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England white-ball captain leaves field and does not bat as Middlesex extend unbeaten start to summer

Cameron Ponsonby29-May-2022Further doubts were cast over the fitness of England white-ball captain Eoin Morgan who left the field of play during Middlesex’s four-wicket win over Glamorgan with a “twinge in his groin” and did not bat.At 35, Morgan’s career is in its twilight period. A reputation built on the basis of being a world-class batter as well as a ruthless and inspirational leader has given him the power to write his own script as to how he wishes his career to end. The problem, however, has been whether he still has the ability to do so as he wishes.Morgan is without a T20 half-century since November 2020, which even by his own feast-or-famine standards of form is a particularly lean run, and Sunday’s game was just his second in four months after tweaking his quad in Barbados in January and going unselected in the IPL auction.For years Morgan was a banker for England on the pitch and an ever-present in the world’s premier T20 tournament. Now, he is neither, with the added salt in the wound being that as Morgan walked off the field at Radlett CC in front of not many more than a thousand people, his likely successor as white-ball captain Jos Buttler was walking out in front of a 100 times that figure in the IPL final in Ahmedabad. Radlett may be the hometown of Hollywood staple Simon Cowell, but the glitz and glamour of this English village does ultimately end there.Earlier this week, in an interview with the , Morgan said that he would not be playing in back-to-back matches in this Blast campaign in the hope of avoiding injury. With England’s ODI series against the Netherlands likely to see him miss a handful of games in mid-June, he has also handed over the Middlesex T20 captaincy to Stephen Eskinazi.But even after missing Middlesex’s match against Hampshire two days ago, he was unable to complete 20 overs in the field with the time he spent off then preventing him from being able to bat any higher than No. 7 during the home side’s successful chase of 168. With the side then almost home when the fifth wicket was lost, Middlesex decided against taking any undue risk though confirmed he would have batted if needed.Morgan also explained in the interview how “there’s nothing specific [injury wise]” that is troubling him, adding: “I’m just old, I think.” While honest, that further highlights the concern for England that their captain might not be fit enough to lead them through the summer and to the T20 World Cup in Australia this winter. Not being able to play back-to-back games is all well and good if the second of the two games is in the group stage of the Blast; less so if it’s the World Cup final.This was a comfortable victory for Middlesex after restricting Glamorgan to a total of 168 that never looked enough. Against Gloucestershire at this ground on Thursday, Middlesex scored 229 and even then there was some feeling that they were a dozen or so short after they had been 122 for 2 after 8.5 overs.To one side, this is a very small ground where boundaries fly; to the other it is a vast expanse where threes are available regularly if the ball hasn’t already crashed into the advertising hoardings. The result is runs aplenty, a fact exemplified by the first ball of both innings being dispatched for six.Labuschagne top scored for Glamorgan with 38 off 24, an innings of two halves where only nine runs came from his first 12 deliveries while 29 came from the second. The problem for Glamorgan was that the moments where their innings was showing the potential of what could be, was in actual fact, what had to be.Much of the credit for Glamorgan’s restriction to 168 was thanks to a fine bowling performance from slow left-armer Thilan Walallawita who recorded career best figures of 3 for 18 off his four overs. Walallawita spoke after the game of playing with a sense of freedom, and how he knew the ground, where Middlesex often play second XI fixtures, like the back of his hand.Comfortable in his surroundings, the young spinner shone. From his fledgling T20 career, he has a career economy rate of 6.33 and has taken six wickets at an average of 12.67. Meanwhile, Toby Roland-Jones’ fine start to the season continued as he picked up 4 for 22, three of which arrived in the final over.In reply, Middlesex flew out of the blocks, the powerplay coming to an end with the side on 62 for no loss – Eskinazi on 25 off 16 and Max Holden racing to 37 off 20.Continuing the recent tradition of English cricket, the opening stand broke the back of the chase and despite a middle-over wobble arriving thanks to the spin of Prem Sisodiya – who bowled with control to return figures of 2 for 26 – Middlesex eased their way home with an over to spare thanks to a Joe Cracknell flourish, the 22-year-old finishing with 47 off 28 balls.A four-wicket win extended Middlesex’s perfect start to the Blast after wins against Gloucestershire and Hampshire, and they are still unbeaten this season; as with England, they are showing that Morgan’s personal fortunes are not the only determining factor in their results.

Glenn Phillips leads Gloucestershire resistance with 59, but hosts chase down target of 88

ECB Reporters Network15-Jun-2022Kent 564 (Cox 158, Leaning 128, Bell-Drummond 89, Compton 80, T. Price 5-58) and 91 for 2 (Compton 30, Robinson 22) beat Gloucestershire 438 (Phillips 125, Hammond 66, O Price 51) and 213 (Phillips 59, Duffy 5-66) by eight wicketsKent have recorded their first win of the LV= Insurance County Championship season, beating Gloucestershire by eight wickets at Canterbury.Jacob Duffy took 5 for 65 on his Kent debut, while Matt Quinn claimed 2 for 37 and George Linde 2 for 52, as the hosts lifted themselves out of the Division One relegation zone.Glenn Phillips led Gloucestershire’s resistance, batting for over three hours to make 59, but the visitors were all out for 213, setting Kent a target of just 88.The hosts eased to 91 for 2 in 22.4 overs, with Ben Compton making 30 to leave him on 988 runs for the season. Kent take 22 points and basement side Gloucestershire six.Gloucestershire started day four on 37 for 5, still 89 behind the hosts’ first-innings total of 564 but facing a Kent attack minus Matt Milnes, who was being rested as a precaution.Miles Hammond was on nought when he clipped Duffy to Linde in the first over of the day, but the chance went down and for the next 40 minutes Gloucestershire chipped away at Kent’s lead, until Chris Dent tried to drive Duffy and edged the ball to Jordan Cox at second slip. Cox could only parry the chance, but a diving Sam Billings took the rebound, removing Dent for 32.Linde then produced a violently spinning delivery to bowl Hammond for 41, the ball pitching almost a foot outside off before crashing into the stumps.Ryan Higgins took two from Jack Leaning to nudge the visitors into the lead and Linde couldn’t hold a difficult caught and bowled chance from Higgins in the final over before lunch, at which point Gloucestershire were 16 ahead.Higgins had survived half an hour of the afternoon session when he played on to Quinn and was bowled for 30 and Daniel Bell-Drummond then had Ollie Price caught by the sub fielder Will Harby for three at square leg, from just his third delivery.An elegant cover drive saw Phillips past 50, but he eventually fell to a juggling slip catch by Cox off Linde, leaving Zafar Gohar unbeaten on seven and the visitors rueing their decision to send in three nightwatchers at the end of day three, when they lost five wickets in the final session.Ollie Robinson began the run chase as if in Blast mode, cracking 20 from the first three overs, before he fell to a brilliant one-handed catch by Hammond, while attempting to drive Gohar.Compton, who needed 42 to become the first County Championship player to make 1000 runs this season, was initially more measured, taking Kent to within five runs of victory before he was lbw to Phillips.Jack Leaning finished on eight not out after driving Phillips for four to level the scores and then hitting the same bowler to the cover boundary to clinch the win, while Bell-Drummond was unbeaten on 20.

Allrounder wants Sri Lanka to fix the “weakness in the lower middle order and lower order” before the T20 World Cup

Andrew Fidel Fernando09-Jun-2022Our bowling is alright, but the batting needs to catch up before the World Cup. Wanindu Hasaranga, easily the most high-profile cricketer in Sri Lanka’s T20 side now, took four wickets in the second match against Australia and brought his team back into the match. But in the end, the target was too meagre. Australia needed only 125 to win the match and seal the series.The previous night, they’d needed only 128. Both times, Sri Lanka’s middle and lower middle orders had failed to resist Australia’s fast bowling through the middle overs.”There’s a weakness in our lower middle order and lower order,” Hasaranga said after his team lost the second T20I. “Right now, they are a little bit out of form, and we have to accept that. Our target is the World Cup. If we can add 10% more on the batting side in the next match, and in the series coming up, we’ll be in a much better place. In these two games our batting had a few small mistakes.”Even on a slower track such as the one used on Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s total never seemed enough. But thanks largely to Hasaranga, who took 4 for 33, Sri Lanka had Australia at 99 for 7 at one point. The visitors would go on to win comfortably, but the bowlers’ fight had at least given Sri Lanka a chance.Sri Lanka had suffered a collapse to lose 9 for 28 after a strong start from the top order in the first T20I•AFP/Getty Images

“In the series to come, we have to bring our batting and bowling up to the same level,” Hasaranga said. “On the bowling front we’re doing pretty well. If we can make a close match out of a match like this when they were just chasing 125, that means our bowling is in good shape. I think by October [when the World Cup starts] we will get better as we play more and more matches.”Hasaranga’s returns on Wednesday had come after he’d been walloped in the first match, in the two overs he’d bowled. Australia’s top order seemed to have planned to attack him, although David Warner denied they’d set out to do that, when he spoke to the press after the first match. In the second game too, however, Aaron Finch had gone after Hasaranga early on. That is, until Hasaranga started taking wickets.”When I bowled yesterday, they hit 27 runs off my two overs,” Hasaranga said. “When you’re chasing a small total, any team has less pressure on them. The pressure is on us. So they attack. But then a team like this will anyway try to attack me in the first two overs, because if they push me out of the game early on they gain the high ground. That’s what I feel.”But then I like it when they attack me. Rather than batsmen closing up and defending, I can get wickets when they attack. I can put the team in a better position that way.”

Mandhana, Ranaweera, and Nilakshi have had uprises following consistent performances

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jul-2022Katherine Brunt is back among the top 10 bowlers in the ICC women’s ODI rankings, thanks to her 3 for 18 in the opener against South Africa on Monday. India opener Smriti Mandhana and left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad have taken a step up to the ninth spot in the ICC batters’ and bowlers’ lists respectively on the back of notable performances in the third ODI against Sri Lanka.Chamari Athapaththu rose to her joint-career-best spot at No. 8, which she last reached after her mammoth 178 against Australia in the 2017 World Cup. Harmanpreet Kaur, who scored 119 runs and picked up two wickets in a Player-of-the-Series performance moved up four spots in the allrounders’ rankings to No. 20. A couple of spots behind, at No. 22, Chloe Tryon emerged with a promotion of 12 positions thanks to her 88 off 73, in the first ODI against England.

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Brunt’s and Tryon’s positions may go up or down as there are two more ODIs. But Smriti’s stable ascension was brought up due to her match-winning 94* in a record 174-run partnership with Shafali Verma in the second ODI. Gayakwad and Harmanpreet finished the series on a high with Gayakwad taking 3 for 36 and Harmanpreet making 75 before picking up the key wicket of Athapaththu to end with 1 for 21.Athapaththu, who played at No. 3 in the second ODI to introduce debutant Vishmi Gunaratne, had a couple of decent starts. Her 44 in the final game of the series meant she moved up two spots.Shafali and Nilakshi de Silva moved up three spots and ten spots respectively in the batters’ list from last week to get to No. 33 and No. 47 respectively. Among the bowlers, Sri Lanka’s Inoka Ranaweera made the top 20, slotting in at 16th, up five places from last week while India’s Meghna Singh climbed four spots up to reach 43.Among the newcomers, centurion Emma Lamb, shot up 76 places to 101 by leading England in their victorious chase with her maiden century that she finished with 102.

Superchargers secure lifeline in race for play-off places as Birmingham come unstuck

Charlie Peters, ECB Hundred Rising Reporter19-Aug-2022Northern Superchargers 169 for 6 (Lyth 56, Hose 53, Wiese 34) beat Birmingham Phoenix 137 for 9 (Wiese 3-15) by 32 runsAn exceptional all-round display from David Wiese and a quickfire Adam Lyth half-century helped Northern Superchargers end Birmingham Phoenix Men’s unbeaten home record in front of a packed house at Edgbaston.Wiese wiped 34 off just 14 balls, including four sixes, to propel the visitors to a solid total of 169 for six batting first. The Namibia international then bowled an exceptional spell of three for 15 without conceding a single boundary from his 20 balls as the Phoenix fell 33 runs short.Opener Lyth had earlier set a platform for Wiese’s onslaught by smashing an exhilarating 26-ball half century, while Adam Hose added an unbeaten 53, to get Superchargers off to a flier and silence a bumper crowd of 21,014.Phoenix’s chase faltered with the engine room of Will Smeed, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone and Matthew Wade all falling cheaply inside the first 50 deliveries of their reply.It was likely to be an uphill battle to defend their flawless home streak from that point, and so it proved as the efforts of Wiese and Lyth were enough to see the Superchargers become the first visiting men’s team to win at Edgbaston since the Hundred’s inception.Yorkshireman Lyth wasted little time in getting started. After a quiet opening set bowled by Ali, the former England Test opener opened his shoulders and swung Australia seamer Kane Richardson for three consecutive boundaries.No bowler seemed safe. Livingstone’s first two deliveries were both dispatched for four in identical fashion, while even one of the competition’s form bowlers Benny Howell was hoicked into the Hollies Stand for another six.Things then got a little trickier for the Superchargers.The return of Ali into the attack bought “Super Moeen Ali” chants ringing out wholesale across Edgbaston, and straight away the all-rounder worked his magic to clean bowl Lyth.Dangerman Harry Brook went for just three not long after, thanks to a grab at backward point by Imran Tahir, before David Willey and John Simpson both fell for single figures in quick succession too, leaving Superchargers teetering somewhat at 99 for five.Hose and Wiese rebuilt strongly, however, and put on 47 for the sixth wicket in quick time.The Namibian struck four trademark hammer blows over the rope before falling to the guile of Richardson for a rapid 34 off 13. A late flurry from Hose bought him to a 32-ball half-century in the final set of the Superchargers innings, helping his side set Phoenix 170 to win.In reply, Phoenix opener Smeed and Hammond flew out of the blocks to rack up 44 off 20 balls inside the powerplay.But when the competition’s first-ever centurion holed out to Faf du Plessis for 18, it sparked a collapse. First Livingstone fell for five, then Moeen went for one. Adil Rashid got Wade caught behind shortly after, and from that point on the result felt much like a foregone conclusion.Two Superchargers bowlers – Wiese and Rashid – ended the day with economy rates under one a ball, conceding just two boundaries between them from their 40 deliveries, to suffocate a Phoenix outfit built around clearing the ropes regularly.