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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.

Three players scored half-centuries as Glamorgan just about shaded the opening day of their Division Two clash against Leicestershire at Colwyn Bay

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Aug-2011
Scorecard
Three players scored half-centuries as Glamorgan just about shaded the opening day of their Division Two clash against Leicestershire at Colwyn Bay. Gareth Rees, Jim Allenby and Mark Wallace all passed 50 but failed to go on and convert into centuries. By the close of play Glamorgan, who had won the toss, had reached 328 for 8 with Dean Cosker (21) and Robert Croft (12) still there in a ninth-wicket partnership worth 28.At the start of the day Alviro Petersen, who needed 38 more runs to be the first Glamorgan player to 1,000 first-class runs, was out in the third over, bowled by Matthew Hoggard through the gate.
It was Hoggard’s first Championship match for two months after recovering from an arm injury.Hoggard, who opened with a spell of nine overs, could have had a wicket three balls earlier when wicket-keeper Paul Dixey dived across first slip but could not cling on. Rees was on 1 at the time but batted impressively thereafter. Although he lost Will Bragg, bowled off his pads by Wayne White, he put on 71 with Stewart Walters before lunch.But in the penultimate over before lunch Walters was trapped lbw by offspinner Jigar Naik to one which kept very low. Rees reached his 50 with 10 fours and drove well. By lunch Glamorgan had reached 105 for 3.James, on his Championship debut, looked well organised but he lost Rees, who had added only one more run before edging Nathan Buck to Will Jefferson at second slip. Glamorgan lost wickets at regular intervals including James who was bowled attempting to slog sweep Naik. And 172 for 5 became 232 for 6 shortly after tea when Allenby, who scored a half century from 79 balls with eight fours, was well caught by James Taylor at short extra cover for 55.That ended a fine 60-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Wallace, who reached 50 from 96 balls and was also out for 55. James Harris, back from England Lions duty, batted well for 31 before he edged White straight to Matthew Boyce at first slip. That left Glamorgan on 300 for 8 before Cosker and Croft guided their team to the close.

Not since 1887 has a side made as little as 72 in their first innings and still gone on to win a Test, so it was no real surprise that history was averted at Edgbaston today

Andrew Miller at Edgbaston09-Aug-2010Not since 1887 has a side made as little as 72 in their first innings and still gone on to win a Test, so it was no real surprise that history was averted at Edgbaston today. That Mohammad Amir got the better of a woefully flat-footed Alastair Cook was hardly a shocker either, but nor was the serenity with which Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott coasted to their target of 118. For all the defiance that Pakistan showed with the bat on Sunday afternoon, their overall standards were too low for too long from them to lay any rightful claim to a miracle.And so for England the run of triumphs extends unabated. Six Test wins out of six is now the tally, which is two shy of their all-time record of eight in a row from May to December 2004, but for Strauss – who made his debut against New Zealand at Lord’s at the very start of that run six years ago – any sense of a gathering momentum remains tempered by the acceptance that all is not quite as rosy as the record-books would suggest.”Any time you win six in a row you are pretty happy with yourselves, but we are still conscious that there are plenty of areas where we need to improve so we are not getting too carried away,” said Strauss. “The first job is to make sure we win the series next week and then push on from there, because this was a timely reminder you do have to work hard for a Test match. If it had been a longer chase it would have been much harder.”The underlying implication from Strauss is that England allowed themselves to coast through the latter stages of this game – and if that is understandable after mugging one’s opponents inside 40 overs of the first day’s play, then their subsequent lapses were concerning nonetheless. At various stages of the game, England lost five wickets for eight runs to give Pakistan their first glimmer of a comeback, before Zulqarnain Haider and his colleagues burrowed so far into their psyche that Stuart Broad’s fit of pique was merely the most visible expression of a wider mood of frustration.England will not allow themselves to look too far beyond the current challenge just yet – certainly not while the series is still live – but if their players can be driven to distraction in an innings in which their opponents still end up making less than 300, it hardly bodes well for what will lie ahead in Australia this winter, when the 50 degree heat of Adelaide will send their temperatures soaring far more readily than a debutant No. 7 and his obdurate tail-end colleagues.”It doesn’t matter how good you are, you don’t have everything your own way all the time,” said Strauss. “That’s always the case. We got a double whammy because the ball didn’t swing and also the wicket died, so there was no real carry or menace with the ball, and that’s always going to be tough for the seamers. We were forced to work very hard for those final wickets, but thankfully we came out the other side.”They emerged with their victory, but Broad came out with a sizeable dent in his wallet after being fined 50% for his “inappropriate” shy at Haider – and it is perhaps somewhat fortunate for him that Pakistan’s captain Salman Butt made less of the issue than might have been the case for previous leaders of tours to England – most notably Inzamam-ul-Haq and Javed Miandad. The ugliness of the incident deserved censure, and given Broad’s tendency for sailing close to the wind, a one-match ban would not have been unwarranted, even though Strauss insisted his player had “matured”.”It didn’t look good and he understood that he overstepped the mark, and he has paid the price for it,” said Strauss. “What I would say is that, generally over the summer, he has been outstanding in terms of the way he has gone about his business, so let us just hope this is a one-off incident. It was an end-of-the-over chuck-the-ball-back when the batsman had gone down the wicket, and I don’t think he meant to hit him. He was just throwing it back to the keeper.”He is maturing and learning from his mistakes, and I am very comfortable in my own head that this will be a one-off situation,” added Strauss. “We have to remind ourselves all the time that there are lines there that you don’t want to overstep, and Stuart received a timely reminder of that. But you want aggressive characters in your dressing room and guys who want to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and have a bit of fight about them, so it’s always that managing of where the lines are, and making sure people don’t overstep those boundaries.”If discipline was one of England’s issues, then batting form was the other major talking point, with Cook taking his summer tally to a troublesome 100 runs in seven innings in another painful performance. Though Strauss inevitably backed his opening partner to come good, and expressed his desire to see him at the other end at The Oval in 10 days’ time, he could not deny that the lack of runs was starting to become a concern.”Opening the batting in Test cricket can be tough at times and when you’re down on confidence it can be exploited more than other areas in the batting line-up,” said Strauss. “Cooky has played some outstanding innings for England in the past, he’s a very valuable member of our side, and I have every confidence he will come back and play some valuable innings in the near future. He’s a top-quality opening bat, and four Tests don’t change that.”Of far greater cheer was the performance of Trott, whose refusal to rush at any stage of the contest enabled him to become the only player to reach fifty in each innings. His mannerisms remain peculiar, but the end result is unequivocal, and his twin performance in this match took his career runs tally to 923 in 11 matches, at the substantial average of 51.27. Another decent showing at The Oval next week, and he could well achieve 1000 runs inside his first year of Test cricket.”The vast majority of the innings I’ve seen him play for England, he’s had that calm unflustered look to him, and it’s immensely reassuring to see your No. 3 batsman not get ruffled or flustered, and not get particularly concerned about how quickly he’s scoring,” said Strauss. “He’s played some really valuable knocks for us in this series in these two Tests, and I’m really happy with the way he’s coming along.”

Kate Cross to captain squad featuring several uncapped players for white-ball series in Ireland

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Aug-20243:33

Lewis: We’re tracking well for World Cup

England have named Freya Kemp and Bess Heath in their 15-player squad for the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. Danielle Gibson is also selected for her first World Cup, to be played in the UAE in October, but there was no room was fast bowler Lauren Filer.Allrounder Kemp and back-up wicketkeeper Heath will also take part in next month’s white-ball trip to Ireland, where Kate Cross will captain a team otherwise missing England’s World Cup players. The three ODIs and two T20Is could see a number of debutants, with seven uncapped players across both squads.England’s planning for the T20 World Cup has been meticulous over the last 18 months and the group selected contained few surprises, bar the omission of Filer. Sophia Dunkley won a recall during the summer and kept her spot above Tammy Beaumont, who captained Welsh Fire to the final of the Hundred and is selected in both squads to face Ireland.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Linsey Smith, who returned to the T20I side for the first time since 2019 earlier this year, is included as the back-up spinner to the trio of Sophie Ecclestone, Charlie Dean and Sarah Glenn. Meanwhile, the flexibility offered by Kemp, who recently returned to bowling after injury, and Gibson as seam-bowling allrounders means England opted against taking the extra pace of Filer – although she will join the team in their training camp in Abu Dhabi before the tournament.Mahika Gaur, the teenaged left-arm seamer who was unable to push harder for World Cup selection due to a combination of injury and school commitments, is included in the T20I group to tour Ireland.Related

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The Women’s T20 World Cup had been due to be staged in Bangladesh but the ICC took the decision to move the tournament last week after a period of civil unrest in the country.”Selecting teams and squads with this group of players has become incredibly tricky and tough,” England’s head coach, Jon Lewis, said. “There are players who have been really unfortunate to miss out and they’ll be a big part of what we do with England Cricket in the future.”I feel the 15 players selected give us a really well balanced squad in terms of experience, youth and most importantly the skills to cope and excel in the conditions we feel we will be faced with in the UAE.”England’s captain, Heather Knight, added: “World Cups are always special events to be involved in as a player and I’m really excited by the squad we have selected to take over to the UAE. It’s an honour to lead the team into another World Cup. We’re looking forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Cross had conceded that she was unlikely to force her way into England’s World Cup thinking and will instead captain England for the first time after a career in which she has won 91 caps across formats.She will be joined in the party for Ireland by Beaumont, Issy Wong and Mady Villiers, who last featured for England in 2021. Georgia Adams, Hannah Baker, Georgia Davis, Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Charis Pavely, Paige Scholfield and Seren Smale could all win their first caps.They will be coached by Jon Lewis – the former Durham batter, rather than the Gloucestershire seamer – who currently looks after the England A team, assisted by Courtney Winfield-Hill and Chris Liddle.England Women’s T20 World Cup squad: Heather Knight (capt), Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Freya Kemp, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Linsey Smith, Danni WyattEngland Women’s ODI squad to tour Ireland: Kate Cross (capt), Hollie Armitage, Hannah Baker, Tammy Beaumont, Georgia Davis, Lauren Filer, Bess Heath, Freya Kemp, Emma Lamb, Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Paige Scholfield, Bryony Smith, Mady Villiers, Issy WongEngland Women’s T20I squad to tour Ireland: Kate Cross (capt), Georgia Adams, Hollie Armitage, Hannah Baker, Tammy Beaumont, Mahika Gaur, Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Charis Pavely, Paige Scholfield, Seren Smale, Bryony Smith, Mady Villiers, Issy Wong

The prolific pair made just 35 between them at Edgbaston, but Australia still came out on top

Andrew McGlashan22-Jun-2023Most of Australia’s players will welcome the few days of downtime they have after their stirring Edgbaston victory before starting preparations for Lord’s, but that may not be the case for Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith.Australia’s two-wicket win in the first Test was notable for being achieved without much contribution from the prolific pair as they made 35 runs between them. That’s the fewest they have put together when they have both batted twice and it remains the case even when one of them hasn’t.It is potentially a daunting prospect for England who will rue letting a match slip away when they had kept Labuschagne and Smith quiet, and maybe also for the members of Australia’s coaching staff who will be feeding them balls in the nets when training does resume in London at the weekend.Related

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“It’s very rare that Marn and Smudge miss out in the same Test match,” head coach Andrew McDonald said. “It’s an appetising thought.”They will be no doubt a craving for more net sessions from Marn and Smudge. They’re disappointed they missed out in this game, but I think any time the Australian cricket team can win without those two performing at high level is always a positive. We’ve got some areas we can improve, there’s some growth within the team and there’s two obvious ones.”Smith, who scored 774 runs in the 2019 series, was lbw to Ben Stokes in the first innings, a decision that appeared to surprise him, then edged behind off Stuart Broad in the second after being given a challenging time late on the fourth day.However, perhaps most intriguing was Labuschagne’s Test. He edged Broad’s ‘new’ outswinger in the first innings as he pushed well away from his body, collecting a first golden duck of his career, then after briefly attacking Moeen Ali with a pair of reverse sweeps in the second he again nicked Broad behind.The twin low scores mean Labuschagne, who lost his No. 1 Test ranking to Joe Root on Wednesday, has two half-centuries in his last 17 Test innings since filling his boots against West Indies in the previous home summer, and one of those was on the dead final day in Ahmedabad. It is far from being a significant concern, and to put things into context his average is down from 60.82 to 55.14, but his run-scoring feats make it noticeable.Marnus Labuschagne fell for a first-ball duck in the first innings at Edgbaston•Getty Images

There is also a differential emerging between his home and away averages with the latter now 37.13 (one century), albeit he has played some of his away Tests on difficult pitches, compared to 70.50 in Australia (nine hundreds).It is not that Labuschagne lacks experience in English conditions. He has played here extensively and averages 55.52 for Glamorgan from 26 County Championship appearances, while he made four half-centuries in the 2019 Ashes after being Smith’s concussion sub at Lord’s.His contest with Broad now looms as one of the fascinating duels of this series. Given the amount of work he puts into his batting, and his hunger for training, he will no doubt leave no stone unturned to try and find a response for the second Test while the same applies to Smith, although he came into Edgbaston on the back of a superb 121 against India.Usman Khawaja, the player of the match in Birmingham where he batted for more than 13 hours in making 141 and 67, was of little doubt over how the pair would respond.”I genuinely just expect [Labuschagne] to score a hundred next game,” he said. “We had potentially our two best batters not score runs this game. It’s very unlikely, doesn’t happen very often. In my opinion, the greatest batter of my era in Test cricket, Steve Smith, not very often he misses out twice. We’ve still got four Ashes Tests. Might be a good thing for us, they have some runs in the bank.”The coaching staff will be there to offer advice, but McDonald expects they’ll work out their own solutions.”I think there’s always a curiosity to get better, so we’re not going to stall that in any way,” he said. “They’ll come up with different plans, different movements.”They’ve seen what England are going to do and how they’re going to attack them, and they’re probably two of the greatest problem-solvers we’ve had over a period of time so you would expect them to go back to the drawing board.”[Batting coach] Michael Di Venuto will be part of that process. They’ll come out pretty clear what they need to do next innings. But there’s no issue there.”After two days off, Australia will begin their preparation for Lord’s on Saturday. That is expected to largely be a training session for those who didn’t play at Edgbaston, but it would be no surprise if Labuschagne and Smith can’t resist an extra hit.

Worcestershire duo dig in after Notts looked poised for quick victory as Broad chimes in with bat and ball

David Hopps29-Apr-2022It says a lot for the calibre of Ed Barnard’s third Worcestershire hundred that for the first time this season Stuart Broad decided he must try to curb a growing rebellion and really slipped himself.He was no longer feeling his way into the season, drawing on years of experience in his meticulous preparation for a potential England recall, he was pumping in with the old ball, a respected adversary in his sights, seeking to fashion a Nottinghamshire victory with as much energy as he could muster. Barnard made him forget the future and brought him into the present.Broad in his veteran phase is not as quick as he was. Allegedly. His speeds varied between 76 and 81mph all day, according to the ECB speed guns that are the latest impressive enhancement to the excellent live county feeds. A suggestion is taking hold, however, that the speeds are a little on the slow side, a view perhaps approved by ageing fast bowlers. Intriguingly, this is the opposite to the traditional whispers about international cricket where a bit of ramping up has occasionally been suspected. Perish the thought that according to official ECB figures England could go into the New Zealand Test series with the most celebrated but also the slowest new-ball attack in Test cricket.But he was at the top of the range (whatever that range was), with some nasty bounce to boot, as Barnard, for so long regarded as a bowling allrounder, battled through his final assault with a century beckoning and earned the right to be regarded as equally proficient with bat and ball.He was 98 when Nottinghamshire took the second new ball with four overs remaining – it can be safely assumed that bit had not quite gone according to plan. But he worked Luke Fletcher’s first delivery to third man, comfortably took on Haseeb Hameed’s throw, and secured a just reward.It fell to Broad to bowl the final over of the day as Trent Bridge was bathed in evening sunshine. But Barnard and Ben Cox, whose first half-century of the season had contributed to an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 125 in 47 overs, stood firm. They took a few blows and batted with considerable discipline. There are football fans around, apparently, who hope to see Notts wrap up victory before Nottingham Forest continue their promotion push against Swansea just across the road at three o’clock but it feels a little optimistic.Related

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“Ed Barnard, just had nerves of steel, really,” said Cox, whose career suggests he knows a bit about such things. “He was so calm at the crease. Today was tough against a high-class attack on what certainly had been a favourable wicket on the first day – albeit one that had changed a bit.”A match that looked likely at one stage to be claimed by Nottinghamshire within two days remains alive with Worcestershire holding a 118-run lead with five wickets remaining. The Lincoln Green stripes of the first day have long gone and an easing surface still makes Nottinghamshire strong favourites, but balls have occasionally gone through the top and Barnard’s application has given his side hope.Barnard’s career progress is a two-finger salute to those who advocate the cutting of 18 professional counties for a supposed future of The Best v The Best, primarily based upon areas of high population.His background – Shrewsbury School and England U19s – suggests that he would have made the grade in a slimmed-down system, but it is unlikely that he would have been the same rounded cricketer he now is. His batting talents have progressed more slowly than his bowling – he was not particularly prolific with the bat at junior level – but Worcestershire have nurtured those talents over many seasons and now, at 26, have given him the chance to make the grade at No. 6.His maiden hundred only came last season, in a bore draw against Essex at Chelmsford, although he was less boring than some. A second century followed against Warwickshire at New Road in another run-fest. This time the demands were more onerous. When he came to the crease, Worcestershire were still 75 in arrears, having lost four for 32 in 12 overs.Fletcher had uprooted Ed Pollock’s middle stump second ball with a wonderful delivery that left the left-hander from around the wicket before Jake Libby drove with uncharacteristic looseness to be caught at backward point driving loosely. Broad produced bounce and movement to remove Azhar Ali in the same region. Dane Paterson added Brett D’Oliveira, who lobbed into the leg-side.The batter who really catches the eye in this Worcestershire side is Jack Haynes, son of the former Worcestershire allrounder, Gavin. With respect, he looks as if he has the potential to outdo his father by a considerable margin, but looks can deceive and he is still awaiting his first half-century of the season. Broad, back for a third spell in mid-afternoon, old-manned him by setting him up for a hook, on 49, which he obligingly yanked straight to Ben Duckett at deep square.There were runs, too, for Broad, at the start of the day, a hit-about-him innings that included two sixes against Charlie Morris as Worcestershire, who must have been watching too many Test match highlights, overdid the short stuff on a pitch still offering bowlers assistance by traditional means. Broad’s unbeaten 45 from 27 deliveries represented his best score in county cricket for five years, but the only stats that England will be studying will be 18-3-49-2… with the chance of a five-for in the morning.

He also says the impacts of Covid-19 on the schedule will make it very tough to play all cricket

Daniel Brettig23-Nov-20200:57

Will see people batting differently with new rules – Stoinis

Dilemmas facing cricket administrators in Australia and around the world have been underlined by David Warner’s confirmation that he won’t take part in the BBL for the remainder of his international career, while also expressing doubts about any player with a family committing to another 12 months of bio-secure bubbles and quarantines in the time of Covid-19.When the BBL began, Warner was touted as one of its major selling points, but after his international career took off in that same season, he has been entirely absent from the tournament for the past seven years. Rather than prevaricating about the issue, Warner showed welcome frankness in declaring he would not take part in the event so long as he is playing for Australia, instead valuing some rare summer days with his wife Candice and their three children amidst an otherwise unrelenting schedule.At the same time, Warner expressed the view that new rule changes to the BBL for its 10th season were tinkering at the edges of the main problem for the league, which revolved largely around its inability to get the best players taking part more often.ALSO READ: Adam Voges – Fourteen-game BBL season ‘too long’“I think the most important thing is if you can get the Australian players and the best international players coming out to play in that, that would probably fix that sort of issue with what they’re trying to tinker with the rules,” Warner said. “The rules that have come out, I understand the reasoning why they’re bringing it out. Do we need to tinker with it? Personally I don’t think we do, I think it’s just about getting the right people to come out and play, the right access to players to play, the Australian contracted players.”It’s difficult for us players to play all three forms, even if there is a window, you’ve got to have that break, because you’re going full tilt into summer as well, there’s no off-season for us. Personally I’ve got three kids at home and a wife that I owe my time to as well. So playing all three forms that’s very difficult to be able to do that, and I don’t think I’ll play while I’m playing for Australia still – that’s honestly speaking.David Warner swings leg side•Getty Images

“Going back to those rules, they’ve been put in place for a reason to create a bit more engagement. When you lose three wickets in Powerplays, which happened quite significantly the last couple of years, the game’s pretty much dead, especially when you’re chasing 200. So if you can sort of have that extra Powerplay at the end, that sub, vice versa, it can make a difference – we’ll have to wait and see. But first and foremost, I think it’s getting the best players to play, and at this present time in the scheduling, it’s very difficult to do that.”Australia’s senior fast bowler Mitchell Starc has already expressed doubts about the sustainability of the current merry-go-round of quarantine periods and bubbles in which players are confined to hotels without access to family and then the repeat of the cycle for another series. While this summer’s arrangements will be somewhat less stringent in Australia due to low Covid-19 case numbers, the prospect of further restrictions related to travel to South Africa, England and the Caribbean in 2021 have left Warner and others asking plenty of questions.”To answer your question honestly, it’s going to be very difficult to be able to do that,” Warner said. “This last six months has been quite challenging in itself, getting used to these bubbles and trying to get used to not having the family with me. They’re things that each player has different circumstances and even Starcy’s a unique one with his wife playing as well. We’re just not going to get that time to see our family.”I wouldn’t ever put them in that situation where they have to do 14 days quarantine at home. The next 12 months is very difficult when you look at the calendar, there’s going to be definitely times where you can come home and have time with your family, but yet again you’ve got that 14 days that’s in place that you’re going to have to do beforehand, so that almost puts it out of the conversation.David Warner with his daughters Indi Rae and Ivy Mae at Adelaide Oval•Getty Images

“That’s going to be something we’re going to have to speak to the coaches and selectors about, because each individual’s going to have to put their hand up and be brave and say it’s going to be very difficult.”In terms of the longer term calendar, Warner said Australia’s players have already been speaking for some time about a differing format focus depending on the proximity of World Cups. Therefore, the white-ball squad for the current series against India has something more of a T20 focus given the next T20 World Cups are scheduled for 2021 and 2022, before the next ODI edition of the global event is not until 2023.”That’s something that we have identified as players and coaching staff already,” Warner said. “I think you look at our one-day and T20 team, what we are picking is pretty relevant to what we’re going to face with the next couple of World Cups. For us it’s about if we’re going to take time off, it will be between those series. Obviously the preference is playing those World Cups and making sure we’re gearing up in the right way to perform in those tournaments.”

Glamorgan bowled out for sub-par 136 before Eskinazi and Malan guide comfortable chase

ECB Reporters Network26-Jul-2019A Toby Roland-Jones hat-trick – the second inflicted on Glamorgan in successive games – followed by a Stevie Eskinazi half-century, guided second-placed Middlesex to an eight wicket win over bottom side Glamorgan in the Vitality Blast at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff.Glamorgan, fresh from being dismissed for 44 by Surrey at The Oval last night, got off to the worst possible start after being put in to bat, when Fakhar Zaman, on his home debut, was caught at short fine leg off Tom Helm from the final delivery of the first over.David Lloyd, alongside captain Colin Ingram, offered some short-term resistance before the latter skied one into the off-side off Roland-Jones in the fifth over, before Glamorgan ended the Powerplay on 31 for 2.Billy Root played with urgency from the outset, with an array of attacking strokes against legspinner Nathan Sowter, but he was undone on the drive, as he found Steven Finn at mid-off. Lloyd then drove to long-off in the 12th over, leaving Glamorgan in some trouble at 75 for 4, worsened when Owen Morgan played a soft pull to Mujeeb Ur Rahman, leaving them 89 for 5 in the 15th over.Dan Douthwaite and Chris Cooke salvaged some respectability, with Cooke bludgeoning Helm for a six over cow corner and two fours, one back past the bowler and the other through the covers. But he played aggressively once too often and was caught at long-on off Finn in the 18th over at 120.From there, Glamorgan were dismissed for 136 with three balls of the innings remaining. They lost their seventh wicket in the penultimate over, when Graham Wagg skied to Finn off Helm. A Roland-Jones hat-trick rounded off the innings, as debutant Dan Lincoln took two impressive catches and substitute James Harris took the other.Chasing the relatively modest total of 137, Middlesex were given a let-off in the final over of the Powerplay, when Eskinazi was dropped on the midwicket boundary by Fakhar, as they reached 50 without loss, needing just 87 more runs to win.Eskinazi reached his half-century from 28 deliveries, including seven fours and two sixes, before he was caught behind off Douthwaite at the end of the ninth over, the score having reached 75.Three overs later, Middlesex, on 88, lost only their second wicket when Lincoln found Lukas Carey at fine leg off Marchant de Lange for 8, but they only required another 49 to win from 8.4 overs. Max Holden, dropped by Root on 17, and Dawid Malan saw the visitors to a comfortable victory as some sloppy fielding kicked in for a deflated Glamorgan side, who are still chasing their first win of the competition.

Joe Denly had a night to remember as he scored a hundred and then took a hat-trick as Kent Spitfires beat Surrey by six runs

ECB Reporters Network and ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jul-2018
ScorecardJoe Denly had a night to remember as he scored a hundred and then took a hat-trick as Kent Spitfires beat Surrey by six runs in their Vitality Blast opener at the Kia Oval.In front of a crowd of 23,291 Denly made 102 from 63 balls, helping the Spitfires to 173 for 6 after they had won the toss.Surrey were on course for a successful chase when they reached 135 for 3 in the 13th over with Ben Foakes going well before Denly, bowling his occasional leg breaks, made another decisive contribution. Rikki Clarke was stumped coming down the track, Jamie Smith lbw padding up and Matt Pillans caught by wicketkeeper Sam Billings off a top-edge into the leg side.”I may have taken a hat-trick in the garden before but not out in the middle,” Denly said. “And if I’m honest it was a naughty hat-trick ball, caught down the leg side, but I’ll take it because it got us back in the game. As a specialist batsman the century probably means more to me but I’ll take the hat-trick – it was a very nice moment.”Research by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians revealed that Denly duly became the first player in List A 50-over or T20 cricket to score a hundred and take a hat-trick in the same match. There were three previous instances of 50 and a hat-trick in T20, and seven in List A.

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Kent’s victory was far from certain. Freddie van den Bergh and Morne Morkel departed cheaply to leave Surrey needing 18 off 16 balls but Foakes took a precious boundary off Carlos Brathwaite in the 19th over to get the equation down to nine off 12 balls with two wickets in hand.However, he could only watch at the other end as New Zealander Adam Milne sealed victory by yorking Gareth Batty and having Jade Dernbach caught behind off successive balls. Surrey were bowled out for 167 with seven balls unused and Foakes was left stranded on 75 not out.It was quite a night for Denly, who passed 4,500 T20 runs during an innings where he seldom took any risks, ruthlessly punishing anything short or wide instead.His stand of 104 off 66 balls with Heino Kuhn for the second wicket laid the foundations for Kent’s formidable total.The Spitfires looked on course for more than 200 when Denly was in full flow but they were pegged back by Pillans, who finished with 3 for 22 including Denly, who drove wearily to long on in the final over after striking 12 fours and two sixes.Pillans also picked up debutant Brathwaite, who was brilliantly caught by the diving Smith, and skipper Billings (14). Surrey skipper Dernbach, who had removed Daniel Bell-Drummond for a second-ball duck in the first over, returned to pick up Alex Blake as he finished with 2 for 32.Surrey’s reply began well. Foakes and opener Rory Burns needed just 40 balls as they thrashed 85 for the second wicket after the early loss of Will Jacks. Seamer Ivan Thomas came in for particular punishment as his two overs disappeared for 37 runs.Even when Burns (39) lost his leg stump trying to work Callum Haggett down the leg side and Ollie Pope fell cheaply Surrey needed 65 from 64 balls with six wickets in hand. Denly, though, had other ideas and Surrey, who were without five internationals including their Australian pair Aaron Finch and Nic Maddinson, were left to reflect on a second successive defeat.