Ben Coad on eight wickets for the match and seeking more as visitors keep sights on promotion

ECB Reporters Network19-Sep-2024Yorkshire need three Glamorgan wickets to secure victory on the final day and remain in pole position to earn promotion along with already promoted Sussex.The Welsh County ended the day 141 for 7, 254 behind, Yorkshire opening bowler Ben Coad picking up his 50th wicket of the season as he finished with 4 for 30.Glamorgan had managed to bowl Yorkshire out for 273, James Harris taking his 600th first class wicket on the way to 5 for 73. Jersey international Asa Tribe was the only Glamorgan batter to hold firm with an unbeaten maiden first class half-century.That still set the improbable target of 396 for Glamorgan to win and Yorkshire will feel confident of wrapping up victory given the way wickets have fallen in every morning session of this match.Once again the morning conditions were helpful to the bowlers and Jamie Harris and Andy Gorvin were determined to take advantage, Harris getting Finlay Bean lbw in the first over and Gorvin clean bowling nightwatcher Matthew Fisher with an off cutter.Harris was working on the basis that if the batter missed he either hit or appealed for lbw, it was the latter form of dismissal for both James Wharton and Jonny Bairstow.Timm van der Gugten got in on the act, clean bowling George Hill, until a partnership between captain Jonathan Tattersall and Dom Bess settled nerves.Both got into the forties and the lead climbed closer towards 400, before Tattersall was lbw to Ben Morris to give the Abergavenny debutant his opening first class wicket.Van der Gugten removed Jordan Thompson lbw, the eighth wicket in a row to have been bowled or pinned in front, before they finally achieved a different form of dismissal when keeper Chris Cooke caught Bess, again off van der Gugten.Harris returned to claim the wicket of Dan Moriarty and complete his five wicket haul, another clean bowled.That mountain of chasing 396 to win got a little higher after the opening overs as they lost their two highest run scorers this season, Sam Northeast and Colin Ingram.Northeast was lbw to Ben Coad in the first over of their reply, while Ingram set about the bowling in typically positive style before chipping one to midwicket, Coad again the bowler and James Wharton taking the catch, for Coad’s 50th wicket of the season.Kiran Carlson would have wanted to get into form ahead of Sunday’s One Day Cup final against Somerset at Trent Bridge, following his golden duck in the first innings.Tribe is in his second first class match and this was comfortably his best score as he held the innings together.An excellent leg cutter from Coad that hit the top of off made the breakthrough as Carlson departed for 41. He was soon followed by Ben Kellaway and Cooke, both also falling to Coad, before Matthew Fisher bowled van der Gugten.A brilliant one-handed diving catch by Finlay Bean saw the end of Mason Crane off the bowling of Jordan Thompson.

Don’t be surprised to hear more than the occasion mention of the A-word, too, ahead of the 2025-26 series

Andrew McGlashan18-Sep-2024

Big Picture

After a T20 series where the view was longer-term to 2026, a number of big names were missing and the decider was washed out on a horrid day in Manchester, it feels like this upcoming five-match ODI series – yes, old-school and, yes, probably overkill – has a little more immediate relevance with an eye on next year’s Champions Trophy as some key multi-format players return.To highlight the shrinking relevance of bilateral ODIs, this is just the second series for both England and Australia since their contrasting World Cup campaigns last year: England lost 2-1 in West Indies last December while Australia beat the same opposition 3-0 in February. Quiz question: name the XIs these two teams put out in the final matches of those series (no cheating by clicking here and here).Related

• Australia's fast-bowling injuries a reminder of the juggling act to come

• John Turner hoping to finally cap rise to prominence with England

• Switch Hit: Manchester rains save Aussies (again)

• Zampa: 'It hits different when you play for your country'

One significant player who won’t feature in these matches is Jos Buttler after a setback in the recovery from his calf injury. It means Harry Brook joins the list of England captains for the season, and it’s probably not insignificant given the feeling he is a genuine long-term option to lead the side. There will also be plenty of interest in how Jofra Archer goes in his first 50-over appearance in 18 months. It will be a significant increase in workload for him, although he will be carefully managed.Australia, meanwhile, have had an influx of senior names with Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Starc all part of the series. Alex Carey is also in the squad but, in ODIs, he is now Josh Inglis’ understudy after being dropped early in last year’s World Cup. Either way, the tour will include his return to Lord’s next week, the scene of a dramatic storyline in Carey’s career.Steven Smith was among those Australia players joining for the ODI leg•PA Photos/Getty Images

At the other end of the experience scale – you couldn’t actually go much further – is the call-up of quick bowler Mahli Beardman as a back-up player. With just one professional game under his belt it has certainly generated a talking point and, though he isn’t officially part of the squad yet, it wouldn’t take much more than some general soreness among the other fast bowlers for him to make a further step up.”He’s a ripping young kid,” Mitchell Marsh, a fellow West Australian, said. “For a 19-year-old he’s got a lot of talent, he showed that during the Under-19 World Cup. I think he’s going to learn a lot by being here. I’ve certainly faced him in the nets a few times. We’ve seen over the history of Australian cricket we’ve got a long list of guys who have been plucked, I guess, out of nowhere but Mahli is certainly extremely talented and bowls fast.”

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
England LWLWW
Australia WWWWW

In the spotlight: Jofra Archer and Glenn Maxwell

The A-word will never be far away. So much of what England are doing at the moment is with an eye on the 2025-26 Ashes and the rehabilitation of Jofra Archer is at the top of that list. This match will be his first 50-over game – international or domestic – since March 2023 having until now been kept on a diet of T20 action in a carefully-managed return to action. That step-by-step approach will continue and there’s a chance he may not even bowl his full allocation of 10 overs, but it marks another significant step in Archer’s comeback and another stage towards what is hoped is an eventual return to Test cricket.Glenn Maxwell was rested for the series against West Indies earlier this year so hasn’t played an ODI since the World Cup final. After his horror leg injury in late 2022, the effects of which he still has to manage, he is another player who will be carefully handled by the selectors. At the age of 35 he’s one of those who may not be around come the next ODI World Cup in 2027, so the Champions Trophy could be a 50-over farewell for one of the most dynamic white-ball cricketers there has ever been.Jofra Archer’s previous ODI was in March 2023•AFP

Team news: Archer plays; opening question for Australia

Ben Duckett will open for the first time in his ODI career with stand-in captain Brook slotting in at No. 4. Jamie Smith has been confirmed as wicketkeeper and it is likely he would have done so even if Buttler had been fit. Archer will play the opening match of the series. Jacob Bethell is in line for a debut and the final decision would appear to be who goes at No. 6 with Liam Livingstone’s bowling likely to swing things his way to allow Brook to spread overs between him, Bethell and Will Jacks.England: (probable) 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Phil Salt, 3 Will Jacks, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Jamie Smith (wk), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Jacob Bethell, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Reece TopleyAustralia’s squad has been reportedly hit by a virus after captain Mitchell Marsh missed the second T20I with the illness. It may severely stretch their already thin squad for the first ODI with a number of senior players affected. As in T20s, Australia are searching for a long-term replacement for David Warner. Inglis and Jake Fraser-McGurk ended up there against West Indies after Travis Head was rested following the opening game so there are no shortage of options. Marsh has previously had success there, too, and if he goes in up top it potentially creates room for both Smith and Labuschagne. Inglis did not train much ahead of the opening match due to quad soreness so there may be a question mark over whether he plays. If so, Carey would come in.Australia: (possible) 1 Travis Head, 2 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 3 Steven Smith, 4 Cameron Green, 5 Marnus Labuschagne, 6 Josh Inglis/Alex Carey (wk), 7 Glenn Maxwell/Matthew Short, 8 Sean Abbott, 9 Mitchell Starc/Ben Dwarshuis, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood/Aaron Hardie

Pitch and conditions

Trent Bridge can be a great place to bat in one-day cricket: since 2010 it has the highest average and strike-rate of all England and Wales venues. But the ball can also swing which gives the bowlers a chance. The sunny weather is set to hold on for at least the start of the series.

Stats and trivia

• Australia are on a 12-match winning streak in ODIs. A victory in Nottingham would put this side joint second with Sri Lanka, behind Australia’s own 21-match run in 2003.
• Adam Zampa will play his 100th ODI: since the 2020 tour of England he has taken 94 wickets at 21.71
• The last time the sides met in an ODI at Trent Bridge, England made a then world-record 481 for 6. It is one of only four times the teams have met in a one-dayer at this venue.

Quotes

“That’s a long way away yet. Personally, I’m just going to try and concentrate on each game and I’d probably urge everybody else to try and do that as well.”
“It’s certainly a busy schedule and there are times when we might have to manage guys through and playing five games in 10 days is certainly a big ask but we’ll manage that the best we can.”

The allrounder will go under the knife in a bid for a long-term solution to his back problems

Alex Malcolm13-Oct-2024Australia allrounder Cameron Green will undergo lower spine surgery and looks set to miss at least six months of cricket after being diagnosed with his fifth stress fracture in his lower back.After lengthy consultations with Cricket Australia medical staff over the past two weeks following the initial injury in the UK on September 24, Green is set to follow the same path that Jason Behrendorff, James Pattinson, Ben Dwarshuis and New Zealand quicks Shane Bond and Matt Henry have taken by having screws and a titanium cable fused into his lower back to stabilise the stress fracture and prevent future occurrences. Green has spoken to WA and club team-mate Behrendorff about his experience.Related

• Green unlikely to play Shield cricket before county stint

• Cricket Australia looks to unify approach to managing quicks

• Mitchell Starc: Green absence changes dynamic for quicks

• Marsh ready to bowl as much as Cummins needs him against India

• Steven Smith's Test opening stint over with middle-order return for India

The recovery ranges depending on the player but it is usually a minimum of nine months, although CA believes it will only take six months. That rules him out of the entire summer of cricket, which includes the five Tests against India, the tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy. The IPL, the World Test Championship final in June, if Australia make it, and the three-Test tour of the Caribbean in June and July of next year are possible given CA’s timeframe, especially as a batter only but bowling is a different story.Scans had shown the fracture in the UK but further assessments were required back in Australia as it is understood to be a different fracture to his previous stress injuries. Green has previously had four stress fractures in his lower back, which were recurring through his junior days all the way up to 2019, a year prior to his Test debut.CA’s medical staff are understood to be flummoxed by how this fracture has occurred after successfully managing Green through the past four years of international cricket, although he has always been vulnerable to another fracture given his history. CA released a statement outlining the reasoning for the surgery.”Cam has a unique defect in an adjacent area to the fracture that is believed to be contributing to the injury,” the statement said. “After thorough consultation it was determined Cameron would benefit from the surgery to stabilise the defect and reduce the risk of future recurrence.”He had a routine scan in August, something he does regularly, that showed up clear. That paved the way for him to bowl in the UK. He sent down 21.2 overs in the UK across five T20Is and two ODIs. The most he bowled in a match was the six overs at Chester-le-Street where he did deliver a barrage of short balls as Australia chased wickets, before pulling up sore.There are conflicting views within Australian cricket over his loads in the UK considering how carefully Mitchell Marsh was managed by comparison with the India Test series in mind. Marsh only bowled four overs for the whole tour, and they came in the game after Green flew home.But it is understood there were no indicators that Green was vulnerable in the lead-in and his bowling loads this year have been far lower than in 2021, 2022 and 2023. He bowled more than 230 overs in matches in 2021 and 2022, and 190 overs in 2023. But he had only bowled 124.3 overs to-date in 2024, albeit there were four Test matches to come for him. He was coming off a rare 10-week break from playing prior to the UK tour.The particular surgery Green will have has been very successful for many players including Behrendorff, who underwent the procedure in 2019. CA team physio Nick Jones oversaw Behrendorff’s recovery in 2019-20 when he was with WA having done extensive research on the surgery and the recovery process.ESPNcricinfo understands that the specific type of surgery has been performed on 26 patients over the course of nearly two decades by New Zealand-based surgeons Grahame Inglis and Rowan Schouten with 24 of them successfully returning to full fitness. New Zealand quick Kyle Jamieson is one of the unsuccessful ones so far but his specific case is understood to be very unusual and over the weekend Gary Stead said Jamieson was on track for a comeback during the Super Smash which starts in late December.Dwarshuis had the surgery in 2019 and was back bowling in grade cricket just seven months later and played domestic cricket within 10 months. He has played first-class cricket in the years since but has only appeared in nine red-ball matches.Behrendorff had surgery in October 2019 and did not play until December 2020. He has not returned to play first-class cricket but has had no real problems with his back since then.Pattinson took 12 months to return to first-class cricket and it was another 22 months before he played Test cricket, although he had been out of the Australian set-up for 18 months prior to the surgery due to his injury issues. He retired from professional cricket at just 32 as his body wilted.Henry had the surgery in 2012 when he was just 20 years old. His recent success against Australia in Test cricket earlier this year as a 32-year-old is an indicator of the long-term success that can be had.

He broke Rishabh Pant’s record from 2018 with a 28-ball hundred against Tripura in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Nov-2024Exactly a year after smashing the second-fastest 50-over century by an Indian, Gujarat opener Urvil Patel clattered a 28-ball century in the shortest format, which is the second-fastest overall in T20s and the fastest by an Indian. Urvil’s feat came against Tripura in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India’s domestic T20 tournament, in Indore.The record for the fastest T20 hundred belongs to Sahil Chauhan of Estonia, who got there in 27 balls against Cyprus in Episkopi, Cyprus, in June this year. The record for the fastest century by an Indian belonged to Rishabh Pant, who had reached three figures off 32 balls for Delhi against Himachal Pradesh, also in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, in January 2018.Chasing 156 against Tripura on Wednesday, Gujarat romped home in just 10.2 overs thanks to Urvil’s unbeaten 113 off 35 balls that was studded with seven fours and 12 sixes. Three of those sixes went over the covers, three in the ‘V’ down the ground, four over the midwicket region and one sailed over square leg. Four of those 12 sixes were struck against Tripura captain Mandeep Singh, who had moved from Punjab before the start of the ongoing season. Urvil clattered Mandeep for 24 runs off just five balls, Abhijit Sarkar for 26 off nine balls (four fours and a six), Sankar Paul for 17 off four and Manisankar Murasingh for 28 runs off 10 balls, with the help of one four and three sixes.On November 27 last year, Urvil had smashed a 41-ball century in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy, just a day after being released by Gujarat Titans (GT) ahead of the 2024 auction. That had placed him second in the list of the fastest List-A hundreds by Indians, behind Yusuf Pathan’s achievement of 40 balls. Urvil had been released after not getting any games with GT in IPL 2023.Urvil’s name was in the list of the uncapped wicketkeepers for the IPL 2025 mega auction recently but he did not find any takers.

“We’re going to have a look at the wicket and finalise it [the XI] tomorrow,” says the coach when asked if India’s out-of-form captain will play

Alagappan Muthu02-Jan-20252:51

Gambhir: ‘Chance to draw the series at SCG a good position to be in’

India coach Gautam Gambhir did not confirm whether out-of-form captain Rohit Sharma would be part of the starting XI for the New Year’s Test in Sydney or not.”The head coach is here. That should be enough,” Gambhir said to a room full of reporters wondering why Rohit was not at the pre-match press conference.Rohit had skipped it before the third Test in Brisbane too – Shubman Gill spoke to the press then – but the explanation then was that he had not come for the optional training session at the Gabba where the press conference was being held. Thursday’s training session at the SCG was optional too, but Rohit was there at the ground, on the eve of a Test India must win to draw the series and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.So the question was asked: Is Rohit okay? “Everything is fine with Rohit,” Gambhir replied.And when he was asked again whether Rohit was going to play, he said: “We’re going to have a look at the wicket and finalise it [the XI] tomorrow.”That’s where it all kicked off.Related

• Rohit Sharma and the ties that are a fraying

• Mitchell Marsh dropped, Beau Webster to debut in Sydney

• Akash Deep and Marsh out of Sydney showdown

Rohit has been struggling for form. He’s averaging 10.93 in his last nine Tests and only 6.2 in this series. He was late to India’s training on Thursday. Technically, it was an optional session, so it might not be right reading too much into it, but everybody was there.Gill, who was left out of the XI for the MCG Test, was among the first set of batters in the SCG nets. Dhruv Jurel, who hasn’t played since the first Test in Perth, was among them too; it was one of the few times he has worked alongside the first-XI players. Jasprit Bumrah came out from the doors leading into the members pavilion and went straight to Gambhir for a little chat.Still there was no sign of Rohit at the nets. He had been in the main ground playing a game of foot-volleyball and then disappeared. It was only after the others had batted for an hour that Rohit made his way out to join them, without his kit, in just his sweatshirt and shorts. He went down to where the team analyst, Hari, was standing. Then Bumrah joined the two. This had happened at the MCG as well. Rohit took his time to get to the outdoor nets and had a fairly long session facing only throwdowns. The only difference was in Melbourne he also attended the press conference.At the SCG, he had a light, 40-minute hit facing the fielding coach T Dilip and throwdown specialist Daya off the sidearm. The other frontline batters were already done with their stints by this time. Rohit was batting alongside Tanush Kotian and Abhimanyu Easwaran. There were moments that he looked good, a pull shot off the front foot for example, moments that he seemed to have fun, an apology for an awkward throwback down the pitch had him smiling from ear to ear, and moments where he batted like someone not in form, he left one that took out his off stump.Rohit Sharma was a late arrival at training and did not practice like the others did at the SCG•Getty Images

At the end of the Brisbane Test, Rohit had admitted that while he wasn’t batting well, he was still ticking all the boxes that he needed to.”As long as my mind, my body, my feet are moving well, I am pretty happy with how things are panning out for me,” Rohit had said two weeks ago. “Sometimes those numbers can tell you that it’s been a while since he has got big runs. But for a person like me, I think it’s all about how I feel in my mind.”In Melbourne, he seemed to find a semblance of form, or at least a lot more faith in his defence, as he withstood a period of bowling that Pat Cummins said was pretty close to perfect from his side. Australia hunted for his outside edge, he denied them for the first hour, but then gave them their first breakthrough when he played a risky flick shot that ended up in the hands of the gully fielder.”As a batter as well, a lot of the things that I am trying to do is not falling in the place that I would want to,” Rohit said after India went 2-1 down in the series. “But mentally, it is disturbing without a doubt.” Reports emerged in the media that Rohit was already thinking of retiring at the end of the Sydney Test, which then begged the question, if he was thinking along those lines, could he not step away now when the series is still alive?India rarely reveal their XI on the eve of a Test match but Gambhir refusing to confirm whether Rohit will be part of it was odd. Doesn’t the captain walk straight in? Isn’t he the one who decides who plays, not the other way around? The new year has begun with plenty of intrigue for India.