Glamorgan captain Michael Hogan picked up two wickets to give his side the edge at Lord’s

ECB Reporters Network27-Apr-2018
ScorecardGlamorgan captain Michael Hogan picked up two wickets to give his side the edge against Middlesex on a rain-shortened first day at Lord’s.Hogan got rid of his opposite number Dawid Malan, as well as opener Sam Robson, as Middlesex fought their way to 64-3 after being put in to bat.Only one over was bowled before the rain intervened – and in all the weather allowed Glamorgan to send down a total of 16.1 overs in the day.
Lukas Carey, who bowled unchanged from the Pavilion End, made the initial breakthrough for the Welsh side by having Max Holden caught behind.Sam Robson had seemed well-set as he carved two boundaries through the off side to reach 17 – but he became Hogan’s first victim, prodding at one that bowled him through the gate.Malan, playing his first innings of the county season, got off the mark with a leg glance for four but added just one more before he drove at Hogan and was caught at second slip just after lunch.However, Stevie Eskinazi – also returning to the Middlesex line-up after illness – looked in good nick and hit Hogan for successive fours to reach 31 not out before the rain returned.

An archive of our rolling Live Report, featuring news, updates, statistics, graphics and insight from our reporters at Headingley for the second Test

The Live Report by Andrew Miller01-Jun-2018Welcome to our new rolling report. This page will keep you up to date throughout the match, with updates from our team at the ground, stats and graphics, end-of-session reports, and more (if you don’t see the blog immediately, please hit refresh). But don’t worry, you can still follow traditional ball-by-ball commentary as well

An opening bowler and middle-order batsman, Maajiet played for – and captained – the Western Province Cricket Board, and was chosen for the South African Cricket Board national teams

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jul-2018Dashing South African allrounder Saait Magiet, whose career was adversely affected by apartheid during the prime years of his career, died on holiday in Malaysia yesterday of a heart attack. He was 66.An opening bowler and middle-order batsman, Maajiet played for – and captained – the Western Province Cricket Board (WPCB), and was chosen for the South African Cricket Board (SACB) national teams. A right-arm bowler and batsman, Maajiet began playing in 1971 at the age of 19, his career spanning 20 years until just after unity. He represented the WPCB on 64 occasions in first-class matches, in addition to numerous limited-overs contests, and made 2,397 runs (including three centuries) and took 169 wickets at a remarkable average of 12.71. He played a key role in non-white cricket at the height of apartheid rule. An allrounder in many senses of the word, he also captained the City and Suburban Board rugby team as a loose forward.His elder brother Rushdie Maajiet also played 37 times for Western Province, in addition to representing the SACB.Cricket South Africa extended its condolences, issuing a statement saying it had heard “with shock and sadness” that Maajiet had died in Malaysia.”Saait and his elder brother, Rushdi, were two of the legends of the game under the auspices of SACBOC and later the SACB, and both would undoubtedly have represented a unified South African cricket team had the opportunity existed,” CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe said. “On behalf of the CSA family I extend our condolences to his family, friends and cricket colleagues.”

The batting coach said India had enough time, options and “fluidity” in their batting order to plug any weakness

Nagraj Gollapudi at Headingley16-Jul-2018India are yet to work out a “settled” middle order in ODIs and they do not have the “depth” in their lower order. With the World Cup a year away that might seem to be a matter of concern, but batting coach Sanjay Bangar said that India had enough time, options and “fluidity” in their batting order to plug any weakness.India’s middle-order woes were exposed at Lord’s on Saturday, as the second half of their innings was subdued and they stuttered to a virtual standstill in the final hour. It was the first instance since the semi-finals of the 2011 World Cup that India failed hit a single six in an ODI. India didn’t score more than 10 runs in an over during in the final 15 overs, and only 42 runs came off the last 10, which is the fewest scored by India in the last decade.The lack of intent did not sit well with the Indian fans at Lord’s. They did not spare MS Dhoni, who was booed at various times during an innings where he ran out of partners and eventually lost rhythm. Although it would be easy to blame Dhoni, you could understand why he did not want to press the accelerator with the other members of India’s middle order – KL Rahul, Suresh Raina and Hardik Pandya – found wanting.Bangar said that India were not sweating because they had enough options to work out a World Cup middle order. Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey and Ajinkya Rahane could all still be viable options if the current occupants did not make an impact. Rayudu failed the yo-yo fitness test and Raina was called up as his replacement. Pandey and Rahane have been tried at different times in the past, but left behind more questions than positive impressions.Although India have not tried it yet, one way the middle order could be strengthened would involve pushing Rahul to No. 3 and having Virat Kohli bat at four. That way India can retain their authority in the top order while having their best batsman at the controls in the second half of the innings. This way Kohli would not only act as a cushion for the top order, as he showed during the T20s in Ireland and England, but also ease the pressure on Dhoni, who can play with more freedom at Nos. 5 or 6.But India are not ready yet to change the default settings. “We did change a bit [the batting order], certainly in the T20 format where KL played at three and Virat batted at four,” Bangar said in Leeds on the eve of the final match of the ODI series and the limited-overs leg of their tour. “But looking at this series and the performances that Virat has got at No. 3, especially in the last series when he scored three hundreds against South Africa in five games [we won’t alter the batting order].”Bangar, though, did not rule out a change of strategy, keeping in mind India have 21 matches before the World Cup, good enough time to figure out a solution. “We are looking at, in terms of the games remaining, where we could look at settling the middle-order slots. We will see as to players available, the fitness of the players. So a lot of spots are open. The good thing about that is the bench strength we have in a Rayudu, or a Manish Pandey or Ajinkya Rahane. There are enough spots for each and every eventuality that we might face leading up to the World Cup.”MS Dhoni buckles on his pads at India training•Getty Images

Bangar also defended Dhoni and said that there was nothing else India’s most senior and experienced batsman could have done. “When the team loses four wickets, the lower order – at least with the combination we are playing at the moment – we do not really have the depth at Nos. 8, 9, 10 wherein the batsman at Nos. 6 or 7 could play with that sort of a freedom. It was purely because of that that we kept on losing the wickets and the set batsmen could not really exploit [the situation].”He [Dhoni] was just hoping that somebody would stick with him. There was a chance when he and Suresh were batting together, we were just hoping they could bat through till the 40th over and they could take the bowlers on. But every time he looked to do that he first lost Raina and then he lost Hardik so there wasn’t too much batting to follow for him to play in the usual fashion that he does.”Bangar felt that some of the India batsmen, like Raina, who featured in just one format and have come back to international fold after a while, would need more time to settle down. Bangar said that it was also difficult for the middle-order batsmen, who were often padded up but did not have much to do as all the good work had been already done by the top order, which has played a dominant role in Indian victories in the last few years.”The way our top order is batting, generally our middle order hasn’t got the number of opportunities that you would expect because the top order does the bulk of the scoring. And at times the middle order have to straightaway walk into a game situation. Not all of the players are playing all formats of the game. You also have to give some weightage to do that – coming back straight to international cricket, and doing the kind of things that are expected of you, especially in this format. So the continuity factor also plays a part, but we are trying to balance each and everything that we could possibly do.”

Aaron Finch and Jason Roy, their top-order master blasters, hurried Surrey to a nine-wicket Vitality Blast win against Somerset with a spectacular opening partnership of 69 in just 3.5 overs at the Kia Oval

ECB Reporters Network27-Jul-2018
ScorecardAaron Finch and Jason Roy, their top-order master blasters, hurried Surrey to a nine-wicket Vitality Blast win against Somerset with a spectacular opening partnership of 69 in just 3.5 overs at the Kia Oval.Finch’s 43 not out from just 21 balls included three sixes and four fours while Roy’s 28 off 11 balls featured two sixes and three fours, and Surrey overhauled Somerset’s 99 for 6 with an almost contemptuous ease in a match shortened by bad weather to 10 overs per side. For Surrey it was a third win from six south group games, while Somerset suffered a third defeat in six despite their captain, Lewis Gregory, thumping 50 not out from 24 balls with four sixes and three fours.Finch and Roy’s initial assault was breathtaking. Twenty runs came from Jerome Taylor’s opening over, another 18 from the second over, bowled by Gregory, and the three-over Powerplay ended with Surrey a barely-believable 56 without loss after Craig Overton then conceded 17. A total of eight wides in those first three overs, and 15 overall, hardly helped Somerset’s cause either.The 10-overs per side match followed a series of heavy downpours in South London that prevented a start until 8.15pm, and despite more rain being forecast for late evening, a near sell-out floodlit crowd of 21,089 – around 1,000 fewer than actual tickets sold – saw some explosive action.After Roy had hit Roelof van der Merwe’s slow left-arm to long on, Finch’s fellow Australian, the left-hander Nic Maddinson, scored 15 not out as Surrey romped to 102 for 1 to complete victory with 3.2 overs to spare. Finch, who finished the match by top-edging a pull at Taylor over third man for six, now has 315 runs from only four T20 innings.The first storm appeared just after 4pm, two-and-a-half hours before the scheduled start, and rain continued to fall at regular intervals until the skies cleared enough for the Oval groundstaff to start a mop-up operation and for umpires Neil Bainton and Ben Debenham to hold an inspection at 7.20pm and decide there could be a contest.Surrey, who had suffered an abandoned match the previous Friday evening when rain intervened after they had posted a county record T20 total of 250 for 6 against Kent at Canterbury, welcomed back England white-ball international opener Roy and fit-again all-rounder Tom Curran for their first Blast appearances of the campaign.And it did not take the elder Curran brother long to make a meaningful contribution. Called up to bowl the third over of the match, after Surrey had predictably chosen to field first on winning the toss, Curran had Steven Davies leg-before for 11 with his second ball and then forced Peter Trego to flip up a catch to keeper Ben Foakes to depart for a second-ball duck.Johann Myburgh swiped leg-side sixes off Sam Curran and Rikki Clarke, but then Clarke held on to a fine return catch later in the fourth over to dismiss Myburgh for 16 and leave Somerset 29 for 3. It soon got worse for the visitors, with James Hildreth leg-before to Gareth Batty for 1 as he aimed a reverse sweep at the veteran off spinner and big-hitting New Zealand allrounder Corey Anderson caught behind off Clarke for 8 as the innings declined to 46 for 5.Sixes by Gregory off Batty and a remarkable Roelof van der Merwe heave over the cover boundary off Mat Pillans boosted Somerset’s scoring rate, although van der Merwe then lifted a catch on 9 later in Pillans’ over.The players briefly left the field when more rain began to fall with Somerset 73 for 6 off 8.3 overs but, on the resumption, Gregory drove Jade Dernbach for successive sixes and, in a final over of the innings also memorable for three sprinkers suddenly coming on for about 30 seconds on one side of the square, Gregory plundered another six and four off Tom Curran to give his side something more substantial to defend.

Moeen Ali has intensified the focus on Australian player behaviour after claiming that he was subjected to a racial taunt

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Sep-2018Moeen Ali has intensified the focus on Australian player behaviour after claiming that an unnamed member of their 2015 Ashes team subjected him to a racial taunt during his first appearance against them.Writing in his autobiography, which is being serialised in The Times ahead of the book’s publication later this month, Moeen claims he was abused during the first Ashes Test at Cardiff in 2015, a performance in which he made 77 in the first innings before taking five wickets in a 169-run England victory.”It was a great first Ashes Test in terms of my personal performance,” Moeen writes in the book. “However there was one incident which had distracted me. An Australian player had turned to me on the field and said, ‘Take that, Osama.’ I could not believe what I had heard. I remember going really red. I have never been so angry on a cricket field.”I told a couple of the guys what the player had said to me and I think Trevor Bayliss [the England coach] must have raised it with Darren Lehmann, the Australians’ coach.”Lehmann asked the player, ‘Did you call Moeen Osama?’ He denied it, saying, ‘No, I said, ‘Take that, you part-timer.” I must say I was amused when I heard that, obviously I had to take the player’s word for it, though for the rest of the match I was angry.”Moeen added that he had brought the incident up at the end of England’s 3-2 series win, but once again, the “Osama” slur was denied by the player in question, who then added that some of his best friends were Muslim.Cricket Australia has responded to Moeen’s claim, saying it will meet with the ECB to probe the alleged incident.”Remarks of this nature are unacceptable and have no place in our sport, or in society,” a CA spokesperson said. “We have a clear set of values and behaviours that comes with representing our country.”We take this matter very seriously, and are following up with the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) as a matter of urgency to seek further clarification around the alleged incident.”Moeen, who was born in Birmingham to a Pakistani father and an English mother, spoke earlier this year about the racial abuse he had suffered at the hands of Australia’s spectators during the last Ashes series Down Under, with one person asking him when his kebab shop was opening.At the time he played down the incidents, but the anger is apparent in his book. “Guys were sticking their fingers up at me,” he writes. “I expected Australia to be quite rough, but not as bad as this. I hadn’t heard such comments for a long time. I got some of this abuse even in the practice games.”In an interview in The Times on Friday, Moeen had gone into greater detail about his treatment on the Ashes tour, from the players in the middle as well as those watching from the stands”Everyone you speak to . . . they are the only team I’ve played against my whole life that I’ve actually disliked,” Moeen told Mike Atherton. “Not because it’s Australia and they are the old enemy but because of the way they carry on and [their] disrespect of people and players.””The first game I played against them, in Sydney just before the 2015 World Cup, they were not just going hard at you, they were almost abusing you. That was the first time it hit me. I gave them the benefit of the doubt but the more I played against them they were just as bad, the Ashes here [in 2015] they were worse actually. Not intimidating, just rude. Individually they are fine and the Aussies we’ve had at Worcester have been fantastic, lovely guys.”Australian cricket has since been left stunned by the tall-tampering scandal in Cape Town in March, which led to bans for three of their players, including the captain and vice-captain, Steve Smith and David Warner. A culture review has been commissioned by Cricket Australia to look into their player behaviour, but Moeen feels that the team got what was coming to it.”I’m someone who generally feels sorry for people when things go wrong but it’s difficult to feel sorry for them. This ODI series they were very good actually; they’d been…humbled.”September 15, GMT 0710 The story was updated to include Cricket Australia’s response

Hit close to his left ear while ducking a bounce on Thursday, the Pakistan captain woke up with a headache and didn’t take the field

Osman Samiuddin in Abu Dhabi19-Oct-2018Sarfraz Ahmed did not take the field on the fourth morning of the second Test in Abu Dhabi, after he woke up in the morning complaining of a headache. He has been taken to hospital for what management said were precautionary scans.His place behind the stumps was taken by Mohammad Rizwan and on the field as captain by Asad Shafiq.Sarfraz ducked into a back of length delivery from Peter Siddle in the 89th over of Pakistan’s innings on the third afternoon. The ball struck him close to his left ear as he turned his head away. He was on 32 at the time and required treatment. He then batted on for nearly 30 overs without any apparent discomfort, the second last man to be dismissed for 81.Sarfraz has been in the trenches through what has been a redemptive Test. He was hit on his left forearm by a Mitchell Starc short ball on the first day, late in his innings of 94. Rizwan was actually called back into the squad on the basis of that blow and could have kept wickets on the second day under new rules that allow a substitute fielder to take the gloves.In the event, Sarfraz was fit enough to take his place on the field an enjoyed a productive day as Australia were bowled out for 145.It is not yet clear how long Sarfraz will stay off the field.

Sunday’s meeting, also attended by CoA’s Vinod Rai, was followed by Harmanpreet Kaur’s backing of sacked coach Ramesh Powar

Nagraj Gollapudi04-Dec-2018Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur, the two cricketers at the centre of a raging selection controversy, met in Delhi on Sunday, less than a week after their public feud began. The meeting – in the presence of Vinod Rai, the head of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) – does not, however, appear to have ended the issue: a day after the meeting Harmanpreet sent an email to the CoA and the BCCI top brass, reiterating the rationale behind not playing Raj, India’s most experienced player, in the semi-finals of the WT20 and backing Ramesh Powar as coach.Diana Edulji, the other half of the CoA and a former India captain herself, was not present at that meeting but it is understood that Rai briefed her on it via email.ESPNcricinfo understands both players wanted to sit across the table and clarify their individual positions on a feud that many suspected had been simmering before it blew into the open a day after India’s exit from the WT20. That’s when Annisha Gupta, who handled Raj’s business affairs, put out several Twitter posts cricitising Harmanpreet. One of the tweets – they were all later deleted – called Harmanpreet a “manipulative, lying, cheat”.During their meeting, Raj is understood to have told Harmanpreet that Gupta was not her manager. On her part, Harmanpreet told Raj that the decision to exclude her from the World T20 semis was not a personal choice but a collective call.In the email she sent to the CoA and BCCI top brass on Monday, Harmanpreet had said that Powar was not “responsible” for leaving out Raj from the World T20 semi-final. She said the decision was taken collectively between herself, Powar, Smriti Mandhana (T20 vice-captain), Sudha Shah (national selector) and Trupti Bhattacharya (team manager).The issue of Powar was also touched upon during the meeting. It is understood Rai, in his email summary to Edulji, said that although there was a thaw between the players, Harmanpreet supported Powar while Raj felt he had wronged her. Rai is believed to have told the players that the CoA would not take sides and instead would go ahead with the recruitment of a new head coach. It is not yet clear whether Powar, who is eligible, will apply.Bitterly upset at her exclusion from the semis and the way she was treated during the WT20, Raj had last week fired salvos against Powar and Edjuli. In a report addressed to BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and Saba Karim (BCCI general manager cricket operations and women’s cricket head), which immediately got leaked, Raj said both Powar and Edulji were “destroying” her career. Soon afterwards Powar revealed in his own report to Johri and Karim (which, too, was quickly leaked) that Raj had threatened to walk out of the World T20 if she was not allowed to open.In her report, Raj had said she had “nothing against” Harmanpreet “except for the fact that her call to support the decision of the coach to leave me out of the eleven was baffling and hurtful,” Raj had said. She also said that being “senior players” any issues should be sorted by “two of us by sitting across the table.”

Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal is almost certainly out of the second Test in Pallekele after it was confirmed that his groin tear will take up to two weeks to heal

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Galle09-Nov-2018Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal is almost certainly out of the second Test in Pallekele, after it was confirmed that the injury he sustained during the first Test was a grade one tear in the groin, which will take up to two weeks to heal.Sri Lanka’s team management will give Chandimal every opportunity to heal before the second Test, which starts on Wednesday, but have said they would not risk putting Chandimal into the XI if he is not 100%. Kusal Perera and Lahiru Thirimanne were the standby batsmen when the Test squad was named in late September, and may now enter into the squad proper as injury cover.”Chandimal’s injury is grade one tear, and it will take ten to 14 days to recover, so it will be touch and go for the second Test match,” Chandika Hathurusingha, Sri Lanka’s coach, said. “We’ll wait and see how his body recovers before we make the call. If he is not 100% fit, he may not play. We have to look at a replacement or stand by player for him.”If he misses the match, it would be the fourth Test out of Sri Lanka’s five most recent matches that he would have been unavailable for. He was suspended for the third Test of the West Indies series in June, and the two home Tests against South Africa in July, due to a ball-tampering offence and the spirit of cricket breach that followed it.He had also missed the second Test Sri Lanka played after he became captain in August last year, due to pneumonia on that occasion.Suranga Lakmal, the senior fast bowler, is likely to lead the team in Chandimal’s absence.

In a terse press conference, Australia’s head coach reiterated that Maxwell’s continued omission from the Test side had nothing to do with factors outside of cricket

Andrew McGlashan10-Jan-20191:13

Langer’s ‘grumpy’ exchange with reporter on Maxwell question

Another day, another drama around Australian selection. Head coach Justin Langer was involved in a tense exchange, which he later apologized for, as he said he had “zero knowledge” of guidance given to Glenn Maxwell last year for him to not take up a county deal in England on the assumption that he would be selected for Australia A.That Australia A place, for a tour of India, never transpired – the justification given was that enough was known about Maxwell’s ability on the subcontinent – and Maxwell was then not selected for the Test tour of the UAE with the instruction of Langer to go and “score more hundreds” to push his credentials. Due to white-ball commitments he has since played just two first-class matches and was not part of Australia’s revamped Test batting line-up to face Sri Lanka.Speaking on Wednesday, national selector Trevor Hohns said he did not know about any instruction to Maxwell not to spend time in county cricket last year. He added Maxwell was “content” to focus on white-ball cricket ahead of the World Cup, but acknowledged he still had a strong desire to add to his seven Test caps. Maxwell opted against putting his name into the IPL auction this year, instead taking a county stint with Lancashire that will include both first-class and one-day cricket.The guidance to Maxwell to put rest ahead of county cricket last year – following the one-day tours of England and Zimbabwe – was understood to be made before Langer was appointed the new coach in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal. When pressed on the issue he went back and forth with a journalist before saying he had no knowledge of it.Glenn Maxwell walks off in the rain•Getty Images

“Are you certain that’s what happened,” Langer asked of the instructions given to Maxwell, with the journalist responding, “I’m asking”. After two rounds of this, Langer was asked who gave the directive to which he replied: “Did it happen?””Well you’re telling me it did happen, I’m asking did it happen?” Langer repeated. “No, I’ve got zero knowledge of that,” he then said, before calling it “careless whispers”.Before answering the next question, Langer apologised: “Sorry for getting grumpy,” he said. “I don’t like getting grumpy but there’s so many stories that go around about so much stuff. Sorry everyone for getting grumpy. I didn’t mean to get grumpy, but the truth is a beautiful thing.”Before the exchange about the details of the county deal, Langer had reiterated that Maxwell’s continued omission from the Test side had nothing to do with factors outside of cricket.”Glenn is crystal clear from me and the selectors, what he needs to do to get back in the Test team,” he said. “He’s shown he is brilliant around the group in white-ball cricket. There’s been some reports about personality. It is literally false. It’s not true. He’s crystal clear what he has to do and that’s important, that he knows that and I know that as the coach and one of the selectors. All the conjecture about it – that’s all part of the noise. Glenn knows exactly what he has to do.”*Cricket Australia later confirmed Maxwell had in fact been sent a planning email in April discussing his options for the coming year, in which mention was made of resting between the limited-overs tours of England and Zimbabwe and the Australia A tour of India a few weeks later. However a spokesperson denied that the planning email, a common part of discussions between CA and the players, was tantamount to a guarantee of selection.Selection has been a key debate through the Australian season with the absence of David Warner and Steven Smith leaving a threadbare Test batting order. Marnus Labuschagne was the surprise choice to bat No. 3 in the final Test against India while Matt Renshaw, Joe Burns and Will Pucovski have been called up for the series against Sri Lanka. There have also been considerable changes to the one-day team that will face India.Maxwell remains part of the one-day set-up but has been asked to take a role lower down the order in recent times, batting at No. 6 in last year’s series against England and South Africa, having been briefly dropped from the team after a lean run in 2017. He has made one half-century in his last 14 ODI innings.*GMT 0845 The story was amended to include this paragraph.