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Tash Farrant puts seal on crushing win with five-wicket haul at Chelmsford

ECB Reporters Network29-May-2021South East Stars 324 for 7 (Dunkley 104*) beat Sunrisers 189 (Farrant 5-33) by 135 runs

Sophia Dunkley earned the applause of Lisa Keightley as her century set up a crushing 135-run bonus point victory for South East Stars over Sunrisers.All-rounder Dunkley smashed an unbeaten 104 off 93 balls to send the Stars to a record highest Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy total of 324 for 7.Dunkley, who has played 15 international T20s, is hoping to make her ODI debut this summer with India and New Zealand touring and will have impressed an on-looking England head coach Keightley.England fast bowler Tash Farrant took 5 for 33 as Sunrisers were bowled out for 189, with 65 balls to spare at the Cloudfm County Ground, Chelmsford.Bryony Smith and Alice Davidson-Richards got the Stars off to a flier by putting on 107 in 18 overs, having been asked to bat first on a belting wicket in flawless conditions.Smith was the more aggressive, pulling a six in just the second over and another to bring up a 53-ball fifty – comfortably bettering her best score of 8 in last year’s truncated competition.Davidson-Richards joined her at the milestone in 63 balls before Kelly Castle entered the attack and halted the visitors’ progress.Related

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The Essex-born seamer had Smith well caught at square leg with her first delivery before picking up Davidson-Richards and Alice Capsey in consecutive deliveries soon after – eventually returning 3 for 40.Dunkley rebuilt, initially steadily, but with Aylish Cranstone began to find her tempo while playing strongly in front of the wicket.Cranstone, Kirstie White and Farrant fell in quick succession but Dunkley went past her 51-ball half-century for the seventh time in her last eight List A innings.Partnerships of 53 and 44 with the destructive Grace Gibbs and Rhianna Southby pushed the Stars over 300 before Dunkley firmly swept through mid-on to wave her bat on her third 50-over hundred – with Keightley clapping the impressive knock.Left-armer Farrant made sure the chase was never really on for Sunrisers as she had Cordelia Griffin and Amara Carr caught within the first nine overs.The Stars captain then picked up Lissy MacLeod and Fran Wilson in her sixth over before Sunrisers retaliated in the shape of a 73-run stand between Mady Villiers and Naomi Dattani. Gibbs broke the stand by castling Villiers before Dattani was bowled for 47.The required run-rate continued to grow exponentially to leave the chase to fizzle out, with Farrant and Smith taking the last two wickets.

Hamish Marshall led from the front with 66 as Gloucestershire romped to a shock nine-wicket win over Somerset with 5.2 overs to spare in the Friends Life t20 clash at Taunton.

29-Jun-2012
ScorecardHamish Marshall made 66 as Gloucestershire produced a shock win•Getty Images

Hamish Marshall led from the front with 66 as Gloucestershire romped to a shock nine-wicket win over Somerset with 5.2 overs to spare in the Friends Life t20 clash at Taunton.A packed crowd of more than 7,000 saw the hosts fall to their first T20 defeat this season, having been restricted to 140 for 8 after winning the toss, Albie Morkel top-scoring with 33. Spinners Muttiah Muralitharan (2 for 20) and Ed Young (1 for 18) bowled their eight overs for a combined total of 38 runs, while Ian Saxelby and James Fuller claimed two wickets each.Marshall and Benny Howell (55 not out) then made the total look even more inadequate, with an opening stand of 115 in 12.1 overs. Marshall raced to a half-century off 35 balls – with seven fours – before pulling a catch to midwicket, having added two sixes. By then the game won.Howell looked equally at ease as the pair scored at will against an off-colour Somerset attack, reaching his 50 off 36 balls, with eight fours and a six.Skipper Marshall had earlier set the tone for Somerset’s unusually poor batting effort by taking a fine running catch to dismiss Richard Levi for seven off the first ball of the second over. Kevin O’Brien holed out to deep square off James Fuller and it was 39 for 3 when Nick Compton was caught behind off an inside edge to give Saxelby a wicket.Jos Buttler was dropped on 1 by wicketkeeper Jon Batty off Liam Norwell, but James Hildreth was caught behind sweeping at Muralitharan to make it 47 for 4. Buttler (23) could not find any fluency and lost his patience to be stumped by Batty advancing to Young after a stand of 33 with Morkel. Arul Suppiah was bowled by the wily Murali and at 83 for 6 Somerset were in deep trouble.Morkel hit two big sixes before lofting a catch to long-off and only a poor 18th over from Fuller, in which he was warned for a beamer and conceded 18 runs, gave the home side even the faintest hope.

The Breakers failed to make the WNCL final for the first time in history this season

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Apr-2021Dominic Thornely will leave his role as head coach of New South Wales Breakers and move into the male pathway with the state.Thornely had been in the job for the last two seasons during which New South Wales failed to win the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL).They finished as runners-up in the 2019-2020 season, losing to Western Australia in the final, only the fourth time they had not won the title, then in the recent campaign finished fourth which meant they missed the decider for the first time.”Like we do every season we have reviewed all of our elite programs and as part of that concluded that it was important that Dom’s expertise was not lost to the organisation, and that his skillset is best suited to contributing in the Male Pathways area,” Greg Mail, New South Wales’ head of cricket, said.”He may not have achieved everything he set out to do with the Breakers but his coaching career continues to develop. Dom will start his new role with a focus on developing young talent in Country NSW and we are really excited to see the impact he can make.”Leah Poulton, the head of female cricket, praised Thornely’s work with the younger players.”Dom has worked as both an Assistant and Head Coach over the past four seasons and over that time he has overseen the development of our next generation of athletes,” she said. “He leaves the program with strong foundations and I wish him well in his future endeavours.”Thornely said: “As a coach, it is important to experience a broad range of coaching opportunities. I have really enjoyed my time in the female programme but the one area I haven’t had an opportunity to explore is the male pathway.”I believe my playing experiences will compliment my coaching background in this role and I look forward to the challenge of developing future Test cricketers.”

Borthwick signed a long-term deal with the club in September after four seasons at Surrey

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Mar-2021Scott Borthwick will captain Durham in the County Championship this summer, having returned to the club on a long-term deal after four seasons at Surrey.Borthwick will be Durham’s third captain in as many seasons. Cameron Bancroft led the side in the first half of 2019 before he was included in Australia’s Ashes squad. Ned Eckersley then took over the role, and continued through the Bob Willis Trophy campaign in 2020.While his captaincy experience is limited to a couple of games for Surrey’s second XI, Borthwick will be a senior player in Durham’s squad, and Marcus North, the club’s director of cricket, said that he hoped he could demonstrate that within the role.”There is no doubt Scott brings a huge amount of playing experience to the table,” North said. “This is a great opportunity for Scott to draw upon these and transfer those experiences into a formal leadership role.”Borthwick said that captaining his boyhood club had been a long-term ambition of his.”Just coming back to play for Durham again has been an amazing experience for me, so to be asked to captain the team is a huge honour,” he said. “Leading out the Durham team has been something I’ve dreamt about since I was a kid in the academy so it’s a really special thing for me.”The coaches and management team have been really welcoming since I re-joined the club and I’m looking forward to working closely with them. We’ve got an exciting group of players with lots experience and I look forward to leading the team to success.”The club are yet to name a captain for either white-ball format. Nathan Rimmington led the T20 Blast side in 2020 but has since left the club, while Stuart Poynter and Paul Coughlin have both captained in recent T20 seasons.

India captain will take decision on playing tour match based on “how I wake up tomorrow” and “if I feel great”

Sidharth Monga10-Dec-2020Virat Kohli could miss India’s three-day warm-up match before the day-night Test in Adelaide. Most players in the team will come to the day-night Test with only one prior experience of playing first-class cricket in the night, in the Test against Bangladesh. However, having played six limited-overs internationals in 12 days, Kohli doesn’t want to risk being less than 100% for the Test, the only one he will play before departing for paternity leave.”Let’s see how I wake up tomorrow,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation after the final T20I at the SCG. “You know, I can’t play half and half. That’s me. I can’t just stand in slips and go through the motions. I need to wake up in the morning and see. If I feel great, I’ll definitely play. If not, I’ll speak to the physio and trainer and get a few days off and be fresh for the first Test.”Each player has his own ideas of preparation, and Kohli has generally not been a fan of less-than-peak-intensity warm-up games. He prefers shorter, sharper and intense nets sessions instead. Add to that the strain the players must be going through having left their homes well before the IPL and moving from bubble to bubble and playing all the cricket that they have.”I think before we go into the first Test, the feeling that we’ll want to have is that our games are at an acceptable level,” Kohli said later at the press conference. “But more important than that is that you’re physically fresh. We can’t afford the slightest of niggles or muscle strains. That is the biggest priority for us: to keep our main players physically fit. To start the Test series well, we will need our fittest 11 players on the field.”This was perhaps the reason India’s main fast bowlers took it easy during the first warm-up game, which, for a change, happened to be a high-intensity proper first-class match against a strong Australia A side. In the end, Wriddhiman Saha and last-man Kartik Tyagi had to dig deep to avoid a loss to Australia A inside three days.”You don’t want guys starting the Test match feeling sore or feeling like their legs have had too many miles in them,” Kohli said. “So we keep constantly communicating with the bowlers, asking them how their bodies are feeling, and they’ve been pretty professional and pretty good in communicating back what they need. We need to show absolute trust and faith in their processes and make sure they’re in the right headspace heading into the first Test.”The three-day fixture at SCG is nonetheless an important opportunity to get used to playing with the pink ball in Australia and also sort out questions around their combination. Mayank Agarwal, who played neither the T20Is nor the first warm-up fixture, will want to get used to opening in long form again, especially keeping in mind how Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill didn’t make a big score in his absence. India will also need to start looking at and grooming Kohli’s replacement for the last three Tests.It will be interesting to see if Rishabh Pant gets a chance to present a case for himself after he was left out for the first match. In his absence, Saha made those crucial runs to save India’s blushes. Umesh Yadav will look to build on the good work done and seal his place as the third seamer.However, for India to try all of their options, they might have to request to change the status of the game from a proper first-class match, as it stood a day before, to just a tour game where they are allowed to play as many players as long as only 11 bat and field. Australia seem to have chosen their A side keeping in mind a proper first-class match, but hosts are generally accommodating if the visitors make such a request.

Fluent strokeplay has not been top of the agenda in this series and the opening day in Port-of-Spain was another where the batsmen had to grind for their rewards

The Report by Andrew McGlashan15-Apr-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsShane Watson worked very hard for his 56 before falling to Shane Shillingford•AFP

Fluent strokeplay has not been top of the agenda in this series and the opening day in Port-of-Spain was another where the batsmen had to grind for their rewards. With that in mind, Australia were better placed than 208 for 5 might imply but West Indies ensured they stayed within range with Shane Shillingford, the tall offspinner, impressive on his return to Test cricket.The turn that Shillingford – and, to a lesser extent, Narsingh Deonarine – found on a first-day pitch suggested that anything around 300 would be a good total while Australia have two frontline spinners to exploit conditions after recalling Michael Beer to partner Nathan Lyon. Once the hardness had gone from the ball, which allowed Australia to reach 42 after 10 overs, the remaining 80 overs of the day brought 166 runs with West Indies opting not to take the second new ball.Shane Watson was the mainstay of the innings for more than three hours as he ground his way to a half-century from 128 balls. Boundary opportunities had been rare for Watson, and mostly came when the quick bowlers offered width, before he got an inside edge to short leg where it was superbly held by Adrian Barath who had to reach upwards for the catch.It was a deserved second wicket for Shillingford, who earlier struck fifth delivery playing his first Test since remodelling his bowling action, after he had twice been denied the opportunity to double his tally. Once that was by technology and another by the inconsistent glovework of Carlton Baugh, who dropped Michael Hussey when he had 5 from one which turned sharply to take the glove.Shortly after tea Shillingford was awarded an lbw against Michael Clarke but the Australia captain reviewed, by the looks of it at the time more out of hope than expectation. However, the replays showed he had been struck outside off stump on the back pad so survived and even shared his slight surprise with the close fielders.Clarke couldn’t cash in on the reprieve when he managed to pull a long hop from Deonarine to deep square-leg having briefly provided the most fluent batting of the day when he took the attack to Kemar Roach at the start of the final session. Roach, who had earlier collected the important wickets of Ed Cowan and Ricky Ponting, was more than twice as expensive as any other of the bowlers and offered Clarke width to drive as the fourth-wicket stand with Watson grew to 84.Soon, though. Australia had to rebuild again and without Ryan Harris or Peter Siddle in the lower order – the former surprisingly rested, the latter suffering a stiff back – there is a longer tail than in Barbados when they hauled the visitors out of trouble and into the ascendency. But with Michael Hussey still present West Indies could yet rue Baugh’s mistake. Matthew Wade was also put down, on 2, although the chance to Kraigg Braithwaite at short leg was tough.West Indies thought they had taken a wicket in the first over the day when David Warner was given out caught behind by the umpire Marais Erasmus before Darren Sammy indicated the ball had not carried to the keeper. That was clearly the case and replays also showed it was also nowhere near the edge but if Erasmus had given the decision as lbw on-field it would have stood.After that early intrigue Australia moved along at a healthy rate as both Warner and Cowan latched onto anything short, although Warner also had to battle to survive against Roach when the fast bowler went round the wicket and probed the outside edge. It was Shillingford who provided the breakthrough with his fifth ball when he enticed Warner to drive at a full delivery which spun enough to find the edge and Sammy pocketed a simple catch at slip.Shortly before lunch Cowan was extracted lbw from around the wicket by Roach, who then added Ponting in the sixth over of the afternoon session with a beauty to square up the batsman and find the outside edge. However, the wicket did not come easily as Baugh palmed the chance away but, fortunately for the home side, Sammy was alert at slip to collect the rebound.

Sri Lanka A reached 290 for 8 on the first day of the second unofficial test against South Africa A in Durban

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jul-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Dimuth Karunaratne fell short of a century by 17 runs•Manoj Ridimahaliyadda

Sri Lanka A lost eight wickets for 290 runs, led by opening left-hand batsman and captain Dimuth Karunaratne, who made 83, after the first day. Seamer Ryan Mclaren took three middle-order wickets to push the visitors into trouble but a seventh-wicket partnership of 71 runs took them to relative comfort before two more wickets fell by the close.After inserting Sri Lanka to bat, South Africa claimed their first wicket of Dilruwan Perera in the tenth over. Kunaratne, however, hung around to build stands with other top-order batsmen before he became the fifth wicket to fall in the 49th over with the score on 173, falling 17 short of a century.Chamara Silva, who lost his place in the national squad after Sri Lanka’s tour of UAE in November last year, could not make an impact, getting out to offspinner Simon Harmer. A half-century by No. 7 Sachithra Serasinghe, and his partnership for the seventh wicket with Kosala Kulasekara, took Sri Lanka to 276.Ryan Mclaren, who played his last international game for South Africa in 2010, was the top wicket-taker, with three for 32 in 20 overs. Harmer and Pumelela Matshikwe took two wickets each, while seamer Wayne Parnell claimed the opening wicket of the innings.

David Lloyd at Taunton05-Apr-2012
ScorecardCounty Championships cannot be won in the first month of the season but, as Somerset know only too well, you can go a long way towards messing up your title chances by losing too many early matches. Cast as favourites last year, they started that campaign with a couple of thumping defeats, to Warwickshire and Lancashire, and never threatened to make amends.One weather-hit day, limited to 36 overs by morning rain and post-tea bad light, provided insufficient evidence to predict with any degree of certainty how this contest will work out. Indeed, Middlesex in general and Joe Denly in particular should not feel dejected after a battling effort in testing conditions. Put in, they could have crumbled against the new ball but were guided to a far from disastrous 118 for 4 by Denly’s excellent unbeaten 64.What can be said with plenty of conviction though, is that Somerset have signed a belter of a fast bowler in Vernon Philander. And while he is only with the county for a couple of months ahead of South Africa’s tour of England, the 26-year-old should do enough damage during that period to keep Marcus Trescothick’s team firmly in the title hunt.When Brian Rose, Somerset’s director of cricket, recruited Philander during the winter the seamer was still ‘promising’. But 51 wickets in seven Tests, at a shade more than 14 runs apiece, has made him a red-hot property – so hot, in fact, that South Africa would prefer him to be wrapped in cotton wool this spring rather than making hay on the county circuit.They have urged Somerset to treat Philander with care and consideration, a request which the county will no doubt honour with the future in mind. But, on the basis of 12 high class overs, which yielded figures of 3 for 21, the bowler has every intention of making each delivery count whenever Trescothick throws him the ball.Despite heavy cloud and damp conditions, three Somerset pace bowlers – Steve Kirby, Craig Meschede and Peter Trego – were kept at bay without huge difficulty. It was a different matter, though, when Philander took centre stage.His third ball had to be played by Sam Robson but resulted in a thin edge behind while a second spell, after tea, saw Dawid Malan pinned lbw and Neil Dexter bowled off stump by one that appeared to keep a little low. But above and beyond that the new recruit asked a question with almost every delivery – against a county he briefly represented in 2008.Denly deserves great credit for denying Philander. He is Middlesex’s one major signing following their promotion as Division Two champions and he looked in terrific touch from the outset.Middlesex have been tipped by many to go straight back down. And maybe that is the way it will work out. But there was enough backbone about their batting to suggest they plan to fight mighty hard to stay where their supporters believe they belong.”People are entitled to their views,” said Angus Fraser, Middlesex’s managing director of cricket. “Yes, I suppose sides who have come up have tended to struggle in the past but I believe we have a squad that can be competitive if we play as well as we can.”

Ishant Sharma, the India fast bowler, has said that his ankle has healed completely and that he no longer needs surgery to fix it

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Nov-2011Ishant Sharma, the India fast bowler, has said that his ankle has healed and that he, in all probability, no longer needs surgery to fix it. Ishant, who played the first Test against the West Indies in Delhi, had sustained a ligament injury to his left ankle during the third Test against England at Edgbaston earlier this year. He was forced to miss the limited-overs part of the England tour and the subsequent one-day series against the same opponents in India, but recovered in time to play against West Indies.”There is no risk about it [ankle],” Ishant told reporters after India’s practice session on Sunday. I’ve been working a lot on my ankle and everything. I am fit now and I am ready to play in Australia, and I don’t think even after the Australia tour I will need surgery.”Zaheer Khan, India’s leading fast bowler, has been out of action since the first Test in England back in June. With offspinner Harbhajan Singh also missing, having been dropped for the first two Tests against West Indies, Ishant has been catapulted into the role of India’s senior strike-bower, a role he said he was happy to fill.”Obviously it’s a great feeling … It’s an honour to lead the Indian attack. Being the senior-most bowler in the team, it’s really great. It’s difficult to express this kind of feeling actually. You are obviously going to miss a bowler like Zak [Zaheer]. But injuries are part and parcel of the game. You have to play the role of the senior when someone is injured. Whoever you have in the team, you need to go ahead and give your best shot.”Given India’s recent spate of injuries, the selectors have taken the opportunity to blood a few new players during the recently completed one-day series against England and the first Test against West Indies. Among the new faces in the ODIs were Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron, while Yadav played in the Test win over West Indies in Delhi. Both bowlers impressed with their pace and Ishant said it was a “great feeling” to be part of an attack that can bowl quick.”Earlier, everyone was saying that India can’t produce fast bowlers. Now all the three fast bowlers are consistently clocking 90 miles per hour. Obviously it’s a great feeling for any fast bowler in the team.”When he was asked why India’s bowlers failed to get reverse-swing at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Ishant it was difficult to do so on the first day when the track was fresh. “The only thing you can do is to be consistent and bowl in the right areas. As the day progresses, you get reverse-swing. Reverse-swing happens only on second or third day of a Test match.”The Australia tour is after this series. We will get two practice matches there to get accustomed to the conditions. In India, the wickets are like this only. We can’t complain about this.”

England batsman hasn’t given up hope of redemption after banishment from World Cup squad

Andrew Miller02-Oct-2020Few players could claim that the Covid-19 hiatus arrived at a convenient time in their careers. But for Alex Hales, the pandemic could hardly have hit at a worse moment.Back in March, Hales was just threatening to re-build a case for England recognition, following his banishment ten months earlier from the World Cup squad in the wake of his two positive tests for recreational drug use.In a series of commanding displays, first for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash, and then for Karachi Kings in the PSL, he spent the 2019-20 winter racking up 815 runs in 22 innings at an average of 42.89, more than any other batsman on the T20 circuit.His final knock before lockdown had been a belting innings of 80 not out from 48 balls against Lahore Qalanders, and with back-to-back T20 World Cups looming on the horizon – the first of which had been scheduled to get underway in Australia in just over a fortnight’s time – Hales had been set to arrive in the English season as the world’s in-form T20 batsman.But then that world ground to a halt, and instead of taking part in the PSL knock-outs in the final weeks of March, Hales flew home to beat international border closures, only to begin self-isolation after developing symptoms of the virus immediately after his return to the UK.And now, after months of inactivity, much of the fizz in Hales’ game is still dormant. In nine matches to date in the Vitality Blast, he has racked up 173 runs at 19.22 – walk-on roles rather than commanding performances, with just a brace of 40s to showcase his most fluent hitting. In Thursday’s quarter-final, he was once again undone before he could hit his stride, bowled by a beauty from Callum Parkinson for nine from seven balls.ALSO READ: Matt Parkinson aims to finish on a roll as Lancs head to Finals DayAnd yet, thanks to his team’s extraordinary escape in the frantic final moments of that contest against Leicestershire, Hales has been presented a possible two further opportunities to restate his credentials on a televised stage, as Nottinghamshire head to Edgbaston for Finals Day to challenge for the trophy they last won in 2017.”Personally it’s been a bit hit and miss,” he admitted to Sky Sports ahead of the quarter-final. “I’ve have had some decent starts with a decent strike-rate, but not really gone on to those big scores.”But the last 12 months, I’ve been really successful, and I was playing probably the best cricket in my life. Maybe that break hasn’t done me the world of good. But I’m really getting back into it now, and hopefully there’s more of the same this winter.”Hales is set to return to Sydney Thunder for the start of the next Big Bash in December, but it remains to be seen whether any level of performance will be sufficient to earn him forgiveness from England.His captain, Eoin Morgan, spoke of a “complete breakdown in trust” in the wake of Hales’ banishment last summer, and reiterated before his omission from England’s 55-man training pool earlier this year, that time could be the only healer when it comes to any hopes of reintegration.ALSO READ: England’s best T20I team must play together more often – Jos ButtlerAsked what it would take to regain that trust, Hales said: “It’s a very good question. I’m not entirely sure. I’m hoping to sit down with them in the next couple of months, there’s been a small amount of dialogue but nothing’s set in stone at the moment.”[Morgan] said about there being a certain amount of time needed, which is understandable, but it’s coming up to two years now,” he added. “It’s a very long time in a professional sportsman’s career, so hopefully there’s a chance it can happen, and it’s going to come through sitting down with those guys and keeping performing well.”Alex Hales was bowled by Callum Parkinson in Thursday night’s quarter-final•Getty Images

Despite not being in England’s first-choice XI at the time of his removal, Hales would almost certainly have played a role in England’s 50-over World Cup campaign last summer, and might even have reclaimed his place for the final given that his rival at the top of the order, Jason Roy, missed the middle weeks of the tournament with a hamstring strain.But while it would be easy to be consumed by regret after such a high-profile fall from grace, Hales insisted he would not forget what had happened, but neither would he allow himself to wallow in self-pity.”It’s a little bit of both,” he said. “You want to use missing such a huge moment in this country’s cricketing history to spur yourself on, to make sure you get back into that set-up, so I’m trying to use it both ways, trying not to dwell on it, but using it to make myself a better person and cricketer.”I just want to enjoy my cricket with Notts, and if I can repeat the winter I had last year, then hopefully it gives me a chance, and we’ll see what happens in the next few months.”Discussing his situation on Sky Sports, however, the former England captain Michael Atherton suggested that Hales remained a long way from forgiveness, regardless of how he fares on the field.”I never believe in drawing a line under anybody’s name, but I do believe that Eoin Morgan has earned the right as England’s captain to select the side that he wants to take out onto the pitch,” Atherton said.”There’s no real question about Alex Hales’ batting ability. Everybody knows what a fine player he is, one of the best one-day players that we’ve had in recent years. But that’s not the issue.”