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It’s an amazing life Lendl Simmons leads. One day he is lounging at his home in the Caribbean, watching the World T20 from afar then he is winning a semi-final

Nagraj Gollapudi in Mumbai31-Mar-2016It’s an amazing life Lendl Simmons leads. One day he is lounging at his home in the Caribbean, watching the World T20 from afar. Then last Sunday Clive Lloyd, West Indies’ chairman of selectors, calls him immediately after Andre Fletcher has done a hamstring while West Indies slip against Afghanistan. Lloyd is simple and direct with Simmons: are you fit and confident to walk into the World T20 campaign as a replacement for Fletcher? Walk into the most important match West Indies have played so far in the tournament?Simmons gets his feet off the sofa in his home in Trinidad and tells Lloyd he is in. He lands in Mumbai on Tuesday to join the West Indies squad. He has taken two flights, flown across the continents and straightaway hit training. He must be weary, no?Little wonder then that the first questions Simmons is asked immediately after his match-winning performance deals with whether has he had enough sleep. Simmons smiles and assures every one that he had enough rest.”I was very rested for this game,” Simmons said before happily breaking down his sleep timetable in the short time he has been in India. “I slept on both flights. I came here and I slept the night. In the morning I had practice. After that I slept from 3-10pm. Slept again from 12pm-4pm. So I was very rested.”According to Simmons one big advantage he had was the familiarity with the venue, which is the home ground of Mumbai Indians, the franchise he plays for in the IPL. “I was coming here. I was to leave on Friday to come to Mumbai to get ready for the IPL. I saw it as an opportunity to come and get ready for the IPL as well. Seeing this is my home ground as well I know the conditions, think I read it well.”With his IPL experience and having watched Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni earlier in the evening, Simmons said he already knew what his plan was. “When I went out to bat I had a clear mind of what I wanted to do because we had a target to chase. But before the game I was a bit nervous. I was under a bit of pressure as the guys said I came here for a job. But in all it was good. We had a target to chase. And we got there.”Asked exactly at what point he felt West Indies had wrested control from India, Simmons’s surprising response was never. “At no point I thought that we had it under control because as when a wicket falls you never know,” Simmons said.But what made the chase easier for West Indies, Simmons revealed, was India’s “suspect” bowling. According to Simmons, in the absence of spin from the pitch and the reluctance of Dhoni to give the ball to his premier spinner R Ashwin, West Indies found it easier to find a way out despite the early loss of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels. “The bowling was suspect. They had Nehra and Bumrah, two fast bowlers, but not express pace,” he said.Right from the first day in India, West Indies have spoken about how each of the 15 players is a match-winner in the squad. How each one needs to take the responsibility to take over the responsibility if the other fails. So when Gayle was bowled by Jasprit Bumrah and Samuels erred in his shot selection, West Indies did not panic even as the Indian fans danced merrily imagining their team contesting for the crown against England at Eden Gardens on Sunday evening.”India will certainly be aware that is not a one-man show in this team because Chris Gayle did not get off tonight but we still managed to get over the line and it was a big total. Seeing that he did not perform and we were still able to put up a fight and win the game with balls to spare shows a lot of character from our players.”Simmons did have the customary word of caution going into the final that they could not be overconfident against England. But he was not shy declaring that there was more than one man in the dressing room who could stand up if the others failed. “Every one of our players is a match-winner in our team: Sammy to bat, Bravo to bat, Russell came in, he played his part, Ramdin still to bat. We have a lot of batting power and any total anyone makes we can chase it. We always back ourselves to chase totals.”Simmons’ voice is soft. At times you have to strain to hear him. In comparison to the other powerful batsmen in the team, Simmons is short, lanky, less muscular. But with bat in hand Simmons loses that softness. He can pack a punch and demolish bowling attacks without blasting the ball hard. On Thursday evening he quietly silenced the Wankhede faithful to their utter shock and despair. They had had come to watch Kohli. They had come to watch Dhoni. They had come to watch Gayle. They went back having watched a gem from Lendl Simmons.

Rangana Herath wants to cap his 17-year international career off by becoming the third Sri Lankan bowler to take 300 wickets in Tests

Sa'adi Thawfeeq23-Apr-2016While Rangana Herath may have retired from limited-overs cricket to extend his Test career, there may still be doubts over how much he could put his 38-year old body and those surgically repaired knees through. The Sri Lanka left-arm spinner, though, wanted to secure 300 Test wickets and be part of his team’s next 10 Tests before taking a call on his future.”I have not set any goals for myself. Whenever I have played for my country, I have always wanted to see how best I could contribute to win,” he said. “That has been my approach all the time. It would be a big achievement if I can get to 300 Test wickets, but after that, I don’t see any goals that I can pursue.”There are about ten Tests lined up for this year and I’ve decided that I can manage myself and my knees playing in that format rather than the hustle and bustle of one-day cricket,” he said.Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas are the only Sri Lankans with 300 or more Test wickets. Herath is three short of the mark and could get to it this May in the first of three matches against England at Headingley, the venue where he played a starring role in a famous win for Sri Lanka in 2014.With three Tests at home, against Australia, to follow the England tour and three Tests in South Africa in December, Sri Lanka would want to retain Herath’s services for as long as possible. He has been the team’s leading wicket-taker since Muralitharan’s retirement in July 2010. Overall, only James Anderson and Stuart Broad have taken more wickets than Herath’s 226 in this period.The problem, though, is his fitness. In 2012, he underwent arthroscopic surgery to have the cartilages of both knees repaired.”It was fine for the first few years or so, but with the extra workload of playing international cricket, the pain in both knees started to come back, especially when I am running,” Herath said. “I have managed to continue playing by taping my knees. I was not 100% certain of being fit to play in all three formats, that’s why I decided to stick to Test cricket, a pace at which I can manage my legs. I am lucky that I didn’t end up as a fast bowler because my career wouldn’t have lasted this long.”Herath’s retirement would leave another hole in a Sri Lankan side that is struggling to cope with the retirements of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. But Herath expressed faith in the youngsters coming through. “You don’t need one bowler to run through the entire opposition,” he said. “We still have quality fast bowlers and spinners who can take 20 wickets to win a Test match.”We have plenty of good spinners around, like Dilruwan Perera, Tharindu Kaushal, Sachithra Senanayake and Jeffrey Vandersay, but they need to be given a consistent run in the national team. That is how they will gain the confidence to bowl under pressure and under different conditions and situations and win matches for us. I will certainly want to share my experience and help young spinners and contribute in whichever way I can.”Herath made his Test debut as a 21-year old in 1999, but it took him over a decade to find a permanent place in Sri Lanka’s XI. “When I was dropped from the side, I never gave up hope. I knew I had the skill to play for the national team and kept on performing at domestic level,” he said. “The national selectors thought that I was good enough and persisted with me for virtually all the matches played by the Sri Lanka A team. That gave me hope that one day I would be considered to play in the senior side.”A tours, however, were infrequent at that time and Herath had been playing in the Staffordshire League in England in 2009, when he was summoned to the national squad to replace an injured Muralitharan for the home Tests against Pakistan. He took 15 wickets at 26.93 and helped Sri Lanka win the series 2-0.Although Herath played 71 ODIs and 17 T20Is, he never played in a World Cup final until 2014 when Sri Lanka beat India to lift the World T20 title in Bangladesh. His 5 for 3 against New Zealand in a virtual quarter-final at that tournament is widely regarded as the best bowling performance in the shortest format.Herath had helped his team enter World Cup finals on two other occasions, but was left out for the summit clashes. In the 2011 World Cup semi-final, he took 1 for 31 off nine overs against New Zealand, and in the 2012 World T20, he returned his second-best figures of 3 for 25 against Pakistan, both at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.Herath has not thought of life after cricket yet. “I am still employed with Sampath Bank and have some years to serve with them,” Herath, who is presently their business promotions manager, said. “I am lucky to have an employer like Sampath Bank who has never questioned my position even on occasions when I had not been part of the national team.”

Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland both strike twice in an over as Australia look to capitalise on 82-run lead

Valkerie Baynes27-Dec-2021Some vintage James Anderson bowling kept England in the contest on an eventful second day of the third Test at the MCG, only for the tourists’ brittle batting to falter in the face of a devastating blitz by Australia’s quicks which put the hosts on the verge of sealing the series.Debutant Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc claimed two wickets each to crush England during a scintillating final hour and undo the effect of Anderson’s four-wicket haul, which had fleetingly given the tourists hope.With their warm-up routine thrown into chaos by four positive Covid tests among team staff and their families which delayed their departure for the ground – and the start by half an hour – England showed the sort of bottle that was sorely missing as Australia romped to a 2-0 series lead to wrest back some control with the ball. Cleared to play after passing lateral flow Tests in the morning, the England players were scheduled to undergo PCR testing at the close of play, with the match allowed to proceed in the meantime.And it was the 39-year-old Anderson, who made his international debut at the same ground in an ODI in 2002, leading the way with two particularly miserly spells which yielded the important wickets of Steve Smith and Marcus Harris, who top-scored with 76, either side of lunch.Australia were bowled out for 267, a first-innings lead of 82 runs. But England’s top order had no answers as Starc claimed two wickets in as many balls to put them 2 for 7. As if the pressure on England captain Joe Root wasn’t cranked up enough, he barely survived Starc’s hat-trick ball, an unplayable delivery beating his outside edge.Related

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By the close, England were in disarray after Starc struck in the fifth over of the innings when he found Zak Crawley’s outside edge, taken by keeper Alex Carey for 5, and then trapped Dawid Malan lbw for a first-ball duck.Pat Cummins maintained the pressure in an outstanding spell, while Boland came on for the penultimate over and had Haseeb Hameed caught behind with his third ball, then removed nightwatchman Jack Leach with a gem that clattered into the top of off stump two balls later as the match slipped back into a more familiar rhythm with England staring down a series defeat.Root was unbeaten on 12 at the end of the day and Ben Stokes on 2 but, as capable as the England duo are of hauling their side out of trouble, the mission looked beyond even those two.By the time Anderson took the second new ball in the final session, Australia were eight wickets down and led by 51. He then proceeded to fling himself into the air at mid-on to stop a ball struck firmly by Cummins that was surely headed to the boundary. And while his failure to cling on with his outstretched right hand constituted a drop, his effort enhanced an already impressive display of professionalism by England’s elder statesman.Anderson bowled 10 maidens en route to his haul of 4 for 33 from 23 overs. Having dismissed opener David Warner the previous evening, Anderson bowled Smith for just 16 after Ollie Robinson had removed nightwatchman Nathan Lyon in the fourth over of the second day. Smith fell in a superb Anderson spell of 6-5-1-1, the only run coming off the first ball, an inside edge when Smith was on 5 which Jos Buttler got glove tips to but could only parry the chance to fine leg.James Anderson claimed 4 for 33 to keep England fighting•Getty Images

Mark Wood, too, bowled well and he struck with his third ball of the day when the dangerous Marnus Labuschagne fell for just 1 as the first of Root’s three catches at slip.Under-pressure Harris went to lunch unbeaten on 48, having overtured an lbw decision to Ben Stokes when he was on 36 with replays showing that there was bat on ball.Australia helped themselves to six runs off the first over after lunch, bowled by Leach, and 10 off the second, from Wood, during which time Harris raised his third Test fifty. Both bowlers’ subsequent overs were tighter but, as if to ram home the fact that England were in danger of letting their good morning’s work come undone, Buttler then fluffed a stumping chance off Harris when he was on 63. The opener advanced at Leach, who saw him coming and fired the ball down the leg side, only for Buttler to thrust out his right glove in vain.Robinson broke through to dismiss Travis Head, caught by Root, and Anderson had Harris out in similar fashion three runs shy of equalling his best Test score during another outstanding four-over spell that yielded just two runs.Australia hit the front late in the middle session before Leach, back after a torrid time at the hands of Australia’s batters in the opening Test at the Gabba, trapped Cameron Green lbw in the second over after tea.Stokes removed Carey before Starc and Cummins added 34 runs for the ninth wicket, the third-highest partnership of Australia’s innings.
Anderson struck again in the fourth over with the new ball to dismiss Cummins, caught by Hameed at point, and Wood had debutant Boland taken in the slips to close out the innings, for what it was worth, given what was to come.

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal sustained a fracture on the ring finger of his left hand while fielding at team practice in Mirpur on Saturday

Mohammad Isam28-Aug-2016Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal sustained a fracture on the little finger of his left hand while fielding at team practice in Mirpur on Saturday. An X-ray on Sunday confirmed the nature of the injury.BCB’s chief physician Debashish Chowdhury said that Tamim is likely to be ruled out for two to three weeks, which means that he could be uncertain for selection for the ODIs against Afghanistan, if they go ahead in September.”He has fractured his finger during catching practice,” Chowdhury said. “The good thing is that the fracture did not spread and is in one place. We are hopeful for him to recover within two to three weeks.”Tamim was taking part in a training session ahead of Bangladesh’s home series against England. He is likely to be fit by the time it starts, in October.

Riki Wessels made an unbeaten 159, his highest score for Nottinghamshire since he fell one short of a double hundred against Sussex at Hove in May 2012

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge29-May-2016
ScorecardRiki Wessels made his highest first-class score for four years•Getty Images

Nottinghamshire’s season is in danger of following last season’s perilous trajectory, three defeats in their opening six Championship matches again leaving them with catching up to do. With Chris Read out of the picture until some time in July with a broken hand and thus unable to organise the lower middle-order rescue act that has become his speciality, you fancy the challenge this time might be greater still.A tough fixture against a resurgent Durham, chasing a third consecutive win, did not look the ideal moment to be relying on batsmen in unreliable form yet two of them have delivered abundant runs here, as a result of which Paul Collingwood’s team is the one needing to fight back.Brendan Taylor, whose 71 in the defeat at the Ageas Bowl last week was his first innings of substance this season, followed up with his first century for almost a year on Saturday and, after an opening passage not without difficulties, Riki Wessels matched him and more, building on similar portents of returning form against Hampshire by making an unbeaten 159, his highest score since he fell one short of a double hundred against Sussex at Hove in May 2012.Backed up by a career-best 74 from Brett Hutton in a partnership that added 197 for the seventh wicket, Wessels enabled Nottinghamshire to build further on the recovery from 27 for 3 engineered by Taylor and Samit Patel on the opening day to reach a total that ought to be enough, at the very least, to ensure a fourth defeat is avoided.Watchful at first, perhaps even a little fortunate at times as Graham Onions and the returning Chris Rushworth bowled with skill but no luck in the first hour or so, Wessels completed a 92-ball half-century with a streaky four to third man off Onions but pushed on confidently thereafter, Durham suffering for the absence from their attack of one of their seam quartet, Brydon Carse, who has a foot injury. Wessels moved from 50 to 100 in 64 more balls and from 100 to 150 in just 42. Even so, he did not take any serious liberties in looking for boundaries until the reverse sweep off Scott Borthwick that took him to 150.”I’ve felt all right but kept getting out in different ways,” Wessels said, reflecting on a run of low scores after an 81 in the opening fixture against Surrey. “Onions and Rushworth bowled well first up so it was good to get past fifty and push on this time.”The Wessels innings spanned four and a half hours, after which he was compelled to swap batting gloves for wicketkeeping gauntlets as Read’s stand-in behind the stumps, from which vantage point he was able to watch Jackson Bird deliver a damaging burst of three wickets in six deliveries either side of tea as a solid start to Durham’s replay unravelled.From 72 without loss they slipped to 75 for 3 as Keaton Jennings and Mark Stoneman succumbed to near-identical dismissals, each clipping balls that were caught low down at short midwicket, before Jack Burnham was pinned in front first ball.The Australian finished on 4 for 59, which perhaps did not do justice to his performance on a wicket that is not offering much to the bowlers.Bird missed the defeat at Hampshire through a minor injury. Luke Fletcher might consider himself unlucky to be the man left out to accommodate him after taking 12 wickets in his last two matches but in a straight choice between him and Hutton, Nottinghamshire took the view that in Read’s absence the young all-rounder was a likelier source of runs and were justified in doing so.After a wicketless morning, Durham enjoyed the better of the afternoon, taking the last four Nottinghamshire wickets for 61 further runs and losing only the one wicket before the next interval. Borthwick’s leg-spin claimed all four, giving him only the third five-for of a career that has certainly suffered, in regard to that part of his game, from spending half of it bowling – or, more often, not bowling – at the Riverside.He might have seemed destined to be a one-Test wonder after his solitary, unsuccessful appearance during the ill-starred 2013-14 Ashes tour, but England have not yet given up on him completely as a leg-spinning allrounder. Encouraged by England’s spin coach, Peter Such, he went to New Zealand in the winter to work with Warwickshire’s Jeetan Patel, who has been an effective spinner in English conditions for a number of years.Running through the Nottinghamshire tail does not count for much, of course, but it will have been good for his confidence, if nothing else. He needs no such boost in terms of his batting. As he and Collingwood rebuilt after Bird claimed Michael Richardson as his fourth wicket, Borthwick is unbeaten on 59 at the close, having recorded two fifties and two hundreds in his last six innings.

Shaun Marsh posted a century but was almost upstaged by his teenage brother Mitchell as Western Australia gained a bonus point in their 129-run win over New South Wales

Cricinfo staff25-Nov-2009
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsShaun Marsh recorded his highest List A score•Getty Images

Shaun Marsh posted a century but was almost upstaged by his teenage brother Mitchell as Western Australia gained a bonus point in their 129-run win over New South Wales. The brothers made major contributions to the Warriors’ 3 for 309 and the Blues’ chase fell apart despite the best efforts of Moises Henriques.Stuart Clark’s captaincy debut for New South Wales didn’t go to plan when his decision to send the Warriors in backfired as Shaun Marsh and Wes Robinson combined for a 124-run opening stand. Marsh made David Warner pay for putting down a simple chance at short cover when he hadn’t scored, and was in his typical accumulative mode.Robinson’s 70 ended when he played on to Grant Lambert but there was further carnage to be had from Western Australia’s middle order. Adam Voges added 44 but the real damage came from Mitchell Marsh, 18, who was playing in his fourth FR Cup match.He came in within the final ten overs and hammered the New South Wales bowling to reach 60 from 29 deliveries. His half-century came in 24 balls and he demonstrated his tremendous power several times, including with a brazen flat-batted six over long-on off Clark in the final over.The chase stumbled off track almost immediately as David Warner, Phillip Hughes and Phil Jaques failed to have much impact and before the Blues knew it, they were 5 for 77 in the 20th over. Steve Magoffin picked up two important wickets and it wasn’t until Henriques and Daniel Smith came together that the visitors built a partnership of substance.However, when Smith holed out for 47, Aaron Heal ran through the lower order with a career-best 4 for 58 to confirm Western Australia’s win. It was the Warriors’ second victory of the competition, while the Blues remain in second-last place with only one win.