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Matt Rawnsley, the former left-arm spinner, will be named as the replacement for Tom Scott at New Road

George Dobell and David Hopps28-Dec-2017Matt Rawnsley, a former Worcestershire player and businessman, is poised to be announced as the new chief executive of Worcestershire.ESPNcricinfo understands that Rawnsley has won the role ahead of other shortlisted candidates including Vikram Solanki, a former captain and past chairman of the Professional Cricketers Association, and an assistant coach at Surrey.Rawnsley, 41, made 100 appearances as a left-arm spinner for Worcestershire across all formats between 1996 and 2002.But it is his subsequent business experience which also attracted Worcestershire. Rawnsley has been a director since 2013 of the Barnes Group (UK) Ltd. The engineering company is based in Evesham, and deals in the production of industrial and aerospace consumer products and springs.Rawnsley inherits a county in a state of flux, not to say tension, following the departure of the director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, after a 33-year association with the club.Rhodes was sacked following an internal investigation into his failure to report the arrest of Alex Hepburn on suspicion of rape in early April; he did not inform the club’s management until the player was charged in November. Rhodes was driven by what he saw as his duty of care towards his own player and even negotiated a new contract for Hepburn at the club.As part of the fallout, Rawnsley is expected to gain more powers than his predecessor as CEO, Tom Scott. Worcestershire members will decide at the annual meeting on March 22 whether to accept proposals that the CEO has overall responsibility for the club’s affairs, rather than be on the same level as the director of cricket, as is the current set-up.Such uncertainty is not ideal for a county that won promotion to the first division of the Specsavers Championship in September, but which has yo-yoed between the two divisions for the past decade.Worcestershire, among the smaller first-class counties, have made a profit for six successive seasons and became a successful breeding ground for players under Rhodes.Rawnsley faces many challenges in continuing that trend and in further developing a New Road ground which lies on a flood plain of the adjacent River Severn.

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.

West Indies captain Jason Holder has received a one-match suspension for maintaining a slow over-rate during the first ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Nov-2015West Indies captain Jason Holder has received a one-match suspension for maintaining a slow over-rate during the first ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Since it was Holder’s second transgression of the year – he had been found guilty of a minor over-rate offence in the fifth ODI against South Africa in January – he will now miss West Indies’ second match of the ongoing Sri Lanka series, on Wednesday.Holder was also fined 40% of his match fees, while his team-mates were docked 20% of theirs. The fine and suspension was imposed by the match referee David Boon, who ruled that West Indies were two overs short of their target after time allowances were taken into consideration. Holder pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing.In accordance with Article 2.5.1 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Players Support Personnel, which relates to minor over-rate offences, players are fined 10 % of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double that amount.Holder slammed a 13-ball 36 in the first ODI to give West Indies some much-needed impetus, but his team narrowly lost the match by one wicket.

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Mar-2013
ScorecardA storming final day lifted Tasmania from the bottom rungs of the Sheffield Shield table to the top, their victory over a free-falling Victoria handing the Tigers a third consecutive appearance in the final and the priceless advantage of hosting it.Set 337 to win and host the final themselves after leading the table for much of the summer, the Bushrangers lost their wickets in two clumps either side of an 80-run stand between David Hussey and Peter Handscomb. James Faulkner again showed his knack for vital wickets, claiming five as Tasmania maintained their standing as the most consistent domestic side in the country.Tasmania had a stiff task ahead of them at the start of the day to achieve a result on a good pitch, but bold innings by the youngster Jordan Silk – a century in only his second Shield appearance – and Ricky Ponting allowed captain George Bailey to declare for the second time in the match.They ultimately won with more than 10 overs to spare, before Queensland’s win over Western Australia in Perth ensured the final would be played between the Tigers and the Bulls for the second season in a row, only this time in Hobart rather than Brisbane.

Dean Brownlie has been diagnosed with a fractured finger and is likely to miss the rest of the limited-overs matches against Zimbabwe

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Feb-2012Dean Brownlie, the New Zealand batsman, has been diagnosed with a fractured finger and is likely to miss the rest of the limited-overs series against Zimbabwe. Brownlie, who made his one-day debut in the first ODI against Zimbabwe in Dunedin, sustained the injury while fielding in the second match in Whangarei on February 6.The New Zealand physio, Paul Close, said Brownlie would meet with orthopaedic surgeon before a recovery plan was drawn up. “Dean complained of soreness with the hand becoming more painful and swollen today,” Close said. “An x-ray this evening confirmed a fracture.”He is expected to miss the remainder of the Zimbabwe series but it’s a bit early to tell how long he will be out. His return to cricket will be based on how quickly the fracture heals and we should have clearer idea of the timeframe and best course of treatment after he meets with the orthopaedic surgeon tomorrow.”No decision has been made as yet on a replacement for Brownlie. New Zealand play one more 50-over game against Zimbabwe, followed by two Twenty20s.Brownlie made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in November last year, and went on to become only the third New Zealand player to score a half-century in each of his first three Tests.

is edited by cricket journalist Suresh Menon and comprises 18 essays by writers who have watched Tendulkar’s career, and in some cases been a part of it

Nitin Sundar09-Feb-2011″I shudder to think what today’s coaches would have done with Sachin Tendulkar.” So begins Sanjay Manjrekar’s contribution to , the latest book on the game’s most prolific batsman, launched in Bangalore on Wednesday. It is a statement that underlines Tendulkar’s most defining characteristic – his endurance. Tendulkar has been the only constant through 21 years (and counting) of the game’s metamorphosis, and excelling in every format. After all these years at the top, with his every move analysed to death, is there anything more that can be written about Tendulkar? The answer, going by , seems to be a yes.The book, edited by eminent cricket journalist Suresh Menon, comprises 18 essays by writers who have watched Tendulkar’s career, and, in the cases of Manjrekar, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid, been a part of it. Seventeen of the 18 essays are freshly commissioned – “I was the only lazy one,” says Menon with a chuckle. Yet, as the editor of the book, his contribution is to have taken it from conception to paperback in just over seven months. Fittingly, it includes a foreword by the man who is to bowling what Tendulkar is to batting – Muttiah Muralitharan.It was also fitting that Dravid launched the book, and Kumble received the first copy: Kumble and Tendulkar held the record for the most Tests played by two cricketers together (122), until the Dravid-Tendulkar combine (currently 135) broke it. Kumble marveled at Tendulkar’s ability to master every aspect of the game he set his mind to. “Sachin just rolled his arm over, and turned the legspinner and the googly by the same huge width, while I was struggling to spin the ball,” he said. Menon recalled Kumble once saying that if Tendulkar took to legspin, he himself might have never played for India.Kumble also remembered his debut at Old Trafford in 1990, in which Tendulkar scored his first international century. “Kiran More had ordered me to keep standing on the balcony, since Tendulkar was batting well when I was there,” Kumble said. “I was allowed to sit down only after he reached his hundred, and the match was saved.”Both Kumble and Dravid also spoke of Menon’s contribution to cricket writing. Dravid recounted how he used to preserve, and be inspired, by Menon’s newspaper articles on him when he was a schoolboy cricketer. He believed this book would stand out from the crowd thanks to the sheer quality of contributors, including Peter Roebuck, Greg Baum, Harsha Bhogle and Barney Ronay. “The book is a great reflection on Tendulkar’s accomplishments, and is something youngsters taking to cricket will enjoy reading,” he said. “Chronicling good writing is not something we do very well in India, and this book is a very good start.”, published by Krab Media and Westland, is priced at Rs. 599 in India, and $16 everywhere else

Mark Ramprakash exchanged ballroom glad rags for Surrey’s glitzy, new black and lime one-day strip to stroke an unbeaten century in Abu Dhabi

Mark Pennell in Abu Dhabi22-Mar-2010
ScorecardMark Ramprakash exchanged ballroom glad rags for Surrey’s glitzy, new black and lime one-day strip to stroke an unbeaten century that led his side to a comfortable 75-run win in the opening Emirates Airline Forty40 match in Abu Dhabi.Fresh from a UK tour with the Strictly Come Dancing crew that has restricted him to only three net sessions since Christmas, Ramprakash looked as though he had barely been away from the crease as he showed his young county-team mates just how to build an innings.After a shot-gun start from Rory Hamilton-Brown and Michael Brown of 63 inside seven overs, the Surrey innings was in danger of petering out when Usman Afzaal and then Matt Spriegel also tossed away their own wickets.Though he had only landed in the UAE 24 hours earlier, Ramprakash was not in the mood for frivolous gestures. He was here to enjoy serious time at the crease, and how he reveled in it.Content to waltz singles and manoeuvre the ball around until he felt comfortable in his more accustomed summer role of master bladesman, Ramprakash scored only his second boundary in reaching a pedestrian, yet chanceless half-century.In tandem with chirpy Irishman Gary Wilson, the former England batsman added 98 for the sixth wicket and, once settled, felt able, as he put it to ‘move through the gears’. Eight more fours and a brace of sixes followed to complete his century from 90 balls.”I’m a fairly long way from where I want to be yet,” said Ramprakash, who scored a century here at the Zayed Stadium in last year’s pre-season event, “and there were times when it felt a bit ugly, but it was a very good work out.”The rookie Cape Cobras, with an average age of 22, found the asking rate of 6.65 a bit too much and their pursuit soon came off the rails in the face of some tight seam bowling from Jade Dernbach with 4 for 39 and the wily offspin of Gareth Batty with 3 for 36.They were saved from complete capitulation by Uwe Birkenstock, a stylish right-hander who timed the ball beautifully on a slow pitch to score 87 out of the Cobras total of 190 as Surrey wrapped up their win with 12 balls left.

Talat scored 32 in 30 balls and took two wickets in the high-stakes game against SL

Danyal Rasool24-Sep-20252:09

Chopra: Talat holding one end up was important

Pakistan allrounder Hussain Talat launched a passionate defence of his utility to his side with the bat, saying there were “only four or five” players who could play T20 cricket in the middle order. Speaking after guiding his side to victory against Sri Lanka in a game where defeat would have put them on the brink of elimination, he called T20I middle order batting “the hardest of skills”.”We keep saying that if we need a middle order player they need to know how to be both aggressive and have the ability to anchor,” Talat said at the press conference after the game. “But the chances of failure with that kind of cricket are high. Unfortunately, if you don’t perform a few games or series, the media and fans immediately go after you and you’re out of the team suddenly.”I think the middle order is the hardest place to play in T20 cricket because you’re required to play all kinds of cricket. And because it’s difficult, I think you should have more chances in that position. And players who can play in the middle order are very rare in Pakistan, perhaps four or five. And even they don’t want to play there.”Perhaps, given the difficult couple of days he – and the rest of the Pakistan middle order have had, that is understandable. On Sunday, Pakistan’s descent from superiority in their clash against India can be traced almost to the moment Talat walked out to the crease in the 11th over. Until then, Pakistan had sped along at nine an over, but when Saim Ayub was dismissed and Talat was surprisingly sent in to bat, all that changed.Talat, who hadn’t played any games in the UAE in the month Pakistan have been here until that day, looked rusty. He scratched around for 11 balls and scored just 10 as India snatched momentum away from Pakistan. Just 38 came in the seven overs that began when Talat walked out to the crease, the lowest for that period of the game all tournament. India would ultimately cruise to victory, with much of Pakistan’s ire directed at Talat and his fellow middle-order batters. It was, Talat said, why he stays away from social media, but admitted it still affected him.Related

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On Tuesday, it was a different story. With a match situation more conducive to his abilities, he found his side floundering rather than flourishing, and anchored the chase to ensure they did not let victory slip from their grasp.”We’d lost so no one was feeling good,: Talat said. “The people wanted us to win, and we did what we could against India, too. But there was no extra pressure before today’s game. There was plenty of criticism which we were trying to avoid and which isn’t good for the team. But it was crucial to win today.”In pursuit of 134, that victory looked almost assured when the opened darted to the perfect start, Pakistan helping themselves to 43 in the first five overs. But a two-wicket sixth over from Maheesh Theekshana triggered a collapse where Pakistan lost four wickets for 13 runs, and Sri Lanka were ascendant.”The pitch was a bit sticky, but improved in the second innings,” Talat said. “We lost a few wickets quickly and that put us under a lot of pressure. And then we were running out of batting pairs which required us to take the game deep.”Sri Lanka tightened the screws further when Dushmantha Chameera cleaned up Mohammad Haris as he slogged wildly, reducing Pakistan to 80 for 5, still 54 runs adrift. With the asking rate under control – at exactly six an over, Talat decided to do something not many in the Pakistan camp talk about much these days – batting circumspectly.”In the group, when we talk about batting, it’s always about playing aggressive. But when I went in, a couple of wickets fell. My gut feeling was the only way to win after that was to take the game deep. When Nawaz hit Hasaranga for two fours, he said he’d go for his shots and for me to anchor. And that worked nicely for both of us.”Pakistan saw off the dangerous Theekshana aware that Wanindu Hasaranga, too, would eventually have to bowl out. But when the allrounder came in for his final two over, he went searching desperately, and that opened up scoring options. Nawaz hit him for two fours in his third when he dropped the ball short, and with the target rushing up to meet them, Talat helped himself to two more in Hasaranga’s last to drive the final nail into Sri Lanka’s coffin. In the end, the runs came in a hurry, with Mohammad Nawaz walloping Chameera for three sixes in five balls as Pakistan cantered to the finish in the 18th over.A win can make all the difference, particularly for Talat who has spent far longer out of the side looking in than most in this group. His recent inclusion into the side has only come after more than four years out in the international wilderness, where he feels people haven’t quite appreciated how hard he’s needed to work to scrap his way back in.”We’re hopeful. We’ve been playing T20 cricket for four months or so now, since Bangladesh came to Pakistan in May. Players are being backed in this group; in the past, players used to play a couple of matches and then be omitted. Now they’re getting an extended run like we see elsewhere in international cricket.”We’re two games away from the trophy, and we believe we can win it.”

All-round Nitish Kumar Reddy backed up by the SRH quicks took the side over the line defending 182

Himanshu Agrawal09-Apr-2024Sunrisers Hyderabad dropped three catches of Ashutosh Sharma in the final over off which Punjab Kings needed 29 runs. Two of them went over the ropes for sixes and nearly turned the match. But when the third went down, only one delivery remained and Kings needed nine. Shashank Singh sent the last ball miles over the long-off boundary, but Kings fell short by just two runs in their chase of 183 to give Sunrisers their third win of the season.It was Jaydev Unadkat who bowled that last over which went for 26. As fate would have it, it was Unadkat who Harshal Patel had dropped on the final ball of Sunrisers’ innings and the ball had popped up over the rope for six. Fine margins.What a dream it would have been had Shashank and Ashutosh pulled off another heist like they did five days back against Gujarat Titans. But eventually, they were left with too many to get in the final over of the chase.

Shashank, Ashutosh at it again

They joined forces when Kings were 114 for 6 halfway into the 16th over. The required rate at the time was 15.33 which soon shot up to 16.75 with 24 balls remaining. Different bowlers bowled each of those four overs, and each one of them was taken to the cleaners.In the 17th, Shashank took on Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He got a streaky outside edge over short third first ball of the over for four. The next ball was drilled to wide long-off, and the fifth one slashed to deep extra cover.Ashutosh then kept Kings in the hunt, swatting and ramping Pat Cummins for back-to-back fours in the 18th over. The odds still remained with SRH, with Kings requiring 39 in the last two overs. T Natajaran was taken for ten, an excellent over in the context of things, which left Unadkat with 28 to defend in the 20th.Unadkat’s final over started with a six, two wides and another six. Fourteen runs gone in two balls. But he came back well conceding just six runs in his next three balls. Shashank deposited the last ball for six, but Kings narrowly missed out on getting over the line.Nitish Kumar Reddy’s 37-ball 64 took Sunrisers Hyderabad to an above par total•BCCI

Reddy rescues SRH

Nitish Kumar Reddy’s heart would have been in his mouth during the carnage in the final over. After all, he had spilled Ashutosh’s catch the first ball of the final over. But it was Reddy’s knock of 64 from 37 balls that rescued SRH from a precarious 64 for 4 in the tenth over and took them to 182.After Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram fell cheaply, it was down to Reddy to do the repair work. On 14 from 18 balls at one stage, he slammed Harpreet Brar for four and a six in the 11th over. Kagiso Rabada was hooked over long leg for six, and Sam Curran was smashed over deep square. But Reddy really turned the screws in the 15th over, when he deposited Brar for 4, 6, 4, 6 off successive balls.

Arshdeep sets things right

Coming into the game Arshdeep Singh had four wickets in as many games in IPL 2024. Against SRH, he doubled his season tally on his way to figures of 4 for 29. The first of those came when on the second ball of the third over, Dhawan turned around 180 degrees and back-pedalled from mid-off to catch Head. Two deliveries later, Arshdeep angled one across Markram, and had him edging behind to the wicketkeeper. Arshdeep’s first spell figures were 2-0-8-2, and as a result, SRH had their worst powerplay of the season, being restricted to 40 for 3.Before Tuesday night, Arshdeep had only one wicket in 20 balls in the death overs this season. His economy rate was 11.70. But against SRH, he was brought back for the death overs, where he bowled two out of the four.Reddy and Abdul Samad had added 50 in just 19 balls when Arshdeep went full and wide to Samad on the third ball of the 17th over, who found deep point. The fast bowler then removed Reddy, who only managed to loft a low full toss to long-on. Shahbaz Ahmed took 15 from the 19th over of the innings to somewhat spoil Arshdeep’s figures, but it was still an excellent day out for the quick despite ending on the losing side.

“It was not an even contest between bat and ball,” says Richie Richardson, the match referee for the Test

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Dec-2022The Gabba pitch has been given a “below average” rating and handed one demerit point from the ICC after the first Test between Australia and South Africa ended inside two days.In total, only 866 balls were bowled in the match, which makes it the second-shortest Test ever played in Australia, and 34 wickets fell in that time. Bowlers took a wicket every 25.5 balls, the second-best strike rate in a Test match ever (with a minimum of 30 wickets), and South Africa captain Dean Elgar said afterwards that the surface did not facilitate a “fair contest,” between bat and ball. The ICC agreed.Related

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“Overall, the Gabba pitch for this Test match was too much in favour of the bowlers,” Richie Richardson, the match referee for the Test, said. “There was extra bounce and occasional excessive seam movement. The odd delivery also kept low on the second day, making it very difficult for batters to build partnerships.”I found the pitch to be ‘below average’ as per the ICC guidelines since it was not an even contest between bat and ball.”Richardson, however, did not go as far as Elgar and suggest the surface could have posed a danger to batters.Elgar had posed the question to Chris Gaffney and Rod Tucker, the on-field umpires, during Australia’s second innings when “KG [Kagiso Rabada] got [Travis] Head out down leg… and then [Anrich] Nortje was bowling those short ones that were flying over our heads”. But he did not receive an answer on-field.Australia captain Pat Cummins said there was “no way” the surface was dangerous but acknowledged it was “tricky” to bat on. “Two days probably isn’t ideal… personally, I don’t mind it if the groundsman err on the greener side occasionally; [I’ve] played a lot of Tests where they’ve erred on the flatter side. Think it was the same for both teams,” he said after the game.This is the second time that an Australian pitch has been given a negative rating by the ICC in the last four years. In January 2018, the MCG pitch was rated poor after a draw between Australia and England, in which only 24 wickets fell in five days.The next Test between Australia and South Africa will start at the MCG on Boxing Day.