All posts by csb10.top

Pujara returns with half-century after ‘stiff neck’
Fresh and well rested after a stiff neck forced him to retire hurt on 30, Cheteshwar Pujara returned to bat on the second day in Rajkot to make a half-century in Saurashtra’s first-innings total of 475 against Chhattisgarh. Pujara returned to bat after the fall of the fifth wicket and added a 65-run partnership with Sheldon Jackson who top scored with 147. Chhattisgarh were solid: 88 without loss in response with two days remaining.R Ashwin with a bagful of wickets
After toiling hard to pick up just one wicket in 21 overs on the first day in Dindigul, R Ashwin was rewarded for his persistence. He picked up three wickets on the second day to finish with figures of 4 for 85 as Madhya Pradesh were bowled out for 393 after being handily placed at 359 for 4 at one stage. In all, Ashwin sent down 38.4 overs, with five maidens. Ashwin was complemented by fast bowler M Mohammed, who picked up a hat-trick to trigger MP’s collapse. At stumps, M Vijay had faced six deliveries and was yet to get off the mark.

ScorecardWhen the best climbers reach the top of a mountain they look about them for the next summit. Surrey won the County Championship a fortnight ago; their challenge now is to go through a season unbeaten. The achievement of that goal was greatly imperilled on Monday morning when they were dismissed for 67 and it was placed in greater danger 24 hours later as Essex amassed a lead of 410 before declaring. This day’s cricket, however, reminded us all why Surrey are champions, albeit their efforts may not be sufficient to save them from defeatBy the close Surrey had wiped out their mighty deficit and two of their batsmen had contributed hundreds to a total which may yet set a few records. Jason Roy made the more galvanic of these centuries but Ollie Pope played the more cultivated innings and actually reached three figures in 97 balls, just five more than Roy had needed.However, Pope’s dismissal for 114 when he played across a ball from Matt Coles and was unluckily adjudged leg before wicket left Surrey with a lead of only 8. Will Jacks and Ryan Patel had extended that advantage to 67 by the end of play but there are only the bowlers to come. We could be in for a tense session or two at the Kia Oval before this great stage is curtained for winter.For the Essex attack patience was the essential virtue. On Monday they had disposed of ten batsmen in 27 overs; now they laboured for a full day, conceding 389 runs and taking but four wickets, none of which fell in the morning. Instead, Roy and Mark Stoneman levied 20 runs off the opening two overs and 40 in the first half hour of play. Whenever Coles or James Porter employed width or over-pitched they were punished by batsmen who knew they could trust the pitch.”My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent, I am attacking,” Marshal Foch messaged Marshal Joffre during the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, and the same spirit seemed to inspire Surrey’s overnight pair. Roy reached his 50 off 47 balls and his second Championship century of the season, in only his third match, with a back foot force off Simon Harmer, the only Essex bowler capable of calming the run rate.Ollie Pope cuts during his century•Getty Images

By lunch Roy and Stoneman had put on 122 runs off 29 overs and had appeared in little trouble. Yet within an hour of the resumption both had been dismissed, Roy in circumstances that might irritate his coaches. Having posted two men on the leg-side boundary, Matt Quinn bowled short of a length, plainly inviting the hook. Roy obliged and the substitute fielder Aron Nijjar took the catch. The ruse could not have been more obvious had the fielder worn a sandwich board with the words, “I am part of a trap” scrawled in large letters upon it. On the same afternoon he was named in the England Lions squad the immensely talented Roy was offered a reason why he has not yet made his debut in long-form representative cricket. There are batsmen for whom 128 would have represented no more than a start.Three overs later Stoneman was dismissed for 86 when he played inside a fairly straight ball from the tireless Harmer but by then Pope had begun to take possession of the afternoon’s cricket. Displaying composure beyond his age, the 20-year-old calmly demolished the Essex attack, repeatedly cover-driving Harmer’s offspin and cutting most of the pace bowlers to the crowd seated in front of the Tenison Terrace. Ravi Bopara was wristed to the fence four times in the six balls he was allowed. Having reached his fourth hundred of the season, Pope looked set to dominate the evening session in company with Ben Foakes, but the pair’s 115-run stand for the fourth wicket was ended when Foakes moved across his stumps and was leg before to Quinn for 32. Less than an hour later Pope needed only 14 runs to reach a thousand in the Championship when he fell to Coles, who was determined to grab the opportunity to deputize for the concussion-victim, Simon Cook.Other sides might have crumbled at this point but Jacks and Patel shepherded the innings safely into the penultimate evening of the season. And as the shadows advanced upon the ground 19-year-old Jacks brought up his maiden first-class fifty. Thus in the season’s end is a young cricketer’s beginning; and the autumn offers a portent of what next summer may bring.

Zak Crawley hit 94 and Brydon Carse took four wickets as England stretched their legs on the first day of action on their tour of New Zealand.After opting to bowl, England dismissed the Prime Minister’s XI shortly after lunch, with Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson and Carse sharing the wickets. They then raced into the lead, Crawley providing the impetus in an innings that featured 14 fours and two sixes.Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, sat out day one of the two-day game, with Ollie Pope leading the side in his absence.The youthful PM XI, which featured five players aged 23 or under, were soon in trouble against England’s new-ball pair of Woakes and Atkinson, who took two apiece up front to leave the hosts 20 for 4.Snehith Reddy, the 17-year-old New Zealand U19 allrounder, hit 60 from No. 6 but Carse – one of five bowlers used, alongside Matt Potts and Shoaib Bashir – helped England chip out the rest of the order.Crawley launched the reply in typically aggressive fashion, putting on 90 in 15.1 overs alongside Ollie Pope (42) for the second wicket and 50 in seven overs with Joe Root for the third. But Harry Brook and Chris Woakes were the only other batters to reach 20 as the innings ended in a clatter of wickets.England are expected to give most of their 16-man squad game time in the match, which is their only warm-up fixture before the first Test in Christchurch, starting on Thursday.

Zak Chappell lifted Derbyshire’s hopes of securing an elusive County Championship victory at Derby by demolishing Glamorgan on the opening day of the Division Two match.The fast bowler took 6 for 47, his best figures for the county, as the visitors were bowled out for 168 with Timm van der Gugten top scoring with an unbeaten 46.Glamorgan were 32 for 6 before Dan Douthwaite and van der Gugten led a mini recovery but Derbyshire closed on 119 for 2 with Harry Came not out 58. It leaves them in a strong position to push for a first Championship victory at the County Ground since they beat Sussex in August 2019.On a morning more in keeping with October, Derbyshire’s decision to bowl first on a grassy pitch paid immediate dividends with three wickets falling in the first five overs.In blustery conditions, Glamorgan’s top order had no answer to Chappell’s relentless accuracy and Luis Reece’s swing as they slumped to 9 for 3. Ben Kellaway’s promotion to opener was short-lived and he followed a pair on his first-class debut last September by edging a ball from Chappell that moved away late to register another duck in his third red-ball innings.In fairness, his more experienced team-mates fared little better with Billy Root bowled by a Reece delivery that kept low before Sam Northeast pushed forward to Chappell and was caught at second slip.Kiran Carlson played across one from Chappell that appeared to be going down before Reece got some late swing to have Colin Ingram caught behind. When Chris Cooke was caught behind down the leg side off one of the few bad balls Chappell bowled, Glamorgan were in disarray and grateful for the rain which resulted in an early lunch.Chappell, who passed 50 wickets in all formats for the season, left the field with outstanding figures of 4 for 9 from 6.4 overs but after the resumption they were dented when Douthwaite hit him for three fours in an over.With van der Gutgen playing solidly, the pair added 55 from 97 balls in relative comfort before Pat Brown removed Douthwaite with a snorter that nipped away late to take off stump.Chappell celebrated his fifth wicket when Mason Crane fenced at one to give Brooke Guest his fourth catch but Fraser Sheat on his debut looked capable until he top edged a pull to midwicket.Ned Leonard marked the first match of his loan spell from Somerset by helping van der Gugten take Glamorgan past 150 and drove Jack Morley’s second ball for six before he tried again next ball and holed out to long-on.Van der Gugten matched Chappell’s discipline with a probing spell but Sheat and Leonard could not exert the same pressure. Reece and Came shared an unbroken treble-century stand against Glamorgan last season but this time they managed only 21 before Reece was defeated by a full-length ball from van der Gugten.Guest played a loose stroke, clipping Leonard to midwicket with the score on 41, and Came should have gone on 28 but Ingram at first slip dropped an edge of Leonard.Came took advantage, seizing on any width to reach an 84-ball fifty which contained 10 fours, and with Wayne Madsen motoring to an unbeaten 41, they added 78 before bad light ended play.

“I wouldn’t say I was trying to entertain people and stuff like that. I don’t think I’m quite there to be thinking about it like that.”Except that’s exactly what Tony de Zorzi did. Off the field.He hosted the team’s video tour diary on their day off in Trinidad, which included a pop-quiz on who would play which sport at the Olympics (swimming was a favourite), designing a makeshift hurdles course for Dane Paterson, a spoof pitch report from Kagiso Rabada, and some politically-incorrect questions on which members of the squad chose not to swim and who was most likely to get sunburnt.Related

• Bavuma: 'My focus is on Tests, and I'm going to play the best I can in that format'

• Maharaj: 'I'll bowl the whole day if I have to'

• Burger, de Zorzi get CSA contracts; Nortje, de Kock omitted

But for those 13 minutes and 20 seconds, nobody could accuse de Zorzi of not trying to entertain.”It was another opportunity for me to talk nonsense, so I enjoyed it,” he said at a press conference. “And it’s important that you have those times where you can connect outside of a cricketing environment, because guys are obviously different in a training capacity and in a designated team environment.”Everyone’s quite cool, and keen to socialise and connect with each other in different ways. It’s nice to be able to connect and have those days together to just touch base.”Overall, South Africa looked relaxed and rested after a mentally-draining first Test against West Indies in Port of Spain, which went the distance because of a significant number of rain interruptions. As their coach Shukri Conrad had predicted, the match was mostly slow-paced, and run-scoring was tough.But de Zorzi, in his first outing as the new Test opener, acquitted himself well. In the first innings, he reached his half-century off 78 balls (at a strike rate of 64) upfront and finished on 78, and then hit a second-innings 45 off 60 deliveries to help set South Africa up to post a challenging target for West Indies.Tony de Zorzi fell for 78 in Port of Spain, but said there is no pressure to score his first Test century•AFP/Getty Images

De Zorzi explained his approach was less about playing his shots, and more about the situation.”I wouldn’t say it was something where I decided I’m going to come out and play Shuks-ball or something. It was just the conditions,” he said. “Sometimes it’s a bit easier because the ball is harder at the beginning. Being someone who was born up-country [in Johannesburg], I’m used to the ball coming on to the wicket, and scoring a lot squarer on the off side and the leg side. So it is [about] just being cognisant of the fact that I’m obviously going to have to hit a lot straighter for most of my runs.”Having spent his early career on the Highveld, de Zorzi has since moved down to the Western Cape, where he plays on slightly flatter surfaces. But he found the Queen’s Park Oval “completely different” to anything he has experienced at home. And he has set himself the challenge of trying to adjust to the differences without losing the essence of his batting style.”My mindset is that I’m here now, so I’ve got to just trust myself and back what I’ve done to get here,” he said. “I don’t think I have to try to reinvent the wheel in my game plan. It’s just about being able to make small little adjustments according to the wicket. So [it’s about] being comfortable enough to make a small change – not a massive one – and then just trusting it.”In the first Test, that shift was about getting on to the front foot more often than he might do at home, where back-foot play comes more easily. And so far, de Zorzi’s small shifts are working. He has now got past 75 twice in five Tests – once at home, and once away – and has shown signs he can go on to get bigger things. But asked if the pressure to score a first Test hundred is lurking, he was philosophical.”It’ll come when it’s supposed to,” he said. “I’m obviously doing the work that’s intended for me to get it, and I’m pretty comfortable with my game. Hopefully, next time it just doesn’t hit my glove [as it did against Jomel Warrican against West Indies], and I’ll get over the line.”For now, he’s just loving life as a Test cricketer, occasional vlogger and a foodie in the West Indies. “I’ve enjoyed the food in the Caribbean. It’s really nice, and really healthy,” he said. “I’ve found the food is pretty natural, and not as full of preservatives.”He had previously told the host broadcaster that the thing he has enjoyed the most on the tour was “the plantain”, which bodes well for his week in Guyana, the venue of the second Test. Deep-fried plantain chips are among the most popular snacks in the country, and if you’re keen to know what they taste like, keep an eye on de Zorzi’s socials, where you might spot a review.

Hardik Pandya’s return to the Wankhede Stadium as Mumbai Indians captain was far from a fairy tale, as the five-time champions lost their third game in a row, this time with 27 balls to spare. Rajasthan Royals – led by superb performances from Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal and Riyan Parag – gave them a thorough hammering to move to No. 1 on the points table with a hat-trick of victories.Boult left Mumbai gasping within minutes of the start of the match when he dismissed Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir and Dewald Brevis for first-ball ducks in his first eight balls. His 3 for 22 was only matched by the 3 for 11 taken by Chahal, who controlled the middle overs to ensure Mumbai did not stage a batting comeback.Chasing 126 for victory, Parag dragged Royals out of some early trouble and shepherded the chase. He finished the game with six, six, and four to stay unbeaten on 54 to take the No. 1 spot on the orange cap leaderboard – tied on runs with Virat Kohli but ahead of strike rate.

Boult sets up the demolition job

Rohit had all the support from the crowd, who chanted his name even as they booed Hardik, but his time with the bat lasted only one ball when Boult got one to swing away from him and get him to edge it behind. Next ball, Boult swung it the other way, getting a full ball to nip into Dhir.With two wickets gone inside the game’s first six balls, Mumbai brought in impact sub Brevis in the second over itself, but he too fell prey to the ball angling across, edging it to Nandre Burger at short third.Trent Boult picked up three wickets in his first eight balls – par for the course•Associated Press

With three wickets in his first eight deliveries of the game, Boult gave Royals an advantage that they never let go.

Scintillating Chahal

After Boult’s searing opening spell, Burger got in on the action. Playing as a replacement for the injured Sandeep Sharma, Burger came around the wicket to pick off Ishan Kishan with a length ball that angled away and took his edge.With Mumbai Indians 20 for 4 in three-and-a-half overs, Tilak Varma and Hardik looked to build a recovery, almost succeeding with a 56-run fifth-wicket stand, but Chahal dismissed both batters to snuff out any chance of a comeback.After hitting six boundaries early in his innings, Hardik fell on 34 when he holed out at mid-on trying to hit Chahal. Tilak was sent packing on 32 soon after when Chahal’s googly was edged to R Ashwin at short third.Chahal finished his spell with the wicket of Gerald Coetzee late in the innings. In all, 16 of Chahal’s 24 deliveries were dots, and his four-over spell ended with an economy of only 2.75.A late wicket for Avesh Khan and a second for Burger ensured Mumbai finished on 125 for 9, a score too low on a surface that is traditionally batting-friendly.

Madhwal comes good on season debut

Only wickets could save Mumbai after that batting effort, and they played their trump card early when Jasprit Bumrah shared the new ball, with Kwena Maphaka, for the first time this season.But even though Bumrah bowled three of the six powerplay overs, the Royals batters did not give a wicket away to him. Yashasvi Jaiswal fell to Maphaka in the first over itself, while the other three wickets went to Akash Madhwal, playing his first game of IPL 2024.Madhwal struck with the second ball of his spell when he got Sanju Samson to chop on to his stumps, and added a second when Jos Buttler pulled him to fine leg. He added a third later, in the 13th over, when Ashwin sent a leading edge off a short delivery to point. Madhwal was the standout bowler for Mumbai Indians with 3 for 20.Riyan Parag scored another half-century, and claimed the orange cap•BCCI

Parag’s form continues

Parag walked in ranked No. 5 on the orange cap list and finished the day with the cap on his head. With no real scoreboard pressure on this occasion, No. 4 Parag played risk-free cricket early on, but tore into Coetzee with four fours and two sixes.It all started with back-to-back boundaries off Coetzee in the eighth over, followed by another lofted four over the covers in the 11th. He then smoked Bumrah through mid-off in the 14th over before depositing Piyush Chawla over long-on in the 15th.Parag then put the finishing touches on the result by hammering Coetzee for 16 runs off the first three balls of the 16th over. The first ball went for a clubbed six over the covers, and he reached his fifty next ball with a slog over midwicket. The winning runs came over wicketkeeper Kishan’s head and sent Royals and Mumbai Indians to opposite ends of the points table.

Kolkata Knight Riders have brought in Phil Salt as a replacement for Jason Roy for IPL 2024 after Roy pulled out citing “personal reasons”. Having remained unsold in the latest auction after representing Delhi Capitals last year, this will be Salt’s second season in the IPL. He was acquired by KKR at his reserve auction price of INR 1.5 crore (approx $181,000).Salt’s most recent T20I appearances came in December 2023 in the Caribbean, where he recorded scores of 40, 25, 109 not out, 119 and 38, topping the run-scoring charts with his 331 runs, at a strike rate of 185.95. Unfortunately for him, the two centuries came on December 16 and 19, the latter the date of the auction. With Roy opting out, though, he became an option for KKR.His 48-ball century in the fourth T20I in the West Indies is the joint-fastest in the format for England, and Salt now has a stellar T20 record, with 5308 runs from 221 innings at a strike rate of 153.41 and an average of 25.89. And he has played around the world, too, including in the BBL, the Caribbean Premier League, the Pakistan Super League, and in leagues in Sri Lanka, the UAE and South Africa.Roy, for his part, hasn’t had a regular run at the IPL despite his reputation as a short-format champion, even though he has been around a bit, playing for the now-defunct Gujarat Lions in 2017, Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) in 2018, and subsequently for Sunrisers Hyderabad and KKR.This, though, isn’t the first time he has opted out of the IPL. He had withdrawn in 2020 (Capitals) for personal reasons and then in 2022 (Gujarat Titans) when he took an “indefinite break” from the game.The swap doesn’t change the overseas/Indian balance of the KKR line-up. Salt becomes an option for the opening slot along with Rahmanullah Gurbaz, with Sherfane Rutherford the other specialist overseas batter in the mix. That aside, they have old regulars Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, as well as quick bowlers Mitchell Starc and Dushmantha Chameera, who had earlier replaced Gus Atkinson, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the fingerspinner.Shreyas Iyer is the designated captain of the side, which will play its IPL 2024 opener on the second day of the tournament, March 23, against Sunrisers at home in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.

Upul Tharanga, the former Sri Lankan opener, has been appointed as the new chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) selection committee, the board has confirmed. He will head a five-member committee which includes Ajantha Mendis, Indika de Saram, Tharanga Paranavitana and Dilruwan Perera.The move comes in the wake of Sri Lanka’s underwhelming 2023 World Cup campaign, which had them win only two out of nine games and subsequently miss out on qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy.Their first assignment will be picking the squad for Sri Lanka’s home series against Zimbabwe in January, which will be followed by a series against Afghanistan. In the medium term they will be keeping a keen eye on the T20 World Cup in June.The new committee, which will be in place for a two-year term, is among the youngest ever appointed to such a post at SLC. While de Saram at 50 is the oldest of the lot, Paranavitana and Dilruwan are both 41, with Tharanga and Mendis younger still at 38.Tharanga, Dilruwan and de Saram also turned out to play first-class cricket as recently as this year. Paranavitana meanwhile last played domestically in 2020, having retired from international cricket that same year, while Mendis has followed up his 2019 retirement by frequenting the legends circuit.The decision over the new committee was taken after SLC had nominated a list of names to Sri Lanka’s newly appointed sports minister Harin Fernando. Under Sri Lanka’s sports law, the sports minister is solely vested with the power to appoint selection committees. It is understood that SLC was in favour of the outgoing committee, headed by Pramodya Wickramasinghe, carrying on in the lead up to next year’s T20 World Cup, however Fernando decided fresh faces were in order.During his tenure, Wickramasinghe had overseen a youth-driven overhaul with several senior players eschewed in favour of a core of younger players. Results of the move were mixed, with Sri Lanka unexpectedly lifting the 2022 T20 Asia Cup, to go alongside home series wins against Australia, South Africa and India. But this was juxtaposed by abject showings in the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups, as well as the 2023 ODI World Cup.As such, much of the discourse surrounding Sri Lanka’s recent form has been striking the right balance between youth and experience, and so this will likely be among the foremost areas set to be addressed by the new committee in picking their first squad.

Shortly after winning his last game of the season at Chepauk and leading CSK into the IPL final, MS Dhoni was asked whether he’d be back in Chennai next year. He continued to be non-committal about the subject, saying he had another eight-nine months to decide, but acknowledged that it had taken a “heavy toll” on him.”I don’t know, I have eight to nine months to decide, the small auction may be around December, so why take that headache right now?” Dhoni said after CSK’s win against Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1. “I have ample time to decide.”Dhoni has had an issue with his knee all through the season and was seen wearing a brace after CSK’s final league game. While he hasn’t missed a match, he has had trouble running between wickets.”I will always be there for CSK, whether that is in the playing form or sitting somewhere outside…I don’t really know. Frankly, it takes a heavy toll. I have been out of home for literally four months. January 31 was when I got out of the house, finished my work, and started practicing from 2nd or 3rd of March. It takes a lot, but I have ample time to decide.”Related

• Belief, support and a long rope: how Chennai Super Kings have built a consistently odds-beating side

• Did Dhoni deliberately waste time to let Pathirana bowl against Titans?

• Jadeja finally gets his Chepauk (yel)love

• CSK do CSK things as Dhoni masterminds route to yet another IPL final

• CSK squeeze the Titans to enter their tenth IPL final

Dhoni and CSK now travel from Chennai to Ahmedabad for their tenth IPL final in 14 seasons. When asked whether an IPL final now felt like just another game, Dhoni said it did not.”IPL is too big to say that it is just another … and not to be forgetting that there used to be eight top teams, who used to compete with the best players available in the world and now it is tougher.”I won’t say it is just another final. It is hard work of more than two months because of which we are standing over here. Lot of character shown by the individuals, from where we started to where we are, and I feel everybody has contributed. Yes, the middle order has not got ample opportunity, but in between everybody has got a chance to chip in and they have done that.”CSK managed to score 172 after losing the toss in Qualifier 1 on a pitch that was tough for batting. During the defence, Dhoni was in his element, marshalling his bowlers and making field placements to stifle the Titans’ chase.MS Dhoni gets his fielders exactly where he wants them•BCCI

“You see the wicket, you see the conditions and according to that, you keep adjusting the field,” he said. “I can be a very annoying captain because I shift the fielder one or two feet here and there every time.”The fielder needs to keep an eye on me. Imagine you are fielding and every two balls or three balls, I am like, ‘Okay two feet to your right, three feet to your left.’ It can be annoying. I always say I believe in my gut feel, I see the wicket, the line, what is really happening and more often than not, it pays off. The only request I ask from the fielders is ‘keep an eye on me, if you drop a catch, there won’t be any reactions but just keep an eye on me.'”It hasn’t been an easy road to the final for CSK. They have grappled with several injuries, but have managed with the resources they have, especially in the pace department where Tushar Deshpande and Matheesha Pathirana have grown into their roles over the course of the season.”We try to create an environment. Other than that, we reiterate as to what is the strength of the fast bowler. Along with that, we make sure that they are improving in the areas where they need to be good at,” Dhoni said. “At the IPL, more often than not with the new ball, they know what needs to be done. The question is when it is not swinging, when it is not in your favour, then with the two fielders, where you can bowl to a particular batsman and what field you can keep. If a bowler knows that, more often than not, he will be successful.”We try to motivate them as much as possible. The support staff is there, they are always there. Now, [Dwayne] Bravo is there, Eric [Simons] is there. There are lot of people who can help them out. At the end of the day, when they are standing, they are there on their own. It is a very lonely place, but that’s where you can be brave and courageous.”Deepak Chahar took 2 for 29 in Qualifier 1•BCCI

Deepak Chahar: “Everything is okay”

CSK’s most experienced fast bowler Deepak Chahar has said that “everything is okay” despite appearing to pull up with some discomfort in his leg after taking the final catch of the game against the Titans.”Everything is okay, one more to go,” Chahar said after the match.Chahar has missed six games this season due to a hamstring injury he suffered in an earlier match after missing the whole of the 2022 season due to a back injury. In Qualifier 1, Chahar picked up 2 for 29, which included the wickets of the Titans openers, Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill.”The ball was doing something on the track and it was sticking to it [the pitch]. So, as a bowling unit, we decided to bowl more length,” Chahar said. “When you get support from the wicket, then you obviously don’t need to experiment too much – just bowl the basic ball and let them take the chances because we scored the runs and, when it comes to semi-finals, it’s all about handling the pressure. And scoring 170, chasing 170 in a semi-final when the crowd is against you, is very difficult.”

Alyssa Healy is racing the clock to play in Australia’s looming ODIs against India after being ruled out of the remainder of the WBBL with a knee injury.Sydney Sixers on Saturday said Australia’s captain would not play for them again this tournament, after picking up an injury in her left knee. Australia’s three-match ODI series starts four days after the WBBL final, leaving Healy in significant doubt for international duties.Related

• Healy ruled out of India series, Voll in line for Australia debut

• Healy opens up on injury: 'Probably took the wrong risk'

• 'Just go all out': Rodrigues looks to Australian mindset

• Heat boost WBBL finals hopes, burn Sixers' chances

Healy did not keep in Sixers’ last-start loss against Brisbane Heat because of body management, and had entered the tournament with a foot injury that ended her T20 World Cup early. Australia host India in three ODIs, before travelling to New Zealand over Christmas for three more one-dayers.It’s understood Healy will be assessed in the next fortnight ahead of those two series, with a squad to be announced next weekend.The injury is not believed to be serious enough to have her in any current doubt for the multi-format Ashes, which begin with an ODI at North Sydney on January 12.Healy had warned on her return from her foot injury that she may need to be managed through the summer.”There are higher powers sitting above that are quite vocal in what can and can’t happen, which I completely understand,” Healy said earlier this month.  “Being skipper as well is a fairly big role for me. I want to be available for as much of the summer as I can.”I’ve hardly played a game for the Sixers for the past two seasons, and it’s a place I really enjoy playing cricket.  I want to be available for every game that I possibly can, but the reality is that might not be the case.”It’s going to be managing the pain, function and what I can and can’t do [all summer]. How I pull up from games is going to be really important as well.”Healy’s injury comes as a serious blow to Sixers, who face the prospect of needing to win their last three matches to make the WBBL finals.If Healy does miss international matches, Tahlia McGrath would be expected to deputise as captain again after doing so in the World Cup.