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Bangladesh, Netherlands hope for batting boost in Kingstown

Published

2 years ago

2024/06/13

Priyan

Bangladesh will hope they can bounce back quickly from a what-might-have-been result against South Africa [Cricinfo]

Netherlands will hunt for their first big fish (Full Members side) when they take on Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup‘s newest venue in Kingstown, St Vincent. It is a fresh pitch where competitive cricket hasn’t been played for a while now. Both sets of batters, battered and bruised in New York, will look forward to a better experience.

Bangladesh endured a hectic travel schedule after their South Africa game in New York, with their chartered flight out delayed by five hours. They arrived early Tuesday morning in their Kingstown hotel, and cancelled training on that day.

Coupled with the travel stress, Bangladesh are dealing with heartbreak of a close defeat to South Africa. Their inability to put away Keshav Maharaj’s full-tosses in the final over cost them the game. Bangladesh have had trouble closing off T20I chases over the last eight years, and on Monday, Mahmudullah and Jaker Ali, reputed big hitters, could not find a boundary in the last three overs of their chase.

Their top order batting has also been worrying. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto opened with Tanzid Hasan against South Africa, with Soumya Sarkar left out, but neither opening pair has managed a double-digit stand yet in this tournament. Litton Das showed a bit of form against Sri Lanka but gave it away cheaply against South Africa. Only Towhid Hridoy and Mahmudullah have shown batting form, while it has mostly been the bowling attack that has kept Bangladesh afloat.

Netherlands will have their hands full against Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Taskin Ahmed with the new ball, before Mustafizur Rahman and Rishad Hossain go at them in the middle overs. The pace trio has done well in the death overs too, and among the spin-bowling allrounders Mahmudullah has been mostly economical while Shakib Al Hasan, despite a poor start to the tournament, can never be counted out.

Netherlands themselves have bowled brilliantly in the T20 World Cup, beating Nepal in Dallas and pushing South Africa close in New York. Logan van Beek, Bas de Leede and Tim Pringle have bowled well in partnerships alongside Vivian Kingma and Paul van Meekeren.

Like Bangladesh, they too have batting problems. Max O’Dowd has made their only half-century so far, while the rest of the batters haven’t taken off, particularly Michael Levitt who was their form player leading up to the T20 World Cup.

This could be a tense scrap in Kingstown, with the result coming down to which bowling attack can better dominate on the day.

Taskin Ahmed has performed admirably as the attack leader. He has taken the big wickets of Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram, Kusal Mendis and Dasun Shanaka in Bangladesh’s two games, while going at just 5.50 per over. It is still early days but if he can keep getting the ball to shape and maintain his overall fitness, Taskin could end as one of the top bowlers of the tournament.

Logan van Beek has already bowled arguably the ball of the tournament. His delivery to Reeza Hendricks in New York pitched on middle and off, squared up the batter, and flicked the off bail as van Beek flew into a celebratory run. He has been Netherlands’ best bowler in their two matches so far, picking up five wickets. Accuracy is van Beek’s hallmark, regardless of whether he is bowling with an upright or wobbly seam.

Bangladesh are still unsure about their top and lower middle order. Soumya Sarkar and Mahedi Hasan are among their batting options if they are looking for another change.

Bangladesh (probable): Tanzid Hasan, Najmul Hosain Shanto (capt), Litton Das (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah, Jaker Ali, Rishad Hossain, Tanzim Hasan, Taskin Ahmed Mustafizur Rahman.

Barring last-minute injuries, Netherlands are likely to continue with the same XI.

Netherlands (probable): Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Bas de Leede, Scott Edwards (capt & wk), Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma.

[Cricinfo]

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England elect to field first at Wankhede

Published

2 hours ago

2026/03/5

Priyan

England won the toss and chose to field first in the 2nd semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

India XI: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah

England XI: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (capt), Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid.

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Daren Sammy issues plea as West Indies remain stuck in Kolkata hotel

Published

4 hours ago

2026/03/5

Priyan

The Dubai airport, among other airports in the Gulf region, were affected by the crisis in West Asia [Cricinfo]

As West Indies continue to remain stuck in Kolkata four days after being eliminated from the 2026 T20 World Cup, their head coach Daren Sammy has put out a post on X, saying “I just wanna go home”.

He followed it up with another post a little later, saying, “At least an update, tell us something. Today, tmw, next week. It’s been five days.”

West Indies are one of the teams stranded in India in the wake of the crisis in West Asia. ESPNcricinfo has learned that initially, the ICC had informed West Indies that attempts were being made for the squad to return home to the Caribbean via a charter flight to London. The plan, it is believed, was for West Indies to fly out of India mid-week, though no specific date was given. However, West Indies continue to remain in Kolkata where they lost to India in the final match of the Super Eight on March 1.

With the usual airspace corridors closed owing to the crisis, which began last weekend, the ICC has been confronted with a severe logistical challenge of arranging return flights for teams.

On Wednesday, though, there was good news for Zimbabwe, with the first batch of their squad members leaving for home from Delhi after the ICC reworked their travel arrangements.

Like West Indies, Zimbabwe played their last match at the T20 World Cup on March 1, losing to South Africa in Delhi. Zimbabwe were originally scheduled to depart on March 2, but that plan was cancelled.

There is no official word on the travel plans for the rest of their squad members.

“Zimbabwe Cricket confirms that the Zimbabwe senior men’s team participating in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 are on their way home from India after the International Cricket Council secured alternative travel arrangements following recent transit disruptions,” Zimbabwe Cricket said in a statement on Wednesday. “Due to flight availability and revised routing, the squad will return to Harare in batches.

“Zimbabwe’s original travel route was via Dubai on an Emirates flight but it had to be altered. It has been learnt that Zimbabwe are now travelling to Harare via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.”

South Africa were eliminated in the semi-final by New Zealand on Wednesday night, and will now wait to know their schedule for getting back home. In case England lose to India in the second semi-final on Thursday, their travel plans back will also have to be worked out.

[Cricinfo]

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India’s momentum meets Wankhede’s memory in big semifinal bout

Published

6 hours ago

2026/03/5

Priyan

India have a bunch of players who call the Wankhede Stadium 'home' during domestic cricket or the IPL [Cricbuzz]

A World Cup semifinal at the Wankhede Stadium has, historically, not been kind on India, the 2023 game against New Zealand aside. They’ve lost two of their three ICC knockout games at this venue, one of them to England in 1987, the very opponents awaiting them tonight. If there is any equilibrium to be found, it lies in the present: Harry Brook’s England have appeared just as fragile in this tournament as Suryakumar Yadav’s India, making this less a clash of invincibles and more a test of which side can steady itself under the heaviest lights.

India have leaned heavily on individual brilliance rather than collective cohesion to reach the last-four stage. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav (vs USA), Ishan Kishan (vs Namibia and Pakistan), Shivam Dube (vs Netherlands and South Africa), the Abhishek Sharma-Hardik Pandya combine (vs Zimbabwe), and most recently Sanju Samson (vs West Indies) have each stepped in to rescue the side at different moments. As a unit, however, India have not quite lived up to their ‘favourites’ tag.

India’s struggles have largely been down to some key players blowing hot and cold – Abhishek Sharma with the bat and Varun Chakaravarthy with the ball. Even skipper Suryakumar, barring the opening game, has not delivered in the manner expected of him. More gallingly, fielding – particularly catching – has been awful.

Jasprit Bumrah’s mastery has often come to India’s aid when the situations were seemingly slipping away. At times, Arshdeep Singh with his wide yorkers and Hardik Pandya with his slower bouncers have delivered in crunch moments, but their effectiveness with the ball has been rather sporadic. India will be hoping for a more collective output – shared heroics rather than individual brilliance – to administer the coup de grace against England and book the March 8 date at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

“That is something we haven’t really spoken about, about the perfect game. I think the quality of this team has been shown that, on the day somebody can put their hand up and put up a performance. And then hopefully now in the last two games, especially now tomorrow night, we can put that special performance in,” Morne Morkel, India bowling coach, said on the eve of the match.

“Unfortunately we all know how the game goes, that success is never guaranteed. But if we can give ourselves the best chance to go out and perform. That is what we strive for. And a big occasion tomorrow night here, semifinal, a great stadium to play a great game of cricket. So hopefully the boys can rock up tomorrow and just be calm and execute those skills.”

Thursday’s face-off may be India’s first designated knockout match for them, but they have already overcome two knockouts situations – against Zimbabwe and West Indies in the Super Eights. On both occasions, they raised the bar, momentum they’ll hope to carry into this high-stakes contest.

Another advantage for the hosts is their familiarity with the Wankhede Stadium, which serves as a home ground for several Indian players, starting with Suryakumar himself. Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Shivam Dube and Ishan Kishan have all represented Mumbai, Mumbai Indians, or both here.

If India have struggled into semifinals, England have been no showstoppers, although Harry Brook oozed extreme confidence on the eve of the contest. “We don’t feel like we’re ever out of a game so far. All it takes is one of the top seven to get a decent score or one of our five or six bowlers to have an amazing day out there. And all of a sudden you’re walking away with a victory and that’s what we’ve done so well so far,” the England skipper said.

England needed an extraordinary century from the skipper himself to get over the line against Pakistan and were on the ropes against New Zealand before being bailed out by a superb cameo from Rehan Ahmed. They won a low-scoring thriller against Sri Lanka and were nearly upset by Nepal before West Indies humbled them here in Mumbai, incidentally on the same pitch that will be used today.

The pitch carries a tinge of grass, but Morne Morkel anticipates a high-scoring contest. It was against this very opposition, at this very venue, that Abhishek Sharma blazed a stunning century a year ago. India will hope for a similar explosion from their opener, although this World Cup has already reinforced a familiar truth – ICC tournament games are a different beast altogether from bilateral contests.

Having comfortably beaten West Indies in their last outing, India are unlikely to tinker with their XI, despite murmurs advocating for Rinku Singh to replace Abhishek Sharma

England drafted in an extra spinner in Rehan Ahmed last time and he repaid the call with a decisive all-round performance against New Zealand last Friday. But that was at the R Premadasa Stadium, a surface that offered significant grip and turn. Conditions this time are unlikely to demand a second leg spinner, especially against a batting line-up stacked with left-handers.

England already possess three contrasting spin options – a leg spinner in Adil Rashid, a left-arm orthodox bowler in Liam Dawson, and an offspinner in Will Jacks, the latter particularly handy against an out-of-form Abhishek Sharma at the top and as a tactical match-up option through the line-up. All of which is set to open the door for the return of Jamie Overton.

India Probable XI: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy

England Probable XI:Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid

[Cricbuzz]