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Needing 22 to win in the final over, Ariful blasted four sixes against Mehidy Hasan Miraz to give Khulna a four-wicket win

Mohammad Isam24-Nov-2020Ariful Haque pulled off a Rahul Tewatia to drag Gemcon Khulna out of a huge hole against Fortune Barishal. Needing 22 to win in the final over, Ariful blasted four sixes against Mehidy Hasan Miraz, giving Khulna a four-wicket win with one ball to spare.It not only saved Khulna from the embarrassment of losing to arguably the weakest team in the tournament but Ariful also reprieved himself for sluggish batting until the 20th over. Ariful was on 24 off 29 balls and poised to be blamed for the loss.But Miraz bowled his offspin from around the wicket, and instead of attacking the stumps like his namesake Mahedi Hasan who bowled a string of yorkers in the day’s first game, he floated two full deliveries, both dispatched down the ground.After Ariful refused a single on the third ball, he lifted Miraz’s short balls over midwicket for two more sixes to sign off a brilliant comeback.Ariful had earlier come to the crease when Khulna were in trouble, and his sluggish batting hardly got them into a position of strength. Taskin Ahmed had removed both openers Anamul Haque and Imrul Kayes in the first over, but the bigger blows came a few overs later. First, Mahmudullah was sucked into a big shot by Miraz in the fifth over to be caught at long-on. Then in the following over, Shakib Al Hasan, having made only 15, holed out against Khan at deep square leg.Jahurul Islam and Ariful added 42 runs for the fifth wicket but it hardly gave Khulna any impetus. Jahurul struck 31 off 26 balls but Ariful got stuck at the other end. It was only when young Shamim Hossain came to the crease that Khulna looked like a chasing side.Shamim struck a six and three fours in his 18-ball 26 but when he was dismissed, Barishal looked in full control. Ariful, however, had other ideas right when it mattered.Barishal had earlier got off to a disastrous start after being put in to bat by Mahmudullah. Shafiul Islam had Miraz, opening the batting with Tamim Iqbal, caught-and-bowled off the first ball of the match. Barishal recovered slowly but then lost Iqbal on the last ball of the powerplay.Young Parvez Hossain Emon, however, made a half-century with three fours and four sixes, and although he struggled to put the ball away at times, the left-hander made sure his side didn’t veer into a big collapse so soon in the game. He added 32 for the fourth wicket with fellow Under-19 World Cup winner Tohwid Hridoy, who chipped in with 27 off 25 balls.Later, Mahidul Islam Ankon and Ahmed struck four sixes between them to take Barishal past the 150-mark. Shahidul Islam finished with 4 for 17, his best figures in T20s, while Shafiul and Hasan Mahmud took two each.Mahedi Hasan dispatches one away to the leg side en route to his half-century•BCB

Mahedi Hasan bowled a brilliant final over to help Minister Group Rajshahi clinch a two-run win over Beximco Dhaka in the opening game of the Bangabandhu T20 Cup.Mahedi bowled five dot balls – most of them yorkers – to a rampant Muktar Ali, who could only get a four through square leg off the fourth delivery. Off the next ball, the square-leg umpire sent a stumping appeal to his TV colleague, but it emerged that Mahedi had overstepped. Mahedi, however, made up for it by firing two more yorkers to give away just one more run, finishing with figures of 1 for 22 from his four overs. Earlier in the game, he had also produced 50 runs off 32 balls when Rajshahi had landed in trouble midway through their innings.Dhaka needing 30 runs off the last two overs, Mukhtar gave his side a lifeline by smashing three sixes off Farhad Reza. The first two of those went over midwicket while the last one was over long-on, as Dhaka managed 21 runs off the penultimate over. Eventually, it was an apt finish to a topsy-turvy game that could have gone either way.At the start of the chase, Dhaka had moved quickly, but lost three wickets within the first seven overs. Young Tanzid Hasan was run-out in the second over after hitting 18 off 11 balls. Mahedi then had Yasir Ali lbw in the fifth over, before Mohammad Naim, who also got off to a quick start, was caught one-handed at deep midwicket while trying to clear a long-hop from Arafat Sunny.Dhaka recovered through a 71-run fourth-wicket stand between Mushfiqur Rahim and Akbar Ali, the Under-19 World Cup-winning captain who chipped in with 34, including a six over long-on and four fours. But his dismissal with Dhaka still requiring 44 off the remaining 26 balls brought Rajshahi back in the game.Rajshahi had earlier built their total with two scoring bumps. They had started well with captain Najmul Hossain Shanto, before newcomer Anisul Islam Emon placed them in a strong position in the powerplay. Shanto was the first wicket to fall in the fourth over, but Emon struck five fours and a six in an attacking 23-ball 35. But from 65 for 2 in the ninth over, they lost three wickets – Mohammad Ashraful, Emon and Fazle Mahmud – on the same score, reducing them to a position from where survival took more importance.But Nurul Hasan and Mahedi turned things around quickly after a short lull. The sixth-wicket pair added 89 runs before Nurul, having struck three sixes and two fours in his quick 39, holed out trying to ramp off Muktar. Shortly afterwards, Mahedi too skied to deep square-leg but only after an aggressive 52 off 32 balls with three fours and four sixes.Dhaka’s pace bowlers had a better outing than their spinners, who went for combined figures of 2 for 84 from their eight overs. Muktar took 3 for 22, while Rubel Hossain and left-arm quick Mehedi Hasan were both economical.

It wasn’t special bowling but a case of the West Indies batsmen giving away their wickets, the middle-order batsman explained

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Aug-20192:39

We tried too hard with our short-ball plan – Roston Chase

Responding to India’s 297, each of West Indies’ top-eight batsmen got into double figures, but only four of them crossed 20 and Roston Chase’s 48 was the highest score. That left the home side at a precarious 189 for 8 at the end of the second day of the North Sound Test, and “we gave away our wickets a little too easy” was Chase’s explanation of the stuttering batting display.John Campbell was aggressive in a first-wicket stand of 36 with Kraigg Brathwaite, but once he fell, and his partner became the first of Ishant Sharma’s five victims on the day, there weren’t many partnerships of note, the 44-run alliance between Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer for the sixth wicket the best of them.Earlier this year, West Indies beat England 2-1 in a three-Test series at home. The middle-order batsmen played excellent hands then, but there were contributions from the top too, which Chase said the team needed desperately against India too.ALSO READ: Monga – Ishant Sharma, exorcising one ghost at a time“I thought that in that series, what we did well [was] we had some good opening partnerships. We saw off the new ball, that made it easier for the middle order, and we were able to just come out and play freely before the bowlers, being that fresh, full of energy, chirping in the field, stuff like that …” he said. “I just think that that’s where we need to knuckle down with our top-order batting.”We usually contribute very well in the middle order but I think our top order needs to pull a little more weight and bring some scores to the table.”Roston Chase plays one off the back foot•AFP

On Friday, every once in a way, the West Indies batsmen looked like they were settling down and bedding in for a defining partnership, but it never quite came. Worse for the team, as Chase said, none of the batsmen were done in by spectacular bowling.”Most of our guys got starts but we give away our wickets a little too easy today, didn’t really knuckle down and get that big score we were looking for,” Chase said. “I find it (the pitch) has quickened up, because on the first day, it had a little bit of moisture, so the ball was slowing a bit. It’s coming on to the bat quite nicely. Our batsmen could have used that to our advantage, but we gave our wickets away today.”Just a lapse in concentration, I guess, because none of us got any really special delivery, any unplayable delivery, it was just poor on our part to give our wickets away to such ordinary deliveries.”Chase’s own dismissal was an example of the “lapse in concentration”, as he reached out to flick Ishant to KL Rahul at midwicket. Before that, he did look like he would pull off one more of the sort of innings in home conditions that he has made a name for.”My thought process was just to stay hungry at the crease, to get my team as close as possible to the lead. But I gave it away. I thought it was looking good, it was going through my process, sticking to my game plan, but a lapse in concentration cost me my wicket,” Chase said. “For me, the ball didn’t do much, it was straight. I just thought I did not let it come to me as much as I should have.”I just went a little bit too much in front of my body. That’s what caused the ball to go in the air. I could have played with softer hands and let the ball come to me a bit more and just tuck it behind square for one.”When India batted, Kemar Roach and Co had reduced them to 25 for 3 – the wickets of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli among them – but the visiting side fought back to reach nearly 300, the 60-run stand for the eighth wicket between Ravindra Jadeja and Ishant hurting the West Indians the most.”I thought that after our initial quick burst on top with the early wickets, the Indian batsmen really applied themselves well. Parternships are always big in Test cricket, and I thought that our bowlers really stuck to the task at hand,” Chase said. “This morning, we got the early wickets we were looking for but I thought that we tried a bit too hard, we didn’t stick to coming down the channel, we tried a bit too hard with the short-ball plan and stuff like that. And it cost us.”Our energy went down a bit after the partnership built. I guess Jadeja and Ishant fed off that. We played into their hands and we tried too much things. But after we got that wicket, we wrapped it up pretty quickly, so that was still good for us. I thought we could have used that momentum going into the innings, but, as I said, we didn’t really use the conditions to our favour.”

‘It’s been tough but, you know, I think I needed a break if that makes sense. It’s obviously come under some ordinary circumstances but I was really mentally fatigued after the Ashes’

Daniel Brettig29-Jun-20183:28

Playing in Global T20 Canada part of my rehab – Smith

A renewed Steven Smith has reflected on how mental fatigue led him to making “horrible decisions” in the aftermath of last summer’s Ashes series, culminating in the Newlands ball-tampering scandal that saw him banned from the game for a year.On his return to competitive cricket in Global T20 Canada, Smith said he had been on a journey of many emotions since he was stripped of the Australian captaincy and banned for a year by Cricket Australia. After contributing a quickfire half century to the Toronto National’s successful chase in the opening match, Smith said that while he had been hurt by his inability to help Australian teammates on their losing tour of England, the Canadian sojourn formed part of his “rehab” from the brokenness he experienced in the wake of Cape Town.”I’ve been up and down with my emotions if I’m being honest,” Smith said in Toronto. “I’ve had times, particularly watching the boys play in England, and not play as well as they could have and England play extremely well, it was hurting me that I couldn’t go out and help them, help them win games.”And when they hopped on the plane to go over there I had some emotions that were a bit down. It’s been tough but, you know, I think I needed a break if that makes sense. It’s obviously come under some ordinary circumstances but I was really mentally fatigued after the Ashes. I put so much work into the Ashes, and I think back to the one-day games after the Ashes and I don’t think I’ve ever hit the ball that bad in my life.”I was making horrible decisions and I just felt horrible at the crease. I think it all comes down to the mental part of the game and I put so much into the Ashes that it took so much out of me. A bit of a break perhaps isn’t the worst thing. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back and perform at a really high level gain, but we’ll see what happens.”The first innings back showed signs of some rough edges, but by the end Smith was contributing fruitfully to his team’s victory while returning to the batting crease he described as a “haven”, away from all other distractions. “I normally don’t get real nervous before I play but I’ll be real honest, I was a bit nervous today,” he said.”You know, three months off and I haven’t hit that many balls back home, I’ve had a couple of nets but I haven’t had a hit on turf. A hit indoors yesterday and it felt pretty good and had a bit of luck today and I didn’t feel as good as I probably ever had, but it’s nice to score some runs when you’re not feeling good. Hopefully some positive signs.”Smith credited his manager Warren Craig, his fiancée Dani Willis, his father Peter and a close circle of friends for helping him through the past three months. “That’s made a big difference to me,” Smith said. “They know I absolutely love this game, and all I’ve ever wanted to be is a cricketer and I think they’d just be happy to see me back playing the game and it was fortunate to score some runs in my first game back, I didn’t feel as good as I would’ve liked, but it’s nice to score runs when you’re not feeling good.”I know all the people back home would be really proud of me playing here for the reasons I’m here as well. So it’s nice to be out in the middle. The last couple of months having some time off, I’ve been fortunate to do some really good work with Gotcha For Life and Gus Worland, talking about the mental health space and manning up and being vulnerable. Sometimes it’s okay to not be okay and things like that.”It’s been quite therapeutic for myself, but also I think a lot of the kids at the schools that I’ve gone to, I know we’ve made a big difference so far and that’s made me feel good in a way, and I’m going to do a lot more of that work when I get back home. I’ve been fortunate I’ve had the close people to me to get through what was a pretty difficult time in my life.”As for Smith’s plans between now and the end of his ban in March next year, he emphasised a desire to spend time at his home cricket club Sutherland in Sydney’s grade competition, and also looked forward to marrying Danni. “People have asked me if I’m going to play a lot of tournaments around the world while I’m suspended from international cricket and I’m going to play this one and go from there,” Smith said.”I know I’m going to go back and I want to try to make a difference at Sutherland, Shane Watson’s going to be playing there so it’ll be great to reunite with him. I’m getting married back home as well, so I do have a lot to look forward to, but we’ll see. If I’m playing in other tournaments there’s every chance it’ll be later on, probably next year.”I’m not going to lie, it’s been a difficult time in my life there’s no doubt about that. But I’ve accepted my punishment, accepted what I’ve gone through and I’m moving forward. Part of my rehab is playing cricket as well. That’s what I love doing and I want to help Toronto Nationals win this tournament, and most importantly have a good time. That’s what [Toronto captain] Darren Sammy’s been relaying to us, let’s go out and enjoy it and have fun and play some good solid cricket.”