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Centuries for Luke Wells, Josh Bohannon keep Northants under pump on shortened day

Paul Edwards27-Jul-2023
If anything is to help this game reverse up Stalemate Close, it is probably the black saucers of earth that lie at each end of the pitch. Batters regard them with suspicion while spin bowlers, of which Lancashire have two specialists, view them with delight. If only our top order can build a lead, they thought this morning, we could frolic in the footmarks on Friday. So as expected, when play began at Emirates Old Trafford on this third day, three hours late and with 29 overs snipped from our ration, Lancashire put the hammer down on an attack lacking Ben Sanderson, Tom Taylor and Rob Keogh.Carnage followed. Big style. And Phil Salt played one of the innings of the season, scoring a century which outshone even those of Luke Wells and Josh Bohannon and reminding everyone, perhaps including Salt himself, that his talents need not be confined to white-ball cricketThat said, Northamptonshire’s injured bowlers have taken 39 of their side’s 108 Championship wickets in 2023 and this day’s two sessions showed how sorely they are missed. To a degree, it also revived memories of the evening’s cricket at Blackpool just over a fortnight ago, when Lancashire’s attack was shredded by Dan Lawrence and Doug Bracewell. This time, however, it was Keaton Jennings’ batters who did the shredding, scoring 377 runs in 67 overs and ending the day with a lead of 156 runs and power to add on the morrow.Even in the present era, such fast-forward cricket lent the evening unreality. The achievement of bonus points every 50 runs, significant partnerships and the batter’s individual landmarks blurred into each other and passed with notebook-defeating speed. Rounds of applause blended into each other, for there always seemed something for home supporters to clap. Wells reached his first century of the season off 171 balls, Bohannon his second off 143 balls and Salt also made his second three-figure score of the campaign, reaching that landmark off 74 balls with his third straight six to add to his 11 fours. So yes, there were plenty of big shots but what was most noticeable, particularly during Bohannon’s 126-run stand for the third wicket in 19 overs with Salt, was the whippet-speed of the running between the wickets as ones became twos if the fielder had to make any ground towards the ball.And as so often on such occasions, catches went down, some more culpably than others. White had little choice but to throw his catch at deep square leg back inside the boundary as he toppled over the rope, thus giving Wells a life on 78, but shortly afterwards Lewis McManus had no such excuse when he spilled a very straightforward chance off Dominic Leech. McManus was standing back, Leech was standing aghast and Wells was still standing on 85 not out.The one Northamptonshire fielder to emerge from the massacre with any credit was Ricardo Vasconcelos, who took an unremarkable catch to dismiss Wells off White for 119 and then a very remarkable, one-handed, diving effort off the same bowler to remove Bohannon for 128. But the loss of those wickets was acceptable collateral damage for Lancashire, although the same could hardly be said when Croft received a box-splintering blow in the knackers from White and fell to earth like a lightweight on the end of a haymaker.Salt’s dismissal, caught at deep square leg off White for a 77-ball 105 brought the curtain down on chaos. Nine overs from the close, Bell was caught on the deep square leg boundary by Vasconcelos for 15 and Croft and Tom Bailey later fell to Luke Procter, who, along with White, was the only Northamptonshire bowler who will wish to consult his bowling figures this evening. But those late successes seemed taken from another game, one far detached from the mayhem of a post-tea session in which 222 runs were scored in 35 overs, and one even further removed from the sight of Salt hitting fours and sixes that astounded even his batting partner.

The six limited-overs matches in Sydney and Canberra have almost sold out

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Nov-2020The prospect of the opening Test between Australia and India remaining in Adelaide has received a boost with South Australia to come out of its strict Covid-19 lockdown three days early on Saturday.The state was put into a hard six-day lockdown on Thursday amid growing concerns around a Covid-19 cluster which emerged last weekend, but on Friday it was announced that new information had come to light which would allow an early loosening of restrictions.Last week Cricket Australia flew international and BBL players into New South Wales to avoid the risk of them being unable to travel if further borders were closed.A number of players who had been involved in the Sheffield Shield hub which finished in Adelaide earlier this month had to go into self-isolation in their home states when the cluster emerged, but CA was able to get approval for those involved in the limited-overs and Australia A squads to fly to Sydney.Currently the South Australia-Victoria border is closed but it is hoped that it can reopen on December 1 if the Covid cluster is kept under control. That will be a key part of staging the first Test in Adelaide on December 17 because the teams then need to be able to travel to Melbourne ahead of the Boxing Day Test.Throughout last week CA remained committed to hosting the opening Test as planned in Adelaide even if restrictions mean reduced or no crowds.The tour starts with the first ODI at the SCG on November 27 with the three ODIs and three T20Is split between Sydney and Canberra. As of Friday, all but one of the six limited-overs game had sold out with just under 2000 tickets remaining for the first ODI. Both venues are operating at 50% capacity.

The Ireland allrounder has opted for a future in Australia and could play for them when she qualifies

Daniel Brettig25-Jun-2020Australia’s coach Matthew Mott believes Kim Garth’s switch from Ireland to a deal with Victoria should be the spur to help usher in women’s professional contracts for Irish cricket to stave off the risk of losing a generation of female talent to wealthier nations.As a former member of Ireland’s coaching staff during the 2015 men’s ODI World Cup, Mott has plenty of strong relationships on both sides of the equation, and while backing Garth’s decision to pursue a fully professional future, agreed that there was growing danger that emerging nations could have their best players poached by richer set-ups, not least Australia given the pre-eminence of the WBBL as the best domestic T20 event in the world.While the Covid-19 pandemic has made life difficult for all cricket administrators, Mott was hopeful that the Garth episode would help accelerate Ireland’s move to a more fully-resourced and funded program for the women’s team, allowing players to make the game their careers without needing to venture overseas in this manner.ALSO READ: Kim Garth leaves Irish cricket for future in Australia“It’s incredibly important and maybe this is a good thing for Irish cricket – I think it might help fast-track some stuff for their professionalisation,” Mott said. “They surely don’t want to be losing good players and I know that happened in the men’s game. A number of the best Irish players were going to play for England and one ended up captaining England, so I think they’ve certainly improved in that area.”They’re building their momentum and they need to be playing against good teams and getting better all the time. It’s a difficult thing. I’m very close mates with Ed Joyce who’s the Irish coach, so I was aware of it some time ago and I think it’s disappointing personally for Irish cricket, they’ve put a lot of work in over the last two years, but obviously a cricketer’s ambitions are very important and she’s a very ambitious young player and I think it’s the best thing for her cricket at the moment. “You’ve got to back that decision, it’s a really gutsy decision to go to the other side of the world and try to follow your dream. We’ve got a great structure here and it’s very attractive for her and she knows our system quite well having been here for a few years as well. I am disappointed for Irish cricket, having coached there myself and know how difficult it is to hold on to good players, but at the end of the day she’s got to do the best thing by her and it will be really interesting to see how far she can take her cricket.”The links between Cricket Australia and Cricket Ireland are strong and multi-faceted. During the Covid-19 lockdown period, Mott and the Australia captain Meg Lanning were involved in a series of video seminars geared at aiding the Irish game, while there is also a considerable shared heritage between the two nations dating back deep into the 19th century.”They just love their cricket and that’s the thing that struck me in my time with the Irish team, just how passionate they are about the game and we just want to see them do well,” Mott said. “Kim made a decision off her own bat, there was certainly nothing from CA to try to entice her over here, but that being said we’ll always welcome good cricketers into our setup.”Garth is expected to seek permanent residency in Australia and Mott said that if she became eligible for the national side she would be treated like any other player. “I think she’s a very talented player, and when you look at the Irish team, whenever we come up against them, she’s the first name talked about If she comes over and does well, our selectors have shown they will reward performance and she’s got every opportunity that everyone else has. She’ll be a welcome player in our domestic format.”Casting his mind back to last week’s announcement of 40 redundancies across CA, Mott said that the women’s national team had been fortunate in not losing much in the way of staff or resources, even as the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane has its operations scaled back in favour of players spending more time with their own state squads.Kim Garth in action for the Perth Scorchers•Getty Images

“First and foremost, it was a really difficult week for anyone in Australian cricket,” he said. “I think we’re all hurting, we’ve seen a number of really good staff members leave our workplace, and a lot of those are life-long friendships that will still be there and hopefully one day when cricket really gets strong again and we get out of this crisis, those people are welcomed back.”In terms of the women’s program we’ve been quite fortunate, we’ve taken some hits but we’ve also just hibernated a couple of programs and hopefully when we come out of this we can re-engage. We’ve got to make better use of the resources we’ve got, our programs are going to have to be really in-sync and on-point, so we’re looking at it as a real challenge.”Mott admitted he was more concerned for cricket’s smaller nations, and budgetary decisions currently being made that might push back the development of the women’s game outside of Australia. “I worry for some of the developing nations to be honest,” he said. “For places like Sri Lanka that aren’t as established in their women’s programs, and I just hope they can hold on through this period.”The ICC are definitely trying to champion some of the developing countries to be stronger and that’s something all the big nations need to be aware of. We want a global game, we want a world game and where we can help out some of the developing countries whether it’s with our human resources or just helping in tournament play and giving them some key messages.”Having strong domestic competitions, the next frontier is India, we’d love to see an IPL get up and running and giving our players a chance to play in different conditions and experience different cultures as well.”

Afghanistan captain says act wasn’t in the spirit of the game, but they did it because they were looking to win

Sreshth Shah in Benoni31-Jan-2020Afghanistan left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmad ran out Pakistan opener Mohammad Huraira at the non-striker’s end in the fourth Super League quarter-final at the Under-19 World Cup, whipping the bails off in his delivery stride with the opener having left his crease.On-field umpire Sam Nogajski referred the matter to Roly Black, the third umpire, and replays confirmed Huraira was out of his crease when Ahmad broke the stumps. Huraira, who was making his Youth ODI debut, was run out for a 76-ball 64. His wicket left Pakistan 127 for 4, but they were still comfortably placed, needing a further 63 runs to win in 134 balls. Afghanistan had earlier been bowled out for 189. Pakistan eventually won by six wickets in 41.1 overs.Afghanistan captain Farhan Zakhil, however, felt after the match that the act was not “in the spirit of the game”.”At that time, we realised let’s do something different to build pressure on Pakistan,” Zakhil told ESPNcricinfo. “To be honest, it was not in the spirit of the game.”But we wanted to win. It was a very important game for us. The people of Afghanistan wanted us to beat Pakistan. But it’s within the rules – and out is out. You have to stay within the crease. If you want to reduce the pitch length to 16 or 18 yards, then you’re creating a problem for us.”If you want to make runs and rotate the strike, you must respect the opposition, which is why we went ahead. If we were winning, we probably wouldn’t have done it.”Huraira accepted that he shouldn’t have left his crease, though he wasn’t happy with the dismissal. “It was my first game in the World Cup, so a bit of a bitter experience,” Huraira said. “But I should’ve been in the crease, and I’ll learn from the mistake. I’ll ensure it isn’t repeated again.”This is not the first time such a dismissal has been effected in an Under-19 World Cup, with West Indies’ Keemo Paul having run out Zimbabwe’s Richard Ngarava in similar fashion in the 2016 edition in Bangladesh, giving West Indies a thrilling win by two runs.ALSO READ: ‘I was right, but won’t repeat it due to backlash’According to the MCC’s Law 41.16, which was revised in 2017, “if the non-striker is out of his/her ground at any time from the moment the ball comes into play until the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, the non-striker is liable to be run out.” The non-striker would be run out “whether or not the ball is subsequently delivered”.Opinion remains divided on whether this particular form of dismissal, colloquially called a “mankad” – after former India allrounder Vinoo Mankad, who effected the first recorded instance of it in 1947 in a Test against Australia – is in the spirit of the game or not. But is worth noting that the MCC has stated that the bowler is under no compulsion to warn the batsman, and that this form of dismissal is not against the spirit of cricket.The most recent high-profile case of a batsman being run out at the non-striker’s end took place in IPL 2019, when R Ashwin ran out Jos Buttler when Kings XI Punjab were taking on Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur. Royals, who were 108 for 1 and needed only 63 off 44 balls to win, collapsed after the Buttler run out to lose the match by 14 runs.

Sidra Nawaz is not part of the 17-player squad that is understood to have been chosen for both formats

Danyal Rasool01-May-2024Pakistan have selected a near-identical squad to the one playing the ongoing white-ball series against West Indies for the upcoming tour of England, with Nida Dar the captain of the side.The only omissions are Bismah Maroof, who retired from the game last week after an international career that spanned 18 years, and Sidra Nawaz, who was part of the ODI squad but did not play a game.The official squad announcement does not appear to distinguish between players selected for the T20I and ODI legs of the series against England, and it is understood that all 17 players have been chosen for both formats.Related

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The tour comes following a disappointing home series against West Indies, in which Pakistan have run the visitors close on several occasions but are yet to get over the line. West Indies, spearheaded by the sensational all-round form of Hayley Matthews, won the ODI series 3-0, and have taken an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match T20I series in Karachi.Pakistan will play three T20Is and as many ODIs against England in May, with the T20I games on May 11, 17 and 19. The ODIs follow on May 23, 26 and 29. They will also play a warm-up T20 on May 9 and a one-day game on May 21 against an ECB Development XI side.The ODIs are part of the ICC Women’s Championship 2022-25, with this being Pakistan’s eighth and final series in the current cycle. Pakistan are currently fifth with 16 points on the ten-team table, with the top five qualifying for the 2025 ODI World Cup directly.

Pakistan women’s squad for tour of England

Nida Dar (capt), Aliya Riaz, Ayesha Zafar, Diana Baig, Fatima Sana, Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali (wk), Najiha Alvi (wk), Nashra Sandhu, Natalia Parvaiz, Rameen Shamim, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Sidra Amin, Tuba Hassan, Umm-e-Hani, Waheeda Akhtar

Andile Phehlukwayo and Lizaad Williams have been included as replacements in South Africa’s 15-man squad

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Sep-2023Fast bowlers Anrich Nortje and Sisanda Magala have been ruled out of the 2023 ODI World Cup with injuries. They have been replaced by Andile Phehlukwayo and Lizaad Williams in South Africa’s 15-man squad for the tournament that begins in India on October 5.Nortje has a suspected stress fracture of the back after experiencing spasms during the second ODI against Australia earlier this month. Magala, who played only the third ODI against Australia and went for 1 for 46 in four overs, has a left-knee injury.”It’s hugely disappointing for Anrich and Sisanda to be missing out on the 50-over World Cup,” South Africa’s coach Rob Walter said. “We sympathize in their omission and will continue to provide all the necessary support as they work towards their return to competitive action.”This provides an opportunity for Andile and Lizaad on the global stage. Both players have been part of our winter programs as well as having represented South Africa in the recent white-ball tour against Australia. They offer great skill sets and we’re excited to have them complete the 15-player squad for this year’s World Cup.”Phehlukwayo played in the second and fifth ODIs against Australia. While he did not make much of an impression in the first game, he scored 38 off 19 balls to finish the innings strongly in the series finale and then took 1 for 44. Williams played three of the five matches, taking 3 for 44, 1 for 17 and 0 for 24.Nortje’s absence is a major blow for South Africa as he is their quickest bowler with substantial experience in India, where he plays for Delhi Capitals in the IPL. He played in the Major League Cricket tournament in the USA over the South African winter and was rested for the T20Is against Australia. He was then ruled out of the first ODI but played the second, bowling only five overs before leaving the field. He missed the third game after he was sent for scans and was then ruled out of the series.Magala had not played any cricket since splitting the webbing in his hand at the IPL in early April and was subsequently ruled out of the T20Is against Australia with infrapatellar tendinopathy – pain in the tendon that connects the kneecap to the shin bone. He experienced discomfort in the knee again after playing one ODI against Australia.South Africa leave for India on September 23, and play their warm-up games against Afghanistan on September 29 and New Zealand on October 2. Their first game of the tournament is against Sri Lanka on October 7.

South Africa’s ODI World Cup squad

Temba Bavuma (capt), Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Rassie van der Dussen, Lizaad Williams

“Murphy is an exciting young bowler. He is not Nathan Lyon, but Nathan Lyon is not Shane Warne either”

Matt Roller24-Jul-2023Tom Moody believes that Australia must select Todd Murphy for the fifth and final Ashes Test at The Kia Oval, and that he should replace Cameron Green in the side.Australia went into the fourth Test at Emirates Old Trafford with three frontline seamers and two allrounders in Green and Mitchell Marsh, opting not to select a specialist spinner for the first time in more than a decade.They conceded 592 in just 107.4 overs as England looked to force a result before rain wiped out the majority of the fourth and the entirety of the fifth day. Moody, who played 84 times for his country and has enjoyed an extensive coaching career, believes that Australia must pick Murphy, the 22-year-old offspinner, to restore balance to their attack.Related

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“I know that they would’ve had their various reasons behind not playing Murphy, whether that was based around the fact that there was the weather that was potentially on the horizon, but that’s no guarantee,” Moody told ESPNcricinfo. “That would have looked pretty stupid if it had backfired.”To me, the attack did look like it lacked balance. Murphy is an exciting young bowler. He is not Nathan Lyon, but Nathan Lyon is not Shane Warne either. Murphy needs to create his own path and have his own journey; he has started that already and he has started pretty successfully.”I’d be surprised if he doesn’t come into the side just to create that balance, but also give the team better combinations for Pat Cummins to lean towards. In that fourth Test match, it was almost like he was looking around the field for options – and he was nearly looking in the mirror all the time.”Australia planned to use Travis Head as their main spinner in Manchester, but he bowled seven wicketless overs, which cost 52 runs. “That highlights the challenge of Test cricket,” Moody said. “You need to be a specialist at your craft, and you need complementary specialists in your attack.”He suggested that Australia should leave Green out of their side in order to fit Murphy in. “I think playing the two allrounders is a luxury, and to me, at this stage, Mitch Marsh is the one that looks like he can influence the game, which he’s already done since he’s returned with confidence.”There’s no question Cameron Green has got remarkable upside, but the here-and-now selection is Mitch Marsh. There are very few players in the history of the game that haven’t had setbacks, or been left out of sides for team combinations or form or whatever it might be. If anything, it’s probably something that might do him [Green] the world of good.”Moody expects Australia’s selectors to keep faith in David Warner, having retained him for the fourth Test. “The way I look at it, them deciding to play him at Old Trafford was nearly committing to him for the series,” he said. “If they were going to make a change, that was the moment to make it, but they clearly felt that he’d done enough.”And Moody believes that winning an away Ashes series for the first time since 2001 by avoiding defeat at The Oval would be “a huge achievement” for Australia. “The way that England have been playing Test cricket has been nothing short of outstanding to watch. They have set new standards, which is something to be admired and respected.Moody wants Australia to win the Ashes 3-1•Getty Images

“So to get a stranglehold so early in the series was credit to Pat Cummins and his team. To win away from home is difficult anywhere in the world, but probably the two hardest places are India and England. After the way the game petered out at Old Trafford, I would imagine their mindset would be making sure that they put the final nail in the coffin and try to win 3-1.”Moody was speaking at Lord’s as Desert Vipers – the ILT20 franchise for whom he works as director of cricket – launched a sustainability initiative which included a full-scale audit into their carbon footprint during the league’s inaugural season in the UAE earlier this year.Vipers called on other T20 franchises to follow suit in order to mitigate the negative impact that short-form leagues have on the environment, particularly with regard to long-haul flights. “Hopefully Desert Vipers have a unique opportunity to be trailblazers for other sporting teams,” Moody said.”When you see significant events happen globally around the impact of heat or flood, that’s when it’s an eye-opener. Missing a day’s play because it’s wet is insignificant compared to seeing whole communities impacted by devastating floods, for example, which we’re seeing constantly both in Australia and globally.”

Derbyshire’s Championship debutants combine to restrict Middlesex at Chesterfield

Paul Edwards12-Jun-2022
If you walk westwards down Saltergate out of Chesterfield town centre, your attention will almost certainly be drawn towards two huge white statues that stand in front of an otherwise unprepossessing red-brick building. The offices within accommodate a firm of solicitors but the inscriptions on the statues’ plinths make it plain that it has not always been so.Both of them pay tribute to former officials of the Derbyshire Miners Association, William Edward Harvey and James Haslam, each of whom served the organisation for over thirty years around the turn of the 20th century. Fittingly, the statues are smeared black but their moustachioed subjects are wearing fine frock coats and they sport watch chains, like badges of affluence, across their waistcoats. Ozymandias could not radiate a greater air of entitlement than these relics of Chesterfield’s industrial past.Does some similar indignity lurk in the shadows for first-class county cricket?It seemed foolish to think so this perfect June morning when Queen’s Park was hosting its 409th red-ball game and some of the trees that witnessed the first in 1898 threshed in the playful breeze……And absurd again when over thirty former Derbyshire cricketers turned up to watch the opening day of this match, their eyes bright and their handshakes firm as they revisited old battles on this famous field and met some of the current team……And balderdash in spades as we saw Middlesex’s batters scrap their way to a very respectable 251 all out on a frisky wicket, eight batters reaching double figures for the Division Two leaders, with Luke Hollman, all sweeps and off-side punches, getting to 48 before he edged a catch to Wayne Madsen at slip.Then, as the evening cooled to conclusion, Shan Masood stroked a quartet of fours, each of them to a different boundary and we knew they were as good as anything we had seen all day. In the face of such riches, it was hard indeed to think the game in England was in peril.Related

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Yet you hardly need to be a cricket badger to know that there is talk about reducing both the number of the first-class games and the number of first-class counties and that the ECB is also thinking of applying firm criteria for outground venues (as though the counties did not have these already). If all these notions are implemented, whither Derbyshire, whither Chesterfield and, above all, whither Toby Pettman and Mark Watt?Both Pettman and Watt made their Championship debuts today and both have had to wait their turn while also being a trifle uncertain whether it would ever come. Watt has played four first-class games for Scotland but has also been seen as a shorter-form specialist. So one could understand his glee just before lunch when he turned one past the middle of Stephen Eskinazi’s bat and it brushed the outside edge en route to the off stump. Some four hours later he added Hollman’s wicket to his bag.Pettman, by slight contrast, came into this game with 33 first-class wickets on his CV but all were taken when he was at Oxford University, where he gained a double-first in Classics and you don’t get those with Nectar points. However, it was his seam bowling that caught the eye of the Nottinghamshire coaches and he is in the middle of his second one-year deal at Trent Bridge.A short loan spell at Derbyshire offered him a perfect opportunity to play some Championship cricket and he had both openers dropped in his first seven overs from the Lake End. Having conceded just 11 runs in that spell, he took his first wicket just after lunch when Max Holden’s authentic leg-glance was caught by Brooke Guest, and Pettman then removed both Thilan Walallawita and Tim Murtagh to end Middlesex’s innings just after the visitors had picked up their second bonus point.