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Sikandar Raza, Hamilton Masakadza and Tendai Chatara combined to lead Zimbabwe to a 12-run win over Sri Lanka, their first victory against a Full Member at a neutral venue in 15 years

The Report by Mohammad Isam17-Jan-2018
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
AFP

Sikandar Raza, Hamilton Masakadza and Tendai Chatara combined to lead Zimbabwe to a 12-run win over Sri Lanka, their first victory against a Full Member at a neutral venue in 15 years. Raza made an unbeaten 81 and took the key wicket of Kusal Perera, who made 80.He also took two catches, off Angelo Mathews and former Sri Lanka captain Thisara Perera. It was the Thisara catch that finally swung the game Zimbabwe’s way. Thisara climbed into Graeme Cremer for 15 runs in the 38th over, after his side slipped to 199 for 6 chasing 291 to win.Wanindu Hasaranga’s dismissal in the 40th over didn’t deter him either. Thisara hit Cremer over long-off for his second six before an edge through third man brought the equation down to under a run-a-ball. Akila Dananjaya then holed out at cover, and although replays showed that Tendai Chatara may have marginally overstepped, the third umpire’s decision went in favour of Zimbabwe.Thisara picked singles thereafter but after he had struck a huge six in the 47th over, he struck a low full toss to Raza at deep midwicket. Thisara’s exit, after his 37-ball 64 with five fours and three sixes, was the opening Zimbabwe needed as Chatara eked out the last wicket, that of Dushmantha Chameera in the 49th over.It was Kusal Perera who gave Sri Lanka the early impetus in the chase. He began with cuts and slashes reminiscent of his boyhood hero Sanath Jayasuriya. At the other end, Upul Tharanga survived a scare when the ball hit his leg stump but the bails didn’t come off. He chipped a catch to mid-on in the sixth over, and Kusal Mendis, recalled for this tri-series, did the same in the next over.But Kusal didn’t relent with his attacking intent, finishing the Powerplay with a brutal cut over point that went for six.Soon after Kusal reached his fifty, Solomon Mire dropped him at deep point on 57.Angelo Mathews, who needed some attention for cramps, sprung to life in the 18th over when he smashed Blessing Muzarabani for a six over midwicket, and four through the slips. Kusal kept finding the boundaries too while Zimbabwe found more ways to drop him: Graeme Cremer dropped him off his own bowling in the 24th over with his score on 77.But finally, Muzarabani used all of his height at short fine leg to pluck out a catch off Kusal on 80. He had struck eight fours and two sixes in his 83-ball innings.Kusal’s exit forced Sri Lanka to slow down. Mathews and Chandimal struck just one boundary in six overs, before Mathews fell in the 31st over. Mathews swatted at a Muzarabani bouncer, but it was brilliantly intercepted by Raza at short midwicket.Chandimal tried to stay in touch with the required run-rate but Jarvis got one to keep low, which hit his off stump. Asela Gunaratne followed him soon after, deceived by Cremer and stumped by Brendan Taylor.Openers Masakadza and Solomon Mire had earlier given Zimbabwe a strong start with a 75-run stand. Masakadza blasted Suranga Lakmal for two fours in the first over and Solomon Mire bludgeoned five fours in his 37-ball 34.After Mire fell in the 13th over, Ervine followed cheaply. Masakadza and Taylor added 57 runs for the third wicket. The well-set Masakadza fell in Gunaratne’s first over after making 73 off 83 balls with 10 boundaries. Taylor fell for a 51-ball 38, before Raza and Malcolm Waller added 57 for the fifth wicket. Waller slammed two fours and a six in his 29 off 35 balls.Raza though lifted Zimbabwe’s momentum towards the end, striking Lakmal for five fours in two overs. He added 61 runs for the sixth wicket with Peter Moor off just 6.3 overs. Moor struck two sixes in his 19 before becoming Gunaratne’s third victim. Thisara also took two wickets, while the other front-line bowlers couldn’t make much of an impact.

The Australia captain said that in high-pressure tournaments like the World Cup, England’s ultra-aggressive approach to ODI batting could backfire

Daniel Brettig30-Jan-2018Australia captain Steven Smith has questioned whether England’s bull-at-a-gate batting approach will stand up to the pressure of a World Cup. Smith also said he wanted the Australia squad that will play five ODIs in England this year to be as close as possible to their desired 2019 World Cup combination.England’s methods, rejuvenated since their 2015 World Cup failure, place emphasis on a hyper-aggressive start with the bat, and Smith said that while it was fine in bilateral series there would be a chance of it coming unstuck during the knockout phase of a high-pressure tournament.That much was true of New Zealand three years ago; they pushed all-out attack to get as far as the 2015 World Cup final, only to fall in a heap against Australia’s pace bowlers in front of 93,013 at the MCG. Smith said that while Australia were entering a period of introspection, driven by the team’s dipping ODI fortunes, they would try to find a way suited to their playing stocks and mental approach.”I think our one-day cricket has been disappointing for just over a year now. A lot of it comes down to poor decision making, and execution out in the middle,” Smith said. “We’ve seen when we’ve played well and won games it’s been about the top four, someone there going on and getting a really big score. Then others coming in and playing quite positively around the person getting that big score. That’s the blueprint that I think works for us.”England have played a different brand of cricket where they go really hard the whole time. That can be risky as well at times, particularly in big tournaments. You might get yourselves to the semi-finals or something but you can have those days where you get bowled out for 150. There are a few things to think about in regards to one-day cricket and the way we want to play. We just haven’t been good enough, to be honest, the last couple of weeks and the last year.”[England] are clear in the way they play. They’re all very aggressive and go out there and take the game on from ball one. I don’t think our players aren’t clear, we’re just not executing it and making the right decisions at key times. If we get those decisions right, and guys are smarter in the way they play in the middle, we’ll turn things around.”Smith’s team lost the No. 1 ODI ranking they had held since winning the 2015 World Cup in February last year, and have steadily slid down the ICC’s table ever since. They now sit at No. 5, behind South Africa, India, England and New Zealand, following their 4-1 series loss to Eoin Morgan’s team.Given that Cricket Australia’s strategic goal for the national team is to be No. 1 in all three formats, the current state of affairs is causing furrowed brows at the game’s Jolimont headquarters. Smith and chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns both admitted the team’s leaders needed to refresh in terms of approach and personnel before the June series in England, which will mark more or less a year until the next World Cup.”I think that makes sense. The World Cup being in England, any exposure to those conditions with the likely squad is important,” Smith said of taking a prospective World Cup group to England. “A lot can happen in a year as well with injuries and things like that. For us, it’ll be trying to get that squad as close as what we think the World Cup is going to be.”Our middle overs with the bat have been disappointing. We’re continually losing wickets and you can’t do that anymore against good teams,” he said. “You have to have those big partnerships in the middle and let our guys who are big and strong, give them the freedom of the last 10, 15 overs to try and clear the pickets. We’ve got guys there who do it really well, we just haven’t set the game up for them to do it.”Then the first 10 overs with the ball. At times it’s felt like we’re trying to get through the 10 overs and having a deep breath, then getting the four guys out and we’re behind the game when that 10 overs are finished. We’ve been really good at pulling it back after that for a while, but we’ll make things a lot easier for ourselves if we start well with the ball.”Also speaking on Tuesday, Hohns said the series in England was a key point at which the selectors and team management needed to stabilise both the personnel and the team tactics to be used over the year that followed.”In our winter here we go to play five one-dayers against England again, so we will be trying at that stage to get a unit together that hopefully can play together and stay together leading into the World Cup,” Hohns told . “Of course form will dictate what happens there, but we’ll certainly be looking at what type of player we want to take us through to that World Cup and get them playing together.”We need to sit down and have a look at everything. Not necessarily a review, we don’t need to have a national inquiry every time we lose a series, but we’re clearly not playing well at the moment, so yes we will be assessing how we play the game and secondly what players are required to play the way we want to play and the utilisation of our players, whether we’re utilising them the right way.”Like Smith, Hohns said Australia did not need to plagiarise England. “We don’t necessarily have to copy how other teams are playing, England are playing very well, they’re a red-hot side as we know, so we’ll have a look at how they’re playing but try to develop our own style.”

Hong Kong scored their first ever ODI win over a Full Member when they beat Afghanistan by 30 runs on a rainy afternoon at the Bulawayo Athletic Club

The Report by Liam Brickhill in Bulawayo08-Mar-2018
ScorecardHong Kong scored their first ever ODI win over a Full Member when they beat Afghanistan by 30 runs on a rainy afternoon at the Bulawayo Athletic Club. The victory was built around Anshuman Rath’s half-century and was sealed by an outstanding spell of offspin bowling from Ehsan Khan, backed up by some inspired fielding.As a result, Afghanistan were left needing a miracle to qualify for the 2019 World Cup. They have lost three out of three matches in this tournament so far and will need several things going their way to stay in contention.Afghanistan were trundling along steadily in pursuit of 242 when Ehsan was brought on from the clubhouse end in the 16th over. With loop and flight, he tempted Rahmat Shah into an expansive drive. With dip and turn, he spun the ball sharply in between bat and pad to disturb the stumps. With that, Afghanistan were 56 for 2, and Hong Kong had their opening. Before his first over was up, Ehsan had also dismissed the set Ihsanullah for 20, a gloved sweep landing in the hands of Rath, tumbling to his left at slip.At 57 for 3, with Mohammad Nabi still to bat, Afghanistan might still have considered themselves in a favourable position. But Hong Kong’s bowling attack never let the pressure drop, with Tanwir Azfal’s medium pace particularly effective. Bowling a wicket-to-wicket line with Scott McKechnie up to the stumps, Afzal didn’t give the batsmen much to work with. Having made the first incision with the wicket of Javed Ahmadi for 22, his figures in his first spell were 6-0-15-1.The pressure built up by the bowlers brought desperate strokes against Ehsan at the other end. With the required rate closing in on six an over, Samiullah Shenwari bent low to sweep but missed the ball entirely to be bowled for 9, as Afghanistan slipped to 73 for 4.Hong Kong gather around wicket-taker Ehsan Khan•ICC

Still, though, Afghanistan were not entirely out of the match. Mohammad Nabi shepherded the middle order, helping to keep a fidgety Najibullah Zadran in accumulation mode. They nudged and pushed their way through a 59-run stand.With the required rate climbing and ominous rain clouds closing in from the north, Najibullah eventually decided to have a go at Nadeem Ahmed’s left-arm spin. He couldn’t get anything on his slog sweep, however, with the ball crashing into his pad and the umpire upholding a vociferous lbw shout. Two overs later, Sharafuddin Ashraf missed a huge slog across the line and was bowled for 1; Afghanistan 134 for 6.Hong Kong’s discipline soon brought results, Ehsan Nawaz sprinting around at short third man to cut off a dab, and firing a flat throw to McKechnie to find Nabi short of his ground and run out for 38.Fifteen minutes later, rain, thunder and lightning arrived to force the players from the field. When they returned, Afghanistan’s total was revised to 226, with three overs left to play. Dawlat threw the bat around, but they were never going to get close. For his career best figures of 4 for 33, Ehsan was named Man of the Match.Earlier in the day, Rath provided the bedrock of Hong Kong’s innings, helping them recover from an early wobble which saw them reduced to 43 for 3. He put together stands of 50 with captain Babar Hayat and 67 with McKechnie to keep Hong Kong ticking over, looking particularly effective when playing off the front foot through the covers.Rath, who was Hong Kong’s leading run-scorer during the World Cricket League Championship with 678 runs at 75.33, started in measured fashion against both pace and spin. His innings eventually gained momentum, and he came out on top during a fascinating duel with Afghanistan’s quicks, cutting and pulling both Dawlat and Shapoor Zadran. With Tanwir Afzal smashing 22 from just 9 deliveries towards the end, Hong Kong reached a total that would prove more than enough.

Among the batsmen, captain Meg Lanning moved up one spot to No. 3, while Beth Mooney moved up to fourth and Smriti Mandhana to seventh

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Apr-2018Australia swing bowler Megan Schutt has become the top-ranked bowler in the ICC’s T20I rankings for women after emerging as the highest wicket-taker in the recent T20 tri-series in India. Australia clinched the title by by beating England in the final in Mumbai, where Schutt was named Player of the Series for her nine wickets from five matches, and the best economy rate in the series (minimum five overs) of 6.28.Schutt had briefly held the top spot last year too, but only for three days in November. She is now on 669 rating points, followed by New Zealand offspinner Leigh Kasperek (630) who picked up 10 wickets in the four home T20s against West Indies. Kasperek jumped seven spots to overtake Hayley Matthews, Jess Jonassen and Poonam Yadav. Poonam went up six places to her career-best fifth spot while her team-mate Jhulan Goswami returned to the top-20 list by taking 15th place.Among the batsmen, Australia captain Meg Lanning moved up one spot to No. 3 after not being dismissed even once during the tri-series while scoring 175 runs, including her match-winning 88* off 45 balls in the final on Saturday. West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor is still at the top while Suzie Bates is second. Australia opener Beth Mooney moved up to fourth place and India’s Smriti Mandhana from 20th to seventh.In the women’s team rankings, which take into account results across formats, Australia are at the top, followed by England, New Zealand and India.

Chennai Super Kings came back from a slow start to post 128 off their last ten overs and edge Sunrisers out in a four-run win

The Report by Varun Shetty22-Apr-2018
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:32

Faulkner: Sunrisers will be upset about the no-ball that wasn’t called

Ambati Rayudu’s masterclass was nearly outdone by one from Kane Williamson, but Chennai Super Kings survived that attack from Sunrisers’ captain and then a Yusuf Pathan cameo to crawl to the top of the table. In a match where all the action happened at the back end of the two innings, the difference was only four runs.The difference, perhaps, was that Super Kings had kept more wickets in hand up front than Sunrisers had. Seamer Deepak Chahar took three wickets inside the Powerplay as Sunrisers put up a poor response after being set 183 in the absence of the injured Shikhar Dhawan.Rayudu uses experience to beat conditionsSuper Kings found it hard after being put in. Afternoon games in Hyderabad have often brought out low-scoring games because the summer heat – the temperature was in the mid-30s today – dries the surface up.Shane Watson, whose explosive batting had helped Super Kings put up 107 for 1 in the first ten overs against Rajasthan Royals on Friday, was kept quiet. At the other end, it didn’t appear part of the returning Faf du Plessis’ brief to take on the bowling. With a a struggling Suresh Raina at No. 3, Super Kings put up both the season’s lowest Powerplay score – 27 for 1 – and ten-over score – 54 for 2, almost half of what they’d got against Royals.Rayudu approached it differently. Moments after walking in against Rashid Khan in the eighth over, he hit a mistimed sweep over midwicket. When Williamson brought Bhuvneshwar back for a third over to try and break the partnership in the 10th over, he picked his slower ball and nailed a slog sweep for six.For most of his 112-run partnership with Raina, Rayudu looked like he had a plan for this kind of a surface. It was, after all, his home ground. While Raina looked decidedly on the defensive, trying to walk around in the crease to drop balls on either side with soft hands, Rayudu first maneuvered the spinners around with use of the feet to get settled, and would then mess with the seamers’ lengths when he got boundaries at third man trying to slash them onto the leg side. In his last 16 balls Rayudu scored 48 runs, with six fours and three sixes.The Rashid problem and the miscalculationIt was, however, a Raina blitz against Rashid that signalled the attack in the 12th over. The legspinner had been caned by Chris Gayle in his last match, often bowling flat and full to allow him cleans swings through the line. When Raina slogged a loopy googly over midwicket in his second over, he quickly resorted to the same strategy despite finding success with flight earlier. He darted the next one full outside off and it ended up in the same place.Rashid was forced into trying to rush through his next two overs. Eleven of his last 12 balls didn’t land fuller than short-of-a-length and he was hit for six off the only full one in that period to go for 28, and finish with figures of 4-0-49-1, days after going for 55 in four overs.Stanlake and Shakib leaked runs simultaneously and a cheeky over from Deepak Hooda earlier meant Sunrisers didn’t bowl out Bhuvneshwar for the first time ever. They conceded 128 in the last ten overs.The other Kane, the umpiring mistakeChahar’s figures read 3 for 1 when Sunrisers were 22 for 3, and with Manish Pandey and Hooda gone, Williamson found himself at the forefront of a collapsing team that didn’t have both Dhawan and David Warner in the XI for the first time.Like Super Kings in the overs immediately following the Powerplay, Sunrisers were watchful but for completely different reasons. Williamson and Shakib only occasionally went after boundaries during their 37-ball stand of 49 for the fourth wicket. The moment Shakib tried changing that, he fell to Karn Sharma.Williamson didn’t have that problem when he went after the legspinner though. Shortly after lofting Jadeja over long-off, he proceeded to take 22 off Karn’s next over, with sixes through midwicket, square leg and long-off. Yusuf Pathan, on nine off 12 at that point, took the cue and got two sixes off the Dwayne Bravo in the next over. Suddenly, the equation was 52 off 24, and Sunrisers were in the game.Two balls later, though, came a moment that might have been the one that put them out. Williamson, deep in the crease against Shardul Thakur, tried to fend off a beamer that was clearly above waist height. It wasn’t called a no-ball by square leg umpire Vineet Kulkarni. Yusuf hit the next ball for six, which may have still been the outcome if that ball was a free-hit. But the loss of that run and an extra ball was decisive.Williamson fell to Bravo on 84 next over and Thakur had Yusuf caught off a slower ball. Despite a wild 17 off four from Rashid, Sunrisers fell short.

According to a statement released by NZC on behalf of his wife Lady Dianne Hadlee, he has undergone surgery to remove a tumour, and ‘has made an excellent recovery’

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jun-2018Sir Richard Hadlee has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. According to a statement released by New Zealand Cricket on behalf of his wife Lady Dianne Hadlee, he has undergone surgery to remove a tumour.”Last month, Richard had a routine, 3-year colonoscopy, and we discovered that he has bowel cancer,” the statement said. “He has since had an operation to remove the tumour. This operation went extremely well and he has made an excellent recovery from surgery.”As a safeguard, further treatment in the form of chemotherapy will commence shortly and last for a few months. It is expected that, in time, he will have a full recovery.”Hadlee, 66, is widely considered New Zealand’s greatest ever cricketer, and was one of the four great fast-bowling allrounders of the 1980s alongside Imran Khan, Ian Botham and Kapil Dev. He took 431 Test wickets – a world record at the time of his retirement – in 86 matches at an average of 22.29, and also contributed 3124 runs at 27.16.His performances were central to New Zealand’s rise as a serious cricketing power, as match figures of 7 for 130 and 10 for 100 in their first ever wins over Australia and England, respectively, would suggest. In all, he took 173 wickets at 13.06 in New Zealand Test wins.During his last tour of England, in 1990, he was knighted for his services to cricket.

Australia’s captain admitted his own position will come under scrutiny after the 5-0 defeat but retained belief in the future of the one-day side

Melinda Farrell at Old Trafford24-Jun-20181:40

Australia a long way off, but know where we’re going – Paine

Tim Paine said Australia’s senior players had let the side down in their fifth straight loss as England sealed their first series whitewash in any format over Australia and admitted his side had “folded” under pressure throughout the series.After setting England a target of 206 for victory, Australia fought their way back, thanks largely to the sharp pace of Billy Stanlake, and gave themselves a shot at victory when they reduced England to 114 for 8. But they were unable to dislodge a rampant Jos Buttler or deprive him of a batting partner.”That one stung,” Paine told . “Not as difficult as Trent Bridge but we’ve certainly been taught a lesson by a world-class outfit.””I thought we were in trouble to be honest at the half-way mark. But our bowlers came out and committed to what we spoke about really well in that first hour we were out there.”But once put under pressure whether with bat, ball or in the field, we’ve folded a bit, if we’re completely honest.””We could have got a couple more wickets. That would have been nice. I thought we had them under pressure. Rashid and Jos played really well but we didn’t get enough balls in the right areas at those two in particular and they batted well. And when we’ve been under pressure in this series we haven’t responded as well as we would have liked so that’s a lesson we’ve got to learn.”Paine’s own form has come under scrutiny in his first ODI series as Australia captain. He has averaged just 7.20 from five matches and admitted his ODI captaincy role will be up for discussion after this series.”I haven’t thought about it to be honest,” he said. “All I know is I was coming here to do this series and I’ve said a few times before when you are my age it’s a bit foolish to look ahead. Certainly I am really looking forward to captaining the Test team and continuing how I have been playing in that format. But where I go with the rest of my cricket is something we will discuss in the coming weeks.”If I’m honest, I’ve probably let the pressure get to me a bit this series. When you’re not performing things are hard at international level.”Travis Head’s half-century and solid contributions from Alex Carey – who would likely take the gloves in the ODI side should Paine step down or be dropped – and D’Arcy Short were among the bright spots for Australia on what has been a testing tour.”Even today we see Carey and Short – two really good young players – play really well after our senior players probably let us down,” said Paine. “Billy Stanlake and Ashton Agar… there’s some real talent in this group. If we can get our best team on the park with some of these young players, anything is possible.”I’ve heard a few times that this team doesn’t have a plan, or it doesn’t know where it’s going, but we have a clear direction. We know we are a long way off the mark at the moment but the World Cup is not for 12 months and we know when we get our best team on the park, playing our best cricket, we are going to be right in the thick of it.”

Josh Poysden will only play Championship matdhes on loan for the rest of the season but stays with Birmingham Bears as long as their T20 season continues

David Hopps16-Aug-2018Yorkshire have announced the signing of Warwickshire legspinner Josh Poysden on a three-year deal but have stressed that they are still trying to thrash out a new deal for Adil Rashid to stay at the club.Suspicions that Poysden has been brought in as a ready-made replacement for Rashid, whose call-up by England for the India series when he was on a white-ball only contract caused so much vexation in the Broad Acres, would be wide of the mark because negotiations were well advanced before that thunderbolt left Yorkshire’s plans in chaos.Yorkshire had initially envisaged that Poysden would be their go-to Championship spinner when Rashid was, by his own choice, unavailable and then could potentially bowl in tandem with Rashid in Twenty20. (The future of Azeem Rafiq, the offspinner who Yorkshire gave a second chance to make the grade two years ago, is yet to be announced).Now that situation is complicated. England’s national selector, Ed Smith, has indicated that next season all Test players must be available for red-ball cricket, leaving Rashid’s future availability for Yorkshire (or, indeed, any other county) in all competitions no longer as clear as it once appeared.Yorkshire want to keep Rashid, recognising that he is an important role model, especially in the South Asian communities.But with finances tighter than ever after Yorkshire committed to the building of a new dual purpose stand for cricket and the rugby operation on the other side of the ground, negotiations will be far from straightforward.Yorkshire’s director of cricket Martyn Moxon said: “”We are still in negotiations with Adil Rashid regarding 2019 and our complete spin bowling squad will be announced in due course.”Adil Rashid during a practice session•Getty Images

What does seem certain is that Rashid will not play any Championship cricket for Yorkshire this season, enough also to persuade Yorkshire to bring in Poysden, an England Lions legspinner, on loan for Championship fixtures only until the end of the season.He has already spent one match on loan when he played for Yorkshire in the Roses fixture at Old Trafford after Rashid – rumours about his potential England summons already beginning to swirl – turned down the opportunity.Poysden will remain available for Birmingham Bears in the Vitality Blast for as long as they remain in the competion – and marked his new deal by producing one of the best deliveries of his career at Edgbaston on Wednesday night, bowling Lancashire’s Steven Croft with one that turned sharply to strike off stump.Birmingham’s win mean they will carry hopes of reaching the last eight into their final North Group match against Worcestershire at Worcester on Friday night. Poysden will join Yorkshire after the match.Moxon said: “We are delighted that Josh has signed a three-year contract at Yorkshire and will join us on loan until the end of the season. Following on from Josh’s previous loan move, we believe that his skillset will complement and strengthen our bowling attack in our remaining six championship fixtures.”Poysden’s chances at Warwickshire – or their T20 alias Birmingham – have been limited despite that Lions recognition. At 27, he has played only 12 Championship matches, taking 27 wickets, including two five-wicket hauls. With the white ball, Poysden has played 47 matches across both formats, but although he has impressive economy rates of 5.96 in List A cricket and 7.53 in T20s his limited opportunity is seen in a total of only 38 wickets.That has had much to do with the fact that Jeetan Patel, one of the most inspirational figures in the county game, has led the attack at Edgbaston. Poysden now has the chyance to grow away from Patel’s shadow.Ashley Giles, Sport Director at Warwickshire, said: “Josh is a great lad and every member of the cricket management team wishes him every success in his career. He’s very ambitious and, with opportunities being very limited for him in Championship cricket, this is a fantastic opportunity for him to take with Yorkshire.”Having been a Bear for five seasons, he leaves Edgbaston with winners’ medals of two major trophies and many friendships in the dressing room.”Poysden said: “It is massively exciting to be joining Yorkshire, a club with a massive history and lots of top class players. I really enjoyed the one game loan. Most importantly, getting a win in the Roses game was a great way to start my Yorkshire career.”Poysden will be eligible to play from Sunday when Yorkshire host Worcestershire at Scarborough in the Specsavers County Championship. A ground, incidentally, and against Warwickshire, where Rashid’s career began amid such excitement 12 years ago.

Alex Milton scored a maiden Championship hundred last month but the runs he squeezed out in Southport could be worth a lot more

Paul Edwards30-Aug-2018
ScorecardAsk a county batsman which of his innings is his favourite and you will not always be told of jewelled centuries on ivory stages. Quite frequently you will hear instead of the knock that made a difference. Last month Alex Milton scored a century on his County Championship debut but he did so in a losing cause, albeit it included a 136-run last wicket partnership with Steve Magoffin. On the second day of this match, Milton’s third in Division One, he made a mere 37 but shared the 61-run stand for the fifth wicket with Ben Cox that has probably tipped this game decisively in Worcestershire’s favour.Milton was fortunate that Cox was his batting partner. The Worcestershire wicketkeeper is one of the most underestimated cricketers on the circuit and his 40 took a little of the pressure off his younger colleague. But the pair came together when their team were 56 for 4 and their lead over Lancashire was a mere 117. Their stand sucked much of the venom out of Lancashire and it was the best of six significant alliances which all but filled an absorbing last two sessions at Trafalgar Road.

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Six overs before the end of the day Worcestershire were finally dismissed for 252 and the home side opened with a nightwatchman, Toby Lester, and Haseeb Hameed, who remains on a pair. Lancashire still need a further 306 runs to win and no one with a full complement of marbles fancies their chances.The pitch did not ease greatly throughout the day. It has never been a desperately difficult pitch but Brett D’Oliveira’s dismissal to a magnificent ball from Graham Onions which landed on middle and off before seaming away showed that there has always been a wicket in this surface. But both Milton and Cox adapted to the conditions in the manner of old pros; the balls they kept out or let go were just as important as those they cut or clipped to the white fences around this great ground. Cox, in particular, was prepared to wear a few on his body and to bat through a fine spell by Lester. As for Milton, when he considers how his life has been spent, he may well conclude that the two-and-a-quarter hours he took gritting it out at Trafalgar Road have been among the most valuable.It certainly set the tone for the rest of the innings. Tom Bailey, who had taken three early wickets, was not as effective as the ball got older, and later batsmen found batting a slightly more agreeable task than Worcestershire’s top order. Ed Barnard batted well once again, albeit for a mere 24 and Josh Tongue’s 20 helped him add yet another 26 for the last wicket with Dillon Pennington.Wayne Parnell contributed vital runs•Getty Images

But the applause of this good-natured and knowledgeable crowd greeted the batting of Wayne Parnell, who made 50 off 74 balls and hit Keshav Maharaj for a straight six into the media tent, where most of the inhabitants were watching the cricket. Parnell’s excellent choice of shot throughout his innings revealed his pedigree and showed how he has bought into Worcestershire’s appealing ethos of hard work and great enjoyment.And as the afternoon progressed, bowlers toiled for the first time in this match. Maharaj’s spell from the Grosvenor Road End claimed three wickets but it did not change the pattern established by Cox and Milton. Likewise, Graham Onions removed Barnard and Ben Twohig but not before they had strengthened Worcestershire position. Lancashire’s bowlers and fielders became quieter even as the noise from the marquees increased. Perhaps they were considering the size of the task facing them; perhaps some of those thoughts could not be voiced in the changing room. Even as Worcestershire’s players view the prospect that they might beat Yorkshire and Lancashire in the space of nine glorious days, Dane Vilas and his players are pondering a different fate.Of course the home side’s task would not be so formidable had not D’Oliveira’s bowlers secured a 61-run first innings lead. Thus the Worcestershire bowlers could be pleased with their effort in taking the last five Lancashire wickets for 65 in little more than an hour’s graft. Josh Tongue, who has the ability to extract bounce from the blandest surface, took the first and last wickets to fall on Thursday, and finished with 5 for 53.Once again, though, Lancashire dug their own graves before obligingly interring themselves and pulling the turf across the plots. Josh Bohannon, for example, had played with purpose and intent for his 13 before he turned blind and was run out by Barnard’s throw when thinking of a third run. But this is a game which has never been short of gallows humour and it is the season when the light is dying, and with it, the green hopes of springtime.