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Kimber scores 63 in four-wicket, DLS victory but other results don’t go Foxes’ way

ECB Reporters Network12-Aug-2021Leicestershire Foxes missed out on a Royal London Cup knockout spot despite a Louis Kimber-inspired four-run DLS victory over Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Wantage Road.The Foxes needed to win and hope for two of Surrey, Somerset and Yorkshire to lose but in spite of holding up their end of the bargain they fell a point shy in Group 1.Kimber struck 63, his second List A fifty, with Rishi Patel, Arron Lilley and Rehan Ahmed helping the Foxes to 271.Rain meant the Steelbacks needed 266 from 48 over, but Rob Keogh’s 52 wasn’t enough as they fell agonisingly short – with Will Davis, Gavin Griffiths and Ben Mike all taking two wickets apiece.The Foxes won the toss and hared out the gate as Patel aggressively blasted 41 off 33 balls, including a pick up six over midwicket.He and opening partner Harry Swindles were both bounced out by Ben Sanderson – the former plinking to extra cover to hand the fast bowler his 50th List A wicket and the latter wonderfully caught by a diving Saif Zaib at deep square leg.Like Patel, Lilley showed that an attacking spirit was the best way to make runs – the all-rounder striking 46 off 37 deliveries for his third consecutive highest format score.Partnerships were extinguished just as they started to flourish – eight of the stands producing between 20 and 50 runs – with Lewis Hill losing the top of his off-stump to Sanderson, Lilley stumped and George Rhodes leg before to Simon Kerrigan.Mike tamely chipped to midwicket and Ed Barnes was plumb in front to Zaib but Kimber provided the paste with a 53-ball half-century. He was squared up and bowled by a crafty Kerrigan delivery, while 16-year-old Ahmed marshalled the tail with a promising unbeaten 40 before Zaib bowled both Griffiths and Davis – the spinner ending with personal best figures of 3 for 37.The Steelbacks raced to 45 in 7.5 overs before rain helped slow up a wicket which was already friendly to the spin bowlers.Emilio Gay collected 42 of the first 53 runs, including eight boundaries, before he was lbw to George Rhodes and Ricardo Vasconcelos followed soon after when he slashed to point.A third wicket in 10 balls, Ben Curran chopping on, came as the hosts stalled – with a nine overs gap between boundaries highlighting the Foxes’ containment.Luke Procter and Keogh were pragmatic, if rarely pretty, in their 89-run stand. The latter reached his half-century off 56 balls before swatting to midwicket but the former fell short when he hammered straight to point for 48 – both falling to Mike.Zaib tried to take control with 42 from 41, which included a towering maximum over square, but swung a full toss straight to deep midwicket with 37 still needed from 25 balls.James Sales had put on 63 with Zaib and picked out exactly the same fielder, as did Kerrigan.It meant 25 were needed from the last 11 balls, but despite Sanderson’s big-hitting, Jack White was run out to drag the Foxes over the line.

The Queensland quick is the current leading wicket-taker in the Sheffield Shield

AAP14-Nov-2021Queensland skipper Usman Khawaja has likened team-mate Mark Steketee to South Africa great Dale Steyn, labelling the quick’s current form as career-best.Steketee is among a host of fast bowlers fighting for advantage in the pecking order behind Australia’s Test trio Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins.Although Queensland went down in the Sheffield Shield to Western Australia by seven wickets on Saturday at the Gabba, Steketee again performed strongly with 4 for 74 and 2 for 21.The 27-year-old, who picked up career-best figures of 7 for 44 against South Australia last month, tops the Shield wicket-taker list this season with 18 at 15.72.Related

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“[He] has been around the Aussie thinking [and] the next fast bowling crop for a while now,” Khawaja told reporters. “This year, the way he’s been bowling is as good as I’ve seen him bowl. He’s got gears too, you can tell he’s experienced now. He can read the conditions.”When he was younger he just used to try and bowl 100 percent. He’s got the skills and the gears now to take it back a bit and then ramp it up, much like Dale Steyn used to and learnt throughout his career.”Australia is expected to soon name an extended Ashes squad, with an intrasquad practice game early next month looming as a key shootout ahead of the first Test against England on December 8.Steketee, Queensland team-mate Michael Neser, experienced Victorian Scott Boland, WA quick Jhye Richardson and New South Wales allrounder Sean Abbott are among the next crop of quicks.Richardson, who has two Tests to his name, starred against the Bulls with 3 for 38 and 5 for 23 and hit a valuable 35 with the bat. Neser picked up a hamstring injury in his side’s loss but is expected to be fit by the start of the Ashes. National selectors could opt for a rotation policy with the five-Test series being squeezed into six weeks.Khawaja, himself in top touch with the bat and pushing for a return to the Test side, indicated Steketee should be at the top of the pack.”He’s bowling beautifully right now. He’s been the pick of our bowlers all season,” he said. “The bounce and the kiss he’s getting off the wicket, we feel in the game every ball.”

Kent landed the opening blows in the LV= County Championship’s basement battle by reducing fellow Second Division strugglers Leicestershire to 74 for 4

29-May-2013
ScorecardKent landed the opening blows in the LV= County Championship’s basement battle by reducing fellow Second Division strugglers Leicestershire to 74 for 4 on a rain-ruined opening day in Tunbridge Wells.Kent’s acting captain Geraint Jones, standing in for James Tredwell who is away on England one-day duty, admitted he too would have batted first at a cloudy Nevill Ground. But that will have done nothing to lift the spirits of his Leicestershire counterpart Josh Cobb, who saw four wickets go down in 21 overs after he won the toss and elected to take first use of the pitch.However, the former England wicketkeeper conceded later that it turned out to be a good toss to lose as Kent’s swing bowlers made decent use of the overcast and breezy conditions.Though Matt Coles, the Kent and England Lions bowler, proved expensive during a wayward seven-over burst from the Pavilion End, Kent’s three seamers of a lesser pace proved more than a handful for the Leicestershire top order.Charlie Shreck made the opening breakthrough for the hosts in the third over to make it 6 for 1. Shreck got one to swing away and lift to right-hander Greg Smith who feathered a low, sharp chance that was well taken by a tumbling Adam Riley at third slip.Former Kent wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien teamed up with Ned Eckersley to add 56 in 14 overs for the second wicket before left-handed O’Brien played inside a Darren Stevens leg-cutter that pegged back off stump. Without addition to the total, Eckersley in aiming to cut a short wide ball from Calum Haggett, edged a regulation catch through to Jones. Six runs on Stevens rapped Joe Burns on the back pad to win a confident leg before appeal.Rain arrived in the Royal Spa town barely two overs later to force the players from the field at 12.30pm for an early lunch. They also took an early tea at 3.10pm and, despite a concerted mopping-up operation, they never returned as umpires Peter Hartley and Steve Gale abandoned play for the day.

Hyderabad Sunrisers have now won five in five after routing Delhi Daredevils with 37 balls remaining

The Report by Siddarth Ravindran04-May-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Delhi Daredevils’ campaign is dead and buried•BCCI

A couple of years ago, the Hyderabad Cricket Association had performed several at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal seeking divine intervention to change the fortunes of the home side which seemed to invariably lose at the venue. Whether it was India, the local Ranji side or the now-defunct Deccan Chargers, the Hyderabad crowd turned up only to see their side defeated.Whether it is due to the or not, the home side’s fortunes have certainly changed at the Uppal stadium. India won two Tests there this season, and the new franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad have now won five in five after routing Delhi Daredevils with 37 balls remaining.The bedrock of Sunrisers’ surprisingly successful season so far has been the bowling. Dale Steyn has bowled with frightening pace, Amit Mishra and Karan Sharma have used their googlies to flummox the batsmen, Thisara Perera has had plenty of success with both bat and ball and Ishant Sharma, usually so profligate in the limited-overs format, has been effective with the new ball. All of that came together perfectly as they hounded out Daredevils for 80, the lowest total of the season.Daredevils’ campaign had been on life support over the past week, with a couple of victories just about keeping them alive in the competition. Their chances are now dead and buried after their faltering batting failed once again. There were only four fours and one six in the entire innings, less than what AB de Villiers managed in a single over against Ashok Dinda earlier this week.Their openers survived a couple of pacy, probing overs from Steyn at the start before Asad Rauf gave a rough lbw decision to Mahela Jayawardene. Virender Sehwag followed soon after as he missed an indipper from Darren Sammy and lost his offstump. That left only David Warner among the big names, and though he was put down on 6, he couldn’t make it to double-digits as he misread a Mishra googly and was stumped by yards.The Sunrisers quicks had a plan on a track that was slow and had some variable bounce – they didn’t bowl anything full, giving nothing that could be driven easily. The surface also offered turn for the spinners, which both Mishra and Karan exploited.Daredevils had lengthened their batting with the inclusion of two overseas allrounders, Johan Botha and Jeevan Mendis, but it was to little avail. Mendis holed out to long-on, Botha top-edged to the keeper, and Irfan Pathan dragged on a Steyn delivery to the stumps. Daredevils went from 70 for 5 to 80 all out.Sunrisers major weakness is their frail batting, and the pitch was not a batting beauty but the target was too small for Daredevils’ bowlers to stand a real chance of defending it. Shikhar Dhawan made it seem like a flat track early on with some sumptuous shots, and though there were a few hiccups, Sunrisers maintained their 100% home record without too much trouble.

Shane Watson may opening the batting in the first Test in Chennai with Ed Cowan after national selector John Inverarity revealed significant concerns about David Warner’s recovery from a fractured thumb five days before the first Test

Daniel Brettig17-Feb-2013Shane Watson may opening the batting in the first Test in Chennai with Ed Cowan after the national selector John Inverarity revealed significant concerns about David Warner’s recovery from a fractured thumb five days before the first Test.Warner is yet to face anything more demanding than throw-downs since his arrival in India, following a broken thumb inflicted by Mitchell Johnson in the WACA ground nets that kept him out of the ODIs against the West Indies. The captain, Michael Clarke has trained freely enough in the latter stages of his recovery from a hamstring strain and is not in any doubt, but Warner’s thumb must improve over the next few days to ensure he is fit for the first Test.

Watson thinks he will bat at No. 4

Shane Watson believes he will resume his Test career at No. 4 if David Warner is passed fit for the Chennai Test. Though he opened the batting with Ed Cowan in the Australians’ final warm-up Watson said he was expecting to return to the middle order. “Initially in the first Test, it depends on whether Dave Warner will be fit and, obviously we’ve got our fingers crossed, that he’ll be fit to play,” Watson said. “If he’s fit, then I’m not sure, I think I’ll bat at 4, but the selectors and Michael and the coach haven’t really mentioned either way where I’m going to bat. I certainly like to open the batting, there’s no doubt about that it’s a lot of fun to be opening the batting in any conditions really. But I’ve got the game plan and I’ve played a lot in India recently to hopefully have some success at No. 4 if that’s the case.”

“David’s thumb has improved in the last couple of days, he wasn’t fit enough to play in this game, he had some throw-downs yesterday with a cricket ball, and we’re hoping his fitness improves a great deal in the next couple of days so he comes into contention,” Inverarity told . “We won’t make a decision on that until a few days out from the Test.”There is some concern with David because he hasn’t been able to practice, but Michael had an hour’s batting in the nets yesterday and he played beautifully, so I’d say there are very few concerns around Michael because of his experience and the fact he was able to practice.”The injury-enforced absence of Warner would be a major blow to the tourists but, at the same time, a temporary way around the vexing issue of where Watson should bat on his return to the Test side as a non-bowling member of the team.Numerous influential voices, including those of Ian Chappell and Brett Lee, have been raised in recent days to argue that Cowan should be dropped to make way for Watson. But Clarke and the rest of the selectors have valued Cowan’s steady hand at the top, and Matthew Hayden has been one advocate of the left-hander’s retention despite a run of scores that have been handy rather than outstanding.Glenn Maxwells’s prospects of a Test match debut in Chennai also rose when Inverarity hinted strongly at the use of three fast bowlers, one spinner and a slow bowling allrounder. As the Australians struggled to dismiss India A in their warmup match, Inverarity said the tourists were still leaning towards a heavy reliance on pace despite the surface at Chennai’s Chidambaram Stadium appearing likely to spin sharply.”The wicket for the Test match is already prepared. We could’ve played on it today, we could have played on it yesterday or the day before,” Inverarity said. “There is not one blade of grass, so you’d suggest it is a wicket for spinners. But with our Australian team I think the strength lies more with the pace bowlers than with the spinners.”We’ve got the option of playing two pace bowlers and two spinners, but it’d more likely that we’d go in with three pace bowlers and one spinner, plus some spin support. I don’t think it’s clouded. We know what we’re going to do. The Indian players, of course, are very good players of spin. Yesterday, our spinners didn’t bowl well and the Indian batsmen took heavy toll of them, but we’re fairly clear in regards what we’re going to do in terms of spin bowling in the first Test match.”Maxwell was left out of the team to play in the tourists’ final preparatory fixture, but has been groomed for a role in India for more than a month, since he was 12th man in the third Test against Sri Lanka at the SCG. While his offspin has shown signs of improvement across the ODIs against Sri Lanka and the West Indies, Maxwell’s batting has been less convincing as a Test match proposition.Steve Smith is the other notional option as a middle order batsman and spin bowler, though his leg breaks were treated harshly in the tour opener.

Jayden Seales hits back on debut after Windies are rolled aside for 97

Firdose Moonda10-Jun-2021Fourteen wickets fell on an eventful first day at St Lucia, where South Africa inched in front aftter dismissing West Indies for their lowest total against South Africa.Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen put their team in the lead after Lungi Ngidi’s second Test five-for and a four-wicket haul from Anrich Nortje saw West Indies shot out for 97. The visitors, touring the Caribbean for the first time in 11 years, adjusted well to conditions that suited their pace pack.West Indies were left to rue their decision to bat first, especially as their attack were unable to cause the same problems as South Africa’s on a pitch that appeared to flatten as the day wore on. Although the bounce remained true and the carry good, West Indies’ attack did not generate the same seam movement as South Africa’s, neither did they bowl with the same militaristic discipline, but they took four of the top six with debutant seamer Jayden Seales responsible for three of those wickets.Seales, playing in just his second first-class game, was the most impressive of the home pack on a day for the quicks that belonged to South Africa’s fast men. They impressed with accuracy and aggression and condemned West Indies to only their second sub-100 total since 2004. No West Indies batter scored more than 20 and no partnership was worth more than 24 in a reflection on South Africa’s incisiveness and solid slip catching.Kagiso Rabada set the tone and looked back to his menacing best when he beat Kraigg Brathwaite with the new ball on several occasions but did not find the edge. Instead, it was Nortje who struck at the other end. He bowled Shai Hope in the perfect fast bowler’s fashion as the ball angled away and hit the top of off stump to break a 24-run opening stand.Anrich Nortje celebrates a wicket with Dean Elgar•AFP/Getty Images

Nortje could have had a second wicket off the next ball when he greeted Nkrumah Bonner with a menacing short ball that Bonner appeared to top-edge onto his badge. South Africa reviewed while Bonner had a concussion test. The former was unsuccessful and showed no bat involved and though he was deemed fit to continue, he was reassessed at the end of the innings, and duly replaced by Kieran Powell for the remainder of the contest.Three balls after Bonner’s helmet blow, Nortje bowled Brathwaite with a delivery that jagged back into the West Indian captain and onto the outside of the off stump. While Bonner and Roston Chase spent 65 balls together trying to rebuild, but accumulated just 14 runs. Chase took 25 deliveries to get off the mark, and the pressure told. Bonner was squared up by Rabada and edged to Quinton de Kock before new batter Kyle Mayers tried to pull a Nortje length ball but gifted Rassie van der Dussen a catch at extra cover in the next over on the stroke of lunch.At that stage, Ngidi had bowled seven overs for 10 runs and had not taken a wicket, but he made up for it after the break. After Jermaine Blackwood played the poorest stroke of the line-up when he hung his bat out to a back-of-a-length Nortje delivery and was caught at gully, Ngidi had success with his first ball of the second chase.He generated extra bounce to have Roston Chase caught at second slip and four balls later had Joshua da Silva caught low at third slip, after edging a ball that moved away. Four overs later, Rahkeem Cornwall tried to smash Ngidi over the slip cordon but miscued and Markram took the catch running from first slip towards third man. In his next over, Ngidi had Roach caught behind and four overs after that, finished the innings off when Holder pushed at a ball outside off and was caught at second slip.Jayden Seales is jubilant after dismissing Keegan Petersen for his first Test wicket•AFP/Getty Images

South Africa’s reply started inauspiciously when Dean Elgar recorded a duck in his first innings as permanent Test captain. Elgar left the first four deliveries of South Africa’s reply alone but was drawn into playing at the fifth which Kemar Roach pitched fuller than the rest and closer to the off stump. The ball took the outside edge and Blackwood took a good catch at third slip, diving to his left.Roach had hopes of another in his next over when Markram withdrew from his stroke and edged between the wicketkeeper and Cornwall at first slip. Markram also had an appeal for lbw against him, off Roach, turned down; Replays showed an inside edge. At the other end, Keegan Petersen impressed with his tight technique and confident defence and the pair took South Africa to tea.Petersen only lasted three balls after the break and fell to the first one he faced off fellow newcomer Seales. The teenager, playing in just his second first-class match, started off with good pace and plenty of energy and took the splice of Petersen’s bat with the last ball of his first over. Jason Holder took the catch at second slip to give Seales his first Test wicket.Seales could have had another two overs later when Rassie van der Dussen was given out lbw for 5 but reviewed. Replays showed the ball was missing leg stump by some distance and van der Dussen survived, only to slash Seales through the gully before a more confident pull off Holder.Markram knuckled down and showed rare glimpses of positive stroke play, such as the backfoot drive off Mayers and the slap through the covers off Cornwall, but it was only when he pulled Seales in front of square to level the scores that he looked properly in control. He brought up his fifty off 99 balls and seemed set to take South Africa to the close but Seales had another burst to come. He forced Markram to play at a ball on fourth stump which took the edge on its way to Joshua da Silva. Markram departed for 60.Related

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That brought another debutant, Kyle Verreynne, to the middle but he could not keep van der Dussen company to the close. Seales got his third when Verreynne flashed at a short ball and got a thick outside edge for da Silva to collect.South Africa did not send in a nightwatchman but stuck to their usual batting line-up and Quinton de Kock accompanied van der Dussen to the close. With only allrounder Wiaan Mulder to come before the tail, West Indies will be hopeful of keeping South Africa’s lead from ballooning beyond their reach and staying competitive in the Test.Play began with West Indies, as they have done for the last 11 months, taking a knee in support of anti-racism. For the first time since the athlete activist movement began, South Africa opted to give their players individual choice over their gesture after their collective decision last year not to take a knee but to wear armbands and raise a fist instead.Rabada, Ngidi, Keshav Maharaj, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen and Kyle Verreynne took a knee. Elgar, Markram, Mulder and Nortje raised a fist while de Kock stood. On the sidelines, South Africa’s entire support staff took a knee while one reserve player raised a fist and another stood.”We come from a diverse country. Everyone is entitled to their own choice,” Ngidi said at the close. “I have been very clear on my stance. Everyone is happy for everyone. We play for South Africa and that’s all we are trying to do as players.”