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A round-up of all the Plunket Shield matches that ended on October 18, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Oct-2015
ScorecardFile photo: Mitchell McClenaghan ended with match figures of 7 for 106•Getty Images

Auckland’s fast bowlers Mitchell McClenaghan and Matthew Quinn picked up seven wickets each, setting the tone for Auckland’s nine-wicket victory against Canterbury. Auckland were also buoyed by half-centuries from Colin de Grandhomme, Brad Cachopa and Martin Guptill, as the team opened their Plunket Shield campaign strongly.Canterbury, after being inserted, failed to string together any meaningful partnership, and were bundled out for 149, as McClenaghan (4 for 38) and Quinn (3 for 34) ran through the line-up in 48.1 overs. Auckland found themselves struggling at 50 for 3 in their reply, but three big stands – 82 for the fourth wicket between de Grandhomme (70) and Rob Nicol, 68 for the fifth between Nicol and Cachopa (61), and 68 for the eighth between Tarun Nethul and Michael Bates – ensured the hosts posted a total of 316 to collect a lead of 167.Canterbury fared better in the second innings, thanks mainly to a 109-run partnership between Leo Carter (79) and Ken McClure (50), but once again, regular strikes from McClenaghan and Quinn prevented the visitors from pulling away with a large score. Canterbury were eventually bowled out for 321, meaning that Auckland needed just 155 for victory, a total the hosts chased down in 37 overs thanks to Guptill’s unbeaten 94-ball 84.
ScorecardA maiden double-century from Central Districts’ 24-year-old batsman Ben Smith was the highlight of their drawn game against Otago in Napier. In a game that saw 1267 runs scored, it was Otago, opting to bat, who made the early running. Buoyed by a 157-run stand between Sam Wells and James Neesham, the hosts compiled 352. Neesham went on to make 131 off 152 balls, while Otago were also lifted by handy half-centuries from Hamish Rutherford (79*) and Wells (62). Doug Bracewell was the pick of Central Districts’ bowlers, collecting 5 for 67.Central Districts lost Greg Hay early in their reply, but Smith battled on for more than eight hours, scoring 244 off 368 balls, with 29 fours and a six. He shared a mammoth 234-run stand for the fourth wicket with George Worker, who made 129. Will Young (62) and Tom Bruce (71) also chipped in with half-centuries, as Central Districts eventually declared on 650 for 8.With a lead of 298, Central Districts had nearly 90 overs to bowl Otago out and seal an innings win, and looked well on course to doing that by removing Rutherford and Ryan Duffy early. However, Neil Broom held firm, scoring a patient 131, and put on a 204-run partnership with Brad Wilson to guide his team to safety. Otago were 265 for 3 when stumps were called.
ScorecardTim Southee and Trent Boult took 12 wickets together as Northern Districts drew with Wellington and walked away with seven points in their season opener.Right-arm seamer Dane Hutchinson also picked up a five-wicket haul, including a hat-trick, to clean up the Northern Districts tail but by then the first-innings lead had passed 150.Captain Daniel Flynn and Kane Williamson gave Northern Districts a strong base, adding 148. While Williamson became the first of Jeetan Patel’s three victims, Flynn went on to make 102 off 239 balls. Bharat Popli and BJ Watling also scored fifties to steer their side to 429 before Hutchinson became the first Wellington bowler to take a hat-trick since Stephen Hotter in 1997.However, it could not mask the top-order failure in the first innings. Having been inserted, Wellington were reduced to 47 for 5 inside 18 overs with Southee doing the bulk of the damage. However, a rearguard stand of 108 between Tom Blundell and Luke Ronchi helped the visitors recover to 267. Luke Ronchi was the eighth man dismissed for 115 off 112 balls.The batting line-up fared much better in the second innings with each of their batsmen, with the exception of No.9 reaching double-figures. Boult accounted for Stephen Murdoch (93), Blundell (46), and Ronchi (15) but Wellington nudged past 400 before stumps on the fourth day.

Pune Warriors did most of the basics wrong against the much-fancied Chennai Super Kings, but still won by a huge margin

The Report by Sidharth Monga15-Apr-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Aaron Finch provided Pune Warriors with an effective start•BCCI

They keep saying you have got to do the basics right, more so in Twenty20. They lie. On Monday night in Chennai, Pune Warriors did most of the basics wrong against the much-fancied Chennai Super Kings, but still won by a huge margin.While batting only two of the seven Warriors batsmen went at a strike-rate of more than 112.5, and one of them faced 18 dots out of 45. They wasted a flying start – their best in all IPLs – with a muddle in the middle, Mitchell Marsh holed out into the deep and didn’t even cross over, Manish Pandey slogged when he should have handed over the strike to Steven Smith, T Suman dropped a sitter that would have reduced Chennai Super Kings to 2 for 2, and they were consistently on the worse side of minor fielding errors.Still, riding on Aaron Finch’s 67 off 45 and Steven Smith’s unbeaten 39 off 16, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s impeccable swing at the top of the defence, Warriors pulled off the upset. Their basics might not have been perfect, but there was enough of the spectacular from the three aforementioned gentlemen.The first ball Finch faced he drilled back past Dirk Nannes for four. He would hit seven more fours in the Powerplay. With a short back lift and a punch packed behind them. Robin Uthappa at the other end, though, fumbled his way to nine off 12 at the end of the Powerplay. The singles didn’t come, Uthappa kept struggling, but Finch kept hitting enough boundaries to take this stand to the best opening for Warriors ever.Then came on R Ashwin’s spin and Chris Morris’ bustle, and Warriors lost their way. In going from 96 for 0 to 128 for 4, they consumed 29 balls and looked set for a below-par total, especially after the 18th over produced just three runs. However, Smith, who wouldn’t even have played but for the Tamil Nadu government’s problem with Sri Lankan cricketers, had other ideas. He went crazy against Nannes and Dwayne Bravo, reverse-flicking the latter for a huge six over third man in the final over. Twenty-eight came off those last two overs, but this was still a strictly fighting total.Under Bhuvneshwar’s swing, the total grew a leg. With his second delivery, he trapped S Anirudha – who replaced Michael Hussey – with an inswinger. He looked like he could get Suresh Raina with each of the remaining deliveries of that wicket-maiden. Catches kept getting dropped, the fielding was not the sharpest, but Bhuvneshwar nipped out Raina soon.Abhishek Nayar’s cutters and Rahul Sharma’s accuracy did the job in the middle overs, and once again Super Kings were left with close to 14 an over to chase through MS Dhoni, Bravo and Albie Morkel. It wasn’t to be this time as the bowlers and fielders held their nerve.

Gloucestershire have drawn up revised development plans for their long-time headquarters at Nevil Road and their chief executive Tom Richardson has warned that they will leave Bristol if they are turned down.

Alex Winter07-Mar-2012Gloucestershire have one last chance to secure their future in Bristol. They have drawn up revised plans for the development of their long-time headquarters at Nevil Road and their chief executive Tom Richardson has warned that if this fails the club will leave the city.The club’s original plans were rejected by Bristol City Council in January. The main objection behind the 6-4 vote against was the height of the apartment block at the Ashley Down end of the ground – the development that will fund the £10 million project.The design has now been reduced by a storey but will maintain 147 apartments – the number necessary to make the apartment block financially viable – by lengthening the building.The club have held positive talks with planning officers and will hold a consultation period with local residents before submitting the revised plans. They still hope to begin developing the ground at the end of this season.”We’re very committed to make our plans work here at Nevil Road,” Richardson told ESPNcricinfo. “We’ve been at this a long time. We sought to take into account a number of things that were said about why the planning application was turned down and we’re going back to talk to our neighbours and all other stakeholders and take their views on it.”The development of Nevil Road is essential for Gloucestershire’s ambitions to keep international cricket in Bristol. The club hopes plans to raise the capacity to 17,000 and build a new media centre and conferencing facilities will secure a least one ODI per season, a match which brings £1 million to Bristol.But if these revised plans are rejected again, it could mean the end for Gloucestershire in Bristol. The club have already sounded out alternative venues. Tuffley Avenue in Gloucester is one potential new site and a 20,000 international stadium at Filton Airfield has emerged as another option as the county’s new home.Gloucestershire have already been stripped of next year’s ODI against New Zealand and Richardson admitted the club are in the last chance saloon to keep Bristol as an international venue. He said: “I think we’ll run out of time if we fail again and international cricket will be a thing of the past.”

The New Zealanders played a warm-up match at the venue back in August, making them one of the few international sides with experience in Pallekele

Brydon Coverdale in Pallekele07-Mar-2011Nestled in the hills a half-hour drive from Kandy, the Pallekele Stadium is so obscurely placed that even some locals have had trouble locating it. The ground is yet to host a completed innings at international level, after its first Test was washed out, and it has been hidden during the first fortnight of the World Cup. Oddly enough, when New Zealand walk out on Tuesday, they’ll have a slight edge over Pakistan.The New Zealanders played a warm-up match at the venue back in August, making them one of the few international sides with experience in Pallekele. They bowled out Sri Lanka A for 91 and the pace in the pitch surprised them, and when they trained at the ground on Sunday, they were again greeted by a surface with plenty of speed.”We practiced on a strip four or five over [from the match pitch] and it seemed a bit pacier than what you normally expect,” the captain Daniel Vettori said on Monday. “But then the nets are pretty slow and low, so we’re going to have to wing it, really, because there haven’t been too many games here. We played a warm-up game here last year. I think we’re expecting it to be a little bit quicker than most grounds, but it will still probably be a batter-friendly wicket.”New Zealand enter the match in fourth position in Group A, while Pakistan are unbeaten after three games, the only side to have won all their matches so far. New Zealand are fresh from an impressive ten-wicket win against Zimbabwe and they have also beaten Kenya, and easily accounted for Ireland in the practice matches.Hamish Bennett could find more pace in the Pallekele pitch than the others he’s bowled on in the World Cup•Getty Images

However, they suffered a comprehensive defeat to Australia and were beaten by India by 117 runs in a warm-up game, and they know that to have any chance of reaching the meaningful stages of the tournament, they must beat some of the stronger sides. A win over Pakistan would be a fine way to get their World Cup heading in the right direction, but having lost at home to Pakistan this season, they know it will be a tough ask.”There’s always more to be done,” Vettori said. “We know we’ve got a big game against Pakistan tomorrow. It’s going to be a tough game, but hopefully there’s some confidence from the Zimbabwe game. The guys played pretty well there, so if we can bring that same performance to this game, then it’s going to be huge for our tournament.”Pakistan know us exceptionally well as well. It was a pretty tightly fought series, in our conditions. This is more like their conditions so they’re probably going to be an even better team than the one we came across. They’re playing really well, so we have to find a way to beat them rather than anything else. They’re going to be a tough opposition throughout the tournament.”

A round-up of the semi-final matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy that took place on March 15

Cricinfo staff15-Mar-2010Maharashtra held their nerve for a three-wicket win with two balls to spare against fancied Tamil Nadu at the Maharani Usharaje Trust Cricket Ground in Indore. The big names for Tamil Nadu were on IPL duty but the opening stand of 54 between Abhinav Mukund (32) and Srikkanth Anirudha (30) augured well after they were put in. Offspinner Ganesh Gaikwad sent back both batsmen but another thirty followed from Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan and helped Tamil Nadu post 153. Rangaraj Sutesh’s early strikes rattled Maharashtra’s chase but key contributions from Sangram Atitkar and Gaikwad kept them in the hunt. Even as offspinner Murthy Prabhu picked up 3 for 16, the most important hand was played by Digambar Waghmare. The No. 7 batsman hit 31 off 17 balls, including one four and two sixes, to take them home eventually.With several players representing the Daredevils franchise, Delhi also found the going tough and went down by five wickets against Hyderabad. Choosing to bat, they were given an early lift by opener Farman Ahmed’s quickfire 54. However, there was to be no encore lower down the order and right-arm seamer Vivek Krishna proved to be the biggest beneficiary with 4 for 25, as Delhi finished on 157. A strong opening partnership of 48 looked to have Hyderabad a great platform during the reply. Akshath Reddy’s 30-ball 33 was well matched by Anoop Pai’s 24-ball 31 as Hyderabad made steady progress towards the target. The win was ultimately sealed by Amol Shinde and Hanuma Vihari with an over to spare.

South African allrounder strikes 13 boundaries as The Blaze chase down 276 with 12 balls to spare

ECB Reporters Network08-May-2024South Africa all-rounder Nadine de Klerk struck a magnificent unbeaten 106 as The Blaze fought back to beat Western Storm by four wickets in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy at Trent Bridge.Chasing 276 for victory, the home side looked to be heading for a fifth defeat in six matches when they slipped to 137 for 6 following Natasha Wraith’s impressive career-best 73 in the Storm innings.But 24-year-old De Klerk turned things around in a superb unbroken 139-run partnership with 21-year-old wicketkeeper Ella Claridge (64 not out), whose half-century was her first in women’s regional cricket, as The Blaze won with 12 balls to spare.Earlier, wicketkeeper-batter Wraith had shared a fourth-wicket partnership of 93 with skipper Sophie Luff (37), who had earlier put on 66 for the second wicket with Fran Wilson (34) before useful lower-order runs from Chloe Skelton (29 not out) helped Storm made light of the absence of England duo Heather Knight and Danielle Gibson to total to 275 in 48.1 overs. Blaze captain Kirstie Gordon took 4 for 40 to lift her wickets tally to 11 for the campaign.England opener Tammy Beaumont, not selected for the forthcoming T20 series against Pakistan Women, hit 41, sharing an opening partnership of 52 with Teresa Graves (24), but The Blaze looked likely to suffer again in the absence of England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt and Scotland internationals Kathryn and Sarah Bryce until De Klerk and Claridge’s heroics won the day.The Blaze had won the toss and Sophie Munro removed Alex Griffiths with the second ball of the match courtesy of an edge to solitary slip Beaumont, but Gordon had to wait until the 14th over to see her decision to bowl first rewarded again, bringing about the breakthrough with her own left-arm spin as Wilson’s sweep flew off a top-edge to short fine leg.Gordon followed up by bowling Smale to leave Storm 70 for 3, after which the Blaze skipper looked to apply the squeeze with spin at both ends.But Wraith and Luff countered by going on the offensive, adding another 50 in just 40 deliveries, Wraith hitting a maximum down the ground off Gordon before knocking leg-spinner Josie Groves out of the attack with three fours in four balls.The fourth-wicket pair plundered more runs against the off-spin of Lucy Higham before Groves, replacing England’s Sarah Glenn in the one change to the Blaze line-up, returned to have Luff caught at long-off thanks to an excellent catch on the run by Munro.Wraith continued unchecked, passing her previous best of 68 when she pulled left-armer Ballinger for her 11th four.She fell in the next over, caught behind off a top edge, and when Gordon then dismissed Katie Jones and Niamh Holland in the space of four deliveries, the home side looked to be wresting back control with Storm 207 for 7.Yet Skelton, who hammered the unfortunate Ballinger for five consecutive fours, led the way as the Storm tail wagged vigorously, the last three wickets adding 68 vital runs, punctuated by a second success each for De Klerk and Munro before Graves ended the innings with her only delivery.In reply, The Blaze were going well until the last over of the opening powerplay, when Smale struck with her first ball as Luff turned to spin for the first time. The left-armer induced the thinnest of tickles as Graves, who had played nicely for her 24, was caught behind on the leg side.From 52 without loss, Blaze stumbled badly. Smale picked up the crucial wicket of Beaumont, whose swing and miss ended with her middle stump out of the ground, before leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington removed Marie Kelly with the help of an excellent catch by Griffiths at gully and had Beth Gammon leg before.Gordon perished for 16, adjudged leg before trying to work Skelton’s off-spin through the on side, and Munro was bowled through the gate by seamer Griffiths.Storm were now well on top with Blaze 137 for 6, but there was no shifting De Klerk, who pounced on almost any delivery that was short or wide, completing her second half-century for the East Midlands side off 62 balls with six boundaries.Having lost five partners before that milestone, she at last found one to stick with her in Claridge, who grew in confidence, her fifth boundary, forcefully driven through the covers off Skelton, bringing up a century partnership for the seventh wicket in 17 overs, with 37 needed from the final six overs.De Klerk brought up her hundred from 112 balls with 12 fours before winning the match with a six, slog-swept off Griffiths.

He is set to move to England to become the performance director at Warwickshire

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Mar-2023Gavin Larsen has decided to step down as New Zealand selector after almost eight years in the job. The former New Zealand seamer will now move to England along with his wife Karen to take up the role of performance director at Warwickshire, subject to a visa approval. He is set to replace Paul Farbrace, who had left his job as sporting director at Warwickshire in October last year.Under Larsen, who took up the selector’s role in 2015, New Zealand enjoyed tremendous success across formats, including reaching the finals of the 2019 50-over World Cup and 2021 T20 World Cup, and winning the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) in 2021.”The past seven-and-a-half years have just flown by and I’ve relished and enjoyed every minute of it,” Larsen said in an NZC media release.”The discussions and deliberations have always been robust and challenging but my enduring memory will always be the quality of the people I’ve worked with – from high performance right through to the administration.”Larsen will be overseeing both the men’s and women’s high performance programmes at Warwickshire.”WCCC is a club with an amazing history and tradition and I’m looking forward to joining the team and helping to drive the club’s ongoing success,” Larsen said. “I have a number of great memories of playing at Edgbaston during my New Zealand playing days and the atmosphere was simply terrific.”NZC’s GM High Performance Bryan Stronach spoke highly of Larsen’s contribution to New Zealand cricket as a selector.”Gavin was part of a support team that made a key contribution to arguably the most successful period in the history of the New Zealand men’s team,” Stronach said.”His appointment at Edgbaston reflects the respect in which he’s held around the cricketing world.”Stronach added that the process to find a new selector will begin in due course.

Shami, Bavuma, Bumrah, Agarwal and Elgar also move up in the latest update

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jan-2022KL Rahul, Lungi Ngidi and Temba Bavuma were the biggest gainers in the ICC rankings following the first Test between South Africa and India in Centurion.While Rahul’s knock of 123 in the first innings – his seventh Test hundred – helped him climb 18 spots up to No. 31 among batters, Ngidi’s match haul of 8 for 102, which included figures of 6 for 71 in the first innings, pushed him 16 places up to No. 30 among bowlers. Bavuma, meanwhile, progressed 16 steps to be placed at No. 39 after scores of 52 and 39* in a losing cause.

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Also benefiting was South Africa’s left-arm seam-bowling debutant Marco Jansen, who entered the charts at No. 97 following his faul of five wickets at SuperSport Park, including 4 for 55 in the second innings.There were other notable movers in the Test rankings as well after India wrapped up a 113-run win, their first at the venue. Mohammed Shami, whose figures of 5 for 44 and 3 for 63 played a big role in the win, moved two steps up to No. 17, while Kagiso Rabada’s seven wickets in the match meant he gained one position to be No. 6 in the rankings.Jasprit Bumrah and Mayank Agarwal too managed to make a move up in their respective rankings. Bumrah entered the top ten to be ranked ninth after five wickets of his own in the match, while Agarwal’s contribution of 60 in the first innings helped him rise one place up to No. 11 in the batting charts. Ajinkya Rahane also moved two places up to No. 25 and South Africa captain Dean Elgar went up to No. 14, gaining two places after a gritty 77 in the second innings.Marnus Labuschagne continued to lead the batting rankings, while Pat Cummins remained the top-ranked bowler in the format.

Governing body acknowledges need for ‘meaningful change’ as it recognises black cricketers are marginalised

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jun-2020The ECB says it is committed to delivering “meaningful and long-term change” to the way that cricket is run in England and Wales, after acknowledging that the sport is not immune to the “systemic racism” that “spans institutions and sectors across the country”.In a reflective statement, issued in response to the global wave of support for the Black Lives Matter movement, the ECB acknowledged that “barriers to [cricket’s] enjoyment exist for many communities”, and recognised the depth of feeling that has been expressed by the sport’s BAME community, not least the former England opener Michael Carberry, who stated this week that “black people are not important to the structure of English cricket”.”We have listened carefully to those who have spoken out in recent weeks about their experiences of being black in cricket, sport and society,” said the ECB. “We admire them for being vocal on this crucial topic. We know that systemic racism spans institutions and sectors across the country and we know that our sport is not immune.”On Thursday, James Anderson leant his voice to the cause, stating that the current levels of inclusion from players of Afro-Caribbean heritage in English cricket are “just not okay”. Anderson was commenting in response to a tweet from one journalist, who had established that there was a solitary UK-born, state-school-educated black cricketer playing regular first-team county cricket in 2019.”We truly believe that cricket is a game for everyone but understand that sadly, barriers to its enjoyment exist for many communities,” the statement continued. “We have made progress in bringing cricket to more and more people around the country and it is our resolve to break down barriers and reform our structures everywhere across the game.””In recent weeks we have reflected, and acknowledge that black players and fans, who have contributed so much to the history of our game, now feel disenfranchised. They do not feel as if cricket is a game for them. This must change.”That is why it’s so important that we continue to listen to the voices of those who have spoken out, to educate ourselves and face uncomfortable truths in order to create action internally and throughout the game, to ensure long-term change.”We will now work to engage community leaders and black influencers within cricket so that we can review and evolve our existing inclusion and diversity work and specifically address the issues raised by the black community.”From there, it is our overall desire to create demonstrable action, in order to deliver meaningful and long-term change that permeates every layer of the game.”The ECB has made moves in recent years to improve the sport’s mainstream diversity, with the launch in 2018 of the South Asian Action Plan, in a bid to reach out to communities that contribute at least 30% of the active cricketers in the UK.It also implemented cricket’s own version of the ‘Rooney Rule’, which stipulates that at least one candidate from a BAME background has to be interviewed for every coaching vacancy with the men’s, women’s and disabled national teams.On Friday, Vikram Solanki was appointed as Surrey’s new head coach, the only person from a black, Asian or ethnic minority background in such a role among the 18 first-class counties.

Sri Lanka’s 2-0 defeat of South Africa has helped Kane Williamson’s side move up on the table

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Feb-2019Sri Lanka’s stunning 2-0 Test series win in South Africa might not have helped them move up in the ICC Test rankings – though they have earned four useful points – but it led to South Africa slipping to No. 3 and New Zealand, for the first time, going up to No. 2.New Zealand could have risen to No.2 earlier, when they hosted Sri Lanka late last year, had they won 2-0. But centuries from Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews in a valiant rearguard pushed the first Test to a draw, and though New Zealand won the second Test by 423 runs, they remained in third place.But Sri Lanka’s subsequent 2-0 defeat of South Africa trimmed South Africa’s points by five to 105, and pushed New Zealand – at 107 points – up to second place, only behind India, who are well ahead of the pack at 116 points.”It’s pretty cool. It’s something that’s a little weird, us not having played Test cricket for a little bit now, but it’s a testament to the cricket that we have been playing over the last 12 months, a little bit longer,” Henry Nicholls, who is up at No. 5 among Test batsmen, said of the rankings jump.”It’s been great having a lot of different guys come in and do well, and I think that’s probably a by-product of the culture we’ve been trying to build, of enjoying each other’s success and making sure everyone’s really clear about their role and just trying to do the best that we can.”South Africa don’t have another Test engagement scheduled till the tour of India in October, but New Zealand have a good chance of consolidating their position when they host Bangladesh – ranked No. 9 – for three Tests starting this week.The inaugural ICC Test Championship, meanwhile, will kick off on July 15 this year, soon after the conclusion of the 50-over World Cup in England and Wales.