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Bangladesh will need an extraordinary turnaround in fortunes to compete and level the series on one of the more livelier surfaces in Sri Lanka

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Colombo14-Mar-2017

Match facts

March 15-19, 2017
Start time: 10am local (0430GMT)3:28

Fernando: P Sara Oval the most result-oriented venue in the world

Big picture

The bigshots of the Bangladesh Cricket Board are arriving to much fanfare, soaring rhetoric about South Asian “brotherhood” abounds. Mementos are being polished, showmen are practicing their lines for the presentation: the celebrations for Bangladesh’s 100th Test are all set to go, but after the politically-minded have lavishly slapped each other on the back, there is some cricket to be played as well.It is the plight of Mahmudullah that will have most Bangladesh fans aflutter. He has been dropped from the Test squad but will continue to stay in the country. So will he play in the limited-overs series? Has the board overridden a coaching decision? Has a senior batsman been dealt with too harshly here? Whatever unfolds over the next 48 hours, Mahmudullah will not play, which means Bangladesh will make changes to the batting order that misfired in Galle – bringing in Sabbir Rahman or uncapped 21-year-old Mosaddek Hossain. Imrul Kayes is likely to replace Mominul Haque as well.Bangladesh will need a stronger top order, because they are about to play on perhaps the most reliable result pitch in Test cricket. It has been 11 Tests and almost 14 years since a Test at P Sara Oval was drawn. The seamers generally gain good bounce early in the match, and the spinners run riot late in the game. Generally, there are precious few sessions where batsmen can claim to have had favourable conditions.If Sri Lanka field the same attack, they may pose varied questions to the opposition. Lakshan Sandakan was wayward, but turned the ball viciously at times, while Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera were agents of guile and control. In Lahiru Kumara, Sri Lanka also have a quick who will relish bowling on a track that has a bit of zip.Their own top order, however, is not quite as formidable as a flattering Galle surface made it seem. If Bangladesh are to level the series, here is the weakness they must exploit.

Form guide

Sri Lanka WLLLW (completed matches, most recent first)
Bangladesh LLLLW

In the spotlight

Having batted largely at no. 4 through the Australia series last year, Kusal Mendis is seemingly back for a long stint at first drop. In Galle he produced an innings that showcased why he is so highly rated by coaches, working his way through tough early spells, before opening his shoulders and setting the match up for Sri Lanka. He did, however, benefit from an early reprieve in that innings, and it is that looseness outside off stump that presently appears to be his greatest obstacle. On a Colombo track expected to be better for seam bowling than the previous pitch had been, Mendis may profit from a more discerning outlook at the start of his innings.His teammates keep throwing their wickets away, and there have been three last-day collapses in the last four Tests, but consistently providing the innings with a spine this year is Mushfiqur Rahim. So far he has two hundreds and a fifty in six innings in 2017. Among the times he didn’t reach a half-century was his defiance of New Zealand on day five in Wellington, where he was battered with bouncers, while he batted with an injured hand. If there is to be more substance from the Bangladesh top order in this Test, they could do worse than follow the example their captain has set.Bangladesh should look to exploit Sri Lanka’s batting weakness on a lively P Sara deck•AFP

Team news

Herath was tightlipped about Sri Lanka’s combination before this match, but there may be little reason to change the winning XI. There is a chance Dimuth Karunaratne’s is under pressure from Dhananjaya de Silva. It is also possible Sandakan is left out in favour of an extra batsman.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Dimuth Karuanaratne, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Asela Gunaratne, 6 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 7 Dilruwan Perera, 8 Rangana Herath (capt.), 9 Suranga Lakmal, 10 Lahiru Kumara, 11 Lakshan SandakanImrul and Sabbir are the likeliest batsmen to enter the XI, but there could also be a bowling change in the offing. Subashis Roy claimed only 1 for 137 in Galle, so it is possible Taijul Islam replaces him. Liton Das has been ruled out after suffering a fractured rib while batting in the nets on the eve of the game. That means Mushfiqur Rahim will take the gloves again.Bangladesh (possible): 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Imrul Kayes, 4 Mosaddek Hossain, 5 Mushfiqur Rahim (capt & wk), 6 Shakib Al Hasan, 7 Sabbir Rahman, 8 Mehedi Hasan, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Kamrul Islam Rabbi/Rubel Hossain

Pitch and conditions

This track may be a little more batting friendly than the usual P Sara surfaces, but expect regular breakthroughs nonetheless. Daily pre-monsoon thunderstorms in Colombo may also make an appearance – evening sessions are particularly vulnerable.

Stats and trivia

• Each of the last 14 Tests in Sri Lanka have yielded a result
• Rangana Herath is three wickets shy of a first-class tally of 1000
• Bangladesh’s three previous Tests at this venue have ended in innings defeats – their lowest Test total of 62 coming here in 2007
• Mushfiqur has scored 441 runs at an average of 88.20 in 2017. He needs only 51 further runs to make this his most successful batting year.

A sensational display of power-hitting from Delray Rawlins helped England recover from 126 for 6 to post 256, a total they defended by 23 runs at the Wankhede Stadium

The Report by Nikhil Kalro in Mumbai30-Jan-2017
ScorecardFile photo – England Under-19s captain Matthew Fisher claimed 4 for 41•Getty Images

A sensational display of power-hitting from Delray Rawlins helped England recover from 126 for 6 to post 256, a total they defended by 23 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Rawlins, a languid left-handed batsman who has previously represented Bermuda, hammered eight fours and five sixes in his 88-ball 107 to lead England’s stunning fightback. He followed that up with 2 for 46 from his 10 overs as England took a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.England were precariously placed at 98 for 4 in the 26th over when the debutant Rawlins walked in and he was forced into strike rotation early against India’s nagging spinners. But even after two more quick wickets sucked out the momentum and fluency from England’s innings, Rawlins was keen to attack spin.He got to his fifty with a slog-swept six that just cleared deep square leg, sparking an acceleration that helped England pass 150. Rawlins’ batting became increasingly exuberant as his innings wore on, as he stepped out against spin to hit three sixes over long-on. He added 116 with Matthew Fisher for the seventh wicket, of which the England captain contributed 26. Rawlins offered just one chance, on 80, when he top-edged a hoick off a low full toss, but the short third man fielder dropped the catch.India’s discipline soon gave way to errant bowling towards the end. Fast bowler Yash Thakur hardly missed his yorker in his final spell, but wayward lines in his attempts at variation helped England pick off plenty. Rawlins plundered 53 off his last 33 balls.
Unlike the end, India were accurate at the start. Their seamers used a patchy green surface and nippy morning conditions to reduce England to 13 for 3 in the seventh over, all batsmen caught behind the wicket.Opener Harry Brook and Ollie Pope played some impressive strokes to lead England’s recovery, putting on 85 for the fourth wicket. On an atypically grassy surface, India’s spinners didn’t extract much turn but, with England’s inability to find the gaps regularly, a tight line was effective. Brook was involved in a nasty incident in the 12th over. He stepped out to fast bowler Thakur, only for a bouncer to break his helmet, raising concern among India’s fielders who rushed to his aid.Chasing 257, opener Himanshu Rana continued his stellar form with his third 50-plus score at the Under-19 level, striking an 87-ball 101 to push India close. Rana faced no trouble in finding the boundary early in his innings even as the rest of India’s batsmen struggled with the bounce in the pitch.Prithvi Shaw, a Ranji Trophy runner-up with Mumbai, was consistently hurried by Fisher. He finally wafted at a length delivery outside off and the England players celebrated. The umpire raised his finger almost instantaneously, to the dismay of Shaw.Shubman Gill shovelled a drive to short midwicket to fall for 29 off 27, a result of hard hands through the line of the ball. Captain Abhishek Sharma cut a wide delivery to Rawlins at point, giving Fisher his third wicket. India’s struggles got worse when Rawlins trapped Salman Khan and Mayank Rawat in front off consecutive balls, both non-turning deliveries.Rana was proficient with cross-batted strokes, as well as jabs at straight deliveries to accrue singles. At no stage did he look out of place. Soon after a fatigued celebration for his second hundred in three games, he gloved a pull to the keeper, a blow that all but sealed England’s win.Led by Fisher, England’s attack kept to their plans, employing a consistent back of a length, and the short ball sparingly. Their fielding was discernibly better than India’s, saving several boundaries with athletic stops, a characteristic that – along with Rawlins – helped prove the difference in a close contest.

Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver displayed all of their international experience in steering Surrey Stars to their first Kia Super League victory

ECB Reporters Network04-Aug-2016
ScorecardTammy Beaumont struck 47 in Surrey Stars’ chase•Getty Images

Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver displayed all of their international experience in steering Surrey Stars to their first Kia Super League victory, chasing down the 135 set for them by Yorkshire Diamonds with six wickets in hand and 11 balls to spare.In front of 2250 people at The Oval, England opener Beaumont compiled an assured 47, contributing to stands of 65 for the first wicket with Bryony Smith and 57 for the third with Sciver, who was unbeaten on 29 when clobbering the winning runs behind square leg.Earlier, Alex Hartley was crucial with the ball. The visitors had gotten off to a flyer, 72 without loss at the half way mark with Hollie Armitage and Lauren Winfield batting with ease. It was the left-arm spinner who removed them both in the space of three balls, Winfield caught and bowled for 29 then Armitage bowled for 43.It was the catalyst for an excellent second ten overs for the hosts, restricting the Diamonds to 5 for 62 in that period. Hartley was the clear stand out with 2 for 18 from her four overs without conceding a single boundary, while seamers Sciver and Rene Farrell bowled with considerable control at the death of the innings.Surrey’s fielding also improved dramatically, after twice dropping early chances Sciver executed a superb direct hit run out of dangerous Australian Beth Mooney, her throw released in one motion after completing a diving stop.In reply, Surrey’s innings followed in a similar fashion to the first, the openers able to see off the initial threat from England spearhead Katherine Brunt before 19-year-old Smith took the quick for three consecutive boundaries in the fifth over to turbocharge the chase.Her 50 stand with Beaumont was raised in 35 balls, and the score was 65 before Yorkshire made their first breakthrough when Smith was deceived one of Jenny Gunn’s myriad slower balls, a top edge taken at short third man.A sharp stumping from Mooney, also off the bowling of Gunn, removed No. 3 Cordelia Griffith shortly thereafter, bringing Sciver to the crease to join Beaumont with a further 62 needed at just under a run a ball.But it was the pace of Brunt that again helped the batting side when it mattered most, 13 taken from the 14th over (including three wides) to take Surrey score beyond 100, making the final result a relative formality.After the hard work was done Beaumont holed out with five required for victory, appropriate reward for offspinner Steph Butler who impressed in her first game of the tournament.With two losses to start the start their season, Yorkshire now have no margin for error. Their next fixture is at Southampton on Monday against the Southern Vipers.Meanwhile for the winners, after squaring their ledger at one and one they play the Western Storm on Sunday at Bristol.

Cricket New South Wales has announced a significant restructuring after an extensive review

Daniel Brettig16-Apr-2021Jodie Hawkins, the general manager of Sydney Sixers, has exited Cricket New South Wales (CNSW) as part of a restructure that removes the positions of club general managers, despite overseeing the Sixers to victories in each of the past two men’s tournaments.In measures shared with staff this week, the chief executive Lee Germon outlined the restructure approved by the NSW board and its chairman John Knox, and the fact that Hawkins would leave the organisation after declining an alternative role, understood to be in communications. The general manager of the Sydney Thunder, Chris Botherway, will stay on after accepting another job with NSW as general manager of customer experience. Hawkins declined to comment.Germon told ESPNcricinfo that the state would be hiring two new independent list managers to oversee recruitment for the Sixers and the Thunder and report into the heads of men’s and women’s cricket Michael Klinger and Leah Poulton. He insisted that NSW had not shut the door on female leadership within the organisation, even though the new four-person executive team directly reporting to Germon is all-male.”Both Jodie and Chris were offered roles here. Chris has gone into a new role, Jodie has decided to leave us, and I totally respect that decision,” Germon said. “Jodie has been here for every BBL over 10 years and I think whoever does end up getting Jodie is going to be very well off, because she’s a leader who’s been developing through our organisation.”We’ve got some very good female leaders coming through. If people say there’s no-one in those roles, look at Leah Poulton as head of female cricket, a role below the executive level. We’ve got the boss in charge of the people side, Bernadette Chehine, some wonderful leaders coming through. We’ve just appointed three of our best up and coming female coaches and given them internships, Sarah Aley, Hannah Trethewy and Lisa Griffith.

Germon on CNSW organisation review

“It’s important I make it clear this has been an 18 to 24 month process. It started with a review of our cricket performance and it was all based on us wanting to be world class and that led to a few changes.

“The structure is less important than how we work together. So we’re going down from eight departments to four squads, and teams within those squads working together to achieve what we want to.

“This is not based on saving money, saving costs, this is done from a position of strength to really catapult us forward in terms of how we deliver cricket. It’s certainly not in response to any certain activity or action or event, it’s something that’s been going for a while and its vision is that we want to be a world leading organisation, not just a cricket one.

“We are very cognisant of developing leaders throughout our organisation and very cognisant of developing female leaders because we want that diversity of thought. We spoke to Jodie about another role here and I think she’s made the right decision to really spread her wings and move on because she has been here for a while. But I would say we want to keep developing our female leaders.”A new NSW executive team reporting directly to Germon comprises Chris Muldoon as head of strategy, governance and insights, Greg Mail as head of cricket performance, Michael Dalton as chief financial officer and a new hire, Anton Brown, as head of customer experience. Brown’s past experience included a long stint with Virgin Active.The organisational changes have raised eyebrows across Australian cricket, particularly after Cricket Victoria’s multiple BBL restructure attempts since the boards and chief executives of the Melbourne Stars and Renegades were dispensed with in 2019. CV recently elected to a return to a structure where two club general managers would report directly to the state’s chief executive, Andrew Ingleton.Germon underlined the fact that the state had concluded, as the result of an 18-month organisational review, that the commercial and “customer facing” areas of the BBL clubs needed to work more closely together, likening them to the two competing drivers within the same Formula One team. This, he argued, was already happening in terms of player recruitment.”I think the BBL GM role has evolved, certainly within CNSW over those four years. Last year our cricket performance team, as part of the performance review, had much greater contribution alongside the GMs around the playing lists and the players,” Germon said. “Ultimately the final sign-off of players contracted sat with our cricket performance team and not with the GMs of the BBL clubs.”They’re competing with one another on the field, but they’re not competing off the field. Both clubs are part of CNSW and that’s the essence of this redesign. Our commercial team joined with the two BBL teams last year, our commercial team sells for both clubs off the field. But on the field absolutely we need that competitive rivalry and tension. I liken it to the Formula One scenario.”While the Sixers men’s side has claimed each of the past two BBL titles, the women’s team has faded from an early dominance of the WBBL to a failure even to make the tournament finals of the most recent edition. Sydney Thunder won this season’s WBBL title.”The on-field performance of the Sixers women didn’t come into the restructure, but having said that, there’s been a thorough review of the Thunder and Sixers WBBL campaigns and that’s where Leah has driven that review and the way forward,” Germon said. “The performance of the WBBL or BBL sides on the field, yes we’re cognisant of it, but this is driven by maximising the off-field benefits of the two clubs.”We need the respective list managers in place because that’s important to the autonomy of the clubs and the competitiveness which we’re well aware of, and also the integrity nature of it.”

England’s batting line-up, which managed 147 and 297 at the Gabba, will remain unchanged

Andrew McGlashan15-Dec-2021Having planned for years to always have a point-of-difference pace option in their Ashes teams, England have left out Mark Wood, their fastest bowler, from their 12-player squad for the day-night Test in Adelaide.England said that Wood, who topped 150kph in Brisbane, had been rested with James Anderson, who was not in final consideration for the first Test, taking his place. Left-arm spinner Jack Leach has been retained despite the punishment dished out to him last week with the final decision again seemingly between him and Stuart Broad.Related

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Wood bowled with pace and hostility in Brisbane, claiming Steven Smith caught behind on the second day to spark a period where England briefly brought themselves back into the contest before Travis Head ripped the game away from them.Wood was the only one of the three express quicks England had earmarked for this tour with Jofra Archer and Olly Stone injured.Anderson’s recall for this match had been expected with the hope that he can exploit the pink-ball and have the opportunity to bowl when conditions are favourable under lights. Four years ago, he took his only five-wicket haul in Australia when he and Chris Woakes bowled Australia for 138 in the second innings although the game still ended in a heavy defeat for England.”I had success with it [the pink ball] last time here, but it is quite temperamental still,” Anderson said. “It’s not a given it will swing round corners. We know it’s generally a good pitch here, if the sun’s out it won’t do a great deal but there might be times during the game – twilight or when it’s dark – that it might do a little bit more. Take advantage of those times when it does do a bit.”England’s batting line-up, which managed 147 and 297 at the Gabba, will remain unchanged.Keeping Leach in the 12 is a show of faith after he was treated harshly in Brisbane to concede 102 from 13 overs. They were cautioned against going into the day-night Test without a spinner by Adelaide Oval groundsman Damian Hough while Nathan Lyon has taken 19 wickets at 25.78 in the fixture.”History says that the pitch will spin,” Hough said on Wednesday. “Nathan has always played a role out there so from our end we believe that spin in Adelaide needs to play a part. We feel that it has previously and it still should.”

South Africa batsman Dean Elgar believes his team will avoid complacency at Bellerive Oval, a venue at which they have never played a Test match

Firdose Moonda in Hobart10-Nov-20162:32

‘We are guarding against complacency’ – Dean Elgar

South Africa are not going to follow Graeme Smith’s lead and dismiss Australia as being low on confidence. In fact, they are bracing for a backlash from the wounded hosts.”If he has said that I’m sure that’s just his personal dig,” South Africa’s opening batsman Dean Elgar said. “I don’t think there is a culture issue within the Australian side. We know they’re still a dangerous team and they can bounce back in the second Test.”Asked whether he thinks Australia have lost some of their bite, Elgar would not be drawn into a slanging match. “Yes and no. We know that the Australian side is still a very dangerous side. Them being beaten in the first Test is working in their favour because they can bounce back, and we’re aware of their bouncebackability. It’s just human nature to withdraw into yourself because of what you’re going through. But they can bounce back hard.”To that end, South Africa are spending the build-up being drilled hard both in the nets and in the analysis room. “Complacency is a big thing for us,” Elgar said. “That’s something we’ve addressed as a team. It’s a new Test, a new challenge and a new venue for us.”South Africa have never played a Test in Hobart before, and the last of their five ODIs at this venue was in 2009. Of the current squad, only Hashim Amla and JP Duminy played in that match, while batting and bowling consultant Neil McKenzie and Charl Langeveldt were part of previous ODI teams at Bellerive Oval. They won’t be able to draw too much from that but have be trawling through the scorecards of previous matches to try and gauge what awaits.0:24

Dean Elgar expects Australia to bounce back in Hobart

The last two Tests have seen Australia post big scores in the first innings against West Indies and Sri Lanka but the one before that was a low-scoring thriller against New Zealand. The pace and bounce of the WACA is a thing of the past but there may still be plenty for the bowlers. Two days before the Test, the pitch was a violent shade of green but much of that grass will be shaved off. What won’t change is the overhanging cloud, at least not for the rest of this week. There will be swing on offer and for South Africa, that may also mean reverse-swing.Josh Hazlewood commented on how effectively South Africa managed to get the ball to reverse in Perth, much to Australia’s envy, and Elgar was sure they would try to do it again. “It is an asset for us if the ball can reverse but also, for a bowler to be able to bowl with the reversing ball is a massive skill,” Elgar said. “We’re fortunate if that most if not all of our bowlers can bowl with the reversing ball, which works in our favour quite nicely. In Perth the ball reversed in both innings for us when we were bowling and it proved to be a massive asset for us.”Elgar maintained that South Africa’s working of the ball does not venture into troublesome territory, even though Hazlewood had noticed their habit of throwing the ball onto the pitch to scuff it up. “We’re trying to throw it into the turf and scuff one side up,” Hazlewood said “They’re pretty well drilled on it and get that side nice and rough and the other one shiny.”But it is “not a deliberate tactic”, according to Elgar. “When you’re on the boundary, there are rules that you are allowed to bounce a ball in from the boundary,” he said. “All teams around the world use that tactic these days. If you are allowed to use it to your advantage all teams are welcome to do it. But obviously within the rules and regulations of the game.”Those are things Smith, who retired more than two years ago, does not have to think about anymore and it’s allowed him to say some of the things he may have been thinking in his playing days. Smith spoke about Australia being a country where you had to earn respect as a player and you could only do that through performance. That’s what South Africa did in Perth and hope to continue in Hobart, but Elgar would prefer they didn’t make too much of a big noise about it.”Having a lot guys put up their hands and make a big play for the team is very important to us,” Elgar said. “It’s very important for us to have those different kinds of players in the team. We don’t talk about it at all. It just comes out naturally.”

Solitary Test cap came during Devon Malcolm’s famous Test at The Oval in 1994

Andrew Miller09-Mar-2021Joey Benjamin, the former Warwickshire, Surrey and England seam bowler, has died at the age of 60 after suffering a heart attack.Benjamin, whose solitary Test appearance at The Oval in 1994 would prove to be one of England’s most memorable victories of the decade, claimed 387 first-class wickets in an 11-year career that began at Warwickshire in 1988.Born in St Kitts in 1961, Benjamin moved to England with his family at the age of 15, and settled initially in the Midlands, where he played Birmingham League cricket, and earned initial recognition with occasional fixtures for Staffordshire.It wasn’t until the age of 27 that he earned his first county contract, but with Warwickshire’s attack led by Gladstone Small, Tim Munton and Allan Donald, opportunities were limited and he played 25 first-class matches in four years before relocating to Surrey in 1992.With a bustling action and a distinctive whirl of arms in his delivery stride, Benjamin bowled accurate, lively away-swing from a high action, and immediately thrived in his new surroundings. In 1993, his second season, he was named Surrey’s Player of the Year, with a haul of 64 wickets at 27.85 including a career-best 6 for 19 against Nottinghamshire.The following year, his form was even better – 80 wickets all told at 20.72 – but Benjamin still seemed a long, long way from international recognition when, in the final weeks of the international season, he was handed his maiden England call-up at the age of 33.The venue was at least familiar. With England 1-0 down against South Africa after a bruising defeat in the first Test at Lord’s, Benjamin was picked on home soil for the series finale at The Oval, where he was preferred to Angus Fraser in England’s final XI, and completed a four-man pace attack alongside Phil DeFreitas, Darren Gough and Devon Malcolm.Devon Malcolm offers a cup of tea to his chicken-pox-afflicted team-mate Joey Benjamin in his hotel room•Graham Chadwick/Getty Images

He impressed from the outset, claiming 4 for 42 in 17 overs as South Africa were bowled out for 332, but the second innings was all about one man. Malcolm, famously struck on the helmet by Fanie De Villiers during England’s own first innings of 302, responded with the bowling spell of his life, scattering South Africa with a career-best 9 for 57 to set up an extraordinary eight-wicket win.And as was often the case at the time in English cricket, Benjamin’s success in the final Test of the summer was enough to secure him a winter tour berth, with Fraser omitted from England’s initial Ashes squad, and Kent’s Martin McCague also earning a recall.It would not prove to be an auspicious winter. Both Malcolm and Benjamin succumbed to a bout of chicken pox in the lead-up to the first Test at Brisbane, and despite having featured heavily in England’s warm-up fixtures at the start of the tour, he was not considered thereafter as England turned instead to a raft of seam-bowling replacements, Fraser and Chris Lewis among them.Benjamin did play in two matches of England’s B&H World Series one-day campaign, against Australia at Sydney and Zimbabwe at Brisbane, where he bowled Mark Dekker for his solitary ODI scalp. However, it had been clear long before the end of the tour that Benjamin was destined to remain a member of England’s one-Test wonder club.He didn’t dwell on what might have been, however, as he returned to Surrey in 1995 and claimed 53 wickets at a very respectable 25.01. But as the end of the decade approached, his opportunities began to wane, and he would be released by the club in 1999, just as Adam Hollioake’s team was embarking on its run of three County Championship titles in four years. He finished his Surrey career with 313 first-class wickets at 29.22, and a further 146 at 31.36 in List A cricket.His batting was very much of the hit-and-miss variety, as shown by a highest first-class score of 49 and an average of 11.38. His finest hour, however, was the one that got away – a thrilling NatWest Trophy semi-final in 1994, when his long-levered assault on Worcestershire’s then-towering target of 358 in 60 overs so nearly came good. With eight runs needed from two balls, and Benjamin on 25, he launched Stuart Lampitt towards the long-off boundary, but the lanky figure of Tom Moody was waiting on the rope to crush Surrey’s dreams.After retirement, Benjamin remained close to Surrey, and turned his focus to coaching at club and school level in his home town of Reigate.Martin Bicknell, Benjamin’s long-term Surrey team-mate, led the tributes to his fellow seamer on Twitter. “Just heard some shocking news about the loss of Joey Benjamin,” he wrote. “Joey was one of a kind, incredibly popular in the Surrey dressing room back in the day, so sad. RIP Benjy.””It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that we must report the passing away of Joey Benjamin, long-time and much admired cricket coach at Reigate Priory Cricket Club and previously long-serving coach at Reigate Grammar School,” wrote the club chairman, John Bramhall, in an email to members.”Joey was a good friend to many of us at the club and at the school, and was much loved by those who he taught over the years. We all have good memories of Joey, who was a very special person.”Richard Thompson, Surrey’s chairman, said: “I’ve known Joey for 25 years and have gloried in his triumphs. I particularly remember the final Test at The Oval in 1994, where his performance earned him an Ashes tour. It was a long time coming as anyone who watched him bowl that season would testify.”Everything he did was with a smile and grace. He wore the brown cap very proudly with absolute distinction and will be long remembered at Surrey County Cricket Club. He has been taken too soon.”A Warwickshire statement said: “It is with great sadness that today Warwickshire County Cricket Club has learned of the passing of former fast bowler Joey Benjamin. The thoughts of everyone at Warwickshire CCC are with Joey’s family and close friends at this difficult time.”The ECB said in a statement: “The ECB is saddened to learn of the death of former England bowler Joey Benjamin at the age of 60. Our thoughts are with Joey’s friends and family.”

Jonny Bairstow brought up his second Test century, before James Anderson and Stuart Broad shared nine wickets to condemn Sri Lanka to the follow-on

The Report by Andrew Miller20-May-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsLike Sachin Tendulkar’s Test record at Lord’s, there has always been something incongruous about James Anderson’s bowling statistics at Headingley. The Lancastrian-in-Yorkshire factor aside, it has never made much sense that the most skilful England bowler of his generation should find it so difficult to impose himself at the English venue most conducive to his talents.In seven previous Tests at Headingley, spanning his full 13-year career, Anderson had racked up 19 wickets at 41.36, with a best innings haul of 3 for 91. That performance, however, didn’t exactly cheer him up either. It came during Sri Lanka’s last visit to Yorkshire in 2014, when he left the ground in tears following his penultimate-ball dismissal to Shaminda Eranga.Today, however, Anderson banished his demons in style, producing a sensational 70-ball onslaught of swing and seam, spread across two spells either side of tea, for which Sri Lanka – in their weakened post-Jayawardene and Sangakkara state – had no answer. It would be hard to claim he will ever feel quite as at home here as England’s other main man of the second day, Yorkshire’s own Jonny Bairstow, but this was a performance with a distinctly cathartic feel.Anderson wrapped up Sri Lanka’s innings with figures of 5 for 16 in 11.4 overs, his 19th five-wicket haul in 114 Tests, during which he also overhauled Kapil Dev’s tally of 434 Test wickets to move into sixth place on the all-time list. Among fast bowlers, only Courtney Walsh (519) and Glenn McGrath (563) lie ahead of him. On this form, with a maximum of 13 innings still to come this summer, he could yet move to within striking distance of the top guns before the season is done.Anderson may, however, have to share some of the spoils with his new-ball partner, Stuart Broad. It was a measure of Broad’s current standing as the world’s No. 1 Test bowler that, although this was by no means his most incisive spell in recent months, his unrelenting accuracy allied to subtle seam and bounce were still sufficient to return figures of 4 for 21.Ben Stokes, with a solitary but crucial strike with the first ball after tea, completed the wickets column as Alastair Cook, in keeping with England’s new hard-and-fast attitude, chose to enforce the follow-on for the first time since the Wellington Test against New Zealand in March 2013.In the end, bad light came to Sri Lanka’s rescue as play was abandoned for the play after just two Anderson deliveries in the second innings. But they will need to score more than twice their meagre total of 91 when play resumes on Saturday just to ask England to bat again. And, as a further measure of that challenge, only one batsman in the match so far has exceeded that number of runs off their own bat.That batsman, of course, is Bairstow, whose brilliant 140 followed directly on from scores of 246 and 198 in his last two outings at Headingley for Yorkshire. His innings spanned two distinct phases of England’s own innings without ever wavering from the positive intent he brought to the crease on the first afternoon, when he and Alex Hales had been confronted with a fraught scoreline of 83 for 5.Hales, to his palpable dismay, failed to convert his overnight 71 to a maiden Test hundred – he was eventually caught in the deep off Rangana Herath for 86 after an agonisingly restrained morning’s work that snapped in a moment of uncontrolled violence, much as he tried to snap his bat in frustration as he left the field to a sympathetic ovation. Though the doubts about his suitability as a Test opener haven’t entirely been banished by his efforts, his share in a sixth-wicket stand of 141 cannot be underestimated in a curious England scorecard, in which the next highest score (17) came from the No. 10, Steven Finn.Bairstow, however, was the life and soul of England’s batting. He outscored Hales by three runs to one throughout their morning resumption, and made the most of one clear moment of good fortune, on 70, when Nuwan Pradeep failed to gather a sharp return catch.Hales aside, he received little support until Finn’s improbable cameo – Moeen Ali, low on confidence as an under-used No. 8, came and went for a duck, caught at short leg off Dushmantha Chameera, whose hustling full length then splattered Broad’s stumps via an inside edge.Bairstow simply stared down the track, rather nonplussed by the sudden clatter of wickets. But from the first ball of Chameera’s next over, he drilled a drive into the covers, paused as a wild shy came in at the non-striker’s end, then galloped through with glee as the ball zipped through for overthrows to gift him his second century and his first on home soil. Given his family connection, it was a moment that he may yet cherish even more than his emotional first century, at Cape Town five months ago.England’s eventual total of 298 was quickly put into context when Sri Lanka’s openers came out to launch their reply. Faced with grey skies and a packed cordon, Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva betrayed their anxieties in the very first over, when they hesitated so long over a quick single that they could have ended up shaking hands in the middle of the pitch.Instead, after inching through the first three overs, they waved goodbye to one another in the space of five deliveries. First, Broad straightened one off the seam to kiss the edge of the left-handed Karunaratne, who departed for a 12-ball duck, before Anderson drew level with Kapil on 434 career wickets by finding some extra lift to dispose of Silva for 11.
One over later, and Broad had two wickets in three balls as he went wide on the crease to spear an angled full-length ball into Kusal Mendis’ forward defence, for Bairstow to snaffle the slenderest of deflections behind the stumps.Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews stood firm in a 31-run stand before the interval, as James Vince – funkily introduced by Cook in a bid to emulate Dasun Shanaka’s own debutant heroics – zipped a flying edge through the cordon from the final ball of the session. Straight after the resumption, however, it was Vince’s hands at third slip that made the breakthrough, as Chandimal was forced to play at a pearler from Stokes, and at 43 for 4, the foundations of the innings had been fatally undermined.Mathews, typically, found a means to delay the inevitable, as he counter-attacked with skill and intent in an innings top-score of 34 from 62 balls. But Anderson’s return did him in – after lining up the outswinger he was pinned on the pad by the one that jagged back in. Though replays showed he would have been reprieved on review – the ball struck him outside the line – his bamboozlement was absolute as he chose not to quibble.One over later, Anderson was on a hat-trick as Shanaka’s eventful debut continued with an unplayable outswinger, grazed through to the keeper, and though Herath resisted briefly, he was the next to go, caught high above Stokes’ head at second slip after Anderson went wide on the crease to change the angle to the left-hander.Broad then bagged a brace as Finn, at mid-off, showed improbable agility to cling on to two diving chances in consecutive overs, but with both of England’s gun bowlers on four wickets and just the one left to squabble over, Anderson reclaimed his senior status by strangling the last man down the leg side on review, to give Bairstow a haul of five catches in the innings.That last man, as it happens, was none other than Eranga, the very bowler whose throat-ball two years ago had delivered Anderson his very worst experience at a ground that has rarely favoured him. This performance offered a degree of closure. More, you suspect, will follow over the weekend.

BCCI president Anurag Thakur today slammed former selection committee chief Sandeep Patil for revealing confidential details about Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and others

PTI27-Sep-2016BCCI president Anurag Thakur today slammed former selection committee chief Sandeep Patil, saying it was “unethical” on his part to reveal certain confidential details about Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and others after his tenure ended earlier this month.Thakur stopped short of saying that action will be taken against Patil but said “right people in the BCCI” will speak to him soon over the issue which has created a major controversy.Patil, a former international cricketer, recently disclosed that the selection panel would have dropped Sachin Tendulkar before he eventually quit international cricket and that it had also considered removing MS Dhoni from ODI captaincy ahead of the 2015 World Cup.”Let me make it very clear. Sandeep, being a former chairman, should not have made these comments. When he was the chairman, he replied differently to the same questions. But after that [his tenure], it was different. It was totally unethical of him to do that,” Thakur told .”One should refrain from making such unethical and unwanted comments in this area [selection matters]. It is because he has been trusted to become the chairman, because he has played enough cricket. There were four more selectors with him; they did not say anything. He should have avoided that,” the BCCI president said.Asked whether any action was being contemplated by the BCCI against Patil over the breach of confidentiality, he said, “The right people in the BCCI will speak to him soon.”Thakur went to the extent of saying such a breach of confidentiality would make it difficult for any of future employers of Patil to trust him.”Any organisation, if they hire him, will think ten times that after leaving the organisation, he will speak about the organisation,” Thakur said.Patil’s four-year tenure ended when the panel announced the 15-man squad for the ongoing Test series against New Zealand.

David Warner’s 156 off 128 balls – his seventh ODI hundred in 2016 – headlined Australia’s 3-0 whitewash of New Zealand

The Report by Daniel Brettig at the MCG09-Dec-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDifferent crowd, different context, similar result. Australia returned to the scene of their 2015 World Cup final hiding of New Zealand and duly inflicted another enormous defeat on the visitors, completing the first clean sweep of a Chappell-Hadlee series in a decade, in front of a far smaller gathering than last time.Only 20,591 spectators were on hand to see the heavy lifting done by the vice-captain David Warner, who soared to his second ODI hundred in as many innings and seventh of the year, in conditions far more challenging than those prepared for either of the first two matches of the series.Warner’s innings was all the more laudable for the fact that most batsmen found scoring difficult on a slow and capricious pitch. After his 156, the next best score on either side was a doughty supporting hand of 37 by Travis Head, part of the only century stand of the match.On a chilly December day in Melbourne, the visitors had bowled with accuracy to some nifty plans devised by the captain Kane Williamson, notably catching out Aaron Finch and Steven Smith with a fielder placed at a shortish square leg. However Warner endured through the difficult passages and accelerated during a rearguard stand with Head, reaching his century, then going on to guide the Australians to a total that proved well beyond New Zealand.Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood both proved fiendishly difficult to counter in the evening, while Head made a further contribution to the match with the wickets of Martin Guptill and BJ Watling. James Faulkner chimed in with the vital dismissal of Williamson. The failure of New Zealand’s batsmen to make any impression on the scoreboard undermined some decent work earlier in the day by their bowlers, Warner’s excellence excepted.Trent Boult performed nicely for New Zealand, while the recalled Lockie Ferguson again demonstrated the high pace he is able to generate from a fast-arm action. It was Ferguson who came closest to dismissing Warner early on, but Henry Nicholls was unable to cling onto a difficult, diving outfield chance when the opener was on 18.The hosts had gone in with an unchanged team for the third match, retaining their fast bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins while also continuing to ignore the all-round skills of Glenn Maxwell. New Zealand had to leave out Jimmy Neesham due to continued pain in the arm that was struck by Starc in Canberra, while also recalling Ferguson at the expense of Matt Henry.Mitchell Starc blasted out Henry Nicholls and Colin Munro with lethal reverse-swinging yorkers•AFP

While the new ball did not swing a great deal, Boult bowled the ideal lines to coax Finch and Smith into false strokes towards the leg side that were snapped up by Nicholls. Smith’s wicket was a particular source of satisfaction after his tall scores in the first two matches of the series.George Bailey, again showcasing his backside-to-the-bowler stance, hung around to add 62 with Warner, but when his dismissal by Colin de Grandhomme was swiftly followed by Mitchell Marsh being bowled off bat and body, the Australians were in difficult straits.Warner was able to find a useful ally in Head, who struggled with timing but was at least able to rotate the strike and form a partnership, ultimately worth 105. That stand gave the hosts something to work with, and Warner was able to push on further once he passed three figures, surging beyond 150 and only being dismissed via a run out on the final ball of the innings.Matthew Wade and James Faulkner had provided some support at the back end of the innings, ensuring Australia were able to set New Zealand a total of good value on a sluggish pitch and expansive outfield. Guptill and Tom Latham made a fair start to the chase, reaching 44 in good time before Pat Cummins coaxed Latham into granting another catch to square leg, this time patrolled by Faulkner.Williamson was pinned in front of the stumps by Faulkner from around the wicket, and two overs later Guptill cracked Head’s very first ball into the outstretched hands of Bailey at cover. Nicholls was comprehensively yorked by Starc, and when Watling was found to be lbw to Head on a DRS review the game was all but up.Smith ended the match with another ripping catch, this time diving to his right at slip. While a vast match and series victory over a New Zealand side lacking both confidence and sharpness, this was no World Cup final. By their restrained celebrations it was clear that both Australian players and spectators alike were well aware of this fact.