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N Srinivasan has said the BCCI convinced the other member boards of the ICC to make the DRS optional by showing them a presentation on how Hot Spot had failed during India’s tour of England

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Oct-2011N Srinivasan, the new BCCI president, has said the Indian board convinced the other member boards of the ICC to make the DRS optional by showing them a presentation on how Hot Spot had failed during India’s tour of England. In an interview with , Srinivasan said the BCCI was not a bully but brought up the issue of the DRS again at the ICC executive board meeting in Dubai because the problems with Hot Spot were apparent.”The BCCI takes positions based not just on its own interests but also on its view on cricket,” he said. “In England, everyone could see the problems with Hot Spot, so we took the matter up again. We made a presentation of the decisions that clearly showed that Hot Spot was lacking accuracy. That is what convinced the members to revert to an optional DRS.” It is learned that the BCCI’s presentation showed eight correct decisions using the Hot Spot technology and also eight errors to make its point about the technology not being close to the 100% accuracy that is sought of the DRS.”We are not at all the bullies of world cricket,” Srinivasan said, “but on the contrary we go out of our way to assist other member nations. It’s difficult to dispel the notion that we are [bullies] because it is constantly referred to, but it is not a fact.”Srinivasan has taken over as president at a difficult time for the board, which is facing criticism after India’s disastrous tour of England. He refused to accept the claims that India’s slew of injuries during the England tour was down to a packed schedule or poor player management, repeating what he had said earlier about India playing the same amount of cricket as all other countries. “If we had won on the England tour no-one would have brought up the packed schedule,” he said. “It was a tour where we had bad luck. A number of players got injured during matches. Also, cricketers are highly paid professionals and are expected to take care of themselves.”He did say the board would look at the schedule again, “critically to see if anything can be done but I don’t accept the criticism that there is too much cricket being played.” He said it would be difficult to rework the schedule because the FTP was already decided and added, “It’s not so much the IPL and the Champions League, we have now got one ICC event every year … on the whole it is a crowded calendar.”Another issue that has been raised against the BCCI is that their earnings should be taxed as they are a profit-driven private body. Srinivasan denied this and said
(video) the Rs 1.89 billion ($39.68 million) surplus the board made last year would all be spent on cricketing activities.”We are not a profit-driven organisation. As a professional, I would naturally like to get the best value for the product I have. So why would I sell my media rights short? Only to that extent do we run as a business.”Beyond that all the income we have is applied to cricketing activities: 26% goes back to the players, we spend on infrastructure, 70% of our income goes to the state cricketing associations and we also give them subsidies to build stadiums, plus the National Cricket Academy has a budget of 10 crores every year.”So, the 190 crores is a surplus, not a profit. By our own charter we have to spend 85% of the money we make in a year on cricket activities. If we don’t we can keep it in a fund but that needs to be spent in five years.”The reason it is important for the BCCI to have tax exemption, Srinivasan said, is because there is a lot of infrastructure that needs to be put in place and that will get delayed if the BCCI’s earnings are taxed.”If you take the number of venues we have in our country as compared to the population and size, we should have many more stadiums. It may cost thousands of crores of rupees to have all these built and the benefit of tax exemption is this can be done quickly and cricket can be taken to all parts of India.”One criticism often made of Srinivasan is that he has a conflict of interest from being a member of the IPL’s governing council and the head of the company India Cements, which owns the franchise Chennai Super Kings. Former BCCI president AC Muthiah has filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking them to pass an interim order preventing Srinivasan from functioning as the board’s president. Srinivasan said (video) there had been no occurrence in the running of the IPL to suggest any conflict of interest.”I don’t see any conflict of interest affecting my role as BCCI chief. On the IPL’s governing council there are eminent people, all independently capable of making their minds up on things. Nothing has been done specifically for one team. Everything that is decided is common for all teams.”I don’t think anything has happened which can be a cause of concern to anyone. All decisions have been fair and everyone has taken part in them. I have not really spoken on Chennai Super Kings. I have enough propriety.”Srinivasan said his first aim as the BCCI president was to ensure a better performance from the Indian cricket team than the one they put in on the England tour, and also said he wanted to “change the perception of the BCCI”.

The faction-ridden Kochi franchise has asked the BCCI for more time to sort out its ownership disputes in a letter to the board president.

Nagraj Gollapudi20-Oct-2010In a last-ditch attempt to save itself, the Kochi franchise has reportedly asked the BCCI for a ten-day extension to resolve the dispute over its ownership pattern. The request was filed by two sets of solicitors representing the rival factions of the Kochi franchise a few hours before the BCCI deadline, within which time the owners were expected to form a joint venture company, lapsed.The members of the Kochi franchise were issued a show cause notice by the BCCI on October 12 ordered them to form a joint venture company to settle their internal ownership differences. The two factions, one headed by the promoters of the franchise Rendezvous Sports and the other by Mehul Shah of Anchor Group, had responded to this notice by sending identical requests this evening.”We have requested a ten-day extension because we are at an advanced stage of resolving the issue,” a Kochi franchise official told ESPNcricinfo.The groups within the five-partner consortium had failed to come to an agreement after a series of meetings held late on Tuesday night, but after talking to their solicitors decided to ask for more time rather than walk away from the discussions. The official explained that the groups would require more time, “to resolve all pending disputes in order to tie up amicably to form a fruitful joint venture into a regular company”.Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s chief administrative officer, said the Kochi franchise had, “held a few meetings in the last two or three days and submitted a letter, which has been sent to the president.” The BCCI’s legal team was looking into the letter, Shetty said, but added that no meeting of the IPL’s governing council had yet been scheduled. “The president will study it, our legal team will study it before taking a decision.”By asking for more time, Kochi have prevented the rest of the IPL franchises from getting any clarity on all the major issues around the fourth IPL season, which until now has been dogged by drama and controversy. At the moment, it is not yet known how many teams will be involved, what format it would follow or how many matches would be played.In responding to the query about the doubts around IPL four, a BCCI official told ESPNcricinfo that despite all the uncertainty, the number of teams in IPL 4 was not in doubt. “All our contracts around the IPL tell us that the minimum teams will be eight, so I don’t think that’s a problem, we just have to get this sorted out and see what happens when the president responds to the letter from Kochi.”An IPL franchise official said that it was unlikely that the BCCI would field fewer teams in IPL4 than in its first three seasons, “Look at the Board’s attitude to Lalit Modi, there is no way they want the first IPL without Modi’s involvement to be smaller than the old IPL which Lalit controlled.”The Kochi franchise has been controversial from its very inception in March. Rendezvous Sports World, a consortium of five companies, became the tenth IPL franchise after a successful bid of US$333.33m, but almost immediately ran into trouble over the composition of its ownership, after the discovery of a few “secret partners” in the consortium. A new agreement was then signed by both the parties but fresh controversy broke when Lalit Modi, the then IPL chairman, made the ownership details public on his Twitter feed.Six months after the auction Kochi has still failed to resolve its various internal disputes, which revolve around the distribution of shares in the consortium. The investors are unhappy with the promoters, who do not want to give up the rights to lead the franchise. Despite several lengthy meetings over the past few days, the two factions remain at loggerheads.

Graeme Swann is a jovial character at the best of times, but he will go into the first Test against South Africa with a spring in his step after bagging a six-wicket haul against the Invitational XI at Buffalo Park

Andrew McGlashan in East London10-Dec-2009
ScorecardGraeme Swann will hope for similar success when the first Test gets under way•Getty Images

Graeme Swann is a jovial character at the best of times, but he will go into the first Test against South Africa with a spring in his step after bagging a six-wicket haul against the Invitational XI at Buffalo Park. His collection included three wickets in four balls although some of the shot selection from the home side provided Swann with the sort of freebies that won’t be on offer at Centurion next week.It was a good day all-round for Swann who hit a sprightly 39 off 31 balls as England declared mid-way through the afternoon on 328 for 8 with Ian Bell (48) and Matt Prior (44) also adding 83 for the sixth wicket before the pair retired. Swann then struck with his second ball before running through the line-up during the final session as he tossed the ball up against batsmen happy to swing from the hip. The most impressive of them was Sammy-Joe Avontuur who made an attractive 68 before missing a wild swipe at Swann. David Wiese edged an ambitious drive to slip and Swann was within a whisker of a hat-trick when the ball just missed the stumps.The quick bowlers enjoyed less success as they tried to shake off the rust. Graham Onions made the opening breakthrough but Stuart Broad’s first spell cost 42 runs as he dropped too short on a surface that remained slow. He ended with 11 overs in the tank although looked as though he needs another run-out in the second match, when James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom are both set to play after resting their respective knee and side injuries.Sidebottom has been given the all-clear while Anderson had an outdoor net to test out his right knee that has had three injections for a mystery problem. England’s bowling plans revolve around Anderson so all eyes will be on him over the next two days. As far as this game goes, the visitors will be pleased they managed to get as much action as they did.The fact that any play was possible at all on the second day was miraculous after further heavy rain fell the previous day and left the outfield underwater. However, hard work by the ground staff and impressive keenness from the home side to continue the game meant play started on time despite large mud patches on the outfield covered in heaps of sawdust.Alastair Cook began the day on 66 and lost his overnight partner, Paul Collingwood, in the second over when he chipped a soft catch to midwicket. Cook again had to dig in for his runs and the reworked technique benefited him with another well-timed straight drive, however, he too was undone by the sluggish surface when he chipped a low catch to mid-on. Although a hundred would have been a satisfying landmark for him, he has had more time than most in the middle lately and his dismissal benefited the middle order.Whatever Bell does over the next few days it may not be enough to force the selectors’ hands if they decide to go with five frontline batsmen alongside Prior for the first Test. However, he made batting look comfortable and, like Cook, showed the value of his spell with the Performance Squad in Pretoria. Prior only had a single innings during the one-day series but was soon reacquainting himself with bat on ball. Ironically, it is Prior’s ability to bat at No. 6 that is likely to leave Bell on the sidelines.The sixth-wicket pair retired during lunch so Broad and Swann emerged from the pavilion for the afternoon session. Broad, who may yet bat at No. 7 next week, inside-edged an attempted drive into his stumps but Swann struck the ball cleanly before the declaration.Andrea Agathagelou could have gone lbw a couple of times during his brief innings before finally being trapped as he shuffled across his crease against Onions. van Wyk dispatched Broad for consecutive boundaries before planting his front foot across the crease against Swann and Temba Bavuma was undone by some extra bounce as he gloved to short leg.Mark Davies, the Durham quick called up as cover for Anderson and Sidebottom, bustled in when handed his chance for ten tight overs. He is due to be released back to the Performance Squad when the team arrives in Johannesburg on Monday barring any further injury problems. England will be keeping their fingers crossed that he isn’t needed again.

Nottinghamshire allrounder adds three-wicket haul after top-scoring on day one

ECB Reporters Network27-Jan-2025Spin duo Tazeem Ali and Farhan Ahmed claimed three wickets each to inspire a strong England Men Uunder-19s fightback late on day two of the first Youth Test against South Africa Men U19s in Stellenbosch.Jason Rowles and Muhammed Bulbulia shared a 139-run third wicket stand before the Young Lions took 6 for 57 to leave the hosts 269 for 8 at stumps – still 30 runs behind.Farhan had helped the Young Lions recover on day one with a composed 90 and the 16-year-old Nottinghamshire allrounder was at it again with the ball as he first bowled Adnaan Lagadien on way to figures of 3 for 74.Tazeem broke the Rowles and Bulbulia partnership, when the latter was bowled by the perfect legspinner’s delivery that pitched on leg and took the top of off stump.England captain Archie Vaughan removed Rowles, top-edging a slog-sweep that was easily held by wicketkeeper Thomas Rew, who then produced a sharp catch down leg to give Farhan his second wicket.Farhan then struck from the final ball of the day, with fielders crowding the bat, when Ben Dawkins held a low catch at first slip to remove Lethabo Phahlamohlaka.

The defending champions started their season successfully with Lance Morris also taking four wickets

AAP24-Sep-2023Josh Philippe carried his outstanding domestic one-day form from last season into a new campaign as he starred in Western Australia’s four-wicket win over Queensland in Brisbane.The player of the 2022-23 tournament, the 26-year-old Phillipe, who made three ODI and 10 T20I appearances for Australia in 2021, scored a match-high 90 off 88 balls at Allan Border Field.WA reached their target of 239 with 9.4 overs to spare as they made a successful start to their bid for a third straight one-day domestic cup, despite having six players away on international duty and others on the injury list, but narrow missed the bonus point when Cooper Connolly and Nick Hobson fell in consecutive balls at the end of the 40th over.They lost opener D’Arcy Short for a first-ball duck and Cameron Bancroft for 10, but Philippe’s third-wicket stand of 90 off 80 balls with Sam Whiteman (62 off 52) took the game away from Queensland.Philippe, who scored a century for Australia A against their New Zealand counterparts in a first-class game earlier this month, and totaled 40 runs across three one-day games, struck 10 fours and a six.A late flurry of fours from Perth Scorchrers’ 2022-23 BBL final hero Connolly and a steady hand from captain Ashton Turner carried them to the verge of victory.Queensland paid the price for not turning several starts into more substantial scores as they were dismissed for 238 with 22 balls remaining.Four of their top seven scored at least 36 and the other three got to double figures, but no one made more than Ben McDermott’s 52 off 69 balls. They were well placed at 102 for 1 in the 20th over, but lost 3-19.Paceman Lance Morris was expensive and wayward early but made a successful return from a back issue, as he smashed through the bottom half of the order, with Queensland losing 5 for 40.Australian T20I and ODI representative McDermott, who has returned to Queensland from Tasmania, was run out backing up too far after bowler AJ Tye deflected a Matt Renshaw straight drive on to the stumps.Max Bryant, Michael Neser and Sam Heazlett were the other batters who perished after being well set.Philippe provided the spark at the start of the WA chase, but was happy to play second fiddle when Whiteman tore into the Queensland bowlers.Whiteman, who has returned from a stint with English county Northamptonshire, took 14 off four balls from Neser, including a ramp for six over fine leg before he switched to around the wicket and got him to chop the ball onto his stumps.

England captain will manage workload to ensure he’s ready for T20 World Cup in Australia

Matt Roller16-Jun-2022Eoin Morgan will rest himself for some of England’s limited-overs international fixtures this summer amid concerns over his fitness, but has insisted that he still feels as though he can “contribute to a World Cup win” in Australia this winter.Morgan injured his right quad in January after playing back-to-back games in Barbados during England’s T20I series against West Indies and suffered a “mild groin strain” playing for Middlesex in the Blast despite managing his workload by missing games, but hopes to play all three ODIs against Netherlands in Amstelveen this week.His position as limited-overs captain has come under scrutiny – he has made a single half-century in international cricket over the last 18 months, and none in domestic T20 cricket – but he intends to stay on at least until the T20 World Cup in October-November.Asked if he would continue into England’s defence of their 50-over crown in India next winter, Morgan said: “That’s a long way away. I need to get to the T20 one first. I’m going to take it as it comes, managing my contribution, my body.”Am I still contributing on and off the field, within the team? I will be as honest as I [have been] with everybody since I started the captaincy. At the moment, I still feel like I contribute and still feel like I can contribute to a World Cup win. That’s an important drive for me.”Matthew Mott, England’s new white-ball coach, threw his support behind Morgan in his first press conference in the role on Wednesday. “He always says he wants to be picked as a batter in that team on form and merit all the way through and when he feels that’s not the case then he would step aside,” Mott said. “I think that’s a long way off being at that point.”Great players go through runs at different times and sometimes you flick a switch and it turns and you wonder what all the fuss has been about. You can tell when he speaks, everybody is listening. That leadership is something that’s probably not as recognised as much from the outside as it is inside. He’s got a lot of great cricket ahead of him.”Morgan said he was “reluctant” to “100% commit” to playing all three ODIs but intends to do so. However, he is likely to miss at least two of England’s six T20Is this summer, with England due to play on successive days during both the India and South Africa series.”It’s unlikely I will be playing every game this summer,” he said, “but that’s purely dependent on how I get from here to that match. If I’m flying and everything is going well, absolutely, but if not, there is no need to try and replicate that for a World Cup because it just doesn’t happen [in ICC events].”In terms of the focus on his position, Morgan said that it was “part and parcel” of the role. “It happens all the time as a player, never mind as a captain,” he said. “I genuinely have the best interests of the team at heart. It’s always been that way: I have trusted that method since I took over. To be in the position I am in at the moment is a privilege.”England have not played an ODI series since their second-string side whitewashed Pakistan in July 2021 after a Covid outbreak and have only played one white-ball series – the 3-2 defeat to West Indies in January – since last year’s T20 World Cup. As a result, Morgan said that he sees this series as the start of their run-in ahead of this year’s tournament, which he expects to “fly around”.Related

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“It revolves around trying to get the right players in the right roles given the squad we’ve brought,” he said. “July’s a huge month for us in preparation for the [T20] World Cup, playing against two very strong sides [India and South Africa] over the course of a month which will test us.”That’s where we want to be in order to try and prepare ourselves best for that World Cup. Then there’s the Hundred obviously, but then we have no more international cricket before we go to Pakistan and then we have three games [in Australia] before the World Cup.”Jos Buttler is likely to shuffle up the order to No. 4, having mainly batted at No. 6 in the build-up to the 2019 World Cup and in the tournament, while Phil Salt is expected to open with Jason Roy and Dawid Malan will be given a chance at No. 3. England’s bowling cartel features five left-arm seamers – though Sam Curran is unlikely to bowl a full 10 overs as the ECB manage his comeback from a back stress fracture.”The fact they are left-armers gives them a different angle, a different strategy,” Morgan said. “Certainly in my experience, left-armers are open to doing more and doing different things, which is great. But the guys who are selected are purely here on merit. Ideally in our best squad, you would like a point of difference: if that’s left-arm or if it’s a guy who bowls 90mph [145kph] plus, then that’s great.”

Faulkner re-aggravated the hamstring injury that he suffered on December 27 and won’t play again in the BBL

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jan-2021Hobart Hurricanes seamer James Faulkner has been ruled out of the remainder of the BBL after re-injuring his hamstring at training on Sunday.Faulkner had not played since he limped off the Gabba four balls into his second over in the Hurricanes’ loss to the Brisbane Heat on December 27.He was on track to return to the Hurricanes side but re-aggravated his hamstring at training ahead of the clash with Sydney Thunder on Monday in Canberra.Faulkner has left the BBL hub and travelled home to Hobart to have scans and begin treatment.The Hurricanes have recalled Surrey batting allrounder Will Jacks into their squad after Colin Ingram departed to the Abu Dhabi T10 League. Jacks hasn’t played for the Hurricanes since December 19.The Hurricanes currently sit seventh but only four points separate the teams between there and second position.

‘Maybe the selectors felt I needed a break. Maybe the team thinks some changes are required. I respect that, and I have no complaints,’ he says

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2019Kuldeep Yadav hasn’t been part of the last two T20I squads India’s selectors have chosen, for the West Indies tour and at home against South Africa, but that hasn’t dented his confidence. Kuldeep was instead picked in the India A side for the second unofficial Test against South Africa A, which ended in a draw in Mysore on Friday.Kuldeep had a reasonable outing in the game, taking 4 for 121 in 29 overs in the only innings India bowled in.”So far, I have done a good job in limited-overs format. I feel very comfortable with the white ball,” Kuldeep told and . “I am not worried about not being picked for the last two T20I series. Maybe the selectors felt I needed a break. Maybe the team thinks some changes are required. I respect that, and I have no complaints. I see this as an opportunity to do well in Tests.”Stats bear out Kuldeep’s assertion. After the 2016 T20 World Cup, he has been among the best spinners in the world in T20 cricket, and one of the top two Indians.In 68 T20 matches since that T20 World Cup, Kuldeep has taken 81 wickets at an average of 22.97 (ninth-best in the world, second among Indians), and an economy rate of 7.60 (fifth among Indians). His strike rate of 18.1 is seventh-best among all spinners. Yuzvendra Chahal has a marginally better average (22.11) and a better strike rate (16.9, third-best in the world), but a higher economy rate of 7.83.”There is no doubt that wristspinners are dominating the world,” Kuldeep said. “But sometimes, when you try to stop runs, you actually turn out to be expensive. We need to work on our accuracy. You need to accept that you do get hit for runs and work on being economical.”The recent T20I series exclusion, however, could be down to India’s desire to have bowlers who can contribute with the bat, as was expressed recently by captain Virat Kohli.That might work towards pushing Kuldeep to hone his red-ball skills, where he is still in the mix, even though he has had little game time of late. Since the start of 2017, Kuldeep has played in just 10 first-class games, six of them Test matches, largely due to his national commitments and being the third spinner in a Test team that already has R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. He has done reasonably well in those games though, taking 40 wickets at 25.87, with three five-wicket hauls.”It’s hard to play red-ball cricket when you aren’t consistently playing that format,” Kuldeep said. “If you aren’t a regular in this format, it takes time to get into your rhythm. When you are consistently playing limited overs and suddenly switch to Tests without much preparation, it will be tough to excel. You need to bowl long spells, play practice games, to understand field placements and to know how to pick wickets. It was important for me to come here (in the India A game) and bowl as many overs as possible. There is still plenty of work to do.”When three spinners like Ashwin, Jaddu and I are in the squad, it’s challenging to pick the right combination. You need to be ready to grab your chance. Of course, there is pressure because you only get a few chances, and you have to make full use of them.”

Sussex’s third win in less than a week secured a knockout place but Middlesex gave them a fright before slumping to a last-place finish in South Group

ECB Reporters Network17-Aug-2018
ScorecardSussex were given a fright by Middlesex before reaching the quarter-finals of the Vitality Blast for the first time since 2015 with a 31-run win at Hove.Skipper Luke Wright, returning after missing two games with a back spasm, made 74 and fellow opener Phil Salt hit 66 from just 25 balls in their 215 for 5 after they had been put in.Rapid half-centuries by Paul Stirling and John Simpson, who shared 122 in 8.1 overs for the second wicket, had Middlesex on course for victory halfway through their reply, but leg-spinner Will Beer removed both in successive overs and Middlesex’s hopes of claiming only their second win of the season effectively ended when Eoin Morgan was run out in the 15th over. They lost their last seven wickets for 26 in 5.4 overs and were bowled out for 184 in 19.4 overs, finishing the group with just two wins.Sussex knew only victory would secure a last-eight place and Salt and Wright set the tone by smashing 80 in the powerplay. Salt matched the 19-ball 50 he made against Middlesex at Lord’s as James Fuller’s first two overs were taken for 38. Salt struck four sixes and eight fours before slicing a drive off James Harris to short third-man from the final ball of the sixth over.Eoin Morgan finds something to laugh about on another grim Middlesex night•Getty Images

Wright became the first Englishman to pass 7,000 T20 runs when he reached 12 and he went on to put on 106 in 11.1 overs for the second wicket with Laurie Evans, whose 36 took him to 492 runs in the group stages.Fuller pegged Sussex back by taking three wickets in four balls during the 16th over. Evans drove his slower ball to cover, Delray Rawlins was caught at short fine-leg off the next delivery and Wright mis-timed a drive to extra cover, having faced 48 balls and hit nine fours in his 44th half-century in the format.Morgan used seven bowlers but was unable to prevent Sussex from making their highest T20 total against Middlesex.Middlesex needed to score at nearly 11 an over but after losing George Scott in the first over Stirling and Simpson laid into some wayward bowling, outscoring Sussex by thrashing 90 in the powerplay. Rashid Khan was missing as he prepares for Afghanistan’s one-day series in Ireland next week and it was his replacement Beer who made the breakthrough when Stirling chopped on for 58 from 29 balls (3 sixes, 6 fours).Beer struck again in his next over when Simpson holed out to long off for 62, made off 29 balls with six sixes and four boundaries, but Sussex were only able to breath easily after taking two wickets in the 15th over. Danny Briggs ran out Eoin Morgan (16) off his own bowling when Morgan failed to make his ground going for a tight single and James Franklin was caught behind off a big top edge.Middlesex subsided thereafter and Chris Jordan finished things off when he yorked Nathan Sowter and Tom Barber with successive deliveries in the final over.Coach Dan Vettori was left to reflect on another poor Midedlesex season. “We’ve run the whole gamut of how to lose T20 games this season,” he said. “We were poor at the start with the ball tonight, but managed to drag it back on a small ground with a tiny boundary to defend.”When we batted we had it comfortably in control but losing four wickets in two overs when you have to face Mills, Jordan and Archer at the death… you almost have to kill the game before that happens and instead we killed the game for ourselves.”

South Africa wrapped up England’s innings midway through the afternoon session on the fourth day, leaving themselves a target of 331 to win the first Test

The Report by Alan Gardner09-Jul-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:15

‘Moeen at his best when he is aggressive’ – Root

Do you remember the first time? Joe Root certainly will after England swept South Africa aside to mark his captaincy debut with a crushing victory as 19 wickets fell in a day at Lord’s. Moeen Ali, taking full licence of the attacking brief given to him by Root, ran through a mesmerised South Africa batting order to claim 6 for 53 on the way to a maiden ten-wicket haul in Tests.Having been set 331 to win the first Test, with almost 150 overs in which to get them, South Africa were unable to even take the match into a fifth day. With the pitch offering appreciable assistance for the spin of Moeen and Liam Dawson, they subsided to 119 all out in 36.4 overs, with Temba Bavuma’s 41-ball 21 providing the most prolonged resistance. Faf du Plessis, looking on from the balcony having returned to lead the team at Trent Bridge next week, was left with much to ponder.

England unchanged for Trent Bridge

England have named an unchanged squad for Friday’s second Test against South Africa at Trent Bridge, in the wake of their 211-run victory at Lord’s.
“I didn’t know what to expect but what was pleasing was everything I asked of the lads they were very open to do and responded to it,” Joe Root, England’s captain, said.
“I wanted us to be proactive, to stay ahead of the game and when there was an opportunity, to take responsibility. Everyone at certain points did that and it can’t be a bad thing moving forward.”
Squad Joe Root (capt), Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Gary Ballance, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, James Anderson, Toby Roland-Jones.

South Africa were in trouble early in their innings, going to tea on 25 for 3, with Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock their main hope of giving Root and England a fright. Only once had a team chased as many in the fourth innings to win a Lord’s Test, though Root may have recalled for a moment the occasion when he filled in as Yorkshire captain in 2014 and saw Middlesex ease to a target of 472 three wickets down on this ground.That gained him the nickname “craptain” in the Yorkshire dressing room, but it looks like England will have to come up with something more generous. In truth, Root did not have to resort to much in the way of tactical genius, as his two spinners bowled in tandem for 24 overs to finish off South Africa with time to spare on another sun-drenched evening in north London. South Africa had not lost a Test at Lord’s since 1960 but they broke that record in style.It meant their fightback during the first half of the day, when they claimed England’s last nine wickets for the addition of 114 runs became a distant memory. It could have been better still but Jonny Bairstow, who scored a vital half-century, was dropped on 7 as South Africa replicated the mistakes that were so costly to their chances in the first innings.After James Anderson had made the initial breakthrough, Heino Kuhn removed via a fine, diving catch from Bairstow down the leg side, Moeen picked up his first wicket when he brilliantly held a reflex return catch off Dean Elgar. South Africa’s stand-in captain must have feared the worst at that moment, and their fortunes sunk further when JP Duminy pulled Mark Wood straight to midwicket on the brink of tea.Moeen Ali celebrates his five-wicket haul as South Africa are rolled aside at Lord’s•Getty Images

The selection of Dawson, who made a pair with the bat, was not widely lauded beforehand but he delivered for Root when he plucked out the key wicket of Amla shortly after the interval. Moeen’s first four overs were maidens, bottling up South Africa from the Nursery End, and Dawson then produced a ripping delivery that pitched on middle and leg, spun past the groping bat and hit the back leg in front of off; Amla reviewed but in vain.De Kock and Bavuma dug in for more than 10 overs, lifting the score from 28 for 4 with a 36-run stand, but an increasingly confident England had Mo-mentum on their side. When de Kock tried to relieve some of the pressure by pulling, he only succeeded in dragging the ball into his front leg, from where it fizzed back into his stumps.Bavuma also fell trying to force an attacking shot to break England’s chokehold, a precise delivery hitting the top of off, and Moeen then had Theunis de Bruyn caught at slip and Keshav Maharaj bowled off an inside edge to record his maiden Test ten-for. Having contributed 87 to the first-innings total of 458, he became the first England player to score a fifty and take ten wickets in a Test since Ian Botham in 1980.Botham-like heroics will help keep most Test captains feeling chipper and, following his first-innings 190, Root could reflect on a perfect start to his tenure. It had been a slightly bumpier beginning to the day, however, as England lost nine wickets in 36.1 overs – though the consolation for Root was that the procession of batsmen returning to join him in the dressing room could attest to the increasing difficulty of the pitch.Bairstow was last man out, stumped off Maharaj, the spinner’s four-wicket haul a harbinger of what was to come. At lunch, England’s lead had been 279 but Bairstow and Wood scraped together valuable extra runs during a brisk ninth-wicket stand of 45. Apart from Alastair Cook and Gary Ballance, who added 10 and 11 respectively to their overnight scores, no other England batsmen managed to get into double-figures on the day.Maharaj might have removed Bairstow right at the start of his innings, only for Vernon Philander, who was fit to bowl after injuring his hand batting on the third day, to drop a simple catch at long-off. Maharaj claimed three of the seven wickets to fall in the first session, amid increasing signs of the pitch breaking up. The dismissal of Cook for 69, caught at cover attempting to lift the scoring, precipitated an England collapse of 4 for 10 in 39 balls – which would have been 5 for 19 had Bairstow’s offering been held.The evidence of the first over of the morning was that the Lord’s baize was by now a little rumpled. At least two deliveries from Philander kept low before the last jumped to hit Ballance on the glove. When Maharaj came into the attack shortly before the hour mark, the first ball of his second over went directly to slip out of the rough; the same over concluded with Root being bowled by one that didn’t turn.Cook and Ballance picked up initially in much the same mood as they guided England to the close on the third evening, a couple of tugboats towing their barge along the Thames. They had added a boundary apiece, taking their partnership to 59, before Cook suddenly weighed anchor and drove aerially into the covers, where Bavuma snaffled a sharp, diving catch.Morne Morkel continued his impressive Test by having Ballance caught behind with another exacting delivery that straightened from round the wicket and England slide’s continued with the dismissal of Root for 5 in the following over. Having seen Maharaj spin the ball sharply, Root swept a boundary but was then caught playing back and got an inside-edge on to his stumps.Ben Stokes did not have much time for reconnaissance, pinned lbw for 1 by a delivery that shot through low from Rabada. Stokes started walking as soon as it hit him, while Rabada – suspended for the next Test due to his outburst after dismissing Stokes in the first innings – kept his counsel. That left England 149 for 5 and it ought to have been 158 for 6 when Bairstow lofted Maharaj towards Philander, only for the fielder to drop it on to the rope. He gestured towards the skies, seeming to suggest that Spidercam had distracted him – but little could excuse the scale of South Africa’s defeat.