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Liam Dawson, an England matchwinner last week, rallied to his county’s cause as Hampshire enjoyed a welcome day of prosperity as they again try to find a way to preserve their Division One place

Jon Culley at Edgbaston10-Jul-2016
ScorecardLiam Dawson ensured Hampshire had the foundations to control the match•Getty Images

Liam Dawson, an England matchwinner last week, rallied to his county’s cause as Hampshire enjoyed a welcome day of prosperity as they again try to find a way to preserve their Division One place. The skills required to influence an international T20 differ hugely from those demanded by four-day Championship cricket but confidence is a transferable factor whatever the discipline.The 26-year-old allrounder made his mark with the ball as England beat Sri Lanka, taking 3 for 27 on his senior international debut on his home Southampton ground. His impact on the first day here was with the bat, where his first century of the season helped Hampshire reach a strong position. Called up for England Lions in between, it has been a good few days for him.Hampshire desperately need a win. They escaped relegation by two points last season and went into this match at the bottom of the Division One table, 23 points from safety. Win here, though, and they might have a chance of beating the drop again. Nottinghamshire, whom they meet at Trent Bridge next month, have played two matches more. Moreover, it was by winning at Trent Bridge on the last day that Hampshire clinched survival.On a flat pitch on which he may have an important role to play with the ball as the match progresses, Dawson encountered few difficult moments until he was out, struck in front by Keith Barker not long after Warwickshire had taken the second new ball, playing across one that shaped back in. Having faced precisely 200 balls, he had hit 13 fours and one six, coming out best in a prolonged battle with Jeetan Patel, Warwickshire’s canny offspinner.”It’s a pretty flat pitch but you still have to get the runs and I’m happy to have helped put us in with a chance of making a big score,” Dawson said.”Playing for England in a T20 is very different from four-day cricket and although you gain confidence from playing well in any format I find red-ball cricket harder, to be honest. It is a test of concentration over long periods so it is very pleasing to come out with a hundred today.”Dawson shared partnerships of 81 with 20-year-old Tom Alsop for the third wicket and 155 with Adam Wheater for the fourth. Wheater closed unbeaten on 89 and after pulling Barker for a meaty six and might have completed a century of his own had the dismissal of Dawson not forced him to switch to conservation mode for the day’s closing overs.The left-hander Alsop, playing in only his ninth first-class match, completed an attractive fifty before failing in his attempt to attack Josh Poysden, Warwickshire’s rookie legspinner, the ball flying off the top edge to Patel at mid-off as he tried to hit over midwicket.The runs added by the three combined made up for a somewhat stodgy start by Hampshire, who had crawled to just 63 from almost 28 overs after winning the toss and electing to bat first. Jimmy Adams, in particular, found it hard to make progress against Patel, who was bowling from as early as the sixth over and opened with four consecutive maidens.Adams had flicked a ball from Barker off his legs for four in the first over of the match but thereafter scored only two more runs from 76 deliveries. He then drew ironic applause from spectators by hitting consecutive boundaries off Patel, only to be out in the next over, driving straight to Ian Bell at midwicket.Like Hampshire, third-placed Warwickshire have gone in with two spinners in an unchanged side from the one that beat Surrey handsomely at Guildford last week, when Patel took five wickets in each innings.It was particularly unfortunate, then, that they should lose fast bowler Boyd Rankin after the Irishman was forced off the field with a back problem after bowling just one over, leaving Barker and Rikki Clarke as their only pace options. Warwickshire are hopeful that Rankin will be fit to bowl in the second innings.Hampshire have not many fast bowlers fit even to be considered for selection. Ryan McLaren has joined James Tomlinson, Reece Topley, Fidel Edwards, Chris Wood and Ryan Stevenson among six currently sidelined, while Tino Best has been left out to be kept fresh for the critical fixture against Surrey at the Ageas Bowl next week.

CSA has removed former South Africa batsman HD Ackerman as the host of its upcoming annual awards ceremony in a bid to to avoid “further potential negative comments” around his announcement that he was emigrating to Australia in September

Firdose Moonda15-Jul-2016CSA has removed former South Africa batsman HD Ackerman as the host of its upcoming annual awards ceremony in a bid to to avoid “further potential negative comments” around his announcement that he was emigrating to Australia in September. Ackerman is the fourth South African involved in the country’s cricket structures to move to Australia or New Zealand in the last two months.”In view of certain negative comments on social media following HD’s Facebook post that he was leaving South Africa for Australia, we have decided to avoid any further potential negative comments around HD hosting the live CSA Awards,” Altaaf Kazi, CSA spokesperson, told “We decided to replace him and have no further comments to make in this regard.”CSA has not revealed who it has appointed as Ackerman’s replacement.Ackerman had announced his decision to emigrate through a post on Facebook: “It is with a heavy heart that I have to let all my friends know that Kerryn Ackerman, James, Tannah and I will be moving to Perth, Australia in September. It has caused many sleepless nights and even more tears but it is a decision that we have reached as a family and feel it is the best one we can make for our little ones at this time.”South Africa has so much potential, however in my entire life I don’t think I have ever seen anything more common than something or someone fail to reach their potential. I fear this may be the case with my beautiful country. I truly hope that the decision we are making is the right one for us and I truly hope that South Africa does go on to reach its true potential and that crime decreases, corruption slows (as all countries have this problem) and an equal opportunity is there for all.”His employer, South African broadcaster , confirmed Ackerman’s departure to take up a role as director of coaching at Guildford Grammar School in Perth. The broadcaster said Ackerman had left open the possibility of freelancing.On Thursday, Ackerman revealed on Facebook that he had been removed from hosting the awards, which he has been part of for several years. “Wow, just been pulled off hosting the Cricket South Africa awards on the 26th because a few people on social media feel my move to Australia is because I’m racist. Forget the fact my wife’s sister had just moved to Brisbane and that my wife’s parents have just moved to Perth, or that I got a job offer in Perth that included a school bursary for my son, those reasons are not good enough. Wow, wow, wow.”Social media reaction to Ackerman’s move was largely encouraging, particularly from former players. Former South Africa fast bowler Brett Schultz said on Twitter: “And SA loses another incredible talent, as a player in his day and behind the microphone in the modern game.”The only post, at the time of writing this article, with a racial undertone came from one user who accused Ackerman of being “anti-transformation”. Ackerman responded by telling the user, “That’s where you are soooo wrong.”Ackerman played 220 first-class and 230 List A games in a 16-year career that included stints at two provincial and four franchise sides. After retiring, he turned to commentary and coaching. He was involved with South Africa A and recently accompanied some South African players on a spin camp to India.While Ackerman is relocating to Perth, three other South African cricket administrators – Dolphins chief executive Pete de Wet, national team logistics manager Riaan Muller, and Titans’ coach Rob Walter – have all accepted jobs in New Zealand.

While all eyes are on the pitch for Durban’s first-ever Test match in August, peripheral vision will move to the outfield which has failed to recover completely since being relaid last month

Firdose Moonda18-Aug-2016While all eyes are on the pitch for Durban’s first-ever Test match in August, peripheral vision will move to the outfield which has failed to recover completely since being relaid last month.After a limited-overs series between both teams last year, members of both sides had complained about the condition of the outfields in Durban and Centurion. They found the ground uncomfortable because it was too hard and asked if something could be done to soften it ahead of this year’s Test series. CSA agreed to decompact the outfield at both venues, which essentially involves removing sand and grass and relaying it. However, the process took place too late in Durban and the outfield was too deeply dug up to be ready in time for the Test. As a result, the outfield is an eyesore: patchy with several areas of scant grass and significant sand.”The digging happened too deep and too late and that’s why it looks the way it does now,” an insider told ESPNcricinfo. “Overall, it may be softer, but it’s definitely not pristine.”Work was done at SuperSport Park as soon as the season ended in April, but could not get underway in Kingsmead at the same time because it is the end point of the Comrades Marathon, which was run on May 29. “There would have been no point doing it when you are just going to have 18,000 runners’ feet on the ground a few weeks later,” the source said.Instead, the process only began in mid-June and was completed by July 1, seven weeks before the Test. More than 40 tonnes of sand and grass were removed from the outfield and new grass was grown. “It was a bit of a gamble to start that late, but they thought with the warmer climate, the outfield would recover and it was on its way.”At the end of July, Durban was hit by severe floods, and the outfield “was like a lake.” Since then, intermittent drizzle and insufficient sunshine, partly caused by the shadow the grandstand casts over part of the outfield at this time of the year, did not allow the grass to grow as much as it should have.While this will have no impact as such on the pitch, which had a significant grass covering on it the day before the match, it could still play a part in the Test. On rougher ground, the ball will scuff up quicker which may assist in getting reverse-swing.

Six members of India’s last Test squad will be part of the teams that meet in the Duleep Trophy final from September 10 to 14 in Greater Noida

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Sep-2016Six members of India’s last Test squad will be part of the teams that meet in the Duleep Trophy final from September 10 to 14 in Greater Noida. Apart from Cheteshwar Pujara, who is already part of the India Blue side, the selectors have included Shikhar Dhawan, Stuart Binny and Amit Mishra in the India Red squad and Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja in the India Blue squad.Both teams reached the final after victories – on the basis of first-innings lead, in India Blue’s case – over India Green in the round-robin stage. The match between India Red and India Blue was drawn, with only 78.2 overs possible over four rain-hit days.The selection will serve two important purposes for the Test players – it will provide them match practice with the home series against New Zealand starting on September 22, and also allow them to provide the BCCI feedback after playing with the pink ball under floodlights.India Red: Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudip Chatterjee, Gurkeerat Singh, Yuvraj Singh (capt), Ankush Bains (wk), Stuart Binny, Akshay Wakhare, Kuldeep Yadav, Amit Mishra, Nathu Singh, Anureet Singh, Ishwar Pandey, Nitish Rana, Pradeep SangwanIndia Blue: Gautam Gambhir (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Siddhesh Lad, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Parvez Rasool, Suryakumar Yadav, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohit Sharma, Pankaj Singh, Abhimanyu Mithun, Sheldon Jackson, Hanuma Vihari

A persistent shower that began 10 minutes before the start of the first match resulted in two games being abandoned without a ball bowled in Mirpur

Mohammad Isam04-Nov-2016Both matches on the opening day of the Bangladesh Premier League 2016-17 were abandoned without a ball being bowled in Dhaka. The only match-related action was the toss at the first match, where Rajshahi Kings opted to bowl first against Comilla Victorians. Twenty minutes after the toss took place, however, the ground was covered and the match ultimately called off at 4.50pm.The second match, between Khulna Titans and Rangpur Riders, was abandoned at 9.25pm local time after the ground was inundated.Unseasonal showers, caused by a depression in the Bay of Bengal, had affected Dhaka and different parts of the country over the past 24 hours. The weather was clear for three hours on Friday morning but the rain returned 10 minutes before the first match and did not relent.Popular local singer Ayub Bacchu held his concert under umbrellas between the two scheduled matches but there was no more fun for the crowd at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.Rain is also forecast for Saturday, with two matches scheduled in Dhaka.

Tamim Iqbal can play in Chittagong Vikings’ first match of this season’s BPL, after the tournament’s member-secretary said the suspension he picked up during the Dhaka Premier League only applied to 50-over matches

Mohammad Isam04-Nov-2016Tamim Iqbal can play in Chittagong Vikings’ first match of this season’s Bangladesh Premier League. The tournament’s member-secretary Ismail Haider Mallick has said the one-match domestic suspension Tamim picked up during the Dhaka Premier League only applied to 50-over matches.”Tamim will be suspended for the next 50-overs domestic match since he was handed the punishment during the Dhaka Premier League,” Mallick said. “This [BPL] is a franchise league. If he was to be suspended, we would have mentioned it during the players’ draft. He can play tomorrow.”A three-member special committee formed by the BCB suspended and fined Tamim at the end of last season’s Dhaka Premier League for his involvement in an incident with the umpires during Abahani Limited’s match against Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club on June 13. A BCB press release dated June 22 had said that, “for breaching the code of conduct for players during the match, Abahani Limited captain Tamim Iqbal Khan has been fined BDT one lac and also suspended for one domestic tournament match”.Since Tamim hadn’t been in Chittagong Division’s National Cricket League squad last month, it seemed that his suspension would apply for his team’s first match in the BPL, since this is the first domestic tournament he has been available for since the DPL, but the BPL’s governing council has interpreted it differently.

An unbeaten 202 from Alex Doolan put Tasmania in a very strong position at stumps on the second day against Western Australia at the WACA

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2016
ScorecardAlex Doolan scored just his second first-class century in three years•Getty Images

Amid all the talk about batsmen competing for a Test call-up, Alex Doolan’s name was never mentioned. And there was good reason: he entered this Sheffield Shield round with 1315 runs at 24.81 from his past three years of first-class cricket. But on the second day at the WACA, Doolan bounced spectacularly back to form with an unbeaten 202 that put Tasmania in a strong position at stumps.Of course, in order to add to the four Test caps Doolan won in 2014, he would likely need a lengthy run of good form to make up for his long lean patch. But he did have a productive Matador Cup, and his runs on the second day in Perth stood out on a Tasmania scorecard on which no other player passed fifty. The in-form George Bailey was lbw for 24 and was one of four Tasmanians out in the 20s.The Tigers had resumed on 2 for 60, with Doolan and nightwatchman Jackson Bird at the crease, and they put on 56 for the third wicket before Bird was out for 22. Bailey, Beau Webster (27), James Faulkner (13) and Jake Doran (41) all made starts, but Doolan was the only one able to go on with it, and finished the day with 33 fours, two sixes, and a new highest first-class score. His 202 had come from 311 balls.Jason Behrendorff picked up 3 for 73 and Simon Mackin collected two wickets for the Warriors. At the close of play, Simon Milenko was the crease on 5, alongside Doolan.