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Yorkshire’s dominance of the second day at Trent Bridge will have been watched with unease at Lord’s, Hove and Chester-le-Street

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge22-Aug-2013
>ScorecardSteve Patterson, Yorkshire’s unsung pace bowler, took five wickets in a Nottinghamshire collapse at Trent Bridge•Getty Images

Yorkshire’s dominance of the second day at Trent Bridge will have been watched with unease at Lord’s, Hove and Chester-le-Street. For those who still doubted as much, it amplified the fact that they are the team to beat for anyone with title aspirations.At some point on day three, barring unexpected defiance from a Nottinghamshire side that has thus far offered little, Yorkshire will add 23 points to their total and open up a 33-point gap between themselves and Sussex, who began the week in second place.That, in turn, will put pressure on Middlesex, who may struggle to save a draw at Derby, and Durham, who will need to beat Surrey to stay in touch, given that they travel to meet the leaders at Scarborough next week without their most potent fast-bowling threat, Graham Onions.Yorkshire need six wickets to secure an innings victory in what has been a performance befitting champions-elect. They have batted and bowled better than Nottinghamshire by a considerable margin and might have been heading back to Leeds already but for Andre Adams and one of their former players, Ajmal Shahzad, delaying the follow-on.Their top-order comprehensively demolished by Ryan Sidebottom and Steve Patterson, Nottinghamshire were 65-8 and threatened with the embarrassment of their lowest all-out total since Yorkshire dismissed them for 59 here in 2010 before the two bowlers began to out bat to ball, aided by a sloppy four-over spell from Liam Plunkett.Plunkett, the former Durham and England fast bowler has enjoyed an upturn in fortunes following his winter move to Headingley but not every day can go his way. Either side of a brief downpour, he bowled four overs for 46, teeing the ball up nicely for Adams to swing the bat, at which point Shahzad decided to do likewise.Adams hit three sixes — one of them caught, but out of bounds, by Adil Rashid — in his 39 off 17 balls. Between them, they propelled Nottinghamshire to 150 all out, which was still 257 runs fewer than Yorkshire had achieved but which at least was less embarrassing.Sidebottom, who knows the terrain here as well as anyone, took the key wickets, dismissing both Alex Hales and Michael Lumb without scoring and setting a trap into which Samit Patel obligingly fell when he chipped a catch to one of two short mid-wickets, taken above his head by Phil Jaques.Patterson, as ever the unsung workhorse in the Yorkshire attack, finished with a career-best 5 for 43. With 43 wickets at 19.6, he is the county’s leading wicket-taker in the Championship.Nottinghamshire did a little better following on, although the England trio of Hales, Lumb and Patel have already been and gone. Hales, who still cannot match his one-day-form with anything resembling progress in the red-ball game, was caught behind for the second time in the day, and Lumb somewhat tamely gave Plunkett a return catch. Patel might be counted as slightly unlucky, having fallen victim to a brilliant one-handed catch, falling backwards on the boundary, by substitute fielder Richard Pyrah when he hooked Plunkett.Sidebottom accounted for Steven Mullaney with a ball that the makeshift opener played all round and needs only one more wicket to equal the career first-class aggregate of 596 achieved by his father, Arnie.If they were lame with the bat, Nottinghamshire had also performed fairly dismally with the ball in the morning, when Jonny Bairstow risked following his omission by England with a cheap dismissal here but was rewarded for his boldness.His 62 from 80 deliveries, supported manfully by Patterson with the bat, steered Yorkshire to a fourth batting point. Indeed, they were not far from snatching a fifth, which would have been no mean feat for a side invited to bat first on one of the most taxing squares in the land.

Kevin Pietersen remains the centre of most cricket date in England but it as his batting most were talking about in Taunton as he struck a fantastic hundred

David Lloyd at Taunton28-Aug-2012
ScorecardKevin Pietersen scored his second Championship hundred of the season, this one coming on a tricky pitch•PA Photos

What is that old line about death and taxes being the only two certainties in life? By lunchtime today, most if not all of those present here would have added ‘a Kevin Pietersen century before tea’ to their list – and been proved right with five overs to spare.Batting was not straightforward on a relaid pitch, especially during the morning session when the new ball seamed and swung enough to excite Somerset’s pace attack, but the man whose England career is on hold (at the very least) did what had to be done: he battled through.From then on, it became a case of how many runs Pietersen would score, whether colleagues would hang around long enough for the visitors to post a truly commanding total and when, or if, Surrey’s extremely special No. 4 might lose interest and give his wicket away.The answers, in the same order, were: 163, from 168 balls with three sixes and 20 fours; not really, because while a return of 317 looks more than handy on a surface which should take a fair bit of turn and may produce increasingly variable bounce, the visitors might have climbed to 400; and not at all, despite taking a blow to his left hand after going beyond 150.Although Pietersen was last out, having arrived in the middle this morning with his side 44 for 2, he perished trying to do nothing more exotic than defend against Sajid Mahmood, Somerset’s loan signing from Lancashire. He had batted for four hours but clearly wanted yet more time at the crease.No-one should need reminding but if there were any doubters among the 2,000 or so spectators here today then Pietersen gave them a good old nudge: this is someone in a different class to most who play this game.Yes, there was power – paceman Peter Trego and spinner George Dockrell were both hit for sixes. But mostly this innings will be remembered for its certainty and control. Good balls were defended with great respect while almost everything even remotely inviting was put away with crisp authority. Those who witnessed Pietersen’s double century against Lancashire at Guildford in mid-July say the two knocks were similar in that there, as here, he never went into overdrive but still scored at a rapid rate.Having been booed to the crease in Hampshire a week or so ago and then jeered all the way back after making a first ball duck in a CB40 game against his old county, Pietersen was politely applauded when he made his entrance here – and given a long and deservingly warm hand on completing the 45th first-class century of his career.How much this hundred meant, only the man himself will know (and he continues to reject media requests in the wake of his fall-out with England). But he raised his bat to the dressing room, then acknowledged the crowd’s generous response before pumping his fist two or three times – not in a showy, ‘look at me’ kind of way but simply, it seemed, to underline his pleasure. A hug with batting partner Gary Wilson came next, followed swiftly by another driven four off Alfonso Thomas.”He’s looked as good here as he ever has,” said Surrey’s team director, Chris Adams. “We’ve seen him hitting the ball really well in the nets and it is great for him to have gone out there and played as well as he has today.As Adams pointed out, with a couple of balls having already gone up and down (Stuart Meaker was bowled by a low one late in Surrey’s innings) the pitch “was not all in favour of the batsmen”. And Pietersen, given all that is going on and with a crucial meeting with England captain Andrew Strauss coming up at some time, might not have been in the mood to play himself in.No chance, apparently. “He has been superb in our dressing room and worked very hard,” said Adams. But how is Pietersen away from cricket? “There are unresolved issues and the sooner there is a solution to those issues the better for everyone, Kevin in particular,” added Adams. “My job is to focus on Surrey and make sure he is in the frame of mind to deliver.”As for Somerset, they could have done with facing a fully focused Pietersen like a hole in the head. After a weekend of woe – losing out on Twenty20 Finals Day yet again and then being eliminated from the CB40 48 hours later – they must win this match to have any hope of challenging hard for that elusive Championship title.The hosts kept 10 of their opponents on a tight rein with only their former all-rounder, Zander de Bruyn, going past 30. And he didn’t make many more than that. But Pietersen dominated them so completely that the loss of openers Arul Suppiah and Marcus Trescothick before the close came as no real surprise.A win here should secure Surrey’s Division One status. One thing is already certain, though: they are the only winners out of the rift between England and Pietersen.

India have come out as major beneficiaries of the new Future Tours Programme, which was ratified by the ICC board at its annual conference in Hong Kong

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Jun-2011India have come out as major beneficiaries of the new Future Tours Programme, which was ratified by the ICC board at its annual conference in Hong Kong. As reported first by
ESPNcricinfo on June 25, India, England and Australia will feature in most Tests among the Full Members, and India will play the top teams more frequently than they have in recent years. Also, the Champions League Twenty20 has an official annual window in September, while the IPL seems to have an unofficial one, with few international series scheduled in April and May, allowing most players to participate in it.India, currently No. 1 in the ICC Tests rankings, will play 102 Tests between now and April 2020, including the current Test in Bridgetown. One-fifth of those matches (21) will be against England. In fact, India will travel to England twice to play a five-match series in 2014 and 2018. Apart from the Ashes, no other Test series involves five matches. In the next eight years, India will play Australia twice at home and twice away – all four-match Test series – and South Africa in four three-Test series.Another significant detail in the FTP is that Pakistan are scheduled to tour India for three Tests and five ODIs in March-April 2012. If the tour goes ahead, it will be the first Test series between the two countries since 2007, after which political relations between the two countries were strained in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.The FTP has accounted for the Test championship play-offs to be played in England summers in 2013 and then in 2017.In what is likely to come as respite for some, there are far fewer match-ups between India and Sri Lanka. The two subcontinent neighbours played each other in nine Tests, 30 ODIs and four Twenty20s between July 2008 and the 2011 World Cup final, which was deemed monotonous by critics. India will play just 12 Tests against Sri Lanka in the next nine years, and there will be only two bilateral ODI series between the two teams. As reported earlier, India will not host both Bangladesh and Zimbabwe for either Test or ODIs, though they will tour Bangladesh twice, in 2014 and again in 2015, and Zimbabwe twice, in 2013 and 2016.England and Australia will play 109 and 107 Tests respectively between now and April 2020, with five Ashes series planned – three in England and two in Australia. South Africa will play just 82 Tests and have long winter-breaks. New Zealand will contest in 80, Sri Lanka 88 and West Indies 84. Pakistan, who have had to play their home series at neutral venues in recent times due to security concerns in their own country, will host Bangladesh and Australia in 2012, and South Africa in 2013. They will play 88 Tests in total till April 2020.

Tasmania will join the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) for the 2010-11, taking the competition to seven teams

Cricinfo staff15-Jun-2010Tasmania will join the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) for the 2010-11, taking the competition to seven teams. The Tasmanian Roar joined the women’s national Twenty20 competition last summer and will take the final step by being added to the 50-over tournament.The WNCL gained a sixth team last season with the addition of the ACT. James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia the acceptance of Tasmania into the WNCL was testament to the efforts of Cricket Tasmania to develop women’s cricket in the state.”The team produced some encouraging performances in the interstate Twenty20 competition last year and regular exposure to matches at this level will help drive women’s cricket participation in Tasmania,” Sutherland said.”Female cricket participation in Australia has risen dramatically in recent years and today’s announcement, along with the continued success of the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars, will only inspire more young girls to pick up a bat and ball.”

Tahlia Wilson and Tahlia McGrath ensured a comfortable chase for the home side

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Aug-2024In a show of the player depth on offer, legspinner Grace Parsons and quick Nicola Hancock both starred on their Australia A debuts as the home side claimed the T20 series against India A with an eight-wicket victory.The pair had come into the Australia A side in place of Maitlan Brown and Tayla Vlaeminck and combined to finish with 7 for 44 from eight overs. Tahlia Wilson then made it back-to-back half-centuries to control the chase which was completed with ten deliveries to spareFor Parsons, the 20-year-old who is part of Brisbane Heat’s WBBL squad having missed out on a chance to play last season due to injury, it was her T20 debut having only previously featured for Queensland in the WNCL. She bagged four wickets, including the key scalp of Priya Punia who had played superbly in the opening match and top-scored in this innings with 29 off 26 balls. Parsons then closed out her spell with two more wickets in the space of three balls.”I’ve never actually played a T20 before, apart from at [my] club so today was very nerve wracking,” Parsons said. “But my plans don’t change too much.”It was pretty special. I’m always nervous at the start, especially when I haven’t played cricket for quite a few months, but it was nice to get the first game out of the way and take a few wickets. It was a pretty special thing to get the call up into the Aus A team and then to be playing today, it’s pretty awesome.”Hancock, who was a late addition to the squad when Courtney Sippel was ruled out through injury, had claimed the first wicket when she had Shweta Sehrawat taken off a top edge – Nicole Faltum taking an excellent running catch – and conceded just 14 from her three overs.The regular loss of wickets meant India A struggled for momentum and at one stage lost 3 for 10 between the 11th and 13th overs.The target didn’t stretch Australia A despite the early loss of Katie Mack as Wilson continued her impressive early-season form. Captain Tahlia McGrath, who had fallen first ball in the opening match, helped her side speed to target with a flurry of boundaries in an unbroken stand of 69.

Northants struggle with bat before knockout hopes ended by six-wicket defeat

ECB Reporters Network02-Jul-2023Lancashire made it through to the Vitality Blast quarter-finals with a comfortable six-wicket victory that also ended Northants Steelbacks’ qualification hopes.Phil Salt smashed a 51-ball 74 as Lancashire chased down the Steelbacks 138 for seven with twenty balls to spare. The result means the Lightning will return to Emirates Old Trafford next Friday, where they are now unbeaten in 21 home games, to host their quarter-final tie against Surrey.Northants struck two early blows as the hosts set off in pursuit of their target, Jos Buttler cracking a short ball from David Willey to Saif Zaib on the cover boundary for 11, immediately after he had hit the bowler for six and four from consecutive deliveries. Steven Croft swiftly followed after top edging Tom Taylor to AJ Tye for 5.That left the Lightning ending the powerplay on 43 for 2 but Salt picked up the scoring with a six off Freddie Heidreich during a 35-run partnership in five overs with Liam Livingstone.Livingstone, the stand-in Lightning skipper, went for 11 slicing Taylor to Ricardo Vasconcelos at gully as Lancashire reached halfway on 74 for 3 but Daryl Mitchell was quickly into his stride driving Taylor for six into the pavilion seats.Salt continued to score freely as the hosts reduced their target to a-run-a-ball 44 before a mix-up saw Mitchell run out for 17. Undeterred, Salt reached a 40-ball half century by smashing Tye for six over long-on, and then took four, six, four off Justin Broad in the fifteenth over as the Lightning raced towards their target.The opening bat ended the contest in style with six off Taylor in the seventeenth over to finish unbeaten on a Lancashire-best 74 alongside Dane Vilas.A fine opening spell of 2 for 14 from three overs by Wood, after Livingstone had put the visitors in to bat, had Northants quickly on the back foot at the start of their innings. Vasconcelos was brilliantly caught for 12 by wicketkeeper Buttler diving to his left, followed by Emilio Gay who chipped the left arm quick to Luke Wells at mid-on two balls later.Northants then suffered a big blow when Willey departed for 10 attempting to hit Livingstone over midwicket to leave the Steelbacks struggling on 47 for 3, midway through the seventh over.Chris Lynn led an initial fightback launching Livingstone for consecutive sixes in the ninth over but he was then bowled for 35 aiming a big heave at Wells with the visitors on 74 for 4, one ball into the 11th over.Zaib pulled Mitchell to Wells at fine leg for 12 and the Steelbacks only managed to get any impetus into their innings during a 40-run partnership for the sixth wicket between McManus and Broad. McManus hoisted a slower ball from Tom Bailey into the hands of Wood at long-on having made 22 while Broad smashed a six over midwicket in his unbeaten 34 off 26 balls.Wood returned to bowl Tye for 1 as Northants closed on 138 for 7.

Ian Bishop “not surprised” by KKR’s call, given the situation they find themselves in in the tournament, but believes the spinner can still turn it around

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Apr-20226:12

What has gone wrong for Varun Chakravarthy?

Daniel Vettori, the former New Zealand and Royal Challengers Bangalore captain, believes Varun Chakravarthy “needs a Plan B very soon”. His lack of a counter against top-quality batters who have figured out the methods that previously brought him much success could be one of the reasons for his massive dip in form this IPL season, Vettori said on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time Out.On Thursday, Knight Riders left Chakravarthy out of their XI, replacing him with the uncapped seamer Harshit Rana for the match against Delhi Capitals. The change came even as Knight Riders were desperately trying to find form and get a move on on the points table; as on Wednesday, they were eighth on the table.”The numbers aren’t there. It looks like he hasn’t been deceptive like he has been in the past,” Vettori said. “He isn’t a big turner; it doesn’t look like he’s turning the ball as much. It looks like batsmen feel comfortable taking him on. Those factors may have pushed KKR towards taking this decision [to drop him].”Maybe they’re trying to provide a catalyst for him around improvement, around finding his game plans. It just seems like he isn’t the bowler he was last year. It just felt like he wasn’t the bowler who was destructive like in the past.”Chakravarthy’s numbers are telling: four wickets in eight matches at an economy of 8.82. Chakravarthy has been wicketless in each of the three previous matches, while also not completing his quota of overs. He has an economy of over 12 in this period.This is in sharp contrast to his form at IPL 2021, where he picked up 18 wickets in 17 matches, and was a key to their stunning turnaround in the second half of the season that culminated in Knight Riders making the final.”I’m being brutally honest. I’m not totally surprised,” former West Indies pacer Ian Bishop, who was also part of T20 Time Out’s panel of experts, said. “He’s been going for 12 an over for the last three games or so. Four wickets in eight games, and it has come down to a point where KKR have less wriggle room.”Six points [so far] this season. They have to put out the best team at Wankhede to try and get two points. These two points are critical. It’s not quite now or never yet, but it’s kind of getting very close. So, I’m not totally surprised with Varun, in the conditions they’re going to play today.”Bishop feels surfaces haven’t slowed down as much as expected so far, which could be one of the reasons for Chakravarthy’s effectiveness. As such he isn’t a big turner of the ball but depends on minute variations and grip off the decks.”I don’t ever give up on a player. I always feel that at some point, even if it is at an advanced stage of your career, you can learn something. So, while we’ve seen (Yuzvendra) Chahal and Kuldeep (Yadav) do some good things, I still don’t think some of the pitches have offered [much to] Chakravarthy, who doesn’t spin the ball a lot anyway,” Bishop observed. “The ball deviates just that much, so he perhaps needs a little more grip than some of the surfaces [are offering] to be at his very best.”Maybe he’ll come back in at some point later in this tournament itself if the conditions and his confidence and form are right, provided he’s not injured. I won’t give up on him. Maybe they’re giving him a break to say ‘mate, take some time to refresh yourself’, there’s a possibility to come back now or next season.”Vettori also believes the axe could just be temporary and may be a way to revive him, provided it is communicated as much by the team management. Having coached Royal Challengers in the IPL and Brisbane Heat at the BBL, Vettori has had to take similar decisions in the past, like dropping Harshal Patel in 2017 before he returned to win the Player of the Match award.”I subscribe to the theory that when you’re in poor form, there’s a time where you’re waiting to be dropped,” he said. “When you keep playing and playing and playing, you don’t get a chance to work out what’s going wrong. Therefore, if you do actually leave a player out and give them strong communication, they can almost reset themselves.”Like Bish said, you don’t ever want to give up on a player, particularly a retained player, particularly a player with that skillset, how effective he can be at his best. This just may be a reset, he can go away a little bit, work with the bowling coach, work with coaches outside of the KKR setup and just see where it gets him to. He’s also a fresher, so when he goes back into the team, it won’t be about how bad he’s been. He’s had a break, fresh start, let’s see what he’s got.”

ECB says trial ‘intended as a live informational resource captain may choose to use or ignore’

Valkerie Baynes02-Dec-2020Lottery numbers, shoe sizes and dancing competition scorecards – England players and the ECB have been quick to make light of their use of coded signals sent from the dressing room to the field during their T20 series against South Africa.England team analyst Nathan Leamon could be seen placing cards on the dressing room balcony showing a combination of numbers and letters during the third T20I at Newlands on Tuesday. England won the match by nine wickets after Dawid Malan’s stunning 99 not out in a record 167-run partnership with Jos Buttler overhauled a huge target of 192.Buttler, who scored an unbeaten on 67, joked after the game that the cards showed lottery numbers, before making a more serious comparison with tactical time-outs in the IPL.”The lads were checking their Euromillions numbers,” Buttler told Sky Sports with a smile. “Eoin [Morgan] works closely with Nathan to work on the match-ups. In the IPL, you have two tactical time-outs for suggestions from analysts, but you have to be careful how you use it, there has to be an instinctive, intuitive side to the game.”ALSO READ: Malan reaches 915 points, the highest ever for batsmen in T20I rankingsThe ECB said the signalling system was being trialed and was “intended as a live informational resource that the captain may choose to use or ignore as he wishes”. It added: “They are not commands or instructions and all decision-making takes place on the field.”The practice drew mention of South Africa’s use of earpieces to relay messages from the dressing room to the field during their 1999 World Cup match against India. At the time, the ICC said using earpieces did not break any rules but deemed it unfair and subsequently banned the use of such devices.It’s not the first time that Leamon has used such methods to pass information from the boundary’s edge. After teaming up with Andy Flower at Multan Sultans for this year’s PSL, he set up a similar system with the on-field captain, Shan Masood – a practice which Flower later told ESPNcricinfo was about “maximising information”.”Match-ups over a shortened game are very important, and so is getting your field and your bowling tactics right,” Flower said. “That sort of information would be covered pre-game, but that’s a lot of information for a captain, and obviously he won’t retain it all. [Favourable match-ups] would be an example: a gentle reminder of the flow of the game, the resources you have left in the attack, and just putting the right chess pieces in place at the right time.”There is no suggestion England’s use of written codes breached any rules, although it did raise questions over whether it was ethical or in the spirit of the game. Mark Wood, the England quick, said the team had “cleared it with the match referee first”.”Maybe this is part of the new way of cricket,” Wood said. “We’re always looking for ways to improve so maybe this is it, the analyst gets a hold of a scorecard like [Strictly Come Dancing judge] Craig Revel Horwood and then we’ve got a got a new game show.”Speaking to the media via Zoom on Wednesday, Wood – who is hoping to feature in the three-match ODI series against South Africa starting at Newlands on Friday after being overlooked for the T20Is – played down the importance of the coded signals.”I thought shoe sizes at one point,” Wood said. “I think it wouldn’t honestly bother me. Until this morning, I honestly didn’t even know about it. That’s how much notice I took.”I think it’s good for the captain to have. Morgy’s a very instinctive captain anyway, so I’m not sure he needs that much but it’s great to have the information there. Nathan does a good job. So any little bit can help, but I’m not sure I’ll be taking that much notice of it, too busy worrying about other things.”

Spin-bowling allrounder becomes fifth Pakistan international to sign up for tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jul-2019Imad Wasim, the Pakistan spin-bowling allrounder, has signed for Nottinghamshire as an overseas player for their Vitality Blast campaign. He will be available immediately, going into the squad for Friday night’s game against Derbyshire.Ranked second among T20I bowlers by the ICC, Wasim has been an integral figure in Pakistan’s rise to the top of the team rankings in the format, and has an economy rate of just 6.28 in T20 cricket over the course of his career.”With the nature of the international schedule, it’s a very difficult market in which to sign overseas players – far more difficult than it used to be,” Nottinghamshire director of cricket, Mick Newell, said. “With Imad becoming available on the back of the World Cup, we acted as quickly as possible to secure him.”The paperwork and clearances have taken a little bit of extra time, meaning we’ve had to start the tournament without him. But it’s good to now be welcoming him into the squad ahead of the next fixture against Derbyshire.”He brings an additional spin-bowling option that we think we can benefit from and he’ll strengthen our middle-order batting as well. With the venue we’ve got here at Trent Bridge and with the level of support we get here now, we are an attractive proposition to overseas cricketers.”Imad joins compatriots Faheem Ashraf, Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir and Fakhar Zaman to become the fifth Pakistan international with a contract for the Blast this season, though Zaman’s Glamorgan debut was delayed by visa issues and Amir has still to feature for Essex due to a similar issue.Nottinghamshire, who won the competition in 2017, were the favourites for the title this season, but started their campaign with a defeat against holders Worcestershire and a washout against Yorkshire before getting back on track with victory over Northamptonshire.Imad will fill the club’s second overseas slot, alongside captain Dan Christian. Notts had previously suggested Christian would be their only overseas signing for the Blast, but a serious knee injury to allrounder Steven Mullaney meant they swooped for reinforcement.”I can’t wait to represent the Outlaws in T20 cricket,” Imad said. “Trent Bridge is a wonderful ground with fans who are passionate and knowledgeable.”They were a generous audience during the One-Day International earlier this year and Trent Bridge under floodlights looked amazing.”My aim is to contribute to the Outlaws going all the way. They did it in 2017 and we have an exciting squad with lots of international talent that’s capable of doing it again.”This will be Imad’s first stint in the county game, though he has previously played club cricket for several different teams in England, including Papplewick, Burnley and Bradshaw. He will be available for the whole of the Blast, barring a two-game break at the end of August for his upcoming wedding.He was only picked in six of Pakistan’s eight World Cup games, but ended the tournament with 162 runs at a strike rate of 118.24, and was his team’s most economical bowler.

James Vince struck a half-century as Hampshire secured a five-wicket win to move closer to the knockout stages

ECB Reporters Network30-May-2018
ScorecardReece Topley bowled Hampshire to the brink of the Royal London Cup’s knockout stages as they beat Middlesex by five wickets at Merchant Taylors’ School.Topley, who committed himself to white-ball only cricket over the winter as he makes another injury comeback, made Middlesex regret their decision to bat first in bowler-friendly conditions following a delayed start.His 4 for 40 ensured the hosts were restricted to just 199 for 8 in their 45 overs, a target the South Group leaders made comfortably, despite a mid-innings wobble, led by 56 from England discard James Vince.Eyebrows were raised when Middlesex skipper Steven Finn opted to bat after winning a toss delayed for an hour by early morning rain.Deprived of club captain Dawid Malan on Test duty and England one-day skipper Eoin Morgan, ruled out with a cracked finger, much depended on openers Paul Stirling and Nick Gubbins. However, Gubbins perished early, caught in the gulley for 9 giving Topley his first wicket.Under murky skies and with an outfield too wet to afford batsman value for their shot-making, even Stirling with two centuries already in the competition struggled to break the shackles.He did hoist Topley for one huge six into the car park but trying to repeat the shot he fell to the next delivery, holing out at mid-off.This left Max Holden, making his List-A debut for Middlesex and the barely more experienced Stevie Eskinazi needing to entrench.The pair kept the scoreboard ticking but save for a huge straight six from Holden boundaries were scarce in a third-wicket stand of 62 ended by Vince who trapped Eskinazi lbw for 42.Topley then returned to the attack to have Holden caught behind for 38 just as the hosts were attempting to accelerate.
Overseas player Hilton Cartwright and wicketkeeper John Simpson attempted another rebuild before the former had his furniture rearranged by former Middlesex man Gareth Berg.And when Simpson lofted Mason Crane into Topley’s clutches at mid-off just three overs later Middlesex were 158 for 6.A few lusty blows from Tom Helm got Middlesex to the brink of 200, but Topley bowled him to complete his four-wicket haul.In reply, Rilee Roussow was caught behind to a reckless swipe off Finn, who also had Alsop caught by Eskinazi at short cover.But with Joe Weatherley providing solid support for the free-flowing Vince the visitors were seemingly cantering inexorably towards victory with even the competition’s leading wicket taker Ravi Patel – back on his old schoolground – unable to unsettle them.Vince’s 50 came in 64 balls, but with his team in cruise control the England man needlessly took on mid-on fielder James Franklin who promptly ran him out.When Weatherley holed out to Finn at mid-off from the bowling of Sowter six balls later, Middlesex briefly had hope.Sowter had Bradley Taylor caught behind for 11 to crank up the tension, but Jimmy Adams and Lewis McManus’ 60-run stand eased Hampshire home with 26 balls to spare.