All posts by csb10.top

Match facts

Sunday, April 12, 2015
Start time 1600 local (1030 GMT)2:04

Agarkar: Big game ahead for Daredevils

Big Picture

It’s possible one of these teams has not spent on the entire squad as much as the other has on one player. Rajasthan Royals have shallow pockets but still deep resources. Delhi Daredevils have emptied their house season after season only to fail time and again, except during the first two seasons when they reached the semi-final; in 2008, they lost to, well, Royals. They have now lost 10 matches in a row, the last one against Chennai Super Kings, who were way off their best both with the bat and especially with the ball.Daredevils should be absolutely filthy with themselves for letting that opportunity go. There might be a core building, though: in Nathan Coulter-Nile, Imran Tahir and Amit Mishra they have an attack that will compete. Mohammed Shami and Zaheer Khan will surely be added to the mix at some point. Royals will have to work hard to score runs against them, but it is the Royals’ bowlers who will look to trip up the Daredevils batting. Tim Southee, Chris Morris, James Faulkner and Pravin Tambe could just as well be an international attack.There is enviable balance and power in the Royals side, but Daredevils will like to think they are not too far off it if only their batting can come together.

Watch out for…

Yuvraj Singh batted at No. 6 in Daredevils’ unsuccessful chase of 151 against Chennai Super Kings. The innings included a nice cover-drive, a leg glance, and three awkward pulls, the last of which got his wicket. There was expected rust in his batting, but it was argued – reasonably – that he batted too low. While keeping him for the crunch was an obvious show of faith in Yuvraj, he and JP Duminy at No. 7 left the top too inexperienced and the basket of these two left-hand batsmen couldn’t take the weight of all the eggs. There is merit in having a gun player for the end, but it might not be a bad idea to split the two, and have Yuvraj bat at No. 4, where he gets some time to build an innings. It will also give the inexperienced top order some confidence.This is a big season for Sanju Samson. Last year he came close to the Indian ODI team, and even travelled to England. MS Dhoni has quit Tests, and is showing signs of decline in limited-overs batting. There are going to be tours this year when Dhoni might rest. While Saha is the heir apparent in Tests, Samson will want to make sure he is the first man called up when Dhoni chooses to rest. And in India, IPL form plays a major role in ODI – sometimes, even Test – selection; just ask Karn Sharma who made a Test debut based on IPL performances.

Stats and trivia

• Royals lead the head-to-head against Daredevils 8-6, including wins in their last four meetings, and a 2-2 head-to-head at Feroz Shah Kotla
• The last time Yuvraj played against Royals, he scored 83 off 38 for Royal Challengers Bangalore, but so batting-friendly was that game that Royals won with seven balls to spare
• Mishra has got batsmen stumped 16 times in the IPL, which is four more than any other bowler
• Of the 15 times that a player has scored 40 or more and taken three or more wickets in the same IPL match, six have been by a Royals player

Quotes

“Last year I didn’t really know my role and played only a couple of games. I didn’t really get a handle on how to fit into the team. This year, I am glad to have played the first game. We’ll see how things unfold and take it from there.”

Paul Downton will face a gruelling enquiry into England’s World Cup failure at a meeting at Lord’s next week when his record as managing director of England cricket will come under serious scrutiny.Downton will meet the ECB’s new chief executive, Tom Harrison, on Tuesday with some Lord’s insiders suggesting his job is on the line.The head selector, James Whitaker, and coach, Peter Moores, are also expected to attend meetings in the week, though their positions are not understood to be in such jeopardy.ESPNcricinfo understands that Downton’s explanations have not impressed either Harrison or the incoming ECB chairman, Colin Graves, and on Tuesday he will be asked to demonstrate that he has realistic plans for improvement. A failure to do so could result in his sacking.There have been rumblings in some quarters that the England team “needs a leader not a manager”, and the value of the MD role is also being widely debated.The ECB named Hugh Morris as the first MD of England cricket in 2007, following Giles Clarke’s arrival as chairman – part of the governing body’s response to the recommendations of the Schofield Report, commissioned after a dismal Ashes tour in 2006-07.Downton has endured an uncomfortable period in office since his appointment a little over a year ago. His handling of the sacking of Kevin Pietersen proved particularly controversial – he claimed he had “never seen anyone so disengaged” with the rest of the team at the end of the Ashes tour of 2013-14 – while his decision to reappoint Moores to the coaching role has drawn criticism.Downton referred to Moores as “the outstanding coach of his generation” but statistics published by the suggest that his combined record is not only the worst of the four coaches England have employed in the modern era but the worst of any current coach among the top eight Test sides.Downton was obliged to apologise to Pietersen after breaking the terms of the confidentiality agreement between the player and the board, with some at the ECB unhappy at the way the affair has dragged on for a year.There is a strong feeling within the ECB that, had Pietersen simply been dropped rather than sacked, much of the ensuing fuss might have been avoided.The recent intervention of Graves, suggesting there was a way back into the England team for Pietersen if he committed himself to county cricket and scored heavily, might also be interpreted as undermining Downton’s position.The episode is the first major test of Harrison in his new role. While he has kept a low profile in his first six weeks in office, he has orchestrated a major review of the domestic structure which suggests a boldness of approach. Neither he nor Graves were directly involved in the appointment of Downton.England won three Tests in a row against India to clinch last year’s series but they were defeated in all three formats at home to Sri Lanka and humiliated in both the World T20 – where they lost to Netherlands – and the World Cup.Downton’s laid the blame for England’s World Cup group stage exit firmly at the players’ door as he sought to reduce pressure on Moores, claiming that the media were overly anxious for a scapegoat.His removal would increase the chances of Pietersen returning for England. As first indicated by ESPNcricinfo, Pietersen has become increasingly tempted by a return to England’s county game, driven by the possibility that his international career might not be at an end.Expectations are growing that he will cancel his IPL contract and play county cricket in the coming weeks. While several counties – notably Somerset, Lancashire and Leicestershire – have expressed an interest in signing the batsman, he is expected to re-join Surrey.

ScorecardMichael Carberry laid the foundation for Hampshire’s reply but fell for 97•Getty Images

On this evening of triple-centuries, important meetings and enough ballyhoo to fill a Piers Morgan tabloid, it might be worth remembering that more than one England player seemingly ended his career at Sydney last January. Barely 16 months ago, Michael Carberry was an England cricketer. And watching him bat against Yorkshire on the second afternoon of this game, it was not difficult to believe.Then again, seeing him carelessly lose his wicket in the last hour of the day when only three runs short of a century he deserved, it was also tempting to reach the conclusion that Carberry is a cricketer who may never quite gain the rewards from the game that his talent suggests he should harvest. The Hampshire batsman later admitted that his dismissal, caught at deep square leg by Cheteshwar Pujara when sweeping Adil Rashid, was his “worst piece of cricket” in a 15-year career. Certainly it marked a vital shift in this game as Hampshire declined from a position of parity on 195 for 4 to 223 for 8 at the close, with Rashid taking three of the wickets.Carberry can still claim with rather more justice than most that he was dealt a tough hand by international cricket. Many would say that he deserved more opportunities, at least in the limited-overs formats. Yet he is still a polished performer in the four-day game. For most of the second afternoon at Headingley he played Yorkshire’s high-quality attack with great skill and enviable composure.

Yorkshire brace themselves once more

Yorkshire could be forgiven for regarding themselves as the county that keeps on giving to English cricket. Over the past twelve months the county has lost its chairman Colin Graves, second team coach Paul Farbrace and half a dozen of its players in the national cause.
On Thursday Adam Lyth is expected to be selected in the England squad and before too long Andrew Strauss, as director of England Cricket, may be ringing Headingley and asking to speak to Jason Gillespie about the vacant England coach’s position.
It seems that any hopes England may have of becoming a powerful force in the world game rest on officials conducting regular raids in the broad acres.
“It is a frustration,” admitted Yorkshire’s director of cricket Martyn Moxon. “Part of county cricket’s job is produce cricketers for England and while I wouldn’t say we produced Paul Farbrace, losing him to international cricket is a double whammy. As to the speculation with Jason, we’ll just have to wait and see.
“We’ve had a little bit of disruption over the last few years with Paul leaving and replacing him with Richard Dawson. Then he left and now we’ve had to reinvent ourselves again.
“Clearly Jason has had a massive effect on the team. He’s very highly thought of by us. He’s understandably being linked with the England job but nothing official has happened and we want Jason to focus on important games for Yorkshire. The Blast starts on Friday which is a competition we want to do well in. If anything comes from England we’ll have to deal with it.”

Having arrived at the crease when Sean Terry was lbw to Tim Bresnan in the fifth over of the innings, Carberry partnered Liam Dawson in a 75-run second-wicket partnership. In the course of that stand, Dawson, having already been dropped by Jack Leaning and Adam Lyth in the slips, was also nearly run out by Jack Brooks when the bowler missed the stumps from around 15 yards. If Hampshire were to enjoy that kind of good fortune, reasoned the travelling supporters, they had some hope of matching Yorkshire’s first-innings total of 370.It didn’t last, of course. When he had batted almost two hours and made 40 valuable runs, Dawson edged a ball from Will Rhodes straight to Leaning at slip. Perhaps a few Yorkshire zealots observed that since he was already in his fourth innings, the batsman had little to complain about. For his part, Carberry continued imperturbably, driving Bresnan through the covers as powerfully as could be desired and pulling Rashid whenever the legspinner pitched short. Which, early in his spell, was rather too frequently for Andrew Gale’s satisfaction.In mid-afternoon Yorkshire seized the initiative when Brooks had James Vince leg before when playing no shot and then Will Smith caught by Lyth at slip when the batsman was attempting to withdraw his bat from his first ball. Yet from a perilous 109 for 4, Hampshire recovered with Carberry and Sean Ervine adding 86 together. Then came Carberry’s sweep to Pujara, a fielder who had failed even to pick up a couple of previous pulls.Having lost their best batsman for a 208-ball 97, which included 17 fours, Hampshire’s batsmen lost their way. In the next over Ervine, who had batted with calm assurance for 48, top-edged a pull off Brooks straight to Steve Patterson at long leg. And in his final two overs of the day Rashid had Gareth Berg caught at slip by Lyth and Andre Adams taken at point by Gale when Hampshire’s No. 9 attempted to slog the ball to Morley.So for all their resolution over the first six sessions of this game, Vince’s men have a lot of work to do if they are to avoid defeat. This is hard on many of their cricketers, particularly James Tomlinson, who picked up two of Yorkshire’s final three first-innings wickets, including that of Leaning, who was leg before for 82. Leaning, it might be noted, has now scored 749 runs in his first 20 County Championship innings, which is more than Adam Lyth, Alex Lees, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow or Gary Ballance managed.Some are already suggesting that Leaning may play Test cricket one day. If he does, he may hope for a little more luck than Michael Carberry, who will probably never play for England again. Then again, the same might be said of Kevin Pietersen.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:24

Mukhtar’s record, and Lahore leaves its mark

There was a pitched battle at Lord’s but at the Gaddafi Stadium, yearning hearts were won over once again in a thrilling contest. Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by two wickets with two balls to spare, in another last-over finish, to clinch the T20 series 2-0 and, like Friday, the occasion got bigger than the game.The unheralded batting talent of Bilawal Bhatti came to the fore with Pakistan needing 12 off the final over. He first smote Brian Vitori for a straight six and, after picking up two, carved the bowler through the covers for the winning runs.Zimbabwe will feel hard done by with the result as they fought tooth and nail with patches of excellent batting and fielding. However, the home side edged the game at the right moments – like the last two overs of the Zimbabwe innings or Shoaib Malik’s tight four overs which kept Zimbabwe’s score down to 175 for 3. Mukhtar Ahmed’s second successive fifty was also important, while the Lahore crowd kept Pakistan, in the game with their noise.Chasing 176, Pakistan lost their first wicket in the fifth over when Ahmed Shehzad chopped the ball to mid-off for Vusi Sibanda’s first of three catches. Shehzad and Mukhtar Ahmed had added 44 runs, but it was nothing like their dominating 142-run stand in the previous game.Mukhtar, however, continued to bat confidently, finding boundaries regularly even as debutant Nauman Anwar and Shoaib Malik fell to a catch at long-on and a run-out, respectively. Mukhtar hit boundaries through point, third-man and fine-leg in the second over before an onslaught against Graeme Cremer in the eighth over, in which the legspinner conceded 19 runs.He reached 50 off 33 balls but in the 14th over, holed out to long-on off Sikandar Raza’s bowling, with Pakistan needing a further 59 runs off 39 balls.Shahid Afridi entered with usual fanfare but lasted just three balls before skying Williams for a catch near mid-off. Raza fumbled for a moment but did not let go of the chance.Zimbabwe kept picking up wickets, even as Pakistan batsmen kept themselves within touching distance of the required run-rate. Umar Akmal was leg-before to Chris Mpofu before Anwar Ali was yorked by Willams in the 17th and 18th overs respectively. Mohammad Rizwan, playing in place of Sarfraz Ahmed, holed out to a great running catch by Raza when Pakistan needed 15 off 11 balls.Earlier, Zimbabwe started off soundly once again. Hamilton Masakadza and Vusi Sibanda added a second successive 50-plus opening partnership. This time Sibanda started off with a boundary before Masakadza joined in the third over. Masakadza smacked Bhatti for three fours in a row before slamming a straight six in the next over off Mohammad Sami. He took two more fours before falling to Malik’s accuracy, having made 39 off 32 balls. This was Zimbabwe’s third- highest T20 opening stand, and second-highest in terms of number of balls faced.Sean Williams, promoted to bat at No 3 for the first time in his T20 career, got into action in the tenth over, finding two boundaries over long-on and midwicket. He kept finding fours and, despite the loss of Sibanda, for 49 in the 17th over, the pace of the innings didn’t dither. Williams reached his maiden T20 50 off 26 balls, with a swept six over cow corner.Zimbabwe got 50 in the last five overs and the only thrust came from captain Elton Chigumbura, who struck Sami for three sixes in the 18th over: over long-off, extra cover and long-on. It looked like a bigger total than the first game was on the cards but Afridi gave four in the penultimate over and Sami took Chigumbura’s wicket at the start of the final over. Zimbabwe did score three runs more than the last game but a bit more connection between bat and ball in the last two overs would have given them a bigger total.

West Indies and Lahore Qalandars allrounder Kevon Cooper has been served a warning after umpires reported his bowling action after Tuesday evening’s match against Quetta Gladiators. It is not clear if one or more deliveries of Cooper were reported, but a PSL media release stated the he could continue to bowl. However, if his bowling action is reported one more time, Cooper will be suspended from bowling in the tournament. It is the first time a bowling action has been reported in the PSL.”Mr. Cooper has now been placed on the warning list and may continue to be selected to play and bowl for his team in a PSL match,” the PSL release said. “Under the PSL Suspected Illegal Bowling Action policy, if a player is reported while on the warning list, the player shall be suspended from bowling for the remainder of the PSL tournament and from bowling in any matches organized by the PCB until such date as he is cleared or upon conclusion of any ineligibility period.”Cooper’s managed figures of 1 for 37 in his four overs against Gladiators, who won a high-scoring thriller off the last ball. Overall, Cooper has taken six wickets in six PSL matches while conceding his runs at an economy rate of 9.23.This is not the first instance of Cooper’s bowling coming under the scanner. His action has been found suspect twice in the past: first in 2011 during the Caribbean Premier League and then during the 2014 IPL.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:31

By the Numbers – Kohli Bradmanesque in 2016

Virat Kohli stroked his third fifty in as many T20s against Sri Lanka to send his team cruising to the Asia Cup final, after a tight bowling performance had restrained the opposition to 138 for 9. Kohli arrived with India wobbling at 16 for 2 in the fourth over, but soon enlisted Suresh Raina, then Yuvraj Singh, for support, in what was eventually a comfortable chase. The winning runs were hit with four balls and five wickets to spare. Kohli’s share was a 47-ball 56 not out.It had been Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah who earned India the initial impetus, however, taking out a batsman apiece during their miserly new-ball spells. Sri Lanka coughed and spluttered right through their innings, losing wickets just as a significant partnership seemed to be forming. Chamara Kapugedera top-scored with 30 from 32, before late blows from Thisara Perera and Nuwan Kulasekara propelled the team to what was a half-decent score, given the conditions. Dew would make defending it substantially harder, however.Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and R Ashwin all took two wickets apiece for India, and Nehra made a customary early breakthrough. Ashwin was typically crafty, but the seamers’ scalps were largely the result of good discipline, as Sri Lanka batsmen attempted to manufacture big strokes following long, quiet spells.Kohli was in good touch from early in his innings, smoking Angelo Mathews through midwicket fifth ball, before pumping Nuwan Kulasekara through point before the end of the Powerplay. He’d hit one more sublime cover-drive off Dushmantha Chameera, in the first half of the innings, but largely laid low after that, mining singles and twos from the outfield instead. He ticked along, and Raina followed suit – the pair putting on 54 together for the third wicket.When Raina departed in the 12th over, India were marginally shy of the required rate, but Kohli’s assured presence warded off panic. He let Yuvraj play himself into some kind of form, and kept India striding confidently toward the total. Memorably bludgeoning huge, consecutive sixes off Herath, Yuvraj also produced his most substantial innings since early 2014 – an 18-ball 35.Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina steadied India’s chase after an early wobble•Associated Press

Pandya didn’t last long against Herath, but MS Dhoni was on hand to assist Kohli with the finish. Kohli crossed fifty in the penultimate over, then lifted Herath over cow corner to reap the winning runs.Earlier, Dinesh Chandimal creamed a four second ball, then failed to score off the next eight deliveries, before sending an inside edge to the keeper off Nehra. Tillakaratne Dilshan’s modest form persisted at the other end, though he pilfered a few runs behind the wicket, before hooking Pandya to fine leg, to end on 18. With Shehan Jayasuriya also having been dismissed cheaply Sri Lanka had slipped to 31 for 3 at the beginning of the seventh over. India’s seamers had made good use of the juice in the pitch – Bumrah threatening batsmen’s edges, in particular.Mathews and Kapugedera attempted to set down a platform for Sri Lanka’s hitters, but their going was slow. Halfway through the innings, Sri Lanka had mustered only 47. Just when Mathews finally began to find the boundary, hitting three fours from five balls, he got himself out to an innocuous ball. Attempting to run a single to third man, Mathews played Pandya back onto his stumps, to finish with 18 from 19 balls.There were flashes of aggression from Kapugedera and Milinda Siriwardana, who put on 43 runs off the 31 balls they had together. Siriwardana even launched Ravindra Jadeja into the sightscreen, then nurdled him to the third man fence, in successive deliveries. But, as has often been the case in recent India v Sri Lanka matches, Ashwin dealt a decisive blow, removing Siriwardana in the 17th over, before Dasun Shanaka ran himself out off a free hit, a few balls later.Kapugedara’s departure, though, brought a little acceleration. Thisara Perera bludgeoned two fours and a six in his first five balls, before charging Ashwin one too many times, in the penultimate over. Having anticipated the advance, Ashwin slipped the ball wide of off stump – conceding the extra, but claiming the wicket. Replays would show, though, that Perera shouldn’t have been given out stumped. Somehow, the batsman had managed to swing his bat back into the crease before Dhoni snapped the bails off, despite the square-leg umpire having given him out immediately. Late leg-side blows from Kulasekara gave the innings a final, if futile, fillip.

ScorecardJake Lehmann’s 148-ball 122 included 14 fours and a six•Getty Images

Jake Lehmann reeled off his third century of the summer as a young South Australia side held their own against New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield match at Coffs Harbour.Following Lehmann’s hundred, Joe Mennie was able to dismiss Ed Cowan cheaply before stumps were drawn. Cowan was returning to the team after he missed their draw against Western Australia in Perth due to the after-effects of a blow to the helmet inflicted by a Joel Paris bouncer in Lincoln.The match is being held on the NSW north coast in memory of the late Phillip Hughes, and Lehmann marked it with a swashbuckling left-hander’s century as part of a concerted Redbacks counterattack that followed the loss of three early wickets.SA’s selectors had been the subject of considerable debate in Adelaide after the decision to drop the experienced but underperforming Tom Cooper and Tim Ludeman.Their replacements Jake Weatherald and Alex Carey both made strong contributions. Opener Weatherald made a sprightly 58 while the gloveman added 105 with Lehmann after the visitors had slipped further to 5 for 123.Another youngster, the second-game seamer Cameron Valente, helped add further runs with Lehmann, allowing the Redbacks to reach the fringes of 300.Arjun Nair, the teenaged finger spinner who became the Blues’ 738th first-class cricketer and 11th youngest debutant, claimed a pair of tail-end wickets to help round up SA’s innings.

ScorecardAndrew Gale’s 46 steadied Yorkshire after a final-day wobble•Getty Images

To concede 593 for 9 against a county with designs on a third successive Championship, be riven by an injury crisis which saw their coach and analyst pressed into fielding duties on the final day and yet still emerge with a draw was a commendable effort by Hampshire as they braced themselves for the hospital waiting rooms that lie ahead.Fidel Edwards, Hampshire’s talisman as they escaped relegation on the final day last season, was the latest casualty after badly damaging an ankle in the pre-match warm-up and being carried from the outfield. It remained unclear whether the ankle was broken – he remained in Leeds after the match for further tests – but Hampshire are provisionally estimating a lay-off of two months, which equates to half the Championship season.A fortnight into the season, roughly half the Hampshire professional staff has been injured, included six frontline bowlers, a calamitous situation which makes draws against Warwickshire and Yorkshire, two sides with Championship pretensions, quite something.Loan signings are inevitable to see them through the coming weeks, although no Division One side is likely to be overly generous and the quality of any Division Two signing would be dubious. Any agent for Kolpak or dual national signings is likely to receive a call.Considering that Hampshire were also hampered by injuries in this match to Sean Ervine, who will discover back in Southampton whether he has rebroken the finger that disrupted his 2015 season; Liam Dawson, who has an abdominal strain; and Chris Wood, whose knee niggle did relent enough for him to bowl in the second innings, Yorkshire still had an opportunity for victory when Hampshire’s innings ended, 140 behind, half an hour in the final day.But their second innings faltered against excellent Hampshire bowling. From 43 for 4 in the 18th over, when the prodigious run scoring of Jonny Bairstow for once failed to deliver (Ryan McLaren producing a good one to have him caught at the wicket), it became evident that they had abandoned hope of working themselves into a position to declare. Bairstow has averaged close to 100 in the Championship since the start of last season, but he can expect a regular England Test place this summer and Yorkshire need to cover his runs from other sources.”It’s not panic stations – it the first game of the season,” said their captain Andrew Gale. “We were a bit sloppy and a bit soft. We have flagged it up and it won’t happen again. But there’s going to come a time in the season when you can’t rely on your Jonny Bairstows to keep standing up and making unbelievable contributions. The lad is playing a different game to the rest of us I think.”The alibi for Yorkshire’s caution was that this Headingley surface remained too true for any undue risk to be taken.”A lot of credit to Hampshire who didn’t lie down and die,” Gale said. “I felt it was a good decision of theirs to bowl first on a pitch which flattened out a bit. I didn’t think that there was enough time to set a game up after we had lost a few wickets and we had to concentrate on a solid draw.”That flattening-pitch alibi looked just a little threadbare in the hour before tea, however, as Will Smith’s offspin found enough turn to suggest that it would have been more advantageous for Adil Rashid to be bowling in the final session instead of batting out the overs. It might have benefited Rashid, too – a rare chance to bowl in encouraging conditions at Headingley in April being not exactly a common one. Considering that 21 overs were lost to bad light on the opening day, and unbroken sunshine came to the batsmen’s aid, this surface does not deserve to be talked down.”The wickets we took early probably halted their progress, but with 40 overs to go I thought they might have a crack at us,” said Hampshire’s captain James Vince. “After 150 overs in the field maybe thought it wasn’t worth taking the energy out of their bowlers on a flat wicket.”There are concerns in Yorkshire’s top order, tempered naturally by the fact the season is one game old, including two failures for Alex Lees, the latest when he was lbw during a demanding new-ball spell from James Tomlinson. Lees, as a young one-day captain carrying much responsibility, will hope to reverse last season’s slip in form before life becomes too demanding. As for Tomlinson, he had wondered if his Championship opportunities might be limited after the signing of another left-arm quick, Reece Topley – another early-season casualty – but he was impressive here.It took 12 overs for Yorkshire to find the boundary and even they, two in succession, were leg byes. The most tortuous innings was played by Gary Ballance who took 28 balls to get off the mark and who needed 36 balls for 4, at which point he thrashed Chris Wood to a carefully-stationed short cover. Adam Lyth wafted a wide one to slip. Jack Leaning was beaten in the flight by Smith. Gale’s measured 46 guarded against disaster.Hampshire’s 12th man Mason Crane, coach Dale Benkenstein and analyst Joe Maiden had to field for much of the final day, presumably leaving Hampshire short of data as well as bowlers – just the sort of thing to send shivers through a modern dressing room. But who needs data when they can just wallow in memories of a draw as battling as this, one which leaves them with one defeat in eight since they began the recovery last season that ultimately saw them escape relegation.

Clare Connor has described the decision to drop her old friend Charlotte Edwards as “the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my working life”.Connor, Head of Women’s Cricket at the ECB, played for England U19s with Edwards from the age of 15 – Edwards was just 12 – before they went on to represent the senior team together.But, with recent results disappointing, and the new head coach of the women’s team, Mark Robinson, indicating that he wanted a new direction, it was Connor’s duty to bring down the curtain on a remarkable 20-year international career.”We go back a long way,” Connor said. “We are close and she is very special to me and to the game, so it was immensely difficult.”It was instigated by Mark Robinson. He felt a fresh vision was what the team needed in terms of leadership. She has captained the team for ten years and environments do need to be refreshed. You sometimes need a new voice, almost a disturbance to the dynamics to kick-start a different style of play or culture.”Lottie could see the team is the most important thing.”Connor admitted there had been some concern from the ECB management about recent results, but insisted that the introduction of the Super League and the advent of the professional era will bring improvement.”I was at the ECB AGM yesterday and Colin Graves did mention it has not been as successful a period as people would have liked,” Connor said. “I think everyone recognises we are in a period of change.”I have no doubt Mark will have a huge impact. We will have some wobbles along the way but we do need to disturb the norm. He is perceptive. He has a lovely balance of kindness but also trying to get players to understand the brutality of professional sport.”The challenge is how you harness that passion and innocence and genuine love for the game and keep everything that is special in a new professional era.”If some of those 1.3 million girls who have started to play through Chance to Shine convert into cricketers we will have a more athletic talent pool. Cricket is going to be a viable option and just as normal as picking up a netball or tennis racquet. The professionalism of the game helps us achieve that, but it will not happen immediately.”

David Warner is hopeful of being available for Australia’s next match against West Indies on Monday, despite suffering a painful blow to the finger in the win over South Africa on Saturday.Warner was Man of the Match in St Kitts for his 109 against South Africa, but late in South Africa’s chase he was struck on the index finger of his left hand diving for a catch. Warner left the field immediately after the blow but he took hope from the fact that, while it had hurt, the feeling was different to when he had broken his thumb previously.”The finger is quite sore,” Warner said. “We’ll keep assessing it over the next 24 hours. It’s quite painful. To me it’s just got the same bruising marks as a normal bung on the finger does. I’m always hopeful. A sore finger is not going to stop me but if it’s broken, that might.”I was a bit hesitant. When I first looked at it, it didn’t look too good. It had that sort of purple mark on the nail. But it doesn’t feel like the thumb … I’ve broken the thumb twice, I know what that feels like. Hopefully, I’m being positive, and there’s not too much damage.”Warner was struck when he dived in an attempt to catch a JP Duminy cut off the bowling of Mitchell Marsh in the 39th over and while he failed to make the catch, Australia’s bowlers created enough chances to secure a 36-run win. Warner’s century was the difference in the match, and despite the short boundaries at Warner Park, nearly half his runs came in ones and twos.”It’s always challenging when you play on these small grounds, because in the back of your mind you’ve got to take the ego out of it,” Warner said. “When you’re in, you can feel like you can hit every ball for six. But once that ball got older it was harder to bat. It was actually quite hard to free the arms. You’ve got to try and get yourself in and be positive.”The boundaries are always going to come if you’re being positive, looking with intent to hit the ones and twos. That’s the most important thing about this game, is rotating the strike. There’s four fielders out until the last 10, you’ve just got to make the most of it until you get into there.”The hundred was Warner’s sixth in ODIs and his first outside Australia. Warner’s one-day form this year has been excellent – so far in 2016 he is the world’s leading scorer in ODIs, with 511 runs at 63.87.