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English duo sign up for maiden BBL campaigns

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Nov-2021Perth Scorchers have signed the English duo of Laurie Evans and Brydon Carse for their upcoming Big Bash campaign.Evans, the Surrey batter, has not been capped but built up an impressive record on the T20 circuit in recent years, featuring in leagues in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean.Durham seamer Carse made his England debut during the ODI series against Pakistan in the northern summer, when he was called up after a Covid outbreak. Both players were involved in the Hundred and will be making their first appearances in the Big Bash, with the competition due to start on December 5.Related

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“Laurie is a top player who will bring versatility, power and experience to the team, he is a great competitor, and we look forward to welcoming him to the Scorchers,” Perth Scorchers head coach, Adam Voges, said.”Brydon is an impressive young talent who can make an impact with both ball and bat and has the ability to take the game away from any opposition.”Evans, 34, has played 184 times in T20 cricket and averages 33.85 with a strike rate of 133.88. His arrival will help cover for the absence of England batter Liam Livingstone, who made 426 runs at 30.42 last season.”I am chuffed to bits to be given the opportunity to play for the Scorchers this summer, they are a really successful team in the Big Bash,” he said. “I think over my career I have prided myself on being there at the end and winning games of cricket in tight situations, that’s what I’ll be looking to do.Laurie Evans featured for Oval Invincibles in the Hundred•Getty Images

“The Big Bash is certainly a tournament the world looks at as one of the biggest and I’m just really grateful to be given the opportunity to be a part of it.”Carse, a team-mate of Scorchers batter Cameron Bancroft at Durham, has only taken 21 wickets in his T20 career but enjoyed a productive summer across all formats. The 26-year-old claimed a maiden List A five-for in his second ODI appearance for England, and also showed his promise the with bat in scoring a 30-ball half-century in the Vitality Blast.”The Scorchers have been one of the top teams in the Big Bash for a number of years and to have the opportunity to play at Optus stadium in front of Scorchers fans will be special,” Carse said.”I’m hoping to create some match-winning performances with both bat and ball, I like to think I play my cricket with a smile on my face and enjoy it. The squad has a lot of depth in all departments and I’m very confident that we can go all the way – it’s exciting.”

Match referee Chris Broad noted how the fifth ball of the match threw up a puff of dust and kept deteriorating further

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Mar-20233:27

Chopra: If every Test lasts only two-and-a-half days, there is a problem

The pitch at Indore used for third Test between India and Australia has been rated “poor” by the ICC with Holkar Stadium handed three demerit points.The Test ended midway through the first session of the third day with Australia winning by nine wickets in a game dominated by the spinners.”The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start,” ICC match referee Chris Broad said.”The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match.”

The ICC rates a pitch as poor if any of the following criteria apply

The pitch offers excessive seam movement at any stage of the match

The pitch displays excessive unevenness of bounce for any bowler at any stage of the match

The pitch offers excessive assistance to spin bowlers, especially early in the match

The pitch displays little or no seam movement or turn at any stage in the match together with no significant bounce or carry, thereby depriving the bowlers of a fair contest between bat and ball

The pitch displays excessive moisture making its playing characteristics unpredictable, or excessive dryness leading to the surface to deteriorate.

BCCI now have 14 days if they wish to appeal against the sanction. A venue will be suspended from hosting any international cricket for a period of 12 months if it accumulates five or more demerit points over a five-year rolling period.Indore was given short notice about hosting the third match of the Border-Gavaskar series. Originally it was supposed to take place in Dharamsala, but the outfield is not yet up to par after it was relaid. The BCCI announced the shifting of the venue on February 13, about two weeks before the scheduled start of the game on March 1.India prefer playing their home Tests in conditions that take turn right from day one. That certainly was the case at Holkar stadium when the home team having won the toss and opting to bat slipped to 84 for 7 in just the first session. At the lunch interval, India coach Rahul Dravid was seen inspecting the pitch with the curator in tow.The captain, though, though minced no words when talking about the 22 yards. “Honestly speaking, these are the kind of pitches we want to play on,” Rohit Sharma said. “This is our strength, so when you’re playing at your home, you always play to your strength, not worry about what people outside are talking about.”Steven Smith observes the Indore pitch ahead of the Test match•Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Australia’s stand-in captain Steven Smith didn’t mind the conditions either. “I personally really enjoy playing on these kind of wickets,” he said. “I prefer this than just a genuine flat wicket that goes five days and can be boring in stages. There’s always something happening on these wickets. You’ve got to really work hard for your runs. But it’s showed that the guys can do it. Guys can do it, you’ve got to work hard for them and you need some luck. With this one, whether it might have been a little bit too extreme, potentially from the first ball. I’m not really entirely sure, but it was still another enjoyable.”But in terms of a balance between bat and ball, the uneven degree of both turn and bounce led to only two scores of fifty or more in the entire Test match. India’s total of 109 was their sixth-lowest in a first innings at home. Australia, in their first innings, suffered a collapse of 6 for 11. Spin was responsible for all but five of the 31 wickets that fell and there were, in total, 16 single-digit scores by the time the game ended on the third morning.The last time a pitch in India was rated poor was in 2017, the Pune Test where Australia beat India on a similarly spiteful turner. Broad was the one who handed out that sanction as well.Nagpur and Delhi, the venues for the first two Tests of this tour in 2023, produced surfaces which were rated “average” by match referee Andy Pycroft.

Motie and Shepherd picked up three wickets each to set up the game for West Indies; Hope and Carty then did the job with the bat

Himanshu Agrawal29-Jul-20231:23

Jaffer: Suryakumar will probably get one last chance in the third ODI

West Indies beat India in an ODI for the first time since December 2019, the six-wicket win in the second of three games their first after nine defeats in a row. The win helped West Indies level the series 1-1 after losing the first ODI on Thursday.After Gudakesh Motie and Romario Shepherd got three wickets each and Alzarri Joseph picked up two to bowl India – they had rested Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli – out for 181, captain Shai Hope and the inexperienced Keacy Carty took care of the chase, which was completed with more than 13 overs to spare.It was comfortable in the end for West Indies, but didn’t come without its share of hiccups – they slipped from 53 without loss in the ninth over to 91 for 4 after 17, Shardul Thakur the main reason for it. That must have raised India’s hopes, but Hope and Carty ensured smooth sailing after that. Hope scored 63 not out, and put up an unbroken stand of 91 with Carty (48 not out) for the fifth wicket.The pitch in Bridgetown offered grip and turn throughout the game, with the spinners’ economy rate across two innings being 3.89 as against the pace bowlers’ 5.20. However, before Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja tested West Indies’ middle order – Jadeja was fast and flat; Kuldeep was slow while getting more turn – it was Thakur who removed the top three batters in the space of 25 balls to open the game up.Once they got together, Hope and Carty were content to do it in singles after Kuldeep had cleaned Shimron Hetmyer up with one that was quicker and skidded through to hit off stump.1:40

Should Axar Patel have bowled more for India to defend 181?

Carty got to a patient 48 off 65 balls, opening up only after the job was almost done and smashing consecutive boundaries off Hardik Pandya to finish the game off. But the fact that West Indies had only 182 to chase was down to a collective bowling effort, along with a combination of a helpful pitch and refreshing athleticism from the fielders.India, asked to bat at the toss, suffered two collapses of their own. First, from a solid 90 for 0 to a dicey 113 for 5, and then from 146 for 5 to 181 all out. These came either side of a lengthy rain break. West Indies sensed an opportunity in the absence of Rohit and Kohli, and they pounced. It all started in the 17th over, when a full, tossed-up delivery from Motie had Shubman Gill lofting to long-off for 34, his highest score in seven international innings across formats since June.For a change, West Indies also put up an impressive fielding and catching display•AFP/Getty Images

That got West Indies going, and in the 18th over, Alick Athanaze dived to his right at point to send Ishan Kishan back for 55. It was Kishan’s second successive half-century in the series. Two overs later, Shepherd got one to rise sharply at Axar Patel, promoted to No. 4, and he was cramped for room with the ball angling in from around the wicket. Axar tried to drop his gloves, but still ended up tickling to the wicketkeeper.Jayden Seales then got his only wicket of the day when a shoulder-height bouncer to Hardik had him pulling straight to midwicket, before Yannic Cariah foxed the comeback man Sanju Samson with turn and bounce. Landing one on a good length around off stump, Cariah got the legbreak to jump as well as move considerably away from the batter, who edged it to slip.India were sliding, and then came heavy rain. When Suryakumar Yadav and Jadeja added 33 to signal a brief recovery after the stoppage, it seemed like the break had come as a blessing for them. But West Indies seized control again, picking up the last five wickets for just 35 runs.Shepherd pitched short at Jadeja, having him top edge a pull to fine leg in the 32nd over. Motie, getting turn and bounce, had Suryakumar slashing to point after an entertaining 24. Soon after came another moment of spectacular fielding from West Indies, when Carty rushed in and dived forward from deep square leg to send back Umran Malik in the 38th over.Motie wrapped the innings up when he got last man Mukesh Kumar in the 41st, finishing with 3 for 36. As a result, West Indies now have a shot at a first ODI bilateral series win against India since May 2006.

van Buuren adds aggressive fifty, takes three wickets as Robinson’s 75 goes in vain

ECB Reporters Network12-Aug-2021Chris Dent hit an unbeaten 112 as Gloucestershire cruised to an eight-wicket win over Kent Spitfires in the Royal London Cup at Beckenham, with 74 balls to spare.Graeme van Buuren added an aggressive 51 not out as Gloucestershire closed on 219 for 2, leaving the visitors with an anxious wait to see if Lancashire would deny them a place in the quarter-finals by beating Essex at Old Trafford.Ollie Robinson made his highest List A score of 75 but Kent failed to build on a solid opening partnership and were restricted to 218 for 9. Van Buuren took 3 for 34, with James Bracey taking five catches.Gloucestershire began the day in sixth place in the table, but knowing they would qualify on points-per-game in third if they won and Lancashire lost to Essex.The visitors won the toss and asked Kent to bat under unexpectedly cloudy skies.Robinson was dropped on 12 and 21 and Kent advanced to 61 without loss, but the hosts toiled after Tawanda Muyeye pulled Jared Warner to Tom Smith at midwicket for 30.Van Buuren then bowled Jack Leaning for 16 and had a disgruntled George Munsey caught behind off the next ball. Harry Finch bottom-edged the hat-trick ball for a single but fell in the next over for one, becoming Ollie Price’s maiden victim at county level when he was caught behind.Robinson then edged Van Buuren behind and Bracey claimed his fourth catch of the innings when Josh Shaw found Grant Stewart’s inside edge and was out for six.Darren Stevens gave Kent some hope with 40, but when he was caught by Bracey off Matt Taylor Kent were down to the bowlers, with six overs remaining. Harry Podmore made 19 but when he tried to accelerate he holed out to Taylor and Smith took a steepling catch.Warner bowled Nathan Gilchrist for five and it was left to James Logan and Matt Quinn, unbeaten on 17 and 3 respectively, to nudge the total towards something defendable.Just how defendable it was became clear as Gloucestershire marched to 72 without loss before Price was lbw to Leaning for 24 in the 12th over. Logan trapped Bracey lbw, attempting to reverse sweep for 23 and Muyeye was unlucky not to take his first Kent wicket when Dent was dropped on 70, but the Spitfires were doomed by failure to make any further inroads.A Van Buuren six over midwicket sent a number of supporters to the exit and Dent reached his century with an edge through the vacant slip area for a single off Quinn, before cutting Stewart to the boundary for the winning runs.

Only three West Indies batters passed 30 as the hosts lost the first ODI by 142 runs

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Dec-2022England 307 for 7 (Sciver 90, Wyatt 68, Henry 3-59) beat West Indies 165 (Knight 39, Dean 4-35) by 142 runsBrisk half-centuries from Nat Sciver and Danni Wyatt, and a four-for from offspinner Charlie Dean, powered England to a 142-run win and a 1-0 lead in the three-match series against West Indies. England posted 307 for 7 after being put in to bat and bundled out the hosts for just 165 in 40.3 overs as Dean took her fourth four-for in just her 20th ODI.England scored at run a ball in the initial overs but slowed down after Alice Capsey was caught behind for 17 and Sophia Dunkley fell for 8 to Chinelle Henry. Sciver kept the innings on track with partnerships of 42 with Tammy Beaumont, 46 with Heather Knight, and 103 off just 95 balls with Wyatt to propel England to a huge score.

WI fined for slow over rate

• West Indies have been fined 40% of their match fee for slow over rate during their first ODI against England in Antigua on Sunday. Match referee Denavon Hayles imposed the sanction after ruling that West Indies were two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration. According to Article 2.22 of the ICC code of conduct, players are fined 20% of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time.
  West Indies captain Hayley Matthews pled guilty to the offence and accepted the sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing.
  On-field umpires Jacqueline Williams and Leslie Reifer, and third umpire Nigel Duguid leveled the charge.

Beaumont was the enforcer during the third-wicket stand with three fours, while Sciver relied on ones and twos initially before hitting three boundaries in five balls to push the run rate towards 5.50 again. Medium-pace bowler Aaliyah Alleyne then had Knight caught behind for 16 before Wyatt and Sciver started hitting boundaries regularly from the 33rd over.Sciver fell 10 short of a hundred when Henry came back and had her caught in the 40th over, but Wyatt followed that with two sixes off offspinner Sheneta Grimmond in the next over before she also fell to Henry for a 60-ball 68.Amy Jones, who hit Henry for three fours in the 46th over, and Sophie Ecclestone put on a quick 45-run stand off 41 balls to take England past 300.West Indies were dented early in their chase when Kate Cross broke the opening stand in the third over and Hayley Matthews retired hurt with the score on 21. The 63-run stand between Kycia Knight and Rashada Williams was the only substantial partnership for the hosts and it ended when Williams was run-out by Sciver for 34 in the 20th over. Dean then triggered West Indies’ slide by dismissing Shemaine Campbelle for a duck, and Kycia Knight fell to her namesake for 39 just past the hallway mark. Matthews returned to bat when they were 105 for 4 and struck a quick 34 off 32 with five fours before falling lbw to Lauren Bell. Dean took three of the last five wickets to wipe out the West Indies tail.”Both facets of the game [batting and bowling], we didn’t do what we wanted on a decent pitch and England was able to capitalise on it,” Matthews told CWI Media after the loss. “We’re going back to the drawing board and see what we can improve on in the next game. Our powerplay was pretty good but we let a little too many runs go by in the middle overs. It was good to see the partnership between Kycia and Rashada and I hope we can get a few more of those.”There was a moment of concern in the field for England when Capsey injured her left shoulder. She was taken to hospital for scans.The next game is also at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua on December 6.

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

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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.

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

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• 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”.

Josh Davey half-century barely limits damage of Brett Hutton’s six-wicket haul

David Hopps15-Apr-2023Nottinghamshire 256 and 187 for 6 (Mullaney 29*, Hutton 20*, Siddle 2-26)) lead Somerset 173 (Davey 60, Hutton 6-45) by 270 runsThere is a marvellous Finnish word, ‘kalsarikännit’, which literally means the sort of morbid stay-at-home feeling when you just want to get drunk in your underwear. They may look askance at the suggestion, but aficionados of county cricket are particularly prone to such a mood as they wait for the mental torture of a cricketless winter to end.When the Championship does return, it does so slowly, not as much bursting into life as leaking, the first milky shafts of sunlight taking several weeks to take the chill out of the bones. Outside Trent Bridge, the river was high, the ground squelchy underfoot. Inside, the groundstaff and drainage systems had created miracles (“they’re abandoned at Leicester already,” said a Notts loyalist at 11 o’clock with grim satisfaction).As for the spectators, most could at least now claim to be sober and clad in several protective layers, the period of kalsarikännit once more behind them. “Bring my coat, love, the cricket’s starting again.”Stuart Broad vs Cameron Bancroft was presented as an early skirmish in the Ashes phoney war, but it didn’t really work out like that: Broad bowled 14 balls at Bancroft, conceded five runs, including a filthy long hop that was gratefully cut for four, and then the Australian fell lbw to one from Dane Paterson that swung back. Bancroft second top-scored, but dutiful 27s from 69 balls are not about to ensure his place in Australia’s Ashes party.For all his theatrical oohs and aahs, and for all his white headband flickering behind him with the suggestion that considering such a winning look, artistry was inevitable, Broad finished wicketless after 15 overs. That was despite a bowler’s morning during which Somerset, 28 for 2 overnight, escaped to 173, via the perils of 87 for eight and 117 for nine. They had to thank Josh Davey’s down-to-earth 60 from 66 balls, only his second first-class fifty for Somerset, for keeping the first-innings arrears to 83, but Nottinghamshire tightened their grip in their second innings and their lead of 270 runs with three wickets remaining feels ample.Broad maps out his preparations for an England summer with great deliberation and this is thought to be the first of four matches to get himself in optimum shape. His first excursion since the Wellington Test in late February is best described as exploratory. These days, his careful build-up is a case of needs must. The Ashes series begins a week or so before his 37th birthday, and with James Anderson now 40, England’s opening attack now sounds so venerable that give it a few years and they will have something in common with the crowd. A chat about Grand Theft Auto III is only a few seasons away.Broad will settle for a better outcome than another pre-Ashes match-up involving Bancroft at Sedburgh before the 2019 series when Anderson went in the calf, and only bowled four overs in the series. As for Bancroft, he was dropped after two unproductive Tests.While Broad went unrewarded, the best figures fell to the medium-quick, Brett Hutton, who made the ball talk on an overcast morning and who returned a Nottinghamshire-best six for 45. The mood was set, though, by Dane Paterson, who revels in such responsive Trent Bridge mornings in the way that Andre Adams did before him, and who followed up his successful inswinger to Bancroft by dismissing Tom Abell in the following over with one that seamed away and had him caught, driving, at second slip.Three Somerset batting tyros are missing here, not just Tom Banton, who is recovering from a broken finger, but George Bartlett and Lewis Goldsworthy, who is a bit of a scrapper and, as such, gives their recently brittle line-up a different feel. Steve Davies has also relinquished the gloves to James Rew. Tom Kohler-Cadmore, acquired from Yorkshire, but not steeped in Yorkshire obduracy, is not about to change that nature. He is very much in the adventurous “that’s how I play,” mode, eyes on the shorter formats, and he failed with several forays down the pitch before Hutton had him lbw to straight one.At times, Hutton found prodigious movement, and his dismissal of Lewis Gregory was pure chicanery. There were better balls for Gregory to envisage a lofted blow over long on. What had all the makings of an outswinger suddenly made a hairpin turn and dipped through the gate. It became three wickets in seven balls as another lavish inswinger did for Craig Overton (a touch leg-sideish perhaps) and squeezed one past Rew’s defence to hit off stump.With eight down for 87, the follow-on was still possible, but Somerset righted the ship somewhat, Davey’s resistance ensuring that an extra half-hour was taken before lunch to no avail. Tom Moores also relinquished the gloves – Joe Clarke deputising – after suffering a hand injury collecting a rising delivery from Lyndon James.With a lead of 83, and cloud forecast for Sunday, Nottinghamshire had a sizeable advantage. Peter Siddle took just one ball to silence Ben Duckett at midwicket. Haseeb Hameed’s responsible 34 ended unfortunately at second slip when Gregory forced a deflection of inside edge and pad and the umpires conferred before rightly awarding Kohler-Cadmore a catch. Bancroft’s excellent slip catch removed Ben Slater.When Liam Patterson-White walked out ahead of the injured Moores at No.7, the lead was 209. Somerset had done well to just about stay in the game, although their cause was not helped when Davey limped off with a hamstring injury. There was turn, too, for Jack Leach which will make their fourth innings even harder. Gregory took his ninth wicket of the match when Liam Patterson-White’s thick edge was taken at gully but Hutton and skipper Steven Mullaney batted sensibly through to the close.In an age of instant gratification, Championship over rates get more ponderous. To avoid penalties, official figures are massaged for all sorts of spurious reasons. Somerset are spritelier than many, but by the time, the Grand National began at 5.30pm – 15 minutes late because of a course invasion – there were still 30 overs left. It all drifted to a halt at 7.25pm. If protesters ever glue themselves to the pitch at a county match, nobody will get away before midnight.

The spinner is expected to return for the final ODI on June 7

ESPNcricinfo staff31-May-2023Rashid Khan has been ruled out of the first two ODIs against Sri Lanka with a lower-back injury. The Afghanistan Cricket Board stated that “he will remain under full medical observation, and is expected to return for the final ODI on June 7”.The three-match series begins on June 2, with the second game to be played two days later at the same ground. Just seven days after the ODI series, Afghanistan are scheduled to play a one-off Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram.Rashid was recently involved in the IPL, where his side Gujarat Titans lost the final to Chennai Super Kings on Monday night. He was the tournament’s joint second-highest wicket-taker with 27 strikes.In Rashid’s absence, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Noor Ahmad will have to shoulder extra responsibility in the spin department.Noor also had a successful IPL stint for Titans, grabbing 16 wickets from 13 games at an economy of 7.82. However, he has played only one ODI and one T20I for Afghanistan.Last month, Afghanistan announced a strong 15-member squad, led by Hashmatullah Shahidi, for the Sri Lanka ODIs.Having sealed direct qualification for the upcoming ODI World Cup, Afghanistan will be looking at this series to get their preparations going for the marquee event. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, will treat it as a build-up for the Qualifier tournament in Zimbabwe, starting on June 18.

With visitors having been 195 for 7, Glamorgan will feel they let their opponents back into the game

ECB Reporters Network23-Jun-2024A well-constructed half-century from Emilio Gay was the mainstay of Northamptonshire’s batting efforts in the first day of their Vitality County Championship match in Cardiff.Having won the toss and elected to bat first, Northamptonshire reached 279 all out with runs for Luke Procter and Gus Miller helping them to recover from a middle-order collapse.Three wickets apiece for Timm van der Gugten, Andy Gorvin and James Harris were the highlight for Glamorgan with the ball but with Northamptonshire having been 195 for 7 they will feel they let their opponents back into the game.Glamorgan had seven overs to face before the close and they reached 36 without loss, 243 behind on first innings.Northamptonshire won the toss and chose to bat but were pegged back early on by two wickets for James Harris. The first was Ricardo Vasconcelos who was bowled for 7. Harris claimed his second wicket in his next over when Prithvi Shaw edged a ball to Sam Northeast at first slip to leave them 19 for 2.Gay continued his fine form with a patient and well-made 65 that included some lovely drives through the off side. He shared a stand of 90 with Proctor, the pair doing well against a Glamorgan seam attack that got the ball to move laterally throughout the day.Gay was dismissed by one of those moving deliveries when he edged Gorvin to Marnus Labuschagne at second slip to leave Northamptonshire 109 for 3. A stand of 48 between Proctor and Rob Keogh took the visitors past 150 before both departed at the start of a spell that saw Northamptonshire lose four wickets for 28 runs.Glamorgan’s bowlers were fantastic in the period before the tea break and made things very difficult for the batting side. There was a spell in the afternoon in which Lewis McManus faced 20 balls from Timm van der Gugten and he played and missed at eight of them, but it was Gorvin who trapped him lbw for 19.Liam Patterson-White combined with debutant Miller for a stand of 37 that slowed the Glamorgan progress, but Patterson-White chipped a ball from Gorvin to Eddie Byrom at point for 30 with Northamptonshire still 18 runs short of claiming their first batting bonus point.Miller and Raphael Weatherall managed to take Northamptonshire past 250 to claim their first point of the game as the old ball became a little easier to score against. Even after Glamorgan took the second new ball Miller continued to impress in his maiden first class match. His 40 included the only two sixes of the innings as he helped his team to what could prove to be a challenging total on this pitch.Eddie Byrom and Billy Root successfully saw out the seven overs that were left to bowl at the end of the day without too many alarms as the inexperienced pair of Miller and Weatherall didn’t get the same movement that Glamorgan managed with the ball. They will be hoping that changes when the game resumes on Monday morning.