New Zealand Cricket has elected former allrounder and national selector Dion Nash to its board of directors.
Nash fills the vacancy left by Martin Snedden, who had to step down by rotation following a lengthy service to the game as a player, chief executive, board member, chair of the board and ICC director.
“It’s good to have someone with Dion’s cricket and business experience coming onto the board at a time when Martin is stepping down,” NZC chair Diana Pukepatu-Lyndon said. “Dion has a strong interest in not just the playing of the game but [also] the business of the game, and that should help stand us in good stead.”
Nash played 32 Tests and 81 ODIs from 1992 to 2002, and was part of New Zealand’s title-winning squad in the 2000 ICC KnockOut, which was later rebranded as the Champions Trophy. He was also the first player to score a half-century and grab a ten-wicket haul at Lord’s, a feat he achieved in his fifth Test.
When regular captain Stephen Fleming was injured in early 1999, Nash stepped in as skipper for seven ODIs and three Tests. He was then appointed as selector for the men’s team in 2005, before going on to make a career in business.
Sri Lanka 210 for 7 (Mendis 74*, Theekshana 27*, Bracewell 4-36) beat New Zealand 209 all out (Chapman 76, Hay 49, Theekshana 3-31) by three wickets (47 overs a side)
Kusal Mendis’ unbeaten 73 trumped Mark Chapman’s 76, as Sri Lanka secured a narrow three-wicket win in the second ODI in Pallekele, and with it seal the series with an unassailable 2-0 lead. It was their first ODI series win against New Zealand since 2012.
Having been set a subpar target of 210 in a rain-truncated 47-over game, Sri Lanka were made to work hard on a sluggish surface as New Zealand’s array of spin options kept chipping away. But a string of mini-partnerships was enough to see the hosts through, culminating in an unbeaten eighth wicket stand of 47 off 59 – the best of the innings – between Kusal and Maheesh Theekshana.
Michael Bracewell was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors, picking up figures of 4 for 36 in 10 overs. He was one of two bowlers allocated for 10 overs in the innings, alongside Mitchell Santner who ended with miserly figures of 1 for 33, but Sri Lanka smartly recognised their threat and targeted the rest of the attack to sneak home.
Earlier a brilliant exhibition of catching had seen New Zealand bowled out for 209, a total that was heavily supplemented by Chapman’s 76 off 81 and Mitchell Hay’s 49 off 62 – they were two of just four New Zealand batters to make it to double digits.
Before his heroics with the bat, Theekshana had done his part with the ball grabbing 3 for 31. Jeffrey Vandersay also picked up three, while the tireless Asitha Fernando finished with two scalps.
But on a surface where nearly every spinner proved threatening to some degree, it was always going to take a special batting effort to separate the two sides. And Kusal provided that in spades.
Having come into bat at the fall of the first wicket inside the fifth over, it wasn’t long before Kusal decided on a more conservative approach. The first ball he faced spun sharply past his forward defence, and then an attempt at his escape shot – the slog sweep – saw a top edge that looped safely over the keeper.
A couple of overs later Kusal was under the microscope once more, after a tight lbw shout went in his favour – a decision that was only upheld on review courtesy of an umpire’s call on impact. These nervy moments meant that Kusal wouldn’t get his first boundary until the 26th delivery he faced. In fact, in total across his innings he would score just the six boundaries; instead, this was an innings marked more by his grit, with 46 singles and two doubles – 67% of his runs – an abnormally high percentage of non-boundary runs for a Kusal Mendis innings.
That he did so while struggling with cramps, or quite possibly a groin strain, for most of his innings speaks volumes towards his effort on the night.
But this was not a match Mendis could have won on his own. Aside from five-run stand with Kamindu Mendis, Kusal put together meaningful contributions with each of his other partners – 18, 19, 28, 39, 31 and 47 – with each pushing Sri Lanka a little further towards the finish line.
One of the most important came with Janith Liyanage, as the pair came together in the 22nd over with Sri Lanka precariously poised on 93 for 5, and Kusal already being impacted by cramps. With New Zealand seeking further breakthroughs, and the pair of Glenn Phillips and Ish Sodhi bowling well in tandem, Liyanage proved the ideal partner to keep rotating the strike and the spin threat at bay.
This helped stabilise the innings, but when Liyanage fell, gloving a bouncer from Nathan Smith through to the keeper, Sri Lanka were still 78 off their target.
Dunith Wellalage then played his part to perfection, crashing three consecutive boundaries off Smith to shift the momentum decisively. But even so, New Zealand knew they were just one wicket away from entering the Sri Lankan tail. So when Wellalage miscued one to mid-on with still 47 left to get, Sri Lankan minds might have wandered to that second T20I defeat.
But Theekshana, who had been unable to see it through in that game, showed far more metal the second time, striking three boundaries in total including a critical six over deep backward point, to help see the game through.
Such a nerve-wracking finish was hard to imagine at the halfway point however, after Sri Lanka had done extremely well on either side of two first-innings rain stoppages to strangle the New Zealand innings.
The catching was undoubtedly the highlight, where despite dropping some tough chances, Sri Lanka held on to even tougher ones. Avishka Fernando was at the forefront of this excellence, completing two nearly identical grabs, diving forward in the deep to scoop the ball centimetres off the ground, to dismiss both Phillips and and Chapman.
And he was not done yet, taking another stellar catch on the run and slide to remove Bracewell. Pathum Nissanka too threw his name in the hat for catch of the match, with a stunning sprint from long-off towards mid-off, culminating in a full-length dive to hold on to a skier from Santner.
Sri Lanka’s ground fielding too was on point – even with the caveat of a few sloppy boundary giveaways – with the infielders in particular smothering the visiting batters, and competing for every run. This was highlighted by an astonishing 157 dot balls being played out across the course of the innings – one that had already been shortened to 47 overs due to rain.
New Zealand’s best period of the innings came after they had stumbled to 98 for 4 in the 24th over. Here Chapman and Hay put in the time to rebuild the innings, but such was the strangle being exerted by the spinners during the early part of this stand, they scored just 13 runs in the first 41 deliveries faced. But by the end of it, though, the partnership had soared to 75 off 78, as both batters eventually began to take some risks.
Sixty-two runs were scored between the 30th and 36th over, as New Zealand might have been eyeing up a total in the region of 250. However on a spinner’s deck, it was Asitha who had the most decisive say, returning for a double-wicket strike to see the backs of Chapman and Bracewell.
From that point on, it was a trudge for the visitors as Hay sought to battle it out with the tail. He was the last batter to fall, one short of a maiden ODI fifty.
Brisbane Heat 139 for 4 (Rodrigues 45) beat Melbourne Stars 138 (Garth 31*, Hamilton 5-8)
Brisbane Heat teenager Lucy Hamilton became the youngest player in WBBL history to take a five-wicket haul, skipping schoolies’ week to bowl her side to a crucial six-wicket win over the Melbourne Stars.
Heat’s batters made light work of the chase, with Jemimah Rodrigues and Charlie Knott leading the way and Heat reaching the target with 15 balls to spare.
Rodrigues hit 45 from 31, smashing two big sixes down the ground and five fours before being deceived by an Annabel Sutherland slower ball.
Heat’s third straight win moved them back up into third on the ladder, while Stars’ season is now almost over with two wins from seven matches.
Hamilton was crucial, after the 18-year-old entered Sunday’s match without a wicket in her eight-game WBBL career. Weeks after finishing her QCE exams in Bundaberg and with her friends partying on the Gold Coast, she had the biggest day of her career.
After Sutherland got out of the blocks fast with 21, the left-armer bowled both her and Yastika Bhatia in her first over. She also had Meg Lanning caught behind for 13 edging a wide half volley, before having danger woman Tess Flintoff caught driving on the up to mid-off.
Hamilton then trapped Deepti Sharma lbw, becoming the first Heat bowler in history to take a five-wicket haul in the WBBL. Her figures sit second only to Megan Schutt’s 6 for 19 in the competition’s history, and level with Amanda-Jade Wellington’s two returns of 5 for 8.
“All my mates are at schoolies at the moment, on the Goldy living it up,” said Hamilton, adding she couldn’t believe what had just happened. “Going out there today I was just trying to back myself. Getting my first wicket and getting 5-fa, all the girls were getting around me. It was really exciting. I’ve had to be patient, played a few games, and it finally came and was really thrilling.”
Part of Australia’s Under-19 side, Hamilton will finally move to Brisbane in the coming months after routinely making the five-hour commute down from Bundaberg.
“I was talking to my bowling coach the other day, and it’s now about working on standing the seam up and just backing myself to swing the ball back in,” Hamilton said. “Progressive training will help that, but it’s having the confidence to be able to do that.”
Only late hitting from Kim Garth and Maisy Gibson gave Stars a faint hope, but Heat still chased the target down with ease.
Match abandonedWest Indies 44 for 0 (Lewis 29*, Hope 14*) vs England
England leave West Indies with a 3-1 T20I series victory after the final match of their Caribbean tour was washed out.
Play was abandoned after just five overs in the fifth and final T20I with Evin Lewis and Shai Hope steering the hosts to 44 without loss before a heavy storm set in at Darren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia.
It wasn’t quite the start West Indies’ opening pair had staged less than 24 hours earlier, when they raced to 56 for nought in the first five overs and 136 for 0 in nine, on their way to chasing down a record 219 in Saturday’s dead rubber. But it wasn’t far off, with Lewis striking two sixes and three fours on his way to 29 not out before the rain arrived.
Lewis had just pulled a John Turner delivery for a thunderous six over deep midwicket and sent the next ball in the air wide of mid-on for four before he was rapped on the helmet by a steepling bouncer attempting another pull on the last ball of the over – and ultimately the match.
The rain arrived just as he was about to undergo on-field concussion checks, but he walked off smiling with the rest of the players.
With Hope unbeaten on 14 off 10 balls, it was an abrupt end to what had loomed as another entertaining encounter to end the series after the same pitch had yielded 32 sixes on Saturday.
On that occasion, West Indies had won the toss for the only time in this series, but they made a strong start in the face of Jos Buttler’s decision to bowl first on Sunday.
Turner, who was playing just his second T20I after making his debut in the fourth game of this series, conceded 22 runs from his two overs while Jofra Archer, replacing Saqib Mahmood for this match, went for 16 off 2. Jamie Overton, who didn’t bowl despite taking the field on Saturday, conceded five runs off his solitary over on Sunday.
Player of the Series Mahmood was comfortably the leading wicket-taker for the series with nine at an average of 10.55 and an economy rate of 6.33 with a best of 4 for 43 in the 1st T20I, eight of his wickets coming in the powerplay. Next best was West Indies’ left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein with five.
“The one thing I noticed being here previously is the crosswinds at most grounds,” Mahmood told the post-match presentation. “I felt that if I wanted to take the new ball, I’d have to work on my away-swinger a little bit just because Reece Topley and Jofra [Archer] would want the new ball from the other end to swing the ball back in. That’s something I worked on. To perform and show that in a game was nice.”
Phil Salt was the leading run-scorer with 162 including 103 not out in the first game and 55 in the fourth. Jacob Bethell, his 21-year-old team-mate, also impressed with 127 runs for once out, and at a superior strike rate of 173.97. The England duo were split by West Indies captain Rovman Powell on 153 runs.
Victoria 373 (Rogers 76, Crone 62, Handscomb 56) and 122 for 2 (Harris 56*, Handscomb 56*) beat Western Australia 167 (Murphy 4-37) and 325 (Curtis 119*, Cartwright 78, Elliott 4-47)
Victoria raced to a crushing eight-wicket Sheffield Shield win despite a rare hat-trick to Western Australia spinner Corey Rocchiccioli.
With the hosts chasing 120 for victory on the final day at Junction Oval, Marcus Harris and Peter Handscomb went on the attack in an unbroken 103-run third-wicket stand after an early scare.
Rocchiccioli bowled Ashley Chandrasinghe and Campbell Kellaway with his first two deliveries to have the hosts 19 for 2. Two days earlier he had Peter Siddle caught by Cameron Bancroft with the last ball of the first innings.
Rocchiccioli’s feat was reminiscent of one by former West Indies pace bowler Courtney Walsh against Australia at the Gabba in 1988 when he took the last wicket to fall in the first innings and then snared two with his opening deliveries in the second. It was also WA’s second hat-trick in two rounds following Brody Couch’s against Tasmania having never had one in Shield cricket before.
The door was ajar for an unlikely Western Australia win after Rocchiccioli’s heroics but Handscomb was having none of that. The skipper negotiated the hat-trick delivery and went on the attack. Harris was a willing accomplice and made sure there was no miracle win for the three-time reigning Shield champions.
WA were dismissed before lunch for 325. The key wicket was tailender Brody Couch who had stayed with centurion Joel Curtis for 36 overs in a stoic 103-ball innings.
Curtis remained unbeaten on a brilliant and defiant 119 to add to the list of wicketkeepers in fine fettle with the bat in Australian domestic cricket.
Spinner and last man in Ashton Agar epitomised the fight in the visitors when he came out to bat with an AC joint injury to his left shoulder. Agar, who had his arm in a sling the day before, could hardly hold the bat with his bottom hand and didn’t trouble the scorers but his team-first attitude was there for all to see.
Allrounder Sam Elliott took four wickets in another impressive display. It was the bowlers who set the win up for Victoria with paceman Fergus O’Neill taking six for the match and spinner Todd Murphy chiming in with four first-innings wickets to help dismiss Western Australia for 167.
Kane Williamson has paid tribute to the “incredible” career of his close friend Tim Southee after the pace bowler announced he would retire from Tests after the England series.
The careers of Williamson and Southee have run side-by-side from junior and Under-19 level through domestic cricket into to all formats for New Zealand with the pair playing their 100th Tests together against Australia earlier this year, although Williamson made his debut two-and-a-half years after Southee.
“Playing so long together, you just go through so much,” Williamson told reporters in Hamilton ahead of his first game for Northern Districts since 2019 where Southee will also line up. “Both doing stints in leadership roles and you go through different turbulent times, then you have some good ones as well and they are all part of the experience. To do it as long as Tim has is incredible as a fast bowler, there’s not many in the history of the game who have been able to achieve what he has. Such a huge member [and] leader of our side and a close friend as well.”
While New Zealand’s historic 3-0 victory in India suggests there could be plenty of good times ahead for the current team, Southee’s retirements marks the latest departure from an era of players that brought considerable success following the likes of Ross Taylor, BJ Watling, Colin de Grandhomme and Neil Wagner while Trent Boult no longer features in Tests after stepping away from a central contract and has also retired from T20Is.
“It’s life, isn’t it. You do realise you are closer towards the end than the start which is a certainty,” Williamson said. “It’s [about] navigating those periods because you feel slightly different when you play your first game to when you play your 100th and there’s different levels of excitement, your life changes a little bit, whether that’s family, extra dogs, whatever it is you are into, so the picture does take a slightly different shape and your motivation does adjust.
“There’s sadness, but excitement as well for Tim because the end of your time in a sporting professional environment is scary but there’s so much more to come.”
Williamson, who will return from a groin injury against England after missing the whole series in India, also turned down an NZC contract this year but remains committed across formats. He termed the victory in India one of New Zealand’s “all-time cricketing memories” although added missing out on being part of it was challenging at times with his fitness assessed on a Test-by-Test basis before it was decided he wasn’t ready.
“It was a lot of internal temptation [to try and get there], for sure, then after a few discussions it was keep taking that time to get it right so that’s what I did,” he said. “Suffered a little bit of FOMO, which is a good thing, but just admired it really. To go over and play the way they did, so special, one of our all-time cricketing memories.”
Williamson’s groin injury was picked up running between the wickets in the second innings of the second Test in Galle and he admitted the body needed more looking after in the latter stages of his career.
“It’s not major, which is good,” he said. “Think post knee [injury] there’s always little curlys that bob their heads so actually making sure I keep putting that time in. For so long you feel invincible, and I’ve certainly had a few reminders that’s not the case recently and making sure that I’m staying on top of all those things and keeping the body in check.”
Queensland 291 (Renshaw 121) and 225 for 5 (McDermott 59*, Peirson 44*, Meredith 3-39) drew with Tasmania 461 (Weatherald 186, Doran 101)
Queensland held on for a draw on the final day of their Sheffield Shield match against a Tasmania side that dominated from the outset.
The hosts were in dire straits on Monday’s final day at Allan Border Field until Ben McDermott and wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson combined for an unbroken 99-run stand for the sixth wicket.
The match was called a draw with an hour to play with Queensland 225 for 5 in their second innings, a lead of 55. Queensland have not won any of their past six games in Brisbane, a run comprising four losses and two draws.
Tasmania posted 461 in the first innings but the weather conspired to cruel their hopes of a first win of the season after most of day two was lost to rain.
Queensland resumed at 274 for 7 and immediately lost day-three centurion Matthew Renshaw who added just one to his overnight tally.
Pace bowlers Riley Meredith and Lawrence Neil-Smith, both with three wickets in the innings, cleaned up the tail and the hosts were quickly bundled out 20 runs short of avoiding the follow on for 291. Tasmania skipper Jordan Silk had no hesitation sending Queensland back in.
Mitchell Owen picked up Renshaw and Bryce Street before lunch to brilliant diving catches by first slip Beau Webster and wicketkeeper Jake Doran.
Meredith was the destroyer in the hour after the interval and took three wickets to have Queensland teetering at 126 for 5, still 44 runs shy of making the visitors bat again, before McDermott and Pearson knuckled down to ensure there was no embarrassing loss.
Tasmania opener Jake Weatherald was named man of the match for his superb 186.
Queensland captain Mitchell Swepson conceded Tasmania had dominated the game.
“We play Shield cricket to win and unfortunately we haven”t been able to get into positions to win,” he told AAP. “Tassie were driving the game from the first day when we weren’t quite on with the ball. We were lucky to get away with a draw here.”
A day-night clash with top of the table Victoria starts on Sunday at the Gabba. Queensland must win to get their season moving in the right direction.
“Where we are on the table, we need a few wins and we have great belief in this group,” Swepson said. “The Gabba has been a fortress for us and is somewhere we think we can play an aggressive brand of cricket. The pink ball adds a different element and you’d like to think there would be a result at the Gabba where the wicket is pretty spicy for Shield games.”
Tasmania will play NSW away on Sunday as they also look for an elusive first victory of the summer.
Alice Capsey will join England Women’s T20I squad for their tour of South Africa after earning a belated call-up to cover for injury.
Capsey, who was initially left out of the touring party amid an extended form slump with the bat, has left WBBL side Melbourne Renegades to join her England team-mates in South Africa today.
England said her recall was due to “a couple of minor injury concerns within the squad” but would not elaborate, adding only that all squad members were taking part in a light training session on Monday amid “a couple of niggles, nothing major”.
Capsey made a top score of 19 in three innings at last month’s T20 World Cup, where England failed to reach the knockouts. Since then, she has scored 72 runs in eight innings at the WBBL, where she is currently the third-highest wicket-taker with 13 at an average of 13.23 and economy rate of 7.21, including a best of 5 for 25 in a losing cause against Perth Scorchers.
Capsey and the injured Dani Gibson were the only members of the T20 World Cup squad not included in the original group bound for South Africa, with middle-order batter Paige Scholfield and fast bowler Lauren Filer called up after missing out on the World Cup. Scholfield made her England debut on the tour of Ireland in September.
South Africa host England in three T20Is from November 24 in East London, followed by three ODIs and ending with a Test in Bloemfontein.
The Test starts on November 22 at Perth’s Optus Stadium while the IPL auction will take place in Jeddah over two days on November 24-25, which has caused some conflict for three IPL coaches – Vettori, Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer, who are in Perth to either coach or commentate.
Vettori is one of the rare coaches in world cricket that holds a permanent assistant role with an international team while also being the full-time head coach of an IPL franchise and the full-time head coach of a Hundred side in Birmingham Phoenix.
Vettori has been Australia’s bowling coach for all three formats since 2022 working under long-time friend Andrew McDonald. He is highly-valued by Cricket Australia to the point where they have allowed him to pursue franchise coaching roles around his commitments with the men’s team.
“We are very supportive of Dan’s role as Head Coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad,” an Australia team spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo. “Dan will complete final preparation for the first Test before attending the IPL auction. He will then be with team for the remainder of the Border Gavaskar Trophy.”
The prioritisation of the IPL auction over a Test match, as well as the scheduling of the auction in Saudi Arabia during an Australia-India Test, is a sign of the times. Ponting and Langer, who are employed as commentators with Australian broadcaster Channel Seven, are also set to miss part of the Test to attend the auction as head coaches of Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants.
Vettori has missed certain series in recent years due to his franchise commitments with replacement coaches seconded to work with Australia. However, this will be the first time he will leave midway through a Test to attend the IPL auction, having been able to fulfil his duties with Australia this time last year against Pakistan before flying to India for the auction in between matches.
Vettori was on deck with Australia’s squad at their first day of training at the WACA ground on Monday, working closely with the bowling unit while also throwing left-arm orthodox deliveries to the batters in preparation for facing Ravindra Jadeja in the Perth Test.
Australia had two consultants working with their main coaching team on Monday in former Australia batter Michael Hussey and former Glamorgan, Leicestershire and Somerset allrounder Jim Allenby, who is permanently based in Perth. Both men worked with Australia’s team ahead of the first Test against Pakistan last summer and will be with the team all week in the lead in to the Test match.
Australia’s fielding coach Andre Borovec is currently in charge of the T20I side that is playing the three-match series against Pakistan which concludes in Hobart on Monday night. Both he and Josh Inglis, the stand-in T20 captain, will fly from Hobart to Perth tomorrow to join the Test squad.
CA’s national development coach Lachlan Stevens, who coached Australia A against India A and coaches Australia’s Under 19s, will fly into Perth to as additional support for the team when Vettori departs.
South Africa fast bowler Gerald Coetzee was docked 50% of his match fee and handed a demerit point after being found to have shown dissent in the fourth T20I against India in Johannesburg on Friday.
Coetzee was noted to have made an inappropriate comment to the umpire in the 15th over of India’s innings after one of his deliveries was deemed a wide. He admitted to the offence and accepted the sanction, which also included an official reprimand. India had won the series 3-1.
Netherlands captain Scott Edwards and Oman seamer Sufyan Mehmood also faced sanctions for breaching the ICC code of conduct during the third T20I between the two teams in Al Amerat on Saturday.
Edwards was found guilty of two breaches – Article 2.8 and 2.2, which relates to “abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings during an international match”.
After being given out lbw, he showed his bat to the umpire. Then, while returning to the dugout, he threw his bat and gloves on the field, copping two demerit points in all. He was also fined 10% of his match fee.
Mehmood was also fined 10% of his match fee and given one demerit point for giving a send-off to Netherlands batter Teja Nidamanuru. Since both players admitted to their offences and accepted the sanctions proposed by match referee Neeyamur Rashid, there was no need for a formal hearing.
