Australia have arrived as a force at the World Twenty20, just in time to wave goodbye to Pakistan, as they completed a 21-run win in Mohali

The Report by Daniel Brettig25-Mar-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJames Faulkner took his maiden five-wicket haul to help Australia to a 21-run win•Getty Images

Australia have arrived as a force at the World Twenty20, just in time to wave goodbye to Pakistan, as they completed a 21-run win in Mohali. A storming display with the bat was followed by an improved showing with the ball, setting up what will be effectively an elimination match against India in the final match of the Super 10s on Sunday.The captain Steven Smith chose Mohali as the venue where he found his rhythm, in turn modulated then audacious in an innings that controlled the tempo of a strong total. He was helped in large part by Shane Watson, who batted with the air of a man freed of tension by his retirement announcement on match eve. Together, their stand left Pakistan with a total too steep despite friendly batting conditions.In the field, Adam Zampa again bowled with considerable intelligence and character for Australia, winning a duel with Shahid Afridi that Pakistan’s captain could not afford to lose if he wished to stay in contention for the semi-finals. James Faulkner’s over-the-wrist slower balls then cut a swathe through the latter part of the innings as the run rate climbed, leaving him in possession of Australia’s best T20 bowling figures.Pakistan’s chase began firmly, as Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif and Umar Akmal all played with considerable flair. Nathan Coulter-Nile was subjected to some particularly harsh treatment, and at 85 for 2 in the 11th over the match was overmuch open to Afridi’s men.However, Zampa showed his nerve by finding a way past Akmal, and two overs later followed up by coaxing Afridi down the wicket. The stumping was completed without fuss by Peter Nevill, who has provided a steadying presence behind the stumps in this tournament even though he is not in the batsman-wicketkeeper mode that has become dominant in the 21st century.From there the required rate climbed with increasing steepness, too much even for Shoaib Malik, who hit out firmly at the end. Australia’s lack of a second spin bowler to support Zampa has been a point of some contention, but Faulkner’s past as a left-arm wrist spinner has helped him assemble a strong array of change-ups that flummoxed the lower order. Josh Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell also contributed tidy overs to the cause.Smith had named another reshuffled Australian side with the soon to retire Watson dropping down the order to make room for the return of Aaron Finch at the expense of Mitchell Marsh, while Hazlewood was included ahead of John Hastings. Pakistan recalled the fit-again Wahab Riaz in place of Mohammad Irfan, who was described as resting by his captain Afridi.On an excellent pitch offering some sort of help for batsmen and bowlers alike, Mohammad Amir fought a fascinating early duel with Usman Khawaja. Amir’s pace and movement unsettled Khawaja in ways seldom seen over the past few months, and while the opener scored swiftly, it was without his customary assurance. When Wahab replaced Mohammad Sami at the other end, Khawaja remained fretful, and was yorked giving himself room – Amir had undoubtedly played a part.Finch and David Warner did not linger, but Maxwell produced one of the strokes of the tournament with a pure off-driven six that left many wondering why he seems compelled to resort to the outlandish so often. Even so, there was still much work to do when Smith was joined by Watson, on a ground where in 2010 he made one of his two Test hundreds.Smith’s concentration had been fierce, with Warner and Maxwell’s blows allowing him to hustle into an innings without trying anything too lateral. Watson’s arrival had Smith taking his tempo up several notches, as they charted a course to a total near 200. Initially, Watson looked a little unused to the middle order, but after scrambling to 10 from 10 balls, he detonated.Watson’s sheer power was shown when he muscled Amir over long-on and underlined once more with a glorious six inside out over cover from Sami. Meanwhile Wahab’s efforts to stop Smith from levering the ball through the leg side reached a memorable extreme when Australia’s captain took guard well outside off stump. Wahab followed him wider, yet Smith was still able to flip a boundary over midwicket that will make all the tournament highlight reels.In all, Watson and Smith added 74 in 38 balls. Amir and Sami conceded 92 between them without taking a wicket, figures that appeared unlikely when Khawaja had been groping unsuccessfully at the left-armer’s new-ball swing. Australia grew in strength from there, much as they have in this tournament. The meeting with India looms large.

Mumbai Indians coach Ricky Ponting said that his side’s inability to maintain momentum in the middle overs of a 165-run chase against Delhi Daredevils was one of the main factors for their 10-run loss in Delhi

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Apr-2016Mumbai Indians coach Ricky Ponting said that his side’s inability to maintain momentum in the middle overs of a 165-run chase against Delhi Daredevils was one of the main factors for their 10-run loss in Delhi.Mumbai were 52 for 1 at the end of the Powerplay, and a comfortable 98 for 2 in 12 overs with Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya at the crease. However, Daredevils’ bowlers, particularly legspinner Amit Mishra, dragged them back and a five-over period between the 13th and 17th overs saw Mumbai score only 25 runs. Ponting felt that Rohit, who eventually scored 65 before his run-out in the last over, struggled to get going in that period.

Try to bowl yorkers as fast as I can – Morris

Delhi Daredevils’ quick bowler Chris Morris, who defended 20 runs off the final over against Mumbai Indians on Saturday, praised his captain Zaheer Khan’s strategies in the end overs of the match. A string of quiet overs from Daredevils’ spinners had stifled Mumbai’s chase of 165 leaving them with an equation of 42 off the last three overs, which were bowled by Morris and Zaheer.
“If it was left to me I would have bowled my third over at [Kieron] Pollard as soon as he came in [the 15th over with Mumbai at 110 for 4], but Zak (Zaheer Khan) being the genius that he is, decided that he would save me for the end with himself,” Morris told . “A genius move by the man; it came off today, it could have backfired horribly. But he has played so many games of cricket and taken so many wickets in his career for a reason. He is very experienced and I think he was brilliant today.”
On his role as an end-overs bowler, Morris said he stuck to a simple plan: “I try and stay calm, believe in what I do and bowl my yorkers as fast as I can. So there might be simple things, but for me I am here to bowl yorkers and bowl fast. That’s basically the plan and, luckily, today it counted for me.”

“It felt like we had control of that game for most of the 40 overs. Even with the ball, it didn’t feel like it got away from us at any stage until I guess, the last couple of overs,” Ponting told . “We were well ahead in our batting and in the Powerplay, we were 50-odd, so we were well ahead at that stage, and we had wickets in hand.”Rohit just couldn’t get going in the middle stages of the innings. From the sidelines it felt like he was a bit deprived of the strike as well and momentum just stopped a little bit. Mishra bowled a great spell and then Morris at the end with his yorkers was very good. I think we went for 17 from our last bowling over as well (Mumbai conceded 16), and these games are decided by small margins. Tonight, we were just a little bit off at crucial times and that probably cost us the game.”The middle-overs slump left Mumbai needing 32 off the last two overs and 21 off the final one. Rohit struck a six off the second ball of the 20th over, bowled by Chris Morris, but a ball later, a mid-pitch collision with Hardik Pandya resulted in his dismissal and he had to be helped off the field by the team physio. That dismissal sealed Mumbai’s fourth loss in six matches, leaving them in the bottom half of the table.One positive for Mumbai from the game was another strong performance from Krunal. The allrounder was promoted to No. 4 and cracked a 17-ball 36, which included four fours and two sixes. Playing in his debut IPL season, Krunal has been effective with the bat and his left-arm spin, taking three wickets and scoring 105 runs at a strike rate of 187.5 in three innings. On Saturday, Ponting lauded the allrounder for his fearless approach that forced Daredevils to tweak their tactics.”He was going well at that stage. I had sent him in to try and attack the legspin and he did that well. It forced Zaheer to bring himself back and an over of [Mohammed] Shami as well. Tactically, it worked well and he’s a fearless young player. The couple of times he’s had an opportunity early in the innings, he’s done really well for us. That [Pandya’s run-out] was costly, but you can never put your finger on one instance in a T20 that cost you the game.”

Zimbabwe coach Makhaya Ntini has said that his side would like to see teams send their strongest XI to the country, instead of using Zimbabwe as a trial series for younger players

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jun-2016Makhaya Ntini, the Zimbabwe interim coach, has demanded international teams send their best players to tour the country. According to AFP, speaking on the eve of the first ODI against an Indian outfit so inexperienced that their captain MS Dhoni has more matches under his belt than the rest of the 15 combined, Ntini said: “If you send us a team that is not your strongest team, we’re going to put them under the carpet.”Ntini hit out at other Full Members for their reluctance to send full-strength squads to play Zimbabwe, who are ranked below Afghanistan in ODIs and were the only Full Member team not to qualify for the Super 10s stage of the recently concluded World T20.”We’re sick and tired of waiting around for South Africa to send their A team,” he said. “We want to compete with the big boys. We’re creating a new venture here. We want to make sure that this country gets to play more games, and if you send us a team that is not your strongest team, we’re going to put them under the carpet so that they go home and tell people that they need to send their strongest team.”India’s interim coach Sanjay Bangar in turn said that his side’s “focus is inwards”.”We believe in [letting] our performance speak,” Bangar said. “We have a talented bunch of young players. They’ve done really well in the domestic championships and the India A circuit. We do not want to give too much attention to what the opposition is saying.”It’s [Zimbabwe tours] a great platform for the younger guys. It has provided a launch pad for a number of cricketers – Virat Kohli came here and led India for the first time [in 2013], Suresh Raina came in and then Ajinkya Rahane. We believe it’s a very, very important tour for the younger lot. It provides us an opportunity to look at the future stars emerging from the Indian scene.”

Kaushal Silva was the only Sri Lanka wicket to fall as a mere 12.2 overs were possible on a rain-wrecked final day at Lord’s

The Report by David Hopps13-Jun-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThe last day of the series at Lord’s had promised so much. England needed to bowl out Sri Lanka to take a 3-0 clean sweep in the series, but Sri Lanka, driven ahead by a sense of grievance, were not about to relinquish the Test easily. At 32 for 0, requiring 362, they were down but far from out.Then the rain spoiled it. The clouds were so black over Lord’s that one might have imagined St John’s Wood had become the centre of a second industrial revolution which would certainly have disturbed a few people in the posh boutiques in the High Street.Only 12.2 overs were possible all day until the Test was laid to rest with 5.15pm approaching. By then it felt like a blessed relief. Jonny Bairstow was named as England’s man of the series and Kaushal Silva took the equivalent award for Sri Lanka.All that now remains is for the fall-out from a Test, in which Sri Lanka felt they did not have the rub of the green with umpiring decisions, to move on to the ICC annual meeting in Edinburgh later this month. Speeches will be made (again) about the accuracy of DRS, the validity of a 50% margin for Umpire’s Call and a perceived bias in favour of the Big Three. Lord’s has put fresh vigour into an old debate.Silva was the only Sri Lanka wicket to fall on the final day as a mere 3.4 overs were possible up to tea. He departed lbw to an excellent late inswinger from James Anderson, up the slope, and after an unsuccessful review could at least console himself that he had finally broken his extraordinary run of being caught at the wicket in each of his previous nine innings in two Test tours of England.Had Bairstow pulled off something utterly miraculous by diving across first slip to intercept an edge that fell short off Stuart Broad, that record would have remained intact for his next tour.England still theoretically held hopes of victory when the Test resumed after tea at 4.10pm with 47 overs remaining, with Sri Lanka’s prospects of chasing 362 to win effectively reduced to zero because of the rain. There was talk of Cardiff 2011 when England spirited a win from nowhere in the Glamorgan gloom.Kusal Mendis smashed a return catch at Broad’s bootlaces which he could not pick up in his follow-through, while one attempted bouncer that hit a crack and scuttled off down the leg side emphasised that, with a full day to bowl, England could have been in business. The pitch, in fairness to the groundsman, Mick Hunt, had not become the final-day featherbed that has occasionally blighted Lord’s.Nobody believed the game was going anywhere. Alastair Cook even allowed Broad to indulge in a nonsensical wasted review when even the groundstaff, who were prowling the outfield as the rain clouds approached again, could have seen that the ball had deflected off his back as he ducked.England were forced to turn to spin, all eight balls of it, the last of them from Joe Root, who was slog-swept for six into the Tavern Stand by Mendis. Perhaps he knew something we didn’t. The umpires removed the bails and everybody could go home. Sri Lanka, with a one-day series still to play, will hope for some sunshine.

Stephen Parry’s 5-13 routed Worcestershire for 53 as Lancashire stunned one of the pacemakers in the North Group of the NatWest Blast

Paul Edwards at Old Trafford24-Jun-2016
ScorecardStephen Parry wrecked Worcestershire with five wickets [file picture]•Getty Images

“Democracy,” wrote HL Mencken, “is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” A modern sensibility might recoil from the aphorism’s vulgar reference but Mencken’s sardonic wit has its applications. To judge from their roars many in the crowd at a T20 match show up because “what they want” is to see cricket balls hit “good and hard” and long and often.Yet the spectators’ appreciation of the skills on show at a short-form game is becoming ever more sophisticated. This was particularly fortunate at Old Trafford on Friday evening because a mere eight fours were struck in a quite bizarre contest which lasted 33.5 overs. And even those statistics do not do justice to the full lunacy of Lancashire Lightning’s 96-run win over Worcestershire Rapids.For while the home side batted their full allocation to make 149 for 5 with Alviro Petersen’s unbeaten 68 representing his first T20 half-century for Lancashire, Daryl Mitchell’s men were hustled out in 83 legitimate deliveries for a paltry 53, their lowest short-form score. It was Lancashire’s second biggest victory in this format.Moreover, slow left-armer Stephen Parry returned his county’s best T20 bowling figures of 5 for 13, taking three wickets in four balls as the Rapids’ later batsmen made lemmings seem cautious. Three were caught in the deep and Ed Barnard was the last man to go, attempting to reverse sweep Arron Lilley. Jack Shantry ran out of partners yet again. There were tears before bedtime across the Malverns.Yet there was also interesting strategy behind the remarkable facts of the game. Steve Rhodes, Worcestershire’s director of cricket, did not spare his top order batsmen from criticism after the game but he also accepted that he and probably by inference his skipper, Mitchell, too, had erred both in not playing another slow bowler and in not opting to bat when they won the toss.”I sat there watching it and thinking we’ve done this wrong, we should have batted first,” said the admirably candid Rhodes. “But we all made mistakes and that was a mistake. We didn’t read the pitch as well as we could. We thought it looked dry and had the potential to take spin and we did think about changing our side but we didn’t and that was a mistake. But let’s take nothing away from Lancashire, they are the current T20 champions and they outbowled, outbatted and outfielded us in every respect. The disappointing thing for me was the way we keeled over.”That rapid subsidence began with the first ball of Worcestershire’s innings when Nathan Buck had Tom Kohler-Cadmore caught at the wicket after he apparently gloved a leg side catch to Tom Moores, who was playing his first game of county cricket after agreeing his one-month loan spell from Nottinghamshire.Moores later added another leg side catch and, indeed, a leg side stumping off Parry to his tally of victims. He was busy and competent and so must think the county game a fine way to spend your time. The first batsman he removed was not so cheery. It was confirmed that Kohler-Cadmore really didn’t think he’d gloved the ball. So KC was hardly a member of the sunshine band as he trooped off.That wicket began a slide which only gathered pace. Bowling with speed and accuracy and extracting good lift from the Old Trafford wicket, Buck also removed both Mitchell and Joe Clarke in a three-over spell which cost 12 runs. Then Parry more or less took over, bouncing to the wicket with good rhythm and taking wickets with the gleeful delight of a man who keeps feeding a fruit machine which is stuck on three triple bars. Worcestershire hit three fours in their innings and only Brett D’Oliveira got to double figures. The Worcestershire boys were, as they say, not that happy.Yet Lancashire’s innings had hardly been a run-stuffed idyll. Petersen’s innings included a four and a couple of sixes and Liam Livingstone deposited successive balls from Barnard over the ropes before falling leg before to D’Oliveira for 28. All the Worcestershire seamers stuck to tight lines and there was plenty of debate in the mid-innings break as to the match-winning merit of 149 for 5. Such discussions were stilled early in the second half of the contest.

Umesh Yadav said bowling maidens has been a central part of their plans for the tour, given the predominance of slow pitches in the Caribbean

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jul-20161:47

Shami and I have excellent chemistry – Umesh

Of the 103.2 overs India have bowled to West Indies so far in the Antigua Test, 34 have been maidens. Umesh Yadav, who took four wickets in the first innings to help India enforce the follow-on, said bowling maidens has been a central part of their plans for the tour, given the predominance of slow pitches in the Caribbean.”When we came to the ground and saw the wicket, we realised we won’t get wickets where the ball will seam or swing,” Umesh said, at the end of the third day’s play. “We knew the conditions would be pretty hard, especially because it was going to be hot as well.”The main thing we planned was to bowl as many maidens as possible, and not give easy boundaries. Whether it’s the coach [Anil Kumble] or Virat [Kohli, the captain], the whole team sits and discusses the same thing, that it won’t be easy to take 20 wickets, and so it becomes very important to plan. And it can’t end there. If it’s said in the meeting that we have to bowl maidens, then we have to bowl maidens, because we know we won’t take 20 wickets otherwise.”India’s bowlers, according to Umesh, made a conscious effort to not relax after their batsmen had piled up 566 in the first innings. “We don’t look at it like we have 566,” he said. “We look at it like we have only made 350, and the earlier we bowl them out, the better it is for us in the second innings. Our effort was that, if we got them out by the end of today, we would have two more days to bowl them out again.”India went into the Test with three genuine fast bowlers, and five frontline bowlers in all, and Umesh praised the chemistry among them.”We always give that kind of confidence to each other, always we are pushing [each other],” he said. “Whenever things are a little difficult, we need to push our friend or team-mate a little bit, and lift them. When we see, for example, that [Mohammed] Shami is bowling very well but he’s not getting wickets, my job is, I go to him and say, “Shami, you’re bowling very well, keep going.” Because I know that if someone is bowling well from one end, then it helps the person at the second end, so if we don’t plan and bowl as a combination, it becomes difficult for us. Main thing is, you push each other and complement each other, and recognise that, “yeah, it’s not my day today [to take wickets], it’s your day”.Shami, playing his first Test in over a year-and-a-half after returning from a long-term knee injury, also took four wickets in West Indies’ first innings. Umesh said the team never doubted whether Shami would come back successfully.”There was no doubt about it, because he’s a natural bowler. We never thought he’ll struggle. If he struggled, it was only until he had recovered from his injury. No one has to tell him, bowl here, bowl like this. He’s a smart bowler, he’s got everything – outswing, inswing, bouncers.”

Steven Finn has admitted enduring the most frustrating period of his career after a hamstring injury ruled him out of the one-day series against Pakistan

Andrew McGlashan16-Aug-2016Steven Finn has admitted enduring the most frustrating period of his career after a hamstring injury ruled him out of the one-day series against Pakistan.Finn has been sidelined for four weeks after tearing his hamstring during Pakistan’s brief second-innings chase at The Oval. While he hopes to play again for Middlesex before the end of the season – in what could be a County Championship winning campaign – it caps a difficult period for him where his standing in the England side has slipped.”This has been the most frustrating nine months of my career so far. But, will come out the other side of this latest setback stronger for it,” Finn tweeted following confirmation of his latest layoff.Finn flew home from last year’s tour of the UAE to face Pakistan with a foot injury before returning to be the most consistent of England’s quicks at the start of the Test series against South Africa. However, his troublesome 2016 then took hold when he picked up a side strain in the Johannesburg Test and, during his recovery from that, suffered a calf injury which, much to Finn’s frustration, ruled him out of the World T20.Finn made his belief that he was fit for the World T20 known, which led to a mild ticking off from the England management, and head coach Trevor Bayliss encouraged him to channel those frustrations into success in the middle at the start of the home season.However, Finn was short of his best in the Test series against Sri Lanka, although he managed seven wickets at 28.14, before not playing a part in the following one-day series.Against Pakistan, he endured his first wicketless Test in the opening match at Lord’s and was omitted at Old Trafford. He returned at Edgbaston and in the second innings made a crucial contribution with the wickets of Misbah-ul-Haq and Sami Aslam during England’s victory push. At The Oval, though, he finished with 3 for 110 to end the series with five wickets at 70.40 – plus a torn a hamstring.Finn’s place in the one-day squad has gone to Durham’s Mark Wood after his successful return from injury.

In Jos Buttler, who has accepted the one-day captaincy on a locum basis, England seem to have a sensitive and thoughtful leader for the challenges to come in Bangladesh

Alan Gardner29-Sep-2016England’s tour of Bangladesh, with its attendant security concerns resulting in the absence of the ODI side’s captain and first-choice opener, is one that requires handling sensitively. In Jos Buttler, who has accepted the captaincy on a locum basis, they seem to have as sensitive and thoughtful a leader as there is among the young group.Buttler has already insisted that, as far as he is concerned, Eoin Morgan remains the captain of the one-day side and will return to the job when England go to India in the New Year. “I fully expect it’s a short-term thing,” he reiterated before the team’s departure for Dhaka, having been in touch with Morgan over the phone to discuss the challenge ahead. Alastair Cook, the Test captain who will be joining the ODI squad as part of his preparations for the tour, has also texted his encouragement and will be on hand for advice.The next few weeks will ask a lot of Buttler. Some were surprised when he was named Morgan’s deputy ahead of the 2015 World Cup and he still does not have much in the way of captaincy experience beyond leading England in a T20 against Pakistan in Dubai last November. With his soft-spoken demeanour, he is not what some people expect of a classic on-field general but he is determined to do the job his way.”I’ll try and be genuine, I’ll try and be myself, I’m not going to be anyone I’m not as a captain,” he said. “I think I view the game in a very similar way to Eoin Morgan, I’ll try and be aggressive. The way we have been playing the last 18 months, I’ll ask the guys to play in exactly the same way – obviously conditions will dictate that to an extent as well. It’s a young squad but it’s an experienced squad in terms of cricket and game awareness, and that’s something we’re going to need in Bangladesh.”As well as the increased level of security for the players to deal with – “for the first few days it will be in your mind” – England will face an opponent eager to give them a cricketing headache. Although they lost to Afghanistan this week, Bangladesh have won their last five ODI series at home, stretching back to 2014; the last non-Asian team to come away from the country with a one-day trophy was Australia more than five years ago.Bangladesh have also beaten in England in three of their last four ODIs, which included handing Morgan’s side their passports during the group stage of the 2015 World Cup. That defeat served as a catalyst for England’s radical limited-overs reinvention and the rematch will provide another opportunity to show how far they have come.”It was a really tough day in Adelaide, very disappointing,” Buttler said. “But we got to rock bottom there and have come back, turned that corner. It’s going to be a great tour, they’ve been very successful at home in their recent past, so it’s a great challenge for us as a group to play in those conditions.”England’s arrival is likely to be a major event in Bangladesh, which last hosted a tour by another Full Member in July 2015. Australia pulled out of a planned trip last year on government advice and England’s tour was only confirmed as going ahead last month – with Morgan and Alex Hales opting to make themselves unavailable. Buttler has been to Bangladesh on three previous occasions, most recently for the 2014 World T20, and was confident that it would be a good experience for the players involved.”We are aware of that,” he said when asked about the significance of England’s visit. “It’s not massively at the forefront of your mind when you make a decision that is right for you, based on security … However, we want to broaden our horizons and it’s fantastic for Bangladesh that we are going to tour. When we get there, cricket will be that universal language and we’ll be welcomed, and it will be fantastic for Bangladesh.”It’s going to be a good tour. It’s nice that the security stuff can take a back seat and we can start talking about cricket. They’re very passionate fans and it will make for a good atmosphere to play cricket in and we’ll have to play well to win.”Talk should quickly turn to cricket, as England play a single warm-up match ahead of the first ODI next Friday. With Hales and Morgan missing out and Joe Root rested, England will field a much-changed batting line-up, likely to include the debutant Ben Duckett and two from Jonny Bairstow, James Vince and Sam Billings. They have played just 26 ODIs between them, although it is a mark of how quickly England have grown since the World Cup that Buttler could refer to Billings, who made his debut in the subsequent series against New Zealand, as someone who “has been around for a long time”.England were flying out the morning after the Professional Cricketers’ Association awards dinner – the schedule barely allows room for end-of-season revelry these days – and the inclusion of Duckett, the first man to win both Player and Young Player of the Year, gives Buttler a weapon that none of his predecessors have been able to draw on.”He’s obviously had a great year, last night he picked up both PCA awards and rightly so he’s being talked about. He’s a fantastic talent, someone I’m actually really looking forward to getting to know better and to see in training, because that’s really when you start to see how good guys are. It’s very exciting, some of the performances he’s put in – that double-hundred for the Lions was fantastic, so it’s a great opportunity for him. He is a very exciting prospect for English cricket which just shows in one-day cricket there’s some great depth and great competition.”

A roundup of the second day’s action at ICC World Cricket League Division Four in Los Angeles

Peter Della Penna in Los Angeles 31-Oct-2016USA preserved their perfect start to WCL Division Four with a tense one-wicket win over Italy in a match that was reduced to 41 overs a side due to rain. Timroy Allen was named Man of the Match for his vital 53 off 27 balls at No. 7, which rescued USA after they were 107 for 5 in their chase of 186.Allen struck four fours and two sixes and teamed with Elmore Hutchinson to add 46 for the eighth wicket – USA’s best partnership of the match – before falling in the 35th over with nine still needed to win. Allen was dismissed by left-arm seamer Luis di Giglio. Hutchinson was also caught behind off di Giglio two overs later to force last man Danial Ahmed into the fray with two runs still required.The 37th over ended with two dot balls and and No. 10 Jessy Singh took a single to third man off the first ball of the 38th, from Gian Meade, to level the scores. Ahmed then guided the next ball to short third man and a frantic single clinched victory for the hosts. It was a moment of redemption for Ahmed after he conceded 18 runs in his only over of the day.Italy elected to bat first on an overcast morning and rain then caused a 30-minute delay to the start of play and curtailed the match to 46 overs a side. Allen had bowled only one delivery before the rain returned and play was delayed for 45 minutes, causing the overs to be cut down to 41.USA’s pace bowlers struggled to grip the wet ball but USA added to their troubles by missing six chances in the field. Italy’s openers Manpreet Singh and Supun Tharanga got a reprieve each when they were on 5 and 1 respectively. Tharanga’s was the easier of the two chances, spilled at second slip by Alex Amsterdam off Hutchinson in the sixth over. Both batsmen went on to make half-centuries and put together a 118-run opening stand.The partnership showed no signs of slowing down but was broken due to a blunder by the batting pair, which arguably cost Italy the match. Manpreet flicked a single off Timil Patel to deep midwicket to bring up his fifty in the 26th over and, in their excitement to celebrate the milestone, both batsmen left their crease to meet at the centre of the pitch. However, Jessy Singh had not yet collected the ball running in from the boundary, let alone relay it in to the wicketkeeper Akeem Dodson. The bails were taken off by Dodson and USA appealed. After a lengthy discussion to confirm the ball was still live, umpire Iftikhar Ali raised his finger to rule Tharanga out for 52.It was the catalyst USA needed to slow down Italy’s progress and three balls later Manpreet top-edged a pull off Amsterdam’s part-time offspin to be caught at midwicket by Allen for 50. Italy struggled to regain momentum as Allen took 1 for 16 bowling five overs of offspin after going wicketless in three overs of medium-pace with the new ball.Oman survived a scare from Bermuda before prevailing by four wickets at Severn Cricket Field. Following their loss to USA in the first match, Bermuda shook up their batting order, promoting Kamau Leverock and Dean Minors as openers after they were asked to bat in a match reduced to 40 overs a side. The move had the desired effect as Leverock left Oman shellshocked by racing to 30 off 18 balls in the first five overs to take the score to 40 for 0.Leverock eventually made 47 off 37 balls before the opening partnership of 72 was broken by Mohammad Nadeem in the 13th over. Once Leverock fell, Bermuda added 101 runs to their score in 27.2 overs and were kept in check by legspinner Khawar Ali’s 4 for 25, which limited them to a score of 173 for 9.The Oman chase got off to a shaky start as both openers fell within the first three overs to make it 15 for 2. Midway through the chase, Oman lost two wickets in the space of three balls – Saturday’s Man-of-the-Match Swapnil Khadye was run out by Leverock’s relay throw for 24 and Ajay Lalcheta fell for a golden duck in the next over – and found themselves at 70 for 5.Jatinder Singh held his nerve to score an unbeaten 68 off 52. His unbeaten 55-run seventh-wicket stand with Amir Ali helped get Oman over the line with six overs to spare.Denmark, too, were unbeaten after recording a six-wicket win over Jersey in another match reduced to 40 overs after morning rain. Denmark sent Jersey in to bat at the toss and bowled them out for 158 in 36.4 overs. Offspinner Bashir Shah wiped out Jersey’s top order, taking four of the first five wickets, to finish with his second successive four-for.Anthony Hawkins-Kay top-scored with 35 at No. 6 for Jersey and dismissed Freddie Klokker for 9 at the start of Denmark’s chase but Denmark cruised through the rest of the innings. Man-of-the-Match Saif Ahmad struck an unbeaten 67 and added 83 for the third wicket with Hamid Shah to take their side to within 17 runs of victory. Ben Kynman broken the stand and then added Michael Pedersen to his haul of 3 for 45 but lacked support from the rest of the attack as Denmark achieved victory with 7.5 overs to spare.The tournament will resume on Tuesday after a rest day on Monday. USA and Oman will clash at Wright Cricket Field while Denmark will take on winless Bermuda at Wong Cricket Field. Italy and Jersey will square off at Severn Cricket Field with both sides seeking their first win, while the loser will be in danger of relegation.

Damien O’Donohoe, the chief executive of the Caribbean Premier League, believes there is space in the cricket calendar for the CPL and the new English T20 league, set to start in 2020, to co-exist and eventually benefit each other

Andrew McGlashan28-Oct-20161:39

‘CPL second only to the IPL’ – O’Donohoe

Damien O’Donohoe, the chief executive of the Caribbean Premier League, believes there is space in the cricket calendar for the CPL and the new English T20 league, set to start in 2020, to co-exist and eventually benefit each other.The 2016 CPL was staged from June 29 to August 7, which is likely to be the timeframe the ECB will try to exploit with the new T20 league that is causing much angst in the county game. The ECB is keen to make use of the school summer holidays, which run from mid-July through August, to try to attract a new, younger fan base to the sport.But the fact that English cricket is only now looking to revamp its domestic T20 competition – and is still three years from having the new venture ready to launch – means other T20 leagues are well ahead in their development. While the ECB has managed to find a way of accommodating the IPL, allowing players who wish to compete to take part in the tournament, and in some cases actively encouraging participation in the Big Bash League, which has no impact on the English summer, the direct competition from the CPL could cause problems.There may be an indication of the impact during the 2017 English season when the NatWest Blast returns to a block in later summer after three seasons of being played largely on Friday nights from mid-May until late July. In those three years, the CPL has forged its position as an attractive proposition for overseas cricketers. Staging the NatWest Blast at the same time might mean missing out on the West Indian T20 stars – some of the more attractive signings in the game – who will already be in action for their CPL teams.”It probably will be a similar window but we work quite closely with the ECB and at the end of the day there will be room for both leagues,” O’Donohoe told ESPNcricinfo. “The ECB has their own challenges, and I really wouldn’t envy their job, but they are real professionals who will make it a success. What we’d love in time is that we get the English stars in the CPL and they get some of ours.”But there is no denying that English cricket is playing catch-up with the format of the game they launched in 2003. “They have much bigger challenges in terms of the politics of the game than anybody else,” O’Donohoe said. “Of course, they created this form so they should be leaders in this space, but they are not. But they have huge plans…so there will be great things to come.”Of more immediate interest to O’Donohoe is the continued growth of the CPL. He was speaking in London on Thursday when St Lucia Zouks became the last of the six sides to become a privately-owned franchise after its acquisition by Jignesh Pandya, the founder of the Rohan Group of companies, who currently serves as the Chairman of Global Sports Ventures and Royal Sports Club. Global Sports Ventures was recently announced as having signed a $70million deal with USACA.The CPL staged six matches in the USA during the 2016 season and its plans for expansion in the country are well documented. O’Donohoe hopes that “in the not too distant future” there will be two franchises based in the US. He is also determined, though, that the CPL, which he believes stands second to the IPL among the various T20 leagues, needs to continue to play to its own strengths.”When we speak to the guys at the Big Bash, which we do on a daily basis, they have a very different idea of what they are trying to do, trying to bring a whole new audience to the game. Some of their games get 80,000 people, which we could never do in the Caribbean, but from an international point of view we have 80 million TV viewers in India, are the first professional league to go into America and have our six franchises sold and hopefully in the not too distant future we can have two franchises in the US.”Our single-biggest issue with the CPL has always been time zones and when we play our games. We have a huge international audience but if we play games during the day it doesn’t fit with our product, we are a local product and can’t fit it just for an international audience. The great thing about the east coast would be the time zone. Los Angeles would be fantastic so would San Francisco and Silicon Valley. We would love to go there in time, but the east coast will be our focus initially. New York would be No. 1 on our list. But we have a lot of work to do.”