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There are currently four England spinners on their tours of Bangladesh and UAE, but none of them are Monty Panesar which shows how far his star has fallen

Andrew McGlashan24-Feb-2010There are currently four England spinners on their tours of Bangladesh and UAE, but none of them are Monty Panesar which shows how far his star has fallen. Instead, Panesar has finally been unveiled at his new county, Sussex, four months after joining them from Northamptonshire in an attempt to revitalise a stalling career.Graeme Swann is now England’s No. 1 spinner and his deputy in Bangladesh is James Tredwell, while the slow-bowling places in the England Lions squad are with Adil Rashid and David Wainwright. Panesar spent part of his winter overseas, but the nearest he got to the national set-up was when he helped in the nets before the final Test in Johannesburg in January. Instead he was with the Lions franchise in South Africa in an effort to recapture his form after managing a paltry 18 wickets at 59.44 in 13 Championship matches in 2009.His last appearance for England came against Australia, at Cardiff, where he famously helped save the Test alongside James Anderson as the final pair survived 69 balls. It would ultimately play a vital part in England regaining the Ashes, but Panesar’s bowling had fallen away badly over the preceding six months. A lot of advice was throw his way, but it only seemed to make the situation worse and part of the reasoning behind his winter away from the spotlight was to allow him to think for himself.Panesar’s stint in South Africa ended with 15 wickets at 39.06 which doesn’t appear an unqualified success, but he has returned to England feeling far happier with life than he had for much of last year and how his focus is on making an impact with Sussex.”It was an opportunity for me to play cricket elsewhere which will hopefully help me become the successful international cricketer that I want to be,” he told Cricinfo. “I haven’t really focussed on how or where I am with England, I just tried to go to the Lions and give myself the best chance to come to Sussex in form. I feel this is the second phase of my career now which will give me a good kick start and I’m just concentrating on making as good a start as possible.”Dave Nosworthy, the Lions coach, said how he had tried to give Panesar the freedom to express himself while also giving him the opportunity to mentor the franchise’s young spinners. Nosworthy’s view was Panesar could still become more proactive as a bowler and how Michael Yardy, the Sussex captain, handles his new bowler will give an indication of the responsibility on Panesar’s shoulders.”You have to learn and develop and the best way to do that is to play in different conditions, learning how different players play, and I think my time with the Lions enabled me to do that,” Panesar said. “I got the opportunity to help coach the youngsters over there and it was something I enjoyed, passing some knowledge onto other players. And being part of Sussex here it’s something I would like to do as well when and where I can.”Panesar’s only played first-class cricket during the winter, but Sussex’s success last season came in the one-day game as they were relegated in the Championship. While he is likely to be eased into the season with four-day cricket, Panesar is eager to play a part in all formats but knows success may not come straight away.”Last year Sussex had a phenomenal one-day season and that’s something I want to develop in my game because I feel when I’m bowling at my best I can have an impact in all formats,” he said. “I think come the one-day cricket and Twenty20 games I can add some value to their side. It may take me time to settle, but hopefully later in the summer when the pitches are drier I can have some impact.”

This is the seventh successive time Pakistan have won a T20I series against West Indies

Danyal Rasool03-Aug-2025After the drama of the second game came something of a repeat of the first today. Pakistan edged out West Indies by 13 runs to seal a 2-1 series win, a seventh successive such outcome in bilateral T20I series between the two sides. Pakistan proved just a touch too good for their hosts with both bat and ball, inspired by a 138-run opening partnership between Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan and a flurry at the death. They held their nerve with ball in hand, a clutch few overs at the death shutting the door in West Indies’ face, leaving their pursuit of 190 just short once again.Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat again, but this time avoided losing early wickets as they had on Saturday. Ayub and Farhan saw through the first few overs with solidity, if not quite the aggression this new-look Pakistan may have desired, and before long found the innings drawing to a close without having lost a wicket, but also bereft of the explosiveness that would put the game out of West Indies’ reach.They did eventually put up a stiff target, but West Indies sparkled with intent up front, smashing 33 in the first two overs. It gave them a buffer for when Haris Rauf began to drag them back, but in a game where wickets were hard to come by, the hosts looked to be building a platform for the kind of big finish that fetched them victory in the previous game.They looked on course around the 16-over mark, ahead of Pakistan at that stage by about five runs, and needed 49 off the final four. But a fiery 17th over from Rauf and a magnificent one from Sufiyan Muqeem right after – which saw Jason Holder castled for a two-ball duck, ended West Indies realistic aspirations of a series victory. They thrashed and flailed for the final two overs, but they were in Pakistan’s grip, and had sunk too far now.

138 for 0

Can a 138-run partnership be bad for the team? It’s a question Pakistan have discussed perhaps more than any other side during the Mohammad Rizwan-Babar Azam years, and one, perhaps, they might have revisited with Ayub and Farhan but for the fine margins going their way. The pair found boundaries and sixes with reasonable regularity, but West Indies managed to sneak in large spells of dot balls or singles that kept dragging the run rate back.With four overs to go on the best batting surface of the series, both Ayub and Farhan had half-centuries, but Pakistan’s run rate stood at a modest 8.50. Having scored 23 in their final five yesterday, it would require something special to ensure Pakistan posted a winning total today.

Making amends

It had come to the stage Pakistan probably needed a wicket to fall more than West Indies with the visitors’ power hitters sitting idle. Shamar Joseph removed Farhan bringing Hasan Nawaz out to the middle, who hooked his fourth ball for six to set the death-overs tempo. Another six the following over preceded his dismissal, but the shift in gears was evident. Not a single four was struck through the death overs, but Pakistan found five sixes in the last four overs, including a 20-run final over that ultimately put them above par. Fifty-three runs came in the final four, a number that would arguably have been somewhat smaller had a 138-run partnership not been broken when it was.

Chase retired out, WI run out of time

Every game this series, it has seemed Jason Holder came out to bat a shade too late, but tonight, he could wait no more. With Roston Chase struggling for timing and the rate above 13, West Indies opted to retire him out and sent Holder into the middle with 41 to get in three overs. It was well within range of his abilities, but his fireworks have largely come against Pakistan’s quicks, and there was still a Muqeem over to negotiate.A flipper off his second ball shot through and knocked back Holder’s off peg with such precision it took the Bajan time to work out he had actually been bowled and not fallen victim to some devious sleight of hand by wicketkeeper Mohammad Haris. With Muqeem and Rauf both consistently on their mark, West Indies frankly had no one who looked like getting them close enough anymore.

Stokes reveals England briefly considered refusing to travel to India without Bashir

Vithushan EhantharajahUpdated on 24-Jan-2024Shoaib Bashir has received his India visa and will travel out to join England’s Test squad in Hyderabad over the weekend, following a protracted saga in which the uncapped spinner had been required to return to the UK from the UAE to finalise the process, while the rest of his team-mates travelled to India ahead of Thursday’s first Test.Bashir, who was born and raised in Surrey, had been facing delays due to his Pakistani heritage, something with which England players with similar backgrounds have contended in the past. In 2019, Saqib Mahmood was ruled out of an England Lions tour to India, while Moeen Ali arrived late at the 2022 IPL season. Usman Khawaja, whose parents were born in Islamabad, also arrived late for Australia’s tour of India last year.After initially staying back in the UAE in the company of Stuart Hooper, the ECB’s director of cricket operations, Bashir flew back to London – where his passport was issued – to resolve the issue at the India High Commission. Hooper joined the squad in Hyderabad on Wednesday.”Shoaib Bashir has now received his visa, and is due to travel to join up with the team in India this weekend,” an ECB spokesman said. “We’re glad the situation has now been resolved.”The saga attracted the attention of the British government, which called on India to “treat British citizens fairly at all times in its visa process”, while Ben Stokes, England’s captain, revealed his squad had briefly considered refusing to travel until Bashir was cleared.Stokes’ emotional reaction came in Abu Dhabi during England’s pre-tour training camp, when it emerged Bashir had not received his documents, leaving him unable to travel with the rest of the squad and England’s support staff on Sunday.”When I first found the news out in Abu Dhabi, I did say we shouldn’t fly until Bash gets his visa,” Stokes said. “But that was a little bit tongue in cheek. I know it’s a way bigger thing than doing that. That was probably just emotions around the whole thing. I’m pretty devastated that Bash has had to go through this.”As a leader, as a captain, when one of your team-mates is affected by something like that, you get a bit emotional. I know he’s back in London and a lot of people are jumping through hoops to try and get this through quicker.”Hopefully, we’re gonna see him here over the weekend. There was never a [realistic] chance that we were ever not going to travel around this but Bash knows he’s had our full support.”Related

• England wait on Rehan Ahmed availability for third Test after visa issues resurface

• Stokes: 'I've done everything I needed to'

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• Which spinner will partner Leach in India?

The British government intervened on Wednesday, reiterating its stance that India should treat British citizens “fairly” when they apply for visas. A government spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo: “The specifics of this case are a matter for Shoaib Bashir and the Indian Government.”The spokesperson added: “But we absolutely expect India to treat British citizens fairly at all times in its visa process. We have previously raised the issues British citizens with Pakistani heritage experience applying for visas with the Indian High Commission in London.”The ECB had received constant assurances from the BCCI and India High Commission that the matter would be resolved, but the delay meant that Bashir was ruled out of contention for the first Test – for which England have selected three specialist spinners including another uncapped tourist in Tom Hartley.With the matter now resolved, it is understood that Bashir will spend a couple of days at home to decompress after the ordeal. The second Test of the five-match series begins on Friday 2, in Visakhapatnam.”It’s unfortunate he’s had to go through something like this,” Stokes said•AFP

“Hopefully, we are going to see him back in India over the weekend,” said Stokes. “My feelings towards it haven’t changed. It’s obviously a frustrating situation – more importantly, for him. We announced our squad mid-December. It’s now January 24 and he still doesn’t have the visa.”England announced their squad on December 11 and the ECB submitted visa applications immediately after. Rehan Ahmed, the other player in the Test squad with Pakistani heritage, already had the necessary paperwork after being on standby during the World Cup last year.”Hopefully we can get this sorted, we can get Bash out here and he can concentrate on the rest of this tour,” Stokes added. “It’s unfortunate he’s had to go through something like this on his first experience of being in the England team.”Rohit Sharma, India’s captain expressed his sympathy for Bashir’s plight. “I feel for him, honestly,” he said. “Unfortunately I don’t sit in the visa office to give you more details on that, but hopefully he can make it quickly, enjoy our country and play some cricket as well.”Additional reporting: Matt Roller. This story was updated at 13.15pm GMT following the news of Bashir’s visa

Pakistan recovered from a defeat to Thailand to notch up their first win against India in T20Is since 2016

S Sudarshanan07-Oct-2022Pakistan recovered from a surprise defeat against Thailand and inflicted a thrilling 13-run defeat on India in their Women’s T20 Asia Cup clash at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.Allrounder Nida Dar led Pakistan’s charge first with the bat, stroking an unbeaten 56 after an early stutter before picking up two wickets, including that of returning India captain Harmanpreet Kaur. Her efforts helped Pakistan notch up their first-ever win over India in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup and only their third win in 13 matches against them. It also ended India’s winning run in the tournament.Thanks to the 76-run stand between Dar and captain Bismah Maroof, Pakistan posted 137 for 6 and then had India on the mat at 91 for 7. But Richa Ghosh, batting at No. 8 after walking off the field in the first innings due to a heat-related issue, hit 26 off just 13 balls to raise India’s hopes. But it was a task too long eventually for her.Stifling powerplay
Opting to bat, Pakistan openers Muneeba Ali and Sidra Ameen made their attacking intentions clear pretty early. Under pressure after batting let them down against Thailand, the pair looked to change their approach and was eager to put the bowlers off their lengths. Ameen used the crease well to slash Renuka Singh for a four following which Muneeba used her feet to come down and swipe Deepti Sharma past mid-on. India’s disciplined bowling meant that the efforts of the duo did not bear fruits.Pooja Vastrakar then had Ameen nicking at one outside off before Deepti, in her third over inside the powerplay, picked up two wickets in the space of three balls. She first deceived Muneeba in the air to have her stumped before trapping Omaima Sohail lbw after she missed the sweep. In the interim, there was a dropped chance of Sohail as well.Pakistan were reduced to 33 for 3 in the first six overs.Maroof, Dar lead Pakistan’s recovery
It was then upto the experienced duo of Maroof and Dar to bring Pakistan back on track. The only players in the line-up with over 100 T20Is each to their name, they showed their wares against India’s spinners. Dar was the attacker as she first swept Radha Yadav, brought in for Sneh Rana, through backward square leg before using her feet to slink down the track and hit Rajeshwari Gayakwad over mid-on.Dar got off the blocks pretty quickly, hitting a four and a six off Dayalan Hemalatha, even as Maroof took her time to get her eye in. The Pakistan captain ended her boundary drought via a pull off Pooja Vastrakar through square leg. In a bid to up the ante further, Maroof mistimed a scoop-turned-to-ramp straight to short third.Thereon, despite India making regular inroads from the other end – they picked up three wickets for just 30 runs in the last five overs, Dar moved quickly to bring up her sixth T20I half-century and in the process got Pakistan to 137.Experimentation costs India
In reply, Sabbhineni Meghana and Smriti Mandhana struggled to force the pace off the pitch against the Pakistan spinners, despite Meghana hitting a six and a four off Dar and Sadia Iqbal, brought in for the injured Diana Baig, respectively. Meghana then sliced one to cover when she tried to repeat it against Nashra Sandhu’s left-arm spin.Rodrigues then struggled to get going despite getting a couple of chances and top-edged a swipe off Dar to backward point. Even as Hemalatha got herself going from one end, Mandhana – after surviving a stamping chance – holed out to long-on on the very next ball off Sandhu to leave India in a spot at 50 for 3 in ten overs.Vastrakar, sent in at No. 5 ahead of Harmanpreet, was then run-out following a mix-up with Hemalatha before the latter was bowled in an attempt to play a cheeky paddle off legspinner Tuba Hassan. With the asking rate well over nine, Harmanpreet and Deepti added 26 off 19 balls for the sixth wicket before Deepti top-edged a sweep. Soon Harmanpreet failed to clear Aliya Riaz, who took three crucial catches towards the end, at long-on to leave India reeling.Ghosh then used her big-hitting prowess to smash Sandhu for back-to-back sixes in the 18th over before hitting one more off Iqbal in the next. But the target was always a long shot. She departed in the 19th over, leaving India needing 18 off the last over with one wicket remaining. Aiman Anwer cleaned up Rajeshwari Gayakwad with two balls remaining in the chase to secure a win for Pakistan.

That also means India have only five specialist batters in the line-up, followed by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant

Nagraj Gollapudi17-Jun-20213:13

‘WTC a step in the right direction for Test cricket’ – Virat Kohli

India will field two spinners at the WTC final, naming both Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin in their XI on the eve of the match that gets underway in Southampton on June 18. In all, Virat Kohli will have five bowlers to work with, with Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah also in the XI. That also means India have only five specialist batters in the line-up, followed by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

India’s XI for the WTC final

Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah

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The development marks the return of Jadeja and Shami to the playing XI – they had missed the home series against England after picking injuries on the Australia tour – and it will be the first time Ishant, Shami, Bumrah, Ashwin and Jadeja play a Test match together.From the 15 India named on June 15, pacers Mohammed Siraj and Umesh Yadav, wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha and batter Hanuma Vihari missed out.India announcing their XI on the eve of the game – as opposed to waiting till toss time – might come as a mild surprise to some, considering the very poor weather forecast for Friday and the consequent changes that might occur to conditions.Related

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• Rahane: 'Happy to take criticism. Because of criticism, I'm here'

India captain Virat Kohli said that the weather, however fickle it might be, had no bearing on the combinations the team had finalised. “No, it [the weather] does not change [things] from our point of view as a team,” he told the media on match eve. “For us, it is about covering all the bases and making sure that we take the strongest side we can be on the park, which gives us batting depth and gives us enough bowling options as well. We are quite clear in terms of what we want to do. The forecast is something we are not focused on.”We are not going to think too much about what might change. We are not bothered with what the weather holds. Do we need to change the outlook of the team altogether? No. Obviously how you approach the game and the decisions that you make day-to-day, they alter when the conditions are different. But not your whole team altogether.”

Limited DRS, with a virtual pitch map and slow-motion cameras, will be used in the semi-finals and final

Varun Shetty26-Feb-2020The BCCI’s decision to introduce limited DRS in the semi-finals and final of the Ranji Trophy 2019-20 has been welcomed by the players, with Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat agreeing that the technology would help in restricting the “howlers” in the crunch games.It is the first time that DRS is going be in use in India’s domestic circuit, but there will be no HawkEye, Snickometer or UltraEdge. The tools that will be used are a virtual pitch map (for lbw decisions) and slow-motion cameras, with each team getting four reviews per innings.”It will be beneficial for sure because there won’t be the umpiring howlers that sometimes happen,” Unadkat told ESPNcricinfo.However, the Saurashtra seamer wasn’t entirely certain how the limited version of the DRS would work and was waiting to hear more about it from the match officials before the semi-final against Gujarat later this week in Rajkot. “But it is not the DRS used in the international cricket. So I am slightly doubtful that even this [limited DRS] can go wrong. I am just afraid what if this doesn’t prove to be worthy enough for the decisions to be accurate. Having said that, it is still a beneficial first step.”Unadkat also pointed out that umpiring standards in domestic cricket have been improving. “The umpiring quality has sure-shot improved,” he said. “The BCCI has been ranking the umpires and the best umpires are standing in the top groups. This year I felt the best umpires were standing in the Elite Group matches.”Unadkat pointed out that the on-field decision-making was not below par even last season. According to him, the controversial decisions during the quarter-final between Karnataka and Saurashtra had “hyped” the issue and put umpires in a bad light. “It wasn’t that it was really, really poor last year. Just because of the couple of incidents, and because it happened against a team like Karnataka and it got hyped it so much, that is why the umpiring got highlighted.Abhimanyu Easwaran celebrates a century•Abhimanyu Easwaran

“So the umpiring standards were not horrible last year. It was improving even then and has been the case even this season.”Bengal captain Abhimanyu Easwaran also backed the decision. “I think it’s a very good thing to have DRS in domestic cricket as well, especially in knockout games, and semi-finals and final, even though there’s not that much technology,” Easwaran said as his team got ready to face Karnataka in the other semi-final at Eden Gardens. “The umpires can make errors at times. A human can make an error, but to rectify it, you have the technology and that will probably change the game for a team and that can probably be a deciding thing at a crucial point of the game.”So I think it’s really good to have it, and hopefully, it can help players get crucial runs or crucial wickets and change the game for their teams.”Abhimanyu, like most of his team-mates and a lot of others in the domestic circuit, has never played in a match that has had DRS in operation. The Karnataka camp will have KL Rahul and Manish Pandey, at the very least, who will be familiar with the system through their time in international cricket. But Abhimanyu was confident that the lack of experience wouldn’t be too much of a barrier to overcome.”It’s a new thing, but I think guys have seen enough cricket on television, so we know a bit of how it works,” he said. “In the pre-match meeting with the umpires and the referee, there is going to be an explanation about how it works and what are the technologies available and things like that. So we’ll have a fair idea of it the day before the game.”And obviously, we’ll talk about it to our teams as well, so they have a fair idea of how it’s working. We’ve been also given papers to read how it works, and the guys have seen on TV, how to take a review, and things like that.”

The Big Bash League breaks for Christmas with Shane Watson’s Thunder at the top of the points table

The Report by Sreshth Shah24-Dec-2018England fast bowler Tom Curran took 3 for 24 and smacked his highest T20 score against cross-city rivals Sydney Thunder, but his Sydney Sixers team failed to cross the line, losing by 21 runs at the Spotless Stadium on Christmas eve.Curran’s 40-ball 62 gave Sixers some hope, after they were reduced to 6 for 56 following legspinner Fawad Ahmed’s three-wicket haul, but his dismissal in the 19th over ended any chance of a Sixers win.Thunder’s first-innings score was set up by Jos Buttler’s 37-ball 63 after they were asked to bat, and were destined for a score close to 200 at one stage, but a flurry of late wickets off Curran and left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe kept their total down to an achievable 169.A solid bowling effort, however – barring the time when Curran and Sean Abbott added 88 for the seventh wicket – helped Thunder win the game comprehensively. Fawad was assisted by Daniel Sams, whose medium pace fetched him three late wickets as well.Buttler finds his groove earlyThunder lost captain Shane Watson for a sluggish 19, and with No. 3 Callum Ferguson taking his time to find the bat’s middle, it was down to Buttler to keep the scoreboard ticking in the Powerplay. He hoicked Sean Abbott, in particular, over midwicket a few times and hit young legspinner Lloyd Pope out of the attack. His blitz ensured Thunder were past fifty in the Powerplay and had crossed triple digits by the time he fell for 63 in the 12th over. At that stage, Thunder were on course for a score close to 200.Jos Buttler shuffles across the stumps and plays a scoop•Getty Images

Play it again, SamsThunder, however, lost their way after Buttler’s dismissal. A mix-up sent Ferguson back for a 24-ball 23, and Joe Root was clean bowled by an O’Keefe wrong’un that slipped through his defense. Jason Sangha and Chris Green fell to Curran in a bid to accelerate, and from 4 for 147, Thunder had lost three more wickets for no run.But in the midst of Thunder’s batting crisis, Sams – who smashed a 21-ball 34 in their previous game too – struck three fours and two sixes in a cameo of 28 in just 11 balls to hold up one end. He used the pace of Sixers’ bowlers to particularly good effect, but fell trying to deflect another late glance off pacer Ben Dwarshuis. His innings, however, ensured Thunder set their rivals a target of 170.Fawad owns the post-Powerplay boutSixers were in a spot of bother early in their chase, after Sam Rainbird’s late-moving delivery clipped the top of Joe Denly’s off stump. Jack Edwards then followed Denly after legspinner Jono Cook’s googly trapped him lbw. With Moises Henriques failing to clear Sams’ half-volley over mid-on in the sixth over, Thunder were at 3 for 32 after the Powerplay.But the real knockout blow came from Fawad. He took two middle-order wickets in his first over – and the innings’ seventh – twice rattling Jordan Silk and Daniel Hughes’ stumps off carbon-copy googly deliveries and followed it up by trapping Phillipe lbw in the ninth over. That sent Sixers into the final ten overs with more than 100 runs behind and with only four wickets in hand.Curran displays heart and muscleWith Abbott at the other end, Curran followed up his three-for with his second T20 fifty. They added 88 for the seventh wicket after the early batting wobble. Regular boundaries (in all, Curran struck nine) gave Sixers a glimmer of hope as they crossed hundred, and with three overs to go, his blitz had brought the equation down to only 50 runs.Seventeen runs came off the 18th over, helped by two fours and a six by Curran, but his dismissal and the subsequent of Abbott and O’Keefe consigned the team in pink to their first defeat of the season. Thunder, however, would be disappointed despite the win. At one stage, they looked to be winning with a much larger run margin.

Dasun Shanaka took two wickets as India were reduced to 74 for 5 in bowling-friendly conditions before a period of persistent rain forced officials to call off play more than two hours before the scheduled close

The Report by Nikhil Kalro17-Nov-2017Stumps
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:31

Irfan Pathan: Pujara knows his game and sticks to it

Persistent rain dominated another day in Kolkata, allowing just 21 overs on the second morning. In all, just 32.5 overs have been bowled over two days. Sri Lanka’s seamers had earlier capitalised on a dry, bowling-friendly morning at Eden Gardens, as Dasun Shanaka picked up two wickets with his gentle medium pace under gloomy skies offering sufficient lateral movement. Cheteshwar Pujara displayed impeccable defensive technique again, picking only the errant deliveries to score during his unbeaten 47, carrying India to 74 for 5 before a drizzle that became gradually heavier at 11.00 am forced an early lunch.The rain had relented for a short period around noon, but returned heavier and forced the officials to call off the second day at 2.30pm local, more than two hours before the scheduled close of play.The little play on the second day wasn’t short of action. Dinesh Chandimal, anticipating a long haul for his seamers, operated with a specialist fast bowler from one end and Shanaka from the other for the majority of the morning. Seam, like spin, is more effective at a quicker pace, disallowing batsmen time to be decisive with their feet and shot selection. Therefore, India’s batsmen would have preferred Shanaka to two specialist fast bowlers.However, these are atypical conditions for a Test match in India. With so much rain over the last few days, it seemed like a pitch on which the grass grew itself under the covers. That gave Shanaka, despite his 125 kmph range, a fair chance under overcast skies.Pujara, attuned to such conditions through his recent stint with Nottinghamshire, came forward to drive away from his body only when Shanaka erred too full, hitting him for four boundaries through mid-off. However, Ajinkya Rahane, and then R Ashwin, misread Shanaka’s perfect full deliveries for run-scoring opportunities, driving loosely with their hands too far away.A scrambled-seam delivery, which neither swung nor seamed, found Rahane’s outside edge, as he played for the inward angle. Ashwin had played 28 balls for four runs, his only scoring shot a sweetly-timed cover drive off a full toss from Shanaka, when he sliced a drive to backward point.In between, Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Gamage generated appreciable swing and bounce – arguably too much on this surface – to beat the bat regularly. Ashwin was even rapped on the right hand by an inducking dart that kept climbing steeply to beat an awkward jab.Pujara was rewarded for his diligence as Chandimal was forced to turn to Dimuth Karunaratne’s even-gentler medium pace, hitting him for 12 runs off six wayward deliveries.

Gareth Berg took his first five-wicket haul in five years as Hampshire’s attack made the best of favourable conditions to reduce the champions to 275 for 9

Freddie Wilde at the Ageas Bowl31-Aug-2016
ScorecardJake Lehmann anchored Yorkshire’s first innings (file photo)•Getty Images

“Don’t look down, look up” goes the old Yorkshire adage about whether to bat or bowl first at Headingley. A few hundred miles south at the Ageas Bowl the proverb is ever-more appropriate, as overhead conditions appear to be shaping the game at Hampshire’s ground with increasing regularity.Upon winning the toss in this crucial match, with repercussions for the top and bottom of the Championship table, Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale looked up, saw a cloudless blue sky and opted to bat. With the two most recent first-innings scores at this ground being 637 for 7 and 548 for 6 Hampshire would have been forgiven for preparing themselves for another long stint in the field, having last week been run ragged for 137.4 overs in their most recent Championship match at Taunton.In a season in which fortune has frequently frowned on Hampshire, with injuries and illness robbing them of some of their best players, they could probably hardly believe their luck when after just 20 minutes of play, in which Yorkshire’s openers had looked relatively untroubled, the sky was suddenly choked by dense and leaden clouds. Five minutes later the floodlights were on, a couple of balls jagged sharply past the outside edge and the whole feeling of the occasion had been transformed.

‘Family comes first’ – Gillespie

Jason Gillespie has reiterated that his decision to leave his position as Yorkshire head coach was due to a desire to spend more time with his family.
“This decision hasn’t come around as quickly as it may have seemed. It’s been in the pipeline for a little while,” Gillespie said. “I didn’t want to make any snap decisions but considering all things I’m sure it is the right time. Family is the most important thing and the brutal reality is that seven or eight months away from the family just doesn’t work. And that’s just the honest truth. It was a difficult decision to stand down because I love it.
“I feel that we have made some great strides and there is more for this group of players to achieve but it’s time for someone else to take the team further forward.
“My main job is as a husband and a father. Cricket’s my hobby and my second job so to speak. I have to be true to that, and that’s why I’ve made this decision.”

What followed was an engrossingly competitive day that ebbed and flowed as readily as the clouds rolled in and out, in which ball dominated bat for large swathes of it and ended with Hampshire in a decidedly better position than perhaps even they would have envisaged at 11am.If Hampshire are indeed relegated this season, which remains likely, the locals are unlikely to see cricket bearing the intensity and meaning of that which they witnessed in the morning session for some time. The air was heavy with import as Ryan McLaren, Brad Wheal and Gareth Berg stared the top order of county cricket’s northern powerhouse straight in the eyes and matched them blow for blow, beating the edge by getting the ball to spit, bounce, seam and swing.As well as Hampshire bowled in that opening session it was the catching of Will Smith that could be largely credited with the wickets of Yorkshire’s left-handed openers. Both Alex Lees, against McLaren, and Adam Lyth, against Wheal, tried to force balls through the off side delivered from round the wicket that were arguably not wide enough to do so too, and on both occasions Smith, diving to his right at a wide gully, first with two hands and then spectacularly with one, was there to intercept the ball inches above the turf.The brilliance of Smith did not rub off on to James Vince, whose catching struggles continued as he dropped England team-mate and possible rival for a winter tour spot, Gary Ballance, twice in less than 15 minutes at third slip. It was third time unlucky for Ballance however when wicketkeeper Lewis McManus did not make the same mistake as his captain when a hint of swing extracted a fine edge to leave Yorkshire teetering at 57 for 3.It was then that the pendulum began to swing back towards Yorkshire as Gale and Jake Lehmann combined in a 62-run partnership either side of lunch that arrested their slide. Lehmann’s counter-attacking innings of 58 from 73 balls made for enjoyable viewing. He is a punchy player, unafraid to play his shots and his quickness to pick up length is an enticing trait.After Gale was squared up by McLaren and Lehmann brilliantly caught by Jimmy Adams playing one cut shot too many, the game swung towards Hampshire again only for Tim Bresnan to wrest it back with a typically tough fifty from No. 6.It was after tea with the floodlights on and dark skies above that Hampshire built on the foundations of their strong first two sessions. A superb spell by Berg, in which he took 3 for 13 from five overs and got the ball to move wickedly off the pitch, gutted Yorkshire’s lower order, instigating a dramatic collapse from 212 for 5 to 234 for 9. The three wickets sealed Berg his first five wicket-haul since September 2011. He, like Hampshire more generally, were assisted by the conditions but it took skill to utilise them.Just how important Yorkshire’s unbeaten tenth wicket partnership of 41 between Jack Brooks and Ryan Sidebottom was will become apparent after Hampshire have batted. This felt like a good day for Hampshire, especially after being put into the field, but batting was not easy and Yorkshire have the bowlers to cause real damage if helpful conditions persist.

The last series of group matches in the NatWest T20 Blast saw a number of teams deeply interested in what their rivals were doing or, more to the point, given the wide band of rain that moved in from the West, whether they were playing at all

Paul Edwards24-Jul-2015This was not a normal Friday evening. The last series of group matches in the NatWest T20 Blast saw a number of teams deeply interested in what their rivals were doing or, more to the point, given the wide band of rain that moved in from the West, whether they were playing at all.And, in the end, the final quarter-final berth was confirmed in the dying moments of a sodden evening when Gloucestershire beat Glamorgan in a Five5 which meant Essex clung on for fourth place in the South Group.After heroic efforts by the Glamorgan groundstaff, and with just minutes to spare, the thrash began moments before 9pm. Essex fans suddenly swelled Gloucestershire’s support base. They glued themselves to radio and social media to track every ball. It was out of their hands, but Glamorgan could only post 45 in their five overs. Gloucestershire cruised it.Paul Grayson, the Essex coach, was relieved. “We would have preferred to have played and beaten Kent to book our quarter-final place but I am still happy that we have made it through,” he said. “After our poor start in the competition when we lost four of our opening five matches, to have reached the quarter-finals is something that we have to be happy with no matter how it was achieved.”

NatWest T20 Blast quarter-finals

August 12: Sussex v Northamptonshire, Hove
August 13: Birmingham v Essex, Edgbaston
August 14: Worcestershire v Hampshire, New Road
August 15: Kent v Lancashire, Canterbury

Earlier, at lunchtime, the position in the North Group was that Birmingham Bears and Worcestershire Rapids had secured home quarter-finals; the remaining places would be taken by two of Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Lancashire Lightning and Nottinghamshire Outlaws with the Trent Bridge side needing to get more points than one of the other pair in order to make the last eight. If no game could be played, Notts were out.The situation in the South Group was never so simple. While Kent Spitfires had booked their home quarter-final spot for Saturday August 15, the remaining three places were to be fought over by six counties: Hampshire, Sussex, Essex, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Surrey. It was, in its way, as near as county cricket gets to an election night.The first no-result came in from Kennington North, where Surrey’s home match against Sussex Sharks at The Oval was abandoned early on. This eliminated Surrey. It also moved Sussex up to second in the group but, quaintly, did not even guarantee their qualification for the last eight.And that was it for an hour or more. Somerset’s home game with Middlesex had bit the Taunton mud but neither of those teams could qualify anyway.Across the rest of the country, savvy captains took the view that play might still be possible in their own game for just as long as they knew other matches had not been called off. At Worcester the great ground could only be viewed through a thin film of rain. Everyone waited for conditions to improve in the full knowledge that they probably would not. Peter Roebuck once described English cricket as a dry game in a wet land.At 6.45 umpires Steve Garratt and Jeremy Lloyds declared that no play would be possible at Worcester and at more or less the same time, the game between Leicestershire and Notts was also abandoned. Those decisions sorted out the North Group and made it clear that Lancashire Lightning would visit Kent Spitfires.”There a few nervous moments checking on my weather thing,” Ashley Giles, Lancashire’s cricket director, said. “It suddenly brightened up a little bit at Leicester but it appears it has gone dark.”It is unfortunate for Notts but of course good news for us. It’s not the way you want to go through to a quarter-final but one of our targets was to get to the quarters for a start, then move on from there.”Mick Newell, Notts’ director of cricket, had an honest assessment. “It wasn’t about tonight, it was about the results earlier in the
competition,” he said. “We’ve beaten all the teams which have finished in the top four at least once, so we only have ourselves to blame.”Now all that was needed was for similarly executive decisions to be made by the returning officers at Chelmsford and Cardiff. But at Chelmsford, the rain stopped and the umpires decided to have a glance at 7.45. However, it was futile and the match was abandoned shortly before 8.30pm, leaving all eyes on events in Cardiff. Despite all the rain, there was drama to the very end.