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At one stage in this match, it looked as if Sussex were disappearing off into the distance over the South Downs. Building on a second significant score from opener Chris Nash, the lead at tea was 210 with seven wickets standing

Alan Gardner at Hove19-Apr-2016
ScorecardRyan ten Doeschate was brilliantly caught by Danny Briggs•Getty Images

At one stage in this match, it looked as if Sussex were disappearing off into the distance over the South Downs. Building on a second significant score from opener Chris Nash, the lead at tea was 210 with seven wickets standing. That they were left relying on the last-wicket pair of Ajmal Shahzad and Steve Magoffin to chivvy and poke their way to the close, during an unbroken stand worth 40, tells you much about how competitive this game has been.Essex will still have to chase more than the 320 they made in their first innings but they would have been left huffing and puffing in the face of a much steeper incline were it not for their two new-ball bowlers, Jamie Porter and Graham Napier, who claimed nine wickets between them while delivering more than two-thirds of the 68 overs that Sussex’s second innings has so far lasted.Porter and Napier are at opposite ends of their careers but, with Matt Dixon struggling to adjust to the slope and Essex’s plethora of medium-pacers offering up a glut of bad balls, they shouldered the burden uncomplainingly.Porter, in particular, looks a slip of a fast bowler but he showed a work ethic that would have made Alexey Stakhanov beam with pride, sending down an 18-over spell either side of tea. Napier, 36 and in his final season before retirement, managed 13 in a row and it looked as if Essex’s pair of dray horses might be yoked together for the entire session until the niggling resistance put on by Shahzad and Magoffin forced Ryan ten Doeschate to give them a rest.Sussex had been 165 for 2 and scoring at more than five runs an over before Ross Taylor became Porter’s first victim, steering to second slip. On a pitch that still looked good for batting, Sussex then slipped to 242 for 9, the next six dismissals all bowled or lbw as Porter and Napier utilised a hint of reverse swing and targeted the stumps.Porter, who once bowled a 22-over spell in club cricket for Fives & Heronians, kept charging in up the hill from the Sea End, still searching for a maiden five-wicket haul despite having taken 79 first-class wickets since making his Essex debut at the end of 2014. Ten Doeschate did not have to do much persuading. “It was me saying to him, ‘I dare you to try and get the ball out of my hand’,” Porter said, blinking slightly deliriously afterwards.The final day is neatly poised but if Sussex are able to secure a first win of the season, then some credit will have to go to the south-coast sunshine. Not the south coast of England – although Hove has basked under clear skies for most of this match – but rather the southern cape of Africa, where Nash spent five weeks earlier this year soaking up the rays, along with a few batting tips from former South Africa opener Gary Kirsten.Nash, still wearing Matthew Hobden’s No. 19 short, fell eight runs short of matching his efforts on day one but he kept his side in what has been a fiercely contested match. It was another chanceless innings, a bang on the head from a Porter bouncer the closest Essex came to upsetting him until Napier pinned him in front after nearly four hours at the crease.Nash’s entry in says that if he wasn’t playing cricket he would be sunbathing and he surely had the opportunity to work on his tan as well as his game while at Kirsten’s academy in Cape Town. Having tallied 211 runs in his first appearance of the season, he already has a pretty decent excuse to return there next winter.Talk about helmets and player protection has swirled in recent days but there was a reminder of the important job they do when Nash was felled by Porter. Nash was hit on the peak of a new-style helmet but was able to continue after some treatment and he credited the fixed grille for saving him from greater injury.Essex had resumed in the morning still trailing by more than 100 runs and only a gritty stand of 89 between ten Doeschate and Napier for the eighth wicket prevented Sussex from taking a much stronger grip on proceedings. It took a brilliant catch from Danny Briggs at first slip – a new addition to the cordon – to remove ten Doeschate but the captain’s half-century helped Essex to recover from 219 for 7 on the second evening and get to within 40 runs of Sussex’s first-innings 360.Napier may be a little more crinkly around the eyes and a little more stocky in stature but he still ably fills the “local legend” brief in county cricket. His batting was more watchful foil than wrecking ball – though a top-edged hook at Magoffin did sail for six – as he hung around for an hour and 40 minutes before becoming Essex’s ninth man out. But his work for the day was far from over.

Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann is expected to join the squad in New Zealand before the end of the ongoing one-day series, after being diagnosed with deep-vein thrombosis last month

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Feb-2016Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann will join the squad in New Zealand after being cleared to travel following his diagnosis with deep-vein thrombosis. On Saturday afternoon, Lehmann will arrive in Wellington, where the Australians will be playing the second ODI that day, and he will remain in the city until the first Test, which starts there on Friday next week.Michael di Venuto, who has been acting coach in Lehmann’s absence, will remain in that role for the third and final ODI in Hamilton on Monday. Lehmann was hospitalised in Sydney before the fifth ODI against India last month, and Australia have not won a match since then: they lost the Sydney ODI, the three T20s against India, and the first ODI against New Zealand in Auckland on Wednesday.”We’d love to have our coach here,” captain Steven Smith said after the Auckland defeat. “There’s no doubt about that. He’s unwell at the moment obviously and he’ll be back soon enough. So we’ve got to move on, I don’t think today was him to blame. It was certainly the players. We didn’t adapt well enough and we were outplayed.”Although Australia were clearly outplayed in Auckland, they did not help themselves by neglecting to ask for a review for an lbw decision early in their chase, when David Warner was given out to a ball that was clearly sailing over the top of the stumps. Initially it appeared that Warner’s batting partner George Bailey advised him against asking for a review, but Bailey said on Thursday that was not the case.”I said, ‘What did it feel like?’ And he said, ‘High’. So I said, ‘Go for it’. And he turned around and walked off,” Bailey said on radio station . “So, I don’t really know what more he wants from my end.”Bailey said after his own dismissal he had discussed the incident in the rooms with Warner.”He said, ‘I wasn’t that confident in what you said’. I said ‘I’m not really sure what you’re after’,” Bailey said. “I can’t be any more explicit than saying ‘go for it’ … You know, I reckon, if you’re out or even if it’s close and it’s up to you to make that call.”

Zimbabwe chased down Bangladesh’s 135 for 9, winning by three wickets, with a six, with one ball to spare, to register their first victory on this tour

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur15-Nov-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsNeville Madziva made an impression with ball and bat•Associated Press

Zimbabwe chased down Bangladesh’s lowly 135 for 9 in what was a cracking finish to the second T20 in Mirpur: they won by three wickets, with a six, with one ball to spare, registering their first victory against the hosts on this tour. Once again it was Malcolm Waller who led Zimbabwe’s counterattack, before the crowd was silenced when Neville Madziva swung hard at fifth ball of the final over, sending it flying over the long-on boundary to get the visitors the six more they needed.With 18 needed off the last over, Nasir Hossain struck with his offspin, getting rid of the dangerous Waller, who holed out to long-on for 40 off 26 balls. The next ball, Madziva – who had already got his eye in having played 15 balls – struck a six over cover, before taking two down the ground and swinging wildly at a full, wide delivery to get the ball past backward point for another four. So six was needed off the last two, one more ball than Madziva required. His winning hit went so high that the crowd held its breath, even as Madziva started celebrating. He had made 28 off 19 balls, singlehandedly producing all 18 needed in the last over. How Bangladesh must have rued the moment in the previous over, then, when he had edged through to Mushfiqur Rahim only for the umpires to find on the replay that Mustafizur Rahman had overstepped – an extremely tight but just call.Zimbabwe had made a poor start with the bat, like they did in the first T20 and all three ODIs on this tour. Sikandar Raza and Sean Williams got out to the first two deliveries sent down by Al-Amin Hossain. Raza was well caught by Mushfiqur after the ball took the inside edge. Williams was done in by an inswinger, which sent the crowd into frenzy.In the fifth over Regis Chakabva skied Mustafizur’s second ball after nearly popping a return-catch off the first one (which also broke his bat). Zimbabwe further slipped in the eighth over when Craig Ervine was run out after a mix-up with Luke Jongwe. Soon after, captain Elton Chigumbura was out for a duck and it seemed Bangladesh were well on top.But the Waller-Jongwe partnership changed the momentum for Zimbabwe. They added 55 runs quickly with Waller once again being the enforcer, hitting three sixes in the arc between wide long-on and midwicket. Zimbabwe needed 84 off the last 10 overs and the sixth-wicket pair picked up 41 runs in the next five overs to keep them in the hunt.Jongwe was dismissed when he couldn’t get Al-Amin away in the 16th over, getting caught at square leg for 34 off 38 balls. Mustafizur then bowled a telling third over, the 17th of the innings, getting five dot balls and conceding just three runs.It left Zimbabwe needing 34 runs off the last three overs, and finally Madziva connected properly. He struck fours over short fine-leg and backward point. Ten runs came from this over and the 19th over started with Waller flapping Mustafizur over fine leg for a boundary, all building up to a tense final over.Earlier, Mashrafe Mortaza chose to bat, Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes got Bangladesh off to a fast start, hitting three fours and two sixes between them in the first 3.1 overs. Tamim struck the sixes off Madziva, but fell to the same bowler, caught at long-on by Chigumbura. Next over it was Kayes’ turn to head to the pavilion after he was brilliantly caught at point by Williams, who dived full length to his left to pluck the low square-drive. And Bangladesh’s run rate quickly slowed.Mushfiqur tried to put the pressure back at the Zimbabwe but he fell to a catch at long-leg while slog sweeping, and Sabbir Rahman and Anamul Haque added 39 runs but used up over six overs before Sabbir was given leg-before. Most of the rest were out trying to get the big shots away, with the Bangladesh innings becoming even more sluggish.Anamul batted till the final over to get 47 off 51 balls with three boundaries, two of which came in the 16th over through inside-out shots over cover. Otherwise it was an innings that had hardly any fluency – he played out 18 dot balls.Tinashe Panyangara was, for the umpteenth time, the best bowler on show taking 3 for 30 in his four overs, while there were two each for Madziva and legspinner Graeme Cremer. Zimbabwe allowed the home batsmen only only 33 runs in the last five overs, taking five wickets. Eventually, that made the difference.

John Simpson, Joe Cracknell set up victory with 91-run stand in low-scoring affair

ECB Reporters Network19-Jun-2022Middlesex 143 for 3 (Simpson 46, Cracknell 43*) beat Kent 141 for 9 (Green 2-18) by seven wicketsJoe Cracknell and John Simpson put together a shrewd partnership of 91 as Middlesex snapped their six-match Vitality Blast losing streak, defeating South Group stragglers Kent Spitfires by seven wickets.Cracknell, with an unbeaten 43 from 37 balls, and Simpson (46 from 35) shared the only sizeable stand of a low-scoring game to set up Middlesex’s triumph with 15 deliveries to spare.Defending champions Kent, who languish at the foot of the table, limped to 141 for 9 after opting to bat, stifled during the middle overs by Middlesex’s spin trio of Chris Green, Thilan Walallawita and Luke Hollman.Although the Spitfires gained a glimmer of hope with two wickets in quick succession, the third-wicket pair batted sensibly to extinguish that and keep Middlesex’s faint hopes of qualification alive.Joe Denly, whose century had underpinned the Spitfires’ first success of the tournament when the sides met at Canterbury, lasted only 10 deliveries before he was caught behind swishing at Tom Helm.Opening partner Zak Crawley – returning to the side in between his England Test duties – soon followed, attempting to hook Martin Andersson and Simpson judged the skier perfectly.Questionable shot selection, combined with tidy bowling by the Middlesex spinners, meant wickets continued to fall regularly, although for a while it seemed Sam Billings might steer Kent out of trouble.The skipper survived a series of close calls – including two catches that fell fractionally short of the fielder and Andersson’s shy at the stumps as he changed his mind over an audacious single – to make 29.However, Billings perished reverse-sweeping Hollman into the hands of point and it wasn’t until the 17th over that Kent registered the only six of their innings as Jack Leaning clipped Jason Behrendorff into the Mound Stand.Despite Leaning’s effort of 20 from 14, the visitors’ total looked unlikely to be enough and Middlesex made a steady start in reply, with Stephen Eskinazi and Max Holden putting on 42 from 28.Eskinazi had just swung Fred Klaassen for his second six when he attempted to repeat the shot and top-edged to deep midwicket, but the captain’s departure appeared to reduce the flow of runs to a trickle.Spin duo George Linde and Qais Ahmad rattled through six consecutive post-powerplay overs, all of them without conceding a boundary as Cracknell and Simpson concentrated on avoiding risks and collecting singles.Once the seamers returned, Cracknell cast off the shackles, pulling Klaassen over the fence and then cutting him square for four more as Middlesex began to accelerate towards the target.Simpson swatted Klaassen for six to bring his side within four but, although the seamer took his revenge by trapping him leg before, Jack Davies squirted his first ball to the rope, sealing a rare victory.

Resolutions at emergency general meeting supported by more than 80% of members

David Hopps31-Mar-2022Yorkshire members have delivered a massive vote in support of Lord Kamlesh Patel’s proposals to restructure the club to address the fallout from Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of mistreatment, which brought accusations that the club was institutionally racist and also risked the potential loss of international fixtures at Headingley.More than 80% of members voted in favour of reform on all three resolutions, although disturbingly low voting figures underlines that Yorkshire have suffered both from a flood of member resignations or non-renewals – Covid may have been another influence – and that there is considerable disillusionment over the whole affair.That being so, “a plague on both your houses” appears at least an undercurrent among the Yorkshire membership – although Yorkshire have yet to find a present-day Romeo and Juliet to show them a new direction. That really would be a change in the age profile.After the result of the Emergency General Meeting, held in the Long Room at Headingley, was known, Lord Patel reacted: “We welcome the outcome of this EGM and thank the Members for their full and proper consideration, an open exchange of views, and their votes. It is an overwhelming vote for positive change.”This support will help Yorkshire County Cricket Club to be an inclusive and welcoming place and gives us the clarity and certainty we need to keep building this great club.”Yorkshire has now met the ECB’s conditions for the return of international cricket and, working with them, we’ll deliver some great events here at Headingley this summer. We’re looking forward to the start of the season, for all our teams and for cricket at all levels right across this County.”Three proposals were voted through. Lord Patel’s ratification as Yorkshire’s chairman was approved by 932 votes in favour to 155 against, with 22 abstentions. A second resolution, releasing Lord Patel and others from personal liability on decisions taken, after threats of legal action, passed by 897 to 182 (28 abstentions); and the restructuring of the board to include independent members went through by 927 to 159 (19 abstentions).Related

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Latest indications are that with official membership figures standing at around 6,000, but full members – the only ones allowed to vote – down to 3,000, turnout was about 35%. Such figures must fill Yorkshire with trepidation, a once powerful county brought to its knees.Lord Patel, Yorkshire’s chair and de facto chief executive (a fact that defends his reported salary of around £200,000), had warned that failure to win the vote would make it virtually impossible for the club to pay players’ wages and complete the domestic cricket season, which begins next week.Key sponsors have also turned on the county following Rafiq’s testimony that “institutional racism” had left him close to taking his own life.The ECB wasted no time in expressing its support. A spokesperson said: “We are pleased that Yorkshire members have given their overwhelming support to these reforms. This is an important step forward in bringing about real change and setting the club on course for a more inclusive future.”We welcome the progress made by Lord Patel so far, as well as his commitment to making the club one which everyone, from all backgrounds, can be proud of. With these governance reforms now having been passed, we are satisfied that international cricket can now be staged at Headingley this summer. However, there is much work still to be done at Yorkshire and it is important that the plans set out so far are now delivered. We will continue to monitor progress closely.”Our regulatory investigation into the complaints brought by Azeem Rafiq, which is separate to this process, remains ongoing and we will update on this in due course.”Yorkshire’s immediate response might well be that of relief that the threat of removing international cricket from Headingley should now be lifted, and so avert the risk of bankruptcy.But their financial plight remains horrendous. Debts are around £20m and their opponents have predicted possible severance and unfair dismissal payments approaching £3m.Martyn Moxon stood down as director of cricket and Mark Arthur retired as CEO after accepting severance payments. As many as 14 employees, including the coach Andrew Gale, were then summarily sacked in a decision as shocking as any in Yorkshire’s turbulent history, for signing a letter which took an uncompromising stance against Rafiq’s allegations.That decision still divides the county. Nevertheless, the first major vote of the membership is an emphatic rejection of the rebellion from a rump of Yorkshire members, led by former chairman Robin Smith, a retired 79-year-old Leeds-based lawyer, who has threatened to resist change with a long-running campaign of legal action.That threat has not yet been withdrawn, and he might regard trying to prune the White Rose as a preferable occupation in old age to pruning his own roses, although it would take a considerable dollop of self-entitlement for Smith to pursue it when the members, as well as the ECB and politicians, have now spoken so loudly.Smith and his acolytes, some of them Yorkshire members for half a century or more, believe that Yorkshire’s independence is now under threat because of ECB interference and that Lord Patel has taken control in an undemocratic manner. Yorkshire counter that their restructuring actually follows Sport England guidelines.They particularly recoil at the fact that a new Board will be formed with eight independent members – not Yorkshire members – who will serve alongside two Board members drawn from the membership, the chief executive and director of cricket. Opponents have argued that Yorkshire is a co-operative society in law and so this us unlawful.Smith had also claimed in a leaked letter to Lord Patel that Yorkshire would now essentially become a subsidiary of the ECB, forever dancing to its tune, and that the shift of power to the centre would affect any other recalcitrant counties in turn.”A four to one ratio of outsiders to members as non-executives on the club’s board would so change the character of the club as to render it unrecognisable as a Yorkshire institution,” he wrote.That battle cry for independence would once have carried considerable weight across the Broad Acres, and it is some achievement for the county to have mismanaged its enquiry into Rafiq’s racism allegations so markedly that Yorkshire members have just shrugged off the risk and accepted that change is not just inevitable but desirable.