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Victoria enjoyed a thoroughly dominant day as they gained the ascendancy on the second day of their Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia in Perth

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Nov-2015
ScorecardFile photo – Marcus Stoinis and Rob Quiney stitched an unbroken 149-run stand off 215 balls•Getty Images

Victoria enjoyed a thoroughly dominant second day as they gained the ascendancy against Western Australia in Perth. Victoria first dismissed the hosts for 186, to take a 136-run first-innings lead, and then added 149 in the second innings for the loss of Travis Dean.The Western Australia openers, Cameron Bancroft and Will Bosisto, started well and even put up a 54-run stand before the wicket of Bancroft triggered a match-turning collapse as they were quickly reduced to 88 for 5.Sam Whiteman and Ashton Agar offered brief resistance with a 48-run stand, but another clump of wickets meant Western Australia were staring at a huge deficit. Michael Hogan, batting at no. 11, struck four boundaries in his nine-ball stay but Victoria needed only 68 overs to bowl out the opposition for 186. Chris Tremain was the pick of the bowlers, with figures of 4 for 48.Western Australia responded in positive fashion as Joel Paris had Dean caught off the first ball of the second innings, but Rob Quiney and Marcus Stoinis played out the rest of the day without further loss. Stoinis went on to hit his second fifty of the game and remained unbeaten on 86 off 113 balls while Quiney was more patient, scoring 62 off 102 balls.

Al-Amin’s burst of lively swing bowling on a sluggish wicket proved to be the difference as Barisal Bulls defended 109 in style against Sylhet Superstars

The report by Mohammad Isam24-Nov-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAl-Amin’s burst of lively swing bowling on a sluggish wicket proved to be the difference in a low-scoring thriller•Raton Gomes/BCB

A second five-wicket haul in T20s for Al-Amin Hossain, which included his second hat-trick, helped Barisal Bulls nip out a low-scoring one-run thriller against Sylhet Superstars.After taking four wickets in the first two overs, Al-Amin’s fifth was Nazmul Hossain Milon, who was caught superbly by Taijul Islam at cover in the penultimate over. Crucially however, Fidel Edwards speared a four through the cover off his last ball, ensuring eight were needed in the last over.Taijul took the wicket of Mohammad Shahid in the first ball to make it his third and then Fidel Edwards took two and one off the next two balls, giving Subashis Roy the strike for the fourth ball. He missed that one and then ticked off a single to cover. But with four needed, Edwards and Subashis took two runs to end a thrilling encounter.Al-Amin was the hero. He already has a T20 record to his name after becoming the first bowler to take five wickets in a single over in the Victory Day T20 tournament in 2013. Back then, he took four off four balls to become only the second bowler to do so after Andre Russell.On Tuesday evening, his hat-trick was the second in BPL after Mohammad Sami, incidentally bowling from the other end in this game, did it in the first edition in 2012 while playing for Duronto Rajshahi, against Dhaka Gladiators in 2012.Al-Amin’s day started differently as he got into a tiff by barging into Mohammad Shahid after being dismissed in the final over of the innings. It needed Mushfiqur Rahim and the umpires had to separate the two as the teams walked off.From the beginning of Barisal’s 108-run defense, Al-Amin looked focused. He had one jump on Mominul Haque in his first over, taking the edge to make the first breakthrough. In his next over, he had Bopara doing the same, edging an attempted square-drive to make it 18 for 2.
Off the next ball, he got one to sharply nip back at Nurul Hasan who had no answer and saw the ball thud into his stumps. Mushfiqur came out to prevent the hat-trick that he couldn’t as the ball sneaked through his prod to take the top of middle.Owais Shah and Dilshan Munaweera, who was at the other end during the hat-trick, tried to take stock with a 43-run fifth wicket stand but both fell in the 12th over to Taijul Islam. Munaweera made 36 off 31 balls with six fours.Sami bowled at good pace, picking up the late wicket of Nazmul Islam, giving away just nine runs in four overs to build pressure.
Barisal’s batting however continued to struggle as they never caught on to any rhythm. Rony Talukdar and Shahriar Nafees bettered their start from the previous game but both fell in consecutive deliveries with the score on 34. Paceman Subashis Roy had Rony caught behind for 20 while Nafees top-edged to point where Bopara took a fine catch running backwards for 12.Brendan Taylor was caught and bowled by left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam before Mahmudullah was run out in the next over. When Sabbir, Seekkuge Prasanna and Kevon Cooper fell in quick succession, the innings looked set to fold under a 100. But Nadif Chowdhury contributed a vital cameo helped take the total past 100, which proved just about enough in the end.

Steven Smith has won the top ICC awards for 2014-15, being named Cricketer of the Year as well as Test Cricketer of the Year

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Dec-20152:46

Surprised and humbled by ICC award – Smith

Australia captain Steven Smith has won the top ICC awards for 2014-15, being named Cricketer of the Year as well as Test Cricketer of the Year.Smith became the seventh player after Rahul Dravid (2004), Jacques Kallis (2005), Ricky Ponting (2006), Kumar Sangakkara (2012), Michael Clarke (2013) and Mitchell Johnson (2014) to bag both awards in the same year.Smith was “thrilled” to receive the awards, but said he would end 2015 with “mixed feelings”.”Given that there are so many great players around the world, I’m incredibly honoured to receive these awards,” he said. “While team success is always my number one motivation, awards like this are very special. I’m thrilled and very proud to receive them.”I will look back on 2015 with mixed feelings. Winning the ICC Cricket World Cup at home was a career highlight, and being appointed captain is a great honour, but the disappointment of losing the Ashes remains.”To be the best team that we can be, we have to become better at winning away from home, and that remains our motivation heading into 2016.”South Africa’s ODI captain AB de Villiers was named ODI Cricketer of the Year for the second successive year, while his compatriot Faf du Plessis won the T20 Performance of the Year award for his 56-ball 119 against West Indies in January. Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood was named the Emerging Cricketer of the Year.The two awards in women’s cricket, for the ODI Cricketer of the Year and T20I Cricketer of the year, went to Australia captain Meg Lanning and West Indies allrounder Stafanie Taylor respectively.Former UAE captain Khurram Khan was named Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year, while Richard Kettleborough got the Umpire of the Year award for the third straight year.New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, who has announced he will retire from international cricket in February, bagged the Spirit of Cricket award, for “inspiring his side to play the game in its true spirit”.McCullum said his team-mates deserved as much recognition for buying into his sportsmanlike vision of cricket.”The team has loved how the New Zealand public and cricket fans from around the world have responded to the way we’ve played our cricket in the last 12 months,” he said. “I think the Spirit of Cricket is hugely important and I feel extremely honoured to have received the award. It does take buy in from the entire team though and the rest of the Blackcaps squad needs to be recognised for this as well.”The awards were given on the basis of performances during the voting period between September 18, 2014, and September 13, 2015. In that period, Smith was the leading run-getter in Tests, with 1734 runs at an average of 82.57. In that period he also made 1249 ODI runs at 59.47, his excellence across the two formats contributing to his winning the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Cricketer of the Year.De Villiers, the ODI winner, made 1265 runs in that format in the voting period, at an average of 79.06 and a just-as-astounding strike rate of 128.42. The 24-year-old Hazlewood, who made his Test debut in December 2014, took 40 Test wickets in the voting period.Lanning was the top Women’s ODI run-getter in the voting period, with 531 runs at 88.50, while Taylor finished on top of the Women’s T20I charts with 340 runs at an average of 42.50 and a strike rate of 105.91.Awards list
ICC Cricketer of the Year (Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy) – Steven Smith
Test Cricketer of the Year – Steven Smith
ODI Cricketer of the Year – AB de Villiers
Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year – Meg Lanning
Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year – Stafanie Taylor
T20I Performance of the Year – Faf du Plessis
Emerging Cricketer of the Year – Josh Hazlewood
Associate/Affiliate Cricketer of the Year – Khurram Khan
Spirit of Cricket Award – Brendon McCullum
Umpire of the Year (David Shepherd Trophy) – Richard Kettleborough

Allrounder Robbie Frylinck has been suspended from his franchise, Dolphins, with immediate effect, although the reason for his sanction is unknown

Firdose Moonda28-Jan-2016Allrounder Robbie Frylinck has been suspended from his franchise, Dolphins, with immediate effect, although the reason for and length of his sanction is unknown. Pete de Wet, Dolphins’ CEO, told ESPNcricinfo: “I cannot elaborate on the details except to say that this is in no way linked to the CSA investigation into match-fixing.”Frylinck last played for the franchise during the Momentum One-Day Cup at the end of October, before turning out for provincial amateur side Kwa-Zulu Natal during a break in the one-day cup. He was due to join up with Dolphins for the remainer of the one-day cup, which resumes on Friday, but will not be part of their plans for now.Frylinck has been on South Africa’s domestic scene for over 11 years, during which time he has also played as a Kolpak player for Surrey and was on the books of IPL franchise Delhi Daredevils.

Meg Lanning’s 127 off 135 overshadowed Suzie Bates’ ton to help Australia Women clinch the series 2-1, after a convincing six-wicket victory against New Zealand Women in Mount Maunganui

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Feb-2016
ScorecardMeg Lanning’s second consecutive century helped Australia home•Annette Johnston from Heddfan Photography

Meg Lanning’s 127 off 135 overshadowed Suzie Bates’ ton to help Australia Women clinch the series 2-1 and maintain their 17-year grip on the Rose Bowl, after a convincing six-wicket victory against New Zealand Women in Mount Maunganui. Bates and Lanning became the first set of captains to score centuries in the same Women’s ODI.Lanning, coming off an unbeaten century in the previous game, came in early after Morna Nielsen dismissed Nicole Bolton in the last ball of the second over. Her knock formed the backbone of Australia’s run chase, taking the side to the brink of victory, but was dismissed in the penultimate over. Alyssa Healy hit a four off her first ball to seal the chase of 244 with eight balls to spare.New Zealand used seven bowlers in their attempt to defend their total. Nielsen and Sophie Devine were economical and picked up a wicket apiece, while Leigh Kasperek claimed two scalps. However, the 129-run fourth-wicket stand between Lanning and Alex Blackwell powered Australia towards the target.Earlier in the day, Lanning’s counterpart, Suzie Bates, led New Zealand’s effort with 110 off 133 balls. She was supported by Amy Satterthwaite and Sara McGlashan, adding stands of 87 and 101 for the second and third wickets respectively.New Zealand, though, did not quite get the lower-order thrust to push them past 250. After the fall of the third wicket at 201, they added only 42 runs off the last 41 balls.Rene Farrell was the pick of the bowlers for Australia. Her figures of 1 for 38 in 10 overs helped Australia contain New Zealand to 243.

Samuel Badree has said that he is enjoying his new role of bowling during the middle overs and containing the flow of runs

Nagraj Gollapudi23-Mar-20161:14

Match Day – Badree’s consistency with line terrific

Samuel Badree has already seen the best and worst of himself in West Indies’ first two matches in the World T20. In Mumbai, against England, he had the third-most expensive figures in his T20I career. In Bangalore, on Sunday, he silenced Sri Lanka with a three-wicket haul to record his second-best bowling figures in T20Is.Despite finishing with figures of 4-0-12-3, Badree was pipped to the Man-of-the-Match award by Andre Fletcher who, playing his first match of the tournament, surprised Sri Lanka with a strokefull 84. Fletcher ensured West Indies did not feel the absence of Chris Gayle, who was forced to sit out in the dressing room as a precautionary measure, having suffered a mild hammy in his left leg.Similarly, Badree has made certain that West Indies are secure despite the absence of their premier offspinner Sunil Narine, who opted out of the tournament to work further on his remodelled action. Narine has not played for West Indies since being banned last year during a tour of Sri Lanka.”The absence of Sunil is a big blow to the team. You know how dangerous he is especially in these conditions. Yes, we have talked about someone having to step up the fill those huge shoes. I am happy thus far in the tournament I was able to do that quite competently,” Badree said in Nagpur, where West Indies will play South Africa on Friday in their third Super10 match.Badree, one of the most successful spinners in the Powerplay, said though he was forced to adapt to the new role of bowling in the middle overs, he was enjoying it. “We have seen in the first couple of games that I have started then I am held back for a couple in the middle as well. We have seen how important spin is especially after the Powerplay during the middle overs when the ball is a little bit older.”According to Badree, it will be a big challenge for West Indies on Friday when they encounter the “very powerful batting line-up” of South Africa. But Badree wanted West Indies to take confidence from their dominant performance agaisnt Sri Lanka, where they applied pressure right from the start.”It is all about the start. If a team gets off to a flier it is always difficult. But we were able to pick up early wickets of [Tillakaratne] Dilshan and [Dinesh] Chandimal, two of their more experienced batters. So it was a little bit easier to come to bowl at their middle order who were under pressure. Luckily for me I was able to pitch the ball up and pick up wickets as well,” Badree said.Despite his heroics, Badree acknowledged the contribution from left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn. “He must not go unheralded. His spell of four overs for 13 runs was tremendous especially bowling to a set [Angelo] Mathews and Thisara Perera, who was looking to take the mantle of scoring runs at the end.”Badree, however, would not venture into talking about South Africa’s weakness against spin, which has been a talking point in the tournament. He would not also be drawn into the slow nature of the Nagpur pitch, which became the biggest talking point in India’s opening match against New Zealand. The one thing Badree did concede, though, was the importance of striking early.”If the wicket is turning you obviously want to bowl slow and exploit that and takes wickets early. In T20 cricket sometimes people underestimate how important early wickets are in terms of restricting the opposition,” Badree said.”It is fair to say we are strong in our batting department. We haven’t been tested in defending a total. Luckily thus far the captain has been able to win both the tosses. Here in Nagpur it seems as if the pitch is going to turn so we might want to bat first and set a total and defend that.”You never know. That is the captain’s call. At the end of the day the toss is not guaranteed. Whether we bat first or we bowl first we know that at the end of the day we want to win all our games and send a signal to the other teams we here to compete and we are here to win.”

Dale Steyn has said that the manner in which T20s have evolved means that even the best bowlers will be taken for runs, but his bowling stats have been “reasonable” through his career

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Apr-2016South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn has said that the manner in which Twenty20 cricket has evolved means even the best bowlers will be taken for runs, but he believed his bowling stats have been “reasonable” through his career.”I think it will be completely difficult for a batsman in T20s to be leaving a ball outside the off stump like in a Test,” Steyn told . “Here the game implies that you score runs, so no matter who is bowling, whether it is myself or (Lasith) Malinga or (Sunil) Narine, it doesn’t matter who it is, batters will make plans to score runs off every ball and try and hit boundaries. Doesn’t matter who you are but it is the format that makes that happen.”Even if I am going for a boundary in every over overall, the idea is to go for not more than six runs an over, which I have more or less maintained throughout my career. I think that is pretty reasonable for a game where teams can very easily go for 19 or 20 runs an over.”Steyn, who will turn out for Gujarat Lions in IPL 2016, has taken 178 wickets in 165 matches at an economy rate of 6.68. Since 2015, however, he has played only 10 T20 games and picked up six wickets, with an average of 50 and an economy rate of 9.09. In the IPL, he has 92 wickets from 89 games and his overall economy rate stands at 6.71. Lions will be the fourth IPL franchise Steyn will represent, after previous stints with Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad.”The game is definitely changing, it is easy to score runs now and you got to understand that,” he said. “People need to start understanding that it is not the 1990s where bowlers can go for three runs an over. Honestly, on an average, bowlers can easily go for 12 to 15 runs an over in this format. If we look at the overall picture, at the average and at the economy rate, I think I am doing okay.”

Clint McKay took six wickets for Leicestershire to keep them in the hunt against Glamorgan in Cardiff

ECB Reporters Network17-Apr-2016
ScorecardClint McKay: in the wickets in cardiff [file picture]•Getty Images

Clint McKay took six wickets as Leicestershire dismissed Glamorgan for 348 on the first day of the Specsavers County Championship Division Two match in Cardiff.McKay’s accurate seam and swing bowling were rewarded with 6 for 73, while Glamorgan’s Graham Wagg top-scored for the hosts with 64 – helping them to three batting points.Glamorgan won the toss and batted – and 33-year-old McKay, who has retired from first-class cricket in Australia – dismissed both openers in his fifth over.James Kettleborough was adjudged leg before wicket walking across his stumps and departed for 18, before Jacques Rudolph nicked a delivery to the wicketkeeper and was on his way for six.Will Bragg and Chris Cooke rebuilt the innings with a stand of 107, before the afternoon session mirrored the morning’s play – McKay taking two early wickets before another substantial partnership checked the visitors’ progress.Cooke had made 56 when he was held in the gully by Jigar Naik off the bowling off Charlie Shreck, then Bragg was held at second slip by Angus Robson to depart for exactly 50, both falling with the scoreboard reading 132.One run later Aneurin Donald was bowled off the inside edge by McKay, before David Lloyd – who scored his maiden first-class century last week, settled the hosts.The 23-year-old looked in prime form, with his first 30 runs containing six boundaries – but his effort ended on 59 when he was dismissed by Neil Dexter’s medium pace.Wagg was then joined by Craig Meschede, who made his intentions clear, twice hoisting Naik’s off-spin over long-on for six – but the 63-run stand ended when Wagg’s leading edge was held one-handed by bowler Shreck.The ninth wicket fell when Meschede was caught on the boundary for 44 – giving McKay his sixth scalp – and the Glamorgan innings ended when Timm van der Gugten departed for 11, caught by wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien to give Shreck his third wicket.Leicestershire had an awkward four overs to face at the end of the day but Paul Horton and Angus Robson survived, the pair helping the visitors to 15 without loss.

Just 11 overs were possible on the final day at Wantage Road as Northamptonshire and Kent took 11 points each for the draw

ECB Reporters Network18-May-2016
ScorecardThe blue skies above Wantage Road had disappeared•Getty Images

Just 11 overs were possible on the final day at Wantage Road as Northamptonshire and Kent took 11 points each for the draw. Heavy morning rain cleared up to allow play to start at 2.40pm but bad light brought an early tea and rain prevented any play in the final session.There was time for Daniel Bell-Drummond to move through to his fourth score above fifty this season, reached in 95 balls with nine fours.Kent lost Joe Denly, the unbeaten double-centurion in the first innings, caught by Olly Stone running around the long-on fence to give Rob Keogh a wicket. They closed 131 for 2 in their second innings, leading by 27.Northants are still looking for their first win of the season but the draw was enough to move Kent above Leicestershire to sit second in the table, 18 points behind Essex.

Patrick Sandusky, US Olympic Committee’s chief external affairs officer, has said all sports should want to be in the Olympics and that a T20 competition in the Summer Games would fit well into a 17-day Olympic schedule

Peter Della Penna24-Jun-20162:51

US Olympic Committee official talks up cricket at the Olympics

Patrick Sandusky, chief external affairs officer at the US Olympic Committee, has told ESPNcricinfo that “all sports should want to be in the Olympics” and that a T20 competition in the Summer Games would fit well into a 17-day Olympic schedule. Sandusky said that although the decision to accept cricket into the games program is up to the International Olympic Council, he is optimistic an application would have a good chance of being accepted if the ICC decided to submit one.”I see the Olympics as the pinnacle of sport and the greatest sports festival there is but I think cricket needs to [make a decision] on their own time, whatever that is,” Sandusky said. “I don’t know enough about the internal governance of the ICC and how it would relate into bidding for a potential future slot, but I’d certainly think that Twenty20 cricket at least is a very natural fit in terms of numbers/size of teams, number of days a tournament can be played in and could it fit with an Olympic calendar not unlike a Rugby Sevens tournament.”Sandusky related cricket to the impact that an Olympics inclusion has had on rugby’s rise in popularity in USA ahead of Rubgy Sevens’ addition for the upcoming Summer Games in Brazil. He felt cricket’s inclusion could be a similar catalyst for a rise in popularity and competitiveness for the USA national team.”One of the things we have in the United States is we’ve got a lot of people that are really good at hand-eye (coordination), ball, bat and catching,” Sandusky said. “We’ve had success converting American football players into a successful Rugby Sevens team. We now have a Rugby Sevens team going to the Olympics and it’s not inconceivable that they could be a medalist.”Rugby Sevens didn’t exist as a sport ten years ago in the United States. First and foremost, it’s realistic getting the right things in place to get the right people exposed to the sport. I think we have a lot of athletes out there that have the appropriate skill. Obviously they don’t know the sport itself and the strategies around it but much like Rugby Sevens, I think there’s an opportunity there.”Sandusky’s involvement in USA’s cricket affairs began last August when he was appointed to a seven-man advisory committee by the ICC, but initial interest in the sport was piqued when he lived in London from 2001 to 2005 while working as part of the 2012 London Olympic bid effort.”If you look at cricket in the market and the number of people that are interested in cricket and you look at the staggering TV numbers when India plays Pakistan, I think that there’s a huge opportunity for the Olympics,” Sandusky said. “If cricket were in the Olympics, I think it goes to targeting new and different markets than your traditional Olympic markets as well as exposing a market like the United States to cricket as well, or you could pick out a country like Germany that maybe isn’t as well known in cricket but a big sporting nation in the Summer Games.”Traditionally, cricket has kind of found its niche in the Commonwealth countries. I think there’s an opportunity, whether it’s with relocating their [regional] offices to the United States or a push potentially [to have cricket] in with the Olympics, to grow out of those core countries that have been the traditional cricketing powers.”Apart from cricket’s growth, the Olympics could also benefit significantly from the increased market presence and popularity in countries like India.”Countries like India that have such large television markets might be more interested in the Olympic Games,” Sandusky said. “I think the Olympics what it would gain is you’re just hitting new fans with the Olympic brand.”A diehard rugby fan might not be an Olympics fan but since now they’re sport’s in it, they’re now going to be exposed to other sports like fencing, judo, wrestling and I think getting that sort of exposure really is good from the Olympics point of view because you’re bringing in fans from different age groups, different parts of the world and you’re exposing them to new things.”If a kid says maybe he didn’t find a sport he liked and they look on TV and say, ‘Hey what’s that sport of cricket? Maybe I’d like to do that.’ I think that’s what the Olympics brings in a global sense, exposure to showing kids that there’s all these different sports that they can play.”