All posts by n8rngtd.top

Batter grabbed opportunity after years on England sidelines, with Bangladesh campaign looming

Andrew Miller25-Apr-2024Maia Bouchier says her goal for the 2024 summer is to cement her new-found status at the top of England’s batting order, as the countdown begins for the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September.Bouchier, 25, enjoyed a breakthrough winter on England’s recent tour of New Zealand, where she capitalised on the late arrival of several senior players from the Women’s Premier League in India, including the incumbent opener Danni Wyatt and senior batter Nat Sciver-Brunt, to make a strong case for a permanent role.Having previously batted exclusively in the middle-order in her limited opportunities over the previous two years, Bouchier was first promoted to open during Sri Lanka’s visit last summer, where she complemented Sciver-Brunt’s century in the third ODI in Leicester with a career-best 95 from 65 balls.But given England’s main focus for the year, it was Bouchier’s performance in March, in the 4-1 series win in the T20Is against New Zealand, that truly stood out. She batted at No.3 in the first three matches, making scores of 43 not out, 12 and 71, then a series-sealing 91 from 56 balls after being promoted to open for the fourth match.”I’ve been waiting for that moment,” Bouchier told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s been great, I’ve really enjoyed my cricket and putting in some performances for England. Going into this summer, I’ll do as much as I can to grab every opportunity and keep that spot now.”Bouchier’s form was the culmination of a settled run in the side, one that had been promised to her last summer by England’s head coach, Jon Lewis, when she was picked ahead of the veteran Tammy Beaumont despite the latter’s impressive form in the Hundred. The reason Lewis gave at the time was that Bouchier “had been carried around the world”, but her total of 13 innings in 19 T20Is since her debut in 2021 meant she hadn’t been given a chance to prove her worth.Maia Bouchier made a strong impression on England’s tour of New Zealand•Getty Images

She’s done that now, outshining both the returning Beaumont and the struggling Sophia Dunkley in New Zealand, to the extent that she is now ready to stake a claim to be a first-choice opener for the World Cup – a point reiterated last week by her captain Heather Knight, when she praised Bouchier’s form in New Zealand while acknowledging that England “haven’t quite nailed” their opening partnership yet.”It was all about being patient for that moment,” Bouchier said. “[Lewis] talked about giving me a little run-in, to make sure I wasn’t thinking that everything was riding on one opportunity.”I guess I had to do those tough years to get to that point, but playing in those [lower-order] positions meant I had to be able to adapt quickly, so that has only helped me going up to the top of the order. I can’t really regret any of it. I’ll always take that as much as I can.”Related

• England Women turn to AI to aid borderline team selections

• Durham, Essex big winners as top-flight women's teams are named

• Knight challenges England players and hopefuls to 'dominate' regional games

• Bouchier's 91 powers England to series-clinching victory

England’s summer comprises home series against Pakistan in May and New Zealand in June-July ahead of the Hundred, where Bouchier will once again be playing for the defending champions, Southern Brave. And while the swift transition to Bangladesh’s pitches will be a tough one for England, she’s confident that the batting unit has shored up its game against spin – a notable shortcoming last year, both in the Ashes, as well as the shock T20I series loss to Sri Lanka.”Bangladesh is going to be difficult, and spin is always a talking point, but really it comes down to the game situation and the ball in hand at that moment,” Bouchier said. “Everyone has been working on playing to their strengths against spin, whether it’s reverse-sweeping or long sweeps to the other side of the pitch. We’ll just being looking to put the pressure back on the bowlers as much as we can.”Bouchier was speaking at the launch of the MCC Foundation Hubs tournament in Leyton, a competition that involves more than 100 girls’ and boys’ teams playing for the chance to appear in a Lord’s final.The programme has already reached more than 20,000 state school children since its launch in 2012, and recently received a £1million funding boost from MCC and the ECB. With 126 hubs already in existence, the aim is to reach the 150th location by next year.On the girls’ front alone, the scheme has seen a 53% increase in participation over the past year, and in the week that the ECB announced the eight counties to have been granted Tier 1 status for the new national women’s competition from 2025, Bouchier said that trend reflected the huge growth in interest she had witnessed in the course of her own career.”It’s amazing,” she said. “I was playing for Middlesex when I was 16, and there wasn’t an England development pathway or a county set-up. I’m super lucky and super privileged to have been driven all round London by my parents, who funded everything for me. Without that I would have fallen out of the game.”I also I knew a lot of talented but under-privileged players who just didn’t have anywhere to go. This foundation is there for kids and teenagers in that range, who don’t know whether they want to play, but they’re really interested in getting involved. It gives them access and brings the community together as well, which is exactly what you want.”

Three controversial decisions go against hosts after CSA chooses not to pay for review technology

Firdose Moonda17-Dec-2024Heather Knight, England’s captain, says that the decision not to use the Decision Review System (DRS) during their historic women’s Test against South Africa in Bloemfontein was a “sign of the status of the game”, after England wrapped up a 286-run victory on the third afternoon to seal their first win in the format for a decade.The absence of DRS was not the deciding factor in England’s comprehensive victory, as South Africa collapsed to 64 all out in less than 20 overs in their fourth innings. However, the host board’s decision not to spend a minimum of US$48,500 (R880,000) on the technology arguably contributed to the final margin between the teams, with least three contentious umpiring calls all going against South Africa.The most interesting of those came in South Africa’s second innings, when Lauren Bell appealed for a catch off Annerie Dercksen that was taken by Tammy Beaumont at short leg.Dercksen was given not out on-field by umpire Kerrin Klaaste but, after consulting with her colleague, Klaaste called for an umpire review, a procedure that is typically used to determine whether a catch has carried. The ball, however, had carried to Beaumont at chest-height – and while it is possible Klaaste was unsighted and needed to double check – TV umpire Bongale Jele duly gave the decision as out, despite clear doubts that Dercksen had inside-edged the ball onto her pad.”We all thought she hit it and obviously the umpire delayed the decision,” Knight said. “I think the review was around whether it was a bump ball, but it was pretty clear it wasn’t, so I’m not really sure what happened there.”Mandla Mashimbyi, South Africa’s newly installed head coach, was similarly confused at the process that had led to the decision.”There was no communication and I didn’t understand why,” he said. “It was quite bizarre. But the umpires feel they made the right decision and we can’t go against that.”Related

• CSA reports profits of R815 million for 2023-24 fiscal year

• Red-ball fever catches on in South Africa

• Beaumont, Jones seal ODI series for England

• No DRS for one-off Test

• Gaur, Filer handed ECB central contracts

“We make do with what we have. Our job is to make sure we play good cricket. Those are things we can’t control. Obviously we will be disappointed with certain decisions but we can’t change what has happened. There are people that will be dealing with that, who are outside this room at the moment. If I leave it to myself, it might not be nice.”Klaaste was the umpire for two other contentious decisions, on days one and two. In the first instance, Marizanne Kapp appealed for an lbw against Beaumont , who was on 2 at the time, with the second ball of the match and it was given not out. It looked like a close call but Kapp could not review.Asked on day two if she felt hard done by, Kapp said: “We’re probably disappointed we were on the wrong side of it, but it goes both ways. That’s just the game. It’s never easy for the umpires out there. Even though you get upset when it doesn’t go your way, it’s still a hard job for them to be correct every single time.”The second incident took place on day two when Laura Wolvaardt, on 65, was given out lbw to Sophie Ecclestone. Her reaction, which included throwing her hands up in the air and walking off shaking her head, suggested she thought she’d hit the ball and earned her demerit point for dissent.According to Enoch Nkwe, South Africa’s director of national teams and high performance, the absence of DRS for the Test had been agreed upon by the two boards at the planning stage of the tour. However, Knight claimed the first she had known of it was on the eve of the contest, after the system had been in use throughout the six white-ball matches at the start of the tour.”I was pretty shocked when I found out in the umpire’s meeting the day before, that we weren’t going to have it,” she said. “I think it’s a real shame. You come to expect it as a player now, and I guess the reason is always money. But, particularly in Test cricket, where wickets are such a premium, it’s a really important thing to have. It’s probably a sign of the status of this game, maybe, that we didn’t have it, which is a bit frustrating.”In his pre-match explanation, Nkwe added that the white-ball contests had been prioritised because the matches had a bearing on the team’s rankings in T20I cricket and the ICC Women’s Championship (IWC), as well as “the overall CSA strategy for the senior women’s national team”.”It is worth noting that resources are currently being directed at the white-ball formats due to the significance of ODI and T20I cricket in the current women’s international cricket landscape,” he said.Speaking on the second evening, Kapp agreed that she preferred DRS in the shorter formats. “It’s a new thing that we have DRS available,” she said. “I don’t believe we’ve had it available for T20s and ODI cricket. So it’s really helped in the ODI and T20 series. And if I have to be completely honest, I’d probably prefer having it in those two formats.”But whether CSA needed to be penny wise could be debated after they recorded a profit of R815 million (US$45.6 million) for the 2023-24 financial year. The cost of DRS for this Test match amounts to just over 0.1% of that money.

India’s captain said he wanted his players ‘be hard on themselves’ after the defeat in Centurion, while responding combatively to questions about selection and his team’s overseas record in his post-match press conference

Sidharth Monga in Centurion17-Jan-20188:09

WATCH: Kohli’s fiery press conference

With Ajinkya Rahane sitting out the first two Tests in South Africa, Virat Kohli has now dropped every player in the Test squad at least once, except Hardik Pandya who has just come in and is five Tests old. Kohli, however, will accept no criticism of the XIs he has selected on this tour.Before the start of the second Test in Centurion, he said “no one” thought Rahane should be in the XI. After their 135-run loss here, he refused to concede any mistakes in his selection of the XIs for the two Tests, but also said he wanted his side to reflect on every decision and every move they have made on the tour. He said he didn’t think there was anything wrong with the team’s preparations, but he snapped whenever questions concerning selection or India’s overseas record or the lack of continuity in the side.During his post-match press conference, Kohli was asked if he thought he had selected the best XI for the reminiscent-of-home conditions at SuperSport Park, conditions India almost had a template for. The following conversation ensued.

Q: “Last couple of years playing in subcontinent conditions, you got a formula to excel on pitches like these. Fast bowlers from both teams have said this is more like a subcontinent pitch. How much does this loss hurt that despite having that formula you could perhaps not get the best XI out and win this match?”Kohli: “What’s the best XI?”Q: “Was it your best XI?”Kohli: “But if we had won this, was this the best XI?”Q: “Again… It’s a pitch that was much more subcontinental…”Kohli: “I’m saying that we don’t decide XI according to the results.”Q: “My question was about the pitch…”Kohli: “But you’re saying… you’re telling me we could have played the best XI. So you tell me the best XI and we’ll play that. I’m saying the loss obviously hurts. But you make one decision and you back it. We certainly don’t sit here and say, ‘Oh if you fail in one game you are not good enough to be at this level or…’ Once the team loses. Didn’t we lose in India? We had the best XI there. Whoever plays should be good enough to go out there and do the job for the team. That’s why we’ve got such a big squad. Because we believe in their abilities and they are good enough to be at this level but you need to do that collectively as a team. You can’t pinpoint and say this is the best XI. We played with teams before that have looked really strong and have lost as well. So, I certainly don’t bend towards that opinion at all.”

Kohli later went on to say it was frustrating things were not coming together for his side. Asked if the chopping and changing might have played a part, Kohli snapped again.

Q: “You spoke about it not coming together well – has that maybe been because of the chopping and changing of selection? In over 30 Tests that you have been captain, you have changed your starting line-up in each and every Test you have played? To win Test matches you need consistency, and you have been lacking that part. What would you put that down to, and how would you say that you will continue changing your team and still expect different results?”Kohli: “How many Test matches have we won out of 34?”Q: “In how many have you changed the XI?”Kohli: “How many have we won? How many have we won? 21 wins. Two losses. How many draws?” [In fact, Kohli has won 20 as captain and lost five, out of 34 he had led in]Q: “How many in India?”Kohli: “Does it matter? Wherever we play we try to do our best. I’m here to answer your questions, not to fight with you.”

BCCI

India last won a Test in Australia, England, New Zealand or South Africa in 2014. Since their win in Durban in 2010, India have won only one Test in these countries out of 24. Kohli was asked if he felt India were still the best side in the world. He responded by comparing South Africa’s results in India on their last tour in 2015-16, when India won 3-0.

Q: “There is talk of India doing well in India but not overseas. Do you still believe you’re the best side in the world?”Kohli: “Look, we have to believe that we are the best side. Even when we came here, if you don’t have the belief that you can win the series here, there is no point coming here. We have not come here just to participate. And answering your question, sir, how many times did South Africa come into the game in India? Coming close to winning games in India? Can you count?”Q: “That’s because of the pitches.”Kohli: “But we are not complaining about Cape Town either. The game was finished in three days, one [day] was a washout. So look, we are not complaining about pitches, we are not complaining about conditions. We have come here to play. As I said, we have had equal opportunities to win in both games, and that’s the positive we can take out of it, but I’m not sitting here comforting my guys. So I don’t know what you are listening to, but I’m asking everyone to be hard on themselves.”

Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s captain, has been asking the groundsmen for pitches that will help his side “without being ridiculous”. When he was asked about the pitches in India, he felt they bordered on the extreme. When Kohli introduced the “what about South Africa in India” line, du Plessis was sitting in the back of the room, waiting for Kohli’s press conference to end before he could speak. This was du Plessis’ response to Kohli bringing up 2015-16:

Du Plessis: “Our win rate away from home is the best in the world so we have played some really good cricket. The last time we went to India we didn’t play as well, but I do feel the conditions were touching on extreme. For me the way to look at that is even the Indian batting line-up struggled in conditions where their spinners were much better than ours. Every Test match lasted three days [the fourth in Delhi went the distance], and I think there was only one hundred [there were two, both by Ajinkya Rahane in that Delhi Test]. In this series there have been times when it has looked tough, but there have been guys scoring runs and guys taking wickets, so there is always that battle between bat and ball. If you have that, for me it is a good wicket. If it is just dominated by seam or spin bowling then I think the wickets are excessive. If you have all factors in five days or even four days… the first morning at Newlands was tough but then it got good, this got tough at the end of the Test. So yes I think it was touching on the extreme side, but if you get that you still have to try and win. We learnt a lot of lessons from that tour, and I expect that when we go there again, we’ll put up a better fight.”

Fred Klaassen and Daniel Doram have been ruled out because of injuries

ESPNcricinfo staff22-May-2024Fred Klaassen and Daniel Doram have been ruled out of the T20 World Cup, and Netherlands have added Kyle Klein, who was the lone travelling reserve, along with Saqib Zulfiqar to the squad as their replacements.Klaasen faced a recurrence of symptoms from a previously sustained stress fracture of the lower back while Doran was ruled out due to a broken hand.Netherlands are preparing for the upcoming T20 World Cup with a tri-series against Scotland and Ireland, where they have so far beaten Scotland comprehensively and lost to Ireland by one run in a close finish. Doram played both those games, returning 2 for 35 and 2 for 27 respectively, but Klaassen hasn’t featured at all.Zulfiqar, 27, has so far played six T20Is – to go with 15 ODIs – and has nine wickets at an economy rate of 6.46, while Klein, the 22-year-old right-arm medium pacer, has played just the solitary T20I and two ODIs till date. The T20I was against Nepal earlier this year, where he bowled just one wicketless over and gave away five runs.Klaassen (Kent) and Bas de Leede (Durham) were the Dutch players allowed to miss the Vitality T20 Blast by their English counties and released for the T20 World Cup, even as the experienced duo of Colin Ackermann (Durham) and Roelof van der Merwe (Somerset) had to stay on with their counties.Kyle Klein was a travelling reserve earlier•ICC via Getty Images

Zulfiqar, a legspinning allrounder, last played a T20I in 2019, while Doram, the Leeward Islands left-arm spinner, had earned a call-up to a full Netherlands T20I squad for the first time.The squad still has a left-arm spinner in Tim Pringle, though.Of the players who were likely to be picked but weren’t, Brandon Glover wasn’t considered as he continues his comeback after an injury, while Timm van der Gugten is out of action with a calf injury.Scott Edwards will continue to captain the side, as he did at the 2022 T20 World Cup.Netherlands have been drawn in Group D of the T20 World Cup, which starts on June 1, alongside Bangladesh, Nepal, South Africa and Sri Lanka, and start with a game against Nepal on June 4 in Dallas.

Netherlands provisional squad for the T20 World Cup

Aryan Dutt, Bas de Leede, Kyle Klein, Logan van Beek, Max O’Dowd, Michael Levitt, Paul van Meekeren, Scott Edwards (capt/wk), Saqib Zulfiqar, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Teja Nidamanuru, Tim Pringle, Vikramjit Singh, Vivian Kingma, Wesley Barresi

The pair’s 227-run opening stand got the team to within 2 runs of Tasmania’s 439, with the match headed towards a draw

Tristan Lavalette17-Oct-2023Western Australia opener Cameron Bancroft fell short of consecutive Sheffield Shield centuries, but captain Sam Whiteman made Tasmania toil on a flat WACA pitch as the match appears headed for a draw.Whiteman batted the bulk of day three as WA almost reached parity by stumps. Facing 383 balls, Whiteman was agonisingly short of his highest first-class score of 193.WA’s strong reply was built on a 227-run opening partnership between Whiteman and Bancroft as Tasmania’s attack struggled to penetrate in batting friendly conditions.Some long-time WACA observers had wondered whether it was the dullest pitch at the famous ground since the 2015 New Zealand Test, which seemingly hastened Australia quick Mitchell Johnson’s retirement.But Bancroft missed a golden opportunity of making another century after his 122 in WA’s big opening victory over Victoria. He is in a race among several contenders to replace veteran opener David Warner, who is expected to retire from Test cricket this summer.Tasmania had some respite with temperatures significantly cooler than the oppressive heat over the first two days. As cloud covered the ground late in the day, their quicks finally enjoyed belated assistance with seamer Gabe Bell conjuring reverse swing.Resuming on 63 not out, Bancroft survived a big lbw appeal from Bell early before he blunted the attack much like during the latter part of day two.With WA still facing a large deficit, Bancroft and Whiteman batted cautiously with the occasional boundary a welcome sight from the continual stout defending.With Tasmania’s bid for a wicket appearing forlorn, the main interest was centred on who would score a century first with Bancroft and Whiteman neck and neck for much of the innings.But with Bancroft intent on stonewalling, Whiteman inched away and notched his first century of the season with a pull shot to the boundary off seamer Mitchell Owen.All eyes after lunch were on Bancroft, whose inevitable march to another ton was denied when spinner Jarrod Freeman trapped him lbw seemingly out of nowhere.Bancroft, along with those at the ground, could not believe he missed a sweep shot, but his dismissal triggered a succession of wickets not seen since the opening session of the match.After starting the season strong with 94 against Victoria, teenager Teague Wyllie was plumb lbw to hard-working Bell for 4. Wyllie can sometimes seem glued to the crease, especially early in his innings, and that was again the case here.Bell was further rewarded when an impatient Hilton Cartwright holed out as WA inexplicably lost three wickets in seven overs. Cartwright, who played two Tests as an allrounder for Australia, made his return from a knee injury but is playing as a specialist batter.In a rare recent sight, clouds started to form overhead to further improve Tasmania’s mood but normal resumption resumed with Whiteman and Aaron Hardie making it look rather easy.Perched on 149 at tea, Whiteman quickly reached another milestone after resumption while Hardie played aggressively to score an attractive half-century.Hardie, who recently made his international debut, performed well against Victoria with 48 and five wickets for the match. He eyed a big score, but on 56 hit Freeman straight to short extra cover.Bell welcomed the increasingly gloomy conditions, but wickets remained few and far between to further underline this uncharacteristic WACA pitch.

After just three matches together in 2-1 defeat to West Indies, head coach is encouraged by his charges’ fight

Cameron Ponsonby10-Dec-2023Matthew Mott has called for patience with England’s new-era white-ball team as a work in progress, stressing that they’ve only had three opportunities to play together.England succumbed to a four-wicket defeat in Barbados to lose their first series following a difficult World Cup campaign 2-1.A group which featured just four players to have played more than 10 ODIs, found themselves in strong positions in all three matches against a West Indies side going through a similar reboot having failed to qualify for the World Cup.However, a late-innings onslaught from Shai Hope and Romario Shepherd in the opening match saw England slip to a four-wicket defeat in Antigua, before losing by the same margin at the Kensington Oval after a top-order collapse gave England a total of just 188 to defend in a rain-reduced game.Related

• Flintoff to coach Northern Superchargers in Men's Hundred

• Rehan out to make an impact as readymade Rashid replacement

• Matthew Forde, Keacy Carty shine as West Indies seal 2-1 series win

• New-look England still working out the kinks

“We haven’t put a complete game together and that’s the frustration,” Mott, England’s head coach, said immediately after the defeat. “We put ourselves in a chance to win all three games and come away with a series loss, so that’s not ideal.”But there are definitely some really good signs there that there’s a group of players who love playing with each other. They’re some really good mates in there and I think it’ll really take the game forward.”In line for particular praise were Rehan Ahmed and Sam Curran. Rehan, described by Mott as a “revelation”, has been tasked with filling the almighty shoes of Adil Rashid and took five wickets across the series at an average of 23.40 and an economy of 4.33. On the other hand, Curran had a mixed series. In the opening ODI, he showed his class with the bat to save England’s innings from the perilous position of 239 for 7, before conceding the worst ever figures of an England player in ODIs as he was taken for 0 for 98.”Sam’s definitely a player that we really want to invest in,” Mott said, with Curran proving his qualities with the ball in the second match where his triple-strike in the powerplay put England ahead of the game. “He’s got a lot of qualities that we like and he’s got the game to really play well.”A point of pride for Mott was the fight England showed to almost steal an unlikely victory from the final ODI. Suffering from the natural disadvantage of bowling second in a rain-affected match, England were faced with greasy conditions that made it harder for their spinners to grip the ball and easier for the West Indies batters to play seam. But thanks to a Will Jacks-inspired performance with the ball, England reduced West Indies to 135 for 6, with 53 runs still required for victory.”I thought today we showed a lot of character and spirit to fight all day,” Mott said. “You don’t want to make excuses, but to hang in there as a team and show the fight that they did, throwing themselves around and nearly snatching one was something that we’re looking for.”After three months of almost exclusive ODI focus, England’s attention now turns to T20s, with the five-match series against West Indies starting on Tuesday in Barbados.”We’ve played really good T20 cricket over a period of time. It’s always good when you lose a series to change the format,” Mott said, also confirming that Jos Buttler will return to opening the batting after spending the New Zealand series in September lower down the order. “You move on pretty quickly. It’s only a couple of days, it won’t be that different. Obviously you’ve got a few new players coming in with experience. But it’s much of a muchness really.”There are five changes to England’s personnel in the Caribbean, with Chris Woakes, Rashid, Moeen Ali, Reece Topley and Tymal Mills joining the squad for the T20 leg. Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley, Matthew Potts, Tom Hartley and Brydon Carse will head home.”It’s probably easier transitioning back,” Mott said. “T20 is, particularly for the batting group, pretty clear, you go out and take the game on, there’s not a lot of dead balls. And from the bowling group, you’re trying to hit your variations as much as you can and deny them hitting opportunities. So I think we’ll be fine. We’ve got a couple of days to work on it and looking forward to it.”Also joining the England set-up is Andrew Flintoff, who will continue the first team mentoring role he took up in the summer as part of his first steps back into the public eye following his serious car crash whilst filming Top Gear.Flintoff, whose role is now paid, was part of the backroom staff for both the New Zealand white-ball series and the home ODIs against Ireland before he flew to Abu Dhabi along with Graeme Swann as part of the England Lions’ red-ball training camp. It has been a high-profile return to coaching for Flintoff, who has also been hired as Northern Superchargers head coach for the 2024 edition of The Hundred.

It’s a quick turnaround for Pakistan who are still licking their wounds after the India defeat

Danyal Rasool10-Jun-2024

Match details

Canada vs Pakistan
New York, 10.30am local

Big picture: Can the 2022 finalists stay alive?

The nature of the T20 World Cup 2024 scheduling means what cannot be forgotten must at least be shelved temporarily. Pakistan may have time to process their heartache after the defeat against India, which promises to leave scars well after this tournament has been consigned to a distant, unpleasant memory. However, they do not have that time right now. Less than 48 hours after a chase they mucked up, Babar Azam’s side must pick themselves back up off the canvas, staggering, and try to stand up straight once more as Canada come calling.Related

• Kirsten's warning to Pakistan's senior pros: evolve or get left behind

• Kirton, Gordon and Heyliger sparkle in landmark Canada win

• Babar: 'We were not up to the mark'

• Old debate, simple answer: Pakistan's batting just not very good

• Kirsten bemoans Pakistan's 'poor decision-making'

Pakistan always knew they had these two games in three days, but halfway through the chase on Sunday, that looked like a blessing rather than a curse. A win against India would have allowed them to ride that tidal wave of momentum to undo the damage of the USA defeat in their opening game. Instead, Babar will lead a dispirited, crestfallen group into the game against Canada merely to ensure Pakistan stay alive for a few more days.Canada, meanwhile, find themselves in the somewhat unusual position of looking down the table at their more fancied opponents. If not for an Aaron Jones blitz in the opening game of this tournament, Saad Bin Zafar’s side would have been coming into this contest with two wins in two games. They then also showed impressive composure to shake off that bruising loss by bouncing back to outplay Ireland.Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan need to do the heavy-lifting up top•Sportsfile via Getty Images

If in the first game, Canada showed they have the batters right down the order to put on huge scores, they demonstrated in the second the quality of the bowling line-up to squeeze Ireland effectively in defence of 137. Add to that a superb fielding performance, and this is a side that has shown it has both the hunger and the ability to trouble most in group A. And against a Pakistan line-up still licking their wounds, there may never be a better opportunity to send them back to the canvas one final time.

Form guide

Pakistan: LLLLW

Canada: WLLLL

In the spotlight: RizBar and Nicholas Kirton

How Babar and Mohammad Rizwan choose to approach the innings will be a point of interest. After criticism of their placid pacing in pursuit of a low score against India, expect both to try to come out all guns blazing against the Canadians, regardless of whether Pakistan bat first or second. That might mean the game gets one of those trademark RizBar partnerships where the strokeplay sizzles. At the same time, it gives Canada the chance to get an early wicket or two, and stick their teeth into a middle order that is low on confidence.Canada will be thankful for 26-year-old Barbados-born Nicholas Kirton not being scooped up by West Indies, because at this tournament, he has shown the personality and quality to perform on the big stage. He came into the event with a 39-ball 52 in a warm-up game against Nepal, and has followed it up with 51 and 49 against USA and Ireland, which came off a combined 66 balls. The left-hander has an elegance and flair to his shotmaking, and the ability to use his wrists to open up as much of the ground as possible has made him difficult to bowl to. If, on a New York pitch no one seems quite sure of, Kirton can play another one of those innings, he will pose Pakistan problems.Nicholas Kirton has made a very good impression at the T20 World Cup•AFP/Getty Images

Team news: Will Pakistan turn to Ayub?

There are no fresh injury concerns and limited ways Pakistan can rejig the current 15-man squad. Saim Ayub may have a shout of returning to the side, which leaves one of Usman Khan or Shadab vulnerable to the drop.Pakistan (probable): 1 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Babar Azam (capt), 4 Fakhar Zaman, 5 Shadab Khan/Usman Khan, 6 Iftikhar Ahmed, 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Mohammad AmirCanada are likely to go in unchanged following their win over Ireland.Canada (probable): 1 Aaron Johnson, 2 Navneet Dhaliwal, 3 Pargat Singh, 4 Dilpreet Bajwa, 5 Nicholas Kirton, 6 Shreyas Movva (wk), 7 Dilon Heyliger, 8 Saad Bin Zafar (capt), 9 Kaleem Sana, 10 Junaid Siddiqui, 11 Jeremy Gordon

Pitch and conditions: A fresh surface on the cards

Rain delayed the start of the India-Pakistan clash in New York, but no weather interruptions are expected on Tuesday. A fresh pitch is expected to be used for the Canada-Pakistan clash.

Stats and trivia: Pakistan need more from the batters

• Babar’s dry run at T20 World Cups since the start of the 2022 edition continues. In that time he averages 20.11, with a strike rate of 97.31, having scored 181 runs in nine innings
• The only time Pakistan lost their first two games at a T20 World Cup came in 2022. They have never lost their opening three games
• Only three players have scored more runs than Kirton’s 100 at this T20 World Cup. Pakistan’s highest scorer is Babar, well behind with 57

Quotes

“There is no chance for us to get complacent. If anyone gets complacent after two losses, then whoever it is, does not deserve to be playing for the country. You can’t take any team lightly in T20 cricket. We have to be absolutely ready. The morale of the team is down, but this is the time we show our character. We go and play good cricket.”
Azhar Mahmood does not expect any of the Pakistan players to be complacent against Canada”They [Pakistan] are very skilled players. Most of the guys have been going around the world playing league cricket, not only international cricket, so their skills are there. But if you are looking for an opportunity, you have to relish these moments. I believe that the fact that the wicket is playing some tricks, levels the playing field for us. We are looking to use that to our advantage.”
Aaron Johnson feels the New York pitch makes it a level playing field for Canada