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Northamptonshire seamers keep it tight at start of Warwickshire reply

ECB Reporters Network27-Jun-2022Oliver Hannon-Dalby celebrated 250 career first-class wickets as he ran through Northamptonshire’s lower order on day two of this LV= Insurance County Championship game at Northampton.In a miserly four-over spell, Hannon-Dalby claimed four victims for just five runs as Northamptonshire added 31 runs to their overnight total to close on 451 all out. The 33-year-old-seamer is now the second leading wicket-taker in Division One with 29 scalps, just behind Keith Barker’s 32.But despite his efforts Warwickshire still face a tough task in this game after some highly disciplined Northamptonshire bowling restricted scoring to just 1.8 an over with only two boundaries coming in the first 25 overs of the visitors’ reply.Alex Davies looked to regain the initiative with some lusty blows but Jack White soon ended the resistance when he trapped him leg before for 31. Dom Sibley was still there at the close unbeaten on 30 as Warwickshire ended the day on 71 for 1, still a mammoth 380 behind.Play did not start until 3.10pm after heavy rain but Hannon-Dalby struck immediately with the second ball of the day. Tom Taylor became his 250th victim when he was caught behind playing an expansive shot.In his next over Hannon-Dalby picked up Lewis McManus in similar fashion, to give Warwickshire keeper Michael Burgess his 100th career dismissal.Ben Sanderson was greeted with some short stuff from Nathan McAndrew but responded by hooking him twice to the boundary and then punching him through the covers for four more before he edged Hannon-Dalby to Sibley at first slip.Simon Kerrigan, who was struck on the helmet trying to take evasive action to a short ball from McAndrew, hit the same bowler through midwicket and cover to take Northamptonshire past 450. But Hannon-Dalby ended proceedings soon afterwards by knocking White’s stumps out of the ground.Northamptonshire’s seamers Sanderson, White, Taylor and Luke Procter found plenty of movement on offer to beat the bat and keep openers Davies and Sibley contained. There were few signs of aggression and any attempts to find the boundary were hampered by some ill-timed shots. Just two balls crossed the ropes in the first 25 overs with Northamptonshire turning the screw further with four consecutive maidens.Davies had a reprieve when he offered a sharp return catch but Taylor could not quite hold on in his follow-through. Davies started to find his groove against Procter, dispatching him for three boundaries in two overs including an imperious drive down the ground, before White trapped him lbw for 31 with Warwickshire on 53 for 1 in the 28th over.Chris Benjamin nicked his first ball from White but the ball bounced just in front of first slip. He remained 8 not out with Sibley as the day ended in bright sunshine.

After historic victory, West Indies coach says he’s “tired of these one wins and then struggling for the next three or four games”

Mohammad Isam08-Feb-2021West Indies coach Phil Simmons says he wants his side to keep up the intensity after a win so that it doesn’t become a solitary highlight in the Test series against Bangladesh. West Indies took a 1-0 lead after their historic three-wicket victory in Chattogram, with the second and final Test to be played in Dhaka from Thursday.”I am tired of these one wins and then struggling for the next three or four games,” Simmons said. “We need to improve on some things and continue the intensity in our preparation. We have to make sure we don’t go backwards again. We are trying hard to put things in place so that we don’t go in that direction.”West Indies have won just 12 Tests in the last five years, which includes just two Test series wins: 2-0 against Bangladesh in 2018 and 2-1 against England in 2019 – both at home. In as many as six series, they ended up winning only a solitary Test against teams like Pakistan, England, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. The most recent such occurrence came in England in 2020, where despite taking a 1-0 lead in Southampton, they lost the series 2-1.Related

• West Indies stretch lead despite wobble after Rahkeem Cornwall five-for

• Nkrumah Bonner's 74* leads West Indies' fightback on a slow day

• Kraigg Brathwaite hopes West Indies don't get 'carried away' in Dhaka after Chattogram success

• Mayers' knock brings father Shirley Clarke to tears

• Five reasons WI's Chattogram win is one of their greatest

Simmons, who is in his second spell as West Indies coach, said he was looking forward to seeing a better opening partnership and more consistency from the spinners. “I think one of the areas [of concern] is we haven’t had an opening partnership of note. It would be nice to get a big opening partnership to set up how things go with the other batsmen,” he added.”I don’t think our spinners were as consistent as they can be. They bowled well but there’s room for improvement in our bowling. I think we 90% nailed down how our field placing will be for different batters but we have to be consistent. More than likely, Dhaka is going to spin more than Chattogram.”Simmons said West Indies’ improved self-belief came to the fore during the two critical partnerships in the game. During the first innings, Jermaine Blackwood and Joshua Da Silva put on 99 runs for the sixth wicket that took them past the follow-on mark. The second innings then featured a 216-run stand between debutants Kyle Mayers and Nkrumah Bonner, the pair taking West Indies to the doorstep of an unlikely victory while chasing 395.”The main thing is trusting our ability,” Simmons stressed. “I will highlight the partnerships in the first innings between Blackwood and Da Silva. A lot of pressure was put on us in that partnership, and they trusted themselves to come out of it.”In the second innings, there was a lot of pressure on Mayers and Bonner. They also trusted their ability and believed in themselves. It is the biggest takeaway from this [game]. In the time of challenges during the innings, they trusted their ability and fought through it.”Simmons hailed Mayers for his double-century, but also reminded him that come the Dhaka Test, he would have to make a fresh start. “I think the last time [a West Indies batsman made a double-century on debut] was Lawrence Rowe. It is an amazing feat,” he said. “It is all right to do it in the first innings, but to have the temperament in taking us to winning the game made it extra special.”It is in the history books. You don’t start from 210, you start from zero,” Simmons cautioned. “I know people will forget his double-hundred by the time the next Test is finished. You have to start from zero and do everything you did two days before the game. Most cricketers will know to start over. Sometimes we get into this hype when we have done well. Over the next few days, we have to get back down to earth and know that the game starts from zero again.”Simmons also said that Bonner’s 86 was crucial to setting up the West Indies win, but he would have liked to see him get the extra 14 runs.
“I think he played a special innings too. I am disappointed he didn’t get a hundred,” Simmons said. “The way he batted, he deserved one. I am sure that will come if he continues to play this way. The partnership is what matters.”Kyle may have scored a double-hundred but Bonner’s partnership with him is what set things up. The fact that we didn’t lose a wicket in the first two sessions gave us that push. We were the only team that could win the game.”

Out-going England coach questions ‘whether the county game is producing the players we need’

George Dobell18-Sep-2019Trevor Bayliss believes a reduction in the number of first-class counties could help England bridge the “huge gap” between county and international cricket.Victory at The Oval ensured England maintained their unbeaten home series record in Test cricket under Bayliss’ five seasons as head coach, though he will probably be remembered best for coaching the side to their maiden World Cup victory earlier in the year.But in a wide-ranging exit interview with ESPNcricinfo, Bayliss has questioned “whether the county game is producing the players we need” and suggested a reduction in the number of teams from 18 to ten in a bid to improve the quality of competition. He also feels the quality of county pitches must improve if developing players are going to be given the best opportunity to prepare for the higher level.”You have to ask whether the county game is producing the players we need,” Bayliss said. “Is the competition underneath [the England team] doing the job it should be? There’s a huge gap between county and international cricket. Huge.”Again and again, we’ve picked the best players in the county game. And again and again, they’ve found the gap too large to bridge. Our top players come back from county cricket and they’re not complimentary about the standard. They don’t think it helps prepare them for international cricket.”The pitches are soft and damp. So bowlers get far too much assistance and batsmen don’t get into the habit of building long innings. Those same bowlers then come into Test cricket and they find the pitches do almost nothing and the ball won’t swing round corners. And the batsmen find the pace of the Test bowlers a shock.”If you had better pitches – pitches that offered less to bowlers – you might start to see some fast bowlers developing. You might see more spinners developing. You might even see some better slip catchers because I think the big problem in English cricket is concentration. Players have forgotten how to concentrate for long periods of time. They just don’t have to do it at county level.”I’m not criticising groundsmen. They have a tough job, because there’s too much cricket and the Championship starts in early April.”But no one seems to want to get their head down and guts out a score. The attitude seems to be, ‘I’d best get on with it before an impossible ball comes along.’ But maybe that’s partly because society has changed. Everything is quicker now.”The ECB and the counties have to pull in the same direction. There has to be a collaborative approach ensuring that England is at the heart of it. Ultimately, a successful England team, across all formats, will naturally benefit the game at county level and even have a positive impact on grassroots.”I think there are too many teams. If you had fewer – maybe ten – the best players would be in competition against each other more often and the standard would rise. I think you’d see tougher cricketers develop. Cricketers who are better prepared for the Test game.Bayliss also expressed his incredulity over counties offering stints to overseas players who will, later in the same season, use that experience in Test series against England. Marnus Labuschagne, for example, prepared for the Ashes by representing Glamorgan and adapted to conditions so well that he finished the series as Australia’s second-highest run scorer.”I find it incredible that Marnus Labuschagne, Peter Siddle, Cameron Bancroft, James Pattinson and the like are invited over to play county cricket ahead of an Ashes series,” he says. “There’s no way Australia would allow England players to acclimatise in the Shield ahead of an Ashes series. And quite right, too. I think the ECB should have a look at that.Bayliss he suggested there should be more knockout cricket at age-group level to help prepare players for high-intensity moments in the professional game. “Australian cricketers are tough and robust. They come up through a system which prepared them for Test cricket. From age-group cricket into club and Grade cricket, they play semi-finals and finals. So they get used to played knock-out cricket. They get used to playing under pressure. I think England could do with more of that.Read the full interview here

Liam Livingstone’s 49-ball hundred lifted Lancashire;s mood after defeat against Worcestershire 24 hours earlier

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jul-2018
ScorecardLiam Livingstone demolished the Derbyshire Falcons with a brilliant century off 49 balls as Lancashire Lightning bounced back in style with a nine wicket victory in the Vitality T20 Blast at Derby.After Thursday’s defeat to Worcestershire Rapids, the Lightning needed to respond and they delivered by restricting the Falcons to 161 for 4 before Livingstone and Alex Davies surged towards the finishing line on a tide of boundaries.Wayne Madsen made an unbeaten 76 from 49 balls and Calum Macleod 44 on his debut but the Lightning bowled well with Toby Lester taking 1 for 10 in his first T20 appearance as the visitors won with 33 balls to spare.The Falcons struggled from the start, losing a wicket after being put in to the fourth ball of the innings when Ben Slater was run out by a direct hit from Steven Croft at point and Matt Critchley went three overs later when he drove Lester to extra cover.

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Lester showed good control and although MacLeod marked his first appearance for the Falcons by driving Jordan Clark into the seats at the City End, the home side were in need of acceleration at 62 for 2 after 10 overs.Madsen scored four 50’s in last season’s Blast and he twice drove Matt Parkinson down the ground for boundaries before pulling James Faulkner just past a fielder at deep backward square for another four.MacLeod swept Livingstone to the fine leg boundary and the Lightning’s ground fielding was starting to look ragged as the third wicket pair moved through the gears.But when Macleod tried to cut Jordan Clark and was caught behind in the 15th over, the Lightning reeled the Falcons back in with only 27 runs coming from four overs.Madsen broke free by cutting Clark over the wicketkeeper for six and Alex Hughes pulled his first ball from Faulkner for six as 30 came from the last two overs.Livingstone launched the chase by driving Wahib Riaz into the sightscreen and Davies pulled Lockie Ferguson for four before driving Wayne Madsen over long off for six.The Lightning’s skipper cut and pulled Ravi Rampaul for boundaries and the game was running away from the Falcons as Livingstone and Davies plundered 17 from Hardus Viljoen’s first over.Livingstone reached 50 off 28 balls and celebrated by driving and pulling Critchley for consecutive sixes as the Lightning passed 100 in only the ninth over.Davies reached 50 off 35 balls before Livingstone smashed Viljoen for three sixes to complete a superb century and although he was caught at slip in the 15th over after smashing nine fours and seven sixes, the game had long been over as a contest

They have a squad studded with the biggest names, but they will need to do much more than they did last year if they are to declare their season a success

Deivarayan Muthu04-Apr-20175:02

Agarkar: Pune need Stokes’ bowling to fire

Likely first XI

Ajinkya Rahane, Mayank Agarwal, Faf du Plessis, Steven Smith (capt), Ben Stokes, MS Dhoni (wk), Rajat Bhatia, Shardul Thakur, Ankit Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Imran Tahir

Reserves

Batsmen – Usman Khawaja, B Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Manoj TiwaryBowlers – Ishwar Pandey, Saurabh Kumar, Adam Zampa, Jaskaran Singh, Deepak Chahar, Jaydev Unadkat, Lockie Ferguson, Rahul ChaharAllrounders – Dan Christian, Rahul Tripathi, Milind Tandon

Strengths

They have arguably the best batsman in the world, the best finisher, and the best allrounder. Smith, Dhoni and Stokes form the crux of a robust middle order that is capable of blitzing targets as well as accumulating scores. Then there is the legspinner Tahir, the current No. 1 bowler in T20 cricket, who was rather surprisingly overlooked at the auction in February. Zampa was the surprise package in IPL 2016, peeling off 12 wickets in five matches at an economy rate of 6.76, and he enters this season with an enhanced reputation after productive stints with the Australian team and Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL. He could even jostle Tahir out of the playing XI should Supergiant opt to play just one spinner.

Weaknesses

No less than six Supergiant players – du Plessis, Kevin Pietersen, Smith, Mitchell Marsh, M Ashwin and Deepak Chahar – suffered injuries in 2016 with all four overseas names pulling out midway through the last season. They have now lost R Ashwin and Marsh even before the start of this season. Sports hernia has stripped Supergiant of their only frontline offspinner while their two left-arm fingerspinners, Ankit and Saurabh, lack T20 experience – the latter is yet to play an IPL match. Supergiant’s worries extend to their seam attack too. Thakur, who was acquired from Kings XI Punjab, might feel the aftereffects of a long domestic season as the IPL wears on: he bowled 417.3 overs across formats – the second-most by a seamer. Unadkat and Pandey are similar bowlers to RP Singh and Ishant Sharma, who were released from the squad.Dan Christian was on fire at the BBL but will he be able to overturn an otherwise lacklustre IPL career with a new franchise?•Getty Images

Where they finished in 2016, and what’s different this year?

Seventh. They were the first side to be knocked out last season.For starters, the management has changed the team’s name from Rising Pune Supergiants to Rising Pune Supergiant, and made Smith captain in place of Dhoni on the eve of the auction. Having released Thisara Perera, Albie Morkel and Irfan Pathan from the squad, Supergiant then splurged INR 14.5 crore (approximately USD 2.16 million) on Stokes, making him the most expensive overseas player ever bought at an IPL auction. They also spent a crore on Victoria and Hobart Hurricanes allrounder Dan Christian, who might be thrust into the spotlight when Stokes takes up national duty. That Supergiant shelled out millions for just two players meant they could not bid more aggressively for fast bowlers like T Natarajan and Basil Thampi. As a result, the seam attack remains largely unchanged. The top order, though, has been bolstered by the acquisition of Agarwal from Delhi Daredevils.

What have their players been up to?

• Stokes was distraught after being hit for four successive sixes in final in Kolkata last year, but a brutal fifty and the wicket of Virat Kohli, which helped England sew up a high-scoring thriller this year, came as a soothing balm. His hit-the-deck bustle challenged India in the limited-overs series before he showed innings-building skills while scoring a fifty against West Indies in Antigua.
• Christian had a fruitful BBL season with the Hurricanes, performing the dual role of taking wickets and curbing the run rate. He claimed nine wickets, including 5 for 14, the third-best figures in the history of the BBL. His batting wasn’t as sparkly in the tournament, but when Christian hits the ball, it stays hit. Case in point: this 117m monster at – or – the Gabba in 2015. On the flip side, Christian has struggled in the IPL, managing only 341 runs in 22 innings for Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore at a strike rate of 116.78.
• Dhoni smashed a half-century in his most recent T20I, then led Jharkhand to the semi-final of the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy. He finished as his state’s second-highest scorer with 330 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of nearly 100.

Overseas-player availability

Stokes will be available to the franchise for the entire group stage, before returning to England on May 14 to prepare for three ODIs against South Africa in late May that serve as a warm-up for the Champions Trophy. Tearaway quick Lockie Ferguson will be with Supergiant until May 10, before linking up with New Zealand for a tri-series against hosts Ireland and Bangladesh.

Home and away record in 2016

Supergiant fared equally badly both at home and on the road. They were swept clean at the MCA Stadium in Pune, before they won two out of three games in their second home in Visakhapatnam and avoided a bottom-place finish. They also won three away matches, all while chasing.

Poll

India Women have retained the squad that won a historic T20 series against Australia recently for the Women’s World Twenty20 which starts in India from March 15

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Feb-2016India Women have retained the squad that won a historic T20I series against Australia recently for the Women’s World Twenty20 which starts in India from March 15. The team will be captained by Mithali Raj.In January, the 15-member squad, led by Raj, had achieved their first bilateral series win over Australia Women in any format, claiming the three-match series 2-1. This included a record chase of 141 – their highest ever in a T20 international – in the first match of the series in Adelaide.India are in Group B of the 10-team Women’s World T20, along with England, West Indies, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The hosts will kick off their tournament against Bangladesh Women on March 15 in Bangalore.India Women’s squad for World T20: Mithali Raj (capt), Jhulan Goswami, Smriti Mandhana, Veda Krishnamurthy, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sushma Verma, Poonam Yadav, Vellaswamy Vanitha, Anuja Patil, Ekta Bisht, Thirush Kamini, Deepti Sharma, Niranjana Nagarajan.

Pakistan cricketers are welcome to play in the 2013-14 Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, but have to provide no-objection certificates (NOC) from the PCB

Mohammad Isam09-Sep-2013Pakistan cricketers are welcome to play in the 2012-13 Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, but have to provide no-objection certificates (NOC) from the PCB, said a BCB official on Monday. On the eve of the tournament, this was one of two major concerns as the organisers, Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM), also kept an eye on the weather.”We do not have any embargoes on players from any country,” CCDM chairman Jalal Yunus said. “We have repeatedly said that a player has to get the NOC from his cricket board. The process is for our clubs to contact the player, who will get the clearance from his board and if needed, we will help him with the visa with a letter.”From what we have heard from the media, they (PCB) want us to write to them. We haven’t done that with any cricket board. We have followed the usual practice with Sri Lanka Cricket, who have provided NOCs to their players for this league. We will continue to follow the usual practice.”The clubs have sourced players from Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, but have so far failed to sign those from Pakistan and India.Apart from player recruitment, the CCDM is also worried about the weather as it has been raining in most parts of Bangladesh. Bogra, Rajshahi and parts of Dhaka district are the main venues in the first two rounds of matches, and all three areas have experienced lots of rain in the past week. Rain was expected in September, and the CCDM has kept a reserve day following each day’s play.Defending champions Victoria Sporting Club will play their opening match against Kala Bagan Cricket Academy without any foreign players, rare for a Dhaka club. They will rely heavily on Bangladesh players Nasir Hossain, Anamul Haque, Robiul Islam and fringe players like Soumya Sarkar, Monir Hossain, Mohammad Sharif and Shaker Ahmed.Last season, Victoria enjoyed an exorbitant budget through the businessman Lutfar Rahman who has now moved on to become the chairman of Gazi Tank. Apart from Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, their Pakistan recruits Kamran Sajid and Ahmed Shehzad contributed heavily. Shoaib Malik too played three matches while the left-arm spinner from India, Iqbal Abdulla, was effective in his four matches.This year will be different for the four-time champions who admitted that they had to spend cautiously. Gazi Tank have confirmed the services of the former New Zealand allrounder Scott Styris and the Sri Lankan Kaushalya Weeraratne, and boast local stars like Mahmudullah, Imrul Kayes, Raqibul Hasan, Rubel Hossain and Aftab Ahmed.But history will favour Abahani, who have won the tournament a record 17 times. Their stronghold began in the inaugural season in 1974-75 when they defeated little-known Shantinagar to win the title. They have also claimed three hat-tricks (1984-85, 1985-86, 1986-87; 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95; 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09). They last won the DPL in the 2010-11 season.This season the Dhanmondi-based club have focused on youth, much to the frustration of their fans. Liton Kumar Das, Alauddin Babu and Taposh Ghosh, three uncapped but promising players were their first picks in the player-by-choice programme last month. They have only picked Shahriar Nafees and Nazimuddin as experienced players, while also bringing in Tharanga Paranavitana, Janaka Gunaratne and the 40-year-old Indika de Saram from Sri Lanka, seemingly to offset the heavy presence of youngsters in the side.

Alex Wakely and Rob Newton each scored half-centuries as Northamptonshire tightened their grip on Hampshire at the end of the third day at West End.

17-Aug-2012
ScorecardAlex Wakely and Rob Newton each scored half-centuries as Northamptonshire tightened their grip on Hampshire at the end of the third day at West End. Newton struck a rapid 59 and Wakely was 61 not out at the close as Northants reached 176 for 5 in their second innings, a lead of 256 runs.Only home captain Jimmy Adams batted with any resolution when Hampshire began the second day 125 for 2 in response to the Northants’ first-innings total of 356. Adams’ third-wicket partner Liam Dawson was out without adding to his overnight 19 and James Vince continued his wretched first-class season when he was out two overs later for 4.Pace bowler Luke Evans dismissed them both to leg-before decisions and then David Willey reduced Hampshire to 176 for 6 by bowling Sean Ervine and winning another lbw appeal against Adams, who faced 184 balls for his 73, an innings which included 13 fours, but resistance after his departure was only sporadic.Evans came back to get rid of Chris Wood and Northants captain Andrew Hall polished off the Hampshire tail. Hall had Michael Bates caught at second slip by David Sales for 28, Kabir Ali caught at the wicket for a breezy 31 and then last man David Balcombe at 276. That gave Northants a substantial first-innings lead of 80 on a wicket which continued to help the quicker bowlers.Hall finished with 3 for 35, but for former Durham bowler Evans the day was a personal triumph, finishing with career-best figures of 4 for 38.Northants did not make the best of starts as they hastened to build on their first-innings success with Stephen Peters out in Ali’s first over and Niall O’Brien following to a catch at the wicket in the eighth. When Sales fell to a catch by Vince in the slips off Balcombe, Northants were 62 for 3. But then came a decisive stand of 99 in only 16 overs between Newton and Wakely as the Hampshire attack appeared to run out of ideas.Newton hit Ali for six and then did the same to successive deliveries from James Tomlinson, smiting nine fours also from 41-ball innings which turned the match in Northants’ favour. Tomlinson had Newton caught in the slips before Hall departed, but Wakely and James Middlebrook saw their side through to stumps in an unbroken stand of 15.

Kent booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Friends Life t20 with a 15-run win over Essex in front of a packed house at Chelmsford

The Bulletin by Liam Brickhill15-Jul-2011
Scorecard
Kent booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Friends Life t20 with a 15-run win over Essex in front of a packed house at Chelmsford. Allrounder Darren Stevens was Man of the Match after starring with both bat and ball, striking a brutal 41 and following that up with four cheap wickets to derail Essex’s middle order, but the night was not without controversy.Stevens entered the fray in the 13th over after the departure of Azhar Mahmood with Kent well-placed at 95 for 2, but didn’t get off the mark until the seventh ball he faced and had just 5 to his name when he uppercut Ravi Bopara to third man, where Scott Styris creaked in from the rope impressively quickly and showed he still retained the class from his international days with what appeared to be a diving catch, scooping the ball into his fingers millimetres from the turf.The umpires thought that the catch warranted a second look, however, and Styris reacted angrily when Stevens was eventually given not out. Essex have suffered disciplinary breaches more than once this season, and though captain James Foster managed to keep his cool Styris, who had claimed the catch as clean, trotted in for an extended chat with the umpires at the end of the over before being gently ushered away by team-mate Tim Southee.Kent had initially struggled to force the pace on a sluggish pitch that didn’t aid strokeplay, with Essex taking pace off the ball, but Stevens made full use of the reprieve to dominate the bowlers. He mowed Ryan ten Doeschate out of the ground and into the River Can, requiring a change of ball, but the harder, newer ball came on more easily to the bat and Stevens immediately thrashed another six, over long-off.Joe Denly, who chugged along at more or less a run a ball in the first half of the innings but accelerated as he passed fifty, departed soon after, swiping ten Doeschate to Tim Phillips, running in from deep midwicket. Essex might have had a second wicket in the same over when Stevens toe-ended a hoick at ten Doeschate, the ball looping agonisingly over the bowler, who sprinted back and got a hand to it but couldn’t complete the catch.Essex’s death bowlers did all that was asked of them but the luck was with Kent, as pinpoint yorkers were repeatedly inside-edged and squeezed down to the short boundary at fine leg. There were some good shots too, with van Jaarsveld peppering the leg side and Stevens going past 2,000 runs in domestic Twenty20s with a paddle to fine leg from the last ball of the innings as Kent reached 183 for 3 after 32 runs had come from the last 12 balls.If anyone was going to find swing in the placid conditions, it was going to be Charl Langeveldt, who opened with a slip in place and curved several deliveries past the outside edge of Mark Pettini’s bat in the first over. Mahmood also found some help with the new ball and slipped an inswinger under Pettini’s bat to rattle the stumps with the score at 9.Owais Shah repeated Stevens’ earlier feat with the shot of the match, an elegant checked-drive that sailed out of the ground and required another change of ball to kick-start Essex’s chase and by the third over of the innings, the movement through the air had vanishedEssex reached had reached 48 for 1 at the end of the field restrictions, but the introduction of Stevens in the seventh over turned the match as Adam Wheater ran past his second delivery – a slow cutter – and was easily stumped for 27. The required rate had crept above 10 an over when Shah lifted his second six over midwicket off Stevens, who barely touched 70 miles an hour all evening, in the ninth over but Stevens soon got his own back, disturbing Shah’s stumps after the batsman had stepped to leg to give himself some roomStevens struck for the third time in the 11th over as Bopara drove too early at a slow offcutter and popped back an easy return catch. Essex had slipped to 77 for 4 and the rate was fast climbing towards two runs a ball with James Tredwell also finding considerable grip and turn off the spongy surfaceStevens had made canny use of the slower ball in his first three overs, but it was a quicker one that brought him his fourth wicket as he snaked one in between ten Doeschate’s bat and pad to leave Essex tottering at 87 for 5.As had been the case at The Oval on Thursday night, Wahab Riaz was far more effective at the death than he had been at the top of the innings, whipping the ball in at a slippery pace and targeting the blockhole. He pegged back Foster’s middle stump with a dipping full toss after he had scratched around for boundary-free 12, and Essex’s hopes were rapidly fading at 120 for 6 in the 17th over.Kent, perhaps feeling a little too assured of victory, slipped dangerously in the closing overs, both Langeveldt and Riaz no-balling and repeated lapses in the field keeping Essex in the hunt as Graham Napier raced to 26 with five boundaries before he picked out Alex Blake on the midwicket boundary. Styris enlivened the Essex massive with a towering six off Mahmood in the final over, but there were simply too many needed, and the result was sealed when he lifted a slower ball to long-off.”I’ve got to be careful [what I say], with recent histories,” Foster said after the match. “But [Stevens] went on to play a crucial knock and turned out to be a match-winner. It’s frustrating, but you never know, someone else could have come in and scored runs. I don’t blame Steve-o, the umpires told him to hold fire and stay there until they’d had a look. [Umpiring] is a tricky job, I don’t know how many of us guys will go into it after our careers because it’s very difficult.””I turned for the second run, Ravi was in my line [of sight] so I asked the umpires if it carried or not, and they went to check it,” explained Stevens.Kent will now face Leicestershire at Grace Road in the quarter-finals of the competition.

A resurgent Netherlands, fresh from their six-wicket trouncing of a full-strength Bangladesh side in Glasgow three days ago, have handed out similar treatment to the touring Zimbabwe XI

Cricinfo staff23-Jul-2010
Scorecard
A resurgent Netherlands, fresh from their six-wicket trouncing of a full-strength Bangladesh side in Glasgow three days ago, have handed out similar treatment to the touring Zimbabwe XI. Grafting innings from Tom Cooper (49) and Wesley Barresi (47) carried Netherlands to 194 for 9 before Maurits Jonkman and Mudassar Bukhari combined to skittle the Zimbabweans for 136, taking three cheap wickets apiece to seal a 58-run win.The pitch at the VRA Ground in Amstelveen played consistently slow and low during the recent World Cricket League Division One tournament, and conditions were no different today. It appeared Bas Zuiderent had erred after he opted to bat first and Netherlands slid to 48 for 3 in the 18th over, but Cooper held the top order together for the first half of the innings before he was stumped one run short of a half-century of Sean Williams’ left-arm spin.He had done well to see off challenging opening spells from Ed Rainsford and Shingi Masakadza, who removed both Netherlands openers before Nathan Waller’s medium pace did for Tom de Grooth and Zuiderent.Netherlands were tottering at 94 for 5 when Cooper departed, but Barresi and Bukhari staved off the collapse with a 33-run stand before Barresi took his side to within reach of a respectable target by adding a further 50 runs for the seventh wicket with Ruud Nijman. After he was run out with the score at 177, the Zimbabwean opening bowlers returned to pick up another wicket each and keep Netherlands to under 200.The Zimbabweans would no doubt have been confident chasing such a small total, but Zuiderent’s men will have been far more familiar with a bowler-friendly pitch and chipped steadily away at the batting line-up as three partnerships worth more than 20 were put together, but none went past Regis Chakabva and Stuart Matsikenyeri’s 25 for the second wicket.Charles Coventry did his best to inject some life into the middle order with a 37-ball 31, and when he was caught behind off Bukhari the Zimbabweans were 98 for 5 – a very similar position to that midway through the Dutch innings. But none of the lower order came to term with the conditions, Jonkman picking up the last three wickets to fall. With Williams unable to bat after injuring himself in the field, Jonkman sealed the win by disturbing Natsai Mushangwe’s stumps in the 40th over.Despite the fact that only two members of the Zimbabwe XI squad – Coventry and Craig Ervine – are recent regulars in the senior national side, every member of the team has represented their country at some level and few would have backed Netherlands to pull off a convincing win with such ease. The Zimbabweans will have to acclimatise quickly if they are to hold off what is sure to be a spirited attack from a buoyed Netherlands side when the two teams meet again for a four-day Intercontinental Cup game on Sunday.