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Durham chase never gets going after visitors pile on the runs in first half

ECB Reporters Network17-Jun-2022An onslaught from Adam Lyth was decisive in guiding Yorkshire Vikings to a comfortable 65-run victory over Durham in their Vitality Blast clash at Seat Unique Riverside.The left-hander blasted 81 from 46 balls to set the tone for Vikings at the top of the order, dominating the Durham bowlers. Lyth was supported by Finn Allen and Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who finished 48 not out in their innings of 201 for 5. Scott Borthwick limited the damage with figures of 3 for 34, but the chase was always going to be an uphill challenge.Durham were unable to time the ball off the square in the same manner as the visitors amid tight bowling. Michael Jones and Ollie Robinson were the only players to find their range without threatening to chase down the total. Jack Shutt enjoyed another successful outing at Chester-le-Street with figures of 4 for 35, having claimed 5 for 11 on his previous T20 visit, which allowed the visitors to canter towards their fifth victory of the campaign.After opting to bat, Lyth quickly found his range against the Durham attack, dispatching Paul Coughlin for three consecutive fours, including a sublime strike over cover. Allen responded to keep the pressure on the home side with three boundaries of his own from Liam Trevaskis’ first over. The Yorkshire openers raced to their fifty partnership from 21 balls, capitalising on mediocre bowling. Lyth ended the powerplay by drilling a boundary just past the diving Ashton Turner to propel Yorkshire to 79 without loss.The left-hander notched his second fifty against Durham of the campaign in a blistering 24 deliveries, sweeping Nathan Sowter to the fence to secure the milestone. Borthwick made the breakthrough by bowling Allen for 48, but only afte Vikings cruised by the 100-run mark after eight overs. They maintained their intensity, scoring at 10 runs per over through the middle stages as Kohler-Cadmore provided ample support for Lyth, crashing Borthwick for a maximum into the County Durham Stand.However, Durham staged a fightback as the visitors lost four wickets in 13 balls. Borthwick bounced back from being struck for a six by removing Lyth for 81 and then Harry Brook for a first-ball duck as Jonathan Bushnell claimed two catches in the deep. Shadab Khan and Will Fraine then fell cheaply, reducing the Vikings from 164 for 1 to 170 for 5. Late striking from Kohler-Cadmore and Jordan Thompson propelled Yorkshire above 200, but the home side gave themselves a glimmer of hope after limiting the damage.In their chase Durham failed to get going from the off, and lost Graham Clark early when he was clean bowled by Dom Leech for 7. The hosts could not muster the same timing as the Yorkshire top order, scoring only 42 from the powerplay as the required run rate leaped to over 11. Shutt cranked up the pressure by dismissing Michael Jones for 34 and skipper Turner on his return from a shoulder injury for 3 to reduce Durham to 66 for 3 at the halfway stage.Robinson offered resistance with a decent knock of 44 from 34 balls, including back-to-back sixes into the leg-side off Shutt. However, the offspinner had his revenge from the following delivery to notch his third wicket and effectively end the contest, although he added another scalp by dismissing Trevaskis to cap a fine road performance.

Siraj takes five but Australia still have enough time to push for series victory

Karthik Krishnaswamy17-Jan-2021
Rain wiped out nearly all of the last session of day four soon after Australia had set India 328 to win the Gabba Test. India’s openers had only faced 11 balls, and still had a possible 23.1 overs left to negotiate before stumps, when rain sent the players hurrying into their dressing rooms for the second and final time on the day.On a pitch where inconsistent bounce has grown into a frequent menace, Australia should still have enough time left, in theory, to bowl India out and wrap up a 2-1 series win, but the weather forecast for day five isn’t encouraging.India will have been the happier side at stumps – not so much from the standpoint of the match situation as much as the fact that the bowling attack they cobbled together for this Test match, with each of their senior options unavailable, managed to challenge Australia again and keep them from running away with the game.For one, they bowled Australia out. This hadn’t seemed likely when David Warner and Marcus Harris had extended their opening partnership to 89 and left Australia effectively 122 for no loss some 40 minutes into the day’s play. But India regrouped, with Shardul Thakur breaking the partnership on his way to an impressive four-wicket haul and Mohammed Siraj capping off a stellar debut series with a maiden Test-match five-for.Thakur had been wayward through the first innings but showed much better control in the second, changing the mood of the game by replacing an erratic T Natarajan and testing the left-handers with his angle from over the wicket, landing the ball within the line of the stumps and forcing them to play, and drawing a series of plays-and-misses with movement off the deck.A short ball brought the breakthrough, with Harris leaving his gloves in the way of the ball while trying to duck underneath it. Washington Sundar, Thakur’s partner in crime with the bat on day three, then had Warner lbw with one that went with the arm to leave Australia 91 for 2 with two new batsmen at the crease.Those two batsmen, Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith, threatened to take the game away once more with a counterattacking stand full of daring forays down the pitch to Sundar’s offspin. But having raced to 25 off 21, Labuschagne had no answer to Siraj when he got one to straighten in the channel after angling into him, and Rohit Sharma pouched a thick edge at second slip.Three balls later, Matthew Wade was caught down the leg side off Siraj, his duck capping a miserable series that has put his place in doubt.Either side of tea, Smith – batting with adventurous use of feet and hands – and Cameron Green – blocking stolidly with a rather mechanical-looking forward stride – added 73 in 23.2 overs, stretching the lead past the 200 mark.On 42, Smith gave India a chance when he stepped out and miscued a lofted hit off Sundar, but Siraj misjudged the catch at long-on and dropped it while off-balance. But soon after he’d moved past fifty, Siraj made up for the miss by getting a ball to leap at Smith from just short of a length. He made an impressive effort to survive the delivery, but couldn’t pull his bottom hand off the handle before the ball had struck his glove, and lobbed to gully.By the time Thakur sent Green back with an away-seamer in the corridor – it gave Sharma his fifth catch of the match – Australia’s lead had passed 250. Inconsistent bounce was becoming more frequent, with the long, vertical cracks on the pitch now having widened significantly. Natarajan had got one ball to creep through at ankle height and narrowly miss Green’s off stump. Thakur got one to spit up at Tim Paine and hit his glove. Australia may have felt they already had enough for an early declaration, especially given the danger of the erratic bounce injuring one of their bowlers.But they batted on, perhaps wary of having their bowlers – each of whom has played all four Tests, and all of whom have got through grueling workloads in India’s second innings in Sydney and their first innings here – get back on the field too soon. The runs came quickly, either side of a rain interruption that almost entirely coincided with the tea break, even as Siraj and Thakur chipped steadily away at the wickets. The bowlers survived this period largely unscathed, even though Pat Cummins suffered a smack on his right elbow from Siraj and a glancing blow to the back of his helmet from a Thakur bouncer that kept unexpectedly low.Eventually, Cummins made an unbeaten 28 – his highest score in 22 Test innings, a lean run stretching all the way to India’s previous tour of the country in 2018-19 – as the last four wickets added 67 to Australia’s total.

The Knight Riders captain hammered 71 off 38 balls to nearly pull off a win for his team

The Report by Vishal Dikshit01-Oct-2019It had to take something extraordinary to end Guyana Amazon Warriors’ unbeaten run this CPL and it nearly arrived in the form of a belligerent Kieron Pollard half-century. But his 38-ball 71, and Trinbago Knight Riders’ 75 off the last six overs in the chase of 186, weren’t enough as they fell short by 19 in the end. It extended Amazon Warriors’ stellar run to eight straight wins and confirm a top-of-the-table finish for them with two matches in hand.With Pollard hitting big mercilessly in front of a packed home crowd, the decisive over was the 19th when Knight Riders needed 38 from 12 balls and it looked very much on the cards with the wet ball difficult to grip for the bowlers. However, Keemo Paul kept his nerves and even though he did not get all his yorkers right, and Shoaib Malik dropped Pollard at long-on, his stifling lines allowed only nine from the over to leave Knight Riders with 29 to get from six balls. Malik had kept the experienced Imran Tahir for the last over and the legspinner did his bit by conceding two singles on his first three balls to effectively seal the chase, topping it with Pollard’s wicket on the fourth ball.The Pollard-Bravo assaultOffspinner Chris Green opened the bowling with four straight overs to finish with 2 for 18 with 11 dot balls. His mix of offbreaks and seam-ups accounted for Lendl Simmons and Colin Munro cheaply, before Denesh Ramdin holed out to bring Pollard and Darren Bravo together in the ninth over when the hosts were crawling at under a run-a-ball and the asking rate had shot to over 12 per over. Bravo and Pollard spent only two boundary-less overs before launching into the Amazon Warriors attack that had to keep using the towel on the ball to get their accuracy right.Both Pollard and Bravo targeted the ‘V’ – with Pollard’s net much wider – as the captain pulled, lofted short-of-length balls over the covers, dispatched the fuller ones down the ground, and targeted Ben Laughlin, who had conceded only three runs in his first two overs. He started the 15th with Knight Riders needing a stiff 95 from 36 and Pollard and Bravo smashed two sixes and a four on the leg side to collect 18. After clubbing another 14 runs off Romario Shepherd, Pollard brought up his 27-ball half-century in the 17th over by hammering the ball over bowler Paul’s head, and 12 from that over left Knight Riders with 51 to get from three overs.With Shepherd’s quota over, Malik had one over each left from Laughlin and Paul, which meant he had to give one to a spinner. He decided to bowl Laughlin first, who conceded another 13, but Paul’s effort in the 19th meant Tahir had a cushion of defending 28 in the last over, and he did it comfortably.Hemraj sets the stage for Shepherd Knight Riders’ decision to bowl looked the right one when they dismissed Brandon King early and kept Amazon Warriors’ Powerplay score to just 35 for 1 with Chandrapaul Hemraj and Shimron Hetmyer hardly taking any risks. Apart from the odd leg-side six from Hemraj, Ali Khan’s pace and Khary Pierre’s tight lines delayed the batsmen’s charge, but with some luck. Hemraj was dropped twice: the first one a tough return chance for the bowler Pollard, who nearly injured his right hand in the attempt, and the second was for substitute Tion Webster, who ran in from long-off only to spill a simple chance. Hemraj had already clubbed a six and a four after the Pollard drop, and this time he collected two fours off Chris Jordan right after the second miss to shoot their run rate from under seven to nearly eight per over, with a 34-ball half-century. Hetmyer, meanwhile, wasn’t looking in his element and played second fiddle to Hemraj for a 38-ball 48 in a second-wicket partnership of 98.Scantlebury-Searles v ShepherdAmazon Warriors were on course for a massive total, at 111 for 1 in the 14th over, before Javon Scantlebury-Searles interrupted their charge. Bowling for the first time this CPL in five matches, he first accounted for Hemraj for 66 before dismissing Nicholas Pooran and Hetmyer with wide yorkers in his next over, but by leaking 15 runs between the two dismissals. When Malik fell for a duck – caught by Scantlebury-Searles – and Sherfane Rutherford for 1 in consecutive overs, it looked like they would end on a below-par total, being 143 for 6 with 17 balls to go. But Shepherd, batting at No. 7, heaved sixes over the midwicket fence in the last over off death-overs specialist Jordan, the second off a waist-high no-ball which gave the batsman the chance to smash the free-hit to the wide long-on boundary for a four. With 25 runs off the last over, Shepherd finished with 31 off 13 balls and might have given Amazon Warriors the extra margin they eventually won by.

Alex Milton and Steve Magoffin put on 136 for the last wicket but it was not enough to prevent Somerset beating bottom-placed Worcestershire on the final day at Blackfinch New Road

ECB Reporters Network25-Jul-20181:13

Somerset silence stubborn Worcestershire

Somerset 337 (Davies 72, Abell 70, Hildreth 57, Moeen 3-63) and 362 for 9 dec (Azhar 125, Trescothick 71, Moeen 5-107) beat Worcestershire 257 (Wood 65*, J Overton 4-61, Davey 4-68) and 301 (Milton 104*, J Overton 4-82) by 141 runs

ScorecardSomerset climbed up to second in the Specsavers County Championship as they defeated bottom-placed Worcestershire by 141 runs on the final day at Blackfinch New Road, despite record-breaking resistance from debutant centurion Alex Milton and Steve Magoffin.Jamie Overton and Josh Davey looked to have broken the back of the Worcestershire batting by taking four wickets in the space of 15 balls inside the first hour after they had resumed on 50 for 2.They were aided during the morning by undistinguished shots from some of the Worcestershire top six. But wicketkeeper Milton, standing in for broken rib victim Ben Cox, kept them waiting until after tea with superb support from No. 11 Magoffin in a Worcestershire record stand of 136 for the last wicket against any opposition.It beat the previous best of 119 by William Burns and George Wilson in 1906 – coincidentally also against Somerset at New Road.Milton, the Cardiff MCCU captain, went to his hundred by clipping Craig Overton off his legs for his 15th boundary to go with one six. It came from 172 balls. But Somerset ultimately sealed their fourth win in eight games when Magoffin was dismissed by Craig Overton for 43 shortly after tea to leave Milton undefeated on 104.1Victory meant Somerset moved above Nottinghamshire to become the nearest challengers to title favourites Surrey.There were many pluses for the visitors throughout the game but the most heartening sight was the form of Jamie Overton. He has been gradually eased back to fitness here bowled with pace, aggression and accuracy.He ended the game with figures of 31-6-143-8 and received superb support from the equally effective Davey with seven wickets.On the batting front, new overseas player Azhar Ali made an instant impact with a century on his debut while Marcus Trescothick, James Hildreth, skipper Tom Abell and keeper Steven Davies also made sizeable contributions.Craig Overton appeals for a wicket•Getty Images

For Worcestershire, all is not lost. They are still in touch with the teams above them in the battle to stay up but there will have to be a improvement in their overall performance, although England spinner Moeen Ali’s eight-wicket haul was encouraging. Milton also kept tidily on his Championship debut.Worcestershire had been rocked by the dismissal of Moeen to the final delivery on the third evening and quickly ran into trouble in the morning.Davey was the first to strike as England Lions batsman Joe Clarke played down the wrong line and was bowled. Then Jamie Overton struck with successive deliveries as Travis Head and Ed Barnard perished to expansive shots.Head, in his final Championship innings for Worcestershire, had moved onto 46 but then threw his bat at a wide delivery and nicked through to keeper Steven Davies. Barnard then aimed a drive at another tempting delivery and this time Trescothick pouched the chance at second slip.Milton blocked the hat-trick ball but it was not the end of Worcestershire’s woes. In the next over skipper Brett D’Oliveira edged Davey into the safe hands of James Hildreth at first slip.Milton and Ross Whiteley tried to salvage some pride and looked reasonably secure in defying the Somerset attack for 20 overs. The returning Jamie Overton broke the partnership when Whiteley (39) was caught behind to leave Milton unbeaten on 31 at lunch.Somerset moved closer to victory after the resumption with Jack Leach striking twice in the same over. Luke Wood drilled the ball to Peter Trego at mid-off and Dillon Pennington edged the spinner and the ball bounced up off Trescothick kneeling at slip to keeper Davies.But last man Magoffin accompanied Milton in providing more defiance until the former sliced Craig Overton to backward point..

Stephen Parry claimed his first five-wicket haul in the Championship and Haseeb Hameed guided Lancashire’s chase to inflict defeat on the champions

Paul Edwards at Southport12-Jun-2017
ScorecardLancashire and Middlesex’s cricketers reported back for pre-season training last November. A few weeks later, officials at Southport and Birkdale CC heard they would be hosting this game against the champions, which ended in mid-afternoon on the final day when Steven Croft’s straight six off Ravi Patel completed an eight-wicket victory over the champions. It was Middlesex’s first defeat since they lost to Worcestershire in September 2015.So for four June days these three groups of people, all of them professional in their particular ways, have been joined in closely-related endeavours: one of them in preparing to stage a cricket match, the other two in competing against each other to win it. And thus we have a link between Bev Baybutt’s careful editing of the programme for this match and Stephen Parry’s maiden five-wicket haul in Championship cricket and, indeed, his first such return in the first-class game for a decade.It was Parry’s two wickets late on the fourth morning which ensured that Lancashire would need only 108 to win. Until those final breakthroughs, there seemed a chance that Tim Murtagh and Toby Roland-Jones’ shrewd hitting would set Lancashire a target in excess of 150. But Murtagh ventured cautiously down the pitch only to be stumped by Alex Davies for 27 and Roland-Jones swung across a straight one and was leg before for 31.Davies walked rather proudly off the field knowing that only Warren Hegg among Lancashire wicketkeepers had completed more dismissals in a match than the ten he had managed at Southport; on the stroke of lunch, he cut a rather more disappointed figure after he had been caught by John Simpson off Roland-Jones for 13 but one doubts he lunched on water-biscuits and self-pity. Liam Livingstone was the only other Lancashire batsman to lose his wicket and he had the consolation of knowing that he had been selected for England’s T20 squad. Haseeb Hameed helped himself to 104 minutes’ batting practice and made a pleasingly serene 38 not out, the sort of innings that suggests big runs are not far away. Within an hour of the game ending, Paul Parker and his battalion of workers were stacking the chairs they had so carefully set out less than a week ago. Lindsey Bridge’s tremendous alliums were still blooming but there were only a few spectators left on the ground to admire such floral delights.Haseeb Hameed saw Lancashire home in a small chase•Getty Images

No one could doubt the justice of the result of this game. If Middlesex had replaced their suspicious glances at the pitch with a little more tenacity, they might have scored more than the 180 they managed in the first innings; if they had bowled with better lines and lengths Lancashire may not have replied with 309. Resuming on 156 for 6 on the final morning, the visitors lost their overnight batsmen, Dawid Malan and James Harris, to effort balls from Ryan McLaren which bounced more than the batsmen expected. Both were caught at the wicket, Malan when attempting to play no shot at all. Those reverses left the responsibility for building a defendable total in the hands of Roland-Jones and Murtagh; they did what they could in typically aggressive fashion and Glen Chapple admitted that his players were getting “a little twitchy”. Parry settled their nerves and left Chapple praising the way his whole team had responded to their ten-wicket towsing at Headingley.This result will be a fillip to Lancashire’s players as they prepare to meet Hampshire at Emirates Old Trafford; Middlesex’s next match is at home to Yorkshire, which should bring back some happy memories for them. Before long Southport and Birkdale will return to being a club ground once again, although the members will retain warm memories of the 2017 game, albeit that such recollections will not be so precious as those they cherish in their hearts of Durham’s visit last year.In December, pied wagtails will be scuttering along the outfield in the gathering dusk; trains laden with Christmas presents will be rattling into Birkdale station; and the lights in Dover Road will stretch away in the winter darkness. And on one morning in that month S&B’s indefatigable chairman, Tony Elwood, will be told which county will be visiting his ground in 2018.Outground cricket is threatened when it should be encouraged. For many it remains a precious feature of the English season, something which no other sport can match. The game is taken back to a few of the clubs who produce the players. It remains, as Philip Larkin wrote of the Bellingham show in 1958, “something people do, / Not noticing how time’s rolling smithy-smoke / Shadows much greater gestures; something they share / That breaks ancestrally each year into / Regenerate union. Let it always be there.”

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.

A slow pitch, a slow outfield and rain after tea combined to undermine Durham’s plan to achieve the victory that would make them odds-on to clinch the title

Jon Culley at Derby13-Sep-2013
ScorecardScott Borthwick became just the third Durham-born player to make 1,000 runs in a Championship season for the county•Getty Images

Scott Borthwick defied a slow pitch, a slow outfield and rain after tea to become only the third Durham-born batsman to pass 1,000 runs in a season. But the conditions combined to undermine Durham’s plan to achieve the victory that would make them odds-on to clinch the titleWhen Borthwick reached 44, he had something to celebrate on a personal level, despite the frustrating situation for his side. He became the first home-grown Durham player since Paul Collingwood in 2005 to have achieved the milestone and only the third Durham-born batsman to do so in the county’s history, the other being Gary Pratt.His success rewards Durham’s decision to promote him to No. 3. Borthwick was a top-order batsman with bowling a secondary skill in the early part of his career and he opened for England Under-19s before switching his focus towards developing his legspin, only to find he was being required less frequently in that role.”At junior levels I was always a batter who bowled a bit,” Borthwick said. “As a legspinner you don’t get many opportunities, especially at The Riverside where you can’t get the ball out of the seamers’ hands.”That was the idea of going up the order, to give me a chance to contribute more and help the team by scoring runs. It has given an extra dimension to my game.”His 89 drove Durham along but at a very sluggish rate. The cricket was uninspiring to watch, the scoring remaining steadfastly below three runs per over, but Durham appeared content to grind their way towards a position from which they would at least avoid defeat, stepping up the pressure on Yorkshire to do better.With so few opportunities left now for Yorkshire to claw back their lead, Durham are not exactly dismayed at the prospect of a draw. If the match at Hove has the same conclusion, Durham might even extend their lead.That would depend on their claiming not only a third but a fourth batting point, which would be a tall order. But parity with Yorkshire this week and maintaining their 14 and a half-point advantage with two matches to go would suit them nicely, although having themselves bowled out Sussex twice for little more than a hundred each time last week, their confidence in Ed Joyce’s team resisting Yorkshire cannot be particularly high.

Footitt turns down new deal

Derbyshire fast bowler Mark Footitt has rejected the offer of a new contract at the Racecourse and wants to talk to Surrey about a move to The Oval.
Footitt, the 27-year-old left-armer who is also believed to be on the radar of his first county, Nottinghamshire, has enjoyed his best season, both in terms of fitness and wickets, after undergoing a back operation last winter.
His tally in first-class matches this year is 40 wickets and he has 55 in all competitions.
Karl Krikken, Derbyshire’s head coach, confirmed that Footitt had turned down their offer of a new deal but remains hopeful that he will stay.
“We want to keep Mark,” Krikken said. “He has bowled really well this year. This is his first real period of sustained fitness and as a left-arm seamer who bowls at a decent pace he is very useful. But we know there is interest from elsewhere. He has told us he wants to speak to people.”

Durham had hoped to give themselves a chance of winning, which they would have seen as possible, certainly, had they been able to push on towards a lead upwards of 180, perhaps, and unleashed Graham Onions and company to prey on Derbyshire’s last-day nerves in their battle at the other end of the table.At 227 for 2, such a scenario looked within their scope with Scott Borthwick and Will Smith making cautious but steady progress against Derbyshire’s disciplined bowling. Mark Footitt’s pace, combined with the consistency of Tony Palladino and Tim Groenewald, made them work hard for every run.Yet at just the moment, after putting on 159 together, that Borthwick was beginning to eye up his fourth century of this year’s Championship and Smith his third, both departed in the space of eight overs.Borthwick, facing Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s leg spin, swiped at a full toss and was caught at mid-on for 89, bringing to an end an innings spanning four hours. Smith, who had batted longer still for his 81, shaped to cut but changed his mind when he realised the ball Footitt had for him was not suited to the shot. He failed to get his bat out of the way and edged to second slip, where Tom Knight, fielding as substitute for the injured Richard Johnson, took a fine catch, diving to his right.”The plan was to have batted big and got a lead maybe of a couple of hundred,” Borthwick said. “But the ball was not coming on as well as we hoped it would and it was hard to score. Then I hit a full toss straight to mid-on and Will got a good one from Footitt.”A draw would not be a bad result, though, and if we can get to 300, maybe 350, the extra points would be nice.”

The final day of this unforgettable match between Somerset and Surrey was all really rather apologetic, ending in a draw

David Lloyd at Taunton31-Aug-2012Surrey 317 (Pietersen 163) and 360 for 5 dec (Harinath 105*, Burns 60, Pietersen 58) drew with Somerset 294 (Trego 92, Hildreth 85, Kartik 4-70, Meaker 4-74)
ScorecardArun Harinath went on to make his second century in successive matches•PA Photos

After the class of Kevin Pietersen’s first-innings century and the controversy caused by the ‘Mankading’ of Alex Barrow, the final day of this unforgettable match was all really rather apologetic.Gareth Batty, Surrey’s captain and the man who took ultimate responsibility for Barrow’s run-out while backing up by Murali Kartik, made his peace with Somerset opposite number, Marcus Trescothick.Then, after teasing onlookers into thinking a challenging declaration was just around the corner, a contest which lost one full day to bad weather drifted to the tamest of draws with the sides – unsurprisingly, perhaps – unable to reach an agreement.Speculation was rife that a deal had been struck when, immediately after lunch, Somerset served up four overs of dob bowling and Surrey plundered 47 runs – despite Pietersen presenting Chris Jones with a memorable maiden first-class wicket on the first occasion that his offspin has ever been called upon in senior cricket.Far from having agreed a target, though, Trescothick was just trying to tease the opposition into setting something that could be chased in the final session and a half. Negotiations continued but the figures would not add up and normal service resumed until a halt was called an hour or so early, after Arun Harinath had completed his second century in as many matches.No one could blame Somerset for trying to talk a deal: realistically, they needed a victory to keep alive their slim hopes of winning the title. And while some home supporters might beg to differ, it would be harsh to criticise Surrey, for whom a draw – and nine points – is a decent result in their fight to avoid relegation.”We couldn’t work it out,” Trescothick said. “We offered, they offered but we couldn’t agree. We thought potentially we were going to sort something out [during the four overs of ‘declaration’ bowling] but we couldn’t get to it. These have been an interesting couple of days.”That was a bit of an understatement from Trescothick, who accepts that it will be “very tough” now for Somerset to win the title. But he confirmed that yesterday’s run-out row had been put to bed following Batty’s approach. “He apologised, we move on,” Trescothick said. “These things happen, we all make mistakes [so] let’s crack on and leave it alone.”Somerset clearly harboured hopes this morning of being able to win without the need for deal-making – and Alfonso Thomas did nothing to dispel that optimism during a fiery burst which saw him give opener Rory Burns something of a going over.Thomas hit the left-hander on the glove (with a lifter), the helmet (with a bouncer) and the toe (with a slightly off line yorker). To his credit, Burns battled though but then, having just brought up Surrey’s first century opening stand of the Championship season in partnership with Zafar Ansari, he popped a bat-pad catch to short leg off left-arm spinner George DockrellAnsari edged a drive against Sajid Mahmood but two wickets down at lunch, with the visitors already 176 ahead, was not enough for Somerset – and the negotiations began.Pietersen helped himself to 30 runs from 11 balls, delivered by James Hildreth and Jones, but then – to everyone’s disbelief and general amusement – he punched Jones low to short extra cover and wandered off, smiling ruefully.The ‘proper’ bowlers returned almost immediately – with deal-making talks having failed – and Harinath set about scoring a fine century to add to the one he made against Middlesex a fortnight ago. The left-hander survived a stumping chance, on 38, but made the most of his good fortune.”Our youngsters at the top of the order have really come to the party in the second half of the season,” Surrey team director, Chris Adams, said. “I think we’ve always known that Arun has all the potential and all the ability but he hasn’t been able to take his opportunities until now. I’m absolutely delighted for him – he’s a very popular member of the squad.”

Offspinner Harbhajan Singh has been dropped from the Indian squad for the first two ODIs against England on October 14 and 17

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Sep-2011Offspinner Harbhajan Singh has been left out of India’s squad for the first two ODIs against England on October 14 and 17. Karnataka medium-pacer S Aravind and Punjab legspinner Rahul Sharma have received their maiden international call-ups.Fast bowler, Varun Aaron who was part of the ODI squad in England but did not play, retained his place in the 15-man team. Batsmen Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary are the other replacements sent to England who kept their spots.Fast bowler Umesh Yadav, who was not part of the India set-up since the 2010-11 Test series in South Africa, also made a comeback.The squad is missing Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma due to injuries sustained on the recent tour of England. Fast bowler Ashish Nehra, who had declared himself fit after breaking his hand during the World Cup, and allrounder Yusuf Pathan, who was part of the World Cup squad, were not selected.India’s squad contained five batsmen – Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary – two wicketkeeper batsmen – MS Dhoni and Parthiv Patel – and one allrounder in Ravindra Jadeja. The bowling attack comprised five seamers – Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind and Praveen Kumar – and two spinners in R Ashwin and Rahul Sharma.Harbhajan’s axeing came after his disappointing performance during the Test series in England, where he took only two wickets in 69.4 overs at an average of 143.50 and economy-rate of 4.11. He suffered a stomach injury during the second Test and was ruled out of the last two matches and the limited-overs series that followed. India lost the Test series 0-4 and the ODI series 0-3 in England.Aravind had a strong 2010-11 domestic season; he was the second-highest wicket-taker for Karnataka with 26 scalps and also the second-highest wicket-taker for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy with 10 wickets. He followed that up with an impressive performance for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2011 to push his claims for national recognition. Rahul Sharma also caught notice in the IPL, where he picked up 16 wickets in 14 games for the under-performing Pune Warriors, at the eye-popping economy-rate of 5.46.This selection meeting in Chennai was the first since the BCCI replaced Yashpal Sharma with Mohinder Amarnath as the North Zone representative on the panel.Squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Praveen Kumar.

Hampshire opener Jimmy Adams and team-mate James Vince both plundered unbeaten centuries as Yorkshire took a pounding on the third day of the County Championship match at Scarborough

25-Aug-2010
ScorecardHampshire opener Jimmy Adams and team-mate James Vince both plundered unbeaten centuries as Yorkshire took a pounding on the third day of the County Championship match at Scarborough.It was a maiden century for talented teenager Vince, who is developing a batting style similar to that of Michael Vaughan, while it was the latest in a line of good scores by Adams against Yorkshire. He first made his mark at Headingley in 2006 by converting his maiden century into an unbeaten 168 as Hampshire successfully chased down a 404 target and he went on to add a further five half-centuries before his latest effort.By close of play, Adams (162) and 19-year-old Vince (122) had put on an unbroken 215 for the fourth wicket to propel Hampshire to 367 for 3 and give them a first innings lead of 45.Hampshire began the day on eight without loss and Yorkshire had Richard Pyrah in their side as replacement for Tim Bresnan, who had joined up with his England team-mates at Lord’s.Ajmal Shahzad and Steve Patterson shared the attack but did little to trouble either Adams or Michael Carberry and the other pace bowlers were generally ineffective. Yorkshire turned for a while to the spin of Adil Rashid and Adams helped himself to two fours in his first over to complete a half-century which contained 11 boundaries.The century stand was reached in 31 overs but just before lunch it was Pyrah who split the pair by having Carberry caught at second slip by Anthony McGrath for 40.Adams and Chris Benham continued to make life difficult for Yorkshire in the afternoon until Shahzad produced an almost unplayable delivery which hit the top of Benham’s off-stump and Patterson then responded at the other end by forcing Neil McKenzie to chop into his stumps without scoring.Any thoughts of a batting collapse quickly disappeared, however, as Vince joined Adams in a massive stand which saw Adams go to his century shortly before tea. He had faced 194 balls and struck 17 fours.McGrath, who bowled a brief spell of off-spin before the interval, reverted to his normal medium pace and when Adams was 108 he got a bottom edge which wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy could not quite hold on to.Vince’s 50 came off 64 balls with eight fours and he registered his career-best score when he cruised past 75. Adams had a couple of run-out scares at the non-striker’s end when returning to his crease and Vince survived a leaping attempt by Pyrah at backward point but otherwise the batsmen were in charge and Hampshire went calmly into the lead.Consecutive boundaries by Vince off Pyrah hurried him to his maiden century off 128 balls with 15 fours and he celebrated by waving his bat ecstatically in response to the ovation from his team-mates and the 4,700 crowd.Runs then continued to flow as the bowlers toiled without reward, with Hampshire holding the upper hand when the game goes into its final day.