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Pakistan left-hander takes season tally to 826, Conners five-for helps bowl Worcestershire out for 368

ECB Reporters Network13-May-2022Derbyshire 274 for 4 (Masood 113, Guest 77) trail Worcestershire 368 (Haynes 133, Ali 88,Conners 5-109) by 94 runsShan Masood scored his third century of a remarkable season to stay on course for 1000 runs before the end of May as Derbyshire dominated the second day of the LV= Insurance County Championship match against Worcestershire at Derby.The Pakistan left-hander made 113 from 132 balls to take his tally to 826 with a possible three more innings to come before the end of the month.Brooke Guest scored 77 with Derbyshire plundering 172 runs in 36 overs between lunch and tea before Worcestershire hit back in the evening session to leave the home side on 274 for 4, trailing by 94.Fast bowler Sam Conners took four wickets in the morning to complete a five-wicket haul as Worcestershire lost their last five wickets for 42 to be bowled out for 368.The day had promised much more for the visitors but after subsiding to Conners they felt the full measure of Masood’s elegant strokeplay.Ed Barnard and Ben Cox represented Worcestershire’s best chance of passing 400 but they both fell in the same over to Conners, Barnard driving loosely to cover and Cox lbw to a ball that looked to be missing leg stump.Conners made it three in seven balls when he found lift and away movement to remove Josh Baker before nightwatchman Adam Finch, after 22 overs of determined resistance, pulled Ryan Sidebottom to deep backward square.Sidebottom immediately left the field with a calf injury but Anuj Dal pulled off another stunning catch at point to quickly end the innings and give Conners his fifth wicket.Derbyshire set the tone for what followed by scoring 30 in seven overs before lunch and the afternoon became one to remember for Masood and one to forget for Worcestershire.Although they are missing three frontline bowlers through injury, there was no mitigation for the way runs were leaked on both sides of the wickets with the bowlers unable to exert any pressure.After Billy Godelman got an inside edge onto his leg stump, Masood and Guest cruised along at almost a run-a-ball against indisciplined bowling and increasingly ragged fielding.Masood’s timing and placement was exemplary but Worcestershire helped him along the way, Barnard spilling a chance at backward point off Ben Gibbon on 67 and then fluffing a run out chance 10 runs later.Inevitably, he moved to his third century in seven innings from 115 balls but Worcestershire regrouped after tea with Gibbon claiming the prized wicket of Masood during an impressive 11-over spell from the City End.The 21-year-old beat Masood’s attempted drive in the first over after the interval, the first of three wickets to fall for only 27 runs in 15 overs which reflected Worcestershire’s improvement.Guest lost his concentration and edged a big drive at a wide ball from Barnard and Wayne Madsen was lbw trying to work Baker’s left-arm spin to leg.Gibbons was unlucky not to make further inroads but Leus du Plooy and Luis Reece saw Derbyshire through to the close although Worcestershire have the prospect of a second new ball early on day three.

Yorkshire’s seam attack has proved itself a formidable unit over the past five months and they will need to work quickly on day four to push for a victory to keep up the pressure on Durham

Paul Edwards at Hove13-Sep-2013
ScorecardAshar Zaidi, a well-travelled Pakistani professional, took 4 for 57 to frustrate Yorkshire•Getty Images

Yorkshire’s seam attack has proved itself a formidable unit over the past five months and when Ryan Sidebottom uprooted Luke Wells’s off stump with a brutish swinging delivery as early as the third ball of Sussex’s second innings, it was clear that Ed Joyce’s batsmen were to have their work cut out amid the encircling gloom on the south coast.It was a good day for anthropologists at Hove. The morning was spent watching players, umpires and spectators conduct themselves during the bizarre set of rituals associated with a delayed start because of rain and a wet outfield; the afternoon and evening offered the sight of Yorkshire’s batsmen playing a little carelessly and being bowled out for 292, thus gaining a first-innings lead of only 34 when an advantage around 100-150 was probably desirable.But still, the White Rose removed two wickets before the deficit was wiped out – Michael Yardy cover-driving Liam Plunkett low to Phil Jaques’s right. But that was as good as it got for Andrew Gale’s title-chasing team. Soon after Yardy’s departure, the visiting skipper was compelled by the light to bowl only his spinners and even the gentle twisters of Kane Williamson and Adil Rashid were judged by the umpires to be too severe a test in Hove’s growing murk.Only 42 overs were possible on the third day of this game and Gale will plainly be hoping that conditions on the last day allow his bowlers to make the swift inroads they require if the gap between themselves and leaders Durham is not to remain more or less the same as it was on Wednesday morning. There are two rounds of County Championship matches left and they look like being tense affairs indeed.But if Sussex do not have a great deal invested in the outcome of this game – they are that rare thing in September, a mid-table Division One side – the same cannot be said of their slow left-armer Ashar Zaidi, who is effectively on trial over these four days. For the past three English summers Zaidi has been plying his trade for Accrington in the Lancashire League where his skipper, the ex-Lancashire batsman Graham Lloyd, recently described him as “a little bit of stardust” when his team won the title.Until yesterday, the people most readily associated with Accrington by the general public are probably David Lloyd, Graham’s father, and the novelist Jeanette Winterson. One or two more literary types might mention Peter Whelan’s First World War play The Accrington Pals.
Well at least Sussex cricket lovers now have another reason to recall that fine town of steep hills and narrow streets after Zaidi added the wickets of Gary Ballance, Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett to that of Adam Lyth and finished the innings with figures of 4 for 57 from his 23.2 overs. While Zaidi, a well-travelled Pakistani professional, may not earn an extended run in the Sussex team – indeed he may not play for them again – he has performed decently enough in this game. True, he does not turn the ball yards, and also true, the batsmen conspired in their own downfall, Ballance top-edging a sweep and Rashid driving loosely to mid-on, but Zaidi maintained a decent line and earned his wickets.So for all that Andrew Gale’s stressed the need to attack and play positively when play finally got under way at 2.10pm, he will surely have been hoping that his last six wickets would not be taken for as few as 76 runs in 24 overs. A larger lead would have given Yorkshire the chance to attack in the field on the final day and it will be galling in the extreme for Gale’s men if they are left with too stiff a target to chase.Williamson was lbw to Anyon without adding to his overnight 80 and the excellent Magoffin accounted for nightwatchman Steve Patterson. Plunkett whacked a cheery 27 but there remained a sense that amid the bad light and rain breaks, Yorkshire had missed something of an opportunity to truly dominate the contest. Tomorrow we may find out if such tentative judgements were justified.

A day dominated by the two youngest men to represent Middlesex in first-class cricket ended with Derbyshire in the sort of parlous position that many would have predicted after they had lost the toss and were inserted

Alan Gardner at Lord's17-Apr-2013
ScorecardSteven Finn’s return to action was productive with four wickets•Getty Images

A day dominated by the two youngest men to represent Middlesex in first-class cricket ended with Derbyshire in the sort of parlous position that many would have predicted after they had lost the toss and were inserted. Had it not been for Billy Godleman, who debuted as a 16-year-old for Middlesex in the same match as Steven Finn back in 2005 and made a stoic, 244-ball half-century for Derbyshire here, the situation could have been far worse.In taking 323 minutes, Godleman’s is a contender for the slowest-ever Championship fifty – though he was still half-an-hour quicker than “The Barnacle” Trevor Bailey with his 350-ball effort in the first Ashes Test of 1958-59. Godleman’s innings, assembled in the painstaking manner of a man constructing a model ship in a bottle, was ended six minutes shy of six hours, though it might have felt longer to the smattering of Middlesex members who attended the opening day of the season at Lord’s.”I just love batting,” Godleman said, “I don’t necessarily see it as grinding, although the spectators might have a different view.” When it was suggested he may have set a record, he replied with a grin: “It wouldn’t surprise me, because it was pretty slow.”Godleman is at his third county in Derbyshire, having been released by Essex last year. His first full season at Middlesex, in 2007, brought 832 runs at 38.27 but he has never bettered that return and left his native London at the end of 2009. His Camden twang is still distinct and, although their paths have diverged he refers to Finn – who took 4 for 36 in his first outing of the season – as his “dearest friend”.The innings will undoubtedly long live in the memory – whether those present want it to or not – though it did not provide Derbyshire the platform it might have. Still, Godleman was pleased to have acquitted himself back at HQ. “Lord’s is always a special place but for me specifically, having grown up here and Middlesex being my boyhood club and facing my best friend opening the bowling against me, yeah.”It was a burst of 3 for 11 in six overs from said friend that most severely undermined Godleman’s graft, as Derbyshire’s 132 for 3 at tea rapidly became 150 for 6. In , Laertes warns his sister Ophelia that the “best safety lies in fear” but, having countenanced the danger and avoided it well enough in morning, Derbyshire’s batsmen became comfortably complicit in their demise. Dan Redfern and Chesney Hughes both poked at Finn deliveries they could have left on length, though Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s departure before the interval, pulling loosely to midwicket, was the most surprising.If the morning session had been billed as a horror show, with Division One newcomers Derbyshire put in under cloudy skies against one of the most-vaunted pace attacks on the circuit, it was to prove disappointingly short on video nasties. Finn’s second delivery was a leg-side wide and his opening spell of 7-5-5-0 camouflaged what had been a mixture of the unplayable and the unreachable.Toby Roland-Jones – who took eight wickets in the win over Nottinghamshire last week – was also wayward, though Tim Murtagh should have seen Godleman on his way when he had made just 2 but a low chance to third slip wriggled out of Sam Robson’s grasp.There was one early breakthrough and Wayne Madsen’s eminently preventable run-out foreshadowed the eventual path of the Derbyshire innings. In digging out a Finn delivery, a pinball ricochet sent it via Godleman, the non-striker, towards Chris Rogers at mid-off who was unerring in throwing down the stumps as Madsen belatedly realised his mistake in trying to get off the mark.Wes Durston and Godleman added 83 for the second wicket, the former looking increasingly assured right up until the moment he pulled Finn confidently straight to deep fine-leg and gave the bowler his 300th first-class wicket. That the ensuing collapse unfolded in slow motion was appropriate, though Godleman’s grit may yet prove vital for Derbyshire.

Role of former club chairman called to account at DCMS hearing in Westminster

Andrew Miller25-Jan-2022Colin Graves, the former ECB chairman, has been told to “put up or shut up”, and accept an invitation to testify before the parliamentary select committee investigating racism in English cricket, after being accused by the committee chair of “substantial and ongoing interference” in the running of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.The Graves family trust is owed approximately £15 million by Yorkshire following a bail-out in the early 2000s which saved the club from bankruptcy, and according to Roger Hutton – the former chairman who resigned in the wake of Azeem Rafiq’s damning allegations of institutional racism at the club – Graves’ continued role behind the scenes has been a significant “roadblock” in Yorkshire’s delayed response to the crisis.Yorkshire launched an investigation into Rafiq’s claims in September 2020, but it wasn’t until Rafiq’s appearance before the department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee, more than a year later in November 2021, that the findings of that investigation were finally put into the public domain. By that stage, the club’s failure to take action had led to the mass withdrawal of the club’s sponsors, including Nike and Emerald, amid a swathe of damaging revelations about the dressing-room culture.Opening the proceedings at the latest DCMS hearing in Westminster, chairman Julian Knight MP noted that Graves had declined an invitation to testify at the hearing – he is currently in Barbados, where England’s cricketers are taking on West Indies in five T20Is – but criticised him for “putting his head above the parapet” in an interview last week with the Yorkshire Post, in which he had insisted that the club’s inaction had been down to weak leadership from Hutton rather than interference from the trustees, before telling Knight that, if he wanted to run English cricket, “he should apply for the job of ECB chairman”.In response to Graves’ remarks, Knight read out extracts from a letter from Hutton to the committee: “What was happening on a weekly basis is it sometimes appeared to me as if Mr Graves was influencing the trust and sometimes spoke as if he was,” Hutton was quoted as saying.”Mr Graves expressed concern at how the investigation [into Rafiq’s allegations] had taken place some of which I empathised with. But his views on Azeem Rafiq, the finding of the report and how the club should respond to those findings are were different from mine.”Shortly after that meeting, I was contacted by the trust’s independent observer. He explained very clearly that I should not consider the trust an ordinary secure creditor. He also told me, though it proved to be incorrect, that the trust could remove me if they didn’t like what I was doing and that I should listen to what they say.”The trust summoned me to a meeting where they asked me to listen to Mr Graves and others in the club whose views differed to non-executive members of the board but were more closely aligned to those of Mr Graves. I formed the view that some of his opinions were very similar to those of the executive board and others in the club.”Responding to the DCMS committee on Yorkshire’s behalf, Lord Kamlesh Patel insisted that he had not encountered any interference from the Graves Trust since succeeding Hutton as chairman in November, but added that the club was taking steps to ensure that there could be no such issues going forward.Related

• PCA to appear before Parliament in wake of Azeem Rafiq's 'inept' claims

• Leicestershire chair Mehmooda Duke quits in blow to ECB's diversity drive

• Michael Vaughan apologises to Azeem Rafiq for 'hurt' during racism controversy

• Azeem Rafiq: 'Time is right' for Yorkshire to get back right to host international cricket

• English cricket must 'clean up its act' on racism, concludes DCMS report

“When you have a financial agreement with those added extras, that has an observer on the board, you could veto in theory the appointment of a person,” Patel said. “That wasn’t used while I was there and I don’t believe was used before. We are currently drafting up legal documents to make sure all those powers are removed, and those will be presented at the AGM.”I’ve seen some correspondence where I believe the trusts were raising questions, in a proper manner linked, to the finances of the club,” Patel added. “To have that potential, or perception that someone does have power in a place, is not helpful for anyone going forward.”Yorkshire currently remains suspended from hosting international fixtures, pending the outcome of an ECB inquiry, and though Patel reiterated his concerns that the club cannot be “financially viable” unless its Major Match status is restored, he stated that the county’s governance review was due to be completed on Wednesday, and that they expected to get clarity on this summer’s scheduled Test against New Zealand and ODI against South Africa by the end of next month.”We’ve made immediate priorities and we’re making immediate actions now,” Patel said. “We will submit all our evidence by the end of this month that we will present to the ECB on February 1, and then we will await the decision by them to see if we’ve met the criteria.”

Head coach says well-defined set-up with team director Mahmud and batting consultant Siddons is helping make smooth progress

Mohammad Isam24-Feb-2022The question of how the Bangladesh’s backroom staff actually functions has hung in the air for quite a while. Russell Domingo is head coach. But Khaled Mahmud is team director. Then there’s the consultant Jamie Siddons, who used to be the head coach. Isn’t it all too much? Doesn’t it promote confusion? No, said Domingo, mainly because all three were appointed with clearly defined roles.Domingo is the one in charge. Mahmud, also a BCB director, liaises between him and the board in matters of selection and match-related decisions. Siddons, meanwhile, deals with batting and everything that goes with it.”The team director is very much a link between me and the board members,” Domingo said. “Communicate what’s happening. Communicate what we are thinking about selection. I’ve got enough on my plate to talk to directors about what the line-up is going to be, what the toss is going to do. I don’t want to be focusing on that. Great to have Chacha (Mahmud) there. He can feed all those information and take the stress away from me.”Siddons is an experienced coach who has worked all around the world. He knows the system. He probably knows these players better than I do. He has been here before. It is good to have him on board. He will bring a lot of experience to our coaching staff.”This workaround took a while coming. With the BCB choosing not to renew Ottis Gibson’s contract as bowling coach and Ashwell Prince resigning as batting coach, there was a lot of focus on Domingo and his work with the Bangladesh team. It didn’t help that Siddons, a former Bangladesh head coach himself, arrived in the country at the start of this month without a specific role assigned to him. Eventually, Siddons was named as the new batting consultant, which ended of the speculation.From watching their last couple of practice sessions, it seems Mahmud is handling the fast bowling unit while Siddons, who only linked up with the team on February 22 after recovering from a bout of Covid-19, is looking after the batting unit.Mahmud was appointed team director last November following Bangladesh’s disastrous T20 World Cup performance. A former Bangladesh captain, he was influential in the team’s great showing in New Zealand when a number of the players praised him for his motivational speeches ahead of the Mount Maunganui Test.Putting aside the complication of what sometimes seems like three head coaches running one cricket team, Bangladesh produced a stirring performance against Afghanistan in the first ODI, with Afif Hossain and Mehidy Hasan Miraz taking the team from 45 for 6 all the way to victory.”When Miraz was walking out to bat, I told (team analyst) Sree (Sreenivasan Chandrasekaran) that they will put on 150. We will still need 15 with Taskin and Shoriful to come” Domingo said. “There’s a lot of confidence in Miraz’s batting at the moment. He has a Test hundred. He batted well in New Zealand and BPL. I know it sounds hard to believe, I thought we could still do it.”It was a good wicket. Run-rate was in our hand. I know how good Afif is. I have seen him do it before in T20s. I think he is a fantastic player. He will be one of Bangladesh’s best white-ball players. It was really pleasing to see them bat in that particular way yesterday. I was very proud of that partnership.”Domingo however ruled out any batting promotions for Afif. “Whilst we have a keeper and a frontline in the top-order, No. 7 is the perfect position for him. He is really calm in the way he finishes games. He has options at the death. He has a lot of work to do against the new ball. I am in no rush to get him up the order. That position is perfectly suited for his style of play.”

Chennai Super Kings continued with their formula of tough pitch: go at roughly a run a ball for the first 10 overs keeping wickets in hand, and then explode to take 10 an over off the last 10

The Report by Sidharth Monga30-Apr-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
A six down the ground, off the back foot•BCCI

Chennai Super Kings continued with their formula of going at roughly a run a ball for the first 10 overs, keeping wickets in hand, and then exploding to take 10 an over off the last 10. On a pitch on which the ball seamed and bounced variably, they reached 55 for 2 after 10 overs, but Suresh Raina, S Badrinath and MS Dhoni looted 109 in the rest of the innings to set up an easy 37-run, sixth consecutive win, which kept them at the top of the table and Pune Warriors at the bottom.With the ball seaming around, Super Kings lost their openers for 28 runs, that too thanks to generous umpiring. However, out came their crisis man Badrinath, and did his job without any fuss. He and Raina added 75 off 59, without taking risks, and picking the rate up progressively. Raina kept providing the odd boundary, and Badrinath found the gaps for ones and twos.It was in the 13th over that the real charge began. Badrinath drove consecutive deliveries from Rahul Sharma down the ground and through point for fours to take his strike past 100. Raina’s was already a healthier strike rate, but he accelerated by sending Kane Richardson over midwicket for a six in the next over.Badrinath fell in the 16th over, but he and Super Kings will know he fell at just the right time, after just the right innings of 34 off 31. Dhoni came out and took four and six off the first two balls he faced. The six was a demoralising – for the fielding side – punch off the back foot, over extra cover.Dhoni then took apart Ashok Dinda, a bowler he is often criticised for not giving enough chances. He took 25 off eight Dinda’s deliveries, two of them swept boundaries, and one a six off the last ball of the innings. Seamlessly Raina went from being the dominant partner in the earlier partnership to taking back seat and watching Dhoni subdue the bowlers. Along the way he brought up his second half-century of the season.The target was bigger than ever chased in Pune, which became more daunting because of the seam movement available. Mohit Sharma, the Haryana fast bowler who has been the find of the season for Super Kings, utilised it to end the chase for all intents and purposes with an unbroken four-over spell. With successive deliveries in his first over, he got rid of Aaron Finch and T Suman. He missed the hat-trick, but got Yuvraj Singh to edge behind, making it 43 for 4 in the fifth over. There was no way back from there.

In the first surprise result of the Allan Border Medal evening, Clint McKay has been named Australia’s One-Day International Player of the Year, narrowly beating George Bailey and David Warner for the award

Brydon Coverdale04-Feb-2013The rise and rise of captain Michael Clarke continued in Melbourne on Monday night when he won his fourth Allan Border Medal and was named Australia’s Test Player of the Year. Clarke also won the double last year, capping off his first 12 months as Australia’s leader in all formats, and his second year in charge was just as impressive. The other major winners from the evening were Clint McKay, who won his first One-Day International Player of the Year title, and Shane Watson, the Twenty20 International Player of the Year.In the Allan Border Medal count, Clarke finished on 198 votes, well clear of Watson and the retiring Michael Hussey, who were in joint second place with 165 votes each. David Warner was fourth with 148 votes, Mitchell Starc fifth with 122 votes and Australia’s Twenty20 captain George Bailey sixth with 116 votes, despite only playing the short formats. The win added to Clarke’s previous triumphs in 2005, 2009 and 2012 and he joined Ricky Ponting as the only men to have taken home four Allan Border Medals.Clarke had another remarkable year in Test cricket, scoring 1080 runs at an average of 77.14 during the voting period, which ran from February 25 last year to January 28 this year. His high point was when he scored consecutive double-centuries against South Africa, with 259 not out at the Gabba followed by 230 in Adelaide. The third of his hundreds during the voting period was 106 against Sri Lanka during the Boxing Day Test. It continued his incredible form since taking over the leadership from Ponting: as full-time captain Clarke has averaged 72.48.Despite the fact that the year brought Clarke’s first series defeat as captain, the 1-0 loss to South Africa, his team still won more than they lost during the voting period. They beat West Indies 2-0 in the Caribbean and enjoyed a 3-0 clean-sweep against Sri Lanka, but Clarke knows that such wins will be quickly forgotten if the coming year, which features a tour of India and back-to-back Ashes contests, does not bring success.The runner-up in the Test Player of the Year category was Hussey, who scored 746 runs at an average of 57.38 and was second on the run tally behind Clarke, while Matthew Wade, who at the start of the voting period had not even played Test cricket, was third. Clarke finished on 22 votes, with Hussey on 15 and Wade on 12. Surprisingly given he spent most of the year out of the Test side and played only three Tests during the home summer, Mitchell Johnson came fourth with 11 votes.In another surprise, the under-rated seamer McKay was named One-Day International Player of the Year, narrowly beating Bailey and Warner. McKay finished with 30 votes, Bailey and Warner were equal second with 28 votes and David Hussey finished in fourth place with 27 votes. Watson was fifth with 23 votes.During the voting period, McKay was Australia’s leading ODI wicket taker with 26 victims at 25.76. He was Man of the Match in the deciding third final of the Commonwealth Bank Series last summer, when he collected 5 for 28 against Sri Lanka at Adelaide Oval, and he was also Australia’s best bowler during their disappointing series in England in June and July.”Clint certainly knows how important he is to me and the team. I’ve made that very clear to him,” Clarke said of McKay. “He has become one of our top one-day bowlers in the Australian team, no matter who’s available to play. Clint in the past 12 months has been our first-picked one-day bowler.”I think his execution, not only with the new ball but at the death, is something that not many bowlers can do. His consistency day in day out, into the breeze, down breeze, open the bowling, bowl second change, it doesn’t bother him. Clint is a great example of one of the players I always want in this Australian team because he’ll do whatever it takes for the team first and himself second.”McKay broke the winning streak of Watson, who had taken out the past three ODI Player of the Year awards, and it was a good reward for a sometimes under-valued member of the side. Since his one-day international debut in 2009, McKay has collected 68 wickets at 21.91; only Mitchell Johnson with 73 has claimed more one-day victims for Australia during that time.In the T20 category, Watson was a clear winner with 42 votes, ahead of Warner on 29 and the captain Bailey on 16. Watson’s award was not surprising given his remarkable performances at the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka last year. He was not only the leading run scorer during the tournament, with 249 at an average of 49.80, he was also second on the competition wicket tally with 11 victims at an average of 16, behind only Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis.During the voting period, Watson was Australia’s leading T20 run scorer with 406 at an average of 40.60 and the leading wicket taker with 17 at 15.82. The T20 award was first handed out in 2011, when David Hussey was the recipient, and Watson picked up the prize in 2012.

Preview of the second ODI between South Africa and New Zealand in Kimberley

The Preview by Alan Gardner21-Jan-2013

Match facts

January 22, 2013

Start time 2.30pm (1230 GMT)James Franklin got New Zealand over the line in the first one-dayer•AFP

Big Picture

“Beware of the kiwi” may not sound like the most threatening of warning signs but New Zealand once again showed that their bite is often a lot worse than their bark in winning the first match of the ODI series by one wicket in Paarl. Even during a largely dismal run over the last year or so, New Zealand have managed Test upsets in Hobart and Colombo, while an eight-wicket T20 win in East London before Christmas came just a couple of days after a defeat of the same magnitude. Though they won the decider and then cruised in the Tests, South Africa should have taken note.Victory in the opening ODI gave New Zealand only their third such win in South Africa but it has left them eyeing an unexpected – and unprecedented – series success in the country. For South Africa, a failure to take three tail-end wickets with more than 100 runs still required invited a reprise of questions about their temperament that will perhaps be of more concern than the defeat itself.With a light Test schedule in 2013, South Africa will have plenty of time to focus on their perceived shortcomings in limited-overs cricket. But the planning process for the Champions Trophy in June, as well as the 2015 World Cup, has already been disrupted by the suspension of captain, AB de Villiers, for the rest of the series. With Jacques Kallis and JP Duminy missing from the squad, de Villiers’ ban will also put further pressure on a batting order that was tested by Mitchell McClenaghan’s left-arm seam and swing.Faf du Plessis, who led with the bat in Paarl, will now take over the captaincy, rather than the vice-captain Hashim Amla, and will hope he can rally the team to victory as he did in the T20s. The No. 1 ODI ranking is out of South Africa’s reach, for the time being, but there are places to play for and pride to be restored. Having been viewed as a punch bag walking into the one-dayers, however, New Zealand will fancy landing a few more shots of their own.

Form guide

(most recent first, completed matches only)
South Africa: LWLLW
New Zealand: WLLLL

In the spotlight

A star of last year’s Under-19 World Cup, Quinton de Kock has been quickly elevated to the position of South Africa’s limited-overs gloveman in order to reduce the demands on de Villiers. While there has not yet been much opportunity to judge his batting, there was criticism of his failure to react quickly enough to a crucial chance as New Zealand closed in on victory on Saturday and, with a disciplinary hearing due this week and the the possibility of suspension for the final ODI, de Kock will want to assert his credentials.There is often confusion about James Franklin‘s role in the New Zealand set-up, having progressed from a new-ball bowler and tailender to middle-order bits-and-pieces man. The merits of such a strategy can be debated elsewhere but Franklin’s experience showed through in his management of the New Zealand chase from such a dire position, particularly as he attacked to winning effect at the end. In these times of flux for New Zealand cricket, a steady, responsible presence with bat and ball might be just what they need.

Team news

With the suspension of de Villiers will come a change to the batting order. David Miller has been called up to the squad but may have to take his place in the queue behind Farhaan Behardien. Morne Morkel, South Africa’s leading ODI bowler in 2012, could also return to the side.South Africa: (probable) 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Colin Ingram, 4 Faf du Plessis (capt), 5 Farhaan Behardien/David Miller, 6 Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Ryan McLaren 8 Robin Peterson, 9 Rory Kleinveldt, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Lonwabo TsotsobeJimmy Neesham and Grant Elliot bowled just five overs and made one run between them in Paarl, so Colin Munro might be considered for an ODI debut. Alternatively, New Zealand could trust their lower-order to acquit themselves again and bring either Neil Wagner or Trent Boult into the attack.New Zealand: (probable) 1 Rob Nicol, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 BJ Watling, 4 Kane Williamson, 5 Brendon McCullum (capt/wk), 6 James Franklin, 7 Colin Munro, 8 Jimmy Neesham, 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Mitchell McClenaghan

Pitch and conditions

The Kimberley pitch has a reputation for being flat and, with the temperature expected to stay in the 30Cs on Tuesday, batsmen are the more likely to prosper. South Africa failed to defend 299 against Sri Lanka on the ground almost exactly a year ago and, although Kimberley has been used infrequently, only twice has the chasing side failed to reach their target – Namibia and Kenya losing heavily to Full Members during the 2003 World Cup.

Stats and Trivia

• New Zealand have played twice before at Kimberley, losing to South Africa in 2000 and beating Bangladesh in the 2003 World Cup.
• Graeme Smith needs 94 runs to overtake Gary Kirsten and move third on South Africa’s leading ODI scorers list.
• Mitchell McClenaghan’s 4 for 20 were the best figures for a New Zealand bowler on debut and the 11th best overall.
• If South Africa lose all three ODIs, they could slip as low as joint-fifth in the rankings.

Quotes

“It’s a nice pressure that we have, to win both games. Maybe we were a little bit relaxed in that first game, now we know we have to play very close to our full potential to beat them. It’s a nice little challenge for us.”
“It was pleasing to get the win when not playing up to our full potential. Hopefully this is a turning of the corner for us.”

South Australia’s first Sheffield Shield victory over New South Wales since 2006 lifted the Redbacks to second on the competition table

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-2013
ScorecardSouth Australia’s first Sheffield Shield victory over New South Wales since 2006, inside three days at Adelaide Oval, lifted the Redbacks to second on the competition table with two rounds remaining.The hosts quickly rounded up the remaining three wickets of the Blues’ second innings, Joe Mennie grabbing four to complete another prolific match. His partnership with the swing bowler Chadd Sayers has so far reaped 67 Shield wickets this season.SA’s pursuit of only 91 to win began nervously, but was steadied long enough by the opener Sam Raphael and the debutant Alex Carey to ensure that Doug Bollinger’s four wickets would not be terminal to the chase.The victory was a triumph for SA in the absence of their best batsmen Callum Ferguson and Phillip Hughes, but they must now enter their final two rounds without Sayers due to a side strain that is likely to sideline him for a month.

Teenager dismissed for 96 after record 167-run opening stand with Smriti Mandhana

Valkerie Baynes17-Jun-20213:56

Shafali Verma’s record-breaking Test debut

“Fearless” was how Nat Sciver had described the likes of Shafali Verma in the lead-up to this match and so it proved. Verma’s stellar debut Test innings of 96 at the age of just 17 set India on course to overhaul England’s imposing 396 for 9 declared before a flurry of late wickets put the hosts in control once again.Verma and Smriti Mandhana put on an opening stand of 167 – India Women’s highest in Tests – before they lost 5 for 16 to be 187 for 5 at the close on the second day, still 209 runs in arrears.On a slow pitch offering no pace or bounce for the seamers and with only one frontline spinner in operation, England’s captain, Heather Knight, brought herself into the attack after both openers had been accounted for and ended the day with figures of 2 for 1 from six overs (including five maidens) with her part-time offspin.Verma was barely seven months old when Katherine Brunt made her Test debut as a teenager herself in August 2004 and was just 10 the last time India played a Test match. But since her international debut against South Africa in 2019 – the first of 22 T20Is in her fledgling career so far – Verma seems to have taken most things in her stride.She bounced back from a disappointing T20 World Cup final in which she managed to score just 2 and put down a catch off Alyssa Healy to provide a rare bright spot in India’s 2-1 T20 series defeat in March with scores of 23, 47 and 60.Looking uncomfortable fielding in the slips and in close on the opening day of this match, she gutsed it out and took a stunner at short leg to remove dangerous England opener Tammy Beaumont for 66.Then on the second day, with England having declared on their sixth-highest Test total she compiled an innings of composure and maturity.Shafali Verma biffs one into the leg side•Getty Images

That she fell within one glorious boundary – her innings had contained 15 in all including two commanding sixes – was of course deflating for the player and most onlookers regardless of their loyalties. But it needn’t have been.In stroking her way through the afternoon and evening, she treated another small but enthusiastic crowd as well as those watching live on TV to a wonderful show. She had three fours to her name before she muscled Sciver over the rope at long-off before tea then she heaved Sophie Ecclestone over midwicket for four to bring up her half-century before clubbing the same bowler over long-on for a maximum.Putting age aside, which is difficult in this story, Verma also posted the highest score by an Indian woman on Test debut.It wasn’t all big shots, Verma mischieviously steering Kate Cross through third man for another boundary, but she finally fell three balls later, going for the big one against Cross and picking out Anya Shrubsole at mid-off.Mandhana’s knock was eye-catching also with 14 boundaries including a lovely pull off Brunt into the gap between deep backward square and fine leg to bring up her fifty. She had survived on 23 late in the afternoon session when Cross got her hand to Mandhana’s firmly-struck shot on her follow-through but was unable to cling on, and she received another life on 41 when Brunt found a faint outside edge that was missed by keeper Amy Jones.Mandhana was let off again on 51 when she struck a low full toss off Anya Shrubsole straight to cover where Sophia Dunkley spilled the chance but she eventually fell for 78, hoisting Sciver down the ground to mid-on where Brunt was waiting with safe hands.Knight accounted for nightwatchman Shikha Pandey, caught and bowled for nought, and Punam Raut, lbw for 2, either side of Ecclestone’s dismissal of Mithali Raj, caught by Tammy Beaumont at short leg for 2. If Harmanpreet Kaur had not successfully reviewed an lbw decision – the DRS picked up a clear inside edge – in the final over of the day, India would have been in even more trouble.Another debutant, the only one for England compared with India’s five, Dunkley produced the story of the morning when she reached an unbeaten 74 to kick the home side along from their overnight 269 for 6.Play resumed under overcast skies with the floodlights and Jhulan Goswami struck with the 12th ball of the morning when she trapped Brunt lbw for 7. India reviewed after the appeal was initially turned down, and were vindicated, replays showing the ball hitting pad first and ball-tracking taking it on to middle stump.Dunkley, the first black woman to play Test cricket for England, resumed on 12, and settled into a good rhythm by sending Goswami to the fence twice in the space of three balls with a wristy club through midwicket and a deft placement between third slip and gully.Dropped on 27 when she sent a simple return catch to Deepti Sharma, Dunkley brought up a fifty partnership with Ecclestone through a boundary off Sneh Rana, moving to within sight of her half-century in doing so.Two balls later, however, Dunkley had to overturn umpire Sue Redfern’s lbw decision off Rana to avoid departing on 46, with replays showing the ball missing leg stump, and she brought up the milestone soon after.Ecclestone had an almost identical lbw decision by umpire Chris Watts overturned, with Sharma’s delivery shown to be missing leg stump, but there was no doubt two balls later when she spooned Sharma straight to Pandey at mid-on for 17. It was Sharma’s third wicket and she ended the innings with 3 for 65, Rana taking 4 for 131.Some rapid-fire big-hitting by Shrubsole pushed England’s total up during the first half-hour of the afternoon session. She took just 14 balls to move from her lunchtime score of 16 to 47 before she was bowled by Rana, prompting the declaration.Shrubsole had scored 17 of the 18 runs to come off one Rana over – the second after lunch – with back-to-back fours hammered through the covers, and a six over deep midwicket. This after she had skied one to deep square leg where Pooja Vastrakar put down India’s fourth catch of the innings. She scored two more fours, one off Pandey and the other off Rana, before her 33-ball knock ended.