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Twelve wickets tumbled on the third day of the four-day clash between Australia A and India A, with both teams in with a chance when the Brisbane rains called for an early stumps at the tea interval

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Sep-2016
ScorecardTwelve wickets fell on a rain-hit third day of the four-day match between Australia A and India A but both teams will consider themselves in with a chance when play resumes on Sunday in Brisbane. Australia A need 100 runs more in their chase of 159, while India A need six wickets.Having eked out a two-run first-innings lead, India A resumed on 2 for 44 on the third day and collapsed to 156 all out. They managed to reach that score due to a late 46 from Jayant Yadav at No. 8. Australia A ended the day precariously placed at 4 for 59, after Shardul Thakur’s two wickets in consecutive balls resulted in an early wobble for the hosts.Batting under overcast conditions at the Allan Border Field, India lost overnight batsman Manish Pandey in the ninth ball of the day. Pandey was caught brilliantly at slip off new-ball bowler Daniel Worrall. Shreyas Iyer, India A captain Naman Ojha and Karun Nair all followed suit in quick succession, before Jayant strode out with the score at 90 for 6. He then single-handedly tried to lift India A to a respectable score, striking 46 of the next 66 runs they scored. Jayant was the last man dismissed, caught off medium-pacer Chadd Sayers in the last ball of the 48th over. He faced 75 balls for his 46 and struck eight fours.Australia A’s pace attack did the bulk of the damage, with Worrall, David Moody and Sayers taking three wickets each, while legspinner Mitchell Swepson accounted for Thakur.Thakur then rocked Australia A with twin strikes in the seventh over, sending back opener Joe Burns and Travis Dean. Captain Peter Handscomb negotiated the hat-trick ball and raced away to 24 off 18 balls with help of five fours. However, Handscomb was dismissed by Hardik Pandya, before Varun Aaron trapped Marcus Stoinis lbw to send him back for an 11-ball duck.Opening batsman Cameron Bancroft resisted for 74 balls and was unbeaten on 16. Giving him company at stumps was Beau Webster, who had faced 11 balls for his unbeaten 6.Thakur ended the day with figures of 2 for 14 in six overs. Aaron and Pandya had a wicket each.

Benny Howell took his wicket tally in the NatWest T20 Blast South Group to 23 as Gloucestershire made sure of finishing top with a four-wicket victory over Middlesex at Bristol

ECB Reporters Network29-Jul-2016
ScorecardLiam Norwell narrowly fails to run out Steve Eskinazi•Getty Images

Benny Howell took his wicket tally in the NatWest T20 Blast South Group to 23 as Gloucestershire made sure of finishing top with a four-wicket victory over Middlesex at Bristol.The competition’s leading wicket-taker claimed 3 for 18 from his four overs to help restrict the visitors to 156 for 5 after winning the toss. John Simpson top scored with 40 not out, while spinners Tom Smith and Graeme van Buuren both bowled tightly.In reply, Gloucestershire reached 162 for 6 with three balls to spare, Jack Taylor seeing them home with an explosive 44 off 23 balls, including 4 sixes, after Ian Cockbain had contributed 42.Some of the edge was taken off the game by the fact that both sides were already sure of quarter-final places, in Gloucestershire’s case with home advantage. But it still produced a thrilling finish.

Gloucs look to Grieshaber

Gloucestershire skipper Michael Klinger admitted Gl;oucestershire are short on wicketkeeping cover after they drew Durham in the last eight.
“Durham creates a problem for us in terms of a wicketkeeper because Gareth Roderick and Chris Dent are injured and we won’t be able to play Phil Mustard, who is on loan to us from our quarter-final opponents.
“It is something we will overcome. Young Pat Grieshaber did well for us behind the stumps in our Royal London Cup win over Sussex at Cheltenham and showed he can bat as well in that game.”

Middlesex made a promising start to their innings as Nick Gubbins and Stevie Eskinazi scored 52 off the first five overs before Gubbins, on 29, having hit 3 sixes, skied a catch to on-loan wicketkeeper Phil Mustard off Andrew Tye.James Franklin fell cheaply against his old club, stumped in Howell’s first over. But it was the all-rounder’s second over that proved most damaging as he had Eskinazi caught at short third-man for 29 and George Bailey lbw for one three balls later.The Middlesex innings got bogged down against Howell, typically effective with his pace-off-the-ball seamers, and the two Gloucestershire spinners, who shared seven overs at a cost of just 36 runs.Simpson and Ryan Higgins did their best to pick up the pace in the closing overs, while Toby Roland-Jones hit a four and a six off the last, sent down by Tye. But the Middlesex score still looked below par.Gloucestershire made a brisk start in reply, Michael Klinger and Hamish Marshall taking the score to 31 in the third over before Marshall, on 16, was run out attempting a second to third-man and failing to beat Roland-Jones’ throw to the keeper.That brought together two of the leading run-makers in the competition, Klinger and Cockbain, who soon overtook his skipper. An out-of-sorts Klinger was dropped on ten by Nathan Sowter at deep cover off Harris before falling for 13, caught trying to reverse sweep the relieved Sowter.Mustard was quickly bowled by Franklin and when Roland-Jones struck twice in the 15th over, having Cockbain caught at cover and bowling Howell as he advanced down the track, Gloucestershire looked to be in trouble at 101 for five.Taylor hit the first six of the innings as 14 came off the 17th over, bowled by Harris, and van Buuren followed up with a maximum off Ollie Rayner before falling next ball.With 24 needed from the last two overs, Taylor blasted successive sixes off Roland-Jones and nine were required as Steve Finn prepared to bowl the last six deliveries.The first was a no-balled bouncer costing two extras. Taylor missed the next one and smacked the next to mid-wicket where the diving Sowter failed to gather and let the ball slip through for a boundary.The scores were level when Finn was no-balled again for a bouncer and Taylor cut the next delivery for six over cover to end the game.

Twenty-one year old left-arm spinning allrounder Mohammad Nawaz took 4 for 13 to set up Quetta Gladiators’ victory over Islamabad United in the opening match of the PSL

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Feb-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: Mohammad Nawaz took 4 for 13 on a slow, turning pitch•Chris Whiteoak

The Pakistan Super League has been hailed by many as a pipeline for young talent to break into the world stage and 21-year old left-arm spinning allrounder Mohammad Nawaz took the opportunity to do so in the tournament opener as his 4 for 13 set up Quetta Gladiators’ eight-wicket victory over Islamabad United in Dubai.The Pakistan fans have had to wait years to have a T20 league of their own. An extensive opening ceremony made them wait some more and the match only began at 9.30 pm. Quetta’s captain Sarfaraz Ahmed opted to bowl and it proved a wise decision as his new-ball bowlers kept Islamabad tied down for much of the innings. None of the top five batsmen were able to cross 15 runs and Nawaz was responsible for dismissing three of them.Nawaz has already been earmarked as a future prospect with Pakistan having turned out for the ‘A’ team in the recent series against England Lions at the ICC Academy ground in Dubai. He took 11 wickets from five matches and struck a half-century as wellIslamabad were 63 for 6 in the 15th over when their captain Misbah-ul-Haq (41 off 28) and Andre Russell (35 off 20) slammed 57 runs in 27 balls to lend some respectability to the total. Russell caned Umar Gul for three fours and a six in the 18th over and Misbah carved Anwar Ali, who had bowled a maiden to kickstart the PSL, for three fours in the 19th over.Still a chase that was barely over run-a-ball asks very little of batsmen and when someone from the top order scores a half-century off 31 balls, the result becomes quite apparent. Luke Wright finished unbeaten with 86 off 53 balls with 11 fours and four sixes to wrap the match up with 24 balls to spare.

Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon might have to wait until the morning of the match to find out which of them will carry the drinks for the third Test against India in Perth

Brydon Coverdale in Perth12-Jan-2012Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon might have to wait until the morning of the match to find out which of them will carry the drinks for the third Test against India in Perth. The Australians trained on Thursday afternoon at the WACA and were greeted by a pitch that had lost some of its colour from the previous day but was still green enough to encourage the fast men.

Curator plays down green pitch

The WACA pitch might have lost some of its colour during the week but retained a strong green tinge on match eve. However, the curator Cameron Sutherland said it was not necessarily a strong indicator that the ball would seam wildly, as the colour was partly due to a different grass being used.
“We were the first ones in Australia to trial this new grass,” Sutherland said. “It’s worked wonders for us. It’s a high fibre content in the leaves, so it just holds its colour for longer. It’s also very fine leaf, it’s almost like a carpet, so it doesn’t seam too much. In Shield cricket, I know we’ve been referred to having green seamers or green-top Shield wickets, but they haven’t seamed around much at all.”
Sutherland said whether the teams chose four fast men or a spinner, there would be plenty in the pitch for all the bowlers. “You’ll definitely get the bounce and you might get a bit of turn,” he said. “There’s enough grass there to get a bit of purchase.”

Australia played four fast bowlers against England last summer and won on a similar surface. However, the curator Cameron Sutherland said it was important not to read too much into the green tinge, which was partly caused by a new type of grass the WACA groundstaff had used over the past few years, and Australia’s captain Michael Clarke said selection would be tough.”We haven’t selected a team yet,” Clarke said when the Australians arrived at training on Thursday. “I haven’t even seen the wicket today. I’ll make sure I have a look before training and we’ll make our decision tomorrow morning.”Asked what he would need to see to encourage him to play four fast men, Clarke said: “Exactly what I saw yesterday: a wicket that was pretty hard and had a lot of grass … and we’ll give it another day as well, see how it pans out the rest of the afternoon and have tomorrow morning to make the decision.”Conventional wisdom would suggest that India’s batsmen would have more trouble against an all-pace attack on a pitch expected to offer plenty of bounce. The offspinner, Lyon, has taken only two wickets in the series and has spoken of how challenging it has been to bowl against India’s batsmen due to their quick hands and ability to score anywhere around the wicket.However, Clarke said he did not feel India would necessarily be more susceptible to pace at the WACA than spin, and he said he was loath to enter any Test without a slow-bowling option.Whatever the Australians decide, they will be pleased to regain Ryan Harris, who took nine wickets in the Perth victory last summer. Harris has been sidelined since the first Test of the South African tour in November with a hip problem, and has had a string of other injuries during his short international career. He has spoken of his nerves at the possibility that he could break down again, but Clarke is confident Harris enters the Perth Test in a good space, physically.”We get Ryan Harris back, who is as good a fast bowler as I’ve played with through my career and he’s had a lot of success,” Clarke said. “Being a fast bowler is much tougher than being a batsman, on your body, the actual workload and the pressure that goes through your body when you’re bowling. Rhino bowls high 140ks and runs in hard.”In series like this, when you have back-to-back Test matches, there’s always extra strain on the guys. It’s more so for fast bowlers. I’d love to see Rhino play every Test match now for the rest of his career but who knows how long it’s going to go for. He’s in a really good place, he’s fit and strong at the moment. He’s bowling as good as I’ve seen in the nets and I know he’s looking forward to this opportunity.”The inclusion of Harris will be part of a straight swap for James Pattinson, who has been ruled out of the rest of the series with a foot injury. That leaves the Lyon-Starc decision as the only issue for Australia’s selectors and Clarke said he believed Starc, who made his Test debut against New Zealand in December, had a bright future for Australia.”Mitchell is a very talented young player,” Clarke said. “We’ve seen him have a little bit of success over the last 12 months, whether it be first-class cricket, domestic cricket or for Australia. I think he’s got a bright future for Australia. He bowls left-arm, he’s quite tall and a very strong boy. He bowls good pace.”It is certainly an advantage to have that option, even in this Test match, to give him an opportunity or to go with our spinner. But I think you’re going to see a lot more of Mitchell over the next few years, that’s for sure.”

Australia’s under-fire Test opener Phillip Hughes has withdrawn from the Big Bash League in order to focus on his form in the longer format

Brydon Coverdale14-Dec-2011Australia’s under-fire Test opener Phillip Hughes has withdrawn from the Big Bash League in order to focus on his form in the longer format. Although Hughes is expected to be axed from the side for the Boxing Day Test against India after a disappointing few months, he has not entirely given up on retaining his spot and does not want to be distracted by the BBL over the next two weeks.Hughes had signed for the Sydney Thunder, who begin their Twenty20 campaign on Saturday night against the Melbourne Stars at the MCG. Had Hughes played in that game, he would have needed to rush to Canberra on Sunday to prepare for Monday’s three-day Cricket Australia Chairman’s XI encounter against the Indians.That match is his last chance to impress the selectors ahead of Boxing Day, after he was caught in the cordon by Martin Guptill off Chris Martin in all four innings of the recent Test series as New Zealand exploited his weakness outside off stump. Since Simon Katich was dumped from Australia’s squad mid-year, Hughes has averaged 27.69 in Test cricket.”Following my performances over the last few months, I have decided that, right now, I need to be completely focus on my first-class cricket career,” Hughes said in a statement. “I’m obviously disappointed that I haven’t been able to score the runs in the last few Tests that I know I am capable of and I want to do everything I can to ensure that my game continues to develop.”I talked with Pup [captain Michael Clarke] and [coach] Mickey Arthur about it after the Hobart Test and they both supported my thinking. I then approached John Dyson (Sydney Thunder) and Pat Howard (Cricket Australia) to ensure that they would be comfortable for me to step away from my contract with the Thunder.”Selfishly, it’s the right decision for me but I’m obviously concerned that I have made this decision on the eve of the Thunder’s first game. Everyone has been extremely understanding and I wish the boys all the best for a successful Big Bash season. I’m now focusing on next week’s Chairman’s XI game in Canberra and can’t wait to face the Indian bowlers.”The Thunder will survive. Hughes would have been competing for top-order runs with Chris Gayle and David Warner had he played in the T20 competition, while Usman Khawaja is also part of the Thunder roster. And while Hughes deserves to be commended for his decision to concentrate on his form in the longer format, the move carries plenty of risk for him.Should he fail to impress in the Chairman’s XI match and win a place in the Boxing Day Test, he will have no first-class cricket to fall back on until the beginning of February, a T20 window having been created in the domestic calendar throughout January. That means Hughes would be trying to regain his touch in grade cricket and in the nets.Hughes, 23, has three Test hundreds to his name but his tendency to edge outside off became a fatal flaw during the New Zealand series and he will need to rectify it before he wins another chance in the Test side. Earlier this week it was announced that he would play county cricket with Worcestershire next season, where his technique will be tested.

For the second day in a row, Sophie Devine and Aimee Watkins drove New Zealand to a Twenty20 victory over Australia at Bellerive Oval

Cricinfo staff22-Feb-2010

ScorecardSophie Devine starred with bat and ball•Getty Images

For the second day in a row, Sophie Devine and Aimee Watkins drove New Zealand to a Twenty20 victory over Australia at Bellerive Oval. The visitors were chasing 116 and reached their target with five wickets in hand and 19 balls to spare, thanks to a 75-run stand between Watkins and Devine.Watkins made 36 and Devine posted 48 and although no other New Zealand player reached double figures, none needed to. Devine had earlier kept Australia to 7 for 115 – the same total they made in the first game – with 3 for 24 from her four overs.Suzie Bates also chipped in with 2 for 20 as Australia struggled to get a quick start having chosen to bat. Alex Blackwell top scored with 40 while Leah Poulton’s 24 came at better than a run a ball.

Delhi Capitals appoint parent brand JSW as principal sponsor after Daikin pulls out

Varun Shetty21-Aug-2020Delhi Capitals have announced that the JSW Group will be their new principal sponsor for IPL 2020 as it emerges that the challenges of retaining sponsorship value in a pandemic-hit economy have not stopped at just the BCCI. Daikin Air-Conditioning, which had been the principal sponsor for the Delhi franchise since 2015, has pulled out. The JSW Group is a conglomerate that owns JSW Sports, which is the joint-owner of Delhi Capitals.In a release, chairman of Delhi Capitals and managing director of JSW Group, Parth Jindal said that the deal will help JSW’s brand visibility and that “there are few properties that garner the viewership of the IPL.”The value of that viewership was reflected in 2017, when Vivo bought the IPL title rights at a 454% bump in value from the previous sponsor. But it had to pull out a couple of weeks ago due to political tensions between India and China and subsequently, the BCCI had to award rights of this IPL edition at nearly half of this year’s INR 440 crore value to Dream11.These discounts to sponsors are seemingly a challenge for franchises as well.In an interview with earlier this week, Jindal had said that the JSW Group got a “slight discount” over Daikin “because of no ticket sales [and] no meet-and-greets” with the players. He said that component of sponsorship value was coming down and re-negotiations were on – anywhere between 15-20%.”From a commercial standpoint, with Vivo going out and no fans coming into the stadium, franchisees are waiting for clarity on how much of that amount will be compensated by BCCI,” Jindal said. “But it’s very likely that a major chunk of each franchise’s losses will get compensated by the BCCI. There will be a slight commercial impact, but I don’t think more than 10% compared to last year. If the BCCI doesn’t compensate, there will be a significant loss to each franchise, about a 30% drop in revenues. But we do believe the BCCI will do something for the franchisees.”ALSO READ: Lasith Malinga set to miss initial part of IPL in UAEThe likelihood of the IPL being played behind closed doors will mean the absence of what brands call stadium activations – interactive experiences for fans at stadiums – and has already forced franchises to rethink and innovate on the digital front.”[Playing behind closed doors means] straightaway the ticket revenues are affected, your food and beverage revenue is affected, the merchandising sales at the stadium is affected. The challenge to us is – how do you activate the sponsors? Are there ways in which you can compensate for this?” Venky Mysore, CEO of Kolkata Knight Riders, said on ESPNcricinfo’s Stump Mic podcast in May.”We are re-imagining our businesses. From that perspective, what I know is already happening is that the world is consuming more content than before. This is a fact. That’s great news. How do we take some of these changes and harness it in a way that would benefit our business? And therefore can we come up with some innovative ideas? I think if we channel our energies the right way, we will. That’s why I’m very optimistic.”Jindal echoed similar sentiments in his interview with , saying that he expected this year’s IPL’s viewership to be the highest ever and there’s “only a limited amount of Netflix and Hotstar one can watch”. The chief executive of Kings XI Punjab, Satish Menon, said they were being pushed to adopt technology to bring value to their sponsors as well, and told ESPNcricinfo that there was no reason to be upset about the business challenges around the tournament.”That is the situation. You’ve got to live with the situation,” Menon said. “We’re still providing entertainment through the television. So I’m sure our spectators and our fans will love this, so I see no reason why anybody should be upset about this.”Menon’s thoughts are along the lines of Royal Challengers Bangalore chairman Sanjeev Churiwala’s, who suggested that the IPL happening itself was an ideal scenario for them.”We have not paid too much attention to the revenue and sponsorship side. At the moment, the discussion is how we can enable the IPL to happen in the first place. We were facing a binary position – IPL versus no IPL. At least now an IPL is happening,” Churiwala said during RCB’s pre-departure conference on Thursday.Even though BCCI has not yet taken any firm decision on whether crowds would be allowed during the IPL in the UAE, the Emirates Cricket Board is optimistic that fans could be present in the second half subject to permission from the UAE government as well as IPL.The change in IPL title sponsorship value is likely to affect the revenue pool that is shared by the eight franchises, but the broad mood around the IPL remains that this version of the tournament is better than not having one at all. At the very least, that seems to be the board’s position, with president Sourav Ganguly saying that Vivo’s dropping out was merely a “blip” for the BCCI that has a strong enough legacy to not be affected.For now, the franchises seem satisfied with that despite battling tensions on their various revenue streams.

Having already been knocked out, the hosts now gear up to face Chennai Super Kings who have their sights set on a top-two finish

The Preview by Annesha Ghosh17-May-20183:47

Agarkar: Ngidi better suited to Delhi conditions than Willey

Big Picture

Diesel prices have hit an all-time high in Delhi, and the city’s IPL team is stuck in yet another low. Reeling from a hat-trick of defeats, including last week’s knockout punch, Delhi Daredevils can only battle for pride in their penultimate game on home turf.Amid thunderstorms of both the literal and figurative kind, Delhi gears up to host Chennai Super Kings, who have already qualified for the playoffs. CSK’s most recent win, against leaders Sunrisers Hyderabad, saw quick bowler Deepak Chahar mark his return from injury with a stingy opening spell. Subsequently, Ambati Rayudu smashed an unbeaten maiden IPL hundred and sealed the win in his captain MS Dhoni’s company.

Form guide

• Delhi Daredevils: lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets, lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by nine wickets, lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets

• Chennai Super Kings: beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets, lost to Rajasthan Royals by four wickets, beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets

As for Daredevils, the saving grace in their surrender to AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli last week came through a Rishabh Pant fifty and the debuts of two youngsters. Sandeep Lamichhane’s opening spell made him the toast of the evening on Twitter, while Under-19 World Cup winner Abhishek Sharma wowed with an unbeaten 46.But if Daredevils are to muster a fight against Dhoni’s men, they will need their bowlers to check the run flow in the Powerplay. The most expensive attack in the first six and the middle overs, Daredevils have conceded over 40 runs per wicket during the two phases. Daredevils have conceded 50-plus Powerplay scores 11 times in 12 games this season, a vulnerability waiting to be feasted on by CSK, whose openers have scored the second-most runs of any team this season.

Previous meeting

En route to their sixth straight loss, Daredevils ran into an unforgiving Shane Watson and Dhoni who smashed fifties in their combined tally of 129 off 62 balls in Pune. Rayudu’s brisk 41 hauled CSK past 200, before debutants Lungi Nigidi and KM Asif shared three top-order wickets and commemorated their IPL initiation with a 13-run victory.

Qualification scenario

Daredevils, of course, are out of contention for the playoffs. CSK are aiming to seal a top-two place, and plenty will have to go wrong for them not to achieve it. Kolkata Knight Riders are the only team below CSK who can hope to leapfrog them, by finishing level with them on 16 points and pipping them on net run rate. For that to happen, CSK will have to lose both their remaining games, and KKR will have to win their last match, and all three result margins will have to be big. For example, if CSK lose both games by 30 runs each, and KKR win theirs by 53 (assuming totals of 180 in each case for the team batting first), then KKR will sneak ahead.It’s safe to say, therefore, that CSK have all but sealed a top-two position.

Likely XIs

Delhi Daredevils: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Jason Roy/Colin Munro, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Abhishek Sharma, 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 Liam Plunkett/ Junior Dala, 8 Amit Mishra, 9 Sandeep Lamichhane, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Shahbaz NadeemChennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Ambati Rayudu, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 5 Sam Billings, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Karn Sharma, 10 Deepak Chahar/ Shardul Thakur, 11 Lungi Ngidi

Strategy punt

Daredevils should be alive to Dhoni’s lack of fluency against legspinners this season. In 12 innings, he has managed only 87 runs off 68 balls against them while being dismissed three times. Ravindra Jadeja, meanwhile, has been dismissed twice in four innings by legspinners. Lamichhane and Amit Mishra, therefore, are good options to bowl the bulk of the middle overs, particularly when one of these two is at the crease. Additionally, Mishra’s economy rate of 6.9 during the period – the best among Daredevils’ bowlers in any single phase – should hold him in good stead.

Stats that matter

• Dhoni needs 10 runs to reach 6000 T20 runs, and another 16 runs would take him to 4000 runs in the IPL
• Daredevils have tried seven different opening combinations so far, and their openers collectively boast the lowest average (21.9) of all teams this season.
• Pant’s tournament tally of 582 is the highest by a Daredevils batsman in an IPL season across all editions. Former captain Gautam Gambhir held the record for ten years having amassed 534 runs in the 2008 season.

Fantasy pick

Want compelling reasons to pick Deepak Chahar? Here you go. CSK’s pace contingent has been more effective (economy of 8.99 and average of 30.48) with Chahar in the mix than in the four games he has missed (economy of 9.48 and average of 44.10). His inclusion has also enabled CSK’s pace bowlers to take a wicket every 20.4 balls as opposed to one every 27.9 balls in his absence.

It has taken five attempts over two series but the North finally beat the South in the pre-season challenge match in Barbados

Dan Norcross22-Mar-2018The North finally tasted victory against the South at the fifth attempt, winning another hugely entertaining contest by 46 runs, tying the three match series at one apiece, bagged a cheque for £10000 and in so doing achieved something that has been beyond successive UK governments for the better part of 40 years in redistributing money from South to North.On a blustery day at the Kensington Oval, the North set up what would have been the highest run chase at this venue and in posting 335, ensured that the top two list A totals achieved here have been set by the two different halves of England (and Wales of course, though Glamorgan have no players in the South squad) following the South’s record breaking 347 on Sunday.Runs have come aplenty for both sides in both games in the opening power plays, and despite two tight maidens from Sam Curran, Joe Clarke and Alex Davies plundered a spectacular 92 from the first ten overs. It took Clarke 15 balls to get off the mark but he more than made up for it with 71 from his next 44.Nonetheless, assistant coach of the South side Andy Flower, guesting on BBC’s commentary, was hugely frustrated when he slapped a Dominic Bess long-hop into the gleeful hands of Curran, diving smartly to his right at midwicket. Clarke is a man the England management are monitoring closely. He is very near the front of the cab rank, and Flower’s reaction told you how much they want him to succeed.There was a big hundred there for the taking and after doing pretty much everything right it was an infuriating way to go. She’s a cruel mistress is cricket. As Peter Cook’s Alan Latchley so sagely said (though about football), “she can bring tears to your eyes and blood to your shoulders”.Clarke’s wicket left the North perilously perched on 132 for 4 in the 20th over and in danger of squandering their splendid start, but a mature partnership of 108 between the skipper Steven Mullaney and Brett D’Oliveira, who top scored with 79, got the innings back on track and provided the perfect platform for a hell-raising 64 from Derbyshire’s Matt Critchley.Many of us have been under the misguided impression that Critchley was a leg-spinner who could bat. Well, it turns out he’s a batsman who can bowl leg-spin. It may be a bit early to file him under “the next Steve Smith”, apart from anything else Smith has rarely struck four fours and four sixes in 37 balls, but he demonstrated again the value to the selectors of this fixture as a means of identifying the next generation of one-day talent. And the value of bringing a massive box of replacement balls as the roof of the Greenidge and Haynes stand came in for a regular buffeting.It took a startling catch in the deep by Delray Rawlins to dismiss him. Amidst the carnage, the South’s two left-arm seam bowlers, Paul Walter (a man who can’t help but evoke memories of Alan Mullaly, albeit that he’s around four inches taller) and Sam Curran shared five wickets between them but it was Dom Bess who again proved the pick of the bowlers with 2 for 47 from his ten overs.What the visiting Joel Garner made of another slow, tacky pitch is anyone’s guess (he didn’t hang around long), but it is the way of things in Barbados these days.The South’s reply was barely any less frenetic with Nick Gubbins picking up where he left off on Sunday. He stroked his second hundred of the series off a mere 85 balls. Opening partner to Alastair Cook since Andrew Strauss retired has been a role more cursed than 16th Century Pope, first century AD Roman Emperor or Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Mark Stoneman is the man currently in possession of the poisoned chalice, but it’s Nick Gubbins who is peering over his shoulder.He found fine support in a century partnership from Laurie Evans who channelled his inner Jason Roy in an increasingly fluent innings of 64, but the reintroduction of Richard Gleeson turned the match. First a fabulous, perfectly pitched yorker that the by now departed “Big Bird” would have appreciated castled Gubbins for 109, and a repeat dose two balls later did for Rawlins.Evans and Curran threw away their wickets trying to get after Matthew Parkinson who finished with 3 for 47 from 9 overs, the former smashing a short ball out to deep cover, the latter charging past a deliciously dipping leg break. Davies completed the stumping with Curran roughly three quarters of the way through an inelegant pirouette with his head pointing skywards. Surrey’s Ollie Pope tried to shepherd the rapidly vanishing tail but eventually was last out for a busy 42 from 35 balls, Saqib Mahmood hitting the stumps for the sixth time in two matches.A pop concert is scheduled for the weekend at the Kensington Oval so the third and final match will be played at the Three W’s Stadium down the road with £30000 going to the winners.

Ireland batsman Andy Balbirnie and allrounder Stuart Thompson have been ruled out of the Desert T20 Challenge in the UAE after sustaining injuries while training

Peter Della Penna in Abu Dhabi15-Jan-2017Ireland batsman Andy Balbirnie and allrounder Stuart Thompson have been ruled out of the Desert T20 Challenge in the UAE after sustaining injuries at Ireland’s final training session on the eve of the tournament.Balbirnie suffered a strained glute muscle and will be out of action for one to two weeks, according to Ireland team manager Chris Siddell, while Thompson strained ligaments in his right ankle when he landed awkwardly on the thick boundary rope at Sheikh Zayed Stadium during a catching and six-saving drill. Thompson was seen on crutches wearing a cast after Ireland’s five-wicket loss to Afghanistan on Saturday and is expected to be out of action for at least a month.”It was just devastating for them for the hard work that they’ve put in to recover from their various illnesses and injuries,” Ireland coach John Bracewell after the Afghanistan loss. Balbirnie had been out for most of 2016 after hip surgery – which contributed to the loss of his Middlesex contract – while Thompson was attempting to make his Ireland return in this tournament after taking indefinite leave in June to get treatment for performance anxiety.Stuart Poynter and Lorcan Tucker are the two replacement players who were drafted into the Ireland squad for this tournament in place of Balbirnie and Thompson. Despite arriving at 2 am, about 17 hours before the first ball was bowled, Poynter was slotted in to open the Ireland batting and made 18 off 20 balls.Ireland captain William Porterfield revealed after the match that Thompson had been set to open the batting with Paul Stirling and the team felt inserting Poynter in that vacated slot was the best option to avoid further disrupting their batting plans. Tucker arrived in the country while the match was in progress, leaving Ireland 13 fit players to choose from against Afghanistan but should be available for their next match against Namibia on Tuesday.