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Chris Wood’s first half-century of the season ensured Hampshire escaped with a draw and left Glamorgan still looking for their second win in the County Championship this term.

05-Aug-2013
ScorecardNeil McKenzie shared in a healthy partnership that secured the draw•Getty Images

Chris Wood’s first half-century of the season ensured Hampshire escaped with a draw and left Glamorgan still looking for their second win in the County Championship this term.Rain meant only 39 overs were possible, during which time Hampshire overcame a 14-run deficit, built a lead of 108 and in the process lost two wickets. A draw was inevitable as the home side closed on 237 for 4 at Southampton.The result did neither side any good since Glamorgan’s 11-point haul left them still in the bottom two while Hampshire’s promotion hopes receded further with their eight-point return. In addition neither could blame the Ageas Bowl pitch which offered some help to the seam bowlers on the first day, as it often does, but flattened out over the course of the match.Hampshire began the last day on 115 for 2 from 41 overs, still 14 behind and with Glamorgan in urgent need of early wickets before the threatened rain arrived. They did not get them. Liam Dawson and nightwatchman Wood took root as Hampshire required 46 overs to finally clear the deficit.There was still marginal hope for Glamorgan when Dawson was run out for 42 in the 52nd over when Hampshire led by only 40 but they quickly died when the powerful-driving Wood was joined by Neil McKenzie. Wood and McKenzie added another 95 in 29 overs for the fourth wicket as the match limped to a tame conclusion.The 23-year-old Wood made an aggressive 69 which included three successive fours off Graham Wagg but in Wagg’s next over he mis-hooked to Michael Hogan at slip. Wood’s 69 included nine fours and came off 139 balls and at the fall of his wicket, the rain came down to force the draw. McKenzie was 35 not out when stumps were drawn.Glamorgan captain Mark Wallace used eight bowlers in an increasingly desperate attempt to force a breakthrough and the most successful of those was Wagg who finished with 2 for 20.

Worcestershire kept their slim hopes of promotion alive with a nine-wicket victory against bottom-of-the-table Leicestershire in their Championship clash at Grace Road

31-Aug-2013
ScorecardMatt Pardoe finished unbeaten on 76 as Worcestershire completed a comfortable chase•PA Photos

Worcestershire kept their slim hopes of promotion alive with a nine-wicket victory against bottom-of-the-table Leicestershire in their Championship clash at Grace Road. After dismissing the home side for 248 in the last over before lunch, Worcestershire reached their target of 185 in 45.1 overs to claim their fourth win of the season.It earned them 22 points but they still trail second-placed Northamptonshire by 45 points with three games to play.Matthew Pardoe and Moeen Ali both hit half-centuries and shared an unbroken second-wicket stand of 123 to see Worcestershire home after Daryl Mitchell was bowled by Matthew Hoggard for 35.Worcestershire were 112 for 1 at tea but Pardoe and Moeen unleashed a barrage of boundaries on the resumption, scoring 73 runs in 13.1 overs. Pardew finished on 76 not out off 126 balls with 12 fours, while Moeen faced 76 balls, hitting eight fours and two sixes in his unbeaten 63.The only bright spot for Leicestershire, who have not won a game in the Championship this season, was a second century in the match for Ned Eckersley. He followed up his first-innings 106 with 119 second time around before being bowled by Jack Shantry. Eckersley faced 224 balls and hit 14 fours to become the first man to score two centuries in a game for Leicestershire since Brad Hodge did it in 2004.Leicestershire, resuming at 190 for 6, added 58 runs for the last four wickets in 28.2 overs. It took Eckersley half an hour to score the runs he needed for his century, which came with a leg glance to the boundary off Alan Richardson.James Sykes was then trapped lbw by Richardson for 32 to end a stand of 92 for the seventh wicket and the end came quickly after that. Shantry had Ollie Freckingham caught at cover before bowling Eckersley off an inside edge and Hoggard was pinned lbw to Shaaiq Choudhry with the last ball before lunch.

A strong batting display from Ireland, followed by an incisive spell of 4 for 32 from Max Sorensen left the hosts on the cusp of victory against Scotland in their Intercontinental Cup match in Dublin

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Sep-2013

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMax Sorensen bowled a 10-over first spell that yielded four wickets•ICC/John Boomer

A strong batting display from Ireland, followed by an incisive spell of 4 for 32 from right-arm seamer Max Sorensen left the hosts on the cusp of a comprehensive victory against Scotland in their Intercontinental Cup match in Dublin.Sorensen, who picked up three wickets against Scotland in a World Cricket League Championship game last Sunday, dismissed Hamish Gardiner and Freddie Coleman in the third over. Preston Mommsen and Calum MacLeod also fell victim to Sorensen’s first spell as Scotland slumped to 27 for 4 in the 11th over.It became 64 for 7 before No. 9 Safyaan Sharif manned a rearguard action for the second time in the match. He added 79 runs with Majid Haq during an eighth-wicket stand that lasted 26 overs. Sharif recorded his maiden first-class half-century but lost his wicket off what became the last ball of the day, leaving Scotland at 143 for 8, and needing another 69 runs to avoid an innings defeat.Despite rain wiping out most of day two, Ireland’s batsmen put up a solid performance as Paul Stirling composed a 101-ball 65 that included 11 fours, and together with John Anderson, added 92 for the second wicket to take Ireland beyond Scotland’s first-innings score of 139. Anderson played the ideal foil for Stirling, picking up a fifty himself, which included five fours.But Stirling threw his wicket away, pulling straight to deep mid wicket off seamer Alasdair Evans and Legspinner Moneeb Iqbal dismissed Anderson for 56 off just his second delivery.With two new batsmen at the crease, Scotland might have sensed the tide changing, but Andrew White and Kevin O’Brien put up a 52-run stand for the fourth wicket and then, when Iqbal and Haq removed the pair in quick succession, Andrew Balbirnie and Stuart Poynter contributed 62 runs for the sixth wicket to increase Ireland’s lead.Iqbal and Haq took four wickets each, but were unable to curtail the flow of runs from the Ireland batsmen, who together struck a total of 43 fours and four sixes in the innings to build a lead of 212.

Karun Nair’s first time at No. 3 this season helped him break away from an inconsistent run and he credited giving himself the time to get in was the reason for his match-winning half-century

ESPNcricinfo staff04-May-2015Karun Nair has been a floater in the Rajasthan Royals batting line-up and had had a highest score of 25 prior coming into their home game against Delhi Daredevils in Mumbai. But pushed up to No. 3 for the first time in the season, he produced a rapid, match-winning half-century that he credited to taking the time to play himself in.”I told myself at the beginning of the innings I should just play run-a-ball and look for the odd boundary,” he told , “I gave myself time in the first ten to fifteen balls and from then on I decided to go for the big shots. I am not a powerful hitter, but I can hit the ball for a six. A six doesn’t necessarily need to go out of the ground, it has to just clear the fence and I think I can do it easily.”His 61 off 38 balls was part of a 113-run partnership with Ajinkya Rahane at a run-rate of 9.82. Nair said the gameplan had been to take the game deep and set things up for their finishers.”We spoke about running hard between the wickets and then getting the odd boundary and play normal cricket shots,” Nair said. “We wanted to take the game as deep as possible because we have good hitters in our side. We did that really well. The plan was to get ten runs in every over after the time out and target 170 at the end of 20 overs. Anything more than that was always meant to be a bonus. One boundary an over was what was discussed in the meeting.”His team-mate James Faulkner also had a successful outing, picking up 2 for 22 in conditions that helped fast bowlers at Brabourne stadium, where Royals had had a camp prior to the start of the tournament.”There was a fair bit of assistance with the new ball and you had to bash it into the wicket. There was a fair bit of seam. But that is T20 cricket; you get flat tracks where you don’t get much swing or spin, but then you have tracks that turn a long way. This one had a bit of seam tonight and had good carry which was great. I think that is what everyone likes, different challenges every single time.”Faulkner was making a return to the XI after missing the game against Mumbai Indians last Friday and spoke about the demands on an foreign player in the IPL.”I missed out on the last game since we decided to give Rusty Theron a go,” Faulkner said. “Tonight I came back into the side. That is how the format works. There is always a lot of class sitting on the bench.”It doesn’t matter if you are there from the start or join halfway through, you are always expected to put up your best. You are an overseas player at the end of the day, and looked at to bring something unique to the table. Once you play international cricket, there is always going to be expectations from you in any Twenty20 league. Every overseas player is used to that.”

Ravi Shastri has been named India’s team director for the upcoming tour to Bangladesh, while Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar will continue as assistant coaches for the tour

Amol Karhadkar02-Jun-2015Ravi Shastri has been named India’s team director for the upcoming tour to Bangladesh, while Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar will continue as assistant coaches for the tour. However, the long-term coaching appointments are likely to be finalised in consultation with the cricket advisory committee before India’s tour to Zimbabwe in July.The appointments, announced by the BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur, meant the only name missing from India’s coaching staff from the World Cup was Duncan Fletcher’s, whose contract has ended.Shastri is understood to have been interested in a long-term position, either as head coach or team director but for now, he has agreed for the short-term assignment of one Test and three ODIs in Bangladesh.Since the BCCI didn’t want to rope in new appointees for the short tour, the three specialist coaches were also retained. One of the three is in danger of losing his post after the Bangladesh series.Meanwhile, the high-profile cricket advisory committee is likely to meet in Kolkata on June 6 to spell out the procedure for appointing the head coach or team director. Besides Shastri, the BCCI is believed to have been in touch with former Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody and Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Daniel Vettori.While Moody is understood to have been recommended by VVS Laxman, his colleague at Sunrisers Hyderabad, Vettori has been recommended by Test captain Kohli.Shastri had been named director of cricket after India’s poor performance in the Test series in England last year and the BCCI had appointed Bangar, Arun and Sridhar as assistant coaches at the same time. Their tenures with the Indian team were then extended until the end of the 2015 World Cup.

Steven Croft’s career best, backed up by a blitz from James Faulkner, was too much at Old Trafford for Derbyshire, who have now won only one of their first six matches

ECB/PA12-Jun-2015
ScorecardSteven Croft’s career best sustained Lancashire•Getty Images

Steven Croft hit a spectacular career best 94 not out as Lancashire secured a comprehensive 67-run NatWest T20 Blast win over Derbyshire Falcons at Emirates Old Trafford, leaving Derbyshire with just one win to show for their six matches.The Lightning’s captain smashed nine fours and two sixes in a 51-ball assault to underpin 201 for 3 after they had been in bother at 62 for 3 after ten overs.Croft shared a county record fourth-wicket partnership of 151 unbroken off 80 balls with Australian James Faulkner, who finished 47 not out off 30 with three sixes and two fours.The Lightning then bowled the Falcons out for 134 to complete a third win from five North Division matches and a second on the spin after last week’s victory over Yorkshire at Headingley, which was inspired by Jos Buttler.Croft and Faulkner struck once apiece with the ball, but left-arm spinner Stephen Parry finished with 4 for 16 from his three overs.

Insights

It was difficult to fancy Derbyshire going into this game. They had lost 11 consecutive away T20s and seven of eight against Lancashire. They lost this one – among other reasons – because they were undisciplined at the death. Eighteen in the extras column – a penultimate over including two wides and the six no balls courtesy of Rimmington’s full toss to Faulkner and the five wides White served up in the last – is criminal. – Will Macpherson

This was a Buttleresque display of power hitting from Croft, especially, after the visitors had elected to bowl, although minus Buttler’s trademark reverse sweeps and scoops.Ashwell Prince, Karl Brown and Liam Livingstone all fell inside the first eight overs to Wayne White, Tony Palladino and Wes Durston, leaving the score at 50 for 3.Lancashire went 37 balls without a boundary from the end of the sixth over to the start of the 13th, but Croft and Faulkner hit eleven fours and five sixes in the last eight overs.Twenty one runs came off Palladino in the 13th over before 29 came off Nathan Rimmington in the 19th, including two sixes and six no balls courtesy of a head high full toss at Faulkner which went for four.White then conceded 20 off the last of his former county’s inningsThe Faulkner and Croft alliance continued as Derbyshire made a forgettable start to their reply as Durston edged the Australian left-armer’s second ball of the innings to Croft at slip to leave the score at 1 for 1.Tillakaratne Dilshan top-edged Tom Bailey behind for a brisk 21 – 44 for two in the seventh.The Falcons reached halfway at 79 for 2 with Chesney Hughes unbeaten on 39, but he miscued Aaron Lilley’s off-spin to long-on with the first ball of the eleventh.Bailey bowled Billy Godleman with 99 on the board in the 13th and although the visitors were still ahead on runs in comparison to the first innings, their chances were disappearing.Croft picked up his wicket when Wayne Madsen reverse swept his off-spinners to backward point in the next, leaving the score at 105 for 5.Parry struck to get Scott Elstone and Tom Poynton caught at long-on in the 16th – 117 for 7 – before trapping Shiv Thakor lbw and getting White caught at point in his next.Debutant quick Saqib Mahmood wrapped up the win by getting Palladino caught behind with ten balls unused.

Powerful strokes from Samiullah Shenwari and Najibullah Zadran in the last five overs of Afghanistan’s innings and accurate bowling from Sharafuddin Ashraf led them to a convincing 32-run win against Netherlands on the opening day of the World T20 Qualifi

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jul-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball-detailsNajibullah Zadran struck four sixes during his 11-ball 33•ICC/Donald MacLeod

Powerful strokes from Samiullah Shenwari and Najibullah Zadran in the last five overs of Afghanistan’s innings and accurate bowling from Sharafuddin Ashraf led them to a convincing 32-run win against Netherlands on the opening day of the World T20 Qualifier. Afghanistan recovered from early jitters to score 162 for 7 before bowling Netherlands out for 130 in the last over on a slow pitch in Edinburgh.Put in to bat, Afghanistan lost Mohammad Shahzad and Asghar Stanikzai to Mudassar Bukhari who targeted the stumps with some nipping seam movement. Once Nawroz Mangal also fell in the seventh over for 29 off 23, Shenwari and Mohammad Nabi rebuilt with a stand of 57 for the fourth wicket, nearly taking them to 100. Nabi counterattacked with sixes off left-arm spinners Roelof van der Merwe and Pieter Seelaar, before falling for 33 in the 16th over. Najibullah started with a first-ball six and clobbered van der Merwe for 22 in the 18th over, to give his side a sudden shot in the arm. They lost three wickets in the last over but also collected 68 runs in the last five overs.Netherlands started well by scoring 51 for 1 in the Powerplay overs as Ben Cooper struck three well-timed sixes. Sharafuddin pulled things in Afghanistan’s favour when Cooper holed out on his second ball to long-off for an easy catch, and Netherlands failed to put on substantial partnerships after the second-wicket stand of 49 between Michael Swart and Cooper. Swart was run out in the next over and Sharafuddin had Peter Borren stumped three overs later. Van der Merwe holed out five balls later and once they were 95 for 5 with a required run rate of nearly 11, things went only downhill for them.They lost their last five wickets for 24 runs as the pressure kept rising and Dawlat Zadran finished with 3 for 17 from 3.4 overs, while Sharafuddin took 3 for 27.

Ashton Agar looks set to play his first competitive game since a shoulder injury sidelined him for four months

Deivarayan Muthu in Chennai28-Jul-2015Ashton Agar had a stellar start to his international career when he struck 98, the Test record for a No. 11 on debut in the 2013 Ashes. But he has yet to impress in his primary role, as a left-arm spinner and a shoulder injury has not helped. After being sidelined for four months from March to July, he is ready to get back to cricket and hopes to play the second unofficial Test against India A on Wednesday.”It’s been about 15 weeks [since the shoulder surgery],” Agar said. “The strength is improving, the range is improving. It has improved enough to allow me to play in this game. I won’t be diving in the field, but everything else is okay.”Agar got a surprise call-up for the fourth Test against India at the SCG, but he did not get to play. His last competitive game was the Sheffield Final in March. Playing for Western Australia, he took four wickets and scored a 44 not out in the first innings. He stressed that his ultimate goal was to have a long career with Australia, rather than making sporadic appearances.”That’s the ultimate goal, to play for Australia. You want to have a career for Australia, not just a few games here and there.” he said.”It means a lot, playing Ashes cricket, it’s enormous. The boys are really enjoying it now, the series one-all. There is a huge amount of pride if you’re playing for your country and in the Ashes its hiked up even more.”Agar also added that the Australians would relish the challenge of playing against Virat Kohli, who had requested the BCCI to let him play in Chennai so as to gain match practice ahead of the Sri Lanka tour.”It will be a good challenge for everyone to play against a player like Virat Kohli. I think everyone is excited about the opportunity and everyone is going to want to have his wicket.”Agar has been to India before, with the senior side in 2013 and was not worried about playing on slow pitches. He said that a chat with Gautam Gambhir in Perth had helped understand and adapt to how batsman tackle spinners.”I learnt the pace that I need to bowl on these wickets, I learnt how the batters like to play, how their use their feet and maybe got a bit shorter and then sit back and cut the ball or pull the ball,” Agar said.”So they pick up the lengths quickly, so I have to adjust very quickly to the way they are playing me. I have learnt what sort of fields I need to set from the first ball. I have spoken to Gautam Gambhir. He was with Justin [Langer] in Western Australia just before I came in from Perth for two weeks. It was a great experience. He played against me in a game. So, he could give some feedback and that was quite valuable coming here.”

South Africa captain AB de Villiers thought the 20-run victory over New Zealand in the first ODI could have been even more convincing

Firdose Moonda20-Aug-2015Margins are not always as tight as they seem and the 20-run difference between South Africa and New Zealand in the first ODI is deceiving. It makes the result look a lot closer than it really was – New Zealand were out of the chase in the 30th over of their reply when a double-strike from Vernon Philander took out their two best hopes of winning the game and even the 71-run partnership between James Neesham and Colin Munro did not ever really seem as though it would get them over the line. But AB de Villiers thought the victory could have been even more convincing.”The kind of intensity and the Protea fire that we always talk about was lacking tonight,” he said afterwards. “If we had that kind of energy tonight, it would have been a walkover and it wasn’t. New Zealand were in the game and if you let quality sides in the game, they tend to win.”South Africa’s spark shone brightly through their innings, where Hashim Amla anchored an effort that resulted in an above-par total on an early season pitch, and carried over onto the field. Dale Steyn created three chances in his first over, one with his first ball, but two of them were put down. “That sums up the way we were sort of lackadaisical in the field today,” de Villiers said.Kane Williamson and AB de Villiers praised Imran Tahir for holding the game during the middle overs of the New Zealand chase•AFP

Several other dropped catches followed, most of them from balls that were skied, got lost in the lights and fell into vacant spaces, making the usually slick South African fielding effort appear more comical than clinical. De Villiers, who previously said he would never blame a team-mate for dropping a catch as long as he tried, hoped the execution would come with time as his team goes through its transition.”I was a little but disappointed with our energy in the field as a unit, together. That probably comes with time. There were a couple new faces that need to get used to the way I captain and the way we operate as a team.”The newest of those was David Wiese, who made his debut on his home ground but did not seem as familiar with it as he should have been. Wiese started off bowling too full and was taken out of the attack after conceding 29 from his first three overs, but then returned with a selection of slower balls, which worked well. “David started slowly, it took him a while to get going,” de Villiers admitted.Almost as new is Kagiso Rabada, who debuted in this format in Bangladesh and is already establishing himself as a regular. Rabada was more economical than Steyn, was tasked with bowling at the death and seemed to enjoy the responsibility. “KG bowled well in spells. That potential and talent is definitely there; it just needs a little bit of experience. That’s our responsibility to get that through to him,” de Villiers said.Young players generally bring more energy to a side so South Africa being sapped of it could have come down to the the leaking of Steyn’s bowling plan after it was slipped under the wrong hotel room door the night before the game. Philander revealed it was the team’s analyst, Prasanna Agoram, who “made the mistake,” and said the strategy is not the be-all and end-all on the day.”We play against these guys so much that you go with your instinct. Generally it’s top of off with the odd bouncer, like Jacques Kallis used to say,” Philander said, revealing yet another South African tactic.Kane Williamson also brushed off the information and said New Zealand “didn’t make too much of it,” when they saw it. “It’s always in the moment when you are out there that’s the challenge when you bat. Everyone has got plans. A good area to most batsmen is similar, especially if the ball is doing a little bit and brings in most modes of dismissals.”The person who showed that the most was Imran Tahir, whose plans were not made public, but who controlled large swathes of the middle overs in the match and ensured New Zealand stayed in but never got ahead. “We were right in it all the way but we were never able to get in front of the game. The South African side bowled very well with the new ball and the class of Tahir in the middle was shown today,” Williamson said.De Villiers agreed: “Immi is a master of that. He knows how to turn the momentum around, how to speed things up to slow things down.” And he also knows how to inject energy into a team, should de Villiers feel like they need a little extra.

Phil Simmons’ future as West Indies coach hangs in balance after the disciplinary hearing against him was deferred to next week

Nagraj Gollapudi04-Oct-2015Phil Simmons’ future as West Indies coach hangs in the balance after the disciplinary hearing against him was deferred to next week. ESPNcricinfo understands that Simmons had been asked to present himself on Saturday in front of a human resources panel from the West Indies Cricket Board. On September 30, the WICB had indicated that Simmons’s future would be sorted in a week.Surprised at the lack of notice period given to him, Simmons’ lawyers responded to the WICB, saying Simmons could not make himself available without an advance alert and requested the hearing be rescheduled to next week. It is learned that the WICB agreed, but no date has been set yet.Simmons was suspended on September 28 by the WICB, two days after his outburst on external factors affecting the selection of the ODI squad for the Sri Lanka series. Subsequently, Michael Muirhead, the WICB CEO, clarified that Simmons had not been fired but he would need to face a HR panel to explain the breaches in confidentiality and for bringing the WICB into disrepute.It is understood that although Simmons did issue an apology for putting the WICB in a difficult position, he never retracted or apologised for what he said. People close to Simmons have revealed he made it clear that his outbursts were not intentional and that is what he apologised for.At the end of the preparatory camp for the Sri Lanka tour, held in Barbados, Simmons, unprompted, revealed that he was disappointed at not getting the best one-day squad and blamed “interference from outside” as the main reason. Simmons has never revealed any name(s), but his concerns were received with gasps across the Caribbean with the chairman of CARICOM’s sub-committee on cricket governance, Keith Mitchell, calling them “highly disturbing.”