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Ellyse Perry takes three wickets in six balls as Phoenix win first home game

ECB Media03-Aug-2024After losing 12 completed games in a row, Birmingham Phoenix, inspired by captain Ellyse Perry, made it two wins from two by squeezing the life out of Southern Brave to win by 16 runs at Edgbaston.With a hint of rain in the air, Phoenix were put in by Georgia Adams and a steady start was only interrupted when 16-year-old slow-left armer Tilly Corteen-Coleman struck with her first ball to have Sophie Devine lbw. She struck again, Rhianna Southby effecting a smart stumping to get rid of Sterre Kalis, forcing Perry and Amy Jones to consolidate.They added 23 for the third wicket before Perry holed out to Maia Bouchier at long-on. With the score 55 for 3 at the halfway stage, the Phoenix needed to accelerate and did through Jones, and a cameo of 22 in 12 balls from Emily Arlott that included two sixes.Jones’s half-century saw Phoenix reach 137 for 7, with Lauren Cheatle having conceded just 14 runs from her 20-ball allocation.After three boundaries from the returning Smriti Mandhana at the start of the Brave innings, it became the Perry show, as the Australia legend picked up three key wickets – Mandhana, Bouchier for a duck, and skipper Adams – in her first ten deliveries.Danni Wyatt and Freya Kemp steadied the ship, the former striking a typically belligerent 33-ball 43 before Charis Pavely got rid of Kemp and Hannah Baker induced an error from Wyatt.At 92 for 5 from 69 balls, the momentum was with the Phoenix, and all of their bowlers stuck to their task admirably, throttling the Brave innings as the required run-rate climbed and the visitors simply ran out of steam.”Emily Arlott’s innings was the difference, clearing the fence with ease,” Jones said. “And Pez’s start was unbelievable. When you have someone like that, who can deliver such performances, it is a huge lift for the team. We were really good in the field and backed up the bowlers.”

Surrey head coach likens move to asking Premier League football team to play with 10 men

Matt Roller13-Jul-2023Gareth Batty, Surrey’s coach, has compared the County Championship’s two-week trial of the Kookaburra ball to telling teams to play with ten men or changing the shape of a football midway through the Premier League season.The experiment, which saw the Kookaburra ball used instead of the standard Dukes over the last two rounds of county fixtures, was recommended by Andrew Strauss’ High Performance Review, commissioned in the aftermath of England’s 4-0 Ashes defeat to Australia in 2021-22.The review said that the trial would give the ECB “a firmer understanding” of the difference between the two balls, suggesting that using the Kookaburra instead of the Dukes could force “the development of a wider range of skills” among English seamers and enhance the role of spinners.Related

• Counties confirm decision to bin Kookaburra ball trial

• English cricket's Kookaburra experiment: 'Fantastic' or 'worst decision ever'?

• Batty warns against 'celebrity cricket' as county restructuring looms over Surrey's title triumph

• Jacks guides cautious Surrey towards draw on tame final day

But Batty described the trial as “very silly” and “a kneejerk reaction” to England’s defeat in Australia. “It’s like saying next week, we’ve got to play with 10 men,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “That seems silly to me. We don’t change the shape of the ball in football halfway through; we don’t mess up what is going on.”Speaking after his Surrey side drew with Nottinghamshire at The Oval, Batty said that the timing of the trial was “illogical”, citing the possibility of players being called up for England and using a different ball to the one they had been using in domestic cricket.”If anybody were to be called up from county cricket, bowling with a Kookaburra ball, it makes no sense that they’re having to change to a Dukes ball,” he said. “There are different characteristics to the two balls. I like them both equally. I’m certainly not criticising the fact that we’re using it but the timing of it is questionable.”Peter Moores, Notts’ coach, suggested that the competitive integrity of the Championship was undermined by the trial. “I don’t like the thought of mixing up balls in a season, because it doesn’t feel right,” he said. “If you start with one ball, I’d like to use it [throughout].”Moores added: “I can see exactly why the ECB want to test it out and have a look at it and how it’s reacted… generally, the Dukes ball is a good ball but over the last couple of seasons, it’s tended to have to be changed a bit too much for me and that’s something we want to try and get away from because as a ball gets older and deteriorates, that’s when spinners come into the game.”I think the [Kookaburra] ball has played pretty well on the pitches we’ve played on. We played at Taunton and we played here. Both pitches had a reasonable covering of grass which I think helped movement and kept carry in the ball. The ball didn’t go out of shape, which I think is a good thing because it brings spinners into the game.”But Batty insisted that he was unclear why the trial had been introduced, and that if the intention was to bring spinners into the game, it hadn’t worked. “I wasn’t privy to those meetings,” he said. “Nobody has asked – from what I understand – anybody that is in a position at counties to evolve and create England players [about it]. That seems strange.”Does it bring spinners into it? I don’t think that it looks like it has done across the counties. There’s a few counties who have made pitches very dry to try and bring spin into it because they feel like the ball won’t move laterally, which is absolutely fine and I totally get that. That’s a positive, both for batters and spinners.”Batty cited the decrease in the number of points available for a draw – from eight to five, compared to 16 for a win – as evidence that English cricket wants a “quick fix” when it comes to creating spinners, rather than clear long-term thinking. “The points system has negated spinners this year,” he said.”Let’s say it as it is: everybody is playing for wins and losses now. A draw means less than it did last year. We have changed as current champions how we think about the game because of the points system. Everybody needs a quick fix because you want to win; unfortunately, you don’t get a quick fix with spin.”

Wicketkeeper hits 146, allrounder unbeaten on 83 after coming together at 98 for 5

Karthik Krishnaswamy01-Jul-20223:11

Can we compare Pant to Gilchrist in Test cricket already?

Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell may have left the UK, but the narrative arc they established during New Zealand’s just-concluded Test tour continues to define the 2022 English summer. From the despair of 98 for 5, India roared back through the sixth-wicket heroics of Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, who put on 222 off just 239 balls.On a rain-interrupted day in which only 73 overs were possible, India galloped to 338 for 7 at the rate of 4.63 per over. Bazball? Well, Rishabh Pant was doing it long before the term was coined, and he moves to no one else’s rhythm but his own. He scored his fifth Test hundred and his second in England, a breathtaking 146 off just 111 balls.Jadeja, meanwhile, began his innings with India in considerable strife and calmed the dressing room down with an innings of crisp driving and discipline outside off stump. At close of play, he was still batting on 83.Seven overs remain before the second new ball is due, and while India’s first-innings total is already well within the realms of respectability, it is by no means a safe one. Their hopes of getting to 375 or beyond rest with Jadeja, and how much support he can get from their brittle bottom three.All through this summer, the Dukes ball has softened after the 30-over mark or thereabouts and become far less of a threat to batters. This was certainly a contributor to India’s fightback, but another possible factor – and a far more worrying one for the home team – may have been England’s lack of bowling depth, and their over-reliance on the ageless and peerless James Anderson.With a two-hour rain break – which included the 40 minutes of an early lunch – allowing him to rest his legs when the ball was still new, Anderson bowled 15 of the first 35 overs of the day. But he only bowled four of the last 38 overs, a time when England could have done with their other bowlers stepping up.2:15

Giles on Anderson: ‘He’s a genius, still a pleasure to watch him operate’

Instead, England’s third and fourth specialist bowlers conceded 156 runs in just 26 overs. While Matthew Potts’ day unraveled after an encouraging start – he took the wickets of Hanuma Vihari and Virat Kohli – Jack Leach had an entirely forgettable time of it, as Pant – by no means for the first time – toyed mercilessly with him.Pant took 59 runs off Leach, off just 32 balls, and 46 of these runs came through the leg side despite the left-arm spinner bowling with six fielders on that side of the wicket, including three protecting the boundary. He launched the ball thrillingly down the ground, as you might expect, but the highlight of Pant’s takedown of Leach was probably the way he manipulated his quicker, flatter change-ups by sinking halfway onto his back knee and sweeping, swiping or swatting him either side of deep backward square leg. He was quite likely lbw if he missed, but at no time did he seem remotely likely to miss.Pant got through almost his entire repertoire of shots against both spin and pace – there was a not-quite-middled repeat of his reverse-scoop over the slips off Anderson, for instance, and a straight hit off Leach that ended with batter lying flat on his back – but the most brilliant bits of his strokeplay were from the more textbook end of the spectrum, none better than a pair of scorching back-foot punches off Potts.These two shots came during a passage of play immediately after tea when India wrested the momentum entirely away from England, with Potts conceding 37 runs in a five-over spell, only to give way to the even more expensive Leach, who eventually ended the day nursing figures of 9-0-71-0. At the other end, Anderson and then Stuart Broad could only apply so much salve.Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja embrace after the former reached his fifth Test ton•Getty Images

Eventually it was Joe Root who dismissed Pant, finding the edge with a clever change of pace immediately after being hit for a straight six. Ben Stokes dismissed Shardul Thakur soon after with a sharp bouncer, giving England a welcome sight of India’s tail after being under the pump for so long.England couldn’t have envisaged the day ending in that manner given how it had begun. Overhead conditions – and the afterglow of their back-to-back-to-back successful run-chases against New Zealand – prompted Stokes to bowl first, and Anderson justified that choice by dismissing both openers.Shubman Gill got going with three sweetly timed early boundaries, but always seemed a little vulnerable to feeling for the ball outside off stump. He survived two edges that fell short of the cordon, but had no such luck on 17, when he pushed away from his body at a ball from Anderson that straightened from just short of a length.Cheteshwar Pujara, back in the Test XI but opening rather than batting at No. 3, made a typically solid start against testing bowling, but having seen off 45 balls, he got a peach from Anderson that he could do little about: an outswinger angling into the stumps initially before curving away late with extra bounce. At second slip, Zak Crawley, who had just put down Vihari off Potts, held on to this far simpler chance that came straight to him off the shoulder of Pujara’s bat.Then, after the two-hour weather interruption, Potts got two wickets in two overs, trapping Vihari plumb with a nip-backer before having Kohli bowled off his inside edge when he was caught in two minds between playing and leaving.India were in intense strife at 71 for 4, and it only deepened after a short, stroke-filled and ultimately unconvincing innings from Shreyas Iyer, when Anderson aimed at his ribcage and got him to glove down the leg side. The efforts of Mitchell and Blundell may have cautioned England against celebrating too much at this point, but surely even they couldn’t see the same thing happening all over again?

A CA spokesman said Smith was having a rubdown on a sore back

Daniel Brettig at Adelaide Oval15-Dec-20202:04

Justin Langer: ‘We’re going to be really well planned for Virat Kohli’

In a major departure from his usual routine, Steven Smith did not appear for a habitual net at Australia’s main training session prior to the first Test against India in Adelaide.The only sight of Smith for the afternoon was in early warm-ups and fielding, but around 10 minutes into the session he gestured to support staff and headed for the dressing rooms, shaking his left arm as he went.While the Australian camp played down the issue, Smith did not reappear for a nets session that featured plenty of close attention paid to Joe Burns by the coach and selector Justin Langer.An Australian team spokesman would say only that Smith had a sore back that was getting a rubdown later adding that he would train on match eve, after tweaking his back when bending down to pick up a ball.Smith’s non-appearance added another layer of mystery to Australia’s already chaotic preparation for the series following a litany of injury, conpassionate leave and misadventure that has so far included David Warner (groin), Will Pucovski (concussion), Mitchell Starc (personal leave), Cameron Green (concussion) and even his nominal replacement Moises Henriques (hamstring).Burns faced just one ball, played to the leg side, before he received the first of a couple of mid-pitch pep talks from Langer, who later walked to the back of the nets to observe the opener from behind the stumps.Parallel net sessions from the captain Tim Paine and fellow batting aspirant Marcus Harris attracted relatively scant attention from Langer, who clearly wanted to give Burns support whenever he hit one cleanly in an extended stint against James Pattinson and Michael Neser.Steven Smith poses during a photoshoot before Australia’s training session•Getty Images

At the same time, the likely debutant Green continued his steady progress back from a mild concussion in the SCG warm-up game against Virat Kohli’s tourists, bowling at a leisurely pace and then batting against throwdowns and spin.Green’s pathway to playing is clear, so long as he keeps up his improvement in terms of the steps required by Cricket Australia medical staff and their concussion protocols.”We have to wait and see what happens with Cameron Green first to see if he comes through,” Langer said before training. “That’s one part of the jigsaw puzzle. We’ll look at Joe Burns and Marcus Harris to see how they’re tracking at training today.”I’ve learned as a selector nine doesn’t go into six. We’ve got to pick our six best, that’s all part of the big jigsaw puzzle at the moment. There’s a lot of balls in the air. I wish we could be a lot more definite, not only for you guys but more importantly for our players that we can be really definite and we knew we’re going to go in with this. Until we get a few things ticked off we can’t make any decisions yet.”

Given the amount of rain that has fallen on Durban’s Kingsmead ground in the past week, Andrew Strauss would be forgiven for wishing that the heavens remain open for another day, so that his team can cement their 2-1 series lead

Cricinfo staff03-Dec-2009Given the amount of rain that has fallen on Durban’s Kingsmead ground in the past week, Andrew Strauss would be forgiven for wishing that the heavens remain open for another day, so that his team can cement their 2-1 series lead, and emerge victorious for the first time ever in an ODI series in South Africa. But such is the journey that Strauss and his charges have been on in recent months, such an anticlimactic conclusion would be far from fitting. The team has been accused of many things of late, but being boring is not one of them.For Strauss himself, the Durban contest marks a notable milestone. Weather permitting, it will be his 100th ODI cap, and seeing as he had been jettisoned from the set-up after the 2007 World Cup, and spent a full two years thinking he’d never play in that format again, it is an achievement of some note. “To come back in and be part of this side and feel like we’re going somewhere is quite motivating,” he told reporters at Kingsmead. “I’m really enjoying my one-day cricket.”Enjoyment has been central to England’s mini-revival. Back in September, when a listless and Ashes-sated squad were battered 6-1 in their home series against Australia, it didn’t seem possible to inject any urgency into their performances. But then came a relocation to South Africa for the Champions Trophy, and suddenly the results began to stack up – albeit with the odd hefty set-back, as inflicted by the Aussies once again in the semi-final of that tournament, and by South Africa in their record-breaking run-fest at Newlands last week.But Strauss’s England teams are becoming accustomed to fighting back from adversity – witness their spirited response to being bowled out for 51 in Jamaica in February, or the way they claimed the Ashes despite being routed in two-and-a-half days in the penultimate Test at Headingley in August. According to the captain, such bouncebackability requires a culture of honesty within the squad, and an absence of ego.”Players have probably opened their eyes to the fact we have a long way to go and we’ve all got to be prepared for hard work if we’re going to get somewhere,” said Strauss. “We want an environment where we all push each other very hard – and in order to do that, we need to be honest with each other first and foremost. The environment we’re trying to create is one everyone has kind of accepted.”South Africa’s captain, Graeme Smith, is not noted for his chumminess with his English opposite numbers – having sparred with Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen in recent times – but even he could not find much of a bone to pick with Strauss, despite the lingering issue of his refused runner during the Champions Trophy.”Andrew is an intelligent guy, with a lot of common sense,” said Strauss. “He’s provided a lot of stability for England and has gone about it the way we have expected. We’ve managed to keep a little hold on him in terms of his batting – he still hasn’t scored a fifty against South Africa in one-day cricket, but he’s the guy we expected him to be.”But, as Smith went on to point out, it doubtless helps England’s rebuilding efforts that the go-to men of recent times – most notably Andrew Flintoff and Pietersen – have been out of the limelight, which has allowed new stars such as Eoin Morgan and Jonathan Trott to find their feet without being overshadowed. “We don’t want three or four senior players running the show,” said Strauss. “We want everyone feeling comfortable enough to contribute, and also that it’s expected of them to contribute.”In the sport we play, there are always going to be people who are bigger characters than others or have bigger egos,” he added.”But a good environment is able to take that into account and still let people express themselves and get the best out of themselves.”One of those players with a larger-than-average ego is Pietersen, who has struggled to reassert himself since returning to the squad following his Achilles injury, and produced a particularly frenetic six-ball performance at Port Elizabeth on Sunday. And true to form, Smith cranked up the psychological pressure by reminding him of the reasons why he is not the most universally popular cricketer on this tour.”He’s obviously got a history through things that he’s done and said, and people are still getting over those emotions,” said Smith. “The crowds have been quite vocal again towards him. Ultimately, I think it’s just his job to get on with it and deal with that. It happens round the world these days.”

Lahore Qalandars’ Zaman Khan gave away just five runs off the first five balls of the last over, but was unable to close it out

Associated Press10-Mar-2024Shoaib Malik hit a boundary off the last ball to give Karachi Kings a three-wicket victory in a must-win game against two-time champion Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League on Saturday.The win kept alive the Kings’ hopes of a place in the playoffs with eight points from nine games. Qalandars were already eliminated, beating only Quetta Gladiators and losing seven games in the absence of injured spinner Rashid Khan.With three runs needed off the last delivery, Malik (27 not out) drove fast bowler Zaman Khan’s low full toss through point to guide his team to a winning 179 for 7 in a tense finish.Qalandars had posted 177 for 5 on the back of half centuries from Abdullah Shafique (55) and Fakhar Zaman (54) after the Kings captain Shan Masood won the toss and chose to field.Masood’s decision to demote himself to No. 3 after struggling as an opener in his first season as the team’s captain paid off as the pair of James Vince (42) and Tim Seifert (36) provided a confident start of 59.But Qalandars came back strongly when fast bowler Tayyab Abbas (2-23) got the big wicket of Kieron Pollard (3) and Seifert was run out after a major misunderstanding with Malik.Irfan Khan scored a brisk 35 off 16 balls with six boundaries before the Qalandars captain Shaheen Shah Afridi (1-37) knocked back his middle stump in the penultimate over. Zaman conceded just five runs off his first five balls but Malik stayed calm to seal the game for the Kings off the final delivery.

Dominant display with ball ensures that first-innings 144 for 6 is ample for 2-0 series lead

Danyal Rasool17-May-2024A disciplined, clinical performance with the ball and in the field saw England ease to a 65-run win in Northampton, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead over Pakistan. As in the first T20I, Sarah Glenn spearheaded her side with two wickets to follow up her four-wicket haul last Saturday, chopping through Pakistan’s middle order to cut the visitors, who fell apart with the bat once more, adrift.Several bowlers chipped in, with Lauren Bell, Charlie Dean, Alice Capsey and Sophie Ecclestone – who became the leading WT20I wicket-taker for England with her three, all among the wickets. It came during another tame batting performance from Pakistan, whose flashes of talent were unable to plug the holes their lack of consistency left exposed. The pursuit of 145 never really got off the ground, and before long, Nida Dar’s side folded feebly for 79.Pakistan had much to be hopeful about after the first innings. They dragged England back after a bright powerplay from the hosts, taking wickets at regular overs to stymie English momentum at every turn. It wasn’t quite as helpful a wicket to bat on as the one at Edgbaston, and England ensured most batters made contributions; five of the top seven scored between 15 and 31. A late cameo from Dani Gibson took England to 144, and while it seemed a vulnerable target at the time, England’s excellence in the second innings demonstrated it was anything but.Bouchier, Capsey begin brightlyIn an ultimately low-scoring game, England’s bellicose approach right from the outset provided them a buffer that would ultimately come in handy. Waheeda Akhtar was too straight with the first ball, and Maia Bouchier punished her with a flick for four, setting the powerplay tempo early. Another slap past point in the same over went for four, and Sadia Malik’s width was punished with a drive through the covers.Maia Bouchier got England’s innings off to a confident start•Getty Images

Capsey, meanwhile began stodgily, managing just two off the first nine. However, she cut loose in an onslaught against Waheeda in the fifth over, plundering five boundaries to make up for lost time. By the end of the fifth over, England had raced along to 43 for one; it would take Pakistan until the eighth over and the loss of three extra wickets before they breached that number. By that time, the game was all but secure for the hosts.The squeezeIf Pakistan could have strung together their powerplay bowling performance in Birmingham with their middle-overs showing today, the series may well have been level. Pakistan enjoyed relative control during the eight overs that followed the powerplay in the first innings, keeping England on a leash with their parsimony with the ball and in the field. Nida, Nashra Sandhu and Diana Baig whizzed through their overs, tying Bouchier down before a stunning bit of fielding caught her out of her crease and ran her out. Dar’s variety in the air was instrumental in deceiving an onrushing Capsey as the brakes were applied across a 48-ball spell that saw just 42 scored and set Pakistan up nicely for the deathThe implosionThere’s little point in breaking Pakistan’s innings down into phases. Much of it was a phantasmagoria of an absence of intent, frenetic shot selection and self-imploding running between the wickets, all of which England were much too impressive not to punish. Bell received the payoff for a tight couple of overs with two wickets in the third, Gull Feroza and Sadaf Shamas smacking a couple straight to fielders as the pressure told. A handful of boundaries from Muneeba Ali in the second half of the powerplay was as good as it got for the Pakistan batters, but that 30-run partnership was followed by another clump of wickets that killed Pakistan off.All of England’s bowlers understood Pakistan’s dilemma perfectly. They lack power hitters, and that means racking up dot deliveries can amp up the pressure in no time. That plan was executed to perfection, with a series of dot deliveries almost invariably followed up by high-risk shots that did not pay off. The last six wickets fell for just 19 on a scorecard that did not truly reflect Pakistan’s competitiveness in the first innings, though the gulf in quality between the two sides means the 2-0 scoreline is well deserved.

Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz left out of an overhauled Pakistan squad

Umar Farooq16-Jan-2020The experienced pair of Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez will return to the Pakistan side for the T20I series against Bangladesh next week. Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz have been left out, with pace bowler Muhammad Musa keeping his place in the shortest format, while batsman Ahsan Ali and fast bowler Amad Butt were called up.For the second T20I squad in succession, head coach Misbah-ul-Haq rung in the changes as Pakistan look to break a streak of seven T20Is without a win. Pacer Shaheen Afridi returns to the side for the first time since May, having sat out the T20s against Sri Lanka and Australia as he recovered from about of dengue fever, while Usman Qadir keeps his place and may finally be in line for his debut. Haris Rauf has also been called up after his impressive season in the Big Bash League with the Melbourne Stars.Squad: Babar Azam (capt), Ahsan Ali, Amad Butt, Iftikhar Ahmed Haris Rauf, Imad Wasim, Khushdil Shah Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Musa, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Usman Qadir”He[Hafeez] is experienced enough and has performed well in past,” said Misbah when asked about the merits of his selection. “At the time when him and Malik were ruled out, we never said that they will never be considered again. Obviously, we were trying out our pool, but we found they were missed. So even if Hafeez hasn’t played much cricket lately, he is experienced and mature enough to contribute for Pakistan.”Hafeez was suspended from bowling in ECB competitions just last week after umpires reported him following a match at Taunton in August, and independent testing revealed he was breaching the 15-degree limit. Hafeez pledged to contest the findings, but as things presently stand, Pakistan will not have his services as a bowler available to them.In the last 12 months, Pakistan have lost 8 out of 9 completed T20s they have played, and a side that was until recently ranked comfortably at the top of the T20I rankings has begun to fall apart. They still hold the number one ranking, but that is more by dint of their remarkable record in the time before this recent string of poor results. Misbah said they needed to continue to experiment until they found a combination that worked for Pakistan.”We have lost two series earlier and it was important for us to think hard about how we can return to winning ways,” said Misbah. “Most of our decisions were taken considering the fact that we have been losing and have to start winning again. So we’ve got our experienced players back and picked our domestic performers. We wanted to persist with Khushdil Shah and Usman Qadir and picked Harris Rauf on his performance in the national T20 Cup and the Big Bash.”We have tried a mix of senior and young players which enable us to retain our winning momentum. Until the World T20, everyone is in consideration. Yes, the situation has been alarming after we lost against Sri Lanka and then in Australia. But we are going to keep experimenting until we don’t get to our best combination. The results I know weren’t up to our expectations but we don’t need to be frightened.”Another surprise was the axing of Mohammad Amir, who has taken more wickets in T20I cricket than any other Pakistan bowler since the start of January 2018. He quit Test cricket to focus on white-ball cricket, and there was dismay at the PCB when that happened, who, among other things, demoted his category A contract to one in category C, the lowest category. On dropping him, Misbah, who had himself expressed unhappiness with players picking and choosing what formats they wanted to play in, said, “We tried to be consistent with young players. Having senior bowlers like Amir and Wahab sit out is tough. The whole idea of dropping them is to include younger bowlers in the playing XI.”The three match T20I series against Bangladesh will start on January 24, with the other two T20Is to be held on January 25 and 27. All three games will take place at the Gaddafi Stadium.

Back-up keeper-batter arrives in Sydney after making mercy dash from Brisbane by car

Andrew Miller08-Jan-2022Sam Billings was “90 minutes” away from catching a flight back to the UK prior to his call-up to England’s Ashes squad, according to the team management, as he undertook a nine-hour drive from Brisbane to Sydney to provide wicketkeeping cover ahead of next week’s fifth Test in Hobart.Billings, who has just completed a Big Bash spell with Sydney Thunder, had been set to return home to prepare for England’s T20I tour of the Caribbean later this month. But, with Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow both being sent for X-rays after sustaining hand injuries during the fourth Test, Billings has now joined the touring party in Sydney, where he will undergo a period of isolation in the team hotel, subject to returning a negative Covid test result.”Just an observation… Australia is a reallyyyyy big place!” Billings wrote in a post on Twitter, while taking a break from his journey at a resting place near Newcastle in New South Wales. Billings is yet to make his Test debut, but he has spoken previously of his ambitions to break into the red-ball side. He has played 58 limited-overs matches for England and averages 34.29 in first-class cricket with six centuries.He now looks set to become England’s 700th Test cricketer at Hobart next week, despite an impressive stand-in display from Ollie Pope on day four, who equalled the dismissals record for a substitute player with four catches behind the stumps.”It’s a bit like the goalkeeper, if you don’t really notice them, that means that they’ve done very well,” Graham Thorpe, England’s assistant coach, said. “After a while I realised that it was Ollie Pope back out there again, keeping wicket, so I thought he did fantastically well.”Given the extent of England’s injuries, however, Pope may well be required as a specialist batter at Hobart, but Thorpe said that Billings’ call-up would give the squad options going into the fifth Test.Buttler’s battle for form with the bat was compounded on the third day when he was dismissed for an eight-ball duck to take his tally for the series to 96 runs at 16.00 from seven innings. He reportedly struggled to grip the bat properly during his stay after sustaining a hand injury while keeping on the second day.Bairstow meanwhile compiled a gutsy century in England’s first innings – eventually falling for 113 on the fourth morning – despite being left in agony by a savage blow to the right thumb from Pat Cummins”I was hurting,” Bairstow said. “But, look, you’re playing in a New Year’s Test match in Sydney on the pink day, it is going to take a heck of a lot to get you off the field. In some ways, it frees you up, in some ways it doesn’t. But at the end of the day, you’ve still got a job to do. Yes, it will be sore, but at the end of the day you’re playing cricket for England and I’m very, very proud to do that.”Related

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Asked about potentially taking the wicketkeeping gloves in Hobart, Bairstow said: “I don’t know as yet, to be really honest with you. I’ll know some more information tomorrow. I’m not sure about the keeping side of things anyway. But from a batting point of view, I’ll be out there in the morning.”England’s issues deepened with the side strain that Ben Stokes sustained while bowling on the second afternoon. He too was sent for a scan on Saturday, and though he returned to the field he has not bowled since. The ECB subsequently stated that they would “evaluate the extent of the injury and update at the end of the Test match”.Thorpe, however, hinted that Stokes might yet play at Hobart as a specialist batter, having compiled a vital 66 in his first-innings partnership with Bairstow.”It’s possible,” Thorpe said. “Obviously Stokes’ injury is not a great one, being an allrounder. So we’ll have to see generally what we can do with that situation once the game is finished.”Sometimes the adrenaline running through the body, when you’re out there, can actually assist you. And then there are times when you have to assess the whole injury going into a fresh game as well.”Obviously, Sam Billings has been called into the group, as you’re aware, so that’s a good indicator of some of the concerns with the injuries.”

Weatherley was accompanied by India batter Tilak Varma as Hampshire chased down 286

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay 07-Aug-2025Hampshire 288 for 5 (Weatherley 116*, Varma 54) beat Essex 285 (Allison 80, Neal 2-44) by 5 wicketsJoe Weatherley classily struck his third Metro Bank One-Day Cup men’s competition hundred as Hampshire beat Essex at Utilita Bowl.Weatherley provided the backbone to a well-managed chase of 286 – after Charlie Allison, Tom Westley and Robin Das all posted half-centuries for Essex.Tilak Varma also reached the landmark, but it was Weatherley’s personal best unbeaten 116 – his first century in two years – that made sure Hampshire made it two wins from two, while Essex remain winless.Hampshire stuck Essex into bat and almost immediately struck as Kyle Abbott drew an outside edge out of Matt Critchley.Robin Das and Tom Westley set the innings into place with a 99-run stand in double-quick time, the pair peppering the boundary in their better-than-a-run-a-ball half-centuries.But a middle-over squeeze slowed the run-rate and brought a succession of regular wickets.Left-arm spinner Andrew Neal broke the Das/Westley alliance when Das clipped off-balance to midwicket, before Westley followed when Tilak Varma brilliantly caught him at short fine leg.Luc Benkenstein slashed to short cover, Noah Thain powered to midwicket, and Nick Browne drove to first slip to hand Abbott his second.At 189 for 6 in the 35th over, the visitors were in danger of a seriously under-par score but Allison and Simon Fernandes revved things back into life with a no thrills partnership.Allison has had a stand-out 2025 having scored three centuries in the Rothesay County Championship, and continued that form with an unhurried 80.Fernandes had begun his One-Day Cup campaign with an unbeaten 46, and followed that with 41. But as the pair looked to accelerate Essex suffered their second slump to get bowled out for 285.Both fell in back-to-back deliveries, both caught trying to go big, while Shane Snater was bowled and Jamie Porter was caught behind.The hosts needed to go at under a run-a-ball and they stuck to that mission like a limpet.Ali Orr and Nick Gubbins eased through the new ball until the former fell to the final ball of the powerplay when Charlie Bennett bowled a snorter to get a tickle behind.Gubbins followed his century against Glamorgan with 40 but top-edged a sweep to short fine but Hampshire gained control through Tilak Varma and Weatherley.The pair put on 98 to take a huge bite into the target. Indian Varma was mostly circumspect apart from crisp shots down the ground and an incredible reverse six.He was bowled trying to charge Westley having reached a fifty before Tom Prest gifted Westley his third wicket – he returned three for 39.Weatherley had a strong Vitality Blast before a successful return to the Championship side, and oozed class throughout his innings.He dominated a 47-run partnership with Ben Mayes and then joined with Felix Organ to rush to the winning line.Weatherley reached three figures with a luscious strike through long on as part of three boundaries in a row which took the runs required to single figures. A six in the following over secured the points.