All posts by csb10.top

Fast bowler Tumi Sekhukhune has been included in the South Africa women’s squad for their one-off Test against England. Lara Goodall, Ayanda Hlubi and Chloé Tryon have also returned to the Test set-up for the Bloemfontein encounter that gets underway on December 15.Sekhukhune, who is not part of the squad for the ODIs against England, is a like-for-like replacement for Ayabonga Khaka, who is not part of the team’s red-ball plans, according to a Cricket South Africa (CSA) statement.Related

• Mashimbyi wants more long-format cricket for all-format development

“We reviewed the previous Test squad and made adjustments to bring balance to the team,” convenor of selectors Clinton du Preez said. “Lara adds versatility to the batting line-up as a left-hander, Hlubi provides variation as an impact seam bowler, and Tumi has been consistent in her past performances, offering control to the bowling attack alongside our other bowlers.”South Africa women Test squad for one-off game vs England•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The other three players left out from the Test squad that played against India in July are offspinner Nondumiso Shangase and allrounders Delmi Tucker and Eliz-Mari Marx. Mieke de Ridder, the uncapped wicketkeeper, retained her place.”It will go a long way for the ladies in terms of them understanding their game and what’s needed in the longer version of the game,” head coach Mandla Mashimbyi said. “Getting an opportunity to play red-ball is good for our cricket and I’m looking forward to what they can bring.”The measurables are quite simple for me, it’s how much time you are willing to spend in the crease as a batter and how patient you are willing to be as a bowler. So it’s all those things that we’re going to speak about and if we can see it coming to fruition during the game, that will give us a big plus.”The fixture, starting on Sunday, will be the first home Test for South Africa since 2002. It will also mark the eighth Test between South Africa and England. England have won two of the previous seven encounters, with the remaining five ending in draws.South Africa Test squad: Laura Wolvaardt (captain), Anneke Bosch, Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk, Annerie Dercksen, Mieke de Ridder, Lara Goodall, Ayanda Hlubi, Sinalo Jafta, Marizanne Kapp, Masabata Klaas, Suné Luus, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Tumi Sekhukhune, Chloé Tryon.

Alyssa Healy revealed a ruptured plantar fascia in her foot forced her to watch from the sidelines as Australia were knocked out of the T20 World Cup.Australia had hoped to have their captain fit for the semi-final, which underdogs South Africa won by a thumping eight wickets on Thursday night in Dubai, but the decision was taken not to risk her playing.Healy’s absence wasn’t confirmed until the toss but after the game she spoke for the first time about the full extent of the injury to the connective tissue which runs under the arch of the foot from the heel bone to the base of the toes suffered while running between the wickets during Australia’s penultimate group-stage game against Pakistan.Related

• Mooney: Voll has taken to international cricket 'like a duck to water'

• Healy ruled out of India series, Voll in line for Australia debut

• Healy returns for Sydney Sixers after World Cup-ending injury

• South Africa stun serial winners Australia to enter World Cup final

• Stats – Australia's crown slips as their unbeaten run at the Women's T20 World Cup ends

“It’s a bit sore,” she said with heavy taping visible underneath her sock. “I ruptured my plantar fascia. I completely ruptured one and partially ruptured the other.”It was just a matter of function and pain and what I could handle. Ultimately, I probably only had one game in me and probably took the wrong risk at the end of the day.””It was a really hard decision to make last night as to whether or not we were going to give it a punt,” Healy added. “I tried to make the team decision and sat myself down instead of taking the risk.”Healy’s availability for the WBBL, starting on October 27, and India’s tour of Australia from early December, remains unknown.”I don’t know yet,” she said when asked how long she expected to be out for. “We’ll assess that when we get back. WBBL starts next Sunday so we’ll reassess that as we go.”Tonight was always going to be a real long shot and probably what I was going to have to go through to try and play the game wasn’t going to be very pretty either.”It was hard to do everything I needed to do to try and get out there tonight. Ultimately, I made the team decision to sit down and give the girls who are fully fit the opportunity to go out there and do that. It is what it is and hopefully it’s on the mend and we can play some more cricket next week.”Healy was an uncomfortable spectator as Australia scrapped their way to 134 for 5 in an uncharacteristically conservative innings after being sent in to bat first.Ayabonga Khaka and Marizanne Kapp struck early and Australia were kept quiet through the middle overs before Anneke Bosch made light of the run chase with an unbeaten 74, sharing a second-wicket stand worth 96 runs off just 65 balls with Laura Wolvaardt.”It was hard to watch, knowing that you can’t really go out there and help,” Healy said. “But it was good to see so many positives throughout the tournament. It hasn’t ended the way we wanted, but I think we’ve played some amazing cricket.”It’s knockout cricket, right? If you don’t quite turn up on the night and it doesn’t go your way, then you’re out. So, it’s pretty cutthroat. We’ve been in similar positions before and we’ve got ourselves over the line. So, it wasn’t to be tonight, but we’ll learn from that and get better.”Healy was full of praise for stand-in captain Tahlia McGrath, who had led Australia to victory by a thrilling nine runs against India in their final group game.”T-Mac’s had the opportunity to captain in my absence before and done it outstandingly well,” she said. “At the moment that it happened, everyone was pretty aware that things were a little grim and that people were probably going to have to play different roles.”I can’t fault the side at all in their optimism in taking on the challenge and going, ‘you know what, great, I get an opportunity to do this, do that, whether it’s opening the batting captaining, whatever it is’, so that’s where I feel like the group’s in such a great place.”It’s kind of a disappointing night because we’re actually in a really good place as a side and unfortunately one bad night people are going to write about us but I think where we’re at as a team is so exciting for the future.”

South Africa’s two-Test series in Bangladesh will be played on schedule, with CSA okaying the tour following a security assessment by its experts. The first Test will be played from October 21-25 in Dhaka, and the second in Chattogram from October 29 to November 2.A CSA statement on Monday said that it had given the tour the go-ahead after “an in-loco inspection” on the part of the board’s operations manager, team security manager, safety and security consultant, and a representative of the South African Cricketers’ Association, who submitted their recommendations to the board after visiting Bangladesh last week.South Africa will reach Dhaka on October 16. The squad for the series is expected later on Monday.

Bangladesh vs South Africa

Oct 21-25: 1st Test, Dhaka
Oct 29 to Nov 2: 2nd Test, Chattogram

South Africa’s concerns about the security situation in Bangladesh were because of the anti-government protests in the country in July-August, which led to the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, and, later, the women’s T20 World Cup moving out of the country to the UAE.CSA sources had told ESPNcricinfo earlier this month that they had been told the situation in Bangladesh had “settled”, but the tour wouldn’t go on if any risks were identified in the security assessments.South Africa only have six Test matches left in the ongoing World Test Championship cycle. They have already played six games, having won two, lost three, and drawn one. They are currently sixth on the points table, and need to win at least five of their remaining games to have a chance of qualifying for next year’s final at Lord’s. All six of their series in this cycle have been limited to two Tests, as CSA prioritised the launch of the SA20, their domestic T20 franchise competition, and cost-cutting.The last time South Africa and Bangladesh had faced each other in a Test series was in South Africa in March-April 2022. South Africa’s white-ball squads are currently in the UAE to take on Ireland.

Olly Stone has pledged that he will “try to touch” Mark Wood’s speeds when he replaces him as England’s out-and-out fast bowler at Lord’s this week. Wood hit 97mph/156kph against West Indies last month but injured his thigh in the first Test against Sri Lanka and has been ruled out for the rest of the series, with Stone replacing him as England’s only change to their XI for the Lord’s Test.Stone, 30, has only played three Tests in his injury-blighted career but has been a regular in England squads when fit. After missing most of last season with a hamstring injury, Stone has played 28 times across formats this summer for Nottinghamshire and London Spirit, the second-most appearances he has made in a single season.He will have a similar role in the side to Wood, being asked to bowl as fast as he can in short spells. “It’s been pretty frightening… the way he’s come in and bowled this summer is very exciting,” Stone said. “Hopefully, I can go out there and try to touch his speeds. He’s obviously up there with the fastest in the world so I’m not sure if I’ll match it – but I’ll give it a good shot.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Stone made his Test debut at Lord’s in 2019, but then had back surgery in the adjacent Wellington Hospital in 2021, having two screws inserted. “It’s the best thing I ever went in for,” he said. “Thankfully – touch wood – so far, I’ve had no recurrences with that… I’ll keep coming back for Test cricket until my body tells me otherwise.”I just love the feeling of coming off after a long four or five days, on the back of a hard-fought win. It’s more than just skill at times: it’s your character, and the way you are out there as a team for those four or five days. It’s something that white-ball cricket can’t give you. I just love the slog of that hard graft, going out there and providing your team with something different to help you try to win the game.Related

• Ben Stokes on track for Pakistan tour comeback after hamstring tear

• Wood's spell from hell reverse-swings it for England

• Olly Stone: 'I've found a way, this year, to keep going'

• Ollie Pope passes first captaincy test, though his own returns beg to differ

• Josh Hull receives first Test squad call-up as Mark Wood is ruled out with thigh strain

“I’ve always said that one of the reasons I went down certain surgical routes to have my back sorted was so that I could go out and play Test cricket again. It’s never been in my mind to give that up. If my body then gave up on me, maybe I’d have to step away. But thankfully, so far, I’ve found a way and I can be back out there in an England shirt.”That Stone is regarding this week as a “second debut” speaks of his desire to start a new, injury-free chapter in his career. In total, he has suffered four stress fractures of the back – including two in the space of seven months in 2019 – with the last of those picked up during his previous Test appearance, against New Zealand at Edgbaston in 2021.In 2016, he damaged his anterior cruciate ligament celebrating the wicket of Moeen Ali in a T20 match for Northamptonshire against Worcestershire, which ruled him out for 13 months. In 2022, he sustained a broken finger while making a comeback for Warwickshire’s second team after that back operation the year before, which required more surgery and ruled him out for a further six weeks.Ahead of what will be only his 53rd first-class appearance, Stone, who turns 31 in October, is optimistic about a healthy few years on the horizon.”Although I’ve had these injuries, I feel as good as ever and ready to keep going for a few more years.Stone was in form for London Spirit in the Men’s Hundred•ECB/Getty Images

“It’s been a long time and [Lord’s is] a special place to play regardless of the situation. So to come back and play, I just want to go out there and enjoy it, play with a smile on my face and hopefully the wickets will come.”Stone also has the chance to show he can be a viable option as a long-term No.8. This summer has been his most productive to date, scoring 315 Division One runs at an average of 35.00, with three half-centuries including a career-best of 90 against Somerset in June.”If I can go out there and put a few runs on the board and add to a good score you never quite know,” Stone said, on the prospect of his securing a long-term place in the XI with his batting. “County cricket and Test cricket can be quite different so that’ll test me.”I guess maybe my motivation at the start of the year was the longer I bat, the less I bowl. Whether that was I put a few shots away maybe initially, and then once I get in, start to, not necessarily play loads of shots, but be a bit more positive.”Stone has taken 11 Championship wickets at 52.63 for Nottinghamshire this season but has benefitted from England’s decision to prioritise attributes over averages in selection. The same logic informed Josh Hull’s call-up as cover for Wood – with Luke Wright, the national selector, hinting that Sam Cook would have come into the squad if Chris Woakes had been injured, rather than Wood.”Sam has been very aware of how we’re looking to balance our pace attack, and he’s close,” Wright said. “I feel for Sam. He’s an incredible bowler, and you’re never that far away. If it had maybe been Woakesy, or a different [injured bowler], then it might bring him into it more.”But once we lost Woody, we wanted to try to keep that pace into it and have that variety in attack, and obviously that’s where having a big 6ft 7in left-armer that we could bring in, that’s why he got the nod ahead of him. But look, for Sam, he’s certainly on the radar. He’s missed out this time, but it doesn’t mean he does down the line.”England XI for second Test vs Sri Lanka: 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Dan Lawrence, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Matthew Potts, 10 Olly Stone, 11 Shoaib Bashir

Viv Richards and Carl Hooper have strongly hit back at former West Indies team-mate Brian Lara for “gross misrepresentations” in his book – . In a joint statement released on Sunday, both former West Indies captains have rejected Lara’s “claim” that Richards made Hooper “cry once a week”, describing it as “categorically false”, and asked the latter to “issue a sincere apology for the harm caused.””Sir Vivian Richards and Mr. Carl Hooper are deeply disheartened by the gross misrepresentations made about them in Mr. Brian Lara’s recently released book,” the duo said in a statement put out by Hooper. “The allegations presented not only distort the reality of their relationship but also impugn their characters in an unjust and harmful manner.”In the book, an extract of which was run recently on ESPNcricinfo, Lara wrote that Richards’ words in the dressing room could “intimidate” players, though he made clear he always had West Indies’ betterment always at heart. “Viv used to make me cry every three weeks, but he would make Carl cry once a week. Viv’s tone of voice is intimidating and if you’re not strong enough, you can take that personally and be affected by it. Me, I was never really affected by it. In a way I welcomed it, because I was so much under his arm that I knew abuse was coming and I was a strong personality. Carl? I know for a fact that Carl shied away from Viv Richards.”Related

• 'Viv used to make me cry every three weeks and Carl Hooper cry once a week'

But Hooper said Richards never caused him any “distress” and always had his back. “The claim that Sir Vivian was aggressive towards Mr. Hooper and made him cry once a week is categorically false. Such descriptions paint Sir Vivian as a perpetrator of emotional abuse — an assertion that is not only baseless but also deeply hurtful to both parties.”Sir Vivian, as Mr. Hooper’s first captain, has never caused emotional distress to Mr. Hooper. On the contrary, he has always acted as an encouraging mentor and provided unwavering support. Their nearly 40-year relationship has been founded on mutual respect and camaraderie. The misrepresentation of their interactions in Mr. Lara’s book is a grave disservice to the truth and has caused undue distress to both parties and their families.”Richards and Hooper have pulled up Lara for “attempting to profit from such deceit”, something they find “inconceivable” considering his stature in global cricket. “We demand that Mr. Lara immediately issues a public retraction of these false claims and offer a sincere apology for the harm caused. It is crucial for the integrity of public discourse and their personal and professional lives that the truth is set right.”Lara and Richards only appeared in one international match together for West Indies, an ODI at Lord’s on the 1991 tour of England, batting together briefly in a 20-run partnership – Lara laments not getting more time in the middle with him in the book, writing that it was “every young man’s dream is to be waiting in the middle, watching The Greatest walk through the gate and onto the field where I’m standing.”Lara played much more with Hooper, both leading him as captain and playing under his captaincy. Lara’s first international match in 1990, an ODI in Karachi, was in a side that included Hooper and Lara also played in what was Hooper’s last international game, against Kenya at the 2003 World Cup. In the book, Lara is fulsome in his praise of Hooper, calling him one of finest talents to have come out of the Caribbean.”Man, what a player. The ease in which he batted brought out a kind of awe in us, and in all of us, even the senior players. You felt that when Carl went out to bat, they enjoyed it – Haynes, Richards, Greenidge, all these guys would stop what they were doing just to watch him.”

Bangladesh ended their ten-match losing streak in T20Is and collected their first points in Women’s Asia Cup 2024. They bounced back from the opening game defeat to Sri Lanka with a convincing seven-wicket victory over Thailand in Dambulla to keep their hopes for a semi-final spot alive.Legspinner Rabeya Khan’s four-wicket haul and seam-bowling allrounder Ritu Moni’s two scalps helped Bangladesh restrict Thailand to a below-par 96 for 9 on a spin-friendly surface. Nattaya Boochatham top-scored for Thailand with a 41-ball 40. In reply, Murshida Khatun, after missing the previous game, scored 50 off 55 balls to take Bangladesh home in 17.3 overs.

Suwanchonrathi, from No. 11 to opener

Aphisara Suwanchonrathi, who had batted at No. 11 in her last two innings, was promoted to open with Boochatham. But the move backfired as Suwanchonrathi struggled to get going. She took 12 deliveries to get off the mark and eventually fell for a 20-ball 6 in the seventh over. Thailand could only post 25 for 0 in the powerplay.

Rabeya, Moni strangle Thailand

Rabeya struck twice in her first over, the seventh of the innings, to remove Suwanchonrathi and Nannapat Koncharoenkai. Koncharoenkai, who had top-scored with 40 in the last match, fell for a duck this time. Bangladesh understood early in the game that Thailand found it difficult to score against full balls. Their spinners deceived the Malaysia batters with drift, turn and bounce.At the halfway stage, Nigar Sultana threw the ball to Moni, and she struck immediately. She hit the hard length and got the ball to swing in to remove Phannita Maya to leave Thailand 38 for 3. In her next over, Moni bowled Chanida Sutthiruang with a slower ball, for a ten-ball 8.Rabeya returned in the 14th over and castled Suwanan Khiaoto with a wrong’un. She did not let Boochatham take off either and cleaned her up in the 17th over.Debutant left-arm spinner Sabikun Nahar Jesmin, after conceding 23 in her first three overs, scalped two off two deliveries in her final over to sink Thailand further.Murshida Khatun anchored Bangladesh’s chase with 50 off 55 balls•ACC

Murshida among the runs

Bangladesh’s last T20I win before Monday came against South Africa in December 2023 when Murshida top-scored with an unbeaten 62. But in the next seven months, the team struggled with the bat, often collapsing around Sultana. In the last three series before this tournament, they used seven players in the top three, trying to find the winning combination.Even on Monday, Bangladesh made three changes to their XI. One of them was Murshida and she made it count. She took ten deliveries to get off the mark but after that, she kept the scoreboard ticking. There was a mix-up between her and Dilara Akter in the fifth over, which resulted in the latter being run out. But Murshida kept Bangladesh on the right track. She hit eight fours in her innings and brought up her fourth T20I half-century. Along with Ishma Tanjim, she added 60 off 58 balls for the second wicket.Bangladesh lost two wickets late in the game but, for a change, they didn’t need Sultana to rescue them.

Northamptonshire 169 for 4 (Zaib 44, Raza 42, Bashir 2-38) beat Worcestershire 163 for 9 (Roderick 39, Zaib 3-20) by six runs Northamptonshire all-rounder Saif Zaib starred in front of the TV cameras, plundering an unbeaten 44 off just 21 balls and bagging three wickets for 20 runs as the Steelbacks won out by just six runs against over Worcestershire Rapids in a Vitality Blast thriller at Wantage Road.Zaib smashed six fours and two sixes, to propel Steelbacks to 169 for four, sharing an unbeaten stand of 79 in six overs with Sikandar Raza (42*) to help his side recover from a mini collapse.England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, playing the first of five T20 loan games for Worcestershire, took two for 38.In the chase, the visitors slumped to 120 for eight in the 16th over before an extraordinary cameo from Gareth Roderick almost won the game. Blasting 39 off just 22 balls (1×4, 3×6), his highest T20 score, Roderick took the game to the wire with Worcestershire needing 11 off the final six balls. But Raphy Weatherall, bowling a brilliant final over, held his nerve, conceding just four runs and ending Roderick’s resistance.Amidst action, Steelbacks captain and former England all-rounder David Willey took his 300th career T20 wicket.Earlier Matthew Breetzke (26) struck Bashir for back-to-back sixes in the second over, the first into the board room bar in the Spencer Pavilion. Ricardo Vasconcelos (28) too was soon into the action, taking consecutive boundaries off Adam Finch.Nathan Smith pegged things back with five dot balls, but Vasconcelos found the ropes twice in the sixth over off former teammate Tom Taylor, including a ramp over the keeper’s head as the Steelbacks finished the powerplay on 47 without loss.After that solid start, Northamptonshire lost three wickets for 14 runs in 17 balls, stuttering to 63 for three.First Vasconcelos missed an attempted pull against Hayden Walsh and was bowled. Next Breetzke (26) looked to continue his six-hitting spree against Bashir, getting one away to take the Steelbacks past 50, before picking out deep midwicket. Finally Bashir grabbed a second wicket when he had Willey caught at long-off.Ravi Bopara (18) fought back, powering Walsh through cover before miscuing a strike down the ground off Finch, Taylor taking a running catch.That brought Zaib and Raza together in a blaze of boundaries. Raza muscled Brett D’Oliveira twice over deep midwicket. Particularly strong on the drive, Zaib powered Bashir and Taylor through cover and reverse swept Bashir for four.The twentieth over from Smith proved most costly. Zaib smashed two sixes and with Raza top-edging another, the Rapids conceded 21.Zaib struck quickly when Worcestershire batted, removing D’Oliveira in the third over as he hit straight to mid-off.Ed Pollock top edged Willey for four and then crunched him through the covers before he swung and missed and was bowled. Two balls later Ben Sanderson had Matthew Waite caught behind as Worcestershire finished the powerplay on a precarious 39 for three.Ethan Brookes (24) and Adam Hose steadied the ship, putting on 38 in just over four overs before Brookes was pinned lbw when Bopara bowled a knuckleball.Adam Hose posed a big threat, hitting a four and six off left-arm spinner Freddie Heldreich’s first over, before smiting a huge six off a free hit from Bopara. It took a world-class effort from Raza to remove Hose with a brilliant diving boundary catch when the batter smashed Zaib down the ground.Zaib then bowled Taylor off his pads before Heldreich (2-22) had Smith caught by a diving Sanderson and bowled Walsh later in the over. If it all seemed over, no-one told Roderick though, setting up that final over thriller.

Mitchell Marsh will retire from the Sheffield Shield at the end of this season, meaning in all likelihood he has played his final first-class match for Western Australia, but the door is ajar to add to his 46 Test caps in the Ashes.Marsh made a rare Shield appearance for WA last week against Victoria at the MCG where he scored 4 and 9. But his involvement in the T20 World Cup, where he will captain Australia through February and the start of March, will overlap with the resumption of the competition after the BBL, then he will be part of the IPL with Lucknow Super Giants.”It has been an honour to play Sheffield Shield cricket for WA,” Marsh, who made his Shield debut as an 18-year-old said in a statement. “Right now I am deeply committed to the group and the [Perth] Scorchers. Playing for WA has been a huge part of my life and I plan to give back in any way possible long into the future.”Marsh was an outside chance of featuring in the Ashes if there had been injuries or loss of form, particularly if things had started badly for Australia, on the back of an impressive run of performances in recent ODI and T20I series with the selectors valuing his skills against pace bowling.The final part of the WA Cricket statement said: “The Australian white-ball captain remains open to the prospect of playing Test cricket.”Australia coach Andrew McDonald has previously said they would be willing to pick Marsh for Tests without him playing red-ball cricket and confirmed on Tuesday that Marsh remained available for this season although suggested it would not be the case beyond that.”He is available for Test match selection, which is exciting for us,” McDonald said. “I don’t want to put words in Mitch’s mouth, but I assume that if he’s retired from first-class cricket, that he would potentially look at Test cricket retirement, also at the end of the season. But as I said, I can’t speak for him, but that would be my assumption.”Having been out of Test cricket for four years, Marsh made an outstanding return during the 2023 Ashes when he scored a century in his comeback match at Headingley and went on to average 46.87 in a 10-game stretch, during which he won the Allan Border Medal.However, he lost form during last summer’s series against India and was dropped for the final match at the SCG. His bowling has also taken a backseat as he manages his body.In the Sheffield Shield for WA, Marsh has scored 2744 runs at 29.50 and claimed 82 wickets at 29.48.”Mitch embodies everything about what it means to be a Sheffield Shield player for Western Australia,” WA head coach Adam Voges said. “From playing alongside him to coaching him in more recent times, he’s given his all for his state.”It’s been a privilege to watch him progress from Sheffield Shield to being a very successful player at international level for Australia. He’s an outstanding character on and off the field and it’s been a pleasure to play a part in his journey.”Marsh is currently only full-time captain of Australia’s T20I side, but has led the ODI team in their last two series against South Africa and India since the Champions Trophy in the absence of Pat Cummins.

New Zealand 224 for 6 (Mitchell 78*, Bracewell 51, Carse 3-45) beat England 223 (Brook 135, Overton 46, Foulkes 4-41, Duffy 3-66) by four wickets There was a strong westerly wind blowing across the Bay Oval on Sunday afternoon. If you happened to cock your ear to the breeze during the first hour of play, you would have heard – clear as day – the sound of mocking laughter, floating across the Tasman Sea and down through the shires of Hobbiton.In a contest billed as the official start of the Ashes phoney war, England’s Australia-bound top-order produced a stunning false start. Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jacob Bethell – Ashes bankers, bolters and, as the Aussies might now contend, bottlers – all found themselves caught up in a catastrophic collapse of 10 for 4 in 5.1 overs that was precisely as serious as the discourse that it will generate.Related

• Brook brilliance can't mask issues for brittle England batting

• England seek clarity for seam attack as ODI reboot gathers pace

• Switch Hit: Rainy, phoney, baloney

• 135/223 – Harry Brook rewrites record books with one-man show

Jos Buttler soon joined the procession at 33 for 5, and it was a measure of the nonsensical scenario that – when Sam Curran nicked off at 56 for 6, to become the fourth wicket of Zak Foulkes’ remarkable maiden spell in ODI cricket – the time back home in the UK, thanks to the peculiarities of daylight-saving, was 1.59am: in other words, one minute prior to the contest’s original start-time.New Zealand duly wrapped up victory with time to spare as well, by four wickets and with 80 balls left unused, thanks to Michael Bracewell’s run-a-ball 51 and a 91-ball 78 from Daryl Mitchell that had to surmount its own dicey circumstances at 24 for 3, courtesy of Luke Wood and Brydon Carse’s new-ball breakthroughs – including a first-baller on his return to action for the great Kane Williamson, his first in 15 years of ODIs.Harry Brook carried England’s innings on his shoulders•Getty Images

And yet, the game would scarcely have outlasted one of last week’s rained-off T20Is had it not been for Harry Brook – England’s white-ball captain, Test vice-captain-elect, and a man in no mood to let circumstance dictate his game-plan. His response to his team’s extreme adversity was a startling lone-wolf innings of 135 from 101 balls that turned an impending humiliation into an almost serviceable total of 223 in 35.2 overs.It was Brook’s fourth century in the country, following his three hundreds across two previous Test tours, and – given the circumstances – it was more extraordinary even than his 186 at Wellington in 2023 which, for those who witnessed that onslaught, is saying something.Brook scored each of his first 36 runs in boundaries, en route to a total of nine fours and 11 sixes. The latter included three in a row off Jacob Duffy to reach his hundred from 82 balls, and four more thereafter, as he juiced 80 runs from England’s final two wickets in an innings in which just one other batter scored more than 6.That man was Jamie Overton, who contributed 46 from 54 balls in a seventh-wicket stand of 87 that wrested the momentum back from New Zealand, after Foulkes and Matt Henry had rumbled their way through 15 new-ball overs in a row. His performance had distinct echoes of a previous tussle with New Zealand – on Test debut in 2022, when he had arrived at a near-identical 55 for 6 and partnered Jonny Bairstow with a career-best 97.Once again, Overton fell short of a milestone in this innings, as he chipped a Duffy slower ball to cover, whereupon Carse joined the procession of Ashes-bound players by cutting his first ball straight to the returning Williamson at point. Brook, by then, had had one key let-off on 63, when Rachin Ravindra dropped a fast-travelling slog-sweep at square leg, but the power and clarity of his subsequent onslaught took the breath away.And to think Mitchell Santner hadn’t even been sure whether bowling first was the sensible option. Henry’s first ball of the match immediately laid any doubts to rest as he wrecked Smith’s first outing of the winter with a perfect stump-rattling inducker, one that deserved to rouse a few memories of Rory Burns’ catastrophic start to the 2021-22 Ashes proper.Brydon Carse removed Kane Williamson for his first golden duck in ODIs•Getty Images

Foulkes then ripped into the contest with the first-over wickets of Duckett, caught flinching outside off for 2, and Root, who stepped into a wild drive and was also bowled by lavish seam movement. Two Foulkes overs later, Bethell too had his off stump plucked out by a jaffa, and there seemed no earthly way for England’s innings to pull out of its death spiral.Brook, though, had other ideas. His 135 out of 223 comprised 60.53% of England’s innings, a new record that outdid Robin Smith’s legendary 167 not out against Australia in 1993 – which, coincidentally was another mighty knock that was unable to stave off ultimate defeat.England gave it a good crack, mind you. Carse, a star of last year’s Test-series win in New Zealand, matched Foulkes with two wickets in his opening over as Will Young was bowled by an inswinging yorker for 5 before Williamson snicked a first-ball snorter through to Buttler behind the stumps.Luke Wood then did for a free-flowing Ravindra, well caught by Overton at second slip as the bowler – remarkably – claimed his first List A wicket since 2019. And when Carse fired a wobble-seam delivery into Tom Latham’s shin for 24, New Zealand were 66 for 4 and in clear danger of frittering away their unbelievable start.Bracewell and Mitchell turned the tide in a fifth-wicket stand of 92, though they needed some luck along the way. Bracewell was dropped at slip on 2 by Root, in Overton’s opening over, while Mitchell had an even more glaring let-off on 33, when Wood at backward point dropped a sitter of a reverse-sweep off the legspin of Adil Rashid.With the requirement under control, however, New Zealand were able to play well within themselves – at least until Bracewell needlessly ran himself out with 66 still needed, whereupon Mitchell ramped New Zealand’s first six over fine leg to signal the final charge. Santner added two more in quick succession off Rashid before holing out to long-on for 27, but Mitchell launched the winning hit over backward square.The fireworks, and the talking points, however, had long since been and gone.