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Former Pakistan offspinner Saqlain Mushtaq, widely regarded as the inventer of the doosra, hailed the retiring Muttiah Muralitharan as the “best spinner of his generation”

Cricinfo staff09-Jul-2010Former Pakistan offspinner Saqlain Mushtaq, widely regarded as the inventor of the doosra, hailed the retiring Muttiah Muralitharan as the “best spinner of his generation”.”I have no doubt in my mind he was the best spinner of his generation,” Saqlain told PTI. “A champion bowler no matter what some people say. I am sure many batsmen would have heaved a sigh of relief knowing he is going to retire now.”Saqlain confounded batsmen from the late 90s onwards with the doosra that spins from leg stump to off, the offspinner’s equivalent of the googly. He was particularly effective in ODI cricket, where he was one of the rare spinners operating in the slog overs. Over the years, his surprise element waned as he tended to over-use the variation, and he played his last match for Pakistan in 2004. Saqlain was generous in heaping praise on Murali, who is credited with having perfected the mystery ball, now a regular fixture in an offspinner’s repertoire.”You can learn a lot from just watching him bowl and his videos are a must see for young spinners. To be honest I don’t think in the next 100 years, cricket is going to see a spinner of his calibre,” Saqlain said.”The best thing about him is that he had no pretensions or airs about him and I am sure even after retirement he will be around to help and guide the youngsters aspiring to be successful slow bowlers.”Saqlain also said there was no room for debate on Murali’s bowling action since the ICC had cleared it. “In all fairness I don’t think his action is suspect. The fact is that when the ICC cleared his action why should anyone have even raised questions about his action.”

Nadine de Klerk, who is recovering from an Achilles’ injury, is also part of the Laura Wolvaardt-led side

Firdose Moonda03-Sep-2024South Africa have named 18-year-old uncapped legspinner Seshnie Naidu and 20-year-old seamer Ayanda Hlubi in an otherwise experienced 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup in the UAE. Both players were part of the inaugural Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup held in South Africa last year.The rest of the squad members, apart from wicketkeeper batter Mieke de Ridder, were part of the playing group that reached the final of the 2023 T20 World Cup. From those, Lara Goodall, Masabata Klaas and Delmi Tucker miss out, and Shabnim Ismail has since retired.Dillon du Preez will continue to coach the side in an interim capacity, after taking over Hilton Moreeng in June. South Africa have yet to appoint a permanent head coach.The squad will be captained by Laura Wolvaardt, and includes the experience of allrounder Marizanne Kapp, opener Tazmin Brits and seamer Ayabonga Khaka. Nadine de Klerk, who is currently recovering from an Achilles’ injury, is expected to be fully fit for the tournament. Having last played against India in July, South Africa will play three matches in Pakistan en route to the UAE.The inclusion of Naidu and Hlubi comes amid talk of a comeback by Ismail and former captain Dane van Niekerk, suggesting South Africa are looking forward. While Ismail retired after the 2023 T20 World Cup final, van Niekerk quit amid controversy after she failed to make the T20 World Cup squad over fitness concerns. Ismail continues to play in T20 leagues. Convener of selectors Clinton du Preez said there was “no conversation” around a comeback but van Niekerk has signed with Western Province for the upcoming season. She told ESPNcricinfo she has “no timeline” on a possible return to the national side, and du Preez reiterated that she would have to re-earn her place.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“The message is very clear,” du Preez said. “She has opted to come back and play provincial cricket and she has got to try and knock down the door, do whatever she does best, and then we will consider and see how it goes forward.”Du Preez called the current status of the squad as being in “transition”, and Naidu and Hlubi are among the first to benefit from that. Both play their cricket at the Durban-based Dolphins team, where Hlubi was among the top ten wicket-takers in 50-over cricket in Division One last summer. She also toured to Australia with the national team.”She’s got good attributes as a quick bowler,” du Preez said. “We followed her in the provincial competition, and definitely look at her excitement as a bowler, and going into a World Cup as a player that is not known to quite a few countries. We are looking at what she can bring towards and complement her bowling attack.”Naidu’s career is in its infancy but she has already played in a major continental tournament as well. She was part of the South African Emerging Women’s squad that competed at the Africa Games in Ghana earlier this year and has been identified as a future star.”Seshnie Naidu has shown significant growth as a bowler within our camps, and we see her as an X factor for the World Cup,” du Preez said. “She brings a unique element to our bowling attack, offering something different that could be pivotal.”Ayanda Hlubi made her South Africa debut last year•Getty Images

Nonkululeko Mlaba, another Dolphins player, who was once ranked second in the world in T20Is, will lead the spin attack. South Africa have several seam-bowling options, including Kapp, Khaka, Tumi Sekhukhune and de Klerk. If there is a concern, it may be around batting depth with the squad overly reliant on Wolvaardt, Kapp and Brits especially as Sune Luus has struggled for form. Luus has not scored more than 19 in any of her six innings in T20Is this year and has been dismissed in single figures four times.Luus’ dip came after she led South Africa in their stunning run to last year’s T20 World Cup final and as a team, their performances have followed suit. Since that tournament, South Africa have only won five out of 18 T20Is and have lost series to Pakistan, Australia and Sri Lanka.At the upcoming World Cup, they will not play any of those teams in the group stage. They are in Group B and will open their campaign against West Indies in Dubai before playing England in Sharjah. They will then return to Dubai to play Scotland and Bangladesh.Like all the other teams at the tournament, South Africa have never played a T20I in Dubai but Luus and Khaka have some experience of Sharjah. They were in the squad that played against Pakistan in a T20I series in 2015.”The management group has consulted in depth in the past week around all the conditions and all the potential factors that could impact things,” du Preez said. “It’s going to be difficult to adapt. However, we feel that the squad that we have got will be able to complement us on the field of play.”

South Africa squad for Women’s T20 World Cup 2024

Laura Wolvaardt (captain), Anneke Bosch, Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk, Annerie Dercksen, Mieke de Ridder, Ayanda Hlubi, Sinalo Jafta, Marizanne Kapp, Ayabonga Khaka, Sune Luus, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Seshnie Naidu, Tumi Sekhukhune, Chloe Tryon
Travelling Reserve: Miane Smit

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

• Is Broad brewing something spectacular ahead of the Ashes?

• Australia add three-time Ashes-winning coach Andy Flower to backroom staff

• Pat Cummins 'aiming to play all six' Tests over English summer

• Moeen considering Test comeback after England Ashes call

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

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.

Lancashire openers take command but ECB ruling gives table-toppers hope

Paul Edwards08-Sep-2020
Barring a second epic run-chase in six weeks and a change of mind by the ECB, Derbyshire will not win the Bob Willis Trophy, but the next know-nowt pundit who patronisingly groups them among the “smaller” counties should be put in the stocks at Buxton and pelted with pies.Rather more usefully, perhaps, he or she could be made to watch the four-day cricket played by Billy Godleman’s side this season. That would include a memorable run-chase at Trent Bridge, a fine victory at Grace Road and two enterprising displays in rain-affected draws at Headingley and The Riverside.It would also feature the marvellously determined attempt to earn a batting bonus point on this third day at Aigburth, a venture that only ended when Dustin Melton’s swipe at a straight ball from Danny Lamb failed to connect and the Derbyshire’s last man had his middle stump knocked back with his team five runs short of its goal.That dismissal mattered, so we thought, because it effectively ended the visitors’ hopes of reaching the final at Lord’s. But late on Tuesday evening the ECB announced that its technical committee would adjudicate as to which teams would play in that game once the final round of matches had been completed.The governing body had left itself this option to take account of a Covid-19 outbreak and it was just such an event that caused the abandonment of Sunday’s game between Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire at Bristol. Logic and natural justice would suggest that Essex will still be in the final against Somerset or Worcestershire – Tom Westley’s players celebrated their success at Chelmsford when Melton was castled – but if Derbyshire chase down well over 300 tomorrow there remains a possibility that the criteria for qualification will change from most wins to run-rate.This idea was being mooted just after tea at Liverpool. These are strange times and nothing is being ruled out, certainly not Godleman’s batsmen chasing down a tall target against an inexperienced Lancashire attack.But the cricket that was played at Aigburth mattered too and it would be a pity if the resilience of Derbyshire’s middle and lower order batsmen went unnoticed amid all the announcements and possible rethinks. Not the least admirable factor about Derbyshire’s cricket this season is that their players have been virtually peripatetic – the County Ground has been used by Pakistan and by women’s teams – but their fightbacks are now more expected than surprising.This one began on Monday evening when the visitors had slumped to 61 for 7 in reply to Lancashire’s 219 and Harvey Hosein was joined by Mattie McKiernan. That pair continued their resistance on a heavy-clouded bowlers’ morning at Liverpool with Hosein in particular looking to get down the pitch to Lamb and George Balderson in an attempt to negate movement and maximise the opportunities to drive the ball.The hundred partnership came up and Derbyshire were only 37 runs short of that crucial point when McKiernan played across a straight ball from George Burrows and was leg before wicket for 31, his runs being scored in seven minutes over three hours of concentrated effort.Fifteen runs later Hosein went too and his dismissal was a line of poetry. Six young players have made their first-class Lancashire debuts in the Bob Willis, two more than Sussex, the next most enterprising county. Against Derbyshire, Lancashire picked Jack Morley, a 19-year-old left-arm spinner from Rochdale, and his classical delivery brought Hosein forward but not quite to the pitch of the turning ball. George Lavelle, a 20-year-old who plays for Ormskirk in the Liverpool Competition, took the catch.And so we had this:
Hosein c Lavelle b Morley 84
Both the innings and the dismissal will warm the winter.Derbyshire now needed 22 runs and one way of getting them was to whack the ball as hard and far as possible. When Lamb pitched the ball up Melton borrowed a shot from Ashford-in-the-Water’s Sunday XI and thrashed it over midwicket. About five minutes before lunch he tried it again…But let us return to our one-eyed critic who believes that the number of first-class counties should be reduced. We will give him the initials CG. He might ignore the cricket played by Derbyshire for most of this season and point only to the afternoon session when Godleman’s dispirited bowlers conceded 126 runs to Keaton Jennings and Alex Davies. Lancashire’s fifty came up in the 13th over, their hundred in the 20th. Davies pulled and cut with the ferocity of a bantamweight cheated out of his prize money. After tea he lifted one of McKiernan’s leg spinners into the car park to the right of the bowling green and looked set for a century when he drove Matt Critchley, Derbyshire’s second leggie, straight to Anuj Dal at short extra cover.That dismissal began a fine evening for Derbyshire who claimed five further wickets before the close. (Perhaps they were reinvigorated by the news from St John’s Wood.) Critchley took four of them, including that of Jennings for 81 when the Lancashire opener toe-ended a reverse sweep to Godleman at cover. However, the leg-spinner’s 26 overs cost 126 runs, figures which give some idea of the enterprise shown by Lancashire’s batsmen.An even clearer idea of that approach was given by Balderson, who reached his maiden first-class fifty in the final over of the evening session and hit the last ball of the day for a straight six. One hopes that ends Lancashire’s batting in this game. A target of 336 would be very fair and Vilas will learn a lot about his young attack if he declares overnight and trusts them with the task of winning the game.

The former New Zealand captain was proud of the way Kane Williamson’s men handled the Lord’s heartbreak

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jul-2019Brendon McCullum knows what it is to lose a World Cup final. In 2015, under McCullum’s captaincy, New Zealand enjoyed a bumper run to the final, only to lose to Australia by seven wickets at the MCG. Four years later, New Zealand reached another World Cup final, this time at Lord’s, and tied the game. The manic Super Over, the first in World Cups, ended in a tie as well, and England eventually won the title on boundary count.McCullum’s side had turned a rugby-mad country into a cricket-loving nation in 2015. Williamson’s men have created similar impact now, and McCullum believes they will move on from the Lord’s heartbreak.”That’s the thing and it’s going to be so difficult for those guys,” McCullum told . “I was lucky enough to have a beer with them in the changing room and they were pretty broken, that’s for sure.”They were also really proud of what they did and how well they played. Over the coming months and years, whilst it’s still raw now, they’ll understand just how magnificent that spectacle was. And for it to happen on the biggest of stages, to have played the hand that they played in that match is absolutely amazing.”McCullum looked back on the MCG final in 2015 and called it “a missed opportunity”, but said he was pleased with the way how the team dealt with the result then and even now.”Yes, it would’ve been lovely to have been a World Cup champion, but I’ve always said the game doesn’t define you but it’s the person and character you are,” McCullum said. “I was so pleased with how our team handled that loss, also the success throughout that tournament.
It’s a bit different [but] I thought they’ve handled themselves magnificently in the aftermath of that result [at Lord’s].”A bizarre play in the last over of England’s chase turned the final decisively. When Ben Stokes dived at the striker’s end to complete a second run, he inadvertently deflected a throw from outfielder Martin Guptill to the third-man boundary. England were awarded six runs, and there were questions raised on the call made by the umpires at the time. McCullum, though, chose not to dwell on that play which had worked against New Zealand.”I guess if you look at the rules, it may not have been the right call but it’s just luck, that’s how it works,” he said. “There’s nothing to say that if Ben Stokes was facing the last ball and he needed four off that rather than two, he wouldn’t have struck that low full-toss out of the ground.”I just don’t think you can focus on those things. It’s bitterly disappointing they didn’t work out for us but we had our elements of luck throughout that World Cup too, which gave us a chance. Unfortunately on the day it didn’t fall our way. I certainly don’t blame anyone.”

Paul Collingwood’s insertion looked straightforward enough, but it did not turn out as he planned as Leicestershire put up stiff resistance

ECB Reporters Network04-May-2018
ScorecardLeicestershire have made an imperious start to their Specsavers County Championship Division Two clash against Durham posting 301 for 4 on day one, punishing Paul Collingwood for inserting the visitors at Emirates Riverside.Michael Carberry, Paul Horton and Mark Cosgrove all made fifties as the home side’s bowlers toiled on a flat pitch, leaving them with a huge task ahead of them to get back into the contest.The toss was contested and Collingwood opted to send the visitors into bat, despite the bright sunshine at the Emirates Riverside. Carberry and Horton were watchful at the crease in the early stages of the innings to see off the threat of the new ball. Once Chris Rushworth and Nathan Rimmington were removed from the attack, boundaries flowed off the bowling of Barry McCarthy and James Weighell as Leicestershire coasted into lunch at 80 for 0.Horton remained composed after the break and notched his fifty off 114 deliveries – his second on the bounce in the County Championship. The visitors eased past the 100-run mark before Carberry reached his half-century as he guided a shot down to the boundary, reaching the milestone slightly quicker than his partner in 97 balls.The opening partnership of 146 was broken when Horton played a loose cut off the bowling of Nathan Rimmington, drilling the ball straight to Cameron Steel at point for 75. Carberry followed for 73 when he was adjudged lbw to Barry McCarthy in a tight call. Colin Ackermann found the boundary with regularity, notching five fours and six, and was looking comfortable at the crease as Leicestershire passed 200.However, the South African fell one delivery shy of the tea break when he edged behind a delivery from James Weighell for 36. Mark Cosgrove found his feet and was able to compound his side’s advantage, blunting Durham’s attempts to break back into the contest. McCarthy notched his second breakthrough of the game when he snagged Ned Eckersley lbw for nine.Cosgrove remained composed and reached his fifty with a boundary, nudging a McCarthy delivery through gully. The Australian’s half-century was the quickest of the lot, taking only 80 balls, with nine boundaries in his innings.Durham took the new ball with the hope of making further inroads, but the attempts of Rushworth and Rimmington were in vain as pitch continued to offer little assistance. Cosgrove and Lewis Hill continued to put runs on the board and they took Leicestershire’s total beyond 300 in the final over the day, with the Aussie unbeaten on 66.

William Porterfield and the spinners helped Ireland thrash United Arab Emirates by 85 runs in the first ODI in Dubai

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Mar-2017
ScorecardWilliam Porterfield was bowled soon after completing his seventh ODI hundred•Chris Whiteoak

William Porterfield struck his seventh ODI ton to lift Ireland to 270, a total they defended by 85 runs with the help of George Dockrell and Andy McBrine’s spin.Ireland, after being asked to bat, lost two early wickets. Fast bowler Mohammad Naveed had Paul Stirling caught behind for 4, and in his next over, removed Andy Balbirnie. Porterfield then led Ireland’s rebuild with partnerships of 59,124 and 56 with Niall O’Brien, Kevin O’Brien and Gary Wilson respectively. Kevin O’Brien struck a 53-ball 69 that included seven fours and one six.Fast bowler Zahoor Khan took three wickets in three balls, with a wide in between his second and third victims, to stall Ireland’s momentum towards the end. Ireland lost their last six wickets for 17 runs in 24 balls, Zahoor took all of them to finish with 6 for 34, the best figures by a UAE bowler.Rohan Mustafa hammered a 29-ball 43 to lead UAE’s reply, but their chase withered away as they lost regular wickets. Off spinner McBrine and left-arm spinner Dockrell took wickets between them to reduce UAE to 112 for 7. Ahmed Raza struck a 69-ball 45 at No. 8. UAE were bowled out for 185 in the 42nd over.

Central Districts comfortably defended the Ford Trophy after crushing Canterbury by 156 runs in the final in New Plymouth

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jan-2016
ScorecardFile photo – George Worker smashed 12 fours and seven sixes in his 151-ball 159•Getty Images

Central Districts comfortably defended the Ford Trophy after crushing Canterbury by 156 runs in the final in New Plymouth. Central Districts piled on 405 for 6, equalling the highest List A score at Pukekura Park, on the back of a 159 from George Worker and Tom Bruce’s 23-ball 71 – the fastest fifty in New Zealand List A history – which included six fours and seven sixes. Jesse Ryder (62 off 50) and Will Young (51 off 32) also contributed with brisk fifties.Worker, who surpassed 3000 List A runs during the innings, forged stand of 80, 109, 92 and 63 for the first four wickets to decisively turn the match in Central Districts’ favour. However, Bruce helped put it beyond Canterbury by helping put on 61 off the last 20 balls.Captain Andrew Ellis picked up two wickets but went for 97 in his 10 overs. Ed Nuttall was the most economical of the bowlers with figures of 0 for 44 off his eight overs.Canterbury were never in the chase from the start after losing their openers within the first eight balls. Todd Astle (65) and Ellis combined to put on 121, but it was a task too far. Ellis went on to make his maiden List A century (101 off 76 balls), but Canterbury were bowled out for 249 in the 38th over. Bevan Small claimed three victims whereas Seth Rance, who finished as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 19 wickets, returned 2 for 17.