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Thunder inflict their third-heaviest defeat in BBL history as they jump to second on the table

Tristan Lavalette08-Jan-2022Sydney Thunder 7 for 209 (Sams 98*, Hales 63, Richardson 2-39) beat Melbourne Renegades 80 (Seymour 25, Hasnain 3-22, Sandhu 2-8, Sangha 2-12) by 129 runs
Daniel Sams and a rejuvenated Alex Hales destroyed Melbourne Renegades at Marvel Stadium to set up red-hot Sydney Thunder’s fifth-straight BBL victory.An almost flawless Thunder (7-3) stormed to second on the ladder after Sams (98 not out off 44 balls) and Hales (63 off 28) powered them to a massive 7 for 209 after being sent in. Their disciplined bowlers then tore through meek Renegades batting as Thunder cemented their standing as the BBL’s in-form team.The crushing 129-run victory – the third heaviest in BBL history – was made even more impressive for Thunder after stand-in captain Chris Green was a late withdrawal due to being a close contact of a person who tested positive for Covid-19.The Hales-Sams show
Thunder have emerged as a serious title contender even without Hales firing. The English import had a highest score this season of just 35 and also missed a couple of matches due to testing positive to Covid-19.But Hales was always going to emerge from the rut and he did so with trademark pyrotechnics featuring five sixes. The opener needed just 17 balls to surpass his previous best of the season, relishing the short boundaries and launching several slog sweeps into the second tier of the grandstands.He was especially ruthless against Afghanistan’s Zahir Khan, smashing two sixes in his first over, before eventually holing out in the 12th over.There was no respite with Sams, elevated to No.4 after Ashes-bound Sam Billings’ departure, signalling his intention with a second-ball six, and he dominated square of the wicket much like Hales. Sams, who boasts of the highest strike-rate in the tournament, notched his highest BBL score with brute force highlighted by eight sixes.Needing six runs off the final ball, Sams agonisingly fell short of a deserved century with a miscued boundary, but the eye-catching knock of Australia’s T20 World Cup squad member surely may have caught the attention of the national selectors.Zahir struggles amid onslaught
Renegades’ attack was without speedster James Pattinson and allrounder Mohammad Nabi, whose spin was particularly handy in their previous outing. Left-arm seamer Josh Lalor made his season debut but struggled to find his rhythm as Renegades had no answer against Hales and Sams with the pair especially laying into Zahir, who finished with 1 for 49 off three overs.Zahir has had a strong season with 10 wickets at an economy rate of 7.81 but he copped a flogging and his confidence slumped. Spearhead Kane Richardson and the youngster Will Sutherland tried hard to stymie the runs but to no avail.Highly-rated Sutherland has had an underwhelming BBL season but showcased his obvious talent by clean bowling Thunder stand-in captain Jason Sangha. He finished with 1 for 23 off 3 overs in a rare positive for Renegades.Mohammad Hasnain had an excellent outing with the ball•Getty Images

Thunder crash through meek RenegadesThunder’s attack didn’t miss a beat without the services of Green and spearhead Saqib Mahmood, who returned to the UK as part of England’s T20 squad for the Caribbean. Pakistani speedster Mohammad Hasnain and legspinner Tanveer Sangha returned as Thunder’s well-oiled machine never gave Renegades a sniff.Hasnain bowled swiftly from the get go to set the tone and he was well supported by seamer Gurinder Sandhu fresh off claiming his third hat-trick in Australian cricket.In his first over back after being sidelined due to Covid-19, Sangha bowled Aaron Finch with a perfect legspinner as Thunder could do no wrong. Sams’ terrific performance continued when he claimed the wicket of Mackenzie Harvey as Thunder’s irresistible form showed no signs of abating.Reality bites for RenegadesIt might have just been a reality check for Renegades, who had leapfrogged two places off the bottom after victories against Covid-19 decimated opponents Melbourne Stars and Heat.They would have felt confident of giving the daunting total a shake under the closed roof but never threatened after losing three wickets in the four-over powerplay. Veteran Shaun Marsh, who has inserted confidence in the team since his recent return, was run out in the third over and skipper Nic Maddinson fell a few balls later as Renegades crashed.The burden was on Finch, who was dropped at slip in the second over, but he couldn’t conjure heroics as Renegades were embarrassingly bowled out in the 15th over.Renegades will need to return to the drawing board after a confidence denting defeat.

Suffered a heart attack in Mumbai, where he was on IPL commentary duty

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Sep-20202:17

Ian Bishop – ‘Dean, an innovator in ODIs, a human being of great depth’

Dean Jones, who pioneered an energetic style of ODI batting, and the hero of Australia’s tied Test against India in Chennai, died on Thursday after a heart attack in Mumbai. He was 59.Jones, who was in India as a commentator for the IPL, is understood to have suffered a heart attack around noon IST. It is understood that Jones, who was part of the commentary panel for Wednesday’s match, had breakfast this morning and attended a pre-match briefing with his colleagues. He is believed to have returned to his room and taken ill there. Brett Lee administered CPR until the medics arrived but was unable to revive Jones.Remembered for his double-century in the famous tied Test between India and Australia in Chennai, Jones played 52 Tests and 164 ODIs. He was also part of Australia’s 1987 World Cup-winning team. He carved a career in coaching and cricket commentary after his retirement from all forms of cricket in 1997-98.A precocious talent for Victoria, gruffly mentored by his father and Carlton Cricket Club legend Barney, Jones was introduced to the Australian side in the aftermath of Greg Chappell and Dennis Lillee’s retirements at the tail end of the 1983-84 summer, and made a meritorious 48 opposite Allan Border on debut against the fiery West Indies in Trinidad.The selectors were careful with him thereafter, not wanting him to suffer too much at the hands of the same West Indian juggernaut, and it was not until the 1986 tour of India that he gained a solid opportunity to grasp.Dean Jones on his way to making 90 in a one-run win over India in the 1992 World Cup•Getty Images

Informed by Border that he would be thrust into the No. 3 spot in Chennai, Jones responded with the innings of his life – 210 in enervating heat that brought him to the brink of total physical collapse, setting Australia up for a memorable tie.He was more or less a fixture in the Test team from then until 1992, an integral part of its evolution from frequent humiliation to the cusp of global domination, peeling off another double century against Viv Richards’ tourists in Adelaide in 1989, then coshing twin tons against Pakistan at the same venue a year later.At the same time, Jones was a pioneer in limited-overs cricket, as both a batting technician and an entertainer for vast crowds, never more so than at his beloved MCG. Somewhere along the way his Test match returns began to lose consistency, leading the selectors to make a still contentious call to leave him out of the team for the first Test against the West Indies at the Gabba in November 1992, a place he was never to regain.Jones continued to be a vital part of the ODI set-up for another two years, but his enthusiasm for the task waned in direct correlation to the realisation that under no circumstances, not even as a reserve on the 1994 tour of South Africa, would he return to Test cricket. Jones retired, unhappily, from international cricket at the end of the tour, but in his typical jack-in-the-box style had rescinded the call by the time his memoir, , was on shelves the following summer.He continued to dominate domestic ranks for Victoria, pummeling his highest score of 324 against South Australia at the MCG in a day/night Sheffield Shield match, and was in the initial squad for the 1996 World Cup before missing the cut-back to the final group that would lose to Sri Lanka in the final.On their return, Mark Taylor’s side faced a World XI to celebrate 150 years of the Victoria Cricket Association, and Jones was on hand to compile one of his best knocks, a defiant century on a day far more suited to bowlers than batsmen.Before finishing up, Jones also played for Derbyshire, with one of his final acts being to miss a slips catch in an 1997 Ashes tour match that may well have caused Taylor to quit the captaincy amid his extended run of outs.Dean Jones strikes a pose at Durham’s Racecourse ground•Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive

He was head coach of Pakistan Super League franchise Islamabad United from 2015 to 2019. He also served as interim head coach of the Afghanistan national team briefly in 2017.Though much-loved and highly regarded across the commentary world, his broadcast career was not without controversy. In 2006, he referred to Hashim Amla as “the terrorist” on live television – though he was not commentating at the time, his remark was picked up by the microphone. He was immediately sacked from the commentary team and, while waiting for his flight out of Colombo, issued a statement of regret.In a statement Earl Eddings, the Cricket Australia chairman, said: “Dean Jones was a hero to a generation of cricketers and will forever be remembered as a legend of this great game. Anyone who watched cricket in the 1980s and 1990s will fondly recall his cavalier approach at the crease and the incredible energy and passion he brought to every game he played.”Although many remember him for his brilliance in the 50-over game, arguably Jones’ finest moment in the national team came in scorching conditions in Chennai in 1986, where his selfless and courageous innings of 210 helped Australia to a famous tie against India.”Jones remained an immensely popular figure in Australian and Victorian cricket throughout his life and was a much-loved columnist and commentator in every corner of the cricketing world.”This is a truly sad day. Deano’s loss will be felt not just at home in Australia, but across the globe. Our thoughts and best wishes are with his wife Jane and daughters Isabella and Phoebe.”Australia’s current men’s head coach, Justin Langer, said: “What a great player and a great bloke. We are shocked and very sad to hear of his passing.”Deano was a true legend of Australian sport and world cricket, one of the great players and personalities in a golden time for the game. His role in the team’s World Cup win in 1987 and the 1989 Ashes under AB were a huge turning point for Australian cricket. His double century in Madras was one of the greatest and most courageous innings of all time.We can only hope to make Australians as proud of our team as they were of Deano. He will be missed by the game and millions of people around the world. Our love to Jane and the girls.”

Dickwella’s century the only bright spot for visitors in three-day loss

ESPNcricinfo staff27-May-2019India A completed a three-day rout of Sri Lanka A in their first four-day match in Belgavi, courtesy compelling batting performances from captain Priyank Panchal, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Anmolpreet Singh, and Rahul Chahar’s wizardry with the ball.Panchal and Abhimanyu set the tone with a 352-run opening stand on the first day that paved the way for India A’s declaration after scoring a mammoth 622 for 5. Panchal, who made 160 of those runs, carried on his good form from the series against England Lions in February, where he registered scores of 206 and 50 in the two four-day games.Abhimanyu, meanwhile, recorded a career-best 321-ball 233 – his second double-century – to leave his mark and give the selectors another option for the top of the batting order in Test cricket, outside of the current top three – KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw.Anmolpreet registered a fourth first-class century in just his 15th game. His unbeaten 116 took his career average to an impressive 54.95. It’s these batting performances that gave India A the cushion of enforcing the follow-on, which was made possible courtesy legspinner Chahar’s four-wicket haul in the first innings.Despite boasting of a number of international cricketers in their ranks, all Sri Lanka A managed was 232 in 62.4 overs, with Niroshan Dickwella, the Test wicketkeeper, top-scoring with a typically aggressive 113-ball 103. The next best was the 49 made by Ashan Priyanjan, the captain. Chahar’s efforts were backed up by Sandeep Warrier and allrounder Shivam Dube, who picked up two wickets apiece.In the second innings, Sri Lanka A fared worse. Facing a 390-run deficit, they slumped to 4 for 3 courtesy Ankit Rajpoot and Warrier. Priyanjan and Sadeera Samarawickrama led a brief revival, before they fell to Chahar again. The 20-year-old, who enjoyed a breakout IPL season with Mumbai Indians, picked up four more wickets to take his match tally to an impressive 8 for 123. Rajpoot, Warrier and offspinner Jayant Yadav got two wickets each too.The second four-dayer will be played in Hubli from May 31.

With the tournament scheduled to run from August 18 to September 10, SLC is also attempting to lure second-string India players to participate

Andrew Fidel Fernando07-Apr-2018Russel Arnold, the former Sri Lanka batsman, and commentator, has been appointed tournament director for the Lankan Premier League, to be played in August and September. Having officially signed on several days ago, Arnold’s work begins in earnest in May.”We consider bringing in a person in the caliber of Russel as the Tournament Director of the LPL will help the process of making it a successful tournament, especially considering his experience as a player and also his knowledge in promoting the game,” said Thilanga Sumathipala, the SLC president.Although planning remains in the early stages, Sri Lanka Cricket is also attempting to lure second-string India players to the tournament, with Sumathipala having repeatedly stated that he plans to appeal to the BCCI about the issue. The presence of Indian players – even those of lesser renown – would be a substantial boon, particularly as LPL match times will be ideally suited for Indian viewers. The BCCI has never allowed its players to participate in foreign leagues, although SLC hopes to change that given the recent co-operation between both boards.SLC CEO Ashley de Silva also said that the board would insist that all its players take part in the LPL instead of the Caribbean Premier League, which is set to take place at the same time.SLC has not had a high profile T20 tournament since the SLPL, which had a lukewarm reception on the island in 2012, and was never played again. The LPL is scheduled to run from August 18 to September 10.

Appointed in August 2012, Cook has led the team through more Test matches than any other England captain

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-20172:04

The highs and lows of Cook’s captaincy

Alastair Cook has stepped down from his role after 59 Tests as England captain. His appetite to continue had been questioned during England’s 4-0 defeat to India before Christmas and Cook has now confirmed he will pass on the captaincy, with Joe Root his likely successor.Appointed in August 2012, Cook led the team in more Test matches than any other England captain. His record includes Ashes victories at home in 2013 and 2015, as well as series wins in India and South Africa. With 24 Test wins, he is joint-second as England’s most successful captain but five losses in seven Tests over the winter meant he also eclipsed Michael Atherton’s record for defeats.Cook discussed his decision with Colin Graves, the chairman of the ECB, on Sunday evening and has confirmed his continuing commitment to playing Test cricket to Andrew Strauss, England’s team director, and the selectors. Strauss suggested Cook’s replacement would be named before the ODI tour to the West Indies later this month, with Root favourite to be be named as England’s new captain – the 80th in their Test history – in the coming days.Cook, 32, is England’s most-capped Test player, their most prolific batsman with 11,057 runs in 140 Tests to date, and has scored more Test centuries than any of his countrymen. He also led the one-day side on 69 occasions between 2010 and 2014, another England record.During his five seasons at the helm he was named Cricketer of the Year (2012) and ICC World Test Captain (2013) and his services to the game were recognised with a CBE – collected at Buckingham Palace on Friday – to follow the MBE he was awarded in 2011.”It’s been a huge honour to be England captain and to lead the Test team over the past five years,” Cook said. “Stepping down has been an incredibly hard decision but I know this is the correct decision for me and at the right time for the team. I’ve had time to reflect after the India series and this weekend I spoke to Colin Graves to explain and offer my resignation.”It’s a sad day personally in many ways but I want to thank everyone I’ve captained, all the coaches and support staff and, of course, the England supporters and the Barmy Army who follow us home and away and have given us unwavering support.”Playing for England really is a privilege and I hope to carry on as a Test player, making a full contribution and helping the next England captain and the team however I can.”Alastair Cook was awarded a CBE last week•Getty Images

Strauss, the man from whom Cook inherited the Test captaincy in 2012, paid tribute to his former opening partner and explained the next steps in appointing a successor.”I want to thank Alastair, on behalf of the ECB and from a personal perspective, for the fantastic contribution that he’s made to the England Test team since taking over as captain in 2012,” Strauss said.”His country owes him a great debt of gratitude; he’s led the team with determination, conviction and a huge amount of pride over the last five years and his record stands for itself. With more matches leading the team than anyone, including two Ashes wins, he deserves to be seen as one of our country’s great captains.”Off the field as well as on, he has shown his strengths, developing the team and its culture, managing a fundamental transition and helping us to build for the future. As with all leaders, there have been times where circumstances have tested him but his resilience and temperament have helped him to prevail and to prosper.”He has always served with the best interests of the team in the front of his mind and stays true to that as he steps down from the role. Alastair will be missed in his capacity as captain but I hope that he has a number of years left to add to his record-breaking feats as an opening batsman and look forward to his continued success.”We now move on with the process of appointing the right successor. There are a number of established players who are playing formal or informal leadership roles and whilst we’ve rightly not spoken to anyone in relation to the Test captaincy so far, we can now talk fully and openly within the team. We expect to be able to make an announcement before the team head to the West Indies on February 22.”Cook first captained England in Bangladesh in 2010, deputising for the rested Strauss. After taking over permanently in 2012, Cook led from the front with three centuries as England came from behind to win their first Test series in India in 28 years. England retained the Ashes with a 3-0 win the following summer but cracks were beginning to show and Australia took swift revenge a few months later.The 5-0 whitewash left England needing to rebuild, and the decision to do so without the involvement of Kevin Pietersen was one of the most controversial of Cook’s reign. Beaten at home by Sri Lanka at the start of the 2014 summer, England then lost the second Test to India at Lord’s, prompting Cook to consider resigning. He chose to continue but his hopes of leading England at the 2015 World Cup were dashed when the ECB sacked him less than two months before the tournament.He subsequently oversaw the regeneration of the Test side, as players such as Root, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow helped England to regain the Ashes in 2015 and then secure a memorable win in South Africa the following winter.Although England’s progress was recently checked by two difficult tours of the subcontinent – drawing 1-1 with Bangladesh before being outclassed by India – Cook had retained the support of his players and the coaching staff. His decision to step down comes during a seven-month gap between Test commitments and gives his successor time to prepare for home series against South Africa and West Indies, before the challenge of another Ashes tour to Australia.

The Big Bash League enjoyed a landmark day in both Melbourne and Perth on Saturday, as a crowd of 80,883 – a competition record by nigh on 30,000 – packed into the MCG for the Melbourne derby

Will Macpherson in Melbourne02-Jan-2016The Big Bash League enjoyed a landmark day in both Melbourne and Perth on Saturday, as a crowd of 80,883 – a competition record by nigh on 30,000 – packed into the MCG for the Melbourne derby, and the WACA Ground sold out once more for Perth Scorchers’ fixture with Sydney Sixers.Furthermore, 12,901 were at the MCG by the conclusion of the Women’s Big Bash League Melbourne derby fixture, a record for a women’s domestic game, and a larger crowd than any Women’s World T20 final.In Melbourne, however, the BBL’s routine notching of milestones did not come without difficulty. Ahead of the WBBL fixture, as many as 2,000 fans were left outside the MCG as only one general admission gate was opened at the beginning of the match. The crowd more than doubled during the second innings.For the men’s fixture, many thousands were caught out by the stadium’s stringent security measures. To illustrate, the crowd at the start of the game stood at about 55,000, and the 80,833 figure was only reached at the innings break as frustrated fans were finally able to enter the stadium. For the Renegades’ innings, a queue had snaked all around Yarra Park.A Cricket Australia statement read: “The Melbourne Cricket Ground has been highly proactive in their security measures for major cricket events this summer. The match tonight experienced an unprecedented record crowd for domestic cricket.”We thank fans for their patience and apologise for the delays experienced entering the ground tonight. The safety and security of our fans, players and officials is always our number one priority and rest assured we’ll continue to work with the MCG to ensure everyone has a fantastic experience at any cricket event this summer.”Despite the difficulties – which reportedly also saw many of the venue’s food vendors run dry shortly after the innings break – there was a sense of triumphalism around a fine day for the competition.”It’s been a great day for cricket,” said CA’s Mike McKenna. “We were absolutely delighted to see crowds across the country come out in force, with record attendances at our men’s and women’s Big Bash League matches.”To have more than 80,000 people at the MCG for the local Melbourne derby, then to witness a sell out in Perth for a re-match of last year’s final, all on the same day, was a genuine milestone in the short history of the league.”Englishman Luke Wright, who upstaged more celebrated overseas players Kevin Pietersen, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo to score a match-winning century for the Stars, said the crowd sent a message about the competition’s pulling power.”It was one of those moments where until it finishes you can’t really enjoy it,” Wright said. “I’ve been lucky enough to play internationally and in the IPL so I know about big crowds. Tonight rather than people abusing you and spitting at you, it was great to have the crowd behind. It just sends a message about how big this competition is.”You look around and you pinch yourself, we had a feeling it would be big tonight, but obviously not that good. How special was that? To get a win, it’s up there with the best cricketing moments of my life.”

South Africa’s one-day success has often been built on the back of allrounders and Ryan McLaren is the latest to show the strength of his spine

Firdose Moonda04-Jun-2013South Africa’s one-day success has often been built on the back of allrounders and Ryan McLaren is the latest to show the strength of his spine. He top scored with 55, his highest 50-over score for South Africa albeit unrecorded because the match was unofficial, in the warm-up fixture against Pakistan at The Oval on Monday and as the new first-choice allrounder has been careful to ward off comparisons with the country’s best two-in-one player.”As far as Jacques Kallis is concerned, I don’t think I should be associated in the same sentence with him right now,” McLaren said. “He is one of the best cricketers, if not the best cricketer South Africa has ever produced, and one of the best the world has produced. To replace a guy like that is difficult.”Specifically speaking, McLaren has not actually taken Kallis’ place in the starting XI. He bats lower down the order than Kallis, has a different role with the ball which includes death bowling and may well have been in the squad even if Kallis did not opt out for personal reasons. But his absence means McLaren will have to do a similar job by making an impact in more than one way and he is ready to take on that responsibility.”That’s the advantage you have as an allrounder: you can always contribute in two ways to the team,” he said. “If one discipline fails then you’ve got an opportunity to contribute in the next discipline. When you do have the odd day that both disciplines go well, then you take that.”Much like Robin Peterson, McLaren has shown progress since he was given a sustained run in the ODI team. He has been a regular member of the side since their series against England in August last year and featured in the eight home matches against New Zealand and Pakistan. Since January, he has notched up his highest score with the bat (33) and his best bowling figures (4/46).Those numbers are hardly Kallis-esque but they indicate potential and improvement. Combined with McLaren’s maturity – despite playing only 22 ODIs, he is 30-years-old, has played high-level cricket for a decade with experience on the county circuit, which could be a good sign for what McLaren can deliver at this tournament.McLaren was a Kolpak player for Kent for two years between 2007 and 2009, before he returned to South Africa and also played for Middelsex, so he knows his way around the English circuit. “Playing in England means I have an idea of what to expect in different conditions,” he said. “I will try and bank on a bit of experience I have got from playing county cricket here in the past and take that going forward.”That know-how could be most beneficial in pressure situations, which have been South Africa’s undoing in previous tournaments. At the most recent one, the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka last year, bowling towards the end of an innings was considered one of the major problems (the middle order, as ever, was the other).South Africa could not defend either of the totals they set in the second round against Pakistan and Australia and gave away 43 runs in the last five overs against India.Since Rusty Theron’s injury, they have lacked a container at the end and have now tasked McLaren with stepping into that role. He has been working with Allan Donald on perfecting the yorker and has worked on a strategy for limiting runs at the tail end of an innings.”With the new format of having four players out makes it tough as a death bowler,” McLaren said. “You want to try and adopt as much of an attacking mindset as possible. If you are just going to try and defend especially on the slower wickets here, you are going to be found out as a death bowler. There’s no point being predictable, we’ve seen in the IPL how guys hit the ball at the end of an innings.”That too, is McLaren’s job. South Africa’s lack of a lower-order finisher is another cause for concern in big events and if he can get that right, McLaren will set himself apart from some of the other allrounders that have come through.As for Kallis, the only thing McLaren wants to take from him is inspiration because he knows taking his place is not an option. “As far as Jacques is concerned, I would maybe focus on taking a lot of advice and asking a lot of questions about the game to find out what may work in these conditions and in the different disciplines of being an allrounder.”

Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, has been released from jail after completing half of his one-year sentence for spot-fixing

ESPNcricinfo staff03-May-2012Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, has been released from jail after completing half of his one-year sentence for spot-fixing, his lawyers said. He was freed from Canterbury Prison in southeast England on Thursday morning.Asif, 29, was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court in November 2011 of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments over deliberate no-balls bowled during the Lord’s Test between Pakistan and England in August 2010. He is still under a seven-year ban (the last two years of which are suspended) imposed by an ICC tribunal in February last year.His team-mates Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir were also found guilty. While Asif and Butt denied the charges against them in court Amir, who was released in February after serving half of a six-month sentence, pleaded guilty. Butt, who is currently serving a 30-month jail sentence, was banned for ten years (with five suspended), while Amir got five years.Mazhar Majeed, the agent who was accused of setting up the deal that was uncovered by a newspaper sting operation, was imprisoned for 32 months.

South Africa A levelled their five-match one-day series against Bangladesh A with an easy victory in the second game in Paarl

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Apr-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSouth Africa A levelled their five-match one-day series against Bangladesh A with an easy victory in the second game in Paarl. The result was set up by big-hitting from the hosts’ lower-middle order, which plundered 68 runs off the last 25 balls of the innings. That took South Africa A to a score of 285, which proved too much for Bangladesh A.Having chased successfully in the first one-dayer, Bangladesh chose to field, and they got a couple of early wickets. Jacques Rudolph, the South Africa A captain, had not had a big innings in the four-day matches or the first 50-over game, and was keen to get some runs. His 89, along with Farhaan Behardien’s 66, gave the hosts a platform from which to launch.The score when Behardien fell in the 46th over was 217 for 5 and at that stage Bangladesh were still in the game. Vaughn van Jaarsveld started the onslaught, smashing two sixes and a four in the 47th over, before holing out in the deep for 37 off 25 balls. The next two overs went for 18, and in the 50th, 19-year-old legspinner Noor Hossain was taken apart. Allrounder Vernon Philander hit him for two straight sixes before wicketkeeper Heino Kuhn struck two more, again straight. The over cost 27 and South Africa went into the break with all the momentum.Bangladesh needed to start their chase aggressively and they did, but lost wickets too. Philander, who had scored 23 off 9 balls, did the early damage, picking up three wickets to leave Bangladesh 87 for 4. Bangladesh A captain Mohammad Ashraful, who had scored an unbeaten century in the previous game, raced to a run-a-ball 39, but wickets continued falling at the other end. Once Ashraful was caught at third man off Craig Alexander, the match was as good as over. Philander came back to take a fourth and Bangladesh folded for 229 in 48 overs.

Alex Wakely’s half-century helped Northamptonshire to a thrilling three-wicket victory over Championship leaders Sussex on day three at Wantage Road

20-May-2010
Scorecard
Alex Wakely’s half-century helped Northamptonshire to a thrilling three-wicket victory over Championship leaders Sussex on day three at Wantage Road.Wakely’s 51 from 127 balls, aided by former captain Nicky Boje’s explosive 42 from 56 balls, steered the hosts towards their win after they had been left struggling on 88 for 5. Three wickets apiece for Jack Brooks and Lee Daggett helped Northamptonshire, who have announced the signature of former Sri Lanka bowler Chaminda Vaas, to bowl out Sussex for 274, leaving the hosts with a target of 171, which they reached inside 49 overs.At the start of the third day Sussex had resumed on 137 for 2, 38 runs ahead of Northants, with Michael Thornley and captain Murray Goodwin on 45 and 21 respectively. Thornley completed a patient half-century from 138 balls, but he added just one more run before he edged Daggett to Ireland wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien.England keeper Matt Prior came to the crease, but he went without troubling the scorers when he was trapped lbw in Brooks’ first over of the day. Goodwin made it to 39 before he was superbly caught at second slip by David Sales off the bowling of Daggett.The collapse continued when Andrew Hodd (5) gave Wakely the easiest of catches at mid-wicket before James Middlebrook was brought into the attack and he trapped Ollie Rayner (27) lbw.David Willey grabbed the wicket of Rana Naved (7) in the second over after lunch when a loose shot from the Pakistan international went to Sales at second slip. James Anyon made just a single before Brooks sent his off stump spinning and Robin Martin-Jenkins was left unbeaten on 55 off 71 balls after Corey Collymore (5) was pinned leg before by Willey.Early in the Northamptonshire chase, Stephen Peters went past 10,000 first-class career runs before he went for just four when Naved trapped him lbw. Fellow opener O’Brien made 24 before his drive off Collymore went towards Anyon at wide mid-on and he took a fantastic catch low down to his left.Anyon then forced Sales (12) to play on to his off stump to leave Northants on 57 for three, before Rob White (9) was caught and bowled by Rayner in the first over after tea. Home captain Andrew Hall, who faced four balls without scoring, then became the next batsman out lbw, dismissed by Rayner.Chris Nash claimed the wickets of Boje and Wakely, caught by Collymore and Prior respectively after valuable scores, before Middlebrook and Willey ensured Northamptonshire claimed their third win of the season.