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Row erupts over tour biosecurity after England players use nets adjoining construction site

Firdose Moonda07-Dec-2020The use of a previously off-limits nets facility at Newlands has emerged as a possible source of the Covid-19 infection within the England camp, as the ECB hit back at claims from officials at Western Province that its players had breached the teams’ biosecure environment for a practice session on the eve of Friday’s scheduled first ODI.In an email sent on Thursday, December 3, and seen by ESPNcricinfo, WP informed CSA, ECB and the Claremont Police, who are in charge of maintaining the teams’ bio-bubble, that they could not be held liable for the safety or health of the England team, who opted to practice in a nets facility adjoining a construction site at the Kelvin Grove End of the ground.”Please be advised that the England cricket team has not adhered to the arrangements as agreed by all in the ESSPC [Event Security and Safety Planning Committee] meetings,” the email read. “The practice nets next to the construction site is not allowed to be used on practice days. Three cages of nets was set up on the square on the field. This serves to inform you that the England Cricket Team has accessed and used the nets today (3 December 2020) at their own risk. WPCA and the ESSPC will not be held liable or responsible for the safety and health of the England Cricket Team.”In response, an ECB spokesman told ESPNcricinfo that the session had arisen due to the “unacceptable” standard of the three practice pitches provided on the square at Newlands, and that CSA had accepted England’s request to put up a security cordon to facilitate the use of the nets as per similar arrangements during the T20I series on November 28.”On arrival at Newlands on 3 December, we advised the venue that the three nets provided on the main pitch were not of a standard for conducive practice, as per the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the respective boards,” an ECB statement said. “Batsmen were unable to face seam bowlers on the nets on the main pitch as the surfaces were rendered and unacceptable.ALSO READ: Explainer – Will the series still go ahead after Covid outbreak?“We requested with CSA that we would like to use the practice nets and that we would create a security cordon to ensure the players and coaches could enter the facility safely, as done previously on 28 November. This was confirmed by England’s Security Team, the Team Operations Manager and the Team Doctor. We were satisfied with this outcome and we were able to practice in the net facility safely.”The team also used the main outfield for fielding drills, a seam bowlers bowl through pitch and a number of nets were used for range-hitting against spin bowlers and coaches throws.”As far as the England touring party are concerned, the safety and health of our players and coaches was not compromised.”The nets at Newlands are currently out of bounds due to the construction of an office block at the Kelvin Grove End of the ground. The building site is attended to by several workers throughout the day. When South African players, including Andile Phehlukwayo and David Miller, who missed the T20 series, and some support staff attempted to have a net after Friday’s postponed first ODI, they were sent back and instructed to return to their hotel rooms.At the time, a third South African player had just tested positive for the coronavirus, causing the first ODI to be pushed back. On Saturday, two members of the Vineyard Hotel staff, who do not work in the same area and have not left the premises since November 16, also tested positive, prompting the entire England touring party to be retested. England returned two “unconfirmed” positive results, but have sought to get the tests analysed by doctors in London. The two England cases meant Sunday’s ODI in Paarl was abandoned.The fate of the rest of the series, which has now been reduced to two ODIs, hinges on the analysis of England’s results. Should positive cases be confirmed, those infected and their close contacts will have to quarantine in South Africa for 10 days before leaving for the UK, which could impact on Big Bash and Christmas plans. If the results of the tests are negative, the series could be completed with back-to-back ODIs on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The former New Zealand captain, who has worked alongside Dhoni in the IPL, believes he can extend his career until the 2019 World Cup

Gaurav Kalra31-May-20176:14

Fleming: Dhoni not arrogant enough to assume he will play 2019 World Cup

Stephen Fleming, the former New Zealand captain, believes MS Dhoni can extend his international career until the 2019 World Cup. Fleming, who has worked alongside Dhoni during IPL coaching stints with Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiant, believes the former India captain will relish the competition he faces from players like Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik and Wriddhiman Saha for the spot of India’s first-choice limited-overs wicketkeeper-batsman in the immediate future. Although Dhoni will be 38 by the 2019 World Cup, Fleming is convinced he will continue to make significant contributions to the Indian team.”There are a lot of players who can do that, but there is only one MS Dhoni at the moment,” Fleming said, in an interview with ESPNcricinfo. “I think his track record deserves the first crack at it. He has balance in his life now so he can get fit and come back fresh. I think he will do it. He is aware that he needs to keep performing and that’s when great players are at their best. If you get too comfortable you are not at your best.”He is not arrogant enough to assume that he will make it through to the 2019 World Cup. He’s made it clear that he wants to play that World Cup but he knows he also to do well to do that. He’s now trying to prove his worth as he did when he was a youngster. That again is a tribute to his approach to the game and his humility towards the game. He’s desperate to keep performing. If he feels he stops performing and starts to lag and becomes a hindrance, then he will give up the game.”Dhoni’s future in the Indian ODI team has been the subject of much speculation in recent years. His numbers since the 2015 World Cup, too, haven’t been as impressive as earlier. In 21 innings since that tournament, Dhoni has made 776 runs at an average of 38.80 and a strike rate of 86.99. Overall, in ODIs, he has scored 9275 runs in 286 matches at an average of nearly 51.Fleming concedes that while the “giddy heights” of four to five years ago will probably be impossible to replicate, Dhoni can still be relied upon to deliver in crunch situations. Fleming is also of the view that Dhoni is best placed to continue as a finisher rather than move up the order, a move that the former India captain himself desires.”If his keeping was deteriorating that might be a sign but it is actually getting better”•AFP

“It [moving up the order] depends on the balance of the side,” Fleming reasoned. “If you have straight-out batsmen, then I wouldn’t. He can do it but what you have to look at is that his strength is finishing the game. People say why don’t you get him in earlier but the whole game changes from the 40th over, or the 16th over if it is a T20 game, when it becomes [the] death [overs]. And that’s where he’s been the best, I think.”So you have to be careful you don’t take that strength; when you apply it earlier, you lose that, maybe he gets out early. Not many can do what he can in the last stanza but many can do that job in the middle. So you don’t want to take away that strength just to give him more time and get him up the order to play a more substantial innings, when his strength is in the last few.”We have such high expectations of what he can do and often that is unfair. There is going to be some slippage, every great player has slipped a little bit as they’ve got older. At key times he is still contributing. Even this IPL it wasn’t there as much as other years but at key times he was there. In the game against Mumbai [Indians], a virtual semi-final, he got 40 off a few balls and played a great hand.”The other thing is to play without fear. Often when you get older, the consequence starts to creep in. So what we’ve talked about is playing that fearless brand of cricket that he’s become known for, and making sure that he doesn’t get too cautious and too worried about getting out and the consequences of that. He’s at his best when he has no fear.”While Dhoni’s batting form appears to have declined in recent years, his glovework has remained of the highest quality. India’s chairman of selectors, MSK Prasad, recently described Dhoni as the best wicketkeeper in the world and from his vantage point in the Rising Pune set-up, Fleming believes Dhoni’s keeping is “almost getting better”.”I can’t say it is through a lot of training,” Fleming said with a laugh. “In fact during my time in the IPL, I have not seen him do any wicket-keeping training, it is all natural and it’s unorthodox but it’s fast and effective. Some of the dismissals and stumpings during the recent IPL were absolutely dynamite. So there’s nothing wrong there and that’s a great sign of reflexes and where he is, because people are questioning his age and his batting and the role he can play. If his keeping was deteriorating that might be a sign but it is actually getting better, which is a real positive for India.””He is a wicketkeeper, he is used to positioning players, but it’s still a challenge to sit back.”•BCCI

Fleming believes one of Dhoni’s greatest challenges in the months ahead will be to adjust to a role as just another player in the team. Dhoni stepped down as ODI and T20I captain at the start of the year, after nearly a decade at the helm.”It is very difficult, I can speak from my own experience,” Fleming said. “Once you get away from that decision-making, people can say it’s very easy, you can focus on your own game and do your own thing, but it is very hard to switch the other things off. You are so used to being the decision-maker, moving players and being part of the tactics, it becomes a key part of how you play the game. It does take some adjustment.”He is a wicketkeeper, he is used to positioning players, but it’s still a challenge to sit back. You want to be part of decision-making, it is a key part of why you play the game. It is one of his challenges going forward. He has coped with it pretty well so far. He needs to be used to add that value and experience he has had over the years and more so for him, to feel like he is contributing rather than the other way round.”

The Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) has formed 10 sub-committees that will work under court-appointed observer, former Justice Mukul Mudgal, in regards to the organisation of the fourth Test between India and South Africa

PTI20-Nov-2015The Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA), during an internal meeting today, has formed 10 sub-committees that will work under court-appointed observer, former Justice Mukul Mudgal, in regards to the organisation of the fourth Test between India and South Africa. Justice Mudgal will be going to the Feroz Shah Kotla at 11am on Saturday morning for his first meeting with senior DDCA officials.”Today we have formed the 10 sub-committees that will be working for the smooth conduct of the Test match. Each committee will have a chairman and also have three-four members,” DDCA treasurer Ravinder Manchanda told PTI. “Tomorrow Justice Mudgal will be coming to Kotla for inspection and first meeting with the officials. We have asked all our executive committee members to be present.”However Manchanda said that they are yet to finalise the names of the members in each committee. “We will fill up the names by tomorrow. We will need to
see what Justice Mudgal advises,” he said. “We will certainly obey and follow his instructions.”

Sussex finished the Yorkshire Bank 40 programme with a flourish when Luke Wright and Matt Machan sealed a comprehensive seven-wicket win with 11.3 overs to spare against Worcestershire at New Road

26-Aug-2013
ScorecardLuke Wright’s stellar form continued with another rapid hundred•Getty Images

Sussex finished the Yorkshire Bank 40 programme with a flourish when Luke Wright and Matt Machan sealed a comprehensive seven-wicket win with 11.3 overs to spare against Worcestershire at New Road.Worcestershire’s total of 243 for 6 proved to be well short of being a testing target as Sussex’s second-wicket pair ripped the bowling to shreds, putting on 184 in 19 overs before falling in the space of eight balls from Moeen Ali.Wright had plundered two sixes and 14 fours when he was caught at long on after making 112 from 69 balls and Machan was bowled for 79 after hitting 12 fours and a six from 57 deliveries.With three Group A wins in the last fortnight of the competition, Sussex have gone a little way towards burying the memory of a disastrous Friends Life t20 campaign in which they lost nine from 10 games.Wright came into the match on the back of scoring 143 not out from 68 balls for England Lions against Bangladesh A last week and he was able to continue in that vein after being dropped at mid-off when he was still in single figures.With Ed Joyce bowled by Jack Shantry in the third over, Machan was given an early opportunity to showcase his range of shots. The young left-hander did not disappoint, needing four balls fewer than Wright to reach 50. However from that point it was showtime for the senior partner as he completed a second 50 in only 28 balls.Earlier allrounder Moeen continued his rich run of form for Worcestershire but only as far as adding 51 to his three centuries spread between two competitions last week.Sussex’s bowlers quickly came under fire as the England Lions left-hander drove Andrew Miller to long on for six and picked off seven more boundaries in completing his half-century from only 37 balls.It was the power of his driving that brought about his downfall when he chanced a single off Will Beer. The ball reached mid-off so quickly that Chris Liddle had time to run him out with a direct hit at the bowler’s end.With Moeen gone, Sussex were able to claw back the scoring rate as the spinners, Beer and Chris Nash, took one wicket each in getting through 16 overs together for 81 runs.It was a measure of their accuracy that Thilan Samaraweera managed to hit only seven fours, although he did maintain a run-a-ball tempo in an unbeaten 72. Ross Whiteley provided something more heavy-handed, driving Beer for a straight six as he contributed 34 out of 63 before he was yorked by Liddle.

Fawad Ahmed is expected to make his long-awaited debut for Australia during the limited-overs series that follows the Ashes after being named in an 18-man squad at the expense of Xavier Doherty

Brydon Coverdale15-Aug-2013Fawad Ahmed is expected to make his long-awaited debut for Australia during the limited-overs series that follows the Ashes after being named in an 18-man squad at the expense of Xavier Doherty. Fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has also been included and should play his first ODI in three years, while Doherty and the allrounder Mitchell Marsh were the only players dropped from the squad that contested the Champions Trophy in June.The most fascinating inclusion is that of Ahmed, a legspinner who arrived in Australia in 2010 as an asylum seeker from Pakistan, where he had played ten first-class games over four years. Ahmed impressed for Victoria during the 2012-13 season and his Australian citizenship was fast-tracked this year in an effort to make him available for the Ashes, although he was ultimately not chosen in the Test squad.But Australia’s selectors remain keen on Ahmed as an international option and have been impressed by his bowling during the ongoing Australia A tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa. Although Ahmed has collected only two wickets in the five one-day games on the tour, the selectors believe he has bowled better than his figures indicate, and he will be the lead spinner alongside allrounder Glenn Maxwell in the limited-overs games in England.

Changes to Australia’s ODI squad from the Champions Trophy

• In: Fawad Ahmed, Josh Hazlewood, Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh, Steven Smith

• Out: Xavier Doherty, Mitchell Marsh

“Fawad Ahmed gets his opportunity as the squad’s lead spinner,” the national selector John Inverarity said. “Fawad has been a consistent wicket-taker on the Australia A tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa. He is a mature and very good leg-spin bowler, and the national selection panel is keen to see how he fares in international competition … He has been bowling very well in South Africa and turning the ball and troubling the batsmen so we’re keen to have a look at him.”He takes Xavier Doherty’s place. Xavier has been a fine performer for Australia over the years. We haven’t selected the side for India, for the seven ODIs there in October, but it’s likely that both players will be on that tour. He [Doherty] is very much a known quantity and he’s a wonderful young man and a very good cricketer. He can be hopeful that further opportunities will come his way.”The 18-man squad will gather for the two Twenty20s against England that follow the Ashes and the group will then be trimmed to 15 for the one-off ODI against Scotland and five against England in September. While Mitchell Marsh was replaced by Steven Smith after having limited impact in the Champions Trophy, his brother Shaun was included and is likely to play in the T20s, but whether he remains part of the squad for the ODIs is unclear.The same can be said of Aaron Finch, who has been captain of Australia A during the African tour, while the rest of the batting line-up was largely as expected. However, there was no place for Nic Maddinson, the young New South Wales batsman who has played a number of eye-catching innings for Australia A in the British Isles and Africa over the past couple of months, including a remarkable 181 from 143 balls against Gloucestershire in Bristol.”While he hasn’t been selected in this squad, the national selection panel also notes the strong performances of Nic Maddinson in recent months for Australia A,” Inverarity said. “We look forward to him continuing to build on that good form and pressing his claims for higher honours in the future.”The pace attack will be led by the experienced Mitchell Johnson and Clint McKay, but also features younger talent including Nathan Coulter-Nile, who made his T20 international debut in February, and Hazlewood, who also reappeared in the national side via February’s T20 against West Indies. Hazlewood, 22, made his ODI debut in England in 2010 but has always been regarded by the selectors as a player to watch.”We’re looking forward to him showing his wares in international cricket again,” Inverarity said. “He made his debut for Australia in 2010 at the age of 19. Three years later he’s a stronger young man and a better bowler. He has been very impressive with his form in Zimbabwe and South Africa.”I’ve been talking with Andy Bichel, who’s the selector on duty in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and Josh has been very impressive, has bowled with good pace and good accuracy and has been moving the ball. I think it’s the right time for him to come through and join the international squad.”Squad Michael Clarke (ODI capt), George Bailey (T20 capt), Fawad Ahmed, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Phillip Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Clint McKay, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Adam Voges, Matthew Wade (wk), David Warner, Shane Watson.

David Willey and David Murphy frustrated promotion-seeking Hampshire by leading some defiant Northamptonshire tail-end resistance on another rain-interrupted day at West End.

16-Aug-2012
ScorecardDavid Willey and David Murphy frustrated promotion-seeking Hampshire by leading some defiant Northamptonshire tail-end resistance on another rain-interrupted day at West End.Hampshire desperately needed a quick breakthrough when play resumed on the second day of the championship match, and failed to get it. Northants, at one stage an unhealthy 98 for 5 after being put in, recovered by putting on 258 for the last five wickets as hosts Hampshire struggled to make the most of a wicket which offered the seam bowlers plenty of help.James Middlebrook made 65, Willey hit 54, Murphy scored 43 and there was some useful hitting by Lee Daggett in his unbeaten 26 as Northants went on to make 356. At the close, brought forward by bad light, Hampshire had responded by making 125 for 2 from 36 overs after rain had delayed the start of the day.Northants were 170 for 5 overnight and soon lost Rob Newton to a catch at the wicket by Michael Bates off David Balcombe but Hampshire had to work hard for their next success. Middlebrook and wicketkeeper Murphy put on 85 for the seventh wicket before left arm spinner Liam Dawson breached Middlebrook’s defences after an innings of 151 balls and which included ten fours.Left arm pace bowler James Tomlinson bowled Murphy at 301 but there was no stopping Willey who threatened to overhaul a career-best 76 made earlier in the month against Yorkshire. But at 356, Willey was caught in the slips off Chris Wood after an innings which included a six off Balcombe.Dawson bowled last man Luke Evans an over later with no further runs scored, leaving Hampshire with a big task to get back in to a match they need to win to maintain their promotion challenge. Tomlinson finished with 3 for 66 and Balcombe took 3 for 58 but Northants’ recovery was complete.Neil McKenzie and Jimmy Adams took Hampshire to 62 in the 18th over before McKenzie chased an out-swinger from Daggett and was caught behind for 31. Out-of-form Simon Katich followed at 85, playing around a delivery from Evans to be leg before but Adams and Dawson saw Hampshire through to stumps, still 231 behind and with two days remaining.Adams was 48 not out and Dawson unbeaten with 19 but second-placed Hampshire still have plenty of work to do to overhaul their opponents’ solid first innings total.

Australia prevailed amid a flurry of DLS calculations in Canberra and can now set their sites on a whitewash

Andrew McGlashan24-Jan-2025After retaining the Ashes in Sydney, Beth Mooney didn’t want to get drawn into talk of a whitewash before the series was won but with that box ticked team-mate Grace Harris now wants to “embarrass” England with a 16-0 scoreline.Australia prevailed in Canberra amid a flurry of DLS calculations – England were ahead when the game was stopped for the first time – and latterly Heather Knight played a defiant hand before rain returned with 18 needed off five balls.Australia have been hugely motivated by the draw in the 2023 Ashes which left them with muted celebrations when they lifted the trophy at the end of the series having seen England fight back from 6-0 down. Now, with the final T20I to come in Adelaide followed by the day-night Test at the MCG, the focus turns to not allowing the visitors to get anything on the board.Related

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“Of course, I have thought about 16-0,” Harris told after the win. “A whitewash would be outstanding. England got the better of us in the last series.”To me, it’s a loss, a draw is boring. But 16-0, that would be very, very good if we could embarrass this England team because they’re actually a very competitive outfit and they’ve got some really good players among them.”Stand-in captain Tahlia McGrath, who has taken over from the injured Alyssa Healy since the start of the T20I series, admitted relief was one of the initial emotions after the Ashes were secured outright having been behind the DLS when play was first suspended.”It hasn’t quite sunk in yet, there’s just so much drama in that game and so much mental capacity taken up watching DLS, watching run rates, radars, so it was a weird way to wrap up and win them outright,” she said. “Relieved, happy to win it this early, it would be nice when we get a chance as a group to properly celebrate together but job not done, still two really big games to go.””[A whitewash] would be pretty special to us. The Ashes last year, retaining them in England didn’t quite sit well with us and we’ve been hungry for a while and looking forward to these Ashes for a very long time. We’ve been playing some really good cricket but still feel like there’s areas to improve.”Tahlia McGrath has been in resounding form in recent games•Cricket Australia via Getty Images

McGrath herself has played a key role with the bat in the last three games after a lean start to the series which, amid Australia’s abundant batting talent, put her under scrutiny. But she has responded with a 38-ball ODI fifty, 26 off nine balls at the SCG and an unbeaten 48 off 35 in Canberra having come in when Australia had lost 3 for 9.”I was really disappointed with my batting in the first two games,” she said. “I went away from my natural game a little bit. I like to take the game on, I like to move around the crease and I sort of went away from that.”I went into my shell a little bit the first two games so I went back to a blueprint that has worked for me in the past and just trying to be a bit braver, a bit more fearless and lucky enough that it’s come off for the last couple of games.”But Grace was huge for me because I was scratching around a little bit and struggling and she came out and took the pressure off me and just freed me up a little bit at the back end as well.”

The home side had made a strong start before Joel Paris hit back for Western Australia

AAP01-Nov-2024Half centuries from Caleb Jewell and Mitchell Owen have kept Tasmania’s first innings on track in their Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia.Tasmania, who lost to WA just a fortnight ago by six wickets in a Shield final rematch in Perth, ended day one 302 for 7 at Bellerive Oval. A run-a-ball 83 from No. 7 Owen helped lift the hosts from a precarious 153 for 4.The Shield champions travelled to Hobart on top of the standings, but missing numerous key personnel.Among the absentees were opener Cameron Bancroft, Cooper Connolly and rising spinner Corey Rocchiccioli on Australia A duty; Aaron Hardie and Josh Inglis preparing for upcoming one-day internationals, as well as Mitch Marsh (paternity leave) and Charlie Stobo (omitted).Tasmania lined up without key middle-order batter Beau Webster who led their run-scoring tally last season, while the bowling line-up was boosted by the return of Gabe Bell and Lawrence Neil-Smith.The home side survived the opening session without loss after being sent in to bat by opposition skipper Ashton Turner.Tasmania posted a century stand before rookie medium-pacer Brody Couch had Jake Weatherald caught down the leg side for 49.The ever-reliable Joel Paris then did the damage midway through the second session as Tasmania lost 3 for 18.Jewell was trapped lbw for 61 after surviving an earlier let-off, before Charlie Wakim and captain Jordan Silk were both soon sent back to the pavillion.Owen fell in the final hour having struck 13 boundaries and two sixes in a career-best knock, only for Paris to end the dangerous innings.Brad Hope was then dismissed for 25 off Cameron Gannon having shared a 102-run stand with Owen.

Sussex coasting to title after rain-ruined contest at Hove

ECB Reporters Network29-Sep-2024Tom Haines and James Coles both scored centuries as Sussex clinched the second division title on a day of celebrations at Hove.Haines made 105 – his third hundred of the season – and Coles hit an unbeaten 132 as Sussex finished the season undefeated at the 1st Central County Ground after drawing with Middlesex.They began the final day on 112 for two, needing to reach 250 and a fourth bonus point to ensure promotion as champions.There was a slight sense of anti-climax shortly after lunch when Luke Hollman overstepped and the two no-balls took Sussex to 250, but the celebrations out in the middle, where Coles and skipper John Simpson embraced warmly, and on the pavilion balcony showed what it meant as Sussex returned to Division One after a nine-year absence.Sussex finished 20 points clear of Yorkshire, having won eight of their 14 games.There had still been a bit of work to do at the start before the celebrations could begin and Haines and Tom Alsop settled any nerves by putting on 123 in 35 overs for the third wicket with few alarms. Alsop passed fifty for the eighth time this season and must have fancied his chances of converting it into a first hundred, only to mistime a pull off Josh De Caires to deep midwicket.Haines reached a chanceless hundred – the 12th of his career – with a cut through backward point off Hollman for his 13th boundary only to fall just before lunch when he bottom-edged into his stumps to reward Hollman’s perseverance.Once Sussex had achieved their objective the cricket not surprisingly lost any intensity. Ryan Higgins bowled off breaks instead of his usual medium-fast seamers, Luis du Plooy gave his left-arm tweakers an airing as Middlesex employed nine bowlers including Mark Stoneman, who sent down seven overs in his final game for the county, and wicketkeeper Jack Davies.Not that Coles or Simpson were complaining too much as they built a fifth-wicket stand of 226 in 46 overs, beating the previous best against Middlesex set of 223 by Simpson and Cheteshwar Pujara when the teams drew at Lord’s earlier in the season.Coles played aggressively, hitting six sixes and nine boundaries, clipping Hollman into the leg side to bring up his first hundred of the season. His unbeaten 132 came from just 150 balls while Simpson took his aggregate to 1197 runs at 74.81 with an undefeated 87.It was fitting that Simpson, whose five centuries as well as his leadership has been so crucial to Sussex’s success, was there when the players shook hands at 4.20pm with Sussex on 459 for 4.A few minutes later the celebrations could begin in earnest when the trophy was presented to him by another former Sussex captain Clare Connor, the managing director of England Womens Cricket.

Warwickshire lose last five wickets for 29 to concede hefty first-innings deficit

ECB Reporters Network21-Jul-2023Lancashire 327 and 182 for 6 (Jennings 64*) lead Warwickshire 212 (Rhodes 82) by 297 runsLancashire were hoping for kind weather on the last day of their LV=Insurance County Championship match with Warwickshire after they took charge on the third day at Edgbaston.An incisive burst of spin-bowling followed by patient batting has engineered a strong position for the Red Rose. After bowling the home side out for 212, for a first-innings lead of 115, Lancashire closed a rain-shortened third day on 182 for 6 – 297 ahead as Keaton Jennings constructed an unbeaten 64 from 174 balls.On a slow pitch which has never been easy for batting, the visitors were poised to put Warwickshire under pressure on the final day but need the grim weather forecast to be wrong. The dark clouds ever present at Edgbaston this week remain likely to have the final say.That would be frustrating for Jennings’ side who finally forced the match forward in its seventh session after the preceding six had advanced at various degrees of slow. After Warwickshire resumed on the third day on 179 for 5, the Red Rose deployed their spinners, partly because the light was so poor, and it proved a highly productive move as the last five wickets fell for 29 runs in 88 balls.The catalyst for the collapse was an indiscrete reverse-sweep by Dan Mousley (47 off 97 balls) straight to slip off Jack Morley. The left-arm spinner followed that by having Michael Burgess adjudged caught at leg slip before Luke Wells removed Danny Briggs, caught off the face of the bat at short leg.Warwickshire squandered their last two wickets as Olly Hannon-Dalby was run out pursuing a single that didn’t exist and Chris Rushworth, batting with a runner due to a hamstring injury, charged at Wells and was stumped by yards. Suddenly, after two finely balanced days, Lancashire had seized a meaty lead 115.Batting remained tricky when they went in again and Wells’ hitherto happy morning took a dive when he fell lbw to Hannon-Dalby’s third ball. Josh Bohannon came closest to fluency in a 40-ball 25 which ended when he chipped Hannon-Dalby to substitute fielder Marques Ackerman at midwicket but Jennings dropped anchor deep, going into lunch with just a single from 42 balls.The skipper remained entrenched throughout the afternoon while partners came and went. Phil Salt nicked a pull at Ed Barnard. Daryl Mitchell skied Mir Hamza to give Ackerman his second catch. When George Bell nicked Briggs behind it was 83 for 5 and Warwickshire, despite the absence of Rushworth, were fighting back hard.Still the Jennings anchor remained and first-innings century-maker George Balderson settled alongside him to reassert the Red Rose. Jennings posted a 163-ball half-century in a partnership of 92 in 26 overs which looked ready to grow much further until Balderson self-destructed. He set off for a single when his drive was parried by bowler Briggs and, rightly sent back by Jennings, was beaten by Sam Hain’s throw from extra cover.With the lead approaching 300, Lancashire had just started to seek acceleration when rain arrived to lop off the last 20 overs. That lost time, with probably more to follow, is likely to thwart the Red Rose victory bid.