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The hosts completed a 40-run win over their neighbours after half centuries from Meg Lanning and Elyse Villani and three wickets from Amanda-Jade Wellington flattened New Zealand

Daniel Brettig at the MCG19-Feb-2017
ScorecardElyse Villani struck 73 runs off 47 balls at a strike rate of more than 150•Getty Images

A firecracker of an innings from Elyse Villani set the Australia on the path to a comfortable victory over New Zealandin the opening match of their T20I series at the MCG.Villani’s 73 from a mere 47 deliveries powered the hosts to 151 from their allotted 20 overs, largely in partnership with the captain and reigning Belinda Clark medallist Meg Lanning.New Zealand struggled in response, never threatening to match the required run rate while losing regular wickets. The absence of Ellyse Perry, Australia’s star allrounder, was no great handicap to Lanning’s side, with the young legspinner Amanda-Jade Wellington stepping up admirably with three wickets.The visiting captain Suzie Bates had chosen to send the Australians in to bat upon winning the toss, and the early wickets of Beth Mooney and the debutant Ashleigh Gardner – run out after facing just a single ball – handed the early momentum to the tourists.However Lanning’s composure was important in settling the innings down, avoiding further wickets while building a stand with Villani. So effectively did the pair accelerate that Australia were able to pile up no fewer than 97 runs from their final 11 overs, having been a relatively sedate 2 for 54 after nine overs.New Zealand’s reply began serviceably enough, but from the moment Rachel Priest offered a catch to Lanning off the bowling of Molly Strano they were always pushing up hill. The loss of Bates in the 11th over was a critical blow, and Amy Satterthwaite’s determined rearguard served mainly to reduce the margin of defeat.The second T20I takes place at Geelong’s Kardinia Park on Sunday.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan may have formed a solid opening combination at the top of India’s batting order, but Rohit feels that comparisons with the prolific Sachin Tendulkar-Sourav Ganguly duo are premature

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Feb-2016Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan may have formed a solid opening combination at the top of India’s batting order, but Rohit feels that comparisons with the prolific Sachin Tendulkar-Sourav Ganguly duo are premature.Rohit and Dhawan have put up 2763 runs from 63 innings across formats at an average of 44.56, with eight centuries and 10 fifties between them. While that is still a fair bit away from the 6609 runs Tendulkar and Ganguly put up together, Rohit has “immense satisfaction” that people are already drawing comparisons between the two pairs.”Comparisons with India’s most successful opening pairing [Ganguly-Tendulkar] gives you immense satisfaction. Comparisons are a piece of joy,” Rohit told . “It would be great if me and Shikhar as an opening pair can achieve the success that these two accomplished in their illustrious careers.”We are still not there but both of us would like to entertain the fans and win as many matches as they have won for India.”Rohit, who was named Player of the Series in the recent ODIs against Australia for his 441 runs from five matches, also felt that even his personal best was yet to come.”This is not the best. Whatever I achieve, I would always tell myself that my best is yet to come. I have scored 441 runs in the ODI series in Australia. In the next big series, my target will be to score more than 441 runs. If I am satisfied with my past achievements, I will never be able to set higher benchmarks.”It is a fact that you need to get the basics right. The straight six over fast bowlers’ head is a shot which I play with my batswing being the extension of my arm. It is about timing and position of the body negligible power element in it. But when MS Dhoni bats in the 45th over with the ball going soft, you need those wrists and brute power to clear ropes. That’s why MS is special.”Despite Rohit’s heroics in the ODI series, India went on to lose 4-1, though the visitors sealed a historic 3-0 whitewash in the T20Is that followed. However, Rohit said that the T20 win could not be put on the same pedestal as India’s victory in the 2007-08 tri-series, owing to the quality of Australia’s bowling attack back then.”I agree that their bowling attack is not same as it used to be but does one expect that Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath would have played on forever? You can only score runs off the bowlers that you play against,” Rohit said. “Every win counts as that’s what you are supposed to do while playing for the country.”[2008] was so different. I was a 20-year-old on my second or third tour. The new captain [Dhoni] was just settling down. Imagine their bowling attack. Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken and a far younger Mitchell Johnson. The batting line- up was Hayden, Gilchrist, Ponting and Clarke. So that tournament win can’t be compared to this win but this is also special in its own way.”

West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo and fast bowler Tino Best said the outcome of the fifth ODI in St Lucia, and of the series, may have been different if some umpiring decisions had gone in favour of the hosts

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jul-2013West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo and fast bowler Tino Best have said the outcome of the fifth ODI in St Lucia, and of the series, may have been different if some ‘key’ umpiring decisions had gone in favour of the hosts.”The matches could have gone either way. Even today a few key decisions went against us,” Dwayne Bravo said, after Pakistan beat the West Indies by four wickets in the final ODI. “We can’t fault the effort of the players. The series could have gone our way if some key decisions had gone our way.”Best, too, shared a similar opinion in a post-match interview with , where he said that the third umpire’s decision in favour of Misbah-ul-Haq could have changed the game. In the 43rd over, West Indies appealed after Misbah appeared to have gloved a Best bouncer going down the leg side. Misbah was on 49 at the time and Pakistan would have needed 53 off 46 if he had been given out. West Indies referred the decision after the on-field umpire turned down the appeal, a decision backed by the third umpire who had to rely on video and sound replays. Earlier in the match, Darren Bravo was given out after a similar appeal.”We had a plan for Misbah-ul-Haq. Unfortunately, the decision didn’t go our way, otherwise it would have changed the game,” Best said.For Pakistan, the victory was their third successive bilateral series win against West Indies in the Caribbean. Misbah-ul-Haq, who scored his fourth fifty in five matches to set up the 3-1 triumph, praised his bowlers for responding to the challenge of bowling first under pressure.”A win is always good, especially after the losses in [the] South Africa series and Champions Trophy,” Misbah said. “I knew this pitch was really good to bat on, and if we kept batting till the end, nothing was impossible. The bowling has obviously been our strength. Everybody bowled really well, which was the key in this win. Always tough to bowl first, especially in pressure games like this, but everybody was really positive that we were going to chase well.”Bravo praised his team for their performance in a closely fought series, while admitting that he was still adapting to the role of a leader. “If you bowl well, 242 was going to be a challenging total,” Bravo said. “I liked how we believed right until the end. Those key decisions at crucial times cost us. A learning process to me, a new role for me. With the talent we have, I enjoy leading the team. We can’t turn things around overnight, but with the talent we have we can become a very dangerous team.”Best, who finished with figures of 3 for 48 was happy with the manner in which he dismissed the Pakistan batsmen. “With [Ahmed] Shehzad, I just tried to hit the deck. He plays the hook and pull shots well. But I backed myself. Bravo took a brilliant catch and that gave me a lot of confidence and impetus to run in even harder. Haris Sohail was always going to be beaten for pace, so that was a good nick as well and Umar Akmal at the end, I think I bowled one bad ball which he hit for six, which swung things their way, but I came back and got his wicket. I feel good about those wickets because they are very good players.”

Ben Hilfenhaus wants Australia to prove why they are the top-ranked ODI side ahead of next year’s return to England for the Ashes

Daniel Brettig06-Jul-2012Ben Hilfenhaus is a man of few words, so to hear him speak passionately of a desire to avoid a third consecutive Ashes defeat is to gain a rare glimpse of the Tasmanian’s drive. A valiant performer in England in 2009 but a less illustrious one in Australia in 2010-11, Hilfenhaus let his usual public guard down when casting his mind forward to 2013.Having reconstructed his bowling action and added diversity to his approach following a horrid tilt at England last time around, Hilfenhaus is now a valued part of Australia’s Test side. He is a more peripheral character in ODI cricket, as demonstrated by his sitting out the first two matches of this series. Nonetheless, Hilfenhaus has found reconnaissance value in the trip to England, and two defeats have clearly stirred up the pain of previous Ashes encounters.”I definitely think we’ve got unfinished business,” Hilfenhaus said. “I’ve lost two Ashes series now. I definitely don’t want to be a part of a third losing one that’s for sure, and I think there are a lot of blokes who feel exactly the same way. I’m not looking too far ahead at this stage, but it will be a pretty big series for us.”You always love to beat the Poms. We didn’t have the ideal start to the one-day series and I think in the last two games of the series we’re definitely going to show them what we are made of, that we are the No.1 team in the world. It’s nice to be playing in these conditions and get a feel for them again, and just have a little reminder of the things we need to work on.”Accompanying Hilfenhaus and the rest of Australia’s bowlers on the tour is the Tasmania bowling coach Ali de Winter, a contender for the full-time role vacated earlier this year by Craig McDermott. Hilfenhaus and de Winter have developed a rich understanding over the years and, after McDermott identified several problem areas following the last Ashes series, de Winter was the man to put his bowling action back together, with the aid of extensive fitness and strength work following two years of knee niggles.”He noticed my action had changed a little bit and realised what we needed to change to get back to where we wanted it. He definitely played a very big role in that,” Hilfenhaus said. “I had a bit of time off and got the body strong again and slowly worked on it, and still will continue to work on it every day to make sure old habits don’t creep back in.”I find the body is weird. Just about every fast bowler’s got niggles and whatever else, but in my case my action changed a little bit because of that, without me ever knowing. That was a bit of a wake-up call to keep an eye on those things, to make sure in the future it doesn’t happen again.”Waqar Younis is another authority on fast bowling to have raised his hand for the Cricket Australia job, and like McDermott would offer a wealth of knowledge derived from bowling in Test matches. De Winter’s path to the same job is rather different but Hilfenhaus said his mentor was as adept at tactical advice as technical tweaks.”I personally find that he is very good technically to me, he understands the way I bowl pretty well, and he picks up things really easy,” Hilfenhaus said. “Tactically he is very good as well, but for me personally it is more the technical side of things. I am sure he is having a look at everyone else’s actions as well and trying to find ways to help them improve.Ben Hilfenhaus had a tough time during the 2010-11 Ashes•Getty Images

“If I am doing things technically correct, that will help my chances at the other end, and some other people might be different. Some people need to be told all these tactics about bowling and these sorts of things, someone like myself I need to be told to keep things technically correct to give myself the best chance to perform my skills.”I rate Ali pretty highly and I’m sure once the other blokes have had a bit more to do with him, they’ll say exactly the same thing.”George Bailey, the Tasmania captain and a fellow England tourist this year, has said that Hilfenhaus has at times needed to be convinced of change being worthwhile in order to carry through with it. In the past 12 months he has done plenty of learning, including a successful stint in the IPL, and so far is reaping rewards from a more open-minded approach.”To be honest I do like staying in my comfort zone a little bit, I like sticking to the things that I know work,” Hilfenhaus said. “I still have a few things to prove in the shorter form of the game, I’ll keep chipping away and hopefully my skills can get to the stage where I’m a permanent member.”A permanent member of the one-day team, and an Ashes winner, perhaps.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has decided to snap contact with the president of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) Dinanath Ramnarine

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jun-2011The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has decided to snap contact with the president of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) Dinanath Ramnarine due to what it claims was his “threatening action” against board CEO Ernest Hilaire and “unprofessional behaviour” during a meeting arranged to resolve the problem over Chris Gayle’s non-selection.WIPA has responded by expressing their confidence in Ramnarine and demanding Hilaire apologise for what they claim are defamatory remarks about Ramnarine. Both bodies, though, said they will continue to deal with each other over issues concerning players.”The WICB will continue to treat WIPA, the representative body of the players, with the highest degree of respect and as a principal partner in West Indies cricket and will continue to engage WIPA on matters pertaining to West Indian players,” a release issued by the WICB, following a meeting of its board of directors, stated. “However, given Mr. Dinanath Ramnarine’s threatening action towards the WICB Chief Executive Officer and the unprofessional conduct of Mr. Ramnarine during a recent meeting on June 14 2011, the Board will no longer engage with Mr. Ramnarine on any issue unless there is a change in his behaviour and conduct.”In response, WIPA issued their own release, slamming what they claim are “street tactics” from the WICB in attempting to construe fervent negotiations as something more. “The WIPA board wishes to make clear that it has complete confidence in its President and CEO Mr. Dinanath Ramnarine who continues to have full authority to represent WIPA in all matters,” the WIPA release said. “WIPA fully expects that there will be no difficulty with the WICB dealing with any WIPA personnel since WIPA is prepared to deal with any WICB representatives and does deal with any WICB representatives even when WIPA considers that representative a bad choice whose conduct is unbecoming and expects reciprocity from the WICB.”Tempers, reportedly, flared during the meeting between the two parties, in which Gayle – who has been asked to retract statements he made in a radio interview in April – was also present. A WICB source alleged Ramnarine had lifted his chair and threatened to assault Hilaire. WIPA admitted to there being verbal disagreements and that Ramnarine had got out of his chair at one point, but claimed he had neither lifted the chair nor tried to hit Hilaire. In their release on June 20, they have expressed concern that no proceedings have been brought against Hilaire by the WICB for his behaviour during the meeting.The meeting, whose details were leaked to the media, proved inconclusive and Gayle wasn’t picked for the first Test in Jamaica. However, in its release, the WICB said it “continue efforts to resolve the issues with Mr. Gayle”.Some progress appears to have been made in the board’s interaction with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who had slammed the West Indies management in a radio interview prior to the Test series against Pakistan. The WICB met with Chanderpaul ahead of the first Test against India in Kingston “in what was a fruitful and productive meeting regarding his future involvement in West Indies cricket”.In the case of Sulieman Benn, who hasn’t been considered for selection due to unfavourable reports from the management about his behaviour during the World Cup, the board said “it will continue to engage Mr. Sulieman Benn in an attempt to resolve issues relating to his discipline and behaviour”.Among other decisions, the board scheduled the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament in Trinidad and Barbados between January 9 and 22 next year, and re-branded its 50-over competition as ‘Regional Super50″. It will be held in Guyana, though the dates are still to be decided.

It wasn’t the strongest attack the Australians will ever face, but Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey still enjoyed the chance to reacquaint themselves with the red Duke ball and struck centuries at Derby

The Bulletin by Brydon Coverdale in Derby08-Jul-2010
ScorecardRicky Ponting reached his hundred from 125 balls•Getty Images

It wasn’t the strongest attack the Australians will ever face, but Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey still enjoyed the chance to reacquaint themselves with the red Duke ball and struck centuries at Derby. In their only warm-up game before next week’s Lord’s Test against Pakistan, spending time in the middle was the main aim for Australia, who made 436 on the first day of the two-day encounter.Ponting and Hussey combined for a 210-run partnership and for most of the time they were in cruise control against a bowling group with limited first-class experience. Ponting’s troubles with the hook continued when he was dropped by Matt Higginbottom at fine leg on 79, and while he nailed several pulls and hooks he also mistimed a few.On the whole, Ponting enjoyed his first outing at the Derby ground, which was the only major county venue at which he had not previously played. He brought up his hundred from 125 balls with a six top-edged over the wicketkeeper’s head and soon afterwards retired out on 116 to allow his colleagues to bat after the teams agreed to a 100-over maximum for the innings.Hussey was in sublime form during a chanceless 132 from 140 deliveries that brought back memories of the years he spent mauling county attacks before he broke into Australia’s Test team. Again, Hussey was in his element, driving sixes over long-on, piercing the gaps with ease and using his feet well to the spinners.Eventually, he was caught on the long-on boundary off the spin of Jake Needham, but not before he had taken 20 off one of Needham’s overs. Tim Paine wasn’t quite as fast with his scoring but will be glad to have registered a half-century ahead of his Test debut; he finished unbeaten on 52 as the Australians were bowled out in the final over of the afternoon.Not all of the Australians made the most of the day, though. Marcus North, who has been at home in Perth while the one-day players were in action, worked his way to 21 before he was bowled trying to sweep Needham.The left-arm new-ball pairing of Mark Footitt and Atif Sheikh proved difficult for the top order, which might give Mohammad Aamer confidence for the Tests. Sheikh, who in his only first-class game sent down 14 no-balls, began by trapping Shane Watson lbw for 5 in his first over and followed with Simon Katich (22) caught at gully.Michael Clarke fell for 1 when he was bowled by Footitt and at 48 for 3, Australia were struggling. Things became easier later in the day, and Steven Smith had fun compiling a quick 48 off 43 balls before he was cleaned bowled going for a cross-bat hoick off the seamer Higginbottom.All eyes will be on Ben Hilfenhaus on the second day, as he prepares for his first Test since November, when he was struck down with knee tendonitis. The first task for the bowlers will be to remove Derbyshire’s classiest batsman, their captain Chris Rogers, who played one Test for Australia in January 2008 and famously made 219 for Leicestershire against Ponting’s Ashes tourists in 2005.