West Indies captain, Kraigg Brathwaite, has insisted the responsibility of leading the team has not had a negative impact on his batting performances in the recently concluded series against South Africa.
Brathwaite, who took over as captain of the team from Jason Holder in February, had his worst performance at the top of the order for some time, albeit against a rampant South Africa.
In two matches, the 28-year-old batsman could only manage a high score of 15 and in total scored 28 runs, which included an early duck in the first innings of the second match. Prior to heading into the series, Brathwaite had averaged 33.43, including scores of 126 and 85 against Sri Lanka in the previous series.
The batsman has, however, rejected notions of added responsibility for the team impacting his performance at the crease.
“I’m not feeling any pressure. I enjoy captaining. I didn’t get any runs as the opening batsman, I just didn’t get any runs full stop,” Brathwaite told members of the media.
The player has targeted looking at a few technical issues and better mental preparation ahead of the next series.
“Opening the batting isn’t easy, but it’s a very crucial job because it basically sets up the game to make it easier for guys that follow and we didn’t do that and it put us on the backfoot for most of the time,” he added.
Titans edge IPL season opener as Gaikwad's knock proves fruitless
Ruturaj Gaikwad's stunning knock was not enough as Chennai Super Kings suffered a five-wicket loss to reigning Indian Premier League champions Gujarat Titans in Friday's thrilling season opener.
Gaikwad scored 92 from 50 balls at Narendra Modi Stadium, tallying up the third-highest score in an IPL season opener, after Brendon McCullum's 158 in 2008 and Rohit Sharma's 98 in 2015.
The Super Kings reached 178-7 from their 20 overs, with captain MS Dhoni hitting an unbeaten 14 from seven balls in the closing stages of their innings.
Titans debutant Kane Williamson suffered a knee injury while fielding and was unable to bat, but Gujarat made a strong start, reaching 37 from the first 23 deliveries before Wriddhiman Saha succumbed to Rajvardhan Hangargekar (3-36).
Shubman Gill (63) expertly anchored the innings, though Chennai looked well placed to push on for victory when Tushar Deshpande dismissed the opener in the 15th over, following on from Sai Sudharsan and Hardik Pandya losing their wickets.
Their chances of victory looked greater still when the dangerous Vijay Shankar (27 from 21) was brilliantly caught out by Mitchell Santner, leaving the Titans requiring 30 from 18 balls.
Yet an expensive over from Deepak Chahar saw Rashid Khan add 10 runs in the space of two deliveries, and similar slackness from Hangargekar enabled Rahul Tewatia to seal victory.
Gaikwad and Gill the stars of the show
Gaikwad's exceptional 92 came at a strike rate of 184. His knock included nine sixes, with a further four shots hitting the rope.
Gill, though, provided the steady pair of hands needed to help push the Titans to victory. His 63 came at a S/R of 175, the second-highest in IPL history (minimum 25 runs).
Ton up for Shami
It was the Super Kings' death bowling that let them down, and they will rue an opportunity missed to claim their first win over the Titans.
The champions' bowlers did not perform brilliantly either, but Mohammed Shami's 2-29 saw him move onto 101 IPL wickets. He is the 15th Indian and 19th bowler overall to reach that milestone.
Bavuma powers South Africa to victory to keep World Cup hopes alive
South Africa boosted their chances of making the World Cup as captain Temba Bavuma's unbeaten 90 gave them a comfortable eight-wicket win over the Netherlands.
Needing to win both matches against the Dutch and hope Ireland lose at least one of their three matches against Bangladesh in May in order to qualify automatically for the World Cup, which will be held in India later this year, the Proteas eased to victory on Friday.
This ODI was the second of a three-match series that was supposed to take place in late 2021, but was postponed because of concerns over a COVID-19 variant. The first match ended with no result.
The importance of the match was reflected in the strong squad chosen by South Africa, with Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada included despite their imminent IPL commitments.
Nortje played a key role in restricting the Netherlands to 189 all out despite scores of 45 and 48 from Vikramijit Singh and Teja Nidamanuru respectively, taking 2/24 off his eight overs while Sisanda Magala and Tabraiz Shamsi picked up three wickets each.
It was the Netherlands' second-highest ODI score against South Africa, but the Proteas cruised to the winning total regardless as Bavuma's sublime innings (90 not out from 79 balls) helped them to victory.
Aiden Markram chipped in with a half-century off just 37 balls, though it was his captain who finished the job as Bavuma smashed the ball back past bowler Ryan Klein for four to seal the win.
Azeem Rafiq tells cricket to 'implement change' after Yorkshire racism scandal
Azeem Rafiq urged cricket to "understand the extent of its problems and address them" after a hearing into allegations of racism and discrimination at Yorkshire saw a number of charges upheld.
Former Yorkshire batter Michael Vaughan, who had a distinguished career as an Ashes-winning England captain, appeared at the hearing and was cleared of the accusations against him.
However, Gary Ballance and the club itself admitted charges they faced prior to a hearing at the start of March, and a number of fellow former Yorkshire players had cases against them proved.
The charges brought by the England and Wales Cricket board (ECB) were heard by its cricket discipline commission (CDC) at the start of March, and not all aspects were proved.
However, each of Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, John Blain, Richard Pyrah and Andrew Gale had at least one charge upheld against them. They chose not to appear at the disciplinary panel hearing.
Former spin bowler Rafiq blew the whistle on racism at Yorkshire in 2020 and welcomed Friday's outcome announcement.
Rafiq said: "Charges against seven of the eight defendants, including the widespread use of the 'P' word, have been upheld by the CDC today.
"This comes in addition to the other reports, panels and inquiries that found I and others suffered racial harassment and bullying while at Yorkshire.
"The issue has never been about individuals but the game as a whole. Cricket needs to understand the extent of its problems and address them.
"Hopefully, the structures of the game can now be rebuilt and institutionalised racism ended for good. It's time to reflect, learn and implement change."
Vaughan described the proceedings as "an inappropriate, inadequate and backwards step".
He added: "One of many reasons why I hold that view is because CDC proceedings are adversarial. They invite claim and counterclaim. They invite those involved to accuse each other of untruths or of lying."
Vaughan said there were "no winners" from the process – "and there are better ways – there have to be better ways – for cricket to move forward positively and effectively".
He said the case against him had "at times... brought me to the brink of falling out of love with cricket".
"I won't address here the toll that it has taken on me and my family," Vaughan added, "but I have no doubt that it has also been incredibly stressful for all of the others concerned. I hope that for them and for cricket, an inclusive healing process can now begin."
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