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They climbed to third position in the BPL by handing a 15-run defeat to Sylhet Sunrisers

Mohammad Isam07-Feb-2022How the match played outKhulna Titans climbed to third position in the BPL by handing a 15-run defeat to Sylhet Sunrisers. After Soumya Sarkar and Mushfiqur Rahim struck fifties, the Khulna bowlers managed to defend 182 runs despite a soapy ball in the heavy Sylhet dew.In their first home game, Sylhet crashed to their sixth loss in seven matches. If losing wasn’t enough, their main fast bowler Taskin Ahmed was ruled out for the rest of the tournament due to a back injury ahead of the game. Sylhet were also penalised five runs for changing the condition of the ball. New captain Ravi Bopara’s inauspicious start became further confusing when he didn’t give the team’s leading wicket-taker Nazmul Islam a single over.Khulna didn’t mind any of it. They recovered from 46 for 3 at the end of the powerplay, when Mushfiqur and Sarkar added 136 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket, taking Khulna to a match-winning total.Big hitMushfiqur hit his 16th fifty in the BPL, but the first in this season. He struck some of his trademark shots, including sixes over midwicket and backward square leg, and six fours around the ground. Sarkar reached his fourth BPL half-century, which included two sixes over midwicket and long-on. As a pleasant surprise, Sarkar seemed to focus less on the nice shots, and more on accumulating the runsWhen defending the total, veteran left-arm spinner Nabil Samad removed Lendl Simmons in the sixth over. Anamul Haque couldn’t make much of an impact with his 47 off 33 balls. Mohammad Mithun and Bopara fell within three balls of each other, leaving Colin Ingram and Mosaddek a mountain to climb.Alauddin Babu provided an entertaining finish when he struck Kamrul Islam Rabbi for three consecutive sixes in the final over in which they needed 36 to win. But Rabbi managed to keep him down to two runs in the last three balls to pick up the win.Big missBopara’s blunder of not using their top wicket-taker Nazmul was a major talking point. There wasn’t a question of dew for most of the innings, as both offspinners Mosaddek Hossain and Sohag Gazi bowled their full quota of four overs each.At times captains in the BPL have tended to keep their left-arm spinners away when a left-hand batters are at the crease. And course Sarkar was around for a long time, but right-hander Mushfiqur was in the middle too. ESPNcricinfo also learned that Nazmul wasn’t injured; he fielded the entire 20 overs. Unless something has been missed, there was no cricketing reason for not giving even one over to Nazmul.

Hartley and Morley share seven fourth-innings wickets in Lancashire’s 178-run victory

Paul Edwards09-Sep-2020
This was one of those days when watching first-class county cricket on an outground is just about the best thing on earth. Some of us have always maintained this to be true, of course, but when the sun first dappled and then enriched the Aigburth beeches and Derbyshire’s batsmen battled against perhaps the youngest attack Lancashire have ever fielded, our case was surely made nem. con.The afternoon offered us September’s gentle, generous warmth and it brought particular joy to the slow left-armers, Tom Hartley and Jack Morley, who eventually shared seven wickets in Derbyshire’s second innings to hand Lancashire a 178-run victory. Yet it was also heartening that Derbyshire’s last three batsmen made the home bowlers sweat for their spoils: there was less than half an hour left in the game when Mattie McKiernan’s 130-minute innings of 52 was ended by Steve O’Shaughnessy’s raised finger in answer to Danny Lamb’s appeal. It was McKiernan’s maiden half-century but you can be certain he would have swapped it for the draw.On Tuesday evening the headlines had been dominated by the possibility of the ECB changing the regulations for the Bob Willis Trophy should teams finish equal on points. What was allotted rather less attention was the argument that Derbyshire’s chances of winning this game and thereby achieving such parity were remote in the extreme. That prospect receded even further with Dane Vilas’s decision to bat on this morning and to extend Lancashire’s lead to 381 before declaring. Danny Lamb used the long handle to good effect, reaching his maiden first-class fifty off 49 balls and by the time Derbyshire’s openers came out to begin the game’s last innings the main discussion revolved around whether the visitors could avoid defeat and go through a first-class season unbeaten for the first time since 1874. It transpired they couldn’t.Derbyshire’s pursuit – if pursuit it ever was – got off to a woeful start. Lamb slanted one across Billy Godleman and the visiting captain departed much as he had done in the first innings: caught in the slips when pushing a little across the line. Four overs later Lamb brought one back to Wayne Madsen and Graham Lloyd decided it was not doing too much to miss leg stump.Luis Reece and Leus du Plooy shepherded the innings to 56 for 2 at lunch and batted with relative restraint for an hour on the resumption. Vilas brought on his spinners and du Plooy cover-drove Hartley for successive boundaries when he overpitched. The contest was never less than keen and one sensed that both young bowlers were gaining in knowledge with every over they bowled. It was an afternoon when a man might think himself young again and once more ‘prince of the apple towns’, the figures in white making the hours memorable even as the season slipped away.Then Derbyshire lost the match in little more than half an hour, their extraordinary decline beginning in an incident-crammed 41st over bowled by Morley. Off the first ball Reece, who was well set on 55, went down on one knee and clumped the ball over midwicket for six. The third and fifth balls were reverse-swept to the boundary but the opener then attempted an orthodox sweep to the final delivery and top edged a catch to Keaton Jennings at slip.For a while batsmen came and went like drivers collecting car park tickets. Du Plooy played all around a low full toss from Hartley and was leg before; Fynn Hudson-Prentice was beaten by a well-flighted delivery from the same bowler and nicked a catch to Jennings; Matt Critchley played down the soft fruit aisle only to find the spinning ball was in chocolate and biscuits. Morley thus collected his second wicket and later picked up his third when Harvey Hosein went back fatally. By then, Anuj Dal had also been leg before to Hartley, although there was a suspicion he’d hit it. Derbyshire had lost six wickets for 17 runs in little more than nine overs.All this drama lacked was the appreciation of a crowd. The live streams have been invaluable this season but they are one-way media. One notices the absence of loyal spectators, their smiles, their applause and, yes, their grumbles. There would have been joy from home supporters when Hartley and Morley were running through Derbyshire but also appreciation for the determination shown by McKiernan and Sam Conners in a 36-over stand which bridged the tea interval. McKiernan hit eight boundaries but eventually shut up shop; his partner, by contrast, had never been open for business.With forty minutes left in the game – Lancashire would have bowled something like 100 overs had the innings run its full length – Conners went back to Morley and thereby became his fourth victim of the innings. By then the trees on Beechwood Road, which had been dark and shadowed in the early morning, carried the sunlight of early evening. Lancashire’s players shouted in hope at almost every thick edge and traces of impatience were showing before McKiernan became Lamb’s third wicket of the innings, thus giving him match figures of seven for 72; they are the best of his career and it suddenly seemed a long time since he had completed that rapid fifty in the opening overs of the day. Having made certain they could not lose the game, Lancashire had duly succeeded in winning it and no one was asking about a late declaration when they interviewed the young spinners, their faces shining with the sweat of triumph.The cricketers are gone now and Aigburth has been made ready for other matches. Suddenly there is that soft melancholy that accompanies the final month of any cricket season. Yet the sight of Morley and Hartley and McKiernan playing with such passion and skill offered us portents of next spring and we are blessed in this of all summers that we have had so much to remember and enjoy afresh.

Five-wicket haul secures second win in a row but fast bowler thanks Coulter-Nile for saving the team with the bat

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jun-2019Mitchell Starc said that he believed that the best of Australia’s World Cup cricket is still to come, after making it two wins out of two with a hard-fought 15-run win over West Indies at Trent Bridge.Starc himself delivered the coup de grace, claiming the first five-wicket haul of the tournament to derail West Indies’ pursuit of 289, but deflected the praise for the victory to his team-mate Nathan Coulter-Nile, whose remarkable career-best score of 92 from 60 balls helped rescue the side from 79 for 5.”It’s exciting that we haven’t probably played awesome cricket today,” said Starc. “We’ve probably played some really good cricket in patches, but there’s definitely things we can get a lot better at in all three facets, so that’s exciting for the group.ALSO READ: Mitchell Starc strips away the resistance as Australia revive their fear factor“Finding ways to win and being five for not many and seeing Coults strike them the way he did was fantastic for him and for the group, to get us to a competitive total that we felt pretty confident in defending. Yeah, plenty of positives to take from today.”In sealing the win, Starc became the fastest bowler in ODI history to reach 150 wickets, achieving the mark in his 77th game to surpass the previous record held by Pakistan’s Saqlain Mushtaq. And in nailing his yorkers to unsettle West Indies’ batsmen, it was a timely reprisal of the Player-of-the-Tournament form he showed when Australia won the last World Cup on home soil in 2015.”I’ve been pretty clear and calm in my approach to cricket in the last few months, and hopefully that’s a sign today that even when it’s probably in the balance, I can stay calm,” he said.”Yeah, I guess having that experience of four years ago probably helps play a part, but we’ve got guys that can bowl throughout an innings and bowl at the death, plenty of options for Aaron [Finch] to go to when called upon. It was another positive today for us to be able to defend that total, but obviously we had to get there with Coults first, which was fantastic.””It’s something I enjoy doing, bowling at the death,” he added. “You’re not going to win them all, and there’s going to be times where you go the journey or where you don’t quite get your team over the line. But I think that’s what I enjoy about the challenge of that.Watch on Hotstar (India only) – Mitchell Starc’s five-wicket haul“I guess the yorker, for me, is one [delivery] I’ve probably gone to more often than not in the past. So whilst they’ll know it’s coming, as long as I keep executing it, hopefully it’s going to be better for me than them.”Australia’s next challenge will come at The Oval on Sunday, when they take on another of the tournament’s big guns, India, who are also unbeaten after seeing off South Africa in their opening fixture at Southampton on Wednesday.Starc missed the 3-2 series win in India in March, and claimed not to have watched it on telly while recovering from a pectoral muscle injury. But he said he was looking forward to the challenge of bowling to their aggressive batting line-up.”As a bowling group, for us to continue talking about what we do really well and what we can control. We know they’re a fantastic team. They’ve got depth in their batting, they’re strong throughout.”Virat [Kohli] is obviously one of their key batsmen. Rohit [Sharma] scored a hundred [against South Africa], so we’ll have a chat about them as a bowling group, but at the same time we’ve got to remember what we can control, and that’s our strengths and where we want to bowl to the conditions, as well.”Starc will enter that contest knowing that he has already got the better of one of the most powerful batting line-ups in the competition, even if in the case of Chris Gayle, the delivery with which he finally claimed his wicket ought to have been a free-hit after a previous no-ball went uncalled.”I didn’t until about five minutes ago when someone told me,” said Starc. “I’m normally pretty close [to the front line], and I’ve actually been a fair way back for the last few weeks. I got away with that one, fortunately.”I’ve had some good battles with Chris over the years, and he’s obviously a major weapon for them, and we just saw a little glimpse of it today, how strong he can be when he strikes that ball.”He’s so strong, and I guess he finds the gap hitting over the top, doesn’t he? We knew that going into this contest that they’re going to have a few really big strikers and lots of boundaries, which he’s one of, but we were very fortunate to get him early enough to put them on the back foot again with the new ball.”

India’s ODI captain doesn’t think a women’s IPL is feasible just yet, given the current depth of talent in Indian women’s cricket

Annesha Ghosh in Mumbai21-Mar-2018In the wake of India’s rousing run to the final of the 2017 World Cup, there have been loud calls for the creation of a women’s IPL. India ODI captain Mithali Raj and fast bowler Jhulan Goswami, however, don’t think the idea is feasible just yet, given the current depth of talent in Indian women’s cricket.

Gayakwad replaces injured Bisht

Rajeshwari Gayakwad has been called into the Indian squad as replacement for fellow left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht for the T20I tri-series against England and Australia. Bisht, who injured her left index finger during the third ODI against Australia in Vadodara on March 18, has been advised 10 days rest. Gayakwad, meanwhile, had been part of the ODI squad against Australia, and featured only in the curtain-raiser of the three-match series.

“It’s important to have a pool of players who will be qualified to play an IPL kind of a league. We need players [to] make up India A. Once we have those many players, then I think it would be wise for us to have an IPL,” Raj said on Tuesday. “India A itself needs more quality players. So, once we have those many players, I think it will be wise enough to have an IPL.”In the start, you can feed in any player from the domestic circuit, but there will be a stark difference between the calibre of an international player and domestic rookie, which might go against the idea of promoting women’s cricket. I personally believe that when you have strong domestic set-up that churns out quality players, then giving them an opportunity in IPL makes sense.”Goswami, who will be featuring in the T20 tri-series starting Thursday after recovering from a heel injury, echoed Raj’s views.”I agree with what she said. It’s important to have a strong domestic set-up and then get such leagues started.”Raj said that even though the BCCI has taken a significant step forward by putting together the India A women’s squad, identifying and nurturing the next generation of international players will require a considerable investment of time.”We just started with the India A tours with formation of the A team taking place last year after the World Cup,” Raj said. “So it will take some years to get our second-string team in place. We do have some young, talented players but they need exposure. So, I am sure in a year or two we will have a better quality of players playing for India.”At a time when the management has shown a clear slant towards blooding young talent, the return of the 34-year-old Rumeli Dhar to the international mix, during the tour of South Africa, took many followers of the game by surprise.Called up after a six-year hiatus as replacement for the then-injured Goswami, Rumeli’s selection was seen as both a reward for consistency in the domestic circuit as well as an SOS call to plug the dearth of dependable, up-and-coming talent in the quick-bowling department.Raj backed the selectorial gamble and Rumeli, who took two catches and a three-for in the two matches she played in South Africa, insisting that current form should take precedence ahead of a player’s age or their international career timeline.”Yes, there’s been a break in the last time she played international cricket for India,” Raj said, “but the selectors got her back during the South Africa tour because Jhulan got injured during the South Africa ODI series. Rumeli had done very well in the T20 format in the domestic series.”As far as I know, I think age shouldn’t be a matter. If she has performed well, I look it at as an example of if you do very well in domestic [cricket], the selectors will show a lot of interest in giving the player an opportunity in the T20 team. And Rumeli did well when she got that opportunity.”Looking back on the 3-0 series loss against Australia in the ODI leg of India’s first home season since the World Cup and a dual-series winning tour of South Africa, Raj suggested the heavy defeats had much to do with the fragility of the middle order and the inability of the bowling unit to perform at its consistent best.”We lagged in having partnerships in the middle order that we had on the South Africa tour,” Raj said. “Our middle order did not click in the ODIs. The bowlers weren’t as disciplined as they were on the South Africa tour. Things did not go our way.”She also admitted the team might have found it difficult to adapt to home conditions after a month-long overseas tour.”Coming back from the South Africa tour where the wicket was different than what we have played in Baroda, there might be an issue of not having enough time to prepare well for the series,” Raj said.”The problem is not with quality. Yes, we are coming from a successful tour, but then we are playing in different situations and conditions. The Australians have prepared well for us as it is the only tour they have come for.”With the World T20 in November, and with a view to finding the right mix of players for the tournament, Raj said the team for the upcoming tri-nation series may be quite different from the one that played the T20Is in South Africa.”We need to have few changes in the squad irrespective of the result, because we are looking at the bigger picture, that is we are preparing for the [T20] World Cup, so there is a chance we could see few changes in the team.”

Keshav Maharaj’s six-for and Khaya Zondo’s first-innings ton helped the Dolphins consolidate their lead at the top of the Sunfoil Series points table

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jan-2017Keshav Maharaj and Khaya Zondo’s dominating first-innings performances against Lions helped Dolphins consolidate their lead at the top of the table in the Sunfoil Series. Zondo struck his seventh first-class century, an unbeaten 290-ball 141 that included 21 fours, to lift Dolphins to 339 in the first innings after they opted to bat in Pietermaritzburg.Vaughn van Jaarsveld chipped in with a brisk 53. Seam-bowling allrounder Dwaine Pretorius claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in first-class matches, returning figures of 5 for 54. In reply, the Lions were quickly reduced to 4 for 49. Dominic Hendricks and Pretorius brought the Lions some respectability with a 91-run partnership.After Hendricks was dismissed for 78, Kagiso Rapulana hit a patient 52 to push Dolphins’ total to 267. Left-arm spinner Maharaj finished with figures of 6 for 86.Entering the fourth day with a lead of 72, Dolphins set up a late declaration after posting 189 for 5 in 51 overs, taking the safety-first approach to ensure the Lions didn’t have enough time to bowl them out. Zondo struck a 139-ball 54. Left-arm fast bowler Beuran Hendricks took 3 for 48. The Lions chose not to go after the steep target of 262, as the game petered out into a draw.

Kagiso Rabada is being primed for a short county stint of around six weeks, a move endorsed by his national coach Russell Domingo

Firdose Moonda01-Feb-2016While Kagiso Rabada’s workload will be managed in the limited-overs series against England, he may not be able to enjoy as much of a winter break as his team-mates. Rabada is being primed for a short county stint of around six weeks, a move endorsed by his national coach Russell Domingo.”It will benefit him massively,” Domingo said. “He is still a young boy. He hasn’t played a lot of four-day cricket and South Africa tour England in 2017 – there is a big series there with Tests and a Champions Trophy – so whatever experience he can get beforehand will be beneficial for him and the team. I think it’s a very good idea.”Rabada has played just 20 first-class matches in South Africa, including three Tests during the England series, but already holds two records. Last February, his 14 for 105 were the best bowling figures in franchise history, bettering the 14 for 110 taken by Dale Steyn seven seasons before. And last week, Rabada’s 13 in Centurion equalled the most wickets taken by a South African in a Test.He was the leading wicket-taker overall in the recently completed four-Test series against England, which immediately prompted questions over whether he was considering a county future. At the conclusion of the Centurion Test, Rabada said he would consider doing “anything that benefits my game” in the near future. He has not entered the IPL auction and and there is a suggestion a trip to the UK would be better for him at this stage.His agent has been in contact with several counties with details of Rabada’s availability but most have either already agreed their overseas signings, want someone for the full season or are looking for a batsman. An exception is Durham, who may lose the services of Australia quick John Hastings due to a shoulder injury that requires surgery and could look to Rabada for some bolstering.They, too, are wary of his workload though, according to Durham’s head coach, Jon Lewis. “I’m hugely impressed with his performances against England,” Lewis told the Newcastle . “If I was Cricket South Africa I would be very careful with him. I would imagine there would be restrictions on him but we’ve not spoken to him, just expressed a cautious interest.”

It’s been more than a month since Sahara India pulled their franchise Pune Warriors out of the IPL and, according to insiders from both Sahara and the BCCI, the stalemate is likely to continue till September

Amol Karhadkar25-Jun-2013It’s been more than a month since Sahara India pulled their franchise Pune Warriors out of the IPL and, according to insiders from both Sahara and the BCCI, the stalemate is likely to continue till September, when the board convenes for an annual general meeting. It is believed that the reason for the delay is that the Sahara issue has been overridden by the recent spot-fixing controversy, the fall-out of which led to a change in the BCCI top management with the president stepping aside till the probe panel completes its investigations.Despite Sahara’s public announcement of its quitting towards the end of the IPL, five weeks hence, the company hasn’t communicated its decision to the BCCI officially.”As of now, the stalemate continues. Saharashri (Subrata Roy) has made it clear in his interviews that the new BCCI management may result in Sahara continuing to be a part of the IPL,” says a senior Sahara functionary. “So the discussions are on at the moment, and nothing has been finalised yet.”The franchise had pulled out in May over financial differences with the BCCI stemming from the valuation of the annual franchise fee it has to pay. Since their inception into the IPL in 2011, Sahara and BCCI have been at loggerheads over the former’s annual franchise fees of Rs 170 crore, the highest in the IPL.Sahara had been demanding that the franchise fee from their original agreement should be recalculated proportionately since the minimum matches per year have been reduced to 14 from the 18 promised to them. As a result, both the parties had agreed to initiate arbitration procedures but the process hasn’t yet started due to their disagreement over judges for the arbitration process.According to IPL insiders, Sahara were unhappy when the Hyderabad franchise (formerly Deccan Chargers) was resold before the 2013 season to the Sun Group for an annual consideration of Rs 86 crore, almost half of Sahara’s annual fees. As a result, Sahara withheld its annual franchise fee, which resulted in the BCCI encashing the bank guarantee.The franchise agreement terms non-payment of franchise fees as an “irremediable breach”. It could result in the franchise’s termination without the need of serving a 30-day termination notice. The franchise agreement states that 30% of the annual payment has to be paid “on or before 2 January” every year. And the remaining 70% should be paid “on the date of the first match in the League in each such year”.”Either party may terminate this Agreement with immediate effect by written notice if the other party commits or permits an irremediable breach of this Agreement or if it is the subject of an Insolvency Event,” the franchise agreement says.In the past, the BCCI has taken action against defaulting franchises, including Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab and Kochi Tuskers Kerala. However, after encashing Sahara’s bank guarantee, the board seems to be buying time for now.”There is no reason for the board to act in haste. In fact, we would like to continue our association with all the team owners. If the problems are amicably resolved, there is no reason for us to take the inevitable step,” a BCCI insider said.The reason for the board’s guarded stance has nothing to do with Sahara being the title sponsors of the Indian team. Sahara stated it would continue its sponsorship till the end of December 2013, when the contract expires. What’s stalling the BCCI is that due to its internal crisis, nobody seems willing to take drastic measures.”In such a fragile environment, nobody wants to push for taking tough calls,” another insider said. “Who will be responsible in case a drastic step like terminating Sahara backfires in the court?”For the first time in its history, the BCCI’s working committee had asked its president Srinivasan to step aside till the probe against his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and the IPL team that he owns – Chennai Super Kings – is complete. Let alone the legality of the appointment as an interim chief (Jagmohan Dalmiya), the legal status of the working committee meeting that ratified the decision is under question. If any of the BCCI members take the legal recourse, all these decisions – and those that have followed including the appointments of the incumbent secretary and treasurer – may turn void.In such an insecure environment, virtually every member is buying time till the annual general meeting (AGM) and hoping that both the probes constituted to examine the alleged wrongdoings of the players, teams and team owners would have concluded by September.Depending on the developments over the next three months, the BCCI AGM may see the return of Srinivasan as the BCCI president for another year, or see him pitted against Shashank Manohar, if the anti-Srinivasan lobby manages to convince the former president, Manohar, to return to the BCCI fold in a presidential election. But the third possibility – that of the current management continuing in case the probe commission, working without a deadline, hasn’t finished its work – is dreaded by many BCCI members.”While it may suit a certain group of officials, to a large extent, it will create plenty of problems, especially with the conduct of the IPL,” says a senior BCCI member. “We will have to decide whether to terminate Sahara and the two tainted teams (Rajasthan Royals and Super Kings), discuss possible replacements and most importantly, start gearing up for the big auction (in 2014) smoothly to detract sponsors from backing out. All this would need security for the decision-makers.”If the pace at which the probe commission has gone about its work over the last few weeks is an indication, one fears that it might only submit its findings sometime next year.

An SLC official has told ESPNcricinfo that they have issued 13 bid applications for the seven franchises so far, with significant interest from investors based in India as well

Tariq Engineer20-Jun-2012There is a healthy appetite for the privatisation of cricket in Sri Lanka, going by the number of potentially interested investors in the Sri Lanka Premier League. Despite uncertainty about the participation of Indian players in the event, an SLC official told ESPNcricinfo that they have issued 13 bid applications for the seven franchises so far, with significant interest from investors based in India as well.”The last date for submitting the bids is June 25, so we could see as many as 15 or 16 applications being bought,” the official said.The base price for the franchises has been set at US$3 million, a far cry from the $50 million that the IPL set for the first team auction in 2008, but Sri Lanka is a much smaller market than India and the SLPL franchises are not being sold outright. They are being leased for a period of seven years, after which the franchisees will have to renegotiate their deals.The decision to franchise the teams is a marked difference from the original intention last year, when SLC would have retained ownership of all seven teams rather than involve private enterprise. The results of the process are bound to be closely watched, as they could provide a blueprint for smaller countries that want to host their own Twenty20 leagues.The deadline to submit bids is 2pm on June 25, and all the bids will be opened later the same day. The same investor can bid for up to three franchises. If one bidder submits the highest bid for more than one franchise, they will be allowed their choice of franchise. Once the franchises have been allotted, a player draft will be held to determine the composition of the teams.The tournament starts on August 10, with the final to be held on August 31. There will be 24 games in total, split between Colombo and Pallekele.

Hampshire began the defence of their Friends Life t20 title with a convincing seven-wicket victory over last season’s beaten finalists Somerset at the Rose Bowl

01-Jun-2011
ScorecardMarcus Trescothick scored just two runs as Somerset reached 145 for 7•Getty Images

Hampshire began the defence of their Friends Life t20 title with a convincing seven-wicket victory over last season’s beaten finalists Somerset at the Rose Bowl. Michael Lumb’s half-century, in pursuit of a 145 for 7, ensured the Royals overcame the absence of star signing Shahid Afridi to win the tournament-opener with nine balls to spare.England World Twenty20 winner Lumb set the pace for the successful chase with 53 from 33 balls at the top of the order after returning all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas took 3 for 19. Hampshire had been dealt a blow on the eve of the match when they confirmed they would be without the big-hitting talents of Afridi due to his ongoing dispute with the Pakistan Cricket Board.The hosts also began the game on minus two points after they were fined for the state of their pitch in the corresponding fixture last season. The Royals took control of the game almost from the beginning, though, after Mascarenhas, recently returned after a long stint out with an Achilles injury, struck three times inside the first six overs.The 33-year-old claimed the crucial wicket of Somerset skipper Marcus Trescothick with just his third delivery as Neil McKenzie claimed a spectacular chance at the second attempt at slip. Roelof van der Merwe and James Hildreth also quickly followed to the former England man to leave Somerset in early trouble on 37 for 3.But opener Peter Trego assumed control in a 63-run stand with Nick Compton to form the basis of Somerset’s innings. Trego thrashed three sixes and four fours in his 55 from 37 balls before he was well caught by James Vince in the deep off veteran Dominic Cork.Compton remained to add 37 from 39 balls, before he was Cork’s second victim, as Somerset set what looked a competitive total until Lumb’s fireworks.The left-hander took the lead role in a 90-run stand for the first wicket with Jimmy Adams blasting three sixes and six fours. By the time he was caught on the boundary by Arul Suppiah off Trego the hosts were well in advance of the required rate.Adams’ dismissal soon after, for 39 off 33 balls, offered Somerset the merest of incentive which was quickly extinguished by a sensible stand between Vince and McKenzie. The pair needed only operate at a run-a-ball and they took few risks before Vince (31) was bowled by Trego with just a run needed.

Mark Ramprakash struck an unbeaten half-century to guide Surrey to a seven-wicket win over Northamptonshire on the final day of their County Championship Division Two match at Wantage Road

27-May-2010

ScorecardMark Ramprakash struck an unbeaten half-century to guide Surrey to a seven-wicket win over Northamptonshire on the final day of their County Championship Division Two match at Wantage Road. Ramprakash, who also made 70 in the first innings, hit 79 off 143 balls as the visitors won for the first time in 17 Championship matches, their last success coming in this fixture last year.Former South Africa paceman Andre Nel, who blasted 96 on Thursday, had earlier taken four for 68 as Northamptonshire were reduced to 229 all out, giving Surrey a target of 241. Surrey captain Rory Hamilton-Brown then hammered an explosive 45 off 42 balls as they comfortably made that total with 10 overs to spare.The hosts began the day 165 runs ahead of Surrey on 154 for 4, with captain Andrew Hall on eight and his predecessor Nicky Boje on 18. However, Boje only faced four balls without adding to his overnight score before he smashed Tim Linley straight to Matthew Spriegel at backward point.The hosts were then left floundering on 159 for 6 when David Sales, who has been suffering with a migraine during the match, was run out by Chris Schofield at mid-wicket to bag a pair. Hall made it to 32 before he became Nel’s third victim when he edged him to Surrey wicketkeeper Steven Davies.Nel struck again by trapping James Middlebrook lbw for five before Sri Lankan seamer Chaminda Vaas (17) went via the same method off Jade Dernbach. Dernbach, who hit an unbeaten 56, then wrapped up the Northamptonshire tail by bowling Lee Daggett, who made just two.Chasing 241 with 68 overs left, Surrey made a quick start by crashing 37 off the first seven overs before losing Davies for 25, when David Willey took a superb diving catch at mid-wicket off the bowling of Boje.Arun Harinath, who went for a duck in the first innings, threw his wicket away when two short of his half-century by launching Willey to Rob White at mid-wicket. Hamilton-Brown then blasted his exciting knock of 45 before missing an attempted cut off Middlebrook and was stumped by O’Brien.This left the visitors on 156 for 3 at tea and they needed 85 from the final session for the victory. The runs continued to come freely after the break and Ramprakash reached his second fifty of the match off 94 balls. He and former Northamptonshire man Usman Afzaal, with 33 not out, then shared an unbeaten stand of 88 to carry Surrey over the line.