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Late collapse sees visitors fall short after Ben Kellaway rescued Glamorgan with bat

ECB Reporters Network25-Jul-2024Glamorgan 187 for 8 (Kellaway 65*) beat Gloucestershire 160 (Bracey 86, Douthwaite 4-25, Gorvin 3-32) by 27 runs Glamorgan opened their account in the Metro Bank One Day Cup with a nail-biting derby win over Gloucestershire.In a 33-over rain-affected game, Glamorgan set 187 for 8 with 20-year-old Ben Kellaway hitting a rescuing 65 not out to prevent the hosts from collapsing at 27 for 3.Dan Douthwaite shone with the ball with four for 25 including the crucial wicket of James Bracey whose solo magnificence was in vain after striking a 79-ball 86.The visitors looked set to win yet another Severnside derby before Douthwaite and Andy Gorvin combined to trigger a Gloucestershire collapse from 157 for 5 to 160 all out.Gloucestershire won the toss and put the hosts into bat after the near three-hour delay. Jack Taylor’s decision proved to be a smart one initially with openers Josh Shaw and Ajeet Singh Dale making the most of early seam movement to get into the Glamorgan middle-order.Will Smale was unable to continue his fine form from Friday’s record-breaking Vitality Blast game, bowled for a duck, with Eddie Byrom dismissed for 5 just an over later to give the Gloucestershire openers a wicket apiece.Captain Kiran Carlson and Billy Root managed to add some stability in the middle, forming a partnership of 49 from 41 balls, pouncing on some loose deliveries from Goodman and Zaman Akhter.More wickets at bad times for the hosts had a par score looking far off once again when Carlson’s attempted fine cut found the edge and, subsequently, Bracey’s gloves with a similar story for Root off Akhter. Debutant Asa Tribe and his 20-year-old teammate Kellaway were forced to rebuild from 99 for 5 with only 14 overs to bat.A catalogue of aesthetically pleasing drives through and over extra cover and straight past Akhter were the highlights of the crucial Kellaway knock.While it was Kellaway who starred, his partnerships with Tribe, Douthwaite and Timm van der Gugten were just as important to ensure the hosts batted the full allocation of overs despite slow periods towards the back end of the innings.Gloucestershire’s pursuit started in almost identical fashion to the hosts’ innings.Van der Gugten and Jamie McIlroy extracted the same movement as their Gloucestershire counterparts did in the early overs, claiming the wickets of Australian international Cameron Bancroft, Ollie Price and Miles Hammond for just 44.It came down to Bracey’s excellence to keep the visitors in the contest. As Kellaway did for Glamorgan, the former England keeper’s solo brilliance looked to take the game away from Glamorgan.Glamorgan thought they would’ve not had luck on their side as a matter of millimetres separated a Bracey skier off Douthwaite and Tribe at deep square leg while on 61 and the score 99 for 4.When Charlesworth and Taylor both departed for supportive innings of 14 each, Graeme van Buuren attacked as the required run rate crept above seven before three fours and a six took the pressure off Bracey in their quickfire 41-run partnership, leaving just 31 to get from the final six overs.As the pendulum swung in the space of 11 balls from Douthwaite and Gorvin, the match slipped away from Gloucestershire to take them to the wrong side of another derby thriller after moments of brilliance saved the game in both County Championship and Blast affairs in 2024.

Former England allrounder had been club’s T20 Blast captain but not offered new deal

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jul-2023Sussex have announced that former England allrounder Ravi Bopara will leave the club after not being offered a contract extension.Bopara joined from Essex on a white-ball contract at the end of 2019 and captained Sussex’s T20 side for the last two seasons. At the start of the summer, new head coach Paul Farbrace targeted a place at Finals Day, but Sussex eventually finished sixth in the South Group, missing out on the quarter-finals.Bopara, 38, enjoyed his best Blast season since 2014, scoring 408 runs at a strike rate of 146.23 and recording a career-best 108 against Kent. He did, however, have to sit out Sussex’s trip to the Ageas Bowl after arriving after the start time.Related

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He indicated that he would be looking for a new county, “as I have a great deal more to offer to the game as a player”.Farbrace said: “I have enjoyed working with Ravi this summer in the T20 Blast competition and of course wish him well as he moves on to new opportunities. He has played some excellent cricket for Sussex this year, including a superb hundred at Canterbury last week.”Ravi has helped our young players with their development over the last couple of years that he has spent at Hove and we will miss his personality and experience at the club.”Bopara has played 452 games of T20, putting him sixth on the all-time list, and is part of the London Spirit squad for the Hundred, which begins next month.”It was very disappointing to be told by Paul Farbrace last week that there was not to be an extension of my contract at the club,” he said. “This is particularly so after a very good season with bat and ball. Having said that, I’ve loved my time at Sussex.”I have thoroughly enjoyed working with young players in the 2nd XI T20 matches and seeing some of the boys progress to the 1st team. Seeing that progression and development has been incredibly satisfying.”It’s been an absolute honour to have captained the 1st team in the T20 Blast and seeing the potential of our young team of players come through and finish the back end of the tournament strong has highlighted the progress we have made.”I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the players and staff who have helped me become a better cricketer and person and all the members and fans for their loyal support throughout the years. I now really looking forward to my next playing opportunity as I have a great deal more to offer to the game as a player.”

Captain says team can become best fielding side in Asia after outperforming world champions

Mohammad Isam14-Mar-2023More specialist bowlers than batters in the playing XI, and a better fielding display than England could manage, gave Bangladesh the decisive edge in the 3-0 T20I series win, according to their victorious captain, Shakib Al Hasan. The home side completed their whitewash with a 16-run victory in the third game, after engineering a mid-innings batting collapse and then squeezing England’s runs in the final five overs.Similar bowling displays had been instrumental to Bangladesh’s wins in the first two T20Is too. Hasan Mahmud bowled two great overs in the end of England’s innings in the first game in Chattogram, which enabled Bangladesh to chase a moderate 157. In the second game, England collapsed twice in the middle overs to be outplayed in the four-wicket defeat.Shakib said that, instead of playing eight batters, they chose to have a cushion of bowling options. In the third game, that bowling depth came in handy in the latter part of the innings when both Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan fell in the 14th over; Mustafizur Rahman removed Malan while Buttler was run out next ball. Mehidy’s direct hit highlighted the fielding effort which saw marked improvement in their ground fielding and catching.”Our bowling unit was quite good in this series,” Shakib said. “We never had the luxury of playing with six proper bowlers as we often played with eight batters. We were always a bowler short. In T20s, you need that [bowling] cushion. Bowlers win you T20 matches, so having that extra bowler was helpful. We have a few more areas for tuning, thinking ahead to the next World Cup, but we have made a good start. I think the turning point of the match was that over. They lost both their set batters in successive balls. It proved to be decisive.”Everyone noticed our fielding in these three matches. We out-fielded England, who are themselves a good fielding side. It is a big tick mark. Our biggest improvement is in our fielding, when I consider every aspect. We should always field well, but we have targeted to become the best fielding side in Asia. After this performance, I don’t think we are too far behind.”Shakib praised the way Litton Das came back into form, as the opener made a career-best 73 in quick time. He added 84 runs for the second wicket stand with the player of the series, Najmul Hossain Shanto, with the pair’s running between the wickets particularly impressing the captain.”We didn’t know how much runs were enough on this pitch. So we were very open-minded,” Shakib said. “We first thought 140 was a good score. Then we got to a stage when we thought 170-180 would be our total. We didn’t get many runs in the last five overs, but we batted well in the powerplay and middle-overs.”They have seven or eight proper bowlers so we had to struggle at least once in the innings,” he added. “The way Rony and Litton started, and then Shanto and Litton build the innings, especially their running between the wickets, it was outstanding. The way they turned ones into twos and twos into threes, it put England under pressure.”Related

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Bangladesh’s sudden upswing in the T20I format had a lot to do with its proximity to the BPL, and the selectors’ willingness to pick the best performers from a tournament that ended only three weeks before the series. “Everyone in this team performed in this year’s BPL,” Shakib said. “It wasn’t too long ago before the England tour. The top five-six batters in this series were also the top run-getters in BPL. It is the same for the highest wicket-takers. The confidence did carry over, so I think that really helped us.”Shakib also told the long-term story of how this team gained confidence in T20Is. He believes it goes back to the Asia Cup last year when he took over the captaincy, but the real belief that they can win against major teams came in the T20 World Cup when Bangladesh won two matches for the first time in their history.”I have been leading the team since the Asia Cup last year,” he said. “We didn’t win a match there, but I thought we played good cricket. We were unfortunate not to reach the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. We were one win away from that achievement. We had a lot of doubt before the tournament, but the belief that we can compete with bigger teams started from the World Cup.”England’s lack of batting depth also played a hand in their success as Bangladesh knew that three or four wickets would bring them to the lower-order. “We had more confidence before this series, since we were playing at home,” Shakib added. “We capitalised on England being short of batters. It was our advantage that they didn’t have many batters after losing three or four wickets.”

The confusion was because the umpires wanted to ensure Irfan’s injury was genuine

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jun-2021A strange passage of play briefly left the Peshawar Zalmi fielding with ten men during the second PSL 2021 eliminator against the Islamabad United on Tuesday, after their pacer Mohammad Irfan left the field because of an injury.Haider Ali, the substitute sent out by the Zalmi, was asked to leave the field by the umpires, who were apparently not convinced that Irfan was injured, leaving Zalmi down by a man.In the 11th over of the United innings, Irfan, who was bowling the final over of his spell, went down after his penultimate delivery. Following a delay, he got back up to complete the over, but fell to the ground again. During the 12th over, Irfan was taken outside the boundary for treatment, with Ali coming on to replace him.However, at the end of the 12th over, bowled by Amad Butt, Aleem Dar, the onfield umpire, signalled that Ali should not be allowed to field, causing another lengthy delay.After a break in play, with Irfan still receiving treatment, Ali also stepped out of the field, meaning the Zalmi had to bowl the 14th and 15th overs without Irfan or a substitute fielder.Eventually, at the start of the 16th over, after a conversation between Dar, the Zalmi captain Wahab Riaz, and Shoaib Malik, also of the Zalmi, the team was allowed to bring in another substitute, Khalid Usman taking the field.ESPNcricinfo understands that the delay was caused because the umpires wanted to ensure Irfan’s injury was genuine, and when they got a confirmation of the same from the paramedics at the ground, they allowed the substitution.During a timeout in United’s innings, Irfan’s team-mate Butt suggested that the pacer’s injury was only a case of cramps.

According to laws, West Indies were in the right with their appeal even though it left Virat Kohli fuming

Nagraj Gollapudi16-Dec-2019On Sunday, Indian captain Virat Kohli said he was miffed at the Ravindra Jadeja run-out being referred to the third umpire. He felt the on-field umpire Shaun George changed his original not out decision only after West Indies players, prompted by “people outside” appealed to him to review the incident. It now turns out that George was also prompted by the third umpire Rod Tucker to refer the decision “upstairs”.ESPNcricinfo understands that immediately after George had turned down the initial run-out appeal by the fielder Roston Chase, Tucker asked his colleague, via the radio that wires all the match officials, to refer it “upstairs” as the decision was “tight”. All this happened at the same time as replays of the incident were broadcast on TV. As soon as he had seen the replays, Tucker decided to intervene.George, who is from South Africa, then signaled he was referring the run-out to the third umpire, Tucker, who then relayed to George that Jadeja was indeed short of his crease.The incident took place on the fourth delivery of the 48th over of the Indian innings. Having dug out a yorker-length delivery from Keemo Paul, Jadeja set out for a single. Chase, rushing in from cover, broke the stumps in a brilliant piece of pick-and-throw fielding.George, who had witnessed the throw from the side-on angle, felt Jadeja had made his ground and ruled not out when Chase inquired if it was out. But the decision was soon overturned, something that Kohli disputed instantly by walking up to the fourth umpire who was standing outside the ropes.During the post-match presentation, Kohli told commentator Harsha Bhogle that “dismissal ends there” once George had told Chase it was not out. Kohli suspected George only referred the decision after the West Indies players, prompted by “people sitting outside”, who had seen the replays. “People sitting outside can’t dictate what happens on the field and I think that’s exactly what happened then,” Kohli said.The ball was not deadAnother key question asked on air immediately, but one that went unanswered, was whether it was valid for West Indies to raise an appeal after replays were already shown around the ground. The simple answer is yes. The MCC’s Laws of Cricket says a team has time until the next ball to make an appeal.Law 31.3, which deals with ‘Timing of the Appeals’ says “for an appeal to be valid, it must be made before the bowler begins his/her run-up or, if there is no run-up, his/her bowling action to deliver the next ball, and before Time has been called.”

The Netherlands batter signed off with a spectacular save against Sri Lanka

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jun-2024Sybrand Engelbrecht has announced his retirement from international cricket. The 35-year-old South-Africa-born batter made his Netherlands debut in 2023, and played 12 ODIs and 12 T20Is.Related

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Netherlands’ defeat to Sri Lanka on Sunday night, which knocked them out of the T20 World Cup 2024, was Engelbrecht’s last international appearance. He marked the occasion with a spectacular boundary save that went viral on social media, racking up over a million views on Instagram reels.That effort was characteristic of a player known for his brilliance on the field – he first came to prominence in 2008 when he took a flying, two-handed screamer at backward point while playing for South Africa against Papua New Guinea in the Under-19 World Cup.