All posts by n8rngtd.top

Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have entered the quarter-finals with one round to go, while Bihar and Manipur will contest the Plate final

Himanshu Agrawal20-Jan-2023

Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka in quarter-finals

An innings victory over Haryana – in which seamer Akash Deep took ten wickets – took Bengal into the last eight, as they won with a bonus point. Akash Deep was the star, but the win was set up by Anustup Majumdar’s 145 and handy contributions with the bat from the lower order, as Bengal posted 419 after being sent in. Harshal Patel and Ajit Chahal shared seven wickets for Haryana.Sumit Kumar hit 70 not out, and added 63 for the last wicket with Aman Kumar, but Deep’s 5 for 61 gave Bengal a 256-run lead as Haryana were dismissed for 163. Bengal asked Haryana, the hosts, to follow-on, but in another batting collapse, Haryana went from 129 without loss to 206 all out. Deep again starred with 5 for 51, with Mukesh Kumar taking three.For Karnataka, captain Mayank Agarwal’s 208 gave them a first-innings lead of 143 over Kerala in Thumba, enough to pocket three points and finish the round as table-toppers in their group.Related

• Nadeem wants to keep knocking on the door that won't open

• Sarfaraz's job is to 'keep scoring runs, all the time'

• Unadkat: 'I am not happy just to make a comeback'

• Sarwate takes six as Gujarat collapse for 54 chasing 73

Responding to Kerala’s 342, propelled by Sachin Baby’s 141, Karnataka declared on 484 for 9.Kerala batted for 51 overs in their second innings and got to 96 for 4 when play ended.Apart from Agarwal, V Koushik was a star performer for Karnataka with 6 for 54 in the first Kerala innings.Meanwhile, defending champions Madhya Pradesh already had 32 points heading into the sixth round, and despite an innings defeat to Punjab, they made the quarter-finals.Nehal Wadhera cracked 214 and Anmolpreet Singh hit 124, as Punjab put up 443 in Mohali.With the ball, Siddarth Kaul’s four wickets helped bowl MP out for 244, as Harsh Gawli, Yash Dubey and Shubham Sharma got to half-centuries but failed to capitalise.Punjab asked MP to follow-on, and skittled them for 77. On this occasion, it was Arshdeep Singh who got 4 for 30, as Punjab boosted their chances of a place in the last eight.File photo: Aditya Sarwate helped Vidarbha seal a famous win•PTI

Sarwate’s 11-for floors Gujarat

Left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate grabbed 5 for 64 and 6 for 17, as Vidarbha stunned Gujarat at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. Gujarat were rolled over for 54, failing to chase 74 in the final innings. That was a record for the lowest first-class target successfully defended in India, topping the 78 by Bihar against Delhi in Jamshedpur way back in 1948-49.Vidarbha’s win came despite falling 182 behind in the first innings, as they themselves folded for 74 on the first day’s play. Sanjay Raghunath scored 33 of those, as Chintan Gaja and Tejas Patel picked up five wickets each.Sarwate struck early with the ball in Gujarat’s first innings after opening the bowling, before Aarya Desai and Bhargav Merai added 117 for the second wicket. Aarya top-scored with 88, as Gujarat lost five wickets for 41 runs in a lower-order collapse to finish on 256.By then, the match had barely moved into the second day, and the action came thick and fast. In Vidarbha’s second innings, Raghunath, Atharva Taide, Akshay Wadkar and Yash Rathod threw away respectable starts, before Jitesh Sharma counter-attacked with 69 from only 53 balls – including four fours and five sixes.Siddharth Desai bagged 6 for 74 to restrict Vidarbha to 254 and Gujarat’s target to 73, only for Sarwate and Harsh Dubey to run through their line-up. Only Desai got into double figures, as Vidarbha secured six vital points.

Andhra stun heavyweights Saurashtra

Left-arm spinner Lalith Mohan took 11 wickets in the match – including a career-best 6 for 58 in the second innings – as Andhra beat Saurashtra by 150 runs in Rajkot in one of the results of the season.In the first innings, Andhra’s batters right up to No. 8 made useful contributions, with Ashwin Hebbar’s 109 and Ricky Bhui’s 80 leading the way. That propelled them up to 415, before Mohan got down to work with 5 for 71, pushing Andhra 178 ahead.With a big lead in place, Karan Shinde hit an unbeaten fifty, even as Abhishek Reddy and captain Hanuma Vihari picked up pace in the second innings. Vihari declared at 164, and set Saurashtra 343, only for Mohan to grab six more to firm up the result despite Cheteshwar Pujara’s 91.

Bihar, Manipur qualify for Plate final

Following a commanding semi-final victory over Meghalaya, Bihar qualified for the final of the Plate group with a thumping 302-run win. Wicketkeeper-batter Bipin Saurabh’s 177 helped them to 428 in the first innings, before Meghalaya were bowled out for 134. But despite a first-innings advantage of 294, Bihar batted again.However, Meghalaya hit back by bundling Bihar for just 164 to keep their side afloat. Left-arm spinner Rajesh Bishnoi took 6 for 30 to give Meghalaya hope, but the target of 459 proved far beyond their reach.In Surat, Manipur didn’t have it all that easy against Sikkim, who they beat by only two wickets as they hunted down a 337-run target in the fourth innings. For Sikkim, Player of the Match Sumit Singh’s all-round effort – 56 and 168 with the bat, and 6 for 60 with the ball in the second innings – went in vain, as Manipur eked out a memorable win.Sikkim were 63 ahead in the first-innings exchanges courtesy Nilesh Lamichaney’s 83 and Bijay Prasad’s 4 for 18, after which Sumit smashed 168 at better than a run a ball in their second-innings total of 273. Manipur’s Pheiroijam Jotin got 4 for 33 and 5 for 62 in the game. In the chase, Ahmed Shah’s aggressive 43 not out followed 75 from Basir Rahman, 64 from Bikash Singh and 52 from captain Langlonyamba Meitan Keishangbam to help Manipur home.

Numbers that matter

• Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat, who recently made a comeback to the India Test team, played his 100th first-class match in his side’s loss to Andhra in Rajkot.
• Bengal, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Punjab remain unbeaten after six rounds of games in the Elite groups.
• Leading run-scorers
  Elite – Dhruv Shorey (Delhi): ten innings, 806 runs, average 100.75, three centuries, two half-centuries
  Plate – Taruwar Kohli (Mizoram): ten innings, 746 runs, average 74.60, three centuries, three half-centuries
• Leading wicket-takers
  Elite – Jalaj Saxena (Kerala): 45 wickets in 11 innings, average 17.93, five five-fors, two 10-fors
  Plate – Rajesh Bishnoi (Meghalaya): 39 wickets in 12 innings, average 15.58, five five-fors

In front of more than 90,000 fans at the MCG, India prevailed over Pakistan in a nerve-racking finish

Alagappan Muthu23-Oct-20225:51

Rohit Sharma on Virat Kohli’s 82*: ‘One of India’s best knocks’

That front foot…Just the way it lunges at the ball…Even in this game…Even against these guys…Virat Kohli isn’t a man. He is a feeling. It’s why every time he walks out to bat, he lifts the entire world with him. Or at the very least roughly around one billion of its people.On a day where only the extraordinary was allowed into the MCG, one of India’s greatest played an innings that may be their greatest ever in T20 cricket. It has to be because, in the end, they beat Pakistan, and it brought a tear to his eye.Related

• Wounded Pakistan still 'feeling the pain and hurting', but morale remains intact

• Rohit on Kohli's innings: 'His best for sure, one of India's best too'

• Kohli: My best T20 innings because of the 'magnitude of the game and the situation'

• Drama at the death – a ball-by-ball account of a cracking finish

• 'Virat Kohli, what are you?'

How it ended
India went into the final three overs needing 48 runs to complete a chase of 160.And they were facing a bowling attack that was drawing every bit of venom available on a pitch that offered scary pace and seething bounce.Haris Rauf was more bolt of lighting than flesh and bone. He was the one who brought Pakistan back into this riotous game. So naturally he had to go.All night Kohli was batting at a level that shouldn’t be possible. Like a 27th letter of the English alphabet. It was preposterous. Just like the two sixes he hit to end the 19th over.The first one was a back-of-a-length slower ball climbing up above his waist. The only way he could have hit it straight over the bowler’s head is if his willpower actually bent the laws of physics.How can you clear the biggest cricket ground on the planet when there’s no pace on the ball, and when it was meant to get big on you? How?!An equation that read 28 off eight balls became 16 off six. And still mayhem lurked.On the other side of ecstasy, there’s agony – Mohammad Nawaz after the final over•Getty Images

Spin was the price this match paid to be this awesome. Anyone that couldn’t put pace on the ball was being dispatched. And Mohammad Nawaz knew the same fate awaited him when he fronted up for the final over.He started it well enough, with the wicket of Hardik Pandya, but when he ran into the day’s unstoppable force, everything changed.Kohli launched Nawaz over that giant square-leg boundary, and long before the ball landed, he was signalling for a no-ball. Pakistan didn’t like that. Babar Azam and the umpires were involved in a long, animated and emotional discussion. It was a marginal call, a full toss perhaps over waist-high, and in the end, India got what they wanted.A free hit, which Nawaz used to break Kohli’s stumps, but that didn’t matter. You can’t get bowled off a free hit. And, as the ball wandered away, Kohli sprinted three runs. Cue dissent from Pakistan once more. They felt the ball should’ve been dead once it had hit the stumps, but the umpires disagreed again. Rod Tucker signalled byes.India needed two off one, but Kohli was at the non-strikers’ end. And somewhere in the midst of all this Dinesh Karthik had been stumped.Two off one with R Ashwin on strike. Who writes these scripts?Nawaz ran in… and bowled a wide down the leg side. WHO WROTE THIS SCRIPT?!Ashwin, one of the cleverest going around, just sidestepped that ball, and then with one needed off one, he casually chipped the ball over mid-off. The sound barrier broke as 90,293 people at the MCG – and countless millions at home – all roared as one. Some in ecstasy, some in agony.Virat Kohli took a moment for himself after his incredible knock•Getty Images

Meanwhile, Kohli was on his knees – just as he was in Mohali, 2016. He punched the turf. This was new. And when he came up, he was mobbed. He allowed his team-mates their time with him but then wriggled away so he could be alone. Or well, as alone as he could be with a stadium full of people singing his name. He stared at the night sky, with his right hand raised, and his forefinger up. Was he saying thanks? Was he saying, ‘Ah, so this is why I went through that slump in form? Well, fair enough. Good deal.’ And then suddenly his thoughts were broken as the captain of the Indian cricket team hurtled onto the pitch and lifted him clean off his feet. When Rohit Sharma came to the presentation, he had no voice.The other hero
It now seems so long ago but India had another hero as well. His name was Arshdeep Singh. Last month at the Asia Cup, he shelled a catch in the dying moments of a very tight game against Pakistan and was met with the vilest abuse on social media. He’s 23 years old. All he wants to do is help his team win. And today he did just that, by removing Babar Azam lbw with his very first ball in a T20 World Cup.Back then, this game was all swing and hoop and the lurid geometry the white ball is capable of. Pakistan were reduced to 32 for 2 in the powerplay. Then Iftikhar Ahmed and Shan Masood built a partnership. They took down R Ashwin and Axar Patel. Spin just couldn’t catch a break in the game, leaking 107 runs in 72 balls, eight sixes and nine fours.Pakistan recovered to make 59 runs in the six overs immediately after the powerplay, prompting India to bring back their quicks, and within 12 balls Hardik and Mohammed Shami had three wickets. Shaheen Afridi came out at No. 9 and belted one NSFW six over the longest boundary of the ground at deep midwicket, pushing the total up to 159 for 8. And it was game on.Long before the pulsating denouement, Arshdeep Singh made crucial new-ball incisions to remove both Pakistan openers•Getty Images

The best vs the best
Defending 160 is hard work, even for Pakistan. Since 2019, they’ve only managed to do it thrice in 13 matches. This had all the looks of being lucky number four.Rohit and KL Rahul were given the short shrift. Suryakumar Yadav was bounced out. India were 45 for 4 after 10 overs. If they were going to win, they had to score nearly two runs a ball for half of their innings.Talk about goading a genius. Kohli was 12 off 21 then. He would pick himself up with a six off Nawaz – a thundering strike after stepping down the pitch. Hardik at the other end got going as well. India managed 55 runs in the five overs from 11th and 15th and Pakistan knew they had to bring back their big guns.Shaheen came on. But he hadn’t played any cricket since July 2022 and all that rust showed. A would-be leg-stump yorker turned into a low full toss – which isn’t the worst ball to bowl in T20 cricket, it still denies the batter the room they like to hit boundaries. But Kohli somehow managed it. And all it took was a twist of his wrist.That loft over extra cover which beat three fielders – one running back and two converging on it from deep cover point and long-off – was like a catharsis. Not so long ago, Kohli confessed to faking his intensity. Here, he felt its embrace and it was all natural. And it was all good. So good that he actually punched the air even though India still needed 37 off 15 balls.Hardik, though, was still struggling. The pressure to find those sixes was getting to him and he began searching in all the wrong places – like square of the wicket at the MCG. Rauf bowled a brilliant 19th over – the first four balls anyway – to push the equation up to 28 off 8. Then Kohli got on strike. He knew the straight boundaries were shorter. And he went for them. Got one down the ground. Then another behind the wicket. Poof, just like that, 12 off 2. To be that clear-headed, to be that calculative, in that situation, requires…Actually, there’s no real word for it.Kohli said it himself. “I have no words. I have no idea how this happened”.

Ross Taylor felt the decision to not give Nathan Lyon out even as HotSpot clearly indicated a faint nick, was a big moment in the match

Daniel Brettig in Adelaide28-Nov-20155:08

Chappell: Lyon decision unsettled New Zealand

Sometimes a strategic silence can say more than any number of words. New Zealand’s senior batsman Ross Taylor had almost got through the entirety of his post-play press conference when one final reference to the day’s pivotal DRS episode arose. Taylor had already quipped, “I’ve still got my match fee at the moment, so thank you.”But this question, from the AAP reporter Rob Forsaith, was pointed. “What did Brendon say after it happened,” he asked. “Was it hard for him to hide his frustration?”

From ESPNcricinfo’s commentary

Santner to Lyon, no run, sweeps and it’s taken at slip… did he top edge it on to his shoulder? We’re going to have a review, think from NZ. It was a full delivery, straightening off the surface, the ball passed over the bat and then ricocheted off Lyon’s upper arm. We’re seeing a faint mark on Hot Spot, which might suggest he kissed the top edge, but Real Time Snicko does not flicker in the slightest… It’s very hard to tell, the camera angles are pretty inconclusive and after Llong deliberations from Nigel Llong, he decides that there is no conclusive evidence of the edge. They also want to check the lbw, for when the ball hit the arm – but, bizarrely, the replay shows Lyon playing a different shot. So that doesn’t really help! But after all that, the decision stays not out

Taylor’s eyes widened. He looked out at the sea of reporters and cameras, then over to the team media manager, then back to Forsaith. “He didn’t really say much afterwards,” Taylor deadpanned, to widespread laughter. “That was a good thing about it, once the decision was there, he was the first one to say come on boys, let’s get on with it. But yeah my Facebook’s going off the hook at the moment back home in New Zealand. I’ve still got my match fee though, haven’t I? Thank you.”The interlude summed up New Zealand’s thinly veiled frustration at the decision, which followed extensive examination of the DRS by the MCC World Cricket Committee in the lead-up to this Test. Nigel Llong, the third umpire in question, was unable to discern a visible deflection when the ball passed a sweeping Nathan Lyon’s bat. Nor could he conclude that a HotSpot mark visible on two replays had come from the ball. All this as Lyon walked to the boundary’s edge in resignation.”The players were pretty confident it was out, the HotSpot showed up, Lyon walking off and getting to the boundary – I think it’s had a big bearing on the match,” Taylor said. “But it is what it is, we’ve just got to get on with it, hopefully we can bat for as long as possible tomorrow.”When quizzed on how frustrating it was for a system designed to prevent “howlers” to still somehow throw up one, Taylor replied: “You’ve got to ask Nigel that.”That was one of the discussions the boys did talk about in the change room, we can understand when umpires make the wrong decision on the field, but once you’ve got so many different angles and what not, you think that more often than not, 99 to 100% of the time you’re going to get the right answer. But I guess we didn’t today.”On the part of the Australians, Josh Hazlewood summed things up succinctly. “It’s one of those things,” he said. “All that technology there and they still couldn’t quite get a decision.”Taylor still has his match fee. But the DRS in its present form has undoubtedly fewer fans.

Adam Voges was Australia’s last man to fall (finally), but not before he had added 614 runs from the last time he was dismissed in a Test

Brydon Coverdale in Wellington14-Feb-2016When Adam Voges drove a return catch to Mark Craig on the third day at the Basin Reserve, he was out for 239. In another way, he was out for 614, for that was the amount of runs Voges had scored in Test cricket between dismissals. In the dim, dark ages of day-night Test cricket at the Adelaide Oval, Voges had edged Trent Boult to second slip. From then on, it took another 815 balls and 1115 minutes of batting before Voges would again go out.Extend it to first-class cricket, and he scored 763 runs from 1422 balls between times when a bowler got him out – he was dismissed for 149 in the Sheffield Shield match in Lincoln this month, but it took a run-out to do it. They are extraordinary figures, and his Test success against West Indies and New Zealand pushed his average up over 100 during his double-century in Wellington, though it dropped down to the sub-Bradman figure of 97.46 when Craig got him.”I’m probably happy that I’m out now and it’s gone back under,” Voges said. “I can just get on with playing cricket, I guess. The boys had a bit of fun taking the mickey out of me in the change-rooms but it’s all good. It [the average] was never going to stay there, it won’t stay there, I know that. So it was always going to happen at some stage.”Of course that was true, but what is equally obvious is that Voges, at the age of 36, is in the form of his life. In the past two years, nobody in the world has come close to the 3687 runs and 14 centuries that Voges has scored in first-class cricket, and his promotion to Test ranks has done nothing to slow his progress.”I think that I’m giving myself every chance to get in each time I bat and then when I do get in I’m hungry to score runs and score big runs,” he said. “I try and keep it pretty simple. I really enjoyed my partnership with Usman [Khawaja] the other day, he’s batting brilliantly. He’s in complete control of his game so that made life a lot easier for me.”Life in this match was also made easier for Voges by the incorrect no-ball call from umpire Richard Illingworth that resulted in him being reprieved in the last over of the first day. On 7, Voges shouldered arms to a ball from Doug Bracewell and looked back to see his off stump knocked back, but when he realised that Illingworth had called no-ball he refocused for the next day.”I turned around, it was a bad leave, saw the stumps, went to walk off and then saw the arm out. A little bit of luck,” Voges said. “I approached the [next] day that I was going to go pretty hard, you don’t get second chances too often so I’m gonna try and take the game on a little bit here.”As it turned out, New Zealand bowled really well and I couldn’t do it. I had to bide my time and think I only scored 30 and had to be a little bit more patient. Once I did the hard yards it did become a little bit easier but the plan to go out and take the game on didn’t quite eventuate.”It took Voges 130 deliveries to register his half-century and 203 balls to bring up his hundred, as he ground down the New Zealand bowlers and attacked them when the chance arose. Voges said the ability to assess how bowlers were trying to dismiss him had come with age, and he conceded he would probably not have been capable of such an innings earlier in his career.”No doubt it comes with time,” Voges said. “It comes with a lot of hard work as well. And understanding your game. It comes with confidence as well, being able to trust your ability, trust your defence and then being able to attack when the opportunity presents.”Voges’ 239 and the 140 from Khawaja set up an enormous lead for Australia after they had dismissed New Zealand for 183 in the first innings, and by stumps on day three Australia’s control of the match had only strengthened. New Zealand were four down in their second innings and were still 201 runs from making Australia bat again.There was a concern for the Australians, though, with fast bowler Peter Siddle not bowling after tea and spending most of the final session off the field dealing with a back problem. Siddle also struggled with back spasms during the day-night Test against New Zealand in Adelaide in November, and was hampered by an ankle injury during the Boxing Day Test against West Indies.”It’s a bit of a back spasm and they’re never nice,” Voges said. “We’ve got some good medicos who will look after him tonight and we’re hopeful he’ll be out there tomorrow. He’s got very good skills with the reverse-swinging ball so hopefully we’ll see him out there tomorrow.”

We have what we often cry out for, a T20I outside the World Cup with something on the line

Danyal Rasool01-Sep-20220:29

Pakistan players sweat it out in the nets

Big picture

It still feels like early days in the Asia Cup, but one of Hong Kong or Pakistan will see their tournament draw to a close on Friday. The format for the first round means one defeat can place any side under instant pressure. With India having pulled clear through wins over both opponents, there is clarity to the mission for both the Associate and the Full Member, the giants and the would-be giant killers.There may be limited cricketing or historical evidence to suggest Hong Kong could mount a serious challenge to a side with Pakistan’s firepower, but they will be well aware a knockout in the shortest format presents a golden opportunity to spring an upset. Against India, it was the bowling that let them down, even if a spirited batting performance demonstrated the threat the side can pose. Babar Hayat, Zeeshan Ali and Scott McKechnie provided the big hitting, while Ayush Shukla, Ehsan Khan and Yasim Murtaza kept things tight, allowing just 82 runs in their 12 combined overs.

Watch live on ESPN+

If you are in the USA, you can watch the Hong Kong-Pakistan game live on ESPN+, both in English and Hindi.

Pakistan, however, might feel this game plays into their hands to some extent. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan do not come flying out of the blocks, but the template they follow was similar to one that India executed against Hong Kong on Wednesday. They opened their innings conservatively, before the middle order put the bowlers to the sword, smashing 98 in the final seven overs. And while India’s approach may have been a game plan tailored to the opposition they were facing, scoring their big runs in the final overs is how Pakistan play anyway against nearly all opposition.And so we have what we often cry out for, a T20I outside the World Cup with something on the line. It might, on paper, be a mismatch, but across the tableau of relatively context-free bilateral T20Is, it is rare to find a game with as much riding on it as Pakistan against Hong Kong on Friday. It’s a game Hong Kong will savour, but they will tell themselves it might just be one they could also win.

Form guide

Pakistan: LLWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Hong Kong: LWWWL

In the spotlight

At his best, Khushdil Shah is perhaps Pakistan’s most powerful hitter of the ball, but in Pakistan’s colours in T20I cricket, he has never come close to hitting those heights. In the game against India, which saw a limp performance from almost every Pakistan batter, Khushdil’s innings – a timid 2 off 7 balls – still stood out for its total lack of intent. Perhaps a game against Hong Kong, whose bowlers don’t quite offer the same threat as India’s is just what he needs to produce a statement innings.Kinchit Shah has come into the Asia Cup on the back of some decent form•AFP/Getty Images

Hong Kong vice-captain Kinchit Shah has had a memorable time of late. The allrounder was in decent form at the Asia Cup qualifiers and the Cricket World Cup Challenge Group, striking a half-century against Uganda and 139 against Bermuda, and picking up a four-wicket haul against Kenya. He was steady, if not quite explosive, with the bat against India, scoring 30 in 28 balls. Off the field too, things have been good. After the game against India, he proposed to his partner. A win against Pakistan to go through to the next stage would cap a blissful few days for Kinchit, both personal and professional.

Pitch and conditions

The weather is expected to be oppressively hot throughout the tournament, and Friday in Sharjah will be no different. The slower bowlers have tended to prosper here of late, although the small boundaries might be a temptation for the batters too

Team news

There’s a cloud around Naseem Shah’s fitness. In the event of his absence, Mohammad Hasnain would be the like-for-like replacement.Pakistan: (probable): 1 Babar Azam (capt) 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk) 3 Fakhar Zaman 4 Iftikhar Ahmed 5 Khushdil Shah 6 Shadab Khan 7 Asif Ali 8 Mohammad Nawaz 9 Mohammad Hasnain 10 Haris Rauf 11 Shahnawaz DahaniDespite the defeat to India, Hong Kong will have been encouraged by their performance, with the bat in particular. Expect an unchanged side.Hong Kong (possible): 1 Nizakat Khan (capt) 2 Yasim Murtaza 3 Babar Hayat 4 Kinchit Shah 5 Aizaz Khan 6 Zeeshan Ali 7 Scott McKechnie (wk) 8 Haroon Arshad 9 Ehsan Khan 10 Ayush Shuka 11 Mohammad Ghazanfar

Stats and trivia

• Pakistan are yet to win a T20I in 2022. The two games they played in the format – against India and Australia – have ended in defeat
• Haris Rauf is five wickets shy of matching Shaheen Afridi’s T20I tally of 47. Should he get there against Hong Kong, it will have taken him five fewer innings than Shaheen to get there.

One-wicket win sealed in final over of run chase after Tammy Beaumont’s 70 for Lightning

ECB Reporters Network23-Jul-2022England star Tammy Beaumont’s 70 was in vain as the Northern Diamonds completed a thrilling chase of 200 by one wicket with two balls remaining against Lightning at Durham to close in on the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy knockouts.Since being left out of England’s Commonwealth Games squad last Saturday, opener Beaumont has posted 119, 74 and this 70 off 105 balls in fixtures for England, England A and Lightning.But she was one of nine wickets to fall for 79 runs as her region slipped from 120 for 1 to 199 all out at the Seat Unique Riverside, handing Diamonds the chance of a fourth straight win to maintain pressure on pre-game leaders and defending champions Southern Vipers.It was an opportunity they did not pass up, despite significant alarm at 184 for 8 and then 197 for 9. Jenny Gunn finished with 41 not out off 77, while Katie Levick hit the winning through the covers off Marie Kelly’s offspin.Related

• Emma Lamb, Kate Cross give Thunder first 50-over win of season

• All-round Alice Davidson-Richards leads Stars to victory

• Vipers recover from 38 for 5 to extend unbeaten run

• Brunt: 'If I break after the Commonwealth Games, so be it'

• Dunkley turns on the power after Brunt four-for

Beaumont’s former England opening partner Lauren Winfield-Hill fell for 61 having got the chase off to a solid start. But, like the Lightning innings, Diamonds struggled against spin on a slow pitch. Kirstie Gordon, Josie Groves and Lucy Higham (3 for 50) shared seven wickets.Earlier, New Zealand offie Leigh Kasperek impressed with 3 for 39 from 10 overs for the hosts – all Lightning wickets falling to spin as they lost their third game in four.In the final game before the near seven-week break for the Commonwealth Games and the Hundred, the Loughborough-based side lost four wickets for one run in nine balls after electing to bat.They fell from 153 for 2 in the 35th over to 154 for 6 in the 37th on a slow pitch used for Tuesday’s men’s ODI between England and South Africa. Kelly’s run-a-ball 37 included a six over long-off, and she led a 69-run opening partnership in 14 overs with Beaumont.After she fell to a brilliant diving catch by Gunn off Levick – the legspinner’s 150th women’s List A wicket in her 101st match – a 51-run stand followed between Beaumont and Sarah Bryce. However, the signs of a home fightback were there.Diamonds’ spinners slowed the rate, racing through their overs and also applying pressure with some tidy fielding and clever field placing from captain Hollie Armitage.And it worked a treat, as wickets started to fall. The Bryce sisters, Sarah and then Kathryn, both offered up simple catches off Armitage’s leg-spin. The latter was the first of the aforementioned four-wicket middle order slump – the fixture’s key period.Kasperek trapped Beaumont lbw sweeping in that collapse. That was the first of two wickets in the 36th over, Bethan Ellis also trapped in front (154 for 6).Left-armer Linsey Smith, who claimed two wickets to match Armitage and Levick, bowled one over in just 99 seconds. Veteran seamer Gunn bowled another in two minutes, nine seconds. Higham then ensured a target of 200 with an entertaining 27.Diamonds encountered similar issues in their chase, despite a second-wicket 70 partnership between Winfield-Hill and Armitage. Smith had been trapped lbw by Grace Ballinger’s left-arm swing in the second over before the experienced pair settled things down, Armitage contributing 20.Winfield-Hill lofted Gordon’s left-arm spin for an eye-catching six over long-on on the way to a 57-ball 50. But by the time she reached it, Diamonds were 94 for 3 in the 19th over having lost Armitage and Sterre Kalis to Gordon, played on and lbw respectively.Fledgling allrounder Phoebe Turner chipped a return catch to legspinner Groves, and when Winfield-Hill slog-swept Higham’s offspin out to deep midwicket, Lightning believed again at 131 for 5 in the 27th over.England A wicketkeeper bat Bess Heath sliced Groves to backward point shortly afterwards, further strengthening Lightning’s cause. Langston and Kasperek then followed as the equation became 16 needed in eight overs with two wickets remaining.That became three needed with two-and-a-half overs remaining before ousted Emma Marlow caught at slip. The remaining three runs were secured in singles after Gunn had hit four fours.

Fawad Alam could end a five-year hiatus from Test cricket after being named in the 15-man Pakistan squad to face England in the UAE

Umar Farooq16-Sep-20154:18

Bazid Khan: ‘Fawad finally selected for format he’s good at’

Fawad Alam could end a five-year hiatus from Test cricket after being named in the 15-man Pakistan squad to face England in the UAE from October. His last Test was against New Zealand in November 2009 but he has been a heavy scorer in first-class cricket. Over the last 12 months, he had made two centuries – 201 and 164 – and five fifties in 14 innings.The man making way is 20-year old Babar Azam. Alam had almost made it to the squad for the Sri Lanka tour recently but his name was pulled out due to logistical reasons and Azam replaced him.

Changes in Pakistan’s squads

For Tests v England
In: Fawad Alam
Out: Ehsan Adil, Babar Azam
For ODIs v Zimbabwe
In: Sohaib Maqsood, Wahab Riaz
Out: Bilal Asif, Ehsan Adil, Mukhtar Ahmed
For T20s v Zimbabwe
In: Sohaib Maqsood, Aamer Yamin, Bilal Asif, Imran Khan jnr
Out: Sarfraz Ahmed, Zia-ul-Haq, Nauman Anwar, Anwar Ali

“Our Test team has been an established team for years now and it is hard to make room for any new player,” Haroon Rasheed, Pakistan chief selector, told ESPNcricinfo. “Fawad Alam was in our plan for months now after his performance and we know he had been knocking at the selectors’ door for years in fact. We have added him to the squad in a bid to get ourselves ready for the transition after Misbah as we obviously need to have guys like him when our seasoned players fade away.”Pakistan received a boost in the fast bowling department as well. Wahab Riaz has recovered from the hand injury he sustained in Sri Lanka and replaced Ehsan Adil. Left-arm quick Junaid Khan has kept his place in the Test squad as well despite seeming off-colour in Sri Lanka. Junaid did not play Pakistan’s last Test in Pallekele, but kept himself busy playing for English county Middlesex over the summer.According to Rasheed, Wahab and Junaid might be suffering a dip in form but are among Pakistan’s major investments during the ongoing transition. “They are our investment and we would like to persist with them,” Rasheed said. “Both might have been low in confidence for some time now but we aren’t judging them on the basis of T20 performance. At the top level they will definitely come hard and with a different state of mind. We have named Junaid in the A team so that he can get ample time to get himself ready for the Test series.”Pakistan decided that Yasir Shah, the top-ranked spinner in the world, and Zulfiqar Babar were enough as far as slow-bowling resources were concerned. The two are vital replacements for Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman, who had been Pakistan’s major assets for years in the UAE.Haris Sohail, another long-term investment Pakistan have made since 2013, missed out due to his patellar tendinitis injury. He had been undergoing rehabilitation for the injury for over a month at the NCA but failed to get himself cleared by doctors. “He is definitely one of the players who makes an automatic selection but he has not recovered ahead of the Zimbabwe series,” Rasheed said.The PCB also announced the limited-overs squads for the Zimbabwe series from September 27. Batsman Sohaib Maqsood found a place in both the ODI and T20 squads after recovering from injury. Uncapped fast bowler Imran Khan jnr and allrounder Aamer Yamin received their maiden Pakistan call-ups, with Anwar Ali rested for the T20s to help him recover from a minor groin strain. Bilal Asif was another uncapped allrounder chosen for the shortest format, but he had already toured Sri Lanka with the Pakistan ODI side.Among the more familiar names, batsman Umar Akmal and left-arm quick Sohail Tanvir were for only the T20s. Sarfraz Ahmed will miss the T20s to perform Hajj, allowing Mohammad Rizwan to keep wicket.”We have rested Anwar to give another talented allrounder Yamin a chance as part of our rebuilding,” Rasheed said. “He played a couple of outstanding innings to show his ability and we would like to take him ahead with our plan.”We meant to reward the outstanding performers from the recently concluded T20 Cup. But at the same time we are (keeping) continuity in the rebuilding phase of the Pakistan team by retaining majority of players who were part of the successful last tour of Sri Lanka.”Test squad Ahmed Shehzad, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Fawad Alam, Asad Shafiq, Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Younis Khan, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Wahab Riaz, Imran Khan, Rahat Ali, Junaid KhanODI squad Azhar Ali (capt), Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Sohaib Maqsood, Shoaib Malik, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Mohammad Rizwan, Imad Wasim, Anwar Ali, Wahab Raiz, Yasir Shah, Rahat Ali, Mohammad IrfanT20 squad Ahmed Shehzad, Mukhtar Ahmed, Umar Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi (capt), Sohaib Maqsood, Shoaib Malik, Aamer Yamin, Mohammad Irfan, Bilal Asif, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Imran Khan jnr

Anurag Thakur, the BCCI secretary, has said that any bilateral series between India and Pakistan was unlikely until the political relationship between the two countries was stable

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jul-20151:13

No good relations, no good cricket – Anurag Thakur

Anurag Thakur, the BCCI secretary, has said that any bilateral series between India and Pakistan was unlikely until the political relationship between the two countries was stable.Thakur was speaking on Monday soon after a gunfight in the Gurdaspur district in Punjab – close to India’s border with Pakistan – led to several civilian casualties. Though security agencies in India were yet to determine who was responsible for the attack, Thakur, who is also a Member of Parliament from India’s ruling BJP, cited the incident as an example of why he believed the time was not right for a cricket series with Pakistan.”Even today there is a terrorist attack, in Gurdaspur. On one hand there is a rise in terrorist activity from Pakistan, on the other you can’t expect to play a cricket series with Pakistan,” Thakur told ESPNcricinfo. “For me the safety and security of my countrymen is more important than a cricket series. This is not the way to go ahead. I was never against the dialogue process. At the same time, if you do not have good relations, you can’t have good cricket.”Last month the PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan, while visiting India, had said Pakistan had a “Plan B” should the series not go ahead. “We know there is always such a possibility when it comes to Indo-Pak relations but we think the situation will be clear in two months time,” Shaharyar had said. “We have a plan B in case the series (against India) cannot be held but I can’t share the details of that now. If such a situation is created we can call alternative teams.”India have not played a bilateral Test series against Pakistan since 2007, though they did host them for two T20Is and three ODIs between December 2012 and January 2013.

Corey Anderson will play no further part in New Zealand’s tour of England due to a back problem that has restricted his involvement since the first Test

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jun-2015Corey Anderson will play no further part in New Zealand’s tour of England due to a back problem that has restricted his involvement since the first Test. Anderson will return home for further assessment on the stress-related injury.The news will also come as a blow to Somerset, with the county having signed him as one of their overseas players for the NatWest T20 Blast.Anderson was recovering from a finger fracture when he arrived in England from the IPL but featured in the Lord’s Test, scoring a counterattacking half-century in the second innings. He was only able to bowl eight overs, however, and missed the second Test and the first two ODIs.An MRI scan subsequently revealed a “bone stress related injury to his lumbar spine”, which requires investigation, ruling Anderson out of the remaining three ODIs and T20.”Corey has been working hard to get back to full fitness for the ODI series but he hasn’t been able to overcome this injury,” New Zealand’s coach, Mike Hesson, said. “We felt the best course of action was to send him back to New Zealand for further assessment.”New Zealand have not yet called up a replacement to their 15-man squad.

Nick Gubbins and Steve Eskinazi revelled in an overdue catch-up as Middlesex’s young batsmen shone against Lancashire at Lord’s

Vithushan Ehantharajah at Lord's28-Jun-2016
ScorecardNick Gubbins registered his first double century•Getty Images

Today was about a tale of Nick Gubbins and Stevie Eskinazi – two who have made their way up the youth ranks at Middlesex together and spent the best part of their Tuesday creating the sorts of memories that best friends never tire of reliving. Gubbins will no doubt lead the reminiscing: a double hundred to savour as he led his side out of Lancashire’s huge first innings shadow. But Eskinazi, as he did today, will interject with his side of the story – an accomplished maiden first class century in his second match in the format.Together, they put on 208 in 361 balls for the third wicket, their time in the middle a welcome treat for Middlesex and Gubbins: “It’s probably the most time I’ve spent with Eski since he got a girlfriend. It was nice that he took time out of his day to spend it with me.”Ah, Gubbins, the proto-Strauss starting to enhance his own name. For many Middlesex fans, the Gubbins-Strauss comparison is tiresome. While the similarities are evident and valid – Radley College alumni, a carbon copy game square of the wicket, identical slack jaw smile and general clumsiness – the annoyance for them is that some use the comparison to extrapolate what Gubbins might achieve rather than lauding what he is achieving right now.At 22 years of age, he has a Division One double hundred at Lord’s. That’s now two centuries and, at the time of walking off when bad light stopped play after tea, 570 runs in his first full season of Championship cricket. Only Sam Robson has enjoyed a more fruitful red ball summer than him. In case you were wondering, Strauss was 34 when he made it past 200 for the first time.His time at the crease is approaching eight hours, having begun this innings 12 overs before lunch on day two. Starting again on 71 on the third morning, he made the most of Kyle Jarvis’ pace on the ball to drive across a fast outfield. He waited for the bad balls, sure, but he also scored off the good deliveries, too: soft hands guiding any balls that left him to third man and firm wrists pushing anything at him into midwicket and mid on. It was only when he went from 89 to 95 in one strike that trepidation entered his game.Scores in the nineties hang over any batsmen: each a sizeable nugget in your conscience that reminds of you of opportunities missed. Comparable to the person at the bar you couldn’t summon the courage to talk to or that spare ticket you fobbed off to what turned out to be the gig of a lifetime. Or that time you were on a flat one at Lord’s and failed to make it count. And Gubbins had three of them before breaching three figures for the first time against Somerset in his previous match at Lord’s. He very nearly added a fourth.On 96 and looking to cut into a vacant backward point, he edged Jordan Clark to Steven Croft, only for the Lancashire skipper to shell what would have been a smart, diving take to his left. After some calming words from Eskinazi, he decided to get there in singles.There was no such hesitancy in the 190s which he admitted were “a bit of a blur”, aided by a nick through third man and then a powerful pull shot off Jarvis which pinged off the advertising boards of the Grandstand. When Eskinazi was asked what his hundred felt like, he used up most of his time lauding the feat of Gubbins’ double.When they weren’t singing each other’s praises, they were joshing – Gubbins scoffing at Eskinazi’s assertion that he was “as British as my friend Nick Gubbins”; Eskinazi at Gubbins’ insistence that the slog sweep for six to take him to three figures was “pretty rogue”.At lunch, Eskinazi, on 91, had an inbox full of encouragement from his friends and family. As joke, he messaged his brother to ask whether or not he should sweep the leg-spinner, Matt Parkinson, for six to bring up his 100. “Absolutely not, not a chance, please don’t!” came the reply from brother, mum, dad, three uncles and two cousins. When he eventually departed for 106, edging Kyle Jarvis to Tom Smith at second slip, came the follow-up texts: “You absolutely cowboy!”This is Eskinazi’s fourth year at the club and is three years away from qualifying fully for England. Born in Johannesburg, raised in Western Australia where he turned out for the state’s Under-17 and 19 sides, while also spending 10 years in England as a kid (his mother was born here). As a wicket-keeper batsman, his first team opportunities had been limited, but he was never far from the lips of the Middlesex members.Like most diehard county fans, any lament of an underperforming first XI brings a stream of 2nd XI names that should be given a chance to do better. In the last few years, Adam Rossington and Andy Balbirnie were names that have echoed around the ground or off the metal finished bar of the Tavern pub: players who have wiped the floor with 2nd XI attacks but whose opportunities further up were limited. Both have moved on. Last season, “Stevie Eskinazi” began to make an appearance as words of “outstanding knocks for the 2s” or “big runs for Stanmore” spread like fantasy folklore. On this day, you saw it for yourself.He could not have asked for a better pitch for only his third first-class knock. Even so, every defensive shot came out of the middle, as he lined up behind every full or short ball. Near the end of the morning session, Lancashire looked to prey on any nerves he might have while Eskinazi was on his maiden first class voyage in the nineties. Parkinson bowled around the wicket into the right-armers footmarks at the Pavilion End, with a two slips and a leg slip for company. He ignored it all, leaving a handful of deliveries across him and pushing the ball out in front before waiting for his mate to go for lunch.Like all Bromance movies, there is a key message here: Middlesex’s investment in youth is starting to pay dividends. While previously it had been senior men steered the team out of trouble, here were two 22-year-olds doing so with all the comfort of a long overdue catch-up.In keeping, Lancashire looked very much like patrons unable to get on with their own plans over the raucous bonhomie on the next table. But rather than lose their will and ask to be moved, they got on with matters. A mini-collapse of 42 for 3 with the new ball brought them some relief.A fourth Lord’s stalemate is in the offing. For all the revelry of the regulars, Lancashire can take solace from the fact that they don’t come here often.