Cricket news round-up – November 13: Imran Khan’s five-fer, Watson gets new role

Pakistan are on the driving seat against Australia A. Shane Watson is the new president of the Australian Cricketers’ Association.

Pakistan take a huge lead, thanks to Imran Khan

A half-century at the end from Yasir Shah (53) helped Pakistan take their first innings total to 428. Earlier on the day, the two overnight centurions Babar Azam and Asad Shafiq were retired hurt to others chance to bat. Australia A had a poor start and all credit goes to a furious Imran Khan. Imran ran through the Aussie line-up and ended with 5/32 in his 12 overs that included three maidens. Iftikhar Ahmed and Shaheed Shah Afridi also scalped two apiece. The last few minutes of the day saw Pakistan openers staying unbeaten with the score on 7/0. Currently, Pakistan are leading by 313 runs with 10 wickets in hand.

Watson appointed as president of ACA

Shane Watson has been elected as the president of the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA). He is a part of an extended ten-member board now which is part of a revised governance structure approved at the AGM held on November 11 in Sydney. The ACA will now take care of the Australian Cricketers’ Retirement Account, which benefits Australia’s professional cricketers once their careers are over. The revised structure also splits the role of President and Chair, the latter held by Greg Dyer. The ACA has three new faces Pat Cummins, Kristen Beams, and former Australian cricketer Lisa Sthalekar. Aaron Finch, Alyssa Healy, Moises Henriques, Neil Maxwell, Janet Torney and Greg Dyer are the other members on the board.

Watson said in an official statement, “Through a period of immense change, the players have been, and will continue to be, a strong voice in protecting what’s made our game of cricket great, while embracing opportunities that change inevitably brings,” Watson added in a statement.”

Rahane hoping for good practice ahead of pink-ball match

While Ajinkya Rahane enjoyed his pink-ball sessions in NCA he is hopeful to get good practice in Kolkata before the much talked about match. He believes that the lateral movement will be a factor. “I didn’t play pink ball [before] so this is my first experience. The lateral movement is big, actually a lot more than the red ball. I’m sure we’ll get two good practice sessions in Kolkata. Adjustment wise I’m sure everyone will adjust very quickly. It’s just the mindset, technical skills will play a role. Mentally if you can adjust to the pink ball, then it’ll be good.”

Rahane who had no experience of playing with pink SG ball hopes to get enough practice before the match in Kolkata. He further added that sessions at NCA were fruitful.  “Generally when dew comes into play, it becomes easy for the batsman. But I don’t know about the pink SG ball how it goes on to play when dew comes in. We’ll have to wait and see. I’m sure we’ll get one evening practice session in Kolkata. We’ll get an idea of when the dew comes in how the ball will behave,”