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Steffan Piolet and Paul Best swept Warwickshire to the top of Group C of the Clydesdale Bank 40 with an unexpected three-wicket victory

07-Aug-2012
ScorecardRookies Steffan Piolet and Paul Best swept Warwickshire to the top of Group C of the Clydesdale Bank 40 with an unexpected three-wicket victory under the Edgbaston floodlights under the Duckworth-Lewis method that effectively dashed Yorkshire’s already slim semi-final hopes.Piolet, who batted with a runner after he sustained a hamstring injury bowling, and Best added 40 in just three overs to take Warwickshire to a revised target of 238 in 34 overs with four balls to spare.Yorkshire thought they had the match won when Tim Ambrose, who made a bustling 64 from 47 balls, carved Moin Ashraf to short third man. But Piolet turned the match decisively in Warwickshire’s favour when he pulled Steven Patterson and Ashraf for sixes in consecutive overs to finish unbeaten on 23 from nine balls.Best followed up his competition-best bowling of 3 for 43 with a rapid unbeaten 16, also from nine balls, to take Warwickshire above Sussex in the group.Yorkshire will wonder how they contrived to lose their fourth game in the competition this season after captain Andrew Gale and Adam Lyth laid the foundations for a competitive total with aggressive half-centuries.But Yorkshire lost five quick wickets after they returned to face 19 balls after a 65-minute stoppage for rain and Warwickshire’s run chase was sustained by a third-wicket stand of 74 in 10 overs between Ambrose and captain Jim Troughton.Neither could finish the job, as Troughton was bowled for 61 driving at Azeem Rafiq and Ambrose fell when victory was in sight, but Piolet and Best, who have become one-day regulars this season, proved their worth.Defeat was particularly hard on Lyth, who played a superb attacking innings which included four sixes in six balls, three of them off consecutive deliveries from Chris Wright either side of the rain break. The second of those took Lyth to a 49-ball half-century and he added a fourth off Keith Barker before he skied the next ball to midwicket.Warwickshire’s run chase was interrupted by some brilliant fielding by South African David Miller, who held two catches including a superb running effort at deep midwicket to account for William Porterfield, and was also involved in two run-outs.But Yorkshire’s bowling under pressure was not quite so assured, with Warwickshire successfully chasing down 83 from the last 10 overs.

Sri Lanka’s batting coach Marvan Atapattu has blamed a lack of application from the Sri Lanka batsmen for the team’s poor performance in the ongoing ODI series against Australia

Sa'adi Thawfeeq21-Aug-2011Sri Lanka’s batting coach Marvan Atapattu has blamed a lack of application from the Sri Lanka batsmen for the team’s poor performance in the ongoing ODI series against Australia. Australia took an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series after they beat the hosts by five wickets in the fourth ODI in Colombo on August 19.”The batting is pretty disappointing, no doubt about it,” Atapattu said. “It’s more to do with application [rather] than anything else. We know the potential that we have, but we have not gone all the way to show what we are made of.”It’s consistency in application that we lack. Apart from one or two batsmen, it has nothing to do with technique or anything like that. It’s more to do with application.”Sri Lanka have failed to bat out their 50 overs in the three games they have lost and were bowled out for just 132 on Sunday, which disappointed Atapattu. “Being ranked No. 2 [Sri Lanka were ranked second in the ICC rankings for ODI teams at the start of the series] we should be doing much more than what we have. It is disappointing to see the personnel in the team and their performances. We look at the team and say this is one of the best batting line-ups in the world; although we are playing against the No. 1 [ODI] team, we as a batting unit believe that we are much more capable than this.”Upul Tharanga, the leading run scorer for Sri Lanka in the series so far, is the only top-order batsman for the hosts to average above 40. Captain Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have all struggled for consistency, with none of them averaging above 37. “The problem we have is that it is only the same two or three batsmen who are always contributing. The pressure on these batsmen is more. What we are trying to do is get the rest of the batsmen to also contribute.”Atapattu said that batsman Dinesh Chandimal, who was dropped from the squad after the first three ODIs, had some technical issues that needed to be resolved. “Chandimal has changed a bit since he got his last fifty in Manchester. There is nothing wrong with his hitting – he is a fantastic hitter of the ball; probably the best in the country today. He needs to fine-tune certain areas before he faces a good bowling attack like Australia’s next time around.”Sri Lanka’s batting line-up has undergone changes in recent times: Thilina Kandamby who was vice-captain on the England tour was dropped for the Australia series, while, along with Chandimal, allrounder Thisara Perera was dropped after the first three games against Australia. Atapattu suggested the changes were not helping but said the batsmen in the side should be delivering.”It is the duty of the captain and me as batting coach to make the best use of the batsmen selected in the squad. There is a lack of consistency in the batting line-ups we have been given; but we don’t have any control over that. The players who are in the squad should make the runs. The reason for not reaching even a total of 200 [in the fourth ODI] is because the batsmen failed to contribute.”My personal opinion is to give as much opportunities to a player and if he doesn’t perform to expectations then we will have to look at another potential player and give him similar opportunities, but we must have patience with them. If we keep on changing players from day to day we will remain in the same position always. We cannot expect to produce an Arjuna [Ranatunga], Aravinda [de Silva], Hashan [Tillakaratne] or Roshan [Mahanama] overnight – it will take some time. Until such time we have to be patient. If we don’t get the expected results from the present crop of players then we will have to adopt that policy [of giving new players opportunities].”The final ODI will be played in Colombo on Monday which will be followed by three Tests in Galle, Pallekele and Colombo.

Pakistan’s tortured top order will have to find new levels of resolve if they want to extend this Test beyond the third day after England built a lead of 179 at Edgbaston despite a late collapse

The Bulletin by Andrew McGlashan07-Aug-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSaeed Ajmal bagged the best figures of his short Test career as England collapsed to 251 all out•PA Photos

Pakistan’s tortured top order will have to find new levels of resolve if they want to extend this Test beyond the third day after England built a lead of 179 at Edgbaston despite a late collapse. Saeed Ajmal took a career-best 5 for 82 as the hosts’ last five wickets fell for eight runs after Kevin Pietersen made a charmed 80, but James Anderson then struck early as Pakistan edged to 19 for 1.The visiting batsmen found life no easier in their second innings and Salman Butt fell to an almost unplayable delivery which seamed away late and took the outside via his pad to first slip. Azhar Ali extended his run-less streak in this game to 44 deliveries before he finally scampered a desperate single from his 13th ball to escape his pair.England thought they had removed Azhar moments before with an inside edge to the keeper but, after failing to review his caught-behind in the first innings at Trent Bridge, he was saved by the UDRS which clearly showed the ball had flicked the pad. Still, though, Azhar’s mind often looked frazzled, as when he tried to advance at Broad. Such was the stranglehold applied by the attack.Somehow, Imran Farhat survived until bad light hastened the close with five overs remaining after a severe working over from the pacemen. Anderson moved the ball both ways while Broad pitched the ball a touch fuller than usual and regularly beat the edgeEngland’s late collapse and the continued dominance of the ball increased the value of Pietersen’s battling innings and his 133-run stand with Jonathan Trott. It will go down as the ugliest effort of his career, and his 17-month wait for a hundred goes on, but he ensured the chance of a commanding lead wasn’t squandered.Having already been given two clear-cut chances yesterday Pietersen was dropped again without adding to his overnight score and it was the most embarrassing of all Pakistan’s lapses – which says something. He got an inside edge into his pad which ballooned towards gully, but Umar Amin was more interested in joining the appeal for lbw and dropped the easiest of chances.Pietersen’s innings, not for the first time, also included a dose of controversy as he left everyone diving for a copy of the Laws. The incident occurred as Mohammad Asif ran in for the fifth ball of his 12th over and he was well into his delivery stride when Pietersen began walking towards square leg. The batsman is allowed to back away if he is distracted, but Pietersen then continued to play a shot and lobbed a gentle catch to mid-off. The umpire Marais Erasmus called dead ball moments before the ball was struck, but Butt protested that it was too late.Law 23.3.b (v) states: “Either umpire shall call “dead ball” when he is satisfied that for an adequate reason the striker is not ready for the delivery of the ball and, if the ball is delivered, makes no attempt to play it.” It is that final part which raises questions about the decision although Pietersen later suggested he only played the ball because it followed him. Thankfully, though, given the heated history of England-Pakistan contests, the sting was taken out of the moment by a rain break.Pietersen tried to combat the threat of the swing from Asif and Mohammad Amir by using his feet and after lunch began to locate the middle of the bat with more frequency. He went to fifty with a well-timed flick through midwicket off Amir then took the attack to Ajmal.However, Ajmal also caused Pietersen problems and watched as an outside thudded into Zulqarnain Haider’s leg and ran away to the boundary. It was a huge deflection and a wicketkeeper isn’t expected to hold such edges, but it summed up Pietersen’s fortune. He was lucky again a short while later when a beautiful delivery from Ajmal gripped and spun between bat and pad and somehow missed the stumps.Compared to Pietersen’s rather manic display, Trott was a picture of total calmness as he went about his work in typically unfussy manner. With a better throw he could have been run out on 47, but went to a fifty on his home ground off 105 balls. Apart from a few issues picking Ajmal he was untroubled until he cut a short ball from Umar Amin to the substitute Yasir Hameed in the gully who showed how to take a catch.Amin was only in operation because Umar Gul had limped off after pulling up with a hamstring strain at the start of his 10th over which left Butt having to juggle a weakened bowling unit. He was therefore grateful for Ajmal’s spirited showing as his doosra confused the middle order. It began when Pietersen got a leading edge back to the bowler and, while it’s probably come too late to save this match, he has given Pakistan something to cling to for The Oval – which is a venue that can take turn.But despite the renewed vigour of the bowling effort, Pakistan produced further howlers in the field as Graeme Swann was twice dropped during his brief innings – firstly by Hameed at slip then by the captain himself at mid-off. Ajmal, though, didn’t miss the chance of his first five-wicket haul, but wasn’t going to risk leaving the final catch to anyone else as he safely pouched Swann’s top edge.

Varun Chakravarthy, playing for India again after almost three years, got three wickets in a big win over Bangladesh

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Oct-20241:53

‘Always good to have competition within the team’ – Varun Chakravarthy

Mayank Yadav attracted the eyeballs. Arshdeep Singh took the Player-of-the-Match award for his 3 for 14. Hardik Pandya kept the Bangladesh batters quiet but was deafening with the bat. For Varun Chakravarthy, meanwhile, it was a “rebirth” as he played a big part in India’s crushing seven-wicket win in the first T20I in Gwalior on Sunday. He was back playing for India after November 2021, after all, and 3 for 31 wasn’t shabby at all.”After three long years and… it was definitely emotional for me, and it feels nice to be back in the Blues, it feels like a rebirth,” he told Murali Kartik on the official broadcast after the game.”There have been many [challenges]. Once you are not in the Indian side, people tend to write you off very easily. You need to stay in the highest level, again and again you need to keep knocking the door. Thankfully, this time it happened and hopefully I can keep continuing my good work.”Related

• Varun Chakravarthy's emotional rollercoaster

• New-look India blow away Bangladesh to take 1-0 lead

It’s been a year of great success for Varun. His team, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), won IPL 2024. He finished as the team’s highest wicket-taker, and second-highest overall, with 21 wickets from 14 innings. That ended in May. In August, Dindigul Dragons won the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL). His team, again, though captain R Ashwin is the face of the set-up. Varun got 2 for 26 in the final. And was joint-highest for his team with Sandeep Warrier at 12 wickets for the tournament, fifth-highest overall.And now this international comeback.”After IPL, I played a few tournaments and one of those was the TNPL. It’s a very good tournament, and high standard [of cricket] also,” Varun said. “That’s a place where I worked a lot, with Ash [Ashwin]. We won the competition also, and that gave me the confidence here, because it was good preparation for me for this series.”I just want to stick to the process because that’s what I have been following in the IPL also. So I don’t want to go over and beyond what’s there right now. I just want to stay in the present. That’s why I don’t want to think too much or express too much.”On Sunday, Varun was introduced in the fifth over. Off his second delivery, Towhid Hridoy swept him in the air in the direction of debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy at deep square-leg; Reddy ran forward for the catch but lost the ball in the lights and let it go for four. Varun got Hridoy in his next over, and then Jaker Ali and Rishad Hossain, fooling the batters with his bag of tricks, but wasn’t happy about the drop.He wasn’t going to say it, though.”I thought it could have gone my way, but I can’t complain,” he said. “But, yeah, thankful to god.”

Assam’s Uma Chetry has earned her maiden call-up to the India side as a back-up keeper to Yastika Bhatia

Shashank Kishore02-Jul-2023Pace spearhead Renuka Singh, wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh, experienced allrounder Shikha Pandey and left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad are among the notable absentees in India’s white-ball squads for the tour of Bangladesh starting July 9.The BCCI’s media statement, which was released less than four days prior to the team’s scheduled departure for Dhaka, didn’t mention the reasons for the omissions. Among these names, Pandey was the only player who was not awarded a central contract for the 2022-23 season.Ghosh’s absence opened the doors for Assam’s Uma Chetry, who is the second wicketkeeper to Yastika Bhatia in both T20I and ODI squads. Chetry, 20, was part of the India A side that had recently won the ACC Emerging Nations tournament in Hong Kong.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

There were also maiden call-ups for Kerala allrounder Minnu Mani (only T20Is) and the left-arm spinning duo of Anusha Bareddy (Andhra) and Rashi Kanojiya (Uttar Pradesh) for both T20Is and ODIs. Harmanpreet Kaur will lead both squads, with Smriti Mandhana as her deputy.Meanwhile, top-order batter S Meghana and seam bowler Meghna Singh, who were part of the reserves in India’s T20 World Cup squad earlier this year, have been drafted into the main squad. Sneh Rana, who was another reserve player, is now part of just the ODI squad.Left-arm seamer Monica Patel and batter Priya Punia are back in the mix. Patel, who found herself in the wilderness after playing just two ODIs against South Africa in March 2021, is part of both squads. She is uncapped in T20Is. Punia, meanwhile, is part of only the ODI squad, and had last played in that South Africa series alongside Patel.Related

• Muzumdar, Arothe in shortlist for India women head coach

• Fitter and stronger: how India women are working towards getting better

Radha Yadav, the left-arm spinning allrounder, has been left out of both squads. The selectors have instead punted on Maharashtra’s Devika Vaidya and Punjab allrounder Amanjot Kaur, who made her debut earlier this year during the tri-series in South Africa. The tour of Bangladesh is India’s first assignment since the T20 World Cup in February-March when they lost the semi-finals to Australia.All the players in the squads were part of a targeted group of players that underwent a fitness-intensive conditioning camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru in May. It isn’t clear if the new head coach for the women’s team will be part of the Bangladesh tour.The BCCI is in the process of concluding its appointment process, with an announcement imminent. Former Mumbai captain Amol Muzumdar, former Baroda batter Tushar Arothe, who had earlier worked with India women as their coach, and former Durham batter Jon Lewis are among those in contention for the job.The India women head coach’s position has been vacant since Ramesh Powar was removed as part of an internal restructuring by the BCCI. Since then, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the former India allrounder, has been in charge of the team in an interim capacity. Kanitkar was also part of the fitness camp in May.India will begin the Bangladesh tour with a three-match T20I series, which will run from July 9 to July 13. This will be followed by three ODIs from July 16 to July 22. All games will be played at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.This white-ball series marks the start of a busy calendar for India women with New Zealand, England and Australia set to tour over the next six months. England and Australia will play Tests in a multi-format tour.

Two superstars of Indian cricket will be going at it on Thursday

Alagappan Muthu06-Apr-20222:45

Who should make way for Nortje? Is Manish Pandey’s place under threat?

Big picture

KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. It probably won’t be long before they are entrusted with the fortunes of Indian cricket. Their talent is apparent. Their allure is instant. And it is all because they make the game look easy.A Rahul back-foot punch is a masterpiece in minimalism. Look at it long enough and you start to wonder what all this fuss around batting is even about. Any of Pant’s shots – whether it is a drive, a slog, or even just him overbalancing at the crease – is a spectacle. Look at it long enough and everything else starts to feel a bit bleh. Including that one video of a kitten and an alligator becoming best friends.

Live in the USA

Watch the match LIVE on ESPN+ in English and in Hindi.

It’s a given that everyone will be at the DY Patil stadium just to watch Rahul and Pant go at it, but the outcome of Thursday’s game may hinge on the people around them. Lucknow Super Giants have batting depth like nobody’s business. But their death bowling is propped up on just one man’s shoulders – Avesh Khan. Delhi Capitals have a tantalising array of bowlers to choose from, but their middle order could do with a little more gravitas.

In the news

David Warner and Anrich Nortje will likely walk into the Capitals XI with the opener finally out of quarantine and the fast bowler having recovered well from a back injury.There is a chance the Super Giants might also be getting some reinforcement. Reports suggest Marcus Stoinis, the allrounder whom they acquired ahead of the February auction, could be available for selection.David Warner and Marcus Stoinis could well make their season debuts on Thursday•Getty Images

Likely XIs

Lucknow Super Giants: 1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Evin Lewis, 4 Marcus Stoinis, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Ayush Badoni, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Jason Holder, 9 Ankit Rajpoot, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Avesh KhanDelhi Capitals: 1 David Warner, 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Sarfaraz Khan/Yash Dhull/Mandeep Singh, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Lalit Yadav, 6 Rovman Powell, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

Strategy punt

• The T20 stats for Warner vs Ravi Bishnoi tells a compelling tale: four balls, five runs, two dismissals. As much as this season has been about fast bowlers having fun with the new ball, perhaps Super Giants might consider sneaking in an over from their legspinner, especially if the payout is the wicket of a T20 world champion.
• Capitals might also ponder starting with pace off given Axar Patel’s excellent T20 record against Rahul: 14 balls, 13 runs, three dismissals.

Stats that matter

• The average first-innings score at DY Patil stadium in this IPL has been 174, and while teams winning the toss have always chosen to bowl, they haven’t always won the match. The split is actually a very even 2-2.
• Deepak Hooda seems to finally be fulfilling his potential as a middle-order power-hitter. Check out his strike rate splits: 86 (first ten balls), 165 (11-20 balls), 180 (21-30 balls), 186 (30+ balls).
• Among players with a minimum of 750 runs in IPL powerplays, Prithvi Shaw’s strike rate of 147 is second only to Jos Buttler’s 150.
• Capitals are coming off a loss where Pant’s wicket took the game away from them. Super Giants will be mindful of that and might look to match him up with Bishnoi. Since IPL 2020, Pant is among the top five slowest-scoring batters against legspin (min. 50 runs scored) with a strike rate of just 105.

This, in addition to his role as Pakistan’s batting consultant

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Nov-2020The PCB is keen to rope in former captain Younis Khan in a full-time role as the head of the High Performance Centre (HPC) in Karachi in addition to his role as Pakistan’s batting consultant. Earlier this year, Khan signed up as the national team’s batting coach for the tour of England, where they lost the Test series 1-0 and levelled the T20I series 1-1.This is the third time the PCB has reached out to Khan to coax him into the coaching mix. They had initially wanted him to work at the National Cricket Academy – the predecessor to the HPC – in a development capacity though that didn’t ultimately pan out. However, after that, Khan toured the UK as part of the star-studded support staff that also included Waqar Younis (bowling coach) and Mushtaq Ahmed (spin-bowling coach). That short-term stint ended in September.In May last year, Khan was close to taking up a role as the country’s Under-19 coach, but the plan eventually didn’t come to pass. One of the sticking points, ESPNcricinfo reported, had to do with finances, while the other was with the job profile, as the PCB had proposed Khan only be a mentor and a coach, but he wanted a broader scope and a say in selection as well.Khan brings with him vast experience as Pakistan’s highest scorer in Test cricket, though he has had a frayed relationship with the PCB over the years. It is understood that various senior PCB officials have expressed reservations about working with him. However, a pep talk that he gave to the players on video during lockdown and his first stint as batting coach in England seems to have changed some of those opinions. Khan received positive feedback from the other backroom staff and the players for his role on the tour of England, where he had to deal with a large pool of players.

Australia coach says team won’t be swayed from pre-series plans for how to win in England

Daniel Brettig in Leeds20-Aug-2019Australia’s coach Justin Langer insists his team will refuse to allow themselves to be drawn into a battle of fire-and-brimstone pace for the Ashes in the wake of Jofra Archer’s trail of destruction at Lord’s, forcing Steven Smith out of the Headingley Test with concussion and generally shaking up the touring batsmen in ways they had not fully expected prior to the series.Langer’s words underlined how deeply Australia have committed to a blueprint for winning the urn in England for the first time since 2001, and also suggested that Mitchell Starc’s fiery spell in the nets at Leeds, clean bowling David Warner and then striking Marnus Labuschagne in the helmet grill after the fashion of Archer on the final day at Lord’s, would not push him ahead of James Pattinson in the queue of fast men to refresh the touring attack.At the same time it also offered the possibility of retention for Cameron Bancroft as Warner’s partner, with Labuschagne’s fully fledged inclusion the only change to the batting line-up. “We know what our plans are to beat England. What we’re not going to do is get caught up in an emotional battle of who’s going to bowl the quickest bouncers,” Langer said. “We’re here to win the Test match, not to see how many helmets we can hit. And that’s the truth, we are literally here to win the Test match and we have our plans on how we think we can beat England.ALSO READ: Head brings out the stem guard after blow to Smith“Mike Atherton said a really interesting thing to me the other day: ‘It seems a really different Australian team, in the past you puff your chests out, you grow your beards and you’re all tough and see if you can bowl as fast as you want. This isn’t as macho as before.’ We’re here to win the Test match, not to see how many bruises we can give, that’s not winning Test matches, trust me, you can’t get out with a bruise on your arm.”So we’ll pick the team we think will win it, this is a different ground, we think the wicket will be quite slow, it’s not going to be as fast as some of the other wickets we’ve seen, my understanding of everything we’ve been told about playing here. So I’m sure the bouncer will still be part of every bowler’s armoury, if it helps us get batsmen out then we’ll use it, otherwise we’ll keep sticking to the plan.”One of the hardest things for a touring team to do in an Ashes series is to stay the course of whatever plans had been set, in the face of on-field pressures, internal demons and the unrivalled level of outside “noise” emanating from former players, media and the public. “We keep talking about it … you’ve got to play on skill, not emotion,’ Langer said. “And it’s hard for young players, even senior players.”You can get caught up in the atmosphere, you can get caught up in the contest. But it’s not an ego game – you’ve got to just keep trusting your skill, keep watching the ball like a hawk. I keep saying simplify as much as possible so we’re winning on skill not emotion. But it is a challenge. That’s the challenge of mental toughness, that’s the challenge of concentration, that’s the challenge of what the champion players do over the good players. The only way you get better at it is by being exposed to it and I’m sure we’ll be exposed to it this series.”That being said, Langer did concede that Archer’s pace had made a difference to the series in that it now meant Australia’s batsmen in particular would need to, at times, fall back on the lessons learned from playing many matches against fast bowlers on bouncy pitches back home, as opposed to the seam and swing challenges billed before the series as being the touring team’s biggest obstacle to success.”Our guys play a lot of short-ball cricket in Australia. We tend to play on bouncy wickets. We play on the WACA, we play on the Gabba,” Langer said. “So they’re used to playing off the back foot, and I’m sure they’ll prepare accordingly. England will be the same, I’m sure they’ve got plans how they’ll get our batsmen out, not just knock them out, so they’re working hard on it. We know Jofra’s a very good bowler, we saw what he can do the other day.”We know Stuart Broad’s a brilliant bowler, we know Chris Woakes is really hard work, we’ve seen how Stokes comes in and runs in with that energy and passion every time he plays, so we know we’re up against it, and we’re really going to be ready for that. We have to be, otherwise we won’t win the series. We’re expecting James Anderson to swing the ball, seam the ball and we’re going to have to be really tight in our defence.”He [Archer] certainly brings a different dimension to the game and we saw he bowled quick, but also his economy rate was incredible, I think he went for just over one run an over, that is unbelievable bowling, it’s skilful bowling and he bowled some fast bouncers in between. That’s Test cricket, that’s what we love about it, that’s what gets you, you know you’re awake, you know you’re alive when you’re facing fast bowling. That’s what Test cricket’s all about, it’s bloody brilliant.”The other significant change to the series at Lord’s was the inclusion of Jack Leach as England’s spin bowler, with his resultant combination of economy and wickets allowing Joe Root to turn up the pressure on the Australians to a huge degree. Moeen Ali’s eclipse by Nathan Lyon had given Australia a marked advantage both batting and in the field, but Leach’s Lord’s effort meant that Lyon was outbowled by an England spinner for a rare occasion since the retirement of Graeme Swann.”He gives them another dimension, England, with a specialist bowler,” Langer said of Leach. “I mentioned before the second Test match I thought the Lord’s wicket looked very dry. I think this will be similar actually. With the footmarks that will come at our left-handers they’re going to have to be on top of their game. Again, like facing Jofra’s bouncers, we’re going to have to have a really good plan of how we’re going to face him bowling out of the rough. That’s all part of the test of playing Test match cricket.”

Ireland batsman defies injury to set up emphatic victory at Hove

ECB Reporters Network25-May-2018
ScorecardPaul Stirling defied a thigh injury which forced him to bat with a runner to score his second century in less than a week as Middlesex beat Sussex by 74 runs at Hove in the Royal London One-Day Cup.The 27-year-old Irishman suffered the injury shortly after reaching 50 and Nathan Sowter ran for him for the remainder of his innings.
Stirling went on to make 116 from 129 balls to add to his 125 against Kent earlier in the competition and help Middlesex post 288 for 4 from their 50 overs.Sussex were never really in contention with only David Wiese, who made his second successive half-century, mastering an accurate attack in which skipper Steven Finn took 3 for 29 and left-arm spinner Ravi Patel 4 for 58. They were bowled out for 214 from 43.5 overs.Stirling and Nick Gubbins put on 198 for the first wicket, Middlesex’s second-highest partnership against Sussex in List A cricket, after they were put in.On a slow pitch Sussex bowled with decent control and Middlesex were never able to score at more than six runs an over. But Stirling and Gubbins found the gaps and punished anything loose as they passed Middlesex’s previous first-wicket best against Sussex, 160 by Owais Shah and Justin Langer in 1999.Stirling played within himself but still struck nine fours and two sixes in his 14th List A hundred which he brought up shortly before Gubbins, whose 86 came off 94 balls with two sixes and nine fours, was leg before to Danny Briggs’ quicker ball.The slow left-armer also picked up Stirling when he holed out to deep mid-wicket while England captain Eoin Morgan was caught in the covers off Ollie Robinson for 23.John Simpson was dropped three times in his unbeaten 22 and Wiese picked up the other wicket in the penultimate over when Hilton Cartwright (27) top-edged to extra cover.Sussex’s reply ran into early problems when Finn removed openers Phil Salt, deputising for the injured Luke Wright, and Luke Wells in an excellent new ball spell of 2 for 14 from five overs. Finn later returned to bowl Danny Briggs (2).Salt played on in the fourth over for five and Wells (13) was held at point in his next over before Finn’s replacement Patel struck in successive overs. Harry Finch (16) was superbly caught at full stretch on the long-off boundary by substitute James Harris and Ben Brown (24) bowled playing to leg.It was a profitable day for Patel. He had Michael Burgess (37 off 24 balls) and Robinson (17), from the last ball of his spell, both caught at deep mid-wicket while leg-spinner Sowter skidded one through Laurie Evans’ (34) defences after Evans had added 51 for the sixth wicket with Wiese, as Middlesex maintained their knack of taking wickets when they needed them.Sussex’s race was run when Wiese was ninth out for 57 off 51 balls, bowled by another delivery from Sowter, who finished with 3 for 43, that skidded on.

A slew of former international and first-class players have been enlisted as consultants to work with USA men’s, women’s and junior players at a specialist preparation camp from April 6-9 in Houston

Peter Della Penna05-Apr-2017A slew of former international and first-class players have been enlisted as consultants to work with USA men’s, women’s and junior players at a specialist preparation camp from April 6-9 in Houston, Texas in an effort to give them a leg up on other teams in preparation for their respective ICC qualification events later this year. Among the new arrivals expected this weekend are former Australian Test spinner Beau Casson, former Sheffield Shield wicketkeeper Peter Anderson and former West Indies fast bowler Mervyn Dillon.Casson, 34, has been an assistant coach with New South Wales and Sydney Thunder since 2015 after being forced into early retirement in 2011 due to a heart condition. Dillon, 42, played 38 Tests for West Indies and ended his first-class career with Trinidad & Tobago in 2008. He has made regular appearances around the USA playing in private T20 tournaments in recent years and began pursuing a Cricket Australia Level Three coaching badge in Florida in 2012.Anderson, 55, has forged a successful career at Associate level after a 56-match first-class career with Queensland and South Australia. He coached Papua New Guinea for two years culminating in a fourth place finish at the 2014 World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand that secured ODI status for PNG. From there, he became the head of Afghanistan’s national cricket academy for two years. Most recently, Anderson took over as Cayman Islands coach and technical director last summer, and helped them defeat Argentina in a regional qualifier this February to gain a place at ICC World Cricket League Division Five, scheduled for September in South Africa.Specialist fielding coach Trevor Penney, who worked with USA’s senior players at a camp in Indianapolis last September ahead of ICC WCL Division Four, has been brought back for another stint with the USA men’s team. Unlike the other three consultant coaches, who are being utilized for this weekend only, Penney is expected to stay with USA as a consultant assistant coach until the end of May as part of their staff for ICC WCL Division Three in Uganda, working alongside head coach Pubudu Dassanayake and assistant Anand Tummala.Former India international Thiru Kumaran, who coached the USA U-19 squad in 2015 at the U-19 Americas Qualifier in Bermuda and U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Malaysia, has been brought back to continue working with junior players. Kumaran, 41, is currently based in Dallas, Texas where he runs a youth academy.Aside from the men’s team, who are targeting a top two finish in Uganda next month to move a step closer to the 2018 World Cup Qualifier, key tournaments for the women’s and U-19 teams are also coming up in 2017. This weekend’s camp is being used as a launching pad for each team’s preparations with six players from each squad coming to the camp to train alongside the entire men’s national squad.The USA Women were given a wildcard spot into the 2017 ICC Europe Qualifier where they will play Scotland and Netherlands this August for a chance to advance into the 2018 Women’s World T20 Qualifier. The USA U-19 team will head to Toronto for the U-19 Americas Qualifier in July as they attempt to qualify for the U-19 World Cup for the first time since 2010.