A six-for from fast bowler Mudassar Bukhari toppled UAE for 112 and spearheaded Netherlands’ seven-wicket victory in their World Cricket League match in Abu Dhabi

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jan-2016
ScorecardFile photo: Mudassar Bukhari took 6 for 24, his best figures in List A cricket•ICC/Sportsfile

A six-for from fast bowler Mudassar Bukhari toppled UAE for 112 and spearheaded Netherlands’ seven-wicket victory in their World Cricket League match in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Bukhari dismissed four of the top five batsmen and finished with 6 for 24 from his 10 overs, his best figures in List A cricket. Opening batsman Michael Swart struck an unbeaten 60 off 67 balls with seven fours and two sixes to make sure the chase was complete with 177 balls left unused.Netherlands opted to bowl at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium and had immediate success. Bukhari dismissed UAE captain Muhammad Kaleem off his first ball of the match, bagged Shaiman Anwar for 13 and Swapnil Patil for 2 in his next over. When Mohammad Usman fell for 6, to Bukhari again, the hosts were 38 for 4 in the 10th over. Mohammad Shahzad cobbled together 37 off 78 balls and wicketkeeper Saqlain Haider hung on for 33 off 68 balls, but with eight of their team-mates making single-digit scores, there was very little chance of recovery.

A 60-ball 122 from Babar Hayat carried Hong Kong to the threshold of their 181-run target but Oman managed to stave them off and seal a five-run win on their Asia Cup debut

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Feb-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Babar Hayat struck nine fours and seven sixes in his 60-ball 122•ICC

A 60-ball 122 from Babar Hayat carried Hong Kong to the threshold of their 181-run target but Oman managed to stave them off and seal a five-run win on their Asia Cup debut. Hayat’s 122 was the fourth-highest score in all T20Is. The innings, which included nine fours and seven sixes, carried Hong Kong almost single-handedly through their chase: the next highest score was Aizaz Khan’s 15.Hong Kong’s situation seemed desperate when Aizaz was sixth out in the 17th over, with 48 needed from the last 21 balls. But Hayat smashed four sixes in the 18th over, bowled by the left-arm spinner Zeeshan Maqsood, to bring the equation down to 18 from 12 balls. But the momentum swung back in Oman’s favour after a tight 19th over in which Bilal Khan conceded only three runs, and Hayat fell in the final over, going for a big hit with 11 needed from the last three balls.There was a controversial moment in the ninth over of Hong Kong’s innings, when Aamir Kaleem spotted Mark Chapman backing up too far and Mankaded him. At that point, Hong Kong were 77 for 3 with Hayat already on 57. The wickets of Nizakat Khan and Tanwir Afzal, coming close on the heels of Chapman’s dismissal, set back their momentum considerably.Having chosen to bat, Oman’s innings got off to a solid start thanks to Jatinder Singh (42 off 35 balls), who added 34 with opening partner Zeeshan and 41 with No. 3 Vaibhav Wategaonkar to move them to a solid 75 for 1 at the 10-over mark. Left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed dismissed both Jatinder and Wategaonkar in the 11th over, but every member of Oman’s middle order chipped in to ensure there was no loss of momentum. Adnan Ilyas (23) and Aamir Kaleem (19) were dismissed in quick succession after putting on 38 for the fourth wicket, before Mehran Khan (28* off 16) and Amir Ali (32* off 13) gave the innings an explosive finish, adding an unbroken 50 runs for the sixth wicket, off just 24 balls.

Shaun Marsh, Adam Voges, Hilton Cartwright and Josh Nicholas all scored half-centuries as Western Australia crawled along on the second day of their Sheffield Shield clash with Queensland at the Gabba

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Mar-2016
ScorecardFile photo: Adam Voges scored another half-century•Getty Images

Shaun Marsh, Adam Voges, Hilton Cartwright and Josh Nicholas all scored half-centuries as Western Australia crawled along on the second day of their Sheffield Shield clash with Queensland at the Gabba. At stumps on day two, the Warriors were 8 for 337, with Cartwright on 68 and Nicholas on 53, and their lead had gradually grown to 190 runs.The Warriors had started the morning on 2 for 66 and they proceeded to do their best to bat Queensland out of the match, the Bulls needing to win to claim a place in the Shield final. Voges made 52 from 145 deliveries and Marsh made 74 from 168, as Queensland struggled to string wickets together.Legspinner Mitch Swepson and fast bowlers Jack Wildermuth and Peter George picked up two wickets each. Queensland had been skittled for 147 in their first innings on day one.

A committee tasked with undertaking a comprehensive review of South Africa’s domestic cricket structures will not look into the Ram Slam T20 competition, which will undergo a separate analysis in the hope of increasing its commercial appeal

Firdose Moonda18-Apr-2016A committee tasked with undertaking a comprehensive review of South Africa’s domestic cricket structures will not look into the Ram Slam T20 competition, which will undergo a separate analysis in the hope of increasing its commercial appeal. The committee’s focus, therefore, will be more intensely trained on the second-tier provincial semi-professional competitions, which are believed to have been neglected in recent seasons.South Africa’s domestic structure is split into two sections: the professional franchise structure which consists of six teams and a semi-professional tournament which includes 13 provincial teams and Namibia. Both divisions play a first-class, List A and 20-over competition although the franchise’s first-class fixtures are held over four days and the provincial teams play over three.”This is something that has been a serious concern for people involved in management, because we lose a lot of players who don’t want to play in the semi-professional structures,” an insider told ESPNcricinfo. “From the time players finish school to the time they get franchise contracts, they can be in limbo. We want to look at how we can incorporate those players.”Both sections will be reviewed by a different team to the one that has been appointed to conduct an investigation into the national sides which is much smaller. While the national teams committee is a four-person panel, the domestic review team includes 14 people, headed by the director of strategy at auditing firm EY, Michael Lalor. It includes CSA’s national academy coach, Shukri Conrad, two franchise coaches, Warriors’ Malibongwe Maketa and Titans’ Rob Walter, two national selectors Ashwell Prince and Hussein Manack, one franchise captain Omphile Ramela, a selection of commentators and a journalist.”Nobody really knows how they came up with this group, but we are all waiting to see what they come up with,” the source said. While CSA has not put a time frame on the review, the panel are expected to reveal their findings by mid-year and it is expected to focus heavily on the provincial structures.”One idea that has already come up is that the provinces play less 50-over cricket and more T20s. There is also some talk of increasing the number of teams and the number of contracted semi-professional players,” the insider said.Currently, the provincial sides play 10 first-class, six 50-over matches a season and four T20s a season and the imbalance could be corrected with this review. Provincial teams contract seven players but the number could increase to 10.A franchise expansion from six to eight teams has also been mooted although if that was to be approved it would only happen in the 2017-18 season and not next summer. Kimberley, East London and Potchefstroom are believed to be in the running as franchise bases.Instead, next season will be the one in which CSA hopes to increase the impact of their T20 tournament, which lags behind some of the other global leagues. The Ram Slam has routinely struggled to attract big names both because of the weakening Rand and the scheduling – it often clashes with South Africa’s own international fixtures.Next season, CSA will make national players available for the tournament and have moved a home Test against Sri Lanka from December to January to accommodate for this. They are also looking to sign several international stars and “find ways to commercialise the competition, because it can’t be done in any other format.”

Former Barbados fast bowler Roderick Estwick has been named West Indies’ bowling coach and will replace Curtly Ambrose in the role, the WICB announced on Friday

ESPNcricinfo staff14-May-2016Former Barbados fast bowler Roderick Estwick has been named West Indies’ bowling coach and will replace Curtly Ambrose, who served as a consultant, the WICB announced on Friday.Estwick will join the team at a preparatory camp from May 19, and his first assignment will be the home tri-series against Australia and South Africa, which starts from June 3 in Guyana.Ambrose had served as a consultant for the last three years and his most recent assignment was West Indies’ World T20 triumph in India in April. The WICB press release did not state a reason for Ambrose’s exit.Estwick, who was the bowling coach of the Barbados domestic side, has also coached the West Indies Under-19 and Barbados Under-19 teams previously, apart from participating in the High Performance Centre programme. He played 37 first-class matches between 1982-83 and 1989-90, taking 141 wickets at an average of 21.9. In 42 List A matches in the same period, Estwick took 43 wickets.

Graeme van Buuren turned the game as Gloucestershire claimed an unlikely 125-run victory over Glamorgan on a bizarre final day of the Specsavers County Championship match

ECB Reporters Network18-May-2016
ScorecardMark Wallace made a half-century before falling to the debutant Graeme van Buuren•Getty Images

Graeme van Buuren turned the game as Gloucestershire claimed an unlikely 125-run victory over Glamorgan on a bizarre final day of the Specsavers County Championship match at the Brightside Ground, Bristol.Chasing 269 to win in 76 overs, the visitors progressed serenely to 87 without loss, only then to lose all ten wickets for 56 runs from a seemingly winning position.Three of them fell to the left-arm spin of South African van Buuren on debut. He removed the top three Glamorgan batsmen Mark Wallace (50), Jacques Rudolph (36) and Will Bragg in a nine-over spell from the Pavilion End that ended with figures of 3 for 15.Craig Miles (3 for 55) and Jack Taylor (4 for 16) then continued the carnage, Miles removing the middle order and off-spinner Taylor taking two wickets in his first over and two more after tea to end the game.Gloucestershire took 21 points, while Glamorgan claimed six after a meek batting collapse that rendered their competitive efforts of the first three days immaterial.After a delay of 15 minutes at the start of the day because of overnight rain, the home side resumed their second innings on 302 for 8 and soon lost David Payne for 12 to a loose drive off Timm van der Gugten, which saw him caught at point.But Miles and Josh Shaw then frustrated Glamorgan with a last-wicket stand of 29. It ended when Shaw was caught at first slip by Bragg off Harry Podmore, leaving Miles unbeaten on a hugely valuable 39.By lunch Glamorgan had made 18 without loss and required a further 251 in the final two sessions. When Rudolph and Wallace continued where they had left off with the sun shining at the start of the afternoon session the outcome began to look inevitable.But everything changed when Wallace, who had faced 72 balls and hit seven fours, was bowled by van Buuren.
Rudolph edged to slip and it was 97 for 3 when Bragg lofted a comfortable catch to Taylor at mid-off. At that point van Buuren had taken three wickets in the space of 22 balls.Miles got in on the act when Andrew Salter, promoted in the order, top-edged to George Hankins at fine-leg. The batsmen crossed and in the same over Chris Cooke chipped a catch to Cameron Bancroft at midwicket.Suddenly Gloucestershire were in total control. Aneurin Donald miscued an easy catch to mid-on off Miles before the introduction of Taylor in place of van Buuren paid instant dividends.With his first ball of the innings, Taylor bowled Podmore and in the same over van der Gugten was caught at slip as he pushed forward.Tea was taken at 120 for 8, with Graham Wagg not having batted due to an injury to his forearm sustained in the first innings.He bravely appeared after the interval, batting with an arm guard and hit a defiant straight six off Taylor followed by a square-cut four.Rain then brought a short interruption and six overs were lost, leaving 24 to be bowled. With the fourth ball after the resumption, Taylor bowled Wagg with one that kept low and it was all over when the same bowler had David Lloyd caught behind down the leg side, sweeping.

Hampshire and England batsman Michael Carberry is to undergo tests this week amid concerns over the condition that six years ago caused potentially life-threatening blood clots to form in one of his lungs

Jon Culley10-Jul-2016Hampshire and England batsman Michael Carberry is to undergo tests this week amid concerns over the condition that six years ago caused potentially life-threatening blood clots to form in one of his lungs.Carberry had felt unwell last week and has been left out of Hampshire’s current County Championship match against Warwickshire so that he can see a specialist as promptly as possible, with his county unwilling to take any chances with his health.”He has had a problem that has not cleared up in the way we had hoped so his going to have some tests done,” the Hampshire first-team coach Dale Benkenstein said.”We are hoping to have him back for the T20 matches later in the week but in view of what has happened to him in the past we do not want to take any risks with him.”It is a little bit worrying but hopefully the tests will show that everything is fine.”Carberry has to take medication to control the condition, which emerged after he had suffered attacks of breathlessness while fielding and batting. He was diagnosed with two blood clots on a lung in November 2010 and did not play again until July of the following year.

Hampshire’s Liam Dawson bagged three evening wickets but could not stop Lancashire, led by a fifty from Haseeb Hameed, from batting out for a draw at the Ageas Bowl

ECB Reporters Network07-Aug-2016
ScorecardHaseeb Hameed batted Lancashire to safety•Getty Images

Hampshire’s Liam Dawson bagged three evening wickets but could not stop Lancashire, led by a fifty from Haseeb Hameed, from batting out for a draw at the Ageas Bowl.Left arm spinner Dawson gave Hampshire hope of the win but Hameed and Liam Livingstone saw the visitors to the end.Hampshire remain cemented to the bottom of Division One, while Lancashire are in danger of being dragged in to a relegation dogfight with Surrey threatening to overtake them.Hampshire were given some early hope of clutching a victory from the off, as leg spinner Mason Crane found exaggerated turn.He took three of the six final Lancastrian first innings wickets with another tireless day twirling – bowling 48 and a half overs in the match.Will Smith, Hampshire’s captain, said: “In terms of the effort and desire to win was all we could ask. We probably created enough chances but that said you can’t fault the effort, we have fielded for 210 overs in a row.”Daws and Mason bowled 100 overs of them and bowled particularly well. We couldn’t force the win but there are a lot of positives.
“At times the pitch appeared docile but all of a sudden it would come to life. It was a wicket which suited us.”Every game is important now. We have to approach the next five with a winning mentality. If we can come out with two wins we can climb the table.”Crane had night-watchman Simon Kerrigan caught behind to the last ball of the days’ first over and later found a thick edge from Jordan Clark drop to Ryan McLaren at second slip.In the afternoon he wrapped up the first innings by tempting Croft out his crease, stumped by the increasingly impressive Lewis McManus.Ryan McLaren sent Liam Livingstone’s off stump cartwheeling before Crane’s spin twin Dawson grabbed tail scalps of Tom Moores and Kyle Jarvis.With Lancashire 12 short of the follow on, Will Smith forced them to bat again and were left frustrated by openers Steven Croft and Hameed.The pair retreated deeply within their shells – dot ball followed dot ball, as they used up 25 of the 58 remaining overs.Dawson managed to get one top pop up with the first ball after tea, and Croft watched sullenly as it dropped into Gareth Andrew’s paws at silly point – Dawson’s 100th Specsavers County Championship wicket.
Dawson managed to grab his fifth and sixth wickets of the afternoon – after only managing nine previously this season – soon after, as Lancashire threatened briefly to offer Hampshire a glimpse of winning the game.Luke Procter pushed to Tom Alsop at silly mid-on, before Alviro Petersen fell in an identical fashion six overs later.The stat that summed up the match, on a flat track, was the number of maidens bowled – over a full days’ worth of 98.But Hameed, unbeaten on 53 after his 142-ball half century, his second of the match, and Livingstone dropped anchor to avoid defeat – the captains eventually shaking hands with six left, the visitors still trailing by 63.

AB de Villiers has admitted injuries have snuck up on him “like a thief in the night” but he remains committed to playing international cricket for South Africa

Firdose Moonda16-Aug-2016AB de Villiers has admitted injuries have snuck up on him “like a thief in the night” but he remains committed to playing international cricket and building the South African culture as the team continues to go through transition. De Villiers will sit out the two-Test series against New Zealand with an elbow problem – while also nursing several other niggles – but was part of the squad’s pre-season camp where they thrashed out goals for the future.”I have five to six niggles at the moment, including the shoulder that everybody knows about which started about eight months ago. I have been hanging in there. I did fool myself a bit in thinking that I could just keep going and keep going and it has sort of caught up with me a bit,” de Villiers said at the launch of the series in Durban. “It’s a big shame that I am losing out a few Test matches. Unfortunately it’s happened that way. It caught me like a thief in the night. This was not part of the plan.”De Villiers admitted playing “a lot of cricket in all three formats all over the world definitely played a role” in him being sidelined but has dismissed suggestions that he may consider retirement from some formats in order to manage his workload. Rumours of de Villiers hanging up his boots, which dominated last summer, have resurfaced with the imminent release of his autobiography next month but de Villiers is targeting an October comeback.”I love playing for my country and I would love to play as long as I can. You’ve got to look after your body sometimes and that’s happening with the six weeks now. Hopefully after this New Zealand series I will be ready to go and will tackle the Aussies in October. There’s a game against Ireland in seven weeks’ time. That’s a good time to test where I am physically,” he said.South Africa players have a busy 10 months from then with away trips to Australia, New Zealand and England (which includes the Champions Trophy) and a home series against Sri Lanka. They would want to use the fixtures to begin their journey back up the rankings and challenge for major tournament wares. While winning ways are a goal for any team, for this South African team they are particularly important because of the tumble in rankings – from No.1 to No.7 in Tests – and the political pressures they face. Starting from this New Zealand series, targets regarding the number of players of colour in the team will be enforced, which only adds another level of difficulty to balance the playing XI.To prepare for a challenging period, the team held a camp last week to chart their course. “One of the key things about the camp is that we didn’t just want the team there, we wanted everyone who could possibly represent the Proteas over the next year or two or three,” de Villiers said. “We all just chatted about what we feel has gone wrong over the last while, if there are any issues whatsoever because of the dip in form and where we think we are going as a team. We were really honest with each other, which is a great thing. It was for us to revisit our core values and what we want to achieve over the next while. I don’t think you can achieve big things if you don’t know where you are going.”An aspect that came into focus was South Africa’s penchant for starting slowly, especially if the team has had a significant break as they have now. South Africa last played together in June and last played a Test in January, and this time they want to break the habit. “The one thing we did discuss is to throw the first punch. We have always been proud of how we can come back from any position but I feel it’s time to take a step towards positivity and not be scared to throw the first punch and dominate games of cricket,” de Villiers said.The team began training on Sunday and will have five days together before the first Test. It is hardly the month New Zealand have had, with a camp and Test cricket in Zimbabwe, but de Villiers believes his boys will be ready – even without him.”Our players have played enough cricket over the last while. The important thing was to really connect as a group of players at the camp we had, to really talk about some important things. You don’t want to over-train if you can’t get game time,” he said. “We’ve been playing cricket, white ball for some, red ball for others. The boys will be nice and positive.”

Kiran Carlson became the youngest player to make a first-class hundred for Glamorgan and held up Essex’s planned promotion party in the process

Alan Gardner at Chelmsford12-Sep-2016
ScorecardKiran Carlson’s historic hundred held up Essex•Getty Images

Delayed at the start of the day by the absence of Glamorgan’s equipment from the ground, Essex were delayed at the end by the presence of a record-breaking teenager at the crease. Needing six points to confirm promotion and the Division Two title, Essex managed two in short order before Kiran Carlson’s maiden first-class hundred staved off a seemingly inexorable collapse. At 18 years and 119 days, Carlson became the youngest player to score a first-class century for Glamorgan.These are heady days at the ECG but Essex are not yet champions and Carlson’s unheralded intervention – his previous best score in four innings was 10 – meant the metaphorical bunting that was being brought out by the time Graham Napier’s fourth wicket reduced Glamorgan to 83 for 6 had to be stowed away by the close. As if to compound the frustration Napier, playing in his last home match before retirement, limped off during the afternoon and will have to wait until the morning to find out how much more of a role he can play.A club that have become so used to near misses have embraced their status as frontrunners warily. The Essex members who had seen their team finish third in each of the last three seasons were convinced that, with only one promotion spot available as the ECB whittles away a couple of games from the Championship schedule, this would doubtless be the year they finished second. Three innings wins in a row at the climax of the season – not to mention Kent’s welcome capitulation against Northamptonshire last week – has grudgingly brought people around.They have become used to waiting, however, and the news that the start would be put back, ultimately by an hour and a half, because Glamorgan’s kit van was stuck on the A12 was met with ironic chuckles by those Essex fans who had got in early to see every moment of a game that is expected to be a coronation. Bonus points alone could be enough to see Essex go up – they lead Kent, who only have one game left, by 20 points and Sussex by 43 – and this game pitted the team with the most wins in Division Two against the team with the most losses.Napier began the first spell of his final appearance at Chelmsford with two wickets in two balls and it was all beginning to seem disconcertingly easy. It took the contributions of a couple of young Welshmen to give the Essex worry ball a squeeze, as Carlson and Owen Morgan put on an unbroken 129 during the second half of a shortened day. Truly a case of better late than never for Glamorgan.Carlson took a five-for with his offspin on debut at Northamptonshire a couple of weeks ago but this performance, eclipsing that of Mike Llewellyn in 1972, was less of a surprise. Batting at No. 6, he produced several stylish drives and cuts among plenty of watchful accumulation that was capped off by a scampered single to bring up three figures and an ovation from his team-mates on the balcony.”I am more of a batsman, it’s lovely to get my first hundred under my belt pretty soon into my career,” he said. “It’s amazing, I can’t put into words how I feel. When you start playing cricket, aged seven or eight, you go and watch Glamorgan and think that could be me in a few years. It’s great to have Welsh boys doing well.”To emphasise the latter point, his team-mate Morgan then went on to conduct an interview in Welsh. Both players gave chances, with Carlson dropped on 67 in the gully by Daniel Lawrence – a sharp catch that would have given Napier his five-for – and coming close to running himself out on 81. Morgan was put down at second slip when he had 7, by Nick Browne off Ravi Bopara, and gave a tough caught-and-bowled opportunity to Jamie Porter when had reached his half-century.Glamorgan’s young batsmen are making their mark. Carlson was the fourth Glamorgan player aged 22 or under to score a first-class hundred this season and three of them are Welsh born: reasons for pride in a challenging season.After a sorry morning session (which technically began at noon), it appeared losing their bats on the motorway had been Glamorgan’s best chance of holding Essex up. A great cheer went up from the pavilion when the van was spotted driving in through the gate shortly before 11.30am – an hour after the scheduled start due to an accident on the motorway – and it was as if the Chelmsford regulars knew what was in store.Glamorgan were initially compliant extras. Jacques Rudolph requested a toss, doubtless concluding that the pitch was firm enough and the sun high enough to bankroll a day of batting if only the opening exchanges against the new ball could be won; he and Nick Selman then got through nearly a dozen overs of fretful playing and missing before Napier, the local hero and man for this season of all seasons, took centre stage.His fifth delivery was full and wide – it is probably not a calumny to call it a half-volley – but Rudolph’s flailing bat could only deflect a thick edge to second slip. The next ball, to Will Bragg, offered no such margin for error and thudded into the front pad, Steve O’Shaugnessy’s front finger duly raised. Graham Gooch, watching on from the executives boxes, might well have repeated his enquiry to Ian Botham in 1986: “Who writes your scripts?”The slide became 3 for 0 in six balls when Selman was bowled by Porter – Essex’s other 50-wicket bowler this year – and although Aneurin Donald stroked Napier’s hat-trick delivery through the covers for four, he followed David Lloyd back to the pavilion a couple of overs later as the carefully piloted Glamorgan dirigible plummeted from the cautious optimism of 30 for 0 to the grim reality of 34 for 5. It was all too much for one wag to resist the question: their kit has turned up but have Glamorgan? Time for Carlson and Morgan to deliver a pithy riposte.