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Despite boasting five current England internationals, Southern Vipers were skittled for 98

ECB Reporters Network16-Jun-2024Central Sparks defeated Southern Vipers by five wickets in the duel of already-qualified teams in the Charlotte Edwards Cup at New Road, Worcester.With both sides already assured a place in Finals Day at Derby on June 22, Sparks showed their bowling strength in depth as they rested Hannah Baker and Emily Arlott but still bowled the visitors out for just 98 in 17.5 overs.Grace Potts, Katie George, Bethan Ellis and Ria Fackrell took two wickets apiece as no Vipers batter reached 20, Rhianna Southby top-scoring with 19 from number eight.Sparks then eased to 99 for 5 with 31 balls to spare as Davina Perrin launched their reply with an assertive 26 from 17 balls and Amy Jones saw them to the threshold of victory 26 from 29.Put in, Vipers started positively as Maia Bouchier pulled Potts for six as the openers added 19 from 16 balls but from the moment that Danni Wyatt skied a drive at Potts the innings lurched downward.Bouchier’s blow proved the only six of the innings and only six fours were added to it as Sparks’ accurate and disciplined attack struck regularly. Charli Knott charged and missed at George and Bouchier chipped a return catch to Charis Pavely before Georgia Adams fell in slapstick fashion when Freya Kemp embarked on a leg-bye that didn’t exist and both batters ended up at the same end.Kemp soon joined her captain in the pavilion when she lifted Ellis to long off. Nicely flighted deliveries from Fackrell then teased Charlie Dean and Georgia Elwiss into sending up catches.Southby lashed a couple of leg-side fours but when she sought another but instead lifted George to deep square leg, the innings was over at fewer than 100.Ami Campbell launched the Sparks reply with three fours in the first ten balls and though she then lifted Freya Davies to mid off, the opener’s small but feisty contribution had made inroads into the small target.Abi Freeborn was run out, going for a second, by Lauren Bell’s throw but Perrin quickly made further inroads. She stuck three fours and lifted Dean over long off for six but went back to the next ball which struck off stumpGeorge fell lbw, slog-sweeping at Linsey Smith and Smith bowled skilfully to conceded just 13 runs from her four overs, but Vipers’ faltering batters had given their bowlers too much to do. Jones struck Adams gloriously into the Basil D’Oliveira Stand and though the England batter then holed out to long on, Courtney Webb (saw her side comfortably over the line.

Broadcaster begins three-year term as he returns to his roots at Cardiff

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Mar-2024Alan Wilkins, the veteran broadcaster, has been appointed as the new president of Glamorgan on a three-year term.As a left-arm seamer, Wilkins claimed 243 first-class wickets in eight seasons with Glamorgan from 1976 to 1983, and a further 130 in List A games, during which time he helped the club reach their first one-day final, against Middlesex in the Gillette Cup in 1977.After retirement, Wilkins embarked on a broadcasting career, first in South Africa and then as the face and voice of BBC Wales’ sports coverage, primarily of rugby, football and cricket. He now works for Star Sports India.Born in Cardiff, Wilkins said he had come “full circle back to where my cricketing journey began”, as he prepares to succeed Gerard Elias, who is stepping down at the end of a four-year term.”Firstly I am thrilled, and honoured to have been considered for the role of President, knowing who has held the position in the past,” Wilkins said. “I have travelled a lot through my work as a broadcaster, and that journey has brought me home.”I want to make a difference, both on and off the field for Glamorgan,” he added. “We have some fresh faces coming in, myself included. I know our new Head Coach (Grant Bradburn) well from my travels with Pakistan, and I cannot wait to see his brand of cricket out on the hallowed turf of Sophia Gardens.”I honestly feel good things are coming here, I still get goosebumps and butterflies looking out onto that field, and wish I could still play!”Glamorgan CCC Chair, Mark Rhydderch-Roberts, said: “I am delighted that Alan has accepted the Board’s invitation and I know he will add huge value as we move forward into a period of potential change.”Not only will Alan add cricket expertise, gathered from his years of playing and commentating, but he is so well known and respected throughout world cricket that he will be well placed to support the club as we create a new Glamorgan future.”

Off-field issues cloud club’s development, but crushing victory over Gloucestershire is on cards

Alan Gardner28-Sep-2023Whether or not Sussex win their final match of the season – and they were well placed to beat Gloucestershire at the close on day three – could be the difference between finishing third or fifth in Division Two; between narrowly missing out on promotion or midtable mediocrity. Although in truth, as is the way with superficial summaries, neither would be an entirely accurate portrayal of how the campaign has gone.Paul Farbrace’s arrival over the winter came with a challenge for Sussex: to stop talking about potential and start doing the business on the pitch. The club, having made a public commitment to developing young players as a way of tightening their belt financially, had managed just three first-class victories – one per season – over the previous three summers. In 2022, they finished second from bottom in Division Two.Farbrace openly spoke of promotion as the goal for this year, and they made the perfect start by beating eventual Division Two champions Durham in a close season-opener at Hove. But an inability to drive home the advantage led to a succession of draws and Sussex had to wait until the 12th round before they achieved victory for the second time. Perversely enough, that 15-run win over Leicestershire was also the end of their promotion challenge – two further umpiring penalties taking the club’s tally to four for the season and resulting in an automatic points deduction, effectively ending any hopes of pipping Worcestershire to second spot.The mood of optimism has been tempered, with questions asked of the club hierarchy both at the members’ forum during the Gloucestershire game and in interviews with Jon Filby, Sussex’s chair, and Farbrace on the livestream. Among issues raised with Filby during an occasionally testy discussion with the BBC’s Adrian Harms were the club’s youth policy, matters of player discipline, Farbrace being linked with the Kent director of cricket job, and whether Ollie Robinson’s injury-enforced absence from the season run-in was genuine after the fast bowler was spotted caddying for his girlfriend at the PGA Championship Pro-Am earlier this month (it was, Filby assured listeners).Farbrace retains the “complete and absolute support” of the Sussex board, Filby added, and the head coach has already been making his assessments of where improvement can be made. While admitting that the job had perhaps been “a bit tougher than I thought it would be”, Farbrace indicated that Sussex would be aiming to bring in a number of signings to add an experienced core to the squad.”We have got some very talented youngsters and we very clearly need some experienced, solid cricketers on the field to help the players,” Farbrace told the BBC, adding that it may take a couple more seasons to achieve the right blend.”We probably need to bring in four or five senior players … It will probably take us two winters of good recruitment, get some really good senior players – men – around some of these young lads, and then I think the team will grow very quickly from that point onwards.”One of those who won’t be joining for next season is Chris Wright, however. Sussex announced the signing of Wright from Leicestershire in June, alongside that of Lancashire allrounder Danny Lamb, but Farbrace revealed that a change of family situation would prevent the 38-year-old seamer from fulfilling his contract.Sussex could bring in an overseas signing to captain the side, although it seems unlikely that Pujara will return in the role. Pujara, who averaged 79.22 across two seasons of Championship cricket (and 84.00 in the One-Day Cup), was suspended for the penultimate game at Derby and duly flew back to India ahead of his involvement in the Irani Cup with Saurashtra.There is no doubt that Sussex still have a depth of homegrown talent to draw on, and the emergence of James Coles in the middle order has been one of the undoubted success stories of Farbrace’s first season in charge. Coles started the summer in the seconds but has been ever-present since forcing his way into the first team after two rounds of the Championship, scoring his maiden first-class hundred in May and adding his third in the ongoing game against Gloucestershire. Coles is just 19 but finishes the season as Sussex’s second-leading run-scorer, with the club anticipating that involvement with England Lions is not far off.Coles’ efforts here underpinned a position of second-innings dominance for the home side. He was involved in a stand worth 155 with his captain, Tom Alsop, although received a left-off on 93 when Zafar Gohar put down a catch at fine leg off the bowling of Zaman Akhtar (Gohar also dropped Alsop, off the unfortunate Akhtar, earlier in the morning session). Further stands worth 79 and 68 followed with Oli Carter and Fynn Hudson-Prentice – the latter coming in the space of seven overs as Hudson-Prentice thrashed a 26-ball half-century.A target of 513 looked like being more than enough as Sussex set about making quick inroads with the new ball – although they are fielding a depleted attack and it is only two weeks since tempers flared as Leicestershire came close to chasing 499, while Glamorgan escaped earlier in the season after a first-innings blowout by making 737 second time around.As well as being without Robinson in this match, Sussex were missing their leading wicket-taker in the Championship, Ari Karvelas, with the fast bowler under investigation for another incident in the Leicestershire game. That Karvelas was referred to the ECB by the club themselves, over a comment reportedly directed at Leicestershire’s overseas player Umar Amin, only adds to the sense of a narrative yet to be fully formed.Speaking on the livestream, Farbrace admitted that he was happy to “ruffle a few feathers” and it has certainly been a season at Hove to leave one or two sitting uneasily in their deckchairs. But victory over Gloucestershire on Friday would secure a third win of the summer, and third place in Division Two might be regarded, after all, as tangible sign of progress.

T20 talent developing longer-format skills as South Africa A score success in Sri Lanka

Firdose Moonda09-Jun-2023Learning to construct a 50-over innings was Tristan Stubbs’ chief takeaway from South Africa A’s series victory over Sri Lanka A, which was completed with a five-wicket win in Kandy. Stubbs was South Africa A’s highest run-scorer, and the only one to record two half-centuries, and hopes the experience will put him in good stead to add to his one ODI cap.”It’s closer to first-class cricket where you’ve got to bat time,” Stubbs told ESPNcricinfo shortly after scoring a match-winning 58 not out. “I haven’t played a lot of 50-over cricket but in this format, you absorb pressure and then apply pressure. T20 cricket you have to make a play almost every ball but in 50-over cricket and first-class cricket you can just bat time and that’s what I have really enjoyed doing.”Since starting his career three years ago, Stubbs has played 55 T20s, more than double his 21 List A matches, to go with 10 first-class games. His reputation as a big-hitter has seen him picked for the Manchester Originals in the Hundred, and Mumbai Indians at the IPL, although he has only played four matches, two in each of the last two seasons. He went straight from the IPL to Sri Lanka, keen to get game time after last turning out more than a month ago, on May 6.”It [the IPL] was an awesome tournament to be a part of, whether you are playing or not. And Mumbai made the semi-finals so I got to experience a semi-final with 100,000 people which was pretty cool,” he said. “But I hadn’t played in a couple of months
so getting some game time now is good. It’s been cool to spend some time in the middle and bat again.”Especially in unfamiliar conditions. This was Stubbs’ first visit to Sri Lanka and though he has been to India three times, he found that the surfaces were different and asked more questions of his game. “It doesn’t bounce as much [as home] and the ball turns a bit more but the conditions have changed between each game,” he said. “The pitch we played on today got more and more dry and it was turning a lot more. But in the second game the ball was seaming around a lot. It’s a nice challenge.”In both matches, Stubbs scored half-centuries, first taking South Africa A from 20 for 4 to 153 for 8, albeit in a losing cause, and then ensuring they recovered from 27 for 2 in the fifth over to successfully chase 173. In both cases, Stubbs saw an opportunity to work on pacing his innings and getting the balance between attack and defence right. “We were in trouble early on. In the second game, it tested my defence of seam and today it was spinning,” he said. “And you learn it’s all right to block a good ball in the longer game. It’s not ideal, but sometimes it’s required.”With his development of a more all-round game in subcontinental batting conditions, does Stubbs hope he is making a case for consideration for this year’s World Cup? “I am trying not to think about it,” he said. “I am just trying to take every game as it comes and just enjoy playing. Today, I could help the team get over the line. We have a pretty strong side so that always helps.”South Africa A will now play unofficial Tests under the tutelage of national Test coach Shukri Conrad to complete their winter program.

Captain Yannic Cariah stars with 52-ball 34 and returns of 3 for 8 in massive victory

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Dec-2019Impressive spells from spinners Kevin Sinclair and Yannic Cariah took West Indies Emerging Team to their maiden Super 50 Cup title after they bowled Leeward Islands out for 88 for a whopping 205-run win in Port of Spain on Sunday.Young offpsinner Sinclair, playing only his ninth List A game, and lespinner Cariah, also the captain, ran through the Leeward Islands’ line-up, finishing with figures of 4 for 20 and 3 for 8 respectively.Leeward Islands hardly resisted with the bat after the emerging team put up 293 for 7, with six of them dismissed for single-digit scores. The highest individual score was Amir Jangoo’s 43-ball 20.Openers Kieran Powell – the highest run-scorer of the season – and Montcin Hodge contributed just 13 and 1 respectively, while the in-form Devon Thomas fell for a 22-ball 15. A clutch of wickets fell after Cariah removed Keacy Carty in the 18th over, as Leeward Islands lost their last seven wickets for just 24 runs.Earlier, after being put in, the emerging team rode on strong top-order partnerships, with Leonardo Julien top-scoring with 83. Although they lost three quick wickets in the space of 3.5 overs in the middle, handy lower-order contributions from Sinclair (28 in 33 balls) and Dominic Drakes (38 in 25) took them to a competitive total.Cariah was named Man of the Match for his bowling spell as well as 34 off 52 balls batting at No. 3.

Umesh and Shami bounce out SA’s new opening pair before bad light ends play early

The Report by Firdose Moonda20-Oct-201911:10

Bangar: Runs at home should be respected as much as away runs

It’s difficult to see this Test match developing any differently to the previous two in this series. India have done what they did in Visakhapatnam and Pune, piling on the runs, although they declared when the total was under 500 in Ranchi. South Africa have done what they did at those venues too, by bowling inconsistently, conceding heavily and then being handicapped in response. At 8 for 2, this is their worst start yet and, barring something truly special, it appears only a matter of time before they are whitewashed.

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Rohit Sharma, the star of India’s innings, enhanced his reputation further after scoring two centuries in his first Test as an opener in Visakhapatnam. Rohit doubled up in Ranchi, to become the third double-centurion in the series for India, surpassing 500 runs for the series. He also took his batting average at home up to 99.84, just above Don Bradman’s 98.22.Shining alongside him were Ajinkya Rahane, who brought up his first hundred at home since 2016, Ravindra Jadeja, who added a second half-century at No.6 and Umesh Yadav, whose 31 off 10 balls allowed Virat Kohli to declare in time to let India’s quicks loose on South Africa’s openers.Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane embrace each other•BCCI

Mohammed Shami and Umesh only got an over each in fading light but bounced out South Africa’s openers to put the visitors under pressure immediately.India had the luxury of allowing their quicks to go full tilt for a short spell, having declared with a session in the day, but knowing the weather would allow for much less. Shami and Umesh hit the deck hard and seemed to catch Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock by surprise. Both gloved behind, Elgar off a Shami delivery that found extra bounce and de Kock to an Umesh snorter that climbed on him steeply.ALSO READ: Stats – Rohit breaks slew of recordsAnd those losses might well be the least of South Africa’s problems.On a dry surface, debutant Shahbaz Nadeem has already extracted more turn in two overs than South Africa’s spinners did in almost two days, and R Ashwin has yet to get going. The upside is that there’s an opportunity for some of South Africa’s bench to come good. Zubayr Hamza is batting at No. 3 and Heinrich Klaasen at No. 6, and we don’t need to go over how important it is for Faf du Plessis and Temba Bavuma to score runs.Umesh Yadav smashed five sixes in his 10-ball 31•BCCI

If they’re looking for an example of how to do it, they need look no further than the opposition. Rohit paced his innings perfectly, seeing off the more testing spells from Kagiso Rabada, and then cashed in on South Africa’s weaknesses. Lungi Ngidi, playing his first Test in the series, struggled with his lines and often strayed on to the pads, while Dane Piedt, brought back into the XI, bore the brunt of Rohit’s aggression. Piedt has now conceded the most sixes in a series, a grand total of 20, and appears nowhere near the bowler that dominated the domestic franchise system at home.At the other end, Rahane barely put a foot wrong, scoring runs all around the field, particularly in the oft-vacant third-man region, and put right a home record that was crying for some beefing up. The Rohit-Rahane partnership swelled to 267, by far the highest fourth-wicket stand for India against South Africa.The trouble for South Africa is that India’s attack doesn’t offer the freebies Ngidi and Piedt did, so they will have to grind a lot more, which may not be possible on a surface that will deteriorate.George Linde showed there is already something for the spinners and he got something out of the footmarks outside Ravindra Jadeja’s offstump. Linde was the most impressive of the South African bowlers on the day, taking four wickets, including those of Rahane and Jadeja, and controlled his end better than South Africa’s spinners have done so far.None of the Indian batsmen will be too unhappy, especially not Jadeja, who has handled the promotion to No. 6 well. He shared in a 64-run fifth-wicket stand with Rohit and 47-run fifth-wicket partnership with Wriddhiman Saha. But the fun came after Jadeja was dismissed and Umesh arrived with a license to thrill. He hit five sixes off Linde in a 10-ball 31, and fast-forwarded the declaration.It came after India scored 273 runs in 58.3 overs on day two, at a run rate of 4.67, and their willingness to call time on their innings early shows just how dominant they have been. They have outplayed South Africa in all departments and can sniff a strong finish.