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Brendon McCullum has said that Jimmy Neesham can become a “real weapon” for New Zealand at the top of the order in limited-overs cricket. The allrounder will open the batting in the first T20 against West Indies. The opportunity has come about with New Zealand choosing not to fly in reinforcements for the tour-ending two T20s after the Tests, and could make it easier to include both allrounders Neesham and Corey Anderson in the side’s future limited-overs plans.”One of the real positives out of this is being able to give guys who may not have had some of the opportunities they are going to get otherwise,” McCullum said. “Jimmy Neesham at the top, I am excited to see how he goes. He has got the game to succeed at the top of the order in the short version of cricket. I don’t want to see him focus on that in Test cricket because he has made a great start in the role he is in but short version I think he can be a real weapon for us at the top and allows us to balance our attack nicely as well and get both allrounders into the line-up.”New Zealand’s coach Mike Hesson echoed the same sentiments. “He’s a power player. He’s a guy that can hit the ball from ball one and can play seam and spin equally well. He’s got the attributes, so we’ll give him a good opportunity.”Jimmy Neesham has been in fine form on the West Indies tour•Associated Press

New Zealand secured a hard-fought Test series win with a relatively inexperienced XI. McCullum was looking forward to seeing more young players taking up their opportunity. “Ish Sodhi will make his debut tomorrow and the wicket looks like it should favour his sort of bowling so hopefully he will perform well and we will continue to build the depths and strengths of our short-version team.”I must admit it is a little bit hard to refocus somewhat on two T20 games at the end of the tour but we have some high standards that we try and live by and this will be a good test of whether we can remain consistent with our traits and characteristics that we want to be known for in a different format in a challenging situation.”We will wait and see. You never really know. In T20 you can prepare as well as you possibly can and things don’t go your way so with a bit of luck I think we have got the team that can win these next two games.”McCullum said New Zealand were up against a “formidable” T20 team. “Very good team, even without Chris Gayle in their ranks. The guys opening the batting are two proven T20 players so they have got a lot of power throughout their batting line-up… Sunil Narine leading their attack with the mystery he brings as well as Samuel Badree.”They are a formidable team and they are going to be a tough proposition for us but even though we haven’t got some of our better T20 players here, a lot of our guys have played a lot of domestic T20 cricket so hopefully we feel well and are able to finish the tour on a high note.”

Sourav Ganguly is set to be elected unopposed as the joint secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal during the AGM next week, marking the former India captain’s first stint with cricket administration.The deadline for filing candidatures for the election to be held on July 27 ended today (July 20). CAB treasurer Biswarup Dey confirmed that Sourav Ganguly and Subir Ganguly are the only two candidates to have submitted nomination papers for the two posts of joint secretaries. While Subir is an incumbent joint secretary, Sourav will replace Sujan Mukherjee who is to complete his maximum term of four years.It will be interesting to see if Ganguly is able to spare substantial amount time for his new role from his commitments as a television expert, though CAB office-bearers exuded confidence about Ganguly’s intentions.”Sourav would have never took up such an important responsibility had he not been sure about his availability,” Dey said. It is also worth noting if Ganguly represents the CAB at important BCCI meetings.After retiring from international cricket in 2008, Ganguly was appointed as the head of BCCI’s technical committee. However, since he was still active on the domestic circuit, he was replaced by his team-mate Anil Kumble. Once he was done with his domestic assignments, including the IPL in 2012, Ganguly took over as the CAB’s cricket development committee chief.He had played an instrumental role in roping in Waqar Younis and Muttiah Muralitharan as bowling consultants for Bengal cricket ahead of the previous domestic season.Ganguly’s inclusion will be the only change to an otherwise stable CAB administrative set-up, headed by former BCCI and ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya. All the eight posts for office-bearers, including that of the president, will be elected unopposed during the AGM.

ScorecardTom Fell’s 74 set Worcestershire on their way•Getty Images

Daryl Mitchell and Tom Fell set up Worcestershire’s record-breaking chase as they kept alive their hopes of progressing in the Royal London Cup.In going past Lancashire’s total of 304 for 7 they surpassed their previous best run-chase in 50-over cricket, set in 2007 when overcoming Warwickshire’s 303 for 6 on their home ground.Skipper Mitchell made 88 and Fell 74 to create an ideal platform in a second-wicket partnership of 137 in 27 overs and the game probably turned when Alexei Kervezee edged the first ball he faced between wicketkeeper and first slip. The cost mounted as Kervezee charged on to an unbeaten 63 and saw his side through to a famous victory with 13 balls to spare.Kervezee timed the ball brilliantly, picking off eight fours from 49 deliveries and left-hander Ross Whiteley brought out the hammer blows with three sixes and four fours in powering to 45 not out to easily clear off the 126 wanted from the last 15 overs. Their partnership was worth 89 in 8.3 overs.In conceding 300 runs or more for the third time in five group games – four of which they have lost – Lancashire simply lacked the depth of bowling to cope with Worcestershire’s acceleration on a day of 609 runs.Defeat was tough on the Red Rose batsmen after posting successive totals of 300 or more, the first of these in seeing off Derbyshire on Thursday. Four batsmen scored half-centuries in that match and three of them repeated the feat at Worcester.Ashwell Prince, with 11 fours in making 69 from 74 balls, and Karl Brown, with 50 from 69, set them rolling in a second-wicket stand of 105 in 21 overs and Steven Croft was marginally quicker, beefing up the middle order with 50 from 52 deliveries.For Worcestershire it was a punishing session after a shift of emphasis in their bowling attack since using two front-line spinners, Moeen Ali and Saeed Ajmal, in reaching the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-finals. By the time they were eliminated by Surrey last weekend, Shaaiq Choudhry was the one spinner who bowled at The Oval and when he was omitted against Lancashire, they went in with six seamers.Only Mitchell McClenaghan, with his pace and hostility, broke up the sameness of the attack. The New Zealander conceded three consecutive boundaries to Usman Khawaja before knocking out his off stump when the batsman shouldered arms after making all 21 runs on the board by the fourth over.Lancashire were soon accumulating much as they liked. In all, their innings contained 36 fours and five sixes, the biggest of these clattering into the roof of the Graeme Hick Pavilion as Wayne White reached 26 not out from 17 balls. The closest Lancashire came to a wobble was at 150 for 3 in the 30th over after losing Prince, clipping to short extra-cover off Whitley, and Brown, caught at deep cover off Charlie Morris. Of those who made half-centuries at Derby, Alex Davies was one who came up short, caught behind when attempting to scoop a ball from Jack Shantry.The other wickets fell during the late charge, Kervezee holding catches on the boundary from Croft and Jordan Clark, who made 20.”We are absolutely delighted,” Worcestershire director of cricket Steve Rhodes said. “It’s the first time we have pulled off our batting plan exactly as we wanted to. Ironically it’s also the first time we have chased in this competition.”A lot of hard work was done by Daryl Mitchell and Tom Fell originally and thankfully the finishers, Alexei Kervezee and Ross Whitely, completed a wonderful chase comfortably.”Lancashire captain Glen Chapple said: “It has been a good game of cricket today. We’ve just come out on wrong side for various reasons. The lads are obviously disappointed because of our position in the tournament. We are struggling really.”The pitch did a little bit in morning with a 10.30am start so we did well to score 300. It was really good effort but we couldn’t find wickets to create a finish.”

A final decision on whether a USA squad will tour Uganda in October for the ICC WCL Division Three tournament is expected to be taken this week at a USA Cricket Association board meeting. The board held discussions this past week on the matter but delayed making a final call pending a review of an ICC security assessment report.”Most members of the board, they want to send a team because they feel the team is strong enough to move up into Division Two,” a source present at the meeting told ESPNcricinfo. “Based on the conversations, more than 50% felt that if we can get security guarantees, then we should go.”USACA is apparently not alone in its hesitation to tour. According to sources, the Bermuda Cricket Board expressed similar concerns to the ICC based on a US State Department advisory issued in February, which rates Uganda as a “high threat for terrorism”. While the majority of the USACA board was in favor of sending a team to Uganda for the six-team tournament starting on October 26, several key members of the board were in opposition.Among those with the most reservations about the tour are president Gladstone Dainty, vice president Rafey Syed and treasurer John Thickett. The USACA discussions were spurred by Thickett’s email to the board on August 19 that highlighted the US State Department’s current travel advisory for Uganda.The other teams scheduled to take part in WCL Division Three are Nepal, Malaysia and Singapore. The two top will gain promotion to WCL Division Two, which will take place next January in Namibia.

While Dolphins might have fallen well short of the massive target of 243 set by Chennai Super Kings on Monday night in Bangalore, the very fact that they competed early on in the chase would give the South African franchise a boost, batsman Cameron Delport has said. Delport, who played a big role in Dolphins’ spirited start, slamming 34 off nine, said the team knew the only way they could possibly chase down 243 was by putting some pressure back on Super Kings and hoping they cracked.”It gives us massive confidence,” Delport told . “Today we played against Chennai Super Kings, who had a lot of Indian national stars and other reputed international cricketers. We know that if we can play well against them – either beat them or even just compete against them – it will help us mature as players. If we can handle these guys, we can definitely handle international cricket.”Super Kings had got to 242 for 6 having hit 16 sixes – eight of which came from Suresh Raina, who muscled his way to 90 off 43. Super Kings had got to 70 by the end of the six-over Powerplay, a Champions League T20 record that stood for just one innings; Dolphins smashed it, with their openers’ brief but blistering cameos getting them past 50 in the third over. That third over belonged to Delport, who hit 6, 4, 4, 2, 4 before playing too early at a Mohit Sharma slower one to be bowled off the final delivery.”We [he and fellow opener Morne van Wyk] knew that the wicket was really good and we wanted to get off to a really good start,” Delport said. “Our game plan was to take the attack to them and look for a couple of early boundaries and put them on the back foot right from the beginning.”We knew that their score was above average and our only chance of getting close was to put pressure on them. If we got boundaries off the first three balls of an over, the bowler would panic and it would be easier for us. We had a chat after the first innings and we said that if we get off to a good start, we had a good chance because we bat all the way down to No. 11. We did get that start but unfortunately the lower-middle order just collapsed there.”Delport said he had expected Mohit to bowl his signature slower ball at him, but still couldn’t quite get his timing right. “I knew he was going to bowl a slower one and I was telling myself to just wait for it. It kind of skidded off and hit the top of leg stump. I knew he was going to bowl it and I can’t believe I missed it.”Given his explosive cameo, Delport could well be on the radar of some IPL franchises, and that suits Delport. “I watch the IPL and the CLT20 every year and I have always wanted to be a part of these tournaments,” he said. “To finally be here in this country playing in these big stadiums is an experience that will help me grow as a cricketer. I want to continue to be part of these tournaments.”

Odisha sneaked through to the knockouts of the Vijay Hazare Trophy despite faltering in their last league match against Jharkhand. The result meant their was a three-way tie on head-to-head between three teams as Assam had beaten Jharkhand and Odisha had beaten Assam. Odisha, which had a better run-rate compared to the other two, joined Bengal as the second team from East Zone to qualify.Odisha chose to bowl and had Jharkhand in trouble at the 20-over mark after picking up three quick wickets. Jharkhand had made a strong opening but those quick strikes meant their run-rate slowed down too. However, Virat Singh and Kumar Deobrat added 130 runs for the fourth wicket, both hitting half-centuries, to revive Jharkhand. A late flourish from Ishank Jaggi, who scored unbeaten 47 off 19 balls, and Shahbaz Nadeem lifted the team to 280.Rahul Shukla struck twice in the first 10 overs to remove the Odisha openers while Jaskaran Singh and Rituraj Singh picked up a wicket each to reduce them to 67 for 4. Biplab Samantray and Abhilash Mallick scored fighting fifties but the team lost quick wickets towards the end to be bowled out in 46.5 overs.Bengal extended their unbeaten run in this year’s Vijay Hazare Trophy with an 18-run win against Assam in a high-scoring match at the Eden Gardens. Shreevats Goswami hit his second century in four innings to lay the foundation of a strong total after Bengal opted to bat first. Assam’s chase was led by a century from Dheeraj Jadhav but it went in vain as the innings ran out of steam towards the end.Bengal lost an early wicket, but Goswami rode on his good run and added 83 and 142 for the second and the third wickets with Sudip Chatterjee and Manoj Tiwary respectively. By the time he was dismissed, he had added 133 off 135 deliveries to add to the scores of 110*, 24 and 51* from his previous three innings to end up with 318 runs from the knockout stage, the highest in the tournament.Assam responded with a 118-run stand for the first wicket and were in the chase when they crossed 200 with eight wickets in hand. But Sayan Mondal picked up four wickets to trip up the chase and Assam could only reach 294 by the end of 50 overs.

Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board president Azim Bassarath has denied that Denesh Ramdin has been removed as captain of Trinidad & Tobago Red Force for this year’s regional competitions. On Tuesday, Ramdin, recently elevated as West Indies’ Test captain, had claimed that the TTCB was trying to “victimize” him for abandoning the India tour last month. However, Bassarth countered that, saying the TTCB executive had not yet taken any decision on Ramdin, who continued to remain captain.”We have not appointed any new captain,” Bassarath told ESPNcricinfo. “There is a recommendation from the selectors that we appoint Rayad Emrit as captain of the team from next week. The executive of the board has yet to sit and decide whether we accept or reject the recommendation. Ramdin is still the captain of Trinidad & Tobago cricket team.”The TTCB executive board is scheduled to meet this weekend to take a final decision, Bassarath said. “When the selectors met to pick the team they realised the Denesh would have been in India playing a complete tour. Immediately after that he would go to the South Africa tour. And after that he would go directly to the World Cup. So Denesh was not going to be available to play for T&T for the 2014-15 season. Hence the selectors made a recommendation [to think about appointing another captain].”Emrit remained a favourite, Bassarath said, only because he had lead T&T successfully last season. “You must remember in the 2014 season, Emrit did lead the team with distinction, where we lost the regional four-day tournament by one point.”Bassarath, who is one of the WICB directors, insisted that it was not correct on Ramdin’s part to allege that he was being pulled up for quitting the India tour after the players failed to break the deadlock with the WICB and West Indies Players Association (WIPA) over the Memorandum of Understanding and combined business agreement signed by the latter two in September.

WICB directors reject sacking rumours

Three WICB directors have told ESPNcricinfo that, contrary to speculative reports in the Caribbean media, no decision has been taken to sack the three international captains: Denesh Ramdin (Test), Dwayne Bravo (ODI) and Darren Sammy (Twenty20).
On Tuesday some of the directors had a meeting over teleconference, including WICB president Dave Cameron, but the WICB did not issue any release. According to Azim Bassarath, who did not participate in the conference call, no one had informed him about the trio being removed. He said the task force set up by the three warring parties – players, WICB and WIPA – would report back with steps to resolve the situation. According to him, the next board of directors meeting was scheduled for December 13 in Jamaica.
Another director, who briefly attended the conference call, denied any decision had been taken. “We have not selected the squad yet [for South Africa] so I don’t know where that news is coming from. We had a teleconference meeting, I did not stay for the full duration of the meeting. I am not told yet [of anything decision] because I would have the benefit of [what happened] at the meeting. I am told there is another meeting this Thursday and possibly the matter will come up there. I also heard Clive Lloyd will join that meeting. But I am yet to hear about the Thursday meeting officially.”
Meanwhile, a third director said he could not say “whether that is true or not true” but declined to make any further comments.

“I am axed as captain and they announced Rayad Emrit will be captain going forward for Trinidad & Tobago,” Ramdin told the on Monday after attending a meeting with the TTCB at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain, Couva, Trinidad. “I think it is more victimisation because they were asking me questions about India and my lawyer said not to talk about it so I think they were trying to get more information on that aspect.”However, Bassarath rejected that claim and also added that whatever decision TTCB would take would have no bearing on the on-going talks between players, WIPA and WICB. “That has absolutely nothing to do with this.”Patrick Rampersad, the T&T third vice-president, was equally categorical about Ramdin’s public pronouncement being incorrect. Rampersad told ESPNcricinfo he was present at Monday’s meeting, which was attended by the top brass of TTCB: Bassarath, Suraj Ragoonath (chief executive), former West Indies player Gus Logie (head coach), along with the treasurer and secretary of the board.The meeting, Rampersad said, was scheduled to also include Darren Bravo, who did not turn up. “We had arranged the meeting with Mr Ramdin and Mr Darren Bravo,” he said. “Mr Bravo did not show up. Based on what has happened over the last few weeks we wanted to talk to them about their commitment to T&T cricket.”Rampersad said about a month ago the national selection panel recommended Emrit as a captain for the T&T team. “That was accepted by the executive. Ramdin is the regular captain of the four-day team. Because he was on West Indies duty we had to appoint somebody in the interim. That is done every year. When then the regular captain comes back and is eligible to play he takes over.”According to Rampersad, Bassarath asked Ramdin how he would respond if he was told that the executive had received a recommendation from the selectors that they prefer to continue with the same captain appointed from the beginning of the season regardless of Ramdin’s availability. “The president also pointed out that this can be done only after the executive ratifies such a recommendation,” Rampersad said. “But he took that to mean that he was fired.”Rampersad also refuted Ramdin’s claim that the TTCB executive tried to “ask him questions” over the pull-out from the Indian tour. “That was totally untrue. One question was asked, ‘What transpired in India?’ He said he could not speak about it because that was the advice from the lawyer. That was the end of the matter.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJoe Root’s third ODI century of the year helped England to a five-wicket victory in Pallekele and maintained their hopes of winning the series against Sri Lanka.Root came to the crease after the loss of two early wickets and with his side facing a familiar nemesis: a trial by spin on a dry pitch. But he exuded calm and skill, provided deft touches and powerful blows, and ran like a whippet between the wickets. In partnership with the equally impressive James Taylor, he made light of a testing total and took England to victory with five balls to spare. It was the highest successful run-chase in an ODI on the ground.Sri Lanka still lead 3-2 with two games to play but England will take great confidence from this side as they look towards the World Cup. Not only did they keep their nerve in spin-friendly conditions in which they have little pedigree, but the chase was built upon the performances of young players with many years in front of them.Taylor, with his second half-century in succession, and Root, with an unbeaten 104, added 104 for the third-wicket. Whereas, in the past, England’s crease-bound batsmen have become bogged down against spin, Taylor and Root were prepared to skip down the pitch and disrupt the bowlers’ lengths, rotating the strike well and punishing the poor ball when appropriate.Taylor led the way. Wonderfully fleet of foot and far more willing to come down that pitch than many of his England colleagues, his ability to find gaps and push for singles rendered it impossible for Sri Lanka to build pressure. And, given any fault in length or width, he showed the power and skill to punish the ball. Tillakaratne Dilshan was driven for six over long-on when the bowler offered flight and, when the inevitable quicker delivery came, Taylor scooped it down to fine-leg for four.They may have kissed a few frogs on the way to finding a new ODI No. 3 – Taylor is the ninth man tried in the position since the departure of Jonathan Trott – but it seems England have finally found their prince.

Herath out of series

ScorecardFile photo – Harbhajan Singh bowled 15 wicketless overs against Saurashtra•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Sixteen wickets fell at the Feroz Shah Kotla as Delhi closed in on a massive win over Gujarat. Resuming on 34 for 1 in reply to Delhi’s 425, Gujarat folded for 150, with left-arm spinner Varun Sood grabbing four wickets. Eight Gujarat batsmen reached double figures but they only managed a top score of 22.Made to follow on, Gujarat began their second innings with a rapid opening stand of 53 between Samit Gohel and Priyank Panchal. The wicket of Gohel in the 10th over began a collapse that saw them lose four wickets for the addition of just two runs. Smit Patel and Chirag Gandhi stemmed the loss of wickets briefly, with a 28-run fifth-wicket stand, before both fell in the space of four overs. Jesal Karia and Rush Kalaria then added 46 for the seventh wicket before Sood trapped Kalaria lbw to pick up his fifth wicket of the innings. All seven second-innings wickets fell to spin, with offspinner Shivam Sharma picking up the other two.
ScorecardOdisha were left on the cusp of victory after their seamers bundled Haryana out for their second low score of the match in Lahli. Declaring on their overnight 232 for 9, with a lead of 105, Odisha bowled Haryana out for 143 in their second innings. Avi Barot and Nitin Saini gave Haryana a 42-run opening stand and Amit Mishra made 37 at No. 9, but there were few other contributions of note as the medium-pacers revelled yet again. Deepak Behera finished with four wickets while Basant Mohanty picked up two. Left to chase a target of 39, Odisha lost Natraj Behera in the first over and were 8 for 1 at stumps.
ScorecardA big century from S Badrinath helped Vidarbha gallop along at four runs an over in their second innings and declare to set Rajasthan a target of 405 in Jaipur. At stumps, Rajasthan were 33 for 1, having lost opener Siddharth Saraf in the fourth over of their innings.Vidarbha’s innings didn’t get off to a great start, losing Aniruddha Chore and Faiz Fazal within the first ten overs. Fazal was lbw to Aniket Choudhary for a 31-ball duck. Ganesh Satish and Badrinath put on 80 for the third wicket before Choudhary struck again to dismiss Satish for 32. This brought the first-innings centurion Shalabh Shrivastava to the crease, and he proceeded to add 191 with Badrinath at 4.66 runs an over. Shrivastava made 75 off 110 balls, with 11 fours, and fell two overs before Vidarbha declared with Badrinath unbeaten on 152 off 203 balls, having struck 19 fours.
ScorecardA century from Sagar Jogiyani and solid contributions from the rest of Saurashtra’s top three highlighted another bat-dominated day in Rajkot. Saurashtra moved to 281 for 1 in response to Punjab’s daunting 659 before they lost three wickets in a clump late in the day. At stumps, Saurashtra trailed by 351 with Sheldon Jackson and Kamlesh Makvana at the crease.Resuming on 27 for 0, Saurashtra’s openers extended their partnership to 101 before left-arm spinner Rajwinder Singh bowled Bhushan Chauhan for 49. That was Punjab’s only wicket for a long time, as Jogiyani and Arpit Vasavada batted through the next 54.2 overs and put on 180, before they fell at the same score, in the space of six balls. Vasavada made 78 off 156 balls, with seven fours, and Jogiyani 145 off 283, with 16 fours and two sixes. Punjab struck once again before stumps to get rid of the Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah. Harbhajan Singh was Punjab’s only wicketless specialist, and he did the least bowling of the four, sending down 15 overs for the cost of 48 runs.

Tamim Iqbal’s recovery towards full fitness is right on track to play in the World Cup, starting in three weeks. For the first time since his December 29 operation, he played pace bowling in the nets after he had only taken throwdowns and played against the bowling machine over the past week.While the rest of the Bangladesh team leaves for Brisbane on Saturday evening, Tamim will depart for Melbourne on Sunday. He has an appointment with orthopaedic surgeon Dr David Young followed by his third platela rich plasma (PRP) injection on January 27. He hopes to start training on January 29.Tamim complained of pain on his left knee which was later diagnosed as a grade one tear on his meniscus, after which Dr Young performed the arthroscopic evaluation and surgery on his left knee on December 29.He is pinning his hopes now on the PRP injection as well as a running session in Brisbane which he hopes will underline his return to fitness.”I don’t think there is a major problem with my knee,” Tamim said. “I am playing all kinds of shots against all sorts of bowling. My next sprint session in Australia is the most important to me. I had some pain sprinting before the operation, so if my pain goes away while sprinting, the fitness would have improved. But I have to be in rehab even during the tournament.”I will get my injection on the morning of January 27, and I will meet a physio in the evening. They will give me the following week’s instructions. I have completed two of the three injection courses in Australia. I will complete the last one now. I will join the squad on January 28 and start practice the next day.”Coach Chandika Hathurusingha had said on Thursday that Tamim would only be picked if he is 100% fit.”I don’t think anyone would want to play an unfit player, and especially not in a big tournament,” Tamim said. “I hope to play with 100% fitness. I don’t want to be a burden to the team, so I am putting equal importance to my fielding. The next 10-12 days in Brisbane is the most important phase of our preparation.”If we can use this time well, we won’t have many problems going ahead. I missed a few good sessions here, so if I can use the next two weeks properly, I will be happy. Of course I should be able to play at least two practice matches. I will try to play the warm-up matches in Brisbane since I have heard that wickets there are one of the toughest in Australia.”The recovery has not dampened Tamim’s spirits, as he spoke about his goal for this World Cup campaign and explained how he had missed out on his personal target in 2011. Tamim has only two fifties in World Cups, both against India. The first of these, in 2007, was his famous onslaught on the India bowlers, but overall he averages just 21.93 in 15 matches of the tournament.”There are no centuries for Bangladesh in the World Cup so I hope I can be the first to do that,” Tamim said. “If I can’t do it, I would hope someone from this team gets to do it. I didn’t set any goals in the 2007 World Cup. I was too happy to be playing against the big teams.”In the next tournament, I had set myself some goals but I couldn’t reach them. We played at home but I wouldn’t say it was a great World Cup for me. I haven’t started well in this campaign, with the injury. But I hope to finish it nicely.”Tamim trusts that the Australian conditions will suit his style of batting, as there will be true bounce. He also felt that in Bangladesh, those conditions are being overplayed. Overseas, Tamim has a slightly better average than at home though he has only three fifties in nine matches in Australia and New Zealand.”My batting style goes with those wickets,” he said. “I think wickets in Australia and New Zealand are perfect for stroke-makers. I think we have become too concerned about wickets there. We should think about how we can win matches.”If you look at history, you will see that Asian batsmen have done well there. India scored heavily in the Test series. There is no need to think so much about the wicket. I think Australia is best for batting. I don’t think wicket will be a big issue.”Still, he would like to start cautiously in both Australia and New Zealand, particularly against the two new balls. Since the introduction of the new rule on October 1, 2011, Tamim has averaged 30.60 in 31 innings and has had only two substantial scores with a strike rate above 100.”It would be tougher in Australian conditions now that there are two new balls,” Tamim said. “We are the sort of team that has to rely on a good start and good finish, and you can see that in our past.”We have to start more carefully than teams like Australia in their conditions. It would be tough to hit out from the start, but spend six to seven overs which would make it easier for us.”