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Jack Taylor half-century not enough to prop up hosts as Warwickshire ease to victory

ECB Reporters Network07-Aug-2023Gloucestershire’s flying start in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup came to a crashing halt with an eight-wicket defeat to Warwickshire at Edgbaston. The west country men had won their first two games but surrendered their 100% record to a Warwickshire side which retained theirs after a ruthless display of bowling supported by brilliant catching.Gloucestershire were skittled for 120 with only Jack Taylor (55 off 65 balls) able to resist an attack led by the excellent Olly Hannon-Dalby whose 3 for 14 included the wickets of three of the top five batters.Warwickshire then eased to 123 for two from 25.5 overs as Ed Barnard added a fluent 36 from 39 balls to his two wickets, Will Rhodes struck an unbeaten 36 and Michael Burgess an unbeaten 33.After choosing to bowl, Warwickshire made lavish use of the new ball. Gloucestershire were 10 for 4 after Barnard took wickets with his second and 11th deliveries and Hannon-Dalby struck with his seventh and ninth. All were caught behind the wicket as Barnard induced fatal edges from the Price brothers and Hannon-Dalby had Chris Dent and Graeme van Buuren taken in the cordon.When Danny Briggs started with a wicket-maiden, James Bracey chipping back a return catch from the sixth ball, the visitors were 35 for 5. Taylor and Ben Wells added 29 but the edges continued to come. Wells nicked a perfectly-shaped outswinger from Craig Miles and Zafar Gohar left in high dudgeon after being adjudged caught behind off Hannon-Dalby.Taylor and Anwar Ali constructed the best stand of the innings – 38 from 42 balls – but then fell to brilliant catches. Anwar tickled Miles down the leg side and wicketkeeper Burgess dived low to take his fourth catch of the innings. Taylor passed 50 for the 18th time in List A cricket but is still to turn one of those fifties into a hundred after he thrashed Jake Lintott to extra cover and fell to a stinging catch from Ethan Brookes.When Lintott spun one on to Ajeet Singh Dale’s stumps, Gloucestershire were 120 all out and their strong start to the campaign seemed a distant memory.It grew increasingly distant as Warwickshire openers Barnard and Rob Yates added 46 in 12 overs. Barnard batted attractively before falling lbw when he missed a reverse sweep at Ollie Price.Captain Will Rhodes arrived in no mood to hang about, moving from 1 to 15 with two fours and a six in four balls from Ollie Price and lifting Gohar into the Hollies Stand. Tom Price rattled Yates’ off stump with a jaffa but Gloucestershire’s batting implosion meant that jaffas had to arrive on a conveyor belt to rescue them and Rhodes and Burgess steered the Bears to the most straightforward of victories with 145 balls to spare.

Allrounder will miss New Zealand Tests, while Chris Woakes also in doubt for first Test

ECB Reporters Network10-May-2022Surrey head coach Gareth Batty has confirmed that Sam Curran’s return to full bowling fitness is on track despite the England allrounder’s limited workload.Curran has sent down just 10 competitive overs since his Surrey return three weeks ago, following six months out with a stress fracture of the back.Those overs all came on the opening day of Surrey’s LV= Insurance County Championship match against Somerset at the Kia Oval on April 21, meaning that Curran did not bowl in the subsequent matches Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire.Curran has already been ruled out for England’s upcoming three-Test series against New Zealand, which begins on June 2, while Chris Woakes is also an injury doubt for that first Test at Lord’s after struggling with injury – particularly to his shoulder and knee – since the end of an arduous winter campaign.Batty has confirmed that Curran is still fully engaged in his recovery programme, which is being managed and monitored by the county in direct consultation with England’s medical and fitness staff.”Sam is centrally-contracted by the ECB so England are ultimately responsible for the detail of his return to bowling fitness work,” Batty said. “But despite not bowling in the last couple of matches he is doing his overs behind closed doors and that continues to go well.”What we all have to remember is that Sam is still a young player, and sometimes it’s hard to think he’s only 23. And the real positive for him at the moment is that he has been able to concentrate more on his batting and, during these early-season Championship matches, to approach them mainly as a top-six batter.”He’s already shown, in his first three games of the season, just what a good player he is by the manner in which he has scored his runs. Sam is also the sort of cricketer who always wants to get better, be that with bat or ball, and I think he’s still improving all the time.”Related

• Forgotten man Sam Curran has 'itchy feet' but is happy to bide his time

• Ben Foakes faces concussion tests after sickening collision with Jamie Overton

• Surrey sign Colin de Grandhomme to replace injured Kemar Roach

• Luke Wright joins New Zealand coaching staff for limited-overs series

Curran has made scores of 80 and 33 against Somerset, 64 against Gloucestershire and 73 against Northants. All of his four Championship innings this season have been skilful and attacking knocks showcasing his shot-making ability and underlining a widely-held opinion in English cricket circles that he will eventually develop into a top-order batter who bowls relatively little.With three half-centuries and a top score of 78 from his 24 Tests, moreover, Curran has already highlighted his run-scoring abilities at the highest level, and it remains one of the curiosities of the modern game that after 118 first-class innings – and another 121 in List A and T20 cricket – Curran has yet to reach three figures. That first hundred cannot be too far away.Surrey, meanwhile, sit proudly atop Division One after the first five rounds of the Championship campaign and Batty – who took over as head coach from Vikram Solanki during the winter – could not be more pleased with a start of three wins and two high-scoring draws.Victories against Hampshire and Somerset were gained too despite the loss to injury in those games of, respectively, Kemar Roach and James Taylor, while Ben Foakes, Jamie Smith and Ollie Pope have all been forced to miss a match through injury or illness.Surrey’s strength in depth, though, has already allowed them to rotate quick bowlers Jamie Overton and Reece Topley from certain fixtures while the latest addition to their seam battery, Dan Worrall, has impressed everyone at The Kia Oval since arriving at the club in mid-April.Worrall, a 30-year-old Australian with three one-day international caps, has previous county experience from 2018 and 2021 with Gloucestershire and, as a British passport holder, is now a home-registered player.After taking five wickets in last week’s crushing innings win against Northamptonshire, Worrall said: “This is a great club to be a part of and everyone has been so welcoming to me and my family. I’ve signed for three years but let’s hope I can be here longer than that!​”I am excited to be here and I know what my role is in what is a terrific bowling attack. My time at Gloucestershire gave me valuable experience of English conditions and what I most learned there was the need to be adaptable on different pitches.”Sometimes it swings more and sometimes it seams more, so you have to adapt your bowling to whatever is in front of you.”

Ajaz Patel could be in contention for the Pakistan Test series after recovering from a calf injury

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Dec-2020Colin de Grandhomme will play no part in the upcoming Test series at home against Pakistan as he isn’t yet back to running, and recovers from a foot injury, while the wait for Kane Williamson to return to the set-up continues. New Zealand coach Gary Stead said that the all-format captain, who took leave to be with his partner Sarah Raheem for the birth of their first child, is expected to join the team before the second T20I against Pakistan, but that it’s still a waiting game at this stage.”There’s no update on baby news at this stage, so we’re just going to let them carry on as is,” Stead said of Williamson, three days out from the first T20I against Pakistan in Auckland, at a press interaction. “The plan at this stage still is that he will join the team for T20s two and three.”Related

• WTC final – New Zealand put pressure on India

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• Taylor dropped for Pakistan T20Is; Ferguson out with injury

The first Test starts on Boxing Day after the last T20I on December 22, and Stead said de Grandhomme is expected to return to domestic cricket around mid-January. “Colin’s unfortunately going to be ruled out of the two Tests against Pakistan,” Stead said. “He’s got a stress reaction in his right foot; we haven’t at this stage been able to get him up to running stage and then ultimately bowling as well, so unfortunately for Colin, he’s out. Looking like, hopefully, a mid-January return to play in the Super Smash for him.”There was no major update on Lockie Ferguson’s injured back either, with the team management waiting for reports of the scans, but the latest on left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel was encouraging. “Ajaz Patel will travel up with the ‘A’ squad this week [to play Pakistan A in Whangarei]. He is going to be part of their preparations,” Stead said. “We are hoping that he’s going to be in contention for the Test match; in terms of the selection side of things it’s still a bit wait and see to see where he’s at with that.”De Grandhomme and Patel had also missed the two-Test series against West Indies, which New Zealand swept 2-0 with innings wins in both games. Williamson was the Player of the Match in the first Test for a career-best 251, and though he missed the second game as he had gone on paternity leave by then, Will Young, who had debuted in the first Test, slotted in at No. 3 and scored 43.Kyle Jamieson, meanwhile, was the main allrounder for New Zealand in the two Tests, and emerged with the Player-of-the-Series award after picking up 11 wickets – with a best of 5 for 34 in the first innings of the second Test – and scoring 71 runs in two innings, including an unbeaten 51 in the first Test.

With a busy summer to come Australia will be looking to expand the pool of players they can select from

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2019Australia’s tour of the West Indies, which begins with the opening ODI in Antigua on Thursday, is a chance for them to explore the depth they have available ahead of a home season which will place significant demands on the players.Though the core of the squad is similar to the one that retained the Ashes, there are new faces in Heather Graham and Erin Burns while there will be an opportunity for those who had a fringe role in England to have more game time with 14 players on the trip.This tour, which includes three ODIs and three T20Is, continues a hectic period for Australia’s women cricketers coming just a month after they completed the Ashes tour and is followed shortly after they return home with ODI and T20I series against Sri Lanka.They will then be involved in the first standalone WBBL, running from mid-October to early December, before international cricket resumes at the end of January with a T20I tri-series involving England and India which acts as preparation for the T20 World Cup in late February. The season then concludes with a tour of South Africa.It all adds up to an unprecedented workload for the players – something coach Matthew Mott has acknowledged is likely to require rotation – and this series in the Caribbean will be an opportunity to further expand the pool of players Mott and captain Meg Lanning feel comfortable calling on.With Nicole Bolton and Elyse Villani out, there are also fewer top-order batting options than were available in England which will put more onus on the likes of Lanning and Alyssa Healy while also allowing the allrounders to play a leading role with the bat.”We’ll definitely need to have another allrounder given the balance of the squad but those players can be genuine bats at times; Nicola Carey, Heather Graham, Jess Jonassen, they can all bat extremely well and would fit into our middle order really well,” Lanning said. “We aren’t too worried about that, we think it’s a great opportunity for them to come in and play some good cricket but at the same time it’s important our top order will do the job.”While there are Women’s Championship points on offer for the ODIs – which go towards qualification for 2021 World Cup – the T20Is, which follow are a further opportunity to hone skills ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup where Australia will be defending champions on home soil.

South Africa have beaten them 10 times in a row, in a streak stretching back to 2014

The Preview by Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Aug-2018

Big Picture

Try as they might, Sri Lanka can’t seem to put together a competent ODI performance against South Africa. In the first ODI of the series, the batsmen failed spectacularly. In the second, they hauled themselves to a competitive score, only for fielders to drop near-undroppable catches early in South Africa’s chase, in addition to producing several other acts of fielding slapstick. The moment Sri Lanka put out one fire, another one breaks out in some other part of their ODI game. Then while they are heading over to deal with that flame, they discover their trousers have also been set alight. They’ve lost 10 consecutive ODIs to South Africa now – a sequence that goes back to July 2014. People who can’t control their bowels have less embarrassing streaks than that.South Africa, meanwhile, have restored a little dignity to their own outfit with the two comfortable wins, and may have begun to feel like there is some depth to their ODI squad, despite the 5-1 drubbing by India earlier this year. Lungi Ngidi continues to impress, much like Tabraiz Shamsi and Andile Phehlukwayo. Wiaan Mulder showed in Dambulla that he could be a handy utility option in the long term, while Quinton de Kock produced a solid innings to break out of a spell of poor scores. But at some point, even South Africa might start to wonder if they are really gaining much by repeatedly thumping this same opposition over and over and over. What happens in Sri Lanka might stay in Sri Lanka, essentially – it’s not necessarily going to leave them that much better placed for the World Cup next year.So with the series on the line in Pallekele, the situation is that it might be a good thing for both teams for Sri Lanka to get themselves to a winning position on Sunday. The hosts would have the chance to break this terrible bad run, and South Africa may have their skills and mettle properly tested, if they have to fight through a tough match situation.

Form guide

Sri Lanka LLWWW (completed matches, most recent first)
South Africa WWLLW

In the spotlight

Aiden Markram has not had a lot of fun so far on this tour. He didn’t breach 20 in any of his Tests innings, and unlike for most of his team-mates, the troubles against spin have followed him into the ODIs, where he has collected scores of 0 and 3. Anyone who watched South Africa’s Tests against Australia earlier this year will know Markram is a phenomenal talent. But it may be that at 23, he is not a complete batsman yet, and he is finding out his shortcomings on this tour.Kusal Mendis, also 23, also a possible future star, has not had a productive series either, thrice making starts in the Tests, and yet failing to get past 30. In the ODIs, his scores are identical to Markram’s – 3 and 0. It will be hoped by the coaching staff that an average of less than 30 will be much closer to 40 by the time Sri Lanka go to the World Cup next year.

Team news

South Africa are likely to keep their XI from Wednesday.South Africa (possible): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Aiden Markram, 4 Faf du Plessis (capt.), 5 JP Duminy, 6 DA Miller, 7 Wiaan Mulder, 8 Andile Phehlukwayo, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Tabraiz Shamsi, 11 Lungi NgidiSri Lanka may think about leaving Shehan Jayasuriya loose in favour of Dhananjaya de Silva, but are likelier to keep the same team as well.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Kusal Perera, 2 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 3 Upul Tharanga, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt.), 6 Shehan Jayasuriya, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Akila Dananjaya, 9 Suranga Lakmal, 10 Lakshan Sandakan, 11 Kasun Rajitha

Pitch and conditions

Pallekele is Sri Lanka’s wettest venue, and there is some rain forecast for Sunday. Showers at this time of year tend to be short and sharp, however, so it is likely there will be a completed game, even if there are some delays. The pitch generally has plenty of bounce and zip for the quicks, though spinners can be effective as well.

Stats and trivia

• Throughout this streak of ten losses, Sri Lanka have not even come close to beating South Africa, with the lowest margins of victory being 40 runs and four wickets.
• Aiden Markram has not passed fifty in eight innings, since he hit 66 against Bangladesh on debut.
• Sri Lanka have lost a whopping 27 of the 35 completed ODIs they have played since the start of 2017.

Rising Pune Supergiant batsman Manoj Tiwary has taken “complete blame” for not finishing the game for his team against Delhi Daredevils on Friday night, which means they can still miss out on a playoff spot

ESPNcricinfo staff13-May-20171:49

I was not able to connect for boundaries – Tiwary

Rising Pune Supergiant batsman Manoj Tiwary has taken “complete blame” for not finishing the game for his team against Delhi Daredevils on Friday night, which means they can still miss out on a playoff spot. Supergiant were chasing 169 at the Feroz Shah Kotla and a win would have sealed a playoff berth, along with table-toppers Mumbai Indians. They needed 43 runs from 24 balls with Tiwary and MS Dhoni in a fifth-wicket stand but Dhoni was run out for 5 and the visitors were unable to strike a single boundary for 22 balls until the last over started.”I want to take the complete blame for that because I was the batsman who was set over there,” Tiwary said after the match. “And prior to the last over we couldn’t get any boundaries at that point of time and I was the man who was on strike and was not able to connect. But obviously, the match was in our hands at one point of time and that’s the way it happens at times.”We tried our best but we have to go back now and see what went wrong and how the batsmen could have scored more runs, find out what kind of strokes we could have played at that situation and come back harder in the next game. It’s going to be a pressure game because both the teams (Rising Pune and Kings XI Punjab) want to win and let’s see who comes best in that game.”Tiwary, who finished on 60 off 45 balls, said Dhoni “was not aware where the ball went” which led to his run-out in the 18th over, making the equation tougher for Rising Pune. Dhoni had top-edged a slower ball from Cummins towards short fine leg and had looked back immediately but only strolled for the first few steps. It was only when Dhoni realised Mohammed Shami had swooped in quickly, did he start sprinting down but a sharp direct-hit caught him a few inches short.”He (Dhoni) mentioned that he couldn’t see the ball where it went and that is the reason he couldn’t make it because [the] ball went behind [square] so he wasn’t aware where the ball went,” Tiwary explained. “But it happens, even the quickest of persons gets run-out and today was an example. It’s very rare, but yes, when things don’t go your way, things like these happen. But you must give credit to Shami as well because he took that risk of throwing and taking that chance because if that ball wouldn’t have hit the stumps [then] it would have been one more extra run.””It was a great effort by Shami to get him out,” Karun Nair said•BCCI

Shami later said he wanted to give it a try even if Dhoni is known for his quick running between the wickets. “You can say it was a game changer,” Shami said at the press conference. “Even though Mahi runs very well between the wickets I just tried that if, 50-50, it hits, then we can turn the match.”Daredevils’ Karun Nair, who top-scored with 64 off 45 and set up their score of 168 for 8, lauded Shami’s “great effort”, knowing what a threat Dhoni could be towards the end of the chase.”That was one of the turning points of the game because to get Mahi out at that time was one of the biggest moments,” Nair told . “Because if he’s there till the end he’ll finish off the game most of the time. It was a great effort by Shami to get him out.”Dhoni has struggled to get going this season and has managed only 240 runs from 13 innings so far, at a strike rate of 113.74, his worst in the 10 IPL seasons. His average of 24 so far is also his lowest in an IPL season. Tiwary defended Dhoni’s performances saying it was difficult for him to score a lot of runs since he came down the order, and still had a “lot of game left in him.””Dhoni still has a lot of time left,” Tiwary said. “And, more importantly, if he is doing so well in the present then why overthink. Obviously, in terms of runs, we should consider that he comes to bat down the order. In T20 cricket we only want the strike rate to be, say, over 120. But Mahi has done so well in the past and set such high standards that we feel that he should still be batting with the same strike rate of 130-160. But it is practically not possible.”You need to look at the circumstances too. He struck a good partnership with Ben Stokes in a game where Stokes hit a hundred. That game, if you see, what we needed most was a partnership and we got that partnership from the experienced player.”Mahi had that experience and he built that partnership. His strike rate might not have been that good but won us the game, so that is a match-winning innings, right? I always feel performances should be judged taking into account the situation of the game and then see what he is contributing to the game. That is more important, rather than the strike rate of the player. Obviously, the format is so fast that everybody wants to see sixes and fours and strike rates of 150 but it is not possible all the time. I feel he still has a lot of game left in him.”

Travis Dean became the fourth batsman to cap off his first season with a century as his 111 helped Victoria take giant strides towards overhauling SA’s 340 in the Shield final

The Report by Daniel Brettig in Adelaide27-Mar-2016
ScorecardGetty Images

Back in October, Travis Dean was the talk of Australian cricket, as only the second man after Arthur Morris to make dual centuries on his state debut. As Victoria sought to squeeze South Australia, Dean joined another select group by becoming the fourth batsman to cap his first season with a hundred in the Sheffield Shield final.Justin Langer, Phillip Hughes and Jordan Silk are the others, and their efforts all contributed to victories. Dean helped the Bushrangers take a giant stride towards doing likewise, setting the platform for what may yet become a mighty first-innings total in reply to the Redbacks’ reasonable, but now eminently reachable 340.SA took the second new ball with four overs remaining and Daniel Worrall, the day’s most outstanding bowler, soon curled a perfect inswinger through the defences of Matthew Wade. Nightwatchman Scott Boland survived numerous uncomfortable moments before the close, including a missed chance by Sam Raphael behind point, as another vocal Glenelg Oval crowd of 2,548 rode every delivery.Aided by a fluent Peter Handscomb, Dean absorbed plenty of pressure on a cool and overcast day that lent itself almost perfectly to seam and swing bowling. His technique stood up to more or less everything Chadd Sayers, Joe Mennie and Daniel Worrall hurled at him, and it was not until the final hour that Elliot Opie was able to coax him into an edge.Dean’s occupation thwarted a bowling attack that had carried much before them this season, and highlighted the trouble with choosing four seamers on a pitch that has offered some movement but is also drying into something where a spinner can prosper. SA’s captain Travis Head was left to bowl his offbreaks a little more than he might have preferred, with Adam Zampa in India and Tom Andrews, the left-arm spinner, missing out on the final XI.The final two South Australian wickets had added only 15 on resumption, giving Sayers and company the chance to defend a greater tally than many they had successfully followed up on over the course of the season. Rob Quiney was able to get off to a swift start as several Sayers deliveries swerved towards his hip. But after those early boundaries, it was a challenging time for batsmen.Quiney succumbed when he guided Worrall low to Raphael at gully, and Marcus Stoinis was beaten first ball. Plenty of questions were asked by the bowlers, and Dean needed all his technical skill to answer them. He achieved one small victory by prompting Worrall to try a short-pitched attack, but Stoinis was unable to endure, judged by umpire Paul Wilson to have gloved a bouncer to Alex Carey behind the stumps.Handscomb’s beginning was somewhat skittish, and he survived one vehement lbw appeal from Sayers. But he showed an inclination to get the scoreboard moving more regularly, and eased the pressure on Dean by putting some back onto SA’s seamers. Gradually, some of the Redbacks’ earlier discipline wavered, and Dean was able to pick off a few more loose balls.The partnership gathered momentum after tea, as SA became increasingly fretful for a wicket. Words were exchanged between Handscomb and Head when SA’s captain fielded off his bowling and fired a throw back towards the stumps, which the batsman swatted away to the boundary by way of self-preservation. The Redbacks appealed for obstructing the field, and after some consultation between the umpires, were turned down.Dean’s well-deserved century arrived soon after, not only making some Shield final history, but also breaking a recent sequence of lean scores – 9, 11, 1, 4 and 0 before this innings. An emotional celebration was follow by further occupation, but on 111, Opie was able to find a crack in the wall to break the stand at 140. That wicket gave SA an opening, and the loss of Wade before the close left the match delicately balanced once more.