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Another strong showing from the Pakistan contingent in round three of the Championship

Andrew Miller25-Apr-2022The third round of the 2022 County Championship concluded on Sunday, with another strong showing from the Pakistan representatives. Here we take a look at how they got on.

Division One

Mohammad Abbas
A curious season so far for Hampshire – innings win, innings loss, and now another innings win, with Kent powerless to resist a middle-order mashing at the hands of James Vince, Liam Dawson and Ben Brown. And either side of that towering total of 652 for 6 declared, Mohammad Abbas simply did the needful, picking off four wickets in the match in a support role to Keith Barker’s first-innings six-for and Kyle Abbott’s match-sealing 5 for 29. Without yet hitting the heights of previous Hampshire campaigns, Abbas has quietly picked off ten wickets at 22.60 in three matches, including a wicketless display at The Oval. His guileful, edge-threatening medium-pace will doubtless continue to bring the slips into play for some time yet.Hasan Ali
A joyous introduction to Old Trafford for Hasan Ali, who is already well on his way to feeling as at home in his northern surroundings as Lancashire’s most famous Pakistan import, Wasim Akram. Hasan’s exuberant displays with the ball were matched by his habitual power-surge celebrations – on nine separate occasions in this match, and 14 in two outings to date – as Gloucestershire were overwhelmed by one of the most eye-catching county attacks of recent vintage. His match haul of 9 for 96 comfortably outshone the returning James Anderson, albeit Anderson’s second-innings display of 2 for 25 in 25 overs was a hint of great hauls to come, as Saqib Mahmood and Matt Parkinson completed a formidable support act. With pace and swing on a hostile full length, Hasan’s finest moment was the fierce stump-smashing yorker that dispatched James Bracey on the third evening to end any realistic hopes of a Gloucestershire rearguard.Haris Rauf

Match figures of 3 for 128 in 44 overs do scant justice to Haris Rauf’s spirited attempts to carry Yorkshire’s ill-balanced attack against Northants. Shorn of the services of the newly-capped England quick Matt Fisher, they were ultimately thwarted on one of the flattest fourth-day decks that Wantage Road has produced in recent times, but not before Rauf had produced two bona fide snorters in the space of three balls in the day’s opening exchanges – a pair of round-the-wicket splice rattlers to see off Ricardo Vasconcelos and Emilio Gay, and prise open an innings that the young allrounder Matthew Revis did his best to clean out. But with Northants five-down and vulnerable come the second new ball, Rauf disappointed himself with his failure to finish the job. In particular, the Australian Matthew Kelly, coming in at No.8, stood firm against a reprisal of Rauf’s short-ball approach, twice pulling him for six over square leg, and Rauf’s work was concluded with a frustrated kick of the turf.Zafar Gohar

There wasn’t much quarter given by Lancashire while Josh Bohannon was grinding out his career-best 231, least of all while he and Dane Vilas were adding 203 for the fourth wicket across the second evening and third morning. But in emerging from the ordeal with 4 for 135 across 65 tidily compiled overs, Zafar Gohar’s left-arm spin showed once more the dependability in adversity that could yet be translated into a matchwinning capability when conditions are more in Gloucestershire’s favour. Each of his scalps was hard-earned and well prised out, not least Luke Wells, trapped on the knee-roll for 59 by one that turned back in. Gohar also popped up with a lively piece of fielding at square leg to run out George Balderson early in Lancashire’s innings, before the traffic had turned one-way.

Division Two

Shan Masood
Never mind the legendary landmark of 1000 runs before the end of May; Shan Masood is in the mood to have a dart before the end of April. He’s got 611 to his name in four innings so far, with last week’s 239 against Sussex blending seamlessly into this week’s 219 against Leicestershire – an innings best summed up by a straight drive for four off Beuran Hendricks that left Twitter weak at the knees. Once again, he will encounter stiffer bowling attacks than was on show at Grace Road, but as he showed on Pakistan’s tour of England in 2020, with a graceful 156 in the first Test at Old Trafford, the purity of his technique means he is well equipped for a return to the national set-up.Mohammad Rizwan
Mohammad Rizwan began his week with a notable accolade, after being announced as Wisden’s Leading Twenty20 Player in the World. Unfortunately for Sussex, he ended it with a (hopefully) temporary blip to his first-class form, making scores of 0 and 4 in a crushing innings defeat against Worcestershire at New Road. It was a disappointment, too, for those onlookers yearning for a display of Indo-Pak harmony out in the middle – we did at least get a glimpse of Rizwan and Cheteshwar Pujara batting together for the first time this season… but only for one ball, as Rizwan nicked his first delivery from Joe Leach to the keeper. An inducker from Ed Barnard saw him off second time around. But he did at least pick up a smart diving catch off Ben Cox for one of his two dismissals in the match. Shaheen Shah Afridi
A truly box-office debut for Shaheen Shah Afridi – who is quite possibly the most captivating signing of the summer across all competitions (not least the Hundred). His eagerly anticipated bow for Middlesex came within a leg-side snick of a first-day hat-trick against Glamorgan at Cardiff, and though his returns diminished thereafter, his impact did not. His four wickets in the match included Marnus Labuschagne, the ICC’s No.1-ranked Test batter, in both innings (as well as Sam Northeast for a first-baller) as Glamorgan’s batting twice folded in his absence for scores of 122 and 132. Afridi had fun with the bat too, biffing a quick 29 from 39 balls in Middlesex’s 336, before Labuschagne extracted a measure of revenge by having him caught in the covers.Azhar Ali

It’s been a slow start to the campaign for Azhar Ali, with this week’s innings of 20 taking his tally to 23 from three innings. However, Worcestershire hardly struggled in the absence of his big runs – thanks to Brett D’Oliveira’s unbeaten 169, they needed to bat just the once to trounce Sussex by an innings.

And the non-combatants …

Naseem Shah has been ruled out of action at least until the start of the T20 Blast next month after suffering a shoulder injury, but in his absence, Gloucestershire have pulled off something of a coup, with the news that Mohammad Amir will be coming out of his red-ball retirement as a short-term replacement. He linked up with the squad in Manchester this week, and is in line to make his return to first-class cricket against Surrey on Thursday.

Jamieson says “everyone’s ready to go” and “push for a win”

Alan Gardner05-Jun-2021Tim Southee said New Zealand had not given up on the possibility of forcing victory at Lord’s, despite a day being lost to rain. The visiting side have made the running in the first Test, with Southee’s six-wicket haul helping them to a 103-run lead, but England were kept afloat by a battling hundred from Rory Burns.Southee picked up five of the eight England wickets to fall on the fourth day, claiming a spot on the Lord’s honours board for the second time in his career. However, Burns’ efforts in compiling 132 from 297 balls helped repel New Zealand after they reduced England to 140 for 6 – still more than 200 in arrears – during the morning session.New Zealand needed to force the pace, and were immediately up and running when Kyle Jamieson found the outside edge of England captain Joe Root with his opening delivery. Burns and Root had lifted England from trouble on day two, before rain further checked New Zealand’s advance on Friday but, following Jamieson’s breakthrough, an inspired spell from Southee saw three wickets fall without addition to the score.Related

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• Rory Burns earned this recall, and needed this innings

Burns then dug in to add a valuable 63-run stand with Ollie Robinson, and another 52 for the last wicket alongside James Anderson – although he could have been stumped on 77 and was dropped at slip on 88.”Yeah, with the wicket of Joe Root from the first ball of the day, we probably couldn’t ask for a better start,” Southee said. “It was a dream start to take those early wickets but we knew there was going to be a counterpunch from England at some stage, they’re too good a side just to roll over.”Their lower order, especially Robinson, played a nice hand there, and Jimmy hanging around with Burns at the end, putting on over 50, blunted our attack towards the end. But I think if we’d turned up at the start of the day and been told we’re gonna walk off in the position we’re in now we’d have been pretty happy.Tim Southee ended with 6 for 43 and bowled eight maidens•AFP via Getty Images

“Losing yesterday doesn’t help, but there’s 98 overs tomorrow and it’s always great to turn up on the last day with all results possible. Who knows what may happen but it’s great to be in a position where we can push on. You play to win Test matches for your country and a Test win at Lord’s would be pretty special, so I’d imagine we’ll chat overnight, get together as a side and come up with a plan for day five.”Jamieson, who bagged three wickets, wasn’t too harsh on his team-mates for giving Burns a couple of chances and concurred with Southee on going for the win.”Ideally you want to take those chances; games don’t always pan out perfectly the way you want them to,” Jamieson said after the day’s play. “I certainly don’t believe that there’s time taken from the game in terms of us not being able to push for a win. We’re still ahead in this game. I guess we have the ability to control how this game is set up in the first session tomorrow and probably having that rest on day three, everyone’s ready to go for tomorrow and we’ll certainly push for a win, that’s for sure.”It’s a couple of sessions and there’s a Test victory on the line, I have no doubt that all of us will be pushing as hard as we can and just see that we get through. There’s nothing guaranteed if you bring that attitude but without a doubt we’ll certainly be bringing that, that’s for sure.”New Zealand were missing Southee’s regular new-ball partner Trent Boult for this match, but have had more than enough firepower to keep England in check. Southee’s figures of 6 for 43 bettered the 6 for 50 he claimed at Lord’s in 2013, and he may yet have the chance to help his side push for a first win on the ground this century.”Any time you contribute to the side and do your job it’s very satisfying, and I guess it’s that little bit sweeter when you do it at such a special ground like Lord’s,” he said. “It was a nice day today, and looking forward to getting out there again tomorrow at some stage.”Playing his seventh Test and his first outside New Zealand, Jamieson said he had learnt a lot from Southee, who was playing his 78th, about specific skills and the workings of Test cricket at a broader level.”I think just around the ebbs and flows of Test cricket,” Jamieson said. “Like we’ve spoken a lot around skills like wrist position, moving the ball, when to come wide of the crease. We’re always having conversations around the tactical side of the game. But it’s just an understanding of how Test cricket works. When you’ve played 70-odd Tests, you learn how Test cricket tends to flow and when there’s times when things don’t happen as quickly and as good and about staying patient and on the opposite end of the spectrum when things are happening and you put the hammer down. So those intricacies around the flow of Test cricket is the biggest thing for me.”0410 GMT: The story was updated with Kyle Jamieson’s quotes after an embargo

After a ‘weird’ start, youngster is keen for a sense of normality in his international career

Valkerie Baynes31-Dec-2019Ollie Pope knows how suddenly opportunity can come knocking… then turn around and slam the door in your face.So, rather than panic when illness robbed him of a fifth Test appearance for England at Centurion last week, he just rolled with it. Pope has learned a lot over the past 18 months or so, you see.Having played two home Tests against India in 2018, Pope was bumped from England’s tour of Sri Lanka to make way for Ben Foakes, who scored a century on debut in the first Test at Galle. Pope was then overlooked for England’s Caribbean campaign at the start of 2019 and a dislocated shoulder injury then curtailed his English summer before he found himself on Ashes standby and playing a further two Tests in New Zealand. All that and he is still just two days shy of his 22nd birthday.Now, having declared himself “pretty much 100 percent back to normal now” ahead of the second Test against South Africa starting in Cape Town on Friday after succumbing on Christmas Day to the illness doing the rounds of the England camp, Pope can be forgiven for yearning for a touch of normality in his burgeoning international career.”Absolutely,” Pope said. “It’s been a bit of a weird start to my career … I think the weirdest time for me was after I got told I was leaving that Sri Lanka tour, which was completely understandable with Foakesy coming in, scoring that hundred just put me one down. I wasn’t going to play.”Hoping I’d be on that West Indies trip, not being on that, not really hearing much and then doing my shoulder. I had no idea how far away from it all I was. That was a pretty frustrating time and I had a lot of time to think, overthink things.”As soon as I found out I was the next batter in for the Ashes, that concussion replacement, that was a massive boost for me. Then coming back – last week sums it up. I’m very rarely ill as well so that was annoying. If I do get a go at Newlands… I don’t overthink it really. I try to just take it in my stride… If I do get a run – brilliant – then hopefully I can take that and make it my own. “Also read: We ‘won’t be afraid’ to leave out Broad or Anderson – SilverwoodPope made his debut batting in the unfamiliar position of No. 4, scoring 54 runs in three innings against India. Initially included as the spare middle-order batsman in Sri Lanka, Foakes’ performance, combined with the presence of Joe Denly in the squad and Jonny Bairstow making his way back from injury, made him surplus to requirements. In a twist, it was Bairstow’s omission that handed Pope a chance in New Zealand – where he scored 29, 6 and 75 – and it is Bairstow who could make way again in Cape Town if Dom Sibley also recovers from illness in time.How things can turn in an instant.”I was looking at the county scores while I wasn’t playing and I was thinking about all these players that are probably ahead of me, in line, just purely because I wasn’t really sure even how I’d come back from the injury,” said Pope of his recovery from shoulder surgery which culminated in a double-hundred for for Surrey against Hampshire and a call-up as a potential, but ultimately unused, concussion substitute for Jason Roy, who was hit on the helmet in the nets in the lead-up to the third Ashes Test at Headingley.”Next thing you know I’m nearly playing a Test in the Ashes. That week was a good way for me to gain my confidence back and know where I’m at with this England side. And, having put a score under the belt, that was a massive boost for me as well. That was a strange week but that week hopefully set it all up.”Making Pope’s illness setback over this past week more frustrating was the fact he had scored 132 off 145 balls in an innings full of the attractive stroke play that is a distinctive feature of his game during the warm-up against South Africa A. But it has him straining at the leash to taste South African Test conditions for which he feels prepared, having faced down county team-mate Morne Morkel in the nets at Surrey.”Obviously these pitches will be a different challenge to what I’m used to,” Pope said. “But we’ve come across some quick bowlers in the county circuit, we’ve faced a lot of Morne in the nets – someone who is tall and gets a lot of bounce like a lot of their bowlers do.”In the warm-up games, felt good with it, they had some nice pace and in the nets when I get them to ramp it up on the bouncier decks, then same really. I feel confident in my game to deal with their pace and bounce.”I’ve gained the confidence in myself and my game over the last, probably – and it sounds stupid because I was injured for so much – but over this season and the back-end of last season. There’s no need to put myself under any more pressure.”I definitely don’t see it as ‘I definitely have to score runs in this game’ because I understand how cricket works. If you just stay pretty level across it all then I’m sure the good will come with the bad.”

Imrul, Liton add 148 to make light work of the chase as Bangladesh take unassailable 2-0 lead

The Report by Mohammad Isam24-Oct-2018Getty Images

After the fast bowlers significantly slowed Zimbabwe down to a middling 246 for 7 – they looked set to double their score of 147 for 2 in the 30th over – openers Liton Das and Imrul Kayes struck aggressive half-centuries to give Bangladesh a series win. The pair added 148 to ensure Bangladesh’s passage was a smooth one, victory coming in the 45th over when Mohammad Mithun pulled a long hop for six to take an unassailable 2-0 lead.Mohammad Saifuddin, playing in only his fifth ODI, left a mark with a three-wicket haul that bottled up pressure towards the end overs. Mustafizur Rahman and Mashrafe Mortaza were clinical, not allowing the batsmen a final flourish; Zimbabwe managed just 19 off the last five overs.Then heavy dew made the ball greasy, thereby hampering Zimbabwe’s bowling plans. This played into the hands of the Bangladesh openers who shellacked their way towards the target, wiping off half the runs inside the first 25 overs, before Liton fell looking to hit inside-out. Beaten by turn and dip, he sliced a flighted delivery to point to fall for a 77-ball 83.However, Liton nearly didn’t give himself time to settle in. Given out lbw off the fourth ball of the chase to Kyle Jarvis, Imrul coaxed Liton to review Rod Tucker’s decision. HawkEye showed the ball would have missed leg. This proved to be the trigger for Liton’s onslaught as he treated the crowd to an array of dazzling strokes, hitting five fours in the first five overs.As Liton sped away, Imrul consolidated and was the recipient of a reprieve in the 24th over on 58 when Brendan Taylor put down a tough chance off Sikandar Raza. But soon after Liton fell in the same over, Raza removed Fazle Mahmud for his second successive duck – he became the fourth Bangladeshi to earn this unwanted feat in his first two ODIs – to briefly excite the visitors. Having fluffed the opportunity on the first grab, Taylor somehow managed to complete the stumping.Bangladesh recovered from that little spell quickly as Zimbabwe gifted Imrul another life on 70 when Brandon Mavuta dropped him at midwicket off Doland Tiripano. Mushfiqur Rahim and Imrul milked the bowling to add a further 59 for the third wicket before the latter holed out to long-off to give Raza a third wicket, in the 38th over. Mushfiqur and Mithun then scored the remaining 36 without much fuss to extend Zimbabwe’s poor 2018.But it could have been so different had one of Zimbabwe’s batsmen gone on to make three-figures. After the openers departed, Taylor started aggressively, picking off runs without playing a shot in anger. He was particularly swift with his footwork, unafraid of walking across to throw the bowlers off by sweeping against the spinners. In the 23rd over, he reached his first half-century since the World Cup Qualifiers in March, celebrating the landmark with a chip off left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam. Once the landmark was out of the way, he seemed like a man unleashed, hitting straight over mid-off off Mustafizur.Then he lofted Mahmudullah through the line to the deep-extra-cover fence. It seemed he was set, but all the build-up came crashing down when he played an inopportune reverse sweep to be dismissed for 75.All along, Sean Williams was just pottering along, giving Taylor company before he realised the need to step up. He consolidated and was three short of a half-century when he bottom-edged a cut to the wicketkeeper to end a 41-run stand with Raza. This somewhat denied Zimbabwe a late flourish, even though Raza and Peter Moor stuck in and took the innings deep before a clutch of wickets threw them back.

Vernon Philander will return to South Africa for rehabilitation on a groin injury suffered while playing for Sussex

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Apr-2017Vernon Philander will return to South Africa for rehabilitation on a groin injury suffered while playing for Sussex. He is expected to be out for “two to three weeks” and will miss Sussex’s Royal London Cup campaign.Philander was due to be available for the first two months of the county season, with a view to acclimatising ahead of South Africa’s tour this summer. However, he only managed to send down 17 overs in Sussex’s opening Championship match – a 226-run defeat to Kent at Hove – and did not take the field in the second innings.Sussex have announced that he will head back to South Africa to rest, ruling him out of their Championship match against Nottinghamshire starting on Friday, as well as the group stage of the Royal London Cup. The club hope Philander will then be able to play in four Championship fixtures, starting with Durham’s visit on May 21.Philander has not played an ODI for South Africa since 2015 and did not make the squad for the Champions Trophy despite being considered for his ability to swing the new ball in English conditions. His fitness for the Test series, which starts on July 6, is likely to be a more pressing concern.

Megan Schutt, Australia’s Player of the Match against Ireland in Delhi, has welcomed the prospect of a probable semi-final showdown with England at the same venue on Wednesday

Andrew Miller in Delhi26-Mar-2016Megan Schutt, Australia’s Player of the Match against Ireland in Delhi, has welcomed the prospect of a possible semi-final showdown with England at the same venue on Wednesday, after helping put her team’s quest for a fourth consecutive World T20 title back on track with figures of 3 for 29 in a comfortable seven-wicket victory.Australia’s victory, which was wrapped up with 40 balls to spare, has drawn them back level with New Zealand on six points in Group A and their spot in the semi-finals was sealed after New Zealand beat South Africa Women.Assuming there are no further upsets in the women’s draw, England will finish top of Group B if they can overcome Pakistan in Chennai on Sunday, which means that the only two teams ever to have won the women’s World T20 are on course to tussle for a solitary place in the final. England won the inaugural event at Lord’s in 2009, but Australia have claimed each of the last three titles, in 2010, 2012 and 2014.”It’s always a good match-up whenever we play England,” Schutt said. “I don’t think there’s ever been a match when either of us has blown the other out of the park. No matter what the conditions are, we will both have to adapt, but I think it will be a cracking game.”Schutt admitted that her team’s prior knowledge of the conditions at the Feroze Shah Kotla could prove to be handy on Wednesday, and backed her team’s spinners, Jess Jonassen and Kirsten Beams, to put the squeeze on a slow surface. Alongside the medium pace of Rene Farrell, who took 2 for 11, the trio conceded just 39 runs in their 12 mid-innings overs.”Obviously it’s a bit of an advantage to see the ground before the opposition,” Schutt said. “I think here in the subcontinent it is very effective having the spinners, getting though overs quick, bowling back to back while tying down the runs. Hopefully we can keep up that strategy going forward.”On Australia’s overall campaign, Schutt insisted they were back in control of their destiny following their “hiccup” against New Zealand.
The speed of today’s victory was also a boon to Australia’s net run-rate, which Schutt admitted had been at the back of the team’s thoughts.”We were all thinking about it,” she said. “Obviously we have to win the game first and that was what we went out there to do today. The batters did really well to chase it down as quickly as they could and it’s in the hands of the other game now.”Obviously we had a bit of a hiccup against New Zealand but I’d rather get that out of the way in the group stages than the semi-finals. Obviously there’s lots of improvement to go, we still haven’t put out that perfect game, but hopefully we can produce that if results go our way and we get to the semi.”England haven’t been at their best throughout the tournament either. Twice they have taken apparently comfortable run-chases down to the wire, including an inordinately tight finish against West Indies in Dharmasala on Thursday, and Schutt was hopeful of preying on their anxieties if they do end up meeting in Delhi next week.”I was watching their run chase the other night,” she said. “It came down to the last ball and the last wicket, so hopefully we can get them juggling those wickets as well.”

Afghanistan leveled the series against Zimbabwe with a three-wicket win in the fourth one-day international at Queens Sports Club, with Mohammad Shahzad’s 80 setting up their pursuit of Zimbabwe’s 184

The Report by Liam Brickhill in Bulawayo22-Oct-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSikandar Raza struck five fours and a six in a determined 113-ball 86•Zimbabwe Cricket

Afghanistan leveled the series against Zimbabwe with a three-wicket win in the fourth one-day international at Queens Sports Club, with Mohammad Shahzad’s 80 setting up their pursuit of Zimbabwe’s 184 for 8. Afghanistan appeared to be cruising to the win while Shahzad was at the crease, but in spin-friendly conditions they laboured over the latter stages of their chase, slipping from 119 for 1 to 178 for 7 before 17-year-old legspinner Rashid Khan sealed the match with a six over long-off.They might have been chasing an even lower total had it not been for Sikandar Raza’s gritty 86. Only two other Zimbabwe batsmen crossed 20 as Afghanistan’s disciplined approach with the ball stifled the top order. Zimbabwe had stumbled to 82 for 6 before Raza and Luke Jongwe cobbled together a recovery with their 65-run partnership, which was the highest of the innings. Raza battled cramp and a withering blow to the groin as he hobbled through his knock, boosting Zimbabwe to a total that was never quite defendable.It looked woefully under par when Afghanistan’s openers, Shahzad and Noor Ali Zadran, cruised past fifty without offering the bowlers a chance. The opening stand was only broken at 72, in the 18th over, when Noor Ali cut left-arm spinner Chisoro to Elton Chigumbura. But it was Shahzad who had led the early charge, as he usually does, and he brought up a 60-ball fifty in the 20th over. He had also marched past 1000 ODI runs for Afghanistan in the process, and continued merrily on his way, swiping fours and sixes off Chisoro and Wellington Masakadza, Zimbabwe’s other left-arm spinner.At the other end, Mohammad Nabi got going in a similarly aggressive mode, and his first boundary was a straight six down the ground off legspinner Tino Mutombodzi. Afghanistan raced past 100, with well over half of the innings still to go, and in desperation Chigumbura turned back to opening bowler Luke Jongwe. He duly picked up a wicket with his third ball back into the attack, Nabi top-edging to mid-on, where Masakadza held onto a catch despite colliding with Tinashe Panyangara.When Shahzad skied a catch to Raza, running back from midwicket in the next over, Afghanistan were 119 for 3 and wobbling slightly. Suddenly Zimbabwe buzzed with energy in the field, and reinvigorated bowlers repeatedly beat the outside edge. Chisoro was the pick of the bunch, and relentless pressure from his end eventually resulted in the dismissal of Nawroz Mangal, who gloved a sweep to Craig Ervine at slip.Afghanistan were 133 for 4 then, needing only 52 to win, and Asghar Stanikzai hurried them closer by attacking the leg-side boundary off both the spinners and the quicks. Again, victory appeared a formality but when Samiullah Shenwari and Shafiqullah fell in consecutive overs, nerves began to set in. Zimbabwe scrapped for every run, and with seven needed Stanikzai was bowled by Sean Williams for 32 to reduce the visitors to 178 for 7. Zimbabwe were into the tail, but Afghanistan’s tailenders hit the ball as hard as their top order and Rashid sealed the match with a huge blow off Williams.Shahzad later said that the side took heart from the presence of allrounders in the side to recover from batting collapses. “It’s a part of the game. Sometimes, the middle order collapses and sometimes the top order collapses,” Shahzad said after the match. “We’ve had batting collapses in the last two matches, so it’s no problem because we have a lot of batting allrounders. We never feel like the match is getting out of hand because we know that one more batsman is there in the pavilion.”Had Zimbabwe been able to scrape themselves past 200, they might have been able to apply greater pressure but their top order was scuppered by Afghanistan’s committed effort. Their top four were all back in the pavilion inside the first 15 overs, and there was relentless pressure as Raza and Chigumbura were able to score just 24 off the next ten overs. A ball-watching Chigumbura was then run out for 15, and an over later Mutombodzi’s stumping left Zimbabwe in serious trouble at 82 for 6.Raza and Jongwe carried the side slowly past 100 in the 35th over, and Raza began to open up as he approached his fifty. He reached the mark with a six and a four off Shenwari in the 39th over, but he was already limping by then and the physio had been called out to attend to a problem in his right leg during the drinks break. He lost Jongwe in the 45th over, caught in the deep for 22, and was then left writhing on the ground when he was struck by a quick delivery from Dawlat Zadran in the 48th over. He bravely weathered the blow, and his own fatigue, to run five twos and a three before he was eventually dismissed by the penultimate ball of the innings for 86. Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, his efforts were all in vain.

Lonwabo Tsotsobe will represent his third first-class club when he joins the Lions for the 2013-14 season

Firdose Moonda17-May-2013Lonwabo Tsotsobe will represent his third franchise in as many seasons after he decided to move to the Lions for the 2013/14 summer. Tsotsobe originally hails from the Eastern Cape and represented the Warriors for seven seasons before changing allegiances to the Dolphins over the past season and will now play for the Lions.How frequently he turns out for the Johannesburg-based franchise will depend on his international commitments. Tsotsobe is a regular member of South Africa’s ODI and T20 team and is often on the fringes of the Test squad, which limits the amount of time he can play domestic cricket.Tsotsobe has also earned a reputation for shirking his domestic responsibilities, although a number of family-related problems were partly to blame for his absence from the circuit. He only turned out for the Dolphins in the one-day competition, where he played nine matches, but did not play a single first-class or T20 match, much to their administrations’ displeasure.Should he make the odd appearance for the Lions, he will team up with Chris Morris and Hardus Viljoen in what could be a fearsome trio of quicks. “He has a tremendous amount of ability and and I believe he will bring experience and guidance to some of the younger players in the squad,” Geoffrey Toyana, Lions coach, said.They will have to wait until after the Champions League T20 to make use of Tsotsobe, though. He will not be able to represent the Lions because he was not part of the contracted squad that qualified for the event.Tsotsobe is not the only big mover this winter. Hashim Amla also left the Dolphins and will ply his trade at Cape Cobras. This leaves the Dolphins’ franchise without two of its most senior players.They have been bolstered by the arrival of veteran wicket-keeper batsman Morne van Wyk from the Knights. The franchise from the Free State also lost Ryan Bailey to the Warriors.

Rangpur Riders scored their third win in the competition defeating Khulna Royal Bengals by 33 runs in a low-scoring match

Mohammad Isam29-Jan-2013
ScorecardRangpur Riders scored their third win in the competition defeating Khulna Royal Bengals by 33 runs in a low-scoring match. The target was a meager 123, but by the 15th over, Riders’ bowlers had turned the game into a one-sided affair before Fidel Edwards completed the victory.Defending a low total, it was Edwards who gave Riders the perfect start with the wicket of Lou Vincent in the first over. The wickets of Mizanur Rahman and Riki Wessels followed soon after. Captain Shahriar Nafees laboured to a 22-ball 14 before getting caught cutting Nasir Hossain. Daniel Harris and
Asif Ahmed battled for a while before both fell within 10 balls of each other to end the Royal Bengals resistance as they collapsed to the lowest total in BPL.Edwards ended up with four wickets as he cleaned up the tail while captain Abdur Razzak took three wickets.Riders were not always on top in the game though. Harris, Royal Bengals’ part-time medium-pacer, took three wickets, a catch and hit the stumps direct to pin them down. Harris removed Danza Hyatt, Cameron Borgas and Niall O’Brien in a four-over spell that dictated the pace of the game.
Kevin O’Brien top scored with an unbeaten 24 off 30 balls with just a
Boundary, but Riders stumbled their way to 122.

A dramatically recast Australian team rued Faf du Plessis’ composure for the second time in the space of four days as South Africa scrambled to 225 then snipped the top off Australia’s batting order on day one of the third Test

Daniel Brettig30-Nov-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMitchell Starc improved greatly in his second spell, finding the perfect length and just enough swing a few minutes before lunch•Getty Images

Though Perth is three hours behind the rest of Australia, the nature of the WACA ground pitch is to encourage a match in fast forward, and so it was again. A dramatically recast Australian team rued Faf du Plessis’ composure for the second time in the space of four days as South Africa scrambled to 225 then snipped the top off Australia’s batting order on day one of the third Test.Twelve wickets fell for 257 runs, but with enough evidence between several rushes of wickets to suggest that batsmen will prosper at some point during the match. Du Plessis’ exemplary, unbeaten 78 was compiled after he came to the wicket amidst the fall of 5 for 14 either side of lunch. It granted South Africa some sort of total to bowl at, enough for Dale Steyn and the fit-again Vernon Philander to nip out Ed Cowan and Shane Watson before the ball had lost its shine.The WACA ground rose mistakenly to laud Ricky Ponting at the fall of Watson’s wicket, but it was the nightwatchman Nathan Lyon who walked out instead. He did Ponting a major good turn in the 37-year-old’s final Test by accompanying a somewhat jumpy David Warner to the close at 2 for 33.Aside from the aforementioned period of frenzy, Australia found breakthroughs difficult to extract on a bouncy but true surface. The Australia bowlers shared the spoils, Mitchell Starc perhaps the pick with a pair of late inswingers to bowl Alviro Petersen and Jacques Kallis in the closing minutes of the morning session. Lyon vindicated his inclusion with 3 for 41, the debutant John Hastings and vice-captain Shane Watson contributed important wickets, while Mitchell Johnson claimed two of his own and intimidated at times with well-directed short balls.Lacking James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus due to their Adelaide exertions, Starc and Johnson were recalled while Hastings made his debut as the into-the-wind trundler so often favoured at the WACA ground.Having been 12th man in Brisbane and Adelaide, Starc found himself taking the new ball at the start of the Test. There was some early swing for him and Petersen was given out lbw by the umpire Richard Kettleborough when one delivery curled back into the opener’s pads, but a review had the ball passing high and wide of the stumps.That ball was not representative of the opening spells for either Starc nor Hastings, who both erred on the short side to give plenty of sighters to Petersen and Smith. Clarke called on Watson at first change and followed up with Johnson at the other end, and their spells signalled a change in the morning. Watson found a little movement either way and bowled a far better length, rewarded when Smith pushed out at ball going across him and edged to Clarke at slip.

Smart stats

• Faf du Plessis has become the first batsman to score more than 70 in each of his first three Test innings. The batsman who got nearest to achieving it was Australia’s Herbie Collins, who scored 70, 104 and 64 in his first three. Andrew Strauss was close too, with scores of 112, 83 and 62.

• This is the third successive instance of the team batting first scoring less than 300 in a Perth Test, following India’s 161 earlier this year and Australia’s 268 in the 2010 Ashes.

• Dean Elgar has become the first South Africa top-order batsman (batting in the top 7) to score a duck on Test debut since Gerhardus Liebenberg in 1998.

• In nine Tests when AB de Villiers has played as wicketkeeper, he has an average of 29.23 with a strike rate of 39.62 and one half-century in 15 innings. When he doesn’t keep wicket, he averages 50.42 at a strike rate of 55.01.

• Nathan Lyon’s 3 for 41 are the third-best figures by an Australia spinner in the first innings of a Perth Test, after Bruce Yardley’s 5 for 107 in 1982 and Shane Warne’s 4 for 83 in 1997.

Johnson produced some nasty deliveries to Smith and some compelling ones to Amla, beating the No. 3 for pace and length on more than one occasion. Having been given a firm idea of how to bowl by two more experienced WACA ground exponents, Starc improved greatly in his second spell. A few minutes before lunch he found the perfect length and just enough swing to burst through Petersen’s drive, and in the next over produced a near identical delivery to do the same to Kallis.South Africa thus ended the session in far worse shape than they had seemed likely to for most of its duration. Starc had learned quickly, helped by the examples of Watson and Johnson. On resumption Hastings commenced an excellent spell up-wind, finding useful outswing in addition to sharp bounce.Amla was fortunate when he flicked Hastings straight to midwicket in the first over, Ed Cowan dropping a simple chance, but in the next he was caught somewhat short of the appropriate gear when de Villiers called a quick single – David Warner’s direct hit found Amla short and saved Cowan the blushes. Unnerved by the run-out, de Villiers walked into a delectable, swerving ball from Hastings in the next over and edged to Clarke at slip.Elgar’s first appearance at a Test batting crease was not pretty – Johnson worked him around the crease with a hostile spell – and he completed a 12-ball duck by gloving a short ball tamely to Wade when trying to hook. The first ball Peterson faced was full, fast and far too quick for him, but it narrowly missed off stump.Slowly du Plessis and Peterson regathered somewhat less shaky ground, punching the ball through the field and taking advantage of Perth’s typically quick outfield. De Plessis eluded a concerted lbw appeal and referral by Watson when ball-tracking had the ball missing leg stump, and the pair had caught a glimpse of tea when Lyon was introduced.There was evidence of loop, bounce and turn in Lyon’s first over, and in his third a shortish ball bounced enough to draw a fatal error from Peterson. Philander contributed another nuisance lower-order innings to follow up, however, advancing to loft Lyon into the crowd at wide long on before he skied to Michael Hussey when attempting a repeat. Lyon had moved around the wicket, and was rewarded further when he claimed the last man Morne Morkel, who had clumped a trio of boundaries from the bowling of Johnson after Steyn played on.Left with a little under an hour to bat, Warner flashed absentmindedly at Steyn’s first delivery. His third angled teasingly across Cowan, who pushed at the line in expectation of some swing, but finding none succeeded only in edging to Kallis at slip for a golden duck. Watson late cut his first ball to the fence, but his tendency to plonk the front pad down the pitch was exploited by Philander, who had the plumbest of lbw decisions bizarrely refused by Asad Rauf. The inevitable review set that call right, and left Lyon to bravely protect Ponting until stumps.