Suresh Raina made a timely return to form with an unbeaten 59-ball 126, as Uttar Pradesh crushed Bengal by 75 runs in their opening Super League fixture in Kolkata

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jan-20181:06

Will Kuldeep be a big buy this auction?

Suresh Raina made a timely return to form with an unbeaten 59-ball 126, as Uttar Pradesh crushed Bengal by 75 runs in their opening Super League fixture in Kolkata. Raina’s fourth T20 hundred comes after a dry spell that had him go without a half-century for more than 10 innings across formats. His knock included 13 fours and seven sixes and propelled Uttar Pradesh to 235 for 3. With a retainership of INR 11 crore, Raina was one of the three players held on to by Chennai Super Kings ahead of the IPL auction.Raina found his major ally in Akshdeep Nath, who smashed 80 off 43 balls including seven fours and four sixes. Nath, who also played under Raina for Gujarat Lions in the IPL, shared a 163-run partnership with him for the third wicket. He has set his base price at INR 20 lakh ahead of the auction on January 27 and 28.While Raina and Nath starred with the bat, it was Kuldeep Yadav who put the skids on Bengal with the ball. He finished with figures of 4 for 26, accounting for the wickets of Shreevats Goswami, Sudip Chatterjee, Pramod Chandila and Anustup Majumdar. The 23-year-old left-arm wristspinner has enjoyed a good run with Kolkata Knight Riders in the past, and has subsequently enjoyed a good season with the national side. Kuldeep has set his base price at INR 1.5 crore, and is expected to be one of the major spinning picks at the auction.Meanwhile, Bengal didn’t bat their full quota of overs as they folded for 160 in 16.1 overs. Only Goswami, who made 57 off 28 balls, and Sudip (36 off 25) made substantial contributions. With the ball, seamer Ashok Dinda took one wicket for 29 runs.

After limiting Kenya to 177 for 8, Nepal’s lower order clinched a thrilling three-wicket win over Kenya, helping them recover from 82 for 5 in a chase of 178

The Report by Peter Della Penna13-Feb-20181:40

‘I was the first to run into the ground’ – Lamichhane

Nepal moved a step closer to the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe with a nailbiting three-wicket win off the final ball over Kenya at Wanderers Sports Park. At 82 for 5 chasing 178, and with their batting core of Paras Khadka, Gyanendra Malla and Sharad Vesawkar back in the pavilion, few would have bet on Nepal’s historically shaky middle and lower order to salvage a victory. But an 87-run sixth wicket stand did just that, propelling them to their third win. Nepal now need just one more over Canada on the final day of the group stage to advance to next month’s qualifier.Nepal appeared set to pay the price for a subpar fielding performance. Irfan Karim was dropped in the first ball of the match, as the Kenya wicketkeeper went on to top-score with 42 off 100 balls. Alex Obanda took the lead in Kenya’s opening stand while Karim settled down, smashing 41 off 46 balls to take their side to 65 for 1.But the legspinning sensation Sandeep Lamichhane put another stamp on a dominant tournament with the ball – he’s currently the leading wicket-taker with 14 scalps – dismissing Obanda in his first over for the first of his five wickets. Lamichhane’s five maidens nearly ground the Kenya innings to a halt, but after surviving his spell, Kenya’s tail added 38 off the final five overs.Emmanuel Ringera gashed the top order for wickets in each of his first three overs after taking the new ball for Kenya, but Khadka once again rescued Nepal from embarrassment, holding firm with 42 off 44 balls. However, when he and Vesawkar fell, the inexperienced duo of Aarif Sheikh and Rohit Kumar stepped up with an improbable partnership, taking the target down to 10 off the final 10 balls when Sheikh fell slogging a skier in the circle off Shem Ngoche’s spin.Paudel was then runout to a poor call from Sompal Kami, leaving Nepal with two to get off the final two balls. Kami swung and missed at the first, but drove the final ball from Nelson Odhiambo to deep midwicket. The pair took on Ngoche for a dicey second, and a fumble from the fielder as he charged ahead put Kenya out of the promotion hunt after their third straight loss.

According to the Royal Dutch Cricket Association, the tournament is set to become an annual event

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Apr-2018

Tri-series schedule

June 12 Netherlands v Ireland, Rotterdam
June 13 Netherlands v Ireland, Rotterdam
June 16 Ireland v Scotland, Deventer
June 17 Ireland v Scotland, Deventer
June 19 Netherlands v Scotland, Amstelveen
June 20 Netherlands v Scotland, Amstelveen

The Netherlands is set to host a triangular T20 series also involving Ireland and Scotland in Rotterdam, Deventer and Amstelveen, from June 12 to 20.”This tournament will become an annual event between the three strongest European cricket countries,” the Royal Dutch Cricket Association (KNCB) said in a statement.”I am so excited about the announcement of this annual tri-series T20 event with Ireland and Scotland,” said Ryan Campbell, the Netherlands coach. “I believe the three teams are evenly matched and the opportunity to play against our neighbours more often is something that we’ve been trying to put together for some time now. The matches will be action packed and this will be our first steps in preparation for the 2019 World T20 Qualifiers.”The three countries had contested the World Cup Qualifiers last month but failed to make the cut. While Netherlands did not get past the group stage, Scotland and Ireland qualified for the Super Six stage and finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Chasing 230 in 40 overs in a rain-affected match, Zimbabwe went into the last over needing 15, but managed only 11

The Report by Liam Brickhill22-Mar-2018Zimbabwe all but crashed out of the running for a spot at the 2019 World Cup with a narrow three-run defeat to United Arab Emirates in their final Super Six match at the Harare Sports Club. Chasing 230 in 40 overs in a rain-affected match, Zimbabwe went into the last over needing 15, but managed only 11. Their chase had been powered by Sean Williams’ 80, but his dismissal in the 37th over left the lower order with too much to do, and UAE held their nerve to record their first victory over a Test nation.

How can Zimbabwe still qualify?

Zimbabwe’s loss means they end with five points whereas Afghanistan and Ireland, who will play each other on Friday, have four each. Whoever wins on Friday will take the tenth spot in the World Cup but Zimbabwe still have a slim and improbable chance of making it which rests on the Afghanistan-Ireland match ending in a tie. In that case, all three teams will be tied on five points each but both Afghanistan’s and Ireland’s net run rate will take a beating since the teams will be conceding as many runs as they score. While Afghanistan’s NRR (0.34) is already below Zimbabwe’s (0.42), Ireland’s NRR (0.47) will slip below Zimbabwe’s to a value of 0.377.
However, if Friday’s clash is washed out, the three teams will end on five points again but the NRRs for Afghanistan and Ireland won’t change and Ireland will go through because of a higher NRR.

Needing to score at 5.75 from the outset, with only 40 overs and the potential of further rain delays, this was a situation in which Zimbabwe might have welcomed Cephas Zhuwao’s big hitting up front. But without him in the XI, Hamilton Masakadza and Solomon Mire opened the batting.With the ball skidding on a little quicker on a surface juiced up by the shower, Mohammad Naveed’s pace soon proved too much for Mire. Late on a pull, he spliced an easy catch to Shaiman Anwar at midwicket. Working up serious pace, Naveed then sent Masakadza’s off stump cartwheeling with a delivery clocked at 140kph. Those wickets put a dent in Zimbabwe, but it seemed they were floored when Brendan Taylor played down the wrong line at a delivery from Ahmed Raza that rushed on with the arm, zipping between bat and pad to bowl him for 15. Zimbabwe were reeling against the ropes at 45 for 3 with their best batsman back in the dressing room and the asking rate now at 6.6 per over.But while UAE’s bowling attack packed a punch, they couldn’t quite deliver the knockout blow. Williams and Peter Moor gritted their way through the new ball, a stiffness in their strokeplay that spoke volumes about the incredibly high stakes of this match. It wasn’t until Williams started to connect his reverse sweeps that they began to settle. He collected boundaries off Raza and Mustafa, and then broke free with a remarkable upper cut off Amir Hayat in the 25th over. That shot took him into the 40s, and a quick single soon after brought up a vital fifty from 56 deliveries.

Mustafa, Williams pick up demerit points

UAE captain Rohan Mustafa and Zimbabwe’s Sean Williams have been found guilty of breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during their verbal exchange in the 37th over after Mustafa had dismissed Williams. Both players admitted to their offences and a formal hearing was not required. They’ve each picked up one demerit point as a result, alongside fines of 15% of their match fees.
Mustafa was found to have breached Article 2.1.7 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to “using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batsman upon his/her dismissal during an International Match”, while Williams was found guilty of violating Article 2.1.4, which deals with “using language or a gesture that is obscene, offensive or insulting during an International Match”.

Immediately afterwards, however, Moor chipped a drive straight to Adnan Mufti in the covers to fall for 39. A 79-run partnership was broken, and the pressure increased once more. Needing at least a boundary an over, Raza and Williams scampered for every possible run, taking on the field, while Raza managed to puncture the leg-side boundary to keep the asking rate just about within check. Their fifty stand came up from only 36 deliveries, but the exertion began to tell on Williams, and cramps set in.With Zimbabwe needing 53 from 36, Raza heaved mightily to place a flighted delivery from Mustafa on the roof above the players’ dressing rooms, but then whipped a full-toss straight out to Shaiman Anwar at long leg. In an atmosphere of rising tension, Mustafa repeatedly warned the non-striking batsmen for backing up to far, threatening the Mankad but never actually tipping the bails off. When Williams collided with Hayat turning for a second run in the next over, words were exchanged and the umpire stepped in to cool things off. When Williams whipped a sweep over fine leg, but lapped the next ball to be caught, one-handed, by Hayat in that position, Mustafa bellowed a send-off.Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer arrived at the crease in an atmosphere of almost unbearable tension, and in fading light Naveed rifled in a full delivery to bowl him first ball, and the home side slipped to 209 for 7. Craig Ervine and Kyle Jarvis swung gamely, and Ervine was on strike to the final ball with six needed. But Naveed held his nerve, restricting them to two runs to break Zimbabwean hearts.Mohammad Naveed exults after picking up a wicket•IDI via Getty Images

UAE’s innings had begun under rather clearer skies. Asked to bat by Zimbabwe on the same pitch as was used in the game between Scotland and West Indies on Wednesday, captain Rohan Mustafa signalled his intent early with a hack over cover for four. Ashfaq Ahmed was also unafraid to hit over the top early on, but after conceding two boundaries, Tendai Chatara had him caught behind, pushing flat-footed at one that left him off the track.But while Jarvis’ length and swing troubled both edges of the bat, Chatara struggled for any consistency and despite the early wicket his opening spell leaked 31 runs in four overs. He wasn’t the only Zimbabwean to have an off day, and nerves may well have contributed to Zimbabwe’s stiffness in the field.Ghulam Shabber was gifted a life when an edge off his bat flew right between Taylor, keeping wicket once again, and Masakadza at first slip. He was also gifted extra runs, Chatara misreading the spin on the ball as it bounced towards him in the outfield, slipping wrong-footed, and giving away four. When his luck eventually ran out and he was bowled, missing a sweep at Raza, Rameez Shahzad continued to take the fight to Zimbabwe’s bowlers.Shahzad smashed an unbeaten 112 against West Indies earlier in this tournament, and in January he cracked 121 to help UAE chase down 300 against Scotland. Against Zimbabwe he showed that he hadn’t lost any touch by getting off the mark with a towering six off Raza that landed on the roof of the three-storey building at the Golf Course End. Fifteen overs of drives, pulls and dabs later, he brought up a half-century off 51 balls with an adventurous ramp over point, and UAE were bossing the innings at 171 for 3 after 37 overs.Zimbabwe’s bowlers surged once again at the death, and the wicket of Shahzad in the 39th over slowed UAE’s charge. Mohammad Usman and Shaiman Anwar holed out, and when Blessing Muzarabani removed Ahmed Raza in a wicket maiden in the 47th over, UAE had slipped to 211 for 7 with the rain on its way. There was just enough time for Naveed to blast 22 from 10 deliveries, boosting the score beyond Zimbabwe’s reach and, ultimately, shattering their World Cup dreams.

In their second rain-curtailed game against Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Daredevils survived a brutal Jos Buttler attack to lift themselves off the bottom of the table

The Report by Varun Shetty02-May-2018
4:04

Manjrekar: Expected the revised target to be much steeper

Delhi Daredevils had a lot of things different about them against Rajasthan Royals in their second meeting of the season – the captain had changed, the batting order was different and they’d posted a massive score batting first. It was a rain-curtailed game again, but this time they managed a different result too to rise above Mumbai Indians at the bottom of the table.Defending 150 in 12 overs, Daredevils came under a brutal attack from the promoted Jos Buttler, whose 18-ball fifty helped Royals smash down more than half the required runs with six overs and ten wickets still in hand. But a middle-order slide engineered by Amit Mishra and Trent Boult saw Daredevils pull things back.Earlier, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant had combined to put up 166 of the 196 runs Daredevils made in 17.1 overs.Young and freeWhen he lost the toss, Iyer said conditions would be easy and “not dewy” when his team went out to bat. Just over 20 minutes later, the groundstaff were pulling the covers on to keep the outfield dry. The rain reduced the game to 18-overs-a-side.Colin Munro faced his first ball against Royals this season, but when his inside edge against Dhawal Kulkarni was taken by Buttler, it became his second duck against them. Royals, who had replaced Rahul Tripathi with Ben Stokes at first slip, barely found another edge after that.First, they got acquainted with the middle of Shaw’s bat, which often met the ball above waist height but always with full control; the teenager, not the tallest of men, frequently stayed put in his crease and followed rising short-of-a-length deliveries with just his hands to comfortably clear the infield, in the ‘V’. In the middle of all that, he mistimed a full toss and offered a return catch in the third over that Kulkarni couldn’t hold on to. It took a change in pace – the legspin of Shreyas Gopal – to get Shaw as he tried to hit another one through the line. He had made 47 off 25.The finishing touchesPant has taken a couple of balls in the mid-riff this season while attempting to play the hook shot. Essentially, his falling over into the off side when the ball is pitched short has put him in trouble often.It’s not something he has tried to remedy, though. After copping one on the body from a Stokes bouncer, the left-hander continued to get inside the line of the ball when it was pitched short and even managed a six on one instance as he tried to avoid flicking the off stump with his back leg. He made 24 runs behind the square region.The rest of his runs came where they usually do – through the covers and at cow corner. Pant hit at least three boundaries through the off side that couldn’t have been more than five yards away from the closest fielder. They were just as helpless on those occasions as they were when he slugged three sixes on the leg side. In his 50th T20 match, this innings of 69 off 29 was the perfect tribute.At the other end, Iyer made his fourth fifty in five games as a sorry Royals attack’s most economical bowler went at 9.33.The Buttler specialIn a team trying to jam several specialist openers into the top order, Buttler had been reduced to the No. 5 slot. But Royals decided they needed him at the top to set the tone for a very steep chase, that was revised to 151 from 12 overs, and he delivered like only he does – with flat drives over the bowler, loopy ramps over the keeper and indiscreet slaughtering of short deliveries. Avesh Khan, with his predisposition for hitting the deck and skidding the ball on, was perhaps exactly what Buttler has been looking for in a season where he hadn’t yet made 30-plus. On the night, he made 34 in 10 balls of just Avesh.The moments that could’ve changed thingsWhen Iyer tossed the ball to Glenn Maxwell with 52 required off three overs, it was ideal for Royals – Short hit the first three balls for sixes and fell off the fourth. In doing so, he had made the runs against the part-timer and also allowed for finisher K Gowtham to come in. Iyer then kept them in it a second time. With 10 to win off the two balls, he not only dropped Gowtham at deep midwicket, but also conceded four runs.However, a mishap during the 15th over of Daredevils’ innings might have made the biggest difference. Jaydev Unadkat’s second ball was an offcutter that deflected off Pant’s glove into Buttler’s path. The wicketkeeper shied at and hit the non-striker’s stumps as the batsmen ran through.The ricochet had rolled harmlessly towards Stokes who was backing up in the mid-off region. But the allrounder had barely made it halfway to the ground with his lazy effort to the left as Daredevils picked up four overthrows.

James Hildreth continued his fine form but was unable to help chase down an imposing 342

ECB Reporters Network22-May-2018
ScorecardLuke Wright smacked 105 off 87 balls as Sussex ended Somerset’s unbeaten start to the season with a 75-run Royal London One-Day Cup win at Taunton.Wright blasted 10 fours and three sixes to lead his side to 341 for 7 after winning the toss. David Wiese hit 58 not out and Michael Burgess 56, while there were three wickets each for Max Waller and Tim Groenewald.In reply, Somerset made 266 all out, the in-form James Hildreth top-scoring with 87. Matt Renshaw made 55 on his List A debut for the county and Steve Davies 56, but despite their efforts the hosts finished well short.Danny Briggs turned the match in Sussex’s favour, removing Hildreth and Craig Overton in the 40th over, with the outcome apparently in the balance. Ishant Sharma was the most successful bowler with 3 for 47.It was Somerset’s first defeat in any form of cricket this season and they could have no complaints, having been under pressure from the opening overs of the game.After Luke Wells had fallen cheaply to Craig Overton, Wright collected his first maximum off the same bowler and was soon timing the ball sweetly on a true pitch in bright sunshine.He found an able partner in Harry Finch and the pair accelerated in good style, putting on 107 in 16 overs before legspinner Waller ended the stand by dismissing Finch lbw for 35.Visiting skipper Ben Brown fell for only 8, but Wright blossomed to take the total past 200 before falling to a well-judged catch by Tom Banton at deep mid-wicket off Waller.Laurie Evans contributed a bright 43 before also departing leg-before to Waller, whose handy mid-innings spell brought 3 for 52 from ten overs.But Sussex needed a big score in the conditions and they got it thanks to Wiese and Burgess, whose half-centuries were full of aggressive, cleanly struck shots.Still Somerset would have fancied their chances at the halfway stage. But they lost Johann Myburgh and Peter Trego, captaining the side in the absence of the injured Tom Abell, with only 24 on the board, both to Oli Robinson.Hildreth, a centurion in the previous game against Glamorgan, again looked in fine form. But Steve Davies, having been dropped twice on the way to scoring 56, was unlucky to play a ball from Abi Sakande onto his stumps and when Tom Banton fell to a poor shot the home side were 101 for 4.Hildreth went to fifty off 62 balls and Renshaw hit the ball sweetly to reach a half-century off just 36 deliveries before being caught behind flashing at a wide ball from Wiese.The departure of Hildreth proved decisive. He was caught and bowled by Briggs off a leading edge and when both Overton brothers, Craig and Jamie, went in quick succession Sussex were as good as home.Roelof van der Merwe was unbeaten on 34 at the end, but his side were well beaten.

Sam Northeast was booed by Kent supporters but also played a key role as Hampshire made a record total for a domestic one-day final

Andrew McGlashan at Lord's30-Jun-20181:00

‘I’ll take all the bad luck in the world and win a final’ – Rossouw

ScorecardHampshire’s record total for an English domestic one-day final, built around Rilee Rossouw’s 125, proved more than enough for them to secure the Royal London Cup in what became a rather one-sided showpiece with Kent’s chasing failing to really ignite.Having been put into bat – Kent’s preference for chasing rather than conditions being the key factor – Hampshire’s top-order put in a commanding performance, set up by an opening stand of 136 in 22 overs between Rossouw and Tom Alsop. Sam Northeast, welcomed to the crease by loud boos from the Kent supporters – part of a crowd of over 20,000 – who hadn’t forgiven him for his acrimonious departure pre-season, finished unbeaten on 75 off 60 deliveries as Hampshire went past Warwickshire’s 322 (made from 60 overs) against Sussex in 1993.Still, it felt a little light given they had been 193 for 1 after 30 overs – modern expectations saying 350 was a minimum from that position – as Kent clawed the innings back well, largely through Joe Denly’s legspin which claimed 4 for 57 including a wicket maiden in the 44th over and two wickets in three balls in the 46th. Without Denly’s all-round capability, Kent would have had huge problems with Calum Haggett only entrusted with three overs in the innings after an expensive start.Kent had emphasised their chasing skills in the semi-final against Worcestershire and made a positive start through the prolific Heino Kuhn, but his run out – a direct hit by Gareth Berg as he underarmed into the stumps – was a significant blow. Daniel Bell-Drummond was shaping to play a similar role to Rossouw but couldn’t convert into the three-figure score needed and though Sam Billings’ 75 was timely on a personal level, it came too late. Liam Dawson was impressive with the ball and Hampshire had enough runs to soak up the difficulties faced by legspinner Mason Crane.Hampshire’s openers had started by hitting fielders with a little too much regularity for their liking, but the innings was kickstarted when Haggett’s opening over was taken for 18 including three boundaries for the left-handed Alsop.Through cult hero Darren Stevens (who else?) and Denly, Kent did manage to keep a lid on the scoring rate to a degree – it was rarely above six-an-over for the first 20. The stand was broken by Imran Qayyum’s second delivery when the left-arm spinner had Alsop stumped. Qayyum later added a second when he removed James Vince, who had eased along at a run-a-ball, with a catch to long-on.Rossouw, the former South Africa batsman who had one previous century in the competition this season, played a classy innings, scoring all round the wicket but slightly favouring the leg side where he collected his three sixes. He had made 201 of his 269 runs in the tournament leading into the final from two innings in late May – a century against Essex which followed 90 against Surrey – so it was a timely moment to find top form against the white ball again; a Championship hundred against Lancashire last week will have left him in good heart.His century came off 97 deliveries with the one significant alarm being when he was close to being run out, backing-up as a straight drive by Vince clipped Stevens’ fingers. He celebrated with gusto, a roar of emotion and a punch of his chest, and had plenty of time to make a huge individual score. He got as far as 125 when he fell to Denly at which point Hampshire’s innings stuttered.Northeast ensured there remained a direction – a six over extra cover off Harry Podmore the pick of his shots – and his half-century was marked with a mixture of applause from the supporters of his new county and further boos from those of his old. It was about as feisty as the reception at this ground could be. There is clearly no love lost.In all, the final ten overs of Hampshire’s innings brought just 68 runs but, even in an age where white-ball scores are only heading one way, the added pressure of a run chase in a final still made 330 formidable.After more than 650 runs to take Kent into the final, Kuhn’s departure – which almost brought a nasty collision between batsman and fielder – was a hammer blow but there were still others who could do his work. However, none could quite get going as was required to keep the hefty target within view.Denly top-edged a leg-side hoick against Berg and though Bell-Drummond played very nicely, he needed someone to score at a greater rate alongside him. Sean Dickson struggled to get going – save for one beautiful straight drive for six – and fell to a top-edged slog sweep against Crane. Then, when Bell-Drummond dragged on against Chris Wood the requirement was too much.For Crane, who had an injection in his back to play through the pain for this match and may not feature any further this season after a recurrence of his stress fracture, the day ended with much more celebration that it appeared it may when his first three overs went for 29. Vince had to get through a few fill-in overs, but having seen the asking rate touch nine-an-over gave his legspinner another chance. Consistency remained scarce, but the emotion when he claimed the wicket spoke volumes for a player who has had tough times since his Test debut in Sydney.Better, still, was to come when he produced a direct hit from the deep to run out Alex Blake. Blake had played a starring role in the semi-final run chase and if he had cut loose Kent would have had a glimmer. As he trudged back, Hampshire had one hand on the trophy.

Virat Kohli knew that if India’s batsmen could stand up and fight, they had the bowling to win the Test and keep the series alive

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Aug-2018India were behind by 2-0 going into the Trent Bridge Test, but it seems there wasn’t too much panic in the dressing room. After sealing an emphatic 203-run victory, that kept India alive in the series, Virat Kohli revealed that the only thing the team was concentrating on was “putting runs on the board” because “the bowlers were doing so well”.”We only spoke about the fact that we were outplayed in only one Test out of the last five overseas, which was at Lord’s and there was no need for us to change anything because Birmingham was close,” he said at the post-match presentation. “As a batting group, we spoke about how the bowlers are doing so well and if we just stepped up as batsmen we will definitely be on top and that’s exactly what we did.”India made 329 in the first innings, having overcome a tough period in the morning to make runs in the sunshine. Then in a reversal of events from the last Test, the clouds returned when it was England’s turn to bat. Harnessing the help on offer, Hardik Pandya picked up five wickets in six overs to bundle the hosts out for 161.”The bowling group was eager to take 20 wickets again. It was just a question of as batsmen what we can do to provide them with that cushion of going hard at the opposition and that’s exactly what we did in this game. When both skills come together with slip catching, you win Test matches and I’m really happy to see everyone taking the responsibility at the right time. Couldn’t have come at a better time for us.”James Anderson shakes hands with Virat Kohli after the match•Getty Images

An important contributor to the victory was India’s vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane. He came out to bat on the back of a string of low scores – 15. 2. 19 and 13 – but changed the “complex of the game” with a fine half-century, his first in 14 innings.”Jinx was very clear with his mindset. That’s something that we really love about him. He’s very positive in his set up. He prepares that way and when he goes out and plays like that he’s very attractive to watch and he changed the whole complex of the game. Exactly what he did. We just kept talking about how we need to keep building a strong and a big partnership and just march on from there. It was all about getting stuck in, not throwing our wicket away, having that patience to grind out the opposition. They’re a quality bowling attack but you need patience grit and determination to score against them. I think Jinx in the first innings and Puji in the second showed that immensely.Kohli and Rahane put on 159 runs in 40.2 overs and then tagged in the bowlers and this time it was Jasprit Bumrah’s turn. Long considered a white-ball specialist, he broke through England’s resistance in the second innings dismissing the centurion Jos Buttler and hastening India’s rush to victory with figures of 5 for 85.”We dominated the game because we put runs on the board and then the bowlers were waiting and ready as always. Someone like Bumrah stepping in, Pandya taking five, Ishant experienced as always, Shami running in as well, Ash as well with his injury bowled so well.”The most pleasing thing for me to see in the morning was the four fastest bowlers in the series so far have been all Indians. That’s something that we’re really proud of. We’ve worked on our fitness levels. We’ve worked one our mindsets and we’re just eager to go out there and make a play for the team. Cutting down any loose deliveries or loose phases. We want the opposition to bat well to get runs, not gift them any. So these guys are getting into that kind of mindset as they’re playing more and more Test cricket. It’s just such a delight to watch guys running in and going hard at the batsmen because as batsmen you understand how hard it is to get Test runs and you want to make it as hard for the opposition as well and these guys are doing it beautifully.”

English cricket’s custodians have been warned to return more of the game to free-to-air television or face the prospect of a further shrink in the game’s audience

Daniel Brettig01-Aug-2018English cricket’s custodians have been warned to return more of the game to free-to-air television or face the prospect of a further shrink in the game’s audience, in the wake of sluggish ticket sales for the Edgbaston Test match.David Barham, the Australian television executive who helmed the Ten Network’s lauded Big Bash League coverage from 2013 to this year and has now moved to the new Cricket Australia broadcast rights holders Seven, has been consulted by visiting delegations from the ECB and counties over several years.He told ESPNcricinfo that a strong free-to-air television presence was vital for sports that wished to remain visible and relevant to large audiences, pointing to the relative struggles of the football A-League in the competitive Australian marketplace as an example of a sport taking pay television dollars over bigger viewership. Barham has been encouraged by the ECB’s decision to award a sprinkling of matches to the BBC from 2020 onwards, fully 15 years after cricket was hidden behind Sky’s paywall.”It’s been interesting and I’ve had a lot of visits over the last few years from people coming out here trying to figure out what happened with the BBL and county cricket … I think three years in a row there was a posse of county cricket bosses coming out,” Barham said. “I think if you’re not on free-to-air you’re in a lot of trouble.”I think the BBL proved one one thing, and that is by looking at the A-League [football] and the BBL [audiences]. The A-League, where are they? Almost dead. BBL went from a slim TV audience to a million, and even crowds went from about 12,000 to 30,000 over five years, mainly on the back of free-to-air TV. You’ve got to be on free-to-air to have a chance. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in England with their league.”Caught between sceptical television networks and self-preservationist counties, the ECB has been taken aback by the reaction to their proposals for a fourth format of the game which is even shorter than Twenty20. Barham said that the length and entertainment value of sporting contests had been a matter of concern for numerous governing bodies when negotiating with broadcasters in recent times.”Short, sharp,” he said. “I know a lot of other sporting bodies started to look at the length of their game because of the BBL, even the AFL looked at how long they’re going. It’s appropriate that KFC sponsors the BBL, because it’s like fast food. Grab something, eat it, you beauty. But all sports are looking at how long they go and what they do, because the attention span of kids is decreasing.”Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, has underlined the difficulty of turning back more than a decade spent ignoring free-to-air broadcasters, leading to the creation of The Hundred. “This was an opportunity for free-to-air to do something different with a format that had never been on terrestrial TV in prime time,” Harrison told SportsPro Magazine last year.”That opportunity is tremendously exciting. It’s still very challenging for free-to-air TV to schedule long-form cricket – either ODI or Test match cricket. That’s not to say that that can’t happen in the future, but for this particular moment in time where, traditionally to pay-TV, the BBC are losing rights, this was a moment where they could celebrate something returning – a major sport coming back with significant investment behind it.”Another Australian, Matt Dwyer, recently resigned from his role as head of growth and participation for the ECB, but before his departure made it clear that English cricket had to present a radical idea to broadcasters in order to get the game back to being seen by a wider audience.”We’re just saying for a five-week period, cricket is going to market itself, like the Olympics does for athletics,” Dwyer told Wisden Cricket Monthly in May. Cricket’s back on free-to-air, and we’re not asking you, as the cricket fan, to compromise very much.”The shift in the narrative when it went from the BBC, saying that cricket has not been a part of their plans for 17 years, to telling them we’ve got something new and revolutionary, you could see the change. Four out of five people in this country just see cricket as boring. So what are we doing to attract them? Something different.”Otherwise the broadcasters wouldn’t compromise their traditional model. And it had to differentiate itself from the Blast, so we don’t just have traditionalist cricket fans turning up again. And then, ultimately, we need it to link back to participation. So, rather than ask if we’ve gone too far, my question would be – have we been radical enough?”

When Lancashire were 63 for 4 they appeared set to be plunged closer to relegation, but they completed a magnificent chase that could yet save their Championship season

Paul Edwards31-Aug-2018
ScorecardEarly this morning, before any spectators had arrived, a Lancashire cricketer strolled out to the middle at Trafalgar Road. He assumed his batting stance at the Harrod Drive End, then at the Grosvenor Road. He played a few shots to imaginary balls and, one assumes, contemplated that which he would be called upon to do. His name was Dane Vilas.Now let us scroll forward some eight hours. Vilas is facing Josh Tongue and there are some two thousand pairs of eyes upon him. He clips the ball crisply to the square leg boundary to reach his third century of the season. The applause drowns out the rumble of a passing train, but even that cacophony is exceeded a few minutes later when Josh Bohannon hits Tongue for consecutive boundaries to seal the four-wicket victory over Worcestershire which administers the kiss of life to Lancashire’s chances of avoiding relegation.Perhaps just as significantly, the victory gives unbounded joy to most folk in the crowd at Trafalgar Road. They cheer and will not stop. The suited ones cheer in the marquee and men in daft shorts cheer on the popular side. The players in the dug-out cheer and shake hands with anyone they can find, fifty-year-old songs from a great age in Lancashire cricket are resurrected and belted out anew. Few have seen this coming. Vilas finishes on 107 not out while Bohannon, the deuteragonist in the great drama and a Boltonian battler to his marrow, ends unbeaten on 78. The pair have added an unbroken 139 for the seventh wicket and if you had told Lancashire supporters early this morning that their team would be bowled out for that many, they would have grunted an acceptance.

Bohey’s maturity was incredible – Vilas

Dane Vilas, Lancashire matchwinner: “The team has some great players and guys who have scored runs over countless seasons. We know we have let ourselves down at times, we can’t hide from that. But when this team, when the questions are raised, the guys stand up. Most important for me was the guys who came in to help me out. In the way that Bohey [Josh Bohannon] came in in only his second game, the maturity was incredible.”
Kevin Sharp, Worcestershire head coach: “I don’t think we’ve done much wrong to be honest. The pitch has probably got a bit better to bat on. I thought we might win this but that innings from Vilas is a class innings, a match-winning innings. There’s lots to look forward to and important games to come against teams in the bottom half of the division. We will sulk for an hour, get on the bus and go home.”

It was impossible, of course. No one had ever chased down 314 to win at Trafalgar Road and the pitch was nipping around. But records are there to be eclipsed and the view that this wicket was a mere club surface on which centuries were impossible was exposed as utter bunkum. It turned out that all you needed was a tight technique and faith in your own ability. So Vilas anchored the innings and gave one difficult chance to slip on 84 while Bohannon stayed true to his pugnacious nature and took the game to Worcestershire. And Worcestershire’s bowlers did not like it up ’em.In his book Mike Brearley remembered Tony Greig’s first Test century, at Bombay in 1973. “He played calmly, from his own centre,” writes Brearley. Both Vilas and Bohannon played from their own centres. Dear God, they made it look almost easy.But surely it was impossible. That much had been clear when Lancashire had withered to 63 for 4 inside the first 75 minutes of play. People talked of an early afternoon finish. First to go was Haseeb Hameed who hit three sweet fours, two of them cover-drives, but then came forward a little woodenly to Ed Barnard and edged behind for 14. Two deliveries later Rob Jones attempted a similar stroke with the same result and collected an eight-ball pair. Any lunatic optimism felt by spectators on this blissful morning was then thoroughly doused twenty minutes later when Alex Davies tried to pull a ball but only skied a catch. “Mine” called Ben Cox loudly enough to petrify Formby’s red squirrels: 63 for 4 and some in the corporate hospitality marquee decided to make their early sharpener a large one.A memorable day for Dane Vilas•Getty Images/Action Plus

And who could blame them on this last day of meteorological summer? “Gone, gone again, / May, June, July, / And August gone” wrote Edward Thomas in “Blenheim Oranges”. Soon we will be deep in the month when cricketers harvest their year’s work. September also brings other farewells. It was announced on Friday morning that this game would be the last in the 27-year career of Matt Procter, Lancashire’s PA announcer. Ever the loyalist, Procter attempted to destabilise Lancashire’s opponents by announcing that Hameed had been “caught Cox bowled ” Matt will be missed but the catch wasn’t.Steven Croft, another faithful servant, began to play himself in. The suited ones retired to the marquee, where they lunched well and either toasted Timothy Taylor or danced the optic tango. By the time they emerged again Croft had driven and cut half a dozen fours through the off side and Lancashire were well past three figures.All the same, it was surely still impossible so why wouldn’t Vilas be told? Worcestershire’s bowlers remained threatening and their fielders lively. Cox kept wicket with the brim of his sunhat tilted back and looked for all this precious world like an echo from the Golden Age: I Zingari, perhaps, or the Worcestershire Occasionals.Croft made 36 before he could do nothing with a fine ball from Tongue and edged behind. Jordan Clark made 31 but then lofted the slow left-armer Ben Twohig to Brett D’Oliveira at deep mid-off. Bohannon, bristling with “are you looking me”, strode out to join Vilas. Quite soon he had driven boundaries and the crowd warmed to him. Vilas, untroubled by anyone, continued to bat just as he had visualised early in the morning. Club members, who work for months to make this game a success, realised that dear old Trafalgar Road was singing more tunes of glory.It is nearly dark on the last day of August. The lights are bright on the tennis courts on the day when Lancashire mounted their highest run chase for 13 years. But the tunes of glory are heard still as out in the middle Dane Vilas plays shadow shots to the bowling of a ghost.