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A round-up of the latest Ranji Trophy news ahead of the fourth round of matches

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Oct-2017Irfan axed as Baroda captainIrfan Pathan has been stripped of the Baroda captaincy following the team’s lackluster showing in the first two rounds of the Ranji Trophy, from which they have a solitary point. Deepak Hooda, the allrounder, has been promoted to lead Baroda, who are currently languishing at the bottom of Group C.Irfan, who has picked up just two wickets in the tournament so far, has also been dropped from the 15-man squad for their third game, against Tripura. Irfan told media outlets he was unsure of the reasons for his exclusion. “I am as fit as ever and there is no issue with my performances and commitment to serve Team Baroda,” he told . “I felt very proud when I was made the captain and was told that I would be the perfect mentor to the youngsters. I have worked hard with the boys for the last couple of months and they are very happy with whatever we have been doing. I really don’t know what has gone wrong after just two games. Had I been told that my services won’t be required before the domestic season started, I would have happily stepped aside. Although I love Baroda and take a lot of pride in representing the team, I might have gone and played for another team.”Snehal Parikh, the Baroda Cricket Association secretary, said the captaincy switch was a collective decision taken by the selectors. “The selectors have categorically said that this team is only for one game,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “They have dropped around four-five players.”Among those dropped is Pinal Shah, the experienced wicketkeeper. Yusuf Pathan will miss the game due to an illness. Kedar Devdhar has been named vice-captain.Rahane, Shardul boost for MumbaiMumbai will be strengthened by the inclusion of Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur, who were on national duty during the ODI series against New Zealand, for their game against Odisha in Bhubaneshwar. Seamer Tushar Deshpande, who picked up 21 wickets last season, has been added to the 16-member squad in place of Minad Manjrekar.Rahane notched up fifty-plus scores in each of his last four ODI innings against Australia, while Thakur has played A-team cricket over the last month.Rahane’s inclusion will be a boost to the batting department in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, who has been called up to the national side for the T20I series against New Zealand. Iyer has been in tremendous form recently, and smashed a 57 and 138 in Mumbai’s last game against Tamil Nadu.Mumbai’s form, however, has been patchy. While they secured the first-innings lead against Madhya Pradesh in the opening game, they dropped points against Tamil Nadu at home. With four points from two games, they are currently fourth in the Group C standings.

An independent assessment on November 1 revealed that the majority of the offspinner’s deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under ICC’s regulations

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Nov-2017Pakistan will once again have to do without the bowling services of Mohammad Hafeez, after he was suspended from bowling in international cricket by the ICC. An independent assessment at Loughborough University found Hafeez’s action to be illegal – the third time in recent years that has been the case.Hafeez, currently the world’s top-ranked ODI allrounder, was reported for a suspect action after the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi last month and underwent his assessment in Loughborough two weeks ago.The assessment, according to an ICC release, revealed that a majority of Hafeez’s deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the ICC’s regulations. Data on Hafeez’s action was captured for four overs’ worth of deliveries – the data that is recorded is only for those deliveries where testers are satisfied that the match action has been replicated in the lab. It is believed that less than half a dozen deliveries were within the 15-degree limit, but that margins he was over by were not as big as, for example, Saeed Ajmal’s when he was suspended a few years ago.That will be of little consolation to Pakistan, for whom the availability of Hafeez’s bowling this year has been a major factor in their resurgence in white-ball cricket. They have risen to the top of the T20 rankings and won the Champions Trophy in June in some part because Hafeez was back bowling – his availability offered Pakistan not only control at one end, but the flexibility to choose a number of attack-minded, wicket-taking options.It leaves Hafeez to ponder over the future of his bowling once again. Under ICC rules, though this is the third time he has been suspended from bowling in three years, he will be able to return to bowling as soon as he has rectified his action and passed another assessment. There is a suggestion, however, that he will give himself as much time as he needs to resolve issues in his action before he applies for a re-assessment. He tweeted after the news of his suspension came out that he will work twice as hard to rectify his action this time.
Hafeez’s action was first reported in November 2014, during a Test series against New Zealand and suspended from bowling in December. By April 2015, he had remodelled his action enough to satisfy another test and he was cleared to bowl again. Just a couple of months later, however, he was reported again during the Galle Test against Sri Lanka. Tests confirmed again that his action was illegal, and because his action had been found illegal twice within a period of 24 months, he was automatically suspended from bowling for 12 months.Though it hasn’t happened before, if a bowler returns and is found to have an illegal action once again after this – as has now happened with Hafeez – he goes back to square one; that is, there is no bar on how soon he can return to bowling provided he has corrected his action and cleared an assessment. In a different time, Hafeez’s action was called in Australia as well – back in 2005 – while just before he was reported in November 2014, he was also reported in a Champions League T20 game in India.One thing in Pakistan’s and Hafeez’s favour is a relatively light international schedule. It will be difficult for Hafeez to start bowling again in time for Pakistan’s next assignment, a limited-overs series in New Zealand in January. There is the possibility of a T20 series against West Indies in Pakistan in March, but otherwise they are not scheduled to play any international cricket until the tour to England in May.In the interim will be the PSL where, according to ICC regulations, he can bowl should the PCB choose to allow it. In the first PSL in 2016, however, when Hafeez was serving a 12-month suspension, the league chose to not allow him to bowl. Hafeez was also expected to fly out to the Bangladesh Premier League on Friday, to play for Comilla Victorians, but is now expected to skip the tournament and instead concentrate on working on his action.

Rohit, who has led Mumbai Indians to three titles in the IPL, will lead India for the first time in the ODI series opener against Sri Lanka in Dharamsala

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Dec-20173:18

‘Idea is to make everyone comfortable’ – Rohit

Rohit Sharma, the most successful captain in the IPL, is set to lead India for the first time after having played 262 internationals. On the eve of the ODI series opener against Sri Lanka in Dharamsala, Rohit – who takes charge for the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka in the absence of the rested Virat Kohli – spoke of the challenges facing him in his new role but banked on his familiarity with his team-mates to help ease the burden.”I think it [leading India] will be a different ball game altogether,” Rohit said. “But the process and the basics of captaincy leading any team will remain the same. These are [a] different set of players to the ones I had in the IPL – this is completely different. But, having played with these guys for quite some time now, I do understand their strengths and weaknesses. So it will be all about going there and executing and making everyone comfortable.”Rohit’s go-to bowler at Mumbai Indians, Jasprit Bumrah, will lead the seam attack alongside Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Rohit acknowledged that Bumrah’s maiden call-up to the Test squad for the upcoming tour of South Africa was a reward for his sparkling performances in limited-overs cricket.”I think it’s a great boost for him [Bumrah] to be part of the Test team,” Rohit said. “I think he was looking forward to it. For a while he has been wanting to be part of the Test team. It’s all the reward for what he has done in the ODI format and T20 format. Over the last year or so, how he has improved himself on his bowling and his fitness as well it is reward for all of those things. It’s a lesson for many cricketers that if you put in the hard yards you will get the result and reward. He has played with me in Mumbai and I have only seen him grow with every game and every series he has played with new strategies and new plans. Good to see he has matured as a bowler now. He understands what he needs to do and what the team expects out of him. And he is very focused and disciplined in terms of his work ethic and that is what is giving results on the field.”BCCI

While India’s bowling attack, which also includes wristspinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, looks settled, the middle order, particularly the No. 4 spot has been a revolving door. Since the 2015 World Cup, India have used 11 different players – the most by any side at No. 4 in this period. Rohit said that the management was keen to offer a longer rope to middle-order aspirants such as Dinesh Karthik, the now-injured Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer, who is uncapped in ODI cricket.”It’s important to give these guys a fair amount of games before they prove themselves,” Rohit said. “It is important that they get a number of games and get confidence. Guys like Manish, Shreyas, and Kedhar and Dinesh haven’t got enough games on the trot. As a team management, we want to make sure whoever gets the opportunity gets ‘n’ number of games continuously and it’s important they need to have a number of games to prove themselves under their belt. Having said that they understand that as well, they need to perform as well, there is a lot of competition in the middle order.”With Kohli rested, this might be Sri Lanka’s best chance to upset India, but Rohit said that the side still had enough depth to respond to pressure. In the ODI series in Sri Lanka, the hosts had reduced India to 131 for 7 in a chase of 237 in the second match and then 61 for 4 in chase of 218 in the third game, but they failed to capitalise on both occasions, and ultimately lost the series 5-0. Rohit expected Sri Lanka to put India under similar pressure but backed his team to overcome it.”You will be put in different situations and it is important how you react to those situations,” Rohit said. “In Sri Lanka, when we were playing, we were put under pressure on few occasions and I think we came out really well and showed a lot character. Here it is no different. We will be put under pressure and we’ve got guys to stand up and respond to those situations.”

Ben Stokes produced a starring all-round performance in his second match back in the England fold to help level the ODI series

The Report by Andrew McGlashan28-Feb-2018
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBen Stokes produced a starring all-round performance in his second match back in the England fold to help level the ODI series. He helped seal a reasonably straightforward chase of 224 with a crisp 63 off 74 balls to follow two sharp run-outs, as part of an outstanding fielding display, and a brace of wickets.Stokes – who could have been run out on nought when Colin de Grandhomme side-footed past the stumps in his follow-through – and captain Eoin Morgan added 88 in 15 overs to break the back of the chase in Mount Maunganui’s first day-night ODI. Stokes, playing increasingly fluently, reached his fifty from 54 balls and gave a muted raise of the bat around the ground, before finishing the task alongside Jos Buttler, who clubbed 36 off 20 balls. They won with more than more than 12 overs to spare.This was a victory set up in the field, by the fielding. Four run outs, equalling England’s most in an innings, and three fine catches keeping the pressure on New Zealand throughout. After defeat in Hamilton, both Morgan and Buttler spoke of needing to sharpen up in the field – this was a stirring response. David Willey set the tone with an over-the-shoulder catch, Jason Roy took two excellent grabs while four out of five run-out chances were taken. Only a ninth-wicket stand of 69 between Mitchell Santner, who made his maiden ODI fifty, and Lockie Ferguson nursed New Zealand over 200.England’s chase did not get off to an ideal start. Roy picked out square leg pulling at Trent Boult, Joe Root fell to the most spectacular catch of the match – de Grandhomme low to his right at short midwicket – and Jonny Bairstow lazily ramped to third.Yet while de Grandhomme’s grab had taken the catching to new heights, two tough chances which escaped New Zealand were costly. Morgan began in ultra-aggressive mode and after three fours and two sixes in the space of 16 balls, on 28, top-edged a pull towards wicketkeeper Tom Latham who couldn’t quite grab the chance, followed on 40 when he clipped what would have been another belting catch to Henry Nicholls at short midwicket.After his early alarm, as Stokes called Morgan through when the ball bobbled by his feet and was left sprawling in the dirt as he dropped his bat diving for the crease, he played himself in then started to unfurl some trademark shots, hammered pulls through midwicket and a crunching straight drive for six off Boult.New Zealand were without their captain, Kane Williamson, due to a hamstring injury and after being put in, their innings followed a similar start to the Hamilton chase three days ago when Colin Munro edged Chris Woakes’ third delivery, attempting another expansive drive before he’d got his eye in. It meant an early walk to the middle for Mark Chapman – in his first ODI for New Zealand having played two for Hong Kong in 2015 – and it was a brief stay when he top-edged Woakes into the leg side where Willey took a well-judged running from inside the circle.Ross Taylor, who later did not field due to a quad injury, was required to rebuild the innings again and started to repair some of the early damage alongside Martin Guptill, although it was slow going. The first 10 overs brought 34 runs and the opening spells of Woakes and Willey were backed up by Rashid who went for just four in his first three overs.The partial recovery was halted by an outstanding piece of work from Willey at backward point as he intercepted Taylor’s cut shot, collected the ball and threw to Buttler, who gathered cleanly low by the stumps to find Taylor well short. Guptill’s fifty came off a sedate 84 balls, his third slowest in ODIs, but he fell three deliveries later when Roy held the first of his excellent catches, a skimming low take at deep midwicket as Guptill tried to put Moeen onto the grass banks.Roy wasn’t finished there, diving full-length to his right at backward to pluck Nicholls’ square cut out of the air in the next over. New Zealand were five down and still short of three figures.Moeen, who found nice drift on a stiff breeze, claimed his second when Latham couldn’t keep a cut shot down and found short third man. Moeen and Adil Rashid combined to bowl their 20 overs for just 65 runs, Rashid’s 0 for 32 his joint-most economical 10-over spell in ODIs.Just as de Grandhomme was building a base for a potential late-overs charge, he chanced a second run to Bairstow’s arm in the deep and lost the race. Even when England fumbled, they recovered as Santner sold Southee short after Stokes initially didn’t gather the ball cleanly at midwicket. England blotted their fielding copybook when Roy couldn’t gather the ball at midwicket – a decent throw would have found Ferguson short.England would have expected to wrap up the innings well within the overs, but Ferguson brought up the fifty stand with a pulled six and Santner raised his half-century with another as Tom Curran went for 19 in the 48th over. Fittingly, the innings was rounded off by Stokes’ strong throw from the deep finding Boult inches short. Briefly, at three down, it looked like there might be a game on, but Morgan and Stokes quickly doused that prospect. It’s all to play for in this series.

The Australia vice-captain also called time on her state career at age 34. She will, however, continue captaining her Women’s Big Bash League side, Sydney Thunder

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Feb-2018Alex Blackwell, the Australia vice-captain, has announced her retirement from international and state cricket at age 34. She will, however, continue captaining her Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) side, Sydney Thunder.The announcement comes a day after Blackwell, Australia’s most-capped international player with 251 international appearances, struck a near run-a-ball 76 for her state team New South Wales in the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL), the domestic 50-overs tournament. A few months ago, in the international arena, Blackwell played an integral role in the multi-format Ashes in October-November, helping the side retain the urn. Her decision means Australia women will be without her experience when they tour India in less than a month from now, for an ODI series and a T20I tri-series featuring the hosts and England.With 13 WNCL titles, and a World T20 win and an Ashes victory as captain under her belt, Blackwell had previously spoken of playing on until the next 2021 World Cup. However, she said she felt good to go out on a high now. “I think it’s really nice to be able to finish at a time when I feel my game has never felt stronger,” Blackwell told Cricket Australia’s website. “I also become increasingly interested and excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, that may require my playing days to wrap up.”[Retirement] probably creeps into your mind well in advance of the moment. The decision to retire was final in this season, I’m happy about that decision and excited about the opportunities again.”Among the many highs of her career, Blackwell felt her most memorable highlights were the low-scoring final that gave Australia their third consecutive World T20 title, and an injured Ellyse Perry’s heroics in the 2013 World Cup final against West Indies.All smiles: Harmanpreet Kaur and Alex Blackwell•PA Images

With an international career spanning almost 15 years, and 5250 runs across formats, taking up coaching or mentoring is a possibility Blackwell said she could consider outside of her WBBL commitments. “I believe I’ll always be involved in cricket in some capacity,” Blackwell said. “To have a career as long as I have, you accumulate many skills and expertise and experiences which you can share. I would hope that’s not lot to the game so my intention would be to still be involved in some capacity.”Blackwell will take the field for NSW one last time on Saturday, in the final against Western Australia at Blacktown, where she’ll be on the cusp of another WNCL title as captain. “We’ve got a big match on Saturday and I let the [NSW] Breakers know my decision last night so we could really enjoy the week,” Blackwell said. “I’m setting myself to enjoy this week and prepare the best I can to help keep the Ruth Preddey Trophy in New South Wales.”Apart from her cricketing accomplishments, including the distinction of being the leading run-scorer for NSW in the WNCL with 4764 runs at 47.17 from 138 matches, Blackwell is regarded as one of the most approachable practioners of the sport by the cricketing fraternity across the world. Known to have often shared her expertise with players from lower-ranked countries, Blackwell’s generosity reaped appreciation across social media after she gifted her jersey to India’s Harmanpreet Kaur, whom she also captains at Sydney Thunder, as a gesture of appreciation for the latter’s 171 not out that knocked Australia out of the World Cup in the semi-final last year.

Andy Hurry offered sympathy for Bancroft’s predicament, but Somerset have fallen into line with Cricket Australia

David Hopps29-Mar-2018Somerset have pulled out of their deal to sign Cameron Bancroft as an overseas player this season in the wake of the global outcry that has followed his involvement in Australia’s ball-tampering calamity.Bancoft has been suspended for nine months in an episode that has also seen captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and, most recently, coach Darren Lehmann all lose their posts. Smith and Warner have also been banned for a year.Somerset’s decision to stand firm with Cricket Australia signals that English counties will not have the audacity to try to snap up any of Australia’s fallen heroes for a prolonged recuperation in county cricket.Although the ECB has given no outspoken guidance on how counties should respond, the official view is that Cricket Australia’s stance should be supported and that support has been guaranteed in high-level discussions between the two Boards. it would seem highly unlikely, in any case, that a No Objection Certificate would be issued.Somerset’s statement was a measured one, determinedly low-key on the sort of moral grandstanding that has characterised much of the debate in recent days and also showing a sensitivity to the position of the player who will no longer be heading to the West Country.Andy Hurry, Somerset’s director of cricket, said: “Over the last few days, cricket has been overshadowed by a very dark cloud. There has been an understandable amount of emotion, deliberation, varying degrees of language and opinions across the game, the public and the various media platforms all associated with the alteration to the condition of the ball by Cameron Bancroft during the Third Test in Cape Town.”Cricket Australia, following their investigations, have offered sanctions to those involved.”We as a club have been monitoring this process closely, alongside gathering as much additional information as we can. I have spoken numerous times to Cameron since last Saturday, he has spoken very maturely, he shared his deep regret and apologised to everyone associated to the club.”It’s important we remember there is a young man at the centre of all this, he made a poor choice, as I and I’m sure many of us have done during our lives. What’s important now, is Cameron is given the appropriate support. There is no doubt in my mind, he will learn from this and he will return stronger.”I have met this morning with the CEO, Club Captain and Head Coach and with the Club’s best interests at the centre of our decision can confirm Cameron Bancroft will not be our overseas player for the 2018 season.”We are currently undertaking the process to recruit a replacement overseas player that best fits our needs and will share an update in due course.”Somerset had announced Bancroft’s signing shortly after his Test debut for Australia – a step up in class for him after his previous county experience in Division Two of the Championship with Gloucestershire.It was a substantial deal, involving the bulk of the Championship and all Royal London One-Day Cup fixtures.The signing illustrated Bancroft’s rising status because his Gloucestershire record had been a modest one, but he had expressed the desire to follow in the footsteps of other acclaimed Australians at Taunton such as Justin Langer. If that opportunity ever comes, it will now be long delayed.

After starting the tournament with three straight wins, Sunrisers are now coming on the back of two losses and may have to field a depleted side

The Preview by Akshay Gopalakrishnan23-Apr-20184:16

Manjrekar: Sunrisers batting looks fragile and over-dependent on Williamson

Big Picture

Mumbai Indians are in an interesting position: they have only one win from five matches but they also have a positive net run rate that’s better than at least three other teams. That means they are primed to do what they do best: beat teams late in the competition and edge them out.

Form guide (most recent matches first)

Mumbai Indians: lost to Rajasthan Royals by three wickets, beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 46 runs, lost to Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets
Sunrisers Hyderabad: lost to Chennai Super Kings by four runs, lost to Kings XI Punjab by 15 runs, beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 15 runs

Mumbai, however, would be justified in believing that their position isn’t an accurate reflection of their performance. In each of their four defeats, they have taken the game to the last over, and their only win, against Royal Challengers Bangalore, was by a huge margin. The less-heralded players – Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Mayank Markande – have been Mumbai’s engine room so far. It’s their gun players – Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, and Hardik Pandya – who have not clicked as often as they would have liked.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Sunrisers Hyderabad cooled off after three successive wins, and now with Bhuvneshwar Kumar ruled out of the next match, and fitness concerns looming over both Shikhar Dhawan and Yusuf Pathan, recuperating from two successive losses won’t be easy. They are the best bowling side of the tournament, and their top order has been belligerent. But familiar woes in the middle order plague them. Manish Pandey, Yusuf and Deepak Hooda have shown no more than patches of form. An over-reliance on the top order is hurting their ability to finish strongly, as characterised by a run rate of 9.17 in the last five overs, which is sixth among the eight teams.

In the news

Bhuvneshwar Kumar did not travel with Sunrisers to Mumbai; ESPNcricinfo understands he has been rested and will be available for their next game. Sandeep Sharma will be a like-for-like replacement. Shikhar Dhawan, who had hurt his left elbow against Kings XI Punjab last week, stated on Twitter with a strapped elbow that it was not a fracture. He went to Wankhede on Monday evening for a hit in the nets and a fitness test, and a final call on him will be taken on Tuesday.Yusuf struggled with cramps while batting on Sunday night and Williamson “wasn’t 100% sure” but hoped Yusuf would be fine by Tuesday evening.

The likely XIs

Mumbai Indians: 1 Suryakumar Yadav, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Rohit Sharma (capt), 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Krunal Pandya, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Mitchell McClenaghan, 9 Mayank Markande, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mustafizur RahmanSunrisers Hyderabad: 1 Shikhar Dhawan/Ricky Bhui, 2 Kane Williamson (capt), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Shakib Al Hasan/Alex Hales, 6 Yusuf Pathan/Bipul Sharma/Sachin Baby, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Billy Stanlake, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Siddarth Kaul

Strategy punt

In order to strengthen their batting, Sunrisers have an option of leaving out Billy Stanlake to bring in Alex Hales, especially if Dhawan does not recover in time. Hales could open in that case; with an average of 33.31 and a scoring rate of 8.60 in the Powerplays in T20s, Hales would be perfect for the job.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Stats that matter

• Sunrisers have bossed Mumbai in recent times, winning four of their last five encounters. Four of those five fixtures have also been won by the team batting second.
• Sunrisers, however, have never prevailed at the Wankhede, where they have lost on each of the three occasions they have played.
• Yusuf Pathan is one run away from completing 3000 career IPL runs.
• In T20s since 2015, Krunal Pandya has struck at 197.1 against legspin, and has lost his wicket only once in 10 innings. He has scord 138 runs off 70 balls during this period. Watch out, Rashid Khan.
• Mumbai have lost 16 wickets in the slog overs this IPL – the joint-highest alongside Rajasthan Royals. And their run rate of 8.88 in this phase is only better than Kings XI Punjab’s.
• Rashid has used the googly to varying success. While he goes at 5.60 per over against right-handers with this delivery and has picked up two wickets, against left-handers, the economy rate shoots up to 16.9.

Fantasy picks

Krunal Pandya has an excellent record at Wankhede. Among current Mumbai players to have bowled 10 overs or more at the venue, Krunal easily has the best economy rate: 6.30. That’s to go with a wicket every 15.9 deliveries, and 207 runs with the bat at a strike rate of 146.8.Shakib, along with Bhuvneshwar, is Sunrisers’ most successful bowler at Wankhede, with six wickets. He also has an economy rate of 6.6 and could also fetch runs in the middle order.

Quotes

“That’s T20 cricket and from our perspective it’s really important not to be to reactive, certainly focus on our plans, go back to those and we know that when we’re achivening those plans and building towards those, that gives ourseleves the best chance to win games.”
.”I think we’ve been in this situation before and I think Mumbai Indians is known to bounce back. So, we won’t lose hope. We’re going to bounce back and we’ll play our best cricket in the matches to come.”

The last time Ian Bell struck two hundreds in a match his England career was about to begin. This time he recognises his international career lies in the past

Jon Culley15-Jun-2018Not so long ago, probably even at this time last season, had Ian Bell walked off a cricket field after scoring one hundred, let alone two in the same match, there would have been one thought only in his mind:Am I going to get the England phone call I’ve been waiting for?This week he did precisely that, supplementing an unbeaten 106 in the first innings of Warwickshire’s Championship match against Glamorgan with 115 not out in the second, hitting the winning boundary for good measure.This time, though, there was no sense of expectation, of anticipation, even of elusive possibility. Quite the opposite.Struggling for form, Bell has not played a Test match since November 2015 but has never followed the lead of others of his vintage by announcing his retirement from Test cricket, insisting always that adding to his 118 caps remained his goal.Yet this time, even after such a notable achievement – he had managed two hundreds in a match only once before – he admitted that finally he has come to terms with his international career being over.What’s more, he feels so much better for it.”Listen, I’m 36 now,” he said. “I think it has probably gone now. I accept that.”These last couple of years have been tough. I probably didn’t deal with not playing for England as well as I could have done.”With England, towards the end, looking back, I wasn’t enjoying training as much. I was in that burnt-out mindset.”When I was out of the side, sometimes I wanted to play, other times I didn’t want to play. There were a lot of things going on in my mind.”His form for Warwickshire suffered, initially in 2016 but more so last summer as the county were relegated. His contribution was a meagre 596 runs at an average of 25.91. It was the poorest season of his career.Vintage Ian Bell as he unfurls a cover drive against New Zealand•Getty Images

He was dropped from the Birmingham Bears team in the NatWest Blast, which hurt him, and ultimately resigned the captaincy of the four-day side, a job he had accepted with great pride, aware that neither his form nor his leadership were helping the team.”It was hard,” he said. “Not getting the runs was difficult. When you are a captain you want to lead from the front so that was the disappointing thing.”It was disappointing to give up the captaincy but in the end it wasn’t that difficult because I wanted to do what was best for the team and remaining as captain was not helping.”He does not say if he considered quitting the game altogether but he knew he had to do something. He struggled through to the end of the season, his first without a first-class century since 2002, with a view then to taking a long break.”I didn’t pick up a bat until after Christmas, which is something I’d never done before,” he said. “I’d not had a winter where I didn’t do anything since I was 16.”I was not in a particularly good place with my batting and there were things I needed to sort out with that, but I just felt I needed to clear my mind.”It did me the world of good. It gave me the chance to think about things and reset my goals and I came back after Christmas feeling really fresh.”I enjoyed training again, had a really good pre-season and I’ve felt good really since the season began.”I know what I want to do, which is to score runs and win as many games as I can with Warwickshire, and to have as many days like this as I can for the rest of this season and the remainder of my career.”I’m contracted here until the end of 2020 and I haven’t made any retirement plans as yet. We have some good players here and I want to help the development of this team. That’s my focus now.”Two centuries from one player in the same match does not happen frequently, even among the very best batsmen. The only time Bell did it previously – the last time any Warwickshire batsman achieved it, in fact – was at Old Trafford in July 2004, against Lancashire, during a season in which he scored six first-class hundreds and amassed more than 1700 runs.As it happens, three weeks later he was called up for his Test debut against the West Indies at The Oval. This time, he chose the moment to accept that a distinguished England career lay in the past.

The apex court ruled that the domestic T20 tournament could proceed as scheduled with players registered under the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association alone

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jul-2018The Tamil Nadu Premier League will progress as scheduled, but without any players from outside the state, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday, the day the domestic T20 league will be starting.The has reported that a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Mishra said the tournament could proceed as per the schedule originally drawn up, but players registered to associations other than the TNCA could take part, as per the rules laid down the CoA. While Ranjit Kumar, the advocate for TNCA, argued that players had obtained NoCs from their respective state associations, Parag Tripathi, the CoA’s advocate, held that outstation players weren’t allowed as per the BCCI’s constitution.The TNPL organisers had mooted allowing each of the franchises to have up to two outstation players, which would have made for a total of 16 outstation players at most. The BCCI had held an SGM – which was later ruled invalid by the CoA – in which the members proposed allowing outstation players to take part in domestic T20 leagues with certain restrictions (capped players and those who had taken part in the previous edition of the IPL wouldn’t be allowed, and each player could only take part in two leagues).However, in an advisory sent to all state associations, the CoA nixed the idea. The TNCA then challenged that order, which is how the matter went before the Supreme Court.

A five-wicket haul for Deepak Chahar limited West Indies A to a total of 221 before Mayank Agarwal’s century underpinned the chase

Jon Culley at Grace Road25-Jun-2018
ScorecardGrace Road had a preview of the batting strength in this India A side last week when they blazed their way to 458 for 4 in a 50-over match against a Leicestershire team, albeit one that bore very little resemblance to the first XI.It was the second-highest List A total in the history of limited-overs cricket, at least for a few hours (bizarrely, it was overtaken the same afternoon when England ran amok against Australia, just up the road in Nottingham). Regardless of the inexperience of the opposition, it was quite an achievement.No feat of that nature was needed on their return to the Leicester ground, where they overhauled a modest West Indies A total with almost 12 overs to spare to register their first points in the tri-series with England Lions, who beat both on consecutive days at Derby last week and take on India A for a second time on this ground on Tuesday.The chief architects of the seven-wicket victory were the seam bowler Deepak Chahar, who took 5 for 27 as the West Indies side were dismissed for 221, and Mayank Agarwal, their opening batsman, who added an elegantly constructed 112 to the unbeaten 151 he made here last week.The Kings XI Punjab batsman, at 27 one of the senior players in a young Indian team, completed his 10th List A hundred from 88 deliveries, having just hit the mountainous 6ft 5in offspinner Rahkeem Cornwall for a towering six into the car park at the Bennett End, extending his boundary count to 11 fours and two sixes before he was caught at mid-on off the pacy left-armer Dominic Drakes.The 18-year-old Shubman Gill, who with opener Prithvi Shaw was a member of the India team that won the Under-19 World Cup in February, was next-highest scorer with an unbeaten 57 after being dropped on 8.It was a disappointing effort by the West Indians, who have brought an experienced group of players and, having beaten the Lions in a three-match series at home earlier in the year would have hoped to do better than lose both their opening two fixtures.They won the toss and chose to bat first under a cloudless sky but made a poor start by losing the key wicket of Jermaine Blackwood to only the third ball of the innings.Caught at slip off a needlessly extravagant stroke outside off stump, Blackwood was the first of right-arm seamer Chahar’s five victims on the way to his best figures in List A cricket.He is the bowler who burst upon the scene eight years ago with figures of 8 for 10 on first-class debut in a match in which Rajasthan bowled out Hyderabad for 21.Regular injury setbacks have not helped but his career since but he now seems to be on an upwards path. He was the leading wicket-taker in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 competition this year as Rajasthan reached the final, after which he was picked up by Chennai Super Kings for the IPL. This is his maiden India A tour and he has 11 wickets in four matches thus far.He also produced good late movement to have Andre McCarthy caught behind in his opening spell and returned to break a building partnership between Rovman Powell and Devon Thomas, the wicketkeeper, whose unbeaten 64 – the best moment of which was a slog-sweep for six off spinner Krunal Pandya that threatened the windows in The Meet – was the only half-century of the innings.Thomas apart, Chandrapaul Hemraj, who had survived a difficult chance to slip on 15, was the most impressive of the West Indian batsmen and his run-out on 45, thanks to a superb piece of fielding by Gill, was a key moment in the innings.