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Most of the premier Indian cricketers were playing in the IPL till the other day, but KL Rahul, the vice-captain of the national white-ball teams, is clear that it will be “a fresh start” for them in Australia when the exchanges begin with the ODIs on Friday. Apart from being Virat Kohli’s deputy, Rahul is also the team’s first-choice wicketkeeper and one of the premier batsmen, and having shouldered all of those responsibilities while leading the Kings XI Punjab in the IPL, Rahul insists, “I got used to that role and I started enjoying it”.”I did get a little bit of a feeler with the IPL. I had to play similar roles there as well,” he said of the triple responsibility at a media interaction on Tuesday. “It was challenging and it was new, but I think I got used to it and I started enjoying it. And hopefully it will continue the same way here.”When you’re playing for your country, you’re 11 of the best guys from your country, and they’re all skilled and they all have a great cricket mind, and have a great understanding by themselves; and there’s an able and passionate leader like Virat (Kohli), who will always be there for the boys – it just makes your job a little bit more easier, and I am looking forward to the new responsibilities.”ALSO READ: ‘Rahul’s technique and grace is just unbelievable’ – Brian LaraWhile at the IPL, Rahul said one of the gains for him was that he did manage to learn how to compartmentalise, how to be one and not the other two at all times.”Something that I learnt from the IPL is to stay in the moment, stay in the present, and when I am batting to think as a batter, and to assess the conditions and see how as a batter I can win the game for the team. And when I am wicketkeeping, for those last three or four seconds as the bowler is running in, it’s important that I switch on as a wicketkeeper and not be thinking as a leader,” he elaborated. “That’s something I learnt over the IPL, which is very important for me going ahead.”I think it’s important to start well in the white-ball series. We are playing for the country after a while and we are all excited to play some hard cricket, some aggressive cricket. Australia is a country where we have enjoyed coming and competing and playing hard and aggressive cricket.”Being part of the India white-ball leadership group, Rahul does have at least one small plan in place: “Maybe take it one or two steps ahead and make sure the team environment is great and the players are hungry and looking forward to win games for the country.”When he last played ODI cricket, back in early February in New Zealand, Rahul batted at No. 5 and kept wickets – he scored a century in a losing cause in the final game of that series but seemed to have fixed the No. 5 spot for himself.2:09

We came into the IPL with a lot of self-doubt – Rahul

“I haven’t played a lot of 50-over cricket for a continued period of time,” he said. “Though I’ve been part of the Indian team for a few years now, I’ve never got a long run like this. So feels good that I am contributing to the team’s win and playing my role pretty well and I am happy that I can go out and put up consistent performances for my team.”Rahul, however, wasn’t sure what the team’s plans for him going forward – with two T20 World Cups and an ODI World Cup in the next three years – were.”It will depend on the formats that I am playing and what the team wants of me and what combination sits better. Obviously the last ODI series we played, I batted at five and kept wickets. So, yeah, that is a role I quite enjoyed and I am happy to do or play whatever roles the team gives me,” he said. “Nothing has been told to me or I don’t think we as a team are thinking that far. Obviously World Cups are very, very important and that is the long vision for every team and every country. But, when it comes to me, we are still taking it one game at a time and if I keep putting up consistent performances with the bat and the gloves, it gives us the option of playing an extra bowler or an extra batter, it just helps the team combination a little more.”So it’s something I would love to do and if the opportunity presents itself, and I can keep in all the three World Cups, I’d love to do it for my country.”On the topic of fresh starts, it was one when the players got together in the UAE for the IPL in late August. At the time, shortly before the IPL got underway, Rahul had expressed his fears about returning to the game after the long layoff. He even said that at times he had worried about forgetting the basics. Rahul’s team finished at No. 5 but he topped the run-scorers’ chart for the tournament.”It does give a player a lot of confidence. Just considering how the last six-seven months went before the IPL – we hadn’t played a lot of cricket so it was important as we all came into that tournament with a lot of self-doubt and we hadn’t prepared enough, so we had a lot going on in our mind – it felt good that I could get runs in the middle and, hopefully I can use that confidence and use that momentum in this series as well,” Rahul said. “Obviously it’s a different format, playing Australia, who are a very competitive team. Yes, having runs behind you does help but, again, it’s a fresh start, it’s a fresh tournament and it’s a different format. So it’s important that we start fresh and stay positive and look to win matches for the team.”

However the knockouts turn out, the Lanka Premier League must continue in future years, to help ensure the health of Sri Lankan cricket. The above is what Dambulla Viiking captain Dasun Shanaka had to say on the eve of his team’s semi-final against Jaffna Stallions.Shanaka has been a long-time supporter of starting up Sri Lanka’s own T20 league, having publicly requested one during a tour of Pakistan last year. He felt this edition of LPL was not without its flaws; he would have preferred an IPL-style playoff system, rather than the more traditional semi-finals. But he said the league had helped not only highlight talent, but also bridge the large gap between domestic and international cricket for many players.”This tournament is vital to our cricket future,” Shanaka said. “We are getting a look at cricketers that we otherwise wouldn’t now. What was happening is that we were judging players from their international performances, but we were putting inexperienced players into international cricket. But once they play a tournament like this, they know what to expect at international level. That’s the most important thing we can get from future editions of this tournament as well.”Shanaka’s batting has been among Viiking’s greatest assets during the tournament, with him sitting third on the run-scorers’ list, a tournament tally of 273 and a strike rate of 164 to his name. He has taken four wickets with the ball as well. Even this kind of performance doesn’t guarantee him a spot in Sri Lanka’s T20 XI, though, as there are at least three other seam-bowling allrounders contending for places – Thisara Perera, Isuru Udana and Angelo Mathews. Of those, Thisara has had a good tournament with the bat, and Udana has had his moments as well. For Shanaka, this is exactly the kind of competition for places the LPL should create.”There should be pressure on spots in the Sri Lankan team. That Angelo is bowling again is a big bonus for our national team. That competition for spots should be there for us to do well in international cricket. I want to be in the national team, but let’s see what the future is like. Maybe I will get more opportunities, and I’m hoping I’ll do well.”On Monday’s semi-final in particular, Shanaka felt neutralising the opposition’s best player would be key to Viiking’s batting performance. Stallions’ legspinner Wanindu Hasaranga is the league stage’s most-successful bowler, with 13 wickets and an outstanding economy rate of 5.48 across his 29 tournament overs. Some teams have attempted to hit him out of the attack, but largely failed. Viiking will go in another direction, Shanaka said.”Wanindu is Sri Lanka’s No. 1 spinner and he’s bowling really well at the moment. If we can just get 24 runs off his 24 balls without giving him any wickets, we can score off the other bowlers and balance it out. His strength is that he gets wickets, and gets two or three really quickly. When that happens our run rate decreases. So we have to work out how to play him without giving him wickets.”

It looked like the performance that could move the talk on from the batting ills Australia suffered in the first two Tests. However, despite three substantial innings in the top four, including a masterly century from Steven Smith, it did not quite work out that way in the third Test against India at the SCG.When Smith – having responded to three single-figure dismissals with his 27th Test hundred, which he celebrated with much gusto – was brilliantly run-out by Ravindra Jadeja, it meant Australia had lost eight wickets for 132 runs; 206 for 2 to a rather underwhelming 338 all out. There is a lot to unfold yet in this game – India did well to reach the close two down on a surface that could play tricks – but they missed a chance to be far more impregnable.”I think it’s a decent total,” Smith said after the second day’s play. “It would have been nice to score a few more – you always want more. It’s a bit up and down, the wicket, we’ve seen a couple of balls have kicked up off a length, a couple shot low.”Related

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It was a ten-over period before the second new ball where India were allowed to get their foot in the door. Marnus Labuschagne cut a ball from Jadeja to slip where Ajinkya Rahane took a superb catch to fall in the 90s for the first time in Tests, his dismissal ending the second consecutive 100-run stand of the innings. More culpable was Matthew Wade, when he could not resist trying to take on Jadeja, only lofting the left-arm spinner to mid-on.Wade had made the cut for this Test at the expense of Travis Head, moving down the order to No. 5, having accepted the challenge of opening in the first two Tests as Australia patched up their top order. Before this match, Wade had averaged 35.00 since returning to Test cricket; Head had averaged 30.62 in the same period.This was the second time in three innings that he fell to a misjudged attempt to attack the spinner. In the first innings at the MCG, he had hit R Ashwin to midwicket after having eased his way to 30. Here, his innings was still in its infancy but his intent had been obvious, peppering Hanuma Vihari at short leg as he swept powerfully at Jadeja and producing a brace of strongly driven boundaries to move into double figures. Then he advanced and tried to go over the leg side, but was nowhere near the pitch. It was a shot selection that brought a strong rebuke from Ricky Ponting.Steven Smith’s 131 somewhat made up for Australia’s collapse of 8 for 132•Getty Images

“Matthew Wade needs to have a lot more game awareness,” Ponting said on Channel Seven. “In a situation like that, Matthew Wade has been opening in the last couple of Test matches so the new ball is not going to faze him. But what he’s done by getting out is expose Cameron Green to the new ball, a guy in his third Test, and for me that is just not thinking enough about the situation of the game.”And the new-ball threat certainly came to pass. Green was kept scoreless and then worked over by Jasprit Bumrah, before being pinned lbw with the fifth ball of a classy over. After lunch, Tim Paine was cleaned up by a delivery that zipped back between bat and pad. Hopes of a total over 400 had become trying to reach 300.At this stage, it was basically Smith doing all the scoring. From the moment Wade fell until Pat Cummins was yorked by Jadeja, he made 39 of the 46 runs that came – four of the rest were byes that flew over Cummins from a Bumrah bouncer. On only three previous occasions had Australia’s Nos. 6-8 been dismissed for a combined tally of one or fewer in an innings.Jasprit Bumrah traps Cameron Green lbw•Getty Images

Mitchell Starc then briefly stole the strike before Smith clipped a delivery through the leg side off Navdeep Saini. On completing the third run, at the end of which he nearly slipped in excitement, there was a celebration which also looked like a release of some frustrations. Coupled with the low scores in the first two matches, it was his first Test hundred in Australia since he got one against England in December 2017, although this was only his eighth match since then because of his one-year ban.”I read a lot things… and plenty of people said I was out of form, so it was nice to come back into form, if that’s what you want to call it,” he said. “It was only about three or four weeks I think [since] I scored two hundreds at the SCG [during the ODIs against India]. It kind of just makes me laugh sometimes when people say that kind of thing, I missed out in the first two Test matches.”Such have been Smith’s run-scoring feats that a few low scores will prompt attention almost out of surprise that they have occurred, particularly when two of them came in a defeat; but, in reality, he was always lower down the list of concerns. The fact Australia would have been significantly short without him highlights that.

Free your mind and the runs will surely follow.That’s the message South Africa’s coaching staff gave their batsmen as they set out in search of the highest successful chase in Pakistan.”We’ve encouraged the guys to be themselves and just play. We’ve done a lot of work in terms of clearing their minds and playing within their own characters,” Enoch Nkwe, South Africa’s assistant coach said. “And when the opportunity is there to speed up the game, do that and if it’s not there, absorb pressure as well as we can.”Nkwe confirmed that the magnitude of the task has not put South Africa off pushing for victory, especially as a draw would give Pakistan the series anyway. But they plan to be cautious about how to go about getting the 243 runs they need to level the two-match series. “We’ve spoken about making sure we keep up the intensity, we stay in the moment and we don’t get carried away. But we are not going to go in waiting for 5 o’clock. We are going to play and let’s see how far we get,” Nkwe said.South Africa will face 98 overs on the final day, light-permitting, which means they need to score at less than 2.5 runs an over. More importantly, for Nkwe, they need to make sure they bat well in pairs. “There’s a lot of belief, and guys backing themselves a bit more and freeing themselves up. We want to win this. We want to build big partnerships.”Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen’s second-wicket stand is worth 94 and has been almost incident-free. Crucially, they saw South Africa to the close of day four without any late-in-the-day wobbles, as was the case in Karachi. There, South Africa were 175 for 1 towards the end of the third day, Markram and van der Dussen had put on 127 runs together and the team were 17 runs in the lead before they lost three wickets for 10 runs and the momentum. Their remaining six wickets fell for 58 runs on the fourth morning and Nkwe does not want to see a repeat of that.”In the last Test match right at the close of play, we lowered our intensity. That was an area we looked at and it’s good to see the guys responding. It’s good that the same two (Markram and van der Dussen) that were in the situation in the first Test are taking full responsibility to make sure the team doesn’t fall into that again,” Nkwe said. “Hopefully they can build on this partnership because that is going to be key. We know in the subcontinent wickets can fall in clusters and that’s something we are trying to avoid.”South Africa have already collapsed once in this Test, losing five wickets for 37 runs in the first innings and have suffered similar fates over the last few seasons. Many reasons have been mooted for the line-ups frailty, including loss of confidence due to overly spinner-friendly conditions on tours to Sri Lanka and India and overly seamer-friendly conditions at home and loss of experience after the retirements of AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla in the last three years.Chances are that the root cause of the problem is a combination of those factors and only a change in form and results will suggest the corner has been turned. Nkwe said South Africa know that. “The batting unit know they haven’t done as well as they wanted to. We wanted to score more hundreds, so hopefully tomorrow we can have a hundred or two, if all goes well. Hopefully tomorrow we can look to take a step forward as a batting unit. That will give us a lot of confidence for future series. The wicket is playing quite well and the guys just need to apply themselves.”Asked if the team knew about or would take inspiration from West Indies’ successful chase of the highest total in Asia, Nkwe said the team hadn’t been keeping too close an eye on the Chattogram Test but would get up to speed before the final day in Rawalpindi. “We haven’t been following that. We’ve been focusing on our game and we need to really stay connected in terms of what we are looking to achieve. But I’m sure tonight when we watch some highlights or go through Cricinfo guys might find some sort of motivation,” he said. “We also have enough cricketers in our changeroom that have been role models and are really encouraging the guys. Every individual understands how important it is that we chase this down.”South Africa do not have any more Test cricket scheduled this summer after Australia postponed their series in South Africa which was due to be played in March. Discussions are ongoing about lining up winter opposition and confirming fixtures for next season, when South Africa hope to be able to compete more strongly in the World Test Championship. They will finish this tournament in sixth place.

Surrey 382 (Burns 113, Jacks 88, Clark 63*) and 195 for 7 (Jacks 62, Aldridge 4-61) beat Somerset 180 (C Overton 29, Worrall 3-28, J Overton 3-24, Atkinson 3-40) and 394 (Gregory 110*, Goldsworthy 67) by three wicketsWill Jacks’ second half-century of the match guided leaders Surrey to their fourth LV= Insurance County Championship win of the season, a three-wicket success against Somerset at Taunton.But the home side put up a valiant fight on the final day, Lewis Gregory finishing 110 not out, his fourth first-class century, and Peter Siddle making 42 to extend their second-innings total from 319 for 8 overnight to 394 all out.That set Surrey 193 to win in excellent batting conditions. They slipped to 70 for 3 before Jacks followed his first-innings 88 with 62 in a total of 195 for 7. Kasey Aldridge claimed a career-best 4 for 61.Surrey took 22 points from the game and Somerset only one. It was the home side’s fifth defeat in seven Championship games and saw them slip to second from bottom of the First Division table.Somerset’s ninth-wicket pair of Gregory and Siddle battled away for more than an hour and a half at the start of the day, neither looking in any trouble.Unbeaten on 71 at the outset, Gregory carried on where he had left off the previous evening, batting with confidence on the now placid surface. A back-foot forcing shot off leg-spinner Cameron Steel through the covers for his eighth four brought up his hundred off 166 balls.Siddle looked equally assured as the partnership grew to 91 before the Australian fell lbw to a very full leg stump delivery from Dan Worrall.Somerset still required a last-wicket stand to hold out much hope. But Marchant de Lange edged his second ball through to the wicketkeeper to give Worrall his third wicket.There was time for three overs of the Surrey second innings before lunch. Ryan Patel struck two fours off Siddle to help take the score to 21 by the interval.Patel and first-innings centurion Rory Burns continued to be positive at the start of the afternoon session, the latter pulling Gregory over mid-wicket for six.Everything was looking straightforward for the visitors until a major wobble on 65, begun by Burns, on 25, pulling a catch to fine-leg off Aldridge.Without a run added, Patel was brilliantly caught at slip, one-handed to his left by Gregory off the left-arm spin of Roelof van der Merwe.Jamie Smith could make only four before having his off stump uprooted by Aldridge and, at 70 for 3, Surrey were suddenly on the back foot.Tall seamer Aldridge went past the outside edge several times. But Ben Geddes and Jacks were unmoved, gradually averting any thought of a crisis.They built steadily until Jacks eased the tension with three fours in an over off van der Merwe. By tea, the pair had added 58 and a further 65 runs were required.In the final session, Jacks was given a life on 38 when Tom Abell spilled a straightforward chance at second slip off the impressive Aldridge, who struck later in the same over as Geddes, on 25, pulled a short ball straight to square leg.That brought in Hashim Amla, unable to bat higher after a spell absent from the game through illness, with the total 137 for 4 and 56 needed. He fell for nine, lbw to Siddle, and when Abell atoned for his earlier miss with a fine diving slip catch to send back Cameron Steel, Surrey still required 32.Jacks had hit 12 fours before having his middle stump ejected by Siddle. Jordan Clark and Jamie Overton saw Surrey to their target, leaving Somerset with precious little to show for a hugely spirited effort.

Pat Cummins has praised the ability of different players in the Australia side to stand up when the team needed it after they conjured a remarkable run chase in New Zealand to take the series 2-0.Australia were in huge trouble on the third evening at 34 for 4 chasing 279 and then at 80 for 5 early on the fourth morning when Travis Head departed. However, Mitchell Marsh – who had been given a life the ball before Head’s wicket – and the under-pressure Alex Carey put together a match-changing stand of 140 in 29 overs.Related

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Carey, whose position in the side was coming under increased scrutiny after a run of poor strokes, remained unbeaten to the end with 98 after Ben Sears had again rattled the chase with two wickets in two balls.”Think the story of this series was in key moments one guy stood up, we didn’t necessarily play the complete game, but in those pivotal moments someone stood up and made themselves a matchwinner,” Cummins, who struck a vital 32 not out, said. “[We] keep finding ways to win, it’s a pretty awesome squad.”He added that the tempo Marsh and Carey were able to bat at was vital in putting the pressure back on New Zealand’s bowlers. It also meant the second new ball wouldn’t be a factor.”We’ve been on the other side of it plenty of times and if the scoreboard’s not moving you feel in the game, but if they are chipping away it seems like it’s all happening pretty quickly,” he said. “That was goal today, be busy, keep the run rate ticking over and bit by bit getting closer.””[It was] pretty tense,” he added. “Pretty nervous watching for the last couple of hours, everyone trying to keep themselves busy then looking up at the board. Amazing win.”The victory meant Australia finished with six Test wins and one defeat in the season having beaten Pakistan 3-0 and drawn 1-1 with West Indies. They now have a long break from Test cricket before facing India at home in November.New Zealand captain Tim Southee was proud of the way his team fought but was left regretting seeing a golden chance of a first win at home against Australia in 31 years slip away.”The partnership with Mitch Marsh and Alex Carey sort of broke the back of our attack, but then a great little exciting end to the day,” he said. “When you are playing the No. 1 side in the world you need to go that little bit further. But a great Test match…ebbed and flowed throughout the whole match.”

Jonathan Trott has returned to Warwickshire as a batting consultant for the men’s squad.Trott, who retired in 2018 with a haul of 18,662 first-class runs and more than 12,000 more in List A and T20 cricket, performed a similar role for England during their winter tour of the subcontinent. He had previously had spells as batting coach with the U19 and Lions sides and was part of the England coaching team at various times during the 2020 international season. He was also batting coach at Kent in 2019.While Trott missed out on the role of Elite Batting Coach at the ECB – the job was given to Marcus Trescothick – he stood in for Trescothick during the limited-overs leg of the India tour after Trescothick suffered a family bereavement. Although Trott has no official role with England, it would be no surprise if he was called-in for further short-term engagements to allow breaks for the full-time coaching staff.The son of a professional batting coach, Trott has coached from a young age. Growing up in Cape Town, he ran sessions alongside Bob Woolmer and was credited by Dom Sibley for his help after he graduated to the England team.Trott will now bring his experience, including 52 Test caps between 2009 and 2015, back to the county game in support of Warwickshire’s coaching team of Mark Robinson, Graeme Welch, Tony Frost and Ian Westwood.Related

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“It means a huge amount to me to return to Warwickshire, in this new role as a consultant,” said Trott. “There’s a lot of talented players in the squad, some of whom I know well from my time within the playing ranks. I’m very excited to have this opportunity and to hopefully supporting the Bears on our journey to becoming a team that consistently challenges for trophies again.”Paul Farbrace, Director of Cricket at Warwickshire CCC, said: “Jonathan knows exactly what it takes to win trophies with Warwickshire and England. He will be a great support and mentor to the players and he could play a significant role in developing several members of the squad.”Since finishing his playing career at Edgbaston in 2018, Jonathan has also gone away and built a strong coaching portfolio, which has included county cricket with Kent and home and overseas series with England. We’re very happy to have him back with the Bears.”

Saif Zaib posted a wonderful maiden first-class century before Ben Sanderson and Gareth Berg once again knocked over the Sussex top order in the LV= Insurance County Championship.Talented left-hander Zaib, who has been at Northamptonshire since he was 15, collected a commanding 135 as he and Adam Rossington, 87, put on 198 together to help the hosts to a massive 335-run first-innings lead.Related

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Sanderson and Berg, who shared all 10 of the first-innings wickets equally, then claimed two scalps apiece to leave Sussex 68 for 4.But Stiaan van Zyl’s stylish 71 not out helped Sussex recover to 154 for 4 by the close at Wantage Road, still 181 runs behind Northants.Northants added 227 runs in 51 overs as Zaib, Rossington, Berg and Tom Taylor all found scoring simple against a largely toothless attack.The caveat to that was Ollie Robinson. The quick wouldn’t have done his England Test hopes any harm in front of ECB Performance Director Mo Bobat as he looked a constant threat during his 5 for 58 – the 16th five-for of his career.Zaib and Rossington were the morning protagonists as their partnership grew to 198, one short of the county sixth-wicket record against Sussex.Milestones came in rapid succession as the skipper reached his third half-century in five innings this season in 90 balls, before Zaib converted to a hundred in 176 balls.They fell either side of the second new ball as Zaib was lbw sweeping and Rossington miscued a pull to mid-on, with Wayne Parnell falling quickly after to give Robinson his fifth.But Taylor and Berg crashed Northants over the 400-run batting point mark in a 63-run blast, before the former smashed 21 in two overs, after Berg had fallen, to bring the declaration on 416 for 9.Faced with a long task to reach parity, Sussex began their second innings with intent but soon collapsed to 68 for 4 in the face of Berg and Sanderson.First-innings golden duck casualty Tom Haines raced to 18 off 17 before he expansively slashed Berg to a juggling Taylor at second slip.Aaron Thomason edged Sanderson thickly to fourth slip, Australian debutant Travis Head under edged a Berg short ball behind and Tom Clark saw his off-stump bail flicked off by Sanderson.South African van Zyl was dropped guiding to fourth slip on 19 but was otherwise at ease with Ben Brown, with a penchant for cover and straight drives. It was therefore little surprise that his 91-ball half-century was brought up with a beautifully timed straight drive, as he and Brown’s partnership blossomed to 86 by the end of play.

Lancastrians Arron Lilley and Callum Parkinson dealt North Group leaders Yorkshire Vikings a blow as Leicestershire Foxes won by 34 runs to chalk up a third successive Vitality Blast victory.Lilley just missed out on a maiden T20 hundred, but as the Foxes piled up 207 for 3, his 99 not out off 55 balls with four sixes was comfortably a career-best, while Parkinson took 4 for 35 with his left-arm spin.Lilley shared a stand of 90 for the third wicket with Foxes skipper Colin Ackermann (40) on a poor night for the Vikings with the ball and in the field.Chasing 208 to win, Gary Ballance and Harry Brook threatened briefly but after both fell in the 30s no other batter could pick up the pace and the Vikings were bowled out for 173 as Ben Mike took two wickets in the final over.Opting to bat, the Foxes lost Josh Inglis in making 63 for 1 in the Powerplay, the Australian out to a tame return catch off a Joe Root full toss. Soon after reaching halfway at 98 for 1, Leicestershire saw Scott Steel run out for 32 after a mix-up with Lilley, and Ackermann dropped without scoring in the same over, albeit a difficult chance in the air to bowler Dom Bess. Ackermann cashed in, hoisting Jordan Thompson over deep midwicket for six.Related

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Lilley, who reached fifty off 28 balls, cleared the rope off Matty Fisher, Matthew Waite twice, and clouted Root over long-on.Ackermann hit a Thompson full toss out of the ground over midwicket but was fortunate when he tried to do likewise to Lockie Ferguson, Thompson taking the catch but stepping over the rope. After a Fisher slower ball bowled Ackermann, Lilley was unlucky not to become the eighth Foxes centurion in T20, twice seeing lofted shots drop just short of the rope in the final over.Two wickets in three balls from Parkinson checked the Vikings’ early progress as Jonny Tattersall hit straight to point and Adam Lyth was leg before sweeping but 58 for 2 in the Powerplay looked competitive.Ballance was quickly striking the ball well but Parkinson struck another blow as Root hit a wide delivery to point to fall on 15 and after the Vikings reached halfway needing another 123 to win, Ballance chopped on to Steel’s off-spin for 34.George Hill holed out to deep midwicket and Thompson was bowled by Parkinson for a duck to leave 86 required from the last five overs, the Vikings’ hopes effectively disappearing as Brook swung but was caught and bowled by Gavin Griffiths.

Hampshire stormed into the quarter-finals of the Vitality Blast after a final round day of drama saw the two-time champions progress. The Hawks, who sat bottom of the South Group only a month ago, found their form at the right time, reeling off five successive wins and then saw results work in their favour on Sunday night following their thumping six-wicket win over Glamorgan at the Ageas Bowl.Hampshire started the day sitting in sixth spot in the South Group, needing to beat Glamorgan whilst bettering Surrey’s run rate then hope Gloucestershire and Sussex lost to Somerset and Kent respectively to have any hope of qualifying for the top-four.James Vince’s side held up their side of the bargain by blasting their way to a challenging 185-run target inside the 14.1 overs needed to usurp Surrey’s run rate. Although Sussex brushed aside a Kent side, who had already qualified, but had been depleted due to Covid-19, Somerset ensured James Vince’s side remain in with a chance to win a third Blast title with a 23-run victory over Gloucestershire.

Vitality Blast quarter-finals

• Yorkshire vs Sussex (Aug 24)

• Nottinghamshire vs Hampshire (Aug 25)

• Somerset vs Lancashire (Aug 26)

• Kent vs Birmingham (Aug 27)

It capped off a superb week for Hampshire, who on Wednesday booked their spot in Division One of the County Championships by beating Gloucestershire before coming from nowhere to reach the last-eight of the Blast.yD’Arcy Short’s blazing 69 off 30 balls and a magnificent 43 off 13 from Joe Weatherley got the Hawks home in a match that yielded 24 sixes from both sides and included a fine knock of 78 from Glamorgan’s Australian Test batsman Marnus Labuschagne.Weatherley said belief was the key to the victory and credited the recent arrival of New Zealand allrounder Colin de Grandhomme as the catalyst to a change in mentality after the team’s T20 season looked dead and buried after a demoralising defeat to Surrey four weeks ago. de Grandhomme scored just 5 against Glamorgan and was overshadowed by Short’s brilliant knock, but Weatherley said his arrival has been a huge boost to the squad.”Colin has come in and showed us how to play and given us that confidence in the middle to go for it from ball one,” Weatherley said. “For me, one of the younger guys, I am just feeding off that and it makes things a lot easier.”It’s funny, when you are swimming against the tide it feels the hardest thing to win games and vice versa when you are going well. Of course we were going to do that today – it is that inner-confidence that at the start of the competition felt a million miles away. To have put ourselves in this position at this stage of the season is unbelievable.”We have put so much in over the last five matches and we have found a formula that works. It’s a real team effort, lots of guys have put their hands up, everyone is working hard for each other.”