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The fast bowler has paid a hefty price for diving in the field in an ODI against Pakistan in March, missing the World Cup and Ashes, but is now looking ahead

Alex Malcolm29-Jul-2019When Australia announced their six-strong fast bowling cartel for the Ashes series on Friday, Jhye Richardson’s absence slipped quietly by.One of the stars of Australia’s last Test series against Sri Lanka, and arguably the gold nugget find of their toughest home summer in decades, was instead sitting in a hotel room in Darwin preparing for a guest appearance in a club match for Nightcliff the following day, his first outing since dislocating his right shoulder against Pakistan in Sharjah in March.There was a small hope, after a careful build up, that he might be given the opportunity to be added to the Ashes squad for the back end of the Test series should his playing return go smoothly. But despite getting through Saturday’s match, where he took 1 for 67 from his 10 overs, the selectors had already told him two days earlier that they would settle with the pacemen they had in England.Richardson, 22, has every right to be bitter at the cricketing gods. A selfless act of desperation to save his team a boundary in Sharjah cost him the opportunity of a lifetime, appearing in a World Cup and an Ashes in the same English summer. But there was no bitterness, just a slow realisation and acceptance.”I think just progressively I got the understanding that I wasn’t quite ready to go,” Richardson told ESPNcricinfo on Saturday. “But I gave it my best shot. I had a lot of good people around me. I did everything I could. That was in the back of my mind. I said to myself you’ve done everything you can and it wasn’t meant to be.”When [the injury] first happened, initially I’d like to think I was pretty calm. Obviously your adrenaline is still going because a highly traumatic injury has just happened and you’re still buzzing around trying to figure out what’s going on. You probably don’t understand the true effect of what’s just happened at that moment. When I got home, the magnitude of the potential of having an extended time on the sideline probably sunk in a little bit more. But I think with that though, having the plan or the goal to get to the World Cup helped a lot. It gave me a lot of positivity. Whilst it was quite ambitious it sort of allowed me to keep track on something and really put my mind to something.””While it would be great to go over there it would be just as good to watch the guys go about their business over there and hopefully win an Ashes series. If something goes down, I’ll try and get over but if that doesn’t happen, we’ve still got a lot of cricket in Australia as well in the Australian summer. If the pace bowling stocks do get tested a little bit then I’m ready to go.”Getty Images

Unlike Josh Hazlewood, who found it hard to watch the World Cup having also missed selection, Richardson’s only trouble was staying up late enough in Perth. “I watched a bit of it,” he said. “Most games on the TV. I didn’t quite make it through all of them.”He watched while the Ashes carrot was still dangling in front of him. Cricket Australia’s selectors and medical staff liaised with the WACA high performance team in Perth to put a program in place. He did join the Australia A squad for their training camp in Brisbane in early June and then returned to Perth to progress to eight to ten-over spells in the nets ahead of Saturday’s game in Darwin. CA even sent cameras and an analyst to Darwin to record data on his return.Despite already knowing he had missed his chance, he was upbeat about his performance in his comeback clocking the mid-130kph mark.”Obviously I was very, very rusty,” Richardson said. “It was the first game in three or four months so I couldn’t expect miracles. In terms of shoulder wise, I coped fine. The pace was okay. Probably a little bit better than I expected. From all reports here, the day’s gone well. After today, it gives me a little bit more confidence that I’m ready to go. Practice is always good, but just being able to play in a game over bowling in the nets with no batter, just gives myself a better idea of where I’m at, and where I’m at I’m pretty happy with.”Richardson will not stay in Darwin to play more cricket. Instead he will head back to WA to resume pre-season training with the Western Warriors. He has no shortage of inspiration within the WA squad. Nathan Coulter-Nile suffered a shoulder dislocation in a BBL game in December 2015, and returned to play international cricket in March the following year, while Ashton Turner is also currently recovering shoulder surgery after missing World Cup selection.Richardson’s durability is another source of confidence. Last Australian summer he played more days and bowled more overs than Pat Cummins in all formats. Five consecutive Shield games before Christmas, where he delivered 190 overs and took 27 wickets, propelled him to his Test debut.”Everyone speaks about needing to be in such a good rhythm to bowl well,” Richardson said. “And they say you bowl your fastest when you’re not trying to bowl your fastest. So bowling a lot of overs takes a bit of pressure off steaming in trying to bowl as fast as you can. It’s a big mental game. It’s trying to get on top of the batsman and figuring out what their weaknesses are. I think bowling a lot of overs does help get your body accustomed to bowling a lot so the more balls you bowl the better you’re going to get. It definitely helped in that respect.”The development of his fast bowling craft has been the most impressive feature of his meteoric rise. As a teenage tearaway his radar was not always on song, but he has learnt the value of control at the professional level.”It’s just been a thing over time,” Richardson said. “Obviously coaches are there to help you, but on a personal level, bowling to the best batsman in the world it doesn’t quite work trying to bowl as fast as you can because they still have the most time to hit the ball where they want to. You feel like bowling 145kph is still not quick enough. I kind of just, over time, gained an understanding that it’s not the be all and end all of fast bowling. There’s probably something else that you need to work out, whether that’s swinging the ball or seaming the ball or have a few variations.”

The pair are likely to be the first batsmen to attempt filling the gap left by Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan’s retirements in the upcoming Tests against Sr Lanka, even as Pakistan have bolstered their bowling with the inclusion of uncapped fast bowler Mir

Umar Farooq23-Sep-2017Haris Sohail, who last played first-class cricket in 2014, and Usman Salahuddin have inherited the hardest jobs in Test cricket – to follow in the footsteps of Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan. The pair are likely to be the first to attempt filling those giant shoes, as Pakistan named their first Test squad in the post-MisYou era, to take on Sri Lanka in the UAE.

Pakistan Test squad

Azhar Ali, Shan Masood, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Usman Salahuddin, Sarfraz Ahmed (capt), Yasir Shah, Mohammad Asghar, Bilal Asif, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Wahab Riaz

Pakistan, led by Sarfraz Ahmed now, have also picked uncapped fast bowler Mir Hamza and allrounder Bilal Asif in a 16-man squad for the Test series, which starts with the first Test in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Rizwan were the two exclusions from the list of probables that went through a five-day conditioning camp in Lahore recently.Much of the early focus will be on Sohail and Salahuddin, as Pakistan look to make up for losing over 15000 Test runs and nearly 200 Tests worth of experience in the middle order. Both are uncapped in Tests, but have represented Pakistan. Salahuddin played two ODIs for Pakistan in 2011, but Sohail was, for a while after his debut in July 2013, a near-fixture in the ODI side.Yasir Shah and Azhar Ali have both made it into the squad as well, and though both ordinarily would’ve been automatic selections, there was some doubt about their participation in the run-up to the announcement. Azhar, Pakistan’s most successful Test batsman over the last year or so, was in doubt with a knee problem and he sat out a two-day practice match at the camp. He has, however, been receiving treatment, according to chief selector Inzamam ul Haq, and a speedy recovery would enable him to be available for both of the Test matches. Pakistan will need, more than anything, his experience.Yasir, on the other hand, was on the verge of becoming the biggest victim of the new fitness drive coach Mickey Arthur and the management have implemented since their arrival. Already, the push to make Pakistan fitter has claimed victims in Sami Aslam and, most famously, Umar Akmal. Yasir’s fitness levels were said to have been a major concern over the last five days, but he has, apparently, pulled through and proved his fitness. Since 2014, he has been Pakistan’s most successful Test bowler.The squad was meant to be announced on Friday but was pushed until Saturday morning, allowing Yasir to undergo another fitness test to reach a value acceptable for a player to be selected. He was the Player of the Series in Pakistan’s last Test assignment in the West Indies earlier this year with 25 wickets in three Tests.”We want to maintain our standard on fitness and we told Yasir to make it or it would be impossible for us to select him,” said Inzamam. “Yasir’s success over the last three-four years has been great but we don’t want to create an exception on fitness. So we waited a day, and that is why we are announcing the team today, on the day of the team’s departure. Yasir is cleared now, having scored a value of 17.5. Azhar has a cyst in his knee and doctors have recommended he can play after taking injections to the knee. So he is fine now and available for selection, and hopefully he will remain fine all the way.”Aslam, the opener, has also been called back into the squad, suggesting the management is happier with his fitness.The two Tests will be the first time Pakistan step onto a field without both Misbah and Younis in seven years, the previous such instance coming at Lord’s in 2010. Both were the backbone of the Test squad that saw Pakistan reach the No.1 Test ranking last year. Inzamam picked Salahuddin and Sohail as prospective replacements.”I have been thinking of both Usman and Haris over the last few series, envisaging the situation after seniors [retired]. Both have done well. Usman has done well as a middle-order batsman while Harris could have made it into the side in 2015 but was injured. So the idea is to give our youngsters an opportunity in our own conditions rather than playing them in away series. This will increase their confidence and both have the potential to fill in for Younis and Misbah. But it does not mean the door is shut on other players making it into the side. Performances will obviously be considered and, if a player is good enough, he can definitely be selected.”Pakistan named five fast bowlers and three specialist spinners, a move Inzamam said was aimed at managing the workload of the bowlers who are better on flat tracks in the UAE.”We all understand that pitches in the UAE are a batting paradise, and there is a big opportunity for batsmen to score runs. It’s really a big challenge to get any team out twice so we have to strengthen our bowling. That’s why we have five fast bowlers with three spinners in our squad. Since the temperature will be around 40 degrees Celsius, we probably have to consider rotating our fast bowlers as well.”

National selector Alistair Campbell believes Zimbabwe’s preparations for their return to Test cricket will stand them in good stead, but admitted that mental strength remained the team’s greatest challenge

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Jul-2011National selector Alistair Campbell believes Zimbabwe’s preparations for their return to Test cricket will stand them in good stead, but admitted that mental strength remained the team’s greatest challenge. Zimbabwe are due to return to Tests with a one-off match against Bangladesh, starting on August 4.”Obviously there will be nerves flying around on our side because everyone will be watching how we are going to perform,” Campbell said. “But the players realise the expectations and they would need to give a good account of themselves. Of course, there is going to be pressure on the boys as they may push too hard to impress.”But in any professional sport you need to apply the mental strength and be able to play under pressure. In our case we have to improve on that part. I believe the more we play at the highest level the more we will be able to improve.”Bangladesh’s tour of Zimbabwe is due to start with a three-day warm-up match against a Zimbabwe XI in Harare, starting on Saturday. The match will provide valuable practice in long format cricket for Bangladesh, as they haven’t have played a Test since the Old Trafford match almost 14 months ago.While a few members of the Test squad – such as offspinner Nasir Hossain, national regular Junaid Siddique and the recalled Mohammad Ashraful – played a couple of unofficial Tests for Bangladesh A against South Africa A in April, Bangladesh’s preparations have been limited to a long fitness camp and some two-day games against the Academy side before the tour. Still, captain Shakib Al Hasan believes that they go into the series as favourites.The Zimbabweans have sought to test themselves against A sides from South Africa and Australia. While team success has been lacking, there have been good individual performances from both batsmen and bowlers and coach Alan Butcher argued that Zimbabwe would click if both groups performed well during the course of a match.”The boys have shown improvement in their performance. Of course in the end people look at results, but we need to appreciate their efforts and see where they went wrong and work on that for future matches,” he said. “On a day our batting performs well the bowling will not be very good and when our bowlers do well then our batting line up crumbles hopelessly. So we need to work on having both departments standing up strong.”Campbell reinforced Butcher’s statements, saying Zimbabwe needed more exposure in order to develop as a team. He stressed, however, that there was no question of Zimbabwe’s readiness to face Bangladesh.”We are really excited that we have more commitments coming up in the next two to three months. Facing opposition that includes players like Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus should help raise our confidence,” said Campbell.”We are very ready for it because we have our experienced players like Tatenda Taibu, Vusi Sibanda, Hamilton Masakadza, Brendan Taylor and Elton Chigumbura all showing signs of good form. These are the people who should carry us through and again we have seen younger players like Brian Vitori doing well. I’m sure this young man has a lot to offer and we will consider him for Test cricket in the future.”But there are few things that need to be ironed out to be able to play competitively at Test level. We have some of our players like Craig Ervine who has been short on runs and this is a cause for concern.”Tino Mawoyo has also showed great promise facing some of the quality bowlers from Australia,” he added. “Probably Craig and Tino would need to get more time in the middle of the crease in the warm up game against Bangladesh at the weekend.”Both players will be in the squad to play the warm-up match against the Bangladeshis. Taibu, who missed the four-day games against Australia and has been out of action for several weeks after injuring his thumb during pre-season training, has also been included, and the match will also give one final chance for a clutch of promising young seamers to push for Test selection.”Obviously it’s good that Taibu is back to full fitness and he’ll be looking forward to getting a run,” said Campbell. “We have deliberately rested some of the players as we feel it’s an opportunity for some of the guys to make an impression before the final squad is named.”

Experience and funding proved key factors as South Africa and Zimbabwe qualified for the 2013 ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Dec-2010Experience and funding proved key factors as South Africa and Zimbabwe qualified for the 2013 ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers, which will be held in Bangladesh in November next year, from the African division which was staged in Kenya.South Africa proved a class apart, winning all their matches by massive margins. In the two they batted first they won by 281 and 238 runs, and when chasing they romped home on every occasion with 40 overs in hand. Offspinner Sunette Loubser had a field day with 13 wickets at 2.84, including the remarkable return of 5 for 7 in the final against Zimbabwe.Zimbabwe finished runners-up but only managed that as Kenya, who beat them by 38 runs in the round-robin stage, contrived to lose to Uganda, a result the Ugandans showed was no fluke by repeating it in the third-place play-off. Uganda’s win over Kenya should have helped them to second place, but in their next game they lost to rank outsiders Tanzania.And it was the Ugandans who introduced an element of controversy into proceedings when their match against South Africa was held up for six minutes after an on-field row with Mozambican umpire Tariq Mukhtar.Mukhtar called a no-ball from which Carol Namugenyi was caught. “Anxious to make a breakthrough, the desperate South Africans led by their team manager and one of their players Shandre Fritz intimidated fearful Mukhtar thus forcing him to reverse his decision,” reported the possibly less-than-impartial Ugandan Monitor newspaper, which went on to claim the incident cost their side a win. The statistics suggest otherwise as South Africa won by eight wickets with 40.4 overs in hand.Kenya, with home advantage, were a bitter disappointment, all the more so as they had threatened to go on strike on the eve of the tournament and tried to use the pliant local media to support their cause.It has to be said the gulf in quality between some of the South Africans and the rest was at times embarrassing. In the final South Africa smashed 314 for 4 and then blew away Zimbabwe for a dismal 33, extras the highest scorer with 9.

The New Zealand coach is content to work out flexible agreements with casual contract players

Andrew McGlashan06-Oct-2025Kane Williamson’s availability for New Zealand’s home summer will take a little longer to lock in. However, head coach Rob Walter is content to give a player of his standing the extra time.Williamson, who is one of the group of players to hold a casual contract with NZC, made himself unavailable for the three-match T20I series against Australia, having previously missed the tour of Zimbabwe to play county cricket and the Hundred.The next part of New Zealand’s home season sees them play England in T20Is and ODIs before an all-format visit by West Indies in November.”Kane, we’re still in conversations as to what the summer is going to look like,” Walter told reporters after the Australia series. “He will play, no doubt about that. Just what and where is still in discussion.Related

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“I think the reality is we’re dealing with all the guys on casual contracts, actually in different positions from a playing point of view. Kane is one of those and he deserves the opportunity to sit and talk about what the rest of his year will look like. But I keep coming back to the most important thing, [which] is that he wants to play for his country, and so nutting out exactly what that looks like can take an extra week or two, but surely, he deserves that.”Walter confirmed that New Zealand would continue to be without Finn Allen (foot) and Adam Milne (ankle) for the visit of England while Lockie Ferguson (hamstring) and Glenn Phillips (groin) were unlikely to be fit.However, he was hopeful that white-ball captain Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra, who was a late withdrawal from the Australia series after suffering a facial injury colliding with the boundary boards at training, will have recovered in time for the series which starts on October 18 in Christchurch.Walter was unperturbed about not being able to get his full-strength T20I side together in the build-up to next year’s World Cup.Mitchell Santner is likely to be available again•ICC via Getty Images

“I think we don’t live in an ideal world and so that’s part and parcel of it,” he said. “I’ve been part of a World Cup campaign [with South Africa] where the team assembled at its full strength three days before our first game and that team managed to make a final.”For me, it’s just the way it works. I think what’s more important is the environment and the team culture that sort of assimilates together when it needs to. We do know that by the back end of the India series [in January] prior to the World Cup, that’s when our full World Cup squad will be together.”For me, as long as the guys are playing competitive cricket, that’s important, and almost everyone has been part of the environment at some point so I would assume that they can fit seamlessly back into it.”Should all players be fit and available for the World Cup, there will be some selection squeezes, especially around the pace bowling and top-order batting. Tim Robinson took his chance after Ravindra’s injury to make an impressive hundred in the first match against Australia, while Jimmy Neesham claimed a four-wicket haul in the third game.Australia won the T20I series against New Zealand•Getty Images

“Ultimately when things are operating the way they should, everyone’s not fighting for their position, but understands that competition for places is there,” Walter said. “Ultimately you want your best crop of players in the park and in the squad.”They’re all quality players. At the end of the day, there’s going to be a quality player that’s left out, whoever that may be. As you’ve heard me say many times before, the stronger the player that’s left out, the better the system.”Reflecting on the Australia series, Walter was encouraged by the way his side fought back from 6 for 3 in the opening match and forced a collapse with the ball in the second but conceded they had areas that needed improving before facing England.”There’s little bits [of positives] here and there but, to be fair, we were a little bit off our best game and when you do that against [Australia], who’s won 25 of their last 30 T20 internationals, you’re going to find yourself on the wrong end of the result,” he said.”Some of the areas that we weren’t competitive in are actually quite easy fixes, [they] just require a little bit of extra time on our part…like any loss there’ll be some positives most of the time and then some stuff that you walk away with and understanding that you have to do better as we move forward.”With England arriving, you’ve got a team that’s going to play very similar to how Australia played in the series. So again, we get to check out if we actually have improved in the areas that we’ve identified and spoken about.”

Leicestershire’s bright start undermined by dramatic afternoon collapse

Paul Edwards19-Jul-2023One can understand bowlers flinching a little at the prospect of playing cricket in a town where pies are not so much a speciality as an obsession. Oakham is only ten miles away from Melton Mowbray, after all, and spectators at this game who were tempted by the aroma from Piglets’ Pantry would have found steak and ale, chicken gammon and leek, and chicken balti, all stuffed under a thick crust that mocked thoughts of healthy eating. As things turned out, however, it was the bowlers who gorged themselves, almost all of them feeding greedily on a pitch that rewarded the ancient disciplines.It was a day on which even top-order, top-dollar cricketers could return to the pavilion after being dismissed and think themselves poorly used. They had played blameless forward defensive strokes to deliveries that required such careful treatment only to find the ball spitting away and taking the edge or jagging back and plucking out a stump. Seen in that context, Worcestershire’s opening stand of 48 between Jake Libby and Gareth Roderick and their last-wicket partnership of 33 between Adam Finch and Dillon Pennington were major contributions. Between those alliances Azhar Ali’s 34 was the innings of the day and his side’s total of 178 was somewhere near par. When Leicestershire batted, they could make little of Finch, Pennington and Matthew Waite and were eight down for 88 at the close. Unless we have rain, it seems clear there will be no cricket here on Saturday.And days such as this seem to concentrate spectators’ attention. Aware that every run matters greatly, they devote themselves to the particular intensity of a brief match, especially so, perhaps, when it takes place in a part of the kingdom that few people seem to know well and on a day when the world’s gaze is elsewhere. For Oakham is deep England; rich, dark-earthed farming country in Rutland, a county that many people outside its borders would struggle to locate. The locals sink their pints of Everards in The Wheatsheaf and the All Saints’ campanologists rang on throughout Tuesday evening, quite oblivious to the fact of their drowning out Stephen Hough’s performance at the Proms.Even the names of the ends at the Doncaster Close ground seem to have been forgotten since 1935 when the cracks of Kent were the first to visit this ground and were beaten by ten wickets. “Sports Hall” and “Nursery” insist some modernists but given a rich choice, we settled for “Allotment” and “All Saints” because they reminded us of timeless nourishment of one sort or another. Drought-stressed leaves fell from trees, which was ironic given the rain that Oakham’s head groundsman, Richard Dexter, has had to cope with when preparing the pitch for this match.The first hour’s play was all watchfulness. The Leicestershire bowlers stuck to their lines, and Worcestershire’s openers responded with little more than occasional pushes into gaps. Then Tom Scriven came on from the Allotment End and sprayed his first delivery down the leg side. Four wides. Then there was a delivery miles outside off before Scriven’s sixth ball surprised Libby with its accuracy and tempted him to nibble a catch to Peter Handscomb behind the stumps. It is so often the way. As though obeying some secret lore, a spinner bowled the over before lunch but Callum Parkinson made no breakthrough and Worcestershire came in prosperously placed with 74 for 1 on the board.Ah, but grievous penury lay in wait for them. Wiaan Mulder’s second ball after the resumption swung away from Roderick who snicked it to Handscomb. Mulder’s next delivery compelled a defensive shot from Jack Haynes, who also edged to the keeper. In the following over a straight one from Wright had Adam Hose leg before for 5 and the visitors had lost three wickets for five runs in ten balls.Respectability, threadbare as it was, was achieved through the efforts of Azhar, who continued to play the ball as little as possible and late when he did so. While three batsmen, Brett D’Oliveira, Waite and Joe Leach, all fell to slip catches by Ackermann, Azhar accumulated runs as if doing so in a gradual fashion pleased him somehow. He had made 34 in 153 minutes before his first misjudgement, a grope at a ball from Matt Salisbury, was his last. Mulder dived to his right from first slip to take the catch.Other games were taking place and some notice was taken of them. News came through that Stuart Broad had dismissed Usman Khawaja at Old Trafford and folk recalled that Broad had taken his first Championship wicket at Oakham, his old school, in 2005, dismissing Somerset’s Mike Burns in the first innings of the game and then repeating the trick in the second dig. No doubt the boyish joy was as great in Manchester as it was on this field some 18 summers and a thousand years ago.There was plenty of delight in the evening session here but it brought little comfort to the locals. A blameless Rishi Patel nicked Pennington to Roderick in the fourth over of the innings but half of the eight home batters to be dismissed were bowled, either by balls that straightened or by ones that jagged back. Mulder looked relatively comfortable in making 21 before becoming Leach’s only victim and he can look back on his day with some pride. And if Leicestershire supporters need a little encouragement to take into tomorrow, it was provided by Rehan Ahmed, who ended the day unbeaten on 25 off 39 balls and batted as if he wondered what the fuss was about.

Selectors name 16-man group including seven pace options for first two Tests

Vithushan Ehantharajah03-Jun-2023England have announced an unchanged squad for the first two men’s Ashes Tests. The 16-man party, which includes Worcestershire seamer Josh Tongue who was drafted in as bowling cover for the one-off Test against Ireland currently taking place at Lord’s, will report to Birmingham ahead of the Edgbaston Test starting on June 16.The announcement comes as no surprise, particularly with James Anderson (groin) and Ollie Robinson (ankle) progressing well in their respective recoveries from injury. The pair have been bowling at Lord’s, where England were pushing for a three-day victory over Ireland having registered a 352-run first-innings leads following a mammoth 524 for 4 declared.Both are likely to return to the XI for the first Test against Australia, along with Mark Wood who missed the Ireland Test to spend time with his second child born last week. Chris Woakes has also been retained, giving Ben Stokes seven pace-bowling options to pick from.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The majority of the group are due to head to Loch Lomond in Scotland next week as part of a team-bonding trip ahead of the five-match series with Australia. A number of players are heading up at the start of the week before a more official gathering at the weekend. While essentially a golf trip, the getaway is geared towards giving the players more time together, building on a successful week reestablishing the connections and frame of mind that has been a huge part of life under Brendon McCullum and Stokes.They will be in situ for the first Test the following Monday, before their first training session at Edgbaston on Tuesday, June 13.England men’s Ashes Test squad: Ben Stokes (capt), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Pair put on opening stand of 153 in 66-run victory, despite teenager Groves’ half-century for Lightning

ECB Reporters Network16-Jul-2022Even with five of their squad on international duty, defending champions Southern Vipers were too strong for East Midlands side Lightning as they made it three Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy wins from three at the Incora County Ground, Derby.Maia Bouchier and Freya Kemp, named in the squad for the Commonwealth Games, joined Danni Wyatt, Lauren Bell and Charlie Dean on England duty but Vipers still posted 294 for 6 in their 50 overs before dismissing Lightning for 228 in 44 overs.Hitting 10 boundaries each, Vipers skipper Georgia Adams (82) and 19-year-old Ella McCaughan, whose 72 was a career-best in List A matches, shared a partnership of 153 for the first wicket before Emily Windsor swelled the Vipers’ total with an unbeaten 47.Josie Groves, Lightning’s 17-year-old leg spinner, showed she can also bat by hitting a maiden half-century to go with two wickets, but it was a performance in vain as her side finished 66 runs short, off-spinner Charlotte Taylor taking 3 for 31 as the stand-out bowler, Tara Norris picking up 3 for 35.Without Grace Ballinger, their hero with the ball in the win over Thunder last weekend, the Lightning attack were made to struggle when Vipers won the toss and chose to bat first in ideal conditions, their cause not helped by giving McCaughan a life on 43, when she was dropped at mid-on off spinner Lucy Higham.After treating the new ball with respect, posting 37 in the opening 10 powerplay overs, Adams and McCaughan hit the accelerator as McCaughan completed her half-century from 69 balls, having given just that one chance. Adams soon reached the milestone herself, from 57 deliveries.Three wickets in as many overs suggested a Lightning fightback as Vipers went from 153 without loss in the 28th to 155 for three. Groves turned one nicely to bowl McCaughan before a Kathryn Bryce inswinger bowled Georgia Elwiss for a second-ball duck. An lbw decision against Chloe Hill gave Groves a second scalp.Paige Scholfield hit 18 off 17 balls but was denied more when Groves safely pouched the ball at deep backward square before Adams saw the chance of a century slip away as Piepa Cleary caught a steepling top-edge to off her own bowling.But Lightning could not dislodge Windsor and Vipers’ last two wickets added 85, including 23 off 12 balls by Nancy Harman.In reply, Lightning were ahead in runs after their opening 10 overs but at 49 for two had lost Beth Harmer, leg before trying to pull Scholfield’s medium pace, and Kathryn Bryce, who offered Taylor a simple return catch, falling for just one after a match-winning century against Thunder.With Marie Kelly missing through injury, it placed an onus on Kathryn’s sister Sarah to carry the Lightning innings and though she and third-wicket partner Bethan Ellis were still together at 109 for two in the 25th over, they were a daunting 185 runs behind as the disciplined Vipers bowlers offered few easy opportunities.Both then departed in turn, Sarah Bryce falling one short of a half-century when she went after Harman but picked out the fielder at deep midwicket, before a thin edge off the excellent Taylor saw Ellis caught behind.Groves kept Lightning’s hopes alive with her uninhibited hitting, picking up six fours and smashing Schofield for six over long on, riding her luck on 39 when dropped off Elwiss, but after she sliced to backward point for 55 from 39 balls, with 96 off 13.3 overs required, Sophie Munro was bowled by Taylor, Norris dismissed Higham and Piepa Cleary in the same over and had Alicia Presland stumped in her next over to wrap up the win.

Roy, Morgan hit fifties before England lose four wickets for five runs needing seven off seven balls

The Report by Matt Roller12-Feb-2020A dramatic late collapse saw England throw away a winning position to lose the first T20I of the three-match series in South Africa by one run.Needing seven off seven balls after Eoin Morgan’s late acceleration looked like it had secured a win, building on the platform set by Jason Roy’s powerful, 38-ball 70, England managed to score only five while losing four wickets, as Lungi Ngidi dismissed Tom Curran and Moeen Ali before Adil Rashid was run out coming back for a second to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.South Africa’s total of 177 after being inserted was the highest T20I score at East London, but owed as much to England’s profligacy with the ball as to their efforts with the bat. Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock led a bright start as the hosts reached 105 for 1 at the halfway mark, but Dale Steyn (five off two balls) was the only other man to score at a strike rate above 120 as Rashid and Chris Jordan dragged things back.England were ahead for the majority of the run chase, with Roy imperious and Morgan gradually moving through the gears, but their muddled middle-order strategy saw Joe Denly, Ben Stokes and Moeen used in suboptimal roles, and South Africa’s seamers took the pace off to good effect to seal an improbable come-from-behind win.Moeen in the PowerplayMorgan made a surprise call to open the bowling with Moeen’s offspin, given that only 13 percent of his overs since the start of 2018 had come in the Powerplay in all T20 cricket. But the move could be explained by de Kock’s relative weakness against spinners in the first six overs: while South Africa’s skipper has been imperious against seamers with the field up (149.0 strike rate since Jan 2017), he has struggled against spin (119.2 SR) and against offspin in particular (112.2 SR).As all hell broke loose at the other end, with Curran and Mark Wood – who started his spell with consecutive high full tosses – both profligate, Moeen successfully tied de Kock down, conceding five runs from the five balls he had bowled at him before he holed out to long-on running in at the start of the fifth over.Ultimately, Moeen and Rashid’s eight overs of spin cost only 45 runs, prompting the question as to why Denly’s legbreaks went unused.England seamers struggleAs much as South Africa’s batsmen impressed, the main reason they were able to put such a competitive total on the board was the fact that England were so slow to adapt to the slowness of the pitch. It became apparent quickly that anything quick would fly onto the bat, while spin and pace-off deliveries were both effective. But England persisted in bowling pace-on, with Curran especially culpable despite his wide repertoire of slower balls.They did themselves few favours in the field, too: Denly had a torrid time, allowing one clip off the pads straight through his legs for four and dropping Bavuma, while Jason Roy shelled a high catch offered up by Jon-Jon Smuts. South Africa’s lack of batting depth and an impressive finish from Wood and Chris Jordan meant they could only post 72 for 7 in the final ten overs of their innings, but their total of 177 was higher than it should have been.Spin to RoySouth Africa looked to expose Jason Roy’s relative weakness against spin in the opening game of last year’s World Cup by opening the bowling with Imran Tahir, and it was no surprise when de Kock turned to Smuts’ left-arm spin in the fourth over of the run chase: Roy had averaged just 20.83 against spin in T20 over the last three years going into this game, while also scoring at a slower rate than against pace.But Smuts gave the ball enough air for Roy to target a short straight boundary – his favoured method against slow bowlers – and after David Miller palmed the second ball of the over for six, Roy dumped him for four, six, four to take 22 runs off the over and get England motoring.De Kock’s shufflingSteyn made an early impression in his first international appearance for 11 months: he was struck for two exquisite boundaries by Jos Buttler, who continued as England’s opener, but then dismissed him with the second ball of his second over as Buttler looked to chip one over the covers.Steyn’s bright start meant he was given three overs in the Powerplay, in which he showcased some dipping slower balls, but Roy’s onslaught meant that de Kock decided to bring him back for his last in the 13th over. Tabraiz Shamsi, who largely succeeded in subduing Roy and Eoin Morgan, was also bowled out by the end of the 14th as the skipper chased a breakthrough, by which point Beuran Hendricks and Dwaine Pretorius remained unused.Pace-off causes England crumbleWhen Hendricks did belatedly arrive, Roy belted his first ball – an 85mph length ball – for four through midwicket, and instantly responded by taking the pace off. His second, a very wide slower-ball bouncer, accounted for Roy and Andile Phehlukwayo removed Denly with a similar move, banging a cutter in halfway down which was heaved out to deep midwicket.Ngidi copied the set template, his back-of-a-length offcutter being skied up to deep midwicket by Stokes, but either side of that Morgan tucked into Hendricks, smiting two boundaries in the 17th over and hitting four, four, six as Hendricks tried to hit the blockhole in the 19th to take the equation down to seven off seven.From there it should have been a cakewalk, but Ngidi held his nerve to concede only five runs from the final over, with Curran holing out to deep midwicket, Moeen bowled by a pinpoint yorker, and Rashid unable to manipulate the ball past Steyn at short midwicket off the final ball.

Jackson Bird thrives as seamers make hay on unconventional Ageas Bowl surface

Daniel Brettig at the Ageas Bowl23-Jul-2019Batsman and bowlers alike were left puzzled by a Southampton surface that seamed like a green top but dried out rapidly over day one of Australia’s lone Ashes warm-up while also providing variable bounce.A ledger of 201 for 17 across the day hardly depicted a batting paradise, but nor was it exactly the sort of slow, seaming surface that the tourists can be expected to face against England over five Tests at Edgbaston, Lord’s, Headingley, Old Trafford and The Oval over the next two months. Marnus Labuschagne, the only batsman to pass 30 all day, and Jackson Bird, one of four pacemen to take three wickets or more, were united in their puzzlement.”We were umming and ahhing this morning about what to do if we were going to bowl or bat,” Labuschagne said after making 41 out of 105 for his side. “I actually called Sam Northeast up in the change room and he was saying that on this wicket they tend to bat first because of the deterioration during the game. It’s really hard to tell – the conditions with the ball as well, there was plenty of swing and seam for pretty much the whole day, so I don’t really think it made too much of a difference batting first or second.”The heavy roller probably did, over here it flattens it out a little bit for probably 30-40 minutes but towards the back end it was still pretty lively and going. It was just the dryness of the wicket, with the bowlers we had who did bowl a heavier ball into the wicket I think they got considerably more up and down out of the wicket than you would potentially in a championship game with the bowlers bowling a bit slower and a bit more sideways movement. But everyone you’ll see will adapt and hopefully get some runs in the second innings.”Bird, who has played county cricket for Hampshire and Nottinghamshire in the past, said it was not like any pitch he had seen before in these parts. “It was a funny sort of wicket, you don’t really see this sort of wicket in England,” Bird said. “There was lots of live grass on it but the surface was really dry, so there was a bit of inconsistent bounce from the top end, and it nipped around a little bit as well with that inconsistent bounce, which made it hard. The wicket got a little bit better as the day went on, but the bowling all day was reasonably good.”Where this all leaves Australia’s Ashes preparations is anyone’s guess, but suffice to say there were more than a few batsmen who would have preferred greater time in the middle, particularly given its dual status as a preparatory fixture and also a selection trial.”This game is a very serious game and it’s one where we’re all looking to perform,” Labuschagne said. “As a whole squad everyone wants to score runs, take wickets and I think we’re getting the best out of each other by playing this hard cricket and its the best preparation for the upcoming tour.”Facing the majority of the people out there bowling 130-140kph plus, facing the extra pace on a wicket that is going a little bit up and down, you need to make sure your ducks are in a row and your plans are in order. You wish as a batter it counted as 141 but no, 41 is still 41. In a low-scoring game those scores do help the team but from a personal view, it’s frustrating when someone does get in and doesn’t go on with it.”As Labuschagne’s opponents, Bird complimented the Queensland No. 3 on his diligent planning for the surface. “He had a plan especially facing up to me, he came down the wicket and across to off stump and tried to take away getting bowled and lbw,” Bird said. “The wicket could nip and stay a little bit low so he took that mode of dismissal out and it seemed to work for him. Although he nicked one in the end but that happens sometimes. It was good to see him have a plan, he’s had a really strong start to the county championship season this year.”Regarding the selection trial, with the final Ashes squad to be named at the end of the match, Bird admitted to more than a few unusual emotions. “It’s a weird situation that we haven’t been in before,” Bird said, “but everyone’s really embraced it the last week and it’s been really good to get in both teams in separate groups and I guess try to get the team camaraderie as much as you can in a weird situation.”Our batters are world class as well, so anytime you get to come up against those guys it’s good for your confidence and good for honing your skills I guess. It was a poor day out for the batters but the bowlers took a lot out of it. I’m expecting the batting group to bounce back in the next three days.”