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Peter Moores has been appointed as Nottinghamshire’s head coach, as the club aims to bounce back from a disappointing 2016 season

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Sep-2016Peter Moores has been appointed as Nottinghamshire’s head coach, as the club aims to bounce back from a disappointing 2016 season.Moores, who was signed as a coaching consultant at Trent Bridge in July 2015, has been handed a three-year deal and takes over the day-to-day running of the first team from Mick Newell, who will continue to oversee the club’s wider fortunes as director of cricket.In addition to his two spells as England head coach, from 2007 to 2009 and again from 2014 to 2015, Moores took charge of the ECB’s National Academy Director for a two-year period from April 2005 and is a two-times winner of the County Championship, with Sussex in 2003 and with Lancashire in 2011.”To be offered the chance to become Head Coach of a Club like Notts, at a venue as special as Trent Bridge, is a terrific honour,” said Moores.”Working with cricketers one-to-one for the last year has been an ideal way to get me back in to county cricket, and it means I already know this group of players very well, which will give me a head start in some ways.”The passion for being a head coach again is there and the club has the ambition to be competing for trophies across all three formats of the game, so it’s a fantastic opportunity.”The appointment comes at a perilous moment for Nottinghamshire, who look doomed to relegation from the top tier of the County Championship. However, with Yorkshire on the look-out for a new director of cricket following confirmation of Jason Gillespie’s impending return to Australia, the club has moved quickly to retain the services of a man whose coaching abilities are held in high esteem on the county circuit.
Newell, who has been in charge of Nottinghamshire’s first XI since 2002, guided the county to two Championship titles in 2005 and 2010, but has accepted the time is right to step back from club’s day-to-day running.”Having a director of cricket and head coach working in partnership is something that’s happening a lot in county cricket, and we feel the time is now right to introduce it at Notts,” said Newell.”Peter will run the professional squad his way, he’ll pick the team and we’ll now work closely together in reviewing everything we do in relation to our playing and coaching, to ensure that we’re ready to bounce back strongly from what’s been a disappointing season.”It’s also vitally important that we work on our player pathway, ensuring that we’re doing everything right to develop our professional and international players of the future.”

Tino Best and Mason Crane undermined a Nottinghamshire run chase to give Hampshire a morale-boosting first win and leave Surrey bottom of the table

Vithushan Ehantharajah at the Ageas Bowl25-May-2016
ScorecardTino Best picked up four wickets to set Hampshire on the way to victory (file photo)•WICB Media Photo/Randy Brooks

So much about Tino Best is saying and doing what makes him feel alive. And if from time to time the saying leads him to trouble, the doing gives him and us so much more than a few crude anecdotes because match-winning performances like Best’s today, in which he took 4 for 47, do not come around often.Virtually every morning brings a tabloid headline, but 90-plus-mph spells that have you on the edge of your seat are disappointingly rare. Hampshire bested Nottinghamshire at the Ageas Bowl with a team that fought for every moment in the game, but Best’s influence was devastating.Consider where the game was headed before Best turned it on its head with a stunning final assault. Just 88 were required from 28 overs and Nottinghamshire, five down, were winning. Samit Patel (65) and Dan Christian (31) had their teeth into the chase and, with runs coming as and when they wanted, Hampshire were starting to fade.Will Smith handed the ball to Best and walked away in deep contemplation, knowing that this would tilt the game. Had he been too generous earlier in the piece?With Hampshire ahead by 304, Smith had called the second innings to a halt to give Nottinghamshire the chance to bat 86 overs. Prior to the declaration, the formality of Harry Gurney’s five wicket haul – his fifth of his career – had been completed, giving him career-best match figures of nine for 136.With the first ball of the chase, Best hit Steven Mullaney on the back. There was a stop and stare – there’s always a stare – then Best returned to his mark. That’s where the ball stayed for the next few overs: between the kidney and ribs. Jake Libby, struggling, looked to have found sanctuary on the back foot with a baying Bajan at the door. All the bolts looked to have been applied. But a bit of width tempted to prop forward. Caught behind. Best had begun.For the second time in the match, the bowler locked horns with Michael Lumb. This time, though, Best would be able to send him on his way – trapped in front from around the wicket. And when Ryan McLaren replaced Best at the Pavilion End to remove Mullaney and Rikki Wessels – the scoreboard reading 68 for 4 – the hosts looked set.But Brendan Taylor and Patel dug deep. Boundaries came: first one at a time, then seemingly in threes and fours. Patel, on 35, nicked Mason Crane between the keeper and first slip. Taylor brought up a first half-century of the season, from 77 balls, which Best seemed to take as a slight against him. A wayward barrage followed which saw the riled quick concede 12 byes from three sharp bouncers in the space of nine deliveries. Nottinghamshire used them to breeze past 150.With 129 to get, Taylor though he could take Crane’s leg spin over mid on for a second time. A misjudgement saw him skew the ball high… to Best. The catch was taken and then promptly sent towards the sky. Best, despite only being brought off a few overs early, had begun warming up to grab the eye of his captain. With 28 overs left, Smith had no choice but to oblige.In his previous spell, Best looked to have lost the feel for the game. To some, it felt like he was on the cusp of trying too hard once more. The body language of his teammates had also started to wane. Christian, offered a reprieve when he was dropped on one by Sean Ervine, off the bowling of Crane, had begun unfurling booming shot after shot, culminating in a sweetly time six own the ground of the 19-year-old leggie.But rather than losing his nerve, Crane decided to come around the wicket and make use of the rough. Christian was kept in check. Best, watching on as someone 15 years his junior kept his composure, when more senior figures around him were losing theirs, took heart.The first ball of the second over of his new spell saw Christian’s middle stump taken out of the ground. Four balls later, after testing Brett Hutton’s toes, he went to spite his nose. Hutton hooked high and out to the deep fine leg. Crane was there steadying himself. The catch was taken. Just like that, Notts were 222 for 7 and just two wickets remaining as Chris Read was unable to bat.Fittingly, it was left to Crane to finish the job, as he had done in the first innings. Patel, now swinging for the hills, could only skew to Ervine at slip who, this time, made no mistake. The very next ball, Gurney found Michael Carberry at point. And with that, Hampshire had won their first game of the season.

Best on escaping relegation

“We got a guy call Tino Best. We got a guy called Mason Crane. We got a guy called Michael Carberry. We got a brilliant all rounder named Sean Ervine. We got a smashing captain called Mr Vince. We got a grafter by the name of Will Smith – he’s got the same name as my favourite actor. I think our chances are brilliant.”

At stumps, Best was as you’d expect: smiling, charming, talking about the love of fast bowling and throwing out the sort of lines that endear him to the quoting public. “I love fast bowling. It makes me feel free,” was one. “I’m here to play cricket – I’m not here to drink milk,” was another, when asked if he was available for all three forms, no just Championship cricket. He even spoke of “giving 150%”. While the cynics might roll their eyes, they cannot watch Best and conclude that he doesn’t give as much as he can.But for all the stereotypical characteristics of a fast bowler that Best possesses – the rage, the rump, the motor-mouth – there are a handful of qualities that make him something of an anomaly. For example, he does not believe in rhythm. He works from delivery to delivery: focusing on keeping a still head in his gather and ensuring the front arm is pulled down “nice and strong”.He does not put too much emphasis on match-hauls or season milestones: instead, he looks to ensure each spell brings a wicket, whether “Best” is featured alongside it in the scorecard or not. In the years of playing the part of “strike bowler”, the attitude of a support bowler has come late. “I just try to make sure I’m an asset to the team.” Still, his six wickets in the match and 12 so far this season is assisting Hampshire greatly.What is evident is that Hampshire – specifically Dale Benkenstein and Giles White – have created a team with the atmosphere and personnel to bring out Tino’s best. McLaren is disciplined, James Tomlinson keeps opposition honest and Crane, in Best’s words, “makes me express myself even better”. In Best’s career, he believes he has only come across two better leg spinners – Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill.For Nottinghamshire, they have played their part in another classic. Director of cricket Mick Newell, for all his frustrations at how the season has panned out since an opening win against Surrey, can see that. “Sure, we’ve had some great adverts for the game,” he started. “But we’ve not won any of them. For us to be 81 behind in the first innings – that’s where the game has been lost.”Whether they like it or not, Nottinghamshire are in the midst of a scrap nearer the bottom of Divison One than they would like. They will embark on it for the tim being without Read, who is suffering from a broken hand after being struck while batting in the first innings. Once a doctor sees Read in person – scans have already been done and he was walking around the Ageas Bowl with his left hand in a cast – Notts will have a better idea on when he might be back.As for whether Hampshire have what it takes to avoid relegation, well, it is only right to let Best have the final say:”We got a guy call Tino Best. We got a guy called Mason Crane. We got a guy called Michael Carberry. We got a brilliant all rounder named Sean Ervine. We got a smashing captain called Mr Vince. We got a grafter by the name of Will Smith – he’s got the same name as my favourite actor. I think our chances are brilliant.”

Akila Dananjaya had a day to remember and a day to forget in the space of an over

Madushka Balasuriya03-Mar-20210:25

Pollard on six sixes in an over: ‘An achievement that’s right up there’

In one of the more ridiculous T20 run-chases you will witness, Kieron Pollard became just the third player to hit six sixes in an over in international cricket off the same bowler, Akila Dananjaya, who had rocked West Indies’ chase just an over earlier with a hat-trick.It felt like it was either sixes or wickets for most of West Indies’ innings as an opening stand of 52 in 3.2 became 52 for 3 when Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle (on his comeback) and Nicholas Pooran fell in three balls to Dananjaya. Eight balls later Lendl Simmons also departed, lbw to the impressive Wanindu Hasaranga, before Pollard’s immense response.Facing the next over from Dananjaya he joined Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh in having taken 36 off an over with some of the shots almost going out of the small ground in Antigua. West Indies’ powerplay tally of 98 was also a new record and the wild ride continued when Pollard was also lbw to Hasaranga before relative calm was brought to the game’s final minutes by Jason Holder, who was returning to the T20I fold.His 29 off 24 balls saw West Indies home with four wickets and 41 balls to spare after they had limited Sri Lanka to a sub-par 131 for 9, on what was a good batting surface. Such was the feast and famine nature of West Indies’ batting – 75% of their runs (102) came in boundaries off just 19 deliveries – that the innings required Holder’s steadying touch despite all the preceding pyrotechnics.So devastating was Pollard’s innings that it took off most, if not all, of the sheen off what would have otherwise been a dream return to international cricket for Dananjaya. That said, much of the uncertainty in West Indies’ chase was brought on by Hasaranga, whose back-to-back scalps of Pollard and Fabian Allen – the hosts still needed 31 runs with four wickets in hand at that point – had sown doubt.In the first innings of the rain-interrupted game, Obed McCoy’s 2 for 25 was the pick of the figures, but it was an all-round effort for West Indies with each of the six bowlers used picking up a wicket. Aside from a brief period when debutant Pathum Nissanka and Niroshan Dickwella put on a 51-run second-wicket stand, the West Indies bowlers were always in control. The fact that just the three boundaries were conceded in final 10 overs tells its own story.Kieron Pollard became the third batsman to hit six sixes in an over in international cricket•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

West Indies seamers keep batters in check Holder exercised all his considerable experience and showed exactly why the selectors had chosen to put their faith in him. Utilising his entire repertoire of variations – yorkers, slower balls, slower bouncers, you name it – he reeled back the Sri Lanka innings in the middle overs, just as they would have been looking to up the scoring.His four overs went for just 19 runs, and accounted for the wicket of Dickwella, who had been growing increasingly frustrated as a result of the obduracy of Holder and the West Indies bowlers in general.Alongside him, Dwayne Bravo – another veteran returning to the side – and the much greener McCoy used similar variations to keep the visiting batsman quiet.Fidel Edwards meanwhile also enjoyed a fruitful return to international cricket. At 39, he still showed he was able to hit the 140kph mark fairly regularly, and he was rewarded with the wicket of Angelo Mathews.Nissanka impresses in brief cameoBoth Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews were guilty of picking out fielders when it would have been easier not to, while other seasoned campaigners, Dickwella and Thisara Perera, will not want to look back at their shot selection. But in Pathum Nissanka there was Sri Lanka’s one bright spark in an otherwise forgetful performance with the bat.While he has impressed in first-class cricket, here he showed off his T20 chops. Coming in following the early dismissal of Gunathilaka, Nissanka showed no sign of nerves, comfortably rotating the strike initially, before switching gears. A glorious slog sweep for six over deep midwicket off Kevin Sinclair was undoubtedly the highlight of his innings, while a few more well-placed boundaries served to show some of the reasons behind his selection.He will still be disappointed though at his inability to build on what was a promising start, getting bogged down towards the end of his innings, culminating in an ill-judged saunter down the tracks that saw him stumped off a flighted Fabian Allen delivery. He finished with 39 off 34 balls.Akila Dananjaya took a hat-trick to shake West Indies•AFP/Getty Images

All aboard the Dananjaya rollercoasterRarely will a bowler’s emotions have fluctuated as wildly on a cricket field as Dananjaya’s; by the end of his second over, the young spinner could hardly have accounted for a more perfect return to international cricket. He had just picked up his first-ever international hat-trick, one which included the wicket of Gayle. And in the process he looked to have hauled his side back into a game that was slipping away fast, following some lusty hits from Lewis and Simmons.That was the good. What followed next is the cricketing equivalent of being subjected to a pop quiz that you haven’t studied for at all, and having no option but to simply stare at a blank piece of paper, resigned to your fate, as you solemnly evaluate the life choices that led you to that point.Maybe even that doesn’t quite sum up the dread and helplessness Dananjaya must have felt as Pollard proceeded to activate what is known in video game parlance as “boss mode” to pummel, crush and wallop six straight sixes off Dananjaya’s third over.Dananjaya to his credit did try and mix things up, but whether he went length, full, wide of the stumps, around the wicket, or fired it on the pads, the result remained the same. Dananjaya, in his very next over, was hit for his seventh consecutive six by Holder, and on the next ball Holder was dropped at deep midwicket by debutant Ashen Bandara. No support for HasarangaHasaranga continued on from his fine form in the Lanka Premier League, where he had topped the wicket-taking charts. He muddled the West Indies batsman with his precise lines and lengths, and dangerous variations. His four overs brought about three wickets and went for just 12 runs. But more than that, it was clear the West Indies batsman were struggling to execute their plan A – whack everything out of the park – against him.None of the other bowlers could back him up, something they will have to do if Sri Lanka are to bounce back in the series.

Neil Dexter continued to stake his claim to be one of the signings of the season as Leicestershire reached 299 for 7 against Worcestershire

ECB Reporters Network03-Jul-2016
ScorecardNeil Dexter’s third hundred of the season made for an even opening day•Getty Images

Neil Dexter continued to stake his claim to be one of the signings of the season as Leicestershire reached 299 for 7 against Worcestershire on a hard-fought opening day in the Specsavers County Championship at New Road.The former Middlesex batsman completed a third century for his new county and at the same time made it back-to-back hundreds when adding 109 to last week’s 136 against Gloucestershire.He was by no means completely fluent, more than one of his 18 boundaries coming off the edge during an impressive first spell by Ed Barnard, but his application could not be faulted following the early dismissal of Paul Horton.Barnard claimed that wicket with his fifth delivery, Tom Kohler-Cadmore holding a fizzing overhead chance at first slip, and he should have had another when Angus Robson was dropped at gully.The opener was on 27 and went on to make exactly 50, his third half-century in four Championship innings, before he gave a low catch to wicketkeeper Ben Cox in Barnard’s second spell.The second-wicket partnership yielded 79 from 32 overs and this was followed by a stand of 54 as Mark Cosgrove perked up the innings until he became another victim for Cox, aiming to force legspinner Brett D’Oliveira square on the off-side.There was something in the pitch to encourage Worcestershire – if not for Kyle Abbott on his Championship debut for the county – but tight bowling by Barnard and Jack Shantry only served to underline the value of Dexter’s performance. He maintained his focus throughout and made it clear that he is enjoying life with his fourth county.If Barnard was the pick of the seam attack with three for 49, D’Oliveira showed impeccable control, and a nice variation, in bowling 23 overs for his 2 for 53.He was also involved in the fourth wicket, not as the bowler but in running out Mark Pettini for 16 with a direct hit from backward point. Dexter was on 98 at the time and eventually got to his century after taking 22 minutes to add four singles to his score at tea.The end for him came with a smart third catch for Cox, standing up to Joe Leach, and Robert Taylor soon drove D’Oliveira to extra cover, but Ned Eckersley and Clint McKay added valuable runs late in the day. McKay was leg-before to Barnard, bowling with the second new ball.While not taking total control, Leicestershire have gone some way towards burying a bad memory from earlier in the season. They were dismissed for 43 on their own ground in May when Worcestershire registered their only win so far in a Division Two campaign following relegation last year.The home side have included Tom Fell after his recovery from two forms of cancer since making a career-best 171 against Middlesex in his final innings of last summer.

After Jason Holder claimed career-best figures of 5 for 30 bowl out Pakistan for 208, Kraigg Brathwaite steered West Indies to within 39 runs of victory in Sharjah

The Report by Sirish Raghavan02-Nov-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJason Holder claimed career-best figures of 5 for 30•Getty Images

After subsiding for 208 to set West Indies a target of 153, Pakistan took five wickets to leave the Sharjah Test tantalisingly poised at stumps on day four. But, just 39 runs away from claiming their first win of the UAE tour, West Indies held the edge thanks to Kraigg Brathwaite’s immovable presence at the crease.Brathwaite, who had carried his bat through the first innings for 142, was at the crease on 44, having seen his side through a startling wobble that had left them 67 for 5. He looked calm and solid throughout his knock, assured in defence and adept at rotating the strike. Shane Dowrich, who kept him company in an unbroken 47-run sixth-wicket stand that saw out the day, was less convincing early in his innings, playing Wahab Riaz with feet rooted to the crease and stumps exposed. Nonetheless, he settled in to hit some telling boundaries towards the end of the day and tilt the balance back in West Indies’ favour.That West Indies found themselves with the upper hand was thanks in no small part to some loose cricket from Pakistan. In a tragicomic collapse after lunch, Pakistan lost five wickets for 33 runs, including 3 for 4 in the space of 18 balls, to be bowled out for 208.The slide began in the seventh over after lunch, when legspinner Devendra Bishoo had Mohammad Nawaz caught at short leg. He landed the ball on a good length in the rough outside the left-hander’s off stump and extracted just enough turn to pick up an inside edge to Leon Johnson, who stuck out his left hand to take a sharp catch.Bishoo’s next wicket came four overs later, when Azhar Ali, batting on 91, gifted his wicket away. Seeing a liberally flighted delivery, Azhar started shaping for a sweep, before realising the ball was too far outside off stump for the shot. Instead of leaving the ball alone, Azhar then offered a limp drive and only succeeded in guiding it to Darren Bravo at first slip.Thirteen balls later, Mohammad Amir perished to one of the most entertaining run-outs conceivable to leave Pakistan in even greater trouble. Wickets were now falling at increasingly short intervals; the next one came after four balls when Wahab Riaz turned a Holder delivery to Johnson, who took a remarkable reflex catch at short leg, off the face of the bat.Zulfiqar Babar then chipped in with a six and a four in a seven-ball 15 that took Pakistan past 200 and their lead past 150. But Holder trapped Yasir Shah in front for a duck to conclude a breathless passage of play and collect figures of 5 for 30. It was Holder’s first five-wicket haul in Tests and put his team within sight of their first Test win under his captaincy.Having left the door wide open for West Indies, Pakistan then proceeded to give them encouraging nudges towards the threshold. Off the fifth delivery of the chase, Amir found Johnson’s edge only for Misbah-ul-Haq to put down a regulation chance at third slip. Amir’s frustration was compounded in his next over, when Sami Aslam, at first slip, made a total hash of another chance off the same batsman.But shortly after tea, West Indies lost 5 for 38 in a period of play that brought Pakistan roaring back. Yasir got the first three of those wickets. Johnson, looking to pull a shortish delivery, was hit in front when the ball did not rise as much as he expected. Bravo was set up beautifully by four legbreaks before Yasir slipped one in that did not turn as much and took the outside edge. Marlon Samuels went for an irresponsible loft with long-off in place and holed out to Babar.Then Wahab bowled Jermaine Blackwood when the batsman brought down an angled bat to a ball that honed into the stumps from around the wicket. When Roston Chase flicked Wahab in the air to midwicket, West Indies were tottering.Perhaps fittingly, West Indies’ recovery was engineered by a man who had hardly been off the field throughout the match. With Dowrich for company, and Holder and Bishoo still to come, Brathwaite can expect decent support as he attempts to steer his team to their first win in 14 Tests.