All posts by n8rngtd.top

Player of the series against England says squad is strong ahead of India tour

Matt Roller31-Jan-2022West Indies are building “something special” with their T20I side according to Jason Holder, who has said that the “strong togetherness within the dressing room” is something he has rarely felt before during his nine-year international career.Holder, who was named player of the series after icing West Indies’ win in Sunday’s decider against England with four wickets in four balls, spoke in the dressing room after the game and told his team-mates that “nothing is impossible” ahead of their white-ball tour to India next month. The three-match ODI series starts in Ahmedabad on February 6, with three T20Is to follow from February 16 in Kolkata.”We aint 100%, but we’re building nicely,” Holder said to his team-mates. “For me, this is the closest that I’ve felt a group be in a very, very long time. Honest to God, the energy I felt from the meetings… most contributions I’ve ever seen in a West Indies dressing room. Even though you might not understand a certain decision, everybody’s still buying in with it.”Tough luck to the guys who didn’t really get the opportunity but they never showed it: I ain’t seen a boy sulk. That says a lot about the camaraderie and the strength of the unit. I don’t think it’s a finished product and we’ve got to strive to be consistent.Related

• Jason Holder, the batter, sets the benchmark for West Indies

• Jason Holder exerts his Bridgetown hold once more as England come a cropper

• Jason Holder's four-in-four puts seal on West Indies' series

• West Indies serve reminder of their depth of short-form talent

• Stats – West Indies and England go on record-breaking six-hitting spree

“We’ve got a couple of days before we start, start over, and then we go again in India. Nothing is impossible. We’ve got to believe that nothing is impossible and continue to be happy for one another’s success and continue to build as a team.”Holder said on Monday morning that the squad’s response from their shock ODI series defeat against Ireland – in which they lost 2-1 to a side missing their captain and coach after positive Covid tests – demonstrated their character.”It’s been great after the start we had in Jamaica against Ireland – where everybody was really, really down and deflated – to see the way we’ve bounced back here against England,” he told CWI’s in-house channels. “We really pulled together as a side. It’s a great feeling: hopefully we can continue this on and keep building something special.”I think we came together, closer. After that series we were shell-shocked, very, very disappointed, and we felt as though we let not only ourselves down, but the entire region. We had extensive chats and everybody had to do some soul-searching. Feeling the way we did after that series made us really pull together and come out with a big performance here in this series.”Holder endured some difficult moments in the series, not least during Saturday’s fourth T20I when Moeen Ali hit him for four consecutive sixes, but he started and ended in style, winning the player-of-the-match award in the first and last T20Is and troubling England with the new ball throughout.Holder’s tally of 15 wickets was the most-ever by a bowler in a bilateral T20I series, and he became only the fourth bowler to take four wickets in four balls in men’s T20Is. He added that he was “pleased with the consistency” he showed throughout the series – and admitted that he had not realised that he had bowled Saqib Mahmood for his fourth consecutive wicket until seeing a replay on the big screen.Jason Holder was named player of the series•AFP via Getty Images

“I was just pleased with the consistency in terms of the wicket-taking column,” he said. “It’s something I pride myself on, particularly in this format. There were tough times in the series, which you would expect, and just the way I came through the tough periods was very, very pleasing. There’s still areas to improve on, coming back and finishing off spells well.”It’s special for me, knowing how badly I felt after the Ireland series. Personally, I felt as though I let the team down with my personal performances. It wasn’t for lack of effort, it was just one of those times where it didn’t click and it didn’t happen. But everything happens in its time and this series was my time.”I was just happy that [the final ball] didn’t go for six and I knew the game was definitely closed off there. I didn’t realise the ball hit the stump and it was only when Sheldon [Cottrell] came running towards us, and Nicholas [Pooran], that we found out that the ball actually hit the stumps.”Even when we were waiting for the decision on the big screen, I don’t think any of us were 100% sure, but then to see the ball clipping the stumps and the bail falling was exceptional.”

Scott Boland produced a typically miserly bowling performance to bowl 10 maidens out of his 19 overs

Tristan Lavalette18-Feb-2022Quick Scott Boland produced a typically miserly bowling performance as he tuned up for Australia’s tour of Pakistan during a grinding opening day in the Sheffield Shield game between Victoria and Queensland at the Junction Oval.Boland, who became a sensation during the Ashes after a remarkable start to his Test career, finished wicketless but conjured his famed disciplined line and length to frustrate Queensland, who reached stumps at 6 for 221. Debutant Jack Clayton held Bulls’ batting together with a determined 72 not out from 179 balls at No. 4.After starting with three maidens, Boland had just three deliveries scored off during his first 11 overs and finished with 0 for 24 from 19 overs. He was engaged in the second session in an absorbing duel with Matt Renshaw, who was the most fluent of the Bulls batters with 43 off 78 balls before falling on the stroke of tea.Queensland struggled against Victoria’s relentless attack as they crawled at two runs an over for most of the day after winning the toss. Openers Joe Burns (22) and Bryce Street batted cautiously during a rain-curtailed opening session to set the tone for the Bulls.Burns was bowled by young quick Mitch Perry without offering a shot, while Street fell lbw to pumped-up James Pattinson to end his laborious 23 off 98 balls.Queensland nosedived after the tea break marked by a sloppy run out to skipper Jimmy Peirson for a duck to slump to 5 for 157. Left-handed batter Clayton found much-needed support through Gurinder Sandhu (19) before the No. 7 fell to seamer Will Sutherland against the second new ball.Young allrounder Sutherland, who struggled in the BBL, conjured sharp pace and bounce in a lively performance to finish with 1 for 54 from 15 overs.The Bulls line-up boasts of Test squad members Mitch Swepson and quick Mark Steketee, who on Wednesday replaced injured team-mate Michael Neser in Australia’s 18-man travelling party.

Independent body will be tasked with making recommendations in time for 2023 summer

Cameron Ponsonby14-Mar-2022The ECB is set to launch a high-performance review into English cricket with the ambition of making the England men’s team “the best in the world in all formats”, according to Interim managing director Andrew Strauss.Speaking in Barbados where the second Test is due to start on Wednesday, Strauss laid out the plans for the review, for which recommendations are due to be published in September with a view to potentially restructuring the English season from 2023. He also confirmed that England hope to have a new head coach in place for the first Test of the summer, against New Zealand at Lord’s in June.Addressing the Test team’s so-called “reset”, Strauss said: “The perception so far is that it’s all about red-ball cricket and that it’s all about the domestic game. But the way we’re approaching it, and I believe the only way you can approach these things is to start at the beginning, which is what is the scale of our ambition for the game in this country?”And I believe we’re looking very strongly at being the best in the world in all formats. I think the knock-on effects, right the way through the game if the shop window is functioning well, are enormous, so as a game we need to get alignment behind that ambition.Related

• Sir Dave Brailsford joins ECB high-performance review as Andrew Strauss targets five-year plan

• Rob Key named England's new managing director of men's cricket

• Nottinghamshire left snow-blind amid uncertainty over Championship future

• Strauss calls for 'ambitious, bold and radical' red-ball reset

• Anderson-Broad absence a chance to grow leadership options

“If you take a longer-term perspective on these things you have to say, ‘How can the two teams run concurrently alongside each other?’ and ‘How do we best support our white- and red-ball specialists to allow that to happen?'”The review will be led by an independent body that is yet to be chosen and who will undertake the first two stages of the review before their recommendations are presented to the ECB board and the county chairs.”We need to look at how the game is evolving,” Strauss said. “All of us know that the rise of white-ball and T20 cricket has been hugely dynamic and happened very quickly. So we need to understand how that affects our game and on the one hand how can we leverage that and on the other how do we protect the relevance and importance of the game in our country. And then we need to do a lot of independent analysis on getting information from the game on what’s working well and what’s not working well currently. So a very big consultation piece needs to be done.”We want recommendations to be signed off in time for the 2023 domestic season so that really means by the end of September this year ideally. You could stretch it a bit but these projects can get very broad and you can get stuck. So it’s important to focus on people’s minds. If we’re going to do it we’ve got to do it for 2023.”The review is just one of many significant developments expected at the ECB over the coming months, with a number of senior management positions only filled in an interim capacity. As well as the head coach vacancy, applications opened on Monday for the full-time men’s team managing director role (which Strauss is currently performing).It has also been reported that England will revert to having a full-time selector, separate from the head coach, as was the case before Chris Silverwood’s job specification was expanded last year.Asked whether he considered himself a candidate to return to the managing director position full time, having held a similar position between 2015 and 2018, Strauss was non-committal.”I haven’t considered that really,” he said. “I’ve got unique personal circumstances that makes doing that role difficult and quite frankly there’s always value in getting a new perspective and new views. Nothing ever stays the same or goes backwards. I’m certain there’s going to be some good candidates for this role.”The ambition is certainly to have the Test coach in place by that first Test of the summer. With recruitments there are all sorts of moving pieces, including notice periods. I don’t think we can categorically say that, but it’s the ambition.On the question of splitting the head coach role between red ball and white ball, he said: “Ultimately, that will be the new director of cricket’s decision to make. My perspective is that it’s time to go down that route. We have unique schedules in this country. It is very hard to plan, prepare, play and review for one coach doing all formats. There are opportunities for us to make some performance gains in that respect. But again, that’ll be up to the new director of cricket.”England produced a battling performance in Antigua•Gareth Copley/Getty Images

On the field, England came away from Antigua with a creditable draw. But the failure of their seamers to take a wicket with the new ball across the Test match, with Chris Woakes and Craig Overton proving particularly expensive in the first innings, led some observers to bemoan the decision to leave James Anderson and Stuart Broad at home – a decision that had already provoked severe backlash from England’s fans.”I think the reaction was entirely predictable,” Strauss said. “You don’t do these things worried about what the reaction is, you do it because you think it’s the right thing to do. I think it’s great to see [Matt] Fisher and [Saqib] Mahmood as part of the England set up.”I think we’re learning about them all the time and they’re getting more and more comfortable in this group. And as we said right at the start it’s forced some of our senior players to have slightly different roles.”It’s early days but the feedback I’m getting from the dressing room is that they’re accepting the challenge as a group of not having those senior players involved and I thought in terms of attitude, the willingness to do the hard graft, the spirit and togetherness were there to see. We didn’t get the result we wanted in Antigua but there were a lot of positives coming out of it.”

“You want to bowl long spells to learn more about your bowling,” he says

Edited Reuters copy09-Apr-2022Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan longs for opportunities to play Test matches against top teams, the 23-year-old told Reuters on Friday.Rashid has played five of Afghanistan’s six Tests since the country was granted Full Membership of the governing International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2017.They were scheduled to play a one-off Test in Hobart in November but Cricket Australia postponed the match citing uncertainty over the future of women’s cricket under Afghanistan’s Taliban rule.Rashid lamented missing out on an opportunity to test his craft against the likes of Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne.”As a player, it disappoints you because you always wait for opportunities to play big teams,” the legspinner, currently playing for Gujarat Titans in the IPL, said.”It’s about improving your cricket and learning new things.”We all were looking forward to it but sometimes things do not go your way. I hope we get the opportunity to play them soon.”A sought-after name in Twenty20 leagues across the world, Rashid knows playing Test cricket was imperative to grow as a bowler.”You want to bowl long spells to learn more about your bowling. I do hope we get the opportunity in the next few years to play more Test matches.”Rashid has set alight franchise cricket in India, Australia, England, the West Indies and Pakistan with his feisty legspin and believes the experience would stand him in good stead even in Tests.”Wickets and conditions vary from country to country. You have to think differently and that adds something extra to your game,” he explained.”That experience makes you mentally very strong. It has helped me a lot.”Apart from being an agile fielder, he is also an aggressive lower-order batter which makes him an asset in franchise cricket.”I think I can be a much better batsman than what I am now,” Rashid said.”I should be someone taking more responsibility in that department as well. I keep working on my batting.”In the last couple of years, there’s more expectation from me in that department that I can deliver crucial 20-25 runs with the bat.”I know I have the skill and talent to deliver that, it’s just about bringing that confidence in you that you can deliver.”

Surrey’s success this season has owed much to those with lower profiles than their England players

Matt Roller06-May-2022Northamptonshire 154 for 8 (Procter 61*, Clark 3-45) trail Surrey 401 (Burns 107, Curran 73, Atkinson 66*, Overton 59, Procter 3-68, Sanderson 3-72) by 247 runsSurrey have struggled to maintain their success in four-day cricket since winning the Championship in 2018 but the early signs suggest that they are on course to challenge for the title again.Their season started with two home wins – including one by an innings against a strong Hampshire side – and two high-scoring draws on the road and they are well-placed to add a third against Northamptonshire after a day which demonstrated the depth of their squad which is unparalleled across the country.Their England players – Rory Burns, Ollie Pope, Ben Foakes and Sam Curran – are the main drawcards but Surrey’s success so far this season has owed much to those with significantly lower profiles, as evidenced by the men that took the game away from Northants on Friday: Gus Atkinson, whose 66 not out was his first-class best, and Jordan Clark, their leading wicket-taker this season who also hit 137 from No. 9 in Bristol last week.Atkinson was not due to play in this game but was drafted in at short notice after Ollie Pope went home feeling unwell during the warm-ups on Thursday morning. He has some pedigree with the bat – he made a second-team hundred in 2018 – but was due to come in at No. 10, promoted effectively as a nightwatchman for Clark and Jamie Overton.He watched this morning as Curran gave away a prime opportunity to make a long overdue first professional hundred – he has now scored nearly 5,000 career runs across 246 appearances without one – and Clark edged behind for 2, leaving Surrey 271 for 8 and in danger of falling short of a third batting point.But he ensured they got there and beyond with a partnership of 124 in 23.3 overs with Overton for the ninth wicket, a stand which broke Northants’ resolve and gave Surrey every chance of forcing an innings win. Initially measured, he hit four boundaries off Tom Taylor in the 110th over as Northants searched for a ninth wicket – and a third bowling point; while Overton’s runs came primarily down the ground or over midwicket, Atkinson scored half of his dozen boundaries through the covers.Related

• Jamie Overton presses England claim with five-wicket haul in resounding Surrey win

• Jamie Smith double-century, Jordan Clark ton lead Surrey to mammoth first-innings total

• Rory Burns' grafting hundred sends timely reminder to England

• Paul Walter ends long wait for century, to leave Joe Root waiting in the wings

“Jamie and I just tried to get ourselves in and then go from there,” Atkinson said. “I think they tired and then the runs began to flow. We enjoyed it. Everyone bowled really well as a unit and there is still something in the pitch for the bowlers, with a bit of zip and nip.”Clark, meanwhile, continued his excellent form with the ball. While two of his wickets were soft dismissals – Emilio Gay, whipping to square leg, and Lewis McManus, chipping to cover, were both caught by Curran – he built pressure with the impressive Dan Worrall and trapped the in-form Will Young on the front pad to make the first breakthrough. Atkinson should have had a wicket himself but for a rare drop in the slips by Colin de Grandhomme.With Worrall – signed on a three-year contract as a local player – striking late in the day and de Grandhomme – a short-term replacement for the injured Kemar Roach – also in the wickets, Surrey showed off the benefits of canny recruitment as well as their trust in youth; Clark, after all, was a signing from Lancashire in 2018 and has developed into a reliable senior pro at 31. Curran, whose overs are heavily limited by the ECB as he returns to fitness after the back stress fracture which ruled him out of the winter, did not need to bowl a ball.Of course, it would be churlish to ignore the fact that Surrey have unmatched financial clout in the county game, with an annual revenue of a similar size to New Zealand Cricket (NZC). While Northants, despite their recent commercial growth and recovery from their years of recession, have to spend every penny wisely, Surrey can throw their weight around.But their strength as a club has been to strike a balance between their primary objective – which, as Alec Stewart has often made clear, is to develop England players – and the pragmatism of coping without them when they are away on international duty. Since his promotion to the role of interim head coach, Gareth Batty has emphasised the importance of squad depth: this week, they have coped easily without Pope and the injured Jamie Smith, while Ryan Patel and Will Jacks appear to have made strides over the winter.They will hope to wrap up their win tomorrow – quite possibly by an innings, though Luke Procter battled hard to reach the close unbeaten on 61 off 167 balls, with McManus the only other batter to pass 20. Their head coach, John Sadler, was left to reflect on the harsh realities of playing in Division One.”We took two early wickets this morning and we were so close to bowling them out for 300 but that’s first division cricket,” he said. “That hour when Atkinson and Overton built their stand really changed the game. I think the cumulative fatigue from the last month did kick in.”Northants have shown plenty of resolve so far this season, drawing all three of their games to date including a 120-over grind to cling on against Yorkshire. They will need to summon that same spirit this week to stop Surrey extending their lead at the top of the table.

Chasing 170, South Africa were bowled out for 87, their lowest total in T20Is

Firdose Moonda17-Jun-20224:29

Steyn: Karthik will be among the first names in India’s T20 World Cup squad

Dinesh Karthik made his T20I debut in India’s first T20I match. In 2006. Before this format was played in bilateral series, before it had a World Cup, and before even the IPL.It has taken him 16 years and 36 matches but finally, he has his first half-century in the format. And he scored it in India’s biggest win over South Africa and fifth-biggest in T20Is, to leave the series locked 2-2 ahead of Sunday’s finale.Karthik’s milestone came in the final over, after a 65-run partnership, off just 33 balls, between Karthik and Hardik Pandya for the fifth wicket, which rejuvenated India after they came together at 81 for 4 in the 13th over. India scored 73 runs in their last five overs and finished on 169 for 6, which proved more than enough for their attack to defend.On a surface with uneven bounce, most of India’s line-up struggled, until Hardik and Karthik came together. Hardik took on the spinners and the slower balls while Karthik was severe on anything that offered width, and they took India to a competitive total, albeit one they may have assessed as perhaps slightly under-par at the halfway stage. But in response, South Africa’s line-up was not able to adapt to the pace of the pitch or India’s bowling and were dismissed for their lowest total in T20Is.They had one partnership of 20 but imploded from the moment their captain, Temba Bavuma, retired hurt with an elbow injury, and they lost their last five wickets for the addition of just 13 runs. Only three of their batters got into double figures. All of India’s bowlers, bar Hardik, conceded 5.25 runs to the over or less, but their stand-out was seamer Avesh Khan. He dismissed Dwaine Pretorius, who appears to have become a permanent pinch-hitter at No.3, in the final over of the powerplay, and then took three wickets in this third over to finish with career-best figures of 4 for 18.Here’s looking at you, Lungi
We haven’t seen him play competitively since March, and not in a T20I since last July, and it was worth the wait. Lungi Ngidi looks fitter than before and has been working on his variations. In his first four deliveries (not counting the wide he started with) he sent down a short ball, an inswinger and two slower balls before erring with a half-tracker that Ruturaj Gaikwad hit behind point for four. Ngidi adjusted immediately and sent down a back-of-a-length ball that seamed away from Gaikwad, who nicked off.His next over was laced with change-ups in length and pace and a demonstration in full commitment, when he fielded a drive from Ishan Kishan with his foot. Ngidi finished the over but left the field and returned later in the innings to deliver one over at the death, which ended up being the least expensive of the final three. He bowled the 19th and was pulled to square leg by Hardik for six, before Hardik top-edged him to deep backward point where Tabraiz Shamsi took a stunner. Ngidi conceded one boundary from the bat of Karthik but pulled it back to finish with a return of 2 for 20 in three overs.Dinesh Karthik’s maiden T20I fifty was instrumental in taking India to 169 for 6•AP Photo

Pant’s (not) on fire
It hasn’t been a good series for Rishabh Pant with the bat so far and, other than the lack of runs, what may concern him are the ways he has been getting out. In three of his four innings, Pant has been dismissed off wide deliveries outside the off stump, deliveries that could have been called wide had he left them alone. On this occasion, Pant got down on one knee to swipe a slower Keshav Maharaj ball over third man. He was early on the stroke and the ball ballooned to Dwaine Pretorius at short third man, strategically placed for exactly that. Maharaj celebrated like a plan had worked, because it had.Avesh Khan picked up four wickets including three in one over•BCCI

Bavuma’s body blows
Much like his opposite number, Bavuma also hasn’t seen the runs flow but his night ended worse than Pant’s when he had to retire hurt for his joint-lowest score of the series so far, 8. Bhuvneshwar Kumar began as he usually does, by moving the ball both ways, but he also got the ball to burst up from back of a length and surprise Bavuma, and then to keep low. In his second over, after Bavuma had again been deceived by one that kept low, Bhuvneshwar’s third delivery reared up and struck Bavuma on the left upper arm.He received treatment on field and decided to continue, which seemed a sensible idea when, two balls later, he creamed a drive through the off side. But at the end of that over, Bavuma scampered through for a risky single and dived to make his ground. His arm hit the turf, but he continued. He faced one more ball before needing attention on-field. It seemed as though Bavuma and the medical staff were discussing how comfortably he could hold the bat and whether he could generate power to hit the ball. Bavuma decided against carrying on and left the field. He was seen with an ice-pack in the dressing room shortly after. Later in the innings, Marco Jansen was hit behind the ear by an Avesh bouncer, and though he passed his concussion test, he was dismissed off the next ball.Chahal v Klaasen

In the first two T20I meetings between Heinrich Klaasen and Yuzvendra Chahal, in Centurion in 2018 and Cuttack last week, Klaasen scored 71 runs off 25 balls. But in their next two clashes, Klaasen has only nine runs off nine balls from Chahal and has been dismissed twice. So what’s happened? Well, the surfaces in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot have assisted spinners and Klaasen has been trying to attack Chahal outside off, without success. In the previous match, he reached for a full delivery to try to clear the off side and sent it to extra-cover and in this one, Klaasen was expecting the ball to turn away from him, as it did off the previous delivery, and set up for the sweep, but the ball went straight on and struck him on the front pad. He reviewed but replays showed it was going on to hit leg stump. Klaasen’s dismissal left South Africa 45 for 3 and prompted the collapse that cost them the game.

Local boy ensures no slip-ups for hosts in pursuit of quarter-final spot

Paul Edwards19-Jun-2022Lancashire 181 for 4 (Croft 61*, Vilas 55) beat Nottinghamshire 179 for 7 (Patel 45, Hartley 2-27) The cricket ground at Stanley Park boasts no floodlights and this might be thought odd in a town famous for its illuminations. It meant that rather than the steamy enthusiasms and glooming light of an evening T20 match, the atmosphere at Blackpool this afternoon was more akin to a Bank Holiday jaunt. We lived for four hours or so in a world of cheek and sauciness and unless you left your inhibitions at the entrance, you were unlikely to have much fun. And the cricketers, ever sensitive to ambience, tried to respond in an appropriate fashion. Alex Hales snotted a couple of his first 11 balls over square leg for six before holing out off Tom Bailey, the suffering bowler, when attempting to hit a third. That should have set the tone for Nottinghamshire’s innings but the visitors were to clear the ropes only once more before Dan Christian smashed Danny Lamb’s last two balls of the innings over the leg-side boundary.Rather than a smooth progression towards something above 200, Nottinghamshire’s innings accelerated and stalled like a learner driver enduring a second lesson, and the visitors’ eventual total of 179 for 6 barely looked sufficient, even against a home top order lacking Phil Salt and Liam Livingstone, two of its most brutal hitters. Such comforting thoughts among home supporters were happily justified. Dane Vilas, the Lancashire skipper, who had been critical of his side after Friday’s defeat at Northampton, reached fifty off 24 balls and had put on 114 with Steven Croft when he skewed an off-side slash to Joe Clarke at deep point and departed for 55. In its way, that was useful, too, for it left Blackpool-born Croft to take most of the applause when the win was sealed with ten balls to spare. The Lancashire allrounder will be 38 in October and his Indian summer has lasted longer that the Raj itself. He is in the last year of his contract but his unbeaten 61 off 41 balls this afternoon was only the latest of his fine contributions this season and he is surely in line for another deal. Those in the pavilion who saw him learn his cricket on this field certainly think so.All of this mattered – these are professional entertainers – but you felt that nothing could have spoiled the spirit of an occasion on which Donald McGill, the artist renowned for his risqué seaside postcards, would once have made a killing. In a similar era, but darker mood, Graham Greene relished it, too, the south coast in the late 1930s worlds away but not so far removed from Blackpool eight decades later. “The new silver paint sparkled on the piers, the cream houses ran away into the west like a pale Victorian water-colour; a race in miniature motors, a band playing, flower gardens in bloom below the front,” wrote Greene on the opening page of .Tower power: Alex Hales on the attack•PA Images via Getty Images

The weather played along, too. A grey, rain-flecked morning gave way to a blue afternoon and the drinks trays groaned under the weight of San Miguel, blackcurrant cider and Wainwright’s Golden Ale. Long lines of thirsty customers had formed long before play began. Stanley Park has a steep grass bank above perhaps 80 yards of its boundary and children duly slid down it. There were queues for everything except decorum. “Froth me Silly – Hire me for your Event,” suggested a coffee stall with ideas above its station. Some faces were painted while others burned; there were even a few knotted handkerchiefs on the heads of the ancients. The prosaic ones still called the ends “North” and “South” but “Parched Peas” and “Tower” are better names, even if the famous monument is at deep midwicket.Nottinghamshire’s cricketers, on the other hand, are unlikely to have such fond memories of a ground on which Lancashire will play Durham on Thursday. The home side will do so with their place in the quarter-finals almost secure if statistical precedent and the judgement of the Sage of Bacup is anything to go by. On the other hand, Liam Trevaskis’s team are likely to offer a stiffer test than Lightning’s opponents today. Having lost both Hales and Clarke in the Powerplay, Nottinghamshire reached 125 for 3 and were thus well placed for a late splurge when Samit Patel was complicit in the run out of Tom Moores before smacking Tom Hartley straight to Luke Wells at deep midwicket three balls later.The fact that Patel top-scored with 45 is neither here nor there. Those two dismissals destroyed the momentum of his team’s innings and they ensured they would post a total that was nowhere near sufficient on a good pitch. Hartley, Richard Gleeson and Wells all bowled their four overs for fewer than thirty runs and their accuracy helped to send Nottinghamshire to their fifth defeat in nine games. Christian’s team have only seven points and will do well to qualify for the last eight now. They have coped well with such predicaments in previous seasons but will only do so this summer if their cricket improves markedly. No one identified Kolley Kibber at Blackpool today, but everyone knew who won.

Allrounder hits 21 from 14 balls after promotion to No. 5 as Essex slip to defeat

ECB Reporters Network22-Jul-2022It took Surrey 19.4 final-day overs to complete a six-wicket victory against Essex at the Kia Oval that keeps them on top of the LV= Insurance County Championship Division One table with a sixth win from ten matches.Resuming their second innings on 85 for 2, still requiring 76 more runs, Surrey lost just opener Ryan Patel and allrounder Jamie Overton before clinching a 22-point triumph when they reached 162 for 4.Patel, on 22 overnight, took his highly valuable but largely defensive and near four-hour knock to 38 before playing back to offspinner Simon Harmer and edging a ball that turned and bounced to keeper Adam Rossington.Related

• Adaptable Salt keeps things simple ahead of latest England chance

• Bohannon rediscovers form to put Lancs within reach of victory

• Denly century gives Kent a golden shot at vital win

• Worrall takes 11 as Surrey close in

• Strauss: Test wins don't change need for high-performance review

Overton, promoted up the order on Patel’s dismissal in the day’s 16th over, soon responded by swinging Matt Critchley’s legbreaks over mid wicket for six. He launched him for another huge six over wide midwicket before being caught at long-off off the same bowler for 21 off 14 balls, trying to end the match with one more blow.Nightwatcher Tom Lawes, who on 1 was dropped at third slip off Shane Snater in the fifth over of the morning, played some excellent strokes of his own to finish 32 not out from 54 balls.Lawes, the 19-year old allrounder making just his fifth first-class appearance, clipped Snater through midwicket for four and then skipped down the pitch to drive Harmer straight for six to show his capability with bat in hand.Ollie Pope, who replaced Overton, reverse-swept the first ball he faced, from Harmer, for four to complete Surrey’s victory after 80 minutes’ play on the final day.Surrey, who began this round of games 15 points ahead of second-placed Hampshire, now face 2021 champions Warwickshire at the Oval next week and – with only four games left for them to play in this summer’s competition – look in good shape to repeat their own 2018 Championship triumph.”That’s a very pleasing win, especially in the way we chased down 161,” Rory Burns, their said, captain. “It could have been a slightly awkward morning today, but to get over the line in the way we did was outstanding.”All the faster bowlers were brilliant for us in this match. Dan Worrall, of course, takes the plaudits for his 11 wickets but the way they all bowled as a unit was great for me to see.”Will Jacks was obviously the other big performance for us, and for him to read the game situation as well as he did in our first innings is a real feather in his cap. It was interesting that both the first innings in this match followed a similar course, with Will’s 150 turning it around for us in the same way that Adam Rossington’s 100 did for Essex.”Essex take five points from the game. “It is obviously disappointing to lose, but we competed well with them for a lot of this game,” Tom Westley, their captain, said. “There were two particular moments where we lost the contest – the first was Will Jacks getting to 150 not out and getting them into a first-innings lead and then that period yesterday when we lost six second-innings wickets for 37 runs.”It would be nice if we had a return fixture against Surrey at Chelmsford, but the schedule for this season means we only get to play them once which is a shame.”