India spun out New Zealand, before England edged out Australia in a nail-biter

S Sudarshanan27-Jan-2023It was heartbreak and ecstasy in equal measures in Potchefstroom as India and England made the final of the inaugural Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup to be played on Sunday. While India comfortably beat New Zealand in the first semi-final, tensions swayed one way and then the other before England edged Australia out by three runs in a low-scoring thriller.Defending 99, England fast bowlers Ellie Anderson and Alexa Stonehouse struck early before legspinner Hannah Baker’s triple-strike crippled Australia. She varied her flight and length to bowl Ella Hayward and then got enough purchase from the surface to have Australia captain Rhys McKenna caught at mid-off and trapped wicketkeeper Paris Hall three balls later to have them at 59 for 7.Ella Wilson and Milly Illingworth, batting at No. 9 and No. 10, managed to hit a four apiece towards the end to get the equation down to Australia needing four with two wickets and just shy of three overs in hand. But the latter was run out via a direct hit from Ryana MacDonald-Gay from mid-off before Grace Scrivens trapped No. 11 Maggie Clark lbw with her offspin to spark off wild celebrations.Milly Illingworth was run out off a direct-hit•ICC/Getty Images

The scene was far removed from the halfway stage when Clark, Hayward and Sianna Ginger walked back with three-fors. The script went awry for England after opting to bat, as they lost wickets at regular intervals to be placed at 29 for 4 at the end of the powerplay.The pace of Illingworth and the nagging lengths of Clark had seen the back of Liberty Heap – who has forged a successful alliance at the top with captain Scrivens – and No. 3 Niamh Holland. Offspinner Hayward inflicted further misery by breaking the back of the middle order.But Scrivens – second at present in the tournament’s list of run-scorers – held one end up even as she saw England slide to 37 for 5 in the ninth over. However, a full length ball from seamer Ginger was hard to resist for her and she holed out to Claire Moore at long-off for 20. It was only because of a 46-run eighth-wicket partnership between Stonehouse (25) and Josie Groves (15) that England had managed to get close to hundred.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

India spin out New Zealand

Earlier in the day, India’s spinners wove a web around New Zealand and kept them to 107 for 9 before a masterclass from opener Shweta Sehrawat helped them cruise to an eight-wicket win. Sehrawat scored an unbeaten 61 off just 45 balls with ten fours and was involved in a second-wicket partnership of 62 with Soumya Tiwari (26). It was her third half-century in the competition, by virtue of which she found herself atop the batting charts.This was after legspinner Parshavi Chopra, who shone with a Player-of-the-Match performance against Sri Lanka, starred with three for 20 to leave New Zealand short of par. She broke the 37-run second-wicket partnership between Georgia Plimmer and Isabella Gaze (26) by trapping the latter lbw.Only Plimmer offered some resistance with the bat with a 32-ball 35 and she was the seventh batter out with the score on 91.

The two most dominant batting line-ups will take aim at each other at Brabourne stadium

S Sudarshanan25-Mar-20232:58

Will Harmanpreet get past Lanning this time?

Big picture: A WPL final befitting the hype

Long before the Women’s Premier League opener got underway, there were winding queues outside the DY Patil Stadium in Nerul, Navi Mumbai. Many in the crowd wore the Mumbai Indians’ blue jerseys from the past years.Few teams in franchise cricket command crowd support like Mumbai. And quite aptly, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led has made it to the title-clash, even if they had to take the scenic route. Mumbai began the WPL on a high with five wins in five games before losing two matches on the trot. That blip was enough to rob them of direct entry to the final.Mumbai’s charge with the bat has been led by Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews. When surfaces have been flat, Matthews has cashed in; and even when they have taken turn, she has looked in little trouble thanks to playing on similar surfaces at home back in West Indies. She has also chipped in regularly with her offspin and has 13 wickets to show. Consistency from Harmanpreet has only helped matters.Related

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Mumbai have used a set top four – in Matthews, Yastika Bhatia, Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet – which is the least number of players used by any team for these spots. The 984 runs they’ve scored is comfortably the highest out of all teams in this WPL with Delhi Capitals’ top four a distant second with 838.Any team with Meg Lanning, Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey, Jemimah Rodrigues and Marizanne Kapp poses serious threat. But having gained a direct entry to the final, Capitals have had a longish break heading into Sunday. All that said, the inaugural WPL couldn’t have hoped for a better final. It will feature two teams known for their batting might but who fight every inch with the ball. Expect another run-fest at Brabourne.

Form guide

Delhi Capitals WWLWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Mumbai Indians WWLLW

In the spotlight: Meg Lanning and Amelia Kerr

Meg Lanning has not just led Capitals with aplomb but in the process, also ensured that runs continue to flow from her bat at the top of the order. She began the WPL with a couple of half-centuries and has not looked back. That she has had a strike rate in excess of 140 despite not really going hammer and tongs has stood out. Lanning is no stranger to big finals and will be key on Sunday.0:50

Ponting: Performance of Lanning’s Delhi Capitals will motivate our side too

Allrounder Amelia Kerr has fit into the overseas puzzle quite seamlessly for Mumbai. She has owned the No. 5 spot and has had a couple of match-winning performances with the bat – a 45 not out in the opener and 29 off just 19 in the Eliminator. With the ball, Kerr has had a telling effect and has been wicketless in only three of her nine games.

Team news

Capitals did not use Poonam Yadav at all despite playing her in their last league game. They might consider leaving her out for USA’s Tara Norris (teams can play five overseas players if one of them is from an Associate nation), Minnu Mani or Jasia Akhter.Delhi Capitals: 1 Meg Lanning (capt), 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Jemimah Rodrigues, 4 Marizanne Kapp, 5 Alice Capsey, 6 Jess Jonassen, 7 Arundhati Reddy, 8 Shikha Pandey, 9 Taniya Bhatia (wk), 10 Radha Yadav, 11 Poonam Yadav/Minnu ManiHarmanpreet seldom likes to change a side, especially when they are winning.Mumbai Indians 1 Yastika Bhatia (wk), 2 Hayley Matthews, 3 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Amelia Kerr, 6 Pooja Vastrakar, 7 Issy Wong, 8 Amanjot Kaur, 9 Humaira Kazi, 10 Jintimani Kalita, 11 Saika Ishaque

Pitch and conditions: Brabourne favours batters

The lowest score by a team batting first at Brabourne stadium is 138. Ten games have already been played here and the final will be the 11th. It is true that the pitches have tired up a touch – the overall economy rate of the bowlers has come down from 9.09 in the first five games (till March 12) at the venue to 8.07 for the last five (since March 14). But the batters have hit 42 sixes in the second half as compared to 34 in the first. The pace of run-scoring at Brabourne has tended to be a tad quicker than at DY Patil stadium.

Stats and trivia

• Mumbai and Capitals have only ever faced each other at DY Patil stadium. In fact, both teams have only played three matches at Brabourne this entire season.
• Capitals have posted the highest total at Brabourne in the WPL – 223 for 2 against Royal Challengers Bangalore

Quotes

“Batting with her has been great fun. She has got a unique style which works for her. She takes the game on and turns it in our favour. Hopefully she comes in with a clear mind and is ready to take the game on and I can watch from the other end.”
“We have a lot of experience from overseas players, who have led their teams and have done well. Our local players have enough experience of domestic cricket. The team combination allows you to express yourself than thinking about too many things.”

Home seam attack bundles out Somerset for only 129 in 38.2 overs at Trent Bridge

David Hopps16-Apr-2023Nottinghamshire 256 (Duckett 75, Hameed 65, Gregory 7-84) and 211 (Hameed 34, Gregory 4-64, Siddle 3-34) beat Somerset 173 (Davey 60, Hutton 6-45) and 129 (Rew 25, Paterson 5-46, Hutton 3-44) by 165 runsSomerset’s brittle batting was again in evidence at Trent Bridge for all their winter shuffle of personnel as they subsided rapidly to a 165-run defeat against Nottinghamshire.Responsibility for the defeat needs to be shared, however, because it was their failure to make good use of helpful bowling conditions on the first morning that also contributed to Notts gaining a grip on the match that they never relinquished.Nottinghamshire’s seam attack bundled out Somerset for only 129 in 38.2 overs on an April surface that nibbled throughout with Stuart Broad, Brett Hutton and Dane Paterson, who finished with 5 for 46, all making telling contributions.Somerset’s reshaped top order has yet to fire this season They could find consolation in Lewis Gregory’s 11 for 148 in the match and his renewed confidence in his fitness, but also the stout-hearted batting approach of their young wicketkeeper, James Rew, whose scores of 18 and 25 are hardly going to get him headlines, but who showed an aptitude for a backs-to-the-wall fight that will hold him in good stead.Broad had been reported to be anxious to wrap up victory before Nottingham Forest’s 4.30pm kick-off against Manchester United on the other side of Radcliffe Road. As Notts batted on for six overs to extend their lead to 294, it appeared to be touch-and-go, but Somerset were all trussed up with 80 minutes to spare, ample time for a shower, change and a pre-match pint.Broad went wicketless in the first innings as he began his carefully programmed build-up to the Ashes, and when he failed to take a wicket in a solid five-over spell with the new ball, his blank seemed set to continue. But his fifth over had been his most dangerous, with Sean Dickson doing well to fend off a leaping delivery, and sniffing opportunity in the air, he won the right to continue.His dander was up; his sense of opportunity was well founded. Cameron Bancroft, who is seeking to win a place in Australia’s Ashes party, was a satisfying first wicket of the season in his sixth over, his off stump clipped as the ball left him a shade. Broad was not quite finished yet and he added Dickson in his next over, a predatory diving catch at second slip by Ben Duckett, whose low centre of gravity and wicketkeeping background makes him one of the best slippers in the country.For Broad, 2 for 21 in eight was a satisfying outing. Not only had his bowling spell been followed by a Premier League encounter, his day had begun in even more exciting fashion – at least in the dream of the BBC commentator Dave Bracegirdle, who revealed on the live stream that he had spent much of the night in a sunflower-growing competition with the England fast bowler. Sadly, history will never know who won because Bracegirdle woke up, but England followers can only hope that the sunflower’s folkloric tradition as a symbol of good luck will bring warmth and sunshine to his Ashes preparations.Brett Hutton has also been a handful on this surface, scuttling in to bowl a tight line and nibble the ball off the seam. The result of that on the final day was three lbw decisions to add to his first-innings career-best. Tom Lammonby, who fell early, and Tom Abell were left and right-hander beaten by balls that seamed back. Lewis Gregory fell in the same fashion against a ball that did not do quite as much.Statisticians could also delight in a 500th first-class wicket for Paterson who like Hutton is built for such Trent Bridge surfaces. Tom Kohler-Cadmore was victim no 499, caught by the stand-in wicketkeeper, Joe Clarke, who was there because of a finger injury to Tom Moores. Moores’ x-rays will be assessed on Monday, but Notts may have a choice between Clarke and the 2nd XI wicketkeeper, Dane Schadendorf against Middlesex at Lord’s, beginning on Thursday.Paterson’s 500th was Craig Overton, who duly collected a pair in the match, his first-ball duck being followed up by a fourth-ball duck this time around. Overton was skilfully scooped up, left-handed, by the substitute, Calvin Harrison, at third slip. It looked clean enough on the replays, but Overton’s oration did not immediately appear to be a speech of congratulations. He then offered a further homily to spectators in front of the pavilion about how to play the game and was jeered off the field. Strangely, Overton had come out to bat at No.9, behind Josh Davey which for all Davey’s 60 in the first innings was also cause for an enquiring eyebrow.Jack Leach’s attempt at a back-away uppercut just contrived to sky a simple chance to point and Somerset’s chastening day came to an end when Peter Siddle drove Paterson into the off side. With the second day lost to rain, a responsive surface had kept interest in the match and the spectators could be grateful for that.

Seamer approaching his ninth Ashes with a relaxed mindset about how many Tests he plays

Andrew Miller06-Jun-2023Like a fine wine, has Stuart Broad mellowed with age? That would appear to be the impression on the eve of his ninth Ashes campaign, with his admission that he doesn’t mind when or how he is deployed in the coming five Tests against Australia, just so long as he plays his part in an Ashes-winning squad performance.At the age of 36, Broad demonstrated his enduring qualities as a strike bowler with five first-innings wickets in England’s ten-wicket win over Ireland at Lord’s last week. However, with James Anderson, Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood all in the running for recalls at Edgbaston, he knows there is no guarantee that he’s done enough to be in the starting line-up for the series opener next week.Such a prospect would have left Broad furious in recent years. Against West Indies in 2020, he declared himself “frustrated, angry and gutted” after being omitted for the series opener at the Ageas Bowl, despite having been England’s leading wicket-taker over the previous two years, an achievement that had led him to believe he was in possession of “the shirt”.Related

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And similarly, for the first Test of the last Ashes in Brisbane, neither Broad nor his veteran partner Anderson was selected for a series-defining nine-wicket loss, with England instead going in with a seam attack comprising Robinson, Wood and Chris Woakes, who had never previously played in the same XI.This time, however, with England boasting a record of 11 wins from 13 Tests under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, Broad says he has absolute faith in their methods and management, and will have no complaints if they decide to hold him back for a later date in the campaign.”I’m just flowing around at the moment,” Broad said, aptly enough, during a sponsor’s event for Laithwaites wine at Lord’s. “I feel really happy with how my cricket is, how life is. I feel fit, I feel fresh. Whether I play at Edgbaston, whether I play at Lord’s, Headingley … I don’t mind, I play really well at all of them.”I love playing against Australia, and whether that’s the first Test, the fifth Test, the third … I’m happy to try and strike whenever I get the chance. I think ultimately as a team we’re going to need every bowler, and we’re going to need to take 100 wickets to win the Ashes. But my ultimate aim is to be fit and fresh and playing at The Oval, because that’s the fifth, and that means I’ve done my job for the group.”It’s a far cry from his non-conformist attitude under the previous Test regime, typified by his anger at the Ageas Bowl and Brisbane, but best expressed in a memorable press conference midway through the fourth Test of that last Ashes. Facing up to another dire match situation at Sydney, he urged England to stop hedging their selection with future events in mind, adding that “if you don’t win the battle in front of you, it’s all irrelevant”.”At Brisbane I was raging. So yeah, I’ve definitely changed. And in a good way. I see my role as striking when I get the chance but also, we won’t be having interviews like the Ageas Bowl. I quite enjoy doing that but …”Broad was talking at a Laithwaites event•PR

As it happens, Broad bounced back after that Ageas Bowl snub with 16 wickets in the remaining two Tests against West Indies, including a ten-for in the series decider at Old Trafford. “Maybe that’ll be the tactic,” he joked. “Leave me out at Edgbaston so I fire up at Lord’s! But I’m very comfortable. I’m just really enjoying the environment.”The communication’s really clear, that we’re going to need everyone. It doesn’t feel like a closed shop. It’s a really addictive environment to be around, and we’re just happy for everyone’s success. So ultimately, if I only play one game and we lift the urn at The Oval, that’s a massive tick in England cricket’s box. It’s not about me, it’s about the collective. But I think I’ll play more than one …”Broad has already played ten more Tests than he might have envisaged 13 months ago, when he and Anderson were axed in the wake of England’s 4-0 Ashes loss. But the fact that England have turned their fortunes around with more or less the same set of core players is proof not only of the wizardry of the so-called Bazball mindset, but that Broad himself was right in his insistence about living in the now.”We had to change that habit of, every four years, going to the Ashes and if we lose it, tear it up and new people come in and start the process again,” he said. “It was just a cycle repeating too often.”You can’t take the emphasis off the Ashes because it’s our biggest series. You only have to be driving through service stations in the last year and it’s ‘come on guys, beat Australia’ – our country has a love affair with Ashes cricket, but as an organisation we had to get our mindset away from personnel losing their jobs if results didn’t go the way you want them to.”I think we have lived in a really healthy way in the last 12 months,” he added. “The Ashes was only mentioned for the first time in the post-match debrief against Ireland, and it was ‘it doesn’t matter what the results as long as we stick to how we play’. As long as we have kids watching and saying ‘wow that’s incredible’, then we have done our jobs.”Stuart Broad was speaking at the launch of wine merchant Laithwaites’ partnership with England cricket. For exclusive offers on great wines this summer, visit laithwaites.co.uk

“We were planning how we can get to 240 or 250 and back our bowling to defend it,” says batting coach Naveed Nawaz

Andrew Fidel Fernando01-Jul-2023Yes, okay, Sri Lanka’s batting is pretty poor by big-boy-ODI standards. We have heard the arguments. The dot-ball percentages aren’t great. The top order gets out too early too often. And 300-plus scores just aren’t their thing against good bowling.In the World Cup Qualifier, though, their bowlers have kept proving themselves. Wanindu Hasaranga has rocked it. Lahiru Kumara was good (until he got injured). And Maheesh Theekshana may be the most consistent bowler Sri Lanka have.Together, they’ve refused to allow an opposition to score 200.On Friday, it’s like DJ Khaled says: Another One.Netherlands were chasing 214; they were all out for 192.”Throughout the tournament we have managed to keep every side under 200 so far,” this is Sri Lanka batting coach Naveed Nawaz extolling his team’s bowlers, because what else can he do when he has been sent to a press conference in a match in which the batters have kinda tanked.”The bowling has been good since the start of the tournament,” Nawaz said. “When things went bad at the top end, we were planning how we can get to 240 or 250 and back our bowling to defend it. Looking at the start from where we were, 213 is a good score. We would always back our bowling to defend it.”Would he ? I guess we have to take his word for it. In the last two matches, and perhaps in general over the past couple of years, the bowlers have bailed the batting out.Nawaz thinks it might happen more often in this tournament from now, especially in Bulawayo.”The square looks a bit tired now as well, and wickets are going to get slower,” he said. “The side that adapts well to the conditions and holds their nerve will have a better chance of coming out well at the end.”But Sri Lanka are not beyond admitting there are problems. In the last match they were dismissed for 245 against Scotland. Even though the surfaces were sluggish, neither seemed like an imposing total.”It’s a bit of a concern that twice in a few days our batting has collapsed,” Nawaz said. “Once [we collapsed] at the top, and once in the middle. We’ll have to regroup. We’ll have to sit down, talk about it and see how we’re going to come back in the next game.”Sri Lanka’s spinners have frequently been lead actors in the bailout crew. In this tournament, Hasaranga is by a distance the highest wicket-taker so far, with 20 dismissals to his name at an average of 10.55. In this match, he took 2 for 53.Theekshana helped to turn the match too. He took 3 for 31, and has nine wickets at 18.55 in the tournament.”The two of them have been bearing a lot of responsibility in our team,” Nawaz said of Hasaranga and Theekshana. “They’ve borne it well through the course of this tournament so far.”

Paul Collingwood to work with London Spirit, Richard Dawson at Welsh Fire, Carl Hopkinson at Superchargers

Matt Roller29-Jun-2023Several England men’s assistant coaches have lined up jobs in the Hundred in August, which takes place between the end of the Ashes and the start of the white-ball team’s run-in to the 50-over World Cup.ESPNcricinfo understands that Richard Dawson is set to work alongside Michael Hussey at Welsh Fire, while Carl Hopkinson is due to link up with James Foster’s Northern Superchargers. The pair both act as assistants to Matthew Mott in England’s white-ball set-up.Paul Collingwood, who is an assistant coach to Brendon McCullum in the Test side, is also due to work in the competition. He will work at London Spirit, who are coached by the former England coach Trevor Bayliss.England’s white-ball team have not played since March and their next fixture is the first of four T20Is against New Zealand on August 30, leaving their coaching staff relatively short on work for the majority of the home summer.Mott encouraged Dawson and Hopkinson to apply for roles in the Hundred, and said that their roles would benefit the England team. “They’ve both been around the county scene for a long time, and I think they’ll do well at it in the Hundred,” Mott told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s a good opportunity for them.”It’s great that we’ve got eyes and ears in those camps, too – even just around some of the international players that are coming in. It’s almost like having a couple of scouts out there, extra eyes and ears. There’s only positives to come out of that.”Mott himself was due to coach Welsh Fire Women in the inaugural season of the Hundred but pulled out due to Covid-related travel restrictions, and said that it “wouldn’t sit right” to be involved in the competition while working as England’s head coach.But he is open to working in franchise cricket at some stage during his tenure, most notably in the IPL – where he acted as Kolkata Knight Riders’ assistant coach during the competition’s early years. “I’d be open to it, but it’d have to fit into my schedule,” he said.The 2024 edition is off the table due to its proximity to the T20 World Cup but there is a window in England’s white-ball schedule the following season, after the Champions Trophy. Mott added: “It’s definitely a goal to get back there at some point, but I’m not in a rush at the moment.”

Visitors recover from sticky start to post 282 after Blackpool weather relents

Paul Edwards11-Jul-2023
English fiction is replete with characters who repair to the seaside to help them recover from illness or other misfortunes. In Jane Austen’s Anne Elliot has “the bloom and freshness of youth” restored by the fine wind on the coast and even modern novelists such as John Banville and Ian McEwan use littoral settings for literary effect. At first glance, though, the comparisons between the gentle Elliot and Lancashire’s head coach, Glen Chapple, are not obvious. (At second glance, they disappear completely.) But Chapple’s players also appear to be using trips to their coastal outgrounds to restore their summer.In June, having drawn their first five Championship matches and sitting a miserable seventh in Division One, Lancashire went to Southport and defeated Hampshire by six wickets. This week, still bruised by their failure to qualify for T20 Finals Day, Keaton Jennings and his players are in Blackpool, attempting to assuage their disappointment by beating Essex, who will be travelling to Edgbaston for English cricket’s annual hogfeast on Saturday.On Monday, both sides were defeated by the omega block, a meteorological feature that brought fearsome downpours whistling in from the west and restricted the teams to just 28 balls, the final three of which were bowled over six hours after the preceding 25. Indeed, had not Stanley Park’s outfield been relaid at a cost of £180,000 over three years ago, the 100th first-class match to take place on this famous ground might have been abandoned soon after it started.Around three o’clock Chapple might have been wishing it had been given up as a bad job. For rather than build on their removal of three top-order batters on the sweating wicket in the first hour or so of the day, Lancashire’s bowlers had been punished by Tom Westley, who had reached his third century of the season with a cut off Colin de Grandhomme, and Paul Walter, who had clouted Tom Hartley for two leg-side sixes in the over before lunch and meted out the same indignity to Jack Blatherwick when the players returned. The pair had also set a new fifth-wicket record for Essex against Lancashire, beating the 147 stand shared by Sonny Avery and Tom Pearce, also at Blackpool, in 1948. What made things worse was that Hartley had dropped Westley on 78 when he grassed a low chance at midwicket off de Grandhomme. Rather than rebalance Chapple’s delicate humours, it was enough to cause a relapse.Medicine, though, was at hand, specifically the right hand of Blatherwick who clutched a firmly hit clip by Walter off de Grandhomme when the tall Essex left-hander had made 76 off 119 balls and extended his partnership with Westley to 155. That dismissal left Essex on 210 for 5, neither prosperous nor poor one might think on what looks a fine outground pitch. Simon Harmer, whose wicket is rarely donated to his opponents, then joined Westley and the pair added a watchful 65 in 24 overs before Lancashire took the second new ball and the game was changed by Tom Bailey, one of the circuit’s least lauded yet most skilful bowlers.The first breakthrough was made by Will Williams, who had Westley caught at slip by Rob Jones for 135 when the Essex skipper seemed disconcerted by a little extra bounce. The last four Essex batters, however, were removed by Bailey, who bowled Harmer with one that nipped away off a good length and then induced Doug Bracewell to sky a pull to midwicket, where Dane Vilas waited under the catch. Both Sam Cook and Will Buttleman fell leg before to the Lancashire seamer, who had by then taken four wickets in 20 balls to complete an innings return of 6 for 59.So much, so very satisfactory for most of the home supporters, some of whom had watched the rain thunder down 24 hours earlier and might have wondered whether the county match they had worked so hard to stage would be worth remembering. And any misgivings they still harboured can hardly have been eased by the sight of Jamie Porter and Sam Cook warming up on the outfield. Essex’s new-ball pair are skilled in making totals of 282 look mountainous, especially so when left with an evening hour in which they can expend their full efforts.And the prospect of an early tumble of wickets assumed a grim reality when Luke Wells attempted to leave Porter’s fourth ball of the innings but only inside edged it onto his stumps. That success merely spurred the bowlers to greater efforts; perhaps they even expected them. Certainly there was no shortage of appeals or near things as Jennings and Josh Bohannon played out the final 13 overs and home spectators postponed their plans for an early departure in favour of watching some of the day’s most gripping cricket. Three hours earlier, they had enjoyed Westley’s leg-side repertoire and his occasional cover-drive; now success was to be measured in forward defensive strokes and balls survived. The final over was bowled by Bracewell, whose penultimate delivery was leg glanced for four by Bohannon. A minute or so later he was punching gloves with Jennings and the players were leaving the long-shadowed field; the sight was far removed from the floods of the previous 48 hours and it offers a rich prospect for the remaining two days of this game.

Worries stem from hosting back-to-back matches on October 9 and 10 and their ability to provide adequate security

Nagraj Gollapudi20-Aug-2023Days before the 2023 World Cup tickets go on sale, the BCCI has been put in a spot by the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) which has raised a concern about hosting back-to-back ODIs on October 9 and 10.ESPNcricinfo has learned that, on Saturday, the HCA alerted the BCCI that the Hyderabad Police was concerned about providing adequate security for two matches – New Zealand vs Netherlands on October 9 and Pakistan vs Sri Lanka on October 10. It is understood that the BCCI has told the HCA that it will examine the issue and respond.Related

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The HCA concern comes five days before the first batch of World Cup tickets go on sale, on August 25. The ICC announced the dates for a staggered sale of tickets after it was forced to revise the original World Cup schedule which comprised changing the dates for nine matches, including the one between India and Pakistan in Ahmedabad – the marquee contest was shifted from October 15 to October 14. But that resulted in Pakistan’s match against Sri Lanka in Hyderabad being pushed from October 12 to October 10 to give Babar Azam’s team an adequate gap leading into their India match. It could not be confirmed whether the BCCI had spoken to HCA when the revised schedule was finalised.