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Former England captain scores 75 before Brook and Dawid Malan add unbroken 210-run stand

ECB Reporters Network07-May-2022Harry Brook upstaged former England skipper Joe Root as Yorkshire feasted on the Essex bowling on day three of their LV= Insurance County Championship clash at Chelmsford.Root, in what was remarkably only his 50th County Championship appearance for the White Rose despite making his debut back in April 2011, stroked his way to a half-century in 88 balls – the exact same number as his successor as England’s Test captain, Ben Stokes, had taken to smash 161 against Worcestershire at New Road 24 hours earlier.However, youngster Brook stole the spotlight, giving another stunning audition ahead of the first Test of the summer against New Zealand next month, by smiting a thrilling century, so keeping up his record of scoring 50 or more in every innings so far this season. The 23-year-old, who closed on 110 not out, currently averages over 200 for the campaign.He shared a record unbroken stand of 210 with Dawid Malan, who passed 50 for the fifth innings in a row, as Yorkshire piled up 425 for 5 by the close – a lead of 22.Root was immediately in the action and got underway with a streaky four wide of second slip. Sam Cook beat him all ends up with a peach of a delivery next up, but that was a rare moment of concern.In many ways this was trademark Root, a delicate cut to third man here, a sweep to fine leg there, the back-foot punch and the off-drive all featured. He was merciless on anything short, too – all this either side of a lengthy stoppage for rain just 45 minutes into the day which drove the players off for an early lunch.At the other end, Matthew Revis looked too good for the nightwatchman role he’d played since the previous evening. The 20-year-old blunted the opening salvos and had just three singles to his name from his first 59 balls. A drive creamed through cover off Mark Steketee signalled a gear change and he later struck Shane Snater for successive boundaries.The century stand came up in two hours, but, with a half-century in sight, Revis pushed a ball from Simon Harmer to midwicket and set off without waiting for it to beat the fielder. Root sent him back, and when Critchley returned to the striker’s end Revis was left short.Root’s demise came equally out of the blue when he underedged a Critchley googly on to his leg stump on 75, but this brought Malan and Brook together and the latter got off the mark by slog-sweeping Simon Harmer over the square-leg fence. It was a sign of things to come as bristling with aggression he plundered already tiring bowlers, becoming the leading run-scorer in Division One this season when he reached 49. The single which followed meant his latest half-century had come in 48 balls.At the other end, Malan was all finesse and timing, his driving, whether straight or square a thing of beauty, reaching his landmark in 92 deliveries.The pair forged on in a lengthy last session. With great symmetry, having got off the mark with a six, Brook reached 101-ball century by hoisting Critchley over the ropes at midwicket.In the dying embers of the day, Yorkshire’s record books were rewritten when Brook and Malan’s sixth-wicket stand reached 201, surpassing the 200 set by David Denton and George Hirst against Essex way back in 1902.

Mushfiqur and Mominul had made only 59 and 13 runs respectively in the two Tests in South Africa

Mohammad Isam10-May-2022Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh batting coach, has backed Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque to return to form in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Chattogram next week. Mushfiqur and Mominul had made only 59 and 13 runs respectively in the two Tests in South Africa.In fact, Mominul had the personal-worst two-Test series of his career in South Africa, which extended his lean patch that began during the home Test series against Pakistan last year. Mominul has had only three-double figure scores in 12 innings since last November. As for Mushfiqur, he has made only 76 runs in his last three Tests, leaving Siddons with his hands full during Bangladesh’s short training camp in Chattogram in the lead-up to the Test that begins on May 15.”Every batsman goes through patches where they don’t make runs,” Siddons said. “I am really confident that he will make runs out here this week. I have seen some really good signs, the way he is hitting it in the last two days. We worked on a couple of little things with him. I think he is going to have a successful series.Related

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“Mominul has nine [seven] centuries in Chittagong. This week is another chance to make another couple. He loves this ground. We are just trying to get him ready to go. He is very confident.”Siddons produced a robust defence of Mushfiqur after questions were raised about the senior players’ future in a recent Nazmul Hassan press conference. The BCB chief didn’t mention Mushfiqur, but it resulted in some speculation around Mushfiqur’s career.”I think Mushy is only focused in the next two Tests,” Siddons said. “I don’t think he is worried about his career in any format. I think he is worried about making runs for us in these two Tests. He is quite successful in white-ball cricket.”Good players can have moments when they don’t make runs, and then bounce back. That’s why they are great players. Mushy is a very successful Test player. He keeps making runs. He might have a period like South Africa, and then he will bounce back again.”Overall too, Bangladesh’s batting is a cause for worry. Siddons said that appearances in the Dhaka Premier League and the short camp in Chattogram will be enough for the players to prepare for the Test series. He added that they have had a lot of discussion about Bangladesh’s batting, particularly around building on good starts in the first innings.”South Africa was a long tour. It was a successful tour in my opinion because of the one-day team. Probably [we] didn’t play great Test cricket. We will have good and bad days in cricket. We had a couple of bad days that made us look quite bad. I thought we played some really good cricket in those Tests. Taijul [Islam] gets a nine-for, [Mahmudul Hasan] Joy gets a great hundred, very early in his career. We had some really great starts in the first innings, we didn’t play great in the second innings. The real focus is to make bigger first-innings scores.”

“Moving forward, if I’m in such a situation, I’d withdraw the decision to go upstairs,” the West Indies U-19 captain said after his team’s controversial obstructing-the-field call sparked debate

Shashank Kishore17-Jan-2018″The umpires asked me just one question. ‘Did you ask him to throw the ball to you?’ I said I didn’t.”This was West Indies captain Emmanuel Stewart explaining his side of the story after an appeal from his team for obstructing the field was upheld at the Under-19 World Cup. South Africa opener Jiveshan Pillay had got a thick inside edge onto the pad, and the ball rolled wide of the stumps and came to a standstill. As there was a break in play, substitutes ran in with drinks under the assumption that the batsman had taken a break. Even West Indies’ boundary riders seemed taken aback by the appeal initially.”We had the choice to ask the question, which we did so,” Stewart said. “He was given out within the laws of the game. On reflection, I thought our appeal wasn’t in the spirit of the game. Moving forward, if I’m in such a situation, I’d withdraw the decision to go upstairs. My team-mates share the same sentiments.”After the match, Stewart insisted he was aware of the rules, which states a batsman can be given out obstructing the field if he uses the bat or any part of his body to return the ball to the fielder while the ball is in play. “I appealed, not with the intention of going upstairs. There were a couple of appeals on the field and the umpires heard it, so they decided to have a look at it.South Africa’s coach Lawrence Mahatlane didn’t seem to make much of the issue at the innings break when he said his team will hopefully “learn for a long time from it”, but Raynard van Tonder, the captain, admitted to being angered by the turn of events.”As it happened, the team wasn’t really happy. But if you think about it, that is the rule. We made a mistake and we paid for it,” he said. “I think all of us are aware of the rule. But the way we play back home and what we’re used to is different… Like the ball wasn’t even going to hit the stumps. People talk about gentleman’s game. We want to play hard on the field but we still want to be friends off the field. Also, you don’t want to do silly things that aren’t part of the game.”While van Tonder didn’t even explore the possibility of asking West Indies to reverse their appeal, he made his displeasure clear at the post-match press conference. “That is a rule, but there is also the spirit of cricket. There can be instances where a captain can step in and say ‘well, I don’t think that is a good call’. We’ve seen it before. I think it was a great opportunity for their captain to just step in and say maybe that wasn’t right.”South Africa’s wicketkeeper Wandile Makwetu, also their most capped Under-19 player in the squad, explained his take on the matter when he was asked if it would be easier if players didn’t have dual codes to live by: one being the rules and the other being the spirit of the game.”The spirit of cricket is a bit of an unspoken code. The laws are fixed and you can read them and you can see them. Spirit of cricket is just something that the guys know about, that’s how we play the game,” he said. “Today when we were fielding, there was one catch that didn’t carry all the way to me. I could have easily said to the umpires – knowing that it hasn’t carried – to go upstairs and check. But I knew it didn’t carry. So in an instance like that to put your hand up and just say we’re doing the right thing because it’s fair play, that’s the way we should play the game.”This is the second instance a controversial dismissal has been debated this intensely this month. Last week in Brisbane, Brendon McCullum felt George Bailey “missed an opportunity” to uphold the spirit of cricket following an obstructing the field appeal against Alex Ross at a crucial juncture in a BBL game.

The visitors had slipped to 4 for 52 after Queensland had made quick runs

AAP and ESPNcricinfo staff04-Mar-2022South Australia’s Jake Lehmann hit a defiant half century to put the brakes on Queensland’s hopes of an unlikely Sheffield Shield win at the Gabba.With one day’s play remaining in the rain-marred contest, South Australia were 5 for 185 in reply to the home side’s 8 for 305.With four sessions lost to Brisbane’s big wet, a result for either side seemed unlikely at the start of the day. However, Queensland hit the accelerator to be able to declare before lunch having resumed at 4 for 158.In reply, South Australia then faced the danger of being forced to follow-on when struggling at 4 for 52 only for Lehmann to launch a counter-attack and end the day unbeaten on 76.With the new ball losing its shine, Lehmann played his shots wherever possible, hitting eight boundaries in a 143-ball innings. Lehmann enjoyed strong support from Daniel Drew (37) as the pair shared a 103-run stand for the fifth wicket.Queensland’s seam attack enjoyed success, making the perfect start with new captain Henry Hunt caught in the slips first ball off the bowling of Gurinder Sandhu.Opener Jake Weatherald and No. 3 Jake Carder briefly revived the visitors’ hopes only for the Redbacks to lose 3 for 6. Carder was brilliantly caught in the gully, one-handed above the head by Street.Earlier in the day, Queensland skipper Jimmy Peirson cracked a hard-hitting 65 off just 45 deliveries to allow the declaration and take the game away from South AustraliaRookie Jack Clayton looked on track to repeat his century on debut a fortnight ago only to be sharply caught and bowled by Nathan McSweeney as he looked for quick runs.

The opener’s unbeaten 73 took India to victory by nine wickets with 30.1 overs to spare after Sri Lanka had been bowled out for just 98

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Sep-2018Smriti Mandhana smashes the ball down the ground•SLC

India’s bowlers shot out Sri Lanka for only 98 in 35.1 overs at the Galle International Stadium before Smriti Mandhana stroked an unbeaten 73 off 76 balls to bring up victory in 19.5 overs.Opting to bat, Sri Lanka were in trouble early, with Mansi Joshi having Prasadani Weerakkody caught behind in the sixth over with the score on just 8. Sri Lanka had started slow, and were consistently hindrered by the new-ball tandem of Jhulan Goswami and Joshi, who returned to international cricket after 14 months, recovering from a knee injury sustained during the limited-overs home series against Bangladesh A in December last year. The duo reduced the hosts to 18 for 3 in the Powerplay, and the spinners mounted further pressure thereafter.Goswami snared No. 3 Nipuni Hansika in the ninth over, for her 300th international wicket, the first woman to get that many. Goswami, who called time on her T20I career ahead of the tour, would later return to get No. 9 Udeshika Prabodhani, and now has 40 wickets in Tests, 205 in ODIs and 56 in T20Is.Joshi ended with the best figures on the day, 3 for 16 in 6.1 overs, while Goswami took 2 for 13 in eight. Poonam Yadav, who became the third-fastest Indian to 50 ODI wickets, finished with 2 for 13 in four. Save for Harmanpreet Kaur, who bowled only one over, every Indian bowler had at least one wicket, including debutant D Hemalatha.For Sri Lanka, the only notable contributions came from captain Chamari Atapattu, who made 33 and was seventh out at the score of 78, and No. 8 Sripali Weerakkody, who scored 26.Coming off a prolific run at the Kia Super League in the UK, where she finished as the leading run-getter and the Player of the Tournament, Mandhana took the lead in India’s chase, getting into her stride quickly and finding the fence regularly. At the break, India had already reached 43 without loss in in seven overs, with Mandhana on 31 off 29.The lunch interval didn’t hamper Mandhana’s momentum, with two fours hit in the first over on resumption. She reached her half-century – her fifth in last six ODI innings – in only 42 balls, with a six off Sripali Weerakkody.India looked set for a 10-wicket victory before Punam Raut miscued an inside-out lofted drive to backward point off Inoka Ranaweera to end the opening stand at 96 in 18.4 overs. Mandhana, who appeared to be in visible discomfort against offspinner Shashikala Siriwardene, escaped at least three edges in what turned out to be the last over of the chase. She then hit a boundary off the fifth ball of the 20th over – off Siriwardene – to seal the chase.Mithali Raj faced only two balls and didn’t score off them, but this was still a landmark match for her. She went past Charlotte Edwards (117) as the most-capped captain in women’s ODIs with her 118th appearance. Raj also equalled Edwards with her 72nd ODI win as captain, which is second overall behind Belinda Clark’s 83 wins from 101 matches.

The Australia coach will skip the limited-overs tour of India to come up with solutions for the team’s batting wobbles ahead of the Ashes

Adam Collins08-Sep-2017Collapses. Why do they happen? It is a question the Australian leadership leaves Bangladesh with, in urgent need of a solution. By taking time out from the India ODI tour preceding the Ashes, much as he did in 2013, the coach Darren Lehmann has given himself the chance to ponder this question in some detail.In Chittagong, it was a 7 for 79 stumble that should have had a greater influence on the final result than it did. In Dhaka, 6 for 41 was fatal in the final innings, while 4 for 33 and 4 for 42 set up the failure in their first.In the aftermath of the squared series, the captain Steven Smith was not shy in airing his frustrations. Stating that they had again let themselves down, citing 15 collapses in their previous 14 Tests according to their internal team metrics. “That’s not good enough for an Australian cricket team,” he added bluntly, adding they would have to sort it out before the Ashes.Lehmann echoed the sentiment. “It’s happening too often for a young group,” he said. “The first part of the batting collapses was with an older group if you like, and then we changed it around and we’re still having them. It’s seriously not their preparation or how they go about it. It’s more the mental side of the game. We’re working through that with a young group and trying to come up with some solutions.”Inevitably, the personnel involved are coming under selection scrutiny. Glenn Maxwell is an interesting example. He earned a start in each innings in Bangladesh, and after a mini-wobble chasing 86 smashed an unbeaten 25 to finish off the job in Chittagong. Yet it is his position that appears most under threat.”With No. 6 in Australia, it is totally different to Asia,” Lehmann said, hinting to Australia’s preference of picking a seam-bowling allrounder in the slot at home. “We’ll certainly be looking at that position and anyone can jump out of the pack in the three Shield games and what we think the best make-up is for that first Test. Glenn is there at the moment, like everyone else, he’ll have to perform.”Technically, Maxwell wasn’t there in the second Test, shuffled to No. 5 after Usman Khawaja was dropped. But Lehmann all but confirmed Khawaja will be back at first drop for the Ashes, averaging 76 in Australasia since his return to international ranks in November 2015.”I would think Usman would play the first Test, although I’m only one of four selectors,” Lehmann said. “Obviously for the make-up of the side we changed it here, but we think he’s a pretty special player and obviously he’s got a really good record in Australia.”If Maxwell has to sing for his supper in the three Sheffield Shield rounds that lead into the first Test, another such case is wicketkeeper Matthew Wade. He had a stellar game with the gloves after coming excruciatingly close losing his position to part-timer Peter Handscomb. But with the bat he had another failure, trapped leg before for 8 in his one hit.”Wade did a great job behind the sticks this game after the criticism he copped,” Lehmann said. “We obviously want runs from our keeper as well so for him and all the other keepers around the country, the Shield games are going to be important.”Of altogether less concern for the coach is how his bowlers accounted for themselves across the two Tests, bowling out Bangladesh four times for an average of 236 runs an innings. The talisman was Nathan Lyon, who took a staggering 22 wickets – one victim short of Rangana Herath’s all-time record for a two-Test series.”Obviously, after Sri Lanka, he had to change a little bit,” Lehmann said, as one who levelled specific criticism at the spinner last August following that misadventure. “He’s done that and he’s bowled in well each series on the subcontinent since, so I’m really pleased for him.”As for sole-fast bowler Pat Cummins, his pace was crucial to opening up the home side at the time they had a chance to get back into the game in Chittagong, after ending Australia’s first innings in a hurry. “Exciting wasn’t he?” Lehmann said. “I don’t think we’ve done it for however long with one quick. He did a great job. For him, holding up, Steve used him really well in short spells. From our point of view, just pleased he got through.”Which begs the question – where does he fit in come Brisbane, with Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson all expected to be fit and ready? In the XI, there is no doubt about that. But do all four get rolled out in an effort to shock and awe the English tourists in a similar fashion to the way Mitchell Johnson did in the corresponding 2013 fixture?It was a topic Lehmann was happy to entertain in March at the end of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, but is less forthright now, with Lyon having locked in his own spot. “Nathan is going to play there’s no doubt about that,” he confirmed, adding they would look at conditions and assess accordingly.In the event of a more solid middle order, maybe it would be the case that five specialist bowlers could be considered. Or another way of taking that: if a brittle spine is just that, then what is lost by playing to their strengths? Some more questions for Lehmann to ponder away from the Indian spotlight, with all roads now leading to the the Gabba.

Titans beat Knights by an innings and 153 runs and North West lost to Boland by an innings and 20 runs in Division One fixtures

Firdose Moonda31-Jan-2022Some of South Africa’s Test-squad members had the opportunity to fine-tune their skills in the most recent round of four-day matches. Duanne Olivier, Lutho Sipamla, Wiaan Mulder, Ryan Rickelton, Kyle Verreynne, Glenton Stuurman, Sarel Erwee and Simon Harmer all featured, while the other nine players, all regulars, were given the week off. South Africa will depart for a two-Test series in New Zealand, which was preceded by a ten-day quarantine, on Wednesday.The fixture with the largest number of internationals took place in Cape Town, where the table-topping Lions held on to their lead, and for a draw against Western Province. Olivier went wicketless in the first innings and Sipamla took 1 for 47, but Malusi Siboto’s 4 for 31 helped dismiss Western Province for 315. Rickelton held the Lions together after they had stumbled at 27 for 2, with 90, but the Lions conceded a deficit of 28 after being bowled out for 287. Left-arm spinner Kyle Simmonds took 6 for 109.Western Province went on to set the Lions a challenging target of 366 thanks largely to Jonathan Bird’s 152*. At one stage, their bowlers looked set to secure the Cape Town-based team their first win of the season, and Simmonds finished the match with ten wickets, but Rickelton’s unbeaten 102 kept Western Province at bay.With Aiden Markram given the week off, Rickelton, who is second on the overall run-scorers’ chart, may think he has done enough to at least make the national selectors reconsider their Test opening pair, but he faces competition from Erwee, who scored 93 for the Dolphins in their draw with the Warriors where Stuurman took 5 for 97. The Warriors are second on the log, less than half a point (0.48) behind the Lions, with one round of fixtures to be played in the first week of March.Then, the Warriors take on the Knights, who lost by an innings and 153 runs to the Titans.Heinrich Klaasen’s 84 and Sibonelo Makhanya’s 111 as well as four half-centuries in the Titans’ line-up saw them post 515 for 9 declared in Bloemfontein. The Knights were shot out for 197, with Harmer claiming 4 for 70, and then asked to follow-on, where they were bowled for 165. Harmer took eight wickets in the match and is now the leading bowler in the competition, with 35 wickets, seven ahead of Olivier.The final Division One clash was played between the two newcomers to the top tier, Boland and North West, and Boland won their first match of the competition to move to fifth place. Stiaan van Zyl’s 127 was sandwiched between the Malan brothers’ half-centuries and helped Boland declare on 485 for 7.North West were no match and were dismissed for 170 with left-arm spinner Siyabonga Mahima taking 6 for 54. They followed on and were bowled out for 295 in the second dig while Mahima finished with nine wickets. Pieter Malan and Janneman Malan have identical figures for the competition, having each scored 382 runs, with one century and two fifties. They average 76.40 but neither is in the Test squad.Division Two results

• Northern Cape lead the pack after an innings-and-271-run victory over Boland, who were dismissed for 86 and 168 respectively. Hundreds from Ernest Kemm and Aubrey Swanepoel allowed Northern Cape to declare on 525 for 5.
• South Western Districts are in the top half of the table after beating Limpopo by eight wickets. The match was finely poised when Limpopo scored 227 and South Western Districts responded with 245, to lead by 18 runs. But Limpopo fell away and were dismissed for 69 in their second innings, leaving South Western Districts 52 to win.
• Easterns dominated Mpumalanga and won by ten wickets in White River. Mpumalanga posted 224 before Grant Thomson’s 145 helped Easterns to 393. They bowled Mpumalanga out for 198 and needed just 30 for victory.

“With this group of players, the sky’s the limit but we could probably go further than that”

Alan Gardner14-Jun-20226:35

#PoliteEnquiries: CARNAGE!

Ben Stokes has seen and done some incredible things during his international career, but England’s Test captain said that they had all been “blown away” by the experience of leading his side to victory on day five at Trent Bridge, as England completed a pursuit of 299 in a scarcely believable 50 overs, in so doing achieving the fifth-highest successful run chase in their Test history.Stokes hit the winning runs, carving Trent Boult through the covers for a four that evoked the dramatic denouement at Headingley three summers ago, to finish unbeaten on 75 from 70 balls. But on this occasion his was the support act, after Jonny Bairstow had demolished New Zealand’s hopes of escape during the final session with a thunderous 136 from 92.It completed a remarkable Test, the eighth-highest scoring of all time, as England found a way to win despite seeing New Zealand rack up 553 after being asked to bat. Although they conceded a narrow first-innings lead, the rate at which England’s runs came ensured that all results remained possible going into the final day, with New Zealand 238 runs ahead and seven wickets down.”I’m struggling to find words for what we witnessed out there today, it was just phenomenal,” Stokes said, after England’s second rousing win in as many Tests to mark the start of his partnership with new coach, Brendon McCullum.”That blows away Headingley, it blows away Lord’s and the World Cup final. Just emotionally and the enjoyment of every minute I had on that field, it was incredible. In the field, it sounds stupid after 150 overs in the dirt but how everybody was just trying to come up with different plans how we were going to change the course of this game to put it back in our hands was just so enjoyable. It was it was just amazing. The whole vibe this week has been awesome. And then to come out and perform the way that we did today…”I just can’t quite wrap my head around how we’ve chased 299 with 20 overs left on day five of the Test match when we had to bowl 15 overs this morning. That’s never going to happen again. But if it does, it is probably us who are going to do it.”Related

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Having bowled out New Zealand just over an hour into the final morning, England were left needing 299 in a minimum of 72 overs. Alex Lees struck the first two balls of the chase for four, but their hopes took a dive with the dismissal of Joe Root – who scored 176 in the first innings – to leave them 59 for 3.Their momentum was further checked when Lees fell for a spirited 44. But rather than dig in, England continued to attack, Stokes hitting his tenth ball for six and then twice reverse-sweeping Michael Bracewell’s offspin for four. England were 139 for 4 at tea, needing 160 from 38 overs, before Bairstow launched his extraordinary assault.”Something we say in the dressing-room – he had his ‘Jonny eyes’ on today and when he gets those eyes on you know you’re on to something,” Stokes said. “We were hardly speaking out there to be honest. That was one of the best things I’ve ever seen, to do it in the fourth innings, chasing a big total, game in the balance, to play the way he did once he got past fifty was just mind-blowing. Phenomenal to watch.”Bairstow and Stokes added 179 in 20.1 overs, as New Zealand’s faint hopes of forcing a win disintegrated. Had they managed to break the stand earlier, England’s plan was to just keep swinging to the end, Stokes said.”The message just was run into the fear of what the game was rather than stand still or back away from it. I’ll say it quite simply, we were either winning this game or losing it. That was the mentality that we wanted all the batters coming in to have. It’s obviously paid off. When you have the backing of the coach and myself saying what I say about how we want to go about things, it obviously rubs off on the players in a very, very positive way. So you’re not fearing failure, if anything you’re just going out and doing what you want to do.”This Test match will probably all be about today but you don’t win Test matches in the last session of day five without all the hard work you put in on day four. The way we bounced back with the bat after being in the field for a long time, them getting 560 or 570, the way we went about it with the bat, the rate that we scored, really allowed us to be in this position on day five. Even bowling them out for 270 on a very flat wicket was a serious effort and I couldn’t be any more proud of the way that everybody stuck at it.”Ben Stokes scored a 55-ball half-century and added 179 with Jonny Bairstow•Getty Images

England’s victory was witnessed by packed stands, after Nottinghamshire provided free entry on the final day, and the enterprising approach chimed with McCullum’s stated intentions on taking up the Test coaching job of wanting to help revive the format.”It’ll be hard for people not to enjoy what they’ve witnessed today, and everything over the last five days,” Stokes said. “A lot of credit has to go to Notts for what they did today, allowing free tickets and for people who had already bought tickets getting their money back. Having a full house here at Trent Bridge really does help the atmosphere.”You can really feel the home crowd and it’ll make the opposition feel the whole world’s on top of them. If we had a half-full stadium today, it wouldn’t have felt how it did out there. It’ll be nice if some other counties take a leaf out of what they did here today, it was really cool to be a player with a full crowd.”On the startling turnaround in fortunes, with England having won just one of their previous 17 Tests before the New Zealand series, Stokes suggested that there remained room for improvement and reiterated the commitment to aggression that has seemingly been key to unlocking the talent within a largely unchanged group of players.”Things like this do not happen overnight,” he said. “But this couldn’t have been a better start in terms of the new way we want to go forward. We know we’re still working towards a lot of things. We’re never going to be happy with where we are. There is going to be some bad days. We’re yet to really see the bad side of the game at the moment because obviously we’ve had two results go our way, but there will be days that affect us and we’ll probably lose a game with this mindset.”That’s probably going to be the biggest challenge for us, how we respond to adversity, how we respond to things not going our way. Now we go to Headingley 2-0 up, won the series, but with World Test Championship points to play for. We’re going to be even more positive as I said after Lord’s. I don’t know how we can be more positive than this week but we will probably try.”With this group of players, the sky’s the limit but we could probably go further than that.”

Young Yorkshire bowler lost footing on damp ground while fielding, slid into concrete base of Western Terrace

Paul Edwards13-Jul-2021
Nobody who has lived through the past 18 months needs to be reminded that there are times when cricket doesn’t matter a damn. All the same, anyone at Headingley on the third afternoon of this Roses Match were reminded of that truth in the most brutal fashion when Yorkshire’s Dominic Leech suffered a horrific injury to his left leg when he lost his footing on damp ground and slid into the concrete base of the Western Terrace.Leech had been chasing round the boundary from long-on to deep midwicket to stop a four and had slapped the ball back into play when the accident occurred. The 20-year-old was immediately in agony and was attended by medical staff from both Lancashire and Yorkshire for 15 minutes before being taken from the stadium on a stretcher by paramedics and thence to hospital in the car of Yorkshire’s physio, Kunwar Bansil. At 2.35 the players left the ground to take an early tea and shortly afterwards a statement was issued saying areas of the playing surface had been deemed unfit and unsafe.As it turned out the umpires, Ian Gould and Nigel Llong, made two inspections before play was eventually abandoned at 4.25. During the time between Leech’s injury and the abandonment questions were raised as to why the umpires had deemed the ground fit for play to start at noon and why an injury beyond the boundary had prompted the decision that the playing area was unfit two hours after precisely the opposite judgement had been reached.But in a month when simplicity will become a dull watchword this was an example of one of cricket’s unavoidable complexities. Although rain had fallen for twelve hours with barely a break on Monday, Headingley was ready for a twelve o’clock start, only for the seam bowlers’ boots landing on the same spots in their run-ups to bring up water, especially in the area that lies in the shadow of Emerald Stand. To link Leech’s injury to the decision to come off the field is a good illustration of the problems encountered when one applies the principle of “post hoc, ergo propter hoc” too rigidly. Apparently Llong had already raised the issue of the footmarks with his colleague and the situation was being carefully monitored when the injury occurred.It was also significant that the judgement of the umpires was firmly supported by the both counties’ head coaches. Although delighted that his team are dominating this match – visiting teams do not get to 411 for 2 too frequently at Headingley – Lancashire’s Glen Chapple endorsed Gould and Llong’s judgement.”We had a lot of rain yesterday and we got here this morning and the ground was still wet,” he said. “The best I can give you is that maybe the heat has brought more moisture up and it’s gone from being just playable to not playable. It’s disappointing for the players and supporters but unfortunately the ground’s not fit at the moment.”The umpires are doing their job and it’s their call to make. None of us have been down the end that’s causing the problem and I fully trust the umpires to make the right call. The players and our supporters will be very disappointed but the main thing from all this is that you don’t want to see someone injured badly and we all hope he recovers quickly.”Related

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Like his Lancastrian counterpart Andrew Gale’s first thought was for Leech, who had received his second-team Yorkshire cap before yesterday’s play and whose bowling was being watched by his father and girlfriend. However he also understood the nuanced judgement that the umpires had had to make”You have to feel for the lad,” he said. “It’s the first game he’s played in the first team this year. But Dom’s a tough cookie – he’s from Middlesbrough – and he was in a lot of pain. It was sad to see. Hopefully he’ll be ok.”You have two of the most experienced umpires in the country, so whatever decision they make is what’s right by the game. They felt that as the day went on and there was more traffic on that side of the pitch and the run-ups, it was bringing water up. Umpires with their experience probably didn’t want a situation where someone like a Jimmy Anderson runs in and rolls his ankle. They didn’t think it was fit for play and fair play to Lancashire because they’re bossing the game and they seemed okay about it.”Yorkshire have encountered problems at the Emerald Stand End of Headingley before, most notably in April 2018 when the game against Essex was abandoned without a ball being bowled, and yesterday’s events will clearly stiffen the intention to get the problem solved. Shortly after the abandonment the Club issued a further statement which ended as follows:”Analysis of the outfield at that end has previously taken place and has identified issues with a layer of thatch that can cause a build-up of water on the surface following heavy rain-fall. The Club had originally planned to get the outfield re-laid prior to the 2021 season but unfortunately difficulties arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in this being delayed. The Club intend on completing this work at the end of this season.”All of which leaves us with the Roses Match, the details of which are rightly overshadowed on days such as this. But it should perhaps be noted that Luke Wells and Josh Bohannon extended their third-wicket partnership to 156 in the 23.2 overs we were allowed and that both batsmen looked in almost complete command. True, Bohannon was dropped on 11 by Harry Brook at first slip off Leech but he later slapped Jordan Thompson over cover for six and pulled the same bowler for four a few balls later, shots which not only took the Boltonian to his half-century but also raised the remote chance that Lancashire might pick up a fourth bonus point.As it was Lancashire had to settle for a score of 342 for 2 after 110 overs. It is the first time since the game in 2011 at Hove that Yorkshire have gained no bowling points from a match in which they had inserted the opposition and bowled their full ration of overs. If this gave Steve Patterson something to ponder, he soon had something else on his mind when Gould warned him for running on the pitch. By the end of the day, though, such cautions were as nothing when set against the health of a fine young cricketer.

After a poor start to the chase, Fakhar and Khushdil consolidated and Shadab and Nawaz provided the fireworks to take Pakistan home

Danyal Rasool19-Nov-2021Pakistan made it unnecessarily complicated for themselves, but their bowlers had done enough in the first half to ensure they held on for an exciting four-wicket win in the first T20I against Bangladesh in Dhaka. In a gritty, and sometimes ugly, contest where ball didn’t come on to bat much, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jnr and Shadab Khan stifled the Bangladesh batters, especially in the first ten overs, to keep them to a below-par 127. Bangladesh managed just three boundaries and seven sixes all innings, with Nurul Hasan and Mahedi Hasan providing a late boost to the innings.

Hasan reprimanded, Bangladesh fined

Hasan Ali has earned himself a reprimand and a demerit point – his first one – for his send-off to Nurul Hasan in the first T20I, while the Bangladesh players were fined 20% of their match fees for maintaining a slow over-rate (one short of the target) in the game.

It was the sort of target Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam tend to knock off with ease, but on these surfaces in front of a raucous home crowd, Bangladesh weren’t going to let go easily. Mustafizur Rahman found movement with the new ball and castled Rizwan with a beauty early, while an off-colour Babar chopped on to Taskin Ahmed. Haider Ali and Shoaib Malik, too, fell cheaply to put Bangladesh on top. So it was left to Fakhar Zaman and Khushdil Shah to grind their way to keep Pakistan in touch with the asking rate, and for Shadab and Mohammad Nawaz to provide the fireworks at the end.Bangladesh off the boil
Coming off a World Cup where they disappointed, this was Bangladesh’s chance of a reset. But, instead of batting with abandon after winning the toss, they appeared to be playing within themselves, preferring caution to bravery as Pakistan’s bowlers applied the squeeze. It wasn’t until the sixth over that the first boundary was struck, and by the halfway stage, they had hobbled to 40 for 4. The lower-middle order led an impressive recovery and 87 off the final ten meant Pakistan had a chase on their hands.Taskin Ahmed sets off on a celebratory run after sending back Babar Azam•AFP/Getty Images

A poor finish for Pakistan
An odd statistical quirk of Pakistan’s generally spotless bowling performance was how each of the five bowlers had their figures spoilt somewhat by expensive final overs. The final overs of Nawaz, Shadab, Wasim, Hasan and Haris Rauf went for 15, 13, 12, 11 and 15 respectively. It meant five bowlers who had allowed just 61 in their first three overs collectively had leaked 66 in their fourths.Bowlers give Bangladesh a chance
All the good work the bowlers had done looked to have unravelled in a frenetic first ten overs of the Pakistan chase. The two-paced nature of the pitch had Babar checking many of his shots, while Mustafizur sent Rizwan packing early with a classical inswinger. Babar was fortunate not to fall a few balls earlier than he did, when a nick through to the keeper wasn’t reviewed. An untidy hoick by Haider saw him fall for a duck, but Shoaib Malik’s dismissal was the most unforgivable of all.One of the most experienced men in the game, Malik made the schoolboy error of strolling out of his crease while the ball was alive, and in the hands of Bangladesh keeper Nurul Hasan. He spotted Malik’s brainfade and had a shy at the stumps, catching the veteran out of his crease and reducing Pakistan to 24 for 4 in the powerplay.Fakhar, Khushdil heroics
When you think of Fakhar and Khushdil performing heroics for their side, you probably imagine them teeing off, blasting big runs. Instead, the two men who hit 34 each, got their runs at less than a run-a-ball, their combined 68 coming in 71 balls. The middle order had dug in after the early losses, ensuring the asking rate was within touch. They were aware Pakistan had the firepower to catch up at the death, so even when the two fell within three overs of each other, Shadab and Nawaz had an equation they could work with. The two allrounders will grab the headlines, but without the toil of Fakhar and Khushdil, they wouldn’t have had the opportunity.