The tour includes three T20Is and three ODIs in late March and early April

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jan-2021Australia’s women’s team will return to action in late March on a tour of New Zealand which includes three T20Is and three ODIs.The T20I series will be held in Hamilton on March 28, 30 and April 1 followed by the ODIs in Mount Maunganui on April 4, 7 and 10.The first ODI will be a chance for Meg Lanning’s team to surpass the record for consecutive victories in the format having equaled the mark of 21 set by Ricky Ponting’s side in 2003 when the two sides met last year in Brisbane.On that occasion Australia won the T20I series 2-1 and the ODIs 3-0.The tour, along with the preceding visit by England, help fill the gap created by the postponement of the ODI World Cup until next year. There had been talk of the three teams being involved in a triangular series but they will be two separate tours.”We’re very grateful to the New Zealand government for supporting and enabling these women’s tours and for creating an environment in which they can proceed,” David White, the NZC CEO said.”And with the ICC Women’s World Cup to be hosted in New Zealand next summer, it’s particularly important that teams are able to play and compete and develop their games ahead of such a significant tournament.”Australia had been due to host India in mid-January but that series has been pushed back to next season.The squad in New Zealand will undergo two weeks managed isolation on arrival.

Second extension granted as CSA continue to navigate choppy administrative waters

Firdose Moonda15-Feb-2021Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) interim board has been granted a two-month extension by the country’s sports minister, Nathi Mthethwa, in order to conclude its work. The board, chaired by Dr Stavros Nicolaou, will be in place until April 15 after initially being appointed on October 30, 2020 for a period of three months. This is the second extension granted to the board after they had their tenure stretched to mid-February last month.”Bearing in mind that in announcing the Interim Board late last year, the minister anticipated that even with the best laid plans, no one had a crystal ball on how things would practically pan out. As the Minister takes deadlines that he sets seriously, he considered and was persuaded by the rationale for the requested two-month extension, which was influenced by such external issues as the disciplinary hearings as well as consultations with internal and external stakeholders,” a statement issued by Mthethwa’s office read. “The minister is persuaded to grant the extension on the grounds stated, he has consulted with the members council (the highest decision making body at CSA made up of the 14 provincial presidents) and it was unanimously concluded that this is the best decision for cricket.”The interim board is currently in the process of disciplinary proceedings against CSA’s company secretary Welsh Gwaza and acting CEO Kugandrie Govender. It also needs to lay the framework for electing a permanent, and mostly independent board, and needs to ensure CSA is in a position to hold its AGM, which was postponed from September last year. Overall, the interim board’s scope of work remains the same: “to generally do whatever is necessary and appropriate in order to restore the integrity and reputation of CSA,” as the minister’s statement put it, following years of maladministration.But the board has not had it all smooth sailing. Last month, former interim board chair Zak Yacoob stood down following a verbal tirade on a journalist, while former board member Omphile Ramela is fighting the interim board in court over his removal as a director.

President seeks re-election after inheriting organisation that ‘couldn’t pay its bills’

George Dobell09-Mar-2021Ricky Skerritt has urged the territorial boards in the Caribbean not to risk what he sees as the “delicate vulnerability” of the recovery of West Indies cricket in the presidential election at the end of this month.Skerritt, the current Cricket West Indies (CWI) president, is seeking a second term as president as he approaches the end of his initial two-year term. And while he accepts the last couple of years have presented some significant challenges, he insists his regime has “helped CWI onto the right tracks”.In particular, Skerritt claims that, when he ended Dave Cameron’s six-year term as president, he inherited an organisation filled with “chaos and confusion” and burdened by such debt that he says it “could not meet most of our obligations”.But with West Indies currently placed 10th in the ICC’s T20I rankings – one place below Afghanistan – as well as ninth in ODIs and eighth in Test cricket, and the board having had to make 50% pay cuts to all staff, including players, to help them get through the pandemic, Skerritt’s rivals have plenty of material with which to work.The other candidate for CWI president is Anand Sanasie, secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board. Cameron has endorsed Sanasie’s campaign, though Sanasie himself has said he has no plans to offer Cameron an official role if he is elected. The election takes place on March 28. Skerritt won 8-4 in 2019.”We were facing serious cashflow problems from the very beginning,” Skerritt told ESPNcricinfo. “So, I regret that there were many people who we couldn’t pay when the time was there to pay. There were many trade payables that we had to renege on and fortunately the goodwill with our creditors has been so good that we haven’t had any untoward repercussions.”There was a chaos and confusion within CWI which had to be rectified fairly quickly. Some individuals had, for whatever motive, abused the system and not paid attention to certain basic protocols. There was also a tendency from the board to overreach into executive management. We needed to move on from constant battling and petty personnel fighting.”But it’s not pleasant when you take over an organisation that can’t pay its bills. Players had not been paid their basic salaries and, in several cases, their match fees for months.”The debt to players was my biggest concern when I first became president. When you have to decide whether to pay the hotel, or the transport company, or the airlines that they have to try to fly on, it’s a very delicate decision. But now players are our priority, it’s as simple as that.Phil Simmons could come under pressure as head coach if Skerritt loses the election•Raton Gomes/BCB

“The biggest problem we were facing is that all of our future cash was spoken for before we even got it. We were living on borrowed future income. So, we had close to $20 million in institutional debt. And we were borrowing to pay back lenders. It was all footwork and mirrors. And that’s understandable on short-term strategies when there are difficult times for cash flow. But it had become endemic.”So, we’ve cut our debt down by at least a third now after less than two years. And, with some difficulty, we have improved our ability to meet our obligations. We just could not meet most of our obligations.”We were borrowing money to pay wages. We did that for the first year that I was in office. Right up until the early summer last year we were literally having to borrow to just pay players and staff.”We are confident that we have helped cricket West Indies onto the right tracks. And we need to stay on track. We have to be very careful because of the delicate vulnerability of what we have achieved for just a short while, that it can go off track very easily.”As well as hoping to bring high-profile ICC events back to the Caribbean – possibly in partnership with USA Cricket and Canada Cricket – Skerritt is standing on a platform promoting governance reform.That would mean a restructuring of the CWI board on the lines of the Wehby report whereby the overall number of board members would be halved and the influence of the territorial boards would be diluted. Instead, the emphasis would be upon independent members with specific expertise. Given it is those same territorial board members voting in the presidential election, there is scope for resistance.”There are those people using the Wehby report to scare people in the territorial board system and to give them the impression that somehow the Wehby report represents an attack on West Indies cricket,” Skerritt said. “It’s actually a substantial review of some of the things we do and how we can do them better.”Will people on the territorial boards be prepared to vote themselves out of a role? That’s the million-dollar question. How many of us will be big enough to see that West Indies cricket is bigger than us individually? It’s the most difficult thing.”A key element in the election might be how West Indies’ tour of England, conducted during the first peak of the pandemic in the UK, is perceived around the territorial boards. Calvin Hope, the vice-president of the Barbados Cricket Board, who is running as Sanasie’s deputy, has previously chastised Skerritt and co. for failing to negotiate a fee for agreeing to the tour.”We had an opportunity to negotiate with England and we went on that tour for not one red cent,” Hope told a radio show in the region. “We refused to negotiate and to pressure and to use our leverage with England. England was saved £350 million and all West Indies got was a pat on the back.”Skerritt, however, believes such a “distasteful action” would have amounted to an attempt to “extort money” for the trip. He also believes the long-term approach conducted by CWI will have been shown to pay a dividend when the ECB announce they are to extend their Caribbean tour in early 2022 from two Tests to three. There will also be a separate T20I tour starting in late January.”Those folks wanted me to somehow hold a gun to the head of ECB and extort money from them,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “There was this perception that if we didn’t go to England, the ECB would go bankrupt and therefore they were prepared to pay any kind of money to make us come.Skerritt hopes that the good relations between CWI and ECB will pay dividends for future home series•Getty Images

“It was ridiculously untrue. There were other teams lined up to go to England. And I could bet you that none of them were attempting the distasteful action of seeking to extort money for the trip. It just doesn’t happen in ICC systems.”The criticism came from people who were upset that we tried to re-introduce cricket because, for them, no cricket was going to be used as a failure of ours.”CWI and the ECB have had good relations for decades. So we’ve been able to continue talking with ECB about the tour that is due next year and how we could even strengthen that tour which gives a huge financial benefit to CWI. We’re very grateful that they have been very open to that discussion. It’s going to mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in terms of broadcast revenue that will be generated.”Related

• Phil Simmons faces calls for sacking after leaving lockdown to attend funeral

• CWI could trim board in response to task force recommendations

It was noticeable that Sanasie’s nomination for president came from the Barbados Cricket Broad, whose chair, Conde Riley, called for the sacking of Phil Simmons, West Indies’ head coach, on the eve of the series against England. That has led to suggestions that, should Skerritt be defeated, Simmons could be among those to go shortly afterwards.”When there were people calling for his removal, it was not only shocking, it was very distasteful,” Skerritt said. “And very worrying. Because it reminds us how vulnerable West Indies cricket is to those critics who only see their own shadows ahead of them.”It is a very sad reality that across the Caribbean not everybody really, genuinely loves West Indies cricket through thick and thin. Some of the people have given many hours of support for West Indies cricket but, when it comes to certain matters of politics, you almost can’t recognise them.”I sincerely hope and pray that the good things we have started will have some level of sustainability. But unfortunately, the culture still needs a lot of work.”ESPNcricinfo has also invited Anand Sanasie to be interviewed.

Robinson’s former Sussex coach believes seamer can stake claim for Ashes involvement

Valkerie Baynes07-Apr-2021Jason Gillespie says Sussex seamer Ollie Robinson deserves an England Test berth and believes he could prove more than handy on the Ashes tour at the end of the year.As Robinson prepares to spearhead the Sussex attack in their County Championship opener against Lancashire, starting at Old Trafford on Thursday, he has in mind the importance of a good season kick start for his prospects of earning a maiden Test cap this summer.Having spent time on the fringes of Test selection as part of numerous bio-secure squad bubbles over the past year, Robinson revealed last week that he had been advised by England to aim towards selection for the two Tests against New Zealand in June.Related

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Gillespie, the former Australia quick who played 71 Tests, coached Robinson initially at Yorkshire and more recently at Sussex, and he believes Robinson is ready for higher honours.”He wouldn’t let anyone down. If he was thrown the ball in a Test match, he wouldn’t let England down, he would perform a role very well,” Gillespie told ESPNcricinfo from Adelaide, where he is now head coach of South Australia and Adelaide Strikers. “He’s one of the most researched bowlers that I’ve worked with.”What I mean by that is he comes very prepared to every session, every team meeting, he does his research on the opposition batsmen, he watches a lot of footage, he pores over statistics, which may surprise a few people. And I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t necessarily see that in the short time Ollie was at Yorkshire, but once I got to Sussex I’d seen a lot of growth in Ollie as a player and person.”Having reached this point on the back of two hugely successful Championship seasons in 2018 and 2019 and a match-winning contribution against Australia A on England Lions’ tour of Australia early last year, Robinson knows first-hand how crucial the coming weeks can be.Could Robinson feature during this winter’s Ashes series? Gillespie believes he should.”I think he’s good enough,” Gillespie said. “I certainly believe he could perform a role for England. I think he’s certainly someone England should have in their squad for the Ashes because I think he could have an impact.”England have got some fine bowlers, there’s no doubt about that, and I think he deserves to be in those conversations to be a part of that tour and a part of that squad. Speaking to Australian batsmen who played in that A series, they were very impressed with him.”It wasn’t always this way with Robinson. Some observers may have been surprised by his progress, namely those who remember him as a youngster at Yorkshire with loads of talent but less aptitude for discipline, which ultimately saw him released in 2014 at the age of just 20 for a series of misdemeanours relating to punctuality, training and commitment.Ollie Robinson has been tipped for an England spot•Stu Forster/Getty Images

Gillespie, Yorkshire’s coach at the time, believes Robinson’s problems stemmed from a struggle to settle after moving north from his native Kent.The stepson of Paul Farbrace, who was then Yorkshire’s second-team coach before going on to become England assistant coach and now Warwickshire’s director of cricket, Robinson missed his friends, according to Gillespie, who remembers Robinson driving back and forth four-and-a-half hours each way in an unsustainable attempt to maintain his social life back in Kent. Robinson’s cricket suffered – he would be late for training or not turn up at all and Yorkshire lost patience.But by the time the pair were reunited at Sussex – when Gillespie took over as coach in 2018 – Robinson was thriving, having adopted a truly professional approach to his game.”It’s fair to say Ollie, being from Kent, he didn’t quite settle into the environment at Yorkshire,” Gillespie says. “He was quite young and he missed his life down south so it just didn’t quite work out. Everyone saw that the skills and the talent were there.”He’s a real leader around Sussex. That’s probably something that I think may have surprised a lot of people at Yorkshire.”Full credit to him. Ollie being released by Yorkshire, he had a choice to make – he could either mope around and be disappointed about it and ‘woe is me’ or do something about it.”He sought opportunity elsewhere, he did the hard yards, he got offered an opportunity to trial at Sussex and he did everything he could to make the most of that opportunity. He deserves a lot of respect around the county circuit for how he’s gone about things.”

Josh Davey picks up five-wicket haul on final day as Keith Barker offers some resistance with 52*

ECB Reporters Network09-May-2021A superb all-round display from Craig Overton inspired Somerset to a comprehensive 10-wicket victory over Hampshire as his side wrapped up a fourth LV= County Championship Group Two win at the Ageas Bowl.Paceman Overton, who is the top wicket-taker in the country, took 5 for 66 from 40 overs as Hampshire were dismissed for 258 on Sunday, putting himself firmly in contention for England ahead of next month’s Test series against New Zealand.Overton was also the top scorer in the match with 74 on Friday and finished with overall figures of 7 for 82, with Josh Davey also playing a significant role in the triumph taking 5 for 30 on the final day.Related

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The defeat was Hampshire’s second successive heavy loss following last week’s innings and 289-run humbling by Surrey having started the season strongly by winning two and drawing one of their first three matches.Although the hosts batted with much more gumption to pass 200 for the first time in four innings, their pitiful day one effort of 79 all out left them with too much do against their in-form opponents.The visitors looked set to wrap up the win just after lunch when Lewis McManus departed for 17 only for Keith Barker and Felix Organ to frustrate their hosts with a two-hour stay at the crease.Organ batted with great discipline and determination to score just 7 runs from 108 balls before falling to a diving catch by the irrepressible Overton off Davey.Mohammad Abass was the last man out leaving Barker unbeaten on 52 before Eddie Byrom knocked off the two runs needed for the win with rain beginning to fall and the light fading.Josh Davey took a five-for•Getty Images

Hampshire started the day trailing by 147 runs after rain washed out all but nine overs on Saturday, and frustrated Somerset for almost an hour with Joe Weatherley and skipper James Vince scoring just 20 runs in the first 13 overs against some tight bowling.Davey finally got the breakthrough when he found the outside edge of Weatherley’s bat and Steve Davies took a sharp catch behind the stumps to end the opener’s dogged innings of 44 from 209 balls.Davey struck again in his next over as Liam Dawson was trapped lbw to pick up only the second pair of his careerIt was Overton who grabbed the vital wicket of Vince just after lunch when Davies took another fine catch to dismiss him for 42 which firmly put his side on course to an excellent win ahead of next week’s clash with Surrey.

“Winning or losing today is not important. There’s no point bringing a good coach if this is their shot-selection”

Mohammad Isam23-May-2021Nazmul Hassan, the BCB president, has called into question Bangladesh’s shot-selection in the first ODI against Sri Lanka, their preparation ahead of this series, and the merit of using Liton Das as an opener in this format.Hassan made his comments at a press briefing during the innings break after Bangladesh had made 257 for 6 on a tricky surface in Dhaka, an unusually prompt response from the board chief, who usually waits till the end of a match before offering his reactions.”The BCB is trying to find out what’s happening, and why it is happening,” Hassan said. “Winning and losing today is not important. How many good balls or brilliant fielding got us out? Was our shot selection right? There’s no point bringing a good coach if this is their shot selection. We will talk about the coach later. First, we have to sit with the players to find out their mentality. Some of the outs [dismissals] were very ugly. There was no need to play those shots in that situation.”Hassan acknowledged that some of the Bangladesh batters were going through a lean patch, and said that “in his opinion” Das, who bats at No. 7 in Tests, would be better suited down the order in ODIs as well. Das and Mohammad Mithun both fell for ducks, with Das flaying outside offstump and Mithun trapped lbw while playing a paddle sweep.”Liton Das, Soumya [Sarkar] and [Mohammad] Mithun are capable players. People go through bad times. We will have to talk to the players and coaches. I can’t just take a sweeping decision from the top. It will become negative.”[Liton] can open in T20s, but my personal opinion is that he is better at No. 5 or 6. We have to sit with them. I don’t want to force anything on them. I don’t do that anymore. I think we will have a solution.”While Hassan said head coach Russell Domingo would have his contract renewed this year, he stressed on the need to ask questions and “find out the problem”.”If we don’t renew his contract, we would be needing someone as a back-up. We don’t have any such thoughts in this Covid situation with a World Cup coming up. This is the reality.”We haven’t had the chance to test them. If we ask him [Domingo] why they batted badly, he will point towards their shot-selection. What will be my reply? We first have to find out the problem. I can’t even sit with the players due to Covid. They don’t even allow me into the bio-bubble. What can I do?”Related

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• First ODI on schedule after Covid-19 scare in Sri Lanka camp

• Domingo wants Bangladesh 'to stick to basics, not try anything fancy'

While Bangladesh could theoretically top the World Cup Super League table if they win this series, their form across all formats has been erratic. The team has lost nine out of the last ten international matches. In fact, since the 2019 World Cup, Bangladesh have won only one international game against a higher-ranked side – the first T20I versus India in Delhi in November 2019.Besides a 3-0 ODI win against West Indies at the start of the year, Bangladesh have lost every other series they have played in 2021, including six consecutive defeats in New Zealand across formats.Hassan was displeased with Bangladesh’s preparation ahead of the Sri Lanka series.”Is this any type of preparation? We played ODIs and T20s in New Zealand after playing Tests. Then we played Tests in Sri Lanka. We are not having our usual procedure of preparation.”How much did they practice after coming back [from Sri Lanka]? They couldn’t practice one day due to rain. Then another day was missing due to permission. The bond of a training camp, where everyone is around, is missing. It is a difficult environment for us – continuously playing and being in repeated quarantines.”We are going to Zimbabwe, and then Australia, New Zealand and England are coming here. We have to abide by Covid protocols in every series. It is a problem for everyone but there are some countries who are continuously playing.”

He hopes for an improvement in South Africa’s late-overs hitting, an area where he felt they “came up short” in the West Indies

Firdose Moonda08-Jul-2021Rassie van der Dussen is expecting easier conditions for batters during South Africa’s three-match ODI series against Ireland compared to what the side experienced in the West Indies. After finding the going fairly tough on slow, spinner-friendly surfaces in the Caribbean, van der Dussen, who played club cricket in Belfast six years ago, thinks runs could more freely in Ireland.”When the sun is out here and the wicket gets quite hard, it becomes favourable for batting,” van der Dussen said. “If there is a little bit of rain around in the preceding days and on the day, the ball swings and the grass livens up and the seam movement becomes a factor. But this time of year, the weather should be okay. The conditions will be good for batting, a lot more batter-conducive than we had in the West Indies.”Though there is some rain forecast for Dublin over the weekend and early next week, the reported lower than normal rainfall and warm weather will characterise the summer, which should support van der Dussen’s theory. That means South Africa will see an opportunity to improve on their scoring rate, especially towards the end of an innings, where they found themselves tied down during the T20I series in the West Indies. van der Dussen hopes they can use the longer version of the white-ball game to rediscover their run-scoring potential in the death overs.”In the last five overs, in all the matches [in the West Indies], we came up short,” he said. “The conditions were really tough to bat, especially for new batters coming in. In 50-over cricket, you get time in the middle, which sometimes in T20 cricket you don’t get, especially batting in middle to lower order. In 50-over cricket, you’ve got a bigger scope to identify where your game is at and you’ve got time to get yourself in and play your game from there. That can help for T20 cricket as well because it gives the batters a reference for where their games are at.”Apart from van der Dussen, David Miller is another middle-order batter who will like the prospect of facing more deliveries, and regaining form, after he had limited opportunity to do so in the West Indies. Whether some of the benchwarmers like Kyle Verreynne and Janneman Malan will get a chance to play in this series is not yet known, especially with the ODIs being part of the World Cup Super League. South Africa are currently at bottom of the points table with one from three games.”With the new competition structure, every game becomes important,” van der Dussen said. “Eoin Morgan said there is no such thing as a dead rubber because you get points from every game and that’s the qualification [route] for the World Cup. We’ve been away from home for five weeks and some guys haven’t had playing chances but for a coach and a selector, the priority is to win matches and you’ve got to pick your strongest team.”And van der Dussen also thinks Ireland are a strong enough side for South Africa to want to do nothing less. “I played club cricket here six years ago and to see where they’ve come from as a team compared to where they are now is really exciting. This is a massive series for them and they are going to throw everything they have at us. For us, it’s a challenge to firstly adapt to foreign conditions and then find ways to win games. We are really looking forward to the challenge.”

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.

Hosts win with 61 balls to spare, thanks to half-centuries from Nick Gubbins, Tom Alsop

ECB Reporters Network04-Aug-2021A Kyle Abbott-inspired Hampshire cruised to a six-wicket Royal London Cup victory over high-flying Worcestershire in a one-sided contest at the Ageas Bowl.South African quick Abbott took 5 for 43 – his maiden List A five-wicket haul – as the hosts dismissed the Rapids for 176 in 39 overs before cruising to victory with 61 balls to spare thanks to 59 from Nick Gubbins to chalk up their second win of the season against the third-placed visitors.Worcestershire struggled with the bat following the dismissal of opener Brett D’Oliveira, who played well for his 40 before being bowled by Ian Holland, with skipper Joe Leach adding some respectability to the total with an unbeaten 34 after Abbott had taken two wickets in an over to reduce the visitors to 136 for 8.The Rapids’ total always looked well below par on a decent batting surface as they struggled to build any partnership of note with wickets falling at regular intervals.In-form opener Jack Haynes was out for just 15 with Tom Fell, Jake Libby and Gareth Roderick all departing cheaply before Ed Barnard fell to Abbott having looked in good touch for his 29.Young South African seamer John Turner continued his good form for Hampshire by mopping up the Worcestershire tail to finish with figures of 3 for 44.Tom Prest and Tom Alsop were given few early alarms from the Worcestershire attack with the pair putting on 43 for the first wicket before Adam Finch struck in the 12th over of the innings.Finch tempted Prest with a short-pitched delivery and the teenage opener took the bait only to mistime his hook shot and find the hands of D’Oliveira at mid-wicket to be dismissed for 12.But any hopes of a Hampshire collapse were allayed by the arrival at the crease of Gubbins who added 68 with Alsop before D’Oliveira had the opener caught by Leach at mid-off for 50 to reduce the Hawks to 111 for 2.Gubbins continued his good form since arriving on loan from Middlesex with his third half-century in four innings from just 51 balls but with his side 22 runs away from victory he handed D’Oliveira his second wicket when he edged behind to Roderick.Joe Weatherley departed for 33 when he was stumped by Roderick off Josh Baker with Lewis McManus smashing a six from the very next ball to seal an emphatic win.

Stand-in captain hits 20-ball fifty after Phoenix bowlers succeed in dragging back Superchargers

Matt Roller17-Aug-2021Liam Livingstone’s six-hitting blitz led Birmingham Phoenix into Saturday’s Hundred final at Lord’s after a remarkable comeback with the ball set up a cruise to victory against Northern Superchargers at Headingley.Phoenix needed to win – or tie – to guarantee they would finish top of the group stage and qualify automatically for the final, and when Chris Lynn and Tom Kohler-Cadmore hit 65 off the 25-ball Powerplay, their chances of doing so looked slim.But their three pace-off options – Livingstone, Imran Tahir, and the self-proclaimed “fast spinner” Benny Howell – returned 5 for 61 between them in 60 balls, and Adam Milne’s death-bowling masterclass meant Superchargers limped to 143, with Kohler-Cadmore starved of strike towards the end of his 71.Related

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Livingstone then smoked the fastest fifty of the competition to date, off 20 balls, to break the back of the chase inside the Powerplay. His 92 not out was the joint-highest score of the Hundred, alongside Jemimah Rodrigues in Superchargers women’s opening game, and his 10 sixes were the most in an individual innings.Phoenix look set to welcome Moeen Ali back into their side for the final, with an update on his availability expected shortly, and included Tom Abell for the first time this season following his hamstring injury. Few pundits backed them at the start of the competition but their ultra-attacking strategy with the bat and their canny bowling attack have seen them top the group with six wins out of eight.Phoenix will play the winners of Friday’s eliminator at The Oval, between Southern Brave and Trent Rockets. Superchargers were already eliminated, and missed Adam Lyth and Harry Brook, both of whom tested positive for Covid-19 last week. They finish fifth in the men’s table.Pepsi’s fizzy pop
Phoenix’s cruise to victory looked a long way off when they were under the pump in the Powerplay, with Chris Lynn and Tom ‘Pepsi’ Kohler-Cadmore swinging for the hills and treating Pat Brown and Dillon Pennington with utter contempt. Kohler-Cadmore, left out earlier in the season, hit two sixes and a four off Pennington’s first set of five, while Lynn got after Milne in his second set.But it was Brown’s first – and only – set that went the distance. Brown is a canny slower-ball specialist whose quicker ball is clocked at around 87mph/140kph, but Kohler-Cadmore set himself for the variations and swung him for three sixes and two fours, taking 26 off the last five balls of the Powerplay – the second most-expensive set of the tournament.Spin to win
Howell and Tahir dragged things back when the field spread, finding some purchase from the pitch as the ball stuck in the surface. Livingstone, standing in for Moeen, brought himself on after 50 balls and it proved to be a turning point. He struck with his fourth ball, Lynn flashing an outside edge to short third, and after David Willey whacked him over long-on for six, Livingstone tossed the next ball up and caught a skier off his own bowling.Howell conceded a single boundary when Jordan Thompson swung him over long-off for six, but he picked out Allen on the rope three balls later. Kohler-Cadmore was stranded at the wrong end, Livingstone rattling through his final 10 balls in a row for nine runs and the dismissal of Dane Vilas, and Milne bowled 10 on the bounce at the death, conceding only seven as he nailed his yorkers at above 90mph/145kph.Livingstone tees off
Howell described the pitch as a “Powerplay wicket” at the interval, by which he meant that it was by far the best time to score runs with the field up. Phoenix lost a wicket early on, Will Smeed dragging on for a first-baller, but Livingstone and Allen were never likely to consolidate.Liam Livingstone swings for the hills•Getty Images

Livingstone pulled his fourth ball, from Callum Parkinson, for six over deep backward square leg and stayed in fifth gear for most of his innings. He hit Parkinson for two more vicious straight sixes in his next set of five, and when he swung three Willey balls out of four into the stands on the leg side, the required rate was down at 1.13 runs per ball by the end of the Powerplay.Allen toyed with Adil Rashid in his second set of five, swiping him back over his head for two fours and a six, and Ben Raine was the next lamb to the slaughter as Phoenix’s batters traded sixes. Parkinson returned to have Allen stumped but Abell ticked over then watched from the non-striker’s end as Livingstone scooped and drove Matt Fisher down the ground, then let out a scream of delight when he pulled his tenth six over square leg to seal their final berth.Livingstone was Phoenix’s first pick in the initial draft for the Hundred and has more than vindicated their faith in him over the last month. “I’ve felt a little bit more pressure since Mo’s gone away,” he said afterwards. “We’ve got a young, fearless line-up and we’ve seen some great talent coming through. We’ve proved a lot of people wrong in this competition.”Leading Phoenix into the final is the latest landmark in what has been a remarkable summer for Livingstone after his T20I exploits for England against Pakistan. “I don’t think I’ve seen an England batter burst on the scene quite like this since Kevin Pietersen,” Nasser Hussain said on Sky Sports. “In white-ball cricket, we have found another one. This guy can hit a seriously big ball.”