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Ashar Zaidi’s brutal hitting carried to give Essex their second NatWest T20 Blast win of the season and leapfrog Hampshire at the bottom of the southern division

ECB Reporters Network24-Jun-2016
ScorecardAshar Zaidi hit out in style [file picture]•Getty Images

Ashar Zaidi’s brutal hitting carried to give Essex their second NatWest T20 Blast win of the season and leapfrog Hampshire at the bottom of the southern division.The Pakistan-born all-rounder came in at No 5, higher up the order than he has this season, to post a 32-ball 52, his highest T20 score for Essex. The consistent Zaidi has now scored 157 T20 runs this season in five innings.He finally departed with six runs required when he was caught low down by Tino Best at mid-off after hitting four fours and two sixes.But Ryan ten Doeschate saw Essex across the line for their first win at Chelmsford this summer with seven balls to spare.Hampshire, who chose to bat, trundled along to what always looked a below-par 135 on a slow wicket, Graham Napier taking three for 31 and captain Ravi Bopara restricting the visitors to 15 runs off his three overs, for two wickets.Bopara was later involved in a clear show of dissent when he questioned umpire Neil Bainton’s decision to give him out lbw for nought. The incredulous Essex captain, already at the other end when the umpire’s finger went up, implied that he had got bat on ball.Essex’s response was not without concern and they struggled against the spin of Liam Dawson, who took three for 24 in four tidy overs. But Zaidi and Tom Westley took the game by the scuff of the neck, adding 59 for the fourth wicket in 6.2 overs, and laying the foundation for a successful run chase.Zaidi said of his promotion: “We decided that if the spinners were on, especially the leg spinner, it could be an option for me to go up the order a bit, particularly if it meant we could have a left and right combination. It worked well. It gives variety in T20 games and it can catch the opposition by surprise.”I’ve been scoring some runs in T20, it was just a case of trying to get to fifty-plus and see the game out, which I nearly did. I’m not a stat man to be fair, but I am very happy with my form at the moment.”There was massive pressure before the game because we haven’t won many games. We have to win every game now, there is no other option.”Hampshire coach Dale Benkenstein said: “It is a very tough competition when you’re lost a bit of confidence. The good thing for me is that we have almost got the future of the club playing now. Guys are going to start getting experience in the next few games.”

Justin Langer has extended his coaching contract with Western Australia until the end of 2017-18, putting an end to speculation that linked him with the England and India coaching jobs

ESPNcricinfo staff19-May-2015Justin Langer has extended his coaching contract with Western Australia until the end of 2017-18, putting an end to speculation that linked him with the England and India coaching jobs.Langer said he was flattered to have been mentioned as a potential candidate for the international positions, but he believed his immediate future remained at home. Langer is considered the most likely man to eventually replace Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann, whenever Lehmann’s tenure should end.As coach of Western Australia since 2012-13, Langer has led the state to two Sheffield Shield finals and to the Matador Cup one-day title last summer, along with the past two BBL titles as coach of the Perth Scorchers. Prior to coaching Western Australia, Langer served as Australia’s batting coach from 2009 to 2012.”I am flattered to be associated with potential international coaching opportunities, but the timing isn’t right for my family and I still feel there is much work to be done here in Western Australian and Australian cricket,” Langer said on Tuesday.”Having spent nearly 20 years on the road with the Australian team as a player and then coach, I respect what an enormous commitment it is to be away from your family for almost 12 months of the year.”There is no doubt I have aspirations to coach internationally, but that will depend upon timing and opportunity in the future. I look forward to continuing my work at the WACA and I am excited by this challenge.”

Rain robbed New Zealand’s best chance of sneaking in a win in a one-sided series, after they restricted Sri Lanka to 123 for 8 in Hambantota

The Report by Kanishkaa Balachandran12-Nov-201228.3 overs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsRain had the final say in the Sri Lanka-New Zealand ODI series•AFP

Rain robbed New Zealand’s best chance of sneaking in a win in a one-sided series, after they restricted Sri Lanka to 123 for 8 in Hambantota. The match began under sunny skies, but little over two hours after the start, rain forced the players off the field and they remained indoors till half past eight, when another downpour brought a soggy end to an ill-timed series. All six matches on tour were affected by rain, with Sri Lanka taking the one-dayers 3-0.While Sri Lanka were the superior side in the context of the series, New Zealand would have every reason to feel let down by the weather in this game. For a change they found a way to express themselves and it came via their seamers to put the hosts under early pressure. After opting to bowl first in conditions expected to suit the fast bowlers, Tim Southee, Adam Milne and Trent Boult utilised the swing to their advantage to nip out early wickets. Upul Tharanga played the lone hand as the rest failed to stick around to build partnerships.It all started with Southee’s peach which swung away late and hit the off stump before Dinesh Chandimal could get his bat down. That was enough to convince the bowlers that the fuller length was the order of the day. The wicketkeeper and the slips had to stay alert, as BJ Watling found out when he failed to hang on to a touch chance off Lahiru Thirimanne when he was on 6. Southee struck again when he removed Thirimanne by inducing an outside edge, giving Watling a chance to make amends.It was the short delivery that claimed Angelo Mathews, who miscued a pull off Boult to Southee at fine leg. Even the experienced Kumar Sangakkara found the going tough against the most inexperienced of the seam trio, Milne, and edged to the keeper. It was a dismissal that would have made the bowling coach Shane Bond proud. The ball landed on middle and nipped away, squaring up the left-hander. Milne posed questions to the other left-hand batsman Tharanga as well, and looked like he deserved more than one wicket as the halfway stage.Mahela Jayawardene and Tharanga showed some initiative in a stand of 47, stepping out to the spin of Nathan McCullum when the seamers were getting a breather. McCullum, though, had the last laugh when he took aim at the bowler’s end and knocked the stumps with Jayawardene short of his ground. A wild slash by Jeevan Mendis off Andrew Ellis saw him walk back for a fourth-ball duck, leaving Sri Lanka at 92 for 6 in the 24th over.Tharanga reached his fifty, and when he edged Southee to Watling on 60, the rain arrived. New Zealand didn’t have the pleasure of bowling Sri Lanka out but they went back with some positives, having run Sri Lanka close in at least two matches. With two Tests to play, at different venues, one would feel the teams haven’t seen the last of the rain, with the monsoon in full swing.

Australian Shane Jurgensen has been appointed Bangladesh’s bowling coach of the Bangladesh national team

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Oct-2011Australian Shane Jurgensen has been appointed Bangladesh’s bowling coach of the Bangladesh national team. Jurgensen, 35, has agreed to a contract which would keep him with the Bangladesh team until June 2013, and is expected to arrive in Dhaka on Sunday.”Jurgensen is a vastly experienced bowling specialist,” said BCB Chief Executive Manzur Ahmed. “He has also had an accomplished cricket career and his input would be extremely important for our cricketers.”Jurgensen was New Zealand’s bowling coach between 2008 and 2010 and had also recently been a coach on New Zealand Cricket’s high performance programme. He has coached for nearly 15 years at a number of different levels since his first trip to the United Kingdom with Horsham Cricket Club at the age of 21.Something of a journeyman cricketer during his playing days in Australian state cricket, Jurgensen played for Western Australia and Tasmania before winning a place at his home state Queensland.While playing for Tasmania, he was the first cricketer in history to take 10 wickets or more in a Sheffield Shield Final in March 2002, and was also the first to take a first-class hat-trick at the Bellerive Oval.

Trevor Barsby, the Queensland coach, has slammed Australia’s selectors for their treatment of the allrounder James Hopes, who has been left out of next week’s one-day series against Sri Lanka

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Oct-2010Trevor Barsby, the Queensland coach, has slammed Australia’s selectors for their treatment of the allrounder James Hopes, who has been left out of next week’s one-day series against Sri Lanka. A 15-man squad was chosen but surprisingly there was no room for Hopes, who has not missed any of Australia’s past 15 ODIs but will instead line up for the Bulls.This year has also been one of Hopes’ best on the international scene; he has won two Man-of-the-Match awards since February, having never claimed that honour in his first 71 one-day internationals. Despite his record, Hopes has reportedly been told by the selectors they are looking to take only two allrounders, Shane Watson and Steven Smith, to next year’s World Cup.”I’m not sure what is going on,” Barsby said on Wednesday. “I hope this decision just means they wanted to give James some [domestic] cricket after the Indian series. I would be disgusted if, after having done everything that has been asked of him in the Australian side – whether that be opening the batting, opening the bowling, closing out the innings at No. 6 or 7 or bowling at the death – that they would even think of discarding him like this.”It’s not the sort of treatment you expect of a player who does whatever job was asked of him, and does it by executing his skill to the very best of his ability. You won’t hear the bloke himself complain, that’s not his way. He just gets on with things and puts the team first. But I can say without a shadow of doubt that he remains one of the best players in the country in the limited-overs arena and hopefully the selectors continue to acknowledge that.”Hopes has played 84 ODIs since his debut in 2005 and has a decent collection of 1326 runs at 25.01 and 67 wickets at 35.58, but he is often the first man dropped if the selectors want a different balance. At 32, next year will probably be his final chance to play in a World Cup after he was overlooked in 2007.

Surrey and Sussex will face IPL opposition when they travel to Dubai in March 2010 to participate in the Emirates Airline Twenty20 tournament

Cricinfo staff26-Nov-2009Surrey and Sussex will face IPL opposition when they travel to Dubai in March 2010 to participate in the Emirates Airline Twenty20 tournament.The competition will give both teams the chance to prepare for the English county season in almost guaranteed good weather, and get some vital match practice under their belt ahead of their first round of fixtures on April 9.The competition will take place on March 19 and 20 at The Sevens, Emirates’ dedicated sporting facility. Competing alongside the two counties will be a Fly Emirates XI and, new for 2010, a young side representing the IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab.Surrey Cricket’s managing director, Gus Mackay, said: “After the success of last year’s tournament we were very keen to take part in the new format, which will provide even more of a chance for us to get match experience ahead of the season.”The addition of an IPL franchise is a hugely welcome development as it will give us an opportunity to test ourselves against an exciting team we would not normally encounter.”

England were proactive and stayed in the game but could not dislodge India’s No. 3

Sidharth Monga25-Jan-20252:01

Tilak’s finishing reminds Manjrekar of MS Dhoni

India are used to their No. 3 sealing tense chases in limited-overs cricket. With the legendary one retired from T20Is, the new one shepherded India to a 2-0 lead with a 55-ball 72 that Virat Kohli himself would have been proud of. With wickets falling around him, Tilak Varma had to tamper with his natural game and even farm the strike in the end, but he produced just enough hits to take India over the line with two wickets in hand.The two sides brought two diametrically opposite styles to the match. India continued testing England with spin, bowling 14 overs of them for 118 runs and six wickets. The beleaguered England side kept going hard at them, somehow managing to get to 165, and then unleashed high pace and bounce on a surface that gave them just enough zip. They defended bravely, gambling twice with spin, but while the pace and bounce brought them wickets, it also travelled. Jofra Archer went for 60 in his four overs. Tilak took his last over, the 16th, for 19 to tilt the scales decisively.Same, same but differentA first-over wicket for Arshdeep Singh. Check. This time with a bouncer bowled across the body of Phil Salt with two men back for the hook.A first-ball wicket with spin. Check. This time to home boy Washington Sundar, who replaced the injured Nitish Kumar Reddy.Wickets for Varun Chakravarthy. Check. Harry Brook bowled through the gate the first time he faced Varun.Tight bowling from Axar Patel. Check. And this resulted in the two big wickets of Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone.However, England refused to get bogged down. They kept hitting back despite the loss of wickets. Buttler scored 45 off 30. Score 90 for 5 in the 12th over.Varun Chakravarthy bowled Harry Brook for his first international wicket at his home ground, Chepauk•BCCI

Smith and Carse boost EnglandDebutant Jamie Smith, playing in place of the unwell Jacob Bethell, displayed early promise by playing Axar like a medium-pacer and lofting him over long-on. India seemed to have gone to the well too often when they introduced the part-timer Abhishek Sharma, the fifth spinner. Smith took him for a six and a four off the first two balls, but eventually he, too, went to the well once too often and hit a third arm ball straight to long-off.Brought in to provide batting depth, Brydon Carse displayed all-around ability, hitting three sixes in his 31 off 17. Two of them came off Varun, again under the assumption that everything turns in or goes straight on. A poorly judged second run, though, resulted in his run-out, costing them a big kick in the end. The last four overs brought them just 29.Pace meets fireArcher and Mark Wood let the ball rip under the night sky. Wood seamed a quick delivery back to trap Abhishek, but not before the opener had taken down Archer by carving him for three boundaries in the first over. Varma went a step further by giving him the 1-2: back away and cut for four, followed by a swept six out of the stadium. In between, Archer’s pace accounted for the wicket of Sanju Samson.Tilak Varma hit five sixes in his knock•AFP/Getty Images

England dig inEngland didn’t back down, and kept testing the middle of the pitch. They went for runs, but Carse managed to get the wickets of Suryakumar Yadav and Dhruv Jurel with just that length. Jamie Overton piled on with a corker first ball to take the glove of Hardik Pandya as India lost three wickets for 21 runs in four overs and slipped to 78 for 5 in 9.1.Rashid drops WashingtonWith a little bit of grip available to him, Adil Rashid bowled beautifully in the middle overs to pile the pressure on India. Four runs came off 11 balls for the stand. Then a flying bouncer for five wides brought India relief. However, Wood again seemed to have produced the wicket, but Rashid dropped a sitter at mid-on. A no-ball, later in the over, was followed by a six off the free hit, and two glorious back-foot aerial punches to hard lengths that cleared mid-off. Now 53 required off seven.England buy their way backCarse again produced a beauty to hit the top of middle of Washington. India still had one more allrounder before they could get into the tail. Buttler bought that wicket with the introduction of Liam Livingstone’s spin. Axar holed out to deep midwicket, to open one end up with 40 still needed off 31.Tilak prevailsButtler went to Archer to drive home the advantage but Tilak cracked the game open. A top-edged six didn’t quite amuse Archer, who had seen Tilak do that earlier as well, but the flat square-cut for the follow-up six stunned him. More desperation followed when Arshdeep toe-ended a boundary but Archer had been distracted by his backing away and wasn’t attacking the stumps at any rate.Buttler gambled again with Rashid. Tilak farmed the strike early, and gave Arshdeep just one ball to play out. Like Axar, Arshdeep, too, swung hard and holed out to deep square leg.Carse again bowled a tight over to leave 13 off the last two, and Buttler gambled again. Tilak took the first four balls again. For just three. Now you can’t blame the lower order for lack of consistency. Even Ravi Bishnoi swung at Livingstone, but this time the edge flew just over short third.Tilak finished it off with a searing cover-driven four with four balls to go.

Once the prolific Daniel Hughes was dismissed New South Wales’ chase fell away

AAP29-Sep-2023Victoria 298 for 7 (Harper 96, Harris 50, Kerr 3-57) beat New South Wales 239 (Hughes 69, Davies 41, Sutherland 3-39) by 59 runsVictoria remained unbeaten in the domestic one-day competition after a comfortable 59-run win over New South Wales.NSW’s chase never got going at the Junction Oval in Melbourne on Friday and they were all out for 239 in the 47th over as Victoria backed up their win over Tasmania at the same venue in the opening game of the campaign.Allrounder Will Sutherland enjoyed his best day out with the ball since suffering a stress fracture in his back in March. Sutherland, who appeared to be an outside chance of an Ashes call-up before being injured, took the final wicket of the match to finish with figures of 3 for 39.Related