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Indian seamer Javagal Srinath is included in the Leicestershire squad and is all set to play in the floodlit Norwich Union League match against Kent at Canterbury on Wednesday, and the Championship game which starts the following day.Srinath has signed on as Leicestershire’s overseas player until the end of the season in place of Michael Bevan, who has now joined up with the Australian one-day squad.The debut of Srinath coincides with the debut of Steve Waugh for Kent, and a big crowd is guaranteed at Canterbury for the clash.Srinath will come into the side in place of fellow Indian star Mohammad Kaif, who joined Leicestershire on a five-day contract last week and played in the County Championbship defeat by Surrey and the Norwich Union League win over Yorkshire.Leicestershire also hope to have their captain Vince Wells back in action after he was ruled out for the two games last week by a groin injury. He will have a fitness test on Wednesday before a decision is taken.Fast bowlers Devon Malcolm and Matt Whiley are not in the squad for the Norwich Union League match, but will return for the Championship game in place of Charles Dagnall and Jamie Grove.

Somerset Under 12′ have enjoyed mixed fortunes over the last few days.On June 23rd they played against Hampshire at Farleigh School. Batting first Somerset made 106 for 9n from their 45 overs, with Nick Gibbens top scoring with 32 and Jonathan Lodwick making 20.In reply Hampshire reached their target for the loss of five wickets.On June 27th at Wells Cathedral School they made amends by beating Warwickshire.Batting first Warwickshire were all out for 99. In response Somerset reached 101 for 3, Callum Haggett making 26, Jos Butler 20 and Tom Vickery an unbeaten 15.

The Ces Dacre Files: Part OneCes Dacre was a pioneer in New Zealand cricket, the first professional to make his mark after playing for New Zealand, he qualified for the Gloucestershire club in 1930. Upon his return to New Zealand, he wrote a series of articles on his career for the long defunct New Zealand Observer. CricInfo New Zealand editor Lynn McConnell has used these articles as the basis of this feature series on one of the legends of the New Zealand game.

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In a country which has produced some notable big-hitters, Nathan Astle, Chris and Lance Cairns, John Reid, Bert Sutcliffe, Bruce Taylor, Ken Wadsworth, Jock Edwards and Craig McMillan, Ces Dacre was head of the queue, and by New Zealand standards, well ahead of his time.After touring England as vice-captain of the 1927 team, a tour on which he became the first New Zealander to score a century at Lord’s, he returned to England to play for Gloucestershire, for whom he qualified in 1930. During his first season he repaid the English county’s support by scoring 233, his highest score in a career which included 24 centuries.Thriving in the county scene, he became regarded as one of the bigger hitters in the game, and in 1931 led the country for the most sixes hit over the summer, 32 of them. It wasn’t just a fluke, as on the 1927 tour he hit 21 sixes and in the season of 1932 he hit 16.Although Dacre never played Test cricket, he did fashion an outstanding record and scored 12,230 runs at 29.18 during a 21-season career.A product of Auckland’s North Shore, his Devonport school team won the Auckland primary schools’ championship for seven years in succession. It was in these first years in cricket that he developed his taste for the big hit.”During my school career, we had some big hitters in the sides I played with, and it gave me great delight to see some of the senior players pepper the roofs of houses or even break a few windows. But in a year or so my turn to do the same came along, and many a ball I hit into a fowl yard and scattered the hens in all directions,” he recalled in his reminiscences in the New Zealand Observer.”I remember one old lady giving me a little advice when I became a nuisance to her garden. It was my first year as captain of the school eleven, and that year I had a great year with the bat. I had batted ten times and made seven centuries, including a 200 not out at Victoria Park, and every run run out.”This Saturday morning I was well on my way to three figures when the dear old lady came and asked me to take the school team to town every match as, much as she admired my cricket, she hated to see a dozen or so young boys sitting on the fence ready to retrieve any lost ball and so destroy her vegetable garden.”While at primary school, Dacre was coached by four different English professionals, A E Relf, Frank Shacklock, Dick Pearson and George Thompson. He regarded Shacklock as the pick of them.”The Notts player was a very thorough coach with boys, and I have seen him stand beside a boy for at least a couple of minutes until he was satisfied you had played the shot correctly.”Dacre’s march through the grades was impressive and he played his first senior match at the age of 14 and scored his first century for the North Shore side, against Waitemata, at Victoria Park.”The late Ted Sale was my captain, and I remember to this day how he came to me and congratulated me on my performance. I was very thrilled at the time, as I knew every word he said to me came from the bottom of his heart. He was one of nature’s gentlemen.”That same season, after scoring 184 in another senior game, he was invited to travel to Napier and Gisborne to play for E C Beale’s XI, and scored 83 and 48 at Napier.It is a reflection of the pre-World War One times Dacre grew up in, that the notion of playing at home on the back lawn was frowned upon by his mother.”Just before tea the whole family would arrive in the backyard ready for the fray. The only other dissenting voice would be raised by my mother, who would tell us we ought to feel ashamed of ourselves for playing on the Sabbath. But we generally made amends by escorting her to church.”Dacre said that while he was always playing cricket he didn’t take it that seriously during his youth, except when playing against his brothers and sisters. But he did remember one other occasion on the way home from a game for his North Shore fourth grade side.”I was strolling home and stopped to look at a match that was being played between two soft goods houses. One side had batted and the other team, one man short, had about 35 runs to get. Suddenly a gentleman came up to me and asked me if I played at all, so I said I played a bit. ‘Well son,’ he said, ‘will you be our last man in?’ I accepted his offer, donned a pair of big pads (they were nearly as big as myself) and in I went. I got the required runs and a few more as well, winning the match by one wicket. Delighted at beating their rivals, the winning eleven carried me off the field shoulder high, and could not do enough for me. They tried to persuade my father to let me go to the Masonic Hotel for dinner, but there was nothing doing.”During the winter months after dabbling in hockey at school, he took to soccer where he found he was not only a natural left-footed player, but also good off his right foot. His progress was notable and once making senior grade, again as a young player, he became a permanent fixture in the Auckland team. Selection for New Zealand followed in 1923 when the side toured Australia.”We had a very successful tour that year, as we beat the Aussies in two Tests out of three … There was no love lost between the New Zealand team and Australia. It was only a season before that an Australian team visited New Zealand, and in some of the games some hard words were used, so when we sallied forth to Australia the following winter we knew we would have to take some of the same medicine. We got some good gruellings up in the mining towns, but we never took it lying down, and what we got we gave back.”The last test match the Aussies were really after our blood, but we won a great game by 4 to 3.”But Dacre, who acknowledged he played the game hard – hard enough to have the nickname ‘Dirty Dacre’, was not a great one for practice and he recalled that several times selectors asked him when he was going to turn up for practice. “I was always deaf to such inquiries … But somehow I always managed to crawl into a side.”On another occasion he was approached by a selector: “I remember one poor selector giving me a good shake-up and telling me about all the other poor fellows doing their training in earnest, so he came to the conclusion that he must leave me out for the next rep match. I only smiled and started to walk away, but on the spur of the moment I turned and said: ‘You can’t leave me out of the side, as you must have someone who can put in the boot.’ He had to laugh and called me a few harsh names, but I was still in the side for the next game.”

A moment of unforgivable thoughtlessness slackened a tightening West Indies stranglehold late on the opening day of the fifth, decisive Cable & Wireless Test yesterday.Wavell Hinds’ wanton stroke that ended an innings of flawless quality and aggression for 113 breathed new life into an Indian team that was then barely registering a heartbeat.Their supposed advantage of bowling first on the well-grassed Sabina Park pitch had long since disappeared at 264 for one as Hinds followed a commanding opening partnership of 111 with his fellow Jamaican left-hander Chris Gayle with another of 135 for the second wicket with the stylish right-hander Ramnaresh Sarwan.All day, the 10 000 or so in the stands had celebrated the powerful strokeplay of the two Jamaicans and the touch of Sarwan.They were prepared for more when, with 22 overs remaining and a fielder pointedly stationed on the long-off boundary three overs earlier, Hinds stepped out to off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and aimed for his third six in the same direction.This time, the ball settled in Wasim Jaffer’s lap ten yards or so short of its intended target.Sabina’s din was transformed into stunned silence. It did not return until fading light brought a premature end with three overs scheduled. By then, Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan had gone as well and the West Indies were 287 for four.If Hinds did not, everyone knew that he had the Indians at his mercy. For almost five hours, he had not made a single mistake confident drives, sweeps and strokes off his legs accounting for the 14 fours he added to his two sixes.As he trudged back to the pavilion, the remorse etched all over his face revealed that he knew he presented an unearned wicket.On the way in, he passed Lara heading in the opposite direction.This was the right time for the premier West Indies batsman to put an unsatisfactory series average of 30 behind him and to play as only he can. But Lara has been a pale imitation of himself since the four-month lay-off necessitated by his elbow injury in December.Once more, he scratched around, eking out nine unconvincing runs in a half-hour. His dismissal seemed likely any ball and came off his 25th, an edge to the keeper as he felt for one outside off-stump from the left-arm swing bowler Ashish Nehra.When Sarwan was caught at leg-slip from a thin inside-edge onto pad off Harbhajan’s off-break in the next over for 65 his fourth score between 50 and 65 in the series the spring that had been squeezed out of the Indian step from early in the day suddenly reappeared.Had Shiv Sunder Das held on to captain Carl Hooper’s driven catch at extra-cover off Nehra 14 runs later, India’s fightback would have been nearly complete.It could be an expensive error. Hooper, ten at the time, has made the most of his several chances in the series, so that he came into the match with three hundreds and 556 runs in the previous four Tests.He saw out the day at 14. His partner is the left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who has also had three hundreds in the series and with whom he has shared stands of 293 in the first Test, 215 in the third and 186 in the fourth.It requires something similar if the total is to reach the heights of 500 that did not seem far-fetched when Hinds, Gayle and Sarwan were in full flight.As Hinds and Gayle shared the best opening stand of the series, for either side, and Hinds built on it with Sarwan, the Indians became increasingly frayed at the edges and ragged in the field.They seemed clueless as to where their next wicket would come from as captain Sourav Ganguly swung his changes and shifted his fielders. At one point in mid-afternoon, he trundled his unthreatening medium-pace to seven defenders on the off-side.Seduced by the greenery not even the oldest locals could remember covering a Sabina pitch, Ganguly chose to bowl on calling heads and winning the toss for the first time in the series.But the veteran Javagal Srinath and his two young left-arm accomplices, Nehra and Zaheer Khan, sprayed the new ball in all directions except where it was likely to create any damage.Gayle spent 30 balls over his first three runs, carefully assessing the situation and he and Hinds saw out six successive maidens in the first eight overs.Once they were convinced there were no devils in either the pitch or the bowling, they opened their shoulders and put the bat to the loose stuff on offer.By lunch, they had accelerated to 88, Gayle moving from three to 55 at run-a-ball rate, Hinds carrying 32 runs into the interval.On resumption, the cramp that occasionally hobbles Gayle in the middle such as in the second innings of the second Test when he had to retire brought trainer Ronald Rogers onto the field.It is impossible to assess the effect it had on Gayle’s mobility. But he added only 13 on resumption, including two spanking off-side fours off Zaheer, before he steered the same bowler to gully.Gayle’s 68 from 105 balls had 13 fours as the main scoring strokes but it made no difference to the West Indies’ deliberately aggressive approach.Sarwan was quickly out of the blocks with deft leg-glances and wristy off-side strokes, while Hinds intentionally went after Harbhajan, stepping out to twice clout him over unprotected long-off for sixes and through mid-wicket for fours.For variation, he also swept him for a couple of boundaries.He arrived at his 100 at 227 in the 65th over, justifiably rejoicing as he completed the relevant run.He has gone through difficult times since he came into the team as Man Of The Series against Pakistan two years ago and, if the manner of his dismissal was immature, he has batted with distinction on his return, both in Antigua and now here.It was only a pity that his ambitions didn’t extend to a double-century, for it was surely not out of the question.

Hampshire 2nd XI kicked off their One-Day Trophy campaign with an incredible 100-run victory over Glamorgan on the Nursery Ground of the Rose Bowl yesterday.After 45 minutes play, it didn’t look as though Hampshire would even make it to treble figures as they were left reeling at 17-5.Glamorgan’s chief destroyer was Alex Wharf, who took three quick wickets, and ex-Dorset bowler Owen Parkin took a couple.This crisis called for some serious character. Alex Morris started the rearguard with some sensible batting, but the star of the show was Irfan Shah, as he took the attack to the Welsh lads. The pair took the score past the hundred mark, with Shah driving and pulling any loose deliveries to the boundary.Morris was run out for 35. His partner continued with Damien Shirazi in another vaulable stand. Shah’s 62 and Shirazi’s 42 helped Hampshire to 201.James Schofield and James Hamblin then took up the task.Schofield ripped out 5-35, and Hamblin 3-36, as they completed the turn around with some brilliant seam bowling. That left a wicket apiece for Shah and Lawrie Prittipaul to wrap up the Glamorgan innings for just 92.

Hampshire select from the same 12 that travelled to Taunton for a one day friendly, for their opening Division I, Frizzell County Championship match against Kent at Canterbury on Friday-Monday 19th-22nd April 2002.Both John Crawley and Nic Pothas are expected to make their debuts for their new county.Hampshire Twelve: Robin Smith (captain), Will Kendall, Derek Kenway, John Crawley, Neil Johnson, Nic Pothas, Adi Aymes (wicket-keeper), Shaun Udal, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Alex Morris, Alan Mullally and Chris Tremlett.

It was interesting to note the state of the pitch this morning as a resultof concerted effort by Mr. T. Savoury, the Midlands groundsman, to recoverthe quality after the heavy season prior to the end of the National One-DayLeague. The new patches of grass are growing very nicely and the square looks in superb condition. The pitch was the usual Kwekwe wicket, with the exception of a slight damp patch at the edge of the square. This was easily rectified when some grass cuttings were spread over the damp area.Midlands won the toss and Dirk Viljoen had absolutely no hesitation in putting Mashonaland A into bat. The Midlands bowlers settled into their stride by bowling a good line and length.Mashonaland A scored 209 runs all out in 97.5 overs with the last wicket falling off the penultimate ball of the last over of the day, when Ray Pricemanaged to squeeze a ball through the defences of Amos Maungwa. Highlightsof the Mashonaland A innings included a charmed 45 off 130 balls by MarkVermeulen, who survived two early chances. Firstly he edged a ball throughthe slip cordon and later he drove uppishly into the covers. Both of thesechances came off the bowling of Campbell Macmillan. Vermeulen was finallybowled by Ed Rainsford in the 66th over. Brendon Taylor made 32 off 78 balls, Elton Chikumbura made 34 off 53 balls, and Rangarirai Manyande made 22 off 60 balls.The partnership between Mark Vermeulen and Elton Chikumbura was the onlypartnership to exceed 50 runs. They added 63 runs off 112 balls and stayedtogether for 74 minutes.All ten of the Mashonaland A wickets were shared amongst the Midlands bowlers. Campbell Macmillan took three for 54 off 30 overs and Ray Price took two for 24 off 26.5 overs. They were the pick of the Midlands bowlers. Ed Rainsford was fairly expensive, conceding 58 runs off 13 overs, but this was easily forgiven when he cleaned bowled Mark Vermeulen. Sean Ervine who was returning from injury took one for 8 in 7 overs, while John Vaughan-Davies was also fairly expensive, conceding 37 runs off 12 overs while taking one wicket. James Cornford and Dirk Viljoen both took one for 8 off four and five overs respectively.Colin Delport was exceptional behind the stumps today, taking four catches.Midlands will come out in the morning hoping to emulate their recent battingform against Matabeleland.

Hampshire 163 and 26 for 2 need a further 367 runs to beat Yorkshire 243 and 312 for 6 dec (Ballance 101*, Kohler-Cadmore 89, Hill 55)Yorkshire put themselves in a strong position to wrap up an emphatic victory against an under-manned Hampshire after another LV= County Championship day of dominance at the Ageas Bowl.Starting the day on 37 for 1 – a lead of 114 runs – the visitors batted their dispirited opponents out of the game after declaring on 312 for 6 – setting a mammoth target of 392 for an unlikely victory.Then Tykes then reduced the hosts to 26 for 2 before the close after Ben Coad had dismissed Ian Holland for 3 thanks to a one-handed diving slip catch by Harry Brook before Tom Alsop fell in the penultimate over of the day to Dom Bess to leave Hampshire 367 runs behind and needing to bat 96 overs to save the match.Ground specialist Gary Ballance chalked up his sixth score of 100 or more at the venue and his first century of the season. The left-hander belted seven leg-side sixes on his way to an unbeaten 101 – taking his overall first-class total at Southampton to 1150 in 15 innings.After losing attack leader Kyle Abbott late on day two with a foot injury that will keep him out of next week’s clash with Warwickshire, Hampshire were further rocked by the absence of fellow pace spearhead Brad Wheal before play got underway. Wheal, who has enjoyed a breakout season, didn’t take the field due to a knee problem.Although Holland and Keith Barker were left to carry the load of the seam bowling and the spin of Mason Crane and Liam Dawson took up the rest of the slack, Yorkshire batsmen Tom Kohler-Cadmore and George Hill resisted any early temptation to cut loose with just 67 runs added before lunch in an uneventful session that saw no wickets fall.It was a trend that continued until an hour after lunch when Hill edged Holland behind for 55, bringing Ballance to the crease with obvious orders from the dressing room to up the ante. The former England batter took no time in tucking in against a tired attack, hitting five sixes off Dawson on his way to his half-century.Kohler-Cadmore also broke the shackles, hitting 18 off four Crane deliveries before finding the hands of Dawson at deep extra cover to be dismissed for a fine 89.Ballance continued to tee off after tea, smashing two sixes off the part-time seam of James Vince after the Hampshire skipper had Harry Brook caught for 12 by Nick Gubbins.Jordan Thompson, promoted up the order, put on a quickfire 59 with Ballance, before holing out for an entertaining 33 and Bess departed for a duck before Steve Patterson called his players in.

England are prepared to give opportunities to fringe players and tweak their usual plans in this week’s T20I series against Pakistan, which Eoin Morgan has said they are treating as their “last chance” to look at options ahead of October’s T20 World Cup.The ICC requires teams to submit a provisional squad for world events a month before the start of each tournament, which means this is England’s last T20I series before that deadline in mid-September. While they will have the chance to fine-tune in Bangladesh and Pakistan before the World Cup starts in the UAE in October, this is their final opportunity to test fringe players.England are without a handful of first-choice players in the series: Ben Stokes was rushed back from his finger injury to captain the makeshift ODI squad last week and has been given a short break ahead of the India Test series, and while Jofra Archer is due to travel to the Ageas Bowl with the Sussex squad on Friday, he is not expected to make his return from elbow surgery this week as things stand. Reece Topley remains injured, while seven of the group who entered self-isolation after the third Sri Lanka ODI are either recovering from the virus, rested, or not selected.”Not knowing what is ahead of ourselves, we need to look more into a little bit more into strength in depth,” Morgan said. “You’ll see us giving opportunities and going through various little options in the next three games for possible injury replacements for certain players within the group.”100 percent [there will be more rotation]. The priority throughout the series will be to give guys opportunities and treating it as though it is our last chance to look at guys in various positions. I still think the roles will be the same, but there will rotation throughout the squad.”That could mean opportunities for Saqib Mahmood with the new ball, and for Lewis Gregory as a specialist finisher or a seam-bowling allrounder, following their impressive showings in the ODI leg of Pakistan’s tour. Morgan was forced to watch that series on TV while in self-isolation but said that both players had furthered their chances for inclusion in the T20I side, and described England’s approach to the series as a “compliment” to the group that had won the 2019 World Cup.”They’ve done themselves the world of good, to be honest,” Morgan said. “The one thing you look at when guys come in and out is a marked improvement from the time they [first] get the opportunity to the time the next opportunity arrives. The two guys mentioned and [James Vince] were outstanding.Related

• Saqib Mahmood, Lewis Gregory earn T20I call-ups as Eoin Morgan returns as captain

• Saqib Mahmood seizes 'fearless' team mindset to make his mark for England

• England's big guns return as chastened Pakistan seek response to ODI rout

“I think everybody within the group was extremely proud to watch them play like they did, simply because it’s the biggest compliment you can pay to anybody who played in the World Cup group, and the way we’ve played in the last five years has had such an impact on the game. Guys recognise that opportunities are few and far between but when they do come, the method that the team plays is starting to resonate with people around the country, which is great.”Over the last six years, with the amount of cricket we play, you don’t get to enjoy the cricket as much as you’d like. But sitting back and watching the guys [and] the way the guys played was hugely satisfying. They played an exciting brand of cricket, they really enjoyed themselves, and the result came with that. It was all-round hugely beneficial.”Morgan highlighted death bowling as an area for improvement last month, after admitting England had not been tested at the end of the innings during their 3-0 clean sweep against Sri Lanka, and that means there will be pressure on both Chris Jordan and Tom Curran to perform, not least after Morgan name-checked Tymal Mills as an alternative option for the World Cup last month.”I think everybody is going to get an opportunity to bowl at the death – probably not the spinners, but certainly the seamers,” Morgan said. “When you look at an area of improvement, you don’t always look at your best guys to do it when you’re trying to plan ahead. Everybody will have a chance… it’s an opportunity in these three games to look at guys under pressure.”As for Stokes, Morgan admitted that his injured finger “hasn’t come along as he and the medical team would have liked” and that he was missing the T20I series as a precaution.”He dug us out of a huge hole coming back early from his injury and I think leading the way he did is a huge compliment to the leader he is within our side, how mature he has been as a leader and now a captain,” he said. “We gave him every chance to be fit. He hasn’t played a lot of cricket and he’s had some R and R [rest and relaxation] at home and feels quite fresh. The finger hasn’t come along as he and the medical team would have liked, so it’s important it’s as good as it can be for the Test matches against India.”

ScorecardFile photo – Holly Huddleston paved the way for New Zealand’s entry into the Women’s World Cup with 4 for 20•Getty Images

New Zealand women’s bowling prowess came to the fore with right-arm medium pacer Holly Huddleston taking 4 for 20 before half-centuries from Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine studded their seven-wicket win over Pakistan Women in the fourth ODI in Nelson.That meant New Zealand extended their dominance in the series to go 4-0 up with one match remaining, and more importantly, become the third team after Australia and England to seal a spot in next year’s Women’s World Cup, leaving just one direct entry to be filled up.Pakistan, asked to make first use of a new surface at the Saxton Oval, stuttered to 158 in 48.1 overs, before New Zealand chased the total down with 165 balls remaining, having struck at well over seven an over.Bates dedicated the performance to victims of the earthquake that shook New Zealand on Monday. The match was preceded by a minute’s silence and players of both teams wore black armbands. “We wanted to pay our respects after a challenging and tragic week for New Zealand,” she said. “It’s been a tough week for some of the players who are based in Christchurch too, along with everyone else, and we wanted to go out and play some cricket to take our minds off that and honour those people who are really struggling at the moment.”Early signs did not point to such a one-sided contest, however, as Pakistan had got themselves into a strong position, scoring 107 in the 28th over for the loss of just Nahida Khan for 16 in the 13th over. But Ayesha Zafar’s dismissal, caught and bowled off Amy Satterthwaite’s right-arm medium pace, for 52 – her maiden ODI fifty – triggered a collapse with Pakistan losing their last nine wickets for 51 runs.Satterthwaite dismissed Bismah Maroof for a first-ball duck, but Javeira Khan denied her the hat-trick. Captain Sana Mir tried to keep the fight going with 31, but ran out of partners rapidly, and was the last batsman dismissed. Huddleston finished with 4 for 20 in 7.1 overs. Lea Tahuhu and Satterthwaite took two wickets each and were both economical, while Bates and Ameila Kerr took one each.New Zealand got off to a flier with Bates and Rachel Priest putting on 38 in 3.4 overs. Bates flayed Sadia Yousuf for five consecutive fours in the second over of the chase. Although Mir dismissed Priest with her fourth ball, it hardly slowed New Zealand down. Bates kept the carnage going in the company of Devine, promoted to No. 3, adding 94 in 14 overs.Bates biffed 66 off 52 balls and Devine struck 54 at just over a run a ball. Bates fell in the 18th over and Devine became Javeira Khan’s only victim less than three overs later, but with New Zealand needing just 17 and almost 30 full overs to play, it was too little too late for Pakistan.