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They add 158 together as Pakistan make light work of a chase of 208 against severely depleted WI

Hemant Brar16-Dec-2021Yet another clinical display from Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam powered Pakistan to their highest successful chase in T20I cricket as they beat West Indies by seven wickets in the third T20I in Karachi.Batting first on a well-rolled surface, West Indies rode on Nicholas Pooran’s 37-ball 64 and breezy 40s from Brandon King and Shamarh Brooks to post a challenging 207 for 3. But a 158-run stand between Rizwan and Babar, in just 15.1 overs, all but ensured a 3-0 scoreline.Babar contributed 79 off 53 balls, while Rizwan was the aggressor, hitting 87 off just 45 with the help of ten fours and three sixes. During his knock, Rizwan also completed 2000 runs in T20 cricket this year. When the winning runs were scored, Pakistan still had seven balls remaining.Earlier in the day, the game was put in jeopardy after Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, and Justin Greaves tested positive for Covid-19 but both teams decided to go ahead with the match.That, however, meant West Indies had to field a severely depleted side, as they were already without Sheldon Cottrell, Roston Chase and Kyle Mayers – all three had tested positive at the start of the tour – and Devon Thomas, who has a finger injury. The still put up their best performances of the series but it wasn’t enough to prevent a whitewash.King’s birthday bash
On his 27th birthday, King decided to throw caution to the wind. He opened his account with back-to-back fours off Mohammad Nawaz in the first over. On both occasions, he gave himself room and hit the ball through the off side. That remained his modus operandi for most of his innings even as he didn’t middle the ball all the time.Nawaz came in for more punishment in his next over. First, Brooks drilled him past mid-on and then King hit the last three balls of the over for six, four and four. From the other end, King fetched three fours across Mohammad Hasnain’s two overs, and as a result, West Indies motored to fifty in just 4.2 overs.On the penultimate ball of the powerplay, King once again backed away and launched Mohammad Wasim Jr for a 98-metre six, the ball landing on the roof of the deep-midwicket stands. Wasim, though, made a comeback the very next ball, uprooting King’s off stump as the batter failed in his attempt to late-cut a fuller delivery.Brooks cuts loose
West Indies finished the powerplay on 66 for 1. Brooks, who was batting on 21 off 16 balls at that point, decided it was his turn to cut loose. He skipped down the track against Nawaz but ended up skying it towards long-on, where Iftikhar Ahmed and Hasnain, running in from long-off, messed up their calling, and despite both fielders next to each other, neither got their hands to the ball.Shadab Khan ended up paying the price for that drop as Brooks hit him for three sixes in four balls in the next over. But just like King, he too fell short of his half-century. Shahnawaz Dahani hurried him with a short ball and had him caught at deep midwicket.Shahnawaz Dahani impressed with his pace and bounce•Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images

Pooran propels WI further
The Pakistan bowlers had bowled West Indies out in the first two T20Is but on Thursday night, there was no respite for them. With two left-handers in the middle, Babar Azam tried to sneak in an over of offspin from Iftikhar but Pooran thumped him for two sixes.He was equally belligerent against Hasnain, whom he took for 19 off six balls, including two sixes and a four. Pooran’s assault meant West Indies didn’t lose the momentum despite Darren Bravo struggling on 17 off 16 balls at one stage. Pooran brought up his half-century off 31 balls but after his dismissal, West Indies could score only 15 off the remaining 14 balls.The Babar-Rizwan show
Chasing a daunting total, Babar and Rizwan didn’t have the luxury of time to get their eye in. But the two are in such good form that without taking any risk, they kept striking at around ten an over throughout their partnership. There were drives through covers and down the wicket, sweeps along the ground and over the infield, and hard-run ones and twos. Rizwan was the first to reach his half-century, off just 26 balls; Babar took 40 balls to bring up his.While Rizwan did heave a couple over deep square leg, apart from slog-sweeping debutant Gudakesh Motie, Babar didn’t hit his first six until the 13th over. That too when Oshane Thomas provided the necessary pace. Clearing his front leg, he creamed Thomas over the wide long-off boundary before hitting the next two balls for fours.The only chance that came West Indies’ way was when Babar went to cut Motie in the seventh over, but Pooran put down the outside edge. Babar was on 28 then, Pakistan on 62. Babar eventually fell to Odean Smith, hitting a knuckle ball to long-off, when Pakistan needed 50 from five overs.The finishing touches
If West Indies were thinking of a comeback, Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman didn’t let that happen. When Rizwan miscued a full toss from Dominic Drakes with Pooran taking the catch near short fine leg, the equation had come down to 24 needed from 16 balls. Asif Ali (21* off 7) then hit a flurry of boundaries to level the scores. With one run required, Romario Shepherd had Asif skying the ball towards long-on where Rovman Powell dropped the catch. That one ball encapsulated the series from West Indies’ point of view: this young bunch has the potential but they still need to work on their skills.

Alex Ross’ 77 and Tanveer Sangha’s two-wicket haul were the only bright spots for the Thunder

Sreshth Shah12-Dec-2021Andre Russell hurt his former team Sydney Thunder with an unbeaten 21-ball 42 to give his new team Melbourne Stars a six-wicket win in the battle of the greens at the Sydney Showground Stadium. Walking in with the Stars in a difficult position, Russell maximised the power surge and demolished the Thunder bowlers to help chase 152 with 17 balls to spare.When Russell came in, the Stars had just lost Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell. However, five massive sixes and one four from the West Indian put all fears to rest, and the Stars now sit at third on the points table with two wins in three games.Russell wasn’t the only standout player for the Stars. Seamer Brody Couch, only three T20s old, took 2 for 26 and Afghan leggie Qais Ahmad picked up 2 for 17 to restrict the Thunder to 151. Maxwell, too, entertained with a 25-ball 40.Russell’s muscle after Maxi’s hustleAfter legspinner Tanveer Sangha dismissed the set Stars batters – Stoinis and Maxwell – in the 12th over, the Stars were 83 for 4. The first ball Russell faced was Sangha’s hat-trick delivery. But when Nathan McAndrew offered pace in the 13th over, Russell pummelled him for six over long on and clobbered two more sixes in the next over when Daniel Sams missed his mark with two short balls.With 26 runs off his first 11 balls, Russell had swiftly absorbed all the pressure that the Stoinis-Maxwell dismissals had brought along, and once the power surge was taken, run-scoring eased up even further. Sangha’s half-tracker was pulled over long on, Gurinder Sandhu’s short ball was punished in the same direction, and before one knew it, Russell was collecting the Player-of-the-Match award – from a distance, of course, due to the special and strict bio-bubble/close contact rules applied by the BBL for him.In an unbeaten 68-run stand for the fifth wicket with Russell, the No. 6 Hilton Cartwright contributed 23 in 13 balls.Before the stand, though, Maxwell played his part in shepherding a third-wicket stand with Stoinis. The duo added 59 after Stars lost Joe Clarke for a duck and Nick Larkin for an 11-ball six, with Stoinis choosing to anchor himself for the long haul after the early dismissals.That forced Maxwell to take the onus of keeping up with the required rate, and he started his assault with a well-timed flick off McAndrew over deep midwicket in the seventh over. After surviving a dropped chance, he drilled two fours back past Ben Cutting in the eighth and even hit Chris Green for a reverse-sweep that very nearly went for six. His 40 seemed to be the match-defining innings of the evening, but his dismissal instead made way for Russell to steal the day’s headlines.Young Stars bowlers impressWith Alex Hales hitting three fours off Nathan Coulter-Nile in the first over of the match, it was the Thunder who came off the blocks red hot. And Stars captain Maxwell had to shift to spin very early to put Hales in an uncomfortable position. After Hales carefully saw off the second over from Adam Zampa, he clocked Qais over mid off for a six in the third. However, Maxwell’s persistence with spin finally paid off when he himself dismissed the other opener, Sam Whiteman, in the fourth over.With a new batter in the crease, Qais then pounced on the opportunity by bowling four tidy deliveries before bowling Matthew Gilkes behind his legs. Two quick wickets put the pressure on Hales to go big, but he failed to do so as Couch – who celebrated his 22nd birthday last week – went short, and the batter instead edged an attempted upper-cut to Joe Clarke behind the sticks. Couch, in fact, was Maxwell’s sixth bowling option inside the first seven overs, a ploy he said, when mic’d up, was to unsettle the Thunder batters.It wasn’t the Hales wicket that was most impressive about Couch, but his bowling channel through his first spell. With a packed leg-side field on the boundary line, he went short or on a length, forcing the experienced middle-order batters Sam Billings and Alex Ross to only play across the line.From the other end, Qais’ toss-ups tempted the batters, but his guile ensured they couldn’t find boundaries. Instead, a frustrated Billings succumbed to cover looking to break the shackles by attacking a Qais delivery that had extra turn.All this time, Ross had been industrious in his run-scoring by picking singles and twos and playing low-risk shots, but with the death overs approaching and the Thunder’s score still under 100, he looked to change gears. After Sams clobbered Zampa for two sixes in the 18th, Ross tore into Russell with a hat-trick of sixes in a 23-run 19th over. Those hits helped Ross reach his highest-ever BBL score of 77.However, the young Couch bowled two terrific overs at the death to keep the Thunder down to a gettable total when momentum was not with the Stars. He kept Ross and Sams quiet in a five-run 17th over. And given the responsibility of the 20th, he conceded just one six in an 11-run final over that also included Sams’ scalp. Together, Couch and Qais shared four wickets for 43 runs in eight overs and were key contributors in ensuring that their side needed only 152 to win.

Batter passed fit to play just 10 days after fracturing her jaw

Alex Malcolm26-Jan-2022Australia batter Beth Mooney will make a miraculous return from a fractured jaw in the Ashes Test starting on Thursday in Canberra after she was passed fit to play just 10 days after suffering the injury in the nets.Mooney fractured her jaw on the Monday prior to the first T20I in Adelaide and required surgery. But she was back in the nets last weekend in Adelaide and was running laps.On Wednesday in Canberra, captain Meg Lanning confirmed Mooney would play in the Test at Manuka Oval.”She’s been passed fit to play, ” Lanning said. “So from a medical perspective, that’s all good. It was sort of around her comfort levels and confidence levels getting back into it after being hit, she’s had no issues at all. So once she was cleared and she’s confident and ready to go, there were no issues about bringing her back.”It’s pretty incredible. Right from the moment she got hit she was pretty positive about the whole situation. To be coming back to play international cricket around a week after having jaw surgery is pretty inspirational for the group and she’s been really positive around everyone. She looks really good in the nets and in the field as well so she’s confident she will have no issues moving forward.”The only concern for Mooney is that she still can’t eat solids. Mooney and the medical staff are trying to find ways to get her enough food to get through the Test match.”She’s only a liquid diet at the moment, which doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, not a lot of variety,” Lanning said. “I think our physio and Pip the doc and the dietitian have been coming up with some meal plans for her to make sure she’s getting enough energy and obviously with the Test match, the longer format you need to have that over a long period of time, but they’ve done a great job and so far, so good.”She said she can eat unlimited amounts of ice cream. So she’s pretty happy with that.”Related

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Mooney’s fitness means Australia have a decision to make over their top order. Mooney and Alyssa Healy opened in the last test against India but Rachael Haynes did not play in that game due to a hamstring injury. Haynes has opened in five of her nine Test innings and said on Sunday that she is preparing to open in this Test match.Healy is also keen to continue managing the difficult dual role of opening and keeping wicket. Lanning did not reveal who would do the job on Thursday, nor would she give away Australia’s XI.”Between [Haynes], Moons and Midge [Healy], we’ll work through what exactly that looks like,” Lanning said. “But they all can play a role on top of the order. So, again, we’ll just have a look at the wicket and see what we think will work best but those three will certainly play, it just depends on the order with which we go.”

The tournament will begin on March 26 and run until the end of May

Nagraj Gollapudi24-Feb-2022IPL 2022 will begin on March 26 with the final set to be played on May 29. The schedule was drawn up on Thursday by the IPL Governing Council, who also decided that the league phase of the tournament would be restricted to just two cities: Mumbai and Pune. Four venues – the Wankhede Stadium and Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, the DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai, and the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Gahunje, in the outskirts of Pune – will host the league phase featuring 70 matches.As for the playoffs, which will feature four matches, the IPL has decided to keep its venue options open for now. A final decision on that, the Governing Council decided, would be taken later based on the Covid-19 pandemic situation in India in April-May.The Governing Council also decided to keep open the option of allowing crowds to attend the matches, subject to permission from the Maharashtra government.ESPNcricinfo has learned that the IPL will finalise and share the tournament schedule by the first week of March. The IPL this time will be a 10-team tournament with the addition of two new franchises – Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans – last October. At a meeting on January 22, all 10 franchises had unanimously backed the IPL’s first option of conducting the tournament in India.The franchises had also favoured limiting the tournament to just one venue – Mumbai – after the debacle in the 2021 season, which had to be postponed at the halfway stage when the second wave of Covid-19 that was sweeping across India breached the IPL bubble. In an internal review, the IPL concluded that teams travelling between multiple cities had been one cause for positive cases within teams in the first half of the 2021 edition. The tournament resumed in September-October, with the second leg played in the UAE – which had staged the entirety of IPL 2020.As for the format during the league phase, it could not be confirmed whether the IPL will follow the 2011 concept, the first time the tournament featured 10 teams. In the 2011 edition, the 10 teams were split into two loose groups, and the tournament comprised 70 league matches and four play-off games, with all the teams ranked in one composite league table. During the league phase, every team played the same number of league matches, which was 14.Each team played the other four in their group both home and away (eight matches), four of the teams in the other group once each (four matches, either home or away), and the remaining team in the other group twice, both home and away. A random draw decided the composition of the groups as well as who played whom across the groups once and twice.Women’s T20 Challenge likely to return
The Governing Council also backed the idea of bringing back the Women’s T20 Challenge, which last took place in 2020. The format is likely to be same as in the 2020 edition, in which three teams – Supernovas, Velocity and Trailblazers – played a total of four matches including the final. The Women’s T20 Challenge usually takes place during the IPL’s playoffs week. No firm decision has yet been taken on whether the women’s tournament will take place at a separate venue – as in 2020 – from the IPL play-offs.Having begun as a tournament to provide exposure to Indian women players as well as unearthing untapped talent – an example being the India batter Shafali Verma – the T20 challenge has grown significantly. In 2020 the BCCI said the T20 Challenge was “financially independent”, with Jio appointed as the first-ever title sponsor. Despite being played in Sharjah and away from the IPL playoff venues, the 2020 edition of the tournament attracted record viewership.The tournament will still have to wait before it expands to become a fully fledged Women’s IPL, however, with BCCI president Sourav Ganguly saying recently that the board was at the level of “formulation” to launch it in 2023.

Rob Key, ECB’s new managing director of men’s cricket, is widely expected to split head coach’s role for Test and white-ball cricket

Matt Roller23-Apr-2022Graham Ford has emerged as a leading contender to become England men’s new Test coach. Ford, 61, left his job as Ireland’s head coach in November after four years in charge, with his previous roles including stints with Sri Lanka, Surrey and his native South Africa.Most relevantly, he spent five years as Kent’s director of cricket where he worked closely with Rob Key, who captained the club from 2006 and started his tenure as the ECB’s new managing director of men’s cricket earlier this week. Key is an admirer of Ford’s work from their time together at Kent, writing in his 2020 autobiography that Ford was “a great coach to work with”.Related

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“We had a joint focus on taking the team forward,” he wrote. “Fordy would do everything he could to make a player be the best they could; me included. If you were out of nick, he’d throw at you in the nets until it got dark to try to get you back into form. Because of our shared attitude to betterment, we never really had a clash.”Key is widely expected to split the head coach’s role in two by appointing separate coaches for Test and white-ball cricket. Ford was frustrated by Ireland’s sparse fixture list in Test cricket during his time as coach, and ESPNcricinfo understands that he would be interested in discussing the red-ball format role with England.Ford has stayed in Ireland since leaving his role as head coach, and is currently coaching YMCA CC in Dublin. He expects to qualify for Irish citizenship later this year, but it is understood that he would be willing to delay that process if necessary.ESPNcricinfo revealed last week that Ottis Gibson, who has been linked with both the Test and white-ball roles, has committed his future to Yorkshire, where he began his tenure as head coach earlier this year.The has reported that Ricky Ponting and Mahela Jayawardene have ruled themselves out of contention, while several newspapers linked Simon Katich with the Test role on Saturday. Gary Kirsten, Tom Moody and Paul Collingwood are among the various other contenders.

The visitors finished the day at 258 for 4, with the former captain 114 not out

Mohammad Isam15-May-2022Stumps Angelo Mathews’ 12th Test century headlined Sri Lanka’s fine first day against Bangladesh in Chattogram. His century, and 92-run stand for the third wicket with Kusal Mendis, revived Sri Lanka in the second session before keeping things locked in their favour till the end of the day. Bangladesh would rue dropping Mathews on 69, but it was an otherwise tight contest for the Sri Lanka batters against the steady home spinners.After the big stand with Mendis, Mathews added another 75 for the unbroken fifth wicket with Dinesh Chandimal, who was unbeaten on 34 at stumps. Mathews was on 114, using all of his experience to hit his first century against Bangladesh. Only the Bangladesh spinners took wickets, with Nayeem Hasan taking two and Taijul Islam and Shakib Al Hasan one each.Mathews’ most fruitful zone was in front of the wicket, mostly driving straight on a pitch that had low bounce but was good for batting from the second session. Between extra cover and midwicket, he struck 11 boundaries and hit a straight six too. The rest of Mathews’ boundaries were hit towards fine-leg.When he was on 69, in the 65th over, Mahmudul Hasan Joy dropped Mathews at slip off Taijul, and although Mahmudul made it up with a good grab in the next over to get rid of Dhananjaya de Silva, it proved to be a costly drop.The third session started poorly for Sri Lanka, when Mendis pulled Taijul’s long-hop to Nayeem at short midwicket. They had earlier gone wicketless throughout the second session as Mathews and Mendis bedded in for the long haul.Mendis batted quite conservatively, only hitting a couple of cover drives and another boundary through midwicket, as he allowed Mathews to thrive. They had come together late in the first session after Nayeem had taken two wickets. The offspinner, playing his first Test in more than a year, removed Dimuth Karunaratne in his first over, before getting Oshada Fernando caught behind. Bangladesh, though, lost two of their reviews with ordinary lbw appeals.

Meanwhile, Oshada Fernando, Ramesh Mendis, and fast bowlers Kasun Rajitha and Asitha Fernando have returned to the Test side

Madushka Balasuriya04-May-2022The inclusions of uncapped wicketkeeper-batter Kamil Mishara, spin-bowling allrounder Kamindu Mendis, left-arm quick Dilshan Madushanka and legspinner Suminda Lakshan are among eight changes to Sri Lanka’s Test squad for their tour of Bangladesh this month.Returning to the Test fold alongside them are batter Oshada Fernando, allrounder Ramesh Mendis, and fast bowlers Kasun Rajitha and Asitha Fernando.Suranga Lakmal, who ended his international career following the tour of India earlier this year, makes way, as do fellow quicks Lahiru Kumara and Dushmantha Chameera, who is being rested from red-ball cricket until the T20 World Cup later this year.Related

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There is also no room for legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay, nor batters Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka and Lahiru Thirimanne. Nissanka is still recovering from the back injury that he suffered during the tour of India, while Asalanka has been asked to focus more on white-ball cricket.Thirimanne, meanwhile, is understood to have been selected in the initial squad, but had requested for three months of paternity leave to be with his wife and newborn in Australia. The 32-year-old had an underwhelming tour of India, but had been among Sri Lanka’s in-form red-ball batters before that.Another player who was initially selected but requested to be omitted was Roshen Silva. The 33-year-old, who hasn’t played a Test since 2019, is understood to have travelled to play in the UK without an NOC from SLC. He has been replaced by Kamindu Mendis.Even with those exclusions, the batting group remains heavy on experience, with the playing XI likely to consist of most – if not all – of Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva. Mishara, Oshada, Chamika Karunaratne, Ramesh Mendis and Kamindu add further heft.However, Sri Lanka might find themselves a little light in the bowling department. Their fast-bowling load will now be shared by Vishwa Fernando and Asitha Fernando, the uncapped Madushanka, allrounder Karunaratne and the returning Rajitha, who hasn’t played a Test since picking up in groin injury at the tail-end of 2020 – a contingent with a combined 29 international caps among them.Sri Lanka’s spinners hardly fare any better, with the uncapped Lakshan part of three frontline spinners on tour; the left-arm pairing of Lasith Embuldeniya and Praveen Jayawickrama boast 19 Tests between them – the latter having only made his debut in 2021. However, the offspin of De Silva, and Ramesh and Kamindu, offer more options.Sri Lanka will play two Tests against Bangladesh, the first of which will begin in Chattogram on May 15. The action will then move to Mirpur for the second Test from May 23.Full squad: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Kamil Mishara, Oshada Fernando, Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Kamindu Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella, Chamika Karunaratne, Ramesh Mendis, Suminda Lakshan, Kasun Rajitha, Vishwa Fernando, Asitha Fernando, Dilshan Madushanka, Praveen Jayawickrama, Lasith Embuldeniya

Mumbai, who elected to bat and were cruising at 147 for 2, lost a clutch of wickets to leave the match on an even keel

Shashank Kishore22-Jun-2022On possibly their biggest days in domestic cricket in the last 23 years, Madhya Pradesh banished nerves and bad luck, and overcame staunch resistance from Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was gunning for a fourth straight first-class ton.Mumbai, who elected to bat and were cruising at 147 for 2, lost a clutch of wickets to leave the Ranji Trophy final in Bengaluru on an even keel. They ended the day on 247 for 5, with Sarfaraz Khan, the tournament’s highest run-getter, unbeaten on 40. He had Shams Mulani, the allrounder, for company, in their quest to try and stretch their first innings total.The sun hardly peeped through on a leaden day, ensuring a relatively dry surface didn’t break further. With the ball turning right from the first over, MP employed both their spin options optimally, but it was their faster bowlers who kept plugging away and reaping rewards for their persistence and discipline throughout the day.Most impressive of the lot was Gaurav Yadav, who wheeled away for 23 wicketless overs, despite creating several wicket-taking opportunities. Bounding in relentlessly, he opened up Prithvi Shaw’s inside edge and outside edge five times in a single over in the first hour, before Anubhav Agarwal reaped the rewards.What that Yadav over did, where he had Shaw all at sea against the moving ball, was create doubts in his mind. As such, Shaw isn’t a leaver of the cricket ball; Agarwal’s accuracy only made it tougher. Drawn forward by a delivery that appeared to be moving away, the ball nipped back in off the seam to beat the inside edge and crash into the stumps to break an 87-run opening stand.At the other end, Jaiswal tried to do what great Mumbai batters of the past have taken great pride in doing: grinding the bowlers down and then cashing in on some tired bowling later. While he managed to keep the bowlers at bay, largely refraining from playing away from the body against pace, he was particularly aggressive against spin.His first boundary of the day was a six off left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya. Seemingly intent at trying to unsettle him, Jaiswal picked off a series of boundaries to get going. Just prior to that, though, he survived a run-out reprieve in the fourth over after a mix-up with Shaw. Jaiswal, who tucked the ball to square leg, was halfway down the pitch when he was sent back and only managed to make it as the throw was wide of the keeper at the striker’s end.The first session had several instances where MP were left wondering ‘what if’. The run-out aside, Kartikeya managed to have Shaw jabbing at an arm-ball, only for it to lob over short leg’s head in the fifth over. In the 10th, Shaw’s thick outside edge off Yadav flew between second slip and gully as he attempted a flashy drive without any feet movement. Then, he beat Shaw five times in an over, before they had him.Yashasvi Jaiswal drives towards midwicket•Special Arrangement

Armaan Jaffer looked steady and resolute in defence, but hard hands proved to be his nemesis as he got a thick inside edge off Kartikeya to a shortish midwicket. It was an excellent piece of captaincy from Aditya Shrivastava that resulted in the wicket. Immediately after lunch, he specifically had the fielder there for Kartikeya’s arm-ball that fizzes in. Although the delivery that got the wicket wasn’t an arm ball, it was close to being one. A regulation left-arm orthodox bowled with a slightly faster trajectory skidded through to lob off the inside edge as Jaffer was gone for 26.Suved Parkar was the next to go. Mumbai’s new No. 4, who only got a break for the knockouts because Ajinkya Rahane wasn’t available, managed all of 18 before getting a leading edge to midwicket where Shrivastava took a simple catch running back to give offspinner Saransh Jain his first wicket. This left Mumbai at 147 for 3.In came Sarfaraz, who immediately shelved his natural game. It isn’t something he is known to do, but the dismissal of Jaiswal soon after, where he pushed away from the body to see Yash Dubey take a smart catch at gully, further had him shut shop and show signs of maturity in trying to see off the bowlers. Until then, Jaiswal’s was a knock studded with impeccable timing, oodles of concentration, a hint of luck and enterprise.Jaiswal who brought up his half-century off 129 balls, started picking the gaps easily and when the fast bowlers bounded in trying to rough him up with short deliveries, he immediately gave them something to think about by ramping it over the slip cordon for a boundary. Jaiswal looked set for a fourth straight ton that would’ve had him join an elite club of Vijay Merchant and Sachin Tendulkar, before he literally had to drag himself off in disappointment, having poked at a delivery he would’ve left most times.Like the other four batters who missed out, Hardik Tamore too got off to a start and then fell, playing for turn when there was none as he edged to slip to give Jain his second wicket, in the final session. This was shortly after he was dropped in the slips by Akshat Raghuwanshi on 22. Sarfaraz and Mulani, who came together in the 75th over, saw off the rest of the day without too many hassles, intent on crease occupation and batting it out to stumps to try and resume their grind against the second new ball.Purely in terms of the quality of cricket, it was a day where both teams played restrictively, trying to ensure one doesn’t concede ground to the other. It could change come Thursday.

Former Yorkshire coach describes board inquiry as ‘tainted process’ following sacking

David Hopps29-Jun-2022Andrew Gale, the former Yorkshire head coach, will refuse to defend himself against ECB charges that he has brought the game into disrepute because of his alleged role in the Azeem Rafiq racism allegations.Gale, who is one of seven people to be charged by the ECB, has broken his silence for the first time since he was sacked by Yorkshire in December.”I am not willing to take part in a tainted process,” Gale wrote in a post on Facebook. “I am moving on with my life.”In a lengthy and wide-ranging statement, Gale:

• Castigates the ECB, Yorkshire and others for pre-judging the issue and says he has no confidence of a fair hearing.
• Complains that he was not interviewed during the ECB’s own inquiry, even though he had expressed a willingness to take part.
• Reveals that he has moved on from cricket and has started a joinery business in Yorkshire with his cousin.
• Challenges Yorkshire to confirm or deny his suspicion that a mass removal of 16 members of staff was part of an agreement with Rafiq, during an out-of-court settlement of Rafiq’s own employment tribunal claim.

Lord Patel contended during the Headingley Test that Yorkshire had to act to avoid a real risk of bankruptcy, with sponsors leaving in droves and the ECB demanding rapid evidence of change if they were not to remove the club’s right to stage international cricket.Gale is also claiming unfair dismissal and his own employment tribunal is scheduled to take place in Leeds on October 31. It appears that attempts to call the warring parties before judicial mediation and agree a settlement now may have collapsed.”The Club agreed to attend a Judicial Mediation on the 21st and 22nd June 2022 but recently sought to postpone that process and gave the reason of the rail strike for postponing,” Gale added in his statement. “The Judicial Mediation would have been a great opportunity for the Club to reach a settlement with all the staff who were unfairly dismissed. We shall now let the Employment Tribunal consider any additional victimisation claims and the remedy that is due to us on the hearing on 31 October.”The Employment Tribunal is a court of law and is a more senior jurisdiction to the ECB process. I will be bound by its findings.”Only two of the 16 staff members to have been sacked or paid off by Yorkshire have been charged by the ECB: Gale and his fellow coach, Richard Pyrah.Gale complains that the identities of the seven charged players were leaked to the media, and confirmed that they had been correctly identified as himself and Pyrah, alongside another member of the Yorkshire coaching staff, John Blain, and four former England players – Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, Gary Ballance and Michael Vaughan, who this week announced he was ‘stepping away’ from his work with the BBC, following internal criticism at the corporation. The disrepute charge relates to the use of racist and discriminatory language.The Yorkshire CCC logo, painted on the side of the roller at Headingley•Getty Images

Gale is particularly scathing about the ECB inquiry into the affair and accuses the board of deliberately excluding him from the investigatory process.”I offered to meet with the ECB and to travel anywhere in England where they wanted to meet. When I chased up a meeting date, I was informed that the ECB had chosen not to interview me, but they clearly spent considerable amounts of time interviewing Azeem.”I haven’t had a single phone call from the ECB. My requests for details of the interviewing panel, and what the exact nature of the investigation was, was not answered. Accordingly. I do not share the ECB’s view that it has conducted a “thorough and complex” investigation.”I believe that we are being put forward as scapegoats and I simply will not cooperate in that process.”According to Gale, he had no meeting or communication with Lord Patel, who took up an emergency role as Yorkshire chairman in November, other than a single email which terminated the employment of 16 people in the most tumultuous day in Yorkshire’s cricket history.”Lord Patel quickly reached a settlement with Azeem in connection with the Employment Tribunal claim,” he added. “I was never invited to meet Lord Patel. He has never spoken to me or communicated with me. I am astounded that he took the action he did without meeting me. I have asked for the particulars of that settlement to be disclosed to me, as I suspect it was a term of the settlement that I and other members of staff were to be dismissed.”There was no right to appeal. To this day, I am still unclear as to the exact evidence upon which the club relied upon to dismiss me, save that it appears to rely solely on the previous evidence of Azeem.”Gale contends that the mass sackings took place because of a joint letter sent by employees of the club to Yorkshire in October which doubled down on criticism of Rafiq, levelling him as “problematic” and accusing him of an “extremely hurtful one-man mission to bring down the club and with it, people of genuine integrity”.Related

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He wrote: “Other than two individuals, all the dismissed / terminated staff were signatories to the October letter. If we hadn’t signed the October letter, I do not believe the 14 of us would have had our contracts terminated. The October letter was a request for information and communication. It should have been treated as a grievance letter. Nothing contained within it justified summary dismissal six weeks after it was provided to YCCC.”He rejects the charge that Yorkshire have been institutionally racist.The term, often misunderstood, always bears further explanation. It is commonly defined as: “Discrimination or unequal treatment on the basis of membership of a particular ethnic group (typically one that is a minority or marginalized), arising from systems, structures, or expectations that have become established within an institution or organization.”There is criticism, too, for the approach of Julian Knight, the chair of the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee which heard evidence from Rafiq in November.Gale wrote: “I haven’t met anybody who wasn’t astounded to hear that the chairman of the DCMS, Julian Knight MP, made a public announcement a week before the hearing to confirm that he had already decided that there was “endemic racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club” and that he couldn’t think of any reason why “the Board should remain in post”. The DCMS committee accepted every word that Azeem said when briefly interviewed. Nothing he said was challenged.”Rafiq, whose testimony before the committee had included his claim that he had lost his career to racism, has privately indicated that he would have been happy to be cross-examined more forcefully.Gale added of Rafiq: “It’s fair to say that we didn’t always agree on team selection and tactics. Azeem was never shy about stating his view. He adopted that approach with a number of captains at the club. He seemed to have an issue with colleagues who captained the club, but my differences of opinion with him only related to cricket matters and not race or religion.”In the wake of his sacking, Gale said that he has moved into a joinery business with his cousin, and added that he felt that cricket had abandoned him after a 20-year professional career.”My career in professional cricket was destroyed on the 3 December 2021,” he says. “My income was cut off and my temporary coaching role with Hobart Hurricanes was retracted. I applied for a number of jobs in cricket but have become a persona non grata as a result of the Club’s actions.”

Strong all-round show from Liam Trevaskis is to no avail after points deduction

ECB Reporters Network14-Aug-2022England Lions spinner Liam Patterson-White sparkled with five for 45 as Notts Outlaws bounced back from consecutive defeats to keep their Royal London Cup campaign alive as Durham slumped to a fourth Group A defeat.The left-arm spinner was representing the Lions against South Africa as the Outlaws suffered losses against Gloucestershire and Middlesex after opening their campaign with two wins and showed how much he had been missed as Durham were bowled out for 226, Liam Trevaskis making 59 not out.Matt Montgomery top-scored with 54 as the Outlaws prevailed in a tight finish to win by two wickets with two overs to spare, Trevaskis’ tight spell with the ball going unrewarded.With the two points they had acquired for their solitary win cancelled out by a two-point disciplinary penalty issued on Saturday, Durham have no points from five matches.”The disciplinary penalty is disheartening, although I believe the club are appealing it,” said their skipper Scott Borthwick. “We’ve got such a young squad at the moment, we’ve got to keep learning, but the senior players in the team have to put their hands up and take some responsibility.”Related

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Patterson-White made a rapid impact by dismissing Australian former Test batter Nic Maddinson in his second over to end a 68-run second-wicket partnership with Scott Borthwick.He took his next four wickets in the space of 19 balls between the 20th over and the 26th as Durham slipped from 72 for two to 135 for six, the last two coming from consecutive deliveries before debutant Mitch Killeen – son of former Durham stalwart Neil Killeen – survived the hat-trick ball.Choosing to bat first on the same pitch that saw 683 runs scored as Middlesex won here on Friday, Durham were a wicket down after four balls as Graham Clark nicked to first slip before the two left-handers, Maddinson and Borthwick, built a decent recovery, the Australian setting the pace with seven boundaries.But when Patterson-White relieved Zak Chappell as first change at the pavilion end, he removed Maddinson with his 11th ball, pinning him leg before with one that looked to keep a shade low.Just as Maddinson failed to progress beyond 37, Borthwick fell on 36, lbw as Patterson-White spun one back into his pads, and Sean Dickson became a third leg before victim for the left-armer as he went to slog-sweep. Paul Coughlin edged to slip for 17 and when 19-year-old wicketkeeper Tomas Mackintosh fell first ball, also leg before, Durham were 135 for six.Killeen helped Trevaskis add 42 in nine overs before he clipped Matt Montgomery’s off-spin straight to midwicket, after which play was held up while a male spectator was treated by medics after a George Drissell six struck him on the head. Thankfully, his injuries were minor.After Chappell had seen off the Durham tail for figures of three for 51, opener Ben Slater was bowled by a beauty from Chris Rushworth as Notts began their reply.Sol Budinger’s aggressive instincts took him to 35 off 25 balls, with two of his three sixes going out of the ground, before he miscued Oliver Gibson to be caught at midwicket.Dane Schadendorf was bowled as Trevaskis came on to bowl his left-arm spin, going down the pitch somewhat recklessly, and though Haseeb Hameed looked in the mood to continue where he left off after Friday’s century against Middlesex he soon departed, caught low down at extra cover as Trevaskis make further inroads.Lyndon James joined Montgomery to steer a careful path as Durham sought to turn the screw and at the halfway stage the Outlaws required another 95, still four down.The loss of James for 35 at 150 for five, Rushworth trapping the all-rounder on the crease to end a stand worth 74, kept Durham interested and after Trevaskis had finished three for 35 from 10 overs, Killeen struck with his second ball in senior cricket to bowl Patterson-White and keep the outcome in the balance with 64 still needed.However, with big-hitting 18-year-old Fateh Singh finding the boundary as easily as he had in his cameo 45 off 22 balls on Friday, the next wicket added 35 in five overs and though Montgomery fell for 54 reverse sweeping Drissell’s off-spin, the target was down to 29 off 61 balls.Another twist came with Singh’s dismissal for 25, brilliantly caught at short mid-wicket by Dickson with 21 still needed and eight down, but Chappell and Brett Hutton were able to finish the job.