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Match facts

Sunday, April 21
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)

Big picture

When they clash on Sunday night, Kings XI Punjab and Pune Warriors will be looking to shake off their inability to shut out games, and an inconsistency to carry forward a winning momentum, which has placed both teams in the bottom half of the points table. For Kings XI, their batting has been a let-down, with the experienced batsmen failing to shoulder the responsibility of guiding an innings. Their performance can be evidenced from one telling statistic: after five matches, none of their batsmen have scored a half-century. It’s a record they will be eager to erase. They will be buoyed by the arrival of Shaun Marsh, possibly Kings XI’s most valuable player. In 42 IPL matches for Kings XI, Marsh has scored 1603 runs at an average of 45.80 and a strike-rate of 135.96 and, with his fitness issues behind him, should be an automatic pick for the game, as Kings XI try to get past their batting woes against a good bowling attack.Pune have been patchy so far, following up a stunning victory against Chennai Super Kings with mediocre batting against Sunrisers Hyderabad. With the chase against Sunrisers under control, the Warriors batsmen, including Angelo Mathews, played some inexplicable shots to find themselves on the losing side and the middle order, in particular, needs to return to sensible cricket and back their top order better. Their next few fixtures are against top-billing teams and a win against Kings XI could help them gain some confidence going ahead.

Form Guide

Kings XI Punjab LWLLW (most recent first)
Pune Warriors LWLWL

Players to watch

One of T20 cricket’s journeymen, Azhar Mahmood has emerged as the second-highest wicket-taker for Kings XI so far after Praveen Kumar. It’s his batting, though, that Kings XI will need if they are to challenge Pune Warriors. He has scored 35 runs in four innings so far.With his effective swing bowling, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been the leading strike bowler for Warriors, providing breakthroughs at the start of the innings. This season, he has picked up seven wickets at an economy-rate of 6.00 and has also impressed with his tactical nous while opening the bowling.

Stats and trivia

• In the five matches between the two teams, Warriors have won three times, while Kings XI have won twice.
• David Hussey is joint-second in the list of batsmen to score most ducks in Twenty20 cricket. Hussey has 14 ducks from 195 innings, behind Herschelle Gibbs (23 from 161)

Quotes

“There are still plenty of matches to go this season. So, everyone in the team has to back each other moving ahead and pray for the best.”

Ahmed Jamal, the Pakistan Customs fast bowler, has won a ‘King of Speed’ competition, a nationwide search to unearth new pace talent. His fastest delivery was clocked at 143kph and won him Rs 1 million in prize money.Jamal, 24, is from Abbottabad in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 68 miles north of Islamabad. He took five wickets on first-class debut for Pakistan Customs in 2009, and has 127 wickets in 34 games.Jamal was one of four quicks selected for Wasim Akram’s camp from a countrywide talent hunt earlier this month. The others were Muhammad Imran from Karachi, who bowled 136 kph, and Faisalabad’s Abdul Ameer and Faisal Yaseen, who both bowled at 135kph.”I am thrilled and very happy,” Jamal said in Karachi. “My feet were on the ground before I won this and will remain on the ground after winning the prize as I want to make a name for myself. I had planned to spend this money, but I am not going to disclose it now.”Jamal was among 24 bowlers who were undergoing a 10-day training camp led by Wasim Akram. He said Shoaib Akhtar was his inspiration. “I was always inspired by Shoaib Akhtar who was very fast so I wanted to bowl like him.”At the camp, Akram worked with the country’s best fast bowlers, including members of the national team and some new talent. It was organized ahead of the Champions Trophy in England, amid growing concerns about the depth of Pakistan’s fast-bowling reserves. “These ten days are the best of my life,” Jamal said. “What I have learnt during these days are a big thing for me and I want to move from strength to strength.”Akram was optimistic about the future of fast bowling in Pakistan after the camp. “I am happy to see that we still have great fast bowling talent in Pakistan, we just need to find that talent and polish our youngsters,” he said. “Fast young bowlers like Ahmed Jamal are the future of this country; they can become part of our national team and take Pakistan cricket to new heights of glory.”It was a short camp and we will not stop here. I feel captain’s role is very important in grooming the fast bowlers, if a bowler is low on confidence then the captain can lift it by backing his bowler and that raises the confidence.”I am sure that [Mohammad] Irfan and Junaid [Khan] will improve with time,” Akram said. “Irfan is a rare talent and should be used properly and Junaid is also showing great improvement. I feel the boys showed great passion for learning and because of that my passion also increased. I think we have talent in pace department.”

As Michael Clarke left for India in February, he forecast the tour as the most difficult of his captaincy. He landed back in Sydney on Sunday with that grim prognostication very much intact, having presided over three consecutive defeats, a breakdown of team discipline ruled punishable by the suspension of four players, and the further deterioration of his troublesome back.In Clarke’s absence from Delhi, the tourists have belatedly found some semblance of the competitive under the interim leadership of Shane Watson, showing a visible rise in aggression on the second afternoon. Clarke watched these events in Singapore between his flights, and said he hoped the team would salvage a belated reward from the tour with a closing victory.Such a result would indicate some progress within the team, but there are plenty of questions to be asked of a tour that now seems as though it was doomed before it began due to the players’ scant preparation, faulty skills and jaded attitudes. Answering for the results in a clipped manner, Clarke conceded the unprecedented events before the Mohali Test had been a “kick up the backside” for all.”It certainly made us realise that what we thought were the little things are quite large in our group and important to our group having success,” Clarke said. “I think the team have responded very well, the players who were left out have come back really well, and it’s good to see a few of those guys getting opportunities in this Test.”It was one of the toughest challenges of my career and I’m sure it has been for the other guys as well. Travelling to India and playing there is always tough. We knew we were going to face a lot of spin bowling and we have done. I think we’ll learn from that, everybody will walk out of India as a better player and certainly more well prepared next time we go there for Test matches.”Better prepared for India perhaps, but the most pressing matter now is how this series sets up the team for the Ashes. Clarke’s own fitness is clouded after he missed a Test match due to his back problems for the first time. Clarke also admitted he was still carrying a tender hamstring from the home summer, and said he would “do as I’m told” by medical staff in deciding whether or not to return to India for the IPL.”I’ll have scans this week and spend plenty of time with the physio, fingers crossed it turns out okay,” Clarke said. “Sitting down for 12 hours has made it a little bit stiff, but I’m really confident that I’m in good hands with my physio here in Sydney.”I’d be silly to make that decision [on the IPL] right now, I think I need to wait on the results, listen to the experts and then make a plan from there. I’ve had my back issues since I was 17 years of age so this is no different. In regards to my hamstring I hurt it throughout the Australian summer and it has just lingered on. I haven’t had the opportunity to get that 100% fit due to how much cricket we’ve had.”Plenty of other questions about the tour remain to be satisfactorily answered. Clarke said his deputy Watson was not included alongside the coach Mickey Arthur and the team manager Gavin Dovey in discussions around the decision to suspend four players in Mohali because “he was one of the players the decision was getting made on” but was otherwise steadily involved in decision-making.Nathan Lyon’s handling across the trip has also been wondered at by many, his omission from the team to play in Hyderabad made to look still more bizarre by his success as a confident and aggressive off spinner in Delhi.”I think it’s exciting for him, again to get a little reward at the end of the tour would be very satisfying for him, and I think for the team if we could get a win in the last Test would show the hard work we’ve put in and the lessons we’ve learned. It would be lovely to take a little reward away.”Clarke offered no substantial explanation for his call to limit James Pattinson to two spells of three overs each on Australia’s first bowling day of the series, despite the young fast bowler ripping out two early wickets and looking the team’s most dangerous bowler by a distance at arguably its most pivotal point.”It’s just the way it goes, sometimes you bowl 15 overs straight or 21 overs straight like Nathan Lyon yesterday, sometimes you bowl short spells,” Clarke said. “There was no real reason behind that.”

The injury management of Bangladesh cricketers has come under sharp focus after two players who were injured during the BPL had to withdraw from the touring party to Sri Lanka.Chief selector Akram Khan has called for better monitoring of injuries, along with greater communication between the clubs and franchises, and the national board. “In the national team, we can think of a replacement as soon as someone is injured,” Akram said. “It is the opposite in the BPL or for Dhaka club cricket, [because] nobody will listen to the player if he says ‘I am injured’. They will always tell him to play. Everyone has to be accountable, but there are gaps in the system which should be plugged.”Akram also held the players responsible for not giving their injuries enough attention. It is perceived that the local players’ desire to play all BPL matches stems from the pay disputes from the tournament’s first season; none of the local players are willing to take a chance, lest the injuries are used as reasons not to pay, although Mushfiqur Rahim said on Wednesday that BPL franchises are liable to play the players regardless of injuries.”I have not been in such a position as a selector in the last five years, where so many players [have] turned up injured from a domestic tournament.” Akram said. “The physical pain will not go away if you continue to play, [it only] gets worse. Those who had minor injuries have now broken down. There is a proper medical structure in Bangladesh cricket, so the players should take advantage of it.”One of the two players who got injured was Naeem Islam, who hurt his quadriceps while playing for Chittagong Kings just two weeks before the Bangladesh team was scheduled to leave for Sri Lanka. He accidentally stepped on the ball while attempting to stop it, and ended up being stretchered off as a result of the mishap. Chittagong physio Bayezid Ahmed said he did not clear Naeem, but Naeem ended up playing in the second semi-final four days later.”The decision to play with injury was Naeem’s,” Bayezid said. “He said he felt better but I never cleared him as fit. I informed the Bangladesh team physio [Vibhav Singh] of his condition, but four days later he decided to play. After February 20, he was no longer in my hands.”Shakib Al Hasan continued to play in the BPL despite minor injuries, and later had to be sent to Australia in order to reduce pressure on his right shin bone, an injury he has had since November last year. Ziaur Rahman also suffered a shoulder injury during the BPL. Only Tamim Iqbal pulled out of Duronto Rajshahi’s BPL campaign towards the end, after injuring his left wrist.Enamul Haque jr was also ruled out of the Test series in Sri Lanka with a hamstring injury he suffered during the BPL final, but neither Enamul nor Naeem informed Vibhav Singh of their injuries after the BPL.During the domestic Twenty20 competition, the national-team physio asked the franchises to give him player fitness updates, but only a few replied. It left him and the rest of the team management in the dark about the pile-up that landed at their feet just a few days before they were to pick the 15-man Test squad.”Had we known of them [the injuries] before, it would have been different,” Vibhav said. “In the next BPL, the franchises and the medical team need to work together with the national medical staff.”I did send the franchises an email requesting feedback from their medical staff, but I did not get anything. So it made it a bit difficult for us to gauge where players were because we had no control over their medical concerns. We can make recommendations but at the end of the day it’s a separate tournament, so we can just advice.”

ScorecardA dismal batting performance from Auckland pushed them to a nine-wicket defeat against Canterbury in a Plunket Shield match between the lowest-placed teams in the table.Resuming play from their overnight score of 110 for 7, Auckland started badly on the second day, losing overnight batsman Michael Bates for one. Captain Gareth Hopkins, who finished with an unbeaten 66, adding 60 important runs with lower-order batsmen, as Auckland scraped past a deficit of 129 runs to avoid an innings defeat. They were finally all out for 170, setting Canterbury a target of 43 runs for a win, which the latter achieved in seven overs.In their first innings, Auckland, who were sent in to bat, stuttered to a total of 173. Shanan Stewart, a middle-order batsman for Canterbury, was the surprise pick of the bowlers, picking up five wickets for 42 runs with his medium pace. Four of those wickets were Auckland’s top-order batsmen and Stewart narrowly missed out on a hat-trick in the 22nd over, when he dismissed opener Michael Barry and Craig Cachopa off consecutive deliveries. He finished the over with three wickets, however, bowling Hopkins off the sixth ball.Peter Fulton, in contention for an opener’s spot for New Zealand in the forthcoming Tests against England, made a strong case for his selection with a steady 98. A 106-run partnership between Fulton and Worker gave Canterbury a strong start and the middle order capitalised on it, with useful knocks from wicketkeeper Tom Latham, Shanan Stewart and Todd Astle. Canterbury were dismissed for 302, gaining a 129-run lead over Auckland.Canterbury’s bowlers then set about ensuring that the batsman did not face a large total to chase in the fourth innings. Pacers Ryan McCone and Matt McEwan kept the Auckland batsmen in check and the two picked up three wickets each.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: Umar Gul scored 49 off 76 balls and was also among the wickets during South Africa Invitation XI’s innings•AFP

An all-round display by Umar Gul, who scored 49 runs and later picked up two wickets, and a plucky knock of 93 by wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed helped the Pakistanis have the better of day two of their four-day tour match against a South African Invitation XI.The Pakistanis resumed on 178 for 6 at the start of the day but the lower order, led by Sarfraz, added 151 runs before they were dismissed. Sarfraz and Gul took their seventh-wicket partnership to 81 runs, before Gul was stumped by wicketkeeper Dane Vilas off Simon Harmer’s bowling. The offspinner was the most effective South African bowler, dismissing both Gul and Sarfraz to end with figures of 5 for 88.After Gul’s departure, Sarfraz stitched together important partnerships with tailenders Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan. The right-hand batsman, who made his Test debut against Australia in 2010, began sedately but cut loose soon after reaching his 50 to take his side past 300. His innings included 12 fours and a six.In reply, the South African XI got off to a quiet start before Junaid and Gul struck with quick wickets. Gul dismissed opener Davy Jacobs and middle-order batsman Cody Chetty in the ninth over, to leave South Africans at a shaky 31 for 3. The left-hand batting pair of Stiaan van Zyl and Vaughn van Jaarsveld then stabilised the innings with a partnership of 89, which was broken when Irfan effected a run-out to dismiss van Zyl. Vilas was the only other batsman to offer some support to van Jaarsveld before the latter was given out leg-before off Saeed Ajmal’s bowling, seven runs short of a century.The Pakistani bowlers kept the batting side in check, making regular breakthroughs. Gul and offspinner Ajmal each picked up two wickets while Junaid and Irfan also had dismissals to their credit.

Peter Fulton, the New Zealand batsman, has been ruled out of the two-Test series against South Africa because of a tendon injury to his right knee. The problem is an old one that has recurred throughout Fulton’s career and flared up again during the practice match against the South African Invitation XI in Paarl.Fulton had opened the batting with Martin Guptill and was at the crease for an hour and six minutes on the first day. He scored 39 and did not appear to be in any discomfort, but on assessment on the second morning the injury was deemed too serious for him to stay on the tour.”We have been monitoring the injury closely and Peter played yesterday in an effort to determine whether the injury would affect his batting. By the end of his innings the pain was significant and it became clear that the injury would prevent him from playing a full range of shots,” Paul Close, the New Zealand physiotherapist said. “Due to the condensed nature of the tour there is insufficient time to fully recover and he has therefore been withdrawn from the squad. We believe it is best for Peter to return to New Zealand where he can undergo further assessment and continue his rehabilitation.”Fulton was unlikely to play in the two-Test series, with Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum set to open the batting. New Zealand retained Colin Munro from the Twenty20 series as cover and also have Daniel Flynn as an extra batsman in the squad.This is the second withdrawal from New Zealand’s Test squad after Tim Southee had to pull out of with a thumb injury. Southee was replaced by left-armer Mitchell McClenaghan, who was also part of the T20 squad and impressed with his performances in that series.

Match facts

January 16-20, 2013
Start time 0930 (0400 GMT)With two Saurashtra batting stars missing, much will depend on Shitanshu Kotak to fire•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Big Picture

As the Ranji Trophy nears its climax, the very mention of one of the semi-finals being staged in Rajkot may not evoke much excitement. Punjab and Saurashtra will be hoping that the 22-yard strip will not live up to its reputation of being a batsman’s paradise. But they might be hoping against hope, as the match is going to be on the same pitch that produced a run-fest during India’s ODI against England last week, also the first international at the Khandheri Cricket Stadium.The new home of Saurashtra cricket has been staging Ranji games for five seasons. In 12 games so far, there have been 24 centuries, including two triple-centuries and five double-centuries. Still, Saurashtra will be hoping for a wicket that won’t overwhelmingly favour the batsmen. That’s understandable, since they are without the services of their two run machines, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom are in India’s squad for the ODI series against England.The Saurashtra line-up looks brittle without the duo. No wonder then that the captain, Jaydev Shah, was left to draw inspiration from the surprise results produced by the underdogs over the last three seasons. “Cricket is a game of surprises. No-one thought Services would beat Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan weren’t expected to win consecutive Ranji Trophy titles. We need to start well, everyone has to work as a team,” Shah said.Punjab, despite being the favourites, had a few worries on the eve of the match. Two of their three key pace bowlers through the season, Manpreet Gony and Sandeep Sharma, were down with viral fever and were confined to their hotel rooms. Though the captain, Harbhajan Singh, hoped they would recover in time, the Punjab team management has called up Baltej Singh as cover.

In the spotlight

Despite the presence of a plethora of consistent performers on the domestic circuit, it’s the pitch that will attract the most attention. Dhiraj Parsana, a member of the BCCI’s expanded Pitch and Ground Committee, has been overlooking the preparations for the last two weeks. The chairman of the committee, Daljit Singh, hopped over to Rajkot on Monday for “last-minute instructions”.Probably the best chance of producing an outright win would be to offer an underprepared wicket, just so that this semi-final doesn’t end up going the same way as three of the four quarter-finals, which were decided on the basis of the first-innings lead.

Squads

Saurashtra: Jaydev Shah (capt), Shitanshu Kotak, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Rahul Dave, Aarpit Vasavada, Chirag Jani, Kamlesh Makwana, Vishal Joshi, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Jaydev Unadkat, Sagar Jogiyani (wk), Sandip Maniar, Siddarth Trivedi, Saurya Sanandiya, Chirag Pathak, Harsh AnghanPunjab: Harbhajan Singh (capt), Jiwanjot Singh, Ravi Inder Singh, Taruwar Kohli, Mandeep Singh, Uday Kaul (wk), Gurkeerat Singh, Amitoze Singh, Siddarth Kaul, Manpreet Gony, Sarabjit Ladda, Bipul Sharma, Karan Goel, Rajwinder Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Baltej Singh

Stats and trivia

• In the earlier match between the two teams this season, Punjab beat Saurashtra by eight wickets on a green top in Mohali.
• Punjab opener Jiwanjot Singh is 28 runs short of becoming the highest run-getter of the season. Jiwanjot, with 916 runs, trails Karnataka wicketkeeper-batsman CM Gautam’s tally of 943 runs.
• Shitanshu Kotak, the domestic stalwart, needs 18 runs to go up to the sixth position in the list of highest run-getters in the Ranji Trophy history. Kotak, with 7,421 runs, is behind Amol Muzumdar (9105), Wasim Jaffer (9008), Hrishikesh Kanitkar (7885), Amarjeet Kaypee (7623), Pankaj Dharmani (7621) and Ajay Sharma (7438).
  

  Quotes

  “How do you think a Rajkot wicket will be? Haven’t played here, but it looks like a good flat wicket, full of runs.”
  “We would have been boosted by their presence but we have to learn to play without Jadeja and Pujara. They’re on national duty which is obviously great signs for Saurashtra cricket, but the youngsters are ready to step up. We’re ready for this game. Obviously both have scored triple-hundreds, Jadeja has also taken many wickets for us.”

Australia face the grim prospect of trying to win a Test with only three specialist bowlers for the second time in three matches after Ben Hilfenhaus shuffled off Bellerive Oval with a left side strain that has placed him in doubt for the rest of the Sri Lanka series.After bowling the second ball of his 13th over to Sri Lanka’s vice-captain Angelo Mathews, Hilfenhaus grimaced, felt for his hip or side, spoke briefly to his captain Michael Clarke and left the field, leaving Shane Watson to complete the over.He later left the ground for further medical examination, and the team physio Alex Kountouris said Hilfenhaus was now doubtful for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. The New Year’s Test in Sydney follows only three days after the end of the MCG match, a tight timeframe for fit bowlers, let alone those recovering from injury.”With Ben, we’ll probably know more in 24 hours. But it’s probably doubtful, the fact that he’s not bowling right now, you’d think there’s going to be considerable doubt [for Melbourne],” Kountouris said. “It’s on the milder side but not mild enough to be able to bowl in the second innings.”These sorts of things, if you miss a week then you miss two weeks because they’re not like batsmen who in a week’s time they can get back and play. Bowlers need to come back, bowl a few times, prove that they’re fit, make sure they’ve got through some sessions because we obviously can’t put them in a Test match with any doubt.”Hilfenhaus had been considered alongside Peter Siddle one of the two durable, senior bowlers to be relied upon across the summer. They were outlined as critical to Australia’s planning as the youthful group including Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood could be rotated around them.Of that quartet, only Starc has reached this point of the summer without being sidelined, while John Hastings, called up when both Siddle and Hilfenhaus missed the Perth Test against South Africa, is recovering from a back injury.Siddle and Hilfenhaus were unable to be considered for the WACA match as a direct result of Pattinson’s withdrawal midway through the draining Adelaide Test due to a side/rib injury, which left the older duo with a heavy workload across the second innings.Nathan Lyon was also leaned on heavily in Pattinson’s absence, and he, Siddle and Starc and can now expect another hefty shift while Hilfenhaus convalesces. Watson’s return to the team in the interim as an allrounder will be of some help to Clarke’s bowling options, but Australia’s captain is reluctant to overbowl his deputy out of fear it will both detract from his batting and also cause another round of injury.Pattinson, meanwhile, had exrpessed hope while watching the Melbourne Stars’ BBL match at the MCG on Saturday evening that he might recover in time to be considered for the latter Sri Lanka Tests. Kountouris ruled out that possibility.”When it comes to James, he’s going to start bowling next week or this week sometime,” Koutnouris said. “But I don’t think he’s going to have enough time to build up his workloads enough to be able to play on Boxing Day and probably the New Year’s Test. The original plan for him was not to play those Tests and it’s probably looking like that’s what’s going to happen.”Hilfenhaus’ bowling has been the subject of considerable scrutiny so far this summer, as he appeared to lapse into the bad habits that bedevilled him during the 2010-11 Ashes series following a year punctuated by lots of Twenty20 assignments and precious little first-class cricket.When Hilfenhaus was recalled after missing the Perth Test, having picked up a slight knee niggle in Adelaide while wrestling with his bowling action, the national selector John Inverarity described his halting progress, which has required plenty of time with Australia’s bowling coach Ali de Winter.”The history with Ben, he was doing well then the last series against England in Australia [in 2010-11] he didn’t bowl to his highest level,” Inverarity said. “He got things sorted out, a few niggles were sorted out and he got his bowling action right, and his bowling last summer was superb. He bowled at good pace and very well.”His bowling in the first Test was a bit like against England, it wasn’t as good as he’d hoped. So he needs to get 100% fit to perform, and his action so that he bowls like he did against India last summer, and we’re hopefully that during this little break he’ll be back to that sort of form.”In Hobart, Hilfenhaus did not generate his customary outswing, and struggled early on for his line as he drifted too often into the pads of Tillakaratne Dilshan. This angle proved more profitable against Dimuth Karunaratne, as a ball running across the left-hander caught an outside edge on the way through to Matthew Wade. As things stand, it will be his last major contribution to this match, and possibly the series.

James Franklin believes the upcoming World Twenty20 could be the final time some of the New Zealand players take part in a world event together and feels the experience in the side could take it to the latter stages of the tournament.”Probably it is the last World Cup for this group of players playing together,” Franklin said after the first of two Twenty20 internationals between India and New Zealand was washed out in Visakhapatnam. Franklin, Daniel Vettori, Jacob Oram, Brendon and Nathan McCullum, and Kyle Mills – part of the New Zealand squad for the World T20 – are all well over 30 years.”It is a pretty experienced T20 team. A lot of guys have played T20 all over the world so if individuals get in form then I think we have got a real chance of going fairly deep in this tournament.”Franklin skipped New Zealand’s recent tour of West Indies and focused on playing T20 cricket for Essex with an eye on the World T20 but said he wanted to play for his country in all three formats. Franklin made a comeback to the Test side for the recent two-match series against India after his previous Test against Pakistan in January 2011.”I had some months with Essex in England and that was good. Played mostly as a batsman there but I guess that role will change probably a bit with the New Zealand side. I’ll probably bat more in the middle order, but that is okay, that is something I am used to. I have had a pretty heavy diet of T20 cricket over the last few months so hopefully that’ll bode well for me and the team going into this World Cup.”I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity in the last two Test matches, here in India, to have a crack at the longer form for New Zealand again and hopefully that will continue in the future. Recent history suggests I have been more T20 for New Zealand but I am really striving to get back into the New Zealand side for all three formats. Hopefully the selectors back me as well.”Franklin hoped New Zealand would get some time on the field in Chennai during the second T20I after the washout in Visakhapatnam. “Main thing is getting some playing time before the World Cup starts. You can achieve all the strategy and tactical stuff as a team, go to the gym and get some physical work done [during the rains]. We can do everything that we can except play the game.”New Zealand are grouped with Pakistan and Bangladesh in the World T20 and will begin their campaign when they take on the latter in Pallekele on September 21.