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Will Smeed, Lewis Gregory the standouts for home side in 15-run win

ECB Reporters Network02-Jul-2023Kent Spitfires’ hopes of grabbing the last quarter-final place in the Vitality Blast were dashed by the Somerset juggernaut as the runaway South Group winners pulled off a 15-run win at Taunton.Will Smeed led a typical assault by the home side after losing the toss, smashing 61 off 28 balls, while Sean Dickson (41), Tom Kohler-Cadmore (31) and Lewis Gregory (37) made significant contributions to a score of 221 for 7. Grant Stewart claimed 4 for 48, but left-arm spinner George Linde was the pick of the Kent bowlers with 2 for 25.In reply, the Spitfires, looking to overtake Essex in the table, posted 206 for 7, Joey Evison cracking 46 off 24 balls, Jack Leaning 41 and skipper Sam Billings 36. It was Somerset’s 12th victory in 14 group matches, a record for the competition.Despite claiming the early wicket of Tom Banton, caught and bowled off a waist-high Stewart full toss, the visitors were unable to prevent Somerset scoring 63 off the initial six-over powerplay. Smeed was soon taking advantage of a true batting pitch with a short boundary on the town side of the ground. He and Kohler-Cadmore responded to the loss of Banton with a string of sweetly-struck boundaries.Both cleared the ropes in the power play and had taken the score to 72 in the eighth over when Kohler-Cadmore was caught at long-on off Stewart, having faced just 18 balls.Smeed went past 2000 T20 runs with his fourth six, launched over cover off Stewart, before going to a 23-ball fifty that delighted a packed crowd at the Cooper Associates County Ground.Another exhilarating mixture of muscular blows and deft touches ended when 21-year-old Smeed swept a ball from Linde and was caught at deep backward square, with the total 103 in the tenth over.Tom Abell also fell to a sweep shot off Linde, Jordan Cox taking a brilliant diving catch. But Dickson ensured there was no slowing of the scoring rate, hitting three sixes and two fours in a stand of 47 in less than five overs with Gregory. The former Kent player was eventually caught behind off what would have been a wide from Stewart, but Gregory’s 19-ball innings guaranteed Somerset a challenging total.Kent’s hopes of chasing it down suffered an early blow when opener Tawanda Muyeye, already dropped by Dickson at deep midwicket, hit a six off Matt Henry’s first ball of the second over before lifting a catch to mid-on off the next delivery.Alex Blake threatened briefly, smashing a big six off Henry in racing to 24 off just 10 balls before being run out backing up as the New Zealand seamer fingertipped a drive from Billings onto the stumps.Billings began watchfully, but cleared the ropes for the first time off Ben Green in the seventh over, fetching a ball from outside off stump and dispatching it over deep square. The Spitfires had ended the powerplay on 63 for 3, still in the game.Billings greeted the introduction of legspinner Ish Sodhi with a six over long-on and was warming to his task with successive boundaries off Gregory before Somerset’s captain struck back by bowling him with the last ball of the ninth over. Leaning responded with a six over deep square off Overton and followed up with a four to third-man as 17 came off the 11th over.Experienced New Zealander Sodhi had Linde caught at long-off and Kent required 103 from the last eight. Some defiant blows from Leaning and Evison reduced the target to 69 from five.Evison then hit Green for six as 16 came off the 16th over. Leaning followed up by clearing the ropes off Davey, but when he fell to Gregory two overs later, having faced 30 balls, Somerset regained control and Evison’s impressive effort ended when he was caught off Henry to kill off Kent hopes.

“The last Test cycle gave us a big reflection… we weren’t scoring at such a high rate as our opposition,” says Shan Masood

Andrew Fidel Fernando17-Jul-2023Saud Shakeel has had an excellent start to his Test career, but in a different way from how Harry Brook has had an excellent start to his Test career.After 10 innings, Shakeel averages 72.50. After 17 knocks, Brook is at 64.25.Few who have watched them bat before Monday, would have made the comparison, though. And here’s why. If you halve Brook’s Test-match strike rate of 94.31, you’ve still got to go down a few points to meet Shakeel’s, which is at 41.66.Shakeel had faced 1392 deliveries at this level and hit a single six. Brook’s faced 1090 and hit 20.And yet, suddenly, after a six-month Test-match hiatus, Pakistan are racing at a run rate of 4.91 after 45 overs in their first innings, Shakeel their top-scorer so far, with 69 not out off 88 deliveries. Agha Salman, whose Test strike rate had been 56.65 before this game, was Shakeel’s chief partner in Galle, making 61 off 84 by stumps.Related

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The pair came together with Pakistan in deep trouble at 101 for 5, after Sri Lanka made 312. They then put on 120 off 136 deliveries, and remained unbeaten at the crease. They swept hard, frequently came out of their crease, and rarely allowed bowlers to build up dot balls.Shan Masood, who’d earlier struck 39 off 30, revealed that this was the result of a team-wide change in direction.”The last Test cycle gave us a big reflection, and this management was very firm that one of the things that was lacking with us not winning Test matches or not finishing them off, was that we weren’t scoring at such a high rate as our opposition. That has been a concentrated effort.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“There were guys who were given a grant to go and play cricket in England, but the rest of the guys put in a lot of hard work during two skill camps that were based in Lahore and Karachi before we flew out to Sri Lanka. The emphasis was on scoring runs, just to put the opposition under pressure.”In the camps, everything was left to individual preferences, but they were provided platforms to experiment – to play all kinds of shots, see what suited them, what kinds of oppositions they were coming up against. If you look at the players in our set-up – particularly Saud and Agha – you can see subtle changes that have allowed them to score quickly.”The new aggression is understood to be driven at least partly by Pakistan’s new team director Mickey Arthur, though also supported by others in the coaching and support staff. In this particular match, it may also have to do with the conditions and current opposition.Arthur, who coached Sri Lanka between 2019 and 2021, not only has close knowledge of the track in Galle, but was also head coach when the likes of Prabath Jayasuriya and Ramesh Mendis made their Test debuts.”Coming into these conditions in Sri Lanka, one thing Sri Lanka does is hold the opposition to miserly run rates, and they get the wickets in between as well,” Masood said. “Yes, we lost wickets, but that way of playing allowed us to stay in the game. Once we got that one healthy partnership, the two teams are in an even position now.”The theory that in Galle, you get your runs before the inevitable good ball gets you out, is not new. Many batters have tried this strategy, including Sri Lanka’s own, with varying degrees of success. But it is the first time that Pakistan – one of the most frequent tourists to Sri Lanka in the 21st century – have made aggressive batting a team focus.”Normally you see Test matches move from day three, but from what I’ve seen at Galle, Test matches finish in four days,” Masood said. “There are some funny things that happen here because the ball keeps doing something. The breeze alows the fast bowlers to stay in, there’s some reverse swing, there’s some nice carry, the spinners are always the main frontrunners. While you’re there, make the most of it. You want to limit that fourth innings chase to as little as possible.”

England great bows out in perfect finale as England square the series at Kia Oval

Andrew Miller31-Jul-2023There aren’t many fairytale finishes in elite-level sport, but Stuart Broad came closer than most players ever could. In claiming Australia’s final two wickets at the Kia Oval, Broad put his personal seal on a thrilling fifth Test, closing out a series-squaring 49-run victory, and bowing out on a high with a final tally of 604 wickets at 27.68 in his remarkable 167-Test career.”It was absolutely wonderful,” Broad told Sky Sports at the close. “The crowd were unbelievable. It was so loud and we just jumped on the back of that. To contribute to the team with two wickets is very special. When you make that decision you wonder what your last ball will be so to take a wicket to win an Ashes Test match is pretty cool.”Broad’s decision to retire was announced at the close of play on day three, at which point England led by a hefty 377 runs and appeared nailed on to seal victory in the remaining two days. As things turned out, however, Usman Khawaja and David Warner bit a large chunk out of that with an unbeaten century stand on a truncated fourth day, and it wasn’t until Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali came together in a crucial fifth-wicket alliance on the final afternoon that England’s path to victory was reopened.”I thought Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali set the tone absolutely unbelievably,” Broad added. “Woakesy picked up a couple of wickets, particularly Steve Smith, who has just been a wonderful player to play against all these years. Once we got a couple we really started to believe.”Related

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Moeen bowled 23 overs for his three wickets, despite being hampered with a groin strain sustained while batting on the first day. And afterwards, he too confirmed that this Test would be his last, joking that “if Stokesy messages me again I’m going to delete it,” after the WhatsApp exchange that triggered his return to the side after a two-year absence.”A special mention to Moeen, he’s not officially announced he’s moving on, but we’ve played a lot together and he’s been such a special friend,” Broad added. “To put that performance in to help England win an Ashes Test match will be a dream come true for him.”England’s victory was not without controversy, following a ball-change late on day four that offered significantly more bounce and movement than the 37-over-old original that it replaced. But with Australia’s ninth-wicket pair, Alex Carey and Todd Murphy, whittling the requirement down into the 50s, it took one last act of Broad black magic to break the contest open again. Having successfully swapped the bails in the first innings, moments before Marnus Labuschagne snicked off to Mark Wood, he repeated the trick at the non-striker’s end, then immediately found Murphy’s edge to dismiss him for 18.The fact that England persevered with the same ball that had claimed all ten wickets was, Broad admitted, a lesson that they had learned from their crucial two-wicket loss in the series opener at Edgbaston.”I don’t have many regrets with cricket,” he added. “I wouldn’t have taken the second new ball at Edgbaston. Throughout the series the new ball has been the hardest time to bowl. We found it hard to create changes after that.”If I could turn back the clock for that final hour I’d have maybe stayed with the old ball, stayed heavy and short and see if they’d made a mistake. I had blood in my socks, sweat, and I knew the team had put their heart and soul into it. When you lose to a great team like that, but you know you’ve done everything like that, you’ve got to hold your head high.”Stuart Broad bowls in his final Test match•ECB via Getty Images

On his remarkable longevity, maintaining his standards over a 17-year England career, and even reaching a new peak of performance in his final three post-Covid years, Broad put that down to his relentless curiosity, and desire to keep learning new tricks – not least his angle into left-handers from round the wicket, which contributed significantly to his tally of 17 dismissals against Warner.”I like detail, data and I like to research things,” he said. “I almost need facts and data for me to believe something. That was something that was very evident when I decided to come round the wicket in 2015 and really worked on bowling to left-handers around the wicket. My data wasn’t very good so I had to make a change. I did a lot of research into Davey Warner because I found him difficult to bowl at and to try and find a way to dismiss him.”In Test cricket it is about knowing what your weaknesses are but finding your exact strengths and sticking to them so strongly and not getting knocked away. Test cricket and the whole environment, there’s a lot of things trying to knock you off the straight road, but if you can stay on it you’ll have a lot of success coming your way. I’ve found that a lot more in the last 10 years and I’ve focused solely on what my super strengths are and I’ve stuck to them in this series.”To complete a special personal occasion, Broad even hit his final ball for six – a feat last achieved by West Indies’ Wayne Daniel in 1984. “The six was the only ball I’ve middled all year! I was quite happy that went for six.”

Ben Foakes says Championship defence “far from over” despite eighth win of season

Vithushan Ehantharajah05-Sep-2023How’s that for ruthless? By 10.45am on day three, Surrey had sewn up victory over Warwickshire by an innings and 97 runs. The three remaining wickets taking so little time people were still coming through the gates as the players were lining up to shake hands.The brunt of the work had been done on day two, with 17 Warwickshire wickets meaning Tuesday’s ask was a formality, which it proved to be. An eighth win of the season means Surrey will carry a lead of at least 18 points over challengers Essex into their penultimate match of the season against Northamptonshire. And with all due respect to the side bottom of Division One, it has all the makings of a repeat of 2022’s season finale. Victory over Yorkshire in their penultimate game confirmed Championship glory, and history looks set to repeat itself.An early finish was assisted by an unnecessarily early start when Dan Worrall sent down the first of 24 deliveries at 10.28am. His fifth, catching Henry Brookes’ edge and flying to Jamie Overton at second slip, came at the scheduled start time of 10.30am, adding to the sense Surrey were so far ahead in this match they were making up time.Worrall bagged a third five-wicket haul of the season in the following over from the Vauxhall End, decking one across Dan Mousley, the only batter to emerge with true credit in a dire Warwickshire second innings with a valiant 60. Jordan Clark then skittled Chris Rushworth to at least give their opponents time to enjoy the sunshine before heading back to Birmingham ahead of rush hour.”Quite a few guys are going on holiday, so it’s nice that this finishes early because they’ve got a 4am leave for the airport the day after the game [Thursday], which is handy,” Ben Foakes said, slightly tongue-in-cheek. Surrey have the next round off, as do second-placed Essex, meaning there will be little to worry about back home. Nevertheless, it seems odd the players would have cut it so fine with flight times, though perhaps they are just used to clocking off early by now. After all, this was their fourth victory of the season notched in three days, and this one could have been done in two.”There’s still a lot of cricket and Essex are a serious side,” said Foakes, whose 125, his third century of the season, helped Surrey to a surprisingly insurmountable first innings of 396. “They’re probably more than likely to win their home games and they’re always going to be on our tail. It’s far from over.”It’s an annoying quirk of the schedule that the frontrunners will only play each other once this season, which is also how it panned out with Surrey’s closest challengers last summer, Hampshire. Even from afar, beyond their rain-affected draw in May, Surrey’s seam against Essex’s spin has been an intriguing battle of styles on their respective home patches.As such, it was fitting both Worrall and Clark, two signings who have bedded into the club seamlessly, would finish things off and in turn find themselves both on 46 dismissals this season. Together with the returning Kemar Roach, who finished with five in the match, Rory Burns admitted captaincy has rarely been easier. His only moment of doubt came when he feared the hosts might have let Warwickshire off the hook after losing their final six batters for 53.”I think we were expecting the pitch to get even better for batting as the game went on, over the four days, and having had to bat first after losing the toss – I certainly didn’t expect what happened yesterday, but it’s pretty easy for me as captain when I’ve got a bowling attack as good as ours,” Burns said.”It was good to have Kemar [Roach] back and Dan [Worrall] was exceptional. He’s a real leader out there and a brilliant bowler with many skills. But I thought Jordan [Clark] also put in a really good performance in this match and there is a lot of excitement in this group about what is to come in the next few weeks.”For Warwickshire, such a chastening defeat requires perspective given the injuries to two first-choice batters (Rob Yates and Alex Davies), and the unavailability of Jacob Bethell and Liam Norwell. While their absences were covered, with Kraigg Brathwaite parachuting in for the final month of the season, the end result, if not the performance, had some mitigation. After staying up by the skin of their teeth on the last day of the 2022 season, they will take mid-table mediocrity.”Dan Worrall was outstanding throughout the match and Jordan Clark too bowled extremely well but we came into this match a little bit light due to injuries and unavailability,” head coach, Mark Robinson, said. “Kraigg Brathwaite only arrived [from the West Indies} the day before this game, Ed Barnard had never batted at No. 3 before and Chris Benjamin has not had that much cricket in this format recently. But none of that is an excuse because we should be better than we have been. We still should have had more quality as a team than we showed here.”By stark contrast, Surrey did not even have to put their new signing Sai Sudharsan into action despite a handful of their players away on England duty. His time will come with Jamie Smith due to play in the ODI series against Ireland at the end of September. The keeper-batter’s call-up will be to rest those on their way to the World Cup, which includes the Surrey trio of Jason Roy, Sam Curran and Gus Atkinson.

Bavuma has praise for de Kock hundred after “close-to-perfect game” for South Africa

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-20231:39

Moody: This Australian team is far from the previous champion sides

Following two big losses in two matches to start the 2023 ODI World Cup, Australia captain Pat Cummins has said his side is “hurting” but that they must find a way to regroup and “make amends”.”I think if we want to be challenging, you [have] got to try and find a way in all conditions, and that’s for the bowlers try and take wickets and for the batters try and score runs,” Cummins told the host broadcaster after the match.”Probably not much needs to be said [to my team-mates] tonight. I think everyone’s hurting. We’ve got a few days and the next game’s here as well. So we’ll group and regroup…everyone’s hurting. So we’re trying to make amends.”Related

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After folding for 177 in the 134-run defeat to South Africa, following their six-wicket opening defeat against India in Chennai, Australia find themselves at No. 9 on the points table. Their batting floundered on both occasions, with 46 being the highest individual score from their line-up across the matches in a tournament that has so far seen 12 centuries.Against South Africa, their bowling and fielding – they dropped six catches – was also not up to the mark.”I wouldn’t say it’s one thing [where Australia went wrong],” he said. “Maybe they [South Africa] got a few more than we would have liked. And obviously 177 is off the mark as well. So yeah, it’s a few things we need to tidy up.”South Africa captain Temba Bavuma, meanwhile, was a happy man after his side backed up their record-breaking performance against Sri Lanka. Both of South Africa’s wins have had several statement performances – four out of those 12 centuries of the tournament have come from their batters.Bavuma described the Australia game as “close to perfect” for his team.”I think I’d be really greedy if I said there’ll be areas that we can improve,” he said. “I think there was a close-to-perfect game for us. The goal is maybe with the bat, we could have finished a little bit stronger, but I think they really bowled well throughout the whole innings.”At no point did the run rate get out of control for them…I think looking at all the different phases, the powerplay in the middle, as well as the death – wasn’t really much of a death – but I think the guys really dominated that. I don’t want to be too greedy. There’s not much that I can see.”I think you can have a look at the good work that we’ve done and achieved. So I’d take the confidence, take the learnings and experience from that…and to celebrate our individual performances, and then we’ll come back tomorrow and we find ways to get better as a team.”Having been put in, South Africa managed 311 for 7 thanks to Quinton de Kock’s second hundred of the tournament. While Cummins felt at one point the target was “chaseable”, he admitted that the ball zipped around more when his side batted. Bavuma said he was glad he had lost the toss, crediting de Kock for taking them to a total he thought was above par on a “tricky” surface.”I do think the 311 was probably a couple over par. I think 290-300 was the par score,” Bavuma said. “I guess I’m glad we lost the toss because we would have also had a lot to chase. I think things worked out in our favour. I found it quite tricky myself with the bat. I was scratchy throughout my innings. I think Quinton going out and ending up with this with a score like that, I think he needs to be credited a lot.”

“It’s not a crime to make mistakes as long as you learn from those mistakes,” said Pakistan’s director of cricket after the side’s underwhelming World Cup campaign

Andrew Fidel Fernando11-Nov-2023Babar Azam is still learning as captain, and deserves to be backed. This is what Pakistan’s director of cricket Mickey Arthur said, after wrapping up an underwhelming World Cup campaign with a 93-run loss to England.Pakistan finished with five losses in nine matches and had struggled through the middle of the league stage, losing to India, Australia, Afghanistan, and South Africa all in a row. Babar’s own form wasn’t quite to expectation, given the extremely high standards he often sets in white-ball cricket. He averaged 40 and struck at 82.9, hitting five fifties and making a high score of 74.As a result, Babar’s captaincy has come under significant scrutiny at home. He had been the top-ranked ODI batter, and Pakistan had been the top-ranked ODI side as recently as September. But poor campaigns in both the Asia Cup and World Cup have now changed the outlook on his leadership.Related

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“I get behind Babar – he is very, very close to me,” Arthur said after the loss to England. “He’s a young guy that needs to be taken on the journey with. He needs to be shown the ropes. He’s still learning all the time. We know he’s a very, very fine batsman. He learns every day with his captaincy.”Babar has had the ODI reins for over three years now, and at 29 has played international cricket for more than eight years.”He’s growing and we have to allow him the time to grow,” Arthur said. “And in order to do that, you make mistakes. It’s not a crime to make mistakes as long as you learn from those mistakes and as a group, we’ve made a lot of mistakes this World Cup. But if this group grows and learns from it, we’ve got the core of a very, very good side.”In terms of what went wry for Pakistan in this campaign, Arthur made two major observations. The first was that Pakistan only appeared the kind of side that can put up a seriously big score – as teams like India, South Africa, and Australia frequently do – when Fakhar Zaman plays a big innings.”Batting-wise, we have to become a 330-350 team,” he said. “The teams that are doing that and doing that consistently are the teams that are in the semi-final. And I don’t think we’ve done that consistently enough. We do that when Fakhar Zaman comes off and we can’t just be relying on one-on-one player.”The second observation was on the bowling. Naseem Shah’s injury-forced absence, Arthur said, put Pakistan’s attack off kilter. Among those who are seen to have underperformed the most in this Pakistan campaign, is Haris Rauf, who took 16 wickets at 33.31, but went at 6.74 an over.”The one thing we know is that Haris Rauf doesn’t normally bowl with the new ball. When you lose Naseem Shah, you have to find somebody to bowl with a new ball. We’ve been working hard on him with a new ball, and he bowled okay in patches. But when he bowls with an older ball – that’s what he’s used to.”It’s not an excuse. Our bowling equilibrium was out of kilter because Naseem Shah provides the consistency, where it allows Shaheen Shah [Afridi] to attack, and then you can attack with your legspinner and you attack with Haris Rauf. So, the equilibrium was upset but that is no excuse at all because quite frankly we haven’t played well enough.”

On a day where only 32.3 overs were possible, Bangladesh were 38 for 2 at stumps

Himanshu Agrawal08-Dec-2023Glenn Phillips provided a lesson on how to bat on a sharp turner, counterattacking his way to 87 off just 72 balls on the third day of the second Test between Bangladesh and New Zealand. On a challenging pitch where almost every ball from the spinners was either turning square or keeping incredibly low, or both, Phillips had walked in at 46 for 5 on the first evening. His aggressive intent took New Zealand to 180, eight ahead of the hosts’ first-innings total of 172At stumps, Bangladesh were 38 for 2 in their second innings, 30 ahead of New Zealand. A late start and an early finish because of bad light meant only 32.3 overs were possible in the whole day.Gloomy conditions in Dhaka forced a late start, with play on Friday beginning two and a half hours later than scheduled. This was after rain had washed out the entire second day. With New Zealand on 55 for 5, and trailing by 117, overnight batters Phillips and Daryl Mitchell played contrasting roles to thwart Bangladesh, who predictably had left-arm spinner Taijul Islam and offspinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz bowling in tandem.While Phillips seemed to be on the offensive as early as the second over of the day, Mitchell remained content to block. Often standing deep in the crease, Phillips slashed hard at deliveries that were even slightly short and outside off, and swung across the line against the ones that were full and in the line of the stumps.In the second over of the day, he punched Mehidy for four to deep point, before slog-sweeping and driving him for further boundaries in the 16th. In between, he was beaten by Taijul twice while looking to push at deliveries that were turning away, even as the ball stayed low or skidded through.But the conditions mattered little for Phillips. And despite Bangladesh having multiple fielders on the leg-side boundary – deep-backward square leg and deep midwicket were in place most of the time – he continued attacking. His first six came in the 18th over when Mehidy bowled one full on the pads, and he slog-swept it over deep square leg.Mahmudul Hasan Joy fell in the first over of Bangladesh’s second innings•AFP via Getty Images

At the other end, Mitchell took a good stride forward to get to the pitch of the ball to defend the full deliveries. Even when he stepped out, he only looked to nudge them away. In the 20th over, he attempted a reverse sweep off Mehidy and the ball popped up to short leg. The on-field umpire ruled it in the batter’s favour, and when Bangladesh reviewed it, replays showed the ball had hit Mitchell just below the left shoulder.In the next over, Mitchell also had a slice of luck when he leaned into a drive against Taijul, got an outside edge and the ball fell just short of the slip fielder. Bangladesh introduced Nayeem Hasan into the attack from the other end. Phillips launched his first ball over deep-backward square leg for six, but three deliveries later, Nayeem got Mitchell.With a mid-off in place, Mitchell stepped out to hit Nayeem over his head but didn’t get the required distance. Mehidy, halfway back at long-on, ran across to his left and dived sideways to complete the catch. Mitchell fell for 18, ending a sixth-wicket stand of 49 off 60 balls with Phillips.Nayeem also had Mitchell Santner nicking to slip in his second over, reducing New Zealand to 97 for 7. But Phillips kept going, with even umpire Rod Tucker not being spared. In the 26th over, he pulled one forcefully towards square leg where the ball hit Tucker just above his left knee. In the same over, he hit Nayeem for a six and a four. The boundary brought up his half-century, off just 38 balls.He and Kyle Jamieson added 55 off only 53 deliveries, of which Jamieson contributed 20. Phillips and Tim Southee then took New Zealand past Bangladesh’s total before the innings came to an end. The visitors’ last five wickets smashed 134 runs at a run rate of 5.25, the highest for 100 or more runs for the last five wickets where the first five fell within 50 runs (where data is available).Ajaz Patel then had Mahmudul Hasan Joy nicking to slip the third ball of Bangladesh’s second innings. Zakir Hasan and Najmul Hossain Shanto stroked a few boundaries after that, before Shanto chipped Southee to mid-off in what turned out to be the penultimate ball of the day.

The left-arm quick has been one of the breakout stars of 2023 after a long time sidelined by injury

Andrew McGlashan21-Dec-202312:35

Is Pat Cummins’ price tag justified?

A year ago, Spencer Johnson hadn’t played a professional T20 match and it wasn’t long since he had been working as a landscape gardener. He still only has 20 official games under his belt and 17 wickets. But on Tuesday he became an IPL millionaire.While Mitchell Starc took the headlines for his record-setting price tag, it is a tale such as Johnson’s that is arguably more extraordinary as he went to Gujarat Titans for AU$1.78million. He had gone in with base price of 50 lakhs which is approximately AU$90,000.”Eighteen months [ago] I didn’t have a state deal or a Big Bash contract,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I was working as a landscaper and greenskeeper. So fast-forward 18 months, yeah it’s definitely different situations.”Related

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• Tall, left-arm and fast: Spencer Johnson grasps his second chance

There was a time, not too long ago, when it looked like Johnson’s cricket career could be over. After suffering a stress fracture to his foot on his one-day debut for South Australia in 2017 he spent three years trying to get back on the park. In the end, last-ditch surgery was needed.”The surgeon said I’m not sure how this is going to go, I’ve never done this operation before,” Johnson told ESPNcricinfo in an interview in January. “And he was the best foot surgeon there was in Sydney. So that was really scary.”That conversation came during a breakout BBL campaign for Brisbane Heat where he soon got people talking. It wasn’t always the volume of wickets, but his nerves under pressure particularly at the death. Against Hobart Hurricanes he stopped Tim David from taking his team to victory and two days later against Melbourne Stars was too good for Marcus Stoinis.Spencer Johnson’s performances at the death stood out in last season’s BBL•Getty Images

Johnson has since become a target for overseas leagues with assignments in the Hundred, MLC and the Global T20 in Canada. The latter two do not appear in official statistics due to their lack of status, but he took nine wickets in nine games across those tournaments.In the Hundred he produced the stunning return of 3 for 1 against Manchester Originals and was handed Australia debuts in both T20Is and ODIs. After impressing in the Sheffield Shield for South Australia at the end of last season he had also been placed on standby during the Ashes in case Starc became unavailable.And then, in Dubai, after a selection of Australia’s World Cup squad had taken increasingly vast sums, the crores kept climbing for Johnson during the accelerated round of the auction and he eventually ended up at Titans where he sits second behind Rashid Khan as their most expensive player.”It’s obviously a pretty special moment, I never really thought I’d be in this situation,” Johnson said before heading to Melbourne to face Renegades in the BBL. “But it was nice to get on the FaceTime back home in Adelaide [with] mum and to see her smile. It’s not just my moment, I guess it’s a moment for my whole family and they’ve been there the whole way. So for them to experience it as well, it’s pretty special.”With this year being a mini auction and just 30 overseas spots up for grabs, Johnson thought his opportunity may not come. But it was a good night to be an Australian fast bowler. Between them, Starc, Pat Cummins, Johnson and Jhye Richardson went for more than AU$10 million.”I think the longer it went, I guess you start to lose a little bit of hope,” he said. “So the longer it was going, I think the less chance I had. But at the end of the day I was in a position where I was in the auction, and this time last year I wasn’t. So whatever happened was going to happen, and anything would have been a good result.”However, despite the vast sums of money on offer, Johnson does not want to go down the T20-only route and believes the red-ball game is actually where his strengths lie.”Ideally, I’d like to play more red ball,” he said. “I think my body’s just let me down over the last few years but my body’s hardening and I’m getting ready to play, hopefully, some longer format cricket, which is, I feel, my better format.”I think post-Big Bash, we’ll get back to South Australia and play the last four Shield games there. And then hopefully with a couple of performances, you never know what might happen.”

Alex Carey will feature for South Australia but it’s the other four teams who are vying for a spot in the final

Alex Malcolm13-Feb-2024Marnus Labuschagne will get his first taste of captaincy at domestic level when he leads Queensland in their final Marsh Cup game of the season against South Australia.Labuschagne, 29, has never captained at professional level before and will get the chance to lead Queensland at Karen Rolton Oval with state captain Usman Khawaja and vice-captain Jimmy Peirson both resting from the clash.Khawaja is resting ahead of the New Zealand Test tour despite having not played since the Brisbane Test against West Indies which finished on January 28 and he is unlikely to play until Australia’s first Test of the series against New Zealand starting on February 29 in Wellington.Peirson has a knee complaint and is being managed ahead of the Sheffield Shield clash starting in Adelaide on Friday with 25-year-old wicketkeeper Dylan McLachlan to make his List A debut after strong performances at club and 2nd XI level.Labuschagne was one of only two players under 30 in Australia’s last Test XI and was one of only three in Australia’s ODI World Cup winning team, with Travis Head subsequently turning 30 in December. Australia haven’t developed a wide group of prospective leaders under 30 although Head has been elevated to the co vice-captaincy of the Test team this summer.Labuschagne was set to captain Australia A against New Zealand A in the three-match 50-over series back in September last year but was called up to the ODI tour of South Africa with Victoria Shield captain Will Sutherland taking the reins.Alex Carey is set to feature for South Australia having not played since the Brisbane Test. Jake Fraser-McGurk, who was called into Australia’s T20I squad, may now be available having not been selected in Perth. Queensland fast bowler Xavier Bartlett is unavailable due to being involved with the Australia side.South Australia batter Henry Hunt is also set to miss the remainder of the season after breaking his nose and fracturing his jaw in a fielding mishap during their loss to Victoria at the Junction Oval last week. Hunt was struck in the face while attempting to take a catch and is due to undergo surgery on Thursday.Queensland and South Australia can’t make the Marsh Cup final as they occupy the bottom two spots on the table with one game remaining. Victoria and New South Wales face each other in a top-of-the-table clash at North Sydney Oval on Wednesday with the winner likely to host the final. But defending champions Western Australia, who are aiming for a hat-trick of titles, have a chance of clinching second spot when they face Tasmania in Hobart, who also retain a mathematical hope of making the final depending on results.Australia allrounder Cameron Green will not play for WA but is likely to feature in the Shield clash starting on Friday in Hobart. WA could name several debutants with offspinner Corey Rocchiccioli, young quick Bryce Jackson and experienced Midland-Guildford batter Keaton Critchell all named in a squad of 13. Critchell is not contracted but made twin centuries for WA’s 2nd XI against Tasmania’s 2nd XI in a four-day game last week.

Multan succumb in another cliffhanger as Hunain Shah seals win from final ball

Danyal Rasool18-Mar-2024Islamabad United 163 for 8 (Guptill 50) beat Multan Sultans 159 for 9 (Usman 57, Imad 5-23) by two wicketsMultan Sultans might possess the formula for getting to PSL finals, but it’s Islamabad United who know how to win them. Déjà vu struck for the Sultans, who saw yet another PSL final snatched away from them off the final delivery in a low-scoring thriller of a final. Imad Wasim was United’s hero, having turned back the years to deliver a sensational all-round performance, taking five wickets before ensuring he was out in the middle to watch Hunain Shah angle the final delivery behind point to seal United’s third title.If the drama of last year’s epic final – which Sultans lost by a run – could not be eclipsed, it was certainly emulated in Karachi today. United appeared to have won that final at several stages through both innings, never more than when they reduced the Sultans to 127 for 9. But Iftikhar Ahmed’s cameo – an unbeaten 32 off 20 balls, got the Sultans to 159, a total that a stellar bowling attack felt they just about had the personnel to defend.And what a defence they mounted. United opened the batting with two 37-year old New Zealanders, having dropped the out-of-form Alex Hales, even if Colin Munro was clearly still struggling with the leg injury that kept him out of the previous three games. While Martin Guptill made the most of the Powerplay, clean timing and pure power on full display, Sultans chipped away from the other end, bogging United down with a slew of spinners on a surface that had begun to grip.Martin Guptill goes on the attack during his half-century•PCB

Khushdil Shah’s twin strikes removed Munro and Salman Ali Agha, before, at some point impossible to define, what should have been a cakewalk became a grind. Shadab Khan, supremely assured with bat all tournament, attempted a panicked slog after an unconvincing start off Iftikhar, and paid for it with his wicket. Azam Khan struggled to get going, and even Guptill was being dragged back to earth as nerves began to shackle the most fluid team in the PSL.But there’s only one way United know how to get out of trouble, and Azam and Guptill began to free their arms once more. Guptill scythed down Usama Mir, the leading wicket-taker of the tournament, with two sixes and a four, before Azam plundered 15 off a wayward Chris Jordan over, and the pendulum swung again.But it was never going to be straightforward, and a mix-up between the pair saw Guptill depart after a swashbuckling half-century. David Willey, perhaps this year’s stand-out fast bowler, struck to put down Haider Ali, whose power-hitting in the eliminator got United to this stage. Iftikhar, whose contribution so often this evening looked as if it would be decisive, prised out Faheem Ashraf, the man who, six years ago, had struck the six that sealed United’s last title, and suddenly, all that was left was Imad and the tail.Late on in the first innings, Imad had sneaked into the dressing-room to have a quick smoke, but there was no getting away from the stress he was under now. A decisive battle between Iftikhar and Naseem Shah, and then Jordan and Imad, in the 18th and 19th overs finally looked to have tipped the game off the tightrope it had been walking until then, with 23 off those two overs bringing the equation down to eight off six. A clip through mid-on brought the game down to below a run-a-ball, and a pair of singles levelled the scores.But the drama just wouldn’t end. Naseem miscued a pull shot with the ball kissing the edge, and as one Shah walked off, his younger brother Hunain was tasked with finishing the job off. And while he looked like the calmest man as he poked it through the infield to seal the win, the sobs he broke into afterwards belied the steely front the 20-year old had put on.Imad Wasim took a five-wicket haul in the final•PCB

But though United’s win was ultimately wild and frenetic, how they set it up in the first innings was its polar opposite. A gameplan that was designed craftily was executed to perfection, using Imad and Shadab in the powerplay to smother a Sultans top order that has looked imperious all the way through this season. Mohammad Rizwan would have fallen in the first over but for an overstepped Naseem right boot, while Yasir Khan was deceived in the flight by a canny Imad the following over. Sultans’ attempt at a low-value wicket saw them send in Willey, but he would last just three balls, a hoick followed by a chop that rattled into the stumps.Usman Khan has been the Sultans’ unlikely standout batting star, but United refused to let any batter truly gain momentum. Naseem accuracy was metronomic and his pace fearsome, so while he never picked up a wicket, his first three overs went for just nine. It was built around eight overs of devastating spin from Shadab and Imad, who picked up eight wickets between them, including a collapse that saw the Sultans lose 5 wickets in 12 balls and teeter on the brink at 127.But United hadn’t quite managed to account for Iftikhar, the man with the highest strike-rate this tournament, and he made sure to save his best for last. Slogging with the magical freedom that clarity of thoughts can give you, he walloped Mills for 13, and then an otherwise faultless Naseem for 18 in the final over to get his side up to 159, a below-par score, but not an indefensible one. He had held up his end of the bargain with both bat and ball, but his team-mates had built up a debt he could, despite his best efforts never truly pay off. And when United came to collect, they ensured they took the silverware with them.