Drawing a blank overseas, slumping pacers and wasting home advantage have left them at eighth out of nine teams in the points table

S Rajesh07-Mar-2023With just one series to go for them in the current cycle, it would be fair to say that New Zealand’s defence of their World Test Championship crown has gone rather badly. They are currently languishing in eighth place out of nine teams; and in fact, their opponents in this last series, Sri Lanka, still have the chance of making the final if they win both Tests.ESPNcricinfo LtdUnder normal circumstances, you would scoff at the possibility of Sri Lanka winning two out of two Tests in New Zealand. After all, they have won only one out of nine Test series in New Zealand, and that victory came way back in 1995. In 19 Tests in the country spanning 40 years, Sri Lanka have won exactly two; now they need to double that tally in a couple of weeks to give themselves any chance of qualifying for the final. However, thanks to New Zealand’s poor form in this cycle, Sri Lanka might fancy their chances of pulling off the improbable.How did New Zealand fall so steeply from being champions in the last cycle to rank eighth in the current one? Here are the key numbers comparing their previous campaign to this entirely forgettable one.

No longer unbeatable at home

What should give Sri Lanka the greatest encouragement is the fact that New Zealand were beaten by Bangladesh in a home Test last year. They recovered to win the second Test and draw the series, but their eight-wicket defeat encapsulates their dismal defence of the WTC crown.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn six home Tests in the current cycle, New Zealand only have a 3-3 win-loss record, with drawn series against Bangladesh, South Africa and England. This includes the two Tests against England which isn’t part of the WTC. Had England scored two more runs in that Wellington chase, New Zealand’s home record would have been 2-4. That is a huge slide from the 2019-21 cycle, when they had a 7-0 winning record in eight Tests at home.

Drawing a blank overseas

In the 2019-21 cycle, New Zealand had a 3-4 win-loss record overseas. They were clean swept 3-0 in Australia, but won a Test in Sri Lanka and two in England, including the WTC final (Their 1-0 win in England in 2021 wasn’t a part of the WTC).

Cornwall smashed a century off 45 balls for Royals, while TKR found a new face in left-arm wristspinner Waqar Salamkheil

Rvel Zahid04-Sep-2023 Barbados Royals’ marvelous turnaround after heaviest CPL defeatEarly in the third week of the CPL, Knight Riders chased down 179 against Patriots, as all their big names delivered. Then they waltzed their way to a pulverising 133-run win over Royals, who were bundled for just 61 in pursuit of 195. That turned out to be the heaviest defeat by margin of runs in the history of the tournament.Martin Guptill hogged the limelight with an unbeaten 100 from only 58 balls despite having started with a run-a-ball 20. Earlier this year, Guptill had slammed the first century of this year’s PSL, something which he repeated at the CPL too this season.Related

Rayudu, Muzarabani end CPL stints with Patriots after three games

CPL week two: Tallawahs' Pakistani flavour; Warriors' WI's flavour

Elbow injury cuts short Faf du Plessis' CPL season

But in just about 24 hours, Rovman Powell galvanised his team into action, as Royals comfortably chased down 161 against defending champions Jamaica Tallawahs.Tallawahs opener Alex Hales failed to create an impact in his first game of season, while on the other hand, Alick Athanaze’s mature knock of 76 for Royals eclipsed Shamarh Brooks’ 78 for Tallawahs. Athanaze stole the show with his pyrotechnics in a crunch situation, as he continues making big strides in the nascent stage of his career. After scoring the joint-fastest fifty on ODI debut against UAE in June, he gave resounding proof of his batting prowess with a match-winning knock against Tallawahs.But at the post-match presentation, Powell urged those concerned to manage Athanaze well: “I think he has a very good future. It’s important that West Indies look at that, and start managing him. We have seen players play all three formats in such quick time. There is a lot of talent in the Caribbean, but the problem is we don’t harness that talent.”Thereon, Royals’ topsy-turvy campaign continued as they suffered a 90-run defeat at the hands of St Lucia Kings. However, they saved their best batting performance for the last game of the Barbados leg, which came against Patriots. Royals beat the bottom-placed Patriots by hunting down 221 with as many as eight wickets and 11 deliveries to spare.Johnson Charles struck 78 off 52 balls against Barbados Royals•CPL T20 via Getty ImagesIt was ‘Cornball’ all the way: Rahkeem Cornwall ruled the roost with a jaw-dropping century that put his team in the driver’s seat before retiring hurt on 102 seemingly because of tiredness. Given how Royals’ top order had been struggling before the final game of week three, not many would have envisaged that they would gun down the mammoth target rather convincingly.Cornwall entertained the home crowd splendidly with his power-hitting, as one of his 12 sixes included a monstrous 110-meter hit which surpassed Kieron Pollard’s 107-meter six earlier in the tournament. Cornwall then bettered his own record by crashing a 111-meter six over backward square. He got to his hundred off 45 balls, and followed that with a bat-drop celebration.St Lucia Kings’ juggernaut rolls on with Raza at the helmStand-in captain Sikandar Raza hasn’t let Kings’ intensity drop a wee bit after regular captain Faf du Plessis’ departure for a surgery for his long-standing tennis-elbow injury. Under Raza, Kings beat Royals by 90 runs, further solidifying their hold at the top of the table after three wins from their last five games, two of which were washed out by rain.Waqar Salamkheil got 2 for 21 in the two-run win over Jamaica Tallawahs•CPL T20 via Getty ImagesSalamkheil helps Trinbago Knight Riders clinch nail-biterKnight Riders edged past Tallawahs by two runs while defending 142, as Waqar Salamkheil followed up his 4 for 14 against Royals with 2 for 21. Royals needed 12 in the final over of the chase, before Imad Wasim’s boundary brought it down to eight off five balls. But Ali Khan bowled three dots in a row, and though Imad hit a four again, he could manage only a leg bye out of the remaining four required off the last delivery.Earlier, during Knight Riders’ innings, Tallawahs’ debutant Kelvin Pitman picked up 3 for 27, including the wickets of Nicholas Pooran and Pollard. And though Pitman’s efforts went in vain, Tallawahs will be pleased with his performance as the group stage nears its business end.St Kitts and Nevis Patriots’ woeful campaign continuesPatriots’ fortunes couldn’t change either under Evin Lewis or Sherfane Rutherford, as they suffered a massive defeat against Amazon Warriors. Patriots made a forgettable start to the third week, succumbing for 88 in pursuit of 187 after Dwaine Pretorius dented them early with three wickets.That was followed by a big defeat at the hands of Royals despite raking up 220, which included half-centuries from Rutherford, Will Smeed and Andre Fletcher. That meant six losses in a row after their first two matches were washed out, keeping them at only two points from eight matches. With Rutherford leading against Royals, Patriots were let down by the bowlers and he also rued the fielding lapses after the loss.”Nothing is guaranteed, so we just need to keep a good mindset, stick together, and anything can happen,” he said.

The fielding was awful, preparation and team selection equally bad, and they didn’t really give themselves a fighting chance

Firdose Moonda01-Jul-2023The ‘worst fielding side’ around
Ten catches went down in the group stage, the ground fielding was poor on the whole, and that’s simply not good enough.Not all of the West Indies’ spills carried massive consequences. Even dropping Gajanand Singh when on 0 in the tournament opener, where he went on to score 101*, did not prevent them from securing a win. But some of them did. The five against Zimbabwe might have been the difference between 200 and 268, and cost West Indies points they could have carried over to the Super Six.On that occasion, they put down Sikandar Raza on 1 and then on 3, and he went on to score 68 and share in a match-winning 87-run stand with Ryan Burl, who was also dropped once. Coach Daren Sammy was so frustrated that he labelled West Indies the “worst fielding side” at the qualifier.And then they put down a crucial chance in the Super Six, too. Defending a below-par 181, West Indies took a wicket with their first ball and had an opportunity for a second in the 12th over – Brandon McMullen was on 21 when he drilled Akeal Hosein to Kyle Mayers at midwicket. But Mayers put it down and McMullen went on to score 69 and put Scotland on the doorstep of victory.It was difficult for West Indies to put first-choice playing XIs on the field, and it showed•ICC via Getty ImagesIllness, injury, and iffy playing XIs
With illnesses – most teams have had some form of winter flu affecting their camp – and injuries, it has been difficult for West Indies to always field a first-choice XI.They batted Johnson Charles at No. 3 for the first time in his career in the opening three matches even though he is an opening batter. Their reason was that Shamarh Brooks’ illness had opened up a spot. Would moving Shai Hope to one-drop have made more sense?Yannick Cariah’s injury meant West Indies couldn’t capitalise on his pre-tournament form and also took away their only legspinner. The performances of Wanindu Hasaranga and Chris Greaves suggest it would have been handy for West Indies to have one.The Super Over mess
After Logan van Beek had plundered 28 runs off 14 balls, mostly hitting to the short leg-side boundary at Takashinga Cricket Club, it was inexplicable that West Indies chose to bowl from the Pavilion End to him in the Super Over, where they gave him the same advantage.That’s the decision West Indies made and they tasked Jason Holder with delivering the six balls that would decide the match. He started with two full-tosses, then went short and wide, and could not adjust his lengths to test van Beek’s defence against the yorker at all. The result was 4, 6, 4, 6, 6 and 4, and 31 runs for West Indies to chase. They stopped well short.When asked afterwards who made the decision to bowl Holder in the Super Over, Sammy didn’t comment, but a few breaths later, he said he had “full faith” in the captain’s decisions.There is a lot to talk about when it comes to West Indies cricket, and most of it is likely to be unpleasant•ICC via Getty ImagesPowell’s power reaps no rewards
Rovman Powell, West Indies’ vice-captain, played the opening two group matches, and showed none of the sense of responsibility that comes with his title and failed to provide the lower-order firepower West Indies desperately needed.Coming in at 192 for 5 against USA, Powell picked out long-off with a nothing shot the ball after Nicholas Pooran was caught at sweeper cover to fall for a golden duck. West Indies lost six wickets for 105 in that match and did not make 300.Against Nepal, with West Indies in a strong position at 310 for 5, Powell slugged a waist-high full-toss to long-on, and after being trapped lbw for 1 against Zimbabwe, something needed to be done about him.West Indies acted.They explained that leaving him out of the XI against Netherlands was an effort to balance the side, which was also without a hamstrung Mayers, and needed an extra bowling option. Romario Shepherd was included in Powell’s place and Mayers returned for the Scotland match with Shepherd kept his place and Powell still confined to the bench.Not the ideal preparation
West Indies played a series in the UAE to prepare for the qualifier, but not all of them were there together. Six of the 15 that travelled to Zimbabwe – Mayers, Holder, Powell, Alzarri Joseph, Shepherd and Akeal Hosein – were not involved in those matches.Understandably, they were given a break after the end of the IPL, but it also meant that their first interaction with a new coach (though one they have known as a player for long) came at a crunch tournament and the lack of cohesion showed.When asked to respond to Carl Hooper’s comment that the situation facing West Indies was “distressing”, Holder said he had been shutting out outside noise. Only to be reminded that Hooper was inside the camp, as the new assistant coach.And then there was the choice of warm-up series. Day-night games in the desert did little to help West Indies ready themselves for the chilly, dew-dropped southern African mornings, where the ball moves substantially in the first hour and, when put in, their batters showed a lack of assurance. West Indies were 14 for 2 against USA, 55 for 3 against Nepal, and 81 for 6 against Scotland in the game that saw them cede any chances of going to the World Cup.

For the first time in 4691 ODIs, a team lost four of their top five to run-outs, and it cost Netherlands dearly

Hemant Brar03-Nov-2023In the fifth over of the Netherlands innings, Max O’Dowd pushed towards mid-off and scampered a single. Rashid Khan was quick to the ball but missed the direct hit. Despite his dive, O’Dowd would have been out had Rashid been on target.O’Dowd’s escape was the warning Netherlands ignored. What followed had catastrophic consequences for their chances of making the semi-finals of this World Cup and damaged their prospects of qualifying for the 2025 Champions Trophy. A campaign that had soared with wins against South Africa and Bangladesh had suffered a frenetic crash landing.”Definitely not ideal,” Netherlands captain Scott Edwards said after the defeat to Afghanistan. “Sort of beat yourself a little bit in that sense. Four run-outs in our top five or six batters – hard to come back from that. I think we started well and set up ourselves for a good total there. Yeah, gave a few wickets away. They have obviously got quality spinners through the middle and we didn’t have our top-order batters in there to face them.”Related

Shahidi dedicates Afghanistan win to refugees in Pakistan

Nabi the hustler sends Netherlands spinning

Champions Trophy qualification at stake at ODI World Cup

As it happened – Afghanistan's fourth win

Nabi, Shahidi, Rahmat boost Afghanistan's semi-final chances

After opting to bat in Lucknow, Netherlands lost Wesley Barresi in the first over, but their recovery was so good that their score of 66 for 1 in ten overs was not just their best powerplay performance this World Cup, it was also the best in nine ODIs at this venue.Afghanistan went into an emergency huddle and Rashid, who hurt himself while attempting the aforementioned run-out, returned to lead the talk. The huddle took so long that umpire Nitin Menon had to nudge the players twice to get on with it. Mohammad Nabi said later the gist of the conversation was “bowl in the right areas and they will make mistakes”.The first of those mistakes came in the 12th over when O’Dowd paddled the ball towards fine leg and tried to come back for the second run. Azmatullah Omarzai, who was at deep-backward square leg, sprinted to his right, cut down the angle, picked up cleanly, and nailed the direct hit. O’Dowd’s dive did not save him this time.A direct hit from the deep was just the inspiration Afghanistan needed. A combination of a new batter, relaxed fielding restrictions, and disciplined bowling resulted in Netherlands scoring only 19 off the next 41 balls.Sybrand Engelbrecht was the one really struggling, having scored only 12 off 31. In the 19th over, he stepped out to Nabi and drilled the ball towards mid-off. He took off immediately for a single but Colin Ackermann was ball-watching for a second at the non-striker’s end. Even if Ackermann had responded instantly, he would have still been out. That’s how poor Engelbrecht’s judgment was, and as Ackermann walked off shaking his head, he did not make eye contact with his partner.Afghanistan were back in the game but Netherlands, at 92 for 3, were not out of it either. Their middle and lower order had bailed them out more than once in the World Cup and the architect of some of those rescues, Edwards, had just come to the crease.Edwards is the best player of spin in his team. Before Friday, he had played three ODIs against Afghanistan and scored a half-century in all of them. Today, in Netherlands’ most important ODI against Afghanistan to date, he was dismissed first ball. Run-out.Edwards had no one to blame. Trying to sweep Nabi, he under-edged the ball and instinctively took off for a single, without realising it had rolled towards the wicketkeeper. Ikram Alikhil did to Edwards what Romesh Kaluwitharana had done to Sachin Tendulkar in the semi-final of the 1996 World Cup: he picked up the ball in a flash and broke the stumps before the batter could hurry back.Colin Ackermann put in a dive in vain•ICC via Getty ImagesBas de Leede ensured there was no hat-trick of run-outs but there was more to come. Netherlands were trying to resuscitate their innings when Roelof van der Merwe flicked one to midwicket in the 35th over. He and Engelbrecht froze mid-pitch for a moment and that was enough to catch Engelbrecht short at the striker’s end. For the first time in 4691 ODIs, a team had lost four of their top five to run-outs.Was this a freak occurrence, or an extreme consequence of a risk in Netherlands’ gameplan? Only once in seven matches this World Cup have Netherlands not had a batter run out. They have lost nine wickets to run-outs in this tournament; India are second with four.Netherlands are proud of their running between the wickets. To make up for shortfalls in other disciplines, they push fielders hard. Against Sri Lanka at this venue, they ran 27 twos.”We do pride ourselves on running between the wickets,” Netherlands’ head coach Ryan Cook said after the game. “Our turning technique and our running between the wickets in terms of the speed and stuff, we do a lot of training on that. Obviously, today, four run-outs – and not just any run-outs, No. 2, 3, 4 and 5 in your batting order getting run out – is not ideal.”So yeah, we’ll have to go back and have a look at that, but it won’t stop us, it is part of the DNA of our team and we’ll keep trying to run between the wickets and value every run as we do.”A fielding team cannot plan a run-out, but Afghanistan had done their homework and were on high alert. “Before the game, we said, ‘We definitely know they’re going to try to run well between wickets, but also it might present us with opportunities,'” their head coach Jonathan Trott said. “And that’s exactly what happened.”

Desire to play best six batters may prompt team to push Labuschagne up to open the batting against West Indies

Alex Malcolm10-Dec-20231:30

Bailey: ‘Ultimately, Warner is in our best XI’

Australia’s selectors are unlikely to pull any surprises for the first Test of the home summer, against Pakistan on Thursday, but the conversation around who will replace David Warner once he retires continues to bubble away. Head coach Andrew McDonald once again hinted that they could lean towards picking the best six batters in a reshaped order rather than a specialist opener whenever a decision needs to be made.Despite a lot of external noise around the potential debut of express pace bowler Lance Morris, the home side looks set to make only one change from the last Test XI they fielded in the fifth Ashes Test at the Oval with Nathan Lyon returning from injury in place of Todd Murphy.Mitchell Marsh is set to remain at No. 6 while the big three quicks in Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins all looked in fine fettle at Australia’s first training session since being crowned ODI World Cup champions in Ahmedabad three weeks ago.McDonald did not name the XI that would face Pakistan at Perth Stadium but said “it will look the same as it did before” after the quicks had returned in very good shape from a long World Cup campaign. Lyon is also a welcome return after the head coach noted he was a “huge loss” for the final three Tests of the Ashes series that had “destabilised” Australia’s attack.

The hunt for Warner’s successor

In the absence of any selection debates in the lead-up to the first Test of the home summer, speculation continues to mount over how Australia’s batting line-up will shape up once Warner finishes. He has been guaranteed the first game against Pakistan and it seems very likely that he will play all three to get his desired Sydney Test send-off.Australia coach Andrew McDonald and captain Pat Cummins want to field their best available XI•Getty ImagesMcDonald reaffirmed the selection panel’s stated position that they would continue to pick the best Test XI for the here and now in the World Test Championship era, with future building not part of any current discussions. Still, there is continued interest over who ends up replacing Warner, prompting McDonald to double down on his previous statement on that a desire to pick the best six Test batters in the same side, which could include both Marsh and Cameron Green, might trump the need to blood in a new specialist opener.Related

• Warner says 'shush' celebration was aimed at critics

• 'We weren't expecting these kinds of arrangements' – Hafeez critical of Canberra conditions

• Head rules himself out of being Australia Test opener

• Carey finds 'silver lining' from World Cup snub, assures 'self-belief' still intact

• 'He's got opening-itis' – Khawaja warns against Labuschagne promotion

“I think it feels as though anytime that you mention that you want to put your best six batters into the Test team, then there’s always speculation about who’s going to open and when Davey goes,” McDonald said.”We’ve got time to make that decision. Davey’s playing the first Test match and we’ll go from there. Until we have to make the decision, then it’ll continue to bubble away and the speculation will be there.”I think for us, it’s gathering information and making a decision when we need to make the decision. So that’s as simple as it gets. We’ve got no firm views on it at the moment.”It appears that part of the selectors thinking surrounding replacing Warner with Green rather than a specialist opener and then reshuffling the order to have either Marnus Labuschagne or Marsh open the batting is linked in with Australia’s fast bowling stocks. In any case, it seems unlikely that a decision will need to be made until the new year when West Indies arrive for a two-Test series in late January.The Prime Minister’s XI tour match against Pakistan did offer a lot of information to that end, but it was not the selection “bat-off” that some may have hoped it would be.”They all showed what they can do,” McDonald said. “We know that they’re all quality players. I thought Cameron Green was impressive again. Matt Renshaw clearly got a hundred, and a couple of starts to the other boys as well, a half-century and 49 to Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris. We know they can play. They’ve got good numbers in Sheffield Shield cricket and I think if we were to go down that path and choose one of them, I think they would do a really good job.”Lance Morris ramps it up in training•Getty Images

Morris closing in on Test bow

Despite a stated policy of selecting for the here and now, Morris remains an enticing prospect. He bowled a rapid spell in the centre-wicket practice at the WACA ground in Perth on Sunday, ruffling Labuschagne and Marsh at times with Marsh walking off wide-eyed at the pace he’d just faced.There is, however, an understanding that Morris has played almost all of his Sheffield Shield cricket for Western Australia as part of a five-man bowling attack with four fast bowlers and a spinner sharing the load so he could be used in short bursts as a strike weapon. His history of back stress fractures is also a factor in that thinking. In light of all that, Morris is only set to play for Australia this summer if one of the main three quicks, particularly Starc, misses a match through injury or soreness.Meanwhile, Marsh usurping Green as the team’s allrounder has created a headache for the selectors. While Marsh can bowl some very useful overs and will bowl throughout the home season, he cannot be banked upon for the same number of overs and the same bowling impact as Green given Marsh’s recent injury history. The Ashes series was the first time Marsh had played back-to-back first-class matches in four years. He experienced soreness that kept him off the field in the Old Trafford Test and meant he didn’t bowl at all during the subsequent eight-match white-ball tour of South Africa.If Morris were to play in Australia’s Test XI at some stage this summer or moving forward, it appears there would be a clear preference for Green to play in the same side, and if Marsh is entrenched on batting form, the selectors would need to find Green another place in the top six.For the moment, Green will carry the drinks in Perth as Australia remain wary of a Pakistan side that arrives down under in a state of never-ending flux. McDonald was unsure whether the positive new Test brand, the Pakistan Way, that had been unfurled in Sri Lanka in the middle of the year, would be replicated under a new captain and coach against the World Test Champions in a country where they have not won a Test match since 1995.”I think the last series they played, they played a more up-tempo brand,” McDonald said. “They’ll try and put more pressure on the bowling unit. So I think we’ll see a little bit of that. But like anything, if we execute well with the ball, it’s going to be difficult to be able to maintain that over long periods of time. So we’re not sure the way that they’ll play. They’ll signal their intent from the first ball once we get out there. We’ll see what happens.”