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Michael Klinger once again led from the front as Gloucestershire kept alive their hopes of a place in the Yorkshire Bank 40 semi-finals

18-Aug-2013
ScorecardMichael Klinger’s outstanding form was again central to Gloucestershire’s success•Getty Images

Michael Klinger once again led from the front as Gloucestershire kept alive their hopes of a place in the Yorkshire Bank 40 semi-finals with a thrilling two-wicket Group C win over Glamorgan at Bristol.The captain took his run tally in the competition to 662 at an average of 94.57 by scoring 87 to help the hosts to their target of 248 with just one ball to spare. Hamish Marshall contributed 55, while Dean Cosker claimed 2 for 28 from his eight overs.Gareth Rees had scored 83 off 110 balls to provide the backbone to Glamorgan’s 247 for 7 after winning the toss, with Murray Goodwin also making a brisk 49 and Tom Smith returning two for 43.Rees might have been run out in the opening over of the game as Mark Wallace sent him back attempting a single to backward point. Ian Cockbain’s shy at the stumps missed when he could have given wicket-keeper Gareth Roderick time to get to the stumps.The Glamorgan openers went on to build a half-century stand before Wallace departed for 18, caught at deep square as he pulled a ball from David Payne. Gloucestershire introduced the left-arm spin of Smith for the 16th over and the loan recruit from Middlesex had Chris Cooke caught behind cutting for 19 with the total on 83.It was 95 for 3 when Marcus North fell cheaply to Smith. Rees reached fifty off 62 balls, with five fours, and survived a stumping chance off Smith when on 63.After Jim Allenby lifted a catch to deep midwicket off Benny Howell, Goodwin supplied the necessary acceleration with six fours in his 32-ball innings, helping the score to 199 when he gave a catch to backward point.Graham Wagg hit a straight six in making 19 before being yorked by Craig Miles and Rees took successive boundaries off the penultimate over, bowled by Payne before being caught at mid-off to give Miles a second wicket.Gloucestershire made a confident start in reply as Klinger and Marshall put together a century opening stand, the latter hitting six fours in his 43-ball innings before offering a return catch to Cosker.Klinger continued his love affair with the competition, striking nine fours in facing 99 deliveries before getting an inside edge on to his stumps off Simon Jones with 49 runs still needed.There were nerves in the home dressing room when Alex Gidman followed for 28, but Howell played a key role with a six and a four off Jones in the 38th over, which cost the seamer 17, followed by another six off Wagg.Wagg responded with two wickets in the same over, but the home side began the final one from Michael Hogan needing only five. He removed Smith caught and bowled, but James Fuller hit the winning boundary.The result puts Gloucestershire level on points with group leaders Somerset, with the two arch-rivals facing each other at Bristol in the final group match tomorrow week. Glamorgan are two points adrift, but have two games remaining, at home to Leicestershire next Sunday and away to Yorkshire 24 hours later.

The Sri Lankan first-class season will begin on January 20, a Sri Lanka Cricket official has said

Tariq Engineer09-Jan-2012The Sri Lankan first-class season will begin on January 20, a Sri Lanka Cricket official has said. The first-class Premier Tier A and B league matches had been postponed indefinitely last month, in part because of a lack of funds to run the tournament. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) then had to wait until a new committee was in place, following the elections on January 3, to resolve the situation.”Most of the tournaments had been stopped because the elections were on and the committee was changing,” K Mathivanan, the newly elected vice-president, told ESPNcricinfo. “From January 20 we are starting the Premier League tournament. Funding is there. That assurance we will give the clubs.”Mathivanan said that getting the first-class season off the ground was the first priority for the new president, Upali Dharmadasa. The decision is expected to be ratified by the executive committee today.One casualty of the delay is the provincial four-day tournament – an irregularly scheduled tournament to begin with, it will not be held this season. However, the one-day and Twenty20 tournaments will go ahead in light of Sri Lanka hosting the ICC World Twenty20 in September 2012, Mathivanan said.SLC are facing a financial crisis in the aftermath of building two new stadiums for the 2011 World Cup and renovating a third. The shortage of funds has affected their operations across the board, with the players still owed roughly half their dues since the World Cup final in April. Dharmadasa has said that it will take the board four or five years to get back to a sound financial footing.The SLC pays 2.7 million Sri Lankan rupees to each of the 11 Tier A clubs and 2.3 million to each of the 10 Tier B clubs per season. The clubs utilise this money to pay the players, ground fees, fund practice sessions and food, among other things. The clubs were paid 30% of their dues for the Premier limited-overs tournament that concluded in December 2011, and had said that unless at least 60% of the balance is paid, they would find it difficult to play the first-class matches.

Jimmy Kamande, the Kenya captain, admitted his side was nervous against New Zealand and promised a different approach for the next game

Sriram Veera at the MA Chidambaram Stadium20-Feb-2011It was a sombre press conference. Jimmy Kamande, the Kenya captain, was in the hot seat and a New Zealand journalist couldn’t resist asking the question. “Yesterday, you said you guys will express yourself and play the Kenyan brand of cricket. How does that comment sit now after today’s performance?”To his credit, Kamande didn’t stutter or squirm but responded immediately, “Ya, we didn’t express ourselves. The young boys were nervous. The two young lads who opened were a bit nervous but Collins Obuya was positive and we were gaining momentum but quick wickets in the middle set us back. In the next few games, we will express ourselves. The good thing is that this is done. It’s out of the way. “For what it’s worth, it was out of the way very quickly. There was almost an inner conflict when watching the game and it was visible in the audience, at least in the press box. Some sniggered as the wickets tumbled, some were sympathetically silent and some were condescendingly quiet. A few wondered whether the ICC will get further ammunition to keep the minnows out of the next competition.Kamande didn’t want to get drawn into that debate but said Kenya will try their best to improve and gently suggested that it was the reverse that was in fact the reason for the debacle. “It’s for ICC to decide to play 10 teams or 15 … The disappointing thing is we get to play a Test team once around every two years or so. The more we play against these guys, the better you become. We play Pakistan next. I would be happy as long as we improve each and every game.”Today, perhaps, it was just the nerves. There was also a matter of skill. New Zealand, Hamish Bennett in particular, hurled it fast and full and the Kenya batsmen played around the ball, across the line. There is a huge difference between playing the ball late and being late on the ball. Kenya did the latter and crumbled. “It wasn’t as if the ball was doing much but the lines and lengths were tight and some of our batsmen played too much across the line. We will go back and work on it. Next game, different opposition and it will be a different approach from us.”While Kenya and their fans, and their critics, will wait to see what unfurls in the future, it was time to breathe easy for New Zealand. It was the perfect way to start a tournament for a team that has been stumbling from one disaster to another. “We didn’t expect that the game would get over so quickly,” Vettori said. “It was nice. We are happy with how we performed. We don’t expect all other matches to be this easier. I think bowling full and straight is going to be the key in this part of world. We will keep the same intensity for every game.”Bennett, the wrecker in chief, said he came to know he would be playing after Kyle Mills had an injury problem in the pre-match training session. I just said to myself that I will go straight, try to bowl hard and full to skid off the wicket and catch the pads of batsmen. Coming in as a replacement for the injured Mills in the playing XI, it was a good result for me. Hopefully, I can keep pushing for my selection”.New Zealand will hope the bowlers can hold their nerves against tougher opposition, Kenya that batsmen shed their nervousness quickly. There was evidence, even in this debacle, that they have a couple of batsmen who have the flair to provide some fun moments for their fans. As the tournament tagline says, this is the cup that counts, and it would be a pity if we don’t get to see the Kenyans play with a bit more freedom.

Pakistan’s controversial team selection for the tour of England is set to be scrutinized by a sports committee of the parliament’s upper house that has summoned officials and selectors over the “injustice in selection”

Cricinfo staff30-Jun-2010Pakistan’s controversial team selection for the tour of England is set to be scrutinized by a sports committee of the parliament’s upper house that has summoned officials and selectors over the “injustice in selection”.The head of the Senate’s committee on sports, Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) would have to explain its actions. “We have come to know that there are injustices in the team selection and to probe that we have summoned officials and selectors in a meeting in Islamabad on July 9,” Qureshi told AFP.The squad was announced during the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka earlier this month with only chief selector Mohsin Khan, coach Waqar Younis, captain Shahid Afridi and manager Yawar Saeed in attendance. The selection was severely criticized by former players, and even members of the selection committee who weren’t involved in the procedure.The biggest point of contention was the exclusion of former captain Younis Khan, despite his appeal against the ban imposed by the PCB upheld. Ijaz Butt, chairman of the board, said later that Younis’ return would require clearance from the board, something that wasn’t deemed to be an issue with Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi and the Akmal brothers, who were all pardoned and included. Faisal Iqbal, Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Sami were the other notable absentees from the 17-member squad.Pakistan will play two Twenty20s and two Tests against Australia, followed by four Tests, two Twenty20 and five ODIs against England.

Batter focussed on here-and-now as big guns wait in wings after World Cup debacle

Cameron Ponsonby30-Nov-2023After the disasterclass of the ODI World Cup, the time has come for England to pull their pants down, turn them inside out and put them back on again. It’s white-ball reset time.The curiosity of the latest rebuild, however, is that the messaging that it’s a rebuild at all appears to be coming from the outside more than the inside. Yes, there are a fresh set of players out in the Caribbean, but the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Mark Wood and Adil Rashid are nonetheless sat at home resting and recovering, ready (retirement announcements pending) to reclaim their place in the team.”There hasn’t been that message,” Ben Duckett said after England’s first training session in Antigua, in reply to whether the message to the group was that this is the new era, with the shirts they’re playing in being theirs to keep.”I need to go and prove that I’m good enough to be on this team and so do the other guys, so I don’t think it’s the case at all, this team could change next series.”Rather than being a new team at the beginning of their own journey, à la the original 2015 White-Ball Reset™, the England team that will step out for the first of three ODIs against West Indies on Sunday, do so in a Hunger Games-type scenario. Battling it out for the odd spot in the XI at the expense of their mates to their left and right. England’s next strongest ODI team may well look suspiciously like the one that came before it.Take the expected top three of this tour: consisting of Phil Salt, Will Jacks and Zak Crawley. England fans can expect that both Bairstow and Root will return to the ODI set-up in due course, meaning in reality the trio are battling it out for the opening spot that has been vacated by the dropping of Dawid Malan.Similarly, you can bracket Duckett and Ollie Pope together as the two players lined up to replace Ben Stokes, assuming that Stokes does indeed reduce his overall workload and steps back from ODIs in the wake of this week’s knee surgery. Duckett batted for hours across England’s first training session of the tour, whilst Pope had a net that appeared pain-free as he returned from the shoulder injury he sustained during the Ashes. However, a cause for slight concern was that, during fielding practice, Pope exclusively threw underarm as he continued to nurse his shoulder back to full fitness. England confirmed that Pope is fit to play if selected, but his shoulder is still clearly not at 100%.”I’m genuinely just thinking about the next three weeks,” Duckett, who scored his maiden ODI century against Ireland in September, said at the prospect of this being a career-defining series for a number of players. “I know how difficult it is to stay in a team when there’s this many players and I think the biggest thing I’ve learned over the last 12 to 15 months is not thinking too far ahead.Related

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“I just think it’s a massive opportunity to show what we can do. I’ve been around and not around the white-ball group for the past however many years and it’s been impossible to break into, so for me personally I’m just buzzing to get a go and be out here.”At a time when traditional logic dictates that the three formats are getting further and further apart, for England the opposite seems to be true. The new generation of white-ball players, deemed to be the ones to take this team forward, include the current Test opening pair in Duckett and Crawley, the Test vice-captain in Pope and generational talent-elect Harry Brook. Even with the ball, Gus Atkinson, who received a two-year contract from the ECB, is surely pencilled into England’s plans for the India Test series and similarly so too is the tall left-arm spinner Tom Hartley. The fresh faces on show here are largely either those currently in the Test side or those with multi-format aspirations.Duckett himself was in effect on standby for Stokes across the World Cup, in case the Test captain’s knee completely gave way: “I wasn’t even thinking about it [to be honest]. There was no way Stokesy was missing out. He would have hobbled through it and still scored runs.”A cynic could argue that, for the likes of Duckett, missing the World Cup was a blessing in disguise. A chance to emerge from the ashes (not those ones) unscathed, ready to take the team forward.”I don’t think there is ever a good time to miss a World Cup. It could be the only opportunity I have. So certainly not in that way. Those same group of players could go out there and win that World Cup at a different time. It was tough to watch at times and I’m watching mates go out there and struggle. It was really difficult.”[But] for me personally I have had six weeks to kind of take a breather – it has been a big 12 months for me – and it might actually be quite refreshing. I feel raring to go now.”

The bowler revealed his disappointment at Yorkshire’s decision to drop him during the Royal London Cup and will talk to other counties with his deal expiring this year

Melinda Farrell15-Jun-20181:16

England looking for a complete performance – Plunkett

Liam Plunkett has revealed his disappointment at Yorkshire’s decision to drop him during the Royal London Cup, shortly after his return from the IPL, and indicated he is open to moving to another county when his current deal expires. The comments follow on from David Willey’s revelation that Yorkshire threatened to tear up his contract when he signed with the Chennai Super Kings.Plunkett, in the final year of his county contract, made seven IPL appearances for Delhi Daredevils but following his return from India he told he was dropped by Yorkshire’s director of cricket, Martyn Moxon, for the 50-over fixture against Northamptonshire after he took 1 for 76 from eight overs against Lancashire earlier this month. Speaking ahead of England’s second ODI against Australia in Cardiff, Plunkett said he disagreed with Yorkshire’s assessment that he was “undercooked”.”Yes, I was disappointed,” Plunkett said. “I’d played the previous games and felt I went all right. We won the previous game, so I felt in a good place – but I had one bad performance, and if they want to drop me on that … They said I wasn’t ready, that I looked undercooked.”In what might seem an unusual sequence of events, days after being dropped for a domestic fixture Plunkett was selected in England’s playing XI to face Scotland in the same format. Yorkshire and then-coach Jason Gillespie were given credit for helping Plunkett resurrect his international career after leaving Durham in 2012, but he now appears set to move on.”I just felt I was getting back into it,” Plunkett said. “That was the decision they took … I feel I was coming into a good place and I feel I can help win games for Yorkshire so obviously I was disappointed and I let them know on that.”It’s my last year and I went in for a chat with Martyn Moxon, and obviously as you get a little bit older you maybe think about your base salary coming down and you’re playing for incentives and stuff but I didn’t really get offered anything. They just said we’ll look into it in the next month or so but it gives me a right to speak to other counties and it gives me that option and I’m looking to do that.”Plunkett, along with the rest of the England attack, was hammered by Scotland’s batsmen at The Grange, where he took 2 for 85, but after making changes to his run up he felt his rhythm return at The Oval.”I think in the IPL I came a little bit wider and tried to angle the ball in a little bit and skid it on to the batters,” he said. “But I think my strength is to be on top of the ball, use my bounce and bowl that hard length. I think when I came in I was trying to angle it in a little bit and I was bowling a few wides down the leg side.Liam Plunkett could be leaving Yorkshire when his contract expires•Getty Images

“I played against Lancs and struggled coming off it. So I just looked at a bit of video footage and in the last couple of games – especially the last game – I felt a lot better, I felt my timing came back and my lengths were getting better.”Even if Plunkett bowls well for the rest of the summer, he will relinquish his place in the ODI side for at least two of England’s matches in Sri Lanka in October, when he will marry his partner, Emeleah Erb. The couple set the wedding date before England’s tour dates were finalised.”We planned because originally it was a Test series that was there and I didn’t think I’d be around the Test squad,” Plunkett said. “It’s been eleven years, it’s been long enough so I thought I’d better get married.”We did look at schedules and the best time to do it. There were flights booked from America and a lot of guests coming over and everything was booked, so it was so hard to change it then.”I’m really excited to get married but I am going to miss part of that series. All I can do is try and do well for England this summer and be a part of that team and [make them] think well, he might miss a few games, can we get him for the rest of that Sri Lanka series and keep me in mind going forward.””I’m so excited and can’t wait for the day that I’m not going to change and ruin everything for her.”

As if being England’s youngest specialist spinner for 90 years was not demanding enough, Mason Crane underwent the ritual glare from a posse of cricket experts

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jan-2018England supporters had waited all series but finally, in Sydney, Mason Crane became the youngest specialist spinner to play for England for 90 years.England’s record for producing legspinners is an abysmal one as Andrew Miller reflected in his round-up of the Not-so-Famous Five who have plugged a gap or two in the past half-century.So just to see Crane, at 20 years and 320 days, become the youngest England spinner since Ian Peebles played against South Africa in 1928 was something to celebrate.Crane might have followed Tom Curran in claiming Steven Smith as a maiden Test wicket had his edge not fallen short of Joe Root at slip. And twice, inside-edges from Usman Khawaja fell short of short leg and he also edged between wicketkeeper and slip.By the time it was all over, although Crane went wicketless in his 17 overs, a long line of former England and Australia players were queuing up to offer praise.Mason Crane bowls on debut at the SCG•Getty Images

It has become part of a legspinner’s initiation ceremony to undergo an evaluation from Shane Warne, the greatest leggie of them all. “His action is nicely balanced, there is nice momentum and he explodes through the crease,” Warne said before adding: “He’s very aggressive. He is feisty, looks to get into the batsman’s space. He won’t back down from the challenge.”On ESPNcricinfo, Graeme Swann, said: “I think it was a good day, a day that showed a lot of promise. It’s never easy bowling wrist spin, full stop, it was a hot day, a very good batting pitch, but he bowled 16 overs of very solid legspin.”Another former England spinner, Vic Marks, said: “The simple fact is Mason Crane has bowled impressively and with zest. I think he’s done pretty well.Mental strength was picked on by several observers, including the regular ESPNcricinfo contributor, Mark Butcher. Butcher said: “I’m not surprised that he’s settled quickly because one of his great strengths and, for me, one of the things that make him stand out among English spinners of many vintages is that he doesn’t seem to carry a lot of the mental fragility that his predecessors have done.”Mason Crane receives his Test cap from Graeme Swann•Getty Images

Ebony Rainford-Brent, who won the Women’s World Cup as a player, added: “Mason has got a little bit about him. I like energetic actions; I like bowlers who get through the crease. He’s very light on his feet – ballerina-esque.”Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, can be a demanding judge, but he seemed happy enough. “Mason has got the right style of energy and he gets plenty of revolutions on the ball,” he said, before adding a rider: “He’s not the kind of bowler you’d see playing every single Test match but we’ve seen enough today to know that, if England work well with him, there’s things to be worked on over the next few years.”That leaves the most trenchant observer of all – Vaughan’s fellow Yorkshireman Geoffrey Boycott. But, on second thoughts, that’s enough to be going on with. Best to let the toughest critic of all take a look for at least another day.

At half-past five, midway through an evening session blessed by gentle, unexpected warmth Essex’s Dan Lawrence reached the third century of his career with a pushed single off Kieran Noema-Barnett

Paul Edwards at Cheltenham14-Jul-2016
ScorecardDan Lawrence sparkled with his strokeplay to help Essex build a useful lead•Getty Images

At half-past five, midway through an evening session blessed by gentle, unexpected warmth Essex’s Dan Lawrence reached the third century of his career with a pushed single off Kieran Noema-Barnett. The Cheltenham crowd gave him a generous ovation for they can spot a fine young cricketer in these parts. Lawrence only celebrated his 19th birthday two days ago and he could still play age-group cricket. But what would be the point in that now?As if liberated, Lawrence took 27 runs off his next 14 balls, repeating the straight- and cover- drives that had already elicited ripples of approval. When he lashed Noema-Barnett straight to Craig Miles at midwicket, he received yet more applause as he returned to the pavilion and the ex-players attending their annual get-together at the College Lawn End joined in appreciatively. Essex were all out 11 balls before the scheduled close but their 78-run lead has left them well placed in this game.And Lawrence, of course, is only the most recent of a long line of young players to have received laurels in this sacred space…To the right of Cheltenham College’s pavilion and at the Chapel End of the ground are rows of trees, cracked willows and American limes, mostly. In front of almost every tree is a plaque marking a Cheltonian’s notable performance in an important school match. For example: Duleep Sinjhi, 1921, 7 for 35 v Marlborough; E M Wellings, 1927, 7 for 113 v Marlborough; P B C Moore 1939, 197 v Malvern.In addition to being a record of achievement, the list is something of a litany, petitioning whatever power there may be for more games like this, more days on cricket’s fields of praise. In many cases the request received a brutal answer; Cheltenham also has a war memorial.And at lunchtime on the second day of this game, as Josh Shaw, Gloucestershire’s loanee from Yorkshire, took refreshment in the middle of an eight-over spell in which he took three prime wickets, another tree was planted. It is a poplar and it commemorates the centenary of the death of Percy Jeeves, who died on the Somme on July 22, 1916. As many now know, thanks to Brian Halford’s outstanding biography, Jeeves was playing for Warwickshire at Cheltenham in August 1913 when his style was spotted by P G Wodehouse, who wanted a name for a “gentleman’s personal gentleman” in a forthcoming short story. “I remember admiring his action very much,” said Wodehouse.Yet as one watched the tree being planted and the speeches made, one thought not only of Wodehouse and Jeeves but also of the other trees on the ground and, perhaps, of Edward Thomas, who might have made an elegiac poem out of such events. Thomas died at Pas-de-Calais in 1917.Shaw, meanwhile, whose West Riding birthplace is just six miles away from that of Jeeves, was doing his best to prevent Essex establishing a winning position in this game. After Nick Browne had edged a good ball from David Payne to Chris Dent at slip in the fifth over of the Essex innings, Shaw, another 20-year-old with all before him, had brought one back a little to have Tom Westley lbw for 24. The young seamer appealed with all the certainty of a barrister who has sweetened the jury.At the beginning of his next over Shaw inflicted a first-ball duck on Ravi Bopara, Dent again taking the catch, and when Jaik Mickleburgh, who was ailing with a strain, slapped a half volley straight to Jack Taylor at midwicket, Essex were 80 for 4, still trailing Gloucestershire on first innings by 175.The visitors’ recovery to 333 at the close was led by Lawrence, who treated the former players in the corporate hospitality marquee to a fine exhibition of elegant batsmanship. He adapted well to a wicket on which bowlers are dangerous if they hit an exact length but fodder if they over-pitch even a fraction. Lawrence took four boundaries off what became the last over of Shaw’s first spell and added 102 with Ryan ten Doeschate, getting to his fifty in the over before the Essex skipper brought up the same landmark with a whack over midwicket off Graeme van Buuren’s anaemic slow left-arm.But ten Doeschate perished more or less as Westley had to the first ball of Shaw’s next over and it was eventually left to Lawrence and James Foster to give Essex the lead with a seventh-wicket stand of 83 in 14 overs. Gloucestershire’s seamers were now tiring, the ball was old and the support bowlers had to buy their wickets. Yet Lawrence’s 14th four, a majestic off drive to a ball from Payne which took him to 97, was still the shot of the day and he got to three figures 11 balls later.Once Lawrence was out, Foster bolstered Essex’s position by scoring 29 more runs very rapidly but this was something of a vaudeville act after a command performance. The crowd meandered away in a thoughtful mood and a Housmanish haze lingered on the distant slopes. On Cleeve Hill, stretching away towards Charlton Abbots, were all the trees of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.

South Africa came back from India with the T20 and ODI trophies in their luggage but their nine-year unbeaten run on the road in Test series was broken

Firdose Moonda11-Dec-2015If, when Russell Domingo started coaching, he had been told he would inherit a Test team at the top of the rankings and limited-overs sides that had suffered because of it, he would have taken it. When such riches rain on you, you do not consider the subsequent drain even if you know that in any functioning sporting system, there has to be one.Player pools change every few years so no matter whether you jump in at the shallow or the deep end, you are joining a cycle. From the shallow side, things will improve as the younger swimmers are schooled, a community is formed and they find their preferred stoke. From the deep end, the seas get rough, not everybody slips into the same stream and the waters begin to empty.What has made Domingo’s tenure so topsy-turvy is that these two processes have happened at the same time. “When I took over, there was a little bit of instability in the T20 and ODI teams and the Test side was very stable. Now, roles have reversed,” he said during his assessment of South Africa’s tour of India on their return home.South Africa came back with a perfect illustration of that. They T20 and ODI trophies were part of their luggage, which will boost their confidence ahead of next year’s World T20, but their nine-year unbeaten run on the road in Test series was broken. The gains of the former may not outweigh the disappointment of the latter, which is why so much focus has fallen on the longer format.”There is a lot of work to do with the Test side,” Domingo admitted. “Let’s not be naive about that. There are a lot of spots that people have questions about.”Some of those questions were answered a day later, when the selectors named their 13 to face England in the first two Tests. They stuck with opener Stiaan van Zyl despite the difficulties he faced in India, but deposed gloveman Dane Vilas. Their reasoning was that van Zyl needs to be tested in home conditions, having only opened in the subcontinent – he was promoted to the job in July for the Bangladesh series – but Vilas, who has also only played on the subcontinent, was superfluous to requirements that actually called for an extra batsman.That Vilas and his nearest rival Quinton de Kock are also batsmen was not part of the thinking because Temba Bavuma, the middle-order man who impressed when thrust into a role at the top, is more of a batsman and batsmen are in the spotlight. Domingo wants them to know their sails have not been ripped off, they have merely been blown a little off course.”As far as I’m concerned, India was a very tough tour for any batter to go on. We’ve got quality in our batting line-up that wasn’t able to showcase their skills under those conditions against those bowlers but that doesn’t make them bad players,” he said. “Those conditions were really extreme as it shows with the stats of the Indian batters as well.”India struggled only a little less than South Africa until Ajinkya Rahane’s twin tons in the Delhi Test. But the reality remains that no South African scored a hundred and only AB de Villiers managed to pass 50. Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis stonewalled impressively later in the series but balls faced and time batted do not count as much as runs. Bavuma showed some promise, Dean Elgar was caught and released a few times but eventually caught and the rest all took the bait the India spinners put out.In general, South Africa approached spin like a fish out of water but Domingo does not think they could have prepared any differently. Their batting consultant Mike Hussey was with them for a week before the first Test but could not stay. There is no word on if he will back before the England series. “We would have loved to have him longer but he had some other commitments so he wasn’t able to stay through the series but he did add a lot of value prior to the series,” Domingo said.Even when he had left, the team used any extra time as productively as they could. “We kept complimenting the players about the extra work they were putting in and the meticulous way they were trying to work on how to play against the Indian spinners,” Domingo said.Their floundering took place in the mind where the constant threat posed by both pitch and opposition players took its toll. “We were always under pressure and that can wear you down, whether it’s physically or mentally,” Domingo said. “I’m sure players’ confidence would have been knocked because we pride ourselves on being good players of spin but the fight that was shown on the last day [in Delhi], shows there’s still some fight left there. It shows that they can do it and these next 10 days will be important to make sure they freshen up and get themselves in the right frame of mind of England.”The quick turnaround has been cited by Domingo and captain Amla as the best way to recover. “We’ve got the ideal break,” Amla said. “Everybody will take a couple of days to rest up and get back into the nets and face the new ball on wickets with a bit of nip.”Home conditions are going to cast a different net over batsmen who will have to prepare for the ball flying past their noses instead of reaching down to smell it but Amla is not worried about how his team will tackle that. “I don’t think it’s a huge adjustment because these are the conditions we are accustomed to,” he said. So, in their own waters, Domingo and Amla are hopeful South Africa’s Test team will become big fish again.

Andrew Gale’s last hundred was scored against Durham in June 2011, when the Olympics were in the distance and Syria was still governable. Yorkshire expects more from its captains. On Scarborough’s wide acres, he finally delivered.

Paul Edwards at North Marine Road07-Jun-2013
ScorecardIt was a very important innings for Andrew Gale•Getty Images

Andrew Gale’s last hundred was scored against Durham in June 2011, when the Olympics were in the distance and Syria was still governable. Yorkshire expects more from its captains. On Scarborough’s wide acres, he finally delivered.Since that last hundred, Gale has played 33 innings and made only five fifties. In 2012 he scored 487 first-class runs. “If Root and Bairstow were available….” the cricket talk has begun in the Leeds pubs. “If he wasn’t captain…” The implication has rarely been left hanging in the air.So when Gale got inside the line of a delivery from Samit Patel, Nottinghamshire’s England allrounder, and hoisted it high over the wide long on boundary to reach his hundred, he was entitled to punch the air wildly and kiss the White Rose badge on his helmet.Physical clichés are forgivable when a cricketer has proved that his powers of resistance are still intact. Every player knows that there will come a time when the fires will burn low and never be rekindled.By close of play, the mixture of delight and relief had become untrammelled joy as Gale reached a career-best 159 not out and had been joined in his contentment by Gary Ballance, whose unbeaten 103 was his second century of the season.Only one wicket had fallen in the day and all thoughts of Yorkshire having to follow-on had long been forgotten. The game is surely as dead as the BetaMax cassette.Gale had, of course, been beaten by some of the 282 deliveries he faced in the day, but none of those reverses had amounted to the complete defeat which leads to the lonely trudge back to the pavilion which had so often characterised his last two years in Championship cricket.His century was all the more laudable given the context in which it was scored. Yorkshire’s skipper began the day with no runs at all to his name and his side on 29-3, still 265 short of the follow-on.He put on 94 in 29 overs with Phil Jaques before the Australian was caught at short leg by James Taylor off Patel for 51; Yorkshire’s No3 was attempting a hit to leg but the ball made contact with only bat edge and pad.

Andrew Gale

“I felt scratchy at the start of the season and I’ve been working hard at a few technical things in the nets. I was disappointed not to get to three figures against Somerset last week. That hurt me a lot.
“I know the press have been saying that I hadn’t scored a century for two years so I wanted to make sure that if I got to 60-70 today that I’d not only get over the line but go on to make a big one.
“Scarborough’s a good ground for me, I’ve always scored runs here. It’s quite fast and bouncy, I score a lot of runs square of the wicket and it suits my style of play.
“I’m a bit more upright in my stance. At the start of the season I was falling over a little bit at the crease and it felt like if the ball nipped back that I would get out lbw so I’ve worked at getting a little bit more upright and balanced.”

That dismissal took place five overs before lunch and it was the last of the day. The remaining two sessions were taken up with Gale and Ballance adding an unbroken 237 for the fifth wicket. In doing so they established a raft of records to delight the statisticians, although the anoraks had not donned their uniforms this very warm Friday.The partnership was a new fifth-wicket record for Yorkshire against Nottinghamshire beating the 152 put on by John Hampshire and Neil Hartley at Trent Bridge in 1981. It is also the highest fifth-wicket stand by Yorkshire batsmen at Scarborough and the highest fifth-wicket partnership in county cricket on the ground.Of the twoWhite Rose centurions, Ballance is in better form and probably looked the more fluent. The majority of his shots were played with the assurance of a man near the top of his game. His cutting of Paul Franks, his clipping of Luke Fletcher to midwicket and his footwork against most bowlers made it fairly clear why the England selectors have been looking closely at him.Gale’s eventual confidence was harder won and, perhaps for that very reason, it was more pleasurable to watch. But by the end of the day both batsmen were playing with complete freedom. The follow-on had been saved, the second new ball had been seen off and Nottinghamshire’s attack, so threaterning just 24 hours earlier, had been made to look anodyne, the former Yorkshireman, Ajmal Shahzad, among them.Shahzad was deliberately cut high over the slips by Ballance, who later reverse swept Patel for two fours. Gale came down the wicket and punched the ball to the square leg boundary. The 200 stand was brought up with four byes off Shahzad which ballooned high over Chris Read’s head; the Notts wicketkeeper/captain sat on the grass and looked back resentfully at umpire Nigel Cowley. The contrast with his counterpart’s emotions could barely have been more marked.The last hour of this day’s play must have been a delight for Gale. At last he was master of his demesne again. Three of the Cleckheaton batsman’s 13 hundreds have been scored at Scarborough and none of his innings anywhere can have been much more important to his career.Cricket must suddenly seem an easy game on such evenings and even the knowledge that the game was surely heading for stalemate late tomorrow afternoon could not mar his joy.