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England allrounder discusses hopes of starting a family in future with wife Katherine

ESPNcricinfo staff17-May-2024England allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt has revealed that she missed the first T20I against Pakistan after having her eggs frozen with a view to having a family.Sciver-Brunt was not involved at Edgbaston last weekend, due to what was described as a “minor medical procedure”. She has now spoken publicly about the process in a conversation with her wife, former England seamer Katherine Sciver-Brunt, on the PCA’s Under The Lid podcast.”In the period between getting back from New Zealand [where England toured in April] and this [series], I thought it was a great time to go through the egg-freezing process, creating embryos and putting them in the freezer for future use,” she said.”Katherine and myself would love to start a family but I’d also like to continue playing cricket. We are lucky in that there are more options than one. We’re just working out the best way for us to go about it. I’d like to carry a baby when I finish playing cricket and I think Katherine wants to carry a baby as well.”England have been really good. The sports science and medical department are really supportive and have helped me along the way, making sure coming back to cricket has been smooth. After the procedure you’re wiped out for quite a few days.”On missing the first T20I, she said: “I’d only just started back to exercise, so wasn’t quite ready [to play].”She is expected to be involved in the second match against Pakistan, to be played in Northampton on Friday evening.Katherine, who retired last year, said they had begun to explore the process because “there is a timeframe on how fertile you can be”, with Nat, 31, hoping to being involved in the 2028 Olympics before making any further decisions on when to have children.”If Nat was 24 she might want to have a child, then come back and play. At 31, it’s on the verge,” Katherine said. “Freezing the eggs now and having healthy eggs to come back to – it’s great to be able to have that choice because it’s not cheap and very invasive.”

Starc has started training in Delhi, and if ready, might form Australia’s fast-bowling attack with Pat Cummins in the second Test

Alex Malcolm13-Feb-2023Scott Boland hopes he has put enough pressure on Australia’s selectors to keep his place for the second Test against India in Delhi despite Mitchell Starc’s imminent return from a finger injury.Starc missed the opening Test in Nagpur because of the finger injury he suffered in late December. He remained at home for the start of the tour but has flown into Delhi and will train today on his own. Australia’s physical performance coach Aaron Kellett has flown to Delhi to oversee Starc’s training while the rest of the team remained in Nagpur to train before travelling to Delhi on Tuesday.Boland wasn’t originally set to play in Nagpur, but Josh Hazlewood’s Achilles issue opened the door for him and he bowled 17 overs for just 34 runs in India’s innings of 400. He bowled one of the best fast-bowling spells of the match on the second morning, delivering three maidens in six overs and conceding just three runs while bowling to the in-form Rohit Sharma. It came after Australia had conceded 40 runs in the first 13 overs of the morning. His ability to slow the scoreboard down helped Todd Murphy pick up two wickets at the other end.Related

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While Starc looks like a lock to return, having played every Test on the tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka last year as the second quick alongside Pat Cummins when Australia played two spinners, Boland was hopeful of slotting in.”I felt like I bowled well, but when you are bringing in someone like Mitchell Starc, who is a gun in these conditions and has bowled really well in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, hopefully I made the selectors job a little bit tougher than what it originally was,” Boland said. “In places like here, it is tough to judge [how you went] as a fast bowler but I think I contributed to our game plan and I played my role pretty well.”I think I had a pretty good spell in conjunction with Toddy a couple of times so I was happy with how the ball came out.”

Will Mitchell Starc be ready for Delhi Test?

“Obviously I want to play. I enjoyed the challenge of bowling in these different conditions. I’ve just got to make the selectors’ job as hard as I can to bring someone in,” Boland said. “We don’t know. I’m not sure. I haven’t seen Starcy bowl. I’m not sure if he’s going to be right to play. I assume he is if he’s over here. I don’t think we’re going to play three fast bowlers. There’s only going to be two spots up for grabs, I reckon.”4:36

Were Australia a tad too defensive with the ball?

India were 168 for 5 at one stage in their innings in Nagpur, but Boland bowled just eight overs after that point. He found the outside edge of both Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel early in their innings but neither ball went to hand.Coach Andrew McDonald did not think Boland was underbowled in the innings despite appearing to be Australia’s second-best bowler behind Murphy. “I think it was about right,” McDonald said. “I think we wanted to come in with the quicks and use reverse swing. We probably didn’t get as much reverse as we thought and nor did they. There wasn’t as much reverse on offer but definitely Scott did the role we expected him to do.”He allowed the spinners to be well-placed, and we knew that we were going to have combinations where Scotty would bowl with the spinner down the other end and there was going to be other periods where the spinners would bowl together. The question for us, was it too similar with two [off] spinners operating in tandem spinning the ball in?”Starc’s reverse swing threat would be a major temptation for the selectors in Delhi as would his ability to create rough outside the right-hander’s off stump when bowling over the wicket, which will significantly aid Murphy and Nathan Lyon, although it would also help R Ashwin.Boland got a hint of reverse in Nagpur but conceded the ball did not stay hard for long enough for it to be effective. “I felt like we had a little bit of reverse swing but the ball was so soft and the wicket was so slow through the middle, it was hard to beat the inside edge with the bat,” he said. “Maybe if we can get reverse swing a little bit earlier we might be able to beat the inside edge, but with the wicket being so slow it was hard work.”He also noted how difficult it was for Australia’s slip fielders. Alex Carey stood up to the stumps to Boland for periods, while the edges off Jadeja and Axar did not carry to a regulation slip. Steven Smith was standing unusually close at first slip for the Jadeja edge but could not grasp the near-impossible chance.”I felt running in that they looked real close,” Boland said. “I think I bowled a couple of overs from the other end with the second new ball and I asked Pete [Handscomb] to come as close as he could and I was running in and I was like ‘he’s too close’, even if they nick it he’s not going to catch it. He was happy to do that and I just said stand where you’re comfortable. If you do get an edge you want him to have a chance to catch it.”

“If it starts clicking well, it will definitely add a new dimension to my game”

PTI14-Apr-2022Kolkata Knight Riders’ mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy is banking on a new bowling variation to turn around what has been a subdued start to his IPL season.Varun was the leading wicket-taker for Knight Rider last season with 18 wickets from 17 matches, but has only four scalps from five games this season.”It is bound to happen, people will have plans against me. Last year in the Indian leg, I had six to seven wickets in seven matches. Later on, I picked up more wickets, so you cannot predict how many wickets you are going to get,” Chakravarthy said.”I am working on a new variation which I am looking forward to bowl more. If it starts clicking well it will definitely add a new dimension to my game.”Asked further about the new variation, he said, “I am working on a legspin (variation). I have been working for it in the last two years. I have bowled in few matches and I have got a wicket out of that also.”I need to be a little more confident (bowling the new variation) and start bowling it more.”Chakravarthy returned to competitive cricket in the IPL after featuring in the T20 World Cup last year, where he failed to pick a wicket before being sidelined due to a calf injury.”I was at the NCA for the treatment of my injury. Now it is resolved very well. I could take the field without any pain killer. So, I am feeling fitter and that has helped me to bowl a lot better.”Asked what kind of adjustments he used to make on wickets which favour batsmen, he said, “Stick to your basic plan, stick to your strength rather then focussing on the batters. So, to change the mental set-up.”Varun said he considers Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan as the best spinner currently in world cricket.”In cricket, you are bound to be hit. The best spinner right now is Rashid (Khan) and even he has gone for runs (in some matches) but he is still the best. It happens in a few matches, you will have a bad day and you just need to bounce back.”Varun also said that he shares a special relationship with fellow Knight Riders spinner Sunil Narine.”Sunil is like a big brother to me. If I go through a lean patch he will come to me and talk to me. He has also shared to me personal things of which he is vulnerable.”It is great of such a legend to talk to me about such things, to let me know he is vulnerable and he also goes though lean patches and tough times. So, talking to him gives you confidence and reinforces self belief.”Varun said that the current competition among Indian legspinners does not put any pressure on him as far as securing a national spot is concerned.”I see it as healthy competition. I messaged Yuzi (Chahal) also, the way he bowled, he is in amazing form right now, Ravi Bishnoi is bowling brilliantly, Kuldeep is doing very well for his team, Rahul Chahar is brilliant. I just feel nice when a legspinner does well.”

Dhaka needed 11 off the final over, and Shuvagata Hom struck successive sixes off Thisara Perera to seal the chase

Mohammad Isam09-Feb-2022How the match played out
Shuvagata Hom struck two sixes in the last over to drag Minister Group Dhaka over the line against Khulna Tigers. Dhaka needed 11 runs off the final over bowled by Thisara Perera after Khaled Ahmed conceded just four in the penultimate over.But Hom, who was dismissed at a crucial stage against Chattogram Challengers on Tuesday, slammed Perera for a straight six before pounding the ball over extra cover much to his team-mates’ delight, thus finishing with an unbeaten nine-ball 18 including the two sixes. Eventually, Khulna’s 129 would not prove to be enough.Big hit

Dhaka had removed half the Khulna side in the first seven overs. It started with Soumya Sarkar offering a catch to deep square leg off Rubel Hossain. And after a mix-up with Jaker Ali resulted in a run-out, Andre Fletcher holed out at cover off Arafat Sunny, who also removed Yasir Ali with a beautiful arm-ball off the very next delivery.But it was only when Sikandar Raza came to the crease that Khulna got back on track. Raza stopped the slide by putting together mini partnerships with all three of Mahedi Hasan, Perera and Ruyel Mia. He struck the ball well through the leg side, picking up all but a four and a six each though the off side out of a total of five fours and four sixes, as he struck 64 off 50 balls.But Dhaka too never looked settled in the 130-run chase, slipping to 12 for 2 in the fourth over. Captain Mahmudullah and Jahurul Islam added 57 for the third wicket, before Ruyel, the left-arm quick making his BPL debut, clean bowled Jahurul for 30.That followed both Mahmudullah and Shamsur Rahman finding long-off off consecutive Perera deliveries – the last ball of the 16th over and the first of the 18th – leaving Hom and Azmatullah Omarzai, the young Afghanistan allrounder, with 24 required from the last 17 balls.Big miss

Khulna’s top five departed cheaply – they were 32 for 5 in the seventh over – despite Mushfiqur Rahim deciding to bat first. Although Fletcher has looked in good form throughout the tournament and Soumya had begun to get some good form off late, they still fell for 6 and 1, respectively. Yasir and Mushfiqur, who have usually contributed when the top three has failed, also fell early. That left the remaining Khulna batters with too much to do.

Ben Stokes set to return to action, for Durham, after being out since April when he picked up a finger injury

Matt Roller19-Jun-2021Olly Stone has been ruled out for the rest of the English summer after suffering another stress fracture to the lower back, his third in as many years. Stone was due to be named in England’s ODI squad for their upcoming three-match World Cup Super League series against Sri Lanka, which starts on June 29, but the injury has opened the door for George Garton, the Sussex left-arm seamer, to be included in a full squad for the first time.Stone suffered the injury following England’s second Test against New Zealand at Edgbaston, in which he took three wickets for 97 runs. It is the latest in a cruel run of injuries that has blighted his career, and leaves his prospects of playing in the T20 World Cup and the Ashes this winter in doubt.Related

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Garton has been a regular in England Lions’ white-ball plans since he was 19, and was added to the touring party ahead of the first Ashes Test in 2017-18 as cover after impressing in the nets. He missed the 2018 summer after picking up a side strain while picking a suitcase off a baggage carousel at Los Angeles airport, but has made significant strides since: across the last two T20 Blast seasons, he has taken 22 wickets at 13.54 with an economy rate of 6.93, and has also contributed with the bat as a finisher and in the field.”It is a great shame as Olly was showing real promise with the ball and would have been part of our selection plans for this series,” Chris Silverwood, England’s coach, who will hand over the reins to Graham Thorpe, his assistant, during the ODI series, said.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“We have been monitoring the progress of George Garton for quite some time. He has been a significant part of Sussex’s bowling unit in white-ball cricket for an extended period. His ability to bowl quick, with his point of difference being a left-armer, certainly gives us options in this series, and he deserves his chance at this level.”England are also missing Jofra Archer (elbow injury), Reece Topley (side strain) and Saqib Mahmood (abdominal strain), who Silverwood said were making “excellent progress”.Meanwhile, Ben Stokes is due to make his return to cricket after being out with a hand injury on Sunday, when he plays for Durham against Birmingham Bears in the Vitality Blast. Stokes has not played competitively since the Rajasthan Royals’ opening game of the IPL, when he suffered the injury while taking a catch. Stokes is targeting an international return in the T20I series against Pakistan, which starts on July 16.Jonny Bairstow has been named in the squad despite suffering an ankle injury during Yorkshire’s win at Worcestershire on Wednesday, after which he left the ground with a moon boot. There are only two changes from the T20I squad named last week, with Garton and Joe Root replacing Chris Jordan and Dawid Malan.

Veteran legspinner won’t play for the Renegades after electing to stay on in South Africa

Alex Malcolm28-Dec-2020The Melbourne Renegades have suffered another blow with their premier legspinner Imran Tahir withdrawing from the tournament for personal reasons.Tahir had been in doubt to play in the BBL after his arrival was delayed in December with the Australian government requiring overseas players to do a 14-day quarantine in a hotel room prior to being available to play.Related

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The Renegades had signed a bevy of international spinners including Tahir, Mohammad Nabi, Noor Ahmad, and Imad Wasim.The Renegades coach Michael Klinger said that while it was disappointing to lose Tahir, it would give an opportunity to Noor Ahmad. “Unfortunately, Imran is not coming for personal reasons,” Klinger said. “He’s a great player so it is a loss. But at the same time we’ve seen Noor Ahmad a couple of games ago, a bowler who people haven’t seen that much, it might actually work in our favour.”He’ll now be able to play a fair chunk of that back end of the season, with Imad Wasim. Nabi has to go home for international duty. It is a loss but at the same time what a huge opportunity for young Noor to come in and have a huge impact on the BBL.”Ahmad, 15, made his BBL debut against the Hobart Hurricanes and took 1 for 27 from four overs and was unfortunate not to claim a second wicket with a very close lbw shout against Colin Ingram turned down.He was left out of the Renegades last match against the Sydney Thunder, where they were beaten by 129 runs to suffer the second-largest defeat in BBL history, just two weeks after suffering the worst one against the Sydney Sixers.Klinger said the mood in the group was still upbeat despite the heavy defeats. “The mood is still pretty good because we know what we’re capable of doing,” he said. “We saw in game one how well we played. We know we’ve got the ability in the group to really come out and perform well.”

Admits being in the broadcast commentary box last summer made him eager to spend more time playing

Daniel Brettig16-Nov-2020Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine has given an indicator he may be looking at a longer term in charge of the national team, as his sole deputy Pat Cummins backed away from any suggestions he was ramping up his apprenticeship for a possible succession plan.On the day that South Australia’s developing Covid-19 outbreak underlined how even the best-laid plans are particularly tenuous in 2020, Paine indicated he had no intention of returning to the broadcast commentary box in the short to medium term. He has rejoined the Big Bash League’s playing ranks with the Hobart Hurricanes and stated that he missed the atmosphere of the dressing room when sequestered as part of Seven’s broadcast team after concluding his Test duties last summer.While a place on the Hurricanes’ list does not equate to a continuing Test match tenure, 35-year-old Paine’s revelation that his first taste of life beyond the game only made him more eager to spend more time playing is a strong pointer to the fact that he wishes to hang onto his place as the nation’s No. 1 wicketkeeper and red ball captain beyond the climax of the World Test Championship next year and even the home Ashes series in 2021-22.”I missed white-ball cricket, I enjoyed my commentary but I missed being around the team and around my mates,” Paine said. “For me I can go to commentary in three or four years’ time if need be, but for me at the moment I just want to play as much cricket as I can while I still can and thankfully, I’m fit enough to be still going. I can’t wait to be back in the purple and back around white-ball cricket.”It was probably at the end of last year I had a chat to my manager when the Hurricanes were playing finals and I was there commentating and while I enjoyed the stint and it’s something I’ll probably look to do when I finish, but I miss the competitiveness, I miss being around the team and didn’t enjoy being on the outside of it. I wanted to get back inside the tent.”I think I’ll be available for the back three or four and then the finals, but looking at the line-up it’s going to be difficult for me to get a game with the quality we’ve got on our list.”Cummins, who has been confirmed as the lone vice-captain of both the Test and limited-overs teams and thus lieutenant to Paine and Aaron Finch, said on Monday he was not looking at the role as anything more than a supporting post to the team leaders.Mark Taylor stated that a longer tenure for Paine might make CA look beyond Smith and to a younger generation•Getty Images

“Not really to be honest, maybe once I get into Test camp I’ll get my head around it a bit more, but I still see my job as helping Painey out in that Test side as much as I can. Beyond that, not really,” he said. “Since being vice-captain, of course you think about the game a bit more when you’re out there, when you’re off the field as well, trying to be a bit more aware of what’s going on, sometimes as a bowler it’s easy to go down to fine leg and drift, so just trying to make sure I’m always trying to learn what it takes to be captain in case it ever comes up.”Just about everyone you come across, whether it’s ex-players or some of the really good players you’re lucky enough to play with in IPL have been part of really good sides and have had some leadership roles, so I think everyone has their own style and way they go about it, so it’s great to hear what’s worked for them and it’s all different cultures, different levels of cricket, but I think most of the problems and the opportunities are all the same. Just maybe in a slightly different setting.”I haven’t had too much experience so I could say it’s easy or it’s really hard, but until you actually have a crack at it you might not know. speaking to a few captains around the place or guys who have captained, they’ve found sometimes the longer the format the easier it has been to make those tactical decisions, you don’t feel as rushed, the game doesn’t move as quickly.”Of course something like the Aussie team we’ve probably got six, seven or eight guys who are really good leaders, have captained either Australia or their state, so there’s no shortage of ideas and guys to bounce off.”The former captain Mark Taylor has stated that a longer tenure for Paine may well serve as a catalyst for Cricket Australia to look beyond Steven Smith and to a younger generation, headed by the likes of Cummins, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, for future leadership posts.”If Paine goes a couple more years, that will probably go against Smith,” Taylor told this week. “They’d probably want to go to someone younger, like a Travis Head. But if things don’t go well for Tim, or he decides in the next 12 months or so that he’s had enough, I’d like to think they would certainly consider Smith again.”Either way, Paine also backed up the national team coach Justin Langer’s strong assertion that it will most likely be Joe Burns walking out to open the batting alongside David Warner in the Tests against India, irrespective of the Queenslander’s modest returns during the recently completed bracket of Sheffield Shield games.”I think Burnsy had a really good summer for us last year with David Warner, their partnership and relationship is a really important one for our team, and they got us off to a number of good starts last year,” Paine said. “Burnsy hasn’t been in the form he’d like or scored the runs he’d like, but we know he does a good job, he averages close to 40 in Test cricket for Australia, which is great opening the batting and we expect him to start the summer.”

England name squad to face Ashes foes on Australian turf with Georgia Elwiss adding to all-round arsenal

Valkerie Baynes17-Jan-2020Contesting a global tournament is motivation in itself, but for England’s Women’s World T20 squad, their campaign on Australian soil will also carry an inevitable desire to make things right.It is a fact not lost on Natalie Sciver as she prepares for her fourth T20 World Cup with an England squad comprising vast experience and raw youth, a new coaching set-up and more than an notion of something to prove after a disappointing home Ashes defeat during the English summer.”A lot has changed since then for us really,” Sciver told ESPNcricinfo on Friday. “As a group we’re in a good space to put that series behind us and hopefully get a few wins.”Sciver and Katherine Brunt form not only part of England’s experienced core but two thirds of a triple all-round threat identified by new coach Lisa Keightley along with Georgia Elwiss, who joins the squad in place of spinner Kirstie Gordon as the only change to the England touring party which defeated Pakistan in three ODIs and two completed T20Is in Malaysia last month.During that series, Sciver struck an 85-ball century in the second ODI shortly after a successful WBBL season with Keightley’s Perth Scorchers where she made 342 runs in 13 appearances at an average of 38.00 and with a strike rate of 123.02.Sciver has enjoyed some personally satisfying moments in the shortest format, becoming the first English cricketer to take a T20I hat-trick, against New Zealand in 2013, and the first woman to hit a six at the inaugural WBBL in 2015, but to win the World Cup final on March 8 would be something else.”After the summer we had, I think it would be really special,” Sciver said. “To be able to keep putting ourselves out there as a team and compete and put ourselves out there to succeed or to fail, as a squad that’s all we can ask of ourselves, to be able to turn up and do the best that we can with the conditions that we’ve got, so looking forward to hopefully putting a few things to right.”Natalie Sciver talks with Lisa Keightley during a Perth Scorchers game•Getty Images

Sciver said going straight from their 12-4 defeat in the multi-format Ashes series into the Kia Super League, meant many players didn’t have time to deal with the disappointment until much later.”We probably put a few things on hold until after the KSL and really waited for that time off to kind of re-set and make sure that we’re fresh again to go in the winter,” she said. “It’s motivation in itself to be in a world tournament and on the world stage and hopefully show everyone what we can do again and just make sure that we’re kind of in our own bubble.”Elwiss returned to action during the drawn Ashes Test after a stress fracture in her back had put her out of the game for five months. She last featured at a T20 World Cup with a solitary match in 2016, scoring a duck and claiming 2 for 9 in England’s emphatic win over Pakistan in Chennai. But Keightley said it was her two years’ experience playing for Melbourne Stars in the WBBL that helped seal her place this year, with England to open their tournament against South Africa in Perth on February 23.”We looked at what we had and I thought we had probably too many spinners for what we need out in Australia so we’ve opted for a couple of seamers,” Keightley said.”For Georgia, she covers two skill sets with the ball and with the bat. Georgia has played in Australia in the WBBL and done really well out there so for me she was an important inclusion into our team to give us options and a player who’s got experience out on Australian pitches and her variations will come in handy out there.”England Women’s T20 World Cup squad•Getty Images

The England squad has four players aged 24 or under with Freya Davies, Sarah Glenn and Mady Villiers all set to make their T20 World Cup debuts and spinner Sophie Ecclestone somewhat of a veteran at the age of just 20, having been part of the side which finished runners-up to Australia in 2018.For 24-year-old Davies – who has played just five T20Is – it could be a baptism of fire if called upon as part of England’s pace attack at the WACA, but Keightley has every faith in her.”I think she’ll be fine because a lot of people don’t know what Freya Davies does,” Keightley said. “It’s quite nice to have a few players that are unknown and teams aren’t sure what they do. You have to take your time and have a look and in T20 you can’t do that for too long.”I’d be telling her to play how she’s played, that works, that’s got her here, and not to go too far away from that. If she can do that, I think she’ll go pretty well.”The squad leaves for Australia on January 22 for a warm-up T20 tri-series against Australia and India.Meanwhile, the ECB have announced that England Women will host India for two T20Is starting at Taunton on June 25 and four ODIs from July 1 in Worcester, followed by two T20s and four one-dayers against South Africa starting in Hove at the beginning of September.

This is what Test cricket used to be like, and probably the best approach they could take

George Dobell in Mount Maunganui21-Nov-2019It took 2,000 years to build the Great Wall of China and 1,600 years to build Stonehenge. The Sagrada Familia – started in 1882 – is still not complete. And let’s not even mention Brexit.The point? Sometimes it takes time to build something worthwhile (which is very much not a political statement about Brexit). And sometimes, during that process, you have to be patient.Certainly spectators at the Bay Oval were obliged to be patient on the first day of the series between New Zealand and England. While there were moments during the tenure of Trevor Bayliss when England were accused of reacting to every adversity by playing ever more aggressively – like speeding through fog to get past it – there were moments here when their caution was like deciding to park the car and walk. Joe Root and Joe Denly took 21 balls to get off the mark. Ben Stokes took 15.England spectators, in particular, have probably been spoiled in recent times. Many of their Test wins have been almost impossibly unlikely and, as a consequence, entertaining. Take the victory against Ireland that was achieved despite being bowled out by lunch on the first day. Or the victory against Australia at Leeds that came despite having been bowled out for 67 in their first innings. Even when they are bad – and they were pretty bad in Barbados – they are entertaining. And all those games were just this year.But this is what Test cricket used to be like. And, on a slow wicket, against a disciplined attack this was probably the best approach they could take. So while there were moments – and by moments, think of several hours – with bowlers aiming wide of off stump in the hope of tempting the batsmen and England simply letting the ball sail through, when it seemed the game was in something approaching stalemate, England eventually started to pull away from New Zealand in a final session that realised 120 runs. There had only been 121 in the first two combined.You do wonder what Bayliss, no doubt keeping an eye on scores from his hotel room in the UAE, would have made of it, though. He used to reason that the dangers of such a cautious approach were that it only took a couple of wicket-taking balls and all that work was wasted with little to show for it. And maybe, had Stokes been held at slip on 63, or Rory Burns taken in the slips on 37, Bayliss would have been proved right. But they weren’t and, with Stokes starting to wrestle the initiative away from New Zealand, the day finished with England perhaps slightly the better placed of the two teams.That’s not just a reflection of the scores, either. It’s a reflection of the amount of work invested by both sides. The New Zealand bowlers, despite their obvious stamina, are human. And there is a quick turnaround – just three days – between games. The miles put in their legs here could yet turn out to be crucial in the coming days. There is every chance they will be pulling their boots on for a fifth session here.Maybe there were times on day one when we witnessed an over-correction from England. Times when it became apparent that they were learning a new approach and times when they got it slightly wrong. Take Root’s innings: he is masterful at rotating the strike; as adept at anyone of nudging and deflecting and picking up singles. Yet here, perhaps wanting to provide an example to his team, he became almost stroke-less and was eventually persuaded into a loose shot.Such moments are inevitable. It doesn’t mean the approach is wrong. It just means England have to get better at the way they execute such plans. Because despite all their patience, three of the wickets that did fall in the day – Burns’, Root’s and Joe Denly’s – all owed a little to frustration. But it’s worth remembering that England tried the Bayliss approach for the best part of five years. It gave them great days and some decent success. But they are the No. 3 side in the Test rankings and, if they want to rise higher, they probably have to show a more sophisticated approach. What we saw here was the start of a new era for England cricket. Nobody should mistake them for the finished article.Several batsmen can feel satisfied with their day’s work. Denly, in particular, may well have done enough to secure his trip to South Africa. This was his fourth half-century in six Test innings and was, perhaps, as assured as any of them. His six off Mitchell Santner, a bit of a luxury player at this stage, was the shot of the day: a perfectly timed lofted drive that he bore plenty of beauty and no brawn.And while Denly and Burns, in particular, may feel they failed to capitalise on the foundations they had built, they can console themselves with the knowledge that they resisted a fine attack and built a strong platform for their team. There’s a lot of work left to do – 400 might be considered par in such conditions – but with Stokes set and more batting to come, England could be quietly satisfied with their first day of Test cricket under Chris Silverwood.

England captain turns eyes to the future after another knockout defeat by Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Nov-2018Heather Knight, England’s captain, said that her overwhelming emotion was one of pride at reaching another world final, as her new-look side missed out on the chance to emulate the team of 2009 and add the World T20 title to last year’s 50-over World Cup win.Knight, who was one of only two batsmen to reach double-figures as England were bowled out for 105 in a sub-par batting performance, conceded that Australia had been the better side on the night, as they bounced back from the disappointment of losing the 2016 final to complete their fourth victory in six editions of the tournament.”Congratulations to them, it was not to be,” Knight said. “It’s quite raw at the moment, we’ll take time to reflect and work out where we go forward as a team, because we’ve got a massive year next year, with an Ashes series to look forward to. So we’ll reassess and move on.”It was the fourth time in as many tournaments that England had been knocked out of the World T20 by Australia, with three of those defeats coming in finals dating back to 2012. But Knight was determined to turn her eyes to the future, and predicted that this experience would stand her team in good stead for future engagements.Heather Knight practises her bowling in the nets•Getty Images

England’s plans for the tournament received a double setback before a ball had been bowled, with Sarah Taylor making herself unable due to her ongoing treatment for anxiety and Katherine Brunt – Player of the Match in their 2009 World T20 victory – was ruled out with the recurrence of a back complaint.”We came in a lot of inexperience and some of the girls that have come in stepped up brilliantly,” Knight said. “Sophie Ecclestone, she’s been around a year, what a spell from her tonight. She gave us a chance – well, not a chance, but she bowled brilliantly, I thought. Kirstie Gordon has been a real find and Sophia Dunkley as well.”It’s been a great experience for those girls, it’ll make them better players in the future.”Knight also refused to blame the conditions at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium for their collapse, even though the sluggish nature of the surface there had come under scrutiny throughout the latter stages of the competition. And, on the day, heavy dew negated England’s spin threat.”The ball soaked up a lot of water,” Knight said. “And the umpires were getting [that], they let us change the ball a few times because it was nearly impossible to grip. But it was similar for Australia, similar conditions, and ones you have to deal with when you do come up against them.”It was a much better pitch than the semi-final – it skidded on a lot more. Danni Wyatt started brilliantly, but we kept losing wickets at key times and weren’t able to post a total that was competitive. We wanted to put runs on the board, we knew there’d be a bit of dew and we thought it would skid on a lot more. We didn’t adapt to conditions as well as we could, in terms of areas we hit, and wickets we lost, but I’m proud of the girls for reaching another world final.”