The Hundred: Jemimah Rodrigues notches up second half-century on the trot

Kieron Pollard lambasts pitch at Barbados, says unacceptable for international standards

West Indies limited-overs skipper Kieron Pollard lashed out on the pitch at Kensington Oval in Barbados which hosted the 3rd and the final ODI against Australia and termed it ‘absolutely ridiculous’ following his side’s six-wicket defeat against Australia in the series decider. The T20I series proved to be a high scoring one but the ODI series have seen several low scores. Australia managed to score 252 in the opening encounter and managed to defend that quite convincingly. In the second encounter, West Indies chased down 188 with relative ease and again in the 3rd encounter, we witnessed a low scoring match. The wicket at Barbados was two-paced with some of the deliveries taking off from a length. The dry nature of the surface also assisted the spinners which were evident from the fact that even Pooalrd resorted to bowling off-spin in this pitch. The swashbuckling all-rounder accepted that his side wasn’t up to the mark in the ODI series but he blamed the surface on offer and said that it was unacceptable for international cricket. "Coming here to Barbados, I think both teams struggled on the pitch and I think that's unacceptable for international cricket. We're not going to make excuses. We accept that we batted badly but I don't think the scores that we have gotten in this three-match series, for two top international teams, I think that's very embarrassing for us as a people. Coming from St Lucia to this, I think it's absolutely ridiculous,” Pollard said at the post-match presentation ceremony. Pollard further added that Windies needed to start moving forward in every aspect of the game starting from regional cricket. "It was plain for the world to see. If I continue going on about it, it's going to be headlines, 'Pollard this, Pollard that.' That's fine with me. "But the reality is, we as players sometimes we get the brunt of the accusations and all the bad stuff. But give guys the opportunity to come and play on some good cricketing wickets. It goes back even to our regional cricket as well. I think as a whole we need to do better, and we as individuals need to do better as well. So we're not going to cast blame. We're going to accept responsibility as well. But I think as a holistic approach and holistic view to move forward," he further added.

Shreyas Iyer resumes training, expected to be fit by IPL

Shreyas Iyer has returned to his training regime and is hoping to get fit in time for the remainder of the 14th season of the IPL. As per reports in the Cricbuzz, Iyer started his training just five days ago at the indoor BKC facility in Mumbai with Pravin Amre. Iyer was slated to ply his trade for Lancashire in the Royal London One-Day Cup but was ruled out as he had not fully recovered from the shoulder injury which he sustained during the limited-overs series against England at home earlier this year. Iyer is expected to work in the BKC till July 31 after which he has to report at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. "They have been working indoors mainly because there is no permission to do so outside. And there has been rain in Mumbai too," a franchise source was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. The source further added that NCA will provide the go-ahead regarding his fitness but given his progress in the last five days, it is expected that Iyer will be fit by the time IPL restarts on 19th September. Delhi Capitals is slated to play their first match in the second leg against Sunrisers Hyderabad on September 22. It was Rishabh Pant who led the Delhi Capitals in the first leg of the 14th season and led his franchise to 6 wins in 8 outings. They are currently at the top of the points table. Iyer is expected to return as DC’s skipper for the second leg despite Pant’s impressive showing. Iyer underwent surgery on his left elbow which he partially dislocated during the limited-overs series against England at home.

WI vs AUS | Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar take Australia to ODI series win

A dominant performance from Australia with both bat and ball meant that they won the third and final game of the three-match ODI series against West Indies and thereby claimed the series as well, having already won the first ODI. Matthew Wade was the hero with the bat for Australia as he scored a crucial fifty to chase down a tricky total of 153 on a Kensington Oval wicket which was behaving very weirdly. In its chase of the target, Australia had lost its first three wickets at the team score of 65 when Waade joined captain Alex Carey at the wicket. The two added 34 runs together before Carey was adjudged leg before wicket off the bowling of Hayden Walsh Junior. Ashton Agar, who joined the wicket after Carey’s fall made sure that the Kangaroos didn’t lose any more wickets and finished the game with six wickets in hand. Agar remained unbeaten on 19. Earlier in the day, after winning the toss, West Indian Kieron Pollard had decided to bat first. Evin Lewis who was looking ion a good touch was forced to retire after a ball hit his helmet ricocheting off his bat. Other Windies batters just couldn’t deal with the assist that the bowlers had from the wicket and the Men in Maroon were down to 71-5 when Lewis decided to come back and bat again. He joined Jason Holder in the middle but soon found himself batting with the tail as Holder was removed by Adam Zampa soon and the Windies were 75-6. Thereafter Lewis built small partnerships and kept stretching further the innings until it crossed the 150 run mark and he reached his 10th ODI fifty. Sheldon Cottrell was removed as the last wicket. Agar, who took two wickets and also helped with the bat was adjudged Man of the Match, while Mitchell Starc who took 11 wickets in three matches along with his match-winning spell in the first ODI was adjudged Man of the Series.

Liton Das out of Australia series, Bangladesh extends Ashwell Prince’s tenure to T20 World Cup

Bangladesh will now be without the services of its three-star players in the upcoming T20I series against Australia starting August 02 at Shere Bangla Stadium in Dahaka. After the injury to Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim being unable to join the Bio-Bubble due to July 20 deadline, Liton Das has been ruled out of the series as well due to personal family matters. "Liton is out of the series. He has to attend to a family matter, for which we can't really do anything. We initially had a 20-man squad but after Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim had to pull out, Liton is also not in the squad,” Akram Khan, head of Cricket Operations of the Bangladesh Cricket Board said. “We are down to 17 players. The quarantine in Dhaka started on July 20, so we can only have the players who are travelling back from Zimbabwe on July 28,” Khan added. Key Bangladesh players such as Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar and Mustafizur Rahman Hasan are also suffering from some sort of injury or the other. While Sarkar is nursing a groin niggle, Shakib has been managing a long term groin injury on the entire tour of Zimbabwe and knee injury forced Mustafiz to play only two games on the tour. Another big development took place in Bangladesh cricket when BCB decided to extend batting consultant South Africa’s Ashwell Prince’s contract to the T20 World Cup which was initially signed only for the Zimbabwe tour. "Since it will be hard to get a coach before the T20 World Cup, we took a bit of feedback and it has been generally positive. I think some of our batsmen did really well in Zimbabwe. Some of the players told us that they have confidence in him. They are satisfied with his work,” Akram said while announcing the extension of Prince’s contract. "So we plan to go ahead with him. We can confirm that he is with us till the T20 World Cup. We will take on a decision on his further involvement (after the World Cup) over the course of the next week," he further added. Prince was pulled into Bangladesh’s support staff team along with Sri Lankan Rangana Herath who was appointed the team’s spin bowling consultant till the T20 World Cup in October-November this year. Bangladesh T20I squad for Australia series: Mahmudullah (capt), Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, Nurul Hasan (wk), Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Taijul Islam, Mohammad Naim, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman, Afif Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Mithun, Mosaddek Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Shamim Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan