Taylor, Santner heroics earn Blackcaps win

A century by Ross Taylor and lusty late hitting by Mitch Santner delivered a lastover victory to New Zealand over England in their first oneday international in Hamilton on Sunday.

In a match filled with twists and turns, the outcome hung in the balance until Santer smacked a six in the final over to get New Zealand home with four balls to spare.

Domination fluctuated throughout the match but when Ben Stokes celebrated his return to international cricket with the crucial wicket of Tom Latham, it appeared to put England in charge.

However, Santner’s 45 off 27 balls swung the game back in New Zealand’s favour as they chased down England’s 284 for eight.

New Zealand were in immediate trouble at the start of their run chase as they fell to three for 27 in the 10th over.

Taylor, with his 18th century, and Latham clawed the home side back into the game with a 178-run stand for the fourth wicket before Stokes stepped up to remove Latham for 79 and New Zealand were 205 for four in the 40th over.

Latham’s dismissal sparked a middle-order collapse with Henry Nicholls out for a duck and Colin de Grandhomme gone for two as three wickets fell for 10 runs.

As he started to run out of partners, Taylor tried to up the pace to get New Zealand home but with 25 balls remaining and New Zealand needing a further 45 runs, he was stumped on 113.

But if England had a whiff of victory, Santner had other ideas with a rapid two fours and four sixes to get New Zealand home.

Stokes, returning for his first international since a nightclub incident five months ago, had an undistinguished turn at bat after New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl.

The all-rounder lasted 22 balls and was gone for 12 while the foundation of the England innings was laid by Root, with 71 off 75 deliveries and Buttler who belted 79 off 65 before he was run out off the penultimate ball.

England were looking at a score of more than 300 until tight New Zealand bowling restricted them to just 31 runs between the 42nd and 48th overs.

Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez says the International Cricket Council (ICC) should tweak its rules to ensure the ‘doosra’ remains part of the sport.

“Really happy to see leg spinners come into international cricket. But I still believe something should happen when it comes to the doosra,” Hafeez said on the sidelines of the Pakistan Super League.

“Saeed Ajmal has given us a lot of excitement as well as Saqlain Mushtaq. It is one area ICC must look into. Some extension in the rules... doosra should be a part of cricket, not taken away from it,” he added.

Hafeez, a top order batsman and a handy off-spinner, has been reported for more than once in the past for his suspect bowling action and currently he cannot bowl in ICC events.

Hafeez said he is not surprised by the rise of leg-spinners in world cricket and feels it’s a great option to get wickets.

“This is one area that every team looks forward to. Having leg spinners in the team provides them with lots of excitement and options to get wickets,” Hafeez said.

“Leg-spinners are always fascinating when it comes to cricket, starting from Abdul Qadir when he used to bowl his googlys it was a new thing in cricket and everyone just loved that. Then the legacy continued with Kumble from India and Warne from Australia.”

Quetta Gladiators produced a clinical show to crush Lahore Qalandars by nine wickets in the second match of Pakistan Super League here. Put into bat, Lahore could only post 119/9 after a dazzling start and Quetta easily chased down the target in 14 overs for the loss of just one wicket at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Dsport is broadcasting the PSL action in India. Brendon Mccullum and Sunil Narine gave a superb start to Lahore who were 45 for no loss after three overs. Narine blasted 24 runs in an over of Shane Watson that had three fours and two sixes. In the next three overs of Powerplay, Lahore’s innings, however, took a dramatic turn with pacers Rahat Ali and Jofra Archer combining with spinner Mohammad Nawaz to share three wickets and reduce them to 61/3 in six overs. Rahat ended Narine’s knock of 28 while Archer accounted for Fakhar Zaman (1).

new delhi: Skipper Virat Kohli along with senior most player Mahendra Singh Dhoni were prominent among the host of players rested for the T20 tri-series in Sri Lanka, starting March 6.

Rohit Sharma will lead a second string team comprising the leading performers in domestic (Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and IPL) tournaments. Shikhar Dhawan will be his deputy in a side that has as many as six changes.

“MS Dhoni was not available for selection as he had requested for rest,” national selector MSK Prasad was quoted as saying in a press release.

On predicted lines, top fast bowling duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested along with allrounder Hardik Pandya after they shared enormous workload on the South Africa tour.

“We’ve kept in mind the workload and upcoming schedule while finalizing the team for Nidahas Trophy. The high-performance team has suggested that adequate rest should be given to our fast bowlers to help improve athletic performance, maximize rest and prevent injury,” Prasad added.

Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav is also not in the Sri Lanka bound team. A close look will indicate that selectors maintained consistency by selecting all those players, who were part of the home T20s against Sri Lanka in December. Coming back in the team are prolific keeper batsman Rishabh Pant, after a solid season in white-ball cricket including centuries in both national T20s and One-dayers.

Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj and Deepak Hooda are back in the side.

SQUAD: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Md Siraj, Rishabh Pant (wk).