Category Uncategorized

Pakistan allrounder free to play in all formats during first half of next season

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Sep-2019Pakistan allrounder Faheem Ashraf will return to Northamptonshire in 2020 after signing a deal for the first half of the season. He will be available to play in all formats ahead of Pakistan’s tour of England later in the summer.Faheem, 25, played for Northants during this year’s Vitality Blast, taking 11 wickets in 11 matches with an economy of 8.11. The club hope he can play a role in their return to Division One of the County Championship next season, with head coach David Ripley describing Faheem as a “genuine threat” on flatter pitches.”He’s a little bit different bowling wise to what we currently have, he’s got a little bit more pace, he’s a swing bowler and he’s got a batting average of 30 [in first-class cricket],” Ripley said. “I think the key element for Faheem is although we signed him for white-ball cricket this year it was pretty clear to see he could bat properly. He’s played Test match cricket for Pakistan so he’s a genuine three-formats cricketer.”Although he missed out on Pakistan’s World Cup squad, Faheem has been a regular in the international set-up over the last couple of years. In all, he has played four Tests, 23 ODIs and 26 T20Is for his country.”The fact he’s got the extra pace is key, we’ve got a very fine group of seam bowlers that got us into Division One and that’s not going to change,” Ripley said. “But when it’s a bit flatter and it’s the last two days of the game and that little bit of nip has gone out of the wicket, someone with a bit of pace and swing and bowling yorkers, then I can see him being a genuine threat when the wickets are flatter.”What the seam bowlers in Pakistan tend to have to do is find a way to get people out when those wickets are very flat and pretty slow. That’s with swing, that’s with yorkers and bouncers, that’s with reverse swing.”

If ever a game epitomised everything that’s right and much of what’s wrong with the T20 Blast it was this

Matt Roller at Richmond04-Aug-2019It is a question that has troubled students of metaphysics since time immemorial: if AB de Villiers hits nine sixes in 35 balls, but the only way to watch is a temperamental, fixed-cam live stream, did the ball really sail into the trees?If there was ever a game that epitomised everything that’s right and much of what’s wrong with the T20 Blast it was this.The scorecard was studded with superstars – de Villiers, Eoin Morgan, and Babar Azam – and starlets in Tom Banton and Mujeeb ur-Rahman. Beer flowed as easily as boundaries in front of a packed ground that had been sold out for weeks. Tom Lammonby, a 19-year-old allrounder in his fifth professional game, was crunched for an enormous six by England’s World Cup-winning captain, then held his nerve to dismiss him with his next ball.And yet – there is always an ‘and yet’ with the Blast – it felt at times as though it might not have happened at all.This sell-out was not at Lord’s, but at Old Deer Park, a quaint club ground at the far end of the District Line.Nor was it televised. It would be foolish to demand every game in a 133-match competition is televised, not least with an Ashes Test running simultaneously, but if you had tried to tune into Middlesex’s stream of the game, you would have seen an ominous buffering circle interspersed with a Benny Hill-style sped up version of everything you had missed.The competition’s official social media account would hardly have helped you either: as de Villiers walked off at the interval, its most recent tweet was seven hours previously.None of this is to throw all the blame at Middlesex. There is merit, of course, in their attempts to bring their games to a wider audience than they get at Lord’s, which are dominated by a post-work, corporate demographic. They can hardly be blamed for the temperamental nature of their Wifi connection, not least at a ground they only come to once a year. As Tim Wigmore detailed for ESPNcricinfo in 2016, the club’s situation is unique in that they lack a true ‘home’ – every staging decision they make is impossible to understand without a swathe of contextual background.But it is impossible to imagine any of this happening anywhere else; so much as hinting at this turn of events to an administrator in the IPL or the Big Bash would rightly be met with derision.Even leagues that have started from nowhere, like the Global T20 in Canada, have managed to push their product substantially more successfully: cricket fans in the UK could watch Brampton Wolves vs Vancouver Knights on TV on Sunday evening, but not de Villiers going beserk in their own domestic competition.In essence, the Blast’s neglect by the ECB has left it resembling a stray cat: the odd county might leave out a bowl of biscuits or a saucer of milk to keep it going, but its survival owes more to good fortune than investment of time or money. The governing body will point out that many of the shortcomings detailed will be solved by The Hundred from next year – but what chance did they ever give their current competition of succeeding?In the event, this was Middlesex’s first win against Somerset in five attempts, a result which owed much to a collapse of five wickets for 28 runs in the middle overs of the chase.From the moment de Villiers had nailed his second ball for a towering six over midwicket, things had looked ominous for Somerset. Paul Stirling and Dawid Malan had set the platform early on, but it was de Villiers who turned a competitive total into an enormous one as he peppered the midwicket and long-off boundaries.Richmond is a small ground, with the straight boundaries no bigger than 55m, but many of his sixes would have reached the second tier in the more familiar surroundings of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The pick were a straight drive nailed over the press tent at long-off and an lusty smite over midwicket off Jamie Overton; the only shame for Middlesex is that their superstar only has one game left on his lucrative, but brief contract.It was curious that Somerset did not bowl their spinners out – they went at 8.57 runs an over, compared to 11.77 for their seamers – and as it has since the days of Alfonso Thomas, death bowling proved their Achilles heel.They had looked well set at 81 for 1 with a ball left in the seventh over of their chase, as Banton started with a typically flamboyant cameo, but after James Hildreth chopped a Steve Finn slower ball on, they lost wickets regularly.Nathan Sowter, the spiky Australian legspinner, proved to be the improbable star of Middlesex’s defence, removing Banton, Eddie Byrom and Tom Lammonby in the space of six balls to derail the chase, and despite the punchy Tom Abell’s efforts to bat with the tail, the total proved insurmountable.

Kurtis Patterson’s maiden Test century continued Australia’s batting dominance in Canberra

Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando02-Feb-2019Kurtis Patterson’s maiden Test century propelled Australia to a commanding 5 for 534, before three late strikes seriously dented Sri Lanka’s response – the hosts ending yet another day in the series in a dominant position against a beleaguered visiting side.Having made three hundreds in their innings – the first Australian tons in the summer so far – Australia’s attack then exerted tremendous pressure on a brittle Sri Lanka top order in the final hour of play. What had seemed like a profoundly dead pitch for much of the day was brought to life by Nathan Lyon, who gleaned substantially more turn and bounce from the surface than Sri Lanka’s offspinner Dilruwan Perera had. Lyon made the first breakthrough, removing Lahiru Thirimanne, before Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc also claimed a wicket apiece with excellent deliveries.

‘Not given any reason’ for sacking as selector – Hathurusingha

Chandika Hathurusingha will seek an audience with Sri Lanka cricket and government authorities after the series against Australia in order to obtain an explanation for his sacking as selector just before the start of the second Test in Canberra. The Sri Lanka coach said there had been little communication and no reason given for the decision.
“I was not given any reason at the moment and it’s beyond my control at the moment so after this tour probably I’ll have the chance to speak to the authorities,” he said.
“At the moment they have not much communication so I can’t give you much so once I have finished this series, I’ll probably be in a much better position to answer that.”

The most pressing among Sri Lanka’s concerns at stumps, however, was the wellbeing of opening batsman Dimuth Karunaratne, who suffered a blow to the back of the neck when he failed to get out of the way of a 142kph Cummins bouncer, about an hour before the close. Dimuth collapsed immediately, losing grip of his bat, and lay almost motionless as medical staff inspected and eventually stretchered him off the field, in order to take him for what it is hoped are merely precautionary scans.Encouragingly, Dimuth was conscious throughout the episode, and was seen talking to the medics and moving his hands. But it is as-yet unclear whether he will be able to take any further part in the match.Through the early parts of the day, it was woes of the cricketing kind that plagued Sri Lanka. Kasun Rajitha dismissed Joe Burns in the sixth over of the day, getting a ball to jag in at the batsman, who then chopped it on to his stumps to depart for 180. But that would be the only wicket in the 45 overs they delivered, before Australia declared. The only consolation for Sri Lanka was that Australia’s score did not advance quite as quickly on day two as it had in parts of day one, owing partially to a slightly more disciplined showing with the ball.Patterson, who had been dropped first ball on day one, began the morning on 25 not out, and although somewhat nervy in the early overs, as Sri Lanka’s seamers gleaned movement from the second new ball, eventually settled into a happy rhythm. He was strongest through the covers, hitting half of his eventual 14 fours through that region, but was almost as good with the pull shot, as Sri Lanka’s quicks repeatedly tested him with the short ball.The bowlers had exerted pressure in the first 15 overs of the day, but once the ball stopped moving around, and Sri Lanka’s discipline frayed, Patterson began to appear more and more immovable at the crease. He never quite scored as quickly as day one’s centurions – Burns and Travis Head – had done, at times, but his batting was no less secure than either of those men. He reached a maiden half-century off the 100th ball he faced, and by this stage, seemed to have worn the opposition bowlers down. His second fifty was populated with strong shots square of the wicket – particularly through point as Sri Lanka sprayed the ball around, and through midwicket, when they tried to bounce him out.Through the course of his innings, Patterson struck up an unbeaten 130-run stand with Tim Paine. When Paine made the declaration about halfway through the middle session, Patterson was on 114 off 192 balls, and Paine on 45 – the prospect of a half-century not enough to tempt Paine to delay the declaration slightly.Sri Lanka’s openers had begun their innings in promising fashion, seeing out the 13 overs until tea without incident – largely secure in defence against the new ball. Lyon, however, caused both left-handers a few problems early in the third session, but it nevertheless appeared as if both batsmen were comfortable at the crease.But the nasty blow to Karunaratne, and the consequent stoppage in play, changed the complexion of the session. The over after the injury break, Lahiru Thirimanne pushed at a turning Lyon ball outside off stump, and edged to slip. A few overs later, Kusal Mendis was bowled on his 24th birthday by a Cummins ball that angled in, and seamed away slightly, to evade the outside of Mendis’ bat, and rattle off stump. It was the second such delivery that has dismissed Mendis in this series, with Jhye Richardson having also bowled him in Brisbane.Finally, with only two full overs before stumps, Starc had Dinesh Chandimal caught behind. At first shaping to pull the short delivery, Chandimal made the late decision to duck it, but the ball caught his glove on its way to the wicketkeeper. Kusal Perera and Dhananjaya de Silva were not out at the close – Sri Lanka having opted not to use a nightwatchman.

New director of cricket charged with finding successor to Trevor Bayliss as he takes over from Andrew Strauss

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jan-2019Ashley Giles has played down any suggestion of a rift between himself and Andy Flower on his first day as the ECB’s new director of England cricket, and insists that the difficulties the pair endured as concurrent head coaches of the one-day and Test squads back in 2013-14 does not mean that the principle of split coaching should be ruled out going forward.One of Giles’ first duties, in the wake of his unveiling at Lord’s on Wednesday morning, will be to begin the search for England’s new head coach, with the current incumbent, Trevor Bayliss, due to stand down after this summer’s double-header of the World Cup and the Ashes.Bayliss, who was appointed by Giles’ predecessor Andrew Strauss back in 2015, has indicated that he will not be seeking an extension to his contract, and with England due to fly out to the Caribbean to begin their Test series against West Indies on Friday, Giles knows that a smooth transition will be crucial to England’s fortunes.”I’m hoping to catch up with Trev over the next couple of days down at the airport before they fly off but he’s made it pretty clear he’s leaving,” Giles told Talksport.”Clearly the new coaching structure is going to be front and centre and there’s a lot to think about. There’s been a lot made of two coaches – one specialist under one [head] coach. There are a lot of different options and I need some time to look at everything.””Myself and Andy Flower split the role. I think it can work, absolutely. The challenges of one guy doing it is the workload, especially going into the next couple of years with the World Test Championship and T20 World Cups back-to-back.”Giles was sacked as England’s one-day coach in 2014 after an ignominious defeat to Netherlands sealed their fate in that year’s World T20, with Flower also departing following England’s dismal 5-0 defeat in the Ashes. England have resisted the temptation to split their coaching set-up since, with Peter Moores’ short-lived return giving way to the Bayliss era, in which he has worked closely across all formats with his long-term deputy, Paul Farbrace.However, looking back on the events of that turbulent winter, Giles insisted it was an issue of timing, rather than personality, that sealed the fate of England’s teams. However, he added that crucial lessons would have to be learnt if England are to head down a similar route in the future.”There’s no problem with mine and Andy’s relationship,” he told Sky Sports. “We worked as the two head coaches, but I think the timing was tricky. The cycle we were going through as a team, the unravelling of that side through that Ashes in Australia and of course the Netherlands debacle in Bangladesh when I was T20 head coach at the World Cup.”It was not a great period for both of us, but does that mean that split coaches can’t work? I don’t think so. We need to look at all options going forward, but one thing that myself and Andy are, are different people.”And when you lead environments, there are different cultures and there’s going to be slightly different messaging. That’s not that one’s right and one’s wrong, we’re just different people and that’s something to think about going forward.”Giles was appointed by the ECB last month, after Strauss decided to step down in order to spend more time with his family. Strauss’ wife, Ruth, died in December after a year-long battle with cancer.

Laura Delany said she felt beating Pakistan was a realistic target, but then her team ran into the wiles of Sandhu on a helpful pitch

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Nov-2018Only five times in 98 games has a bowler completed a four-over spell for Pakistan in Women’s T20Is and been more economical than Nashra Sandhu against Ireland. Sandhu finished with 2 for 8 from her four overs of left-arm spin as Pakistan beat Ireland by 38 runs to keep their hopes alive in the Women’s World T20.Sandhu said the pitch was helpful, so she did not have to too do much to be effective. Her main focus, she said, was to watch the batsmen’s footwork closely and choose her lines and lengths accordingly.”Conditions were good for us to bowl, for spin bowlers and fast bowlers too. Overall it was good,” Sandhu said after the match. “It was comfortable for us to like play on that pitch.”[I] just had to bowl consistently on a better line. It gave me much benefit because it was a little bit turn in the pitch. Just nothing to do. Just have to bowl consistently on the better line and just to check the feet of the batters. Are they using their feet or [holding] position, using their crease or not.”Sandhu, 20, said she gets constant advice from the experienced Sana Mir, as was the case in this game too. “She’s constantly guiding me in this tournament, but also previously in many tournaments. Like if I feel confused or when I’m under pressure, she always comes to me and says: ‘Don’t be too confused. You’re the best.’ I always feel very comfortable when she talks to me. She’s very good at doing this.”Getty Images

Ireland captain Laura Delany admitted to being gutted about the loss. She said she was quietly confident of upsetting Pakistan in this game, so to lose by a margin of close to 40 runs was a big blow.”I think it was a given coming into this tournament [we] have a tough group,” Delany said. “[But] Pakistan are closely ranked to ourselves [Pakistan are ranked seventh, to Ireland’s tenth], so that was the obvious target that we were going to go after.”After beating Sri Lanka in such a convincing way [in a practice match], I thought Pakistan would be the next target for us. Obviously Australia first up, No. 1 in the world, was always going to be a tough challenge. So Pakistan was next on our list.”So, incredibly frustrating, because if we were professional, I wonder what the score would’ve been out there today. To lose by 40 runs [when] we genuinely believed we could win, it’s very disappointing.”Delany said her team let Pakistan get 10-20 runs over par and then played out too many dots, which cost them the game. “I think before we went out to the field we said 120, 130 would be par on this wicket, so [Pakistan made] a little bit more than what we hoped they would achieve,” she said. “I think going out into the batting innings we were still pretty confident with the line-up that we had, that if we executed our plans we would get the result we wanted.”From a batting point of view, we need to look at our scoring-shot percentage. I think we faced way too many dot balls, and unfortunately ended up putting a lot of pressure on the middle-order batters.”

Kyle Coetzer and Matthew Cross romped Scotland into Sunday’s final, blazing past Hong Kong by five wickets

The Report by Peter Della Penna in Malahide25-Jul-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:50

We want to play aggressive with intent – Mommsen

Kyle Coetzer and Matthew Cross romped Scotland into Sunday’s final, blazing past Hong Kong by five wickets in the first semi-final in Malahide. The pair’s 52-run stand in just four overs during the 68-run Powerplay was more than what the Hong Kong bowling attack could handle in defence of their modest total of 116.Coetzer fired Scotland’s opening salvo against Hong Kong captain Tanwir Afzal, rocking him for two fours and a six over the leg side in a 16-run first over. Haseeb Amjad came back with a much-needed Hong Kong riposte in the second over, bowling a wicket-maiden that claimed Calum MacLeod chopping onto his stumps for a duck.However, mayhem ensued with the arrival of Cross. Afzal took himself off for the third over in favour of left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed and Cross swept him for the first of his five fours. Coetzer bashed another three fours over mid-on and midwicket off Haseeb in the fourth before he hit another trio off Nadeem in the next over to take Scotland to 50 in just five overs.Switching ends made little difference for Afzal, who brought himself back in the sixth over. He was clobbered for a pair of sixes over square leg by Cross and struggled to find a consistent line. After another boundary, Cross mistimed one towards cover to end his innings on 39 off 15 balls.Irfan Ahmed removed Coetzer for 33 off 19 balls in the seventh over when a half-tracker was slammed straight into a perfectly-positioned Anshuman Rath at short midwicket who knifed the ball out of the air with both hands over his head. By that stage, though, Scotland needed just 45 off 80 balls. Two more wickets fell, Richie Berrington to Irfan off a thin edge for 3 and Preston Mommsen walked for 10 after edging an attempted pull down leg side to wicketkeeper Jamie Atkinson off Aizaz Khan. But George Munsey and Josh Davey knocked off the winning runs with 46 balls to spare.Scotland maintained a perfect record for teams fielding first in morning starts at Malahide by sending Hong Kong in. Atkinson fell in the first over to set the tone for Hong Kong’s struggles when his attempted hoick over the leg side fluttered to mid-on for the first of Alasdair Evans’ three wickets.Nizakat Khan was the second Evans victim, giving a thin edge behind to Cross after his attempt for an off-side smash went awry. Irfan nearly fell to Safyaan Sharif off the second ball of the fourth over when he mistimed a flick over mid-on but didn’t learn his lesson and was dismissed attempting the shot again on the next delivery, giving an easy catch to Rob Taylor for 11, making it 23 for 3.Mark Chapman was the only other recognised batsman to make it into double-figures with 24. He got off the mark with a square drive off Sharif, then cracked a powerful pull for six off Evans in the following over as Hong Kong tried to stay positive despite the loss of early wickets, reaching 42 for 3 at the end of the Powerplay.Chapman survived a sharp chance on 18 at backward point off Sharif, but was out two balls later, missing a flick across the line. Taylor then struck twice in the 13th over, having Babar Hayat caught behind for 8 and Rath leg before to a yorker for 5 to make it 62 for 6 and Hong Kong tiptoed through the rest of their innings.Evans bounced out Afzal in the 17th over, caught at deep midwicket by Taylor, and Aizaz hit a six and four off Sharif in the next over before an attempted upper cut didn’t clear short third man for Sharif’s third wicket. Taylor got his third in the penultimate over, knocking back Haseeb’s middle stump for 5 before Davey ended the innings with Nadeem’s top-edged pull finding Con de Lange at short fine leg for 10.Taylor was named Man of the Match for his 3 for 17 and two catches, while his figures were matched by Evans. Sharif ended with 3 for 29. Hong Kong now go to the third-place game to be played on Sunday morning in Malahide ahead of the final where Scotland will play Netherlands.

Steven Smith marked his selection in the Test squad with a half-century after Usman Khawaja’s hundred set up New South Wales at the SCG

Cricinfo staff10-Mar-2010New South Wales 5 for 332 (Khawaja 102, Forrest 78, Smith 72*) v South Australia

ScorecardUsman Khawaja brought up his third hundred of the season•Getty Images

Steven Smith marked his selection in the Test squad with a half-century after Usman Khawaja’s hundred set up New South Wales at the SCG. The Blues reached a comfortable 5 for 332 on the first day against South Australia in a game that has no impact on the finals.New South Wales were 3 for 43 in the gloomy conditions after losing Phillip Hughes, Simon Katich and Phil Jaques, but Khawaja stepped up to register his third hundred of the season. He put on 164 with Peter Forrest to regain the upper hand, finishing with 102 off 138 balls.Smith joined Forrest, who went for 78, and had warmed up for his trip to New Zealand with an unbeaten 72 when bad light forced an early end. He collected 10 fours and a six and will be chasing back-to-back Shield centuries on the second day.

Bangladesh are waiting on the fitness of Mahmudullah, who batted in the nets in Rawalpindi

Mohammad Isam23-Feb-2025Bangladesh’s top order has to stand up and be counted for the side to have any chance against New Zealand, head coach Phil Simmons feels.Bangladesh were soundly beaten by India in their first game, and this is perform or perish for them.Simmons said Bangladesh had given the game away to India with their poor starts with both bat and ball. “We lost in batting in overs one to ten, and the same in bowling. We have to make sure we win in those areas,” Simmons said ahead of the New Zealand game. “We need to assess and put together our batting better in the first ten overs. The middle and lower order have done really well so it is up to our top-order batsmen to put things together in the first ten or 15 overs, especially.”Related

• BCB to talk to Simmons to continue as Bangladesh head coach

• New Zealand aim for semi-finals; Bangladesh aim to stay alive

• Jamieson climbs back from 'bottom of the cliff'

Bangladesh had slipped to 35 for 5 in the ninth over in that game in Dubai. Soumya Sarkar fell in Mohammad Shami’s first over before captain Najmul Hossain Shanto gave Virat Kohli a catch at cover in the second. Tanzid Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz didn’t last too long either, while Mushfiqur Rahim fell for a golden duck.Simmons said that the openers must assess conditions quicker and that Bangladesh should take inspiration from all the big scores in the tournament, especially Australia’s chase of 352 against England. That game was in Lahore, Bangladesh take on New Zealand in Rawalpindi, the first of this tournament’s matches at the venue.”This is a big-scoring ground. We saw the score in Lahore yesterday. We are looking at 300-plus here,” Simmons said. “In the last five matches, we made 300 a couple of times. So we have the ability to do it. We didn’t start well in the last game, but still we got to 200 [231]. If we start well, we will get there [300].”Bangladesh are facing a familiar opposition in New Zealand – they have faced them most frequently in bilateral cricket than anyone else since 2015. “All the games in this tournament are pressure games. These are the top-eight teams in the world, and you expect every game to be hard,” Simmons said. “They [New Zealand] are definitely playing well but tomorrow is a new day. We will try to make sure that they don’t play as well as they have been playing.”New Zealand won their first game in convincing fashion against Pakistan and if they win here, they will be through to the semi-finals alongside India.”The way the guys have been planning and netting and stuff has all been good stuff”•ICC via Getty Images

Their captain Mitchell Santner said his batters’ form in the last couple of weeks has given the dressing room a lot of confidence. “I think obviously the lead-in we had with that tri-series [against Pakistan and South Africa], it was a good time for guys to get time in the middle. I think at different stages of every game we have played, different guys have stepped up, which is probably the most pleasing thing.”I think the guys took a lot of confidence in that going into that first game against Pakistan, but then also here into Bangladesh. Again, it’s probably a reset, it’s a different surface, a different team. But I think the way the guys have been planning and netting and stuff has all been good stuff.”Bangladesh are waiting on the fitness of Mahmudullah who missed the first game owing to hamstring issues, having injured himself during training. He batted in the nets in Rawalpindi ahead of the New Zealand game.Simmons hoped Bangladesh would be motivated about being in Rawalpindi, the scene of their 2-0 Test series win against Pakistan last year. “I hope it does [inspire the team]. To come into Pakistan and beat Pakistan is not an easy thing. I hope it has a significant bearing on how they think about this ground.”

The allrounder received a guard of honour in what seemed to be his final CPL game

Deivarayan Muthu19-Sep-2024Andre Russell summed up the overwhelming feeling at the Queen’s Park Oval as the Trinidad crowd turned up in droves on Wednesday to celebrate one of its greatest T20 heroes in what was possibly his last CPL game.Before the start of CPL 2024, Dwayne Bravo had announced he would retire from the league after the end of the ongoing season. But he has played just two games so far this season, and the one against defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain might have been his last, Russell suggested after winning the Player-of-the-Match award and dedicating it to his good friend.”I’m just happy to be part of this game tonight and that’s the reason why so much emotion was kind of behind that celebration,” Russell said after Trinbago Knight Riders beat Amazon Warriors by five wickets. “He [Bravo] deserves a win tonight. You have helped me a lot with my cricket – how to outthink the batter and then to be a smarter bowler. You’re not going to get it right all the time but once you have the right mindset to get the execution, I think you’re on the right way.”We’re going to miss him but I hope he is still going to be around for the rest of the tournament. But he’s definitely one we all listen to and we all look up to and you know he might shed a bit of tears tonight inside the changing room, but I appreciate him.”Related

• Injury draws curtains on Dwayne Bravo's CPL career

• Fletcher: 'We were poor, way below poor, as a fielding team'

• 'That was the turning point of the game' – Tahir toasts 100th CPL wicket

• Dwayne Bravo to retire from CPL after 2024 season

• Andre Russell, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph rested for SA T20Is

Russell, who has played 130 matches alongside Bravo, including 74 for West Indies, spoke glowing of the impact Bravo has had on his own career.”I think me being who I am today, Bravo has a lot to do with it,” Russell said. “I used to wicketkeep, then I started bowling and batting at No.10, No.11 and 9. Watching him play in Test cricket for West Indies – bowling good pace, fielding and diving and all those things and then when he comes to bat, he gets the job done.”