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Joe Leach claims six wickets, making him the highest wicket-taker in Division Two

ECB Reporters Network11-Jun-2023Sussex gave spectators free admission to the opening day of their LV= County Championship match against Worcestershire – and what a day they had. They saw Sussex recover from 142 for 6 to reach 338 for 9 thanks to some late-order hitting from first Nathan McAndrew and then Jack Carson and Henry Shipley, the last two putting on 85 for the ninth wicket, the biggest stand of the innings.At tea, when Sussex were 205 for 7, honours looked appropriately even at the 1st Central County Ground for the second and third placed counties in division two. And it was fitting that Sussex (second) were on top of Worcestershire when bad light drove the players from the field with eight overs remaining.The first, intense session brought some old-fashioned county cricket, with Sussex reaching lunch on 81 for 3 from 30 overs, at a run-rate of 2.70.Worcestershire had chosen to bowl on a humid, sticky morning and the green tinge to the pitch might also have influenced their choice; whether they would have made the same decision had Cheteshwar Pujara and Steve Smith been batting for Sussex, as they were at Worcester last month, is another matter.It was a very testing two hours and the Worcestershire fast bowlers made the batters play at almost every delivery. The best of them, not for the first time, was the bald and bustling figure of Joe Leach, who bowled with thoughtful aggression, round the wicket and over, wide on the crease and close to the stumps.He broke through with the last ball of the opening over, which Tom Clark edged to Jake Libby at fourth slip. His fellow opener, Tom Haines, battled for just under an hour for his nine runs before he edged Leach to wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick and Sussex were 28 for 2 in the 14th over.Tom Alsop (left-handed Toms make up the first three in the Sussex line-up) battled as obdurately as Haines. But his innings of 71 minutes and 56 deliveries ended on 19, when he got one from Leach which straightened off the pitch for Jack Haynes to take the edge at second slip.The Sussex batters looked a little more confident in the last few overs before the interval, after Leach had left the attack, and they carried that impetus into the afternoon session. James Coles and Oli Carter struck a flurry of boundaries but then the impressive and fluent Coles fell to a soft dismissal, with an uppercut off Adam Finch to Leach at third man. Finch had just been warned for running on the pitch. Then, one run later, Danial Ibrahim, edged to second slip for a seven-ball duck and Sussex were 120 for 5.That became 142 for six when Fynn Hudson-Prentice edged to Roderick who dropped the catch but then caught it at the second attempt just before it hit the ground. There was a hesitation and a meeting of umpires before the batter departed and Leach had his 17th five-wicket haul.Carter and McAndrew decided to counter-attack their way out of trouble and this approach brought 59 runs in 14 overs before Carter slapped a short one from Matthew Waite to backward-point. But he had hit 11 fours in his 132-ball 76.McAndrew went on to hit 65 from 68 balls, with a dozen fours. But it was the partnership that followed that won the day for Sussex, forcing Worcestershire to take the new ball without Adam Finch, who was taken out of the attack after running on the pitch.Carson made an unbeaten 60 but the real bonus for Sussex was the effort from New Zealander Henry Shipley, making his first-class debut for the county. Shipley was brought in to bolster the county’s fast bowling options but struck a fluent 41, with six fours and a six. He finally gave the heroic Leach his sixth wicket, making him the highest wicket-taker in the division.

He had left the PSL just over a week ago, citing bubble fatigue as the main reason for his withdrawal

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Feb-2022Alex Hales will make a surprise return to the PSL to help an injury-battered Islamabad United progress to the final of the seventh season.United are due to take on Peshawar Zalmi in the first eliminator at Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday, a game Hales is now expected to be available for. His return will be a massive boost to the two-time champions, who have been hit especially hard by injuries and absences this season.Hales had left the PSL just over a week ago, citing bubble fatigue as the main reason for his withdrawal. But a couple of amendments to the existing health and safety protocols, approved today, have allowed Hales to return and play immediately without the need to isolate beforehand once he arrives. Hales will have to clear a Covid-19 test on arrival.The amendment means that at this late stage teams can bring in players and make them play the day of their arrival. They will, however, be kept apart from the team as much as possible, including not having access to the team’s dressing room, staying in a separate area of the hotel and traveling in a separate car to the stadium.The other amendment has been to cut the isolation period for asymptomatic cases from seven to five days – with a negative rapid antigen test required to exit isolation. A number of members of the Zalmi and Multan Sultans squad have tested positive in the last couple of days, including Tim David. This tweak allows some room for positive cases – depending on when they tested positive – to return should their teams make the final on Sunday.According to the PCB, “the amendments were presented and unanimously approved by the six franchises this afternoon and were run past the Medical Advisory Panel before being introduced.”United, though, will be happiest, given how crucial Hales was to their fortunes this season. Despite not playing three games, Hales is United’s top-scorer this season, averaging over 40 at a strike rate of 156.44. Along with Paul Stirling – who had to leave for national duty with Ireland – his starts meant United were among the highest-scoring sides in the Powerplay earlier in the season.But Hales’ abrupt departure was part of a string of changes to what would’ve been their first-choice XI; Stirling and Rahmanullah Gurbaz both had to leave for international duty; Shadab Khan, the captain, has been injured; Colin Munro is injured; Zeeshan Zameer, their promising young fast bowler, is also out for the season. That has impacted United’s performances, the franchise stuttering into the playoffs with three defeats in their last four games (the last two especially comprehensive). Even with a close-to-full strength side early on though United had won three and lost three of their first six games.There is cautious optimism within United that Shadab might be fit to play in the first eliminator against Zalmi. Given the season he – and Hales – have had, they will be very welcome returns.

Pandey and Shankar resurrected Sunrisers’ innings after Warner and Bairstow were sent back early by Archer

Hemant Brar22-Oct-20201:01

Dasgupta: Batting at No. 3 gives Pandey time to build his innings

Manish Pandey’s counter-attacking 83 not out off 47 balls, studded with four fours and eight sixes, nullified Jofra Archer’s opening burst in the second innings as the Sunrisers Hyderabad beat the Rajasthan Royals by eight wickets in Dubai. The win – their first in five attempts while chasing in IPL 2020 – lifted them to the fifth spot on the points table. While the Royals too have eight points, they have played 11 games to the Sunrisers’ ten, with their negative net run rate further reducing their playoff chances.After being put in, the Royals struggled to get going and could manage only 154 for 6, the lowest first-innings total by any team in Dubai this season. A big reason for that was Jason Holder, who came in for the injured Kane Williamson and picked up a three-wicket haul.The Sunrisers didn’t have a great start to their chase either. Archer sent back David Warner and Jonny Bairstow by the third over but those turned out to be the only two wickets the Royals managed in the whole game as Pandey and Vijay Shankar – who struck an unbeaten 51-ball 52 – added an unbeaten 140 for the third wicket and took the side home with 11 balls to spare.Uthappa run-out breaks Royals’ momentumAfter managing only nine in the first two overs, the Royals looked to step up with Robin Uthappa hitting Sandeep Sharma for a six and a four in the third over, but his innings was cut short by a brilliant piece of fielding. Ben Stokes looked to dab Jason Holder on the off side but the ball hardly went off the square. Uthappa was keen for a quick single and charged towards the other end with Stokes barely moving. Holder was quick to the ball and nailed the direct hit at the bowler’s end to find Uthappa short.Sanju Samson though hit Sandeep Sharma for successive cover-driven fours to keep the Royals ticking. It looked like it was going to be his night, especially when he pulled Holder over deep midwicket for a six in 12th over but Holder cleaned him up next ball with an offcutter for a 26-ball 36.Stokes fails to cash in on early luckStokes was 13 off 11 balls at the end of the fifth over and was trying to break free. One such attempt against Shankar fell just short of the deep-backward square leg. Two overs later, he tried a reverse sweep against Rashid Khan that bounced in front of deep backward point. On the last ball of the same over, Shankar put him down while running to his right from deep square leg. Stokes, though, failed to utilise those chances and was finally bowled for a 32-ball 30 by Khan.Jason Holder celebrates after foxing Sanju Samson with a slower one•BCCI

Holder’s strikes keep Royals in checkRoyals were looking at Jos Buttler to provide impetus to the innings but once he fell for 9 off 12, Steven Smith looked to take charge. But he soon holed out to long-on off Holder, while trying to dig out a full delivery. Riyan Parag, who had hit T Natarajan for 4, 6, 4 in the previous over, then mistimed a slower short ball to a back-pedalling Warner at mid-off to give Holder his first three-wicket haul in T20s since 2015. It took a four and a six from Archer in the 20th over pushed the Royals past 150.Archer gets Warner and BairstowBefore this game, Archer had dismissed Warner five times in six innings across formats in 2020 while leaking only 28 runs off 41 balls. On Thursday, Warner lasted only four balls against the pacer. After beating him on the first two balls of the innings, Archer drew an outside edge that flew over Rahul Tewatia at first slip. Next ball Archer found the outside edge once again. This time the ball flew knee high to the left of Stokes at second slip, who dived full length to complete the catch.Bairstow too had no answer to Archer’s pace as a 149kph length ball found its way through the gap between bat and pad to leave the Sunrisers 16 for 2 at the end of three overs.Pandey’s counter-attack nullifies early impactWith no Williamson in the side and doubts over the Sunrisers’ middle order, there was a case for Archer to bowl a third over in the powerplay but the Royals decided against this. That allowed Pandey to counter-attack to pull the Sunrisers out of the trouble. He was one off five balls before he hit Kartik Tyagi for consecutive fours. Stokes replaced Archer from the other end but he too wasn’t spared. A half-volley on the leg stump was whipped over deep square leg. When Stokes tried a bouncer, Pandey pulled him over deep midwicket off the front foot.Tyagi came in for more punishment in the next over as Pandey struck a four and two sixes to take the Sunrisers to 58 for 2 at the end of the powerplay. By the end of the ninth over, Pandey had brought up his fifty, off just 28 balls.Shankar proves to be the perfect foilEarlier in the day, Shankar had registered figures of 1 for 15 from his three overs. With the bat, his 10 off 18 at the halfway stage in the chase looked unattractive, but with Pandey striking at a much higher rate at the other end, his job was to just stay with him.Back-to-back inside-out fours over cover off Shreyas Gopal helped Shankar turn things around. So much so that when Smith brought Archer on for his fourth over – the 16th of the innings – Shankar hit his first three balls over mid-off, over mid-on and over the bowler’s head for a hat-trick of fours. Pandey collected two more sixes in the next two overs before Shankar sealed the game with a pulled four off Tyagi in the 19th over.

Kent’s openers put on 188 to set up victory after Essex had stuttered to 270 for 9 in their 50 overs

ECB Reporters Network05-May-2019Daniel Bell-Drummond hit an unbeaten 120 to help steer Kent to Royal London One-Day Cup victory over Essex by six wickets in Beckenham. Man-of-the-match Bell-Drummond followed a canny bowling spell of 2 for 36 with his sixth List A hundred from 107 balls and with 12 fours as Kent romped to their second successive South Group success.Having seen Essex make a watchful start to their innings total of 271 for 9, Kent’s openers Bell-Drummond and Zak Crawley set off with intent to post 61 during the batting Powerplay. The main aggressor, Bell-Drummond, reached 50 from 39 balls and with 10 fours as the Spitfires pair reached their century stand in the 16th over.Essex turned to spin at both ends but the Kent openers ploughed on regardless as Crawley’s 50 came up off 57 balls with six fours as the pair overtook 180, Kent’s previous best List A opening stand against Essex, set by Mark Benson and Trevor Ward at Canterbury in 1988.After a stand of 188 Crawley fell six shy of his hundred, leg before when working across one from Ravi Bopara, then Matt Renshaw followed in similar fashion with the home score on 202.Heino Kuhn was bowled by Matt Coles, the former Kent allrounder, who then had Adam Rouse caught at extra cover, leaving Bell-Drummond and Alex Blake to polish the job off with 20 balls to spare.Batting first on a bitterly cold day, Essex were forced to adjust their initial aspirations by a slightly two-paced pitch that assisted both spin and seam bowling early on. Kent made their first breakthrough in the third over when Varun Chopra tossed away his own wicket. Walking outside off to aim a wristy flick through midwicket, he skied a catch off Harry Podmore to cover point.Former England skipper Alastair Cook and Tom Westley regrouped with a watchful second-wicket stand worth 97. Westley sprinted to a 51-ball 50 – his fourth of the tournament, with six fours and a six – while Cook played within himself to contribute only 18 during his first hour at the crease.Cook upped his tempo with a flurry of fours off Fred Klaassen and Renshaw leading to the introduction of Bell-Drummond at the City End, who struck with his third ball by trapping Westley leg before for 58 as the right-hander worked across a straight one.The Eagles reached 125 for 2 by the mid-point as Cook marched to a 60-ball half-century with five fours. But three runs on Cook’s checked drive to a Podmore slower ball sailed to mid-off where Renshaw took an athletic, overhead catch on the run to spark a collapse of four wickets in 41 balls.Dan Lawrence pulled a Matt Milnes bouncer low to Crawley at midwicket. Then, in the next over, Ravi Bopara’s top-edged sweep against Imran Qayyum was easily gathered at short fine-leg. Qayyum removed Rishi Patel to finish with 2 for 37 when Renshaw held another steepler low down at long-on and Robbie White’s miscued pull sailed to backward square-leg to give Bell-Drummond his second scalp.Simon Harmer was caught behind off a top-edged pull but Coles scored a useful 34 before holing out to cow corer to give Milnes somewhat flattering figures of 3 for 60 as Essex successfully batted out their overs.

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.

The South Africa Invitational XI finished the day 88 runs behind Sri Lankans’ first innings score of 373 after Leus du Plooy struck 142

Andrew Fidel Fernando19-Dec-2016
ScorecardFile photo – Angelo Mathews returned from injury to finish with figures of 2 for 25•Getty Images

Lahiru Kumara, Sri Lanka’s 19-year-old seamer, boosted his chances of playing the first Test in Port Elizabeth by claiming three wickets on day two of the practice match at Potchefstroom. Dushmantha Chameera, meanwhile, went wicketless and proved expensive, conceding 68 runs from his 10 overs. The Sri Lankans had the South African Invitation XI 285 for 8 by stumps. The visitors had made 373 in the first innings.Kumara may not have been in the likely XI for the Port Elizabeth match after taking only three wickets across two Tests in Zimbabwe. However, team management may consider him on the basis of form. Among his three wickets was the scalp of Leus du Plooy, who top scored for the Invitation XI with 142 off 159 deliveries. He also claimed the scalps of allrounders Jason Smith and Bjorn Fortuin, with the latter caught behind.Dinesh Chandimal wore the gloves for the Sri Lankans, having now sufficiently recovered from the broken hand he sustained in September. Chandimal took three catches and effected a stumping off Dilruwan Perera’s bowling.The seam attack appears Sri Lanka’s shakiest discipline heading into the Tests, and, among the other frontline quicks, only Nuwan Pradeep was able to take a wicket, removing the highly-rated Aiden Markram to end the day with figures of 1 for 37.Suranga Lakmal also went wicketless, but it is Chameera’s form Sri Lanka will be most concerned about, as he is the only bowler capable of consistently bowling at speeds in excess of 140 kph. Before Sri Lanka left the island, Chameera had made a modest return to competitive cricket, taking 2 for 76 in a first-class game, though that had been on a spin-friendly pitch.The visitors will be buoyed, however, by a successful return to bowling from Angelo Mathews. Having been laid low by multiple leg injuries in recent months, Mathews took 2 for 15 from his seven overs. Dilruwan Perera also took two scalps for 22, but is unlikely to play in Port Elizabeth over Rangana Herath.Earlier in the day, Dhananjaya de Silva had managed to add only five runs to his overnight score, as he and Upul Tharanga were dismissed by seamer Duanne Olivier.Sri Lanka remain 88 runs ahead in the innings, with Tuesday being the final day of play.

Australia’s coach and selector Darren Lehmann has justified the recall of Shaun Marsh ahead of other worthy candidates on the basis that he had nearly been chosen ahead of Usman Khawaja in the first place

Daniel Brettig18-Nov-20151:23

‘Shaun’s contributed more recently in Tests’ – Lehmann

Australia’s coach and selector Darren Lehmann has justified the recall of Shaun Marsh ahead of other worthy candidates on the basis that he had nearly been chosen ahead of Usman Khawaja in the first place.While Marsh has enjoyed only a middling Sheffield Shield return this season, Lehmann said that his standing as a player near the head of the queue for places in the Australian batting order had not changed, and the panel still felt he was a better option than others such as Michael Klinger and Glenn Maxwell for the middle-order spot available in Adelaide.Marsh’s continued selection has drawn wide criticism from the public, and various explanations given by the selection panel in recent times such as Klinger’s inferior record to Khawaja and Joe Burns do not stand up in this case. However there remains a strong sense among the selectors that Marsh’s talent is worth persevering with for occasional gems like his century against South Africa at Centurion last year.”He was very close in the first Test selection,” Lehmann said. “It was touch and go with Uzzy and Shaun Marsh. And he played really well for us last summer, he got 99 in Melbourne and a got a couple of 50s in Sydney. We thought he played quite well in the West Indies when he got his chance as well. He gets another chance to have a crack at Test cricket. He got some runs in Melbourne, which was pleasing to see. He gets first crack.”Incumbency is a factor in Australian cricket, not only within teams but within squads. Marsh is familiar to all members of the national team, was chosen in the squads for Australia’s most recent Test tours – including the postponed trip to Bangladesh – and has those memories in his favour ahead of Klinger in particular, who has never been chosen in an Australian senior squad in any format.”I think he’s younger than [Adam] Voges isn’t he? So age doesn’t go against him. There’s been a lot of speculation, he’s made a lot of runs,” Lehmann said of Klinger. “At the end of the day Shaun Marsh is more recent in Test match cricket and has made a contribution, so that’s the way we decided to go.”Shaun’s proven as in he’s made some runs and contributions. He’ll still want to prove himself again. I still remember that great hundred he got against South Africa at Centurion. So as a selection panel it was tight for all those guys when you’ve got to pick a batter.”Maxwell’s claims were enhanced by an innings of 98 against Marsh’s Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield match at the MCG, but Lehmann spoke mainly of the allrounder’s offspin being too similar to Nathan Lyon, with Steve O’Keefe preferred as a second slow bowling option. Currently batting at No. 6 in the Shield team, Maxwell may need a promotion into the top four to be in better contention.”You’ve got to work out which way you want to go on a particular wicket,” Lehmann said. “I suppose if you were playing two spinners you’d think he’d come into calculations, but with Nathan bowling so well in offspin it’s probably not the way we’re going to go [to have another offspinner] over there. All you can do is put performances on the board. We’re always looking at those guys who have done really well.”Khawaja has already commenced his rehabilitation from a hamstring strain, and will be aiming to be fit in time for the Boxing Day Test against West Indies in Melbourne. Lehmann indicated that the selectors wanted Khawaja to demonstrate his fitness with match-play before he returned to the Test team, meaning once again that the summer schedule will be an obstacle – only the BBL will be available by the time Khawaja is expected to be ready.”You’d hope so with his two hundreds,” Lehmann said when asked whether Khawaja would come straight back in. “But having said that we still want him to play some cricket. He’s got to get fit and strong and faster first and make sure we don’t have another injury.”He’s had some injuries over the last 12-18 months, now he’s got to get back to full fitness and we want him to play some cricket before he comes under selection [consideration] again. We’ve got no Shield game so it probably does have to be Big Bash.”Australia’s inclusion of James Pattinson and O’Keefe, plus the presence of Peter Siddle, affords the selectors plenty of options in lieu of the heavy workloads placed on Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, who both bowled more overs in the Perth Test than they ever had previously.”They’re all a bit sore, so we’ll wait until we get to Adelaide [to make a decision],” Lehmann said. “We’ve got four days off now and we’ll sum that up in the next couple of days.”

When someone next decries the worth of county cricket, it should offer this day as a snapshot of its virtues. As if sun, deckchairs and a five-day beer festival weren’t enough, there was also the cricket at Hove to be enjoyed

Tim Wigmore at Hove01-May-2013
ScorecardVarun Chopra matched the class of Jonathan Trott•Getty Images

When someone next decries the worth of county cricket, it should offer this day as a snapshot of its virtues. As if sun, deckchairs and a five-day beer festival weren’t enough, there was also the cricket at Hove to be enjoyed, featuring an England spinner with 164 Test wickets against two of the most reassuring sights in England’s Test batting line-up – and another man who might, in time, join them there.Jonathan Trott is often depicted as a dour Mr Dependable, but his unbeaten 87 included several shots that, had they come from any other bat, would have elicited purrs. A respectable off-stump delivery from Andrew Miller was emphatically dispatched over long on for six; the next ball, a refined late cut went to the boundary too. It was not a sight that Sussex’s skipper Ed Joyce, who had shelled a hard, but eminently catchable, chance in the slips when Trott had 1, would have relished.Trott had a familiar ally in a 131-run stand with Ian Bell, who was captaining Warwickshire in place of Jim Troughton, missing with a shoulder injury. Grown men may still have nightmares about Bell’s shot first ball in Ahmedabad – caught at mid-off attempting to harrumph the ball out of the ground – but it would seem that Bell is not one of them: he shimmied down the wicket to his seventh ball, from Chris Nash’s offspin and lofted him over mid-on for four. There were a few further examples of graceful footwork later against Monty Panesar.While Bell and Trott are two Test batsmen of the highest order, it was to Varun Chopra’s great credit that he looked barely less assured at the crease. Playing attractively, especially on the offside, it was a matter of considerable surprise when Chopra fell for 87 attempting to cut Chris Nash’s useful offspin, and was so denied a century to go with his match-saving effort at Taunton last week. But he had still made his mark, becoming the first man to pass 500 runs for the season, and must have eyes on the batting Holy Grail of a thousand before the end of May.Nick Compton, the man who almost passed that landmark last season, is now an established Test player, and it looks eminently possible that Chopra, 25, will become one too: an extra cover drive off Panesar was timed with the crispness one would associate with an international player. There are legitimate questions over whether elements of Chopra’s game – principally his tendency to play with his bat away from his body and occasional dalliances with driving uppishly – would be a hindrance at Test level, but if he continues to score with such proficiency an opportunity will be forthcoming.While a knee injury cost Sussex their premier fast bowler, Australian Steve Magoffin, Chopra still had to encounter a highly disciplined attack: even on a flat track in near-perfect batting conditions, Sussex limited Warwickshire to under three runs an over.Panesar was typically probing but endured a disappointing day, seldom threatening his England team-mates and, attempting to find the rough outside legstump, even delivering two leg side wides in one over. He has now claimed only one wicket for 238 runs so far this season.That Sussex ended on near-parity, despite the serenity with which England’s Test batsmen played, owed to Chris Jordan. Jordan may have begun his Sussex career with 6 for 48 at Leeds but, if anything, he was even more admirable here, consistently hostile throughout the day. A fiery spell with the second new ball earned the rare distinction of claiming Bell fending off a short ball and he promptly claimed nightwatchman Chris Wright too. Bell later said “it’s certainly a different game if you hit the pitch that bit harder”, suggesting that Warwickshire intend to replicate the method that earned Jordan his success.Jordan should have had another wicket, too, but Mike Yardy shelled Tim Ambrose in the slips in the day’s final over. No one begrudged him a quick visit to the beer festival after play.

Durham MCCU have been bowled out for 18, the lowest innings total in first-class cricket anywhere in the world since 1983

George Dobell08-Apr-2012Durham MCCU have been bowled out for 18, the lowest innings total in first-class cricket anywhere in the world since 1983. It equals the tenth lowest score in first-class cricket since 1900.In a scoreline that will renew the debate over whether such encounters should retain their first-class status, Durham UCCE, missing the injured allrounder Luke Blackaby, were bowled out by Durham in just 101 deliveries. Having been set an improbable 392 to win, it meant the students lost by 373 runs.The entire game was something of a mismatch. Durham MCCU had been 18 for 6 in their first innings before a late rally lifted them to 117, while Durham declared in both their innings. Ben Stokes, the allrounder who made his debut in England’s limited-overs teams last summer, claimed four wickets for three runs in Durham MCCU’s second innings as the students collapsed from 15 for 3 to 18 all out.”It’s the worst day we’ve ever had,” Graeme Fowler, the Durham MCCU coach and former England opening batsman told ESPNcricinfo afterwards. “It was dreadful. But, while we’ve had a nightmare, I hope people remember the good we do for the game. You know Michael Schumacher has the odd car crash: he’s still a pretty good driver.”Don’t get me wrong: we were not good enough today. The pitch couldn’t have been designed to help the Durham attack any more than it did – the ball was moving all over the place – but we played some soft cricket and the guys have left under no illusions that they have not performed well enough. They are mortified by their performance.”Durham MCCU has an outstanding record of producing cricketers. Their former graduates include Andrew Strauss, James Foster, Ben Hutton and Will Smith and, since their formation in 1997, 53 players have passed through their system and into the professional county game.Nor are they funded by the ECB. Instead the six MCCU sides – Oxford, Cambridge, Loughborough, Durham, Cardiff and Leeds/Bradford – are funded by the MCC, with each receiving around £75,000 per year. Around 20% of current England-qualified county cricketers have passed through one of the six centres of excellence, with Durham accounting for 8% of them.”At the time we started, I never thought we should have been given first-class status,” Fowler admitted. “It just seemed like we were producing a rod for our own back to judge us by first-class results. That is not really what we are about. I wanted us to play against the counties – that is important – but I didn’t see why those games had to be defined as first-class.”There was already debate about whether Oxford and Cambridge should have first-class status but then they added us to the list and last winter they added Leeds/Bradford and Cardiff, too. I’m not convinced that is the right approach.”The problem is that if we lose the first-class status we may well lose the funding, too. I just hope that, because of one nightmare performance, people don’t forget all the good things we have done for England cricket. Give us half a chance and we’ll keep producing players, really good players, and we’ll do it on a pretty small budget. Days like this don’t help but they shouldn’t obscure the bigger picture.”

Craig McDermott has pipped his old pace rival Allan Donald and the little-known Allister de Winter to become Australia’s pace bowling coach, replacing Troy Cooley

Daniel Brettig12-May-2011Craig McDermott pipped his old pace rival Allan Donald to be the man charged with shepherding Australia’s pace bowlers after they slipped to innocuous depths during the Ashes. The appointment of Troy Cooley’s replacement was announced in Brisbane on Thursday after Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s head of cricket operations, had completed his final round of interviews.”It’s great to be back as part of the Australian team set-up again and I can’t wait to get started working with the bowlers and the rest of the team,” McDermott said. “We’ve got some challenging tours ahead in the coming months but I’m excited at the opportunity to be part of the group that helps get Australia back to number one in all forms of cricket.”McDermott wasted little time identifying the potentially explosive but more often wayward Mitchell Johnson as a key to the Australian team’s fortunes. Johnson maintained a very close relationship with Cooley, but the countless hours they spent together did not always result in fruitful spells on the field.”I thought Mitchell had his head in a really good space in Bangladesh,” McDermott said. “If he can get it together he’s like no other bowler we’ve got in the country. His arm speed is phenomenal and when he gets it right, he’s unplayable. He was working on a couple of things in Bangladesh and if he gets it right he will bowl well and he’ll be around for a long time.”In the 15 years since his retirement from international cricket in 1996, McDermott has tried various pursuits, not all of them successful. But in recent times he had worked as a pace bowling coach at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, and was taken to Bangladesh as interim pace bowling coach for Australia’s short tour in April, where he gelled successfully with the players.”Not everything is a quick fix. It’s a long-term thing. Certainly I’d like to put an emphasis on that part of our bowling,” McDermott said of encouraging Australia’s bowlers to pursue a fuller length. “If you pitch it up you’re a much better chance of getting lbws, caught behinds and clean bowleds.”We’ve got more than enough (bowling) depth for Australia to be top in all three forms of the game. It’s a challenging time but I enjoy a challenge.”McDermott was chosen out of an initial field that included Jason Gillespie and Andy Bichel in addition to Donald and the little-known Allister de Winter, with his previous involvement in the Australian system a major selling point. A long and successful Test career, in which he took 291 wickets across 71 matches and excelled in a wide variety of conditions, also helped.”His impressive record as an international player, during which he successfully overcame a number of setbacks, combined with his recent record at the Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence and with the Australia team in Bangladesh, all impressed us that he was the outstanding candidate for this role,” said Brown. “He will provide valuable support to the new Test Captain, Michael Clarke, coach Tim Nielsen, and the playing group.”Justin Langer, retained as batting coach the same day McDermott was appointed, quantified the Queenslander’s value.”He had an unbelievable work ethic when he played,” Langer told . “He played in an era with some great players and also a tough era. He went through the AB times and the Bobby Simpson times. That experience will be invaluable.”I think he’ll also bring quite a worldliness to the group, because he obviously went away from the cricket scene for some time and had varying degrees of fortune in his business life. He’ll bring that worldliness to the group, which I think is pretty invaluable in this day and age.”Often young professionals now, they gain this change-room existence where they come in and they become professional cricketers and all they really get to know is the change-room and their team-mates. I think any outside sources or influences who can talk to them about life after cricket and about being a good person off the field, or the different challenges that come with being a professional cricketer and the rewards that come with that, will be valuable.”Donald is now likely to remain with New Zealand where he had begun a fruitful relationship with the national side during the World Cup, while de Winter will go back to preparing the Tasmanian pace attack for their tilt at defending the Sheffield Shield title.