All posts by csb10.top

Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade has said Australia will look to exploit the same conditions that helped India take ten wickets when play resumes on the second day of the deciding Test in Dharamsala.While six of Australia’s batsmen fell to spin, four to Kuldeep Yadav on debut, the pace and bounce offered by the pitch will encourage Australia’s pace attack, as evidenced by the solitary over delivered by Josh Hazlewood before stumps, in which he had the ball zipping through nicely. Wade said the pitch offered the “best carry” in the series thus far.”That was quite enjoyable to have the ball coming in around shoulder height from behind the stumps,” Wade said. “That was something you get a little bit excited about.”Hopefully that can continue with the new ball tomorrow and Patty [Cummins] and Josh can pick up a couple of early wickets. But it’s definitely the best carry we’ve seen throughout the whole series for sure.”The cracks are playing a huge role, with the spinners as well as the quicks. So, we will be looking to get a bit out of the cracks in the wicket tomorrow. Hopefully, we can create ten opportunities.”On a day where Steven Smith yet again appeared to be batting on a different level to his team-mates, there were also timely half-centuries by David Warner – who was dropped on the first ball of the match – and Wade, in what was the first instance of either player passing 50 during the series.Smith and Warner took Australia to 144 for the loss of just one wicket, but Kuldeep’s post-lunch spell turned the favour of the opening day, and Wade admitted Australia had squandered their positive start.”I suppose a little bit yeah,” Wade said. “1 for 140 after lunch, you’d hope to push on. But it was credit to the Indians, they bowled really well through the middle session and we had to find a way to grind out 300. I thought to get there in the end was a good effort.”Smith has now made seven centuries in his past eight Tests against India and, while his batting might provide a blueprint for his team-mates, it’s questionable whether any of them could perform at the same level as their captain in his current form.”It looks that easy for him,” Wade said. “It’s obviously not that easy for him when he’s out there. But from sitting off the ground, it’s like he’s playing a different game for sure. He’s the best player in the world at the moment but he’s on track to be one of the greatest players Australia has ever seen.”

Joe Root believes it is “important” that cricket in England returns, in part at least, to free-to-air broadcasters.Root, the new England Test captain, described himself as “very fortunate” to grow up in an era before cricket went behind a paywall. And he feels another generation of supporters can be inspired, just as he was, if some cricket can once again be broadcast free to air.”I think it would be great to have it on terrestrial telly,” Root said. “The more people we can get watching the game can only be good for it.”I was very fortunate to be able to turn on Channel 4 in the morning and watch the cricket. There was the Cricket Show on before that. Then I would go down and watch Dad play at the club in the afternoon. The more opportunities we can give to kids – even if it is highlights packages – the better.”Root’s comments come in light of Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, conceding that he would like some of the new-team T20 tournament – due to begin in 2020 – to be shown free to air. While the game in England and Wales has earned unprecedented wealth over the last decade, it has come at a cost. The relevance of the sport has diminished sharply, with recent research suggesting only two percent of children in England and Wales thought of it as their favourite sport. Another survey suggested more children recognised a wrestler than Alastair Cook, the England Test captain at the time.Clearly, the thinking at the ECB has now changed. And while current plans suggest that no more than eight of the new-team matches will be broadcast free to air, and Root was keen to praise the service provided by the ECB’s current broadcast partners, he concluded “you can’t beat the fact that it is going to be available for everyone”.”The coverage we currently get is fantastic,” Root said. “Sky have done a great job in the way they have gone about it. And if you watch what BT have done, they have been very good at doing things slightly differently but they have been entertaining as well. They continue to make it interesting to viewers.”But you can’t beat the fact that it is going to be available to everyone and not just those who are subscribing. It would be great to get more and more viewers and people watching the game.”It doesn’t need to be exclusive. But making sure people have access to cricket on a broad spectrum is important.”Root’s sentiments were echoed by James Anderson. “I think it would be good for the game,” he said. “Having seen the effect that the Big Bash has had in Australia being on free to air, I think that has certainly drummed up more interest in the game.”Joe Root and James Anderson were speaking on behalf of BRUT Sport Style, the new fragrance from men’s grooming brand BRUT

International cricket will remain Kagiso Rabada’s number one priority even after he secured a massive IPL deal, which has made him an overnight millionaire. The 21-year-old fast bowler was picked up for INR 5 crore (USD 750,000 approx) by Delhi Daredevils, an amount of almost ten million Rand, which may change his life financially but will not impact his focus for South Africa, at least not if his father has anything to do with it.”I am happy for him and supportive of him reaching his goals. His future can’t be summed up by bagging an IPL contract but more by longevity in the game at the highest possible level,” Dr Mpho Rabada, Kagiso’s father, told ESPNcricinfo. “His successful inclusion is one of the key significant milestones in his career. I think it will encourage him to raise his game and more importantly apply the skills in the national team. The national team is the pride and dream of KG [Rabada], thus remaining very important.”Rabada has already proved he is willing to put the national team first, after he opted not to enter the IPL auction last year and chose a county stint with Kent instead. “He came and spoke to me and Gordon Parsons (Lions’ bowling coach) and we decided that the main thing he needed to focus on was improving his skills,” Geoffrey Toyana, Rabada’s coach at the Lions franchise said about the bowler’s county stint last year. “And he knew it would be good preparation for the England tour that’s coming up.”South Africa play four Tests against England in July, after the Champions Trophy, and Rabada saw last year as the ideal time to get experience in those conditions. He knew that aiming to play county cricket in England this year, immediately before the series, would probably not be possible because of a narrow time-frame. Despite interest from the IPL, Rabada decided he needed to put personal development first, certain the chance for an IPL deal would come in the near future. “He felt that he was not ready last year and we were supportive of the decision after deliberations but now it has finally happened,” Rabada’s father said.Rabada’s first IPL will follow immediately after South Africa’s current tour to New Zealand, which concludes with three Tests in March, and will be cut short by preparations for the Champions Trophy. CSA is understood to be calling its players back on May 7. That means Rabada will have gone straight from a tour of Australia to a home series against Sri Lanka, to a visit to New Zealand, to the IPL and to England with precious little time off before beginning another summer. Rabada is only 21 and there will be fears of burnout, but Toyana believes he is strong.”KG is an athlete. He has a good, clean bowling action and so far, touch wood, he has not had any injuries,” Toyana said. “It will always be important for him to watch where he plays and how much he plays but I am not too worried about him. He knows himself and his body and he will know if it’s becoming too much.”As for the money, no one is quite sure what Rabada will do with it yet. His love of fashion, music and a newly acquired driver’s license may lead to speculation that the bowler could use at least some of it to spoil himself but Toyana has his doubts. “He is smart kid, so I’ll say he will probably look at making some investments,” he said. “I don’t think he will spend it on anything silly and he has his dad as a mentor.”

Pakistan 542 (Younis 218, Shafiq 109) and 42 for 0 (Azhar 30*, Aslam 12*) beat England 328 (Moeen 108, Sohail 5-68) and 253 (Bairstow 81, Yasir 5-71) by ten wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA typically erratic burst of brilliance from Wahab Riaz cracked England’s resistance on the fourth afternoon at the Kia Oval, as Pakistan finished their Test series in the same magnificent style with which they had begun it at Lord’s last month, by swarming to a famous series-levelling victory in the fourth and final Test against England.Set 40 for victory after overcoming some stiff but ultimately futile resistance from England’s lower-middle order, Pakistan had recouped 16 of those before tea, before romping to a ten-wicket victory in the space of 20 minutes after the resumption, thanks to the efforts of Sami Aslam and Azhar Ali, to whom the honour of the winning hit, high into the pavilion, eventually fell.England had resumed the contest with four wickets already squandered, and a stiff deficit of 126 runs still to be overcome, but they summoned the last vestiges of their intent and determination, largely thanks to Jonny Bairstow’s 81 from 127 balls, to stave off an innings defeat and extend the contest into the day’s final session.However, after Pakistan had chiselled out two vital wickets in a nervy morning’s work, the return of Wahab’s fierce pace in the first hour after lunch was the moment at which all hope for England was blown away.Wahab’s impact in his first spell had been tempered by the attentions of umpire Bruce Oxenford, who handed him his second warning for following through on the pitch. Given how futile his efforts have been to combat a series-long no-ball problem, Wahab’s expulsion from the attack was only ever a matter of time. And sure enough, his day’s work was brought to a premature end two balls into his 12th over when Oxenford handed him his third and final strike.By then, however, the only two balls of his spell that really mattered had already come and gone. Charging in for his first over of the afternoon session with the sort of startling impact that only bowlers of genuine pace can create, Wahab got rid of each of England’s last two recognised batsmen, Bairstow and Chris Woakes, in consecutive deliveries to reduce England to 209 for 8.The timing of his intervention was as shattering as the spell itself, coming as it did with England a mere five runs shy of parity, and with two in-form men at the crease who might well have backed themselves to eke out the sort of three-figured lead that could have put their opponents under pressure in the fourth innings. Instead, in the blink of an eye, England’s only remaining ambition was to avoid an innings defeat, which they duly managed to ironic cheers when Finn clipped Wahab through midwicket three overs later.The first of the big two to fall was Woakes for 4, sold a dummy at the non-striker’s end as Bairstow hopped on to the back foot to nudge a Wahab lifter for a single into the leg side, only for the bowler himself to gallop across in his follow-through, pounce on the ball and shy from five yards while still on his knees. Woakes was nowhere near getting back.One delivery later, and clearly rattled by his own misjudgement, Bairstow attempted to reassert his authority but chose the wrong ball against which to do so. More heat outside off stump from Wahab meant that Bairstow was never in position for his drive, and Azhar at short cover completed a sharp low chance to send his team-mates into ecstasy.It was hard luck on Bairstow, who up to that point had scarcely blinked in his bid to haul England back off the canvas in this contest, and in the course of his innings, he became only the second player, after VVS Laxman in 2002, to score 900-plus runs in a year batting at No. 6 or lower.After taking a handful of overs to find his range, Bairstow laid into Pakistan’s left-armers with three rifled drives for four off Amir and Wahab, as Misbah’s natural reticence – even at moments of clear dominance – translated into a slightly tentative opening gambit from his team.It was the less-heralded wiles of Sohail Khan that finally prised the opening, as Gary Ballance – who had also been lining up the left-armers with confidence as they angled the ball back into his pads – found the right-armer’s seam and swing less easy to comprehend.Sohail’s fourth delivery of the morning was a triumph of line and length, as he pitched the ball on the left-hander’s off stump, found a modicum of movement off the seam and some steepling extra bounce to take the edge and climb through to Sarfraz Ahmed.Moeen Ali, coming off the back of a brilliant first-innings hundred, immediately got off the mark with a flicked four off the pads and he too resolved to remain as fluent as possible as England sought to chip away at their deficit.For the best part of an hour, Moeen and Bairstow blotted out the match situation in a brisk 65-run stand for the sixth wicket, as England revived some timely memories of the match-turning alliance that the same pair had produced from a similarly dicey position in the third Test at Edgbaston.Yasir Shah, whose confidence appeared to have been restored by his three-wicket burst on the third evening, struggled at first for the same impact and Moeen cashed in with a yawning straight six over long-on.But, with five minutes to go until lunch, and having begun to find a decent rhythm from around the wicket as he targeted the rough outside the left-hander’s off stump, Yasir claimed the big breakthrough with the one that went straight on. Anticipating the spin, Moeen was instead suckered by extra bounce, and Sarfraz behind the stumps took a sharp edge with a hint of a juggle.It was the prompter that Yasir needed to get back onto the offensive, and soon after Wahab’s twin interventions, Pakistan’s legspinner completed his series as he had begun it so memorably at Lord’s, wrapping up his sixth five-wicket haul in 16 Tests when Stuart Broad sent an attempted reverse sweep to Younis Khan at slip.It meant that Yasir finished the series with 19 wickets at 40.73 – but 15 at 18.13 in his two Tests in London. He now has a grand total of 95 wickets in 16 Tests, and had it not been for his anonymous showings in Pakistan’s two mid-series defeats at Old Trafford and Edgbaston, he would surely have raced past George Lohmann’s 120-year old record and become the fastest bowler to reach 100 wickets in Tests.Yasir could not apply the coup de grace to England’s innings. That honour instead went to the debutant Iktikhar Ahmed, who brought an end to some spirited defiance from England’s final pair, and picked up his maiden Test wicket, when he extracted an lbw verdict against James Anderson for 17.With nothing less than a miracle required to salvage the contest, Alastair Cook threw the ball to his likeliest wicket-takers, Woakes and Steven Finn, only for the latter to limp out of the attack after two deliveries after picking up a hamstring strain. It was an apt finale to a series in which each of England’s forward strides seemed to have been matched by an equal leap in the opposite direction.For Pakistan, however, the glory was absolute – sealed by Azhar with a mighty six into the top tier of the pavilion off Moeen, and on their nation’s Independence Day holiday to boot.As the players posed on the outfield with a large Pakistani flag before embarking on a lap of honour, they could reflect on a stunning series draw that not only denied England their stated goal of holding all the series trophies against all nine of their Test opponents, but reaffirmed their own prospects of achieving the unthinkable and rising to become the No.1 nation in the world. For a side that has not played a single match on home soil in more than seven years, that would be a glory without parallel.

ScorecardNick Browne maintained his gluttonous run-scoring against Derbyshire (file photo)•Getty Images

Nick Browne’s unbeaten double-century provided the platform for Division Two leaders Essex to take complete control of the match against Derbyshire at Derby. The opener was unbeaten on 229, his second double-hundred of the season against Derbyshire, when Essex declared at 530 for 9 with Ryan ten Doeschate scoring 60 and Paul Walter 47 on his first-class debut.Derbyshire seamer Tom Milnes claimed a Championship best 6 for 93 but it was the only positive for the home side who collapsed before tea and closed the day 116 for 6.Essex went into the second morning already well placed and Browne and ten Doeschate accumulated steadily to take their partnership to 140 before Milnes broke through.Derbyshire should have removed Browne on 144 when he swatted a full toss from legspinner Matt Critchley to square leg but Charlie Macdonell spilled a simple chance. It was the second time Browne had been put down and he made the most of his good fortune by batting Essex into a position of utter dominance with the help of ten Doeschate and Walter.The Essex captain straight drove Critchley for six and although this was one of his less explosive innings against Derbyshire, his side were well on top when he played on to Milnes who claimed three more wickets in three overs after lunch. James Foster pulled to fine leg, Will Rhodes edged to second slip on his Essex debut after arriving on loan from Yorkshire and Graham Napier gloved a catch down the leg side but that was as good as it got for Derbyshire.Walter strode to the middle to dominate a stand of 83 in 13 overs, taking three consecutive fours from Callum Parkinson to bring up the 500 before Browne drove Tony Palladino over long-on for his second six.Essex pulled out when Palladino clipped Walter’s leg stump and Derbyshire were soon in deep trouble with Ben Slater lbw to Jamie Porter’s second delivery and Billy Godleman bowled in the fourth over. Wayne Madsen walked out needing 22 for 1000 championship runs for the season but was lbw to a Walter yorker without scoring and when Will Hughes was well taken down the leg side, Derbyshire were 34 for 4.Neil Broom looked secure and Macdonell showed application in his first Championship innings as the fifth wicket pair resisted for 17 overs before Napier produced a quicker ball to have Broom taken at first slip for 31. Walter returned to tempt Macdonell into an edged drive and although Alex Mellor and Matt Critchley dug in for 13 overs, Derbyshire were 414 behind at stumps.

ScorecardTravis Head smashed 175 in his fourth innings for Yorkshire (file photo)•BCCI

Individual hundreds from Travis Head and Jack Leaning and a partnership of 274 – a List A record for the county – helped Yorkshire complete a third consecutive win in the Royal London Cup, keeping the Vikings firmly on course to reach the quarter-finals of this season’s competition.Head hit 175 off 139 balls while Leaning finished unbeaten on 131 off 110 as Yorkshire recorded their highest List A total against another first-class county, beating the 352 for 6 made against Nottinghamshire in Scarborough in 2001. Their highest total, 411 for 4, was made against Devon in 2004.Leaning, whose century was his second in List A cricket, said it had been a pleasure to bat with Head, in only his fourth match for Yorkshire, describing the 21-year-old as “a huge talent who will play a big part for Australia in the future”.”It was also good to keep up our current form. Wins always breed confidence, and we can take this into a busy period of games,” Leaning added.Having been asked to bowl first, Leicestershire might have thought fortune was going to favour them after Yorkshire opener Adam Lyth, who scored centuries in his two previous List A games, was run out for just 2 following a mix-up with partner Alex Lees.Lees himself was stumped for 32 off the bowling of Foxes offspinner Rob Sayer, coming down the wicket and missing with an ugly heave across the line, but 51 for 2 was as good as it got for Leicestershire. On a flat track Head looked in fine touch from the start, while Leaning hit the third ball he faced, from Sayer, high over long-off for six.Head brought up his half-century from a relatively sedate 60 balls, but accelerated thereafter, reaching his hundred off 99 deliveries. He might have been dismissed on 116, when he lofted a delivery from Mark Cosgrove to long-off, but although Sayer held the ball one-handed above his head, he did so in the act of stepping over the boundary and was forced to throw the ball back inside the rope.Leaning also had an escape, a more straightforward chance dropped by Robson at deep midwicket off Sayer when he was on 83, and the pair had eclipsed Yorkshire’s previous List A record partnership of 242, between Martyn Moxon and Ashley Metcalfe against Warwickshire in 1990, by the time Head passed 150 and Leaning his hundred.Head eventually top-edged a simple catch behind the wicket to be dismissed for 175 – remarkably, still 25 short of his best List A score of 200, made for South Australia last October – but Leaning finished unbeaten as Yorkshire continued to pile on the runs.Leicestershire’s reply began poorly, when captain Mark Pettini was bowled by a superb in-swinging delivery from David Willey, and though Angus Robson could consider himself unlucky to glove an attempted hook at Tim Bresnan and be caught by the wicketkeeper down the leg side, Kevin O’Brien can only have been disappointed with the shot that saw him give midwicket a simple catch.Cosgrove was caught off a leading edge, and though Lewis Hill played well in going to 50, the rest of the Leicestershire batsmen had no answer to the spin of Azeem Rafiq and Adil Rashid.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWest Indies pulled off a coup to beat South Africa for the second time in the triangular series and book a place in Sunday’s final against Australia. The hosts, ranked eighth in this format, were only given an outside chance of making it to the last match, ahead of the tournament, but they ended with as many wins as top-ranked side Australia.At 21 for 4 in the fifth over, West Indies looked out of the reckoning but Darren Bravo’s third ODI century led the recovery after Kagiso Rabada’s searing opening spell. Bravo and Kieron Pollard, who scored a ninth ODI fifty, shared a record 156-run stand for the fifth wicket to drive West Indies to 285.Fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, playing only his second ODI, then made sure South Africa could not get there. He reduced them to 28 for 3 and South Africa failed to find a batting hero. Farhaan Behardien was the only batsman in the top seven to get past 16 and only South Africa’s last pair put on a stand over 31 as they were dismissed for 185 in 46 overs.Earlier, it seemed West Indies would be in danger of folding in a similar fashion. They were flattened by Rabada’s raw pace and blistering accuracy on a surface with good carry. After Wayne Parnell had Andre Fletcher caught behind, Rabada dismissed Johnson Charles and Marlon Samuels off successive balls. He was unable to emulate his bowling coach Charl Langeveldt and claim a hat-trick, but an over later he set Denesh Ramdin up by hitting him on the shoulder with a bouncer and then going full to remove his middle stump and leave West Indies reeling.Things could have got worse for them when Bravo, who was on 11 at the time, top-edged Morne Morkel but Parnell misjudged the catch and parried it over for six. Three balls later, the light drizzle that had hung around turned into a downpour and the 20-minute break allowed West Indies to catch their breath and plot a comeback.They returned to face spin for the first time in Imran Tahir but Bravo dealt with him with authority, so much so that Tahir went wicketless for the first time in the series. Pollard led the assault against the seamers and took on Morkel and Chris Morris, both of whom struggled to find their lengths.Bravo and Pollard scored at more than six runs an the over to force AB de Villiers into making constant bowling changes, all to no avail. Not only was the South African attack unable to find a way through the pair, but they were untidy in their efforts and bowled 19 extra deliveries.They had a brief respite when Pollard tried to clear long-on and Faf du Plessis took a sharp catch running back from the inner ring but with 20 overs left in the West Indian innings, Bravo read the situation well and pressed on. He was in the 80s when Pollard was dismissed, and entered the nineties with a four off the bottom edge off Morris and brought up his most important hundred in this format off the same number of balls.Holder took 17 balls to get his first run but he could afford to be circumspect. After settling in, he scored a vital 40 and shared a 54-run stand for the seventh wicket with Carlos Brathwaite.Having watched Australia chase down 283 on Tuesday, South Africa would have been confident of their chances but their line-up let them down, despite several let-offs.Hashim Amla should have been out off the fifth legitimate ball he faced, when he chased an awayswinger from Gabriel but Ramdin shelled the chance. He made up for it two overs later when Quinton de Kock got a bottom edge and Ramdin took a one-handed catch.Du Plessis should have been run out when Amla set off for a risky single, but Andre Fletcher missed a direct hit from point. Five balls later, Gabriel sliced du Plessis into half with a sharp inducker and appealed for the lbw. Amla coaxed du Plessis into a review, but it went in vain.De Villiers offered a chance, when he chased a wide one from Gabriel, delivered at 144.4kph and Ramdin did not miss out. He fell on his injured right shoulder to take the catch but it ensured the South African captain ended the series without a single fifty. Amla’s luck ran out when Sunil Narine trapped the opener in front with his second ball to expose South Africa’s middle order.Jason Holder, having recovered from a hamstring strain to play this game, bowled an uninterrupted ten-over spell and found reward when he had Duminy popping a leading edge to gully. Holder should have had another wicket when Behardien top-edged to fine leg but Gabriel dropped it. By then, South Africa were 65 for 6 and West Indies were not left to rue their missed chances.Gabriel did not bowl again in the match and went off the field to tend to an injury, which allowed Behardien and Wayne Parnell to mount a brief fightback. With the required run rate climbing, the only purpose South Africa’s tail served in keeping West Indies in the field was to frustrate them and Sulieman Benn was particularly irked. He searched for a wicket without success, but that would not take the gloss off West Indies’ win.