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James Bracey displayed the temperament, as well as the talent, of a future England player as Gloucestershire wrapped up an eight-wicket LV=County Championship win over Somerset at Taunton.The 23-year-old left-hander added an ice-cool 83 not out to his first-innings century and shared a match-clinching second-wicket stand of 79 with Kraigg Brathwaite to help his side to a comprehensive victory.Brathwaite marked his Gloucestershire debut with a solid 36 and together the pair stifled the much-vaunted home seam attack.The visitors reached their target of 153 off 41.1 overs just before lunch, with Tom Lace uneaten on 20, and took 22 points, to Somerset’s six.Gloucestershire began the day on 28 for 1, needing 125 for victory, with nine wickets in hand, and would have been heartened by the clear blue skies over the Cooper Associates County Ground.Bracey had shown his mettle the previous evening when taming a fired-up Craig Overton and was soon in control again as Somerset sought the early wickets that might create a contest.The home side were hoping a couple of breakthroughs in the opening overs would create nerves in the Gloucestershire dressing room. But the pitch only served to show what a poor effort Somerset’s second-innings score of 149 had been.While Overton and Lewis Gregory beat the bat on occasions, Bracey and Brathwaite were soon confident enough to play their shots.The West Indies captain struck four boundaries in his 62-ball innings before aiming for a fifth off a wide ball from Marchant de Lange and getting an inside edge onto his middle stump.By then, Gloucestershire only required 64 runs. But de Lange, boosted by the wicket, summoned pace and bounce to test new batsman Lace.Bracey kept the momentum of the innings going with a swept four off Jack Leach, who found little assistance in the surface for his left-arm spin, and went to his fifty off 84 balls, with eight boundaries.There was even a reverse-swept four off Leach as Bracey and Gloucestershire closed in rapidly on their target. A more orthodox and delicate sweep off the England spinner brought another boundary and Bracey was by now in total command.Somerset turned to the wholehearted Overton for one last throw of the dice. He beat Bracey’s outside edge, but to no avail.It was Gloucestershire’s first Championship win at Taunton for 28 years and the winning runs, a Bracey boundary off Leach, sparked jubilant celebrations. It was the 13th four of his 122-ball innings.For Somerset, it was a first defeat in red ball cricket at their home ground since 2017.

India batter Shafali Verma wants to use her maiden Test and ODI call-ups for the upcoming tour of England to improve her decision-making skills around playing and leaving deliveries as well maximising the length of her innings.”[India] Women are getting to play their first Test in seven years. I have been given the chance [to be part of the Test squad], so my aim would be to learn from that Test match as much as I can about choosing the right balls to play, staying on in the middle as long as possible,” Verma told ESPNcricinfo. “All formats – ODIs, T20Is, and Tests – have different experiences and lessons to offer, so I would be looking forward to learning from both the ODI and Test formats.”Related

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Verma, the youngest Indian woman to play T20I cricket and the youngest Indian to make an international half-century, made her India debut in September 2019. The 17-year old has since established herself as one of the most fearless strikers going around on the international circuit, playing in 22 T20Is. Her brisk starts and a tally of 163 runs in the opening position was pivotal to India’s run to the T20 World Cup final last year in Australia.Her inclusion in the Test and ODI squads also comes at a crucial juncture. India are due to play their first Test since 2014, as part of a multi-format, seven-match assignment against hosts England starting June 16. Besides, with the rescheduled ODI World Cup slated for March-April next year in New Zealand, her quick-hitting abilities could inject momentum in the run-scoring of India’s 50-over unit, an aspect they were found especially wanting in during the 4-1 ODI series loss to South Africa at home in March.

England vs India fixtures

• June 16-19 One-off Test, Bristol

• June 27 1st ODI, Bristol

• June 30 2nd ODI, Taunton (D/N)

• July 3 3rd ODI, Worcester

• July 9 1st T20I, Northampton (D/N)

• July 11 2nd T20I, Hove

• July 15 3rd T20I, Chelmsford (D/N)

Verma, who admits her favourite player in Tests is Australia’s Steven Smith, was hopeful that should her maiden call-ups in the longer formats materialise into a place in the starting XI in the one-off Test or the three-match ODI series, lessons on evolving into a better batter would be there for the taking.”Whenever I get a chance [call-up] like this, I look out for opportunities to play matches so that I am able to prove myself and my style of play and go on to build a good career for myself,” Verma said. “Everyone feels good after getting their maiden call-ups, and I felt good, too. My goal [in the upcoming tour of England] would be to make sure I score well for my team.”

Yorkshire 191 for 5 (Brook 83*, Thompson 66*, Pennington 4-24) beat Worcestershire 179 for 5 (Wessels 77, Cox 61*) by 12 runsSometimes it is not just about talent, it is about desire. Rarely has that been more apparent than in the way that the up-and-coming Yorkshire pair of Jordan Thompson and Harry Brook transformed a calamitous position to claim victory on an improbable record-breaking night in the Vitality Blast.Their stand of 141 in 56 balls was the highest sixth-wicket partnership in the history of the Blast and the second highest-ever in the world for that wicket, dwarfed only by the 161 shared by Andre Russell and Kennar Lewis for Jamaica Tallawahs against Trinbago Knight Riders in Port of Spain three years ago.But it was not just about an extraordinary statistic, it was about the message it conveyed. That Thompson and Brook are players brimming with promise is known throughout Yorkshire, to some extent beyond. But this was the night they came of age and, as they did, they questioned some enfeebled batting that had gone before.”Everything seemed in slow motion,” said Thompson, thereby taking the opposite view to those of us who just got to watch it and thought everything felt speeded up.T20 matches are, by their nature, unstable, but the pair’s refusal to yield was quite something. When Thompson joined Brook, they were 50 for 5 after 10.5 overs and that fifty had been met with derisive cheers. Dillon Pennington, strong and purposeful, had taken four wickets in his first eight balls for Worcestershire, including a triple-wicket maiden.Worcestershire have figured in some insipid Powerplays on successive nights. On Tuesday, they scraped 20 for 4 against Notts, only posted 86 for 8 and lost in 6.2 overs. This time it was they who restricted Yorkshire to 18 for 4, but they still took another beating.Yorkshire were not just without their England trio of Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan and David Wiley, they lacked Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who had fractured a finger keeping wicket, and Will Fraine, who had strained his side while range-hitting in practice 24 hours before the game. In the way Yorkshire started their innings, it felt as if there was an underlying sense of pessimism.From there, Brook smashed 83 not out off 54 balls and Thompson 66 from 28, career-best scores for players who only had one T20 half-century each at start of play. They rallied Yorkshire to 191 for 5, and when Worcestershire fell 12 runs short, a fifth victory in seven took them to the top of North Group. Unless other top-order batters capture their mood, they may need their slender points cushion ahead of fifth place, although a long tail will help.Related

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Pennington removed Adam Lyth, Jonny Tattersall and Gary Ballance in his first over – a triple-wicket maiden in the third of the match – and then trapped Joe Root lbw for 1 in his next. Root fell to a decent inswinger, but the rest lacked conviction: Lyth (his rampant start to the season a distant memory) slicing to third man; Tattersall, playing his first game since being loaned out to Gloucestershire, dragging a pull to short midwicket when a cut shot would have been a better option; and Ballance, strangely ineffectual in T20 and often overlooked as a result, pulling his third ball to deep square leg.Brook,initially looking slight and wan, might easily have joined them. He was dropped on 2 by Riki Wessels at midwicket and had only 6 from 19 balls when he came to life and gratefully struck an innings-saving half volley from Barnard over long off for six.It was when he was joined by Thompson, however, that belief flooded into Yorkshire’s batting. Brook’s ability can need enticing out at times, but Thompson’s capability flares on the surface for all to see. His head might have lifted now and then, and maybe the ball did not always fly exactly where he planned, but he relished the fight and his backswing brooked no argument.They peppered the ball to all parts, a sense of desperation insisting they just played by instinct. Thompson took 17 from five balls from Pennington, 21 coming from his last over. Every Worcestershire bowler was emphatically broken in turn and 28 came from the last from Charlie Morris, the innings ending when Ish Sodhi, who was surprisingly limited to two overs, dived over one at extra cover.Worcestershire’s innings possessed far more sanity, but it was not a night when sanity prevailed. Wessels tried his best to atone for the earlier catching error with a season’s-best 77 in all competitions. From 50 for 3 in the eighth over, he shared 68 in seven overs with captain Ben Cox, but when he was yorked by Matthew Fisher at 118 for 4 in the 15th, the game titled towards Yorkshire.Lockie Ferguson leaked 20 from the penultimate over, leaving Fisher to defend 23 from the last, and, although Cox finished 61 not out, he did so comfortably enough. “I think we had a pretty good game,” said Pennington, loyally, understandably not wanting his own wonderful night to be ruined.

Surrey 167 for 5 (Roy 64) beat Glamorgan 166 for 8 (Labuschagne 74, Moriarty 3-26) by five wicketsBowlers, beware: Jason Roy has got his mojo back. Surrey’s margin of victory at the Kia Oval should have been much bigger than five wickets as they won their third game out of three in the Vitality Blast, but a middle-order wobble obscured the fact Roy had killed the game as a contest inside four overs of the chase; Glamorgan, who once boasted a proud record of six T20 wins in a row at this ground, had Marnus Labuschagne’s third consecutive fifty to thank for sparing their blushes.Roy’s personality does not lend itself to bio-bubbles and “secure team environments” and his form has suffered at times over the last 12 months, with a rare lean patch in ODIs and scratchy form in both the Big Bash and England’s T20I series in India and South Africa. Last week, he started the Blast with an ugly innings of 45 off 42 at Lord’s, swinging rustily and being outscored by a ratio of five-to-two by Will Jacks, then thrashed a cameo of 30 off 14 at Taunton.But here, in front of 4000 or so supporters, he scoffed at Glamorgan’s plan to start with spin against him in the Powerplay, racing to 41 off 18 balls. “I always look for small progressions,” he said afterwards. “Lord’s was very scratchy and I didn’t have that rhythm, hitting a lot of fielders and just getting a bit frustrated. At Taunton I had a bit of fun after a four-and-a-half-hour journey – I thought ‘why not?’ But tonight, it was a lot better.”Roy had dumped the first ball he faced straight back over Prem Sisodiya’s head for four and the second over of the chase demonstrated his dominance over bowlers at this level. Andrew Salter, the offspinner, went full and straight to start with, so Roy cleared his front leg and smeared him over mid-off. Roy realised the second would be shorter, so rocked back and slapped a cut through point with a powerful snap of the wrists. Salter had nowhere to go, and went full again; Roy lined him up, and hammered him straight back over his head.He was quieter against Glamorgan’s seamers, but still brought up a 28-ball half-century off the final ball of the Powerplay. When Labuschagne was introduced, Roy swept his first ball hard for four, and belted his third over midwicket; the only surprise came in Labuschagne’s second over, when he miscued a skier to backward point via a thick top-edge.Marnus Labuschagne made his third consecutive fifty•Getty Images

“Someone has to get you out at some stage, don’t they?” Roy said of Glamorgan’s ploy to bowl spin at him up front, which has become a consistent plan against England in T20Is. “Sometimes it happens to be a left-arm spinner. A leggie got me out tonight eventually, didn’t they? So I’m sure someone will have something to write about. As a player, it gives you something to work on, which is always nice.”Roy’s innings took the equation from 167 off 120 balls to 79 off 71 by the time he was dismissed, effectively sealing the game despite their minor stumble. Sam Curran and Jamie Overton fell in successive overs after Roy’s dismissal before Laurie Evans drilled Sisodiya straight to long-off, but Jamie Smith’s cool-headed 35 not out saw them across the line with 10 balls to spare.Roy will play two more games for Surrey, at home against Sussex and Hampshire on Thursday and Friday, before he links up with England on Saturday ahead of their white-ball summer, which comprises six ODIs and six T20Is, three each against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.”You always go back to square one, no matter how many runs you’ve scored,” he said. “Before every series you go back to the drawing board and get yourself back to basics and go from there – you certainly don’t want to think that you’re going to score runs every game, because unfortunately that’s not the way the game works. But it’s obviously very nice to have these runs behind me – it makes it a lot easier.”[Last year] was a huge experience and a massive learning curve. I’ve come through the other side a lot better for it. It was a very tough year on and off the field so it was about keeping my head down and making sure I stay consistent with my training and back myself, knowing that eventually it would come right. Am I in a good headspace now? Absolutely.”For Glamorgan, Labuschagne had been the glue holding the innings together for the third game in a row after Nick Selman’s leg-side pick-ups had got them to 55 for 1 inside six overs. Surrey exploited match-ups to their advantage, with Gareth Batty and Dan Moriarty encouraging batters to hit towards the long boundary and Glamorgan duly obliging.Labuschagne had stated his desire to use the Blast as a chance to pitch his case for inclusion in Australia’s T20 World Cup squad at the start of the season and his early efforts have been persuasive: 93 not out, 59 and 74 tonight, giving him 226 runs for twice out at a strike rate of 146.75 and four cheap wickets to boot.One of his biggest assets in T20 is his willingness to use his position on the crease to throw bowlers off their line, and his ability to adjust. There was no better demonstration than the fifth ball of the 17th over, when he jumped outside leg stump to encourage Tom Curran to bowl wide outside off, despite having point and third man up inside the ring. Curran landed a perfect wide yorker, but Labuschagne stretched out and deflected it away through the gap, like a centre-forward in hockey deflecting the ball in at the back post.He had started slowly, eking out 17 off the first 22 balls he faced with Curran putting down a caught-and-bowled chance, but once Labuschagne had adjusted to the slowness of the pitch he was away, hitting 57 off the next 29. His slow start was put into perspective by Roy’s fireworks, but with Surrey applying the squeeze, there had been no other option.

Trent Rockets 151 for 4 (Priest 76) beat London Spirit 133 for 7 (Higham 2-12) by 18 runsTrent Rockets put runs on the board and got themselves points on the table with an emphatic win over London Spirit at Lord’s. Set up by a belligerent innings from opener Rachel Priest, who scored 64 of her 76 runs in boundaries, Rockets became the first team in the women’s competition to pass 150 – a demanding target that Spirit did not have the requisite firepower to chase down.On a hybrid surface that had only been used once, after the men’s London derby fixture was washed out at the weekend, Priest did the lion’s share of the scoring as Rockets added a century stand for the first wicket before eventually departing for 76 from 42; at which point Nat Sciver put a further dent in the home side’s spirits by crashing 32 from 16. Freya Davies was the only bowler to go at less than a run a ball, with Spirit’s efforts hampered by a request from CWI that Deandra Dottin not bowl.In their reply, the returning Tammy Beaumont, who missed Spirit’s opening two fixtures after attending her brother’s wedding, struck her second and third balls for four before falling to Kathryn Bryce as they slipped to 25 for 2 inside the Powerplay. Dottin hammered Katherine Brunt for an imposing six over long-on as she and Heather Knight guided them to 70 for 2 at halfway – but sharp work from Priest and Sarah Glenn saw Dottin run-out backing up for 29 off 19 and the rest of innings fell away.Priest repays faith
New Zealand veteran Priest had made a grand total of eight runs off ten balls (with two scoring shots) across Rockets’ first two matches in the tournament, defeats to Southern Brave and Northern Superchargers. But on a belting surface at Lord’s, Priest brought the benefit of five Women’s T20 World Cups and three 50-over World Cups to bear to post a formidable 151 for 4.Priest and Sammy-Jo Johnson made a steady start, taking the score to 26 for 0 at the end of the Powerplay. But the introduction of Chloe Tryon’s left-arm spin for the next set – possibly a match-ups decision with two right-handers on strike – helped grease the wheels. Tryon’s first ball was a high full toss that was dumped for four (as well as being called a no-ball), and although the free hit went begging, the next ball became the first of Priest’s four leg-side mows for six; then another four disappeared through point.Confident in her ability to pummel boundaries, Priest was happy to soak up a few dots – she faced 13 in the course of her innings – and pounce when offered up a morsel. She should have been caught by Beaumont at deep midwicket on 40, but the ball instead ended up trickling to the rope, and she then tucked into Charlie Dean’s offspin with a thump down the ground followed by another heave to leg, raising a 29-ball fifty. At the point Spirit took their strategic timeout, Priest had 71 from 36 with 40 balls still remaining in the innings, and was on track for the first hundred in the new format – only for Beaumont to atone with an excellent running catch off the 67th.Severe Sciver
With Johnson playing an anchoring role, Rockets looked to their captain for an injection of rocket fuel during the closing stages of the innings. Sciver duly obliged, ticking along to 8 off 7 before dismantling Danielle Gibson during the 17th set of the innings. The first of three consecutive boundaries had an element of fortune about it, as she managed to clear Alice Monaghan at long-on, despite the ball landing a few yards inside the rope. But there was a touch of naked brutality about the back-to-back sixes that followed: a clean punch over mid-off that just kept going and going, and then an almighty crack that sailed beyond long-on, measured at 82 metres.It wasn’t to cost them in the end, but the Rockets innings ended up having a slightly lopsided look to it. With Johnson batting through until the last 15 balls for 25 off 34, and Sciver holing out in the final set, there was a sense that they could have racked up an even bigger score. Between them, Priest and Sciver managed 108 from 58, while Johnson, Katherine Brunt and Heather Graham made 34 off 43 (and yes, that does add up to 101 balls bowled – because Priest’s tally includes a no-ball that was hit for four).Spirit fade out
The partnership between Dottin and Knight kept Spirit in with a chance, adding 45 from 28 balls to leave them needing a steep – but not unconquerable – 80 from 50. Both players benefited from dropped catches as Rockets began sloppily but it was a piece of fielding that helped break the stand – Priest was alert to possibility when Knight came down the pitch and padded into the off side, the wicketkeeper racing up and relaying to Glenn, who removed the bails with Dottin well short of regaining her ground.From that point, it was largely a case of the visiting side keeping their composure. Lucy Higham was given her first bowl of the tournament and struck straight away, as Deepti Sharma shovelled a full toss to short fine leg – Bryce holding on above her head. Another fine catch, Emily Windsor running in from deep backward square, saw off the dangerous Tryon, and when Knight chipped to mid-off with 52 needed from 25, the contest was all but done, despite some lusty lower-order biffing from Dean and Gibson that narrowed the eventual margin of victory.

George Garton and Craig Overton with the new ball, Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan at the death. Southern Brave’s four-pronged pace attack is the envy of most franchises around the world and blew Trent Rockets’ batters away for 96 in a one-sided Hundred eliminator at The Oval. If Jofra Archer had been fit to play ahead of Overton, this would have been over before the floodlights came on.Brave were thrashed by Rockets in their opening game of the competition, restricted to 126 as Marchant de Lange rattled through them with a five-wicket haul before watching D’Arcy Short and Dawid Malan cruise to unbeaten fifties in the chase. Garton said at the interval that they felt they had “something to prove” after that defeat, and their seven-wicket thrashing with 32 balls to spare was as resounding a win as they could have hoped for.It was Garton, the whippet-like left-arm seamer, who made the crucial inroads, taking three wickets in his first three sets of five to leave Rockets four down inside the Powerplay. Garton missed a game earlier in the tournament as he gradually recovered from Covid-19, suffering fatigue after contracting the virus on England duty, but looked back at his best, bowling at good pace and finding extra bounce from a length. Rockets never recovered, stumbling against Mills and Jordan at the back end as the seamers shared all 10 wickets between them.Paul Stirling led the way in the chase, smiting 31 off 19 balls, before James Vince saw them home with a composed, unbeaten innings of 45 off 27 from No. 3, taking down Rashid Khan in the process. de Lange struck twice to take him equal-top of the tournament’s wicket-taking charts, but found little support from the rest of the attack.Brave started the Hundred with consecutive defeats but are now on a six-match winning streak – with a no-result in between – and Mahela Jayawardene has the chance to add a Hundred title to his three IPL trophies with Mumbai Indians. “We got off to a slow start but that feels an age ago now,” Garton said. “In the short format, it’s about getting on a roll.”Rockets’ powercut
Overton was not a guaranteed starter after his release from England’s Test squad but after Brave’s slow left-armers had been milked by Rockets’ left-handed top-order batters in Malan and Short in the group fixture between these teams, Jayawardene opted to bring in a Powerplay specialist to try and strike early.Overton shared the new ball with George Garton and the pair were taken for three early boundaries by Malan, who retained his position as Alex Hales’ opening partner after shuffling up the order from No. 3 in Rockets’ final group game against Manchester Originals. But Garton struck twice in his second set to remove both openers, finding extra bounce from a length to take Malan’s outside edge and then luring a false shot from Hales with a slower ball angled across him.Related

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“I’ve got Mala out before in a 50-over game a couple of years ago with the same shot,” Garton said afterwards. “I had the plan in my mind. I know he runs it down to third man very well, but that gives you a bit of an opportunity with a bit of extra bounce in the pitch early on to try and nick him off. With Hales, I was just trying to get out of my set of five rather than a wicket. I thought a change of pace at the top of the stumps would be the hardest ball for him to hit for four, and he nicked it.”Overton then struck in his second set, castling Steven Mullaney with a nip-backer as he lined up a filthy hack across the line, to leave Rockets three down inside 20 balls, before Garton added a fourth inside the Powerplay when a length ball stuck in the pitch and Short’s leading edge found short midwicket. Analysts and statisticians are still working out the discrepancies between T20 and 100-ball cricket but it is safe to assume the truism that losing several Powerplay wickets is unlikely to help your chances is transferable.Backloading Brave
There can rarely have been an attack as easy to captain as the one that Southern Brave fielded on Friday night: two new-ball specialists, a wristspinner for the middle phase, and two of the world’s best death bowlers. Vince continued to make use of that luxury as he has throughout the tournament, holding back the majority of Mills and Jordan’s spells until the back end.That enouraged Rockets to take risks early on but after the clatter of Powerplay wickets, Samit Patel and Lewis Gregory were forced to rebuild, adding 31 off 32 for the fifth wicket.But Mills broke the stand with an innocuous delivery, Gregory miscuing a wide full toss to extra cover, and despite a couple of sixes from Tom Moores to keep the crowd interested, Rockets’ lower order failed to stem the flow: Jake Lintott took a sharp diving catch at mid-off to remove Patel, Moores swung Jordan to long-on where Overton’s self-relay catch was deemed legal, and Mills and Jordan polished off the tail with just 96 on the board.Stirling work
Rockets needed several early wickets to have any chance of defending such a low score and when Stirling paddle-swept the first ball of the chase for four off Matt Carter, then cracked him over midwicket for a flat six later in the set, they were hugely reliant on Rashid playing a starring role. de Lange bounced out Quinton de Kock for 6, but when Rashid – who had national colours painted on his cheeks and again looked subdued amid the crisis at home – was finally brought on in the fourth set, he started with a waist-high full toss that was hit away for four by Vince, and was then slog-swept over midwicket and paddled through fine leg on a rare off-night.Stirling’s innings was no more than a cameo as he fell to the 40th ball, but by that stage the equation was 28 off 60 with eight wickets in hand. Vince swung Rashid for six and then four and while de Lange ramped up the pace in a hostile 10-ball set, Vince steered Sam Cook for four to seal a clinical win.

Centuries from Hassan Azad and Lewis Hill raised Leicestershire’s hopes of ending their LV=Insurance County Championship home campaign on a winning note.On a day shortened by seven overs by bad light, Azad finished unbeaten on 122 – his first hundred since April – but Hill’s 109 not out – his third of the summer – came only a week after his 113 against Derbyshire in what has become comfortably the best season of the 30-year-old’s career.The two have shared an unbroken stand of 183 to take Leicestershire to 291 for 2, trailing by 68.Earlier, Ben Brown finished unbeaten on 133 after five and a half hours at the crease and veteran Leicestershire seamer Chris Wright took 6 for 94 as Sussex closed their innings on 359 for 9, with Fynn Hudson-Prentice, who had been injured on Sunday, unable to complete his innings.The former Derbyshire all-rounder was struck on the left hand by former Sussex seamer Abi Sakande and his third appearance for his new county will be his last of the season after x-rays revealed a break that will require surgery.Sussex resumed on 310 for 4 but a double-wicket maiden by Wright sparked a collapse that saw the last five Sussex wickets fall for 25 runs.Tom Hinley’s pull was plucked out of the air impressively by Ed Barnes before Jack Carson, playing away from his body, was caught behind.Soon afterwards, Wright bowled Henry Crocombe and Sean Hunt with consecutive, almost identical deliveries that struck off stump. Joe Sarro kept out the hat-trick ball but quickly chipped Barnes to short midwicket.Wright has 46 wickets for the season, well over twice as many as any other Leicestershire seamer. His latest haul was the fourth of five wickets or more this season and the 17th of his career.In reply, Leicestershire lost Sam Evans first ball in the opening over as he nicked to second slip but, on a good batting surface, Azad and George Rhodes added 103 in just under 25 overs before Sussex skipper Tom Haines beat the latter’s defensive push to clip the off stump with his medium pace.Azad’s first 52 runs came off 74 balls with eight boundaries but was content to bide his time thereafter, especially as Hill – batting at four with skipper Colin Ackermann on paternity leave – was eager to seize the initiative at the other end.Hill accelerated after tea, racing to a 67-ball half-century with six fours in seven overs before slogging the left-arm spin of Delray Rawlins for consecutive sixes over deep midwicket.Azad completed his second century of the season from 187 balls soon after picking up a 10th four but Hill was catching him fast, reaching his from 116 balls with 11 fours and two sixes.

Eoin Morgan has said he would be willing to drop himself from the team if it increased England’s chances of winning the T20 World Cup. Morgan has been short on T20 runs this year, averaging 16.63 with a highest score of 47 not out from 35 innings, but his credentials as a captain – he comes into the World Cup off the back of leading Kolkata Knight Riders to the final of the IPL – remain unimpeachable.Morgan, who confirmed that Liam Livingstone was “fully fit” despite injuring his finger while fielding against India, will have a chance to find some form in England’s second warm-up match, against New Zealand on Wednesday. He only reached double-figures once in nine innings during the second half of the IPL, but nevertheless oversaw an impressive turnaround in Knight Riders’ form as they came within a game of winning their first title since 2014.Related

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“It’s always something I’ve said – it’s always an option,” Morgan said of the possibility of leaving himself out of the XI. “I’m not going to stand in the way of a team winning the World Cup. I’ve been short of runs but my captaincy has been pretty good, as it goes. So, yes is the answer.”Not being a bowler and being a bit older and not contributing as much in the field, I’ve loved the role of captain. You get two bites at the cherry impacting the game. As regards my batting, I wouldn’t be standing here if I hadn’t come out of every bad run of form that I’d ever had. The nature of T20 cricket and where I bat means I always have to take quite high-risk options and I’ve come to terms with that. It’s just something you deal with, it’s the nature of the job so I’m going to continue taking those risks if the team dictates they need them.”England are the reigning 50-over world champions and go into the T20 World Cup looking to become the first team to hold both trophies at the same time. They have enjoyed sustained success under Morgan and are currently ranked as the ICC’s No. 1 side in T20Is – although conditions in the UAE could work against them, with India the bookies’ favourites for the competition.”I think it’ll be unbelievably special if we manage to do it,” Morgan said. “I think that the group of players that we’ve had together for the last five or six years, alongside some new, really talented and young guys coming through, who have really made a name for themselves, makes the composition of the squad extremely strong. Obviously playing away from home creates challenges, and for the first time since 2016 we’re going into a world tournament where we haven’t been favourites. So again, there are some challenges, but challenges that we’ve overcome in bilateral series on previous occasions, and challenges that we’re really looking forward to.”We’re always trying to push the limits, we’re always trying to get better as a side, and since 2019 our cricket has been as consistent as ever, I think, in the T20 format which is extremely difficult to do when there’s been chopping and changing the whole time. And I think with the opportunity of not only this World Cup but next year’s as well, there’s a real chance of being contenders.”Morgan comes into the T20 World Cup having led Kolkata to the IPL final•Deepak Malik/BCCI

Morgan also suggested that the slightly expanded Super 12s format, with the top two in each group of six progressing to the semi-finals, would give the best teams a greater chance, by lessening any “banana skin potential” before finding their stride.”I think with the new format and the larger group as your first challenge throughout the tournament, I suppose you don’t have to be coming into the tournament as you think you might do in previous years, when one game might cost you qualifying,” he said.”With more games it allows you to establish some form as a side and almost gather momentum into the tournament. Whereas I think in previous years, the tournaments that I’ve played – 2009 getting out of the group stage was extremely difficult, 2010 when we won was unbelievably difficult, likewise 2016 when we got to the final, we scraped through the group stages, and the two in between we were bundled out in the group stages. So I think there’s a little bit more leeway with this new format.”England are set to wait until they see the surface that awaits them for their Group 1 opener in Dubai on Saturday before deciding on the make-up of their side, following Morgan’s experience at the same venues with Knight Riders during the IPL. He did confirm that England would be taking a knee alongside West Indies before the game, and were in discussions about the possibility of other gestures during the tournament.”Going on from there, we’ve been speaking to the ICC about the potential moment of unity before the game, that we’ve been doing as part of our own piece at home. It hasn’t been cleared up yet whether that’s a possibility.”

Graham Ford has been speaking to coaches involved in the IPL to get a better idea about conditions in Sharjah, ahead of his Ireland side’s winner-takes-all fixture against Namibia in the T20 World Cup.Sharjah played host to a series of high-scoring games during the 2020 IPL, but the pitches were re-laid earlier this year and were generally slow and low after the resumption of the 2021 season, with average scoring rates down to 7.00 runs per over from 8.87 the year before.Related

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Conditions were particularly difficult during the three matches played during the day in IPL 2021, with several players struggling to cope with the combination of heat and humidity: when Friday afternoon’s game starts at 2 pm local time, forecasts suggest the temperature of 35 degrees celsius will ‘feel like’ 41 degrees. Ireland have been in the UAE for several weeks now, but the heat remains a significant challenge in contrast to the weather their players are used to at home.”I’ve had a few good chats with some of the IPL coaches, but we’ll keep that to ourselves for now,” Ford said after Ireland’s heavy defeat to Sri Lanka, which leaves them needing a result in Friday’s fixture if they are to progress to the Super 12s. “Win or lose, we are gaining and we are learning, but quite obviously we’re desperate to go through to the next phase of the tournament.”You’re always greedy as a coach: you want to win everything and you want to have a nice easy last fixture and say ‘we’re already through’. But realistically, we’d have taken it. We’re still alive, we’re still in the competition, and that’s the most important thing.”Ireland played the evening game in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night and will be unable to train as a whole squad ahead of Friday’s fixture due to the time it will take to travel to Sharjah and the need for their bowlers in particular to recover. They have been frustrated by their schedule in the tournament, not least with the other first-round group staged in its entirety in the same venue, and Ford admitted it was “very difficult” to make improvements between games when playing three fixtures in the space of five days.”There’s no doubt it’s very difficult because of the distances that you have to travel to get to training venues,” he said. “Making improvements in terms of actually just getting in the nets and training is quite difficult [but] we can get to the ground a little bit earlier on matchdays and a couple of guys can sharpen their skills that way.”A lot of the work needed to be done in the preparation phase, which we had a pretty good block through that period, and now it’s not so much getting in the nets and trying to work on anything – it’s more about what have we learnt from the matches that we’ve played and how can we improve tactically and just really try to look sharper and see where we can improve in the game situation.”Ireland arrived at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in time to see the final stages of Namibia’s win against the Netherlands on Wednesday but are well aware of their ability as a side. They squeezed past them in the third-place play-off of the qualifying tournament in 2019, defending 135 in a low-scoring game, and the sides have played each other in a number of qualifiers over the last 15 years.”We had a long bus journey then caught the end of the game and they did hit the ball extremely well at the end,” Ford said. “We know that they’ve got some very dangerous players and David Wiese, who put on a show – we caught the end of that show. He’s played for South Africa in the T20 World Cup before and I’ve seen him in South Africa and on the county circuit. He can be absolutely devastating, which he was today.”They’ve got some dangerous players. They’ve got some very hard-working cricketers. Quite a few of them have learnt quite a lot of their cricket in South Africa and they pushed us close in the last game of the qualifiers. We know that they’re going to be tough – if we’re slightly off our best, we will struggle.”

Big Picture

Bangladesh and Pakistan are two sides very much on the opposite ends of the confidence scale, with a team on a roll taking on a line-up that is in transformation after a disappointing T20 World Cup campaign. The two teams meet in a three-match T20I series starting Friday in Dhaka.The visitors will be wary of Bangladesh’s dominance at home, even though they failed to secure a win in five games in the Super 12s in the UAE.Pakistan, who were semi-finalists in the global tournament, will be looking to carry forward their form. Their batting line-up has adjusted to most conditions and has imposed themselves on several occasions. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have led the team well as openers, while the likes of Fakhar Zaman and Shoaib Malik have contributed at crucial moments. Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz are the spinning allrounders in the lower middle order, although their bowling would be more important on the slow Dhaka pitches.Related

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Shaheen Shah Afridi leads the bowling attack and his first over spectacle will be closely followed in Dhaka. Barring his last over against Australia, he had a great tournament in the UAE, picking up seven wickets in six matches. Pakistan also have extra pace from Haris Rauf, while Hasan Ali, smarting from his dropped catch in the semi-final, will be out to prove a point.Meanwhile, Bangladesh are going in with an inexperienced side. Mushfiqur Rahim, one of the most experienced cricketers in the team, has been dropped with the chief selector Minhajul Abedin insisting that he was rested for the T20I series keeping in mind Bangladesh’s scheduling for the next two months. Soumya Sarkar and Liton Das too have lost their top-order spots.They have brought in Najmul Hossain Shanto, Saif Hassan and Yasir Ali at the top. Shanto and Saif are Test regulars with decent domestic T20 records, while Yasir has been in the Test squad throughout this year. Yasir had a decent DPL season, scoring 266 runs in 12 innings. The selectors have also included legspinner Aminul Islam, pace bowler Shahidul Islam and wicketkeeper Akbar Ali, but they are considered as backup options.The real responsibility is with captain Mahmudullah, one of their experienced cricketers left in the 16-man squad. Due to the lack of experience in the squad, his role might be changed from being a finisher to middle-order anchor. Mohammad Naim will be looking to improve his approach in the powerplay, while Afif Hossain and Nurul Hasan must prove their worth after disappointing returns in the World Cup.The only thing that seems to work for the hosts is the bowling. Taskin Ahmed had a good outing in the UAE – picking up six wickets at an economy of 6.50 in six matches – challenging Mustafizur Rahman as the leader of the pack. Mahedi Hasan and Nasum Ahmed will also be crucial in Shakib Al Hasan’s absence due to a hamstring injury, particularly at home. The spin pair may hold the key for the home side.

Form guide

Bangladesh LLLLL
Pakistan LWWWW
Shadab Khan might be a major threat for Bangladesh, who have found legspin difficult to handle•AFP/Getty Images

In the spotlight

One of Bangladesh’s biggest problems this year has been catching. They dropped 11 catches during the T20 World Cup, having already been the team to have dropped the second most number of catches this year. It got the fielding coach fired, and training sessions now include more focus on catching. The dropped catches could, however, be linked to general unease within the team throughout this year.Shadab Khan almost got Pakistan to the T20 World Cup final with his four-wicket haul in the semi-final against Australia. He only gave away more than 30 runs in one of the six games in the tournament, an effort that has brought him out of a bad patch from the last two years. He will be a major threat for Bangladesh, who have found legspin difficult to handle.

Team news

Bangladesh may hand debuts to Saif Hassan and Yasir Ali and bring in Najmul Hossain Shanto to rejig the top order. The main concern will be finding four overs from the fifth bowler, given that they are more likely to play seven batters.Bangladesh (probable): 1 Mohammad Naim, 2 Saif Hassan, 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 4 Yasir Ali, 5 Mahmudullah (capt), 6 Afif Hossain, 7 Nurul Hasan (wk), 8 Mahedi Hasan, 9 Nasum Ahmed, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Taskin Ahmed.Pakistan have rested Asif Ali and Imad Wasim to give Haider Ali, Khushdil Shah and Mohammad Nawaz a chance. There will be a toss-up between Mohammad Wasim Jr. and Hasan Ali for the third fast bowler’s slot.Pakistan (probable): 1 Babar Azam (capt), 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 3 Fakhar Zaman, 4 Haider Ali, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Shadab Khan, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Shaheen Shah Afridi

Pitch and conditions

The Mirpur pitch is the most talked about aspect ahead of the first T20I. The average score batting first has been 119 this year, although it used to be 152 in the previous ten years. There’s hope it will be better for batting after a bit of groundwork was done during the last two months. Weather holds steady, with winter setting in.

Stats and trivia

• Bangladesh have won the last two T20Is against Pakistan at home, beating them in the one-off game in 2015 and the 2016 Asia Cup, respectively.
• Mahmudullah is 60 runs short of becoming the first Bangladeshi batter to reach 2000 runs in T20Is.
• Mohammad Rizwan’s 391 runs are the most by any batter in powerplays this year.