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The seamer picked up nine wickets in the match to strengthen his case as India’s third seam-bowling option

Shashank Kishore08-Sep-2024Two balls across two innings defined Akash Deep’s impressive outing in the Duleep Trophy game, where he returned a match haul of 9 for 116 for India A against India B.The first one was Nitish Kumar Reddy’s wicket, courtesy of late seam movement that squared him up to hit the top of the off stump. The second was a set-up that involved playing with Washington Sundar’s mind.After troubling him with the ones that straightened from around the wicket, Akash switched back to over the wicket and bent the ball back off the seam from the same spot to beat his inside edge and rattle the stumps.”The balls I bowled to Nitish Reddy [in the first innings] and Washington Sundar [in the second innings],” Akash said when asked to pick his favourite wicket from the match. “I had been bowling a lot to him [Washington] from around the wicket in the nets. He has been batting a lot against me and had got used to it. So I wanted to do something that I hadn’t done against him before.”Related

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Such planning of his dismissals is something he has learnt from Mohammed Shami. His chats have been around trying to have batters guessing which way the ball will move from the same spot. Shami’s set-up of Ben Stokes at last year’s World Cup is possibly a good example.”When you bowl to a left-hander from around the wicket, the ball moves naturally towards the shine,” Akash explained. “I spoke to him [Shami] about how to get the ball to come back in [with the angle]. I have seen him do that.”He advised me not to focus too much on bringing it in. He said it will automatically come over time and when it does, it will become a wicket-taking ball. Because if it keeps going out and then you are able to bring it back in with the shine, it’s tough for batsmen. But he has cautioned me against trying it a lot. But as a bowler, if you’re able to do it, then batters will have a tendency to chase balls away as well.”This ability to generate lateral movement both ways stood out, as much as Akash’s ability to bowl long spells even when at times it felt as if there wasn’t much happening off the pitch. Akash sent down 41 overs across both innings, comfortably the most among all the bowlers in this match. He put this down to the conditioning work he did at the NCA over the past month.”My last proper match was my Test debut in March,” he said. “In the IPL, I played just one game. As a fast bowler, it’s difficult to come back [after such a long stretch]. I was at the NCA for a month, I played a lot of practice games keeping in mind the kind of situations we will face in a real match, so that the muscle memory is used to the rigours of a first-class match.”Akash’s memorable Duleep Trophy outing sets him up nicely to be in the race for the third seamer’s slot for the upcoming home Tests, if Shami continues to remain unavailable. Asked if this performance will help him add to his maiden Test appearance against England, especially with a Test tour to Australia coming up, Akash said he wanted to stay in the present.”I think of every match as my last match,” he said. “I don’t think too far ahead. What happens [the selection] is not in my hands. I’m here in the present, thinking about my process. I’ve now finished a match, tomorrow is a rest day so how can I recover well? I think more about those things. I’m only thinking in the present.”Is he satisfied with his performance?”As a player, the moment you’re satisfied, you won’t learn. As long as that hunger is there to learn, you should not be satisfied. Getting wickets and the final result is different. The ball that I wanted to bowl, how much of it was I able to execute properly? What could I have improved? That’s what I was thinking about all the time.”

Understrength Glamorgan outgunned in one-sided encounter at Kia Oval

ECB Reporters Network20-Jun-2023Surrey made their highest T20 score at the Kia Oval as they crushed understrength Glamorgan by 81 runs to chalk up a fifth win in their last six Vitality Blast South Group games.Opener Will Jacks top scored with 69, his third fifty in this season’s competition, and there were cameos from Laurie Evans (40) and Sunil Narine (36) to lay the platform for a brutal assault by the Curran brothers in the closing overs.Sam cleared the ropes six times as he smashed 59 off 22 balls and Tom contributed 23 off 13 as they plundered 80 runs from the last 33 deliveries before Sam was bowled looking to ramp Jamie McIlroy off the final ball of the innings. Surrey’s 238 for 5 was also the third highest score in their T20 history.Glamorgan, whose injury issues meant they gave debuts to three players, also conceded their third highest score in the format. They made 157 for 8 in reply but despite this defeat still have a chance of reaching the knockout stages with four games to go.With the influential Colin Ingram injured, Glamorgan have brought in New Zealand batter Cam Fletcher, 30, on a short-term basis. Fletcher has been playing in the Bradford League for New Farnley while batter Will Smale and right-armer Andy Govin were also making their debuts for the county in T20.Gorvin was the only bowler whose economy rate was below ten an over as Surrey, put in on a green-tinged pitch, cruised along at 12 an over for most of their innings.Jacks and Evans had 64 up in the powerplay before Evans, who made 118 when the teams met in Cardiff earlier this month, was superbly caught by wicketkeeper Chris Cooke cutting leg-spinner Peter Hatzoglou in the seventh over just when he was starting to cut loose.Glamorgan briefly stemmed the flow in the middle of the innings by claiming three wickets in 11 balls. Jacks, who’d hit eight fours and two sixes, cut to backward point and Sunil Narine (36 off 18) holed out to long off to give Hatzoglou two wickets in five balls. Jamie Overton top-edged a pull but that brought the Curran brothers together and the fun began.McIlroy was hit for five sixes in his final two overs and Hatzoglou two with Sam Curran unveiling some eye-catching shots and clean hitting, the highlight the successive sixes off McIlroy down the ground in the final over as he passed fifty in the format for the 14th time. His was also Surrey’s joint-third quickest fifty (18 balls) in T20.Asked to score at 12.25 an over Glamorgan had little option but attack but no one could play the substantial innings – or do so quickly enough – to give them a chance.Kiran Carlson was caught on the square-leg boundary in Sam Curran’s first over; fellow opener Smale hit 27 off 16 balls only to drive Gus Atkinson’s slower ball to Tom Curran at long on; and debutant wicketkeeper Josh Blake took a brilliant one-handed catch to his right to remove Sam Northeast.Billy Root (31) added 48 for the fourth wicket with Cooke, who top scored with 49 off 28 balls before holing out off Chris Jordan. The Surrey skipper finished with 4 for 21 and Narine picked up 2 for 25.

Brooke Guest and Leus de Plooy fifties make high-class Notts attack work for rewards

ECB Reporters Network19-May-2022Nottinghamshire 22 for 0 trail Derbyshire 260 (du Plooy 57, Guest 51) by 238Half-centuries by Brooke Guest and Leus du Plooy helped Derbyshire total 260 all out on the opening day of their LV= County Championship match against Nottinghamshire, for whom leading wicket-taker Dane Paterson finished with 3 for 36.After being asked to bat first on a heavily green-tinged pitch, and facing a trio of international fast bowlers in Stuart Broad, James Pattinson and Paterson, Derbyshire will feel they could have done much worse, particularly after leading scorer Shan Masood – who still hopes to become the first player since Graeme Hick in 1988 to aggregate 1000 first-class runs before the end of May – suffered a rare failure.Australian former Test bowler Pattinson, his dander up after twice being hooked for six, bowled with real pace and there was plenty of aggression from Broad in the last of his three Championship appearances before an expected Test recall against New Zealand next month.On the down side for Derbyshire, they are without three senior bowlers, with Suranga Lakmal, Anuj Dal and Ryan Sidebottom all injured. Nottinghamshire began their reply with 22 without loss from three overs, all the runs off the bat being scored by Ben Slater.Pakistan Test opener Masood, whose seven previous innings included three centuries, two of them doubles, and only one score under 62, this time fell on 18, caught behind pushing at a ball from Pattinson that found a thin edge. His dismissal left him on 844 runs for the season, still with an outside chance to make history as the earliest to reach the magical 1000 in May, although he has only the second innings of this match in which to do it because the rest of the month is given over to the Vitality Blast.Were he to make 156 or higher he would better Don Bradman’s 1938 achievement of reaching the milestone by May 27.After Masood’s dismissal, Derbyshire slipped to 41 for 3 when Paterson removed Billy Godleman and Wayne Madsen with consecutive balls. Godleman was caught at third slip before Madsen nibbled at one that left him late to be caught behind, yet new man du Plooy helped Guest steer a path to 89 for 3 at lunch, the latter miscuing Pattinson for six over the short boundary on the Bridgford Road side.After the interval, Guest completed a 68-ball half-century but was not able to build on it, losing his middle stump to a quick ball from Broad that deflected off his bottom hand. du Plooy followed Guest in losing his wicket soon after passing fifty, leg-before playing back to a ball from Steven Mullaney, but Derbyshire added 102 runs in the session.Alex Hughes, a late call-up after Dal turned his ankle warming up on the outfield, joined Guest in hooking Pattinson for six, off a no-ball to boot, having been dropped on 6 off Mullaney.Slater took a stunning boundary catch to deny former Derbyshire team-mate Luis Reece a half-century, before being given a rare opportunity to bowl his offspin and claiming his maiden Championship wicket with his first ball as Tom Moores stumped Alex Thomson.After the second new ball was taken, Hughes became a second victim for Broad when he was lbw to a full delivery but he and debutant Liam Hurt – the fast bowler on loan from Lancashire – had added 27 to secure a second batting point. Paterson and spinner Liam Patterson-White picked up the last two wickets.

Colin Ingram’s direct hit off the game’s final ball earns the Hurricanes a one-run win

Hemant Brar30-Dec-2020Mujeeb Ur Rahman’s maiden five-wicket haul in T20 cricket went in vain as Hobart Hurricanes not only pulled off a one-run victory but also picked up the Bash Boost point against Brisbane Heat.With the Heat needing seven from the final over with three wickets in hand, Scott Boland held his nerve against James Bazley (49 not out off 31) and Mark Steketee. Delivering a mix of low full tosses and slower balls, he brought it down to the final ball. With two required, Steketee hit the shin-high full toss to extra cover, where Colin Ingram dived to his left and, after a brief fumble, hit the stumps direct at the bowler’s end. Steketee put in a dive but his bat bounced off the turf from inches outside the crease and was in the air when the ball hit the stumps.Mujeeb Ur Rahman returned the magical figures of 4-0-15-5•Getty Images

In a game where momentum swung on more than one occasion, Hurricanes were 136 for 5 at one stage before being all out for 150 in 19.4 overs. They had delayed the Power Surge till the very end but Mujeeb quashed their hopes of a strong finish in the 19th over, where only a wide denied him a hat-trick and a triple-wicket maiden.It wasn’t a tall chase but the Hurricanes bowled attacking lines and lengths to reduce the Heat to 3 for 8. Max Bryant and Lewis Gregory staged a recovery and at one stage, the Heat needed 35 off 30 balls with five wickets in hand. But they once again failed to seize the advantage and lost two wickets in the next two overs. Bazley and Steketee brought them back in the contest only to slip at the last hurdle.Heat keep Hurricanes’ top order in check
D’Arcy Short’s lean run in BBL 2020-21 continued as he bagged his second duck of the season, nicking Xavier Bartlett behind on the second ball of the match after the Heat put the Hurricanes in. In six innings so far in the tournament, Short has scored only 102 runs at an average of 17. In fact, 72 of those runs came in one innings.Hurricanes were 1 for 6 in two overs when Dawid Malan gave a glimpse of why he is the top-ranked T20I batsman in the world. After his usual settling-in period – he was 7 off 7 at one stage – Malan struck four fours in Bartlett’s one over.The Heat had a chance to end this carnage in the very next over when Malan sliced Jack Wildermuth towards backward point but Sam Heazlett dropped a straightforward catch. Mujeeb, though, gave them something to cheer about soon after. Ben McDermott, who was struggling till then, tried to pull the spinner’s first ball but missed the googly completely and was bowled.That put the brakes on the scoring rate even though Peter Handscomb was quick off the blocks. The 37-run stand, off 32 balls, between Malan and Handscomb came to an end when Handscomb flicked Wildermuth on to his stumps. And despite having a top-five with international experience, the Hurricanes could manage only 65 for 3 in the first ten overs.Mujeeb shows his mastery
Malan and Ingram knew they needed to step up. Malan tried to hit Mujeeb through the covers in that pursuit only to be bowled. Ingram was offered two lives by Wildermuth but he too failed to capitalise and ended up flicking Steketee straight to deep-backward square leg for a 21-ball 24.Tim David struck two monstrous sixes off Gregory in the 17th over but the Hurricanes’ lower order had no answer to Mujeeb’s variations. Keemo Paul was caught and bowled off a carrom ball while Wil Parker and Boland were bowled for first-ball ducks off googlies, all in the 19th over. Had it not been for Nathan Ellis’ unbeaten 11 off six balls, the Hurricanes wouldn’t have reached 150.Shaky Heat concede Bash Boost point
If Mujeeb rocked the Hurricanes’ lower order, Riley Meredith and Boland did the same to the Heat’s top. Heazlett and Wildermuth departed without opening their accounts while Tom Cooper was bowled for 1. An unperturbed Bryant, though, kept finding boundaries and added 52 in just 6.1 overs along with Gregory.Just like the Heat, the Hurricanes were also generous in the field, handing Gregory and Bryant a life each. First, Parker grassed Gregory off Ellis at third man, and in the next over, McDermott failed to latch on to a catch from Bryant, off Parker. Bryant then struck a four and a six off consecutive balls off Paul, and with six needed from eight balls, it looked like the Heat had the Bash Boost point in their pocket. Bryant fell on the next ball but Gregory and captain Jimmy Peirson showed no urgency in the tenth over, bowled by Short, and the Heat fell two short of the mid-way point target.A chaotic finish
The Heat needed 73 from eight overs with five wickets in hand but then Paul lost his radar. He started the 13th over of the innings with two waist-high full tosses. Only the second one, however, was deemed dangerous and Paul was allowed to continue. He ended up giving away 20 runs as Bazley hit three fours and brought the equation down to 53 required from 42 balls.Peirson lost his wicket while going for a big hit while Milenko didn’t last long either and suddenly the Heat were 7 for 128, needing 23 needed from 14. Steketee hammered Meredith for back-to-back fours and Bazley smashed a six off Ellis in the next over to make the Heat favourites again before the one final twist in the 20th over.

“It’s one I’ll never forget” says Stokes after stunning innings seals improbable England victory

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Aug-2019Ben Stokes said that the winning boundary in his remarkable, unbeaten innings of 135 to seal a dramatic third Ashes Test at Headingley was one of the “top two feelings I’ve ever had on a cricket field”, alongside the Super Over finale in the World Cup final last month.England needed 73 to win when Stokes was joined by last man Jack Leach, but the pair put on a stand of 76 in 10.2 overs – of which Leach contributed an unbeaten 1 off 17 balls – to seal the unlikeliest of victories.”It probably matches the World Cup, to be honest,” Stokes told Sky. “Unbelievable, it’s one I’ll never forget. I’m not sure that’ll ever happen again. I just had to try to take it all in. It’s never over until it’s over.”When Leachy came in it was pretty clear what had to be done,” he said. “[I was] just saying ‘five and one’ – I’ll take five [balls] and you take one. There were a couple of times I thought we were getting two but it was only one, but Leachy’s done it before. He’s a super nightwatchman, he’s got a 92, and I backed him knowing what he had to do. I couldn’t watch at the end, I was just waiting to see what happened.”When it got down to 20 [runs required], I started thinking I could rein it in a little bit, but when it was 70s, 60s, 50s I thought I had to really try and go. I was so in the zone as to what I had to do.”Ben Stokes takes the applause after sealing England’s win•Getty Images

Stokes’ innings came despite a minor injury in his back leg. “I twanged my glute a little bit,” he said. “I was a little bit heavy-legged, but when you’re out there in the middle and you know what’s on the line, adrenaline keeps you going.””We had to win this game to stay in the Ashes. We’ve managed to do it, we’ve got to move on to the next game, we’ve managed to keep our hopes alive of doing the double, and we’re going to take a lot of momentum in. It’s nice that we’ve got a bit of a break to recharge our batteries and hopefully hit the ground running again in Manchester.”Leach planted a kiss on his batting partner’s cheek, and Stokes paid tribute to his innings. “Credit to Jack to be out there and able to do that in such a high-profile situation. That was the best kiss I’ve ever had.”Tim Paine, Australia’s captain, said the defeat was “hard to take” but admitted “you’ve got to tip your hat sometimes. Ben Stokes played an unbelievable innings. It’s probably the best Test innings I’ve seen, and the rest of the team thought the same thing.”Stokes’ captain Joe Root described the innings as “outrageous”.”We had to call upon all of that in the World Cup,” Root said. “To stay as calm and composed as he did showed great skill, courage, and belief in his own ability. He deserves all the plaudits and adulation that he gets given.”

England were impressive in the field with Katherine Brunt and then the spinners played a key role while the fielding stood out

The Report by Melinda Farrell at Chelmsford01-Jul-2018
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDanni Wyatt blasted a half-century as England cruised to an emphatic seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in the Vitality Tri-Series final at Chelmsford. It was England’s third win of the series against New Zealand and, with the Women’s World T20 just five months away, it was an encouraging result as they aim to add that trophy to their World Cup title.Batting first, New Zealand started their innings aggressively before collapsing to lose six wickets for 39 runs. After restricting New Zealand to just 137, England reach the target with 17 balls remaining, making hay with the bat on a sweltering afternoon, Wyatt and Tammy Beaumont in particular taking advantage of a favourable pitch and a fast outfield.Beaumont, who was the leading run-scorer for the tournament looked supremely confident in the early overs, whether reverse-sweeping with precision or driving with power and timing.But Wyatt accelerated towards the end of the Powerplay. She displayed her range and innovation nicely against Hayley Jensen in the space of four balls in the sixth over; firstly with a no-look ramp shot, then a lovely cover drive and finally a delicate dab to third man. All three shots went for four runs.Wyatt brought up her 50 in 34 balls but was out on the next delivery, a thick outside edge off Suzie Bates ballooning to short third man where Leigh Kasperek juggled the ball three times before safely taking the catch.But Amelia Kerr ensured it wasn’t all smooth sailing for England. The precociously talented 17-year-old took two wickets in two balls. Beaumont danced down the pitch to the legspinner and lofted the ball straight to long-on for the first but it was the next ball that had the crowd sitting up, Sarah Taylor unable to pick the googly that spun back and shattered the stumps.But it was always going to be a difficult target to defend in such conditions and Heather Knight and Nat Sciver completed the chase in the 18th over.Earlier, Bates and Sophie Devine ensured a sprightly start for New Zealand. Devine was especially destructive, smashing 31 off 18 balls, at one point scoring 16 off an Anya Shrubsole over that included a glorious straight drive for four and two sixes over deep square leg.But Knight brought Katherine Brunt back into the attack in the sixth over with immediate results, England taking three wickets and conceding just 16 runs off five overs. Devine was trapped lbw when Brunt’s good length ball nipped back in and struck her on the back pad and two balls later Katey Martin was also out lbw with a delivery that squared her up.Sophie Ecclestone, the series’ leading wicket-taker, claimed the scalp of Bates with an arm ball as Bates backed away to give herself some room but could only watch as the ball clattered into the stumps.Amy Satterthwaite was the third New Zealand batter to be trapped on the pads when she made a seemingly half-hearted attempt to paddle-sweep Hazell but was through the shot too early.Shrubsole struck with the next ball off the innings when she snared Maddy Green with a slower ball that looped to Knight at cover while Jess Watkin pulled Katie George straight down the throat of Amy Jones at deep square leg.The following ball Kerr survived a run out chance by the tiniest of margins. An outstanding return from Ecclestone was taken in front of the stumps by Sarah Taylor, who had removed her right glove. Without turning her head to look, Taylor broke the stumps with customary lightning speed.It wasn’t the only starring moment for Taylor, who has been outstanding with the gloves throughout the series. Keeping up to the stumps to Ecclestone, Taylor took a sharp catch when Kasperek attempted to cut a shorter ball.There was more impressive fielding by England when, on the penultimate ball of New Zealand’s innings, Sciver fired the ball in from deep midwicket to the bowler’s end, where Brunt showed her own sharp reaction in breaking the stumps to remove Hayley Jensen.After three straight losses to England New Zealand will now look to regroup before the two sides face each other in a three-match ODI series, starting on Saturday in Headingley.

The former West Indies captain, who joined the Kings XI Punjab squad on the eve of their clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad, could be a like-for-like replacement for the out-of-form Marcus Stoinis

The Preview by Deivarayan Muthu27-Apr-2017

Match facts

Kings XI Punjab v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Mohali, April 28, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
3:31

Bangar: Would like to see Henry play and test batsmen with the short ball

Form guide

Kings XI Punjab (third) : defeated Gujarat Lions by 26 runs, lost to Mumbai Indians by eight wickets, lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by five runs
Sunrisers Hyderabad (fifth) : lost to Rising Pune Supergiant by six wickets, defeated Delhi Daredevils by 15 runs, defeated Kings XI Punjab by five runs

Head-to-head

This season: Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 5 for 19 eclipsed Manan Vohra’s 50-ball 95 and helped Sunrisers defend 159 at home.
Overall: Sunrisers have an enviable 7-2 win record.

In the news

West Indies allrounder Darren Sammy, who missed the first three weeks of this IPL due to injury, joined the squad on the eve of the first match in Mohali this season. Sammy could be a like-for-like replacement for Marcus Stoinis who hasn’t fired with bat or ball. The Australian allrounder has limped to 17 runs off 24 balls in three innings, and has taken only two wickets at an economy rate of 10.47.Sunrisers fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman was set to join the Bangladesh squad on Tuesday for a preparatory camp ahead of the tri-series in Ireland, and the subsequent Champions Trophy, but will now be available until May 4.However, there is uncertainty over Yuvraj Singh’s availability. It remains to be seen if he has recovered from the flu, which forced him out of Sunrisers’ previous match against Rising Pune Supergiant last week.

The likely XIs

Kings XI Punjab: 1 Manan Vohra, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Glenn Maxwell (capt), 5 Marcus Stoinis/Darren Sammy, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Axar Patel, 8 KC Cariappa, 9 Mohit Sharma, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 T NatarajanSunrisers Hyderabad 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Moises Henriques, 5 Yuvraj Singh/Deepak Hooda, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Bipul Sharma, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Mohammed Siraj/Ashish Nehra, 11 Siddarth Kaul

Strategy punt

Since Sunrisers have two left-hand batsmen at the top, there is, perhaps, a case for Kings XI to open the bowling with an offspinner in Glenn Maxwell and attack the stumps. Mumbai Indians offspinner Harbhajan Singh maintained a stump-to-stump line with the new ball and kept Warner and Dhawan to only 22 runs off 18 balls while also dismissing Warner earlier in the league. More recently, Rising Pune Supergiant offspinner Washington Sundar stifled Sunrisers’ openers in the Powerplay.

Stats that matter

• Warner has excellent numbers against Kings XI in the IPL: 617 runs in 14 innings at a strike-rate of 143.15, including fifty-plus scores in his last five innings.
• Maxwell has scored 78% of his runs this season in boundaries. He has hit 150 of his 193 runs in fours and sixes.
• The average runs per wicket at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in IPL 2016 was 31.36, in seven matches, the third highest behind the MCA Stadium in Pune and the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
• Sunrisers have the second-lowest run rate – 7.38 – in the first six overs this season. They try to make up for the slow start by going big in the middle overs. Sunrisers’ run rate of 8.87 during this period is the second best in the league this season.
• Kings XI have been the worst team in the slog overs this season, leaking 11.62 an over and picking up only eight wickets. Sunrisers have fared much better in this phase, conceding 9.54 runs an over while picking up 19 wickets.
• Shikhar Dhawan continues to be troubled by left-arm quicks in the IPL. Four bowlers have dismissed him three or more times. Of the four, three – James Faulkner, Zaheer Khan and Mitchell Johnson – are left-arm seamers. Dhawan v T Natarajan, who has the best economy among Kings XI’s seamers, might be an interesting contest.

Vusi Sibanda’s first T20I fifty and Elton Chigumbura’s audacious finishing ensured Zimbabwe had enough runs to beat Hong Kong, although they will be disappointed in an all-round messy performance

The Report by Firdose Moonda08-Mar-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsVusi Sibanda’s maiden T20I fifty gave Zimbabwe a strong total to defend•International Cricket Council

Vusi Sibanda’s first T20I fifty and Elton Chigumbura’s audacious finishing ensured Zimbabwe had enough runs to beat Hong Kong, although they will be disappointed in an all-round messy performance. Three run-outs stunted what should have been a more imposing total, and loose bowling and fielding, and a gutsy Hong Kong chase could have easily pulled the carpet out from under them.Jamie Atkinson’s career-best 53 held Hong Kong’s innings together but he battled against a constantly rising required rate which ballooned from a shave under eight to more than 13 with five overs left. With Zimbabwe’s slower bowlers struggling for control, Hong Kong were in it until almost the end, when the task proved just a little too much.Zimbabwe could have made it a much more comprehensive result with a better batting performance. They were plagued by lack of partnerships and soft dismissals, which started with the casualness of their captain.Hamilton Masakadza gave himself an over to get his eye in and then unleashed two fours and a six off seamer Haseeb Amjad. His innings, however, met a farcical end when he failed to ground his bat or his foot after setting off for a quick single. Babar Hayat nailed a direct hit from mid-off to catch Hamilton short. Sibanda, who had faced only one of the first 14 balls, took over from where Hamilton left off. Richmond Mutumbami, however, holed out to long-on for a three-ball duck.On a sticky pitch, Hong Kong’s captain Tanwir Afzal sensed Zimbabwe’s hurry and slowed them down. Sean Williams was particularly fidgety and fell when he attempted a cut and played on. Sikandar Raza was run-out in the next over, after Sibanda insisted on a second run, and Zimbabwe were left in trouble at 62 for 4 in 7.5 overs.Sibanda, though, knuckled down and built a steady partnership with Malcolm Waller. They were cautious against seamer Aizaz Khan and Ryan Campbell whose contribution was crucial in pulling Zimbabwe back from a score that seemed to be heading towards 170. Hong Kong conceded just 38 runs in the next six overs before Sibanda slammed left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed down the ground to raise his fifty off 40 balls.Sibanda showed signs of cutting loose, but just as his partnership with Waller looked to take off, it ended. Waller gave a gift to sweeper cover, trying to clear the boundary, and then both Sibanda and Donald Tiripano were dismissed. Hong Kong took three wickets in eight balls to leave Zimbabwe wobbling again.Elton Chigumbura, however, teed off early. He hit the ball cleanly and down the ground, slapping 30 off 13 balls to take Zimbabwe past 150. Ultimately, Chigumbura’s cameo turned out to be the difference after Hong Kong put up an impressive fight.
Campbell and Atkinson started slowly in the chase against the discipline of Zimbabwe’s seamers. The slow-burn approach backfired when Campbell hit Tiripano straight to mid-on. Atkinson could have been removed an over later, on 10, had Sibanda not misjudged a catch at deep midwicket off Wellington Masakadza.Wellington then had some reward when he trapped Babar Hayat in front but his joy was short-lived. He was attacked by Mark Chapman, who also went after Raza. But the allrounder had the last laugh when Chapman hit him to deep midwicket with Sibanda redeeming himself.Atkinson, however, went on to bring up his maiden T20I half-century off 41 balls with a crunch down the ground off Tendai Chatara. Although Hong Kong needed 53 off the last four overs, they would have felt they had a chance.Zimbabwe brought back their seamers to finish things off. Tiripano rewarded his captain when he deceived Atkinson with a slower ball that he hit to long-on. But the threat from Hong Kong was only properly diffused in the penultimate over with a Chatara double-strike. His hat-trick ball was a beamer, which went for four, an indication of Zimbabwe’s sloppy performance. They sealed the win, but will be mindful of the need to tighten up to stay on top of the group.

Graham Onions, the England fast bowler, has signed a contract to play for the Dolphins franchise during South Africa’s domestic season

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2013Graham Onions, the England fast bowler, has signed a contract to play for the Dolphins franchise during South Africa’s domestic season, outside of his international commitments.Onions, who most recently played for England in the Edgbaston Test against West Indies last year, could yet be a part of the Ashes touring party to Australia. He has been a regular squad member since returning from a career-threatening back injury in 2011, although has found Test appearances hard to come by.”I am absolutely delighted to have signed for the Dolphins and am looking forward to play in South Africa which is renowned as having one of the strongest domestic set-ups in the world,” Onions said. “My availability will obviously depend upon England selections, but I hope to be able to contribute to a successful campaign for the Dolphins this year.”Onions is among the leading wicket-takers in Division One of the County Championship this season, despite having missed several games for Durham due to involvement with England and, more recently, a broken finger. He currently has 51 wickets at 19.65 from nine Championship appearances.He has signed to play in all three competitions for the Dolphins. The season begins on October 11 with the one-day tournament, with the first-class Sunfoil series then running from November 21 until early April. The Ram Slam T20 is played during a window in January and February. Should Onions be included in England’s Ashes squad, it would likely rule him out from early November until after the fifth Test, which begins on January 3.Dophins head coach, Lance Klusener, said: “The signing of Graham is a great addition to the Dolphins squad. Graham is an ultimate professional that will bring quality and experience.”

Uthura Rudras could not recover from early setbacks and four consecutive maidens at the start of their innings, as Uva Next chased down a mediocre target with four wickets and five balls to spare

The Report by Andrew Fernando19-Aug-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSachithra Senanayake picked up 3 for 16•Ron Gaunt/SPORTZPICS/SLPL

Uthura Rudras could not recover from early setbacks and four consecutive maidens at the start of their innings, as Uva Next chased down a mediocre target with four wickets and five balls to spare. Sachithra Senanayake took three wickets for 16 after Jacob Oram and Umar Gul had gagged the top order with the new ball, and though a late surge took the Rudras towards respectability, their total was never likely to be a winning one, even if they did cause a stutter in the chase towards the finish.The Rudras were effectively derailed inside the first ten minutes of the match, as they batted out four excruciating maidens, during which they lost both openers. Imran Farhat allowed Umar Gul to zip through his defences in the second over, before Brendan Taylor ran himself out in his haste to get himself and the team under way.Oram extracted considerable movement with his back-of-a-length seamers, but he was by no means as unplayable in his first spell as figures of 3-2-2-0 suggested. Gul was menacing too, as his good length deliveries routinely nipped back towards the stumps. After three consecutive losses, the Rudras batsmen seemed entirely sapped of the courage to defy good bowling. Even the first runs, when they eventually came, were off a dropped chance at slip. Had Thilina Kandamby not attempted to intercept Jehan Mubarak’s edge, which was heading straight to first slip, the Rudras could have been 0 for 3 in the fifth over.The Rudras recovered steadily from the disastrous start, but never threatened a challenging total. Mubarak made a cautious 28 as two more wickets tumbled at the other end, before Chamara Kapugedara added a touch more substance to the total with a 15-ball 20 during the middle overs. The Rudras were in danger of being dismissed for less than 100 when Farveez Maharoof fell in the 18th over to leave his side 92 for 7, but a belligerent 30 from Janaka Gunaratne lifted them beyond 120.In reply, Dilshan Munaweera set off quickly, blasting six fours and a giant six over midwicket in his 36 and along with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who made 20, laid the foundation to what should have been a straightforward chase. Uthura, however, fought back. Madhushanka Ekanayake sent down four miserly overs of seam for 13, before Chathura Peiris followed suit, picking up two wickets for 24 from his full quota. Uva Next batted themselves into a crisis, by losing 5 wickets for 33 in the middle overs, but Shoaib Malik eventually guided the chase home alongside Senanayake, who ended the match with a six off the first ball of the last over.