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The ICC is investigating claims that Pakistan seamer Mohammad Amir, one of the three cricketers punished following the spot-fixing investigation, has defied his ban by playing for Addington in the Surrey Cricket League Division One

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Jun-2011The ICC is investigating claims that Pakistan seamer Mohammad Amir has defied his ICC ban by playing for Addington in the Surrey Cricket League Division One, according to a report in the . The sanction – imposed on Amir and two other Pakistani cricketers following the spot-fixing investigation – bars him from participating in the game at any recognised level, and he could be in breach of the ICC ruling if he played for Addington.”We are investigating and awaiting the details,” ICC spokesman Colin Gibson told the paper. “If true, it is clearly a breach of the sanction imposed in February. The ban is absolutely worldwide covering all levels and any activities connected with cricket. What might happen next is a hypothetical question at this stage.”Amir was central to Addington’s 81-run victory in the game, against St Luke’s CC. He surprisingly opened the innings and scored 60 before returning figures of 4 for 9 in seven overs.St Luke’s batsman Karl Quinn was surprised by Amir’s unexpected inclusion. “No one could quite believe it was him,” Quinn was quoted in . “There was no attempt to disguise who he was, he even posed for a picture with me. One of our Pakistani players was rubbing his eyes in disbelief and asking: ‘Is that who I think it is?’ He didn’t stay till the end but it was blatantly him.”When asked over telephone about Amir’s participation, Addington captain Ijaz Raja’s response was cryptic. “You tell me,” he is reported to have said, before hanging up.Amir was handed a five-year ban from the game after being found guilty of bowling no-balls on demand during the Lord’s Test against England last summer. Amir’s team-mates Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif were also handed bans, and all three players are awaiting trial at Southwark Crown Court over allegations of cheating and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments.This is not the first time Amir has appeared in a game which has had to be investigated by cricket authorities. Earlier this year in January, when he was under provisional suspension and still awaiting punishment for the Lord’s scandal, he turned out for a Rawalpindi club to play a friendly game. That prompted the ICC and PCB to investigate the nature of the game before the former eventually concluded that it was an unofficial game and the club wasn’t registered with the Rawalpindi cricket association; Amir was thus found to have not broken the ICC’s anti-corruption code of conduct.

Trevor Penney, the former Sri Lanka coach, has swapped jobs with Lachlan Stevens to become Trevor Barsby’s assistant at Queensland

Cricinfo staff24-Jun-2010Trevor Penney, the former Sri Lanka coach, has swapped jobs with Lachlan Stevens to become Trevor Barsby’s assistant at Queensland for 2010-11. Penney left the same role in Western Australia, which was then taken by Stevens, at the end of the season to move to Brisbane.Penney, 42, has had a busy career after finishing as a player with the English county Warwickshire. He was England’s fielding coach in 2005 and an assistant under Tom Moody with Sri Lanka before assuming the top job there in 2007. After that he joined Moody at Western Australia and Kings XI Punjab in the IPL.”When I was coaching against Queensland they always displayed good team spirit and were certainly real fighters on the field,” Penney said. “I’m really looking forward to working with them. They are young and keen and from what I have encountered already in the first few days, very eager to learn and develop further.”Barsby said Penney would be an integral part in the squad’s build-up to the summer. “Our current focus is on fielding for the group as well as some specialised one-on-one sessions,” he said. “I know Trevor’s strengths will complement that beautifully, as it will when we move into higher intensity work in the next month or so.”

The camp was organised as Pakistan stutter through one of the bleakest periods in their history

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Sep-2024The PCB’s much-trailed ‘connection camp’ ended on Monday with what officials said was a roadmap to bring the game out of the doldrums it finds itself in at the moment.Officials and the team management, including both head coaches Jason Gillespie and Gary Kirsten, described a day of open and robust conversations, including about the lack of unity within the national side, with the two national captains, Shan Masood and Babar Azam, and a group of other players.The camp was organised as Pakistan stutter through one of the bleakest periods in their history, with administrative tumult begetting a succession of disastrous on-field results. Over the last year, Pakistan have lost to Afghanistan in the ODI World Cup, to USA at the T20 World Cup and most recently 2-0 to Bangladesh in a home Test series.Related

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Speculation has been rife throughout of growing differences in the dressing room, building from last year but propelled this year by the appointment and swift removal of Shaheen Shah Afridi as Pakistan’s T20I captain, and the return of Babar Azam as the T20I captain. Kirsten, the white-ball coach, is said to have been surprised by the degree of it when he first took up the job.Salman Naseer, the PCB’s chief operating officer, acknowledged that a lack of unity had been part of the discussions, not just within the team but between the board and players.”The session was about this, that we openly and candidly accept and identify [issues] and ask for a commitment from each other, demand it, on how we can improve our performances and how we work together as a team,” Naseer said at a press conference in Lahore after the camp ended. “Our unanimous view was that we need to resolve this going forward and need to identify how we do it.”Naseer did not go into the details of the discussions, saying that providing a “safe space” was essential in allowing people to open up. But tension between players and the board has also been building, especially after a number of top stars were denied NOCs to participate in leagues over the summer. Afridi, Babar, Mohammad Rizwan and Naseem Shah were all prevented from playing in leagues before the start of Pakistan’s home season, with workload management the primary reason cited by the board.”Where the talk is of unity, it wasn’t only about the team,” Naseer acknowledged. “It was between the team and management and how we can work together to do things more successfully. These were definitely part of the discussions. We talked about planning, we talked about workload management.”Everyone is feeling that the performances of players, and management, can be better. The idea was to sit together, identify issues and what can be better. What our vision is and how do we get there?”The camp is not believed to have brought up the more immediate questions facing the Pakistan side, in the immediate aftermath of the loss to Bangladesh and with England’s imminent arrival for a three-Test series in October. But Kirsten, who has been in Pakistan for the last 12 days watching the Champions Cup, struck a note of optimism in praising the depth of talent in Pakistan – in contrast to the chairman Mohsin Naqvi’s recent observations on the same.”I’ve been here the last 12 days or so watching the Champions Cup and have been really encouraged at the depth of quality of players in this tournament,” Kirsten said. “It’s been fantastic to see. I’ve really enjoyed the tournament. The quality of the competition has been high. Been great to see a lot of young players showcasing what they are capable of.”The discussions will continue, according to Gillespie. “Because we’re new to the job, our job is to listen and learn and look to implement ways where we can be more effective as players, as a team, and as coaches. What was really clear today was the pride the Pakistan players have in playing for Pakistan and how they want to inspire the country. That was really exciting to hear. The players care and are desperate to do well. We’re on this journey together and we’ll do everything we can to help.”

Fast bowler says no single reason for mass Worcestershire exodus after signing Notts deal

Matt Roller22-Jul-2023Josh Tongue says he is leaving Worcestershire at the end of the season because he needs “a new challenge” but does not believe there is a smoking gun that explains the exodus of a number of homegrown players from the club.Tongue, who made his England debut this summer, will join Nottinghamshire at the end of his contract, with Dillon Pennington making the same move. Pat Brown, who has struggled with injury after playing four T20Is in 2019, is leaving for Derbyshire, while Moeen Ali and Ed Barnard joined Warwickshire last winter.A number of other Worcestershire players are also out of contract at the end of the season, with Ashley Giles taking charge of negotiations after starting his job as chief executive earlier this month. Giles made Rob Jones, the Lancashire batter, his first signing earlier this week, but Jack Haynes and Ben Cox are both expected to leave the club.Tongue held talks with a number of counties before settling on Nottinghamshire, who beat off strong interest from Lancashire to secure his signature on an initial three-year deal. He said that the opportunity to work with Notts bowling coach Kevin Shine again was a major factor in his decision, having previously been coached by him as part of the ECB’s pace programme.”I’ve been at the club since I was six years old and I’ve grown up playing for Worcester through the age groups and the academy and obviously signed my first pro deal there,” Tongue said, speaking at a #Funds4Runs session organised by LV= Insurance at Stockport Georgians Cricket Club. “I’ve got a massive heart for the club but I just feel like I’m at a time in my career when I need a new challenge and a new place to play.”I had a few meetings with a different number of clubs and Notts just really excited me with the way they play their cricket and obviously the squad is very strong. Peter Moores, the coach, and Kevin Shine, the bowling coach, really attracted me.”I’ve had stuff to do with Shiney in the past, growing up. I feel that’s going to benefit me, to have a different set of eyes on me to see how I can get better. If that’s more pace, or getting me in a better position at contact, we’ll see.”Josh Tongue at a #Funds4Runs session at Stockport Georgians Cricket Club•LV= Insurance/#Funds4Runs

Asked if there was a single reason behind players leaving, Tongue said: “I don’t think so. I’m not sure about the other lads leaving, but at my stage of my career now, I just felt like I needed a change and to work with some different coaches and different players. Obviously that is hopefully going to benefit me in the future.”Moeen, whose brother Kadir is Worcestershire’s assistant coach, suggested that money was a motivating factor for some departures. “I think it could be financial – it probably is financial with a couple of players,” he said. “But I think some players probably feel like they want to play at a bigger venue or a bigger club. It doesn’t always work out, but good luck to them.”I love Worcester, I still love Worcester. Obviously my brother’s there and the coach, Richo [Alan Richardson], so I still follow their progress and stuff. It’s a shame, but it’s always been a club or a county that’s produced good players and I’m sure they always will.”Tongue and Pennington shared 12 wickets between them in Worcestershire’s win against Leicestershire at Oakham this week, leaving them third in Division Two of the County Championship and only two points off a promotion spot. Richardson admitted some mixed emotions, but said they would continue to be selected for the rest of the summer.”Obviously I’m disappointed that they are leaving,” Richardson said, “but at the same time they are still our players and they still want to perform for us for the rest of the season, to help us achieve our goals. Having them in the team makes us better. We aren’t going to change our opinion on that just because they are leaving at the end of the season.”Josh Tongue was speaking on behalf of LV= Insurance, title sponsors of this summer’s LV= Insurance Ashes Series. Head to https://www.lv.com/gi/cricket to find out more.

“Teams, players, coaches are better prepared for him,” says Daniel Vettori of the KKR allrounder’s batting slump, in conversation with Chris Lynn and Aakash Chopra

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Apr-20225:52

Vettori – ‘Teams, players, coaches are better prepared for Venkatesh Iyer’

Since getting retained by Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 8 crore (40 times his previous salary), life in the IPL hasn’t been easy for Venkatesh Iyer. He’s batted eight times this season and has gone past 20 only once, and neither his average (18.00) nor his strike rate (102.43) make for pretty reading.After six games as opener, Knight Riders have moved him into the middle order, and that hasn’t worked either. So what’s gone wrong?Related

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According to both the former captain and coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore Daniel Vettori and former Knight Riders batter Chris Lynn, Iyer’s troubles this season mostly fall into the category of second-season syndrome.”I think I remember a discussion with Lynny, probably when we were watching a game, when he just thought that there’s a lot more information on Venkatesh Iyer, and therefore bowling coaches, coaches in general, have put a lot more time and effort into how to find a way to bowl to him, and I think that’s simply second-season [syndrome] or whatever it is – it happens,” Vettori said on the ESPNcricinfo show T20 Time:Out. “It’s happened to a lot of players, it’s happened to a lot of very good players, and the challenge, I suppose, is to step up from that.”And I think bowlers also have an understanding – some bowlers would have had success against him and try to relive that, and some bowlers would try to rectify mistakes that they made last year. I don’t think you need to overthink it; it’s just the fact that teams, players, coaches are better prepared for him.”Lynn said Iyer’s challenge would be to come up with plans to fight his way back into form.”On the whiteboards in every change room will be exactly the same plans, no doubt about that, and he’s just got to find a way,” he said. “There’s no doubt he’s good enough to bat from [Nos.] 1 to 6 – he’s playing in the Kolkata side for a reason, because he’s got talent. It’s just that teams have more knowledge and it’s as simple as that, I think.Venkatesh Iyer has gone past 20 only once in eight innings this season•BCCI

“The challenge for him is to try and go back to the drawing board, build some confidence, whether that’s for Kolkata or for another team, but just try and have some clarity when he’s walking out to bat, and it might be putting away a big shot, it might be just getting off strike, it might be using his feet, whatever it may be, just finding a way to get down to the other end and bat time. He’s only scored one fifty so far, he’s just got to bat time, and that’s the only way you build confidence.”The former India opener Aakash Chopra, who was part of the same discussion, felt there might be two other reasons for Iyer’s dip in form.”I completely agree that there is data, there is analysis, and there’s a lot of homework with regards to certain players, and he’s a top-order batter. So that’s one part of the story,” he said. “But the second part is that since that fantastic [2021] season he’s batted at [Nos.] 5 for 6 for his state side, for India, and now he’s back to opening, so yes, while he’s facing these form issues and found-out kind of issues, but the fact is that he’s been up and down the order too much.”Even now, KKR lost faith very quickly. So that’s one side, that he’s now maybe slightly confused in the head, ‘what am I supposed to do, am I an opener or am I a finisher?'”Secondly, nobody else is [performing]. See, sometimes you could go through a bad patch but you have an opening partner who’s scoring runs. He makes your life simpler, easier, and gives you the allowance to just find form, sometimes, but that’s not happening, their batting is in slight disarray. You don’t have runs from a lot of them – once in a while from Shreyas Iyer but nobody has been consistent enough, so that just puts the added pressure on Venkatesh.”Should KKR have retained Iyer?
Another potential source of pressure on Iyer could be having to live up to being retained by his franchise – ahead of Shubman Gill, one of the brightest top-order talents in India, who has since moved to Gujarat Titans.KKR let go of Shubman Gill and opted to retain Iyer ahead of the 2022 auction•BCCI

Vettori felt Knight Riders had made a smart move in retaining Iyer.”You’d have to know the man to answer that question [whether being retained had put more pressure on Iyer], but I think KKR were right in retaining him, because I think that the auction would have taken him to another level in terms of the amount that he would have gone for,” he said. “Everyone talks about that Indian allrounder and what he could have brought to a team, so retained for 6 crore, if I’m correct? [8 crore] I think he would have comfortably gone for more than that if he’d gone into the auction. I think KKR’s strategy was right; it’s just the fact that he hasn’t had the season that they would have expected.”Chopra said he would have retained Gill ahead of Iyer, if it was his call to make.”There are two more seasons to go, two-and-a-half more seasons to go [before the next scheduled mega auction], so let’s not jump the gun, and you can’t always judge a decision based on how things are panning out,” he said. “You do the best at that point in time, whatever you think.”But I think, personally, they had a choice. They had a choice of paying a couple of crores more to Shubman Gill and retaining him, and then invest in him as maybe a long-term captaincy candidate. I think it’s not about Venkatesh Iyer getting retained, and maybe he was worth more or worth less, we don’t know, but Shubman Gill, I think letting him go was a mistake, because it’s important to know when to hold on to, and when to let go of [a player]. I think the best of Shubman Gill is going to come in the next three years for Gujarat Titans and not KKR.”And what of his bowling?
Iyer, meanwhile, has not had much of a chance to show off his second suit this season, with Knight Riders only calling on his medium-pace for two overs. This, Lynn said, was not a reflection of his skills as much as of the team’s requirements. He believes Knight Riders can get their money’s worth out of Iyer in the long term, if he and their coaches can find a way to fix his ongoing issues.Iyer (seen here bowling in the IPL 2021 final) has only sent down two overs so far this season•BCCI

“I think you can’t really use that [not being required to bowl] against him, because […] going back to the auction they’ve done well, and obviously Andre Russell is bowling quite well as well, when he’s needed, so it’s not Venky’s fault there at all, but I think it’s a positive move from Kolkata to retain him.”You look at other teams, there’s two world-class established players that’s probably had a similar season – it’s not rocket science to work out who those guys are – but I think it’s a great move from Kolkata and they’re investing in him long-term; the challenge is up to him now and the coaching staff to get him back up where he wants to be and needs to be, not only scoring runs for Kolkata but getting back in those Indian colours where he does belong, I believe.”As to where Iyer should bat for the rest of the season, the T20 Time:Out panel was unanimous in its opinion that he should go back to the top of the order.”My only humble submission is that once you invest in someone for whatever reason, stick with it for a little longer,” Chopra said. “Don’t lose patience, don’t lose faith that early, Venkatesh Iyer at the top of the order is your best bet. None of your other openers are anyway firing.”Lynn concurred. “Yeah, 100%. It’s the only way we’re going to build confidence back with him. Get him up. He’s a freely flowing batsman, he plays on instinct, and that’s not going to happen at 5 or 6, so let’s get him back up in the opening role when the field’s in.”

Multan Sultans were eliminated after losing by 25 runs

Danyal Rasool15-Nov-2020
How the game played outThe game the PSL was perhaps created for will happen, after all. Lahore Qalandars will vie for the title against Karachi Kings on Tuesday, having swept aside Multan Sultans by 25 runs in the second Eliminator.David Wiese was at the heart of all they did tonight, his 21-ball 48* helping his side post 182 – 30 runs more than Multan Sultans have ever successfully chased. Before he came in, Lahore Qalandars’ innings was a stop-start affair, having burst into life at the top thanks to a delightful cameo by Tamim Iqbal and a 36-ball 46 by Fakhar Zaman. It had fallen away since, Multan’s bowlers – notably Shahid Afridi with 2-18 – making their presence felt, winning the middle overs and removing Mohammad Hafeez and Ben Dunk cheaply. However, as their disciplines fell away in the last three overs, Wiese found his chance to capitalise. Multan plundered 46 off the final 14 balls, and momentum was on their side.But Multan, the best side in the group stages, had by no means given up the ghost, Adam Lyth getting them off to a flyer with a 28-ball half-century. He took the attack to Shaheen Afridi, who went off with a side strain – though he did come back to finish his spell. But Wiese wasn’t to be kept out of the action, coming into the attack and getting rid of Lyth; his figures would end up reading 4-0-27-3. For good measure, he even took a stunning catch on the boundary to get rid of Rilee Rossouw in an astonishing individual performance that dragged his side to the brink of glory.Turning pointIt might seem like a straightforward win for Lahore in the end, but there were key moments in the first innings where Multan might rue their indiscipline. Having weathered the early storm and made key breakthroughs in the middle, Multan, for all their focus on data and analytics, would have known Lahore arguably bat a batsman light. So when Ben Dunk was removed in the 15th over with the score on 111, Multan were one wicket away from forcing Mohammad Faizan, and then three number 11s, out to bat. For that, however, they needed to break the Samit Patel-David Wiese partnership, upon which the game hinged for Sohail Akhtar’s side.Multan seemed to be doing all right in terms of keeping the runs on a leash until the last two balls of the 18th over, when Patel worked away Sohail Tanvir for two boundaries to push Lahore up to 144. The claustrophobic pressure appeared to have suddenly lifted, and a wretched penultimate over from Junaid Khan was smashed for 20 runs by Wiese. By then, the South African was on a rampage, and signed off the innings with two colossal sixes. It was officially only the halfway mark, but Lahore seemed a lot closer to the final than that.Moment of the matchEveryone knows by now Shahid Afridi is nowhere close to the explosive big hitter he once was. There’s little need to get excited by him walking out to bat; he might once have been a trailblazer, but several around the world have mastered – indeed, bettered, the art he helped pioneer. At 40 – or 45, if you believe his autobiography – any exploits off Afridi’s bat are very much dying embers of a flame that once burned brightly, but Haris Rauf may just have snuffed them out tonight.In the 14th over when Afridi walked out to bat, Rauf sent down a searing yorker first up tailing into middle stump. Few might have kept it out, but Afridi was notably slow in getting his bat down, the ball, almost tauntingly, whistling through his legs and onto the base of middle stump. As Afridi began to walk off, utterly befuddled, Rauf clasped his hands together by way of apology. It was Rauf’s 50th T20 wicket this year, and he may just have ended an iconic Pakistani career with it.

Chris Gayle played his slowest ODI innings (minimum 25 innings) in his 31-ball 4, while Evin Lewis’ three sixes gave the home fans something to cheer about

The Report by Sreshth Shah08-Aug-2019Match abandoned After a five-and-a-half-hour period where only 13 overs were bowled, the first ODI between West Indies and India in Providence was called off by the umpires due to a wet outfield.In that period, Chris Gayle played his slowest-ever ODI innings (minimum 25 balls), scoring only four singles in 31 deliveries. At the opposite end, Evin Lewis ensured there was something for the home fans to cheer, blitzing an unbeaten 36-ball 40 that included three shoveled pulls over deep midwicket.The match began 90 minutes after the scheduled start, a delay forced by morning showers. When play started, though, following Virat Kohli’s decision to bowl, the sun was bathing upon a half-filled Providence Stadium, but with rain scheduled towards the afternoon, it was not long before the first interruption happened.With Mohammed Shami, from around the wicket, troubling the sedate Gayle, and Lewis failing to find gaps in the infield, the teams first left the ground after 5.4 overs with West Indies yet to reach double digits. Over an hour later, the players returned, and Lewis made full use of the wet ball, shoveling Bhuvneshwar Kumar for six. In the next over, he creamed 15 runs off left-arm quick Khaleel Ahmed, with a pulled six over midwicket sandwiched between two flicked fours through the on side.The partnership was primarily saved by Lewis’ aggression with Gayle failing to find his timing, and it was eventually Kuldeep Yadav who ended the batsman’s innings in the 11th over.Playing his 299th ODI – equalling West Indies’ record-holder Brian Lara – Gayle needed 11 runs to become the team’s highest-ever ODI run-scorer, but swinging conditions early on meant he was either splicing the ball or missing it completely. While Lewis’ rampage was on, Gayle was unable to break free as he tried to heave Kuldeep’s full-pitched stock delivery over the leg side, only to inside-edge it onto the stumps.Rain returned two overs later, and it was intermittent enough for the umpires to call the game off at 3.12pm local time. Wet patches on the field earlier in the day had delayed the game’s restart, and in anticipation of the ground not being ready by 4pm – the cut-off time for a 20-over-a-side shootout – umpires Nigel Duguid and Adrian Holdstock called off the match. Ironically, a few minutes after that decision, the sun returned, but by then it was too late.The teams now move to Port-of-Spain for the second ODI on August 11.

New Zealand seamer Matt Henry is taking Division Two by storm as another three wickets at Canterbury made clear

ECB Reporters Network11-May-20181:50

Nick Gubbins again advertised his England credentials

ScorecardKent’s New Zealand strike bowler Matt Henry continued his stunning, early-season form by taking 3 for 24 to leave second-placed Sussex struggling on 69 for 4 as 14 wickets fell on the opening day of this Specsavers County Championship Division Two clash in Canterbury.Henry, the Kiwi firebrand with nine Test caps, spent most of the winter carrying the drinks as the Black Caps entertained Joe Root’s England.
However, the 26-year-old has fired on all cylinders since joining Kent last month and, in only his fourth game for the club, leads the national bowling averages with 30 championship wickets at a miserly average of 8.56.Sussex lost both openers within 14 balls of starting their reply. Phil Salt departed first, following a Harry Podmore away swinger to feather one through to keeper Adam Rouse, who tumbled to his left four balls later to snaffle an edge from Luke Wells off the bowling of Henry.The slippery paceman was soon celebrating again after having Harry Finch caught throat-high at slip by Sean Dickson and then Stiaan van Zyl played outside a full inswinger to have his furniture rearranged, again by Henry.Ben Brown (20*) and Luke Wright (28*) counter-attacked thereafter, riding their luck to take the visitors through to the second day still trailing Kent by 146 runs.Kent top-scorer Heino Kuhn was delighted by the character Kent showed throughout the day. He said: “I found the conditions pretty decent and, if you applied yourself, there were enough bad balls around to score from. I managed to keep the good balls out for a couple of hours, I inside edged a couple for four, which I’ll away take. But we went from 125 for two to 134 for six, which was a little disappointing, but at least the last couple took us to 215.”I’m happy for Grant [Stewart] and Calum [Haggett] for getting us past 200 and the bowlers with Matt to the fore did really well. Matt is international class and I told the guys in slips today that I’m happy to playing with him, rather than against him, because he bowled a few unplayable balls today.”As for Sussex head coach Jason Gillespie, he was delighted by his side’s mid-session comeback with the ball. “Losing four wickets at the end of the day wasn’t ideal, but the opposition are allowed to bowl well too. I thought we were a little bit slow into our work at the start of the day.”It took us a little longer to get our lines and lengths right and we bowled well after lunch. David Wiese bowled really well, he was slow to get cracking and get the motor running, but when he did he was a real handful. The first hour tomorrow will be pretty crucial. We need ‘Browny’ and ‘Wrighty’ to develop this partnership for sure.”Earlier on in the opening day, Kent had posted their first batting bonus point of the season yet still underperformed with the bat after succumbing for 215 inside 75 overs.Batting first after an uncontested toss on a sunny morning at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, Joe Denly’s third-placed side lost eight wickets for 51 runs in the mid-session but went on to reach 200 in spectacular style when tail-ender Grant Stewart hammered a brace of sixes in taking 17 off an over from Ollie Robinson.In only his fourth first-class game Stewart, who had been out of action for three weeks with a hamstring strain, became his side’s joint second top-scorer with a career-best 31 before becoming last man out when chopping on against Ishant Sharma.Sharma, the Indian paceman who was capped by Sussex ahead of the match, finished with three 62 and Robinson bagged three for 51 against his former county, but it was South Africa paceman David Wiese who stood out with four for 53 – including the prized scalps of Denly and Heino Kuhn, who had added 75 for the third wicket.Kent lost openers Daniel Bell-Drummond and Dickson in the first session of the match but were in the process of rebuilding until Wiese caused havoc after lunch.The 32-year-old right-armer from Roodepoort had Denly caught behind on the hook, then top-scorer Kuhn, after hitting 11 fours in a fluent 60, pushed inside the line of a leg-cutter to edge to Sussex gloveman Ben Brown.Adam Rouse fenced outside off to steer a low catch to Finch at second slip then Zak Crawley gloved a third successive bouncer from Robinson through to the keeper.Sharma replaced Wiese at the Nackington Road End and came to the party with two more Kentish wickets. Podmore pushed down the wrong line to have off stump pegged back, then Henry tamely chipped one to mid-on with Kent still 37 runs short of reaching a batting point.Left-hander Calum Haggett dug in for over 100 minutes for a crucial 31 with three fours before being bowled through the gate by Robinson, leaving Stewart to clinch Kent’s sole batting point with some belligerent, late-order hitting.

Max Holden and George Bartlett earned a select place in the history of England Under-19s cricket with a new batting record in the Youth Test against India in Nagpur

ECB Reports Network14-Feb-2017Max Holden and George Bartlett earned a select place in the history of England Under-19s cricket as they extended their marathon partnership on the second day of the first four-day match against India in Nagpur.They were finally separated after a stand of 321 in 82 overs, a new record for any wicket for England which has only been beaten once in all international Under-19 cricket, in 2001 by an Indian opening pair including Gautam Gambhir who put on 391 against an England attack including Monty Panesar and Chris Tremlett, and captained by Ian Bell.Bartlett was the first to go, stumped for 179 off 249 balls including 25 fours and three sixes. That became the highest score by an England Under-19s batsman overseas, beating 170 by Nasser Hussain against Sri Lanka in Kandy in 1986-87.There are still 10 batsmen ahead of Bartlett in the all-time England list, but all of them made their runs on home soil – including his Somerset seniors Marcus Trescothick with 206 against India at Edgbaston in 1994, and James Hildreth against Bangladesh in Taunton a decade later.After Bartlett’s dismissal, Holden batted on, for almost 20 more overs and into a fifth session, until after eight hours and 47 minutes at the crease the opener was finally dismissed for 170 – leaving him joint second with Hussain on England’s overseas list.Still the agony wasn’t over for India as Delray Rawlins, the Sussex allrounder who had been England’s batting star of the one-day series ended unbeaten on 70 from 94 balls before Holden declared on 501 for 5 – England’s second highest total against India in Under-19 cricket, and the third highest by anyone in India.

Hardik Rathod, who took late wickets on the second day of the Ranji Trophy final to keep Saurashtra’s hopes alive, said his team hopes to clean up Mumbai’s lower order early and bat well on the third day

Shashank Kishore in Pune25-Feb-2016Think of Saurashtra’s bowling and Ravindra Jadeja comes to mind immediately. Scratch the surface, and then there’s Jaydev Unadkat. Eye-catching moments with the ball have been far and few if you look beyond these two. But on Thursday, there was a ray of hope in the form of Hardik Rathod.The 27-year-old isn’t a tearaway quick, but his ability to swing the ball can be mighty effective when he lands them in the right spot. While he was anything but consistent when Shreyas Iyer was at the crease, he found his rhythm towards the end of the day; his three late wickets of Abhishek Nayar, Dhawal Kulkarni and Shardul Thakur gave Saurashtra hope after they were sent on a leather hunt in the afternoon.Rathod’s career, although in its nascent stages, hasn’t panned out the way he would have liked. His last first-class appearance before the quarter-final was in December 2013 against Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow. Modest returns – 21 wickets in 11 matches – didn’t inspire confidence within the team management. But an injury to Shaurya Sanandia, that drew curtains on his season, proved to be a blessing in disguise for Rathod. He justified the call-up by picking up six wickets in the semi-final and complementing Jaydev Unadkat who finished with a 11-wicket haul, as Assam were handed a ten-wicket thrashing.A repeat of that show didn’t seem coming when Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav combined to flatten Saurashtra’s bowlers in the second session. “In the first spell, when Iyer was batting, he was going for his strokes and we were trying for wickets,” he explained. “The aim was that we should get him out as quickly as possible. In trying to try too hard, we either bowled too short or too full, and gave away a lot of runs. But in the evening, after tea, the plan was to limit the runs and create pressure. As runs dry up the pressure will tell.”When Suryakumar and Iyer were playing, we couldn’t execute our plans. Suryakumar was taking singles and Iyer was playing his strokes. So we had to keep changing the fields and our bowling strategies often, as a result of which our consistency went for a toss.”The tea break came to Saurashtra’s rescue. They had just taken the wicket of Iyer, and were two wickets away from breaking into the lower order. Cheteshwar Pujara, who briefly led the side in Jaydev Shah’s absence, brought the team together and gave them a pep talk. The bowlers, particularly, were all ears. The plan, according to Rathod, was as simple as it could get.”Both the captain (Jaydev Shah) and Cheteshwar Pujara told us not to try too many things, to bowl one line and length. ‘Force the batsmen to make mistakes and don’t vary too much from your disciplines. Let them play their shots, you just remain consistent’, that was the message they gave us,” Rathod said. “It worked for us towards the end.”On another day, it may have come a little too late, but in slicing through the lower order, Saurashtra have given themselves an opening. “On the first day there was moisture but today, second day, it played well, both for batting and, if you put in some effort, for the bowlers as well,” Rathod said. “You have to try harder on day three with the ball than on day one. The match is wide open. Tomorrow, we will look to get them out as quickly as possible. The less the lead, the better because there is every chance of this being an outright game. Get the two wickets early and bat well, that is the plan for tomorrow.”One man the team can take a cue from is Prerak Mankad, the debutant, who was fast-tracked into the team after consistent returns for Saurashtra Under-23s. He battled hard to make a composed 66, after walking in to bat at 108 for 7. It helped Saurashtra get past the 200-mark on a surface where batsmen needed to graft.”Ever since we got here, I had feelers from the coach that I would play, because this is a seaming wicket,” Mankad said. “The plan was to bat normally, but I hadn’t faced an attack of this quality before. Maybe in an Under-25 game against Rajasthan, we played on a similar surface, but not this kind of attack. The plan was to play close to the body and leave balls that are outside off stump, that was the plan.”From the morning, when I was included in the XI, the team motivated me. The environment was good, everyone was pushing me and my self-belief was good. When I walked out, Arpit Vasavada was already batting. That was very important for me because he is my captain in inter-district cricket, I have been playing with him for a long time. He kept giving me advice and I followed that.”