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Mashrafe Mortaza has said that his team needed to pick up wickets in the Powerplay overs of Australia’s chase to have had a chance of defending 156 on a “flattish” pitch

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Bangalore22-Mar-20162:06

‘We still have to be positive’ – Mashrafe

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza has said that his team needed to pick up wickets in the Powerplay overs of Australia’s chase to have had a chance of defending 156 on a “flattish” pitch.Led by Usman Khawaja, Australia raced to 51 for no loss in the first six overs of their innings, and eventually chased down the target with nine balls to spare.”This ground has always been high-scoring, but still I think we got a total that we could fight it out,” Mashrafe said. “First six overs were very crucial, we couldn’t get any wickets. Later on, we got [Shane] Watson, but it was too late, I think. And obviously, fielding should have been a lot better.” Bangladesh dropped two catches, letting off Watson on 12 and John Hastings on 0. The two finished with 21 and 3 respectively.Mashrafe felt Bangladesh could have posted 170 if they had not lost wickets at inopportune moments at the start and middle of their innings. That they made 156 was down to an unbeaten 29-ball 49 from Mahmudullah.Asked why Mahmudullah, who had batted at No. 5 in the two innings he had played in the tournament before this one, was demoted, Mashrafe said the batsman felt more comfortable at No. 6. “We have been promoting him. Last three matches, we were promoting him to No. 5,” Mashrafe said. “He doesn’t feel that confident in that particular [slot], because he feels that at No. 6 he has been scoring, so whatever he feels that he is comfortable, we try to adjust like that.”A big miss for Bangladesh in the batting department was Tamim Iqbal, who fell ill and missed the match. Mashrafe expected him to recover in time for their next match, against India on Wednesday. “I think he got a little bit of food poisoning and he was very tired at that time, so hopefully it will be fine. There are 40 hours left for the [next] match, so I think he will be all right.”

With England needing 21 runs from four overs with six wickets in hand, and a capacity crowd in a state of high excitement, the umpires took their light meters out and ordered the players off

The Report by David Hopps25-Aug-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKevin Pietersen’s innings gave England the momentum but bad light ended their chances of victory•PA Photos

Let’s have a game of cricket, said Michael Clarke. And so, as the Ashes series moved to an enthralling climax that few imagined possible, England and Australia did just that. Then, with England needing 21 runs from four overs with six wickets in hand, a capacity crowd in a state of high excitement and Clarke no longer fancying a game of cricket quite as much anymore, the umpires took out their light meters and they all walked off.Others can debate the whys and wherefores of ICC regulations. After the torpor of Friday and the washout of Saturday, the final day of the fifth Investec Test threw up a memorable day’s cricket. The umpires had no choice but to walk off under those regulations and Clarke, having manufactured a wonderful day’s cricket, had a right to expect that the regulations were respected. They were booed all the same.Jonathan Trott gave the immediate reaction to Clarke’s attempts to get off the field. “We’d be doing the same thing,” he said. “Australia declared to set up a game and all credit to them.”Kevin Pietersen, registering England’s fastest Ashes fifty along the way to 62 from 55 balls, will rightly gain the plaudits as England took on a chase of 227 in 44 overs on what for a fifth day remained a decent-enough surface. He swept them to within 64 runs of victory, with eight wickets and 10 overs remaining: a match to be won. In the end, England only faced six of them, but judging by the jubilation of England’s players at completing a victorious series they did not seem to care.Pietersen received a miniature silver bat on the third day to mark his achievement of becoming England’s highest run-scorer in all formats. But this was the sort of cricket he lives for. His shots were falling into gaps and the crowd was rapt with attention on a beautiful sunlit evening. Then he swung Ryan Harris to David Warner at long-on, perhaps his first, fatal slog.Trott fell in the next over but England’s chase continued in composed fashion in the hands of the Warwickshire pair Ian Bell and Chris Woakes. But it was not to be.With the series already decided, Clarke, an Australia captain who doubtless had his coach egging him on in the background, deserved immense credit for fashioning such an engrossing climax. No Australia captain had ever lost an Ashes series 4-0. Clarke risked just that. Statisticians be damned, was Clarke’s response: 3-0 or 4-0, who cares? Australia, who now have no victory in nine, need to learn how to win again.Only two captains had ever declared twice in a game and lost a Test – Garry Sobers for West Indies and Graeme Smith for South Africa. Hansie Cronje once declared and forfeited to lose against England but that one was corrupt.There were deeper reasons, of course, for Clarke’s declaration. Australia’s sense of feelgood after a 3-0 Ashes defeat is based upon their conviction that they are playing a more enterprising brand of cricket that will fully explore their potential and ultimately turn the tide in their favour, preferably in the return Ashes series this winter.

Andy Flower on Alastair Cook

“Cook’s strong captaincy is key. There is a lot more to leadership than funky fields, the players need to respect him. He has a conviction and sense of leadership that serves England well. We haven’t played perfect cricket, we never will, but we showed good qualities.”

Presented with a first-innings lead of 115 in early afternoon, and only 67 overs left in the game, they had only one option: attack. By tea, they had declared with a lead of 226. They made 111 at nearly five an over with six batsmen perishing. Clarke delivered news of the declaration to the England dressing room at a jaunty trot.Alastair Cook, his opposite number, approached the run chase as dutifully as he approach a trip to a maiden aunt. It was an obligation he knew he must fulfil, whether deep down he wanted to or not, and he did so uncomfortably until he edged across his crease to James Faulkner and was lbw.It was a timely departure. Pietersen came out to throaty cheers – the One Who Could. England still needed less than run a ball. Pietersen imposed himself against Faulkner. Recognising that the mood had changed, Australia switched into one-day mode.Trott also progressed nonchalantly, keeping the target within range. On 41, he survived the most idiotic review of the series – it was quite a feat, so credit where it is due – when Nathan Lyon turned one out of the footholds and Steve Smith held a short leg catch off the thigh. He fell for 59, lbw to Faulkner, the sort of player who makes a match attacking by his very presence.Those arriving at The Oval ahead of time on the final day had discovered groundstaff staring morbidly at covers and suggesting the match would not start much ahead of lunchtime. Read the experts and the emphasis was on England’s unremittingly conservative approach and a debate, in the context of a seemingly dead Test, about how they had won respect rather than admiration.What happened was a remarkable transformation. Faulkner’s jibe that refunds had been in order after England’s defensive approach on an interminable Friday had been well aimed, judging by the outcry it caused among England supporters on social media sites. The final throes of the Ashes series were suddenly so full of jollity that even Faulkner would not have demanded his money back. He took four of the last five wickets to fall to finish with slightly flattering figures of 4 for 51.Haddin, Australia’s wicketkeeper, also broke the world record for dismissals in a Test series when he claimed three more victims on the final day, the best of them a sparkling leg-side catch to dismiss Bell, England’s man of the series. Harris picked up the Australia award.Haddin’s 29 dismissals took him past Rod Marsh, who set the standard against England in 1982-83 and was on hand at The Oval to watch in his guise as an Australia selector.England passed the follow-on figure, and must have assumed in the process that they had removed Australia’s last, faint chance of victory, in the process, within 12 overs. Then Graeme Swann took 18 off an over of offspin from Lyon and the crowd began to sense that Sunday might turn out to be rather different from the two days that had passed before.Australia batted for 23 overs to reach 111 for 6. Their batting order – likened to a snow globe on ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball service – was shaken once more: Warner and Shane Watson opening, the debutant Faulkner at No. 3, Chris Rogers held in reserve.Warner was brilliantly caught in his follow-through by James Anderson; Watson, who briefly laid into Anderson, succumbed at long-on and there was a first-baller for Haddin, courtesy of a waft at Stuart Broad.It all seemed an Ashes fantasy, as if we had died of boredom on Friday and gone to Ashes heaven. Still Australia drove forward. Faulkner produced a brief one-day melody until Matt Prior caught him down the leg side at full stretch off Broad; Smith toe-ended one to long-on and Broad, loving every minute of the challenge, spread-eagled Harris’ stumps for his fourth wicket.Of Simon Kerrigan, protected after his stage fright on the opening day, there was no sighting. But just to be there must have been something.

England’s traditional cricketing summer must face up to another unwelcome challenge next week when meetings take place in London to promote a United States Twenty20 league

David Hopps and Peter Della Penna01-Sep-2012England’s traditional cricketing summer, already under siege from the expanding ambitions of IPL, must face up to another unwelcome challenge next week when meetings take place in London to promote a United States Twenty20 league planned to launch next July with a host of international stars.The league will be launched in direct competition to the English season with ambitions to attract many of the world’s top stars for what Neil Maxwell, one of the main proponents, is presenting to the States as “baseball on steroids.”Maxwell also freely admitted that USA promoters are monitoring tense negotiations between the ECB and Kevin Pietersen, which will determine whether he has an England future. Maxwell told ESPNcricinfo: “We haven’t spoken to Pietersen as yet. We are keen to work through the Boards to ensure the appropriate processes a followed. Once his position and ours is clarified we will no doubt chat.”Pietersen’s choice of whether he commits himself to a serious future on the Test circuit – which he told England he would on a specially-commisioned YouTube video – or becomes an itinerant player, making a fortune on the Twenty20 circuit, could now not be more stark.England will be slap bang in the middle of an Ashes summer, and will automatically be unavailable, but if UST20 succeeds it will cause further disruption for a county circuit already struggling to find overseas players of quality, including for a long-standing t20 tournament that is struggling to compete with newer, brasher competitors.While the ECB continues to agonise over the future make-up of its t20 competition, which earlier this week lost its sponsor, Friends Life, promoters from the United States are heading for London to begin the tender process for six inaugural franchises, with ambitions to grow to as many as ten by 2016,The league would most likely get underway after the conclusion of the ICC Champions Trophy, which takes runs from June 6-23 in England. The 2013 Ashes Series then follows, which means that top international stars from Australia and England would be unavailable but players from other countries might be tempted by the prospect of coming to play in America.Cricket Holdings America, a joint venture headed by the USA Cricket Association and New Zealand Cricket, has also declared ambitions for the USA to apply and secure hosting rights for future ICC events, including the ICC World Twenty20 within the next 10 years.In addition to taking bids for franchises starting this month, CHA also plans to host exhibition matches in the USA next year between imported stars and local talent.The population in the USA with South Asian background has doubled in ten years, leaving promoters convinced that the time is right to launch what will initially be a league relying entirely on imported talent.Maxwell, a CHA director, told The this week that the success of ESPNcricinfo in the United States was further proof that a market exists. There is little pretence, however, about educating an American audience, initially at least, about the finer points of the game.”Our marketing has to appeal to mainstream America,” he said. “It’s about promoting an entertainment product. Almost remove the reference to cricket and create a thing called Twenty20 that competes with movies. Link it to Hollywood and Bollywood and provide all the razzmatazz that goes with it.”CHA hopes for the league to grow to as many as 10 franchises by 2016. The first season, reports suggest, will be played primarily in New York and San Francisco. New York has thriving West Indian and South Asian immigrant populations, particularly in Brooklyn and Queens, while the San Francisco Bay Area includes Silicon Valley, where thousands of South Asians have immigrated over the years for work in the software and technology industries.If the league does launch franchises in New York and San Francisco, it would be highly probable that matches in those cities would be played on artificial pitches. While both cities are home to multiple professional sports teams with outdoor stadiums that hold in excess of 40,000 seats, neither city has an international standard natural turf wicket facility exclusively for cricket and it is doubtful that one would be built to be ready in time for next summer.Currently, the only facility in the USA that is approved by the ICC for use in Twenty20 and ODI matches is the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida. Two t20 internationals between New Zealand and West Indies in Florida in July attracted decent crowdsA Twenty20 league launched in the summer months would primarily be competing for fan and media interest inside the USA with mid-season Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer. The NHL and NBA typically finish their play-offs by the middle of June while the NFL, currently the most popular professional league in the USA, starts its regular season every September.

Michael Clarke believes Trent Copeland’s lack of pace can aid the tourists in against Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle from Wednesday

Daniel Brettig in Colombo28-Aug-2011For a long time Trent Copeland’s lack of pace was held against him. Australia’s captain Michael Clarke now believes this very quality can aid the tourists in their pursuit of pressure and wickets against Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle from Wednesday.Clarke and Greg Chappell, the selector on duty, have often spoken of “combinations” as they seek to establish the best XI with which to trouble the Sri Lankans. Copeland appeared an unlikely addition to the Test team when he departed from Sydney, considered behind at least Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle in the order of preference.But a match haul of 6 for 61 from 28 overs against Sri Lanka Board XI at P Sara Oval, while Siddle went wicketless and Johnson was rested, has all but vaulted Copeland into the team for Galle, and Clarke said the seamer’s tightness and lesser velocity would ideally complement the faster men.”It is very important, because what it allows you to do is build pressure from one end and attack a little bit more from the other,” Clarke said. “It’s a huge string to his bow to be honest and I think for the team, and I say this with the ultimate respect, it’s nearly like his lack of pace could be a really good thing for us.”He just nibbles and just wobbles the ball enough [so] that it doesn’t come onto the bat like Sidds, Ryano and Mitch, who are bowling 140kmh, [and] kiss the wicket and come on quite quick. There’s just enough nibble there; in this game, the attack we had, he complemented it very well I thought.”In February, Chappell had suggested there were players in the Sheffield Shield, who felt Copeland “might struggle to back it up this year” for New South Wales, a reference to the fact that few bowlers of medium pace can keep asking questions of opponents without being brazenly attacked. However Copeland’s lines have not wavered, proving that bounce and movement, as much as speed, are the keys to troubling good batsmen.”He did his thing, nothing more, nothing less,” Clarke said. “He managed to find the edge a few times, which is really nice, and as a captain it feels comforting to set fields to that type of bowling.”He got a few of the players out, who are going to be playing in the first Test, so that obviously helps. And I like that he hasn’t come in and tried to do too much. He’s done what he’s been doing for NSW for the last few years now. I think that takes courage, as a first-class player, when you come into the Australian team to not try and do anything different.”Difference was a more prominent theme as Clarke observed his slow bowlers Michael Beer and Nathan Lyon. Clarke spent considerable time shuffling his fields as he developed ways to attack and defend with two spinners he is not overly familiar with, and said he and the selectors had to decide which qualities they preferred.”They’re completely different bowlers,” Clarke said. “Lyon probably bowls with a lot more loop and gets a lot more shape. Beer bowls a bit faster and gets it into the wicket, so they’ve both got strengths. I thought Beery bowled really well when it started to spin a bit, especially to the left hander.”He could throw it into the rough and as we saw, a few balls went through the gate. I’m impressed with both of them. As a combination they’re very good together because they’re two completely different bowlers. If we have to pick one it’s going to be a tough selection.”Though Beer and Lyon were patchy in their performances and though Copeland, Harris and Johnson would all appear to have enough quality and adaptability to ask questions on Sri Lankan pitches, Clarke refused to rule out playing two spinners in Galle.”No way, I think it was good for both of them to play this game,” Clarke said. “I thought they bowled really well as a combination. You’ve just got to see the conditions, I think that’s probably the fairest way.”I need to see what the pitch is like and we the selectors need to work out what’s our best XI to try and win the game. That’s what is important to me – my goal is not to come here and have three draws. We are here to win the series so we’ve got to pick the best eleven players to win the game.”

Sussex’s hopes of a semi-final place in the Clydesdale Bank 40 suffered a blow when their Group A clash with Glamorgan at Hove was washed out

25-Aug-2010
Sussex’s hopes of a semi-final place in the Clydesdale Bank 40 suffered a blow when their Group A clash with Glamorgan at Hove was washed out.Umpires Peter Willey and Nigel Cowley abandoned the match without a ball bowled after an afternoon of heavy rain and with no prospect of conditions improving.The Sharks stay second, a point behind leaders Somerset, but will have to win their final game and hope results in other groups go their way if they are to sneak into the last four as the best runner-up. Both teams took one point from this washout.

Neither team was a pre-tournament favourite but now they have a chance to make it to the final

Sruthi Ravindranath17-Oct-2024

New Zealand vs West Indies

Sharjah, 6pm local timeNew Zealand squad: Sophie Devine (capt), Suzie Bates, Eden Carson, Isabella Gaze (wk), Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Fran Jonas, Leigh Kasperek, Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Lea TahuhuWest Indies squad: Hayley Matthews (capt), Aaliyah Alleyne, Shamilia Connell, Deandra Dottin, Shemaine Campbelle (wk), Ashmini Munisar, Afy Fletcher, Stafanie Taylor, Chinelle Henry, Chedean Nation, Qiana Joseph, Zaida James, Karishma Ramharack, Mandy Mangru, Nerissa CraftonTournament guide: New Zealand started the tournament with a big win against India. Following a loss against Australia, they went on to win the next two matches, against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, to seal a semi-final spot in a Women’s T20 World Cup for the first time since 2016. West Indies started their campaign with a loss but won their next three games. They knocked out one of the tournament favourites England in their last group-stage match to qualify for the semi-final.News brief: Stafanie Taylor missed the England game with a knee injury. In her absence, Qiana Joseph opened the innings and smashed 52 off 38 balls to give West Indies a memorable win. New Zealand, meanwhile, brought in left-arm spinner Fran Jonas for offspinner Leigh Kasperek for their match against Pakistan. Jonas picked up 1 for 8 in her two overs in a winning cause.West Indies have won just five out of the 23 T20Is they have played against New Zealand. Two of those five wins came in the T20 World Cup, in 2012 and 2016. The 2016 game was also a semi-final, where West Indies defended 143 before going on to beat Australia to lift the trophy.Player to watch: Few can hit the ball as hard as Deandra Dottin, and she has shown that at this World Cup too. She has the highest strike rate (167.30) and most sixes (6) so far in this tournament. Against England, she smashed offspinner Charlie Dean for two sixes and a four in an over. Her quick knocks meant West Indies did not have to worry about their net run rate throughout the group stage.Georgia Plimmer has contributed crucial runs at the top of the order for New Zealand. The 20-year-old scored a 53 off 44 against Sri Lanka to set up the chase. In New Zealand’s opening match, it was her 34 off 23 balls that took India by surprise. With 108 runs from four innings, at a strike rate of 122.72, she is currently New Zealand’s top run-getter in the tournament. Given the average first-innings total in Sharjah in this tournament has been only 119, another quick start from her could be decisive.

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.”

First century of season begins post-Ashes fightback as Afridi’s absence dents table-toppers

Matt Roller12-May-2022Eoin Morgan’s position as the most powerful man in English cricket was further reinforced on Thursday with confirmation that Rob Key’s has decided to appoint Brendon McCullum as the new coach of the men’s Test team.McCullum was the inspiration for England’s white-ball revolution, master of ceremonies at Morgan’s wedding and his coach when he captained KKR to the IPL final last year; they share passions for red wine, horse racing and gambling and while Morgan is not directly involved in the Test side, the influence he has had on English cricket will be clear throughout the Ben Stokes-McCullum era.So it was fitting that on the day McCullum’s appointment was ratified and confirmed publicly, Morgan was back at Lord’s – supposedly for a gym session, though he was seen in conversation with Stuart Broad pre-match and later on the Middlesex balcony catching up with team-mates with the start of the T20 Blast two weeks away.Morgan’s presence meant this was a chance for Nottinghamshire’s batters to make an impression. When Haseeb Hameed threw his head back and raised his bat after clipping Tim Murtagh’s first ball after tea off his pads for four to reach a first hundred of the season, he could feel confident that he had done so.Hameed’s first seven innings of the season had brought a solitary half-century, with several starts but an average of 26.83. His first-innings dismissal against Glamorgan last month appeared to confirm that luck had deserted him: he was run out at the non-striker’s end when James Weighell deflected Ben Slater’s straight drive into the stumps via his boot, sticking out a hopeful left leg as he slid over in his follow-through. This, then, was a welcome return to form at a ground where he made the final hundred of his Lancashire career three years ago.It was not a faultless innings: he played uncharacteristically aggressively early on – perhaps subconsciously changing his method after reading reports of McCullum’s impending appointment – and survived some awkward flirts in the off-stump channel. But his 112 set the game up for Notts against the early pace-setters in Division Two after they had been asked to bat first, reinforcing their well-founded belief that they are the best side outside of the top flight this year. He was well supported by Steven Mullaney, the club captain and one of the more reliable middle-order batters on the circuit, who targeted the short boundary towards the Grand Stand to good effect in his 91 not out.Hameed told ESPNcricinfo in a pre-season interview that he thinks finding a way to “get back up from rock bottom” has been a strength throughout his young career and after a gruelling Ashes tour he needed to do so once again.Eoin Morgan watches on from the Middlesex balcony•Alex Davidson/Getty Images

“It was just a case of trying to keep things simple,” Hameed said of his innings. “I felt like if I continued playing the way I was there would be a big score around the corner. I just had to keep that belief and thankfully I was able to get a decent one on the board today.”The pitch was a little on the slow side but there were a number of play-and-misses throughout the day and a lot of the dismissals were genuine nick-offs, even with an older ball at times like mine. I feel like there’s enough in there for us to take 20 wickets.”Hameed is, at best, an outside bet to play in the first Test of McCullum era, against New Zealand at this ground in three weeks’ time, and was keen to avoid the question of a recall. “I saw there was a decent chance he’d be made coach,” he said. “I know Broady was pretty excited about that appointment but honestly, there hasn’t been too much chat about it. I’m not even looking that far: for me, it’s always been important to keep things very short-term and very simple. That hasn’t changed.”Perhaps the day’s most intriguing innings came from Ben Duckett, who edged Ethan Bamber behind shortly after lunch for 42. He was handed an early life on 4 when Peter Handscomb put down a straightforward chance at first slip off Murtagh, but played brightly, driving confidently through extra cover and working through midwicket off his pads.Duckett is among a number of batters who could fill England’s vacancy at No. 3 and his unshackled approach in first-class cricket – his strike rate this season, 65.42, reflects a calculation that attack is the best option on seam-friendly Trent Bridge pitches – is in sync with McCullum’s preference for positivity. If he misses out on a Test recall, Morgan may well take a look at him in June’s ODI series in the Netherlands.Middlesex were unable to call on their star overseas signing Shaheen Shah Afridi, who has returned home to Pakistan to “rest and spend time with family and friends” before an ODI series against West Indies in a month’s time. He is due to return for the back end of the Blast’s group stages and Middlesex have plenty of fast-bowling depth but his absence is clearly a blow – as it would be to any team in the world.With the notable exception of Toby Roland-Jones, their seamers struggled to keep the scoring rate in check though Bamber, Murtagh and Martin Andersson all threatened at times. But it has been their batting that has been the major point of improvement this season: an attack of Broad, Luke Fletcher and a well-rested James Pattinson will offer a test of their progress at some stage on Friday.