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Worcestershire build first-innings lead after early Derbyshire collapse

ECB Reporters Network25-Jul-2022Worcestershire 141 for 5 (Kashif 52) lead Derbyshire 130 (Dal 55, Pennington 4-36) by 11 runsDillon Pennington’s burst with the new ball and Kashif Ali’s half-century on his first-class debut earned Worcestershire the initiative on the opening day of the LV=Insurance County Championship match with Derbyshire at New Road.Pennington reduced Derbyshire to 14 for 5 with four wickets in the space of 18 balls after they had been put into bat and, despite a half-century from Anuj Dal, they were bowled out for 130 in 51.1 overs.He clearly enjoys bowling against Derbyshire after registering career-best figures of 5 for 32 and a match return of 9 for 76 in the corresponding game last season.Worcestershire also had initial problems when they launched their reply but Kashif seized his chance following a mountain of runs for the second XI and they closed on 141 for 5 when bad light and then rain halted play at 5.35pm.Related

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Kashif was the first product of the South Asian Cricket Academy to sign a professional contract with a first-class county earlier this season.
Three hundreds and four fifties in his last seven knocks for the seconds was a testament to his potential and he reached a 72-ball half-century.But he became one of several players during the day who surrendered their wicket to careless shots although there was enough movement on a greenish pitch to keep the seamers interested.Worcestershire handed a debut to Pakistan pace bowler, Mohammad Hasnain. Club captain Brett D’Oliveira was ruled out with a back injury and vice-captain, Jake Libby, led the side while Derbyshire were unchanged from the team which drew with Nottinghamshire.Libby won an important toss on a green tinged wicket and his bowlers soon justified his decision to put Derbyshire into bat. Joe Leach struck with the last ball of the opening over as Harry Came was plumb lbw to a ball of full length.But it was Pennington who broke the back of the Derbyshire top order with a superb opening burst of 4-2-3-4. Brooke Guest was bowled offering no shot to a ball angled in and then Wayne Madsen, who began the day needing 32 runs to reach 1,000 for the season, did not reduce that tally as he edged as delivery which nipped away to Josh Baker at fourth slip.Luis Reece and Hilton Cartwright were both caught behind by Gareth Roderick, after pushing forward to Pennington. Derbyshire captain, Leus du Plooy, opted for an aggressive response and dominated the scoring during a sixth-wicket stand of 39 with Dal.But Ed Barnard, who is to join Warwickshire on a three-year deal from next season, made further inroads with wickets in successive overs.Du Plooy, on 38, played with an angled bat at a delivery and gave Baker another catch, this time at third slip, and Mattie McKiernan offered no shot but inside edged onto the stumps. Derbyshire were then 53 for 7 and in danger of being bowled out before lunch but resistance came from Dal and Ben AitchisonThey added 56 in 22 overs before Barnard came back into the attack and had Aitchison nibbling at a delivery which was safely pouched by Roderick. Dal mixed solid defence with some classy shots and two cuts for four off spinner Josh Baker enabled him to complete a 104-ball halfpcentury with eight boundaries.Hasnain had bowled two threatening spells without any luck but cleaned up the tail in classic fast bowler’s fashion as he yorked both Sam Conners and Dal.Worcestershire also ran into trouble against the new ball and found themselves 23 for 3 in the fifth over. Conners knocked out Libby’s off stump with a ball which nipped back and Ed Pollock, having struck Aitchison for six over midwicket, tried to upper cut his next ball and was caught behind.Taylor Cornall flicked at a leg-side delivery from Conners and also found the gloves of Guest. But the momentum of the game switched into Worcestershire’s favour as Jack Haynes and Kashif counter-attacked during a stand of 97 in 18.4 overs.Haynes reeled off a succession off delightful cover drives and flicks off his legs why Kashif produced a series of back foot punches which pierced the field. The pair took Worcestershire into the lead only to then both surrender their wickets to loose shots.

Captain relishes opportunity to learn the hard way in lead-up to T20 World Cup

Matt Roller14-Mar-2021Eoin Morgan said that he was pleased to have had the opportunity to play on a pitch that took England “out of our comfort zone” with both bat and ball in the second T20I in Ahmedabad, and that he expects another unfamiliar surface in the third game of the series on Tuesday.England struggled with the ball in their attempts to defend 164 on a pitch that offered less for their fast bowlers that the one used in Friday’s series opener. Morgan said that the surface was a “typical Indian wicket” that “exposed our weakness” and reiterated his comments before the series, when he had expressed a desire to play in different conditions ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year.”It was quite slow, low, and didn’t really turn a great deal – [a pitch] that does expose our weakness,” Morgan said. “We don’t play a lot on slow, low wickets and the more that we can do that, the better. Posting a total on a wicket like that, I thought we were right in the game… we established partnerships, we got to the point where we tried to accelerate, but managed to lose wickets at different stages.”Taking an early wicket was brilliant but India managed to get away from us quite quickly. Ishan Kishan played pretty well and managed to take the game away from us, and everything that we tried didn’t seem to work.”I thought the other night, the pitch really suited us because it had more pace in it – similar to a wicket at home, a Cardiff wicket or somewhere like that, that was a little bit uneven and maybe stood up a little bit. But this took us out of our comfort zone and really was a typical Indian wicket that we would play on in an IPL game. Again, your accuracy has to be on, and you’re bowling to guys really on their home patch when you talk about a wicket like this.”To become better in these conditions, the only way you do that is by playing and making mistakes. You tend to learn quicker if you’re winning and confident and everything goes reasonably smoothly – you can integrate the learning quite quickly – but equally, if we have to learn the hard way, we’re still going through that process of trying to learn game-on-game so when it comes to the World Cup in seven months’ time, we can be as best prepared or know more about ourselves and where we need to get better before then.”Adil Rashid’s expression summed up England’s position in the chase•Getty Images

Morgan emphasised the importance of batsmen taking on the right match-ups on pitches that are harder to bat on, and stressed that he had no issues with any of his side getting out while taking an attacking option against a bowler-type that they are generally strong against – much as both Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow did in holing out to deep midwicket against the offspin of Washington Sundar.”Particularly when it comes to batting, the biggest sixes guys hit are when it looks like they’ve put no effort into it, so maintaining your shape when you’re hitting the ball [is important],” he said. “Attacking a bowler that you know you’ve got an advantage with, or you play that type of bowler really well – things like that, trying to improve positions that we get into, and when we do get into a position, taking advantage of it.”Most players should know their game inside-out – where they struggle and where they’re strong. It’s when they’re strong against whoever, it’s taking that option and not hesitating in doing it. If you get out doing it, you’re taking the right option.”Related

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The third T20I will be played on a red-soil pitch rather than a black-soil one, which is likely to bring spinners into the game much more than the surfaces for the first two matches of the series. As a result, England are likely to bring Moeen Ali into the side, with Tom Curran the most likely man to give way after an expensive showing on Sunday night.”The next game is on the red soil that looks like Ayers Rock so it’s probably going to turn,” Morgan said. “These are the challenges that we want to play against. Regardless of how we do in the series we want to learn as much as we can and get that experience under our belt for the World Cup.”Because we’re playing on a different type of soil, on the red soil not the black soil, there’s a chance that it might take more spin which probably lends itself to batting first if it doesn’t hold as well together as the black soil, which traditionally it doesn’t. It might lend itself to posting a total because the wicket might get worse.”The two wickets we’ve played on have not turned. We looked at them and didn’t expect them to turn, but potentially, the next game might offer a little bit for the spinners.”Mark Wood missed the second T20I with a bruised heel, but Morgan said the injury was “not a big worry”. “He felt better again today but not fit enough to play,” Morgan said. “Hopefully he’ll be available for the game in two days’ time, but if not, the fourth match.”

He had three WhatsApp chats with a bookie – in November 2017, January 2018 and April 2018

Nagraj Gollapudi29-Oct-2019Failure to report several approaches from Deepak Aggarwal, an alleged corruptor who was seeking inside information, is why Shakib, Bangladesh’s Test and T20I captain, was banned by the ICC’s anti-corruption unit on Tuesday.We don’t know yet why Shakib, the game’s premier allrounder (he is ranked third in Tests, first in ODIs and second in T20Is in the ICC’s player rankings), failed to report the approaches to the ACU, especially as he has previously reported corrupt approaches. But we do know a little about the conversations with Aggarwal that led to this sanction.November 2017According to information made public by the ICC, the first time Aggarwal got in touch with Shakib was in November 2017 during the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), where he was playing for Dhaka Dynamites. Shakib’s contact, the ICC said, was provided to Aggarwal by “another person” who was close to the player. Aggarwal had asked this unnamed person to “provide” him with contacts for players in the tournament.Over the course of several WhatsApp messages, Aggarwal tried to arrange a meeting with Shakib.January 2018Bangladesh hosted an ODI tri-series with Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. On January 19, Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka and Shakib was Man of the Match. Aggarwal “congratulated” Shakib on his performance and then followed it with a cryptic message that raised eyebrows at the ACU. “Mr Aggarwal followed this message with a message saying “do we work in this or I wait til the IPL”,” the ICC said in a statement. “The reference to in this message was a reference to him [Shakib] providing Inside Information to Mr Aggarwal.”Shakib didn’t report this approach either to the ACU, or to any other relevant authority.Four days later, Aggarwal sent another message, a more explicit one, to Shakib: “Bro anything in this series?” Once again, Shakib opted not to report the approach to the ACU or even the BCB.April 2018On April 26, during IPL 2018, Sunrisers Hyderabad – Shakib’s franchise – were playing a home match against Kings XI Punjab. Aggarwal messaged Shakib on the day of the match, and it was during this conversation that Shakib eventually said he wanted to meet Aggarwal.”He received a WhatsApp message from Mr Aggarwal that day asking him whether a particular player was going to be playing in the game that day, i.e. again asking for Inside Information,” the ICC statement said. “Mr Aggarwal continued this conversation with him by talking about bitcoins, dollar accounts and asked him for his dollar account details. During this conversation, he told Mr Aggarwal that he wanted to meet him .”Shakib admitted to the ACU later that he had deleted several other messages from this April 26 WhatsApp conversation. It was then that Shakib grew concerned. However, once again, he did not report the approach.”He confirmed that he had concerns over Mr Aggarwal, feeling he was a bit , and that, following their conversations, he had the feeling that Mr Aggarwal was a bookie,” the ICC statement said.The ACU officers interviewed Shakib in person in Bangladesh twice this year – on January 23 and then on August 27.Shakib readily accepted the charges.”During these interviews, Mr Al Hasan was cautioned that the answers and information provided by him could be used as evidence to support a charge or charges in relation to a breach of the Code, if they revealed that Mr Al Hasan might have breached the Code, either by acting corruptly himself or by failing to report corrupt approaches or corrupt actions by others. After receiving these cautions, Mr Al Hasan admitted various failures to report approaches made to him to provide Inside Information to Mr Aggarwal.”

The Australia coach has said that conditions need to be addressed to eradicate the threat of ball-tampering

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Nov-2018Australia coach Justin Langer believes ball-tampering is an “international” issue the game needs to confront and has urged a better balance of conditions to ward off the temptation to alter the condition of the ball.Langer took charge of the Australia team in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal at Newlands which led to Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft being banned and soon saw Darren Lehmann resign as coach.While stressing that what took place was a “huge mistake” Langer said that ball-tampering remained a widespread issue.”My honest view is, it’s an international problem,” he said in an interview with Adam Gilchrist on . “I can’t for a single second understand how we took sandpaper out on to the field, that doesn’t make any sense to me.”What I do know is that the issue with people ball-tampering is something that’s going on internationally.””It’s a real worry. The way I think about this is, remember when you’re a little kid and you played backyard cricket with your brother and you put the tape on one side of the ball because it had to swing, because if you don’t get ball to swing you can’t get your brother out and it’s a pretty boring game.”We’ve got to get the pitches right around the world so that the ball does it move, whether it spins or swings.”Langer’s comments follow on from the views of Steve Waugh who argued that it was the ICC’s lenient approach to ball-tampering within the code of conduct that created an environment where things went as far as they did in South Africa.”There have been captains in the past who have been done for tampering with the ball and the penalties have been very lenient so there was no penalty for doing something wrong and it was always going to get to the case where it got out of control,” Waugh told ESPNcricinfo.The events at Newlands led to the reviews of Australian cricket which were revealed earlier this week and made for tough reading for those involved in running and playing the game. The board was termed “arrogant” and “controlling” while it was said the players lived in a “bubble” and had become obsessed with a win-at-all-costs approach instilled by CA.”The most interesting thing in my last six months I’ve heard is that, almost globally, ‘The Australian cricket team’s culture is terrible. Their behaviours are disgraceful,'” Langer said. “What I do know is that the players in there are the best young blokes you’ll ever see. They work hard, they’re really professional and they’re really nice young blokes.”I think you’ll see that shine over the next little bit.”Meanwhile Langer’s predecessor, Lehmann, has opened up on his continued struggles to come to terms with what happened in Cape Town and revealed he continues to receive counselling.”I saw people, and am still seeing people about it. That’s a work in progress,” Lehmann told Sydney’s . “I don’t think people know how much it affects people behind the scenes, but that’s one of those things that you go through. The help of family and close friends got me through.”Australia will play their first match on home soil since the tampering scandal when they face South Africa in the first ODI in Perth on Sunday.

One-hundred and sixteen foreign players, including 10 Kolpak players, will be up for grabs in the inaugural player draft of South Africa’s T20 Global League

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Aug-2017Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman and England’s Alex Hales are among 116 overseas names who will feature in the inaugural player draft of South Africa’s T20 Global League, which will be held this weekend.Zaman and Hales are listed under the openers’ category, which also features three international marquee players in Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Jason Roy. The international marquee players across other categories include Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Lasith Malinga. The marquee players, who had been named in April, will also be assigned individually to the eight franchises.Ten Kolpak players, including Colin Ingram, Richard Levi, David Wiese, and Marchant de Lange, are part of the draft. More notable, however, is the absence of Rilee Rossouw and Kyle Abbott, the most recent high-profile names to have signed Kolpak deals.Yorkshire batsman Adam Lyth, who recently hit the highest score in a T20 in England, and Shahid Afridi, who struck his first T20 hundred against Derbyshire on Tuesday, will also feature in the draft.Misbah-ul-Haq and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who had retired from international cricket, are also part of the draft alongside Associate players Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands), Kevin O’Brien (Ireland), Dawlat Zadran (Afghanistan) and Kyle Coetzer (Scotland). The list also includes former Pakistan allrounder Abdul Razzaq, who forayed into coaching recently with the Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).Meanwhile, as ESPNcricinfo had reported earlier, Durban Qalandars named Paddy Upton as coach, with Aaqib Javed to oversee the bowlers and double-up as director of cricket operations. New Zealand allrounder Grant Elliott, who has played for Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League, was named assistant coach of Durban.

Mark Pettini and Mark Cosgrove made Derbyshire’s target look easy meat as Leicestershire emerged victors by nine wickets

ECB Reporters Network08-Jul-2016
ScorecardMark Pettini found Derbyshire’s target appealing [file picture]•Getty Images

Leicestershire Foxes kept their T20 season alive by comprehensively dismantling East Midlands rivals Derbyshire Falcons under the floodlights at the Fischer County Ground. A century opening stand compiled by Foxes skipper Mark Pettini and Mark Cosgrove in just ten overs made Derbyshire’s score of 158 all out look what it was: hopelessly inadequate.With eight of the previous nine games involving the Falcons having been won by the chasing side, Pettini had no hesitation in choosing to bowl after winning the toss. The opening over of the Derbyshire innings was an eventful one, as Ben Raine bowled two front foot no-balls in his first three deliveries and conceded 13 runs before Wes Durston attempted to force off the back foot and got an inside edge to wicket-keeper Lewis Hill.If that was a straightforward catch for Hill, the top edge that he held off Hamish Rutherford in Raine’s next over was anything but. Rutherford’s mishit spiralled back over the wicket-keeper’s head, butbHill turned and sprinted 40 yards towards the boundary before flinging himself full length to take the ball two handed a foot above the ground.Raine then picked up a third wicket when he pinned Chesney Hawkes leg before with a well pitched up delivery which swung back in to the tall left-hander, leaving the Falcons on 42-3 in the sixth over, but Neil Broom and Wayne Madsen steadied the ship with a partnership of 54 for the fourth wicket.Broom came into the game having failed to make much impact with the bat for the Falcons this season, but the New Zealander combined judicious placement with some well timed hitting to score his first T20 half-century of the season. Madsen was less fluent but gave Broom good support before steering Kevin O’Brien to short third man, where Mark Cosgrove held the catch above his head.Broom was unfortunate when he attempted to swing Farhaan Behardien’s delivery into the leg side, only to edge the ball into his pad and on to his off-stump, and with wickets continuing to fall, it needed a hard-hitting 45 off 23 balls from Neesham to ensure the Foxes would be required to score at eight an over to win the match.Pettini and Cosgrove quickly made the target look straightforward. Pettini, who had the majority of the early strike, was first to his half-century, hitting nine fours in going to 50 off 32 balls. Cosgrove, once he started to get the strike, was simply brutal, huge maximums off Tom Milnes and Alex Hughes among the four sixes he hit in 1 26 ball 50 before giving Durston a simple caught and bowled.While Pettini continued to play sensibly, Leicestershire’s powerful South Africa international batsman Cameron Delport was able to pick up where Cosgrove left off, hitting two sixes, the last to win the match off Matt Critchley, as Leicestershire crossed the line with more than four overs to spare.

A loud noise halfway through the Pakistan innings, audible to those in the ground and even inside the enclosed press box, has been explained by the police as a transformer blast

ESPNcricinfo staff29-May-2015A loud noise halfway through the Pakistan innings, audible to those in the ground and even inside the enclosed press box, has been explained by the police as an electricity transformer explosion. The blast, police have said, took place near the outermost ring of the three-tier security at Ferozpur road, near Pakistan Sports Board Coaching Centre street, about 800 metres from the Gaddafi Stadium itself.The series, the first set of internationals in Pakistan in more than six years, is being conducted under heavy security. More than 4000 policemen have been deployed as part of the security arrangements with two companies of Rangers – Pakistan’s paramilitary forces – on standby throughout the series. The Nishtar sports complex, which also houses the Gaddafi stadium, is under surveillance through a system of closed-circuit security cameras and public entry for the games is on foot through extensive security layers.

England’s Holly Colvin has said that women’s cricket in Kenya will only improve if their cricketers are allowed to play alongside men in club cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Oct-2012England’s Holly Colvin has said that women’s cricket in Kenya will only improve if their cricketers are allowed to play alongside men in club cricket.Speaking on a visit to Kenya with the Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB) charity, Colvin told the Nairobi-based Star there were not enough female cricketers in the country to enable them to play enough and at a sufficient standard to build their game.”It’s very difficult to improve if you not playing someone stronger than you,” she said. “The players will have to play alongside men either in the same team or against them. If this happens, then Kenya should expect to do well in their matches.”Colvin helped hone her game by playing alongside men in Sussex. “The boys don’t treat me any different,” she said. “I know how it feels to play against men but when you work hard and take it as a challenge, then things become easier for you and improvement is almost automatic.”Kenya’s women have struggled on the international stage and they face another tough challenge in December when they take part in the 2014 T20 World Cup Qualifiers. “It’s always a dream of any cricketer to play at a World Cup and I am sure this is what every member of the Kenyan team is looking forward to,” Colvin said. “But they will have to realise that this can only come through hard work.”

Alan Butcher, Zimbabwe’s coach, singled out dropped catches as the reason for his team squandering their chance of being competitive in the latter stages of the Test

Firdose Moonda in Bulawayo05-Sep-2011Alan Butcher, Zimbabwe’s coach, singled out dropped catches as the reason for his team squandering their chance of being competitive in the latter stages of the Test against Pakistan. Zimbabwe dropped six catches in Pakistan’s first innings and conceded a lead of 54 runs, after they had scored an impressive 412 themselves.”Catching probably cost us a chance of winning,” Butcher said. “We had every reason to believe that we would get a first-innings lead.” Mohammad Hafeez, who was Pakistan’s only centurion, was dropped twice, while Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Umar Akmal were also put down. The bulk of the missed chances were relatively simple and Brendan Taylor said the team felt a general “frustration” at not taking their opportunities.They were less hard on themselves for the batting collapse in the second innings, which resulted in Pakistan being given a small target to chase. “On this wicket there was always potential for a collapse,” Butcher said. “[Saeed] Ajmal will cause better teams than ours some problems but we were disappointed to lose so many wickets to Hafeez in the second innings, because we thought he didn’t spin it that much.”Hafeez took four middle- and lower-order wickets after Ajmal had bagged three, with Aizaz Cheema chipping in with one. After slumping 69 for 8 on the fourth day, defeat appeared certain for Zimbabwe, but Tatenda Taibu’s stubborn half-century gave them slim hope of posting a defendable total. “We wanted to try and bat a session, bat some time out of the game and then chip away and build a lead,” Taylor said. “We knew anything could happen given their [Pakistan’s] history.”For a change, “anything” did not happen and Pakistan went on to record a routine victory. Zimbabwe lost by a smaller margin than the last time they played Pakistan – a 10-wicket defeat in Bulawayo in 2002 – and instead of dwell on the defeat they are opting to zone in on other aspects of their game as they look to rebuild a reputation in Test cricket.”There are a lot of positives to take out of this,” Taylor said “I wouldn’t say more than the Bangladesh game, but there are definitely positives. It was good to see us bat for 150 overs.” Butcher also lauded the first innings effort, in particular Tino Mawoyo’s maiden Test century. “Having an opening batsman bat through an innings was good.”Ajmal proved the major threat of the match, and tested Zimbabwe right through the first innings, even when the pitch had yet to show cracks. Butcher was pleased with the way Zimbabwe tried to withstand his assault. “We said if he is going to get a lot of wickets, then we will make him bowl a lot of overs for it and we made Ajmal bowl 50 overs to get his four wickets.”The Zimbabwe bowlers had a tough time on an unresponsive strip and Taylor thought, “The spinners worked hard together and showed good character,” while Butcher was impressed that, “having conceded so quickly at the start to have pulled it back was also good.”Zimbabwe’s inexperienced seam attack of Brian Vitori, Kyle Jarvis and Chris Mpofu took a pasting, managing only four wickets between them. Vitori, the nation’s wonderkid after his performances against Bangladesh, did not snag a single victim. “There were high hopes for him after Harare, he is hungry to learn,” Taylor said. “He has a great attitude and he will be back.”Butcher said the unhelpful surface will only aid Vitori’s development. “It took him a lot longer to find his length,” he said. “He has probably been brought back down to earth after his spectacular start but it was always going to happen.” While Vitori was expensive, Jarvis and Mpofu leaked a little less and Taylor said the pair could “hold their heads up high” for a brave showing.

Iain O’Brien, the former New Zealander seamer, faces an uncertain future at Middlesex after Australian opener Chris Rogers’ recent move from Derbyshire to Lord’s

Cricinfo staff10-Sep-2010Iain O’Brien, the former New Zealander seamer, faces an uncertain future at Middlesex after Australian opener Chris Rogers’ recent move from Derbyshire to Lord’s.O’Brien signed a three-year contract with Middlesex before the season started but there is a clause that states if he can’t qualify as a domestic player in years two and three the deal can be withdrawn.Unless O’Brien can persuade the ECB to class him as a domestic player – because he is married to a English woman – Rogers’ move means O’Brien will be unlikely to stay at Lord’s.”In the contract was a clause that gave Middlesex CCC an option to terminate the agreement should the club’s requirements change and if Iain’s attempts to qualify as a local player failed,” Middlesex chief executive Vinny Codrington said on the club’s website.”To date, ours and Iain’s attempts to sign him as a locally registered player for 2011 and 2012 have proven problematic, leaving him in an extremely difficult position contractually. We have spoken at length with Iain, and support him in his quest to challenge this decision and to gain registration in England as a domestic player.”After a largely injury-free career, O’Brien has been hampered by injury at Middlesex this season. He has played only seven of the 16 first-class matches, taking 23 wickets at an average of 27.30 with a best of 8 for 105.