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Former Pakistan medium-pacer Asmavia Iqbal has been named as the new head of the women’s selection panel

Danyal Rasool28-Dec-2021Urooj Mumtaz has quit as chair of the women’s selection committee, the PCB announced in a statement. The former Pakistan player, who is also a television commentator, left the role “to focus on her professional commitments as well as to pursue other opportunities within the game,” the release stated.Former Pakistan medium-pacer Asmavia Iqbal has been named as the new chief of the selection panel and will be assisted by junior selection committee members Saleem Jaffar and Taufeeq Umar.”It has been a wonderful experience to head the selection committee and contribute in the growth and progression of women’s cricket,” Mumtaz said. “I am grateful for the opportunity and thank all my colleagues, while wishing the team the very best in the 2022 international commitments and beyond.”PCB chairman Ramiz Raja expressed his gratitude towards Mumtaz. “You worked diligently in your role for which the PCB is grateful and indebted. We wish you best for your future endeavours.”Related

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Mumtaz’s resignation is her second such departure this year. In May, she quit her position as Head of Women’s Cricket in Pakistan after her multiple roles with the board and in television came under increasing scrutiny. The PCB had begun to take a more uncompromising stance over potential conflicts of interest; Misbah ul Haq had also seen his term as chief selector and coaching position with Islamabad United come to an end while he served as head coach of the men’s side. At the time, Mumtaz was replaced as Women’s Cricket Head by Tania Mallick, a member of the Pakistan Olympic Association.Meanwhile, top-order batter Bismah Maroof confirmed she would be available for the ODI World Cup starting March 2022, scheduled to be held in New Zealand. The former Pakistan captain has been on maternity leave since last December and gave birth to a girl in August.”The past few months have been the best of my life,” Maroof said. “Becoming a mother and spending time with my daughter has given me immense pleasure, but it is now time to return to my passion of representing Pakistan at an international stage.”The maternity leave helped me realise the significance of navigating the balance of raising a child and maintaining my professional cricketing career as I missed being on the field each time I saw the girls in action. I can now resume my ambitions and aspirations of playing for Pakistan and hope to make a useful contribution in our target of doing well in New Zealand.”According to the PCB statement, under the board’s maternity policy, if Maroof is selected, “she will be allowed to be accompanied by her dependent child and one support person of her choice.”

Six men’s titles in two seasons has cemented this WA side as the dominant force in the Australian game

Tristan Lavalette26-Mar-2023Not long after Cameron Bancroft’s boundary sealed Western Australia’s Sheffield Shield title defence, those left marvelling at cricket’s undisputed domestic powerhouse were trying to pinpoint their seemingly magical formula for success.WA’s nine-wicket victory over Victoria in the final at the capped their second straight season of capturing a treble of domestic titles when put alongside Perth Scorchers’ BBL successes.Even though the hierarchy at the WACA prefer a measured approach, which is drilled down into their players, talk of a dynasty was unavoidable after WA had won their sixth straight title.Victoria coach Chris Rogers is perhaps well placed to judge where this WA team stacks up in history having been at the helm of consecutive unsuccessful Shield finals against his home state.Related

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As a gritty opener, Rogers was coming through the WA ranks during the late 1990s when the stacked team was led by legendary skipper Tom Moody and featured Test legends Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn and Mike Hussey amongst others.He sees parallels with the likes of teenaged Teague Wyllie and emerging allrounder Aaron Hardie destined for international opportunities having played valuable roles in WA’s back-to-back Shield triumphs.”I started playing when we had all the legends under Tom Moody and that was an incredible side and this side is doing great things if not better than that era,” Rogers said. “They’ve got a great squad and amazing depth.”WA’s eventual comprehensive triumph masked periods in a see-saw of final where they were seriously challenged by an emerging Victoria looking to kick-start a successful era of their own.Like they’ve shown repeatedly in recent years through the various formats, WA proved decisive in key moments especially on day two when they slumped to 4 for 53 in their first innings in reply to Victoria’s 195.
On a green-tinged surface against a strong Victoria attack, WA was in a precarious position until composed veteran Ashton Turner came to the rescue with a game-changing cavalier century to restore his team’s advantage.He combined in key partnerships with Hardie, Josh Philippe and Joel Paris to deflate Victoria who could never recover.”We speak as a group a lot about key moments in games and a theme for this week was ‘walk towards the pressure’,” said Paris, who combined with Turner in an invaluable 105-run partnership while also taking five wickets for the match.”They put a lot of pressure on us. Ash and I spoke about how we wanted to keep them out there as long as possible. We cashed in on the back end and got us to the lead which made it really tough for them.”WA’s sustained success has been built around a local core and continuity with the only change from last year’s title-winning side being Turner replacing recently retired Shaun Marsh.”All of us are from WA originally. A lot of the players have played together or against each other since we were playing Under 9s and 10s,” Paris said. “When you’re on the road as much as we are throughout the season, the closeness of the group is super important.”We understand each other as cricketers and people better than anyone and that certainly goes a long way when we’re out in the middle.”Ashton Turner has not been a regular in red-ball cricket but played the defining innings•Getty Images

The tight knit nature of the playing group memorably reared when Turner reached his first Shield century in more than five years, triggering raw emotion from his teammates in the dressing room.”My favourite moment was seeing AT score a hundred,” said Bancroft, who was part of all three titles this season. “It’s been a big journey for him in red-ball cricket. He spoke that morning [on day two] about being really brave and taking the game on, which is what he does best. To watch that come into action was pretty special and something all the team is proud of.”The camaraderie is a far cry from the dark days of WA cricket in the 2000s during a period marked by ill-discipline and little silverware leading to the recruitment of Langer as coach in 2012.”We’ve been building for some time. [The turnaround] probably started when JL came on board and he showed the core group of players that we have now what it truly means to be professional athletes and professional cricketers,” Paris said. “Winning Shield titles is so hard. We’ve identified this as a special group….I’m really lucky to be a part of.”While WA’s players were diplomatic of their feats as per the organisation’s well-worn mantra, the revelry was starting to kick-in from the terraces with those involved savouring this new golden era.”Six titles in a couple of years is pretty unheard of. The challenge is to keep being consistent,” Bancroft said. “But that’s not a conversation for today. We’ll enjoy tonight and this win.”

Wicketkeeper says future looks bright after ODI debuts for Mahika Gaur, Lauren Filer and Maia Bouchier

Valkerie Baynes11-Sep-2023Amy Jones has credited an injection of energy brought by England’s three debutants in their opening ODI against Sri Lanka with turning the hosts’ results around after their disappointing T20I series defeat.Mahika Gaur, the 17-year-old left-armer who played 19 T20Is for UAE before making her England debut during the T20 leg of Sri Lanka’s visit, claimed three wickets upon being handed her maiden ODI cap in Durham on Saturday.Fellow seamer Lauren Filer, meanwhile, had the visitors just as flummoxed by her searing pace as the Australians were during the Ashes Test earlier in the summer. Playing her first ODI at the weekend, 22-year-old Filer also took three wickets, including two in two balls, as England romped home by seven wickets to go 1-0 up in the series.”It feels like youth often brings energy and we’ve seen that with the girls that have come in,” Jones said. “They’ve really brought a buzz around them and just a real excitement to play for England, which we all have, but it just looks a bit different when you’re a bit younger.”They really pick people up around them as well. I think English cricket’s in a great place and to see all this competition for places is only a good thing.”As a player, when you are given opportunities like this, it can put a bit of extra pressure on you, especially as a young player, thinking, ‘when other people come back, am I still going to have a place?’ and it can be very easy to put a lot of pressure on yourself. So it’s been so pleasing how they don’t seem to be feeling the pressure. Whether they are or not, they seem really cool. They’re just enjoying it and it’s reflected in their performances.”Related

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Jones took five catches in the match, becoming the first England wicketkeeper to do so in a women’s ODI, including three off Filer, as Sri Lanka were bundled out for 106 in 30.2 overs.In reply, Tammy Beaumont and Emma Lamb broke the back of the paltry run chase with an opening stand worth 61 runs and 24-year-old batter Maia Bouchier, England’s third ODI debutant for the match having previously played 22 T20Is, struck the winning runs with a boundary off Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu in a run-a-ball 17 not out.”She’s great fun to keep to with that extra pace,” Jones said of Filer. “It was quite a slow wicket, I thought, a bit of bounce but not particularly fast up in Durham, so I was really excited when she came on to bowl and still found the carry and pushed me back a bit further.”With a bowler like Lauren, you just feel like you’re getting a catch every ball. I really enjoy keeping to her and was impressed. She’s got something that not many people have in the pace that she has, so she’s definitely an impact player.Gaur claimed the prize wicket of in-form Athapaththu in her third over and then bowled opener Anushka Sanjeewani with an excellent inswinger to reduce Sri Lanka to 26 for 2 before claiming the final wicket of the innings.”I thought they were great,” Jones said. “Mahika, until this series, I’ve never faced her or kept to her or anything, so it feels like she’s just shot up out of nowhere. But I’ve been so impressed, as has everybody. Something different being a left-hander and her height, but she swings the ball so well and she’s really consistent for a young player too. I’m really excited to see where she can get to in her career.”Jones was also backing her side to maintain their momentum heading into Tuesday’s second ODI in Northampton, followed by the last match in Leicester on Thursday.”There was a big ask for energy going into the 50-over games, having not played the longer format in a while and at the end of the season,” she said. “There was a real focus from Lewy [head coach Jon Lewis] making sure that when we’re in the field, we’re fizzing the ball back to me and we are just showing so much energy and I think that really helped as a focus.”As a group we were really disappointed with how the T20s went. Going into any series, when you go in as favourites especially, you want to get the job done and convincingly as well. So to lose those two games definitely it was disappointing. It was really key for us to put in a good performance in Durham and stamp our authority onto the ODI series.”

London Spirit coach and another unnamed member of management team go into self-isolation

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2021 • Updated on 02-Aug-2021Shane Warne, London Spirit’s head coach, and another unnamed member of the management team have gone into isolation after returning positive Covid-19 tests.Warne reported feeling unwell on Sunday morning, ahead of Spirit’s game against Southern Brave at Lord’s. A lateral flow test was positive and he is now awaiting the result of a PCR test. As yet, none of the Spirit playing squad has been affected.Related

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Warne is the second head coach in the men’s competition to test positive for Covid in the first 10 days of the Hundred. Andy Flower, the Trent Rockets head coach, returned a positive test last weekend and has missed his side’s last three fixtures, with Paul Franks stepping into the role. Steven Mullaney, who was deemed a close contact of Flower’s, is the only player in the competition to have been forced to self-isolate as things stand.Warne’s Spirit team were winless in their first three Hundred games, with two defeats and a no-result, and lost their third game of the tournament against Southern Brave on Sunday night by four runs after making a bright start to their run chase. David Ripley, the Northamptonshire head coach and one of the Spirit’s assistants, was acting as head coach in Warne’s absence.”I wouldn’t say it was that disruptive,” Eoin Morgan’s the Spirit’s captain, said of Warne’s absence. “As a coach actually on gameday, there are not a lot of things that you can do. You’ve prepped the team, the side is announced, so everyone is clear in exactly what they need to do and how they need to do it. He was around all day yesterday [Saturday] but obviously we were all social-distancing, so I’d say not a big one at all.”Warne confirmed on Monday that he was suffering mild symptoms and that he had been double-vaccinated against the virus.”Thank u for all the get well messages-they really mean a lot,” he tweeted. “I’ve been double vaccinated so the Covid symptoms are mild, hopefully I will be up & about soon. Still shattered about our second embarrassing loss at Lords last night as we’ve just gifted 2 wins away [sic].”

India A will play three four-day games and as many List A matches against New Zealand

Shashank Kishore16-Aug-2022The BCCI is set to resume the India A programme in early September, with incoming tours from New Zealand, and possibly, Australia. It will be helmed by VVS Laxman and his NCA support staff group of Sairaj Bahutule and Sitanshu Kotak.ESPNcricinfo has learnt that New Zealand A will arrive in India by the end of August for three four-day games and as many List A matches, with all of them likely to be held in Bengaluru. The BCCI is also contemplating the possibility of a pink-ball fixture during the series, but a final nod is awaited.New Zealand A played a pink-ball game on their previous tour to India in 2017-18. That game in Vijayawada, though, was a day fixture despite being played with the pink ball. And if the game in the upcoming series next month does go ahead, it will be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.The New Zealand A tour is expected to overlap with the Duleep Trophy, the zonal first-class competition, which will open India’s domestic calendar for the 2022-23 season. The six-team tournament will be played from September 8 to 25 in Chennai and Coimbatore.The home series against New Zealand will be India A’s first assignment since their tour to South Africa late last year, just prior to the national team’s three-Test series in December.The BCCI is also understood to be in negotiations with Cricket Australia for a tour towards the end of the year – most likely in November – prior to the start of the Ranji Trophy and India’s next Test assignment, which will be in Bangladesh.The Bangladesh tour, consisting of two Tests, will be India’s penultimate World Test Championship (WTC) assignment. They will culminate the current leg of the WTC with a four-Test series at home against Australia in February-March.

New Zealand suffer first defeat despite belligerent Glenn Phillips half-century

Matt Roller01-Nov-2022Ten days into the Super 12s, England finally turned up at the T20 World Cup and delivered a clinical performance in a must-win game against New Zealand at the Gabba. Victory in their final group game against Sri Lanka on Saturday should be enough to send them through, barring a significant net run-rate swing.Jos Buttler chose to bat first on a used pitch and produced his first significant innings of the tournament, making a superbly-paced 73 off 47 balls after two reprieves to set up England’s total of 179. He became England’s leading scorer in men’s T20Is in the process, on the night he won his 100th cap.New Zealand, who would have qualified for the knockout stages with a win, looked well-placed in the chase. After 14.4 overs, they were 119 for 2 as Glenn Phillips, picking up from where he left off against Sri Lanka, dominated a 91-run partnership with a slow-scoring Kane Williamson.Related

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But unlike in last year’s semi-final in Abu Dhabi, a game which loomed large over Tuesday night’s match in Brisbane, England managed to strike regularly towards the end: Ben Stokes removed Williamson, Mark Wood rushed James Neesham, and Sam Curran closed out the win with a superb spell at the death.New Zealand’s net run rate is healthy enough that they will almost certainly qualify for the semi-finals by beating Ireland by any margin in their final group game, while Australia’s title defence is hanging by a thread on home soil: they either need to beat Afghanistan and hope England fail to beat Sri Lanka in Sydney, or thrash Afghanistan to ensure they overtake England on NRR.Buttler sets England up
Under Eoin Morgan, England were a chasing team: he did not choose to bat first in a T20I once in his last five-and-a-half years as captain. Under Buttler, there has been a shift: they have now won seven out of eight completed games when batting first since the start of July, and have posted at least 175 every time.After a relatively quiet start, seeing off Trent Boult and Tim Southee’s new-ball bursts, Alex Hales took charge in the second half of the powerplay, racing to 37 off 25 as England took 48 from the first six overs. He hit the first ball of the fifth over straight back over Southee’s head for six, then hit back-to-back boundaries through the off side.Williamson thought he had taken a huge catch to dismiss Buttler for 8 in the final powerplay over, diving low to his left to snaffle a miscue off Mitchell Santner, but replays confirmed the ball had squirmed through his hands and hit the ground before he snaffled it at the second attempt. He apologised, and said afterwards: “I knew I’d bobbled it and thought I’d squeezed it into my chest… a little bit embarrassing in the end.”England struggled against spin through the middle on a used pitch which offered plenty for Santner and Ish Sodhi, who took 2 for 48 in eight overs between them. Hales was stumped while charging Santner after reaching a 39-ball half-century, and Buttler was dropped again on 40 when Daryl Mitchell put down a straightforward chance off Lockie Ferguson.England scrape past par
England shuffled their batting line-up, with Moeen Ali promoted to No. 3 with a licence to take down spin and Dawid Malan ending up as low as No. 8. Moeen holed out to long-on before Buttler reached a 35-ball fifty, while Liam Livingstone’s bright cameo was ended by a brilliant Ferguson yorker as he attempted back-to-back scoops.New Zealand dragged things back with regular wickets: Harry Brook was caught at long-on looking for back-to-back sixes, Buttler was run out and Stokes was pinned lbw by Ferguson, but England’s lower-middle order kept on swinging and scrambled up to 179, which looked just above par.Phillips on fire
Buttler threw Moeen the new ball and was nearly rewarded with the wicket of Devon Conway, who dragged his back foot behind the crease just before Buttler whipped the bails off after Moeen beat him on the outside edge. Buttler himself was key to the wicket when Conway did fall, flinging himself low to his right as Conway attempted a paddle-scoop off Chris Woakes.When Finn Allen fell to Curran’s short ball, picking out Stokes on the rope, New Zealand were 28 for 2 after five overs and struggling, but Phillips was quickly up and running. He started streakily, inside-edging a 96mph/155kph Wood thunderbolt – the quickest ball of the World Cup to date – past his leg stump, and then survived thanks to an inexplicable drop from Moeen.Facing Adil Rashid, Phillips skewed a leading edge straight to Moeen at cover, who seemed to take his eye off the ball or lose it in the lights. He failed even to get a hand to a straightforward chance, and when Phillips crunched three sixes over the short midwicket boundary in quick succession – one off Wood, and two in a row off Rashid – it looked as though it would prove a costly drop.Clutch Curran
Stokes, who had hurt his left index finger while taking the catch to dismiss Allen, removed Williamson in his only over, the ball steered to Rashid at short third, and Buttler sensed an opportunity. He brought Wood back for the 16th over, a move vindicated by Neesham’s miscued pull, which Curran settled underneath at deep midwicket and celebrated with a roar as he turned to the crowd.Woakes, whose 19th over in the 2021 semi-final had cost 20 runs, then struck at the death as England closed in, having Daryl Mitchell caught at long-on off a slower ball by Chris Jordan, on as a substitute fielder for Livingstone. Curran then removed Phillips to end the game as a contest, again caught by Jordan, and closed it out with a combination of yorkers, bouncers and slower balls at the death.

Young seamer secures personal landmark as Burns seals win in a hurry

Vithushan Ehantharajah20-May-2023 Surrey 362 (Abbott 78, Sibley 60, Bhuiyan 4-65) and 58 for 0 (Burns 36*, Sibley 16*) beat Kent 278 (Evison 77*, Lawes 3-41) and 141 (Muyeye 42, Lawes 5-22) by 10 wicketsIt speaks to Surrey’s qualities as defending champions that even losing a bowler of Kemar Roach’s calibre does not hold them back. And it says even more of the nurturing qualities down in south London that the West Indian’s replacement, 20-year-old Tom Lawes, would be the one to fire Surrey to a fourth win of the season.Lawes only turned 20 on Christmas Day – for the record, he only gets one set of presents – but almost singlehandedly blitzed Kent in the second innings. Figures of five for 22 snuffed out the visitors for 141 on day three, handing Rory Burns and Dom Sibley a simple double-figure chase, knocked off so quickly that the Kia Oval felt compelled to let the hundreds of spectators use the ground as a glorified picnic area for an hour or so after this 10-wicket win had been confirmed.This was Lawes’ maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket, beginning late on day two when he changed the direction of this match with a 2.4 over spell that accounted for Tawanda Muyeye and then Jack Leaning. The latter was the day’s final ball, meaning the seamer had two deliveries to finish from the Micky Stewart Pavilion End on Saturday morning. Burns decided to stick with him for longer.Within seven deliveries, Kent skipper Sam Billings had edged through to Ben Foakes and Zak Crawley – the set batter, arriving overnight on 31 – had been squared up by a wider release, edging to Ollie Pope at second slip. At that point, Kent were six down, Surrey still a run ahead and Lawes boasted absurd figures of 4 for 3. A misdirected bouncer, no-balled as it raced away for four byes, put Kent into the lead.Jordan Cox and Joey Evison did their bit to make Lawes’ figures a little less absurd. The latter, however, ended up as number five as Lawes tailed one in late enough to sneak through Evison and send his off stump for a walk. With the heart ripped out, Lawes stepped aside to allow Sean Abbott and Jordan Clark pick through a Kent line-up in real strife. Since winning their opening match of the season against Northamptonshire, Kent have lost three out of four. This, their second inside three days, sends them into the relegation zone.You could say Lawes’ five-bag was overdue, particularly given that on four previous occasions he had had to make do with four in an innings. But this was always coming. His 18 wickets across six appearances in 2022’s Championship win spoke of undoubted quality, and gave him the lowest average of the squad (23.72).Returning this winter, his action looks a little more like Chris Woakes’, and Burns is certain he has got quicker. Lawes is one of those nippy quicks who loses very little off the pitch, which explains why his short ball surprised Muyeye and Leaning (bowled off his elbow), and good lengths hit hard did for Billings and Crawley. He’s already made it to 15 dismissals from just three games and has also pocketed new career-best match figures of eight for 63 after three for 41 in the first innings.”It’s a very special moment,” said Lawes of this first five-wicket haul. “Especially walking off in front of the Pavilion. It’s a memory I’m not going to forget, really. To do it with all the teammates and all our mates. Wonderful memories.”I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a bowl (at the end of day two). But with two overs at the end, I was going to steam in and try and make something happen. To get those two at the end (Muyeye and Leaning) last night, that really set up today.”As far as young players at Surrey go, Burns wasn’t sure on where he’d rank, but likened his impact to Sam Curran, who arrived into the first-team at the age of 17 and never looked back. “It’s similar to when Sammy came onto the circuit,” said Burns. “His knack of producing things – when you need a moment, he finds it with a little bit of fairy dust.”Lawes is one of those allrounders in the early stages of their career where one suit is garnering more headlines than the other. Those who’ve been involved in his development through the ranks, both at Surrey and Cranleigh School, emphasise his middle-order activities with the bat.We got a sight of that last summer when he compiled 318 runs at 53.00 in the Royal London Cup, filling in throughout the sideshow competition as Surrey’s squad was ransacked by the men’s Hundred. A few weeks back, he opened the batting in the second innings with Dan Worrall with just 11 needed for victory against Warwickshire. Lawes somehow ended up with 14 not out after finishing the match with a six into the Hollies Stand.He was not required to strap the pads on this time around. A target of 58 was probably a little too dear to take the piss, though Burns marched out and set the tone for another quick kill with 10 off the first four deliveries of the fourth innings. The skipper then greeted Jack Leaning’s off-spin with a reverse sweep for six. When 50 was brought up after 9.4 overs, Burns had 33 of them.With scores level, the left-hander advanced down the track, scuffing a shot over the top off the bowling of Arafat Bhuiyan. It stopped a couple of feet short of the boundary but Burns and Dom Sibley had already crossed and were on their way back to greet each other for a job well done after just in 11.3 overs.But for the miscued winning run, this was about as perfect a win you could get, completed seven minutes before lunch on day three. The sun just getting to its glorious best, the weekend now open to all possibilities.The season itself, however, feels just like last. Surrey are top going into the white-ball break, winning four of six so far – one more than they managed in the same period at the start of last season. Even with England call-ups for red- and white-ball duty, they look primed to go back-to-back.

England in control against Australia A while Lauren Winfield-Hill, Paige Scholfield post tons against Test side

Valkerie Baynes16-Jun-2023Tammy Beaumont scored a double-century as England Women piled on 510 runs in a day to build a huge 390-run lead against Australia A Women during a three-day warm-up for the Women’s Ashes Test at Trent Bridge next week.Beaumont retired out on 201 from 238 balls in Derby with England 611 for 7 in response to 221 all out by an Australia A side captained by left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen, the only member of Australia’s Test squad to move into the A side for the build-up game.Beaumont and Emma Lamb, who fell for 10 on Thursday when she was caught by Tahlia Wilson off the bowling of Maitlan Brown, are England’s incumbent Test openers, having done the job in last year’s draw with South Africa at Taunton. Heather Knight, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Sophia Dunkley all scored half-centuries and Amy Jones cruised to 88 off just 65 balls before Jonassen had her caught by Brown.Related

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Jones was full of praise for Beaumont’s knock, which resumed on 65 on the second morning with England 120 runs behind with nine wickets in hand. She shared a 170-run partnership with captain Knight for the second wicket and 148 with Sciver-Brunt, Knight’s deputy, for the third.”Five hundred runs in a day is a great effort and Tammy set that up brilliantly,” Jones said. “I thought it was an incredible innings really. I don’t remember any chances. She just looked really free flowing and soaked up pressure in the harder moments of the game as well, so she was brilliant and we had some good partnerships throughout which is good to see.”But an intriguing sub-plot was developing in Leicester, where England A, led by captain by Lauren Winfield-Hill, took a lead of 278 runs after two days of their three-day warm-up against Australia’s Test players. Winfield-Hill, who lost her England central contract ahead of this season amid a nine-month period of being overlooked for the senior side, reached 106 from 148 deliveries batting at No. 4 before legspinner Alana King had her caught by Georgia Wareham.Meanwhile Danni Wyatt, who is part of England’s Test squad but moved to the A side this week, scored 37 off 43 balls at No. 5 before she was trapped lbw by Australia pace spearhead Darcie Brown. Wyatt had moved to the top of the order in the shorter formats last year when Winfield-Hill lost her place during the 50-over World Cup and Beaumont was dropped from the T20 side ahead of the Commonwealth Games. Winfield-Hill made a return to T20Is during England’s winter tour of West Indies, twice batting at No. 3 below Wyatt, who has played 245 white-ball internationals but is yet to make her Test debut.Paige Scholfield, the leading run-scorer in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy so far this season, also scored a century, while Bess Heath and Grace Scrivens, who led England to the Under-19 T20 World Cup final earlier this year, scored a half-centuries against the Australians.Ashleigh Gardner, the Australian allrounder named Player of the Tournament after helping her side lift the T20 World Cup in February, didn’t bowl as a precaution after being hit on the right index finger while catching before play on Thursday. While there was some swelling, the injury didn’t trouble her while batting or fielding and she was expected to be fit for the Test starting on Thursday.England A closed on 562 for 9 in reply to Australia’s first-innings 284, which was built on opener Beth Mooney’s century. Kim Garth was the pick on a “tough day” for Australia’s bowlers, with 4 for 69, and King claimed three wickets.”There is a lot of positives to come out of it though,” Garth said. “I think we actually did quite well on a wicket that’s not offering much for the bowlers. Credit to them as well, they did bat very well. If you asked the coaching staff upstairs, I think they probably would have wanted a game like this rather than just cruising through three days of cricket so I think there’s plenty to take out of it into next week.”

Daniel Gidney says ECB must invest more in promoting women’s domestic competitions

Matt Roller18-Apr-2024Daniel Gidney, Lancashire’s chief executive, has called on the ECB to find a title sponsor and a standalone broadcast deal for the Charlotte Edwards Cup after his club’s investment in women’s cricket was rewarded with the award of Tier 1 status from 2025 in the revamped domestic structure.Lancashire have been major investors in Thunder in England’s regional competitions since 2020, with help from two sponsors in Hilton and Sportsbreaks.com. They will have a full-time squad of 15 professionals this year and travelled to Dubai and Bangalore last month, their third successive pre-season tour.They were among the counties pushing for a change in the domestic structure which would empower them to invest more in their women’s team and Gidney said that he was “absolutely thrilled” that Lancashire will host a Tier 1 side from next season. “I’ve always believed that if you are going to do this, you have to do it properly,” he told ESPNcricinfo.Related

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To that end, Gidney believes the ECB must find a title sponsor for the Charlotte Edwards Cup – the regional T20 competition – and invest more in marketing games outside of the Hundred. The ECB have committed to investing around £19 million in women’s domestic cricket by 2027.”There is a lot of history of men’s sports sponsors wanting women’s competitions as an add-on,” Gidney said. “We’re now at a stage where the Charlotte Edwards Cup needs to be backed, it needs to have England players available, and it needs to be taken seriously. There were more people at our quarter-final at Blackpool last year than at Finals Day at New Road.”The Charlotte Edwards Cup falls under Sky Sports’ TV rights deal with English cricket, which runs from 2024-28, but the channel has rarely broadcast matches from the competition, which are instead largely available via free online live streams. Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, said any changes will only be considered before the next rights cycle, which will start in 2029.”If we deliver on what we aim to deliver, that is a natural consequence of what we aim to do,” he said on Thursday at the launch of the ECB’s national tape-ball competition. “At the moment, we fall back on streaming platforms for much of our professional domestic cricket at county level and we’ll be doing the same for the women, but ultimately, that’s what we want to do.”While the three men’s county competitions all have headline sponsors, the women’s regional equivalents do not. Gould would not be drawn on sponsorship, saying: “I would not want to go into that at this point.” Gidney said: “This competition needs a title sponsor that is paying proper money, and we need to get it broadcast.”We shouldn’t just be giving assets away to people: it’s insulting to all of the women’s professional cricketers we have in the UK now. This is a proper sport that has real value. The top [level] of women’s elite sport in English cricket is the Hundred, but that’s not the only domestic professional cricket in town.”Gidney believes the move away from a regional structure funded predominantly by the ECB and towards a county model reflects the speed of commercialisation in women’s sport. “At the time the regional structure was introduced, it was all about accelerating performance, development of skills and professionalism,” he said.”But people underestimated the speed at which elite women’s professional sport has become commercialised: look at the amazing successes of the Lionesses, the Red Roses, sell-out games for Arsenal’s women at the Emirates Stadium, the Women’s Premier League. The money that has come in and the level of engagement from a new fanbase has been mad.”Deloitte put out a report to say that they believe in 2024, women’s elite sport will become a billion-dollar industry… you have to encourage innovation and generate commercial income to help grow women’s elite sport. We’re thrilled to be a successful Tier 1 club, but that comes with massive responsibility. I can’t now use it as an excuse that the ECB are holding me back.”Lancashire are building a new training base at Farington•Lancashire Cricket

Gidney believes that the tender process for Tier 1 teams has demonstrated which counties are “serious” about investing in women’s cricket. “I sat in one meeting and one CEO said, ‘if you get it and we don’t, you’re getting more revenue off the ECB.’ I said, ‘I’m astonished you’ve used the word ‘revenue’ in this context.’ The money that comes from the ECB is just a percentage of what has to be invested into the women’s programme to make it successful.”A few years ago, there was one non-Test match ground county that took a lot of money from the ECB for its academy. They spent £20,000 on the academy, and the rest on a Kolpak fast bowler. Authenticity is important. If you’re serious, you have to put your money and your actions where your mouth is, and I’d challenge anybody to say that Lancashire hasn’t done that in the last few years.”Thunder – who have appointed Chris Read, the former England wicketkeeper, as their coach ahead of the upcoming regional season – will play seven fixtures at Old Trafford this year, the most that any regional team will play at a men’s Test venue. The old away dressing room at the ground has already been converted into a home dressing room for the women’s team.Lancashire are also building a new facility at Farington, near Preston, which will become a training base for their men’s and women’s teams and will stage some first-team matches as well as second-team and pathway fixtures. But Gidney stressed: “Emirates Old Trafford is the home of Lancashire Cricket – for both our men and our women.”Old Trafford will also stage women’s international cricket again from 2025, more than a decade since its most recent fixture. Gidney wants to host Women’s T20 World Cup matches there in 2026: “We haven’t got a men’s Test match in 2026, so we are very hopeful about that.”

Mumbai Indians suffered their tenth defeat of the season despite three-wicket hauls from Thushara and Chawla and Rohit Sharma’s 38-ball 68

Sreshth Shah17-May-2024On a bittersweet evening for Mumbai Indians (MI) fans at the Wankhede Stadium, a high-octane Rohit Sharma fifty gave them something to be happy about, but they also saw their side slump to their tenth defeat of the season to finish bottom of the points table.The victors, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), too, were left with a what-could-have-been feeling as their seventh win of the season took them to the important landmark of 14 points, but a straggling net run-rate of -0.667 left them just outside the top four. In any case, despite scoring 214 batting first, LSG needed an impossible margin of victory to get their NRR where it would have been useful.On the night, it was Nicholas Pooran who rescued LSG from a familiar situation. With their top order struggling again, his 29-ball 75 brought life to a sluggish innings against an inexperienced MI attack that played without Jasprit Bumrah, Arjun Tendulkar his replacement.MI began the chase in dazzling fashion on the back of Rohit’s barrage of boundaries on either side of a short rain delay, but they slid from 88 for no loss to 120 for 5 in the middle overs, effectively ending their chances of putting up a realistic fight.The result meant MI, under new captain Hardik Pandya, finished last for the second time in three seasons. LSG will end up missing the playoffs for the first time in their three-season history.3:21

McClenaghan: Rahul could have gone harder

Pooran goes 360!

LSG gave Devdutt Padikkal another go this season at the top. But he finished the way he had started, with a duck.Nuwan Thushara got the new ball to sling into Padikkal, and Tendulkar too troubled No. 3 Marcus Stoinis early with the swinging delivery. Piyush Chawla also kept LSG quiet enough to prise out Stoinis and Deepak Hooda in quick succession, and at 69 for 3 in the tenth over, LSG’s innings was moving without direction.But Pooran changed that, even masking KL Rahul’s inability to get quick runs. As Rahul moved to only 40 in his first 33 balls, Pooran bashed 22 runs off Anshul Kamboj’s 12th over, and then hit consecutive sixes off Hardik in the 13th.He saved his best for the 14th when Tendulkar’s first two balls went for 12, and after an injury forced the bowler to leave the field, replacement bowler Naman Dhir got pummelled for two sixes. That over went for 29.Not all of Pooran’s shots were pretty, but he rode his luck. Even though he and Rahul fell as part of three wickets in three balls, their partnership and the late assault from Ayush Badoni (22 in ten balls) gave LSG 214 for 6.1:59

A season to forget for Hardik Pandya and Mumbai Indians

Rohit finishes on a high

Rohit came into the match with scores of 6, 8, 4, 11, 4 and 19. Among India’s batters for the T20 World Cup, he was the most out of form. But, on his way out of the season, Rohit batted the way he was expected to when captaincy was taken away from him at the start of IPL 2024.He hit boundaries on either side of the wicket alongside new opening partner Dewald Brevis to get MI off the blocks early in the 215 chase. He also made up for a streaky early boundary to hit Matt Henry for sixes over midwicket and long-off in the second over.Then, through the fifth, sixth, and seventh overs, Rohit enjoyed the pace-on deliveries and hammered Mohsin Khan and Naveen-ul-Haq for six fours and a six in the space of 18 balls. It got him to his fifty in 28 balls and put MI ahead in the chase.

Krunal, Bishnoi trigger collapse

But MI and Rohit found themselves in a squeeze as the LSG spinners came on. Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi, occasional boundaries aside, made an impact with tidy spells to slow MI down. The two of them also took sharp outfield catches to help LSG’s cause.After holding on to a spectacular sliding catch at long-off to dismiss Brevis in the ninth over off Naveen, Krunal got Suryakumar Yadav sweeping to deep third for a three-ball duck in the tenth over. Bishnoi, who took the tough juggling catch for that Suryakumar dismissal, then had Rohit slicing to Mohsin at short third in the 11th.Hardik couldn’t do much, and Nehal Wadhera then became Bishnoi’s second victim. All told, the six overs Bishnoi and Krunal bowled between eight and 17 gave away 44 runs and netted three wickets.2:36

McClenaghan: ‘Piyush has probably bowled himself to a contract in IPL 2025’

Dhir shows his worth

With Ishan Kishan looking off-colour from No. 4, MI’s game looked done after Wadhera’s dismissal in the 15th over. But Dhir gave the home fans some positives for next season with a dazzling unbeaten 28-ball 62 that took MI to 196.His second boundary of the evening, a scoop off a short ball behind the keeper, showed off his intent, and he followed it up with more big shots.The three sixes in the space of five balls across the 19th and 20th overs gave MI a bit of hope, but another spectacular fielding effort from Krunal on the boundary line stopped a second six to start the final over, and that took the wind out of the chase.