swann and Broad are likely to provide a high-class sticking plaster. Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, has said they will play the “best eleven players” and that could see Broad make his 40-over debut for the county, with his only previous List A appearance coming in the 2008 FP Trophy. How well a bowler with 160 ODI wickets (out of 185 in List A cricket) makes the quick switch down from 50-over competition will be an interesting subplot.For Glamorgan, who booked their place in the final by beating the reigning champions, Hampshire, on their own turf, there will be fewer selection issues. Marcus North, the limited-overs captain this year, has left to take part in Perth Scorchers’ Champions League campaign but in Michael Hogan they have the tournament’s leading wicket-taker and Jim Allenby a one-day allrounder fit to lace Dimitri Mascarenhas’s (recently hung-up) boots. Ben Wright has been dismissed twice for 165 runs at a strike rate of 133.06 and Chris Cooke has also hit the 500-run mark.Glamorgan’s journey to London should also be a little less arduous, though Notts avoided having to fly down from Durham on the eve of the final by contriving to be heavily beaten inside three days. Whatever the result at Chelmsford, it is only an hour’s drive up the A12. The Welsh county will doubtless be greeted by an armada of passionate supporters who have made a significantly longer journey from the west. It is 13 years since they lost to out in the B&H Cup to Gloucestershire and their only other final appearance, in 1977, also ended in defeat. There will plenty hoping Glamorgan can lose their white-ball cherry at Lord’s.On the 50th anniversary of Sussex lifting the inaugural Gillette Cup, another chapter in the story of domestic one-day cricket is about to come to a close.

Duleep Mendis, the chairman of selectors for Sri Lanka, has said the team is going through a period of transition and needs to be given time to start performing consistently

Tariq Engineer in Colombo06-Jan-2012Duleep Mendis, the chairman of selectors for Sri Lanka, has said the team is going through a period of transition and needs to be given time to start performing consistently. Sri Lanka’s victory over South Africa in Durban in December 2011 was their first in Tests for 18 months, and the team had faced plenty of criticism during their barren run. However, Mendis said it was only a matter of time before the team came together.”You need to develop the spinners,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “You need to develop the fast bowlers. Now Rangana Herath is becoming a good bowler. Even for the seamers, you need to give them a little time to play matches and to get wickets. They should know how to get 20 wickets.”You need to give them time. You need to give them matches. Then only will you gradually become successful.”When Kumar Sangakkara resigned as captain after the 2011 World Cup, he said it was to give Sri Lanka a chance to start planning for the 2015 tournament, and Mendis confirmed that the selectors were looking at player development in that context. Their strategy, he said, was to blood young players in the limited-over formats first, and then in Tests.”What we thought was we will put more emphasis on the youngsters in the T20 games and some of the one-day games. Then even in the Test team, we thought, whenever possible, we will introduce some of the youngsters into the side and see how they perform.”Since Sri Lanka’s loss to India in the World Cup final on April 2, 2011, eight Sri Lanka players made their debuts in Test cricket, four in one-day cricket and five in T20 internationals.According to Mendis, the key trait the players needed to develop was the mental strength to cope with the demands of top-level cricket. “You need a lot of mental coaching. You come to Test level and what you need is mental strength. You have learned the technical aspects of the game already, so you need the mental strength to go through difficult times, and to come out of the difficult times.”One of the main criticisms Sri Lanka faced over the last year and a half has been their bowling attack’s lack of incisiveness, but Mendis said the pace department was shaping up well. “I would say the pace attack is not a problem. We are going with Dilhara [Fernando], who is clocking 140kph, Chanaka Welegedara, who is bowling well, Dhammika Prasad and Thisara Perera.”At the same time, he said there was room for improvement and that there was a problem in the spin department but “with a lot of experience gained on these tours, they will come into a position where they can become match-winners.”To ease the transition, and to cope with any injury problems, Mendis said the selectors had earmarked a group of 10 bowlers and a similar number of batsmen as players with the potential to play for the national side. “Some of them are performing well in the A team,” he said. “Some of them are performing well with some of the other teams and the best are in the national team.”Sri Lanka’s defeat of South Africa in Durban came after they received a three-day hammering in Centurion. According to Mendis, that defeat would have rankled the side and motivated them to prove themselves in the next game. “When you get beaten in one game, you want to do well in the next game; just to make a comeback and show that you can do much better than the other side. It was a good team effort to beat South Africa in South Africa for the first time.”To beat any country away is something to talk about and especially to beat South Africa for the first time in South Africa, it was a great victory.”What Mendis wanted to see is the team producing those kinds of results on a regular basis. “You need a lot of encouragement for the players and you need to put them on the right path, but more than anything else, I always emphasise, you need a lot of mental strength.”

Gautam Gambhir, the Delhi Daredevils captain, has put down his team’s exit from the IPL to its inconsistency

Cricinfo staff18-Apr-2010Gautam Gambhir, the Delhi Daredevils captain, has put down his team’s exit from the IPL to its inconsistency. Delhi fell short by 11 runs against Deccan Chargers in what was effectively a quarter-final. Both teams, playing their final league game, needed a win to fill up the fourth semi-final slot, but Delhi, despite restricting Deccan to a gettable 145, faltered in their chase.”Whenever we have chased, we’ve lost early wickets. It’s been up and down for us, we just haven’t played as a team,” Gambhir said after the game. “We needed to win two out of five and we lost four out of five, we can’t afford to be that inconsistent. Hopefully next year will be a different story.”On the other hand, Deccan, who had been languishing at the bottom of the table with Kings XI Punjab after losing five games in a row, bounced back to win five in five to seal a place in the final four. Adam Gilchrist, their captain, called the fightback a “great team effort”.”We looked these last five games as a mini-tournament in itself, and we have belief in ourselves. It’s been a great team effort,” Gilchrist said. “Some guys like Symonds and Rohit have been very consistent. Everyone has chipped in their own way. We’ve managed to finish second, that’s a wonderful credit to everyone.”Gilchrist lauded the performance of his bowlers, who kept chipping away at Delhi and defended what seemed like a below-par score with relative ease. “Outstanding game. It’s been like this the whole tournament, great courage from out bowlers and they showed great character,” he said.Andrew Symonds was named Man of the Match for his 30-ball 54, which included five sixes. Symonds was dismissed in the 15th over, and the batsmen who followed had struggled to push on but the total they posted proved adequate. “I was pretty disappointed with the way I got out, and I felt responsible for our score,” Symonds, who had holed out to long-off, said. “But I am really pleased with the way the boys have picked themselves up. We may not be the most skilful team in the competition but we have a goal.”At times we may be a little ugly, but we are effective.”

The fast bowler has been forced out of the Tests against Australia due to a stress fracture in his foot

Cricinfo staff21-Feb-2010The fast bowler Andy McKay has been forced out of the Tests against Australia due to a stress fracture in his foot. McKay had hoped to return for the two matches after being ruled out of the one-dayers and Twenty20s against Australia starting next week, but has been diagnosed with a fracture after bone scans in Wellington last week.”It turns out I’ve got a stress fracture in my foot. It’s not good,” he told .
“I then went back and saw the sports physician on Thursday and the injury had actually settled down quite a bit in a matter of days.”That was fairly encouraging and the doctor thinks my recovery will be a matter of weeks, rather than the usual two to three months that an injury like this normally takes to heal.”McKay, 29, made an impressive start to his ODI career, taking five wickets against Bangladesh at an average of 21 but it was his pace which stood out. He reportedly clocked 147 kph in the Napier ODI and the captain Daniel Vettori said he was one of the quickest bowlers he had faced in the Twenty20 HRV Cup, even comparing him to Shane Bond. McKay was eager to translate his form into the five-day format but his career has been put on hold for the moment.”It’s bittersweet,” he said. “I was obviously very happy with how things went in the one-dayers against Bangladesh and then I was over the moon about being selected in the Test side. Obviously the priority now is about getting things right.”The series gets underway on February 26 with the first of two Twenty20s, followed by five ODIs and two Tests.

Ben Stokes’ focus on “picking his moment” to make his own impact with the ball

Vithushan Ehantharajah14-Feb-2023Stuart Broad will return to the England team for Thursday’s first Test against New Zealand after missing the series against Pakistan.Broad, on his fifth tour of New Zealand, sat out the three-match series at the end of 2022 for the birth of his first child, Annabella. With Olly Stone and Matthew Potts also hovering around selection, three seamers were vying for the final bowling spot in the lead-up to the day-night opener on Thursday.Speaking in Mount Maunganui after England’s training session on Tuesday, Ben Stokes confirmed the 36-year-old seamer will pick up his 160th cap.While the nature of the pink ball lent itself to flirting with a horse-for-course approach, with Stone’s extra pace attractive given the lack of sideways movement expected, the captain has gone with what he sees as his best XI.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“The way in which we’ve gone about our selections and stuff like that, especially in England and in similarish conditions here, the team we pick – especially with the ball – has the bases all covered, especially in these type of conditions,” Stokes said.Broad will accompany fellow quicks James Anderson, Ollie Robinson, with Jack Leach offering the spin option. Outwardly, the bowling pack have been less than complimentary about the pink Kookaburra that will be used, which moves a little less and feels a little harder than the one they used in the 2021/22 Ashes series.

Stokes confirms bowling fitness

Short balls will have to be utilised during quieter moments, something which puts the onus on Stokes as the allrounder. The skipper did not take part in last week’s warm-up match in Hamilton, and did not bowl at training on Tuesday. However, he confirmed he will be able to play a full part in the match.”We’ve had really good preparation and build-up for this game and, even with the weather, we’ve still been able to train in the tent,” Stokes said. “Everything is good. Bowling-wise, it’s picking the right moment to bowl. I’ve had the last two days off bowling-wise, then will have a trundle tomorrow [Wednesday]. It’s just making sure I get in everything I need to before we start.”The bowling group have been great together. They have been discussing what they feel is working. People like Jimmy and Broady, who have played quite a few of these pink-ball matches, are still coming to terms with it. Some balls swing, some balls don’t, then they will try to bowl the same ball and it will react differently. They have bowled really well together and discussed how they feel is the best way to bowl with the pink ball. In terms of myself, it will be similar to Pakistan, picking the moment when it will be best to get my overs in.”Related

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• Boult overlooked as Jamieson's replacement; Stead defends Kuggeleijn inclusion

This series marks the first time this new era team under Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum have come up against the same team. New Zealand got the first bitter taste of a “New England”, losing 3-0 at the start of the 2022 summer which sparked a run of nine wins out of 10.Though the team are further along in their development, Stokes called back to that series as one which showcased the team’s fighting spirit, beyond their destructive qualities.”That whole series, we were behind the game a lot but we managed to turn each game around completely on its head by the way we went out and did it. We know that we can be dominant but we also know that when we are behind in a game we can turn it around quickly.”New Zealand, meanwhile, were dealt a blow with the news that Kyle Jamieson has been ruled out for the foreseeable future with a suspected back stress-fracture, while Matt Henry will also miss the first Test at Bay Oval as he awaits the birth of his first child. The uncapped duo of Jacob Duffy and Scott Kuggeleijn have been called into the squad as replacements.England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Ben Foakes (wk), 8 Ollie Robinson, 9 Jack Leach, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 James Anderson