Category Uncategorized

Colin Ackermann’s hundred almost made Northants pay for a day of dropped chances but Leicestershire agonisingly fell two runs short and still remain without a win

ECB Reporters Network29-Jun-2017
ScorecardNorthamptonshire plucked victory from the jaws of defeat against Leicestershire to win the pink-ball Specsavers County Championship match by just two runs at Wantage Road.Colin Ackermann’s 105 and Matt Pillans’ late-order 56 were steering Leicestershire towards a record chase of 394.Then Pillans, with only No. 11 Dieter Klein for company, received a ball from Rory Kleinveldt that bounced a little more and took the splice of the bat to point. Leicestershire old-boy Josh Cobb dived forward to take the catch and Northants pulled a win out of the fire – it was Northamptonshire’s joint-second narrowest margin of victory.A thrilling final day where Leicestershire resumed needing 350 more to win with ten wickets in hand swayed back and forth. At 299 for 5 Leicestershire were on course to get up, only for Richard Gleeson to take two wickets in two balls seven overs into the second new ball. But then Pillans, on-loan from Surrey, swatted a 41-ball fifty – for the first time in first-class cricket – to revive the visitors’ hopes.In need of another breakthrough, Gleeson delivered – drawing an edge from Ackermann to wicketkeeper Ben Duckett after an innings worthy of winning a game. When No. 10 Clint McKay also fell caught behind, to Kleinveldt, 26 were still needed.But back came Leicestershire. Klein survived for 20 balls and escaped an edge behind the wicket that Duckett dropped diving to his right when seven were needed. He and Pillans nudged Leicestershire to within one hit. Gleeson bowled a maiden to Klein before Kleinveldt came up with the winning moment – a potentially pivotal one for Northants’ hopes of promotion.Northants’ coach David Ripley said: “It’s the year of the thriller – the fourth game from seven that’s been very tight – and it feels pretty good. I thought the game had slipped away at the death, they were edging to victory and we were looking back to dropped catches or maybe batting extra time, lots of things were going through my head.”Leicestershire were heartbroken, denied a first win of the season. Ackermann’s century gave them a sporting chance, a well-paced innings that steered his side from danger after both openers fell in the first seven overs of play. He faced 198 balls and struck 14 fours and a six, sharing stands of 127 with Mark Cosgrove, and 58 with both Ned Eckersley and Pillans.Rory Kleinveldt struck in the nick of time for Northants•Getty Images

Ackermann was the rock around which Leicestershire built their chase which was reduced to 117 needed with five wickets in hand in 32 overs after tea as Northants took the second new ball.The target was brought down to 95 when Gleeson suddenly found a double breakthrough. First Lewis Hill drove at one that left him and edged to first slip. Next ball, a knee-high slower ball struck Rob Sayer and he was given out lbw to record a pair.Ackermann edged the first ball he faced to the second new ball through third slip who had just been removed but responded to being beaten outside the off stump by Ben Sanderson by running down the wicket and lifting a six into the Spencer Pavilion over long-on and hoisting another boundary over extra-cover.But he couldn’t win the game on his own. Enter Pillans on his Leicestershire debut, whose first-innings 35 saved Leicestershire from a huge deficit. He uppercut Gleeson over backward point for six, pulled four more through midwicket off Sanderson and lifted the next ball over mid-off for another boundary. It looked like being a fairytale debut until Kleinveldt found a ball to snatch the dream away.That it took until the death was of Northants’ making. Six chances were shelled, one on the third evening and five on the final day. The biggest misses were of Cosgrove on 23 – a sitter to Alex Wakely at second slip that would have had Leicestershire three down after just over an hour’s play – and Ackermann on 43 – a flying edge to first slip that Kleinveldt put down. Duckett’s miss appeared to be one-drop-too-many but Northants had a Get Out of Jail card up their sleeves.

Justice (retired) AP Shah, the BCCI ombudsman, has asked the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) vice-president Dilip Vengsarkar and managing committee member Pravin Amre to respond to allegations of conflict of interest relating to their coaching assignment

Arun Venugopal21-May-2016Justice (retired) AP Shah, the BCCI ombudsman, has asked the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) vice-president Dilip Vengsarkar and managing committee member Pravin Amre to respond to allegations of conflict of interest relating to their coaching assignments. While Vengsarkar and Amre have been asked to respond by June 1, the BCCI has been asked to reply by May 24.The complaint has been filed by Nadeem Memon, a former curator of the Wankhede Stadium and a former managing committee member of the MCA. In Memon’s complaint, accessed by ESPNcricinfo, he has contended that Vengsarkar and Amre were in conflict by virtue of their roles as National Cricket Academy (NCA) director and Delhi Daredevils assistant coach respectively. He also pointed out that Vengsarkar ran a private academy.”I would like to bring to your notice that Vengsarkar runs a cricket academy for junior cricketers in Mumbai and Pune,” Memon wrote. “It baffles me that how it is not a conflict of interest despite Vengsarkar not making any financial gains from his post as NCA director.”Although Vengsarkar has agreed to do the NCA job honorary, it would dangerous to ignore the conflict of interest. The former India skipper can very well favour boys from his academy at the NCA. There is no guarantee that Vengsarkar wouldn’t be tilted towards Mumbai players.”Vengsarkar was appointed as NCA director last November, while Amre joined Daredevils ahead of the 2015 IPL season.It is understood the BCCI has asked the MCA’s officials, members and coaches to submit declarations relating to any possible conflict of interest relating to their roles.

The balance of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s side means fitting Dale Steyn and Trent Boult into the same team is a major challenge. If and when it does happen, it’s guaranteed box-office bonanza

Arun Venugopal22-Apr-20153:20

Right decision to play Boult – Steyn

It is 3pm, still an hour before the game begins. This is mid-April heat unleashing its worst. Sunrisers Hyderabad, however, are out there training at full tilt, as are the visiting Delhi Daredevils. It’s a Saturday and there is a sizeable crowd already in Visakhapatnam.Just behind the sightscreen, a group of youngsters is waving a huge banner that screams: ‘Come back, Steyn Gun.’ It doesn’t escape Dale Steyn’s attention even as he sends down a few deliveries on the practice wicket.There is an eruption of applause when the toss is completed and the teams flash on the giant screen as Steyn’s name is called out by the stadium announcer. Only Shikhar Dhawan, among the Sunrisers, draws a better response. A frisson runs through the ground when Steyn gets his first touch on the ball in the deep; it’s amplified further when he enters the attack. The crowd well and truly finds its heartbeat when he bowls a conditions-defying 14th over, making Yuvraj Singh and JP Duminy hop around to his 140-plus lifters. Later, Steyn, like a master conductor, even directs the Mexican wave. He is friendly and warm. He is popular.A few days before that, at Bangalore airport, Trent Boult is patiently obliging selfie requests. Boult is the new kid on the block. The flavour of the season. And the leader of the attack in the three games that Sunrisers have played up to that point. The nature of Sunrisers’ composition means Steyn has had to sit out. There is enough debate on the selection already, but David Warner’s take on Boult being ‘just ahead of Dale’ has only added more spice to it.Boult, his reputation enhanced by his exploits during the World Cup, wears his fame lightly. He is particularly nice with children. ‘How are you, buddy?’ he greets a boy who doesn’t know Boult’s name. Helpfully spelling it out for him, Boult holds the tiny fingers of another boy, who wants to ‘hand-shake’, but is too shy to do so. It also helps he bowls all right: Boult is the leading-wicket taker* of the team thus far.

****

Two world-class bowlers. Two crowd-favourites. Two good fellas. But room only for one. Such is the dynamics of the squad system, and it has helped that despite Steyn’s probable disappointment – it’s understood he wasn’t even inclined to grant dug-out interviews to the broadcaster during the matches he sat out – he has swiftly killed even the slightest notion of uneasiness with a resounding endorsement of Boult. “I don’t know whether you are trying to look for something [controversial],” Steyn tells ESPNcricinfo with a laugh.”It’s definitely the right decision [to play Boult] after the World Cup he had. We all know that someone is going to miss out. And it’s one guy out of the bowlers.””Most definitely not [feeling threatened]. I’ll back myself over anybody anytime to get the job done. I use an example: I hate riding in the passengers’ seat. I am the guy that wants to drive, and it’s the same thing when there is a cricket game on. But it is not my life that’s at stake. I’m the first one to be honest and say, ‘I understand that. That’s cool,’ and I am able to go ahead with it.”Steyn’s “episode” with Grant Elliott in the World Cup semi-final showed there is room in competitive sport for personal empathy. “It takes a humble man to be able to come and pick up somebody like that,” Steyn says of Elliott’s gesture. “And it takes a man to also stand up from there and say thank you very much. I think it was one of the better moments I have had in my cricket career.”Beyond the bonhomie, though, the Boult-Steyn conundrum is a real issue for Sunrisers to grapple with. Imagine signing up Al Pacino and Robert De Niro only for the script to accommodate just one of them in any given scene.”Ideally both of us opening the bowling together would be just fantastic,” Steyn says. “But unfortunately our line-up is not set up like that.”This isn’t a situation that’s unique to Sunrisers. Almost every team in the IPL strives for balance, which essentially means slotting in genuine allrounders. Mumbai Indians have, for instance, played seam-bowling allrounder Corey Anderson ahead of a pure fast bowler like Mitchell McClenaghan, until the former had to sit out of the Royal Challengers Bangalore game with an injury.Teams like Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, too, have the luxury of quality allrounders like James Faulkner and Dwayne Bravo, who lengthen an already formidable batting order. Sunrisers face a double whammy in this regard: neither do they have a robust batting line-up, nor do they have a first-rate specialist allrounder.And it isn’t as if the wickets they are playing their home matches on – in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad – are responsive to quick bowling. In fact, the sluggish nature of the surface in Visakhapatnam during the Sunrisers-Rajasthan game was criticised by both the camps.All these provide the context to Ravi Bopara’s presence as one of the overseas players, the batting allrounder required to contribute with his medium pace. “It’s difficult because, if you are going to play both [Steyn and Boult], you have a short batting line-up,” Bopara tells ESPNcricinfo.”Maybe [we are light on batting]. I think our batting hasn’t really fired apart from that [the Bangalore game], so it’s pretty dangerous to leave out a batsman for another bowler. Then again, it’s a dangerous attack when you have got them coming in. If you bowl a team out for 130-140, our top-four batsmen can score that.”Without Boult and Steyn playing together, Sunrisers have conceded 160-plus in the three of their four matches, with Chennai Super Kings piling on 209 in Chennai. In a seam-heavy attack with Karn Sharma being the lone spinner, Bopara is Sunrisers’ second-highest wicket-taker with four scalps, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3), Praveen Kumar (2), Ashish Reddy (2) and Karn (2) have all chipped in as well. Only once have they bowled out an opposition.As exciting as the proposition of a Steyn-Boult duet is, with the former providing the neck-vein bulging counterpoint to the New Zealander’s nerveless swing-bowling, it is difficult to predict if and when that will happen. The Kings XI Punjab game on April 27 might present the best opportunity yet with it being played in seam-friendly Mohali.But as Steyn puts it, their pairing “might not happen, it might happen, and when it doesn’t happen you just got to come and roll with it.”If and when it does happen, it’s guaranteed box-office bonanza.

Darren Sammy singled out West Indies’ determination to fight to the finish as the key factor in helping them win their first world championship since the World Cup of 1979

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Oct-2012The West Indies celebrations after the final wicket were interrupted only by the post-match presentation, during which the captain Darren Sammy singled out his team’s determination to fight to the finish as the key factor in helping them win their first world championship since the World Cup of 1979.”For the last two years we’ve shown the never-say-die attitude, but we haven’t had the results,” Sammy said. “This moment we’re going to live forever. The team has been through a lot in the last two years, for the last ten years. The mission was to win the T20 World Cup, the belief we left the Caribbean with has pulled us through. Today we were down and out but our never-say-die attitude came out.”Thank you to everyone who supported us. The tournament is for the fans. The love we felt from the Sri Lankan people is tremendous and we want to thank them for that. This hopefully will be the beginning of things to come. Hopefully this team will go on.”Sammy played an important role in the 36-run win the final, scoring quick runs at the death during West Indies’ innings to push the total to a competitive 137. But it was Marlon Samuels who played the decisive knock, reviving his team with a counter-attacking 78 off 56 balls, which not only boosted what was a crawling run-rate, but made possible a score his bowlers could ultimately defend. The feature of Samuels’ innings was five sixes off Lasith Malinga.”Put in a lot of hard work. To Jamaica, to the West Indies. Can’t explain how much it means to me,” Samuels, who had lost two years to a ban related to links with an Indian bookmaker, said after being named Man of the Match. “They beat us twice, I tell Chris [Gayle] we can’t lose thrice. The wicket was a bit slow, today was a different mindset, I decided to attack Malinga, their best bowler and it paid off. We are working together as a unit. Future-wise I think West Indies are going to do well, even in Test cricket. Test cricket is the best cricket.”The game ended in despair for Sri Lanka, the hosts, who dominated the first half of the West Indies innings. Mahela Jayawardene kept his team on track in the first half of the chase, but there was no recovering from a collapse that began with the fall of his partner Kumar Sangakkara in the 10th over. They ended up losing nine for 53.”I think the first ten overs were fantastic, they knew they had to go for it. A couple of mistakes on the field and three-four bad overs shifted the momentum,” Jayawardene, who resigned as T20 captain after the defeat, said. “We’re disappointed, a full house. A couple of overs they went after us, against our best bowlers. I backed my No. 1 bowler to deliver but Marlon batted very well.”They bowled really well, we just needed to keep the pressure on which we didn’t. We need to sit down, have a good chat, and move on.”

India will play two warm-up matches ahead of the first Test of their tour of Australia later this year, the BCCI and Cricket Australia [CA] have announced

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Oct-2011India will play two warm-up matches ahead of the first Test of their tour of Australia later this year, the BCCI and Cricket Australia [CA] have announced. Both games will be played in Canberra, leading up to the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.The first warm-up game will be a two-day match against a CA Chairman’s XI starting on December 15 at the Manuka Oval, while the second will be a three-day game from December 19 at the same venue, against the same opposition.In August, the BCCI had asked CA for an additional warm-up game during the tour. Previously, India were scheduled to play a four-day tour game from December 18. The request was made in the aftermath of the disastrous tour of England – following India’s 0-4 whitewash, severe criticism was directed towards the Indian board with regards to the team’s preparation.India play four Tests and two Twenty20s against Australia, followed by a tri-series that also includes Sri Lanka. The tour two matches will be a part of the inaugural ‘Festival of Cricket’ in Canberra, which will run from December 4 to 21. The festival also features a Sheffield Shield game from December 6 to 9 and a Ryobi One-Day Cup match.

preview of the Twenty20 between Australia and Sri Lanka in Perth

Peter English30-Oct-2010

Match Facts

Sunday, October 31, Perth

Start time 17.35 local (09:35 GMT)Muttiah Muralitharan is on his last tour of Australia•Getty Images

The Big Picture

Sri Lanka’s limited-overs team is peering towards the World Cup and Australia’s players are trying not to think about the Ashes starting next month. A Twenty20 and three one-dayers have been squeezed in to shine some light on the start of the Australian cricket season, but both outfits are concerned more about the bigger challenges on the horizon.


One-off matches provide little in the long term but each squad has a host of players trying to prove they are worthy of more international action. Michael Clarke’s performances in this format always come under scrutiny, with his vibrant leadership sitting next to overly cautious batting. If Australia’s version of the three Ws – Warner, Watson and White – fire it won’t matter too much what Clarke does with the bat.Sri Lanka are in some good form after two comfortable warm-ups, but the intensity will increase when they step out on the WACA on Sunday afternoon. Mahela Jayawardene and Suraj Randiv, the offspinner, performed well in their win over New South Wales on Wednesday while Kumar Sangakkara hit form with a century against Queensland in a one-dayer last week.

Form guide

(most recent first)

Australia LLLWW
Sri Lanka WLLWL

Watch out for…

David Warner has had a strange month. Everyone knows he’s a T20 expert but he craves more and was rewarded with a trip to India for three ODIs. He didn’t play in any of them and when he returned home was dropped for the 50-over games against Sri Lanka. More quick runs are the only way to get back in.


Kumar Sangakkara juggles so many balls but is able to catch them all. As captain, wicketkeeper and senior batsman, it would be easy to be weighed down. Watch him in the field or at the crease and it soon becomes obvious that he is a master of everything. He and Jayawardene are the biggest threats for Australia.

Team news

Dirk Nannes is the veteran of the bowling attack with 14 Twenty20s for Australia, while Peter Siddle, Clint McKay and John Hastings are his possible support partners. Siddle is the only one of that trio with T20 experience, having appeared in one game. Steve O’Keefe, the left-arm spinner, will be looking for his second match after debuting against Pakistan in July.Australia squad David Warner, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin (wk), Michael Clarke (capt), Cameron White, David Hussey, Steven Smith, John Hastings, Steve O’Keefe, Peter Siddle, Clint McKay, Dirk Nannes.This will be the last chance for Australians to see Muttiah Muralitharan Down Under before he retires after the World Cup. That is a relief for the local batsmen. Whether Sri Lanka pick Randiv as well will depend on the pitch, but they also have the options of using the part-time turn of Jeevan Mendis or Tillakaratne Dilshan. With 16 men in the squad, they have a lot to choose from.Sri Lanka squad Kumar Sangakkara (capt, wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Chamara Silva, Jeevan Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Chamara Kapugedara, Thisara Perera, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekera, Dilhara Fernando, Muttiah Muralitharan, Suraj Randiv, Dammika Prasad, Dinesh Chandimal.

Pitch and conditions

It’s easy to think of Perth, speed and bounce together, but the combination hasn’t happened a lot lately. If the pitch is springy it will aid the home team, although Lasith Malinga might also have some fun. The weather forecast is sunny with a maximum of 29C.

Stats and trivia

• Sri Lanka have won eight matches in Australia against the hosts in all formats, but have never taken a series
• In a throwback to the 1800s, all of Australia’s squad comes from New South Wales or Victoria
• Australia lead the head-to-head contests with two wins in three matches
• Australia have lost their past three Tests, three T20s, and one ODI
  

  Quotes

  “He has nothing to prove to anyone right now. The last year or so I think we’ve seen a different Murali, more relaxed, I reckon, especially in the dressing room.”
  
  “They’ve got a pretty good team, a very good team, not to be taken lightly.”
  .

Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Atharva Ankolekar and Suryansh Shedge return for their last league game of the season

Vishal Dikshit28-Jan-2025India internationals Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer are going to miss the next round of the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai in the lead up to the England ODI series that follows early next month. While the likes of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul will feature in the next round starting January 30, the Mumbai trio had already played the previous round, which Kohli and Rahul didn’t, and Iyer played almost the entire domestic season, that included two white-ball tournaments too. The ODI series against England starts on February 6 in Nagpur, four days after the scheduled end of the last Ranji Trophy round.Rohit and Jaiswal – who also open together in Tests – opened for Mumbai against Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) when they returned to domestic cricket for the previous round after the BCCI’s new guidelines mandated playing domestic cricket. The board’s directive had come after India’s consecutive series losses against New Zealand and Australia that cost the team a World Test Championship final berth, especially with India’s batting unit failing to put up substantial scores. Rohit, especially, has been among the poorest of the lot, scoring just 164 runs from his last 15 Test innings to average a dismal 10.93 this season. His fortunes didn’t change when he batted for Mumbai, scoring just 3 and 28 against J&K.Related

• Rahane lauds J&K seamers, admits he misread the conditions

• Accuracy in, pressure off: How J&K took down mighty Mumbai

• Virat Kohli to train with Delhi squad from Tuesday

Jaiswal too registered low scores of 4 and 26 although he had a much better Test season, scoring two half-centuries and a century in Australia after four fifties at home.Iyer, on the other hand, has been Mumbai’s top-scorer this Ranji season. He made two centuries to tally 480 runs from seven innings and average 68.57. He also struck two unbeaten centuries in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy recently. He also struck at 188.52 for his 345 runs in the victorious 20-over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.Mumbai will also be without allrounder Shivam Dube who joined the India T20I squad soon after Mumbai’s game against J&K ended.The squad for the final league game against Meghalaya sees the return of batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi and allrounders Atharva Ankolekar and Suryansh Shedge, who was the Player of the Match in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Mumbai are likely go to back to the young opening combination of Raghuvanshi and 17-year-old Ayush Mhatre, who has kicked off his maiden domestic season with a stellar record of four centuries and two half-centuries in 18 innings across first-class and List A formats so far.Mumbai are the defending champions and are in a tough spot to make the Ranji knockouts, placed third in the Group A table behind J&K and Baroda. Their last game against Meghalaya is a must win.

Mumbai squad

Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Ayush Mhatre, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Amogh Bhatkal, Siddhesh Lad, Akash Anand (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Suryansh Shedge, Shardul Thakur, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Mohit Avasthi, Sylvester D’Souza, Royston Dias, Shreyas Gurav, Atharva Ankolekar

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.

“There is so much appetite to learn and be successful on these wickets”

Andrew Fidel Fernando01-Jul-2022Being proactive. Being brave. And embracing the challenge of playing on spinning surfaces. According to captain Pat Cummins, these were the tenets of Australia’s success in Galle, where they crushed Sri Lanka inside two-and-a-half days.Proactive and brave, because Australia had scored at 4.53 in the 70.1 overs they’d batted in the first innings, even though they’d been 100 for 4 at one stage. The sixth-wicket partnership between Cameron Green and Alex Carey was a particular example of the urgency Australia brought to their batting. They put on 84 runs off 93 balls, and advanced Australia’s chances substantially on a rain-curtailed second day.”A couple of new words we’re using about our approach is about being proactive and being brave,” Cummins said after the match. “We saw some really clear methods from all the batters. They might have been individually a bit different, but you saw everyone being really proactive, and putting pressure back on the bowlers. It’s something you’d normally talk about in one-day cricket or T20 cricket. But I think that’s the style over here that’s needed.”Related

• How Green's meticulous foresight helped reach the zone of proximal development

• Travis Head and Nathan Lyon rip through Sri Lanka to secure huge win

• How it happened: Sri Lanka – 113 all out in 22.5 overs

A more aggressive approach brings risk too, however. While Usman Khawaja, Green, and Carey produced substantial innings, others, like Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head, were out cheaply, attacking. For Cummins, though, failure is just a part of this approach.”I think it’s part of the environment that we are trying to create,” he said. “Failure is absolutely okay, as long as you are failing in a way you are happy to be.”Some of Australia’s batters who had been to Sri Lanka in 2016 had failed during that 3-0 loss. But they are richer for that experience, Cummins said.”I think I wouldn’t discount our batters in our squad that have been here. They know what works. All of them have had success in these types of wickets, so having them as great reference points for the young guys and seeing them go out and do it – I don’t have to do anything as captain really.”Eight months into his captaincy, Cummins’ side has also gone undefeated in four successive Tests in Asia, having won two of those games. The Australia of 2022 is no longer so wary of spinning conditions, Cummins said. Even the senior players are being pushed to develop their games further.Pat Cummins was delighted with the intent shown by Australia’s batters•Getty Images

“Embracing everything about the conditions – that’s been a big one for us. In the past you can get caught up in conditions that aren’t like Australia, but if you want to be the number one Test team in the world, you’ve got be winning overseas. I think everyone – the experienced guys finding new shots, Mitchell Starc working on reverse swing, Nathan Lyon coming up with a few new balls – there is so much appetite to learn and be successful on these wickets.”Lyon was instrumental to this victory, having taken 5 for 90 in the first innings, then 4 for 31 in the second. Through the course of this game, he also surpassed three bowling greats on the all-time wicket tally. He now sits 10th on that list with 436 wickets, just ahead of Rangana Herath, Kapil Dev, and Richard Hadlee.”I wouldn’t change Lyon for anyone,” Cummins said. “He’s gone into the top 10 wicket takers of all time. You saw him out there. He’s unplayable for left or right-handers. Sometimes out here, bounce for spinners is spoken about something that’s not desirable, but he showed here with that bounce he was unplayable. His stamina as well – you give him the ball from one end and say see you at the end of the day.”

Some more of the tourists will be administered the vaccine on February 20

Mohammad Isam18-Feb-2021Tamim Iqbal and Russell Domingo were among several Bangladesh cricketers and support staffers to be administered Covid-19 vaccines in Dhaka on Thursday, ahead of the team’s departure for New Zealand next week to take part in a limited-overs international series.Soumya Sarkar was the first to be vaccinated at the Kurmitola General Hospital, followed by Iqbal, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Naim and Taskin Ahmed, followed by the contingent of support staffers – special arrangements had been made for the overseas coaches, since they don’t have the Bangladeshi national ID that is mandatory to be eligible for the vaccine. BCB director Jalal Yunus, who will travel with the team, was also among those vaccinated.Some more of the cricketers who are travelling to New Zealand will be administered the vaccine on February 20, and the BCB will make arrangements for more vaccines to be administered, if needed, after the tour.Speaking afterwards, Iqbal admitted to being apprehensive about taking the vaccine to start with. “The thing about vaccinations is that if you know how helpful it is for you then I think your fear will go. I will not deny that I was afraid,” he said. “I was not sure whether to take it or not. But after talking to the BCB and finding out that it is normal to have symptoms, it made sense to take it.”The app was also launched at the same time in the presence of health minister Zahid Maleque and BCB president Nazmul Hassan, and Sarkar was the first to use it.Ahmed urged people from his country to get the vaccination done at the earliest. “I am feeling quite good after being inoculated,” he told . “There’s no physical problem yet. I would like to thank the honourable prime minister and BCB for making it so easily available for us. I urge everyone to be vaccinated. The app has also made it a simpler process.”More than one million Bangladeshis have taken the vaccine since the government rolled it out earlier this month.