Craig Overton stirred to excellent effect and the result was a Somerset victory that lifted them from despond and left Yorkshire deep in moody self-analysis

Paul Edwards at North Marine Road06-Jul-2017
ScorecardThe warnings were there for Somerset in their first match of the season, slightly less than three months ago, when they began their Division One campaign with an eight-wicket home defeat to Essex, new to the rigours of First Division life. Their situation became graver by the week as they remained stuck at the foot of Division One and their young captain, Tom Abell, stood down from the side because of a loss of form.Finally, at Scarborough, at the eighth time of asking, and with a new captain at the helm, Somerset’s cricketers ended their torment in 2017 with a 179-run victory over the once highly-fancied Yorkshire at Scarborough.”It’s been a tough year, and there’s been some tough words,” said Gregory as Somerset prepared for a long trek home in happy frame of mind. “It’s brilliant to get that first win on the board, and to put in a performance like that is very special. I think I’ll call it quits there and just go with the 100 per cent record as captain.”Somerset remained stoically winless until Liam Plunkett attempted to hit Jack Leach for a fourth six but only nicked the ball to Jim Allenby at slip. Cue delight in Stogumber. Cue street parties in Lydeard St. Lawrence.In truth, though, the cricket had descended into late-innings carnival by the time that last wicket fell. Yorkshire’s attempt to score 337 in 90 overs had long been a laughably optimistic enterprise and the chief giggler was a 6ft 5ins seamer from North Devon whose pace and hostility were appreciated by everyone at North Marine Road, not only the band of hardy supporters with wyverns on their chests.This was Craig Overton’s day and it was Craig Overton’s match. The giant all-rounder took 4 for 47 on this final day at Scarborough and finished the match with career-best figures of 9 for 134. Making good use of a pitch which offered him bounce and carry, Overton discomfited all the batsmen in this game and dismissed every member of Yorkshire’s top order at least once.On the day when Somerset at last took closer order on the counties above them, the all-rounder’s cricket displayed the brio that may sustain his county in dark times. No doubt the absent captain, Abell, who has played a couple of second team T20 games this week, was quick to text the players with his congratulations. Abell is that sort of bloke.As for Yorkshire, the bitter truth is that supporters at North Marine Road were more surprised by the rapidity of their side’s collapse than the fact of it. A once formidable batting order which used to cope serenely with England calls now seems riven with an unlucky bag of fallibilities. These weaknesses have been largely responsible for their team losing two of their last three Division One games and trailing leaders Essex by 38 points having played a game more.Harry Brook, who now has three championship appearances on his CV, looked the most secure of the top order and his appearances may be restricted by the broken hand he sustained in the nets on the final morning of this game. Seeking to explain this defeat by referring to the injuries which befell Plunkett and Ryan Sidebottom avoids the central problem which has suddenly befallen Yorkshire cricket. “It won’t do” said someone at North Marine Road before explaining himself in some detail.”We’ve spoken at length about our batting for a long time now but it’s got past the point of talking about it,” said the Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale. “It’s about doing it now and we need to back things up on the field. We didn’t work hard enough and we now want players to respond to what’s happened. Whether that’s by going into the second team and making big runs or by making runs in the T20, you just want to see a response. We’ve been here many a time before with Yorkshire cricket and we can turn this on its head.”Yorkshire’s woes began with the fifth ball of their innings when Alex Lees drove carelessly outside a Lewis Gregory inswinger and heard the ash dancing behind him. But it was not until the fourth over that West Country hope trespassed into the land of belief and it was Overton who led that cautious advance.The delivery which dismissed Brook would have moved the bowels of a Test cricketer, let alone a batsman whose memories of Peppa Pig are still fresh. Short, quick and deeply nasty, it reared up at the 18-year-old and brushed his glove. Steve Davies completed a difficult one-handed catch with deceptive aplomb. Rather less allowance can be made for Peter Handscomb, who pushed forward a trifle at his first ball but was hit on his front pad. Some thought the ball but might have been going over the top but Tim Robinson sent the batsman on his way. Yorkshire were 12 for 3 and the North Devonian did his best to disappear into the arms of his colleagues, a task that proved well beyond him.Four overs later Tom Kohler-Cadmore hooked Overton into the pavilion, where a spectator received a glancing blow but proved himself the sort of chap with whom one would go flying by brushing away all solicitous enquiries. Next ball Kohler-Cadmore failed to cover Overton’s steep bounce and edged the ball to slip where Tim Rouse held on. .For ten overs Adam Lyth and Tim Bresnan scored freely against attacking fields before Lyth, having flattered his supporters briefly, deceived them grievously when he drove at Overton and inside-edged the ball into his wicket. That left Yorkshire on 67 for 5 and all but doomed. The folded arms and the grim expressions said as much.An hour after lunch the players were shaking hands. Jack Leach, who had not been required to bowl in the first innings, took four of the wickets, bowling Tim Bresnan with a ball that pitched on leg but hit off and having Rashid caught at slip. Another tasty bouncer from Overton left Andy Hodd with little option but to scoop the ball to Eddie Byrom at square leg.”I’d like to bowl on that sort of wicket every day,” said Overton. “It was ideal for me and I don’t think I’ve bowled better than I did at the start of the second innings. I’m not sure Harry could have done too much about the ball that got him this morning. It’s one of those you just try and avoid and it can be a tough one to take.”As Overton spoke he was interrupted by Somerset supporters offering their congratulations. This victory is not enough to take their side out of the bottom two places in the table but it offers them hope, enough at any rate to speed them home in good heart this summer evening.

Australia enter the series without a warm-up game in Bangladesh and with a poor recent history in Asia. The hosts are quietly confident after their recent upturn in Tests

The Preview by Brydon Coverdale26-Aug-20175:15

Isam: Warner and co. will know how to handle Mustafizur after IPL stint

Big Picture

Mitchell Johnson’s entire Test career of 313 wickets; 611 of the 617 Twenty20 internationals that have ever been played; every tweet ever… These are just some of the things that have happened since Australia and Bangladesh last played each other in Test cricket. That’s right: when they last met in 2006, Twitter had not even been launched. We might as well be talking about the #darkages. Such has been the reluctance of Australia to schedule Tests against Bangladesh, it has now been 11 years since their last series, when Jason Gillespie made the unlikeliest double-century in Test history.In 2008, Australia were scheduled to host Bangladesh for two winter Tests, but that series was postponed until 2010 due to a clash with the Beijing Olympics. The 2010 series didn’t happen either. In 2011, the Future Tours Programme had Australia listed to play two Tests in Bangladesh; instead, that tour was limited to three ODIs and no Tests. And then in 2015, Australia were all set to depart for a Test tour when they (sensibly) delayed the trip on security advice from the Australian government. Finally, a series that has not been postponed, and if the weather allows, it should be a fascinating contest.Australia enter the series without a warm-up game in Bangladesh and with a poor recent history in Asia. They have taken some self-belief from their competitive performance in India earlier this year, but questions remain over key batsmen David Warner and Usman Khawaja on slow, turning pitches, as well as the quality of their second spinner, Ashton Agar. Should Australia lose 2-0, they would fall to sixth on the ICC Test rankings, their lowest ever.Bangladesh have no shortage of self-belief, having beaten England in their most recent home Test and Sri Lanka in their most recent away Test. They have spinners who will challenge Australia’s defensive techniques and patience, and one of those is also the world’s best Test allrounder: Shakib Al Hasan. They have enough experience and talent in their batting order, through Shakib, Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim, to pose problems for Australia’s bowlers.So, four postponed Test series and hundreds of billions of tweets later, here we are, for what should be a close battle. #bringiton

Form guide

Bangladesh: WLLLL(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia: LDLWW

In the spotlight

He averages 40 with the bat, 33 with the ball, and is No.1 on the ICC’s rankings for Test allrounders, yet because he doesn’t play for one of the so-called “big teams” often, Shakib Al Hasan still probably doesn’t get the worldwide recognition he deserves. Entering his 50th Test match – and his first against Australia – he hopes to join Dale Steyn, Rangana Herath and Muttiah Muralitharan as the only bowlers with five-wicket Test hauls against all other countries. It would be a truly remarkable achievement, coming from a country that plays relatively little Test cricket.There is no more important player for Australia’s chances in this series than the captain Steven Smith. In India earlier this year, Smith showed his patience and skill against high quality spin bowling and scored centuries in three of the four Test matches. There is no reason to think he will be any less successful in Bangladesh, and big scores from Smith will go a long way to Australia having a strong series. But, of course, he will need somebody to stay out there with him.

Team news

Mushfiqur Rahim appears likely to keep wickets, which would mean Liton Das misses out. The selectors will have a tough decision to make between Taskin Ahmed and Shafiul Islam, but Shafiul might just get the nod.Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Imrul Kayes, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (capt & wk), 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Sabbir Rahman, 7 Nasir Hossain, 8 Mehidy Hasan, 9 Taijul Islam, 10 Shafiul Islam, 11 Mustafizur Rahman,Khawaja looks set to regain his place in the side after Shaun Marsh was preferred in India, and Ashton Agar is expected to join Nathan Lyon as the second spinner. The only other possible decision for the selectors is whether to include allrounder Hilton Cartwright as an extra seam-bowling option, but that would require leaving Glenn Maxwell out, an unlikely scenario after his batting success in India.Australia (probable): 1 David Warner, 2 Matt Renshaw, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Usman Khawaja, 5 Peter Handscomb, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Ashton Agar, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Nathan Lyon.

Pitch and conditions

The pitch is not expected to be too similar to the one that England encountered on this ground last year, but it will be on the slower side with spin expected from day two. Rain is predicted on all five days of the Test, so the chances of a result will depend on how quickly the newly-laid outfield can dry – usually, the drainage is good.

Stats and trivia

• This Test will be the 50th for both Tamim Iqbal and Shakib; they will join Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur and Habibul Bashar as the only Bangladeshis to reach the milestone
• Lyon needs three wickets to become the eighth Australian to 250 in Tests. In doing so he would pass Richie Benaud to become Australia’s second-leading Test spinner of all time
• These teams have played each other in only four Tests, for four wins to Australia – but no player from either squad has played in any of those previous matches

Quotes

“I think our spin attack is better than theirs. Not in all conditions but in Bangladesh, we are better than them.”
“For us, it’s more looking to the future. Ashton has obviously been on the radar for a long time and someone we see as having a pretty bright future. Four years’ time back in India it’s something I want to achieve while I’m captain. I want to win in India, that’s big on my bucket list.”

Jason Holder hopes West Indies can feed off their victory in the second Test and continue to defy expectations in the series decider at Lord’s

Melinda Farrell06-Sep-20173:24

‘I’m glad to be here with him’ – the Hope brothers on playing together for West Indies

Few would have predicted a decider at Lord’s after the thrashing at Edgbaston but West Indies captain Jason Holder believes the confidence born out of their performance at Headingley could lift his side to victory in a “momentous” match.Only two members of this West Indies squad – Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel – have played a Test at the home of cricket, adding to the sense of occasion for Holder’s men.”It’s obviously a momentous game for everybody,” Holder said, speaking at Lord’s on the eve of the match. “Especially in our group. A number of us are playing our first Test match here at Lord’s, our first series in England. There’s a lot to play for, and our guys are really up for it.”West Indies haven’t won a Test series in England for 29 years but go into the final match having beaten their opponents in two of their last three Tests (going back to Barbados in 2015). Victory at Headingley was West Indies’ first in England in 17 years and further history beckons.It is a rare challenge for Holder, still relatively callow in his captaincy. In some ways, his side has already surpassed expectations and inspired hope for the future. Should they acquit themselves well at Lord’s, no matter the result, they will have gained the respect of many who perhaps underestimated their qualities. But they would gain so much more with victory.”It would be great to win the series in England, but there’s a process towards going about that,” Holder said. “We can’t focus on the end result.”Our focus is our process. I spoke about consistency a lot on this tour, and that’s the main objective for me. Once we’re consistent and do the small things well, that end result should be more or less in our favour.”There have been unforeseen and unfortunate distractions in the build-up to the final Test. Bowling coach Roddy Estwick has returned to Barbados after the death of his mother and in his absence former Middlesex, Sussex and Yorkshire swing bowler Paul Hutchison has temporarily stepped into the role. Holder hopes Hutchison’s local knowledge will prove invaluable.Shai Hope chats with Brian Lara during West Indies training•Getty Images

“We’ve tried to get as much information as possible coming into this game,” Holder said. “We’ve got the luxury of having an outsider, Paul Hutchison, give us some tips about how to bowl here at Lord’s. He’s had some experience of bowling here at Lord’s.”There’s a lot of talk about the slope and such and we’ve studied it and had a chance to formulate some plans about how we go it. But cricket is always played on the day. You may be faced with different dilemmas and you just have to adjust and cope with it. That’s the nature of professional sport.”The threat of devastation from Hurricane Irma throughout the Caribbean has also loomed large in the thoughts of the players, particularly for Antiguan Alzarri Joseph, whose island was originally feared to be in the direct path of the storm.”I understand it hasn’t done major damage to Antigua, where Alzarri is from,” Holder said. “It’s gone further up north. We just hope the islands it is going to affect, the people prepare well and hopefully they are not hurt too badly.”We send our prayers back home, we have everybody back home in our thoughts and prayers. There’s not much we can do from here but sit and pray and wish them all the best.”West Indies declined to name a team before the toss, deciding to take another look at the pitch. It will, no doubt, have surprised them to see it displaying odd markings, known as ‘fairy rings’, caused by fungus spores below the turf. One perfect ring sits just short of a length for batsmen at the Pavilion End – perfectly positioned as a ‘bullseye’ for short balls coming from the Nursery End.But who will bowl them for West Indies remains unclear. It could be the case that Devendra Bishoo misses out on the final Test – he bowled 31 overs at Headingley, compared to the 44 bowled by Roston Chase – giving West Indies the option of including an extra seamer. Miguel Cummins and Joseph played in the first Test at Edgbaston while Raymon Reifer was particularly impressive in the nets at Lord’s on Wednesday.But whoever walks out at Lord’s will have the opportunity to create their own history, the challenge put to them by their coach, Stuart Law, at the start of the series. Some have already done so, with Shai Hope becoming the first batsman to score two centuries in a first-class match at Headingley. But, for a team which – more than any other international side – seems to have the ghosts of the past constantly hovering, making history at Lord’s would quieten talk of past legends and garner hope that last week’s victory was no false dawn.”It has done a lot,” Holder said of the Headingley win. “The first game, pretty much everybody wrote us off. Our heads were a bit down after how we got defeated in the first Test match.”To pick ourselves back up and come back and respond how we did at Headingley was remarkable. It’s obviously given us some new life. We’ve got a chance to win this series so we are going out in this last Test match to win it.”

A round-up of the Ranji Trophy Group B matches played on October 8, 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Oct-2017Hindustan Times

Haryana collapsed to 140 all out on the third day in Lahli as a Cheteshwar Pujara-led Saurashtra enjoyed the unusual feeling of winning by an innings despite making less than 300 when they’d batted. The traditionally seamer-friendly conditions were on show again as Jaydev Unadkat and Chirag Jani shared the four Haryana wickets left standing and sealed Saurashtra’s victory before lunch.Forced to follow on after being bundled out for 107 in their first innings, Haryana’s batsmen struggled once again, except Chaitanya Bishnoi – who made 56. Deepak Punia’s resistance was snipped at 34, leaving Haryana reeling at 136 for 9. Three balls later, they were all out.Spinners Jalaj Saxena and Karaparambil Monish shared nine wickets on the third day to hand Kerala a thumping nine-wicket win over Jharkhand in Thiruvananthapuram. Saxena impressed with his all-round performance: he finished with 11 for 77 and a half-century in the first innings.Starting their second innings with a 57-run deficit, Jharkhand collapsed from 37 for 2 to 89 all out within 42 overs, with Saurabh Tiwary top-scoring with an unbeaten 26.Kerala needed only five overs to get to the target of 33, for the loss of Saxena, who was dismissed in the third over.Jammu & Kashmir took a 102-run lead against Rajasthan on day three after their five top-order batsmen put up 50-plus scores. Ahmed Bandy converted his overnight score of 72 into a 102-run knock, while captain Parvez Rasool fell three runs short in his pursuit of his ninth first-class century.J&K’s openers made a strong reply to Rajasthan’s 330, before Shubham Khajuria was bowled by medium pacer Tanvir-ul-Haq for 53. The 83-run second-wicket stand between Bandy and Pranav Gupta was then broken by Mahipal Lomror, who dismissed the former shortly after he scored his maiden first-class century. Solid partnerships followed as J&K raced to 400 for 4 after tea. They lost Rasool (97 off 126 balls) and Aditya Singh (32 off 112 balls) before the close of play.Puneet Bisht (2*) and Samiullah Beigh (1*) took J&K to 432 for 6 at stumps.

The 23-year old batsman had wondered why he couldn’t bat long in his first season of the Ranji Trophy. Now, he has a monumental score next to his name

Sidharth Monga in Delhi18-Nov-2017In his maiden first-class season, it took Nitish Rana nine innings to be dismissed for fewer than 25 runs. It was his only single-digit score in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy. The first hundred, though, came in the last innings of the season, and in the second innings, which is rarely counted as important runs in this tournament. Rana went up to seniors, including Gautam Gambhir, and asked, “Why am I getting out on 50? 70? Why am I not scoring big runs?”The reply he got from them had to do with concentration. “They told me when you play under-16, under-19 or under-23, you get one or two quality bowlers in the opposition. So you can get away with breaks in concentration after you have seen off the main bowlers. In Ranji Trophy there are more quality bowlers, and you have to concentrate for longer.”Rana says he went to the nets and started to bat longer and harder, and made sure he was only concentrating on the next ball. He also got an IPL call-up from Mumbai Indians, with whom he said he grew mentally and technically as a player. All of that was on display at the Airforce Sports Complex in Palam, Delhi, where his innings of 174 buried Maharashtra under a mountain of runs (419) on a pitch with uneven bounce. Delhi bowlers used the advantage handsomely to leave the visitors on the brink of a follow-on at 59 for 8.Delhi began the day at 260 for 4 with Rana unbeaten on 110, but the 23-year old showed awareness that his job was far from done. He batted through the first session, in partnership with impressive debutant Lalit Yadav who scored 52, and only after he felt Delhi were secure did he try to get adventurous. This was his fourth first-class hundred and his highest score.The significance of that innings showed in how Ishant Sharma – back from the India squad once he was not picked for the Kolkata Test – ran through the Maharashtra top order with the quality of bowling India could have done with at Eden Gardens. Ishant was on the target – full but short of driving length just outside off – from ball one, and it was almost unfair on the batsmen facing the new ball after 111.1 overs in the field.The bounce had been uneven for other bowlers too but, largely, it deviated on the lower side. Ishant started hitting both bands of the spectrum. Rututuraj Gaikwad fell in the first over, forced to play outside off. Murtaza Trunkwala fell to similar fate, and Ankit Bawne was rapped on the gloves as soon as he came in. Rahul Tripathi, another IPL star, hit Ishant for a four but would soon nick another length ball outside off. Ishant’s spell of 6-2-14-3, in which he barely bowled a loose ball, left Maharashtra reeling at 14 for 4. Nitin Saini then got rid of Rohit Motwani to make it 51 for 5.Maharashtra would have sighed in relief when bad light sent players off early but 10 minutes later the conditions improved, and they lost a further three wickets in the 15 minutes of play possible after resumption. Lalit added two wickets to his debut half-century, and Manan Sharma chipped in with one. Despite the loss of 43 overs to bad light on the first two days, Delhi were now almost assured three points, and could even dream of a full complement of seven if they can enforce the follow-on and then win by an innings or by 10 wickets. The latter could ensure their progress to the knockouts even before the final round of league matches.

Mithun’s second-successive five-for triggers Delhi’s sensational collapse as Karnataka continue to top Group A

Akshay Gopalakrishnan in Alur12-Nov-2017
ScorecardAssociated Press

KL Rahul getting some much-needed batting time ahead of the Sri Lanka Tests with a stroke-filled 92 was the biggest takeaway from an unpalatable final day in Karnataka’s Group A clash against Delhi in Alur. The home team grabbed a 348-run first-innings lead, but refrained from enforcing the follow-on, Vinay Kumar opting to give his bowlers a rest, perhaps having recognised the surface lacked bite to force a result.Karnataka marched to 235 for 3 when the teams shook hands at 3.15pm local time, half an hour after the tea break. The home team took three first-innings points to retain their top position in Group A, with a knockouts berth within touching distance.The predictable end didn’t seem coming early in the morning, though. Abhimanyu Mithun’s second successive five-for brought a tapering contest to life as Delhi unraveled spectacularly to fold for 301. R Samarth, who was a livewire on the field, set the tone with a stunning catch at gully to send back Milind Kumar. But he was just warming up.Off the next delivery, Samarth stopped a delicate dab behind short leg by sticking his left hand out and then quickly transferring the ball to his right and to flick it onto the stumps, and catch Manan Sharma short of the crease.Karnataka opted for the second new ball after the twin strikes, and Mithun continued to bowl at a lively pace to attacking fields. Gautam Gambhir, the overnight centurion, who had impressed with an off-side game par excellence on the third day, pursued an expansive drive. Samarth was once again in the thick of things, this time pouching a straightforward catch at gully.Navdeep Saini, reprieved by Rahul at first slip, was trapped plumb in front by Vinay as Delhi lost their penultimate wicket shortly after crossing 300. Mithun then dished out a short ball to send last man Kulwant Khejroliya packing and wrap up the innings. It had taken just an hour for Delhi to lose their last six wickets, for 24 runs.The passage exhibited the quality of Karnataka’s bowling and fielding. With the pitch continuing to remain flat, Karnataka’s openers traced to a 121-run opening stand in no time, with Rahul dominating courtesy drives, sweeps and cuts. Samarth took off with a blazing straight drive but then made for a study in contrast as he buckled down.Rahul raised his half-century with a slog-swept six off Milind in the sixth over after lunch, and followed it with a crisp drive through the covers. A mindless run out denied him what would have been a well-deserved century. Rahul dabbed one gently to backward point and casually strode out for a single without looking at the fielder. Nitish Rana swooped down quickly and fired a direct hit at the bowler’s end.The rest of Karnataka’s batsmen tried to make the most the time on hand to get some practice for the season ahead. Mayank Agarwal struck a brisk 23, before chopping on a short ball that was too close to him. The popular duo of Karun Nair and Manish Pandey struck thirties, occasionally giving a sizable Sunday crowd something to cheer with their crisp strokes, and steering the game to its tedious conclusion.

Boult’s relentless accuracy and Lockie Ferguson’s raw pace hit the high notes after Nicholls’ enterprising 83 in a dominating win

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando22-Dec-20174:01

Highlights – Boult blinder seals series for NZ

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsGetty Images

A snowballing 130-run sixth-wicket stand propelled New Zealand to 325 for 6, before a smoldering Trent Boult blasted West Indies out for 121 with help from tearaway Lockie Ferguson.West Indies have lost every game on tour, but rarely have they appeared so outmatched. The top order showed no fight against Boult’s sniping accuracy and Ferguson’s out-and-out-pace. They were virtually out of the game inside the first six overs, in which three wickets fell, and were all out by the 29th over. With this match goes the series – West Indies are 0-2 down with one match to play.For the hosts, the 204-run victory featured several highlights. Not only were Boult’s figures of 7 for 34 better than his previous best, they were also the second-best ODI figures for New Zealand by a whisker – Tim Southee having taken 7 for one run fewer in the 2015 World Cup. Henry Nicholls also produced a furious finish to the innings, after he and Todd Astle had lifted New Zealand from 186 for 5. His unbeaten 83 off 62 balls was also a personal best.Elsewhere, George Worker produced an efficient fifty at the top of the innings, Ross Taylor’s half-century held New Zealand together in the middle overs, and Ferguson made clear his potential, claiming 3 for 17 in four overs of hostile fast bowling.Quicks of both teams were aided by the surface. Though Hagley Oval is usually the domain of swing and seam movement, it was the lift in this pitch that defined the match. West Indies had actually begun the match with some promise, dismissing four New Zealand top order batsmen with deliveries that leapt more than anticipated.Although the West Indies’ quicks’ shorter lengths had proved a danger to batsman while the ball was new, there was also opportunity later on – 68 per cent of New Zealand’s runs came square of the wicket. All innings long, only two boundaries were hit in the “V”.Boult began to maraud the moment he got ball in hand. He could have had Evin Lewis with his second delivery, had Worker held a very difficult chance some distance to his left. No matter. The last ball of that over zipped between Kyle Hope’s bat and pad, and thundered into the stumps. Next over, Boult had Lewis miscuing a pull shot to the fine leg fielder – the drop having cost no more than nine runs.Every time Boult bowled, a wicket did not seem far off. Still in his first spell, he had Shimron Hetmyer caught at slip for 2, then later, Shai Hope sending a ball high into the air off his top edge, to depart for a belligerent 23. By the end of Boult’s initial six-over burst, the target already seemed 100 too many for the West Indies.Perhaps they would have made a more creditable reply had Ferguson not added to their discomfort, however. Now quite clearly the fastest bowler in New Zealand – having pipped Adam Milne for that title – Ferguson went either at the stumps or at the body, and on a pitch that suited his bowling, had success doing both. Jason Mohammed was his first victim, fending at a delivery headed for his throat – the ball taking the shoulder of the bat and floating back to the bowler. Two balls later Rovman Powell played a shot that seemed to be light years two late – the offstump uprooted before the bat was even in position. Ferguson also dismissed Jason Holder with a short ball, before Boult came back to flatten the tail.So good were New Zealand’s quicks that perhaps West Indies were always going flounder, but in the first third of this match, the visiting quicks made regular breakthroughs, which suggested a contest could be on the cards. Then Nicholls and Astle turned what began as a recovery into a hailstorm of death-over boundaries. By the time Astle was dismissed for 49 in the final over, the previous 28 balls had produced 64 runs.As was the case for Ferguson, this was a pitch that suited Nicholls’ batting beautifully, however. Adept at the cross-batted strokes, he cut and pulled his way into a rhythm early in his innings, and let fly with the innovations later on. Of particular note was the overhead scoop off Ronsford Beaton in the 45th over – the shot that heralded the mayhem. Three overs later, Nicholls was walloping two sixes and two fours in a Shannon Gabriel over that yielded 22. In the first 37 deliveries he faced, Nicholls had hit 27 – overturning an lbw decision against him in that time. Off his last 25 balls, Nicholls plundered 56, even finding a place for the full deliveries beyond the square boundary.Astle’s innings was not quite so explosive – he had largely sought to turn the strike over to Nicholls, scoring exclusively with singles and twos off his first 35 balls. He did eventually hit out, slog-sweeping Rovman Powell for six twice in the 49th over. A little fortune made that final flourish possible: Astle had been dropped off Powell by wicketkeeper Shai Hope, in the 46th over.West Indies were not completely without performers. Sheldon Cottrell – the left-arm quick who replaced the injured Kesrick Williams in this match – was the first bowler to use the short ball effectively in this match. His figures worsened as a result of New Zealand’s fast finish, but he claimed a creditable 3 for 62 nonetheless. Holder returned 2 for 52 for himself.But although visiting teams sometimes feel as they have the measure of New Zealand conditions, the home side almost unfailingly have in their ranks players who turn the match emphatically in their favour. This is New Zealand’s ninth series victory in their 10 last bilateral series at home.

The Essex seamer, who took 75 wickets in the Championship-winning campaign, has been given the all-clear after his back problems, and is now eager to return to action for England Lions in the West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jan-2018Jamie Porter, the Essex seamer, has been given the all clear following the stress fracture which ruled him out of the England Lions tour to Australia late last year, and is now stepping up his preparations for the Lions trip to the West Indies next month.Porter, who took 75 wickets in Essex’s County Championship winning campaign, was diagnosed with a hot spot in his back – later confirmed to be a stress fracture – before the Lions left for Australia. He was withdrawn from that part of England’s plans and given a recovery process which included joining the Pace Programme at Loughborough and on their pre-Christmas trip to Desert Springs in Spain.A second trip to Spain now beckons on a four-day warm-weather training camp with the Lions before the squad flies out to Jamaica on January 31 for a tour that includes three four-day matches and three one-day games against West Indies A.

Updated Lions squads

Whole tour
Keaton Jennings (Lancashire, capt), Joe Clarke (Worcestershire), Dan Lawrence (Essex), Sam Curran (Surrey), Jamie Porter (Essex), Paul Coughlin (Nottinghamshire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Nick Gubbins (Middlesex), Alex Davies (Lancashire). Dominic Bess (Somerset)
Red-ball only
Haseeb Hameed (Lancashire), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Toby Roland-Jones (Middlesex), Jack Leach (Somerset), Mason Crane (Hampshire)
One-day only
Sam Northeast (Kent), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), Tom Helm (Middlesex), George Garton (Sussex), Matt Parkinson (Lancashire)

Porter’s injury meant he had to watch the Ashes from afar rather than being alongside the main squad with the chance of a call-up if needed which he admitted was “tough to swallow”.”I got told I had the hot spot and then had a CT scan, so there was a three-day period where we were scratching our heads wondering if I could get through Australia with it,” he told the ECB website. “But when the scan results came back and I saw the stress fracture, that was definitely the final blow.”You look at what followed in the week or so after that, with people in the Ashes squad going down injured, and you just never know. Hopefully I will get the opportunity with the Lions in the West Indies to put things right and put my name in the hat again.””I had my final scan results back on Friday and it’s all clear,” he added. “So I’m back bowling at full whack, and I feel good – and I do want to hit the ground running.”Another pace bowler to suffer a back injury, Toby Roland-Jones, will also continue his comeback on the red-ball portion of the Lions tour. He was hit with his stress fracture just days before the Ashes squad was due to be named, for which he would have been a certain selection following an impressive start to his Test career against South Africa and West Indies.Elsewhere in the Lions squads, Essex’s Dan Lawrence, who was initially only included for the first-class leg of the trip, has been added for the one-dayers to replace Liam Livingstone after his call-up to the Test squad for New Zealand.Livingstone, Ben Foakes and Mason Crane are part of the squad for the three four-day matches against West Indies A before they link up with the Test team for the two-match series at the end of March.Sam Curran, the Surrey allrounder, won’t be part of the pre-tour camp in Spain after the England Lions management decided he was better served continuing his overseas stint with Auckland.

David Willey has expressed sympathy with his Yorkshire and England team-mate Adil Rashid’s decision to put his first-class career on hold

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Feb-2018David Willey has expressed sympathy with his Yorkshire and England team-mate Adil Rashid’s decision to put his first-class career on hold. Willey, who has previously mulled the possibility of becoming a limited-overs specialist, said that cricket’s packed schedule was likely to push more players into making hard choices.Rashid requested not to play Championship cricket in 2018, something Yorkshire have reluctantly agreed to – though Martyn Moxon, the club’s director of cricket, said they could not afford to have many players opting out of formats. Rashid is 30 and could still change tack but for now has decided to focus on his white-ball skills.Willey only featured in two Championship matches last year, partly down to injury alongside his England commitments, and has only played six times in first-class cricket since moving from Northamptonshire in 2015. Although he suggested at the time he had ambitions to represent England in Tests – following the path of his father, Peter – he has found the competing demands difficult to balance.Approaching his 28th birthday and having recently become a father for the first time, Willey has previously described himself as being at a career crossroads, one which had given him “sleepless nights”. He spent part of his winter playing for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash and has previously put himself up for the IPL auction and the selection process for the Pakistan Super League.”It’s to be expected,” he said of Rashid’s decision. “It is too much to play everything and that’s cricket now. If you look around now with all the white-ball cricket around the world people can make a career out of that.”People make decisions in all different careers as to what they enjoy and what suits them and it wouldn’t surprise me if more guys do it over the next few years with the amount of white-ball cricket that’s available throughout the year. Whether more people decide to do it or not is another matter but it’s certainly been discussed.”It’s just the way the game seems to be going and these Twenty20 competitions are appealing to people not only for the cricket but also financially. At the end of the day we have a short time playing sport – it’s not something we do until we’re 60 years old – and there comes a time when you have to make decisions for yourself and your family.”Earlier this week, Jos Buttler suggested he could see a future in which T20 was the only form of cricket played, while admitting he had effectively shelved his own Test ambitions by taking up opportunities in franchise leagues around the world.A number of England players could be tempted to follow Rashid’s example. The ECB has put greater focus on the short formats to drive interest, with a new T20 competition slated for 2020, and Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, has not played a first-class game since 2015.Such a split would undoubtedly raise questions about the future of Tests, as well as creating significant problems for the domestic game, with Moxon warning that “county set-ups can’t accommodate specialists” who want to pick and choose their commitments.”It’s probably nearly impossible to play Test cricket when you’re playing so much white-ball cricket,” Willey said. “Last year we were barely available for any four-day cricket because of the Champions Trophy so it then becomes difficult to play regular red-ball cricket, which you need to be doing if you want to be pushing for Tests.”If you’re only playing two or three games a year, you’re probably not making much of a contribution to a Championship title and you’re certainly not going to be able to push for Test cricket, so if you are in that position you’re probably thinking ‘what am I playing it for?”

The new Australia captain wanted to foster an environment where players did not feel they had to conform to a narrow idea of what an Australian Test cricketer should be

Daniel Brettig in Johannesburg30-Mar-2018Tim Paine began his first day as fully-fledged Australian captain with one small but significant departure from custom by initiating a pre-game handshake between all players and ended it by flagging a revolutionary departure from custom, at least for his team, by announcing a firm redefinition of the captain’s role.As the teams began their warm-ups on an overcast Johannesburg morning, he approached his opposite number Faf du Plessis to ask whether the two teams might shake hands at the end of the national anthems, a gesture common to football but only seen in international cricket after a match. Given the events of Cape Town and the fate befalling Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, Paine unsurprisingly has been thinking a lot about the image of the game. The handshakes were a telling way to show it.”I’ve been watching this week and they’ve had the soccer on and I notice they do that every game,” Paine said. “I thought cricket is the gentlemans’s game and I spoke to our players about how it was something I wanted to bring in. I waited for Faf to come out today and spoke to him and he was happy to do that. I think he thought it was a good idea and who knows, maybe other sides and South Africa may start to use it as well.”It’s not something we are going to do every Test match, but it is not a bad way to start a Test series. I think it’s something that we will use going forward; I just think it’s a good show of sportsmanship and respect. In this series, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge and a bit of tension between the two sides, we want to be super competitive but we also want to be respectful of our opposition, so it was important we showed that. It’s something we want to take forward and, if other teams want to do, we’ll do it to start every series.”It was still competitive, there wasn’t too much verbal going on back and forth between the two sides, we’ve spoken a bit about that as a group, about that going forward that is not the way we are going to play our cricket. It still felt like a Test match, it was still really competitive, we were playing a different style but as well a lot of the guys were thinking about some other things or were a little bit flat.”

‘Time for Lehmann to heal’ – Paine

One more contrast came from the pair of South Australians in the tour squad – the coach Darren Lehmann now overseeing his last Test match and the seam and swing bowler Chadd Sayers playing in his first. Paine said the decision to quit had appeared to lift plenty of weight from Lehmann’s shoulders, while the opportunity to play for Australia after five years on the fringes had been very welcome for Sayers, who does not conform to the Australian idea of a fast bowler but now has two wickets and the respect of South Africa.
“[Lehmann’s] been a little bit more laid-back today to be honest,” Paine said. “I think what we sensed yesterday and he even touched upon it himself was just a little bit of relief. It’s obviously been really difficult, and he’s been copping a fair amount of flak and so have his family, so I think for him to take that away from them and for him to be able to move on and try to heal a bit from what’s happened, I can sense a bit of relief and a load off his shoulders.
“I thought [Chadd] did really well. Obviously he was really nervous, but Chaddy’s the sort of bowler where he’s always at you. He did it again today, he bowled 25, 26 overs, which is a really big effort here in the altitude. A lot of the boys were really blowing, but Chaddy keeps on trucking on so we’re really rapt for him to get a game and take a few wickets late get some some rewards for his earlier hard work.”

A little over six hours after the handshakes, Paine sat before the media and contemplated leadership beyond this day. Should he remain captain, he said he wanted to redefine the post as a collaborative part of a wider whole, rather than the traditional branding of it as the major leadership rose above all others. Paine is clearly not a subscriber to the oft-quoted line that the position of Australian captain is second only to that of the Prime Minister.”I think at the moment that it’s something that I probably will be doing,” Paine said when asked whether he would want the captaincy long-term. “I have not put a hell of a lot of thought into anything past this week. Now we’ve also got a new coach that’s got to be appointed, who’s going to want a say on the way we go about it, the way I go about it.”My captaincy style will be – I’ve never been a big believer in the cricket team being the captain’s team, I think that’s a bit old school. When you didn’t have all the resources that we do now, I see the captain’s role as being that link between the players and the staff and just a really small, privileged role within Cricket Australia. But it’s just one part of the wheel and I’ll be trying to be very involving of all my staff, all my players and that’s the way I operate best.Australia captain Tim Paine leads the team out•Getty Images

“A lot of our focus as a team has been around this week, we are not looking too far ahead at this moment. I know it’s a cliche in sport that you get that ‘one week at a time’, but at the moment we’re taking it one day at a time and slowly trying to build back the respect of the cricket world, our fans and the public. We know we’ve got a long journey ahead of us to get where we want to get to, but the last couple of days have been the start of that long journey.”Paine has gained most of his leadership experience as a lieutenant of George Bailey in Tasmania. He said that he wanted to foster an environment where players did not feel they had to conform to a narrow idea of what an Australian Test cricketer should be. Instead, they needed to be themselves, with the team broadening its horizons to make allowances for that sort of diversity.”We still want to keep a really competitive brand of cricket but I think there’s times we’ve got to be more respectful of our opposition, we’ve got to be more respectful of the game of cricket,” Paine said. “At times we’ve tended to push the boundaries as far as we possibly could. I think that we’ve seen that people probably don’t like that, so it’s time for us to change.”We’re happy to do that, I think it actually suits this group of players, we’re a different group of players than Australia have had for a long time, we haven’t got too many guys that like to verbalise and have that sort of really hard-nosed Australian approach. We’re about creating an environment where guys can come in and play cricket and just be themselves. I think if we can achieve that then we’ll have guys having better results as well.”Paine’s desire to establish a culture that was inclusive even led him to picture the returns of the players who had been banned for ball-tampering. The anguish shown by Smith and Bancroft upon their arrival home had clearly left a mark. “I think a few guys watched it and I think it really cut them up, as it did anyone that watched that,” Paine said.”We saw how difficult it was and how much not playing for Australia is hurting those guys. I think it’s really important for us to realise how lucky and privileged we are. We want to make this environment in the Australian cricket team one that people can come in, be themselves and play their cricket to their best of their ability. And we want to have that sorted by the time that those guys are ready to come back into this team.”Reflecting on the events of the past week, Paine quipped that his visiting wife had not seen much of him due to all of the many meetings and coffees needed to try to rebuild a team that had lost so much in the space of only a few days. “It’s been strange and very difficult,” he said. “I don’t think my wife’s too happy, I’ve hardly seen her for the last couple of days and she’s come over for it.”It’s just been really challenging for everyone involved. It’s a really stressful time and our thoughts are certainly with our team-mates who aren’t here at the moment. We’ve had conversations and a lot of coffees with each other talking about what we’re going to do to change and how we’re going to do that going forward. From all this dark cloud at some stage there’s going to be a silver lining and I think all the guys are really keen to be involved in how that looks.”We’ll look to get through this week and we go home. We’ve got a fair bit of time off and potentially a new coach will come in and share some ideas with us. Got a fair bit of time before our next Test where we can all get together and I’m going to be very involving of our whole staff and playing group. We’ll all sit down and map out how that looks, how we’re going to play.”